explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2949: Network Configuration

2026-03-26T17:20:14Z

Tharkon: The last (as in most recent) ice age, is still ongoing.

{{comic
| number = 2949
| date = June 21, 2024
| title = Network Configuration
| image = network_configuration_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you repeatedly rerun the development of technological civilization, it turns out that for some reason the only constant is that there is always a networking utility called 'netcat', though it does a different thing in each one.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] takes an uncommon networking bug - needing to establish a fresh connection for each {{w|Network_packet|packet}} sent - to the extreme. Instead of merely redoing the appropriate handshakes for data transfer, he is reconstructing the entire {{w|Human_history|history of human civilization}} each time. As this originally took multiple millennia, doing it for every network packet would make communication ''extremely'' slow; in modern networking, we send and receive thousands of packets every second.

Randall may be using a double meaning of the word "rebuild." Instead of just rebuilding his network settings - starting fresh with a clean setup - he is rebuilding civilization itself from scratch, an extreme type of "first principles thinking."

In the last frame of the comic, Cueball looks shaggy and dirty and has a {{w|Hoe_(tool)|grub hoe}} behind him, making it clear he is performing these tasks ''in real life'' just to get his network working again. He says the network packet was stuck in the {{w|Neolithic}} era, the final period of the Stone Age that marked the transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. Apparently, Cueball had to go through the effort of inventing farming (one of the developments of the {{w|Neolithic Revolution}}) to keep communicating with [[Ponytail]]. He has also had to build himself a new wooden chair (and possibly desk) and hasn't yet gotten to the point of developing a notebook computer, so he is using an under-desk tower PC connected to a chunky monitor. Presumably, his previous equipment and furniture were lost in resetting to the Neolithic, though this seems to have been a localized effect, given that Ponytail appears unaffected.

"Inventing farming takes '''''forever'''''" references the actual rather complex process of inventing farming. First, we needed the {{w|Last Glacial Period}} to end - around 11,000 years ago - to create suitable climatic environments for agriculture. Then we required advancements in plant cultivation, animal domestication, and tool development - lots of time and experimentation involved there. And the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary farming communities also needed significant social and cultural adaptations (e.g., new organizational structures).

Randall Munroe is familiar with the popular creative nonfiction topic of what it takes to rebuild civilization, the subject of [https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/ How to Invent Everything] by fellow cartoonist Ryan North, a book which he blurbed on its front cover.
* The topic of rebuilding a civilization from scratch was also referenced in comic [[1380: Manual for Civilization]] and in the title text of [[2347: Dependency]].

The title text discusses {{w|netcat}}, a simple utility to make a {{w|Transmission Control Protocol|TCP connection}} which comes in annoyingly incompatible [https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/netcat-traditional/nc.1.en.html nc.traditional] and [https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/netcat-openbsd/nc.1.en.html nc.openbsd] varieties.

In addition, the tendency for civilizations to independently develop netcat may be an allusion to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which 85% of all planets invariably develop a cocktail whose name is, by pure coincidence, a phonetic homophone to “gin and tonic”, such as the Jynnan tonnyx, while varying wildly in composition. The word "netcat" is a composite of "net" (most likely standing for network each time, although could relate to some form of mesh/trap, a topology or an amount less any deductions), and "cat", which references the Unix utility {{w|Cat (Unix)|cat}}, or it may be an abbreviation (for example for catalogue, category, catalyst, catastrophe etc.), or even actually referring to a cat. The various possible combinations could encompass a wide variation in function of similarly named processes.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is sitting on an office chair at her computer with a headset on. A zigzag line indicates what is shown on the computer screen]
:Ponytail (typing): Ugh, your connection is so laggy.
:Computer: Yeah, sorry.

:[Cueball is sitting on an office chair at his laptop]
:Cueball (typing): It's because I messed up my network configuration and now I have to rebuild a separate civilization from scratch for each packet.

:[Ponytail at her computer]
:Ponytail (typing): Huh?
:Ponytail (typing): What are you talking about?
:Ponytail (typing): ...Hello?

:[Beat panel, with Ponytail sitting in front of her computer waiting for a response from Cueball]

:[Cueball, with dirt on his head and around him, is at an old computer setup with a hoe leaning on his now non-office chair, blade on the floor]
:Cueball (typing): Sorry, got stuck in the Neolithic that time.
:Cueball (typing): Inventing farming takes '''''forever'''''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cueball's computer problems]]

Talk:3195: International Station

2026-01-17T02:26:34Z

Tharkon:

Holy refresh pull exclamation mark! tilde tilde tilde tilde --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]]''''' 14:55, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Should the "not-earth" "space" be changed to something like "the void between astronomical bodies"? I'm not sure if, say, the surface of the Moon or Mars or {{w|A Taste of Armageddon|Eminiar VII}} count as being "in space". [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:27, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

I initially interpreted the cartoon as showing the people and objects floating within something gloopy, and the wrench as a bone, and that the joke was about an "internal space station". Here we are, inside a gelatinous cube, or possibly a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immunity_Syndrome_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series) gigantic space amoeba]... [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:43, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

'''New Category: Weightless''' There are a few strips that take place demonstrating micro-gravity, right? Is that worthy of a category? The 'space' tag could be used for comics ''about'' space or comics ''in'' space (or, I guess, comics on planets?). [[Special:Contributions/191.101.157.82|191.101.157.82]] 17:08, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

I think the ISS was originally called start quote Alpha end quote period tilde tilde tilde tilde [[Special:Contributions/134.173.108.120|134.173.108.120]] 18:23, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm early! [[Special:Contributions/2603:7083:8700:E02:FE51:837E:B6F:327|2603:7083:8700:E02:FE51:837E:B6F:327]] 18:24, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

It took me a moment to get it, but when I did this xkcd made me capitals LOL which doesn't happen often [[Special:Contributions/2401:D005:D402:7A00:7FE1:F042:B839:91B8|2401:D005:D402:7A00:7FE1:F042:B839:91B8]] 21:23, 16 January 2026 (UTC)
:You forgot tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]]''''' 21:31, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

At least it's not the International Ampersand En Bee Ess Pee Semicolon Station ellipsis tilde tilde tilde tilde [[Special:Contributions/174.142.148.226|174.142.148.226]] 21:42, 16 January 2026 (UTC)
::Speaking of Ampersand Aa Em Pee Semicolon, that's a real life example of this effect actually happening. It was at the end of the alphabet where they would say "X, Y, Z, and, per sé, 'and'". Tilde tilde tilde tilde. Not sure if that is relevant enough to the comic though. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 02:26, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

Dear Bot, don't get this Irishperson started on apostrophes. [[Special:Contributions/205.175.118.102|205.175.118.102]] 22:57, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3130: Predicament

2025-08-19T18:02:43Z

Tharkon: Forgot to log in.

Those are some pretty dang tall stilts ... oh yeah, and F1RST P0ST! [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 20:59, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

There's a not entirely tenuous link with [[1660: Captain Speaking]], methinks... [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 21:31, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Is unlocking the phone with stilts even possible? Aren't phone touchscreens based on electrical conductivity? What are these stilts made of? [[Special:Contributions/160.39.41.182|160.39.41.182]] 21:33, 18 August 2025 (UTC)
:Ah, I just added a paragraph about that! Great minds think alike/fools never differ...
:Probably capacitative (which is what I linked), and indeed I was thinking that wooden/other-structural-material wouldn't get any response unless you put a pad of special material (such as seen on the tips of "iPhone gloves") that emulates the electrical qualities of bare skin. Which is probably not what you usually get, there, even if they're given "little rubber boots/soles" for grip purposes. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 21:44, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

So... is there a special procedure for getting off stilts? If so, it should be mentioned in the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/2A01:36D:104:47E3:7D15:7369:B5C7:C18D|2A01:36D:104:47E3:7D15:7369:B5C7:C18D]] 22:56, 18 August 2025 (UTC)
:Gravity being what it is, I always found it easier to get down than to stay up. {{unsigned ip|98.5.115.49|23:39, 18 August 2025 (UTC)}}
::I think the trick is getting down without hurting yourself. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:59, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
:You don’t get down from stilts, you get down from an elephant! [[Special:Contributions/2607:FB90:8B0C:94F1:95A5:B4D0:D3A3:4420|2607:FB90:8B0C:94F1:95A5:B4D0:D3A3:4420]] 06:54, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
::I'm sure you could get down from {{w|stilt}}s if you really wanted to. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:48, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
::Heh. Nice! ("You don't get down from an elephant, you get down from a duck.") [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 14:34, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Why did he make this comic? Is he running out of ideas? [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 15:23, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
:Because it was an idea that amused him? Why did he make any of the previous 3129? [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 16:10, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

:Obviously because he is currently stuck on stilts and hopes to be able to check this website for ideas on how to get off of them. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 18:02, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3049: Incoming Asteroid

2025-02-11T11:45:51Z

Tharkon:

Asteroids are surprisingly destructive even at small sizes - I remember reading somewhere that the Armageddon movie asteroid was supposed to be "the size of Arlington, Texas", but that it sounded too small so they changed it to "the size of Texas" which is a drastic size increase and also proportionally far more deadly. For scale, Arlington is 250 square km and Texas is 700 000 square km. The Chixulub asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was between 10 and 15 km across. If it was a perfect circle, it would have an area of between 79 and 176 sq km. Arlington would be 18 km across, still within "species" range, and Texas would be 944 km across, clearly in "new moon" territory. But it _sounds_ much cooler! [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 22:32, 10 February 2025 (UTC)
:And that's for asteroids with normal speed (for asteroid, which is still kinda fast). The level of danger asteroid means is proportional to kinetic energy, meaning proportional to mass and SQUARE of speed, so if it's faster, it gets to extinction level even when small ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:29, 10 February 2025 (UTC)
:: "for asteroids with normal speed" - which is generally orbital velocity. If much faster, it would have left the solar system by now. If much slower, it has fallen into the Sun already. All objects (even Teslas) at a given distance soon have similar velocities. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 00:04, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
::: It could be going at ''a'' speed (similar to Earth, give or take, for the sake of being on an Earth-incident orbit) and yet have such different effects. If basically following the Earth (or leading it), it'll be relatively gentle, at least before you start considering the Earth's (and the asteroid's, in the event it's significantly large) gravity well pulling it. Well, 'gentle' in comparison to one doing the 'same speed' but in the anti-orbit, for a full head-on impact. Course, that's why we need to think of velocities, and in particular the relative ones. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.37|172.71.241.37]] 01:31, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

The 1m danger makes me think of the meteor impact that was caught on a home security camera last July in Prince Edward Island. But the Sky & Telescope article https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/hear-the-first-ever-recording-of-a-meteorite-slamming-into-the-ground/ says that it would have been only a 6-7 cm across. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:42, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

The sizes in the explanation are out of sync with the image. Has Randall updated it, or may it be location dependent? ~~Guest~~ 07:12, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
:I saw the comic before any explanation was put up and it was the same as it is now, all exactly powers of 10. But the labels aren't exactly at those spots, so people are probably estimating the exact point where the labels are at, though my interpretation would be that Randall meant for the labels to be attached to ranges rather than points. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 11:45, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

"Good news everyone! We were supposed to make a delivery to the planet Tweenis 12 but it's been completely destroyed!" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.203|162.158.94.203]] 11:24, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

2943: Unsolved Chemistry Problems

2024-06-08T16:57:30Z

Tharkon: Proper use of subscript in PKₐ.

{{comic
| number = 2943
| date = June 7, 2024
| title = Unsolved Chemistry Problems
| image = unsolved_chemistry_problems_2x.png
| imagesize = 361x386px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I'm an H⁺ denier, in that I refuse to consider loose protons to be real hydrogen, so I personally believe it stands for 'pretend'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an unsolved acronym (p>0.05) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

There is a list of mathematical problems that are yet to be solved (such as P=NP). This comic makes a spin on it, by stating that there are (as of yet) unsolved chemistry problems. The scientist at what is apparently the"grand opening" of a new chemistry lab lists several real chemistry problems, followed by one also-unsolved-but-less-scientific problem (the p in pH)

'''Arbitrary Enzyme Design:'''

{{w|Enzymes}} are molecules (usually proteins) that act as catalysts to speed up biological processes. These are often important in understanding and curing diseases, so being able to design new enzymes can be critical in medical research.

'''Protein Folding:'''

{{w|Protein|Proteins}} are large molecules that consist of chains of amino acids. These amino acids chains become {{w|Protein Folding|folded}} in extremely complex ways into intricate 3D structures, and the way a protein is folded is of critical importance to its function. "Misfolded" proteins like {{w|Prion|prions}} can be inactive or cause other proteins to become misfolded, which can lead to fatal illnesses. Because of the huge importance of proteins to biological life, biologists have devoted significant attention over many decades to the problem of {{w|Protein structure prediction|protein structure prediction}}. This refers to the ability to predict the 3D structure of a protein based on the amino acid sequence, and remains one of the most important problems in computational biology.

'''Depolymerization:'''

Polymers (plastics) are very large molecules formed out of repeating subunits. The huge number of varieties and mixtures in plastics makes recycling them a huge challenge, and there is increasing concern about plastic waste damaging the environment.

Depolymerization is breaking down polymers into the small molecules they were originally made from. This is done through a variety of processes such as using radiation, electrolysis, adding chemicals, and other means. Monomers are described as molecules, typically organic in nature, that can bond with at least 1 other molecule (polyfunctionality), resulting in the formation of larger molecules (polymers).

'''What the “p” in pH stands for:'''

“p” shows up in pH, pKa, pKb, and other things related to the concentration of H+ ions and OH- ions. The meaning of the "p" in "pH" has been the subject of much dispute. It is sometimes referred to as "power of Hydrogen", but the term was introduced by {{w|Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen|Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen}}, who did not publish his results in English. The letter p could stand for the French puissance, German Potenz, or Danish potens, all meaning "power", or it could mean "potential". All of these words start with the letter p in French, German, and Danish, which were the languages in which Sørensen published.

In the title text, someone, presumably Randall Monroe, claims that they refuse to believe that loose protons are hydrogen atoms, and as such, the “p” stands for pretend. This could work, by saying that it is the pretend Ka and the Pretend Kb. However, hydrogen atoms and loose protons each have a single proton. An ion is an atom or molecular structure whose total number of electrons is not equal to its total number of protons, and which therefore has a net positive or negative charge.

Also, there are three kinds ({{w|isotopes}}) of hydrogen: light or regular hydrogen, sometimes referred as ''protium'', heavy hydrogen or {{w|deuterium}}, and super-heavy radioactive hydrogen or {{w|tritium}}. Though, the two latter can be designated as D and T respectively, it's common to refer any of them as just H. Only the light hydrogen positive ion is equivalent to a loose proton, since deuterium nucleus consists of a proton and a neutron, and tritium nucleus consists of a proton and two neutrons.

==Transcript==
:[Hairbun stands behind a lectern on a podium speaking into a microphone on the lectern. A Cueball like guy stand to the left and another Cueball like guy and Megan stand to the right. There is a large sign hanging in the background along with some ornaments.]
:Sign: Grand Opening
:Hairbun: Our lab will be working on chemistry's top unsolved problems: arbitrary enzyme design, protein folding, depolymerization, and, of course, the biggest one of all:
:Hairbun: ''Figuring out what the "p" in "pH" stands for.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

Talk:2922: Pub Trivia

2024-04-19T17:50:02Z

Tharkon:

I expect that the BTS question is a reference to the traditional Korean system of counting a person's age in units of Sal which started at 1 and incremented on the first day of the year. Since this system was abandoned on official documents in 2023, but is still in use in some contexts, the question of whether every member of BTS had a "birthday" on the first day of the year is ambiguous. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:13, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

question 5, planets exist outside the solar system, adding to the ambiguity. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:15, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
:One of the requirements in the definition of a planet is that it orbits the Sun, so no there are no planets outside the Solar system. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 17:50, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

As for question 9, please see the note about the history of Austrailia's capitals at: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_national_capitals#Oceania]]. and the page regarding countries with multiple capitals [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_multiple_capitals]] [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:24, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

About the alt text, London is certainly in Europe. The question itself is malformed because "Europe (or 'the EU')" is not self-consistent: there is a lot of European countries that are not part of the EU. [[User:RedGolpe|RedGolpe]] ([[User talk:RedGolpe|talk]]) 14:32, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
:The "Greater London" answer is also tricksy, as the "ceremonial county" of GL {{w|London boroughs|may not include}} the additional area of the City Of London (though it does include the City Of Westminster, which is sometimes the trick answer to certain trick questions that a quizmaster might attempt to pull). The ''administrative'' Greater London is the ceremonial one ''plus'' CoL, however... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 15:04, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
::I would argue London is not in Europe because there is no clear definition for Europe as a geographic area, it really doesn't have an eastern border that is not arbitrary, so the only clearly defined thing Europe can refer to is the EU. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 17:50, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benxi Benxi Lake] is actually considered to be the smallest lake in the world. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.135.205|172.70.135.205]]
:{{cn}}[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.176|172.70.86.176]] 14:40, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

I never realized how challenging it is to edit pages when they've just been posted. Makes me long for something like Google docs.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.43|172.68.3.43]] 14:39, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

People, who are born on 29th February don't have a birthday in years which are not leap years. However, 2024, when this comic was published is a leap year. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.95.9|162.158.95.9]] 14:40, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

"5. How many planets were there originally?" This could also refer even back to the start of the universe, when there were (likely) just 0 planets. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.101|162.158.86.101]] 14:43, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

I anticiated a lot of Edit Conflicts, but not actually quite so many as to not to be able to resolve my edits with everyone else's. This is the bare-bones that I was putting in (until finding multiple attempts tried to be added consecutively...
{{cot}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Question !! Problem !! Possible answer(s)
|-
| Which member of BTS has a birthday this year?
| Every living person has a birthday this year (being a leap-year, this includes those born on 29/Feb).
|
|-
| How many sides does a platonic solid have?
| There are five (or [[2781: The Six Platonic Solids|six]]) platonic solids, each with a different number of sides.
| 4, 6, 8, 12 or 20
|-
| What is the smallest lake in the world?
| The distinction between a small lake and a pond, pool or puddle (for example) is difficult to define.
|
|-
| Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks? Jaws (1875) or Lincoln (2012)
| Not a problem, as Lincoln has very few shark attacks.{{Citation needed}} The problem is that barely anyone will ''not'' be able to correctly answer this.
|
|-
| How many planets were there originally?
| Contextually vague. At what time and within what volume of space, and what is the scope of 'planet' defined here?
|
|-
| What NFL player has scored the most points outside of a game?
| Outside of (NFL) games, individuals may accumulate points in any number of ways (e.g. Scrabble)
|
|-
| The Wright brothers built the first airplane. Who built the last one?
| Until no further planes are built, individuals/teams/companies continue to build (to completion) ever more examples, changing the answer possibly moment to moment.
|
|-
| Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?
| This is a {{w|Goldbach's conjecture|currently unanswered question}}.
|
|-
| Not counting Canberra, what city is the capital of Australia?
| Canberra is ''the'' capital of Australia, a fairly well known 'obscure' fact. Each Australian territory also has their own state capital, so there is not one other ''single'' example.
|
|-
| Who played the drums?
| Lack of context. With which group? For which song? For which (re-)recording? At which event?
|
|-
| Where is London located? (a) The British Isles (b) Great Britain and Northern Ireland (c) The UK (d) Europe (or 'the EU') (e) Greater London
| Almost all of these are correct (though London is geographically in Europe but no longer in the EU).
|}

This is apparently deliberate (at least on behalf of the organisers), perhaps to upset or otherwise impede groups of overconfident quizzers who would otherwise dominate any genuinely good quiz.
{{cob}}
...make use of it however you wish, anybody who has the time not to keep chasing all the simultaneous edits. (The above is a bit behind 'perfection', and lacks many of the integrations, wikilinks and adjustments I had made. I backspaced out of the edit I had finally reached, before remembering to take a full copy into my paste-buffer!) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.115|172.70.90.115]] 14:53, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

I thought the answer to #2 could be 1, because as 3D solids they only have one surface. I would guess the player with the most points outside of a game is the one who's played idlers (like Cookie Clicker) the longest — though I suppose those could be considered "inside of a game" as well. Also, I played the drums. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.143|172.70.254.143]] 15:33, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
:The answer to #2 is '2 - the in-side and the out-side'.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.242|172.69.43.242]] 15:46, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

Considering the platonic solids explanation lists all the correct answers, could someone include a list of all the members of BTS and their respective birthdays? Bing copilot suggests the following:

1. **Jin (Kim Seok-jin)**:
- Birthday: **December 4, 1992**

2. **Suga (Min Yoon-gi)**:
- Birthday: **March 9, 1993**

3. **J-Hope (Jung Hoseok)**:
- Birthday: **February 18, 1994**

4. **RM (Kim Nam-joon)**:
- Birthday: **September 12, 1994**

5. **Jimin (Park Ji-min)**:
- Birthday: **October 13, 1995**

6. **V (Kim Tae-Hyung)**:
- V's birthday is **December 30**, but the year is not mentioned in the provided information.

7. **Jungkook (Jeon Jungkook)**:
- Jungkook's birthday is **September 1**, but the year is not mentioned in the provided information.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 15:48, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

: I'm not opposed to adding BTS birthdays, but I think it should be done by someone more knowledgeable about the band than me. Birthdays can be a surprisingly nuanced subject.[[User:Comatoran|Comatoran]] ([[User talk:Comatoran|talk]]) 15:59, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
:Wikipedia says {{w|V_(singer)|'95}} and {{w|Jungkook|'97}} respectively[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.37|172.70.162.37]] 16:04, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2890: Relationship Advice

2024-02-05T19:07:52Z

Tharkon:

Anybody else think that White Hat might be aromantic? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:47, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
:I see no reason to assume he is talking about romance at all. All relationships can be difficult, whether romantic, sexual, platonic, familiar or professional. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 19:07, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

2871: Definitely

2023-12-23T21:45:25Z

Tharkon: Closing parentheses.

{{comic
| number = 2871
| date = December 22, 2023
| title = Definitely
| image = definitely_2x.png
| imagesize = 463x461px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = A really mean prank you can play on someone who's picky about words is to add a 'definitely->definitively' autocorrect rule to their keyboard.
}}

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

The word "''{{wiktionary|definitely}}''" is commonly {{wiktionary|misspelt}}, perhaps because it may be voiced as "def-in-ATE-ly", or with other vowels/emphisis. (The wiktionary link mentions three, /ˈdɛf.ɪ.nɪt.li/, /ˈdɛf.ə.nɪt.li/, /ˈdɛf.nɪt.li/, which are just some of the differences you might encounter.) Remembering that it ultimately has a common root with "finite", and thus has the two 'i's, does not help if you also/instead perhaps link it in your head to "''define''" (which might erroneously lead to "''defin'''e'''tely''") and not "definition").

The comic gives twelve 'words' that the subtitle claims are all real, and gives their definitions, whereas in reality only the first (the definitely definitive spelling of "''definitely''") and the last (defying the trend by being the actual word "''{{wiktionary|defiantly}}''") are indeed so.

The first three alternate 'words' listed do have Wiktionary entries that indicate they are common mis-spellings of the first (with "definately" having been used previously in [[1238: Enlightenment]]), and the last has a secondary 'meaning' of possibly being such an error, but (as of the publication of this comic/edit) the words "''defenitely''", "''defintely''", "''definetely''" [defined as "{{w|Definitely, Maybe}}"], "''definantly''", "''defanitely''", "''defineatly''" and "''definitly''" are ''so'' wrong that they don't even have a corrective article created for them. Some of them don't even look like they'd even be sufficiently homophonic substitutes, though the actions of accent and dialect may indeed be capable of creating compatible (mis)elocutions for each.

The title text adds to the word confusion by suggesting the real word "''{{wiktionary|definitively}}''" (for which Wiktionary has a 'See also' link to "definitely") be made to be used (against the will of a word-wise individual) as a substitution for the original definitely definitive spelling. In certain contexts it even fulfils the same basic sense as the original and so may survive proofreading by a third party. Or even the author glancing through their own work, and the brain not twigging the increased number of riser-rich characters but mentally voicing the intended word anyway... Even if it is noticed, it may be considered more a "''{{wiktionary|thinko}}''" than a "''{{wiktionary|typo}}''" as it keeps happening, at least until the afflicted typist starts to pay close and distracting attention to their output.

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

:Word   Meaning

:Definitely - Definitely
:Definetly - ''Almost'' definitely
:Definately - Probably
:Definatly - Probably not
:Defenitely - Not telling (it's a surprise)
:Defintely - Per the prophecy
:Definetely - Definitely, maybe
:Definantly - To be decided by coin toss
:Defanitely - In one universe out of 14 million
:Defineatly - Only the gods know
:Definitly - Unless someone cute shows up
:Defiantly - Defiantly

:[Caption below the panel:]
:People think the word "definitely" is often misspelled, but it's actually just several words with different meanings.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]

2848: Breaker Box

2023-10-31T18:37:36Z

Tharkon: Typos

{{comic
| number = 2848
| date = October 30, 2023
| title = Breaker Box
| image = breaker_box_2x.png
| imagesize = 560x776px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Any electrician will warn you to first locate and flip the house's CAUSALITY circuit breaker before touching the CIRCUIT BREAKERS one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HIGH-PITCHED HUM GENERATOR THAT WAS LAST MENTIONED EXACTLY 1258 COMICS AGO - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|distribution board}}, referred to as a "breaker box" here and also commonly referred to as a "fuse box", "breaker panel", "DB box", and many other names, is a metal box attached to a wall inside a building, usually in some maintenance area, containing several {{w|circuit breakers}} that let power through to various parts of the building. A circuit breaker is an electrical switch, usually in the form of a small lever, that will physically open if too much power is flowing through, as might be the case if a fault occurs, in order to prevent fires and protect appliances.

In most breaker boxes, each individual breaker is labeled to let the operator know what that specific breaker controls. A breaker will usually control something like the outlets or lights in a certain room, or some large appliance.

However, in houses that have been rewired multiple times (or are poorly wired), this can quickly become overcomplicated with seemingly random connections. Randall lives in Boston where much of the housing stock is from the late 1800s or early 1900s, and he is likely to live in a house with non-ideal wiring, which may have inspired this comic.

The comic satirizes these complex wiring setups, with multiple breakers "controlling" arbitrary things, including some that -- in the classic style of XKCD -- may be impossible to hook a breaker up to, getting progressively more absurd to the point of disabling certain laws of physics.

