explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2321: Low-Background Metal

2020-06-18T06:12:36Z

141.101.105.114: /* Real life use of this lead? */

I can't help but notice that the basic premise of this comic is very much like the reason for going back to 1970 in ''Avengers: Endgame'', when they needed more Pym particles for time travel. I wonder if Randall re-watched it again recently? — [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 17:10, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

Oh, that's new to me, that they use roman ships to get to higher quantities of lead. For Steel they use German ships. after world war I, the german high seas fleet was captured and put under arrest in scottish waters. To not allow the enemy to utilize the ships, they all sank themselfes. {{w|Scuttling_of_the_German_fleet_at_Scapa_Flow|wikisource}} --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 05:46, 18 June 2020 (UTC)

== Drawing ==

There's one leg of the time-machine missing from the 3rd panel. (or is it the side of a base?) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.126|162.158.155.126]] 19:57, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

== Mined lead ==

Pb-210 (half-life 20.4 years) is a decay product of radon, and thus accumulates everywhere that is exposed to the atmosphere or where radon seeps from the ground. I suspect it could be a contaminant in lead from some lead mines, but wasn't able to find any references [[User:ShadwellNH|ShadwellNH]] ([[User talk:ShadwellNH|talk]]) 20:00, 17 June 2020 (UTC) Paul

== One use only? ==

The way I understand it, the time machine is one-use unless you find other Low-Background Metal. If you find it, you can make more trips. It would appear that the trip is successful.
--[[Special:Contributions/188.114.103.129|188.114.103.129]] 01:31, 18 June 2020 (UTC)

== Real life use of this lead? ==

Does anyone know whether there is any truth whatsoever to scientists using lead from sunken ships to shield delicate equipment? Obviously not time machines, but there are some pieces of equipment that might be sensitive to radiation.

Also, would lead that was in the ocean actually be safer from nuclear fallout than lead that was underground and mined after the nuclear testing ended? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.172|108.162.216.172]] 03:31, 18 June 2020 (UTC)
: Yes. At least it is done with steel. [https://hackaday.com/2017/03/27/low-background-steel-so-hot-right-now/][https://www.good.is/articles/the-search-for-low-background-steel][https://www.stainless-steel-world.net/mobile/webarticles/joanne-mcintyre/disappearing-warships-scavengers-raid-war-graves-for-low-background-steel.html] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.129|172.69.33.129]] 04:50, 18 June 2020 (UTC)

: Low Background Lead is also used, mentioned in the Good article. The equipment that need this stuff is mostly radiation sensors, very precise ones that can detect even smallest amounts of radiation. And for the last Question, you can't find pure natural lead, its mostly contaminated with radioactive elements (most lead in the universe results from decay chains). And common lead is made through recycling. Ancient lead from roman ships had enough time for the radioactive elements to decay into stable lead. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.114|141.101.105.114]] 06:12, 18 June 2020 (UTC)

1690: Time-Tracking Software

2018-07-03T12:35:53Z

141.101.105.114: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1690
| date = June 6, 2016
| title = Time-Tracking Software
| image = time_tracking_software.png
| titletext = 'List of helicopter prison escapes' and 'List of sexually active popes' are both entertainingly long, but sadly there's no 'List of helicopter prison escapes involving sexually active popes.'
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Randall]] uses {{w|time-tracking software}}, which is intended to increase productivity by identifying how you are spending time, that reveals that he is doing frivolous and pointless things that take up large amounts of his time. He makes remixes, edits {{w|Star Wars}} footage, reads strange (albeit entertaining) Wikipedia articles (see [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia]]), and even spends a large amount of time adjusting this software, all without getting anything useful done. Thus, he is embarrassed at this revelation. This time waste is a common subject on xkcd, as shown for instance in the comic mentioned above.

The visual appearance of {{w|Lightsaber|lightsabers}} in the Star Wars movies of the {{w|Star_Wars#Original_trilogy|original trilogy}} has been {{w|List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases|digitally changed}} twice during the re-releases for the 2004 DVD and 2011 Blu-ray releases. There are several Star Wars fans that feel the need to alter the movies (mainly to revert the changes made in the re-release), but so far nobody felt the need to replace lightsabers with metal swords.

