explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2366: Amelia's Farm Fresh Cookies

2020-10-01T21:04:52Z

108.162.216.250: Nutritional Facts standard lines and percents

32841 is not a valid zip code. I'm also dubious that the town/city name is Orlando. Sure, it probably does start with an O (and not a cursive A, since the street name has a capital A to show the way the letter should look), but it certainly doesn't continue on long enough to be Orlando, especially with no ascending stroke for the 'd' and not appearing to end with a round shape for a letter like 'o'. It appears to me to be more of an n/m/r final letter. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.14|162.158.75.14]] 23:19, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

:Ah, that's what I get for just punching "32841 zip code" into Google and seeing Orlando FL come up. The closest-looking valid zip code I can find that's still in Orlando is 32891; fixed the transcript. The end of the word Orlando just seems intended to be generic squiggles not actually matching any letters, like almost everything after the Ingredients label. If you can find another town/city in FL that starts with O and has a similar-looking enough zip code, go for it. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 23:59, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

::All zip codes that begin 328 are in Orlando. 32841 specifically is not in use. [[User:Silverpie|Silverpie]] ([[User talk:Silverpie|talk]]) 02:12, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't see that the mouse-over suggests an escalation as described. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 00:23, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:I saw it as "had address on packaging, just so; grandma starts campaign of complaints to give granddaughter a similar experience; granddaughter suggests stopping original action if that would stop granny's retalation; (but apparently an armistice purely on those terms is not acceptable to Big-G)" - But there's other interpretations, I'll admit. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.154|141.101.98.154]] 00:45, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
::That's how I saw it too -- no suggestion that the package didn't originally have the address. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 01:17, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Isn't this a reference to the Annie's brand?
:"Annie Withey believed it was possible to build a socially conscious and successful business. This was her mission in 1989, when she wrote her name, address, and phone number on the very first boxes of Annie’s Mac and Cheese. Her legacy lives on as Annie’s strives to change the future for our kids, starting with food." per https://www.annies.com/our-mission/ . So maybe? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:59, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I didn't get the clues pointing that it's a package and mistakenly thought it was a cooking recipe web page. Many sites feel obliged to precede the recipe with a personal story on the food, which distracts from what the reader wants -- the recipe itself. I'd been a good comic as well if it was a pun on that. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.94.50|172.68.94.50]] 03:44, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
: I didn't interpret it as a package of the cookies, either. To me it looked like the company's ("Amelia's Farm") website and I interpreted the "nutrition facts" table as the site's menu. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:35, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
::For readers in the USA, it's more obviously a Nutritional Facts box - the varied weight of horizontal lines and the Percentage (%) symbol at the end of each line is standard.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 21:04, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Anyone else think the additional squiggles at the bottom left include a circle K (Kosher) and Parve (containing neither meat nor milk) which would be plausible for cookies (and could easily anger some grandmothers)? If so, is it worth adding to the transcript?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.212|108.162.219.212]] 12:10, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
: On magnification, it just looks like random squiggles to me. The letter in the circle looks like a lowercase "i", which is not (as far as I know) the symbol for any kosher certification. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:42, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Upon reading the address I immediately thought that the city was Orlando and that granny's name was "Wanda Munroe". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.43|162.158.74.43]] 13:16, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Per the editing FAQ, we use the smaller version of the comic here. But perhaps we should always include a link to the high-res version when one is available? Though it doesn't quite fit under either "Transcript" or "Explanation". [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:44, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I think the city's actually Ocala and Randal didn't even try to match the city to the zip code.

2310: Great Attractor

2020-05-27T03:12:39Z

108.162.216.250: /* Explanation */ typo

{{comic
| number = 2310
| date = May 22, 2020
| title = Great Attractor
| image = great_attractor.png
| titletext = Living in the southern hemisphere was nice because I could jump extra high, but I like it here too. Besides, if I ever want to move back, I can just curl up in a ball and wait!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Greatly Attractive SpaceBORG9o. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Needs reference to Dark Flow.}}

[[Cueball]] comments on the fact that as summer approaches, the sun rises earlier and sets later, a common topic of conversation, especially to complain that it is still light at times of day where you are used to it being dark out. [[Beret Guy]] comments that he fell off of the wall this morning, a seemingly unconnected topic.

People will often complain about falling out of bed as an indicator of having slept badly. The later sunset is often linked to worsened sleep [https://www.insider.com/why-its-hard-to-sleep-in-the-summer-2018-6]. However, Beret Guy didn't fall from the bed, he fell from the wall. While being able to figure out he's talking about his worsened sleep, Cueball is understandably confused, so Beret Guy clarifies.

Beret Guy is strongly affected by the {{w|Great Attractor}}, a large gravitational anomaly that influences the galaxies near it, but is difficult to observe directly. Beret Guy claims that the Great Attractor pulls on him unusually hard, which could be another one of his [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]]. This attraction, while not overpowering the gravity of the Earth, (he states that he can "Jump extra high" in the title text) affects his life greatly.

While "normal" people can probably (if uncomfortably) lie down on the top of a boundary wall, for Beret Guy his attraction to the Great Attractor means that, at various times, like now, he can lie on the vertical surface of any wall (external or internal) that is currently oriented in a fortuitous direction (i.e. facing north). He fell off the wall this morning due the Great Attractor being below him during daylight hours and on the horizon during night hours. Maybe because the day starts earlier in the summer, he fell down unexpectedly. Although the location of the Great Attractor should not be linked directly to daylight here on Earth.

He gives a short explanation of which Attractor he refers to (the space one) and why the Great Attractor affects him. According to his doctors it is apparently caused by the motion of galaxies and how many dimensions his bones have. Since having less than 3 spatial dimensions may lead to trouble, his bones may be existing in more dimensions than our normal 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time. Galactic motions normally have no significant effect on a person with 3-D bones.

Beret Guy then says that day-sliding season is near, due to the Great Attractor being at the horizon in the day, and offers to run errands for Cueball in the South, implying that he will be pulled towards the south during day-sliding season, and can run much faster in that direction.

Beret Guy is not standing straight up during this comic, he has one knee slightly bent towards Cueball in the first two panels. This is because it is evening (8:00 PM as Cueball states) and the Great Attractor is now coming near the horizon, where it will be during the night. So Beret Guy will be pulled towards the south, behind him in the comic, and thus leans away from the pull. In the final panel, when he leaves Cueball, moving right towards south and into the pull, he can be seen sliding along the ground without walking. He leans a bit back to not stumble forward. His last sentence also indicates that he either speeds up or that he is a little uncertain on his feet altering his voice.

He mentions that at the moment during day-time the Great Attractor is beneath him so he can stand straight. He then just feels a little heavier (he will thus weigh more than another person with the same mass).

In the title text he says he liked living in the south because the Great Attractor was often above him, meaning he could jump higher with the help of its pull (and would weigh less than a normal person with same mass). Since he could jump, the force is clearly weaker than Earth's gravity, but still enough for him to easily slide over the ground when it is near the horizon. So he could likely win some high-jump or long-jump competitions if he chose the right time and place.

Being Beret Guy, he is never really unhappy, so he states that he also likes it here (in the north). But then he continues to comment on how easy it will be for him to get to the south. Because if he entirely stopped bracing himself against the pull by crouching into a more spherical shape, and just waited for the Great Attractor to get near the horizon again, then the pull would cause him to start rolling over the ground to some place with lower net gravitational potential, i.e. further south, where the Great Attractor will be more directly over his head.

A prior example of an xkcd character with alternate gravitational susceptibility is [[417: The Man Who Fell Sideways]], where a consistent off-vertical pull somehow applies (rather than one linked to a spot on the stellar sphere). In [[1376: Jump]] Cueball floats sideways across the ground a bit above Earth, in a similar idea to being pulled sideways.

See also these other fictional examples of [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/872243.The_Revolving_Boy 'personalized'] [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Tethys gravitational] [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sally_Cambric susceptibilities].

Beret Guy has previously been interested in strange attracting forces in the universe, in [[502: Dark Flow]], where he hoped it was his mom and wished she would pull on him. It was though not about the Great Attractor, and the force did not clearly affect him, although his love for his mom did affect two space probes, as mentioned in the title text.

===More detail===
Some of the humor of the comic has to do with the immense differences in scale between Beret Guy and the Great Attractor.

In very round numbers our own {{w|Milky Way}} galaxy is 150,000 - 200,000 light years across. It is just one of several galaxies in something called the {{w|Local Group}}, which is around 10,000,000 light years across. And the Local Group is itself in something called the {{w|Virgo Supercluster|Local Supercluster}} (also called the Virgo Supercluster), around 110,000,000 light years across. Each galaxy, each group, and each {{w|supercluster}} is not just a chance alignment, but is a gravitational coherent structure. And all this is just yet a part of the even larger {{w|Laniakea Supercluster}} in which also the Great Attractor is located, along with more than 100,000 other galaxies, in a region of space spanning more than 500 million light years.

Something unpredictable (hence "anomalous") is going on with the galaxies in the Local Supercluster (including our own). These galaxies are indeed accelerating away from one another as seen by their red shift. {{w|Hubble's Law}} predicts the expansion should be uniformly proportional to their distance from Earth and from one another. But for the Local Supercluster something is restricting the expansion. That something is, as "viewed" from Earth, somewhere in the direction of the Southern Triangle constellation but 250,000,000 light years distant, and has (but only since 1988) been termed the Great Attractor. The Great Attractor can't conveniently be seen at visible wavelengths, because that direction is the so-called {{w|Zone of Avoidance}}: the area of the night sky obscured by our own Milky Way.

