https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Mulan15262&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T14:44:43ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1976:_Friendly_Questions&diff=155546Talk:1976: Friendly Questions2018-04-07T14:03:50Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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same<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.160|162.158.238.160]] 15:57, 4 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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>How many apples have you eaten?<br />
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IS THAT A JOJO REFERENCE? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.82|172.68.211.82]] 16:22, 4 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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:Are you referring to the singer or the NY restaurant? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 19:32, 4 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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::He's referring to the manga, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. In it, Zeppeli asks Dio, "How many lives have you sucked away to heal those wounds?" Dio responds, "Do you remember how many breads you've eaten in your life?" [sic] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.63|172.69.54.63]] 21:29, 4 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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:::Ok, thanks. Would not have gotten that in a lifetime! Your IP addresses are very close to each other - do you two know each other, or is this particular manga more popular than one might think? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 23:01, 4 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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::::It’s definitely a well known manga, with numerous internet memes spawned from it. Personally, I’m experiencing a Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon with it since Team Fortress 2 just had an update including an outfit that looks like the main character Jotaro Kujo. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.82|172.68.211.82]] 04:34, 5 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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I can relate way too much to this comic. Then again, I bet most of us here relate to xkcd in general, and are probably logically, socially inept, nerds. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 17:54, 4 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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The last one of these was published a mere 15 comics ago. I assume this is becoming some sort of satirical how-to series. <br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.112|172.68.211.112]] 22:46, 4 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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:Nah, Randall has just returned to some of his old themes recently. Check out the categories! Oh, and should we try to get the numbers on how many apples an average guy eats in his lifetime? I fell like maybe we could just write it, as a fun fact. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 23:51, 4 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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::As I pointed out in 1961, not so much "returning to old themes" with this topic, because he never really left it. Someone started a Social Awkwardness catagory (called "Social interactions" for some reason) after that last one, and I "quickly" zipped through all the previous comics to fill in the category. There were something like 5 in the two year "gap" there was supposed to be. :) Actually, as soon as I saw this one I rushed to ExplainXKCD to make sure this one was added, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:09, 6 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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I would assume "Do you like apples" might be weird unless there is some apple context, but at least answerable. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:47, 5 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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Noone else feels like this could be a reference to the - by now a few weeks old - news story in which the US president used a note on how to show human emotions to the vicitims of a massshooting? [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 05:26, 5 April 2018 (UTC) I feel that way as well, it was my first thought upon reading. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.4|108.162.229.4]] 15:51, 5 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
:Probably not given as the note just reminded him to show empathy, it wasn't a guide on how to handle human interactions.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:03, 7 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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The "I should go" reminds me of Mass Effect token phrase when ending dialogues. Could that be relevant to the post? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.61|162.158.111.61]] 13:07, 5 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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I find it unlikely that Randall is referencing the highly misogynistic and socially problematic Adams in this comic, and frankly the assumption that he is indicates minimal familiarity with either author and their outside work.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.52|172.68.141.52]] 17:30, 5 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.52|172.68.141.52]] 17:30, 5 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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and the post-it being titled "Normal Human Conversation" which implies the existence of other post-its with titles such as "Abnormal Human Conversation" or "Normal Cat Conversation".<br />
Does it, really? If I find a recipe titled "Delicious French fries", should I expect recipes for "disgusting French fires" and "delicious Chinese fries" to be part of the book? "Abnormal" conversation presumably comes naturally to Cueball, so he does not need a note for that, and he is probably not trying to communicate with animals, so he does not need notes for that, either. [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 06:35, 6 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
: Absolutely agree. I removed that part. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 09:25, 6 April 2018 (UTC)<br />
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Reminds me of Donald Trump's cue notes for the meeting with students after the Florida school shooting in the Middle of February. Questions were e.g. '1. What would you most want me to know about your experience' and '5. I hear you'. Personally I am glad that a politician takes an effort and prepares. He should not be publicly shamed for this situation and possible social awkwardness per se (as long as he keeps positive and friendly attitude to people, what is not always the case) and I did not like the generally disapproving public reaction to the cuesheet and the questions on it. (I am not from the US.) Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.180|141.101.105.180]] 10:04, 6 April 2018 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1925:_Self-Driving_Car_Milestones&diff=1488511925: Self-Driving Car Milestones2017-12-07T02:57:19Z<p>Mulan15262: Updated the section on autonomous engine revving.</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1925<br />
| date = December 6, 2017<br />
| title = Self-Driving Car Milestones<br />
| image = self_driving_car_milestones.png<br />
| titletext = I'm working on a car capable of evaluating arbitrarily complex boolean expressions on "honk if [...]" bumper stickers and responding accordingly.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT DRIVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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This comic is a list of milestones for self-driving cars. Some have already been achieved, others are still being worked on, while others are facetious "milestones".<br />
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* Automatic emergency brakes: this is another reference to how hard it can be to program human-obvious stuff (like in [[1425: Tasks]]). A self driving car has to be able to distinguish a danger (cliff, person on foot, other cars coming the wrong way/doing weird stuff) from either the side of the road, the background, the other cars or even a light pole safely standing on the side of the road. Then the car also has to decide whether turn around, just slow down (as danger is not imminent) or actually do the strong brake (and optimally decide what would be the most effective, taking into account weather conditions, road type and traffic). There are big potential advantages for self driving cars, in case of success: computers don't panic, would have faster reaction times than humans, and would have {{w|Autonomous_car#Safety|more reliable judgment than humans}}.<br />
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* Highway lane-keeping: sometimes, especially on highways where road delimitations might be [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Route_66_2073773569_7b3fae3b91_b.jpg/220px-Route_66_2073773569_7b3fae3b91_b.jpg faint or absent] or when lane markings could have faded away, a self driving car programmed to pilot based on road markings would have issues holding to the good side of the road. This is a bigger problem than in cities as cars move faster on highways, so the danger detection mentioned above might not manage to detect danger in time while breaking or avoiding the obstacle needs to be anticipated much more.<br />
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* Self-parking: already implemented in recent normal cars, that feature is important for the car not to stay in the road after use, and is sometimes considered as a difficult maneuver by to-be-drivers as it requires a good "feeling" of the car dimensions, as well as of distances and maneuverability of the car. (the latter parameters being easy to compute, with radar and back-camera aide, is made rather easy for computers)<br />
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* Full highway autonomy: the ability for a car to drive itself on a highway. As of 2017, there are [http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a13615577/self-driving-cars-lane-wisconsin/ plans] under consideration to set highway lanes aside for self-driving cars, but this milestone would require such a car to be able to operate on a highway that also has human-driven cars—as well as wildlife, pedestrians, debris, and other such obstacles should they enter the highway.<br />
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* First sex in a self-driving car: this is not a milestone for the cars themselves, but just the age-old practice of having sex in cars, performed in a car that happens to be self-driving. Whether or not this would happen while the car is in motion (other than that induced by the passengers) or on a public road is not specified, though both are implied. Given the nature of human sexuality, it is possible this has already happened, but there has not been a public documentation of this milestone.<br />
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* Full trips with no input from driver: the main point of self-driving cars, allowing all humans within to act as passengers. As of 2017, self-driving cars require a human to be able to take over just in case, but any such trip where the human never actually took control would qualify for this milestone.<br />
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* Full trips by empty cars: a more severe version of the above, since with no humans present, no human can take control. This could be considered fulfilled by the {{w|DARPA Grand Challenge}}, as the challenges are racing competitions of autonomous cars with no humans on board.<br />
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* Self-refueling of empty cars: this would either require a robotic fuel station (thus, able to refuel cars with humans inside as well), or an ordinary full-service fuel station (that is, one where the station's employee performs the refueling of the car) that happens to service a self-driving car with no humans aboard (which could be arranged as a publicity stunt).<br />
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* An empty car wandering the highways for months or years until someone notices the credit card fuel charges: the first completely facetious milestone of the list (since "first sex", despite having little to do with self-driving cars, has possibly happened). Cars are expensive enough that, were one to drive itself off and wander, some effort would be made to track it down. As this would require the self-refueling milestone, local fuel stations could be alerted to look for the "rogue" car—and in any case, whatever payment method is used to pay for the fuel would be traced.<br />
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* Cars that read other cars' bumper stickers before deciding whether to cut them off: another facetious milestone, implying self-driving cars might obtain artificial intelligence and opinions that might override safety and efficiency of transit, so this seems unlikely to actually happen.<br />
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* Autonomous engine revving at red lights: mimicking the human practice. This is often done by human drivers who wish to draw attention to their car and then speed off as quickly as possible once the light turns green, but is regarded by most as being a nuisance. As such, this is an unlikely goal for self-driving cars to achieve.<br />
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* Self-loathing cars: this would require cars to become sentient enough to understand, and have negative opinions about, themselves. Depending on one's definition, though, self-diagnostic software might qualify, as they would be running on a car's computer and express a negative opinion about the car (albeit limited to the context of the car needing maintenance).<br />
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* Autonomous canyon jumping: although it seems unlikely that a navigation routine would ever decide that jumping a canyon is part of an optimal route, a car could be programmed to jump a canyon as part of a stunt or show, with no human driver (or any other human aboard) at the time of the jump. It is questionable how "autonomous" such a car would be, though. Could also be a reference to the next point, with another popular setting in below mentioned discussions: "should a self-driving car leave the road and drive into a canyon, which will kill the driver (and passengers?), or stay on the road and kill others?". Possibly a reference to [https://electrek.co/2017/04/19/tesla-model-s-crash-cliff-save-life/ when a Tesla was driven off a cliff] and the driver and his passenger survived without injury.<br />
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* Cars capable of arguing about the trolley problem on {{w|Facebook}}: the {{w|Trolley problem}} is a well-known thought experiment in ethics, in which a person must choose between passively allowing several people to die, or actively causing a single person to die. Such a choice could plausibly be forced on the computer of self-driving car. For example, if the car could avoid a high-speed collision only by running down a pedestrian.<br />
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* The title text talks about evaluating arbitrarily complex Boolean expressions on "honk if [...]" bumper stickers and responding accordingly (title text): as with the cut-off milestone, this implies development of artificial intelligence unrelated to the basic functions of a car, though still imitating human drivers' behavior. This a joke is a reference to [https://xkcd.com/1033/ a previous comic about honking and formal logic].<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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:Upcoming and recently-achieved<br />
:'''Self-driving car milestones'''<br />
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:* Automatic emergency braking<br />
:* Highway lane-keeping<br />
:* Self-parking<br />
:* Full highway autonomy<br />
:* First sex in a self-driving car<br />
:* Full trips with no input from driver<br />
:* Full trips by empty cars<br />
:* An empty car wandering the highways for months or years until someone notices the credit card fuel charges<br />
:* Cars that read other cars' bumper stickers before deciding whether to cut them off<br />
:* Autonomous engine revving at red lights<br />
:* Self-loathing cars<br />
:* Autonomous canyon jumping<br />
:* Cars capable of arguing about the trolley problem on Facebook<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Self-driving cars]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1884:_Ringer_Volume/Media_Volume&diff=144873Talk:1884: Ringer Volume/Media Volume2017-09-02T00:46:53Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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So, is this about the volume buttons controlling all aspects of volume on the phone, and it being difficult to control sometimes (a lot!)? ~Chris {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.220}}<br />
:Yes, but it's strange because the default action of the volume control should be the ''main volume'' and NOT the ''ring tone volume''. Nevertheless a video advertisement is often much louder than the movie where it is embedded. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:50, 1 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
Protip: on Android when loading a youtube video, lock your phone and then unlock it. The video will then start paused, allowing you to adjust volume and then press play.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.4|172.68.206.4]] 15:06, 1 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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On my Android phone, pressing either volume key results in the ringer volume slider appearing at the top of the screen. To its right is a downward-pointing caret. Pressing that caret adds sliders for media and alarm volumes. These can be moved using the touchscreen or the user can tap to select one to adjust and use the volume keys. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 16:23, 1 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Don't understand this comic at all... why would you frantically turn your volume up and down like that in the seconds before a video starts? Do other people do this?? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.81|141.101.69.81]] 16:24, 1 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
:People aren't intentionally doing that. The viewer is trying to turn down the media volume; however, Android defaults to those buttons adjusting the volume for incoming calls, which people usually leave maxed. The viewer is accidentally decreasing the incoming call volume, but only wants the media volume turned down. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 00:46, 2 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Here's my understanding (though I don't have a smart phone and don't have first hand experience): The user has selected the video to start, it is about to begin (loading), and the user wants to turn down the volume on the video, but instead mistakenly turns down the volume on the ringer. Once noticing their mistake, they restore the volume to its original state and try again. Only to fail again. They repeat this cycle again, until the video finishes loading and catches them on the upswing. I believe once the video is loaded the volume controls on the side switch functions from ringer to media. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.238|108.162.216.238]] 16:36, 1 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Addressing '''"Interestingly, some earlier versions of Windows allow adjusting volume on per-program basis using a single on-screen control. This feature was eventually removed as it was deemed to confusing to users."''', I use Windows 10 on my laptop, and I can right click on the sound manager, open volume mixer, and that allows me to adjust the volume of each active program. So I'm pretty sure this line is incorrect, as it is still a feature. (Alan)<br />
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On iPhones, there is an option to have the buttons always control media volume, even when there is no media playing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.119|162.158.79.119]] 19:11, 1 September 2017 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1876:_Eclipse_Searches&diff=144057Talk:1876: Eclipse Searches2017-08-15T04:02:29Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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I don't get it. - BK {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.16}}<br />
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Because people are apparently (according to the Google-search data, anyways) more excited about the upcoming eclipse than they were about the election, Cueball is predicting that society is going to go a little crazy when the eclipse actually happens. Megan adds that the traffic jams will likely be insurmountable and "if you're planning to be on the road, bring water"--i.e., don't expect to go anywhere fast. In the title text Mr. Munroe further explains this statement, noting that past eclipses have generated bad traffic jams and those were before the days of widespread social media networking, which will certainly make matters much worse. [[User:Berets|Berets]] ([[User talk:Berets|talk]]) 17:21, 14 August 2017 (UTC)<br />
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::To be fair, not that many of us were excited for election day. The Trumpists were excited. The #imwithheriguess weren't. We wanted Clinton because she wasn't Trump. Nervous about the insanity that would occur if Trump won, but not excited about the mediocrity that would happen if Clinton won. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.88|108.162.245.88]] 21:43, 14 August 2017 (UTC)<br />
:::Don't forget the sizeable number of people who had the same opinions, but with the roles reversed (wanting Trump because he wasn't Hillary). Most of the people I know who wanted Trump were in that group. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 04:02, 15 August 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I guess the association with traffic jams is that in the USofA, people are used to stand for hours in line to vote. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.29|198.41.242.29]] 17:47, 14 August 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I remember the 1970 eclipse! Here in Northern Virginia, it was nearly total. I was nine and my dad made us a pinhole camera. Now I'm gonna have to make one for my kids, since it looks like the goggles are pretty much sold out. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.118|162.158.255.118]] 19:08, 14 August 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I understand this XKCD differently. The fact that no one looks up "eclipse" is that something bad will happen during it, that's why Cueball is urged to bring water, as in essential survival gear. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.106|108.162.216.106]] 20:12, 14 August 2017 (UTC) AM<br />
:Yeah, and the Moon will fall into the Sun like the ISS did before: [[1830: ISS Solar Transit 2]] --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:26, 14 August 2017 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1867:_Physics_Confession&diff=1431091867: Physics Confession2017-07-24T04:43:57Z<p>Mulan15262: Explanation</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1867<br />
| date = July 24, 2017<br />
| title = Physics Confession<br />
| image = physics_confession.png<br />
| titletext = "You know lightning, right? When electric charge builds up in a cloud and then discharges in a giant spark? Ask me why that happens." "Why does tha--" "No clue. We think it's related to the hair thing."<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|This is my first contribution it should be looked over by someone before the tag is removed.}}<br />
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A {{w|Theory of Everything}} is a goal of modern physics which would explain all of the phenomena observed in modern physics. The current approach to a theory of everything is to figure out how everything works on a quantum scale, and then just demonstrate how the rest of known physics can be derived from that quantum behavior. This approach, however, leaves many everyday phenomena which are not understood by modern physics. This comic lists several of those phenomena:<br />
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It is unknown how ice skates work. It is thought that they develop a film of water between the skate and the ice that lubricates sliding, but scientists dispute how the film gets there.<br />
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Physicists lack a clear understanding of the interactions involved in the flow of granular materials, such as sand. It is known that the behavior diverges greatly from that of a liquid, but it is unknown exactly how the flow works.<br />
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Modern physics also doesn't understand what makes electrons move from one material to another when two materials are rubbed against each other, and why the transfer takes more in one direction than in the other.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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{{comic discussion}}</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1852:_Election_Map&diff=141523Talk:1852: Election Map2017-06-19T15:09:16Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div>Is that Georgia's 6th district? [[User:Homusubi|Homusubi]] ([[User talk:Homusubi|talk]]) 12:41, 19 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
*Yup. See map [https://decisiondeskhq.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/GA06_HOUSE16.png here]. It looks a little squished, but that's probably to create the angled effect of the screen. [[User:AxleHelios|AxleHelios]] ([[User talk:AxleHelios|talk]]) 13:23, 19 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
