https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.250.161&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-19T12:41:31ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1723:_Meteorite_Identification&diff=125580Talk:1723: Meteorite Identification2016-08-22T13:03:38Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~--><br />
Yeah, I can't even get on it.<br />
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lol, some poor soul is now wondering why his Meteorite ID chart is being flooded with traffic! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.59|141.101.98.59]] 12:08, 22 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I'd like to see some analysis of the linked flowchart, or a least an explanation of the title text comment. Why does "Did you see it fall" have only an "yes" option, that leads to "not a meteorite" [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 12:10, 22 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I'm wondering if this is related to the recent claims in British newspapers (Warning, Daily Mail content [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3745346/Homeowner-makes-world-discovery-glowing-METEORITE-lands-garden-lights-cigarette-it.html Link] [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.83|141.101.98.83]] 12:27, 22 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Here's the chart hosted externally: http://imgur.com/a/AzQOk Also, could somebody explain the mouseover text? Why does it falling from the sky mean it's not a meteorite? (Edit: Imgur's servers are trying to give out. Here's another external hosted version: http://oi66.tinypic.com/315yazp.jpg ) [[User:NexTerren|NexTerren]] ([[User talk:NexTerren|talk]]) 12:47, 22 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Where did the 'there have only been 690 confirmed cases since 1900' factoid come from? Wikipedia says there are over 38,000 well documented finds, referring to a 2011 source. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 13:03, 22 August 2016 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1682:_Bun&diff=120299Talk:1682: Bun2016-05-18T12:26:55Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
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<div>The transcript is almost done, but the setting/image of each frame has to be added, and someone may want to fix my possible typos. This is my first contribute to explain xkcd! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.158|108.162.250.158]] 10:51, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
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:I added the explanations about the images. Thanks for contributing! [[User:Ladidootdoot|Ladidootdoot]] ([[User talk:Ladidootdoot|talk]]) 11:21, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I assumed this was about hair buns, am I incorrect? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.25|173.245.54.25]] 11:10, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I think it's "bun" short for "bunny", an informal term meaning a rabbit (especially a cute one such as the ones shown in the comic). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.130|141.101.98.130]] 11:16, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Of course, 'buns' are also a euphemism for butt, which might clarify a thing or two, or at least add a more amusing context.<br />
<br />
I know that this is absolutely just a personal gripe, but the website is called explain xkcd, not spell-out-everything-that-happens-in-xkcd. <br />
<br />
In relevance, this seems to be satire of current-gen's obsession with (mis)spelling things that are cute incorrectly (see: smol, birb, doge) and the situation in the comic is a role-reversal, with the teacher being a (teen/tween/memer etc.) and the students are accusing the class's professionalism. <br />
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The point about 'rank' could of course be some fictional idea that a younger person could attach to a physical entity to make the world mor fun and interesting or something idk.<br />
I would add this theory, of course, but i have no idea what i'm even reading when i read this explanation and don't know where to add it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 12:00, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Hierarchy is misspelled. Unless it's a convoluted pun on heir - hare (almost homophones) ? [[User:blagae|blagae]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1682:_Bun&diff=120298Talk:1682: Bun2016-05-18T12:26:28Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
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<div>The transcript is almost done, but the setting/image of each frame has to be added, and someone may want to fix my possible typos. This is my first contribute to explain xkcd! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.158|108.162.250.158]] 10:51, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
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:I added the explanations about the images. Thanks for contributing! [[User:Ladidootdoot|Ladidootdoot]] ([[User talk:Ladidootdoot|talk]]) 11:21, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I assumed this was about hair buns, am I incorrect? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.25|173.245.54.25]] 11:10, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think it's "bun" short for "bunny", an informal term meaning a rabbit (especially a cute one such as the ones shown in the comic). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.130|141.101.98.130]] 11:16, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Of course, 'buns' are also a euphemism for butt, which might clarify a thing or two, or at least add a more amusing context.<br />
<br />
I know that this is absolutely just a personal gripe, but the website is called explain xkcd, not spell-out-everything-that-happens-in-xkcd. <br />
In relevance, this seems to be satire of current-gen's obsession with (mis)spelling things that are cute incorrectly (see: smol, birb, doge) and the situation in the comic is a role-reversal, with the teacher being a (teen/tween/memer etc.) and the students are accusing the class's professionalism. <br />
<br />
The point about 'rank' could of course be some fictional idea that a younger person could attach to a physical entity to make the world mor fun and interesting or something idk.<br />
I would add this theory, of course, but i have no idea what i'm even reading when i read this explanation and don't know where to add it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 12:00, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Hierarchy is misspelled. Unless it's a convoluted pun on heir - hare (almost homophones) ? [[User:blagae|blagae]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1682:_Bun&diff=120296Talk:1682: Bun2016-05-18T12:00:44Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>The transcript is almost done, but the setting/image of each frame has to be added, and someone may want to fix my possible typos. This is my first contribute to explain xkcd! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.158|108.162.250.158]] 10:51, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I added the explanations about the images. Thanks for contributing! [[User:Ladidootdoot|Ladidootdoot]] ([[User talk:Ladidootdoot|talk]]) 11:21, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I assumed this was about hair buns, am I incorrect? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.25|173.245.54.25]] 11:10, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think it's "bun" short for "bunny", an informal term meaning a rabbit (especially a cute one such as the ones shown in the comic). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.130|141.101.98.130]] 11:16, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Of course, 'buns' are also a euphemism for butt, which might clarify a thing or two, or at least add a more amusing context.<br />
<br />
I know that this is absolutely just a personal gripe, but the website is called explain xkcd, not spell-out-everything-that-happens-in-xkcd. In relevance, this seems to be satire of current-gen's obsession with (mis)spelling things that are cute incorrectly (see: smol, birb, doge) and the situation in the comic is a role-reversal, with the teacher being a (teen/tween/memer etc.) and the students are accusing the class's professionalism. <br />
<br />
The point about 'rank' could of course be some fictional idea that a younger person could attach to a physical entity to make the world mor fun and interesting or something idk.<br />
I would add this theory, of course, but i have no idea what i'm even reading when i read this explanation and don't know where to add it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 12:00, 18 May 2016 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:908:_The_Cloud&diff=118759Talk:908: The Cloud2016-04-26T08:53:27Z<p>108.162.250.161: Add a statement.</p>
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<div>iCloud is not a music service. It was released (around?) the same time as iTunes Match, which is Apple's online music service. iCloud replaced MobileMe as Apple's online data storage and email service (and Calendar, Notes, Contacts, and Reminders). Also, it provides access to Find My iPhone. [[Special:Contributions/75.69.96.225|75.69.96.225]] 21:41, 4 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:And just by the way, it was the original name of cloudme.com before Apple evidently acquired the rights from them. --[[Special:Contributions/79.222.27.115|79.222.27.115]] 22:57, 31 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
Could this also be a reference to rose petals? (#1183)--[[User:Mralext20|Mralext20]] ([[User talk:Mralext20|talk]]) 01:00, 8 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I doubt it considering that's 1183, and this is 908.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.45|108.162.221.45]] 00:15, 20 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I think BlackHat is being logical (Spock-like, if you will) - he really doesn't consider the "trip hazard" (to passersby or to the cloud services or their users).<br />
Also I don't think cable modem is meant to have an italicised 'cable' - that emphasis is wrong.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.46|141.101.98.46]] 00:39, 14 February 2014 (UTC)randomstranger<br />
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Also, the server is far, far too small to fit all of the cloud. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 08:53, 26 April 2016 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=482:_Height&diff=114256482: Height2016-03-07T04:20:43Z<p>108.162.250.161: /* Objects */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 482<br />
| date = September 29, 2008<br />
| title = Height<br />
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]<br />
| image = height.png<br />
| titletext = Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.<br />
}}<br />
{{TOC}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The comic is a companion piece to [[485: Depth]]. Where ''Depth'' uses a {{w|logarithmic scale}} to depict the Earth at progressively greater magnification, from Earth's surface to the interior of a single proton, ''Height'' uses a logarithmic scale to depict the contents of the universe at progressively smaller distances, from the edge of the observable universe to the grass beneath our feet.<br />
<br />
Starting from the top, as one often does when reading comics, we begin with the top of the observable universe, described as being 46 billion {{w|light years}} out from the Earth. Randall is stating that this is the longest distance that a ray of light has ever traveled to reach Earth, which implies that the universe is about 46 billion years old. However, the universe is actually about 14 billion years old, but they universe is expanding and light expands with it [http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2014/11/aa21529-13/aa21529-13.html Planck 2013 results]. To the right of the text, [[Black Hat]] stands atop the comic, having just dropped a cat off the edge; he may be testing if cats always land on their feet, or may just be being a jerk, per his usual character. As one scrolls down, the depicted distances become less compressed, until arriving at the surface of Earth, all the while approaching a 1:1 scale with real-life distances. As shown in [[1162: Log Scale]], if Randall didn't do this, the comic would be much, MUCH longer.<br />
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In this comic, most objects that are grounded on Earth are scaled logarithmically on the vertical axes and linearly on the horizontal axes (some are scaled linearly on both axes). Displaying objects in this manner noticeably distorts their shape; the Great Pyramid, for instance, looks not like a pyramid but like a bullet. In the title text, Randall muses on how the inwardly-curved sides of the Eiffel Tower might actually become perfectly straightened when subjected to this logarithmic distortion, although it is shown to bulge in the comic proper, meaning Randall probably doesn't fully believe his own musings. The actual shape of the Tower approximates an {{w|Exponential function|exponential curve}}, which would indeed give a straight line on a log scale, although it was actually designed by {{w|Gustave Eiffel}} to minimize wind resistance rather than to be mathematically exact (the design is so perfect that the amount the Tower sways in the wind is less than the amount it is distorted due to thermal expansion of the sunlit side).<br />
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Outside of the Earth's atmosphere, the objects are placed at their actual distances from Earth on the log scale, but their shapes are not subjected to the logarithmic scaling of Earth objects, instead appearing as they would be seen (otherwise, round objects like the sun would appear more egg shaped, with the flatter side facing upward). However, objects are still much larger or much smaller than they would be in real life, in order to allow them to be properly seen.<br />
<br />
===Objects===<br />
All objects are sorted from bottom to top by their maximum distance from earth for objects in a solar orbit, and their current distance for others.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Distance<br />
! Object<br />
