explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3135: Sea Level

2025-08-30T20:00:26Z

107.77.205.64: tides are strange anyway

Holy crud empty page! F1RST P0ST! [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 01:38, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:2038: Last of the original Star Wars cast dies. —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]] [[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 02:18, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
::What? If you're trying to get back at me because I was being useless and just "first posting", it's a reference to [[269: TCMP]], and I also, by the way, wrote the whole first paragraph of this explanation. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 02:50, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Alright, sorry, just realized what you did is a reference to [[493: Actuarial]]. Sorry about that! [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 02:53, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

This one is related to the [https://xkcd.com/2809/ Moon] comic. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 01:39, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:Clearly. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 01:49, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

::it's almost a repeat. is he running out of ideas? [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 09:54, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Hope not. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 16:56, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Why do people talk about running out of ideas? That is something I can't imagine. The world throws ideas and absurdities at you all the time. Running out of time to execute an idea - sure. Seems much more likely to be filtering error (have to check current idea against 3000 previous strips). [[Special:Contributions/107.77.205.64|107.77.205.64]] 19:42, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

Larry Niven had a story about alien-made indestructible spaceship hulls, except the makers didn't account for tidal effects when grazing a star. The test pilot was nearly ripped apart, but figured a way to survive. He sued their butts off against the guarantee. He concluded that their home planet did not have a large moon, a Clue. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 02:41, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

I think I finally figured out the common thread. All the items here are here because they are elements of Life on Earth. The way the explanation was written kind of buried that important part of the comic.

Overall, if you just look at them as unrelated phenomena, then Lightning seems quite common. Islands made by microskeletons, and life-forms which change their form during development seem like they would be pretty common where there is life. Large tides - thought to be uncommon, but don't have much data, and models are hard. [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:A0|2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:A0]] 18:04, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

All planets with intelligent life we know have tides. In fact one could argue that tides play an important role in the development in life. Thus any intelligent observe is arguably familiar with tides. Thus the text is wrong in arguing that tides are surprising based on the observation that most known planets likely do not have large tides. --[[Special:Contributions/2A01:599:114:9E35:D827:C56:FF88:1858|2A01:599:114:9E35:D827:C56:FF88:1858]] 19:09, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

:Argument has problems - insufficient sample size, selection bias. Nothing in the comic talked about intelligent life.
:The role of tides in development of life certainly makes sense to add.
:Tides are strange in that they are very complex and hard to explain in detail. Fluid dynamics in a very complex, non-ridgid vessel, involve gravitational forces from multiple bodies. [[Special:Contributions/107.77.205.64|107.77.205.64]] 20:00, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3135: Sea Level

2025-08-30T19:42:00Z

107.77.205.64: What is this "running out of ideas" that people talk about?

3135: Sea Level

2025-08-30T18:20:18Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ Elements of life on earth - lightning

{{comic
| number = 3135
| date = August 29, 2025
| title = Sea Level
| image = sea_level_2x.png
| imagesize = 321x453px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They're up there with coral islands, lightning, and caterpillars turning into butterflies.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by A FRIENDLY TIDAL WAVE. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
In this comic [[Cueball]] is wondering aloud what happened to an island, possibly a {{w|sandbar}} that was visible earlier, but is not anymore. [[Megan]] explains to him that the {{w|tide}} has gone up, and thus the island is underwater. She then tells him about what causes tides, namely the {{w|Moon}}, which is large enough and orbits close enough to Earth to gravitationally affect the waters of our oceans, causing them to go up and down daily. Similarly to [[2809: Moon]], Cueball is amazed at the oddity of our planet having a natural satellite large enough to affect our oceans, and Randall seems to be as well, as the caption says that if the Moon didn't exist, it would sound extremely outlandish and sci-fi-like.

{{w|Tide|Tides}} on Earth would indeed seem strange and unusual to a visitor from almost anywhere else in the universe, along with other features such as the large expanses of liquid water and the oxygen-rich atmosphere that was created by biological activity (photosynthesis). Not to mention the biological activity. As stated in the comic, tides on Earth are largely the result of a single large moon (''the'' Moon) orbiting the Earth at a relatively short distance. This configuration is {{w|List_of_natural_satellites|unique within our solar system}}: Mercury and Venus have no moons, Mars (smaller than Earth) has two, and each of the remaining planets has several. If the Moon were absent from Earth orbit, tidal amplitudes would be much less, because the Sun's gravity has much less influence on Earth's liquid water masses than the Moon does. Also, if more than one moon were present, or the moon(s) present had much less mass, or the moon(s) present had more distant orbits, tides would have less amplitude, and, in the case of multiple moons, would have much more complex (and possibly difficult to predict) periodicity.

The overall effect of the Moon-dominated tides is that in marginally more than every 6.2 hours (at least for an ocean-dominated equatorial island, such as the comic appears to depict) something that was originally fully revealed by a retreating tide could now be covered be the next rising one. This effect is even more pronounced every 14.75 days, as the Moon and Sun act together to create even higher high tides and lower low tides. Anyone used to the behaviour of the sea would probably be unsurprised by this, but someone normally resident more inland can quite easily be caught out, potentially arriving somewhere by the coast in the morning, to witness the sight of particularly low water levels, then by noon/early-afternoon finding that the seascape has changed and high-water has been reached.

The title text mentions other elements of life on Earth, saying they also seem as outlandish as tides, including {{w|coral islands}}, islands that build up from the skeletons or secretions of small animals, {{w|lightning}}, when electrical discharge creates bright light in the atmosphere, and the {{w|metamorphosis}} of {{w|butterflies}}, when caterpillars create a chrysalis and come out as butterflies.

Lightning is an element of life on Earth since it is thought to have produced chemicals which were important to life's origins. Ozone, produced by lightning, reduces the ultra-violet light reaching earths surface. This protection may have made it easier for life to transition out of the water. Lightning is probably a common planetary phenomenon; within our solar system, it [https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/lightning-across-the-solar-system/ occurs on Jupiter, Saturn], and probably Uranus and Neptune. On Mars, lightning probably is generated by electric discharge in dust clouds. The evidence about possible lightning on Venus is mixed.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Single frame, with Megan and Cueball standing at a coastline, with water and waves visible.]

:Cueball: Hey, where's that big island we were looking at this morning?
:Megan: Oh, it's underwater. The ocean's depth here goes up and down by like ten feet every day.
:Cueball: What?
:Megan: It's because the planet has a big moon orbiting near the surface. It causes weird gravity effects.
:Cueball: '''What???'''

