explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1862: Particle Properties

2022-05-26T17:48:30Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 277080 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1862
| date = July 12, 2017
| title = Particle Properties
| image = particle_properties.png
| titletext = Each particle also has a password which allows its properties to be changed, but the cosmic censorship hypothesis suggests we can never observe the password itself—only its secure hash.
}}

==Explanation==
A table is presented comparing the range (maximum and minimum value) and scale (how big number increments are) of several measures. The table begins by listing properties pertinent to {{w|particle physics}} as the title suggests, but quickly devolves to other domains such as role-playing games (such as D&D) and sports after failing to provide a good definition of {{w|Flavour (particle physics)|flavor}}.

{| class=wikitable
! Property
! Scale
! Explanation
|-
| Electric charge
| [-1,1]
| The {{w|electric charge}} is shown in increments of a third from -1 to +1 which are the only known charges of fundamental particles (leptons, quarks and gauge bosons); however there are some exotic composite particles with twice integer charge, e.g. the recently discovered {{w|Ξcc++|double charmed Xi baryon}} with a charge of +2.

Quarks are the only particles with charges of ± ⅓ or ± ⅔, but cannot exist individually; below the {{w|Hagedorn temperature}}, they are only found within hadrons. To date, all hadrons (particles composed of quarks), leptons, and bosons have integer charge, and current models indicate that this must be the case.
|-
| Mass
| [0,∞) in kg
| Mass (specifically {{w|rest mass}}) is the measure of an object or particle's resistance to force, as well as its ability to distort {{w|spacetime}} (its gravitational attraction).
Theoretically, any object's mass could approach infinity, but mass cannot be below 0 (as far as {{w|Negative mass|we know}}). The mass units shown (kilograms) are, however, far too large for particles. Some particles, such as photons, have zero rest mass and are therefore massless.

All particles with rest mass obtain it through confinement, either by the {{w|Higgs field}} (the quarks; leptons; and W, Z, and Higgs bosons) or the strong nuclear force (hadrons).
Particles with no rest mass (photons and gluons) can only move at lightspeed.
|-
| Spin number
| (-∞,∞) (Intervals of ½)
| {{w|Spin (physics)|Spin}} is an intrinsic property of particles, a relativistic form of angular momentum. The spin of a particle determines what statistics the particle follows, half odd integer spin particles are classified as fermions and integer spin particles are bosons.

Two fermions cannot have exactly the same state, an observation known as the Pauli exclusion principle. Thus, for fermions to exist in the same position, they must have opposite spins, of + ½ and - ½. It follows that a maximum of two fermions of the same flavor (e.g. two electrons) may exist in the same position.
|-
| Flavor
| Misc. quantum numbers
| Flavor is a series of {{w|quantum numbers}} that do not fit neatly onto a set of dimensional axes.

The most general theory breaks flavor down into four distinct conserved values, the electric charge, the weak isospin, the baryon number and the lepton number, but more specific models increase the number of distinct values. Quarks, for example, add five more flavor numbers: isospin (upness vs. downness), strangeness, charm, topness and bottomness (the last four are literally just the number of strange, charmed, top and bottom quarks, minus the corresponding anti-quarks).
|-
| Color charge
| Coordinate system with R, G and B axes
| The primary {{w|strong nuclear force}} has six mutually attractive charges, arranged in three perpendicular axes each analogous to electric charge. These charges are commonly referred to as "{{w|Color charge|color}}" and the three axes are given the names of the three primary colors of light: Red, Green and Blue. The black dots in the diagram represent the actual colors while the white dots are the anti-color charges: anti-Red (colored cyan in diagrams), anti-Green (magenta) and anti-Blue (yellow). To complete the analogy, a color charge of zero is referred to as "White". The names of these charges are purely allegorical, but they do make it convenient to refer to them, especially in diagrams.

The color of a particle not confined by the strong force must be White, either as the sum of a color and its anti-color (as in a meson), as the sum of RGB or anti-RGB (as in a baryon), or as a sum of those sums (As in tetra-, penta- or hexaquarks). The attraction of the strong nuclear force is so strong that attempting to separate two quarks from each other creates enough energy to create two new quarks, which then bind to the original quarks. This property is known as "confinement" and means that color charge can never be observed directly.

Randall is incorrect in stating "Quarks only", since {{w|gluon}}s (the particle that carries the color force) are themselves colored. However, the colors of gluons are much more complicated, with a total of eight distinct superpositions of every possible color-anticolor pair. The fact that gluons are subject to the force they mediate also means that the strong force has a defined radius of effect, unlike the electromagnetic force, whose gauge bosons (the photon) are uncharged.

This is the last entry currently used to describe particles by particle physicists.
|-
| Mood
| 5 emojis on a number line ranging from angry to joyful
| Particles are not considered to have mood, even in the allegorical way they have color or flavor, but Randall implies that there is a quantized 5 point scale (from "angry" to "ecstatic") which would have some effect on the properties of the particle. This would be more appropriate for measuring customer satisfaction. Charts such as this are also sometimes used in medicine to indicate levels of pain, and in some psychiatric treatments as a quick way to track changes in the patient's condition.

In grammar, {{w|Grammatical particles|particles}} are a nebulous class of words, usually defined by a lack of declension or conjugation (such as prepositions in English). Some languages use particles instead of or in addition to "standard" declension/conjugation, much like auxiliary verbs are used in English. These particles may well carry "{{w|Grammatical mood|mood}}" as an attribute, as well as tense and aspect.
|-
| Alignment
| 3x3 grid with varying shades (columns Good-Evil, rows Lawful-Chaotic)
| A reference to the tabletop RPG ''{{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}'', where characters have an {{w|Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons)|alignment}} that is either Good, Neutral, or Evil (describing whether they have a propensity to help or harm others) and either Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic (describing how much they care about organizations, social norms, and the status quo). Common examples of these alignments include Darth Vader (Lawful Evil), Superman (Lawful Good), Robin Hood (Chaotic Good), and the Joker (Chaotic Evil). This may be a reference to the now defunct names of the two heaviest known quarks ("truth" and "beauty").
|-
| Hit points
| [0,∞)
| Games (videogames, board games, CCGs, RPGs, etc.) often have values for players and other entities that represent {{w|Health (video game)|health}} (also called hit points or HP). Generally there is not necessarily a limit on this value, but it does not often go below 0 as the zero value is considered "dead" (or some equivalent).
|-
| Rating
| 5-star scale
| The five-star rating system is often used to rate films, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. Randall has previously criticized this system in [[937: TornadoGuard]] and [[1098: Star Ratings]].

Interestingly, unlike the "Heat" rating with the chili peppers below, this scale doesn't have a creatively labeled number line, merely a rating (3.5, in this case). Considering [[1098]], could Randall be subtly self-deprecating here?
|-
| String type
| Bytestring-Charstring
| In computer science, this denotes what type of data is stored subsequent set of elements or a {{w|String_(computing)|string}}. This is likely a pun on {{w|String_(physics)|string}} types that appear in {{w|string theory}} and particle physics, and may also be a reference to {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}}, in which the difference between a byte string and a (Unicode) character string is a cause of difficulties for some programmers.
|-
| Batting average
| [0,100] in %
| In {{w|baseball}}, a player's {{w|batting average}} is calculated by dividing their hits by their at-bats. Instead of using the percent sign (%), it is usually presented as a number between 0 and 1 (inclusive) expressed as three decimal places with no leading zero: [.000, 1.000]. It is pronounced as though it is multiplied by 1,000: A batter with a batting average of .342 (which is very good) is said to be "batting three forty-two." A perfect batting average (unattainable except in very small samples) gives rise to the expression "batting a thousand." The 0-100 scale would be a better match for the batting average statistic in {{w|cricket}}, although percents would still not be used.
|-
| Proof
| [0,200]
| This refers to {{w|alcohol proof}}, which is the measure of the amount of ethanol in a beverage by volume. In the United States, 100 proof correspond to 50% alcohol, so the proof of a beverage is two times the percentage of ethanol, so the maximum value is 200.
|-
| Heat
| No jalapeño icons - 3 jalapeño icons, increasing
| Spicy dishes are sometimes measured by the intensity of the spicy flavor, usually ranging from values like "mild" to "hot". The gray jalapeño likely represents negligible or no spicy taste in the food. However, as an objective scale it is largely meaningless, since there is no reliable consistency in how these ratings are applied - what may be considered a 3-chilli dish in one establishment may only be a 1-chilli dish in another (as restaurants rarely if ever intend their dishes to be rated on the {{w|Scoville scale}}). The scale being unlimited may be a reference to the practice of some restaurants where a fourth or fifth chilli may be added to exaggerate the heat of their dishes.
|-
| Street value
| [0,∞) in $
| The value of an illegal good or a legal/controlled good when bought or sold by illegal means usually by or to the end user.
|-
| Entropy
| ''This already has like 20 different confusing meanings, so it probably means something here, too.''
| The term "entropy", which {{w|History of entropy|began}} as a {{w|Entropy (classical thermodynamics)|thermodynamic measure}}, has since been adopted {{w|Entropy in thermodynamics and information theory|by analogy}} into {{w|Entropy (disambiguation)|multiple seemingly unrelated domains}}. The table doesn't seem to know what domain it is in, but (possibly in a desperate attempt to hide this) deems it safe to assume the unknown domain uses the term "entropy" for ''something''! Entropy is often described as a measure of disorder or chaos so this may be another reference to the D&D alignment axis above.
|}

