explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2881: Bug Thread

2024-01-16T09:37:07Z

141.101.99.8: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2881
| date = January 15, 2024
| title = Bug Thread
| image = bug_thread_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x495px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = After some account issues, we've added 6 new people from the beach house rental website support forum.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an UNFIXED BUG MEETUP - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A bug thread, or issue tracker, is a type of forum intended for discussions of unintended behavior in a program, also known as a bug. Examples include Github and Bugzilla. Most bug threads have a rule to only leave a comment if you have something insightful to add, such as being able to reproduce how the bug occurs or possible solutions to resolving it. However in practice this rule is often ignored and many threads end up with multiple people simply commenting that the bug still exists.

In this scenario, what the actual bug is is unknown, as the original details are off-screen. But we can see that a number of different authors are present from their differing profile icons. Although we cannot see the unreadable timestamp information on the posts, one author makes the observation that the problem has been ongoing for five years. Tongue-in-cheek, Randall suggests giving up on fixing the bug and treating the thread as some sort of socializing group instead.

The title text reveals that the meet-up was actually attempted, although (presumably unrelated) technical issues arose with the online service used to book the vacation venue. Now having gained a taste for linking up with fellow 'victims' of bugs, however, the organiser appears to have extended the invitation to several other new acquaintances. These later additions having similarly fallen foul of the holiday-home site's own problematic implementation.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Part of a discussion thread in progress on an online forum is shown. Each comment has the writer's avatar to the left of the text and small illegible text immediately above the text. Part of the first comment's text is cut off at the top.]
:Commenter #1: Same issue here.
:Commenter #2: I'm having this problem too. None of the posted fixes work.
:Commenter #3: Same.
:Commenter #4: +1. So frustrating.
:Commenter #5: I'm still having this. Did you all ever figure out a fix?
:Commenter #6: Same problem as everyone. I tried the steps in the posts here, here, and here. Nothing.
:Commenter #7: Add me to the list.
:Commenter #8: Same. Ugh. Can't believe this thread is 5 years old now.
:Commenter #9: Where does everyone live? Do we want to get a beach house for a weekend or something?
:[Caption below the image:]
:At some point, you just have to give up on fixing the bug and embrace the fact that you have dozens of new friends.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

2794: Alphabet Notes

2023-12-28T14:49:41Z

141.101.99.8: Accentuate the term (and help further distinguish from "digraph", a comingled double-glyph)

{{comic
| number = 2794
| date = June 26, 2023
| title = Alphabet Notes
| image = alphabet notes.png
| titletext = Listen, you're very cute, but if you rearrange the alphabet to put U and I together it will RUIN the spacing!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is Randall's "design notes" for the {{w|English alphabet}}. The comic lists the A-to-Z alphabet, in black block letters, from left to right. At the top, Randall lists the vowels and appreciates how they are spaced. Interestingly, there are either three or five consonant letters between every consecutive pair of vowel letters in the alphabet. Forming these supposed design notes are many red annotations.

