explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

592: Drama

2015-08-29T05:50:24Z

108.162.219.236: /* Explanation */ gm

{{comic
| number = 592
| date = June 3, 2009
| title = Drama
| image = drama.png
| titletext = This happens in geek circles every so often. The "Hey, this is just a system I can figure out easily!" is also a problem among engineers first diving into the stock market.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] and two [[Cueball]] like guys discuss how irrational society's interactions about sex are. They decide to throw out all these silly societal rules to end drama forever and spread this philosophy to everyone they know, which immediately leads to a huge increase in drama as shown in the chart.

As one of the Cueballs in the comic states, people are indeed complicated and—crucially—what seems intuitive and rational to one person might seem completely crazy and irrational to someone else; so throwing out all the rules one person thinks make no sense isn't going to mean the world suddenly makes sense for everyone else. Instead, everyone who understands the old rules, whether they like them or not, will suddenly find themselves in a completely alien world to which they have no idea how to relate.

Furthermore, any one person's sense of what seems rational is based on {{w|Complete information|incomplete information}}. The three people are trying to change all the sex rules—like the engineers referenced in the title text who think they can "solve" the stock market—can't even begin to conceive of all the chaotic factors affecting the system they're trying to fix, so they have no way of knowing which rules are truly crazy and which rational. (See the title text in comic form in [[1570: Engineer Syllogism]].)

Geeks often fall prey to the fallacy that human interactions can be easily simplified if only a group of sufficiently qualified geeks put their minds to it as laid out in [http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html The Geek Social Fallacies] and [http://pervocracy.blogspot.ca/2012/02/geek-social-fallacies-of-sex.html The Geek Social Fallacies of Sex].

==Transcript==
:[Megan and two Cueball like guys are sitting together.]
:Megan: Man, sex has all these crazy social rules. They just create drama.
:Cueball: Let's agree to change them, and make sex simple!
:Friend: Okay!

:[Cueball gets up and goes out the door.]
:Cueball: Hooray! We've solved the problem of drama!
:Cueball: I'll go tell everyone!

:[There is a graph labeled drama. Below is an axis and below that an arrow marked with time. A vertical dotted line is labeled and indicates the rule change. Drama is low, although fluctuating, before the rule change, then sharply increases afterward and continues to increase.]
:Drama
:Time
:Rule change

:[Cueball closes the door and then leans against it.]
:Cueball: Holy shit
:Cueball: Guys
:Cueball: People are ''complicated!''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Charts]]

1569: Magic Tree

2015-08-27T04:17:36Z

108.162.219.236: /* Explanation */ gm

{{comic
| number = 1569
| date = August 26, 2015
| title = Magic Tree
| image = magic_tree.png
| titletext = Since people rarely try to cut down cell phone towers, after millions of years, as cell phone towers have gotten more treelike, trees have started growing fake cell phone tower attachments and shiny gray bark to protect themselves. This is a standard textbook example of convergent evolution.
}}

==Explanation==

{|style="float: right; border:1px solid dimgray; color:white" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding=10px cellspacing=0px
|+style="background:white; color:black"|'''Examples of camouflaged cell towers'''
|-align="center"
|[[Image:PalmCellTower.jpg|194x259px]]
|[[Image:AnotherCellTower.jpg]]
|}

This comic features a running theme in the xkcd comics, [[Beret Guy]]'s naive and/or odd ways of thinking. In the beginning of the comic, Beret Guy shows [[Megan]] what he believes to be a tree, and explains that it grew there because he placed magic beans in that spot yesterday. This is a reference to the fable "{{w|Jack and the Beanstalk}}", where the protagonist plants several magical beans he acquired, resulting in a beanstalk growing which ascends into the atmosphere. Megan, however, tells Beret Guy that the "tree" is actually a {{w|cell site|cell phone tower}}. Beret Guy disagrees, pointing out that it has branches, to which Megan tries to explain that this was in an attempt to make the towers look like trees. She gives up, however, as Beret Guy has already begun climbing the tower.

Later, Megan complains that her {{w|mobile phone signal|cell reception}} was nonexistent. Beret Guy responds by saying that he had to cut down his "tree" because there were "scary giants with yellow hats" in it. This mirrors, again, the "Jack and the Beanstalk" fable, where the protagonist has to cut down his beanstalk to prevent the giant, whose lands the beanstalk connects to, from climbing down and chasing him. In reality, the "giants" were probably utility workers.

