explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1903: Bun Trend

2017-10-17T16:49:02Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1903
| date = October 16, 2017
| title = Bun Trend
| image = bun_trend.png
| titletext = Our experts have characterized the ecological impact of this trend as "adorable."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A Velociraptor - When editing this page, please change this comment. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, [[Beret Guy]] takes his bun shenanigans to the state government, reporting to the governor that the number of buns around the capitol has shown a rapid increase. The governor is confused, then finally comes to grasp that Beret Guy is talking about rabbits, lots of which can be seen if he would just go outside (by the way, there is a ''small'' one '''RIGHT NOW'''!).

Elections in the United States often have a blank spot on the ballot for the voter to write the name of a {{w|write-in candidate}}. Beret Guy thinks he works for the governor because he wrote his name in on the ballot. This does not mean that he actually works for the governor. This is typical of his naive understanding of the world.

The governor finally takes appropriate action by calling security, and Beret Guy confronts his fate with poise and honor. Indeed, the readiness with which he accepts his removal almost seems to suggest that he doesn't belong, which would be an unusual level of awareness for his character.

"Buns" have been mentioned previously in [[1682: Bun]] and [[1871: Bun Alert]].

Beret Guy's uncertain position in the government is very similar to the way he treats and operates his business.

In the title text, experts characterize the ecological impact of the large amount of bunnies as "adorable" instead of giving information on how the rabbits are affecting the environment.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Beret Guy holds a stick and points at a board next to him. The board contains a picture of a rabbit, a data point graph and other notes.]
:Beret Guy: Good morning, Governor. Our tracking systems show a rapid increase in the number of buns around the Capitol.

:[Hairy is sitting at an office desk and facing Beret Guy in a frameless panel.]
:Hairy: Buns?
:Beret Guy: Yes; there's been a long-term upward trend, but it has accelerated recently.
:Hairy: The trend in... rabbits.
:Beret Guy: Yes.

:[Beret Guy takes out his phone.]
:Hairy: So... so what?
:Beret Guy: So if you want to see some buns, there are lots of them outside!
:''beep!''
:Beret Guy: Ooh!
:Beret Guy: There's a small one right now!

:[Zoom-in on Beret Guy.]
:Hairy (offscreen): Do you... actually ''work'' for me?
:Beret Guy: Almost certainly. We had an election, right? I wrote my name in on the thing.
:Hairy (offscreen): Security?
:Beret Guy: It's been an honor to serve.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1754: Tornado Safety Tips

2016-11-02T21:51:17Z

173.245.50.84:

{{comic
| number = 1754
| date = November 2, 2016
| title = Tornado Safety Tips
| image = tornado_safety_tips.png
| titletext = It's a myth that you can never cross mountains safely, but be sure you understand how the climatic situation there will affect your parent thunderstorm.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Link to what a PSA poster is. Real examples of tornado tips.}}
There is a Public Safety Advisory (PSA) poster with safety tips with regards to {{w|tornadoes}}. Typically, a poster labeled "Tornado Safety Tips" would be filled with instructions for how humans can stay safe in the event of a Tornado, for example, don't go outside. [[Black Hat]] on the other hand, has flipped this on its head by publishing a poster that contains safety tips for the Tornado itself and contains information for how tornadoes can stay safe, i.e. continue to exist, see the [[#Table of tips|table of tips]] below.

The joke is that just as, for example, a "climber safety" poster is directed at climbers, the "tornado safety" poster is directed at tornadoes.

It is thus in no way helpful for people who actually live in an area that experience tornadoes. It is not possible to follow most of the guidelines, as they are intended for tornadoes. But the advice a human could follow would only take you towards places which can sustain tornadoes. Instead they should choose to use an app like the one in [[937: TornadoGuard]]. Sadly that seems to also have been made by Black Hat!

The title text simply adds more tornado advice for tornadoes.

Although this is clearly not a tip for humans, the idea is related to the [[:Category:Protip|Protip]] category and other ''tip'' comics (also listed under protip).

Tornadoes is a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recuring subject]] on xkcd. The picture of the tornado in this comic reminds a lot of the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/52/umwelt_disasters_tornado.png picture used] in the [[1037:_Umwelt#Tornado|Tornado version]] of [[1037: Umwelt]].

===Table of tips===
{|class="wikitable"
! Tornado Safety Tips
! Explanation
|-
|Avoid low-lying cool air || {{w|Supercells}}, and particularly {{w|tornadogenesis}}, requires highly {{w|buoyant}} air near the surface to, put simply, provide the energy and rapid upward motion for to their growth and maintenance. Tornadoes, being small scale features on the scale of the atmosphere and requiring fairly extreme conditions to form, are particularly sensitive to shallow layers, perhaps even a few hundred meters of less buoyant (i.e. cooler/dryer) air near the surface. If a tornado encountered such a layer of air, it would be quite "dangerous" to its survival, as sufficient depth and exposure would likely disrupt the tornado's circulation and perhaps even dissipate it completely.
|-
|Keep your downdrafts and updrafts from mixing || Strictly speaking, this statement is only entirely true on the larger scales of a tornadic storm (though to some extent {{w|updraft}}/{{w|downdraft}} interaction is crucial to the process on the scale of the actual tornado). Generally, it is for exactly the lack of this that tornadic supercells are able to gain such intensity and last many hours, whereas a typical individual storm cell has a life-cycle on the order of less than an hour. Any given storm cell is composed of an updraft, warm, moist air moving upward and forming clouds, and a downdraft, the corresponding movement of cooler air downward, often bringing heavy rain with it. If this downdraft is superimposed directly over the parent updraft, as would occur in a calm atmosphere with no substantial differences in wind with height, it will suppress the storm's updraft very quickly, and the cell will die a rapid death. However, if the winds change quickly enough with height (vertical wind shear), this displaces the updraft and downdraft so they don't interfere as directly, resulting in a longer lived storm. Nevertheless, the cold air moved downward by the downdraft will eventually spread along the surface and choke off the flow of warm air to the original updraft, however, this denser air may force more warm air to rise, starting the cycle anew, albeit with a new storm cell. This is how squall lines work (see below), along with more typical multi-cell clusters. Still, this results in no one cell being "dominant," remaining strong for any great length of time, and growing past a certain point, all factors that preclude significant tornado formation.

However, if the vertical wind shear is particularly strong, with very strong winds aloft going in near the opposite direction as winds near the surface, this causes horizontal rotation in the atmosphere (think a pencil rolled between two hands). A particularly strong updraft can lift this rotation into the vertical, and soon the entire storm begins to rotate. Through rather complex physics, this allows the storm to more cleanly separate its updraft and downdraft, and continuously propagate into warm, buoyant air. This process and the updraft/downdraft separation it creates is associated with nearly all dangerous tornadoes, and is what distinguishes a supercell from other types of thunderstorms, and if such separation is not properly maintained, it will likely "kill" the storm's tornado chances including any currently in progress. However, it bears pointing out that a specific type of downdraft interacting with a tornado, called {{w|Rear flank downdraft}} (RFD), actually may play a crucial role in tornado formation, carrying this rotating motion (vorticity) down from higher levels of the storm and feeding it into the tornado. Therefore, if a storm's RFD is too weak or does not interact with the core of the storm's updraft, a tornado is not likely to form or maintain itself. However, if the RFD is too cold/strong, it will indeed cut off the tornado's supply of warm air (see below), and regardless of type the RFD does eventually tend to "kill" the tornado after some length of time, which is why any individual tornado only lasts for a short amount of time.
|-
|Seek out warm and humid surface air layers || Hot, humid air near the surface is vital for tornadoes to form, as it provides the "fuel" for their parent storms as well as tornadoes themselves. Any {{w|thunderstorm}}, large or small, begins as an updraft, a column of warm, moist air moving upward due to its positive buoyancy (i.e. lower density, think a balloon or heat rising from the pavement on a hot summer day). Due (mostly) to its temperature, once the air is less dense than its environment, it will start moving upward, and will continue to do so as long as it stays that way. However, air cools as it rises as it expands under lower pressure, generally speaking at a faster rate than the surrounding environment does. This is where the moisture comes in, as once the air cools to the saturation point, where it can hold no more water vapor, water begins to condense into tiny liquid droplets to form clouds. This process releases latent heat to the surrounding air parcel, and thus in a suitable environment with sufficient cooling with height, this rising air starts to cool slower than its surroundings, and continues to rise on its own. The warmer and wetter the air relative to its surroundings, the faster it can rise, and thus the more intense storms it can feed. Further, once a storm forms and begins to rotate (see above), the tornado itself, being an extremely intense, rotating updraft near the ground, is "fed" by very warm and moist air at the surface and thus would want to seek it out to survive.
|-
|Don't let rain-cooled air choke off your circulation || As discussed above, if a storm's downdrafts are too strong, they can block the supply of warm, moist, buoyant (rising) air that feeds a tornado which will cause it to dissipate or never fully form in the first place. On the storm scale, this type of supercell is termed "outflow dominant", it generally maintains itself but too much rain cooled air present at the surface is preclusive to tornado formation. On the tornado scale, the buoyancy of the storm's Rear Flank Downdraft, RFD, is believed to play a crucial role in tornadogenesis. It is this air that carries high-vorticity, i.e. rotating air down from aloft to enable the tornado to have such an intense circulation near the surface, as updraft parcels beginning near the surface otherwise have little preexisting rotation. However, if this air is too cold and dense, which is typically a result of evaporative cooling and water loading from rain, it can choke off the supply of warm air to the tornado's circulation, and reduce its overall buoyancy, this "killing" the tornado, which is generally why they dissipate.
|-
|Avoid letting your supercell merge with a squall line || Supercells, the powerful, rotating thunderstorms that produce nearly all strong tornadoes, generally like being left alone. Other storms compete for the same warm, moist air that the supercell needs to fuel its continued development, and the cold downdrafts produced by such storms can also choke off a supercell's supply. Furthermore, interaction with other storms, particularly strong ones can disrupt the complex physical processes that keep a supercell going, particularly those delicate ones that lead to and sustain tornadogenesis. A {{w|squall line}} is a particularly potent threat in this regard, and probably the biggest "killer" of supercells in this specific regard. Squall lines, well known as the culprit behind most of the violent derecho windstorms, are long lines of thunderstorms that can, as a larger-scale feature, last many hours and travel thousands of kilometers. They generally occur when environmental conditions allow one or a few storms to combine the cold, dense air in their respective downdrafts in such a fashion that it moves rapidly and spreads out in a linear fashion, forcing warm air up right ahead of it to form clouds and additional storms. This then creates new downdrafts that contribute to this "cold pool", as its called, continuing the process. While squall lines can occasionally produce weak, short-lived tornadoes along their leading edge, they generally lack the rotation and individual persistence necessary to form proper "twisters". Their fast motion, large size, sizable cold pool, and all-consuming hunger for warm, moist air and resultant tendency to gobble up storms in their path make them a mortal threat to the generally slower-moving, freedom-loving supercells, and their resultant tornadoes. An encounter with a squall line almost never ends well for tornado and they should avoid such a meeting if they strive for longevity. However, it is interesting to note that storm interactions, occasionally even with squall lines, can briefly enhance tornadogenesis if conditions are just right, but this rarely has a sustained positive impact on the tornado's long-term survival prospects.
|-
|'''Title text''': It's a myth that you can never cross mountains safely, but be sure you understand how the climatic situation there will affect your parent thunderstorm. || In a style perhaps evoking that of a safety warning for a pharmaceutical drug, the title text reminds tornadoes that while it is indeed {{w|Tornado_myths#Near_rivers.2C_valleys.2C_mountains.2C_or_other_terrain_features|false that tornadoes are not able to cross mountains}} (while rough terrain can sometimes disrupt the very low-level circulation, there is nothing intrinsic to mountains areas that prevent tornadoes from moving over them), the tornado should be cautious that the environment on the other side of the mountain should still be supportive of the parent supercell and the broader processes keeping the tornado "alive." This is a valid concern because, generally speaking, the more mountainous areas of the United States generally tend to have less favorable environments for supercells and tornadoes, but this isn't always the case as the title text notes, particularly for more local-scale terrain. (For humans it may actually be true that you can never be sure to be safe crossing a mountain, some parts of the world are prone to the phenomenon {{w|Flash flood|flash floods}} which occurs with heavy rain and ground that has low absorption, these can be dangerous)
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beneath a large caption there are two pictures above each other to the left and a bullet list with five points to the right of the pictures. The top picture shows a black tornado beneath a white cloud. It is wreaking something on the ground. To the right of the debris is a house and to the left some trees. The picture below shows Black Hat from the waist and up.]
:<big>'''Tornado Safety Tips'''</big>
:* Avoid low-lying cool air
:* Keep your downdrafts and updrafts from mixing
:* Seek out warm and humid surface air layers
:* Don't let rain-cooled air choke off your circulation
:* Avoid letting your supercell merge with a squall line

