explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2681: Archimedes Principle

2022-10-30T19:14:07Z

141.101.99.22:

I started an explanation, but I can't really figure out what Archimedes' "plan" is. I guess it has something to do with swapping out the fake crown with the king's real gold crown. Heist movies and TV shows always confuse me (I liked "Leverage" for the characters, but could never understand the plans). [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:12, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
:Under the guise of demonstrating the displacement principle (the buoyancy effect has no real part in this, given the non-floating nature of any crown... I think the focus in the explanation should just be upon the displaced volume of liquid which traditionally would quantify the volume of an object of known weight and a density to be tested to ensure it is that of the purported substance) he will dunk the real crown in the water. Then ''either'':
:* extract the fake crown, now 'proven true', satisfying everyone but leaving him the really-true crown, or,
:* extract the fake crown, possibly fudging the interpretation (how much water sloshes out) to make it ''seem'' like a fake crown went in (and the fake that came out can now be destructively examined to confirm this, now having just cause to utterly ruin the craftwork in the process, and framing the original artisan for fraud), again leaving him with the crown he was given for testing.
:If the original crown was itself already fake then it might not be worth it (or have to lean towards the latter outcome with a bit of extra care not to 'upgrade' the fake) but that's probably covered by the typical Batman Gambit of a typical heist movie characterm [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.49|172.70.85.49]] 00:37, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
::The first of the two options makes way more sense. I don't like this plan at all though. How do you hide a colored shiny thing in a bucket of transparent water?!? I feel like we're missing something obvious. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.80|172.69.34.80]] 01:53, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
::Megan says "hidden IN the bottom" , so I think there is some kind of false floor/double bottom at play here; allowing the fake crown to be hidden from view and allowing for a crown-swap in the middle of the demonstration. [[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]] ([[User talk:Flekkie|talk]]) 02:02, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
::Nobody said that it was clear water. Pond water could be dirty or murky enough that the scam would work without the need of a false-bottomed bucket. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 04:24, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
:According to legend, Archimedes is given the king's crown in order to test for its purity without breaking it; he suspects that the goldsmith he hired replaced most of the gold with silver and kept the excess to himself. Archimedes uses his displacement principle to measure the volume (figuring the principle out in his "Eureka" moment) and weighs the crown to determine its density; his results imply that the crown is in fact fake.
:Here it's implied that the real crown is actually gold, and Archimedes is taking advantage of the king's paranoia; he's likely planning to switch it out, perform his experiment on the fake crown, and keep the real gold to himself. --[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 03:50, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
::Which could indicate that the successful execution of Archimedes' plan is what leads to the legend as we have it today.[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 05:40, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
:::Yes agreed. The King was paranoid and his crown made of gold. And the reason the legend says he proved the crown to be false, is that he did this heist to steal the real gold crown. So for a bit of gold and some silver he gained the same volume of gold, that could be either melted or sold to a secret bitter --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:04, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
::The buoyancy does matter, the buoyant force is still there regardless of whether it is greater than the weight of the crown or not. If you place a crown weighing one pound and a one-pound bar of gold on a scale, they will balance in the air, but in the water if the crown is part silver the buoyant force on it will be greater and the gold bar will show as being heavier. In ancient Greece without precision measuring glassware, this would be much easier to do than measuring a small difference in the displacement if only a small part of the crown was replaced with silver. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.54|172.70.91.54]] 00:33, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

:xkcd does Archimedes's Heureka, Gotlib does Newton's apple...any more examples of (not necessary comic medium) parodies of famous science history anecdotes? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.7|172.70.242.7]] 06:27, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

Why is the image on here so blurry? I'd edit it, but I'm not sure how to do so myself. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.163|108.162.241.163]] 18:18, 30 October 2022 (UTC)
:Ironically, I think it's a result of the _2x image being downloaded but being displayed at 'low'-res size (theusaf has channged the procedure, recently, to grab the bigger image but then put in the directive to show at the smaller dimensions).
:Comparing this page on one tab and the two "source" images on other tabs, at least in my browser (if it's not how the wikimedia gets served - I haven't dug deeper into that just yet) it seems to downscale slightly less nicely than the 'preshrunk' standard version.
:But that may be as much my eyes/screen. I suppose I should screengrab and examine ''those'' pixels in a further zoom level to try to get a definitive idea of where the 'problem' lies.
:That said, I don't find it notably detrimental... Didn't really think there was a problem until I saw your comment and did the above comparison for myself. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.22|141.101.99.22]] 19:14, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

2304: Preprint

2022-10-17T08:14:47Z

141.101.99.22: /* Explanation */ Further fixed (Oxford Commas are more trouble than they are worth, don't bother with them.

