explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3228: Day Counter

2026-04-04T17:43:49Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Minor grammatical correction, changing a word from past tense to the more correct subjunctive form

{{comic
| number = 3228
| date = April 3, 2026
| title = Day Counter
| image = day_counter_2x.png
| imagesize = 319x287px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It has been −2,147,483,648 days since our last integer overflow.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete|This page was created -.000000000000000032 days ago. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A common feature of an industrial setting is a prominent sign announcing how many days have elapsed since the last workplace accident. The sign is typically updated each day to a number one higher — or back to zero, if there ''has'' been an accident. Such signs are intended to foster a culture of safety among the workers in the facility, since presumably no one wants to suffer the embarrassment of being the one to have caused an accident that resets the number to 0.

In this comic, a similar sign highlights the number of days since the last floating-point error. Floating-point errors occur because most computers can devote only a finite amount of storage for each {{w|Floating-point arithmetic|floating point number}} or other fraction. However, many {{w|real numbers}} and {{w|rational numbers}} theoretically require an infinite number of digits to represent them. For example, the ordinary fraction ⅓ is represented in decimal as 0.3333333333…, where the 3s repeat forever. When a number is truncated to fit in the finite amount of space, precision is inevitably lost, resulting in a slight rounding error. Unless carefully controlled, these rounding errors can accumulate, significantly degrading the accuracy of floating-point computations. For example, although ⅓ + ⅓ + ⅓ should obviously equal 1, a finite-precision calculation like 0.333 + 0.333 + 0.333 might show a misleading result of 0.999, which might not trigger the code to do what it should do when three thirds have been accumulated (it can be mitigated by allowing a match for a value which is within a suitably very small difference to the test value, but this must be considered carefully to not be over-/under-sensitive). The amount of required space for rational numbers is not universal, it depends on the base used (⅓ in base 3 requires just two digits: 0.1). Floating point arithmetic standards, like the popular IEEE 754, define how and when an approximation should take place, leading to predictable results, but they don't respect some basic properties of common arithmetic operations, which someone may take for granted, e.g. in floating point arithmetic addition and multiplication are commutative (a+b=b+a; a*b=b*a), but aren't guaranteed to be associative ((a+b)+c≈a+(b+c)); (a*b)*c≈a*(b*c)).

This issue is exacerbated on computers which use binary arithmetic (i.e., virtually all computers today), since in binary, the ordinary fraction 1/10 is represented as the infinitely-repeating base-2 fraction <tt>0.000110011001100110011</tt>…. A classic example is that, depending on circumstances, the calculation 0.1 + 0.2 might [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/588004/is-floating-point-math-broken seem to give an answer of 0.30000000000000004].

Evidently, in the programming facility shown in the comic, a floating-point error has occurred today, and an attempt has been made to update the sign to say "It has been 0 days since...". But the number 0 is displayed incorrectly, as the very small negative number −0.00000000000000044. Perhaps the error that was made today was the very error that occurred in updating the sign! (This would of course violate {{w|causality}}, but in comedy, self-referential humor beats causality every time, and is at least self-consistent, like with [[363: Reset]])

As an example of how the number −0.00000000000000044 could have arisen when 0 was intended, consider this simple {{w|C (programming language)|C}} program:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
double d = 19;
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) d -= 1.9;
printf("%.17f\n", d);
}

The program starts with the number 19, and subtracts 1.9 from it, ten times. Mathematically, we would expect the result to be 0. However, the number 1.9 cannot be represented exactly in binary, nor can the intermediate results 17.1, 15.2, 13.3, etc. The cascading roundoff errors conspire to produce a result of −0.00000000000000044 instead of the expected 0.

In the comic, such an error creates the ridiculous illusion that −0.00000000000000044 days have passed, which implies a 'negative' number of days, which is impossible{{cn}}. It also, even if it were a positive number, would mean that much less than a nanosecond had passed since the last error, which would be an unfeasably short amount of time. Of course, the joke is that in making the sign showing the amount of time since a floating point error was last made, they are creating a floating point error, meaning the sign maintains its own "error state" in a self-referential way. Also, if they tried to reset the sign, they might make the same error again, repeating the cycle over & over, which would not be ideal.

Coincidentally enough, [[Cueball]] is also floating — off his seat in this case. The seat itself looks the same as the chair in [[2144]], possibly meaning making people levitate is one of its numerous settings.

Floating point errors are particularly common in programming, especially in languages that implicitly convert decimal numbers to binary floating point, so an approximation is already made at conversion leading to unexpected results. The title text cites another common programming problem, integer overflow. When a value gets bigger than the biggest integer that can be represented in a certain format, it typically "wraps around" to the smallest value. In case of 32-bit signed integers it may wrap from 231−1 (2,147,483,647) to −231 (−2,147,483,648). 2,147,483,647 days from the comic's date of publication (April 3rd, 2026) is approximately October 12th of the year 5,881,636, assuming no changes in the lengths of the day and year, or in other aspects of time measurement.

Strangely enough, when the comic was first published the sign number was −0.00000000000000017 days. It was changed later though, probably so that it would be more realistic, −0.00000000000000017 would correspond to the very last bit of mantissa being incorrect and only for numbers between 1 and 2 (not including 2), and operation (1-1) is unlikely to result in rounding errors, so the smallest difference from integer is usually higher, which would result in −0.00000000000000044 the smallest possible rounding error for values between 2 and 4.

Integer overflow was the topic of [[571: Can't Sleep]], with yet another example of a 'days since' sign being [[3140: Biology Department]] (two examples, in both the comic and its title text).

==Transcript==
[White Hat, Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan are all below a large sign. White Hat and Ponytail appear to be discussing something, while Cueball is sitting at his desk working on a laptop and Megan is walking away. The sign has text on it, as well as a large display presumably meant to show a number.]

:[Sign:] It has been
:[Display:] -0.00000000000000044
:[Sign:] days since our last floating point error

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>[[Category:Interactive comics]][[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

3219: Planets and Bright Stars

2026-03-16T07:55:10Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Punctuation, spelling, and minor phrasing corrections

{{comic
| number = 3219
| date = March 13, 2026
| title = Planets and Bright Stars
| image = planets_and_bright_stars_2x.png
| imagesize = 374x265px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An old astronomer trick for distinguishing the Sun from other stars is to take multiple photos a few minutes apart and overlay them, making the Sun stand out due to its high proper motion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a GLOWING SPACE BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic shows an identification chart for some of the planets and bright stars visible at night from Earth. Bright shiny objects in the sky are often confused with each other by people without astronomical experience. Thus the chart is supposed to make identification easier by placing them adjacent to one another to easily see the differences. The joke is that all 12 dots are nearly identical, making the chart useless.

The real way of distinguishing these objects is by their location in the sky. Stars can be found by using constellations, which are an apparent pattern of bright stars that make different regions of the sky distinguishable from one another. The planets can be distinguished by not belonging to the constellations, and further differentiated by their color, brightness, and movement relative to the stars (on the scale of weeks or months).

The stars and planets do indeed look similar to one another in reality, but they are not identical. Some of them (in particular, the star Betelgeuse and the planet Mars) have a distinct reddish color, which can be seen in good conditions. The brightness is also different, and it can serve as a guide, but it's difficult to precisely judge brightness by eye, and the planets don't have a constant brightness over time. The differences are actually visible in the comic to a degree — e.g., the spots for Venus and Jupiter are slightly larger than the others (Venus is an Earth-sized planet that is relatively close at times so that we can actually see its brightly lit sunward side; the much more distant Jupiter because it's the ''largest'' planet in the solar system) — but they're subtle enough to not be recognizeable at first glance.

Each 'object' in the comic also has a color, albeit ''extremely'' desaturated (very nearly white). If deliberately exaggerated, the comic's planets and suns are all notably non-white, as can be seen in the picture in the [[#Trivia|trivia section]] below..
*Planets:
**{{w|Venus}}: the yellowy-orange hue of its cloud layers.
**{{w|Mars}}: the red of its surface (given more muted saturation, in the comic, for the joke to work?).
**{{w|Jupiter}}: the general orange hue of its combined cloud layers.
**{{w|Saturn}}: a more 'peachy' orange of its clouds (no obvious hint of its ring system).
**{{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}: a yellow surface (not typically noted, in true-hue images, perhaps artistic licence from its proximity to the Sun).
*Stars
**{{w|Sirius}} (binary system, primarily a {{w|main sequence}} A-type star): light blue.
**{{w|Procyon}} ({{w|subgiant}} F-type star): more light green, or yellowy-blue/cyan.
**{{w|Antares}} (M-type star, {{w|red supergiant}}): orange.
**{{w|Altair}} (A-type, main sequence): light blue.
**{{w|Betelgeuse}} (M-type, {{w|red supergiant}}): relatively dark red (usually visible as such in real eyes-only observations).
**{{w|Vega}} (A-type, main sequence): light blue.
**{{w|Polaris}} (ternary star-system, dominant member being an F-type {{w|yellow supergiant}}): ''extremely'' unsaturated cyan.

Using even a small telescope would make it easy to distinguish the planets by their brightness, size, and surface features. Additionally, using a spectroscope would allow for a measurement of the star's spectrum, which coupled with its brightness would allow an astronomer to distinguish the mentioned stars.

The title text suggests a "trick" for recognizing the Sun among other stars, suggesting measuring its {{w|proper motion}} by overlaying several images. Proper motion is a measure of the change in apparent position against the more distant 'fixed' background of stars, as an {{w|angular rate}} (like degrees/second). This {{w|Time-domain astronomy#History|astronomically useful}} trick is similar in principle to a {{w|blink comparator}}. It would indeed differentiate it from other stars, but there are much easier methods, such as its extreme brightness and large angular size.{{cn}} A disadvantage of this method is that it distinguishes the Sun from other stars, but it cannot distinguish the Sun from planets. It is also completely unnecessary, except during a {{w|solar eclipse}}, because stars are not usually visible during the day, when the Sun is out. Additionally, "proper motion" is a term usually not used for the Sun.

==Transcript==
:[A 4x3 grid of white dots are displayed on a black background. Above them there is caption in white text. Below each white dot there is a label in white. The dots are almost identical slightly fuzzy and white. There may be a slight color hue to some of the dots, but it is not clearly visible.]
:Planets and Bright Stars identification chart
:Venus
:Mars
:Jupiter
:Saturn
:Mercury
:Sirius
:Procyon
:Antares
:Altair
:Betelgeuse
:Vega
:Polaris

==Trivia==
*[[User:Rumbling7145]] made this picture enhancing the colors of the dots in the original comic:
[[File:3219_planets-and-bright-stars-2x-saturation.png]]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3207: Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

2026-02-14T20:55:47Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ "Declination" erroneously written as "declension" in a couple of places. Declension is primarily a grammatical term.

{{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 declination 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° declination by searching through previous WMM maps. He appears to have not found the answer, so explainxkcd requests its readers to [[356|finish the job]]. Judging by magnetic declination [https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/historical-declination/ historical data] lines with 0 degree declination were near India and China at some points recently, so maybe it is reasonable to assume it happened. Unfortunately declination can easily go up to 15 degrees or even higher, so when one high population density area has declination close to 0, some other one often has an extremely high declination.

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3187: High Altitude Cooking Instructions

2025-12-30T15:24:47Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Punctuation & spelling corrections

{{comic
| number = 3187
| date = December 29, 2025
| title = High Altitude Cooking Instructions
| image = high_altitude_cooking_instructions_2x.png
| imagesize = 389x370px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 1,300,000-1,400,000 ft: Ask a crew member to show you how to use the ISS food warmer.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a crew member using the ISS food warmer. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
At higher altitudes, cooking experiences extra complications. This was previously mentioned in [[2153: Effects of High Altitude]]. This comic imagines food preparation instructions with additional caveats specifically for high-altitude cooking.

A part of these instruction is thus labeled ''High Altitude Cooking Instructions''. It is unclear if this is the package with the dish, or if it is a board placed on the wall of the kitchen (of maybe some kind of vehicle, maybe a space capsule).

At the top there are a part of these instructions that can only partly be seen. But below follows the separate High Altitude version, which list instructions for three different heights above sea level.

While the first two sections are reasonable accommodations, given the lower boiling point of water when under less pressure, for altitudes of 3,500-6,500 ft (1-2 km) and 6,500-9,500 ft (2-3 km), the instructions - as is typical for xkcd - soon veer into absurdity.

So at an altitude of 250,000-450,000 ft (approximately 76-137 km), the instructions assume the user is partaking in some kind of controlled spaceflight. The "cooking instructions", therefore, are instead instructions for reentry; basically, telling the user, "You can wait until you get home."

Once back on the ground it tells you to use the Sea level cooking instructions. These are most likely the one one that is written on the top part of the comic. What can be seen for sure is
:remove fro
:for 3 minutes before serving
A qualified guess it that it says
:remove from heat ...
But as nothing above this is visible, it is impossible to tell what it is that should be cooked.

The title text goes a step further and assumes that the user is in orbit - specifically, on the {{w|International Space Station}} at an altitude of 1,300,000-1,400,000 (396-426 km) (The ISS is between 413-422 km above Earth's surface). Anyone on an orbiting space station is presumably going to be on that space station for an extended period, so they cannot wait until after they return to Earth for a meal, so the "cooking instructions" simply direct the user to someone who can show them how to use the on-board facilities. Even if the pressure is one atmosphere cooking with boiling water in a free falling space station is likely not the best of ideas, so better ask someone for directions.

In 2022, spaceman extraordinaire Scott Manley uploaded a rigorously scientific presentation titled [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwf0RWXx8BY Can You Cook a Turkey by Dropping It From Space?]. A similar question was discussed in the 2013 [[what if? (blog)|What if]] blog post, "{{What If|28|Steak Drop}}".

==Transcript==
:[Two notes, of black writing on white background, are printed upon an item of grey packaging that is shown in closeup, slightly inclined and rotated within the comic panel. Only the latter parts of the top note are visible — because of the slant, only the first few characters of the penultimate line, and the entire final line of text, can be read. The bottom note is fully visible, as the bottom of the board is all within view.]

:[The readable part of the top note's two lines:]
:Remove fro...
:for 3 minutes before serving.

:[The bottom note:]
:'''High altitude cooking instructions:'''
:'''3,500-6,500 ft''': Add ½ cup water, increase cook time to 12 minutes
:'''6,500-9,500 ft''': Add 1¼ cups water, increase cook time to 18 minutes
:'''250,000-450,000 ft''': Orient reentry vehicle for aerodynamic stability. Deploy parachutes at 10,000 ft. Descend, keeping crew capsule tightly covered, for 3-4 minutes. After splashdown, follow sea level cooking instructions

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Food]]
[[Category: Space]]

3160: Document Forgery

2025-10-29T10:14:28Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Punctuation & spelling corrections

{{comic
| number = 3160
| date = October 27, 2025
| title = Document Forgery
| image = document_forgery_2x.png
| imagesize = 345x323px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It comes with a certificate of authenticity, which comes with a certificate of authenticity, which comes with a...
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete|This page was created by copying another one and changing the details. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic depicts a {{w|diploma}} for a {{w|Doctor of Philosophy|PhD}} in {{w|forgery|Document Forgery}}.

Upon completion of many awards and educational programs, graduates are typically presented with a physical certificate to symbolize their achievement. This is almost always true of colleges and universities, and having a diploma hanging on your wall is a way to signal your academic achievements to anyone who sees them. In an earlier era, such diplomas acted as actual documentation to prove a person's qualifications. In modern times, the actual diploma is typically considered to be decorative. Employers and other organizations confirming a person's education are more likely to contact the institution itself, rather than asking to see a diploma.

Having a diploma such as the one in the comic would automatically be suspect, because the holder is declaring that they have the skills to forge a diploma, rather than bothering to actually earn the degree. This is backed up by the diploma coming from a school with the exceedingly generic name of "East State University". Typically (though not always), colleges or universities with the word 'state' in them are named after the state or region they're in. East State University does not exist anywhere in the world, with the closest being {{w|East Tennessee State University}}. It sounds like something that someone would come up with if they were trying to make up a plausible-sounding name for a fictional school.

The paradox is that creating a convincing diploma could act as evidence that you are, in fact, trained in the art of forgery. One could even imagine the final exam in such a program including the creation of one's own diploma. None of that applies in real life. No accredited university offers a degree in document forgery, let alone a PhD. Document forgery typically belongs to the field of either crime or spycraft, and in both cases, the training is likely to be unofficial and done without public recognition. Possibly, this might be the creation of someone who felt slighted that their skill in forgery wasn't publicly recognized, and so used their skills to create a fraudulent diploma.

The title text mentions that the diploma comes with a {{w|certificate of authenticity}}, and that the certificate of authenticity has a certificate of its own, and implies that the second certificate has one of its own, and so on. The joke is that a certificate of authenticity, on its own, is useless in proving a document wasn't forged, because presumably, forging such a certificate is no more difficult than forging the initial document, and attempting to authenticate the certificate would result in a third certificate, and so on, {{w|ad infinitum}}.

In real life, certificates of authenticity are meaningful, because can be verified with whatever expert or organization issued them. If that party is trusted to be able to detect forgeries, and is available to confirm that they issued said certificate, then that does enable verification of the original document. The certificate itself, however, means little if the person presenting is believed to be a skilled forger.

[[Randall]] may have intended a pun on two meanings of the word 'doctor': firstly, as a title accorded to those who have earned a PhD, and secondly as meaning to {{wiktionary|doctor#Verb|change or falsify details on a document (verb #6)}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A panel depicts a diploma that has decorations on the corners and sides, but the corners have more. There is a lot of illegible text above, amid, and below the big text.]

:[Two lines of illegible text]
:East State University

:[Two lines of illegible text, a box with illegible text, and another line of illegible text]
:Doctor of Philosophy
:in
:Document Forgery

:[A line of illegible text, with a logo/official seal below it in the center. To the upper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right of the seal are what appear to be signatures, with a line of bold illegible text and a line of small illegible text beneath each signature line.]

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:If you put one of these up in your office, and no one notices, you've earned it.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Self-reference]]

3113: Fix This Sign

2025-07-10T07:19:31Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Fixed typo: changed "of" to "is" as appropriate

{{comic
| number = 3113
| date = July 9, 2025
| title = Fix This Sign
| image = fix_this_sign_2x.png
| imagesize = 448x405px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We're building on our earlier success getting web developers to pay to change the backslashes in our displayed payment URL to forward slashes.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a MISALI GNED CO LUMN. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[[Randall Munroe|Randall]] has created a sign with a number of issues, such as bad kerning and alignment, that graphics designers might be disturbed by. Fortunately these graphics designers can donate money to have the sign's issues fixed, which is probably an improvement upon the situation invoked in the case of [[2598: Graphic Designers]].

The following paid solutions to deliberate errors are advertised:
;Fix kerning ($10) :Kerning refers to the spacing between letters in a typeface, previously addressed in [[1015: Kerning]]. Kerning issues can result in letters text appearing too far apart, as if there were a space in between, or too close as if the letters were merged. In some instances combinations of letters can appear like other letters. A well known example of this is the r and n in kerning merging into "keming", which is depicted in that comic with the R and N close together, although in uppercase this merging doesn't happen.
:In this instance, the N and I in this word are very close together in this actual item, as a self-demonstrating issue. In the sign's title, the I and S (in "THIS") are too far apart and the S and the I (in "SIGN") are too close to each other. 

;Align columns ($20) :Here the dollar amount and the text itself are not aligned the same as with the rest of the entries.

;Fix text size ($20) :The size of this entry is smaller than the rest of the other entries. As with the misaligned columns, such variances could be displeasing to the eye or distracting.

;Fix typo ($50) :The title of the sign says "'''doanate''' to fix this sign!" Someone who is easily annoyed by random typos could be compelled to donate just to get the typo fixed.

;Fix centering ($50) :The title of the sign is off-center, being slightly to the right.

;Fix rotation ($100): The title of the sign is tilted slightly, with "doanate" being higher than "sign", and the rest of the sign is also off-kilter a bit, most notably with the {{w|QR code}} 'graphic'. 

The relative values assigned to each 'fix' are presumably proportional to at least one observer's perceived degree of issue with each 'mistake'.

The title text refers to another common annoyance seen in signs: the use of backslashes in URLs. URLs are defined to use forward slashes (/) rather than backslashes (\), which are instead used in Windows pathnames. Due to the widespread usage of both URLs and Windows pathnames, it is not uncommon for someone to instinctively use backslashes in URLs, which isn't always supported. (Forward slashes in Windows paths, however, ''are'' supported via Win32-to-NT path conversion.) This annoyance was also discussed in [[727: Trade Expert]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
A single panel containing a large, elevated sign with Ponytail in front of it.

The sign has a large title reading "Doanate to fix this sign!". Below that on the left is a faux QR code with a link https://[illegible].com, and on the right a list of donation requests: 
::$10 fix kerning 
:$20 align columns [this entry is mis-aligned] 
::$20 fix text size [this entry is in a smaller font than the others] 
::$50 fix typo 
::$50 fix centering 
::$100 fix rotation

Ponytail, looking at her phone, is saying "Grrr..." and possibly going to the sign's website to donate.

Text below panel: "My new company's business model is based on extorting graphic designers."

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3083: Jupiter Core

2025-05-01T12:12:49Z

MottyGlix: /* Table of cores */ Grammatical correction (proper subjunctive form of "be" is "were" not "was")

{{comic
| number = 3083
| date = April 30, 2025
| title = Jupiter Core
| image = jupiter_core_2x.png
| imagesize = 581x443px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Juno mission data suggests that Jupiter actually contains Matryoshka doll-style nested copies of every other planet in the Solar System.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by A PLANET WITH FEELINGS. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{w|Jupiter}} is the largest planet in the {{w|Solar System}}, the fifth planet from the Sun, and the closest-in {{w|gas giant}}. The core of the planet is hidden by an enormous gaseous atmosphere, and this comic lists a number of theories about the structure of that core. The first two are theories that are or have been held by reputable planetary scientists (they can be found in the Wikipedia entry), while the rest are ridiculous ideas from [[Randall]]'s mind. See the [[#Table of cores|table]] below for detailed explanations.

===Table of cores===
{|class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
!Number Jupiter!!Caption of Jupiter!!Explanation
|-
|1||Diffuse mix of heavy elements and metallic hydrogen||This is the current leading theory suggested by measurements taken by NASA's {{w|Juno (spacecraft)|Juno}} probe, a spacecraft orbiting Jupiter since 2016.
|-
|2||Rocky core with metallic, hydrogen mantle||This was one of the leading proposals prior to the Juno mission.
|-
|3||Valuable treasure|| Indecipherable objects that may be gemstones or precious metals, surrounded by dollar signs. May be a reference to the occasionally proposed idea that gas giant cores might be composed of diamond. This idea was mentioned in Arthur C. Clarke's ''{{w|2010: Odyssey Two}}'', and in {{w|2061: Odyssey Three}} the diamond is found as it was ejected from Jupiter at the end of 2010.
|-
|4||Emergency backup Earth||This would be a copy of the Earth that can be put into place once we finish destroying our planet. In popular science Jupiter is often described as a "protector" of Earth since its large gravitational field attracts asteroids that could otherwise hit Earth. This could be Randall's take on this claim in that it has a backup Earth in case everything else fails. Randall has previously proposed "Emergency Backup Earth" as an [[1253|exoplanet name]], and updated its location [[1555|later]]. Jupiter's core is not an exoplanet — if anything, it would be a planet, since it is located inside the Solar system.
|-
|5||Regular planet pretending to be a gas giant to avoid attention||The joke here is that there is secretly a 'regular' planet (whatever that means — presumably relatively Earth-like) hiding inside Jupiter, which is shy and does not want attention, so it pretends to be a gas giant. Of course, planets are not shy in real life, as they do not have feelings.{{cn}} The planet inside of Jupiter appears to be Earth-like, most likely with people on it, considering that there are large support structures and the large surrounding structure itself. They're probably quite annoyed at us, considering we've [[1727|destroyed multiple satellites using Jupiter]].
This might be a reference to [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/At_Attin At Attin], a fictional planet in the {{w|Star Wars}} Cinematic Universe. At Attin is a planet that has an artificially created protective barrier designed to hide it from discovery, so as to conceal its production of [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/At_Attin_Mint Republican credits]. The [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Barrier barrier] makes the much smaller planet within look like a gas giant and has artificial electrical storms, produced by electrical mines, that destroy any unauthorized ships from approaching the inner planet. At Attin appears in the Star Wars show {{w|Star Wars: Skeleton Crew|Skeleton Crew}} which was released only a few months prior to this comic.
|-
|6||Hard ball from avocado|| This theory proposes that Jupiter's core is a giant avocado pit, which is the large seed located in the center of an avocado. The outer layers of Jupiter also appear to be the flesh of an avocado in the drawing, thereby creating a very, very large avocado. If the total mass of Jupiter in metric tons were converted to avocados, as seen in the image, Jupiter would represent over 95 quadrillion years' worth of global avocado production as of 2023.
|-
|7||Baby Jupiter, still gestating||This theory proposes that Jupiter is pregnant with a baby version of itself, which composes its core. While this is obviously not the case, it could provide large hints as to how the solar system originated if true. This also prompts questions as to Jupiter's sex, as well as who the father is.
|-
|8||No core; flat Earth conspiracists are wrong about Earth but right about Jupiter||{{w|Modern flat Earth beliefs|Flat Earth}} is a debunked conspiracy theory that the Earth is not actually spherical, but flat, with some believing that world leaders are actively trying to hide this fact from the general public. This version of Jupiter proposes that while Earth may not be flat, Jupiter is, thereby not having a core at all.
While we see the Flat Jupiter from an angle, in this depiction, clearly for it to ''look'' spherical from Earth, the disc of Jupiter (with 'fake phases' and even carefully adjusted shadows from the Jovian moons) must more or less face the Earth for most of the time. It is not known what arrangements were made to get the illusion past those images supposedly sent back from the various spacecraft that were passing by, or actually orbiting, Jupiter.
|-
|9||{{w|Matryoshka doll}} (title text)||Since Jupiter is by far the largest planet of the solar system (and in fact larger by both mass and volume than all other Solar System planets combined), it could hypothetically contain all other planets nested inside one another. The order from largest to smallest would be Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury.
|}

==Transcript==
{{Incomplete|better phrasing needed}}

:Current leading theories for what's in the center of Jupiter:

:[Variations of Jupiter. All except for the last are illustrated with a quartered 'solid segment' of the planet's 'atmosphere' removed to reveal the core.]

:[Jupiter with liquid material at its core]
:Diffuse mix of heavy elements and metallic hydrogen

:[Jupiter with a rocky core]
:Rocky core with metallic, hydrogen mantle

:[Jupiter with a pile of coins for a core, multiple dollar signs being shown]
:Valuable treasure

:[Jupiter with Earth for a core]
:Emergency backup Earth

:[Hollow Jupiter with a rocky planet in the middle, the outer layer held in place by inner supports]
:Regular planet pretending to be a gas giant to avoid attention

:[Jupiter with a smooth ball for a core]
:Hard ball from avocado

:[Jupiter with a small version of Jupiter for a core]
:Baby Jupiter, still gestating

:[Jupiter as a flat circle, with nothing chopped off]
:No core; flat Earth conspiracists are wrong about Earth but right about Jupiter

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]

3064: Lungfish

2025-03-18T15:09:45Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Inserted words original writer omitted, corrected misspellings, and added punctuation if helpful.

{{comic
| number = 3064
| date = March 17, 2025
| title = Lungfish
| image = lungfish_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x403px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I know having so many base pairs makes rebasing complicated, but you're in Bilateria, so shouldn't you at LEAST be better at using git head?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF LUNGFISH - more information on lungfish if necessary, less information if not. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Lungfish}} (the class ''Dipnoi'') have the largest known {{w|genome}} among the {{w|vertebrate}}s (133 billion {{w|base pair}}s), and the third-largest known genome of all species. The comic relates this to a common issue when editing documents or coding, where the author accidentally makes changes to {{w|Fork (software development)|two separately created versions of documents}}, when they meant to only edit one, which can result in changes to both (or all) resulting documents becoming functionally essential parts of the completed project, or at least present as development artefacts in the 'final' product. This may happen if documents are sent for review (or updating) to different editors, or at different times, and the changes from the earlier one(s) aren't properly integrated with the later one(s). The comic posits that Lungfish has a habit of doing this with its own genome, making both genes essential and increasing the amount of base pairs.

When Cueball confronts Lungfish about this bad habit of mismanaging files, Lungfish dismisses him by saying he'll just "buy more storage". This is likely alluding to when people are faced with an increasing number of files on their storage media, they just buy more storage, either by adding another media drive or paying additional monthly fees for online storage (ex: [https://www.apple.com/ca/icloud/ iCloud] or [https://one.google.com/about/plans Google Drive]). Because of the relatively low cost of storage, this often seems like any easy 'solution', but doesn't actually address the problems of information fragmentation and management. As well as being an issue in their own right, a failure to deal with these can lead to a repeating pattern that ratchets up storage cost over time. If part of the process is to buy 'fresh' storage space, perhaps to ''attempt'' to rationalise the new and historic files from where they were previously, an even worse legacy of 'temporary' copies (or near-copies) of old files may end up littering [[1360: Old Files|various layers of storage]], in ways that may later confuse matters further.

For anyone curious about the science, it's important to note that [https://www.science.org/content/article/odd-fish-has-30-times-much-dna-humans-new-record-animals this is absolutely not why lungfish have a large genome]; while some organisms do contain many copies of genes as a diversification strategy, this mostly occurs only in some plants and single-celled eukaryotes. Lungfish have roughly the same number of genes as a human (and likely slightly fewer), and the large size of the lungfish genome is likely due to poor transposon control causing their chromosomes to fill up with junk.

The names of the "files" reference several things about computer files:
* Older versions of Windows, when copy-and-pasting a file within the same folder, would automatically prepend "Copy of" to the filename, resulting in a file named "Copy of ''x''". (This was previously referenced in the title text of [[1459: Documents]].) If the resulting file was then copied, it would be likewise prepended, thus producing "Copy of Copy of ''x''". Newer versions of Windows instead append "- Copy" the filename, which produces the same effect but keeps things in roughly the same order when sorted by name. Google Docs automatically prepends "Copy of ''x''" to document names, when copied. Other systems may apply their own conventions that interact badly (or fail to sensibly do so) as duplicated and manually renamed files are accessed across differing systems with differing conventions.
* Numbered labels in brackets can be produced by a couple different actions:
** If multiple files are highlighted and a Rename action is performed, all of the files will be given the same name with a number label, starting with the one clicked on for the Rename action and then proceeding from the top of the list down as originally sorted. For example, if three files named "Alpha", "Beta", and "Gamma" are highlighted, and the user right-clicks on "Gamma" and renames it to "Alphabet", then "Gamma" will be renamed to "Alphabet (1)", followed by "Alphabet (2)" [formerly Alpha] and "Alphabet (3)" [formerly Beta].
** If a copied file is pasted multiple times into the same folder, it will also receive number labels in the same format. This includes copies that are also appended as such in the above points, so a newly-pasted file might end up with a "Copy of" prefix AND a "(2)" suffix, or the next available value that does not clash with documents currently held in the same location.
** If a file is downloaded from a web-page (such as webmail, or intranet/internet repository) and a file with same name already exists in the download folder, most modern browsers similarly append a number such as "(1)", or other number as necessary.
* Some users will keep older and newer drafts of a file in case of a need to revert back to an older version; this can be done with a number label (i.e. "v1", "v2", etc.) or a proper word (i.e. "draft", "edited", etc.). This is often entirely at the user's discretion; there may be conventions or even official team policies to follow, but it relies upon editors sticking to those. However well defined, this can be useful if it's discovered that an edit breaks something important, or in the event that a mistaken save loses data, but it can also lead to file hoarding and the possibility of revisiting older documents when newer ones aren't more obviously available. The naming-version is also far from foolproof, especially if words are used rather than numbers as a "(Newest)"-named file can't itself know when it is superseded (perhaps by a "(Final)" file) and even a "(Final)" one cannot be sure that the project hasn't been revisited (perhaps with an update to "(Newest)"). Such a manual method of attempting to keep sequential versions in line can easily be open to misuse and ambiguity of status, especially when any changes have apparently not been so obviously important to the person(s) involved that it has had no "version number" updated — or else ''both'' were (separate!) refinements of some "v2" revision(s), or earlier, without proper regard/awareness of the other update.

In short, the file names "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)" and "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)" strongly hint at a very poorly organized method of version tracking, as especially evidenced by both existing as 'current' versions, with a tendency of the lungfish to copy-paste inconsistently, certainly explaining why it keeps editing and maintaining multiple documents instead of a single one.

The title text further compares the biology of lungfish to managing versions of files in a popular version control system called {{w|Git}}, which includes a facility called [https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/git-head/ "head"] that assists in keeping track of the latest available version of a particular project resource, across all updating and forking. Rebasing, in Git, is the act of moving changes from one file branch to another, which Cueball says is complicated due to the large number of 'base pairs' - a pun since base pairs are elements of chromosomes. {{w|Bilateria}} is a clade of animals characterized by embryonic bilateral symmetry, giving their bodies distinguishable "head" and "tail" ends. Since this applies to lungfish, Cueball says, in another pun, that the lungfish should at least know how to use the "head" branch with Git.

