explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1418: Horse

2025-10-10T05:54:28Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ note that horses have now been used in the Russo-Ukrainian war

{{comic
| number = 1418
| date = September 8, 2014
| title = Horse
| image = horse.png
| titletext = Officer suspended from horse.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has set his browser to auto-replace the word "force" with the word "horse". Some of the humorous resulting news headlines are shown. This is probably a parody of the [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cloud-to-butt-plus/apmlngnhgbnjpajelfkmabhkfapgnoai?hl=en Cloud to Butt Chrome Extension] (since it says ''new'' favorite browser text replacement). There has been several [[:Category:Substitutions|comics using substitutions]] before and also at least one after this one.

; Ukrainian town threatened by pro-Russian horses
:The {{w|Russo-Ukrainian War}} had begun some seven months earlier, but until the {{w|Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 invasion}}, Russia mainly used {{w|irregular military|irregular forces}} and {{w|Little green men (Russo-Ukrainian War)|soldiers without insignias on their uniforms}}. These were often euphemistically referred to as "pro-Russian forces" by the media (rather than "Russian forces"). Since this comic's publication, horses have in fact [https://www.military.com/feature/2025/10/08/ukrainian-drones-attack-russian-cavalry-troops-rare-21st-century-encounter.html been used in combat] by the Russian military in Ukraine.

; Governor appoints task horse
:A {{w|Task force}} is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity, which makes it quite comical to picture a horse instead of a unit. A "task horse" would presumably be a horse performing tasks.

; Iraqi Air Horse growing
:The Air ''Force'' of Iraq may indeed be being up-armed, especially in light of the threat, at this time, of ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State forces across swaths of both Iraq and Syria. In mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse that could fly through the air, and might be considered an "air horse". In real life, "Air Horse One" is an airplane equipped for transporting horses.

; Quarks, which are bound together by the strong nuclear horse…
:{{w|Quark|Quarks}} are elementary particles. They form bound states e.g. the {{w|proton}} (two up + one down-quark) mediated by the {{w|Strong interaction|strong force}}, similarly as atoms are bound states of {{w|Electron|electrons}} and charged {{w|Nucleon|nucleons}} held together by the {{w|Electromagnetism|electromagnetic horse}}, and these forces are also referenced in [[474: Turn-On]], [[1621: Fixion]] and in [[1731: Wrong]]. There is a real Nuclear horse in a different sense, which is a racehorse born in 2017 and named Nuclear.

; Officer suspended from horse (title text)
:Being suspended from a police force (i.e. usually being forced upon mandatory leave pending resolution of the issue at hand; paid, part-paid or unpaid) is a common practice where wrongdoing of sufficiently serious nature is suspected of the police officer, and it may occur in some countries if the police officer gets to old for the job. A person could literally be suspended from a horse if they fall off the horse but got stuck in the stirrups. Unlike most of these "horse" terms, a police horse is a real thing.

==Transcript==
:[Headlines above the main frame of the comic:]
:New favorite browser text replacement:
:'''Force → Horse'''

:[In the comic frame Cueball is sitting in front of his PC reading the following headlines that are written above him in separate frames:]
:Ukranian towns threatened by pro-Russian horses
:Governor appoints task horse
:Iraqi air horse growing
:Quarks, which are bound together by the strong nuclear horse...

==Trivia==
In the comic, Randall spelled "Ukra'''i'''nian" incorrectly, forgetting the first 'i'.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Substitutions]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2707: Astronomy Numbers

2024-04-06T02:09:15Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ that is *an* alternative explanation, yes, but a very strange one, requiring several leaps of logic

{{comic
| number = 2707
| date = December 5, 2022
| title = Astronomy Numbers
| image = astronomy_numbers_2x.png
| imagesize = 593x315px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I adopted a cat that weighs 12 solar masses. Laser pointers love chasing it.
}}

==Explanation==

Space [https://neal.fun/size-of-space/ is big], to the point that it regularly defies our earthly notions of scale. As a result, most quantities in astronomy have huge scales beyond anything that humans regularly experience or measure. (In fact, the word "astronomical" is sometimes used colloquially to describe any extremely large quantity).

For example, Earth has a mass 1023 times more than the average human, and the Sun is 105 times more than that, which itself is 1012 times less massive than the Milky Way. The same applies to speeds, distances, and time, which can often be measured in terms of light speed, light-years, and millions or billions of years. Because of this, it's a truly unusual occurrence for anything in space to end up in the fairly narrow range of scales of mass, size, speed, or time that humans can easily grasp.

[[Ponytail]], apparently a scientist researching something related to Earth's orbit, finds that on a particular date, Earth will be approaching the sun at a velocity of 65 miles per hour. To American ears, this is a very normal sounding value (i.e. the speed of a fast-moving vehicle, often used as a speed limit on highways in the US). As Ponytail is accustomed to astronomical values, she is thrown off by this, and remarks that she finds it "suspicious" when reasonably human-scaled numbers come up in astronomy.

However, Ponytail seems to take this philosophy to an absurd degree by insisting that ''all'' scales should be as incomprehensible as astronomical ones, even those used for human-scale measurements, such as the weight of cats. In the third panel, the vet, [[Megan]], is seemingly used to this problem (perhaps she gets a lot of astronomers, or Ponytail has a hypochondriac cat), so she restates the 12-lb weight of Ponytail's cat in solar masses. Since using this unit yields an ''incredibly'' small number, 3×10-30 (a three preceded by a decimal point and 29 zeroes), it satisfies Ponytail's need for incomprehensibly-scaled values. This weight is in fact about 13 lb 2 oz (about 5.5 kilograms), slightly heavier than the initial figure given for the cat, but within [[2585: Rounding|rounding error]] for the single digit of precision that Megan uses.

The Earth's orbital velocity around the Sun is far above normal human scales (around 30 kilometers per second or 108,000 kilometers per hour). However, Earth has a fairly circular orbit around the Sun, so most of this speed ends up being tangential (sideways) rather than radial (towards or away from) the Sun, which is the value relevant for Ponytail's calculations. On January 1 (the date being discussed in the comic), Earth's radial velocity is close to its smallest value because we reach our closest point to the Sun in the first few days of January each year (in 2023, {{w|Perihelion|perihelion}} happens on January 4). Thus, by January 1, the Earth's velocity toward the Sun is nearly zero before it starts traveling away from the Sun again. This is how Ponytail ended up with the "suspiciously" small value of 65 miles per hour.

On the other hand, by April 3, 2023, Earth will be receding from the Sun by almost 500 meters per second or 1800 kilometers per hour, which is a less normal speed for the average person to encounter in everyday life{{citation needed}}.

65 miles per hour is approximately equal to 105 kilometers per hour, although the even more typical scientific value (in {{w|International System of Units|SI}} derived units) would be 29 meters per second.

The title text makes a joke by reversing the typical cat behavior of [[729: Laser Pointer|chasing laser pointer dots]] by envisioning a cat with a mass equivalent to 12 solar masses. The {{w|Schwarzschild radius}} for an object of that mass would be around 36 kilometers, so a cat-sized object of that mass would be a black hole, and would therefore bend all nearby light (including that from the laser) inwards towards its singularity. But then it should also draw in the physical laser pointer device itself, if it is neither very far away nor in orbit.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is standing in front of a whiteboard writing on it with a pen, while Cueball looks over her shoulder from behind her. On the board is an almost circular ellipse with a cross that centers on a dot towards the left side of it. On the right side there is a small circle on the ellipse's line. There are several lines of wiggles representing unreadable text. To the left of the ellipse there are two lines near the top of and four near at the bottom of the ellipse. Ponytail is writing a fifth line below these almost under the ellipse. At the bottom to the left there is a rectangular frame with a line of text beneath it and at the bottom left corner there is a line forming a half closed rectangle around two dots.]
:Ponytail: …And we need to correct for our elliptical orbit. On January 1st, Earth will be approaching the sun at a rate of ...let's see...
:Ponytail: 65 miles per hour.
:Ponytail: Weird. Okay.
:Cueball: Weird?

:[Ponytail has turned towards Cueball, the pen is no longer in her hand and the white board is no longer shown.]
:Ponytail: I get suspicious whenever I see a normal number in astronomy. We're not supposed to have those. Feels wrong.
:Ponytail: Scales should all be incomprehensible.

:[Across the top of the next panel there is a label:]
:Earlier, at the vet:
:[Megan in a lab-coat raises her hand palm up towards an animal carrier cage standing on her desk. The cage has a handle and five air holes are at the top. Behind two of them something black inside the cage can be seen. Ponytail is standing on the other side of the desk looking at Megan.]
:Megan: Your cat weighs 12 lbs.
:Ponytail: Ridiculous, nothing weighs "12". You must mean 10-20? Or 1040?
:Megan: Fine. Your cat weighs 3x10-30 solar masses.
:Ponytail: Okay. Better.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Cats]]

2707: Astronomy Numbers

2024-04-06T02:08:00Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ astronomers ≠ cosmologists

{{comic
| number = 2707
| date = December 5, 2022
| title = Astronomy Numbers
| image = astronomy_numbers_2x.png
| imagesize = 593x315px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I adopted a cat that weighs 12 solar masses. Laser pointers love chasing it.
}}

==Explanation==

Space [https://neal.fun/size-of-space/ is big], to the point that it regularly defies our earthly notions of scale. As a result, most quantities in astronomy have huge scales beyond anything that humans regularly experience or measure. (In fact, the word "astronomical" is sometimes used colloquially to describe any extremely large quantity).

For example, Earth has a mass 1023 times more than the average human, and the Sun is 105 times more than that, which itself is 1012 times less massive than the Milky Way. The same applies to speeds, distances, and time, which can often be measured in terms of light speed, light-years, and millions or billions of years. Because of this, it's a truly unusual occurrence for anything in space to end up in the fairly narrow range of scales of mass, size, speed, or time that humans can easily grasp.

[[Ponytail]], apparently a scientist researching something related to Earth's orbit, finds that on a particular date, Earth will be approaching the sun at a velocity of 65 miles per hour. To American ears, this is a very normal sounding value (i.e. the speed of a fast-moving vehicle, often used as a speed limit on highways in the US). As Ponytail is accustomed to astronomical values, she is thrown off by this, and remarks that she finds it "suspicious" when reasonably human-scaled numbers come up in astronomy.

However, Ponytail seems to take this philosophy to an absurd degree by insisting that ''all'' scales should be as incomprehensible as astronomical ones, even those used for human-scale measurements, such as the weight of cats. In the third panel, the vet, [[Megan]], is seemingly used to this problem (perhaps she gets a lot of astronomers, or Ponytail has a hypochondriac cat), so she restates the 12-lb weight of Ponytail's cat in solar masses. Since using this unit yields an ''incredibly'' small number, 3×10-30 (a three preceded by a decimal point and 29 zeroes), it satisfies Ponytail's need for incomprehensibly-scaled values. This weight is in fact about 13 lb 2 oz (about 5.5 kilograms), slightly heavier than the initial figure given for the cat, but within [[2585: Rounding|rounding error]] for the single digit of precision that Megan uses.

The Earth's orbital velocity around the Sun is far above normal human scales (around 30 kilometers per second or 108,000 kilometers per hour). However, Earth has a fairly circular orbit around the Sun, so most of this speed ends up being tangential (sideways) rather than radial (towards or away from) the Sun, which is the value relevant for Ponytail's calculations. On January 1 (the date being discussed in the comic), Earth's radial velocity is close to its smallest value because we reach our closest point to the Sun in the first few days of January each year (in 2023, {{w|Perihelion|perihelion}} happens on January 4). Thus, by January 1, the Earth's velocity toward the Sun is nearly zero before it starts traveling away from the Sun again. This is how Ponytail ended up with the "suspiciously" small value of 65 miles per hour.

On the other hand, by April 3, 2023, Earth will be receding from the Sun by almost 500 meters per second or 1800 kilometers per hour, which is a less normal speed for the average person to encounter in everyday life{{citation needed}}.

65 miles per hour is approximately equal to 105 kilometers per hour, although the even more typical scientific value (in {{w|International System of Units|SI}} derived units) would be 29 meters per second.

The title text makes a joke by reversing the typical cat behavior of [[729: Laser Pointer|chasing laser pointer dots]] by envisioning a cat with a mass equivalent to 12 solar masses. The {{w|Schwarzschild radius}} for an object of that mass would be around 36 kilometers, so a cat-sized object of that mass would be a black hole, and would therefore bend all nearby light (including that from the laser) inwards towards its singularity. But then it should also draw in the physical laser pointer device itself, if it is neither very far away nor in orbit.

An alternative explanation to the title text is that such a large cat would be incredibly alarming and would draw attention from law enforcement agencies, who would aim their guns (and consequently laser pointers) at the cat.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is standing in front of a whiteboard writing on it with a pen, while Cueball looks over her shoulder from behind her. On the board is an almost circular ellipse with a cross that centers on a dot towards the left side of it. On the right side there is a small circle on the ellipse's line. There are several lines of wiggles representing unreadable text. To the left of the ellipse there are two lines near the top of and four near at the bottom of the ellipse. Ponytail is writing a fifth line below these almost under the ellipse. At the bottom to the left there is a rectangular frame with a line of text beneath it and at the bottom left corner there is a line forming a half closed rectangle around two dots.]
:Ponytail: …And we need to correct for our elliptical orbit. On January 1st, Earth will be approaching the sun at a rate of ...let's see...
:Ponytail: 65 miles per hour.
:Ponytail: Weird. Okay.
:Cueball: Weird?

:[Ponytail has turned towards Cueball, the pen is no longer in her hand and the white board is no longer shown.]
:Ponytail: I get suspicious whenever I see a normal number in astronomy. We're not supposed to have those. Feels wrong.
:Ponytail: Scales should all be incomprehensible.

:[Across the top of the next panel there is a label:]
:Earlier, at the vet:
:[Megan in a lab-coat raises her hand palm up towards an animal carrier cage standing on her desk. The cage has a handle and five air holes are at the top. Behind two of them something black inside the cage can be seen. Ponytail is standing on the other side of the desk looking at Megan.]
:Megan: Your cat weighs 12 lbs.
:Ponytail: Ridiculous, nothing weighs "12". You must mean 10-20? Or 1040?
:Megan: Fine. Your cat weighs 3x10-30 solar masses.
:Ponytail: Okay. Better.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Cats]]

2701: Change in Slope

2024-03-18T16:22:54Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ did someone seriously... whatever

{{comic
| number = 2701
| date = November 21, 2022
| title = Change in Slope
| image = change_in_slope_2x.png
| imagesize = 656x371px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Squinting at a graph is fine for getting a rough idea of the answer, but if you want to pretend to know it exactly, you need statistics.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic is a tip for detecting changes in slopes over a {{w|scatter plot}} of data. This is a common requirement in exploratory statistics for comparing trends in a series — finding the cutoff where the slope changes may reveal valuable information about the data.

The comic compares two methods. Firstly, a novice method — by 'doing a bunch of statistics'- i.e, applying various statistical tools to analyze the data and figure out the quantitative change in slope. This results in two equations for the trendlines above and below a given value, a box plot, a histogram, and a line chart. It is unknown exactly what methods the novice used to figure out the change in slope in the data. Possibilities include calculating the [https://stackoverflow.com/a/45063636 derivatives] (which probably won't work well on noisy data such as shown), or [https://stackoverflow.com/a/71744293 gradients], or using a [https://stackoverflow.com/a/47522444 Savitzky-Golay filter or piecewise linear smoothing spline fits]. [[Randall]]'s light gray figures may be suggesting [https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1apKDIN5FE32mtGiQew5cE6wK6m6eM_Fr this method.]

The other is the so-called 'expert' method, which involves [https://web.archive.org/web/20221122041345/https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/525939879805190154/1044395695525875712/xkcd_sideways.png tilting the page the graph is printed on to view changes in slope] better. For small changes in an underlying trend, similar to that apparently shown in the comic, direct visual inspection cannot always identify or even reveal the effect. The comic shows, however, that by taking the page and rotating it in just the right way, the foreshortened perspective can make certain details much more apparent, allowing the 'expert' to see at a glance that there is a change in the slope. Ironically, tilting the comic to make the original roughly resemble the perspective of the 'tilted' version graph shown in the comic shows that the right-hand panel is slightly exaggerated for visual effect. The use of {{w|Perspective (graphical)|perspective}} to make information pop into the audience's view has been used by artists for {{w|The_Ambassadors_(Holbein)|centuries}}.

However, applying such an approach to data plots can run into errors — the primary one being parallax error from the oblique viewing angle causing the observer to not necessarily identify or clearly find the point at which the slope changes. It also does not reveal any data about the quantitative value of the change in slope, merely proving the existence of one. Furthermore, noisy data might show an apparent slope change that is not representative of an actual change in the underlying data, so even more advanced [https://www.danielsoper.com/statcalc/calculator.aspx?id=103 statistics testing the hypothesis of whether an apparent slope change is real] may likely be a good idea.

The title text then goes on to say that, while such a trick is useful to identify that there is some change in slope, in order to ''pretend'' to know it exactly one must revert to statistics (the "novice method") to obtain some form of information, defeating some of the premise of the comic. This at least produces a semblance of statistical rigor although, once an answer appears obvious, data could be interpreted to reach an answer that you are now expecting rather than revealing something of more statistically useful significance.

==Transcript==
:How to detect a change in the slope of your data

:[First column, on the left]
:Novice method:
:[A graph, with dots forming a rough line, math formulas, and sub graphs]
:Do a bunch of statistics

:[Second column, on the right]
:Expert method:
:[Perspective view of the previous graph, with the legend "Hey look, it bends here" and an arrow pointing to the graph]
:Tip the graph sideways

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Bar charts]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

2439: Solar System Cartogram

2024-03-01T16:40:39Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ some context on why it's sentimental for Randall

{{comic
| number = 2439
| date = March 19, 2021
| title = Solar System Cartogram
| image = solar_system_cartogram.png
| titletext = For sentimental reasons, every active Mars rover is counted as one person, although that's not enough to make Mars more than a dot.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Randall]] has made a {{w|cartogram}} showing the planets in the {{w|solar system}}. Cartograms are a type of map in which geographic area is displayed proportionately to some secondary characteristic - in this case, population. From the title text it is clear that the population in question is human (persons) (but even if all life forms where counted it it wouldn't matter, since the only confirmed life in the Solar System is on Earth). Thus the other planets have a population of 0 and are shown as nothing more than dots.

[[File:2016 presidential election electoral college cartogram.png|thumb|300px|Cartogram showing the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.]]

This comic is a joke about cartograms, which are used, for instance, to show electoral representation. A standard {{w|United States Electoral College|American electoral map}} is very misleading. Though the split between the two major parties, Democrats and Republicans, is about 50-50, most of the area of the U.S. map is shown in the color associated with the Republican Party, red. That's because many Democrats live in densely packed districts occupying little land area, while many Republicans live in rural districts with large land area but few people. This has led to the rise of electoral {{w|Cartogram|cartograms}} in which district areas are shown in proportion to population, correcting the misimpression that most of America is conservative.

Solar system diagrams are likely also to be misleading. Illustrators are overwhelmingly forced to use a far more scaled-down spacing between planets, compared to their scaled sizes, even if they can (or care to) maintain consistency in the relative distances and/or radii on linear scales. (The huge factors of difference involved instead may lend themselves to being {{w|Solar_System_model#Scale_models_in_various_locations|physically modeled}} to better give some sense of the spacing and sizing differences.) Here, Randall has intentionally applied the wrong solution to the problem.

Interestingly, the side of the Earth shown includes China and India, two countries that alone account for over a quarter of all humans on Earth.

The title text states that Randall, who [https://aiptcomics.com/2019/12/11/munroe-how-to-nycc-nycc19-new-york-comic-con/ once worked on sensors] for {{w|Mars rover}}s, counts every active one as a person for sentimental reasons. However, compared to Earth's roughly 7,900,000,000 persons, Mars is still nothing more than a dot. There are a total of five rovers at the time of the comic's publication; in chronological order, they are Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. Only the latter two were functional at the time of the comic's publication, giving Mars a rover population of two. A third rover, China's {{w|Tianwen-1}}, landed on Mars on 2021 May 14, making for an all-time high of three active rovers.

Mars rovers are a [[:Category:Mars rovers|recurring theme]] on xkcd and only a few weeks earlier, a comic named [[2433: Mars Rovers]] was released. This is the fourth comic this year to reference Mars Rovers.

==Transcript==
:[Above a chart are two paragraphs with explanation:]
:Most solar system diagrams are misleading.
:This chart offers a more accurate view by showing the planets sized by population.

:[Below the explanation is a list of the eight planets in the solar system. They are shown in order with labels. All but Earth show up only as dots. Earth is large and clearly drawn, with a view approximately centered on Indonesia. The spacing between the dots is equal, and the same distance as from those closest dots to Earth to Earths surface. Earth's label floats below it, while the other planets' labels connect to their respective dots with lines, with text either above or below the line of planets:]
:Mercury
:Venus
:Earth
:Mars
:Jupiter
:Saturn
:Uranus
:Neptune

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]

2830: Haunted House

2023-09-19T05:19:21Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ not always standardized in a country

{{comic
| number = 2830
| date = September 18, 2023
| title = Haunted House
| image = haunted_house_2x.png
| imagesize = 278x349px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = You can leave at any time through the door over there. It's a Louisville door, so you'll need to find a compatible knob. No, don't be silly, that one is a Lexington knob! Of course it won't fit.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOWLING GREEN-PADUCAH DOORKNOB ADAPTER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The ISO ({{w|International Organization for Standardization}}) and ANSI ({{w|American National Standards Institute}}) are organizations that create standards for commonly used objects such as electrical sockets, preferably so that there would exist standardized forms everywhere (or at least across large areas). The comic depicts an office Halloween party, which is a common event on the celebration of Halloween. A "haunted house" is a house or other building/room designed to induce fright in the participants, typically by including well-known/cultural scary elements such as vampires or zombies. The haunted house is tailored to scare members of these organizations by suggesting a world where nothing is standardized (e.g. different electrical wiring from state to state). The title text furthers the joke by implying that something which is usually standardized (door/doorknob interfaces) would be different from city to city even within a state (Kentucky, in this case).

In reality, electrical current is standardized within any given country ({{w|Electricity sector in Japan|usually...}}), but it does vary worldwide, with different countries providing different voltages, frequency, and outlet shapes. The International Electrotechnical Commission maintains [https://www.iec.ch/world-plugs a web site where these differences are catalogued.] International travelers often require adapters that will plug into different outlets and adjust the current to one their devices can use.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Ponytail: Welcome! If you need to charge your phones, note that this house has Pennsylvania wiring, but we have New Jersey and Delaware adapters available.
:Megan and Cueball: AAAAAA!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The haunted house at the ISO/ANSI office halloween party

{{comic discussion}}

2756: Qualifications

2023-03-30T02:13:05Z

PinkAmpersand: 125: Marketing Interview

{{comic
| number = 2756
| date = March 29, 2023
| title = Qualifications
| image = qualifications_2x.png
| imagesize = 265x316px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'So how DID you go from working at the employment records office to becoming president of MIT and CEO of IBM?' 'I guess I just have an eye for opportunities.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 600-YEAR-OLD BOT waiting for a child to be born to accept its work history - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Black Hat]] is being interviewed for some unidentified position. From the conversation, it seems clear that he has used some prior access to the employment records at some employment record office to fraudulantly manufacture a history of having worked there for 600 years. He also claims an additional pair of prestigious jobs, but it is unclear whether these 'facts' were entirely due to false records or, knowing Black Hat's [[498: Secretary: Part 5|other]] [[1094: Interview|interviews]], briefly true but only as a result of false representation/underhanded actions.

His interviewers are not entirely unaware of the implausibility, but seem content to have just verified the validity of the claim. The 'validation' arises from the clearly tainted information source, given the whole chain of supporting evidence that may have been falsified. This is essentially a more elaborate version of Black Hat's ploy in another interview [[125: Marketing Interview|17 years prior]].

Employers often encounter resumés that have implausibly padded experience claims. Most applicants try not to be this implausible, and few employers are so credulous as to take self-supporting lies at face value.

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

:[Black Hat sits in an office chair. Cueball, facing him, sits on another office chair at his desk and Hairbun stands behind him. Cueball is holding documents in his hands.]
:Cueball: Impressive résumé.
:Cueball: It says that you have over '''''six hundred''''' years of experience at the employment records office? That can't be right.
:Hairbun: I thought so too, but it checks out.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Job interviews]]

491: Twitter

2022-12-24T09:58:12Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ doesn't really make sense, already explained by previous graf

{{comic
| number = 491
| date = October 20, 2008
| title = Twitter
| image = twitter.png
| titletext = If long tooltips / cut off for you / then upgrade from / Firefox 2 / Burma Shave
}}

==Explanation==
This comic plays off of an old shaving cream product's {{w|Burma-Shave}} advertising campaign employed on American highways from {{w|1925}} to {{w|1963}}. These ads used short poems, each line arranged sequentially on a sign along a highway, the last line always being "Burma Shave," the name of the shaving cream. Originally, these ads only described the product, but others included driving safety messages.

{{w|Twitter}} is a messaging service where your messages are restricted in length, so to get a longer essay sent, you will need to break it up in smaller fragments — like the {{w|Burma-Shave}} messages, although the whole of the text of this comic is considerably less than 140 characters and would not need to be broken up on Twitter.

[[Cueball]] gets five messages from Twitter on his device that give the following message: On Twitter feeds - An odd regression: - Ancient memes - Find new expression - Burma-shave.

This relates that this old way (ancient-memes) of getting a message through when only having a limited space now again (an odd regression) flourishes on Twitter feeds - Burma-shave...

{{w|Firefox 2}} had a long standing annoying bug where only the initial part of the title text were shown as a tool-tip, creating a "Burma-Shave" effect of only being able to see some of the text. Unlike Burma-Shave, where you would see the rest of the text as you were driving down the highway, Firefox didn't actually show you the rest of the text unless you right-clicked show-property, and you would be able to see a sideways scrollable field of the title-text in the properties for the image.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball with a handheld device sits on an office chair.]
:Device: ''Beep beep''

:Device: On Twitter feeds

:Device: ''Beep beep''

:Device: An odd regression:

:Device: ''Beep beep''

:Device: Ancient memes

:Device: ''Beep beep''

:Device: Find new expression

:Device: ''Beep beep''

:Device: Burma-shave

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

2638: Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond

2022-06-28T12:25:53Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ possible explanation of ceiling line

{{comic
| number = 2638
| date = June 27, 2022
| title = Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond
| image = extended_nfpa_hazard_diamond.png
| titletext = With most labs, the hushed horror stories are about something like dimethylmercury or prions, but occasionally you'll get a weird lab where it's about the soda machine or the drop ceiling.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SUBSTANCE WORTH $500 IN STREET VALUE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic depicts an extension of [[wikipedia:NFPA 704|NFPA 704]], bringing it from 2x2 to 3x3 by adding 5 variously useful and humorous squares.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Squares and explanations
|-
! Square !! Color !! Comic text !! Explanation
|-
| Top || Red || Flammability -> 0 || [[http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/nfpa.html Real NFPA 704 square]]. Denotes flammability. 0 indicates "materials that will not burn."
|-
| Top Left || Blue || Health Hazard -> 4 || Real NFPA 704 square. Denotes the danger that the substance poses to living beings in ways other than flammability and reactivity. 4 indicates that "Very short exposure could cause death or serious residual injury even though prompt medical attention was given."
|-
| Top Right || Yellow || Instability/Reactivity -> 2 || Real NFPA 704 square. Denotes how easily the substance reacts with other substances. 2 indicates that "Normally unstable and readily undergo violent decomposition but do not detonate. Also: may react violently with water or may form potentially explosive mixtures with water."
|-
| Center || White || (Special Hazard) || Real NFPA 704 square. Contains a symbol with additional notes on the substance. After this point, all squares are made up by Randall.
|-
| Center Left || Green || Number of digits in the street value ($/gram) -> 2 || Describes the order of magnitude of the price of one gram of the substance when sold illegally and informally. Most common illicit drugs would score 2 in this square.
|-
| Center Right || Dark Purple || How much of a hassle it is to dispose of -> 4 || While many things can be thrown in the trash with no additional procedures, substances that merit an NFPA 704 square often require additional procedures to avoid significant danger, damage to the environment, or hefty dumping fines. Biohazards that may carry diseases are often disposed of in special containers, and nuclear materials are notoriously difficult to safely dispose of. This square would be at least theoretically useful, though not as much as the actual disposal guidelines.
|-
| Bottom Left || Lilac || Number of federal agencies who want to know if you have any -> 3 || In many countries, including Randall's home country, the USA, the government has agencies dedicated to controlling or limiting the use of regulated substances, due to their use as drugs or as chemical weapons. While any given substance would probably be of one agency's interest, something that is both an environmental hazard and a chemical weapon component could interest, for example, both the Chemical Safety Board and the FBI Counterterrorism Division. This could also allude to the CIA's experiments with LSD, which is illegal to possess as a US civilian.
|-
| Bottom Right || Orange || How many times you have to scrub your hands after touching it before they stop smelling weird -> 1 || While the real NFPA 704 chart describes properties ranging from unsafe to potentially deadly, this square describes a minor but very real inconvenience. Some things are harder to wash off your hands than others, and, given that most people don't often work with dangerous substances {{Citation Needed}}, this would be a more common, but less relevant, concern for many people.
|-
| Bottom || Black || Number of times it's caused one of those terrifying lab accidents that chemists tell scary stories about late at night -> 2 || The result of this square, although dependent on how much the substance is researched in labs, can show how scared someone should be in handling the substance in question, especially if the number is more than one. Though the description is vague, this number could show how easy it is to cause ''some'' kind of reaction of a terrifying magnitude with this substance.
|}

The title text refers to {{w|Dimethylmercury}} and {{w|prions}}. Dimethylmercury is an organic form of mercury with an NFPA score of 4-4-3 (Contact can be fatal, will burn below 73° F (22 °C), will combust if put under pressure). In 1997, an American chemist, {{w|Karen Wetterhahn}}, died 298 days after a few drops of C2H6Hg ate through her latex gloves, contacting her skin and causing fatal mercury poisoning. Despite following all safety protocols of the time, the chemical was as of then not understood to be so caustic or toxic. Prions are misfolded proteins that are responsible for a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Mad Cow disease, chronic wasting syndrome, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans. These would indeed be the kind of substances that would scare those working with them in their labs; if an accident occurs, the results could be calamitous. But a few labs have apparently had accidents involving a soda machine or {{w|dropped ceiling}}. The latter may be a reference to {{w|1978 smallpox outbreak in the United Kingdom|the death of Janet Parker}}: One inquiry found that she was infected with {{w|smallpox}} when a sample traveled upward from a lab on the floor below hers; however, other investigations have challenged that finding.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Know your extended NFPA hazard diamond:

:[The diamond is divided into 3x3 squares.]