! Description<br />
|-<br />
| 435&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| Black Hat and cat<br />
| Black Hat kicking a cat off the top of the comic, presumably to determine whether it will land on its feet.<br />
|-<br />
| 435&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | Top of {{w|observable universe}}<br />
|-<br />
| 11.3&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Hubble Deep Field}} objects<br />
| Objects of extremely distant galaxies found in a long-exposure photograph by of the Hubble telescope, 12 billion light-years away. The right most object is probably intended to be a pulsar, schematically shown from the side.<br />
|-<br />
| 9.46&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One billion light years<br />
|-<br />
| 3.1&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Quasar}}<br />
| A supermassive black hole at the center of some young, distant galaxies, the energy released by stuff as it falls into them makes them the brightest known objects, the black hole eventually gets too big so the huge amounts of energy can't escape, but while they're active, they outshine entire clusters of galaxies.<br />
|-<br />
| 2.36&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Great Attractor}}<br />
| An unusual concentration of intergalactic mass.<br />
|-<br />
| 425&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Antennae Galaxies}} (colliding)<br />
| A pair of colliding galaxies.<br />
|-<br />
| 23.6&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}<br />
| A sibling to our Milky Way. It is the nearest spiral galaxy to ours.<br />
|-<br />
| 9.46&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One million light years<br />
|-<br />
| 2.38&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-on-a-keyboard-in-space Cat on a keyboard in space]<br />
| An internet meme featuring a picture of a cat sitting on a musical keyboard, superimposed on an image of space.<br />
|-<br />
| 1.56&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Magellanic Clouds}}<br />
| These clouds are a pair of nearby dwarf galaxies.<br />
|-<br />
| 263&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| Edge of Galaxy<br />
| The edge of the {{w|Milky Way}} galaxy, the galaxy in which we reside.<br />
|-<br />
| 245&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Galactic Center}}<br />
| The center of the Milky Way galaxy.<br />
|-<br />
| 61.5&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Crab Nebula}}<br />
| Nebula are supernova remnants<br />
|-<br />
| 14.2&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Horsehead Nebula}}<br />
| A dark nebula that is part of the Orion Constellation.<br />
|-<br />
| 12.7&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Orion Nebula}}<br />
| A nebula that is part of the Orion Constellation, just south of Orion's Belt.<br />
|-<br />
| 8.14&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Rigel}}<br />
| The brightest star in the Orion Constellation it is actually a triple star system known alternatively as Beta Orionis<br />
|-<br />
| 6.08&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Betelgeuse}}<br />
| The star Betelgeuse is displayed along with the location of {{w|Ford_Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect}} on his home planet which orbits Betelgeuse. Ford Prefect is a fictional character from the science fiction parody {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 4.20&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pleiades}}<br />
| The Pleiades also have a derogatory remark, as per [[66: Abusive Astronomy]]<br />
|-<br />
| 2.90&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| The [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_Neutral_Zone Romulan Neutral Zone]<br />
| This marks the edge of the {{w|Star Trek}} Federation.<br />
|-<br />
| 931&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | The first radio broadcast was in January 1910. Since radio waves travel at the speed of light, and this was published in September of 2008 this the radio waves traveled about 98.5 light years. See {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} for a depiction of this. This is also referenced in [[1212: Interstellar Memes]].<br />
|-<br />
| 350&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Arcturus}}<br />
| An orange giant star that is part of the Boötes constellation.<br />
|-<br />
| 320&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pollux}}<br />
| One of the most distinct stars in the Gemini Constellation it is large Orange Giant with an apparent visual magnitude of 1.1<br />
|-<br />
| 242&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| The edge of {{w|Federation Sector 0-0-1}}<br />
| The sector of space assigned to Earth in {{w|Star Trek}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 224&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Iraq and weapons of mass destruction|"missing WMDs"}}<br />
| A reference to the alleged weapons of mass destruction that were used as a pretence to mobilize the world population against Iraq, and start the Iraq war.<br />
|-<br />
| 81.3&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Sirius}}<br />
|Also known as Alpha Canis Majoris, the Dog Star, or the North Star it is actually a binary system of Stars consisting of a main sequence white star and a small white dwarf.<br />
|-<br />
| 56.6&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Barnard's Star}}<br />
| Barnards star is a very small red giant that is of great interest to astronomers as an achievement in the SIM (Space Interforometry Mission) to find a celestial object out of solar system that is a s small as 3 earth masses<br />
|-<br />
| 41.3&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Alpha Centauri}}<br />
| Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to our planet.<br />
|-<br />
| 30.9&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One parsec.<br />
|-<br />
| 9.46&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One light-year.<br />
|-<br />
| 15.0&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Oort cloud}}<br />
| A halo of ice balls surrounding our solar system, but missing the {{w|Kupier belt}} between Neptune and the Oort cloud.<br />
|-<br />
| 350&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Bupkis}}<br />
| Yiddish for "nothing". Only a handful of objects are known to orbit between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.<br />
|-<br />
| 55.0&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| A comet which will destroy earth in late 2063 <br />
| To coincide with the latest biblicaly based prophesy for the [http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p971105.htm end of the world].<br />
|-<br />
| 19.5&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Voyager 1}}<br />
| An early space probe. Distance correct as of 20th Nov 2014, click [http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/ here] to see NASA's live distance counter.<br />
|-<br />
| 16.7&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pioneer 10}}<br />
| Listed distance is an estimate based on {{w|Pioneer_10#Current_status|this information}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 17.7&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pioneer 11}}<br />
| By the similarity in appearance to Pioneer 10 this unlabeled probe must be Pioneer 11. Listed distance is an estimate based on {{w|Pioneer_11#Current_status|this information}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 14.5&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}<br />
| One of a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object}}s now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. The "All hail Discordia!" after Eris is a reference to {{w|Discordianism}}, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek religion based around the goddess Eris. The distance is the maximum distance from earth.<br />
|-<br />
| 7.50&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pluto}}<br />
| One of a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object}}s now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. Pluto was originally classified as the 9th planet of the Solar system. Many people were appalled when it was suddenly degraded to dwarf planet. Obviously Randall does not think much of these people thus the comment: ''Not a planet. Neener neener''. The distance is the maximum distance of Pluto from Earth.<br />
|-<br />
| 4.70&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Neptune}} <br />
| Neptune is displayed here with its moons. Neptune is the eighth and final planet in our solar system.<br />
|-<br />
| 3.20&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Uranus}} <br />
| Uranus is dispayed here with its moons. Uranus is the seventh planet in our solar system.<br />
|-<br />
| 1.67&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Saturn}} <br />
| Saturn is displayed along with its moons. One of Saturn's moons, most likely Titan, is labeled as a potential location to find life. Titan is the only known moon to have an atmosphere and oceans. The oceans cannot be filled with liquid water, as it is far too cold, but are instead filled with liquid methane and ethane. Some hypothisize that life could have formed in such oceans.<br />
|-<br />
| 928&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Jupiter}} <br />
| Jupiter is displayed along with its moons. One of Jupiter's moons, most likely Europa, is labeled as a potential location to find life. Europa may be covered by a deep ocean of water found under a layer of ice many kilometers thick. Some hypothisize that life could have formed in such oceans.<br />
|-<br />
| 222&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| Asteroids<br />
| The {{w|Asteroid|Asteroid belt}} contains a spaceship from {{w|Asteroids (video game)}}<br />
|-<br />
| 133&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Mars}}<br />
| Note the path, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits with a maximum distance of 261 million km and a minimum of 54.6 million km.<br />
|-<br />
| 114&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Venus}}<br />
| Note the path, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits with a maximum distance of 401 million km and a minimum of 37.7 million km.<br />
|-<br />
| 138&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Mercury}}<br />
| Mercury is the first planet in out solar system. The distance shown is the maximum distance from Earth.<br />
|-<br />
| 149&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Sun}}<br />
| The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system, around which the Earth orbits.<br />
|-<br />
| 16.3&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Discovery One}}<br />
| The Discovery One from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, referring to the quote "open the pod bay door, HAL." Also may be a reference to [[375: Pod Bay Doors]].<br />
|-<br />
| 9.43&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| Planet Express<br />
| The spaceplane is most likely the Planet Express from {{w|Futurama}}, where Fry once discussed "a big heaping bowl of salt." <br />
|-<br />
| 400&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| Human Altitude Record <br />
| Achieved by the team of {{w|Apollo 13}} approximately 100km higher than the remaining Apollo missions.<br />
|-<br />
| 384&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Moon}} <br />
| The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite.<br />
|-<br />
| 90.4&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Snoop Dogg}}<br />
| A tongue-in-cheek reference to a rapper notorious for smoking marijuana, shown as having the second-highest altitude record. Someone who is taking drugs is said to be getting high.<br />
|-<br />
| 60.5&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Space elevator}}<br />
| A proposed method of transporting cargo or people into orbit, consisting of a large mass beyond geosynchronous orbit, a station at the geosynchronous point, a cable connecting it to the Earth, and a climber that can scale the cable. Space elevators are also seen in [[697: Tensile vs. Shear Strength]] and [[536: Space Elevators]].<br />
|-<br />
| 42.1&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | {{w|Geosynchronous orbit|Geosynchronous Orbit}}<br />
|-<br />
| 20.2&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|GPS (satellite)|GPS Satellites}}<br />
| GPS satellites are used for global positioning.<br />
|-<br />
| 3.94&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Lunar Lander}} <br />
| The quote is a reference to {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} where the main character Ellie Arroway after witnessing a celestial light show up close says "Poetry! They should've sent a poet.".<br />
|-<br />
| 800&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Space debris|Space Junk}}<br />
| There is a large quantity of defunct objects in orbit around the earth. Amongst other things, this includes old satellites, rocket stages and fragments from collisions or disintegration. Space junk is also referenced in [[1242: Scary Names]] under the title {{w|Kessler syndrome}}<br />
|-<br />
| 422.5&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|International Space Station}}<br />
| The ISS (International Space Station) is a multinational effort to put a research vessel in space. It is currently the largest artifical object in Earth's orbit, as well as the location of the longest continuous human presence in space.<br />
|-<br />
| 100&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | The {{w|Edge of space|official edge of space}} as defined by the {{w|Kármán line}}<br />
|-<br />
| 76.0&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Meteors}}<br />
| Meteors are chunks of rock (usually asteroids) that burn up in the atmosphere, producing the bright light associated with them. If they are large enough to hit the ground, they become meteorites, which is why Munroe labeled them only in the upper atmosphere.<br />
|-<br />
| 25.0&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|High-altitude balloon|High-altitude balloons}}<br />
| Unmanned balloons, typically filled with helium or hydrogen. The current altitude record was set in 2002 by a balloon named BU60-1 which reached 53,000m.<br />
|-<br />
