explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3196: Aurora Coolness

2026-01-20T06:53:30Z

Fabian42:

second - [[Special:Contributions/45.178.1.151|45.178.1.151]] 03:07, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

I picture people going out on a cold, clear winter night to stare at a shimmering, aurora-filled sky, and then returning to their warm homes to sip hot cups of soup from the microwave, blissfully unaware of how closely related the two events are ... or would be were it not for that thin, thin, layer of mostly diatomic and triatomic gases that is desperately parrying the Sun's murderous assault on our behalf. Yes, yes, I know, I know ...[[Special:Contributions/2605:59C8:160:DB08:657A:CBF1:9BDA:C5C|2605:59C8:160:DB08:657A:CBF1:9BDA:C5C]] 04:07, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

The graph in 2914 isn't a function of time, it's a function of how close one is to the path of totality. [[Special:Contributions/137.25.230.78|137.25.230.78]] 05:39, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
: Fixed. [[Special:Contributions/2605:59C8:160:DB08:657A:CBF1:9BDA:C5C|2605:59C8:160:DB08:657A:CBF1:9BDA:C5C]] 06:38, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

New England was getting heavy snow in the days leading up to this comic, so it was probably too cloudy for any auroras to be visible. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 05:42, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

: "''probably too cloudy''" Far north coast of Maine, all I could see was sky-glow from the Walmart 7 miles away. We actually have a Dark Sky movement in this area (lotta old hippies) but Walmart didnt get that memo. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 06:02, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

I wish all those many people who apparently get notified about aurora forecasts, go outside and then AFTERWARDS post about it instead posted about it BEFORE… I keep seeing such posts when it's too late. :( [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 06:53, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3191: Superstition

2026-01-08T00:02:49Z

Fabian42:

Does the comic look grainy/low-res to anyone else? [[Special:Contributions/2600:1006:B347:C663:D55A:314:CB4F:43F6|2600:1006:B347:C663:D55A:314:CB4F:43F6]]
:yeah its not just you [[Special:Contributions/2A06:5906:1412:4100:1C9B:B7E4:7419:FD67|2A06:5906:1412:4100:1C9B:B7E4:7419:FD67]] 20:04, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
:not me [[Special:Contributions/2A00:23EE:1878:2422:583A:77B9:1416:97D1|2A00:23EE:1878:2422:583A:77B9:1416:97D1]]
:did you say rabbit rabbit? [[Special:Contributions/2A01:E0A:1D1:7CE0:964F:C262:A580:DE9|2A01:E0A:1D1:7CE0:964F:C262:A580:DE9]] 20:45, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
:The mobile version of the comic seams to have lower then usual resolution of the image, the normal version has larger resolution. [[User:Maofgf|Maofgf]] ([[User talk:Maofgf|talk]]) 21:10, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
:Omg it does. I thought it was just a side effect of my new laptop's tiny screen but it's only this comic (other ones appear fine). [[Special:Contributions/2A02:C7C:6D8A:6800:74EC:66A3:2E17:78BC|2A02:C7C:6D8A:6800:74EC:66A3:2E17:78BC]] 21:16, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
:I actually prefer the 2× version without antialiasing, it prevents the blurry look. But the 1× version has not enough resolution for that font to look good. There are also different antialiasing methods, for example the one used by Windows hurts my eyes, so I put a lot of effort into disabling it on my work laptop, but the one used on my Linux computer is fine (where it would ironically be trivially easy to disable it). [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 00:02, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

I wasn't the first to comment - is that bad luck? [[Special:Contributions/2401:D005:D402:7A00:F107:D318:6C4C:DCA3|2401:D005:D402:7A00:F107:D318:6C4C:DCA3]] 21:33, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
:I thought the lack of anti-aliasing was just a random event but now I know it's all your fault! [[Special:Contributions/64.201.132.210|64.201.132.210]] 22:28, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3170: Service Outage

2025-11-21T00:03:05Z

Fabian42:

F1R5T! [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 01:53, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

On the contrary, almost all the fanfiction I write is set in Legends, so my productivity takes a major hit there. (I don't care what disney says, they can take the old republic from my cold dead hands) [[Special:Contributions/108.254.161.83|108.254.161.83]] 02:09, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

damn aws has been a month old already? [[User:TheTrainsKid|TheTrainsKid]] ([[User talk:TheTrainsKid|talk]]) 02:11, 20 November 2025 (UTC)
:But [https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/ the Cloudflare outage] seems like only yesterday. [[Special:Contributions/76.187.17.7|76.187.17.7]] 04:52, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

The second paragraph is all 1 sentence. Somebody should probably fix that. [[User:Qwertyuiopfromdefly|Qwertyuiopfromdefly]] ([[User talk:Qwertyuiopfromdefly|talk]]) 02:36, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

At my most active on this site, an outage might have increased my productivity :-p But now I did not even notice this outage yesterday :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:32, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

I think the capital letter is significant. A Canon wiki would be about the Japanese company that makes fine optical equipment, something that would be a legitimate business-related destination.[[User:Muttley|Muttley]] ([[User talk:Muttley|talk]]) 09:57, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Someone has put in "like Google" as an example. Should this site be extending the internet myth that Google is essential for internet use? In reality, it's just one of many search engines. If Google went down, people would get a less skewed result from something like DuckDuckGo. But they think Google IS the internet. And this wiki shouldn't ecoueage the myth. {{unsigned ip|86.45.82.77|10:22, 20 November 2025 (UTC)}}
:Is that better? [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 12:27, 20 November 2025 (UTC)
:Finally, somebody remembered that DuckDuckGo exists. Duck player is genuinely a lifesaver. [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]]]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 14:00, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

The 'doesn't rely on' curve is wrong - it should initially plummet as the person repeatedly refreshes the Star Wars Legends wiki, while cursing it for (still) not working. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 10:46, 20 November 2025 (UTC)
:I thought the same for people who rely on it. There should be a big spike down, while people keep refreshing and debugging things, then it gradually goes up again, often to almost the same level as before, as people focus on tasks that they can do without that service or find workarounds. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 00:03, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

I feel [[903:_Extended_Mind]] might be relevant as well?

Talk:3163: Repair Video

2025-11-06T13:20:09Z

Fabian42:

Lol [[User:Mathmaster|Mathmaster]] ([[User talk:Mathmaster|talk]]) 23:20, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

I tried to check the explain page for this comic a little while ago and the page hadn’t been made yet :( [[User:Kirinhatchi|Kirinhatchi]] ([[User talk:Kirinhatch|talk]]) 23:32, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

I think Randall speaks for a few billion people with this one. [[Special:Contributions/64.201.132.210|64.201.132.210]] 23:49, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

It feels like this comic is almost a "happy ending" version of https://xkcd.com/979/. [[Special:Contributions/2605:A601:AF4D:DE00:510E:86B:6FA2:356B|2605:A601:AF4D:DE00:510E:86B:6FA2:356B]] 00:27, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
:I agree, it seems like a spiritual continuation. I put that in the explanation though it could definitely be moved/fit into the content more cleanly. [[User:R128|R128]] ([[User talk:R128|talk]]) 00:55, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

> "but afterwards decide to create instructional videos" -- I see some how-to videos that don't seem to be '''afterward''', but intentional "''What can I post about to get some clicks/eyeballs?''" IAC, YouTube has become my go-to for many problems which should be easier to show than to talk about. But so many newbie videographers work in shadow, or block the key part with their shoulder, or rush the details. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 01:07, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

...Scott here! - [[Special:Contributions/24.177.125.170|24.177.125.170]] 03:45, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
:Before we all die, I have to know. Is it “hey all,” or “hey y’all?” [[User:KelOfTheStars!|KelOfTheStars!]] ([[User talk:KelOfTheStars!|talk]]) 04:19, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
::Or "hey all y'all?" [[Special:Contributions/107.77.205.128|107.77.205.128]] 18:32, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
:::"He yall yall!" [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 17:09, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
:How was the Antarctic? [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:24, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

I feel like the explanation is missing an emphasis on the fact that Cueball's problem is entirely trivial (albeit very annoying) and hence farcical to suggest awarding statues for solving it, but it seems like it needs a more significant rework than just an added line, and I don't have the headspace to do it - anyone want to take a run at it? [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:27, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

Ugh, another video that should have been text. I just want to know how to fix whatever it is, I don't need a 2 minute opening, monologue, and "Like and subscribe!" [[Special:Contributions/163.116.254.55|163.116.254.55]] 16:00, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
:This will become wisdom of the ancients when the video platform does some housecleaning, deletes the video, and all that is left are some chat posts linking to it. [[Special:Contributions/107.77.205.128|107.77.205.128]] 18:32, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
:Exactly, I first thought the comic would be criticism, since the entire big speech bubble is just filler. Reminds me of a German comic (which I can't find currently) where someone has an extremely specific, obscure and very urgent problem, meanwhile the TV advertises the exact solution, but forces them to sit through a hotline waiting loop first. In text, I can just jump to the relevant part. For example I soon want to replace the screen of my phone, but I already know how to open the main case, I want to skip past that and get to the screen-specific part. And I don't need to see all screws undone in real time, one diagram of where all are is much more helpful. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:20, 6 November 2025 (UTC)

I am reminded of [https://x.com/mart_brooks/status/980925832590954496 this (relatable) ancient tweet] by Martin A. Brooks:
<pre>
“This video demonstrates….”

How I want tech stuff explained to me in order of preference:

1) A well written technical document.
2) A maintained wiki.
…
998) Spray painted on the side of a cow.
999) A video.
</pre>
[[Special:Contributions/124.171.37.127|124.171.37.127]] 22:52, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
: Where does 'some indecipherable pictograms' appear on this list? [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:50, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
:If it's auto repair, I kind of want a video mostly to learn about the gotchas before I start ripping into something. [[Special:Contributions/130.76.187.35|130.76.187.35]] 13:53, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

Man, Randall really seems have humidifiers on his mind a lot lately... [[User:StapleFreeBatteries|StapleFreeBatteries]] ([[User talk:StapleFreeBatteries|talk]]) 04:36, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
:Trying to overcome the tendency towards dry humour? [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.89|82.132.244.89]] 14:35, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

You know what's worse than https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/979:_Wisdom_of_the_Ancients ? An XKCD comic about my problem, with no explanation about the fix. My dehumidifier makes an annoying clicking noise. [[Special:Contributions/2601:19B:4103:97F0:ECAD:3D45:F3A9:F94D|2601:19B:4103:97F0:ECAD:3D45:F3A9:F94D]] 15:31, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
:Can't see how this comic ''could'' help you... It's about a humidifier that annoyingly clicks, not a dehumidifier that annoyingly clicks... You need to search for a ''different'' comic with insufficient real-world info... :p [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.131|82.132.246.131]] 18:01, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

The clicking is how the dehumidifier works, by fixing the clicking, you broke it ;)
[[Special:Contributions/92.79.75.163|92.79.75.163]] 11:46, 6 November 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3146: Fantastic Four

2025-09-25T07:32:51Z

Fabian42:

And everyone wonders why that Franklin Richards kid is a little off...
[[Special:Contributions/2601:8C3:8682:1FC0:9DB2:6777:1660:1D9C|2601:8C3:8682:1FC0:9DB2:6777:1660:1D9C]] 20:32, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Could be worse. In Star Trek, the kid would be born 2 centuries in the past. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:06, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Spoilers, Randall, spoilers...I'm sure there are other people who missed the theatrical release and are waiting for it to hit Disney+... [[Special:Contributions/128.4.149.3|128.4.149.3]] 21:22, 24 September 2025 (UTC)
:It's probably fine, the movie came out... two months ago.
:Holy shit it only came out two months ago. [[User:Redacted II|Redacted II]] ([[User talk:Redacted II|talk]]) 22:04, 24 September 2025 (UTC)
:This is how I learnt there was a new Fantastic Four movie [[Special:Contributions/64.114.211.124|64.114.211.124]] 23:25, 24 September 2025 (UTC)
:I had already heard of the movie, but only after it had been released. Whatever advertising they'd used had bypassed me... I only saw the 'poster' for it when someone who had already watched it included the image in a review. And, by my own (probably wrong) count, this is the fifth live-action FF film, anyway (one of them was made but never released, for... reasons) and I've only actually seen two of the prior ones. (Couldn't say for sure which plot-points belong to which. Was the one where Johnny Storm had a 'pre-powers-kicking-in' skiing accident different from the one with the dimensional travel thing? ...I think so, but then which order were they?).
:It seems that cinema releases are these days probably considered loss-leaders (and 'Oscars-qualifying') to justify subsequent online-platforming sales. I was lucky enough to have a fairly local cinema play The Thursday Murder Club, given that I don't have access to Netflix (or Disney+, or Paramount+, or all the rest that might be necessary to view all the various different franchises of possible interest) and am stubbornly unlikely to succumb anytime soon.
:As to spoilers, I'll have probably forgotten/disregarded this comic by the time I get to see this one. By which time there'll be an even newer re-re-reboot FF film, ''anyway'' (probably photorealistically generated with AI 'actors', and piped straight into subscribers' brains!), if not ''several'' more. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.45|82.132.244.45]] 02:06, 25 September 2025 (UTC)

Brings to mind the 1999 IgNobel Prize winner (in Managed Health Care), US Patent #3216423 ("Apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force"), <https://patents.google.com/patent/US3216423A/en> {{unsigned ip|2601:189:8501:71a0:2ce2:fc8d:e6ee:d0f|00:21, 25 September 2025}}

After I read the problem statement, I feared that they would somehow propel the baby out of her extremely fast to get momentum… o.O [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 07:32, 25 September 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3138: Dimensional Lumber Tape Measure

2025-09-09T07:26:40Z

Fabian42:

I was under the impression this was actually a thing that exists, somewhere. (Separate and apart from so-called "shrink rules" used by patternmakers who create patterns for metal castings). No? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 00:36, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

https://www.inchcalculator.com/actual-size-of-dimensional-lumber/ for reference --- MEL

: Wikipedia has {{w|Lumber#Dimensional_lumber|a similar table}}. Interestingly, if the values on this table are correct, the xkcd measure fails for the 8 x 8 board. [[Special:Contributions/2605:59C8:160:DB08:988B:772A:4E5:B209|2605:59C8:160:DB08:988B:772A:4E5:B209]] 02:18, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

:: >''the xkcd measure fails for the 8 x 8 board'' Studs and joists are routine repetitive structure and should be the same as their neighbors. 8x8 are non-routine; even in say a heavy mill building 8x8s are costly enough for the carpenter to measure or trim every column. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 17:10, 8 September 2025 (UTC)
:: My house has near full-size 2x4s and 2x6. Very-dry trees were sawn on site, the saw set for 2.0" centers. Band saw has very narrow kerf. About 1.9". A profitable saw-mill would use a coarser blade and push the size down as much as customers would accept (and even a junior carpenter can tell an undersize stud by feel). But here they were clearing land as much as saving money. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 17:10, 8 September 2025 (UTC)

:"I was under the impression this was actually a thing that exists, somewhere" - if doesn't exist now, it soon will. [[Special:Contributions/70.115.234.146|70.115.234.146]] 03:59, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

Thinking that there might be a typo in the comic - It says : A "1x8" IS "3/4 BY 7 1/8", yet it should be "3/4 BY 7 1/4".

