https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=172.69.79.223&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T02:34:01ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1860:_Communicating&diff=2719071860: Communicating2022-05-20T23:08:25Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 271472 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1860<br />
| date = July 7, 2017<br />
| title = Communicating<br />
| image = communicating.png<br />
| titletext = You're saying that the responsibility for avoiding miscommunication lies entirely with the listener, not the speaker, which explains why you haven't been able to convince anyone to help you down from that wall.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
''There's glory for you.''<br />
<br />
In Lewis Carroll's "{{w|Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There}}", {{w|Alice_(Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland)|Alice}} meets {{w|Humpty Dumpty}} (the egg-shaped character from the children's verse). Humpty Dumpty is a Looking Glass creature, and the Looking Glass creatures all feature some form of inversion. For Humpty Dumpty the inversion is in meanings. When they first meet, Humpty Dumpty berates Alice for having a name that doesn't mean anything (contrasted with his name which means his shape). <br />
<br />
But later, Humpty declares to Alice "There's glory for you". Alice doesn't understand what Humpty means by "glory". Humpty explains that he can make words mean whatever he chooses to mean. By "glory" he meant "a nice knock-down argument". And he adds: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean. Neither more nor less." ([https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking-Glass,_and_What_Alice_Found_There/Chapter_VI#124])<br />
<br />
In the comic Humpty is explaining to "Alice" (portrayed by [[Science Girl]]) that he can choose meanings for his words. Alice points out the obvious problem by pretending to wonder what meaning should be given to that utterance, and decides it means "Please take all my belongings". Humpty realizes he has been caught in a trap, but now Alice is choosing meanings, and even his protests are taken to mean "take my car along with my belongings".<br />
<br />
While it seems that Alice chooses these specific meanings of words to educate Humpty Dumpty about the mistake in his way of thinking, she could as well inform him about planned theft with random, meaningless words or not at all. After all, she got "permission". Also, even though Humpty Dumpty decides about the meanings of words by himself, he "accidentally" chooses the normal meanings of all of Alice's words, because otherwise he wouldn't be informed about the planned theft and wouldn't be able to react to this with "What!? No!".<br />
<br />
Humpty Dumpty is known from the nursery rhyme or riddle:<br />
:''Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,<br />
:''Humpy Dumpty had a great fall.<br />
:''All the King's horses and all the King's men,<br />
:''Couldn't put Humpty together again.''<br />
<br />
Carroll's Humpty Dumpty is a parody of people who use technical language without defining their terms, and expect others to understand. The title text continues this. By Humpty insisting that he is not responsible for others understanding him he is unable to get help getting down from the wall, which will lead to his inevitable demise. This two-sided nature of communication is also shown in the title text of [[1028: Communication]], as well as in later comics like [[1984: Misinterpretation]] (with a list of other comics about communication).<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Egg-shaped character Humpty Dumpty, drawn with an angry face, is sitting on a brick wall and facing Alice, depicted as Science Girl.]<br />
:Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean. Neither more nor less.<br />
:Alice: I wonder what all those words you just said meant. Maybe you're telling me I can have all your stuff!<br />
:Humpty Dumpty: What!? No!<br />
:Alice: Your car, too? Gosh, thanks!<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]<br />
[[Category:Language]]<br />
[[Category:Social interactions]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Countdown_in_header_text&diff=271794Countdown in header text2022-05-20T22:23:41Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 271009 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| date = January 10, 2022<br />
| title = Countdown in header text<br />
| image = Countdown_in_header_text_full_animation.gif<br />
| before = The [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/Countdown_in_header_text_clock_migration.gif countdown] lasted 21 days and only the last image appeared in the header text after the end on 2022-01-31. <br>It will also not be a permanent part of the header, but be removed once the xkcd Header text is changed again.<br />
| ldomain = www<br />
| lappend = <br />
| extra = yes<br />
}}<br />
{{TOC}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
*On January 10th 2022, [[Randall]] added a countdown in the top right corner of the [[xkcd Header text]] on {{xkcd}}.<br />
**It turned out that it was a countdown to the reveal of Randall's new book [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2] which was announced at the end of the countdown.<br />
***The full title: What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions <br />
***The Hardcover version is released September 13, 2022.<br />
***A follow up on his first book based on his blog [[what if?]]<br />
*The comic [[2575: What If? 2]] was released moments after the counter reached zero.<br />
**A comic entirely devoted to promote the book.<br />
***And then the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-31_-_What_if.3F_2|header changed]] to promote the book directly.<br />
*The counter began while the comic [[2565: Latency]] was up.<br />
**First the xkcd Header text was [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-08_-_Back_to_standard_text|changed back]] to the [[xkcd_Header_text#Header_text|standard text]] for the first time in almost three years:<br />
***xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. <br />
**But already while this Friday-comic was still up on the following Monday the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] was added.<br />
***This was thus up when the Monday comic [[2566: Decorative Constants]] was released, drawing more people to the xkcd page.<br />
*The first [[#Archived Versions|archived version]] from [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] read 20d 20h 27m.<br />
**It looks like it started on [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ 01-10 17:00 UTC]. <br />
***At that time it would have read 20d 21h 59 min. Just two hours and 1 minute short of 3 weeks.<br />
*The countdown reached zero on Monday 2022-01-31 at 15:00 (3:00 PM) {{w|UTC}}, or 10:00 AM in Boston, Randall's home town.<br />
**Seconds was added for the last 10 minutes making the countdown end exactly at 15:00 UTC<br />
***When the seconds counter replaced the day counter at that time the box started [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/64/Countdown_in_header_text_last_minute_wiggling.gif jiggling around].<br />
*The second day of countdown on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220111153818/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] a diagonal black bar appeared in the lower left-hand corner of the countdown box and started to move further into the image on following changes to the [[#Images|image]].<br />
**This development called for the creation of this dedicated [[Countdown in header text]] page.<br />
**The line had already moved further into the image at this time, but the latest version will never be available in the web archive.<br />
***This development is reminiscent of the huge comic [[1190: Time]].<br />
***The images was uploaded [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here] on munvoseli's page where comparison of two images and an animation can be seen.<br />
*During the three weeks this page was used to collect [[Countdown_in_header_text#Theories|theories]] of both the image and the countdown. <br />
**Since these are now all either proved wrong or wright, they are only left here below to document how much people though about it. <br />
***They have been collapsed, to not take up too much space, but can be accessed by pressing the link. <br />
*Randall has previously made a comic simply called [[1159: Countdown]]. <br />
**However, in that the roles are reversed. <br />
***There we know that the countdown is for (Super Volcano) but not if it will happen soon or very much later. <br />
***Here we know when, and it is rather soon, but not what.<br />
<br />
===Blow up by Amazon===<br />
*The day before the countdown reached zero a user found out that:<br />
**'''Amazon revealed the news a day too early.'''<br />
***The book could be found on Amazon on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220130094958/https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537112 2022-01-30] with the book cover clearly showing the part of the image shown in the box. And thus the surprise was lost on those using this page.<br />
***Here is the page with [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537112 what if? 2], the above link shows that the page existed the day before the count down ended.<br />
**A shame for Randall and his fans.<br />
***Although some of his fans had invested a lot of time in trying to solve the puzzle before the countdown ended and were excited by the discovery.<br />
<br />
==Images==<br />
*The 136 frames that made up the countdown have been put on this separate page: [[Countdown in header text/images]].<br />
**The images was mainly downloaded [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here] on munvoseli's page.<br />
***On that page it is possible to compare two images, chosen between those released, on that page!<br />
***From 2022-01-14 it has also been possible to see an animation.<br />
****But after the last frame was released a user on this page has kindly provided a gif animation we could add to the top of the page.<br />
**See more details at the top of the image page.<br />
*Other images that also show the clock, compare two images, or show how the page actually looks have been moved to this other page: [[Countdown in header text/other images]].<br />
*After the first thirteen different frames, it was noted that not only did the first three empty frames looks the same (because the diagonal bar was not in the frame yet), but the seventh and the eighth frame where also the same, even though the bar had already begun moving across the frame from the fourth. This could have been on purpose but could also be a mistake.<br />
**However, the images that look the same all have individual addresses on the xkcd server. See more here [[Countdown in header text/images]]<br />
***Later for instance frames 91 and 92 also seem to be exactly the same. Also frame 92 did not upload as part of the roughly four hour schedule, but between two frames that are part of the regular schedule.<br />
***And the second to last frame 135 was also the same as 134, even though they had different names all 136 frames.<br />
<br />
===Extra pages for images===<br />
*Two pages has been made to collect images of the countdown:<br />
**One for all the 136 frames:<br />
***[[Countdown in header text/images]]<br />
**And one for other images showing also the countdown clock, and comparison between images etc. <br />
***[[Countdown in header text/other images]]<br />
<br />
==Ongoing image description==<br />
*The counter [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/Countdown_in_header_text_clock_migration.gif moved upwards] during most of the countdown, to cover less of the revealed image. See more [[Countdown_in_header_text/other_images#Changing_counter_position|here]]<br />
*Here is a description made as the image progressed, and no one knew what it would turn in to, until the very last few days.<br />
** Frames 1-12: A diagonal line.<br />
** Frame 13: A curve seems to begin at the top left of the line. <br />
** Frame 18: The curve connects the diagonal line with a horizontal line.<br />
** Frame 27-28: A new line appears in the bottom left corner.<br />
** Frame 40-42: The new line turns out to be connected to the horizontal line, forming a corner which is not attached to any other line.<br />
** Frame 49: The "camera movement" direction changes, while the object is still moving upward it stopped moving towards the left side, moving towards the right instead. <br />
** Frame 54: A slight upward curve seems to appear in the right line, the left line seems to have a small bend downwards, though that could at that point just be a straight line that Randall drew without a ruler.<br />
** Frame 60-62: A new line appears in the bottom right corner, it turns out to be a continuation of the first original line which curves upward and has a positive slope at that point of the picture, between about 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock. The downward bend of the left line continues on straight in the same direction, it was probably an intentional bend and not an irregularity in drawing a straight line by hand.<br />
** Frame 63: In the minimum of the right curved line a new line starts appearing, way thinner than the others (which were up to this point all rather part of one line) and going slightly downwards and very much to the left, at an angle somewhere between 8 o'clock and 9 o'clock.<br />
** Frame 67: A possible feature becomes visible at the bottom edge of the image that might resolve the exact nature of the (currently presumed) aircraft, e.g. which particular aerodynamic surface we have been seeing and thus from which particular orientation we are viewing it.<br />
** Frame 68-72 makes it clear this must be an aircraft by showing windows and a door and clearly the tail fin. As late as frame 69 some people argued that the tail fin could have been a wing.<br />
** Frame 73-83 brings a horizontal stabilizer into view.<br />
** Frame 87-89: A new curved line appears on the underside of the (presumed) aircraft, so there either is something behind it or it might not be an aircraft.<br />
** Frame 96-99: An arc is coming into view in the upper right corner, likely the top edge of a cloud.<br />
*** Turned out not to be a cloud.<br />
** Frame 101-106 seems to be some kind of radar on top of the plane, like the one on {{w|Boeing E-3 Sentry}}. Or alternatively this plane is hanging beneath another plane. Not looking at all like {{w|Spaceshiptwo}}, but something similar, which could make this plane a spaceplane?<br />
** Frame 106-114 a new element of the image appears on the right side, it could be the end of a wing. The arch no longer looks like a radar. Could be the tail of a Dinosaur or the cape of someone riding the airplane...<br />
*** a cape is unlikely as it would probably be drawn to flap in the wind. The other element does appear to be a wingtip<br />
*** Could it be [[Cory Doctorow]] flying with the airplane, but much closer to the 'camera'?<br />
** Frame 115-121 makes it clear that the newest addition at the bottom right is the wing tip of the plane. The black curve above the plane still mostly looks like a tail as on a dinosaur or dragon. Could also be a tentacle. Either from an [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b5/1608_1038x1094y_Giant_octopus_in_Destroyer.pngv octopus] or from and alien like in [[2572: Alien Observers]]. Of course it could also be a cape, but seems too thick at the end...<br />
** Frame 124 shows something beneath the plane, but already in 125, that makes one of the largest jumps between pictures so far, this is clearly one of the wheels on the landing gear. Also the hind leg of the Dinosaur whose tail has been visible long time is coming in to view. Not certain yet it is a dino (probably a velociraptor), but the leg makes it the number one candidate.<br />
** Frames 126-127 almost confirm the dinosaur theory.<br />
*** And at this time someone spotted the new What if? 2 book on Amazon and it is the Tyrannosaur from the [[what if?]] blog that is now eating a plane rather than being lowered into the Sarlac.<br />
** Frame 134 reveals the last part of the plane, so now the entire plane and T-rex is visible. This was about 6 hours before the countdown ended.<br />
** Frame 135 is identical with 134!<br />
** About ten minutes before the countdown ended the image started to wiggle and as predicted seconds also came in, leaving out the day part of the counter.<br />
** Frame 136 came just after the countdown ended, turning the background red, as it is on the front cover of the book adding the title what if? 2 in white text beneath the plane, which as now been moved to the top of the image since the overlaid count down is now gone.<br />
<br />
==Theories==<br />
*'''Amazon revealed the news a day too early!''' - it is Randall's new book [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537112 what if? 2] that will be announced at the end of the countdown.<br />
**So it is a book announcement, and the picture is Tyrannosaur eating a plane while in flight.<br />
*Here below are the different theories for what the countdown was for and what the picture was going to reveal from before it was clear what it was.<br />
<br />
===The picture===<br />
*Theories about the picture:<br />
**One of the very early theories got it right:<br />
***The second line makes it look somewhat like the tail fin of an aircraft.<br />
'''Click to expand for more theories:'''<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%"><br />
**From 2022-01-21 it became certain that it was a plane! Passenger plane. Door and windows are visible. <br />
***From 2022-01-22 it became clear that it was the rear end, so it was a tailfin that came into the panel to begin with. Up til the day before it was still a bit uncertain if it could have been a wing.<br />
*** from 2022-01-24 a bottom line has appeared which doesn't fit well with a 'standard' airliner. perhaps the image is deliberately misleading (eg will transform into something else)<br />
*** From 2022-01-26 something looking like a radar like the one on a {{w|Boeing E-3 Sentry}} began emerging in the top right corner.<br />
*** From 2022-01-28 it looks like an elephant's trunk to me.<br />
**What will this lead up to - theories about this.<br />
***It could be an airplane with a banner like in [[1355: Airplane Message]].<br />
****That would very soon be clear as the bottom part of the rear end seems to be coming into view during 2022-01-24, if the direction does not change again.<br />
*****This is now ruled out, since the plane is clearly not towing a banner.<br />
***It could end up landing in a city, perhaps with a skyline pinpointing where Randall will be or move.<br />
****However, unlikely to manage this in real life as the count down ends.<br />
****Also, very unlikely (1 in 60, or even 1 in 3600) that such a landing would occur exactly on the hour. <br />
*****But it could also just be the time when he announces he has moved... <br />
***Maybe Cueball will make a parachute jump, and Cueball could represent a real life Randall, as this could in principle be timed very accurately.<br />
****This is something you would schedule a month or more ahead, want to tell people about in advance, want to make a big deal about on your website, is not quite as bizarre as zero-G and probably more fun {{citation needed}}, could be done with an adventurous wife, explains why it’s the tail of the plane in the image, and (assuming no mechanical, medical, or meteorological problems, a safe assumption), might go something like “on my mark, it’ll be 9:59:56 A.M. in Boston... mark. 3, 2, 1, JUMP!” Maybe it’ll be just Cueball/Randall, but could more likely include Megan representing his wife.<br />
****However, it could very easily be that the weather in January could foil the attempt, or at least the timing.<br />
****The plane appears to be a commercial jetliner, though, rather than the small prop planes used for parachute jumps. Unless, of course, Randall is revealing his real identity has been Wesley Snipes all along<br />
****The plane appears to have its landing gear down, which rules out a parachute jump.<br />
*****At frame 124 it is a bit early to say that the dot beneath the plane is the landing gear, but from 125 it became clear. Also seems like the leg of the dino on the plane has come into vies. The below was written before number 125 came out.<br />
*****Landing gear implies that the aircraft is either taking off or landing, and judging by the plane's nose-up attitude, most likely taking off. Therefore, assuming that the plane is in fact shown seconds after rotation (possibly still on the ground), there is a possibility that the black object could be an airport fixture, perhaps a wind sock in the foreground?<br />
******Well, forget I said that. It's a dinosaur apparently.<br />
*** Perhaps the new item on top of the plane is the tail of a dinosaur? perhaps like the one on the cover of "what if..." book. perhaps it's a new book?<br />
*** There are two flights originating in Boston departing at 09:59 on 1/31/2022: Spirit NK433 to Orlando Florida and Delta DL5696 to Washington D.C.<br />
***Frame 101-106 seems to be some kind of radar on top of the plane, like the one on Boeing E-3 Sentry. Or alternatively this plane is hanging beneath another plane. Not looking at all like Spaceshiptwo, but something similar, which could make this plane a spaceplane?<br />
**** Predicting dinosaur<br />
***** Cross-referencing it with the cover of ''What If?'', this does seem like a xkcd-style dinosaur tail. It could represent Randall, or xkcd as a whole, going somewhere. Or it could just be the cover of a new book.<br />
******Yep, it's a dinosaur.<br />
**** Revising my prior theory: It now looks very much like another aircraft (similar to theory below) but not part of the main aircraft, I think. I would guess it is either an improbable mid-air encounter (like a passenger jet and an ultra-lite) or an equally improbable "launch" of something from the jet (again like an ultra-lite or some other less common or even fictional craft.)<br />
**** Maybe the torch of the Statue of Liberty?<br />
**** The black wave looks like a superhero cape<br />
**** the white element overlapping the fuselage could be the start of the wing-tip these fold up at the ends of many modern aircraft, could mean aircraft is banking left.<br />
***Frame 107-121 the right wing of the plane moves into view. It is still unclear if the black curve is a tail, a cape or a tentacle. But seems like it cannot be another aircraft.<br />
***Has now been resolved.<br />
**Maybe it will be the entire book, or at least include the text 'what if? 2', and that more rapid zoom-out will happen during the last minutes.<br />
***Since the entire plane is revealed with at least two more possible updates, even in 4 hours schedule, something new may certainly be expected to occur before the end of the countdown. This written after frame 134 that revealed the front of the plane.<br />
*The XKCD store currently reports "will be opening soon" [https://store.xkcd.com/] perhaps any announcement will be simultaneous with a store re-launch.<br />
<br />
====Early theories====<br />
*Many early theories were generated before the picture was decisively revealed to be a plane...<br />
*It seems after two days and 12 pictures like either something is moving into the frame or that it is a zoom out from a white area of a large picture. Maybe it is the arm of Cueball that will come into view.<br />
*The second line makes it look somewhat like the tail fin of an aircraft.<br />
**Or the wing of an aircraft (left if looking down at it). Perhaps the plane is towing a banner that will fly through the frame. <br />
***After almost a week this looks like the most promising suggestion so far. Now that the direction of the camera movement has changed, we might get to see the rest of the aircraft soon.<br />
****From picture 63, it more and more seems like it was the tail fin of a plane and now we can see the body.<br />
*****It's almost certainly the tail (and now a bit of the rear fuselage) of an aircraft.<br />
******It could just as easily be the left wing and part of the fuselage (showing windows on the right side of an airliner), with the tail fin out of view to the rear, as being the tail fin from an angle where the left wing is out of view behind the fuselage.<br />
*******judging by the relative size of the (presumed) windows, I think it's more likely to be the left wing than the tail fin.<br />
*******Based on the way planes are drawn in [[1868: Eclipse Flights]]. [[1355: Airplane Message]] and [[1669: Planespotting]], plane wings have a point on their edge and tail fins have a flat side, and (if a line is present) a thick line separates wings from the body, whereas thin lines or no lines separate tail fins, so this is a tail fin. <br />
*******In the bottom left there appears to be the top part of a horizontal stabilizer, implying this is the tail.<br />
********It’s a tail fin, that’s finally clear, but that’s the underside of the stabilizer. Which means this would be the best angle to view Cueball/Randall parachuting out of that door, something that would be predictable to the exact minute (barring all kinds of things that could go wrong).<br />
*******Appears to be a door to the left of the windows<br />
*******It could be an airplane with a banner like in [[1355: Airplane Message]]<br />
***Tail of a space shuttle, perhaps?<br />
****While I think Randall would've also drawn in the signature black part of the rudder, the shape fits perfectly<br />
****Timing is close (though not exact) to the Columbia disaster anniversary (2003-02-01 1359 UTC)<br />
***I'm thinking the tail of a Zeppelin. <br />
****Although those normally have longer tail fins.<br />
*Maybe it is some kind of vehicle rolling into frame, like a car?<br />
*Or the word xkcd? (or xkcd 2?)<br />
*Could have been "Hangman", but it looks like it's zooming in on the diagonal instead of continuing to make a gibbet.<br />
*With the new second line appearing in the corner as of frame 28 it looks like it's definitely zooming out of an image. It looks like it could be someone's arm in a running position.<br />
*I think it could also be two legs of a reclining stick person.<br />
*The lines suggest a shark fin and the movement would suggest it swimming across the frame.<br />
**If it was a shark fin, then the most likely candidates would be the first dorsal fin and the pectoral fin, but both end in points rather than edges like in the pictures of the header puzzle. An aircraft tail fin still seems most likely.<br />
*Maybe it's a two-dimensional shape viewed from a weird angle? <br />
**Like a rectangle viewed from a floating, tilted perspective<br />
**Or the top of the k in xkcd<br />
**Or a boat dock?<br />
*The r/xkcd subreddit produced some early theories : <br />
**Cueball's arm<br />
**The letter D, as in "The End" <br />
**A spider's web, in reference to comic 1688<br />
***With the airplane revelation, this reference turned into a meme in the subreddit, where users tried to justify the presence of an airplane shape inside a bigger-scope spider picture<br />
***More generally, "spider" is now jokingly used nearly each time in place of "airplane" during discussions on the sub<br />
****For example, the final image is generally described as "a dinosaur eating a spider"<br />
***Some joke theories included:<br />
****A giant spider flinging airplanes from the sky, as a new potential "What If?"<br />
****The lines are a web and the apparent windows the eyes of a giant spider<br />
****The airplane is a complex-looking spider leg, and 8 of them form a spider<br />
***Another redditor made the airplane part of a dragon's head<br />
</div><br />
<br><br />
<br />
===Countdown===<br />
*Theories about the countdown:<br />
**One of the early theories got it right:<br />
***Randall's next book, either the countdown is counting down to the start of promotion or it is released when the countdown ends.<br />
'''Click to expand for more theories:'''<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%"><br />
*Several have already been mentioned in the discussion:<br />
**Maybe Randall is going on vacation?<br />
**As of now - 22-Jan-2022 7am PST - the countdown disappeared from some users browser. Temporarily (perhaps to make the image cleaner?) or permanently? The countdown was back up soon after. probably a glitch and maybe not for all places or browsers.<br />
**Randall's next book, either the countdown is counting down to the start of promotion or it is released when the countdown ends.<br />
***Usually Randall has made month long [[:Category:Book promotion|book promotions]] before release. So if it is the release day it is a new way to do it. But he will get a lot of attention. If it is just the start of promoting it, people might get disappointed…<br />
****For instance he began promoting his [[xkcd_Header_text#2015-05-14_-_New_book_Thing_Explainer|new book Thing Explainer]] in the header text. That was in May 2015 and the book was first released [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ late November 2015]. Most of this time the header text was promoting the book.<br />
***The day before the announcement a user posted a link in the discussion with a book listing for [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537112 what if? 2] on Amazon showing more or less the picture revealed at this time, thus ending the debate as to what the image and the countdown was for.<br />
**{{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (JWST) going into orbit about L2 {{w|Lagrange point}}.<br />
***Randall has already made several comics about the telescope. The latest [[2564: Sunshield]] was released just five days prior to the countdown was started.<br />
***But the telescope will not reach the point but rather go into a large orbit around it, so a precise timer counting down to it seems a bit farfetched.<br />
***On NASA's page on JWST it seems like it will [https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer.html#25 go into orbit] 29.5 days after its [[December 25th Launch]], on Christmas Day, so it should have already started the orbit by the 23rd or 24th of January - 8 days before the countdown.<br />
***Also No based on the image.<br />
**{{w|Lunar New Year}}<br />
***In China it starts on February 1st and a [https://yourcountdown.to/chinese-new-year countdown for China] is 8 hours behind.<br />
****The South Korean time zone is UTC+9, hence 14:59 UTC = 23:59 in South Korea, one minute to Feb 1.<br />
*****But it's weird if Randall that has basically never mentioned this holiday suddenly makes a three week countdown for it, and why choose South Korea when most would think of China in this context…?<br />
**Randall will stop making xkcd (Goodbye in the image).<br />
***Hopefully not.<br />
****Agreed, {{tvtropes|PoisonOakEpilepticTrees|to be avoided}}<br />
***It might be a temporary stop (hiatus).<br />
**[https://nationaldaycalendar.com/backward-day-january-31/ National Backward Day]<br />
***This is not a day mentioned on Wikipedia at the time of release of the countdown, so seems unlikely.<br />
**Maybe it will be an announcement of xkcd 2, a new and improved version for… some reason?<br />
***Seems unlikely…<br />
**{{w|Black History Month}}. The {{w|Greensboro sit-ins}} started on Feb 1 1960. Black History Month also begins on February 1st, also in 2022.<br />
***But this countdown stops early on January 31st so seems unlikely. <br />
***However, before changing the Header recently it was about [[xkcd_Header_text#2020-06-03_-_Black_Lives_Matter|Black Lives Matter]] for more than 1.5 years, first ending on December 20th 2021, less than a month before the countdown began. In between that there was a short Christmas sale reminder until a week into 2022. So it could just be another way of reminding of us the issues faced by black people in the US.<br />
****If this was true, I feel like it would be simpler to just change back to the Black Lives Matter text at the top of the screen. Also, it seems increasingly likely as of Jan. 20th that the image is some kind of plane, which doesn't really have much to do with Black History Month (that I know of?)<br />
**The accompanying header says specifically "xkcd updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday"--maybe the countdown is to the reveal of a new update schedule?<br />
***Very unlikely. This was the standard header for a long time. It was used when Randall had nothing better to say. But with all his books and the trouble in US with elections and BLM, he has used the header as a platform most of the time many years now. So the standard text is rare. But he did return it for two days before adding the count down, making it seem just like normal.<br />
***A guess is that it returned to this, so the header text did not take any focus away from the countdown.<br />
**[[:Category:Red Spiders|Red spider]] attack?<br />
***Un-Likely<br />
**He will become a father - could be a planned C-section.<br />
***As this is unpredictable, and could go wrong, then this would be a dangerous countdown, people can be very superstitious, even if scientist.<br />
**As it currently looks (after a [[1070: Words for Small Sets|few days]] into the countdown) it may be a trip he is taking by plane. <br />
***Maybe going somewhere people could meet him.<br />
****Book tour?<br />
***Moving a long way from home (down under or the like).<br />
****Maybe he's moving to Japan? Could be a plane, and the time zone would fit, at least.<br />
*****Then the countdown would be until when the plane lands, not to midnight.<br />
******What has time zones to do with this clock? It counts down to the same time all over the world, and will reach zero at the same time no matter what time zone you are in. <br />
******Time zones have to do with where it will be midnight when the countdown reaches zero. If it's a countdown to when January ends (a moment before February begins), then it's until that moment in the time zone where the countdown reaches zero at that time.<br />
******* According to my calculations, the timer will coincide with midnight in the UTC+9 time zone, encompassing both Koreas, Japan, and small parts of Russia and Indonesia.<br />
****If it is a plane, then maybe it will land in a new city Randall moves to when the counter ends, and the skyline will be visible...<br />
**Perhaps it's a start to a new series like [[1190: Time]].<br />
***It is already a series that works like Time, so seems unlikely.<br />
**Zero-G flight, really looks like plane to me.<br />
***Could be time he will first go weightless which could be fairly well known except for bad weather<br />
**A parachute jump by Randall. Could be predicted as well as the zero G.<br />
**How about the [https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/09/09/star-trek-picard-season-2-release-date-plot-cast/ new series of Picard]?<br />
***{{w|Star Trek: Picard (season 2)}} is set to run from March 3 2022, which both Wikipedia (link before) and [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8806524/episodes?season=2 IMDb] agrees upon so bad to miss by more than a month, and what would the plane in the image have to do with this anyway?<br />
***So No!<br />
** The xkcd world tour!! I wish<br />
** I'm beginning to see another part of the picture entering into view, underneath the arc and above the body of the plane. To me, it looks like it could be a leg of sorts (Early bet: it could be a dinosaur)<br />
**Maybe something to do with aliens? Randall posted two comics about aliens secretly observing earth in a row now, could that be related?<br />
** DB Cooper's jump from an airliner was 50 years ago, but not until november<br />
*** Maybe Randall admits that he was DB Cooper all along?<br />
</div><br />
<br><br />
<br />
===count-wimRikmef===<br />
* The identifier of the script contains what is probably an acronym, but for what?<br />
** count / wim (?) / Rik (name) & me f(light)<br />
** Or it's just the output of whatever js minimizer was used.<br />
** R = Randall?<br />
** Randall is travelling to Germany? "Wo ist mein Reisepass? Ich komme mit einem Flug"<br />
** "wi" are the initials for the book that's coming out <br />
*** so what could mRikmef be?<br />
** So the first two letters are what if, maybe the R is for Rex, and the f is flight, not sure about the others?<br />
*** "what if" could be a good shout, the dino on the plane reminds me of the cover of the first "what if", and a raptor attack/snakes on a plane crossover would make for some great what-if analysis<br />
* The "img" tag has a misspelled "heigth" attribute. Probably just a typo?<br />
<br />
==Archived Versions==<br />
*Here is a list of the versions that has been saved to the web archive during the countdown.<br />
**The counter in that version is written behind the date of the web archive.<br />
**Note that the counter is active on the archived version counting minutes down from the start. Some of the versions almost changing the minutes just after loading. But it will always count from the time given here:<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] 20d 20h 27m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110214138/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] 20d 17h 18m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220111011115/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] 20d 13h 48m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220112005828/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-12] 19d 14h 1m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220113044552/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-13] 18d 10h 14m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220114010759/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-14] 17d 13h 51m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220114195624/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-14] 16d 19h 3m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220115052737/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-15] 16d 9h 32m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220116074923/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-16] 15d 7h 10m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220116225217/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-16] 14d 16h 7m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118050255/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-18] 13d 9h 57m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118195259/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-18] 12d 19h 6m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220119213308/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-19] 11d 17h 26m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220120103559/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-20] 11d 4h 23m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220120235630/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-20] 10d 15h 3m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220121023331/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-21] 10d 12h 26m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220121102349/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-21] 10d 4h 36m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122002328/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 9d 14h 36m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122034744/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 9d 11h 12m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122223018/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 8d 16h 29m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220123153950/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-23] 7d 23h 20m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220123231820/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-23] 7d 15h 41m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220124200931/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-24] 6d 18h 50m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220125064825/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-25] 6d 8h 11m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220126002713/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-26] 5d 14h 32m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220126175842/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-26] 4d 21h 1m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220127173721/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-27] 3d 21h 22m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220128225119/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-28] 2d 16h 8m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220129024550/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-29] 2d 12h 14m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220129232926/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-29] 1d 15h 30m<br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220130190609/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-30] 0d 19h 53m <br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220131124817/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-31] 0d 2h 11m <br />
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220201000434/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-02-01] The day after (0d -9h -5m / -1d 14h 55m)<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Meta]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2619:_Cr%C3%AApe&diff=268936Talk:2619: Crêpe2022-05-14T18:55:29Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
You can almost make the same weird circumflex by using combining diacritics. e, then inverted breve then circumflex. Doesn't seem to render properly with firefox at least --> ȇ̂ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.241|172.70.114.241]] 14:20, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
: U+2372 is a caret with a tilde through it: ⍲ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.251|108.162.245.251]] 14:45, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: Would you like a crē̂pe? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.32|162.158.63.32]] 20:05, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: I looked at a few more unicode things. I'm not too familiar with unicode; there are a few more down curves I think, but I didn't see any way to make it just like the image. I think wiki markup or an embedded image would probably do this best, and may be worthwhile if anybody's excited. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.32|162.158.63.32]] 20:05, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
: Is it possible to vertically stretch a character? A combination of a "regular" circumflex and a vertically-stretched circumflex might work. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 18:41, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: I didn't realise it was actually two circumflexes of different heights. This is pretty visible in the new picture. There might be a taller or shorter circumflex somewhere in unicode, but I think stretching would take mathml or something dunno. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.65|172.70.110.65]] 23:38, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think the circumflex is not an "A" but more of a split-and-stretched delta, or an arrowhead. Maybe show a zoom-in of the circumflex (obviously from the 2x image) in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 14:47, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf<br />
: Also, i noticed there are weird white dots past the corners of the border. They are even more visible in the 2x! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 14:50, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf<br />
: A chevron, perchance? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.15|172.68.50.15]] 14:52, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Is it not also a play on "weird flex but OK"? https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/weird-flex-but-okay/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.11}}<br />
<br />
IPA would be appreciated {{unsigned ip|172.70.110.241}}<br />
: I would say the accepted online versions seem to work well for me:<br />
:* US pronunciation: /kɹeɪp/ ("krayp")<br />
:* UK possibilities: /kɹɛp/, /kɹeɪp/ ("krep" or "krayp")<br />
:** For me, I'd use the former for food (e.g. "Crêpes Suzette") as a fairly direct loan from French,<br />
:** But I'd say the latter for paper (the crinkly-tissue stuff)<br />
:* Fr pronunciation: /kʁɛp/ ("krep", but with that funny French 'r'! ;) )<br />
: YMMV, and possibly different regional British accents (or just who they learnt the terms from) might vary quite wildly. I'm not sure the average Brit truly understand French (typographic) accents. Though possibly we are more inclined to at least try ''something'' than your average American. :p [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.209|172.69.79.209]] 21:18, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It doesn't really look like an "A". It's more a hollow outline of a circumflex. You can see it more clearly in the 2x version. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.54.247|172.70.54.247]] 19:28, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The crêpe itself is also in the shape of an accent. -JT {{unsigned ip|162.158.126.55}}<br />
<br />
Is this a reference to the vandalism attacks? "crap" and "crêpe" are somewhat similar. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.27|172.70.178.27]] 23:16, 13 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:There tends to be no acknowledgement at all that Randall takes any notice of what goes on here at the moment. Despite the occasional suspicion that he deliberarely Nerd Snipes us with a comic that is particularly designe to be hard to document 'normally'. I'd say it's a pure co-inky-dink, personally. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 18:55, 14 May 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2615:_Welcome_Back&diff=264768Talk:2615: Welcome Back2022-05-05T08:20:58Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
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<div>I'm terrible at writing descs so somebody note how he's opening the app to check for a tornado which is already approching [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 06:42, 5 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:No the tornado is far away.{{unsigned ip|172.70.34.17}}<br />
::Is it? Or is it small?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 08:20, 5 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I didn't say it was close I said it was approaching[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:17, 5 May 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2615:_Welcome_Back&diff=264767Talk:2615: Welcome Back2022-05-05T08:20:40Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div>I'm terrible at writing descs so somebody note how he's opening the app to check for a tornado which is already approching [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 06:42, 5 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:No the tornado is far away.{{unsigned ip|172.70.34.17}}<br />
::Is it? Or is it small?<br />
::I didn't say it was close I said it was approaching[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:17, 5 May 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2613:_Bad_Map_Projection:_Madagascator&diff=232321Talk:2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator2022-05-03T11:43:03Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
Anyone else want to play this (and the other bad map projections) as maps in a 4X/Grand Strategy game? [[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 18:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Clicking on the original comic brings up the actual projection used, it looks like.<br />
<br />
I'm on an old machine here (because it usually doesn't matter), and clicked on the image on the xkcd site to get the image, to be told that ''Your browser does not support WebGL :'('' by the URL https://mrgris.com/projects/merc-extreme/#-4.64274,55.45253 - I will have to check from a less 'primitive' device, but it looks like it's got a special click-through, which might be worth mentioning in the Explanation. I can check myself in a few minutes, but noting here first in case I get delay. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I have added the click. It opens an website app showing a Mercator with the North Pole set to wherever you want, with this one in particular set Mahé just as Randall said. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:40, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Added a table, based upon some rapid pixel-analysis I did. No, I didn't include Indonesia, etc, and the "Africa size probably includes Madagascar" sort of thing could need sorting, but I mentioned that below so nobody is under misapprehension. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 22:04, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: I think having the official size also be a percent of the world (or at least another column like that) would make it easier to see how the distortion affects the size. And/or distortion from a normal Mercator projection {{unsigned ip|172.70.230.143}}<br />
:: That was my initial intention, or at least a percentage-of-reality column alongside (plus adding sorting to the columns), and maybe a differential between the two percentages just for fun. But I wanted to take time to make sure I was correctly counting how much area was (say) Eurasia but without Japan, etc. Maybe I'll actually get around to that shortly. There are other (formatting) tweaks I wasn't overly happy with in my original. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:00, 30 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Okey dokey. New table. Sortable, extra columns and 'real world' figures improved on. (e.g. "North America" is land-areas of Canada through to Panama minus all significant islands (though some of the Canadian archipelago might have been drawn in as contiguous, etc, etc, and I ''think'' I only included Alaska in my sums just the once). Which took a lot more effort than I'd have prefered, like including Peninsula Malaysia and not the offshore bits. I wish I could say I spent as much time on the initial image-analysis (at least include NZ N+S Islands as an entry, right?) and the raw data is now archived elsewhere.<br />
::I also augmented with footnote references, but not sure if I've done it right. Readable (defined in first instance, where used multiple times) in the source if anyone thinks there's any better ways of doing it (had my heart set on dagger/double-dagger/etc, but never mind). But there you are.<br />
::Enjoy! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 23:11, 30 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Should there be another column on the table that describes the fold-change of the actual to displayed area? I think it would help emphasize the distortion of Madagascar. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 16:35, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Hopefully the vandal won't bother this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:Looks like they did, but they seem to be done because someone gave them the emoticon. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 22:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::A mistake. We already know it's likely they'll be back at a later date with some other stunt to stroke their supremely fragile ego. (Whether or not things like this comment provokes them, I definitely consider my conscience clear in this regard.) But what happens, happens. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::Is it any surprise they're already back? The emoticon was a cheap excuse for the infantile, childish behaviour of someone without a life that gets their shits and giggles out of being nothing more than a pest.[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 23:01, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
this page is kinda sussy tbh [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 18:11, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
[spam]<br />
<br />
I have looked at the Wikipedia pages, and there is _no_ reference to Among Us on any map-related pages (and vice versa). What is your problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.195|172.70.242.195]] 18:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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[spam]<br />
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I take it you're the vandal... [[User:Something|Something]] ([[User talk:Something|talk]]) 19:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
ID does imply they are the vandal, they were adding the lyricis earlier today...[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I fixed the redirect they made of Danish going to the main page. I think some other pages got redirected into a redirect loop that should now be fixed. [[User:Flumnble|Flumnble]] ([[User talk:Flumnble|talk]]) 15:24, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Concerning the so called compromise of vandalising this page to make the vandal satisfied: That’s not a compromise but letting ourselves be exhorted by and obeying the vandal. That’s absolutely the worst we could do and would fuel the vandal enormously.<br />
[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 05:04, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I agree with this. It ruins the article. Can't they just ban him? Or lock the article like wikipedia? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.161|172.70.130.161]] 05:48, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::The people trying to compromise with the vandal have to stop. They were vandalizing the last comic, the same thing was tried and they did stop... only to move on to vandalizing not just this comic but also other, older ones. It does not work. All it does is give them a free pass on their vandalizing and give them more satisfaction than they would otherwise, and it's not constructive in any way to the article, especially if the demand is something as absurd as having a Doug Walker image in an page for a comic that has zero relationship to him. And this time it didn't even get them to stop. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 14:33, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Please note that the user https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:WhiIe_FaIse ("whiie faiise") has made contributions and signed them with my signature. Do not take any comment apparently from a known user for being made by its signed sender without checking history. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 05:04, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== holave ==<br />
