explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

496: Secretary: Part 3

2026-03-26T13:44:37Z

Lettherebedarklight: italics

{{comic
| number = 496
| date = October 29, 2008
| title = Secretary: Part 3
| image = secretary part 3.png
| titletext = He actually installed each piece in a different car in the lot, then built a new car in the spot from the displaced pieces. It's a confusing maneuver known as the auto-troll shuffle.
}}

==Explanation==
When a person has been appointed to be on certain positions<ref>https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/74919ab6-b407-451c-b429-702e9ae8dcb1.pdf</ref> by the {{w|POTUS|President}}, they must first go through a confirmation hearing in front of the {{w|United States Senate|Senate}} (the upper house of {{w|United States Congress|Congress}}) where they find if the person is qualified to be in the position they have been appointed to. Of course, [[Black Hat]] is not the cleanest of characters, so Congress has a lot of reservations about his {{w|résumé}}. At the time when this comic was released, Senate confirmation hearings occurred rapidly after a president made a nomination and were expected to prevent unsuitable candidates from being given positions of power.

This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week. It may be a continuation of the comic [[493: Actuarial]], in which Black Hat demonstrates great power over even Internet trolls via his sociopathic ways. This would explain why Black Hat was nominated as Internet secretary. These are all the comics in [[:Category:Secretary|Secretary series]]:
* [[494: Secretary: Part 1]]
* [[495: Secretary: Part 2]]
* [[496: Secretary: Part 3]]
* [[497: Secretary: Part 4]]
* [[498: Secretary: Part 5]]

; Is it true you completely disassembled someone's car outside a Starbucks?
: {{w|Starbucks}} is an American coffee shop chain. He hasn't yet, but in [[562: Parking]], Black Hat will cut someone's car in half to make it fit in a single space. Not quite as dramatic as completely disassembling a car and, as the title text says, putting a single piece in another car parked in the lot, and building a car out of the displaced parts, which could almost be considered subtle, but it is quite dramatic. The title text refers to the Starbucks incident. Taking all the parts from different cars to build a new car in the same spot parallels the idea in philosophy of the {{w|Ship of Theseus}}, in which a question arises of whether a ship is the same ship if it is replaced piece by piece by identical pieces.

; You stole a red Fokker triplane and strafed the snoopy float at the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade?
: {{w|Charles M. Schulz}} drew a comic called {{w|Peanuts}}. One of the recurring characters was {{w|Snoopy}}, who would often use his doghouse as an imaginary {{w|Sopwith Camel}} in many battles with {{w|Manfred von Richthofen|The Red Baron}}, who piloted a {{w|Fokker Dr.I|Red Fokker}} {{w|Triplane}}. The {{w|Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade}} is a parade that happens on {{w|Thanksgiving (United States)|Thanksgiving Day}} in the US. There are many giant balloons of pop-culture icons. Snoopy has made many appearances. Being the [[classhole]] that he is, Black Hat has shot up the Snoopy float with a stolen Red Fokker triplane, which would be disturbing, especially to the kids watching the parade, who would get the impression that Snoopy has died. His statement that he "Got three mimes, too" just proves his casual disregard for collateral damage. He may have targeted the three mimes specifically because mimes pretend imaginary things are physically real, and would prove ironic, as Snoopy's adventures in Peanuts are imaginary, so it would make the most sense for the mimes to be hit.

; You disrupted a 9/11 truth meeting, insisting the Twin Towers never actually collapsed?
: {{w|9/11 Truth movement|9/11 Truthers}} believe that the terrorist attack on the {{w|World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center}} towers on {{w|September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001}} (thus 9/11) was not actually organized by terrorists, but by the United States government. Black Hat interrupts their conspiracy theory gathering, insisting on a comically exaggerated version of this conspiracy theory in which the attacks did not happen ''at all'' and the World Trade Center is presumably still standing. Such a conspiracy is extremely implausible, as it would require either the involvement of every single person to ever set foot in one of the world's largest cities, or some way to conceal a pair of hundred story tall buildings, both of which would be extremely difficult. Whether Black Hat actually believes this, or is just trying to troll conspiracy theorists, is unknown. Black Hat uses a common refrain [[:Category:Sheeple|Wake up, Sheeple]] to insult the senators.

; You were fired from Radio Shack after you built a death ray and vaporized a customer?
: {{w|RadioShack}} was a chain of consumer electronics shops that sold parts to build electronics with resistors, transistors, etc. Apparently Black Hat managed to build a death ray from the parts there and accidentally vaporized a customer. His line "Figures that'd be the ''one'' day that there'd be a customer in the aisle" refers to the fact that RadioShack stores had been in steady decline over the years, largely propped up by momentum.

; And you were thrown out of Microsoft headquarters for... trying to feed a squirrel through a fax machine?
: {{w|Microsoft}} is the company that makes {{w|Microsoft Windows|Windows}}, and {{w|Steve Ballmer}} was its {{w|Chief executive officer|CEO}} until being replaced in 2014 by {{w|Satya Nadella}}. {{w|Windows Vista}} is an {{w|operating system}} released in 2007; software critics widely panned it. It is unclear how feeding a squirrel through a fax machine could possibly contribute to winning an argument about it, but given Black Hat's almost superhuman abilities to troll and avoid the consequences, it's possible that it could happen. Alternatively, Ballmer could've left the argument after the incident and Black Hat could simply be interpreting that as a victory.

; This is the worst history of vandalism, gleeful mayhem, and general recalcitrance we've seen in a nominee since Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
: {{w|Ruth Bader Ginsburg}} was the second female justice on the {{w|Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court}}, appointed by President Clinton. The relevance here is that during her own confirmation hearings, she refused to answer many questions about her personal views, frustrating many Senators (nevertheless, she was confirmed, 96-3). {{w|John Roberts}}, the current Chief Justice, was similarly evasive in his hearings, citing the "Ginsburg Precedent."

; And this–you ''stole'' a nuclear submarine?
: Black Hat stole a {{w|nuclear submarine}} in xkcd [[405: Journal 3]] to get his hat back from [[Danish]]. However, that one was a Russian submarine, and in 2008 (when this comic was drawn), the US Senate would probably not have held that against a nominee. Perhaps they are indeed referencing that incident, or it could be that he has also stolen an American submarine. Stealing one navy submarine would be impossibly hard; stealing nuclear submarines from not one but two different navies would be practically impossible. However, maybe he just asked [[Beret Guy|somebody]] to help him, or it's possible it was just an American submarine he brought to Russia.

; You mean the fifth?
: "Pleading the fifth" is to invoke the {{w|Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment}} of the {{w|United States Bill of Rights}}. Specifically, when someone pleads the fifth, they mean that they cannot be compelled to give testimony against themselves. That is, they do not have to say anything that could be taken as an admission of guilt. The {{w|Third Amendment to the United States Constitution|third amendment}} states that no homeowner has to keep troops of the United States Army in their house against their will. Either Black Hat doesn't understand the 3rd Amendment, he just chooses this amendment over the 5th to confuse the committee, who seems to forget the question, believes the nuclear submarine to be his property, and rather than stealing it, he was simply expelling military personnel who were "quartered" in his nuclear sub without his permission (see xkcd [[886: Craigslist Apartments]]), or he stole the submarine in order to have a convenient place other than his house to quarter troops.

The final panels show [[Ron Paul]]'s blimp finally approaching Washington DC. The balloon spotted on their radar is presumably piloted by blogger [[Cory Doctorow]], as revealed in the next installment, Secretary: Part 4.

==Transcript==
:[The confirmation hearings begin.]
:[The senators are all Cueballs.]
:Senator 2: It appears you have quite an arrest record.

:Senator 2: Is it true you completely disassembled someone's car outside a Starbucks?
:Black Hat: It was parked across two spaces.

:Senator 3: You stole a red Fokker triplane and strafed the snoopy float at the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade?
:Black Hat: Got three mimes, too.

:Senator 2: You disrupted a 9/11 truth meeting, insisting the Twin Towers never actually collapsed?
:Black Hat: I have evidence! Don't trust the media! Wake up, sheeple!

:Senator 4: You were fired from Radio Shack after you built a death ray and vaporized a customer?
:Black Hat: I was just testing it! Figures that'd be the ''one'' day there was a shopper in the aisle.

:Senator 4: And you were thrown out of Microsoft headquarters for... trying to feed a squirrel through a fax machine?
:Black Hat: I forgot about that! it was part of an argument with Steve Ballmer about Vista.
::Which I won, by the way.

:[All Senators look down at their notes.]

:Senator 2: This is the worst history of vandalism, gleeful mayhem, and general recalcitrance we've seen in a nominee since Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

:Senator 2: And this–you ''stole'' a nuclear submarine?
:Black Hat: I plead the third.

:Senator: You mean the fifth?
:Black Hat: No, the third.

:Senator: You refuse to quarter troops in your house?
:Black Hat: I have few principles, but I stick to them.

:Meanwhile...
:[Aboard Ron Paul's blimp.]
:Ponytail: We're nearing Washington, sir.
::Wait... There's something ahead on the sensors.

:Ponytail: It's a balloon.
:Ron Paul: ...Oh, no.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Secretary|03]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Secretary]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ron Paul]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]
[[Category:Holidays]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Sheeple]]
[[Category:9/11]]

496: Secretary: Part 3

2026-03-26T13:40:27Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ clearer

{{comic
| number = 496
| date = October 29, 2008
| title = Secretary: Part 3
| image = secretary part 3.png
| titletext = He actually installed each piece in a different car in the lot, then built a new car in the spot from the displaced pieces. It's a confusing maneuver known as the auto-troll shuffle.
}}

==Explanation==
When a person has been appointed to be on certain positions<ref>https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/74919ab6-b407-451c-b429-702e9ae8dcb1.pdf</ref> by the {{w|POTUS|President}}, they must first go through a confirmation hearing in front of the {{w|United States Senate|Senate}} (the upper house of {{w|United States Congress|Congress}}) where they find if the person is qualified to be in the position they have been appointed to. Of course, [[Black Hat]] is not the cleanest of characters, so Congress has a lot of reservations about his {{w|résumé}}. At the time when this comic was released, Senate confirmation hearings occurred rapidly after a president made a nomination and were expected to prevent unsuitable candidates from being given positions of power.

This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week. It may be a continuation of the comic [[493: Actuarial]], in which Black Hat demonstrates great power over even Internet trolls via his sociopathic ways. This would explain why Black Hat was nominated as Internet secretary. These are all the comics in [[:Category:Secretary|Secretary series]]:
* [[494: Secretary: Part 1]]
* [[495: Secretary: Part 2]]
* [[496: Secretary: Part 3]]
* [[497: Secretary: Part 4]]
* [[498: Secretary: Part 5]]

; Is it true you completely disassembled someone's car outside a Starbucks?
: {{w|Starbucks}} is an American coffee shop chain. He hasn't yet, but in [[562: Parking]], Black Hat will cut someone's car in half to make it fit in a single space. Not quite as dramatic as completely disassembling a car and, as the title text says, putting a single piece in another car parked in the lot, and building a car out of the displaced parts, which could almost be considered subtle, but it is quite dramatic. The title text refers to the Starbucks incident. Taking all the parts from different cars to build a new car in the same spot parallels the idea in philosophy of the {{w|Ship of Theseus}}, in which a question arises of whether a ship is the same ship if it is replaced piece by piece by identical pieces.

; You stole a red Fokker triplane and strafed the snoopy float at the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade?
: {{w|Charles M. Schulz}} drew a comic called {{w|Peanuts}}. One of the recurring characters was {{w|Snoopy}}, who would often use his doghouse as an imaginary {{w|Sopwith Camel}} in many battles with {{w|Manfred von Richthofen|The Red Baron}}, who piloted a {{w|Fokker Dr.I|Red Fokker}} {{w|Triplane}}. The {{w|Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade}} is a parade that happens on {{w|Thanksgiving (United States)|Thanksgiving Day}} in the US. There are many giant balloons of pop-culture icons. Snoopy has made many appearances. Being the [[classhole]] that he is, Black Hat has shot up the Snoopy float with a stolen Red Fokker triplane, which would be disturbing, especially to the kids watching the parade, who would get the impression that Snoopy has died. His statement that he "Got three mimes, too" just proves his casual disregard for collateral damage. He may have targeted the three mimes specifically because mimes pretend imaginary things are physically real, and would prove ironic, as Snoopy's adventures in Peanuts are imaginary, so it would make the most sense for the mimes to be hit.

; You disrupted a 9/11 truth meeting, insisting the Twin Towers never actually collapsed?
: {{w|9/11 Truth movement|9/11 Truthers}} believe that the terrorist attack on the {{w|World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center}} towers on {{w|September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001}} (thus 9/11) was not actually organized by terrorists, but by the United States government. Black Hat interrupts their conspiracy theory gathering, insisting on a comically exaggerated version of this conspiracy theory in which the attacks did not happen ''at all'' and the World Trade Center is presumably still standing. Such a conspiracy is extremely implausible, as it would require either the involvement of every single person to ever set foot in one of the world's largest cities, or some way to conceal a pair of hundred story tall buildings, both of which would be extremely difficult. Whether Black Hat actually believes this, or is just trying to troll conspiracy theorists, is unknown. Black Hat uses a common refrain [[:Category:Sheeple|Wake up, Sheeple]] to insult the senators.

; You were fired from Radio Shack after you built a death ray and vaporized a customer?
: {{w|RadioShack}} was a chain of consumer electronics shops that sold parts to build electronics with resistors, transistors, etc. Apparently Black Hat managed to build a death ray from the parts there and accidentally vaporized a customer. His line "Figures that'd be the one day that there'd be a customer in the aisle" refers to the fact that RadioShack stores had been in steady decline over the years,{{citation needed}} largely propped up by momentum.

; And you were thrown out of Microsoft headquarters for... trying to feed a squirrel through a fax machine?
: {{w|Microsoft}} is the company that makes {{w|Microsoft Windows|Windows}}, and {{w|Steve Ballmer}} was its {{w|Chief executive officer|CEO}} until being replaced in 2014 by {{w|Satya Nadella}}. {{w|Windows Vista}} is an {{w|operating system}} released in 2007; software critics widely panned it. It is unclear how feeding a squirrel through a fax machine could possibly contribute to winning an argument about it, but given Black Hat's almost superhuman abilities to troll and avoid the consequences, it's possible that it could happen. Alternatively, Ballmer could've left the argument after the incident and Black Hat could simply be interpreting that as a victory.

; This is the worst history of vandalism, gleeful mayhem, and general recalcitrance we've seen in a nominee since Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
: {{w|Ruth Bader Ginsburg}} was the second female justice on the {{w|Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court}}, appointed by President Clinton. The relevance here is that during her own confirmation hearings, she refused to answer many questions about her personal views, frustrating many Senators (nevertheless, she was confirmed, 96-3). {{w|John Roberts}}, the current Chief Justice, was similarly evasive in his hearings, citing the "Ginsburg Precedent."

; And this-you stole a nuclear submarine?
: Black Hat stole a {{w|nuclear submarine}} in xkcd [[405: Journal 3]] to get his hat back from [[Danish]]. However, that one was a Russian submarine, and in 2008 (when this comic was drawn), the US Senate would probably not have held that against a nominee. Perhaps they are indeed referencing that incident, or it could be that he has also stolen an American submarine. Stealing one navy submarine would be impossibly hard; stealing nuclear submarines from not one but two different navies would be practically impossible. However, maybe he just asked [[Beret Guy|somebody]] to help him, or it's possible it was just an American submarine he brought to Russia.

; You mean the fifth?
: "Pleading the fifth" is to invoke the {{w|Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment}} of the {{w|United States Bill of Rights}}. Specifically, when someone pleads the fifth, they mean that they cannot be compelled to give testimony against themselves. That is, they do not have to say anything that could be taken as an admission of guilt. The {{w|Third Amendment to the United States Constitution|third amendment}} states that no homeowner has to keep troops of the United States Army in their house against their will. Either Black Hat doesn't understand the 3rd Amendment, he just chooses this amendment over the 5th to confuse the committee, who seems to forget the question, believes the nuclear submarine to be his property, and rather than stealing it, he was simply expelling military personnel who were "quartered" in his nuclear sub without his permission (see xkcd [[886: Craigslist Apartments]]), or he stole the submarine in order to have a convenient place other than his house to quarter troops.

The final panels show [[Ron Paul]]'s blimp finally approaching Washington DC. The balloon spotted on their radar is presumably piloted by blogger [[Cory Doctorow]], as revealed in the next installment, Secretary: Part 4.

==Transcript==
:[The confirmation hearings begin.]
:[The senators are all Cueballs.]
:Senator 2: It appears you have quite an arrest record.

:Senator 2: Is it true you completely disassembled someone's car outside a Starbucks?
:Black Hat: It was parked across two spaces.

:Senator 3: You stole a red Fokker triplane and strafed the snoopy float at the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade?
:Black Hat: Got three mimes, too.

:Senator 2: You disrupted a 9/11 truth meeting, insisting the Twin Towers never actually collapsed?
:Black Hat: I have evidence! Don't trust the media! Wake up, sheeple!

:Senator 4: You were fired from Radio Shack after you built a death ray and vaporized a customer?
:Black Hat: I was just testing it! Figures that'd be the one day there was a shopper in the aisle.

:Senator 4: And you were thrown out of Microsoft headquarters for... trying to feed a squirrel through a fax machine?
:Black Hat: I forgot about that! it was part of an argument with Steve Ballmer about Vista.
::Which I won, by the way.

:[All Senators look down at their notes.]

:Senator 2: This is the worst history of vandalism, gleeful mayhem, and general recalcitrance we've seen in a nominee since Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

:Senator 2: And this-you stole a nuclear submarine?
:Black Hat: I plead the third.

:Senator: You mean the fifth?
:Black Hat: No, the third.

:Senator: You refuse to quarter troops in your house?
:Black Hat: I have few principles, but I stick to them.

:Meanwhile...
:[Aboard Ron Paul's blimp.]
:Ponytail: We're nearing Washington, sir.
::Wait... There's something ahead on the sensors.

:Ponytail: It's a balloon.
:Ron Paul: ...Oh, no.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Secretary|03]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Secretary]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ron Paul]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]
[[Category:Holidays]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Sheeple]]
[[Category:9/11]]

Talk:3223: Inflation Timeline

2026-03-25T06:53:46Z

Lettherebedarklight: fix unsigned

What about the regular/sexy thing? {{unsigned ip|2a02:26f7:e344:4000:c000::f|19:10, 23 March 2026 (UTC)}}
: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_inflation [[Special:Contributions/155.33.87.241|155.33.87.241]] 19:14, 23 March 2026 (UTC)
:: I would say this is an application of the "today's lucky 10,000" concept, but this probably doesn't qualify as a thing that everyone knows by the time they're an adult so the number is probably lower. But I hope this experience of learning something new is still as fun as Coke and Mentos! [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 19:47, 23 March 2026 (UTC)
:::Not so sure closing this gap in knowledge would really count as "lucky", but each to their own. [[Special:Contributions/204.77.3.72|204.77.3.72]] 00:07, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
::::definitely not a sentence i expected to read on xkcd. [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 05:33, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
::Since economic inflation is money becoming more worthless and therefore de-facto vanishing, it would be better represented by ''body deflation''. That is - character becoming increasingly more gaunt and skinny, until only pile of bones remain (or if cartoonish, until he becomes thinner than fishing line and collapses into a point). Dunno what sort of weirdo would use images of starving people (e.g. victims of nazi death camps) ''for sexual gratification''. --[[User:User 8496351|User 8496351]] ([[User talk:User 8496351|talk]]) 07:56, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
:::Economic inflation is "more units of money needed for the same product/service", so entirely in line with "a need for more apparent body mass/volume of the same person" (e.g. BBLs, etc). At least as I understand both processes, which I may not entirely. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.186|82.132.237.186]] 11:47, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
:: Well, I've obviously led a sheltered the last seventy years as I've never heard of body inflation.--[[Special:Contributions/2A00:23CC:D248:8901:D030:98E4:E22B:D2EF|2A00:23CC:D248:8901:D030:98E4:E22B:D2EF]] 08:56, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
:: New to me too. But further proof of Rule 34 :-) [[Special:Contributions/2A12:F43:143E:0:C172:A03D:12FE:51AA|2A12:F43:143E:0:C172:A03D:12FE:51AA]] 11:36, 24 March 2026 (UTC)dww-uk
The X axis is weird. The labeled ticks are logarithmic, but the unlabeled ticks are linear, and there are only 8 of them.[[User:Jp5424|Jp5424]] ([[User talk:Jp5424|talk]]) 18:18, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
:The X axis most likely has a logarithmic base interval of 10/8, going from 10^-40 to 10^-38.75, 10^-37.5, etc. [[Special:Contributions/2001:1C02:1A9D:9700:2416:3C14:B648:3FD0|2001:1C02:1A9D:9700:2416:3C14:B648:3FD0]] 19:12, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

I don't find the current explanation of sexy coexisting with regular convincing. I think there is something missing. --[[Special:Contributions/80.187.75.215|80.187.75.215]] 22:03, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
:[[174: That's What SHE Said]]... [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 00:11, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

Fun fact: while debasement of the coinage, rulers melting down coins and resmithing them at lower metal value, has been around for a long time, inflation is pretty new. Inflation calculators for the british pound show pretty flat value until the 1900s despite lots of economic crisis in the 800 years they've been measuring. The US used to use the gold standard, it was only later (gold dollar and dollar standards) that inflation has really been a thing in the US. Thus the 'regular' period of inflation is probably pretty short, about the last 100 years. [[User:WikipedianPolitician|WikipedianPolitician]] ([[User talk:WikipedianPolitician|talk]]) 00:17, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3223: Inflation Timeline

2026-03-24T05:34:08Z

Lettherebedarklight: unsigned

;Sexy?

What about the regular/sexy thing? {{unsigned|2a02:26f7:e344:4000:c000::f}}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_inflation [[Special:Contributions/155.33.87.241|155.33.87.241]] 19:14, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

:I would say this is an application of the "today's lucky 10,000" concept, but this probably doesn't qualify as a thing that everyone knows by the time they're an adult so the number is probably lower. But I hope this experience of learning something new is still as fun as Coke and Mentos! [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 19:47, 23 March 2026 (UTC)
::Not so sure closing this gap in knowledge would really count as "lucky", but each to their own. [[Special:Contributions/204.77.3.72|204.77.3.72]] 00:07, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
:::definitely not a sentence i expected to read on xkcd. [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 05:33, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3223: Inflation Timeline

2026-03-24T05:33:22Z

Lettherebedarklight: reply

;Sexy?

