explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2450: Post Vaccine Social Scheduling

2021-04-16T08:16:51Z

141.101.107.80: Missed an indent after pragraph-split...

That third line down in the cartoon, shouldn't the first 2 be a 1? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.116|198.41.238.116]] 02:56, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Plus, should they really be going to a movie during their two weeks? [[User:NixillUmbreon|NixillUmbreon]] ([[User talk:NixillUmbreon|talk]]) 03:20, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Third line down may have gotten a spoiled batch on their second shot (or could be lying, thereby creating errors the schedule), but it does look to me like a typo. NixellUmbreon correctly notes that Third Line also does ''not'' wait the requisite period after 2nd dose before going to a movie!
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 03:50, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
::Or perhaps they think that as soon as they've had their second shot, they're Good To Go? Not lying deliberately, but just plain old misinformed [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.66|162.158.165.66]] 04:19, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:::I think the idea is because the other 2 people are vaccinated, assuming person 3 isn't at high risk, per CDC guidelines I think they're ok to socialize with vaccinated people (but that assumes there isn't anyone else at the movies) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.199|162.158.62.199]] 14:51, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

It seems unfair to attend any birthdays this year, considering how many could not be attended. Bobby gets a party but Susie doesn't? Hmm... Time is cruel.

Also, unrelated, but it's entirely possible that Lines 1, 2, 5, 7 & 8 are scheduling to gather on ''Line 3's'' birthday, while 3 isn't vaccinated yet.
:Line 3 doesn't attend the birthday. She's going to the movie with 4 & 5 just after the 2nd shot. Every one at the bday has had the 2nd shot for 2+ weeks. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.160|141.101.77.160]] 08:40, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
::That's my point! It is entirely possible to schedule a birthday party for someone who cannot yet attend. Case in point: Family & friends on Earth gathering to celebrate the birthday of an astronaut in space, who can only view the goings-on via a bandwidth-limited single-feed video chat. With CoViD '19 happening, who knows how many people have tried to schedule a ''surprise'' party only to discover that the birthday person won't be vaccinated in time? Mind you, I'm not saying it's the most likely scenario (far from it), I'm merely pointing out that with so many still unable to attend, it's entirely ''possible'' to schedule a party for the birthday of someone who can't attend.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:50, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

''Edit:'' Also, also, what is a chungus? (I don't come to explainxkcd because I want to search random words on DuckDuckGo...)
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 03:50, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:according to dictionary.com, “Chungus is a meme featuring a chunky version of the cartoon character Bugs Bunny, typically captioned Big Chungus. It began as gaming joke that spread online as a slang term for anything ‘(adorably) chunky,’ similar to chonky.“ (which begs the question, what does that have to do with the explanation of this comic being written by a “big chungus”)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.233|162.158.62.233]] 04:18, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
Just wondering, how is Big Chungus related to this? Confuuusion [[User:Eelitee|Eelitee]] ([[User talk:Eelitee|talk]]) 04:29, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Sooo... "Chungus" seems unrelated to anything in the comic, & was replaced in the bot tag so it no longer appears on the explanation page. Maybe it was just some idle defacement by an early visitor to the comic's explanation? It's a weird term: I don't see any use of it ''except'' in reference to this ''single appearance'' of a fattened Bugs Bunny, the phrase is not spoken in the cartoon & as a portmanteau "chunky" seems a clear contributor, but the latter half is less clear. (Misspelling of "ous" from "humongous"? Does not seem to get applied to humongous things, as often as small things that are fat, though... "bulbous"?)
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:09, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Question as a European: Don't Americans use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which just needs 1 shot (in addition to those that need 2 shots)? Everyone in this chart gets a "2" shot (and in the case of the 3rd person even two "2" shots.) --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 05:03, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:When scheduled for an immunisation an American may find that they are being administered Moderna, Pfizer, or until recently the J&J vaccine (currently that rollout is paused until an investigation into blood clot incidence can be concluded). The second shot if it exists needs to be the same as the first, but otherwise there is little local favouring of one manufacturer over the others. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.77|172.69.33.77]] 06:36, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
::Thanks for the information, but my question was about how J&J is applied (if it is applied at all), as to my knowledge it doesn't need a 2nd shot, but is fully functional few weeks after the first shot. But noone in this graph is getting only 1 shot. So it looks like this graph already ignores J&J/depicts a group of people in which noone got J&J. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:39, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:::J&J makes up < 5% of administered vaccines in the US even prior to the CDC freeze, so its not surprising that in a group of 11 people they all received either Moderna or Pfizer [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.199|162.158.62.199]] 14:51, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:::The people I know who've received the J&J vaccine were still advised to get a second dose (not that it's available).
:::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:58, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