I no longer want to be a lumberjack! [[Special:Contributions/2A02:2455:1960:4000:748F:2291:F005:1989|2A02:2455:1960:4000:748F:2291:F005:1989]] 06:57, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
:I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK. I sleep all night and I work all day! ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 05:31, 8 September 2025 (UTC)

This reminds me of when I changed my friend’s text replacements to be slightly misspelled whenever she tried to type a common word in college. She was getting a degree in linguistics and it was SO FUNNY 《プロキシ》(XKCD中毒者) 13:29, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
:She should have claimed that she was undertaking "applied linguistics" and investigating how to create a deliberate {{w|language change}}! [[Special:Contributions/92.17.62.87|92.17.62.87]] 20:23, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
:I once set a stoned friend's keyboard to French. 90% of the letters and 20% of the special characters are the same, so he spent multiple minutes getting frustrated why he kept "missing" the correct keys. :D [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 07:26, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

I was told (and maybe this is wrong), that the dimensions are intended to represent the final thickness of a wall when drywall (usually 0.5" thick) is attached to the studs. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 20:58, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
:I think that's just a convenient side effect. Of course, if the drywall is 1/2 thick, a wall with 2x4 studs will be 4.5 inch thick. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 22:22, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

:That would be pretty ahistorical, so I think it is indeed wrong. Drywall is a relatively modern invention, and I think the standardization of 2x4s as 1.5″ thick predates it (need to check that…but even if it didn't, then it would be worse). Wood lath and plaster walls are more like 5/8″ from the stud face, if not more. And, of course, in modern American multifamily residential construction 5/8″ walls are more common, or even double-5/8″ walls (making 1 1/4″) in fire-rated assemblies. So it does not even end up being "convenient," not that a 4" wall assembly is particulary more "convenient" than a 4.5″ or a 4.125″ or a 4.75″ wall assembly…very little turns on the thickness of the stud plus wallboard, but a lot turns on the thickness of the stud cavity (insulation, space for utilities, &c.) or the thickness of the drywall (spacing of electrical outlets, mudrings, etc.). [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 04:20, 7 September 2025 (UTC)
Once again, the UK wins on ridiculousness. I bought some fencing materials yesterday. The panels were 1.83m x 1.22m, so they could be metric but nevertheless 6' x 4'. I got some presawn posts that were 2400mm long (so kind of 8', or close enough), and they were sold as 75mm x 75mm, so they were 3x3, but they fit perfectly into the 70mm x 70mm post supports I got to go with them. Using metric to sidestep the need for traditional-measurement nonsense...but just keeping the nonsense and throwing new numbers at it. Actually, that should rendered into Latin and put on a scroll as part of a national coat of arms. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 09:49, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

Since the tape measure uses variable length inches, the watch (provided by the cartoonist) might be similar to Vetinari's clock. (Where individual ticks are of random duration.) I looked to see if xkcd had covered such a clock before (for possible link), but didn't find one. [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:90|2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:90]] 19:16, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

As an aside, I am always bemused about Americans being so stuck on imperial measurements when metric is so much easier. Oh except money...Americans are happy with metric money :o). [[Special:Contributions/59.101.181.77|59.101.181.77]] 20:42, 7 September 2025 (UTC)
:Oh, undoubtedly. It's literally just counting. The system we all use for enumerating everything (including feet and inches, or furlongs and chains, or drachms and scruples, or whatever else) is base 10. So just use base 10 and give names to 1,10,100,1000, etc. of length/capacity/mass/etc. units, and nobody needs to know anything beyond counting to deal with absolutely everything. Anybody who says pounds and ounces, or yards and miles (or whatever) is superior is objectively wrong.

:But.

:People get used to things.

:So you get the mess I mentioned above.

:Adopt the metric system, but then sell milk in 568ml bottles, because that's a pint, and milk inherently belongs in pints, so people have to have that much milk as a unit. Sell syrup and treacle in 454g and 907g cans, so 1lb and 2lb cans of sugary stuff can still exist. Nobody would be able to cope with 400g, 450g, 500g, 900g or 1kg! Keep selling beer and cider in pints, but change spirits to 25ml or 35ml (which you choose is up to you as a licensed bar) from 1/6 of a gill (or 1/5 of a gill in Scotland). Sell fuel in litres, but advertise vehicle fuel consumption in miles per gallon. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 22:59, 7 September 2025 (UTC)
:I know, obviously not {{wiktionary|the full shilling}}! [[Special:Contributions/92.17.62.87|92.17.62.87]] 23:16, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

::I will venture the hypothesis that folk in this conversation are not cooks. It's in the kitchen that the difficulties with the metric system are most frequently encountered. Many Imperial measures are factors of two; it's easy and intuitive to double something or halve something and have the result make sense, as several kitchen veterans have told me over the years, with varying degrees of irritation. A pound (16 ounces), half a pound (8), a quarter pound (4), yada. Too many halvings in the metric system, and you're into fussy decimals. Moreover, if the recipe calls for a pound of butter, and you feed it half a kilogram, thinking that's the metric equivalent and close enough, the biscuits/cookies ain't gonna come out the same, and folk are gonna come after you. I learned years ago to check the cup measure carefully to see if it was graded in ounces or milliliters, and whether the recipe it was supposed to be serving came from Yankeeland or Godzone. Or else. The metric system may be logically superior, but may not be practically superior in all contexts. It might be well to seek reasons, other than the usual dismissive ones, for why, for example, {{w|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Canada#Metrication_stalled|Canada took 15 years to fail to fully convert to the metric system}}.[[Special:Contributions/2605:59C8:160:DB08:F102:9332:DCBD:89C6|2605:59C8:160:DB08:F102:9332:DCBD:89C6]] 03:10, 8 September 2025 (UTC)
:::I very much ''am'' a cook, and that is, I'm afraid, nonsense. Cooking is the perfect example of why metric is better! A recipe written in imperial, or the almost-identical US Customary Units, doesn't work if you substitute a round number of grams in for it, no. Obviously. But that presupposes that recipes naturally occur in imperial, with conversion being necessary if grams are used. Plenty of recipes exist natively in metric though, and are a clumsy mess if performed in avoirdupois.

:::And "fussy" decimals aren't a problem. If you need to halve 325ml (for example), no recipe will be affected by your using 163ml instead of 162.5 – much as fluid ounce measurements aren't accurate to the half millilitre, millilitres don't need to be either. Being a Brit, I learned to bake bread in imperial because we're across two systems here, and were even more so when I was young, but I forced myself to change, because metric is, inarguably, vastly superior. Working with percentages of hydration when you're in fluid ounces of water and pounds of flour (or the entirely nonsensical volumetric cup system) is utterly ridiculous when you could just use numbers that are exactly equivalent to each other. 1kg of flour, at a 66% hydration ratio? Why, that'll be 660ml of water, which can simply be weighed into the bowl at 660g. Can pounds, ounces, pints, fluid ounces and cups do that? Very much no.

:::And your halveable measures are all well and good...if you're halving those particular numbers. Anyone can think of numbers that are easily halved though. But what if it's a 2 egg recipe with 3oz of flour, and you want to make 3 eggs' worth? Well, then you need 4.5oz of flour. A bit...fussy, no? Imperial and US-measure recipes feel like examples of pounds working neatly, because they've been constructed around easy-to-use quantities in that system. But metric recipes behave just as neatly, and are far more readily scalable, because the numbers are all just base 10, which everybody uses for everything all the time.

:::I know both. I can use both. I started out with imperial. But I choose to use metric, because metric is so very obviously superior. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 15:17, 8 September 2025 (UTC)

::::See Technology Connection's latest video where he goes through a ridiculous series of imperial conversions to get from 192g of water to "about 0.2L".

Talk:3139: Chess Variant

2025-09-09T04:12:34Z

Fabian42:

I should add support for playing this to my WIP chess library.
[[Special:Contributions/73.164.32.149|73.164.32.149]] 21:43, 8 September 2025 (UTC)

I feel nerdsniped by this one, and I'm not even into chess. Should you either slide a tile or move a piece in your turn, or should you do both, or should you move a piece on your turn and slide a tile on your opponent's turn? Also, should it disallow sliding the board back to its immediately previous state, to avoid the back-and-forth situation on the title text (but would still allow moving in circles)? Which would be more fair, and reduce the chance of draws? So many questions...
[[Special:Contributions/185.81.126.164|185.81.126.164]] 22:00, 8 September 2025 (UTC)

: Hooooookay. If 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 , it's Black's move in canonical chess. For the position shown in this variant, White would have to be allowed to move a piece and a sliding section: 3. d4 & ef34>gh34, Black to move. Why White would use the extra move to double down on surrendering the center of the board, sacrificing the gambit pawn for no apparent benefit, is beyond me. At best, this is taking hypermodernism to incomprehensible extreFOOOOOOOOM. Ow ... [[Special:Contributions/2605:59C8:160:DB08:816E:805:44F1:B553|2605:59C8:160:DB08:816E:805:44F1:B553]] 00:45, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

: What is the starting position of the tiles? Can ranged pieces pass over the “gap”? Can you slide a row of tiles at once or only one? [[Special:Contributions/2A02:AB88:7815:7E80:E212:8D1:BCBB:7DD8|2A02:AB88:7815:7E80:E212:8D1:BCBB:7DD8]] 01:03, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

How long do you think it will be until someone actually implements this? [[Special:Contributions/206.193.5.5|206.193.5.5]] 23:04, 8 September 2025 (UTC)
: Buddy I am working on it [[Special:Contributions/73.164.32.149|73.164.32.149]] 03:28, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

Do we specify positions for the transcript or do we just say "scotch opening"[[User:Mathmaster|Mathmaster]] ([[User talk:Mathmaster|talk]])

Could you just slide yourself out of ladder checks then?

This reminds me of the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUVVpB7QdbQ Twist and slide cube]. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 04:12, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3128: Thread Meeting

2025-08-13T20:35:17Z

Fabian42:

Can't believe this still hasn't been explained, it's been a whole {{#expr: trunc(({{#time: U|{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}}} - 1755097380 )/60)}} minutes since this released. How am I supposed to enjoy it now? {{unsigned ip|2a01:5a8:479:b635:b4cd:4b3e:238a:dfc|16:08, 13 August 2025}}
:Oh, hey 2a01:5a8:479:b635:b4cd:4b3e:238a:dfc, I know you!
:Honestly I didn't realise you existed outside the Alien Vs. Predator Slash Fiction fandom. I haven't seen you since you described an even more squicky use of the plasmacaster than usual. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.187.138|82.132.187.138]] 16:40, 13 August 2025 (UTC)
::omg hiii [[Special:Contributions/82.132.187.138|82.132.187.138]]! I think we've met in some forum where we pitted our web series together. I'm so proud of the Xronology (my series) for coming out on top, but your "Bottom Simulator 1993" wasn't too bad either! [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 16:44, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

This is the earliest I remember a comic being released in a looong time stevethenoob 19:31, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

One solution to this is to set up a personal website and link to it in your bio, while linking to all of your accounts from there. This way, people can discover your other interests via that personal website. —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]] [[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 17:24, 13 August 2025 (UTC)
:Given that I never use any (exactly-the-)same username twice, anywhere, this sounds like the absolutely last thing that I'd do. (I'm happy that you don't know whether I'm any (or all!) of @jimmy_wales, @realdonaldtrump, @KensingtonRoyal, @zuck, @FoxNews, @jairmessiasbolsonaro, @randallmonroe or ''anyone''...)
:In fact, I haven't got a 'bio' anywhere, except my CV/Resumé (which only lists my real-name email address that I don't use for anything but that) and what little I can get away with on any corporate system. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 20:20, 13 August 2025 (UTC)
::That's a good way to do it. What's linked can never be fully un-linked on the internet! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 20:35, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

I call these "internet loops"! Could also be someone randomly knowing someone else I also know or other roundabout way to rediscover someone. It happened a bunch of time with a specific Minecraft content creator's community for me, where someone found my comment on an Avatar fan video, I spotted someone else on a maths video with very few views, other people there liked the same music and someone joined a Pokémon-themed Discord who has one of the Minecraft community members as shared friend. And some people there already knew an Undertale creation of the owner. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 20:35, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3125: Snake-in-the-Box Problem

2025-08-07T13:07:39Z

Fabian42:

The math problem in question is https://oeis.org/A099155 [[User:Mei|Mei]] ([[User talk:Mei|talk]]) 21:57, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

why is d>8 unsolved? stevethenoob 21:59, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:Computational power, I guess, although I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that for N=9 snake=196. [[Special:Contributions/94.73.52.245|94.73.52.245]] 23:18, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:It's not that hard to imagine: if you were to try a brute force search it would take time that's exponential in the path length, which itself is exponential in d. There are evidently methods to do it slightly better, but not enough to make solving d=9 feasible yet. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 10:03, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
:To give an impression of the rate at which these get solved: d=6 was solved in 1988, d=7 in 1996, d=8 in 2014. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 10:32, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

I would argue that computer science has one as well with the China room problem. [[User:Ctinsman|Ctinsman]] ([[User talk:Ctinsman|talk]]) 22:14, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

: Humans aren't cute animals (mostly), so I propose a variant of the problem called the Chinese Red Panda Room [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 22:38, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

