explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2227: Transit of Mercury

2019-11-12T01:44:27Z

108.162.219.100: the photo sharing sites are relevant to the comic (which discusses a photo) — not the strong opinions.

{{comic
| number = 2227
| date = November 11, 2019
| title = Transit of Mercury
| image = transit_of_mercury.png
| titletext = For some reason the water in my pool is green and there's a weird film on the surface #nofilter
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MY TELESCOPE'S IMAGING SENSOR. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|hashtag}} #nofilter is used on photo sharing sites, especially Instagram, to humblebrag about having encountered situations so photogenic that no further image enhancement ("{{w|Photographic filter|filter}}") is required to prepare them for general advertisement.

In this comic, the hashtag is instead used to cap off an image about the predicament of the poster, where lacking proper filtering equipment has led to damage or decay of personal property.

The caption below the panel refers to the [https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/11/20958727/mercury-transit-sun-planet-nasa-astronomy the transit of the planet Mercury across the Sun] on November 11, 2019 (the date of the publication of this comic), which appeared from Earth as a small black dot moving against the background of the Sun. Viewing the transit requires a {{w|Astronomical filter|special lens filter}} to prevent the intense light from the Sun from burning out a telescope's imaging sensor.

The title text refers to a different meaning of the word "filter"; it imagines a swimming pool growing {{w|Algae|green scum}} in the absence of a {{w|Swimming_pool_sanitation#Private_pool_filtration|water filter}} as opposed to a photographic filter.

[[Randall]] has made comics about solar transits before, albeit about the transit of the International Space Station, in [[1828: ISS Solar Transit]] and [[1830: ISS Solar Transit 2]].

==Transcript==
:[Panel showing the sun partially obscured by clouds. The image is very bright and blown out, with no details visible.]

:[Caption below the panel:]

:This photo of the transit of Mercury fried my telescope's imaging sensor 🙁 #nofilter

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

explain xkcd:Sandbox

2018-06-22T20:59:32Z

108.162.219.100: Sandbox

__NOINDEX__
Make changes, try things out, or just have fun with the wiki here! Just leave everything above the line alone, please.
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=explain_xkcd:Sandbox&action=edit&oldid=91667 clear sandbox]
------
What is your favorite comic on xkcd? I like 977: Map Projections.

Talk:1942: Memorable Quotes

2018-06-08T11:19:10Z

108.162.219.100:

*And here we go, [https://i.imgur.com/YCV64gD.jpg a profound quote!] [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 09:00, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

::I was wondering how long it would take someone to do that. I was going to, but am using a borrowed computer and somehow haven't even got MS Paint. --[[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 12:18, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

:: My take on the subject, formatted for facebook cover: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210420725248312&set=a.2436502425804.2109193.1049013773&type=3&theater [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.220|141.101.96.220]] 12:29, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

::: When reading this comic my first reaction was "I'm so doing that", followed by "Someone else probably already has", LOL! Colour me unsurprised it's even the first comment thread. Too bad Facebook's idiotic theater mode crashes my iPad, which is what I use to read XKCD. :) And Imgur doesn't work in the first place (but at least I have a workaround in place for Imgur). [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:57, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
:::Thanks for the Facebook format, I have just used it, hope that was OK since it was published like that. Will only be for a few days ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:05, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
::::Steal away, that's why I linked it :) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.187|141.101.96.187]] 22:22, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

To a lot of these, especially #7, [https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/24750/how-do-you-quote-a-passage-that-has-used-sic-mistakenly this question] applies. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:25, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

The more I look at it, the more I want to put #6 ("I wrote this book...") on an actual book. But print books are sold for money, and one day might even make a profit. Not sure if the offer implied in "Here are some for general use" is intended to override the 'no commercial use' restriction on xkcd in general. -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 15:29, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
:Quotes can be used even in commercial works and without the autors contend. (With some restrictions depending on your jurisdiction.) But using a single of those quotes in a book should be fine almoste everywhere. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.64|162.158.92.64]] 19:55, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
:: Sorry, I have to, LOL!: *author's *consent *almost :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:57, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

My programmer mind really hates the missing quote mark in the title text... Reminds me of [[859: (]]. Crap! Now that’s going to bother me for the rest of the day too! - [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.174|172.68.65.174]] 00:42, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

And we shouldn't forget: Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur! -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:31, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Please never remove the "''is a big jerk."''"-part of the title text quote explanation. It's very cathartic. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 09:25, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
:Yes I for once agree to such a joke in the explanation ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:05, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
::<sigh> I was SO just about to remove that! 8^) [[User:Mr. I|Mr. I]] ([[User talk:Mr. I|talk]]) 02:09, 17 January 2018 (UTC)
:::<sigh> It's been removed. Had to check the history. Whoever did it called it vandalism. I swear I saw part of it, that said "As you can see by the first four words", because I remember searching for the 4 words, LOL! I think it was better before. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:59, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

“This quote is very false” —[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 18:25, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Quote Goodbye Quote. (Carolyne Mas) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.5|198.41.242.5]] 15:13, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

"This is not a quote" [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 15:27, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

Ironically, Randall is quoted the next day on the [https://www.facebook.com/groups/spacexgroup/permalink/10156204692931318/ SpaceX] facebook group. --[[User:Thomcat|Thomcat]] ([[User talk:Thomcat|talk]]) 21:34, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

It would be fun to attach that first quote to a work about how Hitler's regime was atrocious, making Randall seem like an anti-semite. [[User:Sensorfire|Sensorfire]] ([[User talk:Sensorfire|talk]]) 17:00, 18 January 2018 (UTC)

Note that the next quote mark in xkcd is in 1947: Night Sky.

1966: Smart Home Security

2018-03-13T13:30:40Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */ The comic is about botnets, not spying.

{{comic
| number = 1966
| date = March 12, 2018
| title = Smart Home Security
| image = smart_home_security.png
| titletext = If they're getting valuable enough stuff from you, at least the organized crime folks have an incentive to issue regular updates to keep the appliance working after the manufacturer discontinues support.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ORGANIZED CRIME - Confirm that the graph means "the oldest the device, worst the best-case is".}}

With the proliferation of smart appliances in recent years, there is a growing trend of hackers taking over smart "Internet of Things" devices and adding them to {{w|botnets}}. The hardware is then used for DDOS attacks, crypto mining etc. The "Mirai" botnet made of over 500,000 compromised routers, refrigerators, tvs, DVRs, baby monitors, thermostats, and webcams was used in October 2016 to take down DynDNS, one of the core infrastructure providers for the internet in North America.

With the potential threat always looming, security updates must be constantly pushed, and exploits must be found by the original developers and "white hat" hackers (The faceless team of engineers [[Randall]] describes), before they could be found (and get used) by "black hat" hackers. At any time, these people could quit, leaving devices defenseless.

The graph shows the various cases of how well things go on the y axis, compared to how long it has been owned on the x axis. The older a device/software is, the less likely it is to consistently receive security updates for protection, so they are more likely to be hacked, even in the best case. After 10 years, the device/software, is most likely outdated and is not being used anymore. Companies then no longer find it profitable to continually update the product, and then pull support out, even if people are still using it, leaving them vulnerable. The exact thing happened to many users, when Microsoft halted updates to Windows XP in 2014, even though many people still used the operating system.

The title text suggests that being easy to hack may actually be a positive thing for an older device, because it means that criminals have a vested interest in providing system support to keep it operational after the manufacturer has stopped supporting it.

==Transcript==
:[A graph is shown inside a frame. There is one dotted line going from the middle of the left edge, then dipping slightly before rising slowly at first, then more rapid and finally slowing its ascend down as it nears the top right corner.]

:[Above the frame is the title of the x-axis, and from each end of this text, there is a small line going out and then down, to indicate a time range, which is shown below with four times:]
:How long you've had your smart appliance
:6 months     1 year     5 years     10 years

:[Along the left part of the frame there runs a double arrow and at the top and bottom of these arrows there are legends at the top and bottom of the panels height:]
:Best-case
:Worst-case

:[Inside the panel there is text above the dotted line to the left, and below the dotted line to the right:]
:You're constantly being rescued from peril by a faceless team of engineers who could wander away at any time

:Your appliance is part of a botnet run by organized crime

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Virtual Assistants]]

1953: The History of Unicode

2018-02-13T20:59:21Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1953
| date = February 9, 2018
| title = The History of Unicode
| image = the_history_of_unicode.png
| titletext = 2048: "Great news for Maine—we're once again an independent state!!! Thanks, @unicode, for ruling in our favor and sending troops to end New Hampshire's annexation. 🙏🚁🎖️"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|I removed some unnecessary lines of text and added a real explanation about the comic, but I feel more can be added to it / changed. Please add onto it if you see something that needs to be changed.}}

An {{w|character encoding|encoding of a character set}} is a mapping from characters to numbers. For example, the letter "A" might be represented by the value 65. A problem was that each script had its own character set. Different characters could be represented by the same value. Some languages, such as Japanese, had several inconsistent character encodings, so before people could send text, they would have to have agreed which character set to use. {{w|Unicode}} was planned as a way of solving this by providing for a single character encoding for all the various characters used in the world's languages.

Unicode is run by {{w|Unicode Consortium|a consortium}} of major technology companies and stakeholders. The founders of Unicode include {{w|Joe Becker (Unicode)|Joe Becker}}, who worked for Xerox in the 1980s. He has a beard and may be the character featured in the first and third panels.

New characters have continued to be added to Unicode, and recently many "{{w|emoji}}" (picture characters) have been added. Emoji were originally added to be compatible with text message encodings in Japan, but after devices in other countries started supporting them as part of Unicode, they caught on worldwide. Now emoji characters are added for their own sake, not just for compatibility.

One recently added emoji is the "[https://emojipedia.org/lobster/ Lobster emoji]". It was approved as part of Unicode 11, for release in 2018.

The webcomic shows the creator of Unicode talking about how it would change the way we thought about managing text, which could help with incompatible binary text encoding. This seems to have derailed over the next 30 years, as shown in [https://twitter.com/SenAngusKing/status/961331752718557184 a real tweet] from the junior Senator from {{w|Maine}}, {{w|Angus King}}. In the {{w|Twitter|tweet}}, Sen. King writes that he is excited that the system is getting a new lobster emoji, showing that now the Unicode system is used for more frivolous reasons. He even signs using two emojis to form his name. There is a cattle breed called {{w|Angus cattle}}, so the cow emoji, 🐮, stands for "Angus", and the crown emoji, 👑, of course represents "King". Thus Angus King becomes 🐮👑. This is thus not part of the xkcd joke; it just uses the real tweet for comic relief. The tweet was released February 7th, only two days before this comic; the second comment on the tweet posted this comic and asked which came first, but of course the tweet did. A user comments that Senator King should see it as a badge of honor (🎖) to have his tweet included in an xkcd strip...

The title text imagines that Unicode will gain other unexpected roles in the next 30 years. In particular it acts as an armed force, capable of intervening in military disputes, such as an annexation of Maine by its neighbor, New Hampshire. The title text ends with three Unicode emoji: "🙏" code point 1F64F "PERSON WITH FOLDED HANDS", "🚁" code point 1F681 "HELICOPTER", and "🎖" code point 1F396 "MILITARY MEDAL", suggesting that they are thanking them for their effort in the war, sending helicopters and soldiers to aid them against New Hampshire.

