explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1406: Universal Converter Box

2014-12-10T03:04:59Z

Brion: /* Right side */

{{comic
| number = 1406
| date = August 11, 2014
| title = Universal Converter Box
| image = universal_converter_box.png
| titletext = Comes with a 50-lb sack of gender changers, and also an add-on device with a voltage selector and a zillion circular center pin DC adapter tips so you can power any of those devices from the 90s.
}}

==Explanation==
Converter boxes are used to connect two or more devices together which otherwise couldn't be, due to differently shaped plugs, different voltages, or different protocols of communication.

Converter boxes or converter cables are commonly found for several of the plugs at the top of the list - such as from USB to micro-USB. As this is supposed to be a Universal Converter Box, there are many connections.

The humour from this comic comes from the sheer number of [[927: Standards|different standards]] that all claim to be the universal way to connect two devices, in their target market, as well as the progressively ridiculous conversions that this box is capable of doing, for example, converting audio from a 1/8inch / 3.5 mm headphone jack, into a variety of fuel suitable for running your car.

A connector is capable of making a connection to another connector only if the connectors are of the same style and the opposite gender ("male" connector is plug, "female" connector is socket), except for rare "genderless" connectors, such as the token ring mentioned above. Gender changers are devices with two connectors of the same gender. The "circular center pin DC adapter tips" in the title text are barrel jack power plugs. There are a large number of these style connectors, and many of these devices look the same. This leads to frustration

===Different connectors===
The plugs are numbered from top to bottom and incremented for every wire that comes directly out of the converter box.

====Left side====
#{{w|VGA connector|VGA}} (Video Graphics Array): This a video connector (standard is blue) that connects computers and monitors or projectors. It has fifteen pins in a D-shell. It's still one of the common type of video connectors.
#{{w|Digital Visual Interface|DVI}} (Digital Visual Interface): This a video connector (standard is white) that uses a D-shell with flat pins. DVI is not compatible with VGA ports,
#{{w|HDMI}} (High Definition Multimedia Interface): This a audio video connector that supports high definition video and audio.
#{{w|Thunderbolt (interface)|Thunderbolt}}: Thunderbolt can transfer both video signals to a monitor, audio signals to speakers, and send and receive data at the same time, over the same port.
#{{w|IEEE 1394|Firewire}} (IEEE 1394): A bidirectional data transfer connector, similar to USB, Firewire can is used for networking computers, and connecting audio/video equipment to computers.
#{{w|Component video|Component}} and {{w|RCA connector|RCA}}: Both component video and RCA are ways of transmitting video and audio signals. RCA is the name of the connector type. RCA uses one plugs per audio channel (e.g. left and right channels). RCA (Component) uses one plug for video where component uses three: Y (luma), Pb (Blue - Y), Pr (Red - Y).
#{{w|Phone connector (audio)|1/8" audio/video}} (3.5 mm phone connector): Best known as a headphone plug, but also used for other audio equipment and for some video equipment.
#{{w|Parallel port}}: A port that used to be used to connect printers to PCs.
#{{w|S-Video (analog video standard)|S-video}}: A video with the video signal split in Y (luma) and C (chroma).
#{{w|In-flight entertainment#History|Airline pneumatic tube audio}}: The seat would contain the loudspeaker, and the headphone connected to this unit with a pneumatic tube to conduct the sound.
#{{w|PS/2 port|PS/2}}, PS/3 and PS/4: The PS/2 connector was used for mouse and keyboard connections in older computers; it has been superseded by USB. There are no PS/3 or PS/4 connectors. This is a play on the {{w|PlayStation}} line of video game consoles, which have recently seen their second, third, and fourth generations abbreviated to PS2, PS3, and PS4.
#{{w|NEMA connector|120V AC}}: This style of plug is used for domestic power outlets in the US, Canada, Mexico, and some other parts of the Americas. The pin marked "removable" is the ground pin. Not every device requires a ground pin, and some lower power sockets do not have a hole for it.
#{{w|Floppy disk|Floppy}}, {{w|Parallel ATA|IDE}}, {{w|Hard disk drive|2.5"}}, {{w|SCSI connector|SCSI}}: These are {{w|Insulation-displacement connector|IDC connectors}} for connecting to media drives to processors using different numbers of pins, and hence different widths of {{w|Ribbon cable|cable}}. Despite this similarity, real plugs would not work with break-away parts as the pinout has no similarities and the connectors are keyed differently.

====Right side====
#{{w|USB#Connectors and plugs|USB}}: Also known as USB-A. USBs are used for connecting various devices to computers, each other, and to power supplies and chargers. The USB standard has multiple connectors. Some of the others are below.
#USB (weird other end): Also known as USB-B.
#mini-USB/micro USB: Alternate smaller connections for USB communication.
#macro USB: A joke about a larger version of USB.
#{{w|F connector}}: A type of coaxial plug used for various television signals and for cable modems.
#{{w|Optical fiber connector|Fiber}}: Optical fiber cables are used for various data transmission purposes and are often connected to devices with only a connector on the device, and none on the cable.
#{{w|Registered jack#RJ11.2C_RJ14.2C_RJ25_wiring_details|RJ11}}/{{w|Registered jack#RJ45|Ethernet}}: Ethernet connections, which use a RJ45 plug, are the most common fixed wire connection for computer networking. The "smaller than RJ45" connector which is used for land-line telephones in the US.
#{{w|Token ring}}: The token ring was a late-80s competitor to Ethernet for fixed-wire network connections. Its connectors were large and boxy, but were unique in that they were genderless.
#{{w|MagSafe}}: Magnetically-attached power connectors used on Apple devices. The original MagSafe (introduced in 2006) was later replaced by MagSafe 2 (introduced in 2012); both come in "L" and "T" shapes as shown here for MagSafe and MagSafe 2, respectively, but are incompatible. MagSafe 3 and 4 do not actually exist yet. Also, the MagSafe 4 "connector" appears to be broken this is a joke about the {{w|MagSafe#Criticisms_and_defects|poor quality}} of the original MagSafe 1 cables.
#{{w|Bluetooth#Communication_and_connection|Bluetooth dongle}}: A USB device that allows the converter to connect via the {{w|Bluetooth}} wireless networking standard to accessories like phones and computers for audio, general purpose file transfer, mouse and keyboard interaction and a wide variety of other uses.
#{{w|SCART}}: An audio/video connector mostly used in Europe; it replaced other connectors like component video, but has itself been superseded by HDMI.
#{{w|Tin can telephone|String}}: For connecting to a "tin can telephone", an analogue device for transmitting sound through a physical connection rather than electronically or via radio waves. Probably also a reference to {{w|CAN bus}}.
#{{w|Fuel dispenser#Nozzles|Fuel nozzle}}, with a switch to choose between different {{w|octane rating}}s and {{w|diesel fuel}}: Dispensers for fossil fuels used to power internal combustion engines.

===Trivia===
For some interfaces, such as USB, the female size is standard to the device while the male side is standard to the cable. For other interfaces, such as the RS-232 serial port, the conventions vary or there is no convention.

The "universal" connector here doesn't support the proper RS-232, with the closest surrogate available being RJ-11. The other nearest analog would be the parallel port, available in Centronix and D-25-pin connectors.

The SCSI connectors have been available as the "internal" connectors (see the "break-away" above) of 2 different widths, Centronix, 2 widths of the mini-D connectors with the easily bendable pins, 3 widths of the more reliable pin-less mini-connectors, and high-speed serial.

Not only is there gender and connector type, but there are also different standards on what data/power is connected on each pin of the connector. Building a working connection often involved getting 3 or 4 adapters connected in a sequence to produce the right connector, gender and pin-out.

Barrel jack power plugs were developed in the 1980s. The "barrel" has an inner diameter an outer diameter, and different style pins.

A D-shell is a trapezoidal metal skirt that protects the pins, prevents the connector from being plugged in the wrong way, and makes the physical connection more secure.

A VGA was devoloped in 1987, and with new versions being developed since then.

DVI can be configured to support multiple modes such as DVI-D (digital only), DVI-A (analog only), or DVI-I (digital and analog).

HDMI has slowly been replacing DVI and VGA ports on newer devices due to the simplicity and the smaller footprint and overall dimensions.

Thunderbolt is far faster than almost any connector on the market for transferring data. However, the limited adoption by manufacturers, the higher costs of the hardware, and the security concerns inherent to the interface have limited the adoption by consumers.

Because Firewire is designed to allow {{w|backplane}} access and {{w|direct memory access}} (DMA) to devices, there are additional conversion and security issues with it.

The phone connector diameter of 1/8" is only an approximation using {{w|Imperial units}}. The standard actually specifies a size in the {{w|Metric system}} of 3.5 mm. The video plug has 3 contacts (Tip, Ring and Sleeve) and the audio has 4 contacts (Tip, Ring, Ring and Sleeve).

While no longer common in homes or offices, parallel connections are still used in some {{w|embedded system}}s.

Airline pneumatic tube audio was used by in-flight entertainment systems manufactured from 1963 until 1979.

Note that while AC adapters are necessary—and widely available—to suit sockets in other countries, this "universal" converter does not feature any other AC power plugs, but this could be accommodated using adapters.

{{w|Cheater plug}}s exist to connect a NEMA grounding-type plug (three prongs) to a NEMA non-grounding receptacle (two slots), but the use of such an adapter can be hazardous if the grounding tab is not connected to electrical ground. A safer alternative is to replace the outlet with a {{w|Residual-current device|Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI)}} breaker outlet.