The title text jokes about the pick-up line "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put '''U''' and '''I''' together.", where the letters '''U''' and '''I''' are pronounced like the pronouns "you" and "I". It is such a corny act of flirtation that any recipient of it could easily have a rejection (or a flirty acceptance if they so wish) ready to respond within an appropriate vein. As well as reflecting the diagram's noted preference for well-spaced vowels, it might be presumed that anyone (unironically) using the "''' U''' and '''I'''" line might be left dumbfounded at the rather technical nature of the riposte. This pickup line was also the subject of [[1069: Alphabet]]. The word "ruin" also contains the two letters next to each other, which rather subverts the idea that putting them together results in something cute. Alternatively, the distance ("spacing") between the flirters would change ("be ruined") if they got together, subverting the meaning of "ruin" in a more positive way.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+
!Letter
!Randall's note
!Explanation
|-
!A
|"Strong start!"
|'''A''' is described favorably as the start.
|-
!B
| rowspan="6" |"Decent consonants but no real heavy hitters here in the first third ("D" is solid, at least)"
| rowspan="6" |Randall considers the five early consonants '''B''', '''C''', '''D''', '''F''', and '''G''' to be acceptable but nothing special, except '''D''' which he considers solid. It's not clear whether he specifically is referring to their appearance or what sound they represent. In English phonology, '''D''' is the {{w|voiced alveolar plosive}}.
|-
!C
|-
!D
|-
!E
|-
!F
|-
!G
|-
!H
| rowspan="2" |"Hi!"
| rowspan="2" |The word "Hi" appears uninterrupted when the letters of the English alphabet are listed A-to-Z.
|-
! rowspan="2" |I
|-
| rowspan="2" |"The dotted letters are friends!"
| rowspan="2" |Randall notes and appreciates the shared {{wiktionary|tittle}} (dot) in the lowercase letters '''i''' and '''j''', calling them "friends". The separate dots and main strokes could also be interpreted as the heads and torsos of two reductionist character drawings. The two letters are the respective mathematical and electrical-engineering notations of the {{w|Imaginary unit|square root of -1}}, and so may be considered both professionally and personally in a close relationship, as well as neighbours. In the Netherlands, a {{w|digraph}}, or two letters representing one sound (such as "CH" and "SH" in English) is formed from '''I''' and '''J''', creating '''IJ'''; it is considered distinct from either '''I''' or '''J'''. It should be noted that '''J''' {{w|J#History|appeared sometime around the Middle Ages}} as a variant of '''I''', explaining why they look similar and are located together in the alphabet.
|-
! rowspan="2" |J
|-
| rowspan="2" |"Jk (lol)"
| rowspan="2" |Like "Hi", the letters '''J''' and '''K''' are next to each other in the English alphabet. "Jk" is an initialism for "just kidding", similar to "LOL" for "laugh out loud".
|-
!K
|-
!L to P
|"Part that's fun to sing"
|In the standard "{{w|Alphabet song|alphabet song}}" in the US (sung to the tune of the nursery rhyme "{{w|Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star}}"), most letters occur upon the beat of an easy and sedate tempo. However, to make it both scan ''and'' rhyme, the letters '''L''' to '''P''' are run through at double the tempo. This provides a welcome departure from the rhythm that has been slow and uniform up to that point, and the rapidity of the letters almost makes them feel like a strange word ("elemenopee") rather than a sequence of alphabetic letters. The letter sounds also require the involvement of several different parts of the mouth, including a rapid tongue movement, which may feel more fun to do than the preceding parts.
|-
!M
| rowspan="2" |"Weird how the line between "M" and "N" is the halfway mark.
They're similar, but "MN" only shows up in fancy words like "mnemonic", "column", "amnesty", and "hymn". Significance??"
| rowspan="2" |Randall finds it weird that the dividing line between the two halves of the alphabet would go between '''M''' and '''N'''. Indeed, it is a bit odd that the two letters, which look similar and represent similar sounds, are placed in such a way that they would be split apart when the alphabet is written out on two lines. He also lists several words that contain '''MN''' in sequence and speculates on the significance of this rare {{w|bigram}} seemingly only being used for "fancy" words.
|-
! rowspan="2" |N
|-
| rowspan="2" |"No"
| rowspan="2" |Like "Hi", the word "No" appears uninterrupted in the English alphabet.
|-
!O
|-
!P
|
|
|-
!Q
|"Why is this ''here''?"
|Randall considers '''Q''' strange, likely because the sound it denotes in English could be replaced with the sequence "KW," and '''Q''' {{w|List of English words containing Q not followed by U|almost never}} appears on its own in English, but instead exclusively through the bigrwm '''QU'''. The modern English alphabet evolved from the {{w|Phoenician alphabet}}, where the letter '''Q''' represented a {{w|voiceless uvular plosive}}, a sound similar to /k/ but with the tongue pushed back. Even though the Greeks who learned to write from them did not have this sound, they kept the letter because Arabic numerals hadn't been invented yet and they adopted it to represent the number 90. Later, when the Romans learned to write from them, this resulted in an alphabet where they had three letters for (what was to them) the same sound; '''C''' '''K''' '''Q''' were used all but interchangeably, but eventually a rule was etablished and '''Q''' was to be used for back vowels /o/ and /u/, a tradition carried on by the French and finally the English, hence why '''Q''' today is almost always followed by a '''U'''.