Boiling this all down: something a quarter of a billion light years away that makes an anomalous blip in the local rate of expansion of the universe, and whose existence astronomers deduce only by X-ray observations of stellar red-shift, has large-scale effects on everyday gravitational forces uniquely experienced by Beret Guy. OK, now you can smile.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Beret Guy stand next to each other, talking. Beret Guy leans towards Cueball by bending down one knee.]
:Cueball: I can't believe it's still light out. It's 8:00 PM!
:Beret Guy: Seriously! This morning I fell off the wall.

:[In a frame-less panel with the same setting Beret Guy is looking and pointing to the right.]
:Cueball: Wait, why were you sleeping on the wall?
:Beret Guy: The Great Attractor is near the horizon at night right now.

:[Zoom in on Beret Guy, who hold one hand palm up towards Cueball who is speaking to him off-panel.]
:Cueball (off-panel): The Great Attractor?
:Beret Guy: Yeah! The space one.
:Beret Guy: It pulls on me extra hard. Doctors said it's something to do with galactic motion and how many dimensions my bones have.

:[Cueball is still standing as Beret Guy slides away to the right, while looking and leaning back towards Cueball. He holds his arms slightly out, to keep his balance. Lines behind him and at his feet indicates his motion, even if he is clearly not walking. In his last word the letters becomes italic after Good and the last three Ts becomes smaller and smaller than the previous letters.]
:Beret Guy: This time of year, it's below us all day, so I stand vertically. But day-sliding season is near!
:Beret Guy: Let me know if you have any errands to run to the south!
:Beret Guy: Good''niiighttt''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

2310: Great Attractor

2020-05-24T23:29:17Z

108.162.216.250: /* Explanation */

Talk:2310: Great Attractor

2020-05-24T23:27:03Z

108.162.216.250:

Is Beret Guy talking about the {{w|Great Attractor}}? or simply about the Sun? It would fit in Beret Guy's quirkiness to call the Sun "the Great Attractor". Also, I didn't even know there was actually something called the Great Attractor... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.229|172.69.33.229]] 23:42, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

Well, given that it's "below him all day" and on the horizion at night, it's probably not the Sun. [[User:Argis13|Argis13]] ([[User talk:Argis13|talk]]) 23:58, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

Has anyone (inc Randall) done an analyses on TGA similar to https://what-if.xkcd.com/25/ does for other things? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.242|162.158.155.242]] 01:44, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

"The unexpected onset of summer daylight patterns may be further commentary on the ongoing COVID-19 measures and how they have affected perception of time." <-- what the heck is this even supposed to mean?
::It's not there any more, but it sounds like it might be a comment on how the sun is not really rising much earlier yet, and our sense of that is warped because we're staying inside so much [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 23:27, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

"Pull harder, Mom. I miss you." [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.150|172.69.34.150]] 08:07, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

It currently says “Beret Guy is not standing straight up [...]. This is presumably due to the extra downwards force that the Great Attractor is currently exerting on him, so he has to exert more effort to hold himself upright and seems quite content”. Am I the only one who thinks this makes no sense? Beret Guy is going to sleep because the Great Attractor starts pulling him sideways. And if there was more force downwards, instead of sidewars, it would not help to bend the knee and stand tilted. If you have to carry heavy things, the easiest way is to put them on your head and stand as much vertical as possible (although this method is unpopular in some countries). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.222|141.101.98.222]] 19:31, 23 May 2020 (UTC)
:It's not just you. I interpreted the final frame as him being dragged sideways. This fits with the movement lines along the side covering most of his body, and the "drag lines" left by his feet. His stance makes more sense if he's resisting a sideways force. It also fits better with the time, since the Great Attractor is said to currently be on the horizon at night, and it's 8PM when they are talking. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.196|162.158.75.196]] 21:19, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

Whenever I am standing on a moving Bus or Train, I always bend the knee on my leading leg in order to counteract the inertia trying to force me forwards if the vehicle rapidly slows or stops [adjusting or resisting changes to my center of gravity]. If I tried to lead with a stiff leg I would topple forward. Beret Guy's stance would only work if he intends to slide on his feet. [[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]]) 04:26, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

But why does the Great Attractor pin Berret Guy to the wall, while it won't make him fly?[[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]]) 07:07, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the local Supercluster is called Laniakea, and Virgo is just a smaller supercluster within it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laniakea_Supercluster

The mysterious analyses of Dark Flow near the great attractor are consistent with Beret Guy's strange experience. Scientists have said it looks like the universe functions by different laws over there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 23:27, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2065: Who Sends the First Text?

2018-10-30T15:27:33Z

108.162.216.250:

This one hits home with me as I always try to balance this (I think I was taught this by my mom, consciously or not) and when the balancing fails the friendship fails too - usually painfully. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.44|162.158.88.44]] 15:49, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

I couldn't help but notice that the far-right category (automated alerts and political campaigns) has a non-zero width, occupying the approximate range of 96~100%. Could this vaguely suggest that, for some automated alerts and political campaigns, Randall sends the first text as much as 4% of the time? [[User:Manabender|Manabender]] ([[User talk:Manabender|talk]]) 16:17, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
: Maybe for political campaigns for causes he believes in, he has been known to initiate a call. I'd be inclined to believe the automated alerts are at the 100% end. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 17:16, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
: And he might "opt in" to an automated alert system for something he considers beneficial, like weather alerts. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 17:53, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

::during the [https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/2006/ Google Summer of Code 2006] one developer wrote a [https://github.com/rosedu/Pidgin/blob/master/pidgin/plugins/cap/README Contact Availability Prediction plugin] for Pidgin that solve a similar problem. --[[User:Valepert|valepert]] ([[User talk:Valepert|talk]]) 19:31, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

I find it relevant that "People I politely put up with" is not actually present on the graph, and could be a reference to how we are often more critical of how we think we're being perceived by others than we actually are, and highlights that the far left of the graph is largely imagined. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.58|108.162.215.58]] 15:08, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

The transcript lists the category labels left to right, but in the comic the leftmost category is labeled _after_ the second leftmost category. Especially because the leftmost category builds upon the label of the second leftmost, I think these two should be rearranged. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 15:27, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

1977: Paperwork

2018-10-30T00:33:37Z

108.162.216.250:

{{comic
| number = 1977
| date = April 6, 2018
| title = Paperwork
| image = paperwork.png
| titletext = Plus, the photo was geotagged, my unlocked password manager was visible on the laptop, AND you could see my naked reflection in the dark part of the screen.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is complaining on social media about how much tax paperwork he has to do. He posts a picture of all his tax documents to share how much work he had to do before {{w|Tax Day (United States)|Tax Day}}. At first this just seems like an innocuous and generic thing people post on social media, but then the caption gives us a sobering reminder (and punchline): Tax documents contain many specific and important personal information in a very small area, like your social security number, address, income etc, and Cueball has just posted all of them for identity thieves to just stumble upon.

It is generally a bad idea to give out personal information like this to anyone, especially people online as this data can be used in many forms of fraud, by people pretending to be you or even using your login to gain access to your bank or other private matters. A picture of this information-dense tax return is the "most efficient" way to leak this critical data short of sending out the actual return.

Lots of people take photos of themselves, others, and objects around them, and post them in public and semi-public places, often without fully thinking about the kinds of personal information they might be accidentally including. Even if they do examine the photo for personal information and conclude the photo is safe to post, information they think is innocuous might end up being meaningful to someone else, possibly in combination with other public information they might have gathered about a person.

One example of a photo revealing more than was expected is when the Washington Post [https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/09/tsa_master_keys.html posted a picture of the TSA master keys]. The photo was detailed enough that people were able to create and 3D print their own working keys.

The title text further adds to the issues. First, it explains the picture was {{w|Geotagging|geotagged}}, which means anyone could easily find Cueball's home. Next, it also says his {{w|password manager}} was on his laptop screen, unlocked and presumably showing many of his passwords, usernames, and other information needed to log in to his accounts (such as email, banking sites, social media sites, etc.), thus allowing anyone to easily get in. Finally, the title text suggests Cueball's naked body was reflected off the laptop screen, and inadvertently included in the picture. Thus the people wishing to use his information can now potentially black mail him with this nude picture as well on top of anything else.

With [[Stick figure|xkcd's stick figures]] it's usually impossible to tell if they are clothed or naked, but now that we know Cueball is naked in this one it may make this strip {{w|NSFW}}. Thus consider yourself warned. The nakedness of xkcd stick figures have been mentioned before – for instance, in the third strip of [[566: Matrix Revisited]], and in [[864: Flying Cars]] where Megan is pictured topless.

Having a picture of oneself naked on the internet, without your own intent or concent, is also generally a bad idea, as many young people (kids) find out when they snap chat a nude picture to a boy/girl friend, who then takes a screen shot of the cell phone, preventing it from being snapped away later. And when they then fall out of love it might be shared on-line, which although illegal happens a lot, and cause harm to both the victim, and the offender, who often will be too young or inexperienced to realize they can get in jail for this as it can be considered child pornography if the nude person is underage.

Filing tax papers is topical as April is the tax season in the United States, with this year's {{w|Tax Day (United States)|Tax Day}} falling on April 17, 2018, less than two weeks after the release of this comic. It was also the topic of the comic [[1971: Personal Data]] which was released just two weeks before this comic.