==Transcript==
:[1988:]
:[A bearded man holds a document labeled "Unicode". Most likely he represents Joe Becker.]
:Bearded man: My "Unicode" standard should help reduce problems caused by incompatible binary text encodings.

:[2018:]
:[A tweet from Twitter is shown. To the left of Senator Angus King's name is his avatar (a face with a mustache) and to the right is the blue checkmark used by Twitter to signify a verified user.]
:Senator Angus King‏
:@SenAngusKing
:Great news for Maine - we're getting a lobster emoji!!! Thanks to @unicode for recognizing the impact of this critical crustacean, in Maine and across the country.
:Yours truly,
:Senator 🐮👑
:2/7/18 3:12 PM

:[Cueball and the bearded man (the latter now grey-haired) are looking at a wall with the Unicode standard, labeled "1988", and Senator King's tweet, labeled "2018", posted on it.]
:Cueball: What... what happened in those thirty years?
:Bearded man: ''Things got a little weird, okay?''

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Emoji]]
[[Category:Unicode]]

==Trivia==
*Initial version of the comic had "1998" in panel 3 instead of "1988" as shown in panel 1. This was fixed later.

*Ironically, [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1953:_The_History_of_Unicode&oldid=152168 the first version of this article] (automatically generated by a bot) had problems with emoji encoding.

*At one time the scenario in the title text wouldn't have been ''quite'' as far-fetched as it sounds. Maine and New Hampshire were for many years involved in border disputes, primarily over {{w|New Hampshire v. Maine|fishing rights}} and whether {{w|Seavey%27s Island|Seavey Island}}, located in the middle of the river that forms the border of the two states, was part of Maine or New Hampshire. The latter issue {{w|Piscataqua River border dispute|was not settled until 2002}}. Neither dispute ever quite rose to the level of a full-on shooting war but [http://nhpr.org/post/legacy-nh-maine-lobster-war-and-why-it-may-wage#stream/0 they got surprisingly close].

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1954: Impostor Syndrome

2018-02-12T15:17:38Z

108.162.219.100:

I mean, what's to explain here? Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect and then re-read the comic, if you didn't get it on the first try... I guess these two phenomenons also bar me from actually creating the wiki page :D [[Special:Contributions/172.68.215.103|172.68.215.103]] 14:30, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

One could easily assume that virtually everyone who edits this page would be suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect; after all, how many experts in psychological diagnosis could there be in this community. (UNLESS they're feeling too insecure about their accomplishments to muster the confidence needed to post their thoughts ...?)[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.100|108.162.219.100]] 15:17, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

1945: Scientific Paper Graph Quality

2018-01-23T16:52:50Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1945
| date = January 22, 2018
| title = Scientific Paper Graph Quality
| image = scientific_paper_graph_quality.png
| titletext = The worst are graphs with qualitative, vaguely-labeled axes and very little actual data.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created in PowerPoint. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Microsoft Paint}} was first introduced in 1985, and {{w|Microsoft PowerPoint}} debuted in 1990. As easy-to-use tools, these allowed for the easy creation of graphs by computer users. The comic implies that these are responsible for decreasing the overall quality of graphs, presumably by enabling a large number of inexperienced designers, and facilitating certain kinds of poor designs over those that are better for communicating scientific results.

{{w|Microsoft_PowerPoint#Use_it_less|Critics of PowerPoint}}, such as {{w|Edward_Tufte#Criticism_of_PowerPoint|Edward Tufte}}, have argued that the software is ill-suited for reporting scientific analyses. Many scientific journals nowadays explicitly forbid the use of PowerPoint in their [https://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/prep_revfigs.xhtml instructions for authors.]

The title text states that among the bad quality graphs, the ones "with qualitative, vaguely-labeled axes and very little actual data" are the worst. While this may indicate that the problem with PowerPoint era graphs is that they seem to focus on getting the point across (qualitative as in "you get the idea") over accuracy (little actual data), this is more than a little self-deprecating, as the comic itself features exactly that sort of lambasted graph. The axis labeled "good" and "bad" is entirely qualitative, the years axis manages to use numbers and still be vague by labeling the area between the ticks as decade eras instead of labeling the ticks, the definition of what constitutes the 'PowerPoint / MSPaint era' is entirely unclear, and it is doubtful that any actual data was used to make the graph - certainly there are no actual data points indicated. Its quality is doubtful, and it might represent more of an impression, or opinion, than an actual fact.

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

:'''General quality of charts and'''
:'''graphs in scientific papers'''

:[A graph is shown with the y-axis on the origo labeled "bad", on the arrowhead labeled "good", and the x-axis being a timeline labeled with decades from 1950s to 2010s.]

:[The pre-1993 and post-2015 parts are white, with increasing quality before 1990 and after 2015. The 1993-2015 part indicates bad quality and is highlighted in grey, labeled "PowerPoint/MSPaint era".]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Timelines]]

1938: Meltdown and Spectre

2018-01-08T21:41:35Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1938
| date = January 5, 2018
| title = Meltdown and Spectre
| image = meltdown_and_spectre.png
| titletext = New zero-day vulnerability: In addition to rowhammer, it turns out lots of servers are vulnerable to regular hammers, too.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Missing comment on Cueballs suggestion that he should install updates and Ponytail humoring him... else seems almost complete.}}
This comic was inspired by the {{w|Meltdown (security vulnerability)|Meltdown}} and {{w|Spectre (security vulnerability)|Spectre}} bugs in certain processors. These vulnerabilites were disclosed to the public the week of this comic. The bugs made big news because they broke the "walls" between programs executing concurrently on the same computer, in some circumstances allowing malware to steal secrets from normal, bug-free programs.

{{w|Speculative execution}} is a technique used to speed up computer processors. Processors {{w|Instruction pipelining|handle instructions in a series of steps}}, like an assembly line. The processor works on several successive instructions, each at a different stage in the assembly line. It may start speculatively executing instructions that follow a particular result of a decision before the logic that makes that decision is finished. Once the decision is made, it keeps results from the selected path, and discards unnecessary processing. This allows it to keep doing useful work while some slower decision is made.

In the comic [[Ponytail]] mentions the {{w|Trolley Problem}} to [[Cueball]] and then continues to use that and {{w|Tram|trolley (tram)|trolley}} tracks as an analogy for streams of instructions in a program.

The Trolley Problem has been mentioned before by [[Randall]]; see the end of this paragraph. It is a thought experiment where an out-of-control trolley is heading to a switch which you control. Leaving the switch as-is will cause it to kill multiple people (typically five) stuck on the tracks, but switching the track will cause it to kill only one person, who would not have died if the switch was left untouched; this creates the ethical dilemma of passively causing multiple deaths versus actively causing one. The Trolley Problem has gained significant memetic traction, helped in no small part by its frequent inclusion in “introduction to philosophy” type courses. Also, the problem has seen revitalized interest with the emergence of {{w|autonomous car}}s, which may be faced with what are essentially {{w|autonomous car#Moral issues|such choices}} in emergency situations. The Trolley problem was mentioned a month before this comic in the last ''milestone'' on this list in [[1925: Self-Driving Car Milestones]]; see more there regarding why this problem might have resurfaced in xkcd. Three year before that comic, a comic was even named after the problem: [[1455: Trolley Problem]].

The "quantum" aspect of this is that in some {{w|interpretations of quantum mechanics}}, quantum-level particles can be viewed as taking every possible path at once, with the result being the sum of all of them, a result popularized by the {{w|Copenhagen interpretation|common interpretation}} of {{w|Schrödinger's cat}}, where the cat is both dead and alive until some event results in one of the states being selected.

Meltdown and Spectre result from flawed implementations of speculative execution, where the effects of speculatively executed instructions are not completely discarded. The phantom trolley driving through walls is an analogy for the computer instructions being able to access protected areas. This may also be a reference to {{w|quantum tunnelling}}.

In many cases, contrary to what the comic implies, both paths are not taken simultaneously during speculative execution. A {{w|branch predictor}} may be used to select the most likely path, and the effects should be completely erased if the predicted path is incorrect. Both branch prediction and taking both paths (known as eager evaluation) are considered speculative execution and are affected by these bugs.

The {{w|Row Hammer}} problem had been known for many years before this cartoon. A {{w|Dynamic random-access memory|common form of computer memory}} is constructed from tiny capacitors organized in a two-dimensional grid of rows and columns. Capacitors store charge to represent information. By applying a pattern of memory access that rapidly changes a row of capacitors, you can cause charge to overflow to nearby rows and incorrectly change their states.

Ponytail mentions that we especially suck at building "shared computers" because Rowhammer, Spectre, and Meltdown all break down the security divisions built between programs and between users. A hacker running a separate program in a separate account shouldn't be able to access your secrets or change the behavior of your program, but these problems allow them to. This is particularly dangerous for time-sharing, servers, and {{w|Cloud computing|the cloud}}, where different programs, websites, or even companies can be sharing the same hardware.

Cueball took her explanation literally, and came to the conclusion that the cloud "is full of phantom trolleys armed with hammers". Instead of correcting him, Ponytail decides to accept his interpretation (perhaps because she found this idea to be kinda cool).

The title text humorously states that as well as row hammer, computer servers also can be harmed by regular hammers. A {{w|zero-day (computing)|zero-day}} vulnerability is an attack that takes advantage of a vulnerability that hasn't been published yet, and so is not patched in any vulnerable system. This would imply that the Rowhammer vulnerability is what inspired someone to try taking a hammer to a server. One might "patch" a server against this attack by plating it with stronger metal. (The fact that compromising IT systems is sometimes easier done physically than logically is also mentioned in [[538: Security]].)

Although this is clearly not part of the series [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]], it might be the same two characters, with Ponytail again displaying a much better understanding of computers than Cueball with his [[:Category:Cueball Computer Problems|Computer Problems]].

==Transcript==
:[Zoom out with Cueball and Ponytail walking to the right on the ground.]
:Cueball: The Meltdown and Spectre exploits use "speculative execution?" What's that?
:Ponytail: You know the trolley problem? Well, for a while now, CPUs have basically been sending trolleys down '''''both''''' paths, quantum-style, while awaiting your choice. Then the unneeded "phantom" trolley disappears.

:[Zoom in on only Ponytail who has turned towards Cueball off-panel left.]
:Ponytail: The phantom trolley isn't supposed to touch anyone. But it turns out you can still use it to do stuff.
:Ponytail: And it can drive through walls.

:[Cueball and Ponytail, lifting both her palms up, are standing, facing each other.]
:Cueball: That sounds bad.
:Ponytail: Honestly, I've been assuming we were doomed ever since I learned about Rowhammer.

:[In a frame-less panel they continue talking, both with their arms down.]
:Cueball: What's ''that''?
:Ponytail: If you toggle a row of memory cells on and off really fast, you can use electrical interference to flip nearby bits and—
:Cueball: Do we just suck at...computers?
:Ponytail: Yup. Especially shared ones.