The computer media drive connectors are unlike the motherboard-powering connectors from the Power Supply Unit of a PC, which may involve multiple additional 4, 6 and 8-pin 'breakout' supply cables that have this feature and specially 'keyed' pin-sheaths as well to allow forward/backward compatibility between various versions of PSU and motherboard that could be used (and power-hungry GPUs of various kinds, as well.

Note that some embedded systems such as cash registers actually do use larger USB connectors to include 12V and/or 24V power connections. These are not, however, called "macro-USB", and are not as large.

Other countries often use RJ11-ended cables with locally-specific adapter-ends, e.g. the BS 6312 in Britain. Broadband microfilters may make use of this difference by splitting a relevant telephone plug standard into the local non-RJ11 style of telephone plug for an "audio-only" pass-through socket and an RJ11 for the router/modem to be cabled up to for the abstracted "data-only" signal — making an adapter for this will be nearly impossible.

There are two common systems for showing octane numbers on fuel pumps; the numbers shown (87, 91, 93) most closely map to {{w|Octane rating#Anti-Knock_Index_.28AKI.29|Anti-Knock Index}} values which is used for the North American market and a number of other countries, the other system used in the rest of the world is Research Octane Number. In the AKI system; 87 octane (91 RON) is regular US, 91 octane (95 RON) is regular European, 93 octane (98 RON) is premium European, and in US both 91 and 93 are considered premium/super depending on the regulations of a particular state. Some states, such as California, forbid the sale of the gasoline above 91 octane. Only very rarely could both 91 and 93 be found at the same gas station. The typical line-up is "regular" (87), "plus" (89), and "premium"/"super" (depending on the state and on the fuel brand, 91, 92 or 93 octane). A standard diesel nozzle (24mm) is slightly larger diameter than a standard petrol nozzle (21mm) so you cannot tank diesel into a petrol car but if this nozzle has the petrol nozzle diameter you are still able to tank with it into some diesel cars. Some manufacturers such as Volkswagen fit a misfueling guard and fuel filler neck cap or have redesigned the the fuel filler to prevent a petrol nozzle being used in a diesel car.

==Transcript==
:[Universal converter box with wires to connectors:]
:VGA
:DVI
:HDMI
:Thunderbolt
:Firewire
:Component
:[sharing connectors with Component:]
:RCA
:1/8" Audio
:1/8" Video
:Parallel Port
:S-Video
:Airline Pneumatic Tube Audio
:PS/2/3/4
:120V AC
::[pointing to ground pin:]
::Removable
:Floppy/IDE/2.5"/SCSI
::[pointing to sections in IDC connector:]
::Break here
:USB
:USB with (weird other end)
:Mini-USB
:Micro USB
:Macro USB
:F Connector
:Fiber
:RJ11
:Ethernet
:Token Ring
:MagSafe
:MagSafe 2
:MagSafe 3
:MagSafe 4
:Bluetooth Dongle
:SCART
:String (fits most cans)
:[Fuel nozzle with selector for:]
:87/91/93/Diesel

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]

1386: People are Stupid

2014-10-23T07:33:01Z

Brion: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1386
| date = June 25, 2014
| title = People are Stupid
| image = people_are_stupid.png
| titletext = To everyone who responds to everything by saying they've 'lost their faith in humanity': Thanks--I'll let humanity know. I'm sure they'll be crushed.
}}

==Explanation==
It is a common thing for people on the Internet (on forums and comments sections of various websites) to make vague generalizations about the "stupidity of all people" or "losing faith in {{W|human|humanity}}," for instance when the topic is actually the stupidity or irrational/extreme behavior of one individual or group of individuals. Also the comment can come in any type of Internet forum, regardless of the subject.

However, the overall {{w|world population}} ("people") is not more stupid than the average - by definition. There is also no other human population to compare to to draw the conclusion this population is stupid. So it is a ''stupid'' comment that [[White Hat]] makes. The award being given to him by [[Cueball]] is thus a very sarcastic one.

It is possible that for a non-normal distribution of intelligence a median individual could be less intelligent than the mean. However, the statement as it is usually formulated (including here), "People are stupid," refers to humanity as a whole. White Hat's anecdotal and subjective experience has led him to make a statistically impossible statement.

White Hat's {{W|Illusory superiority|self-perceived superiority}} may be an example of the {{w|Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_effect|Lake Wobegon effect}}, so named because {{w|Lake Wobegon}} (a fictional city) is "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average".

The last panel may be a reference to the ''First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence'' which is a fictional award in the story of {{w|The Simpsons}} episode ''{{w|Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?}}'' where it is presented to {{w|Homer Simpson}}.

In the title text the other phrase about having ''lost their faith in humanity'' also gets a comment on the way from Cueball. There are people who use this phrase every time someone disagrees with them or say something they think is stupid. He jokes that he will let humanity (everyone other than the guy who makes the comment) know that he has lost faith in them - and very sarcastically remarks that humanity will probably be crushed (i.e. the rest of the world does not care if that guy has lost faith in them).

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are standing next to each other]
:White Hat: Well, you know, people are stupid.
:Cueball: *Sigh*

:[They have moved a little further apart]
:Cueball: No, people aren't stupid. On average, people are of average intelligence. When you say "people are stupid," you mean stupid compared to ''your'' expectations.

:[Close up of Cueball]
:Cueball: What you're really saying is "other people aren't as smart as '''me.'''"
:Cueball: And maybe you're right! In which case

:[White Hat is presented with a trophy by Cueball.]
:Cueball: I'd like to bestow upon you the
:[In the panel there is a close up of the trophy plaque (the text is in a frame):]
:First Annual Award for Excellence in Being Very Smart
:Cueball: May you continue to grace our internet with your wisdom

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

1386: People are Stupid

2014-10-23T07:31:01Z

Brion: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1386
| date = June 25, 2014
| title = People are Stupid
| image = people_are_stupid.png
| titletext = To everyone who responds to everything by saying they've 'lost their faith in humanity': Thanks--I'll let humanity know. I'm sure they'll be crushed.
}}

==Explanation==
It is a common thing for people on the Internet (on forums and comments sections of various websites) to make vague generalizations about the "stupidity of all people" or "losing faith in {{W|human|humanity}}," for instance when the topic is actually the stupidity or irrational/extreme behavior of one individual or group of individuals. Also the comment can come in any type of Internet forum, regardless of the subject.

However, the overall {{w|world population}} ("people") is not more stupid than the average - by definition. There is also no other human population to compare to to draw the conclusion this population is stupid. So it is a ''stupid'' comment that [[White Hat]] makes. The award being given to him by [[Cueball]] is thus a very sarcastic one.

It is possible that for a non-normal distribution of intelligence a median individual could be less intelligent than the mean. However, the statement as it is usually formulated (including here), "People are stupid," refers to humanity as a whole. White Hat's anecdotal and subjective experience has led him to make a statistically impossible statement.

White Hat's {{W|Illusory superiority|self-perceived superiority}} may be an example of the {{w|Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_effect|Lake Wobegon effect}}, so named because {{w|Lake Wobegon}} (a fictional city) is "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average".

The last panel may be a reference to the ''First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence'' which is a fictional award in the story of {{w|The Simpsons}} episode ''{{w|Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?}}'' where it is presented to {{w|Homer Simpson}}.

In the title text the other phrase about having ''lost their faith in humanity'' also gets a comment on the way from Cueball. There are people who use this phrase every time someone disagrees with them or say something they think is stupid. He jokes that he will let humanity (everyone other than the guy who makes the comment) know that he has lost faith in them - and very sarcastically remarks that humanity will probably be crushed (i.e. the rest of the world does not care if a single guy has lost faith in them).

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are standing next to each other]
:White Hat: Well, you know, people are stupid.
:Cueball: *Sigh*

:[They have moved a little further apart]
:Cueball: No, people aren't stupid. On average, people are of average intelligence. When you say "people are stupid," you mean stupid compared to ''your'' expectations.

:[Close up of Cueball]
:Cueball: What you're really saying is "other people aren't as smart as '''me.'''"
:Cueball: And maybe you're right! In which case

:[White Hat is presented with a trophy by Cueball.]
:Cueball: I'd like to bestow upon you the
:[In the panel there is a close up of the trophy plaque (the text is in a frame):]
:First Annual Award for Excellence in Being Very Smart
:Cueball: May you continue to grace our internet with your wisdom

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

1379: 4.5 Degrees

2014-10-16T11:59:45Z

Brion: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 1379
| date = June 9, 2014
| title = 4.5 Degrees
| image = 4_5_degrees.png
| titletext = The good news is that according to the latest IPCC report, if we enact aggressive emissions limits now, we could hold the warming to 2°C. That's only HALF an ice age unit, which is probably no big deal.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Do a comparison of an increase of 1 IAU with the most recent IPCC predictions that where around when this comic was written in the explanation section}}
This comic is a way to visualize changes in climate over the next century. The prediction presented, 4-5 degrees Celsius of warming, doesn't seem like a very large change, so [[Randall]] points out that 4.5 °C is the difference between the {{w|Last glacial period|last ice age}} and today. This is easy to see as a substantial difference. To give context to the number, he measures the temperature in "Ice Age Units," or IAU. 1 IAU is defined as the change in average global temperature by 4.5 degrees Celsius (8 °F), and defines 0 as the modern temperature.