I thought this comic was also about the CDC guidance even after getting vaccinated to stay in small groups, this, there is no group of > 4 people or so. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.143|172.69.35.143]] 05:17, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Cabin and birthday are 5 people each. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 05:20, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:: Hmm, but by "Cabin" everyone has already been vaccinated. So should've they all be able to attend? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.19|172.69.33.19]] 05:31, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
::: Everyone still doesn't want to go everywere. If I'd schedule a Transformers movie night I'd only got most of my brothers to join and maybe two of our significant others. Also some may be unavailable for other reasons to which the alt-text seems to refer. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.244|162.158.238.244]] 07:55, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
Might this also a take on the transistor 'NPN hole' diagram? The title text states 'NP-hard' which is something different, but the diagram does look a little like transistor holes and electrons! Emitter's and Collector's? [[User:Fan2012|Fan2012]] ([[User talk:Fan2012|talk]]) 06:21, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Hm, is this possibly the Boolean satisfiability problem (as in whether or not someone can come is TRUE or FALSE)? This is a NP-hard problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_satisfiability_problem [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.195|172.68.132.195]]

Could somebody send this recent book by a whistleblower to Randall? He could make so many jokes: https://books.google.com/books/about/Mindf_ck.html?id=8AqmDwAAQBAJ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.13|162.158.62.13]] 12:18, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Judging by the size of the gaps, 2, 7 & 8 presumably receive Moderna, while the rest receive Pfizer (for the pedants: yes, there are other possible explanations for the discrepancy in gaps, but this is the simplest). Does someone have a way of checking whether this roughly mirrors the prevalence of the two vaccines in the US up to mid-April?

Anyone concerned for the four people that [[Black Hat]] is taking to a cabin? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.16|141.101.98.16]] 17:56, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:I'm more concerned that I'm not going. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 17:58, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:There are really 5 people plus [[Black Hat]] since the person sponsoring the event is not on the chart and will also be there. I am assuming that the person doing the arranging is doing it for personal benefit and will be attending all the events. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 02:24, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
::Not an obvious conclusion. In organising one's own line (Danish from the top line, or perhaps the Danish+Cueball couple, centred entirely on hosting/attending the Birthday event?), you're drawn into accounting for everyone else who ''might'' be there and their other potential commitments. Possibly extending to friends-of-friends (Blondie, other Cueball and Meghan? ...justifiable as not even pass-through members of Birthday?) who wouldn't be expected to be birthday guests but need to be figured in as potential confounding factors.
::Alternatively, as typical author+partner avatars, Cueball+Meghan at the bottom are arranging a couple of part-shared meet-ups and it has been extended upwards to account for proxy-associationz (including the Birthday, which isn't on their own radar). Though I find the connective topology of the (definite) links slightly less convincing in support of this version.
::(Compared to the top-down interpretation of Hairbun unfortunately being shown necessary to skip the main Birthday bash; Black Hat and Science Girl maybe only included high up as known linked persons, via their intended involvement in the Movie/Cabin/etc...)
::There are other possible starting assumptions (positionally, it could have 'started' with any single character's line, extended up ''and'' down as deemed necessary when more linked events and individuals were discovered) but none appear to be quite as logically satisfying. YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.80|141.101.107.80]] 08:15, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2450: Post Vaccine Social Scheduling