===Table of the breakers labels===
{|class = "wikitable"
! Label next to breaker !! Explanation !! Note
|-
! colspan="3"|Left column of switches
|-
| Kitchen Lights || The lights in the kitchen. || rowspan="3"| Standard items
|-
| Living room lights || The lights in the living room.
|-
| Porch lights || The lights on the porch.
|-
| Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere || The lights in the bathroom, but also a random outlet.
This kind of situation can occur if an electrician – while adding wiring – chooses to wire seemingly logically unrelated things to the same circuit because it's convient/sensible for her to do so. This can mystify future homeowners who don't know the wiring history.
| Standard, but 'kludged'
|-
| North-facing appliances || colspan="2"|Difficult, but not theoretically impossible. Presumably this house has:
#a smart wiring system that knows which outlets control which appliances,
#all appliances with magnetic compasses that report their orientation to the smart home controler, and
#this breaker is not a simple power on/off but can selectively disable only north-facing appliances.
Alternatively, it is physically wired only to outlets installed on a southern wall in the property (or ''all'' southern walls, for each room that requires them), with the presumption that everything connected to these exclusively north-facing outlets also faces directly away from the wall(s).
 It is unclear how strict this is as well - it could be as lax as northeast to northwest, or even as strict as {{w|Points of the compass#32-wind compass rose|north by east to north by west}}.
Or, of course, it could mean the appliances on the north-facing walls of the house.
|-
| Bathtub drain light || colspan="2"|Bathtub drains typically do not have lights, but this breaker provides power to that and only that.
|-
| Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" || colspan="2"|Also difficult but not theoretically impossible. Similar to "North-facing appliances," this would require a smart wiring system that can detect the official names of appliances plugged into each outlet, and the ability of this breaker switch to selectively disable certain outlets. (Typical electrical systems do not carry data about names, for starters.)
Some common household appliances that this switch might control: Coffee maker, refrigerator, freezer, fan, air fryer, food processor, waffle iron, fabric steamer, fireplace (electric)
|-
| Hot water heater || Usually just a heater that creates (and typically stores) hot water. But given the next label "regular water heater", this label might actually refer to a water heater that pointlessly heats water that is ''already'' hot. This is a joke about the fact that the common phrase "hot water heater" is technically redundant (a water heater might be assumed to produce ''only'' hot water) or inaccurate (residential water heaters do not heat only water that is ''already'' hot). || rowspan="2"|Two "heaters"
|-
| Regular water heater || The heater for regular water. Together with the switch above, this presumes it's for a heater for heating water that is not yet hot (usually called a "hot water heater", hence the joke).
|-
| Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in || colspan="2"|This controls every outlet in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in, such as the dining room and kitchen and -- depending on the "normal" habits of the inhabitants -- other rooms such as the bedroom, bathroom, or living room (if not already covered by the "living room lights" switch above).
|-
| High-pitched hum generator || colspan="2"|Controls a high-pitched hum generator. This is a call-back to [[1590: The Source]].
|-
| The solution to the cryptogram below: || colspan="2"|Likely a pun on "breaking" or solving a cryptogram, which is a puzzle where a sentence has been encoded using a cipher, usually simple, and the goal is to determine the cipher and recover the original sentence from the encoded one.
Another explanation is that this switch enables or disables the solution somehow, perhaps controlling its knowability.
|-
| Bugs || colspan="2"|This could either refer to software bugs or actual bugs, both of which do not make much sense to be able to turn off, or to covert listening devices, which would be able to be switched off if wired into the house's electrical grid, but are not a common feature in most houses. If this does refer to actual bugs, it may be a reference to [[2753: Air Handler]].
Though it's unlikely that it's what Randall is referring to, computer bugs switches actually exist. It's a feature in some video game emulators to either run an unofficial patched version or to stay true to the original system, for example to allow bug-exploit speedruns of a video game.
 If this switch disables the whole category of bugs (insects, arachnids, and other small arthropods), we'd have no more pests and we'd reduce disease likes malaria and {{w|Lyme disease}}. Food webs would also collapse, and our world would be overrun with waste.
|-
! colspan="3"|Right column of switches
|-
| A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now || colspan="2"|The AC in a building usually creates quiet white noise from fans, which people usually do not hear until they become aware that there is a sound. Other appliances, such as refrigerators or home servers can have similar effects.
|-
| Dishwasher || colspan="2"|The dishwasher.
|-
| Dishes || colspan="2"|Traditionally, dishes cannot be turned off, as they do not normally require electricity. "Dishes" could be the label for a dishwasher on another house's breaker box, but this one already used that label. Another, unlikely explanation is that this switch controls two or more satellite dishes.
|-
| Hallway lights || The lights in the hallway or hallways. || rowspan="3"|"Hallway" regions
|-
| Hallway outlets || The outlets in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| Hallway floors || This breaker has several potential interpretations:
#Outlets in the floor
#Electric underfloor heating (heated bathroom floors are a feature in some houses)
#Electrification of the floors -- not common outside of horror and heist movies.
#Disabling all floors entirely, so everything resting on the floors falls through.
|-
| Social media || colspan="2"|This breaker also has several potential interpretations of "turning off social media":
#'Digital detoxes', where someone says "I'm going to turn off my social media" and intends to deny themselves access to all their social media apps.
#A switch for a parent to turn off all social media entering the house to protect their kids and themselves, which references a type of specialized content filter available through Wi-Fi router settings, not traditionally a breaker box.
#A callback to [[908: The Cloud]]. Since most social media platforms are centralized services, it would be theoretically possible to hook up a switch to the main power supply of every server building at once, given some extremely long wires, a breaker capable of handling the abhorrently massive electric load, and agreement from every social media provider([[1439|optional]]).
#The theoretical desire by some to "turn off social media" for the world due to its harmful effects on society. As someone who lived before social media and saw its spread over two decades, Randall may be ruing the impacts of social media on civilization and channeling his desire to put the genie back in the bottle.
|-
| State law || Likely a pun on "State Law Breaker."
Taken literally, it would either disable enforcement of State Law or nullify every single one, creating a state of martial law similar to the premise of the popular movie, "The Purge". It's unclear if this refers to Randall's state of Massachusetts or State Law as a general concept.
| rowspan="2"|"Legal" items
|-
| Federal law || Likely a pun on "Federal Law Breaker," though it could also be taken literally, as above. The ramifications of nullifying every US Federal law are immense. Disabling Federal Law while keeping State Law would theoretically fulfill the goals of the "States Rights" advocates, groups of conservatives across US history aiming to return Federal power to the States.
|-
| Second law of thermodynamics || The Second Law of Thermodynamics, in simple terms, states that the total entropy (or disorder) of an isolated system can only increase over time. It's a fundamental principle that dictates the direction of energy flow and the feasibility of many processes, and provides an arrow of time.
Turning off the second law of thermodynamics would have some pros and cons.
;GOOD STUFF
*'''Perpetual Motion Machines''': Machines that can do work indefinitely without an energy source would become possible, defying our current understanding of energy conservation.
*'''Reversibility of Processes''': Many natural processes that are irreversible under current laws could be reversed. For instance, melted ice could spontaneously turn back into a solid without energy removal.
*'''Recycling Energy''': We could theoretically use the same quantum of energy over and over again, leading to ultra-efficient systems and potentially solving many of the world's energy problems.
*'''Reversing Entropy-Driven Processes''': Things like mixing cream and coffee or ink in water could spontaneously unmix.
;BAD STUFF
*'''End Life as We Know It:''' All living organisms rely on the second law for crucial processes, including metabolism and reproduction. If the second law were negated, life, at least as we understand it, might not be possible.
*'''No Heat Engines:''' Engines rely on the flow of heat from hotter to colder bodies. Without the Second Law, our cars, power plants, refrigerators, and many other devices would not function.
*'''Breakdown of Molecular Processes:''' Molecules spontaneously move from areas of higher to lower concentration due to entropy. Without this, diffusion, osmosis, and many biochemical reactions wouldn't occur as they currently do.
*'''Loss of Directionality:''' One interpretation of the Second Law provides a directionality to time (the so-called "arrow of time"). Without it, causality and our understanding of past, present, and future could be fundamentally altered.
*'''Unpredictable Outcomes:''' Turning off the Second Law could result in a universe where outcomes are not probabilistically predictable. You couldn't rely on anything happening as it "should," leading to chaos in every sense.
 This law of physics was also explored in the What If? article [https://what-if.xkcd.com/145/ Fire From Moonlight].
| rowspan="3"|"Physics" items
|-
| Friction || Friction is the resistive force that opposes the relative motion or tendency of such motion of two surfaces in contact. Turning it off has some upsides and downsides.
;UPSIDES
*'''Perpetual Motion Machines:''' Without friction, once an object starts moving, it would continue indefinitely unless acted upon by another force. This could lead to perpetual motion machines that could generate energy.
*'''Super-Efficient Transport:''' Cars, trains, and other vehicles would glide effortlessly once set into motion, leading to immense energy savings.
*'''Unique Sports:''' New sports and activities would emerge, where players glide or slide over surfaces without friction.
;DOWNSIDES
*'''Walking Would Be Impossible:''' We rely on friction between our feet and the ground to move. Without it, we would be unable to walk, run, or even stand.
*'''No Manual Dexterity:''' Holding, grabbing, or manipulating objects would be impossible. Even simple tasks like holding a glass or writing with a pen would be out of reach.
*'''Catastrophic Mechanical Failures:''' Many machines rely on friction to function. Brakes in cars, for instance, use friction to slow down and stop the vehicle. Without it, uncontrollable accidents would occur.
*'''No Sound:''' Friction between air molecules creates sound waves. Without friction, the world would be silent.
*'''Breathing Difficulties:''' Our respiratory system relies on frictional forces when the alveoli in our lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the bloodstream.
*'''No Fire:''' Fire relies on friction for its creation, such as when striking a match. The absence of friction would mean no traditional methods of starting a fire.
*'''Collisions:''' Objects, once set in motion, would continue to move until they hit something, leading to a myriad of unpredictable and uncontrollable collisions.
 Being in a frictionless environment (and a vacuum, as physicists love...) was the subject of [[669: Experiment]].
|-
| Gravity || Gravity is a natural force that attracts two bodies toward each other, proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.
Turning off gravity would have some advantages and disadvantages.
;ADVANTAGES
* '''Flight''': Without gravity, every leap could turn into a flight. We could push off surfaces and float effortlessly through the air.
* '''No Weight Restrictions''': Large structures could be built without concern for weight-bearing loads. This would drastically change engineering and architectural designs.
* '''New Sports''': Zero-gravity sports and activities could become a reality on Earth. Imagine playing basketball or soccer without gravity!
;DISADVANTAGES
* '''Loss of Atmosphere and Oceans''': Without gravity, Earth's atmosphere would dissipate into space, and water from oceans, rivers, and lakes would float away, making life as we know it impossible.
* '''Unanchored Chaos''': Everything not fixed to the ground, including people, animals, vehicles, trees, and structures, would become airborne, causing massive destruction and chaos.
* '''Disruption of Celestial Order''': Earth would no longer orbit the Sun, the Moon would drift away, and the structural integrity of the universe, including galaxies and solar systems, would be jeopardized.
|-
| Circuit breakers || colspan="2"|If this was turned off, it would presumably turn off all power in the house since no breaker is supplied or supplying power any more. (Most houses have a main circuit breaker that provides this functionality.)

However, if this circuit breaker disables all circuit breakers everywhere, it would result in global infrastructure collapse, halting essential services, including transportation, healthcare, and communication, and leading to widespread chaos.
|-
! colspan="3"|Title text
|-
| colspan="2"|The title text is about causality. Turning off the circuit breaker using the CIRCUIT BREAKER switch may lead to a loop, as the disabled breaker can no longer disable itself, leading to it turning back on, etc. Turning off CAUSALITY first would prevent this loop as causes would no longer have effects.
* This might be a one-way street: turning the CAUSALITY switch from OFF back to ON would be unlikely to do anything if the separation of cause and effect takes precedence over the current switch setting.
| A further "Physics" item
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An open breaker box is shown. There are 26 labelled breakers, all of which are on, paired back to back in thirteen rows as a label, switch, switch and label.]
:Kitchen lights / A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now
:Living room lights / Dishwasher
:Porch lights / Dishes
:Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere / Hallway lights
:North-facing appliances / Hallway outlets
:Bathtub drain light / Hallway floors
:Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" / Social media
:Hot water heater / State law
:Regular water heater / Federal law
:Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in / Second law of thermodynamics
:High-pitched hum generator / Friction
:[There are words that are too small to read on the left breaker's label.]
:The solution to the cryptogram below: / Gravity
:Bugs / Circuit breakers

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2819: Pronunciation

2023-08-26T21:47:55Z

Tharkon:

These are all heteronyms

(/ɪ/|/t/)+(/ɪ/|/juː/)+(/ɛ/|/ɨ/)+(/s/|/z/)+(/t/|/d/)+(/eɪ/|/æ/)+(/aɪ/|???) ...what's the alternate (anglophone) pronunciation for the 'y' in "gyro"? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.81|141.101.98.81]] 19:03, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
:...oh, ok, now there's an explanation on this. Not convinced by the alternate 'y' at all. And I pronounce "putting" exactly like "putting", as well. Consider me additionally confused. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.90|172.70.90.90]] 19:22, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
:gyro as in the sandwich (pronounced like Euro), or gyro as in short for gyroscope.
::Never even heard of a "gyro" sandwich. (And "Euro" can be YOU-ro, OY-ro, ERR-oh, etc, depending on which country you're(-oh) in.) Clearly something very Leftpondian, this comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.90|172.70.90.90]] 21:51, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
:::Oh man! Come on, we're going to the grocery store. You're one of today's lucky 10,000.- [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.172|172.70.131.172]] 22:43, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
:::It's a Greek dish similar to a shawarma. It's pronounced YEE-ro, I believe. (Which is kind of similar to that first pronunciation of "Euro", so that's probably what they were going for.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.118|172.70.43.118]] 22:04, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
::::Putting/putting - think southern England if you want to appreciate the difference. The golfing sense is somewhere between "patting" and "potting"; the placing sense more like...well, like "putting". "Pooting," I suppose, with a "book" type "oo".[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 22:46, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
:::::It's actually gyros, or γύρος using Greek spelling, there is no singular form because it is uncountable, like news. It's not like you can have one new. It's still probably the same word but I guess the meat is more likely to be pronounced in the original Greek way while words like gyroscope, which is a device originally used to measure (scope) the rotation (gyros) of the earth, have been anglicized in their pronunciation. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 23:25, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
::::::So in English, is it gyros meat or gyro meat?
::::::The "original" Greek way would be /gyros/, but the word for the sandwich was borrowed from modern Greek, while the word for the device was borrowed by way of Latin and maybe French. And English has this silly habit of treating mass nouns with final /z/ or /s/ as plural count nouns, especially if the masses are made of many countable objects, like pease and cherise. Anonymous11:54, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
::::::Where are people getting the idea from that it's uncountable in Greek? Singular is γύρος (gyros, /'jiros/), plural is γύροι (gyroi, /jiri/). [[User:Vince|Vince]] ([[User talk:Vince|talk]]) 09:24, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
:::::::I did not actually mean for the word to be uncountable in Greek specifically, though I see how my sentence could be taken that way. The word γῦρος in Ancient Greek (I don't have a lot of experience with modern Greek) also simply meant ring or circle, so clearly it was countable then. But now it refers to meat which is generally uncountable in English, maybe less so in inflected languages like Latin, Italian and Greek. I now remember that pasta is singular with a plural paste (or pastae in Latin). [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 21:47, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
:::Cool fact about the pronunciation of Euro: Yet another pronunciation (used in Greek), is ev-RO (ευρό). They also don't refer to eurocents as "cents", but rather as λεπτά (lepta, sg. lepto). You can tell that you have a Greek cent coin because it'll say ΛΕΠΤΟ or ΛΕΠΤΑ on the back. [[User:Vince|Vince]] ([[User talk:Vince|talk]]) 09:24, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
::Also, Most Americans pronounce it /hiɹoʊ/, as in "I need a hero", a pun Arby's made ample use of when they started selling gyros. I presume this also where the name "hero" for a sub comes from, despite the fact that most gyros I'm familiar with look more like Greek tacos than subs. Anonymous11:54, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
:::OED has references to the hero sandwich from 1938. Arby's was founded in 1964, and references in English to gyro sandwiches only date back to 1971. So it's unlikely that the hero sandwich is derived from gyro. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:44, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

In Finland that's not far away. By starting with T and removing æ you are almost correct. Tuesday in Finnish /Ti:stai/

Someone has GOT to find a better joke than "TOMATO BOTATO" - [[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.83|172.69.59.83]] 22:41, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
:I think maybe the {{w|Ghoti|counter-example}} of orthography might work for everyone? I linked it, for those who might still be confused. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.94|172.70.90.94]] 22:48, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
:::That's a lot better, and I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it, since I was just watching Tom Fawkes last night when he mentioned Ghoti of the Deep Beyond.- [[Special:Contributions/172.71.255.24|172.71.255.24]] 01:52, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

Does someone familiar with the IPA have a silly-looking but reasonably accurate transcription of /ɪɛstæaɪ/ they want to add to the page? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 23:19, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

Listening to the IPA reader, it sounds almost like "yesterday", which is interesting because the comic was posted on Wednesday... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 00:04, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

I think for the 'e' he means the 'schwa' (ə) sound, basically an unstressed neutral vowel sound (as in the 'a' in 'about', the 'e' in 'taken', the 'i' in 'pencil', the 'o' in 'havoc', the 'u' in 'supply', the 'y' in 'sibyl', or sometimes not even written as in 'rhythm') [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|Trogdor147]] ([[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|talk]]) 01:31, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
:Wait, it's a penn-sill, not a penn-sull!
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:13, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

My naive reading of this is: the T in buffet is silent. U in minute is UH, E in record is EH, S in use is Z, D in moped is T, A in bass is AH, Y in gyro is YI. together this makes: UHEZTAYI [[Special:Contributions/172.68.4.169|172.68.4.169]] 04:23, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

There's a more modern [//youtu.be/gtnlGH055TA semivocalic analysis of English diphthongs] that could affect how the T and Y are interpreted. The video focuses on British dialects, but anecdotally, the main principles also apply to General American, so they may be more intuitive here. Not sure if this is worth going against convention to incorporate, but I figured it'd be worth suggesting.

The relevant transcriptions would become ''buffet'' /-fej/, ''minute'' /majˈn(j)uwt/, ''use'' /juw-/, ''moped'' /mow-/, ''bass'' /bejs/, ''gyro'' /jij- dʒaj-/; and in the prose, ''pronounce'' /-aw-/, ''wound'' /wawnd wuwnd/. In the mispronunciation of ''Tuesday'', the /-æaj/ would correctly look like a sequence of two vowels instead of three.

Since E doesn't usually represent /ej/, Great Vowel Shift and all, you might analyze the T of ''buffet'' as corresponding to the /-j/ rather than being silent. That would add an extra phone at the start of the mispronunciation. Maybe that's a bit ghoti, though.

Anyway, for readers who don't know the IPA, my attempt at a pronunciation respelling would be (y)ih~ess-ta~eye. I can't think of a foolproof way to evoke unchecked /æ/ instead of /ə ɑ ej/. I tried adding silent GH, but that can also yield /ij/ as in ''shillelagh''. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]]

Is it worth adding a note about the old "ghoti" being pronounced as "fish" thing? That was my first exposure to deliberately pathological pronunciations in English, but I'm not sure if that's common? The joke is that you take "gh" from "enough", "o" from "women", and "ti" from "nation", to get "ghoti" = "fish".
:This joke is essentially the opposite of "ghoti". Rather than taking unusual pronunciations and creating a weird spelling from them, it takes a normal spelling and finds words where those letters have unusual pronunciations. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:54, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
:Wait, doesn't ehvehrreewunn pronounce the "wo" in "women", the same as in "wet"? I think of it as a "wooeh" sound.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:13, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

The "y" in Tuesday doesn't really have a sound, it just serves to make the "a" long. That doesn't correspond to either of the "gyro" pronunciations. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:54, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
:So, you pronounce "da" in words like "propaganda", "Andromeda", "Canada", "soda", "agenda" just like "day" in "Tuesday", but with a shorter "a"? :) [[User:BytEfLUSh|BytEfLUSh]] ([[User talk:BytEfLUSh|talk]]) 15:17, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
::Those are pronounced more like "dah", but clipped. It's in between the short "a" in "dad" and a schwa. But if you were to add a "y" they would sound like you were a Canadian. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:40, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

This reminds me of a joke my Dad used to tell. "A as in Aye", "S as in Sea", etc. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 15:15, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

Until reading this explanation, I never noticed how many people say "recorded", 'wrongly': "wreck-OR-dedd" sure seems wrong to me (even though I see ''some'' pronunciation guides that OK it). Shouldn't that be "ree-KOR-dedd"?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:19, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
: I most often say r'-KOR-dedd with a schwa sound on the first syllable, and occasionally say ree-KOR-dedd as you suggest. I never heard anyone say wreck-OR-dedd. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 12:52, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

For Dairy Queen, the final day the Cows grased on the range was the most important day for their milk. But for all others, it was Juice Day.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.21|162.158.86.21]] 23:42, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

Not really relevant to the comic, but a fun thing others might enjoy... I have used the nickname "MAP" (my initials) since about 1970, it occurs twice in my email address. When spelling it out (to someone where it'll work), I give it as: "M as in mnemonic, A as in aesthetic, P as in pneumonia" and when doing it the second time in my email, I end with "P as in ... psyche!" [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 17:14, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2819: Pronunciation

2023-08-23T23:25:25Z

Tharkon:

Talk:2814: Perseids Pronunciation

2023-08-12T17:14:27Z

Tharkon:

I'm afraid to google the Kentucky Meat Shower. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.139|162.158.158.139]] 14:43, 11 August 2023 (UTC)
:I can give you a very quick summary: when startled, vultures will sometimes regurgitate their last meal, both to lighten themselves for a quick escape, and make a potential predator lose its appetite. Apparently, something startled a bunch of vultures at the same time, and nobody knows exactly what. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.42|172.69.247.42]] 14:55, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_meat_shower [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 14:59, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

"can" is repeated in the title text. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.54|141.101.68.54]] 14:53, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

On August 11, 2023, XKCD was not the only web comic to reference the "Kentucky Meat Shower". It is the full subject of the day's Dinosaur Comics, at http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4085. And August 11 is not even an anniversary of the event (March 3, 1876). Coincidence? Time travel? You be the judge. [[User:JohnB|JohnB]] ([[User talk:JohnB|talk]]) 15:32, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

This tells me neither how acceptable things like my default lazy pronunciation, nor the original ancient greek pronunciation of its namesake, are considered. How am I supposed to guess where combinations of variations like PEER-, -seh-, and -ides would affect placement in the list? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.35|172.71.142.35]] 19:12, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

It's not ''wrong'', per-se. (ed.)
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:40, 11 August 2023 (UTC)
:That's exactly how I pronounce it. (per se) + ids. per-say-ids. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.4.168|172.68.4.168]] 10:04, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

*PER-see-ids: standard(ish, YMMV) 3-syllable verson of the word.
*PURSE-yids: standardish 2-(/2.5-)syllable version.
*Per-SEE-ids: yeah, I'd accept that emphisis, in a pinch.
*Per-SAY-ids: ok, so you like ''that'' version of the 'ei' digraph; might even be 'classical'.
*Per-SIDES: Germanic digraph and irregular (in this case) phomeme boundries, but each to their own.
*Per-ZAY-uds: I can see most of this, accent permitting; the '<schwa>ds' is a surprising twist.
*PER-suds: you dont care about the digraph at all, do you?
*Perky-ids: Back-formed through "C/S equivalence", I'm guessing, but from the wrong s(e)ide?
*Pewpewpews: Onomatopœia!!!
*Per-say-say: Bowdlerised, as if the original is a 'naughty' word.
*Percies: Shortened through familiarity.
*Purps: Shortened/perhaps linked to "perp(etrator)s".
*Pepsids: Sponsorship! (Did we also get the "Dracokids", 6-10 Oct?)
*Peeps: Anthopomorphised, the lot of 'em!
...my first thoughts, but I'm sure there are competing claims so I'll leave this down here for the time being. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.47|162.158.74.47]] 23:28, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

The list in the Explanation's table was missing most of them, and the Transcript separated the two-word entries into separate entries! Fixed all that. Filled in my analyses of the missing pronunciations, I'm sure others can flesh them out better, add relevant links as I couldn't be bothered to both think of th8ngs to link and figure out the best way to link them (and make the multi-entry rows look proper). Also, someone severely misunderstood what "Peeps" would mean, it seems clearly to be the slang for "people". The goofy entries seemed to require separate descriptions, so I left them as separate rows as the cleanest/clearest layout I can think of for that, with the rudimentary understanding of Wiki tables I could glean from what was already there. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:46, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

I think the "Pepsids Peeps" is a reference to the Pepsi x Peeps soda that got released a few months ago—the first word could be a cross between PEPSI and perseiDS. Presumably, they are very sugary meteors. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.46|172.68.150.46]] 12:00, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

Is someone familiar with the phonetic notation system used in the comic able to convert it to something more generally acceptable like IPA? [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 17:14, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2727: Runtime

2023-01-21T04:13:40Z

Tharkon:

It has to be said that a first season of a series generally will be written ''as'' a whole season (give or take any pilot/feature-length-special that may be the heralding first episode). Whereas film sequences don't tend to be purposefully made/anticipated together (notable exceptions: Back To The Futures 2 & 3, the LOTR and (later) Hobbit trilogies, various sub-sets of Star Wars (the prequel and sequel trilogies, certainly, the OT's second and third conclusions to the story started with Ep4)). Sometimes it runs well enough to get up into high numbers of at least sufficiently similar-yet-innovating releases that satisfy the theme (the Fast And Furiouses... the whole Bond œuvre..?), though sometimes it might stutter (Highlander 2!) and may or may not actually recover. Either way, it risks becoming a made-for-TV-movie sinkhole (as Disney knows well enough), unless it was always intended to reproduce some previously successful serialisation (Tolkein's stuff, as already alluded to; J.K. Rowling's surprisingly popular product). I think, therefore that Cueball is right to more dread the effort of dealing with some multi-sequel monstrocity of a film-canon, compared to whatever degree of {{tvtropes|EarlyInstallmentWeirdness|First Season Disservice}} he has suffered or heard that he must suffer before the kinks are properly ironed out in seasons 2-6. (Then it goes funny for 7, 8 and most of 9, until the story arc evolves into something that gets it to series 20 before a bit of cancel/uncancel shenanigans plague the production, spin-offs (including a prequel series and/or an animated version) take over the franchise and relegate the old stars to cameo-actors, the franchise then gets a Series: The Movie! which either does surprisingly well or surprisingly manages to upset the whole diverse fanbase in loads of differing ways... or some variation on all that.)
 ...but, anyway, it's not surprising. Yet it ''does'' probably qualify as an interesting point that fully deserves to be highlit or else we might never have thought of it for ousrselves, in as many words. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.64|172.71.178.64]] 03:55, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

I don't think 8 moves are of about equal length to 1 season. I picked 8 random movies from the list of movies I'm planning to watch and it totaled 18¼ hours. Then looked at some series first seasons. The Mandalorian is 5½ hours, Wednesday is 6 hours, Friends is 6¼ hours, even an outlier like Dragon Ball Z is only 10½ hours. The premise of the comic probably still stands though, but can be explained by the fact that with a series it also gives the promise of more hours of good material. With movies if the first 8 are bad there might not be many good ones after that. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 04:13, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2603: Childhood Toys

2022-04-06T23:17:42Z

Tharkon:

Tarzan would thrive commuting by tire swing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.69.68.170 ([[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.170|contribs]]• [[User_talk:172.69.68.170|talk]]) 22:11, 6 April 2022 (UTC)

How are a bicycle, scooter or wagon toys, or childlike. They're actually designed for commute and children aren't even allowed on scooters. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 22:45, 6 April 2022 (UTC)
:Wagon doesn't mean station wagon. Google "toy wagon" to see what he's referring to. And electric scooter is a motorized version of a common child's toy. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:56, 6 April 2022 (UTC)
::I didn't actually assume a station wagon, was thinking of the thing usually pulled by horses. And doesn't the fact that a 'toy wagon' exists suggest that a regular wagon is not a toy? And I thought a scooter was more like a motorized bicycle rather than a toy, like a motorcycle, but slower. And at least here, you'd need to be at least 16 years old and get a permit to drive one. Funny how the same word borrowed in a closely related language can suddenly carry such different meanings. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 23:17, 6 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2603: Childhood Toys

2022-04-06T22:47:02Z

Tharkon:

Talk:2603: Childhood Toys

2022-04-06T22:45:34Z

Tharkon:

Talk:2585: Rounding

2022-02-27T19:25:22Z

Tharkon:

Wot no {{w|FFF system|furlongs per fortnight}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 23:14, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

: I, too, was initially surprised that Randall hadn't used the standard joke measure. But, then I realized that F/F is so outrageously large that rounding wouldn't offer much advantage. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 05:10, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

If we're using the table, can I suggest it be fully filled in, but mark "original (rounded)" value cells one key colour and the chosen conversion in another, so that scanning along (not necessarily adjacent/rightwards) then down (always next row) then along... you see the 'bounce around'. And we also get to appreciate what other fractional values ''could'' have been chosen, prior to rounding... Alternately, some flow-charty layout (perhaps contained within a nominally borderless version of the table?) with arrows leading across the width and filling in-between each down-step. Ideas only. I have others, but those seem the best bet to consider. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.113|172.70.85.113]] 01:32, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Disagree with the current (as of 23:27 US Eastern, 23 February) explanation. According to this site (https://ilovebicycling.com/average-bike-speed/), average downhill bike speed is over 45 mph. Since Cueball doesn't specify "on flat terrain", he should have no problem going 45 without exploiting imprecise conversions. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 04:30, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:Huh? This does not say average downhill speed is > 45, it says "fastest". Also why would Cueball need to do this bizarre rounding if he can actually go 45mph? This is an exaggeration because he can only go a typical speed of 17mph.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.145|172.69.33.145]] 04:52, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
::Fastest for average cyclist. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:05, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:As a cyclist of several decades experience, who has indeed attained such speeds on rare (reckless) occasions, I think that "fastest downhill speed for an average rider" is overstated. Maybe it is what average people are capable of on a well-surfaced, steep, straight, non-undulating road with sufficient vision (forward and of anything potentially moving into the road from the side) or at least confidence that you're not dealing with traffic/pedestrians/other unaware cyclists. Oh, and sufficient stopping distance for whatever brakes you have.
:Maybe everybody can do it ''once'', but a good bike-ride should be one you can walk away from at the end.
:(Also, that cycling-centric site might have a different idea of 'average' cyclist. The average person on a bike here can't even put their feet on the pedals correctly. If we're talking club-/competitive-cyclists (but still sub-pro) then I'd much more readily agree, but there are far more people these days who can't even ride on the roadway, it seems.)
:That bike, as drawn, looks like it'll be Okish (if kept well maintained) but not exactly set up as functional downhill racer, nor probably is the rider. I really think the machine probably could be ridden at 20+mph on the flat for as long as the rider can stand to, but the characterisation makes me not confident they're able to maintain that kind of average speed for a [https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-results/22059#anchor long ride], and I think they'd overbake a downhill speed-run too, or (sensibly) be more cautious. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.143|172.70.85.143]] 05:14, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:: Yep - the speeds on that site are for road bikes. Cueball looks to be riding a hybrid (flat bars), which would tend to put him in a more upright position, creating a higher frontal area and air resistance, and so slowing his progress. That would have even more of an effect at higher speeds. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 11:14, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Arguably, once you're up to numbers around 45, you're as likely, if not more so, to be rounding to the nearest 5 than the nearest unit (depending on context). So Cueball's initial statement could be taken as suggesting that he can ride at around 42.5 - 47.5mph (rather than 44.5 - 45.5mph). And if he could actually ride at over 45mph then he presumably wouldn't need to add the 'if you round' qualifier, so it could further be taken as just suggesting that he can exceed 42.5mph. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 11:22, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Note I find it kind of disappointing that the insane "KPH" unit is used in the comic. Nobody uses that in places where speed is actually measured in km/h.
: yes, but we are talking about a US based comic, one of only 3 countries (Myanmar, Liberia, USA) that don't use the metric system for measurement...oh, except for money, but that isn't really metric, it is money ;o) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.190|108.162.250.190]] 00:50, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:: Erm, I think you'll find the UK uses miles as well. And we're just putting ourselves through a massive political and economic upheaval so that we can have our old imperial weights and measures back (at least, I think that was the point of it all).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.24|141.101.77.24]] 16:30, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

Ironically, by the same standards it only takes one conversion to say that he can't move at all on a bike. he goes 0 parsecs, lightyears or AU (for example) per year, decade or century (for example).