The title text says that in addition each particle has a password, but only hash of the password can be observed. This is a computer science reference. In computer science, properties (e.g. of an object or program) often can be changed with a single command. In physics as we observe it, properties can locally change with the environment. There are several {{w|Time-variation_of_fundamental_constants|experiments}}, whether physical constants are really time-const. Password hashing is the practice of hiding the password itself by storing only an irreversible representation of the password. Since the password itself is not stored, the password cannot ever be viewed by the user or a hacker (outside of the login page). This method is considered to be safest way of storing passwords. Password hashing using some {{w|key derivation function}} makes it impossible to steal passwords even if the server that stores hashes is cracked, unless the hash function is also broken, which should be a task which cannot be completed in any feasible time for sufficiently strong passwords. The title-text claims this is predicted by the {{w|cosmic censorship hypothesis}}, which in reality claims that a {{w|gravitational singularity}} must always be obscured by an event horizon (i.e.: there can't be a {{w|naked singularity}}). There is also a hint of quantum mechanics in the statement, as observation is one of the central concepts of the field, and {{w|Heisenberg's uncertainty principle}} actually states that it is impossible to observe (measure) some property of a particle with arbitrary precision when another one is known (e.g.: you can't determine the momentum and position of a particle). This makes the title text a mix of several domains, as was the above table.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Is table alone the best solution? Layout is still not standard.}}
:<big>Particle Properties in Physics</big>
{| class=wikitable
! Property
! Type/scale
|-
| Electric charge
| [Scale with -1, 0 and +1 labeled and markings dividing the units in thirds. The endpoints are both dots.]
|-
| Mass
| [Scale with 0, 1kg and 2kg labeled and markings dividing the units into thirds. The endpoints are a dot on the zero end and an arrow on the other end.]
|-
| Spin number
| [Scale with -1, -½, 0, ½ and 1 labeled and no additional markings. The endpoints are both arrows, pointing out.]
|-
| Flavor
| (Misc. quantum numbers)
|-
| Color charge
| [Coordinate system of three axes labeled R, G and B clockwise from the 10 o'clock position. Endpoints are arrow-dots on all ends, with black dots for the labeled ends and white dots for the unlabeled ends.] (Quarks only)
|-
| Mood
| [Scale labeled with 5 emoticons, from angry to happy, and markings dividing the units in thirds. Endpoints are both arrows, pointing out.]
|-
| Alignment
| [3x3 grid with varying shades] Good-Evil, Lawful-Chaotic
|-
| Hit points
| [Scale starting from 0, markings but no labels other than zero. Endpoints are a dot at zero end and an arrow at the other end.]
|-
| Rating
| [Star rating of 3.5/5 stars.]
|-
| String type
| Bytestring-Charstring
|-
| Batting average
| [Scale from 0% to 100%. Endpoints are dot at 0% end and arrow-dot at 100% end.]
|-
| Proof
| [Scale from 0 to 200. Endpoints are dot at 0 end and arrow-dot at 200 end.]
|-
| Heat
| [Scale labeled with pepper icons, from 0 (a grayed-out pepper) to 3 black peppers. Endpoints are a dot at zero end and an arrow at the other end.]
|-
| Street value
| [Scale with $0, $100 and $200 labeled. Endpoints are a dot at zero end and an arrow at the other end.]
|-
| Entropy
| (This already has like 20 different confusing meanings, so it probably means something here, too.)
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Baseball]]

761: DFS

2022-05-26T17:47:20Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 277079 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 761
| date = July 2, 2010
| title = DFS
| image = dfs.png
| titletext = A breadth-first search makes a lot of sense for dating in general, actually; it suggests dating a bunch of people casually before getting serious, rather than having a series of five-year relationships one after the other.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Hairy]] is preparing for his date with [[Ponytail]], and has just finished with a shower, as seen from the fact that he is wearing a towel around his waist.

He is also preparing mentally by thinking about which [[#Situations|situations]] he might encounter during the date. Since he cannot know for sure he is performing a "blind search" in his head. When doing a blind search in computing, there are two main tactics—{{w|depth-first search}} (DFS), and {{w|breadth-first search}} (BFS).

Hairy uses the '''DFS''' technique, as indicated in the comic title, which means going as far as you possibly can down one path before looking at other possibilities. This turns out to be a bad idea, as Hairy's searches takes him out on a tangent. Instead of preparing for his date, Hairy instead spent the whole time [[#Snake venom|doing research]] on {{w|snake venom}}, to the exclusion of even getting dressed in time for the arrival of his date. The way the last panel is the only panel and at the far right in the second row vs. four panels in the top row, indicates all the time he has used on DFS. And although he may realize his mistake, throwing up his arms, he has to tell [[Ponytail]] the fact he has found out that the {{w|inland taipan}}'s has the deadliest venom of any snake (see [[#Snake venom|more]] below).

By contrast, a breadth-first search will look only minimally into a topic before moving on to another; any new depth exposed by this minimal check will be added to a list of stuff to do later. This would have allowed Hairy to briefly check many more things within the time allotted, and probably still have been able to get dressed if, in dealing breadth-first in the first layer of concerns, he quickly identified (and prioritised/satisfied) the need to be properly dressed and ready to go out.

The relationship advice given in the title text on using breadth-first search may not be meant too seriously. However, one might be more sure about what kind of person one is looking for after already having dated a few people. But then the right one, might have slipped by. It is by no means certain that you can return to one of the first persons you dated after having dated another dozen.

It is, however, not very useful, if you wish to have a stable family life, to "only" be with a person for five years. So DFS is for sure a bad way to find out who you wish to spend you life with. One might conclude that blind search is not a good way to find your significant other. But for most people, there is no other way to search.

DFS and BFS make another appearance in [[2407: Depth and Breadth]], together with variations based on them.

==Situations==
Hairy begins to think of several situations to prepares for.

===First step===
In the first panel there are four situations:
#Medical emergency
##This is the situation he continues with in the second step.
#Dancing
##He probably doesn't think he is good enough at dancing, or simply doesn’t like it.
##It could also be because he is uncertain what she expects, of if she wishes to dance with him at all.
#Food too expensive
##It probably means that he is expected to pay (at least for himself, but probably also for his date)
##This is a simple problem, if he does his search first. He just has to choose a restaurant he can afford.
#Bee eating contest (?)
##This situation is cut off, so it is hard to be certain what it says.
##The above is the best guess so far.
##It could be a joke on {{w|Spelling bee}} contests and "normal" {{w|Competitive eating|eating contest}}.

===Second step===
In the second panel there are also four situations continuing the first option from the first panel:
#Medical emergency
##Snakebite
###This is the situation he continues with in the third step.
##{{w|Lightning strike}}
###Very unlikely event to happen on any given date.
##Fall from chair
###This could happen, especially if he is clumsy when holding the chair for her...
##Tracheal bowing (?)
###This situation is cut off very much. The above is just a good guess.

===Third step===
In the third panel there are four types of snakes with questions marks as to whether they are dangerous. This is a continuation of the first option from the second panel:
#Medical emergency
##Snakebite
###Corn snake
###Garter snake
###Copperhead
###Coral snake (?)
####This situation is cut off very much. The above is just a good guess.

This third step takes him to his computer in the fourth panel where he does lots of research on [[#Snake venom|snake venom]].

===Snake venom===
{{w|Median lethal dose|LD50}}, or median lethal dose, is the dose of a toxin required to kill 50% of the population studied, usually expressed in milligrams of toxin per kilogram of body mass, and most often for {{w|rats}} or another type of {{w|guinea pig}}.

