explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2957: A Crossword Puzzle

2024-07-15T20:36:57Z

Eje211: /* Explanation of clues */ Added a detail to the last explanation.

{{comic
| number = 2957
| date = July 10, 2024
| title = A Crossword Puzzle
| image = a_crossword_puzzle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x937px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hint: If you ever encounter this puzzle in a crossword app, just [term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality].
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CROSSWORD MAKER FREE FALLING - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{notice|<big>'''SPOILER ALERT!'''</big> Stop scrolling! These crossword clues comprise a single hidden joke, which you can figure out yourself. If you read on, the joke is spoiled and your chance of finding out the joke yourself is gone instantly!|image=warning!!.png}}

This is a crossword puzzle. On a surface level, the answers seem extremely difficult, with questions covering a wide variety of trivia, linguistics, mathematics in various forms, alongside wordplay typical of crossword puzzles. But the joke is that every single letter of every single answer is "A".

The name of this comic, “A Crossword Puzzle”, is a double entendre which could, in itself, be considered a cryptic clue; the “A” can be interpreted both as the indefinite article “a”, and as an identifier saying that this crossword puzzle is specifically an “A” puzzle, due to the answer being all “a”s.

The title text is a play on a "type A" personality. The term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality is "Type A". In the context of the title text, this answer is a hint that the entire puzzle can be completed in a crossword-solving app by typing the letter A repeatedly.