:Flammability: 0 (top, red)

:Health hazard: 4 (top-left, blue)

:Instability/reactivity: 2 (top-right, yellow)

:Number of digits in the street value ($/gram): 2 (left, green)

:(Special hazard) (center, white)

:How much of a hassle it is to dispose of: 4 (right, purple)

:Number of federal agencies who want to know if you have any: 3 (bottom-left, pink)

:How many times you have to scrub your hands after touching it before they stop smelling weird: 1 (bottom-right, orange)

:Number of times it's caused one of those terrifying lab accidents that chemists tell scary stories about late at night: 2 (bottom, black)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

1331: Frequency

2022-06-17T08:09:20Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Events */ why is this written with the default assumption that "A member of the UK parliament" would mean a member of the Commons?? That's not what that phrase means, as evidenced by the math makig no sense if you interpret it that way.

{{comic
| number = 1331
| date = February 17, 2014
| title = Frequency
| custom = <center><table title="This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops."><tr>
<td>[[File:heartbeat.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:birth.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:death.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:wikipedia.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:vibrator.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:car china.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:car japan.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:car germany.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:car us.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:car elsewhere.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:kiss.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:fire dept.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:holeinone.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:turnsignal1.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:turnsignal2.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:earthquake1.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:earthquake2.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:earthquake3.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:earthquake4.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:parliament toilet.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:flight.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:book mockingbird.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:cat mockingbird.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:phoenixshoes.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:phoenix.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:keys.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:amelia.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:dogbite.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:bike.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:eagle.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:bottles.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:recycled.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:meteor.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:oldfaithful.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:shark.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:us cancer.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:us cancer death.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:dog.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:cat.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:wedding.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:domain.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:house.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:tattoo.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:pulsar.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:facebook.gif]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:iphone.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:littleleague.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:ndsex.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:bieber.gif]]</td>
<td>[[File:denverpizza.gif]]</td>
</tr></table></center>
| titletext = This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a number of common events, arranged in a grid. Each of the events flashes with its average frequency.

For example, statistically a child is born somewhere on the world approximately every 0.24 seconds, or four times per second. Therefore, the tile "One birth" blinks about 4 times per second.

The title text refers to the {{w|Pitch drop experiment}} which measures the flow of a piece of pitch over many years. At room temperature, tar pitch flows at a very slow rate, taking several years to form a single drop. The title text jokes that Randall tried to include a tile that flashes about once every {{w|decade|ten years}}, but the tiles are all {{w|Animated GIF|animated GIFs}} and while the file format supports animations of any length, the resulting file would be too big (at least 10 megabytes).

A thorough analysis of the frequencies present in this comic and how they relate to the underlying technology (the GIF format) was published as [http://notebooks.jsvine.com/reverse-engineering-xkcd-frequency/ Reverse Engineering xkcd's 'Frequency'].

The table below lists all the events and their duration / frequency. Some events make reference to other comics.

===Events===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!class="unsortable"|Picture
!class="unsortable"|Text
!Period (seconds)
!Frequency (per minute)
!Frequency (per year)
!class="unsortable"|Explanation and/or references to other comics.
|-
|[[File:heartbeat.gif]]
|Heartbeat||style="text-align:right;"|0.86||style="text-align:right;"|70||style="text-align:right;"|33,000,000||The typical resting {{w|heart rate}} in adults is 60–80 beats per minute (bpm).
|-
|[[File:birth.gif]]
|One birth||style="text-align:right;"|0.24||style="text-align:right;"|250||style="text-align:right;"|131,490,000||The {{w|Birth rate|birth rate}} that occurs on Earth.
|-
|[[File:death.gif]]
|One death||style="text-align:right;"|0.56||style="text-align:right;"|107||style="text-align:right;"|56,360,000||The {{w|Mortality rate|Mortality rate}} is much lower than the birth rate shown above; thus, the world's population continues to increase. (Mass deaths not included.)
|-
|[[File:wikipedia.gif]]
|Someone edits Wikipedia||style="text-align:right;"|0.67||style="text-align:right;"|90||style="text-align:right;"|47,100,000||{{w|Wikipedia}} is an online, freely editable encyclopedia. A table recording the time between completion of each block of 10 million edits can be found [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Katalaveno/TBE here], which suggests that the value 0.67 Sec/Edit is a little high, with the average being closer to 0.63 Sec/Edit.
|-
|[[File:vibrator.gif]]
|Someone buys a vibrator||style="text-align:right;"|2.99||style="text-align:right;"|20||style="text-align:right;"|10,550,000 || This is just a joke; there are no reliable statistics on worldwide vibrator productions or sales.
|-
|[[File:car china.gif]]
|China builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|1.89||style="text-align:right;"|32||style="text-align:right;"|16,700,000|| According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, China is the world's most prolific car manufacturer, producing just over [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 18 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:car japan.gif]]
|Japan builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|4.01||style="text-align:right;"|15||style="text-align:right;"|7,870,000|| According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, Japan is the second most prolific car manufacturing country, producing just over [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 8 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:car germany.gif]]
|Germany builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|5.8||style="text-align:right;"|10||style="text-align:right;"|5,440,000|| According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, Germany is the third most prolific car manufacturing country, producing nearly [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 5.5 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:car us.gif]]
|The US builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|6.95||style="text-align:right;"|8.6||style="text-align:right;"|4,540,000|| According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, the US is the fourth most prolific car manufacturing country, producing just under [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 4.4 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:car elsewhere.gif]]
|Someone else builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|1.03||style="text-align:right;"|58||style="text-align:right;"|30,640,000|| This relates to car manufacture in countries other than those four listed above. According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, this total is just under [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 29.4 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:kiss.gif]]
|A European Union resident has their first kiss||style="text-align:right;"|5.53||style="text-align:right;"|11||style="text-align:right;"|5,700,000|| Given that each person can only have their first kiss once, this statistic is tied to the EU birth rate. This [http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/File:Number_of_live_births,_EU-28,_1961%E2%80%932012_(1)_(million)_YB14.png eurostat graph] shows the birth rate in the EU, and if we assume that the majority of people experience their first 'real' kiss at around age 12-16, then the years 1998-2002 are of interest, where the birth rate is fairly stable at just over 5.5 million.
|-
|[[File:fire dept.gif]]
|A US fire department puts out a fire||style="text-align:right;"|23||style="text-align:right;"|2.6||style="text-align:right;"|1,370,000|| The latest available statistics from the US Fire Administration show that in 2011 there were [http://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/ roughly 1.39 million] reported fires.
|-
|[[File:holeinone.gif]]
|Someone hits a hole-in-one||style="text-align:right;"|180 (3 minutes)||style="text-align:right;"|⅓ (20 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|175,320||A {{w|hole in one}} is a feat in {{w|golf}} in which the player hits the ball directly from the tee into the cup with one shot. This does not account for the possibility of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/85/ Rocket Golf].
|-
|[[File:turnsignal1.gif]]
|My turn signal blinks||style="text-align:right;"|0.94||style="text-align:right;"|64||style="text-align:right;"|33,638,400||This, together with "The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks", forms a reference to [[165: Turn Signals]].
|-
|[[File:turnsignal2.gif]]
|The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks||style="text-align:right;"|0.9||style="text-align:right;"|67||style="text-align:right;"|35,215,200||This, together with "My turn signal blinks", forms a reference to [[165: Turn Signals]].
|-
|[[File:earthquake1.gif]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 1)||style="text-align:right;"|2.43||style="text-align:right;"|25||style="text-align:right;"|13,000,000||These are continually happening, and not felt by humans. The [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22feed%22%3A%221419026358584%22%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-85%2C0%5D%2C%5B85%2C360%5D%5D%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%7B%22help%22%3Afalse%2C%22list%22%3Atrue%2C%22map%22%3Atrue%2C%22settings%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22autoUpdate%22%3Afalse%2C%22search%22%3A%7B%22id%22%3A%221419026358584%22%2C%22name%22%3A%22Search%20Results%22%2C%22isSearch%22%3Atrue%2C%22params%22%3A%7B%22starttime%22%3A%222014-12-12%2000%3A00%3A00%22%2C%22minmagnitude%22%3A-1%2C%22eventtype%22%3A%22earthquake%22%2C%22endtime%22%3A%222014-12-19%2023%3A59%3A59%22%2C%22maxmagnitude%22%3A1.9%2C%22orderby%22%3A%22time%22%7D%7D%7D USGS does report them], but the link provided was produced at the time this description was written. It can however be updated by the user.
|-
|[[File:earthquake2.gif]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 2)||style="text-align:right;"|24.26||style="text-align:right;"|2.5||style="text-align:right;"|1,300,000|| The US Geological Survey estimates that [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php 1.3 million] earthquakes of magnitude 2.0-2.9 occur worldwide each year.
|-
|[[File:earthquake3.gif]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 3)||style="text-align:right;"|242.6 (~4 minutes)||style="text-align:right;"|¼ (15 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|130,000|| The US Geological Survey estimates that [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php 130 thousand] earthquakes of magnitude 3.0-3.9 occur worldwide each year.
Earthquakes below this magnitude pass by largely unnoticed by most people (or [[723|tweeters]]).
|-
|[[File:earthquake4.gif]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 4)||style="text-align:right;"|2426 (40.4 minutes)||style="text-align:right;"|0.025 (1.5 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|13,000|| The US Geological Survey estimates that [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php 13 thousand] earthquakes of magnitude 4.0-4.9 occur worldwide each year.
|-
|[[File:parliament toilet.gif]]
|A member of the UK parliament flushes a toilet||style="text-align:right;"|10.06||style="text-align:right;"|6||style="text-align:right;"|3,140,000||At the time of this comic, there were 1,430 MPs across the two houses of the UK parliament, meaning that Randall inferred an average of 6 flushes per MP per day. Supposing that MPs sleep for 6-8 hours and get up to go to the toilet once per night, that means that during the rest of the day they are averaging a trip to the toilet every 3.2 to 3.6 hours. This estimate is somewhat on the high side, but MPs, particularly members of the Lords, do skew older, and older people tend to use the toilet more.{{citation needed}}
|-
|[[File:flight.gif]]
|An airline flight takes off||style="text-align:right;"|0.93||style="text-align:right;"|65||style="text-align:right;"|34,000,000|| Research conducted in 2008 by Thomas Ruosch and Dr Karl Rege at [http://www.init.zhaw.ch/index.php?id=9&L=1 Zurich University of Applied Science] plotted the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR00_uLfGVE 93,000 daily worldwide airline flights].
|-
|[[File:book mockingbird.gif]]
|Someone buys ''To Kill a Mockingbird''||style="text-align:right;"|42.05||style="text-align:right;"|1.4||style="text-align:right;"|750,000||"{{w|To Kill a Mockingbird}}" is a novel by {{w|Harper Lee}}, often an assigned reading in high school. Since 1960 it has sold in the region of [http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jul/09/harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbird 40 million copies], an average of 740,000 a year.
|-
|[[File:cat mockingbird.gif]]
|Someone's pet cat kills a mockingbird||style="text-align:right;"|1.82||style="text-align:right;"|33||style="text-align:right;"|17,340,000||Whereas the previous item references the well-known book "To Kill a Mockingbird", this one talks about {{w|Mockingbird|mockingbirds}} being literally killed (in this case, by cats). [http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Mimus_polyglottos/ There are 45 million mockingbirds in the world;] this means that according to Randall, cats kill 39% of mockingbirds in one year, i.e. in 2.5 years they are able to kill all mockingbirds (excluding the ones that are born in the meantime).
|-
|[[File:phoenixshoes.gif]]
|Someone in Phoenix buys new shoes||style="text-align:right;"|1.08||style="text-align:right;"|56||style="text-align:right;"|29,200,000||Since {{w|Phoenix metropolitan area|metro Phoenix}} has 4,200,000 inhabitants, according to Randall people in Phoenix buy 7 pairs of shoes per capita per year.
|-
|[[File:phoenix.gif]]
|Someone in Phoenix puts on a condom||style="text-align:right;"|2.05||style="text-align:right;"|29||style="text-align:right;"|15,390,000||Randall probably found the number of Condoms sold in Phoenix and estimated that most of those would be used. Estimates directly from the frequency of intercourse and contraceptive uses would be wildly inaccurate, especially as those statistics count encounters that might need multiple condoms as one instance of intercourse. There are [https://www.birthcontrol.com/condom-use-statistics 450,000,000 Condoms sold in the US each Year.]
|-
|[[File:keys.gif]]
|Someone locks their keys in their car||style="text-align:right;"|2.43||style="text-align:right;"|25||style="text-align:right;"|13,000,000||There does not appear to be any data on this mishap, but a [https://twitter.com/search?q=locked%20keys%20in%20car&src=typd Twitter search] reveals this happens, or people discuss it happening at a high frequency.
|-
|[[File:amelia.gif]]
|A Sagittarius named Amelia drinks a soda||style="text-align:right;"|7.79||style="text-align:right;"|7.7||style="text-align:right;"|4,000,000||Randall Munroe is a [http://blog.xkcd.com/2014/01/31/the-baby-name-wizard/ fan of The Baby Name Wizard] blog and its [http://www.babynamewizard.com Name Voyager] tool which shows that "[http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/amelia Amelia]" has recently exploded in popularity. 
This particular frequency is taken from:
* The number of persons called {{w|Amelia (given name)|Amelia}} ([http://howmanyofme.com/ est. 82,572 people in the U.S.])
* The number of persons born between November 22 and December 22 under the astrological sign of {{w|Sagittarius (astrology)|Sagittarius}} (~1/12th of the population, i.e. approximately 6881 Amelias in the U.S.)
* The frequency of soda (soft drinks) being drunk ([http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/foo_sof_dri_con-food-soft-drink-consumption 216 liters per person per year in the U.S.]).
According to our figures, 6881 Amelias drink 1.44 million liters of soft drinks per year in the United States alone, which means that Randall's figures only account for American Amelias (drinking 355 mL or 12 fl. oz. of soda in each drink).
|-
|[[File:dogbite.gif]]
|A dog bites someone in the US||style="text-align:right;"|7.01||style="text-align:right;"|8.6||style="text-align:right;"|4,500,000|| A [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18836045 2008 report] by the Centers for Disease Control concluded that 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year.
|-
|[[File:bike.gif]]
|Someone steals a bicycle||style="text-align:right;"|24.93||style="text-align:right;"|2.4||style="text-align:right;"|1,265,000||About half of all people who cycle infrequently have their bikes stolen at some time, but people who cycle every day have a 90% higher chance of bike theft, all according to [http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/04/these-8-depressing-bike-theft-statistics-show-just-how-bad-problem/8890/ this report] of cyclists in Montreal.
|-
|[[File:eagle.gif]]
|A bald eagle catches a fish||style="text-align:right;"|2.69||style="text-align:right;"|22||style="text-align:right;"|11,700,000||It is estimated that there are 70,000 bald eagles in the world and they eat up to [http://www.hancockwildlife.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=949 a pound-and-a-half of fish] every day.
|-
|[[File:bottles.gif]]
|50,000 plastic bottles are produced||style="text-align:right;"|1.27||style="text-align:right;"|47||style="text-align:right;"|1.24 trillion||This fact speaks for itself, but here are some [http://www.banthebottle.net/bottled-water-facts/ alarming facts] about plastic bottle production and usage.
|-
|[[File:recycled.gif]]
|50,000 plastic bottles are recycled||style="text-align:right;"|4.64||style="text-align:right;"|13||style="text-align:right;"|340 billion||27% of the plastic bottles manufactured get [[885: Recycling|recycled]]
|-
|[[File:meteor.gif]]
|A bright meteor is visible somewhere||style="text-align:right;"|1.15||style="text-align:right;"|52||style="text-align:right;"|27,400,000||This varies based on location, time of day, time of year, weather, personal perception and a number of other factors, but according to [http://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-faq/#4 The American Meteor Society], between 2-16 can be seen during the hours before daylight where it would be too bright to see them.
|-
|[[File:oldfaithful.gif]]
|Old Faithful erupts||style="text-align:right;"|5640 (94 minutes)||style="text-align:right;"|0.011 (15 per day)||style="text-align:right;"|5,595||{{w|Old Faithful}} is a geyser in {{w|Yellowstone National Park}} in the US, that tends to erupt every 65 or 91 minutes. XKCD's period of 1h 34m falls between the [https://geysertimes.org/geyser.php?id=Old%20Faithful mean and median of recent Old Faithful eruptions] and corresponds to a [http://geysertimes.org/getSingleEruption.php?id=645135 February 16, 2014 eruption].
|-
|[[File:shark.gif]]
|A fishing boat catches a shark||style="text-align:right;"|0.83||style="text-align:right;"|72||style="text-align:right;"|38,000,000|| [[1326: Sharks]]; Shark populations have experienced severe declines due to fishing impacts both of {{w|shark finning|finning}} and by-catch.
|-
|[[File:us cancer.gif]]
|Someone in the US is diagnosed with cancer||style="text-align:right;"|18.99||style="text-align:right;"|3.2||style="text-align:right;"|1,660,000|| According to the [http://www.cancer.org American Cancer Society], there will be an estimated 1,665,540 new cancer cases diagnosed in the US in 2014.
|-
|[[File:us cancer death.gif]]
|Someone in the US dies from cancer||style="text-align:right;"|54.34||style="text-align:right;"|1.1||style="text-align:right;"|580,000|| According to the [http://www.cancer.org American Cancer Society], in 2014 there will be an estimated 585,720 cancer deaths in the US.
|-
|[[File:dog.gif]]
|Someone adopts a dog from a shelter||style="text-align:right;"|15.6||style="text-align:right;"|3.8||style="text-align:right;"|2,000,000||[http://www.statisticbrain.com/pet-owner-industry-stats/ 10%] of owned dogs were adopted from shelters
|-
|[[File:cat.gif]]
|Someone adopts a cat from a shelter||style="text-align:right;"|21.3||style="text-align:right;"|2.8||style="text-align:right;"|1,500,000||[http://www.statisticbrain.com/pet-owner-industry-stats/ 18%] of owned cats were adopted from shelters
|-
|[[File:wedding.gif]]
|Someone gets married||style="text-align:right;"|0.75||style="text-align:right;"|80||style="text-align:right;"|42,000,000||According to [http://www.statisticbrain.com/marriage-statistics/ this study], there are 2,077,000 marriages in the US every year.
|-
|[[File:domain.gif]]
|Someone registers a domain||style="text-align:right;"|0.64||style="text-align:right;"|94||style="text-align:right;"|49,300,000 ||According to [http://www.dailychanges.com/ Dailychanges.com], about 135,000 domains are registered every day, but this figure fluctuates.
|-
|[[File:house.gif]]
|Someone in the US buys a house||style="text-align:right;"|6.22||style="text-align:right;"|9.6||style="text-align:right;"|5,000,000||According to [http://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/pdf/newressales.pdf The Census Bureau], on average there are 400,000 home purchases in the US each month.
|-
|[[File:tattoo.gif]]
|Someone in the US gets a tattoo||style="text-align:right;"|2.06||style="text-align:right;"|29||style="text-align:right;"|15,300,000||This estimate is probably based on the percentage of people who are tattooed, and not how frequently they purchase one, but the figures [http://theweek.com/article/index/233633/the-tattoo-economy-by-the-numbers here], [http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoo_facts.htm here], and [http://www.statisticbrain.com/tattoo-statistics/ here] add to the credibility of the claim.
|-
|[[File:pulsar.gif]]
|The star PSR J1748-2446AD rotates 1,000 times||style="text-align:right;"|1.4||style="text-align:right;"|42.9||style="text-align:right;"|22,548,240, which means 22.5 billion times per year||{{w|PSR J1748-2446ad}} is the fastest spinning {{w|pulsar}} known.
|-
|[[File:facebook.gif]]
|Someone lies about their age to sign up for Facebook||style="text-align:right;"|4.32||style="text-align:right;"|14||style="text-align:right;"|7,300,000||To sign up for Facebook, [https://www.facebook.com/help/210644045634222 the user must claim to be at least 13 years old]. This is a reflection of the U.S. {{w|Children's Online Privacy Protection Act}}.
|-
|[[File:iphone.gif]]
|Someone breaks an iPhone screen||style="text-align:right;"|0.93||style="text-align:right;"|65||style="text-align:right;"|34,000,000||According to a [http://www.cnet.com/news/quarter-of-iphones-have-a-broken-screen-says-new-poll/ CNET report], up to a quarter of iPhones have a broken screen.
|-
|[[File:littleleague.gif]]
|A Little League player strikes out||style="text-align:right;"|1.23||style="text-align:right;"|49||style="text-align:right;"|25,754,400||{{w|Little League Baseball|Little League}} is a system of local youth baseball and softball competitions. A {{w|strikeout}} is a situation in baseball and softball. This figure will be inconsistent throughout the year as baseball is normally not played in the winter.
|-
|[[File:ndsex.gif]]
|Someone has sex in North Dakota||style="text-align:right;"|1.38||style="text-align:right;"|43||style="text-align:right;"|22,900,000||Since {{w|North Dakota}} has 723,000 inhabitants (ranked the 48th state), and if we estimate the sexually active population as 80% (and if ''someone'' means ''a couple)'' this means that people in North Dakota have sex 79.1 times a year. It is estimated that [http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/geographyofsex.htm 3.93% of the world population has sex on a given day;] Randall's rate for North Dakota is 17.3% which is not low.
|-
|[[File:bieber.gif]]
|Justin Bieber gains a follower on Twitter||style="text-align:right;"|4.73||style="text-align:right;"|13||style="text-align:right;"|6,670,000|| [[802: Online Communities 2#Twitter Region|802: Online Communities 2]]; {{w|Justin Bieber}} is a Canadian pop music singer whose [https://twitter.com/justinbieber Twitter account] is extremely popular.
|-
|[[File:denverpizza.gif]]
|Someone in Denver orders a pizza||style="text-align:right;"|1.27||style="text-align:right;"|47||style="text-align:right;"|24,800,000|| In 2013, an estimated [http://www.statisticbrain.com/pizza-statistics/ 3 billion] pizzas were sold in the US. With a population of approximately 320 million, this is an average of just over 9 pizzas per person per year. According to the [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/08/08031.html 2010 Census], the population of Denver was, rounded, 650,000. The frequency shown equates to over 38 pizzas per person per year, four times the national average. But counting the larger {{w|Denver metropolitan area}}, with a population of 2,890,000, the frequency shown equates to a much more reasonable 8.5 pizzas per person per year
|}

==Transcript==
:[Repetitive events are written in grey and arranged in a grid. Each statement pulses to black and then returns to grey at an interval characteristic of the named event.]

{| style="text-align:center;"
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|Heartbeat (0.86 sec)
|One birth (0.24 sec)
|One death (0.56 sec)
|Someone edits Wikipedia (0.67 sec)
|Someone buys a vibrator (2.99 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|China builds a car (1.89 sec)
|Japan builds a car (4.01 sec)
|Germany builds a car (5.8 sec)
|The US builds a car (6.95 sec)
|Someone else builds a car (1.03 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|A European Union resident has their first kiss (5.53 sec)
|A US fire department puts out a fire (23 sec)
|Someone hits a hole-in-one (180 sec)
|My turn signal blinks (0.94 sec)
|The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks (0.9 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Earthquake (magnitude 1) (2.43 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 2) (24.26 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 3) (242.6 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 4) (2426 sec, 42 min)
|Member of the UK Parliament flushes a toilet (10.06 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|An airline flight takes off (0.93 sec)
|Someone buys ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (42.05 sec)
|Someone's pet cat kills a mockingbird (1.82 sec)
|Someone in Phoenix buys new shoes (1.08 sec)
|Someone in Phoenix puts on a condom (2.05 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone locks their keys in their car (2.43 sec)
|A Sagittarius named Amelia drinks a soda (7.79 sec)
|A dog bites someone in the US (7.01 sec)
|Someone steals a bicycle (24.93 sec)
|A bald eagle catches a fish (2.69 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|50,000 plastic bottles are produced (1.27 sec)
|50,000 plastic bottles are recycled (4.64 sec)
|A bright meteor is visible somewhere (1.15 sec)
|Old Faithful erupts (5640 sec, 94 min)
|A fishing boat catches a shark (0.83 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone in the US is diagnosed with cancer (18.99 sec)
|Someone in the US dies from cancer (54.34 sec)
|Someone adopts a dog from a shelter (15.6 sec)
|Someone adopts a cat from a shelter (21.3 sec)
|Someone gets married (0.75 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|Someone registers a domain (0.64 sec)
|Someone in the US buys a house (6.22 sec)
|Someone in the US gets a tattoo (2.06 sec)
|The star ''PSR J1748-2446ad'' rotates 1,000 times (1.4 sec)
|Someone lies about their age to sign up for Facebook (4.32 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone breaks an iPhone screen (0.93 sec)
|A little league player strikes out (1.23 sec)
|Someone has sex in North Dakota (1.38 sec)
|Justin Bieber gains a follower on Twitter (4.73 sec)
|Someone in Denver orders a pizza (1.27 sec)
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Baseball]]

User:TheresNoTime

2021-10-05T15:20:24Z

PinkAmpersand: Can't create her own userpage.

2491: Immune Factory

2021-07-20T05:27:48Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ scab pun

{{comic
| number = 2491
| date = July 20, 2021
| title = Immune Factory
| image = immune_factory.png
| titletext = In the final vote, the doubters were won over by the strength of the name IMMUNION.
}}

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

[[Hairy]] has received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and is now feeling unwell. He and [[Cueball]] trade puns about the immune response to the vaccine.

Vaccines in general work by giving the body's immune system a chance to respond to a pathogen without actually being infected. The immune system responds by producing antibodies, proteins customised to attach to the pathogen, either disabling it directly or marking it for attack by immune cells. After the vaccine (or after an actual illness), the {{w|Immunological memory|immune system remembers}} how to make the antibodies and can more quickly respond to future infections.

However, many common symptoms of illness (such as fever, soreness, diarrhea and nausea) are actually caused by the body's immune response rather than the infection itself. As a result, vaccines can result in similar symptoms to an illness, albeit milder and of shorter duration.

{{w|Variolation}} was an early method of innoculation against {{w|smallpox}}, in which someone would be given a (hopefully mild) infection through exposure to powdered smallpox scabs. In the context of {{w|union organizing}}, ''{{w|scab (union)|scab}}'' is a pejorative term for someone who works despite an ongoing {{w|strike (labor)|strike}}. The pun therefore is that union members would not like ''literal'' scabs either.

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

:[Cueball walks in from the left, into a room where Hairy is sitting in a chair facing away, sick. Hairy is wrapped in a blanket and holding a steaming mug.]
:Cueball: I guess the first shot made your body build defenses, and now it's ramping up production.
:Hairy: So I've become an antibody factory.

:[In the next panel, Cueball is now facing Hairy on the right.]
:Hairy: I don't feel great. I think my factory has some OSHA violations.
:Hairy: My lymphatic system is protesting brutal working conditions.

:[In a frame-less panel, Cueball continues to stand in front of Hairy; Hairy's mug is steaming less.]
:Hairy: Update: my immune cells have unionized.
:Cueball: Common side effect. Helps maintain a healthy balance.

