explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1732: Earth Temperature Timeline

2016-09-13T11:20:17Z

108.162.229.49: Removing pointless trivia about black body color, since it's clearly not related to the comic.

{{comic
| number = 1732
| date = September 12, 2016
| title = Earth Temperature Timeline
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = earth_temperature_timeline.png
| titletext = [After setting your car on fire] Listen, your car's temperature has changed before.
}}

==Explanation==
{{TOC}}
{{incomplete|[[#Table of all elements|Table for explanations]] now ready to be filled out. Please remove this tag only when everything is explained.}}
In the past 100 years, human action produced lots of {{w|CO₂ emissions}}, which have caused a rise in average global temperature through the {{w|greenhouse effect}}. This is called {{w|global warming}} and is part of a {{w|climate change}}, a subject that has become a [[:Category:Climate change|recurrent subject]] on xkcd. There are still many people who claim that this is not happening, or at least that it is not caused by any human actions, called "climate change deniers". One argument of theirs is that global warming is happening for natural causes, summarized with the phrase "temperature has changed before". This comic is a direct, but much more thorough, follow up on the previous global warming comic: [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]].

This comic shows that while temperature changes have indeed occurred before, the speed of the current temperature rise is much, much faster than those seen (actually: estimated) in the previous thousands of years.

This comic is a [[:Category:Timelines|timeline]] on how the temperature has changed since 20,000 BCE to the present day and extrapolated 84 years on from present day of the release of the comic (2016) to 2100 depending on the choice of actions to stop CO₂ emission that is taken now or never. It is meant to contrast the slow-paced natural changes with the rapid temperature rise in the recent years. The effect is achieved by forcing the reader to scroll endlessly through slow, building-up changes and then face them with an almost instantaneous, quick rise towards the end. The temperature curve is a dotted line most of the time, but from about 1850 to present day (2016) the measurement data is good enough to let the curve become a solid line indicating that this is not an estimate. Before 1850 the temperature is an estimate bases on the [[#Sources|sources]] given. And likewise into the future the curve is also dotted as this is predictions. And here there are even three possible outcomes depending on how seriously politicians and other influential people (and the population of Earth) take knowledge (and comics) like this.

Below in the [[#Table of all elements|table]] each entry will be noted and explained (in time). This is one of the comics where Randall cites his [[#Sources|sources]] like he did for one of his other very large comics [[980: Money]].

The title text compares the saying that "the temperature has changed before" comparing temperature changes over thousands of years to the rapid global warming over the last century with saying that the "small" changes to the temperature a car experiences over the years of normal usage should not make you worried over the rapid temperature increase that happens when someone burns your car. A related joke was used recently in [[1693: Oxidation]].

===Table of all elements===
*Here is table (to be filled out) of all elements with explanations including reading of temperature and year for each event from the curve.
*Table ready for use:
**The year group is just an easy way to find the section.
**The actual year of an event should be read off more precisely on the chart.
***Suggestion for doing this:
***Top part of element
***Central part of element
***Other?
**Element is a description mainly taken from the transcript. Feel free to remove redundant information, but the guess was that getting the table ready was the most important feature for getting the explanation started.
**T (°C) should be read of for the curve for every element.
**Explanation explains itself.
{| class="wikitable"
!Year group
!Element
!Year
!T (°C)
!Explanation
|-
| rowspan="2"| 20000 BCE
| [An arrow goes from the dotted line to the central line at 0°C. In the middle of the line there is a temperature label:] 4.3°C At the start of our timeline, 22,000 years ago, Earth is 4°C colder than during the late 20th century. || 20000 BCE || -4.3 || The temperature at the beginning of the chart compared to the average from 1961-1990 that we compare temperatures with today.
|-

| {{w|Boston}} is buried under almost a mile of ice, and the {{w|glaciers}} reach as far south as {{w|New York City}}. [The Statue of Liberty is shown in front of a glacier front. A guy with a white {{w|knit cap}} is seen walking in a snowy landscape. The skyline of Boston is shown under a half a mile of ice.] || 19700 BCE || -4.3 || The Boston image is directly taken from [[1225: Ice Sheets]] about the ice age glacier coverage and the guy with the white knit cap could be the guy from [[1321: Cold]] also about global warming. It shows what a difference 4 degree in global temperature means (massive effect), as opposed to what four degree means on a daily weather wise scale (nothing!). [[Randall]] lives in Boston. It was also shown buried in ice in [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]]. Knit caps have only been used a few times in xkcd, most prominently on [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|Knit Cap Girl]] in [[1350: Lorenz]], see her section for more details.

|-
| rowspan="3"| 19500 BCE
| But the world is about to warm up. || || ||
|-
| By this time, humans have already spread across Africa, Eurasia, and Australia. || || ||
|-
| They’ve created painting, pottery, rope, and bows and arrows, but haven’t developed writing or farming. || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 19000 BCE
| Changes in the Earth’s orbit mean that more sunlight reaches the polar ice… || || ||Last North American '''Pokémon go''' extinct — as prehistoric [[Megan]] states, this is not a real fact. Pokémon are still thriving throughout the entire world (see [[1705: Pokémon Go]]), and are most commonly found near regions of dense human habitation.
|-
| [A line chart with a labeled Y-axis "Summer sun W/m2 at 60°N" with three labeled ticks ranging from 450-550. The curve starts up and then goes down five times and up four times ending down. There is one plateau towards the end compared to the rest of the curve where the ups and downs are quite alike.] || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 18500 BCE
| [A map of the world. At the top is a light gray area covering North America, Greenland and northern Europe and most of the northern part of Russia. A similar gray area covers Antarctica. The gray areas are labeled as ice.] || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 18000 BCE
| …And the ice sheets start to melt. || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 17500 BCE
| Temperatures have been creeping upward, but around this point, CO2 levels start to climb…|| || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 17000 BCE
| …And then the warming speeds up. || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 16500 BCE
| [Cueball is standing with a spear just the right of the graph talking to a rabbit.] Cueball: Still pretty cold. || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 16000 BCE
| [Megan points to the graph to the right of her and between her and Ponytail standing on the other side. Mean is the first drawing on the left side of the dotted curve, which has hardly moved since the beginning, only to just on the other side of 4°C.] || || ||
|-
| [In the right part of the chart is an explanation of the data. Below the first two lines there are four drawings each showing possible temperature swings in reality compared to the smoothed data that represents the dotted curve of the entire chart. The dotted curve is shown in all four drawings and a thin line is shown running along it but with much more fluctuation left and right on the first two, a large spike right on the third and a large bump way right on the fourth. Above these there are two labels. The first labels is inside a bracket that covers the first three, and the last label is for the last drawing. Below is a list of sources.] Limits of this data: Short warming or cooling spikes might be “smoothed out” by these reconstructions but only if they’re small or brief enough. Possible Unlikely Reconstructions are from Shakun (2012) and Marcott (2013), scaled to Annan + Hargreaves (2013) estimate for the last glacial period. || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 15500 BCE
| In what is now France, humans paint murals on the walls of the Lascaux caves [Hairy paints three animals, two with horns, and two humans, Cueball holding hand with Hairy who has a spear. On the other side of the central line Megan writes three letters, the last of which is reversed:] NIИ || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 15000 BCE
| Ice sheets around Alaska shrink, exposing a land bridge between Asia and North America [From around the bottom if this section and down to 11500 BCE the dotted curve moved steadily to the right towards warmed temperature peaking close to -1.5°C. Before this the temperature had not moved much away from that at the start.] || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 14500 BCE
| [Cueball walks right looking back at the graph behind him. Megan walks in front of him pointing further right.] | Cueball: Cool. || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 14000 BCE
| The edge of the ice withdraws from New York City and retreats North. || || ||
|-
| [A large glacier front speaks in a speech bubble with an arrow pointing at it. Behind is there are four peaks in the horizon and in front of it three small melting pools and some rocks on the ground.] Glacier: ''That’s it1 I’m moving to Canada!'' || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 13500 BCE
| Humans domesticate dogs (Date uncertain, may be much earlier) || || ||
|-
|| [Megan and Cueball is watching a wolf looking at them.] Megan: Okay, you can live in our homes and we’ll feed you, but we’ll still get mad f you poop on the floor. Wolf: Deal. Cueball: And we get to breed you to be tiny and dress you in little costumes Wolf: …Wait. || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 13000 BCE
| {{w|Woolly Rhino}} goes extinct || || ||
|-
| Oregon is scoured by huge floods as glacial dams burst and lakes of meltwater flow to the sea || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 12500 BCE
| Ice sheets withdraw from Chicago || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 12000 BCE
| Humans settle Abu Hureyra in Syria || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 11500 BCE
| [An arrow on the left side of the dotted curve is pointing down along the dotted curve and to the left indicate temperature is declining again, meaning the dotted curve now moves left to colder temperatures. This only continues until 10500 BCE. It is only the second time something is noted on the left side after Megan at 16000 BCE] Temperatures start to decline, mainly in the Northern hemisphere This may be caused by changes in ocean circulation due to the floods of cold fresh meltwater flowing into the Atlantic as the North American ice sheet melts. This cooler period is called the Younger Dryas || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 11000 BCE
| [This is the first text to the left of the dotted curve:] Humans reach Argentina || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 10500 BCE
| [An arrow pointing down along the right side of the dotted curve and to the right indicate temperature is increasing again, meaning the dotted curve now moves right to hotter temperatures. This continues until 8000 BCE where it levels out just above 0°C.] Warming resumes || || ||
|-
| Human settlements at Jericho || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 10000 BCE
| First development of farming || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 9500 BCE
| Saber-toothed cat goes extinct || || ||
|-
| Horses disappear from North America || || ||