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]

Talk:1513: Code Quality

2015-04-19T17:38:33Z

173.245.50.84:

On the bright side, I now have a new array of phrases to keep me sane while doing code reviews... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 05:47, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

I think the emojis were referring to swift where you can use emojis as variables.{{unsigned ip|108.162.250.168|05:53, 17 April 2015‎}}

Could we get a link for the Apple language? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 06:09, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

This is going on our OneNote at work. It totally made my day [[User:Jdluk|Jdluk]] ([[User talk:Jdluk|talk]]) 08:06, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Yet another reason I'm glad I'm not a coder anymore (went back to hardware design . . . with NO style guidelines ;^){{unsigned ip|173.245.56.182}}

The description reads as if camelCase is part of every style. There are styles containing camelCase, but not all of them do. Also, different styles contain different rules, so following one specific style guide will be in conflict with others, therefore it's not necessary good idea: unless you program in team which agreed upon which style to use, it may be better if you don't worry to much to follow style exactly. On the other hand, if Ponytail's similes are accurate, Cueball is likely to discover lot of basic rules which will make the program easier to read even for him.

For example, there are lot of styles for {{w|Indent_style|Indenting}} alone, but most readability comes from the basic idea to indent code according to block it belongs to. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:02, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Out of curiosity I tried using 😭 as a variable name in Common Lisp. It works in SBCL, but fails in CLISP. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.112|108.162.221.112]] 12:19, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

I really wish I knew anything about coding so I could contribute, but my 8th grade HTML class didn't help me that much. [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 12:50, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
:The cruel person might point out that HTML isn't even 'coding'. (It's markup, for the most part, unless you're dabbling in DHTML or some of the latest bastardisations that have crept into HTML5.) But you will of course know the bit where you get "Hang on, why is that table element on the wrong line/off the end of the line/short of the end/outside the table, even?" and how it makes it easier to use a new-line and indentation scheme at appropriate places (and a logical policy of which lines ''not'' to split) so that errors like unaccounted-for COLSPANs and bad tag-pairing can be tracked down easily.
:So it is with code. Liken it to obfuscation of HTML formatting (including using non-sensical, albeit consistent in themselves, id and name tags for the CSS to hang off of) can be employed deliberately (to prevent easy human readability/backformation) or incidentally (because it's created by a server-side/CMS generating script that hasn't been told to try to add useful whitespace). Moreso when it comes to <script> insertions (often deliberately obfuscated to single-letter variables, minimal whitespace and no line-feeds, perhaps in an misplaced attempt to enact 'security through obscurity', but of course that then ''is'' code. Arguably.
:One of the aims could be to reduce the size of the 'code' (even when that's Markup), which is laudible given how much over-padded stuff you can get (I don't know if Microsoft Word's "Save as HTML"/whatever is currently as bad as it was in the early days, but even a web-page with just "Hello World" was chockablock full of formatting information that it never even bothered to ask if were necessary), but unless you absolutely do not need (or do not want!) people to read the code, both people and auto-generation scripts should attempt to impart visual elegance. IMO! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 16:52, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Does the second paragraph of the explanation, beginning "A common technique," add anything to explain the comic? I don't see it, but then I am from the era of COBOL. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 19:54, 18 April 2015 (UTC)
:I would propose a rewrite to something along the lines of "A common pattern in self-taught programmers...". As for the need of the paragraph, I feel it helps to explain where some programmers with bad (or a total lack of) employed standards come from. It's the kind of programmers that are used to copy and paste code examples and edit them until it does what they want, unknowingly introducing a horrible level of disparity to the code as well as disregarding any sensible coding standards and design patterns. I can speak from experience that such behavior exists, but that most such people either drop programming quickly or learn to adapt proper standards over time. I'm glad to say I'm in the latter group. — Erim Secla [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.67|141.101.79.67]] 08:02, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

How do we know that Agile and SaaS are relevant to this? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 17:38, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

1394: Superm*n

2014-07-14T14:11:44Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ rather hyperbolic is rather an oxymoron

{{comic
| number = 1394
| date = July 14, 2014
| title = Superm*n
| image = superm_n.png
| titletext = See also: Spider-Man reboot in which he can produce several inches of web, doesn't need as much chalk powder on his hands when he goes rock climbing, and occasionally feels vaguely uneasy about situations.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|General expansion/cleanup needed.}}

This comic was posted one day after a {{w|supermoon}}, an informal astronomical event where a full moon occurs close to the Moon's perigee (i.e. the point where it's closest to Earth), causing the moon to appear larger and brighter. The conditions for a supermoon happen once every 411 days, and the loose definition of the term means that there are usually two or three "supermoons" per perigee (the next full moon on August 10 will also qualify as a supermoon).

While this event is often considered beautiful to behold, it is hardly remarkable. The event is not rare, as it occurs approximately every 13.5 months. Furthermore, the moon's apparent increase in size is only marginal -- the June 2013 supermoon, for example, was only 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons of the same year.

The comic points out that the use of the prefix "Super-" in Supermoon is hyperbolic, by depicting how unimpressive the superhero {{w|Superman}} would be if he had similarly proportional increases in physical capacity relative to normal humans. The title-text takes this further by giving {{w|Spider-Man}} the same treatment, describing absurdly minimal versions of his web-spinning, surface-clinging, and danger-sense abilities.

The title makes use of a filesystem-style wildcard, which could be used to capture either "Supermoon" or "Superman".

==Transcript==
[Cueball is reaching for an item on a high shelf. Superman is rushing towards him]

Superman: I'll get it! I'm 5 inches taller and 7% stronger than the average man!

Caption: The new supermoon-inspired Superman reboot

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]

1393: Timeghost

2014-07-11T14:18:08Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1393
| date = July 11, 2014
| title = Timeghost
| image = timeghost.png
| titletext = 'Hello, Ghostbusters?' 'ooOOoooo people born years after that movie came out are having a second chiiiild right now ooOoooOoo'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Maybe some expanding? Otherwise this tag can be removed.}}
[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are being haunted by a ghost dedicated to making people feel old. It seems to be like the strips [[891: Movie Ages]] and [[973: MTV Generation]] and the blag post [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/09/29/odd-temporal-milestones/ Odd Temporal Milestones], but then the ghost reveals that Megan and Cueball will die in a shorter amount of time than the ghost's first appearance (maybe a few seconds, maybe years). For obvious reasons, this disturbs them. An alternative explanation is that the "staaaaart of my haunting" refers to the first time the ghost haunted anyone, and it is possible Timeghost is being deliberately ambiguous in an effort to frighten them more. Alternatively again, Timeghost may be referring simply to the beginning of the comic, which is now three panels away, while the end of the comic is only one panel away; Megan and Cueball's 'death' may refer to their cessation of existence in the comic.

A {{w|factoid}} is a questionable or spurious statement presented as a fact. In this instance, some of the ''factoids'' are easily verifiable, while others are reasonable assumptions based on the number of years passed since the individual events. Several sources advocate the use of the word "factlet" to express a brief interesting fact, while using the word "factoid" for unverifiable or untrue statements passed as fact.

While ''factoids'' tend only to have mostly only entertainment value, then the last ''fact'' from the ghost is a prediction of the future (your death) which is actually of some practical value if it can be trusted.

"Timeghost" might be a literal interpretation of {{w|Zeitgeist}}, which is a German term for "spirit of time" and refers to the school of thought that influences or dominates the art and culture of a time period. All the events and people mentioned in this comic have may be considered influences in present day art and culture.

'''Timeline'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Year||Event
|-
|1955-1975||{{w|Vietnam War}}
|-
|colspan="2"|19 years
|-
|1994||{{w|Forrest Gump (film)|Forrest Gump}}
|-
|colspan="2"|20 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1964||{{w|Keanu Reeves}} (Actor) born
|-
|colspan="2"|2 years
|-
|1966||Today's new grandparents born (Average age: 48 in the US)
|-
|colspan="2"|48 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1990||[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf Today's new parents born] (Average age: 24 in the US)
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1993-1994||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 5
|-
|colspan="2"|2 years (from '93 to '95)
|-
|1994-1995||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 6
|-
|colspan="2"|4 years
|-
|1999||{{w|Eminem}} (Rapper) got big (second album)
|-
|colspan="2"|15 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1984||{{w|Ghostbusters}}
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1987||[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf Today's people just having a second child born] (Average age at first childbirth (24) + average gap between first two births (3))
|-
|colspan="2"|27 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are approached by a floating ghost]
:Timeghost: ''...ooOOOOOOOOooo...Tiiiime is passiiiing!''
:Megan: Ugh. Timeghost.
:Cueball: Huh?
:Megan: Here come the factoids.

:[Timeghost floats around]
:Timeghost: ''Forrest Gump'' came out closer to the Vietnam War than to the present daaay.
:Megan: Go ''away!''
:Timeghost: The average new grand-parents are younger than Keanu Reeeeves!
:Cueball: That can't be right...

:[Megan clutches her head, possibly attempting to cover her ears]
:Timeghost: ''Today's new parents were ten when Eminem got big. Daaaaaad muuuuusic. They remember Simpsons season 5 or 6 at the '''earliest'''''.
:Megan: Argh!
:Cueball: How long has it been ''doing'' this?

:Timeghost: ''The staaaaart of my haunting is now further away than your deaaaths!''
:Megan: Will you sto—'''''WHAT!?'''''
:Timeghost: ooOOOOOOOoo
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1332: Slippery Slope

2014-07-04T16:30:34Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ Title text was wrongly explained

{{comic
| number = 1332
| date = February 19, 2014
| title = Slippery Slope
| image = slippery_slope.png
| titletext = Sure, taking a few seconds to be respectful toward someone about something they care about doesn't sound hard. But if you talk to hundreds of people every day and they all start expecting that same consideration, it could potentially add up to MINUTES wasted. And for WHAT?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The explain is confusing and fixed to a bad compromise Randall wouldn't like.}}
The "{{w|Slippery slope}}" argument hinges on the idea that if A happens, then B will follow as a minor but expected consequence. B will lead on to C, C leads onto D, and so on. Each consequence gets progressively worse until you reach an undesirable situation. A slippery slope argument propagates that A should not be allowed, because if it is, then the resulting chain of consequences will lead to the undesirable situation. A real (and logically flawed) example of this is gay marriage. In the 60's interracial marriage was illegal, and people suggested that if we allow it it would lead to pedophiles marrying children, people marrying their pets, sisters, etc. Gay marriage has had a largely very similar response. Another example of the slippery slope argument is the issue of illegal immigration, where if we allow people into the country illegally and give them citizenship, then they will steal jobs and then take over the United States. These arguments are largely made out of baseless fear and prejudice.