:[In a panel with a frame, Hairy's mug is no longer steaming; Cueball has his hand raised and Hairy is pointing in Cueball's direction]
:Cueball: Immune system unions are actually why we stopped doing variolation.
:Hairy: Oh? Why?
:Cueball: They don't like scabs.
:Hairy: Ugh. ''Leave.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

User:PinkAmpersand

2021-07-20T05:26:34Z

PinkAmpersand: except not

{{w|User:Tamzin|This is me}} on that other wiki.

User:PinkAmpersand

2021-07-20T05:26:19Z

PinkAmpersand: very out of date

{{w|Tamzin|This is me}} on that other wiki.

1246: Pale Blue Dot

2021-05-12T07:00:39Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ file from Commons

{{comic
| number = 1246
| date = August 2, 2013
| title = Pale Blue Dot
| image = pale_blue_dot.png
| titletext = Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. There is no road out of this oblivion; we must embrace it. We must join with the darkness. Ba'al the Annihilator offers us no happiness, no answers, naught but the cold embrace of the void. To imagine any other end is delusion. We must give in to the will of Ba'al, for he will one day consume us and our world alike. I therefore call on Congress to fully fund space exploration, and to join with Ba'al, the Eater of Souls. Thank you.
}}
==Explanation==
[[File:Pale Blue Dot.png|thumb|right|Earth is the "pale blue dot" halfway up the rightmost color band.]]
The {{w|Pale Blue Dot}} is a picture of the Earth taken in the year 1990 by the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe at a distance about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles). It was part of the {{w|Family Portrait (Voyager)|Family Portrait}}, a series of images of the entire {{w|Solar System}} from beyond it.

The picture was taken at the request of {{w|Carl Sagan}}, a well known space scientist at that time. In 1994 Sagan wrote the book "{{w|Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space}}" inspired by this picture. In the book, Sagan waxed eloquent about the picture in a widely quoted passage. The complete passage can be found in [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Pale_Blue_Dot:_A_Vision_of_the_Human_Future_in_Space_.281994.29 Wikiquote], and you can hear Carl Sagan himself reciting it in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g this YouTube video].

[[Cueball]] quotes from a condensed version of this passage until he is interrupted by several {{w|Heckler}}s who begins an argument over which speck in the picture is actually the Earth. Then, when Cueball cries out in exasperation that it doesn't matter, one heckler takes it the wrong way and points out that he just said that the picture doesn't matter. This pokes fun at the fact that the Pale Blue Dot picture has very little to no visual attractiveness, apart from the intellectual interest relying on the viewer's knowledge that the central speck is actually our home planet, Earth, seen from a very great distance.

The first two sentences of the title text are also a quotation from Sagan's paean to the Pale Blue Dot picture, but then the text veers humorously into non-scientific mysticism that starkly contrasts with the attitude and intent of the original work.

The title text evokes {{w|Cosmicism}}, a philosophy developed and exemplified by the fictional {{w|Cthulhu Mythos}}. This Mythos is expounded in fantasy/horror works of H.P. Lovecraft and, later, August Derleth, and features a cosmology in which humanity is depicted as inconsequential within a greater existence that is unknowable and frightening. Cosmicism asserts that humanity is doomed to death and destruction through the workings of vastly more powerful supernatural forces way beyond our understanding. There are many instances in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft of factions that embrace the destruction of humanity and actively work towards bringing about that end through the invocation of the unknowable and powerful forces that supporters of Cosmicism believe surround everything.

The text also references {{w|Ba'al}}, originally a Semitic deity that has been since associated with demonic or otherwise evil forces. The name Ba'al, and other variants of the same, has been included in many other fictional works often as a villain or antagonist. For example, the fictional System Lord {{w|Ba'al (Stargate)#Ba.27al|Ba'al}} from the television show {{w|Stargate}}. The title text supplants all of the supernatural forces associated with Cosmicism in the works of other authors with Ba'al. Cueball, who continues his discourse in the title text, may be acting as a Cosmicist and is calling on a Congress, to which he is speaking, to fund the space exploration program as a means to join with Ba'al, the Eater of Souls. The fact that a Ba'al cultist would be speaking in front of a government body in such a manner is absurd{{Citation needed}} and thus hilarious.

Ba'al, the Eater of Souls (sometimes as Ba'al the soul eater) has been mentioned later in [[1419: On the Phone]] and [[1638: Backslashes]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands in front of a large gray picture of the ''Pale Blue Dot''. (There is no evidence that there is any blue in this comic). He holds up a stick with one hand towards it. He is interrupted by several hecklers from off-panel.]
:Cueball: Consider this Pale Blue Dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. Everyone you love, every human being who ever was, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived out their lives on this mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. All our-
:Heckler 1 (off panel): I think that's a stuck pixel. We're the speck on the left.
:Cueball: ...Ok, '''''this''''' Pale Blue Dot is everything you-
:Heckler 2 (off panel): No, you were right before. ''That'' one is earth.
:Cueball: '''''Look, it doesn't matter!'''''
:Heckler 3 (off panel): I ''knew'' it!
:Heckler 4 (off panel): I think this is just a lens cap picture.

==Trivia==
*At the time when this comic was published NASA did reveal two other pictures, showing our home planet from a long distance, [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130722.html Saturn] and [http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=1228 Mercury] probes did picture the Earth at the same time. Earth appears as a tiny dot in these images as well as a result of the vast distance between Earth and the probes.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space probes]]

1820: Security Advice

2021-04-30T06:57:43Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Security tips */ note that, in one sense (that of a wikipedia:legal fiction), a maiden name can be changed at least once; generally improve that explanation

{{comic
| number = 1820
| date = April 5, 2017
| title = Security Advice
| image = security_advice.png
| titletext = Never give your password or bank account number to anyone who doesn't have a blue check mark next to their name.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic depicts a conversation between [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]], discussing the fact that giving people security advice in the past has failed to improve their internet security, and in some cases even made things worse. One such example is telling people to create complicated passwords containing numbers and symbols, which not only made the passwords harder to remember (leading people to create huge security risks by [https://arstechnica.com/security/2015/04/hacked-french-network-exposed-its-own-passwords-during-tv-interview/ leaving post-it notes with their passwords on their computer monitor]), but did not actually make those passwords harder to crack (see [[936: Password Strength]]).

As a result, Cueball suggests using {{w|reverse psychology}} and give out bad advice instead, in hopes of achieving a positive effect. The last panel contains a list with 13 security tips, which are parodies of actual security tips. The title text is just one more tip. See [[#Security tips|table]] below for explanations for all 14 tips.

This comic is yet another [[:Category:Tips|tips comic]].

===Security tips===
{| class="wikitable"
!Security Tip
!Explanation
|- id="tip0"
|Print out this list and keep it in your bank safe deposit box (header)
|This is a standard recommendation for documents that must be kept secure because they are irreplaceable and/or contain sensitive information. However this list itself is easily replaceable and the contents will be well-known, so storing it in a safe place is totally unnecessary. Putting it in a {{w|safe deposit box}} would even be counterproductive since the list can only serve its purpose as a ready reminder if it's easily accessible to everyone. So when people fail to follow this tip, they may end of keeping it in a place where they have easy access to the tips so they may also fail to follow all the others.
|- id="tip1"
|Don't click links to websites
|The usual tip is "Don't click on ''suspicious'' website links" or "Don't click any links in suspicious emails". The comic's variation instead tells users not to click on any links to any websites, which essentially stops them from using the World Wide Web altogether. So this tip is not really helping, as the opposite of this would be to click on all links. [https://www.sketchywebsite.net This is an example website that showcases an extreme example of what ''could'' (probably wouldn't (this is not advice)) happen if you clicked on a suspicious link.]
|- id="tip2"
|Use prime numbers in your password
|It is usually recommended that one uses numbers in one's password, to increase its entropy, making it harder to find with a {{w|Brute-force attack|brute force}} attack. In contrast the comic suggests using {{w|prime numbers}} in one's password. Large prime numbers are an essential part of modern cryptography and security systems, when used in algorithms that are computed by machines. They don't have any effect when used by humans in passwords, except for maybe making it harder to remember. In addition, if people were to regularly use prime numbers in their passwords, it would actually make passwords ''easier'' to guess, as it would substantially reduce the number of possible passwords people may choose from.
|- id="tip3"
|Change your password manager monthly
|It is often recommended to change passwords on a regular basis and to use a {{w|password manager}}. Password managers are programs which can help users create, store, and change their passwords easily and securely. Changing password managers monthly would involve copying all stored passwords from one manager to another, which would be quite impractical and has no security benefit.
|- id="tip4"
|Hold your breath while crossing the border
|At some border crossings, government agents may search computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. The usual advice for such situations ranges from asserting your rights to resetting all devices and deleting all data prior to crossing a border. Holding one's breath can potentially prevent inhaling germs or poisons in some situations, though useless in the context of computer security. These two topics mixed in the same advice won't achieve anything, but if you hold your breath for too long you could pass out when crossing, or look stressed/suspicious and invite even more scrutiny. This could also be a reference to the superstition of holding one's breath when passing a graveyard, or similarly to the movie ''{{w|Spirited Away}}'', where the main character is instructed to hold her breath while crossing the bridge that acts as the border between the human and spirit world. In any case, holding one's breath while browsing the Internet would have no useful effect, supernatural or otherwise.
|- id="tip5"
|Install a secure font
|A real tip might be "Install a secure browser" especially when many people used {{w|Internet Explorer 6}}. Secure fonts do exist and are designed to make checks difficult to alter, but using one on a computer would not help one's internet security. May also refer to Google Chrome [https://www.proofpoint.com/us/threat-insight/post/EITest-Nabbing-Chrome-Users-Chrome-Font-Social-Engineering-Scheme "Install missing font"] malware.
|- id="tip6"
|Use a 2-factor smoke detector
|{{w|Multi-factor authentication|Two factor authentication}} describes the practice of using two different identification factors (such as a password and a code from a secure token) to authenticate the user. A two factor smoke detector presumably uses two or more factors to identify ''smoke'' (such as {{w|Smoke_detector#Ionization|ionization}} and {{w|Smoke_detector#Photoelectric|photoelectric}}). Such devices [https://alarmspecs.com actually exist], but, while improving the user's general safety, they do nothing to improve their internet security.


A month before this comic the newest [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone]], [[1809: xkcd Phone 5]], was released with a 28-factor authentication.
|- id="tip7"
|Change your maiden name regularly
|A {{w|maiden name}} is the family name that a woman has at birth. (The gender-neutral term is "birth name" or "birth surname"; it is unclear whether this "advice" is meant to apply only to women.) Security experts frequently criticize the concept of security questions like "what is your mother's maiden name?", on the basis that they can often be deduced from publicly available information. In the sense that it refers to a historical fact, a maiden name cannot be changed retroactively, although in the sense that it refers to the last name on one's birth certificate, in some narrow cases this ''can'' be amended. For instance, when someone is {{w|adoption|adopted}} and takes their adoptive parent's last name, in many jurisdictions a {{w|legal fiction}} holds that they have had that last name since birth, and governments will issue new birth certificates to that effect. However, it is unlikely for anyone to be able to amend the surname on their birth certificate more than once, and impossible to do so "regularly".

A real tip for dealing with security questions is to enter false data.
|- id="tip8"
|Put strange USB drives in a bag of rice overnight
|The usual security tip is "Don't plug strange {{w|USB flash drive|USB drives}} into your computer," because sometimes attackers leave USB devices with malicious programs lying around, hoping that people will plug them into target computers out of curiosity. This tip states that you should "put USB drives in a bag of rice overnight" which is a common technique for drying out water-damaged devices, due to rice's absorbent qualities. This would not clean the drive of viruses, and unless the drive was wet (perhaps because you found it outside due to it being called "strange") it would not do anything. In [[1598: Salvage]], another attempt is made to salvage something unconventional with rice, and here it is shown that Randall considers the rice drying of a wet mobile is a myth, so this is yet another jab at the idea.
|- id="tip9"
|Use special characters like & and %
|You can use special characters to increase the entropy/strength of your password, though as described in [[936: Password Strength]], that often leads to passwords that are hard to remember but not particularly strong. The password context is missing here, and in everyday situations the characters & and % are not special. These two characters are often disallowed in passwords because of their relevance to {{w|SQL}} (a common database query language). If these characters were used in a password, a badly written security system using SQL could have severe bugs (and security vulnerabilities) similar to the security flaw in [[327: Exploits of a Mom]].
|- id="tip10"
|Only read content published through Tor.com
|{{w|tor (anonymity network)|Tor}} is a software solution to provide anonymity on the web for its users. The website [https://tor.com Tor.com] is the website of fantasy and sci-fi book publisher {{w|Tor Books}}, which has no relation to the Tor-network.
|- id="tip11"
|Use a burner's phone
|A play on using a {{w|Prepay mobile phone|burner phone}} (a cheap/disposable cell phone like those purchased at 7-11, often used for drug deals or other activity one might not want traced), and using the cell phone of a burner, i.e. a person who habitually uses marijuana (or, less likely, a person who goes to the {{w|Burning Man|Burning Man festival}}).
|- id="tip12"
|Get an SSL certificate and store it in a safe place
|{{w|Transport Layer Security|SSL/TLS}} is a protocol for securing connections on the internet. To check if someone is who they claim to be, you can check the individual's {{w|Public key certificate|certificate}}. Such a certificate has to be public; storing it in a safe place makes the certificate useless. You have to store the private key that matches the certificate in a safe place, else someone could steal the identity.
|- id="tip13"
|If a border guard asks to examine your laptop, you have a legal right to challenge them to a chess game for your soul.
|This tip is a reference to the common trope {{tvtropes|ChessWithDeath|Chess with Death}}, in which a mortal challenges a god to a game or challenge, often for their life. This version of the trope traces back to {{w|Ingmar Bergman|Ingmar Bergman's}} film {{w|The Seventh Seal}}, in which the protagonist {{w|The Seventh Seal#Synopsis|challenges Death}} to a game of chess. But instead of avoiding death, this tip suggests you have the right to do the same to get out of handing your devices over to a border guard. (This trope is also featured in [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/393 393: Ultimate Game]).
|- id="tip14"
|'''Title Text''': Never give your password or bank account number to anyone who doesn't have a blue check mark next to their name.
|The usual security tip here is ''"only trust Twitter accounts claiming to be legitimate if they have a blue check mark next to their name"'', which means that the account is verified as legitimate. This tip suggests only giving your ''password'' to verified accounts, although you shouldn't give your password to ''any'' account. Twitter Verification would be revisited in [[1914: Twitter Verification]].

It also refers to problems especially visible in the US banking system, where there is very little security for direct account drafts, and because of that it is advised there to keep the account number as secret as possible. In contrast, in Europe giving your account number to someone is one of the most common ways to get paid.

A related tip might be "Never give your password or bank details to a website that doesn't have a padlock icon next to the URL". In some browsers, if you access a secure website, there will be a padlock icon in the browser indicating you've connected to a secure website using the secure https protocol. It doesn't provide that it is not malicious site, and that is secure to enter. So this tip treats the verified account icon the same way you might treat a secure website icon.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is listening to Ponytail who holds her hands out in front of her.]
:Ponytail: We've been trying for decades to give people good security advice.
:Ponytail: But in retrospect, lots of the tips actually made things worse.

:[Cueball takes his hand to his chin as Ponytail takes her arms down.]
:Cueball: Maybe we should try to give ''bad'' advice?
:Ponytail: I guess it's worth a shot.

:[Below these two panel is one large and long panel with a long list with 13 tips. The underlined heading and the bracket below it are centered above the bullet list below.]
:<big>Security tips</big>
:(Print out this list and keep it in your bank safe deposit box.)
* Don't click links to websites
* Use prime numbers in your password
* Change your password manager monthly
* Hold your breath while crossing the border
* Install a secure font
* Use a 2-factor smoke detector
* Change your maiden name regularly
* Put strange USB drives in a bag of rice overnight
* Use special characters like & and %
* Only read content published through tor.com
* Use a burner's phone
* Get an SSL certificate and store it in a safe place
* If a border guard asks to examine your laptop, you have a legal right to challenge them to a chess game for your soul.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Tips]]

2451: AI Methodology

2021-04-18T00:51:08Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ obviously this sentence needs to include some weird spacing and diacritics

{{comic
| number = 2451
| date = April 16, 2021
| title = AI Methodology
| image = ai_methodology.png
| titletext = We've learned that weird spacing and diacritics in the methodology description are apparently the key to good research; luckily, we've developed an AI tool to help us figure out where to add them.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT (91%). TRAINED BY AN ADVERSARIAL AI (72%). If you are knowledgeable about AI, please rewrite at least one paragraph for us. The current content was completely fudged by amateurs. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The joke in this comic is that the people are using {{w|artificial intelligence}} (AI) without understanding how to. That classifier is trained on data that doesn't include the causes of the results, and then not testing it at all, producing a model that is both random and heavily overfitted. Such a model appears perfect but makes random predictions on new data. The hover text is describing this happening, and how. For an introduction to machine learning, you can visit https://fast.ai/ .

This comic shows Cueball giving a presentation of some description. He is reassuring his audience of the validity of his research's methodology, which he says is "AI-based". There are many issues that can arise from an AI-based methodology, such as lingering influence from its training data or a bad algorithm reducing the quality of the investigation.

Cueball seeks to reassure his audience by quantifying the quality of his methodology. He does this by creating yet another AI to rank methodologies. This would not actually improve the confidence of any audience member, as any flaws of the methodology AI would likely be shared by the ranking AI, due to being created by the same team.

Furthermore, the ranking AI heavily favours the methodology of Cueball's AI, and may be biased. It shows a normal distribution, with a singular outlier to the far right with an arrow above. It can be inferred (from the arrow) that this data-point represents the AI's methodology. It is a significant outlier, and as such it is probably not an accurate representation of Cueball's AI. Alternatively, this could be taken as AI 'nepotism', where Cueball's methodology AI is more likely to select AI-based approaches over others. This type of algorithmic bias is mentioned in [[2237: AI Hiring Algorithm]]. Another explanation would be that the x axis measures something other than "how good the methodology is" (e.g., rate of highly significant results), and the fact that Cueball's AI is not within the normal distribution should have been a red flag indicating a problem with their methodology, but the ranking AI didn't notice the skew / correctly interpret the meaning of the data. (However, the title text seems to indicate that the x axis was indeed labeled by "quality of methodology", albeit defining this quality by very strange criteria.)

The title text is likely a continuation of Cueball's dialogue, saying that when the classifying AI was shown good research methodology descriptions, the AI identified weird spacing and diacritics as the indicators of a good methodology. Cueball then used his AI to figure out where to put these into his own methodology description to improve his research report. Adding weird symbols into a text doesn't improve the quality of the text[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''çıẗá ŧįø ɳŋ ēẽ đêð'']]] and hence Cueball may be doing something very similar to p-hacking, where data is manipulated to decrease the p-number, which represents the likelihood the data is a fluke. P-hacking is mentioned in [[882: Significant]]

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

:[Cueball stands in front of a projection on a screen and points with a stick to a histogram with a bell curve to the left and one bar to the far right marked with an arrow]
:Cueball: Despite our great research results, some have questioned our AI-based methodology.
:Cueball: But we trained a classifier on a collection of good and bad methodology sections, and it says ours is fine.

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

2419: Hug Count

2021-02-02T10:24:25Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ finally

{{comic
| number = 2419
| date = February 1, 2021
| title = Hug Count
| image = hug_count.png
| titletext = I've never been that big of a hug person, but it turns out I'm not quite this small of a hug person either.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUGGABLE ROBOT. It would probably be good to add a bit more explanation on the pandemic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic strip is simply a graph showing the number of Individuals Hugged vs the Year, spanning from 1996 to 2021, and goes up to 35 individuals. While it varies a decent amount for the first 24 years, it drops sharply in 2020, and goes even lower in 2021. However, it should be noted that 2021 (at the time of the comic) had just begun, which is why the final bar is grey - the year isn't over yet and as such it is incomplete.

This is due to the fact that in 2020, when the pandemic happened, everyone had to social distance and avoid contact with strangers. This was a widely used method of slowing the spread of COVID-19. People are asked to not closely associate with those outside a very limited 'bubble' or even isolating individuals in their own household. As such, people have had less physical contact with each other since the beginning of this pandemic, including hugs.

No explanation is given for the variations year-to-year preceding 2020, and much of it may be [[2101: Technical Analysis|random walks]]. However, one can see a major spike in hug levels in 2010 and 2011; [[Randall]]'s wife [[818|was diagnosed]] with cancer in late 2010 (see [[:Category:Cancer]]). Loved ones of those with cancer tend to receive much compassion from others, and compassion tends to beget hugs.{{Citation needed}}

The title text states that, while [[Randall]] isn't very big on hugs, he too desires hugs. It plays on the common phrase "I'm not to big of an (x) person", which is used to indicate that someone isn't extremely fond of said activity. One could then assume that being a "small person" regarding some activity would mean that said person is not fond of the activity at all.

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

[Title of Chart:]
Estimated Number of Distinct People Hugged per Year

[Y Axis:]
0 to 30

[X Axis:]
Years from 1996 until 2021

{|
! Year !! People
|-
! 1996 || 31
|-
! 1997 || 28
|-
! 1998 || 23
|-
! 1999 || 25
|-
! 2000 || 21
|-
! 2001 || 18
|-
! 2002 || 28
|-
! 2003 || 24
|-
! 2004 || 17
|-
! 2005 || 19
|-
! 2006 || 14
|-
! 2007 || 35
|-
! 2008 || 17
|-
! 2009 || 16
|-
! 2010 || 27
|-
! 2011 || 29
|-
! 2012 || 18
|-
! 2013 || 15
|-
! 2014 || 16
|-
! 2015 || 22
|-
! 2016 || 15
|-
! 2017 || 21
|-
! 2018 || 19
|-
! 2019 || 25
|-
! 2020 || 5
|-
! 2021 || 2
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bar charts]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2419: Hug Count

2021-02-02T10:24:04Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2419
| date = February 1, 2021
| title = Hug Count
| image = hug_count.png
| titletext = I've never been that big of a hug person, but it turns out I'm not quite this small of a hug person either.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUGGABLE ROBOT. It would probably be good to add a bit more explanation on the pandemic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic strip is simply a graph showing the number of Individuals Hugged vs the Year, spanning from 1996 to 2021, and goes up to 35 individuals. While it varies a decent amount for the first 24 years, it drops sharply in 2020, and goes even lower in 2021. However, it should be noted that 2021 (at the time of the comic) had just begun, which is why the final bar is grey - the year isn't over yet and as such it is incomplete.

This is due to the fact that in 2020, when the pandemic happened, everyone had to social distance and avoid contact with strangers. This was a widely used method of slowing the spread of COVID-19. People are asked to not closely associate with those outside a very limited 'bubble' or even isolating individuals in their own household. As such, people have had less physical contact with each other since the beginning of this pandemic, including hugs.

No explanation is given for the variations year-to-year preceding 2020, and much of it may be [[2101: Technical Analysis|random walks]]. However, one can see a major spike in hug levels in 2010 and 2011; [[Randall]]'s wife [[818|was diagnosed]] with cancer in late 2010 (see [[:Category:Cancer]]). Loved ones of those with cancer tend to receive much compassion from others, and compassion tends to beget hugs.{{citation needed}}

The title text states that, while [[Randall]] isn't very big on hugs, he too desires hugs. It plays on the common phrase "I'm not to big of an (x) person", which is used to indicate that someone isn't extremely fond of said activity. One could then assume that being a "small person" regarding some activity would mean that said person is not fond of the activity at all.

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

[Title of Chart:]
Estimated Number of Distinct People Hugged per Year

[Y Axis:]
0 to 30

[X Axis:]
Years from 1996 until 2021

{|
! Year !! People
|-
! 1996 || 31
|-
! 1997 || 28
|-
! 1998 || 23
|-
! 1999 || 25
|-
! 2000 || 21
|-
! 2001 || 18
|-
! 2002 || 28
|-
! 2003 || 24
|-
! 2004 || 17
|-
! 2005 || 19
|-
! 2006 || 14
|-
! 2007 || 35
|-
! 2008 || 17
|-
! 2009 || 16
|-
! 2010 || 27
|-
! 2011 || 29
|-
! 2012 || 18
|-
! 2013 || 15
|-
! 2014 || 16
|-
! 2015 || 22
|-
! 2016 || 15
|-
! 2017 || 21
|-
! 2018 || 19
|-
! 2019 || 25
|-
! 2020 || 5
|-
! 2021 || 2
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bar charts]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2419: Hug Count

2021-02-02T10:23:47Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ note spike when Randall's wife got cancer

{{comic
| number = 2419
| date = February 1, 2021
| title = Hug Count
| image = hug_count.png
| titletext = I've never been that big of a hug person, but it turns out I'm not quite this small of a hug person either.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUGGABLE ROBOT. It would probably be good to add a bit more explanation on the pandemic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic strip is simply a graph showing the number of Individuals Hugged vs the Year, spanning from 1996 to 2021, and goes up to 35 individuals. While it varies a decent amount for the first 24 years, it drops sharply in 2020, and goes even lower in 2021. However, it should be noted that 2021 (at the time of the comic) had just begun, which is why the final bar is grey - the year isn't over yet and as such it is incomplete.

This is due to the fact that in 2020, when the pandemic happened, everyone had to social distance and avoid contact with strangers. This was a widely used method of slowing the spread of COVID-19. People are asked to not closely associate with those outside a very limited 'bubble' or even isolating individuals in their own household. As such, people have had less physical contact with each other since the beginning of this pandemic, including hugs.

No explanation is given for the variations year-to-year preceding 2020, and much of it may be [[2101: Technical Analysis|random walks]]. However, one can see a major spike in hug levels in 2010 and 2011; [[Randall]]'s wife [[818|was diagnosed]] with cancer in late 2010 (see [[:Category:Cancer]]). Loved ones of those with cancer tend to receive much compassion from others, and compassion tends to beget hugs.{{cn}}

The title text states that, while [[Randall]] isn't very big on hugs, he too desires hugs. It plays on the common phrase "I'm not to big of an (x) person", which is used to indicate that someone isn't extremely fond of said activity. One could then assume that being a "small person" regarding some activity would mean that said person is not fond of the activity at all.

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

[Title of Chart:]
Estimated Number of Distinct People Hugged per Year

[Y Axis:]
0 to 30

[X Axis:]
Years from 1996 until 2021

{|
! Year !! People
|-
! 1996 || 31
|-
! 1997 || 28
|-
! 1998 || 23
|-
! 1999 || 25
|-
! 2000 || 21
|-
! 2001 || 18
|-
! 2002 || 28
|-
! 2003 || 24
|-
! 2004 || 17
|-
! 2005 || 19
|-
! 2006 || 14
|-
! 2007 || 35
|-
! 2008 || 17
|-
! 2009 || 16
|-
! 2010 || 27
|-
! 2011 || 29
|-
! 2012 || 18
|-
! 2013 || 15
|-
! 2014 || 16
|-
! 2015 || 22
|-
! 2016 || 15
|-
! 2017 || 21
|-
! 2018 || 19
|-
! 2019 || 25
|-
! 2020 || 5
|-
! 2021 || 2
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bar charts]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2386: Ten Years

2020-11-17T06:48:02Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ according to the blog post at the time, she was already his fiancée when she was diagnosed

{{comic
| number = 2386
| date = November 16, 2020
| title = Ten Years
| image = ten_years.png
| titletext = The ten-year cancerversary is traditionally the Cursed Artifact Granting Immortality anniversary.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CURSED ARTIFACT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]]'s then-fiancée, now wife, was diagnosed with cancer in late 2010, a matter he has discussed in the comic [[:Category:Cancer|multiple times before]]. It has been 10 years since her diagnosis and treatments.

This comic is a continuation of [[1141: Two Years]] and [[1928: Seven Years]], which are shown as the first 16 panels, slightly grayed out.

The first of the new panels shows Randall and his wife at a "Rabbit Rescue", interacting with buns ([[:Category:Buns|a recurring theme]] of xkcd). The purpose of such events is to get rescued (often surrendered or seized) rabbits or other animals used to interacting with each other and with unfamiliar humans under controlled circumstances, to help them be more suitable as pets and hopefully entice visitors to adopt them. Randall facetiously asks his wife if she thinks the rabbits have socialized enough, even though he and his wife are there for the sake of their own enjoyment (and she indicates that she would like to spend more time patting a bun on its head).
In the next panel, Cueball is pushing Megan in a handcart, which is presumably stolen. (As evidenced by the off panel person asking if anybody has seen the handcart.)
The third new panel shows Cueball and Megan exploring a mountain, they appear to have found something interesting, due to Megan pointing her finger towards something off panel.
The fourth panel shows Cueball and Megan siting on the edge of a pier, looking at the night sky. This is a typical romantic nighttime activity.
The fifth new panel shows Cueball and Megan sitting on a hill. They converse about how they did not believe that Megan would make in 10 years.

=== Trivia ===

Cursed artifacts which cannot die were recently mentioned in [[2332: Cursed Chair]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
'''From [[1141: Two Years]]'''
:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit on a bed, Randall's fiancée is talking on the phone. The person she is talking to, a doctor holding a clipboard, is shown inset.]
:Randall's fiancée: Oh god.