:*It looks like it. That looks like the results from the recent (April) Special Election. There are one or two counties that aren't accurate (colored blue here that went red and vice versa), but I estimate a 99.9% chance that this is the 6th. [http://www.myajc.com/news/gen-politics/how-the-district-run-off-election-june-might-look/bHzbRfuZIWN8jOUTOSnQmM/ Here] are the election results. [[User:OldCorps|OldCorps]] ([[User talk:OldCorps|talk]]) 13:24, 19 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
Is it worth a mention that Randall came out as a strong Democrat in the comics last October, and thus, there's a secondary hidden meaning that the red districts are moving "away" from Cueball? [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:57, 19 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
:That is probably just a coincidence.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 15:09, 19 June 2017 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1846:_Drone_Problems&diff=140826Talk:1846: Drone Problems2017-06-06T04:21:43Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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It will work for [[1207|this]], though. She might finally get some use out of it. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 04:21, 6 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I wrote a short little explanation that needs a lot more. Maybe I'll add more after school.<br />
[[User:LordFlashmeow|LordFlashmeow]] ([[User talk:LordFlashmeow|talk]]) 15:56, 5 June 2017 (UTC)LordFlashmeow<br />
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There's a much simpler, if less elegant, solution in buying a Mossberg 500. [[User:OldCorps|OldCorps]] ([[User talk:OldCorps|talk]]) 16:20, 5 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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As I read it, the drones were flying around her, in the first place, because people can't control them properly. I find the comic even funnier, reading this way. <br />
(New here. Is the below signature the right way to sign?)<br />
<saim>{{unsigned|Saim}}<br />
:No. you type <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> and it gives you something like this: (mine is customized) [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 23:22, 5 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Wasn't there another comic where black hat builds something similar that shoots birds or squirrels or something? I can't find it now —[[User:Artyer|Artyer]] <sup><big>([[User Talk:Artyer|talk]]<big>'''&#124;'''</big><sub>[[Special:Contributions/Artyer|ctb]]</sub>)</big></sup> 19:36, 5 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I thought this was a parallel to North Korean ICBMs and US anti-missle technology... {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.226}}<br />
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I also got the impression that this was an ICBM metaphor. Note the news in recent days: [http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/29/530534854/north-korea-fires-short-range-missile-into-sea-of-japan-its-9th-launch-this-year North Korea missile launch] [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40101629 Anti-missile Launch]--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.82|108.162.245.82]] 22:12, 5 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Maybe Cueball's problems came with him from [[1586|here]]? [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 23:20, 5 June 2017 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1827:_Survivorship_Bias&diff=139106Talk:1827: Survivorship Bias2017-04-21T12:49:19Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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Is "defeatest" a typo or a joke? I've never seen Randall make a typo before, but I also don't get the joke if there is one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.184|162.158.2.184]] 04:28, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Definitely a typo. [[User:Cardboardmech|Cardboardmech]] ([[User talk:Cardboardmech|talk]]) 04:59, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
::At first I thought this was an unfamiliarity with the word, and was about to talk about how it's a real word and what it means, then I noticed the spelling, LOL! I KNOW I've seen such spelling errors several times before - often getting fixed in the next day or two - but I couldn't provide examples even if my life depended on it. And yeah, I'd say this is more "spelling error" than "typo", the I is nowhere near the E on any keyboard. :) - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.88|108.162.219.88]] 05:58, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
:::If itdoesn't get fixed, it might be some weird pun on "[survival of] the fittest". Wouldn't make a lot of sense in the context of the sentence though [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.233|162.158.91.233]] 09:12, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
::::sometimes Randall do not fix errors, so nothing can be concluded on that (would it be survivorship bias to do so? ;-) How should the word be spelled (I'm not native English speaking), and does the word even exist? The spelling should be mentioned when someone explains the title text. I'm not up for it. And then if it is corrected later, it should go into the trivia section as a corrected error. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:29, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Transcript's kind of done. [[User:Cardboardmech|Cardboardmech]] ([[User talk:Cardboardmech|talk]]) 05:17, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I have changed the format to the usual style and added a bit more detail. But else nicely done. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:29, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Other than the title text, does any more work need to be done on the explanation? The Template:Incomplete param is pretty vague right now. <span style="background:#0064de;font-size:12px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:8px;">[[User talk:AgentMuffin|<span style="color:#f0faff;">~AgentMuffin</span>]]</span><br />
<br />
No doubt a lottery isn't a wise investment. However, I have not heard about accepting 25% of the prize or in annual instalments for over a decade before. Is that an american habbit? Vince [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.174|141.101.105.174]] 06:17, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
: Never heard of such things, either... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:27, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
:This is a thing that some American lotteries do. It reduces the amount that you have to pay in taxes. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 12:49, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text is written in the style of an inspirational/motivational speech. Do not be deterred, you can do ANYTHING. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.58|172.68.110.58]] 07:05, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I took the liberty of editing the very emotional text and replace it with something a bit more "professional", as I think fits this site better. I am still not quite happy about it, as advertising jackpots without taxes and not advertising the payout time are local phenomena only applicable to some jurisdictions, and make no difference to the overall survivor bias that is the theme of the comic [[Special:Contributions/172.68.182.202|172.68.182.202]] 08:16, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
: I think the whole tax stuff can be deleted. Playing lottery is always stupid - even if there were no taxes on the prize. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:25, 21 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
::I agree with Elektrizikekswerk on both issues. Lottery is just tax on low IQ we call it in my family ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:25, 21 April 2017 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1825:_7_Eleven&diff=138885Talk:1825: 7 Eleven2017-04-17T23:11:56Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~--><br />
<br />
I don't think the title-text references leap seconds, as it says that "many" are wrong, not "all". It seems more likely it refers to stores that claim to be open 365 days per year, and are hence wrong in leap years.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.42|141.101.105.42]] 20:12, 17 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I agree that it would be closed for 39 (and a bit) minutes a day if it was open for exactly 24 hours. I think Randall made a mistake. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.40|198.41.238.40]] 21:30, 17 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The parts in the description that talk about mixing "Earth and Mars time units" and "Mars-hours" don't make sense; I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a Mars-hour. Despite the classical definition of an hour (which has since been replaced), an hour is defined as a number of seconds, and seconds are an SI unit based on the characteristics of Caesium-133 atoms...NOT defined as being a fixed fraction of a day. Even the unit "day" is often used to refer to a fixed unit of time nowadays (defined by the SI to be 86 401 s)...I believe this is one of the reasons why the solar day on Mars is referred to as a "sol" instead of a "day". [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.192|172.68.133.192]] 22:15, 17 April 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Nitpicking a bit, but the day is usually only 86400 seconds long (see [[1481]]).</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1778:_Interest_Timescales&diff=133062Talk:1778: Interest Timescales2016-12-29T14:53:30Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~--><br />
<br />
I think the parts of the mountain that suddenly rise(s) refers to lava, smoke, ash, etc. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.102|162.158.122.102]] 07:53, 28 December 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Looks to me that Randall got the chart wrong. Rockets go much faster than fireworks. Very large fireworks can go faster than the speed of sound on the order of a couple hundred miles per hour, https://www.fireworkscrazy.co.uk/blog/how-fast-are-fireworks/ <br />
But in order for rockets to go into orbit they have to reach speed in the thousands of miles per hour, http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/basics/launch.html<br />
So the rocket ship should be to the left of the fireworks. <br />
Unless the initial acceleration of the firework is faster than the rocket. In other words for the first hundred or so feet, does the firework go faster than the rocket?<br />
Does anyone know that? [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 15:23, 28 December 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Looking again, it seems that Randall is not talking about how fast the object rises, but how much time it takes to rise, hang and drift away. In other words how fast is the experience? In that case fireworks do follow the process of rising and hanging and drifting faster than a rocket does. So the experience takes less time (seconds) even though the rocket travels faster the whole process takes longer (minutes for blastoff and hours or days to return). [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 15:35, 28 December 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I can't help but feel the explanation of the trees is a bit wrong. A tree will take anywhere from months to centuries to grow before it dies depending on the species. If the interest were in leaves the current description of them falling in Autumn would apply, but in that case the image of the tree would probably be something more specific to leaves. In fact, overall I think we might be over-reading the text about the majority of things Randall is interested in being things which rise up and drift in the wind. It's hard to say that is true of mountains, except in the most extreme cases. (Signed: Random anonymous coward. December 28, 2016)<br />
<br />
Did anyone notice Randall’s mistake in subject‐verb agreement? “...parts of a slowly‐rising mountain suddenly rises.” It should be “parts...suddenly rise”. I don’t know if it’s worth mentioning in the article.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.89|108.162.246.89]] 19:04, 28 December 2016 (UTC)<br />
:Yes, it probably is worth mentioning.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:53, 29 December 2016 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1697:_Intervocalic_Fortition&diff=122271Talk:1697: Intervocalic Fortition2016-06-22T13:24:14Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~--><br />
The idea, stated in the alt-text, that "meh" was created by writers of "The Simpsons", is incorrect. "The Simpsons", however, was responsible for widely popularizing it. See [http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2013/09/06/meh_etymology_tracing_the_yiddish_word_from_leo_rosten_to_auden_to_the_simpsons.html] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meh] [[User:Dubaaron|Dubaaron]] ([[User talk:Dubaaron|talk]]) 04:31, 22 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
:Is it really saying that ''The Simpsons'' created the word? All it says is that it introduced the word, which does not seem to imply that it didn't exist before. If I introduce a friend of mine to another person, I most likely did not just create that other person, and there is no reason to believe that it should be any different for words.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 13:24, 22 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
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"The" ends in a lax vowel, and it's the most ubiquitous word in the language, so that rule is wrong. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.10|108.162.221.10]] 04:45, 22 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: I've always seen "lax vowel" referring to full (unreduced) vowels. When unstressed, the vowel in "the" is reduced (/ðə/), and when stressed it's tense (/ði:/). [[Special:Contributions/188.114.109.66|188.114.109.66]] 05:08, 22 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: Furthermore, the lax vowel is only used if 'the' is followed by another syllable, and so the utterance will not be lax-vowel-final. {{unsigned ip|162.158.2.219}}<br />
<br />
:::What the? That can't be right...<br />
<br />
Questions. Is this happening in (American) English? is "adverb" becoming /adferb/. Any other examples?[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 05:55, 22 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
: I scanned some 'v' words and didn't see much. A plural of [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html dwarf] discussion; similarly wharf splits into both wharfs and wharves. 'Halving' might benefit in the sense that the 'l' is silent so it sounds like 'having' and might be more clear as 'halfing'. I've also noticed a smattering of YouTubers writing "could of/should of" instead of contracting 'have', i.e, "could've/should've". [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 06:50, 22 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
:No, I don't think this is really happening. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.77|141.101.98.77]] 11:22, 22 June 2016 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1695:_Code_Quality_2&diff=1220661695: Code Quality 22016-06-17T13:25:08Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1695<br />
| date = June 17, 2016<br />
| title = Code Quality 2<br />
| image = code_quality_2.png<br />
| titletext = It's like you tried to define a formal grammar based on fragments of a raw database dump from the QuickBooks file of a company that's about to collapse in an accounting scandal.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
<br />
This comic is a follow-up to [[1513: Code Quality]], with [[Ponytail]] doing some code review again.<br />
<br />
Ponytail takes farther jabs at Cueball's code quality by making more metaphors to various things that suggest the code being very messy.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
Side view of Ponytail sitting at a computer in all five panels.<br />
<br />
First panel, tall vertical.<br><br />
Ponytail: Ugh, I hate reading your code.<br><br />
Offscreen: I know, I know.<br />
<br />
Second panel is wider, shows her in an office chair.<br><br />
Ponytail: It's like you ran OCR on a photo of a Scrabble board from a game where Javascript reserved words counted for triple points.<br><br />
<br />
Third panel zooms in and shows just her head.<br><br />
Ponytail: It looks like someone transcribed a naval weather forecast while woodpeckers hammered their shift keys, then randomly indented it.<br><br />
<br />
Fourth panel, similar to second, though slightly narrower.<br><br />
Ponytail: It's like an e e cummings poem written using only the usernames a website suggests when the one you want is taken.<br><br />
<br />
Fifth panel zooms in, shows her head and the screen.<br><br />
Ponytail: This looks like the output of a Markov bot that's been fed bus timetables from a city where the buses crash constantly.<br><br />
Offscreen: Whatever, it runs fine for now.<br><br />
Ponytail: So does a burning bus.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:117:_Pong&diff=122045Talk:117: Pong2016-06-16T17:02:07Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) The issue date of the comic is definitely wrong, as the file doesn't have a create date. Can anyone fix?<br />
:Think I fixed it. I looked at the [http://xkcd.com/archive/ xkcd archive] for the date. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 15:41, 8 August 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is the ball really dropping? It looked to me like the ball just started going down and will bounce off the side and go up, like it does in pong, only without any sideways momentum to move it back to the other player. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 17:02, 16 June 2016 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1688:_Map_Age_Guide&diff=1210791688: Map Age Guide2016-06-01T14:14:32Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1688<br />
| date = June 1, 2016<br />
| title = Map Age Guide<br />
| image = map_age_guide.png<br />
| titletext = Does the screeching chill your blood and herald death? If yes, banshee. If no, seagull.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
*A [http://xkcd.com/1688/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Many is still missing.}}<br />
Flowchart depicting various ways to tell what era a map is from based on present country borders and land forms. Most of the options are very serious,with a few bizarre options (mistaking a seagull and breadbox for a map) or references to things like the Discworld books and Middle-earth, the setting of the Lord Of the Rings series. He also mentions Jimmy Carter being attacked by a giant swimming rabbit, an event previously referenced by [[204]].<br />
<br />
Additionally, (possible) future maps including a "Radioactive Exclusion Zone" in the place of Colorado are mentioned.<br />
<br />
The title text continues this by inquiring of the (presumed) seagull might be a banshee based on the effect of its screams.<br />
<br />
(First Draft, please expand.)<br />
<br />
Going through the flowchart, taking the leftmost path first:<br />
<br />
'''Istanbul or Constantinople''': The city that is now the capital of Turkey is famous for having different names at different times or to different people (and perhaps the inspiration for this comic.) Variations on both names go back at least 1,000 years. Other names have also been used at various points. Istanbul has been the official name since the 1920's, although Western maps often referred to it as Constantinople as late as the 1960's; on the flowchart, the choice of name appears to go with the 1920's date. The name changes are the subject of a [http://mentalfloss.com/article/60314/original-istanbul-not-constantinople song], originally by the Four Lads, but now mainly known for the They Might Be Giants recording.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Maps]]<br />
[[Category:Time]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Geography]]<br />
<!-- Cat and seagull --></div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1618:_Cold_Medicine&diff=107235Talk:1618: Cold Medicine2015-12-18T14:50:53Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>How hard would it actually be to turn street drugs back into cold medicine? [[User:Benjaminikuta|Benjaminikuta]] ([[User talk:Benjaminikuta|talk]]) 05:41, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
- I'm unsure on the actual scientific accuracy of this, given it is a fake paper, but http://heterodoxy.cc/meowdocs/pseudo/pseudosynth.pdf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 05:49, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This is in reference to recent studies that have proven that Phenylephrine is no worse than a placebo.<br />
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylephrine<br />
http://www.annallergy.org/article/S1081-1206(10)60240-2/abstract<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.138|162.158.2.138]] 06:53, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
- I keep hearing about this Placebo. It seems like a very potent medicine that is good for everything. Where can you buy it? {{unsigned ip|162.158.90.213}}<br />
:Just get anything that is labeled 'homeopathic'. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.101|162.158.153.101]] 10:55, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:In more than 100 countries it is manufactured under the brand name {{w|Tic Tac}} and available even in supermarkets. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:41, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
I don't think it's suggesting turning meth back to medicine. I think it's a reference to heroin and at least a handful(?) of other now-illegal drugs originally introduced purely as medicinal products. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 12:13, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
:- i respectfully disagree, i reckon its exactly suggesting that ... Need cold medicine so bad i would buy illegal drugs made from cold medicine and seek to reverse the process. Obviously not the most practical way of getting cold medicine ... but thats the joke.[[User:Plm-qaz snr|Plm-qaz snr]] ([[User talk:Plm-qaz snr|talk]]) 13:08, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
Codeine was originally a cough suppressant. It was and is the most effective and reliable cough medicine available and very safe in the usual quantities. You can't get it, though -- for an ordinary cough -- because some people like to use a lot of it for fun and sometimes get addicted to large quantities of it. You could synthesize it or an analogue of it from heroin or oxycodone about as safely as any kitchen chemistry because they share the same opium base. <br />
<br />
The principal cold medicines are cough suppressants (codeine is best -- other things work but much worse), decongestant (pseudoephedrine works great, phenylephrine is no more effective than a placebo), mild anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen, and antihistamines for anti-sneezing (there are many good ones based on Seldane like Claritin). Most people like to combine those at nighttime with a good mild tranquil sleep promoter -- I recommend whisky or rum. Note that pseudoephedrine is banned in some states of the USA such as Oregon. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.65|108.162.216.65]] 13:58, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
I take the title text differently - that since buying pseudoephedrine-containing drugs legally in a larger than minimal quantity (e.g. to stockpile them at home to have them at hand when you need them) already makes you a criminal suspect with 100% certainty (because you have to show your ID), it may be safer to buy illegal drugs on the black market, where you have at least some chance of not being caught. As for turning meth back to PE - it is possible for sure, since all chemical processes are reversible in one way or another, but I am not versed enough in organic chemistry to say if it is easier or harder than the other way round. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.224|162.158.90.224]] 12:33, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Burning is chemical process. Creating wood from ash is generally considered unpractical. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:41, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Yes, it is impractical. However, due to one of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics being the fact that information can't be destroyed, only obfuscated, scatter, maybe even left out of reach, but never destroyed, all the information needed to turn the ash back into wood is still in the universe. All that is left to do is retrieve all that information and figure out a way by which everything can become uncombusted, and you have it turned back into wood. Sure, it would be easier to use the ash as fertilizer to help grow another tree, but it isn't impossible.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:50, 18 December 2015 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1618:_Cold_Medicine&diff=107234Talk:1618: Cold Medicine2015-12-18T14:50:16Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>How hard would it actually be to turn street drugs back into cold medicine? [[User:Benjaminikuta|Benjaminikuta]] ([[User talk:Benjaminikuta|talk]]) 05:41, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
- I'm unsure on the actual scientific accuracy of this, given it is a fake paper, but http://heterodoxy.cc/meowdocs/pseudo/pseudosynth.pdf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 05:49, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This is in reference to recent studies that have proven that Phenylephrine is no worse than a placebo.<br />
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylephrine<br />
http://www.annallergy.org/article/S1081-1206(10)60240-2/abstract<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.138|162.158.2.138]] 06:53, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
- I keep hearing about this Placebo. It seems like a very potent medicine that is good for everything. Where can you buy it? {{unsigned ip|162.158.90.213}}<br />
:Just get anything that is labeled 'homeopathic'. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.101|162.158.153.101]] 10:55, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:In more than 100 countries it is manufactured under the brand name {{w|Tic Tac}} and available even in supermarkets. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:41, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
