explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2255: Tattoo Ideas

2020-01-15T14:59:53Z

Ima420r: /* Table of entries */

{{comic
| number = 2255
| date = January 15, 2020
| title = Tattoo Ideas
| image = tattoo_ideas.png
| titletext = The text ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US with a lengthy footnote explaining that I got this tattoo in 2020 and not, as you may assume, 2001, but offering no further clarification.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TATTOO CONTAINING ALL TATTOOS THAT DO NOT CONTAIN THEMSELVES. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a list of potential tattoo ideas. Many of them play on the trope of regretting a tattoo by being tattoos of things that would not be useful outside of the immediate future, while others are simply ludicrous ideas with little functionality.

===Table of entries===
{|class="wikitable"
! Randall's text
! Explanation
|-
| Lorem Ipsum text
| {{w|Lorem ipsum}} is the beginning of and shorthand for a long section of shuffled-up Latin text. It is often used by both print and web designers as placeholder text until final content is available. Having a Lorem ipsum tattoo would possibly suggest that the tattoo's text is a placeholder for a "final" tattoo.
|-
| Email password
| Getting a tattoo of your password could compromise the security provided by your password. Additionally, it is recommended and, in some cases, required to update your password regularly; which would result in your tattoo either becoming out of date or updated (which is difficult)
|-
| Graph of the popularity of tattoos over time, with the date I got the tattoo marked (Update regularly)
| [[Randall]]'s love of charts and graphs is [[:Category:Charts|a regular theme]] in the strip. On the surface, getting a tattoo of a tattoo-themed chart would seem appealing. But a chart that tracks over time would become outdated within a few years, making it problematic for a (presumably permanent) tattoo. The solution to this appears to be a note to update the tattoo regularly, presumably as new data becomes available. This, however, would require having the tattoo altered repeatedly, possibly every year, which would involve additional pain, expense and time commitment. Keeping that schedule for the rest of his life would seem excessive, but giving it up would once again mean he'd eventually be left with an outdated tattoo.
|-
| "CHANGEME"
| In programming, some text fields are initialized with "CHANGEME" to allow the programmer to get the program running for development purposes, while making it obvious that the actual text needs to be written and inserted. This would be a very difficult operation to perform with a tattoo.
|-
| Slide rule markings on forearms
| A {{w|slide rule}} is a set of logarithmic scales that are used to perform mathematical calculations. Having a set of slide rule markings on his forearms could be convenient, but if he grows, or gains or loses weight, the scales might become distorted.
|-
| EURion constellation, so no one can photocopy pictures of me
| The {{w|EURion constellation}} is a set of five circles in a roughly X-shaped pattern that is put onto lots of currencies. When this design is detected, many photocopiers will refuse to make a copy.
|-
| The sentence "It's what my tattoo says" written in another language
| Intended to provoke the question "What does your tattoo say?" from people not fluent in that language, thus resulting in an interesting / confused exchange.
|-
| Tissot's indicatrix
| {{w|Tissot's indicatrix}} is a matrix of circles placed on a map that change size and proportions (possibly turning into ellipses) based on map distortion. As a tattoo, that would be useful in tracking any distortion of the skin since you had the tattoo.
|-
| Summary of the [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/suffer-to-be-beautiful Snopes page on the tattoo epidural thing] (Lower back)
| The "tattoo epidural thing" is a mostly debunked medical concern that anesthesiologists attending women in labor would refuse to administer spinal anesthetic by needle through skin with tattoo ink, out of fear of introducing the ink into the spinal column.
|-
| Pre-surgical checklist
| Might come in handy if/when going in for surgery.
|-
| Tattoo artist's Social Security number
| In the US, a {{w|Social Security Number}} is a unique, nine-digit number assigned by the federal government to citizens and other legal residents. The original purpose of these numbers was to track social security accounts, for the payment of federal benefits. In practice, it has also become a ''de facto'' national identification number, and is widely for other forms of identification, including applications for loans, employment, and identification papers. As a result, learning someone's social security number is often a critical step in {{w|Identity Theft}}. People are often warned to safeguard their numbers and be very cautious about revealing them. Tattooing one's Social Security Number on a customer would mean that both the customer and anyone who happened to see his tattoo in the future would have access to it. That would be a wildly reckless move which very few tattoo artists would be willing to make.
|-
| Boarding pass for an upcoming flight
| Useful only once, therefore not a normal design to have tattooed.
|-
| Recap of the plot of ''Memento''
| {{w|Memento (film)|Memento}} is a 2000 film in which the protagonist suffers from {{w|Anterograde amnesia|anterograde amnesia}}, a condition that prevents him from creating any new long-term memories. One of the tools he uses to mitigate the issue is tattooing important things on his body.
|-
| This list, in its entirety
| Instead of getting a tattoo of anything listed here, the actual list itself would be the tattoo.
|-
| The text ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US with a lengthy footnote explaining that I got this tattoo in 2020 and not, as you may assume, 2001, but offering no further clarification. (title text)
| {{w|All Your Base Are Belong to Us}} was a popular internet meme from the early 2000s based on a broken English phrase found in the opening cutscene of the 1992 Mega Drive/Genesis port of the 1989 arcade video game Zero Wing. The lengthy footnote denotes that the decision to get the tattoo was deliberate and not a spur-of-the-moment decision while the meme was popular.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:(In larger font and underlined, apparently the start of a list)
:Tattoo Ideas
:(A list, with all points but the last crossed out in red)
:Lorem Ipsum Text
:Email Password
:Graph of the popularity of tattoos over time, with the date I got the tattoo marked (update regularly)
:"Changeme"
:Slide Rule markings on forearms
:Eurion Constellation, so no one can photocopy pictures of me
:The sentence "it's what my tattoo says" written in another language
:Tissot's Indicatrix
:Summary of the Snopes page on the tattoo epidural thing (lower back)
:Pre-surgical checklist
:Tattoo Artist's Social Security Number
:Boarding pass for an upcoming flight
:Recap of the plot of ''Memento''
:(Last point in list, circled in red)
:This list, in its entirety
{{comic discussion}}