Interesting. Just a few days ago I was investigating a very similar idea (looking at a path that transitioned between adjacent ''faces'' of a polyhedron, which was effectively going from vertex to connected vertex upon that chosen polyhedron's ''dual''), but for the opposite reason, i.e. looking for the paths that actually maximised proximity (along the path) between neighbouring faces (upon the polyhedra), so that it actually minimised the search back/forth along the path-chain to establish what value the adjacent polyhedron faces (beyond the ones automatically at ±1 positions on the chain) inherited.
 As to solving this one (basically disallowing visiting of any nodes adjacent to prior visits ''other'' than the single one that the +1 position of the chain has to first go to), I've got a basic idea of how I'd N-dimensionally space-search the possible routes (after all, visiting any given node at {0,1} value for dimensions [a, b, c, ...] rules out now visiting all of [!a, b, c, ...], [a, !b, c, ...], [a, b, !c, ...], etc, ''except'' whichever one of these was chosen for the next step of onward travel), for valid foldings across the appropriate N-polytype cuboidal analogue. Though I suspect that the exponental (or greater!) growth in the potential search-trees you'd use would be the sticking point. No point in setting off an exhaustive algorithm if it seemed likely to take three years to check just 1% of possibilities, and no doubt more dedicated analysis than my own brute-forcing method has already hit other problems in trying a more nuanced extrapolation between each level of added dimensionality, which is where the unsolved nature of this starts to bite.
 But also think it'd be far more interesting to investigate the possibilities in the N>3-Dimensional extensions of non-cubic platonic solids, like the {{w|600-cell}} and beyond, and establish what allowable lengths of traversal ''they'' would allow, under similar stipulations.
 Great! I love getting things like this to think about. If I can spare the time needed... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.59|82.132.245.59]] 22:22, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
: I think you've been nerd-sniped. [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 22:42, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
::So far, I've personally got as far as:
::*For any given number of dimensions, N, there are always N adjacent points (point, zero dimensions, zero neighbours; line, one dimension, one neighbour; square, two dimension, two neighbours, etc).
::*In total, there are 2N points (0d=1, 1d=2, 2d=4, etc)
::*A maximum possible length, L, has a ''lower'' lower limit of starting at any particular vortex and only taking directions that are perpendicular to all prior directions (for a cube, only go by x, y and z directions once), and this would be eaual to N.
::*But that's overly-lazy, as you're ruling out (as you gain enough dimensions) revisiting a dimensional plane, even though you're allowed to revisit a point on that plane that's shifted by at least ''two'' other dimensions of offset. e.g. the top right of a cube's facing face when you started at the bottom left of it (went 'deep' to the rear face, took two steps from the rear-lower-left to rear-upper-right then back).
::*For the first step, you have N choices from your starting position. You take one and cannot later visit any of the ones you did not choose to go to. For the second step onwards, you have N-1 basic choices (every direction but backwards to the prior step) and should choose one and rule out ever visiting the rest.
::*This gives a new (at least for N>2) lower limit to L whereby the sum of starting, taken and not-taken nodes that you count can be added to by new steps until you would end up with have a total greater than 2N. (Line: start on one (of two), choice of one (taken), two points 'marked', only two points possible; Square: start on one (of four), two choices, take one, reserve one, three points 'marked', still the fourth point available for L=2, but then five points would be marked (the untaken-from-start being the only non-backwards choice) so can't go further.
::*But this is also wasteful as (in increasingly higher dimensions) there's nothing to stop an unvisited neighbour of a past step from being a(n enforced) unvisited neighbour from a later step, as you 'choose' to go only to a valid further point. So clever "near-neighbour" backtracking can reduce the number of ''freshly'' eaten-up points and thus maintain more future points for more steps.
::**Noting that past-step no-go-neighbours that can possibly 'fold into' the current-step's not-going-neighbours list only become such after ''at least'' two intervening steps (for 'square-based' hypercubic domains, whereas triangle-based hypernets (e.g. tetra-, octa- and icosohedrons, in 3-space) happen after just one step, and pentagon-based ones (dodecahedrons in 3-space) can't take advantage of this in less than three. (This seems to share some of the mathematics with the 'classical' rabbit-population problem, whereby new offspring only become viable breeding population after a step or two since their generation.)
::*Optimally, in fact, you should aim to double-back in such a way as leave yourself with ''all but one'' onward neighbour unavailable (thus only eating up potential points at a rate of one per step, at that point).
::*Heading vaguely back 'towards' past snake-lengths, in higher-dimensional hypernets, seems like the best(/longest) space-filling strategy. It's a bit like coil-built pottery, but with more undulations (and dimensions) to it. But with care to make sure you don't burrow yourself into a dead-end with ''no'' viable onward choices while still having maybe half of the potential visitable/neighbourable points untouched, or avoiding filling 'voids' to guaranteeing accessing a majority of the potential future visits, but unwisely not exploiting all the phase-space of vertices optimally.
::**I can mentally visualise doing this successfully in 3-, 4- and 5-cube situations, elegantly enough (it's like , but N>=6 versions get increasingly hard to do in my head with certainty. After I've slept on it, I might have to break out the pencil and paper.
::So, yeah, I've set a lower-limit to L, for various Ns, and can construct a ''possible'' upper-limit to L, but I haven't even checked these L(N)s vs. the values stated in the comic. Or what progress (and more advanced logical reasoning) has already been made in the field. I suspect I'm just reinventing the (hyper-)wheel, of course, rather than have the key to the problem that everyone else had failed to spot, but that's not the point. If I get even half way close to what the 'professionals' in this field have managed, I'll be smug and self-satisfied enough for myself. And, anyway, I've explained myself enough tolet any ''other'' similarly-minded nerd the ability to get at least as far as I've got with this problem. Which is as good an outcome, as far as I'm concerned, as getting this done entirely on my own. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.41|82.132.244.41]] 00:33, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
::: I'm still having trouble getting hold of long enough snakes. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:31, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Psychology is way ahead of y'all, they've been putting actual mice in weird boxes for ''decades''. [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 22:45, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:Psychology might have been putting animals in boxes for decades, but zoology has been doing it for centuries! [[Special:Contributions/97.118.209.207|97.118.209.207]] 00:36, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
::Gastronomy has been doing it for as long as people have been storing food. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:41, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
:: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/284912743/--[[Special:Contributions/2001:4450:8178:2200:D1C2:8DED:F6FE:E93C|2001:4450:8178:2200:D1C2:8DED:F6FE:E93C]] 04:01, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Reading (just) the [comments] of the underlying research suggests that 98 is the longest found snake. Perhaps that means a longer one has not been explicitly eliminated (making 8 also not solved to some extent) [[Special:Contributions/2A02:A45B:8867:0:BED8:F2BA:838E:765|2A02:A45B:8867:0:BED8:F2BA:838E:765]] 22:52, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:a(8)=98 was proven by: Östergård, P.R.J., Pettersson, V.H. Exhaustive Search for Snake-in-the-Box Codes. Graphs and Combinatorics 31, 1019–1028 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00373-014-1423-3
:[[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 09:46, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

I suppose Randall doesn't consider [[beetles]] cute, or else [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations#Wittgenstein's_beetle philosophy of language] would be included. [[Special:Contributions/137.25.230.78|137.25.230.78]] 23:15, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
: that's a great example [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 01:46, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

In simultaneous interpreting, humans are the cute animal in the box. {{unsigned|DrInterpreter|07:35, 7 August 2025 (UTC)}}

I don't believe an explanation of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment is necessary to understand this comic. However, people keep editing the page to include an incorrect description of the experiment, by saying the cat is either dead or alive and you don't know which until you open the box. That's wrong and misses the point of quantum superposition. The cat is not dead or alive, it's literally both, due to its fate being linked to radioactive decay, a process that is subject to quantum superposition. Since it does seem inevitable that someone will keep editing this to add an explanation, I've added one myself. [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 10:29, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

The link in the mail newsletter lead to "http://https//xkcd.com/3125/", not sure if that's worth documenting here. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:07, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3102: Reading a Big Number

2025-06-13T19:22:13Z

Fabian42:

avrayter [[User:Avrayter|Avrayter]] ([[User talk:Avrayter|talk]]) 12:27, 13 June 2025 (UTC) how do you add links

Is the final character a 6, or is it a theta? [[Special:Contributions/2A02:F6E:A36E:0:F0F1:E624:A18C:EDC2|2A02:F6E:A36E:0:F0F1:E624:A18C:EDC2]] 14:05, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
: The across line is curvy, so most likely a "6". [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 14:14, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

I would have to fire any programmer that output hex in lowercase (or put commas in triplets for hex). [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 14:14, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
: You may be firing about half of the programmers then :) I don't think there is a rule here, both forms are common, but I guess that there are holy wars to fight. [[Special:Contributions/90.73.80.27|90.73.80.27]] 15:41, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

r/unexpectedfactorial Randall Monroe, shame on you!

Surely this is just one line of a CSV file... [[Special:Contributions/86.144.197.52|86.144.197.52]] 15:51, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
: That is actually a strong justification!! I'd like to see the headers, tho xD
: Also an unusual and possibly broken CSV. 000 values are uncommon (they are usually just 0), and the " (or <nowiki>''</nowiki>) may be used for quoting. There is no way to tell how it will parse as CSV is not a well defined format. There is a standard, RFC 4180, but it is not always followed. [[Special:Contributions/90.73.80.27|90.73.80.27]] 18:03, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
: could be CSFWV = comma-separated-and-fixed-width-values where the values are also 0-padded so that it works in both their CSV parsers and their fixed-width parsers for compatibility. [[Special:Contributions/74.202.210.170|74.202.210.170]] 19:19, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

Remember, kids: always end your strings with a NUL [[Special:Contributions/93.36.184.28|93.36.184.28]] 15:56, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

By my reckoning, if you set a 78RPM record playing, and waited for it to have spun the amount of arcseconds specified (by that point in the "number", you'd be waiting a tad over 7 ''billion'' times the current age of the universe. I might have erred by a magnifude or three (forgot if I divided number of days down to get number of years, etc, and I much prefer to work with Long Scale billions, so maybe I did it slightly wrong when working with the inferior kind), but... Well, it doesn't really matter ''quite'' so much, I suspect. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.216|82.132.246.216]] 17:11, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

I remember, years ago, seeing calculators using single quotes as thousands-separators. But never a double-quote. Interestingly, the C++ standard (as of the 2014 release) permits single-quote characters as an arbitrary digit separator for numeric literals. They are ignored by the compiler, but can be useful for making code more readable (e.g. every 3 decimal digits or every 4 hex digits). See also https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/integer_literal.html. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 19:02, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

Apart from the quotation mark, this still matches [my hex number regex](https://stackoverflow.com/a/76696505/6743127). [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 19:22, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3065: Square Units

2025-03-20T00:01:55Z

Fabian42: mails

I like this one :) reminds me of trying to use recipes in imperial units with metric equipment [[Special:Contributions/162.158.108.29|162.158.108.29]] 19:48, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

I so want to stand outside Randall's office holding up {{tl|citation needed}} for not giving an actual citation on the title text. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.175.159|162.158.175.159]] 20:07, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

We should start using ares as a common unit of measure. https://www.britannica.com/science/are [[Special:Contributions/172.69.135.15|172.69.135.15]] 20:09, 19 March 2025 (UTC)
:We have done, some still do: {{w|Hectare#Are}} [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.70|172.70.163.70]] 21:20, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

The area of eaten vegetation is all well and good, but we really need to know the total volume consumed. In barn-megaparsecs, ideally. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.89|172.71.241.89]] 21:26, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

I just got the mail notification for this and the previous comic at the same time. I would say that Randall forgot to send out the previous one before, but surely this is automated, so I guess something went wrong with that setup. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 00:01, 20 March 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3038: Uncanceled Units

2025-01-15T17:31:19Z

Fabian42:

DUDE I'M STILL IN SCHOOL RN, WHAT?
(also, the joke is that energy is power*time, so kWh is kJ/s... in an hour [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 13:27, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I guess not every comic can be a winner. Talking about an appliance using a certain amount of kWH per day is clear and normal. Power gets billed by the kWh, not the Joule. While technically not wrong, wanting "cancel" a sub-part of the commonly-used energy unit kWh and leaving it in deliberately-obscured units most people are less familiar with is the sort of insanity I'd more expect from White Hat than Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.171|172.70.35.171]] 13:39, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:Maybe that is a meta-joke? To frame kWh/day as something crazy by giving that line to whitehat --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:52, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:There's a difference between instantaneous power draw, and the total "volume"(/area, really) of power over time. Though a fridge is "always on", it is still only irregularly at full-draw. But, to the power company (or to the gas company, who will generally give a kWh measure of 'energy taken from the network'), they don't (generally) care whether you used twice as many kW over half the time or half as many over twice the time, within any given total billing period, even if it affects what you think. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.46|172.70.163.46]] 14:39, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::Using joule as if it was an everyday unit of energy would be weird but I don't agree that watt is crazy. It's a normal unit of energy consumption that does mean something to people, e.g. 1000W microwave, 100W (incandescent) light bulb. Don't get me wrong kWh/day is also useful to translate it to your energy bill, but I do feel slightly uncomfortable every time I see that time divided by time :-) [[User:Mtcv|Mtcv]] ([[User talk:Mtcv|talk]]) 14:40, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

This is especially funny with US units. My car needs about 5l/100km, or 0.05mm². Now I am wondering how many ft^(-2) my car does... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:49, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

fridge [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.147|172.70.126.147]] 14:22, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The late [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._C._MacKay Sir David MacKay] wrote an excellent book, [http://www.withouthotair.com/ Sustainable Energy – without the hot air] (which is available free online).
On [http://www.withouthotair.com/c2/page_24.shtml this page] he talks about the units he uses in the book: kWh for energy ("one unit") and kWh/day for power - becuase it's simple for lay-people to understand - how many units does this appliance use per day.
It's a good book if any of you are interested in sustainable energy (although it was written in 2008, so some bits might be out of date by now) {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.33|14:33, 15 January 2025}}

If anyone's curious, I found an online gallons per square foot calculator: https://www.omnicalculator.com/construction/gallons-per-square-foot [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.6|172.71.223.6]] 15:54, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The answer to Cueball's question is likely NO in the US and YES in the UK, due not just to gallon size but also fridge size (a model like that is a particularly large fridge, when I bought one 10 years ago going for the smallest available I had to modify my cabinet above the fridge as there wasn't one less than 6'8"- the fridge hole was 6' previous).[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 16:02, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I disagree with this comic, and I think the final paragraph in the explanation about Hubble's constant best explains why. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 15:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Technically, kWh should be written as kW⋅h or kW h, because it literally means "kilowatts multiplied by one hour", not "kilowatts per hour" as many people assume. However, almost nobody writes it correctly. (kW/h is sometimes also seen, but egregiously incorrect.) Also, particularly now that electric vehicles are becoming more popular, people often get confused between kW and kW h. The car can charge at a peak or average rate expressed in kW, but energy billed by a charging service provider is expressed in kWh. People frequently either add or remove the "h" incorrectly because they don't understand the difference. In some places like India, a kilowatt-hour is simply referred to as a "unit" to avoid confusion. In my opinion, it was an enormous mistake to use kWh when we could be using mJ instead, which I think is probably something close to the point Randall may have been trying to make. Anyway, I wasn't sure if there was a place for any of this random trivia in the article itself, but feel free to use it. [[User:Equites|Equites]] ([[User talk:Equites|talk]]) 17:11, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Relevant XKCD… I mean relevant YouTube video: "Cursed units" 1 and 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkfIXUjkYqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg7xe8MkJHs [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:31, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3026: Linear Sort

2024-12-18T17:25:31Z

Fabian42: sleepsort

First in linear time![[User:Mr. I|Mr. I]] ([[User talk:Mr. I|talk]]) 13:28, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Due to the fact that O(nlog(n)) outgrows O(n), the Linear Sort is not actually linear. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.227|162.158.174.227]] 14:21, 18 December 2024 (UTC)
:If your sleep() function can handle negative arguments "correctly", then I guess it could work. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.91|162.158.91.91]] 16:27, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