Also, [http://theconversation.com/why-the-uk-tax-year-begins-on-april-6-its-a-very-strange-tale-57247 April 6 is the start of the tax year in the UK], which was the day this comic was released.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball hold his smartphone in both hands and takes a picture of his desk which has several sheets of paper (with unreadable text) lying around on it, hanging out over the edge of the table and also on top of his laptop standing on it. A more than half empty glass of water stands behind the laptop. The shutter sound is shown with small dots around it to indicate the picture is just being taken now.]
:Phone: Click

:[A smaller frame is inside the main frame to the right. It shows Cueball now typing on his phone. Above the frame a "speech" box goes outside the smaller frame but points with a jagged arrow towards the phone. Inside this box Cueball's message is displayed. At the bottom two typical social media buttons are shown, the left of them is grayed out, with gray text inside a thin gray line, the right button has dark text on a dark gray background with a solid black line around, probably to indicate that Cueball has pushed this right button at this very moment.]
:Ugh, check out how much tax paperwork I have to do.
:Cancel  Post

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I've accidentally discovered the world's most efficient way to leak personal information.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Identity Theft]]

2061: Tectonics Game

2018-10-29T12:21:53Z

108.162.216.250: /* Actual Game */

{{comic
| number = 2061
| date = October 19, 2018
| title = Tectonics Game
| image = tectonics_game.png
| titletext = They're limiting the playtesters to type A3 V stars, so the games will all end before the Sun consumes the Earth.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Do NOT delete this tag too soon. What do L_T etc mean?}}

This comic is to show similarity to many {{w|simulation video game|simulation games}}, which have various niche popularity. Similar to Maxis' ''{{w|Spore (2008 video game)|Spore}}'', the game in question allows you to {{w|terraforming|terraform}} entire worlds. However, in a typical [[Randall]] twist, unlike most simulation games, you could not speed up the progress of time to make world-changing endeavours occur in a matter of seconds. The game operates in real time, which means most of the user time-frame will be spent idly watching nearly non-moving continents, drifting at the real speed of continental drift, a couple of inches a year, which makes for very slow gameplay. Thus several hundred millennia of play time is needed to reach a game {{w|Achievement (video gaming)|achievement}} of forming a kilometre high mountain.

Many {{w|computer games}} {{w|computer simulation|simulate}} to one degree or another real items and tasks, but often simplify them to fit into a game format -- to make them more exciting, to make them quicker, to advance a particular plot line or quest, etc. For example, a game about farming might allow you to grow corn, but whereas in real life corn takes about 90 days to germinate from seed and grow to maturity, in a game the growth might be instantaneous or measured by minutes, rather than by days/weeks/months. The comic may thus be a jab at how our lives already are real time {{w|MMRPG}}.

In this game, especially, one would expect such shortcuts, given the extreme time frames required for {{w|geological}} events to be manifested. The joke is that this game is so realistic that it's played in "real-time", which means for every second or hour or eon something would take in real life, in the game it would take the same second or hour or eon to happen. Playing such a game where the events take longer than the person would be alive would likely be unsatisfying.{{Citation_needed}} A mildly less extreme example of a simulation game being played in real-time would be the {{w|Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_Mirrors#Desert_Bus|Desert Bus}} video game where you have to drive a bus from {{w|Tucson, Arizona}}, to {{w|Las Vegas, Nevada}}, in real time at a maximum speed of 45 MPH. The trip requires eight hours of continuous play to complete, at which point you score one point with the option to continue playing for additional points at the rate of one point per successful eight hour trip. The action consists almost entirely of just keeping the bus from veering off the road. It cannot be paused or sped up, and failure requires a tow back to the starting point at the same 45 MPH speed.

The frames show some elements of gameplay. The first frame shows a destructive plate margin in which an oceanic plate (grey) is being subducted under a continental plate (brown with a person standing on it) while sediments between the plates are compressed to form mountains. Clockwise from top left, the second frame shows a cross section through the planet and various statistics about the planet (CO2 levels of 840 ppm, solar irradiation of 1184 W/m2 and heat-flow through the crust of 91 mW/m2). Solar irradiation and heat-flow are similar to the Earth, but CO2 levels are raised. Bottom right displays several stats titled LT, LM, LA and LL, and bottom left is a view of the planet showing the proportion covered by ice (3%), land (31%) and water (66%). It seems that the raised CO2 levels have reduced the amount of ice compared to the Earth. The final panel shows some of the achievements that can be unlocked, the first is 1 km mountain and the last achievement of the first row is 10 km mountain. Below that seem to be achievements in the formation of an atoll.

{{w|Large igneous province}}s are suspected to be related to extinction level events and rapid climate changes in real life. Thus, they 'are the worst' in this game.

In the title text type {{w|A-type main-sequence star|A3 V}} stars are mentioned which are white main sequence stars at mass from 1.4 to 2.1 times the mass of the Sun. Thus they have a shorter lifespan than the Sun, hundreds of millions of years, compared to the 10 billion years lifespan of the Sun. By starting the game now with an A3 V star, there would be plenty of time to complete the game before the real Sun would go to a Red Giant destroying the Earth.

==Actual Game==
As of October of 2018, no game like this exists. However, a game inspired by the comic is currently in development [http://tectonica.fun here]. For more information, see the discussion under “An Actual Game”.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[Cueball is standing behind Ponytail, who is sitting on the floor playing a video game on a TV which displays a diagram of tectonic plates.]
:Cueball: What game is that?
:Ponytail: ''Tectonics!''
:Ponytail: You steer chunks of crust around, rifting, subducting, and building and eroding mountains.

:[A view of the game screen is shown. It includes a large cross-section of the Earth with smaller charts around it.]
:Ponytail (narrating): You try to keep your climate stable and your biosphere rich.
:Ponytail (narrating): Avoid making large igneous provinces! They're the ''worst''.

:[Cueball holds his hand out in a frameless panel.]
:Cueball: Cool!
:Cueball: Can I try?
:Ponytail (off-panel): Sure!

:[Cueball plays the game while Ponytail watches.]
:Cueball: ...How do I unpause?
:Ponytail: It's not paused.
:Cueball: ...
:Ponytail: Continents can only move a few inches per year.

:[Cueball has stopped playing and holds the controller in one hand. Ponytail points at the screen that shows an achievement page with nothing completed.]
:Cueball: It's ''real-time?''
:Ponytail: Just 400 millennia to go until your first mountain achievement!

==Trivia==
This comic's number and content regarding simulations in real time may also be a reference to {{w|Arthur C. Clarke}}'s ''{{w|2061: Odyssey Three}}'', the third book in the ''{{w|Space Odyssey}}'' series, in which {{w|Monolith_(Space_Odyssey)|monoliths}} are left throughout the solar system, manipulating environments to encourage the evolution of intelligent life.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Video games]]

2064: I'm a Car

2018-10-26T11:38:03Z

108.162.216.250: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2064
| date = October 26, 2018
| title = I'm a Car
| image = im_a_car.png
| titletext = I'm the proud parent of an honor student, and the person driving me is proud, too!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A PROUD CAR. Please edit the explanation below and only mention here why it isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

One template for a {{w|bumper sticker}} used to promote a political message is "I'm a ___, and I vote". However here it is applied to the automobile which is unusual as cars are not considered sentient beings capable of voting.{{Citation needed}}

The title text seems to be another [https://www.positivepromotions.com/proud-parent-of-an-honor-student-bumper-sticker-personalization-available/p/os-3360/ typical message] on a bumper sticker, saying that the driver is a "Proud Parent Of An Honor Student". However, this sticker is a bit longer, since it continues to state that "the person driving me is proud, too". Thus once again it is the car who is the proud parent. And thus maybe it is a car that is the honor student?

The entire comic seems to be related to [[:Category:Self-driving cars|self-driving cars]], which has been a recurring subject on xkcd. As they first begins to drive by themselves, the next step is voting and later getting car babies that can grow up and become honor students.

Of course this comic is also another way to try to get people to register for voting, as the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Header|header text]] at the top of the xkcd page has recently changed to "Check your registration and find your polling place at [https://www.vote.org/ vote.org]." This is because the {{w|United States midterm election}} will be held on {{w|United States elections, 2018|Tuesday, November 6, 2018}}, 11 days after the release of this comic. It is generally believed that many of those not voting would have chosen democrats on election day, and thus Randall has an interest in getting as many as possible to register, see [[1756: I'm With Her]] (apart from the fact that he also most likely thinks that it is important to use the right to vote).

==Transcript==
:[The bottom right rear end of a car is shown with a bumper sticker next to the unreadable license plate.]
:I'm a Car
:''and I vote''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Self-driving cars]]
[[Category:Politics]]

687: Dimensional Analysis

2018-10-25T16:13:27Z

108.162.216.250: fix

{{comic
| number = 687
| date = January 11, 2010
| title = Dimensional Analysis
| image = dimensional_analysis.png
| titletext = Or the pressure at the Earth's core will rise slightly.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball has a [[My Hobby|hobby]] — showing correct calculations according to the {{w|dimensional analysis}} — but with ridiculous correlations of uncorrelated events and measurements. Here Cueball is teaching a class and uses this trick to ''convince'' his students that the {{w|Toyota Prius}} combined {{w|United States Environmental Protection Agency|EPA}} gas mileage is somehow connected to the constant ''{{W|Pi|π}}'' via the {{w|Planck energy}}, the pressure at the {{w|Inner_core|Earth's core}} and the width of the {{w|English Channel}}.

Scientists — often physicists — use dimensional analysis to quickly check if a given formula can possibly relate to a physical system, because if you end up with an equation claiming that joules are meters, something is clearly wrong. Dimensional analysis here refers to the check if both sides of the equation arrive at the same physical unit when the units of all variables get plugged into the equation. This requires knowledge of the system of units and the relation between different physical units.