I don't think it's suggesting turning meth back to medicine. I think it's a reference to heroin and at least a handful(?) of other now-illegal drugs originally introduced purely as medicinal products. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 12:13, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
:- i respectfully disagree, i reckon its exactly suggesting that ... Need cold medicine so bad i would buy illegal drugs made from cold medicine and seek to reverse the process. Obviously not the most practical way of getting cold medicine ... but thats the joke.[[User:Plm-qaz snr|Plm-qaz snr]] ([[User talk:Plm-qaz snr|talk]]) 13:08, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
Codeine was originally a cough suppressant. It was and is the most effective and reliable cough medicine available and very safe in the usual quantities. You can't get it, though -- for an ordinary cough -- because some people like to use a lot of it for fun and sometimes get addicted to large quantities of it. You could synthesize it or an analogue of it from heroin or oxycodone about as safely as any kitchen chemistry because they share the same opium base. <br />
<br />
The principal cold medicines are cough suppressants (codeine is best -- other things work but much worse), decongestant (pseudoephedrine works great, phenylephrine is no more effective than a placebo), mild anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen, and antihistamines for anti-sneezing (there are many good ones based on Seldane like Claritin). Most people like to combine those at nighttime with a good mild tranquil sleep promoter -- I recommend whisky or rum. Note that pseudoephedrine is banned in some states of the USA such as Oregon. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.65|108.162.216.65]] 13:58, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
I take the title text differently - that since buying pseudoephedrine-containing drugs legally in a larger than minimal quantity (e.g. to stockpile them at home to have them at hand when you need them) already makes you a criminal suspect with 100% certainty (because you have to show your ID), it may be safer to buy illegal drugs on the black market, where you have at least some chance of not being caught. As for turning meth back to PE - it is possible for sure, since all chemical processes are reversible in one way or another, but I am not versed enough in organic chemistry to say if it is easier or harder than the other way round. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.224|162.158.90.224]] 12:33, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Burning is chemical process. Creating wood from ash is generally considered unpractical. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:41, 18 December 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Yes, it is impractical. However, due to one of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics being the fact that information can't be destroyed, only obfuscated, scatter, maybe even left out of reach, but never destroyed, all the information needed to turn the ash back into wood is still in the universe. All that is left to do is figure out a way by which everything can become uncombusted, and you have it turned back into wood. Sure, it would be easier to use the ash as fertilizer to help grow another tree, but it isn't impossible.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:50, 18 December 2015 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:882:_Significant&diff=104930Talk:882: Significant2015-11-12T03:14:18Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>In the comic, they mention that there is a link between green jelly beans and acne. However, assuming there to be no real link, there is 50% chance that this link was caused by 95% confidence that green jelly beans help with acne.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 03:14, 12 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Those lazy scientists are playing minecraft instead of curing cancer! Lynch 'em! '''[[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:35, 11 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
:But I heard that Minecraft cures cancer... Scientists! Investigate! <off: cheers from active group, boos from the control group> [[Special:Contributions/178.99.81.144|178.99.81.144]] 19:31, 30 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::You know this experiment isn't conducted properly when you know you're in the control group. [[User:Troy|Troy]] ([[User talk:Troy|talk]]) 05:24, 4 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::So you have to somehow convince them they are playing Minecraft, when in fact they are not. That's easy, select people who have never played the game. But what if KNOWING the game is Minecraft is what cures cancer? Oh boy... [[User:Cflare|Cflare]] ([[User talk:Cflare|talk]]) 13:57, 15 August 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Um, I take it that whoever explained this comic can't tell the difference between < and >, as the fact that the confidence was changed wasn't mentioned in the article... [[Special:Contributions/76.246.37.141|76.246.37.141]] 23:19, 20 September 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Yes, I also figured out this today, green is lower than 0.05, on other colors there is just a confidence that it's NOT lower than 0.05. The newspaper did add this remaining 19 panels to 95%. The article is marked as incomplete, it needs a major rewrite.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:12, 3 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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This explanation seems to misinterpret α. α is the chance of rejecting a true null hypothesis, a false positive. The 5% here is α. The correct interpretation of it is that if the null hypothesis is true, there is a 5% chance that we will mistakenly reject it. P in "P<0.05" is the chance that, if the null hypothesis is true, a result as extreme as, or more extreme than, the result we get from this experiment. '''α is not the chance that, given our current data, the null hypothsis is true. We wish to know what that is, but we do not know.'''[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.72|108.162.215.72]] 08:52, 16 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
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In layman's terms, the comic appears to misrepresent what "95% confidence" (p <0.05) means. The statistic "p < 0.05" means that when we find a correlation based on data, that correlation will be a false positive fewer than 5 percent of the time. In other words, when we observe the correlation in the data, that correlation actually exists in the real world at least 19 out of 20 times. It '''does not''' mean that 1 out of every 20 tests will produce a false positive. This comic displays a pretty significant failure in understanding of Bayesian mathematics. The 5% chance isn't a 5% chance that any test will produce a (false) positive; it's a 5% chance that a statistical positive is a false positive. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.196}}<br />
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:No, you are deeply mistaken. The comic and the comment above you are correct in saying that if the null hypothesis holds, 1 out of every 20 tests will produce a false positive: this is by definition of the p-value. The ratio of true positives to false positives can range anywhere from 0 to infinity, and there is unfortunately no way to predict it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.121|108.162.229.121]] 09:46, 27 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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The explanation appears somewhat confused, as correctly noted in a couple of comments above. The most common misunderstanding of p-values is that they represent how likely it is that the observed correlation (or observed unequal outcomes, or apparent trend) came from chance. That is not what they represent - they represent the probability that results at least as extreme as those observed would have arisen by chance: 1) in a fictional world where chance was the only potential cause of the correlation/inequality/trend (a world in which the null hypothesis was true) AND 2) only one hypothesis was being tested. In the real world, other factors may be more or less plausible as explanations, and it takes judgement, not stats, to determine how likely it is that chance is the best explanation. The green jelly beans theory fails in terms of biological plausibility, so it is >99% likely to be a chance observation (regardless of the p-value). Also, given the large number of hypotheses being tested, the probability of at least one of them producing a p-value <0.05 is much greater than 5%; indeed, with 20 simultaneous hypotheses, we would expect about one to be significant at the p<0.05 level, on average. There is a huge difference between the prospective probability of a single hypothesis satisfying the p<0.05 threshold, and the probability of being able to find a retrospective hypothesis for which p<0.05. This is a case of post hoc cherry picking - the newspaper's emphasis on green jellybeans is post hoc, with the colour of interest chosen after the results were already in. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.163}}<br />
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Is the "e" in "News" supposed to look like an epsilon (and the "w" a rotated epsilon)? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.222|108.162.250.222]] 15:00, 15 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
:It's probably just a stylistic thing. [[User:GrandPiano|GrandPiano]] ([[User talk:GrandPiano|talk]]) 04:00, 28 January 2015 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1594:_Human_Subjects&diff=103931Talk:1594: Human Subjects2015-10-24T14:50:29Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div>The responses in panels 1, 3, and 4 show that Megan is trying to downplay the issues despite better knowledge. This is probably done to surprise the reader of the dialogue for better dramatic effect. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.159|162.158.91.159]] 05:59, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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In the second panel, Megan makes a good point which Ponytail misses. If the control group had a high incidence of arson, while the experimental group did not (and assuming that proper protocols were followed in assigning subjects to groups), there is a possibility that the drug has the side-effect of suppressing the urge for arson [[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 06:45, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
: Where is the point? "People where arrested for arson" - "Side effects" - "They where in the control group". That's not really a point for the side-effect of surpressing the urge for arson, is it? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.217|162.158.114.217]] 09:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
::If only people from the control group have been arrested, it is or could be. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.213|162.158.91.213]] 10:58, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::In this case both the control and the test group must be full of arsonists and the question is why did Ponytail let them lose to commit arson in the first place. May bye a double-blind test?[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 13:29, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::Maybe both groups were arsonists and the thing helps prevent the person from getting arrested somehow. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:50, 24 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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did [[Danish]] cut her hair? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.8|108.162.216.8]] 11:22, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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also, the title text could allude to the fact that sociopaths (or successful ones at least) tend to be really adept at getting other people to write off or engage in their behaviours. that is, the IRB, despite the apparent awfulness of the actions of the subjects, on meeting them thought they were pretty cool and people should lay off. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.8|108.162.216.8]] 11:28, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Are those "citation needed" of any use? There is already a link to Wikipedia for sociopathy. Also, the invoked reasons ("Is an arsonist defined as a sociopath?", "Is a masochist the same as a sociopath?", "Is there an agreed upon definition of 'truly sociopathic behaviour', and is this it?") are not sound to me. Sociopathy is defined as "antisocial behavior", so are arson and sadism. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.23|141.101.66.23]] 11:32, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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: I elected to simply remove references to sociopathy. I think the comic uses the phrase "awful" people, and I don't think it is necessary to instill the article with controversy by defining the people as sociopaths or any other term. Simply describing their traits and noting that it is unusual and why should be sufficient. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 14:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I realize that this area is for discussing the subject of the comic, but of all the comic strips out there this is the last one I would ever expect to include the "word" ''snuck''. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 13:23, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:This area is mainly for discussing the improvement of the article. Unlike Wikipedia, here we also can discuss the subject of the comic. I addressed your comment, because I never had heard the word (no scare quotes) ''snuck'', but immediatly knew it was an alternate past tense of ''sneak''. I added this: ''Snuck'' is a dialectal past tense of ''sneak''.[http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/g08.html]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:37, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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::With respect, I don't think the word "snuck" is uncommon or in any way unique to this comic. I don't think there is any valid need to include a line defining a common verb. If people don't know what the word "snuck" is, dictionary websites are aplenty, but let's not turn this site into one of those ones where every word is a link to a definition. Unless it's jargon or technical or a proper noun that needs explanation, I don't think definitions or links are really needed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 14:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: Why use a dictionary when Conan can do it for you? :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmoHSczX8pU {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.84}}<br />
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This comic could be referencing the growing realization that that the subjects of almost all psychology studies are not representative of the world population at large and of the great variety of humans found in the world. The subjects in psychology experiments are usually psychology students or other undergraduate students. Thus the subjects of these experiments are WIERD (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic), these subjects are not close to worldwide normal. See this [//www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/psychology-studies-biased-toward-we-10-08-07/ Scientific American article] for more information. Thus this biases the results of psychology experiments in systematic ways, just as having a bunch of sociopaths as subjects would also systematically effect the results. --[[User:Benjamin|Benjamin]] ([[User talk:Benjamin|talk]]) 15:07, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Might this comic be related to the increased effect of placebo in medical studies? The "awful people" explanation is one of the ones mentioned in the article: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34572482 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.49|141.101.79.49]]<br />
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:: Not really [[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.197|162.158.252.197]] 04:16, 24 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Does antisocial behavior really invalidate non-neuro/psychological drug trials? I don't think personality would change the progression and nature of other diseases. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.137|199.27.128.137]] 09:29, 24 October 2015 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=978:_Citogenesis&diff=101650978: Citogenesis2015-09-13T22:20:33Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explained the process of citogenisis.*/</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 978<br />
| date = November 16, 2011<br />
| title = Citogenesis<br />
| image = citogenesis.png<br />
| titletext = I just read a pop-science book by a respected author. One chapter, and much of the thesis, was based around wildly inaccurate data which traced back to... Wikipedia. To encourage people to be on their toes, I'm not going to say what book or author.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
This comic is calling into question the {{w|reliability of Wikipedia}}. This is a favorite pastime of librarians and professional researchers, and not usually one of [[Randall]]'s. But, to take it seriously for a moment: People, Wikipedia is editable by anyone. If you are doing serious work, follow through the citations, and decide which are from upstanding sources, and which are just people writing on their blog, and which are people writing on their blog who know what they are talking about.<br />
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The title of the comic is a play on the word [http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cytogenesis cytogenesis]. Cytogenesis is the formation of cells and their development. Citogenesis, on the other hand is a [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/portmanteau portmanteau] of 'Citation' and 'Genesis'. [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citation Citation] meaning quoting a source. [http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genesis?show=1&t=1346949206 Genesis] being the origin of something. So, citogenesis would be the creation of a quote that can be used to back-up a fact or statement.<br />
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The comic is discussing citogenesis occurring on {{w|Wikipedia}}, a free and freely editable encyclopedia that aims to become the most complete and correct knowledge base available. Wikipedia aims to provide only accurate information backed by reliable sources. However, this comic strip details a process in which Wikipedia can not only spread misinformation, but make said misinformation seem reliable through a process of "circular reporting".<br />
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This process is when someone adds an untrue detail onto Wikipedia. A writer of some supposedly reliable source checks Wikipedia for information, and includes that information. Now, there is a citation of a reliable source saying that the information is true. This leads to other people being more likely to trust wikipedia, making the information used by more reliable sources, making a positive-feedback loop. <br />
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Four years before, Randall [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Xkcd&diff=162077300 commented on Wikipedia] about that process happening to him (on a minor detail), which probably indicates the inception of this comic:<br />
<blockquote>''I've never referred to the [[1: Barrel - Part 1|boy in the barrel]] as "Barrel Lad" -- that seems to have started in this [Wikipedia] article. I've called him "Barrel boy" or "The boy in the barrel". Minor detail, but it's funny how sometimes something can appear on Wikipedia, get referenced in other places, and then Wikipedia cites those other places as supporting references. Hooray {{w|Wikipedia in culture#Wikiality|Wikiality}}!'' <small>— Randall Munroe as user "xkcd", [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Xkcd/Archive_2#Notes_from_the_author en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Xkcd#Notes_from_the_author], 3 October 2007</small></blockquote><br />
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The misinformation in question is the untrue assertion that {{w|Steven Chu}}, a physicist and at the time of the strip the U.S. Secretary of Energy at the time of this strip, invented the {{w|Scroll lock}} key, a common button on computer keyboards. As most people are aware of the scroll lock key but know little about its function or origins, this false information would make for an interesting piece of trivia that would likely spread very quickly. <br />
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Following this comic, the actual {{w|Scroll lock}} and {{w|Steven Chu}} articles {{w|Talk:Scroll_lock#Thanks_Randall|were both}} {{w|Talk:Steven_Chu#Scroll_lock_key|wiki-bombed}} by "helpful" editors trying to enforce Randall's reality on the Internet. The Wikipedia article on {{w|Citogenesis}} redirects to the {{w|Reliability of Wikipedia#Information loop|information loop}} section on the article "Reliability of Wikipedia". That section ends with crediting the term "citogenesis" to "webcomic artist Randall Munroe", with a link to this comic. To make matters even more surreal, some Wikipedia editor once flagged the link to this xkcd comic as "Dubious - The material near this tag is possibly inaccurate or non-factual."! This now has three citations.<br />
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We will probably never know the book or author Randall mentions in the title text, but there is a nice similar story about the former German minister {{w|Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg}}. His complete name contains fifteen names/words and reads: Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. An anonymous user added one more ("Wilhelm") to the German Wikipedia, just the evening before Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was presented as the new Federal Minister of Economics and Technology on February 10, 2009. The next day many major German newspapers published this wrong name ([http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bildblog.de%2F5704%2Fwie-ich-freiherr-von-guttenberg-zu-wilhelm-machte%2F translation of bildblog.de]).<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:Where Citations Come From:<br />
:Citogenesis Step #1<br />
:Through a convoluted process, a user's brain generates facts. These are typed into Wikipedia.<br />
:[A guy with short hair sits at a desk, typing on a laptop.]<br />
:Guy: (typing) The "scroll lock" key was was designed by future Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a college project.<br />
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:A rushed writer checks Wikipedia for a summary of their subject.<br />
:[Ponytail sits at a desk, typing on a desktop.]<br />
:Ponytail: (typing) US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, (Nobel Prizewinner and creator of the ubiquitous "scroll lock" key) testified before Congress today...<br />
:Step #2<br />
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:Surprised readers check Wikipedia, see the claim, and flag it for review. A passing editor finds the piece and adds it as a citation.<br />
:[Cueball sits on a couch with a laptop in his lap, typing.]<br />
:Cueball: Google is your friend, people. (typing) <nowiki><ref>{{cite web|url=</nowiki><br />
:Step #3<br />
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:Step #4<br />
:Now that other writers have a real source, they repeat the fact.<br />
:[A flow chart, with "Wikipedia citation" in the center. The word "Wikipedia" is in black, the word "citations" is white with a red background.<br />
:A black arrow leads from "brain" to "Wikipedia."<br />
:A black arrow labeled "words" leads from "Wikipedia" to "careless writers," and a red arrow labeled "citations" leads back to "Wikipedia citations."<br />
:A black & red arrow leads from "Wikipedia" to "cited facts" which leads to "slightly more careful writers," which leads to "more citations," which leads back to :"Wikipedia" (all black & red arrows).]<br />
:References proliferate, completing the citogenesis process.<br />
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==Trivia==<br />
* The word "was" occurs twice consecutively in the first panel.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Wikipedia]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=630:_Time_Travel&diff=101476630: Time Travel2015-09-11T03:09:54Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 630<br />
| date = August 31, 2009<br />
| title = Time Travel<br />
| image = time travel.png<br />
| titletext = She also starts every letter with "Dear Future <your name>"<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
[[Megan]] prefaces her statements with "I've traveled here from the year 1983 [likely the year of her birth] to say this." The statement is (assuming 1983 to be her birthday or, at least, a year she lived during) perfectly valid, albeit not very meaningful and giving more emphasis on what she is about to say, only to say something quite anticlimactic and mundane.<br />
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[[Cueball]] notes this but still wishes that she would stop saying that as it is superfluous and captures more attention than her statement is actually worth. It would also get annoying to hear that same line repeated numerous times.<br />
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The title text continues this idea of Megan inserting another superfluous - although true - forwards to her letters, which would also likely become annoying.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:Megan: I've traveled here from the year 1983 to say this:<br />
:Megan: ''Are there any bagels left?''<br />
:[Cueball is eating something.]<br />
