explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:984: Space Launch System

2015-03-09T19:12:08Z

108.162.221.249: Seriously?

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)

1040: Lakes and Oceans

2014-12-30T10:39:55Z

108.162.221.249: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1040
| date = April 9, 2012
| title = Lakes and Oceans
| image = lakes and oceans.png
| titletext = James Cameron has said that he didn't know its song would be so beautiful. He didn't close the door in time. He's sorry.
}}

==Explanation==
[http://xkcd.com/1040/large Full size image (2.5MB — 2592×1728)]

This comic is a scale representation of our lakes and oceans, with an emphasis on how little we know about our oceans. It shows the depths and lengths to in relative scale. The ''{{w|Edmund Fitzgerald}}'' was a {{w|Great Lakes}} freighter which sank in 1975. The {{w|Russian submarine Kursk (K-141)|''Kursk'' (K-141)}} was a {{w|Russian}} nuclear submarine which sank in 2000 after an explosion. The {{w|RMS Lusitania|RMS ''Lusitania''}} was a {{w|British}} ocean liner which was famously sunk in 1915, eventually prompting the {{w|United States}} to enter {{w|World War I}}. All three of these ships were sunk in water that was shallower than they were long. The shortest was the ''Kursk'', which was 154 metres long, and sunk in water only 100 metres deep.

Also on the diagram is the {{w|RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic''}}, which famously sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, and the ''{{w|Seawise Giant}}'', which is the largest ship ever built, at 485 metres. It was scrapped in 2010. The {{w|Deepwater Horizon}} is an offshore oil well which made headlines after an explosion in 2010 caused the {{w|Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill|world's largest oil spill}}. The skyscraper the {{w|Burj Khalifa}} is also shown. The Burj Khalifa is the world tallest manmade structure, and is located in the city of {{w|Dubai}}, in the {{w|United Arab Emirates}}. The {{w|Chilean}} mine showed on the far right is the {{w|San José Mine}}, which suffered a {{w|2010 Copiapó mining accident|collapse}} in 2010, trapping 33 men 700 metres underground for 69 days. The {{w|Kola Superdeep Borehole}} also shown on the right was a {{w|Soviet}} (and later Russian) research project attempting to drill as deep into the {{w|earth's crust}} as possible. It was abandoned in 2005, after reaching a record of 12,262 metres deep.

Also shown are several notable bodies of water. There are the Great Lakes: {{w|Lake Superior}}, {{w|Lake Michigan}}, {{w|Lake Huron}}, {{w|Lake Erie}}, and {{w|Lake Ontario}}. {{w|Death Valley}} is a large, desert valley in {{w|California}}, named because the deadly climate and dry environment support very few life forms. {{w|Great Slave Lake}} is the deepest lake in {{w|North America}}, and is located in the {{w|North West Territories}}, in {{w|Canada}}. {{w|Crater Lake}} is located in {{w|Oregon}}, and is the deepest lake in the United States. {{w|Loch Ness}} is the {{w|Scotland|Scottish}} lake which is the location of the alleged "{{w|Loch Ness Monster}}". {{w|Lake Baikal}} is located in {{w|Russia}} and {{w|Mongolia}}, and is the world's deepest lake. On the far right side of the image is the {{w|Dead Sea}}, a lake near {{w|Jordan}} and {{w|Israel}} which is characterized for having such high salt levels that the waters cannot sustain life (and thus, it's literally a "dead" sea).

