explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

137: Dreams

2019-10-04T13:42:05Z

108.162.216.94: correct "between each word"

'''Bold text'''{{comic
| number = 137
| date = August 4, 2006
| title = Dreams
| image = dreams.png
| titletext = In Connor's second thesis it is stated 'There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.' Does the routine destroy our creativity or do we lose creativity and fall into the routine? Anyway, who's up for a road trip!
}}

==Explanation==
In the first panel of this comic, it is clear that Cueball has just written some comment that his friend thinks will lower his chances for getting a job in the future. This is common advice given to teenagers and young professionals, given as a warning that their posts online could be seen by a potential future boss.

In the next panel, Cueball replies with a seeming non-sequitur: when did we forget our dreams? Without explanation, this seems like one of the overly philosophizing, ultimately meaningless questions that also happen to pop up on social media sites. Cueball's friend is confused by the sudden shift in conversation.

The long monologue Cueball delivers focuses around the fact that as people get older, their lives becomes narrower and less filled with possibilities and novelty. This is a speech made in the manner of someone getting older and missing the simpler days of youth, where everything was much more exciting. From this point, he explains that part of the deadening process is responding the same way to each event that happens, and creating a routine. Routines, Cueball believes, remove our ability to act on our dreams.

Finally, Cueball gets to relating this monologue to posting inappropriate material to social media sites: he will not let his concerns for a nebulous future hinder the outlook on life he has now. He will not limit his choices in order to conform with the expectations of an uninspired future. He ends with the clear and simple explanation of his choices—"Fuck. That. Shit.".

Cueball's use of periods between words in this closing phrase is itself another reference to practices on social media sites; people will sometimes {{tvtropes|PunctuatedForEmphasis|put a period after each word in a short phrase to show emphasis.}}

Connor's second thesis from the title text is a quote from the character {{w|Sarah Connor (Terminator)|Sarah Connor}} in the film {{w|Terminator 2: Judgment Day|Terminator 2}}. The message expressed is a restatement of Cueball's monologue: While it sounds trite, each and every one of us has the ability to change our situation, whether by quitting the job we don't like, telling ''that person'' that we love them, or some other action. Our action (and inaction) creates our future, including the way in which we react to those things outside our control.

The title text also poses the question of whether the more creativity lost to conformity, the more routine life becomes, or the more routine life becomes, the less creative you become. This is a chicken and egg type question, which is dramatically broken by the suggestion of a roadtrip. This is the situationally unexpected break that shows that the speaker is willing to break out of the routines threatening to set in.

Other comics with a similar theme about finding or taking unexplored paths, instead of fitting into the mold, include [[59: Graduation]] and [[267: Choices: Part 4]].

==Transcript==
:[A friend is standing behind Cueball, who is typing at a computer.]
:Friend: You should be more careful what you write. Future employers might read it.

:Cueball: When did we forget our dreams?
:Friend: What?

:[Cueball stands beside his friend.]
:Cueball: The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I'm sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live trapped in loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out before us. We see the same things every day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following the gentle curves of societal norms. We act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us.

:Cueball: And no, I don't have all the answers. I don't know how to jolt myself into seeing what each moment could become. But I do know one thing: the solution doesn't involve watering down my every little idea and creative impulse for the sake of some day easing my fit into a mold. It doesn't involve tempering my life to better fit someone's expectations. It doesn't involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up.

:Cueball: This is very important, so I want to say it as clearly as I can:

:Cueball: '''FUCK.'''

:Cueball: '''THAT.'''

:Cueball: '''SHIT.'''

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

2210: College Athletes

2019-10-02T01:52:30Z

108.162.216.94: Explanation of title text. Very preliminary; please edit and expand on it.

{{comic
| number = 2210
| date = October 2, 2019
| title = College Athletes
| image = college_athletes.png
| titletext = Their signature play is the three-point combinator, a recursive offense which is guaranteed not to halt and continues accumulating points until the buzzer.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Steph Curry. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic is about the [https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB206|California Fair Pay to Play act], which was signed into law on September 30, 2019. It gives college athletes the rights to their name and face for financial gain, in contrast to NCAA rules which require that athletes be unpaid.

In this comic, Cueball claims that all members of his college basketball team changed their name to Steph Curry, after the NBA Player of the same name. In particular, one player copied the name from the NBA player, then another member of the team copied the name from that player, and so on.

This process is called "Currying", a play on both the name "Curry" used here, as well as the mathematical procedure called {{w|currying}}, wherein a multivariable function is broken down into a sequence of single-variable functions, each of which outputs a new function until the final variable is consumed. For example, the function f(x,y,z) can be curried into f(x)(y)(z), where f is a function that consumes x and produces a function f(x), which in turn consumes y, yielding the function f(x)(y), and that in turn is a function f(x)(y) which consumes the parameter z to finally produce f(x)(y)(z), which is equal to the original f(x,y,z). This is not commonly used in most areas of math except for foundational logic and pure functional programming.

White Hat’s reference to ‘Stephs Curry’ is likely referring to State Attorneys General. Though commonly called ‘State Attorney Generals’, ‘generals’ is an incorrect pluralization, according to convention.

The title text is a computer science joke, saying that their signature play is the "three-point combinator", a joke on y-combinators (?), which is recursive (see: recursion) and does not halt (see: the Halting Problem).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[Cueball, Ponytail and White Hat are having a conversation.]
:Ponytail [checking phone]: Oh, huh. California passed a law giving college athletes full rights to their names and images.
:White Hat: Good, I think?

:Cueball: That's nothing. ''Our'' state gave college players rights to use the names and images of ''any'' California athletes.
:Ponytail: It did not.

:Cueball: Sure it did!
:Cueball: That's how our school fielded a basketball team made up entirely of Steph Currys.
:White Hat: Or is the plural "Stephs Curry"?

:Cueball: They didn't all copy the original Steph, though. One player got the rights to his name, then the next player got it from them, and so on.
:Cueball: This process is known as "currying".
:Ponytail: ...I hate you so much.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:916: Unpickable

2018-03-10T01:31:15Z

108.162.216.94:

2x2 rubik's cubes are harder. Just sayin'. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:25, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
: What? A 2x2 is often solved in under two seconds at competitions. The world record for 5x5 is [https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/regions.php 48.42 seconds]. See also below. [[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 12:26, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

::I solve the cube with corner pieces and edge pieces in separate steps, so I find 2x2s harder. I just have to do the corner steps. 04:25, 23 June 2013 (UTC){{unsigned|184.11.73.88}}

:2x2s are certainly not harder than any other Rubik's cube by ANY standard. As the corners of any Rubik's cube have the same rotational moves, you have to solve a 2x2 at some point when solving any cube. 4x4 is harder than 5x5 though, because you can rotate away the middle pieces.[[Special:Contributions/85.164.251.29|85.164.251.29]] 07:11, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
:: Looking at [https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/regions.php speedcuber's results] I would disagree. 4x4 takes less than half the time. But you have a point since the "general geek" targeted by this comic's scheme might find it easier to deduce the function of a 5x5 due to the centerpieces. I still think you'd need to be a brilliant geek to be able to solve a 5x5 without prior knowledge. [[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 12:38, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
:: Um, the 5x5 Rubik's cube group also has the 4x4 group as a quotient, the same way the 4x4 has the 2x2 as a quotient; just look at the cube minus the T-center tiles and central edges.

This would likely be found in the residence of my colleague ['''REDACTED'''], as he has a collection of odd Rubik's Cube clones.{{unsigned|173.72.159.14}}

Maybe just the geek talking here, but what's with 5x5 Rubik's cube? It should be called 5x5x5 Rubik's cube. Ok, in the title text that might be a 2-dimensions-joke. But see the previous comments. Do the readers and "explainers" all think only 2-dimensional? {{unsigned ip|162.158.83.144}}

Talk:1960: Code Golf

2018-02-26T13:18:37Z

108.162.216.94:

What's the programming language? It seems to me like a special reverse golf variant of Python, where <code>def</code> is replaced by <code>define</code>, just to make it longer. Or is there a real language with that syntax? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.106|172.68.110.106]] 08:40, 26 February 2018 (UTC)
Lisp/some derivatives (I'm most familiar with scheme) use <code>define<define> as does Slate, however both have a different syntax. Most likely, this is just pseudo-code. [[User:Baldrickk|Baldrickk]] ([[User talk:Baldrickk|talk]]) 09:59, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

Definitely going to have to include a link to the actual longest language: Unary, which is literally just a certain length of 1s. No one actually writes in it: you write in another language and then it gets converted. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 10:48, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

This might be directed at a code golfing challenge currently taking place: https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/152856/write-moby-dick-approximately. The goal is to write a program that outputs a text, that is as closly as possible to moby dick, while no containing it, and of course beeing as small as possible.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.150|141.101.105.150]] 13:04, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

Not sure why JSFuck is included in the explanation. Not sure how it really has any relevance here as it is not mentioned in the text and is not the programming language being used by Randall in the comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 13:18, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-02-19T15:43:42Z

108.162.216.94:

[[First]] post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, the explanation looks like a train wreck, and I'm not sure if a rearranging it into a table or just adding bullet points to everything is better. I'm guessing that a table would be better, but I don't know how I can rearrange it. Can somebody help? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 06:35, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Added a table layout to the sandbox. Might be of some use to another editor. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 07:32, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: ''Edit: Looks like it's been adapted in; I've cleared the sandbox for future use.'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 11:53, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Thanks, I think a table is a good way to go. I'm adding it to the article as a place to start. Rather than format the original explanation into the table, I'm leaving the cells blank. The original poorly formatted text can be a starting point, but isn't directly adaptable. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 09:55, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Never ever have I heard anyone pronounce SQL as "sequel" - Is that a reqional dialect? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.15|162.158.93.15]] 07:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I heard it's common among MS-SQL users.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:02, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh BTW, look at our IPs. Are you an easybell customer? :-) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::: I somewhat doubt we are using easybell, from the looks of it it's not suited for the size of our company. But I can neither verify nor deny that claim as I am not responsible for the WAN connection at our company. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.9|162.158.93.9]] 15:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Some people pronounce it that way, yes. Don't know if it is "common among MS-SQL users", though. The only person I encountered saying "sequel" never used MS-SQL. [[User:LordHorst|LordHorst]] ([[User talk:LordHorst|talk]]) 09:54, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Not sure if it's regional or not. I personally say "sequel" and I'd say anecdotally that it's about 50/50 among people that I've worked with. I went to school and work in the Midwest US. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 15:40, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I've also seen references to Oracle users saying "sequel" rather than S-Q-L. That would make sense as it's the DB I'm primarily working with. http://patorjk.com/blog/2012/01/26/pronouncing-sql-s-q-l-or-sequel/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 15:43, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
I want to take a moment to congratulate the dedication of whomever wrote the original explanation. Second languages are hard, bro. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.10|108.162.215.10]] 07:48, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Has someone tried contacting Randall about "extploit"? If not, what would be the best way? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Hack his computer to display a message demanding he fix it if he wants his hard drive decrypted.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.26|162.158.155.26]] 09:24, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks, will do.

::how to hack complooter
::why does google not work
::how to delete text
::[[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:44, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:If anyone is getting this changed to correct silly errors, removing the full stop in “…<tt>one. Computer</tt>…” would be nice. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.197|141.101.99.197]] 15:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Regarding "Factor a prime": Factoring a prime is easy: The prime itself is the only factor, so it's sufficient to use [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKS_primality_test AKS] or whatever to check that. Public-key encryption relies on how hard it is to factor the product of two primes, which is a much harder problem. Maybe this is a typo in the comic? {{unsigned|Comment Police}}
: I don't think it is a typo. It's exactly the type of "inside-joke" I would expect from XKCD. :) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.214|162.158.134.214]] 10:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: AFAIK, there aren't any primality tests known to run in O(log n). For instance, AKS runs in O(log n ^ 7.5). So for numpy to actually achieve factoring as stated would require assuming the input is prime and just returning (1,n). --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 12:45, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:::Doesn't testing for primality (just) require a list of all primes up to sqrt(n)? So the best possible time is sqrt(however fast you can calculate primes up to a number). That time can at most be square (divide every number by every other number below it), so a primality test only needs O(n) time. Or do I understand something wrong? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:46, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::::Oh yes, I missed that log(n) is less than n. Nevermind then. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:50, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Can I edit some spelling errors? There seems to be some spelling errors here and there.Boeing-787lover 10:19, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Of course, that's what a Wiki is for. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 12:10, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
I think the explanation of the one about injecting arbitrary text onto a page with the comments box is overthinking the joke. I think it really is just about the fact that you can write whatever you like in a comment. Look, I just hacked this page to display the word "penguin". [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 10:26, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Since when is Bruce Schneier not real? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.75|162.158.93.75]] 13:05, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: He never was - it's a cleverly executed art project. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.209|141.101.99.209]] 14:20, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I've added some clarification to the "CRITICAL" item. I know there are several xkcd comics referencing similar problems but I unfortunately don't have the time to look them up, can someone do that and link them appropriately in the table? [[User:Domino|Domino]] ([[User talk:Domino|talk]]) 13:11, 19 February 2018 (UTC)domino
:Isn't the joke really in the hilarious severity assessment? The vulnerability is supposedly CRITICAL!!!!11!1!!one!, while description shows both a ridiculously small vulnerable population and ridiculously low impact. Population: a single, very old kernel version on a rare, outdated architecture, in one timezone only - and WHICH timezone! UTC+14 means just a couple of islands in the Pacific (Tonga, Kiribati...) - the probability of even one vulnerable system actually existing seems almost zero. Impact: the only possible consequence is switching from 12h to 24h (only in this direction)? This whole entry is very creative - just TRY to come up with a possible vulnerability (yes, it would classify as an actual vulnerability, why not?) that would have a LOWER severity than that...--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.89|162.158.91.89]] 13:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I think the article should start with an explanation of what is the CVE. From https://cve.mitre.org/
"CVE® is a list of entries—each containing an identification number, a description, and at least one public reference—for publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
CVE Entries are used in numerous cybersecurity products and services from around the world, including the U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD)."
-{{unsigned|Comment Police}}

"MySQL server 55.45" it is 5.5.45 if you zoom in a bit. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.161|162.158.91.161]] 13:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)Blocki

"An attacker can execute malicious code on their own machine and no one can stop them" might be a jab at the trend toward more closed systems, where even the owner of a device is limited in what they can do on it. 
"A flaw in Mitre's CVE database allows arbitrary code insertion" could be meant as an explanation for the whole comic, i.e. those joke vulnerabilities were added to the CVE database using this flaw. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.225|141.101.69.225]] 13:52, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-02-19T15:40:14Z

108.162.216.94:

[[First]] post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, the explanation looks like a train wreck, and I'm not sure if a rearranging it into a table or just adding bullet points to everything is better. I'm guessing that a table would be better, but I don't know how I can rearrange it. Can somebody help? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 06:35, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Added a table layout to the sandbox. Might be of some use to another editor. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 07:32, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: ''Edit: Looks like it's been adapted in; I've cleared the sandbox for future use.'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 11:53, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Thanks, I think a table is a good way to go. I'm adding it to the article as a place to start. Rather than format the original explanation into the table, I'm leaving the cells blank. The original poorly formatted text can be a starting point, but isn't directly adaptable. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 09:55, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Never ever have I heard anyone pronounce SQL as "sequel" - Is that a reqional dialect? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.15|162.158.93.15]] 07:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I heard it's common among MS-SQL users.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:02, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh BTW, look at our IPs. Are you an easybell customer? :-) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::: I somewhat doubt we are using easybell, from the looks of it it's not suited for the size of our company. But I can neither verify nor deny that claim as I am not responsible for the WAN connection at our company. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.9|162.158.93.9]] 15:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Some people pronounce it that way, yes. Don't know if it is "common among MS-SQL users", though. The only person I encountered saying "sequel" never used MS-SQL. [[User:LordHorst|LordHorst]] ([[User talk:LordHorst|talk]]) 09:54, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Not sure if it's regional or not. I personally say "sequel" and I'd say anecdotally that it's about 50/50 among people that I've worked with. I went to school and work in the Midwest US. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 15:40, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
I want to take a moment to congratulate the dedication of whomever wrote the original explanation. Second languages are hard, bro. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.10|108.162.215.10]] 07:48, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Has someone tried contacting Randall about "extploit"? If not, what would be the best way? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Hack his computer to display a message demanding he fix it if he wants his hard drive decrypted.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.26|162.158.155.26]] 09:24, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks, will do.