The title text suggests that, over time, trees will evolve to start looking more like cell phone towers in a form of {{w|mimicry}} in order to avoid people cutting them down. Mimicry is where a creature mimics the appearance of another, in order to confuse predators. In this scenario, the more defenseless trees attempt to mimic cell phone towers, which have the defense of people not wanting to cut them down or they would lose cell service (and likely a significant amount of money through fines) and because of society's general respect for the the property of others. This is similar to the {{w|Flora and fauna of the Discworld#Counting pines|counting pine}}, a tree in {{w|Terry Pratchett|Terry Pratchett's}} {{w|Discworld}} series that evolved to display its age with numbers on the outside (in the bark) in the hope that humans would not cut it down and count its rings. Of course now humans hunted it down trying to find a tree with numbers that would fit their house number instead, thus quickly rendering the trees almost completely extinct. (See the tribute to Terry in [[1498: Terry Pratchett]]).

{{w|Convergent evolution}} deals with multiple species acquiring similar characteristics to fulfill their role (such as eagles and owls having similar claws) due to the species' common need to adapt to similar environments or tasks. [[Randall]] uses the term to describe the convergence in the appearances of cell towers whose design has "evolved" to include tree-like branches and trees which he predicts will evolve to resemble cell phone towers. Each of these "evolutions" would be for the purposes of camouflage, although the cell towers "evolve" by human design for purely aesthetic reasons and the trees would evolve naturally for self-preservation. This would therefore not be a true example of convergent evolution.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Megan stand next to a large pole with a note on it. Beret Guy points at the pole.]
:Beret Guy: Check it out! I threw my magic beans on the ground here yesterday, and this big tree appeared!

:[Zoom out, the pole is revealed to have branches. Around the pole are trees about 1/9th of the height of the pole.]
:Megan: That's a cell tower.
:Beret Guy: No way - it has branches!
:Beret Guy: See?
:Beret Guy: I'm gonna climb it!

:[Same as frame as the first. Beret Guy starts climbing the pole.]
:Megan: No, they just put those there to make it look-
:Megan: ...Never mind.

:[There is a caption in a small frame inlaid at the top of the last frame:]
:Later...
:[Megan looks at her phone while Beret Guy walks towards her holding an axe.]
:Megan: Why do I have no signal?
:Beret Guy: There were scary giants with yellow helmets in that tree! Luckily I cut it down before they ate me.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Biology]]

850: World According to Americans

2015-08-03T20:53:29Z

108.162.219.236: Eliminated oddly-written and superfluous sentence in "Brazil...."

{{comic
| number = 850
| date = January 21, 2011
| title = World According to Americans
| image = world according to americans.png
| titletext = It's not our fault we caught a group on their way home from a geography bee. And they taught us that Uzbekistan is one of the world's two doubly-landlocked countries!
}}

==Explanation==
''See a larger version at [http://xkcd.com/850_large/ http://xkcd.com/850_large/].''

There's a somewhat well-circulated image on the internet entitled "[http://google.com/search?q=the+world+according+to&tbm=isch The World According to Americans]" which plays on the stereotype of the ignorant American. In it, the entirety of Eastern Europe and most of Asia are entitled "commies" and the Middle-East as "evil-doers," and so on. Later, other people created similar maps to re-do the concept. It later spread to other cultures. This comic is an anti-joke playing on that idea. You expect to see something which plays on the stereotypes that exist in American culture of various parts of the world. However, instead, the map is remarkably well-informed. The title text expands on the joke.

A few notes about things written inside the map:

