explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1399: Chaos

2014-07-25T06:45:49Z

173.245.62.62: /* Explanation */ youtube laugh links

{{comic
| number = 1399
| date = July 25, 2014
| title = Chaos
| image = chaos.png
| titletext = Although the oral exam for the doctorate was just 'can you do that weird laugh?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|needs explanation for title text}}

This comic pokes fun at the 1993 film {{w|Jurassic_Park_(film)|Jurassic Park}}, which featured a theme park filled with cloned dinosaurs. In the film, chaos ensues when all the dinosaurs escape and begin terrorizing their creators. The reference to "phase space, nonlinear equations, and strange attractors" is a direct quotation from the movie, in which Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), a mathematician and {{w|Chaos_theory|chaos theorist}} brought in to inspect the park prior to its grand opening, suggests that the dinosaurs' escaping could have been predicted based on mathematical chaos models.

Cueball explains that although he is as much of an expert on chaos theory as Malcolm, he has never been able to find where said equations predict that dinosaurs would escape. Cueball's confusion highlights the contrast between the mathematical definition of chaos - shown in the graphs on the whiteboard - and its common meaning - a state of utter confusion or disorder (as illustrated in the film).

The title text references the scene in Jurassic Park in which Goldblum, as Malcolm, while making small talk with Drs. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) during the helicopter ride to the park, responds to a remark with an odd-sounding laugh [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlOx9738iyw]. The laugh has gained minor internet notoriety after being used as the central sample in at least one remix [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJelEXaPhJ8].

The comic may be timely, as a {{w|Jurassic_World|third sequel}} to the film is scheduled for release next year.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is staring at a whiteboard covered with equations and graphs. The {{w|dragon curve}} and a schematic of the {{w|bifurcation diagram}} of the {{w|logistic map}} (both famous figures from chaos theory) are visible.]
:Cueball: For two decades, I've studied phase space, nonlinear equations, and strange attractors.
:Cueball: And there is <i>nothing</i> in here about dinosaurs escaping.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1399: Chaos

2014-07-25T05:12:53Z

173.245.62.62:

Dr. Ian Malcolm: Dr. Sattler, Dr. Grant, you've heard of chaos theory? No? Non-linear equations? Strange attractions? Dr. Sattler, I refuse to believe that you aren't familiar with the concept of attraction.[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107290/quotes?item=qt1744884] [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:09, 25 July 2014 (UTC)
:Dr. Ian Malcolm: See, here I'm now sitting by myself, uh, er, talking to myself. That's, that's chaos theory. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107290/quotes?item=qt0463062] [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:12, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1399: Chaos

2014-07-25T05:09:57Z

173.245.62.62: Created page with "Dr. Ian Malcolm: Dr. Sattler, Dr. Grant, you've heard of chaos theory? No? Non-linear equations? Strange attractions? Dr. Sattler, I refuse to believe that you aren't familiar..."

1394: Superm*n

2014-07-15T11:28:30Z

173.245.62.62: /* Explanation */

{{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. This is due to the {{w|apsidal precession}} of moon's {{w|elliptic orbit}} which has an {{w|orbital eccentricity}} of about 0.0549.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 frequent, 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.

Randall points out in this comic, by depicting how unimpressive the superhero {{w|Superman}} would be if he had similarly proportional increases in physical capacity relative to normal humans, that the use of the prefix "Super-" in Supermoon is hyperbolic.

The comic's title makes use of a wildcard, which indicates any possible text string, making it useful for searching for all text containing certain letters or words. Such usage is common in {{w|Unix shell}} and Microsoft {{w|MS-DOS}}/{{w|Command Prompt}} and could capture "Supermoon" and/or "Superman" in a text sample or among a collection of files.

The title text refers to {{w|Spider-Man}}, another comic book hero who, having been bitten by a radioactive spider, has spider-like abilities. He is capable of firing sticky white fluid from spinnerets near his hands, enabling him to swing from buildings or cover his bedroom in gunk. He also can cling to surfaces with superhuman gripping abilities, and has a "spider sense," a so-called sixth sense that warns him about impending danger. The title text describes trivially minimal versions of these powers, analogous to the trivial size and brightness difference between a "supermoon" and a normal full moon.

Supermoon has been mentioned previously in [[1080: Visual Field]] and [[1052: Every Major's Terrible]].