Cueball uses the following equation to make a mockery of the practice:

<math>\frac{\text{Planck energy}}{\text{Pressure at the core of the Earth}} \times \frac{\text{Prius combined EPA gas mileage}}{\text{Minimum width of the English Channel}} = \pi</math>

===Dimensional analysis===
The right hand side is dimensionless, it's the constant ''π'' = 3.14... which is defined by the relation of two lengths, the circumference and the diameter of a circle. The left hand side requires to plug in the dimensions of the named physical quantities:

*Planck energy: given in Joules [J]
*Pressure at the core of the Earth: given in Pascals [Pa]
*Prius combined EPA gas mileage: miles per gallon, given in meters per cubic meter [m/m³]
**Fuel efficiency has two formats that are commonly used: length per volume and volume per length. The former must be used here in order to get the units to cancel correctly.
*Minimum width of the English Channel: given in meters [m]

When plugged into the left hand side this amounts to:

<math>\frac{\text{J}}{\frac{\text{J}}{\text{m}^3}} \times \frac{\frac{\text{m}}{\text{m}^3}}{\text{m}} = \text{m}^3 \times \frac{1}{\text{m}^3} = 1</math>

Using the following unit relations (this does not reduce units to the seven SI base units, but does use some derived units for cancelation):

*1 Pascal [Pa] = 1 Joule per cubic meter [J/m³]

Note that for dimensional analysis constant factors are not taken into account. Here square brackets are used to denote dimensional analysis. In the above equation the unit of energy (joule) as well as all the unit of volume (cubic meter) cancel out each other.

Another aspect of the comic is, that sometimes dimension analysis of equations that were not derived but rather "made up" can provide insight. However, in reality such an equations would have to be somehow "motivated", which is more of an art than science and requires great experience in the field the equation should relate to. The presented equation combines values that have no immediate causal relation with each other, so it does not make sense. Furthermore, since the values have absolutely no causal relation to each other, the ratios presented are simple coincidence; despite Cueball's claim, building a better Prius would not cause any changes to the English Channel.

The title text also refers to this, as a higher pressure at Earth's core could also balance the equation, keeping the result constant equal to ''π''. The Planck energy is an absolute, however, so it is not mentioned as a way to balance the next version of Prius.

===Some numbers for this calculation===
The {{w|Planck energy}} is the only nearly exact value we do have. Compared to other Planck values it is very large (macroscopic).
E_planck = 1.956 x 109 J = 1.956 x 109 Nm

Pressure at the {{w|Inner_core#Temperature_and_pressure|core}} of the Earth ranges from 330 to 360 gigapascals.
Using a simple value like this:
P_core = 350 GPa = 3.5 x 1011 N/m²

Prius combined {{w|Toyota_Prius#Fuel_economy_and_emissions|EPA gas mileage}}:
For the third generation (from 2010) the City mileage is 51 mpg and the Highway mileage is 48 mpg. But it is the [http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=26425 combined EPA gas mileage] which is used in the equation and that is 50 miles per gallon.
50 mpg => 21,000,000 m/m³

Minimum width of the {{w|English Channel}} is about
33.1 km = 33,100 m

Calculating from these values you will get ''π'' = 3.54... that is pretty close to ''π'' = 3.14... while using a Planck value. According to Cueball this will be within the experimental error (the combined error for all four numbers - none are exact numbers). For instance if you tried the ePrius you would probably get closer to that target — as the mileage in real life usually is somewhat lower than the value given — and that would reduce the result.

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28Planck+Energy%29%2F%28Pressure+at+the+Earth%27s+core%29*%282010+Prius+combined+EPA+Gas+Mileage%29%2F%2833.1+km%29 Wolfram|Alpha can find most of the statistics and do the calculations.]

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Abusing dimensional analysis

:[On a blackboard.]
:(Planck energy/Pressure at the Earth's core) x (Prius combined EPA gas mileage/Minimum width of the English Channel) = π

:[Cueball indicates this equation with a pointer in front of a class.]
:Cueball: It's correct to within experimental error, and the units check out. It must be a fundamental law.
:Student: But what if they build a better Prius?
:Cueball: ''Then England will drift out to sea.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

687: Dimensional Analysis

2018-10-25T16:11:54Z

108.162.216.250: Shorten

{{comic
| number = 687
| date = January 11, 2010
| title = Dimensional Analysis
| image = dimensional_analysis.png
| titletext = Or the pressure at the Earth's core will rise slightly.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball has a [[My Hobby|hobby]] — showing correct calculations according to the {{w|dimensional analysis}} — but with ridiculous correlations of uncorrelated events and measurements. Here Cueball is teaching a class and uses this trick to ''convince'' his students that the {{w|Toyota Prius}} combined {{w|United States Environmental Protection Agency|EPA}} gas mileage is somehow connected to the constant ''{{W|Pi|π}}'' via the {{w|Planck energy}}, the pressure at the {{w|Inner_core|Earth's core}} and the width of the {{w|English Channel}}.

Scientists — often physicists — use dimensional analysis to quickly check if a given formula can possibly relate to a physical system, because if you end up with an equation claiming that joules are meters, something is clearly wrong. Dimensional analysis here refers to the check if both sides of the equation arrive at the same physical unit when the units of all variables get plugged into the equation. This requires knowledge of the system of units and the relation between different physical units.

Cueball uses the following equation to make a mockery of the practice:

<math>\frac{\text{Planck energy}}{\text{Pressure at the core of the Earth}} \times \frac{\text{Prius combined EPA gas mileage}}{\text{Minimum width of the English Channel}} = \pi</math>

===Dimensional analysis===
The right hand side is dimensionless, it's the constant ''π'' = 3.14... which is defined by the relation of two lengths, the circumference and the diameter of a circle. The left hand side requires to plug in the dimensions of the named physical quantities:

*Planck energy: given in Joules [J]
*Pressure at the core of the Earth: given in Pascals [Pa]
*Prius combined EPA gas mileage: miles per gallon, given in meters per cubic meter [m/m³]
**Fuel efficiency has two formats that are commonly used: length per volume and volume per length. The former must be used here in order to get the units to cancel correctly.
*Minimum width of the English Channel: given in meters [m]

When plugged into the left hand side this amounts to:

<math>\frac{\text{J}}{\frac{\text{J}}{\text{m}^3}} \times \frac{\frac{\text{m}}{\text{m}^3}}{\text{m}} = \text{m}^3 \times \frac{1}{\text{m}^3} = 1</math>

Using the following unit relations (this does not reduce units to the seven SI base units, but does use some derived units for cancelation):

*1 Pascal [Pa] = 1 Joule per cubic meter [J/m³]

Note that for dimensional analysis constant factors are not taken into account. Here square brackets are used to denote dimensional analysis. In the above equation the unit of force (newton) as well as all the units of length (meter) cancel out each other.

Another aspect of the comic is, that sometimes dimension analysis of equations that were not derived but rather "made up" can provide insight. However, in reality such an equations would have to be somehow "motivated", which is more of an art than science and requires great experience in the field the equation should relate to. The presented equation combines values that have no immediate causal relation with each other, so it does not make sense. Furthermore, since the values have absolutely no causal relation to each other, the ratios presented are simple coincidence; despite Cueball's claim, building a better Prius would not cause any changes to the English Channel.

The title text also refers to this, as a higher pressure at Earth's core could also balance the equation, keeping the result constant equal to ''π''. The Planck energy is an absolute, however, so it is not mentioned as a way to balance the next version of Prius.

===Some numbers for this calculation===
The {{w|Planck energy}} is the only nearly exact value we do have. Compared to other Planck values it is very large (macroscopic).
E_planck = 1.956 x 109 J = 1.956 x 109 Nm

Pressure at the {{w|Inner_core#Temperature_and_pressure|core}} of the Earth ranges from 330 to 360 gigapascals.
Using a simple value like this:
P_core = 350 GPa = 3.5 x 1011 N/m²

Prius combined {{w|Toyota_Prius#Fuel_economy_and_emissions|EPA gas mileage}}:
For the third generation (from 2010) the City mileage is 51 mpg and the Highway mileage is 48 mpg. But it is the [http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=26425 combined EPA gas mileage] which is used in the equation and that is 50 miles per gallon.
50 mpg => 21,000,000 m/m³

Minimum width of the {{w|English Channel}} is about
33.1 km = 33,100 m

Calculating from these values you will get ''π'' = 3.54... that is pretty close to ''π'' = 3.14... while using a Planck value. According to Cueball this will be within the experimental error (the combined error for all four numbers - none are exact numbers). For instance if you tried the ePrius you would probably get closer to that target — as the mileage in real life usually is somewhat lower than the value given — and that would reduce the result.

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28Planck+Energy%29%2F%28Pressure+at+the+Earth%27s+core%29*%282010+Prius+combined+EPA+Gas+Mileage%29%2F%2833.1+km%29 Wolfram|Alpha can find most of the statistics and do the calculations.]