Other letters can be replaced by a similar combination of letters, but they aren't mentioned by Randall. For example, '''C''' can be replaced with '''K''' or '''S''', and '''X''' can be spelled as "KS".
"Why is this ''here''?" could also be referring to '''Q''''s position in the alphabet; the surrounding consonants '''P''', '''R''', '''S''', and '''T''' are all rather frequently used in English, while '''Q''' is one of the least-used letters (varying sources all list '''Q''', '''J''', '''X''', and '''Z''' as the least frequent letter in English).
|-
!R
| rowspan="3" |"Strong cluster!"
| rowspan="3" |Randall considers '''RST''' a strong cluster of consonants, though again it is unclear whether he refers to their visual design or to the sounds they represent. The use of an {{w|R-S-T system|RST code}} is a traditional way of describing the reception quality of radio communications. Also, '''RST''' are part of the widely recognized five most common consonants in the English language, RSTLN. Three out of the five are listed together in the alphabet.
|-
!S
|-
! rowspan="2" |T
|-
|"...Listen.
Maybe we should've stopped at "T"."
|The comment that the alphabet may have been better if it had stopped at '''T''' is potentially a reference to the fact that the original Phoenician script, which is the ancestor of many modern scripts including English, had as its last letter {{w|Taw}}, which the modern letter '''T''' is derived from. It is still the last letter of the modern Hebrew alphabet, although the Greek alphabet added several letters after it, some of which persist into modern English. Randall seems to believe that the Phoenician script was fine as-is and that the letters U-Z are unnecessary or "haunted".
|-
!U
|"Weirdest of the main 5 vowels by far"
|Randall is not a fan of the letter '''U''' and thinks it is the weirdest of the five vowels. '''U''' is the least frequent of the five main vowels (though still more frequent than '''Y'''), and the sounds it tends to represent are often considered amusing by English speakers.
|-
!V to Z
|"Haunted letters (keep out!!)"
|The letters '''V''', '''W''', '''X''', '''Y''', and '''Z''' are "haunted".
|-
!V
| rowspan="2" |"??"
| rowspan="2" |Randall seems to be confused about '''VW'''. Possible confusion stems from the fact that '''W''' is called "double ''' U'''" rather than "double '''V'''". Both '''{{w|W#History|W}}''' and '''{{w|U#History|U}}''' are derived from '''V''', which might explain a lot. He may also be confused as to why {{w|Volkswagen|a make of car}} is appearing in the alphabet.
|-
!W
|-
!X
|"Not sure this is even a letter. Did you include a number by mistake?"
|Randall questions whether '''X''' is even a letter. As Randall is a physicist, it is likely he is referring to how the letter is likely encountered more often as a variable representing a number in mathematics and algebra than as a letter for scientists. Alternatively, he could be referring to the Roman numeral X, though he doesn't have this kind of issue with I, V, L, D or M.
|-
!Y
|"?"
|At the end of the vowel list at the top, Randall uses a question mark to indicate the ambiguous nature of '''Y''', which can function both as a vowel and a consonant depending on the context. Its name also sounds like "why", which is a very common question.
|-
!Z
|
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[A list of the letters of the alphabet, from A to Z, in black]
:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

:[A red line above the letters, with tick marks and their associated vowels at A, E, I, O, and U. Y has a question mark instead of a tick.]
:Love the spacing between the vowels!

:[Red annotations near various letters.]

:A: Strong start!
:BCD, FG: Decent consonants but no real heavy hitters here in the first third ("D" is solid, at least)
:HI: Hi!
::IJ: [additional lowercase "ij" given, in red]: The dotted letters are friends!
:JK: Jk (lol)
:LMNOP: Part that's fun to sing
::Weird how the line between "M" and "N" is the halfway mark.
::They're similar, but "MN" only shows up in fancy words like "mnemonic", "column", "amnesty", and "hymn". Significance??
:NO: No
:Q: Why is this ''here''?
:RST: Strong cluster!
:U: Weirdest of the main 5 vowels by far
:VWXYZ: Haunted letters (keep out!!)
:VW: ??
:X: Not sure this is even a letter. Did you include a number by mistake?
:YZ: ...Listen.
::Maybe we should've stopped at "T".

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Design notes on the alphabet

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

2046: Trum-

2022-12-26T22:08:41Z

141.101.99.8: /* Explanation */ Consistency of (now relevent) past tense.

{{comic
| number = 2046
| date = September 14, 2018
| title = Trum-
| image = trum.png
| titletext = Excited to vote for future presidents Bill Eisenhamper, Amy Forb, Ethan Obample, and Abigail Washingtoast.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|President of the United States}}, at the time when this comic was published, was {{w|Donald Trump}} and he shares the first letters of his surname with {{w|Harry S. Truman}}, who was US President between 1945 and 1953. [[Megan]] notes that both of these presidents' last names start with "T-R-U-M", but she also states that they are not related.

There were several presidents of the US who even have the exact same last name. For example, {{w|John Adams}} and his son {{w|John Quincy Adams}}, and the more recent father and son {{w|George H. W. Bush}} and {{w|George W. Bush}}. Similarly {{w|Theodore Roosevelt}} and {{w|Franklin Delano Roosevelt}} are 5th cousins. Grandfather and grandson {{w|William Henry Harrison}} and {{w|Benjamin Harrison}} also share a last name. And there are the two [https://www.geni.com/path/Lyndon-B-Johnson-36th-President-of-the-United-States+is+related+to+Andrew-Johnson-17th-President-of-the-USA?from=6000000002045454764&to=361204095530004567| most distantly related] presidents with the same surname, both {{w|Andrew Johnson}} and {{w|Lyndon B. Johnson}} have the last name of Johnson (7 letters), although the shared last name is coincidental, given they do not share any relatives with the name Johnson.