2021-04-16T08:15:47Z

141.101.107.80:

That third line down in the cartoon, shouldn't the first 2 be a 1? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.116|198.41.238.116]] 02:56, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Plus, should they really be going to a movie during their two weeks? [[User:NixillUmbreon|NixillUmbreon]] ([[User talk:NixillUmbreon|talk]]) 03:20, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Third line down may have gotten a spoiled batch on their second shot (or could be lying, thereby creating errors the schedule), but it does look to me like a typo. NixellUmbreon correctly notes that Third Line also does ''not'' wait the requisite period after 2nd dose before going to a movie!
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 03:50, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
::Or perhaps they think that as soon as they've had their second shot, they're Good To Go? Not lying deliberately, but just plain old misinformed [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.66|162.158.165.66]] 04:19, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:::I think the idea is because the other 2 people are vaccinated, assuming person 3 isn't at high risk, per CDC guidelines I think they're ok to socialize with vaccinated people (but that assumes there isn't anyone else at the movies) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.199|162.158.62.199]] 14:51, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

It seems unfair to attend any birthdays this year, considering how many could not be attended. Bobby gets a party but Susie doesn't? Hmm... Time is cruel.

Also, unrelated, but it's entirely possible that Lines 1, 2, 5, 7 & 8 are scheduling to gather on ''Line 3's'' birthday, while 3 isn't vaccinated yet.
:Line 3 doesn't attend the birthday. She's going to the movie with 4 & 5 just after the 2nd shot. Every one at the bday has had the 2nd shot for 2+ weeks. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.160|141.101.77.160]] 08:40, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
::That's my point! It is entirely possible to schedule a birthday party for someone who cannot yet attend. Case in point: Family & friends on Earth gathering to celebrate the birthday of an astronaut in space, who can only view the goings-on via a bandwidth-limited single-feed video chat. With CoViD '19 happening, who knows how many people have tried to schedule a ''surprise'' party only to discover that the birthday person won't be vaccinated in time? Mind you, I'm not saying it's the most likely scenario (far from it), I'm merely pointing out that with so many still unable to attend, it's entirely ''possible'' to schedule a party for the birthday of someone who can't attend.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:50, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

''Edit:'' Also, also, what is a chungus? (I don't come to explainxkcd because I want to search random words on DuckDuckGo...)
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 03:50, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:according to dictionary.com, “Chungus is a meme featuring a chunky version of the cartoon character Bugs Bunny, typically captioned Big Chungus. It began as gaming joke that spread online as a slang term for anything ‘(adorably) chunky,’ similar to chonky.“ (which begs the question, what does that have to do with the explanation of this comic being written by a “big chungus”)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.233|162.158.62.233]] 04:18, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
Just wondering, how is Big Chungus related to this? Confuuusion [[User:Eelitee|Eelitee]] ([[User talk:Eelitee|talk]]) 04:29, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Sooo... "Chungus" seems unrelated to anything in the comic, & was replaced in the bot tag so it no longer appears on the explanation page. Maybe it was just some idle defacement by an early visitor to the comic's explanation? It's a weird term: I don't see any use of it ''except'' in reference to this ''single appearance'' of a fattened Bugs Bunny, the phrase is not spoken in the cartoon & as a portmanteau "chunky" seems a clear contributor, but the latter half is less clear. (Misspelling of "ous" from "humongous"? Does not seem to get applied to humongous things, as often as small things that are fat, though... "bulbous"?)
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:09, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Question as a European: Don't Americans use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which just needs 1 shot (in addition to those that need 2 shots)? Everyone in this chart gets a "2" shot (and in the case of the 3rd person even two "2" shots.) --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 05:03, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:When scheduled for an immunisation an American may find that they are being administered Moderna, Pfizer, or until recently the J&J vaccine (currently that rollout is paused until an investigation into blood clot incidence can be concluded). The second shot if it exists needs to be the same as the first, but otherwise there is little local favouring of one manufacturer over the others. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.77|172.69.33.77]] 06:36, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
::Thanks for the information, but my question was about how J&J is applied (if it is applied at all), as to my knowledge it doesn't need a 2nd shot, but is fully functional few weeks after the first shot. But noone in this graph is getting only 1 shot. So it looks like this graph already ignores J&J/depicts a group of people in which noone got J&J. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:39, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:::J&J makes up < 5% of administered vaccines in the US even prior to the CDC freeze, so its not surprising that in a group of 11 people they all received either Moderna or Pfizer [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.199|162.158.62.199]] 14:51, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:::The people I know who've received the J&J vaccine were still advised to get a second dose (not that it's available).
:::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:58, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