That was fast... [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 15:35, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Do I even want to know what Randall's thinking nowadays? [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 16:02, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

The title text would be more correct if Randall used e.g. Timsort instead of Mergesort. They both have the same worst-case complexity O(n*log(n)), but the former is linear if the list was already in order, so best-case complexity is O(n). Mergesort COULD also be implemented this way, but its standard version is never linear. [[User:Bebidek|Bebidek]] ([[User talk:Bebidek|talk]]) 16:35, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

According to my estimates extrapolated from timing the sorting of 10 million random numbers on my computer, the break-even point where the algorithm becomes worse than linear is beyond the expected heat death of the universe. I did neglect the question of where to store the input array. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.35|162.158.154.35]] 16:37, 18 December 2024 (UTC)
:If the numbers being sorted are unique, each would need a fair number of bits to store. (Fair meaning that the time to do the comparison would be non-negligible.) If they aren't, you can just bucket-sort them in linear time. Since we're assuming absurdly large memory capacity. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.253|162.158.186.253]] 17:14, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

What system was the person writing the description using where Sleep(n) takes a parameter in whole seconds rather than the usual milliseconds? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.216.162|172.70.216.162]] 17:20, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

If I had a nickel for every time I saw an O(n) sorting algorithm using "sleep"… But this one is actually different. The one I usually see feeds the to-be-sorted value into the sleep function, so it schedules "10" to be printed in 10 seconds, then schedules "3" to be printed in 3 seconds, etc., which would theoretically be linear time, if the sleep function was magic. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:25, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3023: The Maritime Approximation

2024-12-12T01:54:09Z

Fabian42:

1.609*3.1416926 looks like 1.852*2.718281828
''seems legit'' {{unsigned ip|172.71.124.233|21:37, 11 December 2024 (UTC)}}

I added the basics of an explanation, it definitely needs some work, but it should do as a starting point. Hope I did well! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.92|172.68.22.92]] 23:06, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

The knot is exactly 1 nautical mile per hour. Meanwhile π/e ≈ 1.155727, which is close to nm/mi = kt/mph ≈ 1.15078
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.135|172.70.134.135]] 23:26, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

This article says one knot is 1.2 MPH, which is true for the number of digits of precision stated. But in context of the claimed precision of 0.5% it would be more helpful to state that one knot is approximately 1.151 MPH. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_(unit) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.159.7|172.71.159.7]] 00:08, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Transcendental : relating to a spiritual realm. eg "the transcendental importance of each person's soul". Works for me. {{unsigned ip|162.158.186.248|00:09, 12 December 2024 (UTC)}}

Just as a fun fact, "transcendental" in this case is referring to {{W|Transcendental number}}, which are numbers that cannot be expressed as the root of a polynomial, which basically means they cannot be found using algebra alone. I think the two definitions are related, since these numbers "trancend" the "realm" of numbers which can be found with algebra. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.82|172.68.22.82]] 01:04, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Another maritime approximation: 1 meter/sec nearly equals 2 knots (actual is 1.94384), perhaps there is an actual explanation for this?

A better mnemonic, which I actually use: miles→km is Fibonacci. 2miles≈3km, 3miles≈5km, 5miles≈8km, 8miles≈13km, 13miles≈21km, 21miles≈34km, 34miles≈55km, 55miles≈89km, 89miles≈143.23km, Fibonacchi would predict 144km. But at that point, you can just remove some less significant digits anyway. For everything in between, you can estimate how far it is from the nearest Fibonacci numbers, that works pretty well, too. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:54, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3019: Advent Calendar Advent Calendar

2024-12-03T00:50:17Z

Fabian42:

Would this basically be triangle numbers? So on Christmas Eve you would open 300 windows?[[User:Tommyds|Tommyds]] ([[User talk:Tommyds|talk]]) 16:01, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
:Yes and no. It's not 12 days of Christmas (as mentioned in the title text), so only the overall number of gifts are a triangle number; you open 30 windows on Christmas Day. The 12 days ref is key as the song generates more gifts if taken literally even in 12 days -- 78 on the last day, 66 on the previous day, etc, for a total of 364. [[User:Mneme|Mneme]] ([[User talk:Mneme|talk]]) 16:35, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

Notice that this year The Advent calendars are correct. Normally, Advent calendars start at the 1st of December even if the Advent starts at a different day. But this year the Advent also starts at the 1st of December. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.172.40|162.158.172.40]] 16:55, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

Donald Knuth wrote a paper for April 1984 Communications of the ACM that included an analysis of the complexity of 12 Days of Christmas. It's in the CACM archive https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/358027.358042. {{unsigned ip|172.70.211.144|16:58, 2 December 2024 (UTC)}}

The explanation currently says "each day, he gets another advent calendar, which each contains 24-25 different items". I don't think that's correct; look at the picture: each day's calendar has one fewer item than the previous one. For example, the 24th only has 2 boxes and the 25th only has one. --[[User:Itub|Itub]] ([[User talk:Itub|talk]]) 17:25, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps each smaller advent calendar might also contain a smaller advent calendar and so on ...? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.199|172.70.90.199]] 17:51, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
:Since the 1st has a calendar with a 1st, that would mean an infinite number of calendars just on the first day, so probably not. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.225|172.71.154.225]] 18:03, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
::It could work out if you don't open the first window of a new advent calendar on the day that it is revealed. So on day 1, you open the first window revealing an advent calendar that starts on day 2. Then on day 2 you open the second window, revealing a second advent calendar and the first window of the day 1 advent calendar, revealing a third advent calendar. ... and so on. If my mental math on that is right, it's doubling every day, so 2^24 =~ 16M calendars in total? (I could be off by a day) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.69|172.71.147.69]] 19:38, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

Can we just take a moment to appreciate whoever named the bot for this page? They wrote as follows: Created by 4 ENVELOPE BACKS 3 NERDS A-EDITING, 2 TURTLE BOTS, AND A FUNNY NEW XKCD. [[User:Willintendo|Willintendo]] ([[User talk:Willintendo|talk]]) 23:26, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
:That note is hand-edited on the first couple of edits. Not sure why that rule exists, though. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 00:50, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

The title text says 'may' twice, "per day may may [sic] seem absurd" --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.236.163|198.41.236.163]] 00:01, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

The German YouTube channel "Malternativ" has actually done this a couple years: Opening one advent calendar every day. He went more and more insane as December went on… [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 00:50, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3009: Number Shortage

2024-11-09T12:09:57Z

Fabian42:

I bet there's plenty of 9s left. They obviously didn't get a proper range of digits at Benford's Discount Number Store. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.113|172.69.195.113]] 05:53, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

Is this not an error? "15 2s and 12 3s" uses up one 3. So shouldn't it next be 11 3s left, not 10? -- [[Special:Contributions/172.69.144.152|172.69.144.152]] 10:41, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

the consequences of our actions /ref [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 10:45, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

The above mentioned “error” is not an error. When she says there are 13 2s left, that uses up one 3. [[User:PedanticMan|PedanticMan]] ([[User talk:PedanticMan|talk]]) 11:13, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

: There's no pause, no "No wait" after "13 2s". Is she reevaluating numbers instantly realtime midsentence? Did she start the sentence planning to say one thing and instantly altered it partway through? I guess that's what Randall is going for. -- [[Special:Contributions/172.69.144.162|172.69.144.162]] 12:00, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

If anyone wants to see self-referentiality of numbers taken even further, here is a series of posts that I wrote on "self-describing numbers": https://atmos.warplight.dev/profile/1p8WCZnqqG6N3ZOsJxBgUTo/p1cNCw1OTsioTQBRk [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 12:09, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

User talk:Fabian42

2024-09-07T07:24:29Z

Fabian42: /* I 'undid' your comment, but putting your comment back in again... */ reply, not fixing that one auto-edit for extra irony

{{Welcome|Fabian42}} — [[User:Sqrt-1|The 𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭]] [[User talk:Sqrt-1|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|stalk]] 03:05, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

== I 'undid' your comment, but putting your comment back in again... ==

Looking at the actual changes for [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2979:_Sky_Alarm&curid=27832&diff=350016&oldid=349852 this edit], I see that you deleted the 'intro header comment', a number of commas (not all were ''actual'' Oxford Commas and I wouldn't edit others' Talk contributions for that anyway... though I do also dislike Oxford Commas myself) and a perfectly valid but of quoted-code.

So I reverted it, to fix the deletions, but with the additional ''reinsertion'' of your signed-paragraph that was clearly your actual contribution. Hopefully that brings it back to where it would be without all the odd microedits it looks like you (or some auto-editing functionality?) had made. But letting you know. In a space a bit larger than the available "editing reason" field gives me. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.117|172.70.86.117]] 00:38, 6 September 2024 (UTC)
:Oh, sorry, that must have been my setup of the "FoxReplace" extension doing that. I did not know that it would also act in these circumstances, I should report that. Good that this was not a conversation about Trump, otherwise it would have replaced every occurrence with "Drumpf". :D [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 07:24, 7 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2979: Sky Alarm

2024-09-05T21:58:06Z

Fabian42: sources for space alerts

♫♪ Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me... ♪♫ :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:55, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

I've tried to do just this by subscribing to a channel promisingly named "AstroAlert", which then proceeded to spam me 500 times per day with messages about a random meteor on the opposite part of the world. Woe. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.110.200|162.158.110.200]] 05:15, 31 August 2024 (UTC)
:Hence the need for this alarm, to keep it LOCAL, :) That's the thing, any such thing needs a LOCATION, to limit results to what is locally relevant to each person. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:19, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

This comic seems super simple, so I added as muc( explanation as I can think of... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:19, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Local58 moment 💔 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.138|172.70.85.138]] 11:27, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

With that device, no work is ever going to be done again... D: [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.24|108.162.221.24]] 11:36, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

There is a nice site called [https://apod.nasa.gov/ Astronomy Picture of the Day] that is like this. Alas, it is "A cool space thing happened three days ago - sorry you missed it". --[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 11:41, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Sounds like it needs a sky dome camera system (like they made for immersive filmimg) on the roof coupled with statistical analysis (mistakenly aka AI) to recognise and record 'interesting' things, coupled with localised alerts for known phenomena. A product for someone? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 11:46, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Most cool astronomical events don't come up so suddenly that you need an alarm. We know about eclipses years in advance, meteor showers recur annually, comets have months of warning and unusual auroras are usually known a few days early. Anything sudden will probably also be short-lived, so by the time you get outside it will be over. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:26, 31 August 2024 (UTC)
:If you're anything like me, you're often eager to see (predicable space phenomenon) and then get reminded of it a day too late when the photos starts appearing on the internet. Though that could just as easily solved with a reminder on a standard calendar app, if only you had something reminding youto set up reminders. What would be nice would be an app where you put in your location and it gives you the next week's A) weather forecast and B) list of interestingly visible space thingies. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.142|172.69.246.142]] 14:38, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Seems like there should be a name for these alerts, like "Amber Alert" for missing children. I nominate "Neil Alert" -- it should probably use Neil deGrasse Tyson's voice. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:28, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Since the characters in the comic are the same as in the previous ISS comic, I like to think that they're in the ISS and Megan is getting ready to do an EVA (ignore the fact that such a desk wouldn't make sense, or the walking, or that prepping for the EVA would probably take well over a full orbit) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.93|172.71.223.93]] 17:58, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Dang, we really cleaned up all the incomplete explanations, didn't we?
Either that, or someone just went around and removed all the tags [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:50, 31 August 2024 (UTC)
:I'm not too sure on that actually, considering that there's been people using AI to write explanations. It's unfortunately a possibility that somebody used AI and then removed the tags. Hoping to be proven wrong though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.250|172.70.110.250]] 09:45, 2 September 2024 (UTC)
::Even before the latest craze for AI, premature Incomplete-Tag removal has been a thing. (IMO, if it's less than a week old, then there ''might'' be someone yet to check in.)
::Not that the Incomplete status is actually what it used to be (the momentum of contributors hardly lets a new comic go up without a very rapid 'full' explanation edit and there's basically no big 'backfilling' needed on historic articles for the most part). These days, the Incomplete tag is a friendly quirk, with the replacemet of the BOT bit with something homorously topical to the comic (with any luck!) being its main attraction and (apart from possibly confusing newbugs to the site... though, honestly, any newbug to ''any'' site is always going to have to learn the local community culture and it's the same with the Citation Needed tag) it no longer functions as an ''actual'' call to edit. Edits will happen immediately and probably happen long afterwards, regardless. But it's become a form of treasured landmark for those who have seen more than a few articles being created and dealt with.
::Then there are times when clearly someone has 'wiped the tag' off of even the last article (published within the last day, even). With or without it, the articles will get edited, but that'd be definitely premature. Believing that everything that can be said about the comic ''has'' been said about the comic (or, indeed, that all the wrong things said about it have been corrected/deleted) is an optomistic viewpoint on one's own understanding. Give it that week or so and at least a day or so since the last actual edit, before presuming that you know the tag isn't needed any more. (As I said, it's actually not needed at all for attracting people's attention, but it still has that connection. But what you're really depriving people of is the latest consensus funny 'BOT replacement statement', which is a major part of our own independent contribution to this documentation of the comic. It belongs to us, rather than basically just being a reiteration of Randall's own humour. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.3|172.70.58.3]] 11:17, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