|-
| rowspan="4"| 9000 BCE
| | Last North American Pokémon go extinct [Cueball with a speak and Megan is looking up at this last “fact”.] Megan: That is not a real fact. || || ||
|-
| Temperatures reach modern levels || || ||
|-
| Rising seas cut off the land bridge between North America and Asia || || ||
|-
| {{w|Cattle}} domesticated || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 8500 BCE
| Ice sheets retreat across the Canadian border || || ||
|-
| Temperatures start to level out slightly above 1961-1990 levels || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 8000 BCE
| [The above sentence breaks over the 8000 BCE line. From here a maximum in temperature on the chart is reached at 0.5°C which will not be overtaken until 2000 CE. It stays almost constant here until 5000 BCE where a slight cooling begins.] || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 7500 BCE
| This warm, stable period is called the Holocene Climate Optimum || || ||
|-
| {{w|Jiahu}} settled in China || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 7000 BCE
| Final collapse of the North American ice sheet leads to rapid 2-4m sea level rise… || || ||
|-
| [A small arrow points down and left to the right of the dotted curve. There is a small decrease in temperature but it is very small and would have been missed without the arrow and label.] …And a period of cooling in the Northern hemisphere || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 6500 BCE
| As seas rise to near their modern levels, Britain is cut off from mainland Europe || || ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 6000 BCE
| Humans develop copper metalworking || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 5500 BCE
| Massive volcanic eruption in Oregon creates crater lake || || ||
|-
| {{w|Gold}} metalworking || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 5000 BCE
| {{w|Invention of the wheel}} || || ||
|-
| [To the right of the dotted curve is an arrow pointing down and slightly left. From here temperature decreases very slowly but steadily from 0.5°C until 1000 BCE where a stable plateau is reached around 0°C.] Earth begins to cool slowly mainly due to regular cycles in its orbit || || ||

|-
| rowspan="3"| 4500 BCE
| Proto-Indo-European language develops || || ||
|-
| [To the right of the curve Ponytail holds up a hand towards Cueball.] Ponytail: Let’s make out language heavily inflected, so future students have to memorize a zillion verb endings! Cueball: Okay! || || ||[[Ponytail]] refers to [[1709: Inflection]].
|-
| Permanent settlements in the fertile crescent || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 4000 BCE
| Horses domesticated || || ||
|-
| {{w|Minoan civilization|Minoan}} culture arises on Crete || || ||

|-
| rowspan="4"| 3500 BCE
| {{w|Egyptian mummification}} || || ||
|-
| Rise of the Indus Valley civilization || || ||
|-
| Invention of writing in Sumer “prehistory” ends, “history” begins || || ||
|-
| Earliest human whose name we know (Pharaoh Iry-Hor in Egypt) || || ||

|-
| rowspan="5"| 3000 BCE
| {{w|Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors}} period in China || || ||
|-
| {{w|Gilgamesh}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Imhotep}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Maya civilization|Mayan}} culture emerges || || ||
|-
| {{w|Egyptian pyramids|Great Pyramid}} constructed || || ||

|-
| rowspan="3"| 2500 BCE
| {{w|Corded Ware culture}} in Europe || || ||
|-
| [To the left of the curve two rock musicians with long hair and electrical guitars are standing on either side of a small gate made of three slabs of stone, one on top of the other two standing stones.] Stonehenge completed || 2250 || || The drawing is a reference to the 1984 movie "This is Spinal Tap" (A documentary/parody featuring the fake metal band "Spinal Tap", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/), the musicians order a Stone Henge prop for the stage, which turns out to be too small (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAXzzHM8zLw)
|-
| {{w|Chariots}} developed || || ||

|-
| rowspan="3"| 2000 BCE
| {{w|Alphabetic writing}} developed in Egypt || || ||
|-
| Last mammoths on a tiny Siberian island go extinct || || ||
|-
| {{w|Minoan eruption}} || || ||

|-
| rowspan="5"| 1500 BCE
| {{w|Iron smelting}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Olmec}} civilization develops in Central America || || ||
|-
| [A Trojan horse with two Cueball-like guys in front and a third standing on its back. Its back is at three Cueball’s height and its head rises to the level of the Cueball on its back. It stands on a platform with four wheel on the visible side. There is text on the horse] Setting of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' Text on horse: Not a trap || || ||
|-
| Invasion of the Sea peoples* * A real thing || || ||
|-
| {{w|Polynesians}} explore the Pacific Ocean || || ||

|-
| rowspan="8"| 1000 BCE
| [From 1000 BBC to 1000 CE the temperature is stable and very close to 0°C.] || || ||
|-
| {{w|Solomon}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Iliad}} and {{w|Odyssey}} composed || || ||
|-
| Rise of Greek city-states || || ||
|-
| {{w|Neo-Assyrian}} empire || || ||
|-
| First Olympics || || ||
|-
| {{w|Zapotec civilization|Zapotec}} writing in modern Mexico || || ||
|-
| {{w|Confucius}} || || ||

|-
| rowspan="10"| 500 BCE
| The stuff in the 300 (film)|movie ''300'', but regular speed and with more clothing || || ||
|-
| {{w|Buddha}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Nazca Lines}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Alexander the Great}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Mayan hieroglyphics}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Ashoka the Great}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Paper}} invented || || ||
|-
| {{w|Asterix}} || || ||
|-
| {{w| Teotihuacan|Teotihuacán}} metropolis || || ||
|-
| {{w|Julius Caesar}} || || ||
|-