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Abusing dimensional analysis

:[On a blackboard.]
:(Planck energy/Pressure at the Earth's core) x (Prius combined EPA gas mileage/Minimum width of the English Channel) = π

:[Cueball indicates this equation with a pointer in front of a class.]
:Cueball: It's correct to within experimental error, and the units check out. It must be a fundamental law.
:Student: But what if they build a better Prius?
:Cueball: ''Then England will drift out to sea.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

687: Dimensional Analysis

2018-10-25T16:09:13Z

108.162.216.250: Elaborate

{{comic
| number = 687
| date = January 11, 2010
| title = Dimensional Analysis
| image = dimensional_analysis.png
| titletext = Or the pressure at the Earth's core will rise slightly.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball has a [[My Hobby|hobby]] — showing correct calculations according to the {{w|dimensional analysis}} — but with ridiculous correlations of uncorrelated events and measurements. Here Cueball is teaching a class and uses this trick to ''convince'' his students that the {{w|Toyota Prius}} combined {{w|United States Environmental Protection Agency|EPA}} gas mileage is somehow connected to the constant ''{{W|Pi|π}}'' via the {{w|Planck energy}}, the pressure at the {{w|Inner_core|Earth's core}} and the width of the {{w|English Channel}}.

Scientists — often physicists — use dimensional analysis to quickly check if a given formula can possibly relate to a physical system, because if you end up with an equation claiming that joules are meters, something is clearly wrong. Dimensional analysis here refers to the check if both sides of the equation arrive at the same physical unit when the units of all variables get plugged into the equation. This requires knowledge of the system of units and the relation between different physical units.

Cueball uses the following equation to make a mockery of the practice:

<math>\frac{\text{Planck energy}}{\text{Pressure at the core of the Earth}} \times \frac{\text{Prius combined EPA gas mileage}}{\text{Minimum width of the English Channel}} = \pi</math>

===Dimensional analysis===
The right hand side is dimensionless, it's the constant ''π'' = 3.14... which is defined by the relation of two lengths, the circumference and the diameter of a circle. The left hand side requires to plug in the dimensions of the named physical quantities:

*Planck energy: given in Joules [J]
*Pressure at the core of the Earth: given in Pascals [Pa]
*Prius combined EPA gas mileage: miles per gallon, given in meters per cubic meter [m/m³]
**Fuel efficiency has two formats that are commonly used: length per volume and volume per length. The former must be used here in order to get the units to cancel correctly.
*Minimum width of the English Channel: given in meters [m]

When plugged into the left hand side this amounts to:

<math>\frac{\text{J}}{\text{Pa}} \times \frac{\tfrac{\text{m}}{\text{m}^3}}{\text{m}} = \frac{\text{J}}{\frac{\text{J}}{\text{m}^3}} \times \frac{\frac{\text{m}}{\text{m}^3}}{\text{m}} = \text{m}^3 \times \frac{1}{\text{m}^3} = 1</math>

Using the following unit relations (this does not reduce units to the seven SI base units, but does use some derived units for cancelation):

*1 Pascal [Pa] = 1 Joule per cubic meter [J/m³]

Note that for dimensional analysis constant factors are not taken into account. Here square brackets are used to denote dimensional analysis. In the above equation the unit of force (newton) as well as all the units of length (meter) cancel out each other.

Another aspect of the comic is, that sometimes dimension analysis of equations that were not derived but rather "made up" can provide insight. However, in reality such an equations would have to be somehow "motivated", which is more of an art than science and requires great experience in the field the equation should relate to. The presented equation combines values that have no immediate causal relation with each other, so it does not make sense. Furthermore, since the values have absolutely no causal relation to each other, the ratios presented are simple coincidence; despite Cueball's claim, building a better Prius would not cause any changes to the English Channel.

The title text also refers to this, as a higher pressure at Earth's core could also balance the equation, keeping the result constant equal to ''π''. The Planck energy is an absolute, however, so it is not mentioned as a way to balance the next version of Prius.

===Some numbers for this calculation===
The {{w|Planck energy}} is the only nearly exact value we do have. Compared to other Planck values it is very large (macroscopic).
E_planck = 1.956 x 109 J = 1.956 x 109 Nm

Pressure at the {{w|Inner_core#Temperature_and_pressure|core}} of the Earth ranges from 330 to 360 gigapascals.
Using a simple value like this:
P_core = 350 GPa = 3.5 x 1011 N/m²

Prius combined {{w|Toyota_Prius#Fuel_economy_and_emissions|EPA gas mileage}}:
For the third generation (from 2010) the City mileage is 51 mpg and the Highway mileage is 48 mpg. But it is the [http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=26425 combined EPA gas mileage] which is used in the equation and that is 50 miles per gallon.
50 mpg => 21,000,000 m/m³

Minimum width of the {{w|English Channel}} is about
33.1 km = 33,100 m

Calculating from these values you will get ''π'' = 3.54... that is pretty close to ''π'' = 3.14... while using a Planck value. According to Cueball this will be within the experimental error (the combined error for all four numbers - none are exact numbers). For instance if you tried the ePrius you would probably get closer to that target — as the mileage in real life usually is somewhat lower than the value given — and that would reduce the result.

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28Planck+Energy%29%2F%28Pressure+at+the+Earth%27s+core%29*%282010+Prius+combined+EPA+Gas+Mileage%29%2F%2833.1+km%29 Wolfram|Alpha can find most of the statistics and do the calculations.]

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Abusing dimensional analysis

:[On a blackboard.]
:(Planck energy/Pressure at the Earth's core) x (Prius combined EPA gas mileage/Minimum width of the English Channel) = π

:[Cueball indicates this equation with a pointer in front of a class.]
:Cueball: It's correct to within experimental error, and the units check out. It must be a fundamental law.
:Student: But what if they build a better Prius?
:Cueball: ''Then England will drift out to sea.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2056: Horror Movies

2018-10-08T20:05:43Z

108.162.216.250: Added Velociraptors reference

{{comic
| number = 2056
| date = October 8, 2018
| title = Horror Movies
| image = horror_movies.png
| titletext = "Isn't the original Jurassic Park your favorite movie of all time?" "Yes, but that's because I like dinosaurs and I WANT there to be an island full of them. If John Hammond's lab had been breeding serial killers in creepy masks, I wouldn't have watched!" "Wait, are you sure? That could actually be good." "Ok, I WOULD watch the scenes where Jeff Goldblum tries to convince a bunch of executives that the park is a bad idea."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please edit the explanation below and only mention here why it isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Randall]], represented by [[Cueball]], seems to find {{w|horror movies}} ruthless exploitations of viewers' nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown, or, more concisely, a crude desire to see "terrible things happen to people."

A {{w|Horror_film|Horror movie}} is a {{w|Film_genre|genre}} of {{w|movie|movie or film}} which attempts to elicit the emotional response of {{w|fear}} in the viewer. Some enjoy that type of movie because it allows them to experience and release that emotion, perhaps as a form of {{w|catharsis}} or release. Others take a more detached view and enjoy watching bad things happen to other people, perhaps deriving humor or enjoyment out of a situation that they are glad not to be in themselves.

The title text refers to the ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park film}}'', which could be considered a "horror" film, as there are elements of fear and terror. However, it is usually placed in the adventure or science fiction genre. Randall, instead of claiming that ''Jurassic Park'' isn't a horror film, replies by saying that he likes dinosaurs and would be pleased to visit an amusement park for dinosaurs. "Serial killers in creepy masks" refers to a horror movie trope from the ''{{w|Halloween (franchise)|Halloween}}'' and the ''{{w|Friday the 13th (franchise)|Friday the 13th}}'' series of films, among others. Randall's final comment indicates that though he does not like horror films, he does like {{w|Jeff Goldblum}} (more correctly, {{w|Ian Malcolm (Jurassic Park character)|Ian Malcolm}}), and would watch his ill-fated attempts to prevent the brilliant idea of breeding serial killers.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are standing together and talking. White Hat points at Cueball who has raised his arms.]
:White Hat: Wanna see a horror movie?
:Cueball: Sure! I love watching terrible things happen to people and feeling afraid!

:[Caption below the frame:]
:I know everyone's into what they're into, but I have never understood horror movies.

== Trivia ==
In early issues, [[Randall]] frequently referenced his fear of [[:Category:Velociraptors|velociraptors]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]

1965: Background Apps

2018-03-10T01:19:29Z

108.162.216.250: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1965
| date = March 9, 2018
| title = Background Apps
| image = background_apps.png
| titletext = My plane banner company gets business by flying around with a banner showing a <div> tag, waiting for a web developer to get frustrated enough to order a matching </div>.
}}

==Explanation==
Background apps (apps in the recently used list) on both iOS and Android are in one of several paused states and do not usually consume much battery power; they only take up some memory. Closing them means that if you want to use the app again later, it will need to reload fully which likely uses up "very slightly" more battery. ''Wired'' had a [https://www.wired.com/2016/03/closing-apps-save-battery-makes-things-worse/ detailed article] on this topic a couple years ago. However, a much better reason to close the apps are to free up RAM/Memory to make the programs run faster or even prevent them from crashing. Ultimately, whether or not you should close your apps depends on whether you prioritize battery lifetime or performance. (In [[Randall]]'s case, low batteries tend to be something of a problem, and references this in [[1373: Screenshot]], [[1802: Phone]] [[1872: Backup Batteries]], and other comics.)

A person goes to the trouble of renting a banner plane just to dispense advice which is only useful on a case-by-case basis. Then a second person goes to the same amount of trouble just to make a judgmental statement against the first person, seemingly unaware that they themselves are chartering the same plane for an equally (if not more) inane reason. The first person rents the plane once again just to apologize to the second person and explain their actions.

In the punchline, the second person rents the plane yet again to respond to the first person's response, being no less smug or hypocritical than before. Meanwhile, four more people have chartered four different planes:
* One to urge the first two people to have their conversation somewhere private (typical comment in on-line forums)
* Another to comment on how surprisingly cheap the banners are to rent
* A third just to show off their own banner
* A fourth displaying the HTML "{{w|Marquee element|Marquee}}" tag, a non-standard tag that many web organizations advise against using, which is used to cause a message to scroll across the web page, much as the plane is flying across the sky.

