explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

665: Prudence

2021-01-03T23:23:36Z

CritterKeeper: /* Explanation */ For many of us, Lion will always be the first book, no matter who decided to change the numbering later! This way both POV are represented.

{{comic
| number = 665
| date = November 20, 2009
| title = Prudence
| image = prudence.png
| titletext = Moments later, the White Witch rolls up and, confused, tries to tempt the probe with a firmware upgrade.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references the fantasy novel series ''{{w|The Chronicles of Narnia}}'' by {{w|C. S. Lewis}}. In the first published book (second chronologically), ''{{w|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe}}'', Lucy discovers the fictional world of Narnia which can be accessed through a wardrobe, and she walks into it without ever considering the risks. Her three older siblings do not believe her, so she travels back alone again. But this second time her brother Edmund follows her, and he is seduced by the White Witch in order for her to be able to kill him and his three siblings (see title text explanation below). Thus proving that it was a rather dangerous move to just walk into the wardrobe.

The comic mocks the imprudent behavior shown by the protagonist Lucy of the novel, who enters the world of Narnia without knowing anything about its dangers. In the comic, Lucy (drawn as a child version of [[Megan]], clearly not adult as she only just reaches the wardrobes handles with her head), discovers the magical wardrobe while playing {{w|hide-and-seek}}, like in the book. Unlike in the original book, Lucy does not precipitately set foot into Narnia. Instead, she fetches her technical equipment and sends a remote-controlled probe through the wardrobe door in order to sound the situation first.

The probe encounters {{w|Mr. Tumnus}} the faun with his umbrella at a lamppost in a snowy wood on the last panel. This picture is the first impression of Narnia in the novels and was apparently Lewis' original idea for the series.

The probe is clearly modeled after Mars rovers like Spirit and Opportunity, which [[Randall]] depicted for the first time only a few comics later in [[681: Gravity Wells]] and then in [[695: Spirit]]. The probe looks even more like the one in [[1504: Opportunity]]. This also explains the title of the comic, as it is the name of Lucy's probe. The naming scheme is similar to the two probes mentioned above that were already on Mars at the time of this comics release. And even more so like the upcoming {{w|Curiosity_(rover)|Curiosity rover}} which was first launched two years after this comic, but had {{w|Curiosity_(rover)#The_name:_Curiosity|been named}} earlier in the year this comic was released. Lucy was ''curious'' in the first Narnia book, but in this comic she is ''[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prudent prudent]''.

The {{w|White Witch}} mentioned in the title text is the main antagonist in the novel. She originally lures Edmund with a hot drink and magical {{w|Turkish delight}} after her sleigh passes right by him. In the scenario mentioned in the title text, she is confused when she rolls up to the rover and then tries to tempt the probe with a firmware update accordingly.

The procedure of sending a probe first through a portal has also been used in the early {{w|Stargate}} episodes. This draws a parallel between the wardrobe in Narnia and the Stargate, both connecting two distant worlds. The stargate probe can be seen [http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Mobile_Analytic_Laboratory_Probe here].

Megan (or Lucy) also takes a scientific approach to Narnia in one of the comics of [[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3]]. In that comic she uses the different passage of time in Narnia to her advantage (it usually runs much faster than on Earth). That effect would have been a problem with controlling the rover in this comic.

==Transcript==
:[A small girl, with hair like Megan, is running towards a closed wardrobe.]
:Voice (off-panel): Everyone hide! 99... 98... 97...

:[The girl opens one of the two doors on the wardrobe.]
:Wardrobe: click

:[The girl is looking inside the wardrobe through the fully opened door.]
:Girl: !!!

:[The girl puts a hand to her chin.]

:[The girl walks away.]

:[The girl returns with an armful of electronics including lots of wires and a rover with wheels.]

:[The girl is kneeling, typing on a laptop, which has a cord extending into the wardrobe.]

:[In a forest with many tall leafless trees the Mars rover is approaching a lamppost with a lit candle. Behind it stands a faun with horns, goatee beard and hooves holding an umbrella.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chronicles of Narnia]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]

Talk:565: Security Question

2021-01-01T16:00:28Z

CritterKeeper:

The explanation says "security questions are treated much more seriously than passwords." I completely disagree. People generally understand that a password should be complicated but just pick something easily memorable for the security question. The security question is often easier to crack as they can be looked up and the user might tell you the answer inadvertently. For example, in Now You See Me, they trick their rich benefactor into giving up his bank account security answers. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 02:35, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

:I agree, and I've changed the explanation text. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:17, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

:Also now with social media if you don't have enough privacy settings enabled an attacker can find the answers on say your facebook page, and even if you did have the privacy stuff it won't help if the attacker is on your friend list. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.117|141.101.99.117]] 19:35, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