Can we remove the rounding errors in the "exact" values in the tables? For instance, the final value should be "45.0000" not "45.0001". In fact, all three values ending with 0001 are rounding errors. (These were probably a result of converting to metric and back, using low precision conversion factors.) [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 15:49, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
: Yeah, like fathoms/s and yards/s are by definition just a factor 2 apart. I recalculated the values without rounding at any step except the final step, so the rounding errors should be gone now. Also added vincula for repeating digits. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 19:25, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

Whoever decided to display that information in that table deserves an award. Gg. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 16:38, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

It's nice how the rounding of exact half-integers only ever has to deal with odd-numbers-and-a-half, so Cueball can't be charged with violating the "round to even" rule, nor with violating the "round away from zero" rule. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.122|172.70.131.122]] 18:06, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

It looks like Randall picked a starting speed (within a reasonable bike-riding range) to maximize his gain. Groups of starting speeds round to the same final speeds, and some groups have a higher maximum speed earlier in the rounding chain:
::{| class="wikitable"
! Start Speed
(mph)
! Max Speed
(rounded to mph)
! Final Speed
(mph)
|-
|1
|1
|0
|-
|2 to 9
|9
|8
|-
|10
|10
|8
|-
|11 to 16
|16
|15
|-
|17 to 45
|45
|45
|-
|46 to 54
|54
|53
|}[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.122|172.70.131.122]] 21:24, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:Are you assuming the exact same chain of conversions, just with different input values? Surely if he'd chosen to start at (say) 16, he'd have chosen whatever ''other'' chain of conversions would have sent him towards some decent high-value. Might have differed only by the initial conversions before it found itself landing on the same late-path, or could be completely different (to get to a different end) as the biased random-walk of choices hit a different useful stride pattern. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.20|141.101.99.20]] 22:39, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
::Yes, I put different starting speeds into the same conversion chain. Perhaps I should have said "He chose a reasonable starting speed and chain of conversions to maximize the gain." I was initially surprised that starting at 16mph ends at 15mph, then decided to plot it. The grouping of ending speeds also surprised me, but in hindsight that's to be expected with multiple round offs. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.17|162.158.75.17]] 23:02, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:::Not surprising at all. Given any random (not selectively chosen) conversion-then-rounding function, you'd expect about half the time you get a lowered (absolute) value rather than a raised one, for the input number somewhere in the range 1 to infinity. For any pair of measures of unequal scales but sharing zero. (Possibly also viable in non-equal and dislocated scales, like °C and °F, but that's just a hunch that I've not emperically checked, and not applicable here anyway.)
:::The chain chosen was conspicuously optimal to get the starting value 17 to always rise. Possibly by the maximum possible amount, on each chosen step, from amongst all those considered conversions, but I haven't checked this. It even has a viable unit_A=>unit_B for one rounding rise then unit_B=>unit_A for yet another rounding rise, because it happily works like that at the respective points of each scale.
:::But when you start from a different value, you lose the initial upwards-bias in the same 'meshing' and on each subsequent Randall-chosen one. It's pretty much a random sequence, as far as the value that it wasn't designed for is concerned. Logic dictates that it will downplay the value about as often as it will up-play it, for most scenarios. Except maybe at resonant multiple/divisors of the original (which will still chaotically drift, as rounding up .6 for a value would mean rounding down .3 for value/2 or down from .2 for value*2, setting you up for the next function in the adopted sequence to fail), but then 17 is prime so you'd have to start with 34 for that to (sometimes) work.
:::And, assuming the sequence is chosen for maximising upwards, you've got the function at each stage that is selected precisely because ''for that exact state-value'' it is specifically upward-trending, so when you try that in a different context reversion-to-the-mean suggests you're perhaps more likely to hit one of the downward-trends in the relationship.
:::My theory is that for any given starting value, some convert-then-round (from a sufficiently diverse choice of options) will always maximise the resulting magnitude. And that result will always have its own maximal conversion. Although those two operations may be less maximising in combination than a submaximal first operation (maybe, in some cases, a slight ''reduction''?) that 'lands' on a better number for a differing secondary maximiser step to act upon. So a full search-path needs to consider an N-step look-ahead method rooted in a breadth-first trial of each step-1, etc, to optimise the maximiser-optimiser process. But I haven't the time to test it right now. Maybe later! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 00:53, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

A note about the propulsion system in the mouseover text: This system is not entirely novel and was first proposed by Douglas Adams who suggested using the notebooks of waiters in bistros to achieve the desired precision loss. He suggested it should be possible to achieve speeds of round ∞kph (∞mph) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.247|162.158.202.247]]
:The books don't mention those details in their description of "bistromathics", and I don't recall them having been added to the radio adaptations. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:15, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
::To clarify: the book mentions the waiters' notebooks, but nothing about precision loss or achievable speeds. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:55, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:The Improbability Drive (in the Hitchiker's Guide) also seems somewhat related.
:What relation can that have? I'm looking at {{link|https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Bistromathics|this link}}. [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 03:32, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:The various things that {{w|Hex (Discworld)|Discworld's "Hex"}} can do (including occasionally providing magical teportation) can rely upon it trying lots of 'impossible' things very quickly "before the universe notices". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.125|162.158.159.125]] 14:19, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:My favorite "impossible" thing mentioned in the Hitchhiker's Guide is be able to fly by "learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss". I have done this successfully while dreaming, but have never accomplished it while wide awake. But it is surely worth trying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.49|108.162.219.49]] 15:13, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:Interestingly, it's impossible to get above 45 mph using any of the units Randall used: Converting 45 mph into any of those units always results in either an integral number or a number with fractional part below 0.5, which would result in rounding down. (I've used https://www.unitconverters.net/speed-converter.html for the more common units).--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.159|172.70.250.159]] 17:36, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:It also reminds me of the Dungeons & Dragons "Peasant Railgun," which abuses a queue of readied actions to accelerate a projectile to relativistic velocities. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.163|172.70.110.163]] 19:59, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

2585: Rounding

2022-02-27T19:17:22Z

Tharkon: /* Table of rounding */ Correcting rounding errors and adding vincula.

{{comic
| number = 2585
| date = February 23, 2022
| title = Rounding
| image = rounding.png
| titletext = I've developed a novel propulsion system powered by loss of precision in unit conversion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT moving at ᛟ smoots per millibarn attometer (rounded) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about the follies of unit conversion. Normally, when you say you can ride a bike at 45 {{w|Miles per hour|mph}} if you round, you mean that you can ride at a speed between 44.5 and 45.5, something most people are incapable of doing.{{Citation needed}} The joke is that Cueball actually means if you go through a extremely long chain of rounding imprecisely (see [[#Table of rounding|below]]), starting at 17 mph (which is equivalent to 27.4 km/h and not an improbable speed for an ordinary road-bike and a reasonably fit rider), you can get to the value of 45 (72.4 km/h).

Randall also esoterically uses some more historic units here: fathoms/sec, furlongs/min, and furlongs/hr. A {{w|fathom}} is a unit of length, in the modern era being equivalent to six feet, usually used to measure the depth of water. Fathoms/sec could potentially be used to measure the ascent/descent speed of a submersible, but it would normally be a strange choice to enumerate the speed of a bike. A {{w|furlong}} is also a unit of length, equivalent to one eighth of a mile (or 660 feet or 110 fathoms) but is mostly unused except in horse racing. It is possible that furlongs/min or furlongs/hour could be used to measure the speed of a horse. {{w|Knot (unit)|Knot}}s (nautical miles per hour) are a standard unit of measuring speed, but are typically used for measuring speed for airplanes or ships, not speed on land. However, km/h (kilometers per hour, spelled kph in the comic) is commonly used internationally to state the speed of land vehicles, while m/s (meters per second) is a measurement encountered in scientific usage.

The title text furthers the joke by taking the imprecise rounding literally, implying that this increase could actually be used/abused as a novel form of propulsion, but it isn't clarified for what type of vehicle. It could be an engine for ground or air travel, but contains the implication that it is trying to 'trick physics' similar to the {{w|Alcubierre drive|theoretical 'warp drive'}} conceived to propel interstellar spacecraft at otherwise impossible speeds. One interpretation of the supposed chain of conversions is that it has somehow created a great deal of energy from nothing. Suppose there existed a device or system that could magically accelerate an object from 17 mph to 45 mph without any energy input. The sped-up object could be harnessed to a generator or engine in such a way that the object was slowed back down to 17 mph, with the difference in energy being output in a useful way, and the object fed back into the device. The result would be an engine that could create both free energy and non-conserved changes in momentum.

At the demonstrated rate of about 4% medium rounding gain, it would just take 73 more steps of rounding-acceleration to reach supersonic speed from the starting speed of 45 mph. If the speed of light could be approached without relativistic effects, another 349 steps would go from supersonic speed to the speed of light. (More efficient approaches may exist.)

===Table of rounding===
{| class="wikitable"
! step !! percentage gain from rounding !! mph !! {{w|Metre per second|m/s}} !! {{w|Knot (unit)|knots}} !! {{w|fathom}}s/sec !! {{w|furlong}}s/min !! {{w|Kilometres per hour|km/h}} !! furlongs/hour !! {{w|yard}}s/sec
|-
! 1
| N/A ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 17 ||style="background-color:green;"| 7.599680 || 14.77260 || 4.15555 || 2.26666 || 27.35885 || 136|| 8.31111
|-
! 2
| +5.27% || 17.89549 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 8 ||style="background-color:green;"| 15.55076 || 4.37445 || 2.38607 || 28.8 || 143.16392 || 8.74891
|-
! 3
| +2.89% || 18.41247 || 8.231111 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 16 ||style="background-color:green;"| 4.50083 || 2.45500 || 29.63200 || 147.29977 || 9.00165
|-
! 4
| +11.09% || 20.45454|| 9.144000 || 17.77451 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 5 ||style="background-color:green;"| 2.72727|| 32.91840 || 163.63636 || 10
|-
! 5
| +10.00% || 22.5 || 10.05840 || 19.55197 ||style="background-color:green;"| 5.50000 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 3 || 36.21024 || 180|| 11
|-
! 6
| +9.09% || 24.54545 || 10.97280|| 21.32942||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 6 || 3.27272||style="background-color:green;"| 39.50208 || 196.36363|| 12
|-
! 7
| +1.26% || 24.85485 || 11.11111||style="background-color:green;"| 21.59827 || 6.07563|| 3.31398||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 40 || 198.83878|| 12.15126
|-
! 8
| +1.86% || 25.31715 || 11.31778||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 22 || 6.18864|| 3.37562||style="background-color:green;"| 40.74400 || 202.53718|| 12.37727
|-
! 9
| +0.63% || 25.47622 || 11.38888|| 22.13823|| 6.22752|| 3.39683||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 41 ||style="background-color:green;"| 203.80975 || 12.45504
|-
! 10
| +0.09% ||style="background-color:green;"| 25.50000 || 11.39952|| 22.15889 || 6.23333 || 3.40000 || 41.03827 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 204 || 12.46666
|-
! 11
| +1.96% ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 26 ||style="background-color:green;"| 11.62304 || 22.59338 || 6.35555 || 3.46666 || 41.84294 || 208 || 12.71111
|-
! 12
| +3.24% || 26.84324||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 12 || 23.32617|| 6.56168||style="background-color:green;"| 3.57910 || 43.20000 || 214.74588 || 13.12336
|-
! 13
| +11.76% || 30|| 13.41120|| 26.06929|| 7.33333 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 4 || 48.28038|| 240||style="background-color:green;"| 14.66666
|-
! 14
| +2.27% || 30.68182|| 13.71600|| 26.66177||style="background-color:green;"| 7.5 || 4.09090|| 49.37760|| 245.45454||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 15
|-
! 15
| +6.67% || 32.72727||style="background-color:green;"| 14.63040 || 28.43922||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 8 || 4.36363|| 52.66944 || 261.81818 || 16
|-
! 16
| +2.53% ||style="background-color:green;"| 33.55404 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 15 || 29.15767 || 8.20210 || 4.47387 || 54|| 268.43236 || 16.40420
|-
! 17
| +1.33% ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 34 || 15.19936 || 29.54519 || 8.31111||style="background-color:green;"| 4.53333 || 54.71770 || 272|| 16.62222
|-
! 18
| +10.29% || 37.50000|| 16.76400||style="background-color:green;"| 32.58661 || 9.16666||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 5 || 60.35040|| 300|| 18.33333
|-
! 19
| +1.27% || 37.97572|| 16.97666||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 33 || 9.28295|| 5.06343|| 61.11603|| 303.80577||style="background-color:green;"| 18.56591
|-
! 20
| +2.34% || 38.86364|| 17.37360|| 33.77158||style="background-color:green;"| 9.5 || 5.18181|| 62.54496|| 310.90909||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 19
|-
! 21
| +5.26% || 40.90909|| 18.28800||style="background-color:green;"| 35.54903 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 10 || 5.45455|| 65.83680|| 327.27272|| 20
|-
! 22
| +1.27% || 41.42806|| 18.52000||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 36 || 10.12686||style="background-color:green;"| 5.52374 || 66.67200|| 331.42448|| 20.25372
|-
! 23
| +8.62% ||style="background-color:green;"| 45 || 20.11680 || 39.10393 || 11||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 6 || 72.42048 || 360|| 22
|-
! 24
| +0.00% ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 45 || 20.11680|| 39.10393|| 11|| 6|| 72.42048|| 360|| 22
|}

==Transcript==
:[In the top left part of the panel is a small drawing where Cueball, wearing a bike helmet and holding a bike, is speaking to Megan.]
:Cueball: I can ride my bike at 45 MPH.
:Cueball: If you round.

:[To their right is a large number with unit, with an arrow going straight down to a normal sized similar number. From there and proceeding all the way down to the bottom, in alternating leftward and rightward rows, the rest of the comic shows arrows connecting conversions from one measured unit into another unit. Straight arrows show the direction of the sequence on each line, the end of each line curveing down to start the next line in the opposite direction. The last of these lines ends close to the middle of the panel, with a straight arrow down to another large number with unit, like the first.]
:<big>'''17 MPH'''</big>
:8 meters/sec
:16 knots
:5 fathoms/sec
:3 furlongs/min
:6 fathoms/sec
:40 KPH
:22 knots
:41 KPH
:204 furlongs/hr
:26 MPH
:12 M/S
:4 furlongs/min
:15 yards/sec
:8 fathoms/sec
:15 M/S
:34 MPH
:5 furlongs/min
:33 knots
:19 yards/sec
:10 fathoms/sec
:36 knots
:6 furlongs/min
:<big>'''45 MPH'''</big>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:2408: Egg Strategies

2021-01-07T20:13:46Z

Tharkon:

I'm not going to get into it because it's not related to these egg cartons, but it is ''really weird'' sitting here explaining a joke while I listen to breaking news on the radio. [[User:Captain Video|Captain Video]] ([[User talk:Captain Video|talk]]) 22:24, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

I really thought it was just me who cared about center of gravity for eggs. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.49|162.158.79.49]] 23:43, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

We keep the hard boiled ones at one end and the fr4esh ones at the other end.

Bring True Neutral (egg carton sits lengthwise in fridge, most convenient egg is removed until carton is empty), I am ''baffled'' by the existence of other "strategies". Do people really do this? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.70|108.162.241.70]] 00:57, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
: True Neutral here, and also putting the carton in the fridge eggless side out (which is consistent with "most convenient egg removed"). The current explanation says that this is "a disaster waiting to happen". Why? As a side-note, as I understand it, the alternate strategies can be convenient if you ''don't'' put the carton lengthwise in the fridge (particularly if you don't put it in the fridge ''at all''). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.117|162.158.183.117]] 11:26, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
:: I am also True Neutral - when putting the carton into the fridge end-first it allows me to extract it with the majority of the weight in my hand. It's a disaster if it is inserted the heavy side in first because when I grab the empty end the weight of the eggs can tip them out the other side. As an aside, I was a little insulted to find out that I am not the only person in the world who actually has an "egg carton strategy". I thought I was unique! ;-) [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 13:40, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
::: Ha, no, far from it! Nothing new under the sun, I guess. Here's some documentation of prior art by John McIntosh from 2006, under the title [http://www.urticator.net/essay/6/649.html "Egg Carton Theory"]. [[User:Dvgrn|Dvgrn]] ([[User talk:Dvgrn|talk]]) 17:27, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
: Chiming in on True Neutral strategy, which I also use, with some added thoughts: I also put the heavy end in first, but primarily because I usually have two cartons stacked, where inserting the heavy end on top of the full carton in the fridge makes it easier to push the carton the rest of the way in on top of the bottom carton. Putting it in the other way around, the heavy end is hanging off the bottom carton, resulting in less stability before it's pushed all the way in. If you can't tell, I'm an engineer! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:41, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
:::: Chaotic Neutral here. Doing it that way means I have the benefit of a seemingly random egg without thinking too much about which egg to actually pick. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.220|108.162.229.220]] 17:35, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
:::::Being Lawful Good and married to someone who is Chaotic Good, we might sometimes argue over this. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.29|162.158.62.29]] 03:23, 7 January 2021 (UTC) MSS
:I guess my strategy is True Neutral as well, though my reason being that I put the empty side face the back of the freezer to reduce the chance of frost, which I assumed is bad for eggs. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 20:13, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

===Carton size===
In Germany, there are two sizes of egg cartons, containing 6 or 10 eggs, respectively. Most refrigerators I’ve seen (in stores or households) contain an egg-holder with six dents, though I also have occasionally seen 10-dent egg holders.
Since I usually buy 20 eggs at the weekly market, my strategy is to transfer the eggs from a package to the egg holder once there are less than 9 left in the package (for the purpose of knowing how many are still left without having to open a package). If there are more than six eggs, the one or two additional eggs are placed lying besides the egg holder.
I think that counts as chaotic neutral. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.28|141.101.68.28]] 01:42, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
:I've only seen cartons of six or ten as well, the phrase "A standard egg carton has 12 cups for 12 eggs" seems a bit presumptuous. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 20:13, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

===Depiction wrong===
I've got a niggling feeling that Chaotic Neutral (at least) is wrongly depicted. Too orderly. I'd have put Chaotic Good's pattern there (not necessarily vice-versa, as the current incumbent looks more Lawful or Variation-of-neutrality as well as Good) as attempting to maintain balance but with an element of chance. We don't know what sequence of removal ''led'' to each of these states, of course. That might make much of the difference in how we reach the illustrated states. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.253|162.158.158.253]] 03:03, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

I'd go a little further and swap CG and CN (the current CG being a marginally more ordered and balanced CN) but otherwise agree. CN is the strategy I use when the carton is at risk of being centrally supported while in humid conditions (don't ask), making NG risk bending of the whole carton. LG is actually worse then NG in some circumstances, due to a drastically reduced moment of inertia contributing to the chance of dropping. On the other hand, NG increases the probability of end-shattering if the carton is actually dropped. Overall, different strategies are probably a result of experience, circumstance, relative clumsiness, and hat colour. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.75|162.158.166.75]] 05:43, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

I feel like the chaotic good isn't random. It seems like it could be Braille or something like that, maybe? I don't know, I might looking for patterns where there are none.

Is it bother anyone that there are different numbers of eggs in each carton? At least there should have been two boxes for each alignment, one with an even number of eggs and one with odd.
:: I was thinking precisely this. Can lead to a sense of "apples and oranges" otherwise. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.49|108.162.216.49]] 15:51, 7 January 2021 (UTC)MeZimm

===Refrigeration===
Learned something today: Americans refrigerate eggs
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.84|162.158.155.84]] 18:55, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
: It has something to do with the way that they're treated over here. We don't (have to) refrigerate fresh eggs. -neverdroptop 19:56, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
:: I refrigerate eggs as well, and I'm not American.[[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 20:13, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

2404: First Thing

2020-12-29T22:03:47Z

Tharkon: I doubt a virus cares about social distance, only physical proximity is relevant here.

{{comic
| number = 2404
| date = December 28, 2020
| title = First Thing
| image = first_thing.png
| titletext = Then I'm going to go on a weeks-long somatic hypermutation bender, producing ever-more targeted antibodies, while I continue to remain distanced and follow guidance from public health authorities.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SPIKED PROTEIN. Needs a better explanation of the science and the title text. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic, somewhat like [[2402: Into My Veins]], references both the {{w|COVID-19 vaccine}} and a common Internet trend.

The {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}} has been one of the most consequential and broadly unpleasant events in living memory{{Citation needed}}. As of the publication of this strip, it is estimated to have caused over 1.5 million deaths worldwide, with over 300,000 deaths in the United States, with many more cases that have not resulted in fatality but far too often needing serious medical support and/or with lasting implications. Even for those who have been spared infection, measures to slow the spread of the virus have been highly impactful and have been ongoing for nearly a year.

In consequence of all of this, many people are excited for the vaccine (which will hopefully end the pandemic). Many people online have been sharing plans for what they'll do after getting the vaccine, like "see my friends" or "travel the world." In this comic, Ponytail takes the trend literally, listing not what she will voluntarily choose to do but what low-level involuntary systems in her body will do immediately after getting the vaccine:

* First she will make some spike proteins. This implies that she took an mRNA vaccine (e.g. from BioNTech or Moderna) or a viral-vector vaccine like the ones from AstraZeneca or CanSino. mRNA vaccines contain RNA encoding for the viral proteins, which is then used by Ponytail's cell to make the spike protein. Viral-vector vaccines contain DNA, which the viral "shell" introduces into human cells, which then manufacture spike proteins. (In contrast, subunit-containing vaccines like the ones from NovaVax contain actual duplicates of viral proteins to sensitize the immune systems, and inactivated/weakened virus-based vaccines contain the actual virus in question, but modified to not cause disease, e. g. the vaccines from Sinovac and Sinopharm.)
* The spike protein made by Ponytail will then be recognized by her immune system as foreign (as would the proteins of the real coronavirus) and subsequently engulfed by the dendritic cells in a process called phagocytosis.
* The dendritic cells then chop the spike proteins into small pieces (called antigens) and present them on their surface using MHCII proteins.
* This will then allow T-cells to recognize these pieces and become activated if they have a matching T-cell receptor.

The next step is mentioned in the title text:

* The T-cells will activate B-cells, who will then try to make antibodies to bind the spike protein. Since the B-cells don't know what a good antibody looks like, they just randomly generate antibodies through a process of somatic hypermutation. Then they check if the antibody binds the antigen presented by the dendritic cells. If it doesn't the antibody is discarded, if it does, it is kept and improved on by another round of somatic hypermutation, to create an antibody which binds even better.
* Finally Ponytail mentions the one thing she herself (as opposed to her immune system) has to do: continue to use physical distancing, hand washing, wearing a mask, etc.

The last point, which are the only things that Ponytail will ''choose'' to do is important, for a number of reasons. The vaccines currently available offer a great deal of protection to an individual patient, but that protection takes several days to even begin in a significant way. Full immunity will likely require several weeks and an additional dose. In addition, while highly effective, the current crop of vaccines are not 100% effective. And even those who develop immunity can become contaminated with the virus on their person and then transmit it to others.

For all of these reasons, there is a very real fear of people who receive vaccinations immediately abandoning all other precautions and continuing to spread the virus. Genuinely ending the pandemic will require precautions to remain in place until enough of the population is vaccinated that a combination of high levels of population immunity and other distancing precautions lower the infection rate to a controllable level. Abandoning safety precautions before this occur could extend the pandemic and cost lives. Accordingly, Ponytail's intent is to be responsible and maintain all appropriate precautions until such time as it's safe to change them.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Cueball are walking toward the right side of a single panel. Ponytail is gesturing with one arm.]

:Ponytail: The ''first'' thing I'm going to do after I get the vaccine?
:Ponytail: Definitely make a bunch of spike proteins and engulf them with dendritic cells.
:Ponytail: Then I'll probably display the antigens to my T-cells...

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

2391: Life Before the Pandemic

2020-11-27T21:05:57Z

Tharkon: Removing the implication that it is safe to use fireworks outdoors.

{{comic
| number = 2391
| date = November 27, 2020
| title = Life Before the Pandemic
| image = life_before_the_pandemic.png
| titletext = I can't wait until this is all over and I can go back to riding my horse through the mall.
}}

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

This is another comic in xkcd's [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] about the COVID-19 pandemic. [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are having a conversation about life before the pandemic, which was declared as such on the 11th of March, 2020 by the World Health Organization. They talk about what they miss about life before the pandemic, but Cueball says that he can barely remember it. This is borne out by the rest of their discussion: None of the activities they list were ever common and most are strange, and various items are misconstrued as existing for pandemic mitigation purposes.

After they finish reminiscing, Megan says that she can't wait for a vaccine, further implying that she she can't wait to have all of these things "back." Both Pfizer and Moderna are making vaccines, with Pfizer making their application for emergency use on November 20th, 2020, 7 days before this comic's release. It is expected to be approved for use by the end of the year.

===Scuba diving without a mask===
Scuba stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. It consists of a tank of compressed air, which is conducted through a tube to a mask which allows the diver to breathe underwater. The mask is a fundamental part of scuba diving. Cloth masks, to help lower the spread of the virus between people, are a recommended precaution when in public, but wearers are advised not to wear them when swimming.. Megan is conflating these two different types of masks, misremembering a world where scuba diving did not have masks involved. You do not need to wear a cloth mask if you are scuba diving, but you do need to wear a scuba mask–irrespective of whether there is a pandemic.

Scuba masks previously rated quite well on the mask effectiveness scale in [[2367: Masks]].

===Free refills at gas stations===
Gas Stations are locations where you can buy gasoline, which powers internal combustion engines, especially those in cars. A "free refill," in this context, likely refers to getting the gas tank of your car filled for free, which was not a business practice that was ever common, and is the joke of this section. However, many gas stations also have a small convenience shop that accompanies them, where you can buy food, drinks, and can use the restroom. "Free refills" could refer to getting a free refill of a type of soft drink, which may happen in gas stations, but is mostly associated with restaurants and diners who allow free top-ups of inexpensive soft drinks (or tea/coffee), as a possible loss-leader, for those that potentially paying more for a substantive meal. The hospitality sector has been curtailed to various degrees, depending on local responses to the pandemic, and it's possible no outlets that offered free top-ups can continue to do so, or even operate an eat-in service at all.

===Grilling in the library===
Grilling generally poses a significant fire hazard (and can produce toxic carbon monoxide) and is thus typically not allowed indoors, especially in libraries. But it can happen, although in this case with no open flame. At the Beaverton City Library in Beaverton, Oregon, one of their most notorious incident reports is about the time a patron was using his George Foreman grill in the lobby men's room. Details of incident reports are confidential, so sadly there is no authenticating link.

Grilling, however, also refers to "an intense interrogation or period of questioning."[https://www.lexico.com/definition/grilling] which can be done over the content of a book found in the library, but is probably not encouraged since most libraries enforce keeping quiet so others can concentrate.[https://www.quora.com/Why-should-we-be-silent-in-the-library] The library staff (or the police) might grill a person suspected of stealing, vandalism, or other crimes in the library, although it's not clear why Megan would miss this.

===Tennis without a "safety" net===

{{w|Tennis}} is a sport where two players use racquets to hit a ball at each other. The game is played on a court divided in half by a low net. The net is not used for anyone's safety; it's to ensure that the ball must be volleyed to the other player with some minimum height. Megan seems to believe that the net is there to ensure that the players stay on opposite sides of the net, in order to lower the spread of the virus.

===Indoor fireworks===
Many indoor activities were moved outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, as poorly-ventilated indoor spaces vastly increase the chance of the virus spreading. Fireworks are explosives shot into the air for entertainment. Most fireworks are not suitable for use indoors; setting them off indoors is even more dangerous than they already are, even before the pandemic.{{Citation needed}} However, there are specially designed indoor fireworks, most often used by specially trained and licensed pyrotechnicians.{{Citation needed}}

===Arcade claw machines===

{{w|Claw crane|Arcade claw machines}} have a bin of prizes (often stuffed animals) with a claw mechanism hanging overhead. The player pays a few coins into the machine and maneuvers the claw over a desired prize. The claw will descend and "attempt" to grab the prize for retrieval, but to ensure a favorable revenue for the machine operator, there is often a hidden percentage chance that the claw will not fully close. This is a frustrating experience for the player (e.g. Cueball). Remote manipulator arms are used for handling dangerous items, but the arcade claw machine was not implemented for the purpose of safety.