<br />
exclamacioneve holave inefe eguntapre omoce uedope ayudareve ave esteve itiose inefe [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.43|108.162.245.43]] 02:53, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Does anyone know what language this is written in? I have no idea what this person is saying (asking?) and Google Translate wasn't much help. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 03:09, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::eclaracionde oye one hablove ingleseve erope oye ieroque ayudareve esteve ikiwe inefe [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.143|108.162.216.143]] 04:01, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::My first thought was esperanto (or ido or interlingua, given lack of accents), certainly a latinesque-based language or conlang, but given the edits put onto this effort, it's possibly even sabotaged, or was written by someone for whom it most definitely not was their first language. (I even thought it was "Pig-esperanto"... This is that idiot who changed entire Explanations to Pig-Latin, I'm sure.)<br />
:::I've got no real affinity to languages but I can recognise the possible roots of a lot of that. Some use of "...speak(ing) English..." is obvious in the latter post, for example, at an educated guess.<br />
:::But I would say this is a prelude to some "I want you to wear bunny-ears when you revert stuff" thing, which I for one won't try to solve this puzzle for. (I'll just revert and revert and revert, if I'm around, and ignore the "trying to be clever" stuff. Nearly deleted this, actually, but restrained myself.) Otherwise, I leave it to those who know their conlangs better than me. Once it strays too far beyond technical English and its classical roots, I'm not really a linguistics person as I said, so it's useless to me whether it's an international message of friendship or extortion instructions. "Holave", whoever you are, but no thanks. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 10:10, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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How will they shut down all their ports?<br />
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::::Yeah, it definitely looks like a conlang based on a Latinesque language, probably Spanish. "exclamacioneve" is probably "exclamacion" = "exclamation" (not sure why a sentence would begin with "exclamation"), holave=hola=hello, ayudareve=ayudar=help, hablove=hablo="I speak" (could actually be a different conjugation, but this is the most likely), and ingleseve=ingles=English. They seem to be saying "I speak English" (or "I don't speak English" if "one" means "no"). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.5|172.70.130.5]] 14:11, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::"I don't speak English" seems more likely, so it's probably a good guess that "one" does mean "no." [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.199|172.70.178.199]] 14:15, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::It seems to be some sort of pig-Spanish, with punctuation written out. Decoded, it's “exclamacion hola fine pregunta como puedo ayudar a este sitio fine” and “declaracion yo no hablo ingles pero yo quiero ayudar este wiki fine”, meaning “exclamation hi end question how can i help on this site end” and “statement i dont speak english but i want to help this wiki end”. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 15:15, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
How will they shut down all their ports?<br />
:::::::(Somehow the thread got duplicated; I merged the threads) That makes sense. It seems like if someone wanted to help, they would at least use a real language. Do you think this is the vandal? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.33|172.70.178.33]] 15:31, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::Definitely the vandal. These were some of the vandal edit summaries on the last comic: "Orpe avorfe one andalizarve esteve aginape" "ise eviertere estove eve incluyeve unve emojive ede a'rbolve ede avidadne enve use esumenre ede edicio'nve, one ole olvere've ave acerehve" "one incluyesteve uneve emojive ede a'rboleve ede avidadene" @Kapostamas can you understand those? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.33|172.70.178.33]] 15:42, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::“Por favor no vandalizar este pagina”; “Si revierte esto e incluye un emoji de árbol de navidad ne su resumen de edición, no lo volveré a hacere”; “No incluyeste un emoji de árbol de navidad”.<br />
:::::::::That is, “Please do not vandalize this page”; “If you revert this and include a Christmas tree emoji in the edit summary, I will not do it again”; “You haven't included a Christmas tree emoji”. Must be some earlier version of this “dialect”, since there is punctuation and diacritics are marked by apostrophes, making it somewhat easier to recognize as mangled Spanish. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 16:08, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::::::::(Written before 172.70.178.33 got posted, just above.) I'd stake my bottom dollar/peso/euro/whatever on it. Still, marginally entertaining, but not in the intended way (which is good).<br />
::::::::As for the "Exclamation" start, two basic theories:<br />
::::::::* It's word-literal of "¡Some punctuation!" (partnered eith "inefe"=>"end), because the encoding system doesn't have punctuation, it reads it out (maybe literally, e.g. via screen-reader) and it's like a telegram convention "HAVE REACHED NORTH POLE STOP PLEASE ADVISE WHICH DIRECTION NOW STOP" (i.e. full-stop/period in word form).<br />
::::::::* It's a start that says "I exclaim (that)...", and the other "I declare (that)..." in a sort of grammatical necessity for this particular lingo. Similar to "Statement: I am a computer. Question: Are you a computer?" in (deliberately-?)bad scifi dialogue.<br />
::::::::Possibly a mix of both, and also some tertiary ideas I have. And the word-for-word translations make a sort of sense in either/both/all these contexts. Not that I'd respond to them, but I'll gladly talk about them and actually do something intellectually interesting with the mess. Silk purse from sow's ear, etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 15:55, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::What's the rule for "translating" into this "dialect"? It seems like it is very similar to pig Latin, but with a few changes? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.17|108.162.216.17]] 16:27, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::As far as I know:<br />
::::::::::# Write your message in Spanish.<br />
::::::::::# Enclose each of your sentences between ''declaración/exclamación/pregunta'' at the front (according to closing punctuation – ./!/? respectively) and ''fine'' at the end. Remove original punctuation. Probably do something about commas as well.<br />
::::::::::# Remove diacritics.<br />
::::::::::# For each word, move the initial consonant cluster to the end. If there is no initial consonant (or if it's silent, like H), instead add a V to the end of the word. Then append a final E to each word.<br />
::::::::::[[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 17:29, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::Okay, that makes sense, thank you! It also looks like if the word ends in a consonant, you add an e to the end both before and after the moved/new consonant (group), because otherwise exclamación would become "exclamacionve" when it is actually "exclamacioneve." It also looks like we've been successfully [[356]]ed by the vandal. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 17:50, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::That supposes that they always applied their own rules perfectly. There are many places where this rule seems to be in effect and many where it doesn't; sometimes even the same word is transcribed in two different ways. Since my Spanish is rudimentary at best, I've simply included some of these E's in the transcription without noticing them. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 19:28, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::It looks like they added the e-between-consonants rule in later messages. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.106|172.70.131.106]] 19:40, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::That explains many of them, but there's still “eclaracionde” in the second message. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 20:54, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::: eclaracionede esaseve eglasere eque ese esele ocurrieroneve onese orrectasece inefe eclaracionede itace eclaracionde inefe uefe uneve erroreve ipograficote yve eberiade erese itace eclaracionede inefe inefe [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 21:04, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::::Hmm, more pig-Spanish.<br />
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::::::::::::::::After undoing the word changes, but leaving the grammar as-is, it says: "declaracion esas reglas que se les ocurrieron son correctas fine declaracion cita declaracion fine fue un error tipografico y deberia ser cita declaracion fine fine"<br />
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::::::::::::::::The first sentence appears to mean "Those rules that (either "they" or plural "you") came up with are correct."<br />
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::::::::::::::::The rest of it doesn't make much sense; there are even two "fine"s in a row. @Kapostamas do you know what this message means? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.161|172.70.130.161]] 02:57, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::I did not even try to parse it, but it occured to me it was like "I used, quote, 'quotes', endquote..." as a deliberately obtuse nesting (especially when ripped of its additional punctuation). So under the system in which start and end words are used, the start and end of a sentence that contains those words (perhaps not paired), the ambiguity arises. That said, the self-referential nature of it also indicates quite clearly that they are thinking they are being clever. They aren't, but it's interesting to watch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 09:05, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::::::::::::::::::Translated, it's something like “statement quote eclaracionde end was a typing error and should have been quote eclaracionede end end”. It's just another kind of punctuation.<br />
::::::::::::::::::Two-deep nesting is not that complicated to parse. Now, using “declaración” or “fine” as words on their own right – ''that'' would really be confusing. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 10:33, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::::Okay, that makes sense. "eclaracionde" was a typing error and should have been "eclaracionede."<br />
::::::::::::::::::::More pig-Spanish (replaced with [spam] in the "Current vandalism elsewhere" discussion):<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"exclamacioneve holave inefe eguntapre omoce estaseve inefe eclaracionde ete oyese inefe"<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"exclamacion hola fine pregunta como estas fine declaracion te soy fine"<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"Hello! How are you? I am you."<br />
::::::::::::::::::::The last sentence ("ete oyese"/"te soy"/"I am you") doesn't make much sense; @Kapostamas is it right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.199|172.70.178.199]] 21:50, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::Considering the name, I'd say it's correct. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 22:49, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::::::::::Possibly meant to be "te oyes fine" - an attempted joke using the 'fine' as part of the sentence - "You sound fine"? Although 'oyes' ought to encode as 'oyeseve'.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 11:37, 3 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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===Current vandalism elsewhere===<br />
Someone with an account needs to unvandalise what I am fairly certain is our pig-Spaniards work, in another of their incarnations. <br />
16:32, 2 May 2022 X K C D (talk | contribs) moved page Talk:1014: Car Problems to Talk:1014: Trouser Problems<br />
16:32, 2 May 2022 X K C D (talk | contribs) moved page 1014: Car Problems to 1014: Trouser Problems<br />
...those two alterations, as listed in the Move Log, easy to find. (I already reverted the text within.) Naturally, I assume we'll see more of the same in future. In this instance I'm putting this note in the (for the moment) latest entry rather than the Admin area, as I think it's linked to the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 17:27, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Second change made, trying to invert the "WhiieFaise" impersonation and make it look like "WhiLeFaLse" is in the wrong. Also much messing with everything. Please someone check that this edit restored only what was necessary and didn't remove anything at least plausibly genuine. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 17:47, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Thank you. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 18:08, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::I just happened to check and saw 'things' happening, so dove in to mitigate what I could (and unfold further as I was doing that). Then I saw that you were active too. I hope we didn't clash much in our individual efforts. And with the confluence of vandalising techniques in this latest episode, I think we have confirmation that a number of recent outbreaks under different guises ''were'' by just one idiot. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 18:40, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::Yep. Thank you. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 18:51, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::[Spam] [[User:Whilе Falsе|Whilе Falsе]] ([[User talk:Whilе Falsе|talk]]) 20:54, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::Well, there it goes. One more impostor account, this time with “W” instead of “W”. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:00, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:The same person now also uses [[User:While False|While False]] with “W” instead of “W” and ”е” instead of “e” to vandalise in my name. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:08, 2 May 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2613:_Bad_Map_Projection:_Madagascator&diff=232320Talk:2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator2022-05-03T11:39:12Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
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Anyone else want to play this (and the other bad map projections) as maps in a 4X/Grand Strategy game? [[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 18:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Clicking on the original comic brings up the actual projection used, it looks like.<br />
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I'm on an old machine here (because it usually doesn't matter), and clicked on the image on the xkcd site to get the image, to be told that ''Your browser does not support WebGL :'('' by the URL https://mrgris.com/projects/merc-extreme/#-4.64274,55.45253 - I will have to check from a less 'primitive' device, but it looks like it's got a special click-through, which might be worth mentioning in the Explanation. I can check myself in a few minutes, but noting here first in case I get delay. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I have added the click. It opens an website app showing a Mercator with the North Pole set to wherever you want, with this one in particular set Mahé just as Randall said. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:40, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Added a table, based upon some rapid pixel-analysis I did. No, I didn't include Indonesia, etc, and the "Africa size probably includes Madagascar" sort of thing could need sorting, but I mentioned that below so nobody is under misapprehension. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 22:04, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: I think having the official size also be a percent of the world (or at least another column like that) would make it easier to see how the distortion affects the size. And/or distortion from a normal Mercator projection {{unsigned ip|172.70.230.143}}<br />
:: That was my initial intention, or at least a percentage-of-reality column alongside (plus adding sorting to the columns), and maybe a differential between the two percentages just for fun. But I wanted to take time to make sure I was correctly counting how much area was (say) Eurasia but without Japan, etc. Maybe I'll actually get around to that shortly. There are other (formatting) tweaks I wasn't overly happy with in my original. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:00, 30 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Okey dokey. New table. Sortable, extra columns and 'real world' figures improved on. (e.g. "North America" is land-areas of Canada through to Panama minus all significant islands (though some of the Canadian archipelago might have been drawn in as contiguous, etc, etc, and I ''think'' I only included Alaska in my sums just the once). Which took a lot more effort than I'd have prefered, like including Peninsula Malaysia and not the offshore bits. I wish I could say I spent as much time on the initial image-analysis (at least include NZ N+S Islands as an entry, right?) and the raw data is now archived elsewhere.<br />
::I also augmented with footnote references, but not sure if I've done it right. Readable (defined in first instance, where used multiple times) in the source if anyone thinks there's any better ways of doing it (had my heart set on dagger/double-dagger/etc, but never mind). But there you are.<br />
::Enjoy! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 23:11, 30 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Should there be another column on the table that describes the fold-change of the actual to displayed area? I think it would help emphasize the distortion of Madagascar. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 16:35, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Hopefully the vandal won't bother this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:Looks like they did, but they seem to be done because someone gave them the emoticon. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 22:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::A mistake. We already know it's likely they'll be back at a later date with some other stunt to stroke their supremely fragile ego. (Whether or not things like this comment provokes them, I definitely consider my conscience clear in this regard.) But what happens, happens. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:::Is it any surprise they're already back? The emoticon was a cheap excuse for the infantile, childish behaviour of someone without a life that gets their shits and giggles out of being nothing more than a pest.[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 23:01, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
this page is kinda sussy tbh [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 18:11, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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[spam]<br />
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I have looked at the Wikipedia pages, and there is _no_ reference to Among Us on any map-related pages (and vice versa). What is your problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.195|172.70.242.195]] 18:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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[spam]<br />
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I take it you're the vandal... [[User:Something|Something]] ([[User talk:Something|talk]]) 19:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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ID does imply they are the vandal, they were adding the lyricis earlier today...[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I fixed the redirect they made of Danish going to the main page. I think some other pages got redirected into a redirect loop that should now be fixed. [[User:Flumnble|Flumnble]] ([[User talk:Flumnble|talk]]) 15:24, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Concerning the so called compromise of vandalising this page to make the vandal satisfied: That’s not a compromise but letting ourselves be exhorted by and obeying the vandal. That’s absolutely the worst we could do and would fuel the vandal enormously.<br />
[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 05:04, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I agree with this. It ruins the article. Can't they just ban him? Or lock the article like wikipedia? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.161|172.70.130.161]] 05:48, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::The people trying to compromise with the vandal have to stop. They were vandalizing the last comic, the same thing was tried and they did stop... only to move on to vandalizing not just this comic but also other, older ones. It does not work. All it does is give them a free pass on their vandalizing and give them more satisfaction than they would otherwise, and it's not constructive in any way to the article, especially if the demand is something as absurd as having a Doug Walker image in an page for a comic that has zero relationship to him. And this time it didn't even get them to stop. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 14:33, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Please note that the user https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:WhiIe_FaIse ("whiie faiise") has made contributions and signed them with my signature. Do not take any comment apparently from a known user for being made by its signed sender without checking history. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 05:04, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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== holave ==<br />
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exclamacioneve holave inefe eguntapre omoce uedope ayudareve ave esteve itiose inefe [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.43|108.162.245.43]] 02:53, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Does anyone know what language this is written in? I have no idea what this person is saying (asking?) and Google Translate wasn't much help. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 03:09, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::eclaracionde oye one hablove ingleseve erope oye ieroque ayudareve esteve ikiwe inefe [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.143|108.162.216.143]] 04:01, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::My first thought was esperanto (or ido or interlingua, given lack of accents), certainly a latinesque-based language or conlang, but given the edits put onto this effort, it's possibly even sabotaged, or was written by someone for whom it most definitely not was their first language. (I even thought it was "Pig-esperanto"... This is that idiot who changed entire Explanations to Pig-Latin, I'm sure.)<br />
:::I've got no real affinity to languages but I can recognise the possible roots of a lot of that. Some use of "...speak(ing) English..." is obvious in the latter post, for example, at an educated guess.<br />
:::But I would say this is a prelude to some "I want you to wear bunny-ears when you revert stuff" thing, which I for one won't try to solve this puzzle for. (I'll just revert and revert and revert, if I'm around, and ignore the "trying to be clever" stuff. Nearly deleted this, actually, but restrained myself.) Otherwise, I leave it to those who know their conlangs better than me. Once it strays too far beyond technical English and its classical roots, I'm not really a linguistics person as I said, so it's useless to me whether it's an international message of friendship or extortion instructions. "Holave", whoever you are, but no thanks. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 10:10, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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How will they shut down all their ports?<br />
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::::Yeah, it definitely looks like a conlang based on a Latinesque language, probably Spanish. "exclamacioneve" is probably "exclamacion" = "exclamation" (not sure why a sentence would begin with "exclamation"), holave=hola=hello, ayudareve=ayudar=help, hablove=hablo="I speak" (could actually be a different conjugation, but this is the most likely), and ingleseve=ingles=English. They seem to be saying "I speak English" (or "I don't speak English" if "one" means "no"). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.5|172.70.130.5]] 14:11, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::"I don't speak English" seems more likely, so it's probably a good guess that "one" does mean "no." [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.199|172.70.178.199]] 14:15, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::It seems to be some sort of pig-Spanish, with punctuation written out. Decoded, it's “exclamacion hola fine pregunta como puedo ayudar a este sitio fine” and “declaracion yo no hablo ingles pero yo quiero ayudar este wiki fine”, meaning “exclamation hi end question how can i help on this site end” and “statement i dont speak english but i want to help this wiki end”. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 15:15, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
How will they shut down all their ports?<br />
:::::::(Somehow the thread got duplicated; I merged the threads) That makes sense. It seems like if someone wanted to help, they would at least use a real language. Do you think this is the vandal? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.33|172.70.178.33]] 15:31, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::Definitely the vandal. These were some of the vandal edit summaries on the last comic: "Orpe avorfe one andalizarve esteve aginape" "ise eviertere estove eve incluyeve unve emojive ede a'rbolve ede avidadne enve use esumenre ede edicio'nve, one ole olvere've ave acerehve" "one incluyesteve uneve emojive ede a'rboleve ede avidadene" @Kapostamas can you understand those? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.33|172.70.178.33]] 15:42, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::“Por favor no vandalizar este pagina”; “Si revierte esto e incluye un emoji de árbol de navidad ne su resumen de edición, no lo volveré a hacere”; “No incluyeste un emoji de árbol de navidad”.<br />
:::::::::That is, “Please do not vandalize this page”; “If you revert this and include a Christmas tree emoji in the edit summary, I will not do it again”; “You haven't included a Christmas tree emoji”. Must be some earlier version of this “dialect”, since there is punctuation and diacritics are marked by apostrophes, making it somewhat easier to recognize as mangled Spanish. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 16:08, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::::::::(Written before 172.70.178.33 got posted, just above.) I'd stake my bottom dollar/peso/euro/whatever on it. Still, marginally entertaining, but not in the intended way (which is good).<br />
::::::::As for the "Exclamation" start, two basic theories:<br />
::::::::* It's word-literal of "¡Some punctuation!" (partnered eith "inefe"=>"end), because the encoding system doesn't have punctuation, it reads it out (maybe literally, e.g. via screen-reader) and it's like a telegram convention "HAVE REACHED NORTH POLE STOP PLEASE ADVISE WHICH DIRECTION NOW STOP" (i.e. full-stop/period in word form).<br />
::::::::* It's a start that says "I exclaim (that)...", and the other "I declare (that)..." in a sort of grammatical necessity for this particular lingo. Similar to "Statement: I am a computer. Question: Are you a computer?" in (deliberately-?)bad scifi dialogue.<br />
::::::::Possibly a mix of both, and also some tertiary ideas I have. And the word-for-word translations make a sort of sense in either/both/all these contexts. Not that I'd respond to them, but I'll gladly talk about them and actually do something intellectually interesting with the mess. Silk purse from sow's ear, etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 15:55, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::What's the rule for "translating" into this "dialect"? It seems like it is very similar to pig Latin, but with a few changes? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.17|108.162.216.17]] 16:27, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::As far as I know:<br />
::::::::::# Write your message in Spanish.<br />
::::::::::# Enclose each of your sentences between ''declaración/exclamación/pregunta'' at the front (according to closing punctuation – ./!/? respectively) and ''fine'' at the end. Remove original punctuation. Probably do something about commas as well.<br />
::::::::::# Remove diacritics.<br />
::::::::::# For each word, move the initial consonant cluster to the end. If there is no initial consonant (or if it's silent, like H), instead add a V to the end of the word. Then append a final E to each word.<br />
::::::::::[[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 17:29, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::Okay, that makes sense, thank you! It also looks like if the word ends in a consonant, you add an e to the end both before and after the moved/new consonant (group), because otherwise exclamación would become "exclamacionve" when it is actually "exclamacioneve." It also looks like we've been successfully [[356]]ed by the vandal. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 17:50, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::That supposes that they always applied their own rules perfectly. There are many places where this rule seems to be in effect and many where it doesn't; sometimes even the same word is transcribed in two different ways. Since my Spanish is rudimentary at best, I've simply included some of these E's in the transcription without noticing them. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 19:28, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::It looks like they added the e-between-consonants rule in later messages. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.106|172.70.131.106]] 19:40, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::That explains many of them, but there's still “eclaracionde” in the second message. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 20:54, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::: eclaracionede esaseve eglasere eque ese esele ocurrieroneve onese orrectasece inefe eclaracionede itace eclaracionde inefe uefe uneve erroreve ipograficote yve eberiade erese itace eclaracionede inefe inefe [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 21:04, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::::Hmm, more pig-Spanish.<br />
<br />
::::::::::::::::After undoing the word changes, but leaving the grammar as-is, it says: "declaracion esas reglas que se les ocurrieron son correctas fine declaracion cita declaracion fine fue un error tipografico y deberia ser cita declaracion fine fine"<br />
<br />
::::::::::::::::The first sentence appears to mean "Those rules that (either "they" or plural "you") came up with are correct."<br />
<br />
::::::::::::::::The rest of it doesn't make much sense; there are even two "fine"s in a row. @Kapostamas do you know what this message means? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.161|172.70.130.161]] 02:57, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::I did not even try to parse it, but it occured to me it was like "I used, quote, 'quotes', endquote..." as a deliberately obtuse nesting (especially when ripped of its additional punctuation). So under the system in which start and end words are used, the start and end of a sentence that contains those words (perhaps not paired), the ambiguity arises. That said, the self-referential nature of it also indicates quite clearly that they are thinking they are being clever. They aren't, but it's interesting to watch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 09:05, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::::::::::::::::::Translated, it's something like “statement quote eclaracionde end was a typing error and should have been quote eclaracionede end end”. It's just another kind of punctuation.<br />
::::::::::::::::::Two-deep nesting is not that complicated to parse. Now, using “declaración” or “fine” as words on their own right – ''that'' would really be confusing. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 10:33, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::::Okay, that makes sense. "eclaracionde" was a typing error and should have been "eclaracionede."<br />
::::::::::::::::::::More pig-Spanish (replaced with [spam] in the "Current vandalism elsewhere" discussion):<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"exclamacioneve holave inefe eguntapre omoce estaseve inefe eclaracionde ete oyese inefe"<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"exclamacion hola fine pregunta como estas fine declaracion te soy fine"<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"Hello! How are you? I am you."<br />
::::::::::::::::::::The last sentence ("ete oyese"/"te soy"/"I am you") doesn't make much sense; @Kapostamas is it right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.199|172.70.178.199]] 21:50, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::Considering the name, I'd say it's correct. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 22:49, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::::::::::Possibly meant to be "te oyes fine" - an attempted joke using the 'fine' as part of the sentence - "You sound fine"? 'oyese' doesn't actually work within the declared rules - it ought to decode as the non-word 'soye', whereas 'soy' would be 'oyse' and 'oyes' would be 'oyeseve'.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 11:37, 3 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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===Current vandalism elsewhere===<br />
Someone with an account needs to unvandalise what I am fairly certain is our pig-Spaniards work, in another of their incarnations. <br />
16:32, 2 May 2022 X K C D (talk | contribs) moved page Talk:1014: Car Problems to Talk:1014: Trouser Problems<br />
16:32, 2 May 2022 X K C D (talk | contribs) moved page 1014: Car Problems to 1014: Trouser Problems<br />
...those two alterations, as listed in the Move Log, easy to find. (I already reverted the text within.) Naturally, I assume we'll see more of the same in future. In this instance I'm putting this note in the (for the moment) latest entry rather than the Admin area, as I think it's linked to the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 17:27, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Second change made, trying to invert the "WhiieFaise" impersonation and make it look like "WhiLeFaLse" is in the wrong. Also much messing with everything. Please someone check that this edit restored only what was necessary and didn't remove anything at least plausibly genuine. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 17:47, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Thank you. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 18:08, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::I just happened to check and saw 'things' happening, so dove in to mitigate what I could (and unfold further as I was doing that). Then I saw that you were active too. I hope we didn't clash much in our individual efforts. And with the confluence of vandalising techniques in this latest episode, I think we have confirmation that a number of recent outbreaks under different guises ''were'' by just one idiot. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 18:40, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::Yep. Thank you. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 18:51, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::[Spam] [[User:Whilе Falsе|Whilе Falsе]] ([[User talk:Whilе Falsе|talk]]) 20:54, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::Well, there it goes. One more impostor account, this time with “W” instead of “W”. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:00, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:The same person now also uses [[User:While False|While False]] with “W” instead of “W” and ”е” instead of “e” to vandalise in my name. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:08, 2 May 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2613:_Bad_Map_Projection:_Madagascator&diff=232319Talk:2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator2022-05-03T11:37:05Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
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Anyone else want to play this (and the other bad map projections) as maps in a 4X/Grand Strategy game? [[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 18:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Clicking on the original comic brings up the actual projection used, it looks like.<br />
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I'm on an old machine here (because it usually doesn't matter), and clicked on the image on the xkcd site to get the image, to be told that ''Your browser does not support WebGL :'('' by the URL https://mrgris.com/projects/merc-extreme/#-4.64274,55.45253 - I will have to check from a less 'primitive' device, but it looks like it's got a special click-through, which might be worth mentioning in the Explanation. I can check myself in a few minutes, but noting here first in case I get delay. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I have added the click. It opens an website app showing a Mercator with the North Pole set to wherever you want, with this one in particular set Mahé just as Randall said. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:40, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Added a table, based upon some rapid pixel-analysis I did. No, I didn't include Indonesia, etc, and the "Africa size probably includes Madagascar" sort of thing could need sorting, but I mentioned that below so nobody is under misapprehension. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 22:04, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: I think having the official size also be a percent of the world (or at least another column like that) would make it easier to see how the distortion affects the size. And/or distortion from a normal Mercator projection {{unsigned ip|172.70.230.143}}<br />
:: That was my initial intention, or at least a percentage-of-reality column alongside (plus adding sorting to the columns), and maybe a differential between the two percentages just for fun. But I wanted to take time to make sure I was correctly counting how much area was (say) Eurasia but without Japan, etc. Maybe I'll actually get around to that shortly. There are other (formatting) tweaks I wasn't overly happy with in my original. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:00, 30 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Okey dokey. New table. Sortable, extra columns and 'real world' figures improved on. (e.g. "North America" is land-areas of Canada through to Panama minus all significant islands (though some of the Canadian archipelago might have been drawn in as contiguous, etc, etc, and I ''think'' I only included Alaska in my sums just the once). Which took a lot more effort than I'd have prefered, like including Peninsula Malaysia and not the offshore bits. I wish I could say I spent as much time on the initial image-analysis (at least include NZ N+S Islands as an entry, right?) and the raw data is now archived elsewhere.<br />
::I also augmented with footnote references, but not sure if I've done it right. Readable (defined in first instance, where used multiple times) in the source if anyone thinks there's any better ways of doing it (had my heart set on dagger/double-dagger/etc, but never mind). But there you are.<br />
::Enjoy! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 23:11, 30 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Should there be another column on the table that describes the fold-change of the actual to displayed area? I think it would help emphasize the distortion of Madagascar. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 16:35, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Hopefully the vandal won't bother this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:Looks like they did, but they seem to be done because someone gave them the emoticon. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 22:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::A mistake. We already know it's likely they'll be back at a later date with some other stunt to stroke their supremely fragile ego. (Whether or not things like this comment provokes them, I definitely consider my conscience clear in this regard.) But what happens, happens. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:::Is it any surprise they're already back? The emoticon was a cheap excuse for the infantile, childish behaviour of someone without a life that gets their shits and giggles out of being nothing more than a pest.[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 23:01, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
this page is kinda sussy tbh [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 18:11, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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[spam]<br />
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I have looked at the Wikipedia pages, and there is _no_ reference to Among Us on any map-related pages (and vice versa). What is your problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.195|172.70.242.195]] 18:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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[spam]<br />
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I take it you're the vandal... [[User:Something|Something]] ([[User talk:Something|talk]]) 19:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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ID does imply they are the vandal, they were adding the lyricis earlier today...[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I fixed the redirect they made of Danish going to the main page. I think some other pages got redirected into a redirect loop that should now be fixed. [[User:Flumnble|Flumnble]] ([[User talk:Flumnble|talk]]) 15:24, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Concerning the so called compromise of vandalising this page to make the vandal satisfied: That’s not a compromise but letting ourselves be exhorted by and obeying the vandal. That’s absolutely the worst we could do and would fuel the vandal enormously.<br />
[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 05:04, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I agree with this. It ruins the article. Can't they just ban him? Or lock the article like wikipedia? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.161|172.70.130.161]] 05:48, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::The people trying to compromise with the vandal have to stop. They were vandalizing the last comic, the same thing was tried and they did stop... only to move on to vandalizing not just this comic but also other, older ones. It does not work. All it does is give them a free pass on their vandalizing and give them more satisfaction than they would otherwise, and it's not constructive in any way to the article, especially if the demand is something as absurd as having a Doug Walker image in an page for a comic that has zero relationship to him. And this time it didn't even get them to stop. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 14:33, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Please note that the user https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:WhiIe_FaIse ("whiie faiise") has made contributions and signed them with my signature. Do not take any comment apparently from a known user for being made by its signed sender without checking history. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 05:04, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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== holave ==<br />
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exclamacioneve holave inefe eguntapre omoce uedope ayudareve ave esteve itiose inefe [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.43|108.162.245.43]] 02:53, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Does anyone know what language this is written in? I have no idea what this person is saying (asking?) and Google Translate wasn't much help. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 03:09, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::eclaracionde oye one hablove ingleseve erope oye ieroque ayudareve esteve ikiwe inefe [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.143|108.162.216.143]] 04:01, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::My first thought was esperanto (or ido or interlingua, given lack of accents), certainly a latinesque-based language or conlang, but given the edits put onto this effort, it's possibly even sabotaged, or was written by someone for whom it most definitely not was their first language. (I even thought it was "Pig-esperanto"... This is that idiot who changed entire Explanations to Pig-Latin, I'm sure.)<br />
:::I've got no real affinity to languages but I can recognise the possible roots of a lot of that. Some use of "...speak(ing) English..." is obvious in the latter post, for example, at an educated guess.<br />
:::But I would say this is a prelude to some "I want you to wear bunny-ears when you revert stuff" thing, which I for one won't try to solve this puzzle for. (I'll just revert and revert and revert, if I'm around, and ignore the "trying to be clever" stuff. Nearly deleted this, actually, but restrained myself.) Otherwise, I leave it to those who know their conlangs better than me. Once it strays too far beyond technical English and its classical roots, I'm not really a linguistics person as I said, so it's useless to me whether it's an international message of friendship or extortion instructions. "Holave", whoever you are, but no thanks. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 10:10, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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How will they shut down all their ports?<br />
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::::Yeah, it definitely looks like a conlang based on a Latinesque language, probably Spanish. "exclamacioneve" is probably "exclamacion" = "exclamation" (not sure why a sentence would begin with "exclamation"), holave=hola=hello, ayudareve=ayudar=help, hablove=hablo="I speak" (could actually be a different conjugation, but this is the most likely), and ingleseve=ingles=English. They seem to be saying "I speak English" (or "I don't speak English" if "one" means "no"). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.5|172.70.130.5]] 14:11, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::"I don't speak English" seems more likely, so it's probably a good guess that "one" does mean "no." [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.199|172.70.178.199]] 14:15, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::It seems to be some sort of pig-Spanish, with punctuation written out. Decoded, it's “exclamacion hola fine pregunta como puedo ayudar a este sitio fine” and “declaracion yo no hablo ingles pero yo quiero ayudar este wiki fine”, meaning “exclamation hi end question how can i help on this site end” and “statement i dont speak english but i want to help this wiki end”. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 15:15, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
How will they shut down all their ports?<br />
:::::::(Somehow the thread got duplicated; I merged the threads) That makes sense. It seems like if someone wanted to help, they would at least use a real language. Do you think this is the vandal? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.33|172.70.178.33]] 15:31, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::Definitely the vandal. These were some of the vandal edit summaries on the last comic: "Orpe avorfe one andalizarve esteve aginape" "ise eviertere estove eve incluyeve unve emojive ede a'rbolve ede avidadne enve use esumenre ede edicio'nve, one ole olvere've ave acerehve" "one incluyesteve uneve emojive ede a'rboleve ede avidadene" @Kapostamas can you understand those? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.33|172.70.178.33]] 15:42, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::“Por favor no vandalizar este pagina”; “Si revierte esto e incluye un emoji de árbol de navidad ne su resumen de edición, no lo volveré a hacere”; “No incluyeste un emoji de árbol de navidad”.<br />
:::::::::That is, “Please do not vandalize this page”; “If you revert this and include a Christmas tree emoji in the edit summary, I will not do it again”; “You haven't included a Christmas tree emoji”. Must be some earlier version of this “dialect”, since there is punctuation and diacritics are marked by apostrophes, making it somewhat easier to recognize as mangled Spanish. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 16:08, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::::::::(Written before 172.70.178.33 got posted, just above.) I'd stake my bottom dollar/peso/euro/whatever on it. Still, marginally entertaining, but not in the intended way (which is good).<br />
::::::::As for the "Exclamation" start, two basic theories:<br />
::::::::* It's word-literal of "¡Some punctuation!" (partnered eith "inefe"=>"end), because the encoding system doesn't have punctuation, it reads it out (maybe literally, e.g. via screen-reader) and it's like a telegram convention "HAVE REACHED NORTH POLE STOP PLEASE ADVISE WHICH DIRECTION NOW STOP" (i.e. full-stop/period in word form).<br />
::::::::* It's a start that says "I exclaim (that)...", and the other "I declare (that)..." in a sort of grammatical necessity for this particular lingo. Similar to "Statement: I am a computer. Question: Are you a computer?" in (deliberately-?)bad scifi dialogue.<br />
::::::::Possibly a mix of both, and also some tertiary ideas I have. And the word-for-word translations make a sort of sense in either/both/all these contexts. Not that I'd respond to them, but I'll gladly talk about them and actually do something intellectually interesting with the mess. Silk purse from sow's ear, etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 15:55, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::What's the rule for "translating" into this "dialect"? It seems like it is very similar to pig Latin, but with a few changes? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.17|108.162.216.17]] 16:27, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::As far as I know:<br />
::::::::::# Write your message in Spanish.<br />
::::::::::# Enclose each of your sentences between ''declaración/exclamación/pregunta'' at the front (according to closing punctuation – ./!/? respectively) and ''fine'' at the end. Remove original punctuation. Probably do something about commas as well.<br />
::::::::::# Remove diacritics.<br />
::::::::::# For each word, move the initial consonant cluster to the end. If there is no initial consonant (or if it's silent, like H), instead add a V to the end of the word. Then append a final E to each word.<br />
::::::::::[[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 17:29, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::Okay, that makes sense, thank you! It also looks like if the word ends in a consonant, you add an e to the end both before and after the moved/new consonant (group), because otherwise exclamación would become "exclamacionve" when it is actually "exclamacioneve." It also looks like we've been successfully [[356]]ed by the vandal. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 17:50, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::That supposes that they always applied their own rules perfectly. There are many places where this rule seems to be in effect and many where it doesn't; sometimes even the same word is transcribed in two different ways. Since my Spanish is rudimentary at best, I've simply included some of these E's in the transcription without noticing them. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 19:28, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::It looks like they added the e-between-consonants rule in later messages. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.106|172.70.131.106]] 19:40, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::That explains many of them, but there's still “eclaracionde” in the second message. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 20:54, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::: eclaracionede esaseve eglasere eque ese esele ocurrieroneve onese orrectasece inefe eclaracionede itace eclaracionde inefe uefe uneve erroreve ipograficote yve eberiade erese itace eclaracionede inefe inefe [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 21:04, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::::Hmm, more pig-Spanish.<br />