==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]]

Talk:1394: Superm*n

2014-07-15T11:18:01Z

173.245.62.62:

;Wildcard
Excellent description, but minor niggle: In "Superm*n' , the '*' is a wildcard. This isn't a regular expression that would match 'Superman' and Supermoon'. A regexp could be "Superm.*n" - the '.' means 'any character' and the '*' means 'as many times as you like'. (More selective regexps exist) If you were to interpret 'Superm*n' as a regular expression, it would match 'Supern' , 'Supermn', "Supermmn', Supermmmn' etc. So you could describe 'Superm*n' as a 'wildcard search that would match superman and supermoon'. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.184|141.101.99.184]] 05:11, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:You're approaching this from a very specific context. You may be correct in that context, but there are plenty of different programs, protocols, languages, etc which use wildcards in various ways. I once worked as a 411 operator, and in the search software we used at the time, a search on "SUPERM*N" would have found both "Superman" and "Supermoon" if both of those were names in listings (although our supervisors would consider that too many keystrokes and would suggest "SUP*N" instead). - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.10|108.162.242.10]] 05:58, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::Oops, looks like I read the initial comment too quickly, didn't realize you were kind of making the same point I wanted to, you were just being more technical about it. Either way, I think the explanation of the wildcard in the article itself should be made vague enough to avoid further threads like this. - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.10|108.162.242.10]] 06:03, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:It's clearly a Unix shell file glob. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 09:54, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::This form of wildcard is used in the Windows command prompt as well, and is very well known for Windows users. I obviously can't speak for the full XKCD audience, but limiting the scope of that wildcard to Unix seems unnecessarily exclusive. (Wouldn't it be sufficient to just refer to it as a "wildcard" as a generic concept? I mean, You Know You're a Geek When...) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 20:12, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:::Having grown up on MS-DOS, I second this. I remember typing '''DIR/a:h/s *.exe''' or something similar to search for games hidden by other students on my school's computers. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 11:18, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

;Colour
If a Trivia section is warranted for this comic, I think it should definitely be pointed out this is one of the rare strips that uses a colour other than black or white. Is there an available statistic on use of colour in xkcd? - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.10|108.162.242.10]] 05:58, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:Ya, I'd bite on this one. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:20, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::There's a category, [[:Category:Comics with color]]. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.74|173.245.55.74]] 13:24, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

;Astronomy
In a similar tune to the supermoon, could the sun at perihelion be called a "superstar"? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 08:36, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:Wouldn't that be the ''Earth'' at perihelion? --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.82|173.245.52.82]] 12:33, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::The sun at Earth's perihelion. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.9}}
:::I was gonna say, does the Earth get 12% larger when it's at perihelion to the sun? :) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 20:14, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::::The sun appears about 3% larger to an observer on Earth at perihelion, compared to the sun we see during aphelion.[http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090703.html] Not very apparent to the unaided human eye, given the other factors(including seasonal, diurnal and latitudinal variation) that influence our overall perception of the sun. (Not that I'm recommending naked-eye observations of the sun.) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:27, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

;Web-slingers and supermen
The comment on the title text makes it sound as though Spiderman canonically shoots webs from his body and only in "some adaptations" has a mechanical device that does so. That's backwards. The machine is the original, the biological version is what happens in "some adaptations" (ie, films). {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.135}}
:Exactly right. I've edited the description. Also corrected the spelling of Spider-Man. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.39|199.27.133.39]] 18:16, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

Do we have the required information to calculate what percentage of people would have better than 107% of the average human strength, assuming a normal bell distribution? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 07:15, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

1394: Superm*n

2014-07-15T05:31:03Z

173.245.62.62: /* Explanation */

{{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. This is due to the moon having an {{w|elliptic orbit}} with a fairly high {{w|orbital eccentricity}}.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 frequent, 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.

Randall points out in this comic, by depicting how unimpressive the superhero {{w|Superman}} would be if he had similarly proportional increases in physical capacity relative to normal humans, that the use of the prefix "Super-" in Supermoon is hyperbolic.

The comic's title makes use of a Unix shell globbing wildcard, which indicates any possible text string, making it useful for searching for all text containing certain letters or words. A globbing wildcard, therefore, could capture either "Supermoon" or "Superman".

