explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:5: Blown apart

2015-09-30T19:14:12Z

108.162.216.85:

No 70s were harmed in the making of this comic. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:06, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Also, the 70 is black, and, in a subtractive colour system, black = red+green+blue. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.85|108.162.216.85]] 19:14, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

1492: Dress Color

2015-02-27T06:38:44Z

108.162.216.85: Changed transcript

{{comic
| number = 1492
| date = February 27, 2015
| title = Dress Color
| image = dress_color.png
| titletext = This white-balance illusion hit so hard because it felt like someone had been playing through the Monty Hall scenario and opened their chosen door, only to find there was unexpectedly disagreement over whether the thing they'd revealed was a goat or a car.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|needs more stuff}}
after being shared on [http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xaprc/eli5why_does_this_dress_appear_whitegold_to_some/ reddit,], twitter, [http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/ wired,] and originally on [http://swiked.tumblr.com/post/112174461490/officialunitedstates-unclefather tumblr,] this dress image has found itself everywhere, including this XKCD.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
A mirrored image of a girl in a dress. On the left, she is coloured blue on a dark blue background, while on the left, she is yellow against a buttercup background. Her dress is the same colour in each panel.
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1475: Technically

2015-01-19T14:21:30Z

108.162.216.85:

Technically, it's poor form and rude to ignore someone based on *Clicks Random page* [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 13:45, 19 January 2015 (UTC)
It's also possible that Cueball is purposefully inviting another "technically" sentence by stating he's looking at a bug, since it's unlikely he's looking at a member of the order Hemiptera. 14:21, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

1422: My Phone is Dying

2014-09-17T04:49:18Z

108.162.216.85: /* Explanation */ First Shot1422

{{comic
| number = 1422
| date = September 17, 2014
| title = My Phone is Dying
| image = my_phone_is_dying.png
| titletext = When it explodes, it will cast off its outer layers, leaving behind nothing but a slowly fading PalmPilot, calculator, or two-way pager.
}}

==Explanation==
The phone in question appears to "die" in a way analogous to the death of a star: expending its fuel while heating up and expanding before ultimately losing its outer layers and becoming a white dwarf or similar "lesser" star. Once extra mass is added to the dying star, analogous to "charging", the process only accelerates.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1419: On the Phone

2014-09-10T18:18:09Z

108.162.216.85: /* Explanation */ spell check

{{comic
| number = 1419
| date = September 10, 2014
| title = On the Phone
| image = on_the_phone.png
| titletext = 'No idea what I was thinking! Haha! But anyway, maybe we should check out what this Ba'al guy has to say.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|No explanation yet, just a description}}
Megan is wandering around the house, and discovers things which have been left in strange places, or arranged in piles.
On questioning an out-of-panel person (presumably [[Cueball]]), he responds that he tends to pick things up and fiddle with them while on the phone.
Cueball was letting his body run on autopilot like Megan's mom did with her reading in [[872: Fairy Tales]].

Fiddling with objects, doodling on the nearest surface, or otherwise getting distracted are fairly common habits which many people can probably relate to.

The final panel takes this to the extreme, where an obelisk inscribed with worrying prayers to 'Ba'al, The Soul-Eater' has been erected in the garden.
Ba'al the Soul-Eater is also in the title-text of [[1246: Pale Blue Dot]]. Ba'al may refer to a range of supernatural beings, starting with {{w|Baal#Baal-zebub|Ba'al Zebub}} that gave rise to Beelzebub (one of the {{w|Classification_of_demons#Binsfeld.27s_classification_of_demons|seven princes of hell}}).

==Transcript==
[Megan is pointing to the left off-panel and looking to the right off-panel.]
: Megan: Why is there a teapot in the bathroom?
: Off-panel voice (right): Sorry. When I'm on the phone I always zone out and pick stuff up and carry it around.
[Megan is in front of an open fridge, holding a hammer.]
: Megan: There's a hammer in the fridge.
: Off-panel voice: Another phone call. I was just fidgeting.
[Megan is walking next to four stacks of household objects: the first has a lightbulb on top of a book, the second has a blender on top of three books, the third has five books (two balanced vertically) with a smaller rectangular object on top, and the fourth has two tennis balls on top of three books]
: Megan: Did you put all our stuff in weird stacks?
: Off-panel voice: Long call. Sorry.
[Megan, outside, looks up at a towering straight-sided object]
: Megan: ...Why is there a giant obelisk in the backyard?
: Off-panel voice: Phone again. My bad.
: Megan: It's carved with prayers to "Ba'al, the Soul-Eater."
: Off-panel voice: Haha! I'm so absentminded.