{{comic
| number = 2304
| date = May 8, 2020
| title = Preprint
| image = preprint.png
| titletext = DOWNSIDES: Adobe people may periodically email your newsroom to ask you to call it an 'Adobe® PDF document,' but they'll reverse course once they learn how sarcastically you can pronounce the registered trademark symbol.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about how media reports non-{{w|peer-review}}ed research papers. The newscaster depicted is attempting to report breaking news based on information in a study; however, the study in question has not been formally published. This leads to uncertainty on the part of either the newscaster, [[Blondie]], or her scriptwriters as they try to determine how to refer to this study, represented here by alternative introduction lines being scribbled out.

[[Randall]] suggests that, instead of explaining that the paper was in {{w|preprint}}, or unpublished or submitted to a preprint server and not peer-reviewed, the newscaster could simply say it was a {{w|PDF}}. PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format for documents developed by Adobe to be used independent of application software, hardware and operating systems.
Randall proceeds to lists several benefits of using "PDF":
* The use of terms such as "preprint" makes statement about its publication status, which might be based on inaccurate information or even be in the process of changing as the news goes out; in contrast, proclaiming it to be a PDF document is an unambiguously factual statement. Additionally, "preprint”, "peer review" and related terminology are not familiar to most people who are not academics.
* Referring to the PDF document directly also prevents individuals from making assumptions that the one responsible knows and has verified what they're doing - or, in contrast, that the information is automatically false based on the grounds that it hasn't yet been officially published.
* The comic finishes with a jab at PDF itself, proclaiming that no ordinary person would ''voluntarily'' choose a PDF file as their medium of communication. Ordinary people use the default file format of whatever word processor or text editor they use, but PDF files are not very convenient to edit, so they're generally only used for final versions of documents that are ready to print or distribute, following a dedicated export or conversion process.
** This is similar to Randall's declaration in the comic [[1301: File Extensions]] that ".pdf" is the second-most-trustworthy file extension. As it happens, he says that the ''most'' trustworthy file extension is ".tex", so perhaps the news anchor could specify that the PDF was "compiled from {{w|LaTeX}}" (if this is true) to imply additional legitimacy.

The title text makes fun of what is incorrectly believed to be the official name of PDF; it is now an open international standard (ISO 32000-1), and the only PDF files that are "Adobe Acrobat files" or "Adobe PDF" files are those created using Adobe Systems' software. Further, Adobe does not use the ® designation in conjunction with PDF. (See [https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/documents/Adobe_Trademark_Guidelines_11012014.pdf Adobe Trademark Guidelines, 1 Nov. 2014]) Adobe trademark guidelines were also made fun of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/108/ here].

Since so many applications can create and even edit PDF files, implying a connection with Adobe every time someone talks about one is preposterous, and one could sarcastically pronounce the registered trademark symbol to show contempt for the fact that it is a registered trademark.

This comic was possibly produced in response to the preprint study [https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.20062463v2 "COVID-19 Antibody Seroprevalence in Santa Clara County, California"], Bendavid et al, which was posted online in mid-April 2020 before peer review. The authors of the paper went on a media blitz immediately after posting it, appearing on major cable news networks and writing editorials in major publications, claiming that their results show that COVID-19 is not nearly as bad as thought and that most people are already immune to it. Other scientists have pointed out that, if the very high false-positive rate of the test used and the sample bias of their methodology (testing only people who self-report as sick) are properly considered in the analysis, the data collected is such poor quality as to be meaningless, with properly applied error bars on the number of actual cases in the general population extending below 0. Nonetheless, many less-scientifically-literate politicians, media figures, and protest groups continue to use the much-criticized study as proof that COVID-19 should not be considered an emergency, and that quarantine measures should be cancelled. As of May 11 2020, the study has still not passed peer review, nor undergone any revisions since the first posting.