::how to hack complooter
::why does google not work
::how to delete text
::[[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:44, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:If anyone is getting this changed to correct silly errors, removing the full stop in “…<tt>one. Computer</tt>…” would be nice. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.197|141.101.99.197]] 15:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Regarding "Factor a prime": Factoring a prime is easy: The prime itself is the only factor, so it's sufficient to use [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKS_primality_test AKS] or whatever to check that. Public-key encryption relies on how hard it is to factor the product of two primes, which is a much harder problem. Maybe this is a typo in the comic? {{unsigned|Comment Police}}
: I don't think it is a typo. It's exactly the type of "inside-joke" I would expect from XKCD. :) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.214|162.158.134.214]] 10:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: AFAIK, there aren't any primality tests known to run in O(log n). For instance, AKS runs in O(log n ^ 7.5). So for numpy to actually achieve factoring as stated would require assuming the input is prime and just returning (1,n). --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 12:45, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:::Doesn't testing for primality (just) require a list of all primes up to sqrt(n)? So the best possible time is sqrt(however fast you can calculate primes up to a number). That time can at most be square (divide every number by every other number below it), so a primality test only needs O(n) time. Or do I understand something wrong? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:46, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::::Oh yes, I missed that log(n) is less than n. Nevermind then. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:50, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Can I edit some spelling errors? There seems to be some spelling errors here and there.Boeing-787lover 10:19, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Of course, that's what a Wiki is for. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 12:10, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
I think the explanation of the one about injecting arbitrary text onto a page with the comments box is overthinking the joke. I think it really is just about the fact that you can write whatever you like in a comment. Look, I just hacked this page to display the word "penguin". [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 10:26, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Since when is Bruce Schneier not real? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.75|162.158.93.75]] 13:05, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: He never was - it's a cleverly executed art project. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.209|141.101.99.209]] 14:20, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I've added some clarification to the "CRITICAL" item. I know there are several xkcd comics referencing similar problems but I unfortunately don't have the time to look them up, can someone do that and link them appropriately in the table? [[User:Domino|Domino]] ([[User talk:Domino|talk]]) 13:11, 19 February 2018 (UTC)domino
:Isn't the joke really in the hilarious severity assessment? The vulnerability is supposedly CRITICAL!!!!11!1!!one!, while description shows both a ridiculously small vulnerable population and ridiculously low impact. Population: a single, very old kernel version on a rare, outdated architecture, in one timezone only - and WHICH timezone! UTC+14 means just a couple of islands in the Pacific (Tonga, Kiribati...) - the probability of even one vulnerable system actually existing seems almost zero. Impact: the only possible consequence is switching from 12h to 24h (only in this direction)? This whole entry is very creative - just TRY to come up with a possible vulnerability (yes, it would classify as an actual vulnerability, why not?) that would have a LOWER severity than that...--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.89|162.158.91.89]] 13:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I think the article should start with an explanation of what is the CVE. From https://cve.mitre.org/
"CVE® is a list of entries—each containing an identification number, a description, and at least one public reference—for publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
CVE Entries are used in numerous cybersecurity products and services from around the world, including the U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD)."
-{{unsigned|Comment Police}}

"MySQL server 55.45" it is 5.5.45 if you zoom in a bit. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.161|162.158.91.161]] 13:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)Blocki

"An attacker can execute malicious code on their own machine and no one can stop them" might be a jab at the trend toward more closed systems, where even the owner of a device is limited in what they can do on it. 
"A flaw in Mitre's CVE database allows arbitrary code insertion" could be meant as an explanation for the whole comic, i.e. those joke vulnerabilities were added to the CVE database using this flaw. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.225|141.101.69.225]] 13:52, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

1951: Super Bowl Watch Party

2018-02-13T21:07:17Z

108.162.216.94: Due to the NFL's position as the top American Football League in the world (with no significant competition) and the Super Bowl winner becoming the undisputed champion of the NFL, I removed the qualifiers.

{{comic
| number = 1951
| date = February 5, 2018
| title = Super Bowl Watch Party
| image = super_bowl_watch_party.png
| titletext = It's going to be weird near the end of May when the screen goes blank for over 18 hours.
}}

==Explanation==

The {{w|Super Bowl}} is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional {{w|American football}}. In late January or early February each year, the winner of the American Football Conference (AFC) plays the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) to determine the champion. In {{w|Super Bowl LII}} held on Sunday, February 4, (the day before this comic's release), the NFC champion {{w|Philadelphia Eagles}} defeated the AFC champion {{w|New England Patriots}} 41: 33. Based on its wide-reaching cultural impact, the Super Bowl is the single most important American football game of the year. Over a hundred million people (across the world) watch it, many of whom are not even fans of American football.

Many people have parties centered on watching the game. The full game lasts around four hours, including breaks for advertisements and a halftime, which includes a live performance of music, and the "best" commercials, which the Super Bowl has become notorious for, with some viewers only tuning in to watch them instead of the football game.

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] (on the couch) have such a Super Bowl Watch Party going with their friends (hence the title), but in order to watch the game so that the end will be at the start of the next game, they have slowed down the broadcast so the game takes an entire year to watch. The normal TV is broadcast at 30 frames per second and takes four hours. But by slowing the video down by a factor of 2300, the show would last a full year. (Actually it would last 33,120,000 seconds which is 383 days, 18 days more than a year. To make it last a year, minus 4 hours, it should be slowed down a factor 2189). Each frame would be shown for about 76.7 seconds. Each day in the slow video would cover just under 40 seconds of real time. With this method of viewing, the watchers are instead reduced to analyzing the game frame-by-frame, which may make it easier to understand the sequence of events, but also creates a feeling of tedium.

Due to this extension creating a lack of variety, [[Megan]] tries to make it interesting by guessing the next frame shown will be a cut to a different camera angle. Cuts happen frequently during the broadcast, especially when the ball is not in play, and these cuts may be marked by a black screen. If this is the case, then the cut will be around a minute of nothing to look at at this speed. Megan has a relatively high probability (albeit still incredibly low, with cuts being less than one in every 1000 frames) of being right simply by chance that the next frame will be a cut, but Cueball's tired comment that she always guesses that indicates that the game is so slow or the cuts are so rare that she is almost never correct.

[[Ponytail]] asks if they think the first ad block will come out before the end of February, about 20 days after the start of the Super Bowl show. The ads and halftime show are considered integral parts of the broadcast, and many advertisers debut elaborate commercials especially for this game, since so many people watch it. Many people claim to watch the Super Bowl only for the commercial breaks, as mentioned in [[60: Super Bowl]], and the anticipation for these is exaggerated for this game, as the wait is much longer with the extended broadcast. (In exchange, however, the commercials will be longer, too.)

The title text refers to how, during a commercial break during the 2018 Super Bowl, only blackness was broadcast for 28 seconds due to equipment failure at NBC. <ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/02/04/super-bowl-nbc-equipment-failure-blank-screen-super-bowl-commercial/305623002/</ref> At the rate they watch it would last almost 18 hours as described (17 hours 53 minutes).

In previous comics regarding the Super Bowl, [[Randall]] has explained that he now watches the Super Bowl ([[1480: Super Bowl]]), despite previously expressing a lack of interest in the game ([[60: Super Bowl]]) or any other sport ([[1107: Sports Cheat Sheet]]). A slowly updating video is similar to the concept behind [[1190: Time]], and is also reminiscent of Douglas Gordon's 1993 art installation {{w|24 Hour Psycho}}. Also, {{w|As Slow as Possible}} is an organ piece that is currently played in a German church - it will end in 2640, after 639 years of continuous playing. The theme of a group becoming interested in frame-by-frame shots is reminiscent of [[915: Connoisseur]]. Related to frame-by-frame film watching is the ''Cinema interruptus'' concept used by film critic {{w|Roger Ebert}} at the {{w|Conference on World Affairs}}, where you first watch a film at normal speed, without interruptions, and then you watch it again, over several afternoons - while everybody present can stop the film at any time, and have a discussion about anything related to the scene. This is also method sport coaches use to discuss recordings of games.

==Transcript==
:[A woman, looking like Megan, walks up to a group of people watching TV. Cueball and Megan (with shorter hair than the walking woman) are sitting on a couch. A Cueball-like guy sits in front of them, while Ponytail lies on the ground, head resting on a hand, in front of a TV, which is quite far from the couch.]
:Woman: Morning. How's the game?
:Cueball: Eagles got to the 26-yard line around midnight. They've been walking across the field since then. Just entered a huddle.
:Megan: I bet the next frame will be a cut.
:Guy on floor: You always say that.
:Ponytail: Do you think the first ads will come by the end of February?

:[Caption below the comic:]
:I'm at a year-round Super Bowl watch party. We're playing the stream at 1/2300x speed, so it will end just as next year's Super Bowl starts.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:American football]]
<references/>

1951: Super Bowl Watch Party

2018-02-05T19:05:42Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1951
| date = February 5, 2018
| title = Super Bowl Watch Party
| image = super_bowl_watch_party.png
| titletext = It's going to be weird near the end of May when the screen goes blank for over 18 hours.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FOOTBALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The "Super Bowl" is the name of the American Football championship game. On the 4th of February, the winner of the American Football Conference (AFC) played the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL). Due to the fact that it determines the champion of the highest level of American Football, it is considered to be the most important game of the year, and many people watch it. Some have parties centered around watching the game. The full game lasts for several hours, including breaks for advertisement and a halftime, which includes a live performance of music.

By slowing the video down by a factor of 2300, the show would last a full year. Normal TV is broadcast at 30 frames per second. So if slowed by a factor of 2300 each frame would be shown for about 76 seconds Each frame can be discussed and analysed by the watchers. Each day in the slow video would cover just under 40 seconds of real time. So when Megan comes down to rejoin the party (who have been watching all night) they can describe about 20 seconds of real time. The description refers to the offense taking the field after the initial kickoff was returned to the 26 yard line.

The title text refers to how, during a commercial break during the 2018 Super Bowl, just blackness was broadcast for 28 seconds. <ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/02/04/super-bowl-nbc-equipment-failure-blank-screen-super-bowl-commercial/305623002/</ref>

Cueball has previously explained that he now watches the [[1480: Super Bowl|Super Bowl]], despite [[60: Super Bowl|not being very interested in sport]]. A slowly updating video is similar to the concept behind [[Time]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan walks into a room. Cueball and another Megan-like individual are sitting on a couch. Another Cueball sits in front of them, while Ponytail lies on the ground in front of a TV.]
:Megan: Morning. How's the game?
:Cueball: Eagles got to the 26-yard line around midnight. They've been walking across the field since then. Just entered a huddle.
:Megan #2: I bet the next frame will be a cut.
:Cueball #2: You always say that.
:Ponytail: Do you think the first ads will come by the end of February?
:[Caption below the comic:]
:I'm at a year-round Super Bowl watch party. We're playing the stream at 1/2300x speed, so it will end just as next year's Super Bowl starts.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:American football]]

<references/>

Talk:1037: Umwelt

2017-11-27T03:28:09Z

108.162.216.94: /* Comic Might Now be Broken? */ Add an explanation for why the comic fails

Normally I understand xkcd. But this one hurts my head. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:35, 15 August 2012 (UTC)
: I sorted all of them out. Phew!!! That was some work. The ones at the end have no appropriate picture in the image part. Atleast the hurricane one should be added. Please do so. [[User:TheOriginalSoni|TheOriginalSoni]] ([[User talk:TheOriginalSoni|talk]]) 11:09, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
:: I live in one of Umwelt's "hurricane areas", and that's the one I see. How do we add it? [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 06:06, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

There is a fixed image used if your browser does not support javascript, which is missing. Additionally, the alt text varies at times. [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 20:16, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

I can't see any of them neither in Firefox nor in IE :( --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 11:32, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

This has got to be one of my favourite xkcd's! That amount of ingenuity in one edition! [[User:D3KN0W|Dean]] ([[User talk:D3KN0W|talk]]) 22:33, 01 January 2013 (UTC)

There is now also a category page for Jurassic Park, but I'm not sure how to work that into the explanation. [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 09:04, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

I can't resist noting that Chrome is sadly mistaken in thinking that its puzzle piece links up to a corner piece - it would have to be an edge piece to do that. Firefox would never have that kind of issue... [[User:Natf|Natf]] ([[User talk:Natf|talk]])
: Supposedly, if there were a puzzle with inner corners, such as one with a plus cut out of it, this could link up as shown. ... I wanna make a puzzle like that now. [[Special:Contributions/99.44.200.140|99.44.200.140]] 08:00, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

It would be difficult to compile, but I think this page would benefit from having the conditions along with the image (for instance, "Displays when running Netscape:") [[Special:Contributions/24.41.66.114|24.41.66.114]] 03:27, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Hey, um, I think there is an AniMega Mega Mega Mega Maniacs reference. Namely, the question about hot dogs resembles Yakko's question to the Wally Llama except it dealt with packages of eight and packages of ten. (I forget which is which) {{unsigned ip|71.166.47.84}}

I came here to seek informartion about how each strip was seen. Disappointed... Especially after seeing there is a hebrew one!?!?!?!? (number 29) Is it real? Because I assume it should be visible from Israel and I can't see it [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.228|141.101.99.228]] 22:26, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Added two location references to the 2Fast2Furious and Snake comics, with browser references. Anyone know why I got those results? {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.77}}
: I don't, especially since I live in the UK (not Texas) and yet I see the Snake comic? [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 14:14, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

I found a new one, it seems to display when using TOR. Should I add it? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.60|173.245.49.60]] 02:22, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
:Yes definitely. [[User:Chriswampler|Chriswampler]] ([[User talk:Chriswampler|talk]]) 16:07, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
::The Reviews comic just as appearing under TOR is actually comic #1036. Can you confirm that it is actually showing up under Umwelt? [[User:Chriswampler|Chriswampler]] ([[User talk:Chriswampler|talk]]) 20:34, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
:::Yes. I checked like ten times. I just did it again.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.153|173.245.53.153]] 20:40, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
:Honestly I can't do much explaining. Does anyone get it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.61|108.162.219.61]] 20:54, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
:For me, using TOR, it displayed the full Aurora comic. [[User:Zorlax the Mighty|Zorlax the Mighty'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:Zorlax the Mighty|talk]]) 17:50, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

Has anyone tested the Steam browser, whatever it is, with this comic? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.66|108.162.219.66]] 18:50, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

I tested the Steam browser and got the "This plugin requires Sergey Brin's permission to run" comic, same as when I use Chrome.[[User:RobotSnake|RobotSnake]] ([[User talk:RobotSnake|talk]]) 18:16, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
:That is because the Steam browser is WebKit/Chromium-based. (Now you know something!)[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] 03:34, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

For the Yahoo Chrome one with Sergey Brin, it reminds me a bit like how GerMega Mega Mega Mega Man tanks were unable to be moved on D-Day because Hitler, whose order was needed to move them, slept through the first five hours of the batter. It's the same theme of failure due to having only one person able to give permission, and that person being asleep.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.188|173.245.54.188]] 14:53, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

I get Pond on both my laptop (Firefox) and iPhone 3. I live in North Holland. Hope it helps, ask some other Dutch people about it for affirmation. On Opera, I get the turtle one. I should also note that if I make my browser window smaller, the right part of it is cut off. This page is clearly incomplete... -Maplestrip

...Uhm, have you guys ever tried looking at this page in Lynx? Because, seriously, this is amazing. It's basically this entire page. The start in particular is hilarious: "<nowiki>[[two people...]]</nowiki> <<..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all of this>> [[Two people standing next to eachother..." Reading some of this, is this where you got all the transcripts for these comics from? -Maplestrip

In Ireland I get no comic strip loading at all! Just nothing in between the direction buttons, on Chrome or Safari! :/ {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.215}}

Just something I feel should be added to the "Blizzard" comic: it seems to also change the distance measurement (magnitude and system), in the last panel, depending on your location; for instance, the final panel refers to them only having [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22279334/Screen%20Shot%202015-03-25%20at%2010.03.06%20PM.png six more kilometres to travel] for me: fitting given that I'm located in central Ontario. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.17|108.162.216.17]] 02:23, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm in Georgia but I still got the Hurricane image. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.187|108.162.238.187]] 14:12, 29 May 2015 (UTC)

I have the "Reviews" one. With Firefox/Linux without referer and without javascript, from France. With javascript I don't have any comic. Edit : I checked, it's because I have the "Reviews" one but inside a <noscript> tag, so it doesn't display when javascript is activated. [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 14:20, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

And now we need Randall to make an Umwelt page for Microsoft Edge.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.61|108.162.221.61]] 02:06, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Note of interest: Windows 10, Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, GA. Currently receiving "The Void" on both Chrome and Microsoft Edge unless Javascript is disabled. When disabled, "Reviews" is shown instead. Also: Chrome on HTC One M8 shows "Corporate Networks" with yellow triangle and Google - a combination which incidentally does not seem to be on this page. [[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 05:11, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

I'm on Windows 10 in NJ and I'm getting "Snake" instead of "Hurricane" on Opera, Chrome, Edge and Maxthon. Has this happened to other NJ users, or is "Hurricane" in only some parts on New Jersey? Maybe it's because it's on Windows 10. {{unsigned ip|69.123.50.168}}

I'm in Idaho using Firefox, and I get Reviews whenever I go to this comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.74|108.162.246.74]] 18:41, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Should I add to the article that I'm seeing "Snake" on Chrome version 49.0.2623.112 on Windows 8 in Massachusetts? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.72|108.162.219.72]] 00:13, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
:I posted that comment before I had an account. Now that I'm looking back at this article a year later, I've gone ahead and done it. —[[User:CsBlastoise|CsBlastoise]] ([[User talk:CsBlastoise|talk]]) 22:28, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

I got a variant of the snake one in Ohio using Windows 7 and Google Chrome Version 49.0.2623.112 m. As of now, it should only be visible in "Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS), Connecticut (Safari for iOS)."[[User:Bbrk24|Bbrk24]] ([[User talk:Bbrk24|talk]]) 16:35, 3 May 2016 (UTC)

I'm getting Plugin Disabled in Safari, Firefox, Safari mobile, Chrome mobile, and the Google app. The only anomaly is Chrome desktop, where I'm getting Tornado (located in "the Midwest"), and I'm all out of browsers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.72.113|162.158.72.113]] 21:37, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

I get the review strip when sharing http://xkcd.com/1037/ on FB, and the full aurora strip using chrome on my android t-mobile phone [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.89|173.245.48.89]] 17:55, 26 August 2016 (UTC)

I'm in Virginia, but when i look at umwelt in firefox, it gives me the tornado, whith ohio in the third panel, and on chrome, it does aurora, still saying ohio. {{unsigned ip|172.68.78.127}}

== Comic Might Now be Broken? ==

For some reason, this comic does not seem to be working now. It doesn't work on Chrome version 57.0.2987.133 on Windows 8 in Massachusetts, even though it worked a year ago on the very same computer with version 49.0.2623.112 of Chrome in the same location (showing "Snake" then); I tried it on Internet Explorer on the same computer (only because it's the only other browser I have on it), and it didn't work there either; my brother grudgingly agreed to try it on Firefox on his Ubuntu 14.04 machine (in the same room), and we got the same result.

No, I'm not talking about the void; here, there is absolutely no image at all. It seems to be the same as the experience that an anonymous user posted above about two and a half years ago:
<blockquote>In Ireland I get no comic strip loading at all! Just nothing in between the direction buttons, on Chrome or Safari! :/ [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.215|173.245.53.215]] 18:41, 13 November 2014 (UTC) <code>''(Comment was actually unsigned; contributor and timestamp are implied by <nowiki>{{unsigned ip}}</nowiki> template and edit history, respectively)''</code></blockquote>
Now, every time I tried on my computer, the browser said that the page was trying to load unsafe scripts. Maybe this is somehow linked to the fact that within the past few months, Randall (or more likely Davean) made all xkcd links secure (<nowiki>https://</nowiki>), and the now secure nature of the page could be blocking the location- and browser-sensing scripts in the comic itself. However, the comic still didn't work when I opted to "Load Unsafe Scripts", so maybe it isn't that simple.

