explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1506: xkcloud

2015-04-07T17:33:54Z

199.27.128.118: /* Our policy regarding your personal data */

{{comic
| number = 1506
| date = April 1, 2015
| title = xkcloud
| image = xkcloud.png
| titletext =
}}

'''NOTE: The above is the first panel of an interactive comic.''' 
To actually experience the interactive content you need to go to this comic on xkcd (click on the date above the comic, which, as always, takes you to the xkcd comic). 
A page with pictures representing the other three main types of pages can be seen here: [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages|Pictures of other pages]]. 
Similarly here is a page with some of the pictures of the comic created by users: [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users|Pictures posted by users]]. 
There is also a [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|transcript]] of these other pages. Here are also a list and explanations for the [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#Reason_for_data_loss|Reason for data loss]] and the other features like user names and like buttons etc.

==Explanation==
In this interactive {{w|April Fools' Day}} comic [[Cueball]], presumably representing [[Randall]], admits to the readers he built a flimsy {{w|Cloud computing|cloud}} services company using spare computers and parts. Included in the cloud hardware are (from left to right) a {{w|Macintosh Classic}}, several old laptops, an {{w|Alienware}} tower, a {{w|Nintendo}} {{w|VirtualBoy}}, an old desktop with the cover off, and an {{w|Atari, Inc.|Atari}} {{w|Pong#Home_version|Pong Console}}.

He named the company after xkcd, xkcloud being a [[:category:Portmanteau|portmanteau]] of "[[xkcd]]" and "{{w|Cloud computing|cloud}}", here pronounced XK-cloud. The portmanteau incidentally still contains all four xkcd letters in the correct order: xkcLOUd.

After providing his services to various (very big) companies ({{w|Facebook}}, {{w|Twitter}} and {{w|Tumblr}}), that are very concerned with securing the users data, his setup failed (some portions may even have caught fire? He is not sure). This has caused him to lose the data he was required to preserve as part of his service. He thus requests the readers help to make up and re-imagine the lost data by pressing the large red button at the bottom of the comic. Preferably ''before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''

If the you take him up on his request and pushes the button you will be taken to a "survey" where you will get the chance to help by either trying to combine a posted picture with its lost text or, vice versa, by trying to combine a posted text with it's lost picture. In either case you get a selection of texts/pictures to choose from but can also choose to write your own text or even draw the picture. After doing this you get to see this combination in the news feed together with several other posts (which other people have helped combine from other lost data). And then you can continue helping as long as you like.

The content of the "surveys" appear to come from reader submissions, and are different upon every click. This is thus both an interactive and a dynamic comic with only the first picture shown on top of this page. By inviting the xkcd readers to add content that will be displayed in the comic later, the result of all the interactions leads to the generation of {{w|Crowdsourcing|crowd-sourced content}}.

It was not immediately clear if the reader-created drawings or captions are, in fact, being cycled into the surveys and feeds, or if the displayed items were all created by Randall and the reader-created content is simply discarded. With the huge amount of different comments and drawings there already appeared on the first day, and since especially the drawings looks like they are created in the simple paint app. (i.e. not by Randall), there can be no doubt that most of the content are created by the users.However he must have made some pictures to get it all starting, and at least one of these can be seen [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_posted_by_users#Randall.27s_pictures|here]].

This comic resembles last years April Fools' comic [[1350: Lorenz]] where user input also generated a very complex crowd-sourced comic.

An earlier comic that was related to problems with cloud computing [[908: The Cloud]].

==Detailed explanation==
*Note that there have been some [[#Changes and bugs|changes and bugs]] regarding this comic after it was first released.
*Some of the pictures that are referenced below was saved before these changes took place. So consult [[#Changes in the comic|these changes]] if the pictures do not match the expectations.

===Functionality===
*Pressing the red button at the '''front page''' (shown here above) links to one of two interactive survey pages (see [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages|the pictures]] of all types of pages.).
**All these pages have a news feed below the top post. This will be described [[#News feed|here below]].
*The '''Lost picture page''' (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_picture_page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight '''line-drawings''' (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_posted_by_users|examples here]]) best matches a given caption, or the reader can create their own drawing.
**This can be done on the '''Draw one your self sub-page''' (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Draw_one_your_self_page|pictures here]]) in a simple web-based "{{w|Paint (software)|paint}}"-style {{w|Web application|app}}.
***Note that someone found a way to copy a picture into the comic. See at least one example of this [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_posted_by_users#Copy_pasted_pictures|here]].
*The '''Lost text page''' (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_text_page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight captions best matches the given drawing, or the reader can create their own caption and submit this instead.
**These captions are user generated. See transcribed examples of these '''post from users''' [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#Post_from_users|here]].
*In either case, at the top of the pages, we are given the '''Reason for the data loss'''. And there are many different reasons (all by account of Randall).
**A list of transcribed reasons (with explanations included) [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#Reason_for_data_loss|can be found here]].
*After completing the "survey" you go to a new page appears:
*The '''Help us recover more data''' page (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help_us_recover_more_data_page|pictures here]]) has yet another red button like the front page, but on this page it is at the top of the page, saying exactly ''Help us recover more data''.
**By pushing this button you go to one of the two "Lost" pages mentioned above.
*It is possible to go back to the front page at any time by clicking the picture of Cueball sitting behind his desk in the same way as he does in the first picture on the front page.
**Cueball is always present to the left on all pages after the front page.
**But if you go back to the front page like this, then if you again click on the "original" red button to return to help with the recovery, you will always go back to the same page you came from (with the same posts in the news feed and if it is one of the lost data pages also with the same post to fix.)
**You can thus only get to a new survey page by finishing the current task (or pressing a permalink as [[#Permalink|discussed below]]).

===News feed===
*Below the "survey" or the post you just recovered (to begin with), you will be presented with a listing similar to a {{w|Facebook_features#News_Feed|Facebook news feed}}, listing six posts of the line-drawings apparently tagged with the captions as paired up by other users survey results.
**The posts are made by apparently '''fictional randomly-named readers''' (see transcribed examples [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#User_names|of names here]]).
**But there are only 20 '''user pictures'''. See these (and why it is known that there are only 20) as well as a description of these pictures[[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#User_pictures|here]].
**The posts are accompanied by a button similar to Facebook's "'''{{w|Like button}}'''" but here the button is labeled with different words which are all {{w|synonyms}} for ''[http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/want want]'' (see transcribed [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#Like_buttons|list of words here]]). So not "to like" but "to want" is the new thing in this version of Facebook.
*After the first time you recovered a post, there will thus be seven posts on the ''Help us recover more data'' page, six new posts below the one you just helped complete.
**The only difference when you click this pages red button (rather than when you start for the first time at the front page) is that there will now be seven posts below the one you need to fix.
**These seven posts are the same as those you had on the previous page, including your own at the top.

===Permalink===
*Next to each post there is a text ''Link'' above the "Want" button above the picture. (This goes for all three types of pages mentioned above).
*The "Link" is an actual link of the type that is called a "'''{{w|permalink}}'''", a portmanteau of "permanent-link".
*If you wish to "save" any given post for future reference (for instance one with your own drawing) you can do so by copying down this link.
**Last years April Fools comic, [[1350: Lorenz]], was the first time the [[1350: Lorenz#Permalink|concept of a permalink]] was used on xkcd.
**The permalink option did not appear in the comic until very late in the afternoon on April 1st. The "Link" was thus not present on the pictures refereed above. (See [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|these pictures]] instead).
*Pressing the "Link" next to any given post takes you to the page of the permalink:
**This page will show a version of the ''Help us recover more data'' page with the chosen post as the top post.
**But when you clicked the permalink it takes you to this "new" page and this page will '''not''' show all the posts from the page where you chose it.
**Only the post you saved via the "Link" next to it.
***All the other post will again just be chosen at random, and these will change again every time you reload this page via the saved permalink.
***Even the text on the "want" buttons also continues to change.
***The user name and user picture stay the same though.
*As an '''example''' of a [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/50b47c70-3a7c-504d-bcc0-60597338e999 permalink] this is a post saying: ''We told Iran that atomic energy is unsafe''.
*A huge '''collection of permalinks''' with link to the pictures have been amazed here:
**Be careful before clicking this link, there are more than 7000 links (on April 6th): [[1506:_xkcloud/Permalinks|Table with permalinks]].