The title text refers to {{w|Spider-Man}}, another comic book hero who, having been bitten by a radioactive spider, has spider-like abilities. He is capable of firing sticky white fluid from spinnerets near his hands, enabling him to swing from buildings or cover his bedroom in gunk. He also can cling to surfaces with superhuman gripping abilities, and has a "spider sense," a so-called sixth sense that warns him about impending danger. The title text describes trivially minimal versions of these powers, analogous to the trivial size and brightness difference between a "supermoon" and a normal full moon.

Supermoon has been mentioned previously in [[1080: Visual Field]] and [[1052: Every Major's Terrible]].

==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]]

Talk:1394: Superm*n

2014-07-15T05:27:15Z

173.245.62.62:

;Wildcard
Excellent description, but minor niggle: In "Superm*n' , the '*' is a wildcard. This isn't a regular expression that would match 'Superman' and Supermoon'. A regexp could be "Superm.*n" - the '.' means 'any character' and the '*' means 'as many times as you like'. (More selective regexps exist) If you were to interpret 'Superm*n' as a regular expression, it would match 'Supern' , 'Supermn', "Supermmn', Supermmmn' etc. So you could describe 'Superm*n' as a 'wildcard search that would match superman and supermoon'. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.184|141.101.99.184]] 05:11, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:You're approaching this from a very specific context. You may be correct in that context, but there are plenty of different programs, protocols, languages, etc which use wildcards in various ways. I once worked as a 411 operator, and in the search software we used at the time, a search on "SUPERM*N" would have found both "Superman" and "Supermoon" if both of those were names in listings (although our supervisors would consider that too many keystrokes and would suggest "SUP*N" instead). - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.10|108.162.242.10]] 05:58, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::Oops, looks like I read the initial comment too quickly, didn't realize you were kind of making the same point I wanted to, you were just being more technical about it. Either way, I think the explanation of the wildcard in the article itself should be made vague enough to avoid further threads like this. - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.10|108.162.242.10]] 06:03, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:It's clearly a Unix shell file glob. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 09:54, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::This form of wildcard is used in the Windows command prompt as well, and is very well known for Windows users. I obviously can't speak for the full XKCD audience, but limiting the scope of that wildcard to Unix seems unnecessarily exclusive. (Wouldn't it be sufficient to just refer to it as a "wildcard" as a generic concept? I mean, You Know You're a Geek When...) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 20:12, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

;Colour
If a Trivia section is warranted for this comic, I think it should definitely be pointed out this is one of the rare strips that uses a colour other than black or white. Is there an available statistic on use of colour in xkcd? - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.10|108.162.242.10]] 05:58, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:Ya, I'd bite on this one. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:20, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::There's a category, [[:Category:Comics with color]]. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.74|173.245.55.74]] 13:24, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

In a similar tune to the supermoon, could the sun at perihelion be called a "superstar"? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 08:36, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
:Wouldn't that be the ''Earth'' at perihelion? --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.82|173.245.52.82]] 12:33, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::The sun at Earth's perihelion. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.9}}
:::I was gonna say, does the Earth get 12% larger when it's at perihelion to the sun? :) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 20:14, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
::::The sun appears about 3% larger to an observer on Earth at perihelion, compared to the sun we see during aphelion.[http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090703.html] Not very apparent to the unaided human eye, given the other factors(including seasonal, diurnal and latitudinal variation) that influence our overall perception of the sun. (Not that I'm recommending naked-eye observations of the sun.) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:27, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

;Web-slingers
The comment on the title text makes it sound as though Spiderman canonically shoots webs from his body and only in "some adaptations" has a mechanical device that does so. That's backwards. The machine is the original, the biological version is what happens in "some adaptations" (ie, films). {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.135}}
:Exactly right. I've edited the description. Also corrected the spelling of Spider-Man. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.39|199.27.133.39]] 18:16, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

1393: Timeghost

2014-07-11T09:57:38Z

173.245.62.62: /* 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 a strip like [[891: Movie Ages]] and [[973: MTV Generation]], but then the ghost reveals that Megan and Cueball will die in a shorter amount of time than the ghost's first fact: in a few seconds. 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.

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.

"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
|-
|scope="row" colspan="2"|
|-
|1964||{{w|Keanu Reeves}} (Actor) born
|-
|colspan="2"|50 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic (the comic is correct if the average grandparents are under 50 when their first grandchild is born)
|-
|scope="row" colspan="2"|
|-
|1986||Today's new parents born
|-
|colspan="2"|7 years
|-
|1993||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 5
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1996||{{w|Eminem}}'s debut album (Rapper, born 1972)
|-
|colspan="2"|18 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic (new parents are 28)
|}

==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]]

1393: Timeghost

2014-07-11T09:53:10Z

173.245.62.62: /* 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 a strip like [[891: Movie Ages]] and [[973: MTV Generation]], but then the ghost reveals that Megan and Cueball will die in a shorter amount of time than the ghost's first fact: in a few seconds. 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.