===Explanation of clues===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Location !! Clue !! Explanation !! Squares
|-
| 1-Across || Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote || Reference to the {{w|Wilhelm scream}}, a widely used stock sound effect. || 10
|-
| 11-Across || {{w|IPv6}} address record || An IPv4 record is an "A" record; an IPv6 record is four times the length and is designated an "AAAA" record. || 4
|-
| 15-Across || “CIPHERTEXT” decrypted with Vigenère key “CIPHERTEXT” || A "{{w|Vigenère Cipher}}" translates the original text by the distance from A from the key, letter by letter. For instance, if the plaintext is "XK" and the key is "CD", the C shifts X 2 forward to become Z, and the D shifts K 3 forward to become N, yielding a ciphertext of "ZN". Since the ciphertext and the key are the same in this case, decryption just shifts all the letters back to A, akin to subtracting a number from itself and getting 0. || 10
|-
| 16-Across || 8mm diameter battery || An {{w|AAAA battery}} is a 1.5 V battery that measures 8.3 mm in diameter, 2.2 mm smaller than the more common AAA battery. || 4
|-
| 17-Across || “Warthog” attack aircraft || The {{w|A-10 Warthog}} is an attack aircraft. Here, A-10 has been turned into AAAAAAAAAA (ten As). || 10
|-
| 18-Across || '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for “inability to visualize” || {{w|Aphantasia}} is the inability to experience mental images. Following the example of the pattern in the clue, taking the first letter and every third one after (rather than just every third letter) we determine that '''A'''ph'''a'''nt'''a'''si'''a''' gives us the word "aaaa". This clue is particularly mean because of how it instructs you to visualize the letters highlighted within the word in order to get the answer. || 4
|-
| 19-Across || An {{w|acrostic}} hidden on the first page of the dictionary || The first page of the dictionary (if you ignore the copyright page and the index) is the list of words starting with A. An acrostic of this page, taking the first letter of each line and arranging them in order, would just be a sequence of As. || 15
|-
| 21-Across || Default paper size in Europe || {{w|A4 paper}} (here written as AAAA) is the default size in Europe. At 210×297 mm, it is approximately 0.24″ narrower and 0.71″ longer than the 8.5″×11″ paper used in the United States, and due to having an aspect ratio of 1:sqrt(2), can be cut or folded in half to create two half-sized sheets (A5) with exactly the same aspect ratio. A4 is, itself, also a halving of A3 and of identical ratio, as is the case with all A-sizes higher and lower in the sequence.|| 4
|-
| 22-Across || First four unary strings || A unary number system represents numbers using just one symbol. For example, 7 in unary would be 1111111. The first four strings in unary, if you used A as the first (and only) symbol, would be A, AA, AAA, AAAA. || 10
|-
| 23-Across || Lysine codon || {{w|Lysine}} is an amino acid, with codons AAA and AAG. || 3
|-
| 24-Across || 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution || [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-63/subpart-AAAAAAA?toc=1 "40 CFR Part 63"] refers to federal air pollutant regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations. The subpart for "asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing" is AAAAAAA (also part LLLLL). || 7
|-
| 25-Across || Top bond credit rating || The highest {{w|credit rating}} for bonds is AAA. || 3
|-
| 26-Across || Audi coupe || First of three Audi references. {{w|List_of_Audi_vehicles|Audi's car models}} range from A1 (subcompact hatchback) to A8 (full-size luxury sedan); the A5, the one referenced here, is a compact executive {{w|coupe}}. || 5
|-
| 27-Across || A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted || Two {{w|AAA_battery|AAA}} batteries, which are often used to power remote controls for domestic devices. These have been combined to give AAAAAA — "Inserted" is often a cryptic hint that one word should surround another, although such a cryptic clue would normally also contain a more direct clue (albeit ambiguously) to the full answer. || 6
|-
| 29-Across || Unofficial Howard Dean slogan || A reference to Howard Dean, an American Democrat who ran for the party's nomination in 2004. He famously [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0 yelled at a rally] in a way that was thought to be bizarre and which, it is thought, doomed his campaign. || 7
|-
| 32-Across || A 4.0 report card || A 4.0 GPA, at least {{w|Academic_grading_in_the_United_States|in the USA}}, is all As. This clue assumes seven classes. || 7
|-
| 33-Across || The “Harlem Globetrotters of baseball” (vowels only) || The {{w|Savannah Bananas}}, the vowels for whom are aaaaaa. The {{w|Harlem Globetrotters}} are an exhibition basketball team, with the Savannah Bananas following a similar formula in baseball. || 6
|-
| 34-Across || 2018 Kiefer song || “[https://genius.com/Kiefer-aaaaa-lyrics AAAAA]”. This is the only five-letter song title in Kiefer's 2018 album Happysad. || 5
|-
| 35-Across || Top Minor League tier || The top {{w|Minor League Baseball}} tier is AAA. || 3
|-
| 36-Across || Reply elicited by a dentist || Dentists ask patients to "say aaaaaaa", i.e., "open up". This could also be an expression of pain, particularly the only kind you can make with dental tools in your mouth. (As the band {{w|Autechre}} put it, [https://youtu.be/UppsLKz1iD4 "Now, I don't want you to panic... just lean back and relax."]) || 7
|-
| 38-Across || Anaa’s airport || {{w|Anaa}} is an atoll in the {{w|Tuamotu archipelago}} of {{w|French Polynesia}}. AAA is the {{w|IATA}} code for its airport. || 3
|-
| 41-Across || Macaulay Culkin’s review of aftershave || In the movie ''{{w|Home Alone}}'', Kevin (played by {{w|Macaulay Culkin}}) puts on his father's aftershave lotion. The eight-year-old boy is not used to the lotion's antiseptic and screams as the stinging sensation kicks in. || 10
|-
| 43-Across || Marketing agency trade grp. || The {{w|American Association of Advertising Agencies}}, also called the 4As (here AAAA). An abbreviated word in a clue, here "grp.", is a common way to signal that the answer also should also be written as its abbreviation. || 4
|-
| 44-Across || Soaring climax of Linda Eder’s ''Man of La Mancha'' || Refers to [https://youtu.be/BWP7l0OTXJI?t=130 the 18-second-long wordless passage in Eder's opus], or possibly the final high note in the song “The Impossible Dream”. || 15
|-
| 46-Across || Military flight community org. || The {{w|Army Aviation Association of America}}, or AAAA. || 4
|-
| 47-Across || Iconic line from ''Tarzan'' || Tarzan has a famous {{w|Tarzan yell|war cry}} he shouts, usually when swinging from a vine. || 10
|-
| 48-Across || '''E'''v'''e'''r'''y''' o'''t'''h'''e'''r letter of Jimmy Wales’s birth state || The birth state of {{w|Jimmy Wales}}, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is Alabama. Taking every other letter of '''A'''l'''a'''b'''a'''m'''a''' gives "Aaaa". || 4
|-
| 49-Across || Warthog’s postscript after “They call me ''mister'' pig!” || Pumba in ''{{w|The Lion King}}'' yells "aaaaaaaaaa" while charging at the hyenas who insulted him. || 10
|-
| 50-Across || Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2'' || The call which Elsa hears in ''{{w|Frozen 2}}'' is a sequence of four notes which resemble the requiem music {{w|Dies Irae#Music|Dies irae}}. The sequence is sung entirely with an open rounded vowel sound, or a soft "a" sound. || 4
|-
| 51-Across || Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run'' || In ''{{w|Run Lola Run}}'', Lola ({{w|Franka Potente}}) [https://youtu.be/OTSz1w-cuZM?si=2vc51WCWvn20Hjoo&t=116 screams loud enough to affect the outcome] of a roulette wheel where she has just bet all her money on Black 20. The scream could be transcribed as "AAAAAAAAAA" || 10
|-
| 1-Down || Game featuring “a reckless disregard for gravity” || ''{{w|AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity}}'' - notably the title is commonly extended in promotional material beyond 6 As. || 6
|-
| 2-Down || 1010101010101010101010102→16 || 10101010 10101010 10101010 in binary is equivalent to "AAAAAA" in hexadecimal. || 6
|-
| 3-Down || Google phone released July ’22 || The {{w|Pixel 6a}} was released in July 22. Stylized in this puzzle as "AAAAAA" ('A'×6) || 6
|-
| 4-Down || It’s five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce || Five times better than {{w|A1 steak sauce}} would be A5, stylized in this puzzle as AAAAA. || 5
|-
| 5-Down || ToHex(43690) || The decimal number 43690 converted to hexadecimal is AAAA. || 4
|-
| 6-Down || Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure'' || A drawn-out 'Aaaaahhhh' rising in pitch, from a song by Queen and David Bowie. || 15
|-
| 7-Down || Full-size Audi luxury sedan || Second of three Audi references. As mentioned previously, the A8 referenced here is their full-size luxury sedan. || 8
|-
| 8-Down || Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey || The "fast path" is just to select the first option over and over again. Usually the options are labeled A, B, C, and D (or more) - choosing the first option for every question would be answering entirely with As. || 7
|-
| 9-Down || 12356631 in base 26 || Randall is expressing base 26 using the letters of the alphabet with 1=A, in which case 1235663110 = AAAAAA26. (It's unclear how one would express the digit 026 this way.) || 6
|-
| 10-Down || Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus || A reference to the music video for Kirin J Callinan's song “{{w|Big Enough}}”, which features rocker {{w|Jimmy Barnes}} in a cowboy hat screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" while in the sky over mountain scenes. || 15
|-
| 11-Down || Ruby Rhod catchphrase || Ruby Rhod is a radio host in the film ''{{w|The Fifth Element}}''; he has a scene with a memorable scream. || 5
|-
| 12-Down || badbeef + 9efcebbb || In hexadecimal, badbeef and 9efcebbb add together to equal AAAAAAAA (195,935,983, 2,667,375,547, and 2,863,311,530 in decimal respectively). || 8
|-
| 13-Down || In Wet Leg’s ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing || In the song "{{w|Ur Mum}}" by {{w|Wet Leg}}, the bridge starts with "Okay, I've been practicing my longest and loudest scream", which is apparently eight As long. || 8
|-
| 14-Down || Refrain from Nora Reed bot || The "Endless Scream" bot on social media, made by Nora Reed, posts "AAAAAAAAAAA" (with or without an h) at varying lengths. || 8
|-
| 20-Down || Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith’s walls || In ''Mario'' games you typically use the A button to jump. In games where you don't press a button to move (e.g., games with a joystick), then the button presses required to ascend a vertical structure would probably all be A. This clue might have been inspired by the {{w|A-button challenge}} / [https://ukikipedia.net/wiki/A_Button_Challenge A Button Challenge], which tallies the number of A presses needed to beat ''Super Mario 64''. Additionally, {{w|Minas Tirith}} is a fictional city in ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'' with seven concentric rings, each with a wall around it and higher than the last ring. Presumably, it takes seven jumps to get to the highest area of the city, so the answer is "AAAAAAA". || 7
|-
| 24-Down || Vermont historic route north from Bennington || {{w|Vermont Route 7A}}, or AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 26-Down || High-budget video game || A high-budget video game is usually referred to as a Triple-A game, or AAA. || 3
|-
| 28-Down || Unorthodox Tic-tac-toe win || {{w|Tic-tac-toe}} is usually won by getting either three Xs or three Os in a row, making XXX and OOO normal Tic-tac-toe wins. One could achieve a win of AAA by making the unorthodox choice of playing with the letter A instead of X or O. Alternatively, Randall is envisaging the grid as defined by rows 1, 2, 3, and columns A, B, C, so an AAA win would be simply playing in the first column each time - a strategy which should be obvious and easy to stop, even for young children who have not yet worked out that ''any'' route to winning can be blocked. || 3
|-
| 29-Down || String whose SHA-256 hash ends “…689510285e212385” || <code>printf AAAAAAAA <nowiki>|</nowiki> sha256sum</code> outputs <code>c34ab6abb7b2bb595bc25c3b388c872fd1d575819a8f55cc689510285e212385</code>.
Note that this 'clue' would be normally be ''particularly'' difficult, in isolation, as the nature of a {{w|hash function}} means that it is possible for multiple inputs to produce a given output, and that finding any of these (and definitely identifying ''all'' of them, to ensure you have the correct original) would require a {{w|brute-force attack}}; i.e. a test of all possible initial states to discover which of them might be viable candidates. Even more problematic is that we are only given a partial hash string, meaning we are possibly talking of a multiple of full hashes, each of them with a possible multiplicity of original plaintexts behind them. However, given the context of this puzzle, it's reasonable to guess that a sequence of 8 As might be the answer, and indeed its hash does match the clue given.
 The number of possible hashes in the clue is 1664/1616, i.e. 1648, or approximately 6x1054, although there really is no reason (aside from the fundamental impracticality) to try to solve this problem from each and every 'hash end'. Instead you would 'only' check every combination of 8 letters (presuming no digits, punctuation or whitespace would be inserted, that no “foreign”/accented characters are present and that uppercase is universally presumed, is 268; i.e. ~208 {{w|billion|short-scale billion}} possibilities) and discover which (one?) of these sufficiently matches the hash fragment given. Testing a hundred of these every second, it would take a little over 66 ''years'' to complete the task of checking every single possibility (rather than stopping at the first confirmed answer, which might well be the initial one in this particular case).
 In the context of a crossword such as this, however, you can significantly reduce this search by having established (or at least sufficiently narrowed down) the answers to the various across-clues which intersect with ever character of it (this form of crossword grid being of the {{w|Crossword#American-style crosswords|dense type}}, with no singly-clued spaces as with the more open lattice-types), reducing the necessary checks drastically. This could mean, having solved at least some of the perpendicular answers, that you have enough information to 'guess' at some likely answer, and then merely need to ''confirm'' that whatever guess(es) you make will resolve themselves into the clue-answer provided. (Much as you might with a more normally difficult clue, where you merely have to satisfy yourself that the surprise answer is at least justified as resulting from the original hint.)
| 8
|-
| 30-Down || Arnold’s remark to the Predator || A reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFYPVxHKdc this scene] from ''{{w|Predator (film)|Predator}}'', starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. || 8
|-
| 31-Down || The vowels in the fire salamander’s binomial name || The vowels in {{w|Salamandra salamandra}} are aaaaaaaa. || 8
|-
| 32-Down || Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line || The iconic scene in ''{{w|Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho}}'' is the shower scene, in which {{w|Janet Leigh}} gives a long piercing scream as she is murdered. This can be written as 8 As if one wishes. || 8
|-
| 34-Down || Seven 440Hz pulses || A sound with a frequency of 440 Hz is a middle "A" note. Seven such pulses would be AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 37-Down || Audi luxury sports sedan || Third of three Audi references. The A6, the one referenced here, is their executive car. Actually, the A7, their executive liftback sedan, would fit the prompt of "luxury sports sedan" better, but 37-Down only has room for six As. || 6
|-
| 38-Down || A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks || Eggs can be [https://www.saudereggs.com/blog/egg-grading-system/ "graded on a variety of aspects"], with grades B, A, or AA. Eggs with a reasonably firm yolk are graded A, so having half a dozen of them gives you AAAAAA eggs. || 6
|-
| 39-Down || 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad || A "{{w|multi-tap|multitap keyboard}}" is a text entry system for mobile phones. Most numbers are associated with three letters, and tapping the same number multiple times in rapid succession selects the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd number. 2 is "A", 22 is "B", 222 is "C", 3 is "D", etc. 2-2-2-2-2-2 translates to "AAAAAA". (If pressed quickly enough, this input may accidentally wrap around the letter list twice and simply result in a "C".) || 6
|-
| 40-Down || .- .- .- .- .- .- || .- is {{w|Morse Code}} for A. It reads out as AAAAAA. || 6
|-
| 42-Down || Rating for China’s best tourist attractions || China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism provides ratings for many tourist attractions in China on a scale from A to AAAAA, with AAAAA being the best. Examples of well-known tourist attractions with the AAAAA rating include the {{w|Forbidden City}}, sections of the {{w|Great Wall of China}}, and the {{w|Terracotta Army}}. || 5
|-
| 43-Down || Standard drumstick size || 5A is a common, middle-range size for drumsticks (the sticks used to play drums, not the drumsticks that get eaten). Here, it's written as AAAAA. || 5
|-
| 45-Down || “The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain” rhyme scheme || An AAAA {{w|rhyme scheme}} means each of the four lines ends with the same sound. Furthermore, the sound in question is the standard vocalization of the letter A. || 4
|}

