explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1383: Magic Words

2016-03-16T23:09:04Z

108.162.216.31: /* Explanation */ Correct punctuation

{{comic
| number = 1383
| date = June 18, 2014
| title = Magic Words
| image = magic_words.png
| titletext = 'And then whisper 'anapest' in my ear as you hold me?'
}}

==Explanation==
Typically the term "{{w|Foot fetishism|foot fetish}}" refers to a sexual attraction to people's feet. Here, though, [[Megan]] is a linguist, so for her the term "foot" refers not to the body part but to the term's meaning in {{w|Prosody (linguistics)|prosody}}. In this context, {{w|Foot (prosody)|"foot"}} means, per Wikipedia, "the basic metrical unit that generates a line of verse in most Western traditions of poetry," and thus "foot fetish" means an attraction to words that follow such a format.

Common types of feet (which are all referenced in this comic) include
*''{{w|trochee}}'' – a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (demonstrated in the first set of words: "'''sto'''-ry", "'''wa'''-ter", "'''pa'''-per", "'''door'''-way") (see also [[856: Trochee Fixation]]).
*''{{w|iamb (poetry)|iamb}}'' – an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as seen in the second set: "dis-'''arm'''", "A-'''dele's'''", "gi-'''raffe'''", "gre-'''nade'''") (perhaps the best-known foot, due to {{w|iambic pentameter|its use}} by {{w|William Shakespeare}}) (see also [[79: Iambic Pentameter]]).
*''{{w|dactyl (poetry)|dactyl}}'' – a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (used in the third set: "'''straw'''-ber-ry", "'''scor'''-pi-on", "'''po'''-et-ry").
*''{{w|anapest}}'' – (referenced in the title text) two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable; it is thus the reverse of a dactyl (see the [[#Discussion|discussion section]]). Note that the word ''anapest,'' pronounced "ANN-a-pest,"<ref>according to dictionary.com: [http://dictionary.com/browse/anapest <nowiki>[</nowiki>'''an'''-''uh''-pest<nowiki>]</nowiki>, /ˈæn əˌpɛst/]</ref><ref>American pronunciation at Merriam-Webster: [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anapest \ˈa-nə-ˌpest\] </ref><ref>British pronunciation at Oxford Dictionaries: [http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/anapaest /ˈanəpiːst, -pɛst/]</ref> is itself a dactyl, not an anapest, because the stress is on the first syllable. So it is an instance of a {{w|heterological word}}.

Megan thus wishes that [[Cueball]] first use a trochee during foreplay, then switch to an iamb during her main stimulation phase (intercourse or some other type that still enables Cueball to speak freely), and finally switch to a dactyl as she orgasms. According to the title text, after sex she wishes for him to hold her while he whispers the word "anapest" in her ear. But for a linguist like Megan, this is just four different types of "foot" stimulation - thus she can be called a woman with a foot fetish.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are in a bed.]
:Megan: Can you repeat "Story Water Paper Doorway" at the start, then switch to "Disarm Adele's Giraffe Grenade" as we get going, and finally "Strawberry Scorpion Poetry" as I finish?
:[Below the frame.]
:Linguist with a foot fetish

==References==
<references />

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

566: Matrix Revisited

2016-02-15T03:19:37Z

108.162.216.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 566
| date = April 8, 2009
| title = Matrix Revisited
| image = matrix_revisited.png
| titletext = I actually remember being entertained by both the sequels while in the theater. They just don't hold up nearly as well in later comparison.
}}

==Explanation==
In the first frame it is stated that the comic was released on the anniversary of the movie ''{{w|The Matrix}}''. This is not true. The Matrix was released 31 March 1999 in the US, although it was next released in Australia on 8 April 1999, ten years before the release of this comic. But maybe [[Randall]] drew the comic (and had watched the movie) on the true 10 year anniversary day.

[[Megan]] is shocked when she realizes it is already ten years ago that ''The Matrix'' came out. This is an effect Randall has used to [[:Category:Comics_to_make_one_feel_old|make you feel old]] several times (for instance he mentions The Matrix again two years later in [[891: Movie Ages]].)

In ''The Matrix'', almost all of humanity lives in a computer simulation. Many years ago, robots took over the real world (not the simulation), and placed humans into the simulation while their body heat generated power for the robots. A few people have escaped from the Matrix, and they are on a mission with others to free the human race from the robots. The title of the strip is a reference to the documentary on the filming of ''The Matrix'': ''{{w|The Matrix Revisited}}''.

In the first three rows of the comic we see three famous scenes from ''The Matrix'' parodied by Randall. The characters are {{w|Morpheus (The Matrix)|Morpheus}}, with sunglasses; {{w|Neo (The Matrix)|Neo}}, as [[Cueball]] in the first two scenes and with a black cape in the third scene; {{w|Trinity (The Matrix)|Trinity}}, as [[Hair Bun Girl]]; and a security guard in the third scene, as another Cueball-like guy.

In the first scene Morpheus tells Neo that one cannot explain what the Matrix is and that he must see it for himself to understand. Morpheus is very mysterious as he tempts Neo to take a look himself, which, in the movie, leads to the next scene. In this comic, however, Trinity makes Morpheus look foolish by clearly explaining the Matrix in a single, simple phrase, and then telling him that he must suck at explaining.

In the next scene Morpheus tries to ignore Trinity's remark and continues by showing Neo two pills, one red and one blue, and tells Neo that he can either take the blue pill and return to the simulation (the Matrix), never to hear about the Matrix again, or he can take the red pill and leave the Matrix, and "see how deep the rabbit hole goes" (a reference to "{{w|Alice in Wonderland}}"). In the movie, Neo takes the red pill. In the comic, however, he mixes the two pills then {{w|Insufflation_(medicine)|snorts}} the purple powder he has created as though it was an illegal drug such as cocaine, and apparently winds up in a bizarre upside down and inverted dimension, presumably caused by his 'Drug Trip'. Even Morpheus now has no idea where they are. Note that the inversion of both color and orientation could be intended to evoke the idea of capturing an image on film (i.e. a film negative), which is *really* the only place where Neo and Morpheus exist. It is possible that the combination of pills allowed Neo to break through another layer of the simulation. Alternatively, this could simply be Randall trying to explain that they are in an alternate dimension whilst still remaining within the constraints of stick figures on white and black backgrounds.

What leads up to the third scene is when Neo and Trinity must save Morpheus, who has been captured by {{w|Agent (The Matrix)|agents}} of the simulation. They obtain many guns and load them into trenchcoats. In the shown scene Neo is stopped at a security checkpoint in a building in the Matrix. A security guard tells him to remove any metallic items, since the scanner has shown him to have metal on his person, such as keys, and place them in a bin, then walk through the scanner again. In the movie, he opens his trenchcoat, revealing a myriad of weapons and dispatching all of the guards with the assistance of Trinity. In the comic, however, Neo opens his trenchcoat, but the guard's response of "eww" implies that Neo is otherwise naked and the guard is disgusted by his display of his genitals (This could seem ironic since the guard could be said to be even more naked than him. But in the xkcd version of the matrix, stick people are presumably fully dressed unless otherwise indicated.)

When Randall (as Cueball) has seen the movie he turns to his friends (Megan and another Cueball-like guy) and exclaims that he had forgotten how great the movie is. When then his friend suggest they put on the other two sequels, there is a beat panel where Megan and Cueball looks as each other, then they beat up the offender off-panel.

The two sequels to ''The Matrix'' are widely regarded as inferior to the original, with some fans [https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Fanon_Discontinuity pretending they don't exist]. This is what happens when Megan and Cueball returns, and Cueball repeats his statement about how good it was. Then Megan is saddened by the fact they never made any sequels and Cueball agrees. Thus trying hard (even violently) to forget those sequels.

On {{w|IMDb}} the original movie was still in the top 20 on their [http://www.imdb.com/chart/top?tt0133093&ref_=tt_awd top 250 chart] in July 2015, with an average of [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ 8.7] vs. only [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234215 7.2] and [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242653 6.7] to the sequels (though even those two scores are relatively high compared to other action titles).

==Transcript==
:[Megan stands below two pieces of text, in a panel that is without a frame.]
:Today was the ten-year anniversary of the release of ''The Matrix.''
:I sat down to watch it again.
:Megan: Holy fuck, ten years ago?

:[The next three panels of the first row and the next two rows spoofs three scenes from The Matrix.]

:[In scene 1 Morpheus with sunglasses and Trinity with hair bun are talking to Cueball-Neo. Morpheus has his hands together.]
:Morpheus: Unfortunately, no one can explain what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.

:[Trinity lifts her hand.]
:Trinity: Sure you can. It's a computer simulation in which you live, thinking it's reality.
:Neo: Oh.

:[Morpheus takes his hands down and turns around glaring at Trinity who has also taken her hand down.]
:Trinity: ...What?
:Trinity: Look, maybe you just suck at explaining.

:[In scene 2 Morpheus is talking to Neo while holding a red pill and a blue pill. To the far right is a part of a table.]
:Morpheus: ...Or you take the red pill, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

:[Neo takes both pills from Morpheus.]

:[Neo crushes both the red and blue pills on a table top.]
:''Crush''

:[Neo snorts the resulting pink powder through a pipe he holds up to his face (his nose).]
:''Snort''

:[Morpheus and Neo are shown upside down in a frame with inverted colors, i.e., black background with white lines.]
:Morpheus: Now look what you've done.
:Neo: Where are we?
:Morpheus: I have no idea.

:[In scene 3 Neo, wearing a long, black trench coat, at a metal detector, is accosted by the Cueball-like security guard.]
:Guard: Please remove any keys, metallic items, weapons—

:[Neo steps close to the guard and opens his trench coat towards the guard, who is facing the reader. The reader can't see what Neo has under his coat.]

:[Same scene as above, but side view: Neo, on the left, is opening his coat toward the guard, who is on the right and seems to be looking down. Nobody speaks.]

:[Same scene as above but the guard now looks up to Neos face and finally speaks:]
:Guard: Eww.

:[In the last row of the comic we see three characters that have obviously just finished watching The Matrix. Cueball is sitting on the floor nearest to the TV, Megan is sitting on the floor, farther from the TV and a Cueball-like friend is sitting on a chair, farthest from the TV.]
:Cueball: I forgot how good that movie was.
:Friend: Wanna put on the other two?

:[Cueball, still sitting has turned to face Megan. They exchange looks without speaking.]

:[View of room, which is now empty, as is the chair. Sounds comes from off-screen to the right.]
:''Crash''
:''Wham''
:Friend (off-screen): Ow! Ow!

:[Cueball and Megan are back in the room, zoomed in so the TV is no longer visible, but the chair is and it remains empty. The friend is nowhere to be seen.]
:Cueball: I forgot how good that movie was.
:Megan: Too bad they never made any sequels.
:Cueball: True.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:The Matrix]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

1593: Play-By-Play

2015-10-23T14:34:41Z

108.162.216.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1593
| date = October 21, 2015
| title = Play-By-Play
| image = play_by_play.png
| titletext = The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]] comments on a {{w|baseball}} game using improper terminology in a way that demonstrates that he does not understand how the game is played. Moreover, his naïve way of speaking reveals that he is not aware of his lack of knowledge and does not consider it possible that, as is probably the case, his audience is much more familiar with this sport and its rules. His unworldly way of talking makes one even wonder if he has any notion of the way people experience sports at all. His choice of terminology is reminiscent of [[1133: Up Goer Five]] in that he names things using simplified terms that he feels best describes their function like "{{w|Pitcher|thrower}}", "{{w|Baseball field#second base|second pillow}}" or "{{w|bullpen|thrower jail}}". His commentary is a combination is mistaken terms and misunderstandings of the rules and principles of the game.

{| class="wikitable"
!width="20%"|Spoken Text
!width="20%"| Corrected "Translation"
!width="60%"| Explanation
|-
|"We're on part 5 of a hitting game."
|"We're in the 5th inning of a baseball game."
|Part of baseball is hitting the ball with the {{w|Baseball bat|bat}}. A baseball game is divided into rounds, called {{w|Inning|innings}} with each team getting a chance to bat.
|-
|"The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far."
| --
|This is a simply a misunderstanding that the size of a bat will determine the strength of the hit. Every hitter uses a bat that fits his physique, within certain {{w|Baseball_bat#Baseball_bat_regulations|limits}} in the rules. In general, the size of a bat is not a significant factor on the ball's distance. The limits in the rules generally prevent any sort of advantage gained by the size of the bat.
|-
|"Wait - he missed!" "Oh good, they're letting him try again."
|"Swing and a miss." "Here comes the second pitch..."
|The goal in baseball for the fielding team is to get three outs to end the inning. One way to get an out is for the {{w|pitcher}} to get the batter to accumulate three strikes for a {{w|strikeout}}. A pitch that goes through the {{w|strike zone}} but is not swung at is counted as a strike, as is ''any'' ball that is swung at but missed. A foul ball (a ball hit into an out-of-play area) also counts as a strike unless it would be the third strike. In this case, the batter swung at and missed the first pitch, and so has one strike but not a strikeout, so the hitter is allowed to "try again".
|-
|"The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow. Rude."
|"The fans in the {{w|bleacher}}s are heckling the batter, but he's keeping his focus on the game."
|Cheering and heckling is so commonplace that the players on the field are unlikely to react to it. While some might think the cheering and heckling to be rude, Beret Guy is amazed at the batter's rudeness in ignoring those who are yelling at him.
|-
|"This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them."
|"This pitcher is good! He keeps striking out batters." (possibly)
|Beret Guy may be indicating that the pitcher has struck out several batters. Batters who are out return to the {{w|dugout}} and the next batter replaces them. On the other hand, given Beret Guy's lack of baseball knowledge, it's possible that the pitcher has {{w|Walk (baseball)|walked}} batters which would result in the batters leaving the batter's box and going to first base. Beret Guy could be considering this "making people leave".
|-
|"It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in."
|"There are so few hits in this game that only the pitcher needs to throw. None of the fielders need to do anything".
|The other players of the team do not pitch. Their role while fielding is to get outs if the ball is hit. If the pitcher is either striking out or walking batters, the fielders (other than the {{w|catcher}}) would not generally be involved in the play.
|-
|"That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!"
|"The runner stole second base."
|Any {{w|Baserunning|baserunner}} (a player standing at a {{w|Baseball field|base}}) can attempt to run to the next base before or while the pitcher delivers a pitch (called {{w|Stolen base|stealing a base}}). The pitcher can throw the ball to one of his teammates to {{w|tag out}} the runner before he reaches the next base. Thus, an attempt to steal a base is most successful if no one notices.

The "second pillow" implies that the runner in question stole second base, which is the {{w|Stolen base#Plays involving baserunning|most commonly stolen base}}. However, someone who knows little to nothing about baseball, such as Beret Guy in this case, may not be aware which bases are considered "first", "second", and "third", since the bases are not laid out linearly. The fact that there was a runner to steal a base suggests that one of the batters was indeed walked (or got a hit that was not mentioned).
|-
|"Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that. Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once the game is over."
|"The fans are yelling..."
|A stolen base by the visiting team may be met with anger from the fans. A stolen base by either team may cause the other team to be angry. Beret Guy, not knowing the rules of baseball, seems to find it odd that the runner is allowed to steal a base and seems surprised that there is no rule against it. He suggests it's a loophole that hopefully the league will fix once they've learned of the stolen base. In reality, the players, fans and league would be well aware of the legality of stealing a base. Beret Guy's phrasing may be a reference to [[1552: Rulebook]].
|-
|Title text: "The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail."
|"The batters were getting too many hits, so the manager took the pitcher out of the game and called in a reliever from the bullpen."
|If the batters are getting too many hits, it may mean that the pitcher has become tired and less effective or that the batters are learning the pitcher's habits or rhythms. Once this happens, the team's manager will typically replace the pitcher with a {{w|relief pitcher}} who will come out of the {{w|Bullpen|bullpen}} (the generally enclosed area next to the playing field where relief pitchers warm up) to join the game. Beret Guy may be mistaking the manager of one team as in charge of the entire game with his term "King of the Game".
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beret guy is sitting with headphones with a microphone on, looking out of the frame, hands resting on a table.]
:Beret Guy: For those just joining us, hi! We're on part 5 of a hitting game.

:[Zoom out with Beret guy shown from the side sitting at a desk.]
:Beret Guy: The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far.
:Beret Guy: Wait - he missed!
:Beret Guy: Oh good, they're letting him try again.

:[Zoom in again on Beret Guy still seen from the side.]
:Beret Guy: The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow.
:Beret Guy: Rude.

:[Beret guy looks straight out.]
:Beret Guy: This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them.
:Beret Guy: It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in.

:[Beret guy turns his head to the side.]
:Beret Guy: ''That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!''
:Beret Guy: Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that.
:Beret Guy: Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once this game is over.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Baseball]]

1593: Play-By-Play

2015-10-23T14:34:05Z

108.162.216.31:

{{comic
| number = 1593
| date = October 21, 2015
| title = Play-By-Play
| image = play_by_play.png
| titletext = The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]] comments on a {{w|baseball}} game using improper terminology in a way that demonstrates that he does not understand how the game is played. Moreover, his naïve way of speaking reveals that he is not aware of his lack of knowledge and does not consider it possible that, as is probably the case, his audience is much more familiar with this sport and its rules. His unworldly way of talking makes one even wonder if he has any notion of the way people experience sports at all. His choice of terminology is reminiscent of [[1133: Up Goer Five]] in that he names things using simplified terms that he feels best describes their function like "{{w|Pitcher|thrower}}", "{{w|Baseball field#second base|second pillow}}" or "{{w|bullpen|thrower jail}}". His commentary is a combination is mistaken terms and misunderstandings of the rules and principles of the game.