:While it's technically true, I wish she'd stop prefacing every sentence with that.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Time travel]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1572:_xkcd_Survey&diff=101167Talk:1572: xkcd Survey2015-09-04T23:32:22Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div>Mildly interesting to note that the ordering of most of the checkbox/radiobutton lists randomise each time the survery is loaded. Also, there is at least one other comic where Randall comments about not having figured out HTML imagemaps. Anyone remember which? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:52, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:It was in one of his "under the logo" news bars, about him starting What If, iirc --[[User:Aescula|Aescula]] ([[User talk:Aescula|talk]]) 11:28, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
I wonder how many people, on reading 'Type "cat" here:', typed '"cat" here:'? I know I did... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 11:58, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Guilty...--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:08, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
: Me too... However you could have typed '"cat" here:', as well... (/edit: I wonder how many different entries the survey's result will reveal) (/edit2: I did not read properly... sorry. I typed '"cat"' not '"cat" here:' -.-)[[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:27, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
: I typed meow -[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.86|141.101.105.86]] 12:41, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Where it said "Type five random words" I typed "five random words" (without the quotes).<br />
::--[[User:Lou Crazy|Lou Crazy]] ([[User talk:Lou Crazy|talk]]) 11:24, 3 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::My first thought there was "Correct Horse Battery Staple"[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.47|162.158.255.47]] 04:42, 4 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
::::Those were the first four of my five "random words". -- [[User:Pne|Pne]] ([[User talk:Pne|talk]]) 17:18, 4 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
Not sure if it was just me, but the comic wasn't a link at all! The cursor changed into a No cursor for me everytime I mouseover'd the comic. I went to survey using the "Bonus Link!" below the comic page. [[User:Brilliantnut|Brilliantnut]] ([[User talk:Brilliantnut|talk]]) 12:01, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Never mind, this was probably due to the WebComics reader extension that I have in my browser. [[User:Brilliantnut|Brilliantnut]] ([[User talk:Brilliantnut|talk]]) 12:03, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
From hearing people on reddit comment about not being able to completely fill the text box (not just the visual box) with the error "Answer too long", it's caused by a 10k character limit. Presumably by Google Docs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.192|108.162.249.192]] 13:18, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Can we get a note on the title text? Something about the [[1493]]-like vacuousness of "Big Data for a Big Planet". Also, I added a defn for "revergent"; future researchers, anyone who knows that one is probably a fern biologist. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 20:51, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I just did a bit on the title text, but I don't think that I did the best job at explaining it, so someone should look over what I did.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 23:32, 4 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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;Validation<br />
The validation choices are interesting.<br />
* "Enter a number between 1 and 100" rejects numbers outside this range (e.g. -1) but also reject valid responses (e.g. &pi;).<br />
* "Enter your age" and "Enter the number of $SIBLING" accept invalid responses such as -1. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 13:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I (with ''fairly'' honest intention) tried to give non-numeric answers to the two Think Of A Number questions and my the age one (honestly, I had to actually think about that one, for a moment) and found them restricted to numbers only. So obviously Randall's not ''so'' subversive as to allow free text. (BTW, I've ''only'' driven 'stick shift', though an old friend of mine has just gotten an automatic, I think for the first time, which said was rather posh of him.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 15:55, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
I used an HTML inspector tool to create a unique response to one of the radio button questions. The form claimed to submit successfully; it should be obvious in the results if it worked. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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;Identification<br />
"it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses"<br />
Then why send those informations to Google ? I find the idea of thee survey interesting but why Google doc ? There are other options like Lime Survey. [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 13:37, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
: Given the stated intention to make the collected dataset available publicly, there's no information-security reason to prefer another survey tool over Google. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 14:21, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: Technically Google could de-anonymize the data if you're logged in or otherwise identifiable when submitting the survey. When Randall publishes the data set it can be completely anonymized. Not that I care if Google knows I claim to consider myself half-cat, half-person. [[User:Jestempies|Jestempies]] ([[User talk:Jestempies|talk]]) 21:15, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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;Not a transcript<br />
This is mildly interesting, but it is not a transcript. Transcripts are meant mainly for blind people and search engines. Different letter sizes and a frame are not needed. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 12:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:{| style="text-align:center; border:1pt black solid;"<br />
|| Introducing <p style="font-size:large; margin:0px;"> '''THE XKCD SURVEY''' </p> A search for weird correlations <br/> Note: This survey is anonymous, but <br/> <font color="red"> all responses will be posted publicly </font> <br/> so people can play with the data. <br/> '''Click here to''' <br/> '''take the survey''' <p style="font-size:x-small"> Or click here, or here. <br/> The whole comic is a link, <br/> because I still haven't gotten <br/> the hang of HTML imagemaps. </p><br />
|}<br />
::The transcript is not only for blind people. And an enhanced layout doesn't harm them but instead it would help them. A speech synthesizer would tell them something like "headline" or "small text at bottom" so that the impaired people would get a much better feeling of the comic. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:12, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I wonder how many people included "battery, horse, staple, correct" in the five random words box. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.64}}<br />
:I typed ');drop table survey; -- at the end of the random characters text box. I must have been the first person to think of that because the survey was still working. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 13:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I typed "cat, cat, cat, cat, cat" in random words and "lion, cat, dog, horse, '''''lettuce'''''" for the random animals. Yes, I was trolling. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.150|108.162.221.150]] 06:38, 4 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I wish it was funny. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.148|108.162.241.148]] 16:20, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Tables Vs Bulleted List<br />
<br />
The list of questions and possible responses has been added to the explanation by myself and xhfz, in different formats. I went for a wikitable, xhfz used a bulleted list. Rather than just overwrite each other, I think we need to have a discussion on which is the best choice. The reasons I believe a wikitable is the best option:<br />
:*Far better expandability, in anticipation of survey results<br />
:*More structured and neater presentation<br />
In general I tend to lean towards tables, but it is probably a constructive discussion to have for the wiki as a whole. I would be interested to hear opinions of bulleted list vs tables in these types of situation.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:42, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
If we have a table we need colspan instead of rowspan. On the other hand a table is very difficult to maintain. In addition, the table didn't have space for explanations (another column, maybe). [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 13:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:If you used colspan, questions like "How many of these 20 words do you know" would be excessively wide. Perhaps a combination of colspan and rowspan, or simply a single cell with the responses listed as comma seperated list. As far as adding a column for explanations, its pretty trivial. What I'm getting at is that perhaps the format of a table would need to be optimised, but that is entirely feasible.<br />
:I agree with you as far as tables being more intimidating to edit and maintain, but once set up they aren't that bad.<br />
:Bulleted lists (to me at least) look messy, and tend to lack a coherent structure. As more information is added, sub-levels and sub-sub-levels are added without much thought as to the overall intent. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:14, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
By colspan I mean this:<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Question<br />
!Possible Answers<br />
|-<br />
|colspan="2"|When you think about stuff on the internet, where do you picture it being physically located? Even if you know it's not really how things work, is there a place you imagine websites and social media posts sitting before you look at them? If so, where is it?<br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|''Multi-line text box'' <br />
|- <br />
|colspan="2"|Which of these words do you know the meaning of? <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Slickle <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Rife <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Soliloquy <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Fination <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Stipple <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Peristeronic <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Modicum <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Trephony <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Tribution <br />
|-<br />
|colspan="2"|Have you ever thrown out all your different pairs of socks/underwear, bought a bunch of replacements that were all one kind, and then told all your friends how great it was and how they should do it too? <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|Yes <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|No <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|I did the throwing out thing, but didn't talk to everyone about it <br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|No, but I'm totally doing that now <br />
|}<br />
[[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 14:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Yeah, if someone just did that, that would be great. [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 18:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Missing questions<br />
Something notably missing which would have greatly helped later analysis was a question about where someone is - Country and/or State. Some of the questions and answers will be differently understood because of that (eg meaning if 'sandwich') --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.65|141.101.98.65]] 14:23, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I think that is the whole point though, to provide a data set that actively attempts to ''prevent'' the obvious simple analysis. There are plenty of statistics on how people from place A are more likely to do thing B. What I want to know is "How many people who would class a taco as a sandwich and can drive stick shift are able to juggle?". Also, is it true that most people think they are above average drivers? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:09, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Subsections were added for ease of editing<br />
<br />
You can delete the subsections later. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:30, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Ok, I agree on that. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:42, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;I think we shouldn't force the reader to go to Wikipedia<br />
<br />
I added explanations in "Activities" and twice they were deleted. Why? [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572:_xkcd_Survey&diff=prev&oldid=100879] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572%3A_xkcd_Survey&diff=100921&oldid=100920] [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:39, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Personally, I think those activities are so easily understood, that adding an "explanation" is not necessary. I think wiki links are sufficient, so that if somehow people don't know what the activities are, they can go look. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:45, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::I know 20,000 words in [http://testyourvocab.com testyourvocab.com]. I also know soliloquy, modicum, amiable and salient. I had never heard of dunk, sheet bend, bowline, or stick shift, but I know the meaning of manual transmission without going to Wikipedia. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:47, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::For the record, it wasn't me who deleted the explanations. The fact that Randall included those words in his survey without any explanation shows that they are fairly common words. In the context of the question, the meaning becomes clearer (Tie a sheet bend or bowline = its very likely those are knots), and if people still don't know, they can click on the wiki link. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 16:14, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::From a different perspective, I ''understand'' a number of the words and terms, even though they aren't the ones I'd use, locally. i.e. gas/petrol, stick-shift/gears, cell phone/mobile phone, soda/pop (and where would cordial, to be diluted with water, sit in that list of drinks..? either way, I chose "fruit juice" so maybe that covers it). Also I think I would call an "open-faced sandwich" a {{w|Sm%C3%B6rg%C3%A5sbord|'Smorgasbord'}}, but that seems to be a childhood misunderstanding of what the scandinavian term actually represents (the whole buffet, not any individual item bread-and-topping construct that you end up with on your platter). "Condiments" obviously means something differently, too. For me that's the likes of salt, pepper and vinegar - along with other chopped herbs at a push - but from context it sounds like it includes dips such as mayonnaise, and/or sauces like ketchup/brown/tartar. A different world, truly! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 17:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
::::It's a poorly worded question to which people in some countries would answer the opposite of that intended because of the way the question is worded. Very few cars run on gas (a friend's van runs on LPG), but many use petrol or diesel. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 05:55, 3 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::::Fellow Brits? No, IP of the latter appears to be Arizona (or at least the ISP, in Phoenix). Strange. Anyway, thanks to copious imports of 'Merkin TV and film, it'd be obvious to most(/all?) people I know that gas(olene) would be the common word in the US for the fuel that I'd call petrol(eum). Or so I was under the impression of, until now. Of course there is ''actual'' gas (modern LPG or [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/155585362099248762/ wartime contingencies]) but so far liquid hydrocarbons seem to still be king, inclusive of DERV. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 07:51, 3 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I changed them to Wikipedia links because it seemed neater, uses the hypertext features of HTML for the reason they were intended, and seemed more in line with general style here. No-one is forced to go to Wikipedia, but providing useful hyperlinks instead of having to explain everything inline is generally considered A Good Thing &tm;. It wasn't intended as a personal affront. This is a wiki - we can all edit to make things (hopefully) a bit better. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 12:40, 3 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Can we access the results now?<br />
<br />
Are the contents available at a known URL? I use Google Docs but have never done a survey before...[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.24|141.101.105.24]] 06:03, 3 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Maple syrup<br />
<br />
The current article comments that the "Maple syrup" option to the ''any that you drink'' question is a joke. Are you sure? I have met several people (to clarify, adults, I'm not even considering children) who drink straight maple syrup, and many times more who pour maple syrup into their drinks (notably coffee, tea, and milk are the most common I see people pour it into). There are webpages devoted to maple syrup drink recipes (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and people debating other people's opinions on whether maple syrup is better drunk hot, cold, or room temperature. There is a possibility that Randall was not intending this question as a joke since it seems to be "a thing" among some people. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.11|108.162.220.11]] 12:16, 3 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I was very delighted to see maple syrup under the drink options! When I started the survey with my co-workers I came to the condiments question and was explaining to them how I even drink maple syrup. So I was very giddy when I came to the drink question! Yes, I do drink maple syrup and not as a joke, usually at night and only Grade B. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:40, 4 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Regarding "Difficult words" not currently linked<br />
*Trephony - Another (equally obselete) term for Trepanning. The not listed directly on the Wikipedia page for the topic (the article uses gerund forms in discussing other names for the procedure), but the related gerund "trephining" is listed. Cf. also Trephine, which was the actual surgical instrument used for these procedures (and for which Trephony occasionally served as an alternate spelling).<br />
*Tribution appears to be the result of converting the [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tribute#Verb tribute (when used as a verb)]into a noun by use of the [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-tion#English -tion suffix]. While this is a standard form, it is also nonsense (as the nounal form is also tribute).<br />
*Unitory - An obsolete spelling unitary used in mathematics, chiefly British. Several examples appear in the of the papers of the [https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl1BAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA5-PA27&lpg=RA5-PA27&dq=unitory+method&source=bl&ots=rfRKJXAJqV&sig=Wsr_gV7xG6Airah9Lx1M0hi-7Zc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBmoVChMInd_R9qTbxwIVChU-Ch36IAh_#v=onepage&q=unitory%20method&f=false 1913 Imperial Education Conference] (I've linked to the instance on page 97 as an example). You will still occasionally see this spelling in use when discussing the Unitary Method in former British Colonies.<br />
*Cadine -- the french term also saw some use in English as a loanword. Cf. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4yz-Y-_OOO0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=cadine&f=false page 146 of Volume 99 of The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle (published 1829)] for several examples.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.36|108.162.216.36]] 16:54, 3 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
Should we move the survey section to a different page (e.g. [[1572: xkcd Survey/Survey]])? It takes up most of the current page. {{User:17jiangz1/signature|13:10, 04 September 2015}}<br />
:The survey section is a transcript, so I moved it appropriately for now. {{User:17jiangz1/signature|13:14, 04 September 2015}}</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572:_xkcd_Survey&diff=1011661572: xkcd Survey2015-09-04T23:31:07Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1572<br />
| date = September 2, 2015<br />
| title = xkcd Survey<br />
| image = xkcd_survey.png<br />
| titletext = The xkcd Survey: Big Data for a Big Planet<br />
}}<br />
*The comic links to [http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw The xkcd survey] on Google.<br />
{{TOC}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|First attempt. There is probably more to come.}}<br />
<br />
As the comic image states, it links to a survey created with [https://www.google.com/forms/about/ Google Forms], containing a series of questions. The questions range from mundane typical survery questions such as “Do you have any food allergies?”, to rather strange, such as “Fill this text box with random letters by randomly mashing keys on your keyboard.” (See [[1530: Keyboard Mash]]).<br />
<br />
The stated goal of the survey is to “create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with”. A strange data set is a ripe opportunity for a sampling of readers. It's also supposed to be “a search for weird correlations” – presumably the goal is to be able to say things like “people who have been skydiving are (more/less) likely than average to dislike cilantro”.<br />
<br />
This explanation will doubtless expand when the data comes in.<br />
<br />
{{w|Image_map#Client-side_image_map|HTML image maps}} is a technique for marking up areas of an image on a web page, such that each area can be a link without the whole image being a link. [[Randall]] could have used this type of image map to make only the “Click here to take the survey” button be a link, and none of the rest of the image. But he cannot get the hang of it (or knowing his skills, does not wish to take the time to learn it). Not getting the hang of HTML image maps was also referenced on [http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/tour-news.png the banner for his book tour] from [http://web.archive.org/web/20140901023821/http://xkcd.com/ September 2014]<br />
<br />
The title text is a joke off of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data Big Data], which is a name for analysis of a set of data that includes a huge amount of information. He also "for a big planet" because the Earth is big {{Citation needed}}.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Introducing <br />
:'''THE XKCD SURVEY''' <br />
:A search for weird correlations <br />
:Note: This survey is anonymous, but<br />
:<font color="red"> all responses will be posted publicly </font><br />
:so people can play with the data.<br />
:'''Click here to''' <br />
:'''take the survey'''<br />
:Or click here, or here. <br />
:The whole comic is a link, <br />
:because I still haven't gotten <br />
:the hang of HTML imagemaps.<br />
<br />
===The Survey===<br />
<br />
[The Survey starts off with the following statement.]<br />
<br />
<nowiki>This is an anonymous survey. After it's done, a database of everyone's responses will be posted.<br />
There's no specific reason for any of the questions. The goal is to create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with. (This is obviously not going to be a real random sample of people, but in the interest of getting cooler data, if you're sharing this with friends, try sending it to some people who wouldn't normally see this kind of thing!)<br />
<br />
WARNING: This survey is anonymous, but your answers WILL BE MADE PUBLIC. Depending what you write, it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses. None of these questions should ask about anything too private, but don't write anything that you don't want people to see. If you're not comfortable answering a question, just skip it.</nowiki><br />
<br />
====Plane====<br />
*Have you ever been in a plane?<br />
**No<br />
**Yes<br />
<br />
====Skydiving====<br />
*Have you ever been {{w|Parachuting|skydiving}}?<br />
**No, but I might someday<br />
**Yes<br />
**No<br />
<br />
====The Dress====<br />
*When you first saw {{w|The dress (viral phenomenon)|The Dress}}, what color was it? &mdash; Also see [[1492: Dress Color]].<br />
**White and gold<br />
**A color combination not listed here<br />
**I don't remember<br />
**Blue and black<br />
**What dress?<br />
<br />
====Popular food====<br />
*What's a really popular food that you don't like?<br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Floaters====<br />
*When you look at a blue sky, do you see those swirly {{w|floater|floaters}} in your vision?<br />
**Yes, constantly<br />
**I'm not sure what things you mean<br />
**Yes, occasionally<br />
**No<br />
<br />
====Running out of gas====<br />
*Have you ever had a car run out of gas while you were driving it?<br />
**Yes<br />
**No<br />
<br />
====Animals====<br />
*Name the first five animals you can think of<br />
**''Multi line text box''<br />
<br />
====Weather====<br />
*What's the weather like where you are right now?<br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Activities====<br />
*Which of these can you do reasonably well?<br />
*(Check all that apply)<br />