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::::::::::::::::After undoing the word changes, but leaving the grammar as-is, it says: "declaracion esas reglas que se les ocurrieron son correctas fine declaracion cita declaracion fine fue un error tipografico y deberia ser cita declaracion fine fine"<br />
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::::::::::::::::The first sentence appears to mean "Those rules that (either "they" or plural "you") came up with are correct."<br />
<br />
::::::::::::::::The rest of it doesn't make much sense; there are even two "fine"s in a row. @Kapostamas do you know what this message means? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.161|172.70.130.161]] 02:57, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::I did not even try to parse it, but it occured to me it was like "I used, quote, 'quotes', endquote..." as a deliberately obtuse nesting (especially when ripped of its additional punctuation). So under the system in which start and end words are used, the start and end of a sentence that contains those words (perhaps not paired), the ambiguity arises. That said, the self-referential nature of it also indicates quite clearly that they are thinking they are being clever. They aren't, but it's interesting to watch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 09:05, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::::::::::::::::::Translated, it's something like “statement quote eclaracionde end was a typing error and should have been quote eclaracionede end end”. It's just another kind of punctuation.<br />
::::::::::::::::::Two-deep nesting is not that complicated to parse. Now, using “declaración” or “fine” as words on their own right – ''that'' would really be confusing. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 10:33, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::::Okay, that makes sense. "eclaracionde" was a typing error and should have been "eclaracionede."<br />
::::::::::::::::::::More pig-Spanish (replaced with [spam] in the "Current vandalism elsewhere" discussion):<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"exclamacioneve holave inefe eguntapre omoce estaseve inefe eclaracionde ete oyese inefe"<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"exclamacion hola fine pregunta como estas fine declaracion te soy fine"<br />
::::::::::::::::::::"Hello! How are you? I am you."<br />
::::::::::::::::::::The last sentence ("ete oyese"/"te soy"/"I am you") doesn't make much sense; @Kapostamas is it right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.199|172.70.178.199]] 21:50, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::Considering the name, I'd say it's correct. [[User:Kapostamas|Kapostamas]] ([[User talk:Kapostamas|talk]]) 22:49, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::::::::::::::::::Possibly meant to be "te oyes fine" - possibly an attempted joke using the fine as part of the sentence - "You sound fine"? 'oyese' doesn't actually work within the declared rules - it ought to decode as the non-word 'soye', whereas 'soy' would be 'oyse' and 'oyes' would be 'oyeseve'.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 11:37, 3 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
===Current vandalism elsewhere===<br />
Someone with an account needs to unvandalise what I am fairly certain is our pig-Spaniards work, in another of their incarnations. <br />
16:32, 2 May 2022 X K C D (talk | contribs) moved page Talk:1014: Car Problems to Talk:1014: Trouser Problems<br />
16:32, 2 May 2022 X K C D (talk | contribs) moved page 1014: Car Problems to 1014: Trouser Problems<br />
...those two alterations, as listed in the Move Log, easy to find. (I already reverted the text within.) Naturally, I assume we'll see more of the same in future. In this instance I'm putting this note in the (for the moment) latest entry rather than the Admin area, as I think it's linked to the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 17:27, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Second change made, trying to invert the "WhiieFaise" impersonation and make it look like "WhiLeFaLse" is in the wrong. Also much messing with everything. Please someone check that this edit restored only what was necessary and didn't remove anything at least plausibly genuine. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 17:47, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Thank you. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 18:08, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::I just happened to check and saw 'things' happening, so dove in to mitigate what I could (and unfold further as I was doing that). Then I saw that you were active too. I hope we didn't clash much in our individual efforts. And with the confluence of vandalising techniques in this latest episode, I think we have confirmation that a number of recent outbreaks under different guises ''were'' by just one idiot. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 18:40, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::Yep. Thank you. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 18:51, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::[Spam] [[User:Whilе Falsе|Whilе Falsе]] ([[User talk:Whilе Falsе|talk]]) 20:54, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::Well, there it goes. One more impostor account, this time with “W” instead of “W”. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:00, 2 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
:The same person now also uses [[User:While False|While False]] with “W” instead of “W” and ”е” instead of “e” to vandalise in my name. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:08, 2 May 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2613:_Bad_Map_Projection:_Madagascator&diff=231569Talk:2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator2022-04-29T22:43:27Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
Hopefully the vandal won't bother this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Looks like they did, but they seem to be done because someone gave them the emoticon. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 22:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::A mistake. We already know it's likely they'll be back at a later date with some other stunt to stroke their supremely fragile ego. (Whether or not things like this comment provokes them, I definitely consider my conscience clear in this regard.) But what happens, happens. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone else want to play this (and the other bad map projections) as maps in a 4X/Grand Strategy game? [[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 18:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Clicking on the original comic brings up the actual projection used, it looks like.<br />
<br />
this page is kinda sussy tbh [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 18:11, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why was this page mentioning Among Us? The game has no relation to map projections at all[[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.112|172.70.251.112]] 18:16, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
among us has many relations to map projections tho [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.35|172.69.33.35]] 18:17, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
- Among Us: deception based video game<br />
- Map projections: how to put the globe on a flat surface<br />
I see no relations at all, what are you on? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.65|172.70.246.65]] 18:33, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
no among us is actually very related, take a look at the wikipedia page [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 18:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
I have looked at the Wikipedia pages, and there is _no_ reference to Among Us on any map-related pages (and vice versa). What is your problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.195|172.70.242.195]] 18:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
maybe you didnt look hard enough [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 18:45, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I take it you're the vandal... [[User:Something|Something]] ([[User talk:Something|talk]]) 19:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
ID does imply they are the vandal, they were adding the lyricis earlier today...[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm on an old machine here (because it usually doesn't matter), and clicked on the image on the xkcd site to get the image, to be told that ''Your browser does not support WebGL :'('' by the URL https://mrgris.com/projects/merc-extreme/#-4.64274,55.45253 - I will have to check from a less 'primitive' device, but it looks like it's got a special click-through, which might be worth mentioning in the Explanation. I can check myself in a few minutes, but noting here first in case I get delay. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I have added the click. It opens an website app showing a Mercator with the North Pole set to wherever you want, with this one in particular set Mahé just as Randall said. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:40, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Added a table, based upon some rapid pixel-analysis I did. No, I didn't include Indonesia, etc, and the "Africa size probably includes Madagascar" sort of thing could need sorting, but I mentioned that below so nobody is under misapprehension. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 22:04, 29 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2613:_Bad_Map_Projection:_Madagascator&diff=2315592613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator2022-04-29T22:27:23Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 231556 by 172.69.34.42 (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2613<br />
| date = April 29, 2022<br />
| title = Bad Map Projection: Madagascator<br />
| image = bad_map_projection_madagascator.png<br />
| titletext = The projection's north pole is in a small lake on the island of Mahé in the Seychelles, which is off the top of the map and larger than the rest of the Earth's land area combined.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by MADAGASCAR (2005) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This is another comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series. This time, Randall used the classic {{w|Mercator projection}} but instead of placing the North Pole on top and the South Pole on the bottom it is oriented so that the top is the island of {{w|Mahé, Seychelles|Mahé}}. The map projection is technically a {{w|Oblique Mercator projection}}, with an unusual choice of the cylinder's axis. Since the Mercator projection tends to visually distort areas near the top and bottom of the resulting map, this gives some areas, notably Madagascar, very unusual shapes.<br />
<br />
The Mercator projection became the standard projection for world maps during the 1800s because it is ''conformal of normal aspect'': a {{w|rhumb line}} is displayed as a straight line in a Mercator map. During the age of sail, when navigation was performed by compass - this was a very valuable feature, since one could plot a course between two locations by measuring the direction from one to another on the map and then accounting for the difference between the magnetic and actual north poles to determine which rhumb should be taken. In the mid-20th century this trend was {{w|Mercator_projection#Criticism|criticized}} because the distortion towards the north and south poles gave an inaccurate impression of relative sizes. The most common example given of this distortion is that on a Mercator map of the world Greenland looks to have more area than Africa, when in real life Africa covers 14 times that of Greenland. Thus the reference to making Madagascar larger in this projection. Madagascar is a large island off the south east coast of the main African continent, but has only a quarter the coverage of Greenland. Greenland is often listed as the largest island in the world (which excludes continents in their own right, e.g. Australia) followed by New Guinea, Borneo and then Madagascar in fourth place.<br />
<br />
Mahé, mentioned in the title text as the north pole's new location, is the largest island in Seychelles, with an area of 60.7 square miles. The claim in the title text, however, that it is "larger than the rest of the Earth's land area combined", is hard to verify when it is not actually displayed in the projection. That is, if you limit yourself to the comic. Clicking on the actual comic will open a website that displays Mercator projections with the North Pole transplanted to various locations, with the location of the one opened set to Mahé. With this, it is possible to see that the island is indeed larger than the rest of the map's land area combined, with a single national park within the island rivalling Africa in size, and eventually reaching a scale of distortion where a road is thicker than Panama. This also reveals that the location of the North Pole, the lake mentioned by Randall, is the Rochon Dam.<br />
<br />
===Comparison of actual/proportional areas===<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"<br />
! Landmass !! Status !! Official Area<br />(in Millions of Km²) !! Proportion in image<br />(as % of listed areas)<br />
|-<br />
| Africa || Continent<br />2nd largest || 30.3 || 35%<br />
|-<br />
| Eurasia || Continent<br />Largest || 55.0 || 30%<br />
|-<br />
| North America || Continent<br />3rd largest || 24.709 || 15%<br />
|-<br />
| South America || Continent<br />4th largest || 17.840 || 7.8%<br />
|-<br />
| Antarctica || Continent<br />5th largest || 14.2 || 5.3%<br />
|-<br />
| Madagascar || Island<br />4th largest || 0.587 || 2.9%<br />
|-<br />
| Australia || Continent<br />smallest || 7.6 || 2.5%<br />
|-<br />
| Greenland || Island<br />Largest || 2.13 || 0.87%<br />
|-<br />
| Borneo || Island<br />3rd largest || 0.748 || 0.37%<br />
|-<br />
| New Guinea || Island<br />2nd largest || 0.786 || 0.32%<br />
|-<br />
| Japan || Island<br />7th largest || 0.377 || 0.10%<br />
|-<br />
| Mainland Britain || Island<br />9th largest || 0.208 || 0.10%<br />
|-<br />
| Island of Ireland || Island<br />20th largest || 0.084 || 0.03%<br />
|}<br />
<br />
* Comic measurements are strictly only of contiguous 'mainland' or main-island areas (outlined area plus outline itself)<br />
** Excludes various off-shore islands (often significant, e.g. Baffin Island)<br />
** Also excludes any drawn internal lakes/seas (except their drawn lines) where large enough to show such a gap<br />
* Real-world areas are compiled from Wikipedia<br />
** Land areas only, where established (accuracy is dubious in the case of those with significant ice-sheets)<br />
** These figures usually including all islands, and no attempt has been made to subtract any other listed area<br />
* For the purposes of this table, "Eurasia" continent is the whole of Europe, Asia, India, etc and was clipped from Africa in the area of Suez (and Straits Of Gibraltar, where the drawn lines touch!)<br />
* Similarly, North/South Americas are clipped from each other in the vicinity of Panama <!-- with all due apologies to Central Americans! --><br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
Bad map projection #248: Madagascar<br />
<br />
Mercator projection but with the North Pole in the Indian Ocean so it exaggerates the size of Madagascar instead of Greenland<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2613:_Bad_Map_Projection:_Madagascator&diff=231557Talk:2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator2022-04-29T22:26:20Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 231555 by 108.162.216.193 (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
Hopefully the vandal won't bother this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone else want to play this (and the other bad map projections) as maps in a 4X/Grand Strategy game? [[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 18:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Clicking on the original comic brings up the actual projection used, it looks like.<br />
<br />
this page is kinda sussy tbh [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 18:11, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why was this page mentioning Among Us? The game has no relation to map projections at all[[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.112|172.70.251.112]] 18:16, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
among us has many relations to map projections tho [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.35|172.69.33.35]] 18:17, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
- Among Us: deception based video game<br />
- Map projections: how to put the globe on a flat surface<br />
I see no relations at all, what are you on? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.65|172.70.246.65]] 18:33, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
no among us is actually very related, take a look at the wikipedia page [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 18:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
I have looked at the Wikipedia pages, and there is _no_ reference to Among Us on any map-related pages (and vice versa). What is your problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.195|172.70.242.195]] 18:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
maybe you didnt look hard enough [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 18:45, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I take it you're the vandal... [[User:Something|Something]] ([[User talk:Something|talk]]) 19:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
ID does imply they are the vandal, they were adding the lyricis earlier today...[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm on an old machine here (because it usually doesn't matter), and clicked on the image on the xkcd site to get the image, to be told that ''Your browser does not support WebGL :'('' by the URL https://mrgris.com/projects/merc-extreme/#-4.64274,55.45253 - I will have to check from a less 'primitive' device, but it looks like it's got a special click-through, which might be worth mentioning in the Explanation. I can check myself in a few minutes, but noting here first in case I get delay. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I have added the click. It opens an website app showing a Mercator with the North Pole set to wherever you want, with this one in particular set Mahé just as Randall said. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:40, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Added a table, based upon some rapid pixel-analysis I did. No, I didn't include Indonesia, etc, and the "Africa size probably includes Madagascar" sort of thing could need sorting, but I mentioned that below so nobody is under misapprehension. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 22:04, 29 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2613:_Bad_Map_Projection:_Madagascator&diff=231551Talk:2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator2022-04-29T22:22:19Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 231547 by 172.70.126.221 (talk) I won't argue with you. You've proven that when you "stop" something, you start something later. So I won't give you the satisfaction.</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
Hopefully the vandal won't bother this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone else want to play this (and the other bad map projections) as maps in a 4X/Grand Strategy game? [[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 18:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Clicking on the original comic brings up the actual projection used, it looks like.<br />
<br />
this page is kinda sussy tbh [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 18:11, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why was this page mentioning Among Us? The game has no relation to map projections at all[[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.112|172.70.251.112]] 18:16, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
among us has many relations to map projections tho [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.35|172.69.33.35]] 18:17, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
- Among Us: deception based video game<br />
- Map projections: how to put the globe on a flat surface<br />
I see no relations at all, what are you on? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.65|172.70.246.65]] 18:33, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
no among us is actually very related, take a look at the wikipedia page [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 18:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
I have looked at the Wikipedia pages, and there is _no_ reference to Among Us on any map-related pages (and vice versa). What is your problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.195|172.70.242.195]] 18:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
maybe you didnt look hard enough [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 18:45, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I take it you're the vandal... [[User:Something|Something]] ([[User talk:Something|talk]]) 19:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
ID does imply they are the vandal, they were adding the lyricis earlier today...[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm on an old machine here (because it usually doesn't matter), and clicked on the image on the xkcd site to get the image, to be told that ''Your browser does not support WebGL :'('' by the URL https://mrgris.com/projects/merc-extreme/#-4.64274,55.45253 - I will have to check from a less 'primitive' device, but it looks like it's got a special click-through, which might be worth mentioning in the Explanation. I can check myself in a few minutes, but noting here first in case I get delay. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I have added the click. It opens an website app showing a Mercator with the North Pole set to wherever you want, with this one in particular set Mahé just as Randall said. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:40, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Added a table, based upon some rapid pixel-analysis I did. No, I didn't include Indonesia, etc, and the "Africa size probably includes Madagascar" sort of thing could need sorting, but I mentioned that below so nobody is under misapprehension. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 22:04, 29 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2613:_Bad_Map_Projection:_Madagascator&diff=231543Talk:2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator2022-04-29T22:12:40Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 231541 by 172.70.126.215 (talk) Idiot</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
Hopefully the vandal won't bother this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone else want to play this (and the other bad map projections) as maps in a 4X/Grand Strategy game? [[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 18:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Clicking on the original comic brings up the actual projection used, it looks like.<br />
<br />
this page is kinda sussy tbh [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 18:11, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why was this page mentioning Among Us? The game has no relation to map projections at all[[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.112|172.70.251.112]] 18:16, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
among us has many relations to map projections tho [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.35|172.69.33.35]] 18:17, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
- Among Us: deception based video game<br />
- Map projections: how to put the globe on a flat surface<br />
I see no relations at all, what are you on? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.65|172.70.246.65]] 18:33, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
no among us is actually very related, take a look at the wikipedia page [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 18:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
I have looked at the Wikipedia pages, and there is _no_ reference to Among Us on any map-related pages (and vice versa). What is your problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.195|172.70.242.195]] 18:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
maybe you didnt look hard enough [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 18:45, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I take it you're the vandal... [[User:Something|Something]] ([[User talk:Something|talk]]) 19:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
ID does imply they are the vandal, they were adding the lyricis earlier today...[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm on an old machine here (because it usually doesn't matter), and clicked on the image on the xkcd site to get the image, to be told that ''Your browser does not support WebGL :'('' by the URL https://mrgris.com/projects/merc-extreme/#-4.64274,55.45253 - I will have to check from a less 'primitive' device, but it looks like it's got a special click-through, which might be worth mentioning in the Explanation. I can check myself in a few minutes, but noting here first in case I get delay. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I have added the click. It opens an website app showing a Mercator with the North Pole set to wherever you want, with this one in particular set Mahé just as Randall said. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:40, 29 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Added a table, based upon some rapid pixel-analysis I did. No, I didn't include Indonesia, etc, and the "Africa size probably includes Madagascar" sort of thing could need sorting, but I mentioned that below so nobody is under misapprehension. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 22:04, 29 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2610:_Assigning_Numbers&diff=2310012610: Assigning Numbers2022-04-23T19:29:10Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2610<br />
| date = April 22, 2022<br />
| title = Assigning Numbers<br />
| image = assigning_numbers.png<br />
| titletext = Gödel should do an article on which branches of math have the lowest average theorem number.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by YÖDEL'S COMPLETENESS THEOREM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] is falling into a common trap, because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Faced with some sort of information, of an unknown kind but seemingly not intrinsically mathematical in nature, he has decided that one possible way to proceed is to somehow translate everthing into values which can be combined and compared numerically.<br />
<br />
This is a very common thing to do, in fields as diverse as {{w|computational linguistics}} or {{w|sports analytics}}, and can be a powerful tool for understanding and learning new things about a subject as {{w|Data science}} tries to extract knowledge and insights from potentially noisy and disordered facts. But it is also used to implement bad science by using incorrect or misguided ideas about how to represent the source material. While it's possible to casually assign numeric values to random pieces of data, these numbers are generally not meaningful enough to compute with and draw any useful inferences from. It is generally possible to perform statistical analysis only on actual measurements, not on what may effectively be arbitrarily-assigned values.<br />
<br />
Machine learning algorithms, which are commonly used by data scientists, typically require all their inputs to be numerical. However, most datasets contains categorical features (e.g. the description of a piece of furniture: chair, table, ...). Data scientists therefore use encoding techniques to convert these categorical features to a numerical form so they can be used as inputs to a machine learning model. For instance, label encoding consists of arbitrarily assigning an integer to a category (chair=0, table=1, ...) which may appear meaningless to most observers. In various cases, they may be right.<br />
<br />
So, as well as being the mechanism that underlies one of the most profound theorems of 20th century mathematics, it can be mis-used for all kinds of bad or misguided science. From Cueball's attitude, it is far from clear that his attempt will reliably translate his project into a numerical system, nor that his attempt to "do math on it!" will be any more competent.<br />
<br />
One of the major characters who looked at the concept is Kurt Gödel he introduced the idea of {{w|Gödel numbering}} with his landmark {{w|incompleteness theorems}}. In it a unique natural number is assigned to each atom, statement, and proof, which might otherwise be difficult to accurately process in any other kind of approach. Instead, it is now possible to create metamathematical statements in the language of mathematics.<br />
<br />
As the formulation in use was itself definable with numbers, in doing so, Gödel also proved the existence of a statement that essentially said "this statement has no proof." If the statement could be proven, the statement would there be false, and the mathematics being used would be inconsistent. Gödel presumed that the only other possibility was that the statement is true without a mathematical proof, and therefore the mathematics of the system is incomplete; however, since the statement is self referencing, a third possibility exists: The statement might actually be paradoxical. (This third possibility is presented here http://dstoner.net/Math_Science/godel.html.) Gödel's theorem led to a fundamental reckoning in the world of mathematics when it was published.<br />
<br />
The title text suggests that Gödel should perform such an analysis on different branches of mathematics, by calculating the average of all the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers. This is nonsensical for a number of reasons: <br />
:1) Gödel is long dead, and dead people can't write articles{{citation needed}};<br />
:2) Gödel numbers grow very large very quickly, and depend heavily on the specific values assigned to each logical operator. Therefore the results could be manipulated simply by changing the numbering order of each operator;<br />
:3) It may be very hard to gather all theorems in a field, or even a representative sample;<br />
:4) Different fields of science, like biology or human behaviour, may not be able to write their theorems in the the mathematical language of Gödel's incompleteness theorem<br />
If anyone were to attempt this form of analysis, it would be an example of the bad data science described in the title text.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
Cueball thinking while observing a whiteboard: If I assign numbers to each of these things, then it becomes ''data'', and I can do ''math'' on it!<br />
<br />
Caption: The same basic idea underlies Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and all bad data science.<br />
<br />
<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=230631Talk:2607: Geiger Counter2022-04-17T00:16:33Z<p>172.69.79.223: Slightly wrong version of the link...</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Vanilla joke, but funny. [[User:Nafedalbi|Nafedalbi]] ([[User talk:Nafedalbi|talk]]) 18:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi<br />
:It's Randall's "dad joke". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Honestly, yeah. I impulsively went "wow... Randall's really jumped the stick figure shark." --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 06:32, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Not me. After plumbing the depths of Unicode and trying to describe a Taylor series expansion from square one, this is a welcome relief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 07:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: When does an ordinary joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 10:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::When does it become apparent? After the delivery. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.223|172.69.33.223]] 17:30, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I added telegraph wires (UK-only term, possibly, and anachronistic as they are telephone cables, so feel free to change to be US-centric) and birds seem happy to sit on pole-suspended POTS cables as much as power-lines, so the linked heat-effect thing is definitely a minority necessity. I think it's just a perch. Though we probably have more signal-wires. Most(?) streets more than a few decades old have telegraph poles feeding wires to established properties (even if cable/FTTP has been dug into trenches) but mains electricity tends to have been subsurface for much longer, with only HV national/rural-area transmission grids up on pylons/poles. Obviously there ''are'' a lot more perching birds out in the countryside, where they may dominate (but still the 'telegraph' may follow road or rail routes to service the villages and isolated inhabitations along them) but you don't tend to see birds atop the larger lines at all... Too high up? ''Too'' hot? I've seen rooks/etc happily doing a Hitchcock upon a pylon itself, apparently enjoying the communal view. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 18:54, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text joke may be understood more easily by reading "stood under" in place of "understood". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] 19:37, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Living in Manhattan, you learn to notice when an area is full of bird droppings and avoid standing there. You also need to pay attention when parking your car. Certain lamp posts (where the lamp is cantilevered over the street) near Central Park often tend to have a large accumulation under them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 19:47, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I do not understand the joke in the title text, so if somebody could please write an explanation, that would be great.<br />
Also, this is my first ever full comic description! Yay!<br />
I don't know what categories this fits in, if somebody could also put those in that would be great. [[User:MrYellow04|MrYellow04]] ([[User talk:MrYellow04|talk]]) 19:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I suggest you stand under a wire with lots of birds on it for a while. It will hit you. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:32, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Dirty birdy in the sky, why you do that in my eye? Boy I'm glad that cows can't fly! [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Randall, come here. Yes, right there. Stand still. THWACK! THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK! That is all, you may go now. 20:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The explanation makes clear the side of the pun regarding the Geiger counting clicking, but for non-native English speakers, the phrase "it clicked" meaning "I understood" may need clarification. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.213|162.158.166.213]] 21:17, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I thought it meant the birds were dangerously mutated because of the radioactivity, but now I understand. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 22:00, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Just make sure you don't open your mouth and tilt your head back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 22:59, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Also possibly related to this news story https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/<br />
<br />
Calling the pun a parody of another joke is weird. Jokes aren’t parodied. Parodies aren’t made of general things people say. It can be a ''play on'' that other joke, but not a ''parody'' of it. It’s not ''making fun'' of the other joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I somewhat agree with you. It's a 'type of' pun related to the Tom Swifty, which I edited in just now. I didn't actually remove the claim of parody. Perhaps someone else should also do that without hesitation... (...says I, unerringly!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Dates for the Trinity Site Open House are April 2 and October 15 for 2022. Bring your own geiger counter. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:...and possibly a time-machine? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Leonard Cohen reference? ==<br />
<br />
It seems to me that the title text has to be somehow referencing one of Leonard Cohen’s better known songs, “Bird on the Wire”, from the very specific phrasing there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:21, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: It's a fairly common phrase. Including the 1990 Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson<br />
[https://g.co/kgs/QZ6LpN film]. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:23, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I think it more likely there's some reference meant to birds not getting electrocuted while sitting on power cables-perhaps this is even in a "What If" book? I don't think very likely, but more likely than any Leonard Cohen reference. It's because "both the bird's feet are on the same potential, so electricity does not flow through the bird. The bird also offers greater resistance than the power cable, so the electricity continues to flow through the power cable." I figured this "explanation" fits here as well as anywhere. [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 21:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I think it's a red-herring that the nature of the wire has ''anything'' to do with it. Birds will perch on handy things, whether electrical cables (hopefully with spacings between separate phase-wires/across the insulator 'hangers' significantly more than an idle wing-stretch!), telephonic, washing line, zip-line, etc, etc. A wire just gives more chance for 'mostly open space, beneath which an unaware human is particularly (but not obviously) susceptible to birds voiding their systems' than with a street-lamp arm, a high ledge on a tall building, tree branches or the underside frames of girder-based bridges.<br />
::Birds do indeed escape (trivial) electrocution on power-lines, but that doesn't help the joke because they can crap on you from ''anything'' that you under-stand (or just by chance, by dint of being birds and occasionally finding they need to let go whilst already in flight... or by direct malice in the case of nest-guarding skuas/etc).<br />
::Not to disect the comedy frog, or anything, because that would be cold-blooded. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 00:00, 17 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"Pretty sure eggrolled was just a typo", as corrected with [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=prev&oldid=230619 this edit]... No, I think not. I've just undone a whole host of (repeated) vandalisms, some of which were to put "eggroll" in as replacements... the rest were equally stupid (or greater). Check edit log for just before now to see what pages I reverted/etc. Because someone is apparently clever enough to edit wiki pages (oh boy, what a smart person, I'm sure nobody of lesser intellect could ''ever'' have accomplished such a thing(!)...). Anyway, good work recorrecting it, whoever you are. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 00:15, 17 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=230630Talk:2607: Geiger Counter2022-04-17T00:15:30Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Leonard Cohen reference? */</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Vanilla joke, but funny. [[User:Nafedalbi|Nafedalbi]] ([[User talk:Nafedalbi|talk]]) 18:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi<br />
:It's Randall's "dad joke". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Honestly, yeah. I impulsively went "wow... Randall's really jumped the stick figure shark." --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 06:32, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Not me. After plumbing the depths of Unicode and trying to describe a Taylor series expansion from square one, this is a welcome relief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 07:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: When does an ordinary joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 10:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::When does it become apparent? After the delivery. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.223|172.69.33.223]] 17:30, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I added telegraph wires (UK-only term, possibly, and anachronistic as they are telephone cables, so feel free to change to be US-centric) and birds seem happy to sit on pole-suspended POTS cables as much as power-lines, so the linked heat-effect thing is definitely a minority necessity. I think it's just a perch. Though we probably have more signal-wires. Most(?) streets more than a few decades old have telegraph poles feeding wires to established properties (even if cable/FTTP has been dug into trenches) but mains electricity tends to have been subsurface for much longer, with only HV national/rural-area transmission grids up on pylons/poles. Obviously there ''are'' a lot more perching birds out in the countryside, where they may dominate (but still the 'telegraph' may follow road or rail routes to service the villages and isolated inhabitations along them) but you don't tend to see birds atop the larger lines at all... Too high up? ''Too'' hot? I've seen rooks/etc happily doing a Hitchcock upon a pylon itself, apparently enjoying the communal view. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 18:54, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text joke may be understood more easily by reading "stood under" in place of "understood". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] 19:37, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Living in Manhattan, you learn to notice when an area is full of bird droppings and avoid standing there. You also need to pay attention when parking your car. Certain lamp posts (where the lamp is cantilevered over the street) near Central Park often tend to have a large accumulation under them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 19:47, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I do not understand the joke in the title text, so if somebody could please write an explanation, that would be great.<br />
Also, this is my first ever full comic description! Yay!<br />
I don't know what categories this fits in, if somebody could also put those in that would be great. [[User:MrYellow04|MrYellow04]] ([[User talk:MrYellow04|talk]]) 19:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I suggest you stand under a wire with lots of birds on it for a while. It will hit you. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:32, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Dirty birdy in the sky, why you do that in my eye? Boy I'm glad that cows can't fly! [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Randall, come here. Yes, right there. Stand still. THWACK! THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK! That is all, you may go now. 20:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The explanation makes clear the side of the pun regarding the Geiger counting clicking, but for non-native English speakers, the phrase "it clicked" meaning "I understood" may need clarification. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.213|162.158.166.213]] 21:17, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I thought it meant the birds were dangerously mutated because of the radioactivity, but now I understand. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 22:00, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Just make sure you don't open your mouth and tilt your head back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 22:59, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Also possibly related to this news story https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/<br />
<br />
Calling the pun a parody of another joke is weird. Jokes aren’t parodied. Parodies aren’t made of general things people say. It can be a ''play on'' that other joke, but not a ''parody'' of it. It’s not ''making fun'' of the other joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I somewhat agree with you. It's a 'type of' pun related to the Tom Swifty, which I edited in just now. I didn't actually remove the claim of parody. Perhaps someone else should also do that without hesitation... (...says I, unerringly!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Dates for the Trinity Site Open House are April 2 and October 15 for 2022. Bring your own geiger counter. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:...and possibly a time-machine? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Leonard Cohen reference? ==<br />
<br />
It seems to me that the title text has to be somehow referencing one of Leonard Cohen’s better known songs, “Bird on the Wire”, from the very specific phrasing there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:21, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: It's a fairly common phrase. Including the 1990 Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson<br />
[https://g.co/kgs/QZ6LpN film]. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:23, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I think it more likely there's some reference meant to birds not getting electrocuted while sitting on power cables-perhaps this is even in a "What If" book? I don't think very likely, but more likely than any Leonard Cohen reference. It's because "both the bird's feet are on the same potential, so electricity does not flow through the bird. The bird also offers greater resistance than the power cable, so the electricity continues to flow through the power cable." I figured this "explanation" fits here as well as anywhere. [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 21:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I think it's a red-herring that the nature of the wire has ''anything'' to do with it. Birds will perch on handy things, whether electrical cables (hopefully with spacings between separate phase-wires/across the insulator 'hangers' significantly more than an idle wing-stretch!), telephonic, washing line, zip-line, etc, etc. A wire just gives more chance for 'mostly open space, beneath which an unaware human is particularly (but not obviously) susceptible to birds voiding their systems' than with a street-lamp arm, a high ledge on a tall building, tree branches or the underside frames of girder-based bridges.<br />
::Birds do indeed escape (trivial) electrocution on power-lines, but that doesn't help the joke because they can crap on you from ''anything'' that you under-stand (or just by chance, by dint of being birds and occasionally finding they need to let go whilst already in flight... or by direct malice in the case of nest-guarding skuas/etc).<br />
::Not to disect the comedy frog, or anything, because that would be cold-blooded. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 00:00, 17 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"Pretty sure eggrolled was just a typo", as corrected with [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2607:_Geiger_Counter&oldid=230619 this edit]... No, I think not. I've just undone a whole host of (repeated) vandalisms, some of which were to put "eggroll" in as replacements... the rest were equally stupid (or greater). Check edit log for just before now to see what pages I reverted/etc. Because someone is apparently clever enough to edit wiki pages (oh boy, what a smart person, I'm sure nobody of lesser intellect could ''ever'' have accomplished such a thing(!)...). Anyway, good work recorrecting it, whoever you are. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 00:15, 17 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=656:_October_30th&diff=230629656: October 30th2022-04-17T00:08:07Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number =656<br />
| date =October 30, 2009<br />
| title =October 30th<br />
| image =october_30th.png<br />
| titletext =Not enough houses on your block? Just hit them at 30-year intervals from here to 2300 and get 10x the candy.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
For Halloween, a child has dressed up as Dr. Emmett L. Brown (played by {{w|Christopher Lloyd}}) from the ''{{w|Back to the Future}}'' film trilogy. In the films, Brown created a {{w|time machine}} out of a {{w|DeLorean DMC-12}} car, which he and teenage protagonist Marty McFly use to travel through time.<br />
<br />
The joke of the comic is that Halloween is on October 31st, and by showing up dressed as Doc Brown on October 30th, the kid can make the joke that he "overshot" the time machine and went back one more day than he meant to. Doc is heard throughout the movie franchise saying "Great Scott" as an exclamation of surprise.<br />
<br />
The title text suggests an inventive use of time-travel to get ten times the candy — hitting each house at a 30-year interval up until 2300. The interval matches that of the first two BttF movies, which take place in the years 1955, 1985 (the present at the time), and 2015.<br />
<br />
Of course, one would have no idea starting off if Halloween is still being celebrated in 2300, or indeed if the human race even still exists.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A kid dressed up in a lab coat and goggles is standing on a neighbor's doorstep.]<br />
:Kid: Trick or treat!<br />
:Neighbor: Nice Doc Brown costume, but today's October 30th.<br />
:Kid: Great Scott, I must have overshot!<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Back to the Future]]<br />
[[Category:Time travel]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=565:_Security_Question&diff=230628565: Security Question2022-04-17T00:07:19Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 230617 by 172.70.85.177 (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 565<br />
| date = April 3, 2009<br />
| title = Security Question<br />
| image = security_question.png<br />
| titletext = Let's invite him to a party and play 'I never'. Okay, I never hid any bodies SOUTH of Main Street. ...he's taking a drink!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Security questions are sensitive questions that allow a user to retrieve or reset his password if the password is lost or stolen. Because of this powerful function, security questions should be treated just as seriously as passwords. Typical security questions include "What's your mother's maiden name?" or "What's your secondary school?" and are intended to be easy for the user to answer but hard for anyone else to answer.<br />
<br />
In this comic, however, the security question is deployed in a strange way, as the question "Where are the bodies buried?" assumes that one had buried bodies, hence had killed someone. The question turns out to be a ploy by the police, who were trying to bait Cueball into confessing his crime, as well as revealing the location of the incriminating evidence.<br />
<br />
[http://www.wikihow.com/Play-the-%22I%27ve-Never%22-Game "I never"] is a drinking game that somebody says "I never did something" to the others. If you never did it, you don't need to drink, otherwise, drink. Since he takes a drink for "I never hid any bodies SOUTH of Main Street", the police have narrowed down the search area. The next statement in the game could be "I never hid any bodies WEST of Central Avenue" (or whatever road dividing the area), further localizing the bodies to a quarter of the original search area, in a {{w|Twenty Questions}} manner. Of course, by taking the drink Cueball also admits that he buried bodies, though this evidence would not likely be accepted by any court.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball sits at a computer.]<br />
:Computer Screen: -Email Account Setup- To verify your identity, we need to ask you a question nobody else could answer.<br />
<br />
:Computer Screen: Q: Where are the bodies buried? A:<br />
:[A text field is shown with "Behind the" typed.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball sits back and thinks.]<br />
<br />
:[Three stick figures, two wearing police hats and one wearing headphones, watch another computer.]<br />
:[The same text field is shown with "Behind the ... nice try." typed.]<br />
:Figure in Headphones: Damn.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Computer security]]<br />
[[Category:Email]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2291:_New_Sports_System&diff=2306272291: New Sports System2022-04-17T00:06:48Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 230616 by 172.70.85.177 (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2291<br />
| date = April 8, 2020<br />
| title = New Sports System<br />
| image = new_sports_system.png<br />
| titletext = Under my system, boxing and football suffered, pair figure skating still worked but had to adapt by dropping some moves, and pro wrestling was actually completely unaffected.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is the 16th comic in a row (not counting the [[2288: Collector's Edition|April Fools' comic]]) in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.<br />
<br />