|-
| rowspan="8"|1 BCE 1 CE
| [At the year 0, there is instead two numbers for each of the two scales before (1 BCE) and after Christ (1 CE)] || || ||
|-
| {{w|Roman Empire}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Jesus}} || || ||
|-
| [To the left and erupting volcano.] {{w|Pompeii}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Three Kingdoms}} period || || ||
|-
| {{w|Gupta empire}} || || ||
|-
| Various groups take turns sacking Rome || || ||
|-
| {{w|Attila the Hun}} || || ||

|-
| rowspan="4"| 500 CE
| {{w|Muhammad}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Tang Dynasty}} || || ||
|-
| [An arrow to the right of the dotted curve pointing down, takes a swing far out from the curve and then bends back again. The text label next to it breaks into the next 500 period. The dotted curve stays stable at 0°C along this arrow.] Medieval warm period in Europe and some northern regions (too regional to affect the global average much) || || ||
|-
| {{w|Leif Eriksson}} || || ||

|-
| rowspan="7"| 1000 CE
| [The dotted curve moves to the left towards lower temperature reaching a minimum around 1650 of about -0.6°C at the Little Ice Age.] || || ||
|-
| [To the left a drawing of a compass with needle pointing the black end towards north west. There are labels for the four main directions (N, S, E, W) and a label next to it:] Magnetic compass navigation || || ||
|-
| {{w|Ghengis Khan}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Zheng He}}’s fleet explores Asia and Africa || || ||
|-
| {{w|Aztec Empire|Aztec Alliance}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Printing press}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Christopher Columbus|Columbus}} || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 1500 CE
| {{w|European Renaissance}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Shakespeare}} || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 1600
| {{w|Isaac Newton|Newton}} || || ||
|-
| [To the right of the dotted curve there is an arrow pointing down that makes a swing in towards the curve and then back out again. At -0.6°C this is the coldest it has been since 9500 BCE. It is labeled:] ”Little Ice Age” || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 1700
| {{w|Steam engines}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|United States Declaration of Independence|Unites States Independence}} || || ||

|-
| rowspan="3"| 1800
| {{w|Industrial Revolution}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Electrical telegraph|Telegraphs}} || || ||
|-
| [After this the dotted curve becomes solid.] || || ||

|-
| rowspan="6"| 1900
| {{w|Airplanes}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|World Wars}} || || ||
|-
| [The solid line takes a step to the right close to 0°C. Over the rest of the 1900s it moves closer to 0°C crossing it before 2000 where it almost reaches the maximum temperature of 0.5 °C from earlier in 8000 BCE.] || || ||
|-
| {{w|Fossil fuel}} CO2 emissions start rapidly increasing || || ||
|-
| {{w|Nuclear weapons}} || || ||
|-
| {{w|Internet}} || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 2000
| {{w|Northwest Passage}} opens || || ||
|-
|[From here to present day the solid line increases rapidly and in 2016 present day is almost reaches 1°C, with about 0.8°C.] || || ||

|-
| rowspan="3"| 2016
| | Present day || || ||
|-
| [From here the curve once again becomes dotted as this is the future. After one dot it splits in two and after the first two dots another split between them occurs forming three possible future dotted curves.] || || ||
|-
|The first curve bending down before the others, and thus to the right of the other two reaches about 1.2°C and then goes straight down and stops at the 2100 line. An arrow points to it from the left and a label is written partly before and the rest after the 2100 line to the left of the curve:] Best-case scenario assuming immediate massive action to limit emissions || || ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 2100
| [The middle curve bends a little down after reaching 1.3°C and then continues this path reaching 2°C in 2100. An arrow point from below to it and a label is written below the curve and below 2100 line:] Optimistic scenario|| || ||
|-
| [The last line continues along the path from the last 16 years of the solid line reaching 4.2°C at 2100, almost as far on the other side of 0°C in 150 years as it took 14000 years to move from the other side from the start of the chart. Another arrow point to this from below with a label below the curve and below 2100 line:] Current Path || || ||
|}

===Sources===
The image attributes climate data sources as "Shakun et al. (2012), Marcott et al. (2013), Annan and Hargreaves (2013), HadCRUT4, IPCC":
* Shakun et al. (2012) - [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7392/full/nature10915.html Nature], [http://www.atm.damtp.cam.ac.uk/mcintyre/shakun-co2-temp-lag-nat12.pdf (pdf)]
* Marcott et al. (2013) - [http://science.sciencemag.org/content/339/6124/1198 Science], [http://www.atm.damtp.cam.ac.uk/mcintyre/shakun-co2-temp-lag-nat12.pdf (pdf)]
* Annan and Hargreaves (2013) - [http://www.clim-past.net/9/367/2013/cp-9-367-2013.html Climate of the Past] [http://www.jamstec.go.jp/frsgc/research/d5/jdannan/LGM_temp.pdf (pdf)]
* {{w|HadCRUT#HadCRUT4 wikipedia|HadCRUT4}} - [http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/ Official site]
* {{w|Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change|IPCC}} -[http://www.ipcc.ch/ Official site]

==Transcript==
'''Note''' there are several spelling errors in the comic, so please do only correct spelling errors that are not part of the comic! See more in the [[#Trivia|trivia section]].
:[A large heading, followed by a sub-caption. Below that two lines with a statement in between:]
:<big>A timeline of Earth’s average temperature</big>
:since the last ice age glaciation
:When people say “The climate has changed before,” these are the kinds of changes they’re talking about.

:[A very long chart below the headings above is headed with a label for the scale of the X-axis above the chart. Below that a sub-caption. To the left an arrow down to the top of the chart pointing to the dotted curves starting point (at -4.3°C) with a label above the arrow. And arrow pointing left to the left of the center and another pointing right to the right of the center has labels. Below these is the temperature scale of the X-axis, with 9 ticks between the borders each with a label ranging from -4 to +4°C, but with another step in each direction not labeled towards to axis so the chart covers -5 to +5°C.]
:'''Temperature'''
: Compared to the 1961-1990 average
:Start
:Colder
:Warmer
:-4°C -3°C -2°C -1°C 0°C +1°C +2°C +3°C +4°C

:[To the right of the chart is a gray text standing on the side down along the outer boarder of the chart with the sources for the chart:]
: Source: Shakun et. al. (2012) , Marcott et. al. (2013), Annan and Hargreaves (2013) , HadCRUT4, IPCC 

