explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:32: Pillar

2018-07-20T12:34:27Z

EditorGonk: Comment

I have oft wondered about the color thing.
[[Special:Contributions/71.178.11.180|71.178.11.180]] 21:49, 23 October 2012 (UTC)
Bigger problem- how do you know there are other people?

The incessantly thumping bass from your neighbour's "music" is a bit of a clue. :-)
[[User:BinaryDigit|BinaryDigit]] ([[User talk:BinaryDigit|talk]]) 09:23, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Is that Comic Sans (the font) in the top left? [[User:Caagr98|Caagr98]] ([[User talk:Caagr98|talk]]) 15:06, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
:Augh, it is Comic Sans! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.29|173.245.52.29]] 21:00, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Also, it could be that Righty doesn't see a pole, but a pillar, as suggested by the title of the comic. That's why he asks, "What pole?", implying, "I only see a pillar". {{unsigned ip|173.245.62.75}}

The song "Shpadoinkle" from Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "Cannibal! The Musical" begins with the line, "The sky is blue, and all the leaves are green." [[User:Trueflint|Trueflint]] ([[User talk:Trueflint|talk]]) 17:15, 4 June 2015 (UTC)

Anecdotally, I don't even perceive colors the same between my eyes. When I stare at a white wall, my left eye perceives it as tinted red, and my right eye perceives it as tinted green. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.34|172.68.141.34]] 03:18, 15 August 2017 (UTC)
:That's really interesting. Was it ever investigated why that is the case? And could that maybe be scientifically relevant? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:12, 24 August 2017 (UTC)
:Does this mean you don't need special glasses to watch a 3D film ?. Just kidding, I hope you get it fixed if you want to or are happy with it as it is. [[User:EditorGonk|EditorGonk]] ([[User talk:EditorGonk|talk]]) 12:34, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

30: Donner

2018-07-20T10:34:23Z

EditorGonk: Fixed typo "her" for "here"

{{comic
| number = 30
| date = November 7, 2005
| title = Donner
| image = donner.jpg
| titletext = Some people haven't heard of the Donner Party. They were pioneers who got stranded and likely resorted to cannibalism.
}}

==Explanation==
The title text explains to the reader that the {{w|Donner party}} was a group of pioneers who set out west along a new route that was supposed to be easier to travel, but ultimately proved slow and treacherous. They became trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains and many died. Low on food, it is believed that many of the pioneers resorted to cannibalism, eating the bodies of party members who had already died.

In this comic, three ''Donner party'' members arrive at Joe's restaurant, where they have ordered a table for four, as given by the fact that the ''{{w|Maître d'hôtel|maître d'}}'' knows they are the ''Donner party'' and calls for a party of four. The three decline the table since they are already full. This suggests that they just have eaten the, unknown to us, fourth member of their party after they placed the order for a table at the restaurant, but before they strolled over to it anyway.

Of course, since they are not in a survival situation in this strip, cannibalism would be completely unnecessary.

In the early days of [[xkcd]] (and days when Wikipedia was not quite in the mainstream consciousness), [[Randall]] didn't trust people to understand his comics or his references, and often explained the joke in the title text like here and for instance also in [[38: Apple Jacks]].

==Transcript==
:[Three people stand outside a restaurant; Megan, a man with some hair and another shorter person, probably a woman. There is a sign above the door and a menu next to it. Outside the door, there's a ''maître d''' with a cap behind a lectern. There is sign on the lectern.]
:''maître d''': Donner, party of four?
:Man: Actually, never mind.
:Megan: We're full.
:Sign over door: Joe's
:Menu: Menu
:Sign on lectern: Eat in

== Trivia ==
*This was the 29th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[27: Meat Cereals]].
**The next was [[34: Flowers]].
*Original title: "Monday's Drawing - Donner"
*There were no original [[Randall]] quote for this comic.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 29]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:26: Fourier

2018-07-20T09:38:43Z

EditorGonk:

Isn't the cat also imaginary because its Fourier transform isn't symmetric?

I feel like there's another joke in that his cat is "imaginary" or has complex components.

[[User:Shdwdrgn|Shdwdrgn]] ([[User talk:Shdwdrgn|talk]]) 06:33, 8 October 2014 (UTC)shdwdrgn

Picking up on shdwdrgn's comment above, how interesting would the Fourier transform of Schroedingers's cat be. I guess it would consist of two overlaid graphs neither of which would be certain until you actually looked at it.[[User:EditorGonk|EditorGonk]] ([[User talk:EditorGonk|talk]]) 09:38, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Might this also be a Garfield joke? Garfield's veterinarian is named Liz. Although Garfield, being roughly a three-dimensional ovoid, would probably end up with a much different looking Fourier transform than what is depicted here.

--[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.246|199.27.130.246]] 21:26, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

I think the transform may be of the movements of various parts of the cat. Cats tend to move their ears and heads a lot, and other parts, less so. What tipped me off is the spike at the tip of the tail. Cats typically twitch the very tip of their tail in a rhythmic fashion. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 21:52, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Coincidentially, the Fourier transform of a cat was used in a 2003 paper on the so-called phase problem in protein crystallography (figure 3) to illustrate the relevance of phase and amplitude information. See http://journals.iucr.org/d/issues/2003/11/00/ba5050/index.html
and http://journals.iucr.org/d/issues/2003/11/00/ba5050/ba5050fig3.html

Talk:20: Ferret

2018-07-19T09:50:52Z

EditorGonk: Who wants pets that fly

The wings are gonna have to be waay bigger if that plane is gonna fly. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:23, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

I wonder if the flying ferret has anything to do with Richard Bach, a noted aviation author who published a series of flying books called "The Ferret Chronicles" in 2002-2003? --[[Special:Contributions/144.92.241.6|144.92.241.6]] 21:58, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

This is the saddest strip of all! {{unsigned|Saijm4444}}

Jonathan Livingston Ferret. {{unsigned|anonymous}}

Could this comic be where the FlyingFerret IRC bot in #xkcd on foonetic.net was originally conceived? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.246|108.162.219.246]] 23:55, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Cueball could have let the matter drop with, "of course not." Instead, he deprecates both himself and his efforts while aligning himself with his friend's more pedestrian opinion. He makes a deliberate and public show of conformity. However, the last two panels show that, privately, he hasn't given up on the dream of wings for his ferret. Flight, especially in imagination or dreams, often represents freedom. Also, pets can sometimes be seen as extensions or representations of their owners. The dream of flight for the ferret could represent Cueball's desire for freedom from social strictures that he feels confine him. --[[User:David.poole.9000|DP9000]] ([[User talk:David.poole.9000|talk]]) 09:23, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

I think it would be a nice irony if the video game they went off to play involved a pet which flies e.g. dragon. Pet dragons seem to feature in multiple games.[[User:EditorGonk|EditorGonk]] ([[User talk:EditorGonk|talk]]) 09:50, 19 July 2018 (UTC)