explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2559: December 25th Launch

2021-12-27T02:29:13Z

Xuchangh:

Santa delivers his presents on Christmas Eve. The launch is scheduled for 9:20am French Guiana time, so Santa should be long gone during the final countdown. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 06:05, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

I feel like the way it's written and also the "update" in the title text is a reference to the NORAD Santa Tracker (or maybe the Google one). I'd do it myself but it's 2AM, so can someone fact check me and possibly add it to the article assuming I'm not misremembering. Thanks, [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 07:20, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

Launches have been stopped many times at less than 8 seconds, and Randall would be familiar with this fact. The "unavoidable" bit of the explanation can safely (and preferably) be dropped. Given Randall's demonstrated frustration with Webb delays, the joke about the RSO shooting down Santa is almost certainly attributable to intolerance of another delay. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.213|172.70.130.213]] 07:45, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:Thanks for the heads up; edited my addition. It still feels like an italicized "oh no" is too big of a reaction to a delay that's <strike>short, unique, and measurable</strike>. Maybe forcing a launch to abort at -7 seconds causes some kind of fuel combustion(??)/consumption issue that damages some of the spacecraft and requires a much longer delay? Then this could be added to the explanation. (Obviously I'm not an expert here.) Alternatively, say it takes 7 seconds to say the words in the second and third panels, so the spacecraft has already launched. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 08:16, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:Edit: Found a real example of an abort delay and added to the explanation.
::I mean, it kinda feels like a “straw that broke the camel’s back” type of situation here. It’s not the incident itself, it’s everything leading up to that moment and how it probably left Cueball on edge. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.195|108.162.215.195]] 08:30, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

I think there's a barb here about NASA ruining xmas for a lot of people, by slipping the launch date to 25 December. [[User:Arithex|Arithex]] ([[User talk:Arithex|talk]]) 08:58, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

As far as I know, Range Safety Officers don't have ground-to-air weapons, and are therefore incapable of shooting down Santa. when RSO's need to kill something, they use remote detonation commands. How any RSO managed to pre-place a self-destruct package aboard Santa's Sleigh remains an open question: normally they only have those placed aboard the actual rocket stages. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.57|172.70.130.57]] 11:15, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:That's easy: Write Santa a letter that you want a remotely controllable self-destruct package for Christmas. It will be conveniently placed on the sleigh on December 25. This must be one of the gazillion steps on the JWST pre-launch checklist. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.164|162.158.91.164]] 13:14, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:All will be revealed in the new {{w|How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000 film)|Grinch}} sequel, '''How the Grinch Killed Christmas''' which details how he finds work as a Range Safety Officer. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 19:12, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
实际上，“爱情”与“情爱”是紧密相连的，尤其情到深处，身体与思想的沟通无缝连接，会让爱人之间的心灵相通默契升华，即使现实生活中一地鸡毛造成的些许龌龊矛盾，也可以抚慰熨平。那些所谓的情感高手教人哄伴侣，喜欢说，当你觉得她（他）无理取闹烦扰不堪的时候，一个吻能解决所有的问题。
<a href="http://www.shedolove.com/sexy-massage.html" target="_blank">跳蛋推薦</a>

Talk:2559: December 25th Launch

2021-12-27T02:28:47Z

Xuchangh:

Santa delivers his presents on Christmas Eve. The launch is scheduled for 9:20am French Guiana time, so Santa should be long gone during the final countdown. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 06:05, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

I feel like the way it's written and also the "update" in the title text is a reference to the NORAD Santa Tracker (or maybe the Google one). I'd do it myself but it's 2AM, so can someone fact check me and possibly add it to the article assuming I'm not misremembering. Thanks, [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 07:20, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

