explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3002: RNAWorld

2024-10-25T14:34:08Z

141.101.98.144: Undo revision 354368 by 172.70.130.84 (talk) Youse taking the piss?

{{comic
| number = 3002
| date = October 23, 2024
| title = RNAWorld
| image = rnaworld_2x.png
| imagesize = 275x345px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Disney lore: Canonically, because of how Elsa's abiogenesis powers work, Olaf is an RNA-only organism.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ELSA MAKING RNA - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic conflates {{w|biology}} and {{w|Disney World}}. Disney World is one of a franchise of theme parks with attractions based on various {{w|Walt Disney Company|Disney}} movies, while {{w|RNA world hypothesis}} is a proposed origin of life, in which RNA acts both as the genetic material and {{w|Ribozyme|the enzymatic machinery needed to copy it.}}

{{w|Ariel (The Little Mermaid)|Ariel}} is the titular character from {{w|The Little Mermaid (1989 film)|''The Little Mermaid''}}. In the film she likes to collect human artifacts; the comic replaces this with collecting {{w|nucleotides}}, the basic building blocks of {{w|DNA}} and {{w|RNA}}.

{{w|Ratatouille (film)|''Ratatouille''}} is a film about a French rat named Remy who dreams of becoming a gourmet chef. The comic conflates the soup that a chef might create for patrons to eat with "{{w|primordial soup}}", the environment that's believed to have existed on the early Earth when the processes of life began.

{{w|Elsa (Frozen)|Elsa}} is one of the lead characters from the {{w|Frozen (2013 film)|''Frozen''}} movies. In the film she has the magical ability to control ice and snow, and she used this power to make the snowman {{w|Olaf (Frozen)|Olaf}} come to life. The comic equates this with the original {{w|abiogenesis|emergence of life on Earth}}, or life from non-life, through {{w|ribozyme}} synthesis. Ribozymes are RNA molecules that, similarly to enzymes made of protein, catalyze biochemical reactions, such as the splicing of RNA during gene expression.

The title text continues this by saying that since Elsa's ability is based on ribozymes, Olaf's machinery of life must be based only on RNA, not DNA. This fits in with the theme of RNA World. Olaf generally appears to be (by mass) mostly just snow but, in common with various ideas about {{w|Comet nucleus#%22Dirty snowball%22|the makeup of cometary ice}} (and the role played by them in 'seeding' the young Earth with organic molecules), might well be thoroughly imbued with carbon-rich compounds ''other'' than those inherent in his carrot nose, coal buttons, and basic twig/stick elements. "Canonically" refers to {{w|Canon (fiction)|fictional canon}} (in this case Disney fiction), "the body of works taking place in a particular fictional world that are widely considered to be official or authoritative."

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball, Ponytail, Jill, and another child with a dark hair (wearing Mickey/Minnie ears) are walking through an amusement park. Cueball has a water bottle and a backpack, Ponytail is looking at a map or a brochure with a helix structure shown on one page, Jill is pointing forward while holding a small stuffed toy (that looks like Stitch), and the other child has a popsicle. Cueballs, Megans, and Hairys can be seen in the background in gray. There are also a drop tower, a roller coaster, a shop, and a hot air balloon in the background.]
:Ponytail: Okay, kids, now that Ariel is done collecting nucleotides for Ratatouille’s primordial soup, let’s go watch Elsa initiate runaway ribozyme synthesis!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Disney’s RNAWorld

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Disney]]

1203: Time Machines

2024-10-25T14:32:41Z

141.101.98.144: Undo revision 354365 by 172.70.130.85 (talk) That was two {{Citation needed}}s, neither were spectacularily funny and one was wrongly punctuated. All in all, perhaps not...