:-4 IAU is associated with {{w|Snowball Earth}} and is 4 IAU colder than the modern {{w|global temperature}}. Snowball earth is a near-total freezing of the entire surface around 650 millions years ago. How much of the planet was actually frozen in the {{w|Cryogenian}} period is disputed but it could have been the greatest ice age known to have occurred on Earth.

:-1 IAU is associated with the last ice age and is 1 IAU colder than now. During this time Randall's neighborhood was buried under an ice sheet.

:+1 IAU is the predicted change by the year 2100 and is almost 1 IAU warmer than now. We don't know what its effects will be exactly, that is why it is represented by a large question mark in the comic.

:+2 IAU is associated with the {{w|Cretaceous Thermal Maximum|"Hothouse Earth"}} of the early {{w|Cretaceous period}} and is almost 2 IAU warmer than now.

An increase of 4.5 °C (+1 IAU) seems like a small change in temperature. The magnitude of the change is more apparent when it is stated as "halfway to having {{w|Arecaceae|palm trees}} at the poles" as there here were {{w|Polar forests of the Cretaceous|polar forests}} during the Cretaceous that grew in latitudes up to 85° in both Northern and Southern hemispheres.

The title text says that even with instant and aggressive emissions reduction, the temperature will still rise by roughly half an IAU (2 °C). While it says it's ''probably no big deal'', this is a joke, because even the equivalent of half an Ice Age Unit of warming would cause a huge climate change. The figure of 2 °C is the most commonly agreed {{w|Climate_change_mitigation#Temperature_targets|temperature target}}.

===Trivia===
The oldest known animal fossils ({{w|Sponges#Fossil_record|sponges}}) are from the Snowball Earth, while {{w|Flowering_plant#Evolution|flowering plants}} became the dominant plant species during the Cretaceous period. It is believed that the entire Earth was frozen for the first time about 2,400 to 2,100 million years ago, which could have been a result of the {{w|Great Oxygenation Event}}.

The 200 m {{w|Current sea level rise|sea level rise}} given in the last panel for a "Cretaceous Hothouse" (i.e. if all ice on earth melted, including the Antarctic ice cap) could not be explained by this melt-off alone. If all the ice melted the water level would only increase by about 60-80 m, according to {{w|Antarctica}}, [http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc_tar/?src=/climate/ipcc_tar/ IPCC Third Assessment Report] (section 11.2.3 on Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets) and [http://water.usgs.gov/edu/sealevel.html Sea Level and Climate: USGS Water-Science School]. Additional sea level rise can be expected from thermal expansion of seawater, and indeed the main reason for rising sea level at the moment is actually caused by this expansion of the sea due to increasing temperature. But the high-end 500-year projection for a 4x increase in CO2, at {{w|Current_sea_level_rise#IPCC_Third_Assessment|expansion of the sea}}, is for an additional 2 m due to thermal expansion, with a decreasing rate of growth over time.

The 5th and most recent {{w|Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change}} (IPCC AR5) presents four alternative trajectories for future concentrations of greenhouse gasses, termed {{w|Representative Concentration Pathways}} (RCPs): RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6, and RCP8.5. They are named after possible ranges of radiative forcing values in the year 2100 relative to pre-industrial values (+2.6, +4.5, +6.0, and +8.5 W/m2, respectively). The hottest of these, RCP8.5, is predicted to result in a warming of 2.6 °C to 4.8 °C by 2100 ([http://www.climate2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf Working Group I Summary for Policymakers]). This seems at odds with the 4-5 °C warming presented by Randall.

The lack of internationally binding agreements makes breaching an increase of 2 °C more and more likely.

==Transcript==
:Without prompt, aggressive limits on CO2 emissions, the Earth will likely warm by an average of 4°-5°C by the century’s end.
:'''HOW BIG A CHANGE IS THAT?'''

:[A ruler chart is drawn inside a frame.]
:In the coldest part of the last ice age, Earth’s average temperature was 4.5°C below the 20th century norm.
:Let’s call a 4.5°C difference one '''“Ice Age Unit.”'''

:[A ruler with five main divisions — each again with 3 smaller quarter division markers. Above it the five main divisions are marked as follows with 0 in the middle:]
:-2 IAU -1 IAU 0 +1 IAU +2 IAU
:[Next to the 0 marking a black arrow points toward 0.25 on the scale and above it is written:]
:Where we are today

:[The rest of the text is below the ruler.]
:[To the far left below -2 IAU a curved arrow points to the left. Below it is written:]
:Snowball earth (-4 IAU)
:[Below -1 IAU a black arrow point toward this division. Below the arrow is written:]
:20,000 years ago
:[Below this an image of a glacier. At the top of the image is written:]
:My neighborhood:
:[At the bottom of the image is an arrow pointing to the glacier:]
:Half a mile of ice
:[Below 0 IAU a black arrow point toward this division. Below the arrow is written:]
:Average during modern times
:[Below this an image of Cueball standing on a green field with a city skyline in the background. At the top of the image is written:]
:My neighborhood:
:Cueball: Hi!
:[Below +1 IAU a black arrow point toward this division. Below the arrow is written:]
:Where we’ll be in 86 years
:[Below this a white image. At the top of the image is written:]
:My neighborhood:
:[Below this is a very large:]
:'''?'''
:[Below +2 IAU a black arrow point toward this division. Below the arrow is written:]
:Cretaceous hothouse
:+200m sea level rise
:No glaciers
:Palm trees at the poles

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]

1379: 4.5 Degrees

2014-10-16T11:57:54Z

Brion: minor corrections

{{comic
| number = 1379
| date = June 9, 2014
| title = 4.5 Degrees
| image = 4_5_degrees.png
| titletext = The good news is that according to the latest IPCC report, if we enact aggressive emissions limits now, we could hold the warming to 2°C. That's only HALF an ice age unit, which is probably no big deal.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Do a comparison of an increase of 1 IAU with the most recent IPCC predictions that where around when this comic was written in the explanation section}}
This comic is a way to visualize changes in climate over the next century. The prediction presented, 4-5 degrees Celsius of warming, doesn't seem like a very large change, so [[Randall]] points out that 4.5 °C is the difference between the {{w|Last glacial period|last ice age}} and today. This is easy to see as a substantial difference. To give context to the number, he measures the temperature in "Ice Age Units," or IAU. 1 IAU is defined as the change in average global temperature by 4.5 degrees Celsius (8 °F), and defines 0 as the modern temperature.

:-4 IAU is associated with {{w|Snowball Earth}} and is 4 IAU colder than the modern {{w|global temperature}}. Snowball earth is a near-total freezing of the entire surface around 650 millions years ago. How much of the planet was actually frozen in the {{w|Cryogenian}} period is disputed but it could have been the greatest ice age known to have occurred on Earth.

:-1 IAU is associated with the last ice age and is 1 IAU colder than now. During this time Randall's neighborhood was buried under an ice sheet.

:+1 IAU is the predicted change by the year 2100 and is almost 1 IAU warmer than now. We don't know what its effects will be exactly, that is why it is represented by a large question mark in the comic.

:+2 IAU is associated with the {{w|Cretaceous Thermal Maximum|"Hothouse Earth"}} of the early {{w|Cretaceous period}} and is almost 2 IAU warmer than now.

An increase of 4.5 °C (+1 IAU) seems like a small change in temperature. The magnitude of the change is more apparent when it is stated as "halfway to having {{w|Arecaceae|palm trees}} at the poles" as there here were {{w|Polar forests of the Cretaceous|polar forests}} during the Cretaceous that grew in latitudes up to 85° in both Northern and Southern hemispheres.

The title text says that even with instant and aggressive emissions reduction, the temperature will still rise by roughly half an IAU (2 °C). While it says it's ''probably no big deal'', this is a joke, because even the equivalent of half an Ice Age Unit of warming would cause a huge climate change. The figure of 2 °C is the most commonly agreed {{w|Climate_change_mitigation#Temperature_targets|temperature target}}.

===Trivia===
The oldest known animal fossils ({{w|Sponges#Fossil_record|sponges}}) are from the Snowball Earth, while {{w|Flowering_plant#Evolution|flowering plants}} became the dominant plant species during the Cretaceous period. It is believed that the entire Earth was frozen occurred 2,400 to 2,100 million years ago for the first time, which could have been a result of the {{w|Great Oxygenation Event}}.

The 200 m {{w|Current sea level rise|sea level rise}} given in the last panel for a "Cretaceous Hothouse" (i.e. if all ice on earth melted, including the Antarctic ice cap) could not be explained by this melt-off alone. If all the ice melted the water level would only increase by about 60-80 m, according to {{w|Antarctica}}, [http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc_tar/?src=/climate/ipcc_tar/ IPCC Third Assessment Report] (section 11.2.3 on Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets) and [http://water.usgs.gov/edu/sealevel.html Sea Level and Climate: USGS Water-Science School]. Additional sea level rise can be expected from thermal expansion of seawater, and indeed the main reason for rising sea level at the moment is actually caused by this expansion of the sea due to increasing temperature. But the high-end 500-year projection for a 4x increase in CO2, at {{w|Current_sea_level_rise#IPCC_Third_Assessment|expansion of the sea}}, is for an additional 2 m due to thermal expansion, with a decreasing rate of growth over time.