Does anyone know of anything like this? Something that will tell me about things like upcoming meteor showers, comets, auroras, etc. the day before, rather than hearing about it the day after from people who somehow knew about it? To this day I still have no idea how people find out about these things before they happen {{unsigned ip|162.158.154.134|13:35, 1 September 2024}}
:Offline, the national (and local) Weather broadcasts might give info on "what might be visible tonight". Or at least respond to the preceding News programme's "and finally..." if it features the note that supermoons will happen or aurora have a decent chance to and all that remains is the hope of clear sky. That's UK television, can't speak for wherever you are/what you might watch.
:Online, it would depend upon what you can imagine wanting to know. Keep an eye on something obvious like space.com (which might have internal/external links to gateways that push notifications on various subjects) or go the full hog and search for "aurora alert", "meteor alert", "rocket launch alert" in every sort of phrnomenon that you think might (if timed/located well) interest you and be visible.
:The comic device might be either configured to deal with everything the comic characters might be interested in, nails absolutely ''anything'' (without prejudice/selectability) or perhaps (over time) has an AI/heuristic element that 'learns' what random phenomena most interest you as it collates so many possible feed options (itself, or via its manufacturer's centrally maintained servers).
:But it looks like a project ripe for a 'Maker' to try. Set up an Arduino/Raspberry Pi/whatever with a "speaker/siren and lights" housing and an internet connection with suitably configured feed-scraping commands run within it (or via a separate computer to which it connects) that makes a fuss whenever a suitable notification is passed. Add to that maybe some skyward-facing camera(s) with one degree or other of image-processing applied to their images to (for example) identify when a particularly nice sunset is happening with plenty of rose-tinted clouds. With enough foresight (and the right processing) it could pick up particularly aesthetic cloudscapes, the spontaneous murmurations of starlings, an amusing conjunction of contrails, the first snowflakes of winter or (back to space things) a surprise Earth-skimming bolide... whatever your imagination, technical tinkering and subsequent data-munging could get your "Sky's-Pi Alarm" (or whatever it is) to make its noises for.
:I don't actually subscribe to anything (as proxy for my imagined self-contain/collating device), so I can't tell you any particularly good sources of info, but there'll be some out there. Like you can get earthquake alerts (or at least "yeah, we also know about it, be careful" semi-simultaneous detection), tornado alerts, flood aleets and other hobbyist/public-safety notification systems. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.207|172.70.162.207]] 14:58, 1 September 2024 (UTC)
:There's a link to subscribe to Google and Apple calendars at this site: https://www.nytimes.com/explain/2024/astronomy-space-calendar. [[User:L-Space Traveler|L-Space Traveler]] ([[User talk:L-Space Traveler|talk]]) 12:17, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
::I wanted to mention that as well (but then had tech issues). Additionally, there is a rocket launch calendar [here https://bit.ly/SpaceLaunchCalendar] (tiny plus icon at the bottom right to subscribe). The same person also has a miscellaneous space-related events calendar (reentry, docking, spacewalks, …), but I have no idea anymore where I found it. The Google calendar ID is gp6s5vrim71h78d9fic2vd3gfg, if that helps anyone. The YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@DrBecky/videos "Dr. Becky"] has monthly space news, covering events of the past and coming month. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 21:58, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

At the moment, a device like this might actually be useful for all of us who irritate their friends and family by going out every evening at around 10 when it's dark but Corona Borealis is still a fair distance above the horizon, because of this [https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/t-coronae-borealis-nova nova-in-waiting]. There is a distinct chance it'll be cloudy on the nights it happens anyway, because ''that's reality: always pissing on the epic moment'' ([https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89186.Pushing_Ice?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=cSxwg6qHB1&rank=6 this last part is a quote, here's the source]) As with many glorious celestial events, if you don't know what it signifies, it'll just be another of many inconspicious little dots of light and if you don't know or care what the constellations normally look like, you won't even notice. It'll still be an awesome once-in-a-lifetime event to watch, but be aware at all times that for all practical purposes (and for so-called "normal" people) the awesomeness is all in your head.* [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 15:30, 1 September 2024 (UTC)
: see [[1644: Stargazing]], [[2017: Stargazing 2]] and [[2274: Stargazing 3]] for further reference. To be honest, I'm actually waiting on xkcd's take on the event as much as on T Coronae Borealis going boom already. [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 15:30, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

I previously changed the words from the alarm in the Transcript to italics, but I wasn't convinced that the noises from the alarm were also italicized. I see someone else changed them to italics as well, but I wonder if anyone else is of the same mind as myself. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:16, 1 September 2024 (UTC)
:The transcript shouldn't actually use (or rely upon) formatting, really, though saying something like in both description ''and'' markup would satisfy both human and non-human readers better than one method alone. I've not been involved in that transcript, probably won't, but it's the kind of expansion that I'd expect (done with more thought than this quick note, maybe). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.207|172.70.162.207]] 14:58, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

'''NOAA weather radio:''' How has nobody mentioned the NWS NOAA weather radio system (162.400–162.550 MHz)? It has both continuous broadcasting of weather information as well as a special system of alert tones that many receivers can automatically recognize and then flag to the user in whatever way. It's kind of like this, except maybe that watches and warnings are about severe weather and not "cool stuff happening." [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 15:51, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

spaceweather.com - provides aurora alerts to your phone, solar flare warnings for expected solar activity, near earth asteroid fly pasts, meteor showers, geomagnetic storm warnings and generally announces upcoming celestial events such as conjunctions, comets, predicted nova (eg T CrB) and more. Also provided imagery of past events too short or local for most people to catch including noctilucent clouds, rocket fuel dumps, fireballs and rare forms of lightning. Also ongoing weekly measures of radiation levels at altitude from balloon flights over the continental US. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.141|108.162.241.141]] 14:24, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

== T Coronae Borealis ==

Paul mentioned T Coronae Borealis, but it's worth calling attention to it more specifically. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a (sort of) scheduled nova. It's unlikely you can actually witness the explosion in real time, but you can see the before (now) and after (any day now) without great effort:

Go outside tonight and look at the "before" so you will know it has changed when you see the "after". And the "after" may only last a day or two, hence, the appeal of the Sky Alarm. Or monitor other pages for updates, such as:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_Coronae_Borealis

In September 2024, in the USA, it's visible after sunset, nearly overhead and then (like everything) it sets in the west a few hours later. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.20|172.71.154.20]] 00:52, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2973: Ferris Wheels

2024-08-17T01:03:20Z

Fabian42:

Where is the Cueball shouting "wheee!!"? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:59, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

In the transcript I described how the cars are hanging, but I'm worried I've gone too far from transcript to explanation. Hopefully someone can improve it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:02, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

There's no category for "X fired me because" comics. There probably should be. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:06, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

I once attached the motor of a Lego ferris wheel directly to its axis instead of the beginning of the gearing system. Not only did all the cabins fly across the room, the entire thing dismantled itself. Worth it! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:03, 17 August 2024 (UTC)

== Just HOW fast? ==

I was vaguely surprised to see nobody had done the math yet. So here it goes -- someone more confident in editing the main entry can feel free to adapt this if you think it's interesting enough (I doubt anyone would want to read the math as I wrote it). But first, someone please check my work. :)

I opened the comic in a pixel-level photo editor and took some quick measurements. The wheel on the left seems to be approximately 160 pixels wide, whiile the inner hub is about 14 pixels high.

So the gear ratio is 160:14 or about 11.04 Just for simplification, let's call it a 10x ratio.

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_wheel#The_original_Ferris_Wheel original Ferris Wheel] took about 20 minutes to load and unload passengers, then ran for 9 uninterrupted minutes for another, full, rotation. So again, let's round up and say the wheel on the left takes about 10 minutes to go around once.

The middle wheel, then, would take a minute. And the last one, a tenth of a minute, or 6 seconds.

The original wheel (again) was about 265 feet【80.77 m】 across, or a circumference of 832 feet【253.59 m】. So if these wheels are the same size (why not?), any car on the right-most wheel would move about 832 feet【253.59 m】 in 6 seconds, or 138 feet【42.06 m】 per second, which is about 94 miles【151.28 km】 per hour (151 kilometers per hour).

I can see why he was fired.

Taking the reverse: The rightmost wheel would take about 10 minutes for a rotation, the middle wheel, 100 minutes (1:40) and the left most, 1000 minutes (16 hours and 40 minutes).

Actually, if you move slow enough that the right wheel can load and unload (let's say 20 minutes, just like the original wheel), it'd take over a day to load the left wheel.

@DarthNull@infosec.exchange [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.87|172.70.175.87]] 20:58, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

This Amusement Ride manufacturer has a helpful diagram of rotational speed on their website: https://www.sinorides.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ferris-wheels/#q11
The example wheel happens to have 18 gondolas, just like Randall's and appears to be roughly the same scale. The sample values they provide are a linear speed of 4 m/s at the edge of the wheel and a rotational speed of just under 3 revolutions per minute. My best guess at the gearing ratio of Randall's belt driven wheels is 10:1, so if the left wheel is being driven at normal speeds, the center wheel would be 40 m/s or 30 rpm and the left wheel would be 400 m/s or 300 rpm. This exceeds the square root of the specific strength of standard steel, so we'll need to hope that the right most Ferris wheel is made of a particularly strong alloy. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.97|172.69.71.97]] 21:19, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

: Ah, well, I started down my own road for calculations, based upon the assumption that they were 75 feet【22.86 m】 diameter (from the height of the figures, assuming that the ones I actually checked definitively up to 6ft【1.83 m】, give or take, although pixel-counts upon antialiased graphics can be quite inaccurate the fewer 'apparent' pixels there are). As a truck-portable/mounted fairground-style ride, it's probably quite a bit smaller than the 'original Ferris wheel' and many of those 'permanent' wheels (London Eye, theme park rides, etc) that are built specifically to be architectual 'statements'/tourist-magnets. I'm thinking more the kind that you'd see in Grease (though that one's 55-foot【16.76 m】, apparently) or the one that 'Night Monkey' had to deal with in Spiderman: Far From Home. I also looked up [https://www.giantwheel.co.uk/35m-vision-ferris-wheel-hire/ actual specs] (that's 35m, ~105ft【32 m】 and 0.5rpm, so not too far off my initial assumptions). There also was a rather larger 60-metre (197 ft) {{w|Wheel of Sheffield|semi-permanent}} transportable version with 13 minute continuous 'ride', but that'd be completely out of scale to those depicted.
: If there are any actual 'carnies' out there who know what kind of thing actually gets used at County Fairs in the US, that might help. (Here in the UK there's currently a Fun Fair about a quarter of a mile from my house, at the moment - though I'm not there at the moment, but they have no 'big wheels' of that kind, only the more energetic types that ''do'' fling their riders around, like the "Terrifying Claw" and various other heavy duty hanging and/or spinning-seat rides.) ((Slightly ninjaed, now, by the above contribution.))) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.197|162.158.33.197]] 21:37, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

I can't help but think of this as Randall wanting to make an upscaled version of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrkiJZKJfpY Steve Mould's Spintronics video] from a year ago... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.126|172.68.50.126]] 21:54, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

Given that air resistance increases exponentially with air speed, this setup would actually act as its own speed regulator, with the main factor being the torque of the power source. Which wheel is powered would not matter much [[Special:Contributions/172.71.118.167|172.71.118.167]] 22:05, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

If you powered the middle one, you'd end up with one moderately exciting ride, one normal ride and one really long ride, which would be highly impractical, but not overly dangerous (depending on the structural strength of the fast wheel). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.88|172.71.142.88]] 23:08, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

The ratio is listed as 12.5:1, but then the calculations are done using a ration of 20:1. The 12.5 seems to be more accurate, given the drawing, but in the comments here, someone else measured the pixel ratio as 11.04. I think 10 or 12.5 would be fine, but it should be consistent. Knowing the ratio ahead of time would also make the rotation calculations easier to explain. We should probably use the pixel technique to estimate the diameter too. I don’t have access to measuring tools right now, but it’s about 20 times the height of the tallest person, so roughly 120’【36.58 m】. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.87|172.69.34.87]] 00:32, 17 August 2024 (UTC)

== Are the transcript eds going to go into the speeds depicted? ==

Should the transcript involve the diameter ratios when explaining the speed depiction gray lines? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.83|172.70.211.83]] 23:06, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
:Such analysis is going towards the speculative. Perhaps we can say that the wheels are

Talk:2972: Helium Synthesis

2024-08-15T09:30:20Z

Fabian42:

I had imagined that, rather than destroying the entire universe, they just somehow made a big bang INSIDE THE MACHINE that they could somehow obtain helium from safely. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.166|141.101.109.166]] 07:34, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
:I get the impression that, like an abbreviated version of the cyclical {{w|Big Bounce}} hypothesis, they did indeed recreate the conditions for a (sufficiently similar) universe.
:The question as to whether they obliterated their current one (in a short-sighted and {{w|Instrumental convergence#Paperclip maximizer|paperclip-maximiser}}-like effort that disregards the safety of their current existence) or create a new instance of universe-within-the-universe (like [[2688: Bubble Universes]], presumably with some way of [[248: Hypotheticals|bringing the stuff out]]) is left open.
:If the latter, it could be that the ''reason'' why each universe's helium-users are chronically short of helium is that their universe ''has'' been used as a source for the next-universe-out's helium by the equivalent outwards recursion of the very same people. (The former would imply a kind of {{w|The Last Question}} situation, only not with the same timing.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.118|162.158.74.118]] 08:25, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
::I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that you probably couldn't create a big bang in the lab capable of replaying the events of the current universe exactly without obliterating at least, as the explanation says, all the closest galaxies. If new inflation pushes the existing universe apart, it's still smeared quite thinly outside the new expanding edge.
::But I really like the idea, it's kind of like Rick's car battery in ''Rick and Morty'', one of my favorite episodes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.4|172.70.210.4]] 08:34, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

Could this comic maybe be a reference to a certain popular space video game? Sadly, in what I call a reverse spoiler, I cannot tell you which game I mean without massively spoiling that game. I hope some people know which one I mean and can reply basic on that guess. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:30, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2962: President Venn Diagram

2024-07-23T04:35:46Z

Fabian42:

Another really timely comic. Biden just dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris yesterday. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 01:58, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Forget Biden, Hillary and Obama. This is the endorsement that counts. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.199|172.68.23.199]] 01:58, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

I suppose no one is allowed to say that the upper right circle is mislabeled. It was supposed to say incompetent, dishonest and despicable. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.25|162.158.90.25]] 02:07, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
:You're allowed to say it, but then we're allowed to suggest (with rather more emperical proof) that her presumptive opponent better fits your rewording. How about we all just don't try to re-run the old arguments (or pre-run the upcoming election) in that sort of tone, eh?
:(To be clear, Randall has made positive comments to his favoured candidate, rather than stooping to arbitrarily attacking their opponent. If you can't at least be as positive in your own convictions then it's really not going to help your cause.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.6|172.69.195.6]] 04:10, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Well Kamala, you had a good run. Randall has the touch of death when it comes to picking political candidates. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.39|162.158.154.39]] 03:02, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
:You mean that no candidate endorsed by XKCD has ever won? ;) https://xkcd.com/2383/ [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 04:35, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall angling for VP? [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 02:59, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

I think Randall would be good president. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:52, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
:Meh, he seems to at least not be good at public speaking. And from what he says about himself, he would be distracted way too easily. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 04:35, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

The layout of this Venn diagram reminds me of https://xkcd.com/112/ {{unsigned ip|162.158.166.234|03:04, 23 July 2024}}

I think I would probably swap the two. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.23|162.158.174.23]] 04:03, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

I would be very interested in which non-Politicians Randall would put into the top middle section. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 04:35, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2957: A Crossword Puzzle