| 16.1&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 1/10 ATM = 0.1 {{w|Atmospheric pressure|atmosphere of pressure}}<br />
|-<br />
| 12.0&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Airliner|Airliners}}<br />
| This is a typical cruising altitude of jet aircraft, equating to roughly 40,000 feet. (Aircraft altitude tends to be specified in feet rather than metres (yay!) ) <br />
|-<br />
| 8.84&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Mount Everest}} <br />
| The Earths highest mountain, located in the {{w|Himalayas|Himalayan mountain range}} in South Asia.<br />
|-<br />
| 8.00&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Cory Doctorow}} <br />
| Cory Doctorow in a balloon, a reference to comic [[239: Blagofaire]].<br />
|-<br />
| 6.34&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Space Shuttle Columbia disaster}} <br />
| The {{w|Space Shuttle Columbia}} and its seven crew were lost when it disintegrated at [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6v16AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA7&ots=LDKQ3nsNHs&dq=shuttle%20columbia%20altitude&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q=shuttle%20columbia%20altitude&f=false approximately 63,400m] in 2003. This number is inconsistent with the height of the graph by a factor of 10 probably a mistype by Randall.<br />
|-<br />
| 6.00&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Helicopter}} <br />
| Though the record for helicopter altitude (without payload) is 12,442m, normal flying is usually performed much lower. In the US, 6000m is into {{w|Class A airspace}}, which is restricted and requires flight under {{w|Instrument Flight Rules}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 6.00&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Cloud}} <br />
| Though not actually labelled there are a couple of clouds shown. While different cloud types vary in height, 6000m is roughly in the middle of the height range for clouds in temperate regions [http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/21]<br />
|-<br />
| 5.49&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 1/2 ATM = 0.5 {{w|Atmospheric pressure|atmosphere of pressure}}<br />
|-<br />
| 1.78&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| [[Cueball]] <br />
| Apparently still using Python as shown in comic [[353: Python]].<br />
|-<br />
| 800&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 800 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 800&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Burj Khalifa|Burj Dubai}} <br />
| Now known as the Burj Khalifa, is the tallest building in the world.<br />
|-<br />
| 500&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 500 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 400&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 400 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 325&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Eiffel Tower}} <br />
| A famous landmark in Paris, France.<br />
|-<br />
| 300&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 300 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 200&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 200 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 150&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| Kite <br />
| Kite string is commonly sold in large spools; a nice thick spool will probably hold 150 meters.<br />
|-<br />
| 140&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Great Pyramid of Giza}} <br />
| One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is located in Egypt.<br />
|-<br />
| 120&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Baseball|Pop Fly}} <br />
| In Baseball a 'Pop Fly' is when the batter mis-hits the baseball, which then follows a tall arc deep into the infield where it's easy picking for the other team to catch on its way down. The highest recorded pop fly, not including those that landed in foul territory, was 172 meters.<br />
|-<br />
| 115&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Redwood Tree|Redwood trees}} <br />
| The tallest trees in the world. At 115.61m (379.3ft) {{w|Hyperion (tree)|Hyperion}}, a Coast Redwood, holds the record for the tallest tree in the world.<br />
|-<br />
| 100&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 100 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 20.0&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Oak}} <br />
| While oaks may grow to be in excess of 40m in height, heights of around 20m are more typical. The person in the tree saying, "Hey, squirrels!" is a reference to [[167: Nihilism]].<br />
|-<br />
| 16.4&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| Tallest stilts <br />
| The tallest {{w|stilts}} recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records (as of November 2006) were 16.4 meters, or nearly 54 feet.<br />
|-<br />
| 13.0&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Brachiosaurus|Brachiosaur}}<br />
| A large genus of dinosaur.<br />
|-<br />
| 8.00&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Giraffe}} <br />
| The tallest living terrestrial animal, with fully grown adults reaching in excess of 5 m. While labelled 8m in the comic, the [http://www.big-animals.com/the-giraffe-the-worlds-tallest-animal/ record] for height is reported at 5.8m.<br />
|-<br />
| 1.70&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Human height|Folks}}<br />
| Determining an average height of the world population is fraught with complications, but as a ballpark figure 1.7m is fairly accurate.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Top of observable universe'''<br />
:[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.]<br />
:Black Cat: Mrowl!<br />
:[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labeled. Labels left to right, up to down:]<br />
:(46 billion light years up)<br />
::Hubble Deep Field Objects<br />
:-One billion light years-<br />
::Great Attractor<br />
::Antennae Galaxies (colliding)<br />
::Andromeda<br />
::Holy crap lots of space<br />
:-One million light years-<br />
::Magellanic Clouds<br />
::Edge of galaxy<br />
::Galactic center<br />
::Crab Nebula<br />
::Orion Nebula<br />
::Horsehead Nebula<br />
::Romulan neutral zone<br />
::The Pleiades, duh!<br />
::Rigel<br />
::Betelgeuse<br />
::Ford Prefect<br />
:[Three arrows are pointing up above three lines with the following label:]<br />
:-Expanding shell of radio transmissions-<br />
::[Above a dotted line:]<br />
::Edge of federation sector 0-0-1<br />
::Pollux<br />
::Arcturus<br />
::Missing WMDs<br />
::Sirius<br />
::Barnard's Star<br />
::Alpha Centauri<br />
:-One parsec-<br />
:-One light year-<br />
::Oort Cloud (?)<br />
::Bupkis<br />
::Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063<br />
::Pioneer 10<br />
::Voyager I<br />
::Eris (All hail Discordia!)<br />
::Pluto (Not a planet. Neener neener.)<br />
::Neptune<br />
::Uranus<br />
::Saturn<br />
::[Two arrows point to two moons, one next to each of the planets aboe and below.]<br />
::<-- Life --><br />
::Jupiter<br />
::Asteroids<br />
::Mars<br />
::Venus<br />
::Sun<br />
::Mercury<br />
::Spaceship Planet Express: Hey, a heaping bowl of salt!<br />
::Spaceship Discovery One: Open the fridge door, Hal.<br />
::Moon<br />
::Human altitude record (Apollo 13)<br />
::2nd place: Snoop Dogg<br />
::Space elevator - One of these days, promise!<br />
::Geosynchronous Orbit<br />
::GPS satellites<br />
::Lunar lander: In retrospect, they <u>shouldn't</u> have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land.<br />
::International Space Station<br />
::Space junk<br />
:-Official edge of space (100 km)-<br />
::Meteors<br />
:-1/10 ATM-<br />
::High altitude balloons<br />
::Airliners<br />
::Shuttle Columbia lost<br />
:-1/2 ATM-<br />
::Cory Doctrow<br />
::Everest<br />
::Helicopters (6000 m)<br />
::Cueball: Woo Python!<br />
::[A vertical scale is drawn along the right side of the picture, starting at 1 km and getting progressivly smaller and smaller.]<br />
:1 km<br />
:-800 m-<br />
::Burj Dubai (~800 m)<br />
:500<br />
:400<br />
::Eiffel Tower (325 m)<br />
:200<br />
::Kites<br />
::Great Pyramid (140 m)<br />
::Pop fly<br />
::Redwood (115 m)<br />
:100m<br />
::Oak (20 m)<br />
::A person in the oak: Hey squirrels!<br />
::Tallest stilts<br />
::Brachiosaur (13 m)<br />
::Giraffe (8 m)<br />
::[Megan and Cueball holding the kite are labeled:] <br />
::Folks<br />
:'''The observable universe, from top to bottom''''<br />
::~On a log scale~<br />
::Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale (that is, each step up is double the height.)<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]] <br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Space probes]]<br />
[[Category:Astronomy]]<br />
[[Category:Space]]<br />
[[Category:Baseball]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]<br />
[[Category:Giraffes]]<br />
[[Category:Kites]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1644:_Stargazing&diff=112500Talk:1644: Stargazing2016-02-18T01:35:45Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>?.. is this Brian Cox??? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.155|162.158.152.155]] 06:07, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My first thought was that it was a pisstake of Brian Cox, except I wasn't sure if they had Stargazing Live in America. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.143|162.158.152.143]] 08:33, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
: Brian Cox seems like a nice guy and I applaud his enthusiasm, but if you want to see a truly awesome science broadcaster look for a set of broadcasts from the 70s/80s by James Burke titled "The Day the Universe Changed", Mr. Cox's programmes seem to be as much about how many airmiles the production team can accumulate as they are about the science. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.147|162.158.34.147]] 09:10, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
:: The airmiles comment above applies to Cox's "Wonders Of The Universe" series, certainly, but my first thought was either that Randall knew of the BBC's semi-regular programme-cluster "{{w|Stargazing Live}}", here in the UK, that Cox co-presents - perhaps via BBC America? - or else there's an equivalent US version (precursor or postcursor) of the same name that perhaps has a celebrity-based core team.<br />
:: (Brian's primary co-host in the programme ''is'' an Irish comedian, but one with a accredited science background who knows what they're talking about. They also have 'guest celebrities' for internal and external segments (from just outside the studio, under the night sky, to a pieces filmed/livecast at some space-relevant location, usually featured across all episodes of that season as a theme so not so much 'gratuitous globe-trotting) but they are all ''interested'' in space-stuff, and many ''also'' have an actual background expertise in physics/astronomy even if that's not what they're publicly known for.)<br />
:: Quickly looking around, I can't see any ''obvious'' astronomy programmes(/programs!) in the US that aren't similarly expert-led, but that's possibly because any that are don't feature as 'proper' programmes on any of the lists I've checked. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.89|162.158.152.89]] 14:25, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
:: The title text does imply it is in reference to Brian Cox. He is well known for his very philosophical comments referencing physics in that way. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.151|141.101.70.151]] 20:05, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I also thought this might be poking fun at the "Celebrity" presenters of TV astronomy programs. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.173|141.101.106.173]] 13:16, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I believe the title text may be referring to the fact that several people think that the sun is the brightest star simply because it's the closest to us, completely disregarding absolute magnitude? I'd change the explanation if I knew how. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.181|108.162.245.181]] 06:39, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The original statement in the comic is about which star is the brightest *in our sky*, i.e. most visible radiation per square meter hitting Earth, not the star with the most total radiation. You can change the explanation just by hitting the little edit button to the top right of the "Explanation" section.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.91|108.162.237.91]] 06:57, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I still don't get the main comic, unless its just situational comedy of someone acting like they know what they are talking about, when really they don't even know the meaning of the word "astronomer". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.91|108.162.237.91]] 07:01, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I put my best understanding of the comic in the explanation - I'm not sure I really get it, but I figured it was better than nothing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.91|108.162.237.91]] 07:14, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This is exactly how I feel about looking at stars and hard core astronomy. I look for the brightest stars, and would like to know something about them, but just the basic facts. I have had a course on astronomy and it was boring to do the math for star formation and cosmology. I learnt that way that I was only interested in the results and conclusions, not in trying to calculate it my self, or counting all the other smaller stars to gain the data needed. I really like Megan here ;-) Space is awesome, astronomy is boring :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:08, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I am pretty sure the last line in the first panel used to read "I'm doctor '''of''' whatever", but now it's clearly "... doctor '''or''' whatever". Has Randall changed the comic? -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.11|141.101.106.11]] 13:06, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