“Of course, by taking the drink Cueball also admits having buried bodies ''at all''.”
Uh, no, he doesn’t? If he never hid any bodies south of Main Street, it doesn’t imply he hid any bodies anywhere else… right? ~ [[User:VoidPhantom|VoidPhantom]] ([[User talk:VoidPhantom|talk]]) 21:23, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

:You have that backwards. If he'd buried bodies ''north'' of Main Street (or hadn't buried any at all), then he ''wouldn't'' take a drink. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 22:10, 16 September 2015 (UTC)
::I have corrected this back in the explanation. Double negatives confuse people it appears.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.72.89|162.158.72.89]] 22:24, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
:: Technically, he could have buried bodies both north ''and'' south of Main Street, so having buried bodies north of Main doesn't necessarily mean he wouldn't take a drink for south of Main. </pedant> [[User:CritterKeeper|CritterKeeper]] ([[User talk:CritterKeeper|talk]]) 16:00, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

The cop sitting at the desk has what appears to be a foot rest or pedal that deliberately has attention drawn to it with 'bump' marks. What does this represent? [[User:ClaireFreund|ClaireFreund]] ([[User talk:ClaireFreund|talk]]) 14:49, 12 November 2018 (UTC)
:Could be a speaker for those not wearing headphones [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.57|162.158.93.57]] 17:49, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the claimed date of the comic's release is wrong. Correct me if I'm wrong, but following the normal schedule, it should state the release date as April 5th, not April 3rd.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.141|162.158.74.141]] 14:59, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

Talk:1331: Frequency

2020-05-05T19:00:56Z

CritterKeeper: Peak popularity of Amelia matching Amelia Pond; age soda-drinking starts

I have began the transcript. Should a table be embedded with all the statements?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.11|108.162.250.11]] 07:33, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:That would be apt. Dammit Randall, why couldn't you have made the comic one image so it'd be easy to put up here? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:36, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:::If I've calculated it correctly (from the core numbers of prime factors extracted from the set of millisecond cycles extracted below by the script), a ''single'' image that contained each and every cycle (exactly as they are individually, without fudging any of them to avoid awkward factors) before repeating from the start again would have a total duration of 8.74E+056ms. (That's around 2.77E+046 ''years''!) I haven't worked out how many frames that would require (at approx 300kp, each, before compression)although I would hazard a guess that most (if not all of them) would probably sustain at a duration of no more than a single figure of milliseconds.
:::You might be able to make a more efficient and vastly smaller representation with the .swf format, but I've not used that for a while so might have forgotten some limitations that would apply in that event.
:::(Realistically, recreating the array of individual images is the best solution you have. Another case where Randall goes outside the 'traditional' single, simple image format, and messes with everyone's automated XKCD-strip-grabbing scripts, no doubt. At least this time round. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.41|141.101.99.41]] 02:02, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
::I have created a table but someone else has already updated the transcript in a different style; here is my attempt
<pre><table>
<tr>
<th>Heartbeat</th>
<th>One Birth</th>
<th>One Death</th>
<th>Someone Edits Wikipedia</th>
<th>Someone Buys a Vibrator</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>China Builds a Car</td>
<td>Japan Builds a Car</td>
<td>Germany Builds a Car</td>
<td>The US Builds a Car</td>
<td>Someone Else Builds a Car</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>A European Union President Has Their First Kiss</td>
<td>A US Fire Department Puts Out a Fire</td>
<td>Someone Hits a Hole-In-One</td>
<td>My Turn Signal Blinks</td>
<td>The Turn Signal of the Car in Front of Me Blinks</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Earthquake (Magnitude 1)</td>
<td>Earthquake (Magnitude 2)</td>
<td>Earthquake (Magnitude 3)</td>
<td>Earthquake (Magnitude 4)</td>
<td>Member of the UK Parliament Flushes a Toilet</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>An Airline Flight Takes Off</td>
<td>Someone Buys To Kill A Mockingbird</td>
<td>Someone's Pet Cat Kills a Mockingbird</td>
<td>Someone in Pheonix Buys New Shoes</td>
<td>Someone in Pheonix Puts on a Condom</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Someone Locks Their Keys in Their Car</td>
<td>A Sagittarius Named Amelia Drinks a Soda</td>
<td>A Dog Bites Someone in the US</td>
<td>Someone Steals a Bicycle</td>
<td>A Bald Eagle Catches a Fish</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>50,000 Plastic Bottles are Produced</td>
<td>50,000 Plastic Bottles are Recycled</td>
<td>A Bright Meteor is Visible Somewhere</td>
<td>Old Faithful Erupts</td>
<td>A fishing Boat Catches a Shark</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Someone in the US is Diagnosed With Cancer</td>
<td>Someone in the US Dies from Cancer</td>
<td>Someone Adopts a Dog from a Shelter</td>
<td>Someone Adopts a Cat from a Shelter</td>
<td>Someone gets Married</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Someone Registers a Domain</td>
<td>Someone in the US Buys a House</td>
<td>Someone in the US gets a Tattoo</td>
<td>The Star PSR J1748-2446AD Rotates 1,000 Times</td>
<td>Someone Lies About their Age to Sign up for Facebook</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Someone Breaks an iPhone Screen</td>
<td>A Little League Player Strikes Out</td>
<td>Someone has Sex in North Dakota</td>
<td>Justin Bieber Gains a Follower on Twitter</td>
<td>Someone in Denver Orders a Pizza</td>
</tr>
</table>
</pre> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.11|108.162.250.11]] 10:06, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