:[Caption below the frame:]
:People here are used to them, but tides are one of the weirdest and most sci-fi elements of life on Earth.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Astronomy]]

3135: Sea Level

2025-08-30T17:07:17Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ lightning - pretty common on planets

{{comic
| number = 3135
| date = August 29, 2025
| title = Sea Level
| image = sea_level_2x.png
| imagesize = 321x453px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They're up there with coral islands, lightning, and caterpillars turning into butterflies.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by A FRIENDLY TIDAL WAVE. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
In this comic [[Cueball]] is wondering aloud what happened to an island, possibly a {{w|sandbar}} that was visible earlier, but is not anymore. [[Megan]] explains to him that the {{w|tide}} has gone up, and thus the island is underwater. She then tells him about what causes tides, namely the {{w|Moon}}, which is large enough and orbits close enough to Earth to gravitationally affect the waters of our oceans, causing them to go up and down daily. Similarly to [[2809: Moon]], Cueball is amazed at the oddity of our planet having a natural satellite large enough to affect our oceans, and Randall seems to be as well, as the caption says that if the Moon didn't exist, it would sound extremely outlandish and sci-fi-like.

{{w|Tide|Tides}} on Earth would indeed seem strange and unusual to a visitor from almost anywhere else in the universe, along with other features such as the large expanses of liquid water and the oxygen-rich atmosphere that was created by biological activity (photosynthesis). Not to mention the biological activity. As stated in the comic, tides on Earth are largely the result of a single large moon (''the'' Moon) orbiting the Earth at a relatively short distance. This configuration is {{w|List_of_natural_satellites|unique within our solar system}}: Mercury and Venus have no moons, Mars (smaller than Earth) has two, and each of the remaining planets has several. If the Moon were absent from Earth orbit, tidal amplitudes would be much less, because the Sun's gravity has much less influence on Earth's liquid water masses than the Moon does. Also, if more than one moon were present, or the moon(s) present had much less mass, or the moon(s) present had more distant orbits, tides would have less amplitude, and, in the case of multiple moons, would have much more complex (and possibly difficult to predict) periodicity.

The overall effect of the Moon-dominated tides is that in marginally more than every 6.2 hours (at least for an ocean-dominated equatorial island, such as the comic appears to depict) something that was originally fully revealed by a retreating tide could now be covered be the next rising one. This effect is even more pronounced every 14.75 days, as the Moon and Sun act together to create even higher high tides and lower low tides. Anyone used to the behaviour of the sea would probably be unsurprised by this, but someone normally resident more inland can quite easily be caught out, potentially arriving somewhere by the coast in the morning, to witness the sight of particularly low water levels, then by noon/early-afternoon finding that the seascape has changed and high-water has been reached.

The title text mentions other phenomena on Earth, saying they also seem as outlandish as tides, including {{w|coral islands}}, islands that build up on top of coral reefs out of coral detritus and other natural materials, {{w|lightning}}, when electrical discharge creates bright light in the atmosphere, and the {{w|metamorphosis}} of {{w|butterflies}}, when caterpillars create a chrysalis and come out as butterflies. Unlike coral islands and metamorphosis, which, so far as humans know, are unique to Earth.

Lightning is probably a common planetary phenomenon; within our solar system, it [https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/lightning-across-the-solar-system/ occurs on Jupiter, Saturn], and probably Uranus and Neptune. On Mars, lightning probably is generated by electric discharge in dust clouds. The evidence about possible lightning on Venus is mixed.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Single frame, with Megan and Cueball standing at a coastline, with water and waves visible.]

:Cueball: Hey, where's that big island we were looking at this morning?
:Megan: Oh, it's underwater. The ocean's depth here goes up and down by like ten feet every day.
:Cueball: What?
:Megan: It's because the planet has a big moon orbiting near the surface. It causes weird gravity effects.
:Cueball: '''What???'''

:[Caption below the frame:]
:People here are used to them, but tides are one of the weirdest and most sci-fi elements of life on Earth.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Astronomy]]

3135: Sea Level

2025-08-30T16:40:13Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ lightning mostly between clouds (also sprites)

{{comic
| number = 3135
| date = August 29, 2025
| title = Sea Level
| image = sea_level_2x.png
| imagesize = 321x453px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They're up there with coral islands, lightning, and caterpillars turning into butterflies.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by A FRIENDLY TIDAL WAVE. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
In this comic [[Cueball]] is wondering aloud what happened to an island, possibly a {{w|sandbar}} that was visible earlier, but is not anymore. [[Megan]] explains to him that the {{w|tide}} has gone up, and thus the island is underwater. She then tells him about what causes tides, namely the {{w|Moon}}, which is large enough and orbits close enough to Earth to gravitationally affect the waters of our oceans, causing them to go up and down daily. Similarly to [[2809: Moon]], Cueball is amazed at the oddity of our planet having a natural satellite large enough to affect our oceans, and Randall seems to be as well, as the caption says that if the Moon didn't exist, it would sound extremely outlandish and sci-fi-like.

{{w|Tide|Tides}} on Earth would indeed seem strange and unusual to a visitor from almost anywhere else in the universe, along with other features such as the large expanses of liquid water and the oxygen-rich atmosphere that was created by biological activity (photosynthesis). Not to mention the biological activity. As stated in the comic, tides on Earth are largely the result of a single large moon (''the'' Moon) orbiting the Earth at a relatively short distance. This configuration is {{w|List_of_natural_satellites|unique within our solar system}}: Mercury and Venus have no moons, Mars (smaller than Earth) has two, and each of the remaining planets has several. If the Moon were absent from Earth orbit, tidal amplitudes would be much less, because the Sun's gravity has much less influence on Earth's liquid water masses than the Moon does. Also, if more than one moon were present, or the moon(s) present had much less mass, or the moon(s) present had more distant orbits, tides would have less amplitude, and, in the case of multiple moons, would have much more complex (and possibly difficult to predict) periodicity.

The overall effect of the Moon-dominated tides is that in marginally more than every 6.2 hours (at least for an ocean-dominated equatorial island, such as the comic appears to depict) something that was originally fully revealed by a retreating tide could now be covered be the next rising one. This effect is even more pronounced every 14.75 days, as the Moon and Sun act together to create even higher high tides and lower low tides. Anyone used to the behaviour of the sea would probably be unsurprised by this, but someone normally resident more inland can quite easily be caught out, potentially arriving somewhere by the coast in the morning, to witness the sight of particularly low water levels, then by noon/early-afternoon finding that the seascape has changed and high-water has been reached.

The title text mentions other phenomena on Earth, saying they also seem as outlandish as tides, including {{w|coral islands}}, islands that build up on top of coral reefs out of coral detritus and other natural materials, {{w|lightning}}, when electrical discharge creates bright light in the atmosphere, and the {{w|metamorphosis}} of {{w|butterflies}}, when caterpillars create a chrysalis and come out as butterflies. Unlike coral islands and metamorphosis, which, so far as humans know, are unique to Earth, lightning has been found elsewhere; within our solar system, it [https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/lightning-across-the-solar-system/ occurs on Jupiter, Saturn, and possibly Mars].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Single frame, with Megan and Cueball standing at a coastline, with water and waves visible.]

:Cueball: Hey, where's that big island we were looking at this morning?
:Megan: Oh, it's underwater. The ocean's depth here goes up and down by like ten feet every day.
:Cueball: What?
:Megan: It's because the planet has a big moon orbiting near the surface. It causes weird gravity effects.
:Cueball: '''What???'''

