2210: College Athletes

2019-10-02T14:12:40Z

CharliesPeeFeet: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2210
| date = October 2, 2019
| title = College Athletes
| image = college_athletes.png
| titletext = Their signature play is the three-point combinator, a recursive offense which is guaranteed not to halt and continues accumulating points until the buzzer.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Steph Curry. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Ponytail]] is reading from her phone about the [https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB206 California Fair Pay to Play act], which was signed into law on September 30, 2019, two days before this comic was released. It gives college athletes the rights to their name and face (images) for financial gain, in contrast to {{w|NCAA}} rules which require that athletes be unpaid.

[[White Hat]], thinks this is a good thing, but then [[Cueball]] claims that his state has passed an even better law which ''gave college players rights to use the names and images of any California athletes''. Note that Cueball's state is thus not California, so it is very weird they can use names from another state.

Ponytail doesn't believe him but he ''curries'' on claiming that all members of his school's basketball team thus have changed their name to {{w|Steph Curry}}, after the NBA Player of the same name He plays for the {{w|Golden State Warriors}}, a Californian team. Cueball explains in particular, that only one player copied the name from the NBA player, then another member of the team copied the name from that player, and so on.

This is of course an error, since they only had right to use names of California athletes, and as this is another state than California, they could not have used the law to use the name of one of their fellow team mates. Mistake by Randall, or Cueball that is just making a joke...

Because as it turns out in his final remark, all this has only been the setup for his grand joke, when he tells Ponytail that this process is known as "Currying". This is a play on both the name "Curry" used here, as well as the mathematical procedure called {{w|currying}}, named after mathematician {{w|Haskell Curry}}. This is very typical Cueball, and Ponytail almost fell for it, and thus claims that she hates him!

Currying is when a multi-variable function is broken down into a sequence of single-variable functions, each of which outputs a new function until the final variable is consumed. For example, the function f(x,y,z) can be curried into f(x)(y)(z), where f is a function that consumes x and produces a function f(x), which in turn consumes y, yielding the function f(x)(y), and that in turn is a function f(x)(y) which consumes the parameter z to finally produce f(x)(y)(z), which is equal to the original f(x,y,z). This is not commonly used in most areas of math except for foundational logic but it is widely used in functional programming.

When Cueball says ''a team made up entirely of Steph Currys'', White Hat questions what the plural form should be, and is it instead should have been ‘''Stephs Curry''’? This is referring to the pluralization of phrases where a noun is followed by a modifier of some sort, such as ''attorneys general'', ''parts unknown'', ''heirs apparent'', ''mothers-in-law'', and so on. In these cases, plurals are formed by pluralizing the noun parts of the phrases; however, some of these are rare or foreign enough that speakers of English don't always identify them correctly and pluralize the last word instead, e.g. *''attorney generals''.

The title text is a computer science joke, saying that the Steph Currys basketball team's signature play is the "three-point combinator", a joke on the {{w|three-point play}} in basketball, and a type of {{w|Fixed-point_combinator#Y_combinator|fixed-point combinator}} called the Y Combinator, introduced by Haskell Curry. The description of "three-point combinator" is dense with word play that relates to the Y Combinator, which is used to implement {{w|recursive}} methods in functional programming languages, has notable properties relating to halting (see: the {{w|Halting_problem|Halting Problem}}), and has a common form in which a second argument is used as a counter that is increased by one with each recursive call until termination. "Signature play" may also be a play on words, as currying transforms a {{w|Type_signature#Method_signature|method signature}}.

In this case, when this move is performed, it will just keep accumulating points, as it is guaranteed it cannot halt and will not stop until the time runs out and the buzzer that ends the game is activated. Such a move can of course not be a part of a real basketball game, and more of a nod to the Golden State Warriors' reputation as a high-scoring, nearly-unstoppable offense widely-known for three-point shooting.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Ponytail and White Hat are having a conversation. Ponytail is checking her phone.]
:Ponytail: Oh, huh. California passed a law giving college athletes full rights to their names and images.
:White Hat: Good, I think?

:[Cueball holds his hand up in a fist, while Ponytail, holding her phone down, and White hat looks at him.]
:Cueball: That's nothing. '''''Our''''' state gave college players rights to use the names and images of '''''any''''' California athletes.
:Ponytail: It did not.

:[In a frame-less panel Cueball holds his hands out, Ponytails phone is gone and White Hat puts a hand to his chin.]
:Cueball: Sure it did!
:Cueball: That's how our school fielded a basketball team made up entirely of Steph Currys.
:White Hat: Or is the plural "Stephs Curry"?

:[Cueball holds both hands up in front of him. Ponytail has her arms down but she is balling her hands into fists.]
:Cueball: They didn't all copy the original Steph, though. One player got the rights to his name, then the next player got it from them, and so on.
:Cueball: This process is known as "currying".
:Ponytail: ...I hate you so much.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Basketball]]

2202: Earth-Like Exoplanet

2019-09-13T18:32:32Z

CharliesPeeFeet: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2202
| date = September 13, 2019
| title = Earth-Like Exoplanet
| image = earth_like_exoplanet.png
| titletext = Fire is actually a potential biosignature, since it means something is filling the atmosphere with an unstable gas like oxygen. If we find a planet covered in flames, it might be an indicator that it supports life—or used to, anyway, before the fire.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BLADE-SWINGING BALROG. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan is standing in front of a podium]
:Megan: We've discovered the most earth-like exoplanet yet!
:Off-screen: Yay!!

:Megan: Well, it's in the habitable zone. Habitable-ish. "Habitable."
:Megan: The survivable zone.

:Megan: It's tidally locked. And blasted with stellar flares. And probably meteors. And bathed in acid.

:Megan: But we've detected water vapor! In between all the swinging blades.
:Off-screen: I see.
:Megan: We're hoping to find biosignatures in the form of screaming.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

2202: Earth-Like Exoplanet

2019-09-13T18:28:45Z

CharliesPeeFeet:

{{comic
| number = 2202
| date = September 13, 2019
| title = Earth-Like Exoplanet
| image = earth_like_exoplanet.png
| titletext = Fire is actually a potential biosignature, since it means something is filling the atmosphere with an unstable gas like oxygen. If we find a planet covered in flames, it might be an indicator that it supports life—or used to, anyway, before the fire.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BLADE-SWINGING BALROG. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan is standing in front of a podium]
:Megan: We've disvocered the most earth-like exoplanet yet!
:Off-screen: Yay!!

:Megan: Well, it's in the habitable zone. Habitable-ish. "Habitable."
:Megan: The survivable zone.

:Megan: It's tidally locked. And blasted with stellar flares. And probably meteors. And bathed in acid.

:Megan: But we've detected water vapor! In between all the swinging blades.
:Off-screen: I see.
:Megan: We're hoping to find biosignatures in the form of screaming.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2210: College Athletes

2202: Earth-Like Exoplanet

2202: Earth-Like Exoplanet