{| class="wikitable"
!width="20%"|Spoken Text
!width="20%"| Corrected "Translation"
!width="60%"| Explanation
|-
|"We're on part 5 of a hitting game."
|"We're in the 5th inning of a baseball game."
|Part of baseball is hitting the ball with the {{w|Baseball bat|bat}}. A baseball game is divided into rounds, called {{w|Inning|innings}} with each team getting a chance to bat.
|-
|"The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far."
| --
|This is a simply a misunderstanding that the size of a bat will determine the strength of the hit. Every hitter uses a bat that fits his physique, within certain {{w|Baseball_bat#Baseball_bat_regulations|limits}} in the rules. In general, the size of a bat is not a significant factor on the ball's distance. The limits in the rules generally prevent any sort of advantage gained by the size of the bat.
|-
|"Wait - he missed!" "Oh good, they're letting him try again."
|"Swing and a miss." "Here comes the second pitch..."
|The goal in baseball for the fielding team is to get three outs to end the inning. One way to get an out is for the {{w|pitcher}} to get the batter to accumulating three strikes for a {{w|strikeout}}. A pitch that goes through the {{w|strike zone}} but is not swung at is counted as a strike, as is ''any'' ball that is swung at but missed. A foul ball (a ball hit into an out-of-play area) also counts as a strike unless it would be the third strike. In this case, the batter swung at and missed the first pitch, and so has one strike but not a strikeout, so the hitter is allowed to "try again".
|-
|"The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow. Rude."
|"The fans in the {{w|bleacher}}s are heckling the batter, but he's keeping his focus on the game."
|Cheering and heckling is so commonplace that the players on the field are unlikely to react to it. While some might think the cheering and heckling to be rude, Beret Guy is amazed at the batter's rudeness in ignoring those who are yelling at him.
|-
|"This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them."
|"This pitcher is good! He keeps striking out batters." (possibly)
|Beret Guy may be indicating that the pitcher has struck out several batters. Batters who are out return to the {{w|dugout}} and the next batter replaces them. On the other hand, given Beret Guy's lack of baseball knowledge, it's possible that the pitcher has {{w|Walk (baseball)|walked}} batters which would result in the batters leaving the batter's box and going to first base. Beret Guy could be considering this "making people leave".
|-
|"It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in."
|"There are so few hits in this game that only the pitcher needs to throw. None of the fielders need to do anything".
|The other players of the team do not pitch. Their role while fielding is to get outs if the ball is hit. If the pitcher is either striking out or walking batters, the fielders (other than the {{w|catcher}}) would not generally be involved in the play.
|-
|"That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!"
|"The runner stole second base."
|Any {{w|Baserunning|baserunner}} (a player standing at a {{w|Baseball field|base}}) can attempt to run to the next base before or while the pitcher delivers a pitch (called {{w|Stolen base|stealing a base}}). The pitcher can throw the ball to one of his teammates to {{w|tag out}} the runner before he reaches the next base. Thus, an attempt to steal a base is most successful if no one notices.

The "second pillow" implies that the runner in question stole second base, which is the {{w|Stolen base#Plays involving baserunning|most commonly stolen base}}. However, someone who knows little to nothing about baseball, such as Beret Guy in this case, may not be aware which bases are considered "first", "second", and "third", since the bases are not laid out linearly. The fact that there was a runner to steal a base suggests that one of the batters was indeed walked (or got a hit that was not mentioned).
|-
|"Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that. Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once the game is over."
|"The fans are yelling..."
|A stolen base by the visiting team may be met with anger from the fans. A stolen base by either team may cause the other team to be angry. Beret Guy, not knowing the rules of baseball, seems to find it odd that the runner is allowed to steal a base and seems surprised that there is no rule against it. He suggests it's a loophole that hopefully the league will fix once they've learned of the stolen base. In reality, the players, fans and league would be well aware of the legality of stealing a base. Beret Guy's phrasing may be a reference to [[1552: Rulebook]].
|-
|Title text: "The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail."
|"The batters were getting too many hits, so the manager took the pitcher out of the game and called in a reliever from the bullpen."
|If the batters are getting too many hits, it may mean that the pitcher has become tired and less effective or that the batters are learning the pitcher's habits or rhythms. Once this happens, the team's manager will typically replace the pitcher with a {{w|relief pitcher}} who will come out of the {{w|Bullpen|bullpen}} (the generally enclosed area next to the playing field where relief pitchers warm up) to join the game. Beret Guy may be mistaking the manager of one team as in charge of the entire game with his term "King of the Game".
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beret guy is sitting with headphones with a microphone on, looking out of the frame, hands resting on a table.]
:Beret Guy: For those just joining us, hi! We're on part 5 of a hitting game.

:[Zoom out with Beret guy shown from the side sitting at a desk.]
:Beret Guy: The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far.
:Beret Guy: Wait - he missed!
:Beret Guy: Oh good, they're letting him try again.

:[Zoom in again on Beret Guy still seen from the side.]
:Beret Guy: The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow.
:Beret Guy: Rude.

:[Beret guy looks straight out.]
:Beret Guy: This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them.
:Beret Guy: It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in.

:[Beret guy turns his head to the side.]
:Beret Guy: ''That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!''
:Beret Guy: Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that.
:Beret Guy: Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once this game is over.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Baseball]]

1593: Play-By-Play

2015-10-23T14:33:43Z

108.162.216.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1593
| date = October 21, 2015
| title = Play-By-Play
| image = play_by_play.png
| titletext = The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]] comments on a {{w|baseball}} game using improper terminology in a way that demonstrates that he does not understand how the game is played. Moreover, his naïve way of speaking reveals that he is not aware of his lack of knowledge and does not consider it possible that, as is probably the case, his audience is much more familiar with this sport and its rules. His unworldly way of talking makes one even wonder if he has any notion of the way people experience sports at all. His choice of terminology is reminiscent of [[1133: Up Goer Five]] in that he names things using simplified terms that he feels best describes their function like "{{w|Pitcher|thrower}}", "{{w|Baseball field#second base|second pillow}}" or "{{w|bullpen|thrower jail}}". His commentary is a combination is mistaken terms and misunderstandings of the rules and principles of the game.

{| class="wikitable"
!width="20%"|Spoken Text
!width="20%"| Corrected "Translation"
!width="60%"| Explanation
|-
|"We're on part 5 of a hitting game."
|"We're in the 5th inning of a baseball game."
|Part of baseball is hitting the ball with the {{w|Baseball bat|bat}}. A baseball game is divided into rounds, called {{w|Inning|innings}} with each team getting a chance to bat.
|-
|"The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far."
|--
|This is a simply a misunderstanding that the size of a bat will determine the strength of the hit. Every hitter uses a bat that fits his physique, within certain {{w|Baseball_bat#Baseball_bat_regulations|limits}} in the rules. In general, the size of a bat is not a significant factor on the ball's distance. The limits in the rules generally prevent any sort of advantage gained by the size of the bat.
|-
|"Wait - he missed!" "Oh good, they're letting him try again."
|"Swing and a miss." "Here comes the second pitch..."
|The goal in baseball for the fielding team is to get three outs to end the inning. One way to get an out is for the {{w|pitcher}} to get the batter to accumulating three strikes for a {{w|strikeout}}. A pitch that goes through the {{w|strike zone}} but is not swung at is counted as a strike, as is ''any'' ball that is swung at but missed. A foul ball (a ball hit into an out-of-play area) also counts as a strike unless it would be the third strike. In this case, the batter swung at and missed the first pitch, and so has one strike but not a strikeout, so the hitter is allowed to "try again".
|-
|"The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow. Rude."
|"The fans in the {{w|bleacher}}s are heckling the batter, but he's keeping his focus on the game."
|Cheering and heckling is so commonplace that the players on the field are unlikely to react to it. While some might think the cheering and heckling to be rude, Beret Guy is amazed at the batter's rudeness in ignoring those who are yelling at him.
|-
|"This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them."
|"This pitcher is good! He keeps striking out batters." (possibly)
|Beret Guy may be indicating that the pitcher has struck out several batters. Batters who are out return to the {{w|dugout}} and the next batter replaces them. On the other hand, given Beret Guy's lack of baseball knowledge, it's possible that the pitcher has {{w|Walk (baseball)|walked}} batters which would result in the batters leaving the batter's box and going to first base. Beret Guy could be considering this "making people leave".
|-
|"It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in."
|"There are so few hits in this game that only the pitcher needs to throw. None of the fielders need to do anything".
|The other players of the team do not pitch. Their role while fielding is to get outs if the ball is hit. If the pitcher is either striking out or walking batters, the fielders (other than the {{w|catcher}}) would not generally be involved in the play.
|-
|"That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!"
|"The runner stole second base."
|Any {{w|Baserunning|baserunner}} (a player standing at a {{w|Baseball field|base}}) can attempt to run to the next base before or while the pitcher delivers a pitch (called {{w|Stolen base|stealing a base}}). The pitcher can throw the ball to one of his teammates to {{w|tag out}} the runner before he reaches the next base. Thus, an attempt to steal a base is most successful if no one notices.

The "second pillow" implies that the runner in question stole second base, which is the {{w|Stolen base#Plays involving baserunning|most commonly stolen base}}. However, someone who knows little to nothing about baseball, such as Beret Guy in this case, may not be aware which bases are considered "first", "second", and "third", since the bases are not laid out linearly. The fact that there was a runner to steal a base suggests that one of the batters was indeed walked (or got a hit that was not mentioned).
|-
|"Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that. Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once the game is over."
|"The fans are yelling..."
|A stolen base by the visiting team may be met with anger from the fans. A stolen base by either team may cause the other team to be angry. Beret Guy, not knowing the rules of baseball, seems to find it odd that the runner is allowed to steal a base and seems surprised that there is no rule against it. He suggests it's a loophole that hopefully the league will fix once they've learned of the stolen base. In reality, the players, fans and league would be well aware of the legality of stealing a base. Beret Guy's phrasing may be a reference to [[1552: Rulebook]].
|-
|Title text: "The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail."
|"The batters were getting too many hits, so the manager took the pitcher out of the game and called in a reliever from the bullpen."
|If the batters are getting too many hits, it may mean that the pitcher has become tired and less effective or that the batters are learning the pitcher's habits or rhythms. Once this happens, the team's manager will typically replace the pitcher with a {{w|relief pitcher}} who will come out of the {{w|Bullpen|bullpen}} (the generally enclosed area next to the playing field where relief pitchers warm up) to join the game. Beret Guy may be mistaking the manager of one team as in charge of the entire game with his term "King of the Game".
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beret guy is sitting with headphones with a microphone on, looking out of the frame, hands resting on a table.]
:Beret Guy: For those just joining us, hi! We're on part 5 of a hitting game.

:[Zoom out with Beret guy shown from the side sitting at a desk.]
:Beret Guy: The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far.
:Beret Guy: Wait - he missed!
:Beret Guy: Oh good, they're letting him try again.

:[Zoom in again on Beret Guy still seen from the side.]
:Beret Guy: The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow.
:Beret Guy: Rude.

:[Beret guy looks straight out.]
:Beret Guy: This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them.
:Beret Guy: It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in.

:[Beret guy turns his head to the side.]
:Beret Guy: ''That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!''
:Beret Guy: Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that.
:Beret Guy: Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once this game is over.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Baseball]]

Talk:1594: Human Subjects

2015-10-23T14:01:45Z

108.162.216.31:

The responses in panels 1, 3, and 4 show that Megan is trying to downplay the issues despite better knowledge. This is probably done to surprise the reader of the dialogue for better dramatic effect. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.159|162.158.91.159]] 05:59, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

In the second panel, Megan makes a good point which Ponytail misses. If the control group had a high incidence of arson, while the experimental group did not (and assuming that proper protocols were followed in assigning subjects to groups), there is a possibility that the drug has the side-effect of suppressing the urge for arson [[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 06:45, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
: Where is the point? "People where arrested for arson" - "Side effects" - "They where in the control group". That's not really a point for the side-effect of surpressing the urge for arson, is it? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.217|162.158.114.217]] 09:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
::If only people from the control group have been arrested, it is or could be. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.213|162.158.91.213]] 10:58, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
:::In this case both the control and the test group must be full of arsonists and the question is why did Ponytail let them lose to commit arson in the first place. May bye a double-blind test?[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 13:29, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

did [[Danish]] cut her hair? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.8|108.162.216.8]] 11:22, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

also, the title text could allude to the fact that sociopaths (or successful ones at least) tend to be really adept at getting other people to write off or engage in their behaviours. that is, the IRB, despite the apparent awfulness of the actions of the subjects, on meeting them thought they were pretty cool and people should lay off. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.8|108.162.216.8]] 11:28, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

Are those "citation needed" of any use? There is already a link to Wikipedia for sociopathy. Also, the invoked reasons ("Is an arsonist defined as a sociopath?", "Is a masochist the same as a sociopath?", "Is there an agreed upon definition of 'truly sociopathic behaviour', and is this it?") are not sound to me. Sociopathy is defined as "antisocial behavior", so are arson and sadism. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.23|141.101.66.23]] 11:32, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

: I elected to simply remove references to sociopathy. I think the comic uses the phrase "awful" people, and I don't think it is necessary to instill the article with controversy by defining the people as sociopaths or any other term. Simply describing their traits and noting that it is unusual and why should be sufficient. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 14:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

I realize that this area is for discussing the subject of the comic, but of all the comic strips out there this is the last one I would ever expect to include the "word" ''snuck''. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 13:23, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
:This area is mainly for discussing the improvement of the article. Unlike Wikipedia, here we also can discuss the subject of the comic. I addressed your comment, because I never had heard the word (no scare quotes) ''snuck'', but immediatly knew it was an alternate past tense of ''sneak''. I added this: ''Snuck'' is a dialectal past tense of ''sneak''.[http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/g08.html]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:37, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

::With respect, I don't think the word "snuck" is uncommon or in any way unique to this comic. I don't think there is any valid need to include a line defining a common verb. If people don't know what the word "snuck" is, dictionary websites are aplenty, but let's not turn this site into one of those ones where every word is a link to a definition. Unless it's jargon or technical or a proper noun that needs explanation, I don't think definitions or links are really needed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 14:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

1594: Human Subjects

2015-10-23T13:56:39Z

108.162.216.31: cleanup

{{comic
| number = 1594
| date = October 23, 2015
| title = Human Subjects
| image = human_subjects.png
| titletext = After meeting with a few of the subjects, the IRB actually recommended that you stop stressing out so much about safety guidelines.
}}

==Explanation==
This strip plays on certain experiments involving {{w|Human subject research|human subjects}}. [[Ponytail]] is questioning the reliability of [[Megan]]'s experimental results, given that her human subjects appear to be extremely unusual and highly {{w|sociopathic}}.

In the second panel, she mentions that several people in one study had been arrested for {{w|arson}}. Megan begins to suggest that the arson is a {{w|side effect}} of whatever is being tested before she learns that the arsonists are in the {{w|Treatment and control groups|control group}} – that is, the group that is ''not'' subjected to whatever is being tested and is used as a comparison to see the differences in the people who are actually being tested. This result is "troubling", as the control group would not be expected to have such a high rate of incidence of arsonists. The implication is that her subjects are not representative of the general population, but appear to have been selected from some aberrant subpopulation, such as a prison or mental institution. Or she could have recruited them through an announcement that catered in some way to arsonists. An alternate explanation comes from comic [[790: Control]], in which [[Randall]] notes his hobby of sneaking into experiments and giving LSD to the control groups.

The third panel alludes to the {{w|prisoner's dilemma}}, in which two subjects must independently decide whether to "collaborate" with or "betray" the other subject based on different rewards for each choice (often framed as a different length of prison sentence, or a different amount of money). The rewards tier are selected so that best united outcome for the pair is if both subjects "collaborate", but the best individual outcome is for a subject who betrays when the other subject collaborates (if both betray, the outcome is usually the worst for both individuals). Each subject must decide what to do based on their perceived risk to reward ratio - but in order to do so, they need to know what the rewards are. It would not be expected that normal people would simply betray each other for no reason of personal gain without being offered reward to do so.

The last panel references the {{w|Milgram experiment}}, in which subjects are encouraged by experimenters to administer electric shocks to an unseen third party (the unseen third party is part of the experiment and pretends to be in agony and begging the subject to stop. The results suggest that people will continue to administer shocks despite the pleading upon the insistence of the authority figure for longer than one might expect, even when no incentive is provided to the subject to continue. In this case, however, the actual experiment did not involved electric shocks, and thus suggests that the subjects, of their own volition, brought equipment to produce electric shock and simply engaged in the activity unprompted.

In each of these cases, the subjects seem to have some "negative" psychological traits. While one or two people with such traits might not be unusual to be found in a randomly selected group, the fact that all three experiments contain multiple subjects with these traits (and seemingly the same traits in each study) is very unusual.