:[Zoom out again as they resume walking to the right on the ground. Cueball is lifting his smartphone up and looks at the screen.]
:Cueball: So you're saying the cloud is full of phantom trolleys armed with hammers.
:Ponytail: ...Yes, that is exactly right.
:Cueball: Okay. I'll, uh... install updates?
:Ponytail: Good idea.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Programming]]

1920: Emoji Sports

2018-01-02T17:22:27Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1920
| date = November 24, 2017
| title = Emoji Sports
| image = emoji_sports.png
| titletext = No horse has yet managed the elusive Quadruple Crown—winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, and the Missouri Horse Hole.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic, as the heading indicates, arbitrarily selects emoji and uses them to make up very bizarre sports. Although some of these might be completely normal, most of them take things to a completely absurd level.

The title text is a reference to the triple crown, which is an highly prestigious award given to a three-year-old thoroughbred horse who wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, the first three of the four listed events. The joke is that if Horse Hole was a real sport, then one who won a major competition for it, the Missouri Horse Hole, in addition to the three main horse racing events, would win a “Quadruple Crown".
{| class="wikitable"
!scope="col" style="width: 100px;" |Emoji
!scope="col" style="width: 150px;" |Sport
!scope="col" |Description
|-
|🤽‍♂️🌋
|Lavaball
|Sets the sport of water polo around or inside an active volcano. If the water is simply replaced with lava, the players would asphyxiate from the toxic fumes long before they burned to death in the molten rock. If a typical pool of water is involved, the introduction of lava would cause rapid evaporation and the release of {{w|Chlorine#Use_as_a_weapon|chlorine gas}}, which is destructive to living tissue. In any case, this game is not a good time.{{Citation needed}}
|-ly o
|🤾‍♀️🤺
|Bladeball
|Using a fencing foil to hit a ball would not only be inefficient, but would easily lead to the destruction of the ball instead.
|-
|💃💃⚽
|Fancyball
|Soccer played in high heels and dresses would be a problem for both kicking and running, with the grassy terrain exacerbating these issues, and these would lead to frequent injury.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|🕳️🏇🏇🏇
|Horse hole
| Jockeys ride their horses into a large pit. Needless to say, such a sport would constitute blatant animal abuse; the ensuing fall would seriously injure competing equines (as well as their jockeys if they don't bail out beforehand). If the horse's self-preservation instinct kicks in before reaching the edge, the jockey will likely be severely injured in the process, an outcome which would likely garner a lot less pity. Both this segment and the title text may relate to Episode 354 of My Brother My Brother And Me, "Beanfreak", where a potential punishment for losing horses in a race is described as a trapdoor leading to a "pony pile" beneath the track. (Many of the podcast's episodes deal with horse racing and horse behavior, including some impassioned conversations on the performance of specific horses and the unregulated nature of the widely recognized Triple Crown achievement.)
|-
|🔪🏀⛏️
|Basketball shredding
|The apparent point of this sport is to compete to destroy basketballs as quickly and/or as thoroughly as possible. There is some transgressive appeal in mistreating sports equipment, but hardly enough to keep a captive audience.
|-
|🥚🔭🕵️‍♀️
|Eggspotting
|This could be a combination of {{w|Egg_hunt|egg hunting}} and {{w|birdwatching}}. The emojis imply that said eggs would have to be found alone in nature, as if they were wild animals. Though it might be spotting of eggs of the wild animals in their nests.
|-
|⛷️🐊
|Alligator jumping
|An unusual combination of attributes, and to get the alligators to adapt to a cold environment might be a challenge. The emoji is actually a crocodile.
|-
|👩🎣🧜‍♂️
|Merfishing
|Unless humans volunteer to get in costume, this sport is unlikely to have any successes, due to the nonexistence of {{w|Mermaid|mermaids}}.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|👨🏸🧚🏸👩
|Tinkerball
|Playing badminton with a fairy, named after [[wikipedia:Tinker Bell|Tinker Bell]]. Likely to injure the fairy.
|-
|🥌🦔🥌
|Hedgehog curling
|Hedgehogs are not ideal projectiles for sports, as {{w|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland}} has already demonstrated, and such an idea would likely be considered animal abuse on top of the impracticality. Nonetheless, hedgehogs are inherently good at curling (if not necessarily on ice).
|-
|🗜️🍔
|Burger clamping
|Perhaps a challenge to fit a tall burger into a bite-sized height, though said clamp is more likely to pierce the burger than to flatten it.
|-
|👩‍🚀🏹🛰️
|Consequence archery
|Archery on a space station could cause damage to its structure leading to the potentially explosive decompression of the space station, and necessitate the evacuation of the astronauts aboard. If played outside, stray arrows could still cause disaster by setting space debris into motion or by hitting space vessels or equipment. Another dangerous consequence of shooting an arrow while floating in space without a jetpack would be that the shot propels the astronaut in the opposite direction of the arrow, setting him or her off to drift away helplessly into space.
|-
|🦉➡️📬
|Owlstuffing
|This appears to consist of attempting to stuff owls into mailboxes, which would be doubly illegal, because it would be cruel to the owls and interfere with delivery of the mail. The mailbox is shown with the flag up, which normally indicates that there is mail in it, but it appears to be empty, perhaps so that the owl can be stuffed in it. Possibly a reference to owls carrying mail in the Harry Potter series.
|-
|🍴🕯️🍴
|Candle eating
|An even more unhealthy form of {{w|competitive eating}}. Eating large amounts of candle wax can cause {{w|Bowel_obstruction|intestinal obstruction}}.
|-
|⛳💣🏌️‍♀️
|Consequence golf
|The "consequence" of this game is simple: the bomb's eventual explosion necessitates efficient playing. Golfing with a bomb would likely significantly reduce the par on each hole, depending on the length of the fuse, and due to the threat of explosion, par likely would not be able to be exceeded unless the unskilled golfer is also very fast. There would be definite damage to the course and golfers unless the holes extinguished the bombs of golfers who succeeded in time. The balance and rolling of the balls would also be impeded by the fuses and caps.
|-
|👉🐍👈
|Snake shaming
|Probably a play on snake charming. Also a possible reference to the biblical story where the snake is shamed for deceiving mankind by being doomed to crawl on its belly.
|-
|🔥🧗‍♀️🔥
|Hell escape
|Trying to escape the {{w|lake of fire}} is the pastime of damned souls, but perhaps living people are instead sent there and have to return home.
|-
|🎮🥑🎮
|Multiplayer avocado
|Unless a game based on avocados is the subject, there is, to say the least, a hardware compatibility issue here. Very different from the adult version, multiplayer eggplant (🎮🍆🎮; see [[1870: Emoji Movie Reviews]]).
|}

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

:<big>New sports</big>
:created from random emoji

:[Man Playing Water Polo + Volcano]
:🤽‍♂️🌋 Lavaball

:[Woman Playing Handball + Person Fencing]
:🤾‍♀️🤺 Bladeball

:[Woman Dancing (2 emojis) + Soccer Ball]
:💃💃⚽ Fancyball

:[Hole + Horse Racing (3 emojis)]
:🕳️🏇🏇🏇 Horse hole

:[Kitchen Knife + Basketball + Pick]
:🔪🏀⛏️ Basketball shredding

:[Egg + Telescope + Woman Detective]
:🥚🔭🕵️‍♀️ Eggspotting

:[Skier + Crocodile]
:⛷️🐊 Alligator jumping

:[Woman + Fishing Pole + Merman]
:👩🎣🧜‍♂️ Merfishing

:[Man + Badminton + Fairy + Badminton + Woman]
:👨🏸🧚🏸👩 Tinkerball

:[Curling Stone + Hedgehog + Curling Stone]
:🥌🦔🥌 Hedgehog curling

:[Clamp + Hamburger]
:🗜️🍔 Burger clamping

:[Woman Astronaut + Bow and Arrow + Satellite]
:👩‍🚀🏹🛰️ Consequence archery

:[Owl + Right Arrow + Open Mailbox]
:🦉➡️📬 Owlstuffing

:[Fork and Knife + Candle + Fork and Knife]
:🍴🕯️🍴 Candle eating

:[Flag in Hole + Bomb + Woman Golfing]
:⛳💣🏌️‍♀️ Consequence golf

:[Pointing Right + Snake + Pointing Left]
:👉🐍👈 Snake shaming

:[Fire + Woman Climbing + Fire]
:🔥🧗‍♀️🔥 Hell escape

:[Video Game + Avocado + Video Game]
:🎮🥑🎮 Multiplayer avocado

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

1927: Tinder

2018-01-02T17:10:44Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1927
| date = December 11, 2017
| title = Tinder
| image = tinder.png
| titletext = People keep telling me to use the radio but I really hate making voice calls.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Swiped right by a FAKE PROFILE. Explanation is basically a plane wreck of conflicting interpretations right now, and needs to be reworked. Don't delete this tag until the issue is resolved.}}

{{w|Tinder (app)|Tinder}} is a social media/dating app. The main interface of Tinder shows photos of people using the app. Users swipe right for matches that they like, and left otherwise. The purpose of the app is to get dates, with the intent of a romantic relationship or sexual intercourse. However, in the comic, [[Cueball]] is trying to use it to request assistance flying a plane instead. If the request is genuine, this is a bad situation, because it suggests Cueball is in charge of a plane he is unable to fly, and unless he finds a match with someone who can, and is able to provide assistance, the plane will crash. Even then, unless the matched person happens to be on board, and therefore able to assist directly, providing help through Tinder messages is unlikely to be a sufficiently efficient way of solving the problem.

Alternatively, Cueball may be simply be pretending that there is an emergency so that he can get matches on Tinder. In either case, depending on the jurisdiction, Cueball may be violating the law by using a cell phone that is not in "airplane mode" (in some phones, flight mode or offline mode) when on an airplane. WiFi can be enabled on some flights during the entire flight; in others it may be banned during takeoff and landing. Even if he is either uploading the picture after the flight or using the in-flight internet service, he is still violating other, more serious laws (if he is a pilot, he may be liable for negligence, and if he is an ordinary passenger, God knows what he may have done...)

The title text explains that Cueball's unwise method for getting help stems from astonishingly skewed priorities and no small amount of selfishness. He claims to strongly dislike conversing over audio-only channels, and this dislike is apparently so overwhelming that he would rather jeopardize his life and that of any passengers on the plane, than put aside his own hang-ups. Even if we give Cueball the benefit of the doubt and assume that he has a phobia of public speaking, most human beings tend to automatically suspend their irrational anxieties when experiencing the fear of imminent mortal peril, at least until after the danger has passed.{{Citation needed}} For example, those normally afraid of dating Cueball would "match" with him to prevent a plane crash, which may be his secret intent after all.

Randall may be satirizing people who use Tinder (and other similar social apps) by portraying an extreme caricature of a Tinder user.

This comic is similar to [[1897: Self Driving]], and as well as [[582: Brakes]], which also is about bad ways to get help in emergencies and other time-critical situations.

Note that the photo is at an angle but the view out the window shows the airplane to be in level flight. This could be due to haste taking the picture, or a feigned haste in taking the picture, or could suggest that the photo is making the situation seem worse than it is for whatever reason.

==Transcript==

:[A Smartphone is shown with the screen facing the viewer. On the screen is the Tinder UI. The main photo is of Cueball, in the cockpit of a plane which appears to be tilting to the right, holding up a makeshift sign saying:]
:If you know how
:to fly a plane
:please swipe
:right ASAP

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:1927: Tinder

2018-01-02T17:08:41Z

108.162.219.100:

This comic reminds me of [http://xkcd.com/582] (because of using an inappropriate form of communication in an emergency).