1715: Household Tips

2016-08-03T14:54:22Z

Ima420r: very minor edit, added part of a sentence

{{comic
| number = 1715
| date = August 3, 2016
| title = Household Tips
| image = household_tips.png
| titletext = To make your shoes feel more comfortable, smell better, and last longer, try taking them off before you shower.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Missing title text explanation and needs elaboration}}

This comic shows a person explaining many things one should already know. Below is a table:

'''To conserve water try turning off your shower before leaving home''': Most people do this on a daily basis; if you didn't your house would flood and the water service would shut off your water.

'''Sick of changing those smoke detector batteries? Eliminate any fires in your home and the batteries can last for months or years!''': This suggests that a normal house has many fires at once (Obviously not just the stove- in the image fires are everywhere) burning everywhere. If this was actually true, your house would burn down, your smoke detector would beep nonstop (hence making the batteries loose their charge), and your neighbors would have you committed to a Mental Health Facility.

'''Tired of clogged toilets? Try leaving the lid on the upper chamber and use only the lower bowl!''': Seriously don't do business in the toilet tank. Just- don't.

'''Fresh air doesn't have to be expensive. Many windows can be slid up to create a temporary hole without the usual cost and cleanup!''': This suggests that the people he appeals to typically smash a window to get fresh air, hence the expensive clean up.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1592: Overthinking

2015-10-19T23:11:40Z

Ima420r:

First Panel:
DOI: 10.1097/JSM.0000000000000221
Title:
Statement of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference, Carlsbad, California, 2015. Tamara HB, Mitchell HR, Sandra FG et al.
Link:
journals.lww.com/cjsportsmed/Fulltext/2015/07000/Statement_of_the_Third_International.2.aspx

Second Panel:
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyv191
Title:
Associations of sitting behaviours with all-cause mortality over a 16-year follow-up: the Whitehall II study. Richard MP, Emmanuel S., Annie RB et al.
Link:
ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/10/09/ije.dyv191

Third Panel:
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.09.046
Natural Sleep and Its Seasonal Variations in Three Pre-industrial Societies. G. Yetish, H. Kaplan, B. Wood et al.
Link:
cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2815%2901157-4

Full Text links: goo.gl/kc8cSs
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.206|162.158.34.206]] 13:17, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

;DOI's

Doh, after I added the links and noticed they were off by a panel I went to add a blurb in the comic description likely at the same time someone else did so in the references section I had just created. :P lol [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:38, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Linking "Digital Object Identifier" to www.doi.org is not helpful. Even their FAQ doesn't tell you what a DOI is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier will be more informative to most people, assuming wikipedia is correct. {{unsigned ip|198.41.235.101}}

;Shifted DOI

The Image provided here does not match with the one given at [http://xkcd.com/1592/]. At xkcd.com the DOIs are shifted to match the corresponding text. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.167|162.158.92.167]] 14:22, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
:Indeed you are correct. It would appear that Randall didn't intend to confuse us this way. ;) Problem is the comic panel on this page is auto-grabbed by a bot. Someone with more experience than me is going to have to look into this. Once the panel is updated, we can update the DOI link references. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:26, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

;0000000000000221 ???