==Transcript==
:[Blondie as a newscaster is sitting at a desk. To the right is a screen with text, the bottom word is a thin line making the letters white. Just above her head is what she says as her opening line for her news story. But above this text, is more text which have been grayed out and scribbled over. This are three other alternative opening lines which she did not use, indicating revisions to her script.]
:Blondie [gray and scribbled out]: According to a new preprint…
:Blondie [gray and scribbled out]: …An unpublished study…
:Blondie [gray and scribbled out]: According to a new paper uploaded to a preprint server but which has not undergone peer review…
:Blondie: According to a new PDF…

:Inset graphic: Breaking ''news''

:[Beneath the panel is a long caption consisting of an underlined headline with three bulleted points beneath it:]
::Benefits of just saying "a PDF":
:* Avoids implications about publication status
:* Immediately raises questions about author(s)
:* Still implies "this document was probably prepared by a professional, because no normal human trying to communicate in 2020 would choose this ridiculous format."

==Trivia==
*This comic made Blondie the character that has most often presented a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], as this became her ninth appearance in this role.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]

User:ZitaPortus3

2022-10-07T10:30:27Z

141.101.99.22: Undo revision 296168 by ZitaPortus3 (talk) Looks like linkspam!

Talk:Knit Cap

2022-08-16T20:15:32Z

141.101.99.22: /* Because there's confusion... */ new section

==Invisible links==
Aa why are the two links on the bottom still invisible?! I have used '|' to add text to represent them; please help. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 13:25, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
:Wait nevermind fixed it [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 13:25, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

== Because there's confusion... ==

...which has now confused me. For the record, I've never personally seen Knit Cap (Girl) as anything other than a girl(/woman), though of course there are other knit-hatted characters who may be one or the other gender (or maybe either?), as discussed in the main page.

So I reacted strongly to one page-edit (Lorenz) reclassifying her as him - in one place only - and reverted and augmented the revert to reinforce my opinion. Somehow, despite being a long time reader, I seem to have missed this controversy and been blissfully happy to assume KCG is the (sometimes) specifically nerdy character who is unimpared in this role by being clearly enough female. Or so I thought. I can't seem to unsee this, but I now foresee others arriving who have never seen them as anything other than male, for whatever reason. But not wishing to revert my own revert (both because I see no need and because it's bad practice to edit-war with oneself) I thought I'd make a note here as to my recent intervention, and let those of the community that wish to work out (afresh) where the matter's solution lies. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.22|141.101.99.22]] 20:15, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

2579: Tractor Beam

2022-02-10T09:47:21Z

141.101.99.22: /* Explanation */ Correction / Rephrasing / Not because it is an improper plural form, but because it should be singular.

{{comic
| number = 2579
| date = February 9, 2022
| title = Tractor Beam
| image = tractor_beam.png
| titletext = Did you base the saucer shape on pop culture depictions of aliens, or was that stuff based on your ships? Does the rotational symmetry help with ... hey, where are you going?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN ANNOYING CUEBALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Cueball is being pulled into a spaceship by a beam of light, called a {{w|tractor beam}} in the title. This is a {{tvtropes|AlienAbduction|common trope}} in science fiction, and usually pretty scary for the person involved. However, while Cueball is being pulled up, he asks a series of questions about the beam, about the force on the ship, and about the ship itself. The punch line is the caption - the aliens, frustrated by Cueball's questioning, release him and move on, to presumably find a different human to abduct and study. Many people have reported {{w|Alien abduction|being abducted by aliens}} in real life, though none of these have been confirmed.

The first three questions deal with the properties of the beam – how it can be controlled to pull only him (and his clothes), not anything else. He also wonders whether the beam would still continue to lift his shoes if he took them off midway. Perhaps his apparel is only rising with him because it normally stays attached to him, perhaps it is similarly levitated with equal force or impulse. Theoretically, it could only lift his clothing, with enough force to hoist him along with it, though if this was done with insufficient finesse, it could cause damage to the clothing or the person. (One would be tempted to call this a {{tvtropes|NegativeSpaceWedgie|Space Wedgie}}.) It is highly unlikely that this type of tractor beam could be used on Cueball without him realizing it, which would likely lead to him asking how the tractor beam lifted the clothes and not him.

Next, Cueball asks if his weight is pulling the ship downward. This would be the case, for example, if he were hoisted upwards by a rope instead of the beam, as equal but opposite forces act against each other, but not if the beam alters the nature of his surroundings such as with {{w|The First Men in the Moon|Cavorite}} or another means of {{w|gravitational shielding}} or alteration.