In the comic, [[White Hat]] uses a slippery slope argument to [[Cueball]], to justify being inconsiderate to people (which is an unusual context for this argument). He argues that if he expends minor effort being considerate to one person, he will be expected to be considerate to everyone he meets, which - he wishes to argue - is an undesirable situation. Thus, he justifies being inconsiderate as avoiding the slippery slope. This idea is extended in the title text, where he continues extrapolating the train of thought to come to the conclusion that minutes of time would be "wasted". Randall is exposing the greater issue that makes these arguments absurd because Cueball is saying that if he has to be considerate to one person, he will have to extend that courtesy to everyone. It's wry humor.

In the title text, the same idea is added to include that seconds is not a terribly large amount of time to be nice to a few people, but those few seconds multiplied by tens (he says ''hundreds'') of people could mean that a person would waste several minutes per day, as if several minutes were a big amount of time.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Yeah, but if I'm considerate toward one person about one thing, what's next?
:White Hat: Being nice to ''other'' people about ''other'' things?
:White Hat: Where does it ''end?''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Logic]]

1332: Slippery Slope

2014-07-04T16:25:24Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ Formal name of the country

{{comic
| number = 1332
| date = February 19, 2014
| title = Slippery Slope
| image = slippery_slope.png
| titletext = Sure, taking a few seconds to be respectful toward someone about something they care about doesn't sound hard. But if you talk to hundreds of people every day and they all start expecting that same consideration, it could potentially add up to MINUTES wasted. And for WHAT?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The explain is confusing and fixed to a bad compromise Randall wouldn't like.}}
The "{{w|Slippery slope}}" argument hinges on the idea that if A happens, then B will follow as a minor but expected consequence. B will lead on to C, C leads onto D, and so on. Each consequence gets progressively worse until you reach an undesirable situation. A slippery slope argument propagates that A should not be allowed, because if it is, then the resulting chain of consequences will lead to the undesirable situation. A real (and logically flawed) example of this is gay marriage. In the 60's interracial marriage was illegal, and people suggested that if we allow it it would lead to pedophiles marrying children, people marrying their pets, sisters, etc. Gay marriage has had a largely very similar response. Another example of the slippery slope argument is the issue of illegal immigration, where if we allow people into the country illegally and give them citizenship, then they will steal jobs and then take over the United States. These arguments are largely made out of baseless fear and prejudice.

In the comic, [[White Hat]] uses a slippery slope argument to [[Cueball]], to justify being inconsiderate to people (which is an unusual context for this argument). He argues that if he expends minor effort being considerate to one person, he will be expected to be considerate to everyone he meets, which - he wishes to argue - is an undesirable situation. Thus, he justifies being inconsiderate as avoiding the slippery slope. This idea is extended in the title text, where he continues extrapolating the train of thought to come to the conclusion that minutes of time would be "wasted". Randall is exposing the greater issue that makes these arguments absurd because Cueball is saying that if he has to be considerate to one person, he will have to extend that courtesy to everyone. It's wry humor.

In the title text, the same idea is added to include that merely seconds or minutes are not terribly large amounts of time to be nice to a few people, building off of the faulty argument in the comic.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Yeah, but if I'm considerate toward one person about one thing, what's next?
:White Hat: Being nice to ''other'' people about ''other'' things?
:White Hat: Where does it ''end?''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Logic]]

Talk:1390: Research Ethics

2014-07-04T16:23:10Z

173.245.50.84: People here believe Randall is God. They think that even his mistakes are very deliberate. Fortunately now we know for sure he made a mistake, because he corrected it after a few hours.

I was expecting something else for a comic on July 4th. [[User:MrGameZone|0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101]] ([[User talk:MrGameZone|talk page]]) 05:16, 4 July 2014 (UTC)
:Not every xkcd fan is from the US, Randall has to keep the comics global.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.242|108.162.210.242]] 06:04, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

''"Randall writes "what" twice, which is a classic optical illusion."'' So - did it he do this on purpose (I fail to see the connection with the subject), or is it just the explanation of why he missed the typo he made? [[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 07:03, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

It's very deliberate. The illusion demonstrates what the brain chooses not to see. Facebook is making some content not visible to us as an experiment. There really is far less subtext to this than you think there is. There isn't some deep meaning. It was an experiment to see if we would see it. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.152|173.245.56.152]] 07:09, 4 July 2014 (UTC)
:People here believe Randall is God. They think that even his mistakes are very deliberate. Fortunately now we know for sure he made a mistake, because he corrected it after a few hours. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 16:23, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

My version of the comic does not have the repeating what. Either it was a typo that has been fixed or there are 2 versions of the comic and Randall is performing his own experiment to judge our reactions to the different comics (I didnt sign any agreements.)[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.183|173.245.54.183]] 13:31, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

"Similarly, what the text is saying is we have no right to peer into the algorithms that do that snooping because it belongs to Facebook and it wouldn't be fair to them for us to see it." I think the title text is actually saying the opposite. "it's not like we could just demand to see the code that's governing our lives". It looks like it's being sarcastic, since anything that runs our lives should be our business by default. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 08:05, 4 July 2014 (UTC)
:Then again, it's not really supposed to be governing our lives, is it? Any impact it has your life is because you gave it the permissions and information to do so, which was voluntary (by sharing your selfies and rants under their terms) and not mandated by an overreaching government. I agree that the text is sarcastic, but in a different way than you mentioned. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 10:05, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

I was reading the title text to be a reference to open source code and the more zealous belief that ALL code should be open source. Not necessarily making a comment on it, so much as trying to raise the point (almost as a troll) to compare privacy concerns with access to source code.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.91|108.162.216.91]] 08:10, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

I read it and couldn't understand what what she was saying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.50|108.162.222.50]] 08:37, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

I read the title text as bitter sarcasm. And it plays in to the message in another comic, I don't know which, about someone being warned not to place his private information in the custody of another without strict limits on the power of that other. (I'm playing the world's tiniest violin" was the punch line on that one. Also used by The Kids In the Hall!)
The impact by those who manage and manipulate information is seldom clear and both it's motivation and it's impact on our decisions remains not only largely unnoticed in daily life but also unknowable. Just because we give control of information to another doesn't mean we agree to be either a lab rat or open to manipulation by them whether we recognize it or not. Whether it's someone trying to achieve power (government) or someone trying to earn a profit (business), the burden-of-proof should be on them that the effect is benign. I know this sounds a bit Ayn Randian, a person whose politics I deeply distrust, but even scary people can get things right some of the time.[[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 11:51, 4 July 2014 (UTC)ExternalMonolog

The title text is an oblique reference to the implications of recent SCOTUS ruling on corporations having similar rights as people (albeit to do with religion, as opposed to privacy), no? {{unsigned ip|108.162.228.41}}

The SCOTUS ruling follows a US Supreme Court decision in the late 19th century that "A corporation is a person". Ironically, the justification for this ruling was based on a law clerk's note in the margin of a previous decision stating that the said previous decision could create the situation where a corporation has the same rights as a person. The decision at hand was to decide the validity of a presidential election and the the Supreme Court took the notes made by the clerk as law. it's clear the court knew what it's ruling meant, but it's not clear what the courts motivation was for accepting the clerks notes as if it had been an already rendered decision![[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 11:51, 4 July 2014 (UTC)ExternalMonolog

This comic has some relationship to http://xkcd.com/1150/. {{unsigned ip|141.101.103.215}}

I'm pretty sure "the code that governs our lives" (or my life, at least) is DNA, not the computer code running your favorite social network.----

The comic I mentioned in an above comment is Infrastructures http://xkcd.com/743/ [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 12:28, 4 July 2014 (UTC)ExternalMonolog

1390: Research Ethics

2014-07-04T16:20:23Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ The image must be updated

{{comic
| number = 1390
| date = July 4, 2014
| title = Research Ethics
| image = research_ethics.png
| titletext = I mean, it's not like we could just demand to see the code that's governing our lives. What right do we have to poke around in Facebook's private affairs like that?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft. The image must be updated.}}

This comic references the recent revelation that Facebook engaged in a "psychological experiment" by selectively showing users more "positive" or "negative" posts on their news feed and recording the users' comments to see if the change affected the positivity or negativity of their posts. Further experiments have since been revealed [http://online.wsj.com/articles/facebook-experiments-had-few-limits-1404344378 such as one that tested security measures by locking users out of their accounts]. Here, Megan is commenting on the fact that, while the media is calling this control over what content the user sees "unethical," Facebook, and other companies like Google, must, one way or another, control what content the user sees, whether to present users with a limited selection of all postings, or to tailor ads to particular users; even if the regular algorithms are not set up for psychological experiments, they are still "manipulating" what posts users see or don't see. As Megan points out, no one really knows what the "normal" constraits are of the algorithm which chooses which posts are shown on news feeeds. This comic is parodying the strong reaction to what is basically already a common practice.

Accumulation, control and analysis of user-generated information can be a part of the terms of service/end user license agreement of a Website or software. In such a scenario, the user has effectively signed his/her consent to being part of such research. Unfortunately, most users don't read the terms before clicking the "I agree" option, so it can come as a shock when the service uses the data in a way the user hadn't anticipated.

The comic that Randall originally published contained the word "what" twice (on the end of the first line and again on the start of the second line), which is a typical mistake that would be detected by many spell checkers [http://blogmines.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image_thumb18.png]. Randall fixed the error after a few hours.

The title text ironically/sarcastically accepts that Facebook has access to all of its users thoughts (through posts/messages and photos, and they can read them for research (or whatever other) purposes, but contrasts this with a suggestion (which likely mirrors how Facebook would respond to such a request) that Facebook's code is private and can not be revealed to us. The title text basically appears to be musing that this is backwards, and our personal data should be considered MORE private than Facebook's programming code, which may be proprietary, but is not personal private data.

It is as if your neighbor was spying on you while you left all your shades open, but you felt it to be inappropriate to find out what he knew about you because that's his business.

==Transcript==

:[Megan is facing Cueball and Ponytail]
:Megan: Facebook shouldn't choose what stuff they show us to conduct unethical psychological research.
:Megan: They should ''only'' make those decisions based on, uh...
:Megan: However they were doing it before.
:Megan: Which was probably ethical, right?

{{comic discussion}}

1390: Research Ethics

2014-07-04T16:17:48Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ We know already that Randall wasn't doing an optical illusion on purpose; it's a mistake, Randall is human

{{comic
| number = 1390
| date = July 4, 2014
| title = Research Ethics
| image = research_ethics.png
| titletext = I mean, it's not like we could just demand to see the code that's governing our lives. What right do we have to poke around in Facebook's private affairs like that?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft.}}

This comic references the recent revelation that Facebook engaged in a "psychological experiment" by selectively showing users more "positive" or "negative" posts on their news feed and recording the users' comments to see if the change affected the positivity or negativity of their posts. Further experiments have since been revealed [http://online.wsj.com/articles/facebook-experiments-had-few-limits-1404344378 such as one that tested security measures by locking users out of their accounts]. Here, Megan is commenting on the fact that, while the media is calling this control over what content the user sees "unethical," Facebook, and other companies like Google, must, one way or another, control what content the user sees, whether to present users with a limited selection of all postings, or to tailor ads to particular users; even if the regular algorithms are not set up for psychological experiments, they are still "manipulating" what posts users see or don't see. As Megan points out, no one really knows what the "normal" constraits are of the algorithm which chooses which posts are shown on news feeeds. This comic is parodying the strong reaction to what is basically already a common practice.

Accumulation, control and analysis of user-generated information can be a part of the terms of service/end user license agreement of a Website or software. In such a scenario, the user has effectively signed his/her consent to being part of such research. Unfortunately, most users don't read the terms before clicking the "I agree" option, so it can come as a shock when the service uses the data in a way the user hadn't anticipated.