==Transcript==
:[A square 15x15 crossword puzzle is shown. Only 21 of the 225 squares are black. The black squares are in a pattern that are 180 degree rotationally symmetrical. Three black squares down from the 11th column and similarly three black squares up from the 5th column. Three black squares out from the right in row 7 and then two more black squares diagonally up from the end. Similarly three black squares out from the left in row 9 with two more black squares diagonally down from the end. A single black square is three above the first black square on the diagonal going down to the right and similarly there is a black square three under the first of the diagonal squares going down to the left. (Row 6 column 12 and Row 10 column 4). Finally there are three black squares on a diagonal crossing over the central point by going up from the left through the central point (Row 8 column 8). There are numbers at the top of every column (except the one that is a black square) and similarly at the left edge of all rows (except the one that is a black square). There are also numbers at the bottom of every black segment (except the one that reaches the bottom) and all rows after black segments except the one that reaches the right edge. In total all numbers from 1 to 51 are written. They are written in reading order from 1 to 51.]
:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

:[Below the square there are two columns of clues for each number that belongs to across (rows) and to the right there is one column of clues for each number that belongs to down (columns). Both segments have an underlined and bold title above the clues. ]
:<big>'''Across'''</big>
:1. Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote
:11. IPv6 address record
:15. "CIPHERTEXT" decrypted with Vigenère key "CIPHERTEXT"
:16. 8mm diameter battery
:17. "Warthog" attack aircraft
:18. '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for "inability to visualize"
:19. An acrostic hidden on the first page of the dictionary
:21. Default paper size in Europe
:22. First four unary strings
:23. Lysine codon
:24. 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution
:25. Top bond credit rating
:26. Audi coupe
:27. A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted
:29. Unofficial Howard Dean slogan
:32. A 4.0 report card
:33. The "Harlem Globetrotters of baseball" (vowels only)
:34. 2018 Kiefer song
:35. Top Minor League tier
:36. Reply elicited by a dentist
:38. ANAA's airport
:41. Macaulay Culkin's review of aftershave
:43. Marketing agency trade grp.
:44. Soaring climax of Linda Eder's ''Man of La Mancha''
:46. Military flight community org.
:47. Iconic line from ''Tarzan''
:48. '''E''''''v''''''e''''''r''''''y'''''' o''''''t''''''h''''''e''''''r''' letter of Jimmy Wales's birth state
:49. Warthog's postscript after "They call me ''mister'' pig!"
:50. Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2''
:51. Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run''

:<big>'''Down'''</big>
:1. Game featuring "a reckless disregard for gravity"
:2. 1010101010101010101010102→16
:3. Google phone released July '22
:4. It's five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce
:5. ToHex(43690)
:6. Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure''
:7. Full-size Audi luxury sedan
:8. Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey
:9. 12356631 in base 26
:10. Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus
:11. Ruby Rhod catchphrase
:12. badbeef + 9efcebbb
:13. In Wet Leg's ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing
:14. Refrain from Nora Reed bot
:20. Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith's walls
:24. Vermont historic route north from Bennington
:26. High-budget video game
:28. Unorthodox Tic-Tac-Toe win
:29. String whose SHA-256 hash ends "...689510285e212385"
:30. Arnold's remark to the Predator
:31. The vowels in the fire salamander's binomial name
:32. Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line
:34. Seven 440Hz pulses
:37. Audi luxury sports sedan
:38. A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks
:39. 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad
:40. .- .- .- .- .- .-
:42. Rating for China's best tourist attractions
:43. Standard drumstick size
:45. "The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain" rhyme scheme

==Trivia==
*This comic got a [[Header_text#A_Crossword_Puzzle|comic-specific header text]] after the first day it was up.
**This was because one of the comics Randall lists as one of those he enjoys, [https://www.buttersafe.com/ Buttersafe], had already posted a similar comic back in 2011: [https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ Crosswords].
**Randall had forgotten this, but now pays tribute to this, stating that he must have been accidentally inspired by that comic.
*[[User:Elfakyn|Elfakyn]] posted a link to a picture of the solved crossword puzzle in the [[Talk:2957:_A_Crossword_Puzzle#Solved_puzzle_picture|comments]] and allowed it to be included here:
[[File:2957_A-Crossword_Puzzle-Solved.png|500px|center]]
*All the black squares are in a symmetrical pattern, which is generally the case for crossword puzzles in the US and UK. See description of the pattern in the [[#Transcript|transcript]].
*Crosswords have been mentioned previously in [[2896: Crossword Constructors]].
*Out of 60 clues in the puzzle, 10 are references to screaming or yelling, making the puzzle approximately 17% screams.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Video games]]

2922: Pub Trivia

2024-05-24T23:05:20Z

Eje211: /* Explanation */ That's the question I actually thought it was before looking into it any more closely.

{{comic
| number = 2922
| date = April 19, 2024
| title = Pub Trivia
| image = pub_trivia_2x.png
| imagesize = 422x666px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Bonus question: Where is London located? (a) The British Isles (b) Great Britain and Northern Ireland (c) The UK (d) Europe (or 'the EU') (e) Greater London
}}

==Explanation==
Many pubs have {{w|pub trivia|trivia nights}}, where patrons form teams and compete to answer questions about a range of topics. The typical goal for trivia games is that they be challenging, yet possible, and so questions with answers that are too difficult or too easy generally make for a poor game. In addition, it's usually preferable that questions are clearly worded with a single, objective answer, so as to avoid disputes about which answers are correct.

Cueball has apparently been hired by one bar to infiltrate ''other'' bars' quiz nights and ask particularly bad questions. The implication is that this will make the games unpleasant, in the hopes that people will leave, and possibly go to the bar that hired Cueball.

Cueball uses a variety of strategies to write bad questions, including questions that are trivial (where the answer is painfully obvious), unanswerable (either because there is no answer or because the answer is unknown), ambiguously worded or arguable.