:::Thanks, I have replaced the transcript with this one as it is closer to the actual comic format. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 10:24, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

I would like to point out a few things: the title text refers to an experiment that shows a piece of tar, if I remember correctly, which looks like a solid material, dripping very very slowly. It takes a year or more for a drop to fall, and there should be a live stream of it somewhere, I think.

The second is the turning signal being out of sync with the other car. Randall made a comic about that one already. It's a recurring thing.[[User:Dulcis|Dulcis]] ([[User talk:Dulcis|talk]]) 07:57, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:A year? It took 12 years for the last drop to fall... {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.114}}

: About turning signals, see [[165|XKCD #165]]--[[User:Koundelitchnico|KoundelitchNico]] ([[User talk:Koundelitchnico|talk]]) 09:32, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

:: Thanks, I thought of that one too. I have added this in the explanations column of the table I created, feel free to add more / edit if you feel the need to do so. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 10:24, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

I found a simple tool that calculates the duration of GIF files on github: https://raw.github.com/alimony/gifduration/master/gifduration.py
Slightly edited, this is the output:
<pre>
amelia.gif: 7790 ms (7.79 seconds)
bieber.gif: 4730 ms (4.73 seconds)
bike.gif: 24930 ms (24.93 seconds)
birth.gif: 240 ms (0.24 seconds)
book_mockingbird.gif: 42050 ms (42.05 seconds)
bottles.gif: 1270 ms (1.27 seconds)
car_china.gif: 1890 ms (1.89 seconds)
car_elsewhere.gif: 1030 ms (1.03 seconds)
car_germany.gif: 5800 ms (5.80 seconds)
car_japan.gif: 4010 ms (4.01 seconds)
car_us.gif: 6950 ms (6.95 seconds)
cat.gif: 21300 ms (21.30 seconds)
cat_mockingbird.gif: 1820 ms (1.82 seconds)
death.gif: 560 ms (0.56 seconds)
denverpizza.gif: 1270 ms (1.27 seconds)
dogbite.gif: 7010 ms (7.01 seconds)
dog.gif: 15600 ms (15.60 seconds)
domain.gif: 640 ms (0.64 seconds)
eagle.gif: 2690 ms (2.69 seconds)
earthquake1.gif: 2430 ms (2.43 seconds)
earthquake2.gif: 24260 ms (24.26 seconds)
earthquake3.gif: 242600 ms (242.60 seconds)
earthquake4.gif: 2426000 ms (2426.00 seconds)
facebook.gif: 4320 ms (4.32 seconds)
fire_dept.gif: 23000 ms (23.00 seconds)
flight.gif: 930 ms (0.93 seconds)
heartbeat.gif: 860 ms (0.86 seconds)
holeinone.gif: 180000 ms (180.00 seconds)
house.gif: 6220 ms (6.22 seconds)
iphone.gif: 930 ms (0.93 seconds)
keys.gif: 2430 ms (2.43 seconds)
kiss.gif: 5530 ms (5.53 seconds)
littleleague.gif: 1230 ms (1.23 seconds)
meteor.gif: 1150 ms (1.15 seconds)
ndsex.gif: 1380 ms (1.38 seconds)
oldfaithful.gif: 5640000 ms (5640.00 seconds)
parliament_toilet.gif: 10060 ms (10.06 seconds)
phoenix.gif: 2050 ms (2.05 seconds)
phoenixshoes.gif: 1080 ms (1.08 seconds)
pulsar.gif: 1400 ms (1.40 seconds)
recycled.gif: 4640 ms (4.64 seconds)
shark.gif: 830 ms (0.83 seconds)
tattoo.gif: 2060 ms (2.06 seconds)
turnsignal1.gif: 940 ms (0.94 seconds)
turnsignal2.gif: 900 ms (0.90 seconds)
us_cancer_death.gif: 54340 ms (54.34 seconds)
us_cancer.gif: 18990 ms (18.99 seconds)
vibrator.gif: 2990 ms (2.99 seconds)
wedding.gif: 750 ms (0.75 seconds)
wikipedia.gif: 670 ms (0.67 seconds)
</pre>
This could be useful in creating some kind of table in the Explanation.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.109|108.162.231.109]] 09:25, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