I thought this comic was also about the CDC guidance even after getting vaccinated to stay in small groups, this, there is no group of > 4 people or so. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.143|172.69.35.143]] 05:17, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Cabin and birthday are 5 people each. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 05:20, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:: Hmm, but by "Cabin" everyone has already been vaccinated. So should've they all be able to attend? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.19|172.69.33.19]] 05:31, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
::: Everyone still doesn't want to go everywere. If I'd schedule a Transformers movie night I'd only got most of my brothers to join and maybe two of our significant others. Also some may be unavailable for other reasons to which the alt-text seems to refer. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.244|162.158.238.244]] 07:55, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
Might this also a take on the transistor 'NPN hole' diagram? The title text states 'NP-hard' which is something different, but the diagram does look a little like transistor holes and electrons! Emitter's and Collector's? [[User:Fan2012|Fan2012]] ([[User talk:Fan2012|talk]]) 06:21, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Hm, is this possibly the Boolean satisfiability problem (as in whether or not someone can come is TRUE or FALSE)? This is a NP-hard problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_satisfiability_problem [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.195|172.68.132.195]]

Could somebody send this recent book by a whistleblower to Randall? He could make so many jokes: https://books.google.com/books/about/Mindf_ck.html?id=8AqmDwAAQBAJ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.13|162.158.62.13]] 12:18, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Judging by the size of the gaps, 2, 7 & 8 presumably receive Moderna, while the rest receive Pfizer (for the pedants: yes, there are other possible explanations for the discrepancy in gaps, but this is the simplest). Does someone have a way of checking whether this roughly mirrors the prevalence of the two vaccines in the US up to mid-April?

Anyone concerned for the four people that [[Black Hat]] is taking to a cabin? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.16|141.101.98.16]] 17:56, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:I'm more concerned that I'm not going. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 17:58, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:There are really 5 people plus [[Black Hat]] since the person sponsoring the event is not on the chart and will also be there. I am assuming that the person doing the arranging is doing it for personal benefit and will be attending all the events. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 02:24, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
::Not an obvious conclusion. In organising one's own line (Danish from the top line, or perhaps the Danish+Cueball couple, centred entirely on hosting/attending the Birthday event?), you're drawn into accounting for everyone else who ''might'' be there and their other potential commitments. Possibly extending to friends-of-friends (Blondie, other Cueball and Meghan? ...justifiable as not even pass-through members of Birthday?) who wouldn't be expected to be birthday guests but need to be figured in as potential confounding factors.
::Alternatively, as typical author+partner avatars, Cueball+Meghan at the bottom are arranging a couple of part-shared meet-ups and it has been extended upwards to account for proxy-associationz (including the Birthday, which isn't on their own radar). Though I find the connective topology of the (definite) links slightly less convincing in support of this version.
(Compared to the top-down interpretation of Hairbun unfortunately being shown necessary to skip the main Birthday bash; Black Hat and Science Girl maybe only included high up as known linked persons, via their intended involvement in the Movie/Cabin/etc...)
::There are other possible starting assumptions (positionally, it could have 'started' with any single character's line, extended up ''and'' down as deemed necessary when more linked events and individuals were discovered) but none appear to be quite as logically satisfying. YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.80|141.101.107.80]] 08:15, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