The {{w|inland taipan}}'s venom does, indeed, have the lowest median lethal dose among snake venoms. Fortunately, it is extremely shy in temperament, and will always escape danger rather than bite if it can, which is why it isn't considered to be a particularly dangerous snake. It also resides only in inland Australia, unlike any of the snakes that Hairy enumerated as potential risks. (If he does happen to live in Australia, he should be more concerned about the much deadlier {{w|eastern brown snake}} and {{w|coastal taipan}}.)

Incidentally, {{w|Corn snake|corn snakes}} and {{w|garter snakes}} are not even remotely dangerous to humans (in fact they're the most popular pet snakes), and of the four different species commonly known as "{{w|agkistrodon|copperheads}}," the only dangerously venomous one is ''{{w|deinagkistrodon acutus}}'' or sharp-nosed viper that only lives in Southeast Asia. In the US, the snake going by the name of ''copperhead'' is the {{w|agkistrodon contortrix}}.

The item that is almost entirely cut off by the thought bubble seems to be "{{w|coral snake}}". Coral snakes are in a similar position as the inland taipan: they are extremely venomous, but also extremely reclusive.

==Transcript==
:[In a caption that breaks the top of the first panels frame:]
:Preparing for a date:

:[Hairy with wet hair and a towel around his waist thinks with his hand to his chin. There are four situations, but it is not possible to read the fourth line.]
:Hairy: What situations might I prepare for?
::1) Medical emergency
::2) Dancing
::3) Food too expensive

:[Close-up on Hairy's face, who is still thinking. There are again four situations, but again it is not possible to read the fourth line.]
:Hairy: Okay, what kind of emergencies can happen?
::1) A) Snakebite
::: B) Lightning strike
::: C) Fall from chair

:[Zoooming out again to full figure of Hairy. He is still thinking... There are four snakes mentioned, but again it is not possible to read the fourth line. The word Danger stands beneath the three dots above the "?" after each snake.]
:Hairy: Hmm. Which snakes are dangerous? Let's see...
:::::::Danger
::1)A)a) Corn snake ?
::: b) Garter snake ?
::: c) Copperhead ?

:[Hairy is sitting down in a chair with a laptop in his lap, while still wearing the towel.]
:Hairy: The research comparing snake venoms is scattered and inconsistent. I'll make a spreadsheet to organize it.

:[Bottom panel is larger than top four, and aligned to right. Ponytail meets Hairy on his front stoop. She is carrying a purse, and looks down at the towel he is still wearing. Hairy holds his arms in the air.]
:Ponytail: I'm here to pick you up. You're not dressed?
:Hairy: By LD50, the inland taipan has the deadliest venom of any snake!

:[Below this last panel is the following caption:]
:I really need to stop using depth-first searches.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Animals]]

973: MTV Generation

2022-05-26T17:46:33Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 277078 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 973
| date = November 4, 2011
| title = MTV Generation
| image = mtv_generation.png
| titletext = If you identified with the kids from The Breakfast Club when it came out, you're now much closer to the age of Principal Vernon.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|MTV}} stands for "Music Television", which is the name of a US-based cable channel, founded in 1981, specifically focusing on popular music and the music industry in general. The programming largely (though not exclusively) consisted of {{w|music video}}s. The focus of the channel has since shifted to {{w|reality shows}}. In the channel's heyday in the 1980's and early 1990's, it was popular with teenagers and young adults. As is often the case with youth culture, it was roundly condemned by some adults as being destructive and pointless. One of the specific criticisms was that the format of short videos, with quick-edit, highly kinetic visual styles and no underlying narrative was destroying the attention span of the youth.

Despite MTV no longer being especially popular (and no longer focusing on music videos), people still use the term '''MTV Generation''' to refer to the young cohort, and insist that they have poor attention spans, resulting from their media exposure. [[Megan]] explains that the term really originated about 25 years ago, to describe {{w|Generation X}}, the generation born from 1965 to 1980. The actual MTV generation has long since grown up, and most young people today either don't watch MTV, or have no idea that it was originally a music channel. Teenagers today are the children of "the MTV generation" (and even their grandchildren, in some cases).

{{w|The Breakfast Club}} is an iconic movie from 1985 in which 5 teenagers spend a Saturday detention together at school. Principal Vernon was the overseer of the detention, and a symbol of authority and oppression of youth - the actor playing principal Vernon was around 45 years old at the time of filming. The irony is that many adults who grew up watching the movie still identify with the teenagers, but now have little in common with them.

There are a couple of themes in this strip that [[Randall]] has covered before. One is mocking adults for the assumptions they make about young people, youth culture and new technology. Adults have a tendency to whitewash the past, and insist that modern young people are being corrupted by new trends. And when that generation of youth grows up, they tend to make the same assumptions about the next generation. [[1601: Isolation]], [[1227: The Pace of Modern Life]], [[1414: Writing Skills]], [[1348: Before the Internet]]

Another theme is making people feel old by pointing out how long ago their common memories are, as in [[647: Scary]], [[891: Movie Ages]], [[1393: Timeghost]], [[1477: Star Wars]], and [[2165: Millennials]].

==Transcript==

:[Teenager playing with phone walks in background. White Hat and Megan are in the foreground.]
:White Hat: See, that's the problem with the MTV generation— No attention span.
:Teenager's phone: ''Bleep bloop''

:[White Hat and Megan in frameless panel without teenager from previous panel.]
:Megan: You know, that phrase referred to the 12-19 demographic that formed the core MTV audience in the mid-1980s.

:[Zoom in on Megan with White Hat off-panel to the left.]
:White Hat (off-panel): Uh huh? So?
:Megan: That generation's now in their 40s.

:[Zoom back out to White Hat and Megan, with White Hat scratching his head.]
:White Hat: That can't be right.
:Megan: Face it: Your problem with the MTV generation is their ''kids''.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

1566: Board Game

2022-05-26T17:45:12Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 277077 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1566
| date = August 19, 2015
| title = Board Game
| image = board_game.png
| titletext = Yes, it took a lot of work to make the cards and pieces, but it's worth it--the players are way more thorough than the tax prep people ever were.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] is shown explaining the rules of a {{w|board game}} to three other players ([[Hairy]], [[Ponytail]], and [[Hairbun]]) of a local board game club – a hobbyist group that gets together to play board games. However, the board game Cueball is explaining is actually his own creation which is designed to trick the club into preparing his {{w|income tax}} return. The caption indicates that Cueball does this every year, which makes this comic reminiscent of the [[My Hobby]] series.

An income tax return is an annual document which most adults (and some teenagers) in many countries must prepare and submit to the government agency responsible for tax collection. The document sets out that person's income for the year, along with offsets including deductions and credits, and calculates the amount of income tax the person is required to pay to the government (used by the revenue service to compare it to the value that person had actually paid).

The return requires understanding of a number of forms which may seem complicated to those not familiar with them. It is an annual task that is stereotypically met with confusion and disdain. Many people hire professionals to prepare their taxes. More recently, software-based solutions that walk the user through a series of more understandable text-based questions are available to aid taxpayers in completing their returns; however these are not always ideal for those with complicated returns.

In this comic, Cueball has developed his alternative method of tax preparation which utilizes the collective intelligence of several board-game-club players, and also capitalizes on the fact that members of such a club are likely very competitive and eager to succeed at board games. As a result (as the title text suggests), Cueball thinks the board game players are more thorough than the tax preparation professionals he has previously used. Such professionals would prepare perhaps hundreds of returns per year and as a result, might indeed be less thorough with each individual return which may all be viewed as fairly simple and repetitive by the professional.

Among the rules Cueball explains are references to "allowable deduction" cards which presumably reference certain deductions which are allowed on income tax returns to lower the net income (resulting in lower taxes). For example; a portion of certain medical expenses are permitted to lower one's income in recognition of the fact that using one's income for medical expenses is somewhat non-discretionary. Similarly, certain charitable donations are permitted as deductions to encourage such donations.

In Cueball's game, players must match the deductions with other cards to preserve their full "point value". This appears to be a reference to the desire to capitalize as much as possible on the value of a deduction by taking the deduction against income which would otherwise incur the greatest tax, and ensuring that the full amount of the deduction can be used. A deduction of $2,000 against income of $1,000 would waste half the deduction.