{| class="wikitable"
! Annotation
! Further details
|-
| Hey so what projection should we use? I’ll aim for “Robinson”.
| Any flat [[977|map projection]] of a sphere must have inaccuracies. {{w|Mercator projection}} displays shapes well at the expense of size. For example, Mercator's Greenland appears larger than South America, but is actually one eighth the size. {{w|Gall-Peters projection}} does the opposite, showing accurate surface area with distorted ("awful") shapes. {{w|Robinson projection}} compromises between shape & size for aesthetics; hence Greenland is "still too big".
|-
| Did you know Maine is actually the US state closest to Africa?
| The distance ist about 5076 km (~3754 mi). Measurement points are {{w|Sail Rock (disambiguation)|Sail Rock (Maine)}}, the most eastern point of the USA, and a point which seems to be the most southern (and as such western) point of el-Beddouza Beach, {{w|Morocco}}. It's not the most western point of Morocco (or Africa), though.
|-
| Do we have to label all the Virgin Islands?
| Which are {{w|Virgin_Islands#Larger_Islands|9 larger}} and about 100 {{w|List of Caribbean islands#British Virgin Islands|smaller}} {{w|List of Caribbean islands#United States Virgin Islands|islands}} - surely a lot of labels.
|-
| French, and I think Dutch and English
| The three separated areas are (from west to east) {{w|Guyana}} (former British colony), {{w|Suriname}} (former Dutch colony) and {{w|French Guiana}} (still officially part of France). The former two often switched between French, Dutch and British colonial rule. The latter was French most times except of a short Portuguese episode.
|-
| Brazil (Portugese-speaking)
Rest of South America (Spanish-speaking)
| Since the separation of the world by the {{w|Treaty of Tordesillas}} between the {{w|Portuguese Empire}} and the {{w|Spanish Empire}} in 1494 the region now considered as {{w|Brazil}} (at least its eastern part) was part of Portugal, while the rest was part of Spain.
|-
| Greenland (Still too big!)
Yeah, but the Peters map is awful
| Relating back to the choice of map projection, the apparent size of Greenland is one of the most commonly known projection based inaccuracies. The {{w|Gall-Peters projection}} shows accurate surface area, but with distorted ("awful") shapes.
|-
| British Isles
Ireland
| Although {{w|Ireland}} belongs to the {{w|British Isles}} geographically, it does not belong to the {{w|British Islands}} politically. That may be the reason why Ireland is labelled additionally - to show it's known that Ireland does not belong to the {{w|United Kingdom}}. {{w|Northern Ireland}} does, though.
|-
| Rainforest DRC
| The area shown is actually not completely the {{w|Democratic Republic of the Congo}} (DRC), but since Randall said he doesn't know the African map very well (see statement below), it's fairly accurate.
|-
| So this is one of those things where you point out our ignorance and stereotypes?
Yeah – I mean I freely admit I don’t know the African map very well, which speaks volumes in itself.
| The African portion of the map is perhaps the most poorly labelled, which lends weight to the stereotype of the 'Ignorant American'. Although it has to be mentioned, that the geography of Africa is in general not well known - at least within the Western world. So that's not really an American thing, here. The few countries which are labelled here mostly are well known because of their unstable political situation or because of their remarkable location. The labelled locations (and the presumably reasons of their "publicity") are west to east, north to south: {{w|Morocco}} ({{w|Arab Spring}}, location), {{w|Algeria}} (Arab Spring, {{w|Algerian Civil War|Civil War}}), {{w|Sahara|Sahara Desert}} (largest hot desert of the world), {{w|Sudan}} ({{w|Second Sudanese Civil War|Civil war}}, Arab Spring), {{w|West Africa}} ({{w|West Africa#Postcolonial era|Lots of Civil wars}} and thus bad humanitary situation, {{w|Blood diamond|Blood diamonds}}), {{w|Somalia}} ({{w|Somali Civil War|Civil war}}, {{w|Piracy in Somalia|pirates}}), {{w|Lake Victoria}} (largest lake of Africa, quite remarkable even at large scale maps (as here)), {{w|Mozambique}} ({{w|Mozambican Civil War|Civil war}}), {{w|Angola}} ({{w|Angolan Civil War|Civil War}}) and {{w|Madagascar}} (large island at the east coast - quite remarkable).
|-
| Cape Horn
| {{w|Cape Horn}} is the southern tip of ''South America'', not ''Africa''. The southern tip of Africa is called {{w|Cape of Good Hope}}.
|-
| Should we include Antarctica?
Let’s not – these guys are looking impatient
| This is probably a joke on the lack of labels that would be required for Antarctica. Drawing Antarctica and labelling it would probably take less time than having the discussion about whether to include it, and then writing that discussion on the map.
|-
| Aral Sea (Gone)
| Former one of the largest fresh-water lakes of the world, now actually not completely gone, but {{w|Aral Sea|almost}}.
|-
| Various former soviet states
| Which are (west to east) {{w|Kazakhstan}}, {{w|Turkmenistan}}, {{w|Uzbekistan}}, {{w|Tajikistan}} and {{w|Kyrgyzstan}}. The former {{w|Soviet Union|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics}} was dissolved in 1991 and thus the {{w|Cold War}} had ended.
|-
| Boxing Day quake
Wait, “Boxing day”? There’s no way you’re American.
I read BBC News, OK?
| On December 26, 2004, a {{w|2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami|huge earthquake}} struck off the coast of Indonesia, causing severe tsunamis. December 26, the day after {{w|Christmas Day}}, is celebrated as {{w|Boxing Day}} in the UK, Canada, Australia, and some other English-speaking countries, but not the US. As such, the earthquake became known as the Boxing Day Quake.
One of the group picks up on the use of 'Boxing Day' as something no American would say. Even an American reader of {{w|BBC News}} (part of the British Broadcasting Corporation) may start to use the phrase "Boxing Day."
|-
| India -> Mostly Muslim
India -> Mostly Hindu
| In general {{w|India}} is separated in {{w|Religion in India|two religious groups}}. Muslims in the north-west, Hindus in the rest.
|-
| Tibet (contested)
| The area was annexed by the {{w|People's Republic of China}} in the 1950's. Since then there are struggles to gain independence, again. The marked area is fairly inaccurate, though. The {{w|Tibet Autonomous Region}} is roughly the southern half of the marked area extended a bit to the south-east.
|-
| Kamchatka Peninsula, but I admit I only know this one from Risk
|''{{w|Risk (game)|Risk}}'' is a board game played on a map of the world, where players own territories and battle each other for world domination. The person in the comic admits to knowing {{w|Kamchatka Peninsula}} only from the territory "Kamchatka" in the game.
|-
| Koreas
| The two Koreas are the ''{{w|Democratic People's Republic of Korea}}'' (North Korea) and the ''{{w|Republic of Korea}}'' (South Korea).
|-
| Japan, duh.
| Well... {{w|Japan}}.
|-
| Taiwan (actually called “The Republic of China” – it’s complicated.
| This is a reference to the complicated political history of {{w|Taiwan}}. After WWII, the Nationalists fled China for Taiwan and set up a government in exile there, vowing to return. In the intervening 70 years or so, Taiwan eventually began to transform into a democracy, but hasn't shed the name, or the animosity with China. There is also a missing end-paren here, which is either a typo or a reference to [[859]]. The tag 'it's complicated' is one of the options for relationship statuses on Facebook, and denotes two people whose relationship defies the usual labels. In this case it is the relationship between the countries which is complicated.
|-
| Paupa New Guinea
| A typo of {{w|Papua New Guinea}}.
|-
| Phillipines
| A typo of the {{w|Philippines}}.
|}