The comic that Randall originally published contained the word "what" twice (on the end of the first line and again on the start of the second line), which is a typical mistake that would be detected by many spell checkers [http://blogmines.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image_thumb18.png]. Randall fixed the error after a few hours.

The title text ironically/sarcastically accepts that Facebook has access to all of its users thoughts (through posts/messages and photos, and they can read them for research (or whatever other) purposes, but contrasts this with a suggestion (which likely mirrors how Facebook would respond to such a request) that Facebook's code is private and can not be revealed to us. The title text basically appears to be musing that this is backwards, and our personal data should be considered MORE private than Facebook's programming code, which may be proprietary, but is not personal private data.

It is as if your neighbor was spying on you while you left all your shades open, but you felt it to be inappropriate to find out what he knew about you because that's his business.

==Transcript==

:[Megan is facing Cueball and Ponytail]
:Megan: Facebook shouldn't choose what stuff they show us to conduct unethical psychological research.
:Megan: They should ''only'' make those decisions based on, uh...
:Megan: However they were doing it before.
:Megan: Which was probably ethical, right?

{{comic discussion}}

1390: Research Ethics

2014-07-04T16:14:41Z

173.245.50.84: /* Transcript */ "what what" is already corrected

{{comic
| number = 1390
| date = July 4, 2014
| title = Research Ethics
| image = research_ethics.png
| titletext = I mean, it's not like we could just demand to see the code that's governing our lives. What right do we have to poke around in Facebook's private affairs like that?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft.}}

This comic references the recent revelation that Facebook engaged in a "psychological experiment" by selectively showing users more "positive" or "negative" posts on their news feed and recording the users' comments to see if the change affected the positivity or negativity of their posts. Further experiments have since been revealed [http://online.wsj.com/articles/facebook-experiments-had-few-limits-1404344378 such as one that tested security measures by locking users out of their accounts]. Here, Megan is commenting on the fact that, while the media is calling this control over what content the user sees "unethical," Facebook, and other companies like Google, must, one way or another, control what content the user sees, whether to present users with a limited selection of all postings, or to tailor ads to particular users; even if the regular algorithms are not set up for psychological experiments, they are still "manipulating" what posts users see or don't see. As Megan points out, no one really knows what the "normal" constraits are of the algorithm which chooses which posts are shown on news feeeds. This comic is parodying the strong reaction to what is basically already a common practice.

Accumulation, control and analysis of user-generated information can be a part of the terms of service/end user license agreement of a Website or software. In such a scenario, the user has effectively signed his/her consent to being part of such research. Unfortunately, most users don't read the terms before clicking the "I agree" option, so it can come as a shock when the service uses the data in a way the user hadn't anticipated.

The comic that Randall originally published contained the word "what" twice (on the end of the first line and again on the start of the second line), which is a classic [http://www.moillusions.com/eye-to-brain-coordination/ optical illusion.] It is also a typical mistake that would be detected by many spell checkers [http://blogmines.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image_thumb18.png]. Randall fixed the error after a few hours.

The title text ironically/sarcastically accepts that Facebook has access to all of its users thoughts (through posts/messages and photos, and they can read them for research (or whatever other) purposes, but contrasts this with a suggestion (which likely mirrors how Facebook would respond to such a request) that Facebook's code is private and can not be revealed to us. The title text basically appears to be musing that this is backwards, and our personal data should be considered MORE private than Facebook's programming code, which may be proprietary, but is not personal private data.

It is as if your neighbor was spying on you while you left all your shades open, but you felt it to be inappropriate to find out what he knew about you because that's his business.

==Transcript==

:[Megan is facing Cueball and Ponytail]
:Megan: Facebook shouldn't choose what stuff they show us to conduct unethical psychological research.
:Megan: They should ''only'' make those decisions based on, uh...
:Megan: However they were doing it before.
:Megan: Which was probably ethical, right?

{{comic discussion}}

1389: Surface Area

2014-07-02T14:57:15Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ rounding excess precision

{{comic
| number = 1389
| date = July 2, 2014
| title = Surface Area
| image = surface_area.png
| titletext = This isn't an informational illustration; this is a thing I think we should do. First, we'll need a gigantic spool of thread. Next, we'll need some kind of ... hmm, time to head to Seattle.
}}

A [http://xkcd.com/1389/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd - which can be reached easily from here as always, by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Very early draft.}}
This image shows the total surface areas of all {{w|Terrestrial_planet|terrestrial planets}}, {{w|natural satellite}}s, {{w|asteroid}}s, {{w|minor planet|etc.}} in the {{w|Solar System}}, represented as regions of a single massive landmass (in a similar style to the various [[256: Online Communities|maps]] of the [[802: Online Communities 2|Internet]] Randall has created in the past), with a [[977|Waterman Butterfly]] based map of Earth in the center for scale. Relatively small objects like asteroids, comets, and so on are grouped into two regions at the northeast and southwest corners, while tiny objects like space dust are excluded altogether (probably because their total surface area is impossible to estimate accurately, and also because any estimate would likely be too large to fit easily into the map). He has likely used this Wikipedia list: {{w|List of Solar System objects by size}}.

The {{w|gas giant}}s Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are not included, because they don't have a solid surface. If they were included, this part of the map would be a tiny speck compared to the surface area of the gas giants. Similarly the {{w|Sun}} also is not considered a solid but hot {{w|Plasma_(physics)|plasma}}; if it was included it would reduce both the original map and the gas giants to a tiny speck.

Between Earth and Titan is a tiny speck noted "''all human skin''", which obviously does not refer to a rocky surface and could be thought of as reference to the novel ''{{w|The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(novel)|The Silence of the Lambs}}''.

The title text explains that this comic is not actually for information, it is something he thinks we should really do - that is, to stitch all the solar system's land areas together, as the comic title says. To do this, we would obviously need a gigantic ball of string and the {{w|Space Needle|Seattle Space Needle}} from Seattle. Of course this is impossible, since the land areas are on the surfaces of spheres.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Surface area of mentioned objects
!Object
!Type
!Surface area
|-
|{{w|Io (moon)|Io}}||Moon of Jupiter||4.191×107 km2 (0.082 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}||Moon of Jupiter||7.30×107 km2 (0.143 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}||Moon of Jupiter||3.09×107 km2 (0.061 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}}||Moon of Jupiter||8.70×107 km2 (0.171 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}}||Dwarf planet||2.85×106 km2
|-
|{{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}}||Asteroid||8×105 km2
|-
|Asteroids 1km+||Asteroid||???
|-
|Asteroids 100m+||Asteroid||???
|-
|{{w|Triton (moon)|Triton}}||Moon of Neptune||2.3018×107 km2
|-
|{{w|Ariel (moon)|Ariel}}||Moon of Uranus||4.2113×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Miranda (moon)|Miranda}}||Moon of Uranus||7×105 km2
|-
|{{w|Umbriel (moon)|Umbriel}}||Moon of Uranus||4.296×106 km2 (0.008 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Oberon (moon)|Oberon}}||Moon of Uranus||7.285×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Titania (moon)|Titania}}||Moon of Uranus||7.82×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Tethys (moon)|Tethys}}||Moon of Saturn||3.61×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Dione (moon)|Dione}}||Moon of Saturn||3.96×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Enceladus|Enceladus}}||Moon of Saturn||8×105 km2
|-
|{{w|Iapetus (moon)|Iapetus}}||Moon of Saturn||6.7×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}||Moon of Saturn||8.3×107 km2
|-
|{{w|Rhea (moon)|Rhea}}||Moon of Saturn||7.337×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Earth|Earth}}||Planet||5.10072×108 km2
|-
|{{w|Moon|The Moon}}||Moon of Earth||3.793×107 km2
|-
|All human skin||||7.2 billion × 1m2 ≈ 7000 km2
|-
|{{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}||Planet||7.48×107 km2 (0.147 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Mars|Mars}}||Planet||1.448×108 km2 (0.284 Earths)
|-
|Various small moons, comets, etc.||||???
|-
|{{w|Haumea (dwarf planet)|Haumea}}||Dwarf planet||6.8×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Makemake (dwarf planet)|Makemake}}||Dwarf planet||6.9×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}||Dwarf planet||1.7×107 km2
|-
|{{w|Pluto|Pluto}}||Dwarf planet||1.665×107 km2 (0.033 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}||Moon of Pluto||4.58×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Venus|Venus}}||Planet||4.60×108 km2 (0.902 Earths)
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1389: Surface Area

2014-07-02T14:54:18Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ Human skin = 7000 km²

{{comic
| number = 1389
| date = July 2, 2014
| title = Surface Area
| image = surface_area.png
| titletext = This isn't an informational illustration; this is a thing I think we should do. First, we'll need a gigantic spool of thread. Next, we'll need some kind of ... hmm, time to head to Seattle.
}}

A [http://xkcd.com/1389/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd - which can be reached easily from here as always, by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Very early draft.}}
This image shows the total surface areas of all {{w|Terrestrial_planet|terrestrial planets}}, {{w|natural satellite}}s, {{w|asteroid}}s, {{w|minor planet|etc.}} in the {{w|Solar System}}, represented as regions of a single massive landmass (in a similar style to the various [[256: Online Communities|maps]] of the [[802: Online Communities 2|Internet]] Randall has created in the past), with a [[977|Waterman Butterfly]] based map of Earth in the center for scale. Relatively small objects like asteroids, comets, and so on are grouped into two regions at the northeast and southwest corners, while tiny objects like space dust are excluded altogether (probably because their total surface area is impossible to estimate accurately, and also because any estimate would likely be too large to fit easily into the map). He has likely used this Wikipedia list: {{w|List of Solar System objects by size}}.

The {{w|gas giant}}s Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are not included, because they don't have a solid surface. If they were included, this part of the map would be a tiny speck compared to the surface area of the gas giants. Similarly the {{w|Sun}} also is not considered a solid but hot {{w|Plasma_(physics)|plasma}}; if it was included it would reduce both the original map and the gas giants to a tiny speck.

Between Earth and Titan is a tiny speck noted "''all human skin''", which obviously does not refer to a rocky surface and could be thought of as reference to the novel ''{{w|The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(novel)|The Silence of the Lambs}}''.

The title text explains that this comic is not actually for information, it is something he thinks we should really do - that is, to stitch all the solar system's land areas together, as the comic title says. To do this, we would obviously need a gigantic ball of string and the {{w|Space Needle|Seattle Space Needle}} from Seattle. Of course this is impossible, since the land areas are on the surfaces of spheres.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Surface area of mentioned objects
!Object
!Type
!Surface area
|-
|{{w|Io (moon)|Io}}||Moon of Jupiter||4.191×107 km2 (0.082 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}||Moon of Jupiter||7.30×107 km2 (0.143 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}||Moon of Jupiter||3.09×107 km2 (0.061 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}}||Moon of Jupiter||8.70×107 km2 (0.171 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}}||Dwarf planet||2.85×106 km2
|-
|{{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}}||Asteroid||8×105 km2
|-
|Asteroids 1km+||Asteroid||???
|-
|Asteroids 100m+||Asteroid||???
|-
|{{w|Triton (moon)|Triton}}||Moon of Neptune||2.3018×107 km2
|-
|{{w|Ariel (moon)|Ariel}}||Moon of Uranus||4.2113×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Miranda (moon)|Miranda}}||Moon of Uranus||7×105 km2
|-
|{{w|Umbriel (moon)|Umbriel}}||Moon of Uranus||4.296×106 km2 (0.008 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Oberon (moon)|Oberon}}||Moon of Uranus||7.285×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Titania (moon)|Titania}}||Moon of Uranus||7.82×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Tethys (moon)|Tethys}}||Moon of Saturn||3.61×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Dione (moon)|Dione}}||Moon of Saturn||3.96×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Enceladus|Enceladus}}||Moon of Saturn||8×105 km2
|-
|{{w|Iapetus (moon)|Iapetus}}||Moon of Saturn||6.7×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}||Moon of Saturn||8.3×107 km2
|-
|{{w|Rhea (moon)|Rhea}}||Moon of Saturn||7.337×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Earth|Earth}}||Planet||5.10072×108 km2
|-
|{{w|Moon|The Moon}}||Moon of Earth||3.793×107 km2
|-
|All human skin||||7.2 billion × 1m2 ≈ 7000 km2
|-
|{{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}||Planet||7.48×107 km2 (0.147 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Mars|Mars}}||Planet||1.447985×108 km2 (0.284 Earths)
|-
|Various small moons, comets, etc.||||???
|-
|{{w|Haumea (dwarf planet)|Haumea}}||Dwarf planet||6.8×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Makemake (dwarf planet)|Makemake}}||Dwarf planet||6.9×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}||Dwarf planet||1.7×107 km2
|-
|{{w|Pluto|Pluto}}||Dwarf planet||1.665×107 km2 (0.033 Earths)
|-
|{{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}||Moon of Pluto||4.58×106 km2
|-
|{{w|Venus|Venus}}||Planet||4.60×108 km2 (0.902 Earths)
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1384: Krypton

2014-06-23T13:41:47Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ typo

{{comic
| number = 1384
| date = June 20, 2014
| title = Krypton
| image = krypton.png
| titletext = Their Sun and gravity will make you, uh, something, I guess. Out of earshot from Earth, mostly.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is an [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InvertedTrope inverse] version of the {{w|origin story}} of the {{w|superhero}} character {{w|Superman}}.