==Transcript==
:[A lungfish is sticking its head out of the water close to a wooden dock. It is looking up at Cueball, standing on the dock looking down, and they are talking.]
:Lungfish: It turns out I've been editing both '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)''''' and '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)''''' so now I can't delete either one.
:Cueball: You have '''''got''''' to stop doing this.
:Lungfish: It's fine, I'll just buy more storage.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Why lungfish have such enormous genomes

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Version Control]]

3027: Exclusion Principle

2024-12-22T08:29:05Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ punctuation correction

{{comic
| number = 3027
| date = December 20, 2024
| title = Exclusion Principle
| image = exclusion_principle_2x.png
| imagesize = 264x336px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Fermions are weird about each other in a standoffish way. Integer-spin particles are weird about each other in a 'stand uncomfortably close while talking' kind of way.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SOCIALLY ANXIOUS ELECTRON - Someone who knows more about physics should explain this. Also, the title text needs explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about the four fundamental forces of physics: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force. In typical xkcd fashion, [[Randall]] also adds a joke entry: "Electrons are weird about each other". This is a description of how two or more electrons cannot share the exact same "spot". The name of this property is Pauli Exclusion Principle, and Randall has made [[658: Orbitals|xkcd 658]] about it. This is not directly a force: electrons on neighbouring spots do not "feel" each others' presence and it's not possible to push one electron so hard that it goes into a spot that an electron already has - properties normal forces have. However, the combination of Pauli exclusion with the actual force of electromagnetism makes electrons behave as if there was a force additional to the electromagnetic one, the {{w|exchange interaction}}.
This is much harder to understand than simple forces, so Randall jokes that physicists have given up, resolving to make it a force instead.
Randall makes it sounds like physicists behave like politicians, changing the laws (of nature) so that they're easier for them. In reality, humanity does not know a way to change the workings of nature, and scientist merely try to figure out and describe how nature works.

The title text expands from electrons to ''fermions'', the class of particles electron belong to, and ''bosons'', the other class of particles.
All fermions share the property of electrons of not being able to share the same spot. Bosons on the other hand, can do that - you can put two or really any amount of bosons into one spot. Randall refers to this as "stand uncomfortably close while talking". This gives rise to quantum effects like {{w|superconductivity}}.

Interactions between electrons are different from how human interactions can depend upon the concept of {{w|Proxemics#Human distances|'personal space'}}, and they are therefore ‘weird’, which also explains the title text.

==Transcript==
:[Inside the panel, there is an underlined header and a numbered list, with the fifth and last item in red:]
:Fundamental Forces
:1. Gravity 
:2. Electromagnetism 
:3. The Weak Interaction 
:4. The Strong Interaction 
:''5. Electrons are weird about each other''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Big news: Physicists have finally given up trying to explain about the "exchange interaction" and agreed to just make the exclusion principle a force.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3024: METAR

2024-12-14T15:59:14Z

MottyGlix: Minor punctuation correction: correcting commas to semicolons

{{comic
| number = 3024
| date = December 13, 2024
| title = METAR
| image = metar_2x.png
| imagesize = 640x360px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In the aviation world, they don't use AM/PM times. Instead, all times are assumed to be AM unless they're labeled NOTAM.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WITH NO SIGNIFICANT OTHER :( (OTHER THAN AN A380). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In aviation, the {{w|METAR}} (Meteorological Aerodrome Report) is used to give pilots a brief overview of the current meteorological conditions at the airport. The METAR follows a specific structure and makes heavy usage of abbreviations, which makes it hard to read for anyone not familiar with it. The comic makes fun of that by assuming meaning of the words based on what non-aviation people might think the different elements of the METAR report may represent. The METAR in the comic is fairly alarming, describing dangerously fast winds, a possible tornado, freezing volcanic ash (in New York!), lightning, and impossibly high atmospheric pressure.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Code !! Real Meaning !! According to the comic
|-
| METAR
| Type: Meteorological Aerodrome Report
| The comic assumes that this is just a spelling error and it should be "meter"
|-
| KNYC
| Station ID: 4 character identifier; for an airport, this would be the ICAO code. In this instance the identifier represents the automated weather station at Belvedere Castle in Central Park, NYC. Airport, weather, and radio station call signs share a common heritage.
| "Station ID", which is actually correct, although most people unfamiliar with METAR-reporting stations may presume this is a TV or radio broadcaster's registered identification.
|-
| 251600Z
| Time of observation: 25th day of the month at 4 PM UTC. Z is not part of the time, but simply global shorthand for {{w|Military time zone|"Zulu" time}}, i.e. {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}. Normally most stations would report at a particular time every hour, in this particular case either 15:51 or 16:51 would apply, but more frequent reports are made during unusual and rapidly changing weather events (as may be the situation, in this case).
| Misreading the "Z" as a 2, resulting in a nonsensical time. Hours greater than 24 are sometimes used to indicate a time after midnight, e.g., in Japan 17~25h means from 5 P.M. to 1 A.M. the following day. A normal METAR does not use more than 24 hours, instead incrementing the day, so 25 hours further adds to the nonsensical nature of the interpretation.
|-
| 18035G45KT
| Wind direction and speed: Wind direction 180° (directly from the south, degrees based on 0°=magnetic north), speed 35 knots, gusting to 45 knots. This is quite stormy weather.
| Instead of interpreting the first 5 digits as direction and speed, it is assumed that it is one big number and the G45 stands for the time span in which this was observed with "G" standing for "good". 18,035 knots is an unrealistically high wind speed, faster than orbital velocity; the {{w|jet stream}} typically contains the highest winds on Earth, and may reach about 250 knots.
|-
| 6SM
| In weather reports related to aviation, "6SM" stands for 6 statute miles of visibility, meaning that objects can be seen clearly up to 6 miles away.<ref>https://weather.cod.edu/notes/metar.html#:~:text=6SM%2DVisibility,SM)%20up%20to%2010%20SM.</ref> This indicates clear enough weather to fly without instruments; the value has a max range of 10SM.
| The comic interprets "6SM" to humorously mean a "Size '''6 Sm'''all".
|-
| VCFCFZVA
| In the vicinity (VC): funnel cloud (FC) and freezing (FZ) volcanic ash (VA). This sounds somewhat unusual for New York City.
| A riff on the repeated letters which give off the impression the string is constructed by randomly keypresses on the keyboard, as exemplified by a [[1689: My Friend Catherine|cat on the keyboard]]. There is a long history of this problem, as well as [http://bitboost.com/pawsense/ attempted solutions].
This string may or may not actually look like the pattern of characters that a walking cat could produce (and be reliably detected). All the letters are in a cluster at the lower left of the (QWERTY) keyboard, with some adjacently paired characters perhaps indicative of stepping on multiple keys and other neighbouring keys having been stepped over, not uncommon of an oblivious feline wandering across your desk. But the repeated cluster of "CFCF", and other implied paw-press events, seem less likely to emerge even from a rapid quadrupedal gait. A more casual stroll would likely also create single-character duplications, unless the keyboard repeat delay was set unnaturally high.
|-
| +BLUP
| Heavy (+) blowing (BL) unknown precipitation (UP)
| Riffing on the fact that it looks like an onomatopoetic word
|-
| NOSIG
| No significant change is expected to the reported conditions within the next 2 hours
| The comic assumes that the transmitter of the METAR report wants the receivers to know that they do not have a significant other, which the comic finds sad. The observer could be trying to abuse the METAR report as a dating platform.
|-
| LTG OHD
| Lightning overhead
| OHD is interpreted as "overheard" instead of "overhead", indicating that they did not observe it themselves and instead just overheard people talking about it.
|-
| A3808
| Altimeter setting: (calculated) air pressure at {{w|Mean_sea_level|mean sea level}} at the airport is 38.08. The value of 38.08 inHg is extremely high. The standard atmospheric pressure used in aviation is 29.92 inHg; the highest recorded surface pressure on Earth was 32.01 {{w|Inch_of_mercury|inches of mercury (inHg)}}<ref>https://learn.weatherstem.com/modules/learn/lessons/125/18.html</ref> ("A" for inHg, used primarily in USA, Canada and Japan; "Q" would indicate a value in hPa). This is used to adjust the altimeter in the aircraft to the local air pressure, instead of using the standard setting used in higher air spaces.
| The comic says that the observer saw an {{w|Airbus_A380|Airbus A380-800}}, a very large passenger plane. Note: The {{w|List_of_ICAO_aircraft_type_designators|ICAO aircraft type code}} for the Airbus A380-800 is A388 and not A3808.
|-
| RMK
| Beginning of the section with remarks
| Remarkable. A comment about the A380.
|-
| AO2
| The weather station is automated (A) and has a precipitation discriminator (O2), which can tell the difference between liquid and frozen precipitation.
| A reference to the {{w|fan fiction|fanfic}} site [https://archiveofourown.org/ Archive of Our Own], often abbreviated as AO3. It's nonsensical to describe this site as having a precipitation discriminator.
|-
| SLP130=
| {{w|Sea_level_pressure|Sea-level pressure}} is 1013.0 hPa (approx. 29.91 inHg). The equal sign signifies the end of the METAR.
| "SLP" interpreted as abbreviation for sleepy, the numbers as a time, and the = sign as "around" (maybe confused with ≈)
|-
| NOTAM (title text)
| Not part of a METAR report, but instead another aviation abbreviation. It stands for {{w|NOTAM|Notice to Air Missions}} (previously Notice to Airmen).
| Parsed as "not A.M.", indicating that a given time is to be interpreted as P.M. While AM and PM are indeed not used in aviation, as the comic says, they use a 24-hour clock system, not an "A.M.-by-default" 12-hour clock system.
|}

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

:Decoding a METAR report:

:[A METAR report is shown with annotations. The report is:]

:<code>METAR KNYC 251600Z 18035G45KT 6SM VCFCFZVA +BLUP NOSIG LTG OHD A3808 RMK A02 SPL130=</code>

:[The annotations are:]

:* <code>METAR</code> "METER" (Usually misspelled)
:* <code>KNYC</code> Station ID
:* <code>251600Z</code> Time (25:16:002)
:* <code>18035G45KT</code> Wind speed has been 18,035 knots for a good 45 minutes now
:* <code>6SM</code> Observer is a size 6 small
:* <code>VCFCFZVA</code> Sorry, the station cat walked on the keyboard
:* <code>+BLUP</code> Weird noise the sky made earlier
:* <code>NOSIG</code> Observer has no significant other :(
:* <code>LTG OHD</code> We overheard someone saying there was lightning
:* <code>A3808</code> Hey look, an Airbus A380-800!
:* <code>RMK</code> Remarkable!
:* <code>A02</code> Fanfic Archive equipped with a precipitation sensor
:* <code>SLP130=</code> Observer got sleepy around 1:30

==References==
{{reflist}}
[https://e6bx.com/metar-decoder/ Metar Decoder]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

2974: Storage Tanks

2024-08-20T17:54:16Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Spelling and grammar corrections

{{comic
| number = 2974
| date = August 19, 2024
| title = Storage Tanks
| image = storage_tanks_2x.png
| imagesize = 321x251px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We're considering installing a pressurization system to keep the tanks at constant pressure solely to deter them.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by SUBSTITUTE CALCULUS TEACHER MR. MUNROE ... WITH THE POWER DRILL ... IN THE CONSERVATORY - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic two workers with hardhats are on a scaffold overlooking an industrial area with two large tanks. One of them is instructing the other that, as head of security, "your primary job" is to "watch for calculus teachers trying to drill holes in their bases." Sadly they are not alert at this moment and [[Miss Lenhart]] is seen running away with an electric drill after having drilled a hole near the bottom of the tank furthest from the guards.

A common question in introductory {{w|calculus}} courses asks [https://www.haywardflowcontrol.com/media/contentmanager/content//downloads//VessTime.pdf how long it will take a tank to empty.] Assuming the tank is shaped like a cylinder and is open to the environment (so that air can enter the tank to replace water as it flows out), the amount of fluid left in the tank above the hole will follow a quadratic decay, as the rate of pressure decrease will be proportional to the instantaneous pressure at any given moment. (Advanced variations of this question may consider more complicated tank geometries, in which case the pressure at the base will not be simply proportional to the volume of fluid remaining in the tank.) Specifically, the rate at which water flows out of the hole is governed by Torricelli’s Law, which states that the speed 𝑣 of the water flowing out is proportional to the square root of the height ℎ(𝑡) of the water above the hole.

Also, it's common practice for STEM teachers to use real-world examples to make abstract concepts more memorable for their students.

This comic combines these ideas, implying that there's a rash of calculus teachers that go around drilling actual holes in storage tanks to demonstrate the underlying math principle, so much so that the primary job of the head of security is to prevent this pedagogically-motivated destruction. Perhaps Miss Lenhart's class is watching from afar. (Adding to the drama is the warning triangle (⚠) on the tank, implying the liquid is toxic.)

The title text jokingly alludes to the fact that by maintaining a constant pressure in the tank, the rate of flow would itself become constant, which would simplify the problem greatly from a calculus exercise to a simpler algebra one, thus deterring calculus teachers — though it may inadvertently attract similarly adventurous algebra teachers. (If the pressure applied were higher than expected, it could also result in a nasty shock to the teacher drilling into it, as the liquid rushes out surprisingly fast.)

An easier deterrence option — compared to installing a pressurization system — would be to make the problem more complex by simply having the tanks fully closed to the environment, forming a vacuum as liquid drained out, which would represent a more complicated problem suitable to an advanced undergraduate or graduate course in Fluid Dynamics or Advanced Differential Equations.

===Analysis and Calculation===
Observation of the comic suggests the following assumptions:
* Tank height above hole: ~20 feet
* Tank radius: ~6 feet
* Type of drill bit: Normal (not a hole saw)
* Size of drill bit: 1 inch (largest commonly available twist drill bit)
* Goal of Miss Lenhart: To demonstrate quadratic decay to her students

With a tank that is 20 feet high, has a 6-foot radius, and a 1-inch diameter drill hole, it would take approximately 21.5 hours for the tank to empty completely — too long for a suitable class demonstration, and likely to be fixed by nearby workers who notice the leak.

That suggests the exploits are being filmed and shown later in an abridged (time-lapse) form.

Another way to put this is that her drill and drill bit seem to be laughably small for the job at hand.

(If she is using a large "hole saw" drill bit — which can be up to 6 inches in diameter — then that would explain the quantity of gushing liquid, and the tank could be emptied in about 36 minutes, but the drill doesn't seem to have that kind of bit on it.)

The most likely explanation to all this is that Randall didn't think through the drill and drill bit size in relation to the apparent hole size, leaving it only to nitpicky editors of a comic explainer website to even notice and care.

==Transcript==
:[Two guards with helmets are standing on scaffolding to the left of two large tanks with labels at the top. The tanks are cylindrical with a smaller base than the tank above it. The left tank has a small sign with unreadable text and near the bottom of the right tank there is a triangular warning sign with an exclamation mark inside it and a line of unreadable text below it. The guard on the left is talking to the other guard. Miss Lenhart is seen running away from the right tank with an electric drill in one hand. There is a hole in the base of the right tank which has caused the liquid inside to leak out of the tank splashing on the ground in the direction of Miss Lenhart.]
:Left guard: As head of security, your primary task is to monitor the storage tanks and watch for calculus teachers trying to drill holes in their bases.
:Label: Tank #3
:Label: Tank #4

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2908: Moon Armor Index

2024-03-21T15:04:01Z

MottyGlix: /* The complexities of armor thickness calculations */ Found a better why to display "to the 3rd power"

{{comic
| number = 2908
| date = March 18, 2024
| title = Moon Armor Index
| image = moon_armor_index_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x390px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Astronomers are a little unsure of the applicability of this index, but NASA's Planetary Protection Officer is all in favor.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MARS ROVER THAT GREW 2 INCHES OVERNIGHT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this “What If?”-style comic, [[Randall]] hypothesizes an imaginative situation in which each planet's moon(s) become converted into protective armor (as a form of {{w|Overburden#Analogous uses|overburden}}) to coat the respective planet. For example, the {{w|Moon}} would coat {{w|Earth}} in a 43 kilometer layer if it were molded into protective armor, almost five times the height of {{w|Mount Everest}}.

This visual index illustrates that the moons of both Earth and Pluto are unusually massive in comparison to their planet. The large relative size of Earth’s moon — and its protective role in deflecting asteroids — is one reason that’s been suggested by astronomers for why intelligent life successfully evolved on Earth.

Mars's moons {{w|Phobos (moon)|Phobos}} and {{w|Deimos (moon)|Deimos}} are small compared to Mars, so they would contribute a thin 2-inch layer of 'armor' around Mars, in contrast to the 20-inch (0.5 m) diameter of a {{w|Mars rover}} wheel. Huge Jupiter would be covered with almost 3 km of "moon" matter, which indicates just how much moon mass orbits Jupiter, a situation mostly similar for Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Six trans-Neptunian {{w|dwarf planet}}s and dwarf planet candidates are included, as well: Only Pluto, having a moon ({{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}) of a comparable size to its planet, would have a layer thicker than Earth's. {{w|120347 Salacia|Salacia}}, {{w|Haumea}}, {{w|50000 Quaoar|Quaoar}}, {{w|225088 Gonggong|Gonggong}} and {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} are among the {{w|List of trans-Neptunian objects#List|ten largest such objects}}. (Two dwarf planets with moons — {{w|Makemake}} and {{w|90482 Orcus|Orcus}} — are not mentioned in the comic, but would be similarly depicted.)

The title text states that astronomers are "unsure" about the applicability of this index, a joking understatement that imagines this comic as being a serious contribution to astronomical academic knowledge. Astronomers might also point out additional issues:
* wariness of {{w|Giant-impact hypothesis|moons and planets getting too close}}.
* moons already serve a protective purpose by deflecting and even intercepting some incoming asteroids (with a ''slight'' chance of turning a future miss into a hit).
* the four gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — lack a solid surface to practically sustain a layer of armor without even ''more'' ambitious engineering than the already complicated process of somehow distributing soft-landed fragments of disassembled satellite evenly all across a planet.
* although the coating would provide some protection to the underlying surface on which it was placed, it would effectively become part of the planet, and raise the surface. The things we would normally care about protecting, such as any life forms that exist, would be forced to relocate to this new surface, and therefore not benefit from any protection, while suffering significant detrimental impact to habitats, etc.

The title text continues that NASA's [https://what-if.xkcd.com/117/ Planetary Protection Officer] is purportedly in favor of the idea. In reality, this officer is actually responsible for keeping other celestial bodies safe from Earth's contamination, not for shielding planets in armor. Theoretically, though, armoring other planets could indeed protect them from further Earth-sourced contamination, and armoring Earth would also theoretically protect other planets by burying the biosphere and all of Earth life not already sent into space — a potentially civilization-smothering action, though a surprisingly unapocalyptic result compared to many of Randall’s “What If?” scenarios.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Planet/ dwarf planet !! Surface area (km²) || Moons || Total volume (km³) || Moon shield thickness 
|-
| {{w|Earth}} || 5.1007*10^8 || {{w|Moon|1}} || 2.196*10^10 || 43 km (27 mi)
|-
| {{w|Mars}} || 1.4437*10^8 || {{w|Moons of Mars|2}} || {{w|Phobos (moon)|(5695±32)}}+{{w|Deimos (moon)|(1033±19)}} || 5 cm (2 in)
|-
| {{w|Jupiter}} || 6.1469*10^10 || {{w|Moons of Jupiter|95}} || 1.7646*10^11 || 2.87 km (1.78 mi)
|-
| {{w|Saturn}} || 4.27*10^10 || {{w|Moons of Saturn|146}} || 7.651*10^10 || 1.79 km (1.11 mi)
|-
| {{w|Uranus}} || 8.1156*10^9 || {{w|Moons of Uranus|28}} || ||
|-
| {{w|Neptune}} || 7.6187*10^9 || {{w|Moons of Neptune|16}} || ||
|-
| {{w|Pluto}} || 1.7744*10^7 || {{w|Moons of Pluto|5}} || {{w|Charon (moon)|(9.322×10^8)}}+{{w|Moons of Pluto|(approx 87100+38800+900+200)}} || 52.5 km (32.6 mi) (by this comic's approximation)
50.4 km (31.3 mi) (by full calculation)
|-
| {{w|120347 Salacia|Salacia}} || 2.27*10^6 || {{w|Actaea (moon)|1}} || 1.41*10^7 || 6.21 km (3.85 mi)
|-
| {{w|Haumea}} || 8.14*10^6 || {{w|Moons of Haumea|2}} || {{w|Hiʻiaka (moon)
|(17.2*10^6)}}+{{w|Namaka (moon)|(2.57*10^6)}} || 2.43 km (1.51 mi)
|-
| {{w|50000 Quaoar|Quaoar}} || 3.78*10^6 || {{w|Weywot|1}} || 4.19*10^6 || 1.11 km (0.69 mi)
|-
| {{w|225088 Gonggong|Gonggong}} || || {{w|Xiangliu (moon)|1}} || ||
|-
| {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} || (1.70±0.02)*10^7 || {{w|Dysnomia (moon)|1}} || ||
|}

===Implications of choosing a volume-to-area ratio===
The usual means of comparing a moon to a planet might be to compare the volume of both. This comic compares moon volume (kilometers cubed) to planet surface area (kilometers squared); specifically, the index derives a ''linear'' indicator (the thickness of the new material) by dividing the ''area'' of the main body (proportional to the square of its uncounted radius) into the ''combined volume'' of all other bodies (proportioned cubes of their own radii), which gives an unusual dimensional analysis (dividing X kilometers-cubed by Y kilometers-squared gives a length, Z, in kilometers, not a simple dimensionless ratio).

This particular methodology makes the Pluto-Charon system (Charon being roughly half the diameter and one-eighth the volume of Pluto, before even adding that of the other moons) surprisingly similar to the Earth-Moon one (our sole Moon is around one-quarter Earth's diameter, and therefore less than 2% its volume; also in comparison, the Earth and Moon are respectively slightly more than 150 times and around 3 times the volume of Pluto), but leaves them ''both'' as still standing out significantly against all other planetary comparisons, even against comparably-sized 'planet's.

===The complexities of armor thickness calculations===
The comic uses the ≈ sign to show that the formula is only an approximation: it does not take account the increase in armor surface area as it gets thicker. This approximation would be perfect for a shield of thickness zero, but for the thickest shield (Pluto) around a small celestial body the error is around 4% (52.5 km by this approximation, but 50.4 km by more thorough calculation). To find the correct value, we can use the formula for the volume of a sphere, V = 4/3 * pi * r³ (where V is the volume and r is the radius). Using this formula, we can find and add together the volumes of each moon, as well as the volume of the planet, to get a total volume of the new shielded planet. Then we can find its radius using the formula r = (V / (4/3 * pi))^1/3, derived from the previous formula. Subtracting the radius of the previous planet from the radius of the new planet gives us the thickness of the armor.

This process described above assumes that all objects involved are completely spherical, which may not be the case. The act of tearing apart a solid moon, perhaps into rough gravel, might add microvoids to the new layering that bulk up the volume slightly. But neither are gravitational compression effects taken into account on an originally loose material; the planet's gravitational pull could settle some of the moon material into a slightly smaller volume than the one it occupied as lower-gravity moon.

The planet below could also be marginally affected by the change in its total planet-and-armor mass, for rocky planets mostly within any {{w|pedosphere}} or previously exposed outer {{w|lithosphere}}. The interaction with {{w|Titan (moon)#Lakes|surface liquids}} and atmospheres, especially in planets defined {{w|Gas giant|primarily by their gas layers}}, would depend much upon how impermeable and/or rigid the chosen layering method made the additional material. One could imagine a spherical shell of moon matter around Jupiter with such high structural strength as to resist crumbling into its gaseous maw.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Text above diagram:]
:Moon armor index:
:How thick the shells around various worlds would be if their moon(s) were converted into protective armor
:≈Total moon volume/Planet surface area

:[Above the diagram, there is a depiction of two moons orbiting a planet, an arrow pointing right, and the same planet with an additional layer around it without orbiting moons.]

:[The diagram consists of vertical bars showing "moon armor" thicknesses for the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Salacia, Haumea, Quaoar, Gonggong and Eris. Earth's bar has a label named "43 km thick" and is compared to the height of a comparatively small Mt Everest, with randomly drawn features indicating a cross section of the additional layer's rocky material. Most of the other armor thickness bars are not very tall compared to Earth. Some bars, notably Jupiter's, are embellished with various strata-like lines that possibly correspond to different contributing moons. Most bars show some small dots and patterns. A circular viewport shows the zoomed in detail of the top of Mars's otherwise not visible bar that reveals a thin layer with the label of 2", and also the bottom of a Mars rover wheel on top of the new surface. Pluto's bar is slightly taller than Earth's and has a label "(Mostly Charon)" inside, with arrows pointing into the bar area, which looks similar to that of Earth's Moon.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Bar charts]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]

2721: Euler Diagrams

2024-03-07T08:57:53Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Very minor grammatical correction

{{comic
| number = 2721
| date = January 6, 2023
| title = Euler Diagrams
| image = euler_diagrams_2x.png
| imagesize = 370x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Things Leonhard Euler created ( most of math ( overlapping circle diagrams ) a cricket bowling machine ) Things John Venn created
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] is showing a diagram titled "{{w|Venn diagram}}" he made about something to an unseen audience. An off-panel person informs Cueball that it is an {{W|Euler diagram}}, and starts to explain why, prompting Cueball to forestall the interruption and state that {{w|List of things named after Leonhard Euler|many things}} are named for {{w|Leonhard Euler}} (specifically {{w|Euler's constant}} and {{w|Euler's function}} apart from Euler diagram) and he just wants to call the diagram a Venn diagram to give {{w|John Venn}} a more equal share of the fame. His off-screen friend refuses, and mockingly states that numbers are now called "Euler letters".

This may be in response to the fact that [[Randall]] has made several comics about both [[:Category:Euler diagrams|Euler diagrams]] and [[:Category:Venn diagrams|Venn diagrams]] and has sometimes used the term Venn diagram for an Euler diagram, as in [[2090: Feathered Dinosaur Venn Diagram]]. Maybe this was on purpose, as Cueball did here, or by mistake. In either case Randall has probably heard a lot from fans and friends when he made these comics, and thus this could be seen as a response.

A Venn diagram is a widely used diagram style that shows the logical relation between sets. It shows overlap of items in different categories (sets) by using overlapping circles (or other shapes) to stand in for categories. If an item is within a certain circle, it is in the category the circle represents. So in a Venn diagram of "animals" and "furry things", "cat" would be in the overlap between both circles, "frog" would be inside only "animals", and "kiwifruit" would only be in "furry things". "Crystals" would be outside both
circles.

[[File:Euler Diagrams title text.png|300px|thumb|right|The title text as a Venn (and, simultaneously, an Euler) diagram]]

{{w|John Venn}} was not the first to invent the idea of drawing regions whose overlap shows the intersection of sets -- that was popularized by Euler (although he may not have been the first to do it) and was known as {{w|Euler Diagram}}s. Venn's innovation, roughly 100 years later, was to consistently draw ALL intersections of sets, even those intersections that had no members. In a Venn diagram, all 'circles' must overlap with all other circles, even if there are no items in the overlap. This is easy enough for 2 and 3 sets, but as the number of sets increases, the diagrams can get rather complicated, as previously shown in [[2122: Size Venn Diagram]]. [https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22159-logic-blooms-with-new-11-set-venn-diagram/ These] [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/tctianchi/pyvenn/venn6.png three] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Supranational_European_Bodies links] demonstrate the issue, in which sets can start looking very non-circular. An Euler diagram is required to depict only the non-empty combinations/sets, and therefore does not have this constraint. The diagram in the comic does not have any overlap between the left and right sections so, while it is an Euler diagram, it is not a Venn diagram.

The title text is an example of a "written" Venn diagram, with Leonhard Euler creating "{{w|Contributions of Leonhard Euler to mathematics|most of math}}", both of them having created overlapping circle diagrams, and John Venn creating a {{w|cricket}} {{w|bowling (cricket)|bowling}} machine. In his Wikipedia article it is stated that ''He built rare machines. A certain machine was meant to bowl cricket balls.'' See the title text drawn as a diagram in the inserted picture.

On a side note, if Euler letters were a thing, then they would be digits. And numbers would be Euler words!

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing in front of a whiteboard with both arms raised holding his palms up towards and unseen audience. A person from the audience talks to him from off-panel. The whiteboard shows an Euler diagram with two large circles overlapping in the middle and a third smaller circle overlapping only the top right part of the right circle. There are lots of illegible text on the board. Three lines of text are in the left circle only, one line is in the shared part of the two circles, two in the bottom part of the right circle, two lines in the overlap with the small circle and one line only in the small third circle. Above the circles are two more lines of illegible text and above those a large heading and one readable word below that, just above the first illegible text:]
:Venn Diagram
:of
:Off-panel voice: Actually, that's an ''Euler'' diagram, because-
:Cueball: Come '''''onnnn.'''''
:Cueball: '''''Everything''''' is named after Euler. Euler's constant, Euler's function.
:Cueball: Can't we let John Venn have this?
:Off-panel voice: No.
:Off-panel voice: Also, numbers are now "Euler letters."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Euler diagrams]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Sport]]

2872: Hydrothermal Vents

2023-12-26T13:45:29Z

MottyGlix: /* Transcript */ Corrected spelling, grammar, punctuation, and phrasing errors

{{comic
| number = 2872
| date = December 25, 2023
| title = Hydrothermal Vents
| image = hydrothermal vents 2x.png
| imagesize = 330x459px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Benthic Santas weren't even discovered until the 1970s, but many scientists now believe Christmas may have originally developed around hydrothermal vents and only later migrated to the surface.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by SANTA'S REMAINS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comic]] was released on {{w|Christmas Day}}, in the morning ([[Randall]]'s timezone in Boston).

In the world above the surface of the sea, {{w|Santa Claus}} had just finished his annual trip around the world. This comic makes a joke on that by saying that here are "{{wiktionary|benthic}} Santas", meaning there are Santas that deliver gifts {{w|Benthic zone|to the seafloor}}. The joke here is that all Santas may tend to [[1620: Christmas Settings|go down chimneys]], and that {{w|hydrothermal vent|hydrothermal vents}} have {{w|Aggressive mimicry|evolved}} to trick undersea Santa into entering them, believing they were real chimneys, and thus getting killed and digested by the vents, as seen in the comic. This is not an entirely unknown {{w|Pitcher plant|digestive mechanism}}, albeit that the depicted version goes beyond all known biological processes. And must be seen as a very dark Christmas themed comic, compared to the usual merry x-mas comics.

There are many things that are very strange mentioned.{{citation needed}} There is little to no evidence that actual humans live down deep in the sea, and fish and other undersea creatures are unlikely to know what "Santa" is or understand the concept of Christmas, so it is unclear what the exact goals of "benthic Santas" might be.{{citation needed}} The comic shows the remains of many "Santas", suggesting that there are multiple members of the 'Santa' species (this might also explain the many Santas who appear on street corners, shopping malls, etc.) in contrast to some assertions in the literature that there is only one. It is also possible that there is only one (perhaps or perhaps not specifically subsea) Santa, whose death invokes the spontaneous appearance of [https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Slayer a replacement].

The title text may referring to {{w|abiogenesis}}, the origin of life. It was thought non-living matter combined into living cells in shallow water through the energy supplied from the sun and lightning. At least, amino acids can be synthesized this way, as proven by the {{w|Miller–Urey experiment}}. A new explanation places the origin of life on hydrothermal vents, as it's rich in chemicals and rocks there serve as catalysts, with energy coming from earth's heat. Either way, forms of life are known to migrate environments to fill new (or vacated) niches, after having been established in another. The current residents of {{w|hydrothermal vents#Black_smokers|'black smokers'}} include creatures (like shrimps, worms and crabs) that are known elsewhere, but could theoretically repopulate the surface if there were ever extinctions in the real world, as there have been in prior times.

The 1970s timeframe likely refers to the discovery in 1977 of hydrothermal vent ecosystems near the Galapagos Rift, which formed the basis of this new theory of abiogenesis. By suggesting that the "benthic Santas" were part of this discovery, the comic implies that a key aspect of Christmas folklore might also have its roots in these deep-sea ecosystems.

==Transcript==
:[An undersea landscape is shown. A rock formation goes up from the the middle part op the bottom of the panel. The top of the formation has five "hot-smoker" chimneys of different heights, almost like a hand with the thumb to the right, but the middle finger being the shortest and the "index finger" being somewhat longer than all the others. From all five chimneys thick gray smoke is emitted. The smoke rises almost vertically to start from all five, and the four to the left have their smoke combine rather early and it bulges to the left. The rightmost chimney's smoke bends to the right and only merges with the combined smoke from the others at the top right. Below the chimneys their interior in the rock formation is indicated with dotted lines and the inside of these chimneys are thus displayed. At the bottom all five merge into a large cavity (shown with dotted lines) inside the rock formation. In this cavity there is a liquid in which several items float around, most notably two Santa Claus hats and two large bones surrounded by five smaller blobs of material and several smaller specks. On the outside on the rock formation grow four types of sea-life, a sponge and some sea lilies or the like, one on the left side and three on the right. To the left two fish are swimming near the rock and close to it on the right there is an octopus. There are three labels with lines pointing to the smoke, to the vents, and to the cavity in the rock formation containing the Santa hats.]
:Top label: Smoke
:Middle label: Chimneys
:Bottom label: Santas being digested

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Ocean fact: Hydrothermal vent black smokers actually evolved as predatory chimney mimics to feed on benthic Santas.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Facts]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2872: Hydrothermal Vents

2023-12-26T13:39:03Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Corrected misspellings

{{comic
| number = 2872
| date = December 25, 2023
| title = Hydrothermal Vents
| image = hydrothermal vents 2x.png
| imagesize = 330x459px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Benthic Santas weren't even discovered until the 1970s, but many scientists now believe Christmas may have originally developed around hydrothermal vents and only later migrated to the surface.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by SANTA'S REMAINS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic was released on Christmas Day, in the ([[Randall]]'s) morning. In the world above the surface of the sea, Santa Claus had just finished his annual trip around the world. This comic makes a joke on that by saying that here are "{{wiktionary|benthic}} Santas", meaning there are Santas that deliver gifts {{w|Benthic zone|to the seafloor}}. The joke here is that all Santas may tend to [[1620: Christmas Settings|go down chimneys]], and that {{w|hydrothermal vent|hydrothermal vents}} have {{w|Aggressive mimicry|evolved}} to trick undersea Santa into entering them, believing they were these, and thus getting killed by getting digested by the vents, as seen in the comic. This is not an entirely unknown {{w|Pitcher plant|digestive mechanism}}, albeit that the depicted version goes beyond all known biological processes.