{{w|Jack & Diane}} is a rock song written in 1982 by {{w|John Mellencamp}}. "[https://youtu.be/h04CH9YZcpI?t=56 Suckin' on a chili dog outside the tastee freeze]" is the first line of the second verse of the song (see the [http://www.metrolyrics.com/jack-and-diane-lyrics-john-mellencamp.html lyrics here]). [http://lyricsmusic.name/john-mellencamp-lyrics/words-music-john-mellencamps-greatest-hits/jack-and-diane.html A remix] made using just this line would probably sound a bit repetitive (listen for instance to [http://svantana.bandcamp.com/track/you-were-workin-as-a-waitress-in-a-cocktail-bar this re-mix] of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPudE8nDog0 Don't You Want Me], that almost only uses the first line of the song).

Two Wikipedia lists are mentioned in the comic and title text; {{w|List of helicopter prison escapes}} and {{w|List of sexually active popes}}. Given that the Pope is supposed to be {{w|Clerical celibacy|celibate}} (at least after 1139), the mere fact that more than ten popes have been involved in sexual activity, even after 1139, is both amusing and intriguing. There are more than forty entries in the helicopter escape list for real-life attempts (plus 16 in fiction); not all of them succeeded, but several did!

This xkcd comic was published on June 6th. On that day, the Wikipedia article "List of helicopter prison escapes involving sexually active popes" was created and subsequently deleted.

On June 7th, the [https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/ Wikipedia Facebook page] [https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10154133410693346 posted a link] to the ''List of helicopter prison escapes'' article. A user [https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10154133410693346?comment_id=10154135208533346&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D commented] asking if the article was posted on Facebook due to the xkcd comic, and Wikipedia [https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10154133410693346?comment_id=10154135208533346&reply_comment_id=10154135327863346&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D replied] by pasting an image of the xkcd comic, which seems to indicate that the Wikipedia representative running the Facebook page was aware of this xkcd comic and posted the list in reference to the comic.

In the title text, Randall mentions his disappointment with the lack of a Wikipedia list stemming from the intersection of the two; that is, a helicopter prison escape involving a sexually active pope. With the last sexually active pope being Pope Leo XII in the 1820s, and helicopter predecessors only taking flight in 1907, and mass production of helicopters not occurring until the 1950s, such an event has probably never happened{{Citation needed}}.

The Wikipedia list of sexually active popes has been mentioned before in the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|109|Into the Blue}}'' on infinitely powerful lasers, and after noting that such a thing cannot exist, the list is offered as a replacement for entertainment.

The comic [[1692: Man Page]] was released later that week and also mentioned the pope.

==Transcript==
:[This comic shows a pie chart with 5 slices, each with a label and a line pointing to these five different sized slices. There is a caption above the chart:]
:<u>Your activity report</u>

:[The labels on each slice is given in clockwise order starting top left. The percentages are estimated from the image and are noted in the square brackets before the transcript:]

:[38%]: Going through the Star Wars movies and digitally replacing all the lightsabers with regular metal swords
:[16%]: Reading every entry in the Wikipedia article ''List of helicopter prison escapes''
:[23%]: Installing and configuring time-tracking software
:[02%]: Actual productive work
:[21%]: Making a remix of that ''Jack and Diane'' song where every line is just "Suckin' on a chili dog outside the tastee-freez" over and over

:[Below the frame there is a caption:]
:Time-tracking software shines an uncomfortably harsh light on my daily life.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Pie charts]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1754: Tornado Safety Tips

2018-07-03T12:19:39Z

141.101.105.114: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1754
| date = November 2, 2016
| title = Tornado Safety Tips
| image = tornado_safety_tips.png
| titletext = It's a myth that you can never cross mountains safely, but be sure you understand how the climatic situation there will affect your parent thunderstorm.
}}
==Explanation==
The comic features a {{w|Public Service Announcement}} (PSA) poster, which generally contain public-interest messages aimed at raising awareness or steering behavior around a specific issue of concern, that in this case contains tips for {{w|tornado}} safety. Typically, a poster labeled "Tornado Safety Tips" would be filled with instructions for how humans can stay safe in the event of a tornado, such as "stay away from windows," "go to the lowest floor of your home," "if in the open, take shelter in a ditch," and so on, see these examples: [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b3/ba/02/b3ba0231f99bf14622a347b65ad30ea7.jpg Example 1] (with same title as comic), [https://www.weather.gov/images/oun/wxevents/20130531/socialmedia/torsafety.png example 2] and [https://www.weather.gov/images/oun/wxevents/20130531/socialmedia/carsafety.png example 3].