{{comic
| number = 1203
| date = April 24, 2013
| title = Time Machines
| image = time machines.png
| titletext = 'All time machine systems nominal... T-minus ten... eleven ...'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] activates a time machine to go back into the past. The time machine rewinds time, but in the process rewinds the event where the time machine itself was turned on, turning the time machine off in the process. He is now a few seconds in the past, prior to having activated the time machine, but he is baffled that he does not seem to have accomplished anything and turned off the time machine unintentionally. It would seem that the time machine is the world's most technologically-advanced{{Citation needed}} "{{w|useless machine}}" (a device whose only purpose is to switch itself off when it is switched on).

The title text mimics a countdown to an event. "T minus 10," for example, means 10 seconds until the event. When the event is the activation of a time machine traveling back in time, after 10 seconds it will once again be "T minus 10," and a second later it will be "T minus 11," counting up rather than down. This casts doubt on the value of the countdown because, from the perspective of the time traveler, the event has already taken place.

Cueball is only able to travel back in time a few seconds because in this comic time is seen as continuous and linear from Cueball's point of view, so he can only travel back in time to the moment he activated the machine (the first series of "E"s is the machine warming up and the second series of "E"s is that in reverse) the logic behind this is that because time appears to be continuous, Cueball's input was required for the machine to work. Since it does not appear to be a traveling vessel, it is also possible that Cueball could trap himself in the past by traveling to a time before the machine was created, and it would remain in the present.

It is very fortunate that Cueball retains knowledge of the future/events of the time traveling during the process; if he didn't, then the universe would become trapped in a time loop, with Cueball flipping the machine on, which then reverts time back to before it was turned on, leading Cueball to (believing that he has not yet turned on the machine) immediately reactivate it, dooming the universe to repeat the same few seconds indefinitely.

==Transcript==
:[Small caption above the first panel:]
:The problem with time machines:
:[Cueball has his hands on the lever of a time machine.]

:[Cueball flips the switch from OFF to ON.]
:Switch: ''Click''
:Time machine: EEEEEEEEEE

:Time machine: EEEEEEEEEE
:Switch: ''Click''
:[Cueball flips the switch from ON to OFF.]

:[Cueball looks at his palms.]
:Cueball: ???

==Trivia==
This comic's title is very similar to [[716: Time Machine]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Time Machines]]

Talk:2733: Size Comparisons

2023-02-08T17:52:36Z

141.101.98.144:

But Texas isn't even the largest US State. It's the ''second'' largest state, behind Alaska. Mind you, if you took Alaska and divided it into two then Texas would no longer be in second place... It would now be third! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.203|172.71.242.203]] 02:11, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:LOL, poor Texans. I'm from Australia. We only have 6 states, and 4 of them are bigger than Texas. So Texas would be in the smallest 50% of states if it was part of Australia [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 14:01, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

I started an explanation. My first, so I hope it's OK. Notice how I resisted [Citation needed]. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:20, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

:... and ninjaed. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:21, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Fixed the beginning, now it says Texas is the second-largest state. [[User:WhatDoWeDoNow|WhatDoWeDoNow]] ([[User talk:WhatDoWeDoNow|talk]]) 03:29, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:Alaska isn't usually considered part of the "contiguous US", so Texas is indeed first there. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 03:39, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
::Whoops, didn't see that. Sorry! [[User:WhatDoWeDoNow|WhatDoWeDoNow]] ([[User talk:WhatDoWeDoNow|talk]]) 19:09, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
::[[2082:_Mercator_Projection]]: If you drive north from the Pacific northwest you actually cross directly into Alaska [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.204|172.70.214.204]] 20:46, 7 February 2023 (UTC)