There are many things that are very strange mentioned.{{citation needed}} There is little to no evidence that actual humans live down deep in the sea, and fish and other undersea creatures are unlikely to know what "Santa" is or understand the concept of Christmas, so it is unclear what the exact goals of "benthic Santas" might be.{{citation needed}} The comic shows the remains of many "Santas", suggesting that there are multiple members of the 'Santa' species (this might also explain the many Santas who appear on street corners, shopping malls, etc.) in contrast to some assertions in the literature that there is only one. It is also possible that there is only one (perhaps or perhaps not specifically subsea) Santa, whose death invokes the spontaneous appearance of [https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Slayer a replacement].

The title text may referring to {{w|abiogenesis}}, the origin of life. It was thought non-living matter combined into living cells in shallow water through the energy supplied from the sun and lightning. At least, amino acids can be synthesized this way, as proven by the {{w|Miller–Urey experiment}}. A new explanation places the origin of life on hydrothermal vents, as it's rich in chemicals and rocks there serve as catalysts, with energy coming from earth's heat. Either way, forms of life are known to migrate environments to fill new (or vacated) niches, after having been established in another. The current residents of {{w|hydrothermal vents#Black_smokers|'black smokers'}} include creatures (like shrimps, worms and crabs) that are known elsewhere, but could theoretically repopulate the surface if there were ever extinctions in the real world, as there have been in prior times.

The 1970s timeframe likely refers to the discovery in 1977 of hydrothermal vent ecosystems near the Galapagos Rift, which formed the basis of this new theory of abiogenesis. By suggesting that the "benthic Santas" were part of this discovery, the comic implies that a key aspect of Christmas folklore might also have its roots in these deep-sea ecosystems.

==Transcript==
:[An undersea landscape is shown. A rock formation goes up from the the middle part op the bottom of the panel. The top of the formation has five "hot-smokers" chimneys of different height, almost like a hand with the thump to the right, but the middle finger being the shortest and the "index finger" being somewhat longer than all the others. From all five chimneys thick gray smoke is emitted. The smoke rises almost vertically to start from alle five, and the four to the left has they smoke combine rather early and it bulges to the left. The rightmost chimneys smoke bends to the right and only merges with the combined smoke from the others at the top right. Below the chimneys the inside of the chimneys in the rock formation is indicated with dotted lines and the inside of these chimneys are thus displayed. At the bottom all five merges into a large hole (shows with dotted lines) inside the rock formation. In this hole there is a liquid in which several items float around. Most notably two Santa Clause hats and two large bones surrounded by five smaller blobs of material and several smaller specks. On the outside on the rock formation grows four types of sea-life, a sponge and some sea Lillys or the like. One on the left side three on the right. To the left two fish are swimming near the rock and close to it on the right there is an octopus. There are three labels with lines pointing to the smoke, to the vents and to the hollow part of the rock formaton with Santa hats.]
:Top label: Smoke
:Middle label: Chimneys
:Bottom label: Santas being digested

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Ocean fact: Hydrothermal vent black smokers actually evolved as predatory chimney mimics to feed on benthic Santas.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Facts]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2807: Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)

2023-07-28T09:16:10Z

MottyGlix: Minor punctuation corrections.

{{comic
| number = 2807
| date = July 26, 2023
| title = Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)
| image = bad_map_projection_abs_longitude_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x822px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Positive vibes/longitudes only
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is the sixth comic in the series of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] displaying Bad Map Projection #152: ABS(Longitude). It came about 15 months after the fifth [[2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator]] (#248).

In this map, [[Randall]] has plotted the world map featuring all the landmasses from both western and eastern hemispheres. But the longitudes west of the prime meridian, normally given negative values from 0° to -180°, have been made positive using the "ABS()" function that gives the {{w|absolute value}} by effectively stripping off the minus sign from any value. This results in the features on one side of the world being overlaid upon those of the other side, but mirrored.

Thanks to the relative sparsity of western continents (most prominently the Americas, but also roughly half of Antarctica, the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa, the easternmost part of Siberia, and multiple Pacific islands), and the landless expanses of the Pacific, this is surprisingly not too dissimilar to an east-only fragment of a world map. Just with the reversed 'new world' lands added to the usual extents of continents of Africa and Eurasia and the somewhat familiar notable Antarctic Peninsula being recognisable but in an odd position (and reversed) with no sign of the {{w|Ross Sea|Ross}} and {{w|Weddel Sea}}s (as eastern-Antarctic landmass takes precedence). Most continents can be traced out, but North America overlaps so much with Asia that most of its outlines are hidden.

Some features of the real world disappear, such as the English Channel, the North American Great Lakes, and the Strait of Gibraltar. The Arabian Sea becomes a lake as South America cuts it off from the rest of the Indian Ocean (Indian-Pacific Ocean?).

To further interest the [[977: Map Projections|map-connoisseur]], various locations are marked and dotted upon their genuine or reflected positions, putting into close proximity various locations that have (mainly) trans-Atlantic separation in reality. Some of these locations have been renamed in this projection by combining the names of newly overlapping locations. These are:

*The "Palk-Panama Canal", combining the {{W|Palk Strait}} between India and Sri Lanka with the Panama Canal in Central America.
*The "Congo-Amazon Rainforest", combining the world's two largest tropical rainforests, the {{w|Congo Rainforest|Congo}} in Africa and the {{w|Amazon Rainforest|Amazon}} in South America.
*The "Hudson Plain", combining {{w|Hudson Bay}} in North America with the {{w|West Siberian Plain}}.
*The "Kara-Baffin Sea", combining the {{w|Kara Sea}} to the north of Russia with {{w|Baffin Bay}} between Canada and Greenland.

Additionally in northern Siberia is the label "Franklin's Very Lost Expedition". {{w|Franklin's lost expedition}} was an attempt to find a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic passage. Naturally a sea voyage ending up in the middle of a large landmass would be considered very lost.{{cn}}

The map has a few spelling errors, such as Reykjavík being misspelled as Reykjavic, and the Aleutian islands being misspelled as the Aelutian islands.

A similar concept was explored earlier in [[1500: Upside-Down Map]].

===Correct formula===
A correct formula to get only positive longitudes (0-360°) is:

:LONGITUDE=LONGITUDE+360*FLOOR(1-LONGITUDE/360)

This creates a Pacific-centered world map.

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

:[There is a map of the world with positive longitudes and negative longitudes overlapping. Caption above the map:]

:Bad Map Projection #152:
:Longitude=ABS(Longitude)
:Whoops, made all longitudes positive

:[The land masses are represented in white, and the oceans in light grey. Some capital cities, countries and geographical features are labeled.]

:[Near Siberia is indicated:]
:Franklin's ''very'' lost expedition

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bad_Map_Projections]]

2784: Drainage Basins

2023-06-03T19:22:34Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Grammatic corrections worthy of a fourth-grade teacher.

{{comic
| number = 2784
| date = June 2, 2023
| title = Drainage Basins
| image = drainage_basins_2x.png
| imagesize = 659x500px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = After a pail of water was thrown on the Wicked Witch of the West outside Salt Lake City, Utah's Great Salt Lake was measured to be 7 parts per trillion witch by volume.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LIQUID 90s KID. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Alex Mack, the main character in the Nickelodeon show ''{{w|The Secret World of Alex Mack}}'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20120516025126/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-10-02/news/tv-45351_1_alex-mack], developed superpowers after being drenched by an experimental substance. One of these is the ability to turn into a puddle of liquid.

A {{w|drainage basin}} is an area of land where all flowing water converges by one or more outlets to the same body of water. The comic shows a {{w|Drainage divide|watershed map}} for the United States, by depicting the drainage basins.

When Randall sees a map of the US's major drainage basins, he thinks of Alex turning into liquid and flowing as part of the basin she happens to be in at the time.

The title text refers to the {{w|Wicked Witch of the West}}, a character from ''{{w|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz}}'', wherein a bucket of water is thrown on her, causing her to dissolve into a puddle. If this happens near {{w|Salt Lake City}} she'll flow into Utah's {{w|Great Salt Lake}}. If its dissolved particles are measured, a tiny fraction will be witch. Seven trillionths of its 18.93 cubic km volume is about 130 liters, which is approximately twice the volume of a typical human being — Randall may be including the Witch's sister, the Wicked Witch of the East as well. The {{w|Land of Oz}} is described to be somewhere else entirely, surrounded by desert, and thus perhaps has its own salt-lake basin(s); but famously it is not in Kansas, from which any witch-water would have ultimately flowed down to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Title, scribbled out in red:] <s>US Drainage Basins</s>
:[New title, in red, added below:] Where Alex Mack Will End Up

:[Map of the United States, the state borders in light pen; the national borders, seaboards and major lakes in black pen, plus additional boundaries as appropriate between the following labeled drainage basins:]
:[Much or all of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona and about half of Utah:] Pacific Ocean
:[Hawaiian islands, in typical US map repositioning:] Pacific Ocean
:[Alaska, in typical map repositioning, below a line approximately the three quarters up from the south:] Pacific Ocean
:[Remainder of Alaska:] Arctic Ocean
:[Most of Nevada, the western half of Utah (including the Great Salt Lake, outlined) and about a third of California (with the Salton Sea outlined):] Great Basin
:[A small patch of Wyoming, a triangle of New Mexico lying on the Mexican border and a separate thin swathe through parts of New Mexico and Texas:] Various Basins
:[About half of North Dakota and a small section of northern Minnesota:] Hudson Bay
:[From northeast Minnesota across two thirds of Wisconsin, Michigan, a bit of northern Indiana, northern half of Ohio, and most of the eastern seaboard states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Long Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia (not West Virginia), North and South Carolinas, half of Georgia and half of Florida (Lake Okeechobee visible):] Atlantic Ocean
:[All remaining states or parts of states:] Gulf of Mexico

:[Caption below the panel:]
:How I still think of these maps, deep down

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with red corrections]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:US maps]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

2725: Sunspot Cycle

2023-01-17T12:31:34Z

MottyGlix: Fixed many grammatical and spelling mistakes. No change to the content.

{{comic
| number = 2725
| date = January 16, 2023
| title = Sunspot Cycle
| image = sunspot_cycle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x503px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Who can forget the early 2010s memes? 'You know you're a 90s kid if you remember the feeling of warm sunlight on your face.' 'Only 90s kids remember the dawn.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NINETIES KID WHO FELT SUN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is a reference to the {{w|solar cycle}}, which is a roughly 11-year cycle of changes in the sun's activity from a period of minimal levels of {{w|sunspots}}, solar radiation, ejecta, and solar flares to maximum activity in these areas. When the sun is most active there are also more sunspots, but then as the activity drops again the number of sun spots will decrease. This comics makes a joke that when the number of sunspots decrease it is not because they disappear, but because they get so large that they begin to merge, and thus the number of individual spots decreases whereas the area of the sun covered by sunspots would increase.

So this comic seems to be set in an alternative reality where the sun's brightness rises and falls based upon a double 11 year cycle, causing there to be a completely dark sun for around 11 years and then 11 years with a normal sun. But the curve showing the number of sunspots in this 22 year cycle would follow the curves for our normal sun, as the number of spots also decreases as the sun gets dark when they get so large that they merge and thus decrease the number of spots until there is only 1 large spot left.

The change in brightness over the cycle is due to sunspots accumulating over half of the cycle. When standard sunspots appear, the sun darkens. When fictitious 'bright' sunspots appear (in the midst of the now all-covering dark sunspot mass) the cycle reverses and the sun gets back to what we think of as normal brightness. It is a bit unclear if the bright sunspots are counted, or if it is still the number of individual dark areas that would be counted as they split up.

The main graph in the comic shows an example of one full 22 year cycle, with 11 years of mainly bright sun, that then goes darker until completely dark, before white sunspots appear, displaying how the sun would look during different phases. The first three pictures looks like our normal sun, but then it would go back the same way instead of getting darker.

Below is a graph showing the number of sunspots as a function of time from around 1965 to 2025. Periods where the sun is dark is shown with black under the curve, and in transition periods with lines getting closer together close to the fully dark area. Also for clarity the troughs are labeled with the sun being bright or dark. It is always when there are few spots that the sun is either completely free from spots and thus bright, or completely covered by just a few huge spots and thus dark. The hills are always the transition period.

From this curve it can be seen that the sun was bright in the nineties, but not in the dark eighties or the dark time from around 2001 to 2014. This fact is mentioned in the title text (see below). Similarly the seventies were bright, after dark sixties. But after the darkness began around 2000 it first got bright again around 2014. Finally darkness starts again around 2024. So the cycles are not perfectly 11 years long and there could be changes during a cycle like the one around 2013-2014 where there is a clear peak in the number of sunspots but darkness prevails. Maybe the large spots split up into several small ones, but staying close to each other, without getting much less area covered. The count would go up if they were no longer merged together, but the brightness might not increase much.

This would obviously be catastrophic if it happened in our version of the universe, as during a dark phase no light would be coming from the Sun, so the Earth would freeze if all wavelengths of the Sun were blocked. If the spots only affect light in the visible spectrum, then Earth would not freeze but plants would have trouble with photosynthesis. In our universe sunspots cool the area of the Sun where they appear but they are not totally dark; [https://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/workbook/sunspot.html NASA says] that each sunspot on its own would glow orange, brighter than the full moon. So even in a completely sunspot-covered sun, the sun would still be brighter than the Moon, and it would be possible to see it rise even if the heat delivered were very low. See more in the title text explanation.

These problems are obviously not a serious threat in the reality of the comic, as the sun is truly dark and people survive these dark periods. This becomes clear in the title text where internet memes indicate that people lived fine through the dark periods, although they obviously did not see the sun as kids if they were born during the early start of the next dark period.

The title text thus indicates the effect on internet memes that the special solar cycle has. During the 2010s in our universe there were many '90s kid' memes. Those were also popular in this universe, but they reflect that the Earth had at that time been dark since the 2000s, and thus only those born in the 90s and before would remember dawn or the feeling of the warm sun on their faces.

This of course indicates that the sun is actually dark and gives no warmth. Thus it is a mystery how life on Earth prevails, but given that there were kids from the 90s that made memes twenty years after, life does work in this strange world.

==Transcript==
:[This comics shows two graphs, one also with several images of the Sun in different times in the solar cycle. The top graph is much larger than the bottom graph, and above them is a explanation of what the graphs shows:]
:Ever wonder why the sun disappears for about 10 years every other decade? This terrifying period of worldwide darkness is a natural consequence of the 11-year sunspot cycle:

:[A graph is shown with a label above the arrow on the Y-axis and a label written above the left part of the X-axis with an arrow pointing from it to the right (there is not arrow on the X-axis line). The graph shows a sine curve with a dashed line. It starts close to the bottom and then increases, then decreases before i finally slightly increases again. Above the dashed line are eight circles representing the sun with various levels of sunspots, with an arrow between each circle pointing to the next to the right. All circles are just above the dashed curve and the small arrows between them also follow the curvature of the line, so this string makes the same shape as the curve. along the eight representation of the sun there are five labels. The eight Suns will be described below with labels given when relevant.]
:Y-Axis: Sunspot number
:Y-Axis: Time

:[The first Sun's circle is completely white]

:[The second Sun's circle has a few sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Dark sunspots appear

:[The third Sun's circle has several sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Sunspot number rises

:[The fourth Sun's circle is half covered in sunspots.]

:[The fifth Sun's circle is mostly black with a few lines of white dots. Between the fourth and fifth circle is a label:]
:Number falls as sunspots merge.

:[The sixth Sun's circle is almost completely black with just a few small white spots. A label is written above it:]
:Sunspots envelop sun, Earth enters years of darkness.

:[The seventh Sun's circle is mostly black with a few light areas.]

:[The eighth Sun's circle is still mostly black but with some larger white areas. A label is written above and left of it:]
:Bright sunspots appear, cycle reverses.

:[Below is a second graph with a label written near the top of the Y-axis which is otherwise not labeled. The X-axis also has no label, but six years are written beneath at equal intervals. The graph shows a similar sine curve as the one above, but with almost five cycles shown. Also each cycle is not close to being a perfect sine curve, but has the property with a peak followed by a trough. The five troughs are labeled. The area beneath the curve alternates from being black and white when there is a trough, with the peak in between having several vertical lines, indicating transfer from black to white and vise versa. There are not same distance between peaks and there are also features on the graphs, for instance the two peaks in the middle has a drop, so they look like volcanoes. And the last full peak has a clear outlier year with many sunspots.]
:Label: History:
:X-axis labels: 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
:Trough 1970-1980: Sun is bright
:Trough 1980-1990: Sun is dark
:Trough 1990-2000: Sun is bright
:Trough 2000-2010: Sun is dark
:Trough 2010-2020: Sun is bright

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Internet]]

2705: Spacetime Soccer

2022-12-02T08:05:36Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Removed superscript indicator and directly superscripted exponent

{{comic
| number = 2705
| date = November 30, 2022
| title = Spacetime Soccer
| image = spacetime_soccer_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x280px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Spacetime Soccer, known outside the United States as '4D Football' is a now-defunct sport. Infamous for referee decisions hinging on inconsistent definitions of simultaneity, it is also known for the disappearance of many top players during... [more]
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FOUR-DIMENSIONAL GOALIE - I still don't know what the offside rule actually is. I think it might... [more]. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic proposes Spacetime Soccer, an impossible{{Citation needed}} sport consisting of a "regular" football field with a gravitational well in the center of it. This comic was likely published in relation to the {{w|2022 FIFA World Cup}} which, due to numerous controversies surrounding policies and conditions in the host country, {{w|Qatar}}, was prevalent in the 2022 news cycle for weeks.

Judging by the size of the blackest part of the indentation, presuming that indicates the event horizon of the {{w|black hole}}, the radius of the {{w|event horizon}} would be approximately 9.6 meters and the singularity's mass 6.5×1027 kilograms, or more than 1082 times the mass of the Earth [[https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/schwarzschild-radius]].

Not only would it be impossible for human players to travel through more than three spatial dimensions at will, it would also be very difficult to keep track of score and rules such as offsides.

{{w|Offside (association football)|Offside}} is a description in soccer that applies to players who are in certain positions relative to the boundaries of the {{w|Football_pitch|pitch}}, the ball, and the second-last opponent on the opposing team. Players in such positions are eligible for being judged guilty of an offside offence if they become involved in the ongoing play before rectifying their status. It is of special importance to know the different players' positions at the exact moment the ball gets passed, rather than when the passed ball may be received or the offside player is otherwise considered active. But in relativistic spacetime there is no universal definition of an exact moment, beyond a single point, as time may run at different speeds for multiple observers in varying situations (where they are moving relative to each other, are influenced by differing local gravity or – as seems very likely in this example – both). An additional joke is that even in regular soccer, the offside rule is notoriously difficult to fully understand (or explain to someone).

The title text is written in the style of the beginning to a Wikipedia article on the topic. It alludes to the fact that most countries in the world refer to the sport with that particular obscure offside rule as football (or some translation thereof, like fútbol or Fußball) while the USA call it soccer, which comes from the British shortening of "association football", because they already used the name "football" for gridiron football (which shares a common ancestor with the other sport, more directly via the far more similar "rugby football", hence the name).

==Transcript==
:[On a gray "rubber sheet" visualization of a gravity well is drawn some of the lines of a standard Association Football (Soccer) pitch. Visible features of the standard pitch are the outside borders, the goals and the small and large boxes around each goal. Absent are the corner quarter circles, the penalty spots and associated D, and the center line. The central circle is lost/concealed by the curvature of the gravity well. There are a number of other lines encircling and radial to the gravity well, they are visually identical to the familiar pitch markings so it is unclear whether these are intended to be drawn on the pitch or merely indications of the shape of the surface, or both, for the purpose of helping players to avoid the well. The lengthwise field boundary line on the visible far side partly follows/is partly followed by a suitable radial line before splitting off and conspicuously curving within the respective lip of the well to rejoin the radial line emerging at the complimentary angle in the opposing half of the field. A total of twenty figures can be seen on the pitch. Two are standing near the goal mouths, while the rest are distributed fairly evenly around the field, ten on each side of the middle. As they are all white stick figures on the gray surface, it is impossible to say which are on each team or if one is the referee. Five are within the inner circle around the well, and are distorted or tilted by the increased slope of the surface. A ball with motion lines is landing by the feet of one player who is running up one wing near, but left, of the central part of the field. This player is close to but not within the deeper part of the well. The players seems to be both women and men, as several look like Cueball and some like Hairy, and also many look like Megan and some like Ponytail. The color of the field becomes darker the deeper it goes into the well, from the normal gray color that extends from the two ends of the pitch to about halfway to the center of the field, in six steps until it is almost black at the deepest part of the well that is visible over the rim of the near part of the field.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Spacetime Soccer got a lot of criticism for how many players fell into the gravity well, but what ultimately doomed it was the advanced mathematics required to figure out the offsides rule.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Soccer]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2705: Spacetime Soccer

2022-12-02T08:02:28Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Replaced x with multiplication symbol where appropriate

{{comic
| number = 2705
| date = November 30, 2022
| title = Spacetime Soccer
| image = spacetime_soccer_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x280px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Spacetime Soccer, known outside the United States as '4D Football' is a now-defunct sport. Infamous for referee decisions hinging on inconsistent definitions of simultaneity, it is also known for the disappearance of many top players during... [more]
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FOUR-DIMENSIONAL GOALIE - I still don't know what the offside rule actually is. I think it might... [more]. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic proposes Spacetime Soccer, an impossible{{Citation needed}} sport consisting of a "regular" football field with a gravitational well in the center of it. This comic was likely published in relation to the {{w|2022 FIFA World Cup}} which, due to numerous controversies surrounding policies and conditions in the host country, {{w|Qatar}}, was prevalent in the 2022 news cycle for weeks.

Judging by the size of the blackest part of the indentation, presuming that indicates the event horizon of the {{w|black hole}}, the radius of the {{w|event horizon}} would be approximately 9.6 meters and the singularity's mass 6.5×10^27 kilograms, or more than 1082 times the mass of the Earth [[https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/schwarzschild-radius]].

Not only would it be impossible for human players to travel through more than three spatial dimensions at will, it would also be very difficult to keep track of score and rules such as offsides.

{{w|Offside (association football)|Offside}} is a description in soccer that applies to players who are in certain positions relative to the boundaries of the {{w|Football_pitch|pitch}}, the ball, and the second-last opponent on the opposing team. Players in such positions are eligible for being judged guilty of an offside offence if they become involved in the ongoing play before rectifying their status. It is of special importance to know the different players' positions at the exact moment the ball gets passed, rather than when the passed ball may be received or the offside player is otherwise considered active. But in relativistic spacetime there is no universal definition of an exact moment, beyond a single point, as time may run at different speeds for multiple observers in varying situations (where they are moving relative to each other, are influenced by differing local gravity or – as seems very likely in this example – both). An additional joke is that even in regular soccer, the offside rule is notoriously difficult to fully understand (or explain to someone).

The title text is written in the style of the beginning to a Wikipedia article on the topic. It alludes to the fact that most countries in the world refer to the sport with that particular obscure offside rule as football (or some translation thereof, like fútbol or Fußball) while the USA call it soccer, which comes from the British shortening of "association football", because they already used the name "football" for gridiron football (which shares a common ancestor with the other sport, more directly via the far more similar "rugby football", hence the name).

==Transcript==
:[On a gray "rubber sheet" visualization of a gravity well is drawn some of the lines of a standard Association Football (Soccer) pitch. Visible features of the standard pitch are the outside borders, the goals and the small and large boxes around each goal. Absent are the corner quarter circles, the penalty spots and associated D, and the center line. The central circle is lost/concealed by the curvature of the gravity well. There are a number of other lines encircling and radial to the gravity well, they are visually identical to the familiar pitch markings so it is unclear whether these are intended to be drawn on the pitch or merely indications of the shape of the surface, or both, for the purpose of helping players to avoid the well. The lengthwise field boundary line on the visible far side partly follows/is partly followed by a suitable radial line before splitting off and conspicuously curving within the respective lip of the well to rejoin the radial line emerging at the complimentary angle in the opposing half of the field. A total of twenty figures can be seen on the pitch. Two are standing near the goal mouths, while the rest are distributed fairly evenly around the field, ten on each side of the middle. As they are all white stick figures on the gray surface, it is impossible to say which are on each team or if one is the referee. Five are within the inner circle around the well, and are distorted or tilted by the increased slope of the surface. A ball with motion lines is landing by the feet of one player who is running up one wing near, but left, of the central part of the field. This player is close to but not within the deeper part of the well. The players seems to be both women and men, as several look like Cueball and some like Hairy, and also many look like Megan and some like Ponytail. The color of the field becomes darker the deeper it goes into the well, from the normal gray color that extends from the two ends of the pitch to about halfway to the center of the field, in six steps until it is almost black at the deepest part of the well that is visible over the rim of the near part of the field.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Spacetime Soccer got a lot of criticism for how many players fell into the gravity well, but what ultimately doomed it was the advanced mathematics required to figure out the offsides rule.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Soccer]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2655: Asking Scientists Questions

2022-08-08T06:25:23Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ (Miniscule punctuation correction)

{{comic
| number = 2655
| date = August 5, 2022
| title = Asking Scientists Questions
| image = asking_scientists_questions.png
| titletext = 'Does the substance feel weird to the touch?' is equally likely to get the answers 'Don't be ridiculous, you would never put your hand near a sample. We have safety protocols.' and 'Yeah, and it tastes AWFUL.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WHO REALLY WANTS TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR ONCE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Answering the questions in [[Randall]] Munroe's ''[[what if]]'' books (and the [[blag]] before it) requires a wide variety of scientific expertise, much of which he is unfamiliar with. To make up for this deficiency, Munroe (here represented by Cueball) has to ask other scientists for help.

People have certain expectations about scientists, as they would any group of people. In the case of scientists, they are often expected to be overly serious, "measuring the marigolds" rather than enjoying the simpler or more subjective things in life. This is reflected in the first panel, where the scientist is annoyed by Cueball's "frivolous scenario" and wants to work on formulas instead.

In reality, scientists are people.{{citation needed}} In the second panel, the scientist is relieved that they have "something fun to think about" as part of their work, instead of just filling out grant applications. Grants are donations of money from private or government organizations specifically aimed to fund scientific experiments and projects; in many fields, they are the most common source of funding, and the vast majority of scientists not directly employed by private industry rely on grants to support their work. These organizations require applicants to provide detailed information on the goal of the project, the methodology, the expected results, the specific uses to which the money will be put, and more. Applying for a grant is thus a lengthy, painstaking process that more often than not results in disappointment since most granting agencies have enough money to accept only a small percentage of all applications. It also has little to do directly with the actual science the scientists want to perform. Thus most scientists find it a necessary but time-consuming and unpleasant part of their job, and the one here expresses relief at having a break from this part of their work. She then asks if Cueball would like to fill out grant applications, trying to bribe him with coauthor credit, powerful magnets, and plutonium. Co-authorship on scientific papers helps scientists advance in the "{{w|publish or perish}}" world of academic careers; such co-authorship might be above-board, if Cueball were to contribute scientific ideas while helping write grant applications, or it might not. Plutonium is used in making atomic bombs and is thus a tightly controlled substance, as well as being {{w|Plutonium#Toxicity|highly toxic}} due to both its radioactivity and its heavy metal poison effects. The scientist is so relieved to have found someone who might take over filling out grant applications that they are willing to give them access to such a dangerous material without even knowing their name.

The title text notes that not all responses were complaints about grant applications, noting two kinds of answers to the question "Does the substance feel weird to the touch?" which Munroe claims are equally common. The first is the sort of response you would expect from a stereotypical scientist, just noting the sorts of safety procedures that are common with such a substance and how they would impede attempts to determine how weird a substance feels. The second is "Yeah, and it tastes AWFUL," implying that the scientist in question has not only touched the weird substance, but also tasted it. It could have been carelessness of some kind, perhaps having touched their mouth after handling a sample, but it might have been from deliberately licking it or even putting it in their mouth. Whatever the reason they tasted it, they are enthusiastically volunteering this elaboration without any actual prompting. Eating a bizarre substance is likely not a good idea,{{Citation needed}} as it could be poisonous; however, less toxic minerals such as halite are sometimes [http://www.galleries.com/minerals/property/taste.htm evaluated based on taste] as an informal test of their composition; nearly every mineral of low toxicity (and some otherwise) has been tasted for science.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Caption above the panels, in lighter gray:]
:For the last few years, I've been working on answering peoples' ridiculous questions for ''What If? 2'', which sometimes meant asking scientists for help.

:[Left panel top caption:]
:How you'd expect scientists to respond to ridiculous questions:
:[Cueball, representing Randall, stands holding a pad and pencil in front of a desk. There are a stack of three books and some papers on the desk. Hairbun is seated behind the desk, pointing at Cueball.]
:Hairbun: Why would you present me with this frivolous scenario?
:Hairbun: Such an absurd query can serve no practical purpose.
:Hairbun: Now go; you distract me from my formulas.

:[Right panel top caption:]
:How they actually respond:
:[Cueball stands holding a pad and pencil in front of a desk. There are a laptop computer and a stack with a book and some papers on the desk. Hairbun is seated behind the desk while holding another stack of papers.]
:Hairbun: Oh thank God, something fun to think about that's not grant applications.
:Hairbun: Hey, do '''you''' want to fill out some grant applications? I'll give you literally anything. Coauthor credit. Powerful magnets. Do you want plutonium? I can get you plutonium.
:Hairbun: What was your name again?

:[Caption below the panel, in lighter gray:]
:To see the answers I found, preorder at xkcd.com/whatif2 (out 9/13)

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]

2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-24T08:28:05Z

MottyGlix: Inserted correct mathematical symbols where OP didn't have that in their keyboard

{{comic
| number = 2636
| date = June 22, 2022
| title = What If? 2 Countdown
| image = what_if_2_countdown.png
| titletext = If you don't end the 99 Bottles of Beer recursion at N=0 it just becomes The Other Song That Never Ends.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by FOUR SCORE AND 7 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic takes the idea of {{w|Advent calendar}}s, and takes it to the extreme. It uses rather absurd and/or obscure ways to measure the amount of time until [[Randall]]'s new book ''What if? 2'' is released, with esoteric units or esoteric numbers. And often both.