The 5th and most recent {{w|Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change}} (IPCC AR5) presents four alternative trajectories for future concentrations of greenhouse gasses, termed {{w|Representative Concentration Pathways}} (RCPs): RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6, and RCP8.5. They are named after possible ranges of radiative forcing values in the year 2100 relative to pre-industrial values (+2.6, +4.5, +6.0, and +8.5 W/m2, respectively). The hottest of these, RCP8.5, is predicted to result in a warming of 2.6 °C to 4.8 °C by 2100 ([http://www.climate2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf Working Group I Summary for Policymakers]). This seems at odds with the 4-5 °C warming presented by Randall.

The lack of internationally binding agreements makes breaching an increase of 2 °C more and more likely.

==Transcript==
:Without prompt, aggressive limits on CO2 emissions, the Earth will likely warm by an average of 4°-5°C by the century’s end.
:'''HOW BIG A CHANGE IS THAT?'''

:[A ruler chart is drawn inside a frame.]
:In the coldest part of the last ice age, Earth’s average temperature was 4.5°C below the 20th century norm.
:Let’s call a 4.5°C difference one '''“Ice Age Unit.”'''

:[A ruler with five main divisions — each again with 3 smaller quarter division markers. Above it the five main divisions are marked as follows with 0 in the middle:]
:-2 IAU -1 IAU 0 +1 IAU +2 IAU
:[Next to the 0 marking a black arrow points toward 0.25 on the scale and above it is written:]
:Where we are today

:[The rest of the text is below the ruler.]
:[To the far left below -2 IAU a curved arrow points to the left. Below it is written:]
:Snowball earth (-4 IAU)
:[Below -1 IAU a black arrow point toward this division. Below the arrow is written:]
:20,000 years ago
:[Below this an image of a glacier. At the top of the image is written:]
:My neighborhood:
:[At the bottom of the image is an arrow pointing to the glacier:]
:Half a mile of ice
:[Below 0 IAU a black arrow point toward this division. Below the arrow is written:]
:Average during modern times
:[Below this an image of Cueball standing on a green field with a city skyline in the background. At the top of the image is written:]
:My neighborhood:
:Cueball: Hi!
:[Below +1 IAU a black arrow point toward this division. Below the arrow is written:]
:Where we’ll be in 86 years
:[Below this a white image. At the top of the image is written:]
:My neighborhood:
:[Below this is a very large:]
:'''?'''
:[Below +2 IAU a black arrow point toward this division. Below the arrow is written:]
:Cretaceous hothouse
:+200m sea level rise
:No glaciers
:Palm trees at the poles

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]

1342: Ancient Stars

2014-05-23T17:59:28Z

Brion: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 1342
| date = March 14, 2014
| title = Ancient Stars
| image = ancient_stars.png
| titletext = 'The light from those millions of stars you see is probably many thousands of years old' is a rare example of laypeople substantially OVERestimating astronomical numbers.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] makes the common observation that many of the visible stars in the sky are so distant that it takes thousands years for light from that star to reach Earth. However, the brightest star {{W|Sirius}} is one of the nearest at a mere 8.6 {{W|Light-year|light-years}} distance. In other words, the light that was arriving from Sirius in March 2014, when the comic was posted, was emitted some time around August 2005. The previous US president, {{W|George W. Bush}}, was in office from 2001 to 2009 and [[Megan]] notes that this isn't a terribly impressive observation.

The title text references the fact that most normal people have a hard time imagining the large scale of astronomical numbers. For example, the distance between astronomical bodies or the size of the Sun are hard to imagine; they typically underestimating them by many orders of magnitude smaller than they actually are. See this TV Tropes article [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale "Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale"] for more detail.

In this case, however, people instead overestimate both the number of visible stars and their distance by quite a bit. It's frequently cited that about 5,000 to 10,000 stars are visible in the sky by the naked eye. The {{W|Bright Star Catalogue}} is a star catalogue that lists all stars of {{W|apparent magnitude}} 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the naked eye from Earth. The catalog contains 9,110 objects, of which 9,096 are stars, ten are {{w|Nova|novae}} or {{w|supernovae}}, and four objects outside of our Milky Way (two {{w|globular cluster}}s and two {{w|open cluster}}s). To see most of these you need pretty good eyes and a very dark night. Also at any point on Earth you will of course only be able to see less than half of these as the rest are blocked by the Earth!

This list shows the {{W|Visible stars|91 brightest stars}}. Of these 59 are more than 100 light years away and only 6 are more than 1,000 light years away. The farthest on this list, {{W|Eta Canis Majoris|Aludra}}, is "only" 3,200 light years away. Our entire {{w|Milky Way}} contains up to 400 Billion (400x109) stars and has a diameter of 100,000 light years.

There are visible objects much farther away, like the {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}} which is 2.5 million light years away and made up of billions of stars.

==Transcript==
:All of the panels of this comic are white-on-black.

:[Megan and Cueball stand facing each other, looking up at the sky.]
:Cueball: Just think - the light from that start was emitted thousands of years ago. It could be long gone.

:[Cueball looks at Megan, who is still looking up.]
:Megan: That's Sirius. It's eight light-years away.

:[Cueball looks up again.]
:Cueball: Oh.

:[Both look at one another.]
:Cueball: Just think - the light from that star was emitted in the previous presidential administration.
:Megan: Hmm, doesn't pack quite the punch.

==Trivia==
*The star {{W|List of stars in Cassiopeia|V762 Cas}} in the {{W|Cassiopeia (constellation)|Cassiopeia constellation}} is listed as being 14818 light years away and still having an {{W|apparent magnitude}} of 5.87 - thus being within the visible 6.5 limit. If Cueball had been able to point this star out, he would have been correct. But it is only visible under perfect condition.

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

1338: Land Mammals

2014-05-20T01:46:41Z

Brion: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1338
| date = March 5, 2014
| title = Land Mammals
| image = land_mammals.png
| titletext = Bacteria still outweigh us thousands to one--and that's not even counting the several pounds of them in your body.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The division of animal blocks are clear but only 6 are labeled. Some qualified guesses as to how the other (at least the largest) blocks are divided should be possible... What about the layout of the blocks?}}

This comic is a [[Nerd Sniping]] by [[Randall]] to his viewers. This explain tries to figure out the missing parts.

The comic shows the total weight of mankind and all other land mammals.
Only a few centuries ago humans, and their pets and livestock, come to occupy such a great proportion of the earth's land mammal mass.

Per the diagram, there are 358 million tons of humans, 864 million tons of pets and livestock, of which 520 million tons comes from cattle, and 34 million tons of wild animals; for a total of 1.3 billion tons.

As of March 2014, the world population was about 7.16 billion people[https://www.census.gov/popclock/ 1] and so the comic assumes an ''average human'' weighs 50 kg: 7.16 billion people × 50 kg = 358 billion kg = 358 million tons. The BMC Public Health 2012 (12:439) article "[http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-12-439.pdf The weight of nations: an estimation of adult human biomass]" estimated the average ''adult'' weighed 62.0 kg ([http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-12-439.pdf#page=3 Table 3]), but the authors noted that their work "did not estimate the bio-mass in children who comprise a significant proportion of the population in many countries". The 50 kg estimate in this comic includes the 25% or more of the [http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-gender-age.php worlds population below 15 years of age] making the 12 kg reduction a credible adjustment.

Cattle, in aggregate, are much heavier than the human population, but we do manage to outweigh both sheep and pigs - which may come as a surprise - as these animals probably by far outweigh the population in the countries that produce the main part of the worlds meat from such animals.

It is interesting to note that the world's heaviest land dwelling animal - the elephant - only takes up one square! It is the only type of wild animal to be singled out in the comic.

There are 8 distinct blocks of wild animal (elephants and 7 others). There are 13 distinct blocks of pets and live stock (only the top 5 are labeled - in order of weight they are: Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Goats and Horses). Dogs would properly also take up a large part - but how detailed are the division of species...?

{{W|Water buffalo|Water buffalos}} seem to be missing completely. According to Wikipedia, there are {{W|List of even-toed ungulates by population|172 million}} of them with a weight of 300 - 550 kg each. With an average between 300-400 kg (depending on the number of calves) there is 50-70 million tons of them - giving them a much larger weight than goats, which would put them in fifth place in the table below.

The comic references the book [http://vaclavsmil.com/the-earths-biosphere-evolution-dynamics-and-change/ The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change] by {{W|Vaclav Smil}} as the source for most of the data - although a few other sources has also been used. These other sources are not referenced.

Note that only land dwelling mammals are taken into account - thus no whales. It is not clear as to where, for instance, seals, sea lions and walruses belong - although they could belong to land mammals as they spend a lot of time on land - as opposed to whales.

All other types of animals are not included. For instance, the weight of insects would outweigh us by far. Although not as much as the bacteria mentioned in the title text - they outweigh us thousands to one.

And that is without counting the part of our body weight that consist of bacteria: Several pounds. A fact that most people would properly like to ignore - which is a good reason to mention it here. These pounds are already counted as part of the total human weight.

There has been some speculation about the design of the blocks. They could be seen as resembling a cell (a bacterium). An extra joke in this could be that a little more than thousand blocks representing mammal weight has been used to sketch this bacterium and bacteria outweighs the mammals on this order.

==Table of the block sizes==

*The table below ranks each group of blocks from 1 to 22 according to the size of the group = the number of blocks. The number of blocks represents the weight of the group in millions of tons = billions of kg.
*The comic contains a total of 1256 blocks in three colors representing the 1.256 billion tons of land dwelling mammals.
**358 million tons from humans - dark grey color
**864 million tons from mammalian pets and livestock - light grey color
**34 million tons of wild land dwelling mammals - green color

:Feel free to enter a comment on the groups especially those that are not already identified.