In gaming, tokens are small playing pieces which may represent various things, depending on the game. In many board games (e.g.
''{{w|Monopoly (game)|Monopoly}}''), tokens represent the players themselves. In other games, such as ''{{w|Magic: The Gathering}}'', tokens can represent creatures or other items in a player's inventory. Cueball references "dependent tokens" which appear to be game tokens representing Cueball's dependents. Dependents are individuals for whom the taxpayer is entitled to certain deductions and credits, often related to expenses incurred to care for the dependents. Most commonly, dependents are the minor children whom the taxpayer is required to support financially, but in the United States (where [[Randall]] lives) a person can claim a qualifying child as a dependent as long as the qualifying child lives with the claimant and is not self-supporting, even if the claimant is not the person who supports the qualifying child, and a person who voluntarily supports another (without being required) may also qualify to claim the person. Also, U.S. law usually does not allow a person's own spouse to be claimed as a "dependent", even when financial support is required.

Note that while Cueball states he "tricks" his board game club into doing his taxes, in fact his use of clear tax terms ("allowable deductions", "dependent") for naming different tokens and elements of the game could suggest that the players knew what he was doing but going along with it because they just enjoy playing board games, such that even doing a tax return – often considered a boring mind-numbing chore – within the format of a board game would be something they would enjoy doing. (On the other hand, it's possible that the players don't realize that the game involves preparing ''Cueball's own'' tax return.) Alternatively, the comic may be comparing the tediousness of some board games to that of doing tax returns. It is noted that there are board games on a variety of unexpected topics which might seem like boring subjects for a game. For example, there are several games designed to simulate the stock market and investing. The popular video game ''{{w|Farmville}}'' is often joked about having created a successful game out of a job most people would find unpleasurable. This suggests it might actually be possible to create an board game enjoyable to some people from the process of preparing a tax return.

This is one of several xkcd comics that suggest going to comically extreme lengths to avoid doing something (in this case, his taxes) that might have been simpler to do normally than the way Randall proposes. In this case, Cueball suggests that his motives may actually be to get the most thorough preparation possible, rather than to simply find a way to get the task done. There is actually a pretty solid basis to for this. Both {{W|gamification}} and {{w|crowdsourcing}} have been shown, in at least some cases, to produce results that can match or exceed those produced by professionals. For example, the University of Washington created {{w|Foldit | an online game}} in which users tried to optimize the folding of protein structures. The results produced by players produced useful new structures more quickly than computer simulations were able to. In this case, the work is being done by people who presumably have at least some enthusiasm for games, and who are likely competing with one another for the best results. Randall can then use the best outcome (that created by the winner) to optimize his own tax return.

A similar situation of Randall secretly exploiting someone's interest for his own purposes occurs in [[1323: Protocol]].

And another board game can be found at [[492: Scrabble]].

This was the first time Randall made a comic about people having trouble understanding the US tax system. Since then he has two years in a row made comics in relation to an approaching tax day. See the title text of [[1805: Unpublished Discoveries]] and the entire comic [[1971: Personal Data]].

==Transcript==
:[Hairy, Cueball, Ponytail (reading something), and Hairbun (holding some cards) are sitting around a table. There are several other objects on the table.]
:Cueball: ...Now, this pile is "allowable deduction" cards. You match them with cards in your hand to preserve their full point value.
:Cueball: Over here are "dependent" tokens...

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Every year, I trick a local board game club into doing my taxes.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Board games]]

851: Na

2022-05-26T17:44:54Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 277076 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 851
| date = January 24, 2011
| title = Na
| image = na.png
| titletext = I hear that there are actual lyrics later on in Land of 1,000 Dances, but other than the occasional 'I said,' I've never listened long enough to hear any of them.
}}
*The picture is a link to [https://xkcd.com/851_make_it_better/ a better version] of this comic, see [[#Trivia|Trivia]].

==Explanation==
The repetition of the syllable "na" is often used to sing a tune without using any of the actual words. While this is normally done to practice or demonstrate a tune, repeated "na"s are also a part of some songs' lyrics, as shown in this comic. Following the various paths of the diagram forms the words of several well-known tunes, with each song branching off after the appropriate number of "na"s.

The top entry refers to the song "{{w|Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye}}," originally recorded by {{w|Steam_(band)|Steam}}. The tune is often sung by the home fans of American sporting events at the end of a victory as a means of taunting the away team.

The left bottom entry refers to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jgE-lrfZ3k theme song] of the '60s TV show ''{{w|Batman (TV series)|Batman}}''.

The middle bottom entry refers to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpFFzWPzA2c theme song] of the video game ''{{w|Katamari Damacy}}, '' which was also the cause of the [[161: Accident|Accident]] in comic 161.

The right bottom entry refers to the song "{{w|Land of a Thousand Dances}}," originally recorded by {{w|Chris Kenner}}. The title text jokes that the tune's incessant repetition of "na" has annoyed [[Randall]] to the point that he does not have the patience to listen to the whole song.

There are likely countless other songs that uses "Na Na Na" as part of the lyrics. Some will be more popular than others. A very popular song that goes: ''Naaa Naaa Naaa Na Na Na Naaa, Na Na Na Naaaa, Hey Jude'' was left out. {{w|Hey Jude}} must have been brought to Randall's attention after this comic was released, as he made a comment about it in the comic header the day after this comic was released, see [[#Trivia|Trivia]] below.

This is one of many {{w|Flowchart|flowchart}} comics. A full list can be found [[:Category:Flowcharts|here]].

==Transcript==
:[A flowchart with 11 similar boxes on a line connected with arrows. After 8 there is two branches, one up (with three boxes above the rest of the 11 boxes) and one down to one box. After 10 there is one branch down to a larger box with two lines, and after that the last arrow is longer before reaching the last and 11th box. From this box there is an arrow that loops around to the last box again. This arrow is labeled.]
:Na → Na → Na → Na → Na → Na → Na → Na → Na → Na → Na
:Up 8 branch:→ Hey → Hey → Goodbye
:Down 8 branch:→ Batman!
:Down 10 branch:→ Katamari Damacy!
:Loop: Land of 1,000 Dances

==Trivia==
*The day after after this comic was published, [http://web.archive.org/web/20110125190908/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-01-25], the following message was posted by [[Randall]] at the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Header|header]] of xkcd:
:I can't ''believe'' I forgot Hey Jude.
:I don't get do-overs, but I couldn't resist making [https://xkcd.com/851_make_it_better/ a fixed version].
*This text was only on the front page until the next comic came out [http://web.archive.org/web/20110126223754/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-01-26]. After that it stayed only as a [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Unique_header_text|unique header]] for this comic.
*At that time the standard header was:
::Protip: m.xkcd.com is a clean, mobile-friendly version of xkcd.com.
::Protip: Scripts can fetch comics and metadata automatically.
*The addition to the diagram refers to the song "{{w|Hey Jude}}," originally recorded by {{w|The Beatles}}.
**In this fixed version an extra Na has been inserted between the last two Na's, making the new Na the 11th, now out of 12. From this new 11th Na, there is another down branch that goes → Hey → Jude.
**Then the last line to the now 12 Na is no longer much longer than the previously, and the loop arrow is now above instead of below to make space for Jude, and also the text has been moved to the end of the chart instead of below the loop.
**The updated comic's URL, "https://xkcd.com/851_make_it_better/" is a reference to part of "Hey Jude"'s [https://genius.com/The-beatles-hey-jude-lyrics lyrics]: "Take a sad song / And '''make it better'''."
*In the original comic picture "Hey Jude" is still missing, but the original comic has been made into a link to the "make it better" version.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Katamari Damacy]]
[[Category:Video games]]

1018: Good Cop, Dadaist Cop

2022-05-26T17:44:33Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 277075 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1018
| date = February 17, 2012
| title = Good Cop, Dadaist Cop
| image = good_cop_dadaist_cop.png
| titletext = NOW INVENT AN IMPOSSIBLE-TO-TRANSLATE LANGUAGE AND USE IT TO TELL US WHERE THE MONEY IS.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a play on the well known {{w|Good cop/bad cop|Good Cop/Bad Cop}} (where one interrogator is nice and friendly and the other is mean and intimidating) police interrogation strategy and the artistic movement {{w|Dadaism}}.

Dadaism is an artistic movement which by its definition is irrational. The movement embraces the free flow of unreasoned thought and prizes nonsense and rejection of established norms. As such, the entire concept of "Good Cop, Dadaist Cop" could be considered a dadaist concept in itself.

"Good Cop/Bad Cop" is a psychological tactic that may be employed during joint questioning or interrogation. The interrogators isolate the suspect, then one of the interrogators acts aggressively and threatens the suspect (the "bad cop") and the other acts friendly and helpful in comparison, offering the suspect reassurance and protection from the bad cop if they co-operate (the "good cop"). If successful, it deceives the suspect into believing they must choose to trust one of the interrogators and the suspect chooses to co-operate with the good cop, or merely complies out of fear of the bad cop.