[[Black Hat]] on the other hand, has flipped this on its head by publishing a poster that contains safety tips for the tornado itself and contains information for how tornadoes can stay safe, i.e. continue to exist, see the [[#Table of tips|table of tips]] below. The joke is that just as, for example, a "climber safety" poster is directed at climbers, the "tornado safety" poster is directed at tornadoes.

It is thus in no way helpful for people who actually live in an area that experiences tornadoes {{tvtropes|CrazyPrepared|or even for people that don't live in tornado-prone areas but want to be ready for their possible occurence}}{{Citation needed}}. It is not possible to follow most of the guidelines, as they are intended for tornadoes. But the advice a human could follow would only take you towards places which can sustain tornadoes. Instead they should choose to use an app like the one in [[937: TornadoGuard]].

The title text simply adds more tornado advice for tornadoes, bringing up the common myth about tornadoes not crossing mountains, except from the tornado's perspective.

Although this is clearly not a tip for humans, the idea of ''tornado safety tip'' is yet another [[:Category:Tips|tips comic]].

Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. The tornado in this comic is similar to the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/52/umwelt_disasters_tornado.png picture used] in the [[1037:_Umwelt#Tornado|Tornado version]] of [[1037: Umwelt]].

===Table of tips===
{|class="wikitable"
! Tornado Safety Tips
! Explanation
|-
|Avoid low-lying cool air || {{w|Supercells}}, and particularly {{w|tornadogenesis}}, requires highly {{w|buoyant}} air near the surface to, put simply, provide the energy and rapid upward motion for to their growth and maintenance. Tornadoes, being small scale features on the scale of the atmosphere and requiring fairly extreme conditions to form, are particularly sensitive to shallow layers, perhaps even a few hundred meters of less buoyant (i.e. cooler/dryer) air near the surface. If a tornado encountered such a layer of air, it would be quite "dangerous" to its survival, as sufficient depth and exposure would likely disrupt the tornado's circulation and perhaps even dissipate it completely.
|-
|Keep your downdrafts and updrafts from mixing || Strictly speaking, this statement is only entirely true on the larger scales of a tornadic storm (though to some extent {{w|updraft}}/{{w|downdraft}} interaction is crucial to the process on the scale of the actual tornado). Generally, it is for exactly the lack of this that tornadic supercells are able to gain such intensity and last many hours, whereas a typical individual storm cell has a life-cycle on the order of less than an hour. Any given storm cell is composed of an updraft, warm, moist air moving upward and forming clouds, and a downdraft, the corresponding movement of cooler air downward, often bringing heavy rain with it. If this downdraft is superimposed directly over the parent updraft, as would occur in a calm atmosphere with no substantial differences in wind with height, it will suppress the storm's updraft very quickly, and the cell will die a rapid death. However, if the winds change quickly enough with height (vertical wind shear), this displaces the updraft and downdraft so they don't interfere as directly, resulting in a longer lived storm. Nevertheless, the cold air moved downward by the downdraft will eventually spread along the surface and choke off the flow of warm air to the original updraft, however, this denser air may force more warm air to rise, starting the cycle anew, albeit with a new storm cell. This is how squall lines work (see below), along with more typical multi-cell clusters. Still, this results in no one cell being "dominant," remaining strong for any great length of time, and growing past a certain point, all factors that preclude significant tornado formation.