Many of his questions could be altered slightly to make them more reasonable for such a game, but that would defeat Cueball's purpose.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Question !! Problem with the Question !! Explanation !! More Reasonable Alternative(s)
|-
|1. Which member of {{w|BTS}} has a birthday this year?||Potentially confusing {{w|trick question}}.||All people have birthdays every year{{Citation needed}} (other than pedantic exceptions due to calendar issues or timezone alterations, or someone dying before their birthday, or being born on a leap day, none of which apply in this case). Therefore, answering with any of the seven members of BTS would be correct making the question equivalent to "Name any member of BTS" (a perfectly valid pub trivia question). The trick nature of this question may result in participant questions or confusion if not "par for the course".||Name any member of BTS. Which member of BTS has a birthday today/this week/this month? Which member of BTS turns [a specific age] this year? Which members of BTS have a birthday later this year?
|-
|2. How many sides does a {{w|platonic solid}} have?||Multiple answers, ambiguous language||There are five {{w|Platonic solids}}, with 4, 6, 8, 12 or 20 faces (colloquially called sides) in {{w|Euclid|Euclidean}} {{w|Euclidean geometry|3-space}}. The solids have, respectively, 6, 12, 12, 30 and 30 edges (also occasionally called sides colloquially). A more devious quizmaster might actually include this as a trick question with the correct answer being 'zero', since strictly speaking solids do not have 'sides'. Or 'two' inside and outside.||How many Platonic solids are there? What is the highest number of faces on a Platonic solid? How many faces does a [specific Platonic solid] have? How many faces (or edges, or vertices) do ''all'' the Platonic solids have (i.e., added together)? What is the number of vertices, minus the number of edges, plus the number of faces equal to for a platonic solid (i.e., the {{w|Euler characteristic}})?
|-
|3. What is the smallest lake in the world?||Arguable, potentially unknowable||While the largest lakes are relatively straightforward to categorize, smaller bodies of water range in size down to individual puddles. There is no clear, definitional line at which a body goes from being a lake to a pond, for example. In addition, the size of small lakes will fluctuate due to variability in precipitation, and other weather effects, and some lakes only exist for brief periods (intermittent lakes). Hence, which small bodies of water are "lakes" and which is the smallest can't be clearly answered, without specifying a whole list of parameters and standards.

This question is related to the Tom Scott video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEGzvZ85dgs What counts as the world's shortest river?]
||What lake has the largest surface area in the world? What is the world's deepest lake? What lake is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's smallest? (Benxi Lake in China).
|-
|4. Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks, {{w|Jaws (movie)|''Jaws'' (1975)}} or {{w|Lincoln (movie)|''Lincoln'' (2012)}}?||Trivial||''Jaws'' is a famous movie about a killer shark, and features at least five fatal shark attacks. Lincoln is a movie about the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, containing zero shark attacks.{{Citation needed}} Anyone with even a passing familiarity with American popular culture should be able to get this one right, and someone with no knowledge could likely guess the answer from the titles alone. This might be mistaken for a silly trick question, as ''Lincoln'' is a much less famous movie.||How many times is a shark seen on screen in ''Jaws''? Which film won more {{w|Academy Awards}}? How many fatal shark attacks occur in ''Jaws''? Which movie in the ''Jaws'' franchise has the most shark attacks?
|-
|5. How many planets were there originally?||Ambiguous||The question doesn't specify a time frame or culture, which is necessary to understand both the word 'planet' and the word 'originally'. It could be referring to the {{w|classical planets|original meaning of the word planet}}, which in antiquity referred to the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (total of 7 planets). It could be referring to the planets originally known to the quiz master, which (assuming Cueball is between 18 and 96 years old) would be after the reclassification of Ceres, Pallas, Vesta and Juno to asteroids, and after the discovery of Pluto, but prior to the reclassification of Pluto to dwarf planet (total of 9 planets). It could conceivably be referring to the first official definition of planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, which would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (total of 8 planets). It could be referring to the process of planetary formation, in which case another layer of ambiguity is added, as it could be referring to the number of protoplanetary bodies in the {{w|protoplanetary disk}} (which is unknown since some of them were destroyed like {{w|Theia (planet)|Theia}}), or the number of planets that accreted from the disk before some were likely ejected (which is also unknown), or how many planets existed when the sun or the universe was formed (which is 0). It also doesn't specify that it's referring to planets in our solar system alone (in the galaxy there are almost certainly trillions of planets). Additionally, it asks how many "were there", as opposed to how many planets "were known" (the number which we know of being far smaller than the true number of planets in the universe). ||How many planets were known to Ancient Greece? How many planets were known to science prior to the invention of the telescope? How many planets were recognized in our Solar System at the end of the 20th century?
|-
|6. What {{w|NFL}} player has scored the most points outside of a game?||Ambiguous, unknowable||The term "scored the most points" generally only applies within the context of a game, making it very unclear what kind of "points" the question is referring to. Does it mean points in non-NFL games? Points in games other than football? Points outside the context of any game at all (such as 'making a point' in conversation)? Even if this were clarified, points scored in official games in professional sports leagues are meticulously recorded and published, points scored in any other context are not, so the question is likely impossible to answer. Arguably, {{w|Brian Jordan}} would be an answer, with 121 Minor League and 755 MLB runs scored (points).||Which NFL player scored the most points in a game/season/career?
|-
|7. The {{w|Wright brothers}} built the first airplane. Who built the last one?||Unknowable||Orville and Wilbur Wright are widely credited with designing and building the first airplane (in the sense that they invented wing warping, and discounting everybody flying before them without wing warping). In modern times, design and construction of airplanes has become a huge, international industry, with many airplanes of widely varying sizings being built each year. Since airplanes are built continuously, which one was made most recently depends on when the question is asked (and would be very difficult for the average person to know -- and not trivial for even a member of the aerospace industry to know). If it's asking about the last airplane ''ever'', that's impossible to know, since that plane hasn't been built yet{{Citation needed}} (and likely won't for a very long time).||Who built the first airplane '''after''' the Wright brothers? When was the final Wright Model B aircraft built?
|-
|8. Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?||Unknown, possibly unknowable||This is a famous, centuries-old {{w|open question}} in math known as {{w|Goldbach's conjecture}}. Mathematicians widely believe that it is true, and it has held true for every number checked up to 4 ⋅ 1018, but since it's impossible to check every number, we can't assume it's universally true. No mathematical proof of its veracity exists at this point. Since it is {{w|Gödel's incompleteness theorems|known}} that something can be true but impossible to prove (and, being true, impossible to disprove), this may be the situation forever.||According to which mathematical conjecture is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?
|-
|9. Not counting {{w|Canberra}}, what city is the capital of {{w|Australia}}?||No answer exists||Australia has only one capital (unlike some countries, which divide the legislative and administrative capitals, for example {{w|Bolivia}} with {{w|La Paz}} and {{w|Sucre}}), and that capital is Canberra. Hence, by definition, there is no national capital "not counting Canberra". Though each constituent state also has its state capital, this would still leave us with an ambiguous choice. Before 1927, the answer could be Melbourne, as that was where the Parliament sat at that time. This may be a joke about how other cities, such as Melbourne and Sydney, are often mistaken for the capital of Australia due to Canberra's comparatively small population (roughly 500,000 in the greater metropolitan area, compared to Melbourne and Sydney's roughly 5,000,000 each). It also alludes to the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne as each claims to be the true capital. ||What city is the capital of Australia? What is currently the largest city in Australia? What is the smallest state capital in Australia? What city was the most recently founded state capital of Australia? What city was the capital city before Canberra?
|-
|10. Who played the drums?||Trivial, yet unknowable without context||As worded, the question could be answered with anyone who's ever played the drums, in any context, whether professional or not, in all of history. This would include a huge number of people, most of whom would not be well-known. Most people would be able to offer a technically correct answer, and almost none of them would be interesting. Or maybe the host is wondering who it was that played drums that night, as part of the bar's live music.||Who played the drums for some specific band/album/track/concert/tour/time/place?
|-
|(Title text) Where is {{w|London}} located? (a) the {{w|British Isles}} (b) {{w|Great Britain}} and {{w|Northern Ireland}} (c) the {{w|United Kingdom|UK}} (d) {{w|Europe}} (or 'the {{w|European Union|EU}}') (e) {{w|Greater London}}||Multiple answers||All choices are technically correct as they are various geographical areas that include the city of London, England. Also note that the City of London is different from the city ''named'' London, as the latter includes a large region around the former, hence (e) as an answer. Answer (d) is both correct and incorrect, as it conflates a geographic region, Europe, and a political body, the European Union. The United Kingdom (and therefore London) {{w|Brexit|left the EU}} in 2020, but is still geographically included in Europe. In addition, answer (b) is not a single geographical designation, but two combined together. Meanwhile, answer (c) is short for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but as well as Northern Ireland and Great Britain (the largest of the British Isles), it includes many other (though not all) surrounding islands, despite these not being mentioned in its full official name. Nonetheless, 'Great Britain' is often used as synecdoche for all of the UK except Northern Ireland (as well as for the UK as a whole), which could make answers (b) and (c), in a loose sense, equivalent. (Answer (a) is a different thing again, including islands that are neither Great Britain, nor part of the UK.) This often confusing {{w|File:British_Isles_Venn_Diagram-en_(3).png|overlapping map}} of definitions and nomenclatures provides fertile ground for tricky quiz questions. This also does not get into {{w|London (disambiguation)|cities named London}} outside of the UK, so for example "Ontario" or "Canada" could also be possible answers [[Black Hat|if the test designer was truly evil]], thus making none of the answers correct. ||What is the capital of the United Kingdom? (answer: London) Where is London, England '''not''' located? (a) the British Isles (b) Great Britain and Northern Ireland (c) the UK (d) Europe (e) the EU (answer: (e))
|}