The comic starts with the "Good Cop", the male police officer, and the "Dadaist Cop", [[Ponytail]], working out their plan to interrogate the suspect, [[Hairy]]. After the Good Cop makes a few statements, intended to build trust with Hairy, and leaves to get coffee, Ponytail enters the interrogation and starts asking Hairy absurd questions. Hairy quickly becomes agitated, and questions what is wrong with Ponytail. Ponytail responds "What's wrong with ART?", which could suggest she believes the interrogation is artwork and should not be questioned. On the other hand, actual responses would break the Dadaism pattern.

Good Cop/Bad Cop hinges on the suspect's fear and distrust of the intentions of the bad cop; thankfully for the police, Ponytail's "Dadaist Cop" seems to be a successful Bad Cop too, judging by the suspect's fear of her irrational, unpredictable, and potential crazy behavior (not to mention loud and aggressive mannerisms).

The title text builds on the joke as by asking a suspect to give the whereabouts of the money in a dadaist manner, which would be completely useless in finding it. Such a statement could be used as a confession though.

===Irrationality===
*"See this? It's Mark Zuckerberg's mortgage. So why is it written in '''''Church Latin?'''''"
**{{w|Mark Zuckerberg}} (the co-founder of {{w|Facebook}}) was [//allfacebook.com/mark-zuckerberg-moves-into-another-rental-house_b29174 renting in 2011] and therefore did not have a {{w|mortgage}}.
***Even if Mark Zuckerberg had bought a property, it is unlikely (given his financial status) that he would have to take out a mortgage.
**Modern mortgages are typically written in the local vernacular; it would be very strange for one to be written in a dead language like {{w|Church Latin}}.{{citation needed}}
*"'''''WHY ARE MY BONES SO SMALL?'''''" "What's wrong with '''''ART?'''''"
**These are {{w|Non_sequitur_(logic)|non sequiturs}} and therefore have no place in an investigation.
*"'''''NOW INVENT AN IMPOSSIBLE-TO-TRANSLATE LANGUAGE AND USE IT TO TELL US WHERE THE MONEY IS.'''''" (title text)
**The location of the money cannot be conveyed to Ponytail if the information were expressed in a newly invented language that cannot be translated, and therefore would be useless to an investigation.

==Transcript==
:[Two police officers, a bald male and a Ponytail, both wearing peaked caps with white emblems, are standing in front of a window in a wall, with an electric socket in the bottom right corner. They look through the window into an interrogation chamber holding the handcuffed suspect Hairy, who is sitting on a chair. A lamp with the bulb beneath the shade hangs over Hairy. The lamp is lit as shown by lines indicating the lamp shines light.]
:Male officer: All right, let's try Good Cop, Dadaist Cop.

:[The male police officer is seated in front of Hairy on another chair holding a hand with palm up in front of him. Hairy has his cuffed hands in his lap and his hair is in disarray.]
:Male officer: Look, you're a good guy. We can work this out. Hey, lemme get us some coffee.

:[In a slim frame-less panel the male officer leaves and Ponytail enters carrying a rolled up paper in her hand.]

:[Ponytail walks in holding the folded out paper out in one hand while pointing at it with the other hand. It is a document of indeterminate contents, but there are both text and figures on it. She threatens Hairy who pulls his leg up under him and hold his cuffed hand up in front of him leaning back away from her while three drops of sweat fly of the top of his head.]
:Ponytail: See this? It's Mark Zuckerberg's mortgage.
:Ponytail: So why is it written in '''''Church Latin?'''''

:[Ponytail physically rattles Hairy's head holding it in both hands, lines around his heads and below her elbow show the movement. Hairy has his hands straight in front of him.]
:Ponytail: '''''WHY ARE MY BONES SO SMALL?'''''
:Hairy: What's '''''WRONG''''' with you?!
:Ponytail: What's wrong with '''''ART?'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

Talk:470: The End is Not for a While

2022-05-26T17:43:25Z

Roselily2006:

I love this one... it reminds me of the 'Father Ted' episode (Se01Ep03) with the polite protest signs reading "Careful Now" & "Down With This Sort Of Thing". I always try and see what's written on the back of those "The End is Now" placards expecting "...For The Sale at Carpet-World" or somesuch; been disappointed on all but 2 occasions. [[User:Squirreltape|Squirreltape]] ([[User talk:Squirreltape|talk]]) 14:32, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

I do like it when this kind of counter-protest trolling is done to groups like the Westboro Baptist Cretins. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 05:10, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure, but is the mention of scrabble significant? I think somewhere there is something about scrabble and 'end time' governments, but I'm not sure. ----

In "The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy" a set of hand made scrabble pieces are used to "randomly" determine the Question to which the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything refers. Here's a link that explains it. May not be what the poster above is thinking about, but it's interesting. http://www.6by9.net/why-6by9/

A Dutch politician of the center-right party VVD once went to a left-wing protest. He called it building bridges. (The ruling coalition slogan.) His comment on Twitter: "Quite a lot of angry people here."

I don't think the analysis of the title text is correct here. I think it might be a reference to a protest such as a Women's Rights Protest in which a man calling all the women there 'cute' would probably not go over well or as a 'complement'. I think it is more likely to be viewed by the protesters as problematic objectification, which is what makes it funny in that him saying that at the protest would be so wrong.

For some reason, even though the page looks right when I'm in the editing page, it gets crapped as soon as I confirm the edit. Does anyone know what's going on? - [[User:Roselily2006|Roselily2006]]

470: The End is Not for a While

2022-05-26T17:37:35Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 279357 by Donald Trump (talk) Don't mind me. Just undoing all of this vandal's contributions.

{{comic
| number =470
| date =September 1, 2008
| title =The End is Not for a While
| image =the_end_is_not_for_a_while.png
| titletext =I THINK EVERYONE INVOLVED HERE IS CUTE.
}}

==Explanation==
People show up at protests because they're angry about something and want to use peaceful means or otherwise to effect political change. It's very much a groupthink, "mob" mentality, bringing to mind the credo, "If you're not with us, you're against us."

Hardly anyone goes to a protest because they're happy about the way things are, and thus, someone holding up signs saying how happy he is would, to say the least, be very out of place at a protest, {{tvtropes|WavingSignsAround|although it's more common than expected}}.

The title text shows another sign [[Cueball]] is carrying (although since it compliments the protesters, he may not get in as much trouble for it).

The title of the comic refers to the oft-seen protest placard "The end is now," signifying that person's belief that we live in the end times, and it's time to start getting right with (insert religious figure of your choice here).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball with two picket signs. Ponytail with a picket sign stands partially out of the frame, staring at Cueball.]
:I get in trouble for showing up contented at protests.
:Sign 1: Things are pretty okay!
:Sign 2: Anyone for Scrabble later?

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

195: Map of the Internet

2022-05-26T17:33:06Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 279189 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 195
| date = December 11, 2006
| title = Map of the Internet
| image = map of the internet.jpg
| titletext = For the IPv6 map just imagine the XP default desktop picture.
}}

==Explanation==
On the map, all allocated {{w|IPv4}} address blocks (as of 2006) are shown using a fractal mapping. (The {{w|Hilbert curve}} is used: the pattern is demonstrated at the bottom of the image.) In February 2011, the final remaining IPv4 blocks were allocated to the {{w|Regional Internet registry|Regional Internet registries}}, and so today there would no longer be any green spaces outside of Class E addresses (above 240 through 255, excluding the Broadcast address of 255.255.255.255).

In the early 1990s, corporations and governments could register an entire {{w|Classful network|class A}} segment (one 256th of the total space), but later it was divided into smaller parts because of a lack of space.

This leads to the title text, which mentions {{w|IPv6}}. This protocol has so many addresses that only a [[865: Nanobots|swarm of nanobots]] could exhaust them. The default desktop picture in Windows XP is a green landscape, and the joke is that since barely any of the addresses are allocated yet, the IPv6 map would just be a green landscape.

Later, Randall actually drew some "real" maps of the Internet, or at least its online Communities (see [[256: Online Communities]] and [[802: Online Communities 2]]).