However, if the vertical wind shear is particularly strong, with very strong winds aloft going in near the opposite direction as winds near the surface, this causes horizontal rotation in the atmosphere (think a pencil rolled between two hands). A particularly strong updraft can lift this rotation into the vertical, and soon the entire storm begins to rotate. Through rather complex physics, this allows the storm to more cleanly separate its updraft and downdraft, and continuously propagate into warm, buoyant air. This process and the updraft/downdraft separation it creates is associated with nearly all dangerous tornadoes, and is what distinguishes a supercell from other types of thunderstorms, and if such separation is not properly maintained, it will likely "kill" the storm's tornado chances including any currently in progress. However, it bears pointing out that a specific type of downdraft interacting with a tornado, called {{w|Rear flank downdraft}} (RFD), actually may play a crucial role in tornado formation, carrying this rotating motion (vorticity) down from higher levels of the storm and feeding it into the tornado. Therefore, if a storm's RFD is too weak or does not interact with the core of the storm's updraft, a tornado is not likely to form or maintain itself. However, if the RFD is too cold/strong, it will indeed cut off the tornado's supply of warm air (see below), and regardless of type the RFD does eventually tend to "kill" the tornado after some length of time, which is why any individual tornado only lasts for a short amount of time.
|-
|Seek out warm and humid surface air layers || Hot, humid air near the surface is vital for tornadoes to form, as it provides the "fuel" for their parent storms as well as tornadoes themselves. Any {{w|thunderstorm}}, large or small, begins as an updraft, a column of warm, moist air moving upward due to its positive buoyancy (i.e. lower density, think a balloon or heat rising from the pavement on a hot summer day). Due (mostly) to its temperature, once the air is less dense than its environment, it will start moving upward, and will continue to do so as long as it stays that way. However, air cools as it rises as it expands under lower pressure, generally speaking at a faster rate than the surrounding environment does. This is where the moisture comes in, as once the air cools to the saturation point, where it can hold no more water vapor, water begins to condense into tiny liquid droplets to form clouds. This process releases latent heat to the surrounding air parcel, and thus in a suitable environment with sufficient cooling with height, this rising air starts to cool slower than its surroundings, and continues to rise on its own. The warmer and wetter the air relative to its surroundings, the faster it can rise, and thus the more intense storms it can feed. Further, once a storm forms and begins to rotate (see above), the tornado itself, being an extremely intense, rotating updraft near the ground, is "fed" by very warm and moist air at the surface and thus would want to seek it out to survive.
|-
|Don't let rain-cooled air choke off your circulation || As discussed above, if a storm's downdrafts are too strong, they can block the supply of warm, moist, buoyant (rising) air that feeds a tornado which will cause it to dissipate or never fully form in the first place. On the storm scale, this type of supercell is termed "outflow dominant", it generally maintains itself but too much rain cooled air present at the surface is preclusive to tornado formation. On the tornado scale, the buoyancy of the storm's Rear Flank Downdraft, RFD, is believed to play a crucial role in tornadogenesis. It is this air that carries high-vorticity, i.e. rotating air down from aloft to enable the tornado to have such an intense circulation near the surface, as updraft parcels beginning near the surface otherwise have little preexisting rotation. However, if this air is too cold and dense, which is typically a result of evaporative cooling and water loading from rain, it can choke off the supply of warm air to the tornado's circulation, and reduce its overall buoyancy, this "killing" the tornado, which is generally why they dissipate.
|-
|Avoid letting your supercell merge with a squall line || Supercells, the powerful, rotating thunderstorms that produce nearly all strong tornadoes, generally like being left alone. Other storms compete for the same warm, moist air that the supercell needs to fuel its continued development, and the cold downdrafts produced by such storms can also choke off a supercell's supply. Furthermore, interaction with other storms, particularly strong ones can disrupt the complex physical processes that keep a supercell going, particularly those delicate ones that lead to and sustain tornadogenesis. A {{w|squall line}} is a particularly potent threat in this regard, and probably the biggest "killer" of supercells in this specific regard. Squall lines, well known as the culprit behind most of the violent derecho windstorms, are long lines of thunderstorms that can, as a larger-scale feature, last many hours and travel thousands of kilometers. They generally occur when environmental conditions allow one or a few storms to combine the cold, dense air in their respective downdrafts in such a fashion that it moves rapidly and spreads out in a linear fashion, forcing warm air up right ahead of it to form clouds and additional storms. This then creates new downdrafts that contribute to this "cold pool", as its called, continuing the process. While squall lines can occasionally produce weak, short-lived tornadoes along their leading edge, they generally lack the rotation and individual persistence necessary to form proper "twisters". Their fast motion, large size, sizable cold pool, and all-consuming hunger for warm, moist air and resultant tendency to gobble up storms in their path make them a mortal threat to the generally slower-moving, freedom-loving supercells, and their resultant tornadoes. An encounter with a squall line almost never ends well for tornado and they should avoid such a meeting if they strive for longevity. However, it is interesting to note that storm interactions, occasionally even with squall lines, can briefly enhance tornadogenesis if conditions are just right, but this rarely has a sustained positive impact on the tornado's long-term survival prospects.
|-
|'''Title text''': It's a myth that you can never cross mountains safely, but be sure you understand how the climatic situation there will affect your parent thunderstorm. || In a style perhaps evoking that of a safety warning for a pharmaceutical drug, the title text reminds tornadoes that while it is indeed {{w|Tornado_myths#Near_rivers.2C_valleys.2C_mountains.2C_or_other_terrain_features|false that tornadoes are not able to cross mountains}} (while rough terrain can sometimes disrupt the very low-level circulation, there is nothing intrinsic to mountains areas that prevent tornadoes from moving over them), the tornado should be cautious that the environment on the other side of the mountain should still be supportive of the parent supercell and the broader processes keeping the tornado "alive." This is a valid concern because, generally speaking, the more mountainous areas of the United States generally tend to have less favorable environments for supercells and tornadoes, but this isn't always the case as the title text notes, particularly for more local-scale terrain.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beneath a large caption there are two pictures above each other to the left and a bullet list with five points to the right of the pictures. The top picture shows a black tornado beneath a white cloud. It is destroying something on the ground. To the right of the debris is a house and to the left some trees. The picture below shows Black Hat from the waist and up.]
:<big>'''Tornado Safety Tips'''</big>
:* Avoid low-lying cool air
:* Keep your downdrafts and updrafts from mixing
:* Seek out warm and humid surface air layers
:* Don't let rain-cooled air choke off your circulation
:* Avoid letting your supercell merge with a squall line