Besides T-R-U-M- and the cases of identical names, the longest common surname prefix is H-A-R (3 letters), shared by William Henry (or Benjamin) H-A-R-rison and Warren Gamaliel H-A-R-ding. (The next longest common surname prefixes are B-U-, shared by James B-U-chanan and George (H.) W. Bush; and C-L-, shared by Grover Cleveland and Bill Clinton.)

The longest common suffix (not counting identical names) is also 4 for I-S-O-N for {{w|James Madison}} and the two Harrison presidents. (It is an interesting fact that the name HARRISON contains both the second-longest common prefix and the longest common suffix among non-identical president surnames.)

The joke is that the matching of those few letters is the least weird thing. Trump's presidency is commonly considered weird in ways too varied to concisely list in this article, and both Megan and Cueball seem to agree on this.

The title text lists "absurd" last names that could start with the same letters as other presidents: Bill Eisenhamper, Amy Forb, Ethan Obample, and Abigail Washingtoast. These would refer to {{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight D. '''Eisenh'''ower}}, {{w|Gerald Ford|Gerald '''For'''d}}, {{w|Barack Obama|Barack '''Obam'''a}}, and {{w|George Washington|George '''Washingto'''n}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan walking together while talking.]
:Megan: It's pretty weird that we've had two totally unrelated presidents whose last names start with '''''"T-R-U-M-"'''''.
:Cueball: Oh, sure, that's ''definitely'' the weirdest thing about the presidency right now.
:Megan: It's less weird than '''''every other fact'''''. But still weird.
:Cueball: True.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Politics]]

712: Single Ladies

2022-08-11T22:53:40Z

141.101.99.8: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 712
| date = March 10, 2010
| title = Single Ladies
| image = single_ladies.png
| titletext = Using a ring to bind someone you covet into your dark and twisted world? Wow, just got the subtext there. Also, the apparently eager Beyoncé would've made one badass Nazgûl.
}}

==Explanation==
The character in armor is {{w|Sauron}}, the main villain in ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'' trilogy. In the backstory of the ''{{w|The Silmarillion}}'', he takes control of Middle-earth by giving several {{w|Rings of Power}} as "gifts" to the great kings of men, dwarves and elves after teaching the craft to the elves. However, he also forged a master ring, the {{w|One Ring}}, to control the {{w|Rings of Power}} and ultimately rule over the kings. However, the elves were not deceived by his plan and took off their rings. Enraged, Sauron started {{w|War of the Elves and Sauron}}. After losing that war Sauron started a religion in {{w|Númenor}}. After using his influence to convince Númenóreans to attack {{w|Aman}}, the island is destroyed by {{w|Eru}}. Then Sauron started {{w|Last Alliance of Elves and Men|War against the Last Alliance}}. Sauron is eventually defeated in said war by {{w|Isildur}} who cuts off his ring finger. The books tell the story of a small group of adventurers who rediscover the lost Ring and attempt to destroy it, as Sauron's army gathers its forces to attempt to reclaim the Ring for their master.

{{w|Gil-galad}} is a high Elven-king, and {{w|Galadriel}} is an Elf of royal blood who serves as a matriarch of sorts to the remnants of the Elven race. {{w|Lindon}} is a location on the westernmost side of the continent, serving as the final transition point for Elves passing on to the Undying lands. Sauron refers to an actual event in the first panel, when he tried to gain control of Lindon through deceit; Galadriel and Gil-galad saw through his disguise and cast him out.

In the second panel Sauron is talking about {{w|Eru Ilúvatar}}, the creator in Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. While Eru created elves and men it was {{w|Aulë}} who created Dwarves, Eru gave them life. Orcs were Elves twisted by {{w|Morgoth}} so Sauron, being his principal lieutenant, would be a natural leader to orcs by the time he created the One Ring.

The song playing in the background is "All the Single Ladies" by Beyoncé, which includes the line "If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it," referring to ''{{w|wedding rings}}''. This is shown as being what inspired Sauron to devise his plan to control others through the gift of rings.

The title text refers to an often-suggested fan theory that the One Ring ''is'' actually meant to be symbolic of marriage. This theory is incorrect. The {{w|Nazgûl}}, also known as ringwraiths, are the former nine human kings who were bound by the rings, now a band of nine servants to Sauron who constantly seek out the Ring for him.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy is talking to Sauron; Sauron is wearing his trademark helmet, but his head is downcast. Music plays in the background.]
:''Music: All the single ladies, All the single ladies''
:Beret Guy: Hey Sauron, why so glum?
:Sauron: Gil-galad saw through me and threw me out of Lindon. Galadriel as well. I'll never rule ''anyone'' at this rate.