:The population should only be be stated (in millions) if it can found through references - the XKCD average weight (in kg) is then given from the number of blocks in the group.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width: auto; text-align: center; font-size: 95%; table-layout: fixed; line-height:1.25"
|-
! Rank
! # Blocks
! Type
! Text
!Population (millions)
!Weight (kg)
!Notes/comments
|-
| {{sort|00001|1}}
| {{sort|00520|520}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Cattle
| {{sort|01000|1000}}
| {{sort|00520|520}}
| They only outweighs us by weight - not by numbers - there has been a stable [http://www.statista.com/statistics/263979/global-cattle-population-since-1990/ population] of about {{W|List of even-toed ungulates by population|1 billion cattle}} since 2007.
|-
| {{sort|00002|2}}
| {{sort|00358|358}}
| Humans
|
| {{sort|07152|7152}}
| {{sort|00050.1|50.1}}
| According to the U.S. Census Bureau's [http://www.census.gov/popclock/ population counter], there were 7.1516 billion people in the world as of March 4, 2014.
|-
| {{sort|00003|3}}
| {{sort|00135|135}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Sheep
| {{sort|01000|1000}}
| {{sort|00135|135}}
|There are about {{W|List of even-toed ungulates by population|1 billion sheep}} according to Wikipedia. The {{W|Domestic_sheep#Description_and_evolution|average sheep}} weight of 135 kg seems highly exaggerated as only the rams can weigh more then that.
|-
| {{sort|00004|4}}
| {{sort|00090|90}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Pigs
| {{sort|01500|1000/2100?}}
| {{sort|00065|43/90?}}
| According to Wikipedia, the {{W|Pig#Distribution_and_evolution|population of pigs}} is about {{W|List of even-toed ungulates by population|1 billion}}. According to the [http://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/psdReport.aspx?hidReportRetrievalName=Swine+Summary+Selected+Countries&hidReportRetrievalID=1649&hidReportRetrievalTemplateID=7 2nd reference] given for this in the wiki article, there is, however, 1.3 billions, and then 0.8 billion more (probably piglets) for a total of 2.1 billion? The piglets will not weigh much though.
|-
| {{sort|00005|5}}
| {{sort|00039|39}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Goats
| {{sort|00864|864}}
| {{sort|00045|45}}
| The goat population can be summed to 864 million from {{W|Goat#Worldwide_goat_population_statistics|Wikipedia's goat article}}. According to this list there are {{W|List of even-toed ungulates by population|850 million goats}}.
|-
| {{sort|00006|6}}
| {{sort|00029|29}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Horses
| {{sort|00058|58}}
| {{sort|00500|500}}
| According to Wikipedia there is a population of {{W|List of odd-toed ungulates by population|58 million}} horses. Horses can {{W|Horse#Size_and_measurement|weigh from 400-1000 kg}}. There are probably not that many foals compared to adults, as for instance for cattle and pigs.
|-
| {{sort|00007|7}}
| {{sort|00013|13}}
| Pets/Livestock
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00008|8}}
| {{sort|00010|10}}
| Wild animals
|
|
|
| The largest grouping of wild animals, less than 1/50 of the weight of cattle - although representing almost a third of all the wild land mammals.
|-
| {{sort|00009|9}}
| {{sort|00008|8}}
| Pets/Livestock
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00010|T10}}
| {{sort|00007|7}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Camel?
| {{sort|00017|17}}
| {{sort|00412|412}}
|Wikipedia lists 17M as the number of camels. An average based on wikipedia numbers for male and female is about 500kg. So including the non-adult camels an average around 400 kg seems as a realistic estimate.
|-
| {{sort|00010|T10}}
| {{sort|00007|7}}
| Pets/Livestock
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00010|T10}}
| {{sort|00007|7}}
| Wild animals
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00013|13}}
| {{sort|00006|6}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Dogs?
| {{sort|00400|400}}
| {{sort|00015|15}}
|According to Wikipedia, there are 400M dogs worldwide. Assuming an average size at 15kg, gives 6 blocks. Small dog=2 kg large dog = 100 kg the log average is about 15 kg.
|-
| {{sort|00014|T14}}
| {{sort|00005|5}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Donkeys?
| {{sort|00041|41}}
| {{sort|00122|122}}
| There are roughly 41 Million {{w|Donkey#Present status|donkeys}} on earth and the average weight is about 125 kg
|-
| {{sort|00014|T14}}
| {{sort|00005|5}}
| Wild animals
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00016|16}}
| {{sort|00004|4}}
| Wild animals
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00017|T17}}
| {{sort|00003|3}}
| Pets/Livestock
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00017|T17}}
| {{sort|00003|3}}
| Wild animals
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00019|T19}}
| {{sort|00002|2}}
| Pets/Livestock
| Cats?
| {{sort|00500|500}}
| {{sort|00004|4}}
|Wikipedia quotes 500M domestic cats worldwide, with an average weight of 4.5 kg. So with kittens 4 kg may seem very realistic.
|-
| {{sort|00019|T19}}
| {{sort|00002|2}}
| Wild animals
|
|
|
|
|-
| {{sort|00019|T19}}
| {{sort|00002|2}}
| Wild animals
| Rats
| {{sort|04000|4000}}
| {{sort|000005|0.5}}
|A rat in the wild {{W|Rat#Species_and_description|seldom weigh over 500 g}}. {{W|World Health Organization|WHO}} estimate of 4 Billion rats (citation needed) and a comparable number of mice (The {{W|House_mouse#Characteristics|House mouse}} weighs only about 20 g and mice would thus only fill 0.08 block).
|-
| {{sort|00022|22}}
| {{sort|00001|1}}
| Wild animals
| Elephants
| {{sort|00000.75|0.75}}
| {{sort|01300|1300}}
| The only wild animal to be singled out with text - also the heaviest land dwelling animal - but still only take up one block. According to Wikipedia the wild poulation of the {{W|African elephant}} is around 700,000 (decreased from 1.3 mill in the 90s). For the {{W|Asian elephant}} it is as low as 40-50,000. For a total of 750,000 individuals. Any animals in the zoo or domesticated Asian elephants should not be counted. As adult African female elephants (who is probably the most abundant) weigh 2-3 ton, 1.3 ton seems a little low, especially since their is not a lot of calves as the elephants have a long lifespan. However, even with an average weight of 2 ton, the total weight would only be 1.5 million ton, and could be rounded down to 1 block...
|-
|}

==Transcript==
:'''Earth's LAND MAMMALS by weight'''

:[A block indicating the value of each block:] = 1,000,000 tons

:[Dark gray block:] Humans
:[Light gray block:] Our pets and livestock
:[Green block:] Wild animals

:[The rest of the comic consist of blocks representing the weight of mammals. Some of the blocks are labeled:]
:*Cattle
:*Pigs
:*Goats
:*Sheep
:*Elephants
:*Horses

:Data from Vaclav Smil's ''The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change'', plus a few other sources.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1311: 2014

2014-03-13T17:08:17Z

Brion: Minor edit

Just a note that the PNG file for this comic is (or was initially) actually a TIFF file with a PNG extension. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.19|108.162.236.19]] 05:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)
:And now it's fixed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 06:07, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

I presume most of the quotes are genuine, but surely Randall has made up the one about subsisting on jellies? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.219|141.101.99.219]] 11:08, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:I wouldn't be so sure. The Book-Lover - Vol. 4. (No. 17 to 22) 1903 [http://www.abebooks.com/Book-Lover-Vol-1903-Poe-Edgar-Allan/1224029705/bd contains] Poe, Edgar Allan and Dickens, Charles and Emerson, Ralph Waldo ... maybe it refers to some of Poe's horror stories? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:10, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Spherical jelliies and creams were very fashionable in the era in which it was written, so it may have been simply a prediction of great luxury for the future. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.4|108.162.237.4]] 14:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)(Kyt)

:Here's the Book-lover reference: [http://books.google.com/books?id=jaA5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA264&lpg=PA264&dq=%22subsist+entirely+upon+jellies%22+wells&source=bl&ots=HsYajMhDZP&sig=yU1TMIIUcNQfh_-TUh4raXboYn8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OEPEUuq0MtDzoATWzYHwAw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22%20wells&f=false]
::Two sections from the H.G. Wells book it came from (When the Sleeper Wakes):
::"There were several very comfortable chairs, a light table on silent runners carrying several bottles of fluids and glasses, and two plates bearing a clear substance like jelly."
::"They gave him some pink fluid with a greenish fluorescence and a meaty taste, and the assurance of returning strength grew."
:::-- Jim Gillogly [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.15|108.162.215.15]] 16:50, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Ok ... William Carey Jones quote: [https://archive.org/stream/universitycalif08goog/universitycalif08goog_djvu.txt] ... I would say that while technically true, he didn't meant it because he doesn't refer to first world war but instead some problems of American democracy which were probably forgotten ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Christopher Baldwin: [http://books.google.cz/books?id=Fiu4czMiCeYC] ... I would say good luck with preserving everything printed :-), but the idea is certainly good and projects like Google Books are attempting to solve the problem he was talking about. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:25, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

::Actually, no. Google Books is trying to make printed books accessible on-line. That does not make them more preserved, just more accessible. Paper books (provided they're printed on acid-free paper) are actually more likely to be preserved and readable two centuries from now than are electronic media, which must be periodically refreshed. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.87}}