As communities have been ordered to stay indoors to avoid spreading the virus, this has also affected sports leagues around the world, with many of them suspending their seasons, or cancelling them outright. (see {{w|Impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on sports|this Wikipedia article}} for a full list of sports or sporting events impacted) Some leagues have instead promoted e-sports, such as the [https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2020-04-06/patrick-beverley-favorite-to-win-nba-2k-players-tournament NBA holding an ''NBA 2K20'' tournament between active NBA players]. <br />
<br />
[[Randall]], in this comic, proposes an obviously bad "new sports system" of "virtual sports", in which players play with a virtual ball in separate arenas, and are guided by online viewers. This obviously proves to be challenging, as the ball is virtual but the players are not wearing any virtual reality or augmented reality headsets, and thus they do not know how to interact with it properly. Playing in separate arenas would solve the problem of spreading the virus, as the players do not have any direct interactions with each other.<br />
<br />
This would be a similar system to {{w|Twitch Plays Pokémon|Twitch Plays ''Pokémon''}}, in which Twitch viewers "play" ''Pokémon'' video games in a crowdsourced manner. There are also many games that are intentionally constructed so that some players must accomplish a goal they cannot see or with incomplete information, while they are guided by other players. These include common team-building exercises (often involving blindfolds), and the bomb-disposal themed puzzle game ''{{w|Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes}}''.<br />
<br />
The NBA also is holding a similar idea, holding a {{w|Variations of basketball#H-O-R-S-E|Horse}} tournament among [https://www.nba.com/article/2020/04/09/nba-air-horse-challenge-espn NBA and WNBA players], which works better than the version of basketball shown in this comic because players don't need to interact with the same ball.<br />
<br />
In the title text, Randall claims that boxing and football (he does not specify gridiron football or association football) proved to be difficult, with {{w|Pair skating|pairs figure skating}} still possible as long as figures like {{w|Figure skating lifts|elevations}} are removed, and {{w|professional wrestling}} being unaffected. Boxing and gridiron football would be impossible to play in these situations; on top of the difficulty of trying to play without knowing where the other players are located, these sports are predicated on contact. A boxer cannot get a knockout without being able to touch the other players, and football players cannot block or tackle even if they mime catching the ball. Association football, with less emphasis on contact, might still be playable, but would suffer at least from the same complications as basketball shown here. Pairs figure skating would be possible, excepting "throwing" moves or "lifts", as typically pairs figure skaters skate in unison, replicating the same moves. <br />
<br />
Humorously, Randall claims that professional wrestling will be unaffected by his new system. This is in reference to the "open secret" that the matches have predetermined outcomes and are more "entertainment" than actual competition, with much of the 'forced' movement of one competitor being aided or even guided by the 'victim' rather than the 'aggressor' in semi-improvised feats of coordinated athleticism.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Single wide frame representing a basketball court with a basketball hoop at each end. There are seven players running around the court, with a virtual ball in the bottom right corner (indicated as a dashed circle). Nine off-screen voices of "online viewers" are yelling instructions to the players. A caption is below the frame running nearly the full width of the frame.]<br />
<br />
:Viewer One: No!<br />
:Viewer Two: It's on the&ndash;<br />
:Viewer Three: Look out!<br />
:[A player with thick hair and a goatee is "air-shooting" into the left-hand basket.]<br />
:Viewer Four: ''No!''<br />
:[A player with thick hair is running to the right.]<br />
:Viewer Five: He's right there<br />
:Viewer Five: Don’t run into&ndash;<br />
:[A player with no hair is air-dribbling to the right.]<br />
:Viewer Six: Go ''left!''<br />
:Viewer Seven: ''Left!''<br />
:Viewer Eight: ''Riiight!''<br />
:[A player with thick hair and a full beard is facing left and jumping, hands raised to intercept a ball.]<br />
:[A player with no hair is facing left and crouching, reaching for a ball.]<br />
:[A player with no hair is making an alley-oop motion towards the right-hand basket.]<br />
:Viewer Nine: ''Stop dunking and find the ball!''<br />
:[The virtual ball is slowly moving right, unseen by the players.]<br />
:[A player is hanging on the rim of the basket, making a dunking motion.]<br />
<br />
:Caption below the panel: No one liked my new sports system, in which each player is in a separate arena sharing a single virtual ball that they can't see while online viewers yell instructions, but it was fun to watch while it lasted.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:COVID-19]]<br />
[[Category:Sport]]<br />
[[Category:Basketball]]<br />
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2290:_Homemade_Masks&diff=2306262290: Homemade Masks2022-04-17T00:06:05Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 230614 by 172.70.85.177 (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2290<br />
| date = April 6, 2020<br />
| title = Homemade Masks<br />
| image = homemade_masks.png<br />
| titletext = I'm going to change the sign so the pole is horizontal and the sign is mounted on the front like a plunger, so I can carry it around like a lance to gently push people back if they try to approach.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
This comic is the 15th comic in a row (not counting the [[2288: Collector's Edition|April Fools' comic]]) in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.<br />
<br />
In this comic, Cueball wonders if Megan's {{w|cloth mask|homemade mask}} will be of any use, because he has seen many different points of view and is unsure which one is correct. It is generally agreed that homemade masks will not block particles (including droplets which carry viruses) as effectively as officially-tested {{w|N95 mask|N95-class masks}} or {{w|surgical mask}}s, and possibly confer no benefit at all; however, wearing a homemade mask may reduce contagiousness if the ''wearer'' is infected, by blocking droplets from being expelled. It may also make the wearer less likely to touch their face (which may be a vector for catching COVID-19 from contaminated surfaces). On the other hand, there are concerns that it may confer a false sense of security, leading to unsafe behaviors, and that the warm, moist environment produced by the wearer's breath may also ''harbor'' incoming viruses, which may later infect the wearer if the mask is not washed frequently.<br />
<br />
Megan replies that she originally carried a sign warning people to keep their distance, but people needed to get close to her to read it, making it counterproductive. The implication is that Megan's primary purpose in wearing the mask is to signal to other people that's she's concerned about spreading COVID-19, and remind them to keep their distance. Whether or not the mask has any direct benefits in blocking virus transmission, Megan apparently feels that the social impact of seeing someone in a face mask is likely to change behaviors, making transmission less likely. <br />
<br />
The title text indicates an alternate method, where Megan could change the sign into a device for pushing people back in order to maintain distance. Holding the sign out in front of her (instead of over her head) would also let people get close to the sign to read it, without getting in her face.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball stands at a distance from Megan, who is wearing a face mask]<br />
:Cueball: Homemade mask, huh? You think they help?<br />
:Cueball: I've read so many conflicting things.<br />
<br />
:[Flashback to when Megan was not wearing a mask but carrying a large sign, with Cueball and Ponytail approaching her from both sides. It is not possible to read what is on the sign. Masked Megan is pictured in an inset panel.]<br />
:Megan (narrating): Well, what I was doing before was carrying around a big sign that said "There's a pandemic so please give me space because I don't want to get sick or make anyone else sick!"<br />
<br />
:[Same as first panel]<br />
:Megan: The problem was, I had to write small to fit, so people kept walking closer to read it.<br />
:Cueball: Oops.<br />
:Megan: Yeah, the mask gets it across better.<br />
<br />
== Trivia ==<br />
* Cueball has previously encountered signs that are so interesting that they lead people into peril in [[356: Nerd Sniping]], although in that comic strip, [[Black Hat]] was specifically designing his signs with the intent to cause harm.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:COVID-19]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring face masks]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2289:_Scenario_4&diff=2306252289: Scenario 42022-04-17T00:05:36Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 230613 by 172.70.85.177 (talk) Stupid</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2289<br />
| date = April 4, 2020<br />
| title = Scenario 4<br />
| image = sequence-four.png<br />
| titletext = Remember, models aren't for telling you facts, they're for exploring dynamics. This model apparently explores time travel.<br />
}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Although not directly mentioned, this comic is probably the 14th comic in a row (not counting the [[2288: Collector's Edition|April Fools' comic]]) in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.<br />
<br />
In [[2278: Scientific Briefing]], [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] were briefing [[White Hat]] on things that were getting bad, hoping to convince him to do something about them. He chose to wait until things actually got bad. Evidently, that has happened, and now Megan and Cueball are delivering another briefing on just how much "Bad Stuff" there might be, according to their models.<br />
<br />
In the context of the information (and misinformation) explosion associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (ongoing at the time that this comic was published), many graphs have been shown highlighting the prevalence of the disease - the number of cases at any one time and place, and the change in the number of cases over time. That being said, the graphs shown could easily apply to any number of scenarios where an upward trend is bad.<br />
<br />
Several of these graphs have attempted to predict the future, using statistical tools ("models") to process existing data and generate a forecast. Inputs to the model(s) may include different assessments of, for example, the number of COVID-19 cases that have been recorded. Four scenarios are presented here, presumably showing what a particular model (probably only one despite the reference to "new modelS" in the comic) forecasts given different, unspecified, inputs.<br />
<br />
Megan and Cueball present four scenarios, only three of which are possible. <br />
* The first, "best case" scenario recalls "flatten the curve" graphs that predict an occurrence will eventually cease to increase altogether. Using COVID-19 as an example, if strictest measures are put into place and adhered to, all those who have contracted COVID-19 will eventually be reported, and no further victims will contract it.<br />
* The second and third scenarios are increasingly worse cases, predicting that the occurrence will continue unceasingly. Again using COVID-19 as an example, the less measures are put into place or adhered to, the more COVID-19 cases that will occur. Scenario 3 appears to indicate an exponential increase best suited to a log scale; "pretty bad" is an understatement.<br />
* The fourth curve is not possible, as each point along the x-axis represents a specific time point. If the curve passes the same time point twice (as it does) then this means that on a given day there were two different number of cases. E.g. on the 1st of April there would have been both 100 and 1000 people infected, which makes no sense at all. The only way to make sense of it would be by using the common trope in science fiction of time traveling creating an alternate timeline in which events are different, thus the cases could be 100 in one timeline and 1000 in a different timeline. Hence the remark, "this model explores time travel", in the title text. This is a brain cramp to visualize, and the consequences of it actually happening would be calamitous on several levels. Real modelers might encounter such "graphing errors" while they are developing their models, entering data (especially if there are time-conversion errors), and testing their functions, but persons who went so far as to present such glitches in public, except for a laugh as here, would likely be asked to hand in their modeler's cards.<br />
** The 'time travel' remark is also suggestive of certain particle-physics phenomena captured in {{w|Feynman diagram}}s. Mathematically, an antiparticle moving forward in time looks like its equivalent particle moving backwards in time, so a particle-antiparticle annihilation or creation event could be interpreted as a single particle switching directions in time. In the context of this scenario, it is possible to read the fourth chart as predicting that the bad stuff will start traveling backwards in time as it increases, which we would see as a great quantity of "bad anti-stuff" appearing and decaying in number just as the "bad stuff" increases, until the two quantities meet at the halfway point and mutually annihilate. Even though there will be no more bad stuff after the annihilation (or time-reversal) event, particle-antiparticle annihilation releases enormous energies that might be even more catastrophic than whatever the bad stuff itself was.<br />
** A fanciful interpretation of this otherwise uninterpretable graph is that the number of infections reached some sort of critical mass, breaking reality to begin spreading through time as well as space.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Megan and Cueball are standing in front of a large graph, with "Time" along the horizontal axis and "Bad Stuff" along the vertical axis. The curve on the graph shows a generally shallow upward slope.]<br />
:Megan: Our new models outline a few possible scenarios.<br />
:Cueball: #1 is the best scenario.<br />
<br />
:[The graph now shows a much steeper curve, before flattening out far in the future, similar to a logistic curve.]<br />
:Megan: Scenario 2 is not so great.<br />
<br />
:[The graph now climbs quite quickly, approximating an exponential curve.]<br />
:Cueball: Scenario 3 would be pretty bad.<br />
<br />
:[The graph starts curling up, like the exponential curve, but continues curving back, so that it no longer qualifies as a function, and may indicate time-travel to the past.]<br />
:Megan: Then there is scenario 4.<br />
:Megan: We '''''think''''' it's a graphing error.<br />
:Cueball: If not, we '''''definitely''''' want to avoid it.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This is the first [[:Category:Saturday comics|Saturday comic]] since 2006. <br />
**It was released on Saturday since the previous comic was the [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] for 2020. <br />
***The release of this comic, [[2288: Collector's Edition]], had been [[2288:_Collector's_Edition#Trivia|delayed two days]] because of technical difficulties with the complex interactive nature of the comic.<br />
***Thus the planned Wednesday release of this week was thus postponed to Friday. <br />
****To not cheat us from the planned Friday release, this comic was thus released the day after on Saturday.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:COVID-19]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Time travel]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1037:_Umwelt&diff=2306241037: Umwelt2022-04-17T00:04:55Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1037<br />
| date = April 1, 2012<br />
| title = Umwelt<br />
| image = umwelt_the_void.jpg<br />
| titletext = Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit--from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your web browser.<br />
}}<br />
{{TOC}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This was the third [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was <br />
[[880: Headache]] from Friday April 1st 2011. The next was [[1193: Externalities]] released on Monday April 1st 2013.<br />
<br />
This comic was released on April 1 even though that was [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (only the third comic to be released on a Sunday). But it was only due to the April Fool joke, as it did replace the comic that would have been scheduled for Monday, April 2nd. The next comic, [[1038: Fountain]], was first released on Wednesday, April 4th. This was the first that could be different for different readers.<br />
<br />
An {{w|Umwelt}}, as the title text explains, is the idea that one's entire way of thinking is dependent on their surroundings. Thus, this {{w|April Fools}} comic changes based on the browser, location, or referrer. Thus, what the viewer is viewing the comic on, where they live, or where they came from determines which comic they actually see. As a result, there are actually multiple comics that went up on April Fools' Day, although only one is seen.<br />
(The term 'Umwelt,' as mentioned in the comic, refers to the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok)<br />
<br />
Information about how the wide variety of data was collected and credit for the viewers who contributed can be found [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/rnst4/april_fools_xkcd_changing_comic/ here].<br />
<br />
===The Void===<br />
[[File:umwelt the void.jpg]]<br />
<br />
If the device or browser you are using does not support Javascript, you will simply see a static image of a white swirl on a dark background.<br />
<br />
Possible reference to The Ring (http://imgur.com/wlGmm), as though to suggest that using an alternative browser is dismal and horrific.<br />
<br />
Davean (xkcd's sysadmin): "[This] comic isn't available everywhere and it can come up i[n] some situation[s] only for recognized browsers."<br />
<br />
Browser: Alternative Browser<br />
<br />
===Aurora===<br />
[[File:umwelt aurora.png]]<br />
<br />
One could interpret that since Megan didn't go out and therefore missed seeing the {{w|Aurora}} (northern lights), Cueball in his [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|knit cap]] lied about it. That way, she wouldn't have felt sad that she missed out. Another interpretation could be that he decides that since she did not even bother to go outside to see such a spectacular sight he will not tell her about it. And yet another could be that he did not think it was interesting.<br />
<br />
Cueball could possibly also be red-green colorblind, seeing the green aurorae as grey "clouds". This would serve as an example for the theme of the comic, as a non-colorblind person and a colorblind person seeing the same color would perceive it differently, one seeing it as its true color, and the other seeing it without the shade of color they cannot see. If this is the case, then it would be a reference to umwelt, as Cueball would be living in a world where the auroras do not reach his location.<br />
<br />
In real life, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-northern-lights-dont-look-anything-like-they-do-in-photos_n_5500a4d9e4b0e62d0dd4f9bb aurorae are usually seen as grey/white clouds] to the naked eye, as our eyes cannot perceive the "greener" colors as well in the dark.<br />
<br />
This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.<br />
<br />
Locations: Canada, Boston, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Minnesota, Norway, Denmark, France, Rhode Island (not sure if mobile only or not.) (also in Virginia, but using Ohio in the first panel) (also in Maryland, but using Canada in the first panel)<br />
<br />
In [[1302: Year in Review]] a possibly different Megan has a completely different approach to the chance of seeing northern lights, as that was the only event she was looking forward to in 2013, and it failed. If this is the same Megan, perhaps she learned that there actually were northern lights in her area from another source, and so desperately wanted to have another chance to see them.<br />
<br />
===Snake===<br />
[[File:umwelt snake composite 1024.png]]<br />
[[:File:umwelt snake composite.png|Full size]]<br />
<br />
The joke here is the extreme length of snakes. The world's longest snake is the python, the longest ever being 33 feet or approx. 10 meters. The blue and orange circles refer to the hit game {{w|Portal}}.<br />
There is also a reference to the book "The Little Prince" in the second panel, where there is a large bulge in the snake that looks like an elephant. The Little Prince starts out by mentioning a drawing that the author made when he was six that showed an elephant inside a snake.<br />
<br />
Also, the number and content of the panels changes depending on the size of your browser window.<br />
<br />
This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.<br />
<br />
Specific AltText for this image: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit -from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window size.<br />
<br />
Location: Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS, Chrome version 49.0.2623.112), Connecticut (Safari for iOS, Chrome Version 73.0.3683.103, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge), Virginia (on Chrome), Michigan (Firefox v46.0.1), Penang (Chrome Version 65.0.3325.162).<br />
<br />
===Black Hat===<br />
[[File:umwelt tortoise 1024.png]]<br />
[[:File:umwelt tortoise.png|Full size]]<br />
<br />
Cueball as an analyst attempts to psychoanalyze [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] [[72: Classhole|classhole]] tendencies. Cueball's quote and the whole setup is a direct reference to the movie {{w|Blade Runner}} (1982) and Black Hat is taking the Voight-Kampff test which is used to identify replicants from real humans.<br />
<br />
Black Hat's reason for not helping the tortoise is that ''it '''knows''' what it did'' and thus in Black Hat's world view it deserves being turned over. The final part of the joke is that when zooming out it turns out that there is a tortoise behind Black Hat and he has actually already turned it over for what it did.<br />
<br />
Location: Seems to appear mostly in "other countries" — those without location-specific comics.<br />
<br />
===Too Quiet===<br />
[[File:umwelt too quiet 1024.png]]<br />
[[:File:umwelt too quiet.png|Full size]]<br />
<br />
A reference to {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} which has been [[87: Velociraptors|constantly]] [[135: Substitute|referred]] [[1110: Click and Drag|to]] [[155: Search History|before]] [[758: Raptor Fences|in]] this comic.<br />
<br />
Also referencing the film {{w|2 Fast 2 Furious|2 Fast 2 Furious}}, an entertaining, yet intellectually unprovoking sequel in a popular film franchise, which is aimed at teenagers and young adults, prompting the blunt response from the stickman. The fact that Steve would use such a cliché {{w|2000s (decade)|noughties}} movie term in such an intense moment, and the subsequent curse, is the joke in this comic.<br />
<br />
Location: short version — iPhone 5c Safari browser in Texas, iPhone 5 Chrome Browser in Minnesota, long version - Google Chrome browser in Indiana, Windows 8 Laptop<br />
<br />
===Pond===<br />
[[File:umwelt pond mobile.png]][[File:umwelt pond wide.png]]<br />
<br />
Two different versions showed, the narrower version for mobile devices.<br />
<br />
Location: The Netherlands and various other countries.<br />
<br />
===Galaxies===<br />
[[File:umwelt galaxies 1024.jpg]]<br />
[[:File:umwelt galaxies.jpg|Full size]]<br />
<br />
Megan is distracted from her conversation with [[Cueball]] by realizing that the space behind his head, from her vantage point, contains millions of galaxies. This is similar to an [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/astro/hst_deep_field.jpg incredible photograph] taken by the Hubble Telescope, in which a tiny dark area of space in fact contained numerous galaxies.<br />
<br />
The title text is an imaginative leap from this scenario: that the galaxies would be up to no good once Cueball is turned away from them. This is presumably a reference to [http://www.mariowiki.com/boo Boo], an enemy from certain Mario games who moves toward Mario only when Mario is facing away from Boo.<br />
<br />
This comic was only reported once... the intended environmental context is a mystery.<br />
<br />
Location: unknown<br />
<br />
===xkcd Gold===<br />
[[File:umwelt xkcd gold.png]]<br />
<br />
This is probably a reference to the 4chan Gold Account, an implementation on 4chan that does not actually exist, and is usually used to trick newcomers into revealing their credit card numbers. The joke is that "Gold Account" users can supposedly block other users from viewing images they have posted. The fifth panel is probably a reference to Beecock, a notorious set of shocker images. 4chan's moderators have been known to give out "beecock bans" or "/z/ bans" to particularly annoying users, which redirect the user to a page containing beecock and the text "OH NO THE BOARD IS GONE".<br />
<br />
Referrer: 4chan<br />
<br />
===Yo Mama===<br />
[[File:umwelt dog ballast.png]]<br />
<br />
Possible reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "{{w|Harrison Bergeron}}."<br />
<br />
The joke is that people's different experiences shape how they perceive the world in that the people who live in this world would perceive the joke as funny, while people in our world would not get it. This is the idea of umwelt mentioned at the top of the context where different individuals perceive the world differently.<br />
<br />
Refer: Facebook<br />
<br />
===Reddit===<br />
[[File:umwelt reddit.png]]<br />
<br />
Reference to referencing, because Reddit, as a referring site, likes references to its referencing in its references.<br />
<br />
This comic also features recursive imagery similar to [[688: Self-Description|Self Description]] where the third panel embeds the entire comic within itself.<br />
<br />
One of the browser tabs visible in the center panel is {{w|Elk}} on Wikipedia.<br />
<br />
Referrer: Reddit<br />
<br />
===Buns and Hot dogs===<br />
[[File:umwelt somethingawful.jpg]]<br />
<br />
This is a reference to the question "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 6 while buns come in packages of 8?" <br />
<br />
Another, more sexual reference to this question can be found in [[1641: Hot Dogs]].<br />
<br />
Referrer: SomethingAwful, Questionable Content, & MetaFilter<br />
<br />
===Twitter===<br />
[[File:umwelt twitter.jpg]]<br />
<br />
A summary of the "content" typically found on Twitter.<br />
<br />
In the tweet feed, there are three tweets about some podcast on the top, followed by the tweet containing link they clicked on to get to the comic, tweets about Rob Delaney, unspecified passive-aggressive tweets, and a tweet from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_ebooks Horse Ebooks] retweeted by one of the users the reader follows.<br />
<br />
On the left, the topmost dialog, with profile information, shows that the user has posted 1,302 tweets, but only follows 171 people and has even fewer followers, at a measly 48. This is marked with a sad face, implying that the user wants more followers.<br />
<br />
Below that is the "who to follow" dialog, which is written up as consisting of "assholes".<br />
<br />
Below that is the "trending tags" dialog for the United States. It is full of tags about word games, tags about misogyny, and tags about Justin Bieber.<br />
<br />
Below that is an unidentified dialog full of "stuff your eyes automatically ignore". And finally, on the bottom is the background colour, which is "a really pleasant blue".<br />
<br />
Referrer: Twitter<br />
<br />
===Wikipedia===<br />
[[File:umwelt wikipedia wide.jpg]]<br />
[[File:umwelt wikipedia mobile.png]]<br />
<br />
The term {{w|Mile High Club}} (or MHC) is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have had sexual intercourse while on board an aircraft. Randall says that reading the news articles on it has distracted him from making that comic.<br />
<br />
Two different versions shown, the narrower version (the single panel with all the text) for mobile devices.<br />
<br />
Referrer: Wikipedia<br />
<br />
===Google Chrome===<br />
[[File:umwelt chrome1.jpg]]<br />
<br />
{{w|Sergey Brin}} (born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies. As of 2013, his personal wealth was estimated to be $24.4 billion. Randall makes the joke that as the founder of Google, Brin's permission would be needed to use Google Chrome. Because there are millions of people who use Google, it is likely that at least some of the time Brin would be asleep, thus he would need to be woken.<br />
<br />
Browser: Chrome<br />
<br />
===Chrome/Firefox===<br />
[[File:umwelt chrome2.png]]<br />
<br />
Mozilla {{w|Firefox}} is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X, and Linux, with a mobile version for Android and iOS, by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Cueball is complaining about {{w|Google Chrome}}, to which [[Ponytail]] replies that there is an {{w|add-on}} that fixes what he is complaining about. When questioned, she replies that the add-on is Firefox, which isn't an add-on at all and is instead a different browser.<br />
<br />
Browser: Chrome<br />
<br />
===Google Chrome-2===<br />
[[File:umwelt chrome3.png]]<br />
<br />
This panel references Google Chrome's error screen, which shows a puzzle piece. The comic humorously implies that Chrome is looking for that piece. When completing jigsaw puzzles, a common strategy is to figure out where the pieces must be from their geometry rather than from the picture they create. In this case, the text suggests that Chrome believes the puzzle piece connects to the pieces which form one of the corners of the puzzle, which may seem impossible because any piece that links up to a corner would usually have at least one flat edge, which this piece has none. However, more complicated puzzles have complex shapes and are not always simply approximate squares with tabs and blanks.<br />
<br />
Browser: Chrome or silk on desktop view<br />
<br />
===Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing===<br />
[[File:umwelt firefox incognito.png]]<br />
<br />
Another reference to crashing web browsers.<br />
Firefox shows the history when it crashes.<br />
Browser: Firefox (Incognito only?)<br />
<br />
===Internet Explorer===<br />
[[File:umwelt ie.png]]<br />
<br />
Yet another reference to crashing web browsers<br />
<br />
Browser: Internet Explorer<br />
<br />
===Maxthon===<br />
[[File:umwelt maxthon.png]]<br />
<br />
Browser: Maxthon<br />
<br />
===Netscape Navigator===<br />
[[File:umwelt netscape womanoctopus.png]]<br />
<br />
[[File:umwelt netscape man.png]]<br />
<br />
{{w|Netscape Navigator}} was a web browser popular in the 1990s.<br />
<br />
Browser: Netscape<br />
<br />
===Rockmelt===<br />
[[File:umwelt rockmelt.png]]<br />
<br />
{{w|Rockmelt}} is a social-media-based browser.<br />
<br />
Reference to the gospel song {{w|Longing for Old Virginia: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1934)|"There's no hiding place down here" by The Carter Family}}, later covered by Stephen Stills.<br />
<br />
:I run to the rock just to hide my face<br />
:And the rocks cried out, no hiding place<br />
:There's no hiding place down here<br />
<br />
It may additionally be a reference to the ''Babylon 5'' episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which featured the song.<br />
<br />
Browser: Rockmelt<br />
<br />
===Plugin Disabled===<br />
[[File:umwelt plugin disabled.png]]<br />
<br />
When the Google Chrome web browser does not have the required software (called a plug-in) to display a web page's content, it displays a puzzle piece icon and an error message. In this case, Chrome informs the user that the content is impossible to display. <br />
<br />
Browser: Plugin (?) Disabled, Safari Desktop<br />
<br />
===Corporate Networks===<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate general.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon chrome.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon firefox.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon other.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate google chrome.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft chrome.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft firefox.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft other.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes chrome.png]]<br />
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes other.png]]<br />
<br />
These error messages appear if the user is on a network owned by one of the corporations noted. The error message includes a warning against speaking on the company's behalf.<br />
<br />
ISP: Corporate networks of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, NY Times<br />
<br />
===Military===<br />
[[File:umwelt military.png]]<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] assumes that anyone using a military network has an important job like watching for incoming missiles. He includes a thank-you to the user for their military service.<br />
<br />
ISP: Military networks<br />
<br />
===T-Mobile===<br />
[[File:umwelt tmobile.png]]<br />
<br />
Reference to T-Mobile's distinguishing feature (at the time it was written) of weaker coverage, in relation to other major providers.<br />
<br />
ISP: T-Mobile<br />
<br />
===Verizon and AT&T===<br />
[[File:umwelt verizon.png]]<br />
<br />
[[File:umwelt att.png]]<br />
<br />
Reference to Verizon and AT&T's scandals/controversy regarding implementation of bandwidth caps.<br />
<br />
ISP: Verizon and AT&T<br />
<br />
===France===<br />
[[File:umwelt france.jpg]]<br />
<br />
A common joke about France is that the nation does not win wars. This originated from France's annexation by Germany during World War II, and America's late entry into the war, which is sometimes portrayed humorously as a case of America 'saving' Europe, in this joke particularly France (the role of the French resistance is usually not mentioned), leading to a common American joke at the expense of France's military prowess [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html][http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-frenchmilitaryvictories.htm][http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm]. When France did not form part of the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, aligning with the many countries that condemned U.S. action, the joke was revived. <br />
<br />
A Google search of "French Military Victories" + 'I'm feeling lucky' used to direct to "did you mean: french military defeats" (due to a {{w|Google bomb}}). Cueball is trying to show this to his friend, who is French. However, his joke backfires, as his friend immediately points out that the stereotype of France not having military victories is undercut by the fact that one of the most innovative military commanders in history, Napoleon, was French by citizenship (though Italian/Corsican by culture, as the French annexed Corsica a few months before his birth to an Italian noble family), and in fact conquered much of Europe.<br />
<br />
Following the theme of umwelt, the comic highlights the two characters' differing perspectives: The American thinks that France is a military failure, while the Frenchman thinks of Napoleon.<br />
<br />
The last line of the comic further implies that Cueball is not as smart as he thinks he is in regards to anything French, as he mispronounces the French loan word "{{w|Touché (fencing)|touché}}".<br />
<br />
Locations: France & Quebec<br />
<br />
===Germany===<br />
[[File:umwelt germany.png]]<br />
<br />
This comic references the {{w|Berlin airlift#The start of the Berlin Airlift|Berlin Airlift}}, a relief measure for citizens in West Berlin (surrounded by East Germany) instituted by the Western Allies after World War II. In reality, the Western Allies flew a grand total of 500,000 tons of food over the Soviet blockade in planes. Randall puts a twist on this event by making it more fun: dropping supplies from a grand chairlift. The play on words is that "chairlift" rhymes with "airlift" and thus makes an easy substitution. The chair force is also a name that other service branches use to make fun of the air force.<br />
<br />
Location: Germany<br />
<br />
===Israel===<br />
[[File:umwelt israel.png]]<br />
<br />
Translation: Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.<br />
<br />
A reference to the multiple use of the word Jewish to denote both a {{w|Judaism|religious group}} and a {{w|Jews|nationality/ethnicity}}, as well as the stereotype of Jews holding low opinions of interfaith marriage.<br />
<br />
A side note: Randall accidentally drew an apostrophe instead of the similar-looking Hebrew letter י everywhere that letter should appear.<br />
<br />
Location: Israel<br />
<br />
===Carnot Cycle===<br />
[[File:umwelt japan.png]]<br />
<br />
A pun on "cycle"; a "{{w|Carnot cycle}}" is a thermodynamic cycle (e.g. refrigeration). Its efficiency depends on the temperature of the hot and cold 'reservoirs' in which it is operating. The icon on the side of the motorcycle resembles a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg graph of the Carnot cycle.]<br />
<br />
Location: Japan<br />
<br />
===UK===<br />
[[File:umwelt uk.jpg]]<br />
<br />
He worded this as though to imply that the UK is a state of the U.S., and an unimportant one at that, which pokes fun at the UK, creating a paradox (sort of).<br />
<br />
Location: UK<br />
<br />
===Blizzard===<br />
[[File:umwelt disasters blizzard.png]]<br />
<br />
This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or blizzards are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe blizzard, while the Northeasterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild blizzard.<br />
<br />
For each location this displayed in, the state name was substituted in the third panel.<br />
<br />
Locations: Alabama, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Georgia, Halifax, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, the Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Texas, Toronto, Tennessee, New York, Wisconsin<br />
<br />
===Tornado===<br />
[[File:umwelt disasters tornado.png]]<br />
<br />
This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or tornadoes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The California perceives a mild earthquake and a severe tornado, while the Midwesterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild tornado.<br />
<br />
For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.<br />
<br />
Locations: Alabama, Dallas, Illinois, Georgia, The Midwest, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Tennessee, Texas (and Virginia, but it used Ohio in the third panel)<br />
<br />
Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. The picture used in [[1754: Tornado Safety Tips]] very reminiscent of the one from this version of Umwelt. [[Category:Tornadoes]]<br />
<br />
===Hurricane===<br />
[[File:umwelt disasters hurricane.png]]<br />
<br />
This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or hurricanes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe hurricane, while the Easterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild hurricane.<br />
<br />
For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.<br />
<br />
Locations: D.C, Florida, Georgia, Houston, Miami, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia<br />
<br />
===Lake Diver Killer===<br />
[[File:umwelt lake diver.png]]<br />
<br />
This comic shows a news reporter standing in front of a lake. She is reporting on a serial killer who targets divers. As more divers are sent in to investigate and/or search for bodies, more divers go missing, the implication being that they were also murdered. The more likely reason is the lake itself is dangerous for diving, and the divers probably drowned from natural hazards (undercurrents, entanglement, running out of oxygen in tanks, etc.) instead of a malicious assailant. Also, this is a sort of loop, where each time a diver gets killed, the investigative team goes and investigates, causing more divers to get killed, causing more deaths, and so on.<br />
<br />
Location: Bay Areas, Metro Detroit, Vermont showed an image specifically referencing Lake Champlain<br />
<br />
===Lincoln Memorial===<br />
[[File:umwelt lincoln memorial.png]]<br />
<br />
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States of America, was not an entity composed wholly of nanobots that attempted to consume the entire nation to then be imprisoned within the Lincoln Memorial.{{Citation needed}}<br />
<br />
Locations: Illinois & Washington, D.C.<br />
<br />
===Helicopter Hunting===<br />
[[File:umwelt helicoptor.png]]<br />
<br />
In Alaska, governments and individuals have {{w|Wolf hunting#North America 2|shot wolves en masse from helicopters}} in an attempt to artificially inflate populations of game, such as moose and caribou, to make hunting them easier. This is opposed by many, as the game populations are not endangered (thus, this threatens ecological balance); wolves are a small threat to livestock in North America; most of the wolf body —including meat and bones— goes wasted as they are sought mainly for their pelts.<br />
<br />
Location: Alaska<br />
<br />
===Newspaper===<br />
[[File:umwelt life scientists.png]][[File:umwelt life rit.png]][[File:umwelt life umass.png]]<br />
<br />
Creating new life has long been a well understood process, in a lab or otherwise.<br />
<br />
This comic is likely a reference to the title text of [[983: Privacy]]<br />
<br />
Location: Various<br />
<br />
Specific versions appeared for RIT and UMass Amherst<br />
<br />
===Robot Paul Revere===<br />
[[File:umwelt paul revere.png]]<br />
<br />
Combination of the legend of {{w|Paul Revere#"Midnight Ride"|Paul Revere}} and a computer bit that differentiates between two situations by indicating a zero or a one.<br />
<br />
Location: Boston<br />
<br />
===Counting Cards===<br />
<!-- card counting explanation needed. --><br />
All four colleges in this series are in Massachusetts and, being similar, in pairs, rival each other to some extent (Harvard-MIT, and Smith-Wellesley). The comic contains a reference to the {{w|MIT Blackjack Team}}, which entered popular culture via the {{w|21 (2008 film)|film 21}}, and a possible reference to Orwell's book '1984' and/or {{w|Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|popular homage to it via Star Trek}}: "There are four lights."[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChYIm6MW39k]<br />
<br />
Bonus: The thought-gears in panel 3 are spinning against each other.<br />
<br />
Location: Harvard<br />
<br />
[[File:umwelt counting cards harvard.png]]<br />
<br />
Location: MIT<br />
<br />
[[File:umwelt counting cards mit.png]]<br />
<br />
"Course 15s" at MIT are the business major students, often mocked for taking a less-rigorous program. The different interpretation for why the MIT students could not count cards compared to Harvard may be a reference to the theme of umwelt.<br />
<br />
Location: Smith<br />
<br />
[[File:umwelt counting cards smith.png]]<br />
<br />
Location: Wellesley<br />
<br />
[[File:umwelt counting cards wellesley.png]]<br />
<br />
Both Wellesley and Smith are all-women colleges in Massachusetts.<br />
<br />
===Giant Box Trap===<br />
[[File:umwelt box trap.png]]<br />
<br />
Randall got his undergrad in Physics at the {{w|Christopher Newport University}}, and was scheduled to return shortly to give a talk. The "Trible" figure on the right is Paul Trible, the then-president of CNU. This comic depicts a classic trap, where an upside-down box is propped up with a stick. When the stick is removed, by pulling a string, the box falls and traps whatever is underneath it. Aside from the joke of the obvious trap, there's also the fact that the president would not be responsible for revoking unearned diplomas.<br />
<br />
Location: Christopher Newport University<br />
<br />
===Chemo Support===<br />
[[File:umwelt chemo.jpg]]<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] has shaved his head in support of people going through {{w|chemotherapy}} but, as he is always depicted as a stick figure with no hair, no one can tell.<br />
<br />
Randall's now-wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and apparently DFCI is where they've been spending much of their time.<br />
<br />
Location: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute<br />
<br />
===Reviews===<br />
[[File:reviews.png]]<br />
<br />
The previous strip appears twice when using [[wikipedia:Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]].<br />
<br />
Browser: Any using Tor, xkcd API (JSON, RSS, Atom), w3m, and reports of seeing it on a Kindle Fire HD; also happens if visiting with a browser that does not support JavaScript (such as Firefox with NoScript)<br />
<br />
===Nothing===<br />
<br />
[[File:Umwelt blank.jpg]]<br />
<br />
The comic doesn't appear in iPad browsers. The top buttons and the bottom buttons are side by side, and you can only see the title in the top.<br />
<br />
On April 28 and 29, 2019, a visit from San Francisco on macOS 10.14.4 using Chrome 74, Safari 12.1, or Firefox 66.0.3, all with JavaScript enabled, produced no comic, just two adjacent rows of navigation buttons.<br />
<br />
On April 29, 2019, a visit from Utah using a T-mobile Samsung device running Android pie, yielded the same results<br />
<br />
Since this comic's release, all devices viewing it have returned two rows of navigation buttons if near IP address 69.114.249.104.<br />
<br />
It also doesn't work in Pennsylvania on the Chrome operating system.<br />
<br />
There is a discussion about this in the ''Talk'' page.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Note to courageous readers- The transcript has been reordered in the order in which the comics appear in the picture and appropriate names have been given.]<br />
<br />
:'''The Void'''<br />
:[An epic void with a bright light shining right on you.]<br />
<br />
:'''Aurora'''<br />
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]<br />
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar flare that's causing some Great Aurorae. CBC says they may even be visible here! Wanna drive out to see?<br />
:Megan: Hockey's on.<br />
:Cueball: Ok. Later.<br />
<br />
:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]<br />
<br />
:Megan: See anything?<br />
:Cueball: No, just clouds.<br />
:Megan: Not surprised.<br />
<br />
:'''Aurora-US'''<br />
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]<br />
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar storm causing northern lights over Canada. CNN say they might even be visible {Options: "As Far South As Us", "Here in Boston", "Maine", "Ohio", "Oregon", "New York"}! Wanna drive out to see?<br />
:Megan: It's cold out.<br />
:Cueball: Ok. Later.<br />
<br />
:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]<br />
<br />
:Megan: See anything?<br />
:Cueball: No, just clouds.<br />
:Megan: Not surprised.<br />
<br />
:'''Snake'''<br />
:[Two people standing next to each other. Megan is holding the head end of a snake. Depending on the width of your browser, the snake is: three frames, the third of which has a little bit of a bump; the first frame has a human-size bump, the second has a third person looking at the snake, and the third has the snake going though two Portals; a squirrel and the human-size bump in the first frame, a ring next to the third person in the second frame, and Beret Guy riding the snake in front of the portal; or The squirrel, a fourth person within the snake being coiled, and the human bump in the first frame, the ring, a fifth person in love, and the third person in the second frame, Beret Guy and the portal in the third frame, and the same two people in the fourth frame.]<br />
<br />
:Megan: I found a snake, but then I forgot to stop.<br />
<br />
:'''Black hat'''<br />
:[Two people sitting at a desk. One is Black Hat. The other is an analyst. Black Hat has a number of terminals attached to his head.]<br />
:Analyst: You come across a tortoise in the desert. You flip it over. It struggles to right itself. You watch. You're not helping. Why is that?<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: It '''knows''' what it did.<br />
<br />
:[View of the entire scene, with said turtle off in the distance on its back and trying to right itself.]<br />
<br />
:'''Too quiet'''<br />
:[A group of four scale down a wall into a field in the middle of the night. They walk off single-file.]<br />
:Person 1: It's quiet.<br />
<br />
:Person 3: Yeah - *Too* quiet.<br />
<br />
:[A Velociraptor is off in the distance, following the group.]<br />
:Person 4: Yeah - too *too* quiet.<br />
<br />
:Person 2: Yeah - 2quiet2furious.<br />
:Person 1: Fuck off, Steve.<br />
<br />
:'''Pond'''<br />
:[A landscape showing a pond, some reeds, and a set of mountains off in the distance.]<br />
<br />
:'''Galaxies'''<br />
:[A trio of galaxies.]<br />
:Galaxy 1: He's not looking!<br />
:Galaxy 3: Let's get him!<br />
:[Lines draw in illustrating the eye-line of one of a pair of people.]<br />
:Cueball: So he said he didn't get the text, but c'mon, he *never* misses texts. Right? ..hello?<br />
:Megan: I'm just staring at your head freaked out by the fact that there are millions of galaxies *directly behind it*.<br />
<br />
:'''xkcd Gold'''<br />
:[Cueball holding bat.]<br />
<br />
:Cueball: Sorry, but this comic<br />
<br />
:[Cueball starts to wind up.]<br />
<br />
:Cueball: requires<br />
<br />
:[Cueball prepares to strike with bat.]<br />
<br />
:Cueball: XKCD<br />
<br />
:[Cueball swings at a beehive.]<br />
:GOLD<br />
<br />
:[Penis Bees fly out of the beehive.]<br />
<br />
:'''Yo mamma'''<br />
:[Cueball yells at a friend.]<br />
:Cueball: Oh yeah? Well you mama's so ''cynical'', her only dog ballast is a ''leash''!<br />
:(This comic takes place in a dystopian future where the government is afraid dogs can hover, so it requires them to wear weights at all times, and some people privately doubt the government, but not enough to stop buying dog weights.)<br />
<br />
:'''Reddit'''<br />
:Five seconds ago:<br />
:[You sitting in front of a desk, reading a reddit thread.]<br />
:You: Oh, hey, reddit has a link to some XKCD april fools comic.<br />
<br />
:Now: [An image of the xkcd comic page.]<br />
:Five seconds from now:<br />
<br />
:You: ..hey<br />
<br />
:30 seconds from now:<br />
:[DANCE PARTY!]<br />
<br />
:'''Buns and Hot dogs'''<br />
:Cueball: What I wanna know is why do hot dogs come in packages of six while buns come in these huge sacks of ash and blood from which "Ave Maria" is faintly audible?<br />
:[Chanting sacks of gore in the background.]<br />
<br />
:'''Twitter'''<br />
:[A Twitter account page with the following: Many tweets, fewer following, even fewer followers, A bunch of assholes in the suggested follow box, trending topics partitioned into: Word Games, Misogyny, and Bieber, stuff your eyes automatically ignore, A really pleasant blue. and the timeline: Something about a podcast, Someone confused because the description doesn't match the link, The link you clicked on to get to this comic, Rob Delaney, Passive Aggression, and horse ebooks.]<br />
<br />
:'''Wikipedia'''<br />
:[There's no comic here because instead of drawing one, I spent the last hour reading every news story cited in the Wikipedia article on The Mile High Club.]<br />
<br />
:'''Google Chrome'''<br />
:[A Chrome plugin error page.]<br />
:Chrome: This plugin requires Sergey Brin's permission to run. Please wait while he is woken.<br />
<br />
:'''Chrome/Firefox'''<br />
:[Two people; Cueball is sitting at a desk in front of a laptop.]<br />
:Cueball: Man, chrome's hardware acceleration really sucks.<br />
:Ponytail: Oh - Theres' a great add-on that fixes it.<br />
:Cueball: Oh? What's it called?<br />
:Ponytail: "Firefox".<br />
<br />
:'''Google Chrome-2'''<br />
:[A Chrome plugin error page with the characteristic jigsaw piece.]<br />
:Chrome: Chrome is looking for this piece. Have you seen it? Chrome thinks it links up with a corner.<br />
<br />
:'''Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing'''<br />
:[Firefox error page.]<br />
:Firefox: Well, this is embarrassing. You know how I'm not supposed to peek at your browsing in private mode? Firefox.. is sorry. Firefox will not blame you if you<br />
:[Button with text.]<br />
:Click here to report this incident.<br />
<br />
:'''Internet Explorer'''<br />
:[IE error page.]<br />
:IE: Error: Internet Explorer has given up.<br />
<br />
:'''Maxthon'''<br />
:Cueball: Maxthon? Hey, 2005 called. Didn't say anything. All I could hear was sobbing. This is getting harder. Anyway, yeah, Maxthon's still cool! Didn't know it was still around!<br />
<br />
:'''Netscape Navigator'''<br />
:[Two different versions exist: one with Cueball talking and one with Megan with tentacle arms talking.]<br />
:Person: Netscape Navigator? Hey, the nineties called - drunk as usual. I hung up without saying anything. This is getting harder. Anyway - it's cool that you'e got netscape running.<br />
<br />
:'''Rockmelt'''<br />
:[Cueball running to laptop.]<br />
:I ran to Rockmelt to hide my face<br />
<br />
:[Cueball sitting at laptop.]<br />
:But Rockmelt cried out -<br />
<br />
:[Laptop shouting.]<br />
:NO HIDING PLACE<br />
<br />
:[zoom out.]<br />
:NO HIDING PLACE DOWN HERE<br />
<br />
:'''Google Chrome-3'''<br />
:[A chrome plugin error page.]<br />
:Chrome: There does not exist --nor could there '''ever''' exist-- a plugin capable of displaying this content.<br />
<br />