==Transcript==
:Map of the Internet The IPv4 Space, 2006 This chart shows the IP address space on a plane using a fractal mapping which preserves grouping--any consecutive string of IPs will translate to a single, compact, contiguous region on the map. Each of the 256 numbered blocks represents one 8 subnet (containing all IPs that start with that number). The upper left section shows the blocks sold directly to corporations and goverments in the 1990's before the RIRs took over allocation.
:Diagram showing IP ownership:
:0: Local
:1-2: Unallocated
:3: General Electric
:4: BB&N INC
:5: Unallocated
:6: Army AISC
:7: Unallocated
:8: BB&N INC
:9: IBM
:10: VPNs
:11: DoD Intel
:12: Bell Labs
:13: Xerox
:14: Public data nets
:15: HP
:16: DEC
:17: Apple
:18: MIT
:19: Ford
:20: CSC
:21: DDN-RYN
:22: DISA
:23: Unallocated
:24: Cable TV
:25: UK MoD
:26: DISA
:27: Unallocated
:28: DSI
:29-30: DISA
:31: Unallocated
:32: NORSK
:33: DLA
:34: Halliburton
:35: Merit
:36-37: Unallocated
:38: PSI
:39: Unallocated
:40: Eli Lily
:41: ARINIC
:42: Unallocated
:43: Japan INET
:44: HAM Radio
:45: INTEROP
:46: BB&N INC
:47: Bell North
:48: Prudential
:49-50: Unallocated
:51: UK Social Security
:52: duPont
:55: Boeing
:56: USPS
:57: SITA
:58-61: Asia-Pacific
:62: Europe
:63-76: USA & Canada (contains: UUNET, Google, Digg, Slashdot, Ebay, Craigslist, XKCD, Flickr)
:77-79: Europe (unused)
:80-91: Europe
:92-95: Unallocated
:96-99: North America
:100-120: Unallocated
:121-125: Asia-Pacific
:126: Japan
:127: Loopback
:128-132: Various Registrars
:133: Japan
:134-172: Various Registrars
:173-189: Unallocated
:188: Various
:189-190: Latin America & Caribbean
:191-192: Various (contains Private (RFC 1918))
:193-195: Europe
:196: Africa
:197: Unallocated
:198: US & Various
:199: North America
:200-201: Latin America & Carribbean
:202-203: Asia-Pacific
:204-209: North America (contains Suicide Girls, BoingBoing)
:210-211: Asia-Pacific
:212-213: Europe
:214-215: U.S. Department of Defense
:216: North America (Contains Myspace, SomethingAwful)
:217: Europe
:218-222: Asia-Pacific
:223: Unallocated
:224-239: Multicast
:240-255: Unallocated

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Maps]]

2216: Percent Milkfat

2022-05-26T17:30:10Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 277028 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2216
| date = October 16, 2019
| title = Percent Milkfat
| image = percent_milkfat.png
| titletext = "So what's dark energy?" "Cosmologists and the FDA are both trying very hard to find out."
}}

==Explanation==
While cow milk contains a variable amount of fat (about 4.2%), whole milk from the store generally contains about [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/03/whole-milk-is-actually-3-5-milk-whats-up-with-that/ 3.5% milkfat] by weight according to the comic and some sources; [https://milklife.com/articles/nutrition/types-of-dairy-milk other sources] list similar but not identical numbers such as 3.25%.

Dairies commonly sell whole milk as well as products with less fat produced by removing milkfat. {{w|Fat_content_of_milk#United_States|In the United States}}, there are three common products with less fat: 2% or "reduced fat" milk, 1% or "lowfat" milk, and "fat-free" or "skim" milk with 0 to 0.5% milkfat.

Since whole milk is labeled as "whole" milk and not as "3.5% milk," one might naively assume that whole milk is 100% milkfat, although this is not the case; 100% would be a product which is entirely milkfat (also known as butterfat), such as {{w|clarified butter}} or ghee. In milk, {{w|Milk#Nutrition and health|the remainder}} is mainly water along with proteins, lactose (a sugar), and other substances.

The comic analogizes this difference to the fact that physicists believe that "ordinary" matter constitutes only 5% of the actual mass-energy of the universe. Scientists predict the existence of another kind of matter known as "{{w|dark matter}}," invisible to our current instruments but exerting gravitational force on ordinary matter, which would constitute 85% of total matter and 27% of the universe's mass-energy, with the remainder an even less detectable and more mysterious "{{w|dark energy}}" accounting for the increasing speed of {{w|expansion of the universe}}.

Ponytail uses these quantities to "explain" the "missing" percentage in whole milk between the actual 3.5% and a potential 100% "whole." She actually uses the 27% as mentioned above for dark matter. She thus indicates that dark energy takes up the remaining 69.5% of the whole milk.

Ponytail is assuming that dark matter and dark energy are {{w|Uniform distribution (continuous)|distributed uniformly}} throughout all pockets of the universe, no matter how small. This assumption is common in statistics and may have seemed appropriate since no one knows the proportion of dark matter or dark energy of an object as small as a milk carton (though a more sensible argument is that all matter is accounted for when considering the milk and the carton; no additional "dark" matter is necessary to explain the weight of the milk carton).

{{w|Physical cosmology|Cosmologists}} are working to better understand dark energy or another reason for the universe's accelerating expansion. The title text supposes that both cosmologists and the {{w|Food and Drug Administration}} (FDA), which regulates milk and other food items in the United States, are trying to understand the dark energy of the whole milk. In real life, the work of cosmologists and FDA scientists does not overlap at all.{{Citation needed}}

Dark energy was recently mentioned in [[2113: Physics Suppression]], but before that milkfat and dark energy were actually mentioned in the same sentence in [[2063: Carnot Cycle]] from almost a year before this comic, so the idea behind this comic is not new for Randall. Dark matter was mentioned back in [[1758: Astrophysics]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail, raising her palm, and Cueball are talking.]
:Ponytail: "2% milk" is 2% milkfat. But "whole milk" isn't 100% milkfat–it's 3.5%.
:Cueball: Weird. What's the rest of it?
:Ponytail: About 27% is dark matter. The remainder is dark energy.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Food]]

2487: Danger Mnemonic

2022-05-26T17:29:01Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 279098 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2487
| date = July 9, 2021
| title = Danger Mnemonic
| image = danger_mnemonic.png
| titletext = It's definitely not the time to try drinking beer before liquor.
}}

==Explanation==

The teacher [[Miss Lenhart]] warns two small kids using a danger {{w|mnemonic}}.

However, this is actually a mash-up of three different common danger mnemonics, each of which warn about different hazards.

*Red touch black, friend of Jack; red touch yellow, kill a fellow.

This mnemonic is intended to help recognize a venomous {{w|coral snake}}, which has red, black, and yellow stripes, with the red and yellow stripes adjacent. Nonvenomous {{w|king snake}} species also have red, black, and yellow stripes, but the black stripes separate the red and yellow ones. Note that this identification is accurate only in eastern North America; coral snakes in other parts of the world sometimes have black stripes touching red stripes. The safest course of action is to avoid any snake with the warning colors of red, yellow/white, and black stripes. Another corruption of same warning features in [[1604: Snakes]].

*Leaves of three, leave them be; berries white, poisonous sight. (Alternatively, "berries white, run in fright" or "hide from sight.")

This mnemonic is used to identify {{w|poison ivy}} and {{w|poison oak}} throughout much of North America. These plants both produce an oily surface resin called urushiol, which causes an allergic reaction in the majority of people. Touching either plant can result in contact dermatitis, which can be severely itchy or painful. If burned, the urushiol can be inhaled, causing lung irritation. While rarely serious, these reactions are often severely unpleasant and can last for weeks, so avoiding the plants is well advised. Both plants generally grow three leaves at the end of each branch, and grow berries that turn white when ripe. The mnemonic helps in remembering this characteristic to distinguish them from similar-looking but harmless vines. See [[443: Know Your Vines]].

*Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.

This {{w|Red sky at morning|mnemonic}} predicts bad/good weather conditions based on a particularly red sunrise/sunset. It is predictive at {{w|middle latitudes}} where the prevailing winds go from west to east. Regions of higher air pressure will cause a particularly red sky at sunrise/sunset, so a red sky in the evening indicates a high pressure system is coming in from the west with its calmer weather, while a red sky in the morning indicates a low pressure front coming in (usually with rain and rougher weather). In some countries (such as the United Kingdom), the saying mentions shepherds rather than sailors. Randall actually wrote a [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/science/what-makes-a-red-sky-at-night-and-at-morning.html newspaper article] explaining this phenomenon.