2447: Hammer Incident

2021-04-12T20:00:41Z

141.101.107.80: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2447
| date = April 7, 2021
| title = Hammer Incident
| image = hammer incident small.png
| titletext = I still think the Cold Stone Creamery partnership was a good idea, but I should have asked before doing the first market trials during the cryogenic mirror tests.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by: a WAFFLE CONE MIRROR. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (JWST) is a {{w|space telescope}} created to be the successor of the {{w|Hubble Space Telescope}} under construction at time of publishing and expected to launch in October 2021, though in [[2014: JWST Delays]], xkcd predicted its launch would actually occur during late 2026.

It's implied that Cueball dropped a hammer on the mirror of the JWST and broke it. In superstition, breaking a mirror causes seven years of bad luck. The cost estimate for the JWST is currently US$10 billion, and Cueball is on trial by NASA for breaking this very expensive piece of equipment, no doubt costing NASA (and thus the nation) hundreds of millions of dollars more for repair work. However, Cueball is more concerned about personally experiencing seven years of bad luck.

In actuality the mirror panel is not made of glass, so it's likely that a dropped hammer would dent and distort the panel rather than shattering it. Presumably Cueball's hammer drop would damage or destroy only one mirror panel out of the JWST's eighteen panels. (If he had destroyed the entire telescope, he would have been facing 7×18=126 years of bad luck, and the damage costs would be much higher. [[2153:_Effects_of_High_Altitude|Then again, this depends on the altitude that the destruction happened.]]) Even breaking a single panel would likely be very expensive because it would require extremely accurate machinery and extensive calibration tests to make and install a replacement panel, especially because the back of JWST's mirrors are made of beryllium. Beryllium is expensive to purchase, since it is relatively scarce, and is very hard and abrasive, so making things out of it is difficult (and expensive due to the specialized machinery required and the precautions necessary to prevent inhalation). Breaking a beryllium mirror would lead to dust formation; single exposures to beryllium dust [http://who.int/ipcs/publications/cicad/en/cicad32.pdf can cause] acute beryllium poisoning and massively increase the risk of lung cancer, which is very bad luck on behalf of Cueball. In addition to the property damage, Cueball is probably liable for injuring his coworkers, which is probably the main reason why the NASA workers are so angry at him because human lives are more valuable than mere money.{{Citation needed}}

The title text refers to the {{w|Cold Stone Creamery}}, a chain that mixes ice cream with various other ingredients, such as fruit or candy, in front of the customer before serving it. The usual surface for mixing is a piece of granite which is kept cold (about -10°C). It's implied that Cueball had tried mixing his ice cream and flavorings in the style of Cold Stone Creamery on the JWST mirror, which is also kept cold -- in fact much colder, as it's cooled to as low as 7 K (-266°C, or -447°F). If Cueball had mixed ice cream this way on the JWST, he would likely have scratched and/or stained the surfaces on the telescope and perhaps have gotten gunk into the instrumentation, and possibly, due to the localized temperature differential from ice cream hundreds of degrees ''warmer'' than the material, promoted damaging distortions or fractures -- hardly the 'good idea' mentioned in the title text. (It also would not have worked: at sufficiently low temperatures, ice cream hardens and cannot be mixed.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, holding a palm up in front of him, stands before a long desk, behind which is a seated panel of four people, consisting of Ponytail, Hairy, a Cueball-like guy and Hairbun. Hairy is the only one to have one arm on the desk, all other arms are held down with hands below the desk.]
:Cueball: Yes, I know you're mad that I dropped that hammer.
:Cueball: But think about me—
:Cueball: '''''Seven years of bad luck!'''''

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Man, NASA is really on my case about the James Webb Space Telescope.