The title text refers to safety procedures normally required by {{w|institutional review board}}s, which are centralised groups within universities that ensure that experiments are ethical and safe. The joke is that for an IRB to recommend dispensing with safety procedures after meeting the subjects, the subjects must really, ''really'' deserve bad treatment.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Megan sit at a desk.]
:Ponytail: We're concerned that some of your results may be tainted by the fact that your human subjects are ''awful''.
:Megan: What do you mean?

:[Ponytail picks up a sheet of paper.]
:Ponytail: Several participants in your drug trial were arrested for arson.
:Megan: Side effects can be unpredictable.
:Ponytail: They were in the control group.

:[Zoom in on Ponytail.]
:Ponytail: In your prisoner's dilemma study, 80% of the participants chose to betray their partners '''''before''''' the experimenter had a chance to tell them about the reward.
:Megan (off-panel): Definitely troubling.

:[Ponytail shows Megan another sheet of paper.]
:Ponytail: In one experiment, your subjects repeatedly gave electric shocks to a stranger in another room.
:Megan: That's a famous psychological-
:Ponytail: This was a study of moisturizing creams!
:Megan: Yes, we're not sure how they snuck in all that equipment.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Science]]

1500: Upside-Down Map

2015-03-18T14:49:19Z

108.162.216.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1500
| date = March 18, 2015
| title = Upside-Down Map
| image = upside_down_map.png
| titletext = Due to their proximity across the channel, there's long been tension between North Korea and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Southern Ireland.
}}

==Explanation==
People often say that maps with the {{w|South-up map orientation|south pole at the top}} will ''change your perspective of the world''. Such a map can easily be achieved by simply rotating a normal map through 180 degrees.

This map is a comedic play on that where instead of the whole map being upside-down, each land mass is in the same position it would be in a traditional north-top map but rotated 180 degrees (presumably around some central point of the landmass) to the orientation it would have in a south-top map. Note that individual islands are rotated about their own centers, not following the rotation of the neighboring continent; however, they are displaced as necessary to keep them from being overlapped by the rotated continents (for instance, {{w|Madagascar}} would be overlapped by the {{w|Sahara}} if it remained in position, but is instead displaced eastward to keep it in the Indian Ocean).

To keep their familiar shapes on a rectangular map, the continents would also have to be heavily distorted compared to their actual shapes, becoming much narrower (along the lines of latitude) near the poles and wider towards the equator. See also [[977: Map Projections]].

It is interesting that {{w|Australia}}, {{w|Tasmania}} and {{w|New Zealand}} do not look very much different from their normal appearance. They are so close that some have asked ''why Australia was not rotated''. But they have been rotated, just like all other separate landmasses on the map.

This arrangement of the world's land masses would have great advantages for trade, because there are (presumably navigable) straits between the {{w|Americas}} and between Africa and {{w|Asia}}, removing the need for the {{w|Panama Canal}} and the {{w|Suez Canal}}.

The title text references the fact that in this new map, the {{w|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland}} (UK) is now next to Asia, specifically the {{w|Korean Peninsula}}. {{w|North Korea}}, is mentioned in the text, having a history of hostile relations with nearby countries. However, on this map North Korea would be the part of {{w|Korea}} we today know as {{w|South Korea}}, Further, {{w|Northern Ireland}} is now at the south of the {{w|island of Ireland}}, so the UK's full name would need to change to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and '''Southern''' Ireland. There have been several wars concerning the {{w|English Channel}}, mainly, but not only, between {{w|England}} and {{w|France}}. Since a similar channel now, on this world map, is between the UK and North Korea (our map's South Korea) there could obviously have been many wars for the dominance over said channel.

Along the same line of thinking, jokes could be made of the following "new" facts:
*{{w|Cuba}} is now off the west coast (formerly east coast) of {{w|USA}} and {{w|Canada}}.
*{{w|Japan}} is next to the coast of {{w|Portugal}} and {{w|Spain}}.
*Madagascar lies next to {{w|Mauritania}} and the west (now east) coast of Sahara.
*{{w|Taiwan}} is now next to France. It is though doubtful whether they get along any better with the French than with the mainland {{w|China|Chinese}}.
*{{w|Greenland}} lies next to {{w|Mexico}}.
*{{w|Sri Lanka}} is located next to the {{w|Yamalsky District}} of {{w|Russia}}.
*The island {{w|Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego|Tierra del Fuego}}, an island just south of the southern tip of South America, which is divided between {{w|Argentina}} and {{w|Chile}} is now located in a similar manner next to {{w|Colombia}} and {{w|Venezuela}}. So it would probably have been divided between these two countries.
*The {{w|Falkland Islands}} (not shown in the map) where Argentina and UK have an ongoing {{w|Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute|sovereignty dispute}} now could be claimed by {{w|Ecuador}} or {{w|Peru}}.
*{{w|Aruba}} would be near Chile and the {{w|Chiloé Archipelago}} would be near Venezuela.
*{{w|Easter Island}} (part of Chile) and {{w|Galápagos Islands}} (part of Ecuador) could be claimed by {{w|Brazil}}.

==Transcript==
:[Map of the world with all the landmasses rotated upside-down.]
:[Four oceans and all the visible continents have been named in large letters in a bold font. The Pacific has been named both to the left and right. Several islands (large and small) have been designated with name but in grey and in a much smaller normal font. For all continents the names are written on them. For the island the name is written in the ocean except for Greenland.]

:[Below the names on the map are given in the order they appear reading from left to right, first for the northern and then the southern hemisphere:]

:[Northern hemisphere:]
:'''North America'''
:Cuba
:Greenland
:'''Atlantic Ocean
:Iceland
:UK
:'''Asia'''
:Sri Lanka
:'''Europe'''
:'''Arctic Ocean'''
:Taiwan
:Japan
:'''Pacific Ocean'''

:[Southern hemisphere:]
:'''Pacific Ocean'''
:'''South America'''
:Tierra del Fuego
:'''Africa'''
:'''Indian Ocean'''
:Madagascar
:Indonesia
:'''Australia'''
:New Zealand

:[Below the main frame:]
:'''The Upside-Down Map will change your perspective of the world!'''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Maps]]

Talk:1393: Timeghost

2014-07-12T00:01:43Z

108.162.216.31:

A lot of the facts seem to fit information that sites like http://you.regettingold.com/ would provide. But I'll leave it up to someone else to work out the dates of everything (except for the imminent and possibly eerie deaths of the strip characters) being referenced, and thus what ages Randall is assuming the various cohorts are... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.233|141.101.99.233]] 04:58, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

''Forrest Gump'' the book - 1986

''Forrest Gump'' the movie - 1994

Vietnam War - 1955 to 1975

Keanu Reeves - born 1965 (age 49)

''The Simpsons'' season 5 - 1993 [[User:Dude1818|Dude1818]] ([[User talk:Dude1818|talk]]) 05:15, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

I'm sure you all remember [[1108:_Cautionary_Ghost|Cautionary Ghost]]; there's got to be a lot of those around in the xkcd universe... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.73|108.162.231.73]] 07:23, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

I don't know enough about the English usage of the term to see the connection, but could this be a play on "zeitgeist", seeing how it is a literal translation of the word? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.115|103.22.200.115]] Tobl

Maybe it is just me, but I don't see the characters' deaths as imminent. In the first panel, Megan is not suprised to see that ghost and can even identify it easily. So my guess is that she previously met the ghost "some time" before, but she (obviously) doesn't like to know how much time she has left to live. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.156|108.162.229.156]] 08:12, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

(average age of new grandparents is 47 as of 2012) [http://www.aarp.org/about-aarp/press-center/info-03-2012/New-AARP-Survey-Finds-Grandparents-Play-Essential-Role.html from AARP] {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.53}}
:can I site xkcd:1393 as a source for that data?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.79|173.245.48.79]] 09:17, 11 July 2014 (UTC)BLuDgeons

Google gives 25 as the average age people get their first child. Wikipedia also says Eminem rose to mainstream popularity in 1999 (His debut was earlier but the comic says "when Eminem got big", a subjective term but the 1999 figure might be more accurate?) This also makes season 5/6 of the Simpsons at age 4/5 the earliest age most people remember well.
Maybe change the dates to 1989, 1993 and 1999 for parenthood, simpsons and eminem respectively?

Sources:
Parent age: http://www.babycenter.com/0_surprising-facts-about-birth-in-the-united-states_1372273.bc?page=2 (questionable maybe)
Eminem got big: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem (Second paragraph, subjective)
Earliest memories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia (Second paragraph, personal recollection offset is 4.5 years)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.86|141.101.104.86]] 09:46, 11 July 2014 (UTC)
:I can't find a current number, but extrapolation from [http://www.familyfacts.org/charts/219/the-average-age-of-first-time-mothers-has-steadily-increased this] chart would put the average parent age for their first child at 25 or maybe 26. 28 is the average parent age for any child. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 12:34, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

How can we say that the time-ghost only first appeared in the beginning of this particular comic? In the first panel Megan seems to recognize the time-ghost, inferring that she's met him before - but Cueball has not. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:29, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1386: People are Stupid

2014-06-26T14:04:32Z

108.162.216.31:

On average yes, an individual is of average intelligence. But taken as a population of a whole, well, that's a different story entirely. Randall needs a vacation, ever since he jumped the shark with the dead baby it just feels like the downward trend is getting steeper. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.135|108.162.210.135]] 13:20, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Isn't that a reference to the Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.119|103.22.200.119]] 04:49, 25 June 2014 (UTC)krayZpaving

White Hat being burned? This certainly will not end here.--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.102.208|141.101.102.208]] 04:52, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

'''''Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.''''' This wiki is founded on the very principle that people are stupid. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.223.29|108.162.223.29]] 05:35, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: You make an intelligent point, which I both appreciate and like. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.50|108.162.222.50]] 13:41, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
::Awww, it's just a joke, it's not personal or anything! '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:43, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

This comment is one that makes me scratch my head and wonder... surely Randall is able to see that intelligence is not a relative but rather an absolute thing (if one were to kill the 10% most intelligent people the rest wouldn't get dumber, nor smarter). Surely intelligence is not to be measured in units of the common denominator. Surely it is obvious that 2nd panel is a pure strawman. Sigh...
Oh and btw an IQ of 100 is the median, not the average. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.17|141.101.104.17]] 09:18, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: I am wondering if the explanation should not include a mention of the Median/Mean problem because it is entirely possible for a majority of a population to be above or below some mean (average) statistic depending on the distribution. Also stupidity is a standard that is not dependent on either median or mean.[[User:Sturmovik|Sturmovik]] ([[User talk:Sturmovik|talk]]) 11:46, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: The IQ of 100 is actually defined to be the median AND the average (and also the mode). It is also defined that the distibution around the IQ of 100 is a perfect bell curve. The IQ just tells you how many people in the world have your IQ (It is also defined that two values that have same distance from hundred, e.g. 80 and 120 have the same amount of people, 'cause it's a perfect bell curve (this means that there are as many people with IQ 120 as people with IQ 80). If the overall population gets more intelligent they have to make the IQ tests harder, so that 100 is again the average and median (This really happened). This and some other things are reasons why I think that IQ tests are BS. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.219|141.101.93.219]] 14:01, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
:: "A test device with numerous correlates measures an amount of environmental influences beside innate determinants, therefore bullshit"... What are your other objections to I.Q. testing? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.221|141.101.89.221]] 14:17, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

The mocking "award", which is an analogy of saying "intelligence isn't everything" (an EXTREMELY common cliche), reflects the fact that Randall, like just about anyone, is oblivious to the magnitude of the totality of positive correlates of intelligence, and even (TRIGGER WARNING, TABOO CONCEPT AHEAD) I.Q. Intelligence, I.Q., not only makes you happier, it also makes you more helpful to other people, more creative, more socially stable, better-to-do, less susceptible to mental illnesses, more likely to remember events in your life, etc. etc. etc... Basically, there isn't a positive trait or quality of life with which intelligence doesn't correlate. But people positively LOATHE awareness of how highly intelligence, in fact, matters. Hence the vehement denial whenever someone indicates its importance, all the "I know an intelligent person who is miserable/mean/...", all stressing of exceptions, all ridicule of the notion of intelligence in general, all the "don't think about it"-mentality, all writing off of I.Q. as "antiquated, grossly limited, racist, metric" rather than the extremely potent predictor that it is. tl;dr Randall at all, take time to actually STUDY intelligence or the g factor before you mock it like that. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 09:25, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: In other words (and this is going to be my last addendum to this note, because it is a vast subject), whenever people say (or imply, as in the comic's case) that "intelligence isn't everything", the question to ask in return is, "okay, now what is the degree to which intelligence enables, facilitates, contributes to, 'the rest' to which you're opposing intelligence here?". People minimise the depth and breadth of the intellectual substrate of achievement. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 09:33, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: Also, Randall (and everyone saying that) is being highly unjust in equating "people aren't smart" with "people aren't as smart as me". A perfectly valid alternative sense is, "people aren't as smart as to be rationally expected to contribute to rather than damage the discussion/situation/position at hand"--having the objective good, the objective recognition that certain situations (for instance, a certain online conversation which is expected to be competent) require certain minimal intellectual thresholds (for instance, an I.Q. of 120), in mind rather than egotic comparison. Lower intelligence, deny it all you please, comes with temperamental problems for instance. Selection for intelligence will largely filter them out. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 09:46, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
:: tl;dr of my entire production here: people must learn that BOTH situations of the Dunning-Kruger are equally harmful, the one that's less often considered perhaps actually even more so. Mistaken self-perception as intelligent is bad for the individual, but refusal to acknowledge the importance of one's own cognitive capacity (which is as good as universal in intelligent people--"I am not that smart" (who hasn't heard that one innumerable times?), "I just like doing thing x, my proficiency in it has nothing to do with my intelligence or I.Q.", "I have areas in which I'm 'stupid' too", "effort counts too") has societal consequences, of contributing to erroneous dismissal of the notions of intelligence & I.Q. & g etc. Shutting up for good now. Night. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 10:11, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
::: GAHHHHH just one more thing. Consider this: the fact that people dismiss I.Q. is the best indicator of how important a trait it really is. Thing is, people would not feel compelled by modesty to deny its importance had it not been vitally integral to many, many things. We deny what we value, so to give hope to those who lack that thing (to comfort those who lack intelligence). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 10:15, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
:::: Hey 141.101.89.211... I wonder if you have something to say, but despite my best efforts, I'm having trouble following everything you're saying - I have a feeling you were a bit emotional (perhaps tired?) when writing that, or you might have had fewer "more things" immediately following "I'm done" statements. If you're up for it, I'd appreciate you taking the time to make sure you're saying what you want to say, and ''then'' say it, because you seem to at least have good grammar (though there ''were'' a few British spellings... :-D), so I suspect you probably have a good point. It's also conceivable that I'm just not smart enough to get what you're saying (?) or perhaps it's just too ''early'' for me. BTW the best way of making sure I see what you're saying would probably be to let me know on my [[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk page]]... might even have the conversation there if you'd prefer. Thanks for your time. [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 11:25, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: I don't know why you think that 141.101.89.211... No where does the comic say that. The mocking award is simply mocking people who '''may or may not''' have higher intelligence than the people they're addressing taking a Better Than Thou attitude because they think they do. In other words: "Higher intelligence doesn't give you an excuse to act like a jerk." I'm sure you can agree with that too [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.218|108.162.245.218]] 04:42, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

I would add one "people are stupid" angle not yet mentioned: judging by behavior, most groups of people are less intelligent that any member of that group individually. This is valid even for the "all people" group - just look at the planet. Surprisingly, judging by content of most wikis, the "editors of wiki" groups seems to immune. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:05, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: Good point--conforming to pressures of one's group or one's position to the detriment of one's judgment is a separate personality trait. The phenomenon is remedied by intelligence, but independent from it. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 10:11, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: Beat me to it. I'd like to add that even individual people have their occasional stupid and intelligent moments, with the stupid ones typically being of greater magnitude. Thus, it's not unreasonable to say that the average actions of people are at least slightly less intelligent than the average intelligence of most people on most days. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.83|173.245.55.83]] 12:13, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: Similar to the statement in the film "Men In Black". Agent J says, "Why the big secret [about the aliens among us]? People are smart. They can handle it." Agent K responds, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.45|108.162.221.45]] 01:15, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

I can't believe people say things like that, man, people are stupid [[User:Halfhat|Halfhat]] ([[User talk:Halfhat|talk]]) 10:52, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the Lake Wobegon references. Not only is it on-target, but I take personal joy seeing mentions of uniquely Minnesotan culture anywhere I can find them. --BigMal27, Minnesota-born, Minnesotan-raised // [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.88|173.245.55.88]] 11:53, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Instead of saying, "People are stupid," we would do better to say "People make poor decisions / statements / judgments." And this, for multiple reasons, few of them I suspect tied to basal intelligence. Stage of life, level of health and stress, experience relative to the topic, level of education and the quality of that education, cultural idiotic beliefs that interfere with optimal choices, and a zillion others. Plus, as a large percentage of humans are either just coming online in experience and education, or are winding down in health and mental function, we are guaranteed to see a large percentage of stupid decisions right across the IQ landscape. No help for it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.217|108.162.246.217]] 13:04, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: I.Q. affects level of health and stress, rate of acquisition of experience, level of education, quality of education obtained, preference of cultural beliefs. It doesn't seem to defy reason that it affects the zillion other factors, too. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.221|141.101.89.221]] 13:17, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
: Remember, in interaction between psychological and social factors, the question is never of *existence* of a connection, but of its magnitude. It is fine to posit a multitude of environmental factors that determine (ir)rationality, but as long as such position keeps people from connecting I.Q. with those factors' actual occurrence (how much I.Q. does it take to finish a good school? to develop a habit of reading a book every month? this is not at all trivial question, and it needs to be resolved with more than anecdotal evidence of "I know an intelligent illiterate person"), there might be an elephant buried underneath the room which no one knows about. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.221|141.101.89.221]] 13:25, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