In the water, the ''{{w|Andrea Gail}}'' was a ship that sunk in a {{w|1991 Perfect Storm|storm}} in 1991, and was later eulogized with a {{w|The_Perfect_Storm_(book)|book}} and {{w|The_Perfect_Storm_(film)|film}}. Several depth limits are shown, including the {{w|free-diving}} record (273 metres), the {{w|scuba diving}} record (330 metres), the depth bike tires go flat (approximately 100 metres), the depth at which water rushes in instead of air rushing out (approximately 2000 metres), the pressure that would push a cork into a bottle (approximately 250 metres), the depth that would push water up a faucet (approximately 75 metres), the depth an {{w|emperor penguin}} can dive (535 metres), the depth limit of an {{w|Ohio-class submarine|''Ohio''-class submarine}} (240 metres), the depth limit of a {{w|Typhoon-class submarine|''Typhoon''-class submarine}} (400 metres), the depth limit of a {{w|blue whale}} (500 metres), and the depth a {{w|leatherback sea turtle}} can dive (1280 metres).

The comic also illustrates how {{w|sperm whales}} can dive as deep as 3000 metres (though don't frequently go deeper than 400 metres). It is presumed that they dive so deep to feed on {{w|giant squid}}, which can be found as deep as 3000 metres but, to our knowledge, are more commonly found in depths of 300 to 1000 metres. The fact that sperm whales can dive so deep and come up battered emphasizes Randall's point that we know so little about our oceans. Also shown are the depth limit of the {{w|DSV Alvin|DSV ''Alvin''}}, a deep-sea vessel, the {{w|mid-ocean ridge}}, an underwater mountain range which could be considered to be the largest mountain range in the world, the {{w|Puerto Rico Trench}} (and the included {{w|Milwaukee Deep}}), which is the deepest part of the {{w|Atlantic Ocean}}, at 8648 metres, and the {{w|Mariana Trench|Marianas Trench}}, the deepest point of the {{w|Pacific Ocean}} at 10,944 metres. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, pressure is as high as 1086 {{w|bar (unit)|bars}} and {{w|Xenophyophore|life forms}} have been found at depths as low as 10,641 metres.

The marked {{w|abyssal plains}} are a deep-sea plain believed to hold a very diverse array of life forms, but are largely unexplored. The stick figures of {{w|David Bowie}} and {{w|Freddie Mercury}} are a reference to Bowie's and Queen's songs "{{w|Under Pressure}}". The label "the abyss" with its sublabel of "it's rude to stare" is a reference to the {{w|Friedrich Nietzsche}} quote, "when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back".

The door at the bottom of the {{w|Marianas Trench}} is a reference to {{w|James Cameron}}'s attempt to reach the bottom of the trench in his ''{{w|Deepsea Challenger}}'' vessel, which he filmed with 3D cameras in 2012.

The title text's allusion of music playing when Cameron opened this door may or may not be referencing anything. However, possibilities include:
*The door positioned as a hatch could reference the hatch in the ''{{w|Lost (TV series)|Lost}}'' television series, which characters spent several seasons trying to get into, and reaching it ultimately led to many deaths and calamities.
*It also could be a reference to {{w|H. P. Lovecraft}}: his stories often contain things locked away that shouldn't be released, such as {{w|Cthulhu}} and {{w|Azathoth}}, the latter of these is connected to music, but not to oceans, and the former of which to oceans, but not music.

==Transcript==
:[A Map of lakes and oceans showing the depths of various lakes and ocean attributes.]

:Lakes and Oceans Depths and animal/ship/boat lengths are to scale; horizontal distance is not.

:Fun Fact: The ''Edmund Fitzgerald'', The Kursk, and The Lusitania all sank in water shallower than they were long.

:Edmund Fitzgerald
:Lake Superior
:Lake Michigan
:Lake Huron
:Lake Erie
:Lake Ontario
:Death Valley
:Great Slave Lake Crater
:Lake Loch Ness
:Lake Baikal
:Burj Khalifa
:Kursk
:Lusitania Aircraft carrier
:Titanic
:Seawise Giant (largest ship ever)
:Free-diving depth record Andrea Gail (probably)
:Scuba record
:Bike tires go flat Pressure at this depth would force water up a household faucet
:Emperor penguin
:Ohio-class nuclear sub depth limit
:Typhoon-class nuclear sub depth limit
:Blue whale
:Leatherback turtle
:Deepwater horizion
:Dead sea
:Kola borehole: Soviet project to try to drill through the Earth's crust to the mantle just to see what would happen. Russians are awesome.
:Chilean mine collapse
:miner refuge Sperm whales dive this deep (they come up covered in wounds and sucker marks, so presumably there are big squid down here? ... man, we know nothing about the ocean.)
:Mid-ocean ridge
:Titanic (sunk bow & stern)
:Abyssal plain
:Alvin depth limit
:David Bowie & Freddie Mercury Puerto Rico
:Trench Milwaukee
:Deep Marianas
:Trench Challenger
:Deep Mysterious door which James Cameron built his sub to reach and open. He will not say what he found within.
:Mauna Kea, Hawaii (accurate horizontal scale)
:Marianas trench
:OIL