==Trivia==
*The JWST has previously been mentioned in [[2014: JWST Delays]], [[1730: Starshade]], and [[1461: Payloads]].
*For some reason, the original version of this comic was very large (4332×4838px), [https://archive.is/yJXTS well overflowing the boundaries of the page]. This was probably a mistake, as the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hammer_incident.png current version] is significantly smaller at 289 × 323px.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]

Talk:2444: Ingenuity

2021-04-01T01:22:21Z

141.101.107.80:

Wow! I clicked open xkcd at 3:50 or so, I can't believe I was one of the first on the team![[User:Hiihaveanaccount|Hiihaveanaccount]] ([[User talk:Hiihaveanaccount|talk]]) 20:58, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
: Speaking as an Australian, I usually don't bother to check XKCD until well after the day after the post. It's 9am Thursday, and I'm surprised it's posted this early. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 21:56, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

Perseverance's maximum driving speed is only about 8 feet/minute (comparable to a baby's crawling speed). So Ingenuity wouldn't have to fly very fast to get it to say "Whee!". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:40, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

Can we work in somehow that on the date of the comic, Ingenuity was in the middle of the multi-day deployment process? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.162|162.158.62.162]] 23:07, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
:I was thinking along those lines. I've made some edits that I think cover your suggestions, but obviously they're open to further refinement/expansion as anyone might desire to make. (The ''exact'' status of deployment, as of comic-posting, might be nice to know, but I don't currently believe it was so precisely timed to "the point they detached" or anything like that.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.80|141.101.107.80]] 01:22, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2314: Carcinization

2020-06-02T00:22:27Z

141.101.107.80:

Honestly, what is there to explain here? The only thing I can imagine in this explanation page is an explanation of why carcinization happens, which isn't explaining the comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.119|162.158.62.119]] 22:52, 1 June 2020 (UTC)
:We might need to look at the differences between various 'false crabs' and their relatives, to show that ''in the false crabs' lifestyle'', some crab-feature they have and their close cousins do not is a thing that the CCs would be unable to match if they lived in the FC-like style. This is probably the subject of a whole dissertation (if not several). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.80|141.101.107.80]] 00:22, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

Does this mean all programming languages evolve into Rust?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.87|172.69.68.87]] 23:08, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

2314: Carcinization

2020-06-02T00:12:11Z

141.101.107.80: /* Explanation */ Typo

{{comic
| number = 2314
| date = June 2, 2020
| title = Carcinization
| image = carcinization.png
| titletext = Nature abhors a vacuum and also anything that's not a crab.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CRAB. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
As Megan is telling Cueball, separate species of animals have evolved into crab-like forms at different times. Naturalists who noticed the tendency gave it the name {{w|Carcinisation|carcinization}}".

It is a specific form of 'convergent evolution', where differing families of animals (in this case, nominally across the crustacea) develop a tendency towards developing a 'crab' bodyplan to a greater degree than their origins would suggest. A similar process has created several varieties of River Dolphin with similar adaptations to their environments, despite being 'stranded' offshoots of different forerunner pelagic species.

True crabs (Brachyura) form just a small subset of the Crustacea subphylum, and the Cancer genus is a subset of that, yet there appears to be something about the bodyplan and even resulting behaviour that has meant a number of species have arisen from alternate areas of the family tree that are now trivially indistinguishable without extensive study.

Carl Linnaeus even initially included all Crustacea under the 'Cancer' genus (using the Latin name for crabs), and his taxonomic classification has been heavily refined as further knowledge has come to light, in order to reveal this phenomenon.

Apparently this principle is much stronger in the webcomic than in real life, as shortly after being told this, Megan notices that Cueball (not a crustacean!) has himself turned into a crab. This isn't really evolution as we know it, which refers to gradual changes in a species across generations. What happens to Cueball is more like a transformation, but it could still be called 'carcinization', since he becomes crab-like.