:I wrote the original transcript based on the comic on this site. This has since been corrected to or, which makes sense. But the image file for the comic has not been changed here on xkcd, so had it not been for your comment here, I would just have put it down to a typo on my behalf. I still think so, as I believed she said ''or whatever'' when I wrote about it in the explanation. But the "or" can look a little as "of". It is, however, not unheard of that Randall changes a comic if he spots a mistake after the first release. This has happened several times. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:50, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
From now on I plan to present Sirius as the brightest star that can be seen at night, just to take the wind out of the jokers sails... [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 14:34, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I wonder if the style of speaking is a reference to Donald Trump.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.90|108.162.237.90]] 19:31, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
She'd reminding me an awful lot of [[Beret Guy]] here, kind of scattered and . Is it just me? [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 20:42, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
:It's not just you... and from that point of view the title text doesn't read like sarcasm to me. Perhaps more a reference to choosing branches of science to explore? Then again, at least one person thought it was sarcastic, and I don't feel strongly enough to change the explanation over it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 01:35, 18 February 2016 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1635:_Birdsong&diff=110054Talk:1635: Birdsong2016-01-27T13:09:20Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>Cueball could instead be trying to capture it to figure out how what appears to be a regular bird can sing human lyrics, seeing as birds do not have anything resembling the human pharynx or diaphragm, as birds use a system of air sacs to push air into their lungs, analogous to how a mammalian heart moves blood. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 13:09, 27 January 2016 (UTC) Dom Vasta</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1593:_Play-By-Play&diff=103692Talk:1593: Play-By-Play2015-10-21T06:11:26Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>First!<br />
Sorry. On a more serious note, is "how rude" a reference to the ugly guy on the first Star Wars? I'm sleepy and can't think well. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:41, 21 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I strongly doubt it, since this is a completely unrelated topic to Star Wars [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.231|162.158.38.231]] 06:07, 21 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Also, the comic doesn't even include the phrase "how rude"... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 06:11, 21 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Simple Words ==<br />
<br />
Could someone check if this is an instance of Randall Munroe doing a comic using only the 1000 most commonly used words? It looks like it might be.</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1588:_Hardware_Reductionism&diff=103233Talk:1588: Hardware Reductionism2015-10-12T00:25:50Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>Is "TRIATHOLON" just a typo, or does it have a special comic value? {{unsigned ip|141.101.106.77}}<br />
:At this moment of creation it exists in a limbo in which it is both a typo and a joke, but now that it is has been released for viewers to take measures, the function will soon collapse into just one of the possible states. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.197|162.158.34.197]] 13:03, 9 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
::It's clearly a spelling mistake (not a typo). See http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Triathalon, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/athelete. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.149|173.245.50.149]] 13:19, 9 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I'm going with the theory it's a joke around the philosophical [[wikipedia:Holon (philosophy)|Holon]]. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 17:53, 9 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't think this is just parodying left-brain right-brain myths. Rather, it's parodying neural reductionism of all kinds—the currently widespread myth that our selves are determined genetically by brain structure alone, minimizing the role of culture and the way experience rewires the brain. In particular, the part about "phones like yours" makes me think of "women are from venus"–style myths (where, say, a slight correlation is found between gender and size of spacial processing module, etc, and pop-sci media reports it as WOMEN ARE INHERENTLY BAD AT SPATIAL REASONING).<br />
[[User:Leoboiko|Leoboiko]] ([[User talk:Leoboiko|talk]]) 13:25, 9 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Seems plausible. Care to add? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.104|108.162.216.104]] 13:39, 9 October 2015 (UTC<br />
<br />
Or it could be a riff on the current "Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow" model, which considers the brain as having two distinct (Type 1 and Type 2) types of thinking, often described as two separate actors in the brain, in spite of the fact that they probably overlap a lot in the sections of the brain used.<br />
[[User:Blackbearnh|Blackbearnh]] ([[User talk:Blackbearnh|talk]]) 14:16, 9 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
How about the typo of "coment" in the comment about the typo in the comic... {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.91}}<br />
:"Coment" may be a typo (error when typing) or a misspelling (when you don't know the correct spelling). "Triatholon" can only be a misspelling, because the comic is not typed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.149|173.245.50.149]] 18:12, 9 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: “ "Triatholon" can only be a misspelling, because the comic is not typed.”<br />
:: You can make a mistake when handwriting. It's not a typo, but neither is it a misspelling.<br />
:: [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.78|173.245.49.78]] 21:55, 9 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Might the two cores' difficulty handling three events be meant as a parallel to the functional brain study result showing humans multitask only two things, with one frontal lobe handling each task (and the introduction of a third task results in timesharing rather than parallel processing of all three)?<br />
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.139|173.245.50.139]] 22:15, 9 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:It could, but the three events in a triathlon don't involve multitasking - the events run in serial, not in parallel. I'm thinking about noting this in the text somewhere, but haven't though what to say about it yet - it seems peripheral. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 00:25, 12 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually believed the phone explanation. It sounds more plausible that several marketing claims. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 18:29, 10 October 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1581:_Birthday&diff=102406Talk:1581: Birthday2015-09-25T05:45:42Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/23/happy-birthday-song-now-in-public-domain.html [[User:Mwburden|mwburden]] ([[User talk:Mwburden|talk]]) 11:09, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
https://ia601904.us.archive.org/13/items/gov.uscourts.cacd.564772/gov.uscourts.cacd.564772.docket.html [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.245|162.158.92.245]] 11:26, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why is there a <nowiki><code></nowiki> box around the transcript? {{User:17jiangz1/signature|12:51, 23 September 2015}}<br />
:Because someone wrote the text with a space between each line instead of beginning each line with ":"<br />
Like this<br />
:Instead of like this --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:29, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There are nine musical notes, not six.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.92|173.245.50.92]] 13:40, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"Some might claim" seems wishy-washy to me. Perhaps it would be better to say "calling the cops in such situations is neither socially appropriate nor beneficial: this is the source of the humor in this comment." [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:15, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This appears to be one of the few comics with <em> both </em> Black Hat and White Hat. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.116|199.27.133.116]] 15:47, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't have a sub to law360, nor do I wish to bother giving them my throwaway email. What was the basis of the ruling? Why is this public domain now? {{unsigned|NotLock}}<br />
:It's not, text updated. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 06:39, 24 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The third line implies that "xkcd" should be pronounced as having two syllables. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.163}}<br />
<br />
Clearly you have never heard "Happy Birthday" sung to someone with a really long name. It doesn't matter if it's two syllables, you just stretch it out. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.123|173.245.48.123]] 04:08, 24 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
AFAIK The ruling only applies to the lyrics, they still have a valid copyright to the music, so if you sing the song you had better make sure it's to a suitable tune that is out of copyright!<br />
:As I understood it, the music itself is in the public domain and it's just the specific piano arrangement that was under copyright. Reproductions of the music are free and legal, reproductions of the arrangement is the only thing to watch out for.</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1581:_Birthday&diff=102358Talk:1581: Birthday2015-09-24T06:39:10Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/23/happy-birthday-song-now-in-public-domain.html [[User:Mwburden|mwburden]] ([[User talk:Mwburden|talk]]) 11:09, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
https://ia601904.us.archive.org/13/items/gov.uscourts.cacd.564772/gov.uscourts.cacd.564772.docket.html [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.245|162.158.92.245]] 11:26, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why is there a <nowiki><code></nowiki> box around the transcript? {{User:17jiangz1/signature|12:51, 23 September 2015}}<br />
:Because someone wrote the text with a space between each line instead of beginning each line with ":"<br />
Like this<br />
:Instead of like this --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:29, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There are nine musical notes, not six.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.92|173.245.50.92]] 13:40, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"Some might claim" seems wishy-washy to me. Perhaps it would be better to say "calling the cops in such situations is neither socially appropriate nor beneficial: this is the source of the humor in this comment." [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:15, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This appears to be one of the few comics with <em> both </em> Black Hat and White Hat. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.116|199.27.133.116]] 15:47, 23 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't have a sub to law360, nor do I wish to bother giving them my throwaway email. What was the basis of the ruling? Why is this public domain now? {{unsigned|NotLock}}<br />
:It's not, text updated. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 06:39, 24 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The third line implies that "xkcd" should be pronounced as having two syllables. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.163}}<br />
<br />
Clearly you have never heard "Happy Birthday" sung to someone with a really long name. It doesn't matter if it's two syllables, you just stretch it out. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.123|173.245.48.123]] 04:08, 24 September 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1581:_Birthday&diff=1023571581: Birthday2015-09-24T06:37:47Z<p>108.162.250.161: Step 2: public domain clarification</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1581<br />
| date = September 23, 2015<br />
| title = Birthday<br />
| image = birthday.png<br />
| titletext = I guess I need to apologize to my parents, friends, and the staff at Chuck E. Cheese's for all the times I called the cops on them.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
[[xkcd]] turns 10 years old on September 30, 2015 (a week after the release of this comic). In this comic [[Randall]] honors his webcomic by singing to it the classic "{{w|Happy Birthday to You}}" song. <br />
<br />
"{{w|Happy Birthday to You}}" is one of the most commonly sung songs in the English language (and is common in many others). Because of its age, ubiquity and simplicity, it has long surprised people to learn that it was not in the public domain. {{w|Warner/Chappell Music}} claimed the copyright to the lyrics, and has demanded royalties for any recording, publication or public performance for commercial purposes. Total revenues for this song were estimated at $2 million annually.<br />
<br />
This strip refers to a ruling, from the day before the release of this comic, by a federal judge in California ({{w|George H. King|George King}}), stating that the song is not covered by a valid copyright (see [http://www.law360.com/articles/706173 Warner's 'Happy Birthday' Copyright Not Valid, Judge Rules]). This ruling resulted from a lawsuit filed by Good Morning To You Productions (singer {{w|Rupa Marya}} and filmmaker {{w|Robert D. Siegel|Robert Siegel}}) against Warner/Chappel Music to declare Warner/Chappel's copyright claim in the song invalid (filing at [http://www.scribd.com/doc/147645129/Happybirthday]). With this ruling, the court declared that Warner/Chappell does not have a copyright claim to the song, and therefore the song can now be sung or published by anyone, in any context, without having to pay royalties to Warner/Chappell.<br />