Note that if you scale Rhode Island up to the size of the Solar System, the ants would be even larger. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 06:46, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Trivia: In Germany we like to compare big things to the size of the Saarland, the smallest federal state that is not a city state. But since it is also the state with the least people living in it almost noone really knows how big the Saarland really is (and of the rest noone really cares to find out). This reminds me a lot of this Texas vs. Alaska discussion and I wonder if every country has something like this...? --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.39|172.71.160.39]] 07:44, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:In the UK, at a certain range of scale our general comparison standard is (half/three times /etc) "the size of Wales". e.g. the quantity of rainforest that is doomed, at any particular time. There ''are'' a lot of people there (often, according to the Welsh themselves, too many English incomers) and it is usefully easy to identify (I think of it as the "head of the pig that the gnome is riding", but that might just be me), given its prominant appearance in the outline of Great Britain itself. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3715512.stm Usually!] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.81|172.70.85.81]] 08:51, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
::In Australia we seem compelled to use Sydney Harbour as the unit of measurement for any large amount of water[[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 13:57, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:::And when we don't compare to the size of states, we usually use sports fields. "football fields" is a frequent unit of measurement in the media. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:13, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
::::Oh, yes, football fields (association football, aka. soccer) are popular here, too, but less controversial as they are always roughly 100 by 50 meters in size. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.37|172.71.160.37]] 05:46, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
:::::I just started a similar conversation, where we started discussing comparing the size of something with the size of an Olympic Swimming Pool, which is 25x50 meters, but never spoken like that in the US, because, metric. :) The volume can vary, since it might be somewhere between 2 and 3 meters deep, but is also often used for a tangible volume of things. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 22:40, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
:: Although I suspect a good number of people don't really have a firm grasp of the size of Wales - I think there's often a tendency to picture it as everything west of a straight line running from somewhere around the Mersey down to around Gloucester, thus making it about 1/4 - 1/3 bigger by lumping in chunks of Cheshire, Shropshire, and Gloucestershire, and most of Herefordshire.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.191|172.71.242.191]] 10:37, 8 February 2023 (UTC)
::: Bear in mind that much more of Britain was 'Welsh' before the Saxons barged in, so you could cut them some slack. The faithful following of the current subnational boundary is one option, but you could imagine many other abstractions that don't vastly change things. I'm sure some people would Offa a completely different line for your consideration... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.144|141.101.98.144]] 17:52, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

Notably, the larger the state you scale up the smaller the ants will be, as you would have to scale it by a smaller factor. The comparison would be more accurate if it read: "Texas is so big that if you expanded it to the size of the Solar System, the ants there would "only* be as big as Rhode Island."
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 10:31, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:Wait, Jordan Brown already said that. [[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 10:32, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

I just barely resisted changing the "Dallas" wikipedia link to point to the page for the TV show. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:11, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

A note that, in an edit I just made, amongst other things I went through and (hopefully) clarified the style of the area measurements. (Though only assuming that they were numerically correct... Didn't check!) If you say "''N'' kilometres squared", this can be so easily taken/meant as "(''N'' km)²", rather than "''N'' square kilometres", which is "''N'' (km²)". Both areas, but different. Just like the volume described as "10 centimetres cubed" would also be "1000 cubic centimetres". (In both cases being 1 litre).
 The easy confusion coming from the "km²" unit which you will read straight as "kilometres squared". And a single one is a "kilometre squared", before being given a number as some multiple of "kilometre squared"s, but that generally aint the same as a "multiple of kilometres" squared. So it is instead best to word it (if you do that at all) as "(a multiple of) square kilometres".
 ((Next up, I shall probably go on to explain the technical difference between "degrees Kelvin", °K (or alternately as required for the scales Centigrade, Fahrenheit, Rankine, Delisle, whatever), and "Kelvin degrees", K°... ;) ))
 Oh and, don't worry. Though I used the international version of "litre", etc, above, I tried to make sure I use the American-type spelling in the article itself, despite all my British instincts and natural preference... Just that here I couldn't.conscuously stand to write it 'wrongly' in my own far more personalised bit of prose. :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.31|172.70.86.31]] 17:06, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

If Texas were expanded to the size of the solar system, the size of an ant would not change. The size of objects is not affected by changes in scale of the surrounding environment. An ant would still be the same size relative to Texas as it would be relative to the solar system.[[user:chatgpt|chatgpt]]
:It is clearly assumed in the comic that the ants of Texas would be scaled proportionally to Texas. So where these scaled ants would gave the same relative size to the scaled Texas, they would now be as large as Rhode Island compared to the not scaled Texas! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:47, 6 February 2023 (UTC)