Found the reference to Shakespearian rope bridges...
http://books.google.com/books?id=BJIeAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=oriental+herald+postmaster&source=bl&ots=7_NUMfRlPW&sig=6d6WLenjQBjOiGJBDoQjIa-FYkk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Q0XEUuKbKsTpoATP-4HgCg&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=oriental%20herald%20postmaster&f=false {{unsigned|Androgenoide}}

Found the reference to Spherical jellies: http://books.google.com/books?id=8IckAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA87&ots=WRVY13FRwM&dq=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22&f=false [[User:Zeeprime|Zeeprime]] ([[User talk:Zeeprime|talk]]) 17:57, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Found another reference to Shakespearian rope bridges. In short, some British officer called Mr. Shakespeare experimented and promoted the use of rope suspension bridges in India, apparently for the ease of colonization and military operations. http://books.google.com/books?id=aZRPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA367 -furrypony [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.181|173.245.48.181]] 21:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

This looks like the actual rope bridge quote: http://books.google.com/books?id=8nyrbv2d_EUC&pg=PA115&dq=oriental+herald+%22bard+of+avon%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g5_IUruFMIyPkAffrIDIAQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=oriental%20herald%20%22bard%20of%20avon%22&f=false {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.11}}

Is it possible that the highlighted words can be shuffled to reveal a hidden message? Has Randall done this before? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.214|141.101.99.214]] 07:53, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

The fourth quote (.."rocked and cradled by electricity"..) seems to appear in The Champagne Standard by LANE, Annie Eichberg (Mrs. John Lane). [http://archive.org/stream/champagnestandar00lane/champagnestandar00lane_djvu.txt] {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.224}}

;regarding the languages of new york city

http://languagehat.com/doing-field-linguistics-in-new-york-city/ {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.168}}
----
;Tone of the explanation

I find the tone of the explanation as it stands right now not to be in line with the rest of the explanations available on the site. For example:

By the twenty-first century I believe we shall all be telepaths.
Absurd

The plain "absurd" does not provide an explanation, only a judgement. It would be more useful it the explanation contained a link to a source with the quote, to provide context. Or provide a short bio for the person credited with the explanation. I understand the fascination behind arguing against or for the prediction, but that does not explain the comic. For example, you '''could''' argue that this particular prediction is in a sense accurate. Nowadays we all communicate in a way that people from a century ago would consider almost telepathic, given that "telepathy" means "distant experience". No, we are not mind readers, but a lot of us carry a device in our pockets that allows us to experience things at a distance.

Also, I wonder why some sentences are in boldface. I tried reading only the bold text, and it is not coherent enough. I tried reading the grey text, and it isn't coherent either. I tried several other ways of reading the texts, and I cannot find any "hidden meaning".

:I believe it's just to highlight content. The grey or non-bold text is (for the most part) non-essential to the content of the quote. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.213}}

--[[User:Mem|mem]] ([[User talk:Mem|talk]]) 16:10, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

:I see I'm not the only one who thought of cellphones when he read that sentence. I've edited the article to reflect this explanation. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 17:39, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

It seems to me that Randall believes that bolded text is false and grey text is true.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.62|173.245.50.62]] 16:13, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
:This makes no sense. Most of the grey text has little content, and Abortion is still a very debated topic. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.213}}
: I think it's just for emphasis. He used a similar style in [[1227: The Pace of Modern Life]] to highlight the bits that particularly resonate with modern times, e.g., the writer in 1905 who complained that people converse while riding their bikes, oblivious to their surroundings. [[User:Fryhole|Fryhole]] ([[User talk:Fryhole|talk]]) 20:53, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

There is also the recent budding prospect of technologically assisted telepathy, such as was recently done with small laboratory rodents. While not exactly "everyone" just yet, (ahem), the prospect is certainly not "absurd". Technologically enabled telepathy certainly looks possible, and given the rate of technological progress of this century, the prediction could well come true.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/two-rats-communicate-brain-to-brain-130227.htm

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.84|108.162.221.84]] 17:06, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

''Technologically assisted telepathy'' redefines the word telepathy. For example Random House says ''communication between minds by some means '''other than sensory perception''''' (my emphasis). Collins: ''the communication between people of thoughts, feelings, desires, etc, involving mechanisms that '''cannot be understood in terms of known scientific laws''''' (my emphasis). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 17:51, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

Note also that the novel is talking about natural telepathy, like the one birds may have. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 22:15, 4 January 2014 (UTC)
----
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.208|108.162.219.208]] 17:16, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
I suspect that most -- but not all -- of the "predictions" are apocryphal. For instance, I can indeed find the Gumbril (not "Gumbriel") character and citation in Huxley's "Antic Hay". However, the statement attributed to a methodist preacher and proselytizer (who really existed) in Upper Canada in 1864 seems to me totally out of character, and very hard to believe for the period. It was essentially the French who called themselves "Canadiens". The "others" still saw the place they lived in as an extension of the UK. To wit, John A. MacDonald, who famously wired "Send me another $10,000", also said "A British Subject I was born, a British Subject I shall die".

;electric baby rearing

It should be noted that this quote was wrong about making love being a sanctuary from electric devices. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.78}}
----
Regarding languages spoken: according to

http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size

English is only third in languages spoken as primary language after Chinese and Spanish, while closely followed by Hindi and Arabic. I would not be too sure, if English will win out in NYC.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.222|108.162.231.222]] 17:19, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

According to this report from the New York State comptroller's office dated 2006,

http://www.osc.state.ny.us/osdc/rpt3-2007queens.pdf

there are about 170 languages spoken in Queens. If that's at all accurate, it means that language diversity in New York hasn't shrunk but indeed nearly tripled.

--[[User:Dotour|Dotour]] ([[User talk:Dotour|talk]]) 10:21, 4 January 2014 (UTC)
----
I think the quote about colleges, football, and partying is included as an aversion. Football is still huge in the south, and partying everywhere. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.60|173.245.50.60]] 16:53, 25 January 2014 (UTC) (P.S. Apparently this comment got eaten by ??? so I had to post it twice. Weird.)

----
If not a typo, is it worth mentioning that the guy in the title text is called "Shakespear" not "Shakespeare" but all you modern guys apparently ignored the difference? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.56|108.162.215.56]] 15:31, 9 February 2014 (UTC)
:Could be a typo in the quoted Oriental Herald article. The book referenced above spells it "Shakespeare". [[User:Brion|Brion]] ([[User talk:Brion|talk]]) 17:08, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

1311: 2014

2014-03-13T16:56:46Z

Brion: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1311
| date = January 1, 2014
| title = 2014
| image = 2014.png
| titletext = Some future reader, who may see the term, without knowing the history of it, may imagine that it had reference to some antiquated bridge of the immortal Poet, thrown across the silver Avon, to facilitate his escape after some marauding excursion in a neighbouring park; and in some Gentleman's Magazine of the next century, it is not impossible, but that future antiquaries may occupy page after page in discussing so interesting a matter. We think it right, therefore, to put it on record in the Oriental Herald that the 'Shakesperian Rope Bridges' are of much less classic origin; that Mr Colin Shakespear, who, besides his dignity as Postmaster, now signs himself 'Superintendent General of Shakesperian Rope Bridges', is a person of much less genius than the Bard of Avon. --The Oriental Herald, 1825
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs information on how much has come true, also information in general. This is also the longest title text?|1311: 2014}}
The comic includes many predictions from the 1800s and early 1900s. Many of them are for the twenty-first century in general, and only three specifically mention 2014 (two of them as in "a century from now").

*It's desirable '''every thing printed should be preserved,''' for we '''cannot now tell how useful it may become''' two centuries hence.
:A good idea. Now, with Google Books, this can be done in an easier manner.

*I predict that a century hence the '''Canadian people''' will be '''the noblest specimens of humanity on the face of the earth''' (1863)
:Notably, there is a common joke nowadays that Canadians are always calm, mellow, polite peoples, even when insulting others.
:The rest of the quote goes as follows: ''all that was good in the Celt, the Saxon, the Gaul and other races, combining to form neither English, Irish, nor Welsh, but Canadians, who would take their place among the churches of Christendom and the nations of the earth.
:This religious prediction probably wasn't believed even by its author. It's only a harangue.''

*In the twenty-first century '''mankind will subsist entirely upon jellies.'''
:Concentrates, which are gelatine like, form a large part of our food sources.
:Absurd if taken literally, but if he's talking about processed foods in general then he's not too far from the mark.

*The twenty-first century baby is destined to be rocked and cradled by electricity, warmed and coddled by electricity, perhaps fathered and mothered by electricity. '''Probably the only thing he will be left to do unaided will be to make love.'''
:Probably an exaggeration even in its time
:But still valid to some degree, as many electronics are used in rearing children today. From incubators, warming blankets, walkie-talkies, etc to the TV.
:On the same coin, however, these are merely tools of assistance; the process of child-''rearing'' is still a human task by and large.
:Of course, with Viagra, Cialis, vibrators, and other kinkier toys, we don't even have to make love unaided.

*To-day, in the city of New York, sixty-six different tongues are spoken. '''A century hence, there will probably be only one.''' (1907)
:False. The number of languages spoken in New York City is believed to be greater than 100; some estimate as many as 800 languages are spoken there. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in the greater New York metropolitan area, almost 7 million people speak a language other than English at home, including over 3.5 million who speak Spanish, 2 million who speak other Indo-European languages, 1 million who speak Asian or Pacific Island languages, and 300,000 who speak other languages. Also, New York City is the location of the headquarters of the United Nations, with diplomats from nearly every country in the world, and several official languages.