:'''Microsoft/Amazon/The Times/Google - Chrome'''<br />
:[Chrome error page.]<br />
:Chrome: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/Amazon/The Times/Google is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.<br />
<br />
:'''Microsoft/Amazon - Firefox'''<br />
:[Firefox error page.]<br />
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/Amazon is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.<br />
<br />
:'''Microsoft/The Times'''<br />
:[Error page.]<br />
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/The Times is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.<br />
<br />
:'''Corporate - Generic'''<br />
:[Error page.]<br />
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, we work as a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.<br />
<br />
:'''Military'''<br />
:[Person looking at two browser windows.]<br />
:Cueball: I know y'all know what you're doing. But if you're on a military machine and you're supposed to be watching for missiles or something, I hope you're keeping an eye on that in the background while you're reading comics. Also: Thanks.<br />
<br />
:'''T-Mobile'''<br />
:[Error page.]<br />
:Data Error: T-Mobile was unable to establish a connection<br />
<br />
:'''Verizon'''<br />
:[Error page]<br />
:Error: You have exceeded your Verizon monthly bandwidth cap. Mobile web browsing has been disabled.<br />
<br />
:'''France'''<br />
:[Two people; one of which is browsing using a laptop.]<br />
:Cueball: Hey, you're French, right? Ever see what happens when you type "French Military Victories" into Google?<br />
:French person: Does it take you to an article on Napoleon?<br />
<br />
:French person: ..no? Strange, given how he kicked everyone's asses up and down Europe for over a decade.<br />
<br />
:[Beat frame.]<br />
<br />
:Cueball: Touche.<br />
:French person: You know, that'd sound smarter if you didn't pronounce it like it rhymes with "douche".<br />
<br />
:'''Germany'''<br />
:[Cueball dropping food from an unorthodox high perch.]<br />
:June 1948: In response to the Soviet blockade of East Germany, the western allies construct the Berlin Chairlift.<br />
:Cueball on chairlift: Food!<br />
<br />
:'''Israel'''<br />
:[Person on phone.]<br />
:Person (Translation from Hebrew): Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.<br />
<br />
:'''Carnot Cycle'''<br />
:[Ponytail on a motorcycle with a heat-entropy graph on the side.]<br />
:Ponytail: Check out my new Carnot Cycle!<br />
:Cueball: Neat - how fast does it go?<br />
:Ponytail: Depends how cold it is outside.<br />
<br />
:'''Great Britain'''<br />
:[Illustration of the Atlantic ocean.]<br />
:American person: Sorry I don't have a comic poking fun at the UK here. I only had time to get to the most ''important'' US states.<br />
:British person: Hey - At least we have free health care and real ale.<br />
<br />
:'''Earthquake-Blizzard'''<br />
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]<br />
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.<br />
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!<br />
:Cueball: What!<br />
:Danish: You'll get it..<br />
<br />
:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]<br />
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!<br />
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: But this is {Options: "Alabama", "Boston", "Chicago", "Dallas", "Georgia", "Halifax", "Illinois", "Michigan", "Minnesota", "Missouri", "the Northeast", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Ottawa", 'Pennsylvania", "Philadelphia", "Texas", "Toronto", "Tennessee", "New York", "Wisconsin"}! That was huge!<br />
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.<br />
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...<br />
<br />
:Six Months Later..<br />
:[Both people are trudging through a massive blizzard.]<br />
:Danish: In pictures, snow always looked so nice and sof - ''AAAA! MY NECK! How do people live here?!''<br />
:Cueball: Come on - it's only three more miles.<br />
<br />
:'''Earthquake-Tornado'''<br />
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]<br />
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.<br />
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!<br />
:Cueball: What!<br />
:Danish: You'll get it..<br />
<br />
:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]<br />
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!<br />
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: But this is {Options: "Alabama", "Dallas", "Illinois", "The Midwest", "Missouri", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Ottawa", "Tennessee", "Texas"}!<br />
:Cueball: That was huge!<br />
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.<br />
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...<br />
<br />
:Six Months Later..<br />
:[Both people are in a shelter in a prairie with a rapidly-approaching tornado.]<br />
:Danish: AAAA CLOSE THE SHELTER DOOR!<br />
:Cueball: Say the magic words...<br />
:Danish: THIS PLACE IS THE WORST!<br />
:Cueball: Thank you.<br />
<br />
:'''Earthquake-Hurricane'''<br />
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]<br />
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.<br />
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!<br />
:Cueball: What!<br />
:Danish: You'll get it..<br />
<br />
:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]<br />
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!<br />
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: But this is {Options: "D.C", "Florida", "Houston", "Miami", "New Jersey", "North Carolina", "South Carolina", "Virgina"}! That was huge!<br />
:Cueball: That was huge!<br />
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.<br />
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...<br />
<br />
:Six Months Later..<br />
<br />
:[Both are in the middle of a hurricane. Danish is grabbing onto a signpost to avoid being swept away.]<br />
:Danish: AAAAA WHAT THE SHIIIIT!<br />
:Cueball: Calm down - this is barely a category 2.<br />
<br />
:'''Lake Diver Killer'''<br />
:[TV Field Reporter in front of a cordoned-off lake.]<br />
:Reporter: Police divers searching the bay say they have recovered the body of another victim of the "Lake Diver Killer."<br />
:Reporter: During the search, three more divers were reported missing.<br />
<br />
:'''Washington'''<br />
:[The statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.]<br />
:In this Marble Prison As in the nightmares of the nation they tried to devour<br />
:The nanobots that constituted Abraham Lincoln<br />
:Are entombed forever.<br />
<br />
:'''Alaska'''<br />
:[A person with a gun chasing a helicopter on the back of a wolf in a snowy Alaskan field.]<br />
:Some people hunt wolves from helicopters. I hunt helicopters from a wolf.<br />
<br />
:'''Life in lab'''<br />
:[Newspaper headline.]<br />
:Scientists/UMass Amherst students/RIT students create life in lab<br />
:[Caption under picture of scientists.]<br />
:"The trick was fuckin'"<br />
<br />
:'''American Revolution'''<br />
:Robot Paul Revere: Remember: Zero if by land, One if by sea.<br />
<br />
:'''MIT'''<br />
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]<br />
:Cueball: I've hired a team of MIT students to count cards for us.<br />
:Hairy: We'll be rich!<br />
<br />
:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]<br />
<br />
:[The gears turn..]<br />
<br />
:Student: Five. There are five cards.<br />
:Cueball: I see their admission standards have been slipping.<br />
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.<br />
<br />
:'''MIT Course 15c'''<br />
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]<br />
:Cueball: I've hired a team of MIT students to count cards for us.<br />
:Hairy: We'll be rich!<br />
<br />
:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]<br />
<br />
:[The gears turn..]<br />
<br />
:Student: Five. There are five cards.<br />
:Cueball: I *knew* we shouldn't have picked course 15s.<br />
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.<br />
<br />
:'''Smith/Wellesley'''<br />
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]<br />
:Cueball: I've hired a team of Smith/Wellesley students to count cards for us.<br />
:Hairy: We'll be rich!<br />
<br />
:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]<br />
<br />
:[The gears turn..]<br />
<br />
:Student: Five. There are five cards.<br />
:Cueball: We should've gone with Wellesley/Smith.<br />
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.<br />
<br />
:'''CNU'''<br />
:[Person unsuspectingly strolls under a giant box trap controlled by a Trible.]<br />
:I worry that CNU only invited me back as a ruse because they realized I never turned in my final paper and want my diploma back. But if it turns out it's for real, I'll see you Wednesday at the Ferguson!<br />
<br />
:'''Dana Farber'''<br />
:[Cueball, pointing towards head.]<br />
:Cueball: Check it out - In support of people going through chemo, I shaved my head.<br />
:Lots of love to everyone reading this at Dana Farber. Cancer sucks. If you are new to DFCI, there's a great little garden on the third floor of the yawkey if you need somewhere quiet to just sit for a little bit and breathe.<br />
<br />
:'''Reviews'''<br />
:Shopping before online reviews:<br />
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a store. Cueball points at a lamp on the table in front of him. There is another lamp on the table behind them.]<br />
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.<br />
:Megan: And affordable.<br />
:Cueball: Let's get it.<br />
:Megan Ok! <br />
<br />
:Shopping now:<br />
:[Cueball points at a lamp on the table in front of him. Megan looks at her phone.]<br />
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.<br />
:Megan: It's got 1 1/2 stars on Amazon. Reviews all say to avoid that brand.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball and Megan are now both looking at their phones.]<br />
:Cueball: This one has good reviews.<br />
:Megan: Wait, one guy says when he plugged it in, he got a metallic taste in his mouth and his cats went deaf.<br />
:Cueball: Eek. What about- ...no, review points out it resembles a uterus.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball is still looking at his phone, Megan has hers at her side.]<br />
:Cueball: Ok, I found a Swiss lampmaker with perfect reviews. Her lamps start at 1,300 Francs and she's only reachable by ski lift.<br />
:Megan: You know, our room looks fine in the dark.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*Reddit user [http://www.reddit.com/user/SomePostMan SomePostMan] created a [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/t6wmh/all_umwelt_1037_comics_in_two_imgur_albums/ post] that collected all of the Umwelt comics and added explanations. Much of his information is now included in this wiki.<br />
<br />
*The transcript section for this comic also included a note alluding to its extreme length:<br />
: <nowiki>[[Two people...]]</nowiki> ((..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all this)) <br />
: [[Two people standing next to each other. One is holding the head end of a snake...<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:April fools' comics]]<br />
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br />
[[Category:Philosophy]]<br />
[[Category:Penis]]<br />
[[Category:Video games]]<br />
[[Category:Velociraptors]]<br />
[[Category:Your Mom]]<br />
[[Category:Puns]]<br />
[[Category:Squirrels]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with blood]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=718:_The_Flake_Equation&diff=230623718: The Flake Equation2022-04-17T00:04:13Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 718<br />
| date = March 24, 2010<br />
| title = The Flake Equation<br />
| image = the flake equation.png<br />
| titletext = Statistics suggest that there should be tons of alien encounter stories, and in practice there are tons of alien encounter stories. This is known as Fermi's Lack-of-a-Paradox.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This strip parodies the {{w|Drake equation}}, which is an method for estimating of the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy. The Drake equation starts with the best estimate for the number of stars in our galaxy, then multiplies it by successive probabilities (such as the number of stars with planets, the number of planets which can support life, etc), to ultimately calculate how many civilizations exist. While such a calculation necessarily uses speculative numbers, it gives a good sense of how many civilizations could potentially exist. <br />
<br />
The Flake equation presented in this strip provides an estimate about how many false or fake stories ''about'' aliens are likely to exist. It does so in similar manner as the Drake equation, by starting with the entire population, estimating how many people are likely to believe that they've had an alien encounter, and then calculating how likely those stories are to become public. Just like in the Drake equation, exact numbers are unknown, but can be estimated, and the equation in the comic shows [[Randall|Randall's]] guesses about these values. See an [[#Explanations of values|explanations of values]] below.<br />
<br />
"Flake" is American slang for a person who is casually dishonest or unreliable, implying that such a person would be likely to imagine an alien encounter. Note that, while the Flake equation includes people who imagine encounters "because they're crazy or want to feel special", it doesn't attempt to include outright lies or deliberate hoaxes.<br />
<br />
The final results tells us that there should be about 100,000 stories about aliens that have reliable explanations. (The numbers given in the equation gives 126,000 stories). The data is obviously highly speculative, and as with the Drake Equation, you can plug in your own numbers, but if you keep your guesses realistic, you will most likely get a very large number. This convinces the reader that the fact that there are many stories about aliens does not necessarily mean that many people actually met aliens.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to Fermi's Lack-of-a-Paradox. The {{w|Fermi paradox}} refers to the contradiction between high numbers of calculated civilizations and the total lack of verified alien contact with earth. This is related to the Drake Equation, many estimates calculate that there should be large numbers of civilization in the galaxy, and they should have existed for long periods of time, suggesting that humanity should have been contacted by them, or at least seen some clear evidence of their existence. There are multiple explanations for this paradox, but it remains a question of scientific debate. The Lack-of-a-Paradox in this strip, however, is that the math suggests that there should be huge numbers of claimed alien sightings, and that's exactly what we observe. <br />
<br />
Another comic parodying this equation is [[384: The Drake Equation]]. The credibility of paranormal reports in general is revisited in [[1235: Settled]], which posits that if such phenomena were real they should have been unambiguously captured on camera by now.<br />
<br />
===Explanations of values===<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Symbol<br />
!Assumed value<br />
!Explanation<br />
|-<br />
<br />
|W<sub>P</sub><br />
|7,000,000,000<br />
|World population at the time of the creation of the comic, taken as a starting value.<br />
|-<br />
|(C<sub>R</sub> + M<sub>i</sub>)<br />
|1/10,000 + 1/10,000<br />
|Fraction of people who would falsely believe they had been visited by aliens. This is attributed to either a person imagining an encounter, and believing that it was real (due to mental illness or a desire to feel special), or to people misinterpreting something as an alien encounter (this can include possibilities as broad as unusual lights in the sky to actual hallucinations). It is estimated that one person in ten thousand falls into each of these categories, suggesting that one person in five thousand either has or will, at some point, believe they've encountered aliens. <br />
|-<br />
|T<sub>K</sub><br />
|1/10<br />
|The fraction of people who believe they have experienced an alien sighting that tell others about their experience. [[Randall]] estimates (rather conservatively) that 90% of people who believe they've encountered aliens will keep quiet about it (likely out of fear of not being believed), and only one in ten will talk about their 'experience'. Multiplying with the previous values we get the of first-hand accounts of alien encounters. <br />
|-<br />
|F<sub>0</sub><br />
|10<br />
|Average number of people they tell about their "sightings". Multiplying with the previous values we get the number of people who hear about an alien sighting from the "primary source".<br />
|-<br />
|F<sub>1</sub><br />
|10<br />
|Average number of people that they decide to tell about the "firsthand" account. Multiplying with the previous values we get the amount of people who hear a second-hand account of a false story.<br />
|-<br />
|D<sub>T</sub><br />
|9/10<br />
|The probability that the details will be slightly adjusted during the retelling process, making the account believable. [[Randall]] estimates that 90% of accounts that are actually shared have detailed changed when they're retold. This is exceptionally common when stories are passed from person to person, it's rare for all the details to survive unchanged. In this sort of case, "not fitting the narrative" implies that some details will be unbelievable, or falsifiable, or will be insufficiently dramatic, and those tend to morph over time (often innocently, as people don't remember the original version perfectly). Multiplying this probability by the previous numbers gives number of believable-yet-false alien sighting stories in circulation.<br />
|-<br />
|A<sub>U</sub><br />
|1/100<br />
|The proportion of people who have the willingness and ability to share this story with a broad audience. [[Randall]] assumes that the overwhelming majority of people who hear such stories either have no platform to share stories to more than a handful of people at a time, or aren't willing to share these stories. But enough people in modern times have broad audiences (this number includes people with internet audiences), that it's estimated that 1% of the population both can and wants to share second-hand accounts of alien encounters. The total is now the amount of believable-yet-false alien sightings that are published to a wider audience.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
:The Flake Equation:<br />
:P = W<sub>P</sub> × (C<sub>R</sub> + M<sub>I</sub>) × T<sub>K</sub> × F<sub>0</sub> × F<sub>1</sub> × D<sub>T</sub> × A<sub>U</sub> ≈ 100,000<br />
:Where:<br />
::W<sub>P</sub> = World Population (7,000,000,000)<br />
::C<sub>R</sub> = Fraction of people who imagine an alien encounter because they're crazy or want to feel special (1/10,000)<br />
::M<sub>I</sub> = Fraction of people who misinterpret a physical or physiological experience as an alien sighting (1/10,000)<br />
::T<sub>K</sub> = Probability that they'll tell someone (1/10)<br />
::F<sub>0</sub> = Average number of people they tell (10)<br />
::F<sub>1</sub> = Average number of people each friend tells this "firsthand" account (10)<br />
::D<sub>T</sub> = Probability that any details not fitting the narrative will be revised or forgotten in retelling (9/10)<br />
::A<sub>U</sub> = Fraction of people with the means and motivation to share the story with a wider audience (blogs, forums, reporters) (1/100)<br />
:Even with conservative guesses for the values of the variables, this suggests there must be a ''huge'' number of credible-sounding alien sightings out there, available to anyone who wants to believe!<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Astronomy]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:SETI]]<br />
[[Category:Aliens]]<br />
[[Category:Statistics]]<br />
[[Category:Paranormal]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=502:_Dark_Flow&diff=230622502: Dark Flow2022-04-17T00:03:36Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 502<br />
| date = November 10, 2008<br />
| title = Dark Flow<br />
| image = dark_flow.png<br />
| titletext = The Pioneer anomaly is due to the force of my love.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is about {{w|astronomy}} and the {{w|Your Mom}} jokes that have become increasingly widespread in urban parlance. [[Beret Guy]] is reading a research paper presumably discussing {{w|Dark Flow}}, an observed anomaly in the motions of the galaxies that some theorize is caused by an unobservable sibling universe or similarly supermassive object beyond the edge of the visible universe. [[Cueball]] sees this as an opportunity to make yet another Your Mom joke, implying that Beret Guy's mother is fat.<br />
<br />
But apparently, Beret Guy's mother is dead, or at least missing, and he takes the joke seriously. He looks toward the sky and wishes that his mom pull harder so that he could be with her. The joke has been turned onto itself.<br />
<br />
The title text is a continuation of Beret Guy's thoughts and refers to another piece of science phenomenon that has been observed in space, the {{w|Pioneer Anomaly}}. The ''{{w|Pioneer 10}}'' and ''{{w|Pioneer 11}}'' spacecraft had been slowed down by an (at the time) unknown force as they exited the solar system, which he says is caused by the force of his love, probably toward his mom. This force has since been explained entirely in 2012 by the probes being decelerated by thermal radiation.<br />
<br />
In [[2310: Great Attractor]], the more local {{w|Great Attractor}} is pulling Beret Guy so hard that he can sleep on vertical surfaces when it is close to the horizon.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Beret Guy is sitting at a computer, and Cueball is sitting in an armchair, reading either a book or a newspaper.]<br />
:Beret Guy: According to this A.S.T. paper, every galaxy is being pulled toward one area of the sky.<br />
<br />
:[Only Cueball.]<br />
:Beret Guy [off-panel]: They hypothesize that it may be due to a supermassive object beyond the edge of the visible universe.<br />
:Cueball: Maybe it's your mom. Zing!<br />
<br />
:[Only Beret Guy.]<br />
:Beret Guy: Do you think?<br />
<br />
:[Outside at night, on a rooftop. Beret Guy is looking up to the sky, next to a telescope.]<br />
:Beret Guy: Pull harder, mom.<br />
:Beret Guy: I Miss you.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
* Beret Guy's "A.S.T. paper" might refer to the [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/592947 article] that first mentioned the theory of {{w|Dark flow|dark flow}}, published shortly before this comic. The article appeared in the {{w|American Astronomical Society}}'s {{w|The Astrophysical Journal|Astrophysical Journal Letters}} (ApJL), but it is unclear what is meant by "A.S.T." in the comic.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]<br />
[[Category:Astronomy]]<br />
[[Category:Space]]<br />
[[Category:Your Mom]]<br />
[[Category:Space probes]]<br />
[[Category:Telescopes]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=230621Talk:2607: Geiger Counter2022-04-17T00:00:47Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Vanilla joke, but funny. [[User:Nafedalbi|Nafedalbi]] ([[User talk:Nafedalbi|talk]]) 18:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi<br />
:It's Randall's "dad joke". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Honestly, yeah. I impulsively went "wow... Randall's really jumped the stick figure shark." --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 06:32, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Not me. After plumbing the depths of Unicode and trying to describe a Taylor series expansion from square one, this is a welcome relief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 07:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: When does an ordinary joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 10:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::When does it become apparent? After the delivery. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.223|172.69.33.223]] 17:30, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I added telegraph wires (UK-only term, possibly, and anachronistic as they are telephone cables, so feel free to change to be US-centric) and birds seem happy to sit on pole-suspended POTS cables as much as power-lines, so the linked heat-effect thing is definitely a minority necessity. I think it's just a perch. Though we probably have more signal-wires. Most(?) streets more than a few decades old have telegraph poles feeding wires to established properties (even if cable/FTTP has been dug into trenches) but mains electricity tends to have been subsurface for much longer, with only HV national/rural-area transmission grids up on pylons/poles. Obviously there ''are'' a lot more perching birds out in the countryside, where they may dominate (but still the 'telegraph' may follow road or rail routes to service the villages and isolated inhabitations along them) but you don't tend to see birds atop the larger lines at all... Too high up? ''Too'' hot? I've seen rooks/etc happily doing a Hitchcock upon a pylon itself, apparently enjoying the communal view. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 18:54, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text joke may be understood more easily by reading "stood under" in place of "understood". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] 19:37, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Living in Manhattan, you learn to notice when an area is full of bird droppings and avoid standing there. You also need to pay attention when parking your car. Certain lamp posts (where the lamp is cantilevered over the street) near Central Park often tend to have a large accumulation under them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 19:47, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I do not understand the joke in the title text, so if somebody could please write an explanation, that would be great.<br />
Also, this is my first ever full comic description! Yay!<br />
I don't know what categories this fits in, if somebody could also put those in that would be great. [[User:MrYellow04|MrYellow04]] ([[User talk:MrYellow04|talk]]) 19:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I suggest you stand under a wire with lots of birds on it for a while. It will hit you. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:32, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Dirty birdy in the sky, why you do that in my eye? Boy I'm glad that cows can't fly! [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Randall, come here. Yes, right there. Stand still. THWACK! THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK! That is all, you may go now. 20:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The explanation makes clear the side of the pun regarding the Geiger counting clicking, but for non-native English speakers, the phrase "it clicked" meaning "I understood" may need clarification. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.213|162.158.166.213]] 21:17, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I thought it meant the birds were dangerously mutated because of the radioactivity, but now I understand. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 22:00, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Just make sure you don't open your mouth and tilt your head back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 22:59, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Also possibly related to this news story https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/<br />
<br />
Calling the pun a parody of another joke is weird. Jokes aren’t parodied. Parodies aren’t made of general things people say. It can be a ''play on'' that other joke, but not a ''parody'' of it. It’s not ''making fun'' of the other joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I somewhat agree with you. It's a 'type of' pun related to the Tom Swifty, which I edited in just now. I didn't actually remove the claim of parody. Perhaps someone else should also do that without hesitation... (...says I, unerringly!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Dates for the Trinity Site Open House are April 2 and October 15 for 2022. Bring your own geiger counter. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:...and possibly a time-machine? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Leonard Cohen reference? ==<br />
<br />
It seems to me that the title text has to be somehow referencing one of Leonard Cohen’s better known songs, “Bird on the Wire”, from the very specific phrasing there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:21, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: It's a fairly common phrase. Including the 1990 Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson<br />
[https://g.co/kgs/QZ6LpN film]. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:23, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I think it more likely there's some reference meant to birds not getting electrocuted while sitting on power cables-perhaps this is even in a "What If" book? I don't think very likely, but more likely than any Leonard Cohen reference. It's because "both the bird's feet are on the same potential, so electricity does not flow through the bird. The bird also offers greater resistance than the power cable, so the electricity continues to flow through the power cable." I figured this "explanation" fits here as well as anywhere. [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 21:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I think it's a red-herring that the nature of the wire has ''anything'' to do with it. Birds will perch on handy things, whether electrical cables (hopefully with spacings between separate phase-wires/across the insulator 'hangers' significantly more than an idle wing-stretch!), telephonic, washing line, zip-line, etc, etc. A wire just gives more chance for 'mostly open space, beneath which an unaware human is particularly (but not obviously) susceptible to birds voiding their systems' than with a street-lamp arm, a high ledge on a tall building, tree branches or the underside frames of girder-based bridges.<br />
::Birds do indeed escape (trivial) electrocution on power-lines, but that doesn't help the joke because they can crap on you from ''anything'' that you under-stand (or just by chance, by dint of being birds and occasionally finding they need to let go whilst already in flight... or by direct malice in the case of nest-guarding skuas/etc).<br />
::Not to disect the comedy frog, or anything, because that would be cold-blooded. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 00:00, 17 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=2305262607: Geiger Counter2022-04-15T22:21:13Z<p>172.69.79.223: Added what ponytail is holding</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2607<br />
| date = April 15, 2022<br />
| title = Geiger Counter<br />
| image = geiger_counter.png<br />
| titletext = At first I didn't get why they were warning me about all those birds sitting on the wire, but then I understood.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by A CLICKING GEIGER COUNTER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic is a simple {{w|pun}}. [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] are standing in what looks to be a desert, and Cueball is holding a {{w|Geiger Counter}} in his hand. Cueball remarks that he did not understand why he was asked to carry a Geiger counter, but that it then "clicked" with him.<br />
<br />
Geiger counters are devices used to measure the amount of {{w|radiation}} in an area. When a particle of ionizing radiation hits the sensor of a Geiger counter, it will give off a distinct "clicking" noise. The pun in this comic insinuates that cueball realized why he was asked to bring the Geiger counter when it clicked, indicating radiation nearby. In radioactive areas, it is usually a good idea to carry around some sort of radiation detector for safety reasons.<br />
<br />
The title text is also a pun, since "I" stand under the birds on the wire (under-stood), with the implication being that some birds on the powerline pooped on him.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
{{incomplete transcript}} <br />
:[Cueball and Ponytail are wearing hard hats and standing in what looks to be some sort of desert or rocky area. Cueball is holding a Geiger Counter in his hands. Ponytail is holding a clipboard.]<br />
:Cueball: At first I was confused about why they wanted me to carry a Geiger Counter here, but then it clicked.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2606:_Weird_Unicode_Math_Symbols&diff=230402Talk:2606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols2022-04-14T08:33:54Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Apparently, nobody knows what U+237C ⍼ means (https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html)<br />
: For me it looks very like as designation of where electrical cable is burrowed. It should come with numbers near angle hands designating depth and offset from sign. But it just a guess, of course [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.221|141.101.76.221]] 05:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Can someone add a column where we try to crowdsource a description for the "mathematical use of symbol" ? <br />
<br />
I'm curious what those symbols actually mean, and the unicode titles don't give that much information. <br />
<br />
I do not doubt that have enough math geeks on here to find the answer to most of then :-D<br />
<br />
Thanks!<br />
[[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]] ([[User talk:Flekkie|talk]]) 01:20, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
i agree w Flekkie's comment<br />
[[User:Blue in real life|Blue in real life]] ([[User talk:Blue in real life|talk]]) 02:27, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
If you make edits, please don't immediately delete all of mine because you think yours are better. It shows you conflicting edits for a reason. Some explanations are nonsensical, like defining a smash product as the "result of dividing two product spaces." The smash product is specifically the quotient of the underlying spaces of two pointed spaces where points in the product spaces are identified if they contain either labeled point as an element. Other claims are simply mistaken. For instance, the ≝ symbol is used to introduce a definition, not to declare that the definition has been achieved in a proof. The claim that "A union on smash product appears to be one where the sets are nit isomorphic" is totally meaningless. The symbol ⩩ is not merely decorative but is intended as a supplemental math symbol like all the others. I couldn't track down its purpose. The APL symbol description somehow never bothers to mention APL. This is all very cursory, which is fine, but just please don't delete my work while doing it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.5|172.70.130.5]] 04:15, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I'm done, page is yours. I'd been working on it for an hour and every time I tried to save, a new edit came in. I did my best to reconcile them but by the fifth I just saved a copy of what was there and pasted mine over. I immediately got to work on recovering what I had pasted over as indicated in the edit comment and like I said, I'm done. I've merged to the best of my ability and have no more interest in this page.<br />
:--[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 04:37, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I'm very sorry if I was one of those who stepped on your edits. I was originally trying to fix brokenness in the table.<br /><span style="font-size: small;">^^^^^</span> ≫ <span style="font-size: xx-large;"><sub>^</sub></span> is the symbol for preferring many small edits over not saving your work often in a batch-mode collaborative editing environment. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.8|172.70.207.8]] 04:55, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: Don't worry about it, idk why I was so upset. It's that feeling you get when you click "save" and then suddenly it's gone. If anything's still missing, I'll just restore it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.106|172.70.131.106]] 05:41, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I wish we had as much research on ⧍ and ⩩ as we have for ⍼. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.8|172.70.207.8]] 05:16, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: No clue what those are for. The first is a triangle with serifs? The triangle symbol (not capital delta) is often used in geometry to represent a triangle, but why in the world would you give a geometric figure serifs? I think I may have seen the triple cross-hatch somewhere, but I couldn't say where. Maybe it's the chess commentary symbol for being mated so badly it's embarrassing. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.106|172.70.131.106]] 05:41, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: I'm guessing what must have happened is the [https://decodeunicode.org/en/u+2A00 code page in question] was filled in by a typographer with more graphic design than mathematical experience, who likely added made-up "missing" symbols as the design-logical extensions of the symbols they were given, presumably to be on the safe side in case they had what appeared to be a possibly incomplete set. There are some awesome ones in there, like "⩐" TEST-TUBE PARTHENOGENISIS, and "⨻" THE ILLUMINATI IS DEAD. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.171|162.158.255.171]] 06:07, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: The ⧍ character has the same origin as ⍼, namely that they were both part of ISO/IEC TR 9573-13 with no explanation given. You can find it in some old charts online, like here: [https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-MathML/chap6/ISOAMSBe2.html], under `trisb`/codepoint E27E. [[User:Ionchy|ionchy]] ([[User talk:Ionchy|talk]]) 07:03, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: I am sure that I have seen maps with such a symbol used for campsites, and without the bold strokes of the top sides as the National Park Service draws it. I haven't found any yet, but I have found one without the center base -- like _/\_ -- on a 1960s era map. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.131|172.69.134.131]] 07:07, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
: As for ⩩, the character just before it in the Unicode code chart [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2A00.pdf], ⩨, has the text "identical and parallel to", so it's possible the horizontal lines in this one also means "identical to". I don't know what three vertical lines mean though, and in Unicode there's three (!) different characters with similar glyphs: U+2980 ⦀, U+2AF4 ⫴, and U+2AFC ⫼. [[User:Ionchy|ionchy]] ([[User talk:Ionchy|talk]]) 07:28, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: Identical both vertically and horizontally? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.131|172.69.134.131]] 07:32, 14 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: I found one suggestion that the dodecathorp should be used to refer to very big numbers...[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 08:33, 14 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2606:_Weird_Unicode_Math_Symbols&diff=2304012606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols2022-04-14T08:28:11Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2606<br />
| date = April 13, 2022<br />
| title = Weird Unicode Math Symbols<br />
| image = weird_unicode_math_symbols.png<br />
| titletext = U+2A0B ⨋ Mathematicians need to calm down<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by A SNAKE AVOIDING A BEE ON A WHITEBOARD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic proposes joke explanations for various {{w|unicode symbols}} with obscure or no known uses.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Symbols<br />
|-<br />
! Codepoint !! Symbol !! Unicode Name !! Actual use !! Randall's meaning || Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| U+29CD || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⧍</span> || Triangle with Serifs At Bottom || No standard use,{{citation needed}} but resembles the {{w|National Park Service}} cartographic symbol for a campsite.[https://github.com/nationalparkservice/symbol-library/] || Shark || May look like a shark fin sticking out of the water.<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⏧</span> || Electrical Intersection || Indicates where wires branch off || Traffic circle || May look like a {{w|roundabout}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨳</span> || {{w|Smash product}} || the quotient of the underlying spaces of two {{w|pointed spaces}} where points in the {{w|product spaces}} are identified if they contain either labeled point as an element. || <div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">S</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">T</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">G</div> || Looks somewhat like the {{w|Number sign|hash}} symbol (#) – commonly used for indicating tags called {{w|hashtag}}s in social media, but rotated counterclockwise 45 degrees.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A7C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩼</span> || Greater-Than with Question Mark Above || Used in proofs to indicate a greater-than relation that should exist but hasn't been proven yet (non-rigorous) || Confused alligator || One metaphor used when teaching inequality signs in primary school is that the sign looks like an alligator mouth "eating" the larger number. Question marks are commonly used in cartoons to indicate confusion on the part of a character.<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⦞</span> || Angle with S Inside || Plural for the angle symbol (∠) [https://www.quora.com/Unicode-How-is-the-s-in-triangle-glyph-used-in-mathematics][https://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/1114/Homework%20Helper%20Unit%203%20ch%209-10.pdf] rarely used || Snack || May look like a mouth eating an S, where the S symbolizes some snack food.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨄</span> || {{w|Arity|N-ary}} Union Operator with Plus || Disjoint union[https://books.google.com/books?id=531cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%E2%A8%84&source=bl&ots=oYXkMNXP-T&sig=ACfU3U2QvMRBkD7uVG0OSumKI0JQtjTIKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwios862ypL3AhWXVTABHTnQALQQ6AF6BAgKEAM] (joining two sets that have no elements in common) || Drink refill || Looks like a cup with a plus to indicate adding drink to the cup.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⭈</span> || Rightwards Arrow Above Reverse Almost Equal To || Pairs with <span style="font-size: x-large;">⭂</span> which could conceivably mean {{w|Assignment (computer science)|assignment}} of an {{w|Approximation|approximation}}, but neither seem to be in use. || Snakes over there || Looks like two squiggles to represent snakes and an arrow indicating the direction where they may be found.<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">≝</span> || Equal To By Definition || Indicates an equation where the left side is to be defined as the right side[https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1z1mty/can_someone_please_explain_the_equal_to_by/] usually used in proofs to indicate a definition is being introduced|| Definitely, for sure || "Def" is a contraction of "definitely" used in slang; the equal sign looks like a double underline, indicating heavy emphasis.<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍼</span> || Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow || No purpose is known[https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html]; speculation includes "Y axis continues downward" and "diode with a gate". || Larry Potter || Looks like the letter "L" and a lightning bolt. {{w|Harry Potter (character)|Harry Potter}} is known for having a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The character {{w|Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series#Nancy_Stouffer|Larry Potter}} figured in a fraudulent legal claim against J.K. Rowling.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩐</span> || Closed Union with Serifs and Smash Product || Indicates that a collection of topological spaces is {{w|Union-closed sets conjecture|closed}} when taking arbitrary unions and smash products. That is, if you take the union of any collection of topological spaces in the collection (even uncountably many), or the smash product of them, the result will also be in that collection. This is apparently important because the sets can't be isomorphic (one cannot be rearranged to be exactly the other) [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/196084/counterexample-for-associativity-of-smash-product] For use in a serif font|| Spider caught with a cup and index card || Spiders or other bugs found within someone's house or workspace may be caught with a glass and something flat, often a card or a magazine, to be released outside. The eight projecting lines of the smash product symbol resemble the eight legs of a spider.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩩</span> || Triple Horizontal Bar with Triple Vertical Stroke || Decorative.{{citation needed}} Possibly a four-by-four {{w|tic-tac-toe}} board.[https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sandlund/NumericalTicTacToe.pdf] || ℍ𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕘 || Hash symbol with one extra vertical and horizontal line, or perhaps a hash symbol which has been accidentally double-struck or overprinted.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍨</span> || APL Functional Symbol Tilde Diaeresis || Indicates that the {{w|negation|logical not}} operation should be performed on each of the symbols that follow || <span style="font-size: large;">:/</span> || Looks like a confused or disappointed face. Randall's use is in fact common among {{w|APL (programming language)|APL}} programmers in the comments, as documented [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/APL_Orchard#Emoticons here].<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">℘</span> || Script Capital P || An eccentric, Gothic-esque capital Roman P first used by Weierstrass for his self-named "p-function." This symbol is universally used for the {{w|Weierstrass Elliptic Function|p-function}} and apparently has no name except "Weierstrass-p." It is reminiscent of ∂, a stylized cursive d used for partial differentials or ∫, a stylized long s used for integrals. || Snake || This symbol coils around like a long snake, with a tapering-off tail on one end and a small "head" on the other.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⫁</span> || Subset with Multiplication Sign Below || Indicates that one set is subset of another by means of the cross product || <div style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: center;">User<br />experience</div> || Looks like the letters "Ux" sideways; Ux is a common abbreviation for {{w|user experience}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⌭</span> || {{w|Cylindricity}} || A symbol used in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) to represent a parameter called "cylindricity" which describes the statistical deviation of an ensemble of surfaces from a reference cylinder. [https://cimquest-inc.com/metrology-minute-cylindricity/ example use] || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball || Looks like two flat hands (perhaps like stick-figure arms) rolling a ball between them. Rolling dough between one's hands to make it into a ball is an important step in making many kinds of pastry and bread.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨓</span> || Line Integration with Semicircular Path Around Pole || Very rare symbol for half of a closed {{w|Contour integration|contour}} or {{w|Line integral|line}} integral which contains the {{w|Origin (mathematics)|origin}} in its interior. Contour integrals which circle the origin are very important in complex analysis. If such an integral were split into two parts, each could be represented by this symbol.<br />
This can be mistaken for <span style="font-size: x-large;">⨔</span> (Integral not including the {{w|Zeros and poles|pole}}, which has a wider and more complete arc around an offset dot.) [https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2299363/where-is-the-%E2%A8%93-integral-symbol-defined]<br />
|| Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard || Looks like an {{w|integral}} symbol with a bump that goes around a dot, as if a professor was drawing an integral on a whiteboard but did not want to disturb a bee that had landed right in the path of their marker.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A0B (title text)|| <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨋</span> || Summation with Integral || The sum of the sum of the discrete elements (∑) and the integrals (∫) over the connected pieces. This symbol requires context to be meaningful but could occur, for instance, when computing probabilities using mixed distributions.<br />
[https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/1308743505309822977 see also] <br />
|| Mathematicians need to calm down || Since the two symbols combined are kinds of summation the symbol may seem unnecessary at first glance. The comment given may make fun of mathematicians' tendency to form increasingly complex expressions in their work.<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
This comic may have been inspired by [https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html this blog post], which went viral (in a limited sense) the same day the comic was published.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[Title:] Weird Unicode math symbols<br />
<br />
[Subtitle:] And their meanings<br />
<br />
{|<br />
| U+29CD || ⧍ || Shark<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || ⏧ || Traffic circle<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || ⨳ || Hashtag [the text is slanted counterclockwise]<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || ⦞ || Snack<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || ⨄ || Drink refill<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || ⭈ || Snakes over there<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || ≝ || Definitely, for sure<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || ⍼ || Larry Potter<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || ⩐ || Spider caught with a cup and index card<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || ⩩ || [The word "hashtag" but with extra horizontal and vertical lines]<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || ⍨ || :/<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || ℘ || Snake<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || ⫁ || [The words "user experience" rotated clockwise 90 degrees]<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || ⌭ || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || ⨓ || Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Unicode]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Harry Potter]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2606:_Weird_Unicode_Math_Symbols&diff=2304002606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols2022-04-14T08:26:35Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2606<br />
| date = April 13, 2022<br />
| title = Weird Unicode Math Symbols<br />
| image = weird_unicode_math_symbols.png<br />
| titletext = U+2A0B ⨋ Mathematicians need to calm down<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by A SNAKE AVOIDING A BEE ON A WHITEBOARD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic proposes joke explanations for various {{w|unicode symbols}} with obscure or no known uses.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Symbols<br />
|-<br />