:[Caption below the frame:]
:People here are used to them, but tides are one of the weirdest and most sci-fi elements of life on Earth.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Astronomy]]

2809: Moon

2025-08-30T16:09:11Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ 3135: Sea Level is similar

{{comic
| number = 2809
| date = July 31, 2023
| title = Moon
| image = moon_2x.png
| imagesize = 313x402px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I mean, it's pretty, but it doesn't really affect us beyond that. Except that half the nights aren't really dark, and once or twice a day it makes the oceans flood the coasts.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Moon}} is a celestial body orbiting Earth, first formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago - about 50 million years after the initial formation of the solar system. As of the date of this comic, the Moon is still orbiting the Earth{{Citation needed}} at a distance of approximately 384,400 kilometers, or about 238,900 miles.

This comic points out how weird it is to have such an enormous celestial body near to us. The Moon has a radius more than one quarter of Earth's, and is around one eightieth of Earth's mass, and is so close that major surface features are visible, even with the naked eye, and much more clearly visible with even a simple telescope. Celestial distances tend to be so large that only truly immense objects can be seen without magnification, and even those tend to appear only as points of light to the naked eye. The second nearest body of notable size, Venus, is approximately 46.576 million kilometers away at its closest. The fact that there's "another world" that's close enough that humanity has always been aware of it, but distant enough that it couldn't be reached until a space program was developed, is a striking feature of Earth that we take for granted, only because it's always been that way.

While it's not uncommon for planets to have orbiting moons, no other planet in the solar system has a moon that's so large, in relation to the planet. Of the other rocky planets, only Mars has moons, and the largest of those is only 14 miles across.

Pluto and Charon are closer in size, than even the Earth/Moon system, but this meant that they had actually become seriously considered as a {{w|Double planet|double(/binary) planet pair}}, had not Pluto been redesignated as a "dwarf planet". There is the possibility a term such as "double dwarf planet" could be adopted, at some point, as "double minor planet" is sometimes already used for binary asteroid systems. The lesser bodies of the Pluto-Charon system may then even be considered as circumbinary moons.

Other than this, Earth is the only accepted planet we're currently aware of that has a satellite that's so visible from its surface.

The title text sarcastically claims that, other than being "pretty", the Moon doesn't impact us, then subverts it by mentioning substantial impacts it has on Earth. Having such a large satellite so close has impacts that we take for granted only because we're used to them, but if they hadn't always existed, they'd seem unbelievable. One is that, for half the lunar cycle, the moon reflects enough light to produce visibility at night. The other impact is tides, since the gravitational pull of the Moon is large enough to alter the surfaces of oceans, causing shorelines to shift on a daily cycle. The text mentions these dismissively, in a deliberate contrast with their huge significance. Moonlight alters the illumination cycle of the planet to a significant degree, which changes how both humans and other animals operate at night, especially before the advent of artificial lighting. Tides had major impacts on the development of life, continue to affect ecosystems, and play an essential role in our ability to interact with the oceans. If someone from a planet without such a large moon were to observe these impacts, they'd likely be shocked and amazed by them, but we barely notice them.

The comic [[3135: Sea Level]] is very similar to this one, but it starts with noting how strange and SciFi the tides on Earth are.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is pointing and looking up to the left, while Cueball behind her looks the same way.]
:Ponytail: That thing hanging in the sky is a second nearby world. It's close enough that you can see its surface as it passes overhead.
:Cueball: Wow. Isn't that ... weird?
:Ponytail: I dunno, it's just always been there.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:If it didn't exist, the moon would sound like such an outlandish sci-fi concept.

==Trivia==
*Earth's moon can be considered weird for additional reasons.
**It is by far the largest and most massive moon relative to the planet it orbits.
**Our moon is the only moon in the solar system to not have a proper name, not even a jumble of letters and numbers. In English it is simply given the proper name of "the Moon" (capitalized), being the ancient archetype for all other moons discovered since the time of Galileo, although it can also be described by other titles such as "Luna" (directly taken from from Latin mythology/astronomy).
**It is almost exactly the same apparent size as the Sun in the sky which at various times enables both total solar eclipses (for which it needs to be close/large) and annular ones (for which it must not be ''too'' close/large). Much earlier in history it was too close to do both and much later it will gradually drift too far away to do so – making it additionally a temporal coincidence that humanity gets to witness it as we are so used to seeing it.
**There are even a couple of hypotheses that think that to get protein shaped right for life, the tides were needed, and that to evolve for living on land the tides are needed.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3134: Wavefunction Collapse

2025-08-28T19:35:25Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ get away from observation ambiguity

{{comic
| number = 3134
| date = August 27, 2025
| title = Wavefunction Collapse
| image = wavefunction_collapse_2x.png
| imagesize = 656x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Wavefunction collapse is only one interpretation. Under some interpretations, graduate students also have souls.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY A SOUlFUl PARTICLE DETECTOR. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
Quantum mechanics is commonly explained by saying that observation can cause change in the system, as in the {{w|Schrödinger's cat}} and {{w|Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester}} thought experiments.
A physical example is the {{w|Double-slit experiment}}, where if the apparatus interacts with the photons, such that it could indicate which slit photons go through, you get a different pattern of light, compared to an experiment where this is not detected.

The use of the word "observation" causes a bit of confusion about the nature of these experiments, as some people assume that ''human'' observation is what causes this, and conclude that humans must be “special” (more so than we already are to study science in the first place) if our observation is what causes quantum effects to resolve. In actuality “observation” refers to detectors. Any interaction which indicates the presence of a "particle" affects the system, and any quantum effects or mechanics will have already resolved before a human comes along to record the results. While the idea that {{w|Consciousness causes collapse}} was considered seriously by earlier physicists such as Wigner, it is now very unpopular.

This comic presents three possible responses to the question: "does my consciousness affect the universe?" The 'Bad' option shows Cueball telling his student that everybody has a soul, and their individual consciousness affects reality in some way. The 'good' option shows Cueball telling his student that consciousness doesn't play a role at all, and that it is 'just a physical measurement'. The 'chaotic' option shows Cueball apparently observing that the wave function collapses only when ''he'' looks at it, because he is special in some way (in this case, Cueball is a professor while Hairy is the student).

In both [[660: Sympathy]] and [[803: Airfoil]] there are situations where three possible replies are given. And, just like here, the first two are simply wrong and right (although in the other order). The last, in those, is Very Wrong: as opposed to the Chaotic here, but it seems like this comics interpretation called chaotic could also have been labeled very wrong, and [[:Category:Unsolved Problems|some other similar setups]] escalate to a Cursed third scenario. So this is one of the generally recurring joke-payoffs, here on xkcd.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Hairy is sitting behind a desk with a hand on the table and Cueball is standing next to him.]
:Hairy: If the wavefunction only collapses when I observe it, does that mean my consciousness affects the universe?

:[A panel with the caption "Bad:" on the top left, zoomed into Cueball's head]
:Cueball: Yes, quantum entanglement proves that we all have souls.