Then he asks what will happen if a bat flies through the beam. Things that could happen include the beam breaking (and him falling downward) due to the projected effect being interrupted, the bat being pulled up ahead of him as it enters the effective volume of the levitating beam or else nothing at all as it is outside the actual volumetric segment of the beam that is more than ambient light-effects. It may presumably have a relationship with the same focal effect as that which avoids the ground upon which he previously stood being drawn upwards.

As the ship leaves, Cueball continues asking questions, as shown in the title text.

Whether Cueball actually arrived onboard the ship is uncertain. If he started badgering the aliens with questions during the lift and then (as stated) was immediately set down again then he did not. Either way, they got fed up and decided to return him to the ground instead of sharing their knowledge, or just because they preferred someone less talkative. They may prefer or expect more scared, overawed, or surprised abductees but, by whatever alien criteria they judge their catches, it seems he isn't what they want.

This was the third comic in less than three weeks featuring aliens using this type of flying saucer type spaceship. The other two came two comics in a row just 6 and 7 comics before this one, [[2572: Alien Observers]] and [[2573: Alien Mission]]

==Transcript==
:[A flying saucer type spacecraft hangs in the air above a flat area with scattered rocks and two hills in the background. A tractor beam emerges beneath it from a small square area on the bottom side. This goes down to the ground a bit right of the saucer, where it forms an ellipsis on the ground (presumably a circle if seen from the saucer. Cueball hangs suspended in the middle of the beam a bit closer to the ground than the saucer. His arms are held out to either side and his legs are bend behind him. He is looking up at the saucer while talking.]
:Cueball: Does this beam only lift me? How do you avoid pulling up dirt and leaves and stuff? If I kick off my shoes, will they fall?
:Cueball: Is my weight pulling your ship downward? What will happen if a bat flies through the beam?
:Cueball: Hey, why does your ship have those blinky lights? Are they...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Moments later, the aliens set me back down and left.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Category:Apatosaurus

2022-01-17T14:32:22Z

141.101.99.22: ...and talking of plurals. Didn't see this the first time.;)

*The {{w|Apatosaurus}} appears in a few comics, sometimes because of a reference to the discontinuation of the term {{w|Brontosaurus}}.
**This term then got reviewed in 2015, but all [[Randall]]'s comics on this subject are from long before that.

{{navbox-characters}}

[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Characters]]

Category:Apatosaurus

2022-01-17T14:31:07Z

141.101.99.22: Fixed link (had apostrophe in link-bit) and simplified (an apostrophe-s directly outside the markup doesn't act upon it like a plural-s, it seems, but doesn't really matter).

*The {{w|Apatosaurus}} appears in a few comics, sometimes because of a reference to the discontinuation of the term {{w|Brontosaurus}}.
**This term then got reviewed in 2015, but all [[Randall]]'s comic on this subject are from long before that.

{{navbox-characters}}

[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Characters]]

2555: Notifications

2021-12-17T13:27:02Z

141.101.99.22: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2555
| date = December 15, 2021
| title = Notifications
| image = notifications.png
| titletext = It's 10:34 PM for this user. They really need to get going, they have a thing early tomorrow. Are you sure you want to notify?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT that sends you notifications anyway- This comment has changing turned off. It will see your edits when it is back. '''Change anyway?''' Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

There's a function in {{w|Slack (software)|Slack}} and other messaging software that allows you to turn notifications off while you're offline or away (or just don't want to be distracted). There's also a function to override this and notify the user anyway. Such a function would be desirable in real life, as illustrated here.

[[White Hat]] is telling [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] about "another thing that annoys [him] about people," which means that either the strip begins after he has already vented a long series of gripes, or he is prone to spontaneously airing one of his many grievances ''non sequitur''. (Both of those traits could be something that annoys Cueball about people.) [[Cueball]] responds by "turning off his notifications" from White Hat. White Hat immediately falls silent, sparing Megan and Cueball from further boring "conversation". Maybe Cueball has picked up the [[156: Commented|"Commented" trick]], White Hat is thrown off by the unusual statement, or it could be that he just naively takes Cueball at his word. Either way, now that he "knows" that he will not receive any further immediate engagement from Cueball, he thus gives up, for the time being, talking at Megan and Cueball about his annoyance(s). If he believes the premise, he might recite the rest of his conversation as soon as Cueball supposedly turns notifications back on. His behavior is reminiscent of a user who is logged into a chat server but is "away from keyboard" and totally disengaged.

Megan starts to ask Cueball what he's doing, but Cueball shushes her to let it 'keep working' -- presumably, if Megan speaks up, she might alert White Hat that Cueball is still listening and draw him back into conversation.

In the title text, this is taken even further by combining this with a standard real-life reason (or excuse) to leave a social situation: that the person has to leave because it is getting late. It is often used when someone really has a thing early the next day and wants to get home early to get enough sleep to be prepared for the "thing", but the vagueness of the ''thing'' suggests that they just want to get out of uncomfortable company or situations.

The specific time, 10:34 pm, informs the messenger (who could be anywhere) of the user's time zone, and tells the one that wishes to notify that it is past normal bed time in the user's time zone. And this is why the program would normally ask if they still really wish to notify them, since they would risk waking the recipient up. This could cause annoyance if the message is not urgent and important. In this case, however, it is clear he is awake and wants to leave the social situation, supposedly because of a ''thing'' he has the next day. In this situation, it is funny because apparently it's Cueball talking about himself in the third person to another person who knows they are in the same time zone, and unless all of the characters are out really late it's unlikely that it's actually that late at night in "Cueball's time zone" at the moment.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[White Hat, Megan and Cueball are standing next to each other. White Hat is separated from the other two figures by a small margin.]
:White Hat: And another thing that annoys me about people is...
:Cueball: ''This user has notifications turned off.''

:[The camera zooms in on Megan and Cueball. Megan turns to look at Cueball.]
:Cueball: ''They will see your messages when they're back.''
:Cueball: '''''Notify anyway?'''''

:[The camera zooms outward to show White Hat. Megan turned back to look at White Hat. All three figures are silently standing.]

:[Megan turns to look at Cueball again.]
:Megan: What are you--
:Cueball: ''Shhh- It's working.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

2549: Edge Cake

2021-12-09T15:12:46Z

141.101.99.22: Undo revision 222309 by 256 256.256.256 (talk) Maybe, but then again maybe not.

{{comic
| number = 2549
| date = December 1, 2021
| title = Edge Cake
| image = edge_cake.png
| titletext = Every time IERS adds or removes a leap second, they send me a birthday cake out of superstition.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by FRINGE FRUITCAKE – Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Megan]]—possibly an {{w|IERS}} (International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems) agent—wishes Emily, represented as [[Hairbun]], Happy Birthday. This prompts a confused [[Cueball]] to ask if her birthday was sometime last month. Emily explains that she was born over the North Pole in a plane, meaning that she was born in every timezone at once. Technically though this is false, as there are some timezones (such as {{w|Nepal Standard Time|UTC+5:45}}) that are not represented at the north pole. Except for the one hour before it's midnight at the International Date Line, the date in eastern time zones is one day ahead of western time zones, so Emily would have been born on two days at once.

She also says that it was February 29th (presumably it was also February 28 or March 1 in some time zones). February 29th only happens at most once every four years in the Gregorian calendar, adding to the confusion - people born on February 29th often celebrate their non-leap-year birthdays on arbitrary days (or {{w|The_Pirates_of_Penzance#Synopsis|not at all}}). Normally {{w|Birth aboard aircraft and ships|one could simply use the time zone of the city the airplane took off from}}, but the airline company was changing ownership from one country to another at the time, so this option has apparently been ruled out. This is not terribly logical however, since contracts transferring ownership usually specify an exact time (commonly one minute before or after midnight in a specific time zone to avoid confusion on which day midnight is in) to come into effect. Regardless of which time zone(s) she was in when she was born this is an absolute time and if she was born before it she would have been born in an aircraft of the first country and if after it in an aircraft of the second country. Alternately, the time zone of the city the aircraft took off from doesn't change even if nationality of the plane changes in midair, so that should have still been an option.

The punchline is that rather than try to identify the correct birthday for Emily, the {{w|BIPM}} has decided to let her have birthdays whenever she wants. This doesn't make much sense, however. As noted above even if she was born in every time zone at once it could only have been on one of two days (February 29th, plus either February 28th or March 1st). Since it is common for people born on February 29th to celebrate on February 28th in non-leap years, it would have been trivial to pick the non-leap day present in some of the time zones (either February 28th or March 1st) and declare it Emily's birthday.

In real life researchers in the Arctic at or near the North Pole use {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} as the [http://www.thoughtco.com/the-north-pole-1435098 local time standard] by convention, to avoid this exact problem. Thus it could have been said that Emily was born on the date that it was at that time in UTC. Furthermore, it is extremely unlikely that she would have been born at the exact instant the plane was over the north pole, indeed, it is unlikely that the plane even traveled over the exact pole, as opposed to a few miles or even feet to either side of it. With modern positioning equipment such as GPS it should have been possible to determine which time zone the plane was in when she was born. Even in the impossibly unlikely event that she was directly above the pole at the instant of her birth, at jetliner speeds the plane was travelling about ten miles per minute, so a reasonable delay of even seconds in declaring "time of birth" would have placed the plane and her clearly in one time zone.

Both the comic title and Cueball's final line are puns on "{{w|edge case}}", an engineering term referring to situations or conditions that are unusual in a way likely to cause problems unless specifically accounted for. Edge pieces are generally only important with sheet goods (brownies sheet cakes, etc), which are typically cut into pieces creating a difference between pieces originating on the edge and pieces originating from the center. Since the sides of a cake are often frosted, an edge piece has two faces covered in frosting and a corner piece has three, while a center piece only has one. Depending upon your relative preferences between the surface (often icing over marzipan) and core body of the cake (which can be fruitcake, or some variety of spongecake, etc, but not actually obvious which until the cake is cut), it being an edge-faced slice can be considered a bonus. Cueball certainly seems to appreciate this.

The title text states that the {{w|IERS}} sends Emily a cake every time they add or remove a leap second, out of superstition (perhaps Megan is delivering that cake). The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is in charge of global time standards. It occasionally adds one leap-second to {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} to adjust for changes in the rotation speed of the Earth.

The comic might also be a modern version of the ''{{w|SS Warrimoo}}'', a passenger liner that reportedly crossed the international date line at the equator on midnight Dec. 31, 1899. This would have placed her bow in the Southern Hemisphere in summer on 1 January 1900, her stern in the Northern Hemisphere in winter on 31 December 1899. She would therefore have been simultaneously in two different seasons (winter and summer), in two different hemispheres, on two different days, in two different months, in two different years, in two different decades, {{w|Century#Start_and_end_of_centuries|possibly}} in two different centuries.

==Trivia==
Hairbun was last named "Emily" in [[788: The Carriage]]. More specifically, that version of Hairbun represented {{w|Emily Dickinson}}, a real, historical person who had no such issues regarding her birthday.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Megan is walking towards Cueball and Emily (who resembles Hairbun), holding a cake.]
:Megan: Happy birthday, Emily!
:Cueball: Wait, wasn't that last month? When's your birthday, anyways?
:Emily: It's complicated.

:[A diagram of a flight path over the North Pole, with meridian lines radiating out from the center. Emily's dialogue appears above the diagram, but she herself does not appear in this panel.]
:Emily: My mom went into labor on an arctic international flight that diverted directly over the North Pole.
:Emily: I was born in every time zone at once.

:[With Megan standing behind her, Emily holds out a plate of cake to Cueball.]
:Emily: It was also February 29th, and the airline was just changing ownership between countries.
:Emily: The International Bureau of Weights and Measures finally issued a declaration that it's my birthday whenever I want.
:Emily: Cake?
:Cueball: Nice, it's all edge pieces.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:1544: Margaret

2015-06-29T17:57:58Z

141.101.99.22:

== Margaret - throwaway name? ==
I've noticed quite a few similarities between Margaret and "Danish" - i.e. the thick hair, the sadistic attitude... They the same person, or was Margaret just a throwaway name used for the purposes of satirizing Blume's novels? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.22|141.101.99.22]] 17:57, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

==Mister God, This Is Anna==
I though it was Anna, not Margaret... but it turns out that {{w|Mister God, This Is Anna}} is a different book... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 13:13, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

== Judy Blume ==
The text in the comic comprises titles of Judy Blume's novels:
* Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
* Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
* Then Again, Maybe I Won't
* The Pain and the Great One

== the the ==
Why the double "the the" in the Title text?
Maybe it's supposed to be "thee"?
: Look out! It's an anacoluthon! [[User:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|ImVeryAngryItsNotButter]] ([[User talk:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|talk]]) 15:30, 29 June 2015 (UTC)
: Maybe it's a typo? ;) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.116|173.245.51.116]] 12:05, 29 June 2015 (UTC)
::Maybe it's supposed to be 'the The Great One' [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.122|108.162.219.122]] 14:55, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

== Another take on a rarely-used joke ==

I've seen this threat/insult God line used before, but rarely, and never in this manner.

In one episode of the sitcom One Foot In The Grave, the grumpy old man protagonist is incapacitated. Upon waking up in hospital he finds a bearded patient in a white gown looking down upon him, and for a few seconds believes himself to be dead. He speaks three lines: 'Oh, it's you.' Then in a much angrier tone 'I've been waiting to see you for a very long time.' He then proceeds to grab the patient around the neck and attempt to throttle him while screaming in anger about every misfortune and annoyance in life.

One episode of The Outer Limits features a very old man who has spent his entire life fighting to survive - with such determination and success that he almost overturns the supernatural structure of nature, which should prohibit immortality. At episode's end he finally loses, having resorted to every trick fair and foul in his quest to live another day. In the final shot a mysterious force approaches to collect his soul - and the ghost of the man is seen, readying himself for a fight as he speaks the final line at the oncoming form: "I'm ready for you. I hope you're ready for me."

The final (non-revival) episode of Red Dwarf ends with Death himself coming to collect the supreme coward Rimmer, incarnate as the traditional black-robed figure with a scythe. Rimmer knees him in the groin mid-sentence and flees.

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.185|141.101.98.185]] 15:31, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

== hot ==
Margaret is kinda hot.
Is it normal to be sexually attracted to an xkcd character ?

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 14:09, 29 June 2015 (UTC) See also title text of comic [[1354: Heartbleed Explanation]]

== transformers ==
This is almost an exact quote from the end of transformers age of extinction... Optimus prime rhetorically asks his makers of they are scared, then follows with you should be because I'm coming for you

== stirring the pot ==
Ooh, ooh, let's say that the "second Megan" in [[1496: Art Project]] was this [[Margaret]] girl! I'm sure everyone can agree to that!!! [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 15:24, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

== Cut it out ==
Cut out the excessive use of topic headlines.
On point, the description correlating to an action movie trailer is hard to read, lacks focus, and includes a synopsis of the comic. The synopsis should not remain as that's what the transcript is for. Also, the part describing the book titles should say that it was likely inspiration for the Title Text, not the comic. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.154|173.245.48.154]] 17:32, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1537: Types

2015-06-12T12:14:47Z

141.101.99.22:

Relevant: WAT talk https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

Are (6) and (7) about completing sequences?

If the sequence was [1, 2, 3, ?] we would expect the ? to be a placeholder for 4. So [1, 2, 3]+2 is wrong := FALSE. But [1, 2, 3]+4 is correct := TRUE.

411: Techno

2015-06-05T13:27:22Z

141.101.99.22: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 411
| date = April 16, 2008
| title = Techno
| image = techno.png
| titletext = I don't know what's worse - that there exists broken-hard-drive-sound techno, or that it's not half bad.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] points out that due to the repetitive nature of {{w|Techno|techno music}}, the iTunes 15 second sample can be used to recreate the entire song. This is for the many repetitions in techno music, usually repeating it ~ 4 times.

The title text refers to the clicking and grinding noises of a dying hard drive, a sound similar to some techno songs. The title text suggests this actually exists: an example can be found [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUn2OwjWWBM here].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball looking over Megan's shoulder while she is clicking her mouse with her other hand on her chin.]
:Cueball: Wait, you're buying techno on iTunes?
:Megan: Yeah. So?
:Cueball: Couldn't you just loop the 15-second free sample 20 times and get basically the same thing?

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

Talk:1506: xkcloud

2015-04-01T09:58:05Z

141.101.99.22:

The lack of a hover text breaks all sorts of things :) e.g. Floern's unofficial xkcd browser linked here via the hover text but it won't display the link or the lack of give text if there's no hover text! We may get a few less visitors for this comic as a result...

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.115|108.162.229.115]] 08:42, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
:Still getting swamped, it's business as usual for April 1st. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:06, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Why is "literally on fire" a question? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.163|108.162.249.163]] 09:52, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
It indicates uncertainty. He's not really asking a question, but making a statement hesitantly.