:[The chart is split in 10 columns by the temperature scale and the borders. The two central columns are white, and then from there to the left the background becomes a faded color that changes from light blue to blue at the edge in four steps. Similarly to the right the color changes from light red to red. To the left there is a time scale taking 500 years leaps from 20,000 BCE all the way to year 1, where there are two years, one for BBC and one for CE. The 500 year leaps continue until 1500 CE and from there the steps are down to 100 years until 2100 with also present day 2016 labeled. After 1500 the CE is omitted. The labels stop there, but there is space below covering down to 2200 CE. There is clearly visible division line across the chart on the level of each of the 500 step, and fainter lines for each of the 100 steps all the way even though only the last 5 of these 100 steps are labeled. There is a similar clear line at 2016. Below each step on the Y-axis is noted, and then any text starting before the next step is noted below indented. If there are extra image belonging to text this is indented once more. The graph that the whole chart is about is a dotted line that begins at the “start” point mentioned above at -4.3°C and then begins to go straight down. It will change left and right all the way down. To being with all text and most drawings are to right of the dotted curve. Whenever something is to the left it will be noted. When it says to the left above something, and then nothing over the next, then the next will be to the right. Only at the very bottom are there more entries to the left than right. ]
:20000 BCE
::[An arrow goes from the dotted line to the central line at 0°C. In the middle of the line there is a temperature label:]
::4.3°C
::At the start of our timeline, 22,000 years ago, Earth is 4°C colder than during the late 20th century.
::Boston is buried under almost a mile of ice, and the glaciers reach as far south as New York City.
:::[The Statue of Liberty is shown in front of a glacier front. A very tiny Cueball is on top of the glacier. The drawing is labeled and so is also the glacier.]
:::New York
:::Ice
:::[A guy with a white knit cap is seen walking in a snowy landscape leaving black footprints behind him. He walks through the white central part of the chart.]
:::[The skyline of Boston is shown with two clear buildings among all the other. Above it is a line and in between this area has been filled with thin lines. The drawing is labeled and so is this area. Also the skyline has an arrow pointing at it with a label:]
:::Boston
:::Ice
:::Modern skyline

:19500 BCE
::But the world is about to warm up.
::By this time, humans have already spread across Africa, Eurasia, and Australia.
::They’ve created painting, pottery, rope, and bows and arrows, but haven’t developed writing or farming.

:19000 BCE
::Changes in the Earth’s orbit mean that more sunlight reaches the polar ice…
:::[A line chart with a labeled Y-axis with three labeled ticks. The curve starts up and then goes down five times and up four times ending down. There is one plateau towards the end compared to the rest of the curve where the ups and downs are quite alike.]
:::Summer sun W/m2 at 60°N
:::550
:::500
:::450

:18500 BCE
::[A map of the world. At the top is a light gray area covering North America, Greenland and northern Europe and most of the northern part of Russia. A similar gray area covers Antarctica. There are two labels in the gray area above and one in the gray area below:]
::Ice Ice
::Ice

:18000 BCE
::…And the ice sheets start to melt.

:17500 BCE
::Temperatures have been creeping upward, but around this point, CO2 levels start to climb…

:17000 BCE
::…And then the warming speeds up.

:16500 BCE
::[Cueball is standing with a spear just the right of the graph talking to a rabbit.]
::Cueball: Still pretty cold.

:16000 BCE
::[Megan points to the graph to the right of her and between her and Ponytail standing on the other side. Mean is the first drawing on the left side of the dotted curve, which has hardly moved since the beginning, only to just on the other side of 4°C.]
::[In the right part of the chart is an explanation of the data. Below the first two lines there are four drawings each showing possible temperature swings in reality compared to the smoothed data that represents the dotted curve of the entire chart. The dotted curve is shown in all four drawings and a thin line is shown running along it but with much more fluctuation left and right on the first two, a large spike right on the third and a large bump way right on the fourth. Above these there are two labels. The first labels is inside a bracket that covers the first three, and the last label is for the last drawing. Below is a list of sources.]
::Limits of this data:
::Short warming or cooling spikes might be “smoothed out” by these reconstructions but only if they’re small or brief enough.
:::Possible Unlikely
::Reconstructions are from Shakun (2012) and Marcott (2013), scaled to Annan + Hargreaves (2013) estimate for the last glacial period.

:15500 BCE
::In what is now France, humans paint murals on the walls of the Lascaux caves
::[Hairy paints three animals, two with horns, and two humans, Cueball holding hand with Hairy who has a spear. On the other side of the central line Megan writes three letters, the last of which is reversed.]
:::NIИ

:15000 BCE
::Ice sheets around Alaska shrink, exposing a land bridge between Asia and North America
::[From around the bottom if this section and down to 11500 BCE the dotted curve moved steadily to the right towards warmed temperature peaking close to -1.5°C. Before this the temperature had not moved much away from that at the start.]

:14500 BCE
::[Cueball walks right looking back at the graph behind him. Megan walks in front of him pointing further right.]
::Cueball: Cool.

:14000 BCE
::The edge of the ice withdraws from New York City and retreats North.
::[A large glacier front speaks in a speech bubble with an arrow pointing at it. Behind is there are four peaks in the horizon and in front of it three small melting pools and some rocks on the ground.]
::''Glacier: That’s it1 I’m moving to Canada!''

:13500 BCE
::Humans domesticate dogs
::(Date uncertain, may be much earlier)
::[Megan and Cueball is watching a wolf looking at them.]
::Megan: Okay, you can live in our homes and we’ll feed you, but we’ll still get mad f you poop on the floor.
::Wolf: Deal.
::Cueball: And we get to breed you to be tiny and dress you in little costumes.
::Wolf: …Wait.

:13000 BCE
::[Randall did not use the normal spelling for Woolly Rhino, but this is an accepted alternative spelling:]
::Wooly Rhino goes extinct
::Oregon is scoured by huge floods as glacial dams burst and lakes of meltwater flow to the sea

:12500 BCE
::Ice sheets withdraw from Chicago

:12000 BCE
::Humans settle Abu Hureyra in Syria

:11500 BCE
::[An arrow on the left side of the dotted curve is pointing down along the dotted curve and to the left indicate temperature is declining again, meaning the dotted curve now moves left to colder temperatures. This only continues until 10500 BCE. It is only the second time something is noted on the left side after Megan at 16000 BCE]
::Temperatures start to decline, mainly in the Northern hemisphere
::This may be caused by changes in ocean circulation due to the floods of cold fresh meltwater flowing into the Atlantic as the North American ice sheet melts.
::This cooler period is called the Younger Dryas

:11000 BCE
::[This is the first text to the left of the dotted curve:]
::Humans reach Argentina

:10500 BCE
::[An arrow pointing down along the right side of the dotted curve and to the right indicate temperature is increasing again, meaning the dotted curve now moves right to hotter temperatures. This continues until 8000 BCE where it levels out just above 0°C.]
::Warming resumes
::Human settlements at Jericho

:10000 BCE
::First development of farming

:9500 BCE
::Saber-toothed cat goes extinct
::[To the left:]
::Horses disappear from North America

:9000 BCE
::[To the left, Randall spelled Pokémon wrong:]
:::Last North American Pokemon go extinct
:::[Cueball with a speak and Megan is looking up at this last “fact”.]
:::Megan: That is not a real fact.
::Temperatures reach modern levels
::Rising seas cut off the land bridge between North America and Asia
::Cattle domesticated

:8500 BCE
::Ice sheets retreat across the Canadian border
::Temperatures start to level out slightly above 1961-1990 levels

:8000 BCE
::[The above sentence breaks over the 8000 BCE line. From here a maximum in temperature on the chart is reached at 0.5°C which will not be overtaken until 2000 CE. It stays almost constant here until 5000 BCE where a slight cooling begins.]