:[The same scene with the caption "Good:"]
:Cueball: No, consciousness plays no role here. Its just physical measurement.

:[The same scene with the caption "Chaotic:"]
:Cueball: No, the wave function collapses when '''''I''''' look at it because I'm a full professor.
:Cueball: It won't collapse for an undergraduate.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:3131: Cesium

2025-08-26T18:23:34Z

107.77.205.64: don't think too conventionally when guessing what Randall means

I think that's called a recipe for disaster. NOTE: I am also 104.225.172.143. [[Special:Contributions/138.43.101.123|138.43.101.123]] 14:36, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: No, ''I'' am 104.225.172.143! [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 15:09, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:: I'm 104.225.172.143, and so's my wife! [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 20:42, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:::I also chose this guy's wife. [[Special:Contributions/2600:1014:B130:F85B:54C8:CB88:DB33:11D0|2600:1014:B130:F85B:54C8:CB88:DB33:11D0]]

My best recipe comes with a Notice to Mariners [[User:Hcs|Hcs]] ([[User talk:Hcs|talk]]) 14:45, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

I added a transcript. Hopefully it's okay. [[Special:Contributions/104.225.172.143|104.225.172.143]] 14:54, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

A gram of gold runs on the order of ~$100 USD as of writing; a gram of cs-137 looks to be in the millions~billions range. --[[Special:Contributions/158.91.163.9|158.91.163.9]] 14:55, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

: Nope. [https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-cesium.pdf It's 99 dollars]. [[Special:Contributions/191.57.16.100|191.57.16.100]] 20:40, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:: I think you're quoting the price for Caesium metal in general, which is probably almost entirely Caesium 133; Caesium 137 is a synthetic isotope which could easily be a million times more expensive than the natural stuff, gram for gram. [[Special:Contributions/80.41.70.128|80.41.70.128]] 22:37, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
::: You're right, my bad. I couldn't find a quote for Cs137, but considering it's produced from uranium, it probably is very expensive. As for the shrimp thing, I doubt anything close to a gram of Cesium ended up in the shipment. It's probably a component from a measuring device. [[Special:Contributions/177.12.48.45|177.12.48.45]] 09:57, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
:Caesium contamination usually is caused by nuclear accidents (or atmospheric nuclear weapon tests) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137#Environmental_contamination. It is unlikely that someone acquired pure Cs-137 and then "accidentally" contaminated the shrimp with that. --[[Special:Contributions/134.102.219.31|134.102.219.31]] 15:31, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: Cs137 can be found for approximately 20 USD per µCi, which equals 0.0000000115g. That means 1g would cost 1,739,130,435 USD. The good news is that same gram would be worth 20 USD in another 795.7 years. Although it wouldn't be all Cs-137 anymore, nor exactly a gram. [[Special:Contributions/77.173.137.243|77.173.137.243]] 21:19, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
::So, what you're saying is... not a good investment for the future, with a 99.99999885ish% depreciation (''before'' any effects of monetary inflation), on top of me also having to become somewhere roughly around 8.5 centuries old. I suppose the latter ''might'' be a plus, if you can guarantee it, but it's not exactly a ringing endorsement for your scheme. ;) [[Special:Contributions/84.43.20.118|84.43.20.118]] 22:04, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

Bothering the NSA shouldn't be hard, just write some of their secrets on a cake (with frosting is optional) and post it online. [[Special:Contributions/212.101.26.209|212.101.26.209]] 14:57, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: I feel like the writing on the cake is not part of its recipe. I think a more fitting way to get their attention would be "accidentally" poisoning the president with your cooking. --
[[Special:Contributions/128.31.34.92|128.31.34.92]] 22:09, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:If it gets worse, simply expressing disagreement with a certain person could get the NSA on your case. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:10, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

What would IMO do, revoke your math license? [[Special:Contributions/216.73.162.10|216.73.162.10]] 15:22, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: They have numerous penalties at their disposal. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 15:27, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: I imagined the reason the IMO would get involved would be because the recipe created some interesting mathematical problem that could be used for the next competition. For example, something like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct3lCfgJV_A this video], where a grocery order taken too literally creates a seemingly harmless Diophantine equation whose smallest positive solutions are on the order of 10^80. [[Special:Contributions/137.25.230.78|137.25.230.78]] 15:56, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: A cook on Air Force 1 "accidentally" contaminates Trump's fast food with cesium. The assassination attempt fails and US retaliates by invading Canada/Panama/Greenland (roll 1d3). IMO bans the US team, like they banned Russia in 2022. Thus a single cooking "accident" can get the attention of IAEA, IATA, IMO, and NSA. --[[Special:Contributions/128.31.34.92|128.31.34.92]] 22:21, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Maybe The IATA could get involved if your ruined recipe caused food poisoning on a commercial airliner that then resulted in an in-air emergency (whole flight deck passed out). {{unsigned ip|170.85.70.249|17:32, 20 August 2025 (UTC)}}
:Or if you create a column of dense toxic fumes that spreads over a wide area (on the level of a volcano eruption). On the other hand, I wonder what could bring the attention of the IMO when Terryology seemingly couldn't.--[[Special:Contributions/94.73.52.245|94.73.52.245]] 18:56, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

The criticality accident in 1999 at the Tokaimura nuclear facility seems like a good example of messing up a recipe in a way that draws considerable attention. {{w|Tokaimura nuclear accidents}} [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:1B|2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:1B]] 19:11, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

1. Randall creates a new way to cook airplane food that is either cheap enough or expensive enough to significantly affect airline ticket pricing. 2. Randall's recipe poisons a Math Olympiad team. 3. The coach of the team turns out to be an undercover spy. [[Special:Contributions/24.53.184.90|24.53.184.90]] 23:47, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

{{w|IATA}} is an international trade association for airlines. It's not particularly involved in air safety, except as a sideline; the {{w|International Civil Aviation Organization}} is much more involved that way. However, IATA used to be directly concerned with recipes. In the 1950s, the IATA airlines agreed on international standards for meals, under which economy class passengers would only be provided with sandwiches. However, airlines such as SAS and Swissair provided their passengers with more and better sandwiches than U.S. airlines such as Pan Am and TWA were willing to provide. Eventually IATA issued a rule that sandwiches were to be cold, simple, unadorned, and inexpensive, feature “a substantial and visible” chunk of bread, and could not include materials normally regarded as expensive or luxurious, such as smoked salmon, oysters, caviar, lobster, game, asparagus, or pate de foie gras. Providing better sandwiches than those IATA allowed could result in a fine. (The rule was later revoked to allow economy class passengers to receive hot meals.) So at one point, it was possible to mess up a sandwich recipe by adding expensive ingredients that would incur the wrath of IATA. --[[Special:Contributions/208.59.176.206|208.59.176.206]] 00:43, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

