explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2325: Endorheic Basin

2020-06-26T21:35:31Z

SteelStarling: Added in transcript for the comic

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

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

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
(Megan is holding a glass of water next to Beret Guy, who has water surrounding his feet)
Megan: Why are your feet wet?
Beret Guy: I'm an endorheic basin!

(Beret Guy has his arm outstretched to Megan, and the water in her glass is flying out towards his arm)
Megan: Huh?
Beret Guy: Nearby water flows toward me, not the ocean. See?
Megan: Oh, cool.

(Beret Guy stands alone in a bathroom, with a towel around his waist, with his body covered completely in water, a box at the top of the panel reads "The most annoying part is drying off after a shower")
Beret Guy: Can someone bring me the siphon?

(Beret Guy and Megan are back to where they were in panel 1, except Beret Guy now has water on his arm where it was pulled from Megan's glass)
Beret Guy: But I have to get rid of it or I'll develop salt flats. Anyway, let me know if you need any minerals!

{{comic discussion}}

2292: Thermometer

2020-04-10T22:30:09Z

SteelStarling:

{{comic
| number = 2292
| date = April 10, 2020
| title = Thermometer
| image = thermometer.png
| titletext = I hate how many times you have to press it to get to the system normal people use, degrees Rømer.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ROUGE RADIAN. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic makes fun of people's use of different units of temperature. Randall, as he was an engineer, would likely have strong opinions with units, as unit conversion is often a gripe for many engineers. Celsius units are used in most of the world, while Fahrenheit is used in the United States. Kelvin are a unit often used in scientific fields. It is based on Celsius, where 0 K is absolute zero or -273 °C. Degrees Rankine are similar to Kelvins, but far less well known. It is the Fahrenheit equivalent to Kelvin, starting at absolute zero with 0°R (equal to -459 °F). The use of either of these units for home temperature gauging is ridiculous, as they are far too large and uncommon to be practical for the average user. While at any temperature, the kinetic energy of a particle will vary wildly, the Average Transnational Kinetic Energy for a molecule at a given temperature can be calculated using Boltzmann's Constant, hence why it is on the side of the device for convenience. The title text references another temperature unit, Rømer, which is a scale whose fixed pints are 7.5 as water's freezing point and 60 as water's boiling point. A unit on the Rømer scale is about 41/20 of a unit on the celsius scale.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Cueball stands in the center of the panel holding a thermometer

Cueball: "This thermometer is in Celsius. How do you change it?"

Offscreen person: "Long press the button."

Cueball presses the button, and the thermometer beeps

Thermometer: "Units: Kelvin"

Cueball: "No..."

Cueball presses the button, and the thermometer beeps

Thermometer: "Units: Degrees Rankine"

Cueball: "What."

Cueball presses the button, and the thermometer beeps

Thermometer: "Units: Average Translational Kinetic Energy"

Cueball: "This is the worst thermometer."

Offscreen person: "Boltzmann's Constant is on the side if you need it."

{{comic discussion}}

2292: Thermometer

2020-04-10T22:29:12Z

SteelStarling: Added the transcript for the comic and added more to the description

{{comic
| number = 2292
| date = April 10, 2020
| title = Thermometer
| image = thermometer.png
| titletext = I hate how many times you have to press it to get to the system normal people use, degrees Rømer.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ROUGE RADIAN. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic makes fun of people's use of different units of temperature. Randall, as he was an engineer, would likely have strong opinions with units, as unit conversion is often a gripe for many engineers. Celsius units are used in most of the world, while Fahrenheit is used in the United States. Kelvin are a unit often used in scientific fields. It is based on Celsius, where 0 K is absolute zero or -273 °C. Degrees Rankine are similar to Kelvins, but far less well known. It is the Fahrenheit equivalent to Kelvin, starting at absolute zero with 0°R (equal to -459 °F). The use of either of these units for home temperature gauging is ridiculous, as they are far too large and uncommon to be practical for the average user. While at any temperature, the kinetic energy of a particle will vary wildly, the Average Transnational Kinetic Energy for a molecule at a given temperature can be calculated using Boltzmann's Constant, hence why it is on the side of the device for convenience. The title text references another temperature unit, Rømer, which is a scale whose fixed pints are 7.5 as water's freezing point and 60 as water's boiling point. A unit on the Rømer scale is about 41/20 of a unit on the celsius scale.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Cueball stands in the center of the panel holding a thermometer
Cueball: "This thermometer is in Celsius. How do you change it?"
Offscreen person: "Long press the button."
Cueball presses the button, and the thermometer beeps
Thermometer: "Units: Kelvin"
Cueball: "No..."
Cueball presses the button, and the thermometer beeps
Thermometer: "Units: Degrees Rankine"
Cueball: "What."
Cueball presses the button, and the thermometer beeps
Thermometer: "Units: Average Translational Kinetic Energy"
Cueball: "This is the worst thermometer."
Offscreen person: "Boltzmann's Constant is on the side if you need it."
{{comic discussion}}

2292: Thermometer

2020-04-10T22:03:32Z

SteelStarling: Added basic description

2256: Bad Map Projection: South America

2020-01-17T05:18:14Z

SteelStarling: Fixed a minor mistake with the formatting of the incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 2256
| date = January 17, 2020
| title = Bad Map Projection: South America
| image = bad_map_projection_south_america.png
| titletext = The projection does a good job preserving both distance and azimuth, at the cost of really exaggerating how many South Americas there are.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SOUTH AMERICA. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic shows a map projection, a favorite topic of Randall's, where every continent has just been replaced with a differently scaled and rotated South America. It is likely in reference to the bad map designs in which continents like Africa and South America have been swapped, or where someone will jokingly replace Greenland with South America. The subtitle of this comic is a reference to the Captain Crunch cereal type that became a meme, Oops, All Berries.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2256: Bad Map Projection: South America