Launches have been stopped many times at less than 8 seconds, and Randall would be familiar with this fact. The "unavoidable" bit of the explanation can safely (and preferably) be dropped. Given Randall's demonstrated frustration with Webb delays, the joke about the RSO shooting down Santa is almost certainly attributable to intolerance of another delay. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.213|172.70.130.213]] 07:45, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:Thanks for the heads up; edited my addition. It still feels like an italicized "oh no" is too big of a reaction to a delay that's <strike>short, unique, and measurable</strike>. Maybe forcing a launch to abort at -7 seconds causes some kind of fuel combustion(??)/consumption issue that damages some of the spacecraft and requires a much longer delay? Then this could be added to the explanation. (Obviously I'm not an expert here.) Alternatively, say it takes 7 seconds to say the words in the second and third panels, so the spacecraft has already launched. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 08:16, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:Edit: Found a real example of an abort delay and added to the explanation.
::I mean, it kinda feels like a “straw that broke the camel’s back” type of situation here. It’s not the incident itself, it’s everything leading up to that moment and how it probably left Cueball on edge. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.195|108.162.215.195]] 08:30, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

I think there's a barb here about NASA ruining xmas for a lot of people, by slipping the launch date to 25 December. [[User:Arithex|Arithex]] ([[User talk:Arithex|talk]]) 08:58, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

As far as I know, Range Safety Officers don't have ground-to-air weapons, and are therefore incapable of shooting down Santa. when RSO's need to kill something, they use remote detonation commands. How any RSO managed to pre-place a self-destruct package aboard Santa's Sleigh remains an open question: normally they only have those placed aboard the actual rocket stages. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.57|172.70.130.57]] 11:15, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:That's easy: Write Santa a letter that you want a remotely controllable self-destruct package for Christmas. It will be conveniently placed on the sleigh on December 25. This must be one of the gazillion steps on the JWST pre-launch checklist. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.164|162.158.91.164]] 13:14, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:All will be revealed in the new {{w|How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000 film)|Grinch}} sequel, '''How the Grinch Killed Christmas''' which details how he finds work as a Range Safety Officer. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 19:12, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
实际上，“爱情”与“情爱”是紧密相连的，尤其情到深处，身体与思想的沟通无缝连接，会让爱人之间的心灵相通默契升华，即使现实生活中一地鸡毛造成的些许龌龊矛盾，也可以抚慰熨平。那些所谓的情感高手教人哄伴侣，喜欢说，当你觉得她（他）无理取闹烦扰不堪的时候，一个吻能解决所有的问题。
一个吻当然不能解决所有问题，因为只是身体上的接触，没有情感的投入，也只是短暂的感官愉悦，想要用“性”帮助相互之间的情感升华，必须有“情”。
跳蛋推薦“情爱”不同于单纯的性，美好的情爱需要彼此多站在对方的角度，照顾和考虑对方的感受，感情这个事，说到底，就是对彼此的情绪价值和心理上的满足以及安全感。长久不变的性爱方式多少会令夫妻感到厌倦，但是很多人却非常排斥情趣道具加入性爱中，其实这纯粹是一种偏见，不妨看看下面的情趣道具，它们真的能将你们的性生活变得多姿多彩，让你们的感情更加亲密无间!

659: Lego

2021-10-12T06:55:42Z

Xuchangh:

{{comic
| number = 659
| date = November 6, 2009
| title = Lego
| image = lego.png
| titletext = Dad, where is Grandpa right now?
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Lego}} blocks are a popular building toy, which [[Cueball]] here uses to describe a philosophical conundrum: the distinction between a composition, and the collection of parts that make up that composition. For example, the Lego blocks he and his daughter, [[Ponytail]], used to make a house are still around; they were put back into the bin, and can be used on future designs. However, the house itself, as a specific combination of those blocks, is gone. It ceased to exist when they took it apart. In essence, they "killed" the house. Those blocks could be used to build a car or an airplane, so if there is still a house in the box after it has been dismantled, then there is also a car in the box and a plane in the box, and a large number of other objects in the box: making it a very crowded box. Thus, it is more logical to consider the house to be one possible arrangement of the lego blocks that only exists when the blocks are put in that arrangement.

