834: Wikileaks

2013-11-08T04:55:10Z

KurtyKool: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 834
| date = December 15, 2010
| title = Wikileaks
| image = wikileaks.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = STUDENTS ARE CALLING PRESIDENT JOHNSON EN MASSE TO PROTEST THE BOMBING AND IT'S JAMMED THE WHITE HOUSE SWITCHBOARD. COULD THEY COLLAPSE OUR CRITICAL PHONE SYSTEMS? HAS THE FIRST TELEPHONE WAR BEGUN? STAY TUNED FOR MORE ON THIS DANGEROUS NEW TECHNOLOGY.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Sorry, but this does need a review.}}
This comic references {{w|WikiLeaks}}, a site that people with classified data can send to for the information to be posted publicly, while nobody would know who leaked the data. Many people dislike WikiLeaks, but proponents claim that, since government is supposed to work for the people, all government information should be available to anyone who wants to see it. At the same time, WikiLeaks' acts are illegal in most countries, and the people maintaining WikiLeaks stay anonymous, with the notable exception of {{w|Julian Assange}} the spokesperson. Among the supporters of Wikileaks are the 4chan-based hacker group Anonymous, who, for the week or so prior to this comic's release, used DDOS attacks to take down servers for companies that aided the governments of the world in taking down Wikileaks and its CEO, Julian Assange. The claim 'We are legion' is a reference to Mark chapter 5 in the Bible, in which Jesus throws out a collective of demons that call themselves Legion, "for we are many".[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%205:1-10&version=NIV] Amazon, PayPal and MasterCard were all targets of Anonymous.

The comic shows WikiLeaks releasing all Anonymous' members' private information, thereby unmasking them to the world. The joke in the comic notes a contradiction in Anonymous's position, relying on strict secrecy of its members' private information while supporting an anti-secrecy organization like WikiLeaks.

This could be Randall's criticism of wikileaks for "betraying" the United States Government, who supposedly "supported" him. Such a criticism would infer that wikileaks gains allies, but needs betrayal and secrets in order to open. This is similar to the neighbours plotline, in which the only way to keep the show going is to keep killing characters. Randall could be inferring that Wikileaks can only survive by betraying its supoorters.

The title text appears to be a news wire from during the Vietnam War when Lyndon Johnson was President. The students were calling to protest the War in what xkcd implicates as the first DDOS attack. A DDOS attack is a distributed denial of service attack in which the attackers force too much traffic from many different points to take down a web server, or in the case of the image text a phone network.
This satirizes news reports in which a DDOS attack is confused with an actual hack, as only in the latter the attacker gains (partial) access to the system itself.

==Transcript==
:[A black formal suit with no head is talking.]
:Suit: We are Anonymous.
:We are legion.
:We are no one
:and everyone.
:And we are here to fight for WikiLeaks.

:[The panel is presented as the front page of WikiLeaks, in a browser.]
:New Leak:
:Names, addresses, IPs, and phone numbers of everyone in Anonymous.
:Download Now

:Suit: ... Dammit, Julian.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Internet]]

83: Katamari

2013-11-08T04:43:39Z

KurtyKool:

{{comic
| number = 83
| date = March 31, 2006
| title = Katamari
| image = katamari.jpg
| titletext = As the King of All Cosmos remarked, 'Is it that it's fun, or that it lets you forget yourself?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
{{w|Katamari Damacy}} is a Japanese game in which the player must roll around an infinitely sticky katamari ball, cottoning up objects and terrain to increase the ball's size. In this comic, [[Cueball]] uses the katamari as an analogy for his love for [[Megan]], pushing it to such embarrassing extremes that Megan feels the need to remark whether he could "possibly get any gayer." At this point, Cueball wins the level he is playing and is transported by a "Royal Rainbow." The rainbow is a symbol of gay pride, in addition to being just a generally happy and "gay" idea.

Cueball also only takes up such a stand after Megan requests that he help her. This possibly a criticism of male selfishness (perhaps Randall's self-criticism), in that males do not discuss romantic ideas, except as a way out.

==Transcript==
:[Megan stands on the left. Cueball is sitting on the floor with a game controller in his hand. He is looking at a TV on the floor connected to a game console, also on the floor.]
:Megan: Can you pause for a moment and help me with something?
:Cueball: You know, our love is like a katamari. We travel along, rolling up more and more of the world into our shared experience, taking it and making it our own.
:Megan: I, you... wow. Geekiness aside, that was actually incredibly sweet.
:Cueball: The clutter of everyday life, with a simple core to tie it together, eventually becomes something grand as the world itself.
:[A rainbow extends outward from the TV, with "ROYAL RAINBOW!" above it.]
:Megan: Okay, also sweet, but now I'm wondering if you could possibly get any gayer.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

834: Wikileaks

83: Katamari