==Transcript==
:[The top half of Cueball is shown beneath the list of questions he is reading aloud. He is holding a wireless microphone in his right hand and a pencil and notebook in his left, reading from the notebook and speaking into the microphone. The list is shown on the notebook as well, but just as unreadable lines.]:
:Cueball: Welcome to pub trivia! Round one is 10 questions:
:# Which member of BTS has a birthday this year?
:# How many sides does a platonic solid have?
:# What is the smallest lake in the world?
:# Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks - ''Jaws'' (1975) or ''Lincoln'' (2012)?
:# How many planets were there originally?
:# What NFL player has scored the most points outside of a game?
:# The Wright brothers built the first airplane. Who built the last one?
:# Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?
:# Not counting Canberra, what city is the capital of Australia?
:# Who played the drums?

:[Caption below the panel]:
:A local pub trivia place hired me to run bad quizzes at competing bars.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:American football]]

Talk:2608: Family Reunion

2022-04-18T21:30:32Z

Eje211:

How are relatives related by asexual reproduction defined and named?

[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:01, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

This is an important comic in xkcd lore

If the chair is made of wood, doesn't it mean that it's made of the dead remains of another relative? Isn't that rather gloomy?

[[User:Eje211|Eje211]] ([[User talk:Eje211|talk]]) 21:30, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

2370: Prediction

2020-10-15T08:32:06Z

Eje211: /* Explanation */ Added Nate Silver's illustration of how a one in six chance is very real.

{{comic
| number = 2370
| date = October 9, 2020
| title = Prediction
| image = prediction.png
| titletext = You'd think it'd be easy to just bet money against these people, but you have to consider the probability of them paying up.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There is definitely not a 50/50 chance this was created by a BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about misunderstanding {{w|probability}}. Sometimes people will incorrectly assume that if two events are possible, and one of them is more likely than the other to occur, then the first event WILL occur; or, that if one names two or more outcomes they are equally likely to occur when in fact they might have different probabilities.

Saying that one event is more likely to happen than another is not the same as saying that the first event is definitely going to happen. A statement like "event A has a 70% probability of happening" often misleads people into believing that event A is inevitable, while in fact 3 times out of 10 event B will happen instead of A.

Some don't like probability statements because they are not definite and therefore cannot be proven wrong. For example, if a probability statement says "event A has a 1% probability of happening" and event A actually happens, that does not prove the statement wrong, because the statement admits of the possibility of event A happening.

For example, FiveThirtyEight famously gave Trump a higher odds of winning the 2016 U.S. presidential election than most other models did just before the election, but still not more likely than his opponent. ([https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/ 28.6%]). However, many readers at the time interpreted that as "Trump is definitely going to lose", and after he won that election, blasted FiveThirtyEight for getting its prediction "wrong". However, that interpretation is mistaken. 28.6% means Trump had a real chance at winning: if you could put election results in a hat and draw them at random, he would win one out of every three tries. For another example, in tabletop gaming terms, Trump's likelihood of winning was slightly lower than that of passing a flat check with a DC of 15 (6/20 or 30%).

The correct interpretation of a probability statement like "event A has a 70% probability to happen" is that in the long run, about 70% of events with this probability end up happening. If, for example, 99% of those events ended up happening, the 70% probabilities you gave those events may likely be wrong (you should've given probabilities closer to 99%), even though you "called" almost all events correctly (in the sense that 70% means the events are more likely to happen than not to happen, and almost all of them happened). Looking back at your predictions and seeing if the results are what you should expect is called {{w|Calibration (statistics)|calibration}} ([https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/checking-our-work/ example]).

In the last panel, it is shown that [[Cueball]] anticipated this lack of understanding, so he plays pre-recorded audio of his prediction for the conversation.

The title text says that these people are gullible enough to the point that they would accept a disadvantageous bet. However, it also says that the probability that they might not actually go through with paying the bet if they lose brings into question whether to propose the bet is actually worth it. Randall has previously made allusions to betting on fallaciously claimed probabilities in comics such as [[1132: Frequentists vs. Bayesians]] and [[955: Neutrinos]].

The comic doesn't rule out the possibility that event A and event B aren't directly related. For example, it is more likely to flip a coin and get a head than to roll a 6-sided die and get a 6. This is a fairly pointless observation in most cases, except perhaps if one is trying to explain the probability of an unfamiliar event by comparison with something very familiar.

At the time of writing, the 2020 United States presidential and congressional elections are less than a month away. This is a time when polls showing one or the other candidate leading are common, and may be misinterpreted to mean that the candidate is certain to win. Additionally, after the 2016 election saw Donald Trump, the trailing candidate in the polls, winning, many also interpreted this to mean that the polls were useless and/or wrong, or even go beyond this and take an adverse poll prediction as a perversely authoritative indication that the exact opposite result (which they would favour) is now a certainty. Cueball has previously shown an interest in U.S. election polling, for example in [[500: Election]].

In early October, famous statistician {{w|Nate Silver}} explained on his podcast "Model Talk" that, according to his model, Donald Trump had a 17% chance of winning reelection in 2020. That seems low, but it's a one in six chance, the odds of Russian roulette, the practice of shooting oneself in the head with a six-bullet barreled pistol with only one chamber loaded: it only has one chance in six to kill the person doing it. Would anyone in their right mind play Russian roulette? The answer he was implying was no. This illustrates how one chance in six is very real. While 17% seems low, it can absolutely happen.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball standing next to each other. Cueball has his palm out.]
:Cueball: Event A is more likely than Event B.

:[White Hat touches chin thoughtfully]
:White Hat: So you're saying that Event A will happen.
:Cueball: No, Event B could also happen.

:[A frameless panel]
:White Hat: So you're saying it's 50/50.
:Cueball: No, it's definitely not 50/50.

:[Cueball produces a phone]
:White Hat: Sounds like you have no idea what will happen.
:Cueball: And yet I knew exactly how this conversation would go. Here, listen:
:[Cueball clicks a button on his phone]
:<nowiki>*Click*</nowiki>
:Phone: ''Then you'll say, "So it's 50/50"''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Phones]]

2116: .NORM Normal File Format

2019-02-25T16:56:56Z

Eje211: /* Explanation */ Added reference to comic 763: Workaround

{{comic
| number = 2116
| date = February 25, 2019
| title = .NORM Normal File Format
| image = norm_normal_file_format.png
| titletext = At some point, compression becomes an aesthetic design choice. Luckily, SVG is a really flexible format, so there's no reason it can't support vector JPEG artifacts.
}}

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

Cueball's friend seem to have sent him a rather unusual datafile passed off as a new "normal" standard.

People who work with data, and need data sent to them electronically, typically need it sent in a way that they can easily use it -- either in a text format that can be copy-pasted, or as a spreadsheet or CSV file that can be imported into a spreadsheet program, or such. Information sent in this fashion -- a photograph of a spreadsheet embedded into a word processing file -- is absolutely useless for any purpose beyond being looked at. The recipient has no choice but to retype the entire data set, and hope that no mistakes are made in the process.