====Details on the permalink====
*Since the post from the page where you choose the first permalink are reloaded... Can you then only save one post at a time?
*The answer is "no" - you can save all post on any given page.
**For each "Link" text on a given page, there has already been generated a unique permalink {{w|URL}}.
**Thus you can copy any permalink via the "Link", without actually pressing the "Link" to obtain the permalink for a given post.
**Furthermore, since this may be the only comic where you can copy the text, you can simple mark the entire page and copy paste it into a document that contains formating. If you do this then you will have all the text, pictures and most importantly the permalinks for all the posts.
*If you click the Link and go to the permalink page there will be seven posts, six new and the one you just saved.
**The behavior of the posts is very strange from here if you press more permalink on this first permalink page
**Also it will not be the same again after this first time as compared to if you continue to help recover more data and uses the permalink later.
**On this first permalink page, where your chosen post is at the top, if you click on another posts permalink the following will happen:
***The post you originally choose disappears from the page, as the new chosen post is moved to the top.
***But the other five post remains in the same order, so there are not only 6 posts.
***If you continue to choose the other posts one at a time, they will simply exchange place with the one at the top. All six post remaining.
***Once you have been through all of them, then the order of the post have been determined.
****So if you click on a "Link" that you have already once activated, then this page will just reload, and the post will have the same order as last time.
****This is only until you choose reload, or when you load such a permalink later. Then again it will just be the chosen post, and then always six other new posts.
**If you then at some point move on via the red button you kind of stay in the permalink page, now just with new options to choose from.
***If you then creates a new post, six new posts will be loaded below.
***But when you click on a permalink at this point, there will not be any reloading of the post (because it is not the first time).
***So any post you click will move to the top, but all the other (six this time) will stay, the top post just moving down to another position.
****And it is not always a direct exchange. Sometimes the top post moves to another position and then pushes the others down until they reach the now cacated position of the post now at the top.

===Our policy regarding your personal data===
:On every of the pages after the front page Cueball sits at his desk labeled XKCD.COM
:Below him are xkcloud's policy:
:''Our policy regarding your personal data'':
*Please stop sending us your personal data
*We are running out of places to put it
*Is this even yours?
*Does anyone recognize whose data this is?
*Oh jeez never mind here comes more data
*Why are you doing this
*Please stop
*Help
:As can be seen he is getting desperate because people keep sending them more data.
::He has no place to store it.
::And he do not even know who the data belongs to.
::So now he hopes someone else recognize the data (what you are doing if you choose to help).
::In the end he simply pleads for people to stop and then shouts ''Help''.
:If you click on the desk you are sent back to the front page of the comic.
:But below Help is their real contact detail [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us]]:

===Don't contact us===
*At the same time that the permalink appeared, there was also suddenly a new link on all other pages than the front page:
**The link is written in a very weak gray font, it can even be hard to see on some screens.
***Maybe it has even changed color since it appeared there to begin with, as it was fairly easy to see just when it occurred there
***This is certainly intentionally done so by Randall as will be clear below from the reference to another comic below.
**It is located right beneath ''help'' at the bottom of the list of problems written under ''our policy regarding your personal data'' right beneath Cueball at his desk to the left (see [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#After_18:00_ET_on_April_1st|picture here]]).
**In some cases tilting the screen will help making it visible.
**If you cannot see it you can still find it with the cursor. And you can also higlight the text below Cueball all the way down and copy paste it to a text editor. And then see what it says.
*The link text tells you: '''Don't contact us''' and links to a chartroom at euphoria.io.
**There is no easy way to get in contact with the euphoria page.
**This is probably also intentionally chosen so by Randall as will be clear below from the reference to another comic below.
*However, if you do try to contact them anyway by clicking the link a new browser window opens where you get send to the [https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd/ xkcd chartroom] at euphoria. (See a [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#xkcd_chat_forum|picture here]]).
**Several xkcd users began posting there at around 18.00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern time}} (the timezone in which Randall lives).
**You simply choose you user name when you start the chat and then you can write in real time with the other users.
**When you return later the site will remember your user name.
***But it will probably be easy to change by reseting the cookies for the page. Or at least by using a different browser or computer.

====Undocumented Feature====
*This chat room is reminiscent to the one in comic [[1305: Undocumented Feature]].
*As mentioned above Randall has created a chat room, that is:
**Hard to access! You need to know that there is a hidden link on the pages you get to by pressing a red button in {{xkcd|1506}}.
**Only those who entered the page at the right time, would have a chance to learn about this themselves (else they have to come to a page like this).
**It is not easy to even find the "euphoria.io" home-page.
**You do get to choose your user name (this is not the case in Undocumented Feature) but you could change it. Or others could use the same.
*At the moment it came out, mane users began using the chat room. But in time no one will come back there...
**That is unless it turns into a hidden chat room for people like those described in ''Undocumented Feature''.
*Maybe Randall timed these extra features for when people came back from work all over the US.

==Changes and bugs==
*During the first day there occurred several changes to the comic, and also some bugs very present.

===Changes in the comic===
*All the changes mentioned here occurred during April 1st on the release day:
*Since being [[Media:Originalxkcloud.png|originally posted]] the words "Click here" were relatively quickly added in large text to the top of the red button followed by the word "to" being added to the beginning of the existing text.
**The text changed from
***''Help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.'' to
***''Click here to help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''
**The reason for this is most likely that too few users understood that they could enter a second part of the comic by clicking on the red button.
*Late in the afternoon on April 1st (around 18:00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|ET}}) several changes occurred to the pages that can be reached from the front page:
**The [[#Permalink|permalink]] option appeared
**The link that says [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us appeared]] under the text beneath Cueballs desk appeared with a link to an xkcd chat room.
***Thou only for the text font to fade out to being almost invisible again already later on April 1st.
**The alignment of the text right beneath Cueballs desk changed. (Compare this [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help_us_recover_more_data_page|before picture]] with this [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#After_18:00_ET_on_April_1st|picture after]] 18:00 ET).
**The number of posts increased from 3 or 4 to 6 or 7. (See the pictures above - scroll down to see the relevant after picture).
**Also the number of pictures and text to choose from increased from five to eight (as can also be seen by comparing the pictures found here for before (for [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_text_page|text]] and for [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_picture_page|picture]]) with the [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#After_18:00_ET_on_April_1st|pictures after]] (scroll down as mentioned before).
***The reason he increased the number of posts (both to see and to choose from) could simply be because there where now is so many possible posts that the risk of seeing the same is smaller even with 6 posts.

===Bugs===
*From time to time, instead of the interactive page there is a page with [[Media:three dots only.png|three dots only]].
**This also occurred after April 1st.
*Around 18:00 when all the changes occurred the xkcd page did not work properly. (Overload plus new features).
**Also the chat room was overloaded at this time.

==Transcript==
:[This transcript only transcribes what can be seen in the first picture shown at the top of the explanation here. '''For more''' see link below.]

:[One large frame with a five part comic and a large red button at the bottom.]
:[Cueball sitting behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We've made a huge mistake.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Cueball points at a bunch of computers.]
:Cueball: I figured starting a cloud services company would be easy.
:Cueball: After all, I've got ''tons'' of computers!

:[A zoomed view on Cueballs head.]
:Cueball: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr— they all struggle to protect privacy and user data...
:Cueball: And '''''we''''' offered a solution.
:Cueball: I forget what it was, though.

:[Cueball is standing with his arms up.]
:Cueball: Anyway, long story short, we screwed up ''immediately'' and lost ''tons'' of their data.
:Cueball: Also a bunch of stuff is literally on fire?

:[Cueball standing behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We can fix this.
:Cueball: But we need your help.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Below the above is a large red rectangular clickable button, that will take the reader on to the interactive part of the comic. On the button it says in large white letters:]
:'''CLICK HERE'''
:To help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.

:[The standard text for the next possible pages can be seen on the link to the '''[[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|continued transcript]]'''. Also here will be a list (which may not be possible to make complete) with possible text for the lost data.]

==Trivia==
*It's the first comic:
**'''Without a title text'''.
**Where you can copy and paste most of the text from the comic. I.e it is not drawn but printed.
***This goes only for the follow up pages after the front page.
***But it does not only go for the user input.
**These two fact could go together since the way this comic had to be created (i.e. it is not a single picture), there may not have been any possibilities for making a title text
*Source code of elements in the drawing interactive contain the attribute "data-reactid", indicating it is written using the [http://facebook.github.io/react/ React JavaScript library,] developed to use with Facebook & Instagram.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

1506: xkcloud

2015-04-07T17:32:43Z

199.27.128.118: /* Our policy regarding your personal data */

{{comic
| number = 1506
| date = April 1, 2015
| title = xkcloud
| image = xkcloud.png
| titletext =
}}

'''NOTE: The above is the first panel of an interactive comic.''' 
To actually experience the interactive content you need to go to this comic on xkcd (click on the date above the comic, which, as always, takes you to the xkcd comic). 
A page with pictures representing the other three main types of pages can be seen here: [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages|Pictures of other pages]]. 
Similarly here is a page with some of the pictures of the comic created by users: [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users|Pictures posted by users]]. 
There is also a [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|transcript]] of these other pages. Here are also a list and explanations for the [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#Reason_for_data_loss|Reason for data loss]] and the other features like user names and like buttons etc.

==Explanation==
In this interactive {{w|April Fools' Day}} comic [[Cueball]], presumably representing [[Randall]], admits to the readers he built a flimsy {{w|Cloud computing|cloud}} services company using spare computers and parts. Included in the cloud hardware are (from left to right) a {{w|Macintosh Classic}}, several old laptops, an {{w|Alienware}} tower, a {{w|Nintendo}} {{w|VirtualBoy}}, an old desktop with the cover off, and an {{w|Atari, Inc.|Atari}} {{w|Pong#Home_version|Pong Console}}.

He named the company after xkcd, xkcloud being a [[:category:Portmanteau|portmanteau]] of "[[xkcd]]" and "{{w|Cloud computing|cloud}}", here pronounced XK-cloud. The portmanteau incidentally still contains all four xkcd letters in the correct order: xkcLOUd.