The title text jokes that in fact the only reason that the map is fairly well annotated is that the group of people labelling it were actually on the way back from a {{w|National Geographic Bee|geography bee (competition)}}. This would call into question that surely a competitor in a geography competition should be able to do better than the map shown, which would thus reinforce the 'Ignorant American' stereotype, as this is an American ''expert''.

A landlocked country is a country that does not border any major bodies of water. Furthering the concept, a doubly-landlocked country is a country that not only has no connection to water, but is only bordered by ''other'' landlocked countries. As the title text states, there are only two such countries in the world as of 2012: {{w|Uzbekistan}} and {{w|Liechtenstein}}. This is the type of fact that may be stereotypically expected of a geography bee competitor.

==Transcript==

:THE WORLD
:According to a Group of
:'''AMERICANS'''
:who turned out to be unexpectedly good at geography, derailing our attempt to illustrate their country's attitude toward the rest of the world.

:[Left to right, up to down.]

:[North of Canada.] Hey so what projection should we use?
:I'll aim for "Robinson."

:[North America.] Alaska; Canada; Hudson Bay; Québec; United States
:Did you know Maine is actually the US state closest to Africa?; Bermuda (British!)

:[Central America.] Baja California (Mexico); Mexico; Central America; Panama Canal; Gulf of Mexico; Cuba; Hispañola; POR.; Jamaica
:Do we have to label all the Virgin Islands?

:[South America.] Rest of South America (spanish-speaking); Brazil (portugese-speaking); French, and I think Dutch and English; Tierra del Fuego

:[Greenland.] Greenland (still too big!); Yeah but the Peters map is awful; Iceland

:[Europe.] British Isles; Ireland; Gibralter; Scandanavia; Western Europe; Eastern Europe; Black sea; Middle East

:[Africa.] Morocco; Algera; Sahara Desert; West Africa; Sudan; Rainforest DRC; Lake Victoria; Somalia; Angola; Mozambique; South Africa; Cape Horn; Madagascar

:[West of DRC.] So this is one of those things where you point out our ignorance and stereotypes?
:Yeah – I mean, I freely admit I don't know the African map very well, which speaks volumes in itself.

