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| Tyrannosaurus |
 Title text: Many of the smaller dinosaurs seem to have largely preyed on housecats. |
Explanation
This comic is a play on artistic reconstructed depictions of dinosaurs, and specifically, in this case, Tyrannosaurus rex. Often, in order to allow viewers to get a concrete idea of the size of the creature, an easily recognizable and sizeable being, like a human or a cat, is placed next to it, for scale. However, the person lecturing about these pictures seems to have come to the conclusion that they are real photographs, and humans had willingly approached Tyrannosaurus rex in order to take these for-scale photos. This would make the human an easy target for the dinosaur, and hence good prey (as previously discussed in the what if? article T-rex Calories). In reality, neither humans nor cats had evolved by the time the majority of the dinosaurs went extinct, and photographs were not invented until long after all of them had.
The title text is an extension of the misconception to smaller dinosaurs. Humans have had lots of contact with domestic cats, so a cat would serve as a good scale comparison in a reconstruction of such a dinosaur. However, if domestic cats were in the same environment as small carnivorous dinosaurs, there is a good chance that the dinosaurs would attempt to prey on them.
Transcript
- [Miss Lenhart uses a stick to point at a poster behind her. On the poster there are two lines of illegible text above silhouettes of a Tyrannosaurus rex and a human right in front of the dinosaur.]
- Miss Lenhart: We now believe the primary prey of Tyrannosaurus rex was these humans who kept standing next to it for scale.
This Week's Explanation for Improvement
As part of the Explanation Improvement Project, each week the community selects one older, neglected, or otherwise stagnant explanation to expand and polish together. This week's pick is comic 1066: Laundry; 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!
| Laundry |
 Title text: During the second semester, the path is briefly routed through the dishwasher. |
Explanation
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Welcome to This Week's Explanation for Improvement! Anyone is encouraged to help explain comic 1066: Laundry; 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} We could go way deeper into washing clothes and adjacent habits
.svg){kind=icon} Divide the explanations into sections to better explain each stage.
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In the United States of America, college is the usual form of education following secondary education (e.g. high school). College life is very different from that in high school; the student has much more freedom in what they can do, especially if they live in a dormitory. This comic is about how the laundry habits of such independent college students degrade over the course of time.
In the first week, the student undertakes a proper laundry routine. However, due to increasing laziness/workload, by the second week they have abandoned folding their clothes, and by the third week no longer bother hanging them in the closet. By the second month dirty clothes are no longer stored in a laundry hamper and are just dumped on the floor, and by the end of the semester clothes are not washed at all — instead rotating between the floor and the student's body. (Sometimes, when they can’t be bothered, they can even skip the “floor” step for extended periods of time.)
The title text seems to indicate that the student has a brainwave, some time later, to wash their clothes in the dishwasher along with the dishes, presumably as a timesaver. The experiment was brief because dishwashers aren't actually any good at washing clothes: they wouldn't move the clothes about in order to effectively free the dirt. Unsubstantiated life hacks do recommend putting certain pieces of clothing (baseball caps in particular) in the dishwasher.
It may be noteworthy that a common trend was not mentioned: students saving all of their dirty laundry until they visit their parents.
Transcript
- College Laundry Habits
- [Panel labeled "First Week". 5 ovals arranged in a rough circle, with a clockwise path connecting them: "Dresser & Closet", "On Body", "Hamper", "Washer & Dryer", "Folding Area" (and back to the first). The area outside the ovals is labeled "Floor."]
- [Panel labeled "Second Week". The path has been modified so that it does not go through "Folding Area" - only through the other 4 ovals.]
- [Panel labeled "Third Week". The path has been modified so that it does not go through "Dresser & Closet". Only "On Body", "Hamper", and "Washer & Dryer" remain.]
- [Panel labeled "Second Month". The path no longer passes through "Hamper" - only "On Body" and "Washer & Dryer".]
- [Panel labeled "End of Semester". The path no longer goes to "Washer & Dryer", instead just looping back around from "On Body" to "On Body" again after passing through the "Floor."]
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