I know Cueball's explanation can be construed to illustrate otherwise; but I doubt the comic was meant to be a comment on the relative intelligence of humanity. It seems more likely, to me, that the purpose of the comic was to comment on the stonewalling that the mindset, "I'm better than you," induces. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.35|108.162.216.35]] 15:12, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

The cartoon never mentions I.Q. at all, Just "Average Intelligence", so the Mean/Median discussion is moot. As for the other discussion on this page, I'm just going to quote Blaise Pascal: "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time" [[User:Jim E|Jim E]] ([[User talk:Jim E|talk]]) 16:00, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

As mentioned above, in other comments that it's hard to find a way to indent from, there's a difference between different 'average's. (To compare "the median" with "the average" is not a good way of doing it, because one needn't know whether you're talking mean or mode in the second sense. I could even say that I have more than the average number of arms, for a human.) The assumption that the median [i]and[/i] mean (and, perhaps, also mode) are a single location at which 100IQ can be placed is dependant upon the bell curve being symmetrical. Just one hyper-intelligent could skew the mean well above the median. (Ok, so we're talking about comic-book "hyper"ness, to make it significant, in a world's worth of population, but the principle still stands for any more manageable population.) And about IQ tests being recalibrated... there is already a common convention that there's a score-adjuster (or a look-up table, based on this) that gives you different IQs for the same number of correct answers but for people of different ages (and sometimes male/female). Which seems to me like "we give up trying to be demographically neutral, let's just find how well different people answer in our test and then work out where their own arbitrary sub-group's bell-curve stradles". That said, I like IQ tests. I do well in them, and have fun doing them, even if I don't actually believe in them any more than I believe in Sudoku puzzles! And, sorry, I ended up typing far more than I had intended... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.193|141.101.99.193]] 16:31, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

I see a lot of discussion on intelligence, but nothing on "losing faith in humanity". The way I see it everywhere is not in response to stupid people, but to acts of inhumanity. Random acts of violence and hate, for example. Or not random, but large scale. "Restored my faith in humanity" comments often refer to the opposite (in my experience) which involve random acts of kindness, or large-scale altruism. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 08:48, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

What about people using Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and any other "social network web 2.0" thing? They certainly aren't an individual or small group, they are stupid and I've lost my faith in them. :)

There are distributions where majority of the population would indeed be below average. Luckily for humanity, intelligence is on a bell curve! I am happy beyond words that this is the case.

1023: Late-Night PBS

2014-05-02T02:47:36Z

108.162.216.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1023
| date = February 29, 2012
| title = Late-Night PBS
| image = late night pbs.png
| titletext = Then it switched to these old black-and-white tapes of Bob Ross slumped against the wall of an empty room, painting the least happy trees you've ever seen. Either PBS needs to beef up studio security or I need to stop using Ambien to sleep.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|PBS}} stands for Public Broadcasting Service and is an American TV broadcaster that is predominantly supported by the viewers themselves through pledge drives. It often runs (and sometimes co-produces) acclaimed British {{w|costume drama}}s, including the mentioned ''{{w|Downton Abbey}}''.

Megan falls asleep with the TV on after watching ''Downton Abbey''. When she wakes up, around 3 AM, "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego" is airing. Unlike typical late night TV, which is usually re-runs of previously recorded episodes, she claims that the episode she watched is set in the modern day (i.e. PBS had ordered new episodes of the show) and all of the people on the show have aged accordingly.

"{{w|Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego}}" was a {{w|computer game}} series in the mid-80s. The series moved to a {{w|Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego (game show)|game-show TV series}} in the early from around 1990 to 1995. The point of the series was to learn about geography and the world while playing a game or watching a game show. {{w|Carmen Sandiego}} was a mysterious character that you tracked around the globe, attempting to find clues to find out where she was headed to next. The show was split into 3 rounds. In the first round, there were 3 sleuths. Each question they got right gave them additional points. The top 2 scoring sleuths moved onto the next round, where they had to play a game (like the game Memory) where they had to find the thief, warrant, and loot in the correct order. Whichever sleuth did so captured the thief, saved the loot, and moved onto the next round, where they had a chance to catch Carmen Sandiego herself. Success was not always guaranteed in this round, as contestants had to plant flags correct on 7 different countries in a continent within a very short time period. If the sleuth was successfully able to do this, they captured Carmen and won the grand prize (a trip to a place of their choosing in the continental US). If not, Carmen would escape and the sleuth would win a lesser prize (like a computer).

The role of The Chief was played by {{w|Lynne Thigpen}}, a role she played in all 3 computer games (Where in the USA, Where in the World, and Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego) and both TV shows (Where in Time and Where in the World). She was responsible for telling the detectives (sleuths) what had been stolen, which of Carmen's thieves was suspected of stealing it, and some relevant information about their last whereabouts (effectively, telling the sleuths what their mission was). Whenever the detectives would catch a thief (or Carmen), she would appear and congratulate them or console them if Carmen got away (unlike what she does here).

The host of the TV show was {{w|Greg Lee (actor)|Greg Lee}}. When the show originally aired, Greg was in his late 20s/early 30s. His job was to ask the questions of the contestants and tell them which flags to plant on the map in the final round, as well as engage in silly situations with The Chief and Rockapella to keep the show moving and provide clues. If the show were still airing today in 2012 he would be 50, hence the aging joke. This comic is not the first time a host of one of the Carmen Sandiego TV shows was mocked and shown as drinking on the job; Robot Chicken showed a similar scenario with the host of Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego in 2010 ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EIULR-zLEk link] — the voice of the host in the skit is the voice of the actual host from Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego).

{{w|Rockapella}} was the '{{w|A cappella}}' group (keeping up the tradition of punny names for a cappella groups) which sang the theme song to "Where in The World Is Carmen Sandiego." 'A cappella' is a loan word from Italian meaning "''in the manner of the Church''" hearkening back to {{w|Gregorian chant}}; in the 19th century the term evolved to mean any vocalization without accompaniment. In the TV version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Rockapella also acted as a "house band" of sorts, singing songs while the contestants transitioned between events, providing clues, playing pranks on Greg Lee, etc. At the end of each show, Greg Lee and the episode's winning contestant would shout "Do it, Rockapella!" at which point the band would sing the shows theme song. Thus, it is unsurprising that they would be on the set when the contestants captured Carmen Sandiego. The humorous part is that, instead of singing, like everyone else in this comic, they make the contestants feel uncomfortable by glaring at them (something they would never do).

In the Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego TV show, the places the contestants went were always portrayed as fun and happy, unlike the places that they have to visit in this comic. Situations like those mentioned in this comic were never really discussed.

{{w|Mogadishu}} is a battle-torn city in {{w|Somalia}}, where there was the aptly named "{{w|Battle of Mogadishu (1993)|Battle of Mogadishu}}" in 1993, which would coincide with the air dates of "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego" game show.

{{w|The Killing Fields}} are a number of sites in {{w|Cambodia}} where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the {{w|Khmer Rouge}} regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the {{w|Cambodian Civil War}} (1970-1975).

The reference to "A Bookshelf in a Dutch Apartment" is a reference to {{w|Anne Frank}}, who was a Jewish girl who hid from the {{w|Nazi}}s in a Secret Annex hidden behind a bookshelf in an apartment in {{w|Amsterdam, Netherlands}}. She wrote the famous diary, {{w|Diary of Anne Frank}}.

One continuity issue in this comic is that the places they have to visit in this episode seem to require traveling to different periods in time (1993, 1975-1979, 1940s, respectively). Episodes of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego usually did not deal with this—this is what the TV show Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego (the successor to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, albeit with a different house band and a different host) did.

The last frame also makes mention of how some programs intended for children often have subtle themes for adults who may be watching the show with their children. {{w|SpongeBob SquarePants#Reception|SquarePants}}, {{w|Friendship_Is_Magic#Fandom|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic}} and The Fairly OddParents are other examples of shows that have hidden meanings in things for the adults watching the show with their children. The joke in the panel is that these sorts of underlying themes were always present in the show, but the young/less mature viewers weren't able to pick up on them. When Cueball expresses his doubt that the show was this dark when he watched it (presumably as a kid in the early 1990s), Megan tells him exactly this, that maybe these scenarios were always there but they were too young to understand them.

In the title text there is a reference to {{w|Bob Ross}}, a famous painter with a painting show on PBS called "{{w|The Joy of Painting}}" that ran for 12 years. Bob Ross was known for using "happy little _____" to describe components of his paintings. For example while painting trees he would encourage viewers to add "happy little trees" to their paintings.

{{w|Ambien}}, also known as Zolpidem, is a prescription medication used for the treatment of insomnia, as well as some brain disorders. Known side effects are vivid dreams and hallucinations if you wake up (or haven’t yet fallen asleep) while it is still active.

Thus, the joke in the title text is that Randall/Megan isn't sure if his is hallucinating from taking Ambien, or if something horrible has happened because PBS's security staff isn't large enough. The entire comic, in general, revolves around this notion.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is rubbing sleep out of her eyes and talking to Cueball.]
:Megan: Have you ever watched PBS late at night?
:Megan: I fell asleep after Downton and woke up at like 3 AM.

:[The upper portion of the panel continues dialogue, while the lower shows a drunk gameshow host and several contestants. The monitor shows a field of crosses, presumably graves.]
:Megan: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego was back on, except the host hadn't aged well and he'd clearly been drinking.
:Megan: Every question took them to some horrible place like Mogadishu or the Cambodian killing fields.

:[Now it shows a bookshelf revealing a hidden room.]
:Megan: The kids were freaked out, but they kept playing. Eventually they were told they'd found Carmen Sandiego hiding behind a bookshelf in a Dutch apartment.

:Megan: The Chief appeared and asked "Are you proud of what you've become?"
:Megan: Then Rockapella walked out and just glared at the kids until they started crying.
:Cueball: I, uh, don't remember the old show being that dark.
:Megan: Maybe we were too young to pick up on it.

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

270: Merlin

2014-04-10T03:52:43Z

108.162.216.31: /* Explanation */ loose to lose. c'mon people

{{comic
| number = 270
| date = May 30, 2007
| title = Merlin
| image = Merlin.png
| titletext = I mean, the black-and-white stuff was running backward, but it hardly mattered to the story.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Merlin}} is a wizard who features prominently in various retelling of the legend of King Arthur. {{w|The Once and Future King}} by author {{w|T. H. White}} is one of the most popular versions of the legend, and in it, Merlin is described as living backwards through time, as Cueball and Megan discuss in this comic (this is also briefly mentioned in the musical {{w|Camelot (musical)|Camelot}}, which is based on this version of the story). In the comic, Cueball is speculating philosophically on how this would have affected Merlin's life as he started life with all his memories, and gradually lost them, comparing this to Cueball's own sense of unreality at goodbyes.

Many old people do, however, end up alone without friends or family. And they may do nothing but watch TV all day. They might also lose their memory. So in this respect Merlin's last days may not be so different from many real peoples. Although they would not be able to enjoy Memento like Merlin.

{{w|Memento (film)|Memento}} is a movie telling the main parts of its story backwards, while a few black-and-white-scenes are straightforward. So when Merlin watches the movie, he sees nearly the whole story in its actual order, and the title text drives home the joke by noting that the few scenes that make sense to someone with normal perceptions would make less sense to him.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan standing by a train.]
:Megan: I'm bad at goodbyes. At some level I never think they're for real.
:Cueball: They make me think of T. H. White's Merlin.
:Megan: Oh?
:Cueball: He lived backwards, remembering the future and not the past. To him, final goodbyes meant nothing, while first hellos were tearful and bittersweet.
:Megan: Huh - so over the years he'd forget all his friends.
:Megan: Must've been lonely.
:Cueball: Yeah. He ended up just sitting around at home watching DVDs all day. The best was the time he rented 'Memento'...
:[Merlin is sitting in front of a couch, watching TV]
:Merlin: Well, that was straightforward.

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

Talk:1328: Update

2014-02-14T15:17:33Z

108.162.216.31:

Note that 1.) web browsers usually can remember opened tabs (and even scroll position) and reopen them automatically on start, and/or ask if reopen those tabs if browser was not closed cleanly 2.) MS Windows tries to reopen apps closed during "upgrade reboot" --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:48, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
:Yes, browsers can remember the last tabs you have open, but may require the user to enable that option as it's off by default (with Chrome anyway - as was my experience). I usually leave it off because I don't necessarily want the last 5 tabs I had open to open automatically the next time I want to start my browser to do something completely different. If (my) Chrome browser crashes however (or otherwise does not close cleanly), it will ask me if I want to restore my previous session, which may include multiple tabs and browsing positions. =8o) [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:12, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
:Windows does not reopen apps that it closed before an upgrade (at best it has an option to reopen Explorer windows in the same state if the user enables it.) As for Chrome saving tabs, it can be often flaky especially when using multiple windows combined with multiple profiles. This is moot since in Real Life™ users generally don't trust these features, when they are even aware of them. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 15:19, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
: While browsers remember opened tabs, it's flakey. Some browsers in the "now remembering tabs" era were sometimes inconsistent on whether they should remember tabs (Chrome), some didn't give an option to manually exit with/without remembering tabs (Firefox/Chrome), some didn't preserve form input (Opera), etc. It behaves more like a screwed-on hack rather than a fully functional feature. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.240.6|108.162.240.6]] 14:36, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

@Jakub, thanks for bringing it up. I knew about it, but for the sake of brevity decided to leave it out. Hooray for my first explanation btw! --[[User:Akha|Akha]] ([[User talk:Akha|talk]]) 08:33, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

While one interpretation is that users would push back even a critical update, the cynical me read it the other way around: that most updates labelled as critical and notified with "!"s and yellow triangles are actually not that urgent and naturally the user desensibilizes. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.201|173.245.53.201]] 11:16, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

:Note also that browsers are ones of VERY FEW application who can reopen exactly what you had open before restart, and even them usually fail to preserve form content. Also, physical problem is not likely to occur just after the patch was created: only problem which would really need immediate patching would be security problem related to virus just spreading, in which case it would probably be too late when the window appear anyway. So, in all cases, pressing "remind me later" and finishing your work as soon as possible is the most logical course of action regarding critical update. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:18, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

It's a sad day when non-kernel updates require a reboot. [[User:Chrisp6825|Chrisp6825]] ([[User talk:Chrisp6825|talk]]) 13:13, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

I think the comic has less to do with the time a reboot takes, and more to do with losing the user's current state [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.46|173.245.54.46]] 16:27, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

I agree with the last comment. It's not about the time it takes to reboot. It's about the current state of things. If you have a bunch of apps running in different virtual desktops, then a lot of these won't be configured exactly as they were before rebooting. By the way, updates for OS X are exactly the same, with the exception that they're not downloaded automatically. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.57}}

My initial interpretation was that Cueball doesn't want to reboot his laptop because rebooting increases the risk of a random electrical fire. --[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 21:58, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
:Well that's why we have this twiki.... 'cause you're dumb. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.74|108.162.229.74]] 02:18, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
:Actually, that's a pretty smart explanation. I couldn't have put it to better words. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.59|108.162.219.59]] 14:23, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

If I was faced with such an update notification, I would probably have it download and install itself, but not reboot until tonight when I'm going to shut down anyway. I find it really annoying when Windoze does things like complain about updates and run virus scans right after booting up, which just makes loading up whatever software I want to use (i.e. web browsers) take even longer. I would much rather have it use my CPU time while I was, say, Web browsing or maybe programming (but not compiling... hmm...), or, better yet, asleep. Also, Linux. --[[User:Someone Else 37|Someone Else 37]] ([[User talk:Someone Else 37|talk]]) 04:23, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

"Laptop fire" reminds me of that silly but popular phenomenon in space operas: in case the own ship is hit by some enemies "rays",
inevitably fire will spark from keybords and monitors in the command room. Georg [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.171|173.245.53.171]] 09:59, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExplosiveInstrumentation [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 20:17, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

The usual lot of nonsense in the comments. Why don't we talk about how to improve the explanation? Arguing that browsers remember open tabs, or advertising Linux, or going into excruciating detail how you would react in this situation, is ludicrously off the point. The following points are those by this comic:
* Windows is always banging on about something, usually incredibly unimportant.
* Even if it is important (as here) we may just skim the explanation (because of the first point) and not even realize what it is saying
* Even if we do understand it, we don't want to be interrupted during our work (or our not-work) as we hate being inconvenienced in any way
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 21:45, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

The nonsense is in the comic! The user knows about that the fire is almost impossible from software (mis-)function {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.154}}

Possible reference to Microsoft's monthly security patch on the second Tuesday of each month, having been posted the day before the second Tuesday of February 2014. [[User:Quetzalcoatl|Quetzalcoatl]] ([[User talk:Quetzalcoatl|talk]]) 22:23, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

;Dubious statement in explanation
"The joke goes further because a software update mostly can't prevent any hardware failures like burning laptop batteries. This specific update is just nonsense."