{{comic discussion}}

461: Google Maps

2014-07-23T19:02:21Z

108.162.216.85: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 461
| date = August 11, 2008
| title = Google Maps
| image = google_maps.png
| titletext = Apparently Google assumes you're traveling during the ferry's normal operating hours. We lost two hours circling that damn lake (to say nothing of the Straw Man).
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Google Maps}} is a web mapping service application. Before smartphones with GPS mapping software were widespread and most people's printers hadn't yet run out of ink, it was common to print out directions to take with you on a trip. The web version of Google Maps has many features including a route planner. As sophisticated as early versions were, it occasionally gave suboptimal directions. For example, the directions may tell you to take an exit that, in reality, is unmarked. Directions also did not take time of day into account which would help in planning routes to avoid traffic or to make use of services such as a ferry.

The title text tells us that Cueball and his brother attempted to drive around the lake since they could not take the ferry and had an unfortunate run-in with the Straw Man.

Though no specific game or movie is referenced, steps 75 to 81 of the directions read like the plot of a horror film or role playing game. A straw man is another term for scarecrow, a common antagonist in both. Step 80 reads exactly like an old {{w|Interactive fiction|text adventure}} game's description of an area.

There are additional small jokes in the distance column of the directions:
*Step 75 tells you to travel 1172 feet up, a direction that Google Maps doesn't normally take into account.
*No distance is traveled in step 77, so Google instead tells you to be careful when talking to Charlie.
*{{w|Pi}} is a ratio used in calculations involving circles, not measured distances.
*Google doesn't know how far it is from the Spectral Wolf to your destination, so it gives you question marks as the distance.

==Transcript==
:My road trip with my brother ran into trouble around page three of the Google Maps printout

:[Google Maps printout.]
::← 70. Slight '''left''' at '''RT-22''' - go 6.8 mi
::→ 71. Turn '''right''' to stay on '''RT-22''' - go 2.6 mi
::← 72. Turn '''left''' at '''Lake Shore Rd''' - go 312 ft
::→ 73. Turn '''right''' at '''Dock St''' - go 427 ft
::[An icon of water] 74. Take the '''ferry''' across the '''lake.''' - go 2.8 mi

:[A car is driving in the dark.]
:Brother: Okay, now take Dock St toward the ferry.
:Cueball: We're supposed to take a ferry? It's past midnight, and these woods are creepy.
:Brother: Google Maps wouldn't steer us wrong.

:[Cueball and his brother stand outside the car. The ferry has a sign on it reading CLOSED.]

:[Cueball is standing next to his brother, who is holding a Google Maps printout.]

:[Cueball motions towards his brother.]
:Cueball: Let me see those directions.

:[Google Maps printout.]
::[An icon of water] 74. Take the '''ferry''' across the '''lake.''' - go 2.8 mi
::↗ 75. Climb the '''HILL''' toward '''Hangman's Ridge,''' avoiding any '''mountain lions.''' - up 1,172 ft
::↷ 76. When you reach an '''old barn,''' go around back, knock on the '''second door,''' and ask for '''Charlie.''' - go 52 ft
::[An icon of a van] 77. Tell '''Charlie''' the '''Dancing Stones''' are '''restless'''. He will give you his '''van'''. - Careful
::[An icon of a straw man] 78. Take '''Charlie's van''' down '''Old Mine Road'''. Do not wake the '''Straw Man'''. - go π mi
::← 79. Turn left on '''Comstock'''. When you feel the '''blood''' chill in your '''veins''', stop the van and '''get out.''' - go 3.2 mi
::↓ 80. Stand very still. Exits are '''north''', '''south''', and '''east''', but are block by a '''Spectral Wolf'''. - go 0 ft
::[An icon of a menacing face] 81. The '''Spectral Wolf''' fears only '''fire'''. The '''Google Maps Team''' can no longer help you, but if you master the '''wolf''', he will guide you. '''Godspeed.''' - go ?? mi

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Google Maps]]