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.

"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 influenced 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
|-
|scope="row" colspan="2"|
|-
|1964||{{w|Keanu Reeves}} (Actor) born
|-
|colspan="2"|50 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic (the comic is correct if the average grandparents are under 50 when their first grandchild is born)
|-
|scope="row" colspan="2"|
|-
|1986||Today's new parents born
|-
|colspan="2"|7 years
|-
|1993||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 5
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1996||{{w|Eminem}}'s debut album (Rapper, born 1972)
|-
|colspan="2"|18 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic (new parents are 28)
|}

==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]]

1393: Timeghost

2014-07-11T05:25:03Z

173.245.62.62: /* Explanation */

1393: Timeghost

2014-07-11T05:23:03Z

173.245.62.62: /* Explanation */

Talk:1392: Dominant Players

2014-07-10T05:21:24Z

173.245.62.62:

This may be related to the recent MOBA segregation controversy: http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2014/07/02/hearthstone-tournament/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.25}}

What is the significance of the line colors? {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.78}}
:I think the red lines are those players that were undisputed #1 for a significant period. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 08:02, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
: But Petrosian has no colored line, although he was world champion. Maybe he did not have the highest ELO rating despite being WC?[[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 09:23, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
:Ya, this line colouring thing is bugging me. :P [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:22, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Dashed lines are apparently for the period before ELO ratings existed, taking 1965 as a start point (midway between the point in time when ELO rating was adopted by USCF and FIDE, respectively. There seems to be an exception for Alekhine -or is that a very long dash? [[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 09:23, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Naughty Randall, always label your axes! [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 08:00, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

The comment in the women's rankings about Kira Zvorykina is a little odd. One would hope she continued playing in tournaments into the 20th century, given that the first 81 years of her life were in the 20th century. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.220}}

While at the time, the V-1 was called a "Flying Bomb", wikipedia indeed calls it an early pulse-jet ancestor of the modern cruise missile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_flying_bomb . I built a model of one in an 8th grade rocketry club, replacing the pulse jet with an Estes D-6-0. Mine took off, but sure enough, yes, the stubby wings stalled easily, the flight path was a weird s curve as the wings stalled out twice while under thrust.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 09:03, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Link to the game against Deep Blue, anybody? Also, shouldn't the title text be at least mentioned? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.71|199.27.128.71]] 09:13, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Kasparov-Deep Blue Games: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1014770 {{unsigned ip|141.101.64.131}}

The explanation says in the first sentence that for chess there's an overall rating and a woman's rating in the comic. All I see is a men's rating and a woman's rating, no overall rating, however. {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.24}}
: As Judith Polgar is present in the first chart, it appears to be an overall, not specifically a men's chart.[[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 11:37, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Anyone knows why Viswanathan Anand is not included (or am I blind?) Marty / [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.43|141.101.104.43]]
I had the exact same question. It appears that this is a West and Russian centric view of the world [[User:Indianrediff|Indianrediff]] ([[User talk:Indianrediff|talk]]) 13:23, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
:No. Koneru Humpy is mentioned. He's a big Carlson fan and I think he doesn't like Anand. One of his old comics suggested that. Probably never realised Anand met and beat Carlson back in 2008. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.78|108.162.222.78]] 16:37, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
For me it feels weirder to see Stefanova there, but not Topalov. Then again, for some reason Bulgarian media keep a low profile of her. {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.107}}
:Out of pure curiosity, could anyone please upload an image/link of how Anand's curve might look, if it was added to the graph? I'm not a huge chess fan, but I am interested in seeing the extent of Randall's possible bias in this regard. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:21, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

It's Julius Erving not Irving. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.151|173.245.54.151]] 13:27, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

The choice of basketball and chess is something to think about. This mostly is about chess, and basketball represents the physical sports. It immediately stands out that chess players have much longer careers than basketball players. [[User:Jim E|Jim E]] ([[User talk:Jim E|talk]]) 15:55, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

:Something else I think someone needs to look at is the line of best fit. For basketball it's basically horizontal, but for chess it tends to curve upwards. I'd add it myself, but I feel like there's more than just that and I'm missing something. [[User:Athang|Athang]] ([[User talk:Athang|talk]]) 16:53, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

1390: Research Ethics

2014-07-04T07:18:08Z

173.245.62.62: /* Explanation */

{{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 situation where Facebook was revealed to have been altering the news articles shown to users and recording the users' comments to see what their emotional reactions were. 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, regularly control their content anyway, if only to tailor ads to particular users. 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 a 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.