:''Music: All the single ladies, All the single ladies''
:Sauron: Eru created such beautiful creatures - Elves and men and dwarves - and all I've got are these stupid orcs.

:''Music: 'Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it''
:Sauron: I mean, I-

:[Sauron is suddenly quiet.]
:''Music: If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it''

==Trivia==
* Randall used the wrong "û" character when editing the title text; the character he used was U+0217 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH INVERTED BREVE, but the correct character is U+00FB LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX. They look very similar at standard font sizes, but the inverted breve is curved, while the circumflex is pointed.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Songs]]

Talk:2641: Mouse Turbines

2022-07-09T12:06:34Z

141.101.99.8:

Is anybody going to try to calculate the amount of power such a turbine could collect? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 19:24, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Good idea; what should we use for an estimate of the geometry for https://www.omnicalculator.com/ecology/wind-turbine ? The final panel makes it look like the blade diameter is about twice the size of a fist. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215098616300830] says "exhaled air velocity varies from 2.2 m/s to 9.9 m/s (5.66 ± 1.57 m/s, mean ± SD) and exhalation time varies from 2.10 s to 8.21 s (4.42 ± 1.73s, mean ± SD)."
:I guessed 10 cm radius and used that mean breath speed. I should have used the top 9.9 m/s though, shouldn't I? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 20:56, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:After a closer look at that article, the mean is more appropriate. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 21:19, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
: I'm not sure how you'd judge that it's twice the size of a fist, given that stick people don't really have fists. I would assume that they're meant to be about the same size as dandelion heads - so about 3 or 4 cm (unless US dandelions are bigger than UK ones). They certainly look about that size in the second panel. You'd also need to factor in problems of interference, given the 'planting density' of these turbines, and the sub-optimal location surrounded by grasses, etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 08:08, 6 July 2022 (UTC)
::The rotating diameter is shown as about a third the height of Beret Guy's head, so it's definitely not 20 cm. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 02:47, 7 July 2022 (UTC)
:::{{w|Human head}} says the average "vertical distance from the bottom of the chin (menton) to the top of the head" is about 22 cm, so perhaps we should go with 8-10 cm turbines instead? There aren't going to be enough of those to even charge a mouse cellphone. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 01:28, 9 July 2022 (UTC)

Although these miniscule wind turbines don't generate much power, mice probably don't need much. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:17, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:That's certainly a fair point. How much power would a mouse-sized fridge need? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 21:23, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
::Mice consume a lot more food per body weight (especially for body heat because heat transfer scales with surface area, not mass/volume) than humans. Mouse-sized fridge efficiency would also be poor both because of the same size issue and reduced room for insulation. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::A 480 ml insulin travel fridge uses 5 watts on a 3% duty cycle depending on the ambient temperature and how much it's loaded, so that's in the realm of possibility, and seems large enough. I used to feed lab mice about 5 grams of Purina Lab Rodent Chow daily, which was maybe 8ml volume, but it doesn't need to be refrigerated. Googling suggests field mice can get all the water they need from a diet of seeds. It seems to me that if mice could use electricity, they'd need it more in the winter than the summer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 22:01, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Someone please check my mouse energy needs math and assumptions. I made a couple misplaced decimal mistakes getting to where it is now, and I'm going to have another beer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 22:17, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Not sure about numbers but some (if not most) energy requirements scale by surface area ({{w|Square–cube law}} or other measurements. There are also efficiency issues with at least lots of human-made miniature machines. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::What energy requirements scale by surface area? Pumping water, cooking, and refrigerating scales by mass. Converting footcandles to lumens depends on area, but that doesn't account for much lower mouse ceilings. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.6|172.69.34.6]] 22:27, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:::Heat exchange is kind of a biggie a lot of things depend on. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 12:30, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

I'm confused by the statement that smaller turbines are less "efficient". There's nothing about efficiency at that link. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.43|172.70.114.43]] 22:33, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:The graph shows the ratio between size and output has risen from about half to 85%. What is a better term for this? I'm pretty sure one of the multiple definitions of efficiency is technically correct, but it can never hurt explaining better. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.113|172.69.33.113]] 22:42, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Changed to "relative power output" but I'm not sure that captures the idea very well either. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.113|172.69.33.113]] 22:44, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

Well wind turbines may not scale down ideally but still better than nuclear power plants. I suspect those have fixed minimal size and it's pretty big. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:32, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

:Apparently nuclear power can be [https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-294 "as small as a button cell"] but mice are vulnerable to radioactive hazards, and haven't solved the waste disposal problem. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 23:45, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

::Batteries based on radioactive decay (such as RTGs, thermionic cells, betavoltaic cells) are not nuclear power plants. That term specifically refers to power plants based on nuclear fission reactors. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 11:38, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