The Journal of Sports Medicine seems to think that someday they might have over a '''quadrillion''' articles indexed by DOI. I dunno, maybe that's a tiny bit overly optimistic? - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:09, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

;"Figuring out which ideas are true is hard."
Verification is hard? Maybe as hard as finding a solution?
OMG it's a hidden message: Randall found a proof for P=NP! {{unsigned ip|162.158.91.213}}

I'm not convinced that's hard. It seems to me more likely that accepting the consequences is hard. For example, telling people they can no longer smoke because they are harming themselves and others would likely impinge on their personal freedom or hurt their poor little feelings. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 22:12, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Figuring out which ideas are true is just science.

Talk:1387: Clumsy Foreshadowing

2014-07-02T03:36:03Z

Ima420r:

There is a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MeaningfulBackgroundEvent trope] for this kind of thing. --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 08:11, 27 June 2014 (UTC)
:I think the news tropes [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChekhovsNews] and [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CoincidentalBroadcast] are more specific to this scenario. {{unsigned ip|108.162.223.29}}

I almost made the following edit: "that foreshadows the onset of some kind of danger, such as shark attacks, tornadoes, shark-tornadoes" with the last part linking to the Sharknado article on Wikipedia. Is explainxkcd allowed to be this silly? I think we should be this silly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 09:21, 27 June 2014 (UTC)
:Why not? It is a legitimate movie. Also, that towel might be a "Hitchhiker's Guide..." reference, if it is indeed a towel and Cueball is the main character. But it might be a cape or something else. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.225|103.22.201.225]] 11:51, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

No, the towel signals that he is going swimming, as the background TV predicts shark attacks. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 12:53, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

What does the stuff with The View have to do with foreshadowing? Unless it's implying that Ms. McCarthy is going to try to drown herself in shark infested waters while our protagonist tries to save her... --[[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 13:48, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

:It doesn't. The explanation needs to be changed to read 'the title text' instead of 'the title' in the paragraph talking about The View. I'll fix it. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 15:04, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

: "''Unless ... Ms. McCarthy is going to try to drown herself in shark infested waters''" We should be so lucky. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.39|199.27.133.39]] 16:15, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

Is there a Jaws reference here? Or does Randall just really love sharks?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.163|173.245.52.163]] 19:06, 27 June 2014 (UTC)
:por_que_no_los_dos.jpg? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 18:20, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

Why does the movie reference have to be action/thriller? The 'news report in the background' has been used for all types of movies to foreshadow something that will happen later in the film. It's also used in other media, though it probably is most popular in movies. --[[User:Ima420r|Ima420r]] ([[User talk:Ima420r|talk]]) 03:36, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

1158: Rubber Sheet

2013-01-09T14:15:45Z

Ima420r:

{{comic
| number = 1158
| date = January 9, 2013
| title = Rubber Sheet
| image = rubber sheet.png
| titletext = It IS about physics. It ALL is.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to a [http://en.allexperts.com/q/Astronomy-1360/question-black-holes-1.htm common analogy] used to explain how mass distorts space-time - a bowling ball resting on a sheet of rubber distorts the sheet due to its weight. Mass acts in the same way - mass results in distortion of space-time.

The next part of the original analogy explains a black hole: the slope of the sheet becomes so deep that you can't climb out from the bottom anymore, similar to a black hole, which even light can't escape from. However, the comic subverts the analogy, and the sheet becomes a trampoline instead.

==Transcript==
:[Beret guy is standing on a giant bowling ball on a rubber sheet. Megan is watching.]
:Beret Guy: Imagine a giant bowling ball on a rubber sheet.
:Beret Guy: The ball's weight makes a dent in the sheet.

:[A rope is pulling the ball down into the sheet.]
:Beret Guy: Now imagine a rope that pulls the ball down even further.
:Beret Guy: ...Annnnd...

:[Rope lets go. Ball is catapulted with Beret Guy on it.]
:'''BOOOIING'''
:Beret Guy: Wheee

:[Beret guy and ball are falling back down.]
:Megan: ...Oh. I thought this was about physics.
:Beret Guy: Imagining is ''fun!''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Physics]]