:7500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::This warm, stable period is called the Holocene Climate Optimum
::[To the left:]
::Jiahu settled in China

:7000 BCE
::Final collapse of the North American ice sheet leads to rapid 2-4m sea level rise…
::[A small arrow points down and left to the right of the dotted curve. There is a small decrease in temperature but it is very small and would have been missed without the arrow and label.]
::…And a period of cooling in the Northern hemisphere

:6500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::As seas rise to near their modern levels, Britain is cut off from mainland Europe

:6000 BCE
::Humans develop copper metalworking

:5500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::Massive volcanic eruption in Oregon creates crater lake
::Gold metalworking

:5000 BCE
::[To the left:]
::Invention of the wheel
::[To the left. To the right of the dotted curve is an arrow pointing down and slightly left. From here temperature decreases very slowly but steadily from 0.5°C until 1000 BCE where a stable plateau is reached around 0°C.]
::Earth begins to cool slowly mainly due to regular cycles in its orbit

:4500 BCE
::[To the left:]
:: Proto-Indo-European language develops
:::[To the right of the curve Ponytail holds up a hand towards Cueball.]
:::Ponytail: Let’s make out language heavily inflected, so future students have to memorize a zillion verb endings!
:::Cueball: Okay!
::[To the left:]
::Permanent settlements in the fertile crescent

:4000 BCE
::Horses domesticated
::[To the left:]
::Minoan culture arises on Crete

:3500 BCE
::Egyptian mummification
::Rise of the Indus Valley civilization
::[To the left:]
::Invention of writing in Sumer “prehistory” ends, “history” begins
::Earliest human whose name we know
::(Pharaoh Iry-Hor in Egypt)

:3000 BCE
::''Three Sovereigns and five emperors'' period in China
::Gilgamesh
::[To the left:]
::Imhotep
::Mayan culture emerges
::[To the left:]
::Great Pyramid constructed

:2500 BCE
::Corded Ware culture in Europe
::[To the left of the curve two rock musicians with long hair and electrical guitars are standing on either side of a small gate made of three slabs of stone, one on top of the other two standing stones.]
::Stonehenge completed
::Chariots developed

:2000 BCE
::[To the left:]
::Alphabetic writing developed in Egypt
::Last mammoths on a tiny Siberian island go extinct
::[To the left:]
::Minoan eruption

:1500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::Iron smelting
::Olmec civilization develops in Central America
::[A Trojan horse with two Cueball-like guys in front and a third standing on its back. Its back is at three Cueball’s height and its head rises to the level of the Cueball on its back. It stands on a platform with four wheel on the visible side. There is text on the horse]
:::Setting of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''
:::Text on horse: Not a trap
::[To the left:]
::Invasion of the Sea peoples*
::* A real thing
::Polynesians explore the Pacific Ocean

:1000 BCE
::[From 1000 BBC to 1000 CE the temperature is stable and very close to 0°C.]
::[To the left:]
::Solomon
::[Randall spelled Iliad wrongly this time:]
::Illiad and Odyssey composed
::[To the left:]
::Rise of Greek city-states
::Neo-Assyrian empire
::[To the left:]
::First Olympics
::Zapotec writing in modern Mexico
::[To the left:]
::Confucius

:500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::The stuff in the 300 (film)|movie ''300'', but regular speed and with more clothing
::Buddha
::Nazca Lines
::[To the left:]
::Alexander the Great
::[To the left:]
::Mayan hieroglyphics
::Ashoka the Great
::[To the left:]
::Paper invented
::[To the left:]
::Asterix
::Teotihuacán metropolis
::[To the left:]
::Julius Caesar

:[At the year 0, there is instead two numbers for each of the two scales before and after Christ:]
:1 BCE
:1 CE
::[To the left:]
::Roman Empire
::Jesus
::[To the left and erupting volcano.]
::Pompeii
::Three Kingdoms period
::[To the left:]
::Gupta empire
::[To the left:]
::Various groups take turns sacking Rome
::[Randall spelled Attila wrong:]
::Atilla the Hun

:500 CE
::Muhammad
::[To the left:]
::Tang Dynasty
::[An arrow to the right of the dotted curve pointing down, takes a swing far out from the curve and then bends back again. The text label next to it breaks into the next 500 period. The dotted curve stays stable at 0°C along this arrow.]
::Medieval warm period in Europe and some northern regions (too regional to affect the global average much)
::[To the left:]
::Leif Eriksson

:1000 CE
::[The dotted curve moves to the left towards lower temperature reaching a minimum around 1650 of about -0.6°C at the Little Ice Age.]
::[To the left a drawing of a compass with needle pointing the black end towards north west. There are labels for the four main directions and a label next to it:]
:::N
:::E W
:::S
:::Magnetic compass navigation
::[To the left:]
::Ghengis Khan
::Zheng He’s fleet explores Asia and Africa
::[To the left:]
::Aztec Alliance
::[To the left:]
::Printing press
::[To the left:]
::Columbus

:1500 CE
::European Renaissance
::[To the left:]
::Shakespeare

:1600
::[To the left:]
::Newton
::[To the right of the dotted curve there is an arrow pointing down that makes a swing in towards the curve and then back out again. At -0.6°C this is the coldest it has been since 9500 BCE. It is labeled:]
::”Little Ice Age”

:1700
::Steam engines
::[To the left:]
::Unites States Independence

:1800
::Industrial Revolution
::[To the left:]
::Telegraphs
::[After this the dotted curve becomes solid.]

:1900
::[To the left, and on the line for 1900:]
::Airplanes
::[To the left:]
::World Wars
::[The solid line takes a step to the right close to 0°C. Over the rest of the 1900s it moves closer to 0°C crossing it before 2000 where it almost reaches the maximum temperature of 0.5 °C from earlier in 8000 BCE.]
::Fossil fuel CO2 emissions start rapidly increasing
::[To the left:]
::Nuclear weapons
::[To the left:]
::Internet

:2000
::Northwest Passage opens
:[From here to present day the solid line increases rapidly and in 2016 present day is almost reaches 1°C, with about 0.8°C.]
:2016
::[To the left on the line for 2016:]
::Present day
:[From here the curve once again becomes dotted as this is the future. After one dot it splits in two and after the first two dots another split between them occurs forming three possible future dotted curves. The first curve bending down before the others, and thus to the right of the other two reaches about 1.2°C and then goes straight down and stops at the 2100 line. An arrow points to it from the left and a label is written patly before and the rest after the 2100 line to the left of the curve:]
::Best-case scenario assuming immediate massive action to limit emissions

:2100
::[The middle curve bends a little down after reaching 1.3°C and then continues this path reaching 2°C in 2100. An arrow point from below to it and a label is written below the curve and below 2100 line:]
::Optimistic scenario
::[The last line continues along the path from the last 16 years of the solid line reaching 4.2°C at 2100, almost as far on the other side of 0°C in 150 years as it took 14000 years to move from the other side from the start of the chart. Another arrow point to this from below with a label below the curve and below 2100 line:]
::Current Path

==Trivia==
*The timeline starts at 20000BCE (22,000 years ago) and ends near 2200CE, thus covering 22,200 years.
*There are several spelling mistakes.
**Most obvious is the second time Randall wrote the word "Iliad," because he just spelled it correctly at 1500 BCE and then spelled it ''Illiad'' at 1000 BCE with two "L"s.
**Attila the Hun becomes ''Atilla the Hun'' with only one t.
**Pokémon is spelled ''Pokemon'', but then again that is not so strange for Randall (see [[1647: Diacritics]]).
**Note that the fact that Woolly rhinoceros becomes ''Wooly rhino'' with only one l is not a spelling mistake but an alternative spelling of the word.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
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Talk:1729: Migrating Geese

2016-09-06T12:45:40Z

108.162.229.49:

Kevin sounds familiar, has he been in a previous xkcd? [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 13:51, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

:I think Kevin is a reference to Home Alone. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.143|162.158.203.143]] 14:19, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

: [[1719: Superzoom]] also includes Kevin. [[User:Iggyvolz|Iggyvolz]] ([[User talk:Iggyvolz|talk]]) 14:22, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

: Is it a reference to the famous Reddit Kevin? https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/219w2o/whos_the_dumbest_person_youve_ever_met/cgbhkwp {{unsigned|Mcroft}}

: I thought it might be Kevin the Minion. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 14:36, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