2024-07-11T01:23:47Z

Fabian42:

compare https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.236|162.158.158.236]] 20:50, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

it's *A* crossword puzzle for a reason ;) -- 21:05, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

i’m trying to table-ify it but i keep getting edit conflicted. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.93|172.71.30.93]] 21:24, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Surprised something like "Jagged and loose Hawaiian lava flow (2)" couldn't be fit in (unless I've missed it). Maybe because there were no two-letter answers at all, of course. (I think... Again, maybe I'm missing them.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.38|172.70.86.38]] 21:30, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

unfortunate that [https://tmbw.net/wiki/Aaa "antepenultimate track of They Might Be Giants' ''Glean''"] did not make it in --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.200|172.70.230.200]] 21:35, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:And where is "Fonzie's catch-phrase"? Or does that end with a Y? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:02, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Did I use the calculator wrong, or 12356631 in base 26 equals 111111, not AAAAAA? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.180|172.69.90.180]] 22:33, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:anyone using base 26 is probably likely to be using all 26 letters, instead of ten numbers and sixteen letters. contextless, i would usually assume any base has standard decimal digits, but liberties have already been taken here so why not (please sign)
::I wasn’t sure enough to comment, but it looks like he miscalculated. 26^5 + 26^4 + 26^3 + 26^2 + 26^1 + 26^0 = 12355631 = 111111 in base 26. To be AAAAAA it would have to be 123556310. Of course, maybe he’s using A through Z instead of the expected 0 through 9 followed by letters A through P, the way hexadecimal is. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.52|172.70.210.52]] 23:16, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:::If he’s using the letters A through Z as the ‘digits’ for base 26, then he’s still wrong, because A would be 0, Z would be 25 and 12355631 decimal would be BBBBBB in that base 26. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.235|172.70.210.235]] 00:54, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:The "Qalculate" program has a number base setting called "Bijective base 26", which outputs the answer as "AAAAAAB26. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:23, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm surprised he didn't make this interactive, so you could type into all the cells to fill out the crossword. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:02, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

I made and discarded various theories what the joke might be while I read through the questions, including all numbers, at least two possible solutions for the entire puzzle (I think that happened once in a newspaper), unknowable answers, … Only when I got to the "disregard for gravity" thing did I suspect the right answer and only because I once saw a meta gaming Stack exchange question about its tag. Otherwise it might have taken me until the Morse code question. This was really well hidden! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:23, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2946: 1.2 Kilofives

2024-06-15T05:59:03Z

Fabian42: libqalculate

Challenge: Come up with a way like this to say the comic number #2946. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 03:00, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:How about 4.91 hectosixes? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.190|172.69.33.190]] 04:19, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:A kibitwo, four decascore, four score and eighteen. Two octooctotwentythrees and two. A gross-score, three score and 6. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 05:00, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
Interestingly, four score and seven is exactly how you say 87 in French (quatre-vingt sept) and Basque (laurogeita zazpi). Both count on base 20. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.138|172.70.90.138]] 05:16, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

Fun fact: libqalculate and the "Qalculate"/"qalc" programs can just deal with the title text:
qalc "50milli score"
50 × (10^−3) × score = 1
But it fails on the main part, the best that works is:
qalc "1.2kilo 5"
1.2 × 10³ × 5 = 6000
"five" gets interpreted as Euler's number × imaginary unit × unknown "f" × unknown "v". On my old laptop, I must have some other configuration or maybe an old version, because there it gets interpreted as 0×i×e=0, so you can enter "five plus five" and get 0. Maybe another challenge would be to get arbitrary misleading results out from equations like this. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 05:59, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2937: Room Code

2024-05-25T03:39:28Z

Fabian42:

Obviously, for many of us it would be more helpful as a mnemonic for a slightly older relative born on May 18, 2002. But since the author is American, it is of course reasonable for him not to have mentioned this. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.235|162.158.134.235]] 20:36, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::Do "many" of you use YYMMDD though? YY rather than YYYY? Many, many of us use DDMMYY though. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 20:46, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, add me to the "2nd of May" club. (Or whatever young relative I can retrospectively induce to join, anyway.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.165|172.69.79.165]] 22:58, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::Which brings up https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2562:_Formatting_Meeting (I don't know how to do internal links) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.80|172.71.22.80]] 20:52, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
:::''"I don't know how to do internal links"'' At the very bottom of the Editing page, "'''Editing help (opens in new window)'''", which goes to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Links and you want "'''Internal links'''" --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 00:11, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
wait...so y'all actually don't need help with remembering numbers? oh. I can usually memorize like 10 long strings of random numbers almost instantly by finding patterns through them. order through chaos? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 02:13, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

I usually remember numbers with their pattern on computer or telephone keys. When I recite π, I start moving my hand through the air at some point. Here the even position digits are ascending in the middle and the others are 001, so quite easy. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 03:39, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2927: Alphabetical Cartogram

2024-05-01T17:24:34Z

Fabian42:

replaced incorrect explanation [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.45|172.70.111.45]] 17:17, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
Is it me or is Hawaii strangely bigger than california. {{unsigned|172.70.100.40}}
:I think he's only counting the land area. The area between the islands may be creating an illusion that Hawaii is bigger. It's hard to tell just by looking, does anyone have the tech to measure this? P.S. remember to sign... [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:11, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Im just wondering why Maine is still so big.... [[User:JushJosh|JushJosh]] ([[User talk:JushJosh|talk]]) 13:22, 1 May 2024 (UTC)Jush
:I know, right? That's what made me think it wasn't just a simple alphabetical listing. That, and Hawaii is bigger than Alaska, despite the fact that Alaska is substantially higher on the list. In fact, it even appears that Alaska is smaller than Maine! How did Randall decide on the sizes??? [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 16:01, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

The sad part is that Rhode Island grew. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.31.139|172.71.31.139]] 14:01, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

I believe it is some sort of ranking rather than swapping sizes as the chart suggests, as South Carolina appears to be smaller than normal (?) [[User:Primmy|Primmy]] ([[User talk:Primmy|talk]]) 14:56, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Poor Utah :( [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|If you click on this you will get a fun surprise]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 15:15, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

I believe the first paragraph is incorrect. I did a full comparison, and Texas shrank the most (dropping 41 places from size ranking to alphabetical ranking), while Connecticut as well as Delaware grew the most (each rising 41 places between the lists). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.255.28|172.71.255.28]] 15:40, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

This map gives a lot more land to Mexico. [[User:Weslar|Weslar]] ([[User talk:Weslar|talk]]) 16:31, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

I did a quick area take off of each state. These units are in miles using the real width of Colorado (since it is about the same place in the list) as the scale reference. https://imgur.com/a/hKIVjRZ. I think relating these numbers proportionally to the actual united states will give you an idea of how each one changed size.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.56|172.71.146.56]] 16:56, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

As a Wyomingite, I can't complain. We're still bigger than our population justifies. (fun fact, we get two whole senators despite lacking the population to actually justify a single house member)[[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.59|172.68.34.59]] 17:08, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Alaska is STILL disproportionally small. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:24, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2924: Pendulum Types

2024-04-24T18:10:47Z

Fabian42:

Example of the creepy fingers: https://youtu.be/3zoTKXXNQIU?si=MgZgSRFFyxrNGhw3 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.25|172.70.175.25]] 12:58, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
:If that's as creepy as Maxwell's Demon gets, you have to wonder if he's related to Gachnar: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3090746901188850 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.12|172.70.91.12]] 14:47, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Fortunately, Maxwell's Demon can be banished with a silver hammer. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.151|172.69.246.151]] 15:08, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, whoever completed the transcript. I didn't know the bullet tag and the comics are starting to get more complicated to explain and transcribe. So again, my thanks. <3 [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 16:12, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

David Acheson showed that any finite number of inverted pendulum segments can be made stable through vibration. related video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ7_fFABc9s&t=0s [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.131|108.162.238.131]] 17:23, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Considering that Maxwell's demon can reverse entropy, I welcome our new demon overlord. We must all put more starch onto speakers! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 18:10, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2906: Earth

2024-03-14T08:38:01Z

Fabian42:

I originally read the caption as "how badly ''we'd'' messed up", which... changes Sagan's tone somewhat. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.155.54|172.71.155.54]] 08:02, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

At first I thought the joke was that the rocket firing had somehow gone so catastrophically badly that the entire Earth had literally been reduced to dust. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:37, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2906: Earth

2024-03-14T08:37:28Z

Fabian42:

I originally read the caption as "how badly ''we'd'' messed up", which... changes Sagan's tone somewhat. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.155.54|172.71.155.54]] 08:02, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
At first I thought the joke was that the rocket firing had somehow gone so catastrophically badly that the entire Earth had literally been reduced to dust. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:37, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2867: DateTime

2023-12-14T03:54:27Z

Fabian42:

Comics like this are why this wiki exists. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.172|172.70.100.172]] 23:30, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
:The time falsehoods gist linked above is a really good explanation about why a programmer might panic about calculating time. Especially the ones about calling "getCurrentTime()" twice in a row doesn't always mean the results are in the order you think they were called, or even different values. t2 might very well be the same or less than t1. It can be maddening. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.197.149|162.158.197.149]] 23:40, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
::The last item is the most important to me: ''Users prefer to use the local timezone.'' This causes so much frustration while browsing the web! [[File:PissedOff.gif]] --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.110.68|162.158.110.68]] 00:26, 14 December 2023 (UTC)
::Worth noting that events can take place over long periods. A sunspot or an illness or a relationship doesn't happen at a single point in time, it takes place over days or weeks or longer. When did it "start"? Who knows? Also I miss calling TI4-1212 here in DC. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.27|172.70.175.27]] 01:39, 14 December 2023 (UTC)
Related insanity on Computerphile with Tom Scott: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 03:54, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2822: *@gmail.com

2023-08-31T05:51:53Z

Fabian42:

Why not send to *@*.*? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.45|172.69.247.45]] 03:08, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
:Either *@* suffices (if not just a *), or (because of non-standard wildcard parsing) it would reach neither ''<whatever@mydomain.me.uk>'' nor ''<something@business.com.au>''... But it'd depend upon how you invoke the query of the relevent MXRecords. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.22|172.71.178.22]] 03:18, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Based on the caption of the comic, I believe the real joke is that many GMail recipients of the original mass email would incorrectly use the "Reply-All" functionality of their email client and thereby further bomb the gmail server with a much larger volume of emails. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 03:21, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

:That's certainly part of it, but getting millions of emails is far more annoying than the typical few. [[User:DownGoer|DownGoer]] ([[User talk:DownGoer|talk]]) 04:44, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

I have a setup to shorten mail notifications and "XKCD: *.gmail.com" totally looks like something it could output as the sender name, so for a moment I got very confused why the latest comic was suddenly sent from a GMail address and with no subject. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 05:51, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2804: Marshmallow

2023-07-19T17:00:45Z

Fabian42:

Made a start, not sure if the heating up science is completely correct though [[User:MrCandela|MrCandela]] ([[User talk:MrCandela|talk]]) 13:54, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Because I'm a nitpicker, I kind of want to see some mention in this blurb about how reentry is usually a communications blackout period, due to the plasma sheath blocking all radio waves and so talking with Houston *during* reentry is unrealistic. I strongly suspect Randall knew this, though and ignored it for the sake of the joke. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 14:08, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

:In the case of the space shuttle it was possible to circumvent the problem of radio blackout by relaying the radio through satellites (the plasma blocks the radio waves downwards, but there was be a window upwards). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_blackout#Spacecraft_reentry [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 15:39, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

:The current explanation suggests that Mission Control would be concerned by the lack of communication from the capsule, but given that they would be aware of the effects of reentry, there's no particular reason why this should cause them concern.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.134|141.101.99.134]] 15:58, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Some things that should probably be added:
The comic was likely published in anticipation of the 54th anniversary of the first moon landing on the 20th of July 1969
In reality, the marshmallow, exposed to the vaccum of space, would expand due to the internally trapped gasses until its structural integrity failed https://youtu.be/MYAmPRQ4eWo?t=285
The title text should probably direct reference to {{w|Kessler syndrome}}, in which a single collision of orbiting objects causes a chain reaction filling low earth orbit with debris, in this case, tasty stacks [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.71|162.158.155.71]] 14:30, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

IMO, "Reentry Marshmallow Toasting Module" refers only to the Marshmallow arm and any necessary associated parts (covers, actuators, etc.), not the whole spacecraft (as the way it is currently written suggests). That is, as for instance, Apollo had a command module, a service module, etc.(?) in this case, there is this extra module. I think it is not unusual to have experiments or sensors piggy-backing in a existent spacecraft or probe. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 15:55, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
:Agreed - I'd just amended the article to that effect before coming down here and reading this. :o) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.134|141.101.99.134]] 15:59, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

"the marshmallow has been on the outside of the module for the entire journey, exposed to the vacuum of space. In this situation, it would have radiated all its heat energy away, reaching temperatures near absolute zero" I think this is incorrect: the side of the spacecraft in the shadow gets quite cold, although probably not ~3ºK (cosmic background temperature), since in low-earth orbit you have a warm body (the Earth) radiating some heat some (most?) of the time. But the sun side gets quite hot. Apollo used "Passive Thermal Control" (informally, it was called “barbecue roll”) to even out the temperature. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 16:11, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall played Outer wilds recently. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:00, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2736: Only Serifs

2023-02-11T08:48:07Z

Fabian42:

first two letters are "A" and "R" I think [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.10|172.71.167.10]] 04:35, 11 February 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

It's AaBbCcDd. Most likely in Caslon, based on the uppercase A. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.149|172.68.174.149]] 04:54, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

So much for a hidden message. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.238.22|172.68.238.22]] 05:05, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

If we've come to this page for an explanation, we probably don't know what a "solum-serif font" is. update the transcript with something more widely known? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.224|172.69.65.224]] 05:42, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
:Agreed, enthusiastically! Someone trying to show off, Google doesn't even know what it means, it found ONE result, which is a font of curved corners someone made (when I put "solum-serif" in quotes, to not allow Google to just search one or the other). But while I was Googling someone fixed it before I could, LOL! Which is weird as it's past midnight here in the Eastern time zone. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:56, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

There was a whole thing on Wikipedia about formatting the f symbol for an arbitrary function. One camp held that f is just f, it always is and always was and if you italicize f in a san-serif font, you get an oblique ''f'' but if you italicize f in a serif font, you get a proper italic version, which I'm not sure how to display here. The italic f resembles ƒ, a character called the "hooked f," which is technically an oblique f with a descender ("hook"). That symbol has been used for florins, but sometimes it is also used to imitate the italic f to represent functions, because it has the descender in all environments. But Wikipedia uses a san-serif script, while most mathematical literature uses a serif script. However, it renders expressions in LaTeX with serif fonts and therefore these equations get an f with a descender. So some people were arguing that given this environment, the ƒ character was practically superior, even if it was conceptually wrong, because it most closely resembled the formatted LaTeX expressions. And on and on with the back and forth. I'm glad they eventually settled on just using f for f, like they use g for g and h for h, but still, it was amusingly nitpicky. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.50|172.70.100.50]] 07:58, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
:What you listed as resembling italic f looks on my system like ⨍. There are lots of fun variations (some unrelated, just similar looking): ∫⨎ʄ∮∬∰⨏ƒʆᶘᔑ [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:48, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2690: Cool S

2022-10-26T18:56:03Z

Fabian42:

Wow. Never seen a blank one before [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 14:23, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
: Apologies for my mediocre attempt, new to this [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 14:30, 26 October 2022 (UTC)

I used to do these chains! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.25|108.162.237.25]] 15:38, 26 October 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

As a molecular biologist, I'm a bit annoyed any time I see DNA drawn as a left-handed helix. Perhaps this was intentional on Randall's part.