===Title text: Riding a horse through the mall===
A mall, in a historical context, refers to a large open walkway, such as the {{w|National Mall}}, where one could conceivably enter with a horse, although it was considered inappropriate to do so. However, it appears Cueball and Megan are referring to a {{w|shopping mall}}, where a shopper entering with a horse was never a regular occurrence{{Citation needed}}.

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

:[Megan and Cueball are having a conversation]
:Megan: What do you miss most about life before the Pandemic?
:Cueball: I can barely remember it.

:Megan: I miss going SCUBA diving without having to wear a mask.
:Cueball: I miss free refills at gas stations.
:Megan: I miss grilling in the Library.

:[Close-up on Megan, Cueball's voice comes from off-panel, to the right.]
:Megan: I miss when tennis players didn't have to have that safety net between them.
:Cueball: I miss indoor fireworks.

:[Return to seeing them both, they are now walking to the right while talking]
:Megan: I miss when arcades let you take toys from the bin with your hand instead of using that stupid claw.
:Cueball: Ugh, I hate that thing.
:Megan: I can't wait for a vaccine.

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

2390: Linguists

2020-11-26T19:55:42Z

Tharkon: Fixing typo.

{{comic
| number = 2390
| date = November 25, 2020
| title = Linguists
| image = linguists.png
| titletext = "Do you feel like the answer depends on whether you're currently in the hole, versus when you refer to the events later after you get out? Assuming you get out."
}}

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

Ponytail hears the cries of an unidentified person who has become trapped in a hole. She rushes over and asks whether the trapped person's chosen phrasing for their predicament - "fell down a hole" - is equivalent to "fell in a hole."

For the case "fell down a hole", most people would likely understand "fell" (action) "down" (direction) "a hole" (place), while it could also be understood as "fell" (action) "down a hole" (place). Since "down a hole" is about the same as "in a hole" (barring being completely inside or not), Ponytail would like to know if "fell down a hole" is meant as "fell in a hole" or not. This phrase, on the other hand, has the same problem of being ambiguous, but with the additional problem that it is not clear what the majority of people would understand [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/285:_Wikipedian_Protester citation needed]. "Fell down into a hole" would likely solve the problem, but isn't mentioned in the comic.

In the caption, Randall comments on the stereotype that linguists are obnoxious elitists who only love telling people how wrong they are ("grammar nazis"). He claims the truth is much worse, that linguists' desire to extract exact meaning from phrases is done with the best of intentions. He also claims that this is worse than if they were pedants browbeating their audience, possibly because a pedant could prioritize the elements of a situation better than Ponytail is doing here.

This is similar to the viewpoint dedicated to scientists in comic [[877: Beauty]], as in studying that field seems to be a cold and sad way to analyze the thing, but instead is an extreme form of child-like awe and inspiration.

The title text goes further on this quest of understanding by trying to see whether the different usages is tied to the current situation or not.

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

:[Ponytail is walking to the left. A voice calls out from behind her (at the right of the panel):]
:Off-panel voice: Help!
:Off-panel voice: I fell down a hole!

:[Ponytail runs to the right, toward the hole.]

:[Ponytail, kneeling down next to the hole, calls out:]
:Ponytail: Hey!
:Ponytail: Is "fell down a hole" exactly equivalent to "fell in a hole," in your usage? Or do they have slightly different implications?

:[Caption below the panel]
:There's a myth that linguists are pedants who love correcting people, but they're actually just enthusiastic about understanding language in all its infinite varieties, which is much worse.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Language]]

2359: Evidence of Alien Life

2020-09-14T21:47:19Z

Tharkon: Not relevant to the comic. Not everything is about COVID.

{{comic
| number = 2359
| date = September 14, 2020
| title = Evidence of Alien Life
| image = evidence_of_alien_life.png
| titletext = Both too cautious AND not cautious enough: "I'm skeptical that those are aliens, so I'm going to try pulling off their masks."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an APPROPRIATELY CAUTIOUS ALIEN BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic depicts a table of possible responses to new information on the possibility of alien life. It is presented in table form, with the columns representing three categories of reaction to new evidence, and the rows representing the strength of new evidence, increasing down the table. Each intersection then shows a small scenario of what the response would be. The left and right hand column's scenarios are hyperbolic in either their acceptance or denial. The center column represents the reasonable course of action.

The title text refers to an action which is simultaneously too cautious and not cautious enough: the speaker is skeptical that aliens exist, which is usually an appropriate belief, except that presumably Megan and Cueball are in the situation presented in the bottom row, where aliens have landed right in front of them. Rather than modifying his belief (presumably it's Cueball, who was the one to approach the aliens in the other panels), he expresses an intention to approach the alleged aliens and attempt to remove their masks. He believes that he will expose a human wearing a costume, perpetrating a {{tvtropes|ScoobyDooHoax|"Scooby-Doo"-style hoax}}, but no matter what the outcome is, he's acting rashly. If the beings before him are aliens, he will be initiating a very aggressive first contact and will likely receive a violent response, and even if the alien is not violent, Cueball might end up removing an environmental apparatus that is protecting it from Earth's environment (or vice versa). On the other hand, even if the "aliens" really are fakes, Cueball might end up injuring someone who is just playing a harmless joke.

This comic was a reaction to [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/science/venus-life-clouds.html the discovery of phosphine gas on Venus]. Phosphine is a molecule with no known abiotic way of being produced in the quantities observed and within the environment of Venus, meaning that its discovery could be a potential sign of life on Venus.

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

The comic is laid out like a grid, with implements down the left-hand side (Weak Evidence of Alien Life/ Promising Evidence/ Definite Evidence) and the type of "reaction" across the top (Not Cautious Enough / Appropriately Cautious/ Too Cautious). The grid illustrates the "match-ups".

From the top left corner, going from left to right, top to bottom, with each first item being on its own line in the grid, the squares are as follows:

Weak Evidence of Alien Life/Not Cautious Enough: Cueball - "That asteroid is probably an alien probe"
 
Weak Evidence of Alien Life/Appropriately Cautious: Cueball - "This asteroid is weird and we should take a closer look; It's not aliens"
 
Weak Evidence of Alien Life/Too Cautious: Cueball - "This asteroid appears to be far away, but it could also be nearby and just very small"
 
Promising Evidence/Not Cautious Enough: Ponytail to Cueball - "They found life on Venus!"
 
Promising Evidence/Appropriately Cautious: Ponytail to Cueball - "Theses molecules might be produced by life or by weird high-heat chemistry"
 
Promising Evidence/Too Cautious: Ponytail to Cueball - "There is growing evidence that the atmosphere on Venus contains molecules"
 
Definite Evidence/Not Cautious Enough: Cueball - "I'm going to go give those aliens a hug!"
 
Definite Evidence/Appropriately Cautious: Cueball - "Oh wow, aliens! Should we try to communicate?"
 
Definite Evidence/Too Cautious: Megan - "The energy beams vaporizing the United Nations could be a possible biosignature"
 
 
 
Title text: Both too cautious AND not cautious enough: "I'm skeptical that those are aliens, so I'm going to try pulling off their masks"

{{comic discussion}}

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

2328: Space Basketball

2020-07-04T17:47:12Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2328
| date = July 3, 2020
| title = Space Basketball
| image = space_basketball.png
| titletext = My shooting will improve over the short term, but over the long term the universe will take more shots.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a METEORIC BASKETBALL. Should discuss expected time to make 30 shots in a row at 30% (and other percentages), odds of meteorite impact, and maybe NBA Jam and Space Jam. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic strip is another one of Randall's [[:Category:My Hobby|strange hobbies]] (released within the same week as his last hobby comic, [[2326: Five Word Jargon]]). Perhaps due to his difficulties in making friends (cf. [[1917: How to Make Friends]]), Randall wishes to play basketball but has nobody to play with, and so he chooses to play against {{w|outer space}}. His goal is to make thirty baskets in a row before the universe puts a meteor through his hoop. (Technically, it would be a ''meteorite'', the term given to meteors that reach the surface, rather than breaking up in the atmosphere.)

Randall estimates that his success rate at {{w|free throw|free-throw shooting}} is approximately 30%. Therefore, the chances of Cueball making 30 shots in a row is (0.3)^30, or about 1 in five quadrillion (2×10^-16); for comparison, there are approximately 6 quadrillion seconds remaining in the expected lifetime of the Sun (5 billion years), so if Randall has a chute set up under the basket and enough basketballs to sustain a constant high rate of shooting, he has "decent" odds of achieving his goal before the Sun burns out.

The lifetime odds of being killed by a meteorite have been estimated at 1 in 75,000, 600,000 or 700,000 [https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-probability-of-me-getting-killed-by-a-meteorite-in-the-next-one-hour]. These calculations are usually based on the probability of being alive at a time when a huge impact kills billions of people. Randall just uses the chance of one meteorite shot on Earth hitting this hoop (hoop-area / Earth-area = 3.2×10^-16) which is in the same range as (0.3)^30. Actual {{w|meteorite fall statistics}} report an average of 1.2 meteorites per year hitting the European continent which suggests that the average probability of Cueball winning after each shot attempt is about equivalent to a meteorite passing through the hoop over the period of 10 hours. Therefore Cueball has a better chance of winning than the universe "on the short term" if he makes more than 840 free-shot attempts per year for the rest of his life. The expected time for the universe to actually "complete" the challenge would be in the range of 8 billion years, the same magnitude to the current age of the universe and longer than the estimated remaining lifetime of the {{w|solar system}}.

In the title text, Randall assumes that he would get better at free throwing shooting with practice in his lifetime ("the short term"). Some of the world's best basketball players have free-throw percentages over 90%, and even professional players with reputations of being "poor" free-throw shooters (e.g. Shaquille O'Neal) are above 50%. If Randall can improve his percentage to 50%, his odds of sinking thirty baskets in a row improve to "nearly" one-in-a-billion, while a member of the elite {{w|50–40–90 club}} would have a probability better than four percent of making thirty free-throws in a row. Some specialists have achieved much higher success rates, with the record for most consecutive baskets being held by {{w|Tom Amberry}} with 2,750. If this "game against the universe" is of any cosmic significance (as in the 1996 comedy film ''{{w|Space Jam}}''), any of those players would be better representatives of Earth than Randall.

However he acknowledges that in "the long term" (the life of the universe, or at least the Earth), the Earth will be hit by very many meteorites; even though it is more likely that Randall will make his thirty free-throws before a meteor passes through his basket, he does not possess the cosmic lifespan{{Citation needed}} required to surmount the odds against him and actually have a good probability to witness either event.

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

:[Cueball is standing in front of a basketball hoop, holding a basketball.]
:Cueball: Okay, here are the rules:
:Cueball: I have to make 30 shots in a row before a meteor falls through the hoop.
:Cueball: I'm a 30% free throw shooter so the odds are actually pretty even.
:Cueball: Ready...go!

:[Caption below panel:]
:My hobby: playing basketball against space

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

2323: Modeling Study

2020-06-24T00:08:35Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */ Ugh, stop making everything about COVID.

{{comic
| number = 2323
| date = June 22, 2020
| title = Modeling Study
| image = modeling_study.png
| titletext = You've got questions, we've got assumptions.
}}

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

In this comic, a humorous comparison is drawn between two common types of scientific studies: {{w|empirical research}}, where an experiment is designed to test a scientific theory, and {{w|mathematical modeling}}, where mathematical formulations are produced to predict how physical systems behave under given circumstances. In empirical studies, hard questions about the limitations of existing theory tend to be addressed in the abstract, which is the brief summary of the paper that is presented at the beginning of most scientific articles. In modeling studies, assumptions based on existing theory are built into the model, and any problems associated with these assumptions tend to be discussed in the methods section, which outlines the design of an experiment in the case of an empirical study, or how the model was designed and the reasoning behind the choices made in the case of a modeling study. In the empirical study, the proverbial "big red problem box" is stated up-front where everyone who finds the paper will read it, while in the modeling study, it's buried in the middle of the paper, where it's less likely to be read.

The caption opens like a typical statement in favor of modeling studies, "A mathematical model is a powerful tool for taking hard problems," but while a researcher who works with models might go on to say "...and breaking them down," or "...and studying them in ways that would be impractical for empirical studies," Randall concludes that they can't actually make hard problems any easier. His title text, "You've got questions, we've got assumptions," plays on the usual platitude of "You've got questions, we've got answers" by pointing out that any answers provided are built on assumptions by the modelers. In other words, {{w|garbage in, garbage out}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[There are two columns.]

:[The column on the left is a piece of paper labeled "Empirical Study". The paper consists of the sections "Abstract", "Introduction", "Methods", "Results", and "Discussion". Each section consists of several horizontal lines meant to represent blocks of text. In the middle of the "Abstract" section, there is a large red rectangle. Inside this rectangle is the word "Problem" in large red letters.]

:[The column on the right is a piece of paper labeled "Modeling Study". It consists of the same sections, but the large red rectangle with the word "Problem" is in the "Methods" section instead of the "Abstract" section.]

:[There is a curvy arrow pointing from the red box in the paper on the left to the red box in the paper on the right.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:A mathematical model is a powerful tool for taking hard problems and moving them to the methods section.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Research Papers]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

2278: Scientific Briefing

2020-03-10T21:58:34Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */ Covid-19 refers to the disease not the virus, which is identified as SARS-CoV-2.

{{comic
| number = 2278
| date = March 9, 2020
| title = Scientific Briefing
| image = scientific_briefing.png
| titletext = "I actually came in in the middle so I don't know which topic we're briefing on; the same slides work for like half of them."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Made by a CULTURE PRETENDING BAD THINGS ARE GOOD. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the need to act on problems, and the need to communicate them in ways that people can act on them. This problem underlies many issues in modern life, and anybody can help it, by thinking, talking, helping, or asking others to help. If you can think of anything to do, say, make, or start, to help this, like say a small wiki for organizing discussion and viewpoints around issues that interested people could contribute to, please start something and link your work here to help others act as well.

Things are not good, and are going to be bad soon. The only way for things to not be bad is for someone to do something about it. [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are presenting these things to [[White Hat]], presumably hoping to encourage him to do something about things, but he instead chooses to wait for things to become bad, to which Megan replies that this is exactly the bad thing she and Cueball were hoping to prevent.

What things? Any number of things, because, as the title text remarks, this is true of "like half of" any things examined by society. While a literal 50% of ''all'' things may not be getting bad (or good), in a more general sense all line graphs would trend (at least slightly) either up or down. This binary 'either good or bad' finding may lead one to conclude that "like half" of all graphs show something getting bad (or else good). The three comics preceding this one have been about COVID-19 ("the '''co'''rona'''vi'''rus '''d'''isease discovered in 20'''19'''"), so "things" could refer to cases of infections, but like [[2275]] likely this comic is a comment on the numerous world catastrophes that get sidelined until the very last moment, such as unemployment, crime, water quality, road systems, rising extremism and wars between groups with similar needs, lack of responsible oversight in majorly impactful international decisions, corruption and lack of trust for those with power, or climate change and related extinction of most species and cultures. Given Megan & Cueball's reaction to White-Hat's failure to act, this "sidelining" or failure to take action may very likely be the subject of their graph.

In short, the graph ''may'' indicate that our responses to information are going from good to bad.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan and Cueball are showing a graph on a projected screen. The graph is labeled "Things", with "Time" advancing to the right on the ''x''-axis. The level of "Things" has been rising over time to a point labeled "Now". The current level of "Things" is above a level labeled "Good", and about as far below a level labeled "Bad". Megan is pointing to the line of "Things" with a pointer stick, while Cueball is pointing up to the "Bad" level with a pointer stick.]

:Megan: Here's the situation:
:Megan: This line is here.
:Cueball: But it's going up toward ''here''.

:[White Hat enters the scene. His hand is on his chin. Cueball is no longer holding a pointer stick.]

:White Hat: So things will be bad?
:Megan: Unless someone does something to stop it.
:White Hat: Will anyone do that?
:Megan: ...We don't know.
:Megan: That's why we're showing you this.

:[A narrow panel focusing only on Megan and Cueball.]

:White Hat (off-panel, left): So you don't know,
:White Hat: And the graph says things are '''''not''''' bad.
:Cueball: But if no one acts, they'll '''''become''''' bad.

:[White Hat is back inside the frame. He is gesturing to Megan and Cueball with his palm up.]

:White Hat: Well, please let me know if that happens!
:Megan: Based on this conversation, it already has.

==Trivia==
*Poorly labeled graphs were already the topic of [[833: Convincing]].
*This comic was initially missing the speech line to Cueball in panel 3.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:2145: Heists And Escapes

2019-05-07T21:43:42Z

Tharkon:

The real-life battle of Alesia was appparently the opposite of Winterfell, insofar as where the "rattling" happens. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.244|198.41.230.244]] 21:37, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
:I think that title text theory it's also a reference to the [[wikipedia:Tommy_Westphall#The_Tommy_Westphall_Universe_Hypothesis|Tommy Westphall universe hypothesis]]. --[[User:Valepert|valepert]] ([[User talk:Valepert|talk]]) 21:48, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that "Kevin McCallister's Subconscious" is an Inception reference. [[User:LegionMammal978|LegionMammal978]] ([[User talk:LegionMammal978|talk]]) 22:44, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
: I've out of reflex hafe read that Kenny is dead, instead.[[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]]) 05:08, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
:"Kevin McCallister" is the name of the lead character in the Home Alone movies, played by Macaulay Culkin.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:21, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

I'm guessing that Randall also watches Game of Thrones. Also should we add a GoT or ASoIaF category? It's been referenced in several comics in the past. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 00:32, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
:Yes please?
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:16, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
:: I stopped watching GoT around series 3... I'm now seriously considering catching up just so I get the references...[[User:Daemonik|Daemonik]] ([[User talk:Daemonik|talk]]) 12:20, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

inb4 crazy anti-semitic conspiracy theorist vandalises the page [[User:RandomIsocahedron|RandomIsocahedron]] ([[User talk:RandomIsocahedron|talk]]) 00:56, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
:For the most part he only vandalized comics related to space or science, there's no reason for him to vandalize this page. Besides he hasn't vandalized any pages recently either, I think he got tired of constantly having to type in a CAPTCHA to vandalize pages only to have it reverted almost instantly by us. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 01:50, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
::Can confirm, CAPTCHAs suck. {{unsigned ip|162.158.146.166}}

Dude, spoiler alert?! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.15|162.158.62.15]] 19:19, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
: Dude, you don't go on a page for explaining stuff if the to-be-explained original contains something which might reference to something you'd like to experience for yourself. Or do you read/watch walkthroughs of games and then think "Dude, spoiler alert?", too? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:57, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

Anyone else get the feeling that Randall is taunting us explainxkcders with the last part of the title text on this one? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.54|172.68.133.54]] 21:43, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
:Maybe, but that kind of absurdist humour involving combining different stories is fairly common on xkcd. [[User:RandomIsocahedron|RandomIsocahedron]] ([[User talk:RandomIsocahedron|talk]]) 00:31, 5 May 2019 (UTC)
::Well, let's try. The protagonists are stuck in a room, surrounded by the dead. Kevin is among the dead, and he is the only one who knows how to break into the vault. In order to get into the vault after escaping their room, they must first enter Zombie Kevin's mind and at the same time rescue his soul from Hell, escaping from the land of the dead across the River Styx. They must then reunite their souls with their minds and their minds with their bodies, use the resurrected Kevin to enter the vault, and finally escape, whereupon they find that the whole setup was in fact a staged TV show - except for the descent into Hell, which was actually real. [[User:IndigoFenix|IndigoFenix]] ([[User talk:IndigoFenix|talk]]) 20:28, 5 May 2019 (UTC)
:::Of course! While I would hate to enter Zombie Kevin's mind, it would make for great cinema and/or cartoons. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.241|172.68.189.241]] 20:43, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

I would argue that the middle room at the battle of Winterfell is not necessarily the keep but just a reference to the castle of Winterfell as a whole.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.157|162.158.89.157]] 06:23, 5 May 2019 (UTC)
:The mention of this "middle room" here and in the explanation is quite confusing. In the comic, there's an outer room and an inner room (I'm guessing this is the crypt), but what does the term middle room refer to? Could someone with knowledge of GoT please change this section so it makes sense in terms of two rooms instead of a middle room that doesn't exist? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:33, 5 May 2019 (UTC)
::I edited the explanation. Please check if that works.[[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 11:34, 6 May 2019 (UTC)
:::Much better, thanks. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 11:50, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

I am not sure if it is relevant to mention, but the Battle of Winterfell was in season 5 during the War of Five Kings. I believe the battle in season 8 is the Battle of Ice and Fire, but I have yet to see the current season so I am not sure. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 21:43, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

2133: EHT Black Hole Picture

2019-04-05T20:10:07Z

Tharkon: Reference as to why the combination turned off the screen.

{{comic
| number = 2133
| date = April 5, 2019
| title = EHT Black Hole Picture
| image = eht_black_hole_picture.png
| titletext = [five years later] Ok, it seems we were accidentally zoomed in slightly too far. But imagine there's a cool-looking twisted accretion disc just outside this black square!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by cosmic rays from a black hole Needs more explanation Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic references the {{w|Event Horizon Telescope}}, an international project dedicated to releasing the first-ever picture of a {{w|black hole}}. The release of the picture is set for April 10, five days from this comic's release.

The comic shows [[Cueball]] giving a press conference on the recent photographing of a black hole. The joke lies in the spectacular failure of several systems:

* You cannot download the picture.
* You cannot screenshot the picture.
* The viewing period ends before a physical camera can be used.

In reality, none of this should be an issue as the picture would be immediately saved by the system and would not need to be downloaded from the site.

Cueball describes the system as being like {{w|Pinterest}}, where javascript prevents you from right-clicking on an image so that you could save it. Cueball states that they then tried to take a screenshot, but the key combination to make a screenshot instead turned off the monitor where the picture was being displayed. This references the fact many mobile phones incorporate the power button in their screen shot combination and the power button can also turn off the screen. As a last act of desperation, Cueball took out his phone and attempted to take a photo of the observation, but by that time, the observation had ended, and the photo was lost.

Cueball then states that they would try to take a picture of a black hole again next year.

The title text explains that (after presumably five years of annual tries), the picture failed again as the telescope was too zoomed in and only captured a featureless square from the inside of the black hole rather than the more interesting edge known as an {{w|accretion disc}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind a lectern, with "Press Conference" and the EHT logo displayed on a projector screen behind him.]
:Cueball: We linked up our observatories, got everything aligned, and there it was:
:Cueball: The first image of a black hole!

:Out of panel: Can you share the picture?
:Cueball: Well, here's the thing...

:Cueball: Turns out our telescope feed is like Pinterest, where you can't right-click to save an image.
:Cueball: So we tried to take a screenshot, but the key combination kept turning off the display instead.

:[The projector screen has changed to show a blurry picture of a white computer screen against a black background. The EHT logo remains.]
:Cueball: I grabbed my phone and tried to take a picture of the screen, but I was too slow. The observation had ended.
:Cueball: We're planning to try again next year, and we'll definitely record the screen this time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:2115: Plutonium

2019-02-22T16:43:00Z

Tharkon:

Even though space is cold, it conducts so poorly that spacecraft would probably have more problems getting rid of heat than keeping heat, considering how isolated they are. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 16:43, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2040: Sibling-in-Law

2018-09-08T12:25:42Z

Tharkon:

Unless you want to go completely nuts on this topic, avoid reading Jane Austen, where the the term "X-in-law" is used to mean, roughly, "someone to whom you are related for legal reasons". It can be used to refer to, for example, what we today might refer to as step/half-siblings, adopted siblings, etc. [[User:Arcanechili|Arcanechili]] ([[User talk:Arcanechili|talk]]) 15:51, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

> The title text refers to incestual relationships, which are generally frowned upon in Western culture.
How on earth this refers to incest if persons are only legally, not genetically related??? It's just that Randall doesn't know how to call new relatives but cannot stop their arrival. {{unsigned ip|162.158.91.251}}

Yes, I also don't think it refers to incest. {{unsigned ip|172.68.94.40}}

:I'm not sure if that is right or not, but that was my interpretation of that text, based on the "a reason why these two should not be wed." Unless there is a different issue with this, also involving marriage? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.190|162.158.59.190]] 16:44, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

::I read the title text as... the reason he is objecting has nothing to do with the couple getting married, it's simply the selfish reason that Randall doesn't want the confusion of having to figure out what to call the new extended-family members. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 17:37, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
::Note that he states this reason ISN'T acceptable, in other words nobody else finds it's sufficient reason to stop the marriage. If there was some incest aspect, anybody would accept it as a reason. The objection as stated is simply out of (in)convenience to Cueball/Randall. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 12:58, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Somehow I don't have this problem whatsoever...as I'm a single child who married a single child. I have zero siblings-in-law. In fact, my future kids won't even have (regular) cousins... {{unsigned ip|162.158.74.231}}

Am I the only one that thinks there's an error in this comic? Shouldn't spouse's sibling be the sibling-in-law of Cueball's *sibling*? But then, maybe I'm also making Randall's point... [[User:Sspenser|Sspenser]] ([[User talk:Sspenser|talk]]) 18:28, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

^ Sspenser I honestly think this is a poorly constructed diagram because it invites this type of confusion -- I was also tripped up at first, but I think all relationships are meant to be labeled *with respect to "Me"/cueball*. My initial assumption was that each double-headed arrow was intending to label *pairs* of siblings-in-law; in fact I think it is trying to label individuals who are each independently siblings-in-law of cueball's (or assumed siblings-in-law of cueball's). The different double-headed arrows represent different levels of confidence in claiming this relationship between Cueball and the individuals in that "layer." I think it would have been more clear if he kept the arrows basically the same, but labeled as "*My* Siblings-in-law"/"Also *My* Siblings-in-law, I think?"/etc. ~clukes [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.238|162.158.63.238]] 00:28, 1 September 2018 (UTC)
:'''''I''''' was initially confused by the black border surrounding the image, which connects the heredity lines of ''all'' the people in the chart as if they shared a parent by different matings. This image really ought not to have a border the same color as the chart lines... [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 01:21, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

The Russian language actually has different words for both "types" of brothers in-law (spouse's brother vs. sister's husband), also for parents and children in-law on either side: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Свойство_(родство) .
But all these in-law distinctions are based on the respective spouse's sex, so it won't work for same-sex marriages. {{unsigned ip|162.158.234.58}}

:In German, they even have a word for "spouse of sibling in-law" and similar situations: "Schwippschwager" https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwippschwager [[User:Polyfier|Polyfier]] ([[User talk:Polyfier|talk]]) 23:41, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

The way this is defined, you and your spouse both have the same set of siblings and siblings-in-law. In other words, if someone is your spouse's sibling or sibling in law then that person is your sibling in law if that person is not your sibling. The relationship chains across a maximum of one sibling relationship. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 18:56, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Off topic but I can't resist:
:DARK HELMET: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former room-mate.
:LONE STARR: What's that make us?
:DARK HELMET: Absolutely nothing....
Spaceballs (1987) parody Star Wars --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:51, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
:Thank you for writing it out, I keep meaning to check what he says, to track the relationship, but whenever I'm watching I'm too busy enjoying the movie, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 12:58, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
::Check for example this: [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spaceballs#Dialogue Spaceballs Dialogue]. And Mel Brooks really thinks about a sequel after thirty years: ''Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money''. Which will bring more "Moichandising! Moichandising! Where the ''real'' money from the movie is made." --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:15, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Anyone else think this comic is a form of "Wedding Gift" Randal is giving to a sibling who's getting married (presumably today)? {{unsigned|JamesCurran}}

People actually complain cousins removed is hard to understand? When I first learned about it, my thought was actually: Wow, that is so much clearer than what we use in Dutch. In Dutch we use a prefix for each step its is removed so it can get wordy. A cousin would be "neef" a cousin once removed would be "achterneef" a 2nd cousin "achterachterneef". I think a 2nd cousin removed would then be "achterachterachterneef" and third cousins "achterachterachterachterneef". I'm not even sure that's how confusing it is. The English system is easy. Simply count up to the common ancestor (A), then down to the relative (R). Then you're (R-2)th cousins (A-R) times removed. Fun fact, your siblings are your zeroth cousins and you are your own negative first cousin. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 22:32, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
:That is awesome & I'm totally using it from now on; except I'm going to call anyone 2nd cousin or beyond "altachterneef" & see how long it takes for a Dutch-speaker to give me a quizzical look. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 01:21, 1 September 2018 (UTC)
:'''''I''''' find what's weird about Dutch is that "nephew" and "male cousin" are the same word (and the same with females). I'm pretty sure that's why my mother sometimes mixes up whether to use "cousin" or "nephew" in English. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 12:58, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
::Many Dutch speakers would probably find it weird that English uses the same word for female and male cousins. But yeah it is a little odd that in one case, you are the "neef" (cousin) of your "neef" (cousin) but in another case you are the "oom" (uncle) of your "neef" (nephew). Also, we don't have a word for sibling. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 12:25, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Sooo... Maybe you can help me with this:
My half-sister from my Mother's first marriage has 3 half-sisters from her Father's second marriage. My half-sister adopted her youngest half-sister, becoming her legal guardian or "parent". So is that person my niece? Half-sister? Half-sister in-law? Sister? Half-sister's half-sister? Half-sister's daughter in-law? Niece in-law once removed? None? [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 01:21, 1 September 2018 (UTC)
:She's your adopted half-niece. She had no named relationship to you prior to adoption. [[User:LtPowers|LtPowers]] ([[User talk:LtPowers|talk]]) 12:49, 1 September 2018 (UTC)
::That sounds about right! We all refer to each other as brother & sisters though. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:35, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