What about the regular/sexy thing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_inflation [[Special:Contributions/155.33.87.241|155.33.87.241]] 19:14, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

:I would say this is an application of the "today's lucky 10,000" concept, but this probably doesn't qualify as a thing that everyone knows by the time they're an adult so the number is probably lower. But I hope this experience of learning something new is still as fun as Coke and Mentos! [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 19:47, 23 March 2026 (UTC)
::Not so sure closing this gap in knowledge would really count as "lucky", but each to their own. [[Special:Contributions/204.77.3.72|204.77.3.72]] 00:07, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
:::definitely not a sentence i expected to read on xkcd. [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 05:33, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

574: Swine Flu

2026-03-16T13:03:40Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Trivia */ link

{{comic
| number = 574
| date = April 27, 2009
| title = Swine Flu
| image = swine flu.png
| titletext = Bad flu epidemics can hit young adults hardest because they provoke their powerful immune systems into overreaction, so to stay healthy spend the next few weeks drunk and sleep-deprived to keep yours suppressed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Swine influenza|Swine flu}} is a strain of the flu which can be transmitted from pigs to humans. In 2009, it was the origin of the {{w|Pandemic H1N1/09 virus}}, which most news stations called either "H1N1" (the subtype name) or "swine flu". Because of the ambiguous name given to it and the somewhat hazy description of the transmittal process and dangers to humans, many people were concerned about the virus in ways that weren't going to be threats. This comic pokes a bit of fun at the overreaction by users on {{w|Twitter}} (rebranded as "X", in July 2023, long after this comic).

[[Randall]] (or someone else) seems to have created Twitter accounts for all referenced handles (that may not have already existed). Some of the handles continue their interactions with each other in later tweets.

[https://twitter.com/SKEEVE37 Skeeve37] is a self-described {{w|Hypochondriasis|hypochondriac}}. The tweet exemplifies the general populace's over-concern with the "animal themed" pandemics. Similarly after the {{w|Avian influenza|bird flu}} scare, people avoided eating chicken.

[https://twitter.com/hanneloreEC Hanneloreec] is a self-described "young lady who is concerned about many things". She is a reoccurring character in the webcomic {{w|Questionable Content}} by Jeph Jacques, who also manages her twitter handle.

[https://twitter.com/PAULYSHOREFAN Paulyshorefan]'s tweet is a reference to the flash game "[https://www.crazygames.com/game/pandemic-2 Pandemic 2]", in which players try to create a disease that infects the whole world. {{w|Madagascar}} is the most difficult country to infect, as it only has 1 port and often closes it at the slightest hint of an infection. The difficulty of infecting Madagascar has caused it to become a [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything meme]. The user's Twitter handle is a reference to {{w|Pauly Shore}}, a comedian who was briefly popular in the 1990s before quickly becoming out of favor and derided as unfunny.

[https://twitter.com/CrackMonkey74 CrackMonkey74]'s tweet is a parody of viral Christian(?) messages that say that current tragedies are God's punishment, [https://bible.cc/mark/13-7.htm despite the fact that the Bible says that the end is not yet to come.] More specifically, Crackmonkey74 blames the {{w|American Civil Liberties Union|ACLU}}, {{w|Lesbian|lesbians}} (a reference to the current culture wars that give big press towards proponents of {{w|Same-sex marriage|same-sex marriage}} against fundamentalist Christians), {{w|September 11 attacks|9/11}} (the day when the {{w|World Trade Center (1973–2001)|Twin Towers}} fell, causing controversy on whether {{w|Muslim}} terrorists crashed their planes on the towers or whether the government {{w|9/11 conspiracy theories|staged}} this by purposefully demolishing the towers) and {{w|Nanorobotics|nanobots}} (possibly a reference towards the highly promising but still relatively not understood field of nanotechnology, plus another reference towards the phrase "playing God"). He is likely the same Crackmonkey74 from [[406: Venting]] and [[202: YouTube]].

[https://twitter.com/Twilight7531 Twilight7531]'s tweet implies that she got a {{w|Bone fracture#Orthopedic|bone fracture}} which ended up protruding from her arm. However, she seems to lack medical knowledge, so she is worried that her fracture is actually swine flu (though how she can be typing with a broken arm is confusing).

[https://twitter.com/Wigu Wigu]'s tweet is a reply towards [https://twitter.com/Untoward Untoward]'s. Given the context, Untoward seems to have "gotten intimate" with a pig (since {{w|syphilis}} is a venereal disease). Given the fact that Untoward got sick because of a pig, Untoward seems to have concluded that he got swine flu.

The last comment by [https://twitter.com/2011SENIORSRULE 2011Seniorsrule] references a medical paper published by the journal {{w|The Lancet}}, in which it is proposed that {{w|Autism|autism}} is caused by {{w|Vaccine|vaccination}}. Since then, the paper was partially retracted in 2004, and fully retracted in 2010 because of conflicts of interest. The entire incident has been defined as the {{w|MMR vaccine controversy}}. This stance has still been seen since the retraction of the paper, and still holds some popularity by {{rw|cranks}}, {{rw|quacks}}, {{rw|pseudoscience|pseudoscientists}}, and {{rw|conspiracy|conspiracy theorists}} alike who are convinced that the {{rw|CDC}} is {{rw|Release_the_data|hiding vital data}} that proves {{rw|Anti-vaccination_movement#Autism|vaccines cause autism}}. The most famous figure in support of it is {{w|Jenny McCarthy}}. This Twitter user is not only using a debunked study about a completely different set of vaccines, they have also confused cause and effect (i.e. even if vaccines caused autism, that doesn't mean that autistic people carry flu vaccines). Also, licking vaccinated people isn't how vaccines are administered.{{Citation needed}} On top of that, fear of germs and/or hypersensitivity is common among autistic people, so "licking an autistic kid" may be a difficult and possibly painful experience for the lickee. (Allistic children also generally dislike being licked.){{Citation needed}}

The title text at first states the fact that some flu symptoms are actually the symptoms of the body's reaction, and can in some cases be more dramatic than the initial infection. E.g. A fever is a defense mechanism of the body against a disease. Then the title text makes the recommendation to protect oneself from an overreaction by living an unhealthy life. This is not good advice.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Caption:]
:Twitter is great for watching
:uninformed panics unfold live.

:[The comic shows a twitter search results page with "Swine flu" in the search box and a gray search button.]
:twitter [Swine flu] (search)

:[The results is displayed in a frame below the search panel:]
:Realtime results for '''Swine flu''' 0.05

:[This next line is highlighted in yellow. Most text here and below is written in normal black font, but the underlined links in the main text is in blue. Below each tweet is a line with info and reply links etc. all in gray font. Between the yellow line and the first tweet and between each tweet is a dotted line.]
:1,918 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Skeeve37: Oh god I ate pork yesterday before I knew about swine flu!
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Hanneloreec: Without duct tape I can't seal the door to keep out swine flu but I can't get duct tape without going outside! Help!
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Paulyshorefan: How long until the swine flu reaches me here in Madagascar?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:CrackMonkey74: Swine flu is God's punishment for the ACLU and lesbians and 9/11 and nanobots!
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Twilight7531: I fell down the stairs and there was a crack and a jagged white thing is sticking out of my arm guys is this swine flu?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from twitterific ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Wigu: @Untoward: No, that sounds like syphilis, not swine flu. What did you say you did with a pig?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from tweetdeck ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:2011Seniorsrule: My Dad said flu vaccines are linked to autism, so to be safe from swine flu I'm trying to lick an autistic kid.
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

==Trivia==

*CrackMonkey74 has appeared in two earlier comics: [[202: YouTube]] and [[406: Venting]].
*Randall's dismay over uninformed panics, especially regarding disease, will be mirrored in [[:Category:COVID-19|numerous comics concerning the very real COVID-19 pandemic]] over 10 years later.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:9/11]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

Talk:3219: Planets and Bright Stars

2026-03-14T12:28:33Z

Lettherebedarklight: unsigned

There are sight color differences...[[Special:Contributions/209.240.116.218|209.240.116.218]] 19:55, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

I've created a version that brings out the color contrast, but I don't have permissions to upload it yet. How may I get those? [[User:Rumbling7145|Rumbling7145]] ([[User talk:Rumbling7145|talk]]) 20:04, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
:See [[Special:ListGroupRights]] for info about becoming autoconfirmed. In the meantime, you can upload the image onto an image hosting website such as Imgur or ImgBB and I can help you upload it! [[User:42.book.addict|tori :3]][[User talk:42.book.addict|talk to me!]] 20:20, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
:[Ninjaed... You got there just before me, just realised I ended up Edit Conflicted... :P Editing down to the bits that weren't said above.]
:[...] you've been here a while, but 'only' edited thirteen times, it looks like [...]
:[...and when someone else uploads it...] you can alwas add your own [claims to ownership], to the finished 'file page' [if the user concerned doesn't credit you already]. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 20:31, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Anyone know where that </div> overlaying "Add Comment" at the bottom of the discussion is coming from? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:01, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
:Well, Tori's signature is a bit lopsided with its tags, by the time it gets to the browser (is one <code><nowiki></nowiki></code> short, and has one closing <code><nowiki></a></nowiki></code> before the closing <code><nowiki></nowiki></code> that should have been within it), but not sure how that might have tricked-out the rest so that some closing <code><nowiki></div></nowiki></code> is redundant, without going through the ''entire'' page source to track down any other accumulated discrepancies.
:I've seen that rogue close-div before, and I seem to recall that some precautionary extra close-tags (in either HTML or Wiki markup) have been added to 'make sure' some things don't run on. But it seems to vanish after some later edits (either main comic page or discussion one), and I would have imagined that the excess tag would just be 'ignored' under most circumstances. But it's difficult to tell easil tell what a combination of meta-tagging and actual tagging does.
:And there's all kinds of weirdness in the scripting part of the page, like the bit that says <code><nowiki>node.outerHTML="\u003Cdiv id=\"localNotice\" lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cdiv[... most of this statement removed ...]\n\u003C/div\u003E\u003C/div\u003E";</nowiki></code> with ''escaped'' DIVs in it, that only apply when the script self-modifies the page-source. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 21:59, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
::In fact, the rogue DIV only appears when viewing the transcluded Talk page within the main article. Viewing the Talk page directly doesn't seem to show it (or have it in the same bit of the respective HTML source), which adds to my belief that it's a run-on tag (not?) being opened as part of the Comic page's definition. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 22:02, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Jupiter, Venus, Mars (at its peak) and Sirius are noticeably brighter than the others. Mars, Antares and Betelgeuse are also quite red. Also if you look at planets through a telescope or good binoculars you can tell that they have a larger size (and some have moons). The others would be quite hard to tell apart without knowing their position.
<table>
<tr>
<th>Object</th><th>App. Mag</th><th>B-V (Colour)</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Venus</th><th>-4.98 to -2.98</th><th>0.82</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Mars</th><th>-2.94 to +1.86</th><th>1.33</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Jupiter</th><th>-2.94 to -1.66</th><th>0.83</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Saturn</th><th>-0.55 to +1.17</th><th>1.04</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Mercury</th><th>-2.48 to +7.25</th><th>0.97</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Sirius</th><th>-1.46</th><th>0</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Procyon</th><th>+0.34</th><th>0.42</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Antares</th><th>+0.6 to +1.6</th><th>1.83</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Altair</th><th>+0.76</th><th>0.22</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Betelgeuse</th><th>0 to +1.6</th><th>1.85</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Vega</th><th>0</th><th>0</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Polaris</th><th>+1.86 to +2.13</th><th>0.6</th>
</tr>
</table>
It would be interesting to see if these characteristics are at all present in the comic (it does look like Mars, Betelgeuse and Antares are red and Saturn is a little yellow so maybe the colours are right), or what the comic should look like if they are not --22:50, 13 March 2026 (UTC)[[User:Sameldacamel34|Sameldacamel34]] ([[User talk:Sameldacamel34|talk]])

According to the Wikipedia page to proper motion, it is defined relative to the center of the solar system. So having a proper motion of zero makes the sun stand out indeed. [[Special:Contributions/84.115.169.154|84.115.169.154]] 04:50, 14 March 2026 (UTC)
:Err. {{w|proper motion}} is "relative to the center of mass of the Solar System," aka the {{w|barycenter}}, which is not the center of the Sun, but rather very close to it and sometimes outside of it. So, I think, (and I am definitely inexpert here), the [center of the] Sun is rather rapidly moving in an angular fashion about that point, far more so than any other object, whose angular movement around that point is much slower. Just like if you are one foot away from the north pole and wandering aimlessly, you can very quickly change your longitude from +90° to –90° in a step or two. So, I think, the Sun does indeed have "high proper motion," not "zero proper motion." But someone please correct me. Also, I (earlier) tried to explain proper motion in the last graf of the article and I suspect I did a poor job (possibly also inaccurate), so I'd appreciate someone with the, err, ''proper'' expertise fixing it up. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 05:00, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

Created a nice image using the explanations on this page (using Gemini)

[https://ibb.co/k6wQF0Vd Chart fixed by explanations here] {{unsigned|2A09:BAC3:2FF0:28C:0:0:41:127}}

The extremely high parallax of the Sun (324,000 arc seconds if I calculate correctly) swamps out any proper motion. [[Special:Contributions/2600:1001:B008:1230:9C83:B115:90B1:6038|2600:1001:B008:1230:9C83:B115:90B1:6038]] 12:12, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3219: Planets and Bright Stars

2026-03-14T12:26:26Z

Lettherebedarklight: why did you delete every comment

There are sight color differences...[[Special:Contributions/209.240.116.218|209.240.116.218]] 19:55, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

I've created a version that brings out the color contrast, but I don't have permissions to upload it yet. How may I get those? [[User:Rumbling7145|Rumbling7145]] ([[User talk:Rumbling7145|talk]]) 20:04, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
:See [[Special:ListGroupRights]] for info about becoming autoconfirmed. In the meantime, you can upload the image onto an image hosting website such as Imgur or ImgBB and I can help you upload it! [[User:42.book.addict|tori :3]][[User talk:42.book.addict|talk to me!]] 20:20, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
:[Ninjaed... You got there just before me, just realised I ended up Edit Conflicted... :P Editing down to the bits that weren't said above.]
:[...] you've been here a while, but 'only' edited thirteen times, it looks like [...]
:[...and when someone else uploads it...] you can alwas add your own [claims to ownership], to the finished 'file page' [if the user concerned doesn't credit you already]. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 20:31, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Anyone know where that </div> overlaying "Add Comment" at the bottom of the discussion is coming from? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:01, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
:Well, Tori's signature is a bit lopsided with its tags, by the time it gets to the browser (is one <code><nowiki></nowiki></code> short, and has one closing <code><nowiki></a></nowiki></code> before the closing <code><nowiki></nowiki></code> that should have been within it), but not sure how that might have tricked-out the rest so that some closing <code><nowiki></div></nowiki></code> is redundant, without going through the ''entire'' page source to track down any other accumulated discrepancies.
:I've seen that rogue close-div before, and I seem to recall that some precautionary extra close-tags (in either HTML or Wiki markup) have been added to 'make sure' some things don't run on. But it seems to vanish after some later edits (either main comic page or discussion one), and I would have imagined that the excess tag would just be 'ignored' under most circumstances. But it's difficult to tell easil tell what a combination of meta-tagging and actual tagging does.
:And there's all kinds of weirdness in the scripting part of the page, like the bit that says <code><nowiki>node.outerHTML="\u003Cdiv id=\"localNotice\" lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cdiv[... most of this statement removed ...]\n\u003C/div\u003E\u003C/div\u003E";</nowiki></code> with ''escaped'' DIVs in it, that only apply when the script self-modifies the page-source. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 21:59, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
::In fact, the rogue DIV only appears when viewing the transcluded Talk page within the main article. Viewing the Talk page directly doesn't seem to show it (or have it in the same bit of the respective HTML source), which adds to my belief that it's a run-on tag (not?) being opened as part of the Comic page's definition. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 22:02, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Jupiter, Venus, Mars (at its peak) and Sirius are noticeably brighter than the others. Mars, Antares and Betelgeuse are also quite red. Also if you look at planets through a telescope or good binoculars you can tell that they have a larger size (and some have moons). The others would be quite hard to tell apart without knowing their position.
<table>
<tr>
<th>Object</th><th>App. Mag</th><th>B-V (Colour)</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Venus</th><th>-4.98 to -2.98</th><th>0.82</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Mars</th><th>-2.94 to +1.86</th><th>1.33</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Jupiter</th><th>-2.94 to -1.66</th><th>0.83</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Saturn</th><th>-0.55 to +1.17</th><th>1.04</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Mercury</th><th>-2.48 to +7.25</th><th>0.97</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Sirius</th><th>-1.46</th><th>0</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Procyon</th><th>+0.34</th><th>0.42</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Antares</th><th>+0.6 to +1.6</th><th>1.83</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Altair</th><th>+0.76</th><th>0.22</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Betelgeuse</th><th>0 to +1.6</th><th>1.85</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Vega</th><th>0</th><th>0</th>
</tr><tr>
<th>Polaris</th><th>+1.86 to +2.13</th><th>0.6</th>
</tr>
</table>
It would be interesting to see if these characteristics are at all present in the comic (it does look like Mars, Betelgeuse and Antares are red and Saturn is a little yellow so maybe the colours are right), or what the comic should look like if they are not --22:50, 13 March 2026 (UTC)[[User:Sameldacamel34|Sameldacamel34]] ([[User talk:Sameldacamel34|talk]])

According to the Wikipedia page to proper motion, it is defined relative to the center of the solar system. So having a proper motion of zero makes the sun stand out indeed. [[Special:Contributions/84.115.169.154|84.115.169.154]] 04:50, 14 March 2026 (UTC)
:Err. {{w|proper motion}} is "relative to the center of mass of the Solar System," aka the {{w|barycenter}}, which is not the center of the Sun, but rather very close to it and sometimes outside of it. So, I think, (and I am definitely inexpert here), the [center of the] Sun is rather rapidly moving in an angular fashion about that point, far more so than any other object, whose angular movement around that point is much slower. Just like if you are one foot away from the north pole and wandering aimlessly, you can very quickly change your longitude from +90° to –90° in a step or two. So, I think, the Sun does indeed have "high proper motion," not "zero proper motion." But someone please correct me. Also, I (earlier) tried to explain proper motion in the last graf of the article and I suspect I did a poor job (possibly also inaccurate), so I'd appreciate someone with the, err, ''proper'' expertise fixing it up. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 05:00, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

Created a nice image using the explanations on this page (using Gemini)

[https://ibb.co/k6wQF0Vd Chart fixed by explanations here]

The extremely high parallax of the Sun (324,000 arc seconds if I calculate correctly) swamps out any proper motion. [[Special:Contributions/2600:1001:B008:1230:9C83:B115:90B1:6038|2600:1001:B008:1230:9C83:B115:90B1:6038]] 12:12, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

3218: Subduction Retrieval

2026-03-13T03:52:14Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ cleanup

{{comic
| number = 3218
| date = March 11, 2026
| title = Subduction Retrieval
| image = subduction_retrieval_2x.png
| imagesize = 502x347px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Aww, the oceanic crust and the continental crust are getting married!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by a SUBDUCTION LICENSE. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic is a {{w|public service announcement}} (PSA) telling the reader to stay out of the {{w|Pacific Ocean}} on the current day. The reason for this is explained to be that someone has lost their wedding ring in a {{w|subduction zone}}. This is a boundary where two {{w|tectonic plates}} in the Earth's crust collide, and one plate dives beneath the other into the {{w|Earth's mantle}}. The ring can be seen glimmering on the upper surface of the subducted oceanic plate, in the {{w|accretionary wedge}} below the continental plate. Given that the rate at which this occurs is of a few centimetres per year at most, and assuming that the characters shown are drawn to scale and are of average human stature, it can be estimated that the ring has been in the subduction zone for about 200 years. Possibly this time has been needed to localise it and then deploy the heavy engineering displayed.

As a result, the {{w|United States Geological Survey}} (USGS) is "pulling the plate back up" to retrieve the ring. This would be a ridiculous idea, since no man-made machine is capable of moving entire tectonic plates.{{cn}} Even if it were possible, it is unlikely that the USGS, a national organization, would invest the time and effort required for such an operation for the relatively trivial purpose of retrieving a wedding ring, particularly for people who are presumably long since dead. If they did, though, staying out of the ocean would be a good idea, as it would be liable to cause tsunami over a wide area, as well as other dangers.

The title text jokes that since the wedding ring lies on the lower (oceanic) plate, the oceanic crust and continental crust are "getting married". Of course, [[Beret Guy|most]] humans wouldn't be able to see the sight of the wedding ring, due to it being underground, and in the {{w|mantle}}, where no human could reach anyway — assuming that it hadn't already been mechanically deformed (crushed, mangled and/or broken apart) by the action of being sandwiched between two continental masses, and eventually melted.

==Transcript==

:[A large structure resembling a bridge has been positioned over the intersection of two tectonic plates, one under the ocean and one forming a jagged, mountainous coast, with one "foot" on each plate. A winch is hanging from the center of the bridge, connected to a chain which is hooked into the oceanic crust. The winch is pulling up the crust, causing it to fold and wrinkle. Cueball and Ponytail are standing on one large fold next to where the chain is hooked to the crust, and another Cueball is standing on the continental crust. Oceanic Cueball has his arms up. On a portion of subducted oceanic crust, far below the ground, a small shining lump is visible.]

:Winch: click click click

:[Caption below panel:]
:PSA: Please stay out of the Pacific Ocean today. Someone lost their wedding ring in a subduction zone and USGS is pulling the plate back up to retrieve it.

==Trivia==
[[1388: Subduction License]] is about [[Beret Guy]]'s mysterious power to subduct like an oceanic plate.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Subduction]]

User:While False/explain xkcd museum

2026-03-12T10:44:59Z

Lettherebedarklight: funny wiki

#REDIRECT [[explain xkcd:Museum]]

User:While False/explain xkcd museum

2026-03-12T10:44:21Z

Lettherebedarklight: Undo revision 350954 by 42.book.addict (talk)

#REDIRECT [[Explain xkcd museum]]

2396: Wonder Woman 1984

2026-03-09T06:15:23Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ +

{{comic
| number = 2396
| date = December 9, 2020
| title = Wonder Woman 1984
| image = wonder_woman_1984.png
| titletext = 'Wait, why would you think a movie set in 1984 would do drive-ins as a retro promotion?' 'You know, 80s stuff. Drive-in movies. Britney Spears doing the hustle. Elvis going on Ed Sullivan and showing off his pog collection.' 'What year were you born, again?'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

Ponytail, who was eager to see ''{{w|Wonder Woman 1984}}'', the 2019 sequel to the acclaimed 2017 ''{{w|Wonder Woman (2017 film)|Wonder Woman}}'' film, decided to block all news media leading up to the film, to avoid {{w|Spoiler (media)|spoilers}}. Avoiding spoilers is a common practice for people who do not wish to be "spoiled" by reading or hearing any plot points of the film, because they want to be immersed in the movie when watching it for the first time, by not being able to predict any plot twists before they occur. Many early reviewers may inadvertently give away key parts of the film, which may ruin the experience for some watchers, and story elements may be leaked by inside sources, either accidentally or deliberately.

However, there have been many delays for release of the film, in part because of the [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19 pandemic]] in the spring of 2020. The film was originally delayed from November 1, 2019 to June 5, 2020 to allow more time for production, and then, after the pandemic struck, was pushed to August 14, 2020, then October 2, 2020, before it was finally moved to December 25, 2020. The film studio announced a simultaneous release of the film in theaters and also on streaming platform {{w|HBO Max}}.