: To expand on Bumpf's comment -- DNA is typically right-handed, so it was most probably derived from the "cool Z". (Yes, Z-DNA (q.v.) is left-handed -- perhaps leading to Randall's presentation) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.221|172.70.178.221]] 17:04, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
: I mean, I've never seen on so angular before either. 17:15, 26 October 2022 (UTC)

This was actually a rediscovery, Celtic decorators had discovered it before. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 18:56, 26 October 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2688: Bubble Universes

2022-10-21T19:04:35Z

Fabian42:

Is this a reference to the money kind of inflation? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.6|172.70.131.6]] 16:03, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

: no [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.205|172.70.114.205]] 16:29, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

*pop* [[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 16:13, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

I think this comic might be referencing the [[wikipedia:Eternal inflation|eternal inflation]] model: as the universe eternally inflates at an exponential rate, bubbles form where the inflation slows down, creating a disjoint multiverse from these bubbles being unable to interact with each other. In this comic, the process is shown as recursive. [[User:LegionMammal978|LegionMammal978]] ([[User talk:LegionMammal978|talk]]) 16:42, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

This comic would be perfect motive for a mug. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 19:04, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2665: America Songs

2022-08-29T23:31:15Z

Fabian42:

Many of these rely on "ia"/"ie"/"io" serving as the 3rd and 4th syllables, so every song would be sung like "God Bless Olimpiya". Virginia Beach appears to be the only one to escape this.--[[User:Magtei|Magtei]] ([[User talk:Magtei|talk]]) 19:39, 29 August 2022 (UTC)in M
:There are also some locations with three-syllable names, such as Detroit Lakes or Fergus Falls (both located northwest of St. Cloud, Minnesota) which, although not listed by Randall, will also work and not use the noted syllables. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.54.245|172.70.54.245]] 21:19, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

This phrase, "scans to", has me confused. Can the explanation address what this is supposed to mean?
--anon 16:23, 29 August 2022
:You betcha [[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 20:38, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
::What does scanning mean in relation to sung verse? Just syllables and their stress pattern, or is their more? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.28|172.69.34.28]] 23:11, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

Aussie here: we tend to say (and sing) "Australia" with three syllables. For example, see the [https://www.pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/government/australian-national-anthem-scores Australian national anthem]. Occasionally two syllables: Straya mate!! But saying it with four syllables is perhaps an American thing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.207|162.158.2.207]] 21:19, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
:Interesting! It probably is a dialect thing. As an American, I've always pronounced it with four. [[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 21:23, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

In the comic, Saskatchewan is spelled as Sasketchewan. Might be fixed later?

Just putting this here: https://www.quora.com/A-lot-of-place-names-in-the-USA-have-four-syllables-Minnesota-Chattanooga-Albuquerque-Tallahassee-Talladega-Massachusetts-Massapequa-Mississippi-Cincinnati-Sacramento-Indiana-Alabama-Oklahoma-etc-Is-there-a (with the understanding that "scanning" doesn't necessarily mean only the number of syllables, e.g. Al-BUH-ker-key has the wrong stress pattern.)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 21:51, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
:Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.211|172.69.79.211]] 22:03, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
::''AlBUquerque, AlBUquerque, God shed his grace on theee...!'' [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.8|172.70.207.8]] 22:46, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

Does anyone know how to craft a Wikidata query for all the place names with four syllables following the .'.. stress pattern? We should probably say how many there are. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.183|172.70.214.183]] 23:15, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

Jurassic park, Jurassic park, how lovely are thy branches… [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 23:31, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2591: Qua

2022-03-10T07:24:30Z

Fabian42:

If Megan's not careful, this pattern can quickly spiral to infinity: "Nice use of qua qua qua ''qua'' qua qua qua." "Nice use of qua qua qua qua qua qua qua ''qua'' qua qua qua qua qua qua qua." "Nice use of..." --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.93|172.70.178.93]] 16:37, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
:Or perhaps "Nice use of 'Nice use of ... '" although new forms of quote mark would need to be invented. --[[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 19:11, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
::From what I've seen, you just alternate between " and '. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 23:45, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
:Hey, [[244|no recursing]]. [[User:Ruffy314|Ruffy314]] ([[User talk:Ruffy314|talk]]) 21:46, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
;qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 20:37, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

I feel like there should be a duck somewhere. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:05, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
Buffalo everywhere are concerned.

Maybe one could note that the two uses of "qua" are different: While in the meaning of "as"/"in capacity of", qua is a preposition, it is a relative pronoun in the Latin expression "sine qua non".
So, actually, the explanation of the title text given so far is slightly incorrect: The correct use of "qua" (as a preposition) is NOT essential to the correct use of "sine qua non" (where we use only the Latin relative pronoun). Instead, "qua" is essential to build the complex expression "sine qua non qua sine qua non", where the middle qua is indeed the preposition!
I also feel that Randall is making fun of "pretentious" people by demonstrating how quickly their talk turns into something like "blablabla" [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.153|172.70.246.153]] 21:51, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

:But the explanation of the title text is not claiming that it is specifically as a proposition that “qua” is essential, is it?

:[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 04:31, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Even after reading the comic, title text & the explainxkcd.com description, I am still confused. I've never heard of that word/phrase.

:Agreed, I feel that the explanation qua it stands leaves me almost qua confused qua I was before coming here and reading it. If qua roughly means “as” or “for the purpose of” then would someone please explain why this not an example of someone using sine qua non: “I could have left work after the accident if I wanted, but decided sine, bore the pain, and stayed.” I don’t get it.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 06:47, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

On this you are not alone.

If you say "Qua Qua Qua Qua" really fast, it kind of sounds like you are saying "quack quack quack". Thus Megan would sound like she is saying "Nice use of quack quack quack quack..." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 00:56, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

This comic is most likely inspired by this week's Sunday puzzle on NPR, which asks for an English word that starts with the "kw" sound but doesn't contain Q,U,K, or W. See https://www.npr.org/2022/03/06/1084744124/sunday-puzzle-may-the-odds-be-in-your-favor

Quamvis sint sub aqua sub aqua maledicere temptant. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.88|172.70.251.88]] 06:22, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Randall is not using qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua, he's using it to sound funny and play with words. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 07:24, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2551: Debunking

2021-12-07T23:46:10Z

Fabian42:

feels like we should address the factual accuracy of the headlines in this comic, ie point out which actual headlines/claims are being referred to by each, if any? - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 05:35, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

If CNN comments on Santa's skin situation, doesn't that implicitly mean they are claiming Santa to be real (Spoiler alert: he isn't){{Citation needed}}? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.103|162.158.88.103]] 08:49, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
:or else they're simply avoiding "giving away the secret" to younger readers; though yes, in that case why publish the counterargument at all? - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 08:53, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

i'm sorry I seem to have lost my place [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 10:08, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

In the table it is mentioned that normal offices do not have microwave radiation. However, mobile phones use frequencies in the microwave band for communication. The same holds true for wireless networks (2.4 or 5 GHz is microwave radiation). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.183|162.158.92.183]] 10:32, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
:Is the 'number of microwaves' in the headline a reference to intensity of electromagnetic oscillations, or is it intended to be short for 'microwave ovens'? I had totally assumed the former (especially given the context). The idea that it could be referencing an appliance did not occur to me at all until reading the suggestion in the table that there would normally be "zero, with perhaps one or two in a break area," which took me a few beats to process. Personally I'm more fond of my original interpretation, but I'm starting to feel that it could be, uhm, debunked (although I suppose with digital technology and the right junction bandgap 'microwave photos' could be a thing).

The Dorito debunking may be related to a rumour you can find via the search term dorito-powder-hoax. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.161|162.158.90.161]] 10:45, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
: I'm thinking the headline would be along the lines of Doritos, the company, intentionally making powder that somehow defies gravity in order to cause irritation to consumers of the chips, in some kind of exotic mass social experiment about people's addiction to chips vs their exposure to unpleasant hygiene. I'm betting that most of the headlines here are some kind of 'extremification' of existing conspiracies. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.105|172.70.114.105]] 11:37, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

I think Randall missed an opportunity here to tie this into the Real Name of the Bear comics - refuting a conspiracy theory about bears while simultaneously refusing to name the theory or the animal involved. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.97|162.158.75.97]] 11:39, 7 December 2021 (UTC)Pat

Is there any reason why the Peppa Pig/Zuckerburg headline is cut off? [[User:Kvarts314|Kvarts314]] ([[User talk:Kvarts314|talk]]) 12:02, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
:Doesn't seem cut off to me. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 14:55, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
::In the table with the possible original claims that are debunked[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.161|162.158.90.161]] 15:52, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Oh. Probably to not make that row of the table too high. You can edit it, if you want. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:12, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
::::yeah, i was aiming to fit the headline on a single line; i wasn't sure how else to abbreviate it other than ellipses - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 18:00, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
:::::Pff, it's easy to put it on two lines even! "'''TT:''MZuckHasOnlyNeutr.feel.tow.PeppaPig,whoHe u-st.isAFict.char.&heBl.t.cor-v.pand.onOth.factors." Totally understandable! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 23:46, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

I see these kinds of headlines all the time recently: "Corona vaccine does not cause higher probability of [random obscure side effect I've never heard about]" [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 14:55, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2551: Debunking

2021-12-07T16:12:39Z

Fabian42:

feels like we should address the factual accuracy of the headlines in this comic, ie point out which actual headlines/claims are being referred to by each, if any? - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 05:35, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

If CNN comments on Santa's skin situation, doesn't that implicitly mean they are claiming Santa to be real (Spoiler alert: he isn't){{Citation needed}}? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.103|162.158.88.103]] 08:49, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
:or else they're simply avoiding "giving away the secret" to younger readers; though yes, in that case why publish the counterargument at all? - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 08:53, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

i'm sorry I seem to have lost my place [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 10:08, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

In the table it is mentioned that normal offices do not have microwave radiation. However, mobile phones use frequencies in the microwave band for communication. The same holds true for wireless networks (2.4 or 5 GHz is microwave radiation). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.183|162.158.92.183]] 10:32, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

The Dorito debunking may be related to a rumour you can find via the search term dorito-powder-hoax. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.161|162.158.90.161]] 10:45, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
: I'm thinking the headline would be along the lines of Doritos, the company, intentionally making powder that somehow defies gravity in order to cause irritation to consumers of the chips, in some kind of exotic mass social experiment about people's addiction to chips vs their exposure to unpleasant hygiene. I'm betting that most of the headlines here are some kind of 'extremification' of existing conspiracies. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.105|172.70.114.105]] 11:37, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

I think Randall missed an opportunity here to tie this into the Real Name of the Bear comics - refuting a conspiracy theory about bears while simultaneously refusing to name the theory or the animal involved. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.97|162.158.75.97]] 11:39, 7 December 2021 (UTC)Pat

Is there any reason why the Peppa Pig/Zuckerburg headline is cut off? [[User:Kvarts314|Kvarts314]] ([[User talk:Kvarts314|talk]]) 12:02, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
:Doesn't seem cut off to me. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 14:55, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
::In the table with the possible original claims that are debunked[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.161|162.158.90.161]] 15:52, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Oh. Probably to not make that row of the table too high. You can edit it, if you want. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:12, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

I see these kinds of headlines all the time recently: "Corona vaccine does not cause higher probability of [random obscure side effect I've never heard about]" [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 14:55, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2551: Debunking

2021-12-07T14:55:09Z

Fabian42:

2545: Bayes' Theorem

2021-11-23T02:36:33Z

Fabian42: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 2545
| date = November 22, 2021
| title = Bayes' Theorem
| image = bayes_theorem.png
| titletext = <nowiki>P((B|A)|(A|B)) represents the probability that you'll mix up the order of the terms when using Bayesian notation.</nowiki>
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by <nowiki> P(d/dx x^x | d/dx x^(1/x)) </nowiki> - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Bayes' theorem}} describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event.

In this comic, a teacher is presenting a problem which the students are supposed to use Bayes' theorem to solve. However, the off-panel student knows that they are studying Bayes' theorem, so they use that prior knowledge to guess the usual answer to such problems. The punch line is the caption - if you know Bayes' theorem well enough, you don't need to actually calculate the probabilities.

The title text refers to the mathematical definition of Bayes' theorem: P(A | B) = P(B|A) * P(A) / P(B). Here, P(A|B) represents the probability of some event A occurring, given that B has occurred. This is often referred to as "the probability of A given B". It can be hard to remember if P(A|B) means probability of A given B, or if it's B given A, and Randall's joke is based on this difficulty. Here P((B|A)|(A|B)) is be the probability that you ''write'' (A|B) given that the correct expression is (B|A), which makes it the probability that you got the order of the notation mixed up.