In the Superman story, {{w|Jor-El}} and his wife {{w|Lara (comics)|Lara}} notice that their home planet {{w|Krypton (comics)|Krypton}} is about to be destroyed in a giant explosion, so they decide to send their baby {{w|Superman|Kal-El}} to {{w|Earth}} to save him - and there he becomes Superman.

In this comic, [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] also notice that the planet Krypton is about to explode, but instead of attempting to save a baby from Krypton, they decide to send a baby to Krypton from Earth so that he'll stop annoying them with his crying.

In the fourth panel both spaceships can be seen. The rocket containing the Earth baby arrives at planet Krypton, while the crystal star shaped spaceship containing Kal-El leaves Krypton towards Earth - this is a reference to the [http://collectingsuperman.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/stmstoryboard1a.jpg version of the spaceship] depicted in the 1978 {{w|Superman_(1978_film)|Superman movie}}, (see [[#Trivia|trivia section]]).

In the fifth and last panel we see Krypton explode.

A person with a very fertile imagination who knew very little about physics and nothing about Superman could think that it could be the impact of the rocket from Earth that makes Krypton explode. Maybe it would not have exploded if Cueball and Megan had not shipped the baby off?

In the Superman movie, Kal-El carries with him a lot of information pre-recorded by his parents. During the very long trip he listens to the recordings, one of which explains that the Sun and gravity of Earth will give him (Kal-El) great powers (this is the way he becomes Superman). The '''title text''' is a satirical version of this information, given to the Earth baby during his trip: That Megan & Cueball do not have the faintest idea (or care about) what the sun and gravity of Krypton will do to him - but their best guess at what these ''mostly'' will do to him is to "make you out of earshot from Earth", which was their original reason for shipping the baby off in the first place.

While this may seem like an extreme reaction to a crying baby, people who have never experienced a child crying for a whole night may have no idea about what types of fantasies could go through one's head. During the long hours of the night, shipping the crying thing in to space may seem like a great idea. This comic could be seen as an illustration of this.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing near a telescope.]
:Cueball: The distant planet Krypton is becoming unstable!
:Baby crying (from outside the panel): Waaaaaa
:Megan: That crying baby is really annoying.

:[Cueball and Megan looking at each other]

:[Spaceship taking off]

:[Spaceship passing another spaceship on route to distant planet]

:[Planet exploding]

==Trivia==
*Whereas the Kal-El rocket clearly looks like the one in the 1978 Superman, a movie which is also the origin of the title text joke, the Earth baby rocket looks like any nondescript rocket. It has some features in common with the one used in [[1350: Lorenz]] as can be seen here under the [[1350:_Lorenz#Rocket launch|Rocket launch theme]] (color scheme the same, but different body of the rocket). One could also argue that it resembles some of the [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_M7D1hE_0cz0/TS88t-Rs2vI/AAAAAAAAEMY/EnIOj3AGFu8/s800/SupermanOrigins.jpg various] [http://thecomicmuseum.com/superman146.jpg versions] of the rocket that brought Superman to earth as depicted in early {{w|List of Superman comics|comic books}} (Not that big a resemblance though, due to the very different tip and fins).
*As the nearest stars are several light years away, this comic does of course not make any sense if you look at it from a scientific point of view. (But can still do if you don't!).
**First of all - how would Cueball be able to see that Krypton is unstable in a telescope - as we at the moment can only just detect planets around other stars.
**And even if he did detect this and immediately shipped his baby away in a close to light-speed rocket, then it would take several years to reach Krypton (at best - more likely to be somewhere between a hundred to a thousand years...)
***Plus, because light takes time to travel, Cueball was seeing the planet as it was many years ago, meaning it had been unstable for some time already. So even for the closest star (exclusive of the earth's sun), it would be 4.3 years to see the instability and then over 4.3 more years (even with close to light speed travel) for the ship to travel, for a total of over 8.6 years from when the light left the planet until the rocket arrived there.
**As faster than light-speed travel is impossible according to the current model of our universe this option is not really relevant here.
**During all those years, the unstable planet should still keep together - in spite of being so unstable that Cueball can determine this instability with his telescope on Earth.
**And then the rocket arrives just when Kal-El is being shipped the other way a few moments before the planet explodes. Of course if the arrival of the rocket causes the explosion this would explain the last two events. Kal-El is shipped off at the last moment when his parents realizes an incoming rocket will destroy their planet... That would actually be funny!
** The previous remarks assume that Cueball and Megan are standing on Earth. The comic could be plausable if they are standing on a different planet in the same planetary system.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1380: Manual for Civilization

2014-06-12T13:47:18Z

173.245.50.84: better link

{{comic
| number = 1380
| date = June 11, 2014
| title = Manual for Civilization
| image = manual_for_civilization.png
| titletext = We will have an entire wing of the library devoted to copies of book #26, because ohmygod it's the one where Jake and Cassie finally KISS!!!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Brian Eno}} is a musician and a co-founder of the {{w|Long Now Foundation}}. He is explaining to an audience that one of the missions of the Long Now is a [http://blog.longnow.org/02010/04/06/manual-for-civilization/ Manual for Civilization] - a collection of reference materials that can help rebuild society in case it collapses. But in Randall's version, the experts have made a list composed of many books from the {{w|Animorphs}} series.

Animorphs is a series of books written by {{w|K.A. Applegate}}. It follows a group of five children (later, an alien joins as the sixth member), that try to stop the parasitic aliens, the Yeerks, by transforming into animals. A Yeerk that enters a human has complete control over their host, and can read their memories. Because the Yeerks can imitate their host almost perfectly, humanity is slowly being taken over without knowing it, and for this reason the children cannot contact the authorities and are on their own in the battle against the Yeerks.

When asked if all the books on the experts list are from the Animorph series, Eno misses the point of the question by saying ''No!'', only to mention the {{W|List_of_Animorphs_books#Companion_books|Megamorphs}} books and {{W|The Andalite Chronicles}}, both of which are side stories to the Animorph universe.

There are other books like these which aren't mentioned here — but it is clear from the last two panels that it is a quite long list — and it seems to be written in two columns, so maybe all {{w|List_of_Animorphs_books#Animorphs_main_series|54 Animorphs books}} and all {{W|List_of_Animorphs_books#Companion_books|ten side stories}} could be included on the list.

In suggesting that a series of children's novels make up the blueprint for rebuilding civilization, [[Randall]] is spoofing the idea of such libraries (since such books would be largely useless in terms of providing the detailed instructions that would be necessary). At the same time, he may also be sending up a recent [http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/06/against_ya_adults_should_be_embarrassed_to_read_children_s_books.single.html controversial article] from ''{{W|Slate (magazine)|Slate}}'', which suggested that adults should be ashamed of reading children's literature, by having a popular children's work be considered crucial to rebuilding civilization.

The title text makes it completely ludicrous by saying an entire wing of the library will be devoted to the {{w|The Attack (Animorphs)|book (#26)}} where {{w|Animorphs#Animorphs|Jake and Cassie}} finally KISS!!!

This comic may also be inspired by {{w|Isaac Asimov}}'s {{w|The_Foundation_Series|Foundation series}}, where Harry Seldon claimed that the Galactic Empire is going to collapse in a thousand years, there is no way to stop it but his group of scientists are writing Encyclopedia Galactica to help people rebuild civilization.

*The Long Now Foundation was mentioned recently in [[1340: Unique Date]].
*Animorphs was referenced before in the title texts of [[1360: Old Files]] and [[1187:_Aspect_Ratio]].

==Transcript==
:[Brian Eno is talking to an unseen audience.]
:Brian Eno: Hi. I'm music's Brian Eno, co-founder of the Long Now Foundation.

:[Panel 2 shows he is standing on a stage.]
:Brian Eno: As part of our mission to promote long-term thinking, we've asked experts to help us assemble a collection of books from which civilization can be rebuilt if it ever collapses.

:[Panel 3 shows he is holding a manuscript with a long list of book titles.]
:Brian Eno: Today we're sharing the results — the first ever ''Manual for Civilization''.

:[Panel 4 shows him reading from the manuscript.]
:Brian Eno: *Ahem*
::''Animorphs #1: The Invasion''
::''Animorphs #2: The Visitor''
::''Animorphs #3: The Encounter''
:Unseen Audience member: ...are they ''all'' Animorphs Books?
:Brian Eno: No! There's also ''Megamorphs'' and ''The Andalite Chronicles''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Animorphs]]

1378: Turbine

2014-06-06T13:40:08Z

173.245.50.84: visually very similar

{{comic
| number = 1378
| date = June 6, 2014
| title = Turbine
| image = turbine.png
| titletext = Ok, plan B: Fly a kite into the blades, with a rock in a sling dangling below it, and create the world's largest trebuchet.
}}

==Explanation==

This is a pun on the term "fan". A {{w|wind turbine}} (which generates power via kinetic energy produced from the turning of its blades in the wind, and converts it into electricity) is visually very similar to a {{w|mechanical fan|fan}} (where the fan blades move the air around to provide a cooling effect). The other meaning of "fan" is "someone who is a fanatic" about something (e.g. a football team, a band, etc.). The wind turbine's response to Megan's plan works with both meanings of the word: it is "not a huge fan", meaning not fanatical about the idea that she has proposed; and "not a huge fan", meaning not a gigantic device which will blow air at her, as she seems to assume it is.

A {{w|trebuchet}} is a type of catapult. The [http://youtu.be/MTWsmZta6AE setup described] would not resemble the widely known counterweight trebuchet, as the energy rotating the arm and flinging the rock would not be from a raised counterweight. It would rather be more similar to a traction trebuchet.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is talking to a giant wind turbine.]
:Megan: I'll hold up a big kite, and you blow air at me until I lift off!
:Megan: What do you think of that idea?
:Wind turbine: I'm not a huge fan.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

Talk:596: Latitude

2014-05-13T21:29:06Z

173.245.50.84:

I thought the sex toy shops were unrelated to the last two shops - that she just did something ''re-e-e-eally'' stupid with the gizmos and power tools that landed her in the burn ward. Also, who's to say Robert didn't turn off Latitude? His schedule has some pretty big blanks. Anonymous 06:51, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

:If Megan was buying a drill so she could put up shelves, that kind of destroys the joke. Why should she need to be discreet about that?