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit together while Randall's fiancée, now bald, is receiving chemotherapy. They are both on their laptops.]
:IV pump: ... Beeep ... Beeep ... Beeep ...

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (who is wearing a knit cap) are paddling a kayak against a scenic mountain backdrop.]

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit at a table, staring at a cell phone. There is a clock on the wall. Her head is stubbly.]
:Randall's fiancée: How long can it take to read a scan!?

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée are back at the hospital again, Randall's fiancée receiving chemo. They are playing Scrabble.]
:Randall: "Zarg" isn't a word.
:Randall's fiancée: But ''caaaancer.''
:Randall: ...Ok, fine.

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (wearing a knit cap) are listening to a Cueball-like friend. A large thought bubble is above their heads and it obscures the friends talk. The text below, split in three is the only part there can be no doubt about:]
:Friend: So next year you should come visit us up in the mounta
::a
::and
:Randall and Randall's fiancée (thinking): '''"Next year"'''

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée are getting married, with a heart above their heads. Randall's wife's hair is growing back.]

:[Randall and Randall's wife (wearing a knit cap) stand on a beach, watching a whale jump out of water.]
:''Fwoosh''

'''From [[1928: Seven Years]]'''
:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit on a bed, Randall's fiancée is talking on the phone. The person she is talking to, a doctor holding a clipboard, is shown inset.]
:Randall's fiancée: Oh god.

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit together while Randall's fiancée, now bald, is receiving chemotherapy. They are both on their laptops.]
:IV pump: ... Beeep ... Beeep ... Beeep ...

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (who is wearing a knit cap) are paddling a kayak against a scenic mountain backdrop.]

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit at a table, staring at a cell phone. There is a clock on the wall. Her head is stubbly.]
:Randall's fiancée: How long can it take to read a scan!?

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée are back at the hospital again, Randall's fiancée receiving chemo. They are playing Scrabble.]
:Randall: "Zarg" isn't a word.
:Randall's fiancée: But ''caaaancer.''
:Randall: ...Ok, fine.

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (wearing a knit cap) are listening to a Cueball-like friend. A large thought bubble is above their heads and it obscures the friends talk. The text below, split in three is the only part there can be no doubt about:]
:Friend: So next year you should come visit us up in the mounta
::a
::and
:Randall and Randall's fiancée (thinking): '''"Next year"'''

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée are getting married, with a heart above their heads. Randall's wife's hair is growing back.]

:[Randall and Randall's wife (wearing a knit cap) stand on a beach, watching a whale jump out of water. This is the last gray panel, with an additional label in normal black color.]
:''Fwoosh''
:Label: Two years

:[Randall and Randall's wife (with her hair noticably longer) are walking through a forest.]

:[Randall's wife is sitting down, not in the forest anymore.]
:Randall's wife: My toe hurts and I found a report of a case in which toe pain was an early sign of cancer spreading.
:Randall: Wait—didn’t you stub your toe yesterday?
:Randall's wife: Yes, but what if this is unrelated?

:[Randall and his wife are going spelunking. The guide is gesturing deeper into the cave while Randall and his wife are climbing down.]

:[Randall's wife stands on a rock above an alligator in a swamp, photographing the alligator. Randall is on a balcony behind safety railings.]
:Randall: When they estimated your survival odds, I think they made some optimistic assumptions about your hobbies.

:[Randall's wife sits on an examination bed, listening to a doctor holding a clipboard.]
:Doctor: This is probably nothing.
:Doctor: But given your history, we should do a full scan.
:Doctor: We'll call with the results in a few days. Try not to worry about it until then!

:[Randall and his wife stand above a deep pond full of fish and other objects. Randall's wife is piloting a wired underwater camera with lights.]

:[Randall and his wife are standing next to each other. Randall's wife has shoulder-length hair covering most of her face.]
:Randall's wife: Hard to believe—six years ago, I was bald. But today, after a long struggle, I finally look like the little girl from ''The Ring''.
:Randall: That's, uhh... good?
:Randall's wife: ''Hissssss''

:[A line of six people, including Randall and his wife, stand and watch the solar eclipse.]

'''New to Ten Years''':

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Buns]]

Category:CC-BY-SA comics

2020-06-18T09:18:53Z

PinkAmpersand: two special cases

Comics in this category have been released by [[Randall]] under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license] as opposed to the standard [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ CC-BY-NC 2.5], which means that unlike other xkcd comics they can be used for commercial purposes. Often Randall does this to allow the use of the image on Wikipedia (or, more precisely, Wikimedia Commons), which only allows CC-BY/CC-BY-SA images.

The third panel of [[220: Philosophy]], which is used in the infobox on the {{w|xkcd|xkcd Wikipedia article}}, is also licensed under CC-BY-SA, but is not listed here since the rest of the comic remains CC-BY-NC. There is also one thing by Randall licensed ''more'' liberally than CC-BY-SA, namely [[Radiation]], which is in the public domain.

[[Category:Comic images]]

1193: Externalities

2020-05-21T05:20:16Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ born and raised in South Detroi-oit

{{comic
| number = 1193
| date = April 1, 2013
| title = Externalities
| image = externalities.png
| titletext = Mouse over words and things to see where they come from.
}}
{{incomplete|While a good start with the explanation of Baidu, the article should give an explanation of the comic in its current state. The different versions during the competition should be its own section. Also, update image to include text.}}
{{TOC}}
==Explanation==
This was the fourth [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was
[[1037: Umwelt]] from Sunday April 1st 2012. The next was [[1350: Lorenz]] released on Tuesday April 1st 2014.

This comic isn't a static image - even the title text changes depending on which part of the image you're hovering over. It presented a competition for students to see who could come closest to breaking a {{w|Skein (hash function)|Skein hash}} but also an aid appeal for the Wikimedia Foundation.

There are quite a few references in the comic to {{w|Baidu}}. Baidu is a large Chinese Internet services company that employs thousands, whose shares are publicly traded on world stock exchanges. It's the predominant Internet search provider of China, and is sometimes called the "Google of China". It offers parallels for the Chinese market of many of the services that Google provides and offers its own encyclopedic wiki with a restricted edit policy to serve as a replacement for Wikipedia. Wikipedia reports that Baidu's search engine handled 56% of Chinese internet search queries in Q4 2010. and that in October 2012, Baidu ranked 5th overall in the Alexa Internet rankings. Given that explanation for the Baidu references in #1193 is still solicited for explainxkcd, Baidu apparently is not well known yet among savvy XKCD readers.
Baidu Search results reputedly follow the censorship dictates of the Chinese authorities, causing it to return censored responses to searches for politically sensitive terms like "Tianamen Square massacre" or "Falun Gong" when executed by web browsers that are connected via Chinese ISPs. When you execute such searches via Baidu in the US, the top links returned for these topics do seem to reflect Chinese government sensibilities although the uncensored English language Wikipedia articles for these topics are listed high in the query results. Baidu's reputation for censorship provides background for Megan's reply "but nothing about Tianamen Square" in response to the "Come and find your future at Baidu" employment enticement of panel one and also provides the background to understand the "It takes great minds to stifle other great minds" slogan of the second panel.

The blank regions in the above image are dynamically generated from various sources.
*The university that is being recruited changes depending on which university is winning the hash finding competition in the fifth panel.
*The company doing the recruiting is randomly selected from a pool of companies. It was formerly the first NASDAQ-100 company mentioned on a varying Wikipedia page.
*The text in the second panel may vary: See [[1193: Externalities#Second Panel|this section]].
*The text in the third panel may vary: See [[1193: Externalities#Third Panel|this section]].
*The text in the fourth panel may vary: See [[1193: Externalities#Fourth Panel|this section]].
*The text in the fifth panel [[1193: Externalities#Fifth Panel|changes]], depending on which university is currently in third place in a hash finding competition. Clicking on the panel takes you to [http://almamater.xkcd.com/ a webpage] where people can enter their school's domain name and hash data, and ranks schools on how close their students can come to matching a Skein 1024 1024 hash value.
*The text in the top half of the sixth panel may vary. See [[1193: Externalities#Sixth Panel|this section]]. The second half of the panel is always the same.
*The last panel varies with the amount donated to the Wikimedia Foundation via [https://donate.wikimedia.org/?utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=xkcd_april1 this link]. For past images, see [[1193: Externalities#Seventh Panel|this section]].

===Hashing Competition===
For the two days until comic 1194 appeared, a competition was underway to see who could come closest to breaking a {{w|Skein (hash function)|Skein hash}}. The first text line of the first panel contains a link to http://almamater.xkcd.com. This page contained the text:

:Currently looking for Skein 1024 1024 input matching
<pre>5b4da95f5fa08280fc9879df44f418c8f9f12ba424b7757de02bbdfbae0d4c4fdf9317c80cc5fe04c6429073466cf29706b8c25999ddd2f6540d4475cc977b87f4757be023f19b8f4035d7722886b78869826de916a79cf9c94cc79cd4347d24b567aa3e2390a573a373a48a5e676640c79cc70197e1c5e7f902fb53ca1858b6</pre>

On this page, users were invited to enter "Your school's domain name" — presumably intended to be their college alma mater. (At least in the beginning, only a few top-level domains were accepted.) If the user entered an acceptable domain (by xkcd's rules, which apparently changed during the 48 hours of the competition), they could then enter data values one at a time. For each data value entered, xkcd returned a hash value and the number of bits by which it differed from the target value. The object was to achieve the lowest possible number of differing bits, ideally zero.

A ranking page showed the lowest value achieved for each domain name entered, but not the data that achieved it. The first name on the list was substituted in various panels, and the third-place school showed in panel five. No data values were reported by xkcd, but various results were posted by users of the xkcd forums and on other websites, leading to copycat submissions, so that occasionally large numbers of institutions would show the same moderately low value.

After the end of the contest, the data submission page vanished, replaced by the final list of rankings, which shows that Carnegie Mellon University achieved the best score with 384 bits incorrect out of 1024. The rankings only show a few hundred out of the several thousand domains submitted—presumably Randall chose to chop the copycat submissions off the end of the list, retaining only honestly obtained results.

===First Panel===
In some cases, Megan's reply seems to correspond to the company.
{| class="wikitable table-padding"
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Have you applied to [company] yet?
:Megan: The recruiter hasn't emailed me back in over three minutes.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Have you applied to [company] yet?
:Megan: The recruiter hasn't emailed me back in over an hour!
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Have you thought of a career at [company]?
:Megan: I'm not that good at math.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Have you thought of a career at [company]?
:Megan: What do they even do?
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Have you thought of a career at [company]?
:Megan: I don't like monopolies.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Have you thought of a career at [company]?
:Megan: Only in my darkest moments.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Be part of the Apple experience!
:Megan: I'm not really a fan of turtlenecks.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Come work at Microsoft!
:Megan: I only came to this tech talk for the xbox giveaway.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Y U No Work Yahoo?
:Megan: I like working from home!
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Become a partner at Starbucks!
:Megan: But green's not my colour.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Come work in the Amazon!
:Megan: I don't have to actually move to South America, do I?
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Have you thought of a career at [company]?
:Megan: Not after that presentation.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Thought about working for Intel?
:Megan: I'm not that great at division.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Dude, you should work at Dell!
:Megan: That catchphrase is so old.
|-
|
:Ahoy, carnegie melonites!
:Have you thought of a career at [company]?
:Megan: Not after that presentation.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Have you looked for a job at Kraft Foods?
:Megan: I'm allergic to sugar
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:How about working for Whole Foods?
:Megan: Could I afford the food if I did?
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Come work at EBay!
:Megan: Maybe if they made a good bid.
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students!
:Come work for Activision... er... Blizzard... er...
:Megan: Activision Blizzard?
|-
|
:Hey, [university] students! <nowiki>|</nowiki> Ahoy. Carnegie Melonites!
:Come find your future at Baidu!
:Megan: But nothing about Tiananmen Square.
|}

===Second Panel===
The text in the second panel is based on the company in the first panel:
{| class="wikitable table-padding"
|-
|
:When the Singularity happens, it will happen here.
:Ponytail: [Company] has outgrown us.
:Men: It is time.
|-
|
:Think of ways to make things smaller and smaller!
:Ponytail: I'm worried mine is too big.
:Men: Yeahhh
|-
|
:Think of ways to make things smaller and smaller!
:Ponytail: But will it blend?
:Men: Yeahhh
|-
|
:You'll be part of a dynamic research team envisioning the future.
:Ponytail: It probably looks cool.
:Men: Yeahhh
|-
|
:You'll be creating the future of commerce platforms!
:Ponytail: More recommendations.
:Men: Yep.
|-
|
:You'll be an insignificant cog in our giant machine
:Ponytail: We should improve Notepad
:Men: Nah
|-
|
:We can't tell you what you'll be working on.
:Ponytail: [Confidential]
:Men: [Redacted]
|-
|
:You'll be an insignificant cog in our giant machine
:Ponytail: Needs more Bob.
:Men: Nah
|-
|
:You'll help set the future of the company
:Ponytail: Wait. You hired a college grad as the CFO?
:Men: Yeahhh
|-
|
:At Qualcomm, we know you're born mobile.
:Ponytail: Born mobile!
:Men: Texting!
|-
|
:Short or tall, we've got a grande job for you!
:Ponytail: How many job openings are there?
:Men: Ele-venti or so.
|-
|
:You'll help direct the future of nutrition
:Ponytail: Microwaveable toast
:Men: Delicious
|-
|
:Help us find and provide the best healthy, local, and sustainable products.
:Ponytail: Hey guys, how about kale cookies?
:Men: Sounds great!
|-
|
:We're the Classmates.com to Facebook's Craigslist.
:Ponytail: Maybe we should use game theory.
:Men: Why Bother?
|-
|
:Whatever. Come create the future of gaming!
:Ponytail: Call of Duty 14.
:Men: That's genius!
|-
|
:It takes great minds to stifle other great minds.
:Ponytail: Let's block Canada
:Men: Sounds good.
|}

===Third Panel===
{| class="wikitable table-padding"
|-
|
:We're a convenient four hour drive from New York City (15,000 hours by Roomba)
|-
|
:Only a short commuter flight away!
|-
|
:Travel to us by Roomba, we're *that* close!
|-
|
:We're so close you can get to us by Roomba.
|-
|
:Free Roomba rides every morning while you have coffee.
|-
|
:Your Roomba comes in black & slate, or white & silver
|-
|
:Just a short Roomba ride up the coast, try not to fall off.
|-
|
:We know what everyday life is like for your generation:
|}

===Fourth Panel===
{| class="wikitable sortable plainlinks table-padding"
|-
|
:Our recruiting team is on the lookup for promising young [university] graduates.
|-
|
:We hired a new recruiting startup to help us hire [university] students.
|-
|
:We borrowed the botanical gardens' net to catch promising recruits.
|-
|
:We prefer to recruit from [university] students, of course.
|-
|
:Our recruiters are on the hunt for unaware [university] graduates.
|}

===Fifth Panel===
{| class="wikitable table-padding"
|-
|
:Or students from [university], if they're clever with their applications
|-
|
:Possibly [university] grads, if their form-filling startup works out.
|-
|
:Or [university] graduates, provided any of them manage to fill out the application correctly.
|-
|
:Or [university] graduates, if they manage to fill out the application correctly.
|}

The text in the form varies independently of the text at the top, sometimes related to the organization in 3rd place:

{| class="wikitable table-padding"
|-
!Organization
!Name
!Email
!Education
!(Explanation)
|-
|MIT
|Oliver Smoot
|pgp encrypted
|have you ever really looked at the fourier
|As an undergrad at MIT in 1948, Smoot was used to measure the Harvard Bridge during a fraternity prank. This led to the introduction of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot "smoot"] as an unusual unit of length.
|-
|
|Wheeeee
|ford.com
|stealing lunches from startups
|-
|CMU
|leeroy jenkins
|me@car
|I can cut up melons
| Le(e)roy Jenkins is an internet meme originating from a 2006 'Let's Play' video of World of Warcraft
|-
|CMU
|pittsburgh
|me@car
|I can cut up melons
|-
|
|SEGMENTATION FAULT
|save trees
|Contra dancing.
|-
|Cambridge
|I'm applying
|cam.gov
|on going problems with birds
|-
|
|certainly
|elephant
|An excellent year in the Sahara
|-
|Stanford
|Stanford
|ford.com
|Stealing lunches from startups
|-
|Stanford
|Yes Please
|@twitter
|Are you Stanford?
|-
|
|Applying
|For a job
|I would like to work at you
|-
|St.Olaf
|Me olaf
|You Helga
|Hunting wooly mammoths
|-
|Ohio State
|Oh!
|IO
|O HAI O
| A joke on the pronunciation of Ohio.
|-
|
|FOLLOWBACK
|TOTALLY.EDU.US
|CONVENIENT US DOMAIN REDIRECTS
| .edu is a website suffix mostly used for (American) university websites.
|-
|
|Mancher
|Outlook
|Made a collage out of macaroni
|-
|Stanford
|Yes Please
|ford.com
|Are you Stanford?
|-
|Michigan
|ANN
|SOUTH DETROIT
|HUNT LIKE A WOLVERINE
|University of Michigan is in Ann Arbor; the mascot is the Wolverine. "South Detroit" is referenced in the song {{w|Don't Stop Believin'}}, which is notable because there is actually no such city or neighborhood; rather, Detroit is one of the only places in the contiguous United States where you can drive south and wind up in Canada, namely in the city of {{w|Windsor, Ontario}}. Michiganders therefore often object to the bad geography in the song.
|-
|
|christopher
|POBox 12532
|p.s. ill find my frog
|PO Box 12532 is located at Pyramid Lake in Nevada.
|-
|Oxford
|Bond, James
|Righto
|We're better than Cambridge
|-
|
|Which one
|Forget it
|Riding the L all night long
|-
|Kit
|Kat
|Oh dear
|Something something sleep
|-
|Google
|My G+ handle?
|Any
|I'm feeling lucky
|G+ stands for Google+, Googles social network. I'm feeling lucky is the second option under the searchbar on Google.
|-
|UIC
|Which one
|Forget it
|Riding the L all night long
|Presumably University of Illinois at Chicago. "Which one" could be a reference to other institutions with the same initials, or people who confuse "UIC" with "U of C" (University of Chicago, a different institution altogether). The rapid transit system in Chicago is called the 'L'.
|-
|MY JOB NOW
|@
|SAVE DOCUMENT AND SEND
| Could be Randall saying most jobs are just sending e-mails (@).
|}

===Sixth Panel===
{| class="wikitable table-padding"
|-
|
:At [company], you'll work at a scale you won't find anywhere else
|-
|
:Explore the depths of expensive and undocumented tools!
|-
|
:At Apple, we believe in pushing the boundary of perfection.
|-
|
:At Microsoft, you just need to relax and embrace the machine
|-
|
:Yahoo management aren't just suits. We code too!
|-
|
:At [company], you'll have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects.
|-
|
:At Amazon, you'll be shaving the most cutting-edge of yaks.
|-
|
:You get to bid first on any auction, and use other experimental tools!
|-
|
:At QUALCOMM, Device driver code quality is job #1
|-
|
:Make use of our powerful in-house game creation tools.
|-
|
:We're even working on some experimental biotechnology
|}

===Seventh Panel===
{| class="wikitable table-padding"
|-
|[[File:externality-dog1.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog2.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog2A.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog3.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog4.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog5.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog6.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog7.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog8.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog9.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog10.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog12.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog13.png]]
|-
|[[File:externality-dog14.png]]
|}

===Title Text===
The title text documents the different sources of data in the comic. The different title texts are:

{| class="wikitable table-padding"
|-
!Comic region
!Title text
|-
|Most of the comic, during the competition.||Mouse over words and things to see where they come from.
|-
|Most of the comic, after the competition ended||This comic went up on April 1st, and the panels changed throughout the day in response to readers doing things like breaking hashes, edited a rapidly-shuffling set of target Wikipedia articles, and donating to Wikimedia Foundation. (The vandalism is over now and CMU won the hashing contest.)
|-
|The part of the first panel (text and drawing) which is not a link. There is no title text at all over the part where the link is active||Happy April 1st, Everyone!
|-
|Fifth panel.||[University] has the third best hash. See the full standings at http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv (University = uic after competition)
|-
|Last three panels (only within a frame that would just fit around all three of them).||The dog gains a pound for every $10 donated to the wikimedia foundation via this link. Currently at [amount donated] (Amount = $51135.33 after competition).
|}

==Transcript==
:[This was a dynamic image where the text changed during April 1st. The main title text also changed after the dynamic part was finished, and there are even different title text for different part of the comic. This transcript is of the final version of the comic, (no longer dynamic or changing), as displayed at present on xkcd, there are still four different title texts for specific panels. These four title text are for that reason included here in the transcript.]

:[The basic title text for the entire comic is: "This comic went up on April 1st, and the panels changed throughout the day in response to readers doing things like breaking hashes, edited a rapidly-shuffling set of target Wikipedia articles, and donating to Wikimedia Foundation. (The vandalism is over now and CMU won the hashing contest.)" The other three title text are only active over certain panels.]

:[The first panel with the caption and Megan below has it's own title text. A part of that panel is a link, and in the section where this link is active there is no title text at all. The title text for the rest of the first panel is: "Happy April 1st, everyone!"]

:[A panel with only text is above the first drawing. There is a link on the top part of the text to <nowiki>http://almamater.xkcd.com/</nowiki> (the link is now broken).]
:Ahoy, carnegie melonites!
:
:Come find your future at Baidu.

:[Below, not in a frame, is Megan.]
:Megan: But nothing about Tiananmen Square.

:[Caption floating above the frame of the next panel:]
:It takes great minds to stifle other great minds.
:[Ponytail sits at a desk, hand to her chin, with two Cueball-like guys with their hands on the table.]
:Ponytail: Let's block Canada
:Cueball-like guys: Sounds good.

:[Ponytail crouches on a moving Roomba (labeled) with a steaming mug of coffee in one hand and a smartphone in the other. Above her is a caption. The Roomba makes a noice]
:We're a convenient four hour drive from New York City (15,000 hours by Roomba.)
:''Whirrrrrrr''
:Roomba

:[Ponytail and Hairy corners Cueball as he walks out of a door, and a black haired ponytailed girl is moving towards him wielding a giant butterfly net. There is a caption above them:]
:Our recruiters are on the hunt for unaware CMU graduates

:[The fifth panel has it's own title text only active within (or very close to) the frame. It is: "uic has the third best hash. See the full standings at <nowiki>http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv</nowiki>" (The link is now broken)]

:[There is a caption above a website application. There is three fields to be filled, with each their caption and text:]
:or uic graduates, provied any of them manage to fill out the application correctly.
::Name which one
::Email forget it
::Education Riding the L all night long

:[Caption floating above the frame of the next panel:]
:At Baidu, Inc., you'll have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects.
:[Cueball sits at a computer.]
:Cueball: What does "make dog" do?
:Off-screen voice: Experimental dog generator. Don't click on it; the default size isn't set, so-
:'''*click*'''

:[The last three panels has their own title text, only active within a frame that could contain all three panel. Outside that "frame" (all the way around) is the other title text. Within the title text is: "The dog gains a pound for every $10 donated to the Wikimedia Foundation via this link. Currently at $51135.33."]

:[Small insert panel, going in above the next larger panel: Cueball stares at the screen.]
:''Kzzzt''
:''*bip*''
:Off-screen voice: Uh oh.

:[A giant dog looks down at the desk where the computer once was, now only the wires are left. Cueball, leaning way back in his office chair, holding his hand to his mouth, stares up at it.]

:[Again a smaller insert panel above the large one with the dog. A graphic showing two sliders and a dog (similar to the one in the previous panel). Next to the dog with arrows pointing to it are a thermometer graphic and an equation. Below is an e-mail type text and finally a caption. There are arrows over and under "God" and "dogs" between the g and d's.]
:d(x)=R
:careers@baidu, Inc.
:'''Play God with dogs.'''TM

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Dogs]]
[[Category:Roomba]]
[[Category:Butterfly net]]
[[Category:Singularity]]

2235: Group Chat Rules

2019-11-29T23:19:53Z

PinkAmpersand: xref 1998: GDPR

{{comic
| number = 2235
| date = November 29, 2019
| title = Group Chat Rules
| image = group_chat_rules.png
| titletext = There's no group chat member more enigmatic than the cool person who you all assume has the chat on mute, but who then instantly chimes in with no delay the moment something relevant to them is mentioned.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Item 4 is kind of a head-scratcher on this one, possibly related to an obscure group chat in which Randall participates. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic Randall is outlining the rules of a group chat, such as {{w|Internet Relay Chat}} (IRC), {{w|Slack (software)|Slack}}, {{w|Discord (software)|Discord}}, {{w|WeChat}}, {{w|Discourse (software)|Discourse}}, and the like.

1. '''Once you've sent a typing notification, you have to say ''something,'' c'mon.'''

Typing notifications, often called "typing awareness indicators," is a feature of some instant messaging systems, showing a message such as "Typing..." with the typer's name to the other participants, causing them in many cases to wait to receive the message before typing something of their own. When the typer stops without sending anything, this can seem anticlimactic and potentially disruptive if it recurs. Randall's rule is that you must say something once you've started typing, to avoid the awkwardness of awaiting a person's reply. See also [[1886: Typing Notifications]].

2. '''Show you care by trimming the tracking junk off links you paste.'''

Some URL links may have tracking information attached to the end of them, to show the origin of the URL and other information. {{w|UTM parameters}} are an example of URL parameters (the part of a URL starting with a question mark) which are used to track utilization of the URL from one user to another. Many news and marketing-related websites include such tracking codes with any visit to one of their web pages in an attempt to see the source of the URL for subsequent visits. Many people consider this a violation of privacy as well as a source of clutter, and make an effort to remove the parameters from URLs when they are not necessary for obtaining the requested content. For example, [https://www.dyson.com/sticks/dyson-v8-absolute-nickel-iron.html?ranMID=36310&ranEAID=lw9MynSeamY&ranSiteID=lw9MynSeamY-w42lWd1QYp3RrUefCg_osA&siteID=lw9MynSeamY-w42lWd1QYp3RrUefCg_osA&utm_source=Slickdeals+LLC&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=us_en__na__na__na__purchase&utm_term=&utm_content=rakuten_1&dclid=CjkKEQiAt_PuBRC2vOSG5pnYqN0BEiQATx34W-U3rsbKLg-BO9ep4IJKz6JxmZrHTqS7JKmZqSrWmKLw_wcB&ranMID=36310&ranEAID=lw9MynSeamY&ranSiteID=lw9MynSeamY-z5miuzSsmyWevVXB._R14g&siteID=lw9MynSeamY-z5miuzSsmyWevVXB._R14g&utm_source=Slickdeals+LLC&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=us_en__na__na__na__purchase&utm_term=&utm_content=rakuten_1 this url] has a lot of tracking information to show that this URL was originally accessed from Slickdeals, which can be removed to produce [https://www.dyson.com/sticks/dyson-v8-absolute-nickel-iron.html a much shorter URL] for the same web page. Randall asks the users of group chat to politely remove the tracking codes.

3. '''Do not talk about ''Fight Club'' (1999).'''

This is a reference to the 1999 film ''{{w|Fight Club}}'', where the main character forms an eponymous "Fight Club," an underground club for men to fight recreationally. In [http://www.diggingforfire.net/FightClub/ the rules for Fight Club] the first "rule" is "You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.", which Randall parodies in this comic, by making a rule to not talk about the film ''Fight Club''. The second rule of Fight Club is the same as the first. Which makes it likely this is why it is placed as rule number 3 in this comic. See also [[922: Fight Club]] and [[109: Spoiler Alert]].

4. '''There are two types of chats: those with a relevant group name, and those where the name is random nonsense that changes regularly. Only the second kind are good.'''

5. '''Where mentioning it elsewhere, always just refer to it as "the group chat" to create an aura of exclusive mystery.'''

Many people have to deal with several kinds of group chat in the same organization, so referring to "the group chat" within such an organization may be confusingly ambiguous. Calling a chat "the group chat" could also be used for exclusivity.

6. '''Robert's Rules of Order are optional but encouraged.'''

''{{w|Robert's Rules of Order}}'' are one of the authoritative codifications of {{w|parliamentary procedure}} used to formalize decision-making in organizations required to document their activities such as governments and sometimes civic organizations and corporations. While people required to use ''Robert's Rules'' might use group chat to plan their {{w|Agenda (meeting)|agenda}} — even going so far as to prepare a {{w|pro forma}} script for a meeting in accordance with parliamentary procedure which represents their positions and deliberations in advance — and to compose, revise, and approve their {{w|minutes}}, it is unlikely that group chat participants would follow ''Robert's Rules'' prior to their formal meeting.

6. '''Periodically part of the group will split off to form a new chat with everyone minus one person. This is how group chats reproduce; don't draw attention to it.'''

Some people who use group chat too frequently or for unimportant messages or both will cause their colleagues to attempt to achieve greater productivity by excluding them from an alternate chat, from which notifications, for example, are less annoying and more useful.
Alternatively, a person could be excluded from a chat to hide things from them, for example, to plan a surprise for them.

8. '''Since there's no algorithmic feed, the responsibility for injecting lots of garbage no one asked for falls on you.'''