! Codepoint !! Symbol !! Unicode Name !! Actual use !! Randall's meaning || Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| U+29CD || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⧍</span> || Triangle with Serifs At Bottom || No standard use,{{citation needed}} but resembles the {{w|National Park Service}} cartographic symbol for a campsite.[https://github.com/nationalparkservice/symbol-library/] || Shark || May look like a shark fin sticking out of the water.<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⏧</span> || Electrical Intersection || Indicates where wires branch off || Traffic circle || May look like a {{w|roundabout}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨳</span> || {{w|Smash product}} || the quotient of the underlying spaces of two {{w|pointed spaces}} where points in the {{w|product spaces}} are identified if they contain either labeled point as an element. || <div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">S</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">T</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">G</div> || Looks somewhat like the {{w|Number sign|hash}} symbol (#) – commonly used for indicating tags called {{w|hashtag}}s in social media, but rotated counterclockwise 45 degrees.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A7C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩼</span> || Greater-Than with Question Mark Above || Used in proofs to indicate a greater-than relation that should exist but hasn't been proven yet (non-rigorous) || Confused alligator || One metaphor used when teaching inequality signs in primary school is that the sign looks like an alligator mouth "eating" the larger number. Question marks are commonly used in cartoons to indicate confusion on the part of a character.<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⦞</span> || Angle with S Inside || Plural for the angle symbol (∠) [https://www.quora.com/Unicode-How-is-the-s-in-triangle-glyph-used-in-mathematics][https://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/1114/Homework%20Helper%20Unit%203%20ch%209-10.pdf] rarely used || Snack || May look like a mouth eating an S, where the S symbolizes some snack food.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨄</span> || {{w|Arity|N-ary}} Union Operator with Plus || Disjoint union[https://books.google.com/books?id=531cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%E2%A8%84&source=bl&ots=oYXkMNXP-T&sig=ACfU3U2QvMRBkD7uVG0OSumKI0JQtjTIKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwios862ypL3AhWXVTABHTnQALQQ6AF6BAgKEAM] (joining two sets that have no elements in common) || Drink refill || Looks like a cup with a plus to indicate adding drink to the cup.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⭈</span> || Rightwards Arrow Above Reverse Almost Equal To || Pairs with <span style="font-size: x-large;">⭂</span> which could conceivably mean {{w|Assignment (computer science)|assignment}} of an {{w|Approximation|approximation}}, but neither seem to be in use. || Snakes over there || Looks like two squiggles to represent snakes and an arrow indicating the direction where they may be found.<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">≝</span> || Equal To By Definition || Indicates an equation where the left side is to be defined as the right side[https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1z1mty/can_someone_please_explain_the_equal_to_by/] usually used in proofs to indicate a definition is being introduced|| Definitely, for sure || "Def" is a contraction of "definitely" used in slang; the equal sign looks like a double underline, indicating heavy emphasis.<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍼</span> || Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow || No purpose is known[https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html]; speculation includes "Y axis continues downward" and "diode with a gate". || Larry Potter || Looks like the letter "L" and a lightning bolt. {{w|Harry Potter (character)|Harry Potter}} is known for having a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The character {{w|Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series#Nancy_Stouffer|Larry Potter}} figured in a fraudulent legal claim against J.K. Rowling.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩐</span> || Closed Union with Serifs and Smash Product || Indicates that a collection of topological spaces is {{w|Union-closed sets conjecture|closed}} when taking arbitrary unions and smash products. That is, if you take the union of any collection of topological spaces in the collection (even uncountably many), or the smash product of them, the result will also be in that collection. This is apparently important because the sets can't be isomorphic (one cannot be rearranged to be exactly the other) [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/196084/counterexample-for-associativity-of-smash-product] For use in a serif font|| Spider caught with a cup and index card || Spiders or other bugs found within someone's house or workspace may be caught with a glass and something flat, often a card or a magazine, to be released outside. The eight projecting lines of the smash product symbol resemble the eight legs of a spider.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩩</span> || Triple Horizontal Bar with Triple Vertical Stroke || Decorative.{{citation needed}} Possibly a four-by-four {{w|tic-tac-toe}} board.[https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sandlund/NumericalTicTacToe.pdf] || ℍ𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕘 || Hash symbol with one extra vertical and horizontal line, or perhaps a hash symbol which has been accidentally double-struck or overprinted.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍨</span> || APL Functional Symbol Tilde Diaeresis || Indicates that the {{w|negation|logical not}} operation should be performed on each of the symbols that follow || <span style="font-size: large;">:/</span> || Looks like a confused or disappointed face. Randall's use is in fact common among {{w|APL (programming language)|APL}} programmers in the comments, as documented [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/APL_Orchard#Emoticons here].<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">℘</span> || Script Capital P || An eccentric, Gothic-esque capital Roman P first used by Weierstrass for his self-named "p-function." This symbol is universally used for the {{w|Weierstrass Elliptic Function|p-function}} and apparently has no name except "Weierstrass-p." It is reminiscent of ∂, a stylized cursive d used for partial differentials or ∫, a stylized long s used for integrals. || Snake || This symbol coils around like a long snake, with a tapering-off tail on one end and a small "head" on the other.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⫁</span> || Subset with Multiplication Sign Below || Indicates that one set is subset of another by means of the cross product || <div style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: center;">User<br />experience</div> || Looks like the letters "Ux" sideways; Ux is a common abbreviation for {{w|user experience}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⌭</span> || {{w|Cylindricity}} || A symbol used in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) to represent a parameter called "cylindricity" which describes the statistical deviation of an ensemble of surfaces from a reference cylinder. [https://cimquest-inc.com/metrology-minute-cylindricity/ example use] || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball || Looks like two flat hands (perhaps like stick-figure arms) rolling a ball between them. Rolling dough between one's hands to make it into a ball is an important step in making many kinds of pastry and bread.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨓</span> || Line Integration with Semicircular Path Around Pole || Very rare symbol for half of a closed {{w|Contour integration|contour}} or {{w|Line integral|line}} integral which contains the {{w|Origin (mathematics)|origin}} in its interior. Contour integrals which circle the origin are very important in complex analysis. If such an integral were split into two parts, each could be represented by this symbol.<br />
This can be mistaken for <span style="font-size: x-large;">⨔</span> (Integral not including the {{w|Zeros and poles|pole}}, which has a wider and more complete arc around an offset dot.) [https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2299363/where-is-the-%E2%A8%93-integral-symbol-defined]<br />
|| Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard || Looks like an {{w|integral}} symbol with a bump that goes around a dot, as if a professor was drawing an integral on a whiteboard but did not want to disturb a bee that had landed right in the path of their marker.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A0B (title text)|| <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨋</span> || Summation with Integral || The sum of the sum of the discrete elements (∑) and the integrals (∫) over the connected pieces. This symbol requires context to be meaningful but could occur, for instance, when computing probabilities using mixed distributions.<br />
[https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/1308743505309822977 see also] <br />
|| Mathematicians need to calm down || Since the two symbols combined are kinds of summation the symbol seem unnecessary at first glance. The comment given may make fun of mathematicians' tendency to form increasingly complex expressions in their work.<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
This comic may have been inspired by [https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html this blog post], which went viral (in a limited sense) the same day the comic was published.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[Title:] Weird Unicode math symbols<br />
<br />
[Subtitle:] And their meanings<br />
<br />
{|<br />
| U+29CD || ⧍ || Shark<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || ⏧ || Traffic circle<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || ⨳ || Hashtag [the text is slanted counterclockwise]<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || ⦞ || Snack<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || ⨄ || Drink refill<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || ⭈ || Snakes over there<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || ≝ || Definitely, for sure<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || ⍼ || Larry Potter<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || ⩐ || Spider caught with a cup and index card<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || ⩩ || [The word "hashtag" but with extra horizontal and vertical lines]<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || ⍨ || :/<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || ℘ || Snake<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || ⫁ || [The words "user experience" rotated clockwise 90 degrees]<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || ⌭ || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || ⨓ || Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Unicode]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Harry Potter]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2606:_Weird_Unicode_Math_Symbols&diff=2303982606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols2022-04-14T08:18:38Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2606<br />
| date = April 13, 2022<br />
| title = Weird Unicode Math Symbols<br />
| image = weird_unicode_math_symbols.png<br />
| titletext = U+2A0B ⨋ Mathematicians need to calm down<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by A SNAKE AVOIDING A BEE ON A WHITEBOARD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic proposes joke explanations for various unicode symbols with obscure or no known uses.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Symbols<br />
|-<br />
! Codepoint !! Symbol !! Unicode Name !! Actual use !! Randall's meaning || Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| U+29CD || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⧍</span> || Triangle with Serifs At Bottom || No standard use,{{citation needed}} but resembles the {{w|National Park Service}} cartographic symbol for a campsite.[https://github.com/nationalparkservice/symbol-library/] || Shark || May look like a shark fin sticking out of the water.<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⏧</span> || Electrical Intersection || Indicates where wires branch off || Traffic circle || May look like a {{w|roundabout}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨳</span> || {{w|Smash product}} || the quotient of the underlying spaces of two {{w|pointed spaces}} where points in the {{w|product spaces}} are identified if they contain either labeled point as an element. || <div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">S</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">T</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">G</div> || Looks somewhat like the {{w|Number sign|hash}} symbol (#) – commonly used for indicating tags called {{w|hashtag}}s in social media, but rotated counterclockwise 45 degrees.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A7C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩼</span> || Greater-Than with Question Mark Above || Used in proofs to indicate a greater-than relation that should exist but hasn't been proven yet (non-rigorous) || Confused alligator || One metaphor used when teaching inequality signs in primary school is that the sign looks like an alligator mouth "eating" the larger number. Question marks are commonly used in cartoons to indicate confusion on the part of a character.<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⦞</span> || Angle with S Inside || Plural for the angle symbol (∠) [https://www.quora.com/Unicode-How-is-the-s-in-triangle-glyph-used-in-mathematics][https://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/1114/Homework%20Helper%20Unit%203%20ch%209-10.pdf] rarely used || Snack || May look like a mouth eating an S, where the S symbolizes some snack food.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨄</span> || {{w|Arity|N-ary}} Union Operator with Plus || Disjoint union[https://books.google.com/books?id=531cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%E2%A8%84&source=bl&ots=oYXkMNXP-T&sig=ACfU3U2QvMRBkD7uVG0OSumKI0JQtjTIKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwios862ypL3AhWXVTABHTnQALQQ6AF6BAgKEAM] (joining two sets that have no elements in common) || Drink refill || Looks like a cup with a plus to indicate adding drink to the cup.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⭈</span> || Rightwards Arrow Above Reverse Almost Equal To || Pairs with <span style="font-size: x-large;">⭂</span> which could conceivably mean {{w|Assignment (computer science)|assignment}} of an {{w|Approximation algorithm|algorithmic}} {{w|Approximation#Typography|approximation}}, but neither seem to be in use. || Snakes over there || Looks like two squiggles to represent snakes and an arrow indicating the direction where they may be found.<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">≝</span> || Equal To By Definition || Indicates an equation where the left side is to be defined as the right side[https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1z1mty/can_someone_please_explain_the_equal_to_by/] usually used in proofs to indicate a definition is being introduced|| Definitely, for sure || "Def" is a contraction of "definitely" used in slang; the equal sign looks like a double underline, indicating heavy emphasis.<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍼</span> || Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow || No purpose is known[https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html]; speculation includes "Y axis continues downward" and "diode with a gate". || Larry Potter || Looks like the letter "L" and a lightning bolt. {{w|Harry Potter (character)|Harry Potter}} is known for having a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The character {{w|Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series#Nancy_Stouffer|Larry Potter}} figured in a fraudulent legal claim against J.K. Rowling.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩐</span> || Closed Union with Serifs and Smash Product || Indicates that a collection of topological spaces is {{w|Union-closed sets conjecture|closed}} when taking arbitrary unions and smash products. That is, if you take the union of any collection of topological spaces in the collection (even uncountably many), or the smash product of them, the result will also be in that collection. This is apparently important because the sets can't be isomorphic (one cannot be rearranged to be exactly the other) [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/196084/counterexample-for-associativity-of-smash-product] For use in a serif font|| Spider caught with a cup and index card || Spiders or other bugs found within someone's house or workspace may be caught with a glass and something flat, often a card or a magazine, to be released outside. The eight projecting lines of the smash product symbol resemble the eight legs of a spider.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩩</span> || Triple Horizontal Bar with Triple Vertical Stroke || Decorative.{{citation needed}} Possibly a four-by-four {{w|tic-tac-toe}} board.[https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sandlund/NumericalTicTacToe.pdf] || ℍ𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕘 || Hash symbol with one extra vertical and horizontal line, or perhaps a hash symbol which has been accidentally double-struck or overprinted.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍨</span> || APL Functional Symbol Tilde Diaeresis || Indicates that the {{w|negation|logical not}} operation should be performed on each of the symbols that follow || <span style="font-size: large;">:/</span> || Looks like a confused or disappointed face. Randall's use is in fact common among {{w|APL (programming language)|APL}} programmers in the comments, as documented [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/APL_Orchard#Emoticons here].<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">℘</span> || Script Capital P || An eccentric, Gothic-esque capital Roman P first used by Weierstrass for his self-named "p-function." This symbol is universally used for the {{w|Weierstrass Elliptic Function|p-function}} and apparently has no name except "Weierstrass-p." It is reminiscent of ∂, a stylized cursive d used for partial differentials or ∫, a stylized long s used for integrals. || Snake || This symbol coils around like a long snake, with a tapering-off tail on one end and a small "head" on the other.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⫁</span> || Subset with Multiplication Sign Below || Indicates that one set is subset of another by means of the cross product || <div style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: center;">User<br />experience</div> || Looks like the letters "Ux" sideways; Ux is a common abbreviation for {{w|user experience}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⌭</span> || {{w|Cylindricity}} || A symbol used in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) to represent a parameter called "cylindricity" which describes the statistical deviation of an ensemble of surfaces from a reference cylinder. [https://cimquest-inc.com/metrology-minute-cylindricity/ example use] || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball || Looks like two flat hands (perhaps like stick-figure arms) rolling a ball between them. Rolling dough between one's hands to make it into a ball is an important step in making many kinds of pastry.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨓</span> || Line Integration with Semicircular Path Around Pole || Very rare symbol for half of a closed {{w|Contour integration|contour}} or {{w|Line integral|line}} integral which contains the {{w|Origin (mathematics)|origin}} in its interior. Contour integrals which circle the origin are very important in complex analysis. If such an integral were split into two parts, each could be represented by this symbol.<br />
This can be mistaken for <span style="font-size: x-large;">⨔</span> (Integral not including the {{w|Zeros and poles|pole}}, which has a wider and more complete arc around an offset dot.) [https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2299363/where-is-the-%E2%A8%93-integral-symbol-defined]<br />
|| Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard || Looks like an {{w|integral}} symbol with a bump that goes around a dot, as if a professor was drawing an integral on a whiteboard but did not want to disturb a bee that had landed right in the path of their marker.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A0B (title text)|| <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨋</span> || Summation with Integral || The sum of the sum of the discrete elements (∑) and the integrals (∫) over the connected pieces. This symbol requires context to be meaningful but could occur, for instance, when computing probabilities using mixed distributions.<br />
[https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/1308743505309822977 see also] <br />
|| Mathematicians need to calm down || Since the two symbols combined are kinds of summation the symbol seem unnecessary at first glance. The comment given may make fun of mathematicians' tendency to form increasingly complex expressions in their work.<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
This comic may have been inspired by [https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html this blog post], which went viral (in a limited sense) the same day the comic was published.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[Title:] Weird Unicode math symbols<br />
<br />
[Subtitle:] And their meanings<br />
<br />
{|<br />
| U+29CD || ⧍ || Shark<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || ⏧ || Traffic circle<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || ⨳ || Hashtag [the text is slanted counterclockwise]<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || ⦞ || Snack<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || ⨄ || Drink refill<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || ⭈ || Snakes over there<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || ≝ || Definitely, for sure<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || ⍼ || Larry Potter<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || ⩐ || Spider caught with a cup and index card<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || ⩩ || [The word "hashtag" but with extra horizontal and vertical lines]<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || ⍨ || :/<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || ℘ || Snake<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || ⫁ || [The words "user experience" rotated clockwise 90 degrees]<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || ⌭ || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || ⨓ || Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Unicode]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Harry Potter]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2606:_Weird_Unicode_Math_Symbols&diff=2303972606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols2022-04-14T08:16:18Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2606<br />
| date = April 13, 2022<br />
| title = Weird Unicode Math Symbols<br />
| image = weird_unicode_math_symbols.png<br />
| titletext = U+2A0B ⨋ Mathematicians need to calm down<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by A SNAKE AVOIDING A BEE ON A WHITEBOARD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic proposes joke explanations for various unicode symbols with obscure or no known uses.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Symbols<br />
|-<br />
! Codepoint !! Symbol !! Unicode Name !! Actual use !! Randall's meaning || Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| U+29CD || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⧍</span> || Triangle with Serifs At Bottom || No standard use,{{citation needed}} but resembles the {{w|National Park Service}} cartographic symbol for a campsite.[https://github.com/nationalparkservice/symbol-library/] || Shark || May look like a shark fin sticking out of the water.<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⏧</span> || Electrical Intersection || Indicates where wires branch off || Traffic circle || May look like a {{w|roundabout}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨳</span> || {{w|Smash product}} || the quotient of the underlying spaces of two {{w|pointed spaces}} where points in the {{w|product spaces}} are identified if they contain either labeled point as an element. || <div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">S</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">T</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">G</div> || Looks somewhat like the {{w|Number sign|hash}} symbol (#) – commonly used for indicating tags called {{w|hashtag}}s in social media, but rotated counterclockwise 45 degrees.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A7C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩼</span> || Greater-Than with Question Mark Above || Used in proofs to indicate a greater-than relation that should exist but hasn't been proven yet (non-rigorous) || Confused alligator || One metaphor used when teaching inequality signs in primary school is that the sign looks like an alligator mouth "eating" the larger number. Question marks are commonly used in cartoons to indicate confusion on the part of a character.<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⦞</span> || Angle with S Inside || Plural for the angle symbol (∠) [https://www.quora.com/Unicode-How-is-the-s-in-triangle-glyph-used-in-mathematics][https://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/1114/Homework%20Helper%20Unit%203%20ch%209-10.pdf] rarely used || Snack || May look like a mouth eating an S, where the S symbolizes some snack food.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨄</span> || {{w|Arity|N-ary}} Union Operator with Plus || Disjoint union[https://books.google.com/books?id=531cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%E2%A8%84&source=bl&ots=oYXkMNXP-T&sig=ACfU3U2QvMRBkD7uVG0OSumKI0JQtjTIKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwios862ypL3AhWXVTABHTnQALQQ6AF6BAgKEAM] (joining two sets that have no elements in common) || Drink refill || Looks like a cup with a plus to indicate adding drink to the cup.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⭈</span> || Rightwards Arrow Above Reverse Almost Equal To || Pairs with <span style="font-size: x-large;">⭂</span> which could conceivably mean {{w|Assignment (computer science)|assignment}} of an {{w|Approximation algorithm|algorithmic}} {{w|Approximation#Typography|approximation}}, but neither seem to be in use. || Snakes over there || Looks like two squiggles to represent snakes and an arrow indicating the direction where they may be found.<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">≝</span> || Equal To By Definition || Indicates an equation where the left side is to be defined as the right side[https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1z1mty/can_someone_please_explain_the_equal_to_by/] usually used in proofs to indicate a definition is being introduced|| Definitely, for sure || "Def" is a contraction of "definitely" used in slang; the equal sign looks like a double underline, indicating heavy emphasis.<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍼</span> || Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow || No purpose is known[https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html]; speculation includes "Y axis continues downward" and "diode with a gate". || Larry Potter || Looks like the letter "L" and a lightning bolt. {{w|Harry Potter (character)|Harry Potter}} is known for having a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The character {{w|Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series#Nancy_Stouffer|Larry Potter}} figured in a fraudulent legal claim against J.K. Rowling.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩐</span> || Closed Union with Serifs and Smash Product || Indicates that a collection of topological spaces is {{w|Union-closed sets conjecture|closed}} when taking arbitrary unions and smash products, for use in a serif font. That is, if you take the union of any collection of topological spaces in the collection (even uncountably many), or the smash product of them, the result will also be in that collection. This is apparently important because the sets can't be isomorphic (one cannot be rearranged to be exactly the other) [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/196084/counterexample-for-associativity-of-smash-product] || Spider caught with a cup and index card || Spiders or other bugs found within someone's house or workspace may be caught with a glass and something flat, often a card or a magazine, to be released outside.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩩</span> || Triple Horizontal Bar with Triple Vertical Stroke || Decorative.{{citation needed}} Possibly a four-by-four {{w|tic-tac-toe}} board.[https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sandlund/NumericalTicTacToe.pdf] || ℍ𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕘 || Hash symbol with one extra vertical and horizontal line, or perhaps a hash symbol which has been accidentally double-struck or overprinted.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍨</span> || APL Functional Symbol Tilde Diaeresis || Indicates that the {{w|negation|logical not}} operation should be performed on each of the symbols that follow || <span style="font-size: large;">:/</span> || Looks like a confused or disappointed face. Randall's use is in fact common among {{w|APL (programming language)|APL}} programmers in the comments, as documented [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/APL_Orchard#Emoticons here].<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">℘</span> || Script Capital P || An eccentric, Gothic-esque capital Roman P first used by Weierstrass for his self-named "p-function." This symbol is universally used for the {{w|Weierstrass Elliptic Function|p-function}} and apparently has no name except "Weierstrass-p." It is reminiscent of ∂, a stylized cursive d used for partial differentials or ∫, a stylized long s used for integrals. || Snake || This symbol coils around like a long snake, with a tapering-off tail on one end and a small "head" on the other.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⫁</span> || Subset with Multiplication Sign Below || Indicates that one set is subset of another by means of the cross product || <div style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: center;">User<br />experience</div> || Looks like the letters "Ux" sideways; Ux is a common abbreviation for {{w|user experience}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⌭</span> || {{w|Cylindricity}} || A symbol used in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) to represent a parameter called "cylindricity" which describes the statistical deviation of an ensemble of surfaces from a reference cylinder. [https://cimquest-inc.com/metrology-minute-cylindricity/ example use] || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball || Looks like two flat hands (perhaps like stick-figure arms) rolling a ball between them. Rolling dough between one's hands to make it into a ball is an important step in making many kinds of pastry.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨓</span> || Line Integration with Semicircular Path Around Pole || Very rare symbol for half of a closed {{w|Contour integration|contour}} or {{w|Line integral|line}} integral which contains the {{w|Origin (mathematics)|origin}} in its interior. Contour integrals which circle the origin are very important in complex analysis. If such an integral were split into two parts, each could be represented by this symbol.<br />
This can be mistaken for <span style="font-size: x-large;">⨔</span> (Integral not including the {{w|Zeros and poles|pole}}, which has a wider and more complete arc around an offset dot.) [https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2299363/where-is-the-%E2%A8%93-integral-symbol-defined]<br />
|| Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard || Looks like an {{w|integral}} symbol with a bump that goes around a dot, as if a professor was drawing an integral on a whiteboard but did not want to disturb a bee that had landed right in the path of their marker.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A0B (title text)|| <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨋</span> || Summation with Integral || The sum of the sum of the discrete elements (∑) and the integrals (∫) over the connected pieces. This symbol requires context to be meaningful but could occur, for instance, when computing probabilities using mixed distributions.<br />
[https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/1308743505309822977 see also] <br />
|| Mathematicians need to calm down || Since the two symbols combined are kinds of summation the symbol seem unnecessary at first glance. The comment given may make fun of mathematicians' tendency to form increasingly complex expressions in their work.<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
This comic may have been inspired by [https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html this blog post], which went viral (in a limited sense) the same day the comic was published.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[Title:] Weird Unicode math symbols<br />
<br />
[Subtitle:] And their meanings<br />
<br />
{|<br />
| U+29CD || ⧍ || Shark<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || ⏧ || Traffic circle<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || ⨳ || Hashtag [the text is slanted counterclockwise]<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || ⦞ || Snack<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || ⨄ || Drink refill<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || ⭈ || Snakes over there<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || ≝ || Definitely, for sure<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || ⍼ || Larry Potter<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || ⩐ || Spider caught with a cup and index card<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || ⩩ || [The word "hashtag" but with extra horizontal and vertical lines]<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || ⍨ || :/<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || ℘ || Snake<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || ⫁ || [The words "user experience" rotated clockwise 90 degrees]<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || ⌭ || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || ⨓ || Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Unicode]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Harry Potter]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2606:_Weird_Unicode_Math_Symbols&diff=2303952606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols2022-04-14T08:10:49Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2606<br />
| date = April 13, 2022<br />
| title = Weird Unicode Math Symbols<br />
| image = weird_unicode_math_symbols.png<br />
| titletext = U+2A0B ⨋ Mathematicians need to calm down<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by SNAKES OVER THERE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic proposes joke explanations for various unicode symbols with obscure or no known uses.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Symbols<br />
|-<br />
! Codepoint !! Symbol !! Unicode Name !! Actual use !! Randall's meaning || Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| U+29CD || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⧍</span> || Triangle with Serifs At Bottom || No standard use,{{citation needed}} but resembles the {{w|National Park Service}} cartographic symbol for a campsite.[https://github.com/nationalparkservice/symbol-library/] || Shark || May look like a shark fin sticking out of the water.<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⏧</span> || Electrical Intersection || Indicates where wires branch off || Traffic circle || May look like a {{w|roundabout}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨳</span> || {{w|Smash product}} || the quotient of the underlying spaces of two {{w|pointed spaces}} where points in the {{w|product spaces}} are identified if they contain either labeled point as an element. || <div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">S</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">H</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">T</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">A</div><div style="transform: rotate(-45deg); display: table-cell;">G</div> || Looks somewhat like the {{w|Number sign|hash}} symbol (#) – commonly used for indicating tags called {{w|hashtag}}s in social media, but rotated counterclockwise 45 degrees.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A7C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩼</span> || Greater-Than with Question Mark Above || Used in proofs to indicate a greater-than relation that should exist but hasn't been proven yet (non-rigorous) || Confused alligator || One metaphor used when teaching inequality signs in primary school is that the sign looks like an alligator mouth "eating" the larger number. Question marks are commonly used in cartoons to indicate confusion on the part of a character.<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⦞</span> || Angle with S Inside || Plural for the angle symbol (∠) [https://www.quora.com/Unicode-How-is-the-s-in-triangle-glyph-used-in-mathematics][https://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/1114/Homework%20Helper%20Unit%203%20ch%209-10.pdf] rarely used || Snack || May look like a mouth eating an S, where the S symbolizes some snack food.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨄</span> || {{w|Arity|N-ary}} Union Operator with Plus || Disjoint union[https://books.google.com/books?id=531cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%E2%A8%84&source=bl&ots=oYXkMNXP-T&sig=ACfU3U2QvMRBkD7uVG0OSumKI0JQtjTIKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwios862ypL3AhWXVTABHTnQALQQ6AF6BAgKEAM] (joining two sets that have no elements in common) || Drink refill || Looks like a cup with a plus to indicate adding drink to the cup.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⭈</span> || Rightwards Arrow Above Reverse Almost Equal To || Pairs with <span style="font-size: x-large;">⭂</span> which could conceivably mean {{w|Assignment (computer science)|assignment}} of an {{w|Approximation algorithm|algorithmic}} {{w|Approximation#Typography|approximation}}, but neither seem to be in use. || Snakes over there || Looks like two squiggles to represent snakes and an arrow indicating the direction where they may be found.<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">≝</span> || Equal To By Definition || Indicates an equation where the left side is to be defined as the right side[https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1z1mty/can_someone_please_explain_the_equal_to_by/] usually used in proofs to indicate a definition is being introduced|| Definitely, for sure || "Def" is understood as "definitely"; the equal sign looks like a double underline, indicating heavy emphasis.<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍼</span> || Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow || No purpose is known[https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html]; speculation includes "Y axis continues downward" and "diode with a gate". || Larry Potter || Looks like the letter "L" and a lightning bolt. {{w|Harry Potter (character)|Harry Potter}} is known for having a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The character {{w|Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series#Nancy_Stouffer|Larry Potter}} figured in a fraudulent legal claim against J.K. Rowling.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩐</span> || Closed Union with Serifs and Smash Product || Indicates that a collection of topological spaces is {{w|Union-closed sets conjecture|closed}} when taking arbitrary unions and smash products, for use in a serif font. That is, if you take the union of any collection of topological spaces in the collection (even uncountably many), or the smash product of them, the result will also be in that collection. This is apparently important because the sets can't be isomorphic (one cannot be rearranged to be exactly the other) [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/196084/counterexample-for-associativity-of-smash-product] || Spider caught with a cup and index card || Spiders or other bugs found within someone's house or workspace may be caught with a glass and something flat, often a card or a magazine, to be released outside.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⩩</span> || Triple Horizontal Bar with Triple Vertical Stroke || Decorative.{{citation needed}} Possibly a four-by-four {{w|tic-tac-toe}} board.[https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sandlund/NumericalTicTacToe.pdf] || ℍ𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕘 || Hash symbol with one extra vertical and horizontal line, or perhaps a hash symbol which has been accidentally double-struck or overprinted.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⍨</span> || APL Functional Symbol Tilde Diaeresis || Indicates that the {{w|negation|logical not}} operation should be performed on each of the symbols that follow || <span style="font-size: large;">:/</span> || Looks like a confused or disappointed face. Randall's use is in fact common among {{w|APL (programming language)|APL}} programmers in the comments, as documented [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/APL_Orchard#Emoticons here].<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">℘</span> || Script Capital P || An eccentric, Gothic-esque capital Roman P first used by Weierstrass for his self-named "p-function." This symbol is universally used for the {{w|Weierstrass Elliptic Function|p-function}} and apparently has no name except "Weierstrass-p." It is reminiscent of ∂, a stylized cursive d used for partial differentials or ∫, a stylized long s used for integrals. || Snake || This symbol coils around like a long snake, with a tapering-off tail on one end and a small "head" on the other.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⫁</span> || Subset with Multiplication Sign Below || Indicates that one set is subset of another by means of the cross product || <div style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: center;">User<br />experience</div> || Looks like the letters "Ux" sideways; Ux is a common abbreviation for {{w|user experience}}.<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⌭</span> || {{w|Cylindricity}} || A symbol used in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) to represent a parameter called "cylindricity" which describes the statistical deviation of an ensemble of surfaces from a reference cylinder. [https://cimquest-inc.com/metrology-minute-cylindricity/ example use] || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball || Looks like two flat hands (perhaps like stick-figure arms) rolling a ball between them. Rolling dough between one's hands to make it into a ball is an important step in making many kinds of pastry.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨓</span> || Line Integration with Semicircular Path Around Pole || Very rare symbol for half of a closed {{w|Contour integration|contour}} or {{w|Line integral|line}} integral which contains the {{w|Origin (mathematics)|origin}} in its interior. Contour integrals which circle the origin are very important in complex analysis. If such an integral were split into two parts, each could be represented by this symbol.<br />
This can be mistaken for <span style="font-size: x-large;">⨔</span> (Integral not including the {{w|Zeros and poles|pole}}, which has a wider and more complete arc around an offset dot.) [https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2299363/where-is-the-%E2%A8%93-integral-symbol-defined]<br />
|| Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard || Looks like an {{w|integral}} symbol with a bump that goes around a dot, as if a professor was drawing an integral on a whiteboard but did not want to disturb a bee that had landed right in the path of their marker.<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A0B (title text)|| <span style="font-size: xx-large;">⨋</span> || Summation with Integral || The sum of the sum of the discrete elements (∑) and the integrals (∫) over the connected pieces. This symbol requires context to be meaningful but could occur, for instance, when computing probabilities using mixed distributions.<br />
[https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/1308743505309822977 see also] <br />
|| Mathematicians need to calm down || Since the two symbols combined are kinds of summation the symbol seem unnecessary at first glance. The comment given may make fun of mathematicians' tendency to form increasingly complex expressions in their work.<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
This comic may have been inspired by [https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html this blog post], which went viral (in a limited sense) the same day the comic was published.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[Title:] Weird Unicode math symbols<br />
<br />
[Subtitle:] And their meanings<br />
<br />
{|<br />
| U+29CD || ⧍ || Shark<br />
|-<br />
| U+23E7 || ⏧ || Traffic circle<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A33 || ⨳ || Hashtag [the text is slanted counterclockwise]<br />
|-<br />
| U+299E || ⦞ || Snack<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A04 || ⨄ || Drink refill<br />
|-<br />
| U+2B48 || ⭈ || Snakes over there<br />
|-<br />
| U+225D || ≝ || Definitely, for sure<br />
|-<br />
| U+237C || ⍼ || Larry Potter<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A50 || ⩐ || Spider caught with a cup and index card<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A69 || ⩩ || [The word "hashtag" but with extra horizontal and vertical lines]<br />
|-<br />
| U+2368 || ⍨ || :/<br />
|-<br />
| U+2118 || ℘ || Snake<br />
|-<br />
| U+2AC1 || ⫁ || [The words "user experience" rotated clockwise 90 degrees]<br />
|-<br />
| U+232D || ⌭ || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball<br />
|-<br />
| U+2A13 || ⨓ || Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Unicode]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Harry Potter]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2598:_Graphic_Designers&diff=229628Talk:2598: Graphic Designers2022-04-03T18:11:27Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
I think a better analogy would be with garlic. The threshold barrier is a magical force that blocks them, while vampires just find garlic really off-putting. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:12, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
: Depends on the lore. In some settings garlic is entirely ineffective (example: World of Darkness) and in other it's outright poisonous/harmful (example: Dresdenverse Black Court). [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:16, 28 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone think we should add the hex color codes of all the walls to the explanation? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:23, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I suspect Randall didn't ACTUALLY use different colours in this comic. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:42, 26 March 2022 (UTC):<br />
::I've just gone over the comic with a colour picker... I have bad and/or good news: You are incorrect. [[User:Tantusar|Tantusar]] ([[User talk:Tantusar|talk]]) 04:52, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Yup, should have known, LOL! I see as suggested (which in such case I totally agree) someone added the different colours, and wonderful touch with the saturation picture. I had figured he'd make a slightly bigger difference so someone with a good eye (like myself) could spot SOMETHING. But I forgot how Randall gets into "You need graphic software" territory, LMAO! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 22:58, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I can't see any difference but I bow to your greater geekery [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:57, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey! As of tonight I'm caught up on XKCD for the first time in 2 years! I read them at the bar, at karaoke, and my last time out before staying in for the pandemic was mid-March 2020. I needed to share. :) First comic reading it ON the release day in that long. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:42, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey, Randall! You made the floor FFFFFF, but that isn't a shade of off-white. It's just white. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 09:12, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Who paints the floor, anyway? Varnish, maybe, in a suitably wooden-floored residential situation, but not paint. But I'd say it's (however, whether carpet or laminate or whatever) that is the white from which all the other whites are suitably 'off-'...<br />
:(Also, the 'innocuous things that repel' vibe reminds me of the end-game for the vampire family in {{w|Carpe Jugulum}}, after being inadvertently highly trained to appreciate religious symbology.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 09:28, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
::This DOES specify "walls", :) As it is, it's nuts he included the rug. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 22:58, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::No it says ''every surface''. So actually the floor should have been off-white as well since it is a surface. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:24, 27 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::Yeah, I should REALLY confirm the wording before I say such things, LOL! In my defence, we can't see the comic when adding a comment, :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 01:00, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My dentist will not allow off-white colours in the front room of his house because the colour is too much like work related thoughts. He has told his wife that she can choose any colour style as long as it does not include off-white. (My hobby is to ask people how their job changes aspects of their non-job life.) [[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]]) 12:54, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Could have been one of Randall's hobbies...--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:24, 27 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It would be helpful to add a version of the comic with the color saturation cranked up, like this: https://i.imgur.com/gMpmJlp.png .<br />
However, I cannot upload images. Also note that the window ledges have their own colors, too. [[User:Hknl|Hknl]] ([[User talk:Hknl|talk]]) 14:48, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Got there before me. I was going to do a version of my own (fullest saturation, probably) as soon as I was on something sensible like my desktop with good old GIMP.<br />
:PS... That's surprisingly close to a (muted) accumulation of my house colour-scheme, minus a few others I also used. Though not in the same room. Frexample, the walls of my hallway and stairs are Etruscan Orange (no, I don't know what makes it {{w|Etruscan}}, but that was the paint name!) while those in the adjoining living room are Lime Green. The ceilings and smirting-boards tend to be standard white, but the covings are matching-but-darker hues of the walls. I'm planning the repainting/redecorating of another property and I'm using the 20-odd years living within the above pallette (with no complaints, but maybe additional or alternative ideas) to perhaps be a bit more adventurous in some places. Like trying graduated countershading/hue-shifting in some corners... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 16:15, 26 March 2022 (UTC) <br />
::Hi, got here first with paint.net :) [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 17:08, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Interesting colour distribution, if I didn't somehow mess up the conversion in a scratch script I made. Here's the number of pixels (that are not black/white/grey; i.e. 260,817 out of the entire 517,470 present in the _2x image) that inhabit each hue-position.<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"<br />
!Colour Sextant !! 0+60n !! 10+60n !! 20+60n !! 30+60n !! ... !! 40+60n !! ... !! 50+60n<br />
|-<br />
|Red->Yellow || 0° x 544|| n/a || 20° x69|| 30° x29955|| n/a || 40° x31|| n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Yellow->Green || 60° x 766|| n/a || 80° x 4|| 90° x13962|| 96° x1514||100° x91||105° x48|| n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Green->Cyan ||120° x23188|| n/a || n/a ||150° x 6790|| n/a ||160° x 2|| n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Cyan->Blue ||180° x91337|| n/a || n/a ||210° x72433|| n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Blue->Magenta || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Meganta->Red ||300° x 1093|| n/a ||320° x93||330° x18801|| n/a ||340° x96|| n/a || n/a<br />
|}<br />
:It looks like Randall used ''mostly'' 10-degree spots (two were not), in fact actually even more restricted to the combination of 20-degree spots ''plus'' the 30-degree ones, and nothing at all in the whole 'Blue>Red'-dominant segment. I rounded some to the nearest degree, but my initial figures were all no more than 4x10<sup>-13</sup> away from whole numbers, which is probably just the level of precision achievable with my ad-hoc calculations. I really ought to check that I've not reflected or rotated or otherwise messed up the hue calculation but I feel sure that the basic idea is correct. It shouldn't change the 'interesting coincidences', but could revise ''where'' the pattern actually lies.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:03, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
::He missed the ancient geek joke though. He should have just filled all shapes with #FFFFF2-#FFFFFF, in one bit increments, so that ALL surfaces would appear white to the human eye, but still be different.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 16:04, 28 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey! Now that the saturated version is in, I note that the windows aren't included in the list of colours! I suspect each window frame matches each window ledge (which ARE mentioned for their angle). Looks to me like the left window is about the same pink as the front of the window seat, and the right window is the same tan as the left wall. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 23:15, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Well, nobody has done it in the past week so I checked this out on my computer and added them. And no, they weren't the same! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 01:00, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It might not be needed, but my hypernormalised version (all valid hues fully saturated) can be found [https://imgur.com/a/Csc7r2H here]... it's the _2x version that I altered, if you'd prefer to know that before checking it. You can compare it to the currently off-linked 'increased saturation' image, and see that it 'rounded up' some areas of near- and nearer-white to basically the same values via my hue-only preservation while removing the whole shade subtlety. Like I said above, my house features much of a similar conglomoration of colours. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 05:49, 27 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone who has made one of those pictures, that can allow us to download it and upload it to explain xkcd, so it is a permanent addition to this page, and not depending on the linked pages keeping the image? I can upload it if so. In case you do have a version that is yours to share, answer both here, but also in my talk page, or I might forget --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:42, 27 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:As the creator of the [https://imgur.com/a/Csc7r2H 'hypernormalised version'] (not the best words, but my internal thinking about the process of going fully saturated), do whatever you want with it. I could flood you with loads of other versions (the ones that isolated just the saturation level, for example, so that I could then produce some reworked animated gifs of the scene I thought might be a good idea) but that'd be overkill. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.153|172.69.79.153]] 22:13, 27 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Thanks, could you make one we may use, that are closer to the one [https://i.imgur.com/gMpmJlp.png linked at present]. I think your over saturated version is a bit too much. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:47, 28 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::In reply to the above point, and a couple below:<br />