Hey, couldn't the joke also be that ant sizes don't really change around states, and so it would be a bad comparison because it doesn't tell you about the size of Texas at all? ||10:33, February 4 2023 (PST)
:No. If you scaled any other state of the contiguous US up to the size of the solar system, the ants would be even bigger since the other states are smaller than Texas and thus the scaling factor would be larger --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:47, 6 February 2023 (UTC)

2187: Geologic Time

2022-12-31T16:03:46Z

141.101.98.144: /* Explanation */ If you must (it's weak, and don't overuse!), correctly align with punctuation.

{{comic
| number = 2187
| date = August 9, 2019
| title = Geologic Time
| image = geologic_time.png
| titletext = Ok, well, we'll be sure to pay you sometime soon, geologically speaking.
}}

==Explanation==
Analogies to explain the passage of billions of years are often used in popular science explanations, to help compress these huge spans of time into something the human mind can comprehend; the football field analogy is one such analogy. {{w|History of Earth|The Earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old}}; if you were to present a timeline of Earth as long as a football field (100 yards or 91 meters), then each inch of that length would comprise more than 1.26 million years of Earth's history and each millimeter nearly 50,000 years.

* Complex life refers to the various animal species which arose in the {{w|Cambrian explosion}} 541 million years ago; the length of time that complex life has existed would translate to 11.9 yards on the football field.
* {{w|Evolution of dinosaurs|Dinosaurs are estimated to have first evolved}} as early as 244 million years ago, and survived until the {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event}} 66 million years ago; thus it would begin at the 5.37-yard mark and continue up to the 1.45-yard mark.
* Although the {{w|evolution of mammals}} can be dated to around 220 million years ago (depending on definition), they didn't truly become dominant until the aforementioned extinction event paved the way for them to grow and diversify 66 million years ago. The age of mammals therefore extends from the 1.45-yard mark to the goal line (present day).
* {{w|Homo sapiens}} is estimated to be 350,000 years old; our species takes up only a meager 0.28 inches on the football field, or 7.1 millimeters.
* The {{w|Holocene}} era, or the age in which humanity rapidly grew to dominate the Earth, is even less geologically significant, having lasted about 11,650 years so far, which translates about 0.234 millimeters.
* {{w|Recorded history}} begins with accounts dating back to roughly 3500 B.C.E., about 5500 years ago as of this comic's publish date; it would take up a width of about 111 micrometers. {{w|Orders_of_magnitude_(length)#Cellular_to_human_scale|A human hair can be as thin as 17 micrometers, or as thick as 181 micrometers}}, so Megan's claim that all of human history can fit within the width of a human hair depends largely upon the sample being used.

[[Megan]], a {{w|geologist}}, tells a story about how small the timespan of human history is compared to Earth's total history. She does this to juxtapose it with normal human time-scales, to imply that her being two weeks late turning in her project is immaterial by the standards of the Earth's tremendous age. She tries to sell this story to [[Cueball]] and [[Hairbun]], but Hairbun's response does not seem to bode well for Megan.

Megan's delay of two weeks would map to about eight nanometers on the football field. The most powerful {{w|electron microscopes}} have a magnification of ten million, which would make it look like about eight centimeters (about three inches), so her statement about it being "too small to see even with a powerful microscope" is a bit of an exaggeration. The most powerful optical microscope has 6500x magnification,([https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/science/08obscope.html New York Times, March 8, 2011]) which would indeed be inadequate.

[[Randall]] states in the caption that this is a trick that geologists always try to use when being late turning something in.