:Also, I think that Robert's simple schedule of home / school / subway is a small joke about reversed expectations. A usual joke about how men spend their time (while on the internet, for example) might show a preponderance of sexually-related activity. Here, Randall has attributed the sexual experimentation to Megan instead. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 00:48, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

My take on this is that Megan went to the two last stores to improve her toys, as several xkcd comics deal with DIY stuff. {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.163}}

Perhaps the title text is a reference to the previous comic about the android girlfriend?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 21:29, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1364: Like I'm Five

2014-05-05T14:25:26Z

173.245.50.84:

Almost certainly a reference to [http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2014/05/cory-doctorow-how-to-talk-to-your-children-about-mass-surveillance/ this]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.44|108.162.219.44]] 05:58, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

I actually do something like this, though I never heard of the Reddit thing or the above page. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 06:46, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

The alt text leads into me imagining them both "being" 5 and start arguing in a very childish way. I think that's a part of the alt joke.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.39|108.162.219.39]] 08:59, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

I read it as a pun on "parens". As in the equations being so complicated it's hard to tell which parentheses belong together. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.211|141.101.88.211]] 12:04, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
:But those parentheses are only in your mind. The thesis could very well be about Psychology or Latin. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 14:24, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1364: Like I'm Five

2014-05-05T14:24:43Z

173.245.50.84:

Almost certainly a reference to [http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2014/05/cory-doctorow-how-to-talk-to-your-children-about-mass-surveillance/ this]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.44|108.162.219.44]] 05:58, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

I actually do something like this, though I never heard of the Reddit thing or the above page. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 06:46, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

The alt text leads into me imagining them both "being" 5 and start arguing in a very childish way. I think that's a part of the alt joke.
[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.39|108.162.219.39]] 08:59, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

I read it as a pun on "parens". As in the equations being so complicated it's hard to tell which parentheses belong together. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.211|141.101.88.211]] 12:04, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
:But those parentheses are only in your mind. The thesis could very well be about Psychology or Latin. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 14:24, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

1358: NRO

2014-04-21T12:21:33Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ known outside of North America as Where's Wally

{{comic
| number = 1358
| date = April 21, 2014
| title = NRO
| image = nro.png
| titletext = 'DISPATCHING DRONE TO TARGET COORDINATES.' 'Wait, crap, wrong button. Oh jeez.'
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|Where's Waldo}}'' (known outside of North America as ''Where's Wally)'' is a children's puzzle book in which you have to spot out 'Waldo'. He usually is quite hard to find, which makes it slightly challenging. [[Cueball]] and his friend are using satellite imaging to find Waldo, by holding the book up to the sky and viewing it on the computer. This would require a very advanced camera, as resolutions are usually low. But since Cueball works at the {{w|National Reconnaissance Office}} (NRO), he probably has access to some powerful satellites. The humor in this being, while he could be using that power for much more important things, he's instead trying to solve a simple game.
The title text is implying that Cueball has accidentally launched a drone at the co-ordinates, which would be where he and his friend are standing.

==Transcript==
Cueball and a friend are in a remote area. The friend is holding a ''Where's Waldo?'' book towards the sky.
:Laptop: [Target located]
:Cueball: Got him. Left edge, two inches down.
The National Reconnaissance Office has an unusual approach to ''Where's Waldo''.

{{comic discussion}}

1354: Heartbleed Explanation

2014-04-11T20:39:04Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ Deleting absurd claim: The name Meg may also be intended as a variant of the conventional Mallory/Mallet "malicious attacker"

{{comic
| number = 1354
| date = April 11, 2014
| title = Heartbleed Explanation
| image = heartbleed_explanation.png
| titletext = Are you still there, server? It's me, Margaret.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Heartbleed bug}} has received a lot of news coverage recently and was also the topic of the previous comic ([[1353]]). This comic explains how the bug may have been discovered and can be exploited to reveal a server's memory contents. A hypothetical cracker (Meg) sends heartbeat requests to the server, the server responds to the heartbeat request by returning the contents of the body of the request up to the number of letters requested. The first two requests are well formed, requesting exactly the number of characters in the request body. The server is shown "thinking" about Meg's request with many other thoughts going on at the same time, analogous to the internal memory contents of a real web server. The last request sends "HAT" but requests 500 letters, the server - unaware that 500 letters is larger than the request body - returns "HAT" plus 497 letters that happened to be next to the word "HAT" in its memory. Included are many sensitive bits of information, including a master key and user passwords. One of the passwords shown is "CoHoBaSt", a reference to [[936]], which suggests using "correct horse battery staple" as a password.

Often popular explanations of security bugs require the issue to be simplified a lot and to leave out a lot of details. But in this case the bug is actually that simple. Also, note that any client which can connect to the server can typically exploit this bug in the underlying OpenSSL software - the use of the term "User Meg" does not imply that Meg had to authenticate first.

The hover text is a reference to ''{{w|Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.|Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.}}'' a novel by Judy Blume.

==Transcript==

:'''How the Heartbleed bug works:'''
;Megan: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "POTATO" (6 letters).
;Server (in the middle of thinking): wants pages about boats. User Erica requests secure connection using key "4538538374224". '''User Meg wants these 6 letters: POTATO.''' User Ada wants pages about "irl games". Unlocking secure records with key 5130985733435. Maggie (chrome user) sends this message: "Hi

;Server (same thoughts, now with POTATO highlighted)
;Server (speaking electronically): POTATO

;Megan: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "BIRD" (4 letters).
;Server (in the middle of thinking): User Olivia from London wants pages about "mad bees in car why". Note: Files for IP 375.381.283.17 are in /tmp/files-3843. '''User Meg wants these 4 letters: BIRD.''' There are currently 346 connections open. User Brendan uploaded the file selfie.jpg (contents: 834ba962e2ceb9ff89bd3bff8c

;Server (same thoughts, now with BIRD highlighted)
;Server (speaking electronically): BIRD
;Megan: ''Hmm...''

;Megan: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "HAT" (500 letters).
;Server (in the middle of thinking): a connection. Jake requested pictures of deer. '''User Meg wants these 500 letters: HAT.''' Lucas requests the "missed connections" page. Eve (administrator) wants to set server's key to "14835038534". Isabel wants pages about "snakes but not too long". User Karen wants to change account password to "CoHoBaSt". User

;Server (same thoughts, now with HAT and everything following it highlighted)
;Server (speaking electronically without finishing): HAT. Lucas requests the "missed connections" page. Eve (administrator) wants to set server's key to "14835038534". Isabel wants pages about "snakes but not too long". User Karen wants to change account password to "CoHoBaSt". User Amber requests pages
;Megan (writes this all down)

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:1354: Heartbleed Explanation

2014-04-11T20:38:14Z

173.245.50.84:

I assume everybody got the (truncated) reference to the password "CorrectHorseBatteryStaple"... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.210|141.101.89.210]] 06:51, 11 April 2014 (UTC)
:Until I read this wiki, I did not get that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.50|108.162.216.50]] 10:09, 11 April 2014 (UTC)BK201
:There are also references to (if I recall correctly): [[Missed Connections]], "snakes but not too long" from [[Umwelt]], there's boats (of which many comics exist), "bees in car why" may be slightly related to [[Parody Week: TFD and Natalie Dee]]... that's all I see. Also the ip (375.381.283.17) doesn't seem to represent anything, but you never know. {{User:Grep/signature|11:04, 11 April 2014}}

While the bug is explained very good, there is one point missing: The word "user" seems to imply that Meg is known to server. But the bug doesn't require that - ANYONE can ask the server. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:03, 11 April 2014 (UTC)
: Nope, the word "user" does not indicate a logged in user. It's just a reference to anybody who happens to "use" (actually: connect to) the server at the moment. In fact, it is a particular network connection (TCP or else), on which other end there is a "user" Meg. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.111|108.162.210.111]] 12:07, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

The transcript should include all the text in the servers memory, not just the highlighted text. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:04, 11 April 2014 (UTC)
:Nope, it can only do 64k per request. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.91|108.162.216.91]] 16:04, 11 April 2014 (UTC)
:The speech bubble is formatted as truncated, but if it were complete it would be 500 characters which is what was requested by Megan and within the 64k max.[[User:OnePointEight|OnePointEight]] ([[User talk:OnePointEight|talk]]) 19:39, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Heartbleed Explanation Explanation. Lovely. Also, I see that Eve is an administrator. Eavesdropper? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 15:24, 11 April 2014 (UTC)
:Also the attacker is Meg, which can be thought of as an alternate to Mallory/Trudy [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.65|108.162.221.65]] 16:45, 11 April 2014 (UTC)
::This is absurd. Meg is a common nickname for Margaret. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 20:38, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

"Snakes but not too long"... great! --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.241|108.162.210.241]] 15:49, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T12:10:50Z

173.245.50.84: /* Explanation */ lowercase

{{comic
| number = 1353
| date = April 9, 2014
| title = Heartbleed
| image = heartbleed.png
| titletext = I looked at some of the data dumps from vulnerable sites, and it was ... bad. I saw emails, passwords, password hints. SSL keys and session cookies. Important servers brimming with visitor IPs. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I should probably patch OpenSSL.
}}

==Explanation==
"Heartbleed" refers to a critical bug in the OpenSSL security library. This bug was publicly released on Monday, April 7th, 2014.
Due to a programming error in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f (inclusive), attackers could read random server memory by sending specially prepared heartbeat signals to an affected server.
This exploit allows attackers to obtain random pieces of information, including, but not limited to, the servers private key(!!!), in-memory passwords, contents of open files, and much more.
More information is available at [http://heartbleed.com heartbleed.com] or under CVE-2014-0160, [https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-0160 CVE-2014-0160 at nvd.nist.gov]

This bug is classified as extremely critical due to the potential of unveiling the servers private key, enabling anyone to impersonate the server and/or decrypt all traffic to it (unless "perfect forward secrecy" ciphers is used, which is currently rare).
Furthermore, because the exploit occurs in the handshake phase of setting up a connection, no traces of it are logged, i.e. you can be attacked and never be the wiser.

The mouseover text cites the {{w|Tears in rain soliloquy}}, the dying words of the replicant and main antagonist Roy Batty (played by {{w|Rutger Hauer}}) in the 1982 film ''{{w|Blade Runner}}'', implying that replicant brains use one of the affected versions of OpenSSL.

==Transcript==
:Megan: Heartbleed must be the worst web security lapse ever.
:Cueball: Worst so far. Give us time.
:Megan: I mean, this bug isn't just broken encryption.
:Megan: It lets website visitors make a server dispense random memory contents.
:Megan: It's not just keys. It's traffic data. Emails. Passwords. Erotic faniction.
:Cueball: Is '''everything''' compromised?
:Megan: Well, the attack is limited to data stored in computer memory.
:Cueball: So paper is safe. And clay tablets.
:Megan: Our imaginations, too.
:Cueball: See, we'll be fine.

{{comic discussion}}

305: Rule 34

2014-04-04T12:56:27Z

173.245.50.84: In the title text we can assume that the presenter in a homoerotic spelling bee is asking a male participant to spell a sexually related term.

{{comic
| number =305
| date =August 20, 2007
| title =Rule 34
| image =rule 34.png
| titletext =Okay, Lance. For entry into the college bowl, spell 'Throbbing'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is rather surprised to find {{w|slash fiction}} (same-sex erotic fiction) featuring characters from the {{w|Thomas the Tank Engine}} television series, but [[Megan]] isn't remotely surprised, citing {{w|Rule 34 (meme)|Rule 34}}: "If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions."

Cueball denies the truism of the rule, coming up with several examples of porn that doesn't exist yet, until he comes across one that they both agree would be pretty hot: Women playing electric guitar in the shower. Megan proceeds to get ahead of the curve by registering [http://WetRiffs.com WetRiffs.com] ({{w|NSFW}}).
By doing this, Megan invoked {{w|Rule 34 (meme)#Variations and corollaries|Rule 35}}, an amendment on rule 34. Rule 35 states: 'If there is not porn of it, porn will be made of it'.