Further, the size of the data is bloated by being converted first from text into graphics, and then from graphics to embedded graphics in a word processing document. This adds nothing to the content, and only adds steps to the process of retrieving the data.

The comic image links to a [https://twitter.com/openelex/status/853977391747801088 tweet by OpenElections] that displays an Excel file produced by the City of Detroit that contains a lookup table for the city's absentee precincts in 2016.

This comic is reminiscent of the comic [[763:_Workaround|Workaround]], which also describes convoluted formats.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is at a computer. Someone is talking to him from off-panel.]
:Voice: I sent you the data.
:Cueball: Thanks!
:Cueball: …this is a Word document containing an embedded photo you took of your screen with the spreadsheet open.
:Voice: Yeah? Does your computer not support .NORM files? Maybe you need to update.

:Caption: Since everyone sends stuff this way anyway, we should just formalize it as a standard.

{{comic discussion}}

2031: Pie Charts

2018-08-10T21:06:37Z

Eje211: Added that percentages don't need to add up to 100 to be correct.

{{comic
| number = 2031
| date = August 10, 2018
| title = Pie Charts
| image = pie_charts.png
| titletext = If you can't get your graphing tool to do the shading, just add some clip art of cosmologists discussing the unusual curvature of space in the area.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ''a cosmologist discussing the unusual curvature of space in the area'' - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Pie_chart|Pie Charts}} graph quantities as "slices" of a circle, like a pie that you cut into slices. The circle, or Pie, represents the whole sum of the slices, or 100% of the data. As such, if the data represented by the slices is expressed as percentages, the total of all the slices, by definition, must total 100%. This comic introduces a new technique for getting around that rule by "warping" the circle to allow more than 100% of the data to exist in the graph. Thus the total amount of 130% is represented with a shape presumably 30% larger in area than the circle.

The resulting warped circle is then actually part of a [[wikipedia:Hyperbolic geometry#Circles and disks|hyperbolic plane]], while a normal circle is part of a flat plane. Of course, it doesn't matter if the geometric shape is a circle or a hyperbolic plane: A changed graphic doesn't magically solve the misrepresentation of percentages. At best, it serves to highlight the methodical error. Regarding doctored statistics: If the same numbers were presented as absolute values instead of percentages, the error would still remain but would be less obvious, especially if you omit the total count of the sample (''Of '''all''' people asked, 40 selected green as favorite color, 45 selected red, 30 yellow and 15 blue.'' This statement omits that you surveyed only 100 people and several of them named several colors, and readers will assume a larger sample.)

Percentages that add up to more than 100% are often a sign that a math error has occurred, whether a typo somewhere or a sloppy case of taking numbers from different sources. However, they can arise naturally in cases where each item can belong to more than one group, such as [[wikipedia:approval voting|approval voting]] (40% of the people like green 45% like red etc., however there may be some that like both green and red). In such cases, a more accurate depiction would have some form of overlap of the pie pieces, not a warping of the space which they occupy, or a completely different representation, such as a bar chart. Minor cases can also occur if the percentages of the pieces have been rounded for readability - summing the rounded numbers can result in them adding to 99% or 101%.

Percentages don't ''need'' to add up to 100% to be correct. For example, if five people wear blue t-shirts and five wear red t-shirts, then 50% of them wear each color for a total of 100%. Now if one of each joins the group, 55% of the ''original'' population wears each color, for a total of 110%, as the total population risen by 10%. That said, this change should be represented by something like a graph, not by pie chart. If percentages are represented by a pie chart, the assumption is that the total should be 100%, independently of the math behind it.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Two colored circles are shown. The circle on the right is fuzzy in shape and shows some shadows from the middle to the outer edges, like a round piece of cloth with wrinkles going out from the center.]

:[The left circle:]
:Wrong:
:45% (red)
:15% (blue)
:30% (yellow)
:40% (green)

:[The right fuzzy circle with shadows:]
:Right:
:45% (red)
:15% (blue)
:30% (yellow)
:40% (green)

:[Caption below the frame:]
:How to make a pie chart if your percentages don't add up to 100

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Pie charts]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:1896: Active Ingredients Only

2017-10-02T16:35:32Z

Eje211:

Seems Randall has a cold again, like two years ago... :D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:03, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

Why would taking a medication without binding agents be dangerous? Also, would something like a gelcap count as an inactive ingredient? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.153|162.158.62.153]] 13:28, 29 September 2017 (UTC)
: Yes. If an ingredient is not intended to produce a therapeutic effect on the body, then it is inactive: "Inactive ingredients are components of a drug product that do not increase or affect the therapeutic action of the active ingredient" https://www.google.com/search?q=inactive+ingredient -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 14:08, 29 September 2017 (UTC)
: Binders hold the tablet together, so that instead of taking a powder and possibly missing some grains that fall away or stick to something (which would be dangerous if you need all the medicine for some life threatening condition) you can take the whole tab and get exactly the intended amount of active ingredient. They are also used to make tabs with minuscule quantities of active ingredient larger so that instead of fumbling with an incredibly tiny tablet it is large enough to be easily held and seen, and since the explanation just says "serious problem" not necessarily "dangerous" I could see having to take a single grain of sand sized medicine as being problematic.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.100|108.162.237.100]] 14:45, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

Could this comic be a reference to this image? [[https://i.redd.it/q7jcyf21c8ty.jpg]] It was the first thing I thought about when I saw it.

I don't think the "Opening the box would reveal a mix of various colored powders and no way to ensure you are correctly taking the right dose." part is right- it doesn't say no separation in packaging, just that the medicine itself has no binding ingredients, it's just once you open any particular section it would not encourage anything inside of it to stay together. And an additional thought- powders? Some active ingredients may have forms more inconvenient than powders, I'd expect some would form a film on the packaging or other inconvenient behavior, though someone would more knowledge on medicine could correct me on just what raw active ingredients really would be like.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.220|162.158.78.220]] 04:18, 30 September 2017 (UTC)

Isn't this just BC headache powder but for colds? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.167|162.158.79.167]] 04:57, 30 September 2017 (UTC)

Since a cold takes 7 days or a week, depending on treatment, one could make, market and sell such a thing by just selling empty boxes with this "active ingredients only" label. Seems like a good idea for a joint blackhat/beret guy company... -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.133|162.158.111.133]] 07:37, 30 September 2017 (UTC)
: Black Beret®? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.107|172.68.58.107]] 13:37, 30 September 2017 (UTC)

I would believe that in medicines, binders are only used with loose dry ingredients to create a solid tablet form. Otherwise, loose dry ingredients can be dispensed in packets; and both dry and liquid ingredients are commonly enclosed in dissolvable capsules, all without the need for added binders. "No binders" seems like simple advertising hyperbole, similar to putting a "Not Enclosed In Solid Stainless Steel" label on a loose apple. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:57, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

There was a time when medicines were not mass manufactured and you would go to your local apothecary (pharmacist) and the medicine would be formulated on the spot and handed to you as powders wrapped in paper. Such powders while not having any mixers would have questionable purity. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 13:48, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

An [http://en.wikipedia.org/Ampoule ampoule] could contain medicine with only active ingredients. But, very likely, the dose would be very small and getting it out of the ampoule would result in a very imprecise dosage. In real life, medicine in ampoules tends to be very diluted.

1594: Human Subjects

2015-10-26T05:52:19Z

Eje211: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1594
| date = October 23, 2015
| title = Human Subjects
| image = human_subjects.png
| titletext = After meeting with a few of the subjects, the IRB actually recommended that you stop stressing out so much about safety guidelines.
}}

==Explanation==
This strip plays on certain experiments involving {{w|Human subject research|human subjects}}. [[Ponytail]] is questioning the reliability of [[Megan]]'s experimental results, given that her human subjects appear to be extremely unusual and highly {{w|sociopathic}}.

