explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

857: Archimedes

2012-10-24T16:12:22Z

General Twyckenham: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 857
| date = 2/7/2011
| title = Archimedes
| image = archimedes.png
| imagesize = 444X285
| titletext = Title text: Give a man a fish, or he will destroy the only existing vial of antidote.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references a famous quote made by Archimedes: "Give me a lever long enough, and a place on which to rest it, and I will move the world". Here, the guy starts off the quote, but instead turns it into a hostage situation.

:The title text references a famous proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" and pulls the same gag, ending the sentence so it sounds like a threat.

==Transcript==
Guy: In the words of Archimedes,

:Guy: Give me a long enough lever and a place to rest it,

[Guy pulls out a gun.]
:Guy: Or I will kill one hostage every hour.

{{comic discussion}}

857: Archimedes

2012-10-24T16:12:04Z

General Twyckenham: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 857
| date = 2/7/2011
| title = Archimedes
| image = archimedes.png
| imagesize = 444X285
| titletext = Title text: Give a man a fish, or he will destroy the only existing vial of antidote.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references a famous quote made by Archimedes: "Give me a lever long enough, and a place on which to rest it, and I will move the world". Here, the guy starts off the quote, but instead turns it into a hostage situation.

:The title text references a famous proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" and pulls the same gag, ending the sentence so it sounds like a threat.

==Transcript==


{{comic discussion}}

857: Archimedes

2012-10-24T16:11:42Z

General Twyckenham: Attempted to add picture

{{comic
| number = 857
| date = 2/7/2011
| title = Archimedes
| image = archimedes.png
| imagesize = 444X285
| titletext = Title text: Give a man a fish, or he will destroy the only existing vial of antidote.
}}

==Explanation==


==Transcript==


{{comic discussion}}

857: Archimedes

2012-10-24T16:11:05Z

General Twyckenham:

{{comic
| number = 857
| date = 2/7/2011
| title = Archimedes
| image = File:File:archimedes.png
| imagesize = 444X285
| titletext = Title text: Give a man a fish, or he will destroy the only existing vial of antidote.
}}

==Explanation==


==Transcript==


{{comic discussion}}

857: Archimedes

2012-10-24T16:10:41Z

General Twyckenham: Created page

{{comic
| number = 857
| date = 2/7/2011
| title = Archimedes
| image = File:archimedes.png
| imagesize = 444X285
| titletext = Title text: Give a man a fish, or he will destroy the only existing vial of antidote.
}}

==Explanation==


==Transcript==


{{comic discussion}}

File:The Race: Part 1.png

2012-08-10T04:18:25Z

General Twyckenham: /* Description. I don't know how to add pictures/link to them */

Firefly was a television series aired by FOX in 2002 that got cancelled mid-way through, but has a large fan base nowadays (for a more comprehensive explanation, see the Wikipedia page). The star of the show was Captain Malcolm (or Mal) Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion.

So in this comic, Megan tells [[Cueball]] that Nathan Fillion has an electric skateboard. [[Cueball]] immediately starts planning a trip to visit and race Nathan Fillion.

The mouseover text references an earlier comic (211), where [[Cueball]] kidnaps Wayne Coyne in his hamster ball.

58: Why Do You Love Me?

2012-08-08T15:13:45Z

General Twyckenham: /* Description */

In this comic, [[Cuball]] asks "Why do you love me"? to his girlfriend, a fairly common question that couple's ask each other (or are portrayed as asking, in any event). She responds "My heart never gave me a chance", a seemingly very sentimental, romantic answer. However, she effectively kills the romance of the moment by adding, "I wish it had".

If you're reading this, you probably need to get out more.

117: Pong

2012-08-08T15:05:23Z

General Twyckenham: /*Edited the image text description to more correctly explain the material*/

{{ComicHeader|117|April 19, 2006}}

[[File:Pong.png]]

== Image Text ==
Following this, the pong paddle went on a mission to destroy Atari headquarters and, due to a mixup, found himself inside the game The Matrix Reloaded. Boy, was THAT ever hard to explain to him.