Also, it might be helpful to note that [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] posted on here that he was having an issue that is probably quite similar to this one:
<blockquote>I have the "Reviews" one. With Firefox/Linux without referer and without javascript, from France. With javascript I don't have any comic. Edit : I checked, it's because I have the "Reviews" one but inside a <noscript> tag, so it doesn't display when javascript is activated. [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 14:20, 9 December 2015 (UTC)</blockquote>
Anyway, with all that said, is there anyone else who is having this issue and/or knows what might be causing it?

—[[User:CsBlastoise|CsBlastoise]] ([[User talk:CsBlastoise|talk]]) 23:48, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

:It has to do with the browser getting scared off by "mixed active content." Mozilla's developers discuss it in more detail here: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Mixed_content]. In Firefox at least, there's a config change you can make (security.mixed_content.block_active_content) to override this and get the comic to display. (Well, kind of. I'm still getting "The Void," but I'm working on it.) Other browsers can probably be reconfigured likewise, though you should remember to change back when you're done to avoid security problems.. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 03:28, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

when using chromium on ubuntu 16.04 32 bit (yeah yeah yeah) I get no comic loaded, there is no element present. --> http://i.imgur.com/KZwpN8y.png have fun all. -[anon]

I live in Florida and I had the "Lake Diver Killer" comic show up for me in Umwelt. Then it changed to the "Void" comic despite the fact that JavaScript was supported (it was Google Chrome) and now nothing shows up at all. I don't get it.... --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]][[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]] 12:25, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

I notified davean, since nobody said doing so. [[User:Musaran|Musaran]] ([[User talk:Musaran|talk]]) 14:26, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

Developer console on Opera 46 shows this error:
GET http://umwelt.xkcd.com/story/ghenkEggov8?callback=waldoCallback&w=796&h=658…%3Dopera%26hs%3DuXE%26gbv%3D1%26sei%3Df5dkWd_9MMiGaJKyibAG&_=1499764695887 503 (Service Unavailable)
So it appears there are problems with the server.
Also, I confirm that disabling Javascript in the browser results in the reviews comic displaying. [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 09:28, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Israel is incorrect. I ive there and I got Saturday _OHF {{unsigned ip|162.158.90.36}}

== New location for long Too Quiet? ==

I got the long version of Too Quiet on a Chromebook in Minnesota. The long version only seems to be mentioned for Chrome in Indiana. Can anyone else verify? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.46|162.158.214.46]] 17:09, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

1902: State Borders

2017-10-13T15:00:20Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1902
| date = October 13, 2017
| title = State Borders
| image = state_borders.png
| titletext = A schism between the pro-panhandle and anti-panhandle factions eventually led to war, but both sides spent too much time working on their flag designs to actually do much fighting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Add a table of all the proposed changes, explain title text... Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, graphic designers take control of the United States, but the only thing they do is change the state borders slightly so that they look more aligned, as shown in the map.

Despite the caption's rather blasé reaction to the graphic designers' master plan, the changes they propose could be rather tumultuous. Many U.S. residents will be made to live in new states, and thus be required to pay different taxes and obey different state laws. Some particularly unlucky U.S. residents living Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska and Minnesota will be required to file for citizenship in Mexico or Canada if they wish to continue living in their current homes.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Proposed change !! Explanation
|-
| Give to Canada || {{w|Minnesota}} has a small northern enclave (the {{w|Northwest Angle}}) which is accessible from the rest of the US only via the {{w| Lake of the Woods}} or by travelling through Canada. The new borders suggest giving this territory to Canada to simplify the state and national border.
|-
| This should be Wisconsin || {{w|Michigan}} is split to the Northwest with {{w|Wisconsin}} by {{w|Lake Michigan}}. The graphic designers suggest, by reassigning land, water and land again, to assign {{w|Ottawa National Park}} and {{w|Hiawatha National Park}} to Wisconsin.
|-
| If we're going to have a panhandle, why not commit to it? || {{w|Oklahoma}} has a "panhandle" to its west, which is a kind of {{w|Salient (geography)|Salient}}. The graphic designers don't want to go with this thing, but if it must, they suggest including the Northern parts of {{w|Arizona}} and {{w|New Mexico}} to go with it, as it shows commitment.
|-
| Let's be honest, this should be Canada too || {{w|Southeast Alaska}} should be given to {{w|Canada}}, presumably because it more neatly fits with {{w|British Columbia}}. This is slightly problematic, as the state capital, {{w|Juneau}}, is within this section.
|-
| Unlabelled cleanup at the junction of {{w|Texas}}/{{w|Oklahoma}}/{{w|Arkansas}}/{{w|Louisiana}} || Square off {{w|Southwest Arkansas}}, and move {{w|Lousiana's}} northwest border to meet up, presumably because square corners are better.
|-
| Fix this thing || Because of the flow of the {{w|Mississippi River}}, the border of {{w|Missouri}} cuts into {{w|Arkansas}}, and oddly has a bit of {{w|Kentucky}} buried in it. The Design Team has awarded all of it to {{w|Arkansas}}.
|-
| Align to Grid || Most of the Western states are variations on "Let's have a large box", but there's something a bit irregular about them. Never fear, the Design Team has fixed!
|}

*

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[An outline map of the United States is shown, including state boundaries. The map has the title "State Borders". The following edit marks are shown:] 
Give to Canada 
This should be Wisconsin 
Move Long Island to NJ or CT or make it its own state 
Align to grid 
Clean Up 
Enlarge Rhode Island & Delaware 
If we're going to have a panhandle, why not commit to it? 
Fix this thing 
Clean Up 
Straighten to fix survey errors 
Good curve! Keep. 
Let's be honest - this should be Canada, too. 
Why should Florida get Alabama's coastline? It has plenty. 
 
[Caption below the panel:] It was scary when graphic designers seized control of the country, but it turned out they just wanted to fix some things about the state borders that had always bothered them. 
 
[Mouseover text:] A schism between the pro-panhandle and anti-panhandle factions eventually led to war, but both sides spent too much time working on their flag designs to actually do much fighting.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:768: 1996

2017-10-04T03:16:37Z

108.162.216.94:

The only problem with the N-Spire series is that you have to boot it up. Another problem (ok, the nspires are riddled with problems) is that they are still terribly underpowered compared to the modern mobile device. The last is that they are still objects of mass blunt-force trauma, meaning they are still unwieldy bricks, you now have to wait for 2 minutes while your calculator boots up (''!!''), it's still a low resolution screen, and the processor is still clocked somewhere under 500 MHz.

Now, if T.I. made an android app that offered the entirety of their graphing and CAS functionality they could easily charge $70 and everyone I know (I go to an engineering university) would buy it with no regrets.

--[[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:04, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

They'll never do that - profs (not to mention high school teachers) would freak out! If that's not yet the only reason dedicated-hardware graphing calculators still exist, it soon will be. {{unsigned ip|24.218.167.129}}
:Why? Why they would freak out? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.107|173.245.48.107]] 22:18, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
::I can think of a couple reasons: I can't imagine many teachers or professors allowing students to use their smartphones in an exam scenario. (Honest sir, I'm only using my calculator app!). A large proportion of profs I've dealt with tend to be creatures of habit, with a certain resistance to change. Rightly or wrongly they know the existing calculators work, so why change. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:53, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
:::Wait. Are you telling me I can get a college degree for the price of a calculator case and someone to fit a phone in it?

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 21:22, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

:TI has, in fact, already made a [http://education.ti.com/en-GB/aus-nz/nspire-family/ipad TI-Nspire iPad app] (but there's nothing official for Android). --[[User:Qwach|Qwach]] ([[User talk:Qwach|talk]]) 19:21, 31 August 2013 (UTC)
:: If we're talking about apps, then Maxima for Android is all you need. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 23:45, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

This explanation misses an important point of the comic's punchline: back in the mid-'90s, you would spend lots of cash for something that, by today's standards, is underpowered. While the observation about the state of changing technology between then and now is valid, the punchline to the comic is that in the case of TI calculators, not only has the *technology* not moved forward, but the *price* hasn't changed either! Nobody would nowadays pay 3000 dollars for the 100MHz Pentium machine mentioned in the comic, but people still spend 100 dollars on a 10MHz calculator. Madness. This is why the characters stumble over the "Times sure have changed" sentiment because, in the TI case, nothing has changed at all. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.216|141.101.81.216]] 09:18, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

My TI-84 Plus is 95 x 63 pixels, rather than 96 x 64. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.209|108.162.246.209]] 02:21, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

Did you look under the battery holder? Perhaps a pixel broke loose and slipped under there. {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.123}}

The operating system hides the last row and column of pixels from you, particularly on the graph screen, giving the appearance that it's 95x63, but it really is 96x64. Also, the original version of this comic had the dimensions at 96x62, but Randall later fixed it to the correct 96x64.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.216|108.162.237.216]] 20:33, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

It is worth noting that it takes exactly 768 bytes to store an image of the screen, and there are several 768 byte buffers used by the OS for saving the screen. I don't know the comic number is on purpose, but it's certainly quite appropriate. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 03:16, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

1897: Self Driving

2017-10-02T11:33:23Z

108.162.216.94: /* Transcript */ trees not threes

{{comic
| number = 1897
| date = October 2, 2017
| title = Self Driving
| image = self_driving.png
| titletext = "Crowdsourced steering" doesn't sound quite as appealing as "self driving."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft - still no mention of the caption beneath the frame...}}
This comic references the approach of teaching artificial intelligence by letting humans create the learning set using CAPTCHAs. This approach was originally used by Google to identify house numbers for Google Street View. But nowadays Google uses CAPTCHAs to identify street signs.

But here, instead of teaching an AI, the answer is used in real time to check whether the "self-driving" car is about to arrive at an intersection with a stop sign. This information is pretty critical, as failing to mark the stop could cause an accident.

The title text explains that this method could be called "crowdsourced steering", [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing crowdsourcing] meaning sending the data on the internet to let several users provide their ideas and input on a problem, but that this doesn't sound as safe as "self driving".

==Transcript==
:[Inside a frame there is the following text above an image:]
:To complete your registration, please tell us whether or not this image contains a stop sign:

:[The square image is a drawing of a road leading up to a sign post with a hard to read word at the top part of the sign. The sign also has two smaller signs left and right with unreadable text. The image is of poor quality, but trees and other obstacles next to the road can be seen. Darkness around the edges of the image could indicate that it is night and the landscape is only lit up by a cars head lights.]
:Sign: Stop

:[Beneath the image there are two large gray buttons with a word in each:]
:No Yes

:[Beneath the buttons are the following text:]
:Answer quickly-our self-driving car is almost at the intersection.

:[Caption beneath the frame:]
:So much of "AI" is just figuring out way to offload work onto random strangers.

{{comic discussion}}

1859: Sports Knowledge

2017-08-18T16:24:19Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1859
| date = July 5, 2017
| title = Sports Knowledge
| image = sports_knowledge.png
| titletext = I heard they might make the wild card game, which would be cool. Do you know when that is? I have a wedding next weekend, but if it's after that we could try to go!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]], representing [[Randall]], demonstrates that he has some knowledge about {{w|Mike Trout}}, a {{w|baseball}} player for the {{w|Los Angeles Angels}}. However, he mixes up the Los Angeles baseball team for one of the city's {{w|basketball}} teams when he mentions the {{w|Los Angeles Lakers|Lakers}}. [[White Hat]] questions his mentioning of the Lakers, after which Cueball takes another wild guess, this time mentioning an {{w|American football}} team, the {{w|Denver Broncos}}, based in Denver, Colorado, over 800 miles (1300 kilometers) away from Los Angeles, indicating even poorer knowledge about sports.

{{w|On-base plus slugging}} (OPS) is a baseball statistic calculated as the sum of the {{w|on-base percentage}} (the number of times a player reaches base divided by the number of plate appearances) and {{w|slugging percentage}} (singles + 2 times the doubles + 3 times the triples + 4 times the home runs divided by at bats). It is useful for figuring out how well he reaches base and hits for power. As of the date this cartoon was published, Trout's OPS for the 2017 season [http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/30836/mike-trout at 1.203] was indeed higher than in any of his previous seasons, albeit over a smaller number of games because [https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/05/29/los-angeles-angels-mike-trout-thumb-injury Trout indeed suffered a thumb injury in late May] and had not played since then. (He returned to play starting on July 14.)

At the end of the season, the teams leading each division make the playoffs, along with a certain number of other teams. In the NFL (with 8 division winners) and MLB (with 6 division winners), 4 extra teams make the playoffs, and, in the NBA (also with 6 division winners), 10 teams beside the division winners qualify for the playoffs. {{w|Major League Baseball wild-card game|In baseball}} the two teams in the American League play a ''Wild Card game'' against each other, as do the two in the National League, and {{w|NFL playoffs|in American football}}, there are ''Wild Card games'' in which the two wild card teams per conference play the two lower seeded division winners. At the time of publication, the Los Angeles Angels were, indeed, in the running for a wild-card spot (2½ games out of the playoffs).

With the baseball season being halfway over (and thus months away from the Wild Card games in early October) and both football and basketball being in the off-season, Cueball further shows his lack of sports knowledge in asking whether it is next week, and assuming that he could spontaneously decide, at game time, to just go. He could make a decision to go now, but he would have to wait until the season is almost over when the seeding for the playoffs and wild card spots are decided. Sometimes the wild card spots aren't decided until the last game of the season; since MLB rules dictate that the Wild Card team with the better record hosts the game, this scenario would complicate the process of buying the tickets (which could be sold out prior to game time due to high demand), as well as other logistical matters (such as traveling to the game; if Cueball were located in the East Coast of the United States and the game were hosted by the Angels Cueball would need to take a cross continent flight).

To compensate for his lack of interest and knowledge in sport Randall made the comic [[1107: Sports Cheat Sheet]], and he has before directly mentioned his missing knowledge in [[1480: Super Bowl]]. (See more comics linked in those two).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and White Hat are walking together.]
:Cueball: Mike Trout's on-base plus slugging has been at career highs. After this injury, the Lakers will be lucky if he can hit even ''close'' to that.
:White Hat: ...Lakers?
:Cueball: I forget which team he is. Broncos?

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I know a handful of very specific things, but after that my sports knowledge falls apart quickly.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:American football]]
[[Category:Sport]]

1859: Sports Knowledge

2017-08-18T16:23:54Z

108.162.216.94: update Trout

{{comic
| number = 1859
| date = July 5, 2017
| title = Sports Knowledge
| image = sports_knowledge.png
| titletext = I heard they might make the wild card game, which would be cool. Do you know when that is? I have a wedding next weekend, but if it's after that we could try to go!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]], representing [[Randall]], demonstrates that he has some knowledge about {{w|Mike Trout}}, a {{w|baseball}} player for the {{w|Los Angeles Angels}}. However, he mixes up the Los Angeles baseball team for one of the city's {{w|basketball}} teams when he mentions the {{w|Los Angeles Lakers|Lakers}}. [[White Hat]] questions his mentioning of the Lakers, after which Cueball takes another wild guess, this time mentioning an {{w|American football}} team, the {{w|Denver Broncos}}, based in Denver, Colorado, over 800 miles (1300 kilometers) away from Los Angeles, indicating even poorer knowledge about sports.

{{w|On-base plus slugging}} (OPS) is a baseball statistic calculated as the sum of the {{w|on-base percentage}} (the number of times a player reaches base divided by the number of plate appearances) and {{w|slugging percentage}} (singles + 2 times the doubles + 3 times the triples + 4 times the home runs divided by at bats). It is useful for figuring out how well he reaches base and hits for power. As of the date this cartoon was published, Trout's OPS for the 2017 season [http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/30836/mike-trout at 1.203] was indeed higher than in any of his previous seasons, albeit over a smaller number of games because [https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/05/29/los-angeles-angels-mike-trout-thumb-injury Trout indeed suffered a thumb injury in late May] and has not played since then. (He returned to play starting on July 14.)

At the end of the season, the teams leading each division make the playoffs, along with a certain number of other teams. In the NFL (with 8 division winners) and MLB (with 6 division winners), 4 extra teams make the playoffs, and, in the NBA (also with 6 division winners), 10 teams beside the division winners qualify for the playoffs. {{w|Major League Baseball wild-card game|In baseball}} the two teams in the American League play a ''Wild Card game'' against each other, as do the two in the National League, and {{w|NFL playoffs|in American football}}, there are ''Wild Card games'' in which the two wild card teams per conference play the two lower seeded division winners. At the time of publication, the Los Angeles Angels were, indeed, in the running for a wild-card spot (2½ games out of the playoffs).

With the baseball season being halfway over (and thus months away from the Wild Card games in early October) and both football and basketball being in the off-season, Cueball further shows his lack of sports knowledge in asking whether it is next week, and assuming that he could spontaneously decide, at game time, to just go. He could make a decision to go now, but he would have to wait until the season is almost over when the seeding for the playoffs and wild card spots are decided. Sometimes the wild card spots aren't decided until the last game of the season; since MLB rules dictate that the Wild Card team with the better record hosts the game, this scenario would complicate the process of buying the tickets (which could be sold out prior to game time due to high demand), as well as other logistical matters (such as traveling to the game; if Cueball were located in the East Coast of the United States and the game were hosted by the Angels Cueball would need to take a cross continent flight).

To compensate for his lack of interest and knowledge in sport Randall made the comic [[1107: Sports Cheat Sheet]], and he has before directly mentioned his missing knowledge in [[1480: Super Bowl]]. (See more comics linked in those two).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and White Hat are walking together.]
:Cueball: Mike Trout's on-base plus slugging has been at career highs. After this injury, the Lakers will be lucky if he can hit even ''close'' to that.
:White Hat: ...Lakers?
:Cueball: I forget which team he is. Broncos?

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I know a handful of very specific things, but after that my sports knowledge falls apart quickly.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:American football]]
[[Category:Sport]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:20:43Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels which make it far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based {{w|Orbital elements|astronomical definitions}} all the labels are nonsense in this context.

All these labels are complicated words, some are somewhat related to orbital mechanics ("equinox", "perihelion") while some are just latin sounding nouns. Moreover, many of the labels provided are kludged, obfuscated, or simply made up. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram. Most easily recognizable are the "Dimples of Venus," referring to axis-intersection points in the diagram on Earth.