: Perhaps it's just a generic name for the butt of a joke, like poor Steve. [[User:Papayaman1000|Papayaman1000]] ([[User talk:Papayaman1000|talk]]) 15:02, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

: At least in Germany there is something called kevinism which assumes that kevin is a name which is only given to children of poorer social groups(https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin#.E2.80.9EKevinismus.E2.80.9C). This is similar to what was mentioned as the reddit kevin. We'll probably have to wait for someone understanding the title text to be sure. [[User:Treed|Treed]] ([[User talk:Treed|talk]]) 15:04, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

: A quick Google search found this [https://www.facebook.com/hartkevin/posts/10150488674027045|a Facebook post] from {{w|Kevin Hart}}; no idea if this is the reference, or the comic and Kevin Hart are both referencing an older joke. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 15:17, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

: Probably a long shot, but "Dammit, Kevin" line sounds like a reference to Poorly Drawn Lines character Kevin (he's a bird, but I'm not sure that he's a goose). Check out this comic, for example: http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/south/ --[[User:DefaultLocale|DefaultLocale]] ([[User talk:DefaultLocale|talk]]) 16:41, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

: I immediately thought of Kevin as the bird from Up. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.95|108.162.246.95]] 16:55, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
:: Same here. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Kevin. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 11:54, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

:I assumed that 'Kevin' was a reference to the novel 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'

:I think a bunch of people have hit the nail on the head - the "reddit kevin", the "butt of a joke", the "kevinism" thing.. aside from the link to the original "reddit Kevin", there's also a subreddit based on other "Kevin"s. https://www.reddit.com/r/storiesaboutkevin [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.193|141.101.70.193]] 22:34, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

:I think it's more likely that 'Kevin' is a South Park reference. https://youtu.be/OyqdoxTEmdg [[User:Calion|Calion]] ([[User talk:Calion|talk]]) 01:14, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

:I'm 90% sure that Kevin is a reference to an Eddie Izzard skit about migrating birds. He's talking about how migrating birds find their way, but Kevin gets lost and all the other birds just follow him, assuming that he knows where he is going. But it's years since I last watched it and I can't even remember which show it's in. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.41|141.101.98.41]] 07:23, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

::No, I'm pretty sure the butt of the joke in the Izzard skit is "Steve the Bird". Unless he used different names at different times for the same skit, or unless my memory's totally wrong, both perfectly possible. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.43|108.162.229.43]] 08:22, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

:Apparently Kevin is also the codename for [http://chromeunboxed.com/new-convertible-chromebook-kevin-in-early-production-what-we-know-so-far/ a new Chromebook]. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.133.114|162.158.133.114]] 11:54, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

I think "Missing valence geese" refers to electron configuration, where they would give/take electrons to become "stable". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.66|162.158.49.66]] 14:34, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

: I thought so too and added it in the table during my edit. It's not a very good explanation though as I'm not a native English speaker. [[User:Treed|Treed]] ([[User talk:Treed|talk]]) 15:04, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

This is my first contribution here so I hope I didn't do too many things wrong, I thought if there's nothing there yet I can't break too much. Thanks for fixing the table, it looks much better now :) I don't know why you removed the part about programming though, because while it's maybe normal that geese migrate it is definitely not normal to have a guide ("Migrating") on doing so. [[User:Treed|Treed]] ([[User talk:Treed|talk]]) 14:57, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
Edit: Goose also is a network protocol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Substation_Events#Generic_Object_Oriented_Substation_Events_.28GOOSE.29) which would further support that it plays on the technical kind of migration. [[User:Treed|Treed]] ([[User talk:Treed|talk]]) 15:17, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
:Maybe it is ALSO about programming, but I do not think it is first and foremost about programming. I'm not sure what you mean about the having a guide? There is no goose designated guide? If there is some goose whose label refers directly to programming then maybe that could be explained in the table. Or later down the line after explaining goose migration. Apart from Kevin this looks very much like real geese migrating, with one arm often longer than the other and often a few birds flying inside the V. And no problem to fix the table, just found another table and copy pasted from that ;-) And hope you will add more to this wiki. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:00, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
:I understand what you mean now, it's obviously showing the animals described as "migrating geese". I for some reason thought it's meant like "Installing Internet Explorer on Linux", not as a description but as a guide title/process (stress on migrating, not on geese). Like that you're obviously right, I just had the wrong approach and couldn't think around it. Good that there's explainXKCD. It's cause I'm dumb. :) [[User:Treed|Treed]] ([[User talk:Treed|talk]]) 17:20, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

The quarterback is usually in the second row of an American football formation like the associated goose.

You would think Randal would have made a reference to Ramanujan, since this is the 1729th comic, yet he doesn't. --[[User:Jessep13|Jessep13]] ([[User talk:Jessep13|talk]]) 22:52, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

Any idea what the 'comptroller' is doing in the formation? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]]

Talk:1726: Unicode

2016-08-31T20:45:15Z

108.162.229.49:

# Proposal by Courtney Milan - 3 dinosaurs: [http://unicode.org/L2/L2016/16072-jurassic-emoji.pdf http://unicode.org/L2/L2016/16072-jurassic-emoji.pdf]
# Feedback by Andrew West - 13 dinosaurs: [http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16103-jurassic-fdbk.pdf http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16103-jurassic-fdbk.pdf]
# Article by Becky Ferreira - they should have feathers: [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dinosaur-emojis http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dinosaur-emojis]

Sebastian [[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.168|162.158.83.168]] 12:14, 29 August 2016 (UTC)--
:Regarding the brontosaurus reference, there is also some material in the intro of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brontosaurus wikipedia page]. [[User:Chtit draco|Chtit draco]] ([[User talk:Chtit draco|talk]]) 14:33, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
:Comic could be a reference to WE’RE ALL USING THESE EMOJI WRONG - http://www.wired.com/2015/05/using-emoji-wrong/ where the 😪 emoji is supposed to be a sleepy emoji and not a side-tear emoji - http://emojipedia.org/sleepy-face/ - see facebook's interpretation vs Samsung's{{unsigned ip|162.158.49.60}}
::Indeed. However IMHO the problem lies not in the standardisation attempt, but on the choice of non-obvious pictograms (which is a font-designer problem). The sleepy emoji would not be used wrong if it unquestionably looked like sleepy. Chinese solved this problem long ago by switching from pictograms to abstract ideogram designs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 14:13, 30 August 2016 (UTC) Sylvain M.

I thought it was funny that the two people in the upper left (who, at the time of this comment, were noted to be "helping" Cueball) are actually impeding the quixotic quest by arguing amongst themselves. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.222|108.162.237.222]] 23:38, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

Personally, I'm still dumbfounded by the lack of a marijuana leaf. There are pills, a syringe, a cigarette, rice wine, plus *multiple* Emoji for both wine & beer. I hate the fact that Emoji are *not* implemented in a sensible, standardized fashion: For instance, the guy Emoji may or may not have a mustache, or gray hair. The "short hair" female may be blonde, or brunette & may even have a coiffure instead of short hair! I think they should be far more specific with their definitions. Personally, I'm sticking with emoticons until they get this sorted out. ; P As for dinosaur Emoji, contrary to my previous statement about specificity, I believe you only need three dinomoji: Carnivore head (raptor or T-rex, non-specific), long-neck herbivore in profile, & winged. Anything more specific than that should probably be expressed with, y'know, WORDS. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 07:35, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:Words? Weird concept ;) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:47, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:There's already a winged dinosaur emoji and has been since 2010 http://emojipedia.org/bird/ [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 09:33, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