I've never heard of a spouse's sibling's spouse being called your sibling-in-law before. That usage seems weird to me. But then, none of my siblings or siblings-in-law are married. [[User:LtPowers|LtPowers]] ([[User talk:LtPowers|talk]]) 12:50, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

;Ray Steven's song
If he thinks that's confusing, he should follow Ray Steven's ''I'm My Own Grandpa'' song. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.76|172.68.150.76]] 14:12, 1 September 2018 (UTC)
::Actually by Oscar and Lonzo. Ray Stevens just covered it. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:32, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
:When I was growing up, I did know some kids where the younger one was claimed as the other's uncle... [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:35, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
:: It is pretty common in large families where the aunt/uncle is younger than the nephew/niece. A person (P1) gets married at 18 and has a child (C1) the next year who also gets married at 18 and has a child (C2) the next year. P1 is only 40 years old and now has a child (C3). C3 is the aunt/uncle of C2 even though C2 is older. C1 and C3 are siblings 22 years apart. Definitely happens. In fact, my oldest brother's daughter is only 5 years younger than my youngest brother. Even I am closer in age to that niece than I am to her father, my brother. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 17:03, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
:I sing that at karaoke sometimes, I think I was introduced to it from The Muppet Show. What bugs me about that song is that the title is explained in the first few lines, the rest is just other weird stuff about the whole relationship. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 12:58, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

;Zaphod Beeblebrox character
Zaphod is described as a "semi-half-cousin" of Ford Prefect, with whom he "shares three of the same mothers". Because of "an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine", his direct ancestors from his father are also his direct descendants. He has referred to himself as Zaphod Beeblebrox the First, but is called Zaphod Beeblebrox the Nothingth by his great-grandfather.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:35, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Accidentally deleted yesterday, sorry for that: --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:11, 1 September 2018 (UTC)
:The Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries both give a simple list of people who can be considered a sibling-in-law. Your sibling's spouse, your spouse's sibling, and your spouse's sibling's spouse. It does not include your sibling's spouse's siblings. So the questionable "sibling-in-law" on the left is not a sibling-in-law, while the one on the right is. Why does two marriage and a sibling relationship count for more than two sibling and a marriage relationship? Because married people generally spend a lot of adult time together, while siblings gradually drift apart. A cause to gather siblings can easily sweep multiple spouses into the gathering, while a cause to gather one side of the family only rarely gathers the other side. These differences become more pronounced in with large numbers of siblings.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.12|162.158.186.12]]

I'm just noting, I looked at Wikipedia, and the best I can find as a solution to it, starting at "Also siblings-in-law, I think?" are "First Cousins-in-law", and the numbers increase as they radiate out. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.89|172.68.58.89]] 07:33, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Um, the description of the title text seems to have a lot of supposition in it. All it really says is that the reason isn't good enough - not that anyone actually tried it, was shot down etc, or even that it refers to banns. My reading of it before I came here was actually similar to the incest train of thought, where not having that relationship clarified could cause issues down the road in regards to inheritance, future marriages etc.
Also, 'traditional wedding in most English-speaking regions' isn't entirely accurate - banns are generally a Christian thing, sure, but Christianity extends to non-English-speaking areas as well and has done for quite some time, and a requirement for notice and swearing that no legal impediments to the marriage exist are now part of many secular, legal processes for marriage (e.g. part of the process of obtaining a licence, or via registration of intent). I'd recommend this be changed to something a little less interpretative. e.g:
"The title text states that not knowing whether a marriage would create an in-law relationship between one of the parties and a third person doesn't constitute an objection to a marriage significant enough to stop it from happening. The phrase "reason why these two should not be wed" comes from the historical practice of announcing a marriage in advance so that people could raise any objections - such as one of the parties already being married - prior to the wedding. This process is now often handled by notice requirements or a signed declaration by the parties that no impediment exists." {{unsigned ip|172.68.254.247}}
: I don't know if the objection part of the wedding ceremony exists only in christian rites -I doubt it-, but in christianity it's quite specific to the anglican rite (never heard of it anywhere else) so I would say that "English-speaking" is quite accurate here.
:In-law are awefully (intended) simple : exactly one marital and one blood link. I fail to understand how anyone could possibly be confused by that. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.87|141.101.69.87]] 13:34, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
:Sorry, the title text IS essentially saying that Randall / Cueball tried this objection, that trying it is how he found out the reason is unacceptable. It's not really interpretive, it's implied so strongly it's just about declared outright. It's a standard method of comedy in the English language, painting a humourous scene by describing the result. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 12:58, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

I always use the term "out-laws" for a connection that would be defined by multiple in-law relationships. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.60|162.158.186.60]] 12:10, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2040: Sibling-in-Law

2018-08-31T22:32:14Z

Tharkon:

2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry

2018-06-05T19:38:40Z

Tharkon: By convention, a north pole is attracted to the earth's North Magnetic Pole, since opposites attract this makes the earth's North Magnetic Pole a south pole.

{{comic
| number = 2002
| date = June 4, 2018
| title = LeBron James and Stephen Curry
| image = lebron_james_and_stephen_curry.png
| titletext = The 538TR attempts to capture a player's combined skill at basketball (either real-life or NBA 2K18) and election forecasting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Basketball - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
At the time of this comic, the {{w|2018 NBA Finals}} were going on, between the {{w|Cleveland Cavaliers}} and the {{w|Golden State Warriors}} with the Warriors leading 2 games to 0 in a best of seven series. At first glance, the comic looks like an in-depth analysis of two of the star players on those teams, {{w|LeBron James}} and {{w|Stephen Curry}}. The joke is that while comprehensive, all the statistics are completely meaningless - many don't show any correlation, and if there is one, it's extremely unlikely there is any causal link in there.

The first graph includes a nine-digit {{w|Social Security number}} issued for US citizens which is typically not considered a metric related to athletic ability. As Social Security numbers are essentially random numbers ([https://www.ssa.gov/employer/randomization.html until 2011], there was a geographic correspondence for the first three digits), the graph shows only the {{w|free throw}} percentage of a large number of players, artificially spread vertically. Also note that Social Security numbers are not usually made public, barring security leaks.

The second graph is a graph of 2018 points per game vs teammate's APGAR score. {{w|APGAR score}} is used to quickly summarize the health of newborn children, with scores of 7 and above indicating an infant has generally normal health; its use to rank adult NBA players is odd, if not improper. This graph indicates LeBron's teammates have an average APGAR score of approximately 2.1. Scores of 3 and below are generally regarded as critically low and possibly requiring medical attention. Low APGAR scores can also be associated with increased risk of neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy. The joke appears to be in giving LeBron's less-than-impressive teammates a low APGAR score.

The shot map shows from what position Curry's shots were scored compared to other NBA players. It shows that he scored several times from outside the playing field, including twice from the {{w|bleacher}}s (which isn't a legal play), and once from the {{w|locker room}} (which is physically impossible due to multiple walls in between). This references Stephen Curry's propensity to take (and make) shots from well beyond the normal distance required for 3 points.[https://thebiglead.com/2016/02/26/stephen-currys-shooting-percentage-from-28-feet-out-is-mind-boggling/]

Next is a graph of (team) win percentage vs sandwiches eaten during play. This graph shows no correlation between these 2 metrics. It does indicate that the Golden State Warriors eat 4 sandwiches per game.

In the "2018 total points" table, the highlighted {{w|Golden State Warriors}} and {{w|Cleveland Cavaliers}} represent the teams of Stephen Curry and LeBron James respectively. {{w|Magnetic north}} is the south pole of the {{w|Earth's magnetic field}}. Certain animals use the magnetic field to navigate and align themselves (including migratory birds, bees, and foxes), but there is no evidence that humans are affected by the earth's magnetic field. This means that there is very likely no correlation between orientation of a basketball court and points scored.

The table at the bottom includes more unrelated comparisons:

;Have You Heard of Him
: Although both players are well known in their native United States, elsewhere basketball is considered a minority sport. Of the 7 billion people in the world it is likely that less than 2% of the total population will have heard of either player.{{Citation needed}} According to Randall, LeBron James is a more well known player than Stephen Curry.
;President During Most Recent Game 7 Loss
: In the NBA, the top 16 teams qualify for a single elimination play-off to determine the season champion, with each series played as a {{w|Playoff_format#Best-of-seven_playoff|best-of-seven}} series (first to win 4 games). After the fourth game, fixtures are only played as required. Most fixtures are therefore resolved before the last game. Lebron James has participated in seven playoff game 7s in his career (winning 5 of 7), and the last time his team lost a game seven was on May 18, 2008 ({{w|George W. Bush}} was still President). This also highlights that James is an older athlete, yet has been fairly dominant through his career. Stephen Curry's last game 7 loss came at the hands of Lebron James in the {{w|2016 NBA Finals}} ({{w|Barack Obama}} was President). It is notable that both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers won their respective games 7 in their Conference Finals to make it to this year's NBA Finals.
;Pog Collection
: {{w|Milk caps (game)|Pogs}} were a {{w|fad}} in the 1990s. It is unclear why James would have a "staggeringly large" collection of pogs, besides being 4 years older than Curry.
This might also refer to Player of the Game awards. Lebron James would certainly have a staggeringly large amount of them, while Curry has less, having to share player of the game accolades with his other All-Star teammates.
;Career Average Fed Interest Rate
:The Federal Interest Rate, or {{w|federal funds rate}}, is an interest rate set by the {{w|United States Federal Reserve}}. This rate is increased or decreased periodically based on the health of the U.S. economy. As of the time of publishing, the federal interest rate was targeted at 1.75%. The rate has fluctuated from a high of around 5% to a low of near 0% (during the time of the {{w|Great Recession in the United States|2008 recession}}). James' career average federal interest rate is higher than Curry's, because James began his career before Curry, when interest rates were higher.
;Name Scrabble Score
:Both "lebronjames" and "stephencurry" are worth 22 points in {{w|Scrabble}}.
;Best Sport
: It is claimed that their best sport is basketball. However, although they have chosen basketball as a career, this does not mean they were not better at a sport that does not offer a professional career.
;Height
: Both are listed as over 6 feet tall, which is not at all unusual for professional basketball players. Stephen Curry is listed as 6'3" and LeBron James as 6'8".
;Retirement Year
: In 2027, Stephen Curry will be 39 years old, which is a typical retirement age for NBA players. LeBron James's retirement age is listed as ''Unknown''. This may refer to James's high level of play through his mid-30s, when typical players have a decline in their performance.{{Citation needed}}
;FiveThirtyEight Total Rating
: {{w|Nate Silver}} is a political commentator and founder of the website {{w|FiveThirtyEight}}, which uses and promotes statistical approaches in explaining the world. The site's two major areas of focus are in politics (especially on elections - it became famous for correctly predicting for whom 49 of 50 of the 2008 and every US state would vote for in the 2012 US presidential elections, and though it wasn't as accurate in 2016 it had given Donald Trump a larger chance of Electoral College victory than other mainstream media sources) and sports (Silver first got into statistical analysis via baseball). The presence of both sports-related and politics-related topics in the comic, however related they are (or not) with each other, seems to be a nod towards FiveThirtyEight's content.
: Nate Silver has a much higher 538TR than either Curry or James. As explained in the title text, the 538TR combines basketball skill (either real-life or video game basketball) with election forecasting. This would seem to imply that Silver is proficient at basketball, either the real-life kind, or the video game kind, and that James and Curry are not proficient in election forecasting.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:'''NBA Playoffs ''DataDive'' '''
:'''LeBron James and Stephen Curry'''
:'''What makes these superstars so extraordinary?'''

:[The comic consists of several plots and tables, listed here from top to bottom, left to right.]

:'''Scatter plot of Social Security number vs Free throw percentage'''
:The Social Security numbers range from 000-00-0000 to 999-99-9999. No pattern discernable, aside from points being a bit denser in the middle of the plot. Steven Curry is marked as a point on the right edge of the plot with a high free throw percentage.

:'''Scatter plot of 2018 points per game vs Average teammate APGAR score'''
:The APGAR scores range from 0 to 10. Pattern suggests a somewhat positive link between the two factors. LeBron James is marked as having a lot of points, but a low teammate APGAR score of approximately 2.1.

:'''Shot map'''
:Legend: grey dot for all players, black dot for Stephen Curry
:A diagram of a basketball court is shown with dots placed where players have taken shots at the goal. For the all players category the dots generally cluster next to the goal basket and in front of the three point line. Steven has 3 dots next to the basket (one is behind it), but does cluster next to the three point line. He also has several dots on the other side of the playing field, and outside it, including three in the bleachers and one in the locker room.

:'''Sandwiches eaten during play vs Win %'''
:A plot that suggests no relation between the factors because practically all dots are in the zero sandwiches column. 2018 Warriors have one dot at around 60 win percentage and 4 sandwiches.

:'''2018 total points'''
:A table listing teams and their points overall and "When net is within 15° of magnetic north". The rows for the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers are highlighted, the latter shows an abnormally high score in the magnetic north column.

:{| class = "wikitable"
! 2018 total points
! Overall
! When net is within 15° of magnetic north
|-
|'''Golden State Warriors'''
|'''9304'''
|'''330'''
|-
|Houston Rockets
|9213
|268
|-
|New Orleans Pelicans
|9161
|219
|-
|Toronto Raptors
|9156
|341
|-
|'''Cleveland Cavaliers'''
|'''9091'''
|'''1644'''
|-
|Denver Nuggets
|9020
|280
|}

:[A table at the bottom:]

:{| class = "wikitable"
!
! Stephen Curry
! LeBron James
|-
|Have you heard of him
|Probably
|Yes
|-
|President during most recent game 7 loss
|Obama
|Bush
|-
|Pog collection
|Large
|Staggeringly large
|-
|Career average Fed interest rate
|3.42%
|4.41%
|-
|Name Scrabble score
|22
|22
|-
|Best sport
|Basketball
|Basketball
|-
|Height
|Over 6'
|Over 6'
|-
|Retirement year
|2027
|Unknown
!Nate Silver
|-
|FiveThirtyEight total rating (devised by Nate Silver to combine all metrics into a single stat)
|'''37.4'''
|'''31.8'''
|'''86.6'''
|}

==Trivia==
This comic was posted the day after the second game in the 2018 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors (Stephen Curry's team) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (LeBron James' team). It is the fourth consecutive time the two teams faced each other at the finals, which is unprecedented in major sports leagues in North America. The Warriors won in 2015 and 2017, the Cavaliers won in 2016, and the Warriors are leading the current series 2-0.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]
[[Category:Politics]]

Talk:1806: Borrow Your Laptop

2017-03-04T14:08:28Z

Tharkon:

I can only imagine the mouse wheel. I use a free spinner, so it sounds fun... And something to get my machine to hate me
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.159|162.158.62.159]] 13:59, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

One assumes this is a software development environment or similar

{|
!Statement
!Explanation
|-
|Oh, just hit both shift keys to change over to QWERTY.
| Likely has keyboard in DVORAK
|-
|Caps lock is control. And spacebar is capslock.
| Changing Caps Lock to a "more useful" key is common. However to change an even larger key to be capslock (Space) is odd
|-
|And two-finger scroll moves through time instead of space.
|Two finger scrolling is often used to move through a document or application on a mousepad or touchscreen device - this could be seen as moving through space (despite the cursor not actually being real). Randall is presumerably making a comment re: Space Time continuum or similar?
|-
|Once I've used a computer for a while no one else will ever use it again.
|It is unlikely that any user who tries using a computer configured like this would be expecting it and would find the workflow very hard - they are unlikely to ask again to use Cueball's computer
|}
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.197|141.101.99.197]] 07:55, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Just a minor point QWERTY is not the standard "Roman" keyboard but "English" as "French" is AZERTY and German is something else. The other thing is that just the change from US to UK can really mess things up, $>£ is trivial as @ not only moves, but the symbol keys all seem to do different things. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:58, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
:Yeah, in the UK I often have to use a Windows box misconfigured as US, where @ is in the wrong place. At work, one had a postit note explaining how to get the @ symbol, until I spent all of 5 seconds fixing it. Worse though is Apple, who insist on using US keyboard layout even in the UK. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 09:24, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
::Have tried to change this. I have a keyboard that has qwerty at the top, but it is not English as we have letters not used in the English language (ÆØÅ) which moved all kinds of other keys around. So we can type on an English qwerty keyboard, but not find all the special keys. The layout is though still called qwerty, albeit the Danish version. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:40, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

I'm surprised that no one has pointed out the impossibility of changing from DVORAK to QWERTY by pressing both shift keys, seeing as most laptops have hardware keyboards.
unless he has somehow rigged a voltronesque keyboard or he has a touchscreen keyboard or an onscreen one.
[[User:Dudeonyx|Dudeonyx]] ([[User talk:Dudeonyx|talk]]) 09:20, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
: Dvorak users typically just change the keymap. Since it's designed for touch typing,there's no real point to lettering on the keys [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 09:36, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
::(Wrote this before Luckykaa posted but had an edit conflict with him so only replies to the first comment here:)
::The keyboard is probably QWERTY but the keys assigned to these are in the dvorak layout. If Cueball can type ten fingered dvorak blindly then it is no concern for him that the keys would give a different letter than what is on the keys! See other dvorak comics as referenced in the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:40, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

The part "The next point on the list makes little sense" is not exactly true. Swapping caps lock with ctrl is actually quite common (if extravagant), google it. Some do it because they are used to some old layout (probably either pre-PC era or from the Unix world, see some Sun keyboards from the 90s). Most do it because ctrl is useful but small (especially on laptops), while caps lock is a large, rarely used key. Opinions on the ergonomy of this vary, trending towards negative, although there certainly are avid supporters.

So, the line actually starts like something you may actually hear in real life (I know I have). And then you get to... SPACE?!? Why would you turn space into a caps lock?! That's where the joke hits. It's not that the whole point of the list makes little sense, it's that it takes an existing, somewhat justified but controversial idea and turns it on its head midway through. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.102.76|162.158.102.76]] 09:29, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
:Is that not also what is made clear in the explanation now? It is not the only joke with the last being the scroll time travel. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:40, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Apple has a feature actually called time machine to go back to old file versions. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.62|162.158.88.62]] 12:00, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Sounds like my laptop. Because I primarily use the nipple as a pointer,and the trackpad is in a good position for the thumb, I changed the trackpad to be a scrollpad, so it doesn't move the cursor, it moves content. I have given up on trying to explain the setup, they always end up just scrolling around on the screen and tapping the trackpad like it was a mouse-button.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.70|162.158.114.70]] 15:03, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Any chance that "spacebar is caps lock" is a reference to [[1172: Workflow]]? [[User:Tkil|Tkil]] ([[User talk:Tkil|talk]]) 16:38, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
:NO.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 01:20, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

Older computer users will recall that before the introduction of the (now standard) 101-key keyboard, it was quite common for the Ctrl key to be immediately to the left of the A key, where Caps Lock is now. Touch typists from the 70's or 80's had a hard time converting to the new placement; I personally rewired the first 101-key keyboard I got to put Ctrl back "where it belonged". (This was long before keyboard remapping software was a thing.) [[User:Mr. I|Mr. I]] ([[User talk:Mr. I|talk]]) 16:47, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
:Focus on this comic. There is no 70's or 80's keyboard.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 01:19, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

;Cueball is NOT Randall
Randall writes comics -- not an autobiography! So unless there is a strong evidence Cueball is NOT Randall. Think about other comics and what Randall all must have been done. Or does anyone really have a proof??? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 01:16, 4 March 2017 (UTC)
:I believe any time the caption text is written in first-person it is assumed that Randall is talking about himself. In that case, Cueball here would be a stand-in for Randall, albeit taken to the extreme.--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.83|172.68.142.83]] 01:48, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

Re: Information text "Everything is senseless -- who changes the keyboard layout without changing the keyboard itself? Typing blindly is just a guess but not shown in the comic."
This is a bit harsh wording. There are many of us who routinely switch keyboard layouts without changing the keyboard. I am Swedish, living in Ireland so Irish/British keyboards are the norm. Now and then I need write text in Swedish. As I learned touch typing in Sweden, that layout is engrained in my spine so typing blindly is not a problem. I have many friends here who do the same when they need to write something in their native language, be it French, Russian, etc. / Sven Rosvall

:I agree, first reaction I had to "who changes the keyboard layout without changing the keyboard itself?" was "I do". When I was doing maintenance for a company in Belgium I temporarily switched to the qwerty layout while using their azerty keyboards. And occasionally at home I switch between different qwerty layouts because some software doesn't work properly on US-international. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 14:08, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

1792: Bird/Plane/Superman

2017-02-01T21:21:03Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1792
| date = January 30, 2017
| title = Bird/Plane/Superman
| image = bird_plane_superman.png
| titletext = You can apply special translucent films to your windows to help keep birds/Superman from accidentally flying into them.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a logical comparison of observations to resolve the [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034247/quotes?item=qt0317455 classic Superman catchphrase] of comic book bystanders: "Look, up in the sky... It's a {{w|bird}}!... It's a {{w|Airplane|plane}}!... It's {{w|Superman}}!", hence the title. Superman, a character originally created for comic books in the 1930's, is an alien with superpowers, including the power of unaided flight; hence the catchphrase exclaiming peoples' amazement.

At the correct distance both birds, planes and the fictive Superman could be mistaken for each other. So this comic aims to help people identify the airborne object by listing on which properties they are alike and on which they are different. This problem was also mentioned in the title text of [[1633: Possible Undiscovered Planets]], putting Superman near the bird/plane boundary explaining why all this confusion has arisen.

The observations compared range from the mundane to the bizarre and they are listed and explained below in the [[#Table|table]]. Here some highlights are mentioned, but for all these there are much more detail below.

Some of the mundane observations are that birds don't fly around with people, while Superman can do it, and planes are meant for it; and that the latter two are new "inventions", whereas birds have flown around for millions of years.

Interestingly enough there are actually two observations that have check mark for all three; the first being that there are enthusiasts for all three different flying objects. And these will obsess over small color details in otherwise similar looking objects. The other common thing is that they all may have sex in midair. The possibility of that happening for the all three are discussed in the table.

Three observations only counts for birds, where all those that do not count for birds do count for both planes and superman. Two of these relates to the fact that birds are eaten by cats and humans, the last is that birds flap their wings to fly, the others have other means of flight. There are observations that rules out only planes or only superman, but none that rules out only one of them at the same time as birds are ruled out.

There are also three direct jokes towards the bottom. The first is that {{w|David Attenborough}} may also have observed Superman's mating habits just like he has with birds in the documentary series {{w|The Life of Birds}}. The second is that not only birds poop in flight, but that Superman could and would also do so. And the third (and also final observation) is that not only birds chase insects to eat them, but Superman also chases them... though only when he is bored. These last three observations have that in common that the planes are left out of all of them, and the joke is always on Superman. As it has been before in [[1384: Krypton]] and [[1394: Superm*n]] (released just ten comics apart).

The title text refers to black stickers (decals) in the shape of an easily recognizable predatory bird, like {{w|falcons}} to enhance the visibility of clear glass windows or doors and scare smaller birds away before they crash into the window. This may actually not work very well according to this article: [https://www.allaboutbirds.org/why-birds-hit-windows-and-how-you-can-help-prevent-it/ Why Birds Hit Windows], where a falcon decal is also shown. But they are meant to warn birds away and according to this comic they could also prevent Superman from flying through your window (and thus also stop him from possibly just continue through the building). They are not known to affect the risk of airplanes flying into the building.