:[West Asia.] Russia; Aral sea (Gone); Various former Soviet states; Afghanistan & Pakistan; India; Mostly Muslim; Mostly Hindu

:[Indian Ocea.] Sri Lanka; Boxing Day Quake
:Wait, "Boxing day"? There's no way you're American.
:I read BBC News, OK?

:[East Asia.] Mongolia; Tibet (contested); China; Southeast Asia

:[Pacific Ocean.] Kamchatka Pennisula, but I admit I only know this one from Risk.
:Koreas; Japan, duh.; Taiwan (actually called "The Republic of China." – it's complicated.); Phillipines; Malaysia; Indonesia; Sulawest; Paupa New Guinea; Australia; Tasmania; New Zealand

:[South of Africa.] Should we include Antarctica?
:Let's not – these guys are looking impatient.

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

Talk:984: Space Launch System

2015-08-03T18:41:36Z

108.162.219.236:

But then we built a whole pile of rockets after that. Apollo, moon landing, mars rover, etc. Boo Black Hat.06:53, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
:"Apollo, moon landing" -- that is, in fact, the Saturn V, built by von Braun, captured Nazi scientist, and his team, largely captured Nazi scientists. Yes, other rockets were built after the Saturn V, but as pointed out in the strip, none have been bigger or more powerful. "Finally, rockets that improve on the ones we had 40 years ago."
:The first Mars lander (true, not a rover), Viking I, was launched on an Titan/Centaur. The Centaur was a co-creation of Krafft A. Ehricke, nazi scientist.
:Mars Sojourner, a rover, part of the Mars Pathfinder mission, was launched on a Delta II rocket. The Delta family of rockets are based on the Thor ballistic missile. The Thor was originally co-developed by Dr. Adolph K. Thiel, Nazi scientist.
:You see where this is going? {{unsigned|212.149.48.43}}

Technically, von Braun wasn't captured. He voluntarily defected. He was wandering Germany because he had chosen to no longer support Hitler, so to stay at the concentration camp where he worked, or anywhere where a Nazi soldier could find him was suicide, so he escaped and was wandering out alone. He surrendered and defected to the first allied troops he saw, which just happened to be American. This is why he worked on the space programme instead of being shot on sight. By the time he was building American rockets, he hadn't been a Nazi for years.[[Special:Contributions/76.29.225.28|76.29.225.28]] 14:40, 4 July 2013 (UTC)
:You're way off the mark. He was never opposed to the Nazis per se, but did understandably start grumbling a bit when he realized this Endsieg thing wasn't really working out. He and his team left the base because they, again understandably, did not want to be prisoners of the Red Army and Soviet Russia. Then, when the Americans finally caught up with them, he surrendered himself, avoiding execution by guards at the same time. --[[User:Qwach|Qwach]] ([[User talk:Qwach|talk]]) 02:19, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
:"He hadn't been a Nazi for years" -- really, this is begging the question of how you determine whether someone "is a Nazi" or not. Would you say that anyone who ever joined the Nazi party "is a Nazi," despite the fact that many of them probably did so for social expedience rather than because they actually agreed with Nazi philosophy? And would you then ignore the fact that many modern-day skinheads or neo-nazi's aren't formally registered with any national-socialist party? And, if you get around this problem by ignoring party registration altogether, and you simply say that someone "is a Nazi" if they hold views which concur with the views of the Nazi party, then how do you measure someone's views? How do you determine whether someone's views are sufficiently-similar to the Nazi party's to call them a Nazi? If someone were to say "sure, I hate Jews, but we probably shouldn't murder them all," would they be sufficiently Nazi-esque to "be a Nazi" or would their dissent make them "not a Nazi?" In conclusion, to say conclusively that von Braun "was a Nazi" or "wasn't a Nazi" at any particular point in time is probably nearly impossible, and not worth our time. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.249|108.162.221.249]] 19:12, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

So he was one of the good guys?
Not like the other guards and related personnel who didn't want anyone to know they were intimately involved in any of what they were so intimately involved with?
Someone tell me how the USA isn't a working example of Nazi Germany.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 08:01, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