Absurdly, Ponytail apparently continued to block news sites after the delays, and so has not read ''any'' news in over a year, even news unrelated to movies. Because of this, she is apparently totally unaware of the entire pandemic, as well as more predictable major news items like the 2020 United States presidential election. This is particularly absurd, because these events were influential enough that it would be difficult or impossible to avoid awareness, even with no media exposure. They have been common topics of conversation, not to mention face-masks and other public health-control measures have now become ubiquitous, and election campaign signs and bumper stickers were common sights in the lead-up to November.

How the release date being postponed (twice) did not convince Ponytail to find out why, therefore becoming aware of the pandemic with its associated lockdown and public health-control, is a question that is left unanswered. Her confusion as to why her movie is now being shown at a {{w|drive-in theater}} is a sign that she's unaware of COVID-19. Drive-in theaters have been seen as a safer option than indoor movie theaters during the pandemic.

Cueball tries to warn her about the ongoing pandemic, but in an effort to avoid spoilers, she silences him. This may imply that in her wildly excessive effort to avoid spoilers, she's avoided leaving her home and talking to people, which could explain her exceptional level of disconnection from current events. Cueball then tells her to wear a mask, but she is still confused. Ponytail says that she will dress up in costume as Wonder Woman, who is traditionally shown wearing a {{w|tiara}} but not a mask (unlike Batman or many other comic characters, although [[2367: Masks|efficiency of their masks]] still varies wildly in regards to COVID-19 protection).

The title text expands on Ponytail's speculation that the use of the drive-in theaters is a "retro promotion," presumably because drive-ins and the '80s setting of the movie are now both considered to be retro in 2020. However, they are not associated with the same period; drive-in theaters in America had their heyday in the 1950s and '60s, and were in rapid decline by the '80s. Ponytail further demonstrates her misunderstanding of history by mentioning several other things which she wrongly believes are from the '80s. {{w|Britney Spears}} is a singer who was popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. {{w|Hustle (dance)|The Hustle}} was a disco dance popular in the mid-1970s. {{w|Pogs}} under that name peaked in the mid-1990s. {{w|Elvis}}'s appearance on the ''{{w|Ed Sullivan Show}}'' - a pivotal moment in American pop culture - occurred on September 9, 1956. (''The Ed Sullivan Show'' went off the air in 1971, Ed Sullivan died in 1974, and Elvis Presley died in 1977.{{Citation needed}}) This joke concerns the phenomenon of people lumping together all time periods before their birth, which results in "retro" or "period" representations combining elements from widely different time periods. (A similar behavior is seen in [[771: Period Speech]].) Cueball points this out by asking Ponytail when she was born, implying that, if she'd actually lived through any of those time periods, she'd realize that they were distinct. If Ponytail could not remember any of these events in her childhood, an age of about 20 years can be set as an approximate upper bound for this particular character's age.

This comic is similar to [[2280: 2010 and 2020]] and [[2338: Faraday Tour]], which also involve characters who are unaware of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ponytail would once again block all news to avoid spoilers in [[3073: Tariffs]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail sitting at a desk, chatting with Cueball (off-screen) on a laptop.]
:Ponytail: Just two weeks until I see ''Wonder Woman 1984'', learn who the Democratic nominee was, and find out how the election went.
:Cueball: Huh?

:[Close-up on Ponytail.]
:Ponytail: To avoid spoilers, I blocked all news sites ahead of the November 2019 release.
:Ponytail: But then they bumped the date on my ticket to June 2020, and now December 25th.
:Ponytail: It also moved to a drive-in theater? Some retro promotion, maybe.

:[Cueball on his laptop, chatting with Ponytail (off-screen) on a laptop.]
:Cueball: Wait, you haven't seen '''''any''''' news?
:Ponytail: Nope!
:Cueball: So you don't know about -
:Ponytail: '''''No spoilers!'''''

:[Back to Ponytail sitting at a desk, chatting with Cueball (off-screen) on a laptop.]
:Cueball: Okay. Just...
:Cueball: Bring a mask, in case you need to get out of the car.
:Ponytail: Oh, I'll have a full '''''costume!''''' But it's a tiara, not a mask.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Movies]]

513: Friends

2026-03-06T06:43:31Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ comically contrived

{{comic
| number = 513
| date = December 5, 2008
| title = Friends
| image = friends.png
| titletext = Friends with detriments.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is talking to [[Megan]]. He confesses that he has a crush on her. Usually the next step in Western cultures, when someone likes someone else, is to ask the other person out (in other cultures, such as Islamic or Indian cultures, it would be more appropriate to request that one's parents contact the parents of the person one has a crush on). But Cueball takes a different route, and in the comic, he explains his thought process. Presumably he actually explains this to Megan.

He explains that he is afraid of rejection, and so instead of asking her out directly, promises to be her "best friend" and someone who is always "there for you," in the hopes that this will eventually lead to Megan developing an attraction for him. This way, Cueball does not have to risk Megan saying 'No' to him, as she will be led to make the first move instead. Cueball is aware that this may not be an ideal situation for Megan, conceding that she may end up changing her definition of happiness to make her feel more comfortable in the relationship, while she is conscious of the fact that she doesn't really love Cueball. Cueball recognizes that if Megan fell for him this way, she would probably have this fact at the back of her mind forever.

And so, after painting this elaborate - but troubling - future, Cueball asks ''sound good''? Megan, however, is not won over by Cueball's plan, and she tells him that she is going to date "this ''jerk''", poking fun at him saying 'I'll tear down the jerks you date'. This suggests that she would much rather date someone else rather than date Cueball whom she -- as he correctly implies -- does not love.

Cueball declares that the other suitor ''doesn't respect you'', an absurdly hypocritical comment given his manipulative plan. He explained earlier that he would ''tear down the jerks you date''; this last line could also be him actually executing on the plan he just detailed.

The title text is a play on the concept of ''friends with benefits'', wherein two friends have casual sex without entering a committed relationship. ''Friends with detriments'' suggests that having Cueball as her "friend" damages Megan's chances of getting a relationship (and sex) with anyone else, since Cueball will tear any candidate down. Also, despite Cueball claiming to be Megan's friend (and appearing to value this friendship), his plans are rather selfish and manipulative, making him a "friend" who is in fact detrimental.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Megan.]
:Cueball: I have a crush on you.

:[Cueball is shown alone.]
:Cueball: I could ask you out, and move on with my life if you said no.

:[Cueball has his arms out.]
:Cueball: Or,
:Cueball: <big>WE COULD BE FRIENDS!</big>

:[Cueball has one palm out.]
:Cueball: See, I don't want to consider that you might not be attracted to me. I'm scared of rejection, so I've decided relationships should grow smoothly out of friendships.

:[Megan is shown sitting at her computer.]
:Cueball: When you have problems, I'll be there for you, night after night.
:Cueball: Selflessly.
:Computer: *hug*

:[Megan is shown slamming a door and walking to Cueball to get a hug.]
:Cueball: I'll tear down the jerks you date, and wait for you to realize how good I am for you. That only I will ever understand you.
:''SLAM''
:Megan: ''Sniff''
:Cueball: There there

:[Cueball is shown alone again.]
:Cueball: You don't want to hurt my feelings, and I won't ever force the issue. I'll tell myself it's because I "value our friendship."

:[Again.]
:Cueball: Bit by bit, I'll make you depend on me.

:[Cueball and Megan are shown sitting on a rock in a park, reading a book together.]
:Cueball: You'll think about how long it would take to build this kind of connection again.

:[Cueball and Megan are shown sitting on a couch drinking, getting closer, and kissing.]
:Cueball: And in a moment of weakness
:Cueball: and loneliness
:Cueball: you'll give in.

:[Megan is shown sitting at the computer with Cueball behind her facing the other way washing dishes.]
:Cueball: It'll feel comfortable and natural. You'll quietly revise your definition of love and try to be happy. And sometimes you will be.

:[Megan is shown sitting at the computer.]
:Cueball: Only the wistfulness in your gaze and the tiny pause before you say "I love you" will hint that this wasn't the ending you'd hoped for.
:Cueball: Sound good?

:[Megan is holding hands with another boy, talking to Cueball.]
:Megan: ...I'm going to date this jerk.
:Cueball: But he doesn't respect you!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]

998: 2012

2026-02-27T02:00:04Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ link

<noinclude>{{distinguish|2012: Thorough Analysis}}</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 998
| date = January 2, 2012
| title = 2012
| image = 2012.png
| titletext = To compensate for this, I plan to spend 2013 doing nothing but talking about Mayans. My relationships with my friends and family may not fare well.
}}

==Explanation==
This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]] is in reference to the fact that the {{w|Maya civilization|Mayans}}, an ancient civilization in the {{w|Central America|America}}s, created a calendar that ends (or, more accurately: restarts) on December 21, 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the calendar used by the Mayan culture. Knowing this, {{w|2012 phenomenon|some thought that the world was going to end on that date}}.

Consequently, a lot of people were talking about the Mayans, concerned that the world might end. After December 21, 2012 passed uneventfully, everyone was less concerned about the Mayans, because the world didn't end.{{Citation needed}} It is worthy of note that this comic was published nearly a year ''before'' the "significant" date and that Randall predicted both the hype and the aftermath perfectly.

There is a measure of irony to be had in how the Mayans who still exist today were largely ignored by the doomsayers. "Or acknowledging that huge city-building ancient American civilizations existed at all."

In the final frame, [[Megan]] parodies the phrase, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it," applying a twist to suggest an academic context. In most American schools, a Grade Point Average is computed by assigning numeric value to each letter grade: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, and F=0; receiving high marks (all A's) thus yields a 4.0 GPA. However, if you "Fail to learn from History" — that is, get a failing grade, F, and had at least 3 other classes (not an unusual course load) — you would still get a 3.0 with A's in those other classes. With a more common workload of eight courses per year, GPA as high as 3.5 can actually be reached in those circumstances. She is making the callous — if roundabout — observation that failing to grasp history, while no doubt troubling, isn't an academic show-stopper. Her comment may also be taken to suggest that people who feared the Mayan "prediction" of the end of the world would come to pass had failed to appropriately extrapolate from the numerous other faulty {{w|List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events|predictions of the end of the world}}. In fact the Mayans never actually predicted the end of the world with their calendar, they just didn't have infinite stone.{{Citation needed}}

The title text jokes that to make up for the lack of Mayan discussion, Randall plans to spend 2013 talking solely about Mayans. For obvious reasons,{{Citation needed}} people would probably get sick of this very quickly, hence his comment that his relationships might not fare well. Thankfully, as of 2014, not a single published xkcd comic of 2013 featured any Mayans, so we're pretty sure this promise wasn't kept.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are talking.]
:Cueball: Well, it's 2012.

:[Cueball and Megan in frameless panel.]
:Megan: Yup.
:Megan: Only 354 days left until everybody abruptly stops talking about Mayans.

:[Cueball and Megan in wide panel to fit longer text content.]
:Cueball: Or thinking about Mayans.
:Cueball: Or acknowledging that huge city-building ancient American civilizations existed at all.
:Megan: You know what they say — those who fail to learn from history can still manage a 3.0 if they ace their other subjects.

==Trivia==
*December 21 is the 355th day of the year (and the 356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar and because this comic was released on January 2 and 2012 was a leap year there were exactly 354 days left.
*Two years later another New Years comic with just the new years number as the title was released: [[1311: 2014]]. But actually the content of that comic was more related to the previous comic before this one [[997: Wait Wait]], which is also a New Year comic, that took a look at what could happen in 2012, just as 2014 does for 2014... In 2016 a comic, with only the new year as the name theme, occurred again [[1624: 2016]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|2012]]
[[Category:Calendar]]

3211: Amperage

2026-02-24T06:22:46Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ +

{{comic
| number = 3211
| date = February 23, 2026
| title = Amperage
| image = amperage_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x410px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Oh, and do you have any tips on how to vacuum up copper that's melted into your carpet?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a BOT POWERED BY APPROXIMATELY 3217 AMPS (AND IS ON FIRE). Don't remove this notice too soon please.}}
Households usually receive 200 amps (an amount of electricity power) from the utility. Individual circuits often support 15 amps or 20 amps. If one tries to use more power than that from one circuit, the circuit breaker will cut off that circuit. This is annoying, but unwise to bypass.

500 amps is a massive amount of power for a circuit, more than twice what an entire house would use. If you tried to plug in a lamp, everything would start on fire or melt.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3211: Amperage

2026-02-24T06:20:17Z

Lettherebedarklight: fix

{{comic
| number = 3211
| date = February 23, 2026
| title = Amperage
| image = amperage_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x410px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Oh, and do you have any tips on how to vacuum up copper that's melted into your carpet?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a BOT POWERED BY APPROXIMATELY 3217 AMPS (AND WHICH IS CURRENTLY ON FIRE). Don't remove this notice too soon please.}}
Households usually receive 200 amps (an amount of electricity power) from the utility. Individual circuits often support 15 amps or 20 amps. If one tries to use more power than that from one circuit, the circuit breaker will cut off that circuit. This is annoying, but unwise to bypass.

500 amps is a massive amount of power for a circuit, more than twice what an entire house would use. If you tried to plug in a lamp, everything would start on fire or melt.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3210: Eliminating the Impossible

2026-02-21T14:14:15Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ ce

{{comic
| number = 3210
| date = February 20, 2026
| title = Eliminating the Impossible
| image = eliminating_the_impossible_2x.png
| imagesize = 675x349px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'If you've eliminated a few possibilities and you can't think of any others, your weird theory is proven right' isn't quite as rhetorically compelling.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by the one thing that actually was in the car. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

The discussion in this comic plays upon the phrase originating from the fictional Sherlock Holmes (and therefore also his author, {{w|Arthur Conan-Doyle}}) that "[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1196-when-you-have-eliminated-all-which-is-impossible-then-whatever When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,]" which describes Holmes's {{w|abductive reasoning}} used to solve the crimes and mysteries set before him. The point of the original statement is that {{tvtropes|RealityIsUnrealistic|something being ''unlikely'' does not make it ''untrue''}}, and ignoring reality because it is "unlikely" is both absurd and counterproductive to the process of solving a problem. However, this statement is a [https://motleybytes.com/w/HolmesianFallacy fallacy], as nobody is omniscient so it is impossible to rule out all alternatives.

In the real world, it is ''never'' true that eliminating the impossible leaves only a single possible outcome. There are always vast numbers of events that are technically possible, but so vastly improbable that they would be unlikely to ever be observed, even if every subatomic particle in the universe were a universe itself, and were to be observed from Big Bang to heat death. An example would be quantum tunneling of a macroscopic object over a long distance... such as a set of keys from inside a house out to a car.

[[White Hat]] is expounding this principle, to [[Cueball]], as a logical step for some undisclosed purpose. Cueball argues that human error - namely, making a mistake in the 'elimination' process - is also possible, and claims that the logic is faulty on this premise. When White Hat points out that the logic is a guideline for problem-solving, Cueball argues that the possibility of human error when operating on this logic makes the approach unsound. If there is one true version of events, then finding it by this process requires classifying all other possibilities as impossible. While that might be possible for a constrained problem like a detective story or multi-option question, many daily situations require eliminating vast numbers of possibilities while lacking sufficient information to be truly sure that the possibilities have been exhausted.

In the final panel, Cueball demonstrates a practical example of human error causing this issue. When a person is looking for their possessions, their first option is to search the house in which they presently are, while their second option is to search their mode of transportation (especially in the case of possessions that are regularly brought to and from other locations). White Hat agrees that he himself has been in the situation where he has searched the entire house, not found what he is looking for, assumes it is in the car, and then fails to locate it in the car as well. There are other possibilities, but the tendency to jump to conclusions (possibly by misuse of the quote) can lead to those being ignored. Additional possibilities:
* The house has not been fully searched, with the item left in some obscured corner, a clothing pocket that is in the laundry, or even a vent or pipe that one could not practically access.
* The car has not been fully searched, because the item slid between two seats or was deeper in a glove compartment than the searcher thought possible.
* It is common for people to fail to see a thing even though it is present, sometimes even clearly in view, because of momentary cognitive glitching, {{w|The Purloined Letter|poor assumptions}}, or more fundamental cognitive failures such as {{w|visual agnosia}}. Another Holmes quotation is relevant: "[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/205730-you-see-but-you-do-not-observe You see, but you do not observe.]"
* The searcher forgets that they took the item to some other location, or wishfully ignores that possibility because it is far away and/or inconvenient to search.
* The searcher has never taken the item anywhere other than the house or car, but is unaware that someone or something else moved it.
* The item may have been destroyed or altered in a way that makes it unrecognizable when found.

The title text goes further in deconstructing how the quote might result in a logically incorrect {{w|argument from ignorance}}. Although, in fiction, there is a {{tvtropes|TheoryOfNarrativeCausality|Law of Narrative Causality}}, by which events are successfully resolved in the way that the plot requires them to be resolved, stating this approach as a logical rule would normally be {{tvtropes|LampshadeHanging|narratively unsatisfying}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[White Hat and Cueball are standing together and talking. White Hat has one hand slightly raised.]
:White Hat: As Sherlock Holmes said,
:White Hat: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

:[Close-up of Cueball's head.]
:Cueball: What about the possibility that you forgot to eliminate a possibility?
:Cueball: Or that you eliminated one incorrectly?
:Cueball: Both of those remain, too.

:[Zoom back out to show both. Cueball holds his arms out.]
:White Hat: You're being pedantic.
:White Hat: It's just a general rule for deduction.
:Cueball: But it's a ''bad rule.''

:[Cueball holds up one finger.]
:Cueball: How often have you thought, "I can't find this thing, and I've searched the whole house. The only place I haven't looked is the car, so it ''must'' be there."
:White Hat: ...and then it's never in the car.
:Cueball: ''It's never in the car!''

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Pedantic]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

1245: 10-Day Forecast

2026-02-21T09:56:56Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ fix

{{comic
| number = 1245
| date = July 31, 2013
| title = 10-Day Forecast
| image = 10 day forecast.png
| titletext = Oh, definitely not; they don't have Amazon Prime.
}}

==Explanation==
A 10-day forecast is a prediction of the weather extending 10 days into the future. Due to the chaotic nature of weather systems, the accuracy of forecasts decreases drastically the further ahead you try to predict.

When [[Cueball]] checks the forecast for his local area, it starts off predicting normal sunny weather, but quickly devolves into progressively extreme lightning storms, then a plague of insects which appear to be locusts, what appears to be {{w|Rapture|The Rapture}}, and the appearance of a demon-like creature. Upon the arrival of the creature (perhaps the {{w|Antichrist}} or {{w|Woden}}) appearing, the forecast falls into static and nothingness with the day stuck on Tuesday, implying that the world has ended.

When asked about this, [[Megan]] casually explains that Cueball put a minus (-) sign in front of his ZIP code. A {{w|Zone Improvement Plan|ZIP code}} is a numeric postal code used in the United States. As ZIP codes are tied to a geographic location, it is also often used as an easy way for people to specify their local region for the purposes of weather reports.

Many computer systems that allow the user to enter a number have a range of applicability, such as positive numbers only. If the user enters a number that doesn't make sense, then the system must somehow deal with this number. Common ways to do this are to simply disallow the user from entering invalid numbers, or to return an error condition if the entered number is invalid. However, if the system has not been given any way to deal with an unexpected number, it will simply use it, which can result in unpredictable or erroneous behavior, such as accessing or overwriting unintended locations in memory.

When this kind of anomaly occurs in video games, particular older ones such as those on the {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}}, it can result in levels being created from arbitrary data, producing a corrupted, physically-impossible (yet sometimes playable) level; this is popularly known as a "{{tvtropes|MinusWorld|Minus World}}". Because the level can be reproduced by using a particular invalid value, it is in some sense true to say that the level "exists" within the game, even though it was not intended.

In the comic, the joke is that somehow, "minus zipcodes" do exist, and do correspond to physical locations - but, by analogy with Minus Worlds in video games, are bizarre and incomprehensible places compared to the regular zip codes.

In the title text, Megan agrees with Cueball's desire not to move to that ZIP code area, the punchline being that her reason isn't to avoid the apocalypse, but to retain access to {{w|Amazon Prime}}, which shows that her priorities are amusingly bizarre. The service Amazon Prime is provided by {{w|Amazon.com|Amazon}},{{cn}} where the user pays a flat annual fee and in exchange they get access a number of "enhanced" Amazon services, including free two-day shipping, free access to a library of streaming videos, and the ability to borrow books.

Later, a [[1606: Five-Day Forecast|Five-Day Forecast]] was also made into a comic.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits behind a computer desk when Megan calls to him.]
:Megan (off-panel): Is it going to rain this weekend? I have a thing.
:Cueball: Lemme check.
:*type type*
:Cueball: ...Uhh. What?

:[A caption is written above ten small panels in two rows. In each panel is an indication of the weather. Below each panel a label tells which day it is referring too.]
:'''Your 10-day forecast:'''
:[A yellow sun.]
:Today
:[Two gray clouds in front of the sun.]
:Tomorrow
:[Thunderstorms, with three gray clouds and a single lightning bolt.]
:Friday
:[Extreme thunderstorms with many large gray clouds and seven lightning bolts]
:Saturday
:[A swarm of insects, with one large black one close by and seven others close enough to discern details. The rest of the swarm is grayed out and just shown as small dots behind these other eight insects.]
:Sunday
:[Images of distorted people with very long legs. One Megan, one Cueball and someone in the background.]
:Monday
:[A humanoid figure with two large horns or a winged helmet silhouetted against a bleak red background. The ground beneath the figure is black.]
:Tuesday
:[Grey static]
:Tuesday
:[Black screen]
:Tuesday
:[Black screen]
:Tuesday

:[Megan has entered the panel and stands behind Cueball looking at his laptop over his shoulder. She points to the screen. Cueball holds his hand to his chest.]
:Megan: ...Oh! You typed a minus sign in the ZIP code. The negative ZIP codes are all like that.
:Cueball: Let's ''never'' move there.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Demons]]

2632: Greatest Scientist

2026-02-19T08:09:58Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Table of Experiments */ fix

{{comic
| number = 2632
| date = June 13, 2022
| title = Greatest Scientist
| image = Greatest Scientist.png
| titletext = "Ow! One of the petri dishes I left on the tower railing fell and hit me on the head. Hey, that gives me an idea..."
}}

==Explanation==

This comic takes the feats of seven of history's most acclaimed scientists and combines them into one fictional act, claiming that this person was the greatest scientist in history. The joke is that pulling off a combination of all of these would be rather impressive{{Citation needed}} from a technical standpoint, but would have little value as a scientific experiment; almost none of the things being tested are directly related to each other.

These scientists are {{w|Thales of Miletus}}, {{w|Galileo Galilei}}, {{w|Benjamin Franklin}}, {{w|Alexander Fleming}}, {{w|Ivan Pavlov}}, {{w|Eratosthenes}}, and {{w|Isaac Newton}}.

The ground is noticeably curved in this comic, because the curvature of the Earth is mentioned and measured.

Humorously combining multiple science experiments into one was also a punchline in [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]]. Curved floors to represent Earths curvature were mentioned in [[2412: 1/100,000th Scale World]].