After providing his services to various (very big) companies ({{w|Facebook}}, {{w|Twitter}} and {{w|Tumblr}}), that are very concerned with securing the users data, his setup failed (some portions may even have caught fire? He is not sure). This has caused him to lose the data he was required to preserve as part of his service. He thus requests the readers help to make up and re-imagine the lost data by pressing the large red button at the bottom of the comic. Preferably ''before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''

If the you take him up on his request and pushes the button you will be taken to a "survey" where you will get the chance to help by either trying to combine a posted picture with its lost text or, vice versa, by trying to combine a posted text with it's lost picture. In either case you get a selection of texts/pictures to choose from but can also choose to write your own text or even draw the picture. After doing this you get to see this combination in the news feed together with several other posts (which other people have helped combine from other lost data). And then you can continue helping as long as you like.

The content of the "surveys" appear to come from reader submissions, and are different upon every click. This is thus both an interactive and a dynamic comic with only the first picture shown on top of this page. By inviting the xkcd readers to add content that will be displayed in the comic later, the result of all the interactions leads to the generation of {{w|Crowdsourcing|crowd-sourced content}}.

It was not immediately clear if the reader-created drawings or captions are, in fact, being cycled into the surveys and feeds, or if the displayed items were all created by Randall and the reader-created content is simply discarded. With the huge amount of different comments and drawings there already appeared on the first day, and since especially the drawings looks like they are created in the simple paint app. (i.e. not by Randall), there can be no doubt that most of the content are created by the users.However he must have made some pictures to get it all starting, and at least one of these can be seen [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_posted_by_users#Randall.27s_pictures|here]].

This comic resembles last years April Fools' comic [[1350: Lorenz]] where user input also generated a very complex crowd-sourced comic.

An earlier comic that was related to problems with cloud computing [[908: The Cloud]].

==Detailed explanation==
*Note that there have been some [[#Changes and bugs|changes and bugs]] regarding this comic after it was first released.
*Some of the pictures that are referenced below was saved before these changes took place. So consult [[#Changes in the comic|these changes]] if the pictures do not match the expectations.

===Functionality===
*Pressing the red button at the '''front page''' (shown here above) links to one of two interactive survey pages (see [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages|the pictures]] of all types of pages.).
**All these pages have a news feed below the top post. This will be described [[#News feed|here below]].
*The '''Lost picture page''' (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_picture_page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight '''line-drawings''' (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_posted_by_users|examples here]]) best matches a given caption, or the reader can create their own drawing.
**This can be done on the '''Draw one your self sub-page''' (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Draw_one_your_self_page|pictures here]]) in a simple web-based "{{w|Paint (software)|paint}}"-style {{w|Web application|app}}.
***Note that someone found a way to copy a picture into the comic. See at least one example of this [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_posted_by_users#Copy_pasted_pictures|here]].
*The '''Lost text page''' (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_text_page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight captions best matches the given drawing, or the reader can create their own caption and submit this instead.
**These captions are user generated. See transcribed examples of these '''post from users''' [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#Post_from_users|here]].
*In either case, at the top of the pages, we are given the '''Reason for the data loss'''. And there are many different reasons (all by account of Randall).
**A list of transcribed reasons (with explanations included) [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#Reason_for_data_loss|can be found here]].
*After completing the "survey" you go to a new page appears:
*The '''Help us recover more data''' page (see several [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help_us_recover_more_data_page|pictures here]]) has yet another red button like the front page, but on this page it is at the top of the page, saying exactly ''Help us recover more data''.
**By pushing this button you go to one of the two "Lost" pages mentioned above.
*It is possible to go back to the front page at any time by clicking the picture of Cueball sitting behind his desk in the same way as he does in the first picture on the front page.
**Cueball is always present to the left on all pages after the front page.
**But if you go back to the front page like this, then if you again click on the "original" red button to return to help with the recovery, you will always go back to the same page you came from (with the same posts in the news feed and if it is one of the lost data pages also with the same post to fix.)
**You can thus only get to a new survey page by finishing the current task (or pressing a permalink as [[#Permalink|discussed below]]).

===News feed===
*Below the "survey" or the post you just recovered (to begin with), you will be presented with a listing similar to a {{w|Facebook_features#News_Feed|Facebook news feed}}, listing six posts of the line-drawings apparently tagged with the captions as paired up by other users survey results.
**The posts are made by apparently '''fictional randomly-named readers''' (see transcribed examples [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#User_names|of names here]]).
**But there are only 20 '''user pictures'''. See these (and why it is known that there are only 20) as well as a description of these pictures[[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#User_pictures|here]].
**The posts are accompanied by a button similar to Facebook's "'''{{w|Like button}}'''" but here the button is labeled with different words which are all {{w|synonyms}} for ''[http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/want want]'' (see transcribed [[1506:_xkcloud/Transcript#Like_buttons|list of words here]]). So not "to like" but "to want" is the new thing in this version of Facebook.
*After the first time you recovered a post, there will thus be seven posts on the ''Help us recover more data'' page, six new posts below the one you just helped complete.
**The only difference when you click this pages red button (rather than when you start for the first time at the front page) is that there will now be seven posts below the one you need to fix.
**These seven posts are the same as those you had on the previous page, including your own at the top.

===Permalink===
*Next to each post there is a text ''Link'' above the "Want" button above the picture. (This goes for all three types of pages mentioned above).
*The "Link" is an actual link of the type that is called a "'''{{w|permalink}}'''", a portmanteau of "permanent-link".
*If you wish to "save" any given post for future reference (for instance one with your own drawing) you can do so by copying down this link.
**Last years April Fools comic, [[1350: Lorenz]], was the first time the [[1350: Lorenz#Permalink|concept of a permalink]] was used on xkcd.
**The permalink option did not appear in the comic until very late in the afternoon on April 1st. The "Link" was thus not present on the pictures refereed above. (See [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|these pictures]] instead).
*Pressing the "Link" next to any given post takes you to the page of the permalink:
**This page will show a version of the ''Help us recover more data'' page with the chosen post as the top post.
**But when you clicked the permalink it takes you to this "new" page and this page will '''not''' show all the posts from the page where you chose it.
**Only the post you saved via the "Link" next to it.
***All the other post will again just be chosen at random, and these will change again every time you reload this page via the saved permalink.
***Even the text on the "want" buttons also continues to change.
***The user name and user picture stay the same though.
*As an '''example''' of a [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/50b47c70-3a7c-504d-bcc0-60597338e999 permalink] this is a post saying: ''We told Iran that atomic energy is unsafe''.
*A huge '''collection of permalinks''' with link to the pictures have been amazed here:
**Be careful before clicking this link, there are more than 7000 links (on April 6th): [[1506:_xkcloud/Permalinks|Table with permalinks]].

====Details on the permalink====
*Since the post from the page where you choose the first permalink are reloaded... Can you then only save one post at a time?
*The answer is "no" - you can save all post on any given page.
**For each "Link" text on a given page, there has already been generated a unique permalink {{w|URL}}.
**Thus you can copy any permalink via the "Link", without actually pressing the "Link" to obtain the permalink for a given post.
**Furthermore, since this may be the only comic where you can copy the text, you can simple mark the entire page and copy paste it into a document that contains formating. If you do this then you will have all the text, pictures and most importantly the permalinks for all the posts.
*If you click the Link and go to the permalink page there will be seven posts, six new and the one you just saved.
**The behavior of the posts is very strange from here if you press more permalink on this first permalink page
**Also it will not be the same again after this first time as compared to if you continue to help recover more data and uses the permalink later.
**On this first permalink page, where your chosen post is at the top, if you click on another posts permalink the following will happen:
***The post you originally choose disappears from the page, as the new chosen post is moved to the top.
***But the other five post remains in the same order, so there are not only 6 posts.
***If you continue to choose the other posts one at a time, they will simply exchange place with the one at the top. All six post remaining.
***Once you have been through all of them, then the order of the post have been determined.
****So if you click on a "Link" that you have already once activated, then this page will just reload, and the post will have the same order as last time.
****This is only until you choose reload, or when you load such a permalink later. Then again it will just be the chosen post, and then always six other new posts.
**If you then at some point move on via the red button you kind of stay in the permalink page, now just with new options to choose from.
***If you then creates a new post, six new posts will be loaded below.
***But when you click on a permalink at this point, there will not be any reloading of the post (because it is not the first time).
***So any post you click will move to the top, but all the other (six this time) will stay, the top post just moving down to another position.
****And it is not always a direct exchange. Sometimes the top post moves to another position and then pushes the others down until they reach the now cacated position of the post now at the top.