===Table===
{| class="wikitable"
! !! Bird !! Plane !! Superman !! Explanation
|-
| Carries people || || ✓ || ✓ || Some birds are capable of flying off while carrying a small human away, but this happens extremely rarely (although hoax stories are often reported). Of course an {{w|Ostrich}} can easily carry a human; they have done so often in arranged {{w|Ostrich#Racing|races}}. But as they cannot fly (with or without humans on their back), and this comic is about recognizing objects in the air, this will not affect the check mark! Most planes are specifically designed to carry human passengers, although many are cargo planes with humans only acting as crew, and autonomous drones without humans also exist. Superman often carries other people with him, such as his {{w|Lois Lane|girlfriend}}, rescued victims or the various villains that people need to be rescued from.
|-
| Often flies in groups || ✓ || ✓ || || Many types of birds fly in flocks, particularly during long-range {{w|Bird migration|migrations}}. Some birds often fly in the {{w|V formation}} which has also been {{w|V_formation#Military_flight_missions|copied by planes}}. This formation has been used at least twice in xkcd in [[1440: Geese]] and recently in [[1729: Migrating Geese]] (notice the similarity in number of that bird comic compared to the one for this comic). Planes sometimes fly in {{w|Formation flying|group formation}}, particularly when engaged in military operations where mutual support is tactically useful (or when conducting practice maneuvers for such operations). Though the people who would mistake those planes for birds will mainly see this at {{w|Air show|air shows}}. Superman is a unique person, and thus does not fly in groups of Supermen. While Superman occasionally operates alongside other flying superheroes, and in some stories is duplicated or split into multiple beings, Randall apparently considers these circumstances too unusual to meet the "often" qualifier.
|-
| Created in 20th century || || ✓ || ✓ || Birds evolved from dinosaurs, appearing as early as the Late Jurassic period, roughly 150 million years ago. That birds evolved from dinosaur who also had wings with feathers before they evolved on to becoming birds has often been referenced by Randall in comics like [[1104: Feathers]], [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs]] and the title texts of [[867: Herpetology]] and [[1527: Humans]] The {{w|Wright_Flyer#Flight_trials_at_Kitty_Hawk|first successful flight}} of a powered heavier-than-air craft took place on December 17, 1903 and was performed by the {{w|Wright brothers}}. There are several other claims for the first such flight, for instance {{w|Alberto_Santos-Dumont#Heavier-than-air_craft|Alberto Santos-Dumont}} from Brazil [https://youtu.be/N_qXm9HY9Ro?t=2156 was given a spot] at the {{w|2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony|opening ceremony}} of the {{w|2016 Summer Olympics|Rio 2016 Olympic Games}} Superman first appeared in {{w|Action Comics 1|''Action Comics'' #1}}, published in June 1938.
|-
| Uses magnetic navigation || ✓ || ✓ || || Some types of birds use {{w|magnetoreception}} to navigate using the earth's magnetic field as a guide. Artificial {{w|Compass#Magnetic_compass|magnetic compasses}}, along with other navigational equipment, are used by planes. Superman, while possessing a {{w|Powers and abilities of Superman|plethora of super-senses/powers}}, does not appear to be particularly sensitive to {{w|magnetism}}.
|-
| Enthusiast community obsesses over small coloration details || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || {{w|Birdwatching|Birdwatchers}} identify bird species by a range of characteristics, including small details in the bird's color pattern which identify one species apart from another. Similarly, airplane hobbyists and {{w|Aircraft spotting|plane spotters}} take note of the colors of a plane's paint job and insignia. Comics fans can similarly identify the artist and date of a depiction of Superman by the coloration and configuration of his costume and be obsessed with their favorite coloration being the canon.
|-
| Preyed on by cats || ✓ || || || {{w|Cats}} kill several billion birds a year, often - but not always - eating them. There has never been a case of a cat successfully catching and eating a plane. As Superman is a fictional character the same goes for him, but also in the comics he has never been eaten by a cat, although he has been [http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/power-girl-22.jpg devoured by a dinosaur] although that (probably{{Citation needed}}) did not kill him...
|-
| Occasional mid-air sex || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || Almost no bird species have sex in flight. Hummingbirds, for example, engage in courting behavior which one might falsely identify as sex (explained in this article [http://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/hummingbird-sex1.htm Do hummingbirds have sex in midair?]). This article [http://www.livescience.com/38379-animal-sex-bird-sex.html Animal Sex: How Birds Do It] explains how birds in general have sex. However, this article [http://www.commonswift.org/Aerial-mating.html Aerial mating] claims that the common swift (Apus Apus) sometimes engages in mid-air sex, an act presumably caught on video [https://vimeo.com/78453839 here]. {{w|Mile high club|Mid-air sex}} involving planes usually involves passengers (and potentially air crew), not the plane itself. However, this could also be a metaphorical reference to {{w|Aerial refueling|in-flight refueling}} (such as the depiction, set to romantic music, in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs7EikHQGlA the opening scene] of the movie ''{{w|Dr. Strangelove}}'', a movie Randall has referenced before for instance in [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/1608_1020x1083y_Torpedoes_two_steps_above_Runner_with_Beret_Guy.png this scene] from [[1608: Hoverboard]]) It could also refer to [http://avstop.com/news/plantcity.html this incident] where one plane landed atop another in mid-air. As for Superman, there have been occasional moments in the comics which indicate or at least imply that he sometimes engages in mid-air sex.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| Eaten during seasonal feasts || ✓ || || || {{w|Turkey (bird)|Turkeys}}, a type of bird, are eaten by Americans during {{w|Thanksgiving}}, a "seasonal feast" held on the fourth Thursday of November of each year. Britons eat Turkey or {{w|Goose}} at {{w|Christmas}}, in other countries it may be {{w|ducks}} instead. It is unlikely that normal humans would eat a plane, however it has been done by {{w|Michel Lotito}} who has digested an entire {{w|Cessna 150|Cessna}} aircraft. However he used two years to consume the plane, so although he may have eaten some parts during holidays, he did not do it because there was a seasonal feast. Superman is too strong and "made of steel" for him to let any human eat him. But as also mentioned above he has been [http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/power-girl-22.jpg devoured by a dinosaur] although that probably did not kill him... Referring back to the possible sex Superman has had in flight, it seems he is able to have sex with a human. Although the slang ''{{w|Cunnilingus|eat me}}'' (link NSFW), usually mean the man eating the woman,[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=eat%20me it can also be used] the other way around. In this case Superman could have had holiday-sex with his girlfriend, where she ate him.
|-
| Propelled by flapping || ✓ || || || Birds fly by flapping their wings. Planes have fixed wings, and fly by maintaining forward velocity and exploiting the aerodynamic effects of air flowing over the upper and lower wing surfaces, which are shaped and angled to produce lift. Superman flies using superpowers which require neither wings nor flapping.
|-
| Sometimes loses ability to fly, needs to sunbathe to regain it || ✓ || || ✓ || Birds can "lose" the ability to fly, if their wings are weighed down by water from swimming. One way for birds to dry out their wings is to [http://birding.about.com/od/birdbehavior/a/Bird-Sunning.htm sunbathe]. An airplane can lose its ability to fly, but no issues occurring in modern aircraft can be fixed by sunbathing, except in some {{w|Solar Impulse|experimental solar-powered aircraft}}. One of Superman's superhero abilities is the ability to fly. However, he may lose this ability with prolonged exposure to {{w|Kryptonite}}, which make him weak. Also the rays from the sun at his home planet {{w|Krypton (comics)|Krypton}} can {{w|Superman_II#Plot|remove his super powers}} as it happened in {{w|Superman II}}. Superman's ability to fly is a superpower caused by "electromagnetic radiation from the rays of a yellow sun", so he could regain his strength and superhuman abilities through sunbathing in the {{w|Sun|Sun's}} light here on Earth. Which was how he got his super powers in the first place.
|-
| Can take a punch || || ✓ || ✓ || Many birds are small and fragile creatures, whose {{w|Bird_anatomy#Skeletal_system|bone structures}} are meant to be light in order to fly, and thus are not very durable. If a man punched, say, a {{w|pigeon}}, he could probably break/dislocate most of its bones, either killing it immediately or leaving it in a state from which it will probably never ever recover on its own. However, there are definitely some big, {{w|flightless birds}} that could take a punch from a human such as ostriches and {{w|emus}}, but since both are large creatures that would probably react by fighting back, it would not be wise to try. Also Randall is (again) plainly ignoring this type of birds as they cannot fly and this comic is about making mistakes regarding things flying through the air (typically far enough away from the observer to mistake a pigeon for a plane). Planes are usually massive, or at least big enough to carry a human, and have to be made of materials durable enough to withstand hurtling through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour reliably on a regular basis. You could definitely punch one safely. (Meaning safe for the plane, not your hand.) One of Superman's (the {{w|Man of Steel (film)|Man of Steel}}) trademark abilities is his near indestructibility; a punch from any regular human would not hurt him, but again hurt the hand.
|-
| Mating behavior often observed by a hidden David Attenborough || ✓ || || Not that we know of || {{w|David Attenborough}} is an English broadcaster and naturalist, who produced a documentary series ''{{w|The Life of Birds}}''. Included in the series is an episode entitled "Finding Partners", which discussed {{w|Bird#Breeding|mating rituals of birds}}. That these can be very strange has been mentioned in the title text of [[1747: Spider Paleontology]], of course in relation to Dinosaur behavior. Planes are dead inanimate objects with no mating behavior. However, referring back to the observations made under the ''Occasional mid-air sex'' explanation it could be discussed if this was mating behavior. Also there are movies like {{w|Planes (film)|Planes}} and it's {{w|Planes: Fire & Rescue|sequel}} has living planes, which could mate. But Randall may know for sure that Attenborough is not interested in those. The comic states that we don't know for sure if Attenborough has observed Superman's mating behavior. As Superman doesn't exist{{Citation needed}} Attenborough has not seen Superman in reality (which would lead to a "No" response), but maybe Attenborough has watched all the movies in which Superman courts {{w|Lois Lane}} just to observe Superman's (made up) mating behavior (which would lead to a "Yes" response). Since we do not know Attenborough's habits, this leads to Randall giving the "Not that we know of" response.
|-
| Capable of intentionally releasing poop mid-flight || ✓ || || ✓ || Birds often poop during flight, often enough that people regularly get hit in the head by the poop, which has caused the unlucky people to come up with the [http://thepetwiki.com/wiki/Pets_and_Superstitions superstition] that it brings good luck. For birds it is just economical to shed excess mass when they are going to fly, and many birds poop just at take off. But on long flights it the best use of resources to not carry extra weight along, that increases their efficiency. Unlike {{w|mammals}} who pee {{w|urea}}, {{w|Bird#Excretory_system|bird poop}} is both pee and feces as birds only have one hole, a {{w|cloaca}}, and the black poop is surrounded by their pee which is the white stuff containing {{w|uric acid}}. Not peeing lots of water out reduces their water loss. Some planes may be able to intentionally purge their septic tanks mid-flight, depending on the design of the waste interlocks, especially assuming the controls are inside the cockpit or cabin. As the TV show ''MythBusters'' has shown, a leaky septic disposal system can unintentionally lose liquid waste and cause a "blue ice" sighting on the ground. This is, however, not the planes poop and also not the plane that released it intentionally, and planes are not supposed to do this. Superman, being more or less human, could be capable of pooping during flight, but this would generally result in unnecessary drycleaning bills. But he has probably never been shown to either take a leak or poop in any of the {{w|Canon (fiction)|canon}} comics, books or films{{Citation needed}}. So he may not even be able to poop! But Randall assumes he can.
|-
| Chases and eats bugs || ✓ || || Only when bored || Many bird species prey on insects and similar-sized animals. Planes often fly into and kill insects (as well as birds, and sometimes humans), but this is unintentional and doesn't provide them with nutritional value, and they certainly do not chase them around. Superman is not known for eating insects, but Randall implies that he does sometimes, but only when he's bored. This could be interpreted as if he then tries to avoid his boredom by chasing the bugs intensionally, but why also eat them then? So it would probably rather happen because if you fly around while bored you might yawn at the wrong time and {{w|There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly|swallow a fly}}, just like when riding on a bike or any other relatively fast but open vehicle.
|}

==Transcript==

{| class="wikitable"
! !! Bird !! Plane !! Superman
|-
| Carries people || || ✓ || ✓
|-
| Often flies in groups || ✓ || ✓ ||
|-
| Created in 20th century || || ✓ || ✓
|-
| Uses magnetic navigation || ✓ || ✓ ||
|-
| Enthusiast community obsesses over small coloration details || ✓ || ✓ || ✓
|-
| Preyed on by cats || ✓ || ||
|-
| Occasional mid-air sex || ✓ || ✓ || ✓
|-
| Eaten during seasonal feasts || ✓ || ||
|-
| Propelled by flapping || ✓ || ||
|-
| Sometimes loses ability to fly, needs to sunbathe to regain it || ✓ || || ✓
|-
| Can take a punch || || ✓ || ✓
|-
| Mating behaviour often observed by a hidden David Attenborough || ✓ || || Not that we know of
|-
| Capable of intentionally releasing poop mid-flight || ✓ || || ✓
|-
| Chases and eats bugs || ✓ || || Only when bored
|-
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Food]]

1762: Moving Boxes

2016-11-21T18:20:30Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation of boxes */ While both bovine, neither of two existing genera of buffalo include bisons, nor vice versa.

{{comic
| number = 1762
| date = November 21, 2016
| title = Moving Boxes
| image = moving_boxes.png
| titletext = Later, when I remember that I'm calling movers, I frantically scribble over the labels and write 'NORMAL HOUSE STUFF' on all of them, which actually makes things worse.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Fill table}}
[[Randall]] talks about moving boxes and not labeling them until he forgets what's in them. Since he doesn't know what's in them, he writes silly things on the boxes as a joke. Some things are unusual/unlikely (e.g. sand, hydrants, peat) and some are abstract/impossible (e.g. elves, taupe, dark matter). Several of the categories overlap confusingly; for instance, "sand" and "silt" and "dark matter" are all generally considered as "particles"; "membranes", "edges", and "shawls" are all kinds of "manifolds"; "hooves" are part of "bison"; "fog" contains "water"; and "triangles" consist of three "edges". Another way to interpret this comic is that Randall actually has these items (or at least some of them) in the boxes and has simply forgotten which boxes contain what.

===Explanation of boxes===
{| class="wikitable" width="100%"
!Label
!Explanation
|-
!Box 1
|-
|Grids|| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grid Grids] are mathematical drawings; they would be constructed by drawing them, not stored in a box (though {{w|graph paper}} might be). May refer to a classic {{w|snipe hunt}} where a hazing victim is tasked with finding "a box of grid squares".
|-
|Bison||{{w|Bison}}, sometimes mistakenly called buffalo, are large animals{{Citation needed}} that would probably not fit in the box{{Citation needed}}.
|-
|Checkerboards||
|-
|Fog||{{w|Fog}} is essentially low-lying clouds which, being gaseous, are hard to box using only cardboard.
|-
!Box 2
|-
|Beacons||
|-
|Elves||
|-
|Sand||
|-
!Box 3
|-
|Hemoglobin||
|-
!Box 4
|-
|Water||
|-
|Hooves||
|-
!Box 5
|-
|Shorebirds||
|-
!Box 6
|-
|Oil||
|-
|Vectors||{{w|Vector}}s are not physical objects, so they cannot be put in boxes.
|-
|Silt||
|-
!Box 7
|-
|Membranes||Delicate thin pliable sheet or skin of various kinds. Usually fragile or cut easily. Not something you would expect to be packed with something sharp, which shards are likely to be.
|-
|Shards||Broken pieces of smooth and hard objects, e.g. ceramic, glass, crystal. Something you would normally expect to be thrown out, rather than packed up for moving house.
|-
!Box 8
|-
|Shawls||Simple item of clothing, worn loosly over shoulders. Of rectangular shape, and is supposed to be worn in colder weather, winter.
|-
|Glucose||{{w|Glucose}} is possibly best-known as the sugar plants produce for energy, but can be manufactured.
|-
|Kits||A kit is any set of tools, supplies, and/or instructions for a specific purpose. These could be first aid kits, software development kits, bomb-making kits, sewing kits...
|-
!Box 9
|-
|Hydrants||{{w|Fire Hydrant}}s, which are likely too big to fit n boxes, and is also simply an odd object to be packing into a box.
|-
|Particles||As almost all matter is composed of {{w|particles}}, it is hard to find exceptions. Thus, this is very vague.
|-
|Knots||
|-
!Box 10
|-
|Graphite||
|-
|Taupe|| {{w|Taupe}}, a dark tan color in between brown and gray.
|-
!Box 11
|-
|Field Lines||
|-
!Box 12
|-
|Traps||May be a reference to 'My house is full of traps from [https://what-if.xkcd.com/34// What-If #34]
|-
!Box 13
|-
|Edges||
|-
|Tribes||
|-
|Dough||
|-
!Box 14
|-
|Dark Matter||{{w|Dark Matter}}
|-
!Box 15
|-
|Manifolds||
|-
!Box 16
|-
|Triangles||
|-
|Peat|| {{w|Peat}}, an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation that forms in wetland bogs, moors, mires, and swamps.
|-
|Crowns||
|-
!Box 17
|-
|Scrolls|| {{w|Scroll}}, a roll of papyrus, paper, or parchment that contains writing
|}

According to the title text, when Randall remembers that he is calling movers, he frantically scribbles "Normal House Stuff" on all the boxes. He says this makes the situation worse because the movers see the scribble and become suspicious.

==Transcript==
[A bunch of cardboard boxes stacked up, each labeled]
{| class="wikitable"
| style="visibility:hidden" |
| colspan="2" height="80px" width="80px" |
Grids 
Bison 
Checkerboards 
Fog
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px"|
Beacons 
Elves 
Sand
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Hemoglobin
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Water 
Hooves
| style="visibility:hidden" |
|-|
| style="visibility:hidden" |
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Shorebirds
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Oil 
Vectors 
Silt
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Membranes 
Shards
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Shawls 
Glucose 
Kits
| style="visibility:hidden" |
|-|
| style="visibility:hidden" |
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Hydrants 
Particles 
Knots
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Graphite 
Taupe
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Field Lines
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Traps
| style="visibility:hidden" |
|-|
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Edges 
Tribes 
Dough
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Dark Matter
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Manifolds
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Triangles 
Peat 
Crowns
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" |
Scrolls
|}
[A caption:]
I always forget to label my moving boxes until they're sealed up and I've forgotten what's in them.
{{comic discussion}}

1751: Movie Folder

2016-10-26T20:57:21Z

Tharkon: /* Black Hat's downloaded movies */ Unlikely to be coincidence that basketball is also played on a court.

{{comic
| number = 1751
| date = October 26, 2016
| title = Movie Folder
| image = movie_folder.png
| titletext = That's actually the original Japanese version of A Million Random Digits, which is much better than the American remake the book was based on.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Are there more to some of the titles? Are there other similar situations with these two guys?}}

[[Cueball]] is looking through [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] downloaded movies, which are all adaptations of non-literary works, improbable sequels, and/or crossovers between very disparate properties. Cueball reacts with increasing incredulity to Black Hat's collection, while Black Hat casually responds with equally unlikely (non-)explanations. Knowing Black Hat, his movie folder is deliberately weird just to provoke this kind of reaction.

In the real world, there are movies which can provoke similar shock. For example, many successful films get {{w|direct-to-video}} (or, now, {{w|direct-to-digital}}) sequels and spinoffs, often featuring none of the original cast and which get very little marketing. Therefore, someone might be surprised to know that there's an ''{{w|American Psycho 2}}'', a ''{{w|Starship Troopers 3: Marauder|Starship Troopers 3}}'', a ''{{w|Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief|Dr. Dolittle 4}}'', or a ''{{w|Bring It On: Fight to the Finish|Bring It On 5}}''. [[Randall]] previously made fun of the proliferation of direct-to-video sequels in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/65/ What If: Twitter Timeline Height], with at least 27 ''Land Before Time'' films (in reality, there were 14).

Another source of weird titles are {{w|mockbuster}}s. When a film uses a {{w|public domain}} property as its basis, or a title that is too generic to trademark, other studios will simply create their own films and pretend that they're a sequel to the more famous film. Examples include ''{{w|Titanic II (film)|Titanic II}}'', ''{{w|Troll 2}}'', ''{{w|Troll 3}}'', the ''other'' ''{{w|Quest for the Mighty Sword|Troll 3}}'', and ''{{w|War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave}}''.

Marketing wheezes have also produced some crossovers almost as unexpected as those in the comic - ''{{w|Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde}}'', ''{{w|Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery}}'' and ''{{w|Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter}}''.

A similar setting with Cueball and Black Hat also discussion movies was seen in [[493: Actuarial]]. Back then Black Hat was still reading newspapers.

Another type of comic where movie titles needs to be guessed from strange versions of the title was previously used in the [[:Category:Synonym Movies|Synonym Movies]] series.

=== Black Hat's downloaded movies ===
{|class="wikitable"
! Title
! Explanation
|-
| ''Lorem Ipsum: The Movie'' || ''{{w|Lorem Ipsum}}'' are the first two words of a common block of garbled Latin filler text used by typesetters to layout pages before real text is available. This title implies that this movie is entirely random filler with no meaningful content, although according to the Internet Movie Database, there is a 2011 movie titled [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2032487/ Lorem Ipsum].
|-
| ''Titanic XCVIII'' || The most famous film about the ship {{w|Titanic}} is {{w|James Cameron|James Cameron's}} {{w|Titanic (1997 movie)|''Titanic''}} from 1997. But there have been {{w|List of films about the RMS Titanic|several since then}} (at least five) some of which where probably trying to cash in on the name, especially the one called ''{{w|Titanic II (film)|Titanic II}}'', which is about a ship in 2012 called Titanic II. But the producers probably hoped some people would buy the DVD because they would believe it was a sequel to the 1997 movie, a real mockbuster, originally released directly for TV. Black Hat's dialogue implies the preceding films are about at least 97 different Titanics which all sank, creating an artificial reef, and this film is about the 98th (Roman numerals XCVIII = 98) hitting that reef (rather than an iceberg). Since Titanic rest on the Atlantic sea floor at a depth of 3,784 m (12,415 feet), each of the first ships would need to increase the hight of the "reef" with about 40 m (128 feet). Even though the ship was 53 m (175 feet) high, and the last 98th ship would stick to a depth of 20 m (65 feet), it is of course impossible to stack them in a more than 3 km high pile in this location to reach the surface.
|-
| ''Debbie Did 9/11'' || A combination of ''{{w|Debbie Does Dallas}}'', a 1970s porn film about a young woman trying for a cheerleader squad, and a {{w|9/11 conspiracy theory}}. Actual ''Debbie Does Dallas'' sequels include 5 numbered ones, two titled ''Debbie Does Dallas Again'', several with subtitles, and some parodies, unofficial sequels and spinoffs that - like the title quote here - change what Debbie does. IMDb lists, among others, ''Debbie Does Iowa'', ''Debbie Does Wall Street'', ''Debbie Does 'em All'' and ''Debbie Does Damnation''. But it is always Does and never Did... However, in this kind of movie when she does something it of course means to have sex, something that should be considered more innocent than terrorism, although [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ar-torre/sex-violence-book_b_5571674.html many people] would rather their children watch the 9/11 disaster than even a soft porn movie... So they would probably buy this movie.
|-
| ''Time Jam: A Connecticut Huskie on King Arthur's Court'' || A combination of the novel ''{{w|A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court}}'' by {{w|Mark Twain}} and the 1996 movie ''{{w|Space Jam}}''. Mark Twain's story is one of the first {{w|time travel}} stories, while ''Space Jam'' stars {{w|Michael Jordan}} and features the {{w|Looney Tunes}} cartoon characters playing basketball against aliens in a real space jam. The mention of a husky is a reference to the University of Connecticut sports teams called the {{w|Connecticut Huskies}}. So in this movie it is one of these sports people who get Time Jammed (rather than Space jammed) back to the fictional {{w|King Arthur|King Arthur's}} {{w|Court (royal)|court}} in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. The use of court is likely also a reference to basketball courts.
|-
| ''Harold and Kumar Go to Howl's Moving Castle'' || A combination of ''{{w|Harold and Kumar go to White Castle}}'' - about the meandering and very adult adventures of {{w|Harold and Kumar}} (a pair of stoners) - and ''{{w|Howl's Moving Castle (film)|Howl's Moving Castle}}'' - a tender, often philosophical children's {{w|anime}} film by {{w|Hayao Miyazaki}}, based on a novel by {{w|Diana Wynne Jones}}.
|-
| ''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates'' || This is actually {{w|A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates|a real book from 1955}} (also referenced in [[1210: I'm So Random]]) - back before scientists had access to computers that could easily generate random numbers, this book was very useful for statistics and for setting up scientific experiments. The book is {{w|File:Random digits.png|literally just a list of numbers}}, so there would be no movie in it except for flashing numbers on a screen. Black Hat comment on it though and states that the movie came before the book, which was a {{w|novelization}} of the film. The '''title text''' calls back to this movie as it talks about ''A Million Random Digits'' again and says that it is an adaptation of Japanese version. But in modern world digits are universal, so it is hard to understand how an adaptation would be different from original, unless they used {{w|Japanese numerals}} (which are rarely used for mathematical purposes). But it is very common that great/successful Japanese movies (or any other countries great movies) are made in to (often mediocre) remakes in Hollywood, like for instance the famous horror movie ''{{w|Ring (film)|Ring}}'' from 1998 which was remade in America as {{w|The Ring (2002 film)|The Ring}} in 2002.
|-
| ''Michael Bay's The Vagina Monologues'' || ''{{w|The Vagina Monologues}}'' is a famous play by {{w|Eve Ensler}}. All that happens in it is a series of women talk frankly about their bodies, their sexuality and their lives. There's no space in it for explosions, but {{w|Michael Bay}} (who is known for especially for the modern {{w|Transformers (film series)|Transformers movies}} as well as {{w|The Rock (film)|The Rock}} and {{w|Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon}} is also known for his [http://www.thewrap.com/megan-fox-quit-transformers-over-michael-bays-abuse-17614/ rather unfeminist behavior] and over-doing explosions in the movies he directs) found a way. Black Hat comments that he found it good in-spite of all those {{w|Computer-generated imagery|CGI}} explosions.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is sitting in an armchair, with the right arm on the armrest and looking at his smartphone held in his left hand, when a voice from behind him (off-panel left) addresses him. It turns out in the next panels that it is Cueball.]
:Cueball (off-panel): Your movie folder is so ''weird''. Where do you find all this stuff?
:Black Hat: Dunno.
:Black Hat: Around.

:[In an frame-less panel Cueball is seen sitting in an office chair at a desk facing left. He is looking at Black Hat's computer while typing on the keyboard which is on a shelve lower than the regular desk surface. Black Hat replies to his queries from behind him off-panel right.]
:Cueball: ''Lorem Ipsum: The Movie?''
:Cueball: ''Titanic XCVIII?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): That series gets good when they start hitting the reef created by all the previous wrecks.

:[Cueball leans in closer to the screen.]
:Cueball: ''Debbie Did 9/11?''
:Cueball: ''Time Jam: A Connecticut Huskie on King Arthur's Court?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): Really underrated ''Space Jam'' sequel.

:[Zoom in on the scene so nothing beneath the keyboard is visible. The screen and Cueballs head almost spans the width of the panel.]
:Cueball: ''Harold and Kumar Go to Howl's Moving Castle?''
:Cueball: ''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): That's the original-the book was a novelization.

:[Back to Black Hat sitting in the chair as in the first panel, but leaning a bit further back and the arm on the armrest has been moved closer to him.]
:Cueball (off-panel): ''Michael Bay's The Vagina Monologues!?''
:Black Hat: It's pretty good, despite all the CGI explosions.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

1751: Movie Folder

2016-10-26T20:54:23Z

Tharkon:

{{comic
| number = 1751
| date = October 26, 2016
| title = Movie Folder
| image = movie_folder.png
| titletext = That's actually the original Japanese version of A Million Random Digits, which is much better than the American remake the book was based on.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Are there more to some of the titles? Are there other similar situations with these two guys?}}

[[Cueball]] is looking through [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] downloaded movies, which are all adaptations of non-literary works, improbable sequels, and/or crossovers between very disparate properties. Cueball reacts with increasing incredulity to Black Hat's collection, while Black Hat casually responds with equally unlikely (non-)explanations. Knowing Black Hat, his movie folder is deliberately weird just to provoke this kind of reaction.

In the real world, there are movies which can provoke similar shock. For example, many successful films get {{w|direct-to-video}} (or, now, {{w|direct-to-digital}}) sequels and spinoffs, often featuring none of the original cast and which get very little marketing. Therefore, someone might be surprised to know that there's an ''{{w|American Psycho 2}}'', a ''{{w|Starship Troopers 3: Marauder|Starship Troopers 3}}'', a ''{{w|Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief|Dr. Dolittle 4}}'', or a ''{{w|Bring It On: Fight to the Finish|Bring It On 5}}''. [[Randall]] previously made fun of the proliferation of direct-to-video sequels in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/65/ What If: Twitter Timeline Height], with at least 27 ''Land Before Time'' films (in reality, there were 14).

Another source of weird titles are {{w|mockbuster}}s. When a film uses a {{w|public domain}} property as its basis, or a title that is too generic to trademark, other studios will simply create their own films and pretend that they're a sequel to the more famous film. Examples include ''{{w|Titanic II (film)|Titanic II}}'', ''{{w|Troll 2}}'', ''{{w|Troll 3}}'', the ''other'' ''{{w|Quest for the Mighty Sword|Troll 3}}'', and ''{{w|War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave}}''.

Marketing wheezes have also produced some crossovers almost as unexpected as those in the comic - ''{{w|Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde}}'', ''{{w|Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery}}'' and ''{{w|Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter}}''.

A similar setting with Cueball and Black Hat also discussion movies was seen in [[493: Actuarial]]. Back then Black Hat was still reading newspapers.

Another type of comic where movie titles needs to be guessed from strange versions of the title was previously used in the [[:Category:Synonym Movies|Synonym Movies]] series.

=== Black Hat's downloaded movies ===
{|class="wikitable"
! Title
! Explanation
|-
| ''Lorem Ipsum: The Movie'' || ''{{w|Lorem Ipsum}}'' are the first two words of a common block of garbled Latin filler text used by typesetters to layout pages before real text is available. This title implies that this movie is entirely random filler with no meaningful content, although according to the Internet Movie Database, there is a 2011 movie titled [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2032487/ Lorem Ipsum].
|-
| ''Titanic XCVIII'' || The most famous film about the ship {{w|Titanic}} is {{w|James Cameron|James Cameron's}} {{w|Titanic (1997 movie)|''Titanic''}} from 1997. But there have been {{w|List of films about the RMS Titanic|several since then}} (at least five) some of which where probably trying to cash in on the name, especially the one called ''{{w|Titanic II (film)|Titanic II}}'', which is about a ship in 2012 called Titanic II. But the producers probably hoped some people would buy the DVD because they would believe it was a sequel to the 1997 movie, a real mockbuster, originally released directly for TV. Black Hat's dialogue implies the preceding films are about at least 97 different Titanics which all sank, creating an artificial reef, and this film is about the 98th (Roman numerals XCVIII = 98) hitting that reef (rather than an iceberg). Since Titanic rest on the Atlantic sea floor at a depth of 3,784 m (12,415 feet), each of the first ships would need to increase the hight of the "reef" with about 40 m (128 feet). Even though the ship was 53 m (175 feet) high, and the last 98th ship would stick to a depth of 20 m (65 feet), it is of course impossible to stack them in a more than 3 km high pile in this location to reach the surface.
|-
| ''Debbie Did 9/11'' || A combination of ''{{w|Debbie Does Dallas}}'', a 1970s porn film about a young woman trying for a cheerleader squad, and a {{w|9/11 conspiracy theory}}. Actual ''Debbie Does Dallas'' sequels include 5 numbered ones, two titled ''Debbie Does Dallas Again'', several with subtitles, and some parodies, unofficial sequels and spinoffs that - like the title quote here - change what Debbie does. IMDb lists, among others, ''Debbie Does Iowa'', ''Debbie Does Wall Street'', ''Debbie Does 'em All'' and ''Debbie Does Damnation''. But it is always Does and never Did... However, in this kind of movie when she does something it of course means to have sex, something that should be considered more innocent than terrorism, although [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ar-torre/sex-violence-book_b_5571674.html many people] would rather their children watch the 9/11 disaster than even a soft porn movie... So they would probably buy this movie.
|-
| ''Time Jam: A Connecticut Huskie on King Arthur's Court'' || A combination of the novel ''{{w|A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court}}'' by {{w|Mark Twain}} and the 1996 movie ''{{w|Space Jam}}''. Mark Twain's story is one of the first {{w|time travel}} stories, while ''Space Jam'' stars {{w|Michael Jordan}} and features the {{w|Looney Tunes}} cartoon characters playing basketball against aliens in a real space jam. The mention of a husky is a reference to the University of Connecticut sports teams called the {{w|Connecticut Huskies}}. So in this movie it is one of these sports people who get Time Jammed (rather than Space jammed) back to the fictional {{w|King Arthur|King Arthur's}} {{w|Court (royal)|court}} in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD.
|-
| ''Harold and Kumar Go to Howl's Moving Castle'' || A combination of ''{{w|Harold and Kumar go to White Castle}}'' - about the meandering and very adult adventures of {{w|Harold and Kumar}} (a pair of stoners) - and ''{{w|Howl's Moving Castle (film)|Howl's Moving Castle}}'' - a tender, often philosophical children's {{w|anime}} film by {{w|Hayao Miyazaki}}, based on a novel by {{w|Diana Wynne Jones}}.
|-
| ''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates'' || This is actually {{w|A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates|a real book from 1955}} (also referenced in [[1210: I'm So Random]]) - back before scientists had access to computers that could easily generate random numbers, this book was very useful for statistics and for setting up scientific experiments. The book is {{w|File:Random digits.png|literally just a list of numbers}}, so there would be no movie in it except for flashing numbers on a screen. Black Hat comment on it though and states that the movie came before the book, which was a {{w|novelization}} of the film. The '''title text''' calls back to this movie as it talks about ''A Million Random Digits'' again and says that it is an adaptation of Japanese version. But in modern world digits are universal, so it is hard to understand how an adaptation would be different from original, unless they used {{w|Japanese numerals}} (which are rarely used for mathematical purposes). But it is very common that great/successful Japanese movies (or any other countries great movies) are made in to (often mediocre) remakes in Hollywood, like for instance the famous horror movie ''{{w|Ring (film)|Ring}}'' from 1998 which was remade in America as {{w|The Ring (2002 film)|The Ring}} in 2002.
|-
| ''Michael Bay's The Vagina Monologues'' || ''{{w|The Vagina Monologues}}'' is a famous play by {{w|Eve Ensler}}. All that happens in it is a series of women talk frankly about their bodies, their sexuality and their lives. There's no space in it for explosions, but {{w|Michael Bay}} (who is known for especially for the modern {{w|Transformers (film series)|Transformers movies}} as well as {{w|The Rock (film)|The Rock}} and {{w|Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon}} is also known for his [http://www.thewrap.com/megan-fox-quit-transformers-over-michael-bays-abuse-17614/ rather unfeminist behavior] and over-doing explosions in the movies he directs) found a way. Black Hat comments that he found it good in-spite of all those {{w|Computer-generated imagery|CGI}} explosions.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is sitting in an armchair, with the right arm on the armrest and looking at his smartphone held in his left hand, when a voice from behind him (off-panel left) addresses him. It turns out in the next panels that it is Cueball.]
:Cueball (off-panel): Your movie folder is so ''weird''. Where do you find all this stuff?
:Black Hat: Dunno.
:Black Hat: Around.