"Cueball is violating the law by using a cell phone that is not in "airplane mode" when on an airplane.", really? I don't think it's an actual "law" since the entire concept is based on garbage and bullshit (you'd have to be in the cockpit AND within about 2 feet of the equipment in question in order to interfere with it. For both airplanes and hospitals the rule is actually just to try to bully people into being considerate to the people around them). I believe it's just a rule set by the FAA or some other governing body. Also, I believe said rule is limited to during take off and landing, not the entire flight. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:31, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

*I also wondered about "Cueball is violating the law by using a cell phone that is not in "airplane mode" when on an airplane.", but for a different reason: How do we now that the phone is not in airplane mode, but which activated wifi? As some airlines (at least in Europe) offer wifi on board, it would be quite common (and allowed) to be able to use online services on a phone while flying (but not other wireless signals, e.g. phone calls). [[User:Scm|Scm]] ([[User talk:Scm|talk]]) 09:00, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

:: Actually, you're correct (at least in the US). However, some countries has actual laws that either explicitly do not allow phone usage on a plane (e.g. Japan) or do not allow it implicitly (In Russia, using licensed radio frequencies above a certain height is not allowed unless the regulator allows that use) - [[Special:Contributions/172.68.144.169|172.68.144.169]] 10:29, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

::: I understand the reason for turning off cellular connections is not for the safety of the aircraft but the safety of the cellular network. Having phones hopping between cells at 400 mph is out of spec for the technology and causes problems. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.143|141.101.104.143]] 17:59, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

:::: There are more legitimate (at least in the eyes of the government, for example Russia fears spys using weather baloons and radio to signal something) reasons than that it will interfere with the plane (unless that plane is seriously broken) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.40|162.158.165.40]] 23:23, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

::Actually, as far as I know, the point of Airplane Mode is to cut off ALL communication, including Wifi. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 02:51, 14 December 2017 (UTC)

:To suggest that there is a meaningful difference (in this context) between a rule and a law is silly; the FAA can (and has) fined individuals for using cell phones *during takeoff*. Does it matter if the fine was for breaking a rule or for breaking a law?
:: Can't get arrested for breaking a rule. :) But mostly just talking about being accurate here. Dramatic exaggerations bug me. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 02:51, 14 December 2017 (UTC)
::: Actually, in the US or on a US carrier you can get arrested for not doing pretty much whatever the flight attendant tells you (sit down, disembark, etc.). Per the FAA, this is called "interfering with the duties of a crewmember" and violates federal law. Federal Aviation Regulations 91.11, 121.580 and 135.120 state that "no person may assault, threaten, intimidate, or interfere with a crewmember in the performance of the crewmember's duties aboard an aircraft being operated." So yeah, you can be arrested for violating a regulation, or "rule". And basically in general, you can certainly be jailed for violating a regulation. And not just in the US: a coach passenger on the Niki airline that just declared bankruptcy today was arrested for using the first class restroom.

:More importantly, in the scenario shown Cueball has somehow found himself in the role of PIC (pilot in command) and in an emergency situation. Assuming he declares the emergency he can freely violate any and all FAA rules that he believes will help in resolving the emergency (that's the FAA's rule).

* I think it's absolutely charming that you believe that a law can't be "based on garbage and bullshit". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.100|108.162.219.100]] 17:08, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm not sure that the interpretation that he may be making up the emergency to gain matches really makes sense, given the title text - since the radio wouldn't really help him in that case.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 17:19, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

So, does anyone know what is the minimum size of a plane to have that style of cockpit? [[User:Jcc10|Jcc10]] ([[User talk:Jcc10|talk]]) 01:23, 13 December 2017 (UTC)
----
:"In either case, Cueball is violating the law by using a cell phone that is not in "airplane mode" (in some phones, flight mode or offline mode) when on an airplane."
Or maybe he's not actually ''on'' a plane, but simply wants to hook up with someone who's interested enough in planes to know how to fly one.
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 01:16, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

Why is the explanation talking about passengers? It's possible this is small airplane and Cueball is only person on board (after the pilot decided to rather parachute out than answer yet another Cueball's question, for example.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:18, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

:Possible, though who took the picture? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.118|108.162.216.118]] 15:41, 13 December 2017 (UTC) Kyle
::{{w|Self timer}}? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:34, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

1935: 2018

2018-01-02T16:46:42Z

108.162.219.100: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 1935
| date = December 29, 2017
| title = 2018
| image = 2018.png
| titletext = We should really start calculating it earlier, but until the end of December we're always too busy trying to figure out which day Christmas will fall on.
}}

==Explanation==
In this, the first of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] in a row, [[Megan]] wonders whether 2018 will be a {{w|Leap year|leap year}}. [[Cueball]] thinks 2018 will not be a leap year, and Megan responds that she "doubts anyone knows at this point." This appears to be a jab at people who suggest that anything they don't know is generally unknown. As Cueball says, leap years occur every four years (though there are a few exceptions), adding an extra day to account for the fact that Earth takes a bit longer than 365 days to orbit the Sun. Therefore, most years that are a multiple of four are leap years. As Megan says, this is easy for odd-numbered years, since no odd numbers are divisible by four. However, for even-numbered years, it isn't always obvious.

The last panel expresses a misunderstanding of modern public-key {{w|Cryptography|cryptography}}, which relies on the fact that it is difficult to factorize large numbers. Megan is applying this concept to the year, claiming that it is hard to determine whether or not 2018 is a multiple of four and hence is a leap year. In reality, factorization is not needed here, since we already know the factor, which is four. Megan states that if it were possible to factor large numbers with a calculator, modern cryptography would collapse. While true, it is only true for truly large numbers (hundreds of digits), and no factorization is needed in this case.

At the end of the strip, Megan hopes the answer can be {{w|Brute-force attack|brute-forced}} by February. Brute force is a method of breaking cryptography by trying every possible option until one works. This is a misdirection upon misdirection, in that even if we needed to factorize 2018 (which we don't), the simplest brute forcing algorithm would only need to try 14 numbers - each prime from 2 to 43 (the square root of 2018 is closest to 44). In cryptography, the algorithms use numbers much, much bigger than 2018 -- on the order of hundreds (or even thousands) of digits.

The title text refers to calculating which day {{w|Christmas}} will fall on. Given that it always falls on December 25th (in western countries), there is nothing to calculate. They could mean which day of the week, so it's either the 359th or the 360th (in leap years) day of the year and the day of the week will differ from year to year. Alternatively, this may be a reference to Easter, whose date jumps from year to year according to a complicated algorithm that most people don't know. The changing date of Easter was recently included in [[1930: Calendar Facts]].

==Transcript==

:[Megan is walking.]
:Megan: I wonder if 2018 will be a leap year.

:[Now it turns out that Cueball walks behind Megan.]
:Cueball: ...it won't be, right?
:Megan: I doubt anyone knows at this point.

:[Same scene in a frame-less panel.]
:Cueball: No, it's definitely not. Leap years are divisible by 4.
:Megan: Right, and for odd numbers, that's easy.
:Megan: But 2018 is even.
:Megan: 50/50 chance.

:[Zoomed-out view with both walking in silhouette on a dark slightly curved ground.]
:Cueball: I can settle this with a calculator.
:Megan: No way. If it were easy to factor large numbers like that, modern cryptography would collapse.
:Cueball: I see.
:Megan: I just hope we manage to brute-force it by February.

==Trivia==
*Released on Friday, December 29, this was the last comic of 2017. The next comic, [[1936: Desert Golfing]], was released soon after midnight (in Randall's time zone) on New Year's Day 2018.

*Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 were.

*Since 100 is divisible by 4, only the last two digits of a number are needed to determine if that number is divisible by 4. So to determine if 2018 is divisible by 4, we only need to check whether 18 is divisible by 4, which is easy.

*2018 is not divisible by 4, so the year is not a leap year. 2016 and 2020 are leap years. This is true for both the Gregorian and the Julian calendar. A year is roughly 365.2422 days long.

*{{w|Eastern Christian Churches}} celebrate Christmas also on December 25 but on the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 on the Gregorian calendar.

*This is the third year in a row with New Year's comics with only the year used as the title; before that there were two more comics with such titles, but those two (and thus the first three) were only released in the even years: [[998: 2012]] in 2012, [[1311: 2014]] in 2014, [[1624: 2016]] in 2016 and [[1779: 2017]] in 2017.

* XKCD comic number 2018 will occur sometime in 2018.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|2017]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]

1935: 2018

2018-01-02T16:44:26Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1935
| date = December 29, 2017
| title = 2018
| image = 2018.png
| titletext = We should really start calculating it earlier, but until the end of December we're always too busy trying to figure out which day Christmas will fall on.
}}

==Explanation==
In this, the first of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] in a row, [[Megan]] wonders whether 2018 will be a {{w|Leap year|leap year}}. [[Cueball]] thinks 2018 will not be a leap year, and Megan responds that she "doubts anyone knows at this point." This appears to be a jab at people who suggest that anything they don't know is generally unknown. As Cueball says, leap years occur every four years (though there are a few exceptions), adding an extra day to account for the fact that Earth takes a bit longer than 365 days to orbit the Sun. Therefore, most years that are a multiple of four are leap years. As Megan says, this is easy for odd-numbered years, since no odd numbers are divisible by four. However, for even-numbered years, it isn't always obvious.

The last panel expresses a misunderstanding of modern public-key {{w|Cryptography|cryptography}}, which relies on the fact that it is difficult to factorize large numbers. Megan is applying this concept to the year, claiming that it is hard to determine whether or not 2018 is a multiple of four and hence is a leap year. In reality, factorization is not needed here, since we already know the factor, which is four. Megan states that if it were possible to factor large numbers with a calculator, modern cryptography would collapse. While true, it is only true for truly large numbers (hundreds of digits), and no factorization is needed in this case.

At the end of the strip, Megan hopes the answer can be {{w|Brute-force attack|brute-forced}} by February. Brute force is a method of breaking cryptography by trying every possible option until one works. This is a misdirection upon misdirection, in that even if we needed to factorize 2018 (which we don't), the simplest brute forcing algorithm would only need to try 14 numbers - each prime from 2 to 43 (the square root of 2018 is closest to 44). In cryptography, the algorithms use numbers much, much bigger than 2018 -- on the order of hundreds (or even thousands) of digits.

The title text refers to calculating which day {{w|Christmas}} will fall on. Given that it always falls on December 25th (in western countries), there is nothing to calculate. They could mean which day of the week, so it's either the 359th or the 360th (in leap years) day of the year and the day of the week will differ from year to year. Alternatively, this may be a reference to Easter, whose date jumps from year to year according to a complicated algorithm that most people don't know. The changing date of Easter was recently included in [[1930: Calendar Facts]].

==Transcript==

:[Megan is walking.]
:Megan: I wonder if 2018 will be a leap year.

:[Now it turns out that Cueball walks behind Megan.]
:Cueball: ...it won't be, right?
:Megan: I doubt anyone knows at this point.