===Our policy regarding your personal data===
:On every of the pages after the front page Cueball sits at his desk labeled XKCD.COM
:Below him are xkcloud's policy:
:''Our policy regarding your personal data'':
*Please stop sending us your personal data
*We are running out of places to put it
*Is this even yours?
*Does anyone recognize whose data this is?
*Oh jeez never mind here comes more data
*Why are you doing this
*Please stop
*Help
:As can be seen he is getting desperate because people keep sending them more data.
::He has no place to store it.
::And he do not even know who the data belongs to.
::So now he hopes someone else recognize the data (what you are doing if you choose to help).
::In the end he simply pleads for people to stop and then shouts ''Help''.
:If you click on the desk you are send back to the front page of the comic.
:But below Help is their real contact detail [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us]]:

===Don't contact us===
*At the same time that the permalink appeared, there was also suddenly a new link on all other pages than the front page:
**The link is written in a very weak gray font, it can even be hard to see on some screens.
***Maybe it has even changed color since it appeared there to begin with, as it was fairly easy to see just when it occurred there
***This is certainly intentionally done so by Randall as will be clear below from the reference to another comic below.
**It is located right beneath ''help'' at the bottom of the list of problems written under ''our policy regarding your personal data'' right beneath Cueball at his desk to the left (see [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#After_18:00_ET_on_April_1st|picture here]]).
**In some cases tilting the screen will help making it visible.
**If you cannot see it you can still find it with the cursor. And you can also higlight the text below Cueball all the way down and copy paste it to a text editor. And then see what it says.
*The link text tells you: '''Don't contact us''' and links to a chartroom at euphoria.io.
**There is no easy way to get in contact with the euphoria page.
**This is probably also intentionally chosen so by Randall as will be clear below from the reference to another comic below.
*However, if you do try to contact them anyway by clicking the link a new browser window opens where you get send to the [https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd/ xkcd chartroom] at euphoria. (See a [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#xkcd_chat_forum|picture here]]).
**Several xkcd users began posting there at around 18.00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern time}} (the timezone in which Randall lives).
**You simply choose you user name when you start the chat and then you can write in real time with the other users.
**When you return later the site will remember your user name.
***But it will probably be easy to change by reseting the cookies for the page. Or at least by using a different browser or computer.

====Undocumented Feature====
*This chat room is reminiscent to the one in comic [[1305: Undocumented Feature]].
*As mentioned above Randall has created a chat room, that is:
**Hard to access! You need to know that there is a hidden link on the pages you get to by pressing a red button in {{xkcd|1506}}.
**Only those who entered the page at the right time, would have a chance to learn about this themselves (else they have to come to a page like this).
**It is not easy to even find the "euphoria.io" home-page.
**You do get to choose your user name (this is not the case in Undocumented Feature) but you could change it. Or others could use the same.
*At the moment it came out, mane users began using the chat room. But in time no one will come back there...
**That is unless it turns into a hidden chat room for people like those described in ''Undocumented Feature''.
*Maybe Randall timed these extra features for when people came back from work all over the US.

==Changes and bugs==
*During the first day there occurred several changes to the comic, and also some bugs very present.

===Changes in the comic===
*All the changes mentioned here occurred during April 1st on the release day:
*Since being [[Media:Originalxkcloud.png|originally posted]] the words "Click here" were relatively quickly added in large text to the top of the red button followed by the word "to" being added to the beginning of the existing text.
**The text changed from
***''Help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.'' to
***''Click here to help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''
**The reason for this is most likely that too few users understood that they could enter a second part of the comic by clicking on the red button.
*Late in the afternoon on April 1st (around 18:00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|ET}}) several changes occurred to the pages that can be reached from the front page:
**The [[#Permalink|permalink]] option appeared
**The link that says [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us appeared]] under the text beneath Cueballs desk appeared with a link to an xkcd chat room.
***Thou only for the text font to fade out to being almost invisible again already later on April 1st.
**The alignment of the text right beneath Cueballs desk changed. (Compare this [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help_us_recover_more_data_page|before picture]] with this [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#After_18:00_ET_on_April_1st|picture after]] 18:00 ET).
**The number of posts increased from 3 or 4 to 6 or 7. (See the pictures above - scroll down to see the relevant after picture).
**Also the number of pictures and text to choose from increased from five to eight (as can also be seen by comparing the pictures found here for before (for [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_text_page|text]] and for [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_picture_page|picture]]) with the [[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#After_18:00_ET_on_April_1st|pictures after]] (scroll down as mentioned before).
***The reason he increased the number of posts (both to see and to choose from) could simply be because there where now is so many possible posts that the risk of seeing the same is smaller even with 6 posts.

===Bugs===
*From time to time, instead of the interactive page there is a page with [[Media:three dots only.png|three dots only]].
**This also occurred after April 1st.
*Around 18:00 when all the changes occurred the xkcd page did not work properly. (Overload plus new features).
**Also the chat room was overloaded at this time.

==Transcript==
:[This transcript only transcribes what can be seen in the first picture shown at the top of the explanation here. '''For more''' see link below.]

:[One large frame with a five part comic and a large red button at the bottom.]
:[Cueball sitting behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We've made a huge mistake.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Cueball points at a bunch of computers.]
:Cueball: I figured starting a cloud services company would be easy.
:Cueball: After all, I've got ''tons'' of computers!

:[A zoomed view on Cueballs head.]
:Cueball: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr— they all struggle to protect privacy and user data...
:Cueball: And '''''we''''' offered a solution.
:Cueball: I forget what it was, though.

:[Cueball is standing with his arms up.]
:Cueball: Anyway, long story short, we screwed up ''immediately'' and lost ''tons'' of their data.
:Cueball: Also a bunch of stuff is literally on fire?

:[Cueball standing behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We can fix this.
:Cueball: But we need your help.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Below the above is a large red rectangular clickable button, that will take the reader on to the interactive part of the comic. On the button it says in large white letters:]
:'''CLICK HERE'''
:To help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.

:[The standard text for the next possible pages can be seen on the link to the '''[[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|continued transcript]]'''. Also here will be a list (which may not be possible to make complete) with possible text for the lost data.]

==Trivia==
*It's the first comic:
**'''Without a title text'''.
**Where you can copy and paste most of the text from the comic. I.e it is not drawn but printed.
***This goes only for the follow up pages after the front page.
***But it does not only go for the user input.
**These two fact could go together since the way this comic had to be created (i.e. it is not a single picture), there may not have been any possibilities for making a title text
*Source code of elements in the drawing interactive contain the attribute "data-reactid", indicating it is written using the [http://facebook.github.io/react/ React JavaScript library,] developed to use with Facebook & Instagram.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

Talk:what if?

2014-11-15T02:25:07Z

199.27.128.118: /* Logo/Header */

[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)so is anybody weirded out by last week's post on the worst thing pressure cookers can do, followed by yesterday's terror attacks using pressure cookers?[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Do we want to add some references to the different What-If articles? Obviously putting up an explanation would be a bit of a waste since Randall goes into a lot of detail himself on any given subject. Some good things to mention might be the title-text on each image, mentions of recurring themes, and maybe some thought about the original subject mentioned (such as the "Space Oddity" music video that was the subject of a recent article). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 17:11, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

:"What if" is not {{w|Creative Commons}} related, so respect Randall's copyright. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:05, 30 May 2013 (UTC)
::Sorry. Didn't realize that reviewing a creative work fell into copyright issues. No disrespect intended, only ignorance. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 19:16, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

:I agree that "what if?" is not ''clearly'' under CC-BY-NC-2.5, but the link next to the Copyright goes to xkcd itself, which clearly does say it is. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 13:40, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

::Agreed. What-if appears to fall under the general xkcd copyright- it says "Copyright ©2012-13 xkcd." with the link pointing to general xkcd copyright info. "http://xkcd.com/license.html" also says that "you are free to copy and reuse any of my drawings (noncommercially) as long as you tell people where they're from." which includes what-if drawings, and I'm not sure if just part of a work could be copyrighted without Randall explicitly saying so. I also think it would be a good idea to have articles on the what-ifs for more information not stated in the what-if itself. {{unsigned ip|109.144.146.171}}

:IANAL, so I will leave the copyright issues unaddressed as I respond to the original question in the affirmative: yes, we should have a page for each What-if article. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.63|173.245.55.63]] 15:54, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

== Logo/Header ==

I'm convinced there is some sort of specific joke in the "What If" logo, but I'm failing to grasp it.
Knowing Randall, there has to be something funny about using a crane to lower a T-rex into the Sarlacc. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.90|173.245.49.90]] 11:53, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

[http://www.nerdist.com/2014/08/exclusive-heres-your-first-look-at-xkcds-what-if/ Nerdist Review] says "Remove the jacket, and you can see how that particular experiment worked out in Munroe’s mind"

== Discussion regarding [http://what-if.xkcd.com/91/ What-if 91] ==

I believe that Randall missed an opportunity to discuss means of harnessing thermal energy. See, original question specified HOT water!
:He has to pay the electric bill. He couldn't make back the energy spent to heat the water due to entropy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 05:51, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
Shall we forgive him this oversight and carry out some analysis to determine the harness-able energy content of hot water from the bathtub faucet in an average American apartment building?

:TODO: discuss Sterling engines or other strategies here. (That means you! :) )

:I believe that even when you "run out of hot water", the incoming water will still have energy added since the gas or electric water heater will be running non-stop, turning cold water into slightly-less-cold water. Since slightly-less-cold water is still colder than the ambient temperature in the apartment, I'm not sure how to harness the energy added by the water heater... But neither am I sure that "you can't". TODO: Can someone confirm that you can't?