::::* When I'm back home on Friday, where the computer is that has the conversions (and scripts I fine-tuned to create them) I'll do a 50% saturation (or something) version.<br />
::::* The ceiling and adjacent wall are (practically) the same hue but different SV/SL combos (by HSV or HSL calculations). In both #F3F7F8 and #F2F3F4, the B-channel is valued one higher than the G. As they are both almost maximal, the degree of (smallest value) R doesn't significantly affect the final direction of the vector obtained by combining only the primary and secondary values, and is almost exactly the opposing direction (but not enough to invert the hue by ±180°, obviously) and so it's practically identical within rounding limits. Or so it seems to me.<br />
::::* In the (say) half-saturated version, or whatever proportion looks best to me (I'm no artist, hence I went for the absolute as one less thing to decide myself) I could put the relatively whiter #F2F3F4 (less red, but slightly more red in proportion to green/blue!) at quarter saturation, or whatever does it justice. (75% and 50%? 90% and 80%?)<br />
::::* For a batch of my personal 'for fun' transforms, I found out that the median Saturation of all validly-hued pixels was at roughly 0.015 (1.5%), or at least it was in my version - this of course includes darker anti-aliased pixels associated with the edges of the black lines, though does not count the strictly black/white/grey pixels themselves, wherever they appear.<br />
::::* (NB, I used HSV's version of S, not HSL's, because I emperically found that the L-controlled colourspace complicates things in ways that the V-controlled one does not, in this situation at least. See also chroma-radial biconic and conic 3d plots, respectively. I can't remember the threshold I found under HSL analysis, just that it was less useful/consistent when I tried to use it.) <br />
::::* From memory, the maximum Saturation was 11.1%, give or take, but only a handful of pixels, I forgot where they were. But by rewriting the target output hue as 240*9*saturation was an interesting transform to show where weird pixel-saturations happened, totally changing the scene, of course... ;)<br />
::::* If I used that 0.015 value as a threshold, I could 'separate' the ceiling and far wall in hue-bending ways (e.g. hue=hue+180° where Sat<0.015, or else hue=hue-offset° instead of +offset°; I used both, to good effect)... I think the box-seat-top was the only other major component this twisted, so I just had to stop that becoming too like the hue of ''its'' immediate neighbours and not encounter a different violation of the four-colour problem.<br />
::::* I made a number of animated gifs, mostly pyschedelic in nature. I won't subject you to them, but I'll perhaps recode the automation I used for that to ramp up and down from 'raw' to top-note maximised (keeping lightness in proportion for those that started less sarurated?) and back.<br />
:::: ...or, given these few clues, any idiot with GIMP (or Photoshop?) can probably do a good enough job quickly enough with a few use of sliders, before I even get back to my homegrown scratch Perl code. I might even just do it in GIMP myself, but I think better in raw data and my own idea of the necessary transforms than with some pre-coded visual tools.<br />
:::: So, yeah, if any of that info is useful/comprehendable, you're welcome to it. I'll be back home on Friday, but until then I leave it up to people with actual artistic bones in their bodies, unlike myself. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 19:36, 28 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::Wow, overload ;-) We can wait till Friday if it is. Seems like someone would like to see a gif that ramps up the saturation gradually ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:23, 29 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::::Sorry for the delay. Life got in the way. (Plus stupid coding errors, etc. Long story, short amount of interestingness.) ((PPE: and imgur has changed something recently, makes it very awkward to upload ''without'' the App, it seems. Still, pressing on.))<br />
::::::Wrestled with imgur (they've changed something... no I don't want the app, no I'm not interested in an account, I can't press 'Esc' because I'm on a tablet, or if I'm not on a tablet then it won't work with my latest-version desktop browser for... reasons, and no use trying to sync with Facebook/etc, I don't use it) and I ''think'' [http://imgur.com/a/3v5F1s2 this link] contains everything I promised (but not everything I actually made, for my own pleasure).<br />
::::::1) The 'optimal' linear multiple of saturation that I could (to my eye) produce. Not sure if it's objectively better or worse than what is already here, though.<br />
::::::2) A transitional GIF, with a homegrown hue/sat histogram of dubious quality, below. Some of the detail I thought might work got swallowed up by the GIF colour-table limitations ''after'' I'd made sure it looked Okish and had moved on.<br />
::::::3) An imperfect "one element at a time" highlighting (same histogram), but needs a bit more work. Also (as with with the prior GIF) there's the optical illusion of when a saturated colour disappears, the eye will see the desaturated area with the ''comparative'' opposite hue. ;)<br />
::::::...And I could have included more 'non-primary' colours into the membership table (the two Window-Frame groups actually have their most numerous) single pixel-type counts of less than three ''secondary'' colours (from Ceiling, Wall 1 and Wall 4) that are just artefacts of the original borderline antialiasing.<br />
::::::Incidentally, my tally of primary (classified) pixels with a hue are distributed as follows:<br />
::::::*Wall 4, 85731 pixels, 32.8%<br />
::::::*Wall 3, 46947 pixels, 18.0%<br />
::::::*Ceiling, 38212 pixels, 14.6%<br />
::::::*Wall 1, 29713 pixels, 11.4%<br />
::::::*Door, 21305 pixels, 8.2%<br />
::::::*Box Front, 18543 pixels, 7.1%<br />
::::::*Box Top, 1482 pixels, 5.7%<br />
::::::*Wall 2, 13597 pixels, 5.2%<br />
::::::*Rug Inner, 7919 pixels, 3.0%<br />
::::::*Rug Outer, 6492 pixels, 2.5%<br />
::::::*Left Window, 336 pixels, ~0.1%<br />
::::::*Right Window, 252 pixels, ~0.1%<br />
::::::(...yes, rounding errors do make that exceed 100%! I actually classified all but around 4000 of the 260k pixels before I decided I could have done it better by flood-fill testing in code, rather than hand-defining in my script.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 18:11, 3 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::: Interesting that both hypernormalized and increased saturation show the ceiling as being the same color as the far wall, which they clearly aren't, either to the naked eye, or by their listed hex codes. Would be nice to create a version that showed all the colors as distinct, perhaps by reducing to about 50% brightness while increasing contrast, to essentially equalize the histogram. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.55|172.69.70.55]] 16:30, 28 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is there a category of strips which use color? --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.55|172.69.70.55]] 16:30, 28 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Yes [[:Category:Comics_with_color]], to which this comic has already been linked. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 19:36, 28 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
What I'd love to see is a Animated GIF where we step the saturation up slowly, so folks can see when the notice the color shift. I could tell they were different, but I'd not have been able to tell you HOW until I saw full saturation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 16:52, 28 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Ultimately, the way this is stated makes it an inherently flawed analogy for a reason I'm surprised no one else has pointed out yet. Yes, you could compare being repelled by something aesthetically unpleasing to vampires avoiding things like crosses and garlic, but this is specifically about entering a house, and normally the primary thing preventing vampires from entering houses is needing to be invited, and in this instance they are unwilling to enter despite being explicitly invited in the shown dialogue. This would only be comparable if you compared it to making your whole house made out of or stuffed with garlic or something. Things that keep vampires at bay in a similar manner like crosses and garlic are usually either kept carried on you (like a cross normally), or kept near your bed, such as hanging off some strings around it, to protect you while sleeping (with garlic), and is different from the normal criteria of if they can simply walk through your front doors, which is contingent on an invitation from someone in the house, which a vampire would most likely overcome by either pretending to not be a vampire to be invited in for some false innocent seeming purpose, or using some sort of hypnosis ability like they sometimes are portrayed as having.--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.33|172.70.178.33]] 00:58, 29 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:First... Remember Vampires don't exist, so it's hard to say what they would really do, as they never do anything irl. Second... Humans can enter a house without being invited, so that would of course not work on his friend, to just no invite him. But I guess the idea is to be polite and invite him in, and then prevent him from entering using this method, which normal people would likely not perceive or be annoyed by. So this would have the effect on the designer that not inviting a vampire into you hose. They will not enter! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:23, 29 March 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2598:_Graphic_Designers&diff=229099Talk:2598: Graphic Designers2022-03-26T22:11:18Z<p>172.69.79.223: Missed off the last (regular) column. And another conclusion I meant to add.</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
I think a better analogy would be with garlic. The threshold barrier is a magical force that blocks them, while vampires just find garlic really off-putting. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:12, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone think we should add the hex color codes of all the walls to the explanation? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:23, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I suspect Randall didn't ACTUALLY use different colours in this comic. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:42, 26 March 2022 (UTC):<br />
::I've just gone over the comic with a colour picker... I have bad and/or good news: You are incorrect. [[User:Tantusar|Tantusar]] ([[User talk:Tantusar|talk]]) 04:52, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I can't see any difference but I bow to your greater geekery [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:57, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey! As of tonight I'm caught up on XKCD for the first time in 2 years! I read them at the bar, at karaoke, and my last time out before staying in for the pandemic was mid-March 2020. I needed to share. :) First comic reading it ON the release day in that long. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:42, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey, Randall! You made the floor FFFFFF, but that isn't a shade of off-white. It's just white. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 09:12, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Who paints the floor, anyway? Varnish, maybe, in a suitably wooden-floored residential situation, but not paint. But I'd say it's (however, whether carpet or laminate or whatever) that is the white from which all the other whites are suitably 'off-'...<br />
:(Also, the 'innocuous things that repel' vibe reminds me of the end-game for the vampire family in {{w|Carpe Jugulum}}, after being inadvertently highly trained to appreciate religious symbology.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 09:28, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My dentist will not allow off-white colours in the front room of his house because the colour is too much like work related thoughts. He has told his wife that she can choose any colour style as long as it does not include off-white. (My hobby is to ask people how their job changes aspects of their non-job life.) [[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]]) 12:54, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It would be helpful to add a version of the comic with the color saturation cranked up, like this: https://i.imgur.com/gMpmJlp.png .<br />
However, I cannot upload images. Also note that the window ledges have their own colors, too. [[User:Hknl|Hknl]] ([[User talk:Hknl|talk]]) 14:48, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Got there before me. I was going to do a version of my own (fullest saturation, probably) as soon as I was on something sensible like my desktop with good old GIMP.<br />
:PS... That's surprisingly close to a (muted) accumulation of my house colour-scheme, minus a few others I also used. Though not in the same room. Frexample, the walls of my hallway and stairs are Etruscan Orange (no, I don't know what makes it {{w|Etruscan}}, but that was the paint name!) while those in the adjoining living room are Lime Green. The ceilings and smirting-boards tend to be standard white, but the covings are matching-but-darker hues of the walls. I'm planning the repainting/redecorating of another property and I'm using the 20-odd years living within the above pallette (with no complaints, but maybe additional or alternative ideas) to perhaps be a bit more adventurous in some places. Like trying graduated countershading/hue-shifting in some corners... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 16:15, 26 March 2022 (UTC) <br />
::Hi, got here first with paint.net :) [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 17:08, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Interesting colour distribution, if I didn't somehow mess up the conversion in a scratch script I made. Here's the number of pixels (that are not black/white/grey; i.e. 260,817 out of the entire 517,470 present in the _2x image) that inhabit each hue-position.<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"<br />
!Colour Sextant !! 0+60n !! 10+60n !! 20+60n !! 30+60n !! ... !! 40+60n !! ... !! 50+60n<br />
|-<br />
|Red->Yellow || 0° x 544|| n/a || 20° x69|| 30° x29955|| n/a || 40° x31|| n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Yellow->Green || 60° x 766|| n/a || 80° x 4|| 90° x13962|| 96° x1514||100° x91||105° x48|| n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Green->Cyan ||120° x23188|| n/a || n/a ||150° x 6790|| n/a ||160° x 2|| n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Cyan->Blue ||180° x91337|| n/a || n/a ||210° x72433|| n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Blue->Magenta || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Meganta->Red ||300° x 1093|| n/a ||320° x93||330° x18801|| n/a ||340° x96|| n/a || n/a<br />
|}<br />
:It looks like Randall used ''mostly'' 10-degree spots (two were not), in fact actually even more restricted to the combination of 20-degree spots ''plus'' the 30-degree ones, and nothing at all in the whole 'Blue>Red'-dominant segment. I rounded some to the nearest degree, but my initial figures were all no more than 4x10<sup>-13</sup> away from whole numbers, which is probably just the level of precision achievable with my ad-hoc calculations. I really ought to check that I've not reflected or rotated or otherwise messed up the hue calculation but I feel sure that the basic idea is correct. It shouldn't change the 'interesting coincidences', but could revise ''where'' the pattern actually lies.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:03, 26 March 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2598:_Graphic_Designers&diff=229098Talk:2598: Graphic Designers2022-03-26T22:05:34Z<p>172.69.79.223: Heaer typo</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
I think a better analogy would be with garlic. The threshold barrier is a magical force that blocks them, while vampires just find garlic really off-putting. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:12, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone think we should add the hex color codes of all the walls to the explanation? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:23, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I suspect Randall didn't ACTUALLY use different colours in this comic. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:42, 26 March 2022 (UTC):<br />
::I've just gone over the comic with a colour picker... I have bad and/or good news: You are incorrect. [[User:Tantusar|Tantusar]] ([[User talk:Tantusar|talk]]) 04:52, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I can't see any difference but I bow to your greater geekery [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:57, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey! As of tonight I'm caught up on XKCD for the first time in 2 years! I read them at the bar, at karaoke, and my last time out before staying in for the pandemic was mid-March 2020. I needed to share. :) First comic reading it ON the release day in that long. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:42, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey, Randall! You made the floor FFFFFF, but that isn't a shade of off-white. It's just white. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 09:12, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Who paints the floor, anyway? Varnish, maybe, in a suitably wooden-floored residential situation, but not paint. But I'd say it's (however, whether carpet or laminate or whatever) that is the white from which all the other whites are suitably 'off-'...<br />
:(Also, the 'innocuous things that repel' vibe reminds me of the end-game for the vampire family in {{w|Carpe Jugulum}}, after being inadvertently highly trained to appreciate religious symbology.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 09:28, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My dentist will not allow off-white colours in the front room of his house because the colour is too much like work related thoughts. He has told his wife that she can choose any colour style as long as it does not include off-white. (My hobby is to ask people how their job changes aspects of their non-job life.) [[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]]) 12:54, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It would be helpful to add a version of the comic with the color saturation cranked up, like this: https://i.imgur.com/gMpmJlp.png .<br />
However, I cannot upload images. Also note that the window ledges have their own colors, too. [[User:Hknl|Hknl]] ([[User talk:Hknl|talk]]) 14:48, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Got there before me. I was going to do a version of my own (fullest saturation, probably) as soon as I was on something sensible like my desktop with good old GIMP.<br />
:PS... That's surprisingly close to a (muted) accumulation of my house colour-scheme, minus a few others I also used. Though not in the same room. Frexample, the walls of my hallway and stairs are Etruscan Orange (no, I don't know what makes it {{w|Etruscan}}, but that was the paint name!) while those in the adjoining living room are Lime Green. The ceilings and smirting-boards tend to be standard white, but the covings are matching-but-darker hues of the walls. I'm planning the repainting/redecorating of another property and I'm using the 20-odd years living within the above pallette (with no complaints, but maybe additional or alternative ideas) to perhaps be a bit more adventurous in some places. Like trying graduated countershading/hue-shifting in some corners... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 16:15, 26 March 2022 (UTC) <br />
::Hi, got here first with paint.net :) [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 17:08, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Interesting colour distribution, if I didn't somehow mess up the conversion in a scratch script I made. Here's the number of pixels (that are not black/white/grey; i.e. 260,817 out of the entire 517,470 present in the _2x image) that inhabit each hue-position.<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"<br />
!Colour Sextant !! 0+60n !! 10+60n !! 20+60n !! 30+60n !! ... !! 40+60n !! ...<br />
|-<br />
|Red->Yellow || 0° x 544|| n/a || 20° x69|| 30° x29955|| n/a || 40° x31|| n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Yellow->Green || 60° x 766|| n/a || 80° x 4|| 90° x13962|| 96° x1514||100° x91||105° x48<br />
|-<br />
|Green->Cyan ||120° x23188|| n/a || n/a ||150° x 6790|| n/a ||160° x 2|| n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Cyan->Blue ||180° x91337|| n/a || n/a ||210° x72433|| n/a || n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Blue->Magenta || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Meganta->Red ||300° x 1093|| n/a ||320° x93||330° x18801|| n/a ||340° x96|| n/a<br />
|}<br />
:It looks like Randall used ''mostly'' 10-degree spots (two were not) and nothing at all in the 'Blue>Red'-dominant segment. I rounded some to the nearest degree, but my initial figures were all no more than 4x10<sup>-13</sup> away from whole numbers, which is probably just the level of precision achievable with my ad-hoc calculations. I really ought to check that I've not reflected or rotated or otherwise messed up the hue calculation but I feel sure that the basic idea is correct. It shouldn't change the 'interesting coincidences', but could revise ''where'' the pattern actually lies.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:03, 26 March 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2598:_Graphic_Designers&diff=229097Talk:2598: Graphic Designers2022-03-26T22:03:54Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
I think a better analogy would be with garlic. The threshold barrier is a magical force that blocks them, while vampires just find garlic really off-putting. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:12, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone think we should add the hex color codes of all the walls to the explanation? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:23, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I suspect Randall didn't ACTUALLY use different colours in this comic. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:42, 26 March 2022 (UTC):<br />
::I've just gone over the comic with a colour picker... I have bad and/or good news: You are incorrect. [[User:Tantusar|Tantusar]] ([[User talk:Tantusar|talk]]) 04:52, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I can't see any difference but I bow to your greater geekery [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:57, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey! As of tonight I'm caught up on XKCD for the first time in 2 years! I read them at the bar, at karaoke, and my last time out before staying in for the pandemic was mid-March 2020. I needed to share. :) First comic reading it ON the release day in that long. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:42, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey, Randall! You made the floor FFFFFF, but that isn't a shade of off-white. It's just white. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 09:12, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Who paints the floor, anyway? Varnish, maybe, in a suitably wooden-floored residential situation, but not paint. But I'd say it's (however, whether carpet or laminate or whatever) that is the white from which all the other whites are suitably 'off-'...<br />
:(Also, the 'innocuous things that repel' vibe reminds me of the end-game for the vampire family in {{w|Carpe Jugulum}}, after being inadvertently highly trained to appreciate religious symbology.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 09:28, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My dentist will not allow off-white colours in the front room of his house because the colour is too much like work related thoughts. He has told his wife that she can choose any colour style as long as it does not include off-white. (My hobby is to ask people how their job changes aspects of their non-job life.) [[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]]) 12:54, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It would be helpful to add a version of the comic with the color saturation cranked up, like this: https://i.imgur.com/gMpmJlp.png .<br />
However, I cannot upload images. Also note that the window ledges have their own colors, too. [[User:Hknl|Hknl]] ([[User talk:Hknl|talk]]) 14:48, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Got there before me. I was going to do a version of my own (fullest saturation, probably) as soon as I was on something sensible like my desktop with good old GIMP.<br />
:PS... That's surprisingly close to a (muted) accumulation of my house colour-scheme, minus a few others I also used. Though not in the same room. Frexample, the walls of my hallway and stairs are Etruscan Orange (no, I don't know what makes it {{w|Etruscan}}, but that was the paint name!) while those in the adjoining living room are Lime Green. The ceilings and smirting-boards tend to be standard white, but the covings are matching-but-darker hues of the walls. I'm planning the repainting/redecorating of another property and I'm using the 20-odd years living within the above pallette (with no complaints, but maybe additional or alternative ideas) to perhaps be a bit more adventurous in some places. Like trying graduated countershading/hue-shifting in some corners... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 16:15, 26 March 2022 (UTC) <br />
::Hi, got here first with paint.net :) [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 17:08, 26 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Interesting colour distribution, if I didn't somehow mess up the conversion in a scratch script I made. Here's the number of pixels (that are not black/white/grey; i.e. 260,817 out of the entire 517,470 present in the _2x image) that inhabit each hue-position.<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"<br />
!Colour Sextant !! 0+60n !! 10+60n !! 20+60n !! 30+60n !! ... !! 40+50n !! ...<br />
|-<br />
|Red->Yellow || 0° x 544|| n/a || 20° x69|| 30° x29955|| n/a || 40° x31|| n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Yellow->Green || 60° x 766|| n/a || 80° x 4|| 90° x13962|| 96° x1514||100° x91||105° x48<br />
|-<br />
|Green->Cyan ||120° x23188|| n/a || n/a ||150° x 6790|| n/a ||160° x 2|| n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Cyan->Blue ||180° x91337|| n/a || n/a ||210° x72433|| n/a || n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Blue->Magenta || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a<br />
|-<br />
|Meganta->Red ||300° x 1093|| n/a ||320° x93||330° x18801|| n/a ||340° x96|| n/a<br />
|}<br />
:It looks like Randall used ''mostly'' 10-degree spots (two were not) and nothing at all in the 'Blue>Red'-dominant segment. I rounded some to the nearest degree, but my initial figures were all no more than 4x10<sup>-13</sup> away from whole numbers, which is probably just the level of precision achievable with my ad-hoc calculations. I really ought to check that I've not reflected or rotated or otherwise messed up the hue calculation but I feel sure that the basic idea is correct. It shouldn't change the 'interesting coincidences', but could revise ''where'' the pattern actually lies.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:03, 26 March 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1023:_Late-Night_PBS&diff=2288021023: Late-Night PBS2022-03-22T11:24:49Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 228787 by 172.70.210.155 (talk) You wish...</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1023<br />
| date = February 29, 2012<br />
| title = Late-Night PBS<br />
| image = late night pbs.png<br />
| titletext = Then it switched to these old black-and-white tapes of Bob Ross slumped against the wall of an empty room, painting the least happy trees you've ever seen. Either PBS needs to beef up studio security or I need to stop using Ambien to sleep.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic examines the way the world seems different for adults today compared with how we remember it as a child, due to complex subtext or naïvety, to a humorous extreme, and with a specific reference to {{w|television programs}} for children.<br />
<br />
{{w|PBS}} is a US public television network known for {{w|highbrow}} and educational programming, and shows a high proportion of {{w|BBC}} programming. The show ''{{w|Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (game show)|Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego}}'' was a light-hearted educational game show that ran from 1991 to 1995. In the show players followed geography-based clues to find out where a master criminal, Carmen Sandiego, was going, and catch her. After catching (or failing to catch) Carmen Sandiego, a character called The Chief would congratulate or encourage the players. Rockapella was an {{w|a cappella}} band featured on the show that gave clues, punctuated the show with humor, and closed the show. <br />
<br />
[[Megan]] recounts her surprise as to the nature of programming on late night PBS to [[Cueball]]. She claims to have fallen asleep after watching ''{{w|Downton Abbey}}'' and woken up to see that ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego'' is still making new episodes, but is significantly darker than she remembers it. The host has aged poorly (the show would have been off the air for 20 years) and developed a drinking problem; the locations the child contestants visit are traumatizing; and the children are clearly freaked out. In the end they find Carmen Sandiego hiding behind a Dutch bookcase, an allusion to ''{{w|The Diary of a Young Girl|The Diary of Anne Frank}}'', thus implying that instead of aiding legitimate law enforcement in finding thieves they have been aiding the Nazis in their search for Jews (and others) to murder. The Chief admonishes the children for their actions and Rockapella glares at the children disapprovingly until the children break down in tears. <br />
<br />
After Megan concludes her story, Cueball remarks that he did not remember the show being that dark. In response Megan replies that as kids, they may not have been able to understand the darker subtext of the show. It is true that some programs intended for children often have subtle themes for adults who may be watching the show with their children that the children do not usually remember or pick up on. The joke is that although young viewers may not be able to pick up on everything, they would certainly have noticed if the show was as dark as Megan described.{{Citation needed}}<br />
<br />
The title text describes the next program, an episode of ''{{w|The Joy of Painting}}'', in which a depressingly weary painter paints unhappy trees. This contrasts with the usual mood of the show where {{w|Bob Ross}} was upbeat and the components of his paintings were described as "happy little" objects. Megan then postulates that either people are breaking into the television station to produce horrible programming, or she is experiencing {{w|hallucinations}} due to her sleep aid {{w|Ambien}}. This gives hallucination as an alternate explanation for the main comic.<br />
<br />
===Locations visited===<br />
*{{w|Mogadishu}} is the battle-torn capital city of {{w|Somalia}}, where the "{{w|Battle of Mogadishu (1993)|Battle of Mogadishu}}" took place in 1993, which would coincide with the air dates of ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego''.<br />
<br />
*The {{w|Killing Fields}} are a number of sites in {{w|Cambodia}} where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the {{w|Khmer Rouge}} regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, following the end of the {{w|Cambodian Civil War}} (1970-1975).<br />
<br />
*"A bookshelf in a Dutch apartment" is a reference to {{w|Anne Frank}}, a Jewish girl who hid from the {{w|Nazi}}s with her family in a secret annex hidden behind a bookshelf in an apartment in {{w|Amsterdam}}. Her diary recounting her experiences was later published as the ''Diary of Anne Frank''.<br />
<br />
===Carmen Sandiego===<br />
''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego'' was originally an educational {{w|video game}} released in 1985. {{w|Carmen Sandiego}} was a mysterious character that the player tracked around the globe, attempting to find clues as to where she was heading to next. The game helped players learn geography and facts about the world while having fun. The video game inspired the TV show ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?''.<br />
<br />
The show was split into three rounds. In the first round, there were three child contestants, called “gumshoes” on the show, who scored points for every question they answered correctly. The top two scoring gumshoes moved onto the next round, where they had to play a game based on the card game {{w|Concentration (game)|Concentration}}, in which they had to find the thief, warrant, and loot in the correct order. Whichever gumshoe did so captured the thief, saved the loot, and moved onto the next round, where they had a chance to catch Carmen Sandiego herself. Success was not always guaranteed in this round, as contestants had to plant flags correct on seven different countries in a continent within a very short time. If successful, they captured Carmen and won the grand prize (a trip to a place of their choosing in the continental US). If not, Carmen would escape and the contestant would win a lesser prize (such as a computer).<br />
<br />
The role of The Chief was played by {{w|Lynne Thigpen}}. She explained the mission to the contestants, and gave some clues to the thief's last whereabouts. When the mission was over The Chief would appear and congratulate them if successful or console them if Carmen got away.<br />
<br />
The host of the TV show was an actor named {{w|Greg Lee (actor)|Greg Lee}}. His role was to ask the contestants questions, provide clues, and tell them which flags to plant on the map in the final round, as well as engage with The Chief and Rockapella to keep the show moving.<br />
<br />
{{w|Rockapella}} was an {{w|A cappella|a cappella}} group (a group that sings without any instruments), which sang the theme song to ''Where in The World Is Carmen Sandiego.'' Rockapella also acted as a "house band", singing songs while the contestants transitioned between events, providing clues, and playing pranks on the host along with other gags. At the end of each show, the host and the episode's winning contestant would shout "Do it, Rockapella!" at which point the band would sing the show's theme song.<br />
<br />
===Continuity issues===<br />
The locations the contestants visit in the episode depicted in this comic seem to require traveling backwards in time (1993 for the Battle of Mogadishu, 1975-1979 for the Cambodian killing fields, and 1944 for the arrest of Anne Frank). Episodes of ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego'' did not deal with this, but its successor, ''{{w|Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (game show)|Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?}}'', did.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Megan with disheveled hair is rubbing sleep out of her eyes and talking to Cueball.]<br />
:Megan: Have you ever watched PBS late at night?<br />
:Megan: I fell asleep after ''Downton'' and woke up at like 3 AM.<br />
<br />
:[The next panel is split in two. The upper portion, which is not in a frame, continues Megan's dialogue, while the lower part, in a frame, shows a drunk game-show host (indicated with two small bobbles and a third exploding next to his head). He has stubble and only little hair on his head. He is holding a bottle in one hand and the other hand is up over a TV monitor showing a black field filled with crosses, presumably graves, going out to the far off horizon. In front of him are three kids, who are contestants in the game. They stand behind three lecterns to the left. The first kid is a boy with thin black hair, who has turned away from the monitor. The middle kid is a girl with blonde hair in a ponytail who looks at the host, and the last kid looks like Cueball and he looks down at his lectern.]<br />
:Megan (off-panel): ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego'' was back on, except the host hadn't aged well and he'd clearly been drinking.<br />
:Megan (off-panel): Every question took them to some horrible place like Mogadishu or the Cambodian killing fields.<br />
<br />
:[In a room with tiles on the floor, a bookshelf full of books has been moved away from the wall revealing that is was a door to be opened with a hidden room behind it. Megan continues to speak, her text is above the shelf but inside the frame this time.]<br />
:Megan (off-panel): The kids were freaked out, but they kept playing. Eventually they were told they'd found Carmen Sandiego hiding behind a bookshelf in a Dutch apartment.<br />
<br />
:[Megan has stopped rubbing her eyes but still talks to Cueball.]<br />
:Megan: The Chief appeared and asked "Are you ''proud'' of what you've become?"<br />
:Megan: Then Rockapella walked out and just glared at the kids until they started crying.<br />
:Cueball: I, uh, don't remember the old show being that dark.<br />
:Megan: Maybe we were too young to pick up on it.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This is the second comic posted on a Leap Day ({{w|February 29}}), it was a Wednesday in 2012.<br />
**The previous leap day was the first after xkcd began, and that day fell on a Friday in 2008, and the first leap day comic [[390: Nightmares]] was released then.<br />
**The leap day after this comic also fell on a Friday in 2016 and [[1649: Pipelines]] was released then.<br />
**If the current M-W-F schedule continues, the next such comic will not happen before 2036 when the leap day again falls on a Friday.<br />
**Interesting to note that the first three leap years after xkcd began (in just over 10 years) all fell on a release day, then followed by a break of 20 years. And three of these first four leap days all fell on a Friday.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] <!-- Bob Ross for certain and maybe the TV host --><br />
[[Category:Dreams]] <!-- Apart from the title text note, it is clearly not real what Megan has experiences at 3 AM.--><br />
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1102:_Fastest-Growing&diff=2287531102: Fastest-Growing2022-03-21T20:41:23Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */ To better understand the relative scales involved.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1102<br />
| date = August 31, 2012<br />
| title = Fastest-Growing<br />
| image = fastest_growing.png<br />
| titletext = I lead a small but extraordinarily persuasive religion whose only members are door-to-door proselytizers from other faiths.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic talks about the misuse of percentage of growth. It can be misleading for gauging the importance or popularity of something; If you add only 4 members to an existing group of 2, you would have achieved a growth of 200 percent.<br />
<br />
In the case portrayed in this comic the claim appears to be that the other person's religion grew by 85%. [[Black Hat]] attempts humorously to show the flaw in using that statistic by growing his group by 100% (therefore, presumably, first place), which he simply does by adding his friend [[Rob]] to his religion, and thus increasing his membership from 1 to 2. The other person then says that his religion has a significant number of members (and not just one or two, but ended up with 35,000 this year, presumably having 'only' around 20,540 in the prior one), but Black Hat doesn't care and responds that he hopes they are all okay with being "in second place" since the main argument from the other guy was about being the fastest-growing.<br />
<br />
The title text ponders the ironic idea of converting ''only'' the zealous door-to-door {{w|Proselytism|proselytizers}} to a very persuasive religion of one's own.<br />
<br />
Another interpretation is that the title text could be another way that Black Hat could take the 'fastest-growing' claim out of context to make it meaningless. By composing his religion of the unwitting proselytizers of other faiths, he can claim the highest ratio of converts to current adherents. Note that the amount of people converted is often exaggerated by groups that try to spread a faith. Although the beliefs spread by his proselytizers vary widely, Black Hat is not concerned with what his so-called followers believe. Thus, he can claim the title of fastest-growing religion without having any value to his religion.<br />
<br />
Various religions and groups encourage their members to actively recruit new followers, such as the {{w|Mormon missionary}}.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A man with a combover, a book, and a clipboard approaches Black Hat.]<br />
:Combover: You should check us out. We're the fastest-growing religion in the country.<br />
:Black Hat: "Fastest-growing" is such a dubious claim.<br />
:Combover: It's true! We grew by 85% over the past year.<br />
<br />
:[In a frameless panel, Black Hat shouts to someone out of frame.]<br />
:Black Hat: Hey, Rob — wanna join my religion?<br />
:Rob: Sure, whatever.<br />
<br />
:[Black Hat turns back to Combover and produces a notepad and pen.]<br />
:Black Hat: Well, looks like my religion grew by 100% this year.<br />
<br />
:[Black Hat begins to walk away.]<br />
:Combover: We have 38,000 members!<br />
:Black Hat: Hope they're all ok with second place.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]<br />
[[Category:Religion]]<br />
[[Category:Statistics]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=344:_1337:_Part_4&diff=228718344: 1337: Part 42022-03-20T23:03:26Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 228715 by 108.162.216.15 (talk) You didn't. But I just did.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 344<br />
| date = November 15, 2007 <!-- date on archive page appears incorrect(2007-11-14), based on xkcd forum date of 2007-11-15 --><br />
| title = 1337: Part 4<br />
| image = 1337 part 4.png<br />
| titletext = Mrs. Roberts would have gotten up sooner, of course, but she was busy piping find ~ and find ~nomad into xargs shred, just in case.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This is the fourth part of five in the "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series. The title 1337 is "L-eet," or "elite," using the {{w|Leet}} alphabet, a coding system used primarily on the internet (and on early text messaging system), meant to provide a bit of {{w|obfuscation}} to plain text both to make it harder to read and to show off in a creative way using in-group jargon.<br />
<br />
All comics in the series:<br />
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]<br />
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]<br />
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]<br />
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]<br />
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]<br />
This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday, probably because he wanted to release comic 404 on april fools' day) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.<br />
The comic is narrated by [[Cueball]] as seen in part 2, but that Cueball is not shown here, but still he is part of this comic series, and thus also this comic.<br />
<br />
In this part, [[Elaine Roberts]] returns to the second best hacker in the world (she being the best according to part 2): her mom [[Mrs. Roberts]]. Together, they are an unstoppable force, and they help out a guy called Jon with a CSS decryptor ({{w|Content Scramble System}}, not to be confused with Cascading Style Sheets).<br />
<br />
This implies that {{w|Jon Lech Johansen}}'s DeCSS was written by Elaine. Jon Lech Johansen, also known as DVD Jon, is famous for {{w|DeCSS}}, a DVD decryption program that removes the copy protection from commercial DVDs. The {{w|Motion Picture Association of America}}, also known as the MPAA, was not amused. <br />
<br />
Both the MPAA and the {{w|Recording Industry Association of America}} (RIAA) use the {{w|Digital Millennium Copyright Act}}, shortened to DMCA, as a kind of brute club to silence "infringements" on their copyright. In a perfect world, the DMCA provides safe harbor protection to websites and consumers to make fair use of copyrighted content, while also affording copyright owners the ability to protect their works from being pirated. In this world, this means that any content protection system, no matter how weak and poorly executed, cannot be circumvented, and discussion of circumvention is illegal as well.<br />
<br />
This is not a perfect world, and in the end, the Roberts team is noticed. Two men with black bowler hats and briefcases with the abbreviations MPAA and RIAA show up at their house to arrest them. The two men look very much like {{w|Thomson and Thompson}} from {{w|The Adventures of Tintin}}.<br />
<br />
While Elaine is not ready to let them arrest her, she draws her knife, and they draw their {{w|katana}} swords out of their (way too short) briefcases. Mrs. Roberts says to her daughter that she should calm down, because it is illegal to slice people up in their own houses.<br />
<br />
However, the two men disagree and refer to the DMCA Title IV, Section 408: Authorization of Deadly Force. (There is actually no Title IV, Section 408 of the DMCA; Title IV ends with Section 407.) So now the two women are in lethal danger. <br />
<br />
But of course, {{w|Richard Stallman}}, founder of the {{w|GNU Project}} and stalwart defender of freedom and {{w|copyleft}}, cannot stand for this kind of repression of freedom. (In the real world, Stallman is not a swordsman, but he is always depicted with two katana swords in xkcd, first time was in [[225: Open Source]].) In keeping with the "{{w|Kill Bill}}" themes from earlier in the series, [[Randall]] imagines the conflict between Elaine/Stallman/Mrs. Roberts vs MPAA/RIAA agents as an action-packed katana battle, rather than the legal battle it would likely have been in real life.<br />
<br />
The title text is talking about a {{w|Linux}}-ism. In Linux (and all Unix derivatives), ~ is a symbol for a user's home directory (usually <code>/home/<username></code>). Presumably, "nomad" is Elaine's username. <code>find</code> is an application that recursively walks a filesystem, listing all files, and <code>xargs shred</code> takes those files and securely erases each one with pseudo-random data. This is different from simply deleting a file, which merely removes the pointer in the filesystem's record tables to the file's location on the hard disk. The latter can usually be recovered from. Secure delete, however, requires physically taking apart a disk and reading individual bits for remaining magnetic charge to attempt to reconstruct what was there. This means she was trying to permanently delete her and Elaine's files, presumably so the agents wouldn't have any proof of their hacking.<br />
<br />
Proprietary hardware is hardware (the electronics part rather than the software) created and used only by that company, as opposed to open hardware, which uses parts or chips common to everyone. Proprietary hardware used to be found in most gaming consoles and Apple/Mac devices, but that isn't as common now, since the cost of designing your own hardware is too expensive compared to using common chips.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Elaine is sitting under tree on a grassy meadow typing on her laptop. Two trees are in the background where rolling hills goes to the horizon with a single cloud over the trees. Above the frame is text narrated by the Cueball from the first panel in the 2nd comic in the series:]<br />
:Cueball (narrating): As time passed, Elaine intensified her hacking work, anonymously publishing exploit after exploit.<br />
<br />
:[Elaine, wearing a backpack, is walking up to a door where her mom Mrs. Roberts is greeting her in the open door at the top of two steps. Above this very low panel's frame, there is more of Cueball's narration:]<br />
:Cueball (narrating): To crack open proprietary hardware, she teamed up with one of the top experts in signal processing and data transferring protocols.<br />
:Elaine: Hi, mom.<br />
:Mrs. Roberts: Hello, dear. Did you have fun?<br />
<br />
:[Elaine is lying on the floor with her laptop in front of her facing left with a charger on the floor further left. Mrs. Roberts is sitting to the right facing right on a chair working on her computer at a table. Cueball is still narrating above the frame:]<br />
:Cueball (narrating): They were an unstoppable team.<br />
:Elaine: I finished the CSS decryptor.<br />
:Mrs. Roberts: Good, dear. I'll send it along to Jon.<br />
<br />
:[Pan to the right where two men in black bowler hats arrive. Both hold briefcases - the first guy's reads RIAA, and the other guy's reads MPAA. Cueball's last narration in the comic is above the frame:]<br />
:Cueball (narrating): And were eventually noticed.<br />
:RIAA man: Game's over.<br />
:MPAA man: You're coming with us.<br />
:Briefcase 1: RIAA<br />
:Briefcase 2: MPAA<br />
<br />
:[Pan back left to the women. Mrs. Roberts stays in her chair sitting at her computer still typing, the screen emitting light, but Elaine has moved around to the right of the table and pulls out her folding knife and swings it open.]<br />
:Elaine: Oh, are we?<br />
:Mrs. Roberts: Now now, Elaine-<br />
:Knife: ''Shink''<br />
<br />
:[Pan back right to the two men who simultaneously pull katana swords out of each of their briefcase, while still holding onto the handle with the other hand. When when opened like this, it causes two pieces of paper to fly out of the RIAA man's briefcase and a notebook to fly out of the MPAA man's briefcase.]<br />
:Katanas: ''Shing''<br />
<br />
:[Pan back to the women. Mrs. Roberts continues to type on the laptop, a line going up from the keyboard indicating activity. Elaine still holds her open folding knife out, so the tip now touches the right frame of the panel.]<br />
:Mrs. Roberts: Don't let them provoke you, dear.<br />
:Man (off-panel): We don't want to hurt you, Ma'am.<br />
:Mrs. Roberts: Don't by silly. Record company employees can't just go into houses and slice people up.<br />
<br />
:[Pan back right to the two men who hold up the katana swords having left their briefcases closed on the floor. The closest RIAA man is holding a hand up, the other MPAA man is holding his sword in two hands and pointing it threateningly forward.]<br />
:RIAA Man: Ah, so you haven't read the DMCA.<br />
:MPAA Man: Title IV, Section 408: Authorization of Deadly Force.<br />
<br />
:[A wide panel showing the whole scene with even Mrs. Robert now standing having just pushed her chair back, the computer inert. Elaine is bending in the knees, knife at the ready. Both bowler hat men, still holding their swords as before, but no hands up, have turned to look right back over their shoulder to see who speaks, as a voice comes from off-panel right.]<br />
:Richard Stallman (off-panel): <big>Hark!</big><br />
<br />
<br />
:[The scene pans further right, so the two women are no longer in the panel, but Richard Stallman can now be seen with his wild beard and long hair and holding two katana swords, one in front of him and one over his head also pointing towards the two bowler hat med. They are standing normally, looking back at Stallman. The MPAA man nearest him holds a hand to his mouth as he speaks.]<br />
:Richard Stallman: <big>Cease this affront to freedom</big> <br />
:Richard Stallman: <big>Or stand and defend yourselves!</big><br />
:MPAA Man: Stallman!<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:1337|04]]<br />
[[Category:Comics sharing name|1337]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] <!--Cueball is the one narrating as seen from part 2--><br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]<br />
[[Category:Computers]]<br />
[[Category:Music]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=440:_Road_Rage&diff=228717440: Road Rage2022-03-20T23:01:41Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 228714 by 172.70.126.65 (talk) No thanks.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 440<br />
| date = June 23, 2008<br />
| title = Road Rage<br />
| image = road rage.png<br />
| titletext = Okay, now just as the loss hits him, slam on the brakes.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