==Table of experiments==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ List of experiments in the comic
|-
! Experiment in comic !! Experiment in reality !! Meaning !! Scientist
|-
| Measuring the shadow of a tall building|| Tradition holds that {{w|Thales of Miletus}} measured the shadow of the {{w|Great Pyramid of Giza}}, and used geometry he had recently proven to calculate its height. || Thales was the first known person to actually prove mathematical fact rather than simply notice it, and as such he is considered the father of both math and science. His development of the theory of similar triangles in particular paved the way for many later discoveries, such as the Pythagorean theorem and Eratosthenes' measurement of the earth.|| {{w|Thales of Miletus}}
|-
| The Leaning Tower of Pisa || {{w|Galileo}} conducted [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo%27s_Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa_experiment an experiment] at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where he dropped two objects to measure whether the rate at which objects fall is dependent on weight or is constant. || Galileo found that objects with different weights fall at the same rate, disproving Aristotle's statement which purported the opposite. Galileo was not the first scientist to run such an experiment (and there is some debate whether he ran the experiment himself or not) but Galileo's version is notable for furthering the idea of experimentation in science, in opposition to the then-prevailing view that knowledge is learned by studying the writings of the ancients.|| {{w|Galileo Galilei}}
|-
|Flying a kite into a thunderstorm with lightning || In June 1752, Benjamin Franklin performed his famous {{w|kite experiment}} in which he attached a conductive wire to a kite and flew it near a thunderstorm. Attached to the kite was a key, which was further attached to a {{w|Leyden jar}}. || While the kite was not hit by lightning, "Franklin did notice that loose threads of the kite string were repelling each other and deduced that the Leyden jar was being charged." This is sometimes considered the discovery of the fact that lightning contains/is electricity. || {{w|Benjamin Franklin}}
|-
| Two moldy petri dishes || In August 1928, Alexander Fleming put ''Staphylococcus aureus'' into multiple petri dishes and then left to go on holiday/vacation. On September 3, he returned and found that one plate had mold on it. The moldy plate was the only one that no longer had ''S. aureus'' bacteria in it. He later repeated this experiment and {{w|History_of_penicillin#The_breakthrough_discovery|the result was confirmed}}. || The mold that Fleming had discovered produced penicillin, an antibiotic. This was the first time that a substance had been discovered that could ''reliably'' treat bacterial infections, having a huge impact on medicine across the world. || Sir {{w|Alexander Fleming}}
|-
| Salivating dog located next to a bell || [https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html In 1902 Ivan Pavlov conducted a study on dog reflexes] by giving dogs food and simultaneously ringing a bell. When the dog smelled and saw the food, it started salivating. Eventually, simply ringing the bell made the dog salivate, as the dog had associated the bell ringing with food. Pavlov also performed other, less humane experiments on other dogs. || This was the discovery of {{w|classical conditioning}}, where a stimulus is paired with an unrelated other thing through repeated exposure. The subject will eventually react to the unrelated thing in the absence of the stimulus. This is an example of taught reflexes, where a subconsious reaction like a reflex or instinct is taught. || {{W|Ivan Pavlov}}
|-
| The shadow angle of the dog determining the circumference of the Earth || |In the 200s BCE, the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes {{w|Earth's_circumference#Eratosthenes|measured the circumference of the Earth}}. While his exact method has been lost to time, a simplified version remains: At high noon on the summer solstice in Syene, Egypt, the sun was almost directly overhead. This was confirmed with a sundial. 5,000 stadia away in Alexandria, at the same time, the angle of the sun was measured with another sundial and converted into a fraction of the Earth's circumference. Some simple multiplication could then yield the circumference of the Earth. || The distance Eratosthenes calculated for the circumference of Earth was 250,000 stadia. This estimate was either 2.4% low or 0.8% high compared to modern knowledge, depending on whether he used Greek or Egyptian stadia - a remarkably accurate estimate for the time. || {{w|Eratosthenes}}
|-
| (Title text) A petri dish falling on the scientist's head, leading to a new discovery || Sir Isaac Newton, an inventor of calculus and discoverer of his famous {{w|Newton's laws of motion|Laws of Motion}}, also determined the basic mechanics of {{w|gravity}}. Newton apparently told acquaintances that his inquiries into gravity were {{w|Isaac_Newton#Apple_story|"occasion'd by the fall of an apple"}}, and this is often embellished into a story where Newton came up with the notion of gravity when an apple fell from a tree and hit him on the head. Regardless of what the apple really landed on, this purportedly led Newton to consider the question of what ''exactly'' caused the apple to fall straight to the ground. || This line of thinking ultimately let him to deduce the {{w|Law of Universal Gravitation}}, which is fundamental to understanding celestial mechanics. || Sir {{w|Isaac Newton}}
|}

==Transcript==
:[A segment of the Earth is shown where the ground is noticeably curved, low at the edges and highest in the middle. On the left of the panel, there are one tall, but leaning tower, three smaller buildings, two trees and a small plant representing Pisa, Italy. The tower represents the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Cueball is standing in front of the left most building. The height of the tower is labeled h1 against a locally non-leaning dotted line, the length of its shadow upon the grounds is marked L1, the angle from ground at the end of the shadow to the tip of the tower is labelled θ1. Held by an indistinct figure (possibly Black Hat) at the top of the tower, there is a kite string which goes in a upward sloping curve to a kite. The kite is in the top right corner with it's tail pointing away from the kite to the right. Just above and to the left of the kite there is a cloud with a lightning bolt coming out beneath it. Beneath the kite there is a string down to a rectangular device, that seems to have two arms beneath it. These seems to have dropped two items, as indicated with dotted lines going down towards the ground in two parallel and straight lines. It turns out to be two disks that fell from the kite, and just above the ground they hit a bell supported on curved pin. As they hit the bell is makes two sounds. Next to the bell is a small dog with it's tongue hanging out. A horizontal line above the dog and its shadow is labeled (and possibly broken up by) h2, the length of its shadow on the ground L2, and the angle up from the far end of the shadow to the tip of the dog θ2. To the left of the dog there is a three and two smaller plants. Between Pisa and the dog, near the middle part of the curved there are various distant pyramids near the horizon. This section of the ground are very nearly horizontal to the image. All buildings in 'Pisa', the dropping disks and the supported bell/dog at the other side of the scene and various trees and plants around each end are locally-vertical in a radial manner, except for the Tower Of Pisa which is almost vertical to the image in exhibiting its local 'lean'. The two θ angles are clearly different but the dotted diagonal segments they define head in the same drawn direction from the tips of the shadows to the tips of their objects. The Sun is not illustrated but would be somewhere to the left of the image and upwards to cause the measured shadows.]
:Left labels: h1 θ1 L1
:Right labels: h2 θ2 L2
:Bell: Ding ding

:[Caption below the panel:]
:History's greatest scientist was probably that one who measured the shadow of the Leaning Tower of Pisa while flying a kite into a distant thunderstorm where lightning caused two moldy Petri dishes to fall onto a bell next to a salivating dog whose shadow angle determined the circumference of the Earth.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Kites]]
[[Category:Animals]]

3209: Plums

2026-02-19T07:08:31Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ rm

{{comic
| number = 3209
| date = February 18, 2026
| title = Plums
| image = plums_2x.png
| imagesize = 251x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My icebox plum trap easily captured William Carlos Williams. It took much less work than the infinite looping network of diverging paths I had to build in that yellow wood to ensnare Robert Frost.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a rebellious icebox. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is a reference to the poem [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56159/this-is-just-to-say This Is Just to Say], in which the narrator is apologizing for eating the plums in the icebox. In this comic, the joke is that Cueball cannot resist eating the plums from the icebox as a reference to the poem.

The title-text is a joke about trapping poets with references to their own poems, referencing another well-known poem, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken The Road Not Taken] by Robert Frost.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop on it. He is looking backward towards someone offscreen.]
:Out of view: I got you the ingredients for dinner tonight.
:Out of view: Oh, and the plums in the fridge drawer are for my yogurt tomorrow; you should just leave them.
:Out of view: Be back later!
:Cueball, thinking: Oh no.
:Caption: Help. It actually happened. I shouldn't, but how can I not!?
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3207: Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

2026-02-14T08:57:17Z

Lettherebedarklight: red

{{comic
| number = 3207
| date = February 13, 2026
| title = Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination
| image = bad_map_projection_zero_declination.png
| imagesize = 740x544px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'The zero line in WMM2025 passes through a lot of population centers; I wonder what year the largest share of the population lived in a zone of less than 5° of declination,' he thought, derailing all other tasks for the rest of the day.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by a misaligned map. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is the tenth comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series, displaying Bad Map Projection #216: Zero Declination.

While the Earth's magnetic field is broadly aligned North-South, the actual alignment of the magnetic field varies over time and position. The difference between True North (the axis of Earth's rotation) and Magnetic North (the direction a compass will point) will vary depending on your position, and is known as the {{w|Magnetic Declination}} of that point.

The comic shows a map that has been distorted based on the Magnetic Declination such that Magnetic North for every point is pointed toward the top of the map. If this were reality, then Magnetic North would always be aligned with True North, or in other words, there would be Zero Declination at all points.

The red arrows indicate the distortions from the starting map required to make Magnetic North be at the top.

In the title text, "WMM2025" refers to the 2025 version of the {{w|World Magnetic Model}}, a representation of the Earth's magnetic field. You can see it [https://web.archive.org/web/20260212034745/https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/inline-images/D.jpg here]. The "zero line" is in green, which shows where in the world magnetic declension is 0°. [[Randall]] has presumably wasted a day trying to figure out what year has had the most population living in an area of less than 5° declension by searching through previous WMM maps. He appears to have not found the answer, so explainxkcd requests its readers to finish the job.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]
[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]

3207: Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

2026-02-14T08:21:16Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ ce

3207: Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

2026-02-14T08:19:31Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ fix

{{comic
| number = 3207
| date = February 13, 2026
| title = Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination
| image = bad_map_projection_zero_declination.png
| imagesize = 740x544px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'The zero line in WMM2025 passes through a lot of population centers; I wonder what year the largest share of the population lived in a zone of less than 5° of declination,' he thought, derailing all other tasks for the rest of the day.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by a misaligned map. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is the tenth comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series, displaying Bad Map Projection #216: Zero Declination.

While the Earth's magnetic field is broadly aligned North-South, the actual alignment of the magnetic field varies over time and position. The difference between True North (the axis of Earth's rotation) and Magnetic North (the direction a compass will point) will vary depending on your position, and is known as the {{w|Magnetic Declination}} of that point.

The comic shows a map that has been distorted based on the Magnetic Declination such that Magnetic North for every point is pointed toward the top of the map. If this were reality, then Magnetic North would always be aligned with True North, or in other words, there would be Zero Declination at all points.

The red arrows indicate the distortions from the starting map required to make Magnetic North be at the top.

In the title text, "WMM2025" refers to the 2025 version of the {{w|World Magnetic Model}}, a representation of the Earth's magnetic field. You can see the "zero line" in green [https://web.archive.org/web/20260212034745/https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/inline-images/D.jpg here], which shows where in the world magnetic declension is 0°. [[Randall]] has presumably wasted a day trying to figure out what year has had the most population living in an area of less than 5° declension by searching through previous WMM maps. He appears to have not found the answer, so explainxkcd requests its readers to finish the job.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]

3207: Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

2026-02-14T08:18:59Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ +

{{comic
| number = 3207
| date = February 13, 2026
| title = Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination
| image = bad_map_projection_zero_declination.png
| imagesize = 740x544px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'The zero line in WMM2025 passes through a lot of population centers; I wonder what year the largest share of the population lived in a zone of less than 5° of declination,' he thought, derailing all other tasks for the rest of the day.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by a misaligned map. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is the tenth comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series, displaying Bad Map Projection #216: Zero Declination.

While the Earth's magnetic field is broadly aligned North-South, the actual alignment of the magnetic field varies over time and position. The difference between True North (the axis of Earth's rotation) and Magnetic North (the direction a compass will point) will vary depending on your position, and is known as the {{w|Magnetic Declination}} of that point.

The comic shows a map that has been distorted based on the Magnetic Declination such that Magnetic North for every point is pointed toward the top of the map. If this were reality, then Magnetic North would always be aligned with True North, or in other words, there would be Zero Declination at all points.

The red arrows indicate the distortions from the starting map required to make Magnetic North be at the top.

In the title text, "WMM2025" refers to the 2025 version of the {{w|World Magnetic Model}}, a representation of the Earth's magnetic field. You can see the "0° line" in green [https://web.archive.org/web/20260212034745/https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/inline-images/D.jpg here], which shows where in the world magnetic declension is 0°. [[Randall]] has presumably wasted a day trying to figure out what year has had the most population living in an area of 0° declension by searching through previous WMM maps. He appears to have not found the answer, so explainxkcd requests its readers to finish the job.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]

2568: Spinthariscope

2026-02-13T07:02:51Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ not sure what this has to do with the comic?

{{comic
| number = 2568
| date = January 14, 2022
| title = Spinthariscope
| image = spinthariscope.png
| titletext = Other high scorers are melt-in-your-hand aluminum-destroying gallium and tritium-powered glowsticks. Lawn darts are toward the other end.
}}

==Explanation==
This is another comic with one of [[Randall|Randall's]] [[:Category:Fun fact|fun facts]]. As stated in the comic, a {{w|spinthariscope}} is a device with a small amount of radioactive material ({{w|americium}} or {{w|thorium}}) and a screen. When one of the radioactive atoms decays, it emits an {{w|alpha particle}}, which strikes the screen, which emits a small flash of light. You can see these flashes by looking through a lens. It was invented in 1903 initially as a scientific instrument but was soon replaced by more accurate and quantitative devices. But the original device was still popular for some time as an educational toy for children, and you can still get them today in some places.

The joke in the comic is that most people have little understanding of radiation and overreact to any mention that something is radioactive. So, when Cueball tells Megan, White Hat, and Ponytail that the toy contains radioactive material, they're shocked and scared. But the amount of radioactive material in the toy is very tiny and the radiation is itself so trivially contained that there's practically no risk from it. The short-ranged {{w|alpha particles}} are likely stopped by the lens through which the harmless flashes of light (from particles that instead hit and neutralise in the internal screen element) are seen.

The fun fact in the caption says that Spinthariscopes have the highest ratio of "that can't possibly be safe and legal" to actual safety and legality of any known toy. When people hear about Spinthariscopes for the first time, they often assume, due to the radioactive material inside, that they must be extremely dangerous. They thus also question if such a toy is at all legal to make or own in the first place. But the fact is that Spinthariscopes are both safe and legal to make, sell, and own in the United States. So, the perceived danger and presumption that it must be illegal is at an extremely high number, and the actual danger and the actual illegality results in a very low number on the same scale. It is this ratio between perceived and actual danger and illegality that are the highest for Spinthariscopes, higher than for any other known toy.

The formulation, however, causes some confusion, because the caption uses actual safety and legality (high) instead of actual danger and illegality (low). Instead of a high ratio between perceived danger and actual danger, the result is an even ratio between perceived danger and actual safety, which are both high. The ratios for the other mentioned toys would also be even, as they have low perceived danger and low actual safety. This is obviously not the intended meaning, as the other toys are said to be toward the other end of the scale.

The title text mentions some other materials/toys that sound dangerous but aren't. {{w|Gallium}} is a metallic element with a low melting point of 29.76°C (85.568°F) so it will melt in your hand. Additionally, gallium has strange properties when it interacts with aluminum, causing aluminum to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgXNwLoS-Hw "melt"] or become brittle. {{w|Tritium}} is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, but {{w|Tritium radioluminescence|can be used}} to create {{w|glowstick}}s and other lighted objects. Though these two toys might seem dangerous, they are actually typically used perfectly safely.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is {{w|lawn darts}}, a toy containing large darts that are thrown into the air to fall back down onto a target that's placed or marked upon the ground quite near the players' positions. Unlike the spinthariscope, which sounds dangerous but is actually harmless, lawn darts sound relatively innocent but can cause severe injury if you accidentally hit a person (and a few children were even {{w|Lawn darts|killed}}), so they were {{w|Lawn_darts#Safety_and_bans_in_the_U.S._and_Canada|banned in the US and Canada}} in the 1980s. When sharpened, these toys even [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EFAVGIylqE compare] quite favorably to {{w|plumbata|antique weapons of war}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a small item up in on hand in front of his three friends. Megan has her arms lifted and bent in front of her, White Hat has his arms raised over his head and Ponytail is pointing at Cueball while her other hand, held down behind her, is balled into a fist.]
:Cueball: It's a spinthariscope, a 1940s toy with a radioactive isotope inside. If you let your eyes adjust to total darkness and look into the lens, you can see the flashes of individual atoms decaying.
:Megan: What??
:White Hat: ''Aaaaa!''
:Ponytail: Get it away!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Fun fact: Spinthariscopes have the highest ratio of "that can't possibly be safe and legal" to actual safety and legality of any known toy.

==Trivia==
This was the third comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Fun fact]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3202: Groundhog Day Meaning

2026-02-05T06:13:13Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ +

{{comic
| number = 3202
| date = February 2, 2026
| title = Groundhog Day Meaning
| image = groundhog_day_meaning_2x.png
| imagesize = 257x378px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Originally, the ceremony used a variety of rodents and mustelids, but over time most people agreed it made sense to standardize on a specific individual ground squirrel in Pennsylvania.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a bot on its 4,268th loop. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic was posted on {{w|Groundhog Day}}, February 2nd. [[Cueball]] is shown explaining the holiday to [[Black Hat]].

Groundhog Day originates from German {{w|weather lore#Candlemas_and_animals|weather lore}} about the behaviour of {{w|European_badger|badgers}} (among other animals) on the {{w|Candlemas}} holiday observed on 2 February. This tradition was brought over to the new world by German emigrants and turned into a superstition regarding the behavior of a {{w|groundhog}} (a type of {{w|rodent}}). Supposedly, if the groundhog does not see its shadow, the spring thaw is predicted to happen shortly thereafter. If it does see its shadow, it is frightened and retreats into its burrow, and six more weeks of winter await. The most famous prediction each year, broadcast across the U.S., has come to rest on a specific individual groundhog, named {{w|Punxsutawney Phil}}, in Pennsylvania.

''{{w|Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day}}'' is also the title of a 1993 film starring {{w|Bill Murray}}. In the film, Murray's character is trapped in a {{w|time loop}} centered on Groundhog Day; no matter how his day ends — whether by falling asleep at the end of the day or dying somewhere during the event — the world, and everyone around him, resets to that same morning. However, Murray's character retains all memories of the previous day. In English-speaking cultures the movie has {{tvtropes|GroundhogDayLoop|become synonymous}} with the plot element of a time loop (and, by extension, tediously repetitive events). The film has previously been featured in [[1076: Groundhog Day]].

The overall joke of the comic is that Groundhog Day is the weirdest of all the holidays we recognize, at least by Randall's measure. If one were to explain holidays to someone with no familiarity at all (represented here by Black Hat), most holidays would describe a feast in celebration or the observance of some solemn event. In contrast, Groundhog Day seems to be nothing more than watching a rodent running around its burrow and using that to try and predict the weather. Then, because of the film, the phrase has come to have a completely different, rather strange meaning in modern culture. It's the juxtaposition of two odd concepts that elevates Groundhog Day to its special status.

The title text refers to the process of {{w|System_of_units_of_measurement#History|standardizing measurement units}}, which typically involves forming a consensus among many people from a wide range of places. Basing a weather prediction on rodents (such as groundhogs) and {{w|mustelids}} (such as badgers) is ridiculous to start with, and basing it on a ''single individual'' (who may be thousands of miles / kilometres away) is even more so. As with [[927: Standards|most attempts to unify standards]], while most people may have settled on one (i.e. {{w|Punxsutawney Phil}}), there are still [https://countdowntogroundhogday.com/groundhogs-from-around-the-world many holdouts] who continue to cleave to their preferred system.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Cueball and Black Hat are standing next to each other, talking. Cueball has one arm up.]
:Cueball: Historically, it refers to a ceremony to predict the weather using a rodent.
:Cueball: But nowadays people often use it to mean "a time loop experienced by one person."
:Black Hat: ...what.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Easily our weirdest holiday.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Movies]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

1253: Exoplanet Names

2026-02-01T05:10:43Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ archive

{{comic
| number = 1253
| date = August 19, 2013
| title = Exoplanet Names
| image = exoplanet names.png
| titletext = If you have any ideas, I hear you can send them to <nowiki>iaupublic@iap.fr</nowiki>.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic would later be updated in [[1555: Exoplanet Names 2]]. On the 14th of August, 2013, the {{w|International Astronomical Union}} (IAU) [https://www.iau.org/science/news/179/ issued a document] about public naming of astronomical objects. It stated, "IAU fully supports the involvement of the general public, whether directly or through an independent organized vote, in the naming of planetary satellites, newly discovered planets, and their host stars."

The caption above the comic states the fact above and then notes that the IAU immediately regret this decision. As we can see from [[Cueball|Cueball's]] question, from [[Ponytail]]'s facepalm, and the fact that even [[Megan]] is speechless, the suggestions are appalling. It becomes even worse when [[Hairbun]] tells them that an automatic filter has already been applied to the results, one designed to remove inappropriate entries that don't meet certain criteria. This implies that the list would have been even worse if presented in its unfiltered form (as seen below in the table).

The naming document also contained, amongst other things, guidelines that suggested names should meet. These include stipulations such as "16 characters or less", "preferably one word", being "pronounceable (in as many languages as possible)", "not too similar to an existing name of an astronomical object", avoiding commercial names, and being "respectful of intellectual property". If we go down the list, we can see that many of [[Randall|Randall's]] suggestions do indeed violate the guidelines. Which is part of the joke as it reflects the tendency of internet submissions to ignore such softly suggested guidelines.

The randomness and inappropriateness of the suggested names reflects the commonly expected response from anonymous submitters on the internet. Many forums and contests that call for online response and do not apply strict control over the responses receive similar collections of random, inappropriate and obscure submissions that are often only tangentially related to the original subject. For example, Greenpeace held a naming contest for one of the whales recently tagged in their research and preservation campaign and even after selecting the finalists the online voting resulted in naming the whale "Mr. Splashypants". PepsiCo had even less restrictive controls in their marketing campaign that asked the internet to name a new flavor of Mountain Dew. They had to shut down the contest in order to avoid naming the new beverage "Hitler did nothing wrong" which was the current leader at the time and only marginally the most inappropriate of the top ten voted suggestions. Even more recently is the case of {{w|Boaty McBoatface}}, in which the internet decided to dub a British research vessel "Boaty McBoatface". The boat was given the name {{w|RRS Sir David Attenborough}} in the end, with its Autonomous Underwater Vehicle being called "Boaty McBoatface".