Shall we then turn the dial up a notch, [http://what-if.xkcd.com/35/ What-if 35 style], and imagine how the scenario changes if the apartment building has a water heater that is perfectly capable of keeping the hot faucet piping hot, even if you run it 24/7?

: Suppose the super water heater turns 15C input water (cold) into 50C output water (hot). I think that means that the water heater adds 35 calories (not kilocalories) of energy per milliliter. I played with this expression in Google Calculator "(35/1000) calories per ml * 1 liter / 1 second" and determined that 1. Google uses kilocalories for "calories", thus the /1000 part... and 2. it takes ~150 watts to turn a liter of cold water into a liter of hot water in *one second*.

: Let's stop this for now and see if anyone is interested in participating. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.63|173.245.55.63]] 16:28, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

::Go here: [http://fora.xkcd.com/viewforum.php?f=60 What If? discussion]. That's a BIG forum to discuss your items. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:16, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

== Discussion area ==

Is there a discussion area for each of the "what-if?" pages? - Eg I'd like to point out that in #111 "All the money", the mouse-over text in the tombstone graphic says "Cash Ruled Everything Around Me" - or C.R.E.A.M. - coincidence? ;) Also, there have been past pages in which there have been items which I would contest some facts/statements, or seek further explanation. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:06, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-10T17:03:11Z

199.27.128.118: Minor revision

This is another one of Randall's knocks on pseudoscience... I've seen things like this before, where the guy puts 1000's of volts between a piece of tinfoil and a wire and is amazed that the thing (weighing a few grams) flies around. I'd search for it for reference but it's late here and I'm tired [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.209|173.245.54.209]] 04:41, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Here is the article referenced: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20140006052.pdf [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.83|199.27.128.83]] 05:24, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

20 kW is probably not from any reference, but just to summarize the history of claims in a vivid manner. The news surge was predicated about the prestige of the NASA organization attaching to any tiny lab under the aegis even though the paper was not in a peer-reviewed top journal but the very last presentation made at a multi-day conference. The NASA abstract differs wildly from the abstract of the same-date paper (or draft). http://rghost.net/57230791 \\ Other coverage from the skeptical side goes a bit into the history of similar microwaves-in-a-funny-shaped-can claims, where the reported thrust seems to diminish as the sensitivity of the measurement. http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/08/04/impossible-thruster-probably-impossible/ http://blogs.scienceforums.net/swansont/archives/15155 https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/WfFtJ8bYVya https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/C7vx2G85kr4 And finally may I close with a reference to Tooth-Fairy-(pseudo)science. http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 05:41, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

What I'm missing is any reference to NASA being the third party to conduct this experiment and the third to witness these results. So while this looks an awful lot like Tooth-Fairy-science, it still raises the question of what the hell is going on there? Usually these pseudo-science experiments fail on reproduction or are only reproduced by non-scientists. - Nine [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.59|141.101.104.59]] 06:46, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

More than a decade ago a few weird Italian guys already demostrated more than a twitch. Italian Army officials ("Esercito") were not that impressed. Their bizarre website http://Www.asps.it mostly dedicated to pseudo-religious stuff and fighting trolls, repeatedly states that technical details won't be shared until a patent is definitely granted. - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.182|108.162.229.182]] 06:58, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

;Fancy way of building an (ordinary) photon drive

A bit of context:

The idea of using virtual particles/quantum foam as your reaction mass has been around for a while. This turns out to just be an overly-complicated way of building a photon drive. If you accelerate a charge (real or virtual), it'll spit out photons. If you interact with charged virtual particles in a way that results in real thrust (by accelerating them), the photons you get out are real photons, and you pay for them in the usual manner (they cost you energy).

If you're building a photon drive, a heating element and a mirror work just as well.

As for the anomalous thrust in the experiments, there are a huge number of ways that you can get that from an experiment that isn't set up sufficiently carefully. The fact that two different experiments got vastly different measurements is a very big hint that something was flawed with at least one of them (possibly both).

Among other things, generating intense microwaves involves large electric currents. If any part of your apparatus is made of metal (and lots of this was), ordinary EM forces produce quite a few contaminating effects that are a royal pain to account for, especially if you're trying to measure an effect much weaker than they are. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.221|108.162.246.221]] 09:26, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't like how the sciencey posts use a lot of scientific terms without explaining them. I thought the purpose of this site was to make xkcd accessible for all people, science laymen included, but sometimes these explanations obfuscate more than they help. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.188|141.101.99.188]] 10:46, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
: +1 -- I would suggest a rewrite of the explanation with that in mind. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 12:15, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't see any "joke on quantum superposition". Either explain what the jokes are or remove that claim? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 12:08, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
: That was a "correction" of "quantum supposition" which made more sense. Chad Orzel makes an ''actual'' joke about quantum superposition: "Most physicists I know have reacted to this with some linear combination of “heavy sigh” and “eye roll.”" Anyway, I have edited away the superposition by rewriting the description of the last panel. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 16:02, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
:: I don't see any joke about quantum uncertainty, just regular uncertainty and the scientific method in the last panel. The claim of thrust without exhaust or other momentum transfer is a claim of new physics, but the evidence of this claim is weak because the device was not tested in isolation and vacuum and the reported thrust was not in line with the claimed mechanisms. But Megan points out that new physics isn't created but only discovered, so she is just as likely to interact with the newly claimed physics as the Q-drive if enough power is applied. The Uncertainty Principle applies to systems not what model of physics applies so the claims of the Q-drive mechanism can't be in a superposition of true and false. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 17:03, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

I see a sex joke in "If you pumped 20 kw into me, I'd twitch a lot" and "I do a lot of things". {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.43}}
:1. Sign your posts
:2. Remind me never to have sex with you
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.209|173.245.54.209]] 14:08, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

;Not "a violation of conservation of momentum"

Please can someone senior in this community update this as I don't want to get I to an edit war. Unfortunately the media has been conflating the idea between the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive |EmDrive]] and a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vacuum_plasma_thruster |Quantum vacuum plasma thruster]] as Roger Shawyer has been talking about both. NASA tested the idea of a Quantum vacuum plasma thruster which does not violate conservation of momentum

--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.213|173.245.56.213]] 15:06, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

: NASA did not test "the idea of a Quantum vacuum plasma thruster" -- In 2013, a very small group of researchers at NASA tested a pair of RF devices supplied to them for 2 days (and 6 days of setting up the tests). One was supposed to produce thrust in empty space while the other wasn't. But both devices were tested in air and very similar results recorded for both. Therefore either the test was flawed or the devices did not operate sufficiently different from each other to measure. Thus the "idea" was not tested, only the supplied devices and the testing protocol. In that the devices were allegedly designed to demonstrate designs to take advantage/not take advantage of the so-called "quantum vacuum virtual plasma," then to the extent where NASA might have tested a new physics principle, they certainly did not validate it. They also tested (in 2014) a much different Shawyer-type microwaves-in-a-can RF load, and got similar results. The details of the testing (and a misleading section on the vacuum capabilities of the chamber and a weird part on interplanetary trajectories) are in the pre-print.

: But as for conservation of momentum, the principle claim is that the "Quantum vacuum plasma thruster" imparts momentum on the microwave cavity while balancing opposite momentum goes where? Since the vacuum has no state of motion and no momentum, not here. Since no microwaves or other particles are emitted, not here. Thus the claim violates conservation of momentum. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 15:55, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

:After reading both [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vacuum_plasma_thruster Quantum vacuum plasma thruster] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive EmDrive], it seems that they're the same type of device. In particular, scroll down near the bottom of the EmDrive article, and you can see that they're using "interacting with virtual particles" as one of the justifications for it working. Both articles also cite several of the same experiments in their introductions. The physical description of both devices was similar (resonant microwave cavities), differing only in specific cavity geometry.

:And yes, they would have had to be tested in vacuum for a serious test. If you have strong electric fields in air, the air will move (because you'll bleed charge into it, and it'll then be accelerated by the electric field; that's how those tinfoil "lifter" devices work). You'd also have to put it in an RF-absorbing chamber, to avoid resonant interactions with the chamber walls (which can cause your device to be displaced from what you think its neutral position should be; force only costs power while you're moving, so this would look like deflection with no net power applied after the system stabilizes). -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.221|108.162.246.221]] 20:17, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

; Revision weirdness

(For [[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]]) Not meaning to start an edit war, but how is [http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/08/jscs-stealthy-s.html NASAWatch] a better source for the breaking news than the earlier and glossier [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive Wired UK]. Also, Johnson Space Center and NASA are under no obligation to comment on the work of the Eagleworks lab under Sonny White. That's just one of the many points that Hambling and NASAWatch get wrong: "NASA" didn't validate anything, a small group of researchers employed by NASA claimed verification in a non-peer-reviewed presentation at a conference. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.99|199.27.128.99]] 20:20, 8 August 2014 (UTC)
:First thanks for not doing an edit war. My reasons were:
:*NASAWatch is still the most serious site to document but also criticise NASA's activities.
:*The "wired.co.uk" article is available at that NASAWatch article. I decided to remove that "wired" link here because it uses a hell of external sites blocked at my browser by default (NoScript on Firefox). The site is not "wired.com", one of my favorite pages is there: [http://www.wired.com/category/beyondapollo/ Beyond Apollo].
:*NASA did NOT release any official statements, only a small external publication did refer to an NASA employer.
:*NASA keeps silent on this matter because they know there is no prove.
:--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:29, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