**{{w|slam dunk|Dunk}} a basketball &mdash; A "slam dunk" or simply "dunk" is the act of jumping up and putting the ball through the net with a lot of force<br />
**Tie a {{w|sheet bend}} or {{w|bowline}} &mdash; A sheet bend is a knot that joins two ropes together; A bowline is a knot used to form a fixed loop at the end of a rope<br />
**Roller skate<br />
**[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/high-heel-race/ Run in high heels]<br />
**Drive a stick shift &mdash; See {{w|Manual transmission}} of a car<br />
**Solve a {{w|Rubik's cube}}<br />
**Dive headfirst off a diving board &mdash; See {{w|Springboard}} and {{w|Diving platform}}<br />
**Ice skate<br />
**{{w|Skateboarding|Skateboard}}<br />
**Walk on {{w|stilts}} &mdash; Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a person to walk at a height above the ground<br />
**Ski<br />
**Cut vegetables with a knife<br />
**Swim<br />
**Ride a horse<br />
**{{w|Unicycle}}<br />
**Change the oil on a car<br />
**Do a back {{w|Handspring (gymnastics)|handspring}} &mdash; A handspring is an excercise in gymnastics in which you jump through the air landing on your hands, then again landing on your feet<br />
**Juggle &mdash; {{w|Toss juggling}} (the most recognizable form of juggling) consists in throwing objects into the air and catching them.<br />
<br />
====Spelling====<br />
*What word can you never seem to spell on the first try? <br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Condiments====<br />
*Do you eat {{w|condiments}} directly out of the fridge as a snack? <br />
**No <br />
**Yes<br />
<br />
====Thermostat====<br />
*When you adjust a thermostat that was set by someone else, it's usually because you want the room to be ... <br />
**Cooler <br />
**Warmer<br />
<br />
====Clothing====<br />
*What color is the shirt/dress/upper-body-clothing you're wearing right now, if any? <br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Colds====<br />
*Do you get {{w|Common cold|colds}} often? <br />
**No <br />
**Yes <br />
<br />
====Number====<br />
*Pick a number from 1 to 100<br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Spelling====<br />
*On a scale of 1 to 10, how good at spelling are you? (Note that the question does not specify which end of the scale is good or bad.)<br />
**''Tick of list with numbers from 1 to 10.''<br />
<br />
====Myers-Briggs====<br />
*Do you know your {{w|Myers–Briggs_Type_Indicator|Myers-Briggs type}}? <br />
**No <br />
**Yes<br />
<br />
====Astrology====<br />
*Do you know your {{w|astrological sign}}? <br />
**No <br />
**Yes <br />
<br />
====Siblings====<br />
*How many older siblings do you have? <br />
**''Text box''<br />
*How many younger siblings do you have? <br />
**''Text box''<br />
*How many twin/etc siblings do you have? <br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Sleepiness====<br />
*Do you feel sleepy a lot? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No <br />
<br />
====Movie star====<br />
*Name a movie star<br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Time in sun====<br />
*Do you spend a lot of time in the sun? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No <br />
<br />
====Broccoli====<br />
*Does {{w|broccoli}} taste bitter to you? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No <br />
**I've never had it <br />
<br />
====Wakefulness====<br />
*Do you regularly stay awake much later than you meant to? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No <br />
<br />
====Keyboard mashing====<br />
*Fill this text box with gibberish by mashing random keyboard keys (See [[1530: Keyboard Mash]]).<br />
**''Broad multi-line text box''<br />
<br />
====Driving====<br />
*On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is terrible and 3 is average, how good a driver do you think you are? <br />
**''Tick of list with numbers from 1 to 5.''<br />
<br />
====Allergies====<br />
*Do you have any food allergies? <br />
**No <br />
**Yes <br />
<br />
====Thunder====<br />
*Have you heard thunder or seen lightning in the past year? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No <br />
<br />
====Flavor preference====<br />
*Which do you prefer? (It seems to be missing the ''both'' option...)<br />
**Chocolate <br />
**Vanilla<br />
<br />
====Number (reprise)====<br />
*Pick another number from 1 to 100 (Supposedly is should not be the same as in the first pick a number box).<br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Internet====<br />
*When you think about stuff on the internet, where do you picture it being physically located? Even if you know it's not really how things work, is there a place you imagine websites and social media posts sitting before you look at them? If so, where is it? <br />
**''Broad multi-line text box''<br />
<br />
====Roll tongue====<br />
*Can you {{w|Tongue rolling|roll your tongue}}? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No <br />
**What? <br />
<br />
====Toes====<br />
*Can you pick things up with your toes? <br />
**No <br />
**Yes <br />
<br />
====Age====<br />
*How old are you? <br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Walls====<br />
*What color are the walls around you right now? <br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Cell phone====<br />
*What kind of cell phone do you have? <br />
**{{w|iPhone}}<br />
**{{w|Android (operating system)|Android}}<br />
**Other smartphone <br />
**Non-smartphone <br />
**I don't have a cell phone<br />
<br />
====Eating====<br />
*What's the last thing you ate? <br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Difficult words====<br />
*Which of these words do you know the meaning of? <br />
*(Some of these words don’t appear in any of the following dictionaries: the Oxford English Dictionary, the New Oxford American Dictionary, Wiktionary, or Dictionary.com. These words were probably made up by Randall. Perhaps the goal is to make people feel like they have a weak vocabulary because they don’t know many of the words, until they try look up the meanings and realize they have been tricked.<br />
*[http://dictionary.reference.com/ Dictionary.com] has an index of difficulty (measured in pixels, with class name <code>difficulty-indicator</code>). We add it at the right of the words that have it. N/A means that a word isn't present in Dictionary.com, or that it doesn't have an index.<br />
**Slickle – not in any dictionary, but a suggested planet name in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]]<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rife Rife] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rife 117]<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/soliloquy Soliloquy] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/soliloquy 150]<br />
**Fination – not in any dictionary<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stipple Stipple] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stipple 144]<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peristeronic Peristeronic] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/peristeronic N/A]. Randall used it and defined it for readers in [[798: Adjectives]].<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/modicum Modicum] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/modicum 120]<br />
**Trephony – not in any dictionary, but could be a nonexistent and maybe lower quality sound, than [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Quadrophony Quadrophonic], that comes from a sound system, which is a four-channel sound system in which speakers are positioned at all four corners of the listening space"<br />
**Tribution – not in any dictionary, but could be originated from real words ending with "-tribution", and leaving out their usual prefixes, like "contribution" and "retribution"<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/phoropter Phoropter] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phoropter N/A] 1.An instrument used in eye examinations to determine an individual's prescription, the patient looking through various lenses at a chart on the other side. <br />
**Unitory – not in any dictionary<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amiable Amiable] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amiable 123]<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salient Salient] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/salient 69]<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/regolith Regolith] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/regolith 162]<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lithe Lithe] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lithe 105]<br />
**Revergent – technical word from {{w|fern}} biology, referring to the edges of fern leaves which curl back on themselves (see [http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00985044 Schölch, 2000])<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hubris Hubris] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hubris 117]<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fleek Fleek] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fleek N/A]<br />
**Cadine – not in any english dictionary - rare french word for [https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/cadine a sultan's wife or a noble ottoman woman] - also the name of an [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadine italian city]<br />
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apricity Apricity] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apricity N/A]<br />
<br />
====cat====<br />
*Please type "cat" here: <br />
**''Text box''<br />
<br />
====Dreams====<br />
*Do you usually remember your dreams? <br />
**No <br />
**Yes <br />
<br />
====Text editors====<br />
*Do you have strong opinions about text editors? (See {{w|Editor war}})<br />
**Yes <br />
**No<br />
<br />
====Emoji====<br />
*How do you feel about {{w|emoji}}? <br />
**Negative 😠 (Unicode 1f620 - Angry face)<br />
**Positive 😊 (Unicode 263a - Smiling face)<br />
**Neutral 😐 (Unicode 1F610 - Neutral face)<br />
<br />
====Snow====<br />
*Does it ever snow where you live? <br />
**No <br />
**Yes<br />
<br />
====Taste of food====<br />
*Do you strongly dislike the taste or texture of any of these things? <br />
**Eggs <br />
**Chocolate ice cream <br />
**Beer <br />
**White wine <br />
**{{w|Carbonation}} (or Fizz)<br />
**Red wine <br />
**{{w|Cilantro}}<br />
**Coffee <br />
**Tomatoes <br />
**Yogurt<br />
<br />
====Beverages====<br />
*Which of these do you regularly drink? <br />
**Caffeinated soda (e.g. Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper)<br />
**Noncaffeinated soda <br />
**Coffee <br />
**Fruit juice <br />
**Milk <br />
**Beer <br />
**Wine <br />
**Tea <br />
**{{w|Maple syrup}}<br />
**Water<br />
<br />
====Random words====<br />
*Type five random words <br />
**''Broad multi-line text box''<br />
<br />
====Flying====<br />
*Are you nervous about flying? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No<br />
**A little<br />
<br />
====Favorite number====<br />
*On a scale of 1 to 5, which number is your favorite?<br />
**''Tick of list with numbers from 1 to 5.''<br />
<br />
====Sandwich====<br />
*Which of these would you consider a {{w|sandwich}}? <br />
*(Check all that apply)<br />
**{{w|Taco}} <br />
**{{w|Quesadilla}} <br />
**{{w|Submarine sandwich|Sub/Hoagie}} <br />
**{{w|Cheesesteak}} <br />
**{{w|Hamburger}} <br />
**{{w|Open-faced sandwich}}<br />
**{{w|Calzone}} <br />
<br />
====Animal affinity====<br />
*Which of these describes you? <br />
*(Check all that apply)<br />
**Dog person <br />
**Cat person <br />
**Half-cat half-person <br />
**Part of a subterranean race of dog people <br />
**Literally named "Catherine Person" <br />
<br />
====Sense of direction====<br />
*Would you say you have a good sense of direction? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No<br />
<br />
====Socks or underwear====<br />
*Have you ever thrown out all your different pairs of socks/underwear, bought a bunch of replacements that were all one kind, and then told all your friends how great it was and how they should do it too? <br />
**Yes <br />
**No <br />
**I did the throwing out thing, but didn't talk to everyone about it <br />
**No, but I'm totally doing that now<br />
<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
*[[882: Significant]] is also about finding presumably-spurious correlations between unrelated data.<br />
*The blag of the webcomic, [http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ Color Survey Results], 2010-05-03<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=685:_G-Spot&diff=101062685: G-Spot2015-09-03T13:03:32Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 685<br />
| date = January 6, 2010<br />
| title = G-Spot<br />
| image = g-spot.png<br />
| titletext = The BBC lead was 'The elusive erogenous zone said to exist in some women may be a myth, say researchers who have hunted for it.' I couldn't read it with a straight face.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The {{w|G-Spot}} is, as the [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8439000.stm BBC is quoted]] of saying in the title text, an elusive erogenous zone some women claim to have that can be stimulated to enhance their sexual experience. In this comic, a live press conference has been held due to a peer-reviewed study suggesting the G-Spot may not exist. [[Cueball]] (the researcher) initially claims he's not researching the G-Spot, but then admits he can't find it anyway i.e. he has difficulty making his lover orgasm. Alternatively, he could be saying that, since he hasn't done research into it, he hasn't found any evidence for the existence of a G-Spot because he wasn't looking for it.<br />
<br />
As mentioned in the Wikipedia article there actually has been such a study, so the BBC report in the title text is quite likely to have actually been heard by [[Randall Munroe|Randall]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:A study published in the journal of sexual medicine suggests that the g-spot may not actually exist.<br />
:We go live to the researchers' press conference:<br />
<br />
:[Reporters, including Ponytail, stand below a Cueball at a podium.]<br />
:Ponytail: Is it true you've been unable to find evidence that the g-spot exists?<br />
<br />
:Cueball: My research is in solar cells. I think you have the wrong press conference.<br />
<br />
:[Beat panel.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball hangs his head.]<br />
:Cueball: But... yes.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Sex]]<br />
[[Category:Public speaking]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=792:_Password_Reuse&diff=100064792: Password Reuse2015-08-23T14:20:44Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 792<br />
| date = September 13, 2010<br />
| title = Password Reuse<br />
| image = password_reuse.png<br />
| titletext = It'll be hilarious the first few times this happens.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic has three layers: hacking, philosophy, and Google-satire.<br />
<br />
It starts off on a practical level, with Black Hat describing a devious social engineering scheme. It relies on the fact that people commonly reuse the same password on multiple websites, and tend to create accounts on new websites somewhat indiscriminately. Thus, one could create a simple Web service to collect users' usernames, email addresses, and passwords. Since many users will reuse this combination on other websites as well, the website owner can try to hack their accounts on other common sites, such as Amazon or PayPal, using the same login info.<br />
<br />
In panel 6, the comic suddenly develops a philosophical and ethical bent. Black Hat reveals that he has already carried out step 1, through his numerous unprofitable web services which he had been running for this very purpose. However, after successfully executing the hack, he realizes that he does not know what to do with all this power. <br />
He reveals that he is already financially self-sufficient, and makes a point that money can't buy happiness. He could use his power to realize his sadistic pleasures of messing with people, but he's already a serial [[72: Classhole|classhole]]. If he had any beliefs or ideology, he could use this power to try to spread them. However, he reveals that "since {{w|March_1997#March|March of 1997}}" he doesn't really believe in anything (possibly related to the {{w|Heaven's Gate (religious group)#Mass suicide and aftermath|March 26, 1997 incident}} in San Diego, California, where 39 Heaven's Gate cultists committed mass suicide at their compound, although, given Black Hat's strange behavior, it could be anything, even Bill Clinton banning federal funding for human cloning research). The dilemma: Black Hat has cleverly executed a hack that has given him a lot of power, but he doesn't know what to do with it.<br />
<br />
The last part of the comic now transitions to a satire on how Google has already gone through both the stages described above. It describes how all of Google's free services are simply a ploy to collect and control all the world's information, similar in concept but grander than the hack described in part 1. It satirizes the notion that behind Google's "Don't be evil" motto is actually an end-goal of using their powers eventually for evil. However, just like Black Hat, once Google reaches the stage where they are able to capitalize on their powers, they find that there is nothing evil left for them to desire. They already make a lot of money, and anything remaining that they wish to do, such as throwing {{w|Call of Duty|CoD}} tournaments, isn't evil at all.<br />
<br />
This comic was directly referenced in [[1286: Encryptic]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball at a computer with Black Hat behind him.]<br />
:Black Hat: Password entropy is rarely relevant. The real modern danger is password reuse.<br />
:Cueball: How so?<br />
:Computer: Password too weak.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: Set up a Web service to do something simple, like image hosting or tweet syndication, so a few million people set up free accounts.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: Bam, you've got a few million emails, default usernames, and passwords.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: Tons of people use one password, strong or not, for most accounts.<br />
<br />
:[Diagram showing a table of emails, usernames, and passwords.]<br />
:Black Hat: Use the list and some proxies to try automated logins to the 20 or 30 most popular sites, plus banks and PayPal and such.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: You've now got a few hundred thousand real identities on a few dozen services, and nobody suspects a thing.<br />
:Cueball: And then what?<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: Well, that's where I got stuck.<br />
:Cueball: You DID this?<br />
:Black Hat: Why do you ''think'' I hosted so many unprofitable web services?<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: I could probably net in a lot of money, one way or another, if I did things carefully. But research shows more money doesn't make people happier, once they make enough to avoid day-to-day financial stress.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: I could mess with people endlessly, but I do that already. I could get a political or religious idea out to most of the world, but since March of 1997 I don't really believe in anything.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: So, here I sit, a puppetmaster who wants nothing from his puppets.<br />
:Black Hat: It's the same problem Google has.<br />
:Cueball: Oh?<br />
<br />
:[A meeting at Google headquarters. An executive is talking to some others.]<br />
:Google...<br />
:Executive 1: Okay, everyone, we control the world's information. Now it's time to turn evil. What's the plan?<br />
:Executive 2: Make boatloads of money?<br />
<br />
:Executive 1: We already do!<br />
:Executive 2 (off-panel): Set up a companywide CoD4: Modern Warfare tournament each week?<br />
:Executive 1: ''That's not evil!''<br />
:Executive 2: Ooh, dibs on the lobby TV!<br />
:Executive 1: Okay, we ''suck'' at this.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=653:_So_Bad_It%27s_Worse&diff=99613653: So Bad It's Worse2015-08-13T23:47:43Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 653<br />
| date = October 23, 2009<br />
| title = So Bad It's Worse<br />
| image = so_bad_its_worse.png<br />
| titletext = You think it's so legendarily bad that you'll torrent it and sit through it just for the kitschy nerd cred. I, too, once thought as you did.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The graph in the comic shows the enjoyability of movies - going from good to okay to bad, then popping back up with "[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoBadItsGood So Bad It's Good]". The term is used to describe movies that are so terrible that, for a variety of reasons, watching them can be considered an enjoyable experience. The comic lists ''{{w|Plan 9 from Outer Space}}'' and ''{{w|The Rocky Horror Picture Show}}'', two widely known films of this type.<br />
<br />
However, the graph warns of showing ''The Star Wars Holiday Special'', as it manages to wrap back around from "So Bad It's Good" to being [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible So Bad it's Horrible]. ''{{w|The Star Wars Holiday Special}}'' is a prime-time comedy special based on ''{{w|Star Wars}}''. It is widely known for its terrible quality, and has never been fully released (although an animated segment that introduced {{w|Boba Fett}}, which {{w|George Lucas}} has approved of, has been released as a bonus feature on a DVD).<br />
<br />
The bottom of the comic shows [[Cueball]], [[Megan]], and [[Ponytail]] watching a movie with alcohol - first enjoying it, then merely watching, then not watching it and unhappily drinking.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to {{w|BitTorrent (protocol)|torrents}}, which are a way to obtain large amounts of data over the internet. According to [[Randall|Munroe]], he had torrented a copy of the film and intended to watch it in its entirety, in spite of its terribleness, just to cement himself as a nerd. However, he underestimated how bad it really was, and could not make it all the way through.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that it is impossible to view the ''Holiday Special'' without torrenting it first.<br />
<br />
The title text may also contain an subtle play on a line of Star Wars dialogue. In {{w|Return of the Jedi}}, {{w|Darth Vader}} says to {{w|Luke Skywalker}}, "''Obi-Wan once thought as you do''. You don't know the power of the dark side! I must obey my master." The implication here being that "kitschy nerd cred" is the "dark side" being served by those who would sit through a torrent of the Star Wars Holiday Special.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Protip: Even at "Bad Movie Night," avoid the Star Wars holiday special.<br />
<br />
:[A graph plots movie enjoyability against movie quality. It drops steadily through points marked "Good Movie" to "Okay Movie" to "Bad Movie," rises up again for "So-Bad-It's-Good (Plan 9, Rocky Horror, etc)," and then drops off the bottom of a graph with an arrow pointing to where "Star Wars Holiday Special" would be. There are three mini-panels below the graph, arranged from "Good" to "Bad" along the movie quality axis.]<br />
<br />
:[Three friends are on a couch, drinking and gesticulating enthusiastically.]<br />
:[The same three are sitting quietly, with a bottle on the floor.]<br />
:[The three are sitting around a table, drinking and looking miserable.]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Protip]]<br />
[[Category:Star Wars]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1556:_The_Sky&diff=985101556: The Sky2015-07-27T14:01:07Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1556<br />
| date = July 27, 2015<br />
| title = The Sky<br />
| image = the_sky.png<br />
| titletext = The other half has some cool shipwrecks, rocks, and snakes, but if you move those out of the way, it also has more sky.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Cueball says that he likes the sky. The comic then shows a huge image of the sky with an interesting cloud formation and Cueball calls the sky one of his favorite halves. The title text implies that the two "halves" in question are the Earth and the Sky. Cueball is probably saying this because, at least at their present location, the sky is very interesting, but the ground is dark, flat, and otherwise boring.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to the fact that the Earth is round, so if you "moved it out of the way" you would find more sky on the other side.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete|Describe the Pictures}}<br />
<br />
'''Cueball:''' I like the sky.<br />
<br />
'''Megan:''' Yeah.<br />
<br />
'''Megan:''' It's one of my favorite halves.<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1551:_Pluto&diff=977221551: Pluto2015-07-14T19:44:33Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1551<br />
| date = July 14, 2015<br />
| title = Pluto<br />
| image = pluto.png<br />
| titletext = After decades of increasingly confused arguing, Pluto is reclassified as a "dwarf Pluto."<br />
}}<br />
<br />
When the image is clicked the latest [http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-spacecraft-displays-pluto-s-big-heart-0 NASA post] opens up.<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|New Page.}}<br />
<br />
This comic was posted on Tuesday, July 14th 2015 and breaking the regular Monday/Wednesday/Friday cycle for the [[xkcd]] comics in honor of the {{w|New Horizons}} deep space probe making its flyby at {{w|Pluto}}. [[Randall]] has taken the largest released image by this day and drawn humorous {{w|Pareidolie|pareidolie}} on top of it.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Description<br />
! Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| Candy Shell<br />
| Suger coating<br />
|-<br />
| JPEG Plumes<br />
| JPEG has the common issue of making RGB squares over an image<br />
|-<br />
| Frontal Bone<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Grease Stains<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Bugs<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Bullet holes<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| New Netherlands<br />
| Reference to [[1519: Venus]] and also a What If? about draining the Earth's oceans onto Mars. In that What If?, the Netherlands issued forth from the portal that drained the oceans to claim Mars as New Netherlands. Presumably something similar happened on Pluto.<br />
|-<br />
| Disputed territory<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Snake pit<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Full text of the wikipedia article on pareidolia <br />
| Pareidolia is the issue of making up patterns that don't exist, such as this one.<br />
|-<br />
| Dinosaur<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Tadpole<br />
| A tadpole is a stage in the life of a frog<br />
|-<br />
| Kuiper Belt loops<br />
| The {{w|Kuiper belt}} is a kind of belt surrounding our solar system<br />
|-<br />