Cueball's sudden transformation is perhaps explained by the [[alt text]], that "Nature abhors a vacuum and anything that's not a crab". The text is a reference to Aristotle's {{w|Horror_vacui_(physics)|Horror vacui}}, a statement about how empty space tends to be immediately refilled by surrounding things, so vacuums seem to be impossible to maintain. As does "not being a crab", it seems.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[Cueball and Megan are walking next to each other towards the left.]

Megan: Have you heard of "Carcinization"?

Megan: The tendency of nature to evolve things into crabs.

Cueball: Oh?

[Same scene]

Megan: Yeah, the basic "crab" design has evolved separately a number of times.

Cueball: Evolution just loves making crabs, I guess!

[Narrower panel - Only Megan is seen, still walking, and appearing to shrug.]

Megan: Apparently!

[Two smaller panels, one above the other. The first panel shows Megan continuing to walk along. The second shows Megan turning and looking back to see where Cueball has gone.]

[Megan has stopped walking and is looking at a small crab scuttling along on the ground, which Cueball apparently evolved into.]

Megan: Oh no

{{comic discussion}}

2314: Carcinization

2020-06-02T00:11:24Z

141.101.107.80: /* Explanation */ Integrated elements of my own initial edit, that I discovered would edit-conflict. Some tidying. Could do with more links, but I properly wikified those that were there.

{{comic
| number = 2314
| date = June 2, 2020
| title = Carcinization
| image = carcinization.png
| titletext = Nature abhors a vacuum and also anything that's not a crab.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CRAB. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
As Megan is telling Cueball, separate species of animals have evolved into crab-like forms at different times. Naturalists who noticed the tendency gave it the name {{w|Carcinisation|carcinization}}".

Its a specific form of 'convergent evolution', where differing families of animals (in this case, nominally across the crustacea) develop a tendency towards developing a 'crab' bodyplan to a greater degree than their origins would suggest. A similar process has created several varieties of River Dolphin with similar adaptations to their environments, despite being 'stranded' offshoots of different forerunner pelagic species.

True crabs (Brachyura) form just a small subset of the Crustacea subphylum, and the Cancer genus is a subset of that, yet there appears to be something about the bodyplan and even resulting behaviour that has meant a number of species have arisen from alternate areas of the family tree that are now trivially indistinguishable without extensive study.

Carl Linnaeus even initially included all Crustacea under the 'Cancer' genus (using the Latin name for crabs), and his taxonomic classification has been heavily refined as further knowledge has come to light, in order to reveal this phenomenon.

Apparently this principle is much stronger in the webcomic than in real life, as shortly after being told this, Megan notices that Cueball (not a crustacean!) has himself turned into a crab. This isn't really evolution as we know it, which refers to gradual changes in a species across generations. What happens to Cueball is more like a transformation, but it could still be called 'carcinization', since he becomes crab-like.

Cueball's sudden transformation is perhaps explained by the [[alt text]], that "Nature abhors a vacuum and anything that's not a crab". The text is a reference to Aristotle's {{w|Horror_vacui_(physics)|Horror vacui}}, a statement about how empty space tends to be immediately refilled by surrounding things, so vacuums seem to be impossible to maintain. As does "not being a crab", it seems.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[Cueball and Megan are walking next to each other towards the left.]

Megan: Have you heard of "Carcinization"?

Megan: The tendency of nature to evolve things into crabs.

Cueball: Oh?

[Same scene]

Megan: Yeah, the basic "crab" design has evolved separately a number of times.

Cueball: Evolution just loves making crabs, I guess!

[Narrower panel - Only Megan is seen, still walking, and appearing to shrug.]

Megan: Apparently!

[Two smaller panels, one above the other. The first panel shows Megan continuing to walk along. The second shows Megan turning and looking back to see where Cueball has gone.]

[Megan has stopped walking and is looking at a small crab scuttling along on the ground, which Cueball apparently evolved into.]

Megan: Oh no

{{comic discussion}}