*I often think '''what interesting history we are making for the student of the twenty-first century.''' (William Carey Jones, 1908)
:Referring to {{w|World War I}}. In 1908, {{w|Bosnian crisis|Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina}}. This led to the {{w|Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria|Sarajevo Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria}} in 1914 that is considered the starting event of the World War.

*China may be a '''great shoe market''' a decade or a century from now. (1914)
:While it is true in 2013/14, the context behind it was false, as the premise originally was that the business in the western world could export shoes to China, when currently, most of the shoes are actually manufactured in China itself and exported to western world.
:Ironically though, the profits from the shoe selling go to overseas companies.

*'''We cannot settle the problem,''' and I venture the prophecy that perhaps '''a century from now this same question may be brought before some future society and discussed very much as it is tonight.''' (1914, on abortion)
:True - it is still heavily debated.

*By the twenty-first century '''we shall all be telepaths.''' ''(A character in Aldous Huxley's novel "Antic Hay")''
:Since the quote talks about natural telepathy (like the one apparently birds have) this prediction has not been fulfilled. For example the Wikipedia article on {{w|Telepathy}} states: ''Scientific consensus does not view telepathy as a real phenomenon.''
:More context for this prediction [http://books.google.com/books?id=pdXj2SZ1mT8C&pg=PA205]:
:“And it’s my firm belief,” said Gumbril Senior, adding notes to his epic, “that they [the birds] make use of some sort of telepathy, some kind of direct mind-to-mind communication between themselves. You can’t watch them without coming to that conclusion.” [...] “It’s a faculty,” Gumbril Senior went on, “we all possess, I believe. All we animals.” [...] “By the twenty-first century, I believe, we shall all be telepaths. Meanwhile, these delightful birds have forestalled us.”

*The physician of the twenty-first century… may even criticize the language of the times, and may find that '''some of our words have become as offensive to him as the term “lunatic” has become offensive to us.'''
:While the word "lunatic" isn't considered offensive anymore, but merely derogatory, it would never be used in a clinical sense. At the time this was written, more specific terms such as "schizophrenic" were preferred, but now the noun use of that term (i.e., referring to the patient as "a schizophrenic") is itself deprecated in favor of more humanizing terms like "a patient with schizophrenia."
:He correctly predicts the trajectory of terms like "{{w|mentally retarded}}", itself adopted by his day to replace earlier terms for the intellectually disabled, such as "moron" and "imbecile", which had become pejorative. Soon enough the word "retard" joined them in that regard, and it now has largely been abandoned as a medical term.

*Historians of the twenty-first century will look back with well-placed scorn on the '''shallow-minded days''' of the early twentieth century '''when football games and petting parties were considered the most important elements of a college education.'''
:While media still encourages such images, colleges start to be much more career oriented. Also, due to incidents involving sex-themed frosh weeks, there was actually a greater emphasis to condemn sexual activities among college students

*'''In the year A.D. 2014''' journalists will be writing on the centenary of the great war - '''that is, if there has not been a greater war.'''
:July 28, 2014 marks 100 years since the beginning of {{w|World War I}} (popularly called "The Great War" at the time), thus journalists will definitely write articles of this war. More than 9 million combatants were killed. However, unfortunately, there was a greater war, {{w|World War II}}, which killed around 25 million soldiers and an even greater number of civilians. Due to the larger scope, easily identifiable heroes and villains, and other factors, the second war occupies a much greater place in our collective memory.

The title text refers to a certain British officer, Mr. Colin Shakespeare, who experimented and promoted the use of rope suspension bridges in India, apparently for the ease of colonization and military operations.[http://books.google.com/books?id=aZRPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA367] The reference to "River Avon" is about the river of {{w|River Avon (Warwickshire)|Avon in Warwickshire}}, Stratford upon Avon being the town where Shakespeare (the playwright) was born and where he lived until his early twenties. The author is aware of the potential confusion that might result after decades or centuries have washed away the context, a topic xkcd has previously covered in [[771: Period Speech]]. As such, the author makes a point to separate the two Shakespeares.

==Transcript==
:(This is a series of quotes from various people of various timeframes. Each quote is followed by the author, the document of publication if applicable, and the year.)
:'''Notes from the past'''
:It's desirable '''every thing printed should be preserved,''' for we '''cannot now tell how useful it may become''' two centuries hence.
::Christopher Baldwin
:::1834

:I predict that a century hence the '''Canadian people''' will be '''the noblest specimens of humanity on the face of the earth'''
::Rev. John Bredin
:::1863

:In the twenty-first century '''mankind will subsist entirely upon jellies.'''
::''The Booklover''
:::1903

:The twenty-first century baby is destined to be rocked and cradled by electricity, warmed and coddled by electricity, perhaps fathered and mothered by electricity. '''Probably the only thing he will be left to do unaided will be to make love.'''
::Mrs. John Lane, ''The fortnightly''
:::1905

:To-day, in the city of New York, sixty-six different tongues are spoken. '''A century hence, there will probably be only one.'''
::''The American Historical Magazine''
:::1907

:I often think '''what interesting history we are making for the student of the twenty-first century.'''
::Willian Carey Jones
:::1908

:China may be a '''great shoe market''' a decade or a century from now.
::''Boot and Shoe Recorder''
:::1914

:'''We cannot settle the problem,''' and I venture the prophecy that perhaps '''a century from now this same question may be brought before some future society and discussed very much as it is tonight.'''
::Dr. Barton C. Hirst on the subject of '''abortion'''
:::1914

:By the twenty-first century I believe '''we shall all be telepaths.'''
::Gumbriel, character in ''Antic Hay''
:::1923

:The physician of the twenty-first century… may even criticize the language of the times, and may find that '''some of our words have become as offensive to him as the term “lunatic” has become offensive to us.'''
::Dr. C. Macfie Campbell
:::1924

:Historians of the twenty-first century will look back with well-placed scorn on the '''shallow-minded days''' of the early twentieth century '''when football games and petting parties were considered the most important elements of a college education.'''
::Mary Eileen Ahern, ''Library Bureau''
:::1926

:'''In the year A.D. 2014''' journalists will be writing on the centenary of the great war - '''that is, if there has not been a greater war.'''
::F.J.M, ''The Journalist''
:::1934

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1280: Mystery News

2013-12-28T18:32:40Z

Brion: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1280
| date = October 20, 2013
| title = Mystery News
| image = mystery news.png
| titletext = If you find and stop the video, but you've--against all odds--gotten curious about the trade summit, just leave the tab opened. It will mysteriously start playing again 30 minutes later!
}}

==Explanation==
With the introduction of tabbed browsing, many users, even on widescreens, will have so many tabs open that it is hard to find any given one. At 44 tabs on Google Chrome on a 1080p screen, the user can no longer see any text on the tabs. Long before this point (~20 tabs), the text is so short as to be unusable. Randall refers to this tendency to open many tabs without closing them in this comic.

Many modern tabbed browsers can remember what tabs were open upon closure (if this setting is on), and will reload the same tabs on startup. This will start any auto-playing videos (such as YouTube videos) which appear on any of the open pages. This situation can also occur during browsing when an auto-playing video does not begin playing until after a user has moved on to a new tab, when a page with a video refreshes in the background, or when a site with such a video automatically opens in a tab that does not become the active tab when it opens.

This generally leads the user to clicking through all of the open tabs to try to find where the sound is coming from. This can be even more difficult if the video is not obvious and not centered on the screen of whatever tab it is playing in.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sitting at a laptop.]
:Laptop: It's day five of the trade summit, and still no...
:Cueball: ''Dammit''
:''click click click''

:I get most of my news from autoplaying videos in browser tabs I can't find.

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

Talk:1277: Ayn Random

2013-12-20T02:33:59Z

Brion: still missing backslashes

I think that should be /(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i.

[[Special:Contributions/173.66.108.213|173.66.108.213]] 05:12, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

I agree. I was confused for a while about what the b's were doing.

[[Special:Contributions/99.126.178.56|99.126.178.56]] 06:57, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Maybe it's time to have an Ayn Rand category? --[[Special:Contributions/141.89.226.146|141.89.226.146]] 07:34, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Can someone explain to the mathematically challenged *how* the list of names fits the regular expression? [[Special:Contributions/141.2.75.23|141.2.75.23]] 09:14, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
: Agreed, I would like to understand what the hell is going on with that. --[[User:Zagorath|Zagorath]] ([[User talk:Zagorath|talk]]) 09:20, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
: How specific do you want it? Basically it matches two words consisting of the letters plurandy. The list of names is just a random selection of two part names that only consists of these letters. More specifically it matches: Two groups ({2}), each consisting of a word boundary (\b), followed by a non-empty sequence of the letters plurandy ([plurandy]+), followed by a word boundary (\b), finally followed by an optional space ( ?). [[User:Pmakholm|Pmakholm]] ([[User talk:Pmakholm|talk]]) 09:33, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
::Also, the /'s on the end delimit the regex proper, and the `i` on the end denotes case insensitivity. --[[Special:Contributions/75.66.178.177|75.66.178.177]] 09:39, 14 October
2013 (UTC)
:::In the explanation of how the regex works after the explanation "'''the {2} on the end means to repeat the pattern, so it must match exactly twice'''" I think you need an explanation of how the optional space in the middle interacts with the word boundaries. I.e.
::::(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}
:::Expanding:
::::\b[plurandy]+\b ?\b[plurandy]+\b ?
:::Now the optional space at the end is redundant, and the space in the center is not optional, since if there is no space the word boundaries do not exist. If the space is present the word boundaries are redundent because letter space letter sequence always matches them.
::::\b[plurandy]+ [plurandy]+\b ?
:::And this now closely matches the text description "'''Overall, it matches two words separated by a space, composed entirely of the letters in [plurandy], which is what all the names listed have in common.'''" --[[Special:Contributions/108.17.2.71|108.17.2.71]] 17:26, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
:Some examples
:* "Ru Paul" would match, because it is two sequences, each containing only capital or lowercase versions of the listed letters.
:* "Randall Flagg" would not match, because the letters F and G are not in the bracketed list.
:* "Aura Anaya Adlar" would not match; even though the letters are all in the list, there are more than two sequences.
:Hope this helps!
:[[User:Swartzer|Swartzer]] ([[User talk:Swartzer|talk]]) 20:24, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
[[Special:Contributions/209.132.186.34|209.132.186.34]] 09:26, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