Later in her life, Ponytail extends this thinking to humans and {{w|organ donation}}. The US has an opt-in system for organ donation; in the event that you die, any of your organs or tissues that remain functional after your death can be donated for transplantation or medical research, provided you've opted into the organ donor registry. Ponytail compares her organs to the Lego blocks she's carrying - even if she (the composition) dies, her organs (the pieces) can continue to serve another. As such, she is compelled to register as an organ donor.

The title text is the same question asked in the first panel, from this new perspective - instead of asking where the Lego house went, the questioner (presumably a young child, possibly still Ponytail) is asking where his/her Grandpa went. Humans are a composition of many parts; the parts are usually buried or cremated when we die, but the composition is something else entirely. What exactly happens to a human composition after death is a question for religious debate, but we know for sure it doesn't stay ''here''. Alternatively, if Grandpa chose to donate his organs (or, because the final decision is actually made by the deceased individual's family, if Cueball and Grandpa's other relatives choose to have Grandpa's organs donated), Grandpa would be in multiple other people, assuming that at least some of his organs were fit to be donated when he died.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and her father Cueball are putting away Lego bricks.]
:Cueball: When you take apart a Lego house and mix the pieces into the bin, where does the house go?
:Ponytail: It's in the bin.

:Cueball: No, those are just pieces. They could become spaceships or trains. The house was an arrangement. The arrangement doesn't stay with the pieces and it doesn't go anywhere else. It's just gone.

:[Ponytail, older, is standing at a desk. She's holding a couple of Lego bricks.]

:[She looks at the bricks.]

:[She checks off a box next to the words "Organ Donor" on a paper on the desk.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
https://www.aerinababy.com/reborn-doll-clothes.html
https://www.aerinababy.com/reborn-doll-girls.html
https://www.aerinababy.com/reborn-doll-boys.html
https://www.aerinababy.com/22-inch-cheap-reborn-doll-for-sale.html/
https://www.aerinababy.com/

2057: Internal Monologues

2021-10-12T06:52:31Z

Xuchangh:

{{comic
| number = 2057
| date = October 10, 2018
| title = Internal Monologues
| image = internal_monologues.png
| titletext = Haha, just kidding, everyone's already been hacked. I wonder if today's the day we find out about it.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic explores some seemingly strange perspectives that academics or professionals might have due to their deeper knowledge and understanding of the fields that they study.

Many seemingly mundane phenomena can actually be quite weird or counterintuitive if you understand how they really work. The five people featured in this comic, all from different disciplines, are all aware of certain facts about reality that seem so strange even they have trouble believing they are true; yet, undeniably, they are.

* [[Megan]], a {{w|botanist}}, is struck by the fact that trees are made in large part from air, as in the carbon dioxide they consume.
* [[Cueball]], a {{w|physicist}}, finds it weird that he can feel the gravity between an object in his hand (his phone) and the Earth.
* [[Blondie]], a computer security researcher, knows of the inherent insecurity of computer systems and wonders if today is the day everyone will get hacked, collapsing our society.
* [[Hairy]], a {{w|graphic designer}}, wonders what sequence of events drove a store's decision to use a particular recognizable font for their signage.
* [[Ponytail]], studying medicine, wonders how humans manage to seem so normal on the outside, given that most of their bodies are made up of things usually unmentionable.

Four of the five people are pondering things that they happen to find very interesting but that aren't too concerning to an everyday person, whereas what Blondie is pondering could have widespread or even global effects on our way of life. In the title text, Blondie amends her thought, since she actually knows an even more concerning truth: we've ''already'' all been hacked, and we just don't know it yet.

Below, the people's thoughts are explained in detail.

;Botany
Much of the mass of trees is extracted from the air. An Australian ABC program explains that "[http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/greatmomentsinscience/trees-are-made-from-air/9675642#transcript Trees are made from air]". More precisely: The bulk of the mass of a tree is composed of {{w|cellulose}} and water.

Cellulose is a polysaccharide, a large molecule consisting of many glucose molecules (C6H12O6) bonded together. Plants make those glucose molecules through photosynthesis: they make them by combining water (H2O) and carbon dioxide molecules (CO2) using the energy from sunlight, releasing oxygen in the process (O2). Plants get the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and arguably the water also as it usually comes from rain which is condensed water vapor.