The explanation "... if the recipe is used in major airports, and the recipe is contaminated with a drug, the pilots that eat could experience vision loss or other problems, and if this recipe is widely used and normal people won't notice much besides minor side effects, then this could attract the attention of of the IATA" does not make sense. If a recipe caused vision loss when pilots ate the food, it would also cause vision loss for non-pilots. --[[Special:Contributions/208.59.176.206|208.59.176.206]] 00:49, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

The phrase "messing up a recipe" means whatever Randall intended it to mean. The fact that some people may use the phrase to mean to make something at home does not mean that such a definition was intended by Randall. I don't think I have ever heard "messing up a recipe" mean anything other than ruining the preparation of the food. [[User:Inquirer|Inquirer]] ([[User talk:Inquirer|talk]]) 02:55, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
:Someone who ''creates'' recipes could make a mistake, publish a bad recipe, and cause problems. If a recipe left food unsafe, for example: not cooked enough to kill bacteria, left at room temperature for an unsafe time, etc. Tell people to find wild mushrooms, and that the red mushrooms with white spots are extra tasty. :-) [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:37, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

:If Randall ever made a recipe for lava cake, one of the problems would how you keep it from melting the plate. [[Special:Contributions/107.77.205.64|107.77.205.64]] 18:23, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

Is it possible this comic was inspired by the [https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/fda-advises-public-not-eat-sell-or-serve-certain-imported-frozen-shrimp-indonesian-firm recent FDA recall on certain Indonesian frozen shrimp]? [[Special:Contributions/174.21.93.112|174.21.93.112]] 03:33, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
:That's noted, with that specific link, in the second sentence of the Explanation here. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:41, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
::Ack, apologies. I may be a little stupid. [[Special:Contributions/174.21.93.112|174.21.93.112]]

68 Bq/kg of Cs-137 is about 93 billions Cs-137 atoms in 1 kg of shrimp, that is about 1,5 picomole or 213 picograms. On the other hand one BED (banana equivalent dose) is ~15 Bq per piece, so eating a half pound package of this shrimp will irradiate you in the same amount as eating one banana, in terms of number of decays, but much less in terms of biological dose: potassium-40 in bananas emit beta radiation which is much more harmful when coming from ingested material than beta and gamma, roughly equally emitted by Cs-137. So this recall is on the level of emptying a reservoir after two guys pissed into it. Security theater. -- [[Special:Contributions/2620:1F7:2C04:7C44:0:0:31:3A|2620:1F7:2C04:7C44:0:0:31:3A]] 14:12, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
: Or the Dutch boy at the [deleted] dike. With the assault by Our ([https://www.dude-n-dude.com/2025/08/06/amoebas-lorica-meme-ories-68-introducing-humility/ USNA]) Government on such business-insensitive excesses as food safety, we should be grateful that the FDA is, at least for now, still capable of functioning at this level. [[Special:Contributions/2605:59C8:160:DB08:5C9D:407E:3E50:C822|2605:59C8:160:DB08:5C9D:407E:3E50:C822]] 15:08, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
:The advisory does say that the danger is very low. I think this is one of those "abundance of caution" things. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:35, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:: I mean, you can't assume each individual shrimp was mixed with the same amount of cesium. Maybe some of it got a super dose and is actually harmful. Since the general public doesn't carry around geiger counters to restaurants, I say the recall is warranted.
::: Reminds me of the tale of [https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/n3sfi6/til_in_1911_physicist_george_de_hevesy_suspected/ George de Hevesy] who effectively ''did'' take a geiger counter to the (boarding house) dining table... But, then, he was suspecting that something would be found. Different times! [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.60|82.132.236.60]] 15:40, 23 August 2025 (UTC)
:: I think the fact that there is any cs137 in the shrimp at all is concerning. Where is it coming from? Did someone dump spent nuclear fuel near a fishery? How much and for how long? [[Special:Contributions/177.12.48.45|177.12.48.45]] 14:45, 23 August 2025 (UTC)
::: Not read the incident report, maybe it says there. But it's quite possible that some stage of processing uses a radiation source to scan the load of shrimp for unwanted debris (pass it under the emitter, if any significant bits of metal/dirt is in the supply, it'll cause a notable fluctuation in the detector beneath), ''or'' perhaps to asses the mass distribution (if the water content is enough to moderate the source-to-detector signal in a relatable manner, it could accurately estimate the quantity of shrimp passing by continuously, where weighing is less practical/accurate given the volume and continuous movement; ''or'' it might even track the average ''size'' of shrimp, for grading purposes). They do use small amounts of isotopes for that kind of thing. Amerecium is famouspy used in smoke-detectors/alarms, and other radionuclides (chosen for their particular mix of alpha/beta/gamma radiation, availability and sufficient half-life to match the product use-span.
::: Now imagine what if, perhaps ironically, the emitter capsule vibrated loose (or was dropped, in the midst of a swap-out of an 'old' one, and for some reason the person wldoing it didn't feel the need to emergency-stop the line) and got into the supply chain, either fragmenting or leaching out (as heat and cold, and perhaps mechanical pressures, further prepared the shrimp-load, now with added debris). [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.60|82.132.236.60]] 15:40, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Mooseberry fudge cake batter could very easily get the attention of the International Air Transport Association and possibly the NSA. As well as the Pottsylvania espionage community. [[User:Lordpishky|Lordpishky]] ([[User talk:Lordpishky|talk]]) 06:27, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Currently the explanation seems kind of centered on the idea that recipe only means a cooking recipe. "Recipe" used to mean to take, as in a prescription - a physician's instructions to a pharmacist/chemist. (This wiki entry recently said that recipe outside of cookery was a metaphor/extension - it isn't.) Recipe as cookery came later. If you look up recipe in the dictionary, cookery is just a special case.[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recipe Merriam Webster - recipe]

"Recipe - 1580s, "medical prescription, a formula for the composing of a remedy written by a physician," from French récipé (15c.), from Latin recipe "take!" (this or that ingredient), ... It was the word written by physicians at the head of prescriptions. Figurative meaning "a prescribed formula" is from 1640s. Meaning "instructions for preparing a particular food" is recorded by 1716." Rx is a holdover from Recipe.
[https://www.etymonline.com/word/recipe etymonline - recipe]

Cookery is only some of the every-day chemistry we do. Mixing chlorine bleach and various substances (ammonia, acids like vinegar, alcohol) can have nasty results.

Messing up a prescription, a chemical formula or chemical/nuclear ingredients is well within the literal definition of messing up a recipe, and gives more latitude for coming up with things that might draw attention from those organizations. [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:98|2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:98]] 18:10, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

3131: Cesium

2025-08-26T17:42:18Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ recipe - doesn't just mean cooking

{{comic
| number = 3131
| date = August 20, 2025
| title = Cesium
| image = cesium_2x.png
| imagesize = 588x298px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Someday I hope to find a way to mess up a recipe so badly that it draws the attention of the International Air Transport Association, the International Mathematical Olympiad, or the NSA.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Cesium-137}}, or Cs-137, is a radioactive {{w|isotope}} of {{w|Caesium|cesium}} (officially spelled 'caesium', internationally). This comic was posted the day after the {{w|FDA}} posted an [https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/fda-advises-public-not-eat-sell-or-serve-certain-imported-frozen-shrimp-indonesian-firm advisory] about frozen shrimp sourced from an Indonesian firm because the shrimp were near materials contaminated with Cs-137 during shipment. A sample of breaded shrimp was [https://archive.ph/ri4tv confirmed to have been contaminated.]