:[In an frame-less panel Cueball is seen sitting in an office chair at a desk facing left. He is looking at Black Hat's computer while typing on the keyboard which is on a shelve lower than the regular desk surface. Black Hat replies to his queries from behind him off-panel right.]
:Cueball: ''Lorem Ipsum: The Movie?''
:Cueball: ''Titanic XCVIII?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): That series gets good when they start hitting the reef created by all the previous wrecks.

:[Cueball leans in closer to the screen.]
:Cueball: ''Debbie Did 9/11?''
:Cueball: ''Time Jam: A Connecticut Huskie on King Arthur's Court?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): Really underrated ''Space Jam'' sequel.

:[Zoom in on the scene so nothing beneath the keyboard is visible. The screen and Cueballs head almost spans the width of the panel.]
:Cueball: ''Harold and Kumar Go to Howl's Moving Castle?''
:Cueball: ''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): That's the original-the book was a novelization.

:[Back to Black Hat sitting in the chair as in the first panel, but leaning a bit further back and the arm on the armrest has been moved closer to him.]
:Cueball (off-panel): ''Michael Bay's The Vagina Monologues!?''
:Black Hat: It's pretty good, despite all the CGI explosions.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

1717: Pyramid Honey

2016-08-08T17:58:30Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1717
| date = August 8, 2016
| title = Pyramid Honey
| image = pyramid_honey.png
| titletext = They CLAIM honey was found in the chambers under the pyramids, but this conspiracy goes all the way to the TOP, where the GIANT EYE is!
}}

==Explanation==
Bee honey is a food item with natural antimicrobial properties. It can remain unspoiled for a person's entire lifetime, making it practically nonperishable for ordinary consumers. It is frequently claimed that archaeologists have found jars of honey that have been well-preserved for thousands of years in ancient tombs. The claims are generally assertions which may point to other similar assertions as supporting evidence but do not provide specific details, such as the identity of the actual tombs where such jars have been found, nor the names of the archaeologists who have affirmed finding such jars. The commonality of the assertion, however, leads some people to claim that honey's shelf life is "infinite", which is a much stronger claim which would not be supported by the assertion even if it is shown to be factual.

In the comic, Cueball tells Megan about an article on ''Smithsonian Magazine'' (presumably [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-behind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690/ this one]) that claims honey has an infinite shelf life. The article links to a book which makes the assertion of such findings but does not provide factual support of the findings. Megan thinks the sources of the article are wrong and wants to refute it. Black Hat, upon hearing Megan's claim that the Smithsonian Magazine's source is wrong, immediately decides to spread it on the Internet without giving Megan a chance explain any further.

Black Hat's actions are clearly premature, since he has not heard any evidence to back up the claim and does not understand the nuances of Megan's position. Presumably, the best he can do would be to parrot what he has heard from Megan, without any understanding or critical thinking on his part. Due to his lack of understanding, he may even interject his own ideas (ones Megan never believed nor stated) into his posts. These are all consistent with him calling himself "pyramid honey truther". The word ''truther'' refers to people who reject established facts and instead choose to believe in conspiracies, like people who claim the moon landing never happened or people who believe the US government is behind the 9/11 attacks. This turns Megan, who likely has a reasonable and well-justified position, unwillingly into the source of conspiracy theories.

The alt-text refers to the {{w|Eye of Providence}}, a symbol of an eye at the top of a pyramid, found on US currency.

This comic is likely a satire of the stereotypical internet mindset, and plays up the frequent confusion between legitimate scientific scepticism, where unsupported claims are rejected, and conspiracy-theory faux-scepticism, where legitimate evidence is rejected because it does not support a specific viewpoint.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are talking]
:Cuball: Apparently honey has an infinite shelf life. They just found jars of it in the pyramids, still good.
:Megan: You know, I've heard that, and I don't think its true.

:[Black hat enters]
:Cueball: Really? Smithsonian magazine confirmed it.
:Megan: Believe it or not, I think their source is wrong.
:Black Hat: '''''I believe you.'''''

:Megan: See I read about the archeologists who-
:Black Hat: I'm convinced. Gonna go to tell the internet.

:Megan: Wait, are you sure? Let me explain why-
:Black Hat: Don't need it. I've heard enough.

:Black Hat: I've been looking for a weird hill to die on, and all the real ones are to far from my house. So this is mine. I'm now a pyramid honey truther.

:Black hat: Time to start a Facebook group and post a bunch of all-caps comments everywhere.
:Cueball: This could have gone better.
:Megan: Oh well.

:Alt-text: They CLAIM honey was found in the chambers under the pyramids, but this conspiracy goes all the way to the TOP, where the GIANT EYE is!

{{comic discussion}}

1706: Genetic Testing

2016-07-14T21:24:08Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1706
| date = July 13, 2016
| title = Genetic Testing
| image = genetic_testing.png
| titletext = Plus, now I know that I have risk factors for elbow dysplasia, heartworm, parvo, and mange.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has sent a DNA sample to a {{w|genetic genealogy}} company. It is inferred that he has sent his own sample, but that is not necessarily the case. Apparently he sent it to a {{w|purebred dog|dog pedigree}} company, meaning that the results show what dog the DNA matches. [[Megan]], assuming he was referring to a human sample, thusly comments that he sent it to the wrong company. Only [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1207_051207_dog_genome.html 5% of DNA] is shared between humans and dogs, so we are genetically very different. In spite of the DNA test clearly showing a canine sample was submitted, Cueball clearly does not understand that he needed to send ''his own'' sample for testing, and assumes that he must be more canine than human. He decides to abstain from eating chocolate, because he figures he is probably highly susceptible to {{w|theobromine poisoning|poisoning from theobromine}}, a compound found in chocolates which causes seizures and heart failure in dogs (and many other creatures). Basically, if Cueball really is a dog, then eating chocolate could kill him.

One would assume that both human and canine DNA analysing services would be able to tell if the sample they received was not from the species they were set up to analyse. In this comic, there are alternative explanations that Cueball actually sent his own DNA to a dog pedigree company, and they couldn't tell the difference, or that Cueball is actually a dog with excellent human impersonation skills.

===Title Text===
The title text refers to the fact that certain dog breeds are more or less susceptible to disease. The diseases he mentions, {{w|elbow dysplasia}}, {{w|Dirofilaria immitis|heartworm}}, {{w|parvovirus|parvo virus}} and {{w|mange}} are several diseases that can end up killing, disfiguring or disabling dogs. While the information is useful for dog owners, as it tells them what diseases they should keep an eye out for, it is unnecessary for humans, as we can express illnesses to other people, and are largely unaffected by these diseases. However, knowing your ancestors (as Cueball was trying to do) is important for figuring out your family's medical history. Had he received legitimate results, he could then look for diseases his ancestors had (or died of) and thus, he would be aware of the risk factors, exactly like he ended up with, albeit irrelevant for him.

==Alternative Explanation==
[[Cueball]] states that he has sent a sample of his DNA to a {{w|genetic genealogy}} service. However, it appears that he is mistaken and has actually sent it to a {{w|purebred dog|dog ancestry}} service, intended to determine what dog breeds a particular dog comes from, meaning that the results show what dog breeds Cueball's DNA most closely matches (although the results would obviously be incorrect, as Cueball is unlikely to contain actual canine DNA and canine DNA analysis procedures would return false results when applied to human DNA). [[Megan]] realises that he has mistaken the service for a genealogy service, although Cueball interprets the results seriously and starts believing that he may in fact be more canine than human, leading him to consider abstaining from eating chocolate (which is harmful for dogs) and (as mentioned in the title text) the diseases which, as a dog, he would be prone to.

The "5% Other" result in Cueball's DNA breakdown is a reference to the fact that [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1207_051207_dog_genome.html 5% of DNA] is shared between humans and dogs.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball and Megan are talking to each other]
:Cueball: I sent a DNA sample to one of those "Trace your ancestry" projects.
:Megan: How legit are those?
:Cueball: No idea. I just figured it'd be fun.

:Six weeks later...
:[Cueball walks towards Megan with a letter in his hand]
:Cueball: Sweet, got my results back.
:Megan: Ooh, share!

:Ancestry Report
::48% Labrador Retriever
::35% Beagle
::12% Cocker Spaniel
::5% Other

:[Megan is holding the report]
:Megan: I think you sent your sample to the wrong service.
:Cueball: Just in case, I should probably start avoiding chocolate.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1705: Pokémon Go

2016-07-12T16:04:27Z

Tharkon:

I think the pets in title text are meant as real life pets such as dogs - otherwise "pokémon" would probably be used, not "pets". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.95.129|141.101.95.129]] 07:52, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

I downloaded it and pointed at my girlfriend's ass. There was a Poliwrath sitting on it glaring at me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.150|162.158.214.150]]

Limited edition Randall Pokemon?!?!? I gotta catch them all! {{unsigned ip|162.158.214.149}}

Davidy22 is a nofunallowed and deletes the barrier that separates nonsensical shitposting from relevant discussion. Therefore: SHOULD DAVIDY22 BE SENTENCED TO LIFE IN DEATH? The rules are EZ. Either vote "Yes!" to make Davidy22 have to catch all the pokemon therefore sacrificing his life, or vote "I'm Stupid" if you're an asshole and nobody likes you and you don't want to see him punished. PROTIP! Deleting this means you're buttmad and you're literally worse than hitler. #legit #truefacts #NickRidgway #EndicaVII #TheDreamKing #DreamWithin [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.64|173.245.50.64]]

:"I'm Stupid". {{Color|#707|David}}y²² performs a valuable volunteer service around here and we should be glad to have him. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 01:52, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

:Boy, I didn't even leave for very long. Title was literally pointless, so I removed it. Avoid using headers like that, and I'm already playing pokemon go '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:18, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

:I bet this person is mad that Pokemon GO is stealing potential sales from the game they totally discovered on accident, and definitely have no part in its development at all. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.156|108.162.215.156]] 11:50, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

:i need memes to control my autism or i will die[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.231|162.158.214.231]] 9faggot

Now I don't play the game myself but I have doubts that the images are placed over the front camera image. Shouldn't it say rear camera image? Or are the Pokémon displayed next to your face? [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 16:04, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1702: Home Itch Remedies

2016-07-04T21:54:00Z

Tharkon:

Taking a hot (enough) shower is actually a remedy as it denatures the proteins causing the itching. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.131|162.158.86.131]] 14:14, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
: Why don't you add that in the explanation? It would help. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.83|108.162.218.83]] 14:17, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

: "...hot (enough) shower...." {{Citation needed}} [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.113|162.158.255.113]] 15:42, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Chiggers are not spiders. [[User:Stealth101|Stealth101]] ([[User talk:Stealth101|talk]]) 15:50, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

: Changed spider to chigger. Chiggers may itch like the devil, but are nowhere as severe as spiders. [[User:Monolith|Monolith]] ([[User talk:Monolith|talk]]) 15:59, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Somehow, I was expecting the explanation of the remedy to take so long that Megan got distracted away from the itch, or something. After all, the folk remedy I heard most is “Don't think about it.” {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.104}}

This explanation in its current form misses one of the best jokes of the piece: Cueball's comment that it "sounds effective". Seems to me that he's under the genuine belief that Megan's 'home remedy' is effective, simply because it's a home remedy. Solid meta-humour. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.119|141.101.98.119]] 17:35, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

What? No Juno? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.238|108.162.215.238]] 20:55, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Anyone else think there is a pun in the title text in home remedy, since the remedy involves changing where your home is. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 21:53, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1672: Women on 20s

2016-04-25T23:06:02Z

Tharkon:

One (potentially) legitimate concern I have seen expressed regarding the proposed rollout date for the redesigned $20s is that we may not be using paper money anymore by then!
[[User:Rajakiit|Raj-a-Kiit]] ([[User talk:Rajakiit|talk]]) 13:01, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

The weird creepy looking eye thing is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Providence Eye of Providence]. And now that Randall mentioned it, I somehow have an intense emotional need to see a series of US currency with the Eye of Providence as the featured portrait on every bill....

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.23|108.162.217.23]] 14:46, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

The real question: why can't the Treasury leave the $10 bill alone, redesign the $20 bill (with Harriet Tubman on both sides), and release that redesign in the 2020s as planned? There is no rush here, so long as it is done.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.61|173.245.50.61]] 15:34, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

There's been a furor over here in the UK about (losing) a woman from our paper money. (Not the Queen, at least not just yet, although having just turned 90...) Only the other day, though, they announced the [http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/pages/characters/nexttwenty.aspx new £20 note] (JMW Turner, the painter) set for release (as a polymer note) in 2020... And I couldn't help feeling that the fallout from the referendum, if not other events, might easily make this matter moot. One way or another ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.137|141.101.98.137]] 16:33, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

What is the "Security" issue referred to in the title text?

I'd assume he's referring to security features meant to prevent/deter counterfeiting. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.214.209|108.162.214.209]] 21:12, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

I don't get what all the fuss is about what picture is on the money. I don't even know what picture is on any of the euro bills. *Grabs a 10, 20 and 50 from wallet.* I still don't know. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 23:06, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

1665: City Talk Pages

2016-04-08T19:55:34Z

Tharkon:

{{comic
| number = 1665
| date = April 8, 2016
| title = City Talk Pages
| image = city talk pages.png
| titletext = "I don't think the Lakeshore Air Crash Museum really belongs under 'Tourist Attractions.' It's not a museum--it's just an area near the Lake Festival Laser Show where a lot of planes have crashed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|So far only listing references to items. A real explanation needs to be written together from this and more. Title text explanation needed. Real life examples of such city talk pages with at least the more realistic part of the content? There need to be a table with each item?}}

The comic makes fun about Wikipedia talk pages. In the Wikipedia every page has a place to discuss the content of the page, called a "{{w|Help:Using talk pages|talk page}}". In this case, the comic talks about the talk page of an article about a city. While some of the topics are quite normal for such a page (e.g. the quality of the images) others are not (e.g. too many murders and mine disasters in the city).

The topics show a common problem at Wikipedia's talk pages: People often use them as a place to talk about the ''subject'' of the article, but it is for talking about the ''article'' itself.

The {{w|WP:Infobox|infobox}} is a short fact sheet that many articles in the (English) Wikipedia have; it generally includes an image illustrating the subject of the article. The question of which picture is best for the infobox (because this image is so prominent) can cause edit wars.

{{w|Voltaire}} was a French Enlightenment writer. As a prominent and very opinionated intellectual, [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire#Misattributed he gets a lot of quotes falsely attributed to him]; most famously, he did not actually say "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (that was {{w|Evelyn Beatrice Hall}}).

{{w|Zootopia}} is a 2016 Disney film.

{{w|Andrew Lloyd Webber}} is an English composer famous for writing ''The {{w|Phantom Of The Opera}}''. (Webber is also known for writing the music for ''{{w|Starlight Express}}'', a rock opera about anthropomorphized trains, which is probably another factor in the train station joke.) Meanwhile, {{w|Frank Lloyd Wright}}, who has a somewhat similar name, was an American architect, who designed more than 1,000 structures. As it turns out it was the composer who was responsible for the train station, and thus explaining the reason for the roof collapse.

In the comic ''Webber'' is spelled ''Weber''. This could be a mistake by [[Randall]], (but then it it likely to be corrected later...) More likely Randall did this for the sake of realism as this is what can be expected by people writing in a talk page on Wikipedia, where errors are not necessarily corrected as they would be in the main article.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel: ]
:I love reading the Wikipedia talk pages for articles on individual cites

:[A list of contents for a Wikipedia talk page regarding an article about a city. Except for the header and the square brackets, which are written in black text, the rest is in a blue font.]
:::Contents [Hide]

:1 Origin of city's name?
::1.1 Idea for a better name
::1.2 Not how Wikipedia works
:2 Too much promotion of the lake festival
:3 Should we mention the murders?
::3.1 Not that notable
::3.2 All cites have murders
:4 Quote verification: Even if Voltaire did visit (unlikely), why would he get so angry about our restaurants?
:5 Discuss: New picture
::5.1 Current one looks awfully bleak
::5.2 Gray sky
::5.3 What about this
::5.4 Also bleak
::5.5 Maybe this place just looks that way
::5.6 Found a better picture, more colorful
::5.7 That's a shot from Disney's ''Zootopia''
:6 "Mining disasters" section too long
::6.1 Not really Wikipedia's fault
::6.2 Why is this town so bad at mining?
:7 Infobox picture: I just realized you can see a murder happening in the background
::7.1 This city is terrible
::7.2 Photoshopped out murder
::7.3 Can someone just take a better picture
::7.4 Okay, uploaded a new picture
::7.5 Wait, never mind, I just noticed there's a murder in this one, too
:8 1982 secession still in effect?
:9 I think the murderer is reverting my edits
:10 Why does this article take '''''any''''' position on correct condom use, let alone such a weird and ambiguous one?
:11 Train station "Designed by Andrew Lloyd Weber"?
::11.1 They probably mean Frank Lloyd Wright
::11.2 I thought so too, but it's apparently not a mistake
::11.3 Didn't know he did architecture
::11.4 Roof collapse

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

1643: Degrees

2016-02-17T23:29:49Z

Tharkon: /* Degrees Celsius */ The actual melting point of ice is very slightly (less than a thousandth of a degree) below 0 °C.

{{comic
| number = 1643
| date = February 15, 2016
| title = Degrees
| image = degrees.png
| titletext = "Radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius?" "Uh, sorry, gotta go!"
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is being asked by a friend for the {{w|temperature}}. While he is checking his smartphone for the weather, he begins pondering what unit he should use when answering the question. (See below for [[#Cueball's reasoning|Cueball's reasoning]]).

In the US (where Cueball and [[Randall]] are from), the {{w|Conversion of units of temperature|temperature scale}} used in daily life is {{w|Fahrenheit}}. However, {{w|Celsius}} is commonly used for science, even in the US. Most of the rest of the world also uses Celsius in daily life.

:'''The Celsius scale''' is from the {{w|metric system}}. Though this system has been officially sanctioned for use in the US since 1866, it is not frequently used in daily American life, although it is the preferred system for trade and commerce according to the {{w|Metric Conversion Act}} of 1975. The US remains the only industrialized country that has not adopted the metric system as its official system of measurement. The unit ''degree Celsius'' or °C is an accepted {{w|International System of Units#Derived units|derived unit}} from the {{w|International System of Units}} (SI units) used in science (which again is the modern form of the metric system). The SI unit of temperature is the {{w|Kelvin}}, but this temperature scale is linearly related to the Celsius scale, which is why Celsius can be derived from it.
:'''The Fahrenheit scale''' is from the {{w|United States customary units|US Customary system}}, also known internationally as the (British) {{w|Imperial units|Imperial system}}. The unit is ''degree Fahrenheit'' or °F, and the relation to the Celsius scale is not easy to find in a mental calculation. The relations are: [°F] = [°C]*9⁄5 + 32 or [°C] = ([°F] − 32)×5⁄9. (For this exact reason Randall has previously made a helpful table for these situations in [[526: Converting to Metric]]).

Cueball weighs up the benefits of both scales, but fails to find a solution he can live with, and since he feels he has to give his friend an answer now, he panics and gives the answer 0.173 {{w|radians}}.
:'''Radian''' is the standard unit of angular measure, used in many areas of mathematics. An angle's measurement in radians is numerically equal to the length of a corresponding arc of a {{w|unit circle}}. It has no units and is denoted with the superscript c, but more commonly rad, lest it be confused with {{w|Degree (angle)|angular degrees}}.
:'''Angular degrees''' is a system used to measure {{w|angles}} in {{w|geometry}}, and although it used the unit ° it has nothing to do with temperature gradations of whichever scale.

Thus, this answer is unhelpful and the joke is that traditionally both geometrical angles and temperature is measured in degrees, but there is not the slightest degree of correlation between the two.

The title text indicates that Cueball's friend still wants to know whether the answer is in radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius, which, despite being a silly way to express temperature would actually enable the friend to get some meaning out of the reply. But this just takes Cueball back to the problem he failed to solve in the first place of choosing one scale above the other, so suddenly he has to go, and he runs off without ever clarifying what he meant. This result is probably because he is afraid of being a bad friend according to his very last point regarding Fahrenheit: ''Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend.''

The answer Cueball gives of 0.173 radians corresponds to a geometric angle 9.91° (0.173*360°/2π). If this were "radians Celsius" it would be 9.91 °C corresponding to 49.8 °F and if it were "radians Fahrenheit" it would be 9.91 °F corresponding to -12.3 °C. [http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/02/13/new-england-freezing-temperatures-valentines-day-weekend/ Given the temperatures] in {{w|Massachusetts}} (where Randall lives) when this comic came out, the day after Valentines day 2016, Cueball was probably giving his answer in radians Fahrenheit.

=== Cueball's reasoning ===
==== Degrees Celsius ====

; International standard
: Degrees Celsius is derived unit in the SI system of units used to measure temperature in most countries today. Using the SI system would allow Cueball to be easily understood in most countries and is by far the most recognized system, but it is not the most commonly used in the United States, his actual location in the comic.
; Helps reduce America's weird isolationism
: The United States uses its own set of units, including degrees Fahrenheit, called the United States Customary system and similar but not equal to the Imperial system, in contrast to most of the rest of the world which uses the SI system. The US's system of units is therefore considered "weird" as it makes the US different from most of the world, but previous efforts to convert the US to the SI system have failed. Cueball evidently believes that by using SI units he will help to eventually convert the US to the SI system, bringing considerable trade and tourism benefits and reducing confusion when dealing with foreigners.
; Nice how "negative" means below freezing
: On the Celsius scale, the freezing point of water at standard atmospheric pressure (101.325 kilopascals) is very close to 0 °C, and any temperature below that is "below" the freezing point. The Fahrenheit scale uses different points of reference (human body temperature for the upper calibration and a water/ammonium chloride chemical reaction for the lower calibration), and as a result the freezing point of water is a less memorable 32 °F.
; Physics major loyalty
: Cueball is apparently a physics major, like Randall, and SI units are more commonly used for scientific work (as the Kelvin scale is sometimes used in advanced Physics), even in the US. By using the Celsius scale in casual conversation he would show his loyalty to the system used by actual physicists.
; Easier to spell
: "Celsius" is generally considered to be an easier word to spell than the German surname "Fahrenheit" (At least this is the case for Cueball, but not necessarily for those who more commonly use Fahrenheit than Celsius). In this case the word is being spoken and the point is not immediately relevant, but part of the joke is that Cueball is overthinking things and worrying about the general use of the word when an answer is needed in this specific case.
; We lost a Mars probe over this crap
: The {{w|Mars Climate Orbiter|Mars Climate Orbiter}} disintegrated in Mars' atmosphere because Lockheed used US Customary units instead of the contractually specified metric units. Note that this had nothing to do with temperature scales, but was the use of the unit pound-seconds where newton-seconds should have been used. This was a great and tragic loss for science in general, Mars exploration in particular, and thus also for Randall who has shown deep interest in any kind of space exploration, especially regarding Mars (more or less mentioning all Mars rovers in his comics so far).

==== Degrees Fahrenheit ====

; 0°F to 100°F good match for temperature range in which most humans live
: While it makes sense to use Celsius temperatures for scientific or engineering measurements - or even cooking - where the freezing and boiling points of water (0 °C and 100 °C, respectively) are both significant, 0 °F and 100 °F correspond to "just about as cold as it gets" and "just about as hot as it gets" in temperate zones, thereby making Fahrenheit a useful temperature scale for weather reporting where most people live. By contrast, in Celsius a range of common temperatures in temperate zones is -20 °C to 40 °C, which is a less intuitive range for those used to the Fahrenheit scale.
; Rounds more usefully (70's, 90's)
: An argument sometimes heard for the continued use of Fahrenheit temperatures is that each 10 degrees change is meaningful in how we feel the temperature. Thus, it is convenient to talk about the temperature being in the 70's today, or in the 90's, etc. Since the Celsius degrees are almost twice as large, a similar statement about the temperature being in the 20's or 30's is not as useful, unless more precision is added by using phrases like low 20's or high 30's. However, this seems likely to be more a matter of which scale you are used to using than anything inherent in one scale or the other.
; Unit-aware computing makes Imperial less annoying
: If you need to constantly convert between Imperial and SI measurements in your head, or even between different Imperial units (e.g., ounces and pounds), it gets annoying and is a strong argument for everyone using metric measurements all the time. But, when it is easy to get the temperature - or any other measurement - reported in whatever units you want just by selecting the units you want your computer to report, then the annoyance is minimized, and the arguments for why we should stop using a familiar scale are weakened. Note that Cueball is looking at his smart-phone to get the current temperature.
:As many Americans, Randall is confusing the {{w|United States customary units|United States customary system}} with the {{w|Imperial system}} used in most of the rest of the English speaking world. In both systems temperature is measured in degrees Fahrenheit.
; SI prefixes are less relevant for temperatures
: One of the nice things about SI measurements is how the same basic unit scales by factors of 10 with common prefixes - e.g., kilometer, millimeter, kilogram, milligram, etc. Imperial measurements don't have this feature - you don't talk about long distances as kiloinches or small weights as millipounds. But, we generally don't use multiple units for atmospheric temperature (millidegrees or kilodegrees), so this argument for using SI measurements for length, mass, volume, etc., isn't as applicable for temperature scales.
; Fahrenheit is likely more clear in this context
: Cueball apparently knows that the inquirer is most likely to assume the answer will be in degrees Fahrenheit, so giving the answer that way would be the least likely to be misinterpreted. If he surprisingly gives an answer in Celsius, without explicitly stating he is reporting the temperature in Celsius, then that could be confusing.
; Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend
: The final thing Cueball considers is to question why he would give an answer that attaches more value to promoting standardization of units when all his friend wants to know is whether it is cold or warm outside. Wouldn't it be more friendly to just answer the question the way his friend will find most convenient? This is probably the reason he ends up not giving any real answer, as giving the answer in Celsius would make him a bad friend. That giving the answer in radians will make him a weird friend might feel better...

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking at his smartphone while a friend calls to him from off-panel. Cueball is thinking as indicated with a thought bubble.]
:Off-screen voice: Hey, what's the temperature outside?
:Cueball (thinking): Should I give it in °F or °C?