Isn't the power output of a solar panel directly dependent on its size (and wether it's covered with snow, angle to the sun, clouds? And prolly something I'll think of as soon as I hit save).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.106|172.70.131.106]] 23:55, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Yes, but the power per size doesn't increase with size like wind turbines do. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.63|172.69.33.63]] 00:01, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

What is the smallest Tesla Powerwall available for purchase? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.163|172.70.206.163]] 02:00, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:You probably want an {{w|18650}} or similar cell, which are [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsJMj7FtroY frequently discarded on the street] and thus easily obtainable by mice. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.171|172.69.33.171]] 03:02, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Why doesn't pico hydro have the same problems scaling down as wind? They're both fluid turbines. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 02:24, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:For the same reasons that small fans have several vanes, but large wind turbines have only three. I remember reading something about the physics (it's a laminar versus turbulent thing) but I can't remember the details now. I'll update here if I can find it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 03:08, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:[https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/why-do-wind-turbines-have-three-blades/ Here's part of it,] but doesn't really get to the heart of the matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 03:10, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:I think it has more to do with the relative magnitude of drag in gases instead of liquids. I don't have a good source though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 03:21, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::Turbine efficiency (especially for very small turbines) mostly depends on pressure differential and mass throughput. Water has three orders of magnitude higher density than air. Also, even with just a meter of water column, water offers a 10 kPa pressure differential while you only rarely get that much of a pressure differential in air (at the same height) even between areas of high and low pressure usually at least dozens (and commonly hundreds) of miles apart (there may be exceptions for things like tornadoes but good luck using their wind power), certainly not between the high and low pressure sides of a turbine. Efficiency in practice mostly depends on moved mass (of turbine blades, etc) compared to moved medium (water or air), friction (mount, generator, maybe a gearbox) compared to total power input and (if electricity is desired) generator efficiency which itself depends on generator size and rotation speed (hence the need for a gearbox). For a very small turbine, all those things would need to be extremely light as well. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Who is Beret Guy telling to make a wish - Megan or the mice? -- [[User:Ken g6|Ken g6]] ([[User talk:Ken g6|talk]]) 04:48, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

[https://www.cornel1801.com/animated/Secret-of-NIMH-1982/pictures/64.jpg I must tell you about NIMH.] - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.81|172.70.254.81]] 16:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Sometimes the explanation is funnier than the comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.159|172.68.133.159]] 03:28, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

Uh, what happened to the image!? Does anyone know how to fix it? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.65|172.70.110.65]] 20:22, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

Uhhhh, I read the book as a kid, it was called The Secret Of NIMH, just like the movie... At least, my copy... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:26, 9 July 2022 (UTC)
:That could have been a novel-of-the-film or named-for-the-film more obvious tie-in. They had to change "Mrs. Frisby" to "Brisby" in that, anyway, because of the potential infringement upon the "frisbee" name, so while they were reskinning it with "Now a major motion picture!!!" or whatever, then why not..? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.8|141.101.99.8]] 12:06, 9 July 2022 (UTC)

2633: Astronomer Hotline

2022-06-16T20:52:16Z

141.101.99.8: Undo revision 287085 by N0lqu (talk) Not relevent. Weird Bugs guy doesn't yet know it's Astronomy guy, the next words could be "Hi Frank, it's Joe. Another Firefly one for ya, ok? Handing him over..."

{{comic
| number = 2633
| date = June 15, 2022
| title = Astronomer Hotline
| image = Astronomer Hotline.png
| titletext = Employment statistics have to correct for the fact that the Weird Bug Hotline hires a bunch of extra temporary staff every 17 years.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 17 YEAR CICADA TRYING TO LOOK LIKE A FIREFLY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a joke about {{w|Helpline|helplines}}, and the experience technologists had during the dawn of the internet, of people calling engaging them for only very trivial things when there was a huge skill gap.

The comic starts with someone having called the "Astronomer hotline", hence the title. Judging by the way the helpline employee, [[Cueball]], starts the call, by asking for a description of the weird lights, it is implied that this is the main/only purpose of the helpline, or is, in practice, the only type of call they receive.

The caller is in panic, and doesn't know how to describe the light. Cueball is used to this and asks the caller to stay calm, then starts to go through his check list, asking them if it is daytime, because if it was he might assume they have just noticed the Sun. Most people are familiar with the Sun{{Citation needed}} and would not need help in identifying it, although people have also mistaken the Moon for a 'mysterious light in the sky' at times. Asking this could thus seem very condescending, but it is like when the employee at a tech support hot-line asks if the computer is turned on, or if the caller tried to restart the computer, see [[806: Tech Support]]. It may also refer to the most immediate danger, as looking directly to the sun is a bad idea.