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]

1268: Alternate Universe

2018-07-01T14:05:11Z

141.101.105.114: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1268
| date = September 23, 2013
| title = Alternate Universe
| image = alternate_universe.png
| titletext = As best as I can tell, I was transported here from Earth Prime sometime in the late 1990s. Your universe is identical in every way, except for the lobster thing and the thing where some of you occasionally change your clocks for some reason.
}}

==Explanation==
Randall is trying to make the point that eating {{w|Lobster|lobsters}} is as weird as eating {{w|spiders}}. {{w|Crustacean|Crustaceans}} and {{w|Arachnid|arachnids}} are both {{w|Arthropod|arthropods}}, members of the same phylum, so his comparison isn't too far off. Then again, humans are in the same phylum ({{w|Chordate|chordates}}) as {{w|Ascidiacea|sea squirts}}, so any perceived similarities are not exactly rooted in a close biological relationship. In addition, lobsters were once considered the "cockroaches of the sea", and a captain trying to feed his crew with lobster would often be seen as cruel. On the other hand, {{w|Spider#Benefits_to_humans|cooked tarantula spiders}} are considered a delicacy in {{w|Cambodia}}.

"{{w|Earth Prime}}" means the original Earth in a {{w|multiverse}}, a multitude of universes. Earth Prime is typically the Earth on which the narrative begins, simply out of convenience. The title text also references changing clocks to and from {{w|Daylight Saving Time}} (DST), which Randall has made clear he is not a fan of and he has made fun of it in [[:Category:Daylight saving time|several comics]]. Randall thinks he originally came from another Earth (Earth Prime) to our Earth in the late 1990s (so he had been here for about 15 years at the time of this comic in 2013). Earth Prime only differs from the Earth where he currently lives, (together with the rest of us), on the lobster thing and then also on DST - ''where some of you occasionally change your clocks for some reason''. The reason seems to elude Randall though.

It's worth note that one objection to eating spiders, crickets, roaches, and ants can be that they are generally eaten whole, with guts, feces, and chiton devoured indiscriminately, whereas many people eat only the actual muscles of the lobster, the same as one would any vertebrate.

The use of "Earth Prime", and the mention of the late 1990s, suggest that Randall may be referring to the TV show ''Sliders'' which aired around that time, which was about a group of people who randomly "slid" between alternate universes.