:Thanks, I'm working on an explanation right now. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 09:57, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
::OK, I'll leave it at this - the conversions to events per minute don't make sense for all of the tiles and some of them can use more explanation but I'll leave that for someone else to pick up - need to go back to work :-) --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 10:12, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

:::The edits on Wikipedia doesn't seem very accurate: 0.67s are 3.9M edits per month, while [http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesDatabaseEdits.htm] has only edit counts around 3M for the last available months for English Wikipedia. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.160|108.162.254.160]] 11:17, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

::Is that why the explaination is currently locked? I was going to add a few things to the comment column, but I'm aparently not allowed to at the moment. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:11, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Suggestion: grid like coordinates to refer to other flashing text? (think E4, B6, D5, ...) sirKitKat [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.173|173.245.53.173]] 11:19, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Someone from the UK parliment flushed the toilet while someone in Phoenix used a condom, while a bald eagle caught a fish... (I know, it's just the frequency, not the exact time it is shown to occur) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.131|141.101.98.131]] 11:28, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Shouldn't the North Dakota one have been "two people"? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 11:57, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

He should have added a PNG saying "your screen's refresh rate"... --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 12:06, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

;Technically possible

Technically you can create an animated GIF that will repeat every 10 years. The standard says that maximum interval between frames is 65535*0.01 seconds, so to create a 10-year video you'll need 31557600*10/655.35=481538 frames. Since GIF registers only changes pixels for each frame, most of these frames will be empty (I'm not sure about the size, but around 20 bytes), so the whole file would be around 9.6 megabytes. Please include this in the explanation (possibly correcting numbers). --[[User:Zverik|Zverik]] ([[User talk:Zverik|talk]]) 13:18, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
: @Zverik; Any reason you not just adding that to the explanation yourself? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 20:31, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Update: Randall used some Adobe software to create highly redundant animated GIFs (with a color profile written to every frame). The thing is, frames are not equal, they gradually change brightness, so each frame is written anew and takes 3670 bytes (measured with oldfaithful.gif). So the estimate for 10-year animated GIF with that software would be 1.77 gigabytes (1.65 GiB). That would be too much indeed. --[[User:Zverik|Zverik]] ([[User talk:Zverik|talk]]) 13:51, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

: Still, there are only 166 shades of gray between black and the default gray. So all it would take is an additional 166 bigger (in terms of number of bytes) frames. That he uses inferior software is no excuse. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.181|108.162.254.181]] 14:58, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Is it possible that the comment ''Amelia is the most common US name'' [http://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1331:_Frequency&diff=next&oldid=60214] is made in good faith? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 16:05, 17 February 2014 (UTC). It also said that Sagittarius is the most common star sign, which is false, so I deleted the comment. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 16:16, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

: In fact it appears the most common star sign in the US is going to be Leo or Virgo: http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/7/1512.long . Being part way through the cycle, Sagitarius is probably about 1/12 of the population. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.10|141.101.98.10]] 09:11, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

Anybody understand why there are so many references to Phoenix ? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 20:31, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:Because 2 references are not really "many". [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 20:40, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:high birthrate perhaps? people down there seem to have large families (in my experience), at least that may be what he is saying about the condoms.[[User:Ercannon|Ercannon]] ([[User talk:Ercannon|talk]]) 22:24, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:I'll hazard a guess here by saying that multiple references to a common item using unrelated topics is a comedic element in itself! In addition, referring to the comment immediately below, unnecessary or impossible precision is also an element of comedy. [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 23:51, 17 February 2014 (UTC)ExternalMonolog
;Excess precision
To 108.162.245.114 who said that all members of the UK parliament flush a toilet 3,136,938 times per year, please read {{w|False precision}}. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 22:10, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