(for [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]]) Your edit of <blockquote>But while they hooked it up to a measurement apparatus, applied RF input and measured changes in the apparatus, their interpretation of the experiment conducted in an air-filled stainless-steel chamber as a tiny ''thrust'' only explainable in terms of new (undefined) physics under the moniker of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma" is an extraordinary claim on very weak data. This may fall under the category of "[http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html Tooth-Fairy (Pseudo-) science]", trying to quantify a phenomenon before one has confirmed it exists.</blockquote> to <blockquote>But while they hooked it up to a measurement apparatus, applied RF input and measured changes in the apparatus, their interpretation of the experiment conducted in an air-filled stainless-steel chamber as a tiny ''thrust'' explainable under the moniker of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma".</blockquote> isn't a sentence anymore. There is considerable tension between your justification "citation needed for any comment on the validity of the experiment)" and [[User:Lcarsos|Lcarsos']] justification of "For the love of all that is good and holy just link to the damn link. No need to go all research paper on us with footnote labyrinths." where Wikipedia-like references were removed. The remaining links to the XKCD comic itself, [https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/WfFtJ8bYVya John Baez], and [http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/08/04/impossible-thruster-probably-impossible/ Chad Orzel] all support the wording of the original. There's also [http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/outthere/2014/08/06/nasa-validate-imposible-space-drive-word/ Corey S. Powell @ Discover Blogs] and [https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/how-to-fool-the-world-with-bad-science-7a9318dd1ae6 Ethan Siegel @ Medium] as well as other links in this Talk page. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.99|199.27.128.99]] 20:20, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-10T16:57:09Z

199.27.128.118:

This is another one of Randall's knocks on pseudoscience... I've seen things like this before, where the guy puts 1000's of volts between a piece of tinfoil and a wire and is amazed that the thing (weighing a few grams) flies around. I'd search for it for reference but it's late here and I'm tired [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.209|173.245.54.209]] 04:41, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Here is the article referenced: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20140006052.pdf [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.83|199.27.128.83]] 05:24, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

20 kW is probably not from any reference, but just to summarize the history of claims in a vivid manner. The news surge was predicated about the prestige of the NASA organization attaching to any tiny lab under the aegis even though the paper was not in a peer-reviewed top journal but the very last presentation made at a multi-day conference. The NASA abstract differs wildly from the abstract of the same-date paper (or draft). http://rghost.net/57230791 \\ Other coverage from the skeptical side goes a bit into the history of similar microwaves-in-a-funny-shaped-can claims, where the reported thrust seems to diminish as the sensitivity of the measurement. http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/08/04/impossible-thruster-probably-impossible/ http://blogs.scienceforums.net/swansont/archives/15155 https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/WfFtJ8bYVya https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/C7vx2G85kr4 And finally may I close with a reference to Tooth-Fairy-(pseudo)science. http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 05:41, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

What I'm missing is any reference to NASA being the third party to conduct this experiment and the third to witness these results. So while this looks an awful lot like Tooth-Fairy-science, it still raises the question of what the hell is going on there? Usually these pseudo-science experiments fail on reproduction or are only reproduced by non-scientists. - Nine [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.59|141.101.104.59]] 06:46, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

More than a decade ago a few weird Italian guys already demostrated more than a twitch. Italian Army officials ("Esercito") were not that impressed. Their bizarre website http://Www.asps.it mostly dedicated to pseudo-religious stuff and fighting trolls, repeatedly states that technical details won't be shared until a patent is definitely granted. - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.182|108.162.229.182]] 06:58, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

;Fancy way of building an (ordinary) photon drive

A bit of context:

The idea of using virtual particles/quantum foam as your reaction mass has been around for a while. This turns out to just be an overly-complicated way of building a photon drive. If you accelerate a charge (real or virtual), it'll spit out photons. If you interact with charged virtual particles in a way that results in real thrust (by accelerating them), the photons you get out are real photons, and you pay for them in the usual manner (they cost you energy).

If you're building a photon drive, a heating element and a mirror work just as well.

As for the anomalous thrust in the experiments, there are a huge number of ways that you can get that from an experiment that isn't set up sufficiently carefully. The fact that two different experiments got vastly different measurements is a very big hint that something was flawed with at least one of them (possibly both).

Among other things, generating intense microwaves involves large electric currents. If any part of your apparatus is made of metal (and lots of this was), ordinary EM forces produce quite a few contaminating effects that are a royal pain to account for, especially if you're trying to measure an effect much weaker than they are. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.221|108.162.246.221]] 09:26, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't like how the sciencey posts use a lot of scientific terms without explaining them. I thought the purpose of this site was to make xkcd accessible for all people, science laymen included, but sometimes these explanations obfuscate more than they help. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.188|141.101.99.188]] 10:46, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
: +1 -- I would suggest a rewrite of the explanation with that in mind. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 12:15, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't see any "joke on quantum superposition". Either explain what the jokes are or remove that claim? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 12:08, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
: That was a "correction" of "quantum supposition" which made more sense. Chad Orzel makes an ''actual'' joke about quantum superposition: "Most physicists I know have reacted to this with some linear combination of “heavy sigh” and “eye roll.”" Anyway, I have edited away the superposition by rewriting the description of the last panel. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 16:02, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
:: I don't see any joke about quantum uncertainty, just regular uncertainty and the scientific method in the last panel. The claim of thrust without exhaust or other momentum transfer is a claim of new physics, but the evidence of this claim is weak because the device was not tested in isolation and vacuum and the reported thrust was not in line with the claimed mechanisms. But Megan points out that new physics isn't created but only discovered, so she is just as likely to interact with the newly claimed physics as the Q-drive if enough power is applied. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 16:57, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

I see a sex joke in "If you pumped 20 kw into me, I'd twitch a lot" and "I do a lot of things". {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.43}}
:1. Sign your posts
:2. Remind me never to have sex with you
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.209|173.245.54.209]] 14:08, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

;Not "a violation of conservation of momentum"

Please can someone senior in this community update this as I don't want to get I to an edit war. Unfortunately the media has been conflating the idea between the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive |EmDrive]] and a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vacuum_plasma_thruster |Quantum vacuum plasma thruster]] as Roger Shawyer has been talking about both. NASA tested the idea of a Quantum vacuum plasma thruster which does not violate conservation of momentum

--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.213|173.245.56.213]] 15:06, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

: NASA did not test "the idea of a Quantum vacuum plasma thruster" -- In 2013, a very small group of researchers at NASA tested a pair of RF devices supplied to them for 2 days (and 6 days of setting up the tests). One was supposed to produce thrust in empty space while the other wasn't. But both devices were tested in air and very similar results recorded for both. Therefore either the test was flawed or the devices did not operate sufficiently different from each other to measure. Thus the "idea" was not tested, only the supplied devices and the testing protocol. In that the devices were allegedly designed to demonstrate designs to take advantage/not take advantage of the so-called "quantum vacuum virtual plasma," then to the extent where NASA might have tested a new physics principle, they certainly did not validate it. They also tested (in 2014) a much different Shawyer-type microwaves-in-a-can RF load, and got similar results. The details of the testing (and a misleading section on the vacuum capabilities of the chamber and a weird part on interplanetary trajectories) are in the pre-print.

: But as for conservation of momentum, the principle claim is that the "Quantum vacuum plasma thruster" imparts momentum on the microwave cavity while balancing opposite momentum goes where? Since the vacuum has no state of motion and no momentum, not here. Since no microwaves or other particles are emitted, not here. Thus the claim violates conservation of momentum. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 15:55, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

:After reading both [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vacuum_plasma_thruster Quantum vacuum plasma thruster] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive EmDrive], it seems that they're the same type of device. In particular, scroll down near the bottom of the EmDrive article, and you can see that they're using "interacting with virtual particles" as one of the justifications for it working. Both articles also cite several of the same experiments in their introductions. The physical description of both devices was similar (resonant microwave cavities), differing only in specific cavity geometry.