:[Same scene in a frame-less panel.]
:Cueball: No, it's definitely not. Leap years are divisible by 4.
:Megan: Right, and for odd numbers, that's easy.
:Megan: But 2018 is even.
:Megan: 50/50 chance.

:[Zoomed-out view with both walking in silhouette on a dark slightly curved ground.]
:Cueball: I can settle this with a calculator.
:Megan: No way. If it were easy to factor large numbers like that, modern cryptography would collapse.
:Cueball: I see.
:Megan: I just hope we manage to brute-force it by February.

==Trivia==
*Released on Friday, December 29, this was the last comic of 2017. The next comic, [[1936: Desert Golfing]], was released soon after midnight (in Randall's time zone) on New Year's Day 2018.

*Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 were.

*Since 100 is divisible by 4, only the last two digits of a number are needed to determine if that number is divisible by 4. So to determine if 2018 is divisible by 4, we only need to check whether 18 is divisible by 4, which is easy.

*2018 is not divisible by 4, so the year is not a leap year. 2016 and 2020 are leap years. Assuming your calendar is Gregorian! A year is roughly 365.2422 days long. (Actually, also the case if it is 2018 on the old Julian calendar. The century year rules for leap years are different on the Gregorian calendar from the Julian, but the non-century year rules are the same).

*{{w|Eastern Christian Churches}} celebrate Christmas also on December 25 but of the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar.

*This is the third year in a row with New Year's comics with only the year used as the title, before that there were two more comics with such titles, but those two (and thus the first three) were only released in the even years: [[998: 2012]] in 2012, [[1311: 2014]] in 2014, [[1624: 2016]] in 2016 and [[1779: 2017]] in 2017.

* XKCD comic number 2018 will occur sometime in 2018.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|2017]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]

1935: 2018

2018-01-02T16:41:00Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1935
| date = December 29, 2017
| title = 2018
| image = 2018.png
| titletext = We should really start calculating it earlier, but until the end of December we're always too busy trying to figure out which day Christmas will fall on.
}}

==Explanation==
In this, the first of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] in a row, [[Megan]] wonders whether 2018 will be a {{w|Leap year|leap year}}. [[Cueball]] thinks 2018 will not be a leap year, and Megan responds that she "doubts anyone knows at this point." This appears to be a jab at people who suggest that anything they don't know is generally unknown. As Cueball says, leap years occur every four years (though there are a few exceptions), adding an extra day to account for the fact that Earth takes a bit longer than 365 days to orbit the Sun. Therefore, most years that are a multiple of four are leap years. As Megan says, this is easy for odd-numbered years, since no odd numbers are divisible by four. However, for even-numbered years, it isn't always obvious.

The last panel expresses a misunderstanding of modern public-key {{w|Cryptography|cryptography}}, which relies on the fact that it is difficult to factorize large numbers. Megan is applying this concept to the year, claiming that it is hard to determine whether or not 2018 is a multiple of four and hence is a leap year. In reality, factorization is not needed here, since we already know the factor, which is four. Megan states that if it were possible to factor large numbers with a calculator, modern cryptography would collapse. While true, it is only true for truly large numbers (hundreds of digits), and no factorization is needed in this case.

At the end of the strip, Megan hopes the answer can be {{w|Brute-force attack|brute-forced}} by February. Brute force is a method of breaking cryptography by trying every possible option until one works. This is a misdirection upon misdirection, in that even if we needed to factorize 2018 (which we don't), the simplest brute forcing algorithm would only need to try 14 numbers - each prime from 2 to 43 (the square root of 2018 is closest to 44). In cryptography, the algorithms use numbers much, much bigger than 2018 -- on the order of hundreds (or even thousands) of digits.

The title text refers to calculating which day {{w|Christmas}} will fall on. Given that it always falls on December 24/25th (in western countries), there is nothing to calculate. They could mean which day of the week, so it's either the 359th or the 360th (leap years) day of the year and the day of the week may differ. This is a reference to Easter whose date jumps from year to year according to a complicated algorithm that most people don't know. The changing date of Easter was recently included in [[1930: Calendar Facts]].

==Transcript==

:[Megan is walking.]
:Megan: I wonder if 2018 will be a leap year.

:[Now it turns out that Cueball walks behind Megan.]
:Cueball: ...it won't be, right?
:Megan: I doubt anyone knows at this point.

:[Same scene in a frame-less panel.]
:Cueball: No, it's definitely not. Leap years are divisible by 4.
:Megan: Right, and for odd numbers, that's easy.
:Megan: But 2018 is even.
:Megan: 50/50 chance.

:[Zoomed-out view with both walking in silhouette on a dark slightly curved ground.]
:Cueball: I can settle this with a calculator.
:Megan: No way. If it were easy to factor large numbers like that, modern cryptography would collapse.
:Cueball: I see.
:Megan: I just hope we manage to brute-force it by February.

==Trivia==
*Released on Friday, December 29, this was the last comic of 2017. The next comic, [[1936: Desert Golfing]], was released soon after midnight (in Randall's time zone) on New Year's Day 2018.

*Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 were.

*Since 100 is divisible by 4, only the last two digits of a number are needed to determine if that number is divisible by 4. So to determine if 2018 is divisible by 4, we only need to check whether 18 is divisible by 4, which is easy.

*2018 is not divisible by 4, so the year is not a leap year. 2016 and 2020 are leap years. Assuming your calendar is Gregorian! A year is roughly 365.2422 days long. (Actually, also the case if it is 2018 on the old Julian calendar. The century year rules for leap years are different on the Gregorian calendar from the Julian, but the non-century year rules are the same).

*{{w|Eastern Christian Churches}} celebrate Christmas also on December 25 but of the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar.

*This is the third year in a row with New Year's comics with only the year used as the title, before that there were two more comics with such titles, but those two (and thus the first three) were only released in the even years: [[998: 2012]] in 2012, [[1311: 2014]] in 2014, [[1624: 2016]] in 2016 and [[1779: 2017]] in 2017.

* XKCD comic number 2018 will occur sometime in 2018.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|2017]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]

1880: Eclipse Review

2017-08-23T14:20:08Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1880
| date = August 23, 2017
| title = Eclipse Review
| image = eclipse_review.png
| titletext = I watched from a beautiful nature reserve in central Missouri, and it was--without exaggeration--the coolest thing I've ever seen.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft - Additions to this would be useful, alter this tag if you alter the explanation}}

This comic is the fifth consecutive comic with a {{w|solar eclipse}} as the topic. On {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}}, a total solar eclipse was visible within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]]. [[1877: Eclipse Science]], [[1878: Earth Orbital Diagram]] and [[1879: Eclipse Birds]].

The comic is another comparison graph, like [[1775: Things You Learn]] or [[1701: Speed and Danger]]. It contrasts how cool something ''sounds'' and how cool it actually ''is''. It has five points on it, Planetary Conjunction, Supermoon, Lunar Eclipse, Partial Solar Eclipse, and Total Solar Eclipse.

While the four other thing than total solar eclipse are relatively close to each other on the "how cool to see" scale, the graph is not even high enough to plot the total solar eclipse point as indicated by the dotted arrow showing that this point should be way higher up. This is as opposed to leaving the point out, as Randall did with the coconut in [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]], where it is only mentioned in the title text. This could be an indication that if the scale had been high enough to fit the total solar eclipse point, then the rest of the points would be on the x-axis without any indication of which would be cooler.

The name is the coolest of the five, but by no means as much cooler as it is to see it in person. Guess Randall tries to make those who missed it this time, try to go in seven years when another total solar eclipse is visible in the USA.

;Planetary Conjunction
In a {{w|Conjunction (astronomy)|planetary conjunction}} two or more planets are visible in night sky nearby. This happens relatively {{w|List_of_conjunctions_(astronomy)|often}} because all planets roughly lie in the same plane around the sun (the {{w|ecliptic}}).

;Supermoon
A {{w|Supermoon|supermoon}} is a full moon or a new moon that approximately coincides with the closest distance of the Moon on in its elliptic orbit around the Earth. This results in a larger-than-usual apparent size of the lunar disk, but a typical human doesn't recognize the difference. Nevertheless in the last years the press always announces this as an important astronomical event. The opposite is called micromoon.

;Lunar Eclipse
A {{w|Lunar eclipse|lunar eclipse}} can occur at full moon and happens only, like at a solar eclipse, when the Moon is in the region where the orbital planes of the Moon and the Earth intersect. The Earth's shadow falls on the Moon and it appears in dark red because some light still reaches the Moon through the outer layers of the Earth's atmosphere. Lunar eclipses occur more often than solar eclipses and they can be viewed by much more people at the same time in the night sky. Only people on the day-side can't see it.

;Partial Solar Eclipse
There are three types of {{w|Solar_eclipse#Types|partial solar eclipses}}. An ''annular eclipse'' occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line with the Earth but the Moon is to far away and can not block the entire Sun. The Sun appears as a very bright ring, also called annulus. A ''partial eclipse'' occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line to the observer on Earth and thus the Sun can't be fully blocked by the Moon. A ''hybrid eclipse'' is a total and annular eclipse at the same time. At some locations on Earth it appears as a total eclipse, while at other locations it appears as annular. These ''mixed'' eclipses are comparatively rare.

;Total Solar Eclipse
The {{w|Solar_eclipse#Types|total solar eclipse}} is the topic of this and the four preceding comics. It can occur at new moon and happens only when Sun and Moon are exactly in line with the Earth. But unlike to the lunar eclipse only a small part of the Earth is in the totality zone, a disc with a diameter of approx. 100 km. The disc moves very fast over the Earth's surface and at a specific location it lasts only a few minutes in maximum. At locations outside of this ''shadow-disc'', in a region over a few thousand kilometers, the eclipse is partial.

In the title text, [[Randall]] remarks that, without any exaggeration or hyperbole, the total solar eclipse was the coolest thing he has ever seen in his life.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Literally nothing here}}

[A scatterplot, with 5 labeled dots and two labeled axes. Below are the names of the labels, first for the axes and then for the dots.]