Randall writes "what" twice, which is a classic [http://www.moillusions.com/eye-to-brain-coordination/ optical illusion.]

The title text is also a joke, lampooning the fact that while we openly allow Facebook to meddle in our affairs merely by using their service, we deem this "snooping" to be unethical. 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.

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 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}}

Talk:1389: Surface Area

2014-07-02T14:26:06Z

173.245.62.62:

FYI to whoever writes this: the Seattle reference is the Space Needle. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.65|108.162.221.65]] 05:03, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Uranus is larger than all of these combined. Of course, it isn't on this map because it is full of gas. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:50, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
: Just wondering... Does that mean, a spaceship could just fly trough Uranus? (No pun intended.) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.20|141.101.75.20]] 07:16, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
::It'd probably hurt. As an ice-giant, the interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock. Jupiter and Saturn have cores of liquid metallic hydrogen. Also, the rock/ice isn't considered the surface of Uranus, because most of the planet's mass lies outside the solid inner layers.) [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 09:28, 2 July 2014 (UTC) P.S. Even if it was only gas, a spaceship would probably find it hard to handle the temperature and pressure at the center of Uranus.

And of course the earth is not correctly displayed: we have water which - in most cases - is not solid. -- jesterchen [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.19|141.101.75.19]] 07:23, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
: Water still has surface area. Edit: oh, I see what you mean now, from the title in the comic. I guess you have a point, but it's mainly there for comparison so it's not necessarily a mistake. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 06:14, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Under the water there is solid bottom --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:01, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
::: But then it is not "surface" anymore... but you two have a point. I focused mainly on the title, not the image text... So forget my comment :) -- jesterchen [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.19|141.101.75.19]] 09:12, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
:::: Water indeed has a surface, while gas doesn't. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.47|141.101.104.47]] 11:13, 2 July 2014 (UTC)Martin

There is also small section named "''All human skin''" (between Earth and Titan)... if you think about thread and needle... ugh... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:01, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

This seems to be an island floating on something, maybe it's floating on the sun's plasma? --[[User:BelgianAtheist|BelgianAtheist]] ([[User talk:BelgianAtheist|talk]]) 08:24, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

So, what's the area surrounding Earth's landmass? It's not named, or am I blind? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.218|141.101.99.218]] 09:46, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Don't think it is strictly accurate to say that earth is included 'for scale' -- surely it is included because it qualifies to be on the map. Otherwise it's a bit like saying that Belgium is included in maps of Europe 'for scale' (as 'the size of Belgium' is a well-known unit of land area as in 'Amazonian rainforest the size of Belgium is cut down every week') -- Devonian Earache

The map of Earth doesn't look like the Waterman Butterfly projection. If it did, the continents would be angled in toward each other, and Australia would be up in the corner. The only thing that is even similar is that Antarctica is shown in "normal" proportions rather than stretched across the bottom. [[User:Prometheusmmiv|Prometheusmmiv]] ([[User talk:Prometheusmmiv|talk]]) 11:41, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

What's the area on the coast between Asteroids (1km+) and Triton? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.50|108.162.222.50]] 11:44, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

(My first contribution here!) About the Earth/water surface issue, I think Randall is talking about planets' surface, and then it counts both earth and water (like if it were a sphere) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.173|173.245.52.173]] 12:31, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

I changed the explanation of the title text. The previous explanation, "all the matter in the solar system converted to a string" cannot be correct. First, he said "first we'll need a gigantic spool of thread". The title text obviously refers back to the title itself, about "stitching" the solar system's solid surfaces together. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.79|108.162.221.79]] 13:17, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Regarding the table, perhaps it would be better to make a separate "Surface area relative to Earth" column? Or may be just a numeric order according to size? The scientific notation of areas does not sort by ascending/descending order very well. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 14:09, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
Also, the average adult skin is between 1.6 and 1.9 square meters. For a newborn, it is 0.25.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_surface_area]. Roughly estimating 1 sq. meter as the mean BSA, we get 7 billion sq. meters, or 7000 sq. km of human skin. That would be slightly larger than the area of either Palestine or Delaware.