Some concepts that appear several times throughout the calendar are:

* '''{{w|SI prefixes}}''', which can be applied to the beginning of a unit's name to multiply or divide the unit by powers of 10 or 1,000. This is standard for units like meters and grams, but is rarely applied to measurements of time other than when a unit of less than one second is needed, most commonly in various fields of science and engineering such as physics and electronics.
* The '''{{w|Gettysburg Address}}''', a famous speech delivered by U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in 1863, where he began by referring to the signing of the Declaration of Independence taking place "four score and seven years ago". A score is a dated term for the number 20, so "four score and seven" is equivalent to 87.
* A '''dog year''' is traditionally considered to be one-seventh the length of a normal human year, since a dog's overall lifespan is roughly one-seventh of a typical human's. The comic applies this to other units of time, such as minutes and months, each of which is also one-seventh the length of the standard unit. The number 7 (traditionally a "lucky number") is also used in many of the numbers quoted in the calendar.
* Other comparative durations of time that are not normally or usefully applied to day-length multiples. At the top end, there is the age of the universe, at the other there is {{w|Planck_units#Planck_time|Planck-time}} – with entire durations of periods of human history and the time needed to watch popular TV/film franchises in-between – most of which require a non-trivial multiplier or divisor to bring them to the necessary scale required.
* A '''{{w|baker's dozen}}''' is 13, or one more than a normal dozen. Here, the "baker's" prefix can be applied to any unit by adding an extra one of its constituent parts, like an extra hour added to a day.
* '''{{w|Irrational numbers}}''' like {{w|pi}} (3.14159...), {{w|Euler's number}} or ''e'' (2.71828...), the {{w|golden ratio}} (1.61803...), and the {{w|square root of 2}} (1.41421...). These are all interesting numbers because of their mathematical properties, but very impractical to use as arbitrary measurements of time because they have an endless series of non-repeating decimal digits.
* The teenage dating game '''{{w|Seven minutes in heaven}}'''.
* Rotation and revolution periods of various planets and moons in the Solar System.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Days !! Date !! Units !! Exact value !! Explanation
|-
| 83 || Jun 22 || πe millidecades || 82.0304 days || π ≈ 3.14159, e ≈ 2.718, so πe is about 22.459. A millidecade is 1/1000 decade, or 1/100 year, or 3.652425 days. Multiplying these results in 82.03 days. This is a play on Euler's identity, eiπ= -1, but raising pi to the power of e instead.
|-
| 82 || Jun 23 || 7 megaseconds || 81.0185 days || 7,000,000 seconds
|-
| 81 || Jun 24 || e lunar months || 80.27247 days || A lunar month ≈ 29.53059 days, e ≈ 2.718
|-
| 80 || Jun 25 || 60 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 79.67 days || '''{{w|Paris}}''' is the capital city of '''{{w|France}}''' and it's located at a latitude of 48º 51' 23" N. '''{{w|Foucault's pendulum}}''' is a device conceived by French physicist '''{{w|Léon Foucault}}''', consisting of a pendulum that is free to rotate its plane of oscillation. When placed in a rotating '''{{w|Non-inertial reference frame}}''' such as the '''{{w|Earth}}''', that has an associated rotation period of 24 hours, the oscillation plane of Foucault's pendulum rotates at a rate determined by the Earth's period and the angle between the rotation axis of the frame of reference and the direction of its elongation in resting position, i.e. its latitude, with a period T = T🜨/sin(λ), T🜨 being Earth's period and λ the latitude of the pendulum. Historically, Léon Foucault performed this experiment in the city of Paris, most famously (although not for the first time, which happened at the '''{{w|Paris Observatory}}''') under the dome of the '''{{w|Panthéon}}''', to demonstrate Earth's rotation. At this latitude, Foucault's pendulum completes a full rotation every 31.8 hours.
|-
| 79 || Jun 26 || 8 milligenerations || 78.89 days || A generation is in general 22-33 years, with a reasonable mid-point of 27; and 8 × 0.001 (milli) × 365.2425 (accounting for leap years) × 27 ≈ 78.89 days
|-
| 78 || Jun 27 || 777,777 dog minutes || 77.16 days || A popular myth is that dogs age 7 times faster than humans, so 1 dog minute equals 1/7 human minutes.
|-
| 77 || Jun 28 || 7! episodes of ''Jeopardy!'' (skipping ads) || 77 days || 7!=7×6×5×4×3×2×1=5040 - The standard episode of ''Jeopardy'' is 22-26 minutes skipping ads - taking the lowest value you get 110880 minutes total, which is the exact value needed.
|-
| 76 || Jun 29 || 5,000 repeats of ''99 Bottles of Beer'' || 76.3889 days || Each verse of {{w|99 Bottles of Beer}} is "''N'' bottles of beer on the wall, ''N'' bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, ''N-1'' bottles of beer on the wall." The entire song contains 99 verses. Randall apparently sings this rather slowly at around 72 bpm, taking about 13 seconds per verse.
|-
| 75 || Jun 30 || 5 baker's fortnights (15 days) || 75 days || A {{w|baker's dozen}} is a dozen (12) plus 1 extra item. Randall has generalized this to adding 1 to any unit. A fortnight is 2 weeks, so a baker's fortnight is 15 days. 5x15 is 75 days.
|-
| 74 || Jul 1 || √2 dog years || 73.79 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 73 || Jul 2 || π millivics (1/1000th of Queen Victoria's reign) || 72.966631 days || Queen Victoria ruled between 20 June 1837 and 22 January 1901 (23,226 days).
|-
| 72 || Jul 3 || 42 drives from NYC to LA (Google Maps estimate) || 71.75 days || According to Google Maps, the drive from New York City to Los Angeles via I-80 W (2789 miles or 4489 km) takes 41 hours.
|-
| 71 || Jul 4 || 1,000 viewings of ''Groundhog Day''|| 70.14 days|| Using 101-minute run time.
|-
| 70 || Jul 5 || 100,000 minutes || 69.44 days||
|-
| 69 || Jul 6 || 1/10th of Martian year || 68.70 Earth days || Martian sidereal and tropical years both round to 687.0 Earth days
|-
| 68 || Jul 7 || 1,234,567 sound-miles || 67.63 days || The speed of sound in air depends on the temperature. 15 °C or 59 °F gives the value 340 m/s and the travel time of 67.6349058 days.
|-
| 67 || Jul 8 || 2πe seconds ||5,766,073 seconds = 66.7 days || 2^(π^e)
|-
| 66 || Jul 9 || 216 beats (Swatch Internet Time) || 65.536 days || {{w|.beat}} is equal to 1/1000 day.
|-
| 65 || Jul 10 || 1,000 ISS orbits || 64.58 days || Each orbit of the ISS takes 90-93 minutes. Here a value of 93 minutes is used.
|-
| 64 || Jul 11 || Five hundred twenty five thousand (base seven) minutes|| 62.8833333333333 days || This refers to {{w|radix}}-7 arithmetic: 525,0007 minutes = 90,55210 minutes. Also references the opening and recurring line "Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes" from {{w|Seasons of Love}}, a song from the musical {{w|Rent (musical)|''Rent''}}, which is also referenced in [[1047: Approximations]]. "base seven" also has the same rhythm as "six hundred".
|-
| 63 || Jul 12 || 1050 Planck times || 62.38 days || 10^50 x 5.39 x 10^-44 seconds
|-
| 62 || Jul 13 || 4,000 episodes of ''The Office'' (skipping ads)|| 62.5 days || {{w|The Office (British TV series)|''The Office''}} was originally a {{w|BBC}} television show which had no commercial breaks, but Randall is obviously more familiar with the {{w|The_Office_(American_TV_series)|US version}}. This US "half-hour" comedy format contains 22.5 minutes of content (including the title sequence) and 7.5 minutes of ads. 
|-
| 61 || Jul 14 || four score and seven kilominutes || 60.4166 days || 87 × 1000 minutes
|-
| 60 || Jul 15 || 2 lunar months || 59.06 days || There are a number of different ways to define the {{w|lunar month}}. The most common is the synodic month, because it relates to the phases of the moon, and it's approximately 29.53 days.
|-
| 59 || Jul 16 || half a day on Venus || 58.375 days || A Venus synodic day is 116 days 18 hours.
|-
| 58 || Jul 17 || 5 megaseconds || 57.8704 days || 5,000,000 seconds
|-
| 57 || Jul 18 || 30 microLits (1/1,000,000th of the time since the invention of literature) || 4681~4763 years × 10-6 || Randall is stating that "literature" was invented approximately 2700 BCE. This is consistent with the earliest surviving coherent Sumerian texts, but the earliest proto-writing likely developed at least 500 years earlier according to {{w|History of writing}}.
|-
| 56 || Jul 19 || 1,000 viewings of ''Run Lola Run'' || 55.556 days || Using a run time of 80 minutes.
|-
| 55 || Jul 20 || one million sound-miles || 54.78 days || The speed of sound in air depends on the temperature. 15 °C or 59 °F gives the value 340 m/s and the travel time of 54.7843137 days.
|-
| 54 || Jul 21 || 30 Ionian months || 53.0741 days || Orbital period of Io around Jupiter is approximately 1.77 days.
|-
| 53 || Jul 22 || one dog year || 52.18 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 52 || Jul 23 || 60 viewings of ''Star Wars Episodes I-IX'' || 51.75 days || According to [https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2021/05/04/how-long-to-watch-every-star-wars-movie/ Fansided] the combined running times are 20 hours 42 minutes.
|-
| 51 || Jul 24 || 1/100,000,000,000th of the universe's age || 50.4035 days || The universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old.
|-
| 50 || Jul 25 || 5 milli-generations || 49.3 days || See day 79 (Jun 26)
|-
| 49 || Jul 26 || 10,000 games of ''7 minutes in Heaven'' or 7 games of ''10,000 minutes in Heaven'' || 48.61 days || 10,000 minutes in Heaven is almost a week of making out, so this game is unlikely.
|-
| 48 || Jul 27 || φeπ minutes || 47.6164 days || 68,567.57 minutes
|-
| 47 || Jul 28 || 4 megaseconds || 46.2963 days || 4,000,000 seconds
|-
| 46 || Jul 29 || 216 minutes || 45.5111 days || 65,536 minutes
|-
| 45 || Jul 30 || eee seconds || 44.1467 days || 3,814,279.10 seconds
|-
| 44 || Jul 31 || π fortnights|| 43.98 days || 3.14159 × 14 days
|-
| 43 || Aug 1 || one devil's spacewalk (666 orbits of the ISS) || 43.01 days || See day 65 (Jul 10). 666 is the {{w|number of the beast}}.
|-
| 42 || Aug 2 || 1 kilowatt-hour per watt || 41.66 days || 1000 hours
|-
| 41 || Aug 3 || eπ Ionian months || 40.9390 days || Orbital period of Io around Jupiter is 1.769137786 days
|-
| 40 || Aug 4 || 30 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 39.8357 days || Refer to Day 80 (Jun 25)
|-
| 39 || Aug 5 || e fortnights || 38.0559 days ||2.71828 × 14 days
|-
| 38 || Aug 6 || πe baker's days (25 hours) || 37.98 days || See day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 37 || Aug 7 || one deciyear || 36.52425 days || One tenth of one year
|-
| 36 || Aug 8 || 7! milliweeks || 35.28 days || 5040 × 0.001 weeks
|-
| 35 || Aug 9 || 100,000 plays of the ''Jeopardy!'' "Think" music || 34.72 days || ''Think'' is the music played while the contestants try to answer the Final Jeopardy question; it is 30 seconds long.
|-
| 34 || Aug 10 || 1000 basketball games (game time) || 33.33 days || Uses the NBA game time of four 12-minute quarters, or 48 minutes
|-
| 33 || Aug 11 || 777 hours || 32.375 days ||
|-
| 32 || Aug 12 ||one millilincoln (1/1000 of fourscore and seven years) || 31.78 days || {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}'s {{w|Gettysburg Address}} begins with the famous phrase "Four score and seven years ago". 1 score = twenty. 
|-
| 31 || Aug 13 || 1,000 episodes of ''60 Minutes'' (skipping ads) || 31.25 days || Uses a television 'hour' containing 45 minutes of content and 15 minutes of ads
|-
| 30 || Aug 14 || all of ''Star Trek'', consecutively || ||
|-
| 29 || Aug 15 || 777,777 nanocenturies || 28.4077 days || 777,777 × 10-9 × 100 years
|-
| 28 || Aug 16 || one sidereal lunar month || 27.3 days || The time it takes moon to return to the same position relative to the fixed stars
|-
| 27 || Aug 17 || 6 dog months || 26.1 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 26 || Aug 18 || ππ kilominutes || 25.3209 days || 36,462.16 minutes
|-
| 25 || Aug 19 || 7 games of 7! minutes in Heaven || 24.5 days || 7 x 5040 (7 {{w|Factorial}}) minutes. See also day 49 (Jul 26).
|-
| 24 || Aug 20 || 50 viewings of the extended ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy || ||
|-
| 23 || Aug 21 || a drive from NYC to LA where you keep remembering new things you forgot and have to go back 6 times || 22.21 days || See day 72 (Jul 3). This is for 6 round-trips and 1 one-way trip.
|-
| 22 || Aug 22 || ''It's a Small World'' sung at 1/10,000th speed || 21.18 days || {{w|It's a Small World}} is a song that was composed for the attraction of the same name at various {{w|Disney}} theme parks, and plays continuously at them in various languages.
|-
| 21 || Aug 23 || 500 hours || 20.8333 days ||
|-
| 20 || Aug 24 || √2 fortnights || 19.7990 days || 1.4142 × 14 days
|-
| 19 || Aug 25 || time it would take Vanessa Carlton to walk 1,000 miles || 18.94 days || {{w|Vanessa Carlton}} is an American singer, and {{w|A Thousand Miles}} is her most successful song. Randall estimates her walking speed at about 2.2 miles/hour.
|-
| 18 || Aug 26 || 100,000 breaths || .26 min/breath || Normal respiratory rate for adults is typically 12-20 breaths per minute. Randall may have a health problem or be a practitioner of "slow breathing".
|-
| 17 || Aug 27 || √2 megaseconds || 16.3682 days || 1.4142 × 1,000,000 seconds
|-
| 16 || Aug 28 || πππ πcoseconds || 15.5112 days || 1.3402 × 1018 picoseconds (i.e., 10-12 seconds), making a joke how the mathematical "pi" is written with the character "π"
|-
| 15 || Aug 29 || one baker's fortnight (15 days) || 15 days || See day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 14 || Aug 30 || one baker's dozen (13) baker's days (25 hours) || 13.5416 days || 325 hours; see day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 13 || Aug 31 || 300 hours || 12.5 days ||
|-
| 12 || Sep 1 || one million seconds || 11.57 days ||
|-
| 11 || Sep 2 || one nonstop bike ride from NYC to LA || 10.54 days || Google maps estimates the trip at 253 hours
|-
| 10 || Sep 3 || 1⁄1,000th of a generation || 9.86 days || See day 79 (Jun 26)
|-
| 9 || Sep 4 || 777,777 seconds || 9.002 days ||
|-
| 8 || Sep 5 || 100 viewings of ''Groundhog Day'' || 7.014 days || Based on a running time of 101 minutes
|-
| 7 || Sep 6 || 100 games of ''Lincoln Kissing'' (Fourscore and seven minutes in Heaven) || 6.04 days || 8,700 minutes
|-
| 6 || Sep 7 || one pico-universe-lifetime || 5.04 days || See Day 51 (Jul 24)
|-
| 5 || Sep 8 || the ''Baby Shark'' chorus for a family of 50,000 sharks || 4.63 days || The chorus lasts about 8 seconds per 'person'
|-
| 4 || Sep 9 || one centiyear || 3.652425 days || 365.24 days × 1/100
|-
| 3 || Sep 10 || Cyndi Lauper's ''Time After Time'' played 1,000 times || 2.79 days || Based on a length of 4 minutes, 1 second
|-
| 2 || Sep 11 || ''Speed'' (1994) played at one frame per second || 1.933 days || {{w|Speed_(1994_film)}} has runtime of 116 minutes = 6,960 seconds = 167,040 film frames at standard frame rate of 24 frames/second
|-
| 1 || Sep 12 || F(99) where F(N) means sing all the verses of ''N Bottles of Beer On the wall'' followed by F(N-1) || 0.7639 days || Each iteration contains ''N'' verses. ''N + N-1 + N-2 ... + 1'' equals ''N * (N+1) / 2'', so 99 recursions = 4950 verses. Using the same 13-second (72 bpm) rate as Jun 29, this is close to 18 hours. Probably refers to Donald Knuth's article {{w|The Complexity of Songs}}.
|-
| 0 || Sep 13 || ''What If? 2'' release day || ||
|}

The title text refers to the recursive time period on Sep 12. If you don't stop when you reach N=0 bottles, the repetition never ends, so that time interval becomes infinite. He likens it to {{w|The Song That Never Ends}}, another repetitive children's song, which is specifically intended to go on forever. The difference is that the Beer song has a natural stopping point at 0, while ''The Song That Never Ends'' is completely repetitive.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-23T13:36:49Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Aug 2 & 8 values

2619: Crêpe

2022-05-14T18:09:51Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ punctuation correction

{{comic
| number = 2619
| date = May 13, 2022
| title = Crêpe
| image = crepe.png
| titletext = A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ÇRÊPË - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:crêpe.png|thumb|The word “crêpe” in the comic]]
[[Cueball]] has made a {{w|crêpe}}, a thin pancake known for its legendary status in French cuisine. When he says the word "crêpe," however, the {{w|circumflex}} above the "e" comes out odd. Instead of the usual simple angle (^), it looks more like the outline of a flattened arrowhead (⮝ but white inside). [[Megan]], who can apparently see the text inside speech bubbles, comments on the odd shape with an appropriate pun. The comic is thus a play on the expression "Weird flex but OK" as defined in this ([https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Weird%20flex%20but%20ok Urban Dictionary]).

Her answer could also be applied to the shape of the crêpe, as circumflex means "bent around".

In some dialects of English (e.g. British English), and in the original French pronunciation, "crêpe" is said so that the ê is pronounced as in "get", i.e. "cr-eh-p", but American English speakers pronounce it like an "A", i.e. "cr-ay-p".

The title text continues the wordplay by saying that "A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic".

The word diäretic is a pun on {{w|diuretic}} (a substance promoting increased urine production), {{w|Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis}} (a symbol in the form of two dots placed above a vowel, as the ä in the made up word diäretic; the adjective form of diaeresis can be spelled "[https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Diaresis dieretic]") and {{w|diacritic}} (a glyph added to a letter to distinguish its sound from the normal version, what both the circumflex and the diaeresis are). See also the comic [[1647: Diacritics]] about the use of these.

Taking a diäretic medicine, would cause you to use diaeresis (also known as umlaut) över möre lëtters thän üsuallÿ.

Diacritics are rarely used in English, potentially because of the diverse set of origin languages it developed from, or the wide variation of pronunciations within a same nation, but are a common feature of other languages. In English, they are normally only seen in specific loanwords, such as crêpe, or used for emphasis for example the {{w|Metal umlaut}} seen in rock bands such as {{w|Spın̈al Tap}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a plate up in both hand, showing Megan the crepe lying on the plate. His word for crêpe has a different diacritic over the "e" than the normal circumflex (^). Instead it looks more like an open arrow head.]
:Cueball: Check out this crêpe I made!
:Megan: Weird circumflex, but okay.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Food]]

2617: Maps

2022-05-10T14:43:08Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Grammar correction

{{comic
| number = 2617
| date = May 9, 2022
| title = Maps
| image = maps.png
| titletext = OpenStreetMap was always pretty good but is also now *really* good? And Apple Maps's new zoomed-in design in certain cities like NYC and London is just gorgeous. It's cool how there are all these good maps now!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BIG BIG APPLE APPLE MAP- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Apple Maps}} was quite bad when first released, attracting lots of criticism from iPhone users who were accustomed to the superior {{w|Google Maps}}. Randall/Cueball is surprised that it is now pretty good. His surprise is exaggerated to the extent that it is comparable to some fundamental constant of universe, such as the speed of light, being changed to some other number.

The term "map" carries a double meaning. While it refers to an actual map, it also refers to the concept of "map and territory," where your map is your model of the universe, and the territory is the universe itself. Cueball has a map of the universe where Apple Maps is bad, and is surprised to discover that the map no longer fits the territory, and thus has to update his map.

The title text mentions {{w|OpenStreetMap}}, an open source/crowd sourced mapping tool, which has also improved since Randall has last checked. He marvels at the number of "good" mapping options now!

Google Maps itself launched in 2006 and especially its satellite coverage outside the US was considered quite bad. The maps displayed back then lead to mockery among "real" cartographers that the service couldn't really be considered a map, either: It was called "map-like", given that it was just a visualization running on an extensive geodatabase, and didn't have a fixed scale. However, Google's popular mapping approach revolutionized how maps were perceived all over the world, blurring the lines between traditional paper maps, GIS (geo-informational systems) and digitally rendered maps on screen. The process of "mapping" - as it is referenced here - has since moved almost completely into the digital realm.

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

:[Megan and White Hat face Cueball, who is staring down at his open palms.]
:Cueball: You look around one day and realize the things you assumed were immutable constants of the universe have changed.
:Cueball: The foundations of our reality are shifting beneath our feet.
:Cueball: We live in a house built on sand.

:[Caption below panel]
:The day I discovered that Apple maps is kind of good now

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

2614: 2

2022-05-03T13:37:03Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Typo (spelling error) correction. Fixed spelling of "encompasses"

{{comic
| number = 2614
| date = May 2, 2022
| title = 2
| image = 2.png
| titletext = It's like sigma summation notation, except instead of summing the argument over all values of i, you 2 the argument over all values of 2.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 2 squared - Please change this comment when editing this page. The titletext needs to be worked in there, but I think I got everything else in some sort of order, pending general improvements. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This demonstrates the different ways in which the number 2 can be typeset in various scientific fields.

The dotted box represents any character (presumably a letter or bigram of letters). All the other notation consists only of the digit 2, in various fashions with occasional additional punctuation, and labelled as to what the 'purpose' might normally be of any particular element(s) as indicated, with respect to the general term, in the following fashions:
;Regular Math
:Precedes the term. "2x" indicates two times the value of ''x'' in normal {{w|algebra|algebraic}} use that should be familiar for many people. {{Citation needed}}
;Physics
:A preceding superscript. "2H" would indicate the particular {{w|isotope}} of Hydrogen with the atomic weight of two, i.e. deuterium, which is most often encountered when working with the atomic level of matter where the total number of neutrons and protons in the atom is important.
;Chemical Physics
:A preceding subscript, "2He" indicates the atomic number of an atom, which is the number of protons it contains, and thus a guide to the number of electrons its unionised form usually has and hence meaningful in its potential chemical interactions with other atoms. This should be invariant for any particular named element, but is usually given simultaneously with the presuperscripted mass number where it can be indicative of the applicable nuclear physics.
;Regular Math or Footnotes
:A trailing superscript is typical of a {{w|Exponentiation|power value}}, in this case "x²" would be ''x'' multiplied by a second copy of itself, and a fairly typical mathematical standard.
:Additionally, superscripted numbers are one common way to mark words in a line of text in a way to refer to a {{w|Note (typography)|footnote}}, typically placed at the bottom of the page, with additional information that would not be appropriate or easily comprehendable to edit into the main text itself. The ambiguity between footnotes and exponents was used in [[1184: Circumference Formula]]
;Chemistry
:A trailing subscript is used in chemistry to indicate a multiple of the element (or group of elements, in brackets) in a {{w|chemical formula}}. "H2O" indicates two hydrogen atoms bond with a single oxygen atom in a molecule of water.
;Matrices!
:Extending the trailing subscript with a comma-separated value usually indicates a multidimensional array (e.g. establishing a 2-by-2 square of numbers, or this particular position in such an array), which is in the realms of {{w|Matrix (mathematics)|matrix mathematics}}. This is a little bit beyond 'everyday algebra' for many people, as seemingly indicated by the exclamation of the mere mention of matrices!
;The Physicists Are At It Again
:This label encompasses a mark that turns the prior comma into a semicolon, as part of the trailing subscript. This is a common notation for the {{w|Covariant derivative}} of a tensor field, which is commonly used in the mathematics of general relativity.
;Either High School Math Function or Incomprehensible Group Theory
:The number 2 in parentheses that follow a term would normally be the argument to a {{w|Function (mathematics)|function}}, e.g. "f(2)", which means that you should take the value (in this case 2) and find the result if manipulated by the predefined function ''f''. It is generally taught as part of algebraic mathematics already described, i.e. at {{w|Secondary school|High School}}.
:In {{w|group theory}}, however, the number 2 in parentheses could indicate a cyclic subgroup or ideal generated by two or a special case of cycle notation for elements of symmetry groups used to mean an element that keeps 2 fixed. This may be somewhat beyond high-school level.
;Oh no. Whatever this is, it's cursed.
:A symbol centered underneath another symbol is normally reserved for doing summations, where the big symbol is Σ, or some other operation applied to a sequence of numbers.
:It does not make sense to have a single number there, as indicated in the alt text. As with [[2529: Unsolved Math Problems|other things]] in Randall's comic universe, the explanation for this particular anomaly is that it is 'Cursed'. The usage mentioned in the alt text is an operation (Σ, summation) over a variable usually indicated by a letter such as i, where the operation is performed over all values of the variable, i.e. you Σ the argument over all values of i. In the "2" case, the alt text says you "you 2 the argument over all values of 2", i.e. the Σ operation has been replaced by the "2" operation and the i variable has been replaced by the "2" variable. 2 is usually neither an operation, nor a variable (and definitely not both at the same time).

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

[An apparently scientific expression:]

[normal text:] 2 [superscript behind the box:] 2 [subscript behind the box:] 2 [an empty box with a dotted outline] [superscript:] 2 [subscript:] 2;2 [normal text:] (2) [smaller and beneath the last 2:] 2

;[Captions above the numbers]
:[with an arrow pointing to the first 2:] Regular Math
:[with an arrow pointing to the behind superscript 2:] Physics
:[with an arrow pointing to the regular superscript 2:] Regular math or footnotes
:[with an arrow pointing to (2):] Either high school math functions or incomprehensible group theory

;[Captions below the numbers]
:[with an arrow pointing to the behind subscript 2:] Chemical Physics
:[with an arrow pointing to the regular subscript 2:] Chemistry
:[with an arrow pointing to a grey circle around ";2":] The physicists are at it again
:[with an arrow pointing to a smaller grey circle inside the other circle that leaves out the dot of the semicolon:] Matrices!
:[with an arrow pointing to the 2 below the 2:] Oh no. Whatever this is, it's cursed.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

2599: Spacecraft Debris Odds Ratio

2022-03-29T13:08:10Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Minor grammatical & punctuation errors

{{comic
| number = 2599
| date = March 28, 2022
| title = Spacecraft Debris Odds Ratio
| image = spacecraft_debris_odds_ratio.png
| titletext = You say this daily walk will reduce my risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 30%, but also increase my risk of death by bear attack by 300%? That's a 280% increased! I'm not a sucker; I'm staying inside.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an EVENS RATIO - Explain how the 280% from the title text comes about. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a misunderstanding of statistics very similar to that of [[1252: Increased Risk]]. It explains that going outside for more than 5 hours significantly increases your risk of head injury from falling spacecraft, and advises to limit outside activity to avoid this risk.

However, since the odds of being hit in the head by (any part of) a falling spacecraft are astronomically low to begin with, quadrupling it or more still results in a negligible probability. The horizontal error bars for times greater than 4 hours are marked with asterisks to indicate they are significantly different from the reference value at 0 hours, as indeed those error bars don't overlap the vertical line for the 0-hours reference value. It is very difficult to avoid being outside for more than four hours in a total lifetime.

{{w|Error bar}}s are graphical representations of the variability of data and used on graphs to indicate the error or uncertainty in a reported measurement.

Presenting the data by hour brackets hides the data distribution inside each bracket. If the data were presented hour by hour, and not by groups of hours, they may show a different threshold of increased risk or no threshold (odds ratio could be linear).

The graph and error bars are based on a {{w|Monte Carlo Method|Monte Carlo simulation}}, a type of computational algorithm that uses repeated random sampling to obtain the likelihood of a range of results of occurring; see, for instance, this article about [https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/monte-carlo-simulation Monte Carlo simulations].

The specific reference to falling spacecraft is likely inspired by events happening around the time of this comics release (March 2022). Around a month before this was posted, the head of the Russian space agency, {{w|Roscosmos}}, warned that sanctions against Russia (mostly those over the {{w|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine}}) could result in the {{w|International Space Station}} crashing. Since the Russian section of the space station is the one that provides propulsion (although it is built to rely on the power generated by the other sections), this was taken seriously and as of when this was posted, {{w|NASA}} was trying to come up with alternative stabilization strategies in case the situation worsened. There was also a recent [https://www-uol-com-br.translate.goog/tilt/noticias/redacao/2022/03/17/parte-do-foguete-spacex-e-encontrada-por-morador-do-pr.htm?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pt-BR&_x_tr_pto=wapp report] of some 600 kg space rocket debris found in Brazil.

The title text makes a similar joke. While the increase in chances of death by a bear attack are greater when going outside than the decrease in chances of death by cardiovascular disease, by getting out to exercise, it is incorrect to combine them in this way, since cardiovascular disease has a much higher starting chance of death, and reducing it by 30% has a much more significant effect on overall life expectancy than quadrupling the very very small chance of death by bear attack.

The "280% increase" of the title text is also an error, though perhaps not for reasons that are obvious at first (for instance, the correct calculation is not "300% − 30% = 270%"). To "increase by 300%" means multiplying the probability by (1 + 3.0) = 4.0, while to "decrease by 30%" means multiplying by (1 − 0.3) = 0.7. Combining these means multiplying by both, for an overall change of 4.0 × 0.7 = 2.8, or 280%. However, this result means the risk has increased ''to'' 280% of its old value, not ''by'' 280%. And in any case, it is ''still'' not valid to simply combine two changes in wildly different risks like this.

==Transcript==
:[A chart is shown. Above the chart there is a heading, with a subheading below it:]
:Odds ratio for head injuries from falling spacecraft debris
:(Monte Carlo Simulation)

:[The chart is rectangular with the X-axis labels above the chart with numbers from 1 to 5. These are places over vertical lines. The first at 1 is black, the other four are light gray. There are three smaller light gray ticks between each set of lines, and one on either side of the first and last. The distance between lines gets smaller and smaller towards the right, probably logarithmic.]
:X-axis: 1 2 3 4 5

:[The Y-axis, is not scaled, there are no ticks or lines. Instead it just gives five labels from top to bottom. Above those labels there is an arrow pointing to the top one with a label above explaning the axis.]
:Hours spent outdoors
:Y-axis:
::0 (ref)
::1
::2-4
::5-10
::11+

:[Aligned with each of these five divisions of the Y-axis there is a dot. The top one is placed on the solid line under 1 as a reference point. The other four dots all have long error bars, with the dots at the center of these. The second dot is a bit tot he left of the solid line, with the error bar going almost to the left edge of the graph and halfway to the first light gray line to the right. The third dot is located halfway between the solid and the first light gray line with the error bar just crossing the solid line, and almost reaching the gray line. The fourth dot is about a third way between the first and second of the gray lines, with the error bar crossing both these lines. The fifth and last dot is just past the second gray line, with the error bar crossing both that, going more than half toward the first gray line, and also just past the third gray line. On the same height as the two bottom dots, there are asterisks just right of the edge of the graph.]
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>

:[Below the panel there is a caption:]
:Our new study suggests that spending more than 5 hours outside significantly increases your risk of head injury from spacecraft debris, so try to limit outdoor activities to 4 hours or less.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2504: Fissile Raspberry Isotopes

2021-08-19T12:26:55Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ (Spelling & punctuation corrections.)

{{comic
| number = 2504
| date = August 18, 2021
| title = Fissile Raspberry Isotopes
| image = fissile_raspberry_isotopes.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = Grandma's shelf-stable blackberry pie meson recipe was a huge seller until her farm was shut down by a joint FDA/NRC investigation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NUCLEAR FARM INVESTIGATOR. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Ponytail]] is admiring her {{w|raspberry}} fields telling [[Cueball]] she expects a good harvest... That is if they do not get too many fissile raspberry isotopes! To which Cueball has to ask ''Too many '''whats?'''''

The comic is thus a joking analogy to {{w|nuclear chain reactions}}, in which the {{w|nuclear fission|fission}} (splitting in two) of one {{w|atomic nucleus}} releases {{w|neutrons}}, which then strike other nuclei and cause them in turn to fission, releasing more neutrons. This chain reaction releases a great deal of energy and is what makes possible both {{w|nuclear power}} and {{w|nuclear bombs}}.

A {{w|fissile isotope}}, such as {{w|uranium-235}}, is one that is sufficiently large and unstable to undergo such a chain reaction, as opposed to the more common and stable {{w|uranium-238}}. Ponytail fear that her raspberries have too many unstable isotopes so that her fields risk undergoing a similar fission-driven chain reaction. This chain reaction is depicted in the second panel, and she explains that if this happens the entire crop may be gone in seconds. It sounds like this is only dangerous for her economy, i.e. all the berries is destroyed, but not the entire field. So not an explosion that destroys her field or any living thing nearby, but the berries would be unsalable.

Of course, in real life raspberries don't do that. As an {{w|aggregate fruit}}, raspberries resemble common depictions of atomic nuclei, with each ovary corresponding to a nucleon (proton or neutron), which is probably why they are the subject of the comic. Perhaps these raspberries are byproducts of the experiments depicted in [[1949: Fruit Collider]].

This comic is also a pun on "pi mesons" or {{w|pions}}, subatomic particles that transmit the {{w|strong nuclear force}}, and the similarity in name to a {{w|pie}}, the food type, as in a {{w|raspberry pie}}. The transmission of the strong nuclear force happens most importantly in the atomic nucleus and is responsible for keeping the nucleus intact, ''i.e.'', preventing it from undergoing fission despite the strong repulsive {{w|electromagnetic force}} present from all the positively-charged {{w|protons}}.

Ponytail claims that her berries are protected (bound) by fresh raspberry pie mesons. Cueball states he hope they holds but Ponytail is confident as these pies are made from her grandma's recipe, ''i.e.'', it is actually a fresh pie made from the berries. The faith in the pie recipe being able to impede the danger references the convention of "Just like Grandma used to make", nostalgia for an infallible cookery ancestor, in this case a hallowed family recipe that acts to {{w|Neutron moderator|mitigate}} any budding {{w|Aggregate fruit|'berry'}} chain-reaction.

The title text mentions that the grandma's recipe was a huge seller, but that then the farm was shut down by a joint FDA/NRC investigation. This refers to the {{w|Food and Drug Administration}} (FDA) and the {{w|Nuclear Regulatory Commission}} (NRC). The FDA is responsible for the regulation and inspection of food in the U.S., and the NRC for the regulation and inspection of nuclear facilities and materials. A hypothetical "blackberry pie meson" might well run afoul of both, being both nuclear and therefore subject to NRC regulations and permitting requirements, and unhealthy to eat and thus violating FDA rules.

It is mentioned that the pies were {{w|Shelf-stable food|shelf stable}}, which means it can last a long time without being in a refrigerator. This may be because of its innate radioactivity keeping it free from germs. This may also explain why they were shut down by both the above-mentioned agencies.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Cueball are standing in a field, looking at rows of crops disappearing in the distance over rolling hills.]
:Ponytail: I reckon it'll be a good harvest.
:Ponytail: So long as we don't get too many fissile raspberry isotopes.
:Cueball: Too many ''whats''?

:[In a half height panel is show a picture of a raspberry with an arrow to a situation where it is splitting in to two equal parts. From the split there also comes two small ovaries flying out as shown with arrows. Below these two situations is a smaller sketch of how one of these two ovaries will eventually hit another raspberry, which will send out three ovaries when splitting, two of those hitting other berries, that each send out two ovaries. The lower of these are not depicted hitting any, but the upper split hits two again, which each send out two, in an ongoing chain reaction. The depiction stops there. Above this panel is the what Ponytail tells Cueball:]
:Ponytail (narrating): If a raspberry breaks in half, it releases fragments which can cause more splits. Within seconds you've lost the whole crop.

:[Ponytail and Cueball is standing in an empty panel talking.]
:Ponytail: Luckily the berries are bound by fresh raspberry pie mesons.
:Cueball: I hope they hold.
:Ponytail: It's my grandma's recipe. They'll hold.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]

2499: Abandonment Function

2021-08-08T10:17:02Z

MottyGlix: /* Transcript */ spelling correction to most recent addition

{{comic
| number = 2499
| date = August 6, 2021
| title = Abandonment Function
| image = abandonment function.png
| titletext = Remember to only adopt domesticated drones that specifically request it. It's illegal to collect wild ones under the Migratory Drone Treaty Act.
| imagesize =
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUMAN BEING because the bot seems to have been left abandoned. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{W|abandoned_pets|Pet abandonment}} is a situation of concern among biological pets, and is part of the reason there are animal rescue organisations providing for adoption in most regions. Since drones are automated, they can be programmed to have an automatic abandonment function.

In reality, this "abandonment function" is the norm that things left outside homes are {{w|free box|often considered gifts}} for any passersby who would like them. Hence, following the instructions in the webcomic may result in one's drone disappearing for a new owner, but not for the reason depicted.

With the drone responsible for flying to find its own new owner, one can possibly imagine it becoming more and more "fervent" as its charge runs down, to prevent the accumulation of derelict drones in the streets.

Triggering abandonment based on extended close proximity to the device's own controller could produce issues such as accidental activation, or malicious activation by a party who could send the proximity signal from a great distance, possibly to many drones at once, via {{W|software defined radio}}.

The concept of there being "wild" vs "domesticated" drones rings again both of wildlife and pets, and of new intelligent software providing for drones acting on their own. In the latter case, protection for "wild" drones could imply many things about the role of artificial intelligence in society. Did we organise the wild drones to obey our laws, or are we protecting them in fear of being punished by their superior power? A foreign military drone could also be considered a wild drone.

But more likely Randall is imagining flocks of abandoned drones, fending for themselves, traveling distances as they survive off of seasonally-dependent charging resources. This is similar to the behavior of birds, which are protected (in the U.S.) by the real-world {{W|Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918}}.

