https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Enoua5 2026-04-15T18:20:52Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1634:_In_Case_of_Emergency&diff=109993 2016-01-25T22:47:36Z

<p>Enoua5: Fixed a typo</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1634<br /> | date = January 25, 2016<br /> | title = In Case of Emergency<br /> | image = in_case_of_emergency.png<br /> | titletext = I keep first aid kits in those emergency lockers. Sure, it's expensive to have them installed in the wall, but at least for those ones there's no need to pay extra for safety glass.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Is there something normally called emergency lockers that could fit the description. It is used in several books, but is not something described on Wikipedia? No clear indication of what it is in this context from google.}}<br /> <br /> Sometimes in order to deter vandalism or avoid accidentally moving/setting off something of importance, an important item like a {{w|Fire_extinguisher|fire extinguisher}} will be [http://static1.squarespace.com/static/50d8d693e4b039551290ba60/t/511e4f80e4b06f6f68aadf79/1360940930288/Screen+Shot+2013-02-15+at+7.00.10+AM.png covered behind a wall of glass]. [https://img1.etsystatic.com/061/1/10935090/il_570xN.750954961_qucc.jpg In case of emergency, break glass] - and retrieve the tool.<br /> <br /> However the depicted situation is funny, because the thing behind the breakable glass is a glass repair kit. This is ironic, considering that the only way to reach it is by breaking the glass. One might even use it to fix the glass broken to get it... This joke is similar in nature to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z86V_ICUCD4 most useless machine ever]. However, the broken glass that needs to be repaired is an emergency situation, so it is important to have some less important glass to break, to be able to get to the important ''emergency glass repair kit''. In this way it is not necessarily useless, just ironic.<br /> <br /> In the title text [[Randall]] notes that he keeps his {{w|first aid kit}} in just such a type of emergency locker as shown in the comic. He complains that it is expensive to have them installed in the wall. But then the title text takes a gruesome turn when he continues by saying that at least for those lockers with first aid in them there is no need to pay extra for using {{w|safety glass}} for the cover. Safety glass doesn't break up into shrapnel, so this would be used for the cover for instance such of fire extinguisher as mentioned above, so the user will not cut them selves when breaking the glass to retrieve it. But Randall indirectly says that since the person breaking the glass, will soon have access to a first aid kid, then if wounded in the process of breaking the normal window glass, they can as well be treated on the spot - so it will be OK to let them get injured while trying to help others.<br /> <br /> First aid kits and for instance {{w|defibrillators}} can be found at frequent places such as bus stations and shopping malls, but never behind a glass that needs to be broken.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[On a box behind a panel of glass, with a hammer hung below the panel, is written:]<br /> :Glass repair kit<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

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