This should work for the heading, but it's a complete mess and messes up the entire layout. Could someone have a look at this monstrosity:
<pre>
<table class cellspacing="5"
style="background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; color: black; font-size: 88%; line-height: 1.5em;
margin: 0.5em 0 0.5em 1em; padding: 0.2em; text-align: center; width:98%; {{{bodystyle|}}}"><tr><td><ul style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 10px;" class="no-link-underline">{{#ifexist:{{#expr:1331 - 1}}|<li style="background-color: #6E7B91;
border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;
display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;
margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;">[[{{#expr:1331 - 1}}|< Prev]]</li>|<li style="display: inline; font-size: 16px; margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 12px;">                </li>}}<li style="background-color: #6E7B91;
border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;
display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;
margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;"
class="plainlinks">[http://www.xkcd.com/1331/ Comic #1331 (February 17, 2014)]</li>{{#ifexist:{{#expr:1331 + 1}}|<li style="background-color: #6E7B91;
border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;
display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;
margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;">[[{{#expr:1331 + 1}}|Next >]]</li>|<li style="display: inline; font-size: 16px; margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 12px;">                </li></ul></td></tr><tr><td style="font-size: 20px; padding-bottom:10px">Frequency</td></tr>}}<tr><td><center><table><tr>
<td>[[File:heartbeat.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:birth.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:death.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:wikipedia.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:vibrator.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:car china.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:car japan.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:car germany.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:car us.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:car elsewhere.gif ]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:kiss.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:fire dept.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:holeinone.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:turnsignal1.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:turnsignal2.gif ]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:earthquake1.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:earthquake2.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:earthquake3.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:earthquake4.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:parliament toilet.gif ]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:flight.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:book mockingbird.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:cat mockingbird.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:phoenixshoes.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:phoenix.gif ]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:keys.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:amelia.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:dogbite.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:bike.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:eagle.gif ]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:bottles.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:recycled.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:meteor.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:oldfaithful.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:shark.gif ]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:us cancer.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:us cancer death.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:dog.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:cat.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:wedding.gif ]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:domain.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:house.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:tattoo.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:pulsar.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:facebook.gif ]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:iphone.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:littleleague.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:ndsex.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:bieber.gif ]]</td>
<td>[[ File:denverpizza.gif ]]</td>
</tr></table> Title text: This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.</td></tr></table></center>
</pre> [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.184|173.245.53.184]] 22:31, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
:I'm currently adding the ability to put replace the image field with an optional custom field. Will keep you posted. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:40, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
::See [[Template:comic]], in particular the last parameter and the last bullet point in the notes section. Added just for you. This'll be pretty useful for other comics that we've made in the past as well. Thanks for making me get off my butt and do something useful with my admin powers. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:13, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
:::Cool. Next up: click and drag :D [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.121|108.162.231.121]] 12:24, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
::::The awesome thing is, it might be possible for us to port Randall's code/enable javascript and duplicate that comic exactly as it appears on the main xkcd site. The custom field isn't limited to just images, so we can literally represent anything that can be rendered by mediawiki now. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:28, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
−
::I don't understand this problem. The HTML-Code is just from the main page, it doesn't explain your problem. I did add all the GIF images yesterday, and for entering all that links in an easy way I changed this table layout to an easy WIKI-Table. In my opinion all the sortable tags should be removed, this is not increasing the depth at this explain. But this is still an open task here, yesterday I just did focus on all the missing GIFs here. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:53, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

Am i alone in thinking that there are many "references to other comics" which are not references at all, but merely about the same subject? "One birth" is supposedly a reference to 746, with presumably the only reason that they both handle the subject of concieving children. The only "correct" reference in my opinion is the reference to 165 (turn signals). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.215|141.101.80.215]] 15:24, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Just returning to the "10 years = too large a GIF" thing, without trying to slot into the huge mess it became above ... the thing we should be looking at here is not overall file size, but *rate*. The overall size was somewhere beyond 10mb? OK, but, so what - we've got 10 years to download it, and GIF is an inherently streaming format (each frame displays as it loads, if there hasn't been enough time / bandwidth to pre-buffer it). 1 megabyte per year is 2871 bytes per average day, 120 per hour, 1.99 per minute... and a grand total of 0.266 BITS per second (ie 3.76 seconds per bit). A tortoise could transmit that GIF using morse code and it wouldn't be badly delayed. And the amount of storage represented by 10mb by the time it's finished sending won't even be worth calculating in terms of cost or percentage of available space, when a 16gb flashdrive already costs under £10 retail.

Also, these GIFs seem to be pretty inefficiently compressed; I'm following another webcomic at the moment where most of the frames are high-resolution full-colour aniGIFs, and each one tends to clock in around 40 to 100kb unless there's a lot of action in it... but the "magnitude 1 earthquake" one here is 123kb. Even so, the mag 4 quake GIF - 1000x longer - is but 280kb, so the size obviously doesn't scale linearly with length. The difference is most likely in levels of grey shown during the fade, and as even the 42-second "to kill a mockingbird" one is noticeably slower fading than the more frequent ones around it (not quite enough, at 30fps and maybe 3-4 seconds of fading, to cover the whole 166 shades between lightest and darkest text - but the mag 4 one would easily manage it even at a lower framerate, as it probably takes a good 30 seconds if not a couple minutes). It's possible that 300kb is all it takes for the actual image payload even of a full-fade panel with a lot of high frequency, non repeating patterned text, and all the rest is just padding / blank / repeat overheads.