Rather than being concerned about the potential health impacts, [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are curious about the technical details that led to this contamination. Cs-137 is normally a by-product of nuclear reactors and is occasionally used in {{w|Food_irradiation|food irradiation}}, along with other more common uses. Cueball and Megan cannot fathom how one could unintentionally contaminate shrimp with radioactive material, let alone with just one specific isotope. Cueball then comments that his biggest culinary screw-up attracted the attention of only his local fire department, likely because he set something on fire while cooking. A real-life example of seemingly-random contamination by Cs-137 was the {{w|Goiânia accident}} in Brazil.

The title text says that one of Cueball's (or possibly [[Randall]]'s) ambitions is to draw the attention of various organizations (the {{w|International Air Transport Association}} (IATA), {{w|International Mathematical Olympiad}} (IMO), or {{w|National Security Agency}} (NSA)) with a recipe he has butchered, either by accident or, more likely in his case, on purpose. Possessing and accidentally or intentionally releasing a radiation source like Cs-137 could get the attention of the NSA. Needless to say, it is difficult to imagine a cooking error that could be in any way brought to the attention of IATA or IMO.

A "[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recipe recipe]" means a set of instructions for making something, typically from various ingredients. (Such as a prescription for a pharmacist, a chemical formula, or step by step instructions to perform a procedure.) Cooking recipes are a very common example of chemical processing instructions. To "mess up a recipe", in the sense of cooking it for oneself or a small group of others, would be unlikely to create a problem on a scale that an international agency would take note of. A recipe that was published for others to use could cause more significant problems if it led to harm to many people. This might involve ingredients that were poisonous, or preparation methods that were unsafe.
A particularly ill-considered thing is sometimes referred to as "a recipe for disaster". A number of these might be of interest to security agencies.

===How to attract attention===
====Attracting the attention of the IATA====
If the recipe is used in major airports and the recipe is contaminated with a drug, the pilots that consume it could experience vision loss or other problems, and if this recipe is widely used and normal people won't notice much besides minor side effects or negative effect was widespread enough where it affected very many flights, then this could attract the attention of the IATA in its primary role of a trade organisation. As a similar example, some airlines have mandated that the captain and first officer eat meals prepared in different kitchens in order to decrease the likelihood that they would both develop food poisoning severe enough to prevent either of them from being able to fly and land the plane. Not all airlines have these mandates, but a food poisoning incident like {{w|Zero Hour!}} would likely prompt IATA to institute this policy for all of its members, especially if it ended in a fatal crash. Variations of this concept could even fall under its guidances for how to transport hazardous goods.

Another possibility would be to cook a souffle so high and fluffy that it reaches airspace (like weather balloons sometimes do), or to sauté something that is very smokey, such as chili peppers, so that the smoke interferes with airspace (like the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull). Or rig up a pressure cooker to shoot pasta sauce out of its release valve. Or use the jet engine to pluck chickens. Rather than IATA, though, some of these may first and foremost be issues primarily investigated by the {{w|Federal Aviation Administration}}, instead, at least if occuring within the environs of the United States.

====Attracting the attention of the NSA====
There could be a secret code hidden in the ingredients of a recipe, and if the code affects the whole nation, this could attract the attention of the NSA. However, a much harder way is to have a similar incident with the shrimp, but at a much larger scale and possibly affecting a lot of different foods, if this threat is big enough, the NSA will investigate if there are people purposely doing this.

====Attracting the attention of the International Mathematical Olympiad====
A recipe to attract the attention of the IMO is much harder to imagine. Randall's best chance might be to cause an incident with some mathematically interesting property that inspires a math puzzle to be written about it. Another possibility is some person is trying to give answers to a person in the Olympiad by giving the person a recipe with the answers as a secret code inside, thus attracting the attention of the IMO. If mass food poisoning happens at math Olympiad it can also get some attention, though that would require working for IMO as caterer or at some restaurant near the location where Olympiad is held. However, these are most probably all on purpose or would be not allowed to be served for reasons unrelated to IMO and it would be very unusual to accidentally make these recipes. About a week prior to the publication of this comic, [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/math-question-viral-elementary-school-bobby-seagull-b2807395.html a botched "math exercise" about baking that lacked an actual question] went viral and was reported on by traditional media, but it happened at an elementary school, completely unrelated to the IMO.
====Attracting the attention of all of the above====
To attract the attention of IATA, NSA, and the IMO, it would be very difficult. You could make a meal that is fed to IMO participants, Airline pilots, and has a secret national level code inside, that is slightly contaminated (to not raise suspicion beforehand). This would be very hard but possible and will attract the attention of all 3.

A pharmacy or chemical supplier messing up a chemical recipe and dispensing the wrong medication could affect people from the NSA, IATA and IMO, and thus attract attention from all three.

==Transcript==
:[Megan looks at a news story on her phone while talking with Cueball. Cueball is looking at Megan]
:Megan: There's a recall of frozen shrimp contaminated with cesium-137.
:Cueball: With ''what?''
:Megan: I know, right?
:Cueball: ''How!?''

:[Megan has put her phone away and she shrugs with her arms held out palm up, looking at Cueball.]
:Megan: No idea, but I bet it involved some expensive equipment. Those cesium sources aren't cheap.
:Cueball: Man.

:[Megan stands normally while Cueball holds a hand to his chin, looking down.]
:Megan: It's honestly a little inspiring to realize that it's always possible to screw up in a totally new way.
:Cueball: Yeah, the biggest agency whose attention '''''I've''''' drawn by messing up a recipe is the local fire department.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:3132: Coastline Similarity

2025-08-26T17:04:02Z

107.77.205.64: multiple creators - other examples

Lol what [[User:SectorCorruptor|SectorCorruptor]] ([[User talk:SectorCorruptor|talk]]) 16:20, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:Lol what --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 17:30, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::Lol what [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 18:13, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Lol what [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 18:52, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::::Lol what [[Special:Contributions/24.54.131.250|24.54.131.250]] 19:24, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:::::Lol what [[Special:Contributions/2001:67C:2564:A301:C26:D05F:D5AA:CA02|2001:67C:2564:A301:C26:D05F:D5AA:CA02]] 21:46, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::::::Lol what [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!| Aprilfoolsupdate!]]([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 08:16, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