Combining all three sayings sounds particularly ominous. It implies that a person is involved with a situation simultaneously involving coral snakes, poison ivy, and potentially nasty weather. In such a case, Miss Lenhart advises the children to "just get out of there", implying that the situation is too dangerous to try to deal with.

The title text refers to another mnemonic: 'Beer before liquor, never been sicker; liquor before beer, you're in the clear.' Unlike the first three mnemonics, which are genuinely useful for avoiding danger, this one is [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/health/the-claim-mixing-types-of-alcohol-makes-you-sick.html largely a myth], as the order in which you drink alcohol is unlikely to impact how sick you become. However, whether the mnemonic is true or not, testing it would involve multiple drinks of alcohol, which would be ill-advised when facing a dangerous situation, particularly one as bizarre and complex as implied in this strip.

See also [[2422: Vaccine Ordering]] for the previous time ''xkcd'' referenced the latter mnemonic.

See also [[2038: Hazard Symbol]] for another combination of danger warnings.

==Transcript==

:[Miss Lenhart is holding a finger up in front of two children: a boy with spiky hair and Science Girl.]

: Miss Lenhart: Now, remember:
: Miss Lenhart: If red touches yellow amid leaves of three under a red sky at morning,
: Miss Lenhart: You should probably just get out of there.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Weather]]

1107: Sports Cheat Sheet

2022-05-26T17:28:40Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 279085 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1107
| date = September 12, 2012
| title = Sports Cheat Sheet
| image = sports_cheat_sheet.png
| titletext = I would subscribe to a Twitter feed that supplied you with one reasonable sports opinion per day, like "The Red Sox can't make the playoffs (championship games), but in last night's game their win seriously damaged the chances of the Yankees (longstanding rival team)."
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] presents a "cheat sheet" which is a handy reference guide for something that is generally expected to be memorized or known by someone familiar with the knowledge domain. Cheat sheets are commonly used in mathematical applications to list important formulas or for measurement conversions; but they may also be used in other applications.

This cheat sheet allows Randall to figure out what sport other people are arguing over on the basis of the time of year and where the argument is occurring. The chart is based on the annual seasons (periods when the top professional and college leagues play) of each sport.

In the United States, the chart is divided among {{w|baseball}}, {{w|basketball}} and {{w|American football}}. Hockey is not shown, suggesting that he may not consider hockey a sport to compare with the three listed, he does not encounter arguments about hockey (of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the {{w|NHL}} is significantly behind the others in terms of attention as its appeal is traditionally limited by geography to Canada and the northern United States), or that he perhaps does not need a chart to determine when the argument is about hockey (they may be obvious for countless reasons, including the physicality of typical hockey confrontations). Also, golf is not shown as well implying Randall may not think it's an important sport. The chart suggests that football is the most popular of the three sports, or at least more popular to argue about (of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the {{w|NFL}} generally has the most attention).

The {{w|NFL}} football regular season generally runs from September to December with playoffs in January and early February. Overlapping this period of time, NCAA college football is also occurring, from September to December, with their bowl games in December and January. Almost all of this period, sports arguments are likely to be about football. The {{w|NBA}} basketball regular season runs from late October to mid-April with playoffs in April and into June. {{w|NCAA}} college basketball starts in November but peaks in March with the NCAA Basketball Tournament ([[1819: Sweet 16|March Madness]]). According to the chart, the arguments about basketball don't begin until the football season is over. They continue through the end of April, but start again at the end of May during the playoff finals. The {{w|MLB}} baseball regular season runs from April through September with playoffs in late September and October. When the baseball season begins, arguments shift from the ongoing basketball season to the new baseball season. As mentioned, the NBA Finals create some basketball arguments again for a few weeks. Similarly, the start of the NFL season in September makes it more likely arguments then will be about football. Baseball takes over briefly during the playoffs in October.

One of the punchlines is that outside the US, all sports arguments are about {{w|association football}} (soccer) all year round. The two types of football are noted on the chart by an icon showing the ball used in each sport.

The title text continues on the theme of this chart being for someone who doesn't know anything about sports. Randall imagines a {{w|Twitter}} feed where you receive a salient sports opinion each day, presumably so that you could repeat the opinion to your friends and appear knowledgeable about sports. As the feed is for those uninformed about sports, there are clarifications of important terms in brackets.

The suggested Twitter message mentioned in the title text is accurate for the date of the comic. On September 11, 2012 the baseball team {{w|Boston Red Sox}} played the {{w|New York Yankees}} and won, 4 runs to 3. The Red Sox were already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs (meaning they needed to win more games than remained in the season to qualify). The Yankees were at the top of the standings, but were in a close race for the playoffs with the {{w|Baltimore Orioles}} (both teams had a win-loss record of 79 wins to 62 losses, with 21 games each remaining to play). To be guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, the Yankees had to win more of their remaining games than the Orioles. Losing to the Red Sox made this task harder. (For those wondering, both the Yankees and the Orioles made to the playoffs, but neither made it to the championship round, the World Series.)

Traditionally, the Red Sox and the Yankees have a {{w|Yankees–Red Sox rivalry|long-standing rivalry}}, especially among fans. Many Red Sox fans consider a loss by the Yankees nearly as good as a win by the Red Sox (and the Red Sox beating the Yankees the best of both worlds). If the Red Sox can't win the World Series, then at least they can help prevent the Yankees from winning it.

This strip is one of several in which Randall attempts to trivialize sports (see for instance [[904: Sports]], [[1480: Super Bowl]], [[1507: Metaball]] and [[1859: Sports Knowledge]]).

==Transcript==
:[A three-column table. Months are arrayed down the first column, the second and third columns show sports, with the divisions in partial months rather than lined up with the ends of months. American football and association football (i.e. soccer) are differentiated by small icons in brackets depicting the respective balls used.]

:'''Which sport are they arguing about?'''
:-My cheat sheet-

:[The second column, reproduced using approximate dates.]
:US:
:Football [ovoid ball drawn in brackets]: January 1 - February 10
:Basketball: February 10 - April 20
:Baseball: April 20 - May 25
:Basketball: May 25 - June 15
:Baseball: June 15 - August 20
:Football [ovoid]: August 20 - October 5
:Baseball: October 5 - October 20
:Football [ovoid]: October 20 - December 31

:[The third column, reproduced using approximate dates.]
:non-US:
:Football [truncated icosahedron, 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons]: January 1 - December 31

==Trivia==
The idea of a website that supplies sports talking points to non-fans was previously used in a 2008 episode of the sitcom ''{{w|The IT Crowd}}'', which might be where Randall got the idea. There, the site (Bluffball) focused on UK football, and offered the lines "Did you see that ludicrous display last night?", "What was {{w|Arsene Wenger|Wenger}} thinking sending {{w|Theo Walcott|Walcott}} on that early?" and "The trouble with {{w|Arsenal FC|Arsenal}} is they always try and walk it in."

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:American football]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Soccer]]
[[Category:Sport]]

191: Lojban

2022-05-26T17:27:43Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 277199 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 191
| date = December 1, 2006
| title = Lojban
| image = lojban.png
| titletext = zo'o ta jitfa .i .e'o xu do pendo mi
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Lojban}} is a constructed language designed to be logical, unambiguous, and culturally neutral — similar to the better known artificial language {{w|Esperanto}}. The authors originally designed it as an experiment, but a few people have picked it up and tried to learn it. However, anyone actually willing to learn Lojban is someone [[Black Hat]] would rather avoid. Alternately, only people who speak Lojban, who compose an admittedly tiny proportion of the general population, could benefit from the logic of the language, making the benefits of Lojban mostly pointless to most people.

Clicking on the original comic brings you to [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/lojban_translated.png a Lojban translation of the comic]. The Lojban version literally translates to something like:
:Cueball: Hypothetically, you becoming an expert in Lojban implies things you say would completely be an unambiguous meaning and logical.
:Black Hat: Agreed, but would be talking to the people subgroup that is an expert in Lojban.
If reading pedantically, a few mistakes can be identified:
* "Hypothetically" is applied to the entire first sentence rather than the subclause "you are an expert in Lojban".
* The word "pavysmu" is used in a way that indicates the things being said ''are'' an unambiguous meaning, rather than having a single meaning.
* The subgroup of people is specified as being an expert in Lojban, not the people in it.

The title text is also written in Lojban. It translates roughly as: "That was a joke. Really. Wanna be friends with me?" Since Lojban aims to be completely unambiguous, idiomatic structures like sarcasm and humor have associated particles - when a joke is made, it must be ''explicitly'' marked as such or else it's incorrect. Most languages rely on intonation expressing this, but Lojban does not, leading to the strange practice here of specifically pointing out that a joke was made.