<br />
The ruling does not go so far as to declare the song to be in the public domain, leaving it more correctly defined as an {{w|Orphan works|orphan work}}. Randall seems to be celebrating the fact that this strip, which would have put him at risk for a lawsuit the day before, is now unlikely to be challenged since the odds of a new party appearing and successfully claiming copyright on the lyrics and subsequently demanding license fees is approximately zero.<br />
<br />
The title text is a joke that refers to Randall calling the police against {{w|Chuck E. Cheese's}} as well as his own friends and parents when they sang "Happy Birthday" and did not pay royalties. The song is very commonly used in entertainment restaurants, such as Chuck E. Cheese's, and at both grown up's and children's birthdays. Because restaurants are commercial enterprises, public performances of the song, prior to this ruling, would potentially expose the restaurant to liability claims (though singing it at a private birthday party would not). In either case, calling the police would be an extreme overreaction.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Caption above the frame:]<br />
:xkcd turns 10 years old this month.<br />
:In light of last night's court ruling in <br />
:''Rupa Marya v. Warner/Chappell Music Inc.'',<br />
:I would just like to say:<br />
<br />
:[The song text is written, with nine musical notes, three groups on each side of the text, above a birthday cake with 10 lit candles. The cake has two distinct layers. On each layer there are drawn 6 xkcd stick figures with small black bullets between them. The center bullet in the bottom layer is shaped like a heart. The figures at the edges can be difficult to recognize. The figures in the upper layer and from the left are: A man with a hat (hard to see if it is one of the recognized characters), White Hat, Megan, Pony Tail, Hairy and Cueball (hard to see him properly). Similar in the lower layer: Black Hat, Danish, Beret Guy, Rob, Cutie, and a girl (hard to see, but looks like girls hair, not a hat).]<br />
:Happy birthday to you<br />
:Happy birthday to you<br />
:Happy birthday, dear xkcd<br />
:Happy birthday to you<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1581:_Birthday&diff=1023561581: Birthday2015-09-24T06:32:22Z<p>108.162.250.161: Step 1: fix the direction of the lawsuit.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1581<br />
| date = September 23, 2015<br />
| title = Birthday<br />
| image = birthday.png<br />
| titletext = I guess I need to apologize to my parents, friends, and the staff at Chuck E. Cheese's for all the times I called the cops on them.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
[[xkcd]] turns 10 years old on September 30, 2015 (a week after the release of this comic). In this comic [[Randall]] honors his webcomic by singing to it the classic "{{w|Happy Birthday to You}}" song. <br />
<br />
"{{w|Happy Birthday to You}}" is one of the most commonly sung songs in the English language (and is common in many others). Because of its age, ubiquity and simplicity, it has long surprised people to learn that it was not in the public domain. {{w|Warner/Chappell Music}} claimed the copyright to the lyrics, and has demanded royalties for any recording, publication or public performance for commercial purposes. Total revenues for this song were estimated at $2 million annually.<br />
<br />
This strip refers to a ruling, from the day before the release of this comic, by a federal judge in California ({{w|George H. King|George King}}), stating that the song is not covered by a valid copyright (see [http://www.law360.com/articles/706173 Warner's 'Happy Birthday' Copyright Not Valid, Judge Rules]). This ruling resulted from a lawsuit filed by Good Morning To You Productions (singer {{w|Rupa Marya}} and filmmaker {{w|Robert D. Siegel|Robert Siegel}}) against Warner/Chappel Music to declare Warner/Chappel's copyright claim in the song invalid (filing at [http://www.scribd.com/doc/147645129/Happybirthday]). With this ruling, the court declared that Warner/Chappell does not have a copyright claim to the song, and therefore the song can now be sung or published by anyone, in any context, without having to pay royalties to Warner/Chappell. Munroe seems to be celebrating the fact that this strip, which would have put him at risk for a lawsuit the day before, is now completely legal.<br />
<br />
The title text is a joke that refers to Randall calling the police against {{w|Chuck E. Cheese's}} as well as his own friends and parents when they sang "Happy Birthday" and did not pay royalties. The song is very commonly used in entertainment restaurants, such as Chuck E. Cheese's, and at both grown up's and children's birthdays. Because restaurants are commercial enterprises, public performances of the song, prior to this ruling, would potentially expose the restaurant to liability claims (though singing it at a private birthday party would not). In either case, calling the police would be an extreme overreaction.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Caption above the frame:]<br />
:xkcd turns 10 years old this month.<br />
:In light of last night's court ruling in <br />
:''Rupa Marya v. Warner/Chappell Music Inc.'',<br />
:I would just like to say:<br />
<br />
:[The song text is written, with nine musical notes, three groups on each side of the text, above a birthday cake with 10 lit candles. The cake has two distinct layers. On each layer there are drawn 6 xkcd stick figures with small black bullets between them. The center bullet in the bottom layer is shaped like a heart. The figures at the edges can be difficult to recognize. The figures in the upper layer and from the left are: A man with a hat (hard to see if it is one of the recognized characters), White Hat, Megan, Pony Tail, Hairy and Cueball (hard to see him properly). Similar in the lower layer: Black Hat, Danish, Beret Guy, Rob, Cutie, and a girl (hard to see, but looks like girls hair, not a hat).]<br />
:Happy birthday to you<br />
:Happy birthday to you<br />
:Happy birthday, dear xkcd<br />
:Happy birthday to you<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1578:_Squirrelphone&diff=101882Talk:1578: Squirrelphone2015-09-16T05:16:31Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>Could it be a reference to this? http://web.media.mit.edu/~stefanm/phd/cellularsquirrel/<br />
<br />
<br />
What about the old "Bananaphone" pun?<br />
<br />
<br />
Sometimes I wonder if the joke is to make ExplainXKCD squirm.<br />
<br />
^ Not really. Those like me who used SquirrelMail had a laugh. Mostly every XKCD joke is incomprehensible to people not familiar with the subject of the joke.<br />
<br />
"a living squirrel being not an appropiate creature to mantain a phone call. "... well, duh. Everyone knows that a squid would make MUCH more sense! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 05:16, 16 September 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1563:_Synonym_Movies&diff=995081563: Synonym Movies2015-08-12T07:33:15Z<p>108.162.250.161: A synonym doesn't mean a word-for-word translation. A fight in space is a synonym for a war amongst stars.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1563<br />
| date = August 12, 2015<br />
| title = Synonym Movies<br />
| image = synonym_movies.png<br />
| titletext = Fans eagerly await 2015's 'Space Fights: Power Gets Up', although most think 1999's 'Space Fights: The Scary Ghost' didn't live up to the hype.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Could use more detail.}}<br />
<br />
This comic shows several "Synonym Movies" Well known movies, but with the titles changed to words that are different, but mean essentially the same thing.<br />
<br />
The use of synonyms makes all these movies look ridiculous, for example, "The Sword Wizard Is Back" is a laughable sounding movie, whereas "The Return of the Jedi" sound perfectly reasonable to us. Randall may be poking fun at movies that have ridiculous titles already, such as "Terminator: Genisys".<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Synonym<br />
! Real Title<br />
|-<br />
| Space Fights: Sudden Optimism<br />
| Star Wars: A New Hope<br />
|-<br />
| Space Fights: The Government Wins This One<br />
| Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back<br />
|-<br />
| Space Fights: The Sword Wizard Is Back<br />
| Star Wars: The Return Of The Jedi<br />
|-<br />
|The Jewelry God: The Jewelry Team<br />
|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring<br />
|-<br />
|The Jewelry God: Double Houses<br />
|The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers<br />
|-<br />
|The Jewelry God: We Have a Czar Again<br />
|The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King<br />
|-<br />
|Space Trip: The Movie<br />
|Star Trek: The Motion Picture<br />
|-<br />
|Space Trip: That Guy is Angry<br />
|Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan<br />
|-<br />
|Space Trip: Where is the Vulcan<br />
|Star Trek: The Search for Spock<br />
|-<br />
|Space Trip: Let's Go Back<br />
|Star Trek: The Voyage Home<br />
|-<br />
|Space Fights: Power Gets Up<br />
|Star Wars: The Force Awakens<br />
|-<br />
|Space Fights: The Scary Ghost<br />
|Star Wars: The Phantom Menace<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1553:_Public_Key&diff=980601553: Public Key2015-07-20T08:07:05Z<p>108.162.250.161: Category - Cueball</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1553<br />
| date = July 20, 2015<br />
| title = Public Key<br />
| image = public_key.png<br />
| titletext = I guess I should be signing stuff, but I've never been sure what to sign. Maybe if I post my private key, I can crowdsource my decisions about what to sign.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
In [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography Public-key cryptography], two keys are generated for a user. The public key can be used to encrypt messages, but not decrypt them. The private key is necessary for decryption.<br />
<br />
The public key is designed to be shared. People share their public keys so anybody can send them an encrypted message. Cueball has been following this rule. However, nobody wants to send him encrypted messages. Cueball contemplates sharing his private key, which would allow anyone to decrypt his messages. This change would defeat the whole purpose of encryption, and it would not solve Cueball's problem.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to another feature of Public-key cryptography: messages can be "signed" with the private key. These messages can be read by anyone with the public key, but readers can verify that the owner of the private key wrote (or at least signed) the message. If Cueball published his private key, anybody could sign anything as him. Once again, this would defeat the purpose of encryption.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
[In the first panel, Cueball is sitting in a chair and is using a laptop.]<br />
<br />
Cueball: I've been posting my public key for 15 years now, but no one has ever asked me for it or used it for anything as far as I can tell.<br />
<br />
[Two panels with Cueball thinking silently.]<br />
<br />
Cueball: Maybe I should try posting my ''private'' key instead.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Cryptography]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1285:_Third_Way&diff=97939Talk:1285: Third Way2015-07-17T06:22:20Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>One line per sentence is reminiscent of a diagrammed/formal logic argument in philosophy. It would be a much more effective convention to help people parse and interpret content and validity of e.g. political claims. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.63.198|173.245.63.198]] 17:21, 2 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Line break after every sentence. <br><br />
Because I can. <br><br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.7|108.162.245.7]] 04:41, 20 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
ONE SPACE AFTER A PERIOD. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:38, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:MY VOTE TOO!!! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:MY VOTE, TWO!!! (not really) [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 09:20, 1 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Writing plaintext, I always do two spaces after a sentence ending period.<br />
This is probably because I did in fact start typing on a real typewriter.<br />
In an environment where automatic formatting will take place, like a web page or wiki text, I use the newline.<br />
I have had people in this wiki collapse my multiple line forms to one of the others.<br />
(I was disappointed.)<br />
--[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 04:48, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I prefer double spacing, but I used single spacing in writing the explanation, just to make people happy. Perhaps I should have used new lines. [[User:Concomitant|Concomitant]] ([[User talk:Concomitant|talk]]) 05:10, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
: I'm a double-spacer too. Am I wrong? I can't break myself of the habit, I even do it in tweets! --[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:43, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The 'third way' is a little underappreciated here: it divides the text into self contained logical units, and makes text processing tools (grep, diff etc.) much more usable.<br />
Proper text rendering engines (TeX, HTML, etc.) already make this assumption and group sentences accordingly.<br />
If only I realized this earlier, it would have made my thesis revisions much more easier.<br />
In fact, up to this moment, I thought I was that lone guy in the comic.<br />
EDIT: this comment in xkcd forums makes my point clear: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=106217#p3489055<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.11|141.101.96.11]] 05:42, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:As a programmer, I find nothing weird in adapting your style to language. Writing two spaces in HTML or TeX is useless, as they won't render as two spaces anyway. (While using for this purpose nonbreakable spaces, which would render, is a crime.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:48, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