X-axis: How cool it sounds like it would be

Y-axis: How cool it is to see in person

[Bottom left]: Planetary conjunction

[Bottom middle]: Supermoon

[Low left-center]: Lunar eclipse

[Low-center middle]: Partial solar eclipse

[Upper right, with a dotted arrow above it pointing up]: '''Total solar eclipse'''
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1774: Adjective Foods

2016-12-21T11:39:02Z

108.162.219.100:

Nobody has edited since I started this? Wow. I must have been ''early''. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 15:23, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:Nice to see somebody helping out! Thanks! [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 15:41, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

This looks just like all the food in my supermarket. I'm not even sure if I'm buying food or the best adjectives sometimes XD [[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 15:59, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The can of Lite is a real thing, of course, and trademarked, which is why other beers can call themselves "light" but not "Lite". [https://www.beeradvocate.com/mag/2627/lite-beer-vs-light-beer/ This article has more on that.] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.4|162.158.75.4]] 16:05, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Italics is totally fine, and Glazed and Lite ''are'' in white. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:13, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:First off, I would like to apologize, my reason for changing the text to normal could be seen as inflammatory, and that was not my intention. As for my actual reason, it's that while you may be able to read it fine, many people can't read text like that. In the comic, it's large and capital letters, but the wiki has small text. Adding all that guff makes it hard to read. For example, my mom has awful eyes, and text like that would be virtually unreadable to her. It was not for my sake, but rather for the sake of others. [[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 16:18, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
::It's not hard to increase the font size on a computer -- just ctrl and + (or ctrl and =). ctrl and - to turn it back down. The transcript is mainly there for search engines anyway, I imagine; after all, the comic is directly above it on the same page.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.178|108.162.237.178]] 17:29, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:::it isn't hard to increase font size, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how busy the text is. There is no reason for it to have that much. It distracts from the real purpose and decreases readability. Also, they want it edited as well. Note the box above the transcript about format. This is not about you. It needs to change for other people who cannot read this stuff as well. What makes you think everyone knows how to increase font size? I honestly didn't until now. You need to do something about it, I'll do it for you, which you may not like.[[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 17:48, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Is "artisenal" even a word? Is that a purposeful misspelling of "artisanal"? (Like "lite" is a purposeful misspelling of "light".) [[User:Imperpay|Imperpay]] ([[User talk:Imperpay|talk]]) 16:42, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The "artisenal" error has now been fixed in the updated comic. [http://xkcd.com/1774/]. --[[User:Esterhazy|Esterhazy]] ([[User talk:Esterhazy|talk]]) 17:42, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The 'p' by a "kosher mark" indicates that it is kosher for Passover. It will say 'pareve' outright if the food is pareve. --Hamotron[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.28|172.68.54.28]] 18:24, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Who cares what foods ''might'' be in each of the packages? It has nothing to do with the comic and are generally speculation anyway. I'd disagree with most of what's written, but it doesn't matter. I would argue for removing the entire table/section. [[User:SeanAhern|SeanAhern]] ([[User talk:SeanAhern|talk]]) 18:58, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:I'd generally agree. If we are to list them, the 'sack' should probably designate it as 'Flour or meal,' as cereals are sometimes steel-cut, but not usually stone-ground, and stone-ground wheat is flour. Also, while there are lots of kosher foods here, I've never seen kosher eggs. Rule seems to be it must come from a live kosher chicken, but I think all chickens are kosher while they are alive, & 'kosher chicken' refers to the manner of their slaughter. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 23:07, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:I don't think you are meant to be able to tell what is in the package as some of it makes no sense. Why would "cage free" be applied to flour or wheat? That is typically applied to chickens and their eggs to indicate the chicken/hen isn't trapped in a cage. But I have never heard of someone grinding a chicken. The only thing I can think of all those adjectives actually referring to would be ground up chicken such as for fertilisers. I think it is just a collection of adjectives which make no sense.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.160|108.162.249.160]] 00:00, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
Hear, hear; in fact I think the explanation should note that part of the joke is that no product could be described as cage free and stone-ground. similarly, fire-roasted and flambé are inconsistent. Also, smoked, sun-dried, and barrel-aged are very nearly mutually inconsistent. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.29|162.158.79.29]] 01:41, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
:: Disagree, fois gras could be made from cage free ducks and then ground with stone implements. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.64|108.162.221.64]] 14:36, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
:: It could refer to some baked good that uses stone-ground flour and eggs from cage-free chickens.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.5|172.68.46.5]] 17:05, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
`

This is the opposite of 993: Brand Identity. {{unsigned ip|162.158.62.75}}

"Stune-ground" might reffer to a "Ground stone" so its probably Flour. (PS hope i edit this correctly)

== Lite ==

The contents of the Lite can could also be soda, as it's well possible to produce a lite soda (though I don't think anyone has).
:Coca Cola has a Lite variety, so it certainly could be. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.219|141.101.104.219]] 14:10, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

== Original flavor ==

'Original flavor' actually isn't a noun phrase (in context). It's an adjectival phrase, which is why Randall has used it as he has. I'd suggest deleting this sentence in the explanation.

== Trivia ==
The link in the trivia section seems to point to the current comic image, not the older version.----

Talk:1545: Strengths and Weaknesses

2016-12-09T05:38:13Z

108.162.219.100:

For anyone who wants to take a stab at a more thorough (or better written) explanation of ancestry, the wiki pages for {{w|Identical_ancestors_point}} and {{w|Most_recent_common_ancestor}} helped me to start understanding the topic. I think its easy to jump to the conclusion that it is extremely unlikely that Cueball will be the ancestor of all living humans, however it isn't quite as intuitive as I believed. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 16:17, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

Look at the talk for that Wikipedia page. The figures for most recent common ancestor given there are incredible, but the community lacks the will to replace with decent science. [[User:Asimong|Asimong]] ([[User talk:Asimong|talk]]) 05:57, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

I don't understand, why would come a day that he is "either an ancestor to all living humans, or to none of them"? It's very possible for him to be the ancestor to ''some'' living humans forever [[User:Egoist|Egoist]] ([[User talk:Egoist|talk]]) 19:44, 1 July 2015 (UTC)
:If you have lots of children, and then if people interbreed randomly, as time goes forward it becomes less and less likely that any randomly selected person is ''not'' one of your descendents. As probability of ''not'' goes to zero, fraction of ''yes'' goes to 100%. But, if you do not have lots of children, and your kids don't either, at some future moment you may have zero descendents, and after that statistics cannot save you. [[User:Pesthouse|Pesthouse]] ([[User talk:Pesthouse|talk]]) 22:36, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

Two cases that haven't been dealt with:
1.) Humanity gets wiped out before this happens, so there are no living humans for Cueball to be ancestor to or not. (0/0 case)

2.) Through physical separation, humanity diverges into 2 or more species, and Cueball is only an ancestor to some of these different species. Would all of these species be considered humans? I'm not familiar with the semantics.

I'm also not sure how likely either of these are.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.100|108.162.215.100]] 20:29, 1 July 2015 (UTC)
: In your case (1), that means he will *both* be the ancestor to all people or to none. [[User:MGK|MGK]] ([[User talk:MGK|talk]]) 01:21, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

Also! Assuming Cueball hasn't had kids yet, he is already an ancestor to no living humans. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.100|108.162.215.100]] 23:47, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

In this comic it is very likely that Cueball is confused regarding the software concept of recursion and "children" or child nodes. This plays off of the idea that if he reproduces he will eventually become a common ancestor to all existing humans at some point in the future (infinte recursion), or he won't reproduce and therefore will have no children (ancestor to none). This is further played with in the subtext which mentions implementing quick sort (a recursive sorting algorithm). Also of note, there are many other comics where cueball is confused by software concepts. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.111|108.162.219.111]] 21:11, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

I added a bit to this explanation. I think the explanation as it was dealt too heavily with the existential portion of the exchange and missed one really important part of the joke: Ponytail's questions are meant to be related to Cueball's PROFESSIONAL strengths and weaknesses (and his ambitions), but his responses are either accidentally or deliberately "missing the point" - he's responding from an existential point of view instead of a professional one. I hope that the portion of the explanation I added will help clarify this point. [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 05:58, 4 July 2015 (UTC)

:Not only he's responding from existential point of view. Also, his answers are equally true for ANY interviewed.
:PS: I'm not sure why is sex described as "awkward". Sure, having sex during interview is very uncommon, but "awkward"? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:01, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

::Have you ever had sex in an office chair, or on one of those round tables they have in mini-conference rooms that are often used for interviews, or in the space between one of those tables and the wall?

::Also, all you know about your interviewer is that she's "Janice from HR here at Whizco", but she's just read a 2-page summary of your life. That could add to the awkwardness.

::And finally, assuming this is the HR interview before the technical and business interviews, and she's already asked half her questions, you've got maybe 15 minutes left to have sex, then clean up and look professional again.

::But mostly it's the lack of good surfaces. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.52|162.158.255.52]] 02:30, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

We're fooling ourselves with job interviews, they are largely useless, and in fact may exclude the best candidates because they don't "interview well"; we would be better off doing a lottery after establishing basic credentials (literacy, basic communication ability...) Even Google has come to this conclusion, after all those puzzles and other crap:
:"Years ago, we did a study to determine whether anyone at Google is particularly good at hiring. We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationship. It’s a complete random mess, except for one guy who was highly predictive because he only interviewed people for a very specialized area, where he happened to be the world’s leading expert." ( http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-hunting-big-data-may-not-be-such-a-big-deal.html ) {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.27}}

1571: Car Model Names

2015-09-01T00:55:24Z

108.162.219.100: its, it's

{{comic
| number = 1571
| date = August 31, 2015
| title = Car Model Names
| image = car_model_names.png
| titletext = CLIMAX is good, but SEXCLIMAX is even better.
}}

==Explanation==

In English, letters like X and Z are rarely used in the common vernacular. Marketers have found that names with these infrequently-appearing letters sell more products.

===Scores===
Scores for letters and numbers are presumably taken from their frequency in car models. [[Randall]] must have used a car-name database to create the scores. Randall uses positive numbers if a letter is more common in car models than in typical English (as X) which he then calls carlike. He used negative numbers if a letter's relative frequency in car models is lower than in typical English (as O) he calls it English-like (for text). The letters F and B, with scores of 5 and -5, respectively, are about as common in English as in car models. With this nomenclature, the most English-like letter is Y because, while not the most common English letter, it is apparently extremely rare in car models. The most common letter in ordinary English is E.

There are 19 positive scores and 17 negative scores.

===Algorithm for the index===
Randall devised an index for car models which is the score average divided by 10.

;Example
We take 2Chainz and add the scores of its different numbers and letters: 6 +27 -44 -14 -21 -46 +83 = -9

Average is -9/7 = -1.29 and divided by 10 it's -0.129 or -0.13.

===Names to avoid===
*Honda '''2Chainz''' - {{w|2 Chainz}} is an American rapper
*Mitsubishi '''Fhqwhgads''' - A reference to a running joke on {{w|Homestar Runner}}. See http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Fhqwhgads
*Kia '''49andGothy''' - Gothy or gothic is a member of the {{w|goth subculture}}; most of its members are much younger than 49
*Chevrolet '''Niceguy''' - A reference to the idiom "nice guys finish last".
*Oldsmobile '''Goodwood''' - May be a reference to the {{w|Goodwood Festival of Speed}}
*Infiniti '''Toothy69'''
*BMW '''Outhouse''' - Loose standing toilet, or {{w|Outhouse}}.
*Volkswagen '''Woodpony 7oh7''' - Wood ponies are wooden constructions to give kids (and sometimes adults) the feeling of riding a horse, but don't actually move. 7oh7 is a way to pronounce 707, which could be a reference to the Boeing 707 passenger jet series.
*Chrysler '''Uh Iono''' - When pronounced, sounds roughly like someone slurring "Uh, I don't know" [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=iono]
*Nissan '''Doody''' - May reference the unfortunately named {{w|Nissan Moco}}, which is Spanish for snot

===Potential Hits===
*Honda '''3Chainz''' - A play on 2Chainz in the previous section; according to the table the number 2 has a score of 6 and the number 3 has a higher score of 55; the index will go up by (55-6)/7/10=0.7.
*Subaru '''Andre3000''' - {{w|André 3000}} is an American rapper
*Suzuki '''Sexism''' - Akihiro Suzuki is a Tokyo city assemblyman who made sexist remarks in June 2014.
*Lincoln '''Marxism''' - {{w|Marxism}} is a form of communism. There are various essays noting its founder and {{w|Abraham Lincoln}} exchanged letters during the American civil war.
*Hyundai '''Climax''' - In this context, an {{w|orgasm}}. The title text finds an excuse to add another "x" with the portmanteau '''SexClimax'''.
*Porsche '''Zizek9000''' - A portmanteau referencing academic {{w|Slavoj Žižek}} and the {{w|Saab 9000}}
*Lexus '''3×3Cutrix''' - 3×3 is a play on 4×4; this car presumably has 3 wheels. "Executrix" is the female counterpart of "executor", one who administers a will.
*Acura '''PizzaJazz''' - The letter Z has a very high score, so using 4 of them in a fairly short name makes this a potential hit.
*Ford '''SixAxle 4×4''' - A contradictory name, as the 4×4 refers to a vehicle that has all four wheels connected to the drivetrain, which would only use two axles. May also be a reference to the Sony PlayStation's {{w|Sixaxis controller}}.
*Toyota '''Cervixxx''' - A portmanteau of {{w|cervix}} and XXX rating used by pornographic industry to make titles seem more extreme (see {{w|X rating}}). It being the highest scoring item on the list may be an attempt to show that {{w|sex sells}}.