The main photosynthesis balance is given by the formula :
:6 CO2 + 6 H2O -> C6H12O6 + 6 O2

;Physics
{{w|Gravity}} is the weakest of the four {{w|Fundamental interaction|fundamental forces}} in physics but also to humans the most preeminent one. In everyday experience, most people tend to think of gravity merely as a pervasive downward force, but as a physicist, Cueball is more aware that in fact, all gravitational forces are mutual; any pair of objects will exert a gravitational force on each other, regardless of how big they are. Therefore, he is correct in saying that his phone and the Earth are being "pulled together", and finds it remarkable that he is able to sense this interaction between two objects of such an disparate size even when the gravitational pull of the phone is hard to detect.

;Computer Security
Anyone well versed in computer security understands just how insecure the systems that we depend on actually are.

In the title text it is noted that possibly all our systems are already hacked, and we just haven't found out yet. Since malicious hackers do their work covertly, a successful hack often isn't discovered until days, weeks, or even years later if at all. By that time they may have successfully hacked many other systems using the same techniques and/or exploiting the same widely unknown or un-patched security flaws. Some high profile hacks recently discovered at the time of this posting include a [https://securitytoday.com/articles/2018/10/02/facebook-hacked-50-million-users-data-exposed.aspx 50-million user hack of Facebook] and Google+ announcing they are [https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-security/project-strobe/ shutting down the consumer side of Google+], in part due to a security flaw that was discovered and patched months ago.

;Graphic Design
{{w|Graphic designer}}s recognize fonts and design elements, and see how they come together. In this comic, the graphic designer wonders how the ''{{w|Law & Order}}'' font was chosen for a particular storefront's sign. ''Law & Order'' is a police procedural TV series created by Dick Wolf in 1990, which has had various spinoffs. The font used for the title sequence of ''Law & Order'' is called {{w|Friz Quadrata}}, and is also the font used for the signage of the New York Police Department headquarters.

;Medicine
Doctors are well versed in {{w|human anatomy}}, and are likely to think about what is inside of people more than the average person would. And most people would actually like not to think about all the blood and bones we are all carrying around with us. Not to mention the poop or the contents of our stomach that could be considered vomit or the pee etc.

Most people do not think about that the person next to them is actually a skeleton packed in meat and animated by electricity... But Ponytail does, because she is being exposed to this fact all the time through her study of medicine.

==Transcript==

:[Beneath a two line caption are five characters shown, with their thoughts inside thought bubbles. Below them are labels giving their respective fields of science.]
:<big>Internal Monologues</big>
:from various fields

:Botany
:Megan: I can't get over the fact that trees are made of air.

:Physics
:Cueball [looking at a phone in his hand]: It's so weird that I can feel the Earth and my phone being pulled together.

:Computer security
:Blondie: I wonder if today will be the day everyone gets hacked and it all finally collapses.

:Graphic design
:Hairy: I wonder how that store ended up with the Law & Order font for their sign.

:Medicine
:Ponytail: We're all acting normal even though we're full of blood and bones and poop.

==Trivia==
*[[913: Core]] shows what a geologist might have thought about had they been in this comic.
*A similar expression of a mundane phenomenon that's really weird when you think about it can be seen in [[203: Hallucinations]].
*This comic has a similar setup to some other kinds of thoughts between such scientific fields presented in [[435: Purity]].
*On computer security, Randall gave a similar message about voting software security in [[2030: Voting Software]].
*On medicine, Doctor Ponytail offers similar thoughts in this comic and in [[1839: Doctor Visit]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Computer security]]
[[Category:Biology]]
=product link=
https://www.aerinababy.com/reborn-doll-clothes.html
https://www.aerinababy.com/reborn-doll-girls.html
https://www.aerinababy.com/reborn-doll-boys.html
https://www.aerinababy.com/22-inch-cheap-reborn-doll-for-sale.html/
https://www.aerinababy.com/