| Serenity<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Dinosaur<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| The Good Part<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Moon bud<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Ghost<br />
| A reference to {{w|Pacman}}<br />
|-<br />
| Pluto dinosaur extinction crater<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Charging socket<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Cracks (beginning to hatch)<br />
| Implying that Pluto is some manner of giant egg<br />
|-<br />
| Scars from predator attacks<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Reset button<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Megaman<br />
| {{w|Megaman}} is a videogame character in the franchise with the same name<br />
|-<br />
| Plug (Inflating/Deflating)<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Heart<br />
| Pluto has a big heart-shaped structure on its surface that is very apparent.<br />
|-<br />
| Mount Mons<br />
| Referring to the general practice of naming extraterrestrial mountains "X Mons" (e.g. {{w|Olympus Mons}}, a mountain on Mars and the largest mountain in the Solar System), as well as naming terrestrial mountains "Mount X".<br />
|-<br />
| Coronary Artery Disease<br />
| Also known as {{w|ischemic heart disease}}<br />
|-<br />
| Debate Hole where we're putting all the people still arguing about pluto's planet status<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Area missed during ironing<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Chocolate frosting<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Probably Benign<br />
| A {{w|Benign}} is a flock of tumorcells<br />
|-<br />
| Vanilla Frosting<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Border of pride lands<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Hyena country<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| Dock connector<br />
|<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{Incomplete| Needs to have better explanations, these are just the most basic of the basic}}<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1548:_90s_Kid&diff=97297Talk:1548: 90s Kid2015-07-09T03:16:54Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>Usual gripes that the median does not have to mean typical<br />
13:49, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
(Above comment not properly signed..? It's not me, anyway.) I authored the first go at an explanation. Looks too wordy. But probably could do with other links to the various other "time flies, doesn't it?" cartoons, if anything ought to be added.<br />
<br />
Not sure about my comments about LOL. I didn't really encounter it in force until >2000, before which I never really experienced Web 2.0. "ROFL" or various smilies having been the more standard on areas of Usenet that I frequented in the decade before that where web pages were rarely quite so chatty and 'social' IME.<br />
<br />
(My own childhood was in the '70s in the UK. For some reason I'm actually fairly aware of Rugrats, but Doug is just something 'I know about'. There must be a child of the '90s, or late '80s, who can better describe the shows.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 14:07, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Median may not be typical, but it *does* mean right at the 50% mark, which means that a significant portion of the top half of the bell curve is going to be 90s kids, with the proportion continuing to increase throughout the decade as more years from the 90s come of age. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.169|173.245.56.169]] 14:09, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"Typical" doesn't have quite as strict a meaning as "median" ... but yeah, assuming the median date of birth of a new mother is 1 January 1990, then half of all new mothers are pre-90's kids. Taking into account mothers born in the 2000s, this would mean that the majority of new mothers are NOT 90's kids. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 14:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
:There would be only a few mothers that were born in the 2000s right now. If one was born on January 1st, 2000, then he/she would have gotten pregnant during freshman year, which would be very rare (keep in mind that not even 3% of females in the US get pregnant during their teenage years, and, of those, about 75% were 18 or 19. Anyone born after 2000 would be so young that I couldn't even find any teenage pregnancy website that covered their age.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 03:16, 9 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I teach British teenagers, and they scoff at people who "still use facebook". These "time passes" comics are getting a little tedious for my tastes. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 14:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:What the hell are you supposed to use? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.32|108.162.215.32]] 14:52, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Twitter and/or IRC. Although if I ever choose to post something lengthy, I go with either pastebin or (and yes people will laugh at this) my ancient LiveJournal. [[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 15:09, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::Snapchat, usually. "Charlotte, stop using Snapchat." "How did you know I was using Snapchat?" "You're ALWAYS using Snapchat." [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 16:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::IRC? Wow. That's pretty much almost as retro as email. (I suppose, like email, it's now all graphical with some equivalent to full HTML formatting including attached MIME encoded image contents.) It's been two decades since I last used IRC, so I've probably missed various 'improvements' to it. I hope the 'cool kids' know its noble history and aren't just under the impression that it's as some form of modern Mass Instant Messaging machine. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 22:27, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
BTW, Cosmogoblin, you're probably right to change my original "'90s" to "90's" based on the comic style, but I thoroughly disagree with the format Randall chooses. Stylebooks be damned (or at least those that say it can/''should'' be done this way), but as a contraction of the plural of "1990" it really ought to have an apostrophe (if anywhere) for the characters lost in the contraction and ''no'' apostrophe for the pluralisation. (In fact, in the comic, it should actually be "90s' kid", best to omit the first apostrophe and put the second where it ''actually'' belongs in this possessive context.) Rant over. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 15:02, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I absolutely agree! If the comic didn't have the 90's format I'd have preferred 90s (or even 1990s). Thank you your polite comment. I noticed that the actual comic title is "90s Kid", no apostrophe! [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 16:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Oy, I had to get a word or two in here on this. While I agree with the logic behind the recommended placement (or absense) of the apostrophe, I think there's a place for them anywhere. Like the comma, I think the apostrophe can be placed where it can reduce confusion or the like. In this case, to split a number from a letter. If that's not done then I want to pronounce it as ninety-ess, as if it were a code (such as s70b45t).<br />
<br />
:I disagree on the possessiveness. Would "New York kid" be similar? It would not be "New York's kid".... Location or location in time don't get possessive. Think of it as if it was 1994 kid, a single year. Yep, now you understand. (That's all the example and thought I have on it, so, if you have a winning example, let's hear it.) [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 17:58, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Years refer to a specific period in history. So do geological ages, and the same linguistics should apply.<br />
::For example, "The dinosaurs roamed the Earth during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods." Here, "periods" has no apostrophe.<br />
::Similarly, "The years 1990, 1991, ... and 1999 comprise the 1990s, often shortened to the '90s".<br />
::Still, I think it's appropriate to use the comic's version in this article. Just as I try to pronounce and spell people's names as they say, not as I think they should be pronounced and spelled. I'm still annoyed by the CIA Factbook's insistence on spelling the English and Australian Labour Parties as "Labor", because it's factually wrong - even if they disagree with spelling it "Labour"! [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 20:32, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
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::Ok, I wouldn't say "kid of New York" (normally), but I would say "kid of the '90s". But I accept a "'90s kid" could be sententially the same as "a blonde kid".<br />
::(I'm not willing to be quite so charitable about the idea of the apostrophe reducing confusion, in this case. It's the same style as "1000's of DVD's as little as for low prices! Save $$$$'s!" (or "££££'s", but for this example I'll aim at everyone from Antuiga to Zimbabwe, including the 321 million US residents, rather than the rather more limited populations including the 65 million United Kingdom... and it's a horrible 'headline shortcut', anyway, regardless of symbol). It makes no more sense than the perfectly understandable "1000s of DVDs for low prices! Save $$$$s!" so the use of an apostrophe in a style incompatable with rules that apply to ''standard'' words is... an affectation at best.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 22:27, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:"Use the letter s but '''not an apostrophe after the figures''' when expressing decades or centuries. Do, however, use an '''apostrophe before figures''' expressing a decade if numerals are left out." Figures = digits. So, 1990s, the '90s. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/02/ [[User:Pesthouse|Pesthouse]] ([[User talk:Pesthouse|talk]]) 23:25, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Median mother at 25 today<br />
I did edit the explain because we have some simple math Randall was thinking of: The median mother at 25 was born in 1990, she knowns those cartoons from the 90s. But median means that there are today mothers born later and earlier. Mothers at age of 35 today are common but a women born in 1999 is 15 or 16 today and does not have kids - ok, a few have but that's not common. So that young kids today have parents at an age were the parents were kids in the 1990's. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:02, 8 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:As long as we're not accidentally counting "mothers at 35" rather than "''first time'' mothers at 35". The latter would be less common than the former. It'd be more akin to a bell curve with upper and lower 'tails' than a cumulative distribution S-curve where eventually everyone (who ''will'' ever be a statistic) is represented at the upper-end of the time scale.<br />
:Probably 25plus10 years first-time-mothers are more common than 25minus10 years first-time-mothers, but that's a potential assymetry of the 'tails', and still the two middle quartiles could be unarguably relevent. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 22:27, 8 July 2015 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1063:_Kill_Hitler&diff=95870Talk:1063: Kill Hitler2015-06-18T02:06:10Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>Actually, I think the joke here is that Black Hat actually did end Hitler's atrocities, but that history is not actually changeable. Hitler's "suicide" was actually Black Hat killing him. This is then layers with the impossibility of changing history. This would imply that anyone that wants to stop Hitler before he rose to power will be circumvented.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[User:UnaSalusVictis|UnaSalusVictis]] ([[User talk:UnaSalusVictis|talk]]) 01:26, 25 November 2012 (UTC)UnaSalusVictis<br />
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<br />
:According to all reasonable time travel theories, this makes sense. You cannot go into the past to change things, because the future that exists is a future where you were in the past - you just didn't know it yet because it was in your future. This also applies to the future. Your knowledge of the future cannot possibly change it because your foreknowledge exists in this future. If your foreknowledge made that future not happen, then there would be no need to change it. But the future and the past account for the fact that you were there to change things, even before you ever knew you would be. Ergo, any attempt to ''change'' the past will merely result in ''causing'' the past to result exactly as it did before. The catch-22 of time travel stories. You can have a fatal flaw, or a fatally uncompelling story. But, all that said, this is a cartoon and not necessarily reliant on reasonable time travel theory.[[Special:Contributions/76.29.225.28|76.29.225.28]] 07:07, 23 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:That's exactly my opinion on this topic! Look at this video (Mercedes vs Hitler in the past): [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytVdBLMmRno]] ~~Muessigb<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
True, killing Hitler before he rose to power and committed all his atrocities would cause a Grandfather paradox... Cueball invented the time machine and send Black Hat back because he wanted Hitler dead, but if Hitler died before that, there would be no reason to invent the time machine and send Black Hat back which ergo cause the initial trip to kill Hitler not possible and ergo Hitler couldn't die before he rises to power and committed his atrocities. [[Special:Contributions/175.137.100.81|175.137.100.81]] 01:40, 5 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
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Maybe in the original timeline, Hitler's atrocities extended beyond 1945. When Black Hat went back in time and assassinated Hitler in 1945, a new time-line was created. When Black Hat returned to the current date, he returned to a different timeline than the one he left. In this timeline (ours), Hitler died in 1945, and because this timeline is based on that fact, Cueball thinks that Black Hat has not changed anything, when in fact, Black Hat's actions created the new timeline. -- mwburden [[Special:Contributions/70.91.188.49|70.91.188.49]] 15:00, 7 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
:Except that Hitler would have already been killed in 1945 by Black Hat, only it would have been thought beforehand to be Hitler killing himself as, until the time machine is invented, you wouldn't think that people from the future would be coming from the future to assassinate the opponent. People would assume that Hitler killed himself as that is more plausible than an assassin killing him and then vanishing without a trace.<br />
:The only flaw in that logic is that there's really no way Hitler would have survived the Russian invasion. He was in a bunker, killing himself, because his whole nation and army were crushed. He would have been put on trial and no doubt executed, if not shot by the first soldier who saw him. -HavokTheorem [[Special:Contributions/121.73.107.90|121.73.107.90]] 04:30, 9 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Thank you for this answer. My faith in explainxkcd contributors was declining rapidly until I reached your comment. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 20:20, 30 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Was the explanation always as bad as it appears now?? It's awful. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 01:34, 1 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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First off, in a previous time line he could have escaped to a Moon Base to rebuild his army and destroy the world and Cueball just does not remember that history, just the one where Hitler dies in the bunker. Second, there are many forms of logical time travel. You could jump to a different Now 70 years ago and kill Hitler (assuming he exists) and then come back. Your timeline would not have changed, but the other Now would have a future without Hitler. The good or bad that is achieved is the same, but you get no benefit other then the joy of killing Hitler. And you really should seek professional help for that.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.18|108.162.219.18]] 18:52, 20 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Did Randall at least partly choose Hitler because of the old rumour that he wasn't actually dead (Because hearing the news of his death may have seemed incredulous, and and because his body was removed by the Soviets, who never openly revealed information to the West). Sorry about the wordiness of this comment, I hope you'll be able to comprehend it. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.223}}</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=439:_Thinking_Ahead&diff=95823439: Thinking Ahead2015-06-17T14:29:00Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 439<br />
| date = June 20, 2008<br />
| title = Thinking Ahead<br />
| image = thinking ahead.png<br />
| titletext = Did he just go crazy and jump out the window?<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
[[Cueball]] spots a woman while shopping. He thinks she looks cute - probably because she looks a lot like his girl friend [[Megan]]. She is picking out produce, and quotes a line of dialogue from {{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}} originally said by River Tam ({{w|Summer Glau}}): "My food is problematic." Cueball ([[Randall]]) who is a big fan of Firefly, notices this, and wants to flirt with her. But then Cueball's internal monologue kicks in and he starts panicking, wondering how he'd deal with starting a relationship with this woman when he's moving in the fall, as well as how things are going to work out with Megan, should things work out with this girl. He panics, needs a way out and jumps out the window.<br />
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In real life, jumping out the window would be a very bad idea for a few reasons. Firstly, the glass shards made by jumping through the window would be very shard and easy to cut you on. Secondly, the person who shattered the window would have to pay to fix the window, which would cost quite a bit of money.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to yet another Firefly line, this one said by Wash ({{w|Alan Tudyk}}): "Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?"<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[My Problem: Thinking Ahead.]<br />
:Cueball: She's cute.<br />
:Woman: This food is problematic.<br />
:Cueball: Oh man, she's quoting Firefly.<br />
:Cueball: It's the perfect opening. But wait. I'm moving in the fall. If we hit it off, how will I deal with that?<br />
:Cueball: I don't want to ask her to derail her plans. And with things unresolved with Megan, can I really commit enough to make that kind of decision?<br />
:Cueball: Oh God.<br />
:Cueball: Gotta get out.<br />
:Cueball: The window.<br />
:[Cueball jumping through a window]<br />
:'''CRASH'''<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*[[Randall]] did mention the name Megan at his original transcript.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=309:_Shopping_Teams&diff=95744309: Shopping Teams2015-06-16T14:36:49Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 309<br />
| date = August 29, 2007<br />
| title = Shopping Teams<br />
| image = shopping_teams.png<br />
| titletext = I am never going out to buy an air conditioner with my sysadmin again.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
[[Randall]] is comparing the ways different people look at choosing between similar products. In the first example, which Randall considers "bad", two "non-nerds" look at two products (without a description of any kind) and instantly decide which one they want. (Note that all guys in this comic looks like [[Cueball]]). In the second example, which is considered good, one of the two is a {{w|Nerd|nerd}} and the other one (the woman) is a non-nerd. The non-nerd instantly picks one of the products but the nerd evaluates the two and decides that the other one is better because it's a better deal. In both the first two cases, the pair are able to easily come to a decision.<br />
<br />
However, in the third example two nerds are comparing the two boxes and both of them over-analyse the various merits and drawbacks on each of the two boxes. They are still there two hours later, unable to reach a clear agreement on which of the two boxes they wish to buy. One nerd comments that their definition of value is unclear, suggesting the discussion has gone on for so long because they are re-evaluating their definitions over something too trivial. Some might perceive this as typical "nerd" behaviour, over-analysing a problem which is in actual fact quite trivial, such as the decision whether to buy one box or the other virtually identical box. The non-nerd woman from the second situation who has watched the two nerds comparing the two products attempts to put this into perspective, by pointing out that an unclear definition of value is not their problem. The implication is that their problem is they are unable to reach an agreement on something that makes so little difference. Or their problem could be the one described in [[1445:_Efficiency]].<br />
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The title text suggests that Randall entered a similar situation attempting to buy an air conditioner with his sysadmin, short for {{w|System administrator}}. The sysadmin is a person in an organisation employed to manage the computer system or network, a role which requires technical skills and intelligence. The suggestion here is that a computer programmer, like Randall, put together with a sysadmin, would spend as much attention to detail as the two nerds in the comic, labouring over which of two trivially similar products to buy.<br />
<br />
Randall deals with sysadmins again in [[705: Devotion to Duty]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Three teams are looking at a counter with two cubes on it. Above it all is written in very large letters:]<br />
:Shopping teams<br />
<br />
:[Above the first team consisting of two Cueball-like guys are written the following text (the first line written with larger letters):]<br />
:Bad: <br />
:Two non-nerds<br />
:<br />
:Non-nerd 1: Let's get that one.<br />
:Non-nerd 2: Okay.<br />
<br />
:[Above the second team consisting of a woman with blonde hair and a cueball-like guy, are written the following text (the first line written with larger letters):]<br />
:Good: <br />
:Non-nerd + nerd<br />
:<br />
:Woman non-nerd: Let's get that one.<br />
:Man nerd: Wait, I think that one might be a better deal.<br />
:Woman non-nerd: Okay, that one. <br />
<br />
:[Above the third team consisting of two Cueball-like guys, are written the following text (the first line written with larger letters):]<br />
:Very Bad: <br />
:Two Nerds<br />
:<br />
:Nerd 1: How about that one?<br />
:Nerd 2: I think the other one might be the better deal...<br />
:Nerd 1: Hmm, I'm not sure...<br />
<br />
:[Inside a big arrow pointing straight down:]<br />
:Two Hours <br />
:Later<br />
<br />
:[The two Cueball-like guys are sitting on the floor in front of the counter, both having their laptops open and with lots of paper sheets spread around them as well as a pen etc. The woman from the second team comes in from the right and raises her arms:]<br />
:Nerd 1: I think our main problem is our unclear definition of value.<br />
:Woman non-nerd: That is not your main problem!<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]<br />
[[Category:Time management]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:674:_Natural_Parenting&diff=95415Talk:674: Natural Parenting2015-06-13T00:34:14Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>The song "Doing What Comes Naturally" from Irving Berlin's ''Annie Get Your Gun'' also explores this meaning: "Grandpa Bill is on the hill / with someone he just married. / There he is at ninety-three / doing what comes naturally." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.38|108.162.216.38]] 19:41, 22 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text includes the phrase "the mother of all sampling biases". This is a riff on the phrase "the mother of all battles", which was originally used by Saddam Hussein, the late president of Iraq, to refer to the first Gulf War (1990-1991, when Iraq invaded Kuwait and was later beaten back to its borders by a coalition of forces from other countries). Since then, the phrase "the mother of all X" for various X has become something of a meme. Here, it's more ironic than usual, because (a) parenting can sometimes be viewed as something of a battle and (b) as the explanation already suggests, the comic is literally about being a parent.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.61|173.245.54.61]] 04:26, 5 June 2014 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
"The Mother of all sampling biases" also refers to the fact that he's talking about his mother, and his mother's mother, and his mother's mother's mother, all the way back to Eve.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.62|108.162.221.62]] 21:17, 5 June 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Well, back to the first progenitor, who or whatever that may have been (probably not Eve). -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.221|108.162.249.221]] 23:31, 4 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Except that people, at least from my experience, refer to the first woman as Eve, even when not necessarily talking about the biblical creation account. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 00:34, 13 June 2015 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=258:_Conspiracy_Theories&diff=95002258: Conspiracy Theories2015-06-07T19:19:16Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 258<br />
| date = May 7, 2007<br />
| title = Conspiracy Theories<br />
| image = conspiracy theories.png<br />
| titletext = There are a lot of graduate-educated young-earth creationists.<br />
}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