Tools such as {{w|IFTTT}} and {{w|IRC bot}}s (or "bots" in this context) are used to provide group chat channels with information automatically taken from external sources of various sorts, such as emails to a support address or commits to source code control systems. Randall suggests that when such algorithmic information is not available, it is incumbent upon chat participants to provide sufficiently verbose replacements. The "algorithmic feed" may also refer to the newsfeed type of systems that Facebook or other social networking sites use, to order posts for a user to view.

9. '''The enumeration, in these rules, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.'''

This is a reference to the {{w|Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution}}, which entitles people to rights not specifically mentioned in the Constitution. Per Wikipedia, this right was included because "future generations might argue that, because a certain right was not listed in the Bill of Rights, it did not exist." The Ninth Amendment was also referenced in [[1998: GDPR]], in a similar context of being inserted into a list of rules where it didn't really apply.

10. '''Sorry about all the notifications.'''

Here, Randall apologizes for all the notifications for the messages sent in group chat. Group chat features often result in more notifications than designers of notification systems anticipated or intended. If each of these ten rules were sent as a separate message in group chat, they might likely end with such an apology.

The title text expresses appreciation of group chat participants who remain silent except for promptly replying on topics pertinent to them.

==Transcript==
:[Title at the top of the comic]:
: Rules for this group chat

:[A numbered list of 10 rules]:

# Once you've sent a typing notification, you have to say ''something,'' c'mon.
# Show you care by trimming the tracking junk off links you paste.
# Do not talk about ''Fight Club'' (1999).
# There are two types of chats: those with a relevant group name, and those where the name is random nonsense that changes regularly. Only the second kind are good.
# Where mentioning it elsewhere, always just refer to it as "the group chat" to create an aura of exclusive mystery.
# Robert's Rules of Order are optional but encouraged.
# Periodically part of the group will split off to form a new chat with everyone minus one person. This is how group chats reproduce; don't draw attention to it.
# Since there's no algorithmic feed, the responsibility for injecting lots of garbage no one asked for falls on you.
# The enumeration, in these rules, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
# Sorry about all the notifications.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Social interactions]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

1991: Research Areas by Size and Countedness

2018-05-09T16:09:05Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ space

{{comic
| number = 1991
| date = May 9, 2018
| title = Research Areas by Size and Countedness
| image = research_areas_by_size_and_countedness.png
| titletext = Mathematicians give a third answer on the vertical axis, "That question is poorly defined, but we have a sub-field devoted to every plausible version of it."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VERY BIG AND NUMEROUS RESEARCH FIELD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a 2-dimensional chart that is about different research fields. The vertical axis is the accuracy of how many of the studied object there are, and the horizontal axis is how large the studied object is.

Entymology on the graph is possibly a reference to [[1012: Wrong Superhero]].

;Upper left quadrant

{| class = "wikitable"
! Research field
! Explanation
|-
|{{w|Elementary particle physics}}
|
|-
|{{w|Dentistry}}
|
|-
|{{w|Shakespeare}} studies
|
|-
|{{w|Ornithology}}
|
|-
|{{w|Ancient literature}}
|
|}

;Lower left quadrant

{| class = "wikitable"
! Research field
! Explanation
|-
|{{w|Mycology}}
|
|-
|Entymology
|It is unclear whether [[Randall]] means {{w|entomology}} or {{w|etymology}}.
|-
|{{w|Microbiology}}
|
|-
|{{w|Pharmacology}}
|
|}

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

{{comic discussion}}

1991: Research Areas by Size and Countedness

2018-05-09T16:08:33Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ lower left

{{comic
| number = 1991
| date = May 9, 2018
| title = Research Areas by Size and Countedness
| image = research_areas_by_size_and_countedness.png
| titletext = Mathematicians give a third answer on the vertical axis, "That question is poorly defined, but we have a sub-field devoted to every plausible version of it."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VERY BIG AND NUMEROUS RESEARCH FIELD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a 2-dimensional chart that is about different research fields. The vertical axis is the accuracy of how many of the studied object there are, and the horizontal axis is how large the studied object is.

Entymology on the graph is possibly a reference to [[1012:Wrong Superhero]].

;Upper left quadrant

{| class = "wikitable"
! Research field
! Explanation
|-
|{{w|Elementary particle physics}}
|
|-
|{{w|Dentistry}}
|
|-
|{{w|Shakespeare}} studies
|
|-
|{{w|Ornithology}}
|
|-
|{{w|Ancient literature}}
|
|}

;Lower left quadrant

{| class = "wikitable"
! Research field
! Explanation
|-
|{{w|Mycology}}
|
|-
|Entymology
|It is unclear whether [[Randall]] means {{w|entomology}} or {{w|etymology}}.
|-
|{{w|Microbiology}}
|
|-
|{{w|Pharmacology}}
|
|}

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

{{comic discussion}}

1991: Research Areas by Size and Countedness

2018-05-09T15:54:18Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ + links

{{comic
| number = 1991
| date = May 9, 2018
| title = Research Areas by Size and Countedness
| image = research_areas_by_size_and_countedness.png
| titletext = Mathematicians give a third answer on the vertical axis, "That question is poorly defined, but we have a sub-field devoted to every plausible version of it."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VERY BIG AND NUMEROUS RESEARCH FIELD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a 2-dimensional chart that is about different research fields. The vertical axis is the accuracy of how many of the studied object there are, and the horizontal axis is how large the studied object is.

;Upper left quadrant

{| class = "wikitable"
! Research field
! Explanation
|-
|{{w|Elementary particle physics}}
|
|-
|{{w|Dentistry}}
|
|-
|{{w|Shakespeare}} studies
|
|-
|{{w|Ornithology}}
|
|-
|{{w|Ancient literature}}
|
|}

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

{{comic discussion}}

1991: Research Areas by Size and Countedness

2018-05-09T15:52:32Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ upper left quadrant

{{comic
| number = 1991
| date = May 9, 2018
| title = Research Areas by Size and Countedness
| image = research_areas_by_size_and_countedness.png
| titletext = Mathematicians give a third answer on the vertical axis, "That question is poorly defined, but we have a sub-field devoted to every plausible version of it."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VERY BIG AND NUMEROUS RESEARCH FIELD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a 2-dimensional chart that is about different research fields. The vertical axis is the accuracy of how many of the studied object there are, and the horizontal axis is how large the studied object is.

;Upper left quadrant

{| class = "wikitable"
! Research field
! Explanation
|-
|Elementary particle physics
|
|-
|{{w|Dentistry}}
|
|-
|Shakespeare studies
|
|-
|{{w|Ornithology}}
|
|-
|Ancient literature
|
|}

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

{{comic discussion}}

1970: Name Dominoes

2018-03-22T01:27:25Z

PinkAmpersand: John Kelly ambiguity

{{comic
| number = 1970
| date = March 21, 2018
| title = Name Dominoes
| image = name_dominoes.png
| titletext = In competition, you can only play a name if you know who the person is. No fair saying "Frank ... Johnson. That sounds like a real person! Let me just Google him real quick."
}}

A large version of the comic picture can be found [https://xkcd.com/1970/large/ here].
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Someone should create a full transcript... and good luck with that!}}
{{w|Dominoes}} is a family of boardgames played with rectangular "domino" tiles. A domino tile is divided into two squares, each displaying a number. Under most rules, a domino tile is placed on the table adjacent to another tile, and the adjacent ends must match in some way (namely by the number displayed on the touching ends). Randall's "name dominoes" shows a set of domino tiles with people's names instead of numbers, and adjacent tiles are matched by whether the closest name is the same (such as how Chris Evans' family name matches Evan Taylor Jones' given name).

The title text spells out a rule that a player may only place a tile if they know who that person is. This is a variation of a rule in {{w|Scrabble}}, where a player loses a turn if they are don't survive a dictionary challenge over the validity of a word. This rule implies that players are allowed to create new name dominoes tiles and that it is not a fixed set.

A large board is covered in rectangular "dominoes", with each domino bearing the name of a well-known person or character. The dominoes are arranged as if a game of dominoes were being played, but instead of the game requiring the number of spots of adjacent dominoes to match up, this game requires adjacent ''names'' to match up. Because most people have two or more names, different matches are made at each end of a domino. The match can be exact (e.g., "Kevin" on one domino adjacent to "Kevin" on another), homonymic (e.g., "Klein" adjacent to "Kline"), or nickname-based (e.g., "James" adjacent to "Jimmy", which in turn is adjacent to "Jim"). Sometimes last names are matched up with first names (e.g., "{{w|Elizabeth Warren}}" adjacent to "{{w|Warren Beatty}}"), and in some cases only a single name is used (e.g., "{{w|Columbo}}", "{{w|Drake_(musician)|Drake}}", "{{w|Garfield_(character)|Garfield}}", "{{w|Prince_(musician)|Prince}}"), in which case a half-size square "domino" might be used, or it might be a full size one ("{{w|Batman}}", "{{w|Garnet_(Steven_Universe)|Garnet}}", "{{w|Superman}}"). Some people have three or more names (e.g., {{w|Frank Lloyd Wright}}), in which case a 50% longer than normal domino results and matching to a middle name (Lloyd) is possible. There doesn't appear to be absolute consistency on the length of the domino vs the number of words in the name.

The figures named come from a wide variety of fields: scientists (e.g., {{w|Isaac Newton}}), historical figures ({{w|George Washington}}), musicians ({{w|Drake (musician)|Drake}}), politicians ({{w|John Kerry}}), actors ({{w|Kevin Costner}}), writers ({{w|Washington Irving}}), fashion designers ({{w|Oscar de la Renta}}), and so on. Most of the names are real people but a few are fictional characters, possibly non-human ({{w|Grover#Super_Grover|Super Grover}}).

In at least one case it is not entirely clear who is being referred to: "John Kelly" most likely refers to Gen. {{w|John F. Kelly}}, Donald Trump's chief of staff, but the name is extremely common and could equally refer to {{w|John Kelly|any number of people}}.

One notable reference beyond just the use of a name is in the bottom left, there is the connection [ {{w|William Safire}} ][ Garnet ][ {{w|Jack Ruby}} ]. This seemingly incorrect connection is in reference to the character Garnet in the cartoon {{w|Steven Universe}}, who is a fusion of the two characters Sapphire and Ruby. Another potential mismatch is {{w|Topher Grace}}, where "Topher" is matched to several instances of "Chris," both of which may be shortenings of "Christopher."

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[This comic shows names overlayed onto black domino tiles, arranged so that each touching side corresponds with the first or last name of another person. Some of the domino tiles are rotated 90 degrees or are upside down.]
:[The names include (sometimes repeated):]
:{{w|Christian Campbell}}, {{w|Neve Campbell}}, {{w|Joseph Campbell}}, {{w|Joseph Smith}}, {{w|Etta James}} (2x (so far)), {{w|Joe McCarthy}}, {{w|Eugene McCarthy}}, {{w|Gene Vincent}}, {{w|Gene Kelly}}, {{w|John Kelly}}, {{w|Katherine Johnson}}, {{w|Kate Hudson}}, {{w|Rock Hudson}}, {{w|The Rock}}, {{w|Chris Rock}}, {{w|Chris Isaac}}, {{w|Isaac Newton}}, {{w|James Newton Howard}}, {{w|James Brown}}, {{w|Gordon Brown}}, {{w|Jon Brown}}, {{w|John Wayne}}, {{w|John Howard}}, {{w|Howard Stern}}, {{w|Howard Hunt}}, {{w|Helen Hunt}}, {{w|Helen Hughes}}, {{w|Chris Hughes}}, {{w|Chris Columbus}}, {{w|Christopher Columbus}}, {{w|Columbo}}, {{w|Helen Thomas}}, {{w|Tom Hanks}}, {{w|Hank Aaron}}, {{w|Aaron Carter}}, {{w|Hank Williams}}, {{w|Robin Williams}}, {{w|Billy D. Williams}}, {{w|William C. Williams}}, {{w|Robin Wright}}, {{w|Will Wright}}, {{w|Wilbur Wright}}, {{w|Tom Brady}}, {{w|Wayne Brady}}, {{w|Wayne Knight}}, {{w|Wayne Newton}}, {{w|Wayne Howard}}, {{w|Isaac Hayes}}, {{w|Oscar Isaac}}, {{w|Oscar the Grouch}}, {{w|Oscar de la Hoya}}, {{w|Oscar de la Renta}}, {{w|Lyndon Johnson}}, {{w|Drake}}, {{w|Frank Drake}}, {{w|Lisa Frank}}, {{w|Francis Drake}}, {{w|Frank Vincent}}, {{w|Francis Bacon}}, {{w|Kevin Bacon}}, {{w|Kevin Costner}}, {{w|Kevin Love}}, {{w|Kevin Smith}}, {{w|Kevin Kline}}, {{w|Naomi Klein}}, {{w|Naomi Watts}}, {{w|James Watt|James Watt (Steam)}}, {{w|James G. Watt|James Watt (Interior)}}, {{w|Stephen James}}, {{w|Steve Harvey}}, {{w|Domino Harvey}}, {{w|Harvey Milk}}, {{w|Will Smith}}, {{w|Kein James}}, {{w|James Saint James}}, {{w|James Garfield}}, {{w|Garfield}}, {{w|Etta James}}, {{w|Jimmy Buffett}}, {{w|Warren Buffett}}, {{w|Warren Beatty}}, {{w|Elizabeth Warren}}, {{w|Earl Warren}}, {{w|Eliabeth Kolbert}}, {{w|Stephen Colbert}}, {{w|James Earl Jones}}, {{w|James Earl Ray}}, {{w|Man Ray}}, {{w|Ray Parker Jr.}}, {{w|Rachel Ray}}, {{w|Ray Charles}}, {{w|Charles Manson}}, {{w|Charlie Parker}}, {{w|Charles Wallace}}, {{w|Wallace Shawn}}, {{w|Sean Hayes}}, {{w|George Wallace}}, {{w|Marilyn Manson}}, {{w|Marilyn Monroe}}, {{w|James Monroe}}, {{w|James Brady}},

{{comic discussion}}

1930: Calendar Facts

2017-12-19T18:54:37Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Table */ + links

{{comic
| number = 1930
| date = December 18, 2017
| title = Calendar Facts
| image = calendar_facts.png
| titletext = While it may seem like trivia, it (causes huge headaches for software developers / is taken advantage of by high-speed traders / triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout / has to be corrected for by GPS satellites / is now recognized as a major cause of World War I).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There seem to be some possible correct statements, which should be recognized and added as part of the explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] presents what appears to be a generator of 156,000 facts [20 x 13 x (8 + 6 x 7) x 12], about calendars, most of which are false or have little meaning{{Citation needed}}. The facts are seeded by a mishmash of common tidbits about the time of year.

The formula for each generated fact goes as follows: "Did you know that '''[a recurring event]''' '''[occurs in an unusual manner]''' because of '''[phenomena or political decisions]'''? Apparently '''[wild card statement]'''."

This is [[:Category:Supermoon|the fifth time]] that Randall has referred to the phenomenon of a {{w|supermoon}}, which he typically makes fun of, most prominent in [[1394: Superm*n]].

The title text continues the chart with an inside information of what this tiny trivia actually have of real life consequences.

There are multiple online generators of Calendar 'facts' using this formula [https://www.pibweb.com/xkcd_calendar.php here] and [http://yahel.com/calendarfacts/ here].

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
! Entry
! What it is
! Relation to other entries
|-
! colspan="3" | Recurring Events
|-
| The [Fall/Spring] {{w|Equinox}}
| The time of year at which the apparent position of the overhead sun passes the equator. During the equinox, the time that the Sun is above the horizon is 12 hours across the globe.
| Before the adoption of the {{w|Gregorian calendar}} in 1582, the equinoxes fell on earlier and earlier dates as the centuries went by, due to the {{w|Julian calendar}} year being 365.25 days on average compared to the tropical Earth year of 365.2422 days. {{w|Pope Gregory}}'s decision to remove the leap days on years that were multiples of 100 but not 400 corrected the average length of the calendar year to 365.2425 days.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Solstice}}
| The time of year when the apparent position of the overhead sun reaches its most extreme latitude. During the Winter and Summer solstices the days are the shortest and longest respectively.
| Similar to the equinoxes, the solstices were also falling on earlier dates every year before the Gregorian calendar.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Olympics}}
| The Olympic Games occur during the summer and the winter, alternating between the two seasons every two years.
| The Olympic Games do not have any set dates, and seem to only be included humorously as something else that alternates between occurring during the summer and winter.
|-
| Daylight [saving/savings] time
| {{w|Daylight saving time}}, commonly referred to as daylight savings time, is the practice of setting clocks ahead, typically by one hour, during the summer months of the year.
| Daylight saving time will push the time of certain events such as sunrise and sunset past their "natural" times. For example, solar noon will occur around 1:00 PM instead of 12:00 noon when daylight saving time is active, making it the "wrong" time.
|-
| Leap [day/year]
| Because the durations of celestial events are not generally nice multiples of each other, they will tend to fall out of sync with each other. Leap days are days inserted into specific years to bring the calendar back into sync, and the years on which these {{w|leap day}}s occur are called {{w|leap year}}s.
|
|-
| {{w|Easter}}
| Easter is a holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of {{w|Jesus}}. It is defined as the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This complicated formula has a long tradition behind it, known as {{w|Computus}}.
| When Pope Gregory decided to change the calendar in 1582, it was because the spring equinox was putting Easter on unexpectedly early dates.
|-
| The [harvest/super/blood] moon
|
* The {{w|harvest moon}} is the full moon that appears closest to the autumnal equinox in September.
* The {{w|supermoon}} is a phenomenon in which the moon is full at its closest approach to the Earth.
* The {{w|blood moon}} is a moon that appears tinted red during a total lunar eclipse because of light refracted from the Earth's atmosphere. It can also refer to the {{w|hunter's moon}}, the full moon directly after the harvest moon.
| Each of these lunar events happens approximately once a year.
* The harvest moon appears exactly once because it has a particular definition based on the time of year.
*
* The blood moon during a lunar eclipse appears between zero to two times a year. The hunter's moon appears exactly once like the harvest moon.
|-
| Toyota Truck Month
| Toyota offers a discount for {{w|Toyota Tacoma|Tacoma}} trucks one month a year. Mainly notable because radio and television ads hype this discount up as "Toyota Truck Month".
|
|-
| {{w|Shark Week}}
| Every year, the {{w|Discovery Channel}} dedicates a week during the summer to programming featuring or about sharks.
|
|-
! colspan="3" | Unusual manners in which the events occur
|-
| happens [earlier/later/at the wrong time] every year
| colspan="2" | The solstices and equinoxes happened earlier every year ''before'' the decree by Pope Gregory in 1582. The earliest sunrise happens one hour later than it "should" happen due to daylight saving time having turned the clocks forward one hour.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [sun/moon]
| colspan="2" | The Sun and Moon are generally what calendars are based on. If something were to drift out of sync, some corrective mechanism would have to be put in to put it back. This is the motivation behind leap years, leap months (in countries with lunisolar calendars) and leap seconds.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [zodiac]
| colspan="2" | The dates on which the Sun crosses the constellations in the traditional zodiac has shifted in the past centuries due to the precession of the Earth's axis. In the period of time traditionally known as {{w|Aries}} (March 21–April 20), for example, the Sun actually points to {{w|Pisces}} instead.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [Gregorian/Mayan/lunar/iPhone] calendar
| colspan="2" |
*The {{w|Gregorian calendar}} is a solar calendar with a mean calendar year length of 365.2425 days.
*The {{w|Mayan calendar}} is based on two cycles or counts, with a 260-day count combined with a 365-day "vague" solar year.
*A {{w|lunar calendar}} is based on Moon's phases, with each {{w|lunation}} being approximately 29.5 days, and a lunar year lasting roughly 354 days. An example of a lunar calendar is the {{w|Islamic calendar}}.
*The {{w|iPhone calendar}} is listed humorously due to its data synchronization issues.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the atomic clock in {{w|Colorado}}
| colspan="2" |
{{w|NIST-F1}} is an {{w|Atomic clock}} used as a reference for official time in the USA.
|-
| might [not happen/happen twice] this year
| colspan="2" | Some events may have a period of slightly more or slightly less than one year. If an event has a period of slightly less than one year (e.g. the Islamic calendar), it can occur twice in the same year (e.g. the year 2000 had two {{w|Eid al-Fitr}}s—one on January 8, and one on December 28). If an event has a period of slightly more than one year, there can be a year in which it does not occur at all, instead occurring near the end of the previous year and the beginning of the next.
|-
! colspan="3" | Phenomena or political decisions
|-
| time zone legislation in [Indiana/Arizona/Russia]
| Some states or provinces have time zone legislation that sets the standard time to something other than what the natural longitude of that location would suggest.
|
* The state of {{w|Arizona}} generally does not observe daylight saving time, keeping their clocks on {{w|UTC-7:00}} Mountain Standard Time year round. However, the {{w|Navajo nation}} reservation inside Arizona does observe it, causing the two regions to have different times in the summer and the same time in the winter.
* Time zones in Russia are all one hour ahead of what their longitude would suggest, which puts them in a "permanent" state of daylight saving time. (For example, {{w|St. Petersburg}} is 30°E, which means that its natural time zone is {{w|UTC+2:00}}, but its time zone is actually {{w|UTC+3:00}}.) From 1981 until 2011 Russia used to have the daylight saving time on top of it as well. The other changes include the abolition of the one-hour shift in 1991 and a return it back in 1992, and an increase to two hours in 2011 and a restoration back to one hour in 2014.
* {{w|Indiana}} has {{w|Time in Indiana|a complicated history}} with daylight saving time, likely related to the state being split between two time zones.
|-
| a decree by the Pope in the 1500s
| In 1582, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar we use today, to replace the Julian Calendar. The calendar applied retroactively to the birth of Jesus Christ, which means that they had to skip 10 days, going straight from October 4 to October 15, 1582, during the switchover.
| The introduction of the Gregorian calendar brought Easter and the dates that months started back in sync with what they were in the 3rd century AD.
|-
| the [precession] of
| The Earth's axis is slowly changing position, in a phenomenon called the {{w|Axial precession|precession of the equinoxes}}.
| The precession of the equinoxes causes the seasons to occur about 20 minutes earlier than would be expected with the Earth's position relative to the stars, which could be construed as the equinox happening "later every year" if you use the stars as your frame of reference.
|-
| the [libration] of
| The Moon is {{w|tidal locking|tidally locked}} to its orbit around the Earth, which means that the same side of it tends to face the Earth at any given point in time. However, there are slight variations in the angle over the course of a month, which are known as {{w|libration}}.
| The libration of the Moon does not affect anything else in the chart, and seems only be included humorously as another example of a celestial phenomenon.
|-
| the [nutation] of
| Besides precession, there is also a smaller wobbling effect called {{w|Astronomical nutation|nutation}}.
|
|-
| the [libation] of
| A {{w|libation}} is a drink, often used in the context of a ritual offering of liquid to a deity by pouring it onto the ground or into something that collects it.
| This entry seems to have been included simply as a humorous misspelling of the word "libration". Certainly libation of any of the entities listed would be inadvisable.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| the [eccentricity] of
| Orbital eccentricity is the deviation of a body's orbit from a perfect circle. Orbital travel is faster when it's closer to the body being orbited and slower when farther away.
| The Earth's eccentric orbit causes the equinoxes and solstices to occur at irregular intervals. For example, summer in the northern hemisphere lasted 93 days in 2017, while fall only lasted 90 days.
|-
| the [obliquity] of
| The tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic is also known as its obliquity.
|
|-
| the [Moon]
| The Moon is the primary satellite of the Earth.
|
|-
| the [Sun]
| The Sun is the star that the Earth orbits around.
| The Sun is the basis for many timekeeping events, such as the day and year.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| the [Earth's axis]
| The Earth's axis of rotation defines the Geographic North and South Pole, as well as the lines of latitude.
|
|-
| the [Equator]
| The Equator is the line on the Earth's surface which is equidistant from both poles of the Earth's axis.
|
|-
| the [Prime Meridian]
| The Prime Meridian is the line that starts at the North Pole, runs through the {{w|Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Greenwich Royal Observatory}} in London, and ends at the South Pole. It is the basis for longitude when calculating coordinates for positions on the surface of the Earth.
| The Prime Meridian (and in particular the Greenwich Observatory) gives us Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the basis for UTC and the time zone system.
|-
| the [International Date Line]
| The International Date Line is a line on the opposite side of the Earth as the Prime Meridian that separates regions that use time set behind UTC versus regions that are set ahead of UTC. It has many irregularities due to political changes that put certain countries or islands on either side of the divide contrary to their natural longitude.
| The irregular shape of the International Date Line means that certain regions of the Pacific Ocean (such as Kiribati) are more than 24 hours ahead of some other regions (such as Baker Island and American Samoa), which may cause problems with timekeeping.
|-
| the [Mason-Dixon Line]
| The Mason-Dixon line is a line delineating a portion of the border between Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
| The Mason-Dixon line is included as a humorous example as another imaginary geographic line.
|-
| magnetic field reversal
| The Earth's magnetic field has been reversed several times in its geologic history, so that what we would currently call the "magnetic North Pole" was actually the magnetic South Pole about 780,000 years ago, before the most recent reversal.
|
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Benjamin Franklin]
| Benjamin Franklin wrote [http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784] in which he advised them to rise with the sun in order to save candlelight, after he observed that the Parisians were getting up at the same time by the clock and burning a lot of candles in the winter as a result.
| Benjamin Franklin is often touted as "the father of daylight saving time", despite him never actually proposing to alter the clocks.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Isaac Newton]
| Possibly a reference to how Newton divided the colour spectrum into the now-familiar seven colours of the rainbow, on a somewhat arbitrary basis. Newton did spend time working on the problem of calendar reform, but it's unlikely that any decisions he made as a result would affect anything, since he never published his work, and by the time it gained attention the Gregorian Calendar had been widely adopted.
| The spectrum fact is one of those standard bits of trivia of the kind the chart alludes to. Although it has nothing to do with time-keeping, Newton is the sort of person who seems like he should have made decisions like this.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [FDR]
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt set all time zones one hour ahead year-round during World War II. The law was repealed after the war ended.
| Setting the time permanently one hour ahead would make everything happen at the "wrong" time celestially.
|-
! colspan="3" | Consequences
|-
| It causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
| colspan="2" | The week following daylight saving time, car accidents increase by about 5-7%<ref>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/end-of-daylight-saving-time-2015-6-eye-opening-facts-1.3296353</ref>.
|-
| That's why we have leap seconds.
| colspan="2" | Leap seconds occur because the time required for one rotation of the Earth is actually slightly longer than the 86,400 seconds in a standard UTC day. The Earth's rotation is slowing down by about 2 × 10-5 seconds every year due to tidal friction caused by the Moon's gravity; however, this is not one of the possible entries in the list of phenomena.
|-
! colspan="3" | Title Text
|-
| causes huge headaches for software developers
| colspan="2" | Trying to support time zones correctly for all dates present and historic is a mishmash of different regional laws, time zones, and DST changes. The headache is best exemplified in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY this video] by Tom Scott.
|-
| is taken advantage of by high-speed traders
| colspan="2" | A leap second must be taken into account by trading software, and may cause bugs if not accounted properly. Because leap seconds happen at midnight UTC, it might happen in regular trading hours for somebody living in Seattle, where the time zone is UTC-08:00. Somehow, a high-frequency trader may try to take advantage of any bugs in the software if they are not built to handle this particular case. This scenario is relatively unlikely because the market software can keep its own "market-official time" and synchronize with the correct time while the market is closed.
|-
| triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout
| colspan="2" | The {{w|Northeast blackout of 2003}} was caused by a race condition in the energy management software at a power plant in Ohio. Race conditions can theoretically be caused by mismatched timestamps.
|-
| has to be corrected for by GPS satellites
| colspan="2" | Because GPS satellites are at a higher altitude than surface vehicles, their clocks run faster than clocks on the surface due to general relativity. Also, their clocks are not updated for leap seconds. Both these things mean that GPS satellites have a different timekeeping standard than clocks on the ground which are generally synchronized to Greenwich solar time.
|-
| is now recognized as a major cause of World War I.
| colspan="2" | Daylight saving time was first implemented in World War I as a fuel-saving measure. Randall seems to be humorously implying that World War I was started in order to implement these fuel-saving measures during peacetime as well.
|-
|}

<references />

==Examples of true complete statements==

# Did you know that '''the spring equinox''' '''drifts out of sync with the zodiac''' because of '''the precession of the Earth's axis'''? Apparently '''it was even more extreme during the Ice Age'''.
# Did you know that '''daylight saving time''' '''might happen twice this year''' because of '''time zone regulation in Russia'''? Apparently '''there's a proposal to fix it, but it actually makes things worse'''. (True in Russia in 1981)

==Transcript==

<big>-Calendar Facts-</big>

[Shown below is a branching flow chart of sorts that begins at the phrase "Did you know that", then flows through various paths to build up a sentence. (Note that the "→" arrow symbol is used below to indicate a new branch with no intermediate text from a previous branch.)]