;Incomplete

Oh, this comic is one of the "more complex" ones. The time line (not the comic sequence) is starting with the US failures to archive space flight in the 1950's, then referring to Nazis, and by the end we are on the current US space policy, which is also highly questionable.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:51, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean by one of the "more complex" ones, it is actually pretty straightforward. Some nitpicking though: there was no US failure to achieve space flight in the 50s; both the US and the USSR did it within 4 months of each other at the end of 1957/beginning of 1958. A little history lesson:
The Space Race didn't begin until July of 1955, when the US announced its intention to launch Earth-orbiting satellites sometime between July 1st 1957 and December 31st 1958. The USSR followed suit shortly afterwards, and by the end of August 1955 the Soviet Academy of Sciences created a commission (i.e. offered support and possibly some sort of incentive) for the sole purpose of beating the US into space - which they ended up doing with Sputnik 1 (10/04/57) and 2 (11/03/57). The creation of that commission is considered the start of the space race. The US launched its first successful satellite a few months after the Sputniks, the Explorer 1, on February 1, 1958, well within what most people would call the 1950s. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.80|108.162.216.80]] 19:53, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Which is not to say that Maria Cary is a rocket scientist or not, as the case may be.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 08:21, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
Doh Shania Twain. (It's amazing what you can learn when you check your spelling.)[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 08:21, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Amazing how Randall can take heinous ideas of which any rational person would be ashamed to even think, put them in the mouth of Blackhat, and it's not only fine, but hilarious. Bravo. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.236|108.162.219.236]] 18:41, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1550: Episode VII

2015-07-13T15:12:08Z

108.162.219.236: /* Euphemism */ new section

Shouldn't the "Hooded Man" be called "Luke Skywalker" in the transcription, since the comic implies that he is?--[[Special:Contributions/188.114.103.243|188.114.103.243]] 13:28, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

For anybody interested, the ''dropping of eaves'' is not an actual activity:

==== [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eavesdropping#Etymology Wikipedia on etymology of eavesdropping] ====

'''Eavesdrop''': "The dripping of water from the eaves of a house; the ground on which such water falls". An eavesdropper was one who stood at the eavesdrop (where the water fell, i.e., near the house) so as to overhear what was said inside.

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.206|108.162.229.206]] 09:10, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

----

'''Question''': Is there a joke in the J. J. Abrams credit?

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.206|108.162.229.206]] 09:10, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

::J. J. Abrams is actually the director / producer of the film in question, Episode VII: The Force Awakens [[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 11:04, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

::I want to think the format of the comic is a parody of the opening of ''Alias'' or pne of Abrams's other television series. (You would get the title card, a brief sequence to set up the particular episode, then the "Directed by" credit. I'm not absolutely sure since it's been some time since I saw one of those series.) [[User:Rawmustard|Rawmustard]] ([[User talk:Rawmustard|talk]]) 13:38, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Staying on the topic of J. J. Abrams... Why no lens flares? - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.178|108.162.222.178]] 12:11, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

I assumed the hooded man was Luke Skywalker. Is there anyone else it reasonably could be? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 13:30, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

== Euphemism ==

I'm sorry, ever since I first saw Episode IV in the 90s, I always interpreted "pick up some power converters" to mean "cruise for dudes", especially given how the line was delivered. Even Uncle Owen seemed to share my sentiment.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.236|108.162.219.236]] 15:12, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1542: Scheduling Conflict

2015-06-26T08:14:37Z

108.162.219.236:

What happened to my transcript? I came here, found no page created, put the template up with a transcript and now it's all been overwritten. :P [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:19, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
:What happened is that you created the page [[1542]], but that is only mean to be a ''redirect page'' that leads to this page: [[1542: Scheduling Conflict]]. The bot that creates this automatically deleted your transcript when it did it's magic. You can still find you transcript on the 1542 page in the history. (You will have to press the 1542 in the ''(Redirected from 1542)'' at the top of the page to go that page). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:34, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
::@Jarod997 -- I think there might have been a scheduling conflict. [[User:Ahem|Ahem]] ([[User talk:Ahem|talk]]) 16:41, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
::@Kynde Ah ha! Tyvm for the explanation. I was wondering though why I wasn't seeing any page up - was the bot a little slow yesterday? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:26, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