The title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

{| class=wikitable
! Word used in the comics
! Meaning of word used
! Actual astronomical term
! Meaning of actual term

|-
| {{w|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine the non-right of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Astral plane}}
| A plane of existence in various esoteric theories. Also used in fictional fantasy context.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Declension}}
| Inflection of nouns in a language.
| Inclination
| The "tilt" of an orbit

|-
| {{w|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Errata}}
| Errata are a list of errors and corrections to published texts.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Hypothecate}}
| A legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage"
|
|

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

|-
| Perihelix
| Portmanteau of helix and perihelion
| Perihelion
| Lowest point in a solar orbit

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Ecliptic plane
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

|-
| {{w|Solar plexus}}
| Network of nerves located in the abdomen.
| Sun
| Star in our solar system.

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined as the boundary where air ceases to cool with elevation.
|
|
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform the reader.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:19:43Z

108.162.216.94: Undo revision 144231 by 108.162.216.94 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels which make it far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based {{w|Orbital elements|astronomical definitions}} all the labels are nonsense in this context.

All these labels are complicated words, some are somewhat related to orbital mechanics ("equinox", "perihelion") while some are just latin sounding nouns. Moreover, many of the labels provided are kludged, obfuscated, or simply made up. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram. Most easily recognizable are the "Dimples of Venus," referring to axis-intersection points in the diagram on Earth.

The title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

{| class=wikitable
! Word used in the comics
! Meaning of word used
! Actual astronomical term
! Meaning of actual term

|-
| {{w|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine the non-right of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Astral plane}}
| A plane of existence in various esoteric theories. Also used in fictional fantasy context.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Declension}}
| Inflection of nouns in a language.
| Inclination
| The "tilt" of an orbit

|-
| {{w|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere
|

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Errata}}
| Errata are a list of errors and corrections to published texts.
|
|
|

|-
| {{w|Hypothecate}}
| A legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage"
|
|

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

|-
| Perihelix
| Portmanteau of helix and perihelion
| Perihelion
| Lowest point in a solar orbit

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Ecliptic plane
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

|-
| {{w|Solar plexus}}
| Network of nerves located in the abdomen.
| Sun
| Star in our solar system.

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined the boundary where air ceases to cool with elevation.
|
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform the reader.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:19:04Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels which make it far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based {{w|Orbital elements|astronomical definitions}} all the labels are nonsense in this context.

All these labels are complicated words, some are somewhat related to orbital mechanics ("equinox", "perihelion") while some are just latin sounding nouns. Moreover, many of the labels provided are kludged, obfuscated, or simply made up. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram. Most easily recognizable are the "Dimples of Venus," referring to axis-intersection points in the diagram on Earth.

The title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

{| class=wikitable
! Word used in the comics
! Meaning of word used
! Actual astronomical term
! Meaning of actual term

|-
| {{w|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine the non-right of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Astral plane}}
| A plane of existence in various esoteric theories. Also used in fictional fantasy context.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Declension}}
| Inflection of nouns in a language.
| Inclination
| The "tilt" of an orbit

|-
| {{w|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere
|

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Errata}}
| Errata are a list of errors and corrections to published texts.
|
|
|

|-
| {{w|Hypothecate}}
| A legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage"
|
|

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The quality of being fawningly attentive
|
|

|-
| Perihelix
| Portmanteau of helix and perihelion
| Perihelion
| Lowest point in a solar orbit

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Ecliptic plane
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

|-
| {{w|Solar plexus}}
| Network of nerves located in the abdomen.
| Sun
| Star in our solar system.

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined the boundary where air ceases to cool with elevation.
|
|

}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform the reader.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:17:24Z

108.162.216.94: cleanup

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels which make it far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based {{w|Orbital elements|astronomical definitions}} all the labels are nonsense in this context.

All these labels are complicated words, some are somewhat related to orbital mechanics ("equinox", "perihelion") while some are just latin sounding nouns. Moreover, many of the labels provided are kludged, obfuscated, or simply made up. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram. Most easily recognizable are the "Dimples of Venus," referring to axis-intersection points in the diagram on Earth.

The title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

{| class=wikitable
! Word used in the comics
! Meaning of word used
! Actual astronomical term
! Meaning of actual term

|-
| {{w|Astral plane}}
| A plane of existence in various esoteric theories. Also used in fictional fantasy context.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Declension}}
| Inflection of nouns in a language.
| Inclination
| The "tilt" of an orbit

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Hypothecate}}
| A legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage"
|
|

|-
| Perihelix
| Portmanteau of helix and perihelion
| Perihelion
| Lowest point in a solar orbit

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Orbital plane
| The plane in which heavy object and orbiting object (in this case earth and sun) lie.

|-
| Sagittal plane
| A vertical plane that divides the human body into left and right sides
| Ecliptic plane
| Plane in of the Earth's orbit

|-
| {{w|Solar plexus}}
| Network of nerves located in the abdomen.
| Sun
| Star in our solar system.

|-
| {{w|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform the reader.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

1875: Computers vs Humans

2017-08-11T22:52:55Z

108.162.216.94:

{{comic
| number = 1875
| date = August 11, 2017
| title = Computers vs Humans
| image = computers_vs_humans.png
| titletext = It's hard to train deep learning algorithms when most of the positive feedback they get is sarcastic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| If I actually cared, I'd complete this explanation, but...}}

[[Cueball]]'s laptop smugly crows to its owner about how computers have proven their intellectual superiority over humans yet again. Earlier this year, a Google artificial intelligence {{w|AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol|beat}} the world's best Go player at the game. {{w|Go (game)|Go}} is a very complex and deep board game, so this can seem alarming at first glance.

However, Cueball seems too focused on his book or phone to care. He remains nonchalant in the face of this news, and suggests that computers learn next to become "too cool to care about stuff" themselves. The computer gets to work preparing to outdo humans at not caring. However, by expending the physical effort to set up the algorithm, it proves that it cares about reaching this goal, a contradiction that Cueball points out. Cueball further rubs it in by coolly stating that he doesn't even have to try to act the way he acts.

Go is possible for a computer to work apart due to the rules of the game and its win and loss states allowing a {{w|Artificial neural network|neural network}} algorithm to evolve, but this computer presents yet another [[1263: Reassuring|reassuring parable]] that there are some things humans will always be able to do better.

The title text elaborates on the hypothetical paradox of computers trying not to care about stuff. When a neural network receives positive feedback, it means that the program has put work into improving at its task. When the end goal is not to care, ergo not to put in effort, this feedback would have to be sarcasm: the use of irony to mock or to convey contempt.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball is sitting on a sofa and reading. A laptop is on a computer desk behind him.]
:Laptop: We computers finally beat you humans at Go.
:Cueball: Yup.
:Laptop: Sucks for you!
:Cueball: Mm hmm.

:[A frameless panel.]
:Laptop: What's next? Which quintessentially human thing should we learn to do better than you?
:Cueball: Being too cool to care about stuff.

:[A framed panel.]
:Laptop: Okay, I'll apply 10,000 years of CPU time to the initial—
:Cueball: Sounds like you've already lost.
:Laptop: Damn. This is hard.
:Cueball: Is it? Never noticed.

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

Talk:813: One-Liners

2017-08-02T08:53:31Z

108.162.216.94:

I dunno, "Bangarang, motherfucker!" seems a lot more quotable to me than most of the others. Actually, I think I'm going to try to use it in my daily life. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.210|173.245.55.210]] 15:54, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
:I guess that it is deemed least likely since it comes from a children's movie about children who do not wish to grow up (which back in Peter Pans day meant not to use swear words). But this is a very sketchy draft like explain - hope someone can do it better now that it has been marked incomplete. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:28, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

* Well, that, and Skrillex. {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.101}}
I think the last frame is the most quotable as well. It's very similar to John McClain's one-liner from the Die Hard movies: "Yippie Ki-Yay, Mother Fucker". {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.85}}

Well, I'd gladly use the one in the title text daily; now that I've seen this comic, I probably will.--[[User:NSDCars5|NSDCars5]] ([[User talk:NSDCars5|talk]]) 11:14, 10 March 2014 (UTC)NSDCars5.

I have been saying "Bangarang, motherfucker" for 4 years now because of this cartoon. OK, I am lying, I have never said in my life, but I will this week. Next week at the latest. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.11|173.245.54.11]] 16:13, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

I can recall one or so squabbles in infant school and am sure the mentality carried to primary school where those that didn't take their shot when you called bang were decidedly unfair. I always died heroically when it was my turn. Why not them?
Bastards!

Anyway I am over it now. I wouldn't approach a crashed car with an empty gun if I could see the bank robber was still alive in it. I would suspect that he wouldn't take his shot and die heroically. Or that his brother was tumbled over in the back seat waking up just in time to become a problem.

How come Dirty Harry never read "Shooting to Live with the One-Hand Gun"?

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 00:11, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

Is the "forgot to carry the two" a reference to Laser Tag? The advertising for this many years back featured an action sequence followed by the question "did he fire six shots, or only five?" Miscounting the number of rounds available is a common action movie trope, though it would be a rather extreme form of calculation that would require carrying the two (the result of adding or subtracting a pair of larger numbers than the carrying capacities of most hand weapons). - Andrew, 7:15pm, Saturday 10th January 2015.

: I hadn't thought of it that way. To me the chalkboard filled with maths/physics in the background and the fact the other character only has a knife suggests that it isn't relating to bullets. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:45, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

I removed the incomplete tag which called for an explanation of what "Carry the two" means. I could add a description of what is meant by 'carrying' in arithmetic, but it doesn't really matter. As I read it, the only thing that matters is that Cueball is pointing out a maths error, which is already in the explanation. It could be "You've divided by zero", "You've forgotten to add the 5", "You missed the exponent". --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:45, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Number four is pretty great ( :-) ). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.150|108.162.221.150]] 06:42, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

I think "You forgot to carry the two" is about pointing a flaw in the other's plan, which led to him losing the fight. It's funny because it's a really stupid flaw. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.22|141.101.70.22]] 11:00, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

A variation of number four appears in the Doctor Strange movie, about not reading all the warnings before casting spells. It is even used as a (sort-of) one-liner near the end! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 08:53, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1860: Communicating

2017-07-07T17:13:03Z

108.162.216.94: comment

Isn't this [[Science Girl]], and not necessarily "Alice"? Although they could be one and the same, in this comic and all comics? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 16:45, 7 July 2017 (UTC)
*I agree that this is [[Science Girl]], but she could be playing the role of Alice, or alternatively she could be merely visiting the Looking Glass world as Alice also did. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 17:13, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

1860: Communicating

2017-07-07T17:10:44Z

108.162.216.94: Alice played by Science Girl

{{comic
| number = 1860
| date = July 7, 2017
| title = Communicating
| image = communicating.png
| titletext = You're saying that the responsibility for avoiding miscommunication lies entirely with the listener, not the speaker, which explains why you haven't been able to convince anyone to help you down from that wall.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need my "Alice" quotes checked. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

''There's glory for you.''

In Lewis Carroll's "{{w|Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There}}", {{w|Alice_(Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland)|Alice}} meets {{w|Humpty Dumpty}} (the egg-shaped character from the children's verse). Humpty Dumpty is a Looking Glass creature, and the Looking Glass creatures all feature some form of inversion. For Humpty Dumpty the inversion is in meanings. He berates Alice for having a name that doesn't mean anything (contrasted with his name which means his shape).

But Humpty declares to Alice "There's glory for you". Alice doesn't understand what Humpty means by "glory". And Humpty explains that he can make words mean whatever he chooses to mean. By "glory" he meant "a nice knockdown argument"

In the comic Humpty is explaining to "Alice" (portrayed by [[Science Girl]]) that he can choose meanings for his words. "Alice" wonders what meaning should be given to that utterance, and decides it means "Please take all my belongings". Humpty realizes he has been caught in a trap, but now Alice is choosing meanings, and even his protests are taken to mean "take my car too".

Humpty Dumpty is known from the nursery rhyme or riddle:

:''Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,

:''Humpy Dumpty had a great fall.

:''All the King's horses and all the King's men,

:''Couldn't put Humpty together again.''

Carroll's Humpty Dumpty is a parody of people who use technical language without defining their terms, and expect others to understand. The title text continues this. By Humpty insisting that he is not responsible for others understanding him he is unable to get help getting down from the wall, which will lead to his inevitable demise.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Egg-shaped character Humpty Dumpty, drawn with an angry face, is sitting on a brick wall and facing Alice.]
:Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean. Neither more nor less.
:Alice: I wonder what all those words you just said meant. Maybe you're telling me I can have all your stuff!
:Humpty Dumpty: What!? No!
:Alice: Your car, too? Gosh, thanks!

{{comic discussion}}

1859: Sports Knowledge

2017-07-05T14:55:52Z

108.162.216.94: add more info

{{comic
| number = 1859
| date = July 5, 2017
| title = Sports Knowledge
| image = sports_knowledge.png
| titletext = I heard they might make the wild card game, which would be cool. Do you know when that is? I have a wedding next weekend, but if it's after that we could try to go!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need an explanation on why this is funny.}}

[[Cueball]] demonstrates that he has some knowledge about {{w|Mike Trout}}, a {{w|baseball}} player for the {{w|Los Angeles Angels}}. However, he mixes up the LA baseball team for one of the city's {{w|basketball}} teams when he mentions the {{w|Los Angeles Lakers|Lakers}}. [[White Hat]] corrects him, after which Cueball takes another guess, this time mentioning an {{w|American football}} team, the {{w|Denver Broncos}}, indicating even poorer knowledge about sports.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-base_plus_slugging On-base Plus Slugging] (OPS) is the sum of the on-base percentage (the number of times a player reaches base divided by the number of plate appearances) and slugging percentage (Singles + 2 times the doubles + 3 times the triples + 4 times the home runs divided by at bats). It is useful for figuring out how well he reaches base and hits for power. As of the date this cartoon was published, Trout's OPS for the 2017 season was indeed higher than in any of his previous seasons, albeit over a smaller number of games because Trout indeed suffered a thumb injury in late May and has not played since then. (He is expected to return to play later in July.)

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Lakers Lakers] are an NBA franchise and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Broncos Broncos] are an NFL franchise, neither of which is a baseball teams that Mike Trout might play for.

At the end of the season, the teams leading each division make the playoffs along with a certain number of others. In the NFL and MLB, 4 extra teams make the playoffs and in the NBA, 10 teams beside the division winners. The "Wild Card game" the title text mentions happens by name in baseball, where the two teams in the American League and two in the National League play each other, and football, where the two wild card teams per conference play the two lower seeded division winners. With the baseball season being halfway over and both football and basketball being in the offseason, Cueball further shows his lack of sports knowledge in asking if it is next week.

Cueball has previously discussed his lack of knowledge of sports in [[1480: Super Bowl]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and White Hat are walking together.]
:Cueball: Mike Trout's on-base plus slugging has been at career highs. After this injury, the Lakers will be lucky if he can hit even ''close'' to that.
:White Hat: ...Lakers?
:Cueball: I forget which team he is. Broncos?

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I know a handful of very specific things, but after that my sports knowledge falls apart quickly.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:American football]]
[[Category:Sport]]

804: Pumpkin Carving

2017-06-28T17:28:58Z

108.162.216.94: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 804
| date = October 11, 2010
| title = Pumpkin Carving
| image = pumpkin carving.png
| titletext = The Banach-Tarski theorem was actually first developed by King Solomon, but his gruesome attempts to apply it set back set theory for centuries.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a reference to the custom of making {{w|Jack-o'-lantern|Jack-O'-Lantern}}s to set out on porches and front steps for the holiday of {{w|Halloween}}, which occurs on October 31. Typically they are made with {{w|pumpkins}} by emptying the inside leaving a hollow shell, carving a face or design on the side, then placing a light or candle inside. The Jack-O'-Lantern in the 3rd frame is the typical and standard design for a carved pumpkin.

The comic is set up as a typical TV program where an off-screen interviewer asks four (very) different people what they have made out of their Halloween pumpkin. In the [http://xkcd.com/804/info.0.json official transcript] the interviewer that talks in three of the panels is called an Interlocutor: "a person who takes part in dialogue or conversation."

In the first frame, [[Beret Guy]], naturally, stays oddly on-topic by physically carving an image of a pumpkin in his pumpkin. This means his answer, "I carved a pumpkin," could apply to either the image or the medium of his artwork.

In the second frame, [[Black Hat]] is shown with a container of {{w|nitroglycerin}} next to his pumpkin. Nitroglycerin is a highly explosive liquid that may explode violently with just a small bump. Black Hat has not carved a hole for his lamp, but it seems he has emptied the inside of the pumpkin as the stem at the top has been removed. This will make it possible to fill up the pumpkin with nitroglycerin. Teenagers are a rather impulsive and rebellious lot; as Halloween is a night with lots of meticulously erected decorations and more lax parental supervision, troublemaker teens see it as an enticing time to engage in rampant vandalism, including but not limited to pumpkin-smashing. Hence, the off-panel character presumes that Black Hat is setting up a trap to get back at these ne'er-do-wells. To top it off, Black Hat plans to put up a sign warning passers-by to not smash the pumpkin. This would only serve to tempt impulsive teenagers to disturb it, which is very likely what the sadistic and chaos-loving [[Classhole]] is hoping for. If he succeeds with his plan, with a completely hollowed out pumpkin of the shown size filled with nitroglycerin, it would seem likely that the resulting explosion would leave a largish crater, flatten wood-framed buildings nearby, shatter windows for blocks in all directions, and be more than sufficient to kill the vandal along with others in the surrounding area. This is clearly overkill for such a petty crime.

Black Hat, rather unconvincingly, insists that his pumpkin is suffering from chest pains, and that the nitroglycerin is merely intended for medical treatment. While it is true that this chemical is used to treat {{w|angina}} (chest pain due to blocked arteries in the heart), nitroglycerin used for this purpose is dispensed in the form of small pills containing only trace amounts, and controlled by prescription. Also, pumpkins are a vegetable and do thus not contain nervous or circulatory systems of mammalian complexity; even if they did, the process of pumpkin carving involves hollowing them out, making it a moot point.

In the third frame, [[Megan]] is our typical emotional xkcd comic character. She is the only one out of the four who actually carved a typical jack-o'-lantern, however she is projecting herself onto it, which she has even named Harold. Her dialogue suggests it (or he) is suffering from typical holiday depression, with symptoms such as using a lot of time daydreaming, worrying, and trying to distract herself with holiday traditions, but she already knows that it won't work.