The caller is not affronted, but tells Cueball that the Sun has set. When asked if they are stationary, which is very nearly the case with stars, the reply is that they are zipping around in the bushes.

At this point Cueball realizes that the caller has just seen {{w|Fireflies}}. He describes them for the caller as lightning bugs, tree blinkers or ground stars, and tells the caller that these are not a problem, so the caller is now relieved.[https://giphy.com/gifs/bbcamerica-seven-worlds-one-planet-Q7FbMX6oJa4ycuY5Hf] Those descriptions are reminiscent of the fools stars (and planes) mentioned in [[2017: Stargazing 2]].

However, Cueball must admit that astronomers do not know much about fireflies, since they are too fast for the astronomers' telescopes (in general, astronomers don't study terrestrial phenomena). And he thus transfers the caller to the "Weird Bug Hotline" in a process that is apparently somewhat routine – enough to have the correct line somehow preprogrammed into his call-handling system. This is clearly not the first 'astronomy' query that actually concerns fireflies.

Before the call ends, at Cueball's end, he hears the opening question from the other hotline: "Is it currently biting you?" Again going directly to the most important part, i.e. whether there is any immediate danger to be resolved...

It is possible that Cueball will actually be speaking to the Weird Bugs line initially, quickly priming the Weird Bug call-handler with the salient facts already established before fully handing over the call. This could get the original caller straight into the correct conversation if the onward line's handler is anywhere as competent and experienced in such a transfer.

Some people (often {{w|Unidentified flying object|UFO}} enthusiasts) tend to get a little over-excited about calling every light in the sky they don't expect a UFO. This comic takes this to the extreme, where someone calls a helpline because they saw fireflies, and thought they were UFOs. While UFOs are not mentioned by name, they are heavily implied. Technically, such a person would be correct, so long as the lights are actually unidentified, flying and caused by a physical object, but if the expectation is that it is an extraterrestrial spacecraft then the truth (if discovered and also accepted) can be disappointing to some people, rather than lead to an interesting alternative avenue of appreciation of whatever phenomenon it truly is.

The title text is a reference to bugs that have gaps of several years between emerging from their larval state. Most famous are the {{w|Periodical cicadas}}, 13- and 17-year cicadas, that only emerge every 13 or 17 years, depending on species. The 17 years in the title text thus refers to the 17-year cicadas. Every 17 years the bug hotline hires a bunch of temporary staff, either because there will be more callers due to the unexpected new bug no one has seen for 17 years, or it could be because they just like to emulate nature and thus do this every 17 years. The largest 17-year cicada appearance in the USA is called {{W|Brood X}} which last occurred in 2021 and before that 2004. [https://cicadas.uconn.edu/broods/ There are smaller broods in other years], but the majority come out with 17 years interval, and the next is expected in 2038. The joke in the title text is that the employment statistics for the weird hotline have to correct for this fact. Periodical cicadas have been mentioned before in [[2263: Cicadas]], see details about them in that comics [[2263:_Cicadas#Trivia|trivia section]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, with a headset on, is sitting in an office chair at a desk in front of his computer screen, hands on the keyboard. He receives a call, and the caller's voice is shown in a jagged frame above Cueball, between his two lines of text.]
:Cueball: Hello, Emergency Astronomer Hotline. How would you describe the lights?
:Caller on phone: ''I don't know! Help!''
:Cueball: Stay calm. Is it day? If so, that's the Sun.

:[Cueball is now seen en face with the headset, but the computer etc. is not shown. The caller's voice is now written normally but with zigzag lines going to the text from Cueball's headphone. Cueball's reply has a normal line going up to it.]
:Caller on phone: No, the Sun set and then the light appeared!
:Cueball: Hmm, could be stars. Are they stationary?
:Caller on phone: No, they're all zipping around bushes.

:[In a frameless panel, the setting returns to the one from the first panel, with the caller's voice in jagged frames again.]
:Cueball: ''Aha!'' Fireflies!
:Caller on phone: "Fireflies"?
:Cueball: Lightning bugs. Tree blinkers. Ground stars.
:Cueball: They're fine.
:Caller on phone: ''Phew!''

:[Same setting as first panel, but broader panel. After Cueball's reply and a short reply from the caller as in the first panel, there is a sound indicating transfer to another hotline. Then to the right there is a square panel with jagged edge, with the voice from the other hotline's employee.]
:Cueball: We don't know much about them as they're too fast for our telescopes, but I can transfer you to the Weird Bug Hotline.
:Caller on phone: Sure, thanks.
:Transfer of call. *''Click''*
:Weird Bug Hotline on phone: ''Hi, Weird Bug Hotline. Is it currently biting you?''