:[Zoom in on Cueballs head with a list of reason to use Celsius above him:]
:Degrees Celsius
:• International standard
:• Helps reduce America's weird isolationism
:• Nice how "negative" means below freezing
:• Physics major loyalty
:• Easier to spell
:• We lost a Mars probe over this crap

:[Same view of Cueballs head, but wider frame to accommodate a broader a list of reason to use Fahrenheit:]
:Degrees Fahrenheit
:• 0°F to 100°F good match for temperature range in which most humans live
:• Rounds more usefully (70's, 90's)
:• Unit-aware computing makes imperial less annoying
:• SI prefixes are less relevant for temperatures
:• Fahrenheit is likely more clear in this context
:• Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend

:[Cueball is holding his smartphone down while thinking as indicated with another thought bubble floating at the top. He then speaks and gets a reply from his off-panel friend.]
:Cueball (thinking): Crap, gotta pick something. Uhh...
:Cueball: ...0.173 radians.
:Off-screen voice: I'll just go check myself

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:1641: Hot Dogs

2016-02-10T22:48:04Z

Tharkon:

a friend of mine told a story once of a girl in his high school that used a hot dog as a toy once. supposedly it broke off inside and she had to go to the ER to have it removed. Is it unreasonable to theorize, since condoms are used primarily for sexual activities, and hot dogs are shaped similar to sexual objects, whether anatomical or otherwise, that the person off screen is using the hot dogs in condoms possibly for sexual activity, or maybe (https://explainxkcd.com/330/).
I really don't know, but if someone else thinks there is possibly validity in this theory, i don't know how to incorporate it into the explanation --[[User:Beardmcbeardson|Beardmcbeardson]] ([[User talk:Beardmcbeardson|talk]]) 07:46, 10 February 2016 (UTC)
: That's actually an [http://www.snopes.com/college/risque/hotdog.asp old urban legend]. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.148|162.158.142.148]] 08:24, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

In point of fact, hot dogs come in packages of seven. At least the ones I like do [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 09:35, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

I always buy condoms in packs of one hundred. The fun / expense ratio is much better, than in small packs. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.142|162.158.203.142]] 10:45, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

This is a very simple problem: Hot dogs go back to German tradition, where
a sausage is held within a German "Weck" but a real one, not one of those American
buns. (See Wikipedia)
The American style buns were an invention of American bakers, so the reason for those
numbers is obvious:
The Hot Dogs stuck with the German tradition (decimal system), whereas the buns
are in packages of eight for easy break down in halves, quarters, eights. (Witworth)
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.215|162.158.91.215]] 15:21, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

Should a reference to [[305: Rule 34]] be added for the pizza? [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 17:00, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps the off-panel person is making some sort of reference to sheep intestines?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.10|108.162.216.10]] 18:16, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

I just bought hot dogs yesterday for the first time in over a year because I have chili and wanted something different to go with it. So this was an interesting comic to wake up to. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.76|108.162.238.76]] 19:19, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

I find that hot dogs and buns are usually sold in multiples of 6. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.23|141.101.106.23]] 19:24, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

Well, instead of "he realizes his friend is putting hot dogs in condoms" I was initially thinking of (what is apparently called) [http://www.bunrab.com/dailyfeed/dailyfeed_images_jan-07/df07_01-29_hotdog.jpg french hot dog buns], which means... well, I guess you can figure it out. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.194|162.158.91.194]] 17:17, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

The reason I heard for why hot dogs and buns come in uneven counts was because the manufacturers of each came to a mutual arrangement. The logic was that consumers with leftover hot dog buns would buy extra hot dogs, and vice versa. As such, hot dog makers and bun makers both profit. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.55|108.162.216.55]] 17:04, 10 February 2016 (UTC)
: I always figured it was the opposite -- that hot dog makes and bun makers ''didn't'' coordinate their efforts, and instead sold hot dogs and buns packed in whatever amounts made the most sense for ''themselves'' at the price they thought was best. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 19:35, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

I've seen hot dogs packaged in 4, 6, 8 and 10 and buns in the same varying sizes. Though 4 is rare in both cases. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 22:48, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

1606: Five-Day Forecast

2015-11-21T00:44:09Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1606
| date = November 20, 2015
| title = Five-Day Forecast
| image = five_day_forecast.png
| titletext = You know what they say--if you don't like the weather here in the Solar System, just wait five billion years.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Weather forecasting}} is an extremely difficult task, even if it is only for five days. In numerical models, extremely small errors in initial values double roughly every five days for variables such as temperature and wind velocity. So most {{w| Meteorology#Meteorologists |meteorologists}} only provides us with a five day forecast.

In this comic [[Randall]] takes this to the extreme by first showing a [[Five-Day Forecast]] and then progressing to five-month, year, million, billion and finally trillion-year forecast.

Since the first weather symbol is the same in all six rows, we must assume this indicates the weather today (and not tomorrow or in a trillion years). It is first in the second panel that we have made the first jump according to the label.

When moving past the five days, the weather is just a qualified guess based on the time of year. In a month it is Christmas as shown in the second panel of the second row. And then it is winter with January and February so snow is likely, but certainly not something that happens on all days of a winter month.

Looking at the five-year forecast, guesses are made as to what the weather will be like at the same time of year. For these first three predictions the weather symbols are all of the same three types. Sun, clouds and some kind of {{w|precipitation}}, rain or snow. And the temperature range from 21 to 44°F (-6.1 to 6.6°C), winter temperature.

Then we go into the far future, jumping a million year from panel to panel. But still the weather symbols stay the same. However, in 3 million years time aliens (or advanced humans) attack with energy beams from something looking like {{w| flying saucers}}. They are gone a million years later. The temperature range is still the same (except that it rises to 52°F or 11.1°C, a possible reference to global warming) in one panel. But then while the attack is going on the temperature rises to 275°F (135°C).

Once we get to the billion-year mark it actually becomes more meaningful to try to predict the "weather". Because now we reach the times when the {{w|Sun}} begins to change. Although the Sun will continue to burn hydrogen for about 5 billion years yet (while in its {{w|Sun#Main_sequence| main sequence|}}), it will still grow in diameter as it begins to exhaust its supply of fuel. The core will contract to increase the temperature, and the outer layer will then compensate by expanding slightly. This is what is indicated in panel two and three where the color of the Sun changes towards red as the surface becomes less hot as it expands away from the center of the Sun. The temperature will rise on Earth as indicated in the panels (105°F = 40.5°C and 371°F = 188 °C). So in two billion years the temperature is hot enough that all the earth's oceans will have boiled away… Actually this will happen already in about [http://phys.org/news/2015-02-sun-wont-die-billion-years.html a billion years].

Then once there is {{w| Sun#After_core_hydrogen_exhaustion|no longer enough hydrogen}} the Sun will truly expand into a {{w|red giant}}. This should not happen until five billions years from now {{Citation needed}}, but in the forecast it is indicated to happen already in three. Maybe this is Randall taking liberties to show what happens during this phase, which would not fit into a five-billion-years forecast. Alternatively it is just indicating how uncertain these kind of forecasts are, or a statement that we may not know for certain that it will take five not three billion years.
Disregarding this, the fourth panel shows the temperature at Earth's position inside the red giant Sun. The color of the panel indicates that we are inside the Sun. The temperature is 71 million degrees Fahrenheit (almost 40 million degrees Celsius). The current temperature of the center of the Sun is "only" 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). And although that may rise by a factor ten during {{w| Stellar nucleosynthesis |helium fusion}} then that will only be at the very core and not out in the solar atmosphere reaching out to Earth Here the temperature would only be of the order of thousands of Fahrenheit, since the Sun's outer temperature decreases as it increases its diameter. So this panels temperature also makes little sense. It may involve some ambiguities regarding what the forecast means; the edge of the red giant Sun is predicted to be somewhere near the current orbit of Earth, but the position of the Earth could change. The most likely prediction at the moment is for Earth to move outward, but if the planet is engulfed by the Sun, it would spiral inward (and at some point fall apart.) So in some sense "here" for the forecast could become a position deep inside the Sun, where core temperatures could reach 100 million Kelvin.

The red giant phase only last half a million years, so a billion years after the Sun has been a red giant its outer atmosphere will for sure have disappeared leaving only a {{w|white dwarf}} to cool down. Given Randall's version of this time schedule, then it will have had about a billion years to cool down, but would still likely be the brightest object in the sky as seen from where the Earth once was. It is not indicated in the last panel, where we just see other stars of the Galaxy. The temperature is down to that of the {{w|Cosmic microwave background |background radiation}}. Today this radiation has a temperature of 2.72548 Kelvin = -270.4245ºC = -454.7641ºF. So this is a few degree F colder than what is shown in the comic which states the temperature is -452ºF = 4.26 kelvin. This higher temperature may have been chosen to reflect that even the star light from other stars would increase the actual temperature.

In the last panel with trillion years, we jump right past the Sun's Red Giant phase, to a panel looking much like the one after five billions years with only other stars. Over the next three trillion years the stars become fewer and fewer and dimmer and dimmer as they run out of fuel and fewer new stars form. After four trillion years the background temperature even decreases one degree to -453ºF as the universe keeps expanding and the wave length of the radiation does the same (thus decreasing its temperature).

The title text is a play on comments referring to fast-changing weather on a more ordinary human timescale, such as Mark Twain's quip "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."

A ten days forecast was used in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]]. In [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]] Randall looked at the weather over long periods of time as well.

==Transcript==
:[A grid with six rows of five columns, where each row is labeled to the left. For each of the 30 squares a temperature is given in Fahrenheit at the top left. The rest of the square represents the weather as in a weather forecast (or some other relevant items for the comic), mainly in bright colors. Below are the six labels given above each of their five weather symbols with temperature given below these symbols description.]

:'''Your 5-day forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:41°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:44°F

:'''Your 5-month forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A green Christmas tree with red presents beneath it.]
:29°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:21°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:24°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:35°F

:'''Your 5-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:25°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:37°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:41°F

:'''Your 5-million-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:52°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:40°F
:[Two red flying saucers (with bright domes) are shooting energy beams downwards. One of the beams seems to impact with something at the bottom of the panel, which then explodes. Two plumes of smoke rises up from below, drifting to the right.]
:275°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F

:'''Your 5-billion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A larger orange sun.]
:105°F
:[A very large red sun.]
:371°F
:[A pale yellow panel with no drawing.]
:71.488.106°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F

:'''Your 5-trillion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with many stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with fewer not so bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with few dim stars.]
:-453°F

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

1606: Five-Day Forecast

2015-11-21T00:40:36Z

Tharkon:

{{comic
| number = 1606
| date = November 20, 2015
| title = Five-Day Forecast
| image = five_day_forecast.png
| titletext = You know what they say--if you don't like the weather here in the Solar System, just wait five billion years.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Weather forecasting}} is an extremely difficult task, even if it is only for five days. In numerical models, extremely small errors in initial values double roughly every five days for variables such as temperature and wind velocity. So most {{w| Meteorology#Meteorologists |meteorologists}} only provides us with a five day forecast.

In this comic [[Randall]] takes this to the extreme by first showing a [[Five-Day Forecast]] and then progressing to five-month, year, million, billion and finally trillion-year forecast.

Since the first weather symbol is the same in all six rows, we must assume this indicates the weather today (and not tomorrow or in a trillion years). It is first in the second panel that we have made the first jump according to the label.

When moving past the five days, the weather is just a qualified guess based on the time of year. In a month it is Christmas as shown in the second panel of the second row. And then it is winter with January and February so snow is likely, but certainly not something that happens on all days of a winter month.

Looking at the five-year forecast, guesses are made as to what the weather will be like at the same time of year. For these first three predictions the weather symbols are all of the same three types. Sun, clouds and some kind of {{w|precipitation}}, rain or snow. And the temperature range from 21 to 44°F (-6.1 to 6.6°C), winter temperature.

Then we go into the far future, jumping a million year from panel to panel. But still the weather symbols stay the same. However, in 3 million years time aliens (or advanced humans) attack with energy beams from something looking like {{w| flying saucers}}. They are gone a million years later. The temperature range is still the same (except that it rises to 52°F or 11.1°C, a possible reference to global warming) in one panel. But then while the attack is going on the temperature rises to 275°F (135°C).

Once we get to the billion-year mark it actually becomes more meaningful to try to predict the "weather". Because now we reach the times when the {{w|Sun}} begins to change. Although the Sun will continue to burn hydrogen for about 5 billion years yet (while in its {{w|Sun#Main_sequence| main sequence|}}), it will still grow in diameter as it begins to exhaust its supply of fuel. The core will contract to increase the temperature, and the outer layer will then compensate be expanding slightly. This is what is indicated in panel two and three where the color of the Sun changes towards red as the surface becomes less hot as it expands away from the center of the Sun. The temperature will rise on Earth as indicated in the panels (105°F = 40.5°C and 371°F = 188 °C). So in two billion years the temperature is hot enough that all the earth's oceans will have boiled away… Actually this will happen already in about [http://phys.org/news/2015-02-sun-wont-die-billion-years.html a billion years].

Then once there is {{w| Sun#After_core_hydrogen_exhaustion|no longer enough hydrogen}} the Sun will truly expand into a {{w|red giant}}. This should not happen until five billions years from now {{Citation needed}}, but in the forecast it is indicated to happen already in three. Maybe this is Randall taking liberties to show what happens during this phase, which would not fit into a five-billion-years forecast. Alternatively it is just indicating how uncertain these kind of forecasts are, or a statement that we may not know for certain that it will take five not three billion years.
Disregarding this, the fourth panel shows the temperature at Earth's position inside the red giant Sun. The color of the panel indicates that we are inside the Sun. The temperature is 71 million degrees Fahrenheit (almost 40 million degrees Celsius). The current temperature of the center of the Sun is "only" 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). And although that may rise by a factor ten during {{w| Stellar nucleosynthesis |helium fusion}} then that will only be at the very core and not out in the solar atmosphere reaching out to Earth Here the temperature would only be of the order of thousands of Fahrenheit, since the Sun's outer temperature decreases as it increases its diameter. So this panels temperature also makes little sense. It may involve some ambiguities regarding what the forecast means; the edge of the red giant Sun is predicted to be somewhere near the current orbit of Earth, but the position of the Earth could change. The most likely prediction at the moment is for Earth to move outward, but if the planet is engulfed by the Sun, it would spiral inward (and at some point fall apart.) So in some sense "here" for the forecast could become a position deep inside the Sun, where core temperatures could reach 100 million Kelvin.

The red giant phase only last half a million years, so a billion years after the Sun has been a red giant its outer atmosphere will for sure have disappeared leaving only a {{w|white dwarf}} to cool down. Given Randall's version of this time schedule, then it will have had about a billion years to cool down, but would still likely be the brightest object in the sky as seen from where the Earth once was. It is not indicated in the last panel, where we just see other stars of the Galaxy. The temperature is down to that of the {{w|Cosmic microwave background |background radiation}}. Today this radiation has a temperature of 2.72548 Kelvin = -270.4245ºC = -454.7641ºF. So this is a few degree F colder than what is shown in the comic which states the temperature is -452ºF = 4.26 kelvin. This higher temperature may have been chosen to reflect that even the star light from other stars would increase the actual temperature.

In the last panel with trillion years, we jump right past the Sun's Red Giant phase, to a panel looking much like the one after five billions years with only other stars. Over the next three trillion years the stars become fewer and fewer and dimmer and dimmer as they run out of fuel and fewer new stars form. After four trillion years the background temperature even decreases one degree to -453ºF as the universe keeps expanding and the wave length of the radiation does the same (thus decreasing its temperature).

The title text is a play on comments referring to fast-changing weather on a more ordinary human timescale, such as Mark Twain's quip "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."

A ten days forecast was used in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]]. In [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]] Randall looked at the weather over long periods of time as well.

==Transcript==
:[A grid with six rows of five columns, where each row is labeled to the left. For each of the 30 squares a temperature is given in Fahrenheit at the top left. The rest of the square represents the weather as in a weather forecast (or some other relevant items for the comic), mainly in bright colors. Below are the six labels given above each of their five weather symbols with temperature given below these symbols description.]

:'''Your 5-day forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:41°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:44°F

:'''Your 5-month forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A green Christmas tree with red presents beneath it.]
:29°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:21°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:24°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:35°F

:'''Your 5-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:25°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:37°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:41°F

:'''Your 5-million-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:52°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:40°F
:[Two red flying saucers (with bright domes) are shooting energy beams downwards. One of the beams seems to impact with something at the bottom of the panel, which then explodes. Two plumes of smoke rises up from below, drifting to the right.]
:275°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F

:'''Your 5-billion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A larger orange sun.]
:105°F
:[A very large red sun.]
:371°F
:[A pale yellow panel with no drawing.]
:71.488.106°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F

:'''Your 5-trillion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with many stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with fewer not so bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with few dim stars.]
:-453°F

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

1598: Salvage

2015-11-02T20:52:28Z

Tharkon:

{{comic
| number = 1598
| date = November 2, 2015
| title = Salvage
| image = salvage.png
| titletext = My hobby: Taking advantage of the rice myth by posting articles on "how to save your wet phone" which are actually just elaborate recipes for rice pilaf.
}}

==Explanation==

The {{w|RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic''}} was a large ocean liner which, when it was completed in 1912, was the largest ship afloat. The ship famously hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank, killing two-thirds of its complement (approximately 1,500 people) in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters ever.

As it sank, the ''Titanic'' broke into two pieces. The ship was lost for decades until the wreck site was discovered in 1985. A number of proposals have been made to salvage the wreck of the ''Titanic'' both before and since the wreck's discovery. The general consensus at this time is that the wreck is too fragile to be salvaged intact. Numerous expeditions have been made to the wreck site since its discovery, with several parties (without any outside authorization) taking various artifacts from the site. A popular view is that the wreck is effectively a mass grave and that plundering the site for profitable artifacts is akin to grave-robbing. Most believe the wreck should be left where it is, intact. That said, explorers have already done notable damage to the wreck.

This comic shows a fictional attempt to salvage the two main pieces of the ''Titanic'' wreck, which, as it likely would in real life, garners media coverage as a 'historic salvage'. The salvage seems to consist of several ships raising the hull via cables attached to some sort of buoyant sled placed under the hull (as might actually happen). This is followed by even more helicopters carrying the hull in unison, again via cables to the cradle (a much less practical operation). The hull halves are then dropped into a giant tub of rice. The entire salvage attempt is increasingly cartoonish and unrealistic, but the tub of rice takes this to another level.

==Rice?==
The punchline to the comic references the "rice myth", a popularly disseminated method of salvaging consumer electronics (usually cell phones) which have been submerged in water. The method entails burying the wet device in a bowl of rice. This process is commonly claimed to dry it out, but investigation reveals that the process does not hold water. This suggests that the wreck of the Titanic would benefit from being dried as quickly as possible - something that might not be of any benefit to a large ocean wreck.

Surviving non-metalic material on board the ship may not benefit at all from drying. Far more ancient shipwrecks are best preserved by keeping the recovered timbers ''wet'' (but progressively desalinated, where applicable), cool and as anoxic, at least while conserving chemicals such as {{w|Polyethylene glycol}} are infused into the wood to allow safe and gradual drying without causing further damage. Leather, cloth and other organic remains may have variations on this regime.

Thus the rice might benefit an electronic device briefly exposed to water, but not likely to ultimately benefit a ship that has been immersed for over a century, where the interest is in more than merely stabilising the remaining metal hull and infrastructure.

This comic may play on the dual meaning of the word "salvage" in respect of electronics and maritime wrecks.

The title text indicates that Randall considers the 'rice' method of electronic salvage to be a myth. There are numerous online discussions of the technique with mixed levels of success. Critically, where rice is tested against other methods, rice appears to perform worse than other methods. Controlled experiments on this topic tend to show that silica gel (aka "Do Not Eat" packets) is the most effective drying agent, with mixed results for rice.<ref>[http://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2013/november/researchshowsriceistheanswerforawetmobile.php Research Shows Rice is the Answer for a Wet Mobile]</ref><ref>[http://smartphones.wonderhowto.com/how-to/myth-debunked-uncooked-rice-isnt-best-way-save-your-water-damaged-phone-0154799/ Myth Debunked: Uncooked Rice Isn't the Best Way to Save Your Water-Damaged Phone]</ref>

==Transcript==
:[Megan is shown standing at the rail of a ship with a microphone reporting the event shown in the background. A small helicopter and a larger two rotor model, lowering a rope with hook, are hovering over a crane ship with its hook down line going down in the water. It is depicted like a news screen as seen on TV. Below Megan are two headings. The first in a white insert with double frame, and the other written in white over the gray ocean water.]
:Historic Salvage
:Live

:[Four crane ships are shown lifting the bow part of the RMS Titanic. There are pontoons beneath the ship to help it float up. The name of the ship can be seen.]
:RMS Titanic

:[Both parts of the Titanic are now flown by helicopters, four for the stern and five for the bow. One helicopter for each part is a two rotor model. Ropes go from the helicopters down on each side of the ship parts to pontoons below them. Below in the ocean there are two crane ships.]

:[The two parts of the ship is now lowered in to a huge bowl of rice (labeled) standing at the coast just out of the ocean, which can be seen to the left. One of the five helicopters for the bow is missing. For scale there are drawn two trees to the left, and something is parked to the right, maybe a truck.]
:Rice

<references/>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]

1542: Scheduling Conflict

2015-08-16T23:27:50Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */ World champion has not necessarily won all national championships.

{{comic
| number = 1542
| date = June 24, 2015
| title = Scheduling Conflict
| image = scheduling_conflict.png
| titletext = Neither a spokesperson for the organization nor the current world champion could be reached for comment.
}}

==Explanation==
There are two humorous features in this comic:
:a pun formed by {{w|syntactic ambiguity}}; and
:the {{w|farce}} of a major national event that is by nature self-defeating.

The comic shows a newspaper with a large headline:
:National Scheduling Conflict
:'''Championships canceled'''
Many readers naturally see a phrase break between the two lines, so that it means "there has been a scheduling conflict on a national scale, which has caused championships to be cancelled" (what the conflicts are, and which championships have been cancelled, is not made clear).

However, the correct interpretation is implied by the picture of an empty lectern under a banner with the text NSCC 2015. The headline should be read like this:
:National Scheduling Conflict Championships (NSCC)
:canceled

This comic thus envisions a "National Scheduling Conflict Championship" (NSCC), presumably as the culmination of some larger scheduling-conflict competition. It is unclear if the goal of the event is to have a scheduling conflict and miss it, or if there are actual challenges at the event, but this year's event has been canceled, most likely due to scheduling conflicts. Whether it is the contestants that miss the event, as it's their nature to always have a scheduling conflict, or if it is the organizers that have an issue is untold. The question is whether the event's cancellation is a success in itself or just a predictable failure of such an event.

The comic could also refer to the very common political ploy of using a "scheduling conflict" as an excuse to miss an event where the politician expects to be challenged or questioned on an issue he wishes to avoid. This is so frequent that it has become a cliché in American politics.

The abbreviation NSCC is related to many other national sports organizations like {{w|NFL}} and {{w|NBA}}. (The most common use of the NSCC abbreviation on-line seems to be for the {{w|Nova Scotia Community College}}).

The title text mentions that is was impossible to reach either a spokesperson for the organization (NSCC) or last year's world-champ (winner of the WSCC) for a comment. Thus continuing the problem with schedules for people involved in this type of championship. The world-champion could be assumed to be able to comment in this national championship (probably the American championship given that [[Randall]] is American), since the paper is looking for a comment on the national championship. But this proves that at least a world champion was crowned last year, so this type of competition is not always canceled.

It is not a necessity for a spokesperson for a sports organization to be good at the sport in question. However it will often be former competitors within the sport or at least people with interest in this kind of activity that takes an interest in such an organization, thus making it likely that they would also be good (or like to think they are good) at achieving scheduling conflicts.

A similar type of competition was mentioned earlier in [[1466: Phone Checking]] in which it was difficult to load the web page with the result of the competition because it was overloaded by all those compulsive phone-checkers that have an interest in such a contest. They continually try to reload the home page of the CPCC (i.e. compulsive phone-checking championship) making the web page go down.

==Transcript==
:[Picture showing a newspaper with a big headline over a picture. In the picture there is a banner over an empty lectern with a microphone. Only the headline and the text on the banner in the picture is readable. All other text in the newspaper is just lines.]
:National Scheduling Conflict
:'''Championships canceled'''
:Banner text: NSCC 2015

{{comic discussion}}

1520: Degree-Off

2015-07-22T01:05:29Z

Tharkon: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1520
| date = May 4, 2015
| title = Degree-Off
| image = degree off.png
| titletext = I'M SORRY, FROM YOUR YEARS OF CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE 'SQUISHY SCIENCES', I ASSUMED YOU'D BE A LITTLE HARDER.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] (physics), [[Hair Bun Girl]] (biology), and [[Megan]] (chemistry) appear to be on a talk show called Degree-Off, hosted by [[Hairy]], where representatives of different fields, try to explain why their field is the best and why to get a degree in their field. The title "Degree-Off" is a portmanteau of "{{w|Academic degree|degree}}", as in the recognized completion of studies at a school or university, and "{{w|face-off}}", a direct confrontation between two people or groups. Since there are three participants, this is not a true face-off, unless Megan, who does not speak, is not counted.

The host asks the physicist Cueball to go first. He light-heartedly begins to tell what appears to be long story, beginning with a {{w|Richard Feynman}} anecdote. During the {{w|Manhattan Project}} in Los Alamos, Richard Feynman got bored because of the isolation and started learning {{w|lock picking}} on the secret documents safes. Using these new skills, he played lots of pranks on his colleagues, like leaving notes and spooking them into believing there was a spy among them (which, of course, {{w|Klaus_Fuchs|there was}}). He finishes his case with [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford a quote] from {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, implying that his speech was quite long and winding. The quote communicates the idea that physics is the only fundamental framework, so that the job of chemists, biologists and other scientist simply is to catalog and systematize observations ("collect stamps") on phenomena too complicated to presently be fully described in terms of physics. This idea was earlier lampooned by [[Randall]] in [[435: Purity]] (and is also stated in the title text of [[1158: Rubber Sheet]]).

The biologist, Hair Bun Girl, goes next, showing with a graph (see below) that the field of biology has helped reduce disease. She then goes on to claim that the heroes in biology (the part known as Medicine) have even "slain" one of the {{w|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse}}. Popular culture often names the Horsemen "Pestilence", "War", "Famine", and "Death" - Hair Bun Girl implies that the field of biology has almost eliminated {{w|Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse#As_infectious_disease|Pestilence}}. (The imagery of Pestilence being thwarted by modern medicine was also used in the book {{w|Good Omens}}, by {{w|Terry Pratchett}} (of whom Randall is a fan, see [[1498: Terry Pratchett]]) and {{w|Neil Gaiman}}, where Pestilence has retired after the discovery of {{w|Penicillin}}, and been replaced by {{w|Pollution}}.)

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
This graph shows the death rate from infectious disease in USA, similar to that shown in the comic presented by Hair Bun Girl, as both have the range of 1900-2000. The spike is attributable to the {{w|1918 flu pandemic}}. The graph has been published in this paper [http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=768249 Trends in Infectious Disease Mortality in the United States During the 20th Century].
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[File:Crude_Infectious_Disease_Mortality_Rate_in_the_United_States_from_1900_Through_1996.gif]]</div>
</div>

Hair Bun Girl then goes on to directly accuse Cueball (i.e. physicists) of creating a new Horseman to replace the one slain by the biologists. She claims that they gathered in the desert to do so. Given Cueball's opening remark, she must be referring to the development of the {{w|atomic bomb}}, which was built and tested in the {{w|New Mexico desert}}. The new horseman is therefore the atomic bomb, or the various perils associated with it.

Hair Bun Girl's implied condemnation of the physics community has been echoed by some of the scientists involved in the project itself. After the test detonation of the first nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, {{w|J. Robert Oppenheimer}}, the director of the {{w|Los Alamos National Laboratory}}, found himself quoting the {{w|Bhagavad Gita}}: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

This harsh moral judgement shocks Cueball, who exclaims "I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!" While the set-up is of a frivolous friendly competition, Hair Bun Girl's presentation is surprisingly dark. Her retort in the final panel reveals that she was angered by the off-hand dismissal of 'soft' sciences as "stamp-collecting", and turned the game from a light-hearted fun into something more disturbing.

In the title text the biologist goes on to declare in {{w|All caps}} that she is surprised a physicist isn't "harder", after all their condescending towards the "squishy" sciences. The use of 'hard' and 'squishy' is a play on the colloquial division between the so-called 'hard' sciences (such as physics and chemistry) and 'soft' sciences (such as biology and geology). 'Hard' sciences usually refer to the perception that in fields like physics, precisely repeatable experiments and measurements are possible, as opposed to 'soft' sciences seen as placing less emphasis on precisely quantifiable predictability - however Hair Bun Girl is extending 'hard' to its meaning of 'stoic', mocking Cueball for not being able to weather a personal moral attack. Again she is indicating that she's upset by directly referencing a mocking portrayal of other fields allegedly made by Cueball.

In [[520: Cuttlefish]] Randall shows that he personally respects biologists - or at least fears them.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is acting as the host of a TV talk show, ''Degree-Off''. Cueball, Hair Bun Girl, and Megan are acting as representatives of Phys (Physics), Bio (Biology), and Chem (Chemistry) respectively. They each stand behind their own lectern with the respective subject label.]

:Hairy: Welcome to the ''Degree-Off'', where we determine which field is the best! Physics, wanna go first?
:Cueball: Sure! I'd like to tell the story of Richard Feynman's Manhattan project lockpicking pranks...

:Cueball: ...and as he said, "all science is either physics or stamp collecting."
:Cueball: Thank you.
:Hairy: ''Great!'' Bio, you wanna go next?
:Hair Bun Girl: Okay.

:[A graph labeled "Per 100,000 is shown above Hair Bun Girl.]
:Hair Bun Girl: This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country.

:[Hair Bun Girl raising her left hand.]
:Hair Bun Girl: The heroes of my field have ''slain'' one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

:[Hair Bun Girl pointing at Cueball.]
:Hair Bun Girl: While the heroes of ''your'' field gathered in the desert to create a new one.

:Cueball: ...Jeez, what the hell? I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!
:Hair Bun Girl: ''You must have been thinking of stamp collecting.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]