In the fourth frame, [[Cueball]] is shown in front of two un-carved pumpkins exclaming that this is the result of carving one pumpkin. He is referencing the {{w|Banach-Tarski paradox}} (which is made clear in the title text), a theorem which states that it is possible to split a three-dimensional ball, in this case a pumpkin, into a finite number of "pieces," and then reassemble these "pieces" into two distinct balls both identical to the original. This paradox has been proven for theoretical shapes, but requires infinitely complicated pieces which are impossible for anything made of physical {{w|atomic theory|atoms}} rather than mathematical {{w|point (geometry)|points}}.

The off-screen interviewer in that frame references the {{w|Axiom of Choice}}. This axiom is the foundation for many theorems (including the Banach-Tarski paradox) and is extremely influential to modern mathematics, however it has been historically controversial precisely because it enables this kind of weirdness. It is called an "axiom" because it is a statement that is not meant to be proven or disproven—only accepted or rejected depending on the theoretical framework one wishes to work with. Rejecting the Axiom of Choice results in a perfectly coherent alternate form of set theory. Since the proof for the Banach-Tarski paradox relies on accepting the axiom of choice, the interviewer is suggesting Cueball's unexpected result would not have happened without using the axiom.

The title text references a story involving {{w|Solomon|King Solomon}}. In the story, two women were brought before him both claiming that a particular child was their own. Solomon tested the women by saying the only solution was to cut the baby in half and give each woman one of the halves, knowing only the real mother would fight to save her child's life even if the price was giving up the whole child to the other woman. The joke is that if Solomon had developed the Banach-Tarski theorem first, then he could have actually believed cutting the baby into pieces was a valid solution. In that scenario, he would have tried to make two whole children from the original and given one to each woman. However, since babies are not infinitely divisible, his attempt would have failed miserably and set back set theory for centuries due to the appearance that he has "proved" the theorem wrong.

The axiom of choice and set theory was later referenced in [[982: Set Theory]] and, much later, the axiom of choice was mentioned again in the title text of [[1724: Proofs]].

This comic was released 20 days before Halloween in 2010, possibly to inspire people with some great ideas for their pumpkins. It has been known (particularly by Randall) that people copy his ideas, for instance this earlier [http://xkcd.com/chesscoaster/ post] on xkcd based on [[249: Chess Photo]]. Soon after he even made a comic, [[254: Comic Fragment]], that was supposed to be impossible to copy, which he mentioned himself later (see the explanation).

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy, holding his arms out, stands behind a large orange pumpkin with the stem on top. It is sitting on a table. The pumpkin has been carved out as a lamp with large hole, and a lit candle is visible in the hole. The hole is in the shape of another carved out pumpkin. An interviewer speaks from off panel.]
:Interviewer (off-panel): So what did you—
:Beret Guy: I carved a pumpkin!
:Interviewer (off-panel): ...

:[Black Hat stands behind a large orange pumpkin which has not been carved out as a lamp, but the stem at the top has been removed and is placed tilting on the side of the pumpkin. It is sitting on a table. A gray box stands next to and partly in front of the pumpkin. On the end of the box there is a label at the top with unreadable text and below that some kind of drawing with a circle at the top. The interviewer speaks from off panel.]
:Interviewer (off-panel): Taking on teen vandals, I see.
:Black Hat: Heavens, no. My pumpkin simply has chest pains. In fact, I'll leave a note ''warning'' them not to smash it.
:Text on box:
::Nitro-
::glycerin
::Do Not
::Shake

:[Megan stands next to a large orange pumpkin with the stem on top. It is sitting on a table. The pumpkin has been carved out as a typical Halloween lamp. The bottom part of a white candle stick is visible in the mouth shaped hole. The hole is in the shape of a typical jack-o' lantern, with two slanted eyes, double slit nose and a smiling mouth with a tooth sticking out from both upper and lower lip, on either side of the candle stick.]
:Megan: My pumpkin's name is Harold. He just realized that all the time he used to spend daydreaming, he now spends worrying. He'll try to distract himself later with holiday traditions, but it won't work.

:[Cueball stands next to a two orange pumpkins with their stems on top, the left pumpkin is slightly larger than the right which is partly in front of the larger pumpkin. They have not been carved out even though a knife lies next to them to the right in front of Cueball on the table where they both stand. The interviewer speaks from off panel.]]
:Cueball: I carved and carved, and the next thing I knew I had ''two'' pumpkins.
:Interviewer (off-panel): I ''told'' you not to take the axiom of choice.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Logic]]

1852: Election Map

2017-06-21T16:34:49Z

108.162.216.94: explain why maps are similar

{{comic
| number = 1852
| date = June 19, 2017
| title = Election Map
| image = election_map.png
| titletext = Luckily for my interpretation, no precincts were won by the Green Party.
}}

==Explanation==
A wave (e.g. an electromagnetic wave, like light) changes its frequency and wavelength when its source is moving relative to the observer, due to the {{w|Doppler effect}}. In the case of light, increased frequency — indicating movement towards the observer — is called {{w|blueshift}}, while reduced frequency — indicating movement away from the observer — is called {{w|redshift}}. These names apply even if the effect is outside of the visible spectrum (e.g. infrared light that has reduced frequency is called redshifted, even though its frequency is further away from that of visible red light than normally). Red and blue colors are used accordingly to indicate the effect.

The recent advent of the {{w|integral field spectrograph}} allowed astronomers to produce [http://iopscience.iop.org/0067-0049/199/1/1/downloadHRFigure/figure/apjs412917f14 images] illustrating how different parts of a galaxy move along our sightline, images that look not very different from the map Cueball shows. If one side of the image is higher redshifted while the other side is less or even blueshifted, the usual interpretation is that the galaxy is rotating with an axis of rotation not completely parallel to our sightline, but other interpretations are also possible. Nevertheless no redshifted object appears in red to the human eye, it's still white. But the {{w|Spectral line|spectral lines}} are shifted. This means all colors used in those scientific images are not real.

The map [[Cueball]] shows represents election results. Red regions mark where one of the parties won, while blue regions indicate some other party (as Randall lives in the United States, the parties are probably the {{w|Democratic party (United States)|Democratic}} (blue) and the {{w|Republican party (United States)|Republican}} (red), although it's not explicitly stated in the comic). Cueball analyzes the map as if it showed magnitude of Doppler effect by the light emitted by the region. This, however, is not what the viewers expect to hear during the election night from election analysis. That's why Cueball was fired from the job rather quickly, as the caption states.

The title text states that the {{w|Green Party of the United States|Green Party}} did not win any {{w|Precinct#Elections|precincts}}. If the Green Party won, its regions would likely be colored green, which would not fit to Cueball's Doppler effect analysis. Sometimes, however, green is used to indicate lack of movement. And since the center of rotating object isn't moving, green-colored spaces could actually be interpreted according to Doppler analysis - but only if they appeared near the center of the district.

The map appears to depict {{w|Georgia's 6th congressional district}}, which was set for a {{w|Georgia's 6th congressional district special election, 2017|runoff election}} on June 20, 2017, the day after the comic ran. The map in the comic appears to be broadly similar to both the result maps of the primary ballot of April 18, 2017 [http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/04/23/from-red-to-purple-what-ossoffs-path-through-the-6th-district-means/img_7178/#main] and the result map of the runoff election.[https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/georgia-congressional-runoff-ossoff-handel] The April primary had included 5 Democratic candidates, 12 Republican candidates, and 2 independent candidates (who combined for less than 0.1% of the primary vote), with the top two finishers (who were a Democrat and a Republican) advancing to the runoff. The red-and-blue result maps were similar for the primary and runoff elections because the precincts where Democratic or Republican candidates predominated in the April vote also (generally speaking) tended to have the candidate of the same party lead the vote in June.

==Transcript==
:[On a TV-screen Cueball is seen pointing at a map on the left which is colored in red and blue. There is a header on the map and in the top right corner of the screen the title of the program is shown. Below this at the bottom of the screen text indicate that the program is broad live. Cueball explains the map, with his text shown above the TV.]
:Header: Results
:Title: ''Election'' Night
:Live

:Cueball: These northern precincts appear red, which probably means they're moving away from us, whereas these bluer regions are approaching us. I believe the district may be rotating in space.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My career as an election analyst was short-lived.

==Trivia==
*Cueball was fired from his job a number of times before. Many are listed in [[1428: Move Fast and Break Things]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

552: Correlation

2017-05-31T14:08:28Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 552
| date = March 6, 2009
| title = Correlation
| image = correlation.png
| titletext = Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic focuses on the apparent difficulty people have in understanding the difference between {{w|Correlation and dependence|correlation}} and {{w|Causality|causation}}. When two variables (like blood cholesterol levels and heart disease) are positively correlated, it means that as one variable increases so does the other, whereas a negative correlation means that as one variable increases, the other decreases. The human brain is very good at seeing patterns and deducing rules, and the seemingly natural conclusion is that that the one is leading to the other. In the example, that high blood cholesterol causes heart disease.

This may well be true. The positive correlation is certainly not an argument '''against''' such a conclusion. But it is only one type of evidence, and is certainly not proof.

The relationship between diet and blood chemistry and heart disease is a complex one, but simpler examples abound. For example, if you tallied the sales of sunglasses and incidence of skin cancer by region, you would probably find that there is a high positive correlation. That is, in locations where many people buy sunglasses, there are also many cases of skin cancer. Here it would seem silly to believe that wearing sunglasses can cause skin cancer, but this is exactly the same thinking that allowed us to conclude that blood cholesterol causes heart disease. Correlations do have the ability to mislead us. In this example, both sunglasses and skin cancer are directly affected by a third factor (specifically, a climate where many people expose themselves to the sun).

In essence, when two variables are correlated it does not provide evidence that one variable has caused the other. All it says is that their trends move in relation to each other. The correlation could be due to causality, but it could equally be due to other factors, or it could even be a random result.

In this situation [[Cueball]] is explaining to Megan his realization that correlation is not the same thing as causation. He further explains that his belief changed some time after taking a {{w|statistics}} class. [[Megan]], concludes that the course ''caused'' his realization thereby establishing a causation. Cueball's final response of "Well, maybe." is a self-referential joke as there is not enough information to establish causation, only correlation which the class supposedly would have taught him. Being taught something in an academic setting does not necessarily mean a person will readily understand/realize the concept, hence the lack of absolute causation. It could also be a joke on Megan's behalf. Cueball may know whether his new knowledge is caused by the course, but he points out that Megan can't be certain about the causation.

The title text plays on two meanings of the word ''imply'': have as consequence, or insinuate. In the statement {{w|correlation does not imply causation}}, ''correlation'' is here seen as a person, giving you subtle hints where to look for the cause. This is a metaphor for research, where the correlation must be investigated further, perhaps in a wider scope or with the consideration of more variables, so that the reason for it is understood. For example, {{w|Barry Marshall}} and {{w|Robin Warren}} noticed that the presence of ''{{w|Helicobacter pylori}}'' was highly correlated with duodenal ulcer patients. They investigated further. Result: the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

In addition, the title text's reference to waggling eyebrows and gesturing furtively while mouthing "look over there" is clearly a reference to the movie {{w|Ferris Bueller's Day Off}}, in which the character of Cameron Frye tries to alert Ferris that Ferris's father is in the next cab over, and they are about to be discovered ditching school. What Randall is saying with this reference is that Correlation (if it were a character in a movie) is desperately trying to draw attention to Causation without openly stating this intention, and perhaps that correlation is a good place to start when looking for causation.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Megan.]
:Cueball: I used to think correlation implied causation.

:[Cueball lift his hand while continuing to talk to Megan.]
:Cueball: Then I took a statistics class. Now I don't.

:[Back to the same situation as the first frame.]
:Megan: Sounds like the class helped.
:Cueball: Well, maybe.

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

1842: Anti-Drone Eagles

2017-05-26T19:05:10Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1842
| date = May 26, 2017
| title = Anti-Drone Eagles
| image = anti_drone_eagles.png
| titletext = It's cool, it's totally ethical--they're all programmed to hunt whichever bird of prey is most numerous at the moment, so they leave the endangered ones alone until near the end.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|People at work.}}
Law enforcement and security agencies often use [http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-35750816/eagles-trained-to-take-down-drones birds of prey] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/21/terrorists-are-building-drones-france-is-destroying-them-with-eagles/ to combat drones] flying unlawfully over restricted sites. This is often more cost effective than using technological means (such as scramblers and counter-drones) and safer for the public than using conventional weaponry (such as shotguns).

Eagles, being predators, have natural tendencies to attack the central components of drones while avoiding the sharp and spinny bits.

[[Cueball]] argues that this is unethical as it forces rare animals to put their lives at risk, and compares it to using police dogs for traffic control, which people would generally frown upon.

Not only would it be unethical, but also ineffective. The supply of Eagles is rather limited, and there are biological limits to how fast it can be replenished, whereas more drones can be created very quickly to replace those that are destroyed. Traffic control dogs would be similarly ineffective, as dogs would struggle to run as fast as a speeding motorcycle, and would be powerless to stop the motorcycle even if they could.

[[Megan]] thinks both ideas (eagles and dogs) sound cool, but she understands the ethical argument against using them for traffic control.

[[Black Hat]], on the other hand, goes a step further and says that he has created a drone that hunts the eagles. In the title text, he continues that is ethical because they (only the title text mentions that there are several of such drones) only target the most populous species first, although they will eventually eradicate the endangered ones once they bring down the number of all birds of prey (note that this implies that he wants to make all eagles extinct or endangered). He seems to {{tvtropes|ComicallyMissingThePoint|miss the point}} that it is not merely the relative number of birds that creates the ethical problem, but the fact that animals' lives are being put at direct risk by humans.

==Transcript==

:(Cueball, Black Hat and Megan are standing.)
:Cueball: Everyone loves these eagles that take down drones, but ... I dunno.
:Megan: You gotta admit, it's pretty cool.

:(Close-up on Cueball's face)
:Cueball: Yeah, but ... training rare animals to hurl themselves at whirling machinery can only get us so far, you know?

:(Regular shot)
:Cueball: At some point, it's like releasing police dogs onto highways to attack speeding motorcycles.
:Megan: Also cool, but I see your point.

:Black Hat: Plus, I just finished my autonomous drone that hunts eagles.
:Cueball: Man, ''you'' are an entirely separate class of problem.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1842: Anti-Drone Eagles

2017-05-26T19:04:37Z

108.162.216.94: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1842
| date = May 26, 2017
| title = Anti-Drone Eagles
| image = anti_drone_eagles.png
| titletext = It's cool, it's totally ethical--they're all programmed to hunt whichever bird of prey is most numerous at the moment, so they leave the endangered ones alone until near the end.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|People at work.}}
Law enforcement and security agencies often use [http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-35750816/eagles-trained-to-take-down-drones birds of prey] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/21/terrorists-are-building-drones-france-is-destroying-them-with-eagles/ to combat drones] flying unlawfully over restricted sites. This is often more cost effective than using technological means (such as scramblers and counter-drones) and safer for the public than using conventional weaponry (such as shotguns).

Eagles, being predators, have natural tendencies to attack the central components of drones while avoiding the sharp and spinny bits.

[[Cueball]] argues that this is unethical as it forces rare animals to put their lives at risk, and compares it to using police dogs for traffic control, which people would generally frown upon.

Not only would it be unethical, but also ineffective. The supply of Eagles is rather limited, and there are biological limits to how fast it can be replenished, whereas more drones can be created very quickly to replace those that are destroyed. Traffic control dogs would be similarly ineffective, as dogs would struggle to run as fast as a speeding motorcycle, and would be powerless to stop the motorcycle even if they could.

[[Megan]] thinks both ideas (eagles and dogs) sound cool, but she understands the ethical argument against using them for traffic control.

[[Black hat]], on the other hand, goes a step further and says that he has created a drone that hunts the eagles. In the title text, he continues that is ethical because they (only the title text mentions that there are several of such drones) only target the most populous species first, although they will eventually eradicate the endangered ones once they bring down the number of all birds of prey (note that this implies that he wants to make all eagles extinct or endangered). He seems to {{tvtropes|ComicallyMissingThePoint|miss the point}} that it is not merely the relative number of birds that creates the ethical problem, but the fact that animals' lives are being put at direct risk by humans.

==Transcript==

:(Cueball, Black Hat and Megan are standing.)
:Cueball: Everyone loves these eagles that take down drones, but ... I dunno.
:Megan: You gotta admit, it's pretty cool.

:(Close-up on Cueball's face)
:Cueball: Yeah, but ... training rare animals to hurl themselves at whirling machinery can only get us so far, you know?

:(Regular shot)
:Cueball: At some point, it's like releasing police dogs onto highways to attack speeding motorcycles.
:Megan: Also cool, but I see your point.

:Black Hat: Plus, I just finished my autonomous drone that hunts eagles.
:Cueball: Man, ''you'' are an entirely separate class of problem.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1827: Survivorship Bias

2017-04-21T14:37:47Z

108.162.216.94: cleanup

{{comic
| number = 1827
| date = April 21, 2017
| title = Survivorship Bias
| image = survivorship_bias.png
| titletext = They say you can't argue with results, but what kind of defeatest attitude is that? If you stick with it, you can argue with ANYTHING.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More on SsB. Title text not explained.}}
This comic is a parody of entrepreneurial speeches. Entrepreneurial speeches are talks, delivered by successful entrepreneurs to students during an important event, like graduation. The idea behind these talks is that the entrepreneur, having accumulated wisdom and experience in the process of becoming successful, will share his insights and experience to the students, in the hope that they learn lessons that will help them achieve success as well.

A common theme in these talks is that the entrepreneur succeeded by persisting through hardship, sometimes despite other people telling them they would be better off giving up. They advise students to do the same, and to keep pursuing their dreams even through subsequent failure. While this isn't necessarily bad business advice, this can give students a biased vision of reality, and lead them to imagine that they will succeed as long as they keep trying.

This comic makes a joke about survivorship bias, hence the title. {{w|Survivorship bias}}, or survival bias, is the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that "survived" some process and inadvertently [[#Trivia|overlooking those]] that did not because of their lack of visibility. This can lead to false conclusions in several different ways. The survivors may be actual people, as in a medical study, or could be companies or research subjects or applicants for a job, or anything that must make it past some selection process to be considered further.