^^^Plagerism at work^^^ [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:18, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

npcs [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 14:29, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Plagiarism might refer to the designer of one of the coastlinescopying the design of the other one (a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy).
[[Special:Contributions/147.234.73.125|147.234.73.125]] 22:56, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:Given that Randall has made references to the guide and that a main part of the first book is talking to Slatibartfast who designed the Norvegian fjords, and later had to just do Africa, could actually mean that this is what Randall/Cueball is thinking of... Should this be mentioned in the explanation? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:14, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
::Can one (even a Planetary Designer) ever ''self-''plagiarise? The same guy got given a different(/additional) part of the replacement Earth and tried his old award-winning design again... I don't think that counts as plagiarism. There are better ways to describe it, so I say it's an inspiration too far.
::At least how it turned out... might have progressed through different stages, say Zlarti got to do Africa, ''then'' to do South America, and he still had some of the large-scale patterns and molds so just re-used them on the other side of the adjacent continent, etc... but that's a stretch of reverse-engineering the joke to the supposed cause, long since diluted if it was ever part of the original concept. Mention it, if you must, but I don't think it's anything to do with that. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.41|82.132.236.41]] 17:54, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

:Other examples of multiple creators/designers of a world. Strata (a parody of Ringworld (and others), where people have terraforming technology and build planets, including a fake fossil record), and The Last Continent (where a creator ads an additional continent to a "finished" world). Both by Terry Pratchett.
:The concept of one or more world creators is so common through human history and myth that I think it deserves a mention, but calling out any particular piece of fiction would only be worth while if it is much more clearly relevant. [[Special:Contributions/107.77.205.64|107.77.205.64]] 17:04, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

I'm the comic "Coastline similarity" is likely a roof on "Cosine Similarity" which is used in software industry to measure how close two images are. This method is also used to detect plagiarism. {{unsigned ip|108.76.190.132|23:00, 22 August 2025}}

F***ing vandals. Best of luck, I'm gonna bunker down until this blows over. [[Special:Contributions/207.195.86.18|207.195.86.18]] 01:47, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

EDIT: To the dumbs*** who apparently doesn't know how curse words are used: referring to "f***ing X" is a way of expressing HATRED towards X, not love.

:I mean to play devils advocate you did pick the single most versatile word in the English lexicon. Capable of not only being a noun, a verb and an adjective, but also an adverb and probably more too. How are we to know without cultural context clues? (Signed a coitus looter)

:I'm sure the [[wikipedia:Vandals|vandals]] procreated. [[Special:Contributions/70.115.234.146|70.115.234.146]] 01:19, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

My dad once had the opposite conversation with his teacher, where he asked if the two continents had ever been connected and his teacher scoffed at him because continental drift wasn't widely-known yet. - [[Special:Contributions/2603:800C:500:18B3:38A0:233D:17B2:D289|2603:800C:500:18B3:38A0:233D:17B2:D289]] 16:05, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Ooh, spotted an error in the strip: the fossils that match up are Triassic, not Cretaceous. (This is actually an underappreciated geological/paleontological thing: the Atlantic Ocean is what ended the Triassic. The Atlantic crust started as a mantle plume that split apart Pangaea, causing the largest volcano in Earth's history... which is what drove the extinction of the rivals of the early dinosaurs.) (Signed, tr0gd0r) {{unsigned|Tr0gd0r|18:53, 25 August 2025}}
:South America (as it would become) and Africa were still connected in the Early Cretaceous and only fully unzipped from what was Gondwanaland by the Late Cretaceous. It was during the earlier Triassic that the North Atlantic was initially formed and broke up the Laurasian bit, so it would depend on where you're comparing fossils across. Triassic-era similarities could occur almost everywhere, but maybe throughout the Jurassic and then even into the Cretaceous there'd still be enough land-bridging in some parts to maintain populations (and, subsequently, fossils) on 'both sides' of the Atlantic-divide. (Of course, it's a bit more complicated, tectonic jostling being how it was, even assuming we have a full enough picture and aren't still guessing some of the bits, like what actually happened with Tethys, etc.) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.176|82.132.246.176]] 16:32, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

<s>Plagerism</s> Research! [[User:Jgharston|Jgharston]] ([[User talk:Jgharston|talk]]) 22:59, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Due to lack of evidence supporting the theory about the derivative nature of the work, we concluded that this is a rare case of "convergent erosion". [[User:Agf|Agf]] ([[User talk:Agf|talk]]) 07:55, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

Plus one for the pun on cosine similarity. Especially as vector search can be used to detect plagiarism [[Special:Contributions/2401:D002:A203:DC00:D67:B1A0:ADAE:B5B9|2401:D002:A203:DC00:D67:B1A0:ADAE:B5B9]] 09:22, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

3132: Coastline Similarity

2025-08-26T16:46:18Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ plagarism - gods, heros, Gaia

{{comic
| number = 3132
| date = August 22, 2025
| title = Coastline Similarity
| image = coastline_similarity_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x219px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hey! A bunch of the early Cretaceous fossils on each coast seem to have been plagiarized, too!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic depicts a classroom, likely relating to geography, geology or history, in which [[Miss Lenhart]] is discussing the similar coastlines of Africa and South America, and the way that modern understanding has revealed the cause. [[Cueball]] initially assumes that one coastline plagiarized the other before Miss Lenhart continues by revealing that it was {{w|continental drift}} that explained the similarity.

Continental drift is the widely accepted theory that Earth's continents were once all connected, and have been moving relative to each other due to {{w|plate tectonics}}. One of the clues that actually led to this discovery was that the shapes of the coastlines of South America and Africa that are separated by the Atlantic Ocean are similar. The similarity is much greater for the submerged {{w|continental shelf|continental shelves}} than for the visible coastlines; they're like adjacent pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

{{w|Plagiarism}} is the act of claiming credit for another individual's work, usually by duplicating the results. The discovery of plagiarism in an already-renowned body of work is often cause for scandal, and Cueball's reaction to the assumed plagiarism of the African/South American coastlines reflects this. Of course, continents are inanimate objects, and have no concept of plagiarism, let alone know how to perform it{{Citation needed}}. It would take an extremely broad definition of plagiarism for this to count as such, based on neither continent giving "credit" to the other. That would apply equally well (or poorly) any time a thing was broken into pieces large enough that they could be fit back together. Many people have believed that the earth was created by one or more entities, such as gods or heroes. Some regard the earth as one or more living things. So the earth, or one such creator could have copied portions of design.

The title text continues the joke about plagiarism. Additional corroborating evidence of continental drift is that there are similar species of plant and animal fossils on the two sides of the Atlantic, dating to the time when they were connected (which, contrary to Randall's claim, is actually the Triassic period, not the Cretaceous). Cueball thinks that the progenitors of these species also plagiarized each other, as opposed to the more mundane explanation which is that the progenitors were the ''same'' for both. The younger fossils are descendants of some species that existed across the once-connected lands, the older ones ''are'' the species that did not yet have the nascent Atlantic Ocean in their lives.

This is a very rare example where it is not Miss Lenhart that makes a joke as the teacher, but actually teaches the truth, and it is instead here one of her pupils that makes the joke (intentionally or not). A much more typical scenario for her teachings could for instance be seen in [[1519: Venus]].