Note that Randall gives the symbol × the value of 126, which means he equates it with the letter x.
:index(3×3CutrixNote) = (+55 + score(×) +55 +27 -68 -18 +8 -21 +126)/9/10 = 3.22. This means that the score of the symbol × is 90×3.22 - 164 = 125.8

===Title text===

==Transcript==
:{| style="text-align:center; border:0px; width:63%;"
| '''Certain letters and numbers are used disproportionately often in car models compared to regular text.'''
|-
| (see:"Rev-4 cr-x x3 G6 Maxx")
|}

:{| style="text-align:center; border:1pt black solid;"
| colspan="37" | '''Letter and number scores based on relative frequency in car model names'''
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Carlike
|| 60
||
|| 6
|| 55
|| 35
|| 74
|| 6
||
||
||
||
||
|| 27
||
||
|| 5
|| 27
||
||
|| 64
|| 32
|| 12
|| 19
||
||
||
|| 40
|| 8
|| 15
||
||
|| 41
||
|| 126
||
|| 83
|-
||
|| '''0'''
|| '''1'''
|| '''2'''
|| '''3'''
|| '''4'''
|| '''5'''
|| '''6'''
|| '''7'''
|| '''8'''
|| '''9'''
|| '''A'''
|| '''B'''
|| '''C'''
|| '''D'''
|| '''E'''
|| '''F'''
|| '''G'''
|| '''H'''
|| '''I'''
|| '''J'''
|| '''K'''
|| '''L'''
|| '''M'''
|| '''N'''
|| '''O'''
|| '''P'''
|| '''Q'''
|| '''R'''
|| '''S'''
|| '''T'''
|| '''U'''
|| '''V'''
|| '''W'''
|| '''X'''
|| '''Y'''
|| '''Z'''
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | English-like
||
|| -74
||
||
||
||
||
|| -58
|| -67
|| -37
|| -14
|| -5
||
|| -21
|| -45
||
||
|| -44
|| -21
||
||
||
||
|| -46
|| -80
|| -27
||
||
||
|| -18
|| -68
||
|| -20
||
|| -90
||
|}

:{| style="text-align:center; border:0px; width:63%;"
| '''Based on these scores, here are a few suggestions for car companies:'''
|-
| (with average letter scores)
|}

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; border:1pt black solid; width:63%;"
| colspan="2" | '''Names to avoid'''
| colspan="2" | '''Potential hits'''
|-
| style="text-align:right; width:25%; color:#808080;" | Honda
| style="text-align:left;" | '''2Chainz''' (-0.13)
| style="text-align:right; width:25%; color:#808080;" | Honda
| style="text-align:left;" | '''3Chainz''' (0.57)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Mitsubishi
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Fhqwhgads''' (-0.62)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Subaru
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Andre3000''' (1.30)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Kia
| style="text-align:left;" | '''49AndGothy''' (-2.96)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Suzuki
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Sexism''' (1.82)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Chevrolet
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Niceguy''' (-3.09)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Lincoln
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Marxism''' (2.17)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Oldsmobile
| style="text-align:left;" | '''GoodWood''' (-4.44)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Hyundai
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Climax''' (2.48)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Infinity
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Toothy69''' (-4.51)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Porsche
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Zizek9000''' (3.06)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | BMW
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Outhouse''' (-4.85)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Lexus
| style="text-align:left;" | '''3x3Cutrix''' (3.22)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Volkswagen
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Woodpony 7OH7''' (-5.70)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Acura
| style="text-align:left;" | '''PizzaJazz''' (3.56)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Chrysler
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Uh Iono''' (-5.65)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Ford
| style="text-align:left;" | '''SixAxle''' 4x4 (3.95)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Nissan
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Doody''' (-5.84)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Toyota
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Cervixxx''' (4.85)
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Sex]]

Talk:1527: Humans

2015-05-20T19:24:44Z

108.162.219.100: Guess

Yes! Preach it, Randall! [[Special:Contributions/188.114.106.23|188.114.106.23]] 08:23, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
:Everyone knows they're more akin to big cows, anyway. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.143|141.101.106.143]] 09:33, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
::Big ''spherical'' cows. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:22, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Robots complaining about science is like humans complaining about evolution. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.60|108.162.231.60]] 09:49, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
:Great line :) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.118|108.162.215.118]] 10:51, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Given the title text, the reference to movie humans makes this cartoon likely an oblique commentary on the upcoming film ''Jurassic World'' where the dinosaurs remain featherless. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.162|108.162.237.162]] 10:54, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

I don't really want to see a sequel criticized for maintaining continuity. Think of what it would be like if someone made a 2001 movie where instead of travelling to Jupiter, Hal orchestrated the invasion of Iraq. Wait a second, that would make for an awesome movie.--Dave[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.183|108.162.237.183]] 13:36, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Personally, I wouldn't like being chased with Aepyornis either, and noone ever doubted Aepyornis had feathers. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:45, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

I wonder which movie Robot #2 is referring to. Something with a crowned monarch and lots of (almost) naked warriors. ''300'' perhaps? [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 12:47, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure their talking about future films, we make films about prehistoric dinosaurs, so the robots make films about prehistoric humans(pre robot history) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.24|141.101.99.24]] 13:36, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
:: except for the use of "their", I'm in complete agreement. I'm gonna make a few tweaks, accordingly - [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 14:18, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
:Robot 2 isn't referring to a current movie, I think this is set roughly 65million years in the future. So i've removed the part about Troy and other sword and sandal films {{unsigned|Zeimusu}}
:::I assume it's more that skeletons and metal are much more likely to survive than clothes. Perhaps, they often see the crowns nearby the skulls in digs and assume that they were attached in life. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.100|108.162.219.100]] 19:24, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1497: New Products

2015-03-12T05:01:35Z

108.162.219.100: Really?

Seems to me that the humor on the first two is based on engineers and programmers not understanding the general public's needs and wants. Also based on how engineers may find products "exciting" based on how novel the product's functionality is, not based on how useful that functionality is. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.150|108.162.215.150]] 07:02, 11 March 2015 (UTC)MW
:It seems to me to be a bash on various makes, remakes, re-remakes, /(re-){2,}remakes/ and sequels of sequels that become very successful. —[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.95|141.101.106.95]] 07:52, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
::It looks to me that it refers for example to the Oculus rift.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.125|173.245.53.125]] 08:22, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:::I took the point of the first category to be that if smart people (programmers and engineers being assumed to be smart) can't understand why anyone would want some stupid useless piece of crap, that it will be a huge success because stupid people outnumber smart people a hundred to one (ref: MS Windows), and the point of the second category to be that if it excites smart people, it'll fail in the marketplace because stupid people outnumber smart people a hundred to one. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.27|199.27.133.27]] 08:57, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

I would be interested in a chart of examples of each category {{unsigned ip|108.162.242.5}}

Sean Malstrom talked about this. In general, Super Mario Bros, the Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, while classic, are actually nothing new... just having a high level of crasftmanship. Besides, people want familiar experiences. In a way, that makes sense. Meanwhile, hype tends to inflate expectations. The only game that ever fulfilled hype was Super Mario Bros. 3... still a classic. Then again, hype is a mere tactic used in getting people to buy poor games; great games do not need hype. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:31, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Reading those 'quotes', I'm minded of Bill Gates's statement on exactly how much memory we wouldn't need more than, the head of IBM far earlier predicting the need for perhaps five(? look it up) computers in the whole world, the century-old prediction that the number of cars in the world wouldn't exceed the (small number of) chauffeurs who could be trained, etc. Plus things like Microsoft's failed earlier attempts at Windows tablets (and OSes) that preceded the latest craze by a decade and then died, only for the recent mania (which might again be dying, but at least has a foothold). But is it worthwhile actually putting in loads of links to these kinds of things, to illustrate each issue? Probably not...[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 14:59, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

I think the alt text refers to the 6th row of the table as well, the speaker in the quote is nervous about handing his medical information over to KimDotCom's company, which means within 5 years he will willingly do it. The 2nd and 3rd rows made me think of the Pebble Watch, which was launched on kickstarter (pre-ordered), but I don't believe it was widely commercially successful. The concept of the Pebble is being used in the Apple Watch, but with a higher quality screen, greater focus on design elements, and a much much higher price-tag. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.194|173.245.54.194]] 18:28, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:No it cannot fit there. Because he has signed up and thus h does not say never in my life... I have changed back and added this explantion --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:18, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Does anybody else find this explanation borderline offensive? You can describe differences groups without being derogatory.

Something between the current text and the comment labeled 199.27.133.27 08:57, 11 March 2015 (UTC) should do it.
--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.152|173.245.56.152]] 20:13, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Title text does seem to refer to 4th category. Please discuss before deleting. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 21:18, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:Well I disagree. I has already once removed a reference to the fourth category, and thus I did it again when you put it in again and also wrote alot of text where all of it basically was written below the Dotcom explanation. Try and read your versions, and see that most of what you wrote apart from the fourth category is more or less double. If the guy has signed up he have no problems with this company. Also it is mentioned that the fourth category is not a company he is afraid off, but just someone they do not like. At least we should try to avoid writing the same twice! I could say the same to you by the way: ''Please discuss before adding something others have already twice removed.'' --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:08, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
::I had not seen your latest revision. I like the wording. I have kept the category four reference in my newest change, where I have merged the two paragraphs, keeping by far most of your text, but moving most of it below the Kim Dotkom paragraph, as it is importnat to explain him before going on with the explanation why he is so dangerous! I hope you can live with this version? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:16, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
Is there any evidence that the consensus of engineers upon seeing the iPhone was that it was boring. I remember thinking it would make a killing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.100|108.162.219.100]] 05:01, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1494: Insurance

2015-03-04T16:44:35Z

108.162.219.100: Lifehack

Well...suck for you.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.57|108.162.215.57]] 05:17, 4 March 2015 (UTC) RobotGoggles

'''Incomplete tag?'''
I know it's pretty early, and the explanation is bound to be rewritten, but the current explanation is a little confusing, and makes a couple jumps that I wouldn't necessarily make. Maybe the incomplete tag shouldn't be removed yet? I'd do it, but I don't really know enough about actually editing the explanations to feel comfortable doing it yet.
[[User:ARoseByAnyOtherName|ARoseByAnyOtherName]] ([[User talk:ARoseByAnyOtherName|talk]]) 08:52, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

: I mean, I had written an explanation I'd say was a bit clearer (if a bit more complicated), but some unregistered user removed most of it... Makes me a bit grumpy. The newly added ''Lifehacks vs. IT hacks'' section brings up most of the things that person removed, though, so this should be complete enough. [[User:Obskyr|Obskyr]] ([[User talk:Obskyr|talk]]) 09:44, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

:: Well, for what it's worth, I liked your version better. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:47, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
:::Not only that. The new version was so bad I decided to revert to Obskyr's. [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1494%3A_Insurance&diff=85633&oldid=85624] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 13:54, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

;Any meaning to conveyer?