The fairly obvious parallel here is to using various Internet forums for "unsolicited tech advice to strangers," smug responses, comments on others' advice, off-topic rejoinders, and all the other things that go on there constantly. It seems ludicrous to rent airplane banners for such trivial purposes, but there are non-trivial resources involved in the global distribution of electronic communication, as well, and their use for purposes such as this seems ludicrous once Randall makes one think about it, and underlines that none of what is written on the banner may have anything to do with Randall's own opinions.

The title text is spoken by a plane banner company owner, who uses the insidious tactic of flying around with a banner of an unmatched HTML, just to compel obsessive people into renting banner space to make it syntactically correct. This may be a reference to [[1144: Tags]].

The theme of the mis/use of airplanes and banners has previously been explored in [[1355: Airplane Message]].

==Transcript==
:[A small airplane with a trailing banner is flying across the panel from left to right with four small clouds spread out beneath the banner. The long banner reads:]
:Banner: People! Closing background apps when you're not using them makes your phone battery drain ''faster'', not slower! Stop it!

:[A beat panel without a plane, but just the sky with two birds to the left and three clouds.]

:[The same airplane flies back from right to left, trailing a new banner with clouds both above and beneath the banner/plane, and a bird to the right.]
:Banner: What kind of person charters a plane to give unsolicited tech advice to strangers?

:[A second beat panel follows without a plane, but just the sky with three clouds.]

:[The plane returns once again from the left with another banner. Two clouds are in front/below the plane and two birds can be seen.]
:Banner: OK, fair. Sorry. I guess I'm just angry about other stuff and it's coming out here.

:[Without a beat panel the original plane returns at the top of the panel, once again returning from right to left with another very long banner. But no less than four other planes, each with smaller and smaller banners are also shown flying beneath it among three clouds and three birds. The planes alter direction so the second plane below the original planes banner is flying to the right, the third plane is right below the second flying the other way towards left, and just beneath that is the fourth plane flying to the right. A final plane is flying to the left, beneath the third planes banner, at the same height as the fourth, they look as if they are on a collision course. This last planes banner is very short and the bottom end is partly beneath the panels frame, partly obscuring the text. All five planes are clearly different types, thus making it clear that the plane from the first three panels and the top one in this panel are the same plane, hired by two different persons.]
:Banner 1: No worries. Just maybe spend as much time reflecting on your own motivation for correcting people as you have on theirs for closing apps.
:Banner 2: Can you two please have this conversation somewhere else?
:Banner 3: Wow, these banners are surprisingly cheap to rent.
:Banner 4: Haha, I got one, too!
:Banner 5: <Marquee>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:1916: Temperature Preferences

2017-11-15T23:33:55Z

108.162.216.250: Where's Chicago?

As someone who lives near San Fransisco, but has lived in multiple other climates, I can say, San Fransisco can be pretty cold during summer months (compared to normal summers), but is still moderate. If you truely hate heat though, avoid mid-September till November as that is our hottest time of year, since there is not as much fog then. Once November hits it pretty suddenly gets cold again though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.187|172.68.189.187]] 06:08, 15 November 2017 (UTC)Rowan

This graph doesn't make any sense. In my experience, people who live in places with hot summers hate heat, and people who live in places with cold winters hate coldness. Everyone I've ever spoken from Perth basically constantly complains about the heat! Shouldn't the whole thing be flipped? [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 08:46, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:I just now realized that it says "where ''to'' live," not "where you live." I take back this silly comment ^_^; My bad [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 09:00, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Why is there dirt in the middle of the picture? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:06, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:It appears to be a faded-out image, probably some reference pic that Randall was using while drawing. Something similar appeared in [[1561: Water Phase Diagram#Original version|1561]], and was later removed. [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 11:32, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Coming from Denmark I'm really dissapointed that he left out our capital, and the largest city in Scandinavia, Copenhagen, when he has both Oslo, Stockholm and .... Reykjavik... :-D But guess it should be placed near Oslo... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:54, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:Within the mid-United States, Randall ignored Chicago entirely and highlighted Minneapolis. Since I'm originally from Minnesota, I appreciate that a LOT. (Chicago can keep their wind, those blowhards; if you want a humid summer, find a Minnesota lake for your vacation! Then enjoy the ice fishing in winter, too.) '''--BigMal''' // [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.184|108.162.216.184]] 15:16, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

So I've added a table with one entry for you all to put in data. I don't know where to find humidex info but the average low temperatures should be easy enough to find on e.g. Wikipedia. --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 10:10, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:I think I've sorted all the disambiguations out apart from Richmond. My instinct is to say it's Richmond, Virginia but now I've seen how many Richmonds there are I'm not so sure...--[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 12:07, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

I think that "Altay" is more likely to be {{w|Altay City|Altay City, China}}, not {{w|Altai City|Altai City, Mongolia}}. The Wikipedia-preferred spellings are one piece of evidence, but more convincing is the position of "Altay" right '''above''' (i.e. winters warmer than) "Regina". If this is {{w|Regina, Saskatchewan}}, then its temperature profile (per Wikipedia) is very similar to the Chinese city.
* Jan average: Regina, −20.1 to −9.3°C, and Altay, −21 to −9.4°C (versus Altai, −24.8 to −10.4°C)... pretty close all around, but Altai is a little colder.
* Jul average: Regina, 11.9 to 25.8°C, and Altay, 15.1 to 28.2°C (versus Altai, 8.0 to 19.7°C)... Altay is warmer than Regina, whereas Altai is quite a bit colder.
* Annual average: Regina, −3.2 to 9.3°C, and Altay, −1.4 to 10.7°C (versus Altai, −7.98 to 5.03°C)... Altai is again noticeably colder.
(Oops, edit conflict with [[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]]. Before their edit—which points to Altay City, China—the table said it was unclear which was meant.)
-- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 12:18, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:Yeah, sorry, I changed my mind, I can't remember why now... --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 13:28, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

So, the table lists temperatures for these cities from some unknown source(s), that may not be the same source(s) Randall used. I think the more interesting table would bte the table of X/y coordinates for each city from the comic. No? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 15:01, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
: I disagree - we can see where they are on the comic, so that's not very interesting at all. This table puts some hard figures on the co-ordinates. (In most explanations when we 'estimate' co-ordinates, it's because there are no hard figures). By the way, the source I'm using for my figures is weatherbase.com as suggested in the transcript. I can't speak what others are using but maybe we should make this clearer. --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 16:05, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Chicago? Bottom right corner.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.12|162.158.106.12]] 15:37, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
: Chicago averages around 12 days of 90+ and none over 100 per year (similar to New York) does not rank as being all that hot on a world scale [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 18:47, 15 November 2017 (UTC).
: Wherever Chicago should go (and it's definitely in the lower right quadrant), it's weird that Randall didn't put it there. It's the USA's third-largest city and by far the biggest metropolitan area in the Midwest. How did Minneapolis make the cut if Chicago didn't? (No offense, Minnesotans.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 23:33, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Added hottest month Humidex values for all cities that have temperature and dew point data, using equation from the Wikipedia page on Humidex.

------
As a resident of Oregon, I vote for Portland being Portland, OR. It is not only larger than Portland, Maine; it also more closely fits the mild climate that Randall seems to place it in on the graph. An early settler wrote two letters back east: The first, "Come live with me, there ain't no winter here", the second six months later "Nevermind, there ain't no summer either" [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 21:44, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

341: 1337: Part 1

2017-08-15T14:43:14Z

108.162.216.250: /* Explanation */ WiFi not WiFI how do you miserable pendants let this stuff slip through?

{{comic
| number = 341
| date = November 12, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 1
| image = 1337 part 1.png
| titletext = If you're not cool enough to do it manually, you can look up tools like Upside-Down-Ternet for playing games with people on your wifi.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the first part of five in the "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series. The title 1337 is "L-eet", or "elite", using the {{w|Leet}} alphabet, a coding system used primarily on the internet (and on early text messaging system), meant to provide a bit of {{w|obfuscation}} to plain text both to make it harder to read, and to show off in a creative way using in-group jargon. This comic series is aimed at elite hackers and programmers.

All comics in the series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]
This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

If a {{w|wireless network}} (WiFi) is unsecured it is usually a sign that the owner of the access point is not technically skilled enough to go into the admin panel and enable encryption. Obviously, someone in the area who wants to get on the net, but doesn't have a mobile data connection, will simply use this open access point. However, it is also common practice to leave open an access point to be able to claim that infringement of copyright may not have been the homeowner, but that anybody could have connected to the access point and started downloading files.

Another fun trick, for administrators of open APs, is to [http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html intercept pages and edit their contents]. The only way to stop this is to create a secure connection, or tunnel, to a server to stop the admin from playing {{w|Man-in-the-middle attack|man-in-the-middle}}. Of course, as the title text says, [[Mrs. Roberts]] is so cool, she can edit the {{w|tcp}} stream live, without the help of programs, but then there is help to get with tools like the [http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html Upside-Down-Ternet], if you wish to play games with people misusing your WiFi.

Not only is Mrs. Roberts awesome enough to manually edit the live tcp stream, she's also manually ending individual {{w|VPN}} and {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}} connections as [[Cueball|Cueball's]] Cueball-like friend makes them - while wearing oven mitts and baking cookies at the same time. He has been {{w|pwned}} (i.e. owned) by Mrs. Roberts.