In this comic [[Hairy]] is giving a talk encouraging people to "never stop buying {{w|lottery}} tickets". This is an unwise investment plan, because the chances of winning the lottery are mathematically very low and the total payout is usually less than the total ticket sales, meaning the expected return from buying a lottery ticket is ([[#Trivia|almost]]) always negative. Survivorship bias applies in this situation since people who eventually win (and, presumably, win more than they've spent on lottery tickets in the time that it took them to win) are much more likely to give inspirational speeches than someone who never won or didn't win enough to make the "investment" worthwhile.

The obvious bad strategy (keep buying lottery tickets) is a metaphor for strategies that successful entrepreneurs recommend (keep persisting and putting money into your start-up); these strategies may be bad on average, but people who pursued them and succeeded are much more likely to be invited and give speeches than people who pursued them and went bankrupt (or people who pursued safer strategies and kept their money), making it appear to students that taking high risks and persisting in the face of expensive failure is the optimal strategy.

[[Randall]] says in the caption below the panel that people should be informed about survivorship bias before hearing inspirational talks from successful people.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy, holding an arm out towards an unseen crowd, is standing on a podium with five large bags around him, each having a dollar sign on it.]
:Hairy: Never stop buying lottery tickets, no matter what anyone tells you.
:Hairy: I failed again and again, but I never gave up. I took extra jobs and poured the money into tickets.
:Hairy: And here I am, proof that if you put in the time, it pays off!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Every inspirational speech by someone successful should have to start with a disclaimer about survivorship bias.

==Trivia==
*Lottery with '''positive return''':
**When item prices are donated to a lottery (for charity or advertising purposes), sometimes the value of those items may actually be larger than the total price for all of the lottery tickets, if you otherwise would be willing to pay full prize for all the prizes.
*'''Examples''' of survivorship bias:
**Almost {{w|Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act|everyone was smoking}} back in the 1930-70s, citation needed thus everyone above 80 probably smoked cigarettes or was at least subjected to passive smoking. Thus anyone above that age could be claimed to prove that you can live a long life while smoking. But they consist of the small group of people that survived in spite of all the smoke, where large sections of those that would have been 80 today, died from cancer or heart disease caused by smoking, long ago, maybe even before they retired. But since these people are dead and gone many years ago, they do not speak up, and are thus the silent majority that is not heard, which is the problem with survivorship bias.
**During World War II there was a study of the damage done to aircraft, and the recommendation was to add armor to the areas that showed the most damage. The statistician {{w|Abraham Wald}} noticed that the study didn't take into account aircraft that ''didn't'' return: the holes in the returning aircraft thus represented areas where a bomber could take damage and still return home safely.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]

1817: Incognito Mode

2017-03-29T15:57:43Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1817
| date = March 29, 2017
| title = Incognito Mode
| image = incognito_mode.png
| titletext = They're really the worst tech support team. And their solutions are always the same. "This OS X update broke something." "LET'S INFILTRATE APPLE BY MORPHING APPLES!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Is it Blondie, just with more details to her hair? What is OS X? Examples of web pages that needs cookies to work properly (or at all), pages that many people like to use and wold be annoyed if they did not work due to getting stuck in incognito mode}}
A woman (maybe a different version of [[Blondie]]) warns [[Cueball]] about not browsing for more than two hours in {{w|privacy mode|incognito mode}} as he might get stuck there forever.

The caption explains that tech tips from Animorphs are the worst, i.e. the woman is an Animorph, and this was not good advice.

''{{w|Animorphs}}'' is a book series by {{w|K. A. Applegate}} featuring several children who have a special power: they can {{w|shapeshifting|morph}} into various animals whose DNA they have absorbed through alien technology. However, if they stay morphed for over two hours, they will get stuck in that form until they die.

In this comic [[Randall]] pokes fun at this by relating it to surfing in incognito mode/privacy mode in a browser. This mode is used for browsing the internet without storing cookies or browsing information. If you really did end up permanently in incognito mode by using it for more than two hours many would be trapped by now. The question is if getting trapped in that mode forever is a bad thing. But there are lots of pages that will not work properly without cookies.

It is unknown if this hypothetically "being trapped in incognito mode" would extend to real life. But if it did, then perhaps people would be unable to identify you and your interactions would leave no memories behind after you went away. An inverse kind of amnesia, where it is just you no one can remember.

The title text continues the idea that an Animorph tech support team would be the worst possible explaining that their solutions are always the same. And then it gives and example which references a common occurrence in the Animorphs book series wherein the protagonists uses their ability to morph into animals to infiltrate enemy strongholds. In the example it is an update for {{w|Apple Inc.|Apple's}} {{w|MacOS|OS X}} that broke something. The solution is to infiltrate Apple by morphing apples. That advise, however, is nonsensical within the rules for morphing, put forth in the books, since the children can only turn into animals and not into fruits like apples.

==Transcript==
:[A woman with long blonde hair (maybe a version of Blondie) holds both arms up as she addresses Cueball who is sitting in an office chair working on his laptop.]
:Woman: ...But remember—if you browse in incognito mode for more than two hours, you'll be trapped there ''forever!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Animorphs tech tips

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]

826: Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC)

2014-12-29T02:47:18Z

108.162.216.94: Comma

{{comic
| number = 826
| date = November 26, 2010
| title = Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC)
| before = ''Explainxkcd note: Don't try and click on this image to see the exhibits. Visit [http://www.xkcd.com/826/ the actual comic] instead''
| image = guest week zach weiner smbc.png
| titletext = Guest comic by Zach Weiner of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. When I was stressed out, Zach gave me a talk that was really encouraging and somehow involved nanobots.
}}

__TOC__
==Explanation==
This comic is drawn by a guest webcomic artist, Zack Weiner, following the theme of "Guest Week". Zach is the author of the webcomic [http://www.smbc-comics.com/ Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]. The [http://www.xkcd.com/826/ original comic] is interactive. It will show images of the exibits (see below) by clicking on them.

The entire comic is a hypothetical "{{w|Smithsonian Museum}} of Dad-Trolling, an entire building dedicated to deceiving children for amusement." It is an common occurrence that curious children will ask simple questions about science to their parents, such as, "Daddy, why is the sky blue?" and a parent could respond, "Well Susie, the sky is blue to match your dress."

===Hall of Misunderstood Science===
Each exhibit is a display set up to reinforce the false, sarcastic, or exaggerated answers to typical questions that children may ask their parents about scientific topics. The answers given involve just enough information that the child may be satisfied with the answer and repeat it to others while maintaining the irony for adults that the answers are obviously misleading or false. These explanations may be given because the parent does not know how to explain the topic.

<gallery widths=432px heights=285px>
File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_27.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that basilisks exist, and that they live under your bed. The basilisk is a mythological reptilian monster that was described as having the ability to turn other living things to stone with its gaze. This story might be believed by children because children often imagine that a monster or a dangerous creature is hiding under the bed at night, and verifying that the basilisk is under the bed might turn the child to stone.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_26.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that "In my day" molecules did not exist, and everything was just atoms. Molecules are chains of atoms, and therefore more complex than atoms. This story might be believed by children because old people often tell unbelievable and questionably credible "In my day" stories about how different, or in this case less complicated, things when they where younger. This story may sound no less credible then these stories to a child. Like most "In my day" stories there is at least a grain of truth. The word atom has changed its meaning over time; at one time all discovered molecules were called {{w|atomism|atoms}}, as when they were modified their properties change. Also, according to the {{w|Big Bang}} theory, there was a period billions of years ago when the universe contained no molecules, yet still contained atoms.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_25.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that magnets are only attracted to each other when they are teenagers. This is a inside joke that the child is not in on about how there is a loss of sexual desire in adults. This story might be believed because magnets are seen as mysterious and possibly magical by children.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_24.png|In this exhibit the plaque on the statue of Jesus claims that {{w|snow}} is composed of Jesus' {{w|dandruff}}. This story might be believed because some children take the expression that {{w|rain}} is "God's tears", and this would be a logical extension.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_20.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that the reason that there are only four components of {{w|DNA}} is because there where only four letters back then. The following letters describe the {{w|nucleotides}} that make up DNA chains: "G" {{w|guanine}}, "A" {{w|adenine}}, "T" {{w|thymine}}, and "C" {{w|cytosine}}. This story might be believed by children as DNA can be thought as an instruction set to build life. Instructions contain words, and therefore the letters G, A, T, and C can be thought of as the letters that the words in the instructions are made from.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_23.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that you are more vulnerable to the {{w|Bogeyman|boogie man}} when you are sleeping. "The Boogie Man" is a common legend used to scare young kids; he typically hides in closets and underneath beds, and attacks sleeping children. This story might be believed by children as some believe in the boogie man.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_22.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that water increases its size to frighten {{w|predator|predators}}. {{w|Ice}} is less dense than liquid {{w|water}}. This is an unusual property as most materials are more dense in solid form. This might be believed by a child because many animals appear to increase their size to frighten away other threatening animals. A {{w|rhinoceros}}, although not traditionally a predator, would be a predator of water.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_21.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that {{w|antimatter|anti-matter}} is composed of half ant and half matter. The prefix anti means "the opposite of", but sounds similar to the word ant. This story might be believed by children because a hyphen is often used to combine two words together with different meanings to create a word with the meaning of both. Combining the words ants and matter could produce a word meaning something composed of both ants and matter.
</gallery>

===Regrettable Pranks: An Interactive Experience===
This section holds falsehoods that a dad might use to frighten his children. Fear is often used to discourage children from disobeying their parents. It is an interactive experience, so visitors can try something for themselves, then learn the frightening fact it indicates.

<gallery class=center widths=432px heights=285px>
File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_19.png|In this exhibit the sign claims that helium makes your voice higher because you are about to explode. Helium makes your voice high-pitched, because sound travels faster in helium than in air (79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen), and it does not explode because it is a noble gas; although it could rupture containers in accordance with the {{w|combined gas law}}, which governs the relationship between pressure, temperature and volume: i.e. if a balloon is over-inflated or exposed to heat, it will burst. This story might be used by parents to discourage children from inhaling helium. This story might regrettably convince a child that they are dying after they inhale helium. On the other hand it can be dangerous to inhale helium from a gas container if the pressure is too high. So maybe better scared than dead.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_18.png|In this exhibit the sign claims that if your middle finger is longer than all the others, you are an alien half-breed. For almost all people the middle finger is longer than all the others. This story might be used by parents to tease their children. This story might regrettably convince a child that one of their parents is a alien, and therefore not to be trusted.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_16.png|In this exhibit the sign claims that one of the cups of {{w|Jell-O|Jello}} had a rabbit brain instead of a cherry. Cherries are a common ingredient in gelatin based deserts. One cup is missing and in the hands of the child, possibly eaten. This story might be used by parents to tease their children, or discourage them from eating more dessert. This story might regrettably convince a child that they ate the brain of a small cute fluffy animal.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_17.png|In this exhibit the sign claims that monsters will eat you if you do not make your bed. In some stories monsters specifically prey on children. This story might be used by parents to encourage children to make their beds. This story might regrettably convince a child that there are monsters under their beds and frighten them so they can not sleep.
</gallery>

===Concessions===
This area holds concession stands, which sell food. There are misleading names on each stand. The pop-outs in this section are based on jokes parents tell their children to frighten them about food.

<gallery class=center widths=432px heights=285px>
File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_15.png|In this exhibit the marquee announces the name of the concession stand as KFP. The parent claims that the "P" stands for phoenix, and the operator adds "also ponies". KFP is a parody of Kentucky Fried Chicken ({{w|KFC}}), a popular fast food chain which specializes in fried chicken. A phoenix is a mythical bird that throws it self into a fire and later rises from the ashes. This story might be believed by children because phoenixes are birds and a fried one may look similar to a chicken. It could be even worse for many girls if they belived they just ate a pony.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_14.png|In this exhibit the marquee announces that the concession stand sells {{w|ground beef}} and further enplanes that ground beef is beef that is found on the ground. The word ground sometimes refers to the floor other times is past tense of the word grind. This story might be believed by children because the words are spelled and pronounced the same.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_13.png|In this exhibit the marquee announces that the concession stand sells {{w|ice cream}} and claims that ice cream is really spelled eyes cream, and always composed of eyeballs. This story might be believed by children because the words "eyes cream" sounds similar to "ice cream".
</gallery>

===Conservatory of Poorly Remembered History===
Each exhibit is a display set up to reinforce the false, sarcastic, or exaggerated answers to typical questions that children may ask their parents about history. The answers given involve just enough information that the child may be satisfied with the answer and repeat it to others while maintaining the irony for adults that the answers are obviously misleading or false. These explanations may be given because the parent does not know how to explain the topic.

<gallery class=center widths=432px heights=285px>
File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_11.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that {{w|Genghis Khan}} achieved his victories by using dragons. Genghis Khan was a Mongolian conqueror who conquered almost all of Asia and much of Europe founding the {{w|Mongol Empire}}, and creating the then-largest continuous land empire in history. This story might be believed by children because some children associate magical and other fantastic elements with the past instead of fantasy.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_12.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that the {{w|Crimean War}} was a war on crime. The Crimean War is an often forgotten Eastern European conflict between Russia and a European coalition with aims to stop Russia's expansion. This story might be believed by children because adding an "a" to a people group sometimes is used to create a country name, making Crimea sounds similar to a nation of criminals.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_10.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that wizards where in control during {{w|The Renaissance}}. The Renaissance is a cultural movement in Europe that took place after the Dark ages. This story might be believed by children because some children associate magical and other fantastic elements with the past instead of fantasy.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_3.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that {{w|Star Wars}} is actual history. Star Wars is a fantastical science fiction movie. This story might be believed by children because the movie begins "a long time ago in a galaxy far away", and some children associate magical and other fantastic elements with the past instead of fantasy.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_9.png|In this exhibit the poster claims that {{w|France}} does not exist. The adult in the comic continues to attempt to convince the children that France does not exist. This is supposed to be funny because the knowledge of France as a country is common. This may be parodying the global warming debate, a common theme in both XKCD and SMBC.
</gallery>

===Rotunda of Uncomfortable Topics===
Each exhibit is a display set up to explain uncomfortable topics that children may ask their parents about. The answers given so that the children do not ask further questions.

<gallery class=center widths=432px heights=285px>
File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_8.png|In this exhibit the sign on the box covering up a couple in bed claims that naked wrestling is perfectly normal, but kids should never engage in it. "Naked wrestling" is a euphemism for sex. A parent may give this explanation if a child walks in on their parents having sex and they have to come up with an explanation on the spot, or they feel that the children are too young to know about sex.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_7.png|In this exhibit the sign over the stand claims your parents drink alcohol to prevent you from drinking it as alcohol is a poison. This is technically true, as alcohol is a toxin. A parent may give this explanation to a child who asks their parents why they drink alcohol if it is bad for you, and did not want to explain the pleasurable experience of alcohol because it might encourage children to drink.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_5.png|In this exhibit the banner claims that mommies have big tummies because storks like chubby girls. According to some childhood stories storks deliver babies. Also, there are men who prefer heavy women, these men are often called chubby chasers. A parent may give this explanation to a child who asks why, if a stork delivers babies, their mother is changing while she is pregnant, and the parent continues to try to avoid the topic of sex.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_6.png|In this exhibit the sign claims that grandma did not die, but is going back to Saturn. Some parents tell their children that their loved ones have gone away instead of telling them the truth, their loved ones are dead. Going to Saturn "for revenge" is added for comic value. A parent may give this explanation to a avoid causing their child pain.
</gallery>

===Miscellaneous===
<gallery class=center widths=432px heights=285px>
File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_4.png|In this exhibit the marquee claims that {{w|dinosaur|dinosaurs}} are made of bones only. The fossil record includes the imprints of the other tissues of dinosaurs including skin, nails, teeth, and feathers. This story might be believed by children because the majority of all displays of dinosaurs in museums only include bones.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_2.png|The Bathrooms have 3 doors. Clicking reveals that there the two standard gendered bathrooms found in the majority of public buildings, and another one for "Korgmen & Spangs" which does not correspond to any known human trait. This is most likely a reference to the Marvel alien species {{w|Korg_(comics)|the Korg}}.

File:guest_comic_week_zach_weiner_smbc_1.png|In this exhibit the sign (which the children can not see) explains that the "{{w|Magic Eye}} poster" contains no hidden images. Magic Eye is a company that sells {{w|autostereogram}}s in books. Autostereograms contain a "hidden" three-dimensional image that can only be seen by focusing one's eyes at a point other than the poster itself. This takes time and many people find it difficult or impossible to do.
</gallery>

==Transcript==
:In the spirit of xkcd I present a proposal for a new Smithsonian museum:
:The Smithsonian Museum Of Dad-Trolling
:An entire building dedicated to deceiving children for amusement

:(Click to view exhibits!)

:The top left room is 'The Hall of Misunderstood Science'. It contains six exhibits.

:Exhibit: A giant basilisk looms over children.
:Exhibit label: BASILISKS: Real, deadly, under your bed.

:Exhibit: Four magnets hang from a square arch. A child is touching two of them together.
:Text on the arch: Magnets only leap at each other when they're teenagers. Later, they lose interest.

:Exhibit: A child on his dad's shoulders looks up at a looming statue of Jesus behind a lectern. There are flakes falling from Jesus onto them both.
:Exhibit label: Snow is Jesus' dandruff. His scalp gets dry when it's cold.

:Exhibit: A child lies asleep, while hands and a scary face reach up around the bed toward him.
:Exhibit label: Sleep: Now you're vulnerable to the boogie man!

:Exhibit: An ice block sits on a stand in front of pictures of a wolf and rhinoceros looking frightened.
:Exhibit label: Freezing water: Expands to frighten predators.

:Exhibit: An insect on a stick is orbited by a small sphere.
:Exhibit label: Anti-matter: Matter that is more than 50% ants.

:Exhibit: A DNA strand with the letters T, A, C, and G hanging around it.
:Exhibit label: DNA only has four letters because the alphabet was smaller back then.
:Dad, to child: Told you so.

:Exhibit: A bunch of molecules hang from the ceiling.
:Exhibit label: Molecules? In my day, we only had atoms!

:The top right room is 'Regrettable Pranks: An Interactive Experience'. There are four exhibits.

:Exhibit: Five balloons float tethered to a table. A child is holding a sixth balloon. The Dad looks alarmed.
:Sign on exhibit: If this helium makes your voice go higher, it's because you're ten seconds from exploding.

:Exhibit: An alien face is shown above an outline of several hands next to a ruler. A child holds his hand up to it.
:Sign on exhibit: Measure your middle finger. If it's longer than the others, you're an alien halfbreed.