A {{w|conspiracy theory}} purports to explain a social, political, or economic event as being caused or covered up by a covert group or organization. A typical example is the {{w|moon landing conspiracy}}, which asserts that no human has ever reached the {{w|Moon landing|Moon}}.<br />
<br />
Once a conspiracy theory starts, it often grows stronger. Facts agreeing with the theory are, of course, evidence for the theory. Facts disagreeing with the theory are considered part of the cover-up, and thus prove there is in fact a cover-up, so they're also evidence for the theory. In the Moon landing case, videos of men walking on the Moon are assumed to be faked by Hollywood studios, so the existence of the assumed fake videos proves the cover-up. Also, the absence of filming crew or anything else needed for faking a video is considered further proof of how carefully the cover-up was planned. No matter what happens next, it will be evidence for the conspiracy theory. <br />
<br />
People promoting this theories belong to a small minority but they gain attention by many people — often without much knowledge on that specific matter. The people are more involved in this questioned issues are just getting frustrated about this human behavior.<br />
<br />
It could seem like smart or educated people should reject conspiracy theories for lack of proof, however this is not the case. In the comic, [[Hairy]] (who is considered "smart" by [[Cueball]]) starts pointing out errors in the {{w|September 11 attacks|"official" 9/11 story}}, obviously starting to describe the {{w|9/11 conspiracy theory}}. Cueball cuts his speech sharply, and his heart is broken because he's seeing his smart friend wasting his great intelligence in a foolish conspiracy theory, instead of doing something useful.<br />
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In the second panel, Cueball rants about conspiracy theories in general. He mentions {{w|Young Earth creationism}}, {{w|Moon landing conspiracy|the Moon landing}} and {{w|Perpetual motion}} machines. In the third panel, Hairy mentions that of course we never landed on the Moon. This frustrates Cueball so much that he just walks away with no further comment.<br />
<br />
In the last panel, Cueball asks God to fix the bug he committed when creating smart beings capable of believing such foolish things as conspiracy theories. This is a not-so-subtle joke as, to atheists, God himself is quite similar to a conspiracy theory. Indeed, any evidence against God's existence put forward by an atheist is met with a "whatever happens, it's God's will" by believers' side. This is much like any other conspiracy theory, so in this last panel Cueball is pictured as contradicting himself by complaining that other people believe in foolish conspiracy theories when he himself is very plainly believing his own foolish conspiracy theory.<br />
<br />
Of course, from the believers' perspective, atheism also has many characteristics of a conspiracy theory. In particular, atheism and agnosticism are a small subculture — actually smaller in the U.S. than the 9/11 Truth movement — that thinks a large majority of people (about [http://www.gallup.com/poll/147887/americans-continue-believe-god.aspx 95% of Americans believe in God]) have been deluded into believing something ridiculous by conspiracies (i.e. churches and conservative politicians) that benefit from spreading misinformation on the subject. Some atheists are rational in that they take evidence against this position seriously and adjust their beliefs to fit all the facts, but some are quite willing to make claims that have been decisively refuted.<br />
<br />
A "bug report" is a description of some error that occurred when using a computer program, to inform the developer of a problem that needs to be fixed. Filing a "bug report" to God should be unnecessary, as God is generally understood by believers to be omniscient, and thus already aware of the problem and, presumably, be allowing it to exist for explicable reasons of "God's will" .<br />
<br />
The title text refers the large number of educated people who believe in {{w|Young Earth creationism}}, stating that the earth is only thousands of years old, instead of the billions of years science suggests.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Hairy: The official story of 9-11 is full of holes. Take the—<br />
:Cueball: Please, stop, because seeing this happen to you breaks my heart.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: Conspiracy theories represent a known glitch in human reasoning. The theories are of course occasionally true, but their truth is completely uncorrelated with the believer's certainty. For some reason, sometimes when people think they've uncovered a lie, they raise confirmation bias to an art form. They cut context away from facts and arguments and assemble them into reassuring litanies. And over and over I've argued helplessly with smart people consumed by theories they were sure were irrefutable, theories that in the end proved complete fictions.<br />
:Cueball: Young-Earth Creationists, the Moon Landing people, the Perpetual Motion subculture — can't you see you're falling into the same pattern?<br />
<br />
:Hairy: You don't seriously believe we landed on the moon. Do you?<br />
<br />
:[Cueball flees.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball praying:]<br />
:Cueball: Dear God.<br />
:[Booming from the sky:]<br />
:God: '''YES, MY CHILD?'''<br />
:Cueball: I would like to file a bug report.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br />
[[Category:Religion]]<br />
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1435:_Presidential_Alert&diff=94826Talk:1435: Presidential Alert2015-06-04T14:11:44Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>Do you think this has to do with the Floss joke on Reddit at all? [[User:Kllrshrk|Kllrshrk]] ([[User talk:Kllrshrk|talk]]) 04:11, 17 October 2014 (UTC) Kllrshrk<br />
:I don't know about floss joke on reddit, tell me more [[Special:Contributions/103.31.5.112|103.31.5.112]] 04:32, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::http://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/2j6pxs/whats_the_joke_with_then_floss/ [[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 04:38, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Randall knows reddit; this is most likely a reference.[[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 04:34, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I was thinking that it had something to do with the broadcast he did yesterday (Thursday Oct 16) on the subject of Ebola -- where he really said nothing, other than pamper a bit to the Fox News people, promising an Ebola-czar if he felt it would help [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 08:01, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I'm going to suggest that the hover text is based on a faked misunderstanding of First Amendment law... the President, as part of the government, can't suggest a preference for one religion over others, including when he's talking to his own children. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.119}}<br />
<br />
: Disagree: Mentioning "God" does not signal any preference of any particular religion -- there is (at least one) god in them all, albeit in religions with more than one god they have individual names where in religions with only one god they may not have a name at all [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 08:01, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: First off, I said it was a FAKED misunderstanding. Second, no, not all religions have a god in them, capitalized or not. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.119}}<br />
::: For a religion to exist there must be a belief in a superior being outside of the normal perception -- whether they are spirits or other forms of non-directly-observable the naming should entities should remain irrelevant as to whether they are gods or not -- it would help if you could mention one religion who has not gods or supernatural-god-like beings in it :-) [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:05, 18 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::Tell that to the Buddhists. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.221|108.162.246.221]] 14:04, 19 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::And the Shinto. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 15:06, 19 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::::Ummm.... Shinto literally means "way of the gods". Followers of Shinto have lots of gods. We would just normally think of them as guardian spirits or something like that. Also, buddhas are essentially gods in the Shinto sense. That said, there are a lot of very different schools of Buddhism, and I am most familiar with the ones that were influenced by Shinto in Japan. ETA: Oh, the comment that you responded to is about supernatural beings, not necessarily gods. In that case, Shinto definitely applies with no disclaimer, and every branch of Buddhism that I am familiar with applies as well.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.153|108.162.221.153]] 04:43, 20 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::Don't forget the atheists. Despite all their peceived superiority and claimed belief exclusively in science, atheism is a religion. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 15:12, 19 October 2014 (UTC)Mulan15262<br />
:::::Atheism to religion as bald to a hair style. Valid, but flawed reasoning. Taking the hair out of hairstyling doesn't constitute a new hairstyle. Atheists form something close to a cult, but not a blind one. We see organized religion, but not organized atheism. Science is provable and logically sound. It has repeatability. It doesn't condemn you to hell if you don't believe. It is the same whether or not you believe or care about it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.113|108.162.217.113]] 22:36, 19 October 2014 (UTC)BK<br />
::::::Dictionary.com defines religion as being "a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects:" This seems like it would fit atheism as it has a fundamental set of beliefs (Believing that there is no God or gods) and practices (Claiming one's belief in the absence of deities to be true). This sounds like it fits the definition to me.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:11, 4 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: There are arguments regarding talking about your capital-G God ((one) proper name of the generic christian god) as opposed to talking about your small-g god (who might have a specific name, whether Jehova, Allah, Osiris, Odin, Quetzovercoatl or, indeed, God). But that's for etymologists to discuss, probably. Or entomologists, when they're fed up talking about whether Bugs are bugs and are trying to relax by not talking shop. HTH, HAND. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.118|141.101.99.118]] 10:19, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::: While continuing talking shop -- I beleive that both all christian religions as well as Jews are referring to God with a capital 'G' -- and Muslims are referring to Allah as "the one God", and hence capital G-God is not necessarily the christian God -- however if you ask ''"which God is he referring to"'' you may be mistaken for an atheist [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:05, 18 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I read the comic a bit differently: supposing the President accidentally pressed "The Button" (started nuclear war), he would appear on television to tell the country about the impending catastrophe. However, once on TV he can't bring himself to tell everyone that he started a nuclear war by mistake, so he opts for something rather lame and exits -- it will all be over soon anyway.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.191|141.101.104.191]] 07:53, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Feeling a bit down today? --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 08:05, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: I had the exact same idea - that he meant to tell them: "you're all gonna die soon" or something similar but decided not to and was desperately trying to find something else to say. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 18:33, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::: Exactly - this also explains why the president open with an official sentence like: ''My fellow Americans.'' And then he changes his mind and continues ''I, uhhh. Wow. Frankly, I didn't realize what this button did. I...''' I have included this alternative version in the explain but think the first can be deleted... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:41, 20 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Where does the "President Cueball" come from? I assumed it was Obama. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 08:07, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Also the fact that the title text is definitely about Obama implies that the comic features Obama. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 12:03, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The alt-text seems like an unnecessary swipe at President Obama. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.80|108.162.216.80]] 09:03, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Everything that occurs here is necessary. [[User:Robert|Robert]] ([[User talk:Robert|talk]]) 09:35, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
An phone app called Pushbullet recently began pushing xkcds to my phone, and Dashclock places the titles of pushes to my lock screen. Where I'm going with this, if you haven't guessed, is that I found my phone in my bed after 3 AM and blearily woke it to be greeted with a red lock screen reading '''Presidential Alert''' <br />
<br />
A big thank-you to everyone to made my 4 AM wakefulness possible. – [[User:Robert|Robert]] ([[User talk:Robert|talk]]) 09:35, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anybody else old enough to remember this Spitting Image/Genesis video (http://youtu.be/1pkVLqSaahk)? [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:09, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Regarding the title text, I don't think the joke is that the president would confuse "good night" and "God bless America." It is very common for the United States President to conclude evening speeches with something like "Good night. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America." For a similar example, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqMzidfyxrI (which I just found as a random example). [[User:S|S]] ([[User talk:S|talk]]) 22:25, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Does anybody know what happened? 2 am on Monday and no new strip? --[[User:Troy0|Troy0]] ([[User talk:Troy0|talk]]) 06:16, 20 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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So this happened for real just a week later? http://www.infowars.com/white-house-emergency-alert-interrupts-tv-viewers-across-america/ {{unsigned|Geoffhazel}}</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:81:_Attention,_shopper&diff=94772Talk:81: Attention, shopper2015-06-03T14:32:52Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div>I always assumed he'd smashed the windshield ''because'' the lights were on, rather than the other way around. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.90|108.162.215.90]] 17:14, 16 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I think most people just assume that Black Hat smashed the windshield and turned on the lights because the license plate was bragging so obviously about the owners money.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:32, 3 June 2015 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1474:_Screws&diff=947231474: Screws2015-06-03T01:02:46Z<p>Mulan15262: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1474<br />
| date = January 16, 2015<br />
| title = Screws<br />
| image = screws.png<br />
| titletext = If you encounter a hex bolt, but you only brought screwdrivers, you can try sandwiching the head of the bolt between two parallel screwdriver shafts, squeezing the screwdrivers together with a hand at either end, then twisting. It doesn't work and it's a great way to hurt yourself, but you can try it!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Appliance makers sometimes use strange screw heads to hinder attempts from users to remove appliance covers. Users usually have handy screwdrivers for the first two screw types drawn, Phillips and Slot. More advanced users usually have some less standard drivers, such as Torx or Allen, however appliance makers keep designing increasingly strange screw heads and users keep acquiring increasingly strange screwdrivers.<br />
<br />
The comic is about the frustration a user may feel when faced with a screw for which they have no screwdriver. Usually the user will try to fit one of the drivers they have handy into the strange screw, leading to damaging the screw and/or the driver.<br />
<br />
The types of screws listed are the following:<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
! style="width: 25%"|Screw type<br />
! Description<br />
|-<br />
| Phillips head<br />
| {{w|List of screw drives#Phillips|Phillips screw drive}} and its corresponding screw head is one of the most recognizable types of screw heads that is commonly used in construction. This type of screw head was named after its inventor, a US businessman {{w|Henry F. Phillips}}. Neither the inventor nor his invention have any relationship to the Dutch electronics manufacturing company with similar, but not exactly the same name {{w|Philips}}.<br />
|-<br />
| Flat head<br />
| {{w|List_of_screw_drives#Slot|Slot head screws}} are frequently erroneously referred to as flat heads (a flat head screw refers, in fact, to the shape of the screw head, regardless of the shape of the drive socket). The slot head is also commonly used in construction. Although the diagram shows the slot truncated, the slot almost always runs across the entire head of the screw (as in the case of the "uranium screw" below).<br />
|-<br />
| Uh oh. Maybe it's on Amazon? (star-shaped screw)<br />
| Manufacturers sometimes use screws that require special screwdrivers in order to prevent the customer from opening the product. The reference to Amazon is presumably a suggestion to search Amazon.com for the screwdriver. A number of star-shaped screw heads exist, notably the six-pointed {{w|Torx}}, and Apple's rounded {{w|Pentalobe screw|pentalobe screw}}, although there is no popular design that uses the 5-pointed star shape depicted in the comic. Torx screws are common in automotive applications — Phillips heads are designed to "cam out" at high torque to protect the screw, whereas Torx do not — and on bicycles where a higher tightening torque is needed than hex screws can support. They are also commonly used on disk brake mounts and in Smartphones.<br />
<br />
|-<br />
| Cursed -1 Phillips head<br />
| The head of a screw can be stripped by overuse, tightening the screw too much, using the wrong size screwdriver, or other misuse. As the driving surfaces wear away, removing the screw becomes more difficult, and the added pressure needed to drive the screw usually damages it further. <br />
<br />
The addition of "cursed" and "-1" in the titles is a reference to various role playing games (e.g. Dungeons and Dragons), where magical "cursed" items appear frequently. This often makes the cursed equipment (in the case of armor or weapons) incredibly difficult to remove, as it will cling to the wielder. Similarly, the cursed Phillips Head screw becomes difficult to remove due to the stripped head.<br />
<br />
The "-1" refers to the damage of the screw head. In role playing games, items such as weapons and armor may have an "enchantment", with a positive enchantment making the item more effective, and a negative enchantment making the item less effective. Negatively enchanted items are often also cursed, as is the case with this screw head. The "-1" does not appear to be a reference to a Philips bit-size number, as those are always positive.<br />
<br />
Notably, the stripped screw bears a resemblance to a {{w|List_of_screw_drives#Pozidriv|Pozidriv head}}, a modified version of the Phillips head designed to resist slipping and subsequent stripping. Using a Phillips head screwdriver in a Pozidriv screw is very likely to damage the screw head and cause a real Pozidriv screwdriver to no longer mate correctly.<br />
|-<br />
| Crap, it's a ''rivet''.<br />
| A {{w|rivet}} is not a screw - it is a permanent fastener which is secured by deforming the body of the fastener. Rivets cannot be removed with a screwdriver, they must be "drilled out". Some bolts also have rounded rivet-style heads, though, with no means of gripping them.<br />
|-<br />
| Phillips head ruiner ''(actually a hex screw)''<br />
| A reference to the fact that {{w|List_of_screw_drives#Hex_socket|hex socket}} screws can, in a pinch, be removed with a Phillips screwdriver (rather than the intended {{w|Allen wrench}}) but this will likely ruin the screwdriver in the process. <br />
|-<br />
| Uranium screw<br />
| Uranium screws were [http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/11/10/fat-mans-uranium/ used] in the [http://www.scintillators.ru/booc/criticality/reports/ref_050.pdf construction] of [http://www.osti.gov/scitech/servlets/purl/769001 nuclear weapons] during the twentieth century. Multiple radially extending short wave-like lines around the screw head symbolize radiant energy output, although real uranium screws were most likely made of depleted uranium, which is [http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabc.htm 40 percent less radioactive] than "raw" naturally-occurring uranium.<br />
|-<br />
| Phillip's head<br />
| This is a morbidly literal interpretation of the misuse of an apostrophe in "Phillip's head". This "screw" is actually a bloody bag containing the severed head of someone named Phillip. Intentionally or otherwise, this last punchline could be described as a "[http://www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MindScrew mind screw]".<br />
|-<br />
|Hex bolt (title text)<br />
|A {{w|List_of_screw_drives#Hex|hex bolt}} has six external sides, so it could in theory be held by squeezing two screwdriver shafts together with the bolt in between. The amount of force on the two screwdriver shafts needed to turn the hex bolt will probably exceed the strength of human hands - the attempt would most likely only result in causing your hands to cramp or causing the screwdrivers to slip and cause further injury.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Eight drawings of different types of heads each with a caption:]<br />
:Phillips head<br />
:Flat head<br />
:Uh oh. Maybe it's on Amazon?<br />
:Cursed -1 Phillips head<br />
:Crap, it's a ''rivet''.<br />
:Phillips-head ruiner<br />
:Uranium screw (a real thing)<br />
:Phillip's head<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:85:_Paths&diff=79975Talk:85: Paths2014-12-01T02:36:18Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div>This is the kind of thing that comes up in story problems in Calculus often. If you can travel in/over one medium at one speed, and in/over another medium at a different speed, what is the optimum path to minimize your travel time.<br><br />
An example of this problem would be if there is a drowning swimmer 100 meters offshore, you are 300 meters from the point on the shoreline closest to the swimmer, and you can run at 15mph and swim at 2mph, how far do you run along the shoreline before going into the water to get to the swimmer as quickly as possible?<br><br />
The fact that Randall shows two different paths over the "grass" makes me think that he was thinking more along the line of obsessively optimizing his path rather than about whether it might be acceptable or not to walk over the grass. -- mwburden [[Special:Contributions/70.91.188.49|70.91.188.49]] 21:23, 13 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Along similar lines, [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97628&page=1 this mathematician's dog] uses Calculus (albeit at an intuitive, rather than mathematical level) to optimize the path that it takes to retrieve the ball from the water. -- mwburden [[Special:Contributions/70.91.188.49|70.91.188.49]] 21:27, 13 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
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This particular situation is less interesting, since the walker's speed is the same for all three paths! This is seen by the times being directly proportional to the distances. Normally, the off-normal-path is at a lower speed, but some shorter path still gives the smallest time.DrMath 08:22, 14 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Where do the equations come from to figure out #2 & #3 - can anybody derive it? {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.185}}<br />
:The equation #2 comes from the second route. t(1+√2)/3 is how far the second path takes the guy. If each block is a unit square, the diagonal to the corner is √2 while the next part is 1. The t/3 part is making it comparable to the first one (the first one is t despite it being 3 unit squares). Equation #3 is t√(5)/3. Plugging 1, 2, and √5 into wolfram|alpha for triangle side lengths makes it a right triange, so the √5 comes from the side length (assuming unit squares) while the t/3 makes it comparable to the first one.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 02:36, 1 December 2014 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1440:_Geese&diff=78046Talk:1440: Geese2014-10-29T23:08:04Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div>The mere idea of geese spontaneously exploding mid-flight makes me giggle like a madman. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 12:03, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: 108.162.216.26, you're twisted. ... and now i can't stop thinking about it... and giggling. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:27, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Wasn't it a goose going supernova that caused the Tunguska event? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.146|199.27.128.146]] 16:40, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Time Dilation? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.185|173.245.56.185]] 09:16, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The explanation should point out that the comic is referring to the common misconception that there is a high chance that a visible star is already dead. The facts are explained but the context is missing. This misconception was also mentioned in a what-if, but I cant find it right now.<br />