* Did you know that:
** the ( Fall | Spring ) Equinox
** the ( Winter | Summer ) ( Solstice | Olympics )
** the ( Earliest | Latest ) ( Sunrise | Sunset )
** Daylight ( Saving | Savings ) Time
** Leap ( Day | Year )
** Easter
** the ( Harvest | Super | Blood ) Moon
** Toyota Truck Month
** Shark Week
* →
** happens ( earlier | later | at the wrong time ) every year
** drifts out of sync with the
*** Sun
*** Moon
*** Zodiac
*** ( Gregorian | Mayan | Lunar | iPhone ) Calendar
*** atomic clock in Colorado
** might ( not happen | happen twice ) this year
* because of
** time zone legislation in ( Indiana | Arizona | Russia )
** a decree by the pope in the 1500s
** ( precession | libration | nutation | libation | eccentricity | obliquity ) of the
*** Moon
*** Sun
*** Earth's axis
*** equator
*** prime meridian
*** ( International Date | Mason-Dixon ) Line
** magnetic field reversal
** an arbitrary decision by ( Benjamin Franklin | Isaac Newton | FDR )
* ?
* Apparently
** it causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
** that's why we have leap seconds.
** scientists are really worried.
** it was even more extreme during the
*** Bronze Age.
*** Ice Age.
*** Cretaceous.
*** 1990s.
** there's a proposal to fix it, but it
*** will never happen.
*** actually makes things worse.
*** is stalled in congress.
*** might be unconstitutional.
** it's getting worse and no one knows why.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Supermoon]]

1930: Calendar Facts

2017-12-19T18:31:20Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Table */ +

{{comic
| number = 1930
| date = December 18, 2017
| title = Calendar Facts
| image = calendar_facts.png
| titletext = While it may seem like trivia, it (causes huge headaches for software developers / is taken advantage of by high-speed traders / triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout / has to be corrected for by GPS satellites / is now recognized as a major cause of World War I).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There seem to be some possible correct statements, which should be recognized and added as part of the explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] presents what appears to be a generator of 156,000 facts [20 x 13 x (8 + 6 x 7) x 12], about calendars, most of which are false or have little meaning{{Citation needed}}. The facts are seeded by a mishmash of common tidbits about the time of year.

The formula for each generated fact goes as follows: "Did you know that '''[a recurring event]''' '''[occurs in an unusual manner]''' because of '''[phenomena or political decisions]'''? Apparently '''[wild card statement]'''."

This is [[:Category:Supermoon|the fifth time]] that Randall has referred to the phenomenon of a {{w|supermoon}}, which he typically makes fun of, most prominent in [[1394: Superm*n]].

The title text continues the chart with an inside information of what this tiny trivia actually have of real life consequences.

There are multiple online generators of Calendar 'facts' using this formula [https://www.pibweb.com/xkcd_calendar.php here] and [http://yahel.com/calendarfacts/ here].

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
! Entry
! What it is
! Relation to other entries
|-
! colspan="3" | Recurring Events
|-
| The [Fall/Spring] {{w|Equinox}}
| The time of year at which the apparent position of the overhead sun passes the equator. During the equinox, the time that the Sun is above the horizon is 12 hours across the globe.
| Before the adoption of the {{w|Gregorian calendar}} in 1582, the equinoxes fell on earlier and earlier dates as the centuries went by, due to the {{w|Julian calendar}} year being 365.25 days on average compared to the tropical Earth year of 365.2422 days. {{w|Pope Gregory}}'s decision to remove the leap days on years that were multiples of 100 but not 400 corrected the average length of the calendar year to 365.2425 days.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Solstice}}
| The time of year when the apparent position of the overhead sun reaches its most extreme latitude. During the Winter and Summer solstices the days are the shortest and longest respectively.
| Similar to the equinoxes, the solstices were also falling on earlier dates every year before the Gregorian calendar.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Olympics}}
| The Olympic Games occur during the summer and the winter, alternating between the two seasons every two years.
| The Olympic Games do not have any set dates, and seem to only be included humorously as something else that alternates between occurring during the summer and winter.
|-
| Daylight [saving/savings] time
| {{w|Daylight saving time}}, commonly referred to as daylight savings time, is the practice of setting clocks ahead, typically by one hour, during the summer months of the year.
| Daylight saving time will push the time of certain events such as sunrise and sunset past their "natural" times. For example, solar noon will occur around 1:00 PM instead of 12:00 noon when daylight saving time is active, making it the "wrong" time.
|-
| Leap [day/year]
| Because the durations of celestial events are not generally nice multiples of each other, they will tend to fall out of sync with each other. Leap days are days inserted into specific years to bring the calendar back into sync, and the years on which these {{w|leap day}}s occur are called {{w|leap year}}s.
|
|-
| {{w|Easter}}
| Easter is a holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of {{w|Jesus}}. It is defined as the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This complicated formula has a long tradition behind it, known as {{w|Computus}}.
| When Pope Gregory decided to change the calendar in 1582, it was because the spring equinox was putting Easter on unexpectedly early dates.
|-
| The [harvest/super/blood] moon
|
* The {{w|harvest moon}} is the full moon that appears closest to the autumnal equinox in September.
* The {{w|supermoon}} is a phenomenon in which the moon is full at its closest approach to the Earth.
* The {{w|blood moon}} is a moon that appears tinted red during a total lunar eclipse because of light refracted from the Earth's atmosphere. It can also refer to the {{w|hunter's moon}}, the full moon directly after the harvest moon.
| Each of these lunar events happens approximately once a year.
* The harvest moon appears exactly once because it has a particular definition based on the time of year.
*
* The blood moon during a lunar eclipse appears between zero to two times a year. The hunter's moon appears exactly once like the harvest moon.
|-
| Toyota Truck Month
| Toyota offers a discount for {{w|Toyota Tacoma|Tacoma}} trucks one month a year. Mainly notable because radio and television ads hype this discount up as "Toyota Truck Month".
|
|-
| {{w|Shark Week}}
| Every year, the {{w|Discovery Channel}} dedicates a week during the summer to programming featuring or about sharks.
|
|-
! colspan="3" | Unusual manners in which the events occur
|-
| happens [earlier/later/at the wrong time] every year
| colspan="2" | The solstices and equinoxes happened earlier every year ''before'' the decree by Pope Gregory in 1582. The earliest sunrise happens one hour later than it "should" happen due to daylight saving time having turned the clocks forward one hour.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [sun/moon]
| colspan="2" | The Sun and Moon are generally what calendars are based on. If something were to drift out of sync, some corrective mechanism would have to be put in to put it back. This is the motivation behind leap years, leap months (in countries with lunisolar calendars) and leap seconds.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [zodiac]
| colspan="2" | The dates on which the Sun crosses the constellations in the traditional zodiac has shifted in the past centuries due to the precession of the Earth's axis. In the period of time traditionally known as Aries (March 21-April 20), for example, the Sun actually points to Pisces instead.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [Gregorian/Mayan/lunar/iPhone] calendar
| colspan="2" |
*The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar with a mean calendar year length of 365.2425 days.
*The Mayan calendar is based on two cycles or counts, with a 260-day count combined with a 365-day "vague" solar year.
*A lunar calendar is based on Moon's phases, with each lunation being approximately 29.5 days, and a lunar year lasting roughly 354 days. An example of a lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar.
*The iPhone calendar is listed humorously due to its data synchronization issues.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the atomic clock in Colorado
| colspan="2" |
{{w|NIST-F1}} is an {{w|Atomic clock}} used as a reference for official time in the USA.
|-
| might [not happen/happen twice] this year
| colspan="2" | Some events may have a period of slightly more or slightly less than one year. If an event has a period of slightly less than one year (e.g. the Islamic calendar), it can occur twice in the same year (e.g. the year 2000 had two Eid-al-Fitrs, one on January 8, and one on December 28). If an event has a period of slightly more than one year, there can be a year in which it does not occur at all, instead occurring near the end of the previous year and the beginning of the next.
|-
! colspan="3" | Phenomena or political decisions
|-
| time zone legislation in [Indiana/Arizona/Russia]
| Some states or provinces have time zone legislation that sets the standard time to something other than what the natural longitude of that location would suggest.
|
* The state of Arizona generally does not observe daylight saving time, keeping their clocks on UTC-7:00 Mountain Standard Time year round. However, the Navajo nation inside Arizona does observe it, causing the two regions to have different times in the summer and the same time in the winter.
* Time zones in Russia are all one hour ahead of what their longitude would suggest, which puts them in a "permanent" state of daylight saving time. (For example, St. Petersburg is 30°E, which means that its natural time zone is UTC+2:00, but its time zone is actually UTC+3:00.) From 1981 until 2011 Russia used to have the daylight saving time on top of it as well. The other changes include the abolishment of the one-hour shift in 1991 and returning it back in 1992, increasing it to two hours in 2011 and restoring back to one hour in 2014.
* Indiana has a complicated history with daylight saving time, likely related to the state being split between two Time Zones. (see {{w|Time in Indiana}})
|-
| a decree by the Pope in the 1500s
| In 1582, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar we use today, to replace the Julian Calendar. The calendar applied retroactively to the birth of Jesus Christ, which means that they had to skip 10 days, going straight from October 4 to October 15, 1582, during the switchover.
| The introduction of the Gregorian calendar brought Easter and the dates that months started back in sync with what they were in the 3rd century AD.
|-
| the [precession] of
| The Earth's axis is slowly changing position, in a phenomenon called the {{w|Axial precession|precession of the equinoxes}}.
| The precession of the equinoxes causes the seasons to occur about 20 minutes earlier than would be expected with the Earth's position relative to the stars, which could be construed as the equinox happening "later every year" if you use the stars as your frame of reference.
|-
| the [libration] of
| The Moon is {{w|tidal locking|tidally locked}} to its orbit around the Earth, which means that the same side of it tends to face the Earth at any given point in time. However, there are slight variations in the angle over the course of a month, which are known as {{w|libration}}.
| The libration of the Moon does not affect anything else in the chart, and seems only be included humorously as another example of a celestial phenomenon.
|-
| the [nutation] of
| Besides precession, there is also a smaller wobbling effect called {{w|Astronomical nutation|nutation}}.
|
|-
| the [libation] of
| A {{w|libation}} is a drink, often used in the context of a ritual offering of liquid to a deity by pouring it onto the ground or into something that collects it.
| This entry seems to have been included simply as a humorous misspelling of the word "libration". Certainly libation of any of the entities listed would be inadvisable.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| the [eccentricity] of
| Orbital eccentricity is the deviation of a body's orbit from a perfect circle. Orbital travel is faster when it's closer to the body being orbited and slower when farther away.
| The Earth's eccentric orbit causes the equinoxes and solstices to occur at irregular intervals. For example, summer in the northern hemisphere lasted 93 days in 2017, while fall only lasted 90 days.
|-
| the [obliquity] of
| The tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic is also known as its obliquity.
|
|-
| the [Moon]
| The Moon is the primary satellite of the Earth.
|
|-
| the [Sun]
| The Sun is the star that the Earth orbits around.
| The Sun is the basis for many timekeeping events, such as the day and year.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| the [Earth's axis]
| The Earth's axis of rotation defines the Geographic North and South Pole, as well as the lines of latitude.
|
|-
| the [Equator]
| The Equator is the line on the Earth's surface which is equidistant from both poles of the Earth's axis.
|
|-
| the [Prime Meridian]
| The Prime Meridian is the line that starts at the North Pole, runs through the {{w|Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Greenwich Royal Observatory}} in London, and ends at the South Pole. It is the basis for longitude when calculating coordinates for positions on the surface of the Earth.
| The Prime Meridian (and in particular the Greenwich Observatory) gives us Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the basis for UTC and the time zone system.
|-
| the [International Date Line]
| The International Date Line is a line on the opposite side of the Earth as the Prime Meridian that separates regions that use time set behind UTC versus regions that are set ahead of UTC. It has many irregularities due to political changes that put certain countries or islands on either side of the divide contrary to their natural longitude.
| The irregular shape of the International Date Line means that certain regions of the Pacific Ocean (such as Kiribati) are more than 24 hours ahead of some other regions (such as Baker Island and American Samoa), which may cause problems with timekeeping.
|-
| the [Mason-Dixon Line]
| The Mason-Dixon line is a line delineating a portion of the border between Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
| The Mason-Dixon line is included as a humorous example as another imaginary geographic line.
|-
| magnetic field reversal
| The Earth's magnetic field has been reversed several times in its geologic history, so that what we would currently call the "magnetic North Pole" was actually the magnetic South Pole about 780,000 years ago, before the most recent reversal.
|
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Benjamin Franklin]
| Benjamin Franklin wrote [http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784] in which he advised them to rise with the sun in order to save candlelight, after he observed that the Parisians were getting up at the same time by the clock and burning a lot of candles in the winter as a result.
| Benjamin Franklin is often touted as "the father of daylight saving time", despite him never actually proposing to alter the clocks.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Isaac Newton]
| Possibly a reference to how Newton divided the colour spectrum into the now-familiar seven colours of the rainbow, on a somewhat arbitrary basis. Newton did spend time working on the problem of calendar reform, but it's unlikely that any decisions he made as a result would affect anything, since he never published his work, and by the time it gained attention the Gregorian Calendar had been widely adopted.
| The spectrum fact is one of those standard bits of trivia of the kind the chart alludes to. Although it has nothing to do with time-keeping, Newton is the sort of person who seems like he should have made decisions like this.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [FDR]
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt set all time zones one hour ahead year-round during World War II. The law was repealed after the war ended.
| Setting the time permanently one hour ahead would make everything happen at the "wrong" time celestially.
|-
! colspan="3" | Consequences
|-
| It causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
| colspan="2" | The week following daylight saving time, car accidents increase by about 5-7%<ref>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/end-of-daylight-saving-time-2015-6-eye-opening-facts-1.3296353</ref>.
|-
| That's why we have leap seconds.
| colspan="2" | Leap seconds occur because the time required for one rotation of the Earth is actually slightly longer than the 86,400 seconds in a standard UTC day. The Earth's rotation is slowing down by about 2 × 10-5 seconds every year due to tidal friction caused by the Moon's gravity; however, this is not one of the possible entries in the list of phenomena.
|-
! colspan="3" | Title Text
|-
| causes huge headaches for software developers
| colspan="2" | Trying to support time zones correctly for all dates present and historic is a mishmash of different regional laws, time zones, and DST changes. The headache is best exemplified in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY this video] by Tom Scott.
|-
| is taken advantage of by high-speed traders
| colspan="2" | A leap second must be taken into account by trading software, and may cause bugs if not accounted properly. Because leap seconds happen at midnight UTC, it might happen in regular trading hours for somebody living in Seattle, where the time zone is UTC-08:00. Somehow, a high-frequency trader may try to take advantage of any bugs in the software if they are not built to handle this particular case. This scenario is relatively unlikely because the market software can keep its own "market-official time" and synchronize with the correct time while the market is closed.
|-
| triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout
| colspan="2" | The {{w|Northeast blackout of 2003}} was caused by a race condition in the energy management software at a power plant in Ohio. Race conditions can theoretically be caused by mismatched timestamps.
|-
| has to be corrected for by GPS satellites
| colspan="2" | Because GPS satellites are at a higher altitude than surface vehicles, their clocks run faster than clocks on the surface due to general relativity. Also, their clocks are not updated for leap seconds. Both these things mean that GPS satellites have a different timekeeping standard than clocks on the ground which are generally synchronized to Greenwich solar time.
|-
| is now recognized as a major cause of World War I.
| colspan="2" | Daylight saving time was first implemented in World War I as a fuel-saving measure. Randall seems to be humorously implying that World War I was started in order to implement these fuel-saving measures during peacetime as well.
|-
|}

<references />

==Examples of true complete statements==

# Did you know that '''the spring equinox''' '''drifts out of sync with the zodiac''' because of '''the precession of the Earth's axis'''? Apparently '''it was even more extreme during the Ice Age'''.
# Did you know that '''daylight saving time''' '''might happen twice this year''' because of '''time zone regulation in Russia'''? Apparently '''there's a proposal to fix it, but it actually makes things worse'''. (True in Russia in 1981)

==Transcript==

<big>-Calendar Facts-</big>

[Shown below is a branching flow chart of sorts that begins at the phrase "Did you know that", then flows through various paths to build up a sentence. (Note that the "→" arrow symbol is used below to indicate a new branch with no intermediate text from a previous branch.)]

* Did you know that:
** the ( Fall | Spring ) Equinox
** the ( Winter | Summer ) ( Solstice | Olympics )
** the ( Earliest | Latest ) ( Sunrise | Sunset )
** Daylight ( Saving | Savings ) Time
** Leap ( Day | Year )
** Easter
** the ( Harvest | Super | Blood ) Moon
** Toyota Truck Month
** Shark Week
* →
** happens ( earlier | later | at the wrong time ) every year
** drifts out of sync with the
*** Sun
*** Moon
*** Zodiac
*** ( Gregorian | Mayan | Lunar | iPhone ) Calendar
*** atomic clock in Colorado
** might ( not happen | happen twice ) this year
* because of
** time zone legislation in ( Indiana | Arizona | Russia )
** a decree by the pope in the 1500s
** ( precession | libration | nutation | libation | eccentricity | obliquity ) of the
*** Moon
*** Sun
*** Earth's axis
*** equator
*** prime meridian
*** ( International Date | Mason-Dixon ) Line
** magnetic field reversal
** an arbitrary decision by ( Benjamin Franklin | Isaac Newton | FDR )
* ?
* Apparently
** it causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
** that's why we have leap seconds.
** scientists are really worried.
** it was even more extreme during the
*** Bronze Age.
*** Ice Age.
*** Cretaceous.
*** 1990s.
** there's a proposal to fix it, but it
*** will never happen.
*** actually makes things worse.
*** is stalled in congress.
*** might be unconstitutional.
** it's getting worse and no one knows why.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Supermoon]]

1930: Calendar Facts

2017-12-19T18:27:50Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ more logical linking for "supermoon"

{{comic
| number = 1930
| date = December 18, 2017
| title = Calendar Facts
| image = calendar_facts.png
| titletext = While it may seem like trivia, it (causes huge headaches for software developers / is taken advantage of by high-speed traders / triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout / has to be corrected for by GPS satellites / is now recognized as a major cause of World War I).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There seem to be some possible correct statements, which should be recognized and added as part of the explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] presents what appears to be a generator of 156,000 facts [20 x 13 x (8 + 6 x 7) x 12], about calendars, most of which are false or have little meaning{{Citation needed}}. The facts are seeded by a mishmash of common tidbits about the time of year.

The formula for each generated fact goes as follows: "Did you know that '''[a recurring event]''' '''[occurs in an unusual manner]''' because of '''[phenomena or political decisions]'''? Apparently '''[wild card statement]'''."

This is [[:Category:Supermoon|the fifth time]] that Randall has referred to the phenomenon of a {{w|supermoon}}, which he typically makes fun of, most prominent in [[1394: Superm*n]].

The title text continues the chart with an inside information of what this tiny trivia actually have of real life consequences.

There are multiple online generators of Calendar 'facts' using this formula [https://www.pibweb.com/xkcd_calendar.php here] and [http://yahel.com/calendarfacts/ here].

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
! Entry
! What it is
! Relation to other entries
|-
! colspan="3" | Recurring Events
|-
| The [Fall/Spring] {{w|Equinox}}
| The time of year at which the apparent position of the overhead sun passes the equator. During the equinox, the time that the Sun is above the horizon is 12 hours across the globe.
| Before the adoption of the {{w|Gregorian calendar}} in 1582, the equinoxes fell on earlier and earlier dates as the centuries went by, due to the {{w|Julian calendar}} year being 365.25 days on average compared to the tropical Earth year of 365.2422 days. {{w|Pope Gregory}}'s decision to remove the leap days on years that were multiples of 100 but not 400 corrected the average length of the calendar year to 365.2425 days.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Solstice}}
| The time of year when the apparent position of the overhead sun reaches its most extreme latitude. During the Winter and Summer solstices the days are the shortest and longest respectively.
| Similar to the equinoxes, the solstices were also falling on earlier dates every year before the Gregorian calendar.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Olympics}}
| The Olympic Games occur during the summer and the winter, alternating between the two seasons every two years.
| The Olympic Games do not have any set dates, and seem to only be included humorously as something else that alternates between occurring during the summer and winter.
|-
| Daylight [saving/savings] time
| {{w|Daylight saving time}}, commonly referred to as daylight savings time, is the practice of setting clocks ahead, typically by one hour, during the summer months of the year.
| Daylight saving time will push the time of certain events such as sunrise and sunset past their "natural" times. For example, solar noon will occur around 1:00 PM instead of 12:00 noon when daylight saving time is active, making it the "wrong" time.
|-
| Leap [day/year]
| Because the durations of celestial events are not generally nice multiples of each other, they will tend to fall out of sync with each other. Leap days are days inserted into specific years to bring the calendar back into sync, and the years on which these {{w|leap day}}s occur are called {{w|leap year}}s.
|
|-
| {{w|Easter}}
| Easter is a holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of {{w|Jesus}}. It is defined as the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This complicated formula has a long tradition behind it, known as {{w|Computus}}.
| When Pope Gregory decided to change the calendar in 1582, it was because the spring equinox was putting Easter on unexpectedly early dates.
|-
| The [harvest/super/blood] moon
|
* The harvest moon is the full moon that appears closest to the autumnal equinox in September.
* The [[:Category:Supermoon|supermoon]] is a phenomenon in which the moon is full at its closest approach to the Earth.
* The blood moon is a moon that appears tinted red during a total lunar eclipse because of light refracted from the Earth's atmosphere. It can also refer to the hunter's moon, the full moon directly after the harvest moon.
| Each of these lunar events happens approximately once a year.
* The harvest moon appears exactly once because it has a particular definition based on the time of year.
*
* The blood moon during a lunar eclipse appears between zero to two times a year. The hunter's moon appears exactly once like the harvest moon.
|-
| Toyota Truck Month
| Toyota offers a discount for Tacoma trucks one month a year. Mainly notable because radio and television ads hype this discount up as "Toyota Truck Month".
|
|-
| {{w|Shark Week}}
| Every year, the Discovery channel dedicates a week during the summer to programming featuring or about sharks.
|
|-
! colspan="3" | Unusual manners in which the events occur
|-
| happens [earlier/later/at the wrong time] every year
| colspan="2" | The solstices and equinoxes happened earlier every year ''before'' the decree by Pope Gregory in 1582. The earliest sunrise happens one hour later than it "should" happen due to daylight saving time having turned the clocks forward one hour.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [sun/moon]
| colspan="2" | The Sun and Moon are generally what calendars are based on. If something were to drift out of sync, some corrective mechanism would have to be put in to put it back. This is the motivation behind leap years, leap months (in countries with lunisolar calendars) and leap seconds.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [zodiac]
| colspan="2" | The dates on which the Sun crosses the constellations in the traditional zodiac has shifted in the past centuries due to the precession of the Earth's axis. In the period of time traditionally known as Aries (March 21-April 20), for example, the Sun actually points to Pisces instead.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [Gregorian/Mayan/lunar/iPhone] calendar
| colspan="2" |
*The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar with a mean calendar year length of 365.2425 days.
*The Mayan calendar is based on two cycles or counts, with a 260-day count combined with a 365-day "vague" solar year.
*A lunar calendar is based on Moon's phases, with each lunation being approximately 29.5 days, and a lunar year lasting roughly 354 days. An example of a lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar.
*The iPhone calendar is listed humorously due to its data synchronization issues.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the atomic clock in Colorado
| colspan="2" |
{{w|NIST-F1}} is an {{w|Atomic clock}} used as a reference for official time in the USA.
|-
| might [not happen/happen twice] this year
| colspan="2" | Some events may have a period of slightly more or slightly less than one year. If an event has a period of slightly less than one year (e.g. the Islamic calendar), it can occur twice in the same year (e.g. the year 2000 had two Eid-al-Fitrs, one on January 8, and one on December 28). If an event has a period of slightly more than one year, there can be a year in which it does not occur at all, instead occurring near the end of the previous year and the beginning of the next.
|-
! colspan="3" | Phenomena or political decisions
|-
| time zone legislation in [Indiana/Arizona/Russia]
| Some states or provinces have time zone legislation that sets the standard time to something other than what the natural longitude of that location would suggest.
|
* The state of Arizona generally does not observe daylight saving time, keeping their clocks on UTC-7:00 Mountain Standard Time year round. However, the Navajo nation inside Arizona does observe it, causing the two regions to have different times in the summer and the same time in the winter.
* Time zones in Russia are all one hour ahead of what their longitude would suggest, which puts them in a "permanent" state of daylight saving time. (For example, St. Petersburg is 30°E, which means that its natural time zone is UTC+2:00, but its time zone is actually UTC+3:00.) From 1981 until 2011 Russia used to have the daylight saving time on top of it as well. The other changes include the abolishment of the one-hour shift in 1991 and returning it back in 1992, increasing it to two hours in 2011 and restoring back to one hour in 2014.
* Indiana has a complicated history with daylight saving time, likely related to the state being split between two Time Zones. (see {{w|Time in Indiana}})
|-
| a decree by the Pope in the 1500s
| In 1582, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar we use today, to replace the Julian Calendar. The calendar applied retroactively to the birth of Jesus Christ, which means that they had to skip 10 days, going straight from October 4 to October 15, 1582, during the switchover.
| The introduction of the Gregorian calendar brought Easter and the dates that months started back in sync with what they were in the 3rd century AD.
|-
| the [precession] of
| The Earth's axis is slowly changing position, in a phenomenon called the {{w|Axial precession|precession of the equinoxes}}.
| The precession of the equinoxes causes the seasons to occur about 20 minutes earlier than would be expected with the Earth's position relative to the stars, which could be construed as the equinox happening "later every year" if you use the stars as your frame of reference.
|-
| the [libration] of
| The Moon is {{w|tidal locking|tidally locked}} to its orbit around the Earth, which means that the same side of it tends to face the Earth at any given point in time. However, there are slight variations in the angle over the course of a month, which are known as {{w|libration}}.
| The libration of the Moon does not affect anything else in the chart, and seems only be included humorously as another example of a celestial phenomenon.
|-
| the [nutation] of
| Besides precession, there is also a smaller wobbling effect called {{w|Astronomical nutation|nutation}}.
|
|-
| the [libation] of
| A {{w|libation}} is a drink, often used in the context of a ritual offering of liquid to a deity by pouring it onto the ground or into something that collects it.
| This entry seems to have been included simply as a humorous misspelling of the word "libration". Certainly libation of any of the entities listed would be inadvisable{{Citation needed}}.
|-
| the [eccentricity] of
| Orbital eccentricity is the deviation of a body's orbit from a perfect circle. Orbital travel is faster when it's closer to the body being orbited and slower when farther away.
| The Earth's eccentric orbit causes the equinoxes and solstices to occur at irregular intervals. For example, summer in the northern hemisphere lasted 93 days in 2017, while fall only lasted 90 days.
|-
| the [obliquity] of
| The tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic is also known as its obliquity.
|
|-
| the [Moon]
| The Moon is the primary satellite of the Earth.
|
|-
| the [Sun]
| The Sun is the star that the Earth orbits around.
| The Sun is the basis for many timekeeping events, such as the day and year{{Citation needed}}.
|-
| the [Earth's axis]
| The Earth's axis of rotation defines the Geographic North and South Pole, as well as the lines of latitude.
|
|-
| the [Equator]
| The Equator is the line on the Earth's surface which is equidistant from both poles of the Earth's axis.
|
|-
| the [Prime Meridian]
| The Prime Meridian is the line that starts at the North Pole, runs through the {{w|Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Greenwich Royal Observatory}} in London, and ends at the South Pole. It is the basis for longitude when calculating coordinates for positions on the surface of the Earth.
| The Prime Meridian (and in particular the Greenwich Observatory) gives us Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the basis for UTC and the time zone system.
|-
| the [International Date Line]
| The International Date Line is a line on the opposite side of the Earth as the Prime Meridian that separates regions that use time set behind UTC versus regions that are set ahead of UTC. It has many irregularities due to political changes that put certain countries or islands on either side of the divide contrary to their natural longitude.
| The irregular shape of the International Date Line means that certain regions of the Pacific Ocean (such as Kiribati) are more than 24 hours ahead of some other regions (such as Baker Island and American Samoa), which may cause problems with timekeeping.
|-
| the [Mason-Dixon Line]
| The Mason-Dixon line is a line delineating a portion of the border between Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
| The Mason-Dixon line is included as a humorous example as another imaginary geographic line.
|-
| magnetic field reversal
| The Earth's magnetic field has been reversed several times in its geologic history, so that what we would currently call the "magnetic North Pole" was actually the magnetic South Pole about 780,000 years ago, before the most recent reversal.
|
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Benjamin Franklin]
| Benjamin Franklin wrote [http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784] in which he advised them to rise with the sun in order to save candlelight, after he observed that the Parisians were getting up at the same time by the clock and burning a lot of candles in the winter as a result.
| Benjamin Franklin is often touted as "the father of daylight saving time", despite him never actually proposing to alter the clocks.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Isaac Newton]
| Possibly a reference to how Newton divided the colour spectrum into the now-familiar seven colours of the rainbow, on a somewhat arbitrary basis. Newton did spend time working on the problem of calendar reform, but it's unlikely that any decisions he made as a result would affect anything, since he never published his work, and by the time it gained attention the Gregorian Calendar had been widely adopted.
| The spectrum fact is one of those standard bits of trivia of the kind the chart alludes to. Although it has nothing to do with time-keeping, Newton is the sort of person who seems like he should have made decisions like this.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [FDR]
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt set all time zones one hour ahead year-round during World War II. The law was repealed after the war ended.
| Setting the time permanently one hour ahead would make everything happen at the "wrong" time celestially.
|-
! colspan="3" | Consequences
|-
| It causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
| colspan="2" | The week following daylight saving time, car accidents increase by about 5-7%<ref>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/end-of-daylight-saving-time-2015-6-eye-opening-facts-1.3296353</ref>.
|-
| That's why we have leap seconds.
| colspan="2" | Leap seconds occur because the time required for one rotation of the Earth is actually slightly longer than the 86,400 seconds in a standard UTC day. The Earth's rotation is slowing down by about 2 × 10-5 seconds every year due to tidal friction caused by the Moon's gravity; however, this is not one of the possible entries in the list of phenomena.
|-
! colspan="3" | Title Text
|-
| causes huge headaches for software developers
| colspan="2" | Trying to support time zones correctly for all dates present and historic is a mishmash of different regional laws, time zones, and DST changes. The headache is best exemplified in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY this video] by Tom Scott.
|-
| is taken advantage of by high-speed traders
| colspan="2" | A leap second must be taken into account by trading software, and may cause bugs if not accounted properly. Because leap seconds happen at midnight UTC, it might happen in regular trading hours for somebody living in Seattle, where the time zone is UTC-08:00. Somehow, a high-frequency trader may try to take advantage of any bugs in the software if they are not built to handle this particular case. This scenario is relatively unlikely because the market software can keep its own "market-official time" and synchronize with the correct time while the market is closed.
|-
| triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout
| colspan="2" | The {{w|Northeast blackout of 2003}} was caused by a race condition in the energy management software at a power plant in Ohio. Race conditions can theoretically be caused by mismatched timestamps.
|-
| has to be corrected for by GPS satellites
| colspan="2" | Because GPS satellites are at a higher altitude than surface vehicles, their clocks run faster than clocks on the surface due to general relativity. Also, their clocks are not updated for leap seconds. Both these things mean that GPS satellites have a different timekeeping standard than clocks on the ground which are generally synchronized to Greenwich solar time.
|-
| is now recognized as a major cause of World War I.
| colspan="2" | Daylight saving time was first implemented in World War I as a fuel-saving measure. Randall seems to be humorously implying that World War I was started in order to implement these fuel-saving measures during peacetime as well.
|-
|}

<references />

==Examples of true complete statements==

# Did you know that '''the spring equinox''' '''drifts out of sync with the zodiac''' because of '''the precession of the Earth's axis'''? Apparently '''it was even more extreme during the Ice Age'''.
# Did you know that '''daylight saving time''' '''might happen twice this year''' because of '''time zone regulation in Russia'''? Apparently '''there's a proposal to fix it, but it actually makes things worse'''. (True in Russia in 1981)

==Transcript==

<big>-Calendar Facts-</big>

[Shown below is a branching flow chart of sorts that begins at the phrase "Did you know that", then flows through various paths to build up a sentence. (Note that the "→" arrow symbol is used below to indicate a new branch with no intermediate text from a previous branch.)]