In the second panel, she mentions that several people in one study had been arrested for {{w|arson}}. Megan begins to suggest that the arson is a {{w|side effect}} of whatever is being tested before she learns that the arsonists are in the {{w|Treatment and control groups|control group}} – that is, the group that is ''not'' subjected to whatever is being tested and is used as a comparison to see the differences in the people who are actually being tested. This result is "troubling", as the control group would not be expected to have such a high rate of incidence of arsonists. The implication is that her subjects are not representative of the general population, but appear to have been selected from some aberrant subpopulation, such as a prison or mental institution. Or she could have recruited them through an announcement that catered in some way to arsonists. An alternate explanation comes from comic [[790: Control]], in which [[Randall]] notes his hobby of sneaking into experiments and giving LSD to the control groups. Yet another explanation could be that Ponytail went looking for some clusters of characteristics in the sample population, which had no connection to the study criteria, and happened upon the arson arrests - such clusters are expected if you look at enough different characteristics.

The third panel alludes to the {{w|prisoner's dilemma}}, in which two subjects must independently decide whether to "collaborate" with or "betray" the other subject based on different rewards for each choice (often framed as a different length of prison sentence, or a different amount of money). The rewards tier are selected so that the outcomes for each individual from best to worst are: betraying a collaborator, collaborating with a collaborator, betraying a betrayer, collaborating with a betrayer.
The thought experiment is considered interesting as it's uncertain what the most logical course of action, as choosing betrayal always improves one's situation, yet being in identical situations with no knowledge of each other, it's also logical for both prisoners to make the same choice and both collaborating is better than both betraying. Of course, it would not be expected that normal people would simply betray each other for no reason, without benefiting from it in any way.

The last panel references the {{w|Milgram experiment}}, in which subjects were instructed by experimenters to administer electric shocks to an unseen third party. The unseen third party was part of the experiment and pretended to be in agony. As shocks escalated they would beg for them to stop. The results suggest that people will continue to administer harm, despite the pleading of the victim, simply if told to do so by an authority figure, even when no incentive is provided to the subject to continue. In this case, however, the actual experiment did not involve electric shocks, and thus suggests that the subjects, of their own volition, brought equipment to produce electric shock and simply engaged in the activity unprompted.

In each of these cases, the subjects seem to have some "negative" psychological traits. While one or two people with such traits might not be unusual to be found in a randomly selected group, the fact that all three experiments contain multiple subjects with these traits (and seemingly the same traits in each study) is very unusual.

The title text refers to safety procedures normally required by {{w|institutional review board}}s, which are centralized groups within universities that ensure that experiments are ethical and safe. The implication is that for an IRB to recommend dispensing with safety procedures after meeting the subjects, the subjects must really, ''really'' deserve bad treatment. Or the members of the IRB are, like the human subjects, just sociopathically awful people. Or that Megan is selecting for these subjects, or causing these abnormalities, as a side effect of spending (probably significantly) more effort than is necessary to adhere to the procedures.

The overall theme of experiments that are overwhelmingly skewed by outlier human factors is in itself reminiscent of the recent discovery that [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/science/many-social-science-findings-not-as-strong-as-claimed-study-says.html many psychological experiments cannot be replicated]. That news made quite a bit of noise in the world of science and even made its way in the general press. Just like in the experiments that could not be replicated, it is likely that if the experiments in this comic were attempted again, the outcome would be drastically different than the one achieved here.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Megan sit at a desk.]
:Ponytail: We're concerned that some of your results may be tainted by the fact that your human subjects are ''awful''.
:Megan: What do you mean?

:[Ponytail picks up a sheet of paper.]
:Ponytail: Several participants in your drug trial were arrested for arson.
:Megan: Side effects can be unpredictable.
:Ponytail: They were in the control group.

:[Zoom in on Ponytail.]
:Ponytail: In your prisoner's dilemma study, 80% of the participants chose to betray their partners '''''before''''' the experimenter had a chance to tell them about the reward.
:Megan (off-panel): Definitely troubling.

:[Ponytail shows Megan another sheet of paper.]
:Ponytail: In one experiment, your subjects repeatedly gave electric shocks to a stranger in another room.
:Megan: That's a famous psychological-
:Ponytail: This was a study of moisturizing creams!
:Megan: Yes, we're not sure how they snuck in all that equipment.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Science]]

456: Cautionary

2015-04-10T16:20:38Z

Eje211: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 456
| date = July 30, 2008
| title = Cautionary
| image = cautionary.png
| titletext = This really is a true story, and she doesn't know I put it in my comic because her wifi hasn't worked for weeks.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] decides to install Linux on her new PC, and calls her cousin [[Cueball]], whom she views as her personal Linux expert. The overarching joke revolves around the fact that Linux, especially home PC-based GNU/Linux, is much more often used as a "hobby" OS, as compared against a "productivity" OS such as {{w|Windows}} or {{w|OS X}}. Large numbers of people use Windows or Mac by default, because it came with their computer hardware when they bought it, and it already had the software suite they wanted to use installed along with it. Linux, on the other hand, rarely comes pre-installed on PC hardware and generally must be deliberately chosen and acquired; and while it can be set up to achieve efficient and productive workflow in virtually any area on PCs, because it often must be consciously selected, installed, and configured by users, it tends to either attract or, in a few cases, create individuals who take disproportionate pleasure in, and derive self-identification from, hacking the operating system itself. Thus, many people who are {{w|Linux}} {{w|Hacker (hobbyist)|enthusiasts}} began by not really knowing anything about it other than that it's {{w|Gratis|free of cost}}, but the process of actually building Linux on their machines gradually lead them to take an increasing interest in it, which the comic humorously likens to substance addiction.

Xorg (officially {{w|X.Org Server|X.Org}}) is an implementation of the X window manager, a program responsible for the graphical display used on Linux. If it has configuration problems, which was quite common with some video card drivers back in 2008 (especially {{w|fglrx#Linux|those
for ATI Radeon cards}}), it is often difficult and/or painful to fix (see [[963: X11]]). {{w|man page|Man pages}} are manual pages for Unix-based operating systems and software, usually accessible online but also bundled with the software itself, that explain in simple unambiguous language what certain things are, how they work, and providing clear illustrations of their use.

Linux has many versions, called "distributions". Each distribution, or "distro", has a different look and feel, and different feature sets and design philosophies. {{w|Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu}} is a very popular "beginner" version of Linux, designed to "just work" and be familiar/usable to people fresh out of Windows. {{w|Debian}} is a popular but somewhat more "advanced" distro, more traditionally "{{w|Unix-like}}" than Ubuntu, with a huge and diverse base of supported software that generally requires more Linux know-how to configure and use, or at least more eagerness to learn. {{w|Gentoo Linux|Gentoo}} is a very advanced distro allowing for extreme customization and optimization but requiring extensive install and setup time. Because [[Megan]] is fed up with Ubuntu trading functionality for ease-of-use,
she decides to switch to Debian or maybe Gentoo, both of these successive options prompting [[Cueball]] to fear that she may just be getting in deeper and deeper. ("Autoconfig issues" refers to [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]])

Some advanced users of Linux choose to compile their kernel from source; Gentoo requires this, and is customarily compiled locally. Source code is a computer program expressed in an easily human-readable format, often simply as text. However, source code cannot be run directly by a computer, and instead needs to be "compiled" into object code, a computer-runnable but human-unreadable low level code. A coder will generally hack a program in source code, then compile their source code so that the computer itself may run the program (see [[303: Compiling]]). This means that with Gentoo, instead of downloading an already functional Linux system to install and run, users download the source code for the system, customize it to their own needs, then compile the code into a runnable version of the OS, all before they can begin to use the system. To many such advanced users, their installation of Linux is like a hobby sportscar: A never-ending project, constantly tweaked and cleaned and adjusted to improve performance, that spends far more time sitting around with its hood open than actually being used for its ostensible purpose.

In the final panel, [[Megan]] has become addicted to Linux, and is lost in the {{w|Flow (psychology)|flow}} of hacking her kernel to her liking, having forgotten whatever it was she originally purchased the new PC to do.

The title text jokes about the bad support for many then-common {{w|Wi-Fi}} cards within Linux back in 2008.

It is likely that the last cautionary aspect of the comic, explicitly present in both its title and its conclusion, is sarcastic. Randall is clearly very fond of Linux and even a Linux and open source advocate. (See comic [https://xkcd.com/272/ 272] as an example.) At the beginning of the comic, the cousin seems to barely know how computers work past very basic end-user functionality. After just a few weeks, she's become extremely advanced. Not only can she compile her own kernel, she does not do so by blindly following instructions. She does so in a critical and meaningful way. This high praise of Linux is most likely wrapped into a facetious tone of caution for comic reasons.

