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| Earth Sized Planets |
 Title text: It probably has an icy mantle over the real silicate geology, but I'm hoping something weird happened to burn off most of the water like with Io. |
Explanation
Cueball and Ponytail are discussing the possibility of the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory discovering an Earth-sized object in the far reaches of the Solar System, as one of several so far unsupported hypothetical candidates as the next Planet Nine, or Ten, that might be on the cusp of being discovered. It would have to be very distant, however, since gravitational effects of an Earth-sized object in the vicinity of Pluto should already have been detected.
Cueball is intrigued by Ponytail's initial imagery, of a planet similar to Earth but with internal heat to make up for the limited heat it would be able to receive from the Sun. In his mind, this leads straight to the exciting possibility that it might even harbor life. Ponytail, being a geologist, has another objective in mind. She is more excited by the idea that it might have plate tectonics, which none of the other terrestrial planets have to any significant degree (excluding, perhaps, some of the moons of the gas giants, especially those where there is a possibly mobile ice surface rather than rocky plates such as Earth has).
The title text continues with the geologist's bias towards being interested in rock-based situations (i.e. silicates) by dismissing the presence of water-ice (a possible hint of the presence of liquid water, an assumed prerequisite for life). Though they expect there to be a layer of ice, they would rather that this would somehow go away in order that the 'real surface' could be studied properly. Ironically, based on our current understanding of plate tectonics, the lack of water would prevent "normal" (i.e., Earth-like) plate tectonics. Water is needed to lubricate subduction zones; without it, oceanic plates could not slide under the continental plates.
This comic may have been inspired by the actual discovery of an "enormous dwarf planet" by the VCRO, although this is still far from being an Earth-sized planet.
Transcript
- [Cueball and Ponytail are walking side by side.]
- Ponytail: If there's an earth-sized object in the outer solar system, the Rubin Observatory should find it soon.
- [Cueball and Ponytail continue to walk, Ponytail raises her left hand a bit.]
- Ponytail: If it's Earth-sized, it might have a rocky surface and internal heat.
- [They stop, and Ponytail turns to face Cueball, raising her arms above her head.]
- Ponytail: If it has a rocky surface and internal heat, it might have-
- Cueball: Life?
- Ponytail: Plate tectonics!
- [They continue walking. Ponytail's hands are out in front of her.]
- Cueball: You geologists have weird priorities.
- Ponytail: Earth just can't be the only one!
This Week's Explanation for Improvement
As part of the Explanation Improvement Project, each week the community selects one older, stagnant, or otherwise neglected explanation to expand and polish together. This week's pick is comic 301: Limerick, you can help us by editing its explanation!
To get involved with the project, you can also nominate an explanation that you think should be improved, or vote on current nominations!
| Limerick |
 Title text: Fun game: try to post a YouTube comment so stupid that people realize you must be joking. (Hint: this is impossible) |
Explanation
|
Welcome to This Week's Explanation for Improvement! Anyone is encouraged to help explain comic 301: Limerick; click here to get started! If you are new to wiki editing, you can read our editing FAQ for guidance. Here are some suggestions for improving this explanation: .svg){kind=icon} Explain the title text about idiotic YouTube comments. This was also covered in comic 202: YouTube.
.svg){kind=icon} Why do the upvoted sarcastic comments make Cueball spiteful?
.svg){kind=icon} This comic's number (#301) is a reference to YouTube views getting stuck at 301. Learn what caused this bug and help explain it!
.svg){kind=icon} Make the explanation of a limerick more understandable.
.svg){kind=icon} The reference to Poe's law is interesting, expand on it.
.svg){kind=icon} Slashdot is no longer relevant after almost 20 years. Explain what it was and its eventual downfall (see Slashdot on Wikipedia)
|
A limerick is a well-known type of poem that is usually humorous or bawdy. Technically, a limerick is primarily anapestic trimeter: each line contains three "feet," each foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. The rhyme scheme is AABBA: the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme, as do the shorter third and fourth lines. Almost anyone can instantly recognize a limerick after hearing the first line.
Slashdot is a venerable techie site. On many sites, the user base can vote comments "up" or "down," but at Slashdot, only moderators (these are randomly drawn from the pool of registered users) may up or down vote comments, and the moderator may select a reason for their up or down vote. Instead of a simple +1, a comment may be voted +1 (Funny). Similarly, instead of -1, a comment may be voted -1 (Off-topic). +5 is the maximum positive score. A comment rated +5 (Insightful) has been upvoted at least 5 times, and has a plurality of "Insightful" votes.
Cueball's limerick says that he does not like Slashdot anymore, because his sarcastic comments are being treated as "insightful" by the very people he's being sarcastic to.
The title text refers to the notoriously awful comments on YouTube, many of which are so idiotic that they're interpreted as jokes.
In both cases, Randall is invoking Poe's Law. Both sites have become so full of extremes that you can no longer mock the extremists without looking like a sincere extremist yourself.
301, the number of this comic, is also a number often associated with YouTube. At the time this comic was published, view counts on YouTube videos would often freeze at 301, as YouTube would switch between view-counting algorithms when the number of views exceeded 300. Therefore, the comic number itself may be a reference to the title text.
Transcript
- [Cueball sits at a computer, typing.]
- Cueball (typing): I used to find slashdot delightful,
- Cueball (typing): but my feelings of late are more spiteful;
- Cueball (typing): my comments sarcastic
- Cueball (typing): the iconoclastic
- Cueball (typing): keep modding to plus five (Insightful).
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