The document also states that naming suggestions may be sent to the email that Randall included in the title text.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Star !! Planet !! Suggested Name !! Explanation
|-
! rowspan=7 | {{w|Gliese 667}}
| {{w|Gliese 667 Cb|b}}
| Space Planet
| A very unoriginal name; every planet is in space.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| {{w|Gliese 667 Cc|c}}
| PILF
| Pun of {{w|MILF pornography|MILF}}, i.e. ''Planet I'd Like to Fuck''. Planet c is a relatively hot planet, within the habitable zone.
|-
| {{w|Gliese 667 Cd|d}}
| A Star
| "A {{w|Star}}" is obviously a bad name for a planet. A* (pronounced "A star") is already used in astronomy, for example the Milky Way's black hole core is {{w|Sagittarius A*}}. "A star" is also the name for the character {{w|asterisk}} and the name of the popular {{w|A* search algorithm}} in computer science. It also suggests that the planet is a star.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| {{w|Gliese 667 Ce|e}}
| e'); DROP TABLE PLANETS;--
| A reference to {{w|SQL injection}}, riffing off of [[327: Exploits of a Mom]], which featured a schoolboy named <code>[[Little Bobby Tables|Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;--]]</code>. The idea here is that the IAU would enter the name into their system and promptly lose all of their data pertaining to planets. Note that Planet e is located in the habitable zone of the star system.
|-
| {{w|Gliese 667 Cf|f}}
| Blogosphere
| rowspan = 2 | Weird ''{{w|blog}}''-related terms are a recurring theme in xkcd. See, for instance, [[181|comic 181]].
|-
| {{w|Gliese 667 Cg|g}}
| Blogodrome
|-
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/gj_667c_h/ h]
| Earth
| Planet candidate h is about the mass of the Earth, and described as "tantalizing": [https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2013/08/aa21331-13/aa21331-13.html A dynamically-packed planetary system around GJ with three super-Earths in its habitable zone]. See also ([[1231: Habitable Zone]]).
|-
! rowspan=5 | {{w|Tau Ceti}}
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/tau_cet_b/ b]
| Sid Meier's Tau Ceti B
| This refers to the game {{w|Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri}}.
|-
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/tau_cet_c/ c]
| Giant Dog Planet
| {{w|VY Canis Majoris}} is one of the largest known stars at our galaxy and belongs to the constellation {{w|Canis Major}}, Latin for "greater dog". The constellation further contains {{w|Sirius}}, the brightest star in the night sky, also called "Dog Star".
|-
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/tau_cet_d/ d]
| Tiny Dog Planet
| cf. {{w|Canis Minor}}, Latin for "lesser dog", another constellation.
|-
| {{w|Tau Ceti e|e}}
| Phil Plainet
| A reference to {{w|Phil Plait}}, a.k.a. The Bad Astronomer.
|-
| {{w|Tau Ceti f|f}}
| Unicode Snowman
| The Unicode character ☃ may be a reference to the planet's estimated surface temperature of -40 °C (-40 °F). However, this name would be pronounced differently (being a symbol, not a word or name) in different languages. Planets in our solar system are assigned to {{w|Astronomical symbols|astronomical symbols}} like ♁ for Earth or ♂ for Mars. (A unicode snowman is also referenced in Randall's book ''What If'', where it is keymapped to a laptop.)
|-
! {{w|Gliese 832}}
| {{w|Gliese 832 b|b}}
| Asshole Jupiter
| This massive planet orbits a {{w|red dwarf}} star at the longest known period of 3416 days at this category.
|-
! rowspan=6 | {{w|Gliese 581}}
| {{w|Gliese 581 b|b}}
| Waist-deep Cats
| Likely a reference to {{w|Lolcat}}s, which are a series of images of cats captioned with poorly-written and/or spelled English.
|-
| {{w|Gliese|c}}
| Planet #14
| About 200th discovered exoplanet (in 2007); reported to be the first potentially Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of its star, though that is in doubt now. The joke might be that like "Space Planet", "Planet #14" is a generic and unoriginal name. Also note that this is the 15th entry in the table so the numbering is {{w|Zero-based_numbering|zero-based}}.
An interesting (?) coincidence is that the 14th and 15th {{w|Definition of planet#Minor planets|Minor planets}} (then called asteroids) were discovered in 1851; see see {{w|List of minor planets: 1–1000}}. If they were to be counted among the planets of the {{w|Solar System}}, as was sometimes done then, the 14th known planetary body would be {{w| 7 Iris|Iris}} (discovered in 1847, a year before {{w|Neptune}}).
|-
| {{w|Gliese 581 d|d}}
| Ballderaan
| A {{w|wikt:balls|crude pun}} on the planet {{w|Alderaan}} from the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe.
|-
| {{w|Gliese 581 e|e}}
| Eternia Prime
| {{w|Eternia}} is a fictional planet, venue of the ''{{w|Masters of the Universe}}'' animated series and toy collection.
|-
| {{w|Gliese 581 f|f}}
| Taupe Mars
| {{w|Kim Stanley Robinson}}'s award-winning {{w|Mars trilogy}} (''Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars'' after various stages of {{w|terraformation}}). {{w|Taupe}} is a brownish-grey color.
|-
| {{w|Gliese|g}}
| Jelly-Filled Planet
| Possibly a reference to the conjecture that this tidally locked planet has an isolated habitable zone under the substellar point, akin to the pocket of jelly in a jelly doughnut.
|-
! rowspan=2 | {{w|Epsilon Eridani}}
| {{w|Epsilon Eridani b|b}}
| Skydot
| [https://skydot.lanl.gov SkyDOT] is the Sky Database for Objects in Time-Domain run by {{w|LANL}} for the {{w|U.S. Dept. of Energy}} and includes data for [https://skydot.lanl.gov/nsvs/star.php?num=14831575&mask=32004 Epsilon Eridani] that can be used to constrain the orbital parameters of ε Eri b. It may also refer to how objects in space may appear as bland, bright dots in the night sky.
|-
| {{w|Epsilon Eridani c#Planet_c|c}}
| Laser Noises
| A {{w|Laser}} does not produce {{w|Noise (electronics)|noise}} in the signal sense; it only works at a well-defined frequency. In science fiction films, however, laser weapon discharges are usually accompanied by sound ("pew pew" or the like). Sun-like Epsilon Eridani became a popular setting for science fiction after its publicity as a target of the {{w|Project Ozma}} experiment.
|-
! rowspan=2 | {{w|Gliese 176}}
| {{w|Gliese 176 b|b}}
| Pandora
| The mythological name {{w|Pandora}} fulfills most of IAU's guidelines and has been popular for planets in science fiction; most recently and famously is {{w|Pandora (Avatar)|the venue}} of James Cameron's ''{{w|Avatar (film)|Avatar}}'' (although actually it is not a planet but just a moon of a gas giant in Alfa Centauri A). It is also a hellish planet from {{w|Frank Herbert}}'s {{w|Frank Herbert bibliography#WorShip novels|WorShip}} series of novels, a jungle planet in Brothers Strugatsky's {{w|Noon Universe}} and the planet used in {{w|Borderlands (video game)|Borderlands Games}}.
|-
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/gj_176_c/ c]
| Pantera
| Named for the {{w|Pantera|heavy metal band}}, which itself was named after an Italian sports car, the {{w|De Tomaso Pantera}}.
|-
! Kepler-61
| {{w|Kepler-61b|b}}
| GoldenPalace.com
| A gambling website, known for {{w|GoldenPalace.com|paying to have their name in unusual places}} (like forehead tattoos, species names...).
|-
! colspan=4 | Right column
|-
! rowspan=3 | {{w|Upsilon Andromedae}}
| {{w|Upsilon Andromedae c|c}}
| Stampy
| Most likely a reference to [https://www.youtube.com/user/stampylonghead stampylonghead], although it could be a reference to the elephant from the {{w|Simpsons}} episode {{w|Bart Gets an Elephant}}.
|-
| {{w|Upsilon Andromedae d|d}}
| Moonchild
| The name Bastian gives the Childlike Empress in {{w|The Neverending Story}}.
|-
| {{w|Upsilon Andromedae e|e}}
| Ham Sphere
| [https://www.hamsphere.com HamSphere] is a {{w|Amateur radio|Ham Radio}} simulator program. Ham radio uses designated radio frequencies for non-commercial exchange of messages and more. A pun of Hemisphere.
|-
! rowspan=3 | {{w|. Eridani|HD 20794}}
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/hd_20794_b/ b]
| Cosmic Sands
| style="font-family:'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans'" | A {{w|pun}} on the name of the font {{w|Comic Sans}}. (See also: [[590: Papyrus/Font|590: Papyrus]].)
|-
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/hd_20794_c/ c]
| Legoland
| {{w|Legoland}} is a chain of {{w|theme park}}s owned by the {{w|Lego Group}}.
|-
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/hd_20794_d/ d]
| Planet with Arms
| A reference to the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160119111332/https://www.thecolorsofmysoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/The-Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-Galaxy.jpg early covers] of {{w|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}? Could also be a reference to [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/birds-with-arms "Birds with Arms" meme].
|-
! {{w|HD 85512}}
| {{w|HD 85512 b|b}}
| Lax Morality
| Possibly a parody of science fiction in which certain planets are suggested to be uniformly... lax in morals (i.e. full of sex, drugs, etc.). See https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Planetville and related.
|-
! rowspan=6 | {{w|HD 40307}}
| {{w|HD 40307 b|b}}
| Good Planet
| Similar to the above, except with good planets. May also be yet another non-descriptive name, like "Space Planet" and "Planet #14".
|-
| {{w|HD|c}}
| ProblemLand
| See above.
|-
| {{w|HD 40307 d|d}}
| Slickle
| This is a reference to "[https://archive.today/tL51w The Petals Fall Twice]", which was made as a humorous example of bad fan-fiction. The word itself is a portmanteau of "slowly", "licked", and "tickled". This may also be a reference to the Harry Potter currency, a “Sickle.”
|-
| {{w|HD 40307 e|e}}
| Spare Parts
| This suggests that the planet is "worthless" or "junk". This is false, of course. May be a reference to the fact it is a planet with nothing much different from the other planets.
|-
| {{w|HD 40307 f|f}}
| New Jersey VI
| Refers to the state of {{w|New Jersey}}; may be an insult to either.
|-
| {{w|HD|g}}
| How Do I Join the IAU
| This implies that the user "got lost" on the IAU website and thought that the "planet name suggestion" input was for general queries.
|-
! rowspan=3 | {{w|Gliese 163}}
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/gj_163_b/ b]
| Neil Tyson's Mustache
| {{w|Neil deGrasse Tyson}} is a famous American astrophysicist and science communicator who does maintain a distinguished mustache.
|-
| {{w|Gliese|c}}
| help@gmail.com
| Similar to "How Do I Join the IAU", this implies that the user confused the "planet suggestion" text box for a new email they are trying to send.
|-
| [https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/gj_163_d/ d]
| Hair-Covered Planet
| Refers to the well-known {{w|Hairy ball theorem}} of topology.
|-
! {{w|Pi Mensae}}
| {{w|Pi Mensae b|b}}
| Moon Holder
| {{w|Jupiter}} has more than 60 discovered moons, and still counting... A planet ten times more massive ''must'' also be a Moon Holder.
|-
! {{w|HD 189733}}
| {{w|HD 189733 b|b}}
| Permadeath
| A well-characterized "{{w|Hot Jupiter}}" at a temperature range of 973 ± 33 K to 1,212 ± 11 K. The name refers to the feature of {{w|permanent death}} common in many RPGs and roguelikes. It is later mentioned in [[1276: Angular Size]].
|-
! {{w|Kepler-22}}
| {{w|Kepler-22 b|b}}
| Blue Ivy
| Blue Ivy Carter is the daughter of musicians {{w|Beyoncé}} and {{w|Jay-Z}}.
|-
! Kepler-3284
| b
| Blainsley
| A very small town in the United Kingdom, south of Edinburgh. Possibly chosen due to its insignificance?
|-
! Kepler-3255
| b
| Unicorn Thresher
| As far as we can tell, Kepler-3255b is in the vicinity of the constellation Monoceros, aka the Unicorn. Also a pun on {{w|Threshing machine|corn thresher}}.
|-
! Kepler-2418
| b
| Spherical Discworld
| {{w|The Discworld}} is the fictional setting for British author {{w|Terry Pratchett}}'s {{w|Discworld}} series of humorous fantasy novels; it consists of a large disc supported by four elephants themselves standing on top of a turtle flying through space. "Spherical Disc" would be an oxymoron.
|-
! Kepler-1686
| {{w|KOI-1686.01|b}}
| Emergency Backup Earth
| This candidate planet has an {{w|Earth Similarity Index}} of 0.89, making it one of the most habitable {{w|Kepler object of interest}}. The name suggests that it could be used as a backup in case something happened to our current planet.
|-
! Kepler-3010
| b
| Feeeoooooooop
| Possibly the onomatopoeia for something getting sucked into a black hole.
|-
! Kepler-4742
| b
| Liz
| ...Just a regular name (for a person, not a planet). Maybe a reference to the pet lizard on the Magic School Bus.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Text above the first frame of the comic:]
::August 2013:
:The International Astronomical Union
:decides to start naming exoplanets,
:and—for the first time ever—asks for
:suggestions from the general public.
:::They immediately regret this decision.
:[Ponytail is facepalming while Megan and Cueball are looking at a computer screen on a desk. Hairbun points to the screen.]
:Cueball‏‎: Can't you filter out the worst ones?
:Hairbun: This is '''''after''''' the filter!

:[Below is a table showing the list of planet names as seen on the computer screen with gray background around the edges of the table.]

:[The table is in two separate columns, but there is only headings over the left, so the right column is a direct continuation of the left. In the table it is mentioned when the right column begins. There is a small arrow pointing from the word "Planet" down to the second column of the table. The headings in the comic are not inside the table as they are here below. The text at the bottom of the left list seems to continue on below, at least the last entry is cut below the middle, although it is still easy to read. Similarly the text at the top right list, seems to continue from above, the top entry missing the very top of the text. This is as if the list is much longer and here is just shown part of the list. To further indicate this the first entry in the right list begins at "c" instead of at "b" which is else the case for all other instances.]

:[Left Columns]

:[Star] Gliese 667c
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Space Planet
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] Pilf
::[Planet] d [Suggested Name] A Star
::[Planet] e [Suggested Name] e'); DROP TABLE PLANETS;--
::[Planet] f [Suggested Name] Blogosphere
::[Planet] g [Suggested Name] Blogodrome
::[Planet] h [Suggested Name] Earth
:[Star] Tau Ceti
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Sid Meier's Tau Ceti B
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] Giant Dog PLanet
::[Planet] d [Suggested Name] Tiny Dog Planet
::[Planet] e [Suggested Name] Phil Plainet
::[Planet] f [Suggested Name] Unicode Snowman
:[Star] Gliese 832
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Asshole Jupiter
:[Star] Gliese 581
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Waist-Deep Cats
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] Planet #14
::[Planet] d [Suggested Name] Ballderaan
::[Planet] e [Suggested Name] Eternia Prime
::[Planet] f [Suggested Name] Taupe Mars
::[Planet] g [Suggested Name]Jelly-Filled Planet
:[Star] Epsilon Eridani
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Skydot
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] Laser Noises
:[Star] Gliese 176
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Pandora
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] Pantera
:[Star] Kepler-61
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Goldenpalace.com

:[End Left Columns]

:[Start Right Columns]

:[Star] Upsilon Andromidae
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] Stampy
::[Planet] d [Suggested Name] Moonchild
::[Planet] e [Suggested Name] Ham Sphere
:[Star] HD 20794
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Cosmic Sands
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] LegoLand
::[Planet] d [Suggested Name] Planet with Arms
:[Star] HD 85512
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Lax Morality
:[Star] HD 40307
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Good Planet
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] Problemland
::[Planet] d [Suggested Name] Slickle
::[Planet] e [Suggested Name] Spare Parts
::[Planet] f [Suggested Name] New Jersey VI
::[Planet] g [Suggested Name] How do I Join the IAU
:[Star] Gliese 163
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Neil Tyson's Mustache
::[Planet] c [Suggested Name] Help@gmail.com
::[Planet] d [Suggested Name] Hair-Covered Planet
:[Star] Pi Mensae
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Moon Holder
:[Star] HD 189733
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Permadeath
:[Star] Kepler-22
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Blue Ivy
:[Star] Kepler-3284
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Blainsley
:[Star] Kepler-3255
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Unicorn Thresher
:[Star] Kepler-2418
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Spherical DiscWorld
:[Star] Kepler-1686
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Emergency Backup Earth
:[Star] Kepler-3010
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Feeeooooooooop
:[Star] Kepler-4742
::[Planet] b [Suggested Name] Liz

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics sharing name|Exoplanet Names 1]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball‏‎]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Exoplanets]]
[[Category:Exoplanet Names]]

3198: Double-Pronged Extension Cord

2026-01-26T08:15:37Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ global restriction

{{comic
| number = 3198
| date = January 23, 2026
| title = Double-Pronged Extension Cord
| image = double_pronged_extension_cord_2x.png
| imagesize = 698x267px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Oh, and can I borrow 50 sacks of loose flour, a pile of lithium-ion batteries, a bucket of bleach, and a bucket of vinega--' 'NO!!!!!!'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by THE EXTENSION CORD FROM COMIC #[[509]]. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic begins with [[Cueball]] approaching [[Ponytail]] at her desk, asking to borrow an {{w|extension cord}} with prongs at both ends. Ponytail immediately replies with a horrified "NO!!!" This design of extension cord, often nicknamed as a {{wiktionary|suicide cable}}, has some occasional practical uses but is also [https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/generators/why-suicide-extension-cords-are-so-dangerous-a1189731437/ lethally dangerous], as Ponytail rightly points out, at the very least likely to cause a short circuit and quite possibly a fire when misused, if not a more direct electricution threat to people.

Ponytail seems to relax when she persuades Cueball to use a regular extension cord instead. But then he elaborates that rather than wanting the cord to carry electricity, he actually intends to use it as some kind of support prop. He thinks the plug prongs at each end are suitable for fixing the cable between two nearby wall-sockets, anchoring the cable as a makeshift tether to support something even more dangerous: a neutron reflector above a {{w|plutonium}} core. Based on his description, his setup appears to be a recreation of Louis Slotin's infamous "{{w|demon core}}" or "tickling the dragon's tail" experiment, with the extension cord replacing Slotin's flat-head screwdriver, an experiment {{w|Slotin#Criticality accident|that proved fatal for Slotin}}. Understandably, this horrifies Ponytail even more.

This is the third comic to reference the "demon core" experiment, after [[1242: Scary Names]] and [[2593: Deviled Eggs]].

The title text innocently mentions other severe hazards… though arguably not as much as the radiation hazard. Loose flour is a well known fire hazard and the key to a {{w|Dust explosion|flour-air explosion}}; 50 bags of it plus some way to get it into the air could blow up a sizable building. Lithium batteries are well known fire hazards when overcharged, which is why airport security restricts them from checked luggage, and there have been numerous fires caused by the lithium batteries in "hoverboards" leading them to be oft-banned in cities and airports, and by retailers who might otherwise sell them. A bank of 50 might be overkill, but if charged in parallel (series probably wouldn't work as well), could cause a noticeable explosion or fire once one of them hit its limit. And while vinegar and bleach aren't a particular fire hazard by themselves, when combined they do release chlorine gas, which is lethal.

''Any'' acid will tend to liberate chlorine from bleach, though vinegar is a relatively dilute solution of a weak acid (acetic acid). Other acidic household cleaning products, such as drain cleaners, would be much more dangerous to combine with bleach, but generally come with explicit warnings about avoiding this. In contrast, a bucket of vinegar (while an unusual request, in this particular case) could present the same kind of threat, albeit at a lower level, without being commonly associated with that danger. As such, the theme of the title text appears to be "innocuous-appearing supplies which are actually quite hazardous". Ponytail, being both a more knowledgeable person ''and'' intimately familiar with [[:Category:Cueball's computer problems|Cueball's error prone nature]], easily imagines enough of the various unfortunate circumstances that could arise, possibly [[2950: Situation|in combination]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball is approaching Ponytail, who is sitting at a desk with a laptop, from off-screen.]
:Cueball: Do you have an extension cord with prongs at both ends? Can I borrow it?
:Ponytail: '''''No'''''!!!

:[Close up of Ponytail raising her arms in an exasperated fashion]
:Ponytail: No one should '''''ever''''' buy or make those!
:Ponytail: They start fires, destroy equipment, and risk electrocuting you or grid workers!
:Cueball: OK, OK, I get it.

:[The view zooms back out, showing Ponytail handing Cueball an extension cord.]
:Cueball: Can I just borrow a regular cord, then?
:Ponytail: Sure. Here.
:Cueball: The prongs aren't important. I just thought they'd help anchor it to the wall.
:Ponytail: Wait, what are you-

:[Cueball is walking away from Ponytail, who sits at her desk with her hands to her head.]
:Cueball: I need it to help hold up the top half of the reflector for this plutonium core that I'm-
:Ponytail: '''''AAAAAAAA!!!!'''''

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

3198: Double-Pronged Extension Cord

2026-01-25T08:05:23Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ linky

{{comic
| number = 3198
| date = January 23, 2026
| title = Double-Pronged Extension Cord
| image = double_pronged_extension_cord_2x.png
| imagesize = 698x267px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Oh, and can I borrow 50 sacks of loose flour, a pile of lithium-ion batteries, a bucket of bleach, and a bucket of vinega--' 'NO!!!!!!'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by THE EXTENSION CORD FROM COMIC #[[509]]. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic begins with [[Cueball]] approaching [[Ponytail]] at her desk, asking to borrow an {{w|extension cord}} with prongs at both ends. Ponytail immediately replies with a horrified "NO!!!" This design of extension cord (created to solve some power-connectivity issues, but likely to cause other problems) is lethally dangerous, as Ponytail points out. In real life this design has been nicknamed [https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/generators/why-suicide-extension-cords-are-so-dangerous-a1189731437/ suicide cords] for this reason.

Ponytail seems to relax when she persuades Cueball to use a regular extension cord instead. But then he elaborates that rather than wanting the cord to carry electricity, he actually intends to use it as some kind of support prop. He thinks the plug prongs at each end are suitable for fixing the cable between two walls (though he doesn't specify, presumably two regular wall-sockets - depending upon the exact type of plug/prongs he uses, this itself would be a problem, connecting the opposite polarities of the same building supply together), anchoring the cable as a makeshift rope so it can support something even more dangerous: {{w|plutonium}}. Based on his description his setup appears to be a recreation of Louis Slotin's infamous "{{w|Demon Core}}" or "Tickling the dragon's tail" experiment, {{w|Slotin#Criticality accident|which proved fatal for Slotin}}, with the extension cord replacing the flat-head screwdriver. Understandably, this horrifies Ponytail even more.

This is the third comic to reference the Demon Core experiment, after [[1242: Scary Names]] and [[2593: Deviled Eggs]].

The title text escalates the innocently mentioned hazards… though arguably not as much as the radioactivity. Loose flour is a well known fire hazard and the key to a {{w|Dust explosion|flour-air explosion}}; 50 bags of it plus some way to get it into the air could blow up a sizable building. Lithium batteries are well known fire hazards when overcharged, which is why the TSA restricts them in checked luggage, and there have been numerous fires caused by the lithium batteries in "hoverboards" leading them to be oft-banned in cities, airports, and by retailers who might otherwise sell them. A bank of 50 might be overkill, but if charged in parallel (serial probably wouldn't work as well), could cause a noticable explosion or fire once one of them hit its limit. And while vinegar and bleach aren't a particular fire hazard, they do release chlorine gas when combined, which is lethal.

