https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=141.101.104.179&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T13:52:17ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=635:_Locke_and_Demosthenes&diff=89873635: Locke and Demosthenes2015-04-15T21:22:36Z<p>141.101.104.179: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 635<br />
| date = September 11, 2009<br />
| title = Locke and Demosthenes<br />
| image = locke_and_demosthenes.png<br />
| titletext = Dear Peter Wiggin: This letter is to inform you that you have received enough up votes on your reddit comments to become president of the world. Please be at the UN tomorrow at 8:00 sharp.}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
This comic reimagines a scene from {{w|Ender's Game}}, by {{w|Orson Scott Card}}. In the book ('''spoiler alert!'''), Ender is an above-average-intelligence boy who is selected to become a potential leader of Earth's "Defense" Forces in the event of another {{w|Formics|Bugger}} invasion (later re-titled the Formic invasions). Meanwhile, Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine decide to save the world from itself. They do this by asserting themselves as wise demagogues who comment on political events on what are known as the "free nets" which are nets open to comment by anyone in the world. They choose pseudonyms to write under, as no one would take the words of children seriously, they choose Locke (Peter's pseudonym), and Demosthenes (Valentine's) and begin work. Eventually they gain enough respect to be invited to participate in moderated political debates in the higher class nets. By the end of the book, Peter has become the leader of the world, as Valentine runs away with Ender to a planet formerly inhabited by Buggers to live out their lives in peace.<br />
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The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of what blogging has become, without the becoming-the-head-of-government outcome, obviously. [[Randall]] is suggesting that if the book was set with today's technology, Locke and Demosthenes would be getting extremely low exposure with their wordpress blogs as evidenced by the 0 comments on each post; the title text sarcastically invites Peter to be head of the UN. Also note that the sarcastic note is addressed to "Peter" rather than "Locke"; Peter's attempt to remain anonymous has failed miserably.<br />
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If you happen to be wondering about the squirrel, Peter Wiggin is portrayed as a sadistic sociopath. There is a scene in the book where Valentine stumbles across a skinned squirrel still twitching in pain.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Valentine is laying on her back on the ground. Peter is feeding a squirrel.]<br />
:Valentine: Ender's up there saving the world, but down here it's falling apart politically. What can we do?<br />
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:Peter: I know — we get on the nets and anonymously post political opinions. People reading our articles will see our intelligence, recognize how clear and logical our arguments are, and insist that we be put in charge, so we can fix everything!<br />
:Valentine: Brilliant!<br />
:[The squirrel is eating Peter's food.]<br />
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:[A blog.]<br />
:LOCKE<br />
:Powered by Wordpress<br />
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:[Articles, partly scrolled down.]<br />
:[...] which is why we must reach out to the Russian leadership.<br />
::Posted at 3:15AM by Locke<br />
::Comments (0)<br />
<br />
:[In a larger font]<br />
:The Problem with China<br />
:In recent months much has been made of [...]<br />
<br />
:[In a sidebar]<br />
:Recent posts:<br />
:>> A few thoughts on...<br />
::Comments (0)<br />
:>> Russian Aggression...<br />
::Comments (1)<br />
:>> Trade policy and the...<br />
::Comments (0)<br />
:>> And one more thing...<br />
::Comments (0)<br />
:>> Everyone's wrong about...<br />
::Comments (1)<br />
<br />
:[A list of links to other websites.]<br />
:Blogroll:<br />
:>> Demosthenes<br />
:>> FiveThirtyEight<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Ender's Game]]<br />
[[Category:Squirrels]]</div>141.101.104.179https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1418:_Horse&diff=75792Talk:1418: Horse2014-09-13T16:26:54Z<p>141.101.104.179: </p>
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<div>*May the horse be with you Luke.<br />
*The horse is strong with this one.<br />
*I felt a tremor in the horse.<br />
Why did he forget SW. That is not like Randall ;) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:50, 8 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Following up on the title text... "Why was he suspended?" "Due to allegations of excessive horse."<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.201|173.245.56.201]] 09:01, 8 September 2014 (UTC) Siuntio<br />
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So I linked it to the old substitutions page - gjgfuj [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.219|108.162.250.219]] 10:05, 8 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Like the "Clouds-to-butts" plugin for Chrome. {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.231}}<br />
:More information in Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/24odjt/cloud_to_butts_extension/]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 14:16, 8 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Would it be funny the other way?<br />
*The horse population has been in decline sine the industrial revolution<br />
*Rules of polo: You need a horse.<br />
*People do not like it when there is horse in their beef.<br />
I do ;) —[[User:Artyer|Artyer]] ([[User talk:Artyer|talk]]) 18:33, 8 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Correcthorsebatterystaple [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.163|173.245.56.163]] 22:18, 8 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I originally (earlier today) read it as "Iraqi Air [FH]orse grow'''l'''ing"... Which made less sense than I'd have expected, but I couldn't unread it until just now. Still surreal, but at least not outright Dada[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.233|141.101.98.233]] 00:21, 9 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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"A police horse is a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enhorse the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. (...) Law enhorsement, however, constitutes only part of policing activity." --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.161|141.101.104.161]] 07:21, 9 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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maybe the officer suspended from horse was a reference to the police officer who shot a black person? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.106|108.162.254.106]] 07:39, 9 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Aqua teen hunger horse. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.226|108.162.246.226]] 00:54, 10 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I had previously posted a grumpy comment here (now removed) --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 07:38, 11 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Sorry, but that's totally wrong. The discussion section is meant to replace what used to be the old blog's comments section, and is for any discussion relevant to the comic. If you're new here, there's a section on the main page titled "New Here?" which explains the basics of explainxkcd, and it's worth checking out. It also lists the handful of rules we have, including the fact that the discussion page is for talking about the comic. [[User:Az|Az]] ([[User talk:Az|talk]]) 06:59, 11 September 2014 (UTC) <br />
::Sorry about that, and thanks for the pointer. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 07:38, 11 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Explanation Quarks:<br />
Sorry, could not resist... [[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 11:39, 10 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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How about the portion of the Police Horse who are on horseback? {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.170}}<br />
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Last time XKCD featured one of these text replacements, people started posting scripts for implementing the text replacement automatically in browsers. I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet. [[User:Diszy|Diszy]] ([[User talk:Diszy|talk]]) 22:03, 11 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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http://bitcoinshell.mooo.com/users/noiob/dev/horse.user.js Here you go. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.179|141.101.104.179]] 16:26, 13 September 2014 (UTC)</div>141.101.104.179