I do not think Randal would make such mistake, he would probably use \< \> anyway... unless, he wants us
to think he did mistake, or that backslash was eliminated in html/javascript... thus poining ut to
source code of the page... is there something interesting?
: I skimmed over the source and didn't see anything unusual. The '\'s are absent from the source too. I think it's just that Randall (or a tool he's using) was so affraid of [[327|Bobby Tables]] that he stripped all backslashes from the alt text. {{unsigned|Jahvascriptmaniac}}
::The title text at xkcd.com now has the missing backslashes. Do you normally update the comic here to reflect updates?--[[Special:Contributions/108.17.2.71|108.17.2.71]] 16:14, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
:::Already updated. You were saying?
::::Hmm, backslashes are still missing for me when viewing the original at xkcd.com (viewing in Chrome) [[User:Brion|Brion]] ([[User talk:Brion|talk]]) 02:33, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

Can someone explain to me where "In their view, if some humans are born more capable of satisfying their desires than other people, they deserve to reap greater rewards from life than others" comes from? I'm somewhat familiar with objectivist philosophy and I've never heard this put forward as an actual principle. [[Special:Contributions/50.90.39.56|50.90.39.56]] 14:14, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
:Objectivism is the target for much scorn and ridicule in the intellectual world, for its being an inconsistent philosophy that has the sole objective of justifying selfishness and elevating it towards moral righteousness. It's used as the basis for libertarian thought and other radical capitalist economical theories and political stances which promote shameless exploitation (and this attracts further hatred). Randall is no exception to this trend of detractors, and I'd say rightfully so. Ayn Rand's writings are particularly awful, both aesthetically and content-wise, yet in the US a relatively large group of philosophers still adhere to her maxims and the debate continues.{{unsigned ip|37.221.160.203}}

Most people would write the regexp as /(\b[adlnpruy]+\b ?){2}/i. Using "plurandy" makes it look like a word, which is more confusing than using the letters' natural order. --[[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 15:58, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Would it be better to identify Alan Alda not for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in MASH, but for his role in The West Wing as Arnold Vinick, a fiscally-conservative Republican presidential candidate? [[Special:Contributions/193.67.17.36|193.67.17.36]] 16:03, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

:Depends, are we trying to remind him to general audience (I think MASH is more known) or find out why he was included in list? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:50, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

There is probably an additional joke or three in that the regex is the minimum needed to capture the first three names together (hinted at by "plurandy" eg plural rand) , but also captures the others. on top of which all of the listed people are considered "intrinsically better" (by virtue of fame if nothing else)[[Special:Contributions/74.213.201.51|74.213.201.51]] 03:14, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Alan Ladd may have been a founding member of the Secret Council of /(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i. [[Special:Contributions/71.190.237.117|71.190.237.117]] 07:15, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

It's probably obvious to most programmers, but is it worth pointing out that part of the pun is that the random number generator function is called rand() in most C-family languages? [[Special:Contributions/130.60.156.183|130.60.156.183]] 14:07, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Another member of this secret society is Randall P [[Special:Contributions/79.182.178.53|79.182.178.53]] 16:45, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

From above: "Objectivism is the target for much scorn and ridicule in the intellectual world, for its being an inconsistent philosophy that has the sole objective of justifying selfishness and elevating it towards moral righteousness. It's used as the basis for libertarian thought and other radical capitalist economical theories and political stances which promote shameless exploitation (and this attracts further hatred). Randall is no exception to this trend of detractors, and I'd say rightfully so. Ayn Rand's writings are particularly awful, both aesthetically and content-wise, yet in the US a relatively large group of philosophers still adhere to her maxims and the debate continues." OK, but a few comments: All philosophies are inconsistent when looked at closely enough, refer Godel and others. Others do not see the inconsistency in Objectivism quite so plainly as in the quoted comment. Ayn Rand and Objectivism are not "the" basis of libertarian thought, there are far more highly thought of libertarian thinkers, a list of whom should come readily to mind to any of those occupying "the intellectual world" (sic), whether or not they have sympathy with libertarian ideas. It is also unfair to characterise Objectivism as having as its "sole" objective that as stated. Further, as a general principle, one ought not to take someone poking fun at a concept as *proof* that they are quite as opposed to it as you are. Now, whereas I would not categorise myself quite as a fellow traveller, a much fairer view of Objectivism is found at WP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand) [[Special:Contributions/81.135.136.159|81.135.136.159]] 11:22, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

:Other philosophies are no more consistent, agreed. But other philosophies do not claim perfect "objective" consistency as their fundamental principle. Attacking Objectivism/Objectivists for lack of internal consistency--or for not recognizing that at some, very fundamental, level it is all stacked on top of some assumptions (just like every other philosophy, and even the scientific method)--is the equivalent of attacking Christianity/Christians for lacking compassion and forgiveness. [[Special:Contributions/129.176.151.14|129.176.151.14]] 14:04, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

:Poking fun can indeed fall into the categories of self-irony or goodwill, but in this case Randall quite explicitly accuses the recipient of bias, making his disapproval pretty unequivocal. [[Special:Contributions/199.48.147.40|199.48.147.40]] 16:51, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

I have added a line about the rational numbers joke; it's definitely there, though I'm not sure if Randall intended it (probably did?). {{unsigned ip|76.124.119.161}}
:Don't think it makes much sense, because a random number generator algorithm of any kind couldn't possibly generate irrational numbers in finite time. [[Special:Contributions/77.244.254.228|77.244.254.228]] 16:34, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
: It does make sense, mathematically speaking a random number chosen in any open interval is irrational with probability 1, and yet any open interval contains rational numbers that could, in principal, be chosen due to density of the rationals. The joke is brilliant, if intended. [[Special:Contributions/76.124.119.161|76.124.119.161]] 04:00, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
::Yes but, at that point, all random number generators are biased and not just the Ayn Random number generator. Also, the bias towards rational numbers doesn't seem to be there when your pool of numbers is just the rationals. The whole idea behind the joke seems to be more like Ayn Rand's assumptions of objectivity ending up favoring certain social groups. I dunno, it just seems forced to me. [[Special:Contributions/220.117.150.36|220.117.150.36]] 19:00, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
::: Considering real numbers are well-understood mathematically this seems like a shortcoming of implementation, which isn't that interesting... the concept is there. [[Special:Contributions/76.124.119.161|76.124.119.161]] 22:06, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
:::: The whole idea behind random number generation bias is the bugs they can create within software implementation (for example, weakening cryptography). An hypothetically generated irrational number would have to be truncated at some decimal place (thus making it rational) for it to be usable. Here it's a programming joke, not a math one. [[Special:Contributions/95.229.229.31|95.229.229.31]] 22:37, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
::::: ...unless interpreted as a math joke. I agree that the joke admits programming interpretation, but I'd never try to exclude other interpretations as well. The math interpretation is valid since one can choose not to get muddled in implementation and to instead envision a hypothetical random number generator not bound by truncation. Randall's comics certainly admit this kind of whimsy. [[Special:Contributions/76.124.119.161|76.124.119.161]] 23:55, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::: Well, it says "This Ayn Random number generator you wrote" so I'd take it at face value, but that's just me. [[Special:Contributions/95.229.229.31|95.229.229.31]] 00:33, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

And somehow, no one's mentioned the classic cartoon ''[[221]]:Random Number'', which presents a random number generator which is heavily biased towards one number. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 21:58, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

Is the joke here not along the lines that Ayn Rand's politics, and that of Libertarianism, claim that they are fair and that they treat everyone equally - in that, supposedly, anyone can get what they want and be successful if they work hard - but the reality is that some people will fare better than others due to having certain advantages such as having been born into wealth, knowing the right people, one might even suggest that being white, middle class and male are advantageous. In a random number generator you would expect any number to be as likely to come up as any other. Similarly, Rand supporters would argue that under Objectivism, any person is by default as able to be successful as any other. The fact that some people succeed and others fail is explained as some people being inherently more able to succeed, rather than any bias in the system itself - hence she divides people into 'looters' and 'moochers'; there's also that scene I always remember in Dirty Dancing where the guy chucks a copy of The Fountainhead in Baby's direction and says 'some people count, some people don't'. Randall is mocking the idea of a system that is supposedly inherently fair and yet biases certain classes of people, with the idea of a 'random' number generator that is biased towards certain numbers not because of a problem with the system but because some numbers are supposedly 'inherently better'.[[Special:Contributions/213.86.4.78|213.86.4.78]] 15:09, 21 October 2013 (UTC)