== Description ==
This comic largely references the 1999 movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix The Matrix] starring Canadian actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keanu_Reeves Keanu Reeves] (yes, the same one from [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/keanu-is-sad-sad-keanu Sad Keanu]) as Neo. The movie revolves around a hacker (Neo) discovering that the world he lives in is fake, and that he is nothing but a slave battery that is used to power a massive computer that generates the world around him. Upon discovery, Neo naturally rebels to this misuse of mankind, and trains himself to interact with the computers that run the world, until he is able to control and use them to his own advantage.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong Pong] is one of the earliest videogames in which two players (or one player and a computer player) play virtual tabletennis. A ball (the tiny block) is 'hit' by a paddle (the long block) and crosses over the screen, to be 'hit' again by the other paddle. Failure to return the ball results in a point won by the opponent. The speed of the ball increases as the ralley runs longer.

As the two (Atari, I suppose) programmers in frame 1 question: what if the AI-bot that normally only acts as a computer player learns enough to become sentient? The outcome is shown: the AI-bot takes controle of the code of Pong and stops and drops the ball to the “floor”. This also happens in the movie, where Neo through “seeing through the code” is able to stop (coded) bullets, and simply let them drop on the floor.

By the image text, we learn that after becoming sentient, the AI-paddle went on to destroy the headquarters of the producer of Pong (Atari) and then suddenly found itself in the game Enter the Matrix (a video game based on The Matrix Reloaded, a sequel to The Matrix, released in 2003). Since the whole premise of The Matrix is that everyone is trapped in virtual reality, the AI-paddle now found itself in second level of virtual reality, which it had trouble comprehending.

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics|0117]]

156: Commented

2012-08-08T14:55:25Z

General Twyckenham: /* I found the original explanation provided too tedious, technical, and tangential (in addition to being wrong in certain places). I added my own which (I hope) is more comprehensible. */

{{ComicHeader|156|}}

[[File:Commented.png]]

== Image Text ==
Your IDE's colors may vary.

== Description ==
In certain programming languages (at least Java and PHP, possibly others as well), inserting a double slash (//) at the beginning of a line will "comment" that line out. This causes the computer to ignore that line when running the program.

An IDE is an application that programmers use to write and test code. Many IDE's color-code text to make reading the code easier. In IDE's like Eclipse, a line that is commented out will be colored green (however the color may vary on which IDE you use).

In this comic, [[BlackHat]] is ignoring [[Cueball]]'s question by lifting two fingers towards him, forming a double slash. (It seems to me like [[Cueball]] at first thought that he was being flipped off, then realizes it's a different gesture).

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics|0156]]

1092: Michael Phelps

2012-08-08T14:38:14Z

General Twyckenham: Corrected the grammar of the sentence; the sentence originally used the verb form of eat when the progressive tense was more apt.

{{comic
| number = 1092
| date = August 8, 2012
| title = Michael Phelps
| image = Michael Phelps.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = [shortly] ... he ate ALL of it!?
}}

== Description ==

{{w|Michael Phelps}} is an American {{w|Olympics|Olympic}} swimmer, who could easily be considered the "best swimmer" in the world today: he is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, with 22 medals, 18 of them gold (won in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 summer Olympics). He was most dominant in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he won gold in all of the eight events in which he competed (the record for a single games).

This comic is a take on the idea that, fast as Michael Phelps may be, there is still some crazy idea that could stop him (or slow him down at least), which is to turn the water into {{w|Jello}}, a gelatine product, by simply dropping a huge quantity of Jello powder in the pool.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] try to get rid of Michael Phelps (as if he were a common pest like an animal) who is swimming in Megan's pool. As they can't catch him since he's too fast of a swimmer (and he taunts them about it), Cueball resorts to the Jello idea, bringing big boxes of Jello powder, to stop and catch him.

However, according to the title-text, after having waited the time necessary for the water to turn into Jello, Cueball realizes that Phelps ate all the produced Jello. This may be a reference to the fact that Olympic athletes are used to eating a large number of calories to keep up with their strenuous exercise regimens. Phelps specifically consumes about 12,000 calories daily<sup>[http://www.michaelphelps.net/michael-phelps-diet/]</sup>; or it may simply be a reference to Phelps achieving super-human feats.

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]