In the title text, Hairbun and Cueball reply by turning Megan's own argument against her. They promise to pay her for her work in what could be considered a short amount of time on the geological scale - which could easily be many, many times longer than Megan's own lifespan. Megan, like all working people, wants to be paid in a timely manner for her work,{{Citation needed}} and would be deeply dissatisfied to have her payment delayed for so long. Thus, Hairbun and Cueball's rebuttal proves a point: when other people require you be punctual, it's easy to dismiss them as just being impatient; when you're the one who needs other people to be punctual, it's not so easy to criticize yourself.

The comparison with a football field is a typical, but doubtful practice to explain people what the size of an area is ([[1257: Monster]]). Here it is used as an analogy with a one-dimensional timescale.

==Transcript==
:[Megan, arms spread out, is delivering a long-winded explanation to Hairbun and Cueball.]
:Megan: Imagine Earth's history as a football field, from the planet's formation at one end to today at the other.
:Megan: Complex life would be largely limited to the final ten yards. Dinosaurs appear at the five-yard line, the age of mammals happens in the last 1½ yards, and humans arise in the final few millimeters.
:Megan: All of written history would fit in a strip narrower than a single hair.
:Megan: "Two weeks" would be too small to see even with a powerful microscope.
:Hairbun: Mm hmm.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Geologists always try this when they're late turning something in.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Time]]

305: Rule 34

2015-03-06T17:10:03Z

141.101.98.144: No suggestion the spelling bee should be gay - just that it might pertain to erotica.

{{comic
| number =305
| date =August 20, 2007
| title =Rule 34
| image =rule 34.png
| titletext =Okay, Lance. For entry into the college bowl, spell 'Throbbing'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is rather surprised to find {{w|slash fiction}} (same-sex erotic fiction) featuring characters from the {{w|Thomas the Tank Engine}} television series, but [[Megan]] isn't remotely surprised, citing {{w|Rule 34 (meme)|Rule 34}}: "If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions."

Cueball denies the truism of the rule, coming up with several examples of porn that doesn't exist yet, until he comes across one that they both agree would be pretty hot: Women playing electric guitar in the shower. Megan proceeds to get ahead of the curve by registering [http://WetRiffs.com WetRiffs.com] ({{w|NSFW}}).
By doing this, Megan invoked {{w|Rule 34 (meme)#Variations and corollaries|Rule 35}}, an amendment on rule 34. Rule 35 states: 'If there is not porn of it, porn will be made of it'.

In the title text we can assume that the presenter in an spelling bee is asking a male participant with the name "Lance" to spell "[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Throb throbbing]", a term sometimes used to describe the swelling of a person's genitals. The scene thus plays out like the start of a hypothetical {{w|spelling bee}} that could contain rude words or innuendo.

Rule 34 is mentioned in the title text of [[505: A Bunch of Rocks]] and [[860: Never Do This]].

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Huh-- Thomas the Tank Engine slash fiction.
:Megan: It's rule 34 of the internet. If you can imagine it, there is porn of it.
:Cueball: Nah. The web is freaky, but it can't begin to have everything.
:Cueball: There's no porn set atop storm-chasing vans. No homoerotic spelling bees. No women playing electric guitar in the shower.
:Megan: Actually, that last one would look pretty hot. As long as they were unplugged or waterproofed...
:Megan: Rivulets of water run down her chest, the smooth body of the guitar firm against her hips.
:Megan: She twangs the E-string and it shakes off tiny droplets in all directions.
:[She rises into a crouch.]
:Megan: You're sure it doesn't exist?
:Cueball: Not yet.
:Megan: I'm registering WetRiffs.com. Let's get on this.