==Transcript==
:Linux: A True Story:
:[Cueball talks on a cell phone.]
:Week One:
:Megan: Hey, it's your cousin. I got a new computer but don't want Windows. Can you help me install "Linux"?
:Cueball: Sure.

:[Megan sits in an office chair with her laptop on her lap. She is on the phone.]
:Week Two:
:Megan: It says my XORG is broken. What's an "XORG"? Where can I look that up?
:Cueball: Hmm, lemme show you man pages.

:[Megan crouches on the floor with the laptop on her lap. She is still on the phone.]
:Week Six:
:Megan: Due to auto-config issues, I'm leaving Ubuntu for Debian.
:Cueball: Uh.
:Megan: Or Gentoo.
:Cueball: Uh oh.

:[Megan lies on her stomach with the laptop on the floor. On the floor are several pieces of paper and a book. Cueball stands to her left.]
:Week Twelve:
:Cueball: You haven't answered your phone in days.
:Megan: Can't sleep. Must compile kernel.
:Cueball: I'm too late.

:[Box with text:]
:Parents: talk to your kids about Linux... Before somebody else does.

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

1417: Seven

2014-09-05T05:15:12Z

Eje211:

{{comic
| number = 1417
| date = September 5, 2014
| title = Seven
| image = seven.png
| titletext = The days of the week are Monday, Arctic, Wellsley, Green, Electra, Synergize, and the Seventh Seal.
}}

==Explanation==

Megan is asking Cueball to name the seven dwarfs. He responds with a list of seven unrelated items, where each item traditionally belongs to a different set of seven things:

* Sneezy: seven dwarfs
* Phylum: taxonomic ranks
* Europe: continents (treating North & South America as separate continents, and counting Antarctica as a continent)
* Sloth: seven deadly sins
* Guacamole: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-layer_dip Seven-layer dip]
* Data Link: Layer 2 of the seven layers of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model OSI model]
* Colossus of Rhodes: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]

The title text has a similar joke, about days of the week:

* Monday: days of the week
* Arctic: Seven oceans
* Wellsley: Seven Sisters (colleges)
* Green: Colours of the rainbow
* Electra: The seven [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(Greek_mythology) Pleiades].
* Synergize: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
* Seventh Seal: Reference to a phrase in the Book of Revelation in the Bible that refers to seven symbolic seals that secure a book or scroll

{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

Each item in the list is part of a group of seven: Dwarves, levels of biological taxonomy, continents, deadly sins, layers of dip, seven-layer OSI model, and wonders of the ancient world.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1417: Seven

2014-09-05T05:13:16Z

Eje211:

{{comic
| number = 1417
| date = September 5, 2014
| title = Seven
| image = seven.png
| titletext = The days of the week are Monday, Arctic, Wellsley, Green, Electra, Synergize, and the Seventh Seal.
}}

==Explanation==

Megan is asking Cueball to name the seven dwarfs. He responds with a list of seven unrelated items, where each item traditionally belongs to a different set of seven things:

* Sneezy: seven dwarfs
* Phylum: taxonomic ranks
* Europe: continents (treating North & South America as separate continents, and counting Antarctica as a continent)
* Sloth: seven deadly sins
* Guacamole: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-layer_dip Seven-layer dip]
* Data Link: Layer 2 of the seven layers of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model OSI model]
* Colossus of Rhodes: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]

The title text has a similar joke, about days of the week:

* Monday: days of the week
* Arctic: Seven oceans
* Wellsley: Seven Sisters (colleges)
* Green: Colours of the rainbow
* Electra: One of the seven [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(Greek_mythology) Pleiades].
* Synergize: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
* Seventh Seal: A movie containing the word "seven"; doesn't otherwise fit the pattern

{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

Each item in the list is part of a group of seven: Dwarves, levels of biological taxonomy, continents, deadly sins, layers of dip, seven-layer OSI model, and wonders of the ancient world.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1391: Darkness

2014-07-07T23:05:53Z

Eje211:

{{comic
| number = 1391
| date = July 7, 2014
| title = Darkness
| image = darkness.png
| titletext = This was actually wish #406. Wish #2 was for him to lose the ability to remember that each new wish wasn't my first.
}}

==Explanation==
In the comic the news anchor [[Ponytail]] describes the {{w|sunset}} as though it were an unprecedented, newsworthy event, rather than [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MundaneMadeAwesome something mundane] that happens every day. They even have a reporter ([[Cueball]]) on the spot reporting from where the ''darkness'' has spread so far.

The sunset is a common event. {{w|Isaac Asimov}} based his short story {{w|Nightfall_(Asimov_short_story_and_novel)|Nightfall}} on a fictional civilization that doesn't know darkness because the planet is always illuminated by the six stars surrounding it. The story describes how people would react (panic, fall of civilization) when the orbital motion of the planet eventually leads to all of the suns setting.

Describing mundane occurrences in unusual detail, to show off how odd they really are, is something [[Randall]] has done before (for instance about dreaming in [[203: Hallucinations]]). But the caption below the main panel adds another twist to the joke by showing that the news report wasn't a mere imagine spot, but something actually happening due to the interference of Randall's final wish to his {{w|genie}}, which caused all news reporters to forget the day-night cycle.

The caption references the fact that there is a limit to the number of wishes. It is a common rule, often used in fiction, that you get [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThreeWishes three wishes] from a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenieInABottle genie in a bottle]. There usually is an added stipulation that no wish may be used to acquire more wishes. In the title text, however, it is stated that Randall has managed to bypass the three wish limit rule. This was accomplished by using his second (#2) wish to simply make the genie unable to remember granting the speaker any wishes. He have thus used the same trick on the genie as he used here on the media. The media wish turns out '''not''' to have been his last (i.e. #3), but rather #406. This shows just how far, "make someone forget something", can go by applying it to the genie.

It is interesting that it was his second wish that gave him unlimited wishes. What did he wish for on wish #1? Maybe he wasted the first wish, because he did not believe the genie was able to grant wishes - a common error. On the other hand, he may have used the first wish to learn a way where his second wish could circumvent the three rule limit. He did not wish for more wishes (a clear rule), but since the genie now always think the next wish is his first, it is not Randall who asks for more wishes, but the genie that forgets to stop at the limit...

There seem to be a conflict with the title text, and where the caption says ''Genie, for my last wish...'' Because if the genie thinks it is his first wish, he would be confused. It could, however, be to chock the reader, that he makes a point of him wasting a final wish on something this silly. Then in the title text, he makes it clear that it was only a wish he used, because he had an unlimited amount of wished at hand. And to the genie he would simply have said, ''...for my first wish...''

*To have three wishes from a genie, but really only need one, was the joke in [[152: Hamster Ball]]. Perhaps this genie is the same, and the first wish was for a human-sized hamster ball... And then much later - inspired by the hamster ball? - he breaks the code to free, not only three, genie wishes.
*The concept of having unlimited wishes has previously been explored in [[1086: Eyelash Wish Log]] - one of the wishes is also related to news anchors.

Another possible meaning is that this comic is a reference to the way the media often talk about Global Warming as if each weather occurrence had meaning outside of its context. That take on the weather and the day/night cycle being denied because of a skewed point of view was also used on the Daily Show. The segment "Unusually Large Snowstorm" from February 10, 2010 [http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/18l8gy/unusually-large-snowstorm] used the same trope. Several Daily Show correspondents have different views on the weather based on where they are, ending with a correspondent who equates nighttime with everlasting darkness.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is a news anchor at a media desk and she reports:]
:Ponytail: ...getting reports that the darkness has spread as far west as Texas. Let's go live to our reporter in Houston.
:[From a breaking news window in the bottom right corner of the panel, a Cueball as a newscaster stands in darkness with two people walking behind him:]
:Cueball: It's been thirty minutes since the sun vanished...
:[There is a caption below the panel]:
:Caption: ”Genie, for my last wish, make everyone in the media forget about the day-night cycle.“

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