It's quite possible for software to put hardware into a state which damages it. In an ideal world hardware would have protection against this but sometimes the protection is either missing or incorrectly set. This sort of thing CAN be worked around in software, if you know what the bad states are you can avoid ever putting the hardware into them.

Burning laptop batteries are an extreme example but not completely implausible.

-- plugwash

:This actually happened a few years ago. A poorly-written driver (among other issues) caused some Nvidia laptop GPUs to get so hot that they'd cause the cases of some laptops to warp. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.44|108.162.219.44]] 07:09, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

:I think the point here is that no matter how severe the problem being fixed, the presence of a "bunch of stuff open" makes a reboot unthinkable. {{unsigned ip|199.27.130.204}}

Two things: software can absolutely cause/prevent a fire if the hardware is capable of it. Software is what runs the controllers that handle charging for modern rechargeable batteries (well, it may be firmware, but the point is that it's not hardwired). If the charging software doesn't do it's job right, a Li-Ion battery can overcharge and literally catch fire. Likewise, it's software that tells the CPU or GPU to throttle down if it gets too hot and the cooling systems can't keep up. And, at an extreme, in principle the software could perhaps force the hardware to do something out of it's capabilities, like try to direct too much current over some internal connection, thus overheating nearby elements.

The other thing is that the latest version (or two?) of OS X will auto-resume pretty much everything when you reboot, even if it's a crash rather than intentional. I've had a dozen apps, including a webbrowser with a couple dozen tabs open, running, when my laptop crashed or I accidentally ran it out of juice. When I restarted it everything was back right where I left it, including unsaved documents and comments-in-process on webpages. I suspect that exactly this behavior is part of why Apple implemented that. I certainly know that I'm more inclined to install updates the first time I see them on my laptop for exactly that reason (vs. my desktop, which is running 10.6 and thus doesn't have auto-resume). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 15:14, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

:I should've said: this auto-resume behavior on OS X even succeeds through system updates (and every other update that has required reboot), IME. The only time I didn't get everything back right where I left it was with a major update (10.8.x-->10.9). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 15:17, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1328: Update

2014-02-14T15:14:44Z

108.162.216.31:

Talk:619: Supported Features

2013-12-29T19:13:59Z

108.162.216.31:

Note that the major reason why is easier for Linux to supports 4096 CPUs than smooth flash playback is that flash is proprietary format and without cooperation from Adobe very little can be done with it. For example, most of Adobe products, flash player included (since version 11), are now compiled with SSE2 support in a way which makes them not work at all on CPUs which don't have such capability. Noone except Adobe can do anything with it, and Adobe apparently don't consider it problem. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:05, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

Who is this we that he refers to in the title-text. Is it him and his Intel card, him and his fiance, is he royalty, or does he simply have a tapeworm with good taste in political comedy? [[Special:Contributions/66.249.85.193|66.249.85.193]] 21:50, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

http://asset.soup.io/asset/0453/8747_0991_800.png (Changelog for xorg; "Fixes XKCD #619")
Sudofox (I haven't made an account. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 19:13, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

Talk:896: Marie Curie

2013-12-03T16:49:38Z

108.162.216.31:

I miss the days when zombies would just bite you to death. What's with all this talking? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:07, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
: It would probably be better if she came back as a ghost. But radiation poisoning in pop lit only explains physically supernatural stuff, not external consciousness supernatural stuff. Zombies, on the other hand, have been used in pop lit as thinking characters, even though they shouldn't have been. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 16:49, 3 December 2013 (UTC)Dartania

Talk:1106: ADD

2013-11-20T09:58:12Z

108.162.216.31:

We are lucky for the comic title, since otherwise I wouldn't be so sure this only apply to people with ADD ... in current world, there are so many things wanting your attention that they may overhelm even normal people (of course not so easily). --[[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:21, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

I agree. You don't have to be ADD to relate.
Then again, doesn't everyone who isn't autistic have some amount of attention deficit? It seems like everyone fits under one label or the other these days.
--[[Special:Contributions/138.67.184.237|138.67.184.237]] 21:33, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

:Hey, I'm autistic and I have ADD. [[Special:Contributions/130.160.145.224|130.160.145.224]] 22:00, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

::I think a psychiatrist wants your money. So many kids are given those labels as an excuse for parents or teachers not teaching right and for laziness on the kid's part. I'm not saying that's you, but it might be. And no employer is going to lower expectations just because you think differently. Whether the 'disorder' is there or not, make the most of your mind and enjoy a productive life to the best of your abilities. I've actually found my ADD to increase my academic ability, because I use it like a boat adjusts the sails. Plus I'm learning how to let some things go.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 09:58, 20 November 2013 (UTC)Dartania

you're not allowed to have both? [[Special:Contributions/86.15.83.223|86.15.83.223]] 21:48, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

1114: Metallurgy

2013-11-20T09:01:19Z

108.162.216.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1114
| date = September 28, 2012
| title = Metallurgy
| image = metallurgy.png
| titletext = This exotic blade was wrought from a different fallen star. The meteorite was a carbonaceous chondrite, so it's basically a lump of gravel glued into the shape of a sword. A SPACE sword!
| imagesize =
}}

==Explanation==
The comic explains how weapons would really behave if they were made out of unusual materials. In fantasy stories, using unusual materials for weapons traditionally makes the weapons more powerful and cooler despite limited explanation for exactly why materials of extraterrestrial origin are so superior to their earthen counterparts.

The first sword is made from an iron meteorite. The quality of such metal can be rather hit-and-miss. On one hand, iron from meteorites was often mixed with "terrestrial" iron in the early stages of human development to create relatively high quality steel for swords. Undeveloped metalworking techniques at the time meant that extraterrestrial metal was often more refined and plentiful than man-made metal ingots. With that in mind, however, [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0016703767901408 research] has shown that meteorites have an abundance of the chemical element Antimony (Sb) which by itself is a very brittle metal and therefore swords forged from metals harvested from meteorites may not as strong as lore would have one think.

The second panel is a reference to stories set in Middle Earth and the sword is Sting, which glows blue when Orcs are near. Sting used to belong to Bilbo Baggins; when he grew old he gave it to Frodo Baggins as a gift. The dagger in question, though, glows because of the radioactive properties of {{w|Actinium}} (Ac) which is also highly toxic. Definitely not a dagger you would want to carry around for your every day battles.

The word "Eldritch" in the third panel means sinister, ghostly, or magical.

The fourth panel mentions that the weapon gives a +2 to a player's attribute. This is a reference to role-playing games in which it is common to find items that are able to improve one's character by increasing desirable attributes. In this case, however, +2 to cancer risk would definitely not be considered a desirable attribute to increase.

The title text refers to the last season ("Book 3: Fire") of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Sokka lost his boomerang and decides to apprentice for a short time with a swordsmith. When he chooses his metal, he chooses the giant meteor which felll earlier in the episode. Throughout the rest of the season, his Space Sword is heavily spoken of, as he forms an emotional attachment to it. On a side note, Toft the Earthbender gets a small piece of the meteor and wears it as an armband and bends it into useful things. The characters have a long argument about the oximoronic term space-earth, and Toft becomes the first metalbender.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are in a weapon store talking to a bearded salesman wearing a hat.]

:[Salesman holds up a sword]
:Salesman: This sword was forged from a fallen star. Antimony impurities make the blade surpassingly ''brittle'' and ''weak''.

:[Salesman holds up a dagger]
:Salesman: And this dagger is made of metal from a far-off kingdom. It glows blue.
:Off-panel: When orcs are near?

:Salesman: No, always. Radiation from the Actinium content.
:Megan: ...Does it have eldritch powers?

:Salesman: It gives the wearer +2 to cancer risk.
:Cueball: I think we should find another shop.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Cancer]]

Talk:1116: Traffic Lights

2013-11-20T08:42:43Z

108.162.216.31: added reply to ohio guy.

I doubt that this comic carries any deeper meaning. [[Special:Contributions/108.233.253.211|108.233.253.211]] 16:29, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Traffic signals really are one of the most inscrutable inventions to ever be made. I mean, red means stop, yellow means caution, green means go. Unless you're in a turn lane, which means you have to watch for the green arrow, if there is one, or wait for an opening. Unless you're turning right, which is permitted to turn at any time providing there aren't any cars. Unless there's a sign that says "No Right Turn On Red". There's also the crazy cities that have special right turn lights. Then there's the intersections that have a sign for each lane telling what can and cannot be done. Or, if you're really lucky one of those intersections that has the LED screen that dynamically changes what the lane can and cannot do. And to top it all off, the Colorado Department of Transportation (as well as a few other states I'm sure) are testing out a 4-stage left turn light to increase the safety of drivers. [https://www.auroragov.org/cs/groups/public/documents/document/003604.pdf] Yes, you read that pamphlet correctly. There is a special 4th light, just to blink yellow, because you couldn't just make the yellow light blink, like it does anyway after 9pm. No. There has to be a whole special light that indicates when a left-turn-er must use special caution to turn.

: Note that New York City doesn't allow right turns on red, unless a sign is posted that says otherwise. I suppose this helps reduce the incidence of pedestrians being run into/over. You might also think it helps keep vehicles out of crosswalks, but it doesn't. [[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 01:13, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

: What about turning left on red from a one way street onto another one way street? I don't know how prevalent that is but it's fairly common in downtown Columbus Ohio (my locale) and to a lesser extent some smaller towns around here. [[Special:Contributions/74.218.18.210|74.218.18.210]] 12:30, 9 August 2013 (UTC)
First time commenting. Not sure about the reply syntax. But @ Ohio person: Up here in Michigan, we have supposedly special
U-turns on divided highways (not to be confused with expressways; I'm just referring to the main business roads.) If there is a light, you can treat it like turning right, even though it is an apparent left-turn and an actual u-turn. "So long as you don't cross a lane of traffic, it is legal to turn if the lane is clear unless posted otherwise." From my driver's ed instructor. This does not apply to the second turn lane. I cannot tell you how many times I've been honked at for obeying the law and not turning right from the left lane. Sorry for any terrible typing or messups. I'm doing this on my phone. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 08:42, 20 November 2013 (UTC)Dartania

Nope. I'm done driving. Bring on the self-driving cars, people are officially idiots. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 16:52, 4 October 2012 (UTC)
: There is a problem with a blinking yellow arrow. Blinking yellow is already used. It means you have the right of way, but the other direction may proceed as well. What is wanted here is blinking red, which means that you stop, but may proceed, as someone else has the right of way. As for adding a fourth light, this just confuses things even more, particularly with respect to color blind individuals. Having said that, Virginia's variant is to have lights with both left arrows and solid greens. If it is green arrow, you have the right of way, while solid green means the other direction also has a green. There is almost always a sign reading "left turn yield on <solid-green-circle>" [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 18:19, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

::so the blinking yellow left arrow generally means the same as a round green light - you can go when it's clear, but the opposite traffic has a green light too. I love this idea because a lot of the time where there is a separate left-turn signal, there are advanced lefts for both ways, and then left turners get a red left arrow and have to stop while people going straight get a green - so even where there's no oncoming traffic, you can't turn. this way, you just lose your "advance" status and go back to the regular rule of "turn if you can, otherwise you end up turning as the lights go yellow"

::I think what Lcarsos is pointing out if you check the PDF link, is that the new left-turn lane has 4 lights, all of which are left-arrow shaped. Thus, his point is why couldn't they make the 2nd light (yellow left arrow) blink, instead of installing a third light which is also a yellow left arrow whose job is to blink?

::I can think of a few possible reasons - first, perhaps an all-blinking light has different bulbs which are more efficient for blinking and won't burn out as much; second, because they want to distinguish between the two lights more strongly (i.e. if you glance over between blinks, you don't have to wait a moment to see if it will blink - if you see the 3rd light up, you know it's going to blink without waiting for it to actually blink); similarly, I suppose there could be colour blindness issues where they want to make it clear which light is which.

::PS: Right on Red is more common in north america than other places, but even here there are a few exceptions that do not allow right turns on red lights. New York City is one. Montreal is another. Most of Mexio is a third. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 21:19, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

::You can also white a white 'cigar' light that is inteded for busses only.

:From the first traffic light in London 1868 until standardization in the 1920s people tried out many crazy lights (see http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/T-VT.1970.23426) including---literally---bells and whistles to announce changes. It seems this phase is still not really over.[[Special:Contributions/134.169.34.172|134.169.34.172]] 10:33, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Hmm... not one to do the actual analysis, I still wonder whether there could be some message encoded in the pattern of lights -- in binary ASCII, baudot, Morse, or something. Hmm... [[Special:Contributions/208.54.40.227|208.54.40.227]] 19:12, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

This explanation mentions a lot of hands where no hands exist. "The right-hand lane," for example. This is a pet peeve of mine. People just adding the word, "hand" randomly into a sentence. It's superfluous and it's annoying. It should be removed before someone slaps whoever did it with their right-hand hand.[[Special:Contributions/173.25.252.230|173.25.252.230]] 14:35, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

:I believe "right-hand" is used to differentiate "the opposite from the left" from "the opposite of wrong". If I say "get in the right lane", there is a chance for confusion and/or a cliche joke. If I say "get in the right-hand lane", my meaning is clearer.{{unsigned|Tryc}}

;Red and yellow

In Poland you can sometimes stumble upon '''red and yellow''' -- while yellow alone means that there shortly would be a red, and you can proceed if you are at or almost at crossing, but stop otherwise, red and yellow is to mean that there shortly would be green (go), and to prepare oneself. But it is quite rare. [[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 06:45, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

:In Germany all traffic lights behave this way. [[User:Joha.ma|Joha.ma]] ([[User talk:Joha.ma|talk]]) 07:45, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

::At least some lights in Czech behave this way too. -- [[Special:Contributions/89.177.52.2|89.177.52.2]] 08:04, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

This is the way ALL UK lights behave.

Some lights in the US use '''red and yellow''' to mean that a pedestrian is crossing, although I've only seen this when the light is blinking red/yellow to start with (yes, I've seen full 3-bulb traffic lights that are only used to flash red/yellow). [[User:Zer0keefie|Zer0keefie]] ([[User talk:Zer0keefie|talk]]) 11:42, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

In Brazil some cities have greens and red in a row, and they decrease to indicate how long the green or red will last. something like http://www.guiasjp.com/fotos_noticias/foto_1165344648.8822.jpg [[Special:Contributions/189.125.162.182|189.125.162.182]] 20:22, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
In BRazil too, in Goiânia there's a nice one here for pedestrians, with leds, that show an animated pedestrian walking and when the time is running out HE RUNS FASTER! Like, it's about to go green for the cars, but feel free to cross... IF YOU'RE FAST!

In Tianjin China they have a traffic signal that is a single bar of light. If it is green it starts subtracting bar length segments. When there is about a quarter left it turns yellow and then red. It then start subtracting bar length segments from the other end until it gets to about a quarter length and then turns green again. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bob406/3428844012

;Obvious

It's how traffic engineers troll you when you are going the wrong way on a one-way. Learn to read signs!

;Reference to previous comic

This comic has some tongue in cheek self reference to [[277: Long Light]]. #Meta And definite trolling, by [[Randall]]

:What about [[781: Ahead Stop]]?

:Turing Machine?

Any chance it is one?

;Etc

I was almost expected to see the Konami code in the left light, though I'm not sure how "B A Start" would have been shown. [[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 01:13, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

;Music

I am no musician, but I can't help but wonder if there could be a hidden music chart in there somehow.
Also, if you want confusing, try understanding parking signs in Montreal.

:Might be, but depending on what pitches or sounds you assign to the lights, you could get pretty much every degree of harmony or cacophony you want. - Another possible music reference: Anybody reminded of Hendrix' "The Wind Cries Mary"? "The traffic lights, they turn, uh, blue tomorrow." [[Special:Contributions/89.0.230.165|89.0.230.165]] 08:14, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

;And You thought 4 stage was bad enough

Here In BC, in older installations, and I'm not sure whether any still exist, there used to be lights with 5 stages. It wasn't really any different than the standard red-yellow-green-turn combo you generally see where the turning light may come on, it just had the yellow arrow shown when the turning arrow is about to expire in it's own lamp. It behaves pretty expectantly, but it looks very imposing.

;Race cars

The second light has quite a resemblance to the "christmas tree" that governs the start of a drag race, where the lights change colors according to a pattern <nowiki>http://www</nowiki> dot nhra dot com/nhra101/basics.aspx [[Special:Contributions/69.121.10.82|69.121.10.82]] 04:32, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

I sat and watched this increasingly surreal show for about three minutes, then I broke down laughing when one of the lights turned purple. [[Special:Contributions/174.239.196.155|174.239.196.155]] 06:09, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

In UK, ALL lights go Red -> red AND yellow -> green -> yellow on it's own -> red again. Red and yellow means it's about to go green and yellow on it's own means it's about to go red. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.246|141.101.98.246]] 21:43, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1286: Encryptic

2013-11-13T16:48:14Z

108.162.216.31: HACKERS ARE EVERYWHERE

The answer to the weathervane sword/ favorite apostle hint has got to be Matthias. It is 8 characters long, Matthias was the apostle chosen to replace Judas and in the Redwall series Matthias is one of the wielders of the Sword of Martin a sword that was hung on a weathervane.