== Sedna and Quaoar ==

Why are Sedna and Quaoar not included? I mean, Sedna is so fantastically far away that I can sort of understand not including it. But Quaoar is only 10% further from the sun than Pluto or Haumea, and it's actualy closer than Makemake! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.165|108.162.238.165]] 13:33, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1389: Surface Area

2014-07-02T14:09:46Z

173.245.62.62:

FYI to whoever writes this: the Seattle reference is the Space Needle. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.65|108.162.221.65]] 05:03, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Uranus is larger than all of these combined. Of course, it isn't on this map because it is full of gas. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:50, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
: Just wondering... Does that mean, a spaceship could just fly trough Uranus? (No pun intended.) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.20|141.101.75.20]] 07:16, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
::It'd probably hurt. As an ice-giant, the interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock. Jupiter and Saturn have cores of liquid metallic hydrogen. Also, the rock/ice isn't considered the surface of Uranus, because most of the planet's mass lies outside the solid inner layers.) [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 09:28, 2 July 2014 (UTC) P.S. Even if it was only gas, a spaceship would probably find it hard to handle the temperature and pressure at the center of Uranus.

And of course the earth is not correctly displayed: we have water which - in most cases - is not solid. -- jesterchen [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.19|141.101.75.19]] 07:23, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
: Water still has surface area. Edit: oh, I see what you mean now, from the title in the comic. I guess you have a point, but it's mainly there for comparison so it's not necessarily a mistake. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 06:14, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Under the water there is solid bottom --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:01, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
::: But then it is not "surface" anymore... but you two have a point. I focused mainly on the title, not the image text... So forget my comment :) -- jesterchen [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.19|141.101.75.19]] 09:12, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
:::: Water indeed has a surface, while gas doesn't. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.47|141.101.104.47]] 11:13, 2 July 2014 (UTC)Martin

There is also small section named "''All human skin''" (between Earth and Titan)... if you think about thread and needle... ugh... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:01, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

This seems to be an island floating on something, maybe it's floating on the sun's plasma? --[[User:BelgianAtheist|BelgianAtheist]] ([[User talk:BelgianAtheist|talk]]) 08:24, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

So, what's the area surrounding Earth's landmass? It's not named, or am I blind? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.218|141.101.99.218]] 09:46, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Don't think it is strictly accurate to say that earth is included 'for scale' -- surely it is included because it qualifies to be on the map. Otherwise it's a bit like saying that Belgium is included in maps of Europe 'for scale' (as 'the size of Belgium' is a well-known unit of land area as in 'Amazonian rainforest the size of Belgium is cut down every week') -- Devonian Earache

The map of Earth doesn't look like the Waterman Butterfly projection. If it did, the continents would be angled in toward each other, and Australia would be up in the corner. The only thing that is even similar is that Antarctica is shown in "normal" proportions rather than stretched across the bottom. [[User:Prometheusmmiv|Prometheusmmiv]] ([[User talk:Prometheusmmiv|talk]]) 11:41, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

What's the area on the coast between Asteroids (1km+) and Triton? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.50|108.162.222.50]] 11:44, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

(My first contribution here!) About the Earth/water surface issue, I think Randall is talking about planets' surface, and then it counts both earth and water (like if it were a sphere) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.173|173.245.52.173]] 12:31, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

I changed the explanation of the title text. The previous explanation, "all the matter in the solar system converted to a string" cannot be correct. First, he said "first we'll need a gigantic spool of thread". The title text obviously refers back to the title itself, about "stitching" the solar system's solid surfaces together. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.79|108.162.221.79]] 13:17, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Regarding the table, perhaps it would be better to make a separate "Surface area relative to Earth" column? Or may be just a numeric order according to size? The scientific notation of areas does not sort by ascending/descending order very well. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 14:09, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

== Sedna and Quaoar ==

Why are Sedna and Quaoar not included? I mean, Sedna is so fantastically far away that I can sort of understand not including it. But Quaoar is only 10% further from the sun than Pluto or Haumea, and it's actualy closer than Makemake! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.165|108.162.238.165]] 13:33, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1389: Surface Area

2014-07-02T05:50:16Z

173.245.62.62: