explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2672: What If? 2 Flowchart

2023-12-06T19:00:57Z

141.101.98.162: /* Table of questions in the flowchart */

<noinclude>:''For other instances of this title, see [[What If (disambiguation)]].</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2672
| date = September 13, 2022
| title = What If? 2 Flowchart
| image = what_if_2_flowchart_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x729px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Don't worry, the dogs are all fine. That's actually kind of the problem.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic celebrates the release of [[Randall|Randall's]] new book, ''[[What If? 2]]'', which was released on the same day as this comic: Tuesday, September 13, 2022. The comic thus appeared on a Tuesday, replacing that week's normal Wednesday release to coincide with the release day. The [[Header text|header text]] also [[Header text#2022-09-13 - What if? 2 is available now|changed that day]] to shout out that the book was released on that day. (It had been counting down the last week, from [[Header text#2022-09-07 - Less than one week to What if? 2 comes out|less than a week]], [[Header text#2022-09-12 - Three days to What if? 2 comes out|three days]] and [[Header text#2022-09-12 - One day to What if? 2 comes out|one day]] while the previous comics [[2670: Interruption]] and [[2671: Rotation]] was on the front page — the latter only for one day due to the Tuesday release).

While announcing that his '''What If? 2''' book is finally out (the entire comic is a [https://xkcd.com/whatif2 link] to the books page on xkcd), Randall gives us a flowchart we can follow to find an article in the book relating to the situation in the flowchart. Once a relevant possibility is reached in the flowchart a page number in the book is given. It thus assumes the reader plans to do something that the advice in '''What If 2''' could be helpful for, which hopefully is highly unlikely. See the [[#Table of questions in the flowchart|table below]] for explanations on the individual options in the flowchart.

The title text refers to the loop near the bottom of the flowchart, which involves a series of questions asking if the reader wants a progressively larger number of dogs. The number of dogs offered increases several times, and if that is sufficient the flowchart ends with fulfillment. Eventually it will have an option for the scenario where all in the universe is consumed by dogs, which directs to page 308 of the book. The title text references this last option by assuring the reader that all of the dogs are doing fine, but goes on to state that in itself could cause problems. For instance, those dogs could impede the progress of all life on Earth and elsewhere and/or reproduce and create an even larger population of dogs.

==Table of questions in the flowchart==
The flowchart questions and their possible answers are described in the following table(Also in [[2672: What If? 2 Flowchart/Table]]):
{| class="wikitable"
! Text
! Connected
!Reference
|-
| Congratulations, you have acquired a copy of ''What if? 2!'' (out today, [https://xkcd.com/whatif2 xkcd.com/whatif2])
| What do you want to do today?
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | What do you want to do today?
| I don't know: Reflect on your life
|
|-
| Go to neighborhood party: Do you like your neighbor?
|
|-
| Brunch: Where do you go?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Do you like your neighbor?
| Yes: '''Page 78'''
| Chapter 17: Swing Set
|-
| No: What do you want to bring?
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | What do you want to bring?
| Jupiter: '''Page 70'''
| Chapter 15: Jupiter Comes To Town
|-
| Iron vapor: '''Page 18'''
| Chapter 4: Ironic Vaporization
| Weird Opinions: Do you think bugs should get paid?
|
|-
| My fake identity: Have you committed any crimes?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Where do you go?
| The sun: Are you wearing sunscreen?
|
|-
| A diner: How do you get there?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you wearing sunscreen?
| Yes: '''Page 319'''
| Chapter 62: Sunscreen
|-
| No: How do you want to visit?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | How do you want to visit?
| Briefly, via teleporter: '''Page 314'''
| Chapter 61: Into the Sun
|-
| I want to land a probe on the surface: '''Page 323'''
| Chapter 63: Walking on the Sun
|-
| rowspan="3" | How do you get there?
| Helicopter: Where do you sit in the helicopter?
|
|-
| Plane: '''Page 83''', Are you flying near any strong magnets?
| Chapter 18: Airliner Catapult
|-
| Car: How do you want to drive?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Where do you sit in the helicopter?
| On the rotor: '''Page 6'''
| Chapter 2: Helicopter Ride
|-
| Inside: Are you flying near any strong magnets?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you flying near any strong magnets?
| Yes: '''Page 171'''
| Last page of Chapter 32: MRI Compass
|-
| No: Okay, there's the diner!
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Okay, there's the diner!
| Keep driving forever: '''Page 128'''
| Chapter 25: Tire Rubber; likely a mistake. Should be Page 22; Chapter 5: Cosmic Road Trip
|-
| Stop: What food do you order?
|
|-
| rowspan="5" | What food do you order?
| The sun: '''Page 303'''
| Short Answers Section, what would a star taste like
|-
| Breadsticks: '''Page 299'''
| Short Answers Section, how slow to chew in order to infinitely eat breadsticks
|-
| Ammonia: '''Page 284'''
| Chapter 57: Ammonia Tube
|-
| A cloud: '''Page 195'''
| Chapter 38: Eat a Cloud
|-
| Soup: How much soup?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | How much soup?
| 1 bowl: '''Page 197'''
| illustration of various food volumes with air removed
|-
| 1040 bowls: '''Page 1'''
| Chapter 1: Soupiter
|-
| rowspan="3" | How do you want to drive?
| Fast: '''Page 180'''
| Chapter 35: No Rules Nascar
|-
| With a bird: '''Page 171'''
| Last page of Chapter 32: MRI Compass, likely a mistake. Should be Page 176; Chapter 34: Bird Car
|-
| Normal: Does this road lead to Rome?
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | Does this road lead to Rome?
| Yes: Pick a different road
|
|-
| No, but it should: '''Page 154'''
| Chapter 29: Build Rome in a Day
|-
| No: Okay, there's the diner!
|
|-
| Pick a different road
| Does this road lead to Rome?
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | What do you really want to do?
| I want to shoot a laser at a sorceress: '''Page 43'''
| Chapter 9, can I shoot a laser around the Earth
|-
| I want to tell people things about eggs: What kinds of things about eggs?
|
|-
| I want a dog: Get a dog
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | What kinds of things about eggs?
| True things: '''Page 300'''
| Short Answer Section, can you make an egg float by filling it with helium
|-
| False things: '''Page 258'''
| Chapter 52: One paragraph reveals that this course of action would be illegal in California, but fine elsewhere
|-
| Get a dog
| Are you satisfied?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you satisfied?
| Yes: '''Fulfillment!'''
|
|-
| No, I think we need more dogs: Get more dogs
|
|-
| Get more dogs
| Enough? (1)
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Enough? (1)
| Yes: '''Fulfillment!'''
|
|-
| No. You can never have too many dogs: More dogs
|
|-
| More dogs
| Enough? (2)
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Enough? (2)
| Yes: Fulfillment!
|
|-
| No. You can literally never have too many dogs. We should not stop until all that exists in the cosmos has been consumed by a happy, barking mass: '''Page 308'''
| Chapter 60: Dog Overload
|-
| rowspan="3" | Have you committed any crimes?
| Not sure: '''Page 255'''
| Chapter 52: Read All The Laws
|-
| Yes: Travel back in time to undo your crimes
|
|-
| No: Do you want to?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Do you want to?
| No: '''Page 255'''
| Chapter 52: Read All The Laws
|-
| Yes: '''Page 258'''
| Header: Do I Have To Read All These Laws (section within Chapter 52: Read All The Laws
|-
| Travel back in time to undo your crimes
| '''Page 277'''
| Chapter 56: Walking Backward in Time
|}

==Transcript==
:[A large flowchart, with the first box in the top left corner.]
:Box 1: Congratulations, you have acquired a copy of '''''What if? 2!''''' (out today, xkcd.com/whatif2)
::[Arrow to Box 2]
:Box 2: What do you want to do today?
::[Arrow to Box 3] I don't know
::[Arrow to Box 4] Go to neighborhood party
::[Arrow to Box 5] Brunch
:Box 3: Reflect on your life
::[Arrow to Box 6]
:Box 4: Do you like your neighbor?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 78'] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 7] No
:Box 5: Where do you go?
::[Arrow to Box 8] The Sun
::[Arrow to Box 9] A diner
:Box 6: What do you really want to do?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 43'] I want to shoot a laser at a sorceress
::[Arrow to Box 10] I want a dog
::[Arrow to Box 11] I want to tell people things about eggs
:Box 7: What do you want to bring?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 70'] Jupiter
::[Arrow to Box 12] Weird opinions
::[Arrow to Box 13] My fake identity
:Box 8: Are you wearing sunscreen?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 319'] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 14] No
:Box 9: How do you get there?
::[Arrow to Box 15] Helicopter
::[Arrow to Box 16 with the words 'page 83'] Plane
::[Arrow to Box 17] Car
:Box 10: Get a dog
::[Arrow to Box 18]
:Box 11: What kinds of things about eggs?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 300'] True things
::[Arrow to the words 'page 258', same words as from Box 19] False things
:Box 12: Do you think bugs should get paid?
::[Arrow to Box 3] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 96'] Yes
:Box 13: Have you commited any crimes?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 255', same words as from Box 19] Not sure
::[Arrow to Box 19] No
::[Arrow to Box 20] Yes
:Box 14: How do you want to visit?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 314'] Briefly, via teleporter
::[Arrow to the words 'page 323'] I want to land a probe on the surface
:Box 15: Where do you sit in the helicopter?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 6'] On the rotor
::[Arrow to Box 16] Inside
:Box 16: Are you flying near any strong magnets?
::[Arrow to Box 21] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 171'] Yes
:Box 17: How fast do you want to drive?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 180'] Fast
::[Arrow to Box 22] Normal
::[Arrow to the words 'page 176'] With a bird
:Box 18: Are you satisfied?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 26 and 29]
::[Arrow to Box 23] No. I think we need more dogs.
:Box 19: Do you want to?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 255', same words as from Box 13] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 258', same words as from Box 11] Yes
:Box 20: Travel back in time to undo your crimes
::[Arrow to the words 'page 277']
:Box 21: Okay, there's the diner!
::[Arrow to the words 'page 128'] Keep driving forever
::[Arrow to Box 24] Stop
:Box 22: Does this road lead to Rome?
::[Arrow to Box 25] Yes
::[Arrow to the words 'page 154'] No, but it should
::[Arrow to Box 21] No
:Box 23: Get more dogs
::[Arrow to Box 26]
:Box 24: What food do you order?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 303'] The Sun
::[Arrow to the words 'page 299'] Breadsticks
::[Arrow to Box 27] Soup
::[Arrow to the words 'page 284'] Ammonia
::[Arrow to the words 'page 195'] A cloud
:Box 25: Pick a different road
::[Arrow to Box 22]
:Box 26: Enough?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 18 and 29] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 28] No. You can never have too many dogs.
:Box 27: How much soup?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 197'] 1 bowl
::[Arrow to the words 'page 1'] 1040 bowls
:Box 28: More dogs
::[Arrow to Box 29]
:Box 29: Enough?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 18 and 26]
::[Arrow to the words 'page 308] No. You can literally never have too many dogs. We should not stop until all that exists has been consumed by a happy, barking mass.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:What If?]]

2672: What If? 2 Flowchart

2023-12-06T18:59:50Z

141.101.98.162: /* Table of questions in the flowchart */

<noinclude>:''For other instances of this title, see [[What If (disambiguation)]].</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2672
| date = September 13, 2022
| title = What If? 2 Flowchart
| image = what_if_2_flowchart_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x729px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Don't worry, the dogs are all fine. That's actually kind of the problem.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic celebrates the release of [[Randall|Randall's]] new book, ''[[What If? 2]]'', which was released on the same day as this comic: Tuesday, September 13, 2022. The comic thus appeared on a Tuesday, replacing that week's normal Wednesday release to coincide with the release day. The [[Header text|header text]] also [[Header text#2022-09-13 - What if? 2 is available now|changed that day]] to shout out that the book was released on that day. (It had been counting down the last week, from [[Header text#2022-09-07 - Less than one week to What if? 2 comes out|less than a week]], [[Header text#2022-09-12 - Three days to What if? 2 comes out|three days]] and [[Header text#2022-09-12 - One day to What if? 2 comes out|one day]] while the previous comics [[2670: Interruption]] and [[2671: Rotation]] was on the front page — the latter only for one day due to the Tuesday release).

While announcing that his '''What If? 2''' book is finally out (the entire comic is a [https://xkcd.com/whatif2 link] to the books page on xkcd), Randall gives us a flowchart we can follow to find an article in the book relating to the situation in the flowchart. Once a relevant possibility is reached in the flowchart a page number in the book is given. It thus assumes the reader plans to do something that the advice in '''What If 2''' could be helpful for, which hopefully is highly unlikely. See the [[#Table of questions in the flowchart|table below]] for explanations on the individual options in the flowchart.

The title text refers to the loop near the bottom of the flowchart, which involves a series of questions asking if the reader wants a progressively larger number of dogs. The number of dogs offered increases several times, and if that is sufficient the flowchart ends with fulfillment. Eventually it will have an option for the scenario where all in the universe is consumed by dogs, which directs to page 308 of the book. The title text references this last option by assuring the reader that all of the dogs are doing fine, but goes on to state that in itself could cause problems. For instance, those dogs could impede the progress of all life on Earth and elsewhere and/or reproduce and create an even larger population of dogs.

==Table of questions in the flowchart==
The flowchart questions and their possible answers are described in the following table(Also in [[2672: What If? 2 Flowchart/Table]]):
{| class="wikitable"
! Text
! Connected
!Reference
|-
| Congratulations, you have acquired a copy of ''What if? 2!'' (out today, [https://xkcd.com/whatif2 xkcd.com/whatif2])
| What do you want to do today?
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | What do you want to do today?
| I don't know: Reflect on your life
|
|-
| Go to neighborhood party: Do you like your neighbor?
|
|-
| Brunch: Where do you go?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Do you like your neighbor?
| Yes: '''Page 78'''
| Chapter 17: Swing Set
|-
| No: What do you want to bring?
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | What do you want to bring?
| Jupiter: '''Page 70'''
| Chapter 15: Jupiter Comes To Town
|-
| Iron vapor: '''Page 18'''
| Chapter 4: Ironic Vaporization
|
| Weird Opinions: Do you think bugs should get paid?
|
|-
| My fake identity: Have you committed any crimes?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Where do you go?
| The sun: Are you wearing sunscreen?
|
|-
| A diner: How do you get there?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you wearing sunscreen?
| Yes: '''Page 319'''
| Chapter 62: Sunscreen
|-
| No: How do you want to visit?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | How do you want to visit?
| Briefly, via teleporter: '''Page 314'''
| Chapter 61: Into the Sun
|-
| I want to land a probe on the surface: '''Page 323'''
| Chapter 63: Walking on the Sun
|-
| rowspan="3" | How do you get there?
| Helicopter: Where do you sit in the helicopter?
|
|-
| Plane: '''Page 83''', Are you flying near any strong magnets?
| Chapter 18: Airliner Catapult
|-
| Car: How do you want to drive?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Where do you sit in the helicopter?
| On the rotor: '''Page 6'''
| Chapter 2: Helicopter Ride
|-
| Inside: Are you flying near any strong magnets?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you flying near any strong magnets?
| Yes: '''Page 171'''
| Last page of Chapter 32: MRI Compass
|-
| No: Okay, there's the diner!
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Okay, there's the diner!
| Keep driving forever: '''Page 128'''
| Chapter 25: Tire Rubber; likely a mistake. Should be Page 22; Chapter 5: Cosmic Road Trip
|-
| Stop: What food do you order?
|
|-
| rowspan="5" | What food do you order?
| The sun: '''Page 303'''
| Short Answers Section, what would a star taste like
|-
| Breadsticks: '''Page 299'''
| Short Answers Section, how slow to chew in order to infinitely eat breadsticks
|-
| Ammonia: '''Page 284'''
| Chapter 57: Ammonia Tube
|-
| A cloud: '''Page 195'''
| Chapter 38: Eat a Cloud
|-
| Soup: How much soup?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | How much soup?
| 1 bowl: '''Page 197'''
| illustration of various food volumes with air removed
|-
| 1040 bowls: '''Page 1'''
| Chapter 1: Soupiter
|-
| rowspan="3" | How do you want to drive?
| Fast: '''Page 180'''
| Chapter 35: No Rules Nascar
|-
| With a bird: '''Page 171'''
| Last page of Chapter 32: MRI Compass, likely a mistake. Should be Page 176; Chapter 34: Bird Car
|-
| Normal: Does this road lead to Rome?
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | Does this road lead to Rome?
| Yes: Pick a different road
|
|-
| No, but it should: '''Page 154'''
| Chapter 29: Build Rome in a Day
|-
| No: Okay, there's the diner!
|
|-
| Pick a different road
| Does this road lead to Rome?
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | What do you really want to do?
| I want to shoot a laser at a sorceress: '''Page 43'''
| Chapter 9, can I shoot a laser around the Earth
|-
| I want to tell people things about eggs: What kinds of things about eggs?
|
|-
| I want a dog: Get a dog
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | What kinds of things about eggs?
| True things: '''Page 300'''
| Short Answer Section, can you make an egg float by filling it with helium
|-
| False things: '''Page 258'''
| Chapter 52: One paragraph reveals that this course of action would be illegal in California, but fine elsewhere
|-
| Get a dog
| Are you satisfied?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you satisfied?
| Yes: '''Fulfillment!'''
|
|-
| No, I think we need more dogs: Get more dogs
|
|-
| Get more dogs
| Enough? (1)
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Enough? (1)
| Yes: '''Fulfillment!'''
|
|-
| No. You can never have too many dogs: More dogs
|
|-
| More dogs
| Enough? (2)
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Enough? (2)
| Yes: Fulfillment!
|
|-
| No. You can literally never have too many dogs. We should not stop until all that exists in the cosmos has been consumed by a happy, barking mass: '''Page 308'''
| Chapter 60: Dog Overload
|-
| rowspan="3" | Have you committed any crimes?
| Not sure: '''Page 255'''
| Chapter 52: Read All The Laws
|-
| Yes: Travel back in time to undo your crimes
|
|-
| No: Do you want to?
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Do you want to?
| No: '''Page 255'''
| Chapter 52: Read All The Laws
|-
| Yes: '''Page 258'''
| Header: Do I Have To Read All These Laws (section within Chapter 52: Read All The Laws
|-
| Travel back in time to undo your crimes
| '''Page 277'''
| Chapter 56: Walking Backward in Time
|}

==Transcript==
:[A large flowchart, with the first box in the top left corner.]
:Box 1: Congratulations, you have acquired a copy of '''''What if? 2!''''' (out today, xkcd.com/whatif2)
::[Arrow to Box 2]
:Box 2: What do you want to do today?
::[Arrow to Box 3] I don't know
::[Arrow to Box 4] Go to neighborhood party
::[Arrow to Box 5] Brunch
:Box 3: Reflect on your life
::[Arrow to Box 6]
:Box 4: Do you like your neighbor?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 78'] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 7] No
:Box 5: Where do you go?
::[Arrow to Box 8] The Sun
::[Arrow to Box 9] A diner
:Box 6: What do you really want to do?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 43'] I want to shoot a laser at a sorceress
::[Arrow to Box 10] I want a dog
::[Arrow to Box 11] I want to tell people things about eggs
:Box 7: What do you want to bring?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 70'] Jupiter
::[Arrow to Box 12] Weird opinions
::[Arrow to Box 13] My fake identity
:Box 8: Are you wearing sunscreen?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 319'] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 14] No
:Box 9: How do you get there?
::[Arrow to Box 15] Helicopter
::[Arrow to Box 16 with the words 'page 83'] Plane
::[Arrow to Box 17] Car
:Box 10: Get a dog
::[Arrow to Box 18]
:Box 11: What kinds of things about eggs?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 300'] True things
::[Arrow to the words 'page 258', same words as from Box 19] False things
:Box 12: Do you think bugs should get paid?
::[Arrow to Box 3] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 96'] Yes
:Box 13: Have you commited any crimes?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 255', same words as from Box 19] Not sure
::[Arrow to Box 19] No
::[Arrow to Box 20] Yes
:Box 14: How do you want to visit?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 314'] Briefly, via teleporter
::[Arrow to the words 'page 323'] I want to land a probe on the surface
:Box 15: Where do you sit in the helicopter?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 6'] On the rotor
::[Arrow to Box 16] Inside
:Box 16: Are you flying near any strong magnets?
::[Arrow to Box 21] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 171'] Yes
:Box 17: How fast do you want to drive?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 180'] Fast
::[Arrow to Box 22] Normal
::[Arrow to the words 'page 176'] With a bird
:Box 18: Are you satisfied?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 26 and 29]
::[Arrow to Box 23] No. I think we need more dogs.
:Box 19: Do you want to?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 255', same words as from Box 13] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 258', same words as from Box 11] Yes
:Box 20: Travel back in time to undo your crimes
::[Arrow to the words 'page 277']
:Box 21: Okay, there's the diner!
::[Arrow to the words 'page 128'] Keep driving forever
::[Arrow to Box 24] Stop
:Box 22: Does this road lead to Rome?
::[Arrow to Box 25] Yes
::[Arrow to the words 'page 154'] No, but it should
::[Arrow to Box 21] No
:Box 23: Get more dogs
::[Arrow to Box 26]
:Box 24: What food do you order?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 303'] The Sun
::[Arrow to the words 'page 299'] Breadsticks
::[Arrow to Box 27] Soup
::[Arrow to the words 'page 284'] Ammonia
::[Arrow to the words 'page 195'] A cloud
:Box 25: Pick a different road
::[Arrow to Box 22]
:Box 26: Enough?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 18 and 29] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 28] No. You can never have too many dogs.
:Box 27: How much soup?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 197'] 1 bowl
::[Arrow to the words 'page 1'] 1040 bowls
:Box 28: More dogs
::[Arrow to Box 29]
:Box 29: Enough?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 18 and 26]
::[Arrow to the words 'page 308] No. You can literally never have too many dogs. We should not stop until all that exists has been consumed by a happy, barking mass.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:What If?]]

1748: Future Archaeology

2023-12-01T09:53:46Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1748
| date = October 19, 2016
| title = Future Archaeology
| image = future_archaeology.png
| titletext = "The only link we've found between the two documents is that a fragment of the Noah one mentions Aaron's brother Moses parting an ocean. Is that right?" "... yes. Yes, exactly."
}}

==Explanation==
This Wednesday comic is a direct continuation of the previous comic [[1747: Spider Paleontology]] from Monday about a {{w|time travel|time-traveler}} (the black floating energy Sphere) who has come back from far in to the future to see {{w|spiders}} (only known from {{w|fossils}} in their time). See [[1747: Spider Paleontology]] for a more complete explanation of this part of the joke. This [[:Category:Time traveling Sphere|series]] ended with this comic. Both comics in this series have titles of a noun followed by a field of research.

Since [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] now have access to the Sphere from the future they ask if it knows who will win the election. This is a reference to the {{w|United States elections, 2016}} where the ''very'' controversial [[Donald Trump]] was up against former United States First Lady {{w|Hillary Clinton}}, who also had several {{w|Hillary_Clinton_email_controversy|controversies}} going on. This comic was released about three weeks before election day. It is likely one of the most discussed elections ever, especially in the rest of the world outside the US, where especially European leaders have made it clear that they are against Trump. That was mainly earlier on, before they realized he might actually stand a chance. Of course, anyone interested in any election would be interested to hear from the future how it went, but this particular election may interest a larger proportion of the world population than any prior election. (The election was the subject three weeks later the day before the election where [[Randall]] endorsed Hillary directly in [[1756: I'm With Her]].)

Sadly for Megan and Cueball, the sphere has come back from so far into the future, that even spiders have gone extinct. (Whether humans also have is unclear, see discussion about this in [[1747: Spider Paleontology]]). The Sphere makes this clear by stating that its civilization hardly knows anything about our era, and they know little about our history and culture. (And by the way it only came back for the spiders, anyway). The idea is that history is filtered in similar fashion to fossils. What is contemporaneously important, like a {{w|spider web|spider's web}}, {{w|Feathered dinosaur|dinosaur feathers}} (see previous comic), or the United States presidential election may not survive. The Sphere tells them that only two written accounts have been reconstructed (note that they are not found in their entirety). And they do not know whether they even represent real events or myths. One of the two is indeed a myth, as it is about a man building a boat to survive a great flood. Megan recognizes this as being about {{w|Noah}} and his famous {{w|Noah's Ark|Ark}} from the {{w|Genesis flood narrative}}, as Cueball refers to. The other is a reference to a popular pop song.

The joke is that, in the future, the 2000 {{w|Aaron Carter}} hip hop song "{{w|That's How I Beat Shaq}}" ([http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/aaroncarter/thatshowibeatshaq.html lyrics] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfhhWA9GF0M video]) is considered as valuable a historical document when researching humans as parts of the {{w|Bible}}. While secular historians consider the story of the Flood to be mythical, they still use it to infer facts about the early history of the Middle East, simply because there are a fairly small number of texts surviving from that era. "That's How I Beat Shaq" is, likewise, a fictional story including some true elements; it's just that as long as there are abundant sources documenting life in the year 2000, there's no reason to consult the song in any historical context. Yet it is the latter story that the time traveler assumes to be a clearly religious one, while seeing the former as a relatively straightforward survival story. A further layer of humor is that "That's How I Beat Shaq" is an archetypal {{w|David and Goliath}} story—the story of David and Goliath of course being a Biblical one as well.

In fact, the Spheres civilization believes Shaq ({{w|Shaquille O'Neal}} a professional basketball player 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) tall) to refer to a god, which was then defeated by Aaron, a 14-year-old (and rather small kid) at the time of the release of his single in 2001. He beats Shaq on the basketball court one on one, so although this is a David vs. Goliath story it is not a fight till death. But to Aaron and his basketball fan friends, Shaq is probably seen as kind of god. Megan comments that the pop song may have been mangled by the {{w|Aeon|eons}}. The Sphere asks Megan and Cueball if it is true that Aaron (Carter's) brother Moses did part an ocean. Megan decides to refrain from trying to explain this, having already in the previous comic realized how hard it is to explain spiders to someone who is a fan, but has never heard of spider web, and thus just states yes, yes exactly. Of course according to the Bible she can say yes to the question about Moses parting the water, as long as she does not say anything about the connection with Aaron Carter.

There appears to be a major flaw in the comic on the fact that the Sphere speaks perfect English and understands Megan and Cueball. If they only have two written accounts from our time, why do they then speak English? Especially since they seem to come from another planet and are thus likely not humans (see discussion of the sphere in the previous comic). Of course if they are humans and have come from Earth (maybe travelled away), they may just have retained the English language. But given the fact that young people today probably would not understand their own grandparents' grandparents, and that the Sphere is from so long into the future that Megan calls it eons, spiders are extinct, and only two texts have survived, it should be impossible for the language to have stayed the same. Alternatively, they have also recovered some video clips, but then it would be strange the Sphere did not mention this. A final solution is that the Sphere's civilization is so advanced that it can learn the language instantly by just being in the room with other beings, simply reading it from their mind. Given the fact that it seems the Sphere has come to Earth from another planet, and has the ability to travel in time, this last option may not even be so far-fetched.

This comic was published the day after the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|152|Flood Death Valley}}'', thus referring indirectly to a new possible flood history. It was the first what if? post in almost three months, the longest break between two post during 2016 (and third longest of all time at the time of its release), and it thus seems realistic that there should be some kind of connection between that and this comic. A later comic ([[1750: Life Goals]]) also referenced this what if? post more or less directly. In this comic, Randall managed to combine no less than four of his favorite recurring subjects with [[:Category:Time travel|time travel]], [[:Category:Spiders|spiders]], [[:Category:Politics|politics]] and [[:Category:Religion|religion]].

The title text expands on the joke by letting the Sphere explain that the only connection they have found between their two historical documents is via the biblical story of {{w|Moses}}. As Moses is also one of God's chosen prophets and leaders, like Noah and {{w|Abraham}} before him, these two stories appear close together in the Bible, though not close together chronologically, and it would be likely that their document with the Flood story also has some parts about Moses. Moses had an older biological brother named {{w|Aaron}} and the Sphere's civilization has hastily concluded that Moses' brother and Aaron Carter are the same. According to the Bible, God {{w|parting of the Red Sea|parted the Sea of Reeds (commonly mistranslated as Red Sea)}} for Moses and the {{w|Israelites}}. This is often referred to, either erroneously or out of simplification, as Moses having parted the Red Sea. Along with Noah's Flood, this is one of the two major times in the Bible that God effects grand change on a body or bodies of water.

==Transcript==
:[The Sphere, a time-traveler depicted as a solid floating black energy sphere surrounded by six outwardly-curved segments (first seen in the previous comic), is floating in front of Megan and Cueball who is walking after it towards the right part of the panel. The Sphere looks like this in all panels, but in the zoom in from panel two more details can be seen. A voice emanates from the Sphere.]
:Megan: Since you're from the future, do you know who wins the election?
:Sphere: Haven't the faintest idea. Hardly any text has been recovered from your era, so we know little about your history and culture.
:Sphere: We're mostly here for the spiders, anyway. 

:[A close-up of the Sphere, still depicted as a black sphere, but not perfectly round at this zoom level and also clearly with some white dots in the dark area. It is still surrounded by six narrow rays with irregular dots between the rays.]
:Sphere: There are only two written accounts we've reconstructed.
:Sphere: We don't know whether they describe real events or myths.

:[The Sphere is now on the left side of Megan and Cueball who has stopped walking and has turned to look at the Sphere.]
:Sphere: One is a story about a man who built a boat to survive a great flood.
:Megan: Oh yeah. Noah.
:Cueball: We do like our flood narratives.

:[The Sphere has drifted further away from Megan and Cueball.]
:Sphere: The other is an account of how a man named Aaron Carter defeated a god named Shaq.
:Megan: That one may have been mangled a bit by the eons.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Time traveling Sphere]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Basketball]] 
[[Category:Songs]]

2433: Mars Rovers

2021-03-06T03:23:30Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */ (Tyop!)

{{comic
| number = 2433
| date = March 5, 2021
| title = Mars Rovers
| image = mars_rovers.png
| titletext = I just Googled 'roomba sojourner mod' and was sorely disappointed. Be the change, I guess!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CUTE ROBOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This article is [[Randall]]'s placement of the various Mars rovers on a cuteness v capabilities chart.

He finds the ''{{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}}'' and ''{{w|Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance}}'' rovers to be very capable / useful, but not very cute. ''{{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}}'' and ''{{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}'' are cuter than the first two, but less capable. The recently launched ''Perseverance'' rover contains a drone helicopter, ''{{w|Ingenuity (helicopter)|Ingenuity}}'', which Randall finds very cute, but he is unsure how capable / useful it is. The way the error-range is indicated 'coincidentally' gives the Ingenuity image-plot a sense of movement in mid-air, especially the up and down motion which is the helicopter's (hopefully) most obvious dynamic once it is deployed and being tested.

Finally, on the very right of the chart is the ''{{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}}'' rover, launched in 1997. He considers this rover extremely cute, but ultimately not that capable in terms of space exploration.

In the title text, Randall is disappointed that there aren't many people who have modified their {{w|Roomba}} vacuums to look like (or act like?) the ''Soujourner'' rover. [[:Category:Roomba|Roomba]] has been mentioned in many xkcd comics.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Roomba]]

2433: Mars Rovers

2021-03-06T03:18:13Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */ Better?

{{comic
| number = 2433
| date = March 5, 2021
| title = Mars Rovers
| image = mars_rovers.png
| titletext = I just Googled 'roomba sojourner mod' and was sorely disappointed. Be the change, I guess!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CUTE ROBOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This article is [[Randall]]'s placement of the various Mars rovers on a cuteness v capabilities chart.

He finds the ''{{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}}'' and ''{{w|Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance}}'' rovers to be very capable / useful, but not very cute. ''{{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}}'' and ''{{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}'' are cuter than the first two, but less capable. The recently launched ''Perseverance'' rover contains a drone helicopter, ''{{w|Ingenuity (helicopter)|Ingenuity}}'', which Randall finds very cute, but he is unsure how capable / useful it is. The way the error-range is indicated 'coincidentally' gives the Ingenuity image-plot a sense of movement in mid-aid, especially the up and down motion which is the helicopter's (hopefully) most obvious dynamic once it is deployed and being tested.

Finally, on the very right of the chart is the ''{{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}}'' rover, launched in 1997. He considers this rover extremely cute, but ultimately not that capable in terms of space exploration.

In the title text, Randall is disappointed that there aren't many people who have modified their {{w|Roomba}} vacuums to look like (or act like?) the ''Soujourner'' rover. [[:Category:Roomba|Roomba]] has been mentioned in many xkcd comics.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Roomba]]

2433: Mars Rovers

2021-03-06T03:16:58Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */ Of course, it makes the other (on-graph) missions look like they're even more elevated in the air, but but one can overanalyse such things. ;)

{{comic
| number = 2433
| date = March 5, 2021
| title = Mars Rovers
| image = mars_rovers.png
| titletext = I just Googled 'roomba sojourner mod' and was sorely disappointed. Be the change, I guess!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CUTE ROBOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This article is [[Randall]]'s placement of the various Mars rovers on a cuteness v capabilities chart.

He finds the ''{{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}}'' and ''{{w|Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance}}'' rovers to be very capable / useful, but not very cute. ''{{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}}'' and ''{{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}'' are cuter than the first two, but less capable. The recently launched ''Perseverance'' rover contains a drone helicopter, ''{{w|Ingenuity (helicopter)|Ingenuity}}'', which Randall finds very cute, but he is unsure how capable / useful it is. The way the error-range is indicated 'coincidentally' gives the Ingenuity image-plot a sense of movement, especially the up and down motion which is the helicopter's (hopefully) most obvious dynamic once it is deployed and being tested.

Finally, on the very right of the chart is the ''{{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}}'' rover, launched in 1997. He considers this rover extremely cute, but ultimately not that capable in terms of space exploration.

In the title text, Randall is disappointed that there aren't many people who have modified their {{w|Roomba}} vacuums to look like (or act like?) the ''Soujourner'' rover. [[:Category:Roomba|Roomba]] has been mentioned in many xkcd comics.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Roomba]]

2431: Leap Year 2021

2021-03-03T10:37:01Z

141.101.98.162: /* =Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2431
| date = March 1, 2021
| title = Leap Year 2021
| image = leap_year_2021.png
| titletext = I've lived in the present for my whole life and I'm not about to move now.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]], checking his phone, comments on how fast time goes, saying it is already March. (This comic was posted on March 1, 2021.) Black Hat overhears him and says that it's actually February 29.

February 29 exists in the {{w|Gregorian calendar}} and its predecessor, the {{w|Julian calendar}}, as a {{w|Intercalation (timekeeping)|correction mechanism}} for the fact that one {{w|tropical year}} on Earth is not exactly 365 days long. It's closer to 365.2422, and to prevent the dates from precessing relative to the seasons, an extra day is added once every fourth year, also called a leap year. This is still not enough to completely match Earth's orbital period, and for that reason the Gregorian calendar changed the leap year rules to be as follows: Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. This makes the average year 365.2425 days long, which approximates the 365.2422 days in the tropical year.

[[Black Hat]] wants ''every'' year to have a February 29, for no clear reason. Cueball acknowledges that he could accomplish this, if he could convince enough people to go along with it. Calendar systems are all invented, and whatever date systems are commonly acknowledged become the "correct" date. Cueball initially considers the change minor, assuming that they would simply change March 1st to February 29th on non-leap years, which would merely rename a single day and skip "March 1st" by going directly from February 29th to March 2nd. Black Hat clarifies that he actually wants to add another day, and the day AFTER that will be March 1. This could still be a minor change, if March were changed to a 30 day month on non-leap years, but Black Hat apparently wants the changes to propagate throughout the year. This would result in a 366-day year, causing the months to drift out of alignment with the seasons over the course of years, needlessly complicating time-keeping. Black Hat is unconcerned with the effect this will have on the "people of the future", and, as in [[1883: Supervillain Plan|the past]], people around him are much more concerned about the time problems he's creating than he is.

In the last frame, Black Hat states that if the those people cared about the problems he's causing, "they shouldn't have decided to live in the future." Of course, it is as present impossible to choose the time period in which you live,{{Citation needed}} yet Black Hat intends on penalizing them for it. Any number of positions could be proposed as a motive for his actions (for example, he may envy them for having the technology or benefits of the future, and wants to counteract that), but it is most likely that he is simply honing his sociopathic tendencies on a defenseless target.

In the title text, Cueball responds that this change would also cause issues for him, who is "living in the present", and he should not be forced to "move into the future". Alternatively, viewing the quote as a continuation of Black Hat's text at the end of the comic, he could mean that the effect of his new calendar is placed mostly on future people, and since he literally lives in the present and doesn't intend on travelling to the future, he can do what he wants without many repercussions.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball checking his phone in a narrow panel.]
:Cueball: Can't believe it's already March.
:Black Hat (off-screen): Nah, it's February 29th.

:[Cueball has put his phone away and is standing next to Black Hat.]
:Cueball: It's not a leap year.
:Black Hat: I decided to make it one. Every year deserves to leap.
:Cueball: Can you do that?
:Black Hat: Can anyone stop me?

:[Zoom in on Cueball.]
:Cueball: I guess if you just encourage people to call March 1st "February 29th", they can go along with it if they want. Just a one-day renaming.
:Black Hat (off-screen): No, tomorrow will be March 1st.

:[Cueball standing to Black Hat, who is walking off screen to the right, with his finger raised.]
:Cueball: So you're causing calendar drift for future generations.
:Black Hat: If they didn't want to experience consequences, they shouldn't have decided to live in the future.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Calendar]]

1037: Umwelt

2020-12-27T08:16:17Z

141.101.98.162: /* Robot Paul Revere */ Nothing to do with arrays.

{{comic
| number = 1037
| date = April 1, 2012
| title = Umwelt
| image = umwelt_the_void.jpg
| titletext = Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit--from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your web browser.
}}
{{TOC}}
==Explanation==
This was the third [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was
[[880: Headache]] from Friday April 1st 2011. The next was [[1193: Externalities]] released on Monday April 1st 2013.

This comic was released on April 1 even though that was [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (only the third comic to be released on a Sunday). But it was only due to the April Fool joke, as it did replace the comic that would have been scheduled for Monday, April 2nd. The next comic, [[1038: Fountain]], was first released on Wednesday, April 4th. This was the first that could be different for different readers.

An {{w|Umwelt}}, as the title text explains, is the idea that one's entire way of thinking is dependent on their surroundings. Thus, this {{w|April Fools}} comic changes based on the browser, location, or referrer. Thus, what the viewer is viewing the comic on, where they live, or where they came from determines which comic they actually see. As a result, there are actually multiple comics that went up on April Fools' Day, although only one is seen.
(The term 'Umwelt,' as mentioned in the comic, refers to the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok)

Information about how the wide variety of data was collected and credit for the viewers who contributed can be found [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/rnst4/april_fools_xkcd_changing_comic/ here].

===The Void===
[[File:umwelt the void.jpg]]

If the device or browser you are using does not support Javascript, you will simply see a static image of a white swirl on a dark background.

Possible reference to The Ring (http://imgur.com/wlGmm), as though to suggest that using an alternative browser is dismal and horrific.

Davean (xkcd's sysadmin): "[This] comic isn't available everywhere and it can come up i[n] some situation[s] only for recognized browsers."

Browser: Alternative Browser

===Aurora===
[[File:umwelt aurora.png]]

One could interpret that since Megan didn't go out and therefore missed seeing the {{w|Aurora}} (northern lights), Cueball in his [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|knit cap]] lied about it. That way, she wouldn't have felt sad that she missed out. Another interpretation could be that he decides that since she did not even bother to go outside to see such a spectacular sight he will not tell her about it. And yet another could be that he did not think it was interesting.

Cueball could possibly also be red-green colorblind, seeing the green aurorae as grey "clouds". This would serve as an example for the theme of the comic, as a non-colorblind person and a colorblind person seeing the same color would perceive it differently, one seeing it as its true color, and the other seeing it without the shade of color they cannot see.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Locations: Canada, Boston, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Minnesota, Norway, Denmark, France, Rhode Island (not sure if mobile only or not.) (also in virginia, but using ohio in the first panel) (also in maryland, but using canada in the first panel)

In [[1302: Year in Review]] a possibly different Megan has a completely different approach to the chance of seeing northern lights, as that was the only event she was looking forward to in 2013, and it failed. If this is the same Megan, perhaps she learned that there actually were northern lights in her area from another source, and so desperately wanted to have another chance to see them.

===Snake===
[[File:umwelt snake composite 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt snake composite.png|Full size]]

The joke here is the extreme length of snakes. The world's longest snake is the python, the longest ever being 33 feet or approx. 10 meters. The blue and orange circles refer to the hit game {{w|Portal}}.
There is also a reference to the book "The Little Prince" in the second panel, where there is a large bulge in the snake that looks like an elephant. The Little Prince starts out by mentioning a drawing that the author made when he was six that showed an elephant inside a snake.

Also, the number and content of the panels changes depending on the size of your browser window.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Specific AltText for this image: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit -from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window size.

Location: Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS, Chrome version 49.0.2623.112), Connecticut (Safari for iOS, Chrome Version 73.0.3683.103, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge), Virginia (on Chrome), Michigan (Firefox v46.0.1), Penang (Chrome Version 65.0.3325.162).

===Black Hat===
[[File:umwelt tortoise 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt tortoise.png|Full size]]

Cueball as an analyst attempts to psychoanalyze [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] [[72: Classhole|classhole]] tendencies. Cueball's quote and the whole setup is a direct reference to the movie {{w|Blade Runner}} (1982) and Black Hat is taking the Voight-Kampff test which is used to identify replicants from real humans.

Black Hat's reason for not helping the tortoise is that ''it '''knows''' what it did'' and thus in Black Hat's world view it deserves being turned over. The final part of the joke is that when zooming out it turns out that there is a tortoise behind Black Hat and he has actually already turned it over for what it did.

Location: Seems to appear mostly in "other countries" — those without location-specific comics.

===Too Quiet===
[[File:umwelt too quiet 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt too quiet.png|Full size]]

A reference to {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} which has been [[87: Velociraptors|constantly]] [[135: Substitute|referred]] [[1110: Click and Drag|to]] [[155: Search History|before]] [[758: Raptor Fences|in]] this comic.

Also referencing the film {{w|2 Fast 2 Furious|2 Fast 2 Furious}}, an entertaining, yet intellectually unprovoking sequel in a popular film franchise, which is aimed at teenagers and young adults, prompting the blunt response from the stickman. The fact that Steve would use such a cliché {{w|2000s (decade)|noughties}} movie term in such an intense moment, and the subsequent curse, is the joke in this comic.

Location: short version — iPhone 5c Safari browser in Texas, iPhone 5 Chrome Browser in Minnesota, long version - Google Chrome browser in Indiana, Windows 8 Laptop

===Pond===
[[File:umwelt pond mobile.png]][[File:umwelt pond wide.png]]

Two different versions showed, the narrower version for mobile devices.

Location: The Netherlands and various other countries.

===Galaxies===
[[File:umwelt galaxies 1024.jpg]]
[[:File:umwelt galaxies.jpg|Full size]]

Megan is distracted from her conversation with [[Cueball]] by realizing that the space behind his head, from her vantage point, contains millions of galaxies. This is similar to an [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/astro/hst_deep_field.jpg incredible photograph] taken by the Hubble Telescope, in which a tiny dark area of space in fact contained numerous galaxies.

The title text is an imaginative leap from this scenario: that the galaxies would be up to no good once Cueball is turned away from them. This is presumably a reference to [http://www.mariowiki.com/boo Boo], an enemy from certain Mario games who moves toward Mario only when Mario is facing away from Boo.

This comic was only reported once... the intended environmental context is a mystery.

Location: unknown

===xkcd Gold===
[[File:umwelt xkcd gold.png]]

This is probably a reference to the 4chan Gold Account, an implementation on 4chan that does not actually exist, and is usually used to trick newcomers into revealing their credit card numbers. The joke is that "Gold Account" users can supposedly block other users from viewing images they have posted. The fifth panel is probably a reference to Beecock, a notorious set of shocker images. 4chan's moderators have been known to give out "beecock bans" or "/z/ bans" to particularly annoying users, which redirect the user to a page containing beecock and the text "OH NO THE BOARD IS GONE".

Referrer: 4chan

===Yo Mama===
[[File:umwelt dog ballast.png]]

Possible reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "{{w|Harrison Bergeron}}."

Possibly a veiled criticism of Facebook. This could be slightly rewritten as: "This comic takes place in a dystopian future where the government is afraid of dissent, so it tracks everyone at all times, and some people privately doubt the government, but not enough to stop submitting information to Facebook. But that dystopian future is now."

Referrer: Facebook

===Reddit===
[[File:umwelt reddit.png]]

Reference to referencing, because Reddit, as a referring site, likes references to its referencing in its references.

This comic also features recursive imagery similar to [[688: Self-Description|Self Description]] where the third panel embeds the entire comic within itself.

One of the browser tabs visible in the center panel is {{w|Elk}} on Wikipedia.

Referrer: Reddit

===Buns and Hot dogs===
[[File:umwelt somethingawful.jpg]]

This is a reference to the question "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 6 while buns come in packages of 8?"

Another, more sexual reference to this question can be found in [[1641: Hot Dogs]].

Referrer: SomethingAwful, Questionable Content, & MetaFilter

===Twitter===
[[File:umwelt twitter.jpg]]

A summary of the "content" typically found on Twitter.

In the tweet feed, there are three tweets about some podcast on the top, followed by the tweet containing link they clicked on to get to the comic, tweets about Rob Delaney, unspecified passive-aggressive tweets, and a tweet from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_ebooks Horse Ebooks] retweeted by one of the users the reader follows.

On the left, the topmost dialog, with profile information, shows that the user has posted 1,302 tweets, but only follows 171 people and has even fewer followers, at a measly 48. This is marked with a sad face, implying that the user wants more followers.

Below that is the "who to follow" dialog, which is written up as consisting of "assholes".

Below that is the "trending tags" dialog for the United States. It is full of tags about word games, tags about misogyny, and tags about Justin Bieber.

Below that is an unidentified dialog full of "stuff your eyes automatically ignore". And finally, on the bottom is the background colour, which is "a really pleasant blue".

Referrer: Twitter

===Wikipedia===
[[File:umwelt wikipedia wide.jpg]]
[[File:umwelt wikipedia mobile.png]]

The term {{w|Mile High Club}} (or MHC) is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have had sexual intercourse while on board of an aircraft. Randall says that reading the news articles on it has distracted him from making that comic.

Two different versions shown, the narrower version (the single panel with all the text) for mobile devices.

Referrer: Wikipedia

===Google Chrome===
[[File:umwelt chrome1.jpg]]

{{w|Sergey Brin}} (born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies. As of 2013, his personal wealth was estimated to be $24.4 billion. Randall makes the joke that as the founder of Google, Brin's permission would be needed to use Google Chrome. Because there are millions of people who use Google, it is likely that at least some of the time Brin would be asleep, thus he would need to be woken.

Browser: Chrome

===Chrome/Firefox===
[[File:umwelt chrome2.png]]

Mozilla {{w|Firefox}} is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X, and Linux, with a mobile version for Android and iOS, by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Cueball is complaining about {{w|Google Chrome}}, to which [[Ponytail]] replies that there is an {{w|add-on}} that fixes what he is complaining about. When questioned, she replies that the add-on is Firefox, which isn't an add-on at all and is instead a different browser.

Browser: Chrome

===Google Chrome-2===
[[File:umwelt chrome3.png]]

This panel references Google Chrome's error screen, which shows a puzzle piece. The comic humorously implies that Chrome is looking for that piece. When completing jigsaw puzzles, a common strategy is to figure out where the pieces must be from their geometry rather than from the picture they create. In this case, the text suggests that Chrome believes the puzzle piece connects to the pieces which form one of the corners of the puzzle, which may seem impossible because any piece that links up to a corner would usually have at least one flat edge, which this piece has none. However, more complicated puzzles have complex shapes and are not always simply approximate squares with tabs and blanks.

Browser: Chrome or silk on desktop view

===Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing===
[[File:umwelt firefox incognito.png]]

Another reference to crashing web browsers.
Firefox shows the history when it crashes.
Browser: Firefox (Incognito only?)

===Internet Explorer===
[[File:umwelt ie.png]]

Yet another reference to crashing web browsers

Browser: Internet Explorer

===Maxthon===
[[File:umwelt maxthon.png]]

Browser: Maxthon

===Netscape Navigator===
[[File:umwelt netscape womanoctopus.png]]

[[File:umwelt netscape man.png]]

{{w|Netscape Navigator}} was a web browser popular in the 1990s.

Browser: Netscape

===Rockmelt===
[[File:umwelt rockmelt.png]]

{{w|Rockmelt}} is a social-media-based browser.

Reference to the gospel song {{w|Longing for Old Virginia: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1934)|"There's no hiding place down here" by The Carter Family}}, later covered by Stephen Stills.

:I run to the rock just to hide my face
:And the rocks cried out, no hiding place
:There's no hiding place down here

It may additionally be a reference to the ''Babylon 5'' episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which featured the song.

Browser: Rockmelt

===Plugin Disabled===
[[File:umwelt plugin disabled.png]]

When the Google Chrome web browser does not have the required software (called a plug-in) to display a web page's content, it displays a puzzle piece icon and an error message. In this case, Chrome informs the user that the content is impossible to display.

Browser: Plugin (?) Disabled, Safari Desktop

===Corporate Networks===
[[File:umwelt corporate general.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate google chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes other.png]]

These error messages appear if the user is on a network owned by one of the corporations noted. The error message includes a warning against speaking on the company's behalf.

ISP: Corporate networks of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, NY Times

===Military===
[[File:umwelt military.png]]

[[Cueball]] assumes that anyone using a military network has an important job like watching for incoming missiles. He includes a thank-you to the user for their military service.

ISP: Military networks

===T-Mobile===
[[File:umwelt tmobile.png]]

Reference to T-Mobile's distinguishing feature (at the time it was written) of weaker coverage, in relation to other major providers.

ISP: T-Mobile

===Verizon and AT&T===
[[File:umwelt verizon.png]]

[[File:umwelt att.png]]

Reference to Verizon and AT&T's scandals/controversy regarding implementation of bandwidth caps.

ISP: Verizon and AT&T

===France===
[[File:umwelt france.jpg]]

A common joke about France is that the nation does not win wars. This originated from France's annexation by Germany during World War II, and America's late entry into the war, which is sometimes portrayed humorously as a case of America 'saving' Europe, in this joke particularly France (the role of the French resistance is usually not mentioned), leading to a common American joke at the expense of France's military prowess [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html][http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-frenchmilitaryvictories.htm][http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm]. When France did not form part of the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, aligning with the many countries that condemned U.S. action, the joke was revived.

A Google search of "French Military Victories" + 'I'm feeling lucky' used to direct to "did you mean: french military defeats" (due to a {{w|Google bomb}}). Cueball is trying to show this to his friend, who is French. However, his joke backfires, as his friends immediately points out that the stereotype of France not having military victories is undercut by the fact that one of the most innovative military commanders in history, Napoleon, was French by citizenship (though Italian/Corsican by culture, as the French annexed Corsica a few months before his birth to an Italian noble family), and in fact conquered much of Europe.

The last line of the comic further implies that Cueball is not as smart as he thinks he is in regards to anything French, as he mispronounces the French loan word "touché".

Locations: France & Quebec

===Germany===
[[File:umwelt germany.png]]

This comic references the {{w|Berlin airlift#The start of the Berlin Airlift|Berlin Airlift}}, a relief measure for citizens in West Berlin (surrounded by East Germany) instituted by the Western Allies after World War II. In reality, the Western Allies flew a grand total of 500,000 tons of food over the Soviet blockade in planes. Randall puts a twist on this event by making it more fun: dropping supplies from a grand chairlift. The play on words is that "chairlift" rhymes with "airlift" and thus makes an easy substitution. The chair force is also a name that other service branches use to make fun of the air force.

Location: Germany

===Israel===
[[File:umwelt israel.png]]

Transcript:

בחורה: אמא, פגשתי בחור נהדר! אבל הוא לא יהודי.‏

...

רגע, מה את אומרת, "גם אנחנו לא"?‏

אני לגמרי מבולבלת.‏

(Translation from Hebrew)

Person: Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

A reference to the multiple use of the word Jewish to denote both a religious group and a nationality/ethnicity, as well as the stereotype of Jews holding low opinions of interfaith marriage.

Location: Israel

===Carnot Cycle===
[[File:umwelt japan.png]]

A pun on "cycle"; a "{{w|Carnot cycle}}" is a thermodynamic cycle (e.g. refrigeration). Its efficiency depends on the temperature of the hot and cold 'reservoirs' in which it is operating. The icon on the side of the motorcycle resembles a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg graph of the Carnot cycle.]

Location: Japan

===UK===
[[File:umwelt uk.jpg]]

He worded this as though to imply that the UK is a state of the U.S., and an unimportant one at that, which pokes fun at the UK, creating a paradox (sort of).

Location: UK

===Blizzard===
[[File:umwelt disasters blizzard.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or blizzards are harsher conditions to live under.

For each location this displayed in, the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Georgia, Halifax, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, the Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Texas, Toronto, Tennessee, New York, Wisconsin

===Tornado===
[[File:umwelt disasters tornado.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or tornadoes are harsher conditions to live under.

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Dallas, Illinois, Georgia, The Midwest, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Tennessee, Texas (and Virginia, but it used Ohio in the third panel)

Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. The picture used in [[1754: Tornado Safety Tips]] very reminiscent of the one from this version of Umwelt. [[Category:Tornadoes]]

===Hurricane===
[[File:umwelt disasters hurricane.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or hurricanes are harsher conditions to live under.

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: D.C, Florida, Georgia, Houston, Miami, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

===Lake Diver Killer===
[[File:umwelt lake diver.png]]

This comic shows a news reporter standing in front of a lake. She is reporting on a serial killer who targets divers. As more divers are sent in to investigate and/or search for bodies, more divers go missing, the implication being that they were also murdered. The more likely reason is the lake itself is dangerous for diving, and the divers probably drowned from natural hazards (undercurrents, entanglement, running out of oxygen in tanks, etc.) instead of a malicious assailant. Also, this is a sort of loop, where each time a diver gets killed, the investigative team goes and investigates, causing more divers to get killed, causing more deaths, and so on.

Location: Bay Areas, Metro Detroit, Vermont showed an image specifically referencing Lake Champlain

===Lincoln Memorial===
[[File:umwelt lincoln memorial.png]]

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States of America, was not an entity composed wholly of nanobots that attempted to consume the entire nation to then be imprisoned within the Lincoln Memorial.{{Citation needed}}

Locations: Illinois & Washington D.C.

===Helicopter Hunting===
[[File:umwelt helicoptor.png]]

In Alaska, governments and individuals have {{w|Wolf hunting#North America 2|shot wolves en masse from helicopters}} in an attempt to artificially inflate populations of game, such as moose and caribou, to make hunting them easier. This is opposed by many, as the game populations are not endangered (thus, this threatens ecological balance); wolves are a small threat to livestock in North America; most of the wolf body —including meat and bones— goes wasted as they are sought mainly for their pelts.

Location: Alaska

===Newspaper===
[[File:umwelt life scientists.png]][[File:umwelt life rit.png]][[File:umwelt life umass.png]]

Creating new life has long been a well understood process, in a lab or otherwise.

This comic is likely a reference to the title text of [[983: Privacy]]

Location: Various

Specific versions appeared for RIT and UMass Amherst

===Robot Paul Revere===
[[File:umwelt paul revere.png]]

Combination of the legend of {{w|Paul Revere#"Midnight Ride"|Paul Revere}} and a computer bit that differentiates between two situations by indicating a zero or a one.

Location: Boston

===Counting Cards===

All four colleges in this series are in Massachusetts and, being similar, in pairs, rival each other to some extent (Harvard-MIT, and Smith-Wellesley). The comic contains a reference to the {{w|MIT Blackjack Team}}, which entered popular culture via the {{w|21 (2008 film)|film 21}}, and a possible reference to Orwell's book '1984' and/or {{w|Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|popular homage to it via Star Trek}}: "There are four lights."[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChYIm6MW39k]

Bonus: The thought-gears in panel 3 are spinning against each other.

Location: Harvard

[[File:umwelt counting cards harvard.png]]

Location: MIT

[[File:umwelt counting cards mit.png]]

"Course 15s" at MIT are the business major students, often mocked for taking a less-rigorous program.

Location: Smith

[[File:umwelt counting cards smith.png]]

Location: Wellesley

[[File:umwelt counting cards wellesley.png]]

Both Wellesley and Smith are all-women colleges in Massachusetts.

===Giant Box Trap===
[[File:umwelt box trap.png]]

Randall got his undergrad in Physics at the {{w|Christopher Newport University}}, and was scheduled to return shortly to give a talk. The "Trible" figure on the right is Paul Trible, the then-president of CNU. This comic depicts a classic trap, where an upside-down box is propped up with a stick. When the stick is removed, by pulling a string, the box falls and traps whatever is underneath it. Aside from the joke of the obvious trap, there's also the fact that the president would not be responsible for revoking unearned diplomas.

Location: Christopher Newport University

===Chemo Support===
[[File:umwelt chemo.jpg]]

[[Cueball]] has shaved his head in support of people going through {{w|chemotherapy}} but, as he is always depicted as a stick figure with no hair, no one can tell.

Randall's now-wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and apparently DFCI is where they've been spending much of their time.

Location: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

===Reviews===
[[File:reviews.png]]

The previous strip appears twice when using [[wikipedia:Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]].

Browser: Any using Tor, xkcd API (JSON, RSS, Atom), w3m, and reports of seeing it on a Kindle Fire HD; also happens if visiting with a browser that does not support JavaScript (such as Firefox with NoScript)

===Nothing===

[[File:Umwelt.png]]

The comic doesn't appear in iPad browsers. The top buttons and the bottom buttons are side by side, and you can only see the title in the top.

On April 28 and 29, 2019, a visit from San Francisco on macOS 10.14.4 using Chrome 74, Safari 12.1, or Firefox 66.0.3, all with JavaScript enabled, produced no comic, just two adjacent rows of navigation buttons.

On April 29, 2019, a visit from Utah using a T-mobile Samsung device running Android pie, yielded the same results

Since this comic's release, all devices viewing it have returned two rows of navigation buttons if near IP address 69.114.249.104.

It also doesn't work in Pennsylvania on the Chrome operating system.

There is a discussion about this in the ''Talk'' page.

==Transcript==
:[Note to courageous readers- The transcript has been reordered in the order in which the comics appear in the picture and appropriate names have been given.]

:'''The Void'''
:[An epic void with a bright light shining right on you.]

:'''Aurora'''
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar flare that's causing some Great Aurorae. CBC says they may even be visible here! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: Hockey's on.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

:'''Aurora-US'''
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar storm causing northern lights over Canada. CNN say they might even be visible {Options: "As Far South As Us", "Here in Boston", "Maine", "Ohio", "Oregon", "New York"}! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: It's cold out.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

:'''Snake'''
:[Two people standing next to each other. Megan is holding the head end of a snake. Depending on the width of your browser, the snake is: three frames, the third of which has a little bit of a bump; the first frame has a human-size bump, the second has a third person looking at the snake, and the third has the snake going though two Portals; a squirrel and the human-size bump in the first frame, a ring next to the third person in the second frame, and Beret Guy riding the snake in front of the portal; or The squirrel, a fourth person within the snake being coiled, and the human bump in the first frame, the ring, a fifth person in love, and the third person in the second frame, Beret Guy and the portal in the third frame, and the same two people in the fourth frame.]

:Megan: I found a snake, but then I forgot to stop.

:'''Black hat'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk. One is Black Hat. The other is an analyst. Black Hat has a number of terminals attached to his head.]
:Analyst: You come across a tortoise in the desert. You flip it over. It struggles to right itself. You watch. You're not helping. Why is that?

:Black Hat: It '''knows''' what it did.

:[View of the entire scene, with said turtle off in the distance on its back and trying to right itself.]

:'''Too quiet'''
:[A group of four scale down a wall into a field in the middle of the night. They walk off single-file.]
:Person 1: It's quiet.

:Person 3: Yeah - *Too* quiet.

:[A Velociraptor is off in the distance, following the group.]
:Person 4: Yeah - too *too* quiet.

:Person 2: Yeah - 2quiet2furious.
:Person 1: Fuck off, Steve.

:'''Pond'''
:[A landscape showing a pond, some reeds, and a set of mountains off in the distance.]

:'''Galaxies'''
:[A trio of galaxies.]
:Galaxy 1: He's not looking!
:Galaxy 3: Let's get him!
:[Lines draw in illustrating the eye-line of one of a pair of people.]
:Cueball: So he said he didn't get the text, but c'mon, he *never* misses texts. Right? ..hello?
:Megan: I'm just staring at your head freaked out by the fact that there are millions of galaxies *directly behind it*.

:'''xkcd Gold'''
:[Cueball holding bat.]

:Cueball: Sorry, but this comic

:[Cueball starts to wind up.]

:Cueball: requires

:[Cueball prepares to strike with bat.]

:Cueball: XKCD

:[Cueball swings at a beehive.]
:GOLD

:[Penis Bees fly out of the beehive.]

:'''Yo mamma'''
:[Cueball yells at a friend.]
:Cueball: Oh yeah? Well you mama's so ''cynical'', her only dog ballast is a ''leash''!
:(This comic takes place in a dystopian future where the government is afraid dogs can hover, so it requires them to wear weights at all times, and some people privately doubt the government, but not enough to stop buying dog weights.)

:'''Reddit'''
:Five seconds ago:
:[You sitting in front of a desk, reading a reddit thread.]
:You: Oh, hey, reddit has a link to some XKCD april fools comic.

:Now: [An image of the xkcd comic page.]
:Five seconds from now:

:You: ..hey

:30 seconds from now:
:[DANCE PARTY!]

:'''Buns and Hot dogs'''
:Cueball: What I wanna know is why do hot dogs come in packages of six while buns come in these huge sacks of ash and blood from which "Ave Maria" is faintly audible?
:[Chanting sacks of gore in the background.]

:'''Twitter'''
:[A Twitter account page with the following: Many tweets, fewer following, even fewer followers, A bunch of assholes in the suggested follow box, trending topics partitioned into: Word Games, Misogyny, and Bieber, stuff your eyes automatically ignore, A really pleasant blue. and the timeline: Something about a podcast, Someone confused because the description doesn't match the link, The link you clicked on to get to this comic, Rob Delaney, Passive Aggression, and horse ebooks.]

:'''Wikipedia'''
:[There's no comic here because instead of drawing one, I spent the last hour reading every news story cited in the Wikipedia article on The Mile High Club.]

:'''Google Chrome'''
:[A Chrome plugin error page.]
:Chrome: This plugin requires Sergey Brin's permission to run. Please wait while he is woken.

:'''Chrome/Firefox'''
:[Two people; Cueball is sitting at a desk in front of a laptop.]
:Cueball: Man, chrome's hardware acceleration really sucks.
:Ponytail: Oh - Theres' a great add-on that fixes it.
:Cueball: Oh? What's it called?
:Ponytail: "Firefox".

:'''Google Chrome-2'''
:[A Chrome plugin error page with the characteristic jigsaw piece.]
:Chrome: Chrome is looking for this piece. Have you seen it? Chrome thinks it links up with a corner.

:'''Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing'''
:[Firefox error page.]
:Firefox: Well, this is embarrassing. You know how I'm not supposed to peek at your browsing in private mode? Firefox.. is sorry. Firefox will not blame you if you
:[Button with text.]
:Click here to report this incident.

:'''Internet Explorer'''
:[IE error page.]
:IE: Error: Internet Explorer has given up.

:'''Maxthon'''
:Cueball: Maxthon? Hey, 2005 called. Didn't say anything. All I could hear was sobbing. This is getting harder. Anyway, yeah, Maxthon's still cool! Didn't know it was still around!

:'''Netscape Navigator'''
:[Two different versions exist: one with Cueball talking and one with Megan with tentacle arms talking.]
:Person: Netscape Navigator? Hey, the nineties called - drunk as usual. I hung up without saying anything. This is getting harder. Anyway - it's cool that you'e got netscape running.

:'''Rockmelt'''
:[Cueball running to laptop.]
:I ran to Rockmelt to hide my face

:[Cueball sitting at laptop.]
:But Rockmelt cried out -

:[Laptop shouting.]
:NO HIDING PLACE

:[zoom out.]
:NO HIDING PLACE DOWN HERE

:'''Google Chrome-3'''
:[A chrome plugin error page.]
:Chrome: There does not exist --nor could there '''ever''' exist-- a plugin capable of displaying this content.

:'''Microsoft/Amazon/The Times/Google - Chrome'''
:[Chrome error page.]
:Chrome: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/Amazon/The Times/Google is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Microsoft/Amazon - Firefox'''
:[Firefox error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/Amazon is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Microsoft/The Times'''
:[Error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/The Times is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Corporate - Generic'''
:[Error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, we work as a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Military'''
:[Person looking at two browser windows.]
:Cueball: I know y'all know what you're doing. But if you're on a military machine and you're supposed to be watching for missiles or something, I hope you're keeping an eye on that in the background while you're reading comics. Also: Thanks.

:'''T-Mobile'''
:[Error page.]
:Data Error: T-Mobile was unable to establish a connection

:'''Verizon'''
:[Error page]
:Error: You have exceeded your Verizon monthly bandwidth cap. Mobile web browsing has been disabled.

:'''France'''
:[Two people; one of which is browsing using a laptop.]
:Cueball: Hey, you're French, right? Ever see what happens when you type "French Military Victories" into Google?
:French person: Does it take you to an article on Napoleon?

:French person: ..no? Strange, given how he kicked everyone's asses up and down Europe for over a decade.

:[Beat frame.]

:Cueball: Touche.
:French person: You know, that'd sound smarter if you didn't pronounce it like it rhymes with "douche".

:'''Germany'''
:[Cueball dropping food from an unorthodox high perch.]
:June 1948: In response to the Soviet blockade of East Germany, the western allies construct the Berlin Chairlift.
:Cueball on chairlift: Food!

:'''Israel'''
:[Person on phone.]
:Person (Translation from Hebrew): Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

:'''Carnot Cycle'''
:[Ponytail on a motorcycle with a heat-entropy graph on the side.]
:Ponytail: Check out my new Carnot Cycle!
:Cueball: Neat - how fast does it go?
:Ponytail: Depends how cold it is outside.

:'''Great Britain'''
:[Illustration of the Atlantic ocean.]
:American person: Sorry I don't have a comic poking fun at the UK here. I only had time to get to the most ''important'' US states.
:British person: Hey - At least we have free health care and real ale.

:'''Earthquake-Blizzard'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "Alabama", "Boston", "Chicago", "Dallas", "Georgia", "Halifax", "Illinois", "Michigan", "Minnesota", "Missouri", "the Northeast", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Ottawa", 'Pennsylvania", "Philadelphia", "Texas", "Toronto", "Tennessee", "New York", "Wisconsin"}! That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..
:[Both people are trudging through a massive blizzard.]
:Danish: In pictures, snow always looked so nice and sof - ''AAAA! MY NECK! How do people live here?!''
:Cueball: Come on - it's only three more miles.

:'''Earthquake-Tornado'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "Alabama", "Dallas", "Illinois", "The Midwest", "Missouri", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Ottawa", "Tennessee", "Texas"}!
:Cueball: That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..
:[Both people are in a shelter in a prairie with a rapidly-approaching tornado.]
:Danish: AAAA CLOSE THE SHELTER DOOR!
:Cueball: Say the magic words...
:Danish: THIS PLACE IS THE WORST!
:Cueball: Thank you.

:'''Earthquake-Hurricane'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "D.C", "Florida", "Houston", "Miami", "New Jersey", "North Carolina", "South Carolina", "Virgina"}! That was huge!
:Cueball: That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..

:[Both are in the middle of a hurricane. Danish is grabbing onto a signpost to avoid being swept away.]
:Danish: AAAAA WHAT THE SHIIIIT!
:Cueball: Calm down - this is barely a category 2.

:'''Lake Diver Killer'''
:[TV Field Reporter in front of a cordoned-off lake.]
:Reporter: Police divers searching the bay say they have recovered the body of another victim of the "Lake Diver Killer."
:Reporter: During the search, three more divers were reported missing.

:'''Washington'''
:[The statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.]
:In this Marble Prison As in the nightmares of the nation they tried to devour
:The nanobots that constituted Abraham Lincoln
:Are entombed forever.

:'''Alaska'''
:[A person with a gun chasing a helicopter on the back of a wolf in a snowy Alaskan field.]
:Some people hunt wolves from helicopters. I hunt helicopters from a wolf.

:'''Life in lab'''
:[Newspaper headline.]
:Scientists/UMass Amherst students/RIT students create life in lab
:[Caption under picture of scientists.]
:"The trick was fuckin'"

:'''American Revolution'''
:Robot Paul Revere: Remember: Zero if by land, One if by sea.

:'''MIT'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of MIT students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: I see their admission standards have been slipping.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''MIT Course 15c'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of MIT students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: I *knew* we shouldn't have picked course 15s.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''Smith/Wellesley'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of Smith/Wellesley students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: We should've gone with Wellesley/Smith.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''CNU'''
:[Person unsuspectingly strolls under a giant box trap controlled by a Trible.]
:I worry that CNU only invited me back as a ruse because they realized I never turned in my final paper and want my diploma back. But if it turns out it's for real, I'll see you Wednesday at the Ferguson!

:'''Dana Farber'''
:[Cueball, pointing towards head.]
:Cueball: Check it out - In support of people going through chemo, I shaved my head.
:Lots of love to everyone reading this at Dana Farber. Cancer sucks. If you are new to DFCI, there's a great little garden on the third floor of the yawkey if you need somewhere quiet to just sit for a little bit and breathe.

:'''Reviews'''
:Shopping before online reviews:
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a store. Cueball points at a lamp on the table in front of him. There is another lamp on the table behind them.]
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: And affordable.
:Cueball: Let's get it.
:Megan Ok!

:Shopping now:
:[Cueball points at a lamp on the table in front of him. Megan looks at her phone.]
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: It's got 1 1/2 stars on Amazon. Reviews all say to avoid that brand.

:[Cueball and Megan are now both looking at their phones.]
:Cueball: This one has good reviews.
:Megan: Wait, one guy says when he plugged it in, he got a metallic taste in his mouth and his cats went deaf.
:Cueball: Eek. What about- ...no, review points out it resembles a uterus.

:[Cueball is still looking at his phone, Megan has hers at her side.]
:Cueball: Ok, I found a Swiss lampmaker with perfect reviews. Her lamps start at 1,300 Francs and she's only reachable by ski lift.
:Megan: You know, our room looks fine in the dark.

==Trivia==
*Reddit user [http://www.reddit.com/user/SomePostMan SomePostMan] created a [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/t6wmh/all_umwelt_1037_comics_in_two_imgur_albums/ post] that collected all of the Umwelt comics and added explanations. Much of his information is now included in this wiki.

*The transcript section for this comic also included a note alluding to its extreme length:
: <nowiki>[[Two people...]]</nowiki> ((..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all this))
: [[Two people standing next to each other. One is holding the head end of a snake...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Penis]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]

2332: Cursed Chair

2020-09-17T10:14:12Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2332
| date = July 13, 2020
| title = Cursed Chair
| image = cursed_chair.png
| titletext = The Wirecutter staff called the Herman Miller Siege Perilous "the most cursed product we've ever had to fight" and "nearly as immortal as it boasts."
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]] informs [[Cueball]] that he purchased a cursed office chair from a mysterious shop. Cueball isn't sure if he remembers this happening, which is possibly because Beret Guy has [[1772: Startup Opportunity|previously stated]] that he makes a habit of purchasing daily necessities from such stores. Beret Guy then exclaims that the store he bought the chair from was gone when he went to return it, though given his buying preferences, he should perhaps not be so surprised{{Citation needed}}. Cueball suggests that maybe the shop was simply closed due to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}, as is the case for wide variety of non-cursed businesses{{Citation needed}}. Beret Guy takes this as proof that the chair somehow caused the pandemic, a claim Cueball meets incredulously. In the final panel, Beret Guy is doing battle with the chair, which taunts him and claims to be immortal (“''I cannot die''”). In fact, most{{Citation needed}} chairs cannot die, because they are not alive{{Citation needed}}. Cueball remarks that it would be simpler to shop at {{w|IKEA}}, a store famous for its minimalist flat-pack furniture, and which does not sell cursed items{{Citation needed}} (although they ''do'' sell “[[2024: Light Hacks|miniature Dyson spheres]]”).

The cursed chair and the boarded-up store are references to the stores that sell cursed items mentioned in [[1772: Startup Opportunity]]. In that comic, the stores vanished without a trace, so the fact the door was boarded is much more likely due to the pandemic or other causes than the store mysteriously disappearing.

Buying an item from a shop you never noticed before, bringing it home, discovering it is cursed, and trying to return it only to discover the shop isn’t there anymore is a popular trope. See {{tvtropes|TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday}}.

In the title text, the {{w|Siege Perilous}} is the empty seat at the Round Table in Arthurian legend, reserved by Merlin for the knight who would find the {{w|Holy Grail}} (who turns out to be Sir {{w|Galahad}}) and fatal to anyone else who sits in it. {{w|Herman Miller (manufacturer)|Herman Miller}} is an American office furniture company that produced the {{w|Aeron chair}}, which is the basis for [https://www.instagram.com/blantonmuseum/p/BCYaKA4GLrg/ an artwork] by {{w|Glenn Kaino}} called ''The Siege Perilous''. {{w|Wirecutter (website)|''Wirecutter''}} is a website that evaluates and recommends consumer products. From the title text, it sounds like (in the xkcd universe) Wirecutter is used to encountering cursed products, so they didn’t even bother trying to sit in it to test the Siege Perilous’s perilousness (er, ''peril'') before they started fighting it—and emerged victorious, if it’s {{tvtropes|OnlyMostlyDead|only ''nearly'' as immortal}} as it boasts.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Cueball are talking.]
:Beret Guy: Remember how I bought my desk chair from that mysterious shop?
:Cueball: I think so?
:Beret Guy: Turns out the chair was cursed.

:Beret Guy: So I went back to return it, but the shop was gone! The door was boarded up!
:Cueball: I think most of the shops are closed because of coronavirus.

:[Panel of just Beret Guy.]
:Beret Guy: Oh no!
:Beret Guy: ''The curse must have caused the pandemic!
:Cueball (off-panel): What.

:[Beret Guy starts running with a raised sword in a frameless panel.]
:Beret Guy: If I destroy the chair, we can stop the virus!
:Cueball: What.

:[Beret Guy is chasing a floating desk chair.]
:Beret Guy: ''Die, plague-bringer!''
:Desk chair: Hee Hee I can not die
:Cueball: Maybe you should just shop at IKEA.

==Trivia==

* The hotlink image for the comic was initially [https://web.archive.org/web/20200713231037/https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cursed_chair.png extremely pixelated], but the image displayed on the page was a different URL and looked fine. This was soon fixed.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2330: Acceptable Risk

2020-09-17T10:12:58Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2330
| date = July 8, 2020
| title = Acceptable Risk
| image = acceptable_risk.png
| titletext = Good thing I'm not already prone to overthinking everyday decisions!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak|2020 pandemic}} of the {{w|coronavirus}} {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}.

This comic shows [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]], who are nervous to spend time in close proximity while the coronavirus is still widespread, and while lockdown procedures are still in effect across the world. Despite taking many precautions, such as wearing masks and maintaining physical separation, they still fear the effects of the virus, and attempt to weigh the value of actually seeing each other in-person versus potentially catching the virus. This is a dilemma faced by many, as the United States enters the fourth month since stay at home orders began. Cueball and Ponytail are particularly affected because they are known to overthink everyday decisions and interactions (in spite of their protestation to the contrary in the title text), as seen in e.g. [[1445: Efficiency]]. Moreover, Cueball is [[:Category:Social interactions|bad at social interactions]], virus or no virus, as pointed in the last panel.

The comic title "Acceptable Risk" is formally used in {{w|Risk_assessment|risk asessments}} as a risk level that so low that it is comparable with other daily life risks. Typically, Acceptable Risk is defined as the probability of death being about one in a million. Cueball implicitly makes a risk assessment where he takes into account local virus prevalence and steps to reduce transmission risk coming to the conclusion that the risk to "hang out" is an acceptable risk. During the meeting however he becomes aware that for a good risk control strategy he also has to consider the trade-off between the benefits of taking the risk of "social interaction" over the benefits of completely avoiding the risk. Additionally, the numerous precautions that Cueball and Ponytail have taken to reduce risk (wearing masks, meeting in a featureless empty field with no other people, maintaing a safe distance) likely make the social interaction much less enjoyable, and thus perhaps not worth it at all. Cueball and Ponytail figure that it is extremely hard to measure the benefits of social interaction for them, and thus decide that for now complete avoidance is the better risk control strategy.

Their screaming actually increases the risk of the interaction; this is why [https://www.wsj.com/articles/reopened-theme-parks-ban-screaming-on-roller-coasters-riders-are-howling-11594222278 Japan recently banned screaming on amusement park rides], and why many jurisdictions are levying particular restrictions on singing even when gatherings are permitted.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[All of the panels depict the same two characters seen from a long distance, making them difficult to recognize. However, they appear to be Cueball (on the left) and Ponytail (on the right). They are each wearing a mask.]

:[Cueball and Ponytail talk to each other, standing at a distance:]
:Cueball: Okay. Based on the local virus prevalence, our careful quarantines, and the steps we've taken to reduce transmission risk,
:Cueball: I ''think'' it's okay for us to hang out.
:Ponytail: I agree.

:[Three small panels, vertically on top of each other]
:[Cueball and Ponytail get closer to each other.]
:[Cueball and Ponytail get still closer.]
:[Cueball and Ponytail standing near each other:]
:Cueball: Hi.
:Ponytail: Hi.

:[A normal sized panel, with Cueball and Ponytail standing near each other. They are yelling, with their arms raised:]
:Cueball: ''Is this social interaction good enough that it's worth risking our lives and the lives of others?!''
:Ponytail: ''I don't know!''
:Cueball: ''AAAAA!''
:Ponytail: ''AAAAAA!''

:[Cueball and Ponytail stand much farther apart.]
:Cueball: Healthy socializing was hard enough ''before'' the pandemic.
:Ponytail: Let's just try again in 2021.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]
[[Category:Comics featuring face masks]]

2329: Universal Rating Scale

2020-09-17T10:12:29Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2329
| date = July 6, 2020
| title = Universal Rating Scale
| image = universal_rating_scale.png
| titletext = There are plenty of finer gradations. I got 'critically endangered/extinct in the wild' on my exam, although the curve bumped it all the way up to 'venti.'
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Randall]] has blended many traditional rating scales to create a "universal rating scale". Unfortunately, the mixing of these scales creates a scale that is impossible to use. Only a subset of the values of each rating scale is included, further weakening its claim as a "universal" scale. The result is much like the attempt to create a "universal standard" in [[927: Standards]].

Alternatively, it can be perceived as a way of comparing the different scales, for instance to answer a question like "Is it worse to get a 2 or an F?"

: '''Scale of zero to ten''' (but with an 11, because people often add that to exaggerate - see {{w|up to eleven}} about the meme)
:: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11. The number 9 is omitted, possibly because seven ate nine (789) or because nine is the [[1103: Nine|neglected number]].
: '''Competitive scores''', such as for artistic gymnastics' {{w|Code of Points (artistic gymnastics)|Code of Points}}, (ordinarily from 0.0 to a {{w|Perfect 10 (gymnastics)|perfect 10.0}})
:: 10.0
: '''{{w|Likert scale}}'''
:: strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree (often there is a "neither agree nor disagree" value in the middle, but it is not strictly required)
: '''{{w|School grades}}''' (there are also B, C, D, and others with + or -)
:: F, A+
:: S - Schools in Japan may use the {{w|Academic grading in Japan|S grading}}, which is said to stand for ''Superior'' [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/S#Etymology_1_2], implying “even better than A.” The expression S is also used in daily life, generally perceived as S as in '''S'''pecial or '''S'''uper [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/S#%E3%81%9D%E3%81%AE%E4%BB%96], here unrelated to the academic grading system. For example, the most expensive seat in a theater (e.g. a balcony seat) may be called ''S-seki'' (lit. “S seat”) in Japanese, while the second most expensive seat may be called ''A-seki''. Many video games also use S grading, and some (such as Beat Saber and Dance Dance Revolution) use SS, SSS, and even more S's as ranks above that (though these are not shown in the webcomic). A possibly related expression is “Super S” as in {{w|Sailor Moon (TV series)|''Sailor Moon SuperS''}}.
: '''{{w|Star (classification)|Star rating}}'''
:: 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, frequently used to rate restaurants, films etc. 5 star is omitted, probably due to Randall's opinion that items with 5 stars tend to only have had one rater and aren't trustworthy, see also [[1098: Star Ratings]].
: '''{{w|Conservation status}}''' (this is only a subset of the nine groups in the {{w|International Union for Conservation of Nature}} (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species)
:: extinct, critical (probably ''critically endangered''), endangered, least concern
:: According to the title text, "extinct in the wild" is a half-step below "critical", presumably above "G".
: '''{{w|Starbucks#Products|Starbucks brand beverage sizes}}''' (there is also short and trenta)
:: tall, grande, venti
: '''MPAA age-appropriate {{w|Motion Picture Association film rating system|film ratings}}''' took effect November 1, 1968 with G, M (now PG), R (not shown in comic) and X (now NC-17)
:: G, PG (as of February 11, 1972, replaced GP), {{w|PG-13}} (introduced July 1, 1984), {{w|NC-17}} (introduced September 1990, replaced X)
: '''ESRB age-appropriate {{w|Entertainment_Software_Rating_Board#Ratings|ratings}}''' for video games (there is also EC for early childhood, E for everyone, E10+ for Everyone 10+, M for Mature, and AO for Adults Only)
:: T for teen
: '''Happiness emojis''' (alternately, the '''{{w|Wong–Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale}}''')
:: Frowny face (☹, U+2639), neutral face (😐, U+1F610), smiley face (☺, U+263A). It is not totally clear which emoji each symbol is meant to refer to. The unhappy face could be [https://emojipedia.org/worried-face Worried Face] 😟, [https://emojipedia.org/anguished-face/ Anguished Face] 😧, [https://emojipedia.org/frowning-face/ Frowning Face] ☹️ (note the lack of eyebrows), [https://emojipedia.org/slightly-frowning-face/ Slightly Frowning Face] 🙁 etc.
: '''{{w|Coin grading|Coin grades}}'''
:: G, VG, UNC for good, very good, uncirculated
: '''Hurricane/cyclone strengths''', {{w|Saffir–Simpson scale}} (ordinarily categorized from category 1 to category 5)
:: Category 5
: '''Tornado intensities''', {{w|enhanced Fujita scale}} (ordinarily categorized from EF0 to EF5)
:: EF-5
: '''Credit (and other) ratings'''
:: A, AA, AAA
:: Credit rating agencies will rank businesses and governments based on their likely ability to pay back their creditors' interest ratings. The very highest are rated AAA, and then (in Standard & Poor's scheme) AA+, AA, AA-, A+, and so on. (Note that Randall's scale rates A+ as better than AA, indicating that it's the "A+" from school grades rather than the one from Standard & Poor's list.)
:: Could also be a reference to battery sizes, this would imply that AAA is better than AA, which is not necessarily true, but funny to think about.
:: Alternatively, this could be a reference to sports tier divisions; where AA and AAA basketball for example promote age and skill appropriate competition.
=== Title text ===
The title text suggests that the scale as shown here is incomplete, by referencing further gradings that are not shown in the table. {{w|Critically endangered}} and {{w|Extinct in the wild}} are real conservation status categories recognised by the IUCN, although it's not clear what "Critically endangered/extinct in the wild" would mean - perhaps the "possibly extinct in the wild" designation, abbreviated CR(PEW). It would presumably fit on the table somewhere between "Extinct" and "Critical", although its ordering relative to "tall", "2" and "G" is unclear.

The title text suggests that a score at this level had been {{w|Grading on a curve|graded on a curve}}, which bumped its rating up to "Venti", which is on the table, two steps below "Least concern". This would be an extraordinary example of such a curve, pushing the score from approximately 2/10 to almost 8/10. This could only happen if the exam was extremely difficult, meaning most results were significantly below 2/10.

==Transcript==
: [Caption above the frame:]
: Universal Rating Scale
:
: [A vertical scale, with 45 gradations, labeled]
: 0
: 1
: Strongly Disagree
: F
: [star] ☆
: Extinct
: Tall
: 2
: G
: Critical
: [frowny face] ☹
: 3
: endangered
: [two stars] ☆☆
: PG
: Disagree
: VG
: 4
: Grande
: 5
: PG-13
: [neutral face] 😐
: 6
: T for Teen
: 7
: [three stars] ☆☆☆
: Agree
: Venti
: 8
: Least Concern
: [smiley face] ☺
: A
: Strongly Agree
: Category 5
: EF-5
: NC-17
: UNC
: AA
: [four stars] ☆☆☆☆
: A+
: S
: AAA
: 10
: 10.0
: 11

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]

2328: Space Basketball

2020-09-17T10:11:25Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2328
| date = July 3, 2020
| title = Space Basketball
| image = space_basketball.png
| titletext = My shooting will improve over the short term, but over the long term the universe will take more shots.
}}

==Explanation==
Another comic in [[Randall]]'s [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby series]], released within the same week as his last hobby comic, [[2326: Five Word Jargon]].

Randall wishes to play basketball against {{w|outer space}}, hence the title ''Space Basketball''. (His previous attempt at creating a "[[2291: New Sports System|New Sports System]]" for multiplayer socially-distant basketball was not very successful.) His goal is to make thirty baskets in a row before the universe puts a {{w|meteor}} through his hoop.

It should be noted that while may be technically correct to call the falling space object in this case a "meteor", when it hits the ground moments later it would be known as a {{w|meteorite}}. See also [[#Terminology|Terminology]] section below. See also [[1405: Meteor]], for what Randall's thoughts are on this.

Randall estimates that his success rate at {{w|free throw|free-throw shooting}} is approximately 30%. Therefore, the chances of Cueball making 30 shots in a row is (0.3)^30, or about 1 in five quadrillion (2×10^-16); for comparison, there are approximately 150 quadrillion seconds remaining before the Sun engulfs the earth (5 billion years), so if Randall has a chute set up under the basket and enough basketballs to sustain a constant high rate of shooting, he has "decent" odds of achieving his goal before the Sun burns out. But really, Randall has comparably rapid learning at this task, whereas asteroids have extreme persistence far beyond Randall's life, so when he says the odds are comparable he is abstractly weighing his unique skillset against that of small stellar bodies.
Still, the lifetime odds of being killed by a meteorite have been estimated at 1 in 75,000 or 600,000 or 700,000 [https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-probability-of-me-getting-killed-by-a-meteorite-in-the-next-one-hour]. These calculations are usually based on the probability of being alive at a time when a huge impact kills billions of people. Randall just uses the chance of one meteorite shot on Earth hitting this hoop (hoop-area / Earth-area = 3.2×10^-16) which is in the same range as (0.3)^30. Actual {{w|meteorite fall statistics}} report an average of 1.2 meteorites per year hitting the European continent which suggests that the average probability of Cueball winning after each shot attempt is about equivalent to a meteorite passing through the hoop over the period of 10 hours. Therefore Cueball has a better chance of winning than the universe "on the short term" if he makes more than 840 free-shot attempts per year for the rest of his life. The expected time for the universe to actually "complete" the challenge would be in the range of 8 billion years, the same magnitude to the current age of the universe and longer than the estimated remaining lifetime of the {{w|solar system}}.

In the title text, Randall assumes that he would get better at free throwing shooting with practice in his lifetime ("the short term"). Some of the world's best basketball players have free-throw percentages over 90%, and even professional players with reputations of being "poor" free-throw shooters (e.g. Shaquille O'Neal) are above 50%. If Randall can improve his percentage to 50%, his odds of sinking thirty baskets in a row improve to "nearly" one-in-a-billion, while a member of the elite {{w|50–40–90 club}} would have a probability better than four percent of making thirty free-throws in a row. Some specialists have achieved much higher success rates, with the record for most consecutive baskets being held by {{w|Tom Amberry}} with 2,750. The NBA regular season record is 97 FTs in a row, set by {{w|Micheal Williams}} in 1993 (during the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons).

However, he acknowledges that in "the long term" (the life of the universe, or at least the Earth), the Earth will be hit by very many meteorites; even though it is more likely that Randall will make his thirty free-throws before a meteor passes through his basket, he does not possess the cosmic lifespan{{Citation needed}} required to surmount the odds against him and actually have a good probability to witness either event.

=== Terminology ===
A piece of space debris falling through the atmosphere is a {{w|meteor}}.
A piece of space debris that makes it all the way to the surface of the Earth (or any planet) is a {{w|meteorite}}.
Most meteors burn up completely and do not become meteorites.

The concept of a meteor passing through a basketball hoop, ten feet or less from hitting the ground, is so uncommonly discussed that the terminology could be a matter of some debate. Unless it is ''very'' large, a meteor this close to the ground will have slowed to {{w|terminal velocity}} and will no longer be burning up{{Citation needed}}; it will therefore not be incandescing like a conventional meteor, and it is certain that it will become an actual meteorite within just a moment.

(Any meteor still incandescing within 10 feet of the ground, on the other hand, would presumably destroy both the basketball hoop and any nearby observer, meaning that poor Cueball, if still shooting, would lose the game in a much bigger way.)

Many scientifically-aware people have the habit of correcting "meteor" to "meteorite," so it may be safest to use the latter term among nerds other than Randall, or you could out-nerd them by pedantically pointing out a reason to still call it a meteor.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, holding a basketball in front of him in both hands, is looking up at the basketball hoop in front of him. The hoop is on a standard board, but at the foot of the rod holding the hoop, there seems to be growing grass up, indicating it is outside.]
:Cueball: Okay, here are the rules:
:Cueball: I have to make 30 shots in a row before a meteor falls through the hoop.
:Cueball: I'm a 30% free throw shooter so the odds are actually pretty even.
:Cueball: Ready...Go!

:[Caption below panel:]
:My hobby: playing basketball against space

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

2326: Five Word Jargon

2020-09-17T10:10:31Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2326
| date = June 29, 2020
| title = Five Word Jargon
| image = five_word_jargon.png
| titletext = My other (much harder) hobby is trying to engineer situations where I have an excuse to use more than one of them in short succession.
}}

==Explanation==
Another comic in [[Randall]]'s [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby series]], the first of two hobby comics released in the same week, the second being [[2328: Space Basketball]].

This hobby involves "collecting" and presumably using five-words-long technical jargon. In the comic, [[White Hat]] uses a phrases with five such words while talking to Randall (as [[Cueball]]), causing Randall to exclaim "cool" (as in what a cool sentence), and then proceed to type the phrase into his phone to add to his list of favorite Five Word Jargon.

Randall then proceeds to list his current favorites among really satisfying five word technical phrases (or jargon) as a caption below the panel, with White Hat's phrase as the last, possibly the newest. Maybe it was the one that caused Randall to consider other phrases and make this comic.

In the title text, Randall says that he has another much harder hobby, which is to engineer situations where he can use more than one of his favorite phrases. It would seem difficult to combine any of the four listed phrases in a given conversation, as they are from four separate fields (medicine, economics/statistics, biology, and physics/cosmology). However, he said "situations", which is broader term than "conversations". For example, someone could arrange for experts on these fields to deliver TED talks on these topics, so that he could introduce them by saying "today, we will learn about..." and list the phrases, but Randall cannot, because he has been [[541|banned from TED]]. At least he has succeeded in using them together in this comic.

===Technical jargon===
====Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt placement====
: A {{w|transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt}} (TIPS) is "an artificial channel within the liver that connects the inflow portal vein and the outflow hepatic vein". It is used to treat various intestinal bleeding. This term can be found in this publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16850140/
:;transjugular
::the shunt is inserted via the jugular vein
:;intrahepatic
::within the liver
:;portosystemic
::blood is shunted from the portal vein (draining blood from the intestines to the liver) to the systemic circulation (returning blood from the liver to the heart)
:;shunt
::a tube within the body that bypasses the normal flow of something (whether a natural defect, or an artificial device)
:;placement
::the operation to insert it

====Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model====
: A {{w|Autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity|generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity}} (GARCH) model is a statistical model for economic research. An {{w|autoregressive model}} of a {{w|time series}} is one that uses previous values of the time series to predict the next value. A {{w|conditional probability}} model is one that divides data into inputs and outputs and models the relation between them using a conditional probability distribution of the outputs given the inputs. A {{w|heteroskedastic}} distribution is one in which the variance (or standard deviation) of a random variable is not the same across all values of the variable. This phrase can be found in this publication: https://www.scirp.org/html/11-1241334_99870.htm

:;Generalized
::making more general, as opposed to a specific model
:;autoregressive
::using previous values to predict future values.
:;conditional
::outputs depending on specific inputs (in the sense of, "funding is conditional on meeting targets")
:;heteroskedasticity
::the property where the variance (that is, the random difference between an expected value and its observed value) itself varies in response to some variable. From Greek, meaning "different dispersion". For example, a graph of expenditure on food against income shows higher randomness at higher income levels, because poor people always eat cheaply, while rich people sometimes do and sometimes don't.
:;model
::a set of equations that attempt to describe some property of the world for the purpose of analysis

====Unicellular diazotrophic cyanobacteria group A====
: A {{w|unicellular}} {{w|diazotrophic}} {{w|cyanobacterium}} is a single-celled type of bacteria that is able to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a more usable form, and also generates oxygen through photosynthesis. The term can also be found in this publication: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4303622/
:;unicellular
::Consisting of only one cell ({{w|Unicellular organism}}), such as all bacteria. The opposite is {{w|Multicellular organism|multicellular}}, which includes almost all other lifeforms like animals, plants, algae, etc.
:;diazatrophic
::Having the property of {{w|Nitrogen fixation|fixing}} nitrogen from the air into other chemicals.
:;cyanobacterium
::A fairly broad category of bacteria which often play an important role in various habitats, using photosynthesis to convert light energy to oxygen. "Cyano" refers to their general blue colour, not cyanide.
:;group A
::the "first" group of several groups in a controlled experiment, or a scientific study; in this case, it is the first of several (B, C) groups of phylogenetically-related organisms, for which there is as yet no published scientific name, see here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308030272_The_small_unicellular_diazotrophic_symbiont_UCYN-A_is_a_key_player_in_the_marine_nitrogen_cycle.

====Anomalous electroweak sphaleron transition baryogenesis====
: This is a term from {{w|Particle physics}}/{{w|cosmology}}. {{w|Baryon}}s are subatomic particles containing an odd number of quarks; protons and neutrons are the most familiar examples. {{w|Baryogenesis}} is the hypothetical physical process that took place during the early universe that produced more matter than antimatter in the observable universe (or it could be any process that produces baryons). {{w|Sphaleron}} is a static (time-independent) solution to the {{w|electroweak}} field equations of the Standard Model of particle physics, and is involved in certain hypothetical processes that change the number of baryons or {{w|leptons}} (e.g. forming baryons and removing leptons). It is believed that the electroweak interaction is responsible for baryogenesis, but that at the temperatures involved (~1015 K), sphaleron interactions would wipe out any excess of baryons; therefore, for baryogenesis to "stick", it must have occurred at the ''transition'' out of the electroweak era...unless there were some kind of ''anomaly'' in the formation or interaction of sphalerons. Google reports no matches (other than this page) for the entire phrase in quotes, but shows about 70 results unquoted, indicating it finds only partial matches.

:;Anomalous
::Deviating from normal or expected
:;electroweak
::A theory combining {{w|electromagnetism}} and the {{w|weak interaction}}, two of the four fundamental forces (alongside the strong interaction and gravity) in the Standard Model of particle physics.
:;sphaleron
::a single, time-independent, solution to electroweak field equations, represented as a saddle point between two different low energy equilibria
:;transition
::change
:;baryogenesis
::creating baryons, which are a category subatomic particles containing an odd number of quarks, including protons and neutrons. (-genesis is a general suffix for a process which creates something; eg carcinogenesis means, creating cancer)

==Transcript==
:[White Hat, holding his palm up, is speaking to Cueball, who is typing with both hands on his smartphone. What he types is indicated with a jagged line going up from his phone.]
:White Hat: Yeah, I learned about it when I was researching anomalous electroweak sphaleron transition baryogenesis.
:Cueball: Cooool.
:Text on phone: ''A-n-o-m-''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My Hobby: Collecting really satisfying-sounding five-word technical phrases.

:Current favorites
:<li>Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt placement
:<li>Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model
:<li>Unicellular diazotrophic cyanobacteria group A
:<li>Anomalous electroweak sphaleron transition baryogenesis

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

2325: Endorheic Basin

2020-09-17T10:06:13Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2325
| date = June 26, 2020
| title = Endorheic Basin
| image = endorheic_basin.png
| titletext = My biggest fear is that colonial engineers will try to flood me to generate electricity. My biggest hope is that I'll develop sailing stones.
}}

==Explanation==
Yet another comic with one of [[Beret Guy|Beret Guy's]] [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]]. This time he attracts water so it flows to him rather than running out towards the nearby oceans. He thus claims he is like an {{w|endorheic basin}}, hence the title.

An endorheic basin is a limited drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but converges instead into lakes or swamps, permanent or seasonal, that equilibrate through evaporation. The {{w|Caspian Sea}} in Asia is the largest such basin. It is debated if it is a lake or a sea (it is salty, but not connected to the oceans). If it is a lake then it is the world's largest lake.

Real-life endorheic basins do not attract water in any unusual ways. Rather, they form when low-lying, inland areas receive water from rivers and streams, but not enough to flood them completely and allow the water to overflow into an ocean. As the surface of the lake grows, so do the rate of evaporation and seepage into the ground, until they're equivalent to the inflow of water (at least, on a yearly average). Obviously, Beret Guy's inexplicable effect on water is distinct from the way actual endorheic basins function.

The panel showing Beret Guy after a shower looks similar to what could happen in a space station if you have liquid water in zero gravity. The water in this environment sticks to any surface it encounters.{{Citation needed}} See for instance the start of this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeDJABZpVlI Water in zero gravity] and this one [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM Wringing out Water on the ISS - for Science!] to see how water reacts to human skin in zero gravity. It is thus almost impossible for him to dry off after a shower. It seems like the water that is attracted to him is still somewhat subject to gravity, as it pools downwards upon him; presumably he knows to finish showering before it floods over his face.

In fact he needs someone to come with a {{w|siphon}} to get rid of the water. A siphon is a hose or u-shaped pipe, where the downward pipe is longer than the upward section. Thus the water falling in the downward section creates a pull lifting the water in the upward section up to the highest point, from which it will flow down pulling more water up. As the endorheic basin caused by Beret Guy seems to have a limited reach, placing one end of the pipe sufficiently far outside creates a similar effect: The water outside Beret Guy's area of effect flows down under the influence of gravity, creating a pull lifting the water near him "up" out of the endorheic basin. Randall made a [[what if?]] about siphons in #143: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/143/ Europa Water Siphon].

As with real endorheic basins, if the water is allowed to sit, it will eventually evaporate, but he notes that he'll "develop salt flats". Water from rivers carry salts, typically in low concentrations, and if a lake lacks outflows, the salts build up over time, as the water evaporates. If a salt lake evaporates completely, it can create {{w|Salt pan (geology)|salt flats}} (or salt pans), like those near {{w|Salt Lake City}} in {{w|Utah}}, e.g. the {{w|Bonneville Salt Flats}}. These salts come in a variety of forms, including minerals. Sometimes, endorheic basins have high enough concentrations of dissolved minerals to be worth extracting, which is presumably what he means by "let me know if you need any minerals".

There may also be a contrived pun here, in that "flats" is a description of various types of footwear (among them: women's shoes that are not high-heeled and ballet shoes not specifically reinforced for advanced 'pointe' dancing), and the water would clearly leave the 'flats' on his feet.

In the title text, Beret Guy mentions his "biggest fear" due to his water attracting abilities is being flooded to by "colonial engineers" in order for them to use him and the water to generate electricity. This may be a reference to the {{w|Qattara Depression Project}}. The Qattara depression is a low-lying region near the Egyptian coast. For nearly a century, there have been proposals to dig a canal from the sea to flood this depression, deliberately creating a huge endorheic basin. By placing {{w|hydroelectric dam}}s along the canal, the proposals hoped to generation huge amounts of electricity. At least one proposal included the use of nuclear explosions to create the canal, which may help to explain why he considers this his biggest fear.

He then mentions that his "biggest hope", due to his ability, is that he will generate {{w|sailing stones}}. Sailing stones (also known as sliding rocks, walking rocks, rolling stones, and moving rocks), are a geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention. The movement of the rocks occurs when large ice sheets a few millimeters thick and floating in an ephemeral winter pond start to break up during sunny days. Frozen during cold winter nights, these thin floating ice panels are driven by wind and shove rocks at speeds up to 5 meters per minute. The {{w|Racetrack Playa}}, an endorheic basin in Death Valley, is one of the most famous locations for sailing stones.

This comic came out just a bit more than a month after the previous comic with one of Beret Guy's strange powers, [[2310: Great Attractor]], in which strange forces exerted a pull on Beret Guy. It does not appear that he himself is drawn to water, and we cannot determine if the Great Attractor is drawn to him, so Newton's Third Law may be constantly being broken, along with the more obvious scientific impossibilities that surround Beret Guy.

==Transcript==
:[Megan, holding a glass of water up in one hand, is talking to Beret Guy, who has water surrounding his feet, with small droplets falling off the two small water triangles that cover his feet. The water in her glass is leaning towards Beret Guy.]
:Megan: Why are your feet wet?
:Beret Guy: I'm an endorheic basin!

:[Megan looks down at her glass as the water in it is flying out towards Beret Guy's arm, which he has stretched out towards the glass.]
:Megan: Huh?
:Beret Guy: Nearby water flows toward me, not the ocean.
:Beret Guy: See?
:Megan: Oh, cool.

:[At the top of this panel is a box with text being said by Beret Guy to Megan. Beneath it is a depiction of what he is explaining to Megan. Beret Guy is shown standing in a bathroom, with a towel around his waist. Almost his entire body is covered completely in water, except most of his head above mouth level, and both his feet are beneath the water bubble. He yells to someone outside the bathroom. A shower-tray or partially sunken bathtub can be seen to the left with a closed shower curtain across it. To the right of him is the sink with mirror above it. Further right is the door. The floor is tiled.]
:Beret Guy - narrating: The most annoying part is drying off after a shower.
:Beret Guy: Can someone bring me the siphon?

:[Back to the situation from the first panel, although Megan has lowered her glass a bit. The glass seems to be as full as in the first panel though, even though Beret Guy now also has water on his arm where it was pulled out off Megan's glass in panel 2.]
:Beret Guy: But I have to get rid of it or I'll develop salt flats.
:Beret Guy: Anyway, let me know if you need any minerals!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Geography]]

2320: Millennium Problems

2020-09-17T10:03:53Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2320
| date = June 15, 2020
| title = Millennium Problems
| image = millennium_problems.png
| titletext = The hard part about opening a hole in the proof of the Poincaré conjecture is that Grigori Perelman will come out of retirement to try to fix it by drawing a loop around the hole and contracting it to a point.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]], drawn as [[Cueball]], is presenting a slide on the {{w|Millennium Prize Problems}}, seven problems designated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in the year 2000 as some of the most important unsolved problems in mathematics, a sort of successor to David Hilbert's {{w|Hilbert's problems|list of 23 problems}} announced in 1900. The seven problems are:

# The {{w|P versus NP problem}}, the problem of whether or not a problem whose solutions can be verified in polynomial time must necessarily have a method for producing a solution in polynomial time. This is thought not to be the case, i.e. "P != NP", but is not proven (nor mentioned on Cueball's slide).
# The {{w|Hodge conjecture}} in algebraic geometry.
# The {{w|Poincaré conjecture}}, which asserts that the 3-sphere (the "surface" of a four-dimensional ball) is the only closed and simply-connected (i.e. no holes) 3-dimensional space. It was solved in 2003 by {{w|Grigori Perelman}} and is the only one of the seven problems solved to date.
# The {{w|Riemann hypothesis}}, which asserts that all non-trivial zeroes of the {{w|Riemann zeta function}} have real part one-half.
# The {{w|Yang–Mills existence and mass gap}}, the problem of why the color force is conveyed by massless gluons but observed only in massive particles. This one is not mentioned on Cueball's slide.
# The {{w|Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness}} problem, which questions whether or not there must be a solution to the {{w|Navier-Stokes equations}} (the laws of fluid motion) for any smooth set of initial conditions.
# The {{w|Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture}}, abbreviated "Birch/SD" here, which asserts that there is a simple way to tell the number of rational solutions to an elliptic curve.

There are $1,000,000 prizes attached to each problem, although {{w|Grigori Perelman}}, the mathematician who proved the {{w|Poincaré conjecture}}, turned down his prize.

Randall is attempting to demonstrate relationships between the various problems. According to the presentation, proving one might either disprove or prove others, and the proposed interactions between problems are so complex that the Institute might decide to award an additional prize to whomever can figure out which problem or problems have actually been solved by any given proof. This eighth prize could perhaps be funded by the award Perelman rejected.

Randall has previously been [[:Category:Banned from conferences|banned from conferences]] for various provocative acts; presumably he's on his way to getting thrown out of the Clay Mathematics Institute as well, as the "other" Cueball is already calling security. However, this seems to be only these three people, thus not a conference to be banned from this time.

The title text mentions that, if someone were to find a hole (a common expression for a deficiency or error) in Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture, the famously reclusive author might show up again and fix the problem by applying the theoretical mathematics of differential geometry, where "hole" has a different meaning, to the figurative "hole" in the sequence of logical conclusions. The suggested method of enclosing the hole in a loop and then shrinking it away is reminiscent of the specific technique (Ricci flow with surgery) by which Perelman solved the Poincaré conjecture.

==Transcript==
:[Randall, drawn as Cueball, is holding a hand palm up towards a screen where a projector on the floor in front of him is projecting a diagram. The projector is propped up on some kind of legs to project up on to the screen. Behind the projector Ponytail is watching him, while Cueball is looking away from Randall, while yelling after someone off-panel.]
:Randall: ...Proving that one of these four is unsolvable, but ''not'' which. If it's one of ''these'', it would open a hole in Perlman's Poincaré conjecture proof.
:Randall: But it would ''also'' mean that solving either of the other two would ''re''-prove Poincaré, and imply Hodge is isomorphic to...
:Cueball: ''Security?!''

:[The slide on the projector screen shows a four-by-four matrix with 16 illegible entries, and also illegible text left and right of the matrix. The matrix is connected by four lines to four text segments written around the matrix. Two above (left and right), one to the right (at the bottom) and one below to the left. Arrows go between the right and left text at the top and both from the top left and the right text to the text at the bottom. The two to the right are connected by a line with an illegible equation written over this line, intersecting it. From the bottom text below the matrix an arrow goes down to another text beneath it. And from there an arrow goes up to the right text.]
:Hodge
:Riemann
:Navier-Stokes
:Birch/SD
:Poincaré ''wrong??''

:[Caption below panel:]
:I'm trying to make it so the Clay Mathematics Institute has to offer an eighth prize to whoever figures out who their other prizes should go to.

==Trivia==
*Randall misspells Perelman as "Perlman" in the sentence in the panel but spells it correctly in the title-text.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Math]]

2311: Confidence Interval

2020-09-17T10:02:17Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2311
| date = May 25, 2020
| title = Confidence Interval
| image = confidence_interval.png
| titletext = The worst part is that's the millisigma interval.
}}

==Explanation==
This is another one of [[Randall|Randall's]] [[:Category:Tips|Tips]], this time a [[:Category:Science tip|Science Tip]]. This is the first time that a category of tips (besides "[[:Category:Protip|Protip]]") has been re-used.

Graphs of continuous functions' predicted values often show {{w|confidence interval}}s, a region (either shaded or marked with dotted lines, the latter used here) that indicates the {{w|observational error|margin of error}} for the prediction at any point. The joke in this comic is that the estimate has so much uncertainty that the confidence interval extends off the top and bottom of the chart, which in a real report would usually prevent it from being printed and require a re-scaled chart to show it (if not declined altogether, as data with such wide variance might be deemed useless). This may be a tip as if it's outside the printable area, it won't be seen by anyone who reads it, and thus they won't realize how bad your model is, though this is more of a tip in how to trick people into falsely thinking you've shown a good result with your work than it is a tip in presenting an actual legitimate useful scientific result.

In the title text, a millisigma would be an error of +/- 1/1000th of a {{w|standard deviation}}. Statistical error and uncertainty is typically measured by {{w|standard deviation}}, which is written in formulas with the Greek letter {{w|sigma}}, and is also frequently referred to by the word "sigma." Measurements of sample means, one of the most common experimentally determined variables, will tend to follow a {{w|normal distribution}}, such that 68 percent of members of the population will fall within one sigma (plus or minus) of the mean value, 95 percent within two sigma, and 99.7 percent within three sigma. Any of these intervals may be usefully reported as the confidence interval, so long as it's made clear to the reader, but two- or three-sigma are sufficient for most applications. However, this graph shows data of such poor quality (or such poorly-chosen {{w|y-axis|''y''-axis}} bounds) that even the millisigma confidence interval (0.08% of the population -- not often used in science, but occasionally found in e.g. [https://researchservices.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/flexAnalysis%20User%20Manual.pdf molecular analysis tools]) does not fit on the graph. Variations in the curve that are small compared to the {{w|error bar}} typically can't be distinguished from errors. Therefore, the shape of the curve - and the entire graph in this example - is meaningless.

==Transcript==
:[A graph is shown in the middle of the panel. There is a square frame around it. The graph has two unlabeled axes with ticks along both axes. The axes end in arrows. A solid line graph is shown. It begins around the middle of the Y axis, goes up and flattens twice before falling down towards the right. Far above and just below the frame around the graph are two gray dotted lines. They do not follow the same path as the solid line inside the frame, but do follow the same general trend. Below the graph, but inside the frame, is a caption:]
:Fig. 2: Predicted Curve

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Science tip: If your model is bad enough, the confidence intervals will fall outside the printable area.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Science tip]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

2310: Great Attractor

2020-09-17T10:01:57Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2310
| date = May 22, 2020
| title = Great Attractor
| image = great_attractor.png
| titletext = Living in the southern hemisphere was nice because I could jump extra high, but I like it here too. Besides, if I ever want to move back, I can just curl up in a ball and wait!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] comments on the fact that as summer approaches, the sun rises earlier and sets later, a common topic of conversation, especially to complain that it is still light at times of day where you are used to it being dark out. [[Beret Guy]] comments that he fell off of the wall this morning, a seemingly unconnected topic.

People will often complain about falling out of bed as an indicator of having slept badly. The later sunset is often linked to worsened sleep [https://www.insider.com/why-its-hard-to-sleep-in-the-summer-2018-6]. However, Beret Guy didn't fall from the bed, he fell from the wall. While being able to figure out he's talking about his worsened sleep, Cueball is understandably confused, so Beret Guy clarifies.

Beret Guy is strongly affected by the {{w|Great Attractor}}, a large gravitational anomaly that influences the galaxies near it, but is difficult to observe directly. Beret Guy claims that the Great Attractor pulls on him unusually hard, which could be another one of his [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]]. This attraction, while not overpowering the gravity of the Earth, (he states in the title text that he can "Jump extra high" when it is above him) affects his life greatly.

While "normal" people can probably (if uncomfortably) lie down on the top of a boundary wall, for Beret Guy his attraction to the Great Attractor means that, at various times, like now, he can lie on the vertical surface of any wall (external or internal) that is currently oriented in a fortuitous direction (i.e. facing north). He fell off the wall this morning due the Great Attractor being below him during daylight hours and on the horizon during night hours. Maybe because the day starts earlier in the summer, he fell down unexpectedly. Although the location of the Great Attractor should not be linked directly to daylight here on Earth.

He gives a short explanation of which Attractor he refers to (the space one) and why the Great Attractor affects him. According to his doctors it is apparently caused by the motion of galaxies and how many dimensions his bones have. Since having fewer than 3 spatial dimensions may lead to trouble, his bones may be existing in more dimensions than our normal 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time. Galactic motions normally have no significant effect on a person with 3-D bones.{{Citation needed}}

Beret Guy then says that day-sliding season is near, due to the Great Attractor being at the horizon in the day, and offers to run errands for Cueball in the South, implying that he will be pulled towards the south during day-sliding season, and can run much faster in that direction.

Beret Guy is not standing straight up during this comic, he has one knee slightly bent towards Cueball in the first two panels. This is because it is evening (8:00 PM as Cueball states) and the Great Attractor is now coming near the horizon, where it will be during the night. So Beret Guy will be pulled towards the south, behind him in the comic, and thus leans away from the pull. In the final panel, when he leaves Cueball, moving right towards south and into the pull, he can be seen sliding along the ground without walking. He leans a bit back to not stumble forward. His last sentence also indicates that he either speeds up or that he is a little uncertain on his feet altering his voice.

He mentions that at the moment during day-time the Great Attractor is beneath him so he can stand straight. He then just feels a little heavier (he will thus weigh more than another person with the same mass).

In the title text he says he liked living in the south because the Great Attractor was often above him, meaning he could jump higher with the help of its pull (and would weigh less than a normal person with same mass). Since he could jump, the force is clearly weaker than Earth's gravity, but still enough for him to easily slide over the ground when it is near the horizon. So he could likely win some high-jump or long-jump competitions if he chose the right time and place.

Being Beret Guy, he is never really unhappy, so he states that he also likes it here (in the north). But then he continues to comment on how easy it will be for him to get to the south. Because if he entirely stopped bracing himself against the pull by crouching into a more spherical shape, and just waited for the Great Attractor to get near the horizon again, then the pull would cause him to start rolling over the ground to some place with lower net gravitational potential, i.e. further south, where the Great Attractor will be more directly over his head.

A prior example of an xkcd character with alternate gravitational susceptibility is [[417: The Man Who Fell Sideways]], where a consistent off-vertical pull somehow applies (rather than one linked to a spot on the stellar sphere). In [[1376: Jump]] Cueball floats sideways across the ground a bit above Earth, in a similar idea to being pulled sideways.

See also these other fictional examples of [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/872243.The_Revolving_Boy 'personalized'] [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Tethys gravitational] [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sally_Cambric susceptibilities].

Beret Guy has previously been interested in strange attracting forces in the universe, in [[502: Dark Flow]], where he hoped it was his mom and wished she would pull on him. It was though not about the Great Attractor, and the force did not clearly affect him, although his love for his mom did affect two space probes, as mentioned in the title text.

This comic came out just a bit more than a month before the next comic with one of Beret Guy's strange powers, [[2325: Endorheic Basin]]. Which is interesting since the previous comic with such a power came back in November 2017, [[1922: Interferometry]], more than 2.5 years before this one. Also in the Endorheic Basin comic strange forces exerted a pull on Beret Guy, although in that it was he who attracted water, where here it was himself that was most affected.

===More detail===
Some of the humor of the comic has to do with the immense differences in scale between Beret Guy and the Great Attractor.

In very round numbers our own {{w|Milky Way}} galaxy is 150,000 - 200,000 light years across. It is just one of several galaxies in something called the {{w|Local Group}}, which is around 10,000,000 light years across. And the Local Group is itself in something called the {{w|Virgo Supercluster|Local Supercluster}} (also called the Virgo Supercluster), around 110,000,000 light years across. Each galaxy, each group, and each {{w|supercluster}} is not just a chance alignment, but is a gravitational coherent structure. And all this is just yet a part of the even larger {{w|Laniakea Supercluster}} in which also the Great Attractor is located, along with more than 100,000 other galaxies, in a region of space spanning more than 500 million light years.

Something unpredictable (hence "anomalous") is going on with the galaxies in the Local Supercluster (including our own). These galaxies are indeed accelerating away from one another as seen by their red shift. {{w|Hubble's Law}} predicts the expansion should be uniformly proportional to their distance from Earth and from one another. But for the Local Supercluster something is restricting the expansion. That something is, as "viewed" from Earth, somewhere in the direction of the Southern Triangle constellation but 250,000,000 light years distant, and has (but only since 1988) been termed the Great Attractor. The Great Attractor can't conveniently be seen at visible wavelengths, because that direction is the so-called {{w|Zone of Avoidance}}: the area of the night sky obscured by our own Milky Way.

Boiling this all down: something a quarter of a billion light years away that makes an anomalous blip in the local rate of expansion of the universe, and whose existence astronomers deduce only by X-ray observations of stellar red-shift, has large-scale effects on everyday gravitational forces uniquely experienced by Beret Guy. OK, now you can smile.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Beret Guy stand next to each other, talking. Beret Guy leans towards Cueball by bending down one knee.]
:Cueball: I can't believe it's still light out. It's 8:00 PM!
:Beret Guy: Seriously! This morning I fell off the wall.

:[In a frame-less panel with the same setting Beret Guy is looking and pointing to the right.]
:Cueball: Wait, why were you sleeping on the wall?
:Beret Guy: The Great Attractor is near the horizon at night right now.

:[Zoom in on Beret Guy, who hold one hand palm up towards Cueball who is speaking to him off-panel.]
:Cueball (off-panel): The Great Attractor?
:Beret Guy: Yeah! The space one.
:Beret Guy: It pulls on me extra hard. Doctors said it's something to do with galactic motion and how many dimensions my bones have.

:[Cueball is still standing as Beret Guy slides away to the right, while looking and leaning back towards Cueball. He holds his arms slightly out, to keep his balance. Lines behind him and at his feet indicates his motion, even if he is clearly not walking. In his last word the letters becomes italic after Good and the last three Ts becomes smaller and smaller than the previous letters.]
:Beret Guy: This time of year, it's below us all day, so I stand vertically. But day-sliding season is near!
:Beret Guy: Let me know if you have any errands to run to the south!
:Beret Guy: Good''niiighttt''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

2289: Scenario 4

2020-09-17T10:01:13Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2289
| date = April 4, 2020
| title = Scenario 4
| image = sequence-four.png
| titletext = Remember, models aren't for telling you facts, they're for exploring dynamics. This model apparently explores time travel.
}}
==Explanation==
Although not directly mentioned, this comic is probably the 14th comic in a row (not counting the [[2288: Collector's Edition|April Fools' comic]]) in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak|2020 pandemic}} of the {{w|coronavirus}} {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}.

In [[2278: Scientific Briefing]], [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] were briefing [[White Hat]] on things that were getting bad, hoping to convince him to do something about them. He chose to wait until things actually got bad. Evidently, that has happened, and now Megan and Cueball are delivering another briefing on just how much "Bad Stuff" there might be, according to their models.

In the context of the information (and misinformation) explosion associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (ongoing at the time that this comic was published), many graphs have been shown highlighting the prevalence of the disease - the number of cases at any one time and place, and the change in the number of cases over time. That being said, the graphs shown could easily apply to any number of scenarios where an upward trend is bad.

Several of these graphs have attempted to predict the future, using statistical tools ("models") to process existing data and generate a forecast. Inputs to the model(s) may include different assessments of, for example, the number of COVID-19 cases that have been recorded. Four scenarios are presented here, presumably showing what a particular model (probably only one despite the reference to "new modelS" in the comic) forecasts given different, unspecified, inputs.

Megan and Cueball present four scenarios, only three of which are possible.
* The first, "best case" scenario recalls "flatten the curve" graphs that predict an occurrence will eventually cease to increase altogether. Using COVID-19 as an example, if strictest measures are put into place and adhered to, all those who have contracted COVID-19 will eventually be reported, and no further victims will contract it.
* The second and third scenarios are increasingly worse cases, predicting that the occurrence will continue unceasingly. Again using COVID-19 as an example, the less measures are put into place or adhered to, the more COVID-19 cases that will occur. Scenario 3 appears to indicate an exponential increase best suited to a log scale; "pretty bad" is an understatement.
* The fourth curve is not possible, as each point along the x-axis represents a specific time point. If the curve passes the same time point twice (as it does) then this means that on a given day there were two different number of cases. E.g. on the 1st of April there would have been both 100 and 1000 people infected, which makes no sense at all. The only way to make sense of it would be by using the common trope in science fiction of time traveling creating an alternate timeline in which events are different, thus the cases could be 100 in one timeline and 1000 in a different timeline. Hence the remark, "this model explores time travel", in the title text. This is a brain cramp to visualize, and the consequences of it actually happening would be calamitous on several levels. Real modelers might encounter such "graphing errors" while they are developing their models, entering data (especially if there are time-conversion errors), and testing their functions, but persons who went so far as to present such glitches in public, except for a laugh as here, would likely be asked to hand in their modeler's cards.
** The 'time travel' remark is also suggestive of certain particle-physics phenomena captured in {{w|Feynman diagram}}s. Mathematically, an antiparticle moving forward in time looks like its equivalent particle moving backwards in time, so a particle-antiparticle annihilation or creation event could be interpreted as a single particle switching directions in time. In the context of this scenario, it is possible to read the fourth chart as predicting that the bad stuff will start traveling backwards in time as it increases, which we would see as a great quantity of "bad anti-stuff" appearing and decaying in number just as the "bad stuff" increases, until the two quantities meet at the halfway point and mutually annihilate. Even though there will be no more bad stuff after the annihilation (or time-reversal) event, particle-antiparticle annihilation releases enormous energies that might be even more catastrophic than whatever the bad stuff itself was.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are standing in front of a large graph, with "Time" along the horizontal axis and "Bad Stuff" along the vertical axis. The curve on the graph shows a generally shallow upward slope.]
:Megan: Our new models outline a few possible scenarios.
:Cueball: #1 is the best scenario.

:[The graph now shows a much steeper curve, before flattening out far in the future, similar to a logistic curve.]
:Megan: Scenario 2 is not so great.

:[The graph now climbs quite quickly, approximating an exponential curve.]
:Cueball: Scenario 3 would be pretty bad.

:[The graph starts curling up, like the exponential curve, but continues curving back, so that it no longer qualifies as a function, and may indicate time-travel to the past.]
:Megan: Then there is scenario 4.
:Megan: We '''''think''''' it's a graphing error.
:Cueball: If not, we '''''definitely''''' want to avoid it.

==Trivia==
*This is the first [[:Category:Saturday comics|Saturday comic]] since 2006.
**It was released on Saturday since the previous comic was the [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] for 2020.
***The release of this comic, [[2288: Collector's Edition]], had been [[2288:_Collector's_Edition#Trivia|delayed two days]] because of technical difficulties with the complex interactive nature of the comic.
***Thus the planned Wednesday release of this week was thus postponed to Friday.
****To not cheat us from the planned Friday release, this comic was thus released the day after on Saturday.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

2317: Pinouts

2020-09-17T10:00:19Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2317
| date = June 8, 2020
| title = Pinouts
| image = pinouts.png
| titletext = The other side of USB-C is rotationally symmetric except that the 3rd pin from the top is designated FIREWIRE TRIBUTE PIN.
}}

==Explanation==
Electronics connectors are designed to transport both information and power. A {{w|pinout}} diagram describes the function of each pin such as to communicate data, transport power, physical function (keying), etc. In this comic there is an absurd alternative to the actual pins used in connectors. The pin labels are references to many tech issues and attributes, and not all may be documented correctly here.

Hardware hobbyists might feel excitement at seeing a unified specification for these common connectors, but the comic is of course humorous. The real life diagrams are as follows: [http://unitedtechnologies.com.pk/Nti/image/10ci.png HDMI], [https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/micro-connector-usb-pinout Micro USB], [https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/technical-articles/introduction-to-usb-type-c-which-pins-power-delivery-data-transfer/ USB-C].

=== HDMI ===

{| class="wikitable"
! Label !! Explanation !! Pin No. !! Actual purpose
|-
| +3.3V DC
| 3.3V is a typical voltage in digital electronics. The "+" Indicates a voltage positive with respect to ground.
| 1
| TMDS Data2+
|-
| Data
| Most digital communications cables contain at least one wire that carries data. {{w|Serial communication}} protocols have one data line. Typically there will be a more descriptive name if there are multiple data pins. "Data" and "3.3V" set up the appearance of a normal pinout diagram to experienced readers.
| 2
| TMDS Data2 Shield
|-
| -3.3V DC
| Negative voltages were used more frequently in the past; however, modern systems typically generate any negative voltages they might require internally from the given positive voltages. This could be a reference to frustration specification implementers have to go through when handling hardware quirks: negative voltages are very abnormal, and would require design alteration to meet, but the designers of a ubiquitous plug can do whatever they want.
| 3
| TMDS Data2-
|-
| +5V
| 5V is a typical voltage in digital electronics. The "+" indicates a DC voltage, positive with respect to Ground. V is also the Roman numeral for 5.
| 4
| TMDS Data1+
|-
| Tx
| "Tx" typically refers to pins used to transmit as opposed to "Rx" (receive).
| 5
| TMDS Data1 Shield
|-
| +6VI
| V is usually used to represent volts, but here, VI represents the Roman numeral 6. (See Pin 4) Voltages above 5 are not usually used in micro-circuitry cables. The product VI (Voltage * Current) is equal to Power.
| 6
| TMDS Data1-
|-
| Wx
| "Wx" does not typically exist in the "Tx"/"Rx" scheme. In the weather forecasting community, Wx means "weather".
| 7
| TMDS Data0+
|-
| +7VII
| V is usually used to represent volts, but here, VII represents the Roman numeral 7, continuing the pattern from above.
| 8
| TMDS Data0 Shield
|-
| Rx Only
| "Rx" typically refers to pins used to receive as opposed to "Tx" (transmit). This description might also be related to the fact that most Ethernet devices can exchange the Rx and Tx port automatically, if needed, in order to eliminate the need for crossover cables and the fact that it is possible to insert the USB-C connector rotated by 180°. Additionally, "Rx", standing for the Latin "recipe" is a common abbreviation for {{w|medical prescription}}s. Some medicines are prescription only or, in other words, "Rx Only".
| 9
| TMDS Data0-
|-
| Antidata
| Some ports use differential signaling, where a signal and its inverse are sent over a pair of pins (e.g. D+ and D-). The combined signal is more robust to interference. This mixes that practice with a humorous reference to the notion of matter versus antimatter. Currently there is no such thing as antidata{{Citation needed}}. Antidata pins could be needed in the future as low-entropy or high-entropy source in quantum communication connectors to securely dispose of data.
| 10
| TMDS Clock+
|-
| Unknown
| Occasionally extra pins will be included for future use; however they will typically be labeled "reserved" to point out that their usage is not yet defined. The use of "unknown" suggests that this pinout is based on an incomplete reverse-engineering of the HDMI format, instead of on the official documentation, or maybe the official documentation doesn't explain it and this pin's function is being kept as a secret by the ones who designed it.
| 11
| TMDS Clock Shield
|-
| Water
| Labs and hospitals often have ports connecting to common sources of various supplies (oxygen, water, “medical air”, pressurized air, natural gas, vacuum). It may also refer to the [https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/21b3ob/walking_through_my_local_electronic_store_i_found/ HDMI to garden hose meme].
| 12
| TMDS Clock-
|-
| +240V DC
| This is a reference to heavy-duty home and commercial appliances, which use 240V AC for power. Additionally, many cable specifications try to provide a way to power devices over them (PS/2, USB, Power over Ethernet,) but these small communication cables usually carry only DC and not AC electricity.
High voltage power is only sometimes used in small communications connectors. It might help to keep the current of power lines low to avoid generating excess heat. With +240V DC inside the HDMI cable, monitors would not need any longer a separate power plug. This is similar to Power-over-Ethernet, which does not exceed 60V, or ISDN, which goes up to 110V depending on country, and helps surveillance cameras or telephones to work with one connecting cable only. But with this much voltage on such a small cable, a short could lead more likely to melting the insulation and wiring in a sudden burst of toxic smoke. The produced thermal power through a short with resistance R_short that is building up is U²/R_short, increasing with the square of the voltage (also the breakdown voltage of the isolation is more easily reached). However, a high voltage reduces the chance of a peripheral drawing too much current, which could cause a fire on thin wires otherwise: The current through the cable for a device, needing a given power of P, is I = P_dev/U, the thermal power of the cables with resistance R is P_cables = R_cables*I² = R_cables*P_dev²/U², so it is reduced by the square of the voltage.
| 13
| CEC
|-
| Vacuum
| Labs often have ports connecting to common sources of various supplies (oxygen, water, fuel, vacuum).
| 14
| Reserved (1.0-1.3a), Utility (1.4+, optional)
|-
| 5V AC
| Pins often supply low voltage direct current to devices. This pin supplies 5V {{w|alternating current}}, which is not typically supplied. AC is used in {{w|Electric power transmission|electrical transmission}} because it can be stepped up to high voltage to minimize transmission losses, then stepped down to more useful voltages right before loads. DC power is required for logic circuitry like in computers. Conversion between the the two kinds of power everywhere would make for transformers being embedded in most modern devices, taking extra materials to manufacture and losing a significant percentage of all electricity in the conversion. Having both is not entirely unheard of: the Commodore 64 power supply provides both DC, for the logic of the motherboard; and AC, for powering the tape drive.
| 15
| SCL (I²C serial clock for DDC)
|-
| Amazon Copyright Pin
| HDMI can optionally be protected by a {{w|digital rights management}} (DRM) scheme, known as {{w|High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection|HDCP}}. This pin humorously implies the presence of a different DRM scheme specific to {{w|Amazon (company)|Amazon}} the company, as well as poking fun at the fact that copyright is an explicit part of the HDMI protocol (although it is not assigned to a specific pin). This is likely a reference to how chips and cables and specifications often have specific strange additions or functionality in them to meet the requests of various bodies invested in the design process: additionally after reverse engineering many strange things have been found laying around in the functionality of hardware that do unexpected special things.
| 16
| SDA (I²C serial data for DDC)
|-
| GND
| GND typically refers to "ground" on pinout diagrams. Remarkably, this is correct.
| 17
| DDC/CEC Ground
|-
| Decorative
| Decorative elements are pieces of an assembly that serve only an aesthetic purpose without any technical function. This would not be particularly useful inside a connector, as almost no one will ever see it--however, in HDMI, pin 14 was reserved for future use in versions 1.0–1.3a (and was only assigned an official use in 1.4). A decorative pin is also a popular piece of jewelry. In electronics unneeded pins are often marked NC (Not Connected).
| 18
| +5V
|-
| Ground
| Compared to Pin 17 ("GND"), this appears to be the same ground pin. However, the presence of both GND and Ground seems to imply that GND represents something other than the standard "ground" pin. Alternatively, this pin could supply "Ground" as in soil (like the "soup" electrical outlet from [[1293: Job Interview|1293]]). Some systems have different grounds for analog and digital sections, but they would typically be disambiguated by terms like AGND. Many pinouts have multiple grounds or DC supplies with no apparent explanation, seen more prominently on Randall's USB connector.
| 19
| Hot Plug Detect
|}

The {{w|HDMI}} interface uses four pairs of shielded twisted-pair connectors, along with seven other connectors. ({{w|Twisted pair}} means a wire is wrapped with the other wire that returns the current to the original device, thus minimizing electromagnetic noise. Shielding refers to wrapping a cable with a conductor to absorb the energy of noise.) Three of these pairs are for data (TMDS Data0, Data1, and Data2) and the other is a clock. These pairs take up three pins as one of them is a ground pin for the shielding wrapped around each pair. TMDS stands for "{{w|Transition-minimized differential signaling}}" and is also used in the DVI standard.

DDC stands for "Display Data Channel" and is based on the {{w|I²C}} serial standard. It is used to allow the transmitting device to learn what formats of data the receiving device can accept.

CEC stands for "Consumer Electronics Control" and is supposed to allow a single remote control to control multiple devices.

"Hot Plug Detect" refers to hot-plugging, where a cable is connected to a device already turned on. The device should then ideally detect that the cable has been plugged in and respond appropriately.

=== Micro USB ===

{| class="wikitable"
! Label !! Explanation !! Pin No. !! Actual Purpose
|-
| GND
| A ground pin
| 1
| +5 V
|-
| GND
| A second ground pin
| 2
| Data- (Differential signalling)
|-
| GND
| A third ground pin
| 3
| Data+
|-
| USB
| Apparently the only data pin in this connector. This could be a play on how the USB specification tries to squeeze all data onto a single channel as if it is a software protocol rather than specializing the structure of a physical cable to provide for rapidly carrying the information likely to flow over it. USB is an external packet network similar to Ethernet, but uses a totally new design without any reuse of prior similar specification. Ironically, in the real Micro- and Mini-USB standards, this pin is not connected to a wire in the cable.
| 4
| On-The-Go ID, does not have a wire in the cable.
|-
| GND
| A fourth ground pin. A real micro USB only has one ground pin, in addition to the metal plug housing. This is the location of the actual ground pin.
| 5
| Ground.
|}

A ground pin is commonly found on USB and other pin connectors. At least one ground is necessary to complete the circuit, and some cables use multiple ground lines to distribute current or to support {{w|twisted pair}}s. However, there is no purpose served by having many more ground pins than data pins. Therefore, it seems rather silly for the micro USB to have 4 ground pins and only 1 functional "USB" pin. It also does not give much information about what the "USB" pin would do, as opposed to a standard pinout diagram. This diagram also leaves out the +5V power pin that is present in the real micro USB connector, which would render most USB peripherals unable to function.

The ordering and count of the pins may be an allusion to {{w|Monty Python}}'s {{w|Spam (Monty Python)|"Spam"}} sketch, in which one of the many Spam-related menu items is "Spam, Spam, Spam, egg, and Spam".

=== USB-C ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Label !! Explanation !! Pin No. !! Actual Purpose
|-
| +5V DC
| A common electronics supply voltage.
| A12
| Ground
|-
| +3.3V DC
| Another common electronics supply voltage. This pin is not present on USB type C, mostly because the voltage is too low to supply useful levels of power at the current limit of the pins.
| A11
| Rx2+ (Differential Signalling for Superspeed or alternate modes)
|-
| +120V AC
| Residential supply voltage in the United States; its use on an electronics connector would be very unusual, as it would burn out any unguarded transistor-logic electronics, producing smoke and melting the metal together such that the cable likely couldn't be removed. But this high a voltage might be an allusion to the high voltages USB-C screens and similar devices can request in order to get enough energy without exceeding the cable's current limit.
| A10
| Rx2-
|-
| Boobytrap Pin (Pure solder)
| {{w|Solder}} is a metal alloy with a low melting temperature (typically around 360°C, but in special cases melting points between 90°C and 450°C or above are available), used to bond electronic components together permanently. Most solder materials are quite ductile so it might be too easy for the forces a connector is subject to to permanently change their shape. Along with the fact that the resistance of solder is typically way higher than that for copper the pin under heavy electrical stress could overheat and melt, thus bonding the connector to its receptacle, and thereby "trapping" the receptacle. Additionally putting a pin that might slightly change their shape directly next to a high voltage pin means risking accidentally connecting two power rails with entirely different voltages together (causing an overvoltage in the lower-voltage rail that is likely to break the circuit, as has happened with some Apple devices). In this case the +120V AC pin might be able to deliver enough power to actually fuse the solder-only pin. This could also be a reference to increasing publicity around the fields of electronics security: hobby reverse engineers have been finding ways for some time now to evade the blown fuses in microcircuitry preventing them from being reprogrammed, using glitching techniques.

Another issue is that the heat required for anyone to solder a wire to the cable-side of that pin would cause the entire pin to melt and coagulate, triggering the boobytrap, and causing the pin to disappear and possibly make a mess next to the other pins.
| A9
| VBUS (+5V)
|-
| Mechanical
| All connectors include portions whose job is to ensure a solid connection between the cable and the port. This is typically not the job of the pins, however. In real USB type C connectors, this task is performed by the center tongue of the female connector. It could also imply transmission of energy or signal through a mechanical principle, such as torque or reciprocating motion.
| A8
| SBU1 (Sideband Use)
|-
| +3.3eV/C
| {{w|Electron-volts}} per {{w|coulomb}} would be a very unusual unit to see in a pinout. These units are used in particle physics, but the appearance is very similar to the common 3.3V supply. It would be a unit of electric potential equivalent to approximately 1.60217662 × 10-19 volts. Thus 3.3eV/C would be 5.287183 × 10-19 volts, or slightly more than 1/2 attovolts. It would be extremely difficult for most consumer electronics equipment to determine the difference between this and 0 volts. It could also be read as +3.3 eV/c (per {{w|speed of light}}), in which case it is equivalent to a momentum of 5.3 × 10-28 kg m/s, In high-energy physics, the momentum of particles is sometimes expressed in MeV/c or GeV/c units.
| A7
| D- (USB 2.0 Data)
|-
| Candlepin
| Randall is making a pun on the word ''pin'', which refers to a electrical connector pin as well as a thing to knock down in bowling. {{w|Candlepin bowling}} is a form of bowling.
| A6
| D+
|-
| Facebook use
| This would imply that Facebook had a hand in specifying USB type C, and had a pin dedicated to their use. This could be seen as strange given Facebook's primary business is web technology and would have little need for a dedicated pin in the USB standard, but a lot of back doors have been found in electronics.
| A5
| CC1 (Configuration Channel)
|-
| +5V (Positrons)
| {{w|Positron}}s are the antimatter counterparts to electrons. So this pin is supplying +5V, but does so by sourcing positrons into the device rather than sinking electrons out. Positrons cannot be conducted through normal matter conductors as they would annihilate the electrons.
| A4
| VBUS (+5V)
|-
| Pin Roulette
| Presumably in the same vein as "{{w|Chatroulette}}", this pin's purpose is not rigidly defined and is instead left to chance. According to the title text, this pin's counterpart on the other side of the connector is the "FireWire Tribute Pin", so this cable would only be truly rotationally symmetric (which is the whole point of the USB-C connector) when the pin roulette ball lands on that same function.
| A3
| Tx1- (Differential Signalling for Superspeed or alternate modes)
|-
| GND
| Ground pin. Typically denoted as "GND".
| A2
| Tx1+
|-
| SKY
| Reference to the ground pin, which refers to the common grounding on the larger metal body. There is no corresponding "sky" pin, although sky is often thought as the opposite of ground.
| A1
| GND
|-
| FireWire Tribute Pin
| ''In title text:'' {{w|FireWire}} is Apple's version of IEEE 1394 which is a 6 pin connector that has a ground pin, a power pin and two pairs of data pins. It was something of a competitor to USB, and had faster data rates than USB 2.0, but is much less popular now, and has essentially been replaced by {{w|Thunderbolt (interface)|Thunderbolt}}. Presumably the writers of the USB-C standard (which far outpaces its data rates) wished to memorialize it somehow, although it's not clear how the pin actually works for that purpose.
| B3
| Tx2-
|}
The two sides of a USB C connector are labeled "A" and "B". These are rotationally symmetric, mostly. For example, B10 and B11 are Rx1, a separate twisted-pair for receiving information in Superspeed mode compared to A10 and A11's Rx2. This gives two Rx/Tx pairs for Superspeed use. CC1 and SBU1 are mirrored to CC2 and SBU2. However, the D, VBUS, and GND pins are perfectly mirrored.

The fact that only half of the USB-C pins are documented might hint to an alternative way to manufacture connectors that can be inserted rotated by 180°: Make the receiver use only the right side of the pins and make the sender connect both the left and the right side so all Pins that might match a function are connected correctly no matter if the cable is rotated by 180°. However, doing this would result in only having one Rx/Tx pair for Superspeed use.

=== Coax ===

A {{w|RF connector|coaxial RF connector}} has two contacts - one pin, and the shield; typically the whole connector is labeled with whatever function/signal is carried by the pair. The joke here is that the label is ''technically'' correct (the best kind of correct), but not very useful to the end user, as it does not specify the voltage rating, impedance, connector size, or other useful information about the cable. Some serial data transmission systems, such as {{w|Ethernet|Ethernet}}, used coaxial cable early on as a low cost, widely available solution, however most of these have largely become obsolete. A common coaxial cable still widely in use is {{w|RG-6|RG-6}}, which is typically used to deliver satellite television, cable television, and cable Internet services in the United States and Canada.

==Transcript==

:[Caption at top]
:Pinouts
:Quick Reference Guide

:[Four common connectors are depicted - vertically, rather than the usual horizontal orientation.]

:[The first connector is a 19-pin HDMI connector.]
:[The nine pins on the left are labeled:]
:*Data
:*+5V
:*+6VI
:*+7VII
:*Antidata
:*Water
:*Vacuum
:*Amazon Copyright Pin
:*Decorative
:[The ten pins on the right are labeled:]
:*+3.3V DC
:*-3.3V DC
:*Tx
:*Wx
:*Rx Only
:*Unknown
:*+240V DC
:*5V AC
:*GND
:*Ground

:[The second connector is a 5-pin Micro USB connector.]
:[The five pins are labeled:]
:*GND
:*GND
:*GND
:*USB
:*GND

:[The third connector is a 24-pin USB-C connector, with only the right side labeled.]
:[The twelve pins on the right are labeled:]
:*+5V DC
:*+3.3V DC
:*+120V AC
:*Boobytrap Pin (Pure Solder)
:*Mechanical
:*+3.3eV/C
:*Candlepin
:*Facebook Use
:*+5V (Positrons)
:*Pin Roulette
:*GND
:*SKY

:[The fourth and final connector is a 1-pin COAX connector.]
:[The one pin in the center is labeled:]
:*Pin

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:1774: Adjective Foods

2016-12-21T08:07:31Z

141.101.98.162: /* Original flavour */

Nobody has edited since I started this? Wow. I must have been ''early''. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 15:23, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:Nice to see somebody helping out! Thanks! [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 15:41, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

This looks just like all the food in my supermarket. I'm not even sure if I'm buying food or the best adjectives sometimes XD [[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 15:59, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The can of Lite is a real thing, of course, and trademarked, which is why other beers can call themselves "light" but not "Lite". [https://www.beeradvocate.com/mag/2627/lite-beer-vs-light-beer/ This article has more on that.] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.4|162.158.75.4]] 16:05, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Italics is totally fine, and Glazed and Lite ''are'' in white. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:13, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:First off, I would like to apologize, my reason for changing the text to normal could be seen as inflammatory, and that was not my intention. As for my actual reason, it's that while you may be able to read it fine, many people can't read text like that. In the comic, it's large and capital letters, but the wiki has small text. Adding all that guff makes it hard to read. For example, my mom has awful eyes, and text like that would be virtually unreadable to her. It was not for my sake, but rather for the sake of others. [[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 16:18, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
::It's not hard to increase the font size on a computer -- just ctrl and + (or ctrl and =). ctrl and - to turn it back down. The transcript is mainly there for search engines anyway, I imagine; after all, the comic is directly above it on the same page.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.178|108.162.237.178]] 17:29, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:::it isn't hard to increase font size, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how busy the text is. There is no reason for it to have that much. It distracts from the real purpose and decreases readability. Also, they want it edited as well. Note the box above the transcript about format. This is not about you. It needs to change for other people who cannot read this stuff as well. What makes you think everyone knows how to increase font size? I honestly didn't until now. You need to do something about it, I'll do it for you, which you may not like.[[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 17:48, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Is "artisenal" even a word? Is that a purposeful misspelling of "artisanal"? (Like "lite" is a purposeful misspelling of "light".) [[User:Imperpay|Imperpay]] ([[User talk:Imperpay|talk]]) 16:42, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The "artisenal" error has now been fixed in the updated comic. [http://xkcd.com/1774/]. --[[User:Esterhazy|Esterhazy]] ([[User talk:Esterhazy|talk]]) 17:42, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The 'p' by a "kosher mark" indicates that it is kosher for Passover. It will say 'pareve' outright if the food is pareve. --Hamotron[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.28|172.68.54.28]] 18:24, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Who cares what foods ''might'' be in each of the packages? It has nothing to do with the comic and are generally speculation anyway. I'd disagree with most of what's written, but it doesn't matter. I would argue for removing the entire table/section. [[User:SeanAhern|SeanAhern]] ([[User talk:SeanAhern|talk]]) 18:58, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:I'd generally agree. If we are to list them, the 'sack' should probably designate it as 'Flour or meal,' as cereals are sometimes steel-cut, but not usually stone-ground, and stone-ground wheat is flour. Also, while there are lots of kosher foods here, I've never seen kosher eggs. Rule seems to be it must come from a live kosher chicken, but I think all chickens are kosher while they are alive, & 'kosher chicken' refers to the manner of their slaughter. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 23:07, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:I don't think you are meant to be able to tell what is in the package as some of it makes no sense. Why would "cage free" be applied to flour or wheat? That is typically applied to chickens and their eggs to indicate the chicken/hen isn't trapped in a cage. But I have never heard of someone grinding a chicken. The only thing I can think of all those adjectives actually referring to would be ground up chicken such as for fertilisers. I think it is just a collection of adjectives which make no sense.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.160|108.162.249.160]] 00:00, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
Hear, hear; in fact I think the explanation should note that part of the joke is that no product could be described as cage free and stone-ground. similarly, fire-roasted and flambé are inconsistent. Also, smoked, sun-dried, and barrel-aged are very nearly mutually inconsistent. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.29|162.158.79.29]] 01:41, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
:: Disagree, fois gras could be made from cage free ducks and then ground with stone implements. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.64|108.162.221.64]] 14:36, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
:: It could refer to some baked good that uses stone-ground flour and eggs from cage-free chickens.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.5|172.68.46.5]] 17:05, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
`

This is the opposite of 993: Brand Identity. {{unsigned ip|162.158.62.75}}

"Stune-ground" might reffer to a "Ground stone" so its probably Flour. (PS hope i edit this correctly)

== Lite ==

The contents of the Lite can could also be soda, as it's well possible to produce a lite soda (though I don't think anyone has).
:Coca Cola has a Lite variety, so it certainly could be. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.219|141.101.104.219]] 14:10, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

== Original flavor ==

'Original flavor' actually isn't a noun phrase (in context). It's an adjectival phrase, which is why Randall has used it as he has. I'd suggest deleting this sentence in the explanation.

Talk:1774: Adjective Foods

2016-12-21T08:01:34Z

141.101.98.162:

Nobody has edited since I started this? Wow. I must have been ''early''. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 15:23, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:Nice to see somebody helping out! Thanks! [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 15:41, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

This looks just like all the food in my supermarket. I'm not even sure if I'm buying food or the best adjectives sometimes XD [[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 15:59, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The can of Lite is a real thing, of course, and trademarked, which is why other beers can call themselves "light" but not "Lite". [https://www.beeradvocate.com/mag/2627/lite-beer-vs-light-beer/ This article has more on that.] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.4|162.158.75.4]] 16:05, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Italics is totally fine, and Glazed and Lite ''are'' in white. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:13, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:First off, I would like to apologize, my reason for changing the text to normal could be seen as inflammatory, and that was not my intention. As for my actual reason, it's that while you may be able to read it fine, many people can't read text like that. In the comic, it's large and capital letters, but the wiki has small text. Adding all that guff makes it hard to read. For example, my mom has awful eyes, and text like that would be virtually unreadable to her. It was not for my sake, but rather for the sake of others. [[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 16:18, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
::It's not hard to increase the font size on a computer -- just ctrl and + (or ctrl and =). ctrl and - to turn it back down. The transcript is mainly there for search engines anyway, I imagine; after all, the comic is directly above it on the same page.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.178|108.162.237.178]] 17:29, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:::it isn't hard to increase font size, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how busy the text is. There is no reason for it to have that much. It distracts from the real purpose and decreases readability. Also, they want it edited as well. Note the box above the transcript about format. This is not about you. It needs to change for other people who cannot read this stuff as well. What makes you think everyone knows how to increase font size? I honestly didn't until now. You need to do something about it, I'll do it for you, which you may not like.[[User:Fox Holmes|While most people have mass on Saturday, I have mine relative to my inertia]] ([[User talk:Fox Holmes|talk]]) 17:48, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Is "artisenal" even a word? Is that a purposeful misspelling of "artisanal"? (Like "lite" is a purposeful misspelling of "light".) [[User:Imperpay|Imperpay]] ([[User talk:Imperpay|talk]]) 16:42, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The "artisenal" error has now been fixed in the updated comic. [http://xkcd.com/1774/]. --[[User:Esterhazy|Esterhazy]] ([[User talk:Esterhazy|talk]]) 17:42, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

The 'p' by a "kosher mark" indicates that it is kosher for Passover. It will say 'pareve' outright if the food is pareve. --Hamotron[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.28|172.68.54.28]] 18:24, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Who cares what foods ''might'' be in each of the packages? It has nothing to do with the comic and are generally speculation anyway. I'd disagree with most of what's written, but it doesn't matter. I would argue for removing the entire table/section. [[User:SeanAhern|SeanAhern]] ([[User talk:SeanAhern|talk]]) 18:58, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:I'd generally agree. If we are to list them, the 'sack' should probably designate it as 'Flour or meal,' as cereals are sometimes steel-cut, but not usually stone-ground, and stone-ground wheat is flour. Also, while there are lots of kosher foods here, I've never seen kosher eggs. Rule seems to be it must come from a live kosher chicken, but I think all chickens are kosher while they are alive, & 'kosher chicken' refers to the manner of their slaughter. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 23:07, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:I don't think you are meant to be able to tell what is in the package as some of it makes no sense. Why would "cage free" be applied to flour or wheat? That is typically applied to chickens and their eggs to indicate the chicken/hen isn't trapped in a cage. But I have never heard of someone grinding a chicken. The only thing I can think of all those adjectives actually referring to would be ground up chicken such as for fertilisers. I think it is just a collection of adjectives which make no sense.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.160|108.162.249.160]] 00:00, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
Hear, hear; in fact I think the explanation should note that part of the joke is that no product could be described as cage free and stone-ground. similarly, fire-roasted and flambé are inconsistent. Also, smoked, sun-dried, and barrel-aged are very nearly mutually inconsistent. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.29|162.158.79.29]] 01:41, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
:: Disagree, fois gras could be made from cage free ducks and then ground with stone implements. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.64|108.162.221.64]] 14:36, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
:: It could refer to some baked good that uses stone-ground flour and eggs from cage-free chickens.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.5|172.68.46.5]] 17:05, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
`

This is the opposite of 993: Brand Identity. {{unsigned ip|162.158.62.75}}

"Stune-ground" might reffer to a "Ground stone" so its probably Flour. (PS hope i edit this correctly)

== Lite ==

The contents of the Lite can could also be soda, as it's well possible to produce a lite soda (though I don't think anyone has).
:Coca Cola has a Lite variety, so it certainly could be. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.219|141.101.104.219]] 14:10, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

== Original flavour ==

'Original flavour' actually isn't a noun phrase (in context). It's an adjectival phrase, which is why Randall has used it as he has. I'd suggest deleting this sentence in the explanation.

Talk:1759: British Map

2016-11-15T09:05:19Z

141.101.98.162:

The actual location for Braintree should be Essex not North Yorkshire.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.171|141.101.98.171]] 15:22, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Could Highland be a reference to Highlander? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.84|173.245.52.84]] 15:27, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

OK, I know you removed the </nowiki> that ruined the italics there, [[User:Davidy22|Davidy]]. Don't lie to me, you troll. [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 19:04, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
:Whoops, was removing autogenerated nowiki text from another user, missed the first tag. Also, that edit was completely unnecessary. 21:29, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Blick could be referring to Wick , at the top of Scotland ''Please sign your comments with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>''

''Waterdown: Near [the actual] Grimsby'' Interestingly enough, in southern Ontario, Canada, there's a Waterdown not far from a Grimsby. Waterdown is considered part of Hamilton, and is towards its northwestern edge, while Grimsby is to Hamilton's east. --[[User:VonAether|VonAether]] ([[User talk:VonAether|talk]]) 17:01, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

The protractor off the West coast of Scotland is a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mull_of_Kintyre_test
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.215|141.101.98.215]] 17:44, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Blick could also be Oldmeldrum.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.229|162.158.234.229]] 19:06, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Why aren't the coordinates part of the first table? [[User:NotLock|NotLock]] ([[User talk:NotLock|talk]]) 20:05, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Is Waterdown perhaps another Watership Down reference? [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 20:38, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Pity there's no [[wikipedia:Towcester|Towcester]] :) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.251|141.101.98.251]] 20:47, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

"Lakebottom" is equated with Lake Windermere (probably correct, largest lake in the Lake District) and the table states that many waterspeed records were set there. Arguably it is Coniston Water (same area, third largest "Lake" in the region) that is more (in) famous for speed records... Not that Randall references speed at all. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.159|141.101.98.159]] 21:31, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Helcaraxë and Blick seem to share a single dot. Maybe Randall forgot to put a dot there, or there's some other reason? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.112|108.162.216.112]] 22:58, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

since Randal Munroe wrote the comic, and he is an american, the map WAS labeled by an american[[User:Jessep13|Jessep13]] ([[User talk:Jessep13|talk]]) 00:08, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

‘Seasedge’ and ‘Eyemouth’ look like they should be Seahouses and Lynemouth. So far as I can tell, Seasedge is marked as a little north of Seahouses, roughly west of Lindisfarne (which suggests Haggerston; regardless, north Northumberland coast), and Eyemouth is marked approximately where Ashington should be; ‘Hairskull’ appears to be where Durham should be. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.160|141.101.98.160]] 02:33, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

"BBC Channel 4" might also be a reference to Torchwood and other BBC Shows that were filmed in Wales (though did not necessarily air on Channel 4) [[User:Bpendragon|Bpendragon]] ([[User talk:Bpendragon|talk]]) 03:04, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

In fact, "Channel 4" is a channel not related to the BBC, so the reference to "BBC Channel 4" would be a mash-up between "Channel 4" and "BBC4" [[User:Gearoid|Gearóid]] ([[User talk:Gearoid|talk]]) 07:30, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

"Wessex", although "obsolete" as a place name, is still in common use as a descriptive term. For example, there is both a Wessex Police Force and a Wessex Water supply company. [[User:Gearoid|Gearóid]] ([[User talk:Gearoid|talk]]) 08:30, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

I know the "Fhqwhgads" reference from the Ikea-ripoff video game Home Improvisation - always thought it was a pun in that game on Ikea's Swedish product names. Is the Homestar Runner reference older? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 09:05, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1556: The Sky

2015-07-28T08:02:22Z

141.101.98.162:

Typical, I think nobody's actually going to try to explain this, and I get Save Conflicted. My (wordier) version. In case any of it is useful.
:The sky is ever changing, and can often give interesting views such as that illustrated in the comic. Cueball and Megan seem to be agreeing about this, and its pleasing nature.
:As (ignoring particularly unusual viewpoints, severe topography and obscuring vegetation/architecture) the sky is pretty much the upper hemisphere of any external view, it is inded a "half". It would seem to be redundant to say it is "one of my favourite halves", as that indicates both a list of at least two items to choose from ''and'' more than one 'favourite'. Being in 'the top two of a list of two' actually means nothing. But the other half could be the ground ''or'' the sea, ''or'' a composite of the two, so conceivably there ''might'' be more than two 'halves' to choose from in this case. Not that the statement makes much more sense.
:The title-text acknowledges the fact that the other half can have snakes (the land), shipwrecks (the sea) and rocks (either), in a manner that sounds like justifications for any non-sky 'halves' being interesting too, to the kind of people Cueball and Megan seem to be. But it also suggests that by removing all of these you'd be seeing sky, below, that people on the other side of the 'rocks' (the whole Earth) had been seeing as their own 'sky above'. At least until the effects of entirely removing the substance of the planet start to show, of course.
...for what it's worth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.168|141.101.98.168]] 11:57, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Maybe, maybe the comic is a slight refference to the recent observetory of plutos athmosphere. [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:55, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Maybe this comic is related to comic [[1368]]? [[User:Gartenzaun|Gartenzaun]] ([[User talk:Gartenzaun|talk]]) 13:16, 27 July 2015 (UTC)
:Or this [[1524: Dimensions]]. Regarding the favourite of a small set.-[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:52, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I can't defend this position properly (other than by appealing to shipwrecks) but I'm pretty sure "the other half" is the ocean (or water in general) and that this is a callback to something in early XKCD (the halves thing.) I don't care enough to find the reference though, so FFTI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 13:18, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

My read on the "halves" bit is the Biblical Genesis bit where the world was split into sky and sea, "And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day." -[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.112|173.245.56.112]] 14:36, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

: Agreed, this appears to be a biblical reference - [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=GNT| this version]] explains it pretty clearly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.177|108.162.249.177]] 14:41, 27 July 2015 (UTC)
: Thus taking "halves" as a verb. Nice. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 23:33, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I can't tell if the sky is a photograph with a digital filter or a painting. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 14:49, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

:I'm pretty sure it's a digital painting. For one thing, there's a little artistic license in the transition from sunset at the left to evening stars at the top right. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 14:58, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

:: I don't see it -- has the picture changed? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 16:31, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

::: I didn't notice the stars at the top right until [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] pointed it out. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:37, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I think it's important that Megan says the sky is ONE of her favorite halves, and that the explanation "at least at their present location...the ground is dark, flat, and otherwise boring" is thus too simplistic. The ground where they are standing is in silhouette (it's presumably sunrise or sunset), but I think the implication is that C. and M. (who are obviously not finding words adequate to express how they feel about what they're seeing), are awed by the beauty of Nature, regardless of whether it's sky, sea (shipwrecks), land (rocks) or living things (snakes).[[User:Jv|Jv]] ([[User talk:Jv|talk]]) 15:01, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Is it possible that the meaning of Megan's statement is that there are other binary sets where she prefers one over the other? For example, her favorites might include (in addition to sky) female, light, and loud. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:43, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps Megan is a reporter https://xkcd.com/1368/ [[User:Xquestion|Xquestion]] ([[User talk:Xquestion|talk]]) 16:51, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

What i understand under "favorite halves" is not about the mentioned tautology but about other things you can differentiate two halves and you like one more than the other.
My personal favorite halves in this sense would be; Sky(vs Earth), women(vs men), low alcohol drinks(vs liquors), etc 17:11, 27 July 2015 (UTC)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.103.202|141.101.103.202]] Bkack

There are multiple ways to split the earth into halves, so I don't think having one favorite way makes any tautology. For example, you can split North/South, East/West, sky/earth, water/earth, day/night. [[User:DMiller|DMiller]] [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.150|173.245.50.150]] 18:28, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I don't think it is a "tautology": a trivially true fact, eg "all red shoes are red". If anything it is an oxymoron (as it implies both halves are favourite, and so neither is). [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 18:58, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Am I the only one who sees a possible (additional) visual joke in the second panel? (The drawing is divided along the diagonal: One half is mainly cloudy, another mostly clear sky.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.44|162.158.92.44]] 19:37, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

In terms of two halves, should we mention https://xkcd.com/731/ "Desert Island?" It seems to be relevant in this situation, but I want someone else's opinion first. Also, mobile sucks for that kind of stuff, so... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.110|108.162.216.110]] 20:45, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

"Mathematically, stating one of my favorites it must imply that there must be at least one other favorite" - Not mathematically, but intuitively (unless you can prove the implication). Mathematically, this just says that "Sky" is a member of the set "Favorite Halves", which may or may not include more elements. Intuitively, we don't talk like that unless there is another favorite.-[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.91|173.245.50.91]] 21:38, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

This could be a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_the_Sky [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.131|173.245.56.131]] 04:06, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

I'm not so sure that the sky being one of Megan's favourite halves is either tautological or an oxymoron. It could simply mean that, of any given pair that can be described as two halves, she always has a preference for one over the other. Thus, of "earth / sky", "sky" is her favourite half, whereas perhaps of "Bonnie / Clyde", "Bonnie" might be her favourite half. In this way one could have many favourite halves. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 08:02, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T07:56:23Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1515
| date = April 22, 2015
| title = Basketball Earth
| image = basketball earth.png
| titletext = How many points do you get for dunking every basketball in existence at once?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Could definitely use review (or reversion to the first, simpler, explanation) and probably some handy hyperlinking for concepts.}}
It is common to describe the relationship of very large (and very small) objects to common or garden objects on a more human scale. (For small items, it might be something along the lines of if a certain single atom were expanded to the size of a particular sports stadium, such that the electrons would be on the perimeter of the complex, the nucleus is something still surprisingly small, by human standards, upon the centre-spot.) In the case of the Earth-Moon system the comparison can handily be made that for an Earth the size of a basketball, the Moon is about the size of a baseball. This certainly seems to be the comparison that Cueball is repeatedly attempting to make, with two invisibly suspended balls 'representing' each body, but is being interrupted.

In the first interruption, Blackhat touches the 'Earth', generating a megatsunami of epic scale.

In the second interruption, ?Megan? pours water onto the Earthball, seemingly flooding its entire surface.

In the third interruption, a cat attacks the 'Earth' . Probably playfully, but it will have meant forces even greater than Blackhat's digital prodding, and may have even taken the Earth out of its (representative) orbit. One way or another, that will have been (unseen) disasters of far greater proportion.

The fourth interruption involves Ponytail taking the 'basketball' comparison at face value and actually trying to dunk the 'Earth' ''as'' a basketball. This would ''not'' be good for any residents of Earthball who have yet to succumb to the events so far. This simile-callback is continued in the title text with the idea that "every basketball in existence" (i.e. every basketball upon the Earthball, as well as the Earthball itself) is counted towards the score from a single dunking. (Randall may or may not know exactly how many basketballs there are, perhaps through research for some What-If question or other, but almost certainly assumes that there are no basketballs ''not'' on Earthball, even without allowing for recursion. But there might be some question about whether the Earthball's own sub-scale basketballs are within code.)

Coincidentally (or not), 22 April is [http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement Earth Day].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript| Formatting and description of images}}

:[Cueball is standing next to a floating basketball-sized Earth with his hand near it.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball is now holding a baseball-sized moon. The basketball-sized Earth is still there. Black hat is in panel.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -
:Black Hat: Hey, cool!
:[Black Hat is touching the Earth ball.]
:Cueball: Um.
:[Unclear scene, possibly a tsunami caused by Black Hat touching the Earth.]
:AAAAAAAA

:[Back to Cueball standing with the basketball-sized Earth.]
:Cueball: Let's try that again. If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball holding baseball-sized moon, with Megan in frame holding a sports water bottle.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -
:[Megan squirts the earth with her water bottle and then walks away. The continents have disappeared from the flooded Earth ball.]

:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:Cueball: The Moon- would...
:Cat: MROWL! [Cat jumps at Earth.]
:Cat: RRRRR! [Cat on the ground wrestling with the Earth.]

:[Back to Cueball standing with the basketball-sized Earth.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball with Moon and Earth balls. Ponytail has entered, running.]
:Cueball: The Moon would, uh...
:[Ponytail has grabbed the Earth ball and is holding or dribbling it, still running.]
:[Ponytail reaches a basketball basket and shoots the Earth ball towards it.]

<noinclude>{{comic discussion}}</noinclude>



[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

1506: xkcloud/Transcript

2015-04-06T12:25:25Z

141.101.98.162: /* User names */

{{Incomplete|Unfinished.}}

*This is a valiant effort to create a transcript for the ''continually''(?) growing dynamic comic [[1506: xkcloud]].
**The front page of the comic is [[1506: xkcloud#Transcript|transcribed]] as usual on the [[1506: xkcloud|main page]].
*See pictures of the other types of pages here: [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages|Pictures of other pages]].

==Intro==
*After clicking on the red button on the [[1506: xkcloud#Transcript|front page]] (only part of the transcript written on the main page for xkcd), you will see either:
**the [[#Help! We lost the text|Help! We lost the text]] page or
**the [[#Help! We lost the picture|Help! We lost the picture]] page.
*Both these pages are transcribed below.
**Here below the headings of the transcripts for the four pages links directly to the section with the relevant images on the page with [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages|Pictures of other pages].
*From there you have to choose either a picture to a text or a text to an image.
**If you press the ''Draw one your self'' button on the ''Help! We lost the picture'' this page will change slightly:
***[[#Draw one your self|Draw one your self]].
**When you then submit a picture, or if you just picked one of the five pictures or five text suggestions, or submitted a text your self, you will go to this page:
***[[#Help us recover more data|Help us recover more data]]
*From all pages you can go back to the [[1506: xkcloud#Transcript|front page]] by clicking on the image of Cueball at his desk.
*After completing the first post, there will always be four post shown below (also if you go back to the front page).
**When you complete a post your new post will be shown together with three new.
**When you push a button to recover more data these four posts (including "yours") will be shown instead of only three as to begin with.
**From here you can loop between these four pages (not counting the ''Draw one for your self'' as a separate page.)
*The above mentioned pages are fully transcribed below.
*Also, there are lists for the following Randall created text and items:
**[[#Reason for data loss|Reason for data loss]]
**[[#User names|User names]]
**[[#User pictures|User pictures]] (a description of possible images next to users)
**[[#Like buttons|Like buttons]]
*Finally, there is all the user input text. This will probably be impossible to transcribe but a few examples should be provided as an example.
**These will be given here: [[#Post from users|Post from users]]
**Some of the picture can be seen on this page:
***[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users|Pictures posted by users]].

==[[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_text_page|Help! We lost the text]]==
:[At the top of the page there are the following text:]
:'''Help! we lost the text that goes with this post!'''
:[For cases where the user has to submit or select a text according to a picture.]
:Reason for data loss:
:[Here on this same line follows a text which is a random reason taken from a list created by [[Randall]]. See [[#Reason for data loss|examples below]]).]

:[Below this text is a white box on top of the light blue background. It is the post mentioned above. At the top is a random user picture - could be a person or a galaxy etc (see [[#User pictures|descriptions below]]). Next to the picture is a random user name (see [[#User names|descriptions below]]). The picture can be used for several user names.]
:[Below the user name is the picture from the post. This picture is also chosen at random from a set which must mainly be created from user input. Randall must have given some input to start with though - at least five pictures see [[#Help! We lost the picture|Help! We lost the picture]] section above).]

:[Below this and above five frames with text in two columns are this line of text:]
:Which text post do you think went with this picture?
:[The five texts below are from a random sample, created mainly by the users, but Randall must at least have made five to begin with. Some examples are [[#Post from users|transcribed here]].]
:[Below this is a box where you are invited to write and submit a text suggestion. In the box written in gray letters (rather than black, which it will turn to when you type something) are the following text:]
:Or, write your own
:[To the left is a button with the text:]
:Submit

:[By clicking on any of the five text boxes you get to a new page (see the [[#Help us recover more data|Help us recover more data]] page) where the chosen text is now standing above the picture from the post above. If you write a text and click the submit button your own text will be written above the picture.]

:[Below this submit text box is a thin black line. Below this to the left we again see Cueball sitting at his desk (as on the front page). If you click on the picture with Cueball you return to the front page.]
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Below him there are the following text and bulleted list:]
:Our policy regarding your personal data:

*Please stop sending us your personal data
*We are running out of places to put it
*Is this even yours?
*Does anyone recognize whose data this is?
*Oh jeez never mind here comes more data
*Why are you doing this
*Please stop
*Help
:[Below this list appeared late in the afternoon the following weak gray text:]
:Don't contact us

:[To the right below the thin black line are three post above each other with user picture and name above a post text and a picture. All three again random as mentioned above. Furthermore to the right above each picture (right of the first line - if there are multiple lines) of the post text are a blue like button that you can press. The buttons seems to be active links when you hover over them, but nothing happens when you click on them. The buttons have a thumbs up icon to the right. Next to the icon there is a random word taken from a list created by Randall. It seems to be from a list of words that are synonymous with want - see [[#Like buttons|below]].]

==[[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help.21_We_lost_the_picture_page|Help! We lost the picture]]==
:[At the top of the page there are the following text:]
:'''Help! We lost the picture that goes with this post!'''
:Reason for data loss:
:[Here on this same line follows a text which is a random reason taken from a list created by [[Randall]]. See [[#Reason for data loss|examples below]]).]

:[Below this text is a white box on top of the light blue background. It is the post mentioned above. At the top is a random user picture - could be a person or a picture of a galaxy etc (see [[#User pictures|descriptions below]]). Next to the picture is a random user name (see [[#User names|descriptions below]]). The same picture can be used for several user names (and probably likewise).]
:[Below the user name is the text of the post. This text is also random and it must mainly be user input. Randall must have given some input to start with though - at least five sentences see [[#Help! We lost the text|Help! We lost the text]] section below). Some examples are [[#Post from users|transcribed here]].]
:[Below is a blue rectangle where the missing picture should be. Instead there is only a white question mark:]
:'''?'''

:[Below this and above six picture frames in two rows is a line of text:]
:Which of these pictures do you think went with this post?
:[The five first pictures are from a random sample, created mainly by the users, but Randall must at least have made five to begin with). In the sixth and last picture frame the following text is written:]
:Draw one your self

:[By clicking on any of the five pictures you get to a new page (see the [[#Help us recover more data|Help us recover more data]] page) with the chosen picture now substituting the "?" in the post above with the chosen picture. If you click the Draw one your self the page will change slightly into the [[#Draw one your self|Draw one your self]] page - a page where you can do exactly this. From there you go to the other page mentioned before.]

:[Below these six frames is a thin black line. Below this to the left we again see Cueball sitting at his desk (as on the front page). If you click on the picture with Cueball you return to the front page.]
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Below him there are the following text and bulleted list:]
:Our policy regarding your personal data:

*Please stop sending us your personal data
*We are running out of places to put it
*Is this even yours?
*Does anyone recognize whose data this is?
*Oh jeez never mind here comes more data
*Why are you doing this
*Please stop
*Help
:[Below this list appeared late in the afternoon the following in light gray text:]
:Don't contact us ([http://euphoria.io/room/xkcd/ linking to this live chatroom])

:[To the right below the thin black line are three post above each other with user picture and name above a post text and a picture. All three again random as mentioned above. Furthermore to the right above each picture (right of the first line - if there are multiple lines) of the post text are a blue like button that you can press. The buttons seems to be active links when you hover over them, but nothing happens when you click on them. The buttons have a thumbs up icon to the right. Next to the icon there is a random word taken from a list created by Randall. It seems to be from a list of words that are synonymous with want - see [[#Like buttons|below]].]

==[[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Draw_one_your_self_page|Draw one your self]]==
:[If you press the picture frame with the text ''Draw one your self'' on the [[#Help! We lost the picture|Help! We lost the picture]] page the page changes. It is not a new page. But below the white post frame with the blue rectangle with "?" there is now no longer six frames, but only one large frame. Above the frame is written:]
:Do your best to recreate the picture you think went with this post:

:[Below is a blank white frame with five tools to the left (pencil, eraser, redo, undo and delete all) and to the right you can choose between seven line thicknesses.]

:[Below this frame is a button on which it says:]
:Upload image
:[If you press this then you picture is uploaded and shown as part of the post on the [[#Help us recover more data|Help us recover more data]] page].

:[Below the image editor nothing has changed compared to before and everything beneath the thin black line is as before.]

==[[1506:_xkcloud/Pictures_of_other_pages#Help_us_recover_more_data_page|Help us recover more data]]==
:[At the top of this third page (or fourth if coming from the paint a picture page) there are the following white text on a red button:]
:'''Help us recover more data'''

:[If you click this button you go back to one of the two pages that follows the front page that is the [[#Help! We lost the picture|Help! We lost the picture]] page or the [[#Help! We lost the text|Help! We lost the text]] page. So in this way a loop will begin. The only difference is that now there will be four pictures instead of three at the bottom, and it will be the four that was on this page - including the one you have been involved in at the top.]

:[Below this button is a thin black line. Below this to the left we again see Cueball sitting at his desk - same as with the two pages mentioned above as are the text given here below. If you click on the picture with Cueball you return to the front page.]
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Below him there are the following text and bulleted list:]
:Our policy regarding your personal data:

*Please stop sending us your personal data
*We are running out of places to put it
*Is this even yours?
*Does anyone recognize whose data this is?
*Oh jeez never mind here comes more data
*Why are you doing this
*Please stop
*Help
:[Below this list appeared late in the afternoon the following weak gray text:]
:Don't contact us

:[To the right below the thin black line are both the post you have just finished (either by connecting a text or image with the missing part or even typing or painting your self) as well as three other posts below "yours". They are stacked above each other with user picture and name above a post text and a picture. The other three are again random chosen - it is not the ones from the page where you should choose a text/image. Furthermore to the right above each picture (right of the first line - if there are multiple lines) of the post text is a blue "like button" that you can press. The buttons seems to be active links when you hover over them, but nothing happens when you click on them. The buttons have a thumbs up icon to the right. Next to the icon there is a random word taken from a list created by Randall. (It seems to be from a list of words that are synonymous with want - see [[#Like buttons|below]]). Above these buttons there (from late in the afternoon no April 1st) appear a word which by clicking it created a permalink:]
:Link
:[This is written over all the buttons for each of the possible posts.]

==Reason for data loss==
{| class="wikitable"
!Sentence
!Explanation
|-
| +++ OUT OF CHEESE ERROR. REDO FROM START +++
|A reference to Hex, the magical computer from Terry Pratchett's Discworld, which would occasionally emit this error
|-
|<%= reason %>
|A template used by server-side frameworks such as Rails, which would normally replace this line with the actual value of the "reason" variable.
|-
|a user's middle name was <nowiki></html></nowiki>
|Having a user name containing an html tag might cause issues in the server, similar to [http://xkcd.com/327 xkcd 327].
|-
|aol window in front of netscape window
|AOL (America Online, a dial-up online service popular in the 1990s) acquired Netscape (company that developed for the original commercial browser, precursor to Firefox) in 1998
|-
|Baby ur much 2 fast
|Lyrics from the Prince song "Little Red Corvette"
|-
|bookmarks migrated to Venezuela
|Bookmarks are typically migrated from one file folder to another so that they can be accessed by another browser.
|-
|butter didn't suit the works
|Reference to "Alice in Wonderland" -- the Mad Hatter put butter into his watch to make it keep more accurate time, and explained "I used the very best butter, too."
|-
|butter overflow
|butter instead of buffer
|-
|butter to text interface not found
|A reference to speech-to-text interfaces, typically used by people who cannot see easily to enable them to use a computer.
|-
|butter underrun
|butter instead of buffer
|-
|cannot save, there's something gross on the S key
|A reference to the "Control-S" save shortcut on both Windows and Mac, and is saying that they are unable to activate the shortcut (thus saving the data) because there is "something gross" on it.
|-
|CAPTCHA response indicated parahuman intelligence
|A CAPTCHA is a tool which aims to prevent comupter-generated submissions to an online form by asking the user a question which is easy for humans but (supposedly) hard for computers. In this case, the CAPTCHA detects {{w|parahuman}} intelligence rather than human intelligence.
|-
|cat-like typing detected
|When cats walk or sit on keyboards, they can type, which can be annoying. A program called [http://bitboost.com/pawsense/ PawSense] attempted to detect this and block the typed keystrokes to reduce inconvenience.
|-
|confirmation BIOS
|Pun on "confirmation bias" (a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors); BIOS is part of a PC's hardware
|-
|could not evade skifree yeti
|[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkiFree SkiFree] is an early 90s computer game that requires the player to ski down an endless slope. It's famous for a yeti that appears after the player reaches a certain distance, which then chases and eats the player. Possibly a reference to [[667: SkiFree]].
|-
|could not initialize sound blaster 16
|The Sound Blaster 16 is a PC sound card which used FM synthesis to play MIDI files, which was popular in the 1990s.
|-
|CRM-114 unit malfunctioning
|The CRM-114 unit's malfunction is the main plot device in the film Dr Strangelove
|-
|cumulonimbus #19 too rabbitlike
|A cumulonimbus is a type of cloud. This may be a reference to Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. The error suggests that the cloud looked too much like a rabbit.
|-
|data too big
|
|-
|database configuration violates the Prime Directive
|The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Directive Prime Directive] comes from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek Star Trek], and refers to the principle of not interfering with the natural development of primitive cultures. This error is implying that the database is being seen as a primitive life, and therefore the server is not allowed to make any changes to it.
|-
|Dave's not registered, man
|Cheech and Chong reference: "Dave's not here, man".
|-
|Desystematized chronodynamic balancing detected in VX Module core.
|References the VX community, which can be found on [http://www.reddit.com/r/VXJunkies/ its subreddit] and a WIP [http://vxmodules.wikia.com/wiki/VX_Wiki wiki]. The community is centered around making up technobabble about the fictional "VX" series of devices, without breaking character.
|-
|dictionary too stiff to read
|dictionary in addition to being a book where you can look up the definition of words can also be a data structure of key value pairings.
|-
|electrons too big, stuck in wafer
|"Wafer" refers to silicon or other material used as substrate for semiconductor fabrication.
|-
|ERR:INVALID DIM
|On the Texas Instruments TI-83 and TI-84 calculators, this is an error message shown [http://oakroadsystems.com/math/ti83oops.htm#x_InvalidDim in various situations].
|-
|error reading drive B. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abort,_Retry,_Fail%3F Abort, Retry, Fail?]
|A common error from MS-DOS, often caused by a failing floppy disk
|-
|error
|This error message is so uninformative as to be redundant.
|-
|error: error code [error] while decoding error code
|Similar to certain OS error messages which contain errors in themselves
|-
|error: operation completed successfully
|A somewhat common coding error in *nix programs. The program detected an error and tried to print the error using a function such as perror which prints a message based on the global variable errno. However, the error wasn't generated by a standard library routine so errno equals 0 (no error).
|-
|ethics in journalism
|Possibly a reference to the movement Gamergate, a group ostensibly dedicated to "ethics in video game journalism", but has been accused of misogyny and harassment.
|-
|eyelash! eyelash!
|Possibly a reference to [http://xkcd.com/1086 xkcd 1086]
|-
|files fell out
|Paper files (as would be stored in a filing cabinet) can be misplaced and items can fall out of them if mishandled. However, it would be unexpected for digital files to fall out in this way.
|-
|files overwritten with more interesting content
|
|-
|firewall caught fire
|Pun based on the inclusion of the term "fire" in "firewall"
|-
|floating point unit no longer afloat
|A floating point unit is a part of a CPU which can perform calculations on non-integers. The pun is that the floating point unit is not floating (as in on a liquid). Possibly a reference to the Jargon File's [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/N/number-crunching.html#crunchly74-12-25 Crunchly comic].
|-
|food problematic
|Firefly quote
|-
|friday squid blogging
|Security guru Bruce Schneier regularly posts a blog post with this title, and some squid related news, primarily as a discussion thread.
|-
|general uncertainty
|Possibly reference to the general uncertainty principle in Quantum Mechanics, which gives an upper limit for the accuracy of measuring two variables at the same time.
|-
|GSM filter change required
|Possibly referring to an electronic component used to filter out GSM frequencies. Unlike automotive oil filters, electronic filters don't require changing.
|-
|guru meditation #00000025.65045338 press left mouse button to continue
|A common error from the Commodore Amiga.
|-
|hard drive oil depleted
|Hard drives don't use oil/gas like cars do, so it would be strange for the oil to have depleted.
|-
|helvetica scenario
|A reference to the episode on Calcium from the BBC TV show Look Around You.
|-
|HTTP 403 and 3/4ths
|HTTP errors are emitted when an HTTP request (e.g. to download a web page) fails. 403 is Forbidden and 404 is Not Found; 403.75 is somewhere between the two. Reference to Harry Potter's Platform 9¾.
|-
|HTTP 418
|The 4xx class of status code is intended for cases in which the client seems to have erred. For example, the well known 404 is when the client requests a web page that doesn't exist. HTTP 418 is part of the {{w|HTCPCP|Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol}}, denoting "I am a teapot," and purportedly is used when sending an instruction to brew coffee to a teapot.
|-
|http is down
|Since all the traffic is being handled by http (or https), is http were truely down, it would be a conundrum.
|-
|hung up prematurely
|Possible reference to dialup modems: The server disconnected the phone line too soon.
|-
|I got pretty distracted trying to figure out how big space is
|Possible reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which purports that space is Really Big.
|-
|i hurt myself today / to see if i still feel
|Lyrics from "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails.
|-
|illegal carrot detected in mail queue
|carrot instead of caret
|-
|insufficient smoke for current mirror array
|Refers to the phrase 'smoke and mirrors'
|-
|lights are out, hard drive is taking a nap
|
|-
|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lp0_on_fire lp0 on fire]
|lp0 is the printer port, there used to be a 'printer on fire' error/warning
|-
|Main Bus B Undervolt
|A line from Apollo 13, when the spaceship is 'having a problem'.
|-
|mean connection time exceeded
|"Maximum connection time exceeded" might be an error -- by definition, some connections must last longer than the mean (average) connection time.
|-
|microwave running
|Both microwaves and Wifi operate on the same frequency and have been known to cause interference
|-
|minimum recursion depth not reached
|"Maximum recursion depth exceeded" would be an error -- "depth not exceeded" wouldn't be (and there is no minimum limit)
|-
|nanobots in the water
|
|-
|not a hair question
|One of the error messages that the Bucket bot in the #xkcd IRC channel can emit is "That is not a hair question."
|-
|oh jeez there's a lot of you can you all just hang on for a second please oh frig this is so bad
|
|-
|our buffer runneth over
|Old-English style message for "buffer overrun" instead of more modern language. There were no computers yet at that time.
|-
|out of electrons
|
|-
|out of monads
|Monads are a concept in functional programming languages, such as Haskell. They have a reputation for being hard to understand.
|-
|overcurrent undervolt caused by vacuum cleaner on same circuit
|
|-
|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_LOAD_LETTER PC LOAD LETTER]
|Error message on older printers stating to add extra letter-size sheets, which has become known to be a very cryptic error message. Reference to the film {{w|Office Space}}.
|-
|Please Insert Riven CD 4
|{{w|Riven}} is a graphical adventure game by {{w|Cyan Worlds}} that was the sequel to {{w|Myst}}, released in 1997. Due to its large amount of image and video content it was on 5 compact discs, and when you traveled from one section of the game to another, it usually prompted you to insert a different CD to load that section's content.
|-
|PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
|The prompt given by a Commodore-64 when using the LOAD command (without a filename argument)
|-
|previously-recovered files overwritten by newly-recovered ones
|
|-
|qubit indeterminate
|Possibly referring to quantum indeterminacy of qubits, which are used in quantum computing.
|-
|RDBMS completely forgot how inner joins work
|"Inner join" is a common SQL operation performed by a Relational DataBase Management System.
|-
|screws are stripped
|
|-
|server aperture too narrow for capital letters
|
|-
|server farm lost starbucks wifi signal
|
|-
|server fell in ocean
|
|-
|server had too much to drink
|Servers are unlikely to have human style issues with drinking too much alcohol.
|-
|server power cable stolen by raccoon for nest
|
|-
|server room haunted
|Maybe a reference to an UVB-76 broadcast in 2001, which said "I am 143. Not receiving the generator." and "That stuff comes from hardware room." in Russian
|-
|sitemap was held upside down
|Sitemap refers to a website directory. Paper maps can be held upside down.
|-
|Something went wrong: Something went wrong (Something went wrong)
|similar to certain OS error messages which contain errors in themselves
|-
|soonerist sperver fid dot nile
|A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoonerism spoonerism] - spoonerist server did not find file
|-
|spin cycle still active
|Washing machines have a spin cycle. Hard-drives spin. CPUs have cycles.
|-
|spin number must be of the form n/2
|Quantum spin numbers (in atomic physics) must be integers or half-integers
|-
|spontaneous splinal dereticulation
|"Reticulating Splines" is a loading message in The Sims and SimCity video game series.
|-
|SQL ejection
|ejection instead of injection
|-
|subtle threading bug in turing-complete version numbering system
|
|-
|sysadmin trapped in well
|Reference to Timmy being trapped in a well.
|-
|tape on write-protect hole fell off
|Read-only floppy disks have a ''write-protect'' hole in the corner. A writable disk has no hole.<ref>http://oit.ua.edu/oit/services/it-service-desk/write-protect-a-floppy-diskette/</ref> It was common practice to convert read-only floppy disks (that could be obtained for free due to, e.g. shareware distribution at computer stores) into writable floppy disks by placing sticky tape over the hole.
|-
|temporal paradox
|
|-
|the butter you have dialed is invalid or no longer in service
|butter instead of number
|-
|the little plastic tab on the box the data's in broke off
|
|-
|the server is temporarily permanent. Please try another also.
|
|-
|the system / is down
|Lyrics from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILVfzx5Pe-A "The System is Down"], also known as Strongbad Techno. Possible additional reference to the '/' root filesystem on unix/linux.
|-
|This copy of Ubuntu is not genuine and you have not yet resolved this issue.
|Similar warnings betray proprietary software designed to break when used outside the terms of its license. Messages like this are unlikely to be found in free software like Ubuntu, where anti-features are largely inviable.
|-
|This page contains content from the Open Source Initiative, who have blocked it on copyright grounds.
|It would be ironic for the Open Source Initiative, which promotes sharing and modification, to prevent the sharing of the page for copyright reasons.
|-
|too many hands on the keyboard
|Possibly a reference to a scene in NCIS where two people simultaneously used the same keyboard to "double hack".
|-
|transfer interrupted by incoming fax
|Internet access used to be on dialup modems, which is also used for telephone calls or faxing. These can't operate at the same time.
|-
|TRIED TO READ 9TH SIDE OF 8 TRACK
|Eight-track tape is an obsolete format for recorded music; the tape itself only had two sides. Nine-track tape - much wider than eight-track tape - was used for computer data storage.
|-
|turns out server was on circuit with lightswitch by door
|If you turned out the lights as you left the room, it would power down the server.
|-
|Unable to cast variable of type Int32 to Magic Missile
|Magic Missile is a spell (which you can cast) in Dungeons & Dragons. Casting can also refer (in programming) to converting variables from one type to another, e.g. from integer to string. The pun here is that a 32-bit integer is being cast to the Magic Missile spell.
|-
|undefined is not a function, which really makes you think
|"Undefined is not a function" is a Javascript TypeError.
|-
|unexpected timezone drift desynchronization
|
|-
|unimplemented trap
|"Trap" refers to a computer operation code that is not implemented in the processor's instruction set and instead performs a system call. "Unimplemented trap" was an error message in some previous versions of MacOS.
|-
|User accepted terms but not conditions
|Normally, at a EULA you must accept 'terms and conditions'. There is basically no option to only agree to terms.
|-
|User is {{w|not a typewriter}}.
|A reference to the "isatty" function in the Unix C library, which reports whether a file descriptor is connected to a teletypewriter (terminal) or not. Interactive programs generally are intended to be used from a terminal.
|-
|user put spaces/vowels in filename
|Because early FAT file systems allowed only 8 characters in the filename, users often shortened names by removing the vowels. This ostensibly kept the file names readable, but under the 8-character limit. In practice, filenames without vowels were often misunderstood.
|-
|UTF-31 decode error
|UTF-31 instead of UTF-32
|-
|virtual memory got too real
|Virtual memory is where the OS writes less-used parts of RAM to disk, so that the RAM can be used for another program, hence the less-used parts are in virtual memory. "This is getting too real" is an idiom meaning the person is approaching their wits' end.
|-
|wrong files
|
|-
|YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS
|A line frequently announced by the Protoss advisor in Starcraft.
|}

==User names==
:[Below are possible (not all?) user names mentioned next to any post as for instance on the [[#Help! We lost the picture|Help! We lost the picture]] page.]
:[In alphabetical order:]
{| class="wikitable"
!Name
!Comment
|-
|@meganamram
|Megan Amram is a comedian and writer. She became well known through her Twitter Channel @meganamram <ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Amram</ref>
|-
|Addison1
|
|-
|Addison8
|
|-
|Agric Silverfinger
|Referring to "Auric Goldfinger" in the James Bond Franchise. (Gold = Au, Silver = Ag)
|-
|Aidan2
|
|-
|Aiden1
|
|-
|Aiden5
|
|-
|Aidenn Aberforth Milne
|{{w|A. A. Milne}} is the author of {{w|Winnie-the-Pooh}}. The A. A. stands for Alan Alexander. Aidan and Aberforth are both Characters in the Harry Potter series
|-
|Alice1956
|
|-
|Amanda08
|
|-
|Anonymous
|{{w|Anonymous}} as if most of these other names are not.
|-
|Apple Martin
|Apple Martin is the name of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin's daughter.
|-
|Arthur17
|
|-
|Arthur19
|
|-
|Ashley8
|
|-
|Ashley92
|
|-
|Ashley2009
|
|-
|Austin72
|
|-
|Ayden1952
|
|-
|Bailey08
|
|-
|Bailey2001
|
|-
|Barbara1974
|
|-
|Benjamin1970
|
|-
|Benjamin Kenobi Sr
|{{w|Ben Kenobi}} or Obi-Wan Kenobi well known from {{w|Star Wars (film)|Star Wars}}. Since Ben had no kids this person could be his father.
|-
|Bool Hand Luke
|Portmanteau of the datatype {{w|Bool}} and the film {{w|Cool Hand Luke}}.
|-
|Brandi9
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|Brittany1
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|Caden14
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|Caden2010
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|Candice10
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|Carol04
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|Chad80
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|Charles18
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|Chelsea2006
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|Cheyenne15
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|Cheyenne1988
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|Christina Applecare
|Portmanteau of actress {{w|Christina Applegate}} and {{w|Applecare}}
|-
|CMOS Def
|Portmanteau of {{w|CMOS}} and {{w|Mos Def}}.
|-
|Curic Copperfinger
|Referring to "Auric Goldfinger" in the James Bond Franchise. (Gold = Au, Copper = Cu)
|-
|Cynthia99
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|Cynthia1995
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|Dakota09
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|Dakota94
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|{{w|David St. Hubbins}}
|Character in the mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap.
|-
|Debbie3
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|Debbie26
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|Debbie62
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|Deborah3
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|Delta Elroy Backslash
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|Destiny89
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|Destiny1983
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|Dillon2008
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|Donald19
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|Donna2
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|Dorothy7
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|DragonBall Cooper
|Merging {{w|Dragon Ball}} with {{w|D. B. Cooper}}
|-
|Dunston Chexin
|Homonym of the film {{w|Dunston Checks In}}
|-
|Dustin46
|
|-
|Earl Sinclair
|{{w|Earl Sinclair}} is the Dinosaur family father from the {{w|Dinosaurs (TV series)|Dinosaurs TV series}}.
|-
|Egbert Bentley White
|{{w|E. B. White}} was an American Writer. The E. B. in his name stand for Elwyn Brooks.
|-
|{{w|Eliezer Yudkowsky}}
|An advocate for friendly artificial intelligence.
|-
|Elon Musk
|{{w|Elon Musk}} is the founder of {{w|SpaceX}} and a confounder of {{w|Paypal}} and of {{w|Tesla Motors}}.
|-
|Emily15
|
|-
|Eowyn L'Oreal James
|{{w|E. L. James}} is a British Author. Eowyn is a character in {{w|Lord of the Rings}}. L'Oreal is a brand of makeup.
|-
|Euphegenia Doubtfire
|{{w|Euphegenia Doubtfire}} is better know as Mrs. Doubtfire from the movie by the same name and played by {{w|Robin Williams}}.
|-
|Facebook Scott Fitzgerald
|{{w|F. Scott Fitzgerald}}, with F for Francis not Facebook, is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
|-
|Flash Groupon
|Named after {{w|Flash Gordon}} the hero of a science fiction adventure of the same name (comic and movies/TV series).
|-
|Frances29
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|Frances51
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|Frances99
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|Gary8
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|Gary86
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|Gary1951
|
|-
|George Debian Bush
|{{w|George W. Bush|George Double-u Bush}} or more commonly know as George D. Bush former {{w|President of the United States}}.
|-
|George Reagan Renesmee Martin
|An anecdote to George R. (Raymoond) R. (Richard) Martin, most known for the writing of Game of Thrones. {{w|George H. W. Bush|George Bush}} and {{w|Ronald Reagan}} two former {{w|President of the United States|Presidents of the United States}} and then {{w|List_of_Twilight_characters#Renesmee_Cullen|Renesmee Cullen}} the name of the daughter of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan in the {{w|Breaking Dawn}} novel in the {{w|Twilight (series)|Twilight saga}}. Martin?
|-
|Green Mario
|Luigi of the Mario Brothers is green while his brother Mario wears red. In Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros Luigi and Mario are identical apart from the colour of their clothing.
|-
|Greg2004
|
|-
|Hatsy Collins
|
|-
|Henry05
|{{w|Henry V (play)|Henry V}}?
|-
|Henry4
|{{W|Henry IV, Part 1|Henry IV}}?
|-
|Horsepower Lovecraft
|{{w|H. P. Lovecraft}} Horse Power Lovecraft? No Howard Phillips Lovecraft who was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction.
|-
|J. Alfred Leftshark
|
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|Jack3
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|Jack39
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|Jacob10
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|Jada5
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|Jaden21
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|Jaden Riley Rufio Tolkien
|{{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}} although JJR stands for John Ronald Reuel but not many know this of the author of {{w|The Lord of the Rings}}
|-
|Jaina Khloe Rowling
|{{w|J. K. Rowling}} author of {{w|Harry Potter}}. The J is for Joanne, the K is just to have a better {{w|pen name}}.
|-
|Jalen81
|
|-
|James URL Jones
|{{w|James Earl Jones}} with ''Earl'' not an {{w|URL}} like the one most web browsers display for a web page above the page in an address bar. James is very well know for his voicing of {{w|Darth Vader}}.
|-
|Jason15
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|Jayden79
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|Jennifer1
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|{{w|Jeph Jacques}}
|Jeph Jacques writes and illustrates the webcomic Questionable Content.
|-
|Jerry18
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|-
|Joe Biden
|{{w|Joe Biden}} is the 47th (and current at the time of this comic) {{w|Vice President of the United States}}, jointly elected twice with President {{w|Barack Obama}} and in office since 2009.
|-
|John2
|
|-
|John Wilkes Knuth
|{{w|John Wilkes Booth}} not Knuth was an American stage actor who assassinated President {{w|Abraham Lincoln}} at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865.
|-
|Jonathan27
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|Joshua80
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|Joshua84
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|Justin28
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|Justin87
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|Kaden61
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|Kaitlin1976
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|Karen3
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|Kathleen78
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|Keira10
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|Keira48
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|Keira2002
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|Kelsey1970
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|Kelsey1996
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|Kenneth94
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|Kenneth96
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|Khloe2
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|Khloe14
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|Kilroy
|As in {{w|Kilroy was here}}?
|-
|Kim5
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|Kristy2007
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|Larry1994
|
|-
|Larry Ronald Hubbard
|{{w|L. Ron Hubbard}} although the L. stands for Lafayette. Was an American author and the founder of the {{w|Church of Scientology}}.
|-
|Lauren Ibsen Dolores Amit
|This is a modified version of "{{w|Lorem ipsum}} dolor sit amet," the first words of a garbled Latin text often used as a substitute for real text where the text content is irrelevant, such as in a page used to display a typeface.
|-
|Linda08
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|Lindsay2011
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|Lisa1995
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|Livemau5
|Referring to {{w|deadmau5}}
|-
|Lord Gaga
|Referring to {{w|Lady Gaga}}
|-
|Lord Mondegreen
|The term "{{w|Mondegreen}}" for a misheard word was coined in the essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen"
|-
|Louis Reasoner
|A character in the textbook {{w|Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs}}.
|-
|Madison19
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|Madison80
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|Malik2
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|Margaret5
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|Margaret11
|
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|Marie3
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|Marie10
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|Marie12
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|{{w|Marissa Mayer}}
|The President and CEO of Yahoo!
|-
|Mark92
|
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|Mark2006
|
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|Mark2007
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|Mark Zuckerberg
|{{w|Mark Zuckerberg}} is the founder of {{w|Facebook}}
|-
|Martin Van Halen
|
|-
|Matthew2006
|
|-
|Mavis Bitcoin
|{{w|Bitcoin}} is an on-line payment system. The use of the name {{w|Mavis}} was initiated by {{w|Marie Corelli|Marie Corelli's}} 1895 novel ''{{w|The Sorrows of Satan}}''. Maybe Randall gives away his opinion on the Bitcoin concept in this name? Or perhaps the fictional character from Brøderbund's ''{{w|Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing}}''?
|-
|Michaela2006
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|Michelle11
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|Minecraft Holmes
|A portmanteau of the game Minecraft and the character {{w|Mycroft Holmes}}
|-
|Misty3
|
|-
|Myspace Tom
|{{w|Myspace}} was co-founded by {{w|Tom Anderson}}.
|-
|Norton Ghost Dad
|A portmanteau of the software {{w|Norton Ghost}} and the film {{w|Ghost Dad}}.
|-
|Notorious L.H.C.
|Portmanteau of rapper {{w|The_Notorious_B.I.G.|Notorious B.I.G.}} and the {{w|LHC}}.
|-
|Padme Dorothy James
|{{w|P. D. James}} is a British Author. {{w|Padme}} is a Star Wars character. (Dorothy is actually P. D. James' middle name)
|-
|Pam06
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|Patricia03
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|Paul50
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|Paul1957
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|Player One
|As in old computer games
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|Player Two
|As in old computer games
|-
|Professor Monoculatus McToff
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|Raymond6
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|Ronald22
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|Ruth3
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|S. G. Dukat
|[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Dukat Dukat, S.G.], better known as "Gul Dukat" of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
|-
|Samuel19
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|Samuel49
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|Sarah55
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|Sarah1976
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|Sarah2005
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|Sharon91
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|Sharon99
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|Shaun6
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|Shaun46
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|Shaun1960
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|Sheena2005
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|Sherri97
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|{{w|Sidd Finch}}
|The subject of the notorious article and April Fools' Day hoax "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch"
|-
|Sierra3
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|Sierra7
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|Sierra10
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|Stacy07
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|Stacy14
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|Steven02
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|Steven50
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|Steven2002
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|Susan11
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|Susan25
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|Taylor1990
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|Taylor1998
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|Thomas2
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|Tim21
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|Tim87
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|-
|[http://bobs-burgers.wikia.com/wiki/Tina_Belcher Tina Belcher]
|A character in {{w|Bob's Burgers}}
|-
|Todd33
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|Tonya22
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|Tonya38
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|Tracy1977
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|Tricia1
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|Tricia14
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|Trinity1989
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|Virginia1961
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|Virginia2006
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|Wil
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|-
|Wric Tungstenfinger
|Referring to "Auric Goldfinger" in the James Bond Franchise. (Gold = Au, Tungsten = W)
|}

==User pictures==
:[Below are descriptions of possible (not all?) user pictures shown next to any user name as for instance on the [[#Help! We lost the picture|Help! We lost the picture]] page.]
:[The 20 user images can be directly accessed on xkcd from http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-1.png to http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-20.png.]
:[Picture of all users in number order from User-1 to User-20:
:[[File:All users.png]]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-1.png User-1 Knit Cap Girl] [From [[1350: Lorenz]].]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-2.png User-2 Man with black hair] [Could be [[Hairy]].]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-3.png User-3 Baseball]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-4.png User-4 White silhouette]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-5.png User-5 Galaxy with jets from central black hole]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-6.png User-6 White planet Saturn with ''Space kills'' written above and below the planet]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-7.png User-7 Squirrel] [xkcd has had squirrels as a theme for a long time - see [[1503: Squirrel Plan]]).
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-8.png User-8 Squirrel close up]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-9.png User-9 Beret Guy with hair] [So not [[Beret Guy]].]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-10.png User-10 Man with Gray Hat] [So neither [[Black Hat] or [[White Hat]].]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-11.png User-11 Penrose triangle] [A {{w|Penrose triangle}}]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-12.png User-12 Standing hairy man] [Could be [[Hairy]].]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-13.png User-13 eiπ≈0]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-14.png User-14 Running black haired girl] [Could be [[Megan]].]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-15.png User-15 Walking hairy man] [Could be [[Hairy]].]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-16.png User-16 Close up of male face with black hair on a gray background]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-17.png User-17 Flying girl plus more in background] [Could be [[Megan]] from [[1416: Pixels]]. See also [[353: Python]]]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-18.png User-18 Hairy stick figure from a far distance]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-19.png User-19 Hair stick figure on a skateboard] [Could be [[Megan]]. She has been seen on [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?search=megan+skateboard&go=Go&title=Special%3ASearch skateboards].]
*[http://imgs.xkcd.com/xkcloud/user-20.png User-20 Hairy stick figure fencing] [Could be [[Megan]]].

==Like buttons==
:[xkcloud has "''Like''" buttons next to each post (next to the post text above the picture), similar to those on Facebook, but with random text from this alphabetical list below where all words are [http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/want synonyms for want].]
*Covet
*Crave
*Hanker
*Thirst
*Yearn

==Post from users==
:[Some of the picture can be seen on this page: [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users|Pictures posted by users]].]
:[It will likely be impossible to transcribe all this as it is user input, and thus not Randall's own text. But at least a few examples should be given here as a reference. If anyone wish to expand beyond a few feel free to contribute.]
*Meritocracy is a pipe dream
''The Mushroom Kingdom (from Super Mario Bros.) is a monarchic meritocracy''
*The prophecy was true!
*The tea party was right about GMO bicycles
*Everything makes sense now
*Turkey drumstick Stonehenge was surprisingly compelling
*I've made a huge mistake
*Um, I think somethings wrong with my carrot...
*The rest is darkness and decay
*Howerboard to full power!
*My hobby: Freaking people out
*Is this real life?
''Reference to Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody''
*Where should I put this new cool tatto?

*Exact composition of this... thing... is yet to be determined.
*AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
*Man, that cool-ade guy really lost some weight lately.
*Lol, no I didn't jump
*In hindsight, it makes perfect sense
*Whoops I left the Lens Cap on for this one. :S
*Duck Duck Go's secret algorithm
''Duck Duck Go is a search engine which doesn't track you. Somewhat ironically, their algorithm is a bit secretive''
*This isn't where I parked my zeppelin!
*Who stepped on my pop tart?
*Big Ben is going down
*Do my feet look fat?
*I say; Nuts to that!
*I can take photo's with my teeth!
*To infinity and birdyond!
''Reference to Toystory''
*I wish I could afford the monopolar model...
*I can control the BEES! But I only make them turn right
*the saddest moment of my childhood
*hey, so, we need to talk about your sphere-packing problem.

==References==
<references/>

Talk:869: Server Attention Span

2015-02-25T22:28:00Z

141.101.98.162:

Note that REAL HTTP/1.0 conversation is started by browser: First browser say everything, then server responds and close the connection. HTTP/1.1 conversation allows the browser to make another query in the same connection, but that's only to avoid the work on reopening connection, server is supposed to interpret this new query in same way as if it would be new connection. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:15, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, proper HTTP implementations are stateless. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 19:55, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

It seems that the server is vertical at the start, but horizontal in the following panels. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 22:28, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

User talk:Sperber

2014-10-06T11:37:27Z

141.101.98.162: Created page with "Sperberg ur awesome <3 ~~~~"

Sperberg ur awesome <3 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 11:37, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

1428: Move Fast and Break Things

2014-10-01T19:20:54Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */ this is guesswork

{{comic
| number = 1428
| date = October 1, 2014
| title = Move Fast and Break Things
| image = move_fast_and_break_things.png
| titletext = I was almost fired from a job driving the hearse in funeral processions, but then the funeral home realized how much business I was creating for them.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] appears to be at a job interview, proudly stating his motto to the interviewer [[Ponytail]].

"Move fast and break things" is a saying common in science and engineering industries. In that context, it means that making mistakes is a natural part of developing ground-breaking technologies and is nothing to worry about. In particular, it was adopted by Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, (who even went as far as to say that [http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-2010-10 'breaking things' is a necessary feature of moving 'fast enough']).

While in software development it is unusual for any great harm to result from breaking things, the jobs listed in the comic are ones where there are serious consequences of mistakes. Some would result in dangerous or deadly situations, while others would just end up with broken packages etc. It's not clear what job Cueball is interviewing for; one suspects it's probably one that belongs in the 'breaking things is bad' group.

The results of moving fast and breaking things for the listed jobs might include:

*Fedex driver - Injured/killed pedestrians, collisions with other vehicles, broken & damaged packages
*Crane operator - Damage or destruction of load, dropping loads on people below, damage to crane
*Surgeon - Incorrect operations performed, removing wrong body parts, sloppy incisions
*Air Traffic Controller - Air collisions, travel disruption, chaos
*Pharmacist - Handing out wrong drugs, resulting in illness or death
*Museum Curator - Damage or destruction of items of historical significance
*Waiter - Crockery broken, wine spilt on customers, food tipped over people
*Dog Walker - Injuring the pet, or preventing it from fulfilling its bodily functions - the major reason for a walk
*Oil Tanker Captain - Collisions between vessels, or tanker and port, oil spills
*Violinist - Ruining an ensemble's performance by playing too fast (with a higher tempo than fellow musicians), maybe even breaking the strings of the instrument
*Mars Rover Driver - Breaking an incredibly important vehicle, preventing further exploration, and ruining an extremely expensive mission
*Massage Therapist - Injuring the client, breaking bones.

The title text posits a morbid scenario where Cueball keeps running over funeral attendees, generating the need for more funerals.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball sits in a chair in a job interview with Ponytail]
:Cueball: My motto is "Move fast and break things."
:[Below the picture follows a list ]
:'''Jobs I've been'''
:'''fired from'''
:Fedex driver
:Crane operator
:Surgeon
:Air Traffic Controller
:Pharmacist
:Museum Curator
:Waiter
:Dog Walker
:Oil Tanker Captain
:Violinist
:Mars Rover Driver
:Massage Therapist
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

261: Regarding Mussolini

2014-08-29T09:50:42Z

141.101.98.162: /* Explanation */ Please note that at the time of the Italian invasion of Egypt the opposing forces consisted of British and Commonwealth forces - other allies had either been forced out of the war or had not yet joined it.

{{comic
| number = 261
| date = May 14, 2007
| title = Regarding Mussolini
| image = regarding mussolini.png
| titletext = Constantly stopping these briefings halfway through is becoming a pain.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Godwin's Law}} states that all debates on the Internet, given enough time, will devolve into comparisons to Hitler or the Nazis. A common expansion on this law dictates that, when such a comparison is brought up, the debate immediately ends and the person who made the reference is declared the loser.

The scene in the comic shows generals of the British and Commonwealth forces discussing about {{w|Benito Mussolini}}'s invasion of Egypt. Mussolini and Hitler were each commanders of {{w|Axis powers}} during {{w|World War II}}, so comparisons between them are almost certain to arise.

As the title text suggests, it would have been detrimental to the war effort if Godwin's Law had been enforced during those meetings.

The joke is that Mussolini did share some qualities with Hitler; the comparison is actually valid and Godwin's Law should not apply.

==Transcript==
:[Three people are standing around a map. One of them is pushing something with a stick.]
:[A messenger arrives.]
:Messenger: General, Italian forces have entered Egypt.
:General: As I expected. This is a foolish move by Mussolini, but like Hitler he will no doubt force his commanders to—
:Messenger: Hey. Godwin's Law.
:General: Dammit.
:General: You know, this may become a problem.

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

221: Random Number

2014-08-28T13:37:00Z

141.101.98.162: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 221
| date = February 9, 2007
| title = Random Number
| image = random_number.png
| titletext = <nowiki>RFC 1149.5</nowiki> specifies 4 as the standard IEEE-vetted random number.
}}
==Explanation==
The comic specifies a function (in a {{w|C (programming language)|C-like}} syntax), which should return a random number. Most functions of this form are random number ''generators'', implying that they return on subsequent calls ''different'' numbers. But the programmer has instead created a function that just returns always the same ''random'' number; random, because it was chosen by rolling a die as the comment documented. This function is essentially worthless, as it could simply be replaced by a "4" wherever it is used. And in fact, most modern compilers would do this automatically.

The {{w|IEEE}} is the organization responsible for maintaining a number of computer standards. An RFC, or {{w|Request for Comments}}, is a formal document put out to computing experts by {{w|IETF}} in the hopes of becoming a future standard. However, RFC 1149 was an {{w|April Fools' Day Request for Comments|April Fools' joke}}, defining how carrier pigeons can be used to transmit Internet packets. The <nowiki>RFC 1149.5</nowiki> simply does not exist.

==Transcript==
int getRandomNumber()
{
return 4; // chosen by fair dice roll.
// guaranteed to be random.
}

==Trivia==
The comic also has a philosophical bent, by showcasing the limits of knowledge for an external observer. Someone who is calling this function, but unable to see its source code, will never be able to tell with 100% confidence whether the function is flawed. Even if he runs the function 10 times, and it always returns 4, there is always the possibility that it could be a fluke. As he runs the function more and more times, he can develop more confidence in the theory that the function is faulty. But unless he breaks the barrier and examines the source code itself, she will never be able to declare the function to be faulty with 100% confidence.

Despite the extreme example given, this is actually a practical problem which likely exists in the real world. If the function was more sophisticated but still had a 5% bias towards one number under certain circumstances, this would be extremely hard to notice & prove. More likely, the API users would continue to believe that the RNG is working as intended, without realizing the flaw inherent in it; anyone who grumbles about seeing 4 very frequently may even be accused of not understanding the non-uniform nature of randomness. Given the extremely large number of APIs & libraries present, and that not all of them are fully examined & understood by 3rd party experts, such flaws are likely present in our world as well. These flaws may even have been purposely introduced by a malicious agent or entity seeking to exploit them.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

2014-08-06T12:08:41Z

141.101.98.162: What jokes on quantum superposition?

This is another one of Randall's knocks on pseudoscience... I've seen things like this before, where the guy puts 1000's of volts between a piece of tinfoil and a wire and is amazed that the thing (weighing a few grams) flies around. I'd search for it for reference but it's late here and I'm tired [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.209|173.245.54.209]] 04:41, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Here is the article referenced: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20140006052.pdf [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.83|199.27.128.83]] 05:24, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

20 kW is probably not from any reference, but just to summarize the history of claims in a vivid manner. The news surge was predicated about the prestige of the NASA organization attaching to any tiny lab under the aegis even though the paper was not in a peer-reviewed top journal but the very last presentation made at a multi-day conference. The NASA abstract differs wildly from the abstract of the same-date paper (or draft). http://rghost.net/57230791 \\ Other coverage from the skeptical side goes a bit into the history of similar microwaves-in-a-funny-shaped-can claims, where the reported thrust seems to diminish as the sensitivity of the measurement. http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2014/08/04/impossible-thruster-probably-impossible/ http://blogs.scienceforums.net/swansont/archives/15155 https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/WfFtJ8bYVya https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/C7vx2G85kr4 And finally may I close with a reference to Tooth-Fairy-(pseudo)science. http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.118|199.27.128.118]] 05:41, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

What I'm missing is any reference to NASA being the third party to conduct this experiment and the third to witness these results. So while this looks an awful lot like Tooth-Fairy-science, it still raises the question of what the hell is going on there? Usually these pseudo-science experiments fail on reproduction or are only reproduced by non-scientists. - Nine [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.59|141.101.104.59]] 06:46, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

More than a decade ago a few weird Italian guys already demostrated more than a twitch. Italian Army officials ("Esercito") were not that impressed. Their bizarre website http://Www.asps.it mostly dedicated to pseudo-religious stuff and fighting trolls, repeatedly states that technical details won't be shared until a patent is definitely granted. - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.182|108.162.229.182]] 06:58, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

== Fancy way of building an (ordinary) photon drive ==

A bit of context:

The idea of using virtual particles/quantum foam as your reaction mass has been around for a while. This turns out to just be an overly-complicated way of building a photon drive. If you accelerate a charge (real or virtual), it'll spit out photons. If you interact with charged virtual particles in a way that results in real thrust (by accelerating them), the photons you get out are real photons, and you pay for them in the usual manner (they cost you energy).

If you're building a photon drive, a heating element and a mirror work just as well.

As for the anomalous thrust in the experiments, there are a huge number of ways that you can get that from an experiment that isn't set up sufficiently carefully. The fact that two different experiments got vastly different measurements is a very big hint that something was flawed with at least one of them (possibly both).

Among other things, generating intense microwaves involves large electric currents. If any part of your apparatus is made of metal (and lots of this was), ordinary EM forces produce quite a few contaminating effects that are a royal pain to account for, especially if you're trying to measure an effect much weaker than they are. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.221|108.162.246.221]] 09:26, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't like how the sciencey posts use a lot of scientific terms without explaining them. I thought the purpose of this site was to make xkcd accessible for all people, science laymen included, but sometimes these explanations obfuscate more than they help. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.188|141.101.99.188]] 10:46, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't see any "joke on quantum superposition". Either explain what the jokes are or remove that claim? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 12:08, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1382: Rocket Packs

2014-06-17T12:58:02Z

141.101.98.162:

I think long fall boots (from Portal) would probably help with this.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.65|173.245.56.65]] 04:34, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
:-Not so much, they're designed for a completely different purpose. That's like expecting a kevlar vest to protect you against a sword. (They would, however, help if you ran out of fuel in midair.) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.83|173.245.55.83]] 12:53, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
::A kevlar vest would protect you from a sword, if you're stabbed or hit in the chest.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.198|173.245.52.198]] 19:37, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
I was thinking a chair design with the legs pulled out in front might help out. {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.174}}

Wear the jet pack on your chest, avoid calf-burn. But don't mention the genitals. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.61|141.101.104.61]] 05:13, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Is it really so hard to invent calf shields? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.30|108.162.221.30]] 07:53, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Where is the problem? just reverse front and rear :=)
http://www.thefind.com/apparel/info-batwing-chaps
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.199|108.162.254.199]] 10:10, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

The logic and humor of this comic could be extended to the notion of "free" medical care, in a world where people are inclined to try things like rocket packs. {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.73}}

Most practical rockets have the thrust in line with the center of gravity. A jetpack like the one depicted will tend to nose over unless the user sticks his lower legs up into the exhaust to deflect it. Not a great way to travel. Real jetpacks have the nozzles either side to get around this problem. They still have the difficulty of being unable to glide if the engine cuts. If this happens too low to use a parachute, that will spoil the user's day. [[User:Jim E|Jim E]] ([[User talk:Jim E|talk]]) 16:03, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Why do people keep talking about running out of fuel in midair? When was the last time you ran out of fuel in your car, in between gas stations? Sure, the consequences aren't quite as catastrophic, but my point is that usually people refill their tanks before they run out...[[User:Diszy|Diszy]] ([[User talk:Diszy|talk]]) 21:30, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
:Running out of fuel isn't the only reason your car might stall or stop in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes the engine overheats and stops or the accelerator just stops working for no (apparent) reason. If something similar happens to your jetpack when you are 30m in the air, you can expect a few medical bills, if not a visit to your neighborhood mortician. Any good jetpack should come equipped with emergency boosters, but how effective they may be at low heights is still an issue. {{unsigned ip|103.22.201.239}}

Real life rocket packs have flight times as short as 30 seconds in some cases, so running out if fuel and falling to the ground is a very real concern. [[User:Jim E|Jim E]] ([[User talk:Jim E|talk]]) 22:54, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

I think the title text may also refer to how free health care sometimes sounds just as far-fetched in the US as practical jetpacks becoming commonplace. It was something that always almost came up when people were comparing countries on the Internet these last few years. Especially when Canadians compared their country to the States... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 12:58, 17 June 2014 (UTC)