Which means even our 0.27-bit-per-second tortoise would get all THAT sent in a little over three months, not much more time than would be needed to show the likely fadeout in realtime if it was the first thing that actually appeared. If it was sent by any other realistic communication method, even as POST data from the client end of a 1200/75 baud modem, it'd have entirely ample time to buffer (the first frame would likely appear within 1 to 5 minutes), and your more realistic concern would be not only stopping your computer from rebooting before the GIF had time to run through a cycle, but keeping it running continuously for that length of time (and, if needed, downloading the file really slowly throughout) in any case. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.150|141.101.98.150]] 19:08, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

Anyone notice how the explanations for the car-related frequencies are nonsensical? They're so nonsensical that I can't tell how to fix them without actually knowing the subject. Please fix.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.206|108.162.219.206]] 05:20, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

I'm filling in the remaining fields the best I can. I did the last one; Denver pizza. Math is not my strong point. It's probably a joke statistic, but someone may want to double-check my math. I didn't see any figures for Denver's pizza consumption, but I figured it was one of those things where it just maybe worked out to match the Denver population. {{unsigned|4jonah}}

All fields are now filled out to the best of my ability. I have not edited ones already completed, but finished empty ones as accurately as possible. {{unsigned|4jonah}}

"About half of all cyclists have their bikes stolen, oftentimes more than once, but riders have a 90% chance of theft, all according to this report." It's a very confusing sentence and doesn't match the data in the linked report. About half of all people who ''ever'' cycle get their bikes stolen at some point. People who cycle ''every day'' are 90% more likely to have their bike stolen than people who cycle infrequently. Not 90% chance of theft. I will update this if nobody objects. [[User:AmbroseChapel|AmbroseChapel]] ([[User talk:AmbroseChapel|talk]]) 23:47, 27 August 2017 (UTC)

Not sure if it's the sort of interesting fact that should be added or not, but under the "Sagittarius named Amelia" section, that link to the Baby Name Wizard shows the peak popularity for the name "Amelia" was in 2012. The character of Amelia Pond was on Doctor Who from 2010 to mid-2012, and that was also the height of the immense popularity in America of Matt Smith playing the title role. Might be the source of the popularity of that name. Also, does the previous analysis take into account the fact that Sagittarius named Amelia wouldn't start drinking soda until they are at least a few years old? Would taking out all the ones under the age of five or six let us bring back in SNA in the rest of the world, given that soda is much more popular in America than elsewhere? [[User:CritterKeeper|CritterKeeper]] ([[User talk:CritterKeeper|talk]]) 19:00, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

Talk:1775: Things You Learn

2016-12-21T19:58:46Z

CritterKeeper:

But if you don't clean the lint trap then you did start the fire.

Sorry, I'll get my coat.

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.183|141.101.98.183]] 16:20, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
:Unfortunately, we put your coat in the dryer, and it was lost in the fire we didn't start. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.17|108.162.238.17]] 17:05, 21 December 2016 (UTC)



This explains why my dryer keeps bursting into flames.
And why no insurance agencies will even consider letting me get homeowner's.[[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 16:36, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

Minor objection with the comic, but in my experience, it's easier to grow up without knowing about taxes than stop, drop and roll. My 5 year old has learned stop, drop and roll in kindergarten, but nothing about taxes. I have a similar recollection of my childhood. It wasn't until my first job as a teenager that I paid any attention to it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.94|162.158.214.94]] 17:12, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

<blockquote>"Most residents of most countries are legally obligated to pay, '''or at least file''', their taxes annually"</blockquote>

This note is quite US centric, as I don't believe this is true of most countries. At the very least, this is certainly not the case in most of Europe - taxes are not filed manually if you're a standard employee and not the owner of your own business, in which case it would be perfectly possible to grow up without ever learning how to do this. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.64|162.158.38.64]] 17:18, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
:Indeed in countries that use such PAYE systems, it's not that harmful to not know either. You just get paid less than you might have thought if you just looked at the gross salary [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.132|141.101.98.132]] 18:59, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

More of an informational comment....I'm a veterinarian, and I know of at least two colleagues who have been exposed to rabies via litters of kittens, only a few weeks old. If you are bitten by a dog or cat which is not vaccinated, then the standard around here (legal requirement) is that the critter be kept under quarantine at an animal hospital or government shelter with a vet on premises every day, for ten days, being examined for any sign of rabies at the start and end of the quarantine period. A dog or cat can be transmitting rabies before they show definite signs, but if they were at the time of the bite, they'll be showing signs by the end of the ten days. The only other way to be sure they weren't rabid is to microscopically examine their brain, and that can only be done if they're not using it any more (note that freezing makes it untestable). In other words, I'm very glad that the kitten is fine, and I really really hope that it continues to do fine for another ten days, and that the doc who saw Randall knew what needs to be done. [[User:CritterKeeper|CritterKeeper]] ([[User talk:CritterKeeper|talk]]) 19:58, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

1738: Moon Shapes

2016-09-27T22:38:19Z

CritterKeeper: corrected term for half-lighted moon - Randall got it right, it's a quarter moon, not a half moon.