==Transcript==
:[Multi-Rotor drone is flying though the air. Tied to the drone is the drone's remote controller. Movement lines behind drone indicate a shaky flight path.]
:Drone: Hi, I'm yours now! Please charge me!
:Drone: Hi, I'm yours now! Please charge me!

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Tech Tip: If you ever get tired of a toy drone, tie the controller to it and set it outside. Its abandonment function will activate and it will find a new home.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Drones]]

2499: Abandonment Function

2021-08-08T10:16:18Z

MottyGlix: /* Transcript */ Added relevant descriptive sentence

{{comic
| number = 2499
| date = August 6, 2021
| title = Abandonment Function
| image = abandonment function.png
| titletext = Remember to only adopt domesticated drones that specifically request it. It's illegal to collect wild ones under the Migratory Drone Treaty Act.
| imagesize =
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUMAN BEING because the bot seems to have been left abandoned. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{W|abandoned_pets|Pet abandonment}} is a situation of concern among biological pets, and is part of the reason there are animal rescue organisations providing for adoption in most regions. Since drones are automated, they can be programmed to have an automatic abandonment function.

In reality, this "abandonment function" is the norm that things left outside homes are {{w|free box|often considered gifts}} for any passersby who would like them. Hence, following the instructions in the webcomic may result in one's drone disappearing for a new owner, but not for the reason depicted.

With the drone responsible for flying to find its own new owner, one can possibly imagine it becoming more and more "fervent" as its charge runs down, to prevent the accumulation of derelict drones in the streets.

Triggering abandonment based on extended close proximity to the device's own controller could produce issues such as accidental activation, or malicious activation by a party who could send the proximity signal from a great distance, possibly to many drones at once, via {{W|software defined radio}}.

The concept of there being "wild" vs "domesticated" drones rings again both of wildlife and pets, and of new intelligent software providing for drones acting on their own. In the latter case, protection for "wild" drones could imply many things about the role of artificial intelligence in society. Did we organise the wild drones to obey our laws, or are we protecting them in fear of being punished by their superior power? A foreign military drone could also be considered a wild drone.

But more likely Randall is imagining flocks of abandoned drones, fending for themselves, traveling distances as they survive off of seasonally-dependent charging resources. This is similar to the behavior of birds, which are protected (in the U.S.) by the real-world {{W|Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918}}.

==Transcript==
:[Multi-Rotor drone is flying though the air. Tied to the drone it the drone's remote controller. Movement lines behind drone indicate a shaky flight path.]
:Drone: Hi, I'm yours now! Please charge me!
:Drone: Hi, I'm yours now! Please charge me!

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Tech Tip: If you ever get tired of a toy drone, tie the controller to it and set it outside. Its abandonment function will activate and it will find a new home.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Drones]]

2499: Abandonment Function

2021-08-08T10:14:54Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ spelling corrrection

{{comic
| number = 2499
| date = August 6, 2021
| title = Abandonment Function
| image = abandonment function.png
| titletext = Remember to only adopt domesticated drones that specifically request it. It's illegal to collect wild ones under the Migratory Drone Treaty Act.
| imagesize =
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUMAN BEING because the bot seems to have been left abandoned. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{W|abandoned_pets|Pet abandonment}} is a situation of concern among biological pets, and is part of the reason there are animal rescue organisations providing for adoption in most regions. Since drones are automated, they can be programmed to have an automatic abandonment function.

In reality, this "abandonment function" is the norm that things left outside homes are {{w|free box|often considered gifts}} for any passersby who would like them. Hence, following the instructions in the webcomic may result in one's drone disappearing for a new owner, but not for the reason depicted.

With the drone responsible for flying to find its own new owner, one can possibly imagine it becoming more and more "fervent" as its charge runs down, to prevent the accumulation of derelict drones in the streets.

Triggering abandonment based on extended close proximity to the device's own controller could produce issues such as accidental activation, or malicious activation by a party who could send the proximity signal from a great distance, possibly to many drones at once, via {{W|software defined radio}}.

The concept of there being "wild" vs "domesticated" drones rings again both of wildlife and pets, and of new intelligent software providing for drones acting on their own. In the latter case, protection for "wild" drones could imply many things about the role of artificial intelligence in society. Did we organise the wild drones to obey our laws, or are we protecting them in fear of being punished by their superior power? A foreign military drone could also be considered a wild drone.

But more likely Randall is imagining flocks of abandoned drones, fending for themselves, traveling distances as they survive off of seasonally-dependent charging resources. This is similar to the behavior of birds, which are protected (in the U.S.) by the real-world {{W|Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918}}.

==Transcript==
:[Multi-Rotor drone is flying though the air. Movement lines behind drone indicate a shaky flight path.]
:Drone: Hi, I'm yours now! Please charge me!
:Drone: Hi, I'm yours now! Please charge me!

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Tech Tip: If you ever get tired of a toy drone, tie the controller to it and set it outside. Its abandonment function will activate and it will find a new home.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Drones]]

2379: Probability Comparisons

2020-11-01T07:04:10Z

MottyGlix: /* Table */ Stylistic edits of exponents; and correcting a spelling error

{{comic
| number = 2379
| date = October 30, 2020
| title = Probability Comparisons
| image = probability comparisons new.png
| titletext = Call me, MAYBE.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by LEBRON JAMES THROWING M&Ms AT A KEYBOARD. The table for the explanations of the chances isn't complete, nor is the transcript. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a list of probabilities for different events. There are numerous recurring themes, of which the most common are free throws (13 entries), birthdays (12), dice (12, split about evenly between d6 and d20 types), M&M candies (11), playing cards (9), NBA basketball mid-game victory predictions (9), Scrabble tiles (7), coins (7), white Christmases (7), and the NBA players Stephen Curry and LeBron James (7 each).

Themes are variously repeated and combined, for humorous effect. For instance, there are entries for both the probability that St. Louis will have a white Christmas (21%) and that it will not (79%). Also given is the 40% probability that a random Scrabble tile will contain a letter from the name "Steph Curry".

There are 80 items in the list, the last two of which devolve into absurdity - perhaps from the stress of preparing the other 78 entries.

The list may be an attempt to better understand probabilistic election forecasts for the {{w|2020 United States presidential election}} which was four days away at the time this comic was published, and had also been alluded to in [[2370: Prediction]] and [[2371: Election Screen Time]]. Statistician and psephologist {{w|Nate Silver}} is referenced in one of the list items. On the date this cartoon was published, Nate Silver's website FiveThirtyEight.com was publishing forecast probabilities of Donald Trump and Joe Biden winning the US Presidential election. [[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/]]. On 31 October 2020, the forecast described the chances of Donald Trump winning as "roughly the same as the chance that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles. It does rain there. (Downtown L.A. has about 36 rainy days per year, or about a 1-in-10 shot of a rainy day.)" A day previously, when the chances were 12%, the website had also described Trump's chances of winning as "slightly less than a six sided die rolling a 1".

The probabilities are calculated from [https://xkcd.com/2379/sources/ these sources], as mentioned in the bottom left corner.

The title text refers to the song "{{w|Call Me Maybe}}" by Carly Rae Jepsen (cited twice in the list). "MAYBE" is emphasized, perhaps because the probability of getting her phone number correct, as in the last item in the list, is very low. The capitalization could also be a reference to Scrabble tiles, as was previously mentioned in association with Carly Rae Jepsen.

==Table==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Odds
! Text
! Explanation
|-
| 0.01%
| You guess the last four digits of someone's {{w|Social Security Number}} on the first try
| There are 10 digits in a {{w|Social Security Number}}, but the last four are commonly used as an identity verification factor. (1/10)4 = 0.0001, or 0.01%
|-
| 0.1%
| Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed
| The chances of having left-{{w|handedness}} is about [https://www.healthline.com/health/left-handers-and-health-risk 10%], and 10%3 = 0.1%.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 0.2%
| You draw 2 random {{w|Scrabble}} tiles and get M and M
| This appears to be an error. Under standard English {{w|Scrabble letter distribution}} there are 100 tiles of which 2 are M. This would give a probability of randomly drawing M and M as 2/100 × 1/99 ≈ 0.02%. However, other language editions of Scrabble have different letter distributions, some of which could allow this to be true.
|-
| You draw 3 random {{w|M&Ms}} and they're all red
| According to Randall's source, the proportion of reds is 13%.<ref>M&Ms color proportion 13% red 13% brown 14% yellow 16% green 20% orange 24% blue</ref> 0.13³ ≈ 0.22%.
|-
| 0.3%
| You guess someone's birthday in one try.
| 1/365 ≈ 0.27%. Taking into account that a person might have been born February 29, the probability with a random guess is slightly lower. If the guesser knows on which days there are slightly more births (for example, early October, believed to be because of conceptions occurring on the evening of December 31) and which days there are slightly fewer (for examples, holidays on which a planned, pre-scheduled C-section is unlikely to be held), then the probability is slightly higher.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 0.5%
| An {{w|NBA}} team down by 30 at halftime wins
|
|-
| You get 4 M&Ms and they're all brown or yellow
| Depending on the source of one's M&Ms in the U.S., the proportion of them that is brown or yellow is either 0.25 or 0.259 . 0.254≈ 0.39%; 0.2594 ≈ 0.45% .
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1%
| {{w|Steph Curry}} gets two free throws and misses both
| Curry is a 91% career free throw shooter, so the percentage of missing 1 FT is about 9%. The chance of missing 2 FTs is about 0.8% ≈ 1%.
|-
|{{w|LeBron James}} guesses your birthday, if each guess costs one free throw and he loses if he misses
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1.5%
| You get two M&Ms and they're both red
| According to Randall's sources, the probability of a red M&M is about 13%, so the probability of 2 M&Ms being red is (13%)² ≈ 1.69%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a {{w|Backstreet Boys|Backstreet Boy}}
|Each of the five Backstreet Boys has a different birthday, so the odds that you share a birthday with one is 5/365.25 ≈ 1.3% .
|-
| 2%
| You guess someone's card on the first try
| There are 52 cards in a normal deck of cards (excluding jokers), so the probability is 1/52, which is approximately 0.019 (1.9%).
|-
| rowspan="2"| 3%
| You guess 5 coin tosses and get them all right
| The chance of correctly predicting a coin toss is 0.5. The chance of predicting 5 in a row is 0.55, or 3.125%.
|-
| Steph Curry wins that birthday free throw game
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 4%
| You sweep a 3-game {{w|rock paper scissors}} series
| Picking randomly, you have a 1 in 3 chance of beating an opponent on the first try. (1/3)3 = 1/27 ≈ 4% .
|-
| {{w|Portland, Oregon}} has a {{w|White Christmas (weather)|white Christmas}}
| According to Randall's source (from the ''Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society''), the probability of snow cover in Portland is 4%.
|-
| You share a birthday with two {{w|US Senator}}s
| At the time this comic was published, 9 days were birthdays for more than one Senator.<ref>Rand Paul (R-KY) and John Thune (R-SD) were both born January 7. 
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Angus King (I-MN) were both born March 31. 
Jim Risch (R-ID), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and David Vitter (R-LA) were all born May 3. 
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were both born June 22. 
Bob Corker (R-TN) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) were both born August 24. 
Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Joe Donnelly (D-IA) were both born September 29. 
Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) were both born October 24. 
Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) were both born November 17. 
John Boozman (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) were both born December 10.</ref>
|-
| rowspan="2"| 5%
| An NBA team down 20 at halftime wins
|
|-
| You roll a natural 20
| A natural 20 indicates a critical hit in the {{w|Dungeons & Dragons}} role playing game. "Natural" means that it is the number showing when rolling a d20 (a 20-sided die), as opposed to an overall total of 20 when counting the die roll plus modifiers. There are twenty sides to a d20 die. 1/20 = 0.05 = 5%
|-
| 6%
| You correctly guess someone's card given 3 tries
| Picking a random card within 3 times gives 1 - (51/52)(50/51)(49/50) ≈ 6% .
|-
| 7%
| LeBron James gets two free throws and misses both
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of a miss is 27%. The probability of 2 misses is (27%)², which is about 7%.
|-
| 8%
| You correctly guess someone's card given 4 tries
| Assuming you guess four different cards, 4/52 = 0.0769 ≈ 8% .
|-
| 9%
| Steph Curry misses a free throw
| Curry's career free throw percentage is 91%, so the probability of a miss is 9%.
|-
| rowspan="2"|10%
| You draw 5 cards and get the Ace of Spades
| There are 52 cards in a normal deck of cards (excluding jokers), and the Ace of Spades is one of them. The chances of getting the card is 1 - 51/52 * 50/51 * 49/50 * 48/49 * 47/48 which is approximately 0.096, which rounds to the given 10%. 
|-
| There's a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8+ earthquake in the next month
| Note that, unlike other earthquake examples, this does not specify where the earthquake occurs.
|-
| 11%
| You sweep a 2-game rock paper scissors series
| You have a 1/3 chance of winning the first comparison, and a 1/3 chance of winning the second. (1/3) * (1/3) = 1/9 ~ 0.11 = 11% .
|-
| rowspan="3"|12%
| A randomly-chosen American lives in {{w|California}}
| California is the most populous state in the US. Out of the approximately 328.2 million Americans (as of 2019), 39.51 million live in California. This means that a randomly chosen American has about a 39.51/328.2 ≈ 10.33% of living in California. Due to population change and rounding based on different sources, this could be pushed to 12%.
|-
| You correctly guess someone's card given 6 tries
| Assuming you don't repeat previous wrong guess, the probability is 6/52=3/26 = ~11.54%
|-
| You share a birthday with a {{w|US President}}
| Presidents {{w|James Polk}} and {{w|Warren Harding}} share a birthday, and are the only presidents so far (in 2020) to do so. Additionally, {{w|Grover Cleveland}} served two non-consecutive terms and is counted twice (as the 22nd and 24th presidents). He therefore shares a birthday with himself. With 43 distinct birthdays, the odds of sharing a birthday are 43/365 ≈ 12%. (This does not consider February 29 or that more births occur on some days than others.)
|-
| rowspan="3"|13%
| A {{w|Dice#Polyhedral_dice|d6}} beats a {{w|Dice#Polyhedral_dice|d20}}
| The odds of a d6 beating a d20 are (0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5)/(120) = 0.125 ≈ 13% .
|-
| An NBA team down 10 going into the 4th quarter wins
|
|-
| You pull one M&M from a bag and it's red
| According to Randall's source, the probability of a red M&M is 13%.
|-
| 14%
| A randomly drawn scrabble tile beats a D6 die roll
| {{w|Scrabble}} is a game in which you place lettered tiles to form words. Most of the scores per letter are 1, making it rare to beat a d6. The odds are (70/100)(0) + (7/100)(1/6) + (8/100)(2/6) + (10/100)(3/6) + (1/100)(4/6) + (4/100)(6/6) ≈ 14%.
|-
| 15%
| You roll a D20 and get at least 18
| The set of "at least 18" on a d20 is 18, 19, and 20. The odds of rolling one of these is 3/20 = 15% .
|-
| 16%
| Steph Curry gets two free throws but makes only one
|
|-
| 17%
| You roll a D6 die and get a 6
| The odds are 1/6 ≈ 17% .
|-
| 18%
| A D6 beats or ties a D20
| The odds are (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6)/(120) = 17.5% .
|-
| 19%
| At least one person in a random pair is left-handed
| The chances of being left handed is about 10%, so the probability of both people in the pair not being left-handed is 0.92=0.81, and 1-0.81=0.19.
|-
| 20%
| You get a dozen M&Ms and none of them are brown
|
|-
| 21%
| {{w|St. Louis}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in St. Louis is 21%.
|-
| 22%
| An NBA team wins when they're down 10 at halftime
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 23%
| You get an M&M and it's blue
| According to Randall's source, the "test probability" of a blue M&M is 24%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a US senator
| There are 100 Senators, but 19 Senators share 9 birthdays and 81 Senators have unique birthdays, so there are a total of 90 days of the year that are the birthday of a Senator.
|-
| 24%
| You correctly guess that someone was born in the winter
| The winter lasts ~24% of the year, so ~24% of birthdays are in the winter.
|-
| rowspan="2"| 25%
| You correctly guess that someone was born in the fall
| The fall lasts ~25% of the year, so ~25% of birthdays are in the fall. This statement would also have been true for spring.
|-
| You roll two plain M&Ms and get M and M.
| An M&M can land on one of two sides, one with an M and one without. The odds of "rolling" two Ms is 1/4 = 25%. The term "rolling" is used jokingly in reference to the d6s and d20s above, suggesting that an M&M is a standard d2; this becomes especially true once you consider that a more accurate reference would have been two a coin, not a die.
|-
| 26%
| You correctly guess someone was born in the summer
| The summer lasts ~26% of the year, so ~26% of birthdays are in the summer.
|-
| 27%
| LeBron James misses a free throw
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of missing is 27%.
|-
| 32%
| {{w|Pittsburgh}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Pittsburgh is 32%.
|-
| rowspan="3"| 33%
| A randomly chosen Star Wars movie (Episodes I-IX) has "of the" in the title
| Episodes II (Attack of the Clones), III (Revenge of the Sith), and VI (Return of the Jedi) are the movies. This gives the odds of 3/9 ≈ 33% .
|-
| You win the Monty Hall sports car by picking a door and refusing to switch
| The {{w|Monty Hall problem}} is a counterintuitive logic problem, in which you pick one of three doors at random. One of the doors has a car behind it, so the odds that you picked the door are 1/3 ≈ 33%. Thus, by not switching doors, your odds remain the same. The Monty Hall problem has previously appeared in [[1282: Monty Hall]] and [[1492: Dress Color]].
|-
| You win rock paper scissors by picking randomly
| The odds of beating an opponent on the first try by picking randomly is 1/3 ≈ 33% .
|-
| 34%
| You draw five cards and get an ace
| The odds are 1 - (48/52)(47/51)(46/50)(45/49)(44/48) ≈ 34% .
|-
| 35%
| A random Scrabble tile is one of the letters in "random"
| The odds of drawing a letter in "random" are (6 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 8 + 2)/100 = 35% .
|-
| 39%
| LeBron James gets two free throws but misses one
|
|-
| 40%
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Steph Curry"
| The odds of drawing a letter in "Steph Curry" are (4 + 6 + 12 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 2)/100 = 40% .
|-
| 46%
| There's a magnitude 7 quake in LA within 30 years
|
|-
| rowspan="2"|48%
| {{w|Milwaukee}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Milwaukee is 48%.
|-
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in Carly Rae Jepsen
| The odds of a Scrabble tile being in her name are (2 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 12 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 6)/100 = 48% .
|-
| 50%
| You get heads in a coin toss
| There are two options in a coin toss, heads or tails, so the odds of getting heads is 50% (1/2).
|-
| 53%
| {{w|Salt Lake City}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Salt Lake City is 53%.
|-
| 54%
| LeBron James gets two free throws and makes both
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of making 2 FT is (73%)² = 53.9%.
|-
| 58%
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Nate Silver"
| {{w|Nate Silver}} is a recurring person on xkcd. The odds of a Scrabble tile being in his name are (6 + 9 + 6 + 12 + 4 + 9 + 4 + 2 + 6)/100 = 58% .
|-
| 60%
| You get two M&Ms and neither is blue
|
|-
| 65%
| {{w|Burlington, Vermont}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Burlington is 65%.
|-
| 66%
| A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice
| The titles are:
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Fellowship '''of the''' Ring''
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Two Towers''
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Return '''of the''' King''
All of them have “of the” at least once, in “The Lord of the Rings”, but only the first and third have it twice, and 2/3 ≈ 66%. This number typically rounds up to 67% , however, and it is unclear why it is not, given that the same reduced fraction is written in the 67% category below.
|-
| 67%
| You roll at least a 3 with a d6
| The set of "at least 3" on a d6 refers to 3, 4, 5, and 6. The odds are 4/6 ≈ 67%.
|-
| 71%
| A random Scrabble tile beats a random dice roll
| This is a typo, as the correct probability is at the 14% entry. A random (d6) die roll beats a random Scrabble tile 71% of the time. [[Randall]] probably meant to write '''A random d6 dice roll''' beats '''a random Scrabble tile'''.
|-
| 73%
| LeBron James makes a free throw
| This is James' career FT percentage, 73%.
|-
| 75%
| You drop two M&Ms and one of them ends with the "M" up so it's clear they're not Skittles
| The odds of at least one 'M' showing up is 1 - (1/4) = 75% . The reference to {{w|Skittles}} is that the two candies look similar to one another, and Randall has probably bit into a Skittle thinking it was an M&M, or vice versa. This trick might prevent that from happening in the future.
|-
| 76%
| You get two M&Ms and neither is red
|
|-
| 77%
| You get an an M&M and it's not blue
|
|-
| 78%
| An NBA team wins when they're up 10 at halftime
|
|-
| 79%
| St. Louis doesn't have a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in St. Louis is 21%, thus the probability of ''no'' snow cover is 79%.

|-
| 81%
| Two random people are both right-handed
| The probability of 1 person being right-handed is about 90%, thus the probability of 2 right-handers is (90%)2 = 81%.
|-
| 83%
| Steph Curry gets two free throws and makes both
| Curry's career FT percentage is 91%, so the probability of making 2 FTs is (91%)2 = 82.81%.
|-
| 85%
| You roll a d20 and get at least a 4
| The set "at least 4" on a d20 refers to 4, 5, 6... 18, 19, 20. The odds of this are 17/20 = 85% .
|-
| rowspan="2"| 87%
| An NBA team up by 10 going into the 4th quarter wins
|
|-
| Someone fails to guess your card given 7 tries
|Assuming they guess seven different cards, there are 45 unguessed cards left. 45/52 = 0.865384615 ~ 86.5%
|-
| 88%
| A randomly chosen American lives outside California
| This is the opposite of the previous California probability. As the probability of an American living in California is 12%, the opposite would be 88%.
|-
| 89%
| You roll a 3 or higher given two tries
| The probability of rolling a 3 or higher (on a 6-sided die) is 66%, so the percentage of rolling a 3 or higher given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.66)2 = 89%.
|-
| 90%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 5 tries
| Assuming they guess five different cards, there are 47 unguessed cards left. 47/52 = 0.90385 ~ 90%
|-
| rowspan="2"| 91%
| You incorrectly guess that someone was born in August
| If the odds of someone being born in August are ~9% , then the odds that a person was not born in August are ~91%. (In an average month, 8 1/3% of the population was born. August has an above average number of days, but still only about 8.5% of the year is in August.)
|-
| Steph Curry makes a free throw
| This is Curry's career FT percentage, 91%.
|-
| 92%
| You guess someone's birth month at random and are wrong
| On average, a month lasts 8⅓% of the year. Thus, if you were to guess someone's birth month at random, you would be wrong 91 ⅔% of the time.
|-
| 93%
| Lebron James makes a free throw given two tries
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the percentage of his making at least 1 FT given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.73)² = 93%.
|-
| 94%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 3 tries
| The odds of this happening are (51/52)(50/51)(49/50) ≈ 94% .
|-
| 95%
| An NBA team wins when they're up 20 at halftime
|
|-
| 96%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 2 tries
| The odds of this happening are (51/52)(50/51) ≈ 96% .
|-
| 97%
| You try to guess 5 coin tosses and fail
| The odds of this happening are 1 - (1/2)5 ≈ 97% .
|-
| 98%
| You incorrectly guess someone's birthday is this week
| The odds of this happening are about 51/52 ≈ 98%. (This depends on the week; there are more births in early October and fewer in holiday weeks.)
|-
| 98.5%
| An NBA team up 15 points with 8 minutes left wins
|
|-
| 99%
| Steph Curry makes a free throw given two tries
| James' career FT percentage is 91%, so the percentage of his making at least 1 FT given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.91)² = 99%.
|-
| 99.5%
| An NBA team that's up by 30 points at halftime wins
|
|-
| 99.7%
| You guess someone's birthday at random and are wrong
| The odds of this are 364/365 ≈ 99.7%.
|-
| 99.8%
| There's not a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8 quake in {{w|California}} next year
|
|-
| 99.9%
| A random group of three people contains a right-hander
| About 90% of people are right-handed, so the percentage of at least 1 right-hander in a group of 3 is 1 - (1-.9)³ = 99.9%.
|-
| 99.99%
| You incorrectly guess the last four digits of someone's social security number
| There are 10 digits in a Social Security Number, but the last four are commonly used as an identity verification factor. The odds of this are 1 - (1/10)4 = 99.99% .
|-
| 99.9999999999999995%
| You pick up a phone, dial a random 10-digit number, and say 'Hello Barack Obama, there's just been a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8 earthquake in {{w|California}}!" and are wrong
| In order to get this ''right,'' three things, two highly improbable, would have to happen simultaneously. First you would have to guess one of Barack Obama's phone numbers. (In the United States, where Obama lives and has his office, a '10-digit number' consists of a three digit 'area code' (analogous to a city code in international calling) and a 7-digit local number. Although 1 is the country code for the U.S., it is not counted as one of the 10 digits.) A few of the digits ''could'' be worked out logically - for example, by looking up the area code for the city where he lives or has a home or office, but the text specifies that the entire number is random.) Second, you would have to call that number when there has just been a magnitude 8 earthquake in California (the time interval isn't given, however). Third, he would have to answer the call personally (as opposed to letting a cell phone call go to voice mail, or his secretary, wife, etc., answering his office or home phone).
|-
| 0.00000001%
| You add "Hang on, this is big — I'm going to loop in Carly Rae Jepsen", dial another random 10-digit number, and she picks up
| The odds of a random number being hers would be 1 - (1/10)10 = 0.00000001% if she had only one phone number. However, that is not the probability that "she picks up", because, like Obama, she might either have more than one phone number (increasing the probability) or be letting calls from unknown callers go to voice mail (making the probability zero).
|}

===References===
{{#tag:references}}

==Trivia==
In the original comic, "outside" in the 88% probability section is spelled incorrectly as "outide". In addition, the 39% section had "two free throw" instead of "throws".

The (seemingly unimportant) odds of LeBron James' versus Stephen Curry's free throws and names in Scrabble refer to [[2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry]].

==Transcript==
<big>Probability Comparisons</big>

0.01% You guess the last four digits of someone's social security number on the first try

0.1% Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed

0.2% You draw 2 random Scrabble tiles and get M and M

You draw 3 random M&Ms and they're all red

0.3% You guess someone's birthday in one try.

0.5% An NBA team down by 30 at halftime wins

You get 4 M&Ms and they're all brown or yellow

1% Steph Curry gets two free throws and misses both

LeBron James guesses your birthday, if each guess costs one free throw and he loses if he misses

1.5% You get two M&Ms and they're both red

You share a birthday with a Backstreet Boy

2% You guess someone's card on the first try

3% You guess 5 coin tosses and get them all right

Steph Curry wins that birthday free throw game

4% You sweep a 3-game rock paper scissors series

Portland, Oregon has a white Christmas

You share a birthday with two US Senators

5% An NBA team down 20 at halftime wins

You roll a natural 20

6% You correctly guess someone's card given 3 tries

7% LeBron James gets two free throws and misses both

8% You correctly guess someone's card given 4 tries

9% Steph Curry misses a free throw

10% You draw 5 cards and get the Ace of Spades

There's a magnitude 8+ earthquake in the next month

11% You sweep a 2-game rock paper scissors series

12% A randomly-chosen American lives in California

You correctly guess someone's card given 6 tries

You share a birthday with a US President

13% A d6 beats a d20

An NBA team down 10 going into the 4th quarter wins

You pull one M&M from a bag and it's red

14% A randomly drawn scrabble tile beats a d6 die roll

15% You roll a d20 and get at least 18

16% Steph Curry gets two free throws but makes only one

17% You roll a d6 die and get a 6

18% A d6 beats or ties a d20

19% At least one person in a random pair is left-handed

20% You get a dozen M&Ms and none of them are brown

21% St. Louis has a white Christmas

22% An NBA team wins when they're down 10 at halftime

23% You get an M&M and it's blue

You share a birthday with a US senator

24% You correctly guess that someone was born in the winter

25% You correctly guess that someone was born in the fall

You roll two plain M&Ms and get M and M.

26% You correctly guess someone was born in the summer

27% LeBron James misses a free throw

32% Pittsburgh has a white Christmas

33% A randomly chosen Star Wars movie (Episodes I-IX) has "of the" in the title

You win the Monty Hall sports car by picking a door and refusing to switch

You win rock paper scissors by picking randomly

34% You draw five cards and get an ace

35% A random Scrabble tile is one of the letters in "random"

39% LeBron James gets two free throws but misses one

40% A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Steph Curry"

46% There's a magnitude 7 quake in LA within 30 years

48% Milwaukee has a white Christmas

A random Scrabble tile is a letter in Carly Rae Jepsen

50% You get heads in a coin toss

53% Salt Lake City has a white Christmas

54% LeBron James gets two free throws and makes both

58% A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Nate Silver"

60% You get two M&Ms and neither is blue

65% Burlington, Vermont has a white Christmas

66% A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice

67% You roll at least a 3 with a d6

71% A random Scrabble tile beats a random dice roll

73% LeBron James makes a free throw

75% You drop two M&Ms and one of them ends with the "M" up so it's clear they're not Skittles

76% You get two M&Ms and neither is red

77% You get an an M&M and it's not blue

78% An NBA team wins when they're up 10 at halftime

79% St. Louis doesn't have a white Christmas

81% Two random people are both right-handed

83% Steph Curry gets two free throws and makes both

85% You roll a d20 and get at least a 4

87% An NBA team up by 10 going into the 4th quarter wins

Someone fails to guess your card given 7 tries

88% A randomly chosen American lives outside California

89% You roll a 3 or higher given two tries

90% Someone fails to guess your card given 5 tries

91% You incorrectly guess that someone was born in August

Steph Curry makes a free throw

92% You guess someone's birth month at random and are wrong

93% Lebron James makes a free throw given two tries

94% Someone fails to guess your card given 3 tries

95% An NBA team wins when they're up 20 at halftime

96% Someone fails to guess your card given 2 tries

97% You try to guess 5 coin tosses and fail

98% You incorrectly guess someone's birthday is this week

98.5% An NBA team up 15 points with 8 minutes left wins

99% Steph Curry makes a free throw given two tries

99.5% An NBA team that's up by 30 points at halftime wins

99.7% You guess someone's birthday at random and are wrong

99.8% There's not a magnitude 8 quake in California next year

99.9% A random group of three people contains a right-hander

99.99% You incorrectly guess the last four digits of someone's social security number

99.9999999999999995% You pick up a phone, dial a random 10-digit number, and say 'Hello Barack Obama, there's just been a magnitude 8 earthquake in California!" and are wrong

0.00000001% You add "Hang on, this is big — I'm going to loop in Carly Rae Jepsen", dial another random 10-digit number, and she picks up

Sources: https://xkcd.com/2379/sources/

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Food]]

2379: Probability Comparisons

2020-11-01T06:54:26Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ spelling correction

{{comic
| number = 2379
| date = October 30, 2020
| title = Probability Comparisons
| image = probability comparisons new.png
| titletext = Call me, MAYBE.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by LEBRON JAMES THROWING M&Ms AT A KEYBOARD. The table for the explanations of the chances isn't complete, nor is the transcript. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a list of probabilities for different events. There are numerous recurring themes, of which the most common are free throws (13 entries), birthdays (12), dice (12, split about evenly between d6 and d20 types), M&M candies (11), playing cards (9), NBA basketball mid-game victory predictions (9), Scrabble tiles (7), coins (7), white Christmases (7), and the NBA players Stephen Curry and LeBron James (7 each).

Themes are variously repeated and combined, for humorous effect. For instance, there are entries for both the probability that St. Louis will have a white Christmas (21%) and that it will not (79%). Also given is the 40% probability that a random Scrabble tile will contain a letter from the name "Steph Curry".

There are 80 items in the list, the last two of which devolve into absurdity - perhaps from the stress of preparing the other 78 entries.

The list may be an attempt to better understand probabilistic election forecasts for the {{w|2020 United States presidential election}} which was four days away at the time this comic was published, and had also been alluded to in [[2370: Prediction]] and [[2371: Election Screen Time]]. Statistician and psephologist {{w|Nate Silver}} is referenced in one of the list items. On the date this cartoon was published, Nate Silver's website FiveThirtyEight.com was publishing forecast probabilities of Donald Trump and Joe Biden winning the US Presidential election. [[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/]]. On 31 October 2020, the forecast described the chances of Donald Trump winning as "roughly the same as the chance that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles. It does rain there. (Downtown L.A. has about 36 rainy days per year, or about a 1-in-10 shot of a rainy day.)" A day previously, when the chances were 12%, the website had also described Trump's chances of winning as "slightly less than a six sided die rolling a 1".

The probabilities are calculated from [https://xkcd.com/2379/sources/ these sources], as mentioned in the bottom left corner.

The title text refers to the song "{{w|Call Me Maybe}}" by Carly Rae Jepsen (cited twice in the list). "MAYBE" is emphasized, perhaps because the probability of getting her phone number correct, as in the last item in the list, is very low. The capitalization could also be a reference to Scrabble tiles, as was previously mentioned in association with Carly Rae Jepsen.