:And yes, they would have had to be tested in vacuum for a serious test. If you have strong electric fields in air, the air will move (because you'll bleed charge into it, and it'll then be accelerated by the electric field; that's how those tinfoil "lifter" devices work). You'd also have to put it in an RF-absorbing chamber, to avoid resonant interactions with the chamber walls (which can cause your device to be displaced from what you think its neutral position should be; force only costs power while you're moving, so this would look like deflection with no net power applied after the system stabilizes). -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.221|108.162.246.221]] 20:17, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

; Revision weirdness

(For [[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]]) Not meaning to start an edit war, but how is [http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/08/jscs-stealthy-s.html NASAWatch] a better source for the breaking news than the earlier and glossier [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive Wired UK]. Also, Johnson Space Center and NASA are under no obligation to comment on the work of the Eagleworks lab under Sonny White. That's just one of the many points that Hambling and NASAWatch get wrong: "NASA" didn't validate anything, a small group of researchers employed by NASA claimed verification in a non-peer-reviewed presentation at a conference. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.99|199.27.128.99]] 20:20, 8 August 2014 (UTC)
:First thanks for not doing an edit war. My reasons were:
:*NASAWatch is still the most serious site to document but also criticise NASA's activities.
:*The "wired.co.uk" article is available at that NASAWatch article. I decided to remove that "wired" link here because it uses a hell of external sites blocked at my browser by default (NoScript on Firefox). The site is not "wired.com", one of my favorite pages is there: [http://www.wired.com/category/beyondapollo/ Beyond Apollo].
:*NASA did NOT release any official statements, only a small external publication did refer to an NASA employer.
:*NASA keeps silent on this matter because they know there is no prove.
:--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:29, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

(for [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]]) Your edit of <blockquote>But while they hooked it up to a measurement apparatus, applied RF input and measured changes in the apparatus, their interpretation of the experiment conducted in an air-filled stainless-steel chamber as a tiny ''thrust'' only explainable in terms of new (undefined) physics under the moniker of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma" is an extraordinary claim on very weak data. This may fall under the category of "[http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html Tooth-Fairy (Pseudo-) science]", trying to quantify a phenomenon before one has confirmed it exists.</blockquote> to <blockquote>But while they hooked it up to a measurement apparatus, applied RF input and measured changes in the apparatus, their interpretation of the experiment conducted in an air-filled stainless-steel chamber as a tiny ''thrust'' explainable under the moniker of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma".</blockquote> isn't a sentence anymore. There is considerable tension between your justification "citation needed for any comment on the validity of the experiment)" and [[User:Lcarsos|Lcarsos']] justification of "For the love of all that is good and holy just link to the damn link. No need to go all research paper on us with footnote labyrinths." where Wikipedia-like references were removed. The remaining links to the XKCD comic itself, [https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/WfFtJ8bYVya John Baez], and [http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/08/04/impossible-thruster-probably-impossible/ Chad Orzel] all support the wording of the original. There's also [http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/outthere/2014/08/06/nasa-validate-imposible-space-drive-word/ Corey S. Powell @ Discover Blogs] and [https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/how-to-fool-the-world-with-bad-science-7a9318dd1ae6 Ethan Siegel @ Medium] as well as other links in this Talk page. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.99|199.27.128.99]] 20:20, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T16:07:24Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */ run -> runs

{{comic
| number = 1404
| date = August 6, 2014
| title = Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma
| image = quantum_vacuum_virtual_plasma.png
| titletext = I don't understand the things you do, and you therefore may represent an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Just describes the science, not the comic. I tried to get the ball rolling but it's late and I'm tired}}

This comic is a reference to the recent news <ref name="Wired">D. Hambling, "Nasa validates 'impossible' space drive", ''Wired UK'' (2014-07-31) http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive</ref> of a {{w|Quantum vacuum plasma thruster|microwave thruster}} which allegedly produces thrust without expelling any propellant or microwaves, a violation of {{w|Momentum#Conservation|conservation of momentum}}. This type of thruster would provide delta velocity without conventional limits according to {{w|Tsiolkovsky rocket equation}} since the initial mass and final mass are the same. And indeed, the authors of a recent presentation at a NASA conference waxed lyrical about the space applications of such a device if it worked as claimed.<ref name="draft paper">D.A. Brady, H.G. White, P. March, J.T. Lawrence, and F.J. Davies, "Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust Torsion Pendulum" (conference proceedings). [http://rghost.net/57230791 Pre-print] retrieved on 2014-08-05</ref> But while they hooked it up to a measurement apparatus, applied RF input and measured changes in the apparatus, their interpretation of the experiment conducted in an air-filled stainless-steel chamber as a tiny ''thrust'' only explainable in terms of new (undefined) physics under the moniker of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma"<ref name="draft paper" /><ref name="nasa abstract">http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140006052</ref> is an extraordinary claim on very weak data. This may fall under the category of "Tooth-Fairy (Pseudo-)science",<ref name="tooth fairy">http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html</ref> trying to quantify a phenomenon before one has confirmed it exists.

The title of the comic directly refers to this hypothetical new physics mechanism of interacting with the "quantum vacuum virtual plasma," a combination of physics words that don't normally go together. <ref name="Baez1"> J. Baez, "The incredible shrinking force" [https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/WfFtJ8bYVya Google Plus] (2014-08-02) ""Quantum vacuum virtual plasma" is something you'd say if you failed a course in quantum field theory and then smoked too much weed." </ref><ref name="Orzel"> Chad Orzel, "Impossible Thruster Probably Impossible", [http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/08/04/impossible-thruster-probably-impossible/ Science Blogs] (2014-08-04) "certainly a collection of four words that turn up in physics papers."</ref>

The first part of the comic has Megan commenting on how the engine was, in layman's terms, "twitching", and states that with that much power she'd expect something more forceful. The final frame of the comic first makes the observation that "twitching" is an expected outcome for various complex systems, including biological ones, when arbitrarily large electric or microwave power is injected. The equivalence between twitching and the hypothetical new physics is pooh-poohed because Megan was not previously revealed to operate by the principle of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma," to which Megan responds that she is a complex entity and very well might have new physics inside her. Finally Cueball concedes that the complex behaviors of complex systems are not obviously predicable by our first stabs at modeling and suggests (humorously to anyone with an awareness of the history of science) that the answer will always lie in the realm of Man's ignorance.

The title text suggests that the authors of the NASA paper subscribe to the principle that unexpected behaviors of complex systems should best be explained by invoking new physics rather than detailed study of the complexities of the system. This runs contrary to generally accepted heuristics of parsimony in science.

===References===
<references />

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are walking together in the foreground.]
:Cueball: Hear about that "impossible" microwave thruster?

:[They stop walking and Cueball turns to face Megan.]
:Megan: Yeah. Let me get this straight — they pumped 20 kilowatts into a box under ambient conditions
:...and it only twitched a ''little''?
:Cueball: Yeah.

:[Zoomed out - they are seen in silhouette walking together again.]
:Megan: ''That's'' surprising. If you pumped 20 kilowatts into ''me'', I'd twitch a ''lot''.
:Cueball: But you're not pushing on the quantum vacuum.
:Megan: I ''might'' be. I do a lot of things.
:Cueball: I guess we can't be sure.

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

Talk:1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T16:02:27Z

199.27.128.118: near joke on quantum superposition

Talk:1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T15:55:20Z

199.27.128.118: /* Not "a violation of conservation of momentum" */

1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T15:35:15Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */ Took a stab at explaining the last panel, without writing an essay on epistemology and the scientific method

{{comic
| number = 1404
| date = August 6, 2014
| title = Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma
| image = quantum_vacuum_virtual_plasma.png
| titletext = I don't understand the things you do, and you therefore may represent an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Just describes the science, not the comic. I tried to get the ball rolling but it's late and I'm tired}}

This comic is a reference to the recent news <ref name="Wired">D. Hambling, "Nasa validates 'impossible' space drive", ''Wired UK'' (2014-07-31) http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive</ref> of a {{w|Quantum vacuum plasma thruster|microwave thruster}} which allegedly produces thrust without expelling any propellant or microwaves, a violation of {{w|Momentum#Conservation|conservation of momentum}}. This type of thruster would provide delta velocity without conventional limits according to {{w|Tsiolkovsky rocket equation}} since the initial mass and final mass are the same. And indeed, the authors of a recent presentation at a NASA conference waxed lyrical about the space applications of such a device if it worked as claimed.<ref name="draft paper">D.A. Brady, H.G. White, P. March, J.T. Lawrence, and F.J. Davies, "Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust Torsion Pendulum" (conference proceedings). [http://rghost.net/57230791 Pre-print] retrieved on 2014-08-05</ref> But while they hooked it up to a measurement apparatus, applied RF input and measured changes in the apparatus, their interpretation of the experiment conducted in an air-filled stainless-steel chamber as a tiny ''thrust'' only explainable in terms of new (undefined) physics under the moniker of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma"<ref name="draft paper" /><ref name="nasa abstract">http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140006052</ref> is an extraordinary claim on very weak data. This may fall under the category of "Tooth-Fairy (Pseudo-)science",<ref name="tooth fairy">http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html</ref> trying to quantify a phenomenon before one has confirmed it exists.

The title of the comic directly refers to this hypothetical new physics mechanism of interacting with the "quantum vacuum virtual plasma," a combination of physics words that don't normally go together. <ref name="Baez1"> J. Baez, "The incredible shrinking force" [https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/WfFtJ8bYVya Google Plus] (2014-08-02) ""Quantum vacuum virtual plasma" is something you'd say if you failed a course in quantum field theory and then smoked too much weed." </ref><ref name="Orzel"> Chad Orzel, "Impossible Thruster Probably Impossible", [http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/08/04/impossible-thruster-probably-impossible/ Science Blogs] (2014-08-04) "certainly a collection of four words that turn up in physics papers."</ref>

The first part of the comic has Megan commenting on how the engine was, in layman's terms, "twitching", and states that with that much power she'd expect something more forceful. The final frame of the comic first makes the observation that "twitching" is an expected outcome for various complex systems, including biological ones, when arbitrarily large electric or microwave power is injected. The equivalence between twitching and the hypothetical new physics is pooh-poohed because Megan was not previously revealed to operate by the principle of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma," to which Megan responds that she is a complex entity and very well might have new physics inside her. Finally Cueball concedes that the complex behaviors of complex systems are not obviously predicable by our first stabs at modeling and suggests (humorously to anyone with an awareness of the history of science) that the answer will always lie in the realm of Man's ignorance.