{{comic
| number = 1738
| date = September 26, 2016
| title = Moon Shapes
| image = moon_shapes.png
| titletext = Whenever I see a picture of the moon where the points go more than halfway around, I assume it's being eclipsed by one of those Independence Day ships and interpret the rest of the image in light of that.
}}

==Explanation==
The Earth's {{w|moon}}, being the most prominent object in the night sky, is a frequent subject of art; particularly art depicting a nighttime scene. Unfortunately, the moon often appears in works of art in ways that are very dramatic and would not be realistically possible. It may be done out of ignorance, or knowingly by taking {{w|artistic license}}. As someone interested in and who has worked in astronomy, this likely bothers [[Randall]].

The Earth's {{w|moon}} is well known to have "{{w|lunar phase|phases}}" describing what portion of the visible surface of the moon is illuminated by sunlight and highly visible, and what portion is dark, and generally only slightly visible when the moon appears while the sun is also up. These phases progress between "new" (when the surface facing the Earth is completely dark) and "full" (when the surface facing the Earth is completely illuminated, appearing circular from Earth). Mid-way between those extreme phases is a "quarter" moon, when exactly half of the surface facing the Earth is completely dark, the light half being one-quarter of the total moon's surface, resulting in a semi-circular appearance.

Because the moon is approximately spherical, as the moon progresses from "new" to "quarter" (or vice versa), the illuminated portion forms a crescent. As it progresses from "quarter" to "full" (or vice versa), the illuminated portion it is described as "gibbous" (which just means that the dark portion has formed a crescent). One can imagine this like a globe on which you draw a straight line from the north pole to the south pole down the centre of the side facing you (appearing to create two semi-circles); upon rotating the globe, the line would become rounded as it moved away creating a crescent on the side the line was moved towards. Because of the geometry involved, a line connecting the two points (horns) of a crescent moon (or of the darkened crescent inverse of a gibbous moon) must be a diameter of the moon (i.e. it must pass through the centre of the circle).

The deliberate misidentification of a "waxing gibbous" moon ("waxing" means going from new to full; that is increasing in illuminated area) as a "wax gibbon" (a Southeast Asian ape made of a nonpolar solid) is a source of humour in this comic. This is probably a reference to H.P. Lovecraft, who had several of his stories take place under "a gibbous moon" for dramatic effect.

Further, because the light portion of the moon is illuminated by sunlight (whether or not the moon is in the sky at the same time as the sun), the light side of the moon will always be facing towards the sun. If the moon is in the night sky, the sun must be somewhere "below" the horizon on the other side of the Earth. Thus, at night, the light portion of the moon must always be the on the half of the moon that faces the horizon (there are points during the daytime when the orientation can go the other way).

It is also notable that the portion of the moon that is dark is still a large hunk of (unlit) rock, and therefore even at night when we can't distinguish between the dark part of the moon and the background blackness, it would still be impossible to see more distant objects such as stars "through" the dark portion of the moon's circumference. This is most dramatically exemplified by a {{w|solar eclipse}} during which the moon passes in front of the sun and is therefore completely dark (the sun is lighting only the far side), but the moon's circumference still blocks a circular portion of the sun's light. Therefore, if we were to see any lights in the part of the sky the dark side of the moon blocks, they would need to be from sources between us and the moon's surface, such as a nuclear war on the moon.

This comic lists some of the some common mistakes. In some cases, a depiction may be unrealistic in multiple ways - for example, the {{w|Flag of Tunisia}} has both unrealistic horns and a star visible between the horns, while {{w|File:Moon tarot charles6.jpg|the Charles VI tarot}} shows a moon with over-long horns pointing towards the horizon.

In the title text, Randall is referring to the movie "{{w|Independence Day (film)|Independence Day}}" and how one of the alien's ships (in the movie) 'eclipses' part of the moon. He says that if the points go halfway or longer around the moon, then he imagines it's caused by an alien ship and interprets the entire piece of art in that context (i.e. aliens are about to attack those shepherds!).