==Trivia==
When this comic came out, the title text was only "P((B" and the "Black Lives Matter" image in the header replaced by "(A", but this was quickly corrected. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20211122212442/https://xkcd.com/2545/ archive])

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Miss Lenhart using a pointer and pointing to a white-board with statistical formulae]
:Miss Lenhart: Given these prevalences, is it likely that the test result is a false positive?
:(off-panel voice): Well, this chapter is on Bayes' Theorem, so yes.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Sometimes, if you understand Bayes' Theorem well enough, you don't need it.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

Talk:2544: Heart-Stopping Texts

2021-11-21T18:46:49Z

Fabian42:

I've done a brief explanation of each message -- sorry if I've edit-conflicted anyone! I'm not at all familiar with Joe Rogan, so I might have missed some significance there. [[User:Esogalt|Esogalt]] ([[User talk:Esogalt|talk]]) 19:47, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

The title text is not about a looping video of the car. The text just contains the "image loading" indicator repeating, but never successfully loads the image. That's what makes it so disturbing -- you never actually see the car. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:36, 19 November 2021 (UTC)
:It might also indicate that the server(s) upon which the media is stored is being hammered by ''everyone else trying to watch 'your car' and whatever is happening to it''. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.155|172.70.85.155]] 22:08, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

I know it has been said of Twitter: "Every day on Twitter, one person is chosen as the 'main character'. Everyone's goal is ''not'' to have that happen to them." [[User:SpuriousCorrelation|SpuriousCorrelation]] ([[User talk:SpuriousCorrelation|talk]]) 21:14, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

What this "out of the blue" does mean? (I'm not native speaker of English) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.233|162.158.238.233]] 21:45, 19 November 2021 (UTC)
:'The blue' alludes to the clear daylight sky. Something arriving/appearing/dropping/flying "out of the blue" has appeared not just without warning, but there's no reason for you ''not'' to have seen it (e.g. looming out of a foggy night), which sort of implies that it's not just a surprise, but even the fact that you are getting surprised by somethng is surprising.
::(Just to reinterject as author of this piece, I wrote the above/following Paras to Talk-level quality, not Explanation-level. Gratified someone copied this verbatim to the main article but I'd have definitely written it 'better' there. Something like "Out Of The Blue means to arrive totally unepectedly, as if somehow arriving entirely without warning from a cloudless sky <...yada yada yada>". But do put your own rhetoric stamp on it, whoever sets about any edit.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 10:26, 20 November 2021 (UTC)
:I suppose "out of nowhere" or "out of thin air" might be a more understandable phrase, that might have a direct analogue in any other language/Anglophonic-culture-somehow-lacking-this-phrase.
:A very similar phrase is "a bolt from the blue" (a lightning strike from clear skies), and maybe even what the above was conceptually shortened/borrowed from. I imagine some etymology site has the actual facts on this, but that'd be cheating. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.155|172.70.85.155]] 22:08, 19 November 2021 (UTC)
::Oh yes, in Finnish is a phrase "Kuin salama kirkkaalta taivaalta' (like a ligtning strike from clear sky). First I assumed that this "out of blue" comes from typical sms/whatsapp/signal's speech bubble, but then I realized that there is no an unified color schemes in such apps. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.47|172.69.194.47]] 14:37, 20 November 2021 (UTC)
::: As has been said, "Out of the blue" refers to an adverse event coming from a previously clear sky. My understanding (but feel free to correct me) is that in this precise form it has been coined by aerial combat (aka "dogfight") reports, a context in which getting the jump on an opponent (especially from above) provides a decisive advantage. An opponent appearing "out of the blue" in this context would be a most stressful situation indeed. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.10|141.101.69.10]] 18:08, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

I think this is meant to show prank messages which one could send to someone to cause anxiety, rather than a selection of real ones. The "image loading animation" from the title text seals that, as it is a common prank message strategy to send a gif of just the loading animation to prey on the recipient's curiosity. At the very least, I think we should note the alternate interpretation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.81|172.69.142.81]] 22:50, 19 November 2021 (UTC)
:Possible. But a media-playing app/widget/iframe/canvas/whatever tends to render something of its own while buffering, and it's easy to believe that this is that. So the intent of the comic could be various. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.32|141.101.99.32]] 03:25, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

"Can I call?" is one that I use/recieve semi-regularly, and it's not very stressful. The main use for me is when one party is not too familiar with the other one's schedule. And yes, it'd be used when you're expecting longer conversation, but not necessarily a stressful one - for example, when working on the organisaton of an event and going though some finer details. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.12|141.101.77.12]] 23:22, 19 November 2021 (UTC)
:My mother did this just 9 days before this comic came out. With her, it's always 50:50 between "long" and "serious". That's in a way even more stressful, because I can never know which one it is. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 18:46, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

"There's been an accident, when can you be here to confirm identification?". Also, "Can I call you" (or a variation) is easily my number 1 text message, because if I wanted it to be truly asynchronous I'd send an email and if it was a matter of true urgency I'd call without preamble. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.43|141.101.68.43]] 17:29, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2537: Painbow Award

2021-11-04T00:03:09Z

Fabian42:

LOL [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 19:49, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
:f!rst p0st [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.53|172.69.170.53]] 19:50, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

Mein gott, this color palette IS actually painful to look at. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.161|172.70.178.161]] 20:02, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

The caption has changed since the image was captured ("color gradient" changed to "color scale"), we need to pull the new comic. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:08, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
:I updated the file, although the changes haven't taken effect yet. [[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 20:37, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

Does anyone know what Lambda is often used for in physics (or other sciences) as it relates to Theta, where Theta is phase? [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 20:48, 3 November 2021 (UTC).
:I'm surprised YOU don't know. {{w|Wavelength}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:38, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
::Why are you talking to yourself? [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 21:07, 3 November 2021 (UTC).
::Wouldn't that make this chart self-referential, in that each color output at any particular x,y coordinate can somehow be measured in terms of wavelength and phasing (red shift)? [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 21:17, 3 November 2021 (UTC).
:::I think you're responding to my comment (it seems to be above it, though?). Not sure exactly what you mean by self-referential either, but I suppose somewhat. Assuming this is a black body curve, the emission spectra has a peak at the point where the graph shows "peak" intensity; this wavelength is based off the temperature of the black body itself (see Wien's displacement law), whilst the redshift is based on the relative velocity of an observer & the black body (i.e. a star, usually).--[[User:Sapphirejulia|Sapphirejulia]] ([[User talk:Sapphirejulia|talk]]) 23:28, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
:If I had to guess (as an "armchair" astronomer), it seems to be similar to that of a black body (Planck curve) but also showing the phase. A phase shift to me means change in wavelength, i.e. Delta lambda / lambda, but that's normally denoted by the z-parameter (see Wikipedia's redshift article). There's also a phase angle listed under astronomy on Wikipedia, which could relate but never heard of it before. --[[User:Sapphirejulia|Sapphirejulia]] ([[User talk:Sapphirejulia|talk]]) 23:28, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

Scientific publications aren't the only contenders for the award. I see a Painbow during almost every TV weather report. Captured an image of one of them, hope it displays correctly.
[[file:WeatherBow.png|thumb|center|550px|alt=Painbow used by a TV weather forecast]]

[[User:JohnB|JohnB]] ([[User talk:JohnB|talk]]) 22:20, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

This subreddit has a lot of these scales: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisugly [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 00:03, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2531: Dark Arts

2021-10-21T13:53:28Z

Fabian42:

Whoo, my first "first explanation". It's not a particularly thorny comic but my explanation could still use some judicious editing I'm sure. [[User:Esogalt|Esogalt]] ([[User talk:Esogalt|talk]]) 06:51, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

I added a "citation needed" to the claim that letting arbitrary websites modify your filesystem is a Bad Idea, because I couldn't resist >.<
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.74|172.68.132.74]] 08:40, 21 October 2021 (UTC)
:{{citation needed}} [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.113|162.158.88.113]] 10:45, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

The previous comment is almost worth an XKCD comic of its own. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.24|162.158.203.24]] 10:10, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

WTH did Randal do that lead him to put ext4 and javascript in the same search, and why does he think hardlinks are the problem with such a cursed search? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.182|172.69.69.182]] 10:17, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

Which specific IT professional is the explanation referring to? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.35|141.101.105.35]] 12:40, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

: It's an expression. It's essentially the same as saying "An'''y''' experienced IT professional", but a little more stylistic. That whole sentence seems slightly gatekeeper-ish to me anyway. [[User:Esogalt|Esogalt]] ([[User talk:Esogalt|talk]]) 13:51, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

As an added wrinkle, the alt text's search is cursed because there is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext_JS a javascript framework] completely unrelated to the ext filesystem that is ''also'' called ext, which had a version 4 and would thus muddy the waters of the search.
-- [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.51|172.70.178.51]] 13:15, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

XKCD and its weirdly fitting timing in relation to my life again… Just 4 hours earlier, I had dealt with hardlinks in a Bash script and produced things like <code>cd "$(readlink -f "$(pwd)")"</code>. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:53, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2528: Flag Map Sabotage

2021-10-14T10:54:19Z

Fabian42:

Example map (of that of which sabotage might be intended) could be something like: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/0f/36/410f3661d1cee3b255b82a111f99d242.jpg ..? I have no doubt that someone is even now polishing off an initial Explanation, and wouldn't want to exit-conflict with them, but that's something like what I'd link to in order to demonstrate the thing being messed with. (Noting that the reference to North American territory both in words and the obvious Candian mapleleaf(less) flag as a basis. (Not sure, by sight, where the 'bite' matches, if not as per the red 'key', but note how Spain gets twisted in my link in order to not look odd with coastlines and similarly twisted Portugese neighbour cutting at odd angles through its stripes. That's the kind of thing this flag would evoke the confusion of.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.35|141.101.76.35]] 02:26, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
:It's now over 12 hours later, I think you should add it to the text. I didn't understand anything about the comic or even its explanation before I saw your picture. Also, what kind of drugs is Randall on‽ :D [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:54, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

Why is Korsika coloured green on this map? It belongs to France. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.40|162.158.93.40]] 06:22, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
:That's Sardinia, which belongs to Italy (the west of Italy is green). Corsica is north of Sardinia. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.140|162.158.89.140]] 06:42, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

I can't help but thinking there's significance to the shape of the red area in the flag. Which country would this flag belong to in order to cause further confusion? And since it's red, why would any country cede part of its area to Delaware? Unless it's the flag of a newly independent Delaware? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.140|162.158.89.140]] 06:42, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

Only the south-eastern part of Belgium, which would already be Delawarian, is likely to border Delawarian France. The unexplored area (and most if not all of the tornado zone) would likely be bordering the white area (unclaimed? neutral zone? sea?) of France. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.120|141.101.69.120]] 08:30, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2526: TSP vs TBSP

2021-10-08T21:47:05Z

Fabian42:

The title text refers to lyrics in the Alanis Morissette song Ironic -MonteCarloe [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.211|172.70.126.211]] 16:59, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

I wonder why Randall used 1024^4 instead of 2^40. -MonteCarlo [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.150|162.158.74.150]] 17:10, 8 October 2021 (UTC)
:To highlight the similarity between 1000 and 1024, I suppose.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 18:03, 8 October 2021 (UTC)
:And a byte is 1024^0 bytes, kilobyte=1024^1, megabyte=1024^3, etc. Talking entirely in terms of 2^10N loses the sheer simplicity and easy approximation.
:(Though not as much as 'short' -illions. 5.45 trillion? That's 5, then the decimal padded/shortened to exactly three figures (450), ''then'' three sets of three zeros. Stupid system.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.136|172.69.54.136]] 18:20, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

A table with common or interesting volumes measured in teraspoons would be a good addition.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 18:03, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

he did kilonife kiloknife because the k in knife stands for kilo [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.91|172.70.34.91]] 18:26, 8 October 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

I thought this was a play on storage (esp. hard drives) advertising 1000-based capacities (1TB=1000GB) whereas computers tend to measure in 2^ sizes (1TB=1024GB) to make them seem bigger on the packaging. IIRC some cloud platforms distinguish between GB and GiB of Ram, for instance. [[User:Mike-jed|Mike-jed]] ([[User talk:Mike-jed|talk]]) 19:38, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

XKCD again with its timing… Just 3 days ago I used a TBSP when I should have used a TSP. Two comics earlier, #2524, was about a long-period comet coming close to Earth and on the same date (October 4th) as a long-period comet coming close to Earth in the movie "Your name". [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 21:47, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2510: Modern Tools

2021-09-02T11:13:04Z

Fabian42:

Note that this is the second time Randall tried to tell bash and zsh apart. (First time was in [[1678]].) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.83|162.158.88.83]] 05:44, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
:Great memory. Has added it to this first attempt at an explanation. Do not know enough about these files, environment etc. so I hope someone will improve. Rare I come here and there is nothing added to the explanation yet. Only your coment showed me I was not here first. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:48, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
You can generate makefiles today with a number of causal language models. I wonder what other approaches there are. [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 10:02, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Is randall literally just making jokes for himself and nobody else at this point? Even if someone knows what this all means, I doubt it many of them find it funny. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.125|172.70.130.125]] 10:09, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
: How does the joke land with you? I tell jokes like Randall's a lot to process how my life was destroyed by AI, and I found the comic as funny as I find my own jokes, but big and public. It seems nice that people are learning about and talking about these things. [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 10:12, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
: @172.70.130.125: YMMV. I can say that I find it funny. Certainly amusing, and thought-provoking. And then after a few moments contemplating... *POW*. ...the idea of actually doing this also starts to appeal to me (as a pipe-dream, perhaps). But I am just a single datum-point, and you are another. Maybe neither of us are entirely representative of the usual audience.
: And, even if nobody found it funny, except Randall, he can post anything he wants (within ethical and legal bounds, etc), even if it's just AI-autogenerated rubbish. And then you can stop reading if your own fun-maximiser function decides it would be more beneficial to its goals. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 10:44, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Modern tools… require modern problem? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:33, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

The best part is that pretty much this have actually happened in real world: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/No%2C_We_Need_a_Neural_Network. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.10.205|172.68.10.205]] 10:46, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

I believe part of the humor is that creating a Python (development) environment from scratch can literally be typing two or three commands on a command line, or clicking on a few links for the mouse-dependent. Building and training an AI to repair one specific Python environment is overkill, like buying a car to get from one room to another of a building. One selling point of Python is how simple it is to set up and work in. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 10:54, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
:I usually install most optional dependencies that my package manager suggests. I bet I already have a Python IDE lying around somewhere without knowing it. Well, I have Intellij Idea, I bet that could be used for Python as well, with a plugin if needed. I definitely know that I once got a working Qt IDE at one point without intending to. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 11:13, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2510: Modern Tools

2021-09-02T10:33:19Z

Fabian42:

Talk:2508: Circumappendiceal Somectomy

2021-08-28T16:44:06Z

Fabian42:

Please please please leave in the [citation needed] after "it is unlikely to get appendicitis without an appendix" :) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.119|172.70.114.119]] 01:29, 28 August 2021 (UTC)
:Sure - this time Randall is even himself uncertain! ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:01, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

Removing the body around an appendix? That's easy, I can do that. Someone just point me to where the appendix is and how it looks and I'll cut away everything around it. Also, it sounds like the consciousness would remain in the appendix, which would likely not be very comfortable. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 12:42, 28 August 2021 (UTC)
:That reminds me of the apocryphal quote by Michaelangelo, that he got a big block of marble and chipped away everything that didn't look like David. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:03, 28 August 2021 (UTC)
::I considered making that same reference (except that I didn't know who said it), but the final argument against it was that I couldn't find the correct term for that art form, so I couldn't say what I was talking about. In German it's "Bildhauerei". All the translation websites only give me "sculpture", but I'm trying to talk about the process, not the product. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:44, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2508: Circumappendiceal Somectomy

2021-08-28T12:42:31Z

Fabian42:

Talk:2490: Pre-Pandemic Ketchup

2021-07-16T21:48:24Z

Fabian42:

is this cueball or randall? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.235|173.245.54.235]] 15:47, 16 July 2021 (UTC)Bumpf
:It's Randall writing pandemic comics (which aren't nearly as funny or quirky as some of his earlier work). I wouldn't mind it so much if he somehow included the more nerdy/geeky aspects (like maybe something to do with the genome, or with computer science, etc.). [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 16:34, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

i don't get it. ketchup keeps basically forever. i'd consider a bottle from early 2020 practically fresh. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.182|162.158.92.182]] 19:58, 16 July 2021 (UTC)
: I don' think the issue is "freshness", but that Cueball panic bought a "new" or "strange" brand, that they no longer are interested in trying or eating. Compare to the title text "discard the last weird food item". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.98.2|172.70.98.2]] 20:53, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

I even have pre-apprenticeship sugar sprinkles. And I'm currently in my third job. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 21:48, 16 July 2021 (UTC)