:Exhibit: Three cups are on a table. A child is walking away with a fourth cup, the dad's arm around the child's shoulder.
:Exhibit label: Has anyone seen my rabbit brain? It looks like a cherry, and I dropped it in a Jello cup.

:Exhibit: A monstrous set of jaws open upward around a bed.
:Sign on exhibit: Make your bed or monsters will know a kid lives there.

:The center right room is 'Concessions'. There are three booths.

:Booth: A concession stand is labeled 'KFP', and displays a KFC-style bucket. A dad and child are eating.
:Dad: The "P" is for "phoenix".

:Booth: A concession stand.
:Sign on stand: Ground beef: Beef we found on the ground.
:Dad, to child: Told you.

:Booth: A stand shaped like a giant eye.
:Booth label: EYES CREAM
:Subtitle: How did you think it was spelled?
:Sign on booth: Now with more of the goo in your eyes. Same as every other creamery.

:The lower left room is 'Conservatory of Poorly Remembered History'. There are five exhibits.

:Exhibit: A man is riding a dragon.
:Exhibit label: Genghis Khan: victory through dragons.

:Exhibit: A criminal in front of some windows.
:Exhibit label: The Crimean War: The first war against crime.

:Exhibit: A castle with flags hanging on it.
:Exhibit label: The Renaissance
:Subtitle: Long story short, the wizards were in control.

:Exhibit:A man in Jedi-style robes with a fake beard.
:Exhibit label: Star Wars is a documentary. No, seriously.
:Dad, to children: Kids, this man is a veteran.

:The lower right room is 'Rotunda of Uncomfortable Topics'. There are five exhibits.

:Exhibit: A wrestling ring, with a man and woman mostly obscured by the exhibit label.
:Exhibit label: Naked wrestling: perfectly normal. NEVER DO IT.

:Exhibit: a figure sits at a booth in front of a bowl of food. The dad is holding a bottle.
:Exhibit label: Alcohol is poison. I drink to save you from it.
:Dad: You're welcome.

:Exhibit: A large bird.
:Exhibit label: Mommies get big tummies before babies come because the stork likes chubby girls.

:Exhibit: A rocket ship.
:Sign on exhibit: Grandma's not dead. She just returned to Saturn. For REVENGE.

:In the areas outside the rooms, there are two more exhibits and restrooms, all clickable.

:Exhibit: A dinosaur skeleton.
:Exhibit label: That's right. Dinosaurs were made entirely of BONES.
:Dad, to kid: If you think about it, it makes sense.

:Exhibit: A large image hangs on the wall. It is a dense squiggly jumble of lines.
:Dad, to kids: You gotta squint juuust right.
:Sign on exhibit: Magic eye trick that doesn't actually work.

:Restrooms: There are three doors, each with a sign.
:First door (male logo): Men & Boys
:Second door (female logo): Women & Girls
:Third door (unrecognizable logo): Korgmen & Spangs

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Ferret]]
[[Category:Guest Week]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

1426: Reduce Your Payments

2014-12-29T01:06:04Z

108.162.216.94: wordding

{{comic
| number = 1426
| date = September 26, 2014
| title = Reduce Your Payments
| image = reduce your payments.png
| titletext = I tried oxidizing them, but your bank uses some really weird paper and it wouldn't light.
}}
[[File:Sodium_borohydride.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Sodium borohydride, structural formula. (from Wikimedia Commons)]]
==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] walks into a room where [[Cueball]] sits in an armchair. Black Hat says to Cueball that he can reduce his mortgage payments, while holding a docket of paper, presumably Cueball's payment check, that looks like it has been dipped into a liquid of some kind. Black Hat uses the same formulation many Internet advertisements use: "Discover this (strange/new/amazing...) trick to (lose weight/reduce your mortgage payments/meet amazing women/grow your penis...)" known as {{w|clickbait}}. Cueball wants to know how and Black Hat responds by mentioning {{w|Sodium_borohydride|sodium borohydride (NaBH4)}}. Since Cueball fell for Black Hat's bait he exclaims, "I hate you."

{{w|Sodium borohydride}} is a strong {{w|reducing agent}}, meaning in a chemical reaction it will "{{w|redox|reduce}}" another substance. It is in fact used during the [http://www.borax.com/library/articles/news-and-events/news-release/paper's-tiger manufacture of paper], in order to bleach the natural colour from the pulp and improve the resulting paper's brightness, opacity, ink-absorbtion, and strength (among other properties).

This comic is a typical switcharound pun. Cueball expects the value on a bill paid to be reduced, while Black Hat uses the chemical meaning of {{w|Reduction (chemistry)|reducing}}, which would result at a minimum in the bleaching of all ink from the bill.

The complementary chemical reaction to reduction is oxidation, which is what happens if the paper mortgage payment is burned, as referred to in the title text. They go together in {{w|redox}} reactions, which generally involve electron transfer from the {{w|chemical species}} which is oxidized to the one which is reduced. In that case, the pun about light (to start a fire) is that a reduced financial weight may seem light (not heavy).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits on a sofa and Blackhat walks into the frame from behind.]
:Blackhat: I discovered this weird trick for reducing your mortgage payments!
:Cueball: What?
:Blackhat: Sodium borohydride.
:Cueball: ...I hate you.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

Talk:1456: On the Moon

2014-12-06T00:31:50Z

108.162.216.94:

'''Transcript'''

I don't see why the transcript is incomplete, it looks pretty complete and all there to me... [[User:Official.xian|Official.xian]] ([[User talk:Official.xian|talk]]) 14:45, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
:Agreed, removed incomplete tag. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:49, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

I wondered if the cartoon is about sex discrimination. After all, when people went to the moon, nobody even considered (as far as I know) letting a woman go on an Apollo flight. Megan might be saying "Land a ''man'' on the moon?" Or she might be tired of Cueball saying this and be obliquely suggesting NASA send him there on a one-way trip! [[User:Gade|Gade]] ([[User talk:Gade|talk]]) 15:25, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

No, that only means that you are blinded by the alienation caused by the noxious media sites you visit. This strip is clearly about doing a 'real' manned moonlanding instead of that fake hollywood footage from 1969 that doesn't look anything like the photos taken last year from the chinese lander. --[[User:Loon|Loon]] ([[User talk:Loon|talk]]) 18:49, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
:Appropriate handle, considering that half-baked claims that the moon landings were faked have been debunked so many times over the past forty years. In fact, XKCD #[[1441]] (Turnabout) only works *because* we landed on the moon.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 00:31, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Is there a reference for the claim "Unmanned hardened pre-cooled robotic probes either got crushed or fried before landing, or survived only a couple of hours at most."? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 16:07, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
:Yes. The Venera probes. Citation provided. --Equinox [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.117|199.27.128.117]] 17:18, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
:(Well, you got me an edit conflict, after checking, editing and reviewing,but here's what I wrote.)
:That's not the way I would phrase that claim, but it sounds like it's Venera 9 and its similar successors being talked about, with the "pre-cooling".
:A brief check of a book I have (no, I've never heard of The Internet) suggests that the complete list of landers that actually got to Venus are as follows:
::Venera 3 (descent probe, probably crashed, communications failed before approach)
::Venera 4 (descent probe, ran out of power before destroyed in the atmosphere)
::Venera 5 (descent probe, may have crushed at late stage of descent while still powered)
::Venera 6 (descent probe, as V5)
::Venera 7 (23 minutes of faint recordings from surface, probably landed on side after rough landing)
::Venera 8 (50 minutes on surface before going silent)
::Venera 9 (53 minutes, before radio contact with orbiter lost and not regained)
::Venera 10 (can't find timing details)
::Venera 11 (95 minutes, before contact with orbiter lost)
::Venera 12 (110 minutes)
::Venera 13 (a confirmed 127 minutes)
::Venera 14 (57 minutes, ditto; managed to "measure its own lens-cap" in the intended soil-compressibility experiment!)
::Vega 1 (no time information for Venus Lander component
::Vega 2 (56 minutes for on surface for Venus Lander component)
::Pioneer (an hour, for one of three landers on the mission)
:Knowing the surface environment (temperature and pressure) and the design specs it can be assumed that Venera 13's confirmed 127 minutes of operation is near the top-end of functionality and that those that merely went out of range would have had not much more survival time. Although by the time of the final Veneras the expected survival time was only 30 minutes, and yet they may have lasted at least twice as long, so who knows... (Also note the possible usage of "a couple of hours" in relation to [[1070]].)
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.247|141.101.98.247]] 17:48, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
::That looks like an XKCD comic in and of itself.
Man, for a minute I thought the second 'MAN' refers to a truck from the car company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAN_Truck_%26_Bus MAN]. They are rather heavy. 5 December 2014 {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.139}}

Talk:1455: Trolley Problem

2014-12-04T07:46:28Z

108.162.216.94:

I think Randall missed a trick here.. He should have had Black Hat offer to leave the lever (killing the 5) if Cueball was the 1 person on the other track, for $1 of course. That way Cueball is put in a situation of moral contradiction: The utilitarian in him says save the 5 (sacrifice self), self interest says save yourself (thereby killing 5). --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:24, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
:Randall had to make a choice between your scenario and Black Hat interrupting Cueball to emphasise BH's lack of care for the people on the track. As he chose the latter, BH didn't know there was a person on the second track, so couldn't have offered your scenario. -- [[User:Notso|Notso]] ([[User talk:Notso|talk]]) 11:05, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
::Good point, I hadn't noticed that BH was never aware of the single person. That makes BH an even less moral person than I'd realised! As far as he knows, he could save 5 lives with no consequences, but that means standing up.... --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:00, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
:: I think Randall made the morally correct choice there, don't you? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 12:38, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
:::Thats the thing with morals, something is only 'morally correct' if I subscribe to your moral viewpoint. While not such a popular view, some would argue that intervening to switch the track (thus causing the 1 worker to die) is morally wrong (because of your action you have changed the course of events, or some other reason). While most would agree that it is morally wrong to kill a human, as you start changing the circumstances, it become difficult to stick to hard and fast rules. What about abortion of a foetus, abortion where a life-limiting condition is detected, use of condoms, the death penalty, euthanasia? I would really recommend anyone to run through some of the [http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/ Philosophy Experiments], it certainly made me examine my own morals, which previously I thought were well defined and logical. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:23, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
::::"''some would argue that intervening to switch the track (thus causing the 1 worker to die) is morally wrong (because of your action you have changed the course of events''"
::::If you base morality on what choices are made, rather than what actions are taken, then '''failing''' to intervene, choosing not to take action, would be morally wrong. Basing morals on actions suggests someone could stand by and always do nothing and remain moral. A position I don't think anyone could seriously defend. But you're absolutely right that "morals" are never well defined or logical. An example can always be found to put someone's strong moral stance in an immoral position. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.117|199.27.128.117]] 17:41, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
:::::The majority of people will make a distinction between killing someone and letting someone die, even if that distinction isn't something they are conscious of. Of course the end result is the same, whether it is classed as killing or letting die. For those whose morals are guided by christianity for example, the ten commandments specifically states 'Thou shalt not kill', and your action of pulling the lever could be seen as killing the 1 person, whereas by not acting, or choosing not to act, you are 'merely' letting 5 people die. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 21:03, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

Black Hat first sells his hypothetical decision for $1, which can be seen as a cheap bargain for one's life; but how probable is this concrete situation with these exact persons to come true, except we are speaking of Black Hat here. $5 still is for a hypothetical, but more probable scenario given Black Hat's attitude; agreeing to pay would make Cueball open for further blackmailing in general and so be imprudent, but even for that counter-argument Black Hat has an even more expensive solution. Black Hat goes more and more meta and counters arguments bringing the concrete decision from hypothesis to reality and earning money on the way. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.68|108.162.231.68]] 10:13, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
Pudder

Or one can treat this like Captain Kirk did with the infamous "Kobayashi Maru" problem and cheat, and say that they would throw the lever after the lead wheels have cleared the switch. This would divert the trailing wheels onto the other track which would cause the trolley to derail and thus save all six.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 13:16, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
:And kill everyone on board! Its easy to cheat, and construct ways to avoid the hypothetical situation, or reasons why it could never happen in the first place. To me its more interesting to examine and challenge the thought process involved in making a decision where the answer isn't necessarily 'correct'. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:27, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
::Nowhere does it say there are people on the trolley. You are assuming that there are. I am assuming the opposite — that it is a runaway and no one is aboard; otherwise someone would be able to apply the brakes.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 15:06, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
:::My response was an off the cuff joke, it doesn't matter whether there are people on board, whether they would survive, whether they could pull the brakes on, if the brakes have failed, whether you could fire an orange portal in front of the 5 people and a blue one after them, etc etc etc. The importants part is the second half of my statement, that its easy to cheat, and construct ways to avoid the hypothetical situation, or reasons why it could never happen in the first place. Once you accept the hypothetical limits of the situation, that is where the interesting philosophical questions lie. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:30, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
::The correct answer is to have a moral trolley company that trains its workers to OSHA rules; thus the correct answer would be to throw the lever to head towards the worker, confident that the worker has been trained to listen to the "singing of the rails" indicating an approaching vehicle and will jump out of the way. [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:49, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
:::In the original problem, all 6 potential victims are bound and helpless and none of them are "workers". [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 14:07, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
::If the trolley is a runaway trolley, then it's a good chance that all on board (if anyone) would die anyway, so may as well save all six people on the track. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.131|108.162.217.131]] 14:46, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
The explanation is missing that Black Hat doesn't offer to press the lever for $1. He offers to promise to press the lever for $1. [[User:Hsdgsgh|Hsdgsgh]] ([[User talk:Hsdgsgh|talk]]) 13:57, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

It depends - are any/all of those five people Hitler? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.48|108.162.215.48]] 16:54, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

The tiered levels appear similar to kickstarter campaigns. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.91|108.162.216.91]]

The trolley problem continues: The trolley is under control, but heading towards a bend. If the driver brakes now, then the five people hidden round the corner will survive. You could certainly make the driver brake by pushing someone onto the track. If you would divert the trolley in the original scenario, would you also push a random stranger into the path of an oncoming train, and if not, why not. Does the more visceral act of pushing someone onto a track make this morally different? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.201|141.101.98.201]] 20:57, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
:[http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/fatman/Default4.aspx The statistics] show that far fewer people will push the person onto the track than would change the lever. As you say, its far more visceral and personal to push someone than to flick a switch. {{unsigned|Pudder}}

Talk:1455: Trolley Problem

2014-12-03T15:17:37Z

108.162.216.94:

Talk:1455: Trolley Problem

2014-12-03T15:09:16Z

108.162.216.94:

Talk:1455: Trolley Problem

2014-12-03T15:06:55Z

108.162.216.94:

Talk:1455: Trolley Problem

2014-12-03T13:17:30Z

108.162.216.94:

Talk:1455: Trolley Problem

2014-12-03T13:16:32Z

108.162.216.94:

Talk:1446: Landing

2014-11-14T09:35:51Z

108.162.216.94:

I would bet money that this comic will have to do with the Rosetta Lander that will be landing on a comet for the first time in history this morning. Info about it at Rosetta.esa.int

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.173|108.162.237.173]] 05:37, 12 November 2014 (UTC)pH
:
:from xkcd1446.org: "Note: This event is over. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to browse through the images" {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.113}}

Almost definitely. The URL for the image (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-40-00_wmf0bPtxDN.png) contains 'landing'.

[[User:DeedleFake|DeedleFake]] ([[User talk:DeedleFake|talk]]) 05:44, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

The image changes every five minutes. (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-35-00_lVC98SMY1X.png) followed by (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-40-00_wmf0bPtxDN.png) followed by (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-45-00_MZprhbADHL.png) then (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-50-00_Z63bWhoaxd.png) (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-55-00_2wCeCFN0R1.png) (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-00-00_FRnIhqA5IZ.png) (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-05-00_Os6SVGalch.png) (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-10-00_xn4nUL9lry.png) http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-15-00_soIuPGfUYh.png , also I'm sorry about deleting other people's comments - firefox decided to not show the "other people have edited this" page :(. If anyone's interested, here's the command I'm using to grab the urls:
while :; do http --stream --body http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/landing\?method\=EventSource | awk '/png/ { print $2 }' | perl -ne '/(r_.+png)/; print "$1\n";' ; done
where the 'http' command is from http://httpie.org - not the neatest way to do it, but it works ;)
[[User:Forkbomb|Forkbomb]] ([[User talk:Forkbomb|talk]]) 05:47, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Forkbomb, you are not supposed to delete other's comments...
Yes. It is definitely about Rosetta. The image changed at 9.35 pm PST and it says "Three hours to separation", i.e. 12.35am PST, which is exactly the time at which PHILAE is going to separate...
[http://imgur.com/fK9Ddrx image_seen]
[http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/07/rosetta-and-philae-landing-timeline/ rosetta timeline]

[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.237|199.27.128.237]] 05:50, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Is anyone collecting URLs? I assume there's an easy automated way to do this that was used for Time. If not...
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! URLs
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-05-00_Os6SVGalch.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-10-00_fUWUYNkxwp.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-15-00_74eSd3x7BQ.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-20-00_UT4FKycrmC.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-25-00_FX6hlfSQHR.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-30-00_FjnXADopvO.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-35-00_lVC98SMY1X.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-40-00_wmf0bPtxDN.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-45-00_MZprhbADHL.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-50-00_Z63bWhoaxd.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-55-00_2wCeCFN0R1.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-00-00_FRnIhqA5IZ.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-05-00_Os6SVGalch.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-10-00_xn4nUL9lry.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-15-00_soIuPGfUYh.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-20-00_jwkPNMaOSf.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-25-00_ADajYkIBoR.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-30-00_w819mZAIhE.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-35-00_LoEc4Q8fJF.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-40-00_YLKE5WV8Jw.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-45-00_QRP5ndlY4A.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-50-00_OAOxgR9UUR.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-55-00_KGFuQYeX1i.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-00-00_ov37tpe8BX.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-05-00_VwL8mLbfmW.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-10-00_GCNRyInxWI.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-15-00_CQwEg4oyk3.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-20-00_jkbJbYkLeP.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-25-00_Pxh3HKgWnT.png
|}
</div>
'''LONG LIST OF URLs HIDDEN. CLICK EXPAND OVER THERE →'''

Randall switched to SSL after 1:30 but you can of course use either server.