The spelling error in the alt text seems like a simple typo.

Lawyer? I assumed it was a salesman or HR guy. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 08:50, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
:: Insurance agent. Not exactly a salesman; agents have multiple hats. You don't get fire insurance from HR.[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 09:34, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

This is probably a reference to those youtube videos of ''life hacks'' of questionable legality. Eg signing up for one flight to take another[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.100|108.162.219.100]] 16:44, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

I guess this might also relate to that (from my experience) programmers tend to like to break things (anything claimed to be "secure" seems to attract lots of people wanting to test out how secure) or find workarounds for things? [[User:Pinkishu|Pinkishu]] ([[User talk:Pinkishu|talk]]) 10:11, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

;Hacking

Please read [https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html On Hacking]. I think the term you're looking for is cracking, or at least black hat hacking. Hacking a system would mean getting a system to do something unique and/or interesting. Or interacting with the system in a way that wasn't predicted. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.191|108.162.238.191]] 10:19, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

;Hard hacks
Things like lock-picking is often also seen as physical equivalents of hacking, not necessarily illegal but still something most people would look on with suspicion.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 10:21, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

:Agree, this is excellent example on "hacking the computer": there is nothing illegal on lock-picking itself. Even if you use it on someone's else door without permission, it would not be crime unless you actually ENTER the door (or damage the lock). Locksmiths MUST know how to do it. But ... first thing you think about when hearing lock-picking is that thiefs do it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:37, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

I think part of the point of today's comic is to point that contracts are somewhat similar to a computer program (both have definitions and rules by which the system must abide), but lack the strict rigor of the latter. So, when programmers read a legal contract they immediately start searching for bugs or vulnerabilities or even syntax optimizations.

Talk:1489: Fundamental Forces

2015-02-24T06:13:00Z

108.162.219.100: Paradoxes

«The off-panel audience, probably a student or class, is interested, but quickly begins to realize Cueball's lack of understanding. Instead of acknowledging the problem directly, Cueball simply blusters onwards.»

My interpretation is rather different. It looks like Cueball is a physicist who knows that the distinction of "four fundamental forces" is basically wrong/obsolete (the term "force" is not even used anymore in theoretical physics), but since his audience are high school students, he can't go into the many complex details underlying the fundamental interactions, and therefore is forced to gloss over it. This is confirmed by the title text (if Cueball didn't understand the theory of fundamental interactions, he wouldn't give that answer). --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.101.78|188.114.101.78]] 10:31, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

To me it appeared as a typical exam situation for Cueball with '''him''' being the pupil. And ironically that situation looks similar to the real scientific understanding of the topic. [[User:Renormalist|Renormalist]] ([[User talk:Renormalist|talk]]) 11:12, 20 February 2015 (UTC)
: I could see that, to an extent - it doesn't jive with the title text IMO, and it's less funny that a student would be glossing over this stuff than a someone in an instructive role, but I could see it -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 11:46, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

Irony like this is not uncommon in physics. What was the first encounter with electric phenomena? Triboelectricity. What don't we understand at all? Right. Or take Zenos paradoxon. Or the divisibility paradoxon. The oldest nuts tend to be the toughest. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.230.221|108.162.230.221]] 12:26, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

:Those paradoxes are perfectly explained through calculus. Zeno's requires only algebra. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.100|108.162.219.100]] 06:13, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

:I'm not sure about ''the'' first one, but one of first electromagnetic phenomenons we encountered was light. We first observed it about 200000 years ago. :P [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.77|141.101.104.77]] 13:45, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

I knew from the title, "Fundamental Horses", that this was going to be a great one. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.200}}

I prefer Chromatic Horse and Flavor Horse. Why use weak names when we have new strong ones? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 11:58, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

In high school Physics, my class was taught that physicists had recently combined the Electromagnetic and Weak Nuclear forces into the Electro-Weak Force, so there were only three and if we were to find the Higgs Boson, there might be just two or one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.11|108.162.241.11]] 21:55, 20 February 2015 (UTC)
:Actually, it is the Higgs Boson, that combines the electromagnetic and the weak nuclear interaction into the electroweak interaction, so it's still 3. But actually, even if electromagnetism and the weak interaction can be described in one theory, they are still viewed as two different phenomena, so it actually will always be 4. (Unless we discover other interactions). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.192|141.101.105.192]] 22:23, 20 February 2015 (UTC)
:: Old timer physicists say the same thing about magnetism and electricity. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.35|141.101.64.35]] 16:53, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Is it just possible that Randall posted this forum to see how we here actually try to explain strong and weak forces? [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 22:34, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

In the first panel, Cueball forgot to mention Einstein's field equations. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.77|108.162.254.77]] 11:35, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

This comic and the ensuing discussion is more intriguing when the Chrome xkcd substitutions extension is turned on. Weak Horse, Strong Horse, Flavor Horse, Chromatic Horse... [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.194|199.27.128.194]] 01:57, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

721: Flatland

2014-12-16T22:18:20Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 721
| date = March 31, 2010
| title = Flatland
| image = flatland.png
| titletext = Also, I apologize for the time I climbed down into your world and everyone freaked out about the lesbian orgy overseen by a priest.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a reference to the satirical novel {{w|Flatland|''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions''}}, in which a society of flat shapes live in a 2D world. Half the book is a direct satire of Victorian society, and the other half explores the experience of discovering a new dimension, where a sphere introduces a square (named A. Square) to 3D. [[Cueball]] appears to have take the place of this sphere, and the comic takes place after the square knows the third dimension exists.

Humans will never fully be able to grasp the concept of a four spatial dimensions (at least not in the foreseeable future), but there are ways of squashing or slicing four dimensions to create partial visualizations of 4D space. {{w|Miegakure}} is a 4D game that uses cross sections of 4D space. Cueball attempted to play it, but after having his mind blown he gained more sympathy for A. Square, who'd had similar trouble understanding 3D. A. Square accepts his apology.

The joke here is that Cueball was being silly and drew lines on A. Square to make him look like {{w|SpongeBob SquarePants (character)|Spongebob}}, which did not make the square happy. Cueball apologizes again.

The title text is a third apology for when Cueball crawled down into the second dimension. Being a stick figure, he is comprised of a circle and straight lines. In Flatland, circles are priests (Flatland's highest social level), and all women are lines; thus, to a watcher in Flatland, Cueball would look very much like a priest above many connected women, which would look like a lesbian orgy.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball encounters a square on the ground.]
:Cueball: Hey, A. Square. How's Flatland?
:Square: Still flat. What's up?
:Cueball: I just spent an hour playing a demo of this 4D game called Miegakure.

:[A character in Miegakure jumps around the 4D landscape.]
:Trying to jump from block to block in four dimensions hurt my brain.

:Cueball: So I apologize for giving you a hard time when you were slow to understand 3D space. I sympathize now.
:Square: It's okay.

:Cueball: Also, I apologize for drawing arms, legs, and eyes on you to make you look like Spongebob. That was out of line.
:Square: Yes, it was.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Sex]]

434: xkcd Goes to the Airport

2014-11-01T19:27:21Z

108.162.219.100: /* Explanation */ Added a needed comma

{{comic
| number = 434
| date = June 9, 2008
| title = xkcd Goes to the Airport
| image = xkcd_goes_to_the_airport.png
| titletext = Under three ounces, but it stains panties.
}}

==Explanation==
The various characters of xkcd cause problems at the airport due to their various quirks.

Panel 1: [[Beret Guy]] and [[Megan]] are lost, following each other in a loop. Beret Guy displays his obsession with baked goods as he also does in later comics: [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]] and [[452: Mission]].

Panel 2: [[Cueball]] tries to carry a {{w|Lock picking|lockpick set}} (a tool able to unlock doors without the original key) through security because of "this hacker girl" (spoofing the incidents where someone has been manipulated into carrying drugs or other contraband by a romantic interest they met on the Internet). The security guard tells Cueball to come with him but Cueball continues rambling on about the girl. It could be a reference to the Homeless Hacker from [[343: 1337: Part 3]] or another guy Elaine met during this period of her life.

Panel 3: On the plane, Cueball has been instructed to disable the wireless transmission functionality of his device. Many airports will disable {{w|Mobile phones on aircraft}} as well as devices that transmit information because they may disrupt communication to cellular towers on the ground. However, his laptop is running Linux and he doesn't know how to change the wireless settings; he's reading the {{w|Man page|manual}} for the program that controls the wireless radio. However, this is probably not the ideal situation, as the airplane is pressed to take off. Man page was also referenced in [[293: RTFM]]. Much later a plane was again linked to a man page in [[912: Manual Override]].

Panel 4: [[Black Hat]] tries to carry a container of liquid through security. According to US law, the maximum amount of liquid in a container is three ounces, a security measure taken to prevent terrorists from taking explosives onto planes. When the guard has doubts about the amount of liquid in the vial, Black Hat reveals that the liquid is actually blood from a churchmouse, a fictional mouse created by Lewis Carroll. The guard is visibly uncomfortable and clearly does not want to deal with the issue any further.

The title text continues off the final panel, saying that there are less than three ounces of blood in a churchmouse, but it "stains panties", an undesirable scenario. However, this undesirable scenario is paralleled by the implied undesirable scenario of a terrorist attack due to explosive liquids, the possibility of which caused the law. The title text seems to parody the prospect of an explosion with the relatively insignificant staining of panties, a term for women's underwear. This may also be a menstruation joke.

==Transcript==
:[Standing outside the Airport. There is a sign saying "Airport" and a plane in the background.]
:Megan: Okay, what airline?
:Beret Guy: I'm following you.
:Megan: ...I'm following you.
:Beret Guy: I assumed we were walking to the bakery.
:Megan: You always assume that!

:[Presumably the security checkpoint.]
:Security Guy: Lockpicks? These are... illegal, actually. Where did you get them?
:Cueball: Oh man, it all started with this hacker girl.
:Security Guy: You need to come with-
:Cueball: Sure, sure. But man, let me tell you about her!

:[On a plane.]
:Announcement: If your device has a "Transmit" function, please disable it.
:Cueball: Okay - hang on, I'm half way through the iwconfig man page.

:[Security checkpoint.]
:Security guy: Sir, is this container under three ounces?
:Black Hat: Not sure, how much blood is there in a churchmouse?
:Security guy: Why don't you just go.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Linux]]