There is a good amount of detail regarding why/how the Unicode people are arguing over Emojis (In reference to the title text) but there is not much information provided regarding what Randall is referring to in the main strip, e.g. an example of what kind of language regulations the Unicode group try to impose. While the current explanation does a good job of explaining why there is a lot of drama regarding a Brontosaurus Emoji, the meat and potatoes of the article is in reference to language itself. I have never encountered anyone trying to communicate in English using letters that are not part of the current alphabet. Since English uses predefined Roman symbols for sound representation, and the Unicode people only deal with the representation of symbols, I am having a difficult time comprehending how the group in charge of rendering English into text would have any part in the changes that (at least English) is undergoing (which are largely related to spelling and grammar, not the symbols itself). [[User:Snowblinded|Snowblinded]] ([[User talk:Snowblinded|talk]]) 08:19, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:I think the main point of this comic is about using characters from different alphabets to get a funny look (or fool anti-spam). In Unicode, characters sharing the same design but from different alphabets have separate code-points. For example: U+0041 (latin "A"), U+0391 (greek "Alpha") and U+0410 (cyrillic "A") look exactly the same but are not interchangeable... neither in Unicode nor in real life since writing English with Greek letters doesn't make sense anyway. Example 2: U+0049 (latin "I"), U+2160 (roman numeral 1) and U+30BC (japanese "E") have a similar yet different look (and very different meaning), and so have different code-points (seems logical). One may want to mix them to get a funny typing... as long as writing proper English is not a concern. Conclusion: I hardly see how Unicode restricts anything, since the "consistent technical standards" pretty much already exists in any language. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 11:55, 30 August 2016 (UTC) Sylvain M.

I feel like he isn't trying to steer the river but the two confused looking people across the river. What else are their role if it's not the case?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.39|162.158.166.39]] 14:01, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:They have another sign laying down on the ground, so they seem to be fighting about where to put said sign. [[User:Psu256|Psu256]] ([[User talk:Psu256|talk]]) 17:45, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

I think that the "Hey! That's not what that area is for!" line is about how people use features of Unicode in [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NotTheIntendedUse unintended ways].--[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 12:33, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

You don't need to go far as emoji to show how Unicode is doomed; the CJK(Chinese, Japanese, Korean) charsets, used in probably most developed countries outside of America/Europe, have had pretty tough time getting settled yet still have a few problems [[Special:Contributions/141.101.84.120|141.101.84.120]] 18:01, 31 August 2016 (UTC)
:Can you elaborate or give a reference? Thanks [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 20:45, 31 August 2016 (UTC) Sylvain M.

Talk:1726: Unicode

2016-08-30T14:13:57Z

108.162.229.49:

# Proposal by Courtney Milan - 3 dinosaurs: [http://unicode.org/L2/L2016/16072-jurassic-emoji.pdf http://unicode.org/L2/L2016/16072-jurassic-emoji.pdf]
# Feedback by Andrew West - 13 dinosaurs: [http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16103-jurassic-fdbk.pdf http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16103-jurassic-fdbk.pdf]
# Article by Becky Ferreira - they should have feathers: [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dinosaur-emojis http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dinosaur-emojis]

Sebastian [[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.168|162.158.83.168]] 12:14, 29 August 2016 (UTC)--
:Regarding the brontosaurus reference, there is also some material in the intro of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brontosaurus wikipedia page]. [[User:Chtit draco|Chtit draco]] ([[User talk:Chtit draco|talk]]) 14:33, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
:Comic could be a reference to WE’RE ALL USING THESE EMOJI WRONG - http://www.wired.com/2015/05/using-emoji-wrong/ where the 😪 emoji is supposed to be a sleepy emoji and not a side-tear emoji - http://emojipedia.org/sleepy-face/ - see facebook's interpretation vs Samsung's{{unsigned ip|162.158.49.60}}
::Indeed. However IMHO the problem lies not in the standardisation attempt, but on the choice of non-obvious pictograms (which is a font-designer problem). The sleepy emoji would not be used wrong if it unquestionably looked like sleepy. Chinese solved this problem long ago by switching from pictograms to abstract ideogram designs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 14:13, 30 August 2016 (UTC) Sylvain M.

I thought it was funny that the two people in the upper left (who, at the time of this comment, were noted to be "helping" Cueball) are actually impeding the quixotic quest by arguing amongst themselves. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.222|108.162.237.222]] 23:38, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

Personally, I'm still dumbfounded by the lack of a marijuana leaf. There are pills, a syringe, a cigarette, rice wine, plus *multiple* Emoji for both wine & beer. I hate the fact that Emoji are *not* implemented in a sensible, standardized fashion: For instance, the guy Emoji may or may not have a mustache, or gray hair. The "short hair" female may be blonde, or brunette & may even have a coiffure instead of short hair! I think they should be far more specific with their definitions. Personally, I'm sticking with emoticons until they get this sorted out. ; P As for dinosaur Emoji, contrary to my previous statement about specificity, I believe you only need three dinomoji: Carnivore head (raptor or T-rex, non-specific), long-neck herbivore in profile, & winged. Anything more specific than that should probably be expressed with, y'know, WORDS. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 07:35, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:Words? Weird concept ;) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:47, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:There's already a winged dinosaur emoji and has been since 2010 http://emojipedia.org/bird/ [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 09:33, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

There is a good amount of detail regarding why/how the Unicode people are arguing over Emojis (In reference to the title text) but there is not much information provided regarding what Randall is referring to in the main strip, e.g. an example of what kind of language regulations the Unicode group try to impose. While the current explanation does a good job of explaining why there is a lot of drama regarding a Brontosaurus Emoji, the meat and potatoes of the article is in reference to language itself. I have never encountered anyone trying to communicate in English using letters that are not part of the current alphabet. Since English uses predefined Roman symbols for sound representation, and the Unicode people only deal with the representation of symbols, I am having a difficult time comprehending how the group in charge of rendering English into text would have any part in the changes that (at least English) is undergoing (which are largely related to spelling and grammar, not the symbols itself). [[User:Snowblinded|Snowblinded]] ([[User talk:Snowblinded|talk]]) 08:19, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:I think the main point of this comic is about using characters from different alphabets to get a funny look (or fool anti-spam). In Unicode, characters sharing the same design but from different alphabets have separate code-points. For example: U+0041 (latin "A"), U+0391 (greek "Alpha") and U+0410 (cyrillic "A") look exactly the same but are not interchangeable... neither in Unicode nor in real live since writing English with Greek letters doesn't make sense anyway. Example 2: U+0049 (latin "I"), U+2160 (roman numeral 1) and U+30BC (japanese "E") have a similar yet different look (and very different meaning), and so have different code-points (seems logical). One may want to mix them to get a funny typing... as long as writing proper English is not a concern. Conclusion: I hardly see how Unicode restricts anything, since the "consistent technical standards" pretty much already exist in any language. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 11:55, 30 August 2016 (UTC) Sylvain M.