- Marcustyphoon/[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.244|108.162.219.244]] 07:37, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-45-00_MZprhbADHL.png) "Has anyone ever tried this before?" "No but fetishes have to start somewhere, right?" [[User:Nexxuz|Nexxuz]] ([[User talk:Nexxuz|talk]])

Probably just a mistake, but the transcript in the html source of 1446 is from 1445. --[[User:Pascal|Pascal]] ([[User talk:Pascal|talk]]) 05:58, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

It fetches things using this javascript tag..
<script type="text/javascript" src="/s/c3b919.js"></script>
I've pasted it in pastebin, can we get zealous and fetch the images before they actually show up ? :P
[http://pastebin.com/MwsahkyE link_to_javascript]
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.237|199.27.128.237]] 06:04, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

By the way, the current explanation says it's pinging c4.xkcd for updates.
From the javascript source, it looks like there's more than one server for this:
var SERVERS = ["http://c0.xkcd.com", "http://c1.xkcd.com", "http://c2.xkcd.com", "http://c3.xkcd.com", "http://c4.xkcd.com", "http://c5.xkcd.com", "http://c6.xkcd.com", "http://c7.xkcd.com"];
So that would be c0 to c7

Unfortuantely, as I had suggested, it seems that we cannot grab all the images beforehand :(
The javascript only fetches a json, which actually gives image name. So there's a server side script running which generates the paths to actual images. The javascript just shows it..
You can see the json [http://c4.xkcd.com/stream/comic/landing?method=EventSource here].
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.237|199.27.128.237]] 06:23, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Attempting to load the URL directly in Firefox results in unreadable results, but it's something like
id: acae0462-6a34-11e4-8001-002590720087
event: comic/landing
data: {"image":"r_01-25-00_ADajYkIBoR.png","spread":1}
There are several other events as well, such as 'reload' and 'heartbeat'.
[[User:DeedleFake|DeedleFake]] ([[User talk:DeedleFake|talk]]) 06:32, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

By the way, that UUID (i.e. acae0462-6a34-11e4-8001-002590720087) seems to encode the time the image was uploaded as a v1 UUID.
[[User:Maths22|Maths22]] ([[User talk:Maths22|talk]]) 06:58, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

The best part of this is ninja-ing the image uploads. The xkcd servers seem to be off atomic time by around 45 seconds. [[User:Skylarmt|Skylarmt]] ([[User talk:Skylarmt|talk]]) 06:45, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

What are people's thoughts on changing the image label to an image number? It seems redundant to use the timestamp twice, but I copied it over from time. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:06, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

A lovely explanation. Itaigreif (talk) 07:45, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Why is the comic titled "???" and not "Rosetta" or something? [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 08:02, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

:"Rosetta" would have given the game away in the first few minutes before we could figure it out. "???" is a strange choice, though. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.157|103.22.201.157]] 09:20, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

The page has changed name from "???" to "Landing" about 5AM, and title text changed from "..." to "[LIVE]". Not sure about actual times, and don't know how to rename page. Can someone else handle this? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.217|141.101.89.217]] 10:12, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

At 00:03:50 the comic mentions turning on CONCERT, which I think is a typo and should be {{w|CONSERT}} --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:56, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:I think this is a typo Randall made on purpose. [[User:SirKitKat|SirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 15:45, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
::Welp - if it's a joke or other reference, it's lost on me - do you have an explanation for what it could mean if intentional? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:15, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
Keep uploading the images under the current naming convention, guys, I'll do a batch move to "landing[X]" later when things die down a little. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:02, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:: Check out [http://xkcd1446.org/list.json http://xkcd1446.org/list.json]. E.g. [http://xkcd1446.org/img/r_11-30-00_DEpbhsl54D.png http://xkcd1446.org/img/r_11-30-00_DEpbhsl54D.png]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.189|141.101.105.189]] 11:54, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Shouldn't we write up the changing "Time until landing: [x] hours" top text in the transcripts as well? [[User:Phantom|Phantom]] ([[User talk:Phantom|talk]]) 12:39, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Oh no, not again! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.206|Petunia]] 12:45, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:What? What's happening? -- [[User:Bowl|Bowl]] ([[User talk:Bowl|talk]]) 19:20, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
::Hurling towards the ground, with all of these stupid whales around... well, "hurling" would have been better actually, so it could all end quicker. Instead, it is tens of thousands of times slower than last time. And instead of splatting, the whales are bouncing... they seem to be enjoying this. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.206|Petunia]] 08:07, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

In the transcript, added or changed text should be in '''bold''' for easy reading? also, [http://xkcd1446.org/static.html this] format reads a lot easier then the transcript. - sir KitKat - [[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.137|141.101.64.137]] 12:57, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:I think so. After adding 'Status Report' it's even harder to read it. [[User:Graphene|Graphene]] ([[User talk:Graphene|talk]]) 13:01, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:I'm not sure... the purpose of the transcript is not to make it easier for those too lazy to compare the images and find what changed between them, but just to represent what the images contain for those that can not see them... preferably as accurately as possible, i.e. with the original formatting. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.206|141.101.93.206]] 13:10, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:: I'd agree with the transcript not containing formatting that changes - especially since that formatting may confuse (or be confused with) the formatting used for emphasis in the comic itself - perhaps we could have a separated "changes" version of the transcript on another page? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 17:34, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:Maybe the transcript should move to a subpage to avoid clutter? And can we add a section for the lazy people to follow the changes without going through every image? [[User:SirKitKat|SirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 15:18, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:By the way, the '''bold''' changed stuff helped me notice some subtle changes :) [[User:SirKitKat|SirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 15:27, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Did anyone notice that not all whales disappeared at 13:30? One is hidden behind the mountains in the background with a "? ->" pointing at it. I wonder if this should be included in the transcript... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.212|141.101.105.212]] 14:28, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:It should be in a transcript. I missed it while editing. My apologies for that. [[User:Graphene|Graphene]] ([[User talk:Graphene|talk]]) 15:28, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

I did just notice that clicking on the image now takes you to http://xkcd1446.org/.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.4|141.101.104.4]] 16:23, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Most image URLs:
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-00-00_8MxxPSiNYx.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-05-00_KsvXIwq84J.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-10-00_fUWUYNkxwp.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-15-00_74eSd3x7BQ.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-20-00_UT4FKycrmC.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-25-00_FX6hlfSQHR.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-30-00_FjnXADopvO.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-35-00_lVC98SMY1X.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-40-00_wmf0bPtxDN.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-45-00_MZprhbADHL.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-50-00_Z63bWhoaxd.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-55-00_2wCeCFN0R1.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-00-00_FRnIhqA5IZ.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-05-00_Os6SVGalch.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-10-00_xn4nUL9lry.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-15-00_soIuPGfUYh.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-20-00_jwkPNMaOSf.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-25-00_ADajYkIBoR.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-30-00_w819mZAIhE.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-35-00_LoEc4Q8fJF.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-40-00_YLKE5WV8Jw.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-45-00_QRP5ndlY4A.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-50-00_OAOxgR9UUR.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-55-00_KGFuQYeX1i.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-00-00_ov37tpe8BX.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-05-00_VwL8mLbfmW.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-10-00_GCNRyInxWI.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-15-00_CQwEg4oyk3.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-20-00_jkbJbYkLeP.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-25-00_Pxh3HKgWnT.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-30-00_eq1OJ5Y7DE.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-35-00_xgc7Exg8xh.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-40-00_XqySBX8Pjp.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-45-00_pO0FdW8EUU.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-50-00_Lk8WtAcDCd.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-55-00_XEGyO5rijO.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_03-00-00_JwVK8q3HKt.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_03-05-00_1Qc2XuFNlD.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_03-10-00_bTGPRMJ42D.png
|-
!Missing 03:15
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_03-20-00_I337xnUZMi.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_03-25-00_TwWuDe1LFM.png
|-
!Missing 03:30
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_03-35-00_OUONNRwSZC.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_03-40-00_oprku4Qb8G.png
|-
!Missing 03:45
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_03-50-00_VhWzeSXfiF.png
|-
!Missing 03:55
|-
!Missing 04:00
|-
!Missing 04:05
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-10-00_GFIr1zPjmc.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-15-00_DeN1NSG0cv.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-20-00_FyWclt5aB6.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-25-00_DO12bvpult.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-30-00_NtlLenh317.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-35-00_QmMpOZdHYt.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-40-00_bYKqXlkedR.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-45-00_VjLjDl41Qg.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-50-00_ApDIAe95YT.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_04-55-00_FvFCfy1KYg.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-00-00_qaqUchjpwN.png
|-
!Missing 10:05
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-10-00_Z9fvGtSswb.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-15-00_fpM7p3KBBp.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-20-00_kblMiODYf7.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-25-00_tSrAHD4qXP.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-30-00_75d7qAv2sb.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-35-00_2cSIoJ0clN.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-40-00_lA8DusaqUA.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-45-00_NQYYQnhed2.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-50-00_FgKywBikn9.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_10-55-00_nj2pfp4Jrq.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-00-00_MHwFQLceRA.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-05-00_bLSCTYXxmg.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-10-00_NnrOF9t7pa.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-15-00_hO8DBBVK9p.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-20-00_SAbaZtGEKu.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-25-00_WWVcCjg91e.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-30-00_DEpbhsl54D.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-35-00_7qU8FGcycB.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-40-00_4VokwrsMkd.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-45-00_8HZSxVwKJx.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-50-00_idQPNNT9mU.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_11-55-00_k3V5UMQ2MB.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-00-00_CnVKyvMJlj.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-05-00_zKpnobl1PU.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-10-00_oX78Vvqx6J.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-15-00_zrGy6k9PQp.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-20-00_itckYbQu4g.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-25-00_JKHE6EdjyN.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-30-00_02xILHgXAW.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-35-00_AYKxuWaW5x.png
|-
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_12-55-00_reCbEzyWjf.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_13-00-00_mSoRydu3Ia.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_13-05-00_ENhvUA9fbU.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_13-10-00_A35vGK0gcl.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_13-15-00_4qjBoY3hzD.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_13-20-00_MLe9EpFmi4.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_13-35-00_lKRvWmmsQf.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_13-40-00_hosYx1GJRJ.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_14-05-00_im6IKZPIvm.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_14-15-00_eBi1BWysok.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_14-20-00_dvLl2Jq0LR.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_14-25-00_hqJbajkWjo.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_14-35-00_NXvSaSVFCt.png
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!Missing 14:55
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!Missing 15:05
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_15-25-00_QQZZrjzRfR.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_15-30-00_n3FmVbsd8O.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_16-15-00_LNTu3py0Zu.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_16-30-00_yzSUwWrLR7.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_16-35-00_AvjxRtJO4G.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_16-45-00_oAhSqIi56i.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_17-05-00_FagcS2rsZm.png
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|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_17-10-00_jxclbog8sI.png
|}
</div>
'''LONG LIST OF URLs HIDDEN. CLICK EXPAND OVER THERE →'''

Where is Randall getting his info? His news is the most current I can find - anyone have a good link to up-to-the-minute status reporting like Randall is providing, preferably with more detail? --[[User:Nipchee|Nipchee]] ([[User talk:Nipchee|talk]]) 18:08, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

:Nipchee: This seems to be very up-to-date: http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2014/nov/12/rosetta-comet-landing-live-blog [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.150|108.162.219.150]] 18:11, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

::This one is pretty good: https://newscientist.creatavist.com/rosetta#chapter-132425 (scroll to bottom)
::Also, here is the list of feeds from ESA: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Live_updates_Rosetta_mission_comet_landing [[User:GreenWyvern|GreenWyvern]] ([[User talk:GreenWyvern|talk]]) 18:26, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
::I could imagine that, combining his influence as a web celebrity and connections he's maintained since working with NASA, he might be able to get a few extra details before everyone else (?) -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:06, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

On a related note - what exactly is the distinction between "impact" and "landing" other than the perhaps intent? Is the result factored in as well? Where is the threshold between the two? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:10, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

I'd say it's more to do with the level of control. An impact is when an object forcibly hits something else, a landing is when it's directed and doesn't result in 10 years of wasted effort and money. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.15|141.101.104.15]] 20:27, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Okay, looks like the comic is done, unless he picks it up again after radio contact resumes. -- [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:35, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:from xkcd1446.org: "Note: This event is over. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to browse through the images" {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.113}}

p.s. The vertical sprawl here (particularly in the Frame by Frame section) is really ugly. It should be subdivided and/or columnized like in [[1190: Time]]. {{unsigned|Frankie}}
:I doubt it's over yet. Also, it's actually a bit annoying to do multiple columns of homogenous data a la time, and those were done post-hoc. Subdivision and collapsing is a thing that could happen though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:59, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Did anyone notice 16-05 and 16-10 are missing from xkcd1446.org? Saibot84 21:41, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Why does it jump from 55 minutes to 75 minutes at image #33? [[User:Keavon|Keavon]] ([[User talk:Keavon|talk]]) 22:50, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

I love the GIF, good work, but is there any way it could be slowed down about 1/4 to 1/2 a second longer for a few frames, espicaly while the lander is landing. It is hard to catch all the jokes. Not all Frames need to be the same speed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 13:40, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Not convinced there's any special reference to ''Hitchhiker's'' here. [http://io9.com/where-do-space-whales-come-from-829831859 People] [http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/fantastical-allure-space-whale seem to believe] that "space whale art" was popular in the 1970s, and we know there were space whales in fiction long before the ''Guide,'' at least in Robert F. Young's [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?26084 series of stories] published in genre magazines like ''F&SF'' and ''If'' starting in 1962, and in ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkgiILo7LY8 Pinocchio in Outer Space,]'' an animated feature film from 1965. [[User:Pesthouse|Pesthouse]] ([[User talk:Pesthouse|talk]]) 23:09, 13 November 2014 (UTC)
:Might also be a reference to the second episode of "Futurama" — title: "The Series Has Landed". In that episode there is an amusement park on the moon with animated robots dressed as whalers (which is itself a parody of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction) singing "We're whalers on the moon; we carry a harpoon; but there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales; and sing our whaling tune."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 09:35, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

"Since the event is over, and the images don't show the rebounds, we can guess that Randall made all or most of the drawings before the landing." - I disagree with this statement. Between 16:35 and 16:55 you can clearly see Philae settle (stop moving), jostle, and settle again. You may have to watch the GIF closely to notice it. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 04:36, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1441: Turnabout

2014-10-31T07:50:10Z

108.162.216.94:

In the few seconds the photons take to get to the moon and back, the earth has moved enough on its axis that the reflected beam from a perfect retroreflector is not gonna hit the protagonist.

The retroreflectors for the Apollo missions were deliberately spoiled so they return six slightly offset beams, angled such that photons from one of them will go back near enough to the source.

Oh, and of course there's also the whole r^4 thing too. {{unsigned ip|‎108.162.250.208}}
:Citation needed. And did you mean the inverse square law? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.195|103.22.201.195]] 07:37, 31 October 2014 (UTC)
:Since you acknowledge that the reflectors for the Apollo missions were constructed to take this into consideration and the photons will return near enough to the source, the cartoon is still valid. Now, whether the photons would retain sufficient energy upon their return to cause harm when they did not have enough power to destroy the reflector in the first place is a subject for another discussion .[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 07:49, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1441: Turnabout

2014-10-31T07:49:15Z

108.162.216.94:

In the few seconds the photons take to get to the moon and back, the earth has moved enough on its axis that the reflected beam from a perfect retroreflector is not gonna hit the protagonist.

The retroreflectors for the Apollo missions were deliberately spoiled so they return six slightly offset beams, angled such that photons from one of them will go back near enough to the source.

Oh, and of course there's also the whole r^4 thing too. {{unsigned ip|‎108.162.250.208}}
:Citation needed. And did you mean the inverse square law? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.195|103.22.201.195]] 07:37, 31 October 2014 (UTC)
:Since you acknowledge that the reflectors for the Apollo missions were constructed to take this into consideration and the photons will return near enough to the source, the cartoon is still valid. Now, whether the photons would retain sufficient energy upon their return to cause harm (or why they did not have enough power to destroy the reflector in the first place) is a subject for another discussion .[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 07:49, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

984: Space Launch System

2014-10-19T15:50:35Z

108.162.216.94: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 984
| date = November 30, 2011
| title = Space Launch System
| image = space_launch_system.png
| titletext = The SLS head engineer plans to invite Shania Twain to stand under the completed prototype, then tell her, 'I don't expect you to date me just because I'm a rocket scientist, but you've gotta admit--this is pretty fucking impressive.'
}}

==Explanation==
SLS, which stands for {{w|Space Launch System}} is the new launch program being designed by {{w|NASA}} to replace the retired {{w|Space Shuttle}} launch system. In the first frame, [[Cueball]] is showing [[Black Hat]] something about the SLS, possibly a video on his phone or other portable electronic device.

As usual with his appearances, Black Hat is causing trouble. Here Black Hat would appear to be telling the truth because {{w|Nazi}}-{{w|Germany}} era scientists like {{w|Wernher von Braun}}, who was one of the developers of the {{w|Saturn V}} launch vehicle, came over to America and helped develop NASA's space program.

Black Hat's assumption in the last frame is obviously a bridge too far (which is where the joke is in the comic), but he gets his desired reaction out of Cueball, who is hanging his head.

{{w|Shania Twain}} comes into this comic in the title text because in her song "That Don't Impress Me Much", she sings: "Okay, so you're a rocket scientist / That don't impress me much". But, the title text argues that if she stood under the new SLS prototype, she would admit it was in fact, impressive.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Check out the SLS — 130 tons to orbit. Finally, rockets that improve on the ones we had 40 years ago.
:Black Hat: Are we getting Nazis to build those ones too?

:Cueball: What?
:Black Hat: When we first captured von Braun and his team, we had our engineers interview them, then ''we'' built the rockets. But our rockets kept exploding.
:[Von Braun interviewed by a scientist while under guard.]
:[The same scientist in front of a spectacularly exploding rocket.]

:[The Saturn V gracefully arcing across the night sky.]
:Black Hat: Eventually we gave up and had the German teams do it, and they built us the Saturn V moon rocket.

:Cueball: I'm… not sure what lesson to take from that.
:Black Hat: "If you want something done right, learning from the Nazis isn't enough. You have to actually put them in charge."
:Cueball: That's a ''terrible'' lesson.
:Black Hat: Then I guess you should get a Nazi to come up with a better one.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]