::It would also render incorrectly if the period was close to the end of a line. If the markup is [last word of sentence][period][nbsp][space][next sentence], the last word of the first sentence could end up on the next line unnecessarily. But if it's [last word of sentence][period][space][nbsp][next sentence], the next line of text would start with a space, which is much worse.--[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 15:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::I end my sentences with a line break, a % and another linebreak. Only after commata etc i use a single line break. Oh, and don't forget to protect the space after points used in abbreviations, not as full stops, by a backslash. Most TeX increase the length of the space after a full stop a bit. Bit question: Why don't double space people, when using Word not just use a longer space instead of a double space. Noone would have the idea to indent a paragraph or substitute a tab with a series of spaces.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.117|108.162.242.117]] 03:11, 2 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::Because the keyboard does not contain a longer space key.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I always just find and replace double space with single space. If formatting suffers, someone did a bad job.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.228|108.162.231.228]] 06:33, 1 November 2013 (UTC) Synthetica<br />
<br />
I always just find and replace single space with double space. If formatting suffers, someone did a bad job.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
So, why did double spacing after a period ever exist? It doesn't seem necessary. [[User:PheagleAdler|PheagleAdler]] ([[User talk:PheagleAdler|talk]]) 07:31, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Here's the standard explanation: on typewriters, each character takes up the same amount of space. So a lower-case "i" takes up the same amount of space as a capital "M". This is called a monospace font. When typing, if you just put a single space after the end of period ending a sentence, the reader doesn't necessarily get the sense that a new sentence has started. This is particularly true if you were typing in all caps, as might be common on some types of forms or documents. Two spaces, however, does the job nicely. In theory, with modern proportional-width fonts, this is unnecessary. [[User:Rylon|Rylon]] ([[User talk:Rylon|talk]]) 23:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Here's the researched explanation: http://www.heracliteanriver.com/?p=324 So technically, an em-space after a period, an en-space after a comma. Or you know, whatever you want. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 06:22, 17 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
even though i learned typing on a typewriter, to this day i had never heard of the double space thing. maybe it's a US only thing, like the stupid french with spaces BEFORE punctuation marks. [[User:Peter|Peter]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 07:54, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I've always taken the double-space thing as a US thing. Some editors like emacs default to it, which is really annoying. That said, as a frenchman, the "space before punctuation" is normal to me and it is part of the ''codified'' typography -- and I think this is actually an important distinction to make. Is this double-space vs single-space something codified somehow? As a last word, I need to be nitpicky: the exact French typography rule is "a space before punctuation made of two parts (namely colon, semi-colon, exclamation/question mark) and no space before punctuation made of a single part (dots, commas.)" It's a very deterministic rule that is easy to apply (whether one agrees to it or not.) [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 16:40, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
::This is a common question from the French and some other nationals. The answer is that English does not work that way. There is no official codified version. The most you have is small pockets of codification within an organization, such as The University of Boulder, or UPI or the US Army. If you're working in or with such an organization you should use their standard. If you try to extend any such standard to the rest of the world you are a nasty egomanical control freak who should be chopped into pieces and fed to the fishes.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:25, 4 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
As a german typographer I have to say I’m ''shocked''! ''Two'' spaces per period? A space ''before'' punctuation?! My scientific opinion: you all are completely crazy ;-) (Just kidding, but seriously, two spaces? In Germany, the first possibility to do that safely is your last will …) [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 10:34, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The doubled spaces appear in my browser's tooltips. (Maybe someone should add some non breaking spaces to the quotation of the tooltip text?) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.236|141.101.98.236]] 10:45, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
As a(n automatic) two-spacer person (just you watch, I'll use 'em here, despite it obviously not being rendered), it's just what I learnt, back in the '70s, here in the UK. I've no idea ''why'' I learnt it. However, it may stem from the same root as the 'rule' in handwriting (not biros, but nibbed pens dipped in ink... wow, I feel old, but it ''was'' at primary school) that we use a gap as big as our our (very little) little-fingers to separate sentences. I imagine differentiating full-stops (US: periods) from commas in the messy medium of ink might be a valuable visual indicator as to what a given smudge might ''actually'' be. So, anyway, double-spacing. On the other hand I should report that, "I've dropped the habit it of appropriate punctuation prior to quotes," I say, "despite being the way I learnt it." And instead I will drop "<- Commas from that sort of position," you see, "even through I'll keep the ones that are semantic pauses." You see how my standards are slipping? Anyway, good comic. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programme. <!-- (Oh look at me and my predecessor's IPs. We're ''not'' the same person, but I imagine they're using the same ISP as me.) --> [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 14:44, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I'm in the same boat this this bloke. I don't get the typewriter tie in. I seem to recall being taught to use a finger gage correct gap of whitespace to leave between the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next. This was in an American small town southern school in the early 1980s. I assume it was for readability. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.25|108.162.236.25]] 16:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The "third way" is used for articles on the [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news BBC News] website :-) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.233|141.101.99.233]] 14:52, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Actually, they put each sentence into a paragraph of its own, which is yet different. (In HTML: <code>&lt;p>... .&lt;/p></code> vs. <code>... .&lt;br /></code>) --[[User:Das-g|Das-g]] ([[User talk:Das-g|talk]]) 16:07, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:That's what I came here to say, that the Third Way is common-place on the web today, it is the tabloid style. This headline article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24775846 off the BBC right now only has full-stops (periods in en-US) before paragraph breaks, apart from quotations (ie what the BBC did not write). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.229|141.101.98.229]] 16:11, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:The BBC is not the only web site to do that - and it is '''so''' annoying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.244|108.162.222.244]] 10:15, 2 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There's a FOURTH way! I receive a "Weekly Update from Senator Tim Scott" HTML formatted email about once a week (unsurprisingly) which, in lieu of spaces between words, uses a carriage return and a linefeed. This alleviates the question of how many spaces between sentences completely! It also renders as oneverylongword in my email client. Ie: <blockquote>Thankyouforsubscribingtomye-newsletter.</blockquote> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.25|108.162.236.25]] 16:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
: And a fifth: In France, they use one whitespace before and after double punctions (:;?!) but only one whitespace after single punctuation (.,). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.25|141.101.79.25]] 20:15, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think the finger space was to help kids create clear separation while developing their proficiency at penmanship.<br />
I think the 2x space is a fall out from the fixed width formatting of typewriters to help assist the reader (or proof reader) with the start and end of a sentence.<br />
Double spacing has almost become OCD for me. I can't help it. Of course I also leave paragraph marks on while I type as well. I wonder if the French would require a space before a double quote, "The author ponders. "<br />
<br />
I think we could improve old school cryptography if we just used carriage returns and ignored the 'new' line.<br />
I might be able to accept and adopt the single space rule if I can make my spaces default to twice the point size of every other character in the style.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.186|199.27.128.186]] 19:00, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:FOROL DSCHO OLCRY PTOGR APHYT AKEYO URCUE FROME NIGMA DECOD ESAND ARRAN GEEVE RYTHI NGING ROUPS OFFIV EWITH OUT''AN Y''PUNC TUAT IONAN DINAL LCAPS <!-- For 'old-school cryptography', take your cue from Enigma decodes and arrange everything in groups of five, without /any/ punctuation and in ALL-CAPS ;) --> [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 01:38, 2 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I have my word processor set to a a gap equal to one and a half spaces after a sentence ends[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.198|173.245.52.198]] 19:05, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
New paragraph (TWO line brakes) after every sentence :-) --[[User:Sten|Sten]] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 20:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I love how the explanation uses the third method. Nice touch. [[User:JRDeBo|JRDeBo]] ([[User talk:JRDeBo|talk]]) 23:29, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Does anyone think there's any significance to the sword and the spear? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.144|108.162.208.144]] 23:46, 2 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Yes, because this is a SERIOUS ISSUE. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 06:35, 4 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:A sword has a longer blade, while a spear keeps people further away. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.210|108.162.219.210]] 12:45, 4 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
According to the [[http://fireemblemwiki.org/Weapon_triangle Fire Emblem weapon triangle]], the 1-spacers win against the 2-spacers. Then again, I put one space after each sentence. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 18:25, 4 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Picture of a cat after every full stop !!! {{unsigned ip|173.245.51.221}}<br />
<br />
With all the whitespace compression and variable width fonts in modern technology switching back to 2-space is as viable as switching over to localized Programmer Dvorak. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.18|108.162.231.18]] 13:44, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey, does anyone know if there's any way to make the wiki keep two spaces in a row, so the title text shows up properly? [[User:SuperSupermario24|<span style="color: #c21aff;">Just some random derp</span>]] 15:46, 7 July 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=220:_Philosophy&diff=97915220: Philosophy2015-07-17T04:18:55Z<p>108.162.250.161: /* Transcript */ minor grammar</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 220<br />
| date = February 7, 2007<br />
| title = Philosophy<br />
| image = philosophy.png<br />
| titletext = It's like the squirt bottle we use with the cat.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
In all of {{w|philosophy}}, perhaps the most important question considers the {{w|meaning of life}}, and can be expressed as "Why are we here?" or "What does it all mean?" Many philosophers and theologians have attempted to answer the question over the course of human history and every religion claims to have some sort of answer.<br />
<br />
[[Megan]] has been considering that the question is essentially meaningless. However, if that is true, she can't understand why it continues to be in her thoughts. This might feel frustrating for Megan. Her friends (both looking like [[Cueball]]) notice that she is seemingly stuck in this existential question and have a short-term solution for her. One friend reaches for a {{w|Super Soaker}} 50, a powerful toy squirt gun, which he intends to use to spray water at Megan while she is having her {{w|existential crisis}}. (Megan uses this soaker later against Cueball in [[517: Marshmallow Gun]] and later yet, in [[625: Collections]], she has another one of her crisis.)<br />
<br />
The title text refers to the {{w|operant conditioning}} technique (a form of behavioral modification) commonly used with house cats. If they start scratching the furniture, many people spray them with a squirt bottle (since they hate water) to discourage that behavior (though it seldom works). It may also allude to the idea of hitting a break key where a program is stuck in a logical loop.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Megan sits on a chair for two panels without moving.]<br />
<br />