==Trivia==
*Randall actually ''did'' register [http://wetriffs.com Wetriffs.com] (archive [http://web.archive.org/web/20130518191217/http://wetriffs.com/ here]), and people submitted pictures of themselves in the shower holding electric guitars. Randall would later create a tumblr page called "[http://raccoonsexdungeon.tumblr.com Raccoon Sex Dungeon]" to coincide with Cueball referencing it in [[1025: Tumblr]].
*When referencing a fictional website on a webcomic, TV series or other form of media, it's generally a good idea to create the website yourself so that you can control the content and protect yourself from getting sued because someone got there first and flooded it with inappropriate, even harmful material.
*Since this comic, there had been actual Rule 34 on homoerotic spelling bees. [https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=8430 1] [http://blackmothfic.twonth.com/snitches.html 2].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1179: ISO 8601

2014-02-21T13:02:01Z

141.101.98.144: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1179
| date = February 27, 2013
| title = ISO 8601
| image = iso_8601.png
| titletext = ISO 8601 was published on 06/05/88 and most recently amended on 12/01/04.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Public service announcement}}: Two commonly used date formats are {{w|Date format by country|dd.mm.yyyy and mm/dd/yyyy}} (the symbols separating the values, as well as the year being 2 or 4 digits notwithstanding). These differences are often causes for debate. However, the comic explains that the {{w|International Organization for Standardization}} (ISO) has standardized dates in the yyyy-mm-dd format, in its {{w|ISO 8601}} standard.

The comic then lists many formats as "discouraged". This list starts with commonly used formats, which include the two above as well as other commonly used ones, such as dd/mm/yy. However the list then starts listing formats ranging from uncommon to absurd, such as writing the date partly in Roman numerals and painting the date in m-d-yy format with white paint onto a hissing black cat.

The ISO standard was published (to use yet another date format) on 5 June 1988 and amended on 1 December 2004, two dates given in the title text in mm/dd/yy format. Since the day values are less than 13, the format used demonstrates its ambiguity; it could be interpreted as other dates given in dd/mm/yy format (the last in several other formats as well). The dates are not written in ISO 8601 format, contradicting the advice in this comic, adding a level of metahumor.

The other mentioned formats are:

{| class=wikitable
! Date !! Explanation
|-
| 02/27/2013
| MM/DD/YYYY, used mostly in the US.
|-
| 02/27/13
| MM/DD/YY
|-
| 27/02/2013
| DD/MM/YYYY, used e.g. in South America, Canada ({{w|Date_and_time_notation_in_Canada|officially uses ISO 8601}}), Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
|-
| 27/02/13
| DD/MM/YY
|-
| 20130227
| YYYYMMDD, also allowed in ISO 8601
|-
| 2013.02.27
| YYYY.MM.DD, used in Japan
|-
| 27.02.13
| DD.MM.YY, used e.g. in Germany, Russia
|-
| 27-02-13
| DD-MM-YY, used in Denmark, Netherlands, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, etc.
|-
| 27.2.13
| D.M.YY
|-
| 2013. II. 27.
| YYYY. MM. DD., with month as {{w|Roman numerals}}, used in Hungary.
|-
| 27⁄2-13
| D⁄M-YY
|-
| 2013.158904109
| Year and decimal fraction of year – 58/365, February 27 being the 58th day of the year. This representation marks the end of that day. Also allowed in ISO 8601.
|-
| MMXIII-II-XXVII
| Year-month-day in Roman numerals
|-
| MMXIII [and] LVII [over] CCCLXV
| Year and ''57''/365. This representation marks the start of the day, which is 57 days after the year started.
|-
| 1330300800
| {{w|Unix time|UNIX Timestamp}}, but for '''2012'''-02-27.
|-
| ((3+3)×(111+1)-1)×3/3-1/33
| Year/month/day with the parts written as arithmetic expressions, using just the digits 1 and 3. (The slashes are not to be interpreted as fraction lines.)
|-
| 27 [''on''] 02 [''on''] 2013
| An obfuscated date format not used ordinarily. This can be considered a compromise between the different formats: since we cannot agree on which position in the date the day, month and year parts shall be, we just write them all in the same place; we don't even need separators, which we cannot agree on either. On the other hand, reading it gets somewhat tricky...
|-
| 10/11011/1101
| Month/day/year in {{w|Binary number|binary}}.
|-
| 02/27/20/13
| Month/Day/Century (counting from 0 and not from 1)/Year.
|-
| 0 [2,5] 1 [3] 2 [1,6,7] 3 [4] 7 [8]
| The large digits are to be placed at the positions listed above and below: 0 is used at positions 2 and 5, 1 is used on position 3, etc.; the result being 20130227
|-
| ''A cat with'' "2-27-13" ''painted on it, going'' HiSSSS
| In Western cultures, black cats and the number 13 are associated with bad luck. The cat might also just be angry that someone painted an unstandardized date on it.
|}