2020-01-17T05:17:01Z

SteelStarling: Changed explanation tag, and added the start of an explanation of the subtitle and description of the comic itself

{{comic
| number = 2256
| date = January 17, 2020
| title = Bad Map Projection: South America
| image = bad_map_projection_south_america.png
| titletext = The projection does a good job preserving both distance and azimuth, at the cost of really exaggerating how many South Americas there are.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a South American. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic shows a map projection, a favorite topic of Randall's, where every continent has just been replaced with a differently scaled and rotated South America. It is likely in reference to the bad map designs in which continents like Africa and South America have been swapped, or where someone will jokingly replace Greenland with South America. The subtitle of this comic is a reference to the Captain Crunch cereal type that became a meme, Oops, All Berries.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2255: Tattoo Ideas

2020-01-15T05:21:05Z

SteelStarling: Added the transcript for the comic

{{comic
| number = 2255
| date = January 15, 2020
| title = Tattoo Ideas
| image = tattoo_ideas.png
| titletext = The text ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US with a lengthy footnote explaining that I got this tattoo in 2020 and not, as you may assume, 2001, but offering no further clarification.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Recursive Tattoo. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a list of potential tattoo ideas, all of which are absurd. Many of them play on the trope of regretting a tattoo by being tattoos of things that would not be useful outside of the immediate future.

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

:(In larger font and underlined, apparently the start of a list)
:Tattoo Ideas
:(A list, with all points but the last crossed out in red)
:Lorem Ipsum Text
:Email Password
:Graph of the popularity of tattoos over time, with the date I got the tattoo marked (update regularly)
:"Changeme"
:Slide Rule markings on forearms
:Eurion Constellation, so no one can photocopy pictures of me
:The sentence "it's what my tattoo says" written in another language
:Tissot's Indicatrix
:Summary of the Snopes page on the tattoo epidural thing (lower back)
:Pre-surgical checklist
:Tattoo Artist's Social Security Number
:Boarding pass for an upcoming flight
:Recap of the plot of ''Momento''
:(Last point in list, circled in red)
:This list, in its entirety
{{comic discussion}}

2252: Parenthetical Names

2020-01-08T22:00:34Z

SteelStarling:

{{comic
| number = 2252
| date = January 8, 2020
| title = Parenthetical Names
| image = parenthetical_names.png
| titletext = I never got around to seeing that movie about the battle (of Midway).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT (explainxkcd's). Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

''{{w|Sonic the Hedgehog (film)|Sonic the Hedgehog}}'' in a movie scheduled for release in February 2020. The film stars an anthropomorphic hedgehog named {{w|Sonic the Hedgehog (character)|Sonic}}.

The title-text alters the pattern slightly by discussing the {{w|battle of Midway}} (i.e. the X '''of''' Y).

Part of the humor in this comic is imagining that Cueball's (or Randall's) social circle have lots of discussions about things named Sonic, Jack, Popeye, and a battle, which are nevertheless not the Hedgehog, the Ripper, the Sailor Man, or Midway, respectively.

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

Cueball stands, holding his phone. Text message boxes are above him.

Do you want to go see Sonic (the Hedgehog)?

Why are there so many books about Jack (the Ripper)?

I didn't know Robin Williams once played Popeye (the Sailor Man)

My Hobby:
Whenever I mention anyone called "<name> the <x>," I put "the <x>" in parentheses, like I added it as a clarification.
{{comic discussion}}

2109: Invisible Formatting

2019-02-08T14:26:11Z

SteelStarling:

{{comic
| number = 2109
| date = February 8, 2019
| title = Invisible Formatting
| image = invisible_formatting.png
| titletext = To avoid errors like this, we render all text and pipe it through OCR before processing, fixing a handful of irregular bugs by burying them beneath a smooth, uniform layer of bugs.
}}

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1786: Trash

2017-01-16T15:10:27Z

SteelStarling:

I put in an explanation, but I'm on a mobile device, so someone will need to fix all the spacing, and necessary links, and probably fix a bunch of other stuff too. [[User:Yosho27|Yosho27]] ([[User talk:Yosho27|talk]]) 07:26, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

Yucca Mountain is a nuclear waste storage. [[User:Sten|'''S<small>TEN</small>''']] <small>([[User talk:Sten|talk]])</small> 07:33, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

Perhaps one should mention that Narnia is a retelling of the Christian tradition. Aslan created all 'dimensions' or worlds including ours and is the allegorical Jesus. Narnia is a wonderful world for children, at least most of the time, when there are no witches, where they can have fun and are able to prove more noble than in the real world. Both makes dumping trash in Narnia quite sacrilegious. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.115|162.158.89.115]] 08:07, 16 January 2017 (UTC)
:I have mentioned some of it. But I do not think it is especially important for this comic, only for the fact that Aslan is God everywhere, and since Narnia is a dead world today, then Aslan could be in a different world that Blacl Hat taps into. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:50, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

Presumerably also the whole comic is a reference/cynical look at human's history of dumping things in the sea and so on? ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_debris for example) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.162|141.101.107.162]] 11:25, 16 January 2017 (UTC)
:Added some on this especially regarding the nuclear waste --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:50, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

Is Black Hat getting his furniture from Beret Guy's new shop? The wiki itself says that this seems like something that would happen. Comic 1772 - Startup Opportunity.
[[User:SteelStarling|SteelStarling]] ([[User talk:SteelStarling|talk]]) 15:10, 16 January 2017 (UTC)