''Any'' acid will tend to liberate chlorine from bleach, though vinegar is a relatively dilute solution of a weak acid (acetic acid). Other acidic household cleaning products, such as drain openers, would be much more dangerous to combine with bleach, but generally come with explicit warnings about avoiding this. While a bucket of vinegar (while an unusual request, in this particular manner) could fulfil the same threat even/especially while not being so easily associated with any danger. As such, the theme of the title text appears to be "innocuous-appearing supplies which are actually quite hazardous". Ponytail, being both a more knowledgable person ''and'' intimately familiar with [[:Category:Cueball's computer problems|Cueball's 'error prone' nature]], easily imagines enough of the various unfortunate circumstances that could arise. Possibly [[2950: Situation|in combination]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball is approaching Ponytail, who is sitting at a desk with a laptop, from off-screen.]
:Cueball: Do you have an extension cord with prongs at both ends? Can I borrow it?
:Ponytail: '''''No'''''!!!

:[Close up of Ponytail raising her arms in an exasperated fashion]
:Ponytail: No one should '''''ever''''' buy or make those!
:Ponytail: They start fires, destroy equipment, and risk electrocuting you or grid workers!
:Cueball: OK, OK, I get it.

:[The view zooms back out, showing Ponytail handing Cueball an extension cord.]
:Cueball: Can I just borrow a regular cord, then?
:Ponytail: Sure. Here.
:Cueball: The prongs aren't important. I just thought they'd help anchor it to the wall.
:Ponytail: Wait, what are you-

:[Cueball is walking away from Ponytail, who sits at her desk with her hands to her head.]
:Cueball: I need it to help hold up the top half of the reflector for this plutonium core that I'm-
:Ponytail: '''''AAAAAAAA!!!!'''''

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

3198: Double-Pronged Extension Cord

2026-01-24T13:08:21Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ {{w}}

863: Major in the Universe

2026-01-20T08:57:56Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ re-rearrange

{{comic
| number = 863
| date = February 21, 2011
| title = Major in the Universe
| image = major in the universe.png
| titletext = I hear Steven Levitt is writing a book analyzing A.J. Jacobs' quest to spend a year reading everything Malcolm Gladwell ever wrote. The audiobook will be narrated by Robert Krulwich of Radiolab.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] as a college student, meeting with his adviser or professor ([[Hairbun]]) trying to decide what to major in. He decides to major in "The Universe", but when his adviser details the real work required of that major, Cueball scratches his head and responds that he just wants to "read Malcolm Gladwell books and drink".

{{w|Malcolm Gladwell}} is a Canadian author who wrote such books as "The Tipping Point", "Outliers" and "Blink." His works tend to cover a wide range of topics, usually tied together by a common thread. For example, in ''{{w|Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking|Blink}}'', a motif of intuitive judgments ties together the examples of the {{w|Getty kouros}}, {{w|John Gottman#Predictions of divorce|John Gottman's marriage studies}}, the {{w|Millennium Challenge 2002|Millennium Challenge war game}}, {{w|Speed dating|speed dating}}, and {{w|Facial Action Coding System|Paul Ekman's FACS}}, to name a few.

Gladwell's books are highly popular for being entertaining and eloquent, but are sometimes criticized for addressing the various subjects superficially, providing an incomplete picture, which may be used to draw overly broad conclusions.

Bascially, Cueball wants to be exposed to multiple ideas, in a simple, accessible, and entertaining way, but is unwilling to study and research deeply enough to become truly educated in any of them.

Randall is making fun of people who claim to have a broad range of interests, but apparently only want to deflect attention from the fact that they are too lazy to master any specific subject.

The authors and presenters in the title text are all known for creating content that deals with intellectual content, but produce it for a general audience, rather than for academics or experts. In consequence, they generally don't deal with the kinds of details, data, and methodology required to genuinely understand a topic, instead presenting a polished narrative with conclusions already drawn, and just enough data to support those conclusions. These kinds of writers tend to be popular with readers who consider themselves to be educated and curious, but the implicit danger is that people might imagine that they're gaining a real education, rather that just receiving high-brow entertainment.

They are:

* {{w|Steven Levitt}}, co-author of the book ''{{w|Freakonomics}}'' and the Freakonomics blog on NYTimes.com;

* {{w|Robert Krulwich}}, science correspondent for {{w|NPR}} (National Public Radio, for those outside of the US) and a co-host of the show {{w|Radiolab}}; and

* {{w|A. J. Jacobs}}, a journalist who immerses himself in different ideas and lives them out for periods of time. For example, he lived for a year according to {{w|The Year of Living Biblically|all the rules in the bible literally}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball before a professor.]
:Cueball: How can I pick a major? I'm interested in everything! Can't I major in "the universe"?

:Professor: Okay. First, I'll need papers on every European trade summit that did not result in an agreement. Then, spend a year memorizing every microprocessor instruction set ever used in a production chip.

:[Cueball scratches head.]

:Cueball: What I meant was I just want to read Malcolm Gladwell books and drink.
:Professor: We all do, sweetie.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

863: Major in the Universe

2026-01-20T08:54:41Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ rearrange

{{comic
| number = 863
| date = February 21, 2011
| title = Major in the Universe
| image = major in the universe.png
| titletext = I hear Steven Levitt is writing a book analyzing A.J. Jacobs' quest to spend a year reading everything Malcolm Gladwell ever wrote. The audiobook will be narrated by Robert Krulwich of Radiolab.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] as a college student, meeting with his adviser or professor ([[Hairbun]]) trying to decide what to major in. He decides to major in "The Universe", but when his adviser details the real work required of that major, Cueball scratches his head and responds that he just wants to "read Malcolm Gladwell books and drink". This suggests that he wants to be exposed to multiple ideas, in a simple, accessible, and entertaining way, but is unwilling to study and research deeply enough to become truly educated in any of them.

Randall is making fun of people who claim to have a broad range of interests, but apparently only want to deflect attention from the fact that they are too lazy to master any specific subject.

{{w|Malcolm Gladwell}} is a Canadian author who wrote such books as "The Tipping Point", "Outliers" and "Blink." His works tend to cover a wide range of topics, usually tied together by a common thread. For example, in ''{{w|Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking|Blink}}'', a motif of intuitive judgments ties together the examples of the {{w|Getty kouros}}, {{w|John Gottman#Predictions of divorce|John Gottman's marriage studies}}, the {{w|Millennium Challenge 2002|Millennium Challenge war game}}, {{w|Speed dating|speed dating}}, and {{w|Facial Action Coding System|Paul Ekman's FACS}}, to name a few.

Gladwell's books are highly popular for being entertaining and eloquent, but are sometimes criticized for addressing the various subjects superficially, providing an incomplete picture, which may be used to draw overly broad conclusions.

The authors and presenters in the title text are all known for creating content that deals with intellectual content, but produce it for a general audience, rather than for academics or experts. In consequence, they generally don't deal with the kinds of details, data, and methodology required to genuinely understand a topic, instead presenting a polished narrative with conclusions already drawn, and just enough data to support those conclusions. These kinds of writers tend to be popular with readers who consider themselves to be educated and curious, but the implicit danger is that people might imagine that they're gaining a real education, rather that just receiving high-brow entertainment.

{{w|Steven Levitt}} is one of the co-authors of the book ''{{w|Freakonomics}}'' and the Freakonomics blog on NYTimes.com.

{{w|Robert Krulwich}} is a science correspondent for {{w|NPR}} (National Public Radio, for those outside of the US) and a co-host of the show {{w|Radiolab}}.

{{w|A. J. Jacobs}} is a journalist who immerses himself in different ideas and lives them out for periods of time. For example, he lived for a year according to {{w|The Year of Living Biblically|all the rules in the bible literally}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball before a professor.]
:Cueball: How can I pick a major? I'm interested in everything! Can't I major in "the universe"?

:Professor: Okay. First, I'll need papers on every European trade summit that did not result in an agreement. Then, spend a year memorizing every microprocessor instruction set ever used in a production chip.

:[Cueball scratches head.]

:Cueball: What I meant was I just want to read Malcolm Gladwell books and drink.
:Professor: We all do, sweetie.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

541: TED Talk

2026-01-18T05:25:43Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Conferences where Randall is banned from */ more lowercase

{{comic
| number = 541
| date = February 9, 2009
| title = TED Talk
| image = ted_talk.png
| titletext = The IAU ban came after the 'redefinition of the 'planet' to include the IAU president's mom' incident.
}}

==Explanation==
The comics shows Randall as a presenter at the highly prestigious {{w|TED conference}}, a symposium about technology, entertainment and design. The illustrious {{w|list of TED speakers|list of former presenters}} includes amongst others Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Larry Page, Richard Dawkins and Gordon Brown. The conference is regarded as a forum for {{w|digerati}}. Every talk has a length of at most 20 minutes and is supposed to be as captivating as possible. Randall's presentation, however, reduces the purpose of the conference to absurdity: The topic he wishes to point out to his listeners, is that of how to put an emoticon at the end of a parenthetical statement. One possibility that is shown is "Linux (or BSD :)", which looks mismatched because the emoji does not close the opening parenthesis. The other one, "Linux (or BSD :))" has a closing parenthesis, but makes the emoticon look double-chinned.

This question is of little practical consequence, although it received a lot of attention after publication of the comic. In the last panel, the TED conference is another item to add to his list of conferences from which he has been banned. On the list are other conferences from all sorts of fields, including every American {{w|furry convention}}. The title text about Randall's ban from the {{w|IAU}} conference is a reference to the popular maternal insults called {{w|"Yo mama" joke}}s. A common representative of the genre runs "Yo mama so fat, scientists have declared her the 10th planet." Those kinds of jokes are a [[:Category:Your Mom|recurring theme]] on xkcd. Unpaired parentheses would later be mentioned again in [[859: (]].

It can be inferred from [[629: Skins]], that Randall was banned from North American furry conventions due to being a "Skin", which is a furry whose fursona prefers going around disguised as a human. Depending on Randall's behavior, such an action could generate a lot of drama and, presumably, lead to convention bans. Getting banned from attending a conference is a [[:Category:Banned from conferences|recurring theme]] on xkcd, and even in real life, Randall sometimes has bad ideas for conference topics, [https://blog.xkcd.com/2009/02/11/ireland/ such as presumably not speaking for the entire conference]. This was so far the sixth of eight comics to directly mention conference bans. The first to do so was [[153: Cryptography]].

===Conferences where Randall is banned from===
These are the conferences from which Randall has been banned according to this comic.

; [http://www.siggraph.org Siggraph]: Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques.

; [http://www.iacr.org/meetings/eurocrypt/ Eurocrypt]: Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques.

; [https://www.defcon.org/ Defcon]: DEF CON® Hacking Conference.

; [http://www.pycon.org/ Pycon]: Python Conference.

; [https://www.iau.org/science/meetings/ International Astronomical Union]: The IAU's mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation.

; [http://www.gacpaleodivision.com/pd-meetings.html Canadian Paleontology Conference]: The main goal of the CPC and its predecessors has been to provide a relatively small, informal forum for presentation and discussion of current paleontological research.

; [http://fclr.info/ Every American furry convention]: There are many furry conventions in America (see the {{w|List of furry conventions|Wikipedia page}} for more details), but to be banned from all of them would probably require action by the Furry Convention Leadership Roundtable, the coordinating body for furry conventions.

; [http://www.americanbakers.org/meetings/ American Baking Society (American Bakers Association)]: ABA represents the interests of bakers before the U.S. Congress, federal agencies, and international regulatory authorities.

; [https://www.imata.org/ Asian Dolphin-Training Conference]: International Marine Animal Trainers' Association.

; [https://ted.com TED]: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

==Transcript==
:[Randall, drawn as Cueball, on stage.]
:Randall: Hi. I'm Randall. Welcome to my TED talk.
:Randall: It's an honor to speak to you, some of the brightest innovators from so many fields, about a problem in desperate need of your attention:
:Randall: How DO you end parenthetical statements with emoticons? I can't figure out a good way.
:[Screen next to him shows two statements, both crossed out in red.]
:"Linux (or BSD :) would..." looks mismatched
:"Linux (or BSD :)) would..." looks mismatched and weird

:[Randall writing on a desk.]
:[Randall's List] Conferences I'm banned from:
:Siggraph
:Eurocrypt
:Defcon
:Pycon
:International Astronomical Union
:Canadian Paleontology Conference
:Every American Furry Convention
:American Baking Society
:Asian Dolphin-Training Conference
:TED

==Trivia==
*After the release of this comic, Randall has given a TED talk in March 2014. [https://www.ted.com/talks/randall_munroe_comics_that_ask_what_if Randall Munroe Comics that ask "what if?"].

*This was the [[:Category:Comics with red annotations|first comic with red annotations]], albeit this time being in-universe, rather than the later typical use for comic-level commentary.

===PyCon response===
In response to this comic, PyCon organizers jokingly [http://pycon.blogspot.com/2009/02/randall-munroe.html announced] that Randall Munroe was banned from PyCon 2009 due to "last year's disgraceful keynote, '{{w|Web crawler|Web Spiders}} vs. [[Red Spiders]]'." They also said they instructed their volunteers to refuse admission to him and "any stick figures who may attempt to register, particularly if they are [[:Category:Characters with hats|wearing hats]]."

Messages on the PyCon-Organizers mailing list show that this joke was intended to get Randall to come to PyCon: (The links will only work if you're subscribed to the mailing list.)
:PyCon mentioned briefly in today's xkcd:
:http://xkcd.com/541/
:We've still never gotten Randall Munroe to actually attend, have we? Anybody want to take charge of twisting his arm this time? I think we can still offer him a "press pass" (free registration). [...] [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011224.html]
::An invite would seem most appropriate given the cartoon. :-)
::We could also have an official PyCon blog post confirming his ban... [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011225.html]
:::How about a public blog post LIFTING the ban and inviting him? [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011226.html]
::::Confirming the ban is far funnier... He's definitely a disturbing influence on programmers. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011227.html]
:::::Agreed, especially if we invite him concurrently with confirming the ban. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011239.html]
:::::(a few posts later)
:::::I'm happy to participate in actually throwing some thin guy out of the conference, and then get some graphics savvy person to animate a stick figure over that. :) [...][http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011274.html]
::::::here's a rough idea of what would show up if you invited him to actually do any speaking...
::::::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24
::::::it's fairly long. he shows up in the beginning around 3:25. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011275.html]
:::::::For the record, I did try to convince him to come when got the art for the tshirt last year. He didn't seem super psyched, but then again emotions are hard to read via IRC.
:::::::I love the idea of "officially" banning him, however. ;-) [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011241.html]
::::::::(a few posts later)
::::::::OK - posted to the PyCon blog, by the power vested in me as publicity chair. With Michael Foord's excellent sentence added.
::::::::Now let him know that since he's banned, he HAS to come. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011251.html]
:::::::@32:49 “What I need is a movie that’s an hour and a half of River Tam beating up dinosaurs.” — Randall

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Furries]]
[[Category:Banned from conferences]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

541: TED Talk

2026-01-18T05:23:29Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Conferences where Randall is banned from */ lowercase

{{comic
| number = 541
| date = February 9, 2009
| title = TED Talk
| image = ted_talk.png
| titletext = The IAU ban came after the 'redefinition of the 'planet' to include the IAU president's mom' incident.
}}

==Explanation==
The comics shows Randall as a presenter at the highly prestigious {{w|TED conference}}, a symposium about technology, entertainment and design. The illustrious {{w|list of TED speakers|list of former presenters}} includes amongst others Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Larry Page, Richard Dawkins and Gordon Brown. The conference is regarded as a forum for {{w|digerati}}. Every talk has a length of at most 20 minutes and is supposed to be as captivating as possible. Randall's presentation, however, reduces the purpose of the conference to absurdity: The topic he wishes to point out to his listeners, is that of how to put an emoticon at the end of a parenthetical statement. One possibility that is shown is "Linux (or BSD :)", which looks mismatched because the emoji does not close the opening parenthesis. The other one, "Linux (or BSD :))" has a closing parenthesis, but makes the emoticon look double-chinned.

This question is of little practical consequence, although it received a lot of attention after publication of the comic. In the last panel, the TED conference is another item to add to his list of conferences from which he has been banned. On the list are other conferences from all sorts of fields, including every American {{w|furry convention}}. The title text about Randall's ban from the {{w|IAU}} conference is a reference to the popular maternal insults called {{w|"Yo mama" joke}}s. A common representative of the genre runs "Yo mama so fat, scientists have declared her the 10th planet." Those kinds of jokes are a [[:Category:Your Mom|recurring theme]] on xkcd. Unpaired parentheses would later be mentioned again in [[859: (]].

It can be inferred from [[629: Skins]], that Randall was banned from North American furry conventions due to being a "Skin", which is a furry whose fursona prefers going around disguised as a human. Depending on Randall's behavior, such an action could generate a lot of drama and, presumably, lead to convention bans. Getting banned from attending a conference is a [[:Category:Banned from conferences|recurring theme]] on xkcd, and even in real life, Randall sometimes has bad ideas for conference topics, [https://blog.xkcd.com/2009/02/11/ireland/ such as presumably not speaking for the entire conference]. This was so far the sixth of eight comics to directly mention conference bans. The first to do so was [[153: Cryptography]].

===Conferences where Randall is banned from===
These are the conferences from which Randall has been banned according to this comic.

; [http://www.siggraph.org Siggraph]: Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques.

; [http://www.iacr.org/meetings/eurocrypt/ Eurocrypt]: Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques.

; [https://www.defcon.org/ Defcon]: DEF CON® Hacking Conference.

; [http://www.pycon.org/ Pycon]: Python Conference.

; [https://www.iau.org/science/meetings/ International Astronomical Union]: The IAU's mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation.

; [http://www.gacpaleodivision.com/pd-meetings.html Canadian Paleontology Conference]: The main goal of the CPC and its predecessors has been to provide a relatively small, informal forum for presentation and discussion of current paleontological research.

; [http://fclr.info/ Every American furry convention]: There are many Furry Conventions in America (see the {{w|List of furry conventions|Wikipedia page}} for more details), but to be banned from all of them would probably require action by the Furry Convention Leadership Roundtable, the coordinating body for furry conventions.

; [http://www.americanbakers.org/meetings/ American Baking Society (American Bakers Association)]: ABA represents the interests of bakers before the U.S. Congress, federal agencies, and international regulatory authorities.

; [https://www.imata.org/ Asian Dolphin-Training Conference]: International Marine Animal Trainers' Association.

; [https://ted.com TED]: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

==Transcript==
:[Randall, drawn as Cueball, on stage.]
:Randall: Hi. I'm Randall. Welcome to my TED talk.
:Randall: It's an honor to speak to you, some of the brightest innovators from so many fields, about a problem in desperate need of your attention:
:Randall: How DO you end parenthetical statements with emoticons? I can't figure out a good way.
:[Screen next to him shows two statements, both crossed out in red.]
:"Linux (or BSD :) would..." looks mismatched
:"Linux (or BSD :)) would..." looks mismatched and weird

:[Randall writing on a desk.]
:[Randall's List] Conferences I'm banned from:
:Siggraph
:Eurocrypt
:Defcon
:Pycon
:International Astronomical Union
:Canadian Paleontology Conference
:Every American Furry Convention
:American Baking Society
:Asian Dolphin-Training Conference
:TED

==Trivia==
*After the release of this comic, Randall has given a TED talk in March 2014. [https://www.ted.com/talks/randall_munroe_comics_that_ask_what_if Randall Munroe Comics that ask "what if?"].

*This was the [[:Category:Comics with red annotations|first comic with red annotations]], albeit this time being in-universe, rather than the later typical use for comic-level commentary.

===PyCon response===
In response to this comic, PyCon organizers jokingly [http://pycon.blogspot.com/2009/02/randall-munroe.html announced] that Randall Munroe was banned from PyCon 2009 due to "last year's disgraceful keynote, '{{w|Web crawler|Web Spiders}} vs. [[Red Spiders]]'." They also said they instructed their volunteers to refuse admission to him and "any stick figures who may attempt to register, particularly if they are [[:Category:Characters with hats|wearing hats]]."

Messages on the PyCon-Organizers mailing list show that this joke was intended to get Randall to come to PyCon: (The links will only work if you're subscribed to the mailing list.)
:PyCon mentioned briefly in today's xkcd:
:http://xkcd.com/541/
:We've still never gotten Randall Munroe to actually attend, have we? Anybody want to take charge of twisting his arm this time? I think we can still offer him a "press pass" (free registration). [...] [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011224.html]
::An invite would seem most appropriate given the cartoon. :-)
::We could also have an official PyCon blog post confirming his ban... [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011225.html]
:::How about a public blog post LIFTING the ban and inviting him? [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011226.html]
::::Confirming the ban is far funnier... He's definitely a disturbing influence on programmers. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011227.html]
:::::Agreed, especially if we invite him concurrently with confirming the ban. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011239.html]
:::::(a few posts later)
:::::I'm happy to participate in actually throwing some thin guy out of the conference, and then get some graphics savvy person to animate a stick figure over that. :) [...][http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011274.html]
::::::here's a rough idea of what would show up if you invited him to actually do any speaking...
::::::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24
::::::it's fairly long. he shows up in the beginning around 3:25. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011275.html]
:::::::For the record, I did try to convince him to come when got the art for the tshirt last year. He didn't seem super psyched, but then again emotions are hard to read via IRC.
:::::::I love the idea of "officially" banning him, however. ;-) [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011241.html]
::::::::(a few posts later)
::::::::OK - posted to the PyCon blog, by the power vested in me as publicity chair. With Michael Foord's excellent sentence added.
::::::::Now let him know that since he's banned, he HAS to come. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011251.html]
:::::::@32:49 “What I need is a movie that’s an hour and a half of River Tam beating up dinosaurs.” — Randall

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Furries]]
[[Category:Banned from conferences]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

2710: Hydropower Breakthrough

2026-01-17T10:39:42Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ +

{{comic
| number = 2710
| date = December 12, 2022
| title = Hydropower Breakthrough
| image = hydropower_breakthrough_2x.png
| imagesize = 261x303px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = A hydroelectric dam is also known as a heavy water reactor.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Beret Guy]] announces that a {{w|hydroelectric dam}} has reached "Q > 1". This has two possible meanings, and the humour comes from their juxtaposition.

In fluid dynamics, the letter Q represents the {{w|volumetric flow rate}}, or volume of fluid per unit time, e.g. m³/s. Depending on the units chosen, it would not be at all surprising for this number to be greater than 1 for a hydroelectric dam.

However, Beret Guy's clarification, that the meaning of this is that the dam is producing more water than was fed into it, suggests that he is interpreting the letter Q in a manner similar to its use in {{w|fusion power}}, where it represents the ratio of output power to input power. Typically fusion reactors require more power than they generate, but on the day after this comic was released, the US National Ignition Facility [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/12/11/fusion-nuclear-energy-breakthrough/ announced] the first Q > 1 fusion reaction. However, hydroelectric dams work quite differently from fusion reactors,{{Citation needed}} and (despite [[2571: Hydraulic Analogy|frequent comparisons]]) water is different from electricity.{{Citation needed}}

If a dam were indeed producing more water than came into it from the reservoir and other sources, especially on a consistent basis (and not just because of water that had been stored somehow inside the dam) it would have to be doing so by chemical reaction. Anything else would be a violation of the law of conservation of mass (although considering [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|who is presenting]], a violation of the laws of physics is entirely possible). For example, the dam might be catalyzing hydrogen gas to burn with oxygen in the air. Such a reaction would be dangerous to the dam. A reaction might even consume the material of the dam itself.