* Did you know that:
** the ( Fall | Spring ) Equinox
** the ( Winter | Summer ) ( Solstice | Olympics )
** the ( Earliest | Latest ) ( Sunrise | Sunset )
** Daylight ( Saving | Savings ) Time
** Leap ( Day | Year )
** Easter
** the ( Harvest | Super | Blood ) Moon
** Toyota Truck Month
** Shark Week
* →
** happens ( earlier | later | at the wrong time ) every year
** drifts out of sync with the
*** Sun
*** Moon
*** Zodiac
*** ( Gregorian | Mayan | Lunar | iPhone ) Calendar
*** atomic clock in Colorado
** might ( not happen | happen twice ) this year
* because of
** time zone legislation in ( Indiana | Arizona | Russia )
** a decree by the pope in the 1500s
** ( precession | libration | nutation | libation | eccentricity | obliquity ) of the
*** Moon
*** Sun
*** Earth's axis
*** equator
*** prime meridian
*** ( International Date | Mason-Dixon ) Line
** magnetic field reversal
** an arbitrary decision by ( Benjamin Franklin | Isaac Newton | FDR )
* ?
* Apparently
** it causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
** that's why we have leap seconds.
** scientists are really worried.
** it was even more extreme during the
*** Bronze Age.
*** Ice Age.
*** Cretaceous.
*** 1990s.
** there's a proposal to fix it, but it
*** will never happen.
*** actually makes things worse.
*** is stalled in congress.
*** might be unconstitutional.
** it's getting worse and no one knows why.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Supermoon]]

1930: Calendar Facts

2017-12-19T18:25:53Z

PinkAmpersand: +wikilinks

{{comic
| number = 1930
| date = December 18, 2017
| title = Calendar Facts
| image = calendar_facts.png
| titletext = While it may seem like trivia, it (causes huge headaches for software developers / is taken advantage of by high-speed traders / triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout / has to be corrected for by GPS satellites / is now recognized as a major cause of World War I).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There seem to be some possible correct statements, which should be recognized and added as part of the explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] presents what appears to be a generator of 156,000 facts [20 x 13 x (8 + 6 x 7) x 12], about calendars, most of which are false or have little meaning{{Citation needed}}. The facts are seeded by a mishmash of common tidbits about the time of year.

The formula for each generated fact goes as follows: "Did you know that '''[a recurring event]''' '''[occurs in an unusual manner]''' because of '''[phenomena or political decisions]'''? Apparently '''[wild card statement]'''."

This is the fifth time that Randall has referred to the phenomenon of a [[:Category:Supermoon|Supermoon]], which he typically makes fun of, most prominent in [[1394: Superm*n]].

The title text continues the chart with an inside information of what this tiny trivia actually have of real life consequences.

There are multiple online generators of Calendar 'facts' using this formula [https://www.pibweb.com/xkcd_calendar.php here] and [http://yahel.com/calendarfacts/ here].

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
! Entry
! What it is
! Relation to other entries
|-
! colspan="3" | Recurring Events
|-
| The [Fall/Spring] {{w|Equinox}}
| The time of year at which the apparent position of the overhead sun passes the equator. During the equinox, the time that the Sun is above the horizon is 12 hours across the globe.
| Before the adoption of the {{w|Gregorian calendar}} in 1582, the equinoxes fell on earlier and earlier dates as the centuries went by, due to the {{w|Julian calendar}} year being 365.25 days on average compared to the tropical Earth year of 365.2422 days. {{w|Pope Gregory}}'s decision to remove the leap days on years that were multiples of 100 but not 400 corrected the average length of the calendar year to 365.2425 days.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Solstice}}
| The time of year when the apparent position of the overhead sun reaches its most extreme latitude. During the Winter and Summer solstices the days are the shortest and longest respectively.
| Similar to the equinoxes, the solstices were also falling on earlier dates every year before the Gregorian calendar.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Olympics}}
| The Olympic Games occur during the summer and the winter, alternating between the two seasons every two years.
| The Olympic Games do not have any set dates, and seem to only be included humorously as something else that alternates between occurring during the summer and winter.
|-
| Daylight [saving/savings] time
| {{w|Daylight saving time}}, commonly referred to as daylight savings time, is the practice of setting clocks ahead, typically by one hour, during the summer months of the year.
| Daylight saving time will push the time of certain events such as sunrise and sunset past their "natural" times. For example, solar noon will occur around 1:00 PM instead of 12:00 noon when daylight saving time is active, making it the "wrong" time.
|-
| Leap [day/year]
| Because the durations of celestial events are not generally nice multiples of each other, they will tend to fall out of sync with each other. Leap days are days inserted into specific years to bring the calendar back into sync, and the years on which these {{w|leap day}}s occur are called {{w|leap year}}s.
|
|-
| {{w|Easter}}
| Easter is a holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of {{w|Jesus}}. It is defined as the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This complicated formula has a long tradition behind it, known as {{w|Computus}}.
| When Pope Gregory decided to change the calendar in 1582, it was because the spring equinox was putting Easter on unexpectedly early dates.
|-
| The [harvest/super/blood] moon
|
* The harvest moon is the full moon that appears closest to the autumnal equinox in September.
* The [[:Category:Supermoon|supermoon]] is a phenomenon in which the moon is full at its closest approach to the Earth.
* The blood moon is a moon that appears tinted red during a total lunar eclipse because of light refracted from the Earth's atmosphere. It can also refer to the hunter's moon, the full moon directly after the harvest moon.
| Each of these lunar events happens approximately once a year.
* The harvest moon appears exactly once because it has a particular definition based on the time of year.
*
* The blood moon during a lunar eclipse appears between zero to two times a year. The hunter's moon appears exactly once like the harvest moon.
|-
| Toyota Truck Month
| Toyota offers a discount for Tacoma trucks one month a year. Mainly notable because radio and television ads hype this discount up as "Toyota Truck Month".
|
|-
| {{w|Shark Week}}
| Every year, the Discovery channel dedicates a week during the summer to programming featuring or about sharks.
|
|-
! colspan="3" | Unusual manners in which the events occur
|-
| happens [earlier/later/at the wrong time] every year
| colspan="2" | The solstices and equinoxes happened earlier every year ''before'' the decree by Pope Gregory in 1582. The earliest sunrise happens one hour later than it "should" happen due to daylight saving time having turned the clocks forward one hour.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [sun/moon]
| colspan="2" | The Sun and Moon are generally what calendars are based on. If something were to drift out of sync, some corrective mechanism would have to be put in to put it back. This is the motivation behind leap years, leap months (in countries with lunisolar calendars) and leap seconds.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [zodiac]
| colspan="2" | The dates on which the Sun crosses the constellations in the traditional zodiac has shifted in the past centuries due to the precession of the Earth's axis. In the period of time traditionally known as Aries (March 21-April 20), for example, the Sun actually points to Pisces instead.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [Gregorian/Mayan/lunar/iPhone] calendar
| colspan="2" |
*The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar with a mean calendar year length of 365.2425 days.
*The Mayan calendar is based on two cycles or counts, with a 260-day count combined with a 365-day "vague" solar year.
*A lunar calendar is based on Moon's phases, with each lunation being approximately 29.5 days, and a lunar year lasting roughly 354 days. An example of a lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar.
*The iPhone calendar is listed humorously due to its data synchronization issues.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the atomic clock in Colorado
| colspan="2" |
{{w|NIST-F1}} is an {{w|Atomic clock}} used as a reference for official time in the USA.
|-
| might [not happen/happen twice] this year
| colspan="2" | Some events may have a period of slightly more or slightly less than one year. If an event has a period of slightly less than one year (e.g. the Islamic calendar), it can occur twice in the same year (e.g. the year 2000 had two Eid-al-Fitrs, one on January 8, and one on December 28). If an event has a period of slightly more than one year, there can be a year in which it does not occur at all, instead occurring near the end of the previous year and the beginning of the next.
|-
! colspan="3" | Phenomena or political decisions
|-
| time zone legislation in [Indiana/Arizona/Russia]
| Some states or provinces have time zone legislation that sets the standard time to something other than what the natural longitude of that location would suggest.
|
* The state of Arizona generally does not observe daylight saving time, keeping their clocks on UTC-7:00 Mountain Standard Time year round. However, the Navajo nation inside Arizona does observe it, causing the two regions to have different times in the summer and the same time in the winter.
* Time zones in Russia are all one hour ahead of what their longitude would suggest, which puts them in a "permanent" state of daylight saving time. (For example, St. Petersburg is 30°E, which means that its natural time zone is UTC+2:00, but its time zone is actually UTC+3:00.) From 1981 until 2011 Russia used to have the daylight saving time on top of it as well. The other changes include the abolishment of the one-hour shift in 1991 and returning it back in 1992, increasing it to two hours in 2011 and restoring back to one hour in 2014.
* Indiana has a complicated history with daylight saving time, likely related to the state being split between two Time Zones. (see {{w|Time in Indiana}})
|-
| a decree by the Pope in the 1500s
| In 1582, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar we use today, to replace the Julian Calendar. The calendar applied retroactively to the birth of Jesus Christ, which means that they had to skip 10 days, going straight from October 4 to October 15, 1582, during the switchover.
| The introduction of the Gregorian calendar brought Easter and the dates that months started back in sync with what they were in the 3rd century AD.
|-
| the [precession] of
| The Earth's axis is slowly changing position, in a phenomenon called the {{w|Axial precession|precession of the equinoxes}}.
| The precession of the equinoxes causes the seasons to occur about 20 minutes earlier than would be expected with the Earth's position relative to the stars, which could be construed as the equinox happening "later every year" if you use the stars as your frame of reference.
|-
| the [libration] of
| The Moon is {{w|tidal locking|tidally locked}} to its orbit around the Earth, which means that the same side of it tends to face the Earth at any given point in time. However, there are slight variations in the angle over the course of a month, which are known as {{w|libration}}.
| The libration of the Moon does not affect anything else in the chart, and seems only be included humorously as another example of a celestial phenomenon.
|-
| the [nutation] of
| Besides precession, there is also a smaller wobbling effect called {{w|Astronomical nutation|nutation}}.
|
|-
| the [libation] of
| A {{w|libation}} is a drink, often used in the context of a ritual offering of liquid to a deity by pouring it onto the ground or into something that collects it.
| This entry seems to have been included simply as a humorous misspelling of the word "libration". Certainly libation of any of the entities listed would be inadvisable{{Citation needed}}.
|-
| the [eccentricity] of
| Orbital eccentricity is the deviation of a body's orbit from a perfect circle. Orbital travel is faster when it's closer to the body being orbited and slower when farther away.
| The Earth's eccentric orbit causes the equinoxes and solstices to occur at irregular intervals. For example, summer in the northern hemisphere lasted 93 days in 2017, while fall only lasted 90 days.
|-
| the [obliquity] of
| The tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic is also known as its obliquity.
|
|-
| the [Moon]
| The Moon is the primary satellite of the Earth.
|
|-
| the [Sun]
| The Sun is the star that the Earth orbits around.
| The Sun is the basis for many timekeeping events, such as the day and year{{Citation needed}}.
|-
| the [Earth's axis]
| The Earth's axis of rotation defines the Geographic North and South Pole, as well as the lines of latitude.
|
|-
| the [Equator]
| The Equator is the line on the Earth's surface which is equidistant from both poles of the Earth's axis.
|
|-
| the [Prime Meridian]
| The Prime Meridian is the line that starts at the North Pole, runs through the {{w|Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Greenwich Royal Observatory}} in London, and ends at the South Pole. It is the basis for longitude when calculating coordinates for positions on the surface of the Earth.
| The Prime Meridian (and in particular the Greenwich Observatory) gives us Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the basis for UTC and the time zone system.
|-
| the [International Date Line]
| The International Date Line is a line on the opposite side of the Earth as the Prime Meridian that separates regions that use time set behind UTC versus regions that are set ahead of UTC. It has many irregularities due to political changes that put certain countries or islands on either side of the divide contrary to their natural longitude.
| The irregular shape of the International Date Line means that certain regions of the Pacific Ocean (such as Kiribati) are more than 24 hours ahead of some other regions (such as Baker Island and American Samoa), which may cause problems with timekeeping.
|-
| the [Mason-Dixon Line]
| The Mason-Dixon line is a line delineating a portion of the border between Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
| The Mason-Dixon line is included as a humorous example as another imaginary geographic line.
|-
| magnetic field reversal
| The Earth's magnetic field has been reversed several times in its geologic history, so that what we would currently call the "magnetic North Pole" was actually the magnetic South Pole about 780,000 years ago, before the most recent reversal.
|
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Benjamin Franklin]
| Benjamin Franklin wrote [http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784] in which he advised them to rise with the sun in order to save candlelight, after he observed that the Parisians were getting up at the same time by the clock and burning a lot of candles in the winter as a result.
| Benjamin Franklin is often touted as "the father of daylight saving time", despite him never actually proposing to alter the clocks.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Isaac Newton]
| Possibly a reference to how Newton divided the colour spectrum into the now-familiar seven colours of the rainbow, on a somewhat arbitrary basis. Newton did spend time working on the problem of calendar reform, but it's unlikely that any decisions he made as a result would affect anything, since he never published his work, and by the time it gained attention the Gregorian Calendar had been widely adopted.
| The spectrum fact is one of those standard bits of trivia of the kind the chart alludes to. Although it has nothing to do with time-keeping, Newton is the sort of person who seems like he should have made decisions like this.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [FDR]
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt set all time zones one hour ahead year-round during World War II. The law was repealed after the war ended.
| Setting the time permanently one hour ahead would make everything happen at the "wrong" time celestially.
|-
! colspan="3" | Consequences
|-
| It causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
| colspan="2" | The week following daylight saving time, car accidents increase by about 5-7%<ref>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/end-of-daylight-saving-time-2015-6-eye-opening-facts-1.3296353</ref>.
|-
| That's why we have leap seconds.
| colspan="2" | Leap seconds occur because the time required for one rotation of the Earth is actually slightly longer than the 86,400 seconds in a standard UTC day. The Earth's rotation is slowing down by about 2 × 10-5 seconds every year due to tidal friction caused by the Moon's gravity; however, this is not one of the possible entries in the list of phenomena.
|-
! colspan="3" | Title Text
|-
| causes huge headaches for software developers
| colspan="2" | Trying to support time zones correctly for all dates present and historic is a mishmash of different regional laws, time zones, and DST changes. The headache is best exemplified in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY this video] by Tom Scott.
|-
| is taken advantage of by high-speed traders
| colspan="2" | A leap second must be taken into account by trading software, and may cause bugs if not accounted properly. Because leap seconds happen at midnight UTC, it might happen in regular trading hours for somebody living in Seattle, where the time zone is UTC-08:00. Somehow, a high-frequency trader may try to take advantage of any bugs in the software if they are not built to handle this particular case. This scenario is relatively unlikely because the market software can keep its own "market-official time" and synchronize with the correct time while the market is closed.
|-
| triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout
| colspan="2" | The {{w|Northeast blackout of 2003}} was caused by a race condition in the energy management software at a power plant in Ohio. Race conditions can theoretically be caused by mismatched timestamps.
|-
| has to be corrected for by GPS satellites
| colspan="2" | Because GPS satellites are at a higher altitude than surface vehicles, their clocks run faster than clocks on the surface due to general relativity. Also, their clocks are not updated for leap seconds. Both these things mean that GPS satellites have a different timekeeping standard than clocks on the ground which are generally synchronized to Greenwich solar time.
|-
| is now recognized as a major cause of World War I.
| colspan="2" | Daylight saving time was first implemented in World War I as a fuel-saving measure. Randall seems to be humorously implying that World War I was started in order to implement these fuel-saving measures during peacetime as well.
|-
|}

<references />

==Examples of true complete statements==

# Did you know that '''the spring equinox''' '''drifts out of sync with the zodiac''' because of '''the precession of the Earth's axis'''? Apparently '''it was even more extreme during the Ice Age'''.
# Did you know that '''daylight saving time''' '''might happen twice this year''' because of '''time zone regulation in Russia'''? Apparently '''there's a proposal to fix it, but it actually makes things worse'''. (True in Russia in 1981)

==Transcript==

<big>-Calendar Facts-</big>

[Shown below is a branching flow chart of sorts that begins at the phrase "Did you know that", then flows through various paths to build up a sentence. (Note that the "→" arrow symbol is used below to indicate a new branch with no intermediate text from a previous branch.)]

* Did you know that:
** the ( Fall | Spring ) Equinox
** the ( Winter | Summer ) ( Solstice | Olympics )
** the ( Earliest | Latest ) ( Sunrise | Sunset )
** Daylight ( Saving | Savings ) Time
** Leap ( Day | Year )
** Easter
** the ( Harvest | Super | Blood ) Moon
** Toyota Truck Month
** Shark Week
* →
** happens ( earlier | later | at the wrong time ) every year
** drifts out of sync with the
*** Sun
*** Moon
*** Zodiac
*** ( Gregorian | Mayan | Lunar | iPhone ) Calendar
*** atomic clock in Colorado
** might ( not happen | happen twice ) this year
* because of
** time zone legislation in ( Indiana | Arizona | Russia )
** a decree by the pope in the 1500s
** ( precession | libration | nutation | libation | eccentricity | obliquity ) of the
*** Moon
*** Sun
*** Earth's axis
*** equator
*** prime meridian
*** ( International Date | Mason-Dixon ) Line
** magnetic field reversal
** an arbitrary decision by ( Benjamin Franklin | Isaac Newton | FDR )
* ?
* Apparently
** it causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
** that's why we have leap seconds.
** scientists are really worried.
** it was even more extreme during the
*** Bronze Age.
*** Ice Age.
*** Cretaceous.
*** 1990s.
** there's a proposal to fix it, but it
*** will never happen.
*** actually makes things worse.
*** is stalled in congress.
*** might be unconstitutional.
** it's getting worse and no one knows why.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Supermoon]]

1900: Jet Lag

2017-10-09T22:04:39Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ good finds! I'd say 448 qualifies more as overt discussion, though, like 320

{{comic
| number = 1900
| date = October 9, 2017
| title = Jet Lag
| image = jet_lag.png
| titletext = I had some important research to do on proposed interstellar space missions, basketball statistics, canceled skyscrapers, and every article linked from "Women in warfare and the military in the 19th century."
}}

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

{{w|Jet lag|Jet lag}} is a psychological condition arising from changing one's longitude wide and fast enough that one's body clock is unable to adapt to the official clock. Symptoms include a sleep cycle which does not match the solar cycle as it usually would{{Citation needed}}.

[[Hairy]] has just woken up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and [[Ponytail]] mentions he must be still jet lagged (possibly from a recent trip). Hairy then {{tvtropes|AccidentalPublicConfession|accidentally public confesses}} that he has actually been up to some late-night Wikipedia browsing and reading about {{w|List of maritime disasters|maritime disasters}}.

At the bottom, [[Randall]] confesses jet lag is a nice excuse for his usual sleep cycle altering behavior.

In the title text, Randall further mentions reading about proposed {{w|Interstellar travel|interstellar}} space missions, {{w|basketball statistics}}, {{w|Proposed_tall_buildings_and_structures#Abandoned_proposals|canceled skyscrapers}}, and every article linked from Wikipedia's "{{w|Women in warfare and the military in the 19th century}}." Randall has earlier illustrated this issue in [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia]].

Randall has previously discussed his oft-changing sleep cycle in [[320: 28-Hour Day]] and [[448: Good Morning]], and has alluded to it more subtly in [[68: Five Thirty]], [[92: Sunrise]], and [[776: Still No Sleep]]. We can thus see that this is a habit of Randall's that has persisted for more than a decade.

===Trivia===
[[Randall]] was doing events in Great Britain the week before this comic was published, the last of which was on October 2nd. This arguably makes this a rare [[:Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe|comic featuring Randall]].

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

:[Hairy is rubbing his eyes and facing Ponytail.]

:Hairy: Sorry, I just woke up.
:Ponytail: It's 3 PM! ...Oh, of course, you're still jet lagged.
:Hairy: I-yeah, that's it! I definitely didn't spend half the night reading Wikipedia articles about random maritime disasters.

:[Caption below the panel]
:I love traveling, because my sleep schedule is as messed up as always, but suddenly I have an excuse.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]

530: I'm An Idiot

2017-10-09T15:21:24Z

PinkAmpersand: not to be confused with Five Thirty

:''Not to be confused with [[68: Five Thirty]]''
{{comic
| number = 530
| date = January 14, 2009
| title = I'm an Idiot
| image = im an idiot.png
| titletext = Sadly, this is a true story. At least I learned about the OS X 'say' command.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]], locked out of his dorm/apartment, is trying to get his roommate [[Megan|Megan's]] attention so that she'll unlock the door. He tries various increasingly obscure ways of contacting her: calling her cell phone, {{w|IRC}}, the window, and finally remotely logging into their downstairs Mac computer (via {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}}) to make it shout at her, which involves working out a way to turn up the computer's volume. [[Ponytail]] informs him of the most obvious solution—the doorbell—which prompts a moment of realization. The content of this realization—"I'm An Idiot"—is stated in the title of the comic. The humor of the comic derives from the rhythm of the panels: a long buildup followed by a short quip, then a sudden, silent pause for the implied realization moment.

The humor of this comic also derives from the reader's familiarity with the behavior shown in the comic, since most every person who likes solving problems has experienced a moment of realization similar to Cueball's at one point or another. They, like Cueball, get distracted by solving an interesting problem [[356: Nerd Sniping|''because solving problems is fun'']], and fail to notice that the problem has an easier solution that they haven't considered. This same issue of getting lost in a sub-problem [in this case, the-sub problem of how to remotely control text-to-speech in OS X] at the expense of overall problem-solving ability is further covered in [[761: DFS]].

The title text states that this is a true story, so Cueball must represent [[Randall]]. It also mentions that, although missing an obvious solution can be humiliating, one often learns a lot from trying new solutions, which would explain why the behavior persists.

This comic follows a similar storyline to [[349: Success]] and [[1518: Typical Morning Routine]], as Cueball and [[Hairy]] respectively in these comics, encounters an issue and attempts proceedingly more absurd solutions to the issue.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail approaches Cueball, who is sitting on porch steps, laptop in lap and backpack open.]
:Ponytail: Should I ask?
:Cueball: I'm locked out, and I'm trying to get my roommate to let me in.

:[Unplugged cell phone on table.]
:Cueball: First I tried her cell phone, but it's off.

:[Cueball sitting on steps, laptop in lap and gesturing.]
:Cueball: Then I tried IRC, but she's not online.

:[Cueball standing in front of house and looking up at window.]
:Cueball: I couldn't find anything to throw at her window,

:[Living room with couch easy chair and computer set up.]
:Cueball: So I SSH'd into the Mac Mini in the living room and got the speech synth to yell at her for me.
:Computer: Hey I'm locked out downstairs

:[Megan sitting at table with laptop open.]
:Cueball: But I think I left the volume way down, so I'm reading the OS X docs to learn to set the volume via command line.

:[Ponytail facing Cueball, who is still sitting on the porch with his laptop.]
:Ponytail: Ah.
:Ponytail: I take it the doorbell doesn't work?

:[Beat panel.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1900: Jet Lag

2017-10-09T15:13:59Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ c/e

{{comic
| number = 1900
| date = October 9, 2017
| title = Jet Lag
| image = jet_lag.png
| titletext = I had some important research to do on proposed interstellar space missions, basketball statistics, canceled skyscrapers, and every article linked from "Women in warfare and the military in the 19th century."
}}

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

{{w|Jet lag|Jet lag}} is a psychological condition arising from changing one's longitude wide and fast enough that one's body clock is unable to adapt to the official clock. Symptoms include a sleep cycle which does not match the solar cycle as it usually would{{Citation needed}}.

[[Hairy]] has just woken up at 15:00, and [[Ponytail]] mentions he must be still jet lagged (possibly from a recent trip). Hairy then {{tvtropes|AccidentalPublicConfession|accidentally public confesses}}that he has actually been up to some late-night Wikipedia browsing.

At the bottom, [[Randall]] confesses jet lag is a nice excuse for his usual sleep cycle altering behavior.

Randall has previously discussed his sleep cycle in [[320: 28-Hour Day]], and has alluded to it more subtly in [[68: Five Thirty]], [[92: Sunrise]], and [[776: Still No Sleep]]. We can thus see that this is a habit of Randall's that has persisted for more than a decade.

===Trivia===
[[Randall]] was doing events in Great Britain the week before this comic was published, the last of which was on October 2nd. This arguably makes this a rare [[:Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe|comic featuring Randall]].

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

:[Hairy is rubbing his eyes and facing Ponytail.]

:Hairy: Sorry, I just woke up.
:Ponytail: It's 3 PM! ...Oh, of course, you're still jet lagged.
:Hairy: I-yeah, that's it! I definitely didn't spend half the night reading Wikipedia articles about random maritime disasters.

:[Caption below the panel]
:I love traveling, because my sleep schedule is as messed up as always, but suddenly I have an excuse.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]

1900: Jet Lag

2017-10-09T15:13:36Z

PinkAmpersand: Reference past comics; note that this is arguably a comic featuring Randall (hence the category I just added)

{{comic
| number = 1900
| date = October 9, 2017
| title = Jet Lag
| image = jet_lag.png
| titletext = I had some important research to do on proposed interstellar space missions, basketball statistics, canceled skyscrapers, and every article linked from "Women in warfare and the military in the 19th century."
}}

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

{{w|Jet lag|Jet lag}} is a psychological condition arising from changing one's longitude wide and fast enough that one's body clock is unable to adapt to the official clock. Symptoms include a sleep cycle which does not match the solar cycle as it usually would{{Citation needed}}.