==Transcript==
:[Captions above the panel:]
:Imagine you were transported to an alternate universe just like your own, except people occasionally ate spiders.
:You can't convince anyone this is weird.

:[Megan is holding a very large spider, with another similar spider before her on the ground, and Cueball is standing behind her, leaning away with his hands out to each side shocked, as shown with three small lines going out from his head.]
:Megan: Mmm...
:Cueball: ''No!'' What are you ''doing!?''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:This is how I feel about lobster.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Animals]] 
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

1936: Desert Golfing

2018-01-02T20:24:35Z

141.101.105.114: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1936
| date = January 1, 2018
| title = Desert Golfing
| image = desert_golfing.png
| titletext = I just want to stay up long enough to watch the ball drop into the hole number 2018.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|May need some more work. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A common joke surrounding the turn of the New Year is to make a comment about "next year" on New Year's Eve or "last year" on New Year's Day. While technically correct, there is a snarky humor derived from making observations about the span of years when the reality has been more along a span of days or even, as in this comic, only a few hours.

In this, second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] in a row, with this one being released on New Year's Day 2018, [[Cueball]] observes that he has [[1475|technically]] "been playing ''{{w|Desert Golfing}}'' nonstop since late 2017". Desert Golfing is a game that takes place in an endless side-scrolling desert, where the player can shoot a golf ball using a one finger swipe to determine direction and power. The entirety of the "golf course" is made of sand, making the physics of the golf ball more difficult to predict and control, as if from a bunker. After reaching a hole, the game automatically generates a completely random new course, making the game go on forever, and the score is purely dependent on how long you play the game.

Although Cueball's statement could be taken to mean he has devoted his waking hours to the game, the clock on the wall reveals both the truth of his comment and that he is not exaggerating. While he has only been playing the game for two and a half hours, give or take, those two-and-a-half hours started at about 11:10 PM on December 31st, meaning that it is presently January 1st and he has indeed been playing the game "nonstop since late 2017" (assuming he has not taken a break to eat or use the facilities).

Someone off-panel acknowledges the joke by saying that he should "take a break in 2018", and Cueballs declares it is his New Year's resolution to go to bed. This is not a typical New Year's resolution, as most resolutions is about something you need to change in your life from last year, and going to bed (or at least sleeping) is not something you would have been able to avoid for a whole year. New Year's resolutions have been mentioned before, the first time in [[1154: Resolution]], where the tradition of {{w|New Year's resolutions}} is the entire joke.

The title text states that the only reason Cueball has stayed up to play Desert Golfing is to watch the ball drop into hole number 2018, another reference to the New Year. The turn of the New Year is celebrated in certain places by the dropping of a ball; Cueball takes this literally, and tries to drop his (golf) ball to signify the beginning of 2018.

==Transcript==
:[An analog clock showing 11:12 hangs on the wall left above of Cueball who is sitting on a couch leaning on the left armrest, feet up on the couch. He holds a smartphone horizontally and the screen is clearly brown. Above him is a large brown bubble showing the content of the screen, thus showing that he is playing Desert Golfing. The sky is light brown, the sand below is dark brown, the golf ball is white and is followed by a white line showing its trajectory towards the gray flag stick with a yellow flag on it, which is to the right of the screen. The hole is just before the flag stick, an indentation in the sand.]

:[The clock is now showing 12:00 and Cueball is sitting straight upright on the couch, the screen display above him shows that he continues to play, but now on a new golf hole with different contours. The trajectory of the ball is much more complicated than before, and it seems he has had to play a very special loop shot to get out of a deep pit.]

:[The clock is showing 12:34 as Cueball once again sits as in the first panel, but now towards the right armrest and he is almost lying down with his head on the rest. Once again the screen is visible above him and it is shown that the hole has changed again.]

:[The clock is showing 1:47 when Cueball, now sitting up against the right armrest, finally speaks while continuing to play, with the brown screen visible, as he holds it on his knees, but the screen display is not shown. An off-panel voice answers him from the right.]
:Cueball: Technically, I've been playing ''Desert Golfing'' nonstop since late 2017.
:Off-panel voice: Might want to take a break sometime in 2018.
:Cueball: Yeah, my New Year's resolution is to go to bed.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Video games]]