I feel like he isn't trying to steer the river but the two confused looking people across the river. What else are their role if it's not the case?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.39|162.158.166.39]] 14:01, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1726: Unicode

2016-08-30T11:55:12Z

108.162.229.49:

# Proposal by Courtney Milan - 3 dinosaurs: [http://unicode.org/L2/L2016/16072-jurassic-emoji.pdf http://unicode.org/L2/L2016/16072-jurassic-emoji.pdf]
# Feedback by Andrew West - 13 dinosaurs: [http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16103-jurassic-fdbk.pdf http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16103-jurassic-fdbk.pdf]
# Article by Becky Ferreira - they should have feathers: [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dinosaur-emojis http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dinosaur-emojis]

Sebastian [[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.168|162.158.83.168]] 12:14, 29 August 2016 (UTC)--
:Regarding the brontosaurus reference, there is also some material in the intro of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brontosaurus wikipedia page]. [[User:Chtit draco|Chtit draco]] ([[User talk:Chtit draco|talk]]) 14:33, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
:Comic could be a reference to WE’RE ALL USING THESE EMOJI WRONG - http://www.wired.com/2015/05/using-emoji-wrong/ where the 😪 emoji is supposed to be a sleepy emoji and not a side-tear emoji - http://emojipedia.org/sleepy-face/ - see facebook's interpretation vs Samsung's{{unsigned ip|162.158.49.60}}

I thought it was funny that the two people in the upper left (who, at the time of this comment, were noted to be "helping" Cueball) are actually impeding the quixotic quest by arguing amongst themselves. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.222|108.162.237.222]] 23:38, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

Personally, I'm still dumbfounded by the lack of a marijuana leaf. There are pills, a syringe, a cigarette, rice wine, plus *multiple* Emoji for both wine & beer. I hate the fact that Emoji are *not* implemented in a sensible, standardized fashion: For instance, the guy Emoji may or may not have a mustache, or gray hair. The "short hair" female may be blonde, or brunette & may even have a coiffure instead of short hair! I think they should be far more specific with their definitions. Personally, I'm sticking with emoticons until they get this sorted out. ; P As for dinosaur Emoji, contrary to my previous statement about specificity, I believe you only need three dinomoji: Carnivore head (raptor or T-rex, non-specific), long-neck herbivore in profile, & winged. Anything more specific than that should probably be expressed with, y'know, WORDS. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 07:35, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:Words? Weird concept ;) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:47, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:There's already a winged dinosaur emoji and has been since 2010 http://emojipedia.org/bird/ [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 09:33, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

There is a good amount of detail regarding why/how the Unicode people are arguing over Emojis (In reference to the title text) but there is not much information provided regarding what Randall is referring to in the main strip, e.g. an example of what kind of language regulations the Unicode group try to impose. While the current explanation does a good job of explaining why there is a lot of drama regarding a Brontosaurus Emoji, the meat and potatoes of the article is in reference to language itself. I have never encountered anyone trying to communicate in English using letters that are not part of the current alphabet. Since English uses predefined Roman symbols for sound representation, and the Unicode people only deal with the representation of symbols, I am having a difficult time comprehending how the group in charge of rendering English into text would have any part in the changes that (at least English) is undergoing (which are largely related to spelling and grammar, not the symbols itself). [[User:Snowblinded|Snowblinded]] ([[User talk:Snowblinded|talk]]) 08:19, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:I think the main point of this comic is about using characters from different alphabets to get a funny look (or fool anti-spam). In Unicode, characters sharing the same design but from different alphabets have separate code-points. For example: U+0041 (latin "A"), U+0391 (greek "Alpha") and U+0410 (cyrillic "A") look exactly the same but are not interchangeable... neither in Unicode nor in real live since writing English with Greek letters doesn't make sense anyway. Example 2: U+0049 (latin "I"), U+2160 (roman numeral 1) and U+30BC (japanese "E") have a similar yet different look (and very different meaning), and so have different code-points (seems logical). One may want to mix them to get a funny typing... as long as writing proper English is not a concern. Conclusion: I hardly see how Unicode restricts anything, since the "consistent technical standards" pretty much already exist in any language. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 11:55, 30 August 2016 (UTC) Sylvain M.

Talk:1690: Time-Tracking Software

2016-06-06T17:31:41Z

108.162.229.49:

I don't know how to interpret the "This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it." on the List of sexually active popes wiki page.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.224|141.101.104.224]] 10:19, 6 June 2016 (UTC)
:They're asking you to become a pope, and be sexually active. Then you can get arrested, and do a helicopter prison escape to start the 'List of helicopter prison escapes involving sexually active popes.'
:It's because we can't know for sure if every single pope is secretly sexually active or if it's just limited to the ones caught red-handed. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.5|141.101.98.5]] 11:35, 6 June 2016 (UTC)
:Another interpretation: seduce the pope. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.99|162.158.85.99]] 15:39, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Those ''estimated'' percentages have a strangely high degree of precision, I'd think limiting them to whole number percentages would do. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.58|141.101.98.58]] 11:48, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Replacing lightsabers in Star Wars movies may be a reference to this amusing video of the sword fight in The Princess Bride where swords are replaced with light sabers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYVQooRSlzg

The Jack and Diane remix with one line repeated may be a reference to svantana's brilliant re-do of a Human League number: http://svantana.bandcamp.com/track/you-were-workin-as-a-waitress-in-a-cocktail-bar [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.109|108.162.245.109]] 13:31, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Look what {{w|List of helicopter prison escapes involving sexually active popes|some loser tried to actually make}}, to no one's surprise..... [[User:Schiffy|Schiffy]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|Speak to me]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|What I've done]]) 17:07, 6 June 2016 (UTC)
:Anyone took a copy before the page was deleted?

Talk:1673: Timeline of Bicycle Design

2016-04-27T16:49:59Z

108.162.229.49:

I have deleted the entire paragraph with the Alternatively, explanation that this could be an analogue to the process of meiosis and pregnancy... It seems extremely far fetched to me... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:01, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Seconded. This is a bizarre comic, and there will be a bizarre explanation, but that is clearly not it. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.181|141.101.70.181]] 13:04, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

That 1860 bike looks like the {{w|American Star Bicycle}}, but the year doesn't match. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.49|141.101.79.49]] 13:10, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

(Moved here from explanation:) The randomness of the designs reminds me of the strange designs produced by the genetic evolution AI in the game BoxCar2D.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.78|141.101.80.78]] 15:05, 27 April 2016‎

This comic strongly remind me of http://boxcar2d.com/ [[User:Dorus|Dorus]] ([[User talk:Dorus|talk]]) 14:24, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

I third the above comments. It could also help explain the title text, as the 1955 panel shows a broken and failed cycle, which can happen when a detrimental mutation (like weak wheel linkages) is selected by the AI to be passed on.

Would have seconded it, only looks like I'm fourthing it, instead. Also I adjusted 1925's transcript description as the numbers were wrong. (I also suspect it's related to the stabilisation applied to the [https://postalheritage.wordpress.com/tag/pentacycle/ Pentacycle], only without visible in/out-of-page stability. (Because the third dimension doesn't exist? Well apart from 1900 that looks to be a bicycle version of the [http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/cycling.html Rudge], with a solid insert to the spoked wheel ('poor man's disc-wheel' kit?) obscuring all but the spurious over-wheel drive-chain and the rider's head.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.137|141.101.98.137]] 15:09, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Can you include the 'Alternatively,' explanation down here so I (and presumably others) don't have to wade through the page's history? We could list all sorts of far-fetched explanations, it has definitely happened on other comics.

I have a feeling that this is related to the idea that nobody can draw a bicycle. For example, [https://www.behance.net/gallery/35437979/Velocipedia this artist created 3D renderings of bicycles drawn by strangers]. [[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 14:51, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Does anyone else think the 1980 bike resembles a horse-drawn carriage minus the horses? Specifically, the two long parts Megan is holding look like reins. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.122|108.162.246.122]] 16:06, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
: This one rather makes me think of a chopper, only without the engine. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 16:49, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

I came here thinking I did not get the joke. After reading the description I see I am not the only one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 16:23, 27 April 2016 (UTC)