The theory of continental drift was originally proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, based on such fossil evidence and other geological features common to the two continental borders, in addition to the similarities in shoreline shapes. It's significant to the history of science as a general subject, as a proposal that was originally met with strong opposition (not to mention mockery) but eventually became accepted by almost everyone. Modern cranks and crackpots sometimes point to it in support of their own implausible "theories", as though universal rejection of a "theory" by all of the experts somehow proves that it will someday be accepted and its originator proven right all along. In fact, Wegener's original theory did have a serious flaw, in that it lacked a plausible mechanism, though it was otherwise correct. Modern cranks' "theories" generally lack both plausible mechanisms ''and'' good analysis of supporting evidence. ("Yes, they laughed at Galileo... but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.")

The title text of [[2690: Cool S]] jokes about a milder version of plagiarism for the discovery of DNA, specifically copying off of the student in front of you.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is holding a pointer pointing to a wall map. The map shows South America and Africa, with the east coast of South America and the southwest coast of Africa highlighted in red.]
:Miss Lenhart: People had long noticed that South America and Africa had similarly-shaped coastlines.

:[A side view of the classroom. Jill and Cueball are sitting at school desks, looking at Miss Lenhart. The wall map is visible behind Miss Lenhart.]
:Miss Lenhart: In the 20th century, geologists finally found the explanation:

:[The same scene, with Cueball having his hands on his face.]
:Cueball: ''Plagiaris''--
:Miss Lenhart: Continental drift.
:Cueball: Oh.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Geography]]

3133: Dual Roomba

2025-08-26T16:30:12Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ Title text explanation - you have to know about the name onlyfans before talking about

{{comic
| number = 3133
| date = August 25, 2025
| title = Dual Roomba
| image = dual_roomba_2x.png
| imagesize = 679x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I tried uploading it to a household appliance porn site I found, but apparently their content is limited to only fans.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a CHILD OF TWO ROOMBAS. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A {{w|Roomba}} is a small household robot that was designed to clean floors. To do so, its underside is equipped with brushes and vacuums to clean the floors. When the Roombas themselves get dirty, Cueball has the Roombas clean each other (as opposed to the simpler solution of cleaning the Roombas by hand).

When Cueball demonstrates his Roombas cleaning each other to White Hat, White Hat remarks that the cleaning Roombas look sexually suggestive. {{w|Not safe for work}} (NSFW) is material, like pornography, which may not be appropriate for a general audience. While the Roombas don't look at all like sexual organisms, their interaction evidently reminds people of sex, as they are going back and forth across each other's surfaces and change positions in the middle of it. When one Roomba is cleaning the top of the other, it looks like {{w|doggy style}}; when it's cleaning the bottom, it looks like {{w|missionary position}} or {{w|69 (sex position)|69}}, depending on the orientation of the front and back.

Cueball says that the {{w|YouTube}} video that he posted about this trick was demonetized, or taken off a list of videos approved to generate ad revenue for creators. This is probably because of the NSFW appearance of it.

One popular monetized pornography (porn) site is called {{w|OnlyFans}}. The title text says that Cueball tried to upload his video to a porn site dedicated to "household appliances," but was unable to because its content was limited to {{w|Fan (machine)|fans}}. This is a play on words, in the real OnlyFans, "fans" is short for "fanatics," rather than mechanical fans. A site dedicated to household appliance porn would be an example of [[Rule 34]] (if you can imagine it, there is porn of it).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball and White Hat are facing each other. A Roomba is to the right side of Cueball, who has his arm up.]
:Cueball: The Roomba keeps my floor clean.
:Cueball: But what do I do when the '''''Roomba''''' gets dirty?

:[Cueball and White now face 2 Roombas, with Cueball gesturing towards the Roombas. One Roomba is climbing up a ramp in front of the second Roomba.]
:Cueball: Simple:
:Cueball: I got a second Roomba and a ramp, so they can clean each other.

:[Cueball kneels down to flip the first Roomba over.]
:Cueball: After the tops are clean, I flip one of the over so they can clean each others’ undersides.

:[Cueball and White Hat are now watching the Roombas clean each other.]
:White Hat: There’s nothing NSFW about this, and yet it’s the most NSFW thing I’ve every seen.
:Cueball: Yeah, my YouTube DIY video about this got demonetized.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Sex]]

3133: Dual Roomba

2025-08-26T16:19:02Z

107.77.205.64: /* Explanation */ title text - fix punctuation. Clarify.

{{comic
| number = 3133
| date = August 25, 2025
| title = Dual Roomba
| image = dual_roomba_2x.png
| imagesize = 679x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I tried uploading it to a household appliance porn site I found, but apparently their content is limited to only fans.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a CHILD OF TWO ROOMBAS. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A {{w|Roomba}} is a small household robot that was designed to clean floors. To do so, its underside is equipped with brushes and vacuums to clean the floors. When the Roombas themselves get dirty, Cueball has the Roombas clean each other (as opposed to the simpler solution of cleaning the Roombas by hand).

When Cueball demonstrates his Roombas cleaning each other to White Hat, White Hat remarks that the cleaning Roombas look sexually suggestive. {{w|Not safe for work}} (NSFW) is material, like pornography, which may not be appropriate for a general audience. While the Roombas don't look at all like sexual organisms, their interaction evidently reminds people of sex, as they are going back and forth across each other's surfaces and change positions in the middle of it. When one Roomba is cleaning the top of the other, it looks like {{w|doggy style}}; when it's cleaning the bottom, it looks like {{w|missionary position}} or {{w|69 (sex position)|69}}, depending on the orientation of the front and back.

Cueball says that the {{w|YouTube}} video that he posted about this trick was demonetized, or taken off a list of videos approved to generate ad revenue for creators. This is probably because of the NSFW appearance of it.

The title text says that Cueball tried to upload the video to a porn site dedicated to "household appliances," but was unable to because its content was oriented towards content involving {{w|Fan (machine)|fans}}. This is a play on words, as one popular monetized porn site is called {{w|OnlyFans}}, where "fans" is short for "fanatics" as opposed to fans as appliances. A site dedicated to household appliance porn would be an example of [[Rule 34]] (if you can imagine it, there is porn of it).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball and White Hat are facing each other. A Roomba is to the right side of Cueball, who has his arm up.]
:Cueball: The Roomba keeps my floor clean.
:Cueball: But what do I do when the '''''Roomba''''' gets dirty?

:[Cueball and White now face 2 Roombas, with Cueball gesturing towards the Roombas. One Roomba is climbing up a ramp in front of the second Roomba.]
:Cueball: Simple:
:Cueball: I got a second Roomba and a ramp, so they can clean each other.

:[Cueball kneels down to flip the first Roomba over.]
:Cueball: After the tops are clean, I flip one of the over so they can clean each others’ undersides.

:[Cueball and White Hat are now watching the Roombas clean each other.]
:White Hat: There’s nothing NSFW about this, and yet it’s the most NSFW thing I’ve every seen.
:Cueball: Yeah, my YouTube DIY video about this got demonetized.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Sex]]