It is unclear to me if these are actual hashes from Adobe file? That would be very cool... but actual file seems to have passwords in slightly different format. http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/11/how-an-epic-blunder-by-adobe-could-strengthen-hand-of-password-crackers/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.211|108.162.229.211]] 09:05, 4 November 2013 (UTC) pavel

:I wouldn't call 3DES secure ... but yes, in this situation the real problem is not using per-user salt. Note that I would expect that at least some of those examples would be solvable ...any idea? Hmmm ... sword of weather vane and one of apostles might be Martin ([http://redwall.wikia.com/wiki/Sword_of_Martin]) ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:00, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

::It's Jonathon (for John). Not sure what it has to do with weather vane swords though... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.240.18|108.162.240.18]] 12:42, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:Umm. "Peter" does not seem to have 8 characters, does it? Encryption method suggests it should be 8 characters, as do 8 character boxes on the right... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.211|108.162.229.211]] 10:43, 4 November 2013 (UTC) pavel

::I'd say "weather vane sword", "name1" and "favorite of 12 apostles" is (Saint) Peter. "Weather vane" as symbol for the rooster in the denial, and the sword Peter used when Jesus was arrested. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.177|108.162.254.177]] 10:25, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

::: ... interesting that google search didn't mentioned it :-) Seems bible have too low pagerank. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:32, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

::: The 'favourite' apostle was John the Evangelist though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciple_whom_Jesus_loved . The other biblical clue here is 'with your own hand you have done all this' - Judith 15:10. If that's Judith1510 then the 'name and shirt number' is 'Judith15'. The TOS/earlobes clue seems to be "Spock's brain" and "Spock's (ears?)". And the Michael Jackson one is (obviously) ABC123. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.214|141.101.99.214]] 11:14, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: Perhaps "favorite" in this case refer's to the user's favorite, not Jesus's. [[User:Yomikoma|Yomikoma]] ([[User talk:Yomikoma|talk]]) 16:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: The Michael Jackson password should just be "ABC". (The other clue refers only to letters, and the proper song title also has only letters.) —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 20:57, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::: Given that name1 is two blocks long, I would guess that the apostle's name is going to be eight characters long, with the second hash block being 1+seven spaces (or nulls if Adobe pads it with nulls and not spaces). But then again, as the only disciple with a name eight letters long is Thaddeus maybe not {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.214}}

:::: "St.Peter" is 8 characters, and having a "special" character (the period) makes it a good choice for passwords that might require 1 non-alphanumeric character (and ban spaces). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.223|141.101.99.223]] 11:47, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:::: I think it is obvious that Name1 refers to {The user's name} + 1. I wonder though if we should be referring to one of the other 12 apostles in a different context? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Apostles_%28disambiguation%29 - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.11|108.162.242.11]] 18:02, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::::: Is the "weathervane sword" referring to Redwall? I haven't read the book myself, but would it be referring to the "Sword of Martin"? [http://redwall.wikia.com/wiki/Sword_of_Martin] --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 19:17, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Another article about using passwords hints from multiple users to find the passwords from the breach. http://7habitsofhighlyeffectivehackers.blogspot.com/2013/11/can-someone-be-targeted-using-adobe.html [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 11:06, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

"Sexy earlobes" makes me think of [http://misswiu.livejournal.com/5385.html "The ABC of Aerobics"], but that would make that Shirley Clarke, and nothing in Star Trek has anything to do with Shirley that I am aware of, except possible [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ruth Shirley Bonne as Ruth]. I skimmed a list of episode titles, but nothing jumps out at me as particularly earlobish. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.187|108.162.219.187]] 11:20, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:Sexy earlobes might have something to do with Ferengi, but they didn't appeared in TOS. 141.101.99.214's idea is better. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:42, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:OK, we know that "sexy earlobes" and "best TOS Episode" are the same for the first eight character, but differ after that, while "best TOS" and "sugarland" are the same after the first 8 characters. So, my guesses are : Best TOS episode: "Charlie X"; "Sexy Earlobes": Someone with the first name of "Charlie"; "Sugarland": some city in Texas (perhaps "HoustonTX") [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:51, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Note that you should not ever use cipher in {{w|Block_cipher_mode_of_operation#Electronic_codebook_.28ECB.29|ECB (electronic codebook)}} mode, i.e. encrypt each block separately and independently, but use chaining. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 12:15, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: And for passwords you shouldn't be using a cipher at all, but rather a hash function. (Or a cipher in one of the approved hash constructions, if you must.) And really you shouldn't be using a standard hash function, but be following best practices for passwords instead: salting the hash, using a *slow* hash function, etc. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 20:22, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Hmm, i'm rather confused about the last few on the list though. Assumedly the password for "he did the mash, he did the" would be "monster mash", but that would leave "purloined" with a password of either "monsterm" or "monster ". which doesn't make much sense. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.240.18|108.162.240.18]] 13:47, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

(charlie sheen) a1f9b2b6299e7a2b eadec1e6ab797397 sexy earlobes - He did a 2 and a half men episode on sexy earlobes
:(charlie x) a1f9b2b6299e7a2b 617ab0277727ad85 best tos episode - Star Trek has so many good episodes...
::(houstontx) 39738b7adb0b8af7 617ab0277727ad85 sugarland - Sugarland is in Houston, TX

I don't know about anyone else, but the "hints" column incidentally reminded me of {{w|Darwinian poetry|Darwinian Poetry}}... Not intentionally, I'm sure. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 14:46, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Somehow I've missed out on this issue until this comic alerted me to it, but: once a few passwords are correctly guessed, does that make it straightforward to recover the encryption key, and then be able to decrypt '''all''' of them? —[[User:Scs|scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 14:50, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

: Answering my own question: not really straightforward, no. 3DES is still pretty strong, and what knowing a few passwords gives you is a known-plaintext attack, which helps a little, but is by no means a giveaway. —[[User:Scs|scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 15:00, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:: Note that if blackhat used this service, he would know at least one plaintext - his own password--[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 15:05, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:No, for calculating the encryption key of Triple DES, there is no real benefit in knowing million passwords, you would still need to brute force it. You would need to know at least 232 different passwords to make it easier but you can't do that with the leaked file (there are about 30 times less of them and moreover many of them are not unique). [[User:Sten|'''STEN''']] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 16:08, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Okay, so the first column is the encrypted password, the second one is the hint chosen by user. What do rectangles mean? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.151|173.245.53.151]] 15:28, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:That are the fields to fill the characters in just as you do in a crossword puzzle. There are small fields at the beginning that take one character each and one large field at the end that takes one to eight characters. [[User:Sten|'''STEN''']] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 15:32, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Water 3 is an egg group: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Water_3_(Egg_Group) . Given the length of the key, it will probably be 9-16 characters. (Crawdaunt, tentacool, and tentacruel are most likely) [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.139|199.27.128.139]] 15:43, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:-- which means 9dca1d79d4dec6d5 is either L, EL, or T, but I can't find a way for that to match up with any variation of "monster mash." [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.209|173.245.55.209]] 16:15, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:: Same problem here... Monster mash must not be correct, but it is one of the easier ones, I can't give up on it. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:35, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::: Maybe, he did the MASH is about the book, movie or TV Show M*A*S*H instead? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:49, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:: Monster Mash was written by Bobby Pickett, maybe it has something to do with him? [[User:Sten|'''STEN''']] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 18:38, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::: Maybe it's not "monster mash" but just "monster". This would allow the Water-3 Pokemon to be "Cloyster". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.5|108.162.237.5]] 19:17, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: You are having trouble counting to eight. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 20:22, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::::: You are forgetting the space. Assuming space is stored as a null character, this might actually work.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.29|173.245.54.29]] 01:43, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
:::::: Nobody in their right mind would encode spaces as nulls. For us to suppose that they did, we'd need to have some specific clue to that effect. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.5|108.162.238.5]] 09:08, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

It seems to me there are two puzzles here, if folks are right that this is not actual data from the hack. 1) Figure out Adobe's master 3DES encryption password, for the big prize. 2) figure out Randall's 3DES encryption password for this puzzle based on these hints, and knowing it will be something clever. [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 16:12, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Trying to decode the passwords (As Randall obviously wants us to)
"with your own hand you have done all this" is from the book of Judith.
Working on decoding the others. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

8babb6299e06eb6d = password
a0a2876eb1ea1fea = 1
85e9da81a8a78adc = 57
--[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:10, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Weather Vane Sword may be a reference to Game of Thrones Ascent. The "Sworn Sword", I believe is "Rona" which is also a name. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.216|173.245.55.216]] 18:27, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: It needs to be a name of an apostle (as per line 7) and have 7 or 8 characters (as line 3 needs a continuation) so this leaves Matthew, Thaddeus and (Judas) Iscariot. [[User:Sten|'''STEN''']] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 18:57, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

If a password(or 8 character segment) is guessed can it be confirmed? Somebody should take this leaked list and create a website that presents it like in the comment and lets people guess. It can fill in the guessed ones. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 19:17, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

I'm putting in Mattias for the sword, name1 and disciple because of Saint Matthias [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Matthias] and Redwall Matthias [http://redwall.wikia.com/wiki/Matthias] who held the Weathervane Sword (Also known as the sword of Martin [http://redwall.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sword_of_Martin] ) --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 19:27, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: I've also removed "monster mash" from the list as it can't be right. Doesn't match the pokemon or the purloined clues. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 19:27, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Based on the Water-3 Pokemon hint, the only possibilities of more than 8 characters are tentacool, tentacruel, barbaracle, crawdaunt, carracosta, clauncher, and clawitzer. This would mean "9dca1d79d4dec6d5" would be l, el, le, t, ta, or r. --[[User:Dvorakmd|Dvorakmd]] ([[User talk:Dvorakmd|talk]]) 19:51, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: This is assuming there are no characters before the actual name of the pokemon. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.209|173.245.55.209]] 20:30, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: Assuming Randall has constructed this comic to have a unique answer, it can't end in r because then the clue would be ambiguous (could be clauncher or clawitzer). [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 21:53, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: Some of these can be ruled out; it's very unlikely to be a Generation VI Pokémon (Barbaracle, Clauncher and Clawitzer) as this has only just come out and someone would have had to set up their pasword within the last few weeks. And the Pokémon that are also in the Water-1 group are probably more likely to be thought of as Water-1 than Water-3 (Crawdaunt and Carracosta). This only leaves Tentacool and Tentacruel as longer than 8 letter Water-3 only Pokémon that have been known of for a reasonable length of time; and Tentacool is no one's favourite, as the annoying multitude of them that show up whenever you try to Surf anyway makes them as reviled as Zubats in caves, if not moreso. :P Of course, the password need not be simply the Pokémon's name alone. "SexyShellder" "Cloyster1987" "Misty'sStarmie"... Who knows? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.252|141.101.99.252]] 01:03, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

I don't know the answer to the end either, but here's a list of people who did the Monster Mash, from Wikipedia:
* Bobby Picket (as Boris Picket)
* Garpax Records (Gary S. Paxton)
* The Misfits
* far, far too many other covers to list
And here's some synonyms for "purloined", from thesaurus.com:
* stole
* pilfered
* filched
* misappropriated
* embezzled
* burglarized
* shoplifted
* poached
* pillaged
* cheated
* pinched
* heisted
* thieved
* plundered
* appropriated
* lifted
* took
* snitched
* defrauded
* swindled
* ripped off
* made off with
Good luck with these!
—[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 20:31, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

What about Purloined referring to "The Purloined Letter?" When choosing hints, people, at least in my experience, tend to use word association rather than synonyms. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.209|173.245.55.209]]

Purloined could also be a reference to the Monster.com hack (http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/monster-trojan). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.11|108.162.237.11]] 21:00, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Words meaning purloined that can have the listed suffixes could be '''embezzle'''/'''embezzler''' or '''scrounge'''/'''scrounger'''. Not sure if it fits to the mash clue. There was a loan shark character who would acquire things on MASH called Rizzo, it is a stretch though. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 21:01, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

I'm still trying to figure out how the solutions go into the spaces on the right -- it may be more obvious once the last couple clues are figured out. I suspect the ordering and numbers of clues have some sort of meaning. Why are there 5 of the 877... passwords, 2 with no clues? Why is one of the 4e18.... passwords separated from the rest? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.28|108.162.221.28]] 21:07, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Could Purloined be a reference to the "Purloined Shadows" book in Elder Scrolls? --[[User:Dvorakmd|Dvorakmd]] ([[User talk:Dvorakmd|talk]]) 21:09, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: Or 'The Purloined Payroll', a WoW quest? "Purloined in Petrograd" is also a lyric to a Decemberists song (The Bagman's Gambit). Google n-grams suggests that "Purloined Image", and "purloined documents" are a Thing. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 21:58, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Purloined could be a reference to something that is known as have been stolen like a work of art, or it could be something that was stolen in an XKCD comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 21:18, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

'''EdgarPoe'''(author of The Purloined Letter)/'''EdgarPoet''' fits, but again not really anything to do with MASH. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 21:27, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Water-3 pokemon (egg group) are given here: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Water_3_(Egg_Group) ...if I split off the letters of their names after the 8th letter, we see l, el, le, t, ta, and r. So the MASH item ends with one of those suffixes. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.167|199.27.128.167]] 21:31, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: Can't end in 'r', because then that clue would be ambiguous. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 21:53, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: Speaking of pokemon, could the clue to purloined have something to do with the pokemon Purrloin? http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Purrloin_(Pok%C3%A9mon) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.43|108.162.221.43]] 23:51, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Is there a reason "MASH" is capitalized in the above sections? Given the context, it shouldn't be, and I still haven't given up on the password being a reference to the monster mash. That said, we can't ignore the movie/show MASH.
Also, now that I think about it: pokeMONstermash? I don't know, just throwing ideas out :P [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.209|173.245.55.209]] 22:08, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

On [http://de.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1pvwyf/xkcd_encryptic_analysis_at_the_link_below/ reddit] they suggest "Letterman" (which is wrong, too many letters) based on the M*A*S*H episode, "Letters". [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 22:11, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:...on the other hand, I wonder if an answer like "ALANALDA" would work? As in, someone who "did the M*A*S*H"... [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 22:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:: Sadly, no. Because it needs to be more than 8 characters. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 22:17, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::: No, I mean, "an answer of this form", not ALANALDA exactly. The Edgar Allan / Alan Alda congruence is tasty, but I can't make it work. ALLANPOE works as an answer for "Purloined" but that makes something like ALLANPOET the answer to "he did the MASH" (CRAWDAUNT is then the pokemon). But that's misspelling Alda's name for the MASH clue, doesn't quite work. There's also JAMIEFARR (Cpl Klinger) as a better answer to "he did the MASH" but then that makes JAMIEFAR the answer to "purloined" and I can't plausibly make that work. ALLANARBUS is another M*A*S*H actor, but that doesn't work at all. Can anyone come up with other/better ideas in this vein? [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 22:31, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::: Don't misspell Alda's name; misspell Poe's! —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 02:07, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

In crossword puzzles, a clue ending in -ed (like 'purloined') is most commonly a hint that the answer ends in 'ed'. Cross referencing that with the Pokemon clue, the solution for "he did the MASH" becomes a nine or ten letter answer ending in: -edl, -edel, -edle, -edt, or -edta (excluding -edr due to non-uniqueness), with ......edle looking the most "English-y" to me. My hunch would be something else Robert Altman or Alan Alda "did"... but nothing seems to end in 'edle.' --[[User:Willowy burrito|Willowy burrito]] ([[User talk:Willowy burrito|talk]]) 23:07, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: There is no indication that this is a standard crossword. Most users don't respect crossword conventions when writing password hints. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 23:59, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:: Aside from the title. And the text. And the fact these didn't come from users, but were just chosen for a puzzle designed by Randall, who would include just this sort of puzzler hint/in-joke in a comic about puzzles. It's moot, because no synonyms for 'stolen' make any sense with a couple other letters tacked on the end. But still, there've been worse hunches. --[[User:Willowy burrito|Willowy burrito]] ([[User talk:Willowy burrito|talk]]) 00:45, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

For all we know, his favourite Water-3 Pokémon could be Shell Smash Cloyster or Shell Smash Omastar - "OmastarSmash" as a password would fit in with "Monster mash". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.252|141.101.99.252]] 23:16, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: I like that idea, although it leaves "Monster " (with a trailing space) as the answer to "Purloined", which makes no sense. But interesting idea. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 00:00, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

MonsterMash
MonsterM
TheWiscash {{unsigned|Jcupcake}}
: It's "Whiscash", and it's Water 2 (not 3) and "MonsterM" makes no sense as an answer for the hint "Purloined". But I like the idea of adding "The" in front of the pokemon answer; perhaps we're being too restrictive by looking only at pokemon with length > 8. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 23:59, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::Yeah, sorry about the typo - last one would be TheWhiscash. MonsterM absolutely makes sense. http://www.hoax-slayer.com/monster-666.shtml The purloined letter here IS M [[User:Jcupcake|Jcupcake]] ([[User talk:Jcupcake|talk]]) 02:40, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

So somewhere above this someone pointed out that purloined could refer to a monster.com hack...in which case, could the first two passwords be "monster mash" and "monster"? That would allow for another previous suggestion of "OmastarSmash" Also, here's my IP Address and a remarkably not-random timestamp: [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.195|108.162.219.195]] 01:31, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