[[Hairy]] has just woken up at 15:00, and [[Ponytail]] mentions he must be still jet lagged (possibly from a recent trip). Hairy then {{tvtropes|AccidentalPublicConfession|accidentally public confesses}}that he has actually been up to some late-night Wikipedia browsing.

At the bottom, [[Randall]] confesses jet lag is a nice excuse for his usual sleep cycle altering behavior.

Randall has previously discussed his sleep cycle in [[320: 28-Hour Day]], and has alluded to it more subtly in [[68: Five Thirty]], [[92: Sunrise]], and [[776: Still No Sleep]]. We can thus see that this is a habit of Randall's that has persisted for more than a decade.

===Trivia===
[[Randall]] was doing events in Great Britain the week before this comic was published, the last of which was on October 2nd. This arguably makes this a rare [[:Category:Comics featuring Randall|comic featuring Randall]].

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

:[Hairy is rubbing his eyes and facing Ponytail.]

:Hairy: Sorry, I just woke up.
:Ponytail: It's 3 PM! ...Oh, of course, you're still jet lagged.
:Hairy: I-yeah, that's it! I definitely didn't spend half the night reading Wikipedia articles about random maritime disasters.

:[Caption below the panel]
:I love traveling, because my sleep schedule is as messed up as always, but suddenly I have an excuse.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]

1900: Jet Lag

2017-10-09T15:03:42Z

PinkAmpersand: added Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe using HotCat

1898: October 2017

2017-10-04T10:48:58Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ c/e, +

{{comic
| number = 1898
| date = October 4, 2017
| title = October 2017
| image = october_2017.png
| titletext = And yet I have no trouble believing that the start of the 2016 election was several decades ago.
}}

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

[[Randall]] [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|once again]] makes us feel old by referencing an old movie that our memory puts as recent. The movie in question is ''{{w|The Social Network}}'', written by {{w|Aaron Sorkin}} and directed by {{w|David Fincher}}, which was released seven years and three days prior to this comic, on October 1, 2010. Seven years is also how long some people believe bad luck will follow you if [http://www.mirrorhistory.com/mirror-facts/broken-mirror breaking a mirror].

The {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_2016|2016 US presidential election}} took place on November 8, 2016. Donald Trump won in a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton ([[Randall]]'s favorite, see [[1756: I'm With Her]]). Donald Trump's tumultuous presidency so far probably makes [[Randall]] feel that the election took place far longer than 11 months ago. {{w|Telescoping_effect|Backward telescoping}} is a psychological effect that causes people to overestimate the elapsed time since an event.

Interestingly, the title of this comic is patterned on the previous "this will make you feel old" comic "[[November 2016]]," which was published in the early hours of November 9th, while the presidential election's ballots were still being counted. Some people (including ''explain xkcd'' editors, writing in that explanation's trivia section) felt that Randall could have published something more timely, and commented that the election had made them feel old enough as it was. By using the same sort of title and making this joke, Randall brings the whole thing full circle.

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

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: Want to feel old?
:Cueball: Why do you always start your factoids that way? Of ''course'' I don't want to feel old. I ''already'' feel old.

:[Beat panel]

:[Frameless panel of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ...Fine, hit me.

:Megan: If you broke a mirror back when the Aaron Sorkin Facebook movie came out, your seven years of bad luck would be over this week.
:Cueball: ''Dammit.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1898: October 2017

2017-10-04T10:39:10Z

PinkAmpersand: added Category:Politics using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 1898
| date = October 4, 2017
| title = October 2017
| image = october_2017.png
| titletext = And yet I have no trouble believing that the start of the 2016 election was several decades ago.
}}

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

[[Randall]] [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|once again]] makes us feel old by referencing an old movie that our memory puts as recent. The movie in question is ''{{w|The Social Network}}'', written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, which got released seven years ago almost to the day, in October 1, 2010. The same seven years that some people believe will bring bad luck when [http://www.mirrorhistory.com/mirror-facts/broken-mirror breaking a mirror].

The {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_2016|2016 US presidential election}} took place on November 8, 2016. Donald Trump won in a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton ([[Randall]]s favorite, see [[1756: I'm With Her]]). Donald Trumps tumultuous presidency so far probably makes [[Randall]] feel that the election took place far longer than 11 months ago.

{{w|Telescoping_effect|Backward telescoping}} is a psychological effect that causes people to overestimate the elapsed time since an event.

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

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: Want to feel old?
:Cueball: Why do you always start your factoids that way? Of ''course'' I don't want to feel old. I ''already'' feel old.

:[Beat panel]

:[Frameless panel of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ...Fine, hit me.

:Megan: If you broke a mirror back when the Aaron Sorkin Facebook movie came out, your seven years of bad luck would be over this week.
:Cueball: ''Dammit.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1870: Emoji Movie Reviews

2017-07-31T23:28:22Z

PinkAmpersand: turn wikipedia links into plainlinks with magic of special pages. give credit to the person who wrote the sentence originally, not just the person who copy-edited it

{{comic
| number = 1870
| date = July 31, 2017
| title = Emoji Movie Reviews
| image = emoji_movie_reviews.png
| titletext = There's this idea that emoji are bad for communication because they replace ambiguity and nuance with a limited set of preselected emotions, but it doesn't really survive a collision with real-world usage of the thinking face or upside-down smiley.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Here, have a thing.}}

This comic discusses {{w|The Emoji Movie}} between the cynical, Internet-equipped point of view of Megan and Cueball's language-enthusiasm. They ultimately agree the movie is bad.

Many critics of {{w|The Emoji Movie}} point to superficial problems like the subject matter and the product placement. Here, it's argued that the real reason the film is bad is because the creators cashed in on a trend without doing any research into it.

When [[Megan]] first mentions about the The Emoji Movie's panned reviews, [[Cueball]] initially accuses the audience of being overly judgemental of the subject matter. He further expresses his fondness for {{w|emoji}} as an interesting and quirky part of language.

Cueball offers an early defense of ''The Emoji Movie'' by comparing it to ''{{w|The Lego Movie}}'', which - despite effectively being an entire movie of {{w|product placement}} for {{w|Lego}} - received generally positive reviews.

They start talking about a "Meh" emoji, who is the main character of the movie. The idea of "{{w|meh}}" as an emoji is actually ambiguous, as various emoji can be used to describe being unimpressed or neutral towards something. As given in examples from comic those are 😒, 😐 or 😕. The selection of a less identifiable emoji for the leading role also contrasts with the fact that the movie also features more iconic emojis.

Megan mentions that one of the attempted jokes in the film is a room full of emojis that are unpopular. Bizarrely, the eggplant emoji (🍆) is featured among them. This is a clear sign that the creative team in charge of this movie had limited first-hand experience with SMS messaging; as any millennial will tell you, the 🍆 is a sly stand-in for a penis, due to its similar shape. [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/eggplant-emoji-%F0%9F%8D%86] Though Cueball and Megan don't take into consideration that creators of film might be trying to be controversial on purpose, as it is popular lately (like for example in film {{w|Sausage Party}})

The line from the Wikipedia plot summary was a {{w|Special:Permalink/793251548|direct quote from Wikipedia}}. The sentence was introduced to the article by editor {{w|User:Voicebox64|Voicebox64}} on {{w|Special:Diff/792689187|July 28, 2017}}, and the exact phrasing quoted in the comic came from editor {{w|User:SubZeroSilver|SubZeroSilver}} on {{w|Special:Diff/793087897|July 30}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete|Could someone check if the emojis are all correct? Thanks in advance.}}
[Cueball and Megan are walking. Megan is checking her phone, presumably to check reviews about The Emoji Movie.]
:Megan: Reviews for The Emoji Movie are... not good.
:Cueball: People are just snobs about emoji. I like them! Language is cool and weird.
[Megan stops; Cueball is now outside the frame.]
:Megan: It's apparently 80% product placement.
:Cueball (off-screen): Whatever. So was The Lego Movie, and I liked ''that''.
[Cueball looks at Megan's phone.]
:Megan: It features the emoji we all know and love - with a "Meh" emoji in the starring role!
:Cueball: Wait... a "Meh" emoji?
:Megan: I wondered about that, too; the others are all familiar. Do they mean 😒? Or 😐 or 😕?
:Cueball: That's a little confusing...
[Zooms in; Megan is now looking at her phone by herself.]
:Megan: There's a joke in the movie about the "emoji that no one uses" that includes the eggplant emoji.
:Cueball: ...was that on purpose? Or did they not run the script by enough people?
[Megan and Cueball continue walking.]
:Megan: Here's a line from the Wikipedia plot summary:
:Megan: ''Gene and Hi-5 come to a piracy app where they meet the hacker emoji Jailbreak, who wants to reach Dropbox so that she can live in the cloud.''
:Cueball: Okay.
:Cueball: It's possible this movie is bad.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

958: Hotels

2017-07-29T13:20:05Z

PinkAmpersand: added Category:Online reviews using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 958
| date = September 30, 2011
| title = Hotels
| image = hotels.png
| titletext = 'Rating: 1/5. Room filled to brim with semen, and when front desk clerk opened mouth to talk, bedbugs poured out.'
}}

==Explanation==

In this comic, [[Black Hat]] is putting bad reviews on all the hotels he has stayed at and likes and wants to stay in again, in order to lower demand for said hotel. He is simultaneously putting good reviews on bad hotels to steer other people there so there are more vacancies at good hotels. He claims he is not enough influence to put the good hotels out of business.

The {{w|Tragedy of the commons}} "is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen." This situation is not a complete example of this concept as Black Hat is the only one doing it. He understands, however, that if others do it, it would apply. (Another example is what would happen using a certain strategy in the game [[Oregon|Oregon Trail]])

In the last frame, Black Hat references the {{w|invisible hand}} which is the term economists use to describe the self-regulating nature of the marketplace. Black Hat appears to be taking advantage of this invisible hand by cutting it with a knife and eating it.

The title text is an example of Black Hat's negative review, which is extreme and ridiculous. While bedbugs and semen stains are legitimate concerns for sanitation and comfort in a hotel, the circumstances for these problems described are beyond the realm of plausibility: it is highly unlikely that there is an entire room filled with semen, and that the bedbugs are infesting hotel staff rather than the building. This might have the opposite of the intended effect, as the reader of the review might perceive it as [[:Category:Sarcasm|sarcasm]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop, looking at a review website]
:Cueball: What's with this negative review? You ''liked'' that hotel.
:Black Hat: I have a script that posts a bad review for every hotel I stay at. It reduces demand, which means more vacancies and lower prices next time.

:Cueball: What if the place sucks?
:Black Hat: I change the review to positive to steer other people over there.

:Cueball: You punish companies you like!
:Black Hat: The odds of ''my'' review putting a hotel out of business are negligible.
:Cueball: If we all did that the system would collapse!
:Black Hat: Doesn't affect my logic. Tragedy of the commons.

:Cueball: That's not even the tragedy of the commons anymore. That's the tragedy of you're a dick.
:Black Hat: If you're quick with a knife, you'll find that the invisible hand is made of delicious invisible meat.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

325: A-Minus-Minus

2017-07-29T13:17:14Z

PinkAmpersand: added Category:Online reviews using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 325
| date = October 5, 2007
| title = A-Minus-Minus
| image = a-minus-minus.png
| titletext = You can do this one in every 30 times and still have 97% positive feedback.
}}
==Explanation==

[[Black Hat]] is trying to make the world a weirder place by shipping bobcats to his {{w|eBay}} buyers. Ordinarily, negative feedback is used to warn future buyers about sellers that ship broken products or post misleading listings. In this case, the unfortunate buyer is leaving feedback warning future buyers that Black Hat ships bobcats instead of the actual products, though "would not buy again" seems to be a rather feeble response to the replacement. This appears to have been a continuing project, as [[Cueball]] receives random packages a year and a half later ([[576: Packages]]). Four years later, it is shown that you can blackmail Black Hat into not sending you a bobcat ([[837: Coupon Code]]). This comic is also referenced in [http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PBRQNTVGO7NH/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0544272994&nodeID=283155&store=books a popular Amazon review] for Randall Munroe's book, What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.

Like the weak "would not buy again" comment is a play on the stock "would buy again" comment often found in positive eBay feedback, the title "A-Minus-Minus" is a play on the frequent comment "A++". That in turn, sometimes with varying numbers of pluses, seems to be an easy way people use to pad the end of an eBay comment field to the maximum 80 characters. It's also a reference to jokes in which exceptionally good schoolwork is graded with extra pluses after an A+ (and exceptionally bad work is graded with large numbers of minuses after an F). And finally, it's also a subtle reference to the {{w|Futurama}} episode {{w|A Big Piece of Garbage}}; at one point in that episode, Wernstrom, as an act of petty revenge, gives Farnsworth "the worst grade imaginable": an A-minus-MINUS.

The title text is about a flaw in eBay's feedback system: You can intentionally do nasty things to your buyers and get ''very'' bad reviews, but still have overall high feedback scores as long as you don't do it too often. (See also [[937: TornadoGuard]], which shows a different flaw in the concept of averaging reviews—namely that five-star reviews for aesthetic qualities are weighted equally to one-star reviews for major functional deficits—and [[1098: Star Ratings]], which addresses the topic as well.) These reviews would be disregarded by future customers as well for their weirdness.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is packing a bobcat into a box; Megan stands beside him.]

:Megan: What are you doing?
:Black Hat: Making the world a weirder place.

:Bobcat: ''mrrowlll''
:[Black Hat has finished taping the package for shipping.]
:Black Hat: Starting with my eBay feedback page.

:[Bandaged person at a computer with assorted debris around the floor.]
:Screen: comments:
:Bandaged person typing: Instead of office chair package contained bobcat.
:Bandaged person typing: Would not buy again.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Bobcats]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

937: TornadoGuard

2017-07-29T13:15:41Z

PinkAmpersand: added Category:Online reviews using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 937
| date = August 12, 2011
| title = TornadoGuard
| image = tornadoguard.png
| titletext = The bug report was marked 'could not reproduce'.
}}

==Explanation==
This is a comic with a take on an {{w|App store|application store}} - the most common app stores are for iPhones and Android devices. App stores take all the reviews and average the ratings for the overall star rating.

In this comic, we see why this is sometimes a bad idea, especially with something as important as an app called ''TornadoGuard'' that should warn the user if a {{w|tornado}} is approaching. In this case, there are three 5 star reviews about the stability and user interface features of the app, left by users who actually never experienced its core functionality (simply because they never used it in a place where a tornado appeared since they got it); however, the only review related to whether the app really works is given the same weight as the others, and sadly for that user the TornadoGuard app failed in alerting the user to an upcoming tornado. Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. Also see future comic [[1098: Star Ratings]] and [[1754: Tornado Safety Tips]].

The title text is a call back to [[583: CNR]]. It is a note from the developer's {{w|Bug tracking system|bug report}}, which said they could not reproduce the error. Of course, they could only reproduce such a failure if there were a tornado coming towards their area. This is a fairly rare situation, especially in certain areas of the world. This lack of suitable testing conditions explains why the actual tornado-prediction portion of their code appears to be faulty.

==Transcript==
:[The comic is a single panel which resembles a reviews page for a mobile phone application. Next to the app title is a pictogram of a tornado touching the ground]

:----App store----
:TornadoGuard
:From DroidCoder2187
:-----------------
:Plays a loud alert sound
:when there is a tornado
:warning for your area.
:-----------------
:Rating:
:★★★★☆
:Based on 4 reviews
:-----------------
:User Reviews:
:[The first three reviews shows five black stars. The last reviews one black and four white stars.]
:Reviewer 1 (Dark silhouette): ★★★★★ Good UI! Many alert choices.
:Reviewer 2 (Helicopter without rotors): ★★★★★ Running great, no crashes
:Reviewer 3 (White square with black triangles at the top left and bottom right corner): ★★★★★ I like how you can set multiple locations
:Reviewer 4 (White car): ★☆☆☆☆ App did not warn me about tornado.

:[Caption below the comic:]
:The problem with averaging star ratings

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

1098: Star Ratings

2017-07-29T13:15:00Z

PinkAmpersand: added Category:Online reviews using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 1098
| date = August 22, 2012
| title = Star Ratings
| image = star ratings.png
| titletext = I got lost and wandered into the world's creepiest cemetery, where the headstones just had names and star ratings. Freaked me out. When I got home I tried to leave the cemetery a bad review on Yelp, but as my hand hovered over the 'one star' button I felt this distant chill...
}}

==Explanation==
This comic deals with the idea that user-generated online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars).

Because we instinctively read a rating of five stars as five points, a three star rating (3/5) seems like a good rating. However, as the lowest possible rating is typically one star, and not zero stars, a 3/5 is the median, and is equivalent to 10/20 - not a great rating.

Furthermore, since ratings are more likely to be given by people who fall onto one of the extremes (either loved or hated the product), there is a tendency for ratings to be skewed either high or low. Fake reviews are also a factor that often push an aggregate score higher, although this is not addressed in the comic.

For these reasons, [[Randall]] suggests a way to read these ratings, which is to consider the four star rating the median value ("OK"), and everything below as a "crap" rating.

See also: [[937: TornadoGuard]], another comic about star ratings.

No product is so perfect that every user will give it five stars. So the only explanation for a five star rating is that only a few users have voted, maybe only one.

The title text may refer to the folkloric practice of attributing a feeling of a chill to someone walking on your future grave. When Randall is back home he would like to give a bad rating on {{w|Yelp}} — a corporation that operates an "online urban guide" — and hovering his hand over the 'one star' button, he was just 'walking' over the rating on his own future grave.

Another possible explanation for the title text is that the headstones are from people that gave the cemetery low-star ratings and were then murdered, having their given ratings displayed in the headstones. This in turn would explain the chill Randall feels before clicking the one-star button.

==Transcript==
:Understanding online star ratings:

:5 stars: [Has only one review]
:4.5 stars: Excellent
:4 stars: OK
:3.5-1 star: Crap.

==Trivia==
*The image at the end of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/69/ What-If 69] references this comic in the title text.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

1036: Reviews

2017-07-29T13:14:02Z

PinkAmpersand: added Category:Online reviews using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 1036
| date = March 30, 2012
| title = Reviews
| image = reviews.png
| titletext = I plugged in this lamp and my dog went rigid, spoke a sentence of perfect Akkadian, and then was hurled sideways through the picture window. Even worse, it's one of those lamps where the switch is on the cord.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are shown shopping for lamps. In the first part of the comic (only first frame) it is at a time before online reviews could be looked up on a smartphone. They spot a lamp they like, check the price and agree to buy, end of story.

But the rest of the comic shows how difficult shopping has become after reviews have become easily accessible on smartphones while standing in the store. And now this takes up the final three panels, with the result that no lamps have been acquired and they decide to sit in the dark, using the claim that their living ''room looks fine in the dark'' to avoid buying a very expensive lamp which is the only one with perfect reviews (like 100% with 5 stars out of 5).

When shopping for anything via {{w|reviews}}, whether it be electronics or even something as simple as lamps like the comic demonstrates, one negative review can spoil a lot of positive reviews. That hits home even more if the review is specific, because humans attach more weight to anecdotes and specific stories. This comic points out the absurdity of paying attention to those reviews, by making the negative review itself absurd (a lamp making your cats go deaf and interfering with your taste buds would imply, at the very least, anomalous radiation, and would not be on store shelves long before some kind of serious recall).

The second part of the comic starts out normal. For the lamp Cueball think is pretty Megan finds ''lots'' of negative reviews which implies the product really isn't good after all, and it was even that specific brand of lamps in general that was to be avoided. But then the proceeds to get more and more absurd all the way to the title text. Cueball is for instance looking at a lamp who someone thinks looks like a {{w|uterus}}. As normal people do not really know how a uterus looks like, and if Cueball did not find this so himself, he should ignore one persons comment. On the other hand reading such a statement will maybe make you think of a uterus every time you see the lamp. So now it may be best not to buy it, but had he not read the comment it might have been a fine lamp for him.

In the final frame Cueball has found a Swiss lampmaker with perfect reviews, but her lamps are very expensive, the most cheap are staring at 1,300 francs. {{w|Swiss franc|Swiss francs}} are the units of currency used in {{w|Switzerland}}. In 2012 when the comic was released a Swiss franc was a little more worth than one dollar ([http://www.exchangerates.org.uk/CHF-USD-30_03_2012-exchange-rate-history.html 1.1$ to a Swiss Franc]) making the cheapest lamp go for not much less than US$1450. For comparison, US$15 can get one a decent lamp at IKEA. Furthermore the lampmaker lives in the {{w|Swiss Alps}} and can only be reached via a {{w|ski lift}}. This either indicated that transportation will be very expensive on top of the high starting price or it may even indicate that they will have to go to the lampmaker personally to either acquire a lamp or maybe just to check out that they really do not look like a uterus or [http://gizmodo.com/5360742/penis-chandelieryes-penis-chandelier other parts] of the human reproductive system...

In the title text, the language spoken by the dog, {{w|Akkadian}}, is an extinct {{w|Semitic language}} that was spoken in {{w|ancient Mesopotamia}}. Even if the dog actually did speak a sentence of perfect Akkadian, the chance that the owner would be able to recognize it as such is negligible. But apart from that the dog first went rigid and after delivering the line it was hurled out the picture window. The final joke it that the worst part of this lamp, was not the above mentioned crazy effects on the dog, but that the lamp had, completely normally, the switch on the cord, as opposed to having it on the body of the lamp. A production argument about where to place such a switch, leading to someone getting fired, was part of the joke in [[1741: Work]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a store looking at a lamp that Cueball points at on a table in front of them. There is another table behind them with another lamp and next to it stands a box with a picture of yet a different type of lamp in the bottom right corner. Both lamps have a prize tag dangling from their shade. Above them (and their spoken text) is a frame with a caption:]
:Shopping before online reviews:
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: And affordable.
:Cueball: Let's get it.
:Megan OK!

:[Exactly the same setting as above except now Megan holds up her smartphone in one hand looking down at it while typing on it with the other hand. Above them (and their spoken text) is a frame with a caption:]
:Shopping now:
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: It's got 1½ stars on Amazon. Reviews all say to avoid that brand.

:[To the left of Cueball there is another lamp on a table. But he is now looking at his smartphone instead. Megan has turned away from him but is also looking at her smartphones. There are no lamps next to her.]
:Cueball: This one has good reviews.
:Megan: Wait, one guy says when he plugged it in, he got a metallic taste in his mouth and his cats went deaf.
:Cueball: Eek.
:Cueball: What about- ...no, review points out it resembles a uterus.

:[Cueball is holding hos smartphone up in front of his face, Megan, looking at him, is holding her smartphone but has her arms down. There are no lamps shown.]
:Cueball: OK, I found a Swiss lampmaker with perfect reviews. Her lamps start at 1,300 Francs and she's only reachable by ski lift.
:Megan: You know, our room looks fine in the dark.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

1869: Positive and Negative Reviews

2017-07-29T13:13:43Z

PinkAmpersand: forgot we're case-sensitive

{{comic
| number = 1869
| date = July 28, 2017
| title = Positive and Negative Reviews
| image = positive and negative reviews.png
| titletext = This restaurant is great! I was feeling really sick, but then I ate there and felt better!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page}}

The comic shows reviews from people who purchased a made-up {{w|sports drink}} multi-pack containing twelve 20 oz (591 mL) bottles. The people who gave negative reviews are {{w|Merlin}} (the wizard from the legends of King Arthur) and B. Button (from the short story ''{{w|The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)|The Curious Case of Benjamin Button}}'' and its {{w|The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (film)|film adaptation}}). Merlin remembers the future; in the {{w|T. H. White}} novel series ''{{w|The Once and Future King}}'', he was born at the wrong end of time and has to live backwards. Benjamin Button was born with the physical appearance of an old man and grows younger as time progresses. They apparently perceive causation backwards: Merlin was thirsty then he drank the SmartQuench 9000, but he perceived it as drinking and then becoming thirsty, while BButton was {{w|Dehydration|dehydrated}} and was not anymore after drinking 3 bottles, but perceived it other way around.

Particles of {{w|matter}} can have a positive or negative {{w|electric charge}}. Particles have associated {{w|antiparticle}}s with opposite charge. For example {{w|electron}}s are negatively charged particles, and their antiparticles are {{w|positron}}s, which are positively charged. Antiparticles can be {{w|Feynman_diagram|interpreted}} as if they were the associated particle moving backward in time: positrons are interpreted as electrons moving backward in time. This is analogous to negative reviews being interpreted as positive reviews from people traveling backward in time.

The caption seems to say that there are only positive experiences—some going forward, some backward in life. However, Randall gives an example in the title text of a positive review which is actually about a negative experience by a person traveling backward in time (the person ate at a restaurant then got sick). The conclusion is there are both positive and negative events, but the way they are perceived depends on both the event and whether one sees it going forward or backward in time.

Time-reversed aging is also explored in [[560: Lithium Batteries]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[A picture with four small bottles and a larger one is shown. The text to the right reads:]
:SmartQuench 9000
:Sports Drink
:20 oz  12-pack

:[Below is a list with reviews; a picture for the user (avatar) and the name below, the rating (in stars) and the text to the right.]
:---Customer reviews---
:Amy 2015 [4 of 5 stars] Perfect after a run
:Anon513 [5 of 5 stars] My favorite flavor
:Merlin [1 of 5 stars] Drinking this made me thirstier
:Mike63 [4 of 5 stars] Good price
:B Button [1 of 5 stars] Drank 3 bottles on a hot day and got dehydrated!

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Physics tells us that negative reviews are really just positive reviews from people traveling backward in time.

==Trivia==
*The use of the phrase 'physics tells us...' may be alluding to the way people use 'physics' or 'science' to justify nonsense. See [[1240: Quantum Mechanics]] and [[1475: Technically]].
*There are many examples of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MerlinSickness "Merlin Sickness"] in fiction. Merlin was mentioned earlier in [[270: Merlin]].

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

1869: Positive and Negative Reviews

2017-07-29T13:13:14Z

PinkAmpersand: added Category:online reviews using HotCat

Category:Online reviews

2017-07-29T13:12:51Z

PinkAmpersand: new category

[[Category:Internet]]

1847: Dubious Study

2017-06-07T17:25:56Z

PinkAmpersand: /* Explanation */ fix

{{comic
| number = 1847
| date = June 7, 2017
| title = Dubious Study
| image = dubious_study.png
| titletext = Sounds fine. I looked up the Academy, and it says on their MySpace page that their journal is peer-viewed and downloaded biannually.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic alludes to the growing industry in {{w|Predatory open access publishing|disreputable academic journals}}, many of whom accept articles of dubious merit for publication without rigorous peer review on payment of a fee. In an attempt to sound legitimate (and thus attract submissions), many such publishers publish journals whose names sound mistakably close to (if not identical to) established titles. Here, the ''National Academy of Proceedings'' is a play on the highly regarded academic title {{w|Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA}}

The title text implies that this (at present) fictional journal has a dubious online presence in the faded internet site {{w|Myspace|MySpace}}, where the publishers make claims that may be true but are misleading: "peer-viewed" sounds similar to "{{w|peer review|peer-reviewed}}", the community-led process of establishing a paper's scientific integrity prior to publication, but in fact means only that scientists have viewed the content (as [[Cueball]] is now). Likewise, some journals might be "published biannually", whereas "downloaded biannually" implies that the journal is ''read'' only twice each year. (Or once every two years, due to phrase ambiguity. [http://blog.dictionary.com/bimonthly/] [http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/blog/english-mistakes/bi-vs-semi/] [http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/051401bisemi.htm]) Single articles in high-profile journals such as ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' would expect to receive [http://palgrave.nature.com/nchem/journal/v7/n5/nchem.2243/metrics hundreds to thousands] of views in their first year of publication. The fictional journal publisher no doubt hopes that an inexperienced scientist may mistake these claims for meaningful statements of authority, and thus submit a paper (and eventually pay a fee for its publication).

''The National Academy of Proceedings'' in fact sets itself apart from certain predatory journals by ensuring that the claims on its website are in fact factually accurate (if phrased to mislead article authors, particularly those with English as an additional language); some journals are [http://www.nature.com/news/predatory-journals-recruit-fake-editor-1.21662 openly dishonest] on their websites.

Randall also judges academic content based on superficial details in comic #[[1301]], where he focuses on how the information is formatted (in particular if it is in TeX or with the TeX rendering-style of a scientific publication). Similarly, in #[[906]], Randall muses on how we automatically trust anything formatted in Wikipedia style. (This was later proven in a scientific study.)<ref>No it wasn't. But weren't you inclined to believe it just because of the little blue "[1]"?</ref> And on a different note, prestigious-sounding but meaningless names also appear in the title text for #[[1068]], where {{w|SwiftKey}} suggests the phrase "Massachusetts Institute of America" to Randall.

<div style="font-size:6px;"><references/></div>

==Transcript==
[Megan is standing behind Cueball who is at a computer desk.]

:Megan: Are you sure this study is legit?
:Cueball: Sure, it says it was accepted for publication.
:Megan: Where?
:Cueball: Hmm... ''The National Academy of Proceedings''.
:Caption: If something is if formatted like a serious scientific paper, it can take me a while to realise it isn't one.

{{comic discussion}}