{| class="wikitable"
|+Explanation of individual items in the list
!Image
!Shape
!Explanation
!Examples
|-
|[[File:moon1.jpg]]|| Full moon || Normal || Reality
|-
|[[File:moon2.jpg]]|| Gibbous moon || Normal || Reality
|-
|[[File:moon4a.jpg]]|| Crescent moon with horns away from horizon || Normal || Reality
|-
|[[File:moon3.jpg]]|| Crescent moon with horns towards horizon || This can only happen when the sun is above the horizon. Since a crescent moon means that the Sun and the Moon are relatively close in the sky, the Moon would not be visible with a naked eye, its light completely outshone by the sunlight. Randall comments it is possible only during a solar eclipse. Technically he is right, as the Moon could be observed in such configuration during a solar eclipse, which creates temporary darkness within a (moving) area on Earth, allowing to see the faint light of the crescent Moon - but that would mean that something else than the Moon is eclipsing the Sun, maybe a huge planetoid passing by the Earth or a giant alien spaceship mentioned in the title text. If it is an ordinary eclipse, then the crescent in the picture is actually partially eclipsed Sun, and the dark area is the Moon. || Van Gogh, {{w|File:Van Gogh - Passeio ao Crepúsculo.jpg|Landscape with Couple Walking and Crescent Moon}}
|-
|[[File:moon5a.jpg]]|| Wide crescent-like moon where the horns don't connect through a diameter || This is only possible during a partial solar eclipse or the start of an annular eclipse (in which cases the lit portion is not the moon, but the sun), or else if the Earth is casting its partial shadow on the Moon, a penumbral lunar eclipse. Randall labels the lunar eclipse "dubious", since the shadow during penumbral eclipse would be much ligther than shown here, in fact barely visible as a slight darkening of the Moon's surface. The Earth's shadow, being very large, would also likely cast a less-rounded edge than depicted here. || Van Gogh, {{w|File:Van Gogh - Starry Night - Google Art Project.jpg|Starry Night}}
|-
|[[File:moon6.jpg]]|| Narrow crescent-like moon where the points don't connect through a diameter || This situation is even harder to create than the previous one - unlike the previous example, here the diameter of the entire shadow is clear, and is too small for the Earth's shadow in a lunar eclipse. A huge ''Independence Day'' spaceship (as per the Title text) might be the right size. It does however resemble a partial {{w|annular eclipse}} if you imagine that the black area is the moon covering up the white sun. || {{w|File:AlcoholicBluesCoverVonTilze.jpg|Alcoholic Blues}}
|-
|[[File:moon7.jpg]]|| Crescent moon blocking stars|| Normal || Reality (but see Trivia below)
|-
|[[File:moon8.jpg]]|| Crescent moon with stars between horns || Many people (including artists) seem to forget that the dark portion of the moon is still a solid object that we can not see through.[http://imgur.com/S30fuOj][https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a7/7d/4a/a77d4ae9e3549e36edd350246d33700c.jpg] If stars are visible, there are either one or more holes in the moon, or the light-source is actually on the moon, such as nuclear explosions. As the {{w|Star and Crescent}}, the image is sometimes considered a symbol of Islam, although it's relatively recent and there's no traditional basis for putting the star ''between'' the horns - as originally used on the Flag of Turkey, the star appears in a realistic position. || Edwin Blashfield, {{w|File:Edwin Blashfield - Spring Scattering Stars.jpg|Spring Scattering Stars}}, the {{w|DreamWorks Animation}} logo
|}

==Trivia==
[[File:moon7a.jpg]] The image of the crescent moon blocking the stars is slightly wrong, because there are still lights on the surface of the moon.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:'''Interpreting the shape of the moon in art'''
:[The left part of the panel shows a two column chart is shown with labels above the columns. The left side shows the moons shape as white on a black square. These types of moons could be seen in certain art pieces. The right side saying whether this is normal or not as indicated with a green check mark or a red X. Right of the second column there are explanations of why the specific type of moon is marked as it is and what it could be called or how it could be possible even with the red X. The upper three moons have one common explanation as indicated with a bracket that covers all three with the text on the middle part of the bracket. Similarly moon five and six also have a bracket and only one explanation.]
:Shape Normal?

:[Shape #1-3 shows a white circle (full moon), a more than half full moon (Gibbon) and a thin seal at the bottom right of the square.]
:<big>✓</big>
:<big>✓</big> "Full" or "Quarter" or "Harvest" or "Wax Gibbon" or whatever
:<big>✓</big>

:[Shape #4 same as #3 but with the seal in the upper part of the square.]
:<big>✗</big> Only possible during a solar eclipse

:[Shape #5-6 shows a full moon with a circular section taken out of the right side and a seal that goes almost all the way around the circumference of the moon with almost a full circle taken out of the top left part of the moon.]
:<big>✗</big>
:<big>✗</big> Only possible during a lunar eclipse (#1 only, dubious) or a solar eclipse (bright part is the Sun)

:[Shape #7 same as #3 but with the seal a little smaller and more to the top and less to the left. Around the moon there are several starts represented with 29 small white dots. In the center of the black square there is a black circle, coinciding with the outer rim of the seal. Within this circle (the dark side of the moon) there are no stars!]
:<big>✓</big> Looks OK

:[Shape #8 same as #7 but apart from the 29 small white dots from before there are now also 6 more dots inside the dark circle with no stars in #7.]
:<big>✗</big> There's either a hole in the Moon or a nuclear war on its surface.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Fiction]] 
[[Category:Astronomy]]