The question "How does she type with oven mitts?" is likely a reference to the old web video site {{w|Homestar Runner}} and its character of {{w|Strong Bad}}, who answered emails while wearing boxing gloves. "How does he type with boxing gloves?" was the most common question he received. (Another unanswered question is ''how Cueball's friend knew she was typing with gloves on?''' ...)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball talks to his Cueball-like friend who is lying down on the floor, using his laptop. Cueball is pointing at the laptop.]
:Cueball: You're not on the neighbor's WiFi, are you?
:Friend: Yeah, why?
:Cueball: The admin... plays games.
:Friend: No problem. I'll just hop on a secure VPN.

:[Cueballs friend now sits on his knee in front of his laptop frantically typing. A message from the laptop comes out with a zig zag line]
:Friend: Whoa, my connections are dying as soon as I start to tunnel anything!
:Message on laptop: A VPN? How cute! And stop trying to SSH.
:Friend: Holy shit! Someone's inserting notes into the pages I request! Editing the TCP stream live!
:Friend: Nobody's that fast. Who ''is'' this admin?

:[In a frame-less panel Mrs. Roberts with hot bun tray in one hand (indicated with five wiggly lines above the buns), with oven mitts on both hands typing on her desktop computer on a table.]
:Mrs. Roberts: My goodness. Neighborhood scamps on the wireless.
:''Taptaptaptap''

:[Cueball is standing with a hand towards his now standing friend, the laptop lies between them.]
:Cueball: I should have warned you about Mrs. Roberts.
:Friend: How does she type with oven mitts!?
:Cueball: You've been pwned pretty hard, man. You might want to sit down.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:1337|01]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|1337]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Food]]

1427: iOS Keyboard

2017-08-11T15:22:57Z

108.162.216.250: /* Explanation */ Klingon right? I don't know what Kligong is other than a typo.

{{comic
| number = 1427
| date = September 29, 2014
| title = iOS Keyboard
| image = ios_keyboard.png
| titletext = More actual results: 'Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You [are the best. The best thing ever]', 'Revenge is a dish best served [by a group of people in my room]', and 'They may take our lives, but they'll never take our [money].'
}}

==Explanation==
It looks like [[Randall]] has been playing with his Apple device after installing the recently released {{w|iOS 8}} update. The comic is referencing the autocomplete function on the iOS virtual keyboard (aka [[1031: s/keyboard/leopard/|leopard]]). A comparable feature is also available on other operating systems, like Android. When the phrase, for example, "Revenge is a dish best served" is typed, the keyboard will suggest “by” followed by “a” then “group” and so on.

The top of the comic, where the keyboard is shown, is a reference to the character Sherlock Holmes, a detective who is often attributed the famous line "Elementary, my dear Watson." despite in the Canon having never said that. In Randall's typing history, the word "dear" is most often followed by "lord" "friend" or "friends," and thus the phone suggests those words as a likely continuation of the line.

The title text continues, by showing more actual results from keyboard predictions from other movie quotes.

The following movies are referenced in the comic and title text:

{|class="wikitable"
!Movie
!Character & Situation
!Full Quote
|-

|[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086250/quotes Scarface (1983)]
|Scarface is holding an M16, defending his house from Sosa's gunmen, shouting to attackers.
|"You wanna fuck with me? Okay. You wanna play rough? Okay. Say hello to my little friend!"
|-
|[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/quotes The Wizard of Oz (1939)]
|Dorothy with her dog, Toto, in munchkin land.
|"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
|-
|[http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000007/quotes James Bond]
|Bond introducing himself, while holding trademark martini.
|"Bond, James Bond." (nothing follows).
|-
|[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/quotes Serenity (2005)]
|Wash, at the controls of Serenity.
|"I am a leaf on the wind - watch how I soar."
|-
|[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089218/quotes The Goonies (1985)]
|Mikey standing at the pool in the wishing well, encouraging his troop of misfits to continue on their journey.
|"Goonies never say die!"
|-
|[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/quotes The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)]
|Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli pledge allegiance to protect the ring bearer on their mission to destroy the ring.
|Aragorn: "If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. You have my sword." Legolas: "And you have my bow." Gimli: "And *my* axe."
|-
|[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/quotes The Princess Bride (1987)]
|Inigo Montoya facing the six fingered man, the man he swore a vendetta against for killing his father.
|"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
|-
|[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084726/ Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)]
|Khan paraphrasing Shakespeare to justify his vengeance.
|{{w|Revenge#Proverbs|"Revenge is a dish best served cold"}} (e.g. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084726/quotes Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)]: Khan: "...do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?") The quote is not originally from Star Trek but was used already in 1967 in {{w|Death Rides a Horse}} but it is likely that it is the Star Trek reference that is best known to Randall as it is also referenced as a Klingon proverb in {{w|Kill Bill: Volume 1}}.
|-
|[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112573/quotes Braveheart (1995)]
|Wallace rallying his Scottish army before a seemingly hopeless battle against the English.
|"They may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!"
|}

An older comic [[1068: Swiftkey]] is also about keyboard predictions, but without any preceding text (by the Swiftkey keyboard application instead of the iOS 8 keyboard).

==Transcript==
:'''Movie quotes'''
:[Top picture shows a line typed on an iPhone.]
:Elementary, my dear
:[Then the next line shows the words suggested by the virtual keyboard.]
:Friend | Lord | Friends
:[Below are the visible part of keyboard. In the second line only the top of the letters can be seen.]
:QWERTYUIOP
:ASDFGHJKL
:[Below is a new sub heading above six pictures arranged in two rows.]
:According to iOS 8 keyboard predictions
:[For each of the six pictures a part of the text is black, and the other part is light grey. Below the black text is written in bold letters.]
:[Picture 1: Cueball stands with a machine gun.]
:Cueball: '''Say hello to my little''' sister and my mom and my dad and my friends
:[Picture 2: A girl stands next to her dog with a basket.]
:Girl: '''Toto, I've a feeling we're not''' going to the gym today
:[Picture 3: Bond talks to Megan.]
:James Bond: '''Bond, James Bond''' yields
:[Picture 4: A pilot operates his plane and talks to Cueball behind him.]
:Pilot: '''I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch''' me play the piano
:[Picture 5: A guy with dark hair stands behind a jagged edge.]
:Goonie: '''Goonies never say''' anything
:[Picture 6: A dwarf with long beard and helmet stands with an axe.]
:Off panel left: '''You have my sword.'''
:Off panel right: '''And my bow.'''
:Dwarf: '''And my''' dad

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Firefly]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

Talk:1848: Glacial Erratic

2017-06-09T12:34:45Z

108.162.216.250:

Can 'Fuck glaciers' be a comment on the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.106|162.158.222.106]] 06:57, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

I think Megan just hates the glacier for littering, not for abandoning a child. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.155|141.101.104.155]] 08:42, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:Agree and removed the abandoning explanation. It makes no sense, as it is not a child of the glacier. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:25, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lane Louis Lane] was still alive and conducting when Superman: The Movie came out in 1978. That should probably be fixed.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 12:29, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1848: Glacial Erratic

2017-06-09T12:29:39Z

108.162.216.250:

Can 'Fuck glaciers' be a comment on the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.106|162.158.222.106]] 06:57, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

I think Megan just hates the glacier for littering, not for abandoning a child. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.155|141.101.104.155]] 08:42, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:Agree and removed the abandoning explanation. It makes no sense, as it is not a child of the glacier. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:25, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

[Louis Lane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lane) was still alive and conducting when Superman: The Movie came out in 1978. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 12:29, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1848: Glacial Erratic

2017-06-09T12:28:47Z

108.162.216.250:

Can 'Fuck glaciers' be a comment on the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.106|162.158.222.106]] 06:57, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

I think Megan just hates the glacier for littering, not for abandoning a child. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.155|141.101.104.155]] 08:42, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:Agree and removed the abandoning explanation. It makes no sense, as it is not a child of the glacier. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:25, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

[Louis Lane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lane) was still alive and conducting when Superman: The Movie came out in 1978.

Talk:1819: Sweet 16

2017-04-03T18:44:30Z

108.162.216.250:

I checked it out, if this truly is a basketball comp, then the 1988 Los Angeles Lakers win hands-down. [[User:Themanhimself11|Themanhimself11]] ([[User talk:Themanhimself11|talk]]) 10:25, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
:The youngest members of the '88 Lakers are now in their 50s, which would be a significant handicap. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 69! The team with the best chance here is probably the regular basketball team wearing baseball equipment; with the exception of catcher's gear, it's the least restrictive of all the options.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 18:44, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
:This being Randall, they'll probably be playing basketball by Marquess of Queensberry rules. [[User:Nialpxe|Nialpxe]] ([[User talk:Nialpxe|talk]]) 11:22, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
:A lot of people who play NBA 2K17 are actually good in real life, so they should have a pretty good chance.

WHERE IS MY APRIL FOOLS DAY COMIC?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.130|162.158.238.130]] 11:04, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Minor detail - NBA 2K17 is made by 2K Games, rather than EA. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.36|141.101.107.36]] 12:43, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
:My bad. Must've confused it with the NBA Live series by EA. [[User:Nialpxe|Nialpxe]] ([[User talk:Nialpxe|talk]]) 14:31, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

The additional text says, "Every year I make my bracket at the season ...." Should that say "at the end of the season"? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.105|162.158.74.105]] 13:20, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
:I was thinking it should say "at the beginning of the season," thus explaining why his bracket is busted before the postseason begins. Clearly ''something'' is missing! [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 15:52, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

What we should explain for non-USA people to understand this comic is that it is an annual tradition to predict the full bracket of games and compare the predictions with friends and workmates. It's not just "a competition bracket": it's the annual "I'm trying to picture what would these opponents do". [[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.250|188.114.110.250]] 14:45, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

The real question is, how long will it be before there's an XKCD Bracket II Twitter? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.173|172.68.58.173]] 15:27, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

1606: Five-Day Forecast

2017-02-24T03:16:45Z

108.162.216.250: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1606
| date = November 20, 2015
| title = Five-Day Forecast
| image = five_day_forecast.png
| titletext = You know what they say--if you don't like the weather here in the Solar System, just wait five billion years.
}}
==Explanation==

{{w|Weather forecasting}} is an extremely difficult task, even if it is only for five days. In numerical models, extremely small errors in initial values double roughly every five days for variables such as temperature and wind velocity. So most {{w| Meteorology#Meteorologists |meteorologists}} only provide us with a five-day forecast.