In the title text we can assume that the presenter in a homoerotic spelling bee is asking a male participant to spell a sexually related term.
==Transcript==
:Cueball: Huh-- Thomas the Tank Engine slash fiction.
:Megan: It's rule 34 of the internet. If you can imagine it, there is porn of it.
:Cueball: Nah. The web is freaky, but it can't begin to have everything.
:Cueball: There's no porn set atop storm-chasing vans. No homoerotic spelling bees. No women playing electric guitar in the shower.
:Megan: Actually, that last one would look pretty hot. As long as they were unplugged or waterproofed...
:Megan: Rivulets of water run down her chest, the smooth body of the guitar firm against her hips.
:Megan: She twangs the E-string and it shakes off tiny droplets in all directions.
:[She rises into a crouch.]
:Megan: You're sure it doesn't exist?
:Cueball: Not yet.
:Megan: I'm registering WetRiffs.com. Let's get on this.

==Trivia==
*Randall actually ''did'' register [http://wetriffs.com Wetriffs.com] (archive [http://web.archive.org/web/20130518191217/http://wetriffs.com/ here]), and people submitted pictures of themselves in the shower holding electric guitars. Randall would later create a tumblr page called "[http://raccoonsexdungeon.tumblr.com Raccoon Sex Dungeon]" to coincide with Cueball referencing it in [[1025: Tumblr]].
*When referencing a fictional website on a webcomic, TV series or other form of media, it's generally a good idea to create the website yourself so that you can control the content and protect yourself from getting sued because someone got there first and flooded it with inappropriate, even harmful material.
*Since this comic, there had been actual Rule 34 on homoerotic spelling bees. [https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=8430 1] [http://blackmothfic.twonth.com/snitches.html 2].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

Talk:1348: Before the Internet

2014-03-28T12:44:53Z

173.245.50.84:

I'm pretty sure that Randall doesn't make this mistake, but "Before the Internet" and "Before the Web" are two very different things in a way that old fogeys like myself (and him) tend to mutter on about when anyone younger than maybe 40 make the mistake of conflating the two.
If that's Exploit Mom, she'd probably be too young to ''really'' know times pre-Internet in the truest sense. (Although "before the layperson ''knew'' about the Internet" could be placed somewhere in the mid-to-late '90s, which ''is'' after the early '90s inception of the Web.)
Enough pedantry. Someone needs to make a more useful comment than the above, and quickly! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 06:00, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
:The person asking the question is a child-character. The adult-character then followed up with a clarification question "[Do you mean] not having a phone or computer to distract you?". Though, in your "truest sense", "before the Internet" and "the first decade or so of the Internet" would be mostly the same. The Internet didn't have much of an impact on or value to society until after it reached a certain size.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 07:15, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
I read a lot. Before the internet was cheap, I would go to the library on my bike, borrow 5 books (the limit), read them all and go to the library again. On a good weekend day I could repeat this 3 or 4 times. Some books I've read thousands of times. Relevant irrelevant comment[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.41|108.162.218.41]] 07:18, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Does this comic even ''need'' explaining? Pretty self-explanatory of you ask me. —[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.237|108.162.210.237]] 08:04, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

: I think some sort of explanation relating to why this is funny. It is sort of the opposite of the standard nostalgia. Rather like our parents generation may have had a similar discussion with their parents about the invention of TV (add a generation if you are too young). When you think about it, it is a bit odd how society is keen to develop tech to make things better, and at the same time declare that things were better in the past. We sometimes get quite good expositions on this sort of thing here... hopefully someone with some sociology/psychology knowledge can explain this a bit better.
::Agreed it's fairly self-explanatory. The 'reverse-nostalgia' point is interesting. I guess the joke here is kind of that the Mom is making it sound like there was nothing to do before the internet, whereas in reality there was plenty to do; people weren't sitting around waiting for the internet to be invented so they didn't know that it was a thing that could be missing from their lives, it just seems that way now because we can't imagine our lives without it. In a way, it's almost a variation on the classic 'we can't watch TV, it hasn't been invented yet' joke.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.148|173.245.53.148]] 11:31, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
:::People weren't sitting around waiting for Internet to be invented. Computers already existed, so people were walking around with floppy disks (or tapes) and saying things like "It would be great if we could exchange data while sitting home ..." -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:48, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
::My main question is whether the Mom character is being serious or sarcastic - as in the way some people like to wind children up by giving them made-up answers to questions.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.148|173.245.53.148]] 11:33, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

::Of course the past was better. Before the Internet, I had lot of free time I could spend whatever I wanted. Now I'm forced to spend most of day in work. Oh, wait, that isn't because of Internet but because I was child and had summer holiday and now I'm adult. (Also, the Internet technically exists since December 1974, but for most people, mid-1990s is start of Internet and my "before the Internet" refers to that). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:48, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Isn't this a joke on how older people say younger people don't interact with eachother unless through cellphone etc. Even if they are sitting right next to eachother--[[User:Nitho|Nitho]] ([[User talk:Nitho|talk]]) 11:59, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

;Ponytail
In [[1105: License Plate]] we can see Ponytail is a police officer. Therefore she must be at least 22, and therefore she was born before 1990. If this comic features Ponytail, then it must be set at most in 2000 (when Ponytail was 10). But in 2000 or before people didn't have smartphones. In my opinion this comic is set in 2014, and therefore the girl character is not [[Ponytail]] but simply a girl with a ponytail. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 12:44, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

1348: Before the Internet

2014-03-28T12:34:07Z

173.245.50.84: It's not Ponytail

{{comic
| number = 1348
| date = March 28, 2014
| title = Before the Internet
| image = before_the_internet.png
| titletext = We watched DAYTIME TV. Do you realize how soul-crushing it was? I'd rather eat an iPad than go back to watching daytime TV.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft, please proofread and edit.}}
[[Megan]] appears with a girl with a ponytail. After been asked what life was like before the internet, Megan answered with the most basic answer possible, just describing what the girl likely already knew. When the girl broadens her question, Megan responds with what it is likely many kids think life was like before the internet: dull, boring, and eventless. Megan continues on to explain that even the fact that life was more fulfilling and engaging did not compensate for the nonexistence of the internet.
The title text goes on to include daytime television. Daytime television consisted mostly of soap operas, and children's programming existed almost exclusively before noon on Saturdays. Further, Megan also believes that dying due to lots of different types of metal poisoning (eating an iPad) would be better than going back to watching daytime TV as it existed in a pre-internet world.

==Transcript==
:Girl: Do you remember before the internet?
:Megan: Oh yeah, totally.
:Girl: what was it like?
:Megan: Not having a phone or computer to distract you?
:Girl: Yeah.
:Megan: It was '''''SO. BORING.''''' All the time. I just '''''sat''''' there. It was the '''''worst.'''''
:Girl: But wasn't it, like, more fulfilling? Engaging?
:Megan: Wasn't worth it.
:Girl: ''I'' still get bored.
:Megan: Not like we did.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Internet]]

1348: Before the Internet

2014-03-28T12:32:51Z

173.245.50.84: /* Transcript */ It's not Ponytail

2014-02-27T18:31:00Z

173.245.50.84: /* Transcript */ Missing part of a circle

<div class="plainlinks">
{{comic
| number = 1335
| before = ''Explainxkcd note: The image below is accelerated to show a full day's spin in approximately 10 seconds. The actual comic completes one revolution per day. For the current state, see [http://xkcd.com/now/ http://xkcd.com/now]''
| date = February 26, 2014
| title = Now
| image = now.gif
| titletext = This image stays roughly in sync with the day (assuming the Earth continues spinning). Shortcut: [http://xkcd.com/now xkcd.com/now]
}}
</div>

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Too many guesses, too many parentheses, maybe more. The time zones need an explain.}}
The picture rotates by 3.75 {{w|degree (angle)|degrees}} every 15 minutes (so far, and presumably forever), as does the Earth, so that it is constantly up to date in showing which regions are currently at which times of day. The picture change seems to happen half-way through a 15-minute time increment (that is, at 7½, 22½, 37½, and 52½ minutes after each hour), so that the picture is always correct for the nearest multiple of 15 minutes.

The map projection of the earth in the middle of the picture shows an {{w|azimuthal equidistant projection}} with the {{w|South Pole}} in the center which is uncommon because most times this projection has the North Pole at its center. [[Randall]] was playing on projections before here: [[ 977: Map Projections ]].

The list of cities and countries doesn't always match the map, because the list takes into account local variations in {{w|time zone}}s. The map shows the current (February 2014) configuration of time zones with respect to {{w|daylight saving time}} (also known as summer time), which is being observed at the time of the comic's initial release in parts of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and other countries not named in this comic. If the map is to stay accurate through the year, the location of place names will have to move over the next few months as parts of the southern hemisphere go off DST and parts of the northern hemisphere go onto it, but we don't yet know whether this will happen.

In many countries, {{w|business hours}} are considered to be from 9am to 5pm. With some exceptions, including emergencies, it is generally considered rude to place a {{w|telephone}} call to someone's residence during the hours when most people are asleep (Randall portrays this time period as extending from 10pm to 8am). This may be a reference to the 10pm "cutoff" time [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0WeQJW-H3Y discussed] in an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

On midnight at UTC we can see this situation:
*00:00 UTC {{w|Greenwich Mean Time}}
::UK, Portugal
::West Africa
*01:00 UTC {{w|Central European Time}}
::Most of central Europe
::Nigeria, and many more countries belonging to the {{w|West Africa Time}} zone
*02:00 UTC {{w|Eastern European Time}}
::Eastern Europe, many countries like Bulgaria, Romania or Greece
::The {{w|Levant}} (Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, and a part of southern Turkey)
::Egypt
*03:00 UTC {{w|UTC+03:00}} (East Africa Time, Eastern Europe Forward Time, and Arabia Standard Time)
::Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia, and more
::Kaliningrad and Belarus
::Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and more.
::Iran is at {{w|Iran Standard Time}}, using an offset of UTC+03:30
*04:00 UTC {{w|UTC+04:00}}
::{{w|Moscow Time}}
::United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, and more
::Afghanistan is at {{w|Time in Afghanistan}}, using an offset of UTC+04:30
::Iran is at {{w|Iran Standard Time}}, using an offset of UTC+03:30
*05:00 UTC {{w|UTC+05:00}}
::Pakistan, Western Australia, Maldives and some France former colonies.
::Afghanistan is at {{w|Time in Afghanistan}}, using an offset of UTC+04:30
::India and Sri Lanka using {{w|UTC+05:30}}
::Nepal is using an much more odd offset at {{w|UTC+05:45}}
*06:00 UTC {{w|UTC+06:00}}
::Bangladesh, Bhutan...
::UK {{w|British Indian Ocean Territory}}
::Russia at {{w|Yekaterinburg Time}}, also Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
::China doesn't use only a single time zone because Xinjiang and Tibet are different.
::India and Sri Lanka using {{w|UTC+05:30}}
::Nepal is using an much more odd offset at {{w|UTC+05:45}}
*07:00 UTC {{w|UTC+07:00}}
::South-east Asia like Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and more
::Christmas Island belonging to Australia
::Russia is also using the {{w|Omsk Time}}
*08:00 UTC {{w|UTC+08:00}}
::Western Australia
::China uses only {{w|Time in China|one time zone}} while the country spans about five.
::Singapore
::Philippines
::Perth
*09:00 UTC {{w|UTC+09:00}}
::Japan
::The Koreas
*10:00 UTC {{w|UTC+10:00}}
::Brisbane and the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria
::US: Guam and Northern Mariana Islands
*11:00 UTC {{w|UTC+11:00}}
::Micronesia, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
::Russia {{w|Vladivostok Time}}
*12:00 UTC {{w|UTC+12:00}} or {{w|UTC−12:00}}
::Kamchatka (a Russian peninsula at the east Siberia), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu, Tuvalu, and more
*13:00 UTC {{w|UTC+13:00}} or {{w|UTC−11:00}}
::New Zealand, Kiribati, Tonga, Hawaii
*14:00 UTC {{w|UTC+14:00}} or {{w|UTC−10:00}}
::Hawaii, Samoa
::Alaska, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and more
::Line Islands, belonging to Kiribati
*15:00 UTC {{w|UTC−09:00}}
::Alaska and French Polynesia
*16:00 UTC {{w|Pacific Time Zone}}
::US West Coast
::Canada (British Columbia and Yukon)
::Mexico (Baja California)
*17:00 UTC {{w|Mountain Time Zone}}
::US: Denver, and much more
::Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, more
*18:00 UTC {{w|Central Time Zone}}
::Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua and more
::US: Chicago, Texas except of some most westernmost counties, and many more
*19:00 UTC {{w|Eastern Time Zone}}
::Eastern Canada like Ontario or Quebec
::US East Coast including New York and Florida.
::But also Cuba, Haiti, Panama and much more countries
*20:00 UTC {{w|UTC−04:00}} or {{w|Atlantic Time Zone}}
::Canadian Maritimes like New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec or Nova Scotia
::Chile
::Greenland
::Most of the Caribbean Islands.
*21:00 UTC {{w|UTC−03:00}}
::Coastal Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, French Guiana, the UK Falkland Islands, and more
*22:00 UTC {{w|UTC−02:00}}
::UK: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
::Brazil: Fernando de Noronha
*23:00 UTC {{w|UTC−01:00}}
::Cape Verde
::Portugal: Azores