==Table==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Odds
! Text
! Explanation
|-
| 0.01%
| You guess the last four digits of someone's {{w|Social Security Number}} on the first try
| There are 10 digits in a {{w|Social Security Number}}, but the last four are commonly used as an identity verification factor. (1/10)4 = 0.0001, or 0.01%
|-
| 0.1%
| Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed
| The chances of having left-{{w|handedness}} is about [https://www.healthline.com/health/left-handers-and-health-risk 10%], and 10%3 = 0.1%.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 0.2%
| You draw 2 random {{w|Scrabble}} tiles and get M and M
| This appears to be an error. Under standard English {{w|Scrabble letter distribution}} there are 100 tiles of which 2 are M. This would give a probability of randomly drawing M and M as 2/100 × 1/99 ≈ 0.02%. However, other language editions of Scrabble have different letter distributions, some of which could allow this to be true.
|-
| You draw 3 random {{w|M&Ms}} and they're all red
| According to Randall's source, the proportion of reds is 13%.<ref>M&Ms color proportion 13% red 13% brown 14% yellow 16% green 20% orange 24% blue</ref> 0.13^3 ≈ 0.22%.
|-
| 0.3%
| You guess someone's birthday in one try.
| 1/365 ≈ 0.27%. Taking into account that a person might have been born February 29, the probability with a random guess is slightly lower. If the guesser knows on which days there are slightly more births (for example, early October, believed to be because of conceptions occurring on the evening of December 31) and which days there are slightly fewer (for examples, holidays on which a planned, pre-scheduled C-section is unlikely to be held), then the probability is slightly higher.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 0.5%
| An {{w|NBA}} team down by 30 at halftime wins
|
|-
| You get 4 M&Ms and they're all brown or yellow
| Depending on the source of one's M&Ms in the U.S., the proportion of them that is brown or yellow is either 0.25 or 0.259 . 0.25^4≈ 0.39%; 0.259^4 ≈ 0.45% .
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1%
| {{w|Steph Curry}} gets two free throws and misses both
| Curry is a 91% career free throw shooter, so the percentage of missing 1 FT is about 9%. The chance of missing 2 FTs is about 0.8% ≈ 1%.
|-
|{{w|LeBron James}} guesses your birthday, if each guess costs one free throw and he loses if he misses
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1.5%
| You get two M&Ms and they're both red
| According to Randall's sources, the probability of a red M&M is about 13%, so the probability of 2 M&Ms being red is (13%)^2 ≈ 1.69%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a {{w|Backstreet Boys|Backstreet Boy}}
|Each of the five Backstreet Boys has a different birthday, so the odds that you share a birthday with one is 5/365.25 ≈ 1.3% .
|-
| 2%
| You guess someone's card on the first try
| There are 52 cards in a normal deck of cards (excluding jokers), so the probability is 1/52, which is approximately 0.019 (1.9%).
|-
| rowspan="2"| 3%
| You guess 5 coin tosses and get them all right
| The chance of correctly predicting a coin toss is 0.5. The chance of predicting 5 in a row is 0.5^5, or 3.125%.
|-
| Steph Curry wins that birthday free throw game
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 4%
| You sweep a 3-game {{w|rock paper scissors}} series
| Picking randomly, you have a 1 in 3 chance of beating an opponent on the first try. (1/3)3 = 1/27 ≈ 4% .
|-
| {{w|Portland, Oregon}} has a {{w|White Christmas (weather)|white Christmas}}
| According to Randall's source (from the ''Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society''), the probability of snow cover in Portland is 4%.
|-
| You share a birthday with two {{w|US Senator}}s
| At the time this comic was published, 9 days were birthdays for more than one Senator.<ref>Rand Paul (R-KY) and John Thune (R-SD) were both born January 7. 
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Angus King (I-MN) were both born March 31. 
Jim Risch (R-ID), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and David Vitter (R-LA) were all born May 3. 
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were both born June 22. 
Bob Corker (R-TN) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) were both born August 24. 
Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Joe Donnelly (D-IA) were both born September 29. 
Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) were both born October 24. 
Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) were both born November 17. 
John Boozman (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) were both born December 10.</ref>
|-
| rowspan="2"| 5%
| An NBA team down 20 at halftime wins
|
|-
| You roll a natural 20
| A natural 20 indicates a critical hit in the {{w|Dungeons & Dragons}} role playing game. "Natural" means that it is the number showing when rolling a d20 (a 20-sided die), as opposed to an overall total of 20 when counting the die roll plus modifiers. There are twenty sides to a d20 die. 1/20 = 0.05 = 5%
|-
| 6%
| You correctly guess someone's card given 3 tries
| Picking a random card within 3 times gives 1 - (51/52)(50/51)(49/50) ≈ 6% .
|-
| 7%
| LeBron James gets two free throws and misses both
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of a miss is 27%. The probability of 2 misses is (27%)^2, which is about 7%.
|-
| 8%
| You correctly guess someone's card given 4 tries
| Assuming you guess four different cards, 4/52 = 0.0769 ≈ 8% .
|-
| 9%
| Steph Curry misses a free throw
| Curry's career free throw percentage is 91%, so the probability of a miss is 9%.
|-
| rowspan="2"|10%
| You draw 5 cards and get the Ace of Spades
| There are 52 cards in a normal deck of cards (excluding jokers), and the Ace of Spades is one of them. The chances of getting the card is 1 - 51/52 * 50/51 * 49/50 * 48/49 * 47/48 which is approximately 0.096, which rounds to the given 10%. 
|-
| There's a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8+ earthquake in the next month
| Note that, unlike other earthquake examples, this does not specify where the earthquake occurs.
|-
| 11%
| You sweep a 2-game rock paper scissors series
| You have a 1/3 chance of winning the first comparison, and a 1/3 chance of winning the second. (1/3) * (1/3) = 1/9 ~ 0.11 = 11% .
|-
| rowspan="3"|12%
| A randomly-chosen American lives in {{w|California}}
| California is the most populous state in the US. Out of the approximately 328.2 million Americans (as of 2019), 39.51 million live in California. This means that a randomly chosen American has about a 39.51/328.2 ≈ 10.33% of living in California. Due to population change and rounding based on different sources, this could be pushed to 12%.
|-
| You correctly guess someone's card given 6 tries
| Assuming you don't repeat previous wrong guess, the probability is 6/52=3/26 = ~11.54%
|-
| You share a birthday with a {{w|US President}}
| Presidents {{w|James Polk}} and {{w|Warren Harding}} share a birthday, and are the only presidents so far (in 2020) to do so. Additionally, {{w|Grover Cleveland}} served two non-consecutive terms and is counted twice (as the 22nd and 24th presidents). He therefore shares a birthday with himself. With 43 distinct birthdays, the odds of sharing a birthday are 43/365 ≈ 12%. (This does not consider February 29 or that more births occur on some days than others.)
|-
| rowspan="3"|13%
| A {{w|Dice#Polyhedral_dice|d6}} beats a {{w|Dice#Polyhedral_dice|d20}}
| The odds of a d6 beating a d20 are (0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5)/(120) = 0.125 ≈ 13% .
|-
| An NBA team down 10 going into the 4th quarter wins
|
|-
| You pull one M&M from a bag and it's red
| According to Randall's source, the probability of a red M&M is 13%.
|-
| 14%
| A randomly drawn scrabble tile beats a D6 die roll
| {{w|Scrabble}} is a game in which you place lettered tiles to form words. Most of the scores per letter are 1, making it rare to beat a d6. The odds are (70/100)(0) + (7/100)(1/6) + (8/100)(2/6) + (10/100)(3/6) + (1/100)(4/6) + (4/100)(6/6) ≈ 14%.
|-
| 15%
| You roll a D20 and get at least 18
| The set of "at least 18" on a d20 is 18, 19, and 20. The odds of rolling one of these is 3/20 = 15% .
|-
| 16%
| Steph Curry gets two free throws but makes only one
|
|-
| 17%
| You roll a D6 die and get a 6
| The odds are 1/6 ≈ 17% .
|-
| 18%
| A D6 beats or ties a D20
| The odds are (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6)/(120) = 17.5% .
|-
| 19%
| At least one person in a random pair is left-handed
| The chances of being left handed is about 10%, so the probability of both people in the pair not being left-handed is 0.92=0.81, and 1-0.81=0.19.
|-
| 20%
| You get a dozen M&Ms and none of them are brown
|
|-
| 21%
| {{w|St. Louis}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in St. Louis is 21%.
|-
| 22%
| An NBA team wins when they're down 10 at halftime
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 23%
| You get an M&M and it's blue
| According to Randall's source, the "test probability" of a blue M&M is 24%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a US senator
| There are 100 Senators, but 19 Senators share 9 birthdays and 81 Senators have unique birthdays, so there are a total of 90 days of the year that are the birthday of a Senator.
|-
| 24%
| You correctly guess that someone was born in the winter
| The winter lasts ~24% of the year, so ~24% of birthdays are in the winter.
|-
| rowspan="2"| 25%
| You correctly guess that someone was born in the fall
| The fall lasts ~25% of the year, so ~25% of birthdays are in the fall. This statement would also have been true for spring.
|-
| You roll two plain M&Ms and get M and M.
| An M&M can land on one of two sides, one with an M and one without. The odds of "rolling" two Ms is 1/4 = 25%. The term "rolling" is used jokingly in reference to the d6s and d20s above, suggesting that an M&M is a standard d2; this becomes especially true once you consider that a more accurate reference would have been two a coin, not a die.
|-
| 26%
| You correctly guess someone was born in the summer
| The summer lasts ~26% of the year, so ~26% of birthdays are in the summer.
|-
| 27%
| LeBron James misses a free throw
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of missing is 27%.
|-
| 32%
| {{w|Pittsburgh}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Pittsburgh is 32%.
|-
| rowspan="3"| 33%
| A randomly chosen Star Wars movie (Episodes I-IX) has "of the" in the title
| Episodes II (Attack of the Clones), III (Revenge of the Sith), and VI (Return of the Jedi) are the movies. This gives the odds of 3/9 ≈ 33% .
|-
| You win the Monty Hall sports car by picking a door and refusing to switch
| The {{w|Monty Hall problem}} is a counterintuitive logic problem, in which you pick one of three doors at random. One of the doors has a car behind it, so the odds that you picked the door are 1/3 ≈ 33%. Thus, by not switching doors, your odds remain the same. The Monty Hall problem has previously appeared in [[1282: Monty Hall]] and [[1492: Dress Color]].
|-
| You win rock paper scissors by picking randomly
| The odds of beating an opponent on the first try by picking randomly is 1/3 ≈ 33% .
|-
| 34%
| You draw five cards and get an ace
| The odds are 1 - (48/52)(47/51)(46/50)(45/49)(44/48) ≈ 34% .
|-
| 35%
| A random Scrabble tile is one of the letters in "random"
| The odds of drawing a letter in "random" are (6 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 8 + 2)/100 = 35% .
|-
| 39%
| LeBron James gets two free throws but misses one
|
|-
| 40%
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Steph Curry"
| The odds of drawing a letter in "Steph Curry" are (4 + 6 + 12 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 2)/100 = 40% .
|-
| 46%
| There's a magnitude 7 quake in LA within 30 years
|
|-
| rowspan="2"|48%
| {{w|Milwaukee}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Milwaukee is 48%.
|-
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in Carly Rae Jepsen
| The odds of a Scrabble tile being in her name are (2 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 12 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 6)/100 = 48% .
|-
| 50%
| You get heads in a coin toss
| There are two options in a coin toss, heads or tails, so the odds of getting heads is 50% (1/2).
|-
| 53%
| {{w|Salt Lake City}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Salt Lake City is 53%.
|-
| 54%
| LeBron James gets two free throws and makes both
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of making 2 FT is (73%)^2 = 53.9%.
|-
| 58%
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Nate Silver"
| {{w|Nate Silver}} is a recurring person on xkcd. The odds of a Scrabble tile being in his name are (6 + 9 + 6 + 12 + 4 + 9 + 4 + 2 + 6)/100 = 58% .
|-
| 60%
| You get two M&Ms and neither is blue
|
|-
| 65%
| {{w|Burlington, Vermont}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Burlington is 65%.
|-
| 66%
| A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice
| The titles are:
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Fellowship '''of the''' Ring''
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Two Towers''
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Return '''of the''' King''
All of them have “of the” at least once, in “The Lord of the Rings”, but only the first and third have it twice, and 2/3 ≈ 66%. This number typically rounds up to 67% , however, and it is unclear why it is not, given that the same reduced fraction is written in the 67% category below.
|-
| 67%
| You roll at least a 3 with a d6
| The set of "at least 3" on a d6 refers to 3, 4, 5, and 6. The odds are 4/6 ≈ 67%.
|-
| 71%
| A random Scrabble tile beats a random dice roll
| This is a typo, as the correct probability is at the 14% entry. A random (d6) die roll beats a random Scrabble tile 71% of the time. [[Randall]] probably meant to write '''A random d6 dice roll''' beats '''a random Scrabble tile'''.
|-
| 73%
| LeBron James makes a free throw
| This is James' career FT percentage, 73%.
|-
| 75%
| You drop two M&Ms and one of them ends with the "M" up so it's clear they're not Skittles
| The odds of at least one 'M' showing up is 1 - (1/4) = 75% . The reference to {{w|Skittles}} is that the two candies look similar to one another, and Randall has probably bit into a Skittle thinking it was an M&M, or vice versa. This trick might prevent that from happening in the future.
|-
| 76%
| You get two M&Ms and neither is red
|
|-
| 77%
| You get an an M&M and it's not blue
|
|-
| 78%
| An NBA team wins when they're up 10 at halftime
|
|-
| 79%
| St. Louis doesn't have a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in St. Louis is 21%, thus the probability of ''no'' snow cover is 79%.

|-
| 81%
| Two random people are both right-handed
| The probability of 1 person being right-handed is about 90%, thus the probability of 2 right handers is (90%)^2 = 81%.
|-
| 83%
| Steph Curry gets two free throws and makes both
| Curry's career FT percentage is 91%, so the probability of making 2 FTs is (91%)^2 = 82.81%.
|-
| 85%
| You roll a d20 and get at least a 4
| The set "at least 4" on a d20 refers to 4, 5, 6... 18, 19, 20. The odds of this are 17/20 = 85% .
|-
| rowspan="2"| 87%
| An NBA team up by 10 going into the 4th quarter wins
|
|-
| Someone fails to guess your card given 7 tries
|Assuming they guess seven different cards, there are 45 unguessed cards left. 45/52 = 0.865384615 ~ 86.5%
|-
| 88%
| A randomly chosen American lives outside California
| This is the opposite of the previous California probability. As the probability of an American living in California is 12%, the opposite would be 88%.
|-
| 89%
| You roll a 3 or higher given two tries
| The probability of rolling a 3 or higher (on a 6-sided die) is 66%, so the percentage of rolling a 3 or higher given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.66)^2 = 89%.
|-
| 90%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 5 tries
| Assuming they guess five different cards, there are 47 unguessed cards left. 47/52 = 0.90385 ~ 90%
|-
| rowspan="2"| 91%
| You incorrectly guess that someone was born in August
| If the odds of someone being born in August are ~9% , then the odds that a person was not born in August are ~91%. (In an average month, 8 1/3% of the population was born. August has an above average number of days, but still only about 8.5% of the year is in August.)
|-
| Steph Curry makes a free throw
| This is Curry's career FT percentage, 91%.
|-
| 92%
| You guess someone's birth month at random and are wrong
| On average, a month lasts 8 1/3% of the year. Thus, if you were to guess someone's birth month at random, you would be wrong 91 2/3% of the time.
|-
| 93%
| Lebron James makes a free throw given two tries
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the percentage of his making at least 1 FT given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.73)^2 = 93%.
|-
| 94%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 3 tries
| The odds of this happening are (51/52)(50/51)(49/50) ≈ 94% .
|-
| 95%
| An NBA team wins when they're up 20 at halftime
|
|-
| 96%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 2 tries
| The odds of this happening are (51/52)(50/51) ≈ 96% .
|-
| 97%
| You try to guess 5 coin tosses and fail
| The odds of this happening are 1 - (1/2)5 ≈ 97% .
|-
| 98%
| You incorrectly guess someone's birthday is this week
| The odds of this happening are about 51/52 ≈ 98%. (This depends on the week; there are more births in early October and fewer in holiday weeks.)
|-
| 98.5%
| An NBA team up 15 points with 8 minutes left wins
|
|-
| 99%
| Steph Curry makes a free throw given two tries
| James' career FT percentage is 91%, so the percentage of his making at least 1 FT given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.91)^2 = 99%.
|-
| 99.5%
| An NBA team that's up by 30 points at halftime wins
|
|-
| 99.7%
| You guess someone's birthday at random and are wrong
| The odds of this are 364/365 ≈ 99.7%.
|-
| 99.8%
| There's not a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8 quake in {{w|California}} next year
|
|-
| 99.9%
| A random group of three people contains a right-hander
| About 90% of people are right-handed, so the percentage of at least 1 right-hander in a group of 3 is 1 - (1-.9)^3 = 99.9%.
|-
| 99.99%
| You incorrectly guess the last four digits of someone's social security number
| There are 10 digits in a Social Security Number, but the last four are commonly used as an identity verification factor. The odds of this are 1 - (1/10)4 = 99.99% .
|-
| 99.9999999999999995%
| You pick up a phone, dial a random 10-digit number, and say 'Hello Barack Obama, there's just been a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8 earthquake in {{w|California}}!" and are wrong
| In order to get this ''right,'' three things, two highly improbable, would have to happen simultaneously. First you would have to guess one of Barack Obama's phone numbers. (In the United States, where Obama lives and has his office, a '10-digit number' consists of a three digit 'area code' (analagous to a city code in international calling) and a 7-digit local number. Although 1 is the country code for the U.S., it is not counted as one of the 10 digits.) A few of the digits ''could'' be worked out logically - for example, by looking up the area code for the city where he lives or has a home or office, but the text specifies that the entire number is random.) Second, you would have to call that number when there has just been a magnitude 8 earthquake in California (the time interval isn't given, however). Third, he would have to answer the call personally (as opposed to letting a cell phone call go to voice mail, or his secretary, wife, etc., answering his office or home phone).
|-
| 0.00000001%
| You add "Hang on, this is big — I'm going to loop in Carly Rae Jepsen", dial another random 10-digit number, and she picks up
| The odds of a random number being hers would be 1 - (1/10)10 = 0.00000001% if she had only one phone number. However, that is not the probability that "she picks up", because, like Obama, she might either have more than one phone number (increasing the probability) or be letting calls from unknown callers go to voice mail (making the probability zero).
|}

===References===
{{#tag:references}}

==Trivia==
In the original comic, "outside" in the 88% probability section is spelled incorrectly as "outide". In addition, the 39% section had "two free throw" instead of "throws".

The (seemingly unimportant) odds of LeBron James' versus Stephen Curry's free throws and names in Scrabble refer to [[2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry]].

==Transcript==
<big>Probability Comparisons</big>

0.01% You guess the last four digits of someone's social security number on the first try

0.1% Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed

0.2% You draw 2 random Scrabble tiles and get M and M

You draw 3 random M&Ms and they're all red

0.3% You guess someone's birthday in one try.

0.5% An NBA team down by 30 at halftime wins

You get 4 M&Ms and they're all brown or yellow

1% Steph Curry gets two free throws and misses both

LeBron James guesses your birthday, if each guess costs one free throw and he loses if he misses

1.5% You get two M&Ms and they're both red

You share a birthday with a Backstreet Boy

2% You guess someone's card on the first try

3% You guess 5 coin tosses and get them all right

Steph Curry wins that birthday free throw game

4% You sweep a 3-game rock paper scissors series

Portland, Oregon has a white Christmas

You share a birthday with two US Senators

5% An NBA team down 20 at halftime wins

You roll a natural 20

6% You correctly guess someone's card given 3 tries

7% LeBron James gets two free throws and misses both

8% You correctly guess someone's card given 4 tries

9% Steph Curry misses a free throw

10% You draw 5 cards and get the Ace of Spades

There's a magnitude 8+ earthquake in the next month

11% You sweep a 2-game rock paper scissors series

12% A randomly-chosen American lives in California

You correctly guess someone's card given 6 tries

You share a birthday with a US President

13% A d6 beats a d20

An NBA team down 10 going into the 4th quarter wins

You pull one M&M from a bag and it's red

14% A randomly drawn scrabble tile beats a d6 die roll

15% You roll a d20 and get at least 18

16% Steph Curry gets two free throws but makes only one

17% You roll a d6 die and get a 6

18% A d6 beats or ties a d20

19% At least one person in a random pair is left-handed

20% You get a dozen M&Ms and none of them are brown

21% St. Louis has a white Christmas

22% An NBA team wins when they're down 10 at halftime

23% You get an M&M and it's blue

You share a birthday with a US senator

24% You correctly guess that someone was born in the winter

25% You correctly guess that someone was born in the fall

You roll two plain M&Ms and get M and M.

26% You correctly guess someone was born in the summer

27% LeBron James misses a free throw

32% Pittsburgh has a white Christmas

33% A randomly chosen Star Wars movie (Episodes I-IX) has "of the" in the title

You win the Monty Hall sports car by picking a door and refusing to switch

You win rock paper scissors by picking randomly

34% You draw five cards and get an ace

35% A random Scrabble tile is one of the letters in "random"

39% LeBron James gets two free throws but misses one

40% A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Steph Curry"

46% There's a magnitude 7 quake in LA within 30 years

48% Milwaukee has a white Christmas

A random Scrabble tile is a letter in Carly Rae Jepsen

50% You get heads in a coin toss

53% Salt Lake City has a white Christmas

54% LeBron James gets two free throws and makes both

58% A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Nate Silver"

60% You get two M&Ms and neither is blue

65% Burlington, Vermont has a white Christmas

66% A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice

67% You roll at least a 3 with a d6

71% A random Scrabble tile beats a random dice roll

73% LeBron James makes a free throw

75% You drop two M&Ms and one of them ends with the "M" up so it's clear they're not Skittles

76% You get two M&Ms and neither is red

77% You get an an M&M and it's not blue

78% An NBA team wins when they're up 10 at halftime

79% St. Louis doesn't have a white Christmas

81% Two random people are both right-handed

83% Steph Curry gets two free throws and makes both

85% You roll a d20 and get at least a 4

87% An NBA team up by 10 going into the 4th quarter wins

Someone fails to guess your card given 7 tries

88% A randomly chosen American lives outside California

89% You roll a 3 or higher given two tries

90% Someone fails to guess your card given 5 tries

91% You incorrectly guess that someone was born in August

Steph Curry makes a free throw

92% You guess someone's birth month at random and are wrong

93% Lebron James makes a free throw given two tries

94% Someone fails to guess your card given 3 tries

95% An NBA team wins when they're up 20 at halftime

96% Someone fails to guess your card given 2 tries

97% You try to guess 5 coin tosses and fail

98% You incorrectly guess someone's birthday is this week

98.5% An NBA team up 15 points with 8 minutes left wins

99% Steph Curry makes a free throw given two tries

99.5% An NBA team that's up by 30 points at halftime wins

99.7% You guess someone's birthday at random and are wrong

99.8% There's not a magnitude 8 quake in California next year

99.9% A random group of three people contains a right-hander

99.99% You incorrectly guess the last four digits of someone's social security number

99.9999999999999995% You pick up a phone, dial a random 10-digit number, and say 'Hello Barack Obama, there's just been a magnitude 8 earthquake in California!" and are wrong

0.00000001% You add "Hang on, this is big — I'm going to loop in Carly Rae Jepsen", dial another random 10-digit number, and she picks up

Sources: https://xkcd.com/2379/sources/

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Food]]

2365: Messaging Systems

2020-09-29T06:07:13Z

MottyGlix: /* Vaguely Modern & E2E Encrypted */ Fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 2365
| date = September 28, 2020
| title = Messaging Systems
| image = messaging_systems.png
| titletext = SMS is just the worst, but I'm having trouble convincing people to adopt my preferred system, TLS IRC with a local server and a patched DOSBox gateway running in my mobile browser.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A VAGUELY MODERN SMS. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Messaging systems suffer from the {{w|network effect}}, as in order to communicate, both parties need to be using the same system.
Though relatively ancient by modern standards, {{w|SMS}} is supported by almost every mobile device (unless you're using a [https://forward.com/news/157544/packing-stadium-for-anti-internet-message/ kosher mobile phone] or still on a {{w|DynaTAC}}) that has a phone number attached, which means if you want to send a message to someone, but aren't sure if you have a messaging protocol in common, you can be sure at least they have SMS.

The comic mentions many other communication systems, which offer various advantages in either security ({{w|end to end encryption}}) and or a bunch of general improvements filed under the label "vaguely modern", such as longer character limits and the ability to share media such as images in-service.

The title text proposes an alternative, absurd mingling of technologies in the vein of [[1636: XKCD Stack]]. IRC is Internet Relay Chat, a similarly antiquated messaging service that may also never die, as suggested in [[1782: Team Chat]]. {{w|DOSBox}} is an emulator that recreates the operating environment of {{w|MS-DOS}}; part of the absurdity is that DOSBox is intended almost solely for video games.

Various other comics have referenced the issue of chat services, including [[1810: Chat Systems]], [[1254: Preferred Chat System]], and [[1782: Team Chat]].

=== Vaguely Modern ===
'''Slack'''
* {{w|Slack (software)|Slack}} is a workplace messaging service that offers the ability for administrators to create channels in order to organize the discussion. It is asynchronous, which means that conversations can occur out of time, hours apart from each other. It also keeps track of every message, and everything in a public channel stays there forever for everyone to see. It is not encrypted and has been moving towards being less privacy-focused for end-users over the years as corporate demand for employee surveillance has prompted the company to offer ever more invasive services to administrators. Overall, it is a popular service with some large companies and non-profit organisations but does not yet have universal adoption.

'''Facebook Messenger'''
* {{w|Facebook Messenger}} is {{w|Facebook}}'s messaging app for phones, but not everyone has a Facebook account, or uses Facebook regularly.

'''Hangouts'''
* {{w|Google Hangouts}} is a messaging service that can be accessed through the online Gmail client, as a separate web page and a standalone app for the phone. Theoretically, that means everybody has access to it, but modern usage patterns mean that most people do not use the attached web client and don't bother downloading the app. It allows users to upload significantly degraded images, links, and other media along with text with a copy-paste.

'''Discord'''
* {{w|Discord (software)|Discord}} is an instant messaging and groups platform, initially designed for the gaming community, now being used by everyone.

'''Various DMs'''
* A {{w|Personal message|DM}} (direct message) is a private message between two or more users. The term DM originated from {{w|Twitter}}, but can be used for other "direct" messages from other social media or social messaging platforms.

=== Vaguely Modern & E2E Encrypted ===

'''Signal'''
*{{w|Signal (software)|Signal}} is an encrypted messaging service, popular among protesters and hackers who wish to remain anonymous. Signal allows for highly secure messaging and for messages to be deleted after a period of time.

'''iMessage'''
*{{w|iMessage}} is the instant messaging service for Apple devices. iMessage features end-to-end encryption; however, it only works between Apple devices, so users of Android devices are not able to receive or send messages through iMessage.

'''WhatsApp'''
*{{w|WhatsApp}} is a messaging service owned by Facebook. It is popular in multiple countries, namely Latin America and India.

=== E2E Encrypted ===
{{w|End-to-end encryption}} is another messaging system where only the communicating users can read the messages posted. In principle, it prevents potential eavesdroppers – including {{w|telecom provider}}s, {{w|internet provider}}s, and even the provider of the communication service – from being able to access the {{w|cryptographic key}}s needed to decrypt the conversation.

'''PGP Email'''
*{{w|Pretty Good Privacy|PGP}} (short of "Pretty Good Privacy") is an encryption protocol for privacy and authentication developed in 1991. PGP can be used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting data. It is used to ensure the validity of the nature of the sender of the message (ie. to make sure you got the email from the sender and not from someone else pretending to be someone else with malicious intent). PGP was also featured in [[1181: PGP]].

'''Various Obscure Projects'''
*Randall is probably referring to the multitude of projects similar to those listed here that had end-to-end encryption but never went far.

'''Skype I Think'''
*{{w|Skype}} is a video conferencing service owned by Microsoft released in 2003; thus Randall does not consider Skype "modern". He is unsure if Skype is end-to-end encrypted or not. Skype used to be E2E encrypted, but that was changed and now {{w|Sype security|it does not have E2E encryption}}.

'''Jabber + TLS'''
*{{w|Jabber.org}} (based on {{w|XMPP}}) is a communications protocol based on XML that was developed in 1999. The Jabber protocol could be used with {{w|Transport Layer Security}} (TLS) to have a secure communications service.

=== Supported By Everyone ===
'''SMS'''
*{{w|SMS}} (short of Short Message Service) is a text-messaging service formally defined in the {{w|GSM}} standard in 1985 and first used in 1992. It limits messages to 160 characters, text-only. SMS has been extended by {{w|Multimedia Messaging Service|MMS}} (first used in 2002), which allows for "multimedia", including short videos, images and audio. MMS is also supported by most modern phones, but does not have any security features and is less powerful and less reliable than other messaging apps, making it less modern.

==Transcript==

A Venn Diagram is shown, framed in a box. It has three components:

Vaguely Modern, E2E Encrypted, Supported By Everyone

'''Items Solely in the Vaguely Modern category are:'''

:Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, Discord, Various DMs

'''Items In both 'Vaguely Modern' and 'E2E Encrypted' categories are:'''

:Signal, iMessage, Whatsapp

'''Items Solely in the E2E Encrypted category are:'''

:PGP Email, Various Obscure Projects, Skype I think, Jabber + TLS

'''Items Solely in the 'Supported By Everyone' category is:'''

:SMS

All other categories are empty.

[Caption below the comic]: Why SMS refuses to die

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2365: Messaging Systems

2020-09-29T06:06:41Z

MottyGlix: /* Vaguely Modern */ Added preposition for grammatical correctness

{{comic
| number = 2365
| date = September 28, 2020
| title = Messaging Systems
| image = messaging_systems.png
| titletext = SMS is just the worst, but I'm having trouble convincing people to adopt my preferred system, TLS IRC with a local server and a patched DOSBox gateway running in my mobile browser.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A VAGUELY MODERN SMS. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Messaging systems suffer from the {{w|network effect}}, as in order to communicate, both parties need to be using the same system.
Though relatively ancient by modern standards, {{w|SMS}} is supported by almost every mobile device (unless you're using a [https://forward.com/news/157544/packing-stadium-for-anti-internet-message/ kosher mobile phone] or still on a {{w|DynaTAC}}) that has a phone number attached, which means if you want to send a message to someone, but aren't sure if you have a messaging protocol in common, you can be sure at least they have SMS.

The comic mentions many other communication systems, which offer various advantages in either security ({{w|end to end encryption}}) and or a bunch of general improvements filed under the label "vaguely modern", such as longer character limits and the ability to share media such as images in-service.

The title text proposes an alternative, absurd mingling of technologies in the vein of [[1636: XKCD Stack]]. IRC is Internet Relay Chat, a similarly antiquated messaging service that may also never die, as suggested in [[1782: Team Chat]]. {{w|DOSBox}} is an emulator that recreates the operating environment of {{w|MS-DOS}}; part of the absurdity is that DOSBox is intended almost solely for video games.

Various other comics have referenced the issue of chat services, including [[1810: Chat Systems]], [[1254: Preferred Chat System]], and [[1782: Team Chat]].

=== Vaguely Modern ===
'''Slack'''
* {{w|Slack (software)|Slack}} is a workplace messaging service that offers the ability for administrators to create channels in order to organize the discussion. It is asynchronous, which means that conversations can occur out of time, hours apart from each other. It also keeps track of every message, and everything in a public channel stays there forever for everyone to see. It is not encrypted and has been moving towards being less privacy-focused for end-users over the years as corporate demand for employee surveillance has prompted the company to offer ever more invasive services to administrators. Overall, it is a popular service with some large companies and non-profit organisations but does not yet have universal adoption.

'''Facebook Messenger'''
* {{w|Facebook Messenger}} is {{w|Facebook}}'s messaging app for phones, but not everyone has a Facebook account, or uses Facebook regularly.

'''Hangouts'''
* {{w|Google Hangouts}} is a messaging service that can be accessed through the online Gmail client, as a separate web page and a standalone app for the phone. Theoretically, that means everybody has access to it, but modern usage patterns mean that most people do not use the attached web client and don't bother downloading the app. It allows users to upload significantly degraded images, links, and other media along with text with a copy-paste.

'''Discord'''
* {{w|Discord (software)|Discord}} is an instant messaging and groups platform, initially designed for the gaming community, now being used by everyone.

'''Various DMs'''
* A {{w|Personal message|DM}} (direct message) is a private message between two or more users. The term DM originated from {{w|Twitter}}, but can be used for other "direct" messages from other social media or social messaging platforms.

=== Vaguely Modern & E2E Encrypted ===

'''Signal'''
*{{w|Signal (software)|Signal}} is an encrypted messaging service, popular among protesters and hackers who wish to remain anonymous. Signal allows for highly secure messaging and for messages to be deleted after a period of time.

'''iMessage'''
*{{w|iMessage}} is the instant messaging service for Apple devices. iMessage features end-to-end encryption; however, it only works between Apple devices, so users of Android devices are not able to receive or send messages through iMessage.

'''WhatsApp'''
*{{w|WhatsApp}} is a messaging service owned by Facebook. It has is popular in multiple countries, namely Latin America and India.

=== E2E Encrypted ===
{{w|End-to-end encryption}} is another messaging system where only the communicating users can read the messages posted. In principle, it prevents potential eavesdroppers – including {{w|telecom provider}}s, {{w|internet provider}}s, and even the provider of the communication service – from being able to access the {{w|cryptographic key}}s needed to decrypt the conversation.

'''PGP Email'''
*{{w|Pretty Good Privacy|PGP}} (short of "Pretty Good Privacy") is an encryption protocol for privacy and authentication developed in 1991. PGP can be used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting data. It is used to ensure the validity of the nature of the sender of the message (ie. to make sure you got the email from the sender and not from someone else pretending to be someone else with malicious intent). PGP was also featured in [[1181: PGP]].

'''Various Obscure Projects'''
*Randall is probably referring to the multitude of projects similar to those listed here that had end-to-end encryption but never went far.

'''Skype I Think'''
*{{w|Skype}} is a video conferencing service owned by Microsoft released in 2003; thus Randall does not consider Skype "modern". He is unsure if Skype is end-to-end encrypted or not. Skype used to be E2E encrypted, but that was changed and now {{w|Sype security|it does not have E2E encryption}}.

'''Jabber + TLS'''
*{{w|Jabber.org}} (based on {{w|XMPP}}) is a communications protocol based on XML that was developed in 1999. The Jabber protocol could be used with {{w|Transport Layer Security}} (TLS) to have a secure communications service.

=== Supported By Everyone ===
'''SMS'''
*{{w|SMS}} (short of Short Message Service) is a text-messaging service formally defined in the {{w|GSM}} standard in 1985 and first used in 1992. It limits messages to 160 characters, text-only. SMS has been extended by {{w|Multimedia Messaging Service|MMS}} (first used in 2002), which allows for "multimedia", including short videos, images and audio. MMS is also supported by most modern phones, but does not have any security features and is less powerful and less reliable than other messaging apps, making it less modern.

