explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1378: Turbine

2014-06-09T08:59:42Z

Seanybabes:

Why is it "horrible, horrible"? Do you really, really not like it? It's not like it's a shaggy dog cartoon which you wasted several minutes on... Oh, wait... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.9|108.162.208.9]] 05:51, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

For me, it just sucks that Randall chose to end the week on a lame pun. On Mondays/Wednesdays, the "suckiness" of something like this would be offset by a good "what-if?" on Tuesday. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.225|103.22.201.225]] 06:00, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
:From what I've seen, Friday comics tend to be more "wacky" than the rest. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.134|108.162.238.134]] 23:22, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

While I agree it isn't the best xkcd could be, let's try and keep these pages objective, and leave the opinions in the comments. [[User:Mrmakeit|Mrmakeit]] ([[User talk:Mrmakeit|talk]]) 06:22, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

"I'm not a huge fan" is a catchphrase of Elon Musk, his opinion on patents, which was in the news a couple of days ago. Lift-off alludes to Musk's SpaceX. Wind turbine alludes to Musk's renewable energy company Solarcity. [[User:Tww|Tww]] ([[User talk:Tww|talk]]) 07:36, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

What's funny to me is that a turbine really is a giant fan. You'd just have to pump a whole ton of power (at the right voltage and sync rate) into it and possibly give it a kickstart of some kind to get it to turn. You could say the same about pretty much anything that generates power from rotational motion; it's a generator, but in the opposite direction, it's also a motor. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.67|173.245.50.67]] 11:25, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

I laughed at this comic, I thought it was great. As for the explanation, though, should it really be marked "complete" already? It reads like a first draft to me, and the comic is about a wind ''turbine'', not a wind''mill''. I'm gonna go fix that now. [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 11:28, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
:I also liked this one. Great pun. As Enchantedsleeper may have found out {{w|windmill}} is the old mills for grain. But in some languages a wind turbine is called the same as a windmill! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:57, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

'apostrophe' is more of an oratorical device, for the benefit of an audience. In this case Megan is treating the turbine as if it were human - anthropomorphism - but this isn't really a central part of the comic, and doesn't need much explanation - [[User:Seanybabes|Seanybabes]] ([[User talk:Seanybabes|talk]]) 08:59, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

1378: Turbine

2014-06-09T08:54:16Z

Seanybabes: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1378
| date = June 6, 2014
| title = Turbine
| image = turbine.png
| titletext = Ok, plan B: Fly a kite into the blades, with a rock in a sling dangling below it, and create the world's largest trebuchet.
}}

==Explanation==

In this comic, Megan is speaking to a {{w|wind turbine}} which in real life would have no ability to respond to her (an example of {{w|anthropomorphism}} - attributing the qualities of human beings to animals or objects).

A wind turbine is a mechnanical device that generates power via the mechanical {{w|Work (physics)|work}} produced from the turning of its blades by the wind, and converts it into electricity. A wind turbine is visually very similar to a {{w|mechanical fan|fan}}, whose fan blades spin via electrical (or other) power in order to move air (i.e. create wind) to provide a cooling effect. In this way, a fan is essentially the opposite of a wind turbine.

The punchline of this comic is a {{w|pun}} which plays on a second meaning of the word "{{w|Fan (person)|fan}}" as a colloquial short form for "fanatic" - someone who is a supporter of something (e.g. a football team, a band, an idea etc.).

Megan suggests that the wind turbine blow air at her so that she can use a kite to lift off the ground. When Megan asks what the turbine thinks of the idea, the turbine's response is both literal (it is a turbine, not a huge fan, and therefore can't blow air) and colloquial (the expression "I'm not a huge fan" is an example of {{w|understatement}}, commonly used to mean one actually ''does not like'' something).

Wind turbines have been used in earlier comics: In [[556: Alternative Energy Revolution]] the wind turbines are also alive, but somewhat more dangerous than just being ironic. In [[1119: Undoing]], Cueball highlights the differences between a wind turbine and a fan.

The title text contains an alternative suggestion: to build a makeshift {{w|trebuchet}}, a type of catapult. The idea is that when the kite's string gets tangled in the turbine's blades, the kite will be spun around and it will fling the attached rock. The setup seems similar to a {{w|trebuchet#traction trebuchet|traction trebuchet}}, rather than the more common counterweight trebuchet.

Trebuchets has been the subject of the comics [[382: Trebuchet]] and [[1160: Drop Those Pounds]], and they were also part of the story in [[1190: Time]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan is talking to a giant wind turbine.]
:Megan: I'll hold up a big kite, and you blow air at me until I lift off!
:Megan: What do you think of that idea?
:Wind turbine: I'm not a huge fan.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Trebuchet]]
[[Category:Windmills]]

968: Everything

2014-04-18T09:14:17Z

Seanybabes: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 968
| date = October 24, 2011
| title = Everything
| image = everything.png
| titletext = I wanna hold your hand so I don't fall out of your gyrocopter.
}}

==Explanation==
The first three sentences are a bunch of statements similar to what you would find in a birthday or anniversary card from one person in a relationship to another, but in this case, all the statements are in the negative. However, by the last frame, a positive greeting card statement is used ("I want to give you everything."), but the reason is unusual ("Just to see what you would do with it."), referring to whatever it is [[Megan]] is making..