In the explanation, I thought it was more a play on an oxymoron of a bunch of people who are good at fixing scheduling conflicts, only to have a contest in which they're entered be cancelled because of a scheduling conflict. I was going to put this in the explanation (which was blank at the time), but then someone overwrote me - and quite ironically a conflict arose. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:26, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
:Certainly these were my first thoughts. (Championships must take place after (often regional) qualifying Heats, and those that ascend to the final level then need to make themselves available for the ultimate play-offs.) It's possibly the inverse (conflict-creation!), but getting through the preliminaries might be like the old joke of losing out on the competition to become Village Idiot to the competitor ''who didn't turn up''! With ''neither'' of the two sought-after contacts available, either they've not resolved to ensure that at least one of them is contactable at all times, or else they've managed to put aside all other commitments (''including'' the Championships?) to finally get some time together ''with each other''... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.30|141.101.98.30]] 16:39, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
My original take was similar to that of Jarod997- the cancellation wasn't due to anything the participants did/didn't do, but that the competition itself had a scheduling conflict (like the venue was double-booked or something). [[User:AnInsideJoke|AnInsideJoke]] ([[User talk:AnInsideJoke|talk]]) 18:23, 24 June 2015 (UTC)AnInsideJoke
: Sure but that is just not funny, and it does not explain why nobody could be reached for comment [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 20:02, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
:: Because they were too embarrassed over their inability to fix the scheduling conflict over the scheduling conflict championships. [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 22:50, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps it's somethin about the US elections or any debate (we didn't recieve any news here at south, im at Brazil hehehehhehe), but a debate is a national event with conflicts chanpionships and it is scheduled. I recon that is something with the schedule of US elections debate, perhaps it was cancled or just changed. perhaps i was seeing the light reflect on mars and was flashed with the M.I.B. memory flash hehehehehehhehehehehehhe. [[User:Gabrielpenalber|gabrielpenalber]] ([[User User:Gabrielpenalber|talk]])

A few remarks, but I'll leave it to someone better versed in the English language to work it into the explanation if he/she wishes to:
- Is this an American thing, to assume the current world champion must be last year's national champion?
- there is a play on words in the title(s), they would be read as "National Scheduling Conflict: Championships canceled" which begs the question "Which championships?". It is only when reading the NSCC banner that you could assume something like the "National Scheduling Conflict Championships" exists.
- How did they get a world champion if the championships are presumably always cancelled? Does that mean the prize is claimed anyway or that the champion is actualy not as good at scheduling conflicts as all those people cancelling because of scheduling conflicts.
- Now I'm overthinking, but there is no reason for a spokesperson to be a good at the activity of the organisation he/she is spokesperson for, or is there? {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.116}}
-

This reminds me a lot of comic #1466: Phone checking. Both are about an obscure championship, and both are interrupted by the nature of said championship. --[[User:Quantanaut|Quantanaut]] ([[User talk:Quantanaut|talk]]) 17:08, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

So (as commented on briefly by an earlier person) I initially read the newspaper headline as National Scheduling Conflict: Championships Cancelled, which is the most obvious reading the way it's stylized, although obviously the picture doesn't make sense in this context. But I think this is intended, that you first read it that way then you look at the picture and go "oh".--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.195|108.162.215.195]] 19:36, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
: Yeah, I also thought that's what it said. Maybe a mention of {{w|syntactic ambiguity}} in the explanation would be worthwhile? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.96|108.162.221.96]] 02:25, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
::Honestly the idea that it was two separate sentences never actually occurred to me at all, since while having it as one sentence makes sense as a joke (especially considering other things in XKCD, like the Tautology Society), whereas the way you're suggesting it isn't a joke. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 00:27, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Is there any significant scheduling conflict going on Randall's life right now or his recent past that served as impetus for this comic? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.35|108.162.220.35]] 02:20, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
:That'd explain why the last few weeks/month of comics seemed to have been delayed until later in the day.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.236|108.162.219.236]] 08:14, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

I think there could be a reference to the very common political ploy of using a "scheduling conflict" as an excuse to miss an event where the politician expects to be challenged or questioned on an issue he wishes to avoid. This is so frequent that it has become a cliché in American politics. [[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 06:58, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

Seems like a remarkably convoluted explanation rather than the simpler one that it is the National Scheduling Conflict Championships (NSCC) which have been cancelled, the joke being the obvious one [[User: Stumpy|Stumpy]]