A more literal translation gives: "Humorously that false. Please is-it-true-that you friend me?"

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Black Hat are having a conversation.]
:[English version:]
:Cueball: If you learned to speak Lojban, your communication would be completely unambiguous and logical.
:Black Hat: Yeah, but it would all be with the kind of people who learn Lojban.

:[Lojban version:]
:Cueball: da'i ganai do crebi'o la lojban gi le se cusku be do cu mulno pavysmu je logji
:Black Hat: .i .ie ku'i cusku fi le prenu klesi poi certu la lojban

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Language]]

2396: Wonder Woman 1984

2022-05-26T17:26:56Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 278017 by Donald Trump (talk)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1909: Digital Resource Lifespan

2022-05-26T17:24:43Z

Roselily2006: Undo revision 278477 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1909
| date = October 30, 2017
| title = Digital Resource Lifespan
| image = digital_resource_lifespan.png
| titletext = I spent a long time thinking about how to design a system for long-term organization and storage of subject-specific informational resources without needing ongoing work from the experts who created them, only to realized I'd just reinvented libraries.
}}

==Explanation==

In this chart, [[Randall]] laments the tendency of digital resources to quickly become obsolete or non-functional. By taking a general subject, such as xkcd's core subjects of "romance, sarcasm, math, and language", one can see that a useful tool such as a smartphone or computer app or interactive CD-ROM (essentially, software) does not have the lasting power of printed books (e.g. textbooks, for many general subjects) and microfilm/microfiche. The printed resources, not having to rely on a computerized platform for use, are far more reliable despite being less mobile and taking up physical space. The only digital source which is still working is {{w|Portable Document Format}} (aka PDF) which encapsulates fixed layout flat documents, and is supported for years already by {{w|Adobe Systems}} and is part of {{w|International Organization for Standardization|ISO}} standards, so has a widespread support, and should be still viewable in foreseeable future.

The title text makes a statement that libraries do not require the support of ''original'' authors/experts to organize and store vast resources for any subject imaginable. This is true, but omits the fact that ongoing efforts are required by experts in information organization and storage -- namely, librarians. Physical books and microfilm/microfiche need controlled storage environments, manual handling for storage, retrieval, distribution (in library terms, "circulation"), and the like. Thus, a library can require significant resources in personnel and facilities, but is usually seen as a "public good" for the benefit of society; thus, many communities and educational institutions invest in creating and maintaining a library despite the costs.

Archive.org refers to {{w|The Internet Archive}}, a non-profit organization that maintains the {{w|Wayback Machine}}, one of the largest archives of the {{w|World Wide Web}}. When a website is taken offline, copies of its content can often be found backed-up on the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine is primarily designed to back up {{w|Website|websites}}, however, and will often not be able to save information stored in a site's {{w|Database|databases}}, as alluded to in the comic. The Internet Archive has a part for non-website archives, but it cannot hold recent databases either due to copyright problems.

==Table==

{| class="wikitable"
!style="width:20%"|Caption
!style="width:20%"|Type of Resource
!style="width:60%"|Explanation
|-
|Book on Subject
|{{w|Book|Physical Books}}
|This is the most familiar physical resource and used as the baseline for other (digital) resources.
Under optimal conditions, a book can last indefinitely for future generations; there are books from the ancient times that are still readable today.
|-
|<nowiki>[Subject].pdf</nowiki>
|{{w|Portable Document Format}}
|This is the most familiar digital resource, with the probable exception of the internet as a whole. A format originally developed by Adobe, the majority of the format is now an {{w|Portable_Document_Format#History_and_standardization|ISO standard}} which means a compliant reader and writer can be made independently (which avoids the majority of the pitfalls described on later resources).
A PDF file is designed to be portable (it is even in the acronym), which means unless the creator of the PDF uses a web-only feature (which is non-standard), it can be opened everywhere a PDF reader is found. Authors may also opt for a stricter, "archival" version ({{w|PDF/A}}) which ensures that both required files are placed on the same PDF file and only documented formats are used to prevent the reliance on non-standardized formats.
|-
|<nowiki>[Subject] Web Database</nowiki>
|{{w|Database}}
|Another type of a digital resource which is, in itself, is like a digital library. Unlike a physical library however, it is usually only stored in a single file or server (there are instances that the database is distributed, but it is rare), which means that a failure to that server means that the database is wiped out, not to mention the gigantic space it takes (that is why the whole database are not stored in a digital archive, like the Internet Archive).
Additionally, unlike PDFs, there are almost-infinite ways of storing and retrieving data in a database, which means that when the method used becomes unsupported (like the Java scenario, which is of now is completely unusable in web browsers), the data in it is effectively lost (whether or not the data-in-question is still physically on the server).
|-
|<nowiki>[Subject] Mobile App</nowiki>
(Local University Project)
|{{w|Mobile app|Mobile App}}
|A type of digital resource that expands upon the idea of a web database. It allows easy access on a mobile device, however, as it is stated that it is a local university project, which means that support for it lasts only at most for a few years (which is not enough to maintain an application).
Additionally, {{w|Operating System|Operating Systems}} can get obsolete (like the {{w|Symbian}} platform used on older {{w|Nokia}} phones) or critical changes to it breaks older applications (like on the [http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41319675 Apple iOS]).
|-
|<nowiki>[Subject] Analysis Software</nowiki>
|{{w|Application software|Desktop Application}}
|A type of executable program that is found on desktop systems. It allows reliable access on a desktop system, which means that (assuming the program is offline) it can survive on its own. However, {{w|Operating System|Operating Systems}} can get obsolete (like the {{w|Classic Mac OS}} platform used on older {{w|Macintosh|Mac}} computers) or critical changes to it breaks older applications (like the new security features on {{w|Microsoft Windows|Windows}} which breaks older non-compliant programs).
|-
|<nowiki>Interactive [Subject] CD-ROM</nowiki>
|{{w|Application software|Desktop Application}}, {{w|CD-ROM|CD-ROMs}}
|A CD can hold anything from music to videos to applications. It also allows better offline access, and such were used in the 1990s and the early 2000s. It is still a fancy desktop application, which means that the situation on the analysis software applies here, not to mention the fact that a new invention can replace an obsolete one (for example, {{w|Microsoft Encarta}} was discontinued in 2010 due to the ease-of-access of {{w|Main Page|Wikipedia}}).
Additional issues mentioned are that CDs can become "{{w|Disc rot|scratched}}", in which case, the data becomes corrupted or unreadable. Also, many modern laptops do not have CD-ROM drives anymore, making it difficult to use CDs as a storage medium.
Additionally, this also covers the changes in a physical system: in the 1980s, {{w|Floppy disk|floppy diskettes}} were used, which was replaced in the 1990s by the CDs and DVDs, which then was replaced by {{w|Thumb drive|thumb drives}} in the 2000s, which is then supplemented (and in some cases, replaced entirely) by wireless device-to-device transfers (like {{w|Bluetooth}}) and internet file transfers using online storage (like {{w|Dropbox}} and {{w|Google Drive}}).

|-
|<nowiki>Library Microfilm [Subject] Collection</nowiki>
|{{w|Microfilm}}
|This is a physical resource used by libraries to preserve (or to create a copy of) a collection, usually those things that are rare or would cause a social or political issue when damaged. Although great preservation is needed to prevent damage to a film, the system used is standardized and knowledge to build a reader or a printer off a microfilm is widely available, like a PDF file. This comparison might look like a physical version of PDFs: standardized, common (books can be of any size imagined) format.
|-
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Needs reorganization?}}
:My access to resources on [SUBJECT] over time:

:[Below, a timeline and a graph with gray bars is shown:]

:[1980s-past 2020:]
:Book on subject

:[Early 2000s-past 2020:]
:[SUBJECT].pdf

:[2000-2010:]
:[SUBJECT] web database
::Site goes down, backend data not on archive.org
::[Small bar, 2000-2016/17:]
:::Java frontend no longer runs

:[2010-2015/16:]
:[SUBJECT] mobile app (Local university project)
::Broken on new OS, not updated

:[2000-2010:]
:[SUBJECT] analysis software
::Broken on new OS, not updated

:[Late 1990s-late 2000s:]
:Interactive [SUBJECT] CD-ROM
::CD scratched; new computer has no CD drive anyway.

:[1980s-past 2020:]
:Library microfilm [SUBJECT] collection

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's unsettling to realize how quickly digital resources can disappear without ongoing work to maintain them.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Timelines]]