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]

647: Scary

2014-09-14T18:08:25Z

108.162.221.249: Grammar!!!

{{comic
| number = 647
| date = October 9, 2009
| title = Scary
| image = scary.png
| titletext = I'm teaching every 8-year-old relative to say this, and every 14-year-old to do the same thing with Toy Story. Also, Pokemon hit the US over a decade ago and kids born after Aladdin came out will turn 18 next year.
}}

==Explanation==
Uncle [[Rob]] is telling his eight-year-old nephew a ghost story, employing such stereotyped devices as a flash light-lit face and stock ghost story endings. Normally you do not look for the head of a ghost, but of a body - then the ghost may be a headless one.

Rob's precocious nephew thus characterizes the ghost story as "lame," meaning that it was unimpressive or unconvincingly feeble. His uncle Rob ask him if he can come up with something scarier. Sure he says and offers the much scarier notion that even though he has been born after {{w|9/11}} he is already old enough to be able to have this kind of conversation.

No hidden meaning here, but this sure is scary for many adults. What's being implied here is that time seems to be moving really quickly and we're getting older faster than we think. Events that seem like they "just happened" have happened long enough ago for a whole other person to come into existence, grow up, and learn to carry on a conversation. Every time we get reminded of this fact, it can be scary, as you then realize that you are now closer to your death...

9/11 was a terrorist attack in the United States in 2001, on September 11th. Major events such as the assassination of {{w|Assassination of John F. Kennedy|Kennedy}}, the Moon Landing of {{w|Apollo 11}} or 9/11 are easily memorable. It is often said that "everyone remembers where they were when they first heard...". In consequence, these events act as milestones in our memory. They are recalled more vividly, and seem more recent. Today this is maybe also topping the {{w|Attack on Pearl Harbor}} happened in 1941.

The title text mentions that [[Randall]] is teaching his 8 year old relatives to say the same as in the comic — presumably to the annoyance of his older relatives who will be reminded of the fast passage of time. He does not stop here, but teaches the 14 year old's to say they are born after {{w|Toy Story}} — a major block buster hit from {{w|Pixar}} which came out in 1995. A movie many people will remember fondly and feel just came out the other day... He continues with these scary thoughts by mentioning that {{w|Pokémon}} (1996) came out over a decade ago and that kids born after the big {{w|Disney}} hit movie {{w|Aladdin_(1992_Disney_film)|Aladdin}} from 1992 will turn 18 next year (i.e. in 2010 a year after this comic was published).

[[Randall]] has since this comic tried to make people feel old several times in [[891: Movie Ages]], [[973: MTV Generation]] and [[1393: Timeghost]].

==Transcript==
:[First panel: Rob and his nephew are sitting on the ground. Rob is holding a flash-light up to his face.]
:Rob: But they ''never found the ghost's head!''
:Nephew: Lame story, Uncle Rob.
:Rob: And you could do scarier?
:Nephew: Sure.

:[Second panel: Rob has removed the flash-light from his face.]
:Rob: Try me.
:Nephew: 9/11 happened before I was born, yet I'm old enough to have this conversation with you.

:[Third panel: Rob has dropped the flash-light.]

:[Last panel: Rob has curled up and wrapped his arms around himself.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]