In this comic [[Randall]] takes this to the extreme by first showing a [[Five-Day Forecast]] and then progressing to five-month, year, million, billion and finally trillion-year forecast.

Since the first weather symbol is the same in all six rows, we must assume this indicates the weather today (and not tomorrow or in a trillion years). It is first in the second panel that we have made the first jump according to the label. Consequently, the last column gives the predictions for four days, four months, ..., four trillion years from today.

When moving past the five days, the forecast is just a qualified guess based on the time of year. In a month it is Christmas as shown in the second panel of the second row. And then it is winter with January and February so snow is likely, but certainly not something that happens on all days of a winter month.

Looking at the five-year forecast, guesses are made as to what the weather will be like at the same time of year. For these first three predictions the weather symbols are all of the same three types. Sun, clouds and some kind of {{w|precipitation}}, rain or snow. And the temperature range from 21 to 44 °F (-6.1 to 6.6 °C), winter temperature.

Then we go into the far future, jumping a million year from panel to panel. But still the weather symbols stay the same. However, in 3 million years time aliens (or advanced humans) attack with energy beams from something looking like {{w| flying saucers}}. They are gone a million years later. This is a reference to the television show futurama. In the first episode the main character Fry gets sent into the future by being cryogenicly frozen. As time passes into the future the background the city skyline gets destroyed by flying saucers shooting lasers. The temperature range is still the same (except that it rises to 52 °F or 11.1 °C, a possible reference to global warming) in one panel. But then while the attack is going on the temperature rises to 275 °F (135 °C).

Once we get to the billion-year mark it actually becomes more meaningful to try to predict the "weather". Because now we reach the times when the {{w|Sun}} begins to change. Although the Sun will continue to burn hydrogen for about 5 billion years yet (while in its {{w|Sun#Main_sequence|main sequence|}}), it will still grow in diameter as it begins to exhaust its supply of fuel. The core will contract to increase the temperature, and the outer layer will then compensate by expanding slightly. This is what is indicated in panel two and three where the color of the Sun changes towards red as the surface becomes less hot as it expands away from the center of the Sun. The temperature will rise on Earth as indicated in the panels (105 °F = 40.5 °C and 371 °F = 188 °C). So in two billion years the temperature is hot enough that all the earth's oceans will have boiled away… Actually this will happen already in about [http://phys.org/news/2015-02-sun-wont-die-billion-years.html a billion years].

Then once there is {{w|Sun#After_core_hydrogen_exhaustion|no longer enough hydrogen}} the Sun will truly expand into a {{w|red giant}}. This should not happen until five billions years from now {{Citation needed}}, but in the forecast it is indicated to happen already in three. Maybe this is Randall taking liberties to show what happens during this phase, which would not fit into a five-billion-years forecast. Alternatively it is just indicating how uncertain these kind of forecasts are, or a statement that we may not know for certain that it will take five not three billion years.
Disregarding this, the fourth panel shows the temperature at Earth's position inside the red giant Sun. The color of the panel indicates that we are inside the Sun. The temperature is 71,488,106 degrees Fahrenheit (39,715,597 degrees Celsius). The current temperature of the center of the Sun is "only" 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). And although that may rise by a factor of ten during {{w| Stellar nucleosynthesis |helium fusion}} then that will only be at the very core and not out in the solar atmosphere reaching out to Earth Here the temperature would only be of the order of thousands of Fahrenheit, since the Sun's outer temperature decreases as it increases its diameter. So this panels temperature also makes little sense. It may involve some ambiguities regarding what the forecast means; the edge of the red giant Sun is predicted to be somewhere near the current orbit of Earth, but the position of the Earth could change. The most likely prediction at the moment is for Earth to move outward, but if the planet is engulfed by the Sun, it would spiral inward, and at some point fall apart. So in some sense "here" for the forecast could become a position deep inside the Sun, where core temperatures could reach 100 million Kelvin.

The red giant phase only last half a million years, so a billion years after the Sun has been a red giant its outer atmosphere will for sure have disappeared leaving only a {{w|white dwarf}} to cool down. Given Randall's version of this time schedule, then it will have had about a billion years to cool down, but would still likely be the brightest object in the sky as seen from where the Earth once was. It is not indicated in the last panel, where we just see other stars of the Galaxy. The temperature is down to that of the {{w|Cosmic microwave background |background radiation}}. Today this radiation has a temperature of 2.72548 kelvin = -270.4245 °C = -454.7641 °F. So this is a few degree F colder than what is shown in the comic which states the temperature is -452 °F = 4.26 kelvin. This higher temperature may have been chosen to reflect that even the star light from other stars would increase the actual temperature.

In the last panel with trillion years, we jump right past the Sun's Red Giant phase, to a panel looking much like the one after five billions years with only other stars. Over the next three trillion years the stars become fewer and fewer and dimmer and dimmer as they run out of fuel and fewer new stars form. After four trillion years the background temperature even decreases one degree to -453 °F as the universe keeps expanding and the wavelength of the radiation does the same, thus decreasing its temperature.

The title text is a play on comments referring to fast-changing weather on a more ordinary human timescale, such as Mark Twain's quip "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."

A ten days forecast was used in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]]. In [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]] Randall looked at the weather over long periods of time as well.

==Transcript==
:[A grid with six rows of five columns, where each row is labeled to the left. For each of the 30 squares a temperature is given in Fahrenheit at the top left. The rest of the square represents the weather as in a weather forecast (or some other relevant items for the comic), mainly in bright colors. Below are the six labels given above each of their five weather symbols with temperature given below these symbols description.]

:'''Your 5-day forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:41°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:44°F

:'''Your 5-month forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A green Christmas tree with red presents beneath it.]
:29°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:21°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:24°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:35°F

:'''Your 5-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:25°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:37°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:41°F

:'''Your 5-million-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:52°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:40°F
:[Two red flying saucers (with bright domes) are shooting energy beams downwards. One of the beams seems to impact with something at the bottom of the panel, which then explodes. Two plumes of smoke rises up from below, drifting to the right.]
:275°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F

:'''Your 5-billion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A larger orange sun.]
:105°F
:[A very large red sun.]
:371°F
:[A pale yellow panel with no drawing.]
:71,488,106°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F

:'''Your 5-trillion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with many stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with fewer not so bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with few dim stars.]
:-453°F

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

1773: Negativity

2017-02-20T16:29:07Z

108.162.216.250: "c" in exciting ~~~~

{{comic
| number = 1773
| date = December 16, 2016
| title = Negativity
| image = negativity.png
| titletext = [Google search] how do I block my lawn
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is going outside for some fresh air because he wants to escape the {{w|Internet Troll|trolls}} of the {{w|Internet}}, which is known for hosting several hostile and unpleasant ideas and people. However, as he walks, some grass speaks up to insult him, and Cueball is upset to find that he hasn't escaped the negativity at all.

The title text expands on this, with him searching {{w|Google}} for how to "block the lawn". Blocking someone refers to a standard setting on websites and online services that can prevent certain users from communicating with you, but it is as yet unknown how this would work for a lawn insulting you.{{Citation needed}} This is made ironic by the fact he is using the Internet to find an Internet technique (blocking) on a non-Internet object, while at the start of the comic, he just wanted to escape the Internet. (Wait, what?)

The term "blocking" is actually used in lawn-care [https://www.bayeradvanced.com/articles/how-to-tell-if-your-lawn-needs-dethatching] to refer to techniques where sunlight is restricted from reaching the lower parts of the grass stems and to persuade the root system to grow deeper into the soil.

Comic [[1749]] also involves an unusual occurrence of vocalizing flora.

The negativity Cueball meets on-line is likely due to the results of the recent 2016 {{w|United States presidential election}} and this one was released only three days before the {{w|U.S. Electoral College}} voted for {{w|Donald Trump}} to become the 45th president of the United States, and this was still a bit exciting as there where rumors/hopes that {{w|the Faithless electors in the United States presidential election, 2016|some of the electors would not vote for Trump}}. (But only two changed away from Trump!) That this is likely is further supported with other recent comics. The first of these [[1761: Blame]] is almost a prequel to this one, as it is about being sad about what happens on-line. This comic here was thus the second sad comics following the election, culminating shortly after his {{w|Inauguration of Donald Trump|inauguration}} with a comic simply titled [[1790: Sad]]. (See more on other depressive comic in this [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|trivia]].)

==Transcript==
[Cueball walking on grass]

Cueball: It's nice to get outside, away from the pain and negativity of the internet,

[Cueball stops walking]

Cueball: And just enjoy the cool breeze and the grass under my feet.

[Cueball stands there, hands to his hips, looking to the cloudy sky]

[Cueball looks surprised to the grass]

Grass: You ''suuuuck''

Cueball: ''HEY!''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Internet]]