:[In the third panel Megan has still not moved but makes the following comment to no one in particular.]<br />
:Megan: If the question of what it all means doesn't mean anything, why do I keep coming back to it? <br />
<br />
:[Two Cueball-like friends of Megan are talking to each other. One of them is standing behind the office chair in which the other friend is sitting, behind a desk with a computer. The standing friend starts to walk toward Megan. The sitting friend pulls a large yellow and green super soaker from a drawer.]<br />
:Standing friend: She's getting existential again.<br />
:Sitting friend: It's okay, I have a super soaker.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*[[Randall]] himself uploaded the strip's fourth panel to {{w|Wikimedia Commons}} ([http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Xkcd_philosophy.png here]) for use on {{w|xkcd|''xkcd's'' Wikipedia article}}. xkcd is licenced under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ this] {{w|Creative Commons license}}, which is incompatible with [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ this] CC license that Wikipedia uses, because the latter allows commercial use. Randall says {{w|Talk:Primer (film)|here}} that he is willing to unlock more strips to Commons for similar purposes.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]<br />
[[Category:Philosophy]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1188:_Bonding&diff=97914Talk:1188: Bonding2015-07-17T02:15:31Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>The aim method results in an infinite loop/stack overflow, note that ball is an exception of type Ball. This results in a logical flow of aim, "throw," "catch," repeat, though this is only logical by word choice, and is nonsensical from a programming perspective. {{unsigned|108.48.215.61}}<br />
:Just as the game of catch is nonsensical from a logistics perspective! [[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 14:20, 20 March 2015 (UTC) <br />
Pretty sure the code is also intentionally hard to follow. {{unsigned|108.48.215.61}}<br />
<br />
<br />
The try/catch parts are just for show, they cancel each other out.<br />
The structure is that you have a parent and a child instance (of class P), each has a 'target' pointed to the other.<br />
Then calling aim with a ball will call the others aim with the ball, which will call the firsts aim with the ball. Etc etc.<br />
<br />
I guess after about a 1000 aims the jvm will throw you out, stating stack overflow, and the bonding game is over. {{unsigned|212.214.117.162}}<br />
<br />
<br />
Nice catch game :) <br />
I had to test it:<br />
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StackOverflowError<br />
in my setup with default VM settings after 6612 iterations (I added a static counter variable). <br />
The game could get even more "exciting" by using more than two Ps and adding randomization in who is aimed at. And maybe a miss block ;) (need to hack the compiler and VM for that though...)<br />
[[Special:Contributions/134.106.146.36|134.106.146.36]] 09:31, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I don't think any parent will last so long. On the other hand, if you always catch the ball, one iteration doesn't take so long, it's the missing which makes the game long ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:56, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::So true. I start to feel tempted to write a real catch game in Java. Btw: Of course not in Eclipse (please...). I use an IDE where everything works and I don't have to wait all the time. ;) [[Special:Contributions/134.106.146.36|134.106.146.36]] 08:15, 21 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
Hmmm "Eclipse: The Codex Persona" is also a d20 gaming system which offers enormous customization of characters. The mention of building character and Eclipse in the same sentence just brought that to the front of my mind. No idea if that has relation to the comic. --[[Special:Contributions/50.0.36.182|50.0.36.182]] 07:38, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Did anyone else have a D'AWWWWWW moment when you realized what was happening? I knew it was a pun on throw and catch, but it took till the end for me to realize it was a parent and a child playing catch.[[Special:Contributions/74.14.31.164|74.14.31.164]] 12:53, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
The one problem with this is that the way the try/catch is set up, they aren't actually throwing to each other. Parent throws the ball, then catches it themselves, then child does the same thing. It's still clever though. [[User:Prometheusmmiv|Prometheusmmiv]] ([[User talk:Prometheusmmiv|talk]]) 11:38, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I thought exactly the same. Here's a modified version where they actually throw to each other:<br />
class Ball extends Throwable{}<br />
<br />
class P{<br />
P target;<br />
Ball ballInTow;<br />
<br />
P(P target, Ball ball) {<br />
this.target = target;<br />
this.ballInTow = ball;<br />
} <br />
void tease() {<br />
try {<br />
target.youDontDare();<br />
}<br />
catch(Ball b){<br />
ballInTow = b;<br />
target.tease();<br />
} <br />
} <br />
void youDontDare() throws Ball {<br />
throw ballInTow;<br />
} <br />
public static void main(String [] args) {<br />
P parent = new P(null, new Ball());<br />
P child = new P(parent, null);<br />
parent.target = child;<br />
child.tease();<br />
}<br />
}<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/88.9.44.85|88.9.44.85]] 15:41, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:: I was thinking about how do this correctly, with the throw bubbling up to the other person. And I realized that in order for the recursion to work, there would have to be a double method where the catcher asks (or "teases") the thrower to throw, then catches it in that method. I was going to write up a version like this, but I had to leave for work. But I'm glad that somebody else was thinking like me and was able to write up a correct version :) [[User:Prometheusmmiv|Prometheusmmiv]] ([[User talk:Prometheusmmiv|talk]]) 22:06, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The code is an odd way of making a loop in Java -- creating two objects (of class P, called "parent" and "child") which repeatedly throw and catch another object (of class Ball) between one another. The sole purpose of this is to create the pun referred to in the title: it's a real-life cliché that a parent and child may "bond" by playing catch. [[Special:Contributions/81.31.112.212|81.31.112.212]] 07:14, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
Title text talks about "to build character" in the way usually a father tries to help a child to define "attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual"[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/character], so I suppose that the "confusing Eclipse" is a pun itself. Perhaps it is a reference to Eclipse novel by Stephenie Meyer (the kind of book that raises a lot of moral dilemma in a young adult).<br />
--[[User:Andcoz|Andcoz]] ([[User talk:Andcoz|talk]]) 12:49, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
I think there is another pun in it: The class "Ball" is a child-class of "Throwable" which makes sense because you can throw a ball. But "Throwable" is also the main exception-class from which the real exception classes like "Exception" or "Error" inherit. --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 12:50, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
I think it's sad that this family always dies in a most unfortunate crash. Here's an alternate ending in which they try just a little bit harder, so they return home for dinner when they're out because they didn't catch the ball:<br />
class Ball extends Throwable {}<br />
class P{<br />
P target;<br />
P(P target) {<br />
this.target = target;<br />
}<br />
void aim (Ball ball) {<br />
try {<br />
throw ball;<br />
}<br />
catch (Ball B) {<br />
try {<br />
target.aim(B);<br />
}<br />
catch(Error made) {<br />
return;<br />
}<br />
}<br />
}<br />
public static void main(String[] args) {<br />
P parent = new P(null);<br />
P child = new P(parent);<br />
parent.target = child;<br />
parent.aim(new Ball());<br />
System.out.println("Dinner's ready!");<br />
}<br />
}<br />
[[User:Jfresen|Jfresen]] ([[User talk:Jfresen|talk]]) 14:10, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Personally, I think Randal missed a trick with the alt text - "My parent tried playing catch with me and all I got was this lousy stack overflow." That said, Eclipse is driving me nuts at the moment, so I can sympathise! --[[Special:Contributions/81.187.166.32|81.187.166.32]] 22:59, 20 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I feel for you. But there is other IDEs out there, where things work, usage and shortcuts are not awkward (depending on what you are used too, of course) and you don't have to wait all the time, if you don't have a Core i7 and SSD... There is hope ;) (and I sometimes have to use Eclipse, too, for the GWT plugin) [[Special:Contributions/134.106.146.36|134.106.146.36]] 08:18, 21 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Maybe "build character" refers to the filename. Since class P was not declared public, the filename could be character.java and things would work. :-) --[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 11:49, 21 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I loved ingenious solution in original code to the "ball to the balls" side effect that is so often seen when teaching catch - [[Special:Contributions/166.147.120.176|166.147.120.176]] 12:07, 21 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Just to clarify, programmer can't assume that child will inherit "catch" function as intended. That is something they really have to learn for themselves. I wonder if this is how terminator got started? - [[Special:Contributions/166.147.120.148|166.147.120.148]] 17:32, 21 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The code quality remark #4 doesn't seem correct. In Java the constructor will ''always'' call the superclass constructor first. If not stated explicitly, it will happen implicitly. So the default empty constructor of Object ''will'' actually be called. Is this a misunderstanding, or is the guideline meant to be that the superclass constructor call should always be coded explicitly ? (which is a highly debatable guideline) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.234|141.101.105.234]] 16:19, 8 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
: There's a lot debatable in those guidelines.<br />
:# Good API code needs good javadoc documentation, but this isn't exporting an API, it's a simple self-contained tool, and the code is written to be "readable" which tends to work better than even code documentation (which is always wrong, given enough time).<br />
:# Once again, this code describes a self-contained tool, and is nowhere near complex enough to require splitting into packages.<br />
:# While it contains good advice (don't expose inner logic and data), it also contains bad advice (getters and setters to access the data - you're back to exposing inner logic and data), and BETTER advice is to prefer immutable data where possible. All of this is moot, because this example doesn't expose anything - the data is package-private, and the main method can access even private members since it's in the same class as the member, and the data member can't be immutable because the parent object needs to be updated after construction to point to the child object.<br />
:# As mentioned above, this isn't even advice. In Java you MUST call a super class constructor as the first line in any constructor; omitting any such call implies a call to the super class constructor with no arguments, and is an error if no such constructor exists. Suggesting that you SHOULD call a super class constructor is just misleading - other than being required by the language, why else should you call a super constructor first (as opposed to later?)?<br />
:# Don't borrow trouble from the future. A method internal to a class has every right to refer to a member of the same class without qualification, and is usually more readable for it. Using getter methods from within the class simply to wrap access to internal fields is a terrible idea for a couple of reasons, although wrapping access with null-checks or common coersions can simplify the logical flow of your code... but even that is probably better done with utility methods (taking the field as an argument) than member methods (returning some variation on the field).<br />
: New Java developers who happen to come here and see the notes on quality, just note that they aren't notes that point you to GOOD quality.<br />
:[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 02:15, 17 July 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1547:_Solar_System_Questions&diff=97170Talk:1547: Solar System Questions2015-07-08T01:00:56Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>I wonder if "What's the deal with Miranda?" is talking about one of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_(moon) Uranus's satellites] or if it's a Firefly/Serenity reference? [[User:Keavon|Keavon]] ([[User talk:Keavon|talk]]) 15:31, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
* That was my reaction too. Randall is (as he should be) slightly obsessed with Firefly. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 19:12, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Many of the entries can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics [[User:Cschwenz|Cschwenz]] ([[User talk:Cschwenz|talk]]) 16:16, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text is a reference to the Futurama episode "Butterjunk effect" http://theinfosphere.org/The_Butterjunk_Effect. {{unsigned ip|188.114.98.29}}<br />
* I suggest it's much more likely to be a reference to Randall's own obsession with humans flying with wings: [[620]], https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 01:00, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
What's Titan like? Refernece to Gattaca (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZa83dTf4JA)? [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 16:23, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I wonder if Randal is using us as unpaid researchers to answer his questions for him?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.89|173.245.48.89]] 16:53, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