The title text suggests that the authors of the NASA paper subscribe to the principle that unexpected behaviors of complex systems should best be explained by invoking new physics rather than detailed study of the complexities of the system. This run contrary to generally accepted heuristics of parsimony in science.

===References===
<references />

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are walking together in the foreground.]
:Cueball: Hear about that "impossible" microwave thruster?

:[They stop walking and Cueball turns to face Megan.]
:Megan: Yeah. Let me get this straight — they pumped 20 kilowatts into a box under ambient conditions
:...and it only twitched a ''little''?
:Cueball: Yeah.

:[Zoomed out - they are seen in silhouette walking together again.]
:Megan: ''That's'' surprising. If you pumped 20 kilowatts into ''me'', I'd twitch a ''lot''.
:Cueball: But you're not pushing on the quantum vacuum.
:Megan: I ''might'' be. I do a lot of things.
:Cueball: I guess we can't be sure.

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

1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T15:15:12Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */ Comic title explanation

{{comic
| number = 1404
| date = August 6, 2014
| title = Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma
| image = quantum_vacuum_virtual_plasma.png
| titletext = I don't understand the things you do, and you therefore may represent an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Just describes the science, not the comic. I tried to get the ball rolling but it's late and I'm tired}}

This comic is a reference to the recent news <ref name="Wired">D. Hambling, "Nasa validates 'impossible' space drive", ''Wired UK'' (2014-07-31) http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive</ref> of a {{w|Quantum vacuum plasma thruster|microwave thruster}} which allegedly produces thrust without expelling any propellant or microwaves, a violation of {{w|Momentum#Conservation|conservation of momentum}}. This type of thruster would provide delta velocity without conventional limits according to {{w|Tsiolkovsky rocket equation}} since the initial mass and final mass are the same. And indeed, the authors of a recent presentation at a NASA conference waxed lyrical about the space applications of such a device if it worked as claimed.<ref name="draft paper">D.A. Brady, H.G. White, P. March, J.T. Lawrence, and F.J. Davies, "Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust Torsion Pendulum" (conference proceedings). [http://rghost.net/57230791 Pre-print] retrieved on 2014-08-05</ref> But while they hooked it up to a measurement apparatus, applied RF input and measured changes in the apparatus, their interpretation of the experiment conducted in an air-filled stainless-steel chamber as a tiny ''thrust'' only explainable in terms of new (undefined) physics under the moniker of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma"<ref name="draft paper" /><ref name="nasa abstract">http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140006052</ref> is an extraordinary claim on very weak data. This may fall under the category of "Tooth-Fairy (Pseudo-)science",<ref name="tooth fairy">http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html</ref> trying to quantify a phenomenon before one has confirmed it exists.

The title of the comic directly refers to this hypothetical new physics mechanism of interacting with the "quantum vacuum virtual plasma," a combination of physics words that don't normally go together. <ref name="Baez1"> J. Baez, "The incredible shrinking force" [https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/WfFtJ8bYVya Google Plus] (2014-08-02) ""Quantum vacuum virtual plasma" is something you'd say if you failed a course in quantum field theory and then smoked too much weed." </ref><ref name="Orzel"> Chad Orzel, "Impossible Thruster Probably Impossible", [http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/08/04/impossible-thruster-probably-impossible/ Science Blogs] (2014-08-04) "certainly a collection of four words that turn up in physics papers."</ref>

Anyway, the first part of the comic has Megan commenting on how the engine was, in layman's terms, "twitching", and states that with that much power she'd expect something more forceful. The second part of the comic is several jokes about quantum superposition.

The title text suggests that the authors of the NASA paper subscribe to the principle that unexpected behaviors of complex systems should best be explained by invoking new physics rather than detailed study of the complexities of the system. This run contrary to generally accepted heuristics of parsimony in science.

===References===
<references />

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are walking together in the foreground.]
:Cueball: Hear about that "impossible" microwave thruster?

:[They stop walking and Cueball turns to face Megan.]
:Megan: Yeah. Let me get this straight — they pumped 20 kilowatts into a box under ambient conditions
:...and it only twitched a ''little''?
:Cueball: Yeah.

:[Zoomed out - they are seen in silhouette walking together again.]
:Megan: ''That's'' surprising. If you pumped 20 kilowatts into ''me'', I'd twitch a ''lot''.
:Cueball: But you're not pushing on the quantum vacuum.
:Megan: I ''might'' be. I do a lot of things.
:Cueball: I guess we can't be sure.

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

1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T06:31:41Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */

1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T06:22:56Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */

1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T06:16:50Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */ Added "allegedly" since that's part of the explored claim at the heart of the comic. Improved citation for reference

1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T06:07:33Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */ Removed reference to Nasa Abstract because it didn't belong at first location

1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T06:02:29Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */

Talk:1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T05:41:26Z

199.27.128.118:

Talk:1369: TMI

2014-05-16T20:24:31Z

199.27.128.118:

I assume "TMI" here stands for "too much information". Cueball stares at the screen (presumably with an Internet browser open) and realizes that he will never be able to internalize the amounts of data freely available on the net. The off-screen voice simply confirms it. The humor of the exchange seems to be derived from the fact that "too much information" is usually used to indicate that someone has publicly given away too much ''private'' and potentially embarrassing information and made others feel awkward. Cueball, however, uses the phrase in its most literal sense. --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 06:47, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

TMI is probably {{Wiktionary|too much information|Too Much Information}} (taken literally, not figuratively about ''overshare'') --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 06:49, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

: ... despite lot of places on Internet where it CAN be used figuratively. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:13, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

It could also refer to Three Mile Island; but 'Too Much Information' or 'Too Much Internet' are the most likely meanings. TMA! (Too Many Acronyms!) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.123|173.245.53.123]] 07:06, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

The title text may be a reference to the quote from the Sherlock Holmes novel ''A Study in Scarlet'': "From a drop of water, a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other." If that logician stared into an entire sea worth of water drops, all the possible inferences would probably make his head explode from literally too much information. --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 07:15, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

Maybe ''Everything'' is litteraly just information, like in ''{{W|Decoding Reality}}''. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.27|173.245.52.27]] 08:55, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

There were a explanation of the title text as to be a reference to Hemingway's "Old man and the sea" which sounded about right to me -- would somebody like to elaborate as to why it was removed? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:04, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

The title text may also be a reference to a well-known quote from Isaac Newton: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27) [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 20:24, 16 May 2014 (UTC)2minions (sorry, no login - I'm at work)

Talk:1369: TMI

2014-05-16T20:22:58Z

199.27.128.118:

1369: TMI

2014-05-16T20:21:34Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */

1369: TMI

2014-05-16T20:20:40Z

199.27.128.118: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1369
| date = May 16, 2014
| title = TMI
| image = tmi.png
| titletext = 'TMI' he whispered, gazing into the sea.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page -- may still need polishing.}}
"TMI" is an acronym that means "too much information". It is typically used as a response to someone ''oversharing'' — telling details (usually gross, boring, or otherwise unpleasant) that the listener would rather not have heard. Here, however, Cueball may be using it in a more literal and absolute sense: He feels overwhelmed by the colossal amount of information that is now generally available to anyone with an Internet connection — or that exists, period.

The mouseover text might be a reference to a well-known quote from Isaac Newton: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk, looking at a laptop.]
:Cueball: Ugh, TMI.

:Offscreen: Oh? What?

:Cueball: Just... Everything.
:Offscreen: ''True.''

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

1320: Walmart

2014-01-22T23:28:43Z

199.27.128.118: Returned page.

{{comic
| number = 1320
| date = January 22, 2014
| title = Walmart
| image = walmart.png
| titletext = What I really want is to hang out where I hung out with my friends in college, but have all my older relatives there too.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic satirizes the way in which large social networks, such as Facebook and Google+, attempt to aggregate all aspects of the user's online social presence. Earlier social networks had more granular focuses; e.g. MySpace originated with a music focus, and even earlier various bulletin board systems were centered around specific topics. By contrast, many social media companies attempt to encapsulate the variety of aspects of their users' online lives, thereby aggregating their personal, professional, and private lives in a way that was previously unlikely to occur.

The first comparison to Walmart, a large multi-national "big box" retailer that sells everything from gardening supplies to televisions to groceries, is apt because Walmart, too, is attempting to aggregate various aspects of your life into a single location - but rather than aggregating your social media presence, it's attempting to aggregate your shopping habits.

The punch line of the joke is that social interactions at Walmart are awkward, contrived, and frequently undesired -- just as they can grow to become in a social network that is insufficiently focused or too bloated. People communicate differently with different groups of people, and if they are attempting to connect with friends, they are unlikely to want their grandparents present. Similarly, if a person is attempting to buy groceries, he may not be interested in extended small talk with acquaintances with whom he may not share much in common (perhaps the fact that they both shop at Walmart is the biggest similarity they share).

The title text elaborates on this idea by sarcastically implying that simultaneous interactions with peers and extended relatives is desirable.

???