It could also be that there are modifiers to the base. I always thought of Monster Mash as MonstaMash. This would line up closely with My Corphish written as "mycorphish" My favorite pokemon is my pikachu not just any pikachu, but mine, sort of logic. [[User:Bitassassin|Bitassassin]] ([[User talk:Bitassassin|talk]]) 01:43, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Could "he did the mash" be referring to brewing and/or the Maillard reaction? [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 05:32, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

I was just thinking that "MonsterM Ash", "MonsterM", both seem to make sense, and Ash had a few water pokemon in the water 3 egg group, so could it potentially be something along the lines of "Corphish Ash"? That was the only 8 letter water 3 pokemon he had and it fits with the other clues [[User:NewToThis|NewToThis]] ([[User talk:NewToThis|talk]]) 07:25, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Has the idea of pokemon fusion been considered? http://pokemon.alexonsager.net/ referenced by http://kotaku.com/how-the-website-that-lets-you-create-frankenstein-pokem-510517336
--[[User:Oukansz|Oukansz]] ([[User talk:Oukansz|talk]]) 19:25, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

;Fanservice

Randall must know about this site. This comic doesn't work without people to crack the code. Should we have a fanservice category? :-) --[[User:SurturZ|SurturZ]] ([[User talk:SurturZ|talk]]) 23:32, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

I'm beginning to suspect that the wide boxes will have the key in it. Assuming he used regular DES (or DES3, for that matter, but using the same 8-byte key 3 times), it could be plausible. The 5 in the middle could be 'abcde', a lot of the other 'second halves' are numbers, and the likely known one that's not seems to be an 'x' -- which could certainly be involved in writing a hex number... problem is there's 11 of those boxes. Trying to guess what signficance the positioning of those boxes have. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.28|108.162.221.28]] 00:00, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Actually, it looks like the boxes line up perfectly such that the wide bits (for second-half) will only touch the words they apply to. Order will be more or less what they are (I see the wide boxes as, in order, 1, 57, 10, Sheen, and X, with the 8 char boxes as Matthias, Password, Judith15, Charlie, and HoustonT). The next 5 are odd -- I'm not sure if we repeat the alpha/obvious password 5 times, or it's 5 chars long (abcde) and one per box. The last set is still under discussion, of course. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.28|108.162.221.28]] 00:20, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

;MASH capitalized
I'm currently chasing down the idea that MASH refers to [[Wikipedia:MASH-1]]. Haven't seen any name yet that looks like it might satisfy "Purloined". - [[User:BozoTheScary|BozoTheScary]] ([[User talk:BozoTheScary|talk]]) 01:56, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

I think MASH is a transcribing error. The comic doesn't have any difference on those letters as far as I can tell. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.222|173.245.50.222]] 03:18, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

The Purloined Letter is a Edgar Alan Poe story starring C. Auguste Dupin. Might help. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.5|108.162.249.5]] 03:08, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

There is also a strong association between the Monster Mash and the Mashed Potato, just throwing another idea into the ring. Also try the name BobbyPickett. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.5|108.162.249.5]] 03:22, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Frankenstein did the Monster Mash in the cartoon for the song. That leads to a Pokemon card ending in 'tein' and 'frankens' for the hint Purloined. I could not find a Pokemon card that ended in 'tein' nor could I link 'frankens' with Purloined. I ran 'frankens' through Google Translate but found nothing. Also, it's the same password for the "monster mash" hint and the entry with no password hint so I think it's an obvious password (something someone can recall without a hint). Frankenstein fits that part but not the other ones. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.222|173.245.50.222]] 03:35, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

My $0.02: "He did the mash..." might allude to the expression "doing the math" only (intentionally) misspelled and something like "numbert" or "numb" could be the answer. --[[User:RagnarDa|RagnarDa]] ([[User talk:RagnarDa|talk]]) 04:01, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

graveyard smash fits for the first clue (though lyrically incorrect). Gives smash as second block, but cannot find association between graveyard and purloined. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.5|108.162.249.5]] 04:08, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

If we take The Monster Mash for the first answer, it could be written as TheMonsterMash or The Monster Mash, giving either TheMonst erMash or The Mons ter Mash as the two blocks. This gives either Themonst or The Mons as Purloined and either ermash or ter Mash for second block of pokemon answer. Suggestions? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.5|108.162.249.5]] 04:15, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
: Only problem is that the word "the" is the last word of the hint.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.117|108.162.237.117]] 04:51, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

I know that the water-3 group is not the same, but it seems like an odd coincidence that another pokemon group is the "monster" group. --[[User:Natnee|Natnee]] ([[User talk:Natnee|talk]]) 04:44, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

There is a Scooby Doo comic book story titled "[The Purloined Poe-M](http://scoobydoo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Purloined_Poe-M)", which has an odd similarity to the "MonsterM" possible password. This would leave the pokemon password ending "ash" who, of course, is a pokemon character ... which makes no sense in that place. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.83|199.27.128.83]] 05:51, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Here's one that fits: 
facemash4077 (Combination of facemash by zuckerberg and M*A*S*H) 
facemash (Site made by Zuck in The Social network.) 

Maybe facmashklinger.. The eggklinger being a water-3 Pokemon? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.39|108.162.215.39]] 06:14, 5 November 2013 (UTC)rbnm

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Orchard John Orchard] played in M*A*S*H and also was in the movie "The Letter" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.8|108.162.250.8]] 05:02, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

;Working Backwards
I'm attempting to take a different tact, by trying to find the key itself. I'm assuming its something easy to guess. I've tried the top 100 Adobe passwords (you can get them [http://stricture-group.com/files/adobe-top100.txt here]) using the following bash script (testing the word "matthias", as this one seems pretty certain):

<code>
while read p; do echo -n $p\: && echo -n "matthias" | openssl enc -e -des-ede3 -nosalt -nopad -pass pass:$p | xxd -p; done < passwords.txt
</code>

For this to work, I pre-processed the top 100 passwords file with:

<code>
cat adobe-top100.txt | cut -c51- > passwords.txt
</code>

…and then trimmed the cruft with a text editor (leading text paragraph and table headers). So far no luck; perhaps someone with more time on their hands can try some obvious XKCD-related passwords (I've tried XKCD, xkcd, xkcd.com, randall, rmunroe, encryptic, and Encrytic) and see if the encrypted version(s) match up with what we have here. [[User:Yaztromo|Yaztromo]] ([[User talk:Yaztromo|talk]]) 09:27, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
:I should mention that I've also tried OpenSSL's des-ede mode and des-ecb, as Im not sure if Randall used one, two, or three key mode. I'm also assuming the key has been generated from the password using OpenSSL's default key generation method, any of with I suppose could be incorrect. [[User:Yaztromo|Yaztromo]] ([[User talk:Yaztromo|talk]]) 09:39, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
:: Nice work. Note that the puzzle is very specific about using "block mode 3-DES" (usually called "ECB"). DES keys are actually 56 bits; each of the 8 bytes has odd parity (the number of 1 bits is odd). From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard wp], "Bits 8, 16,..., 64 are for use in ensuring that each byte is of odd parity." As a wild guess, I'd suggest that, if Randall chose a readable 8-ASCII-character passphrase, he also selected only characters that would make the parity bit zero (so that the result was ASCII). That is, <code><nowiki>[ #%&)*,/12478;=>@CEFIJLOQRTWX[]^abdghkmnpsuvyz|]</nowiki></code>. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 16:34, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
::: Uh, hold one. Read the "Explanation" section above. It's clear that the hashes are not real, so brute-forcing the key isn't going to work. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 16:48, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: Just to note, there are actually three options for keys in TripleDES: having three independent keys (K1, K2, K3), having two independent keys (K1, K2, K1), or using a single key (K1, K1, K1). When run in ECB mode, OpenSSL calls these '''des-ede3''' and '''des-ede''' for options 1 and 2 (option 3 is for backwards compatibility with DES, and can be run using just '''des-ecb'''). See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_DES#Keying_options Triple DES - Keying Options] for details. In addition, the password and the key are two different entities -- typically the password is run through a keying algorithm first (commonly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBKDF2 PBKDF2] for 3DES), so there is no need to select password characters based on parity patterns. All of which is moot now that we know that the data isn't in fact TripleDES encrypted in the first place. I'm actually disappointed in Randall now :P. [[User:Yaztromo|Yaztromo]] ([[User talk:Yaztromo|talk]]) 19:01, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

I Hadn't seen it mentioned yet, but Monster Mash was written by Robert George Pickett (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Pickett), Whose last name goes closely with the second clue, Purloined, which means "stolen". I can't make it work, but I figured it was worth pointing out. (Nov 5th 1:26 pm utc ) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.24|173.245.56.24]] 13:27, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
: It's a good connection. Maybe we should reorganize the discussion and start a list of "interesting ideas we can't quite make work" in the hopes that someone else has an insight. Edgar Allan / Alan Alda, Pickett / "Pick it", Klinger / Kingler, etc. Most of these are just manifestation of the human brain's ability to find patterns even in random coincidence, of course, but one of them might be on the right track. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 16:23, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Just quick thoughts.
I feel like Cpl klinger and the water type kingler is too solid a connection to ignore even though I can't really use it.
Kingler was owned in the series by Ash.
Ash is a three letter word and the last three letters of the phrase monstermash.
Monsterm=8 letters so the first block ash=3 letters in the second block.
Monsterm is about the monster.com thing, therefore purloined. It's a double reference, the .co has been purloined from the purloined website.
Then blastoise -3, or rather blastois3 - 3 (mocking the common password meme of replacing letters with numbers)
So the last password, which is super hard to guess and well chosen even with the clue is, blastoisash? It's a feasibly memorable password that would not be quickly forgotten by a pokemon fan while still being hard to guess.
Can you think of a way to check it? Maybe go into the old command line xkcd and try it as a password? (From a contributor to my talk page) --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 13:52, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
: That's really a stretch. ".co is purloined from monster.com?" really? The answer will be far more obviously correct... once we figure it out. Look at the other answers, for example. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 16:23, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

;another quick idea for monster mash

It could be deflection. Maybe whoever put it in was paranoid. Or just dumb. Or who knows.

But, there is a pokemon that's in the monster/water(-1) hybrid group called Marshtomp.

Monster mash, mashed (ie anagrammed) can give us all but the P out of that... which is fine, as it's a 9-letter name.

Thus we have E, N and S left over (and indeed a further T, H, E), which could become overall, e.g, Marshtomens (...Marshtomethens? Or w/e), which you can split up as you like to represent something which has been stolen (personally). Possibly in german slang or something. It doesn't have to be a direct thesaurus link, it could well be complete misdirection (on Randall's behalf, or that of his notional Adobe user), same as for the pokemon.

And for the pokemon itself, it could well be "Marshtomp3" ;)

Also, don't forget about reversed words and so-on.

Heck, I've used very personal and/or random things (like, maybe two or three people in the world may recognise it in connection with me, and it's not online, at least not anywhere it can be found - basically it's just in my head and dies with me), reversed, with numbers substituting random characters, as passwords before. That covers each individual base in just one PW...

Now we just have to start feeding the guesses into a hash engine and try to figure out, maybe brute force, what the original key was. Knowing almost all of the other answers already makes this far, far easier for those who may have the facility to run the tests already. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.213|141.101.99.213]] 14:54, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
: This is not a real excerpt from the password file, this is a puzzle which Randall made up. Therefore, the answer to the last group will not be random, and it will not be a stretch. It will be obvious (as obvious as the previous ones)... once we figure out the catch. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 16:23, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

FWIW, Eve Online also features a "Purloined Sansha Codebreaker". [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 17:16, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

I agree that the solution has to be obvious - especially after its revealed. If this were a crossword puzzle, then the clues like Purloined might be followed by a question mark. Purloined? a cat that is loined - a cat that is covered with cloths? Puss in boots? Or something along those lines... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.34|108.162.215.34]]rbnm

purloined=phished (Corphish)? {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.227}}

i wonder if the link between the last three clues is more like a cryptic crossword puzzle---for instance, --purloined= heisted; the other clues reading it as he/is/ted...?--[[User:Wwd|Wwd]] ([[User talk:Wwd|talk]]) 22:40, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

I wonder if the pokemon could be the name of an ubuntu release, per "Not Really Into Pokemon" at http://xkcd.com/178/ --[[User:Willowy burrito|Willowy burrito]] ([[User talk:Willowy burrito|talk]]) 22:45, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

You could also abbreviate Robert Pickett's name (the co-writer of Monster Mash) as "Rob Pickett" which goes even more with purloined (the first 8 letters are now "Rob Pick"). [[User:Davheld|Davheld]] ([[User talk:Davheld|talk]]) 06:21, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Beings that "did the mash" according to the song http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/monstermashlyrics.html : my monster, the ghouls, Igor, Igor's baying hounds, the coffin-bangers, "The Crypt-Kicker Five", you. Zombies, Wolf Man, Dracula/Drac, and Boris were also mentioned, but they didn't do the mash. Hope that helps someone (doesn't help me). [[User:DPWally|DPWally]] ([[User talk:DPWally|talk]]) 23:05, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

;Capitalization hints?

I have no idea who first put the capital letters in "MASH" and "Purloined" in the transcript (and I don't want to check), but now that I've gotten rid of the second (after somebody else got rid of the first), I want to record them here for the record. Possibly Randall put them in and was feeding us clues (so ''MASH'' the book or movie, and ''Purloined'' a title such as Poe's). I consider this unlikely (after all, I removed one of these capitalizations), but the possibility should be recorded. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 01:17, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

I can't be a coincidence that this comes up as the top google news search for 'purloined:' http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/05/adobe_users_purloined_passwords_were_pathetic/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.120}}

"38a7c9279cadeb44 9dca1d79d4dec6d5 he did the mash, he did the": Ministermash (sounds like monster mash)
"38a7c9279cadeb44 purloined": Minister (based on the character Minister D-, who stole the letter in the Edgar Allen Poe story)
"a8ae5754a2b7af7a 9dca1d79d4dec6d5 fav water-3 pokemon": OmastarSmash (Shell Smash Omastar)
So,38a7c9279cadeb44 = minister, 9dca1d79d4dec6d5 = mash, a8ae5754a2b7af7a = omastars
04:07, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
:Probably one of the best complete theories I've heard [[User:Davheld|Davheld]] ([[User talk:Davheld|talk]]) 06:26, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

I suggest "alligato" (a form of Latin ''alligatus'', perfect passive participle of ''alligo'' "bind up"), and "alligator" (Referencing "Land of 1000 Dances"). [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.62|199.27.128.62]] 05:37, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

I think there is a transcribe mistake. 
Instead of "fav water-3 pokemon" 
Could it be "fay water-3 pokemon" 
Look at the Y and V letters in the non-chopped letters above. I think it is a Y and not a V. 
{{unsigned ip|108.162.215.51}}
*About the Pokemon, is it possible everyone's ignoring a much simpler explanation? Every Pokemon game begins with a choice of one of the three starter Pokemon, each of which have an evolutionary line of three Pokemon. In first gen, if your "favorite [is] water [from the] 3 Pokemon", then you'll be using Squirtle, followed by Wartortle and Blastoise. 2nd gen: Totodile, Croconaw, Feraligatr. 3rd gen: Mudkip, Marshtomp, Swampert. 4th gen: Piplup, Prinplup, Empoleon. Perhaps the answer uses one of these, or some combination of them? --Anon 08:57, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Boris Blacher wrote an opera based on 'The purloined letter' This may fit with Bobby 'Boris' Pickett who sang Monster Mash [[User:YellowYeti|YellowYeti]] ([[User talk:YellowYeti|talk]]) 11:11, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

The "Boris" in "Boris Pickett" is a reference to Boris Karloff. (In his other work, Pickett doesn't use that name.) —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 12:36, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

An alternative tack: how about Barbaracle for the Pokemon, BarbaraC(Jordan) for purloined and Barbara Clark - famous for doing Monster Mash-up novels. Does Barbara Jordan have some purloined link with watergate? {{unsigned ip|108.162.231.16}}
No, because the pokemon has a different starting string as the other two. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.119|199.27.128.119]] 13:48, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

I think it is not coincidence that it is the last one that you can't solve. It may be an experiment by Randall to see if people can find a solution for a puzzle that doesn't make any sense. That said, if it does have a solution, it should not be "monstermash" since that is too close to the clue. If that was the password, everyone could guess it easily from the clue. It has to be one level "removed" from those words, guided by the clues for the matching passwords. The point of the post was that using unsalted crypt in the passwords allows you to combine clues, right? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.201|108.162.219.201]] 13:42, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Not an answer, but maybe an approach: Look at it from the "what piece of information is Randall trying to tell us?" angle. In the first few puzzles, he teaches us the rules of the game. We disambiguate clues by later ones, which we can only do because of the missing salts. For example, the "name and jersey number" just tells us the format of the answer to the previous clue about Judith 15:10. Otherwise, there would have been no way to guess that exact string without the space and colon. Also, "Charlie X" and "Charlie Sheen" demonstrate that spaces are used in a "fair" way. I would not expect a trailing space on a password, for example. So what about the Pokemon then? The first half of the crypt for the Pokemon isn't used anywhere else. The easiest interpretation I can come up with is that this is just trying to restrict the common second part of the word to letters from the list of Water-3 Pokemon. Let's assume it wasn't made very difficult, so take just 'el', 'le', and 'l' from the Water-3-only group on bulbapedia. Then the puzzle is this:

something related to 'monster mash': 8 letters plus the ending 'el', 'le', or 'l'
something related to 'purloined' or related to 'letter': the same 8 letters, minus the ending
pokemon: completely unrelated, just chosen to have a well known list of 9 or 10 letter words to restrict search space for first line