The Milky Way is 120kly in diameter and most visible stars are much closer. With a lifetime of at least a couple millions of years the probability for a random star being dead is way below 1%. Given that there are 5000 stars visible to the naked eye (under best viewing conditions), this means that statistically there are maybe 5 stars in the entire night sky that are dead already. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.215|108.162.231.215]] 09:10, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: "With a lifetime of at least a couple millions of years" True only for the most massive stars. The average star in the Milky Way is around half a solar mass and will last around 50 billion years. So the probability of one of the 5000 stars visible to the naked eye having died in the last 1000 years is even smaller than "way below 1%". [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.146|199.27.128.146]] 16:45, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: Although you are overstating things a bit, because more massive stars are more likely to be naked eye visible. According to Wikipedia today, no M-class stars are naked eye visible at all. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.142|173.245.52.142]] 18:00, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::Almost all stars have a lifetime of at least a couple milions of years. However, some stars have lifetimes that extend on for billions of years after those few million. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 23:08, 29 October 2014 (UTC) Mulan15262<br />
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I think this relates to a previous XKCD 1342: Ancient Stars (http://xkcd.com/1342/) where he makes the same joke of how stars may not necessarily be that far away. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.206|173.245.54.206]] 17:22, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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No! The moving V of the geese is reminiscent of a light cone! I think that's what triggered Megan's absurdist fantasy. And indeed, we're seeing the geese as they were in the past. By about a microsecond. If enough readers agree I think this belongs in the explanation. [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 20:49, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: The light cone thing is important I think. I read the whole discussion in the comic as a play on the concept of abosolute time vs relativity. And I found it hilarious with that interpretation. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.220|108.162.249.220]] 21:38, 29 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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But Goose *is* dead. You fly jets long enough, something like this happens. [[User:DivePeak|DivePeak]] ([[User talk:DivePeak|talk]]) 21:07, 29 October 2014 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1435:_Presidential_Alert&diff=77497Talk:1435: Presidential Alert2014-10-19T15:12:01Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div>Do you think this has to do with the Floss joke on Reddit at all? [[User:Kllrshrk|Kllrshrk]] ([[User talk:Kllrshrk|talk]]) 04:11, 17 October 2014 (UTC) Kllrshrk<br />
:I don't know about floss joke on reddit, tell me more [[Special:Contributions/103.31.5.112|103.31.5.112]] 04:32, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::http://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/2j6pxs/whats_the_joke_with_then_floss/ [[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 04:38, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Randall knows reddit; this is most likely a reference.[[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 04:34, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I was thinking that it had something to do with the broadcast he did yesterday (Thursday Oct 16) on the subject of Ebola -- where he really said nothing, other than pamper a bit to the Fox News people, promising an Ebola-czar if he felt it would help [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 08:01, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I'm going to suggest that the hover text is based on a faked misunderstanding of First Amendment law... the President, as part of the government, can't suggest a preference for one religion over others, including when he's talking to his own children. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.119}}<br />
<br />
: Disagree: Mentioning "God" does not signal any preference of any particular religion -- there is (at least one) god in them all, albeit in religions with more than one god they have individual names where in religions with only one god they may not have a name at all [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 08:01, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: First off, I said it was a FAKED misunderstanding. Second, no, not all religions have a god in them, capitalized or not. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.119}}<br />
::: For a religion to exist there must be a belief in a superior being outside of the normal perception -- whether they are spirits or other forms of non-directly-observable the naming should entities should remain irrelevant as to whether they are gods or not -- it would help if you could mention one religion who has not gods or supernatural-god-like beings in it :-) [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:05, 18 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::Tell that to the Buddhists. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.221|108.162.246.221]] 14:04, 19 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::And the Shinto. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 15:06, 19 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::Don't forget the atheists. Despite all their peceived superiority and claimed belief exclusively in science, atheism is a religion. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 15:12, 19 October 2014 (UTC)Mulan15262<br />
<br />
:: There are arguments regarding talking about your capital-G God ((one) proper name of the generic christian god) as opposed to talking about your small-g god (who might have a specific name, whether Jehova, Allah, Osiris, Odin, Quetzovercoatl or, indeed, God). But that's for etymologists to discuss, probably. Or entomologists, when they're fed up talking about whether Bugs are bugs and are trying to relax by not talking shop. HTH, HAND. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.118|141.101.99.118]] 10:19, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
::: While continuing talking shop -- I beleive that both all christian religions as well as Jews are referring to God with a capital 'G' -- and Muslims are referring to Allah as "the one God", and hence capital G-God is not necessarily the christian God -- however if you ask ''"which God is he referring to"'' you may be mistaken for an atheist [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:05, 18 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I read the comic a bit differently: supposing the President accidentally pressed "The Button" (started nuclear war), he would appear on television to tell the country about the impending catastrophe. However, once on TV he can't bring himself to tell everyone that he started a nuclear war by mistake, so he opts for something rather lame and exits -- it will all be over soon anyway.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.191|141.101.104.191]] 07:53, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Feeling a bit down today? --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 08:05, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: I had the exact same idea - that he meant to tell them: "you're all gonna die soon" or something similar but decided not to and was desperately trying to find something else to say. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 18:33, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Where does the "President Cueball" come from? I assumed it was Obama. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 08:07, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Also the fact that the title text is definitely about Obama implies that the comic features Obama. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 12:03, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The alt-text seems like an unnecessary swipe at President Obama. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.80|108.162.216.80]] 09:03, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Everything that occurs here is necessary. [[User:Robert|Robert]] ([[User talk:Robert|talk]]) 09:35, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
An phone app called Pushbullet recently began pushing xkcds to my phone, and Dashclock places the titles of pushes to my lock screen. Where I'm going with this, if you haven't guessed, is that I found my phone in my bed after 3 AM and blearily woke it to be greeted with a red lock screen reading '''Presidential Alert''' <br />
<br />
A big thank-you to everyone to made my 4 AM wakefulness possible. – [[User:Robert|Robert]] ([[User talk:Robert|talk]]) 09:35, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anybody else old enough to remember this Spitting Image/Genesis video (http://youtu.be/1pkVLqSaahk)? [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:09, 17 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Regarding the title text, I don't think the joke is that the president would confuse "good night" and "God bless America." It is very common for the United States President to conclude evening speeches with something like "Good night. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America." For a similar example, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqMzidfyxrI (which I just found as a random example). [[User:S|S]] ([[User talk:S|talk]]) 22:25, 17 October 2014 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:288:_Elevator&diff=69244Talk:288: Elevator2014-06-10T03:33:11Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
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<div>That certainly is a distinctive landscape. Does anybody know of any literary (or otherwise) allusion? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 02:24, 8 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why are the floors labeled backwards from the reality, with the lowest floor at the top? Is this common in the U.S.?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.220|141.101.81.220]] 13:21, 19 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
:No, most, if not all, buildings in the US have the highest floor on top and the lowest floor on bottom, with everything else in descending order as you look from top to bottom. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 03:33, 10 June 2014 (UTC)Mulan15262</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1039:_RuBisCO&diff=68619Talk:1039: RuBisCO2014-06-01T14:15:53Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>I'd laugh if a sex product called rubisco was made shortly after this comic was released. '''[[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:37, 21 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
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<pre><br />
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----<br />
Hash: SHA1<br />
<br />
PLEASE STOP!!!<br />
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Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)<br />
<br />
iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJSFaN3AAoJEO1Ft1MdkRYu9oIH/1Ro2R42bjzz1gEkJiDsTAjl<br />
6R+/iWGr9Jg+PESJnWATgz3EuONIqfeJx3DMZRkcUHP/hCNnXbZmRPEDxJmxclxL<br />
YoOVXrEfZ+9xJEKbUuU+N33bSGrt+uX5GrGg6tWMJN50Ymuv8rRjE885Xop88W8s<br />
5frOFdxaS2WmIkp+wnujGPtdyWeVyveN+DqtN7Tkds7R1NW5lnn3R6yzM+1WJmrg<br />
ai1CYcq0O884PGS13THxm9SL4J3VHGCShY5p6wRsRBxyCaybmjNepPrWwNePTkS2<br />
TGUXPqBf42mNeWjmsenRrZKW+Nl5rs9gPSe4r5bsCdfujmwByHdZt1ziFA3LarQ=<br />
=qr0R<br />
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----<br />
</pre><br />
{{unsigned ip|184.66.160.91}}<br />
<br />
I didn't sign my post because it was PGP signed. ;) [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 18:52, 24 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Do I miss the joke or just the PGP key to understand???--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:08, 24 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
:[[1181:_PGP]] This explains it. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:15, 1 June 2014 (UTC) Mulan15262</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:774:_Atheists&diff=68055Talk:774: Atheists2014-05-25T14:12:44Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>Atheists aren't annoying, they are just boring. Nobody likes a party pooper. <br />
<br />
The sad truth is that there's nothing out there but the universe. Luckily, it's a magnificent one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 01:50, 24 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Just as i read the word 'magnificent' the conclusion part of 'eclipse' (from dark side of the moon) started. Great timing :) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.35|108.162.216.35]] 02:17, 11 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:How can you be sure that there aren't any other universes? Even if the only things that exist are matter, energy, and information, there still could be other universes that we haven't seen, and those would be real. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:12, 25 May 2014 (UTC)Mulan15262</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Mulan15262&diff=68054User:Mulan152622014-05-25T14:11:53Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is Mulan15262's profile page. It is meant to stay blank.</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Mulan15262&diff=68053User:Mulan152622014-05-25T14:10:35Z<p>Mulan15262: Created page with "There is nothing here. Go back. You never read anything."</p>
<hr />
<div>There is nothing here. Go back.<br />
<br />
You never read anything.</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:903:_Extended_Mind&diff=67865Talk:903: Extended Mind2014-05-22T23:35:09Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>Title text is true - unless you happen to stumble upon any one of: {{w|Fact}}, {{w|Proof (truth)}}, {{w|Evidence}}, or {{w|Truth}}. Then you'll be stranded in an eternal loop. <br />
:What do you mean? {{w|Fact}} works fine, you get there in 7 steps. Proof gets you there in 6 - you go to {{w|Necessity and Sufficiency}} not {{w|Evidence}}. Same for {{w|Evidence}}. {{w|Truth}} leads you to {{w|Fact}}. So all of your examples actually work.<br />
--[[User:T0IVI|T0IVI]] ([[User talk:T0IVI|talk]]) 09:27, 28 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
:Also, I add another rule to my wikiwalks: No purple links. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.101|108.162.218.101]] 21:05, 28 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
:'''Logic''' leads you to '''reason''', which leads you to '''consciousness''', which leads you to '''quality''', which leads you to '''propery''', which takes you back to logic.<br />
[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 23:33, 22 May 2014 (UTC)[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]]<br />
<br />
Yeah, I hit a loop on the page Community. Went right from National community to Community again. {{unsigned|69.91.105.111}}<br />
<br />
These infinite loops seem to be 'fixed', I went through fact and other stuff right to philosophy.{{unsigned|141.35.48.11}}<br />
<br />
Another loop is "England". It goes right to "Countries of the United Kingdom" which returns immediately to England. <br />
<br />
Finally we all end up in {{w|Reality}}. [[Special:Contributions/85.178.28.173|85.178.28.173]] 21:16, 29 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I do have to say that the best loop that doesn't feed to Philosophy is {{w|Sand Fence}} and {{w|Snow Fence}}. The first sentence of each article is identical except for switching the instances of sand and snow. --[[Special:Contributions/68.97.21.122|68.97.21.122]] 05:17, 6 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Saying that everything ends up in "philosophy" is simply choosing from a long list of possible entries to suit an argument. I found it much more interesting, having gotten to philosophy, to keep going through the loop, then to see where certain pages drop you into said loop. The loop currenty is reality, existence, world, human, hominini, tribe, biology, natural science, sciences, knowledge, fact, proof, necessity and sufficiency, logic, reason, consciousness, quality (philosophy), property (philosophy), modern philosophy, then finally philosophy. It's as if we've stumbled upon a new classification of knowledge. If only we could look recursively at ALL the things that lead into a certain topic in the loop. For example, goat drops you into the loop at biology, which makes perfect sense, but Volvo drops you in at natural sciences from a very convoluted path which includes physics, time, dimension, list of time periods, and scandinavia. In other words, it's the journey not the destination that I find interesting. - naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 15:39, 12 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Randall is either mistaken or intentionally misinformative (or rather, politically correct) in his IQ estimates. What's a car hyperbole aside, the cluelessness, sentence length, and spelling of the outage-messages remind of a person in their low 90s-high 80s, if not lower, and Randall is clearly more than 120, (conservative) average for physics majors as it might be. [[Special:Contributions/178.42.101.38|178.42.101.38]] 20:08, 13 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;What can we learn?<br />
I've learned that memorizing facts is so yesteryear. Over next few years facts will be even easier to find, understand, use, reference and forget. When in school we should concentrate not on memorizing facts we can look up later, but rather new methods to think outside the box full of facts others placed inside it. (Thank you Mr. XKCD) - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 13:42, 28 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
: That is true, but the overhead for looking something up versus remembering it is usually great enough that memorizing some things (multiplication tables come to mind) can increase the speed we can arrive at conclusions, or can give us other options (correlation between spark plug gapping and engine performance) that might not have come to mind otherwise. Outside of that, even though we forget much of it, having a vague sense of things (dates, locations/countries, etc) allow us to start out knowing at least something (order of things that occurred, Egypt being in Africa, Pythagorean theorem). This is just my opinion, and I may be biased, since I like facts. [[User:Tryc|Tryc]] ([[User talk:Tryc|talk]]) 13:19, 25 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
You can't teach everyone to think outside the box, that would spoil my advantage over the common man. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 03:03, 26 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Wikiloop: (noun) A loop that results in wikipedia articles from clicking the first link not in brackets or italics over and over again. <br />
Here is the most commonly encountered wikiloop. (Reality is also the first link in Philosophy) --[[User:ParadoX|ParadoX]] ([[User talk:ParadoX|talk]]) 09:03, 13 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
Reality<br />
Existence<br />
World<br />
Human<br />
Primate<br />
Mammal<br />
Clade<br />
Tree of life (biology)<br />
Metaphor<br />
Figure of speech<br />
Word<br />
Linguistics<br />
Science<br />
Knowledge<br />
Fact<br />
Reality<br />
...<br />
<br />
;wikipedia outages<br />
<br />
There was a major outage in 2005 when a power failure hit their database servers http://cyberbrahma.com/power-corrupts-power-failure-corrupts-absolutely/. I also remember countless minor outages over the years (though not recently). -- plugwash<br />
:And just after I wrote the above wikipedia went down....... -- plugwash {{unsigned}}<br />
<br />
::Yeah, a link like {{w|Sand Fence}} should be work like {{w|Sand fence}}, but it doesn't right now. So some outages for the "Extended Mind"... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:10, 14 February 2014 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:903:_Extended_Mind&diff=67864Talk:903: Extended Mind2014-05-22T23:33:22Z<p>Mulan15262: </p>
<hr />
<div>Title text is true - unless you happen to stumble upon any one of: {{w|Fact}}, {{w|Proof (truth)}}, {{w|Evidence}}, or {{w|Truth}}. Then you'll be stranded in an eternal loop. <br />
:What do you mean? {{w|Fact}} works fine, you get there in 7 steps. Proof gets you there in 6 - you go to {{w|Necessity and Sufficiency}} not {{w|Evidence}}. Same for {{w|Evidence}}. {{w|Truth}} leads you to {{w|Fact}}. So all of your examples actually work.<br />
--[[User:T0IVI|T0IVI]] ([[User talk:T0IVI|talk]]) 09:27, 28 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
:Also, I add another rule to my wikiwalks: No purple links. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.101|108.162.218.101]] 21:05, 28 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
:'''Logic''' leads you to '''reason''', which leads you to '''consciousness''', which leads you to '''qualiy'[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 23:33, 22 May 2014 (UTC)[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]]<br />
<br />
Yeah, I hit a loop on the page Community. Went right from National community to Community again. {{unsigned|69.91.105.111}}<br />
<br />
These infinite loops seem to be 'fixed', I went through fact and other stuff right to philosophy.{{unsigned|141.35.48.11}}<br />
<br />
Another loop is "England". It goes right to "Countries of the United Kingdom" which returns immediately to England. <br />
<br />
Finally we all end up in {{w|Reality}}. [[Special:Contributions/85.178.28.173|85.178.28.173]] 21:16, 29 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I do have to say that the best loop that doesn't feed to Philosophy is {{w|Sand Fence}} and {{w|Snow Fence}}. The first sentence of each article is identical except for switching the instances of sand and snow. --[[Special:Contributions/68.97.21.122|68.97.21.122]] 05:17, 6 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Saying that everything ends up in "philosophy" is simply choosing from a long list of possible entries to suit an argument. I found it much more interesting, having gotten to philosophy, to keep going through the loop, then to see where certain pages drop you into said loop. The loop currenty is reality, existence, world, human, hominini, tribe, biology, natural science, sciences, knowledge, fact, proof, necessity and sufficiency, logic, reason, consciousness, quality (philosophy), property (philosophy), modern philosophy, then finally philosophy. It's as if we've stumbled upon a new classification of knowledge. If only we could look recursively at ALL the things that lead into a certain topic in the loop. For example, goat drops you into the loop at biology, which makes perfect sense, but Volvo drops you in at natural sciences from a very convoluted path which includes physics, time, dimension, list of time periods, and scandinavia. In other words, it's the journey not the destination that I find interesting. - naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 15:39, 12 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Randall is either mistaken or intentionally misinformative (or rather, politically correct) in his IQ estimates. What's a car hyperbole aside, the cluelessness, sentence length, and spelling of the outage-messages remind of a person in their low 90s-high 80s, if not lower, and Randall is clearly more than 120, (conservative) average for physics majors as it might be. [[Special:Contributions/178.42.101.38|178.42.101.38]] 20:08, 13 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;What can we learn?<br />
I've learned that memorizing facts is so yesteryear. Over next few years facts will be even easier to find, understand, use, reference and forget. When in school we should concentrate not on memorizing facts we can look up later, but rather new methods to think outside the box full of facts others placed inside it. (Thank you Mr. XKCD) - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 13:42, 28 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
: That is true, but the overhead for looking something up versus remembering it is usually great enough that memorizing some things (multiplication tables come to mind) can increase the speed we can arrive at conclusions, or can give us other options (correlation between spark plug gapping and engine performance) that might not have come to mind otherwise. Outside of that, even though we forget much of it, having a vague sense of things (dates, locations/countries, etc) allow us to start out knowing at least something (order of things that occurred, Egypt being in Africa, Pythagorean theorem). This is just my opinion, and I may be biased, since I like facts. [[User:Tryc|Tryc]] ([[User talk:Tryc|talk]]) 13:19, 25 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
You can't teach everyone to think outside the box, that would spoil my advantage over the common man. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 03:03, 26 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Wikiloop: (noun) A loop that results in wikipedia articles from clicking the first link not in brackets or italics over and over again. <br />
Here is the most commonly encountered wikiloop. (Reality is also the first link in Philosophy) --[[User:ParadoX|ParadoX]] ([[User talk:ParadoX|talk]]) 09:03, 13 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
Reality<br />
Existence<br />
World<br />
Human<br />
Primate<br />
Mammal<br />
Clade<br />
Tree of life (biology)<br />
Metaphor<br />
Figure of speech<br />
Word<br />
Linguistics<br />
Science<br />
Knowledge<br />
Fact<br />
Reality<br />
...<br />
<br />
;wikipedia outages<br />
<br />
There was a major outage in 2005 when a power failure hit their database servers http://cyberbrahma.com/power-corrupts-power-failure-corrupts-absolutely/. I also remember countless minor outages over the years (though not recently). -- plugwash<br />
:And just after I wrote the above wikipedia went down....... -- plugwash {{unsigned}}<br />
<br />
::Yeah, a link like {{w|Sand Fence}} should be work like {{w|Sand fence}}, but it doesn't right now. So some outages for the "Extended Mind"... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:10, 14 February 2014 (UTC)</div>Mulan15262