The title text similarly starts with the conventional Beatles love song ("I wanna hold your hand") but for an unconventional reason ("so I don't fall out of your gyrocopter").

[[Cueball]] is gathering a lot of different sorts of random things, including a deck umbrella, a miniature {{w|Eiffel Tower}}, what appears to be a bomb and the bust of a {{w|mannequin}}. He adds these to an already immense pile of things which [[Megan]] (her outline can be seen in the last panel standing on one of the wheels welding something) uses to build some sort of super tank with huge wheels, a mounted gun, satellite dish and crane. It appears to be running as there is exhaust coming out of the top of the machine.

In the title text, a {{w|gyrocopter}} is a flying machine that has a rotor like a {{w|helicopter}}, but the rotor is not powered by a motor. Rather, the motor of the gyrocopter drives a propeller that accelerates the machine forward, while the air rushing past the rotor drives the rotor like a helicopter during autorotation.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball drags a small wagon and a bag full of various items.]
:Cueball: You are not the light of my life. Making you happy isn't my greatest dream.

:[Cueball places the items in an even bigger pile of even more random items.]
:Cueball: Your smile is not all I live for. I've got my own stuff going on. But you're strange and fascinating and I've never met anyone like you.

:[Cueball stares in awe as Megan assembles the items into a gargantuan, intoxicatingly complex machine.]
:Cueball: I want to give you everything just to see what you would ''do'' with it.

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

968: Everything

2014-04-18T09:13:32Z

Seanybabes: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 968
| date = October 24, 2011
| title = Everything
| image = everything.png
| titletext = I wanna hold your hand so I don't fall out of your gyrocopter.
}}

==Explanation==
The first three sentences are a bunch of statements similar to what you would find in a birthday or anniversary card from one person in a relationship to another, but in this case, all the statements are in the negative. However, by the last frame, a positive greeting card statement is used ("I want to give you everything."), but the reason is unusual ("Just to see what you'll do with it."), referring to whatever it is [[Megan]] is making..

The title text similarly starts with the conventional Beatles love song ("I wanna hold your hand") but for an unconventional reason ("so that I don't fall out of your gyrocopter").

[[Cueball]] is gathering a lot of different sorts of random things, including a deck umbrella, a miniature {{w|Eiffel Tower}}, what appears to be a bomb and the bust of a {{w|mannequin}}. He adds these to an already immense pile of things which [[Megan]] (her outline can be seen in the last panel standing on one of the wheels welding something) uses to build some sort of super tank with huge wheels, a mounted gun, satellite dish and crane. It appears to be running as there is exhaust coming out of the top of the machine.

In the title text, a {{w|gyrocopter}} is a flying machine that has a rotor like a {{w|helicopter}}, but the rotor is not powered by a motor. Rather, the motor of the gyrocopter drives a propeller that accelerates the machine forward, while the air rushing past the rotor drives the rotor like a helicopter during autorotation.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball drags a small wagon and a bag full of various items.]
:Cueball: You are not the light of my life. Making you happy isn't my greatest dream.

:[Cueball places the items in an even bigger pile of even more random items.]
:Cueball: Your smile is not all I live for. I've got my own stuff going on. But you're strange and fascinating and I've never met anyone like you.

:[Cueball stares in awe as Megan assembles the items into a gargantuan, intoxicatingly complex machine.]
:Cueball: I want to give you everything just to see what you would ''do'' with it.

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

934: Mac/PC

2014-04-15T16:59:15Z

Seanybabes: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 934
| date = August 5, 2011
| title = Mac/PC
| image = mac_pc.png
| titletext = It's fun to watch browsers fumblingly recapitulate the history of window management. Someday we'll have xmonad as a Firefox extension.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of the "{{w|Get a Mac}}" (also known as "I'm a Mac" or "Mac vs. PC") ad campaign for the {{w|Mac}} brand of computers. The ads personified the Mac and their competitors, the PC. The ads poked fun at the PC's terrible function while paying attention to the Mac's unique features. Each ad started with the duo introducing themselves as "I'm a Mac..." "...and I'm a PC."

The comic, however, presents the differences between them as no longer of much importance, since very much everything nowadays is done through browsers due to the proliferation of cloud computing. In essence, using the same browser to visit the same website among different operating systems would give you an experience that is very much the same. Additionally, this comic could be taken as a riff on xkcd's simplistic style, as they are ''literally'' identical in character design.

The title text refers to {{w|window management}}, which is software that controls windows on computers. {{w|xmonad}} is one such program, and [[Randall]] says that eventually it will be an extension usable with the browser {{w|Firefox}}. What makes it somewhat unusual (and thus worth mentioning) is that it is a {{w|Tiling window manager|tiling window manager}}, meaning it automatically arranges and resizes newly opened program windows to fit a grid. This is especially useful on large screens.

==Transcript==
:[Two adult humans stand facing out of the screen.]
:Mac: I'm a Mac
:Cueball: And I'm a PC.
:Mac & Cueball, together: And since you do everything through a browser now, we're pretty indistinguishable.