[[Black Hat]] is driving a car, and [[Danish]] is with him in the passenger's seat. Black Hat gets annoyed because the car behind him is "{{w|tailgating}}" (in this context, the term means that the other car is following too close to the back bumper of Black Hat's car).<br />
<br />
Danish decides to fight back, so she turns on her laptop and finds that the car behind them also has a laptop running. Since the cars are so close, the other laptop is well within WiFi range, so she manages to establish a WiFi connection with the laptop in the other car. Then, Danish finds a security hole (in the comic, a "remote exploit"). She uses it to break into the laptop and install a speech synthesizer.<br />
This means that the laptop in the car behind just starts saying words at Danish's will.<br />
<br />
The driver of the other car is puzzled when he starts hearing a voice. He's completely clueless about where the voice comes from. Also, he's driving alone, so he's probably frightened (or nervous at least) to find that someone is speaking inside his car. The fact that the voice says "she'd be alive if it weren't for you" surely won't help him relax. The "shot in the dark" is the gamble that this statement is especially meaningful and poignant to the driver. As the driver is prone to tailgating, it seems likely that he could have caused a car accident—possibly a fatal one—in the past.<br />
<br />
In the title text, Danish is continuing her revenge, asking Black Hat to slam on the brakes. Hitting the brakes is a common (though highly unsafe) way to get revenge on tailgaters. At minimum, it forces them to abruptly decelerate and hopefully frighten them, but the danger is that they don't have room to stop in time and cause a collision. The joke is that, having already achieved a complicated and psychologically painful form of revenge, Danish wants to follow it up with a much more conventional form, at the worst possible time. Since the blame for such types of accident is always given to the driver of the car behind, and since we know Black Hat is a sadistic bastard, Black Hat will no doubt enjoy adding both the blame and the traffic accident on top of what Danish has already accomplished. This may seem ironic, as Black Hat and Danish would be risking having their own car struck, but they would no doubt rather make an example than avoid the accident.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Black Hat is driving, and Danish, who seems to be his equal, is in the passenger's seat. They are closely followed by some other vehicle.]<br />
:Black Hat: That guy's tailgating me.<br />
:Danish: I'll take a look.<br />
<br />
:[A car is shown to be closely behind Black Hat's car.]<br />
:Danish: His laptop's running, probably in the back seat. And... yup, the WiFi autoconnects.<br />
<br />
:[Close-up of Danish using a laptop.]<br />
:Danish: Now we just scan for remote exploits... install speech synth... And take a shot in the psychological dark.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball's car.]<br />
:Laptop: Hello.<br />
:Cueball: What? Who's there?<br />
:Laptop: She'd be alive if it weren't for you.<br />
:Cueball: ...Oh God.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
This may be a continuation of [[433: Journal 5]], with Black Hat taking Danish to the "date" that was mentioned.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2595:_Advanced_Techniques&diff=2287162595: Advanced Techniques2022-03-20T22:55:14Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */ A compromise with those of us who don't speak American, that should also satisfy those that do And more appropriate chain-arrows.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2595<br />
| date = March 18, 2022<br />
| title = Advanced Techniques<br />
| image = advanced_techniques.png<br />
| titletext = A blow from Emmy's Cutlass of Variations will transport the dragon to a corresponding symmetric position in the Noetherworld.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by AN EULISH CLAUSS- Please slay the CORRECT dragon when editing this page. Do NOT travel to the Noetherworld. Do NOT pass Go. Do not collect the square root of minus one pounds}}<br />
<br />
[[Miss Lenhart]] is teaching a mathematics class. She outlines a process by which a mathematical result is achieved through steps which sound suspiciously like magical "RPG logic." One of her students asks if this is a metaphor for the technique, but her rather tetchy reply that she's not teaching English seems to imply that actual dragons and arrows will be employed in the resolution of the problem. Whilst metaphor is an important part of many languages, and so definitely taught in English, French and {{w|Tamarian}} classes, the process of algebra denoting variables with letters could be considered related to metaphorical thinking.<br />
<br />
If Miss Lenhart ''were'' creating a metaphor, she could be describing techniques like {{w|Fourier analysis}}, in which a problem is transformed from one domain into another which is more tractable (e.g. from the time domain to the frequency domain, commonly done for analyzing the behavior of signals or dynamical systems) and then back again.<br />
<br />
This comic plays on mathematical terms which have other meanings, using them in different contexts from the ones intended for the terms. In doing so it invokes the third of {{w|Clarke's three laws}} that any highly advanced technology could be considered magic.<br />
<br />
The caption states that this approach describes "All advanced math techniques." This is probably a reference to Artur C. Clarke's third law that All sufficiently advanced technologies are indistinguishable from magic, but reframed for mathematics.<br />
<br />
{{w|Hilbert space}} converts subsets of an infinite vector space into a complete metric space, allowing the use of linear algebra & calculus methods which might otherwise be applicable only to finite Euclidean spaces. <br />
<br />
{{w|Conway chained arrow notation}} (2→3→4) is a means of expressing extremely large numbers and one of many uses for arrows in mathematics. <br />
<br />
Magical arrows are frequently used to slay dragons, in myth and role-playing games. Magical items in RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, are often named after a creator or famous user; hence, a magical "Arrow of Hilbert," might traverse infinite spaces or affect targets for which one or more stats are effectively infinite. <br />
<br />
Presumably this arrow is useful in slaying the "Dragon" of {{w|Gauss-Kuzmin-Wirsing operator|Gauss's operator}}.<br />
<br />
Invocations are a common classification for spoken or vocalized types of spell. In the logic Miss Lenhart used, 'invoking' Gauss's operator may refer to casting a magical spell with verbal components (such as [https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/True%20Polymorph True Polymorph]). <br />
<br />
There is in fact a class of {{w|Dragon curve}}s, which do have the sort of S-shape shown on the whiteboard, but they have no connection to Gauss's operator, and are not actual dragons which need slaying.{{Citation needed}}<br />
<br />
The title text contains two puns and a reference. The phrase "{{w|Cutlass}} of Variations" is a pun on the mathematical technique called "{{w|Calculus of variations}}". The word "Noetherworld" is a pun on "{{w|underworld|netherworld}}". The reference is to the mathematician {{w|Emmy Noether}}, who was a (figurative){{citation needed}} giant in the field of abstract algebra. Furthermore, so-called {{w|Noether's Theorem}} is used in the Calculus of Variations.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Miss Lenhart is using a stick to point at a whiteboard with a drawing of a dragon, an archer, and rows of text on it, while facing, presumably, a crowd of students.]<br />
:Miss Lenhart: To solve this equation, we invoke Gauss's operator to transform it into a dragon. <br />
:Miss Lenhart: Then we slay the dragon with Hilbert's Arrow, and transform its corpse back into the solution.<br />
:Voice off-screen: Just to be clear, this is a metaphor, right?<br />
:Miss Lenhart: Does this '''look''' like English class?!<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:All advanced math techniques<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1:_Barrel_-_Part_1&diff=2286051: Barrel - Part 12022-03-18T21:49:27Z<p>172.69.79.223: Undo revision 228603 by 108.162.216.181 (talk) Look! Someone was being stupid! I bet they're so stupid that they barely even worked out how to edit an open wiki.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1<br />
| date = September 30, 2005<br />
| title = Barrel - Part 1<br />
| image = barrel_cropped_(1).jpg<br />
| titletext = Don't we all.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The comic shows a young boy floating in a barrel in an ocean that doesn't have a visible end. It comments on the unlikely optimism and perhaps naïveté people sometimes display. The boy is completely lost and seems hopelessly alone, without any plan or control of the situation. Yet, rather than afraid or worried, he is instead quietly curious: "I wonder where I'll float next?" Although not necessarily the situation in this comic, this is a behavior people often exhibit when there is nothing they can do about a problematic situation for a long time; they may have given up hope or developed a cavalier attitude as a coping mechanism.<br />
<br />
The title text expands on the philosophical content, with the boy representing the average human being: wandering through life with no real plan, quietly optimistic, always opportunistic and clueless as to what the future may hold.<br />
<br />
The isolation of the boy may also represent the way in which we often feel lost through life, never knowing quite where we are, believing that there is no one to whom to turn. This comic could also reflect on Randall's feelings towards creating xkcd in the first place; unsure of what direction the web comic would turn towards, but hopeful that it would eventually become the popular web comic that we know today.<br />
<br />
This is the first in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features a [[:Category:Barrel|character]] that is not consistent with what would quickly become the [[xkcd]] [[stick figure]] style. The character is in a barrel.<br />
<br />
In [[1110: Click and Drag]] there is a reference to this comic at {{1110|1|n|48|e}}.<br />
<br />
After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on xkcd, it has been clear that the original [[Ferret]] story should also be included as part of the barrel series.<br />
<br />
The full series can be found [[:Category:Barrel|here]]. They are listed below in the order Randall chose for the short story above:<br />
* [[1: Barrel - Part 1]]<br />
* [[20: Ferret]]<br />
* [[11: Barrel - Part 2]]<br />
* [[22: Barrel - Part 3]]<br />
* [[25: Barrel - Part 4]]<br />
* [[31: Barrel - Part 5]]<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A boy sits in a barrel which is floating in an ocean.]<br />
:Boy: i wonder where i'll float next?<br />
<br />
:[A smaller frame with a zoom out of the boy in the barrel seen from afar. The barrel drifts into the distance. Nothing else can be seen.]<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This was the 5th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. <br />
**The previous comic was [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)]].<br />
**The next was [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]].<br />
*The original title was "Barrel".<br />
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "He's fairly upbeat about the situation!"<br />
*This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on Friday September 30, 2005.<br />
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.<br />
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.<br />
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.<br />
*This is the first of the original drawings that was not drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].<br />
*A more realistic description of the behavior of a barrel in water is here: [http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/should-dwarves-stand-up-in-floating-barrels/ Wired Science: Should Dwarves Stand Up in Floating Barrels?]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 05]]<br />
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 05]]<br />
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]<br />
[[Category:Barrel|01]]<br />
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Barrel 01]]<br />
[[Category:Philosophy]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2593:_Deviled_Eggs&diff=228506Talk:2593: Deviled Eggs2022-03-16T12:24:23Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
First commit was accidentally wiped off because an edit conflict with somebody who changed "created by a bot" to "created by an EGG" :( Am sad now. [[User:Mumingpo|Mumingpo]] ([[User talk:Mumingpo|talk]]) 02:45, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Shouldn't that be "created by a CHICKEN", anyway? Although I suppose the chicken was created by an egg...[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 12:24, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The blue flash mentioned in the title text represents Cherenkov Radiation. In the case of the Demon Core accidents, those who saw the blue flashes saw it because of gamma radiation being slowed by the fluid inside of their eyeballs. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.137|172.69.42.137]] 02:46, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Not according to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionized-air_glow Wikipedia]]. There it says that the blue glow in criticality incidents such as those with the demon core is not from Cherenkov radiation.<br />
<br />
:[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 09:15, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Pretty sure the blue flash relates to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash#Blue_flashes sunset phenomenon] (usually a green flash as mentioned in [[766: Green Flash]], but can be blue). [[User:Clam|Clam]] ([[User talk:Clam|talk]]) 02:47, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Whenever the explanation is added, it needs to reference [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1242:_Scary_Names 1242: Scary Names], which talks about the Demon Core. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 02:49, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Summary would likely be better formatted in table to match spatial arrangement of original comic labels[[User:Abstreudel|Abstreudel]] ([[User talk:Abstreudel|talk]]) 02:53, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Not really. It's four examples that happen to be two-by-two, no reason to need to keep/restore the row-neighbours and column-neighbours. It'd just potentially look messy.<br />
:(If you're suggesting table of "Name | Description | ... ", with four rows within, then it would be consistent with other explanations, but unnecessarily white-space heavy compared to the current minor-header and explanatory paragraph(s) format.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.177|172.70.85.177]] 07:36, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
A comment was misplaced below this discussion form. I tried to delete it but ended up deleting the whole discussion section for a moment. Would someone take care of that? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.209|172.70.110.209]] 03:24, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
If anyone is curious about what the demon core event looked like, the movie "Fat Man and Little Boy" (1989) while (hilariously) bad, has a fairly accurate scene depicting the second experiment, which can be found on YouTube. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.91|172.70.130.91]] 14:23, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think something could be added about why the Demon Core is so famous at the moment. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.193|141.101.76.193]] 16:24, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
: Is this referencing recent events that have brought the Cherynobyl nuclear complex (and its {{w|Chernobyl disaster}}/criticality incident) into the headlines? [[User:Mwarren|Mwarren]] ([[User talk:Mwarren|talk]]) 17:16, 15 March 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1912:_Thermostat&diff=228074Talk:1912: Thermostat2022-03-07T10:22:48Z<p>172.69.79.223: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Maybe the the last sentence is about moses parting the sea so he can walk through it.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.221|162.158.91.221]] 05:55, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
: I interpreted it that way. In computing, partitioning separates parts of a drive that are to be used for different purposes, so parallels might be drawn there. - [[User:Emmia|Emmia]] ([[User talk:Emmia|talk]]) 07:24, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
: Not so sure about that. It's possible, I guess, but it's not obviously funny. I think it's more related to the title text about the helpline operative being afraid to upset whatever god of technology has cursed him with this unfathomable tech problem, and suggesting to him that the situation is so dire he may as well just end it all. (Obviously overreacting, as the failure of an IoT-enabled thermostat is definitely a First World Problem and not the horrendous event the characters are considering it to be.) 09:57, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I also thought about the "parting the sea" idea...consider that in the Old Testament, the gods of other cultures were spoken of as alive, and the Israelite God as directly challenging and defeating them (see the challenge issued to the Egyptian deities in Exodus). Perhaps, rather than helping Cueball himself, Hairy thinks that by invoking the Most High, Cueball might be able to defeat whatever technology god he has angered. Hence, Hairy suggests that Cueball try to play the role of Moses. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.76|172.68.34.76]] 16:11, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:No, just talking about abandoning hope and that Cueball should escape life. This use of walking into the sea is a commonly used result of giving up at life, a reaction to not wanting to deal with people, reality, etc. any more. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:37, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
: I read it more as a comment along the lines of "if we've got to the point where we're making something as trivial as a thermostat this complicated then there's no hope for us and we may as well just end it all".[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 17:31, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think there's additional humor to the extent of his boot problems. Monthly Energy Report (1).doc would be a normal document a smart thermostat may create. But if it became a boot volume it'd brick the device.{{unsigned|Comment Police}}<br />
<br />
: Maybe "Monthly Energy Report (1).doc" was meant to resemble a malware-laden email attachment. The "(1)" could indicate a name-collision-avoidance suffix of a downloaded file. [[User:Bob Stein - VisiBone|Bob Stein - VisiBone]] ([[User talk:Bob Stein - VisiBone|talk]]) 11:48, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:'Monthly Energy Report.doc' might be a normal document a smart energy device might produce (can't see why it would be producing energy reports if all it is is a thermostat), but the '(1)' on the end suggests it's been unable to overwrite a previous report. or for some reason produced a copy of the original document.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 17:23, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:When generating a report with a static filename every month, instead of using report names which include a variable such as 'Monthly report November 2017.doc', the generation will cause a naming collision the second time a report is run. Why there would be a process to guard against overwriting the previous report, or what the significance would be to know the device is 2 months old, I do not know. I guess, in real life, this could happen when the thermostat has this guard against filename collisions in place and characters such as ( are not properly escaped in the script used to update the bootloader. {{unsigned|Comment Police}}<br />
<br />
Possibly a reference to xkcd 327? Though it feels like a stretch. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.247|162.158.111.247]] 22:46, 8 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I believe Cueball has accidentally discovered that the thermostat—supposedly simple device—is actually doing surveillance on the house (and is poorly coded). Now the tech support guy is astounded by the fact that somebody has found out, but then promptly suggests suicide in a non-direct manner to clean up evidence, covering this is with religious explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.244.24|172.68.244.24]] 06:37, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I'm not sure about the surveillance. It seems to me that the .doc is somehow a record of power usage of the thermostat. However, it remains to be determined a. why it is running Android b. why it is mounting and booting a .doc c. how it got there [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.12|162.158.106.12]] 07:11, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:: The .doc file is the trojan that was installed on the device. It was supposed to look innocent, but actually contains an encoded sysroot with the real spyware. It's just also terribly written. Very genuinely Russian.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.106|162.158.202.106]] 21:46, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I took it as a variation on this joke in HHG:<br />
: "Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans."<br />
:...Which in the BBC TV series was accompanied by visuals of Douglas Adams himself walking into the ocean. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.86.58|172.68.86.58]] 07:27, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Might be a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nest_learning_thermostat Nest Thermostat], which like Android is an Alphabet thing. While Nest doesn't run Android, its OS is Linux-based like Android. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.89|108.162.246.89]] 08:07, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
While reading the title text my first thought was http://americangods.wikia.com/wiki/Technical_Boy [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:16, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Not sure if "Android error screen" deserves emphasis in the explanation, as lately many very simple devices have Android, it shouldn't be surprising to find a thermostat running it. [[User:Fvalves|Fvalves]] ([[User talk:Fvalves|talk]]) 10:12, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
https://xkcd.com/349/ also mentions tech issues and the sea. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.78|141.101.107.78]] 10:36, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
As a (former) network engineer for the largest IoT deployment at a major ISP, I can say with complete certainty that this is nothing. A hard reset (typically, holding the power and some other button down for 5+ seconds) will skip the attempt at local boot and go directly to a BOOTP wipe from the mothership, which should have that thermostat up and running the Russian military/mob's firmware in ten minutes tops. Soon your thermostat will be mining bitcoin and staging attacks on your local vital infrastructure like all the other thermostats, don't you worry. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.196|141.101.98.196]] 11:14, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Should we make a category for this? It's becoming a recurring theme on xkcd. [[User:RamenChef|RamenChef]] ([[User talk:RamenChef|talk]]) 15:49, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Sounds like this may be referrng to recent news where some Google Pixel 2 owners received phones [https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/11/2/16599938/google-pixel-2-xl-operating-system-shipping-quality-control-issues without any operating system]. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 16:59, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Refer to https://xkcd.com/801/ on using a complex OS for single purpose Hardware [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.101|172.68.46.101]]<br />
<br />
Perhaps it's referring to the story of Jonah. In an effort to get Jonah to go back to where he was supposed to go, God sent a terrible storm that devastated the ship that Jonah was escaping on. In order to appease God, the crew had to throw Jonah into the sea, where he was subsequently swallowed up by a giant fish.<br />
<br />
"the extension .docx has been the default from Microsoft Office 2007 onwards and is generally favored over the preceding .doc extension."... No, not "favored", just that it's the default, and the default default, and most people don't know to change it, or how, or that they should. :) I've found docx more unstable, more buggy, and less readable (seeing as people who have the sense not to blindly downgrade through 2007 and 2010 and 365 won't natively be able to open it, and may have trouble with the file support extension). Actually, Randall's use of .doc here suggests to me he's one of us who are wise enough to stick with Office 2003, or at least stick with using .doc. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:37, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Moreover, the adding of "(1)" to a filename, when asked to avoid overwriting with conflicts, is itself only a more modern implementation within the Windows family (possibly Vista onwards, but Win8 onwards more certainly), for what used to be a purely overwrite/do not overwrite decision of sorts, although it does also mirror one of many possible user-based method of versioning/forking that wouldn't be unknown...<br />
:(My reading of the comic, BTW, is that someone in the household has opened up the device to a very insecure remote access to grab data to convert into a personal record - and, for some reason, this was being done in .doc rather than .xls or something more usefully statistical - the document for this somehow then written onto the raw partition,perhaps having deleted everythibg else (i.e. the virtual boot partition file the device normally goes to, as part of the bootstrap) leaving that document there for the bootloader to go "well, this is the only file,it must be the partition!" in an overly flexible/helpful but ultimately misguided firmware-led booting process. But there's ''so'' much wrong with even this scenario that I'm with the tech support guy in dispair that it ever happened.)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.130|141.101.76.130]] 22:35, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:: Actually, the first I saw "(1)" was way back with Windows 95, sorry. Windows has been doing that for ages. Try right-clicking in Windows Explorer and creating a new file or folder in that way, then not changing the default name, then do it again. The second one's default name will have it. :) Whenever I copy files these days, if the same name exists in the destination, I get the option to Overwrite, Not Copy, or Copy But Keep Both Files, which results in the "(1)" method (I generally use Windows 7 at the moment).<br />
:: As for interpreting the comic, I've wavered between what you said, an attempt to capture a log has gone awry, and the conspiracy-theory-friendly part of my mind (despite not being much of a conspiracy kind of guy) thinking that this is an indication that someone has been trying to spy on Cueball through data from his thermometer, but they accidentally messed it up and revealed themselves. However, the prevailing theory for me is that this is simply another entry in the theme of "Cueball gets the weirdest tech problems", extending beyond the usual computer and programming problems, and extending beyond Megan (Ponytail? I forget...) having to deal with them. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:45, 24 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I strongly agree with the previous. My work in tech support has teched me that the worst clients are the ones who have "just a little bit adjusted" something causing the failure but when they contact the tech support they act as the failure had occured by itself and deny ever touching anything. This .doc file is clearly created by the caller who has downloaded data from the thermostat and then accidentally saved it to the thermostat. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.48|172.68.47.48]] 18:41, 11 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::It could also mean that the battery is at the end of its lifespan, being charged enough to prevent the low-battery safeties from tripping, but not providing enough voltage for proper bit-on/off separation (which can cause all sorts of messes normally prevented by aforementioned safeties). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.224|162.158.111.224]] 11:26, 19 October 2021 (UTC)<br />
I can't figure out if it's just a typo or if there's some meaning that "Have you tried walking into the sea." ends with a "." rather than a "?". The author isn't one to make grammatical errors, but I can't think of a clear interpretation - perhaps this is because, while worded as a question, it really only makes sense as a command - if Cueball had already tried walking into the sea, then he probably wouldn't be calling tech support now. That made me realize that we're hearing this from Cueball's perspective, so homonyms could be at play - for example, rather than referencing the "sea" Harry could be referring to the lower level programming language "C" (a predecessor to C++), which could be part of a larger explanation. [TH] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.48|172.68.47.48]] 18:41, 11 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I took this to mean Cueball had been trying to hack his traditional thermostat, and poorly. He says the **little** LCD is giving him this **Android** recovery error. Almost no thermostats run Android and if they do they don't have little LCDs. So now tech support has to deal with his utter incompetence and tampering that's bricked his thermostat. Hence the telling him to go walk into the sea. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.72|162.158.186.72]] 22:22, 19 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
: It's Android because that makes the problem extra weird. I feel certain that this is just the latest in the ongoing theme of "Cueball gets the WEIRDEST tech problems". :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:45, 24 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I've deleted the trivia section, in both [[349: Success]] and [[1350: Lorenz]], the shark attack was caused by BSD. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 04:01, 3 March 2018 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why does the question have no question mark? To me it seems unnatural. {{unsigned ip|172.69.79.223}}<br />
:Why does the comment have no signature? And is this a rhetorical question? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.209|172.69.79.209]] 21:50, 6 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: I forgot to add one. No, this is not rhetorical, and this grammar issue is getting really on my nerves. Is this really a grammar issue of just a new addition to english. (?) --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 10:22, 7 March 2022 (UTC)</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1912:_Thermostat&diff=228063Talk:1912: Thermostat2022-03-06T18:41:36Z<p>172.69.79.223: Why.</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Maybe the the last sentence is about moses parting the sea so he can walk through it.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.221|162.158.91.221]] 05:55, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
: I interpreted it that way. In computing, partitioning separates parts of a drive that are to be used for different purposes, so parallels might be drawn there. - [[User:Emmia|Emmia]] ([[User talk:Emmia|talk]]) 07:24, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
: Not so sure about that. It's possible, I guess, but it's not obviously funny. I think it's more related to the title text about the helpline operative being afraid to upset whatever god of technology has cursed him with this unfathomable tech problem, and suggesting to him that the situation is so dire he may as well just end it all. (Obviously overreacting, as the failure of an IoT-enabled thermostat is definitely a First World Problem and not the horrendous event the characters are considering it to be.) 09:57, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I also thought about the "parting the sea" idea...consider that in the Old Testament, the gods of other cultures were spoken of as alive, and the Israelite God as directly challenging and defeating them (see the challenge issued to the Egyptian deities in Exodus). Perhaps, rather than helping Cueball himself, Hairy thinks that by invoking the Most High, Cueball might be able to defeat whatever technology god he has angered. Hence, Hairy suggests that Cueball try to play the role of Moses. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.76|172.68.34.76]] 16:11, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:No, just talking about abandoning hope and that Cueball should escape life. This use of walking into the sea is a commonly used result of giving up at life, a reaction to not wanting to deal with people, reality, etc. any more. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:37, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
: I read it more as a comment along the lines of "if we've got to the point where we're making something as trivial as a thermostat this complicated then there's no hope for us and we may as well just end it all".[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 17:31, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think there's additional humor to the extent of his boot problems. Monthly Energy Report (1).doc would be a normal document a smart thermostat may create. But if it became a boot volume it'd brick the device.{{unsigned|Comment Police}}<br />
<br />
: Maybe "Monthly Energy Report (1).doc" was meant to resemble a malware-laden email attachment. The "(1)" could indicate a name-collision-avoidance suffix of a downloaded file. [[User:Bob Stein - VisiBone|Bob Stein - VisiBone]] ([[User talk:Bob Stein - VisiBone|talk]]) 11:48, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:'Monthly Energy Report.doc' might be a normal document a smart energy device might produce (can't see why it would be producing energy reports if all it is is a thermostat), but the '(1)' on the end suggests it's been unable to overwrite a previous report. or for some reason produced a copy of the original document.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 17:23, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:When generating a report with a static filename every month, instead of using report names which include a variable such as 'Monthly report November 2017.doc', the generation will cause a naming collision the second time a report is run. Why there would be a process to guard against overwriting the previous report, or what the significance would be to know the device is 2 months old, I do not know. I guess, in real life, this could happen when the thermostat has this guard against filename collisions in place and characters such as ( are not properly escaped in the script used to update the bootloader. {{unsigned|Comment Police}}<br />
<br />
Possibly a reference to xkcd 327? Though it feels like a stretch. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.247|162.158.111.247]] 22:46, 8 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I believe Cueball has accidentally discovered that the thermostat—supposedly simple device—is actually doing surveillance on the house (and is poorly coded). Now the tech support guy is astounded by the fact that somebody has found out, but then promptly suggests suicide in a non-direct manner to clean up evidence, covering this is with religious explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.244.24|172.68.244.24]] 06:37, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I'm not sure about the surveillance. It seems to me that the .doc is somehow a record of power usage of the thermostat. However, it remains to be determined a. why it is running Android b. why it is mounting and booting a .doc c. how it got there [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.12|162.158.106.12]] 07:11, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:: The .doc file is the trojan that was installed on the device. It was supposed to look innocent, but actually contains an encoded sysroot with the real spyware. It's just also terribly written. Very genuinely Russian.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.106|162.158.202.106]] 21:46, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I took it as a variation on this joke in HHG:<br />
: "Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans."<br />
:...Which in the BBC TV series was accompanied by visuals of Douglas Adams himself walking into the ocean. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.86.58|172.68.86.58]] 07:27, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Might be a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nest_learning_thermostat Nest Thermostat], which like Android is an Alphabet thing. While Nest doesn't run Android, its OS is Linux-based like Android. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.89|108.162.246.89]] 08:07, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
While reading the title text my first thought was http://americangods.wikia.com/wiki/Technical_Boy [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:16, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Not sure if "Android error screen" deserves emphasis in the explanation, as lately many very simple devices have Android, it shouldn't be surprising to find a thermostat running it. [[User:Fvalves|Fvalves]] ([[User talk:Fvalves|talk]]) 10:12, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
https://xkcd.com/349/ also mentions tech issues and the sea. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.78|141.101.107.78]] 10:36, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
As a (former) network engineer for the largest IoT deployment at a major ISP, I can say with complete certainty that this is nothing. A hard reset (typically, holding the power and some other button down for 5+ seconds) will skip the attempt at local boot and go directly to a BOOTP wipe from the mothership, which should have that thermostat up and running the Russian military/mob's firmware in ten minutes tops. Soon your thermostat will be mining bitcoin and staging attacks on your local vital infrastructure like all the other thermostats, don't you worry. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.196|141.101.98.196]] 11:14, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Should we make a category for this? It's becoming a recurring theme on xkcd. [[User:RamenChef|RamenChef]] ([[User talk:RamenChef|talk]]) 15:49, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Sounds like this may be referrng to recent news where some Google Pixel 2 owners received phones [https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/11/2/16599938/google-pixel-2-xl-operating-system-shipping-quality-control-issues without any operating system]. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 16:59, 6 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Refer to https://xkcd.com/801/ on using a complex OS for single purpose Hardware [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.101|172.68.46.101]]<br />
<br />
Perhaps it's referring to the story of Jonah. In an effort to get Jonah to go back to where he was supposed to go, God sent a terrible storm that devastated the ship that Jonah was escaping on. In order to appease God, the crew had to throw Jonah into the sea, where he was subsequently swallowed up by a giant fish.<br />
<br />
"the extension .docx has been the default from Microsoft Office 2007 onwards and is generally favored over the preceding .doc extension."... No, not "favored", just that it's the default, and the default default, and most people don't know to change it, or how, or that they should. :) I've found docx more unstable, more buggy, and less readable (seeing as people who have the sense not to blindly downgrade through 2007 and 2010 and 365 won't natively be able to open it, and may have trouble with the file support extension). Actually, Randall's use of .doc here suggests to me he's one of us who are wise enough to stick with Office 2003, or at least stick with using .doc. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:37, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Moreover, the adding of "(1)" to a filename, when asked to avoid overwriting with conflicts, is itself only a more modern implementation within the Windows family (possibly Vista onwards, but Win8 onwards more certainly), for what used to be a purely overwrite/do not overwrite decision of sorts, although it does also mirror one of many possible user-based method of versioning/forking that wouldn't be unknown...<br />
:(My reading of the comic, BTW, is that someone in the household has opened up the device to a very insecure remote access to grab data to convert into a personal record - and, for some reason, this was being done in .doc rather than .xls or something more usefully statistical - the document for this somehow then written onto the raw partition,perhaps having deleted everythibg else (i.e. the virtual boot partition file the device normally goes to, as part of the bootstrap) leaving that document there for the bootloader to go "well, this is the only file,it must be the partition!" in an overly flexible/helpful but ultimately misguided firmware-led booting process. But there's ''so'' much wrong with even this scenario that I'm with the tech support guy in dispair that it ever happened.)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.130|141.101.76.130]] 22:35, 7 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:: Actually, the first I saw "(1)" was way back with Windows 95, sorry. Windows has been doing that for ages. Try right-clicking in Windows Explorer and creating a new file or folder in that way, then not changing the default name, then do it again. The second one's default name will have it. :) Whenever I copy files these days, if the same name exists in the destination, I get the option to Overwrite, Not Copy, or Copy But Keep Both Files, which results in the "(1)" method (I generally use Windows 7 at the moment).<br />
:: As for interpreting the comic, I've wavered between what you said, an attempt to capture a log has gone awry, and the conspiracy-theory-friendly part of my mind (despite not being much of a conspiracy kind of guy) thinking that this is an indication that someone has been trying to spy on Cueball through data from his thermometer, but they accidentally messed it up and revealed themselves. However, the prevailing theory for me is that this is simply another entry in the theme of "Cueball gets the weirdest tech problems", extending beyond the usual computer and programming problems, and extending beyond Megan (Ponytail? I forget...) having to deal with them. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:45, 24 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I strongly agree with the previous. My work in tech support has teched me that the worst clients are the ones who have "just a little bit adjusted" something causing the failure but when they contact the tech support they act as the failure had occured by itself and deny ever touching anything. This .doc file is clearly created by the caller who has downloaded data from the thermostat and then accidentally saved it to the thermostat. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.48|172.68.47.48]] 18:41, 11 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::It could also mean that the battery is at the end of its lifespan, being charged enough to prevent the low-battery safeties from tripping, but not providing enough voltage for proper bit-on/off separation (which can cause all sorts of messes normally prevented by aforementioned safeties). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.224|162.158.111.224]] 11:26, 19 October 2021 (UTC)<br />
I can't figure out if it's just a typo or if there's some meaning that "Have you tried walking into the sea." ends with a "." rather than a "?". The author isn't one to make grammatical errors, but I can't think of a clear interpretation - perhaps this is because, while worded as a question, it really only makes sense as a command - if Cueball had already tried walking into the sea, then he probably wouldn't be calling tech support now. That made me realize that we're hearing this from Cueball's perspective, so homonyms could be at play - for example, rather than referencing the "sea" Harry could be referring to the lower level programming language "C" (a predecessor to C++), which could be part of a larger explanation. [TH] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.48|172.68.47.48]] 18:41, 11 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I took this to mean Cueball had been trying to hack his traditional thermostat, and poorly. He says the **little** LCD is giving him this **Android** recovery error. Almost no thermostats run Android and if they do they don't have little LCDs. So now tech support has to deal with his utter incompetence and tampering that's bricked his thermostat. Hence the telling him to go walk into the sea. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.72|162.158.186.72]] 22:22, 19 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
: It's Android because that makes the problem extra weird. I feel certain that this is just the latest in the ongoing theme of "Cueball gets the WEIRDEST tech problems". :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:45, 24 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I've deleted the trivia section, in both [[349: Success]] and [[1350: Lorenz]], the shark attack was caused by BSD. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 04:01, 3 March 2018 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why does the question have no question mark? To me it seems unnatural.</div>172.69.79.223https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2191:_Conference_Question&diff=2279762191: Conference Question2022-03-05T00:29:48Z<p>172.69.79.223: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2191<br />
| date = August 19, 2019<br />
| title = Conference Question<br />
| image = conference_question.png<br />
| titletext = I also have an utterance. Less of an utterance and more of an incantation. Less of an incantation and more of a malediction. Less of a malediction and more of a Word of Power. Less of a Word of Power and more of an Unforgivable Curse.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Usually, at a conference or other event involving a speaker addressing a crowd, members of the crowd are given the chance to ask questions. This is intended so that people can perhaps ask the speaker to elaborate on a point they've made, or to ask the speaker's opinion on a topic related to their talk. <br />
<br />
Occasionally, people at such an event will use (or, rather, abuse) the opportunity to ask a question to instead provide their own (unsolicited) opinion or statement. Such statements are often preceded with something along the lines of "I have a question. Well, less of a question and more of a comment." This formulation in particular has attracted [https://jamesmendezhodes.com/blog/2019/4/30/less-of-a-question-more-of-a-comment a lot of criticism] for not adding anything to the discussion and for pulling focus away from the speaker.<br />
<br />
In the comic, this idea is taken to an extreme, with [[Beret Guy]] not only transforming the opportunity to ask a question into an opportunity to make a statement through successive rephrasing, turning this into an opportunity to show off a bug he has found. This is accomplished by using a multitude of synonyms in a ''continuum'' of relatable word pairs, except near the last: "question" and "comment" are similar, as are "comment" and "utterance", but the extremes, the difference between the first and the last in the entire set (in this case "question" and "friendly bug") is profound. In a way, this segue is meant to be similar to how, in the lines of a color spectrum, red fades into yellow: gradually, and with no abrupt transitions in color ({{wiktionary|your_mileage_may_vary|YMMV}}: {{w|Color Graphics Adapter|CGA}} versus {{w|4K resolution|4K}}).<br />
<br />
<br />
:'''Question.''' A {{w|question}} is what the crowd member is expected to provide, such that the speaker or a panel member could provide a related answer.<br />
<br />
:'''Comment.''' A {{w|Topic and comment|comment}} by a crowd member, is when they just say something they believe, without expecting an answer, giving the speaker or panel members nothing to do. This may be seen as annoying by everyone else, as the crowd did not come to hear the opinion of other crowd members. But answers to relevant questions would be interesting to the crowd and the panel.<br />
<br />
:'''Utterance.''' An {{w|utterance}} is just making a noise, which may or may not be actual words, or if actual words it may not be a complete sentence.<br />
<br />
:'''Air Pressure Wave.''' {{w|Sounds}} are literally pressure waves in the air. So this could be a simple sound, or not a sound at all depending on the severity of the wave. It might be the person simply blowing.<br />
<br />
:'''Friendly Hand Wave.''' Now instead of using his mouth to generate an air pressure wave, he's producing it with his hand, in a manner intended to be interpreted as "friendly". Many times hand waves are done in a friendly manner, designed more for the visual appeal than the amount of air pressure waves they generate.<br />
<br />
:'''Friendly Bug.''' Now he is no longer doing anything himself, except to point out the fact that he has found a bug or {{w|insect}}, which he {{w|anthropomorphizes}} as being friendly.<br />
<br />
:'''Want to meet it?''' He has decided that he and the friendly bug are actual friends and ironically comes full circle by finally asking a question, though presumably whether the speaker wants to meet a bug is not related to the topic of the speaker's talk.<br />
<br />
The title text takes the opposite route of Beret Guy, and each step instead refers to successively worse forms of magic spells that would, presumably, have a negative effect upon the listener. Starting from a mere utterance and then using Beret Guy's "it is less than" scheme, it progresses over worse and worse curses, ending with an unforgivable curse!<br />
<br />
:'''Utterance.''' It begins with "utterance", which was also used by Beret Guy. See above.<br />
<br />
:'''Incantation.''' {{w|Incantation}}, or a spell, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. It is not necessarily with evil intent.<br />
<br />
:'''Malediction.''' A malediction is another word for {{w|curse}} (the prefix "mal" being a Latin root meaning "evil"). This is always with evil intent.<br />
<br />
:'''Word of Power.''' "Word of Power" could refer to the dragonish form of magic in ''{{w|The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim}},'' or the [https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/Power_word early 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons high level spells]. <br />
<br />
:'''Unforgivable Curse.''' The term "{{w|Magic_in_Harry_Potter#Unforgivable_Curses|Unforgivable Curse}}" refers to a set of three spells from the {{w|Harry Potter}} series, said to be so evil that their use on another person is unforgivable and illegal. The three spells are able to mind control (''Imperius''), torture (''Cruciatus''), and kill (''Avada Kedavra'') their target. It is unclear which spell is implied, though if it was accurate to call it a singular word of power, it is unlikely to be the killing curse.<br />
<br />
The title text can be interpreted as a reply by [[Hairy]] (the speaker) to Beret Guy, indicating his annoyance at the topic being derailed. It could also be representative of [[Randall|Randall's]] feelings towards those who abuse the opportunity to ask a question in order to make a statement. Randall has recently done some book tours and was at {{w|San Diego Comic-Con}} [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/07/15/san-diego-comic-con/ last month] where he served on various panels, so he probably has had personal first-hand experience with these kinds of circuitous non-questions.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Hairy stands on a podium having just addressed a crowd of seated people. Beret Guy stands in the middle of the crowd, addressing Hairy. One of Beret Guy's hands is raised at chest height. The front row consists of Cueball, Ponytail, another Hairy, Megan, Hairbun, Danish and another Cueball.]<br />
<br />
:Beret Guy: I have a question.<br />
:Beret Guy: Well, less of a question and more of a comment.<br />
:Beret Guy: I guess it's less of a comment and more of an utterance.<br />
:Beret Guy: Really it's less an utterance more an air pressure wave.<br />
:Beret Guy: It's less an air pressure wave and more a friendly hand wave.<br />
:Beret Guy: I guess it's less a friendly wave than it is a friendly bug.<br />
:Beret Guy: I found this bug and now we're friends. Do you want to meet it?<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]<br />
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]<br />
[[Category:Public speaking]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Fiction]]<br />
[[Category:Harry Potter]]</div>172.69.79.223