* Crowd-sourcing space probes? I certainly hope so!! [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 19:12, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
** I was also thinking that, or at least he might have been thinking, "This oughtta keep those silly people on the ExplainXKCD wiki busy!". ;) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 20:42, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Timing is good as it has recently been shown that red organics (Tholins) are produced by the particular UV wavelength called 'Lyman-Alpha' which is almost as bright on Pluto's night-side due to starshine as it is from the Sun during its daytime... the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt may be the original Red-light District. Go New Horizons! [[User:Squirreltape|Squirreltape]] ([[User talk:Squirreltape|talk]]) 15:13, 7 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Ice Spikes could be a reference to the Ice Spikes biome in Minecraft: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Ice_Plains_Spikes.png [[User:Daedalus|Daedalus]] ([[User talk:Daedalus|talk]]) 10:12, 7 July 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=explain_xkcd:Sandbox&diff=93175explain xkcd:Sandbox2015-05-13T07:29:19Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>__NOINDEX__<br />
Make changes, try things out, or just have fun with the wiki here! Just leave everything above the line alone, please.<br />
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=explain_xkcd:Sandbox&action=edit&oldid=91667 clear sandbox]<br />
------</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1516:_Win_by_Induction&diff=912921516: Win by Induction2015-04-27T05:26:03Z<p>108.162.250.161: /* Trivia */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1516<br />
| date = April 24, 2015<br />
| title = Win by Induction<br />
| image = win by induction.png<br />
| titletext = This would be bad enough, but every 30th or 40th pokéball has TWO of them inside.<br />
}}<br />
{{Incomplete|Citations in explanation and trivia}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
In the {{w|Pokémon}} franchise, human characters called Trainers capture fantastical creatures from the wild, the titular Pokémon (a shortened form of "Pocket Monsters"), and train them to battle one another. Pokémon are captured and stored in devices called Poké Balls, which shrink the creatures down to pocket size (hence "Pocket Monsters"). The anime's dub has enshrined the phrase "''<Pokémon's name>'', I choose you!" into popular culture memory. When Trainers do battle, they often shout this phrase while throwing the ball to the ground, releasing the Pokémon at full size.<br />
<br />
In this comic, a Pokémon chosen at some point was a {{w|Pikachu}}, which does not intend to engage in the battle himself. Instead, the Pikachu chooses another Pikachu to fight for him. This process then repeats itself. Behind the Pikachu with the Pokéball is a long line of other Pikachu, suggesting that this process has been going on for a while.<br />
<br />
Nearby stands [[Cueball]], holding a closed Pokéball, and [[Megan]], looking at her watch. This suggests that Cueball intends to have his own Pokémon fight the Pikachu, but is waiting to see which enemy his Pokémon must face before the battle can actually begin (waiting in vain, if the above described process repeats indefinitely), while Megan is growing impatient with the delay. Given that Cueball is holding a closed Pokéball he has not deployed yet, Megan cannot herself be his Pokémon. She could be his opponent, or a spectator.<br />
<br />
The joke in this comic comes from analogy with the mathematical {{w|proof by induction}}, which is a proof with a base case, followed by a never ending sequence of steps. Each step leads to the next, thus proving something for all cases. This title seems to suggest that the process of Pikachu choosing Pikachu will not end, effectively postponing the battle indefinitely. <br />
<br />
The name "induction" comes from logic and discrete mathematics, and is thus unrelated to the physical phenomena of {{w|electromagnetic induction}}; but the fact that Pikachu is an "Electric-type" Pokémon could be a word play connecting the two ideas.<br />
<br />
If there were always only a single Pikachu in each Pokéball, this would spawn an unlimited number of Pikachu growing at a linear rate. Since, as the title text notes, there are occasionally two of them in a Pokéball, this would lead to exponential growth assuming each of the spawned Pikachu in this case is bearing a Pokéball!<br />
<br />
Pikachu was used in one of the storylines of [[1350: Lorenz]]. See all the attack moves it made [[1350:_Lorenz#Pok.C3.A9mon|here]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[There's a long queue of Pikachu extending out of the frame to the left. They are all just out from their ball, at least the last eight Pikachu's open balls lie in two parts on the ground at their feet. They are standing in front of Megan and Cueball. Cueball is holding a closed pokéball while Megan checks the time on her watch. The frontmost Pikachu, holding a closed pokéball, speaks.]<br />
<br />
:Pikachu at the front: Pikachu, I choose ''you!''<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*For some reason Pikachu is drawn without its lightning shaped tail.<br />
*In Pokémon canon, Pokémon are only allowed to hold on to an ''empty'' Pokéball when stored in a Pokéball.<br />
*In Pokémon canon, only one Pokémon can exist in a pokeball.<br />
*Randall has drawn the pokeballs with the button that opens them in the middle of the red half. Wheras in acutal pokeballs the button is located where the two different halves meet. The open pokeballs are also shown broken in two, when they should be connected by a hinge<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Video games]]<br />
[[Category:Pokémon]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1516:_Win_by_Induction&diff=912911516: Win by Induction2015-04-27T05:25:31Z<p>108.162.250.161: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1516<br />
| date = April 24, 2015<br />
| title = Win by Induction<br />
| image = win by induction.png<br />
| titletext = This would be bad enough, but every 30th or 40th pokéball has TWO of them inside.<br />
}}<br />
{{Incomplete|Citations in explanation and trivia}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
In the {{w|Pokémon}} franchise, human characters called Trainers capture fantastical creatures from the wild, the titular Pokémon (a shortened form of "Pocket Monsters"), and train them to battle one another. Pokémon are captured and stored in devices called Poké Balls, which shrink the creatures down to pocket size (hence "Pocket Monsters"). The anime's dub has enshrined the phrase "''<Pokémon's name>'', I choose you!" into popular culture memory. When Trainers do battle, they often shout this phrase while throwing the ball to the ground, releasing the Pokémon at full size.<br />
<br />
In this comic, a Pokémon chosen at some point was a {{w|Pikachu}}, which does not intend to engage in the battle himself. Instead, the Pikachu chooses another Pikachu to fight for him. This process then repeats itself. Behind the Pikachu with the Pokéball is a long line of other Pikachu, suggesting that this process has been going on for a while.<br />
<br />
Nearby stands [[Cueball]], holding a closed Pokéball, and [[Megan]], looking at her watch. This suggests that Cueball intends to have his own Pokémon fight the Pikachu, but is waiting to see which enemy his Pokémon must face before the battle can actually begin (waiting in vain, if the above described process repeats indefinitely), while Megan is growing impatient with the delay. Given that Cueball is holding a closed Pokéball he has not deployed yet, Megan cannot herself be his Pokémon. She could be his opponent, or a spectator.<br />
<br />
The joke in this comic comes from analogy with the mathematical {{w|proof by induction}}, which is a proof with a base case, followed by a never ending sequence of steps. Each step leads to the next, thus proving something for all cases. This title seems to suggest that the process of Pikachu choosing Pikachu will not end, effectively postponing the battle indefinitely. <br />
<br />
The name "induction" comes from logic and discrete mathematics, and is thus unrelated to the physical phenomena of {{w|electromagnetic induction}}; but the fact that Pikachu is an "Electric-type" Pokémon could be a word play connecting the two ideas.<br />
<br />
If there were always only a single Pikachu in each Pokéball, this would spawn an unlimited number of Pikachu growing at a linear rate. Since, as the title text notes, there are occasionally two of them in a Pokéball, this would lead to exponential growth assuming each of the spawned Pikachu in this case is bearing a Pokéball!<br />
<br />
Pikachu was used in one of the storylines of [[1350: Lorenz]]. See all the attack moves it made [[1350:_Lorenz#Pok.C3.A9mon|here]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[There's a long queue of Pikachu extending out of the frame to the left. They are all just out from their ball, at least the last eight Pikachu's open balls lie in two parts on the ground at their feet. They are standing in front of Megan and Cueball. Cueball is holding a closed pokéball while Megan checks the time on her watch. The frontmost Pikachu, holding a closed pokéball, speaks.]<br />
<br />
:Pikachu at the front: Pikachu, I choose ''you!''<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*For some reason Pikachu is drawn without its lightning shaped tail.<br />
*In Pokémon canon, Pokémon are only allowed to hold on to an ''empty'' Pokéball when stored in a Pokéball.<br />
*In Pokémon canon, only one Pokémon can exist in a pokeball.<br />
*Randall has drawn the pokeballs with the button that opens them in the middle of the red half. Wheras in acutal pokeballs the button is located where the two different halves meet. the open pokeballs are also shown broken in two, wheras they should be connected by a hinge<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Video games]]<br />
[[Category:Pokémon]]</div>108.162.250.161https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1516:_Win_by_Induction&diff=912901516: Win by Induction2015-04-27T05:24:03Z<p>108.162.250.161: added to trivia</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1516<br />
| date = April 24, 2015<br />
| title = Win by Induction<br />
| image = win by induction.png<br />
| titletext = This would be bad enough, but every 30th or 40th pokéball has TWO of them inside.<br />
}}<br />
{{Incomplete|Citations in explanation and trivia}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
In the {{w|Pokémon}} franchise, human characters called Trainers capture fantastical creatures from the wild, the titular Pokémon (a shortened form of "Pocket Monsters"), and train them to battle one another. Pokémon are captured and stored in devices called Poké Balls, which shrink the creatures down to pocket size (hence "Pocket Monsters"). The anime's dub has enshrined the phrase "''<Pokémon's name>'', I choose you!" into popular culture memory. When Trainers do battle, they often shout this phrase while throwing the ball to the ground, releasing the Pokémon at full size.<br />
<br />
In this comic, a Pokémon chosen at some point was a {{w|Pikachu}}, which does not intend to engage in the battle himself. Instead, the Pikachu chooses another Pikachu to fight for him. This process then repeats itself. Behind the Pikachu with the Pokéball is a long line of other Pikachu, suggesting that this process has been going on for a while.<br />
<br />
Nearby stands [[Cueball]], holding a closed Pokéball, and [[Megan]], looking at her watch. This suggests that Cueball intends to have his own Pokémon fight the Pikachu, but is waiting to see which enemy his Pokémon must face before the battle can actually begin (waiting in vain, if the above described process repeats indefinitely), while Megan is growing impatient with the delay. Given that Cueball is holding a closed Pokéball he has not deployed yet, Megan cannot herself be his Pokémon. She could be his opponent, or a spectator.<br />
<br />
The joke in this comic comes from analogy with the mathematical {{w|proof by induction}}, which is a proof with a base case, followed by a never ending sequence of steps. Each step leads to the next, thus proving something for all cases. This title seems to suggest that the process of Pikachu choosing Pikachu will not end, effectively postponing the battle indefinitely. <br />
<br />
The name "induction" comes from logic and discrete mathematics, and is thus unrelated to the physical phenomena of {{w|electromagnetic induction}}; but the fact that Pikachu is an "Electric-type" Pokémon could be a word play connecting the two ideas.<br />
<br />
If there were always only a single Pikachu in each Pokéball, this would spawn an unlimited number of Pikachu growing at a linear rate. Since, as the title text notes, there are occasionally two of them in a Pokéball, this would lead to exponential growth assuming each of the spawned Pikachu in this case is bearing a Pokéball!<br />
<br />
Pikachu was used in one of the storylines of [[1350: Lorenz]]. See all the attack moves it made [[1350:_Lorenz#Pok.C3.A9mon|here]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[There's a long queue of Pikachu extending out of the frame to the left. They are all just out from their ball, at least the last eight Pikachu's open balls lie in two parts on the ground at their feet. They are standing in front of Megan and Cueball. Cueball is holding a closed pokéball while Megan checks the time on her watch. The frontmost Pikachu, holding a closed pokéball, speaks.]<br />
<br />
:Pikachu at the front: Pikachu, I choose ''you!''<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*For some reason Pikachu is drawn without its lightning shaped tail.<br />
*In Pokémon canon, Pokémon are only allowed to hold on to an ''empty'' Pokéball when stored in a Pokéball.<br />
*In Pokémon canon, only one Pokémon can exist in a pokeball.<br />
*Randall has drawn the pokeballs with the button that opens them in the middle of the red half. Wheras in acutal pokeballs the button is located where the two different halves meet<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Video games]]<br />
[[Category:Pokémon]]</div>108.162.250.161