I suck at crosswords, but can someone solve this restated version? There can't be that many 8 letter words that also make a word with 'el', 'le', or 'l' added to them? 15:23, 6 November 2013 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.201}}

: Not to insult your reasoning, which is entirely correct, but I believe your restatement is *exactly* the puzzle that (reasonable) people have been working on (and failing to solve) since Monday. As a long-time mystery hunter, I'd like to suggest the opposite: the continued failure to find some reasonable solution to the puzzle as stated above implies that *at least one* of the assumptions above is wrong. (For the record, I'd broaden your first to "...related to 'monster mash' or the show/film M*A*S*H", but again, that's the assumption we *have* been making.) So I'm especially interested in ideas *different* from the above, at this point, although not necessarily throwing out the bathtub, baby and all. Probably there's a fundamentally different way to read the first clue, or the second, or the third. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 17:11, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
:: Not insulted at all, just glad if I summarized it correctly, since I was late to the party. Maybe this helps others bootstrap. As requested, a slightly alternate view for clue 1: the word "mash" may not be part of the answer, since it appears in the clue. This means the direct answer to the clue is "monster" and has nothing to do with the song at all. The password could just be the name of a monster that is formed from something purloined plus an short ending. The endings we're already considering make nice monster names.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.198|108.162.219.198]] 19:54, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

:::I appreciate the summary, it helped me come up with my "keyboard mash" proposed solution, which you can see below" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.16|108.162.221.16]] 21:51, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Looking at some word lists at http://www.litscape.com/words/ending_with/l/9_letter_l_end_words.html , this doesn't seem to be leading anywhere good. Can someone fix my logic? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.201|108.162.219.201]] 15:33, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Not sure if anyone else has pointed out yet, but there is a pokemon named purrloin http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Purrloin_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29 . That seems like far too much of a coincidence to not be related. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.211|173.245.52.211]] 16:17, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
: We'll add it to the long list of suspicious coincidences. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 17:11, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
:: I don't believe the hints can be related. Note that the Pokemon's name shares zero characters with the answer to the 'purloined' clue, so they are not linked via the same password. Any semantic link is inconsistent with these being password hints from separate (imaginary) users. Maybe Randall subconsciously (or via google) went from purloined to Purrloin to names of Pokemon. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.198|108.162.219.198]] 19:20, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

a stretch.. but maybe a starting point?
bootlegd purloined
bootlegd ash he did the..
???whisc ash fav-3
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.34|108.162.215.34]]rbnm

;Hash collision

Maybe the last clues could be intended to be a hash collision? With 64-bit blocks that seems unlikely, but maybe it's a trick?
[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:29, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
:Finding the probability of a collision amounts to the birthday problem. Assuming the hash function gives all 2^64 hash values with equal probability and there are 153 million unique message blocks (probably right within an order of magnitude), we have:
:
: <pre>Pr[collision] = 1 - exp(-153000000^2/(2*2^64)) = 0.000634</pre>
:
: So the probability of a hash collision from different passwords is still quite low, even with such a large number of passwords. So it's worth assuming that all the identical hash blocks are from the same message, and keep looking for the poke-mash password.
: BTW, getting a 50% chance of a collision requires about <tt>sqrt(-2^65*ln(.5))</tt> = 5 billion unique passwords.
:[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:46, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

'''Explanation for the last 3 - Keyboard Mash'''

"He did the mash, he did the" keyboard mash
ASDFGHJK - L

"purloined" letter, as in one letter from the home row
ASDFGHJK

Then the third one is TENTACOO - L
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.16|108.162.221.16]] 21:45, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
:Purloined seems like a stretch. On the other hand, 'asdfghjkl' is the 56th most common password in the real adobe data, so perhaps you're on to something. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 22:08, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
::I don't know, I feel like purloined has got to be a reference to the Poe story. The pun that letter means single character rather than item of correspondence is cute and funny. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.16|108.162.221.16]] 22:30, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
:I like this explanation --[[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 22:28, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

: This get's my vote. There's no reason for the "mash" password to be repeated twice in the puzzle with no clue for one of them except to say "this is a commonly used password" (as shown by the abc and password1 entries). Common password with an l (or el etc.) missing from the end, a purloined letter(!), plus "mash" as a clue is oblique but not crazyily so [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.223|141.101.99.223]] 17:37, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

:: I agree with the repetition part. Looking at the adobe top 100 passwords http://stricture-group.com/files/adobe-top100.txt I was hoping that 'asdfghjkl' was 2/5 as common as 'abc', based on the number of repetitions. It is actually more common, but at least it is on the list. I also think it is by far the best fit if choosing only from that list. Also, maybe Randall used another source material where it is less common than 'abc.' [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.158|173.245.52.158]] 13:13, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

: I think this is the best wrong answer yet. That is, I don't see how you can plausibly clue "ASDFGHJK" with "purloined" (that is, the hint doesn't work on its own, it requires the rest of the puzzle to make sense at all, which is against the rules of the puzzle). But it's a good story. Definitely wrong, but wrong in a really interesting way, and the most interesting wrong answer yet. ;) [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 19:41, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

:: I disagree. Even without the context of the rest of the comic, ASDFGHJKL is such a common password that it makes sense to imagine a hint that simply refers to a variation on it. In the same way, I can imagine someone using "purloined" to hint at a password of PASSWOR. Of course, with only 7 letters that wouldn't work for the comic. You would need a common 9 letter password to make a workable puzzle in the comic, and it's hard to think of anything better than ASDFGHJKL in that context. I appreciate the symmetry of the reference as well, in The Purloined Letter, the trick is that the police are all overthinking things and overlooking the obvious. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.16|108.162.221.16]] 21:58, 7 November 2013 (UTC)
::: I don't like "purloined" as a hint for "ASDFGHJK" one bit ("christmas" [that is, "noel"], "eight home", "elephant sneeze with a holiday", or any number of other phrases would be much better if that's what you were trying to clue), but it is the best thing so far. Maybe if we pencil it in, Randall will be motivated to let us know what he *really* meant. (Or apologize for "purloined" being lame.) [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 19:32, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
: If there's no objection, I'll go ahead and add this solution to the table above explaining the comic? I don't think there are any other credible candidates. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.41|108.162.218.41]] 18:50, 12 November 2013 (UTC)
:: No objection here. I don't like it, but it's the best we've got. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 15:09, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Why the restriction on the ending of the Pokemon to el, l, etc? There could be an adjective before (i.e. redkingle), so the Pokemon name could extend more into the second frame. The adjective might be some abreviated synonym for favorite, or whatever fav (or fay) stand for. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.34|108.162.215.34]] 22:07, 6 November 2013 (UTC)rbnm

;The last clue

Regarding it being actually Fay water-3 pokemon, have a look at this: http://www.serebii.net/e-reader/battle/08.shtml

The trainer is named Fay, and has a Starmie, which is a Water-3 Pokemon according to http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Water_3_(Egg_Group)

However, its only 7 characters. Not sure if it means anything, but just putting it out there.

EDIT: FayStarmie takes us to 10, leaving 9dca1d79d4dec6d5 meaning 'ie'

EDIT 2: I believe there is a Fay in Pokemon X and Y, but I can't find any information on her. Also Fay could refer to fairy, which is the new type added in Pokemon X and Y, but there doesn't seem to be any fairy Water-3 Pokemon, or any pokemon that reside in both groups. [[User:Haelbarde|Haelbarde]] ([[User talk:Haelbarde|talk]]) 00:24, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

It's not "FAY", it's "FAV". Check how "FAVORITE" is written in the middle of the picture, and look at the Y's. The vertex is clearly below the mid-point of A, which is where it is in Y. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.119|199.27.128.119]] 09:45, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

;Another theory on last part
Numbers and dates. Other passwords had numbers, why not this one?

A birthday is an easy thing to remember, so it's bound to be someone's password. So lets say a birthday was August 25, 1962. One can write that as august2562, which just so happens to be when Monster Mash was released, as per Wikipedia. In addition, August is quite similar to C. Auguste Dupin, from The Purlioned Letter. Lastly, one can add the Pokedex number of the Pokemon to the end of its name, but Poliwrath62 is too long, and is a water 1 Pokemon, not water 3.

This theory doesn't fit perfectly, but I haven't seen it posted yet. Maybe it'll give someone that eureka moment...[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.188|199.27.128.188]] 10:11, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

On the "purloined" and "monster mash" things: this is an incomplete theory but might give someone else an idea. Poe's "The Purloined Letter" contains this line: "He is the monstrum horrendum, an unprincipled man of genius." So perhaps the "purloined" clue is a reference to this line somehow. "Monstrum horrendum" is Latin for "horrendous monster" (although in Latin "monster" technically means "something to be pointed out and marvel at"). So if the password is "monsterm", this could be a misspelling of "monstrum"; if it's "monster " it could be a translation, though that begs the question as to why it ends with a space. [[User:Darthkiwi|Darthkiwi]] ([[User talk:Darthkiwi|talk]]) 15:50, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

Could purloined be a pun for a stolen persistant URL? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.113|199.27.128.113]] 18:32, 7 November 2013 (UTC)rbnm

I did some copypasting with v's y's and a's in paint and i now know for certain that it's fav pokemon, not fay. Althogh i did think about fay referring to fairy. But i now find this very unlikely. Personally i think it has some relation to water-3 egg group because that is just that obvious to any pokemon player, although it may be some weird distant connection. i usually do a few cryptic things with the password that i can probably remember but makes it as hard as possible to guess. so i might make something like that my hint if my favorite pokemon trainer used a pokemon once who shared the same colors as a water 3 pokemon. so my guess is that it is water-3 but maybe not a pokemon directly in it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.53|108.162.231.53]] 18:57, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

I'm wondering if the mash comment could refer to the Mashed Potato dance. From the wikipedia page about said dance, a slightly modified version of it was one of the dances that people danced to the Monster Mash. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.35}}

---

One technique for creating strong passwords is to take the first letter of each word in a passage from a book/movie quote/song/etc. as seen at http://www.mrsware.com/2/post/2013/06/passwords-revisited.html - "I was working in the lab late one night" would turn into "iwwitllon". If we take the next lyrics from the monster mash after "he did the", we get 'mmhdtmiwags'. The first eight words of The Purloined Letter would spell 'apjadoge'. Not sure how helpful this is.

Another thought is that in the story of The Purloined Letter, the letter is hidden in plain sight. Also, the story starts out with "Nihil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio" - Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than excessive cleverness, which may be relevant here.

Finally, I was thinking about punctuation. "mon*m#" could be pronounced like "mon-star-m-hash". [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.146|199.27.130.146]] 23:02, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

It's also possible that Monster Mash means combining (mashing) the names of two Pokemon. I believe you guys have only been looking at single pokemon names. Regarding Purloined, could that word be the opposite mashup? So a Pokemon called (I'm making this up, don't hate on me) Purfect and another one named Charloined could mash into Purloined or Charfect. {{unsigned|Mirrordude}}
: I don't think that is 'legal' in the rules that everyone is assuming for this game. Note the (simulated) user who picked the pokemon clue is unaware that someone else used monster mash in their clue. This is addressed in more detail above. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.158|173.245.52.158]] 13:00, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

'''Not 1, but 3 Pokemon'''

What if the Pokemon clue wasn't a single favorite from the water-3 group, but a favorite group of three water type Pokemon? This is less intuitive from the hint, but do people really pick out favorites from egg groups rather than types? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.8|173.245.54.8]] 01:41, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
: For example, "PokeBroKing" would represent a family of three water Pokemon (Slowpoke, Slowbro, Slowking), and "ING" would be the second hash to use with MonsterMash and the blank hint. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.8|173.245.54.8]] 03:18, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

'''Two Word Monsters?'''

What if the most simple derivation summarized above is correct, but with two minor changes:
1) he did the... refers to 'monster' not 'monster mash' since 'mash' appears in the clue (I asked about this above, but nobody commented)
note that this needs to be a password that you wouldn't guess if you don't also have the purloined clue, so not the word 'monster' or 'monster mash' itself
2) assume there is a space making two words in the first 8 characters of the answer to this clue
Then the search for 8 character words for 'purloined' would actually be the search for 8 character phrases, like so:
purloined -> letter -> 'post man'
monster -> 'post manle' (ok, that's not a monster, but for the correct 'purloined' phrase it would be)
This should fix the problem where you can't add short endings to 8 character words and make another word. I think it is easier to add these endings to shorter words. I also like the form of this puzzle, because it would be a logical difficulty progression after the 'Charlie X' thing above.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.158|173.245.52.158]] 12:52, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

I think you're on the wrong track. The answer for the last one could be "Password|Smash" or "Password|Mash" (rhymes with MonsterMash) capitalization unknown, of course. "OmastarS|mash" or "Omastar |Smash" for the Pokemon. Purloined, of course would be the "Password" itself, self-referential. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.23}}

;Who did the mash?

It's right in the lyrics: "my monster". The obvious corresponding answer to the Pokémon clue is to prepend the Pokédex number to the name, eg, "099kingler". It could also be, say, "99 kingler" or "91cloyster", which is unfortunate because we'd prefer a unique solution. Even sadder is that this leaves us with "my monst" for the password with the purloined clue, and that really just makes no sense at all. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.38|108.162.219.38]] 22:55, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

I might have missed it - did we figure out what the boxes on the right are for? They might be a key to the puzzle. [[User:Davheld|Davheld]] ([[User talk:Davheld|talk]]) 10:57, 10 November 2013 (UTC)
:The boxes are just what people have been doing with the fact that each block represents up to 8 characters. You'll notice the rectangles made up of smaller boxes contain 8 boxes. These are only for the passwords which contain two blocks (thus having 9-16 characters). The smaller rectangles not subdivided then tell us that there is 8 or less characters inside it. [[User:Haelbarde|Haelbarde]] ([[User talk:Haelbarde|talk]]) 14:05, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

Purrloin is the name of a Pokemon. I would suggest checking Water-3 Pokemon that can breed with Purrloin, but none can. Perhaps another connection? {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.79}}

---

Rob and pick are both synonyms of steal, and the guy who wrote the monster mash is robert pickett. So purloined could be "rob pick" and the other clue just "rob pickett". This doesn't seem to fit with any of the pokemon clues mentioned, but since I know nothing about pokemon mayber there's a way to make it work? -- starwed [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.19|108.162.216.19]] 19:16, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
: I like the idea of some permutation of Robert Pickett. I'm sure the ending can be used with some Pokemon, provided the region number is added. What bothers me though is that the answer to monster mash is the same as the one above, which makes me think it should be a common phrase, not a name. But maybe there's a way to mess with Bob's name to turn it into a common phrase. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.8|173.245.54.8]] 01:18, 13 November 2013 (UTC)
ducklett is a water pokemon belonging to egg group water 1 (so not completely fitting) his pokedex number is 580. disregarding the fact that it's water 1 and not 3 it could be 580ducklett. but even then we don't know for sure if we need a regional or national pokedex number. most pokemon (if not all) appear in more than one pokedex, and they are numbered differently in each one. so it could also be 086ducklett, #86ducklett, 153ducklett, or 127ducklett, along with the aforementioned 580 ducklett. so this would not be unambiguous. and prefixing a pokemon with it's pokedex number means there would be more than one solution to the puzzle. i now think that this is not the correct approach. i also really hope this isn't like a bait and switch, or some other trick to fool us into believing there is a solution, while in fact there is none. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.53|108.162.231.53]] 22:04, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.39|173.245.54.39]] 05:55, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Hi, the last 4 answers are:
monster mash
monster mash
monster
meteor mash
thanks for playing --- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.39|173.245.54.39]] 05:55, 13 November 2013 (UTC)
: In your edit summary you say, "it's a move, not a character", and I'm assuming you are referring to [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Meteor_Mash_(move) Meteor Mash]. But how is that a "fav water-3" pokemon (move)? It's *generation 3*, but it's a steel type move. There's nothing 'water' about it. Further, "monster " is still not an acceptable answer for the clue "purloined", and the previous "Charlie " answers have indicated that spaces count. This 'solution' needs more work. [[User:Cscott|Cscott]] ([[User talk:Cscott|talk]]) 15:08, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

EVERY hint and password refers to hackers or hacking [Try googling hacker ___], even possible alternatives such as SHEEN (actor's name) or HARPER (character name). 'Fav of 12 apostles' -- 'hacker 12' reveals news articles about a 12-year old Canadian boy convicted of hacking, and 'hacker apostle' sends you to "The 13th Apostle," an apparently terrible novel about a teenaged hacker.

EVERYTHING is related. 'Apostle' helped us figure out 'weather vane sword' (which was hidden, but a POEm was left hinting at where). '57' seems random - until you PURLOIN 1 from it (l and 1 often interchanged either purposely or accidently) and end up with 56 - and the 56th most common password on the list was asdfghjkl. ~Eve