It appears that one of the audience members is oblivious to this fact, joining in Beret Guy's celebration, while another audience member is more effectively applying their critical thinking skills.

Alternatively, it is possible that Beret Guy is suggesting that the amount of water coming out of the dam is greater than the amount travelling into it via the {{w|penstock}}. If so, this indicates that water is finding other paths through the dam (a literal "breakthrough"), which is a very dangerous situation and would also be a cause for concern, not celebration.

The title text further confuses the issue by equating the hydroelectric dam with a {{w|heavy water reactor}}, which is a type of nuclear fission (not fusion) reactor that uses deuterium oxide, or "heavy water", as a moderator. A hydroelectric dam is powered by the weight of water, but it is not supposed to be a reactor.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy is standing on a podium behind a lectern. He is gesturing with his hand, palm up, towards a poster hanging behind him. On it is a picture of a tall dam, with a lake behind, and water coming out at the foot of the dam in the valley on the other side. Two voices reacts to Beret Guy's statement from off-panel.]
:Beret Guy: We are pleased to announce that our hydroelectric dam has achieved Q>1, producing more water than we fed into it!
:Off-panel voice 1: Hooray!
:Off-panel voice 2: Wait.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:3185: Sauropods

2025-12-25T12:58:39Z

Lettherebedarklight: comment

I was going to put in the first draft of an explanation, but that would have meant sticking my neck out... ;) [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208|92.23.2.208]] 01:24, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

I also wanted to try explaining, by it's scary, I feel spineless [[Special:Contributions/62.56.149.220|62.56.149.220]] 01:33, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

The title text is referencing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiders_Georg Spiders Georg]. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 01:37, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
: i came here to yell "spiders georg!" but i see you have beat me to it - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 01:40, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

The extremely short, punctuationless title text definitely evokes the spirit of early xkcd title texts like “disgusting” or “just thought you should know” [[User:KelOfTheStars!|KelOfTheStars!]] ([[User talk:KelOfTheStars!|talk]]) 02:51, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

i just discovered that paleology is ''not'' the study of fossils and such, by trying to check if "paleontological" was a mashup of paleological and ontological; nope, paleology is the study of antiquities, paleontology the study of fossils - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 05:34, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

merry christmas, i guess? [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 12:58, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

664: Academia vs. Business

2025-12-15T09:21:39Z

Lettherebedarklight: added Category:Comics with a Spanish translation using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 664
| date = November 18, 2009
| title = Academia vs. Business
| image = academia_vs_business.png
| titletext = Some engineer out there has solved P=NP and it's locked up in an electric eggbeater calibration routine. For every 0x5f375a86 we learn about, there are thousands we never see.
}}

== Explanation ==
[[Cueball]] has solved some tricky and very important problem in computer science, related to {{w|queueing theory}}.

The comic splits into two timelines. In the first he is showing the brilliant solution he'd developed to somebody who can appreciate its elegance, in this case that being an academic who can see the programmer's true brilliance and get him much-earned plaudits from the academic community.

In the alternate timeline, the boss does not possess the knowledge required to comprehend its import, and he simply sees the results without caring about the means Cueball used to attain them. He then gives Cueball another assignment, that may be vastly more workaday in nature. This, sadly, is the usual course of events in bureaucracy, which only seems to care about your results, not how you came about them. To drive in the point, the boss asks Cueball to do something as simple as setting up email on the office phones, a stark contrast to the skill and creativity Cueball would have needed to write his code in the first panel. It may even be imagined to be a "reward in itself" to casually hand over this new problem, however unsatisfying (or unsatisfiable) the new technical issue truly is.

The references in the title text are to the {{w|P versus NP problem}}, a famous unsolved problem in computer science, and the "magical constant" (0x5f375a86) used in finding the {{w|fast inverse square root}}, i.e. solving y=1/√x as fast as possible through a program – no-one knows quite who came up with this very useful bit of code ({{w|Fast inverse square root#History|Now believed}} to be devised by Greg Walsh at Ardent Computer in consultation with Cleve Moler, the creator of MATLAB), but it was discovered hiding in the graphics code of the video game {{w|Quake III Arena}}. Note that the actual constant used in the Quake III source code is 0x5f375'''9df''', but the constant in the title text works also, and is actually slightly more accurate as shown in this paper: [http://www.lomont.org/Math/Papers/2003/InvSqrt.pdf Fast inverse square root by CHRIS LOMONT (Purdue university, 2003)].

The title text may be a reference to {{w|Stephen Jay Gould}}'s quotation: “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” originally about how great minds are suppressed due to racism and their genius go unknown, but could be interpreted as general exploitation by the commercial world.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk in front of a computer, leaning back in his chair with both hands down to his side. There are cans on the desk and more crushed ones on the floor.]
:Cueball: I just wrote the most beautiful code of my life.

:[Zoom in on Cueball and top half of desk.]
:Cueball: They casually handed me an impossible problem. In 48 hours and 200 lines, I ''solved'' it.

:[Curved lines with arrows divide the comic into two possible end panels, labeled "Academia" and "Business."]

:Academia:
:Professor: My god... this will mean a half-dozen papers, a thesis or two, and a paragraph in every textbook on queuing theory!

:Business:
:Boss: You got the program to stop jamming up? Great. While you're fixing stuff, can you get Outlook to sync with our new phones?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

342: 1337: Part 2

2025-12-15T09:12:26Z

Lettherebedarklight: added Category:Comics with a Spanish translation using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 342
| date = November 13, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 2
| image = 1337 part 2.png
| titletext = Trivia: Elaine is actually her middle name.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the second part of five in the "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series. The title 1337 is "L-eet," or "elite," using the {{w|Leet}} alphabet, a coding system used primarily on the internet (and on early text messaging systems), meant to provide a bit of {{w|obfuscation}} to plain text both to make it harder to read and to show off in a creative way using in-group jargon.

This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week. These are all the comics in [[:Category:1337|1337 series]]:
* [[341: 1337: Part 1]]
* [[342: 1337: Part 2]]
* [[343: 1337: Part 3]]
* [[344: 1337: Part 4]]
* [[345: 1337: Part 5]]

"Like a ring in a bell" appears to be a reference to the {{w|Chuck Berry}} song {{w|Johnny B. Goode}}, in which Berry describes a young boy (like himself) who becomes a guitar-playing prodigy. The original lyric was "just like a-ringing a bell." Apparently, [[Elaine Roberts]] learned to program as quickly, easily, and skillfully as Johnny (and Chuck) learned to play rock 'n' roll.
[[Donald Knuth]] is a computer science Professor Emeritus at {{w|Stanford University}} who is famous for writing {{w|The Art of Computer Programming}} and developing the TeX computerized typesetting system. He may not have a mountain hideaway (a reference to ''{{w|Kill Bill}}'', by the way, as is the whole training sequence), but he would be one of the best mentors a budding hacker could have.

The {{w|A* search algorithm}} and {{w|Dijkstra's algorithm}} are {{w|Graph traversal|graph search}} {{w|algorithm}}s. And what study of algorithms would be complete without a healthy study about finding complexities? {{w|Computational complexity theory|Time complexity}} is the amount of time an algorithm takes to execute. Upper bounds for complexity is written in {{w|Big O notation}}. Best possible execution of an algorithm is constant time, or O(1), said in words, for any given data set, no matter how large, the algorithm will always return the answer at the same time. However, constant time is extremely difficult to achieve; linear time (O(n)) is also very good. For more complex algorithms, [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x*log%28x%29 O( n*log(n) )] is good, but [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x*log%28log%28x%29%29 O( n*log(log(n)) )] is better. (Note that logarithms in different bases are proportional to each other. So, this would hold true for any base >1.)

Knowing that [[Mrs. Roberts]] has two children, this daughter named Elaine and the son named Bobby, is the key indicator that this is the mother previously noted as having given her children particularly strange names. Of course, the title text here explains that Elaine is only her middle name (assuming canonicity of title-text), but it was in the title text to [[327: Exploits of a Mom]] that we learned that her first name is "Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory". Mrs. Roberts appears to have had fun naming her children.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball standing and looking down at his Cueball-like friend, who is sitting on the floor near an armchair holding a cloth to his face.]
:Friend: So the greatest hacker of our era is a cookie-baking mom?
:Cueball: Second-greatest.
:Friend: Oh?

:[The next panel is only half height as Cueball's narration is written as a caption above the panel without a frame around it. In the panel to the left lies a young Elaine with a ponytail on the floor typing at a keyboard while looking at a screen connected to a computer behind it with lots of wires and open case. The computer appears to have been pieced together and there is a screwdriver lying next to her and an open box lies behind her. Little Bobby Tables (a kid version of Cueball) is painting with a broad brush at an easel to the left. There is a clear drawing with two parts going up and one down, but it's not easy to see what it should look like. He is holding his other hand up in the air, like he is enjoying the painting.]
:Cueball (narrating): Mrs. Roberts had two children. Her son, Bobby, was never much for computers, but her daughter Elaine took to them like a ring in a bell.

:[The front of a car is in frame with side mirror and steering wheel visible. Mrs. Roberts is waving goodbye to her daughter who is wearing a backpack and is holding a walking stick. She is about to begin climbing a staircase built into a rocky mountain side. The first 11 step are visible. Behind the two and the stair are two distant mountain peaks, and above them two clouds. Cueball continues to narrate, this time inside the panel:]
:Cueball (narrating): When Elaine turned 11, her mother sent her to train under Donald Knuth in his mountain hideaway.

:[Donald Knuth, drawn with hair only around his neck, is standing with a pointing stick at a chalk board with graph traversal patterns on it and two blocks of unreadable text the top may be a matrix. This small panel is also lower than the next panel, with Cueball's narration above:]
:Cueball (narrating): For four years she studied algorithms.
:Donald Knuth: Child—

:[Donald Knuth whips around from the board slashing the stick like a sword. Elaine jumps, making a somersault (indicated with a line curving on it self from floor to sword) and lands on the stick balancing with her arms out.]
:Donald Knuth: Why is A* search wrong in this situation?
:Stick: ''swish''
:Elaine: Memory usage!
:Donald Knuth: What would you use?
:Elaine: Dijkstra's algorithm!

:[Donald Knuth and Elaine are outside, seen from behind while they are both writing on a chalkboard with a thick line down the middle to separate their work. On both sides their writing can be seen but it is unreadable. Where there is only text visible on Donald Knuth's side there is also what appears to be a drawing or matrix at the top of Elaine's. But a similar thing could be behind Donald Knuth's head. Elaine is no longer wearing her hair in a ponytail but have long straight white hair like her mom, Mrs. Roberts. To the left there is a stump from a tree, some grass and maybe a puddle of water. Further back there is a small jagged hill and a flat horizon. To the right there are four mountain peaks and a flat high plateau towards the horizon. The frame of the panel does not include the top-left and bottom-right corners, but cuts round a rectangular section of both places. In these two sections, outside the panel, are the last two paragraphs of Cueball's narrating:]
:Cueball (narrating): Until one day she bested her master
:Donald Knuth: So our lower bound here is O(n log n)
:Elaine: Nope. Got it in O(n log (log n))
:Cueball (narrating): And left.

==Trivia==
In [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24#t=21m30s this Google speech], [[Donald Knuth]] personally asked [[Randall]] what his ''n*log(log(n))'' algorithm for searching was, and Randall referred him to Elaine.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:1337|02]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|1337]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]] 
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Comics featuring children]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

339: Classic

2025-12-15T09:11:32Z

Lettherebedarklight: wrong number on es.xkcd

{{comic
| number = 339
| date = November 7, 2007
| title = Classic
| image = classic.png
| titletext = Someone get that Pachelbel's Canon kid a recording contract, stat.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] listens to the song "{{w|Stairway to Heaven}}" performed by {{w|Led Zeppelin}} using an old {{w|phonograph}}. Led Zeppelin was active during the 1970s, with Stairway To Heaven being released in 1971; as such, the music belongs to the {{w|Baby-boom generation|Baby Boomer generation}}. After the song fades out to the end, he expresses how much it's affected him by stating that the baby boomers are winning over his own generation at music. The way in which the lyrics are written evokes the sound of this particular song as it finishes and fades out.

The title text likely refers to {{w|Lim Jeong-hyun}}, the guitarist in the YouTube video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8 ''guitar''] that went viral in 2006-2007, in which he performed a cover of "Canon Rock," a rock arrangement of {{w|Pachelbel's Canon}}. Alternatively, it may refer to {{w|JerryC}}, the original composer of "Canon Rock," who also performed the song in a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by8oyJztzwo YouTube video], though his video did not gain as much popularity as Lim's.

The Classical era was a period in music history (1750 - 1820) that produced many musical compositions still remembered hundreds of years afterward, and the word 'classic' is now used to describe something that remains popular long after its time. The "Baby Boomer generation" is known for having created many musicians still well-loved today, including:
*{{w|Led Zeppelin}}
*{{w|The Who}}
*{{w|Deep Purple}}
*{{w|Genesis}}
*{{w|The Doors}}
*{{w|Pink Floyd}}
*{{w|Janis Joplin}}
*{{w|Jimi Hendrix}}
*{{w|The Rolling Stones}}
*{{w|Stevie Ray Vaughan}}
*{{w|Creedence Clearwater Revival}}
*{{w|Grateful Dead}}
*{{w|The Beatles}}
*[[Wikipedia:Yes (band)|Yes]]
*...

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in front of a turntable, listening to Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. A guitarist (possibly meant to be Jimmy Page) can be seen in an inset in the top left corner of the first two panels.]
:Song: And as we wind on down the road, our shadows taller than our soul

:Song: When all is one and one is all, to be a rock and not to rooooll

:Song [fading away]: And she's buying a stairway to Heaven

:Cueball: Man. The Baby Boomers are kicking our ASSES.
:Cueball: We need to get it together, guys.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Music]]

117: Pong

2025-12-15T09:01:08Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 117
| date = June 19, 2006
| title = Pong
| image = pong.png
| titletext = 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.
}}

== Explanation ==
This comic largely refers to the 1999 movie ''{{w|The Matrix}}'', which is about escaping a simulated reality. In the movie, a hacker called {{w|Neo (The Matrix)|Neo}} realizes that the world he lives in is fake, and that, like every other human, he is used as a slave battery by machines that, to keep them under control, make them feel like they're "living" in what is a computer-generated simulation of the world, called the "Matrix." Upon discovery, Neo rebels against this misuse of mankind and trains himself to interact with the computers that run the world until, being "the One" mentioned by a prophecy, he can control and use them to his advantage. He takes part in a series of missions against those machines that wanted to keep the humans trapped in a simulated environment.

In {{w|Pong}}, one of the earliest video games, one can play virtual table tennis against the computer. 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 rally runs longer.

The two-game programmers in the first frame apply Neo's story to the {{w|Artificial intelligence|AI}} bots they create to serve as computer players in their video games: What if one of them learns enough to become sentient and understands the environment the programmers trapped it in? The outcome is shown: The paddle bot, understanding the game and realizing he is "the One," takes control of the code of Pong to make the ball stop and drop. The same thing happens in the movie, where Neo, by "seeing through the code," can stop bullets fired at him, and simply let them drop on the floor.

This is also possibly, though not likely, a pun on the meaning of the term "the One," as the long thin paddle looks very similar to how the numeral "1" could be written in several fonts.

In the title text, we learn that after increasing in intelligence, the "paddle" went on to destroy the headquarters of {{w|Atari}}, the producer of Pong, which "trapped" the paddle into the game, much like Neo sought to destroy the machines to free the humans. In the process, the paddle ended up inside the game ''{{w|Enter the Matrix}}'' (a video game produced with ''{{w|The Matrix Reloaded}}'', a sequel to ''The Matrix''), also published by Atari. Since the whole premise of The Matrix is that everyone is trapped in a virtual reality, the paddle now finds himself in a meta-virtual reality, which could be pretty hard to comprehend.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: So what do we do if video game AI opponents become smart enough to question the "Matrix" into which we've put them?
: Pong paddle: Wait a minute! None of this is real! I can see through the world! I can see the code! I AM THE ONE!
:[The pong ball is moving towards the paddle.]
:[The pong ball slows down.]
:[The pong ball stops in midair.]
:[The pong ball drops towards the bottom of the screen.]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:The Matrix]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

123: Centrifugal Force

2025-12-15T09:01:07Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Trivia */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 123
| date = July 3, 2006
| title = Centrifugal Force
| image = centrifugal force.png
| titletext = You spin me right round baby, right round, in a manner depriving me of an inertial reference frame. Baby.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] has strapped {{w|James Bond}} to a centrifuge and claims that the {{w|Centrifugal force|centrifugal}} force will be lethal. Bond objects that there is no such thing, but just {{w|Centripetal force|centripetal}} force. The notion of centrifugal force is a common one, as we experience it whenever we turn. Teachers will initially teach Newtonian mechanics in an inertial frame, and in inertial frames, the centrifugal force is zero. Instead, a body that moves in a circle does so because of a centripetal force (acting towards the center of the rotation). This is a reasonable (and correct) view, but it is a subtle point that many students find hard to grasp, as it seems to contradict their personal experience of centrifugal forces. For the sake of exposition, teachers may claim that "There is no such thing as centrifugal force." This, however, is also a misconception, which is addressed in the explanation below:
;Observers' point of view (Black Hat, us, etc.)
:James Bond is moving in a circle, and is therefore accelerating. The force keeping him there is an inward force of contact against the centrifuge, a centripetal force. Via Newton's {{w|Newton's laws of motion#Newton's third law|third law}}, since the centrifuge is pushing Bond inward, Bond is pushing the centrifuge outward. The centrifuge's material is strong enough not to break under this force, however.
;James Bond's point of view
:In James Bond's frame of reference, Bond is at rest. He is kept there by two forces: the above-mentioned inward force of contact against the centrifuge, and an ''outward centrifugal force''. He feels both forces.

As mentioned in the explanation, as the centrifuge rotates faster, the forces needed to keep him in motion get larger, so the force he feels gets larger. This will eventually kill him. The conclusion will be the same regardless of which frame of reference is chosen.

Teachers of mechanics are well aware of this; however, in introductory expositions, these ideas are often not taught. In theoretical mechanics, one describes the positions and velocities of the particles in a model relative to a frame of reference. This means that a time is chosen to be time 0, and positions are chosen to be (0,0,0), (1,0,0), (0,1,0), and (0,0,1). With these chosen, the position and time of any particle in the system can be described. It is an axiom of Newtonian Mechanics that there exist "Inertial Frames." In an inertial frame, a particle will remain at rest or at a constant speed unless acted on by an external force, and Newton's second law takes a simple form: F = ma. The surface of the Earth approximates an inertial frame. In a non-inertial frame, such as one rotating with a giant centrifuge, or moving with an accelerating vehicle, a particle will accelerate, relative to the frame. Newton's second law, when formed in such a frame, is much more complicated, as it has terms for the linear acceleration of the frame, the angular acceleration of the frame, the centrifugal force, and the {{w|Coriolis force}}. These extra terms are sometimes called "fictitious forces," as they result from the choice of the frame of reference. The mathematics required to describe problems in a non-inertial frame is more sophisticated, and all problems may be solved using an inertial frame. Thus is reasonable that teachers at school level "{{w|lie to children}}" and teach the mechanics in inertial frames.

James Bond was almost killed by a centrifuge in {{w|Moonraker (film)|Moonraker}}. The final statement by Black Hat is that said by {{w|Auric Goldfinger}} in {{w|Goldfinger (film)|Goldfinger}} in response to James Bond's question "Do you expect me to talk?"

The title text is inspired by {{w|Dead or Alive (band)|Dead or Alive's}} famous song from 1985, "{{w|You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)|You Spin Me Round}}."

Randall feels very strongly that the centrifugal force is a real thing. He links to this comic in the first footnote of his ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article {{what if|92|One-Second Day}} and the 6th footnote of {{what if|157|Earth-Moon Fire Pole}}, stating that it is a real thing, and that he will go so far as to strap arguers to a centrifuge that he or someone he knows apparently owns. He also cites it in [[852: Local g]]

As can also be seen in the [https://twitter.com/bohacekp/status/531500491180875776/photo/1 footnote on page 132] in his ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book, he will even fight you about it. From the book: 
"Furthermore, if you're on the equator, you're being flung outward by a centrifugal force1."
 "1Yes, centrifugal. I will fight you."
 (The article itself is about what happens if you lose all your DNA, so it has not much to do with this "real" force... The sentence is just stating that the actual weight loss from losing all your DNA is similar to the weight loss you would experience by moving from the poles to the equator due to this force.)

Black Hat is featured as a Bond villain once again in [[2747: Presents for Biologists]].

==Transcript==
:[James Bond, drawn as Cueball, is strapped to a giant wheel suspended from the ceiling. Black Hat is standing next to two levers.]
:Black hat: How do you like my centrifuge, Mister Bond? When I throw this lever, you will feel centrifugal force crush every bone in your body.
:[Same scene, but a closer shot.]
:Bond: You mean centripetal force. There's no such thing as centrifugal force.
:Black hat: A laughable claim, Mister Bond, perpetuated by overzealous teachers of science. Simply construct Newton's laws in a rotating system and you will see a centrifugal force term appear as plain as day.
:[Closer shot, only Bond's head is visible.]
:Bond: Come now, do you really expect me to do coordinate substitution in my head while strapped to a centrifuge?
:Black hat: No, Mister Bond. I expect you to die.

==Trivia==
* This used to be one of the [[Footer comics|footer comics]] featured in the bottom segment of [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com].
* This comic used to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20211215063004/https://store.xkcd.com/products/signed-prints available as a signed print] in the xkcd store before it was [[Store|shut down]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Footer comics]] 
[[Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

132: Music Knowledge

2025-12-15T09:01:06Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Trivia */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 132
| date = July 24, 2006
| title = Music Knowledge
| image = music_knowledge.png
| titletext = When Guitar Hero 2 comes out I'll have fresh conversational material for MONTHS.
}}

==Explanation==
The punchline of this comic is that just by naming bands from the game ''{{w|Guitar Hero}}'', you can sound pretty knowledgeable about music without actually knowing anything about the bands you are naming. This is further emphasized when [[Megan]] mentions {{w|Metallica}}, a very famous band that mostly everyone can be assumed to have heard of, and [[Cueball]] has no clue who they are, because Metallica is not featured in ''Guitar Hero'' (at the time of this comic writing). A similar premise was demonstrated in [[1859: Sports Knowledge]].

''{{w|Guitar Hero}}'' is a music rhythm video game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the {{w|Playstation 2}}.

In the title text, Cueball (or possibly Randall) is just hoping for a sequel to ''Guitar Hero'' to get more, and newer, conversational material. By 2015, there had been 6 main sequels to ''Guitar Hero'', with numerous other spinoffs and expansions to the {{w|Guitar Hero|''Guitar Hero'' series}}.

===List of bands mentioned===

'''Classic Rock'''
*{{w|Boston (band)|Boston}} is an American rock band from Boston, who had their most success in the 1970s and 1980s. Their song "{{w|More Than a Feeling}}" is featured in ''Guitar Hero''.
*{{w|Queen (band)|Queen}} is a British rock band from London, formed in 1970, with many major hits. Their song "{{w|Killer Queen}}" is featured in ''Guitar Hero''.
*"Bowie" ({{w|David Bowie}}) was an English singer and songwriter. His song "{{w|Ziggy Stardust (song)|Ziggy Stardust}}" is featured in ''Guitar Hero''.
*{{w|Joan Jett}} is an American rock singer. She is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. Their version of the song "{{w|I Love Rock 'n' Roll}}" is featured in ''Guitar Hero''.