==Technical notes==
When first posted, the picture was exactly 12 hours off. Somewhere around 5:10 UTC, this was fixed. The original version also included a listing for Inland Brazil; this could have created a conflict with US East Coast when Daylight-Saving Time begins in the US, and it has been removed.

The names used for the image files refer not to {{w|Universal Time|UTC (Universal Time)}} as one might expect but rather to the time exactly 12 hours off of that. The name of the image file linked from the page matched Universal Time during the first few hours, but the file-naming scheme did not change when the comic was corrected.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|The table should be removed by a more simple way for showing the content here. And the table is incorrect.}}

[The comic is a moving circle with a static outer ring]

[The outermost part of the static ring is divided in 22 segments representing the 24 hours of the day. Noon and Midnight actually mean 11-13 and 23-1]
:Noon - 6 PM - Midnight - 6 AM

[The innermost part of the static ring contains descriptions of the time intervals]
:Business hours (9-5) [i.e. 9 AM - 5 PM]
:Rude to call [11 PM - 6 AM]

[On the outermost ring of the moving circle are written names of the regions of the Earth]
:UK - Most of Europe - Eastern Europe - Iraq - Moscow - Pakistan - Southeast Asia - China - Singapore - Japan - The Koreas - Kamchatka
:Alaska - US West Coast - Denver - Mexico - Eastern Canada - Canadian Maritimes

[On the second ring, counting from out to in, are the names of some cities, countries and states.]
:West Africa - Nigeria - The Levant - Egypt - East Africa - Iran - Afghanistan - India - Java - Philippines - Perth - Brisbane - Most Australian cities - New Zealand
:Chicago - Texas - US East coast - Coastal Brazil

[On the third ring are the names of some continents.]
:Europe Asia
:North America

[On the fourth ring are the names of the other continents.]
:Africa - Oceania
:South America

[On the innermost part of the circle is the Earth as seen from the south pole.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]

1335: Now

2014-02-27T18:29:26Z

173.245.50.84: /* Transcript */ replacing the table by a transcript circle by circle

<div class="plainlinks">
{{comic
| number = 1335
| before = ''Explainxkcd note: The image below is accelerated to show a full day's spin in approximately 10 seconds. The actual comic completes one revolution per day. For the current state, see [http://xkcd.com/now/ http://xkcd.com/now]''
| date = February 26, 2014
| title = Now
| image = now.gif
| titletext = This image stays roughly in sync with the day (assuming the Earth continues spinning). Shortcut: [http://xkcd.com/now xkcd.com/now]
}}
</div>

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Too many guesses, too many parentheses, maybe more. The time zones need an explain.}}
The picture rotates by 3.75 {{w|degree (angle)|degrees}} every 15 minutes (so far, and presumably forever), as does the Earth, so that it is constantly up to date in showing which regions are currently at which times of day. The picture change seems to happen half-way through a 15-minute time increment (that is, at 7½, 22½, 37½, and 52½ minutes after each hour), so that the picture is always correct for the nearest multiple of 15 minutes.

The map projection of the earth in the middle of the picture shows an {{w|azimuthal equidistant projection}} with the {{w|South Pole}} in the center which is uncommon because most times this projection has the North Pole at its center. [[Randall]] was playing on projections before here: [[ 977: Map Projections ]].

The list of cities and countries doesn't always match the map, because the list takes into account local variations in {{w|time zone}}s. The map shows the current (February 2014) configuration of time zones with respect to {{w|daylight saving time}} (also known as summer time), which is being observed at the time of the comic's initial release in parts of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and other countries not named in this comic. If the map is to stay accurate through the year, the location of place names will have to move over the next few months as parts of the southern hemisphere go off DST and parts of the northern hemisphere go onto it, but we don't yet know whether this will happen.

In many countries, {{w|business hours}} are considered to be from 9am to 5pm. With some exceptions, including emergencies, it is generally considered rude to place a {{w|telephone}} call to someone's residence during the hours when most people are asleep (Randall portrays this time period as extending from 10pm to 8am). This may be a reference to the 10pm "cutoff" time [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0WeQJW-H3Y discussed] in an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

On midnight at UTC we can see this situation:
*00:00 UTC {{w|Greenwich Mean Time}}
::UK, Portugal
::West Africa
*01:00 UTC {{w|Central European Time}}
::Most of central Europe
::Nigeria, and many more countries belonging to the {{w|West Africa Time}} zone
*02:00 UTC {{w|Eastern European Time}}
::Eastern Europe, many countries like Bulgaria, Romania or Greece
::The {{w|Levant}} (Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, and a part of southern Turkey)
::Egypt
*03:00 UTC {{w|UTC+03:00}} (East Africa Time, Eastern Europe Forward Time, and Arabia Standard Time)
::Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia, and more
::Kaliningrad and Belarus
::Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and more.
::Iran is at {{w|Iran Standard Time}}, using an offset of UTC+03:30
*04:00 UTC {{w|UTC+04:00}}
::{{w|Moscow Time}}
::United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, and more
::Afghanistan is at {{w|Time in Afghanistan}}, using an offset of UTC+04:30
::Iran is at {{w|Iran Standard Time}}, using an offset of UTC+03:30
*05:00 UTC {{w|UTC+05:00}}
::Pakistan, Western Australia, Maldives and some France former colonies.
::Afghanistan is at {{w|Time in Afghanistan}}, using an offset of UTC+04:30
::India and Sri Lanka using {{w|UTC+05:30}}
::Nepal is using an much more odd offset at {{w|UTC+05:45}}
*06:00 UTC {{w|UTC+06:00}}
::Bangladesh, Bhutan...
::UK {{w|British Indian Ocean Territory}}
::Russia at {{w|Yekaterinburg Time}}, also Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
::China doesn't use only a single time zone because Xinjiang and Tibet are different.
::India and Sri Lanka using {{w|UTC+05:30}}
::Nepal is using an much more odd offset at {{w|UTC+05:45}}
*07:00 UTC {{w|UTC+07:00}}
::South-east Asia like Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and more
::Christmas Island belonging to Australia
::Russia is also using the {{w|Omsk Time}}
*08:00 UTC {{w|UTC+08:00}}
::Western Australia
::China uses only {{w|Time in China|one time zone}} while the country spans about five.
::Singapore
::Philippines
::Perth
*09:00 UTC {{w|UTC+09:00}}
::Japan
::The Koreas
*10:00 UTC {{w|UTC+10:00}}
::Brisbane and the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria
::US: Guam and Northern Mariana Islands
*11:00 UTC {{w|UTC+11:00}}
::Micronesia, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
::Russia {{w|Vladivostok Time}}
*12:00 UTC {{w|UTC+12:00}} or {{w|UTC−12:00}}
::Kamchatka (a Russian peninsula at the east Siberia), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu, Tuvalu, and more
*13:00 UTC {{w|UTC+13:00}} or {{w|UTC−11:00}}
::New Zealand, Kiribati, Tonga, Hawaii
*14:00 UTC {{w|UTC+14:00}} or {{w|UTC−10:00}}
::Hawaii, Samoa
::Alaska, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and more
::Line Islands, belonging to Kiribati
*15:00 UTC {{w|UTC−09:00}}
::Alaska and French Polynesia
*16:00 UTC {{w|Pacific Time Zone}}
::US West Coast
::Canada (British Columbia and Yukon)
::Mexico (Baja California)
*17:00 UTC {{w|Mountain Time Zone}}
::US: Denver, and much more
::Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, more
*18:00 UTC {{w|Central Time Zone}}
::Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua and more
::US: Chicago, Texas except of some most westernmost counties, and many more
*19:00 UTC {{w|Eastern Time Zone}}
::Eastern Canada like Ontario or Quebec
::US East Coast including New York and Florida.
::But also Cuba, Haiti, Panama and much more countries
*20:00 UTC {{w|UTC−04:00}} or {{w|Atlantic Time Zone}}
::Canadian Maritimes like New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec or Nova Scotia
::Chile
::Greenland
::Most of the Caribbean Islands.
*21:00 UTC {{w|UTC−03:00}}
::Coastal Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, French Guiana, the UK Falkland Islands, and more
*22:00 UTC {{w|UTC−02:00}}
::UK: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
::Brazil: Fernando de Noronha
*23:00 UTC {{w|UTC−01:00}}
::Cape Verde
::Portugal: Azores

==Technical notes==
When first posted, the picture was exactly 12 hours off. Somewhere around 5:10 UTC, this was fixed. The original version also included a listing for Inland Brazil; this could have created a conflict with US East Coast when Daylight-Saving Time begins in the US, and it has been removed.

The names used for the image files refer not to {{w|Universal Time|UTC (Universal Time)}} as one might expect but rather to the time exactly 12 hours off of that. The name of the image file linked from the page matched Universal Time during the first few hours, but the file-naming scheme did not change when the comic was corrected.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|The table should be removed by a more simple way for showing the content here. And the table is incorrect.}}

[The comic is a moving circle with a static outer ring]

[The outermost part of the static ring is divided in 22 segments representing the 24 hours of the day. Noon and Midnight actually mean 11-13 and 23-1]
:Noon - 6 PM - Midnight - 6 AM

[The innermost part of the static ring contains descriptions of the time intervals]
:Business hours (9-5) [i.e. 9 AM - 5 PM]
:Rude to call [11 PM - 6 AM]

[On the outermost ring of the moving circle are written names of the regions of the Earth]
:UK - Most of Europe - Eastern Europe - Iraq - Moscow - Pakistan - Southeast Asia - China - Singapore - Japan - The Koreas - Kamchatka
:Alaska - US West Coast - Denver - Mexico - Eastern Canada - Canadian Maritimes

[On the second ring, counting from out to in, are the names of some cities, countries and states.]
:West Africa - Nigeria - The Levant - Egypt - East Africa - Iran - Afghanistan - India - Java - Philippines - Perth - Brisbane - Most Australian cities - New Zealand

[On the third ring are the names of some continents.]
:Europe Asia
:North America

[On the fourth ring are the names of the other continents.]
:Africa - Oceania
:South America

[On the innermost part of the circle is the Earth as seen from the south pole.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]