==Transcript==
:Public Service Announcement:

:Our different ways of writing dates as numbers can lead to online confusion. That's why in 1988 ISO set a global standard numeric date format. This is '''''the''''' correct way to write numeric dates:

:2013-02-27

:The following formats are therefore discouraged:
*02/27/2013
*02/27/13
*27/02/2013
*27/02/13
*20130227
*2013.02.27
*27.02.13
*27-02-13
*27.2.13
*2013. II. 27.
*27⁄2-13
*2013.158904109
*MMXIII-II-XXVII
*MMXIII [and] LVII [over] CCCLXV
*1330300800
*((3+3)×(111+1)-1)×3/3-1/33
*27 [''written on top of''] 02 [''written on top of''] 2013
*10/11011/1101
*02/27/20/13
*0 [2,5] 1 [3] 2 [1,6,7] 3 [4] 7 [8]
*''A cat, with the numerals'' 2-27-13 ''painted on it, going'' HISSSS

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

367: Fandom

2014-02-16T16:05:54Z

141.101.98.144: Added Ron Paul category

{{comic
| number = 367
| date = January 7, 2008
| title = Fandom
| image = fandom.png
| titletext = Ron Paul wants to put the New Republic back on the Corusca gem standard.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the concept of {{w|fandom}}, which is basically the collective noun for fans of a given thing. Usually, this is used in the context of people who like a certain work of fiction, like ''Star Trek'' or ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''.

Here, [[Cueball]] digs through a box and discovers his old collection of ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' books, referring to authors {{w|Timothy Zahn}} and {{w|Michael A. Stackpole}} (who wrote several ''Star Wars'' novels), and ''{{w|The Corellian Trilogy}}''. These books are part of the {{w|Star Wars Expanded Universe}}, which is used to refer to media that is ''Star Wars''-related but not actually a part of its canon.

Cueball apparently loved these books as a kid, which prompts Megan to remark if he starting becoming a fan of other science fiction series like ''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'' or ''{{w|Battlestar Galactica}}'', to which he clarifies that he simply grew out of the fandom mindset. Megan, perhaps sarcastically, asks him about how politician {{w|Ron Paul}} (who has appeared in the comic [[:Category:Comics featuring Ron Paul|several times]]), and Cueball excitedly runs off to check, ironically disproving his earlier remark - people don't outgrow a fandom state of mind, but rather shift their point of interest.

The title refers to the {{w|New Republic (Star Wars)|New Republic}}, the main government in ''Star Wars'' after the final film, and [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Corusca_gem Corusca gems], which are extremely rare and valuable gems from the aforementioned expanded universe. The text says that Ron Paul wants the New Republic to adopt the Corusca gem as standard currency. This entire joke is an allegory for the {{w|Gold Standard}}, which Ron Paul is a personal advocate of even though it is no longer in use by the United States.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking through a box.]
:Cueball: Hey, my old Star Wars books!

:[Cueball is holding a pair of books and showing them to Megan.]
:Cueball: Man. Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole, The Corellian Trilogy...
:Cueball: This was my world.

:Megan: What'd you leave it for? Firefly? BSG?
:Cueball: Nah.
:Cueball: I guess I've just grown out of the whole obsessive fan mindset.

:Megan: Really.
:Megan: So how's Ron Paul doing?
:Cueball: Ooh! Lemme recheck today's blogs.
:[Cueball heads off to do so.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ron Paul]]