==Trivia==
*{{w|Chrome OS|Google Chrome OS}} is this concept taken literally: every program that can be installed by the default method actually is a "web app" running in, obviously, the Chrome browser. Though no direct reference is made, the release of the first {{w|Chromebooks}} predates this comic by only two months, and it's hard to believe that Randall could have missed it.
*Randall's prediction in the title text has basically proven correct: The [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tile-tabs/ Tile Tabs] Firefox extension allows tab tiling in Firefox, but is not derived from xmonad.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:663: Sagan-Man

2014-03-28T12:17:02Z

Seanybabes:

According to Wikipedia, Carl Sagan died at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, on December 20, 1996, of pneumonia, after suffering from myelodysplasia, which is similar to leukemia and treated with bone marrow transplants. It is thus entirely plausible that he was radioactive at some point in the year 1995.--[[Special:Contributions/68.230.167.173|68.230.167.173]] 02:49, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Why exactly is it crazy that we've been to the moon? Just the general wonder that space travel is possible at all? Or that it was so long ago, or...? --[[User:Seanybabes|Seanybabes]] ([[User talk:Seanybabes|talk]]) 12:17, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

572: Together

2014-03-16T10:42:06Z

Seanybabes: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number =572
| date =April 22, 2009
| title =Together
| image =together.png
| titletext =This scavenger hunt is getting boring. Let's go work on the treehouse!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] fall in love, get married, and grow old together. And then we learn at the end that it's just another thing crossed off the list of what is presumably the longest-duration scavenger hunt of all-time, considering Cueball grew quite old before ever completing that step on the list.

The treehouse reference in the title text is another example of a common childhood activity. Naturally, the intended mental image is a bunch of old men building a treehouse and living and playing in it like six year olds. Also referenced in [[212: Brain]] as something Randall really wants to do.

==Transcript==
:Cueball and Megan are running in a field, holding hands. Another male and female stand in the background, next to a table.]
:[Cueball and Megan are in a boat on a lake, very romantic. Cueball is speaking to Megan, illustrated with a heart.]
:[Cueball and Megan sit together on a bench on a beach, watching the sunset.]
:[Cueball and Megan stand at an altar. They have married.]
:[Cueball and Megan, having grown old together, sit together on their doorstep, holding hands.]
:[Cueball begins walking away with his cane.]
:Megan: Dear? Where are you--Come back!
:Cueball approaches the other couple from the first panel, who are now just as old.]
:[Cueball picks up a piece of paper from the table in the first panel and begins to write.]
:Cueball: Okay,
:[The paper is shown: a scavenger hunt list. "Happiness"; has just been checked off.]
:Cueball: What's next?
:[Full list:
:SCAVENGER HUNT:
:[X] Indian-head penny
:[X] Snake skin
:[X] Happiness
:[ ] Four-leaf clover
:[ ] Shark tooth
:[The next item is blocked by the speech balloon.] What's next?
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Wedding]]

Talk:496: Secretary: Part 3

2014-03-10T02:57:59Z

Seanybabes:

Could "Pleading the 3rd" be a form of the {{w|Chewbacca defense}}? --[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 22:55, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

I did some research on {{w|Ruth Bader Ginsburg}} and her confirmation hearing, but couldn't quite see why she has a criminal record similar to Black Hat's - can anybody help there? [[User:Bobidou23|Bobidou23]] ([[User talk:Bobidou23|talk]]) 20:03, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

Maybe because people assume that if you are rectinent,you are probably hiding something?[[Special:Contributions/117.194.203.236|117.194.203.236]] 15:47, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Black hat is right. RadioShack never gets many visiotrs to the electronics parts aisles. [[User:Xyz|Xyz]] ([[User talk:Xyz|talk]]) 12:54, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Why would US submariners been on the sub he stole? I got the impression it was a Russian submarine. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 22:21, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

:Or it was a US sub and he "parked" it in Russian territory, something the Russion goverment wouldn't be fond of either. But yeah I thought it was a Russian sub as well. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 15:50, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Is the auto-troll shuffle a reference to something? [[User:Seanybabes|Seanybabes]] ([[User talk:Seanybabes|talk]]) 02:57, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Talk:248: Hypotheticals

2014-03-09T06:00:50Z

Seanybabes:

The reason for marking this page incomplete is itself incomprehensible, while the explanation itself seems perfectly fine. Can we just mark this as complete? [[User:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|ImVeryAngryItsNotButter]] ([[User talk:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|talk]]) 03:41, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
:My former comment was "Layout, language, that TV topes are missing, more...". Please do not remove that tag until it's solved. And right now we have some more issues here.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:57, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
I think the interpretation that someone appears in your room is the one intended. The assumption is that the reader is alone, at their computer and Randall is asking them to consider the possibility of somebody breaking out of a hypothetical situation next to them. However I think the iterative nature of a hypothetical situation about hypothetical situations is the important part of the title text. [[User:Seanybabes|Seanybabes]] ([[User talk:Seanybabes|talk]]) 06:00, 9 March 2014 (UTC)