'''Newer stuff'''
*{{w|Franz Ferdinand (band)|Franz Ferdinand}} are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 2002. Their song "{{w|Take Me Out (song)|Take Me Out}}" is featured in ''Guitar Hero''.
*{{w|The Donnas}} were an American rock band formed in Palo Alto, California in 1993. Their song "{{w|Spend the Night (The Donnas album)|Take it Off}}" is featured in ''Guitar Hero''.
*{{w|Audioslave}} was an American rock supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 2001. Their song "{{w|Cochise (song)|Cochise}}" is featured in ''Guitar Hero''.

'''Other stuff'''
*{{w|Arcade Fire}} is a Canadian indie rock band founded in 2000.
*{{w|The Postal Service|Postal Service}} was an American indie rock band founded in 2001.
*{{w|Freezepop}} is an American electronic band from Boston. Their song "Get Ready 2 Rokk" is featured in ''Guitar Hero'', as a bonus song. This is the first giveaway of Cueball's source for his music knowledge; Freezepop is a fairly obscure indie band best known for their placement in ''Guitar Hero'' and other rhythm games.
*{{w|Metallica}} is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles, California. Metallica has won 9 Grammy awards and received 23 Grammy nominations. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.

Interestingly, neither {{w|Arcade Fire}} nor {{w|The Postal Service|Postal Service}} (mentioned by Megan) are featured in ''Guitar Hero'', so Cueball should not have any knowledge of these bands. Perhaps he brought up Freezepop as a distraction, since Megan mentioned that The Postal Service also has electronic music.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball converse.]
:Megan: What kind of music do you listen to?
:Cueball: Oh, a mix of things. Some classic rock like Boston, but then of course Queen and Bowie, Joan Jett...
:Megan: Definitely, we need more of those sounds.
:Cueball: But there's some great newer stuff too, like Franz Ferdinand, The Donnas, and Audioslave.
:Megan: Sometimes they're a little much for me. I go more for things like The Arcade Fire, sometimes mixing some electronic sounds like Postal Service.
:Cueball: Oh yeah—have you ever checked out Freezepop?
:Megan: Mhm! Synth pop can be fun, but at the same time, I agree that sometimes you just need to blast some Metallica.
:Cueball: Who?
:Megan: ...Metallica.
:Cueball: Are they new?
:I sound pretty knowledgeable about music until people figure out that I'm just naming bands from Guitar Hero.

==Trivia==
*In his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24#t=42m20s Google-speech] in late 2007, [[Randall]] expressed some form of dissatisfaction with ''Guitar Hero III'' (coincidentally the first edition in the series to include a Metallica song).
*In 2009, three years after this comic was released, ''Metallica'' eventually got a game {{w|Guitar Hero: Metallica}}.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Rhythm Games]]
[[Category:Guitar Hero]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

135: Substitute

2025-12-15T09:01:05Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Trivia */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 135
| date = July 31, 2006
| title = Substitute
| image = substitute.png
| titletext = YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the film ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}'', a 1993 movie based on the 1990 novel by {{w|Michael Crichton}}. The film centers around a billionaire who bought an island and opened a zoo or theme park for dinosaurs that he has cloned from DNA recovered from blood found in fossilized mosquitoes. After a computer programmer shuts down the security systems to steal embryos for a rival company, several of the creatures, among which are the {{w|velociraptor}}s subject of this comic, run loose and try to devour every human in the theme park.

Velociraptors (often shortened to "raptors") are a species of relatively small, carnivorous {{w|dinosaur}} that play a central role in the original film, as well as its sequels. In the film, packs of Velociraptors antagonize the main characters at various points, even entering buildings. According to newer researches, the Velociraptors in the film were erroneously based on the {{w|Utahraptor}} species of dinosaur. Unlike the movie, in which they are depicted as having a reptilian skin, both species of dinosaur in reality are theorized to have been feathered. The word "raptor" also refers to modern {{w|Bird of prey|birds of prey}}.

[[Randall Munroe|Randall]] is asked to substitute for [[Miss Lenhart]] in math class. The first page of the test he devises contains three questions, which have the recurring theme of humans running from said velociraptors. For the answers, see below. As Randall says in the comic: "This material is more vital than anything you've ever learned," the joke being that Randall is somehow fearful that such a thing could happen. Velociraptors, and in particular, the irrational fear of being attacked by them in the modern world, [[:Category:Velociraptors|appear several times]] in [[xkcd]]. This is the second such instance; the first is [[87: Velociraptors]].

Answers to the first two questions [http://fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=120&start=40 used to be found] on the forum board, until it was shut down. The link is now defunct, but there's an [https://web.archive.org/web/20150326152959/http://fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=120&start=40 archived version]:
*The first is 37.30 meters.
*If the raptors at each instant move towards the current position of the person, the second answer is 57.19 degrees to either side of the wounded raptor.
*If the raptors' trajectories are optimal for catching the person as quickly as possible, the second answer is 59.83 degrees to either side of the wounded raptor.

In the title text, Randall asks the kids whether they find this possibility humorous (and they rightfully should, considering that the chances of such a thing occurring are astronomically low).{{cn}}

==Transcript==
:[In a classroom, the board says "Math" on the top-left corner, and "Mr. Munroe" in the middle. A Cueball portrays Randall, standing in front of it, speaking to the class.]
:Randall: Miss Lenhart couldn't be here today, so she asked me to substitute.
:Randall: I've put out your tests. Please get started.

:[A student in the first row raises the exam paper and says:]
:Student: Mr. Munroe, Miss Lenhart never taught us this.

:Randall: That's because Miss Lenhart doesn't understand how important certain kinds of math are.
:Student: But this just looks--
:Randall: This material is more vital than anything you've ever learned
:Student: But--
:Randall: No buts.

:Randall: This is a matter of life and death.

:[Excerpt from the exam paper.]
:<tt>Name: _________</tt>

:[A stick figure is standing, hands over head. A velociraptor is running towards it.]

:<tt>1. The velociraptor spots you 40 meters away and attacks, accelerating at 4 m/s^2 to its top speed of 25 m/s. When it spots you, you begin to flee, quickly reaching your top speed of 6 m/s. How far can you get before you're caught and devoured?</tt>

:<tt>2. You're at the center of a 20m equilateral triangle with a raptor at each corner. The top raptor has a wounded leg and is limited to a top speed of 10 m/s.</tt>

:[A stick figure is shown in the above situation. The picture has a legend "<tt>(Not to scale).</tt>"]

:<tt>The raptors will run toward you. At what angle should you run to maximize the time you stay alive?</tt>

:<tt>3. Raptors can open doors, but they are slowed by them. Using the floor plan on the next page, plot a route through the building, assuming raptors take 5 minutes to open the first door and halve the time for each subsequent door. Remember, raptors run at 10 m/s and they do not know fear.</tt>

==Trivia==
This is the first xkcd comic featuring [[Miss Lenhart]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring children]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

163: Donald Knuth

2025-12-15T09:01:04Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Trivia */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 163
| date = September 27, 2006
| title = Donald Knuth
| image = donald_knuth.png
| titletext = His books were kinda intimidating; rappelling down through his skylight seemed like the best option.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Donald Knuth]] is a computer science Professor Emeritus at {{w|Stanford University}} who is famous for writing ''{{w|The Art of Computer Programming}}'' and developing the TeX computerized typesetting system.

In computer science, an array is a structure that stores multiple values in a fixed order, and the elements are accessed by their index number. In {{w|Fortran}}, for instance, one writes <tt>array(1)</tt> to access the first element in the array. Most "modern" (read: descended from {{w|C (programming language)|C}}) languages use 0 as the index for the first element in the array, but it is possible (if one is careful about it) to ignore the 0th element and use 1 as the first index. In some programming languages, such as {{w|Pascal (programming language)|Pascal}} or {{w|Ada (programming language)|Ada}}, it is possible to select an arbitrary range of indices for each array type, so the first index might not only be 0 or 1, but also −42 or 100000. [[Cueball]] is complaining that [[Black Hat]] was not consistent in his choice of where to start his arrays. This is a valid complaint, as a lack of such consistency can make coding errors both more likely and more difficult to detect.

Black Hat cites Donald Knuth to support his rebuttal, but the quote he uses does not seem relevant. Presumably, Black Hat had illegally entered the professor's house in order to question him on indices. Donald Knuth's words were not an intellectual response to the question, but rather an alarmed response to the presence of an intruder. It is not clear if Black Hat is aware of this.

The title text suggests that Black Hat finds Knuth's books intimidating, due to perhaps their size or complexity, to the extent that he considers breaking into Knuth's house (a risky, difficult crime) to be the better option in finding his answer. Even for Donald Knuth's books, this is exaggerated and illogical behavior. In ''[[xkcd: volume 0]]'', four other responses are included:
* "Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration." - {{w|Stan Kelly-Bootle}}
* "What are you doing with that thing? Eww, it's still alive!" - {{w|Paul Graham (programmer)|Paul Graham}}
* "I'm calling the police once I get my cell phone back from your squid." - {{w|Bruce Schneier}}
* "Sorry, I thought you were Microsoft." - {{w|Richard Stallman|RMS}}

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Cueball are sitting back to back at two separate desks, typing. Black Hat has turned toward Cueball to respond to him.]
:Cueball: Man, you're being inconsistent with your array indices. Some are from one, some from zero.
:Black Hat: Different tasks call for different conventions. To quote Stanford algorithms expert Donald Knuth, "Who are you? How did you get in my house?"

:[Black Hat and Cueball are sitting back to back at two separate desks, typing. Cueball has turned toward Black Hat, confused.]
:Cueball: Wait, what?
:Black Hat: Well, that's what he said when I asked him about it.

==Trivia==
Later, the topic of breaking into a software expert's house through the skylight became topic of [[225: Open Source]] again.

This is the first xkcd comic featuring [[Donald Knuth]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

275: Thoughts

2025-12-15T09:01:03Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 275
| date = June 11, 2007
| title = Thoughts
| image = thoughts.png
| titletext = And now I might never get to again.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic relates to the situation of getting introduced to the parents of one's girlfriend, which is often felt to be rather awkward. The parents tend to scrutinize and question the aspirant in order to find out if he is a good catch. A particularly delicate issue is the fact that the suitor may have had sexual intercourse with their daughter. This topic is almost never openly addressed, but can sometimes be felt in the subtext of the conversation. This makes the scenario somewhat susceptible to a so-called {{w|Freudian slip}}. The term describes a common psychological phenomenon where a subconscious thought bursts through and induces, for example, a slip of the tongue.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] tries to repress any thoughts of sexual nature while talking to her parents [[Blondie]] and [[Blondie]]'s Cueball-like man. He promptly utters the sentence "I have licked your daughter's nipples." and thus involuntarily addresses the topic he tried to avoid.

The title text suggests that either the parents do not want their daughter to meet him again, or that the girlfriend interdicts his licking her nipples again because of the embarrassing scene.

From ''[[xkcd: volume 0]]'':
{{quote|If I thought it was awkward ''before'' I made a comic about it...}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball talking with his girlfriend's parents represented by Blondie, holding a hand up in greeting and a larger version of Cueball. Above them there is a caption:]
:When meeting a girlfriend's family, I have to suppress the weirdest thoughts.
:Cueball: Hi!
:Blondie: Hi! It's so nice to finally meet you!
:Cueball: I have licked your daughter's nipples.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

189: Exercise

2025-12-15T09:01:02Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 189
| date = November 27, 2006
| title = Exercise
| image = exercise.png
| titletext = I haven't had the patience for RPGs in a long time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Role-playing_game|Role-playing games}} (RPGs) are a pastime commonly associated with {{w|Geek|geeks}} in which players assume the role of a fictional character in a fantasy world. In many RPGs, character evolution and advancement is represented by "leveling up." Through winning battles and, less frequently, completing tasks or missions, characters are awarded experience points (XP), which can be spent on increasing their ratings in attributes (such as strength or speed) or skills (such as bow-hunting or computer hacking). The number of XP awarded is generally proportional to the difficulty of the task completed.

[[Cueball]] is doing {{w|Pull-up (exercise)|pull-ups}}, a strength-training exercise that mainly targets the latissimus dorsi. Repeating this exercise over time will improve his ability to do more pull-ups in one go - in other words, he will become stronger. In doing so, he is effectively leveling up his STR (strength) attribute in real life. While doing his pull-ups, he comments that he will soon switch to running - an aerobic exercise that improves endurance - in order to build up his CON (constitution) attribute. Cueball is treating his gym session like an RPG, and observes that, as a self-confessed geek, he would not be as interested in exercising without that link.

The title text implies that, ever since, [[Randall]] has lost his patience and ability to play RPG games; likely due to the connection to exercise.

==Transcript==
:Like many geeks, I got a lot more interested in exercise once I made the connection to leveling up.
:[Cueball is doing pull-ups on a bar in a doorframe.]
:Cueball: One more point to STR, then I'll run to work on CON.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

197: Ninja Turtles

2025-12-15T09:01:01Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 197
| date = December 15, 2006
| title = Ninja Turtles
| image = ninja turtles.png
| titletext = The henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady have hijacked the musical genres for us just like the Lone Ranger hijacked the William Tell Overture for our parents.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles}}, or Ninja Turtles, are a pop-cultural phenomenon especially prominent in the late 1980s and 1990s. The four turtles are named for four artists of the European Renaissance: {{w|Leonardo da Vinci}}, {{w|Michelangelo|Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni}}, {{w|Donatello|Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi}}, and {{w|Raphael|Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino}}. Due to the popularity of the Ninja Turtles in a variety of media, some of the names are now better known through their Ninja Turtle connection than their original artist forebears. The pie charts provide an approximation of this effect - Leonardo da Vinci remains one of the most notable artists of the period, and thus "Leonardo" is depicted as more notable for the artist. Donatello is the most obscure of the four as an artist, and consequently the majority of the current notoriety of "Donatello" is as a Ninja Turtle.

The colors used in the comic correspond to the primary colors of the turtles (green for the body, brown for the shell), especially in the original series from the 80s.

The title text alludes to a similar phenomenon, as two villain characters from the same Ninja Turtles show called {{w|Bebop and Rocksteady|"Bebop" and "Rocksteady"}} are now better known as the characters than for the musical genres they are named for. Similarly, the {{w|William Tell Overture}} became so closely tied to the character of the Lone Ranger in media for the previous generation that, to many, the William Tell Overture is in effect "The Lone Ranger Theme."

==Transcript==
:[Four pie graphs, each colored green and brown.]
:Leonardo
:[Almost one-half green.]
:Michelangelo
:[More than one-half green.]
:Donatello
:[Five-sixths green.]
:Raphael
:[Roughly half-and-half.]
:[A legend]
:Notoriety as a
:[Brown.] Renaissance artist
:[Green.] Ninja turtle

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Pie charts]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

203: Hallucinations

2025-12-15T09:01:00Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 203
| date = December 29, 2006
| title = Hallucinations
| image = hallucinations.png
| titletext = And the possibility of lucid dreaming just makes it that much more fascinating.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] on the right is talking to his (Cueball-like) friend about {{w|dream|dreaming}} but using words and phrases to make dreaming sound much more dramatic than we usually think that it is. However, the description is technically correct.

[[Randall]] is using the comic to make a point about how we think dreaming is so normal, but if we actually realize what's happening, dreaming is very strange:
*go comatose for a few hours = sleep for a few hours
*hallucinate vividly = dream
*suffer amnesia about the whole experience = forget the dream
The character on the left takes this as though the experience is normal. Which it indeed is, but that is why Randall has the caption above the guys: ''Sometimes it seems bizarre to me that we take dreaming in stride.''

The title text is about {{w|Lucid dream|lucid dreaming}}, where the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. This is even more fascinating to Randall. He uses this type of dream in [[269: TCMP]].

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball-like guys are talking. Above them is the following caption:]
:Sometimes it seems bizarre to me that we take dreaming in stride.

:Friend: Are you coming to dinner?
:Cueball: Yeah, but first I'm gonna go comatose for a few hours, hallucinate vividly, and then maybe suffer amnesia about the whole experience.
:Friend: Okay, cool.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Dreams]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

207: What xkcd Means

2025-12-15T09:00:59Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 207
| date = January 8, 2007
| title = What xkcd Means
| image = what xkcd means.png
| titletext = It means shuffling quickly past nuns on the street with ketchup in your palms, pretending you're hiding stigmata.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic purports to finally answer the question, "[[xkcd#Meaning of xkcd|What does ''xkcd'' mean?]]" However, instead of giving an answer as to what the letters actually mean ([[#Meaning of xkcd|see below]]), he offers five quirky behaviors that he says represent the meaning of the word. This is reminiscent of TV commercials that ask, "What does [brand name] mean? It means [happy activity]!".

*The first panel shows a driver, marked by a red line, making a {{w|right turn on red|right turn at a red light}}, a {{w|U-turn}} on the connecting road, and then another right turn, returning them to their original direction presumably faster than waiting for the light. Right turns at red lights and U-turns are legal in all 50 states, but some intersections do not allow them (and turning at a red light is illegal everywhere in Europe, except for if the traffic lights have been fitted with an auxilliary {{w|Traffic light#Vehicular signals|green arrow}} which indicates such an allowance during a [[1116: Traffic Lights|road junction's sequence]]). Hence, this complicated maneuver is "questionably legal". However, under certain circumstances in the US state of Oregon, [https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/79990/is-the-questionably-legal-maneuver-from-xkcd-207-actually-legal it appears that this is actually legal].

*The second panel shows [[Cueball]] searching for his mobile phone by having his friend call it to locate the ringtone, only to hear a ring from inside of his dog's stomach, possibly a reference to {{w|Jurassic Park III|''Jurassic Park III''}}.{{Citation needed}} This, by the way, is a weird depiction. Usually this is done by someone with or close to you. Because if Cueball didn't have his phone, then how could he get someone outside the house to call it? Having someone you meet call your phone, presumably to find it, is used in [[2900: Call My Cell]], although it turned out it was not really about finding the phone, rather, [[Black Hat]] showing his inner [[classhole]].

*The third panel discusses calling an Ackermann function using Graham's number as input arguments to horrify mathematicians, where {{w|Graham's number}} is a (very) large number (once celebrated as the largest number ever used in a proof, although it is no longer the record holder), and the {{w|Ackermann function}} is a (very) fast-growing function, thus the function's output must be insanely large. (In fact, A(g64, g64) is actually smaller than g65.)

*The fourth panel describes how walking in a specific pattern on a tile floor based on arbitrary rules related to the position of the black and white tiles will cause someone to be unable to walk normally on a tile floor ever again. This is further referenced in [[245: Floor Tiles]].

*The title text refers to {{w|stigmata}}, marks corresponding to Jesus' crucifixion wounds. They are also sometimes reported to bleed periodically. Using ketchup to fake stigmata would be a good idea, as from afar people would think that you actually are bleeding from your (supposed) stigmata. Devout Catholics have claimed to have spontaneously developed stigmata.
===Meaning of xkcd===
{{:xkcd}}

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panels:]
:What does xkcd mean?

:[Two cars sitting at a red light at a multi-lane intersection; one of them makes a right turn, then shifts over to the left lane and makes a U-turn across the dividing line to go back the way it came. It then shifts back to the right lane and makes another right turn, continuing down the road past the traffic light. This is shown with a red arrow.]
:It means saving a few seconds at a long red light via elaborate and questionably legal maneuvers.

:[In an inset circle in the panel, someone is on a cell phone. In the panel itself, a second person is looking at a dog.]
:It means having someone call your cell phone to figure out where it is.
:Dog's stomach: ''Ring''

:[The mathematical function "A(g64, g64)=" appears in the panel. Next to the equal sign stands a mathematician, clutching his head.]
:It means calling the Ackermann function with Graham's number as the arguments just to horrify mathematicians.
:Mathematician: ''AUGHHH''

:[An approximately 8 by 8 square of floor tiles is shown. Each black tile has 2 tiles between itself and another on all sides, starting at the bottom left. A guy and girl are shown next to it, walking on what is presumed to be the same pattern of floor tiles.]
:It means instinctively constructing rules for which floor tiles it's okay to step on and then walking funny ever after.
:[Line indicating the uppermost right black tile: Black tiles okay.]
:[Line indicating tile directly below it: White tiles directly between black tiles okay.]
:[Line indicating a white tile in the last column over: Not okay.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dogs]]
[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Traffic light]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

246: Labyrinth Puzzle

2025-12-15T09:00:58Z

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

{{comic
| number = 246
| date = April 9, 2007
| title = Labyrinth Puzzle
| image = labyrinth_puzzle.png
| titletext = And the whole setup is just a trap to capture escaping logicians. None of the doors actually lead out.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic alludes to a famous {{w|Knights and Knaves}} logic puzzle, and specifically to the version featured in the {{w|Jim Henson}} movie ''{{w|Labyrinth (1986 film)|Labyrinth}}'', with ''two'' doors and ''two'' guards. One guard always lies, and the other always tells the truth. One of the doors leads to freedom, and you can only ask one guard one question. The solutions to this riddle (and there are several, though all are somewhat similar) involve a tricky question indeed. If you want to give the original puzzle a try for yourself, don't read the spoilers below.

*Solution 1: Ask one guard (it doesn't matter which one) which door the ''other'' guard would say leads out. ''Both'' guards will indicate the same door, which will be the door that ''doesn't'' lead out: the truthful guard knows the lying guard would point to the door that leads to certain death, and says so, while the lying guard, knowing the truthful guard would point to the right door, says the opposite, indicating the door to certain death.
*Solution 2: Ask one guard (it doesn't matter which one) what his answer would be if asked what door leads to freedom. Again, both guards will indicate the same door, which is indeed the door to freedom: the truth guard would, straightforwardly, tell you the truth, while the liar, if asked what door leads to freedom, would point to the opposite, and, if asked his answer, must give the opposite of ''that'' — the true door.

Notably enough, both solutions require that the guards be aware of each other's practice regarding truth and lies, which is not stated in the riddle itself. There's another unspoken rule: that the lie is either a yes or a no. If you asked the liar something, he could lie and say, "I don't know," which would leave you with nothing.

[[Black Hat]] added a third guard here who would stab his spear to [[Cueball]] on every tricky question. But even if the questions from before are not tricky enough to get stabbed, there would be no helpful answer. And if Cueball asks one of the other guards, the answers can't help to find the correct door. The only saving grace is that Black Hat has seemingly forgotten to impose the limit of a single question, but depending on how stab-happy the third guard is or is not, this may not be enough.

The title text presents a typical behavior of Black Hat — no door in fact does lead out of this labyrinth. (Neither door is correct in ''Labyrinth'', either; people paying close attention will note that since ''the guards themselves'' explain the premise, even though one of them supposedly always lies, they can't possibly be taken at face value.)

==Transcript==
:[Three guards with spears stand in front of three doors. Black Hat and Cueball stand in front of the guards.]
:Black Hat: And over here we have the labyrinth guards. One always lies, one always tells the truth, and one stabs people who ask tricky questions.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]