==Transcript==

A Venn Diagram is shown, framed in a box. It has three components:

Vaguely Modern, E2E Encrypted, Supported By Everyone

'''Items Solely in the Vaguely Modern category are:'''

:Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, Discord, Various DMs

'''Items In both 'Vaguely Modern' and 'E2E Encrypted' categories are:'''

:Signal, iMessage, Whatsapp

'''Items Solely in the E2E Encrypted category are:'''

:PGP Email, Various Obscure Projects, Skype I think, Jabber + TLS

'''Items Solely in the 'Supported By Everyone' category is:'''

:SMS

All other categories are empty.

[Caption below the comic]: Why SMS refuses to die

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2325: Endorheic Basin

2020-06-28T05:38:52Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Fixed a typo: replaced incorrect "from" with correct "for".

{{comic
| number = 2325
| date = June 26, 2020
| title = Endorheic Basin
| image = endorheic_basin.png
| titletext = My biggest fear is that colonial engineers will try to flood me to generate electricity. My biggest hope is that I'll develop sailing stones.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ENDORHEIC BASIN. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Yet another comic with one of [[Beret Guy|Beret Guy's]] [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]]. This time he attracts water so it flows to him rather than running out towards the nearby oceans. He thus claims he is like an {{w|endorheic basin}}, hence the title.

An endorheic basin is a limited drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but converges instead into lakes or swamps, permanent or seasonal, that equilibrate through evaporation. The {{w|Caspian Sea}} in Asia is the largest such basin. It is debated if it is a lake or a sea (it is salty, but not connected to the oceans). If a lake it is the world largest lake.

An endorheic basin does though not suck water away from the sea. Rather rivers nearby flow to this low lying area inland, from where the water level will never rise enough for the water to continue to flow out into an ocean. Evaporation or drainage into the ground keeps the water level from reaching a height that can connect the water surface to a channel to any ocean.

So in this way Beret Guy's effect on water has nothing to do with the reason an endorheic basin is created.

In the comic [[Megan]] asks why he has water over his feet, and he thus explains the endorheic basin story. He even demonstrates by putting his hand close to a glass of water Megan is holding, showing her how he attracts some of the water out of the glass, and on to his arm.

He also shows how water will stay on him after a shower. This looks similar to what could happen in a space station if you have liquid water in zero gravity. The water sticks to any surface it encounters. See for instance the start of this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeDJABZpVlI Water in zero gravity] and this one [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM Wringing out Water on the ISS - for Science!] to see how water reacts to human skin in zero gravity. It is thus almost impossible for him to dry off after a shower.

It seems like the water stays away from his upper face, leaving his nose free to breathe. Else it would also be a very dangerous thing for him to take a shower.

In fact he needs someone to come with a {{w|siphon}} to get rid of the water. A siphon is an u-shaped pipe, where the downward pipe is longer than the upward section. Thus the water falling in the downward section creates a pull lifting the water in the upward section up to the highest point, form where it will flow down pulling more water up. As the Endorheic Basin caused by Beret Guy seems to have a limited reach, placing on end of the pipe sufficiently far outside creates a similar effect: The water outside Beret Guy's area of effect flows down under the influence of gravity, creating a pull lifting the water near him "up" out of the Endorheic Basin.

But he really needs to get the water away from him. If he just leaves it there it will eventually evaporate. Water from rivers carry salt, and if they end up in a closed lake and that lake then evaporates, it can create {{w|Salt pan (geology)|salt flats}} (or salt pans), like those near {{w|Salt Lake City}} in {{w|Utah}}, e.g. the {{w|Bonneville Salt Flats}}. There may be a pun here, in that "flats" is a description of various types of footwear (among them: women's shoes that are not high-heeled and ballet shoes not specifically reinforced for advanced 'pointe' dancing), and the water would clearly leave the 'flats' on his feet.

If Beret Guy just leaves the water on him to dry out, he will get these salt flats, which is probably bad for his skin. But he has developed some previously and then harvested the minerals (because he asks Megan to let him know if she needs any minerals, implying he has plenty to give away due to those salt flats he has developed earlier).

In the title text, Beret Guy mentions his "biggest fear" due to his his water attracting abilities is being flooded to by "colonial engineers" in order from then to use him and the water to generate electricity, most likely {{w|hydroelectricity}}, similar to the {{w|Qattara Depression Project}}. Hydroelectricity is generated by the energy of falling or fast-moving water.

He then mentions that his "biggest hope", due to his ability, is that he will generate {{w|sailing stones}}. Sailing stones (also known as sliding rocks, walking rocks, rolling stones, and moving rocks), are a geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention. The movement of the rocks occurs when large ice sheets a few millimeters thick and floating in an ephemeral winter pond start to break up during sunny days. Frozen during cold winter nights, these thin floating ice panels are driven by wind and shove rocks at speeds up to 5 meters per minute. It does not sound like something attracting water (even if creating salt flats) can accomplish.

This comic came out just a bit more than a month after the previous comic with one of Beret Guy's strange powers, [[2310: Great Attractor]], in which strange forces exerted a pull on Beret Guy. It does not appear that he himself is drawn to water, and we cannot determine if the Great Attractor is drawn to him, so Newton's Third Law may be constantly being broken, along with the more obvious scientific impossibilities that surround Beret Guy.

==Transcript==
:[Megan, holding a glass of water up in one hand is talking to Beret Guy, who has water surrounding his feet, with small droplets falling off the two small water triangles that cover his feet.]
:Megan: Why are your feet wet?
:Beret Guy: I'm an endorheic basin!

:[Megan looks down at her glass as the water in it is flying out towards Beret Guy's arm, which he has stretched out towards the glass.]
:Megan: Huh?
:Beret Guy: Nearby water flows toward me, not the ocean.
:Beret Guy: See?
:Megan: Oh, cool.

:[At the top of this panel is a box with text being said by Beret Guy to Megan. Beneath it is a depiction of what he is explaining to Megan. Beret Guy is shown standing in a bathroom, with a towel around his waist. Almost his entire body is covered completely in water, except most of his head above mouth level, and both his feet are beneath the water bubble. He yells to someone outside the bathroom. A shower-tray or partially sunken bathtub can be seen to the left with a closed shower curtain across it. To the right of him is the sink with mirror above it. Further right is the door. The floor is tiled.]
:Beret Guy - narrating: The most annoying part is drying off after a shower.
:Beret Guy: Can someone bring me the siphon?

:[Back to the situation from the first panel, although Megan has lowered her glass a bit. The glass seems to be as full as in the first panel though, even though Beret Guy now also has water on his arm where it was pulled out off Megan's glass in panel 2.]
:Beret Guy: But I have to get rid of it or I'll develop salt flats.
:Beret Guy: Anyway, let me know if you need any minerals!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Geography]]

2317: Pinouts

2020-06-09T06:21:14Z

MottyGlix: /* HDMI */ Various. Complete sentence with missing info; spelling correction; punctuation corrections.

{{comic
| number = 2317
| date = June 8, 2020
| title = Pinouts
| image = pinouts.png
| titletext = The other side of USB-C is rotationally symmetric except that the 3rd pin from the top is designated FIREWIRE TRIBUTE PIN.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FIREWIRE TRIBUTE PIN. Should include a column for the actual purpose of the pin. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Electronics connecters are designed to transport both information and power. A {{w|pinout}} diagram describes the function of each pin such as to communicate data, transport power, physical function (keying), etc. In this comic there is an absurd alternative to the actual pins used in connectors.

The real life diagrams are as follows: [http://unitedtechnologies.com.pk/Nti/image/10ci.png HDMI], [https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/micro-connector-usb-pinout Micro USB], [https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/technical-articles/introduction-to-usb-type-c-which-pins-power-delivery-data-transfer/ USB-C].

=== HDMI ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation !! Pin No. !! Actual purpose
|-
| +3.3V DC
| 3.3V is a typical voltage in digital electronics. The "+" Indicates a voltage positive with respect to Ground.
| 1
| TMDS Data2+
|-
| Data
| Most digital communications cables contain at least one wire that carries data. Typically there will be a more descriptive name if there are multiple data pins.
| 2
| TMDS Data2 Shield
|-
| -3.3V DC
| Negative voltages were used more frequently in the past; however, modern systems typically generate any negative voltages they might require internally from the given positive voltages.
| 3
| TMDS Data2-
|-
| +5V
| Many actual pin configurations use +5 volts to supply power to a device. That's not what this means.
| 4
| TMDS Data1+
|-
| Tx
| "Tx" typically refers to pins used to transmit as opposed to "Rx"/receive
| 5
| TMDS Data1 Shield
|-
| +6VI
| V is usually used to represent volts, but here, VI represents the Roman numeral 6. (See Pin 4)
| 6
| TMDS Data1-
|-
| Wx
| "Wx" does not typically exist in the "Tx"/"Rx" scheme. In the weather forecasting community, Wx means "weather" .
| 7
| TMDS Data0+
|-
| +7VII
| V is usually used to represent volts, but here, VII represents the Roman numeral 7, continuing the pattern from above.
| 8
| TMDS Data0 Shield
|-
| Rx Only
| "Rx" typically refers to pins used to receive as opposed to "Tx"/transmit. In this case "Rx" is used as part of a pun on "Rx (prescription) only." This description might also be related to the fact that most ethernet devices can exchange the Rx and Tx port automatically, if needed, in order to eliminate the need for crossover cables and the fact that it is legal to insert the USB-C connector rotated by 180°.
| 9
| TMDS Data0-
|-
| Antidata
| Some ports use differential signaling, where a signal and its inverse are sent over a pair of pins (e.g. D+ and D-). This mixes that practice with a humorous reference to the notion of matter versus antimatter. There is no such thing as antidata.
| 10
| TMDS Clock+
|-
| Unknown
| Occasionally extra pins will be included for future use; however they will typically be labeled "reserved" to point out that their usage is not yet defined. The use of "unknown" suggests that this pinout is based on an incomplete reverse-engineering of the HDMI format, instead of on the official documentation, or maybe the official documentation doesn't explain it and this pin's function is being kept as a secret by the ones who designed it.
| 11
| TMDS Clock Shield
|-
| Water
| Labs often have ports connecting to common sources of various supplies (oxygen, water, fuel, vacuum).
| 12
| TMDS Clock-
|-
| +240V DC
| High voltage DC is not typically used in small communications connectors. It would need to be low current to avoid generating excess heat.
| 13
| CEC
|-
| Vacuum
| Labs often have ports connecting to common sources of various supplies (oxygen, water, fuel, vacuum).
| 14
| Reserved (1.0-1.3a), Utility (1.4+, optional)
|-
| 5V AC
| Pins often supply low voltage direct current to devices. This pin supplies 5V alternating current, which is not typically supplied.
| 15
| SCL (I²C serial clock for DDC)
|-
| Amazon Copyright Pin
| HDMI can optionally be protected by a digital rights management (DRM) scheme, known as HDCP. This pin humorously implies the presence of a different DRM scheme specific to Amazon.com, as well as poking fun at the fact that copyright is an explicit part of the HDMI protocol (although it is not assigned to a specific pin).
| 16
| SDA (I²C serial data for DDC)
|-
| GND
| GND typically refers to "ground" on pinout diagrams. Remarkably, this is correct.
| 17
| DDC/CEC Ground
|-
| Decorative
| Decorative elements are pieces of an assembly that serve only an aesthetic purpose without any technical function. This would not be particularly useful inside a connector, as almost no one will ever see it--however, in HDMI, pin 14 was reserved for future use in versions 1.0–1.3a (and was only assigned an official use in 1.4).
| 18
| +5V
|-
| Ground
| Compared to Pin 17 ("GND"), this appears to be the same ground pin. However, the presence of both GND and Ground seems to imply that GND represents something other than the standard "ground" pin, unless it is this one that supplies something like soil (like [[1293|soup]]). Some systems have different grounds for analog and digital sections, but they would typically be disambiguated by terms like AGND.
| 19
| Hot Plug Detect
|}

HDMI uses four pairs of shielded twisted-pair connectors, along with seven other connectors. (Twisted-pair means a wire is wrapped with the other wire that returns the current to the original device, thus minimizing electromagnetic noise. Shielding refers to wrapping a cable with a conductor to absorb the energy of noise.) Three of these pairs are for data (TMDS Data0, Data1, and Data2) and the other is a clock. These pairs take up three pins as one of them is a ground pin for the shielding wrapped around each pair. TMDS stands for "{{w|Transition-minimized Differential Signaling}}" and is also used in the DVI standard.

DDC stands for "Display Data Channel" and is based on the {{w|I²C}} serial standard. It is used to allow the transmitting device to learn what formats of data the receiving device can accept.

CEC stands for "Consumer Electronics Control" and is supposed to allow a single remote control to control multiple devices.

"Hot Plug Detect" refers to hot-plugging, where a cable is connected to a device already turned on. The device should then ideally detect that the cable has been plugged in and respond appropriately.

=== Micro USB ===

A ground pin is commonly found on USB and other pin connectors. At least one ground is necessary to complete the circuit, and some cables use multiple ground lines to distribute current or to support {{w|twisted pair}}s. However, there is no purpose served by having many more ground pins than data pins. Therefore, it seems rather silly for the micro USB to have 4 ground pins and only 1 functional "USB" pin. It also does not give much information about what the "USB" pin would do, as opposed to a standard pinout diagram. This diagram also leaves out the +5V power pin that is present in the real micro USB connector, which would render most USB peripherals unable to function.

The ordering and count of the pins may be an allusion to {{w|Monty Python}}'s {{w|Spam (Monty Python)|"Spam"}} sketch, in which one of the many Spam-related menu items is "Spam, Spam, Spam, egg, and Spam".

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| GND
| A ground pin
|-
| GND
| A second ground pin
|-
| GND
| A third ground pin
|-
| USB
| Apparently the only data pin in this connector.
|-
| GND
| A fourth ground pin. A real micro USB only has one ground pin.
|}

=== USB-C ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| +5V DC
| A common electronics supply voltage.
|-
| +3.3V DC
| Another common electronics supply voltage. This pin is not present on USB type C, mostly because the voltage is too low to supply useful levels of power at the current limit of the pins.
|-
| +120V AC
| Residential supply voltage in the United States; its use on an electronics connector would be very unusual, as it would burn out any unguarded transistor-logic electronics. But this high a voltage might be an allusion to the high voltages USB-C screens and similar devices can request in order to get enough energy without exceeding the cable's current limit.
|-
| Boobytrap Pin (Pure Solder)
| {{w|Solder}} is a metal alloy with a low melting temperature (typically around 360°C, but in special cases melting points between 90°C and 450°C or above are available), used to bond electronic components together permanently. Most solder materials are quite docile so it might be too easy for the forces a connector is subject to to permanently change their shape. Along with the fact that the resistance of solder is typically way higher than that for copper the pin under heavy electrical stress could overheat and melt, thus bonding the connector to its receptacle, and thereby "trapping" the receptacle. Additionally putting a pin that might slightly change their shape directly next to a high voltage pin means risking to accidentally connect two power rails with entirely different voltages together (causing an overvoltage in the lower-voltage rail that is likely to break the circuit, as has happened with some Apple devices). In this case the +120V AC pin might be able to deliver enough power to actually fuse the solder-only pin.
|-
| Mechanical
| All connectors include portions whose job is to ensure a solid connection between the cable and the port. This is typically not the job of the pins, however. In real USB type C connectors, this task is performed by the center tongue of the female connector.
|-
| +3.3eV/C
| {{w|Electron-volts}} per {{w|coulomb}} would be a very unusual unit to see in a pinout. It would be a unit of electric potential equivalent to approximately 1.60217662 * 10^-19 volts. There 3.3eV/C would be 5.287183 * 10^-19 volts, or slightly more than 1/2 attovolt. It could also be read as +3.3 eV/c (per {{w|speed of light}}), in which case it is equivalent to a momentum of 5.3E-28 kg m/s, In high-energy physics, the momentum of particles is sometimes expressed in MeV/c or GeV/c units.
|-
| Candlepin
| Randall is making a pun on the word ''pin'', which refers to a electrical connector pin as well as a thing to knock down in bowling. {{w|Candlepin bowling}} is a form of bowling.
|-
| Facebook use
| This would imply that Facebook had a hand in specifying USB type C, and had a pin dedicated to their use. This would be strange given Facebook's primary business is web technology and would have little need for a dedicated pin in the USB standard.
|-
| +5V (Positrons)
| {{w|Positron}}s are the antimatter counterparts to electrons. So this pin is supplying +5V, but does so by sourcing positrons into the device rather than sinking electrons out. NOTE: Positrons cannot be conducted through normal matter conductors as they would annihilate with the electrons.
|-
| Pin Roulette
| Presumably in the same vein as "Chat Roulette", this pin's purpose is not rigidly defined and is instead left to chance. According to the title text, this pin's counterpart on the other side of the connector is the "FireWire Tribute Pin", so this cable would only be truly rotationally symmetric (which is the whole point of the USB-C connector) when the pin roulette ball lands on that same function.
|-
| GND
| Ground pin. Typically denoted as "GND".
|-
| SKY
| Reference to the ground pin, which refers to the common grounding on the larger metal body. There is no corresponding "sky" pin, although sky is often thought as the opposite of ground.
|-
| FireWire Tribute Pin
| ''In Title text:'' {{w|FireWire}} is Apple's version of IEEE 1394 which is a 6 pin connector that has a ground pin a power pin and two pairs of data pins. It was something of a competitor to USB, and had faster data rates than USB 2.0, but is much less popular now. Presumably the writers of the USB-C standard (which far outpaces its data rates) wished to memorialize it somehow, although it's not clear how the pin actually works for that purpose.
|}

The fact that only half of the USB-C pins are documented might hint to an alternative way to manufacture connectors that can be legally inserted rotated by 180°: Make the receiver use only the right side of the pins and make the sender connect both the left and the right side so all Pins that might match a function are connected correctly no matter if the cable is rotated by 180°.

=== Coax ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| Pin
| An {{w|RF connector|coaxial RF connector}} has two contacts - one pin, and the shield; typically the whole connector is labeled with whatever function/signal is carried by the pair.
|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption at top]
:Pinouts
:Quick Reference Guide

:[Four common connectors are depicted - vertically, rather than the usual horizontal orientation.]

:[The first connector is a 19-pin HDMI connector.]
:[The nine pins on the left are labeled:]
:*Data
:*+5V
:*+6VI
:*+7VII
:*Antidata
:*Water
:*Vacuum
:*Amazon Copyright Pin
:*Decorative
:[The ten pins on the right are labeled:]
:*+3.3V DC
:*-3.3V DC
:*Tx
:*Wx
:*Rx Only
:*Unknown
:*+240V DC
:*5V AC
:*GND
:*Ground

:[The second connector is a 5-pin Micro USB connector.]
:[The five pins are labeled:]
:*GND
:*GND
:*GND
:*USB
:*GND

:[The third connector is a 24-pin USB-C connector, with only the right side labeled.]
:[The twelve pins on the right are labeled:]
:*+5V DC
:*+3.3V DC
:*+120V AC
:*Boobytrap Pin (Pure Solder)
:*Mechanical
:*+3.3eV/C
:*Candlepin
:*Facebook Use
:*+5V (Positrons)
:*Pin Roulette
:*GND
:*SKY

:[The fourth and final connector is a 1-pin COAX connector.]
:[The one pin in the center is labeled:]
:*Pin

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]

2275: Coronavirus Name

2020-03-03T11:07:09Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Added "giant" to description of The Spider

{{comic
| number = 2275
| date = March 2, 2020
| title = Coronavirus Name
| image = coronavirus_name.png
| titletext = It's important to keep the spider from touching your face.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MUTANT T. ANNEXA WOLF SPIDER WITH COVID-19. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is [[Randall|Randall's]] take on the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak}}. As of March 2020, the outbreak has infected more than 90,000 people, and has caused more than 3000 deaths.

The disease caused by the virus was officially named {{w|Coronavirus disease 2019|COVID-19}} on 11 February 2020, as "{{w|coronavirus}}" is a category of viruses named for their appearance, which is similar to a halo or crown. However, the virus itself is not called COVID-19, but is called {{w|severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2}} (SARS-CoV-2). So calling the virus or disease "coronavirus" is like calling a specific strain of flu ''The Influenza virus''. However, with extensive media coverage, the name "Coronavirus" has become associated with COVID-19, making it difficult to discuss other types of coronavirus later on.

COVID-19 has a 20% hospitalization rate and a 2% death rate by current estimates, compared to a [https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-myths.html typical rate of around 0.1% for the flu in the US].

In this comic, researchers [[Ponytail]], [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are discussing that it is by now too late to try calling the disease its official name COVID-19, as the name coronavirus has stuck. [[Cueball]] reacts with dismay, since there are many other types of coronaviruses.

The comic becomes absurd when Ponytail compares the coronavirus naming to a giant "car eating spider" living on top of the skyscrapers of the town, which is also just called "The Spider" even though it is technically a mutated ''{{w|Tigrosa annexa}}'' {{w|wolf spider}}. Everyone know what you mean when you say "Coronavirus", as they do when you mention "The Spider".

[[Megan]] then asks if they should not also do something about the spider, but Ponytail and Cueball agree that they can only tackle one problem at a time, and coronavirus takes up all their time. Only thing is that Ponytail now takes another commute, probably to avoid getting her car eaten.

On a more serious note, the comic may also reference the fact that that there are many other problems in the world (both spider and non-spider related) that kill many more people and cause more problems. So this draws a humorous comparison to the fact that we seem to have forgotten about all the wars, etc and focus just on the virus.

The title text references the health advice that people avoid touching their face with unwashed hands, in order to prevent infections that they picked up by touching things from entering their mucous membranes. (It's a lot easier for an infection to enter the body through the inside of your nose than your hands.) It is likewise quite important to keep giant spiders from touching your face, but for the dissimilar reason that they'll bite and eat you.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is carrying a box with biohazard symbols on it towards a desk where Ponytail (wearing safety glasses) is working on a laptop, across from Cueball (also wearing safety glasses) who is putting a test tube into a centrifuge. There's also a flask on the desk.]
:Ponytail: Feels like we missed the window for the "COVID-19" renaming. "Coronavirus" is just too catchy.
:Cueball: But it's not specific! There are a lot of coronaviruses.

:[In a frameless panel, Ponytail (still wearing safety glasses) is pointing at a screen or picture showing a modern city skyline with a large spider crawling across three of the high-rise buildings.]
:Ponytail: I think it's fine. It's like, you know the giant spider downtown that sits on the buildings and sometimes eats cars? I think ''technically'' it's a mutant ''T. annexa'' wolf spider, but everyone is just calling it "the spider" and we all know what they mean.

:[Back to the setting from the first panel. Megan is standing and Ponytail had turned towards her and Cueball has stepped back from the machine.]
:Megan: I've been meaning to ask, what's '''''with''''' that spider? Should we...do something?
:Ponytail: Honestly I've been too busy with the virus stuff to look into it-I just changed my commute to avoid Main St.
:Cueball: Yeah, that's fair. One thing at a time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Spiders]]

2267: Blockchain

2020-02-13T09:27:46Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Minor grammatical fixes; subjunctive, noun-vs-verb prepositions, plural-vs-singular

{{comic
| number = 2267
| date = February 12, 2020
| title = Blockchain
| image = blockchain.png
| titletext = Blockchains are like grappling hooks, in that it's extremely cool when you encounter a problem for which they're the right solution, but it happens way too rarely in real life.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Blockchain. Too wordy? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a {{w|flowchart}} intended to help project leaders decide if their project needs a blockchain.

A {{w|blockchain}} is a data storage structure shared between various computers. Each block is digitally signed and includes the digital signature of the block before it, which makes it highly resilient against tampering. However, what sets blockchains in the context of {{w|cryptocurrencies}} such as {{w|Bitcoin}} apart from e.g. {{w|Merkle trees}} used in programs such as {{w|Git}} is that ''anyone'' can write to a blockchain. This is sometimes specified as a "public ledger" or "public blockchain". In order to prevent the blockchain from being vandalized, various mechanisms are used to determine consensus about which additions to the blockchain are legitimate. Bitcoin (and most cryptocurrencies) use a "{{w|proof of work}}" system, where writing a block includes some task which is computationally difficult to perform but simple to verify, such as finding a magic number that, when appended to the block, makes its hash value start with lots of zeroes. This results in a system which is, in ideal circumstances, extremely difficult to vandalize, as the attacker must find new nonce values for the block he wishes to modify and every succeeding block, and then broadcast the modified blockchain from enough nodes to convince the rest of the network to go along with it. This so-called "51% attack" [https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-gold-51-attacked-network-loses-70000-in-double-spends/ has been performed against smaller cryptocurrencies], although not against the major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and {{w|Ethereum}}.

Unfortunately, this proof of work algorithm requires that lots of specialized computer hardware needs to spend lots of time and energy computing hash functions, resulting in the Bitcoin network using approximately [https://www.statista.com/statistics/881541/bitcoin-energy-consumption-transaction-comparison-visa/ a million times more energy per transaction] than Visa's network. For almost any practical project, there is no need to allow ''everyone in the world'' to have write access to a database, so it is generally quite acceptable to use a straightforward centrally controlled permissioning system rather than proof-of-work or other decentralization schemes to restrict write access. This is why all branches of the flowchart lead to the answer "No".

Part of the joke is that the only question asked in the flowchart, "Are you making the decision using a flowchart you found?" has nothing to do with blockchains or any details of the project itself, and can only honestly be answered 'yes' (which is why the 'no' branch leads to a block reading "You definitely are" before leading to the final "No" answer). For a flowchart with a little more technical content, you can see Figure 6 (page 42) of the [https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2018/NIST.IR.8202.pdf Blockchain Technology Overview] published by {{w|NIST}}. In particular, they conclude that blockchain is only potentially useful if you need a data store that must never be erased, must be auditable, and where lots of people need to write to it but none of them can be trusted to have control over it.

Presumably, if a project were in the rare category of truly needing a blockchain, that decision would be made by a technical expert who is ''not'' consulting this flowchart. This flowchart is probably intended as a "resource" for clueless project managers who have latched on to "blockchain" as a buzzword, such as the investors who [https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/21/long-island-iced-tea-micro-cap-adds-blockchain-to-name-and-stock-soars.html tripled the stock price of Long Island Iced Tea] after it changed its name to "Long Blockchain Corp." and professed a pivot into the blockchain space. As stated above, one of those real-world problems which is "solved" by blockchains is the libertarian ideal of creating a system which allows anyone to perform transactions while (hopefully) preventing anyone from double-spending their coins, much as physical cash does. Even in that case, however, cryptocurrency exchanges are running into challenges with anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer regulations, which (among other things) ban certain actors from being served by banks, so they are having to use ordinary certificates, passwords, and identification documents, which are definitely not implemented via a blockchain.

In the title text block chains are compared to {{w|grappling hook}}s. These hooks are devices with several claws (hooks) attached to the end of a rope. A grappling hook is one of Link's weapons from the ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda}}'' series. Additionally, {{w|Luke Skywalker}} used a grappling hook to swing with {{w|Princess Leia}} across a chasm in the first ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' film, ''{{w|A New Hope}}''.

Like Blockchains, grappling hooks are thus seen as a cool tool when they encounter a problem for which they are the right solution, like boarding an enemy ship... However, just like for blockchains, in real life there is very few cases where these hooks are the best solution for a given problem.

As an example of a problem that is ''not'' well-solved by a grappling hook, see [[2128: New Robot]] where an electrically-charged "search and rescue" robot has been equipped with such a hook.

Blockchain was previously mentioned in [[2030: Voting Software]], with Megan and Cueball expressing distrust in its use for electronic voting.

Flowcharts are a [[:Category:Flowcharts|recurring theme]] in xkcd. If you are unfamiliar with them see [[518: Flow Charts]]. Similar simple flowcharts like this comic, where there is only one reply has been used before like [[1723: Meteorite Identification]] and [[2026: Heat Index]]. See also the similar [[1691: Optimization]], where the flowchart, as it does here, asks if you are using flowcharts.

==Transcript==
:[A flowchart is shown. A rectangular block at the top has one line down to a diamond shaped block. From there lines go right and down from two of the edges. The line to the left immediately takes a turn and goes down to a rectangular block. From this block a line goes to the block to the left, which is also the one that the down line from the diamond points to, so both routes ends here. There are text in each of the four blocks and labels above the lines for the two options going out from the diamond.]
:[Start block:]
:Should your project use a blockchain?

:[Diamond:]
:Are you making the decision using a flowchart you just found?

:[Reply:]
:No

:[Right block:]
:You definitely are

:[From right block of if reply was:]
:Yes

:[Result block:]
:No

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]

2225: Voting Referendum

2019-11-07T10:25:36Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Grammatical correction of one word; correct "was" to "were"

{{comic
| number = 2225
| date = November 6, 2019
| title = Voting Referendum
| image = voting_referendum.png
| titletext = The weirdest quirk of the Borda count is that Jean-Charles de Borda automatically gets one point; luckily this has no consequences except in cases of extremely low turnout.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BORAD OF BORDA-ELECTED CANDIDATES. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The day before this comic's publication was an election day throughout the USA, primarily for local and state issues (normal elections for federal offices of the President, Senate, and House of Representatives are always in even years). The topic of today's comic highlights many different methods for conducting elections and counting votes. In New York City, the ballot included a referendum ([https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/5/20948376/new-york-election-results-ranked-choice-voting which passed]) on whether to use a different method, ranked choice voting (another name for instant-runoff voting as described below). The comic depicts an election ballot referendum for voters to select the method to be used in future elections. While elections are primarily used to allow voters to select from candidates for public offices, election ballots also frequently present questions for voters to directly voice their support or opposition to some change in a process or law - commonly called a {{w|Referendum|referendum}}. A common issue with such referenda is what method to use to conduct the referendum itself. Here, the method of marking each choice on the ballot reflects the marking method which would be used if it were the winner. Moreover, each item is listed in a way which is suggestive of what it means (e.g., "First past the post" is the first one, "Top-two" is among the top two, and "Multiple non-transferable vote" is selected among numerous other ones). A few of the methods allow for multiple winners, which can often be good when electing councils and representatives, but it is unclear what it would mean to have several of these voting methods all win.

* '''First past the post'''
The aim of political elections is to determine which of the candidates standing for election is favoured by the majority of voters. In a simple two-person contest, this process is trivial, since whichever candidate receives the most votes will be the one that the majority of voters prefer. This {{w|First-past-the-post voting}} system works well for simple cases, but for elections with more than two candidates this system may result in a candidate being elected who less than 50% of the voters would prefer.

For example, in a contest with three candidates, A, B and C, in which candidate A receives 41% of the vote, candidate B 40%, and candidate C 19%, then candidate A will be elected, even though some of the voters who chose candidate C might have preferred candidate B as their second choice instead of candidate A, leading to a result which pleases less than half of the population.

Despite this drawback, First Past the Post voting continues to be used for political elections in many countries including the US and UK, which historically have both had two main parties receiving the majority of votes. The First Past the Post system has received much criticism, particularly from smaller parties who may lose out; however, supporters promote the simplicity of the system compared to other methods.

This system is shown with a radio button, the classic computer metaphor for being allowed one choice out of a set.

* '''Top-two primary'''
This method is used in California and Washington to select candidates for the US House of Representatives. In most states' primary-election systems, each party votes separately to select one candidate to continue to a first-past-the-post general election ballot. In these two states, on the other hand, candidates from all parties, as well as “independent” candidates from no party, run in a single race, and the top two finishers then contest the general election, even if both are from the same party (a common occurrence in heavily-Democratic California), and even if one candidate has a clear majority of the vote. (In an older version, a majority winner in the primary was immediately declared elected. This was held to be in violation of federal law, by effectively setting an "election day" before the national Election Day in November.)

* '''Louisiana primary'''
This system is almost identical to the top-two primary, but with two differences. First, the open-to-all ballot is held on the national Election Day, instead of on the state's primary day. (This avoids the conflict with Federal law described above.) Also, the second round of the election is not held if one candidate has a clear majority (more than 50%) of the votes in the first round. Like the top-two primary and the first-past-the post system, the comic represents this system with a radio button.

* '''Cumulative voting'''
In cumulative voting, each voter gets as many votes as there are seats to be filled, and may distribute them as he chooses. This system's most common use is in selecting corporate boards of directors. It is also used in some areas to allow a minority bloc within an electorate to elect some of its preferred candidates without imposing a system of separate districts.

The comic illustrates this with multiple radio buttons, each row representing an option/candidate and each (implied) column one vote.

* '''Approval voting'''
In this system, each candidate is listed as a yes/no choice, where the voters can choose which candidate they approve of winning the election, and which ones they do not approve of. The winner of the election is the candidate with the highest approval rate.

In the XKCD ballot, the approval option is presented as a checkbox, where a check in the box is "approve" or an empty box is "disapprove".

* '''Multiple non-transferable vote'''
This system for electing multiple members to a ruling body is also known as {{w|plurality-at-large voting}} or block vote. It is commonly used in the US for city council elections, and simply limits the number of votes per voter to the number of winners. It allows a cohesive plurality of the electorate to claim all of the seats, denying other voters any representation whatsoever.

In 2019, the Justice Department required {{w|Eastpointe, MI}} to run at least the next two elections via {{w|Single Transferable Vote}} because their existing plurality-at-large system was disenfranchising black citizens.

This system is also shown as a checkbox, as each candidate gets either 0 or 1 votes from each voter.

* '''Instant runoff voting'''
In this system, people vote for all the candidates, or perhaps their favorite three, but assign different preferences to each candidate they vote for, as in 1 for their first choice, 2 for the second, 3 for their third, etc. If at least 50% of voters vote for a candidate as their first choice, that candidate wins. If not, the person with the least votes gets eliminated, and anyone who voted for that person has their next (slightly less favorable) choice automatically move up a rung. The 50% mark is again checked, and if there is no winner, another lowest-voted candidate is eliminated. Eventually one candidate will emerge victorious. The advantages of this system are that there is rarely a need to have another election if things are close (the information is already there to "instantly" recalculate the vote based on additional voter preferences), and "spoiler" candidates only cause problems when they become competitive. And as {{w|Arrow's impossibility theorem}} shows, as with all ranking methods, sometimes {{w|Monotonicity_criterion#Instant-runoff_voting_and_the_two-round_system_are_not_monotonic|voters can hurt a candidate by ranking them more favorably}}.

On this weird XKCD ballot, we see this type of ranking between this type of voting (''Instant runoff voting'') and the two that follow (''Single transferable vote'' and ''Borda count'').

* '''Single transferable vote'''
This system extends the instant runoff to multiple-winner elections. Specifically, the election threshold is set not at 50%, but at 100%/(''k''+1) where ''k'' candidates will win (in other words, just high enough to prevent more candidates from reaching it than there are seats). The bottom candidates are eliminated as in instant-runoff and their votes redistributed. In addition, if a candidate wins with more than enough votes, the extra votes (either a fraction of each vote, or some subset of the ballots) are also redistributed. This procedure continues until the requisite number of winners is reached.

* '''Borda count'''
Each ballot is counted as 1 point for the last choice, 2 for next-to-last, and so on up to ''n'' for the first choice among ''n'' candidates. The highest point-earner(s) win. This system may also be calculated as 1 point for first choice, 2 for second, etc., with the lowest total winning; this variant, called the "cross-country vote" (due to its resemblance to the scoring system of the sport of cross-country running), is used by the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s various selection committee as one step in choosing championship tournament fields.

The alt text refers to the inventor of the Borda count (for whom it is named), implying that the use of the system implies the inclusion of a ballot in which he gets one vote. This vote would be quickly drowned out by any sensible quantity of actual votes. This also humorously suggests that if no one were to vote at all, Borda would win by default.

* '''Range voting'''
For each candidate, the voter selects a value within a fixed range (the XKCD voter sees this choice presented as a slider) for each candidate, independent of the values given to other candidates. The highest total wins. (If the range is restricted to two values, this becomes the approval system.)

The punchline is that the whole referendum is a chicken-and-egg problem: in order to accomplish the purpose of a referendum, one needs to know how the votes will be translated into a result, but in this case, determining that rule is the purpose of the referendum.

==Transcript==

:[Single panel depicting a ballot item for selecting a voting system]
:Which voting system should we use?

:* (empty radio button) First past the post
:* (empty radio button) Top-two primary
:* (filled radio button) Louisiana primary
:* (two filled, one empty radio button) Cumulative voting
:* (checked box) Approval voting
:* (checked box) Multiple non-transferrable vote
:* (box marked "3") Instant runoff voting
:* (box marked "1") Single transferrable vote
:* (box marked "2") Borda count
:* (slider with value slightly below half) Range voting

:Caption below panel: The referendum went well, but we can't figure out how to count the ballots.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Elections]]

2108: Carbonated Beverage Language Map

2019-02-07T09:41:27Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ "Fluid" is a term applicable to both liquid and gas.

{{comic
| number = 2108
| date = February 6, 2019
| title = Carbonated Beverage Language Map
| image = carbonated_beverage_language_map.png
| titletext = There's one person in Missouri who says "carbo bev" who the entire rest of the country HATES.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COMMUNIST SHILL. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In the US, people in various parts of the country refer to carbonated beverages by {{w|Names for soft drinks in the United States|different names}} such as Soda, Pop, Coke, etc. Generally, the West Coast and Northeast say "Soda", the South says "Coke" and the rest of the country says "Pop".

There are various maps of the name differences, including: [http://www.popvssoda.com/]

This map leverages xkcd's mockery-maps of regional and state-by-state differences or variations in the use of language and overlays the regional variances in the terms for soda pop (for example: https://laughingsquid.com/soda-pop-or-coke-maps-of-regional-dialect-variation-in-the-united-states/), as was made trending and popular in 2013. Not only are there far more terms than are actually used by Americans, many are terms for other drinks (mead), unrelated liquids (quicksilver), or trademarked beverage names less popular than {{w|Coca Cola|Coke}}/{{w|Coca Cola}} ({{w|Mountain Dew|Code Red}}) -- and in one case, something that's not even tangible ({{w|cryptocurrency|"Crypto"}}).

{| class="wikitable"
|+Map terms (from left to right, approximately)
|-
|{{w|Fanta}}
|Name of a carbonated beverage line
|-
|Söde
|Presumably pronounced "soda" but spelled oddly
|-
|True Water
|Possibly a reference to Tru Blood, a fictional artificial blood substitute for vampires in ''{{w|The Southern Vampire Mysteries}}'' book series by Charlaine Harris, and the television series ''{{w|True Blood}}''. Also could be a reference to "purified" mineral waters such as {{w|Glaceau Smartwater|Smartwater}}.
|-
|Crypto
|A term meaning "hidden". Popularized as a slang term in the late '80s and early '90s to refer to anything involving the act of encryption/decryption {{w|cryptography}} through the application of ciphers, a practice which has become practically ubiquitous in the digital age. Given the highlighted region is the Silicon Valley, this is almost certainly a specific reference to {{w|cryptocurrency}}. None of these concepts are liquid and therefore not drinkable. Possibly a joke that the residents of Silicon Valley are actually computers that "drink" crypto (i.e. data).
|-
|Yum
|Refers to {{w|Yum! Brands}}, parent company of several fast food restaurants, which was spun off from PepsiCo, maker of a carbonated beverage, in 1997, and has a lifetime contract to serve their beverages.
|-
|Sparkle Fluid
|Roughly analogously to how "sparkling wine" and "sparkling cider" are carbonated varieties of wine and cider, "sparkling fluid" or "sparkle fluid" would presumably be any carbonated fluid
|-
|King Cola
|Name of a carbonated beverage
|-
|{{w|Pepsi}}
|Name of a carbonated beverage
|-
|{{w|Crystal Pepsi}}
|Name of a carbonated beverage
|-
|Ichor
|Several definitions (blood of a god (or demon, or, in some dialects, any insect) or watery discharge from a wound). None of them carbonated. None of them recommended as a drinkable liquid. (Well, not by someone with your best interests at heart.)
|-
|You-Know-What
|A phrase typically employed when a more specific term is considered unspeakable.
|-
|{{w|Tab (drink)|Tab}}
|Name of a carbonated beverage
|-
|Spicewater
|Potentially a reference to the spice from ''Dune''.
|-
|Softie
|On the map, it looks like the region for Softie is taking a punch from the region for Punch
|-
|Ohio Tea
|The area in question covers much of Arizona, the namesake of {{w|Arizona Beverage Company|Arizona Iced Tea}}, itself a non-carbonated beverage. This implies that residents of Arizona view carbonated beverages as something that comes from Ohio, and thus they place Ohio’s name before the word "Tea” to indicate its carbonated state.

Could also refer to [https://youtu.be/0_XAPku7SgE?t=30 "...bubbling crude. Oil that is, black gold, '''Texas tea'''.]
|-
|Boat Drink
|An implication that carbonated beverages were popular with sailors in the region.
|-
|Melt
|Usually used to describe a kind of sandwich where cheese is melted in the center, usually on a griddle. Or maybe just a way to say "no, the *melted* ice"
|-
|Fizz Ooze
|The shortened name of the book "Fizz, Foam, Splatter & Ooze" about chemical reactions.
|-
|{{w|Punch (drink)|Punch}}
|A drink typically found in the juice aisle. Only sometimes carbonated. It's also a pun on the word punch, meaning to hit something, and on the map it looks like the region for Punch is literally punching the region for Softie.
|-
|Fun Wine
|Implies that normal wine is not "fun". Might be an allusion to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerwine Cheerwine], a carbonated drink from the Southeast.
|-
|Diet
|Sometimes refers to a carbonated beverage. A common request in restaurants, as they often only have a single "{{w|Diet drink|diet soda}}" option for customers to pick. Ironically, "diet" sodas have been causally linked to metabolism related weight gain.
|-
|Refill
|The second glass of whatever you drank previously. Works for any drinkable liquid.
|-
|Tickle Juice
|Name of a Boston-based jazz band.
|-
|Bubble Honey
|Reversed name of the Honey Bubble Tea brand. https://honeybubbletea.com
|-
|Sugar Oil
|The areas of Oklahoma and north Texas that are shaded produce a significant amount of {{w|petroleum|crude oil}}.
|-
|The Wet Drink
|Technically true of all drinks, unless one is attempting to drink sand (or anhydrous fluids - of which the least harmful may be clarified butter). It may also refer to the fact that many advertisements for carbonated beverages attempt to make the product look more appetizing by photographing or filming a beverage container covered with water droplets.
|-
|{{w|Mountain Dew|Code Red}}
|Name of a carbonated beverage
|-
|{{w|Mead}}
|An alcoholic drink. Traditionally not carbonated. Often associated with Vikings, and these areas did have many Scandinavian immigrants.
|-
|Canadian Ale
|Probably a reference to the {{w|Canada Dry}} brand of {{w|Ginger Ale}}, a non-alcoholic carbonated beverage.
|-
|Aether
|Could refer to a highly flammable industrial solvent, also used as an anesthetic. Do not drink. Also, not carbonated. Alternately, could refer to the nonexistent fluid that was believed to carry light waves before electromagnetism was fully understood, or poetically to the sky; in either case it is not a drinkable liquid (or carbonated).
|-
|Carbonated Beverage
|Technically correct, but a bit of an awkward term due to its unnecessary length.
|-
|Mouthwater
|A play on the term "mouth watering" to describe delicious foods and drinks.
|-
|{{w|Capri Sun|Capri}}
|Capri Sun is a brand of juice drinks, typically sold in uncarbonated pouches.
|-
|Skim Shake
|A shortened name of the beverage "Skim Milkshake"
|-
|Kid's Coffee
|Somewhat accurate. Coffee is typically drunk by adults for its caffeine. Carbonated beverages often have caffeine also, and are often consumed by children.
|-
|Regular
|In the past, referred to gasoline with lead, as opposed to "Unleaded". Not a drinkable liquid, and also outlawed.
|-
|{{w|Tang (drink)|Tang}}
|An orange flavored beverage containing less than 2% juice extract. Normally sold in powdered form, and not carbonated.
|-
|{{w|Infant formula|Formula}}
|Typically refers to an artificial replacement for mother's milk. Not carbonated.
|-
|Medicine
|Only sometimes a drinkable liquid. Never or perhaps almost never carbonated. Alternatively, a common euphemism for alcohol, or some other drink that the person doesn't want to admit to drinking -- or at least doesn't want to share.
|-
|{{w|Broth}}
|Liquid in which bones, meat, fish, or vegetables have simmered. Often used as a soup base. Not carbonated.
|-
|Fool's Champagne
|Carbonated beverage is to champagne what fool's gold is to gold.
|-
|Sugar Milk
|This may be a reference to dairy, but in this region of the US people drink a popular carbonated beverage called {{w|Moxie}} that is less familiar to people elsewhere.
|-
|No word for them
|This region of the US does not have a word for carbonated beverages (according to Randall). Possibly they do not drink them at all.
|-
|Hydro
|A word for water. Carbonated water does exist, but this word means all forms of water. Since this area borders Canada, it may also be a reference to the common Canadian use of "Hydro" to mean electricity.
|-
|Harvard Tea
|The region shaded this way includes {{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts}}, which is home to {{w|Harvard University}}.
|-
|{{w|Drinking fountain|Bubbler}}
|A nod to another popular map of the same type, exploring the regional dialects used to describe drinking fountains. Rhode Island and the eastern portion of Wisconsin are the only two locations where 'Bubbler' is commonly used to refer to drinking fountains, but the word is commonly used in surrounding areas to depict the strong variety of {{w|Rhoticity_in_English|rhoticity}} present, some saying 'bubblah' in for example Boston, and others saying 'water fountain'.
|-
|Mouthbuzz
|Perhaps referring to the feeling of drinking a carbonated drink, where the releasing carbonation almost 'buzzes' in the mouth.
|-
|Brad's Elixer
|Possibly a reference to "Brad's Drink", the original name for {{w|Pepsi}} when it was invented by Caleb Bradham in 1893. The word "elixir" is defined as "a sweetened liquid usually containing alcohol that is used in medication either for its medicinal ingredients or as a flavoring", but it is misspelled here as "elixer".
|-
|Hot Water
|Not carbonated. Not even in Jacuzzi and hot tubs. May reference how boiled water forms bubbles before it actually comes to a boil.
|-
|Fluid
|A word that means nearly any liquid or gas in existence. Not specific to carbonated beverages.
|-
|{{w|Coke Zero}}
|Name of a carbonated beverage.
|-
|Carbo
|Sodas sweetened with corn syrup or cane sugar are high in carbohydrates. Could also refer to carbonation.
|-
|Quicksilver
|An old term for the element mercury, a metallic liquid in its pure form at room temperature. Extremely harmful if swallowed.
|-
|Glug
|Onomatopoeia, referring to the sound of swallowing a large amount of liquid. Or possibly referring to {{w|Glögi|glögg}} (pronounced "glug"), a Swedish drink similar to mulled wine.
|-
|Water Plus
|Technically the name of {{w|Water Plus|a British water retail services provider}}, this likely refers to the prevalence of "plus" as a preposition in branding nomenclature (e.g.: {{w|Google+}}, {{w|iPhone 8 Plus}}, {{w|7 Up Plus}}, etc.). Also reminiscent of "Milk Plus," the drugged milk from the movie A Clockwork Orange.
|}

The title text may be a wry comment in light of the pocket of "soda" in the St. Louis, MO area.

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

:[A map of the United States divided into purple, red, green, blue, and yellow colored regions.]

:[A purple area in North West Washington.]
:Fanta

:[A blue area spanning the Western border of Washington and Oregon.]
:Sode

:[A yellow area spanning the remainder of Washington, North Western Oregon, Northern Idaho and the North Western corner of Montana.]
:Ichor

:[A yellow area corresponding to Hawaii except for the island of O'ahu.]
:Pepsi

:[A red area corresponding to the Hawaiian island of O'ahu.]
:Crystal Pepsi

:[A green area spanning the North Eastern corner of Oregon, central Idaho and the majority of Montana.]
:Spicewater

:[A blue area spanning Eastern Montana, the North Eastern corner of Wyoming and the majority of North and South Dakota.]
:Refill

:[A red area spanning Eastern North and South Dakota, the majority of Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin and Michigan North of the lakes.]
:Mead

:[A green area spanning the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin.]
:Canadian Ale

:[A yellow area spanning the South Eastern corner of Minnesota, the North Eastern corner of Iowa and the majority of Wisconsin.]
:Aether

:[A green area in North East Wisconsin.]
:Mouthwater

:[A purple area covering most of Michigan south of the lakes.]
:Kid's coffee

:[A red area covering Northeast & central New York.]
:Hydro

:[A green area covering Vermont and spanning the border with New York.]
:[No word for them]

:[A yellow area covering Maine and the majority of New Hampshire.]
:Sugar milk

:[A red area spanning Eastern Massachusetts and the border with New Hampshire.]
:Harvard tea

:[A blue area covering Rhode Island and spanning Eastern Connecticut, central Massachusetts and the South West corner of New Hampshire.]
:Bubbler

:[A yellow area spanning the South Eastern corner of New York, the South Western corner of Massachusetts, Western Connecticut and Northern New Jersey.]
:Mouth Buzz

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]

2106: Sharing Options

2019-02-02T17:56:03Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Punctuation corrections

{{comic
| number = 2106
| date = February 1, 2019
| title = Sharing Options
| image = sharing_options.png
| titletext = How about posts that are public, but every time a company accesses a bunch of them, the API makes their CEO's account click 'like' on one of them at random so you get a notification.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 300 or a billion BOTs. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a satire of social media's presence in our lives and its vulnerabilities. [[Cueball]] is flying in an atmosphere that resembles a VR cyberspace, and he is talking to a screen that may be a smartphone with an advanced virtual assistant installed. [[Ponytail]] and other characters also fly in the background, so this cyberspace may be the social network's cyberspace where everyone interacts. The clouds represent the cloud server where the data of the social network is stored. The advanced virtual assistant seems to have a virtual face and have very advanced AI, which can even be arrogant by assuming that it already knew the information about the "option in between".

Many social media sites allow users to control who is able to see data (posts, pictures etc.) that they share online, ranging from immediate friends to all other users (public). The settings for controlling the sharing of data are not always obvious to the user and several high profile social media sites have sparked controversy by having default settings that allow user data to be widely shared.

As most social media sites are free to use, the business model for these companies involves a mixture of selling advertising space on their website and selling data on its users to other companies, who may be interested in using it for marketing purposes. Targeted advertising takes data on users' past behavior and things that they have liked, and uses this to predict what adverts they may be interested in. Targeted adverts are more valuable to advertisers as they avoid paying to show adverts to individuals who are unlikely to be interested in their products; but can lead to users feeling that they are being spied on. Whilst the terms and conditions for social media websites will include details of how data will be used, the length of these documents and legal terminology may deter some users from reading them, meaning that they may be unaware that their data is being exploited in this way. Government legislation has so far been slow to catch up with changing online trends; however, the European Union have recently introduced {{w|General Data Protection Regulation|General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)}} which aims to regulate how user data can be shared. GDPR was featured in comic [[1998: GDPR]].

Randall, who might have never heard of the Facebook option to share with "friends of friends" as well, is making a point that there ought to be some option between sharing posts only with your friends and making them completely public. The title text shows that he would specifically like to know when corporations read his posts.

Randall might be interested in [https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/ scuttlebutt] or [https://secushare.org/ secushare].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball floating in midair is communicating with a small floating screen that resembles a smartphone. Other people and clouds visible floating by in background.]
:Screen: Welcome to social media! When you put stuff here, you have two options: (1) You can make it available to a small set of 300 or so approved friends.
:Screen: Or (2) you can share permanent copies of it all with billions of people, including internet scammers, random predatory companies, and hostile governments.

:Cueball: Why would anyone pick option two?
:Screen: Two is the default.
:Cueball: Yikes.

:Cueball: So those are the only two options? There's nothing in in between?
:Screen: I don't understand. Like what?

:Cueball: I mean...there are numbers between 300 and a billion.
:Screen: Huh? Name one.
:Screen: ''Pretty'' sure I would have heard of those.

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

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-21T07:48:44Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Removed extra word that didn't belong

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Technical analysis is field which attempts to study stocks, cryptocurrency, etc. statistically, seeking to profit off of the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money time value of money]. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a stock price chart, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense: "allegro" and "prologue" (musical terms such as may be used in the introduction of a performed piece), "lumbar support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve "bathtub curve"]). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

The mouseover text purports to be a quote from James Tobin (though it is not listed at Wikiquote) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. This concern is perhaps not in and of itself about technical analysis, but more about the stock market and related trading ecosystems in general, in particular high speed traders. While is not always easy to understand why certain forms of market activity might be valuable, and hard to put a price tag on concepts like "risk," "liquidity" and "price discovery," sometimes people are just working to trick others into bad deals, or forcing market participants to pay them [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking unearned money]. This may make the smart people a lot of money, but it does so by harming society, not helping it.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-21T07:28:09Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ "Prologue" merits the same description as "allegro"

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Technical analysis is field which attempts to study stocks, cryptocurrency, etc. statistically, seeking to profit off of the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money time value of money]. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their these moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a stock price chart, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense: "allegro" and "prologue" (musical terms such as may be used in the introduction of a performed piece), "lumbar support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve "bathtub curve"]). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

The mouseover text purports to be a quote from James Tobin (though it is not listed at Wikiquote) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. This concern is perhaps not in and of itself about technical analysis, but more about the stock market and related trading ecosystems in general, in particular high speed traders. While is not always easy to understand why certain forms of market activity might be valuable, and hard to put a price tag on concepts like "risk," "liquidity" and "price discovery," sometimes people are just working to trick others into bad deals, or forcing market participants to pay them [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking unearned money]. This may make the smart people a lot of money, but it does so by harming society, not helping it.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-21T07:26:12Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Elaboration on "allegro"

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Technical analysis is field which attempts to study stocks, cryptocurrency, etc. statistically, seeking to profit off of the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money time value of money]. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their these moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a stock price chart, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense: "allegro" (a musical term such as may be used in the introduction of a performed piece), "lumbar support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve "bathtub curve"]). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

The mouseover text purports to be a quote from James Tobin (though it is not listed at Wikiquote) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. This concern is perhaps not in and of itself about technical analysis, but more about the stock market and related trading ecosystems in general, in particular high speed traders. While is not always easy to understand why certain forms of market activity might be valuable, and hard to put a price tag on concepts like "risk," "liquidity" and "price discovery," sometimes people are just working to trick others into bad deals, or forcing market participants to pay them [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking unearned money]. This may make the smart people a lot of money, but it does so by harming society, not helping it.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-21T07:24:03Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Removed an adjectival phrase from the name of the bathtub curve

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Technical analysis is field which attempts to study stocks, cryptocurrency, etc. statistically, seeking to profit off of the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money time value of money]. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their these moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a stock price chart, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense: "allegro" (a musical term), "lumbar support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve "bathtub curve"]). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

The mouseover text purports to be a quote from James Tobin (though it is not listed at Wikiquote) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. This concern is perhaps not in and of itself about technical analysis, but more about the stock market and related trading ecosystems in general, in particular high speed traders. While is not always easy to understand why certain forms of market activity might be valuable, and hard to put a price tag on concepts like "risk," "liquidity" and "price discovery," sometimes people are just working to trick others into bad deals, or forcing market participants to pay them [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking unearned money]. This may make the smart people a lot of money, but it does so by harming society, not helping it.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-21T07:23:07Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ A possible definition of a term in the comic

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Technical analysis is field which attempts to study stocks, cryptocurrency, etc. statistically, seeking to profit off of the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money time value of money]. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their these moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a stock price chart, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense: "allegro" (a musical term), "lumbar support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve so-called "bathtub curve"]). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

The mouseover text purports to be a quote from James Tobin (though it is not listed at Wikiquote) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. This concern is perhaps not in and of itself about technical analysis, but more about the stock market and related trading ecosystems in general, in particular high speed traders. While is not always easy to understand why certain forms of market activity might be valuable, and hard to put a price tag on concepts like "risk," "liquidity" and "price discovery," sometimes people are just working to trick others into bad deals, or forcing market participants to pay them [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking unearned money]. This may make the smart people a lot of money, but it does so by harming society, not helping it.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2084: FDR

2018-12-13T11:30:09Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Elaborate on intro to Day-of-Infamy speech, and some of its punctuation.

{{comic
| number = 2084
| date = December 12, 2018
| title = FDR
| image = fdr.png
| titletext = June 21st, 365, the date of the big Mediterranean earthquake and tsunami, lived in infamy for a few centuries before fading. Maybe the trick is a catchy rhyme; the '5th of November' thing is still going strong over 400 years later.
}}

==Explanation==

The United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor was {{w|Attack on Pearl Harbor| attacked in 1941}}, and is credited with starting the United States' involvement in World War II. The then US president, {{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt}} (FDR), issued a speech to the American people which begins with the line "Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, {{w|Infamy Speech| a date which will live in infamy...}}". Whenever [[Randall]] writes "December" he feels compelled to complete the line, a mistake which is visible in this comic.

This may be a parody of a more common type of error in which people writing dates during January (particularly early in the month) accidentally write the previous year instead of the current one because the previous year number is an established pattern while the new one is a recent change.

The title text further confuses the date of the northern hemisphere summer solstice (June 21st) with the date of the {{w|365 Crete earthquake}} that happened on July 21st 365AD. The earthquake had a magnitude of at least 8.0 which caused widespread destruction across the Eastern Mediterranean. Then it further confuses {{w|Guy Fawkes Night}}, the anniversary of the famous failed attempt to bomb Parliament on the night of November 5th, 1605. The latter event is immortalized in the rhyme "remember remember, the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason, and plot", the former event less so.

==Transcript==
:[Close-up of a form. Each field has a label (the first is assumed) and a handwritten entry. The name and country are each half visible. The numeral "4" has been only partially written before being scratched out.]
:[NAME]
:Randall Munroe
:DATE
:Dec <s>7, 194</s> 12, 2018
:COUNTRY
:United States

:[Caption below the frame:]
:FDR was so good at speeches that I spend a whole month each year writing the date wrong.

{{comic discussion}}

2030: Voting Software

2018-08-09T08:37:33Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Minor punctuation, spelling, and wording changes/corrections

{{comic
| number = 2030
| date = August 8, 2018
| title = Voting Software
| image = voting_software.png
| titletext = There are lots of very smart people doing fascinating work on cryptographic voting protocols. We should be funding and encouraging them, and doing all our elections with paper ballots until everyone currently working in that field has retired.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BLOCKCHAIN - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The first two panels of this comic involve a reporter talking to professionals of a given field regarding the given safety of the products/solutions that each of their fields help to produce, or are at least partially involved in said production (Airplanes from aircraft designers in Panel 1, Elevators from building engineers in Panel 2). While the two inventions selected are relatively new when compared to how long humans have existed, the two fields mentioned have existed for multiple human generations, giving enough time to find flaws in their products/solutions and patch them to the point that they can be considered safe to use for the general public

The comic from Panel 3 contrasts this with [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] both agreeing that their given field (computer science / software development / software engineering) does not have the overall consistent competency that other fields have or, at the very least, appear to have. This is true (at least anecdotally) since there are very few ethical and security restrictions for what developers can/cannot do, and relatively minor consequences when catastrophes arise from poor decisions.

Computer systems, operating primarily in a digital domain, fail differently from most traditional areas of engineering, which operate in analog (or continuous) domains. A small error in an analog part often gives a result which is close to the desired properties (it almost fits, it works most of the time). By contrast, a small error in a digital system (just one bit being changed) can easily make the system function in radically different ways. So not only is software engineering younger than other areas of engineering, but the domain is much less forgiving. Even small errors/variations are likely to produce radically different behavior.

The title text confirms the comic's stance by implicitly saying that any digital voting systems that are produced are to not be used under any circumstances.

The main joke of the comic is that when other engineers say something is safe, people don't believe them: People are scared of flying and elevators even though they are, statistically, very safe. However, the opposite is true for software engineers: When software engineers say something is dangerous, people don't believe them.

This is a result of a fundamental difference between computer security and other types of safety measures -- in cryptography, there is ''always'' somebody trying to undo what you've built. Not only that, but new advances in cryptography tend to point out vulnerabilities with previous versions, making them not only obsolete, but dangerously so.

For these reasons, it is especially important to make sure that whoever is selling you the security method is both competent and non-malicious, but because crypto software is highly technical and often confidential/proprietary, it can be hard to verify this if you're not an expert in the field (which you won't be, if you're buying it).

These issues are especially pertinent to {{w|voting machine}}s, which store incredibly valuable information but are often catastrophically outdated due to lack of funding. There are also major issues with electronic voting in general; for example, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI this video from Computerphile] raises issues of malware infections, transferring the votes to the election authorities without having them intercepted, and needing to trust both the machine's software and central counting system to present an accurate account of the votes. Furthermore, the people purchasing them, the politicians, are generally not known for their technical understanding.

{{w|Blockchain}} is a relatively new technology that is intended to solve some computer security issues by making it difficult to doctor old data. However, in the process of solving the old computer security issues, it has introduced new computer security issues that have not yet been ironed out. It also doesn't solve input fraud issues, only data-doctoring fraud, so if a program caused the voting machine to record a vote for candidate B whenever a vote for candidate A was cast (such a program could be uploaded to the voting machines through USB, or through the internet which the voting machine must be connected to for blockchain), blockchain would not prevent it.

Most computer security specialists are more worried about programs that randomly deliberately misrecord a vote, than people changing the votes after they're already recorded, so blockchain would solve an issue that most computer security specialists are less worried about, while causing new issues (the perpetual internet connection among them).

Also, the security issues that Blockchain solves could also be solved via write-once memory, which would be more secure and more difficult to doctor.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Asking aircraft designers about airplane safety:
:Hairbun: Nothing is ever foolproof, but modern airliners are incredibly resilient. Flying is the safest way to travel.

:Asking building engineers about elevator safety:
:Cueball: Elevators are protected by multiple tried-and-tested failsafe mechanisms. They're nearly incapable of falling.

:Asking software engineers about computerized voting:
:Megan: That's ''terrifying''.

:Ponytail: Wait, really?
:Megan: Don't trust voting software and don't listen to anyone who tells you it's safe.
:Ponytail: Why?
:Megan: I don't quite know how to put this, but our entire field is bad at what we do, and if you rely on us, everyone will die.

:Ponytail: They say they've fixed it with something called "blockchain."
:Megan: AAAAA!!!
:Cueball: Whatever they sold you, don't touch it.
:Megan: Bury it in the desert.
:Cueball: Wear gloves.

{{comic discussion}}

2022: Sports Champions

2018-07-21T19:28:46Z

MottyGlix: /* Explanation */ Punctuating&italicizing "ie"; phrasing describing one of the names; replacing a vague "they" term.

{{comic
| number = 2022
| date = July 20, 2018
| title = Sports Champions
| image = sports_champions.png
| titletext = For a long time, people thought maybe Usain Bolt was the one for running, until the 2090s and the incredible dominance of Derek Legs.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HARRY "INCOMPLETE" EXPLANATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In an example of {{w|nominative determinism}}, the comic lists people whose surname relates to their participation in various sports. It is presented as though it was created in the far future, reflecting on champions over the decades through to the 2080s. The first three are real sportspeople, the remainder are imaginary players of the future.

The caricatures are participating in their sport, except for Jebediah who is standing at a {{w|lectern}}.

{| class="wikitable"
!style="width:20%"|Name
!style="width:10%"|Years
!style="width:15%"|Sport
!style="width:55%"|Explanation
|-
|Margaret Court
|1960s
|Tennis
|{{w|Margaret Court}} is a Australian tennis player, former world number 1, who won many competitions in the 1960s and 70s. A {{w|tennis court|tennis '''court'''}} is the playing arena used in that sport.
|-
|Gary Player
|1970s
|Golf
|{{w|Gary Player}} is a South African golfer who won nine major championships in the 1960s and 70s. Game competitors are often known as '''player'''s, for example, the golf tournament {{w|The Players Championship}}. {{w|Hubie Green}}'s name relates even more directly to the game of golf.
|-
|Lonzo Ball
|2020s
|Basketball
|{{w|Lonzo Ball}} is an American professional basketball player, currently with the Los Angeles Lakers. The 2020s decade listed is a projection of when he would likely become his most dominant in the sport, as he began playing professionally in 2017. Of course, basketball is a {{w|ball game|'''ball''' game}}.
|-
|Jake Halfpipe
|2030s
|Skateboarding
|A '''{{w|half-pipe|halfpipe}}''' is a structure used in extreme sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding.
|-
|Sarah Goggles
|2030s
|Swimming
|'''{{w|Goggles}}''' are protective eyewear used in many sports, such as swimming or skiing.
|-
|Kevin Slurve
|2050s
|Baseball
|A '''{{w|slurve}}''' is a baseball throwing technique, a portmanteau of '''sl'''ider and c'''urve'''.
|-
|Julia Chairlift
|2050s
|Skiing
|A '''{{w|chairlift}}''' is an aerial machine often used to transport winter sports participants up mountains.
|-
|Dwight Shuttlecock
|2060s
|Badminton
|A '''{{w|shuttlecock}}''' is a projectile used in the sport of badminton.
|-
|Brandon Sponsorship
|2060s
|Unclear
|Sporting professionals are often {{w|Sponsor (commercial)|sponsored}} by corporations. Brandon is holding a pair of shoes, which are probably a branded '''sponsorship''' item.
|-
|Kate Dopingscandal
|2070s
|Cycling
|There have been many '''{{w|Doping in sport|doping scandal}}s''' in the world of sport, notably cyclist {{w|Lance Armstrong}}, and {{w|Doping in Russia|many Russian competitors}} in the Olympics
|-
|Jebediah Disasterous Postgame-PressConference
|2080s
|Unspecified
|At the end of sporting events - i.e. post-game - there is often a {{w|News conference|press conference}} where the competitors discuss the result. Sometimes, these live interviews are a disaster. Randall has misspelled part of his name as "Disasterous", rather than the correct "Disastrous".
|-
|(in title text)
Usain Bolt and Derek Legs
|2090s
|Sprinting
|From the title text, {{w|Usain Bolt}} is the (now retired) world record holder for the 100 meter dash and 4×100 meter relay events in {{w|Track & Field}}. Thus Randall considers him a solid contender for this list since he can '''bolt''' down the track. However the fictional Derek '''Legs''' ends up replacing Bolt on the list, either from being an even faster sprinter, or because “legs” more clearly and unambiguously relates to running than “bolt” does.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Two rows of people wielding sports equipment are shown, six in the upper row, five in the lower, only the last has no equipment but is standing behind a lectern with a microphone attached to it. Below each person, their name is given and the decade in which they were champions of their sport is given below their name, in brackets. Here is a list of the 11 people:]

:[Woman with dark hair holding a tennis racket]
:Margaret Court
:(1960s)

:[Cueball with a golf club]
:Gary Player
:(1970s)

:[Cueball with a basketball]
:Lonzo Ball
:(2020s)

:[Hairy on a skateboard]
:Jake Halfpipe
:(2030s)

:[Woman with dark hair wearing a swim cap and goggles]
:Sarah Goggles
:(2030s)

:[A man with a baseball cap throwing a baseball to the right]
:Kevin Slurve
:(2050s)

:[A woman with long black hair in a knit cap and wearing ski googles is standing on skis holding ski poles]
:Julia Chairlift
:(2050s)

:[Hairy holding a badminton racket bouncing a shuttlecock on it]
:Dwight Shuttlecock
:(2060s)

:[Hairy holding a pair of shoes in his hand]
:Brandon Sponsorship
:(2060s)

:[Hairbun standing next to a bicycle.]
:Kate Dopingscandal
:(2070s)

:[Hairy standing behind a lectern with a microphone on it.]
:Jebediah Disasterous Postgame PressConference
:(2080s)

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Fun fact: Every sport eventually produces a champion competitor named after a common element of the game.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Basketball]]