==Trivia==
*The UK Military had a UFO helpline for over 50 years. [[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna34277625 Link]]
**The US took up that mantle by requesting UAP ({{w|Unidentified Aerial Phenomena}}) reports in 2021.[https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports-publications-2021/item/2223-preliminary-assessment-unidentified-aerial-phenomena]
*This comic has a lot of themes that have been touched on in previous comics, including
**Helplines [[278: Black Hat Support]], [[806: Tech Support]]
**People not understanding basic concepts [[876: Trapped]]
**Cicadas [[2263: Cicadas]]

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:2626: d65536

2022-05-31T12:28:52Z

141.101.99.8:

I wonder: can we even make a fair polyhedron with 65536 faces? In Randal's illustration, the faces seem to be irregular hexagons. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 21:37, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: This is better than my question, which was simply if you could tile a sphere with these. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 23:01, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Definitely possible, just create two identical right pyramids with a 32768-gon base and glue the bases together. [[User:Clam|Clam]] ([[User talk:Clam|talk]]) 23:53, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: Would this design be fair? Consider a set of 256 lines of latitude overlapping another set, with the second set's polar axis at the equator of the first. Cut flat quadrangles between the intersection points of the lines of latitude. Doesn't use hexagons like the comic does though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 09:41, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Fairness is a given for pyramids (if that's what you're asking). As long as there's enough 'rolling energy' to get either of the pyramids 'facing up', any N-agon base to the pyramids should have enough indeterminate impetous to then finally roll around a bit to end up with any of those exposed faces on top.
::(Interesting to note that for odd-numbered N-agonal bases, like that in a D10, you need to offset the bases and instead of sticking to the triangular faces base-to-base you now have kite-shapes that interlock in a serration that is no longer strictly planar along the axis's perpendiculars.)
::That might need a selection of the pyramidal slope. A very wide pair of bases with very little tip-'elevation' (to fit tightly within an oblate spheroid) should transition very well between same-pyramid faces, like a bulgy button, but one with highly acute tip-angle (prolate, likewise) might find the dominant behaviour to be tip-to-tip tipping, more like a toggle-fastener. OTOH, for odd-numbered end-agons it would probably ratchett to subsequent sides as it tips back and forth so long as it has enough energy to it.
::If you're asking about lines of latitude intersecting, consider that near the poles of either latitudinal reference the division of the other reference-system is going to be spliced more irregularly and thus give varying degrees of stability to rest upon.
::(Also, do you have a latitudinal line that crosses ''both'' pairs of poles, or are you deliberately moving them by half a phase (1/512th of the relevent circumference) so that you at least don't have them entirely coincident.)
::I believe the suggested scheme would be to take a dodecahedron or icosohedron (either of the two duals can be used to start with) and then subdivide each face in such a manner that equally-sized (but differently distorted) hexagons – and 12 little regular pentagons of identical area fitting in at the old dodecahedron centre/the old icosahedron vertex – emerge from the required segmentation/vertex-truncation and readjustment the radiality of all new mid-edge vertices (or maybe the newer-edges' centres or the newer-faces' centres) to touch the unit sphere. If done symmetrically, it should be entirely fair.
::The face-count might be troublesome, though. The twelve necessary pentagonal faces leaves 65524 hexagons, to split evenly between* either 12 or 20 zones, and it should be obvious that neither is possible**, in whole numbers, given the starting point of 2n faces...
:::(* - you can, and probably will in this design, have some that cross between two of the top-level polygons, but you can fully 'donate' as many as you then fully ''get'' donated from the next face around, so it might as well be just counted as a group of whole tiles on an a set of Escher-like interlocking 'rough' polygons.)
:::(** - If you're using 12 zones, that's 3x4x(however many in the zone + one corner each) and there's no factor of 3 in ''any'' value that is 2n. Arranging into 20 symmetrical zones (5x4), you will find that 65524 isn't divisible by 5, either...)
::You could probably arrange an N-ahedron with the number of faces being 12+(12a) or 12+(20b), for some higher value (a bit of mental arithmatic suggests 65592 might be that value) and mark all the 'excess' faces (56?) with "Roll Again!". Or perhaps some pithy motivational slogans that also convey roughly the same meaning... :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 11:32, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I don't know why it's so big? Seems like it should have a diameter of approx. 1 meter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 21:37, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: Cueball is 50 pixels high. The ball is 340 px high. Assuming Cueball is an average-height male (1.7m), and is standing the same distance from the viewer as the center of the ball, roughly how large is each face of the polygon? Area of a sphere is 4.pi.r.r, r=0.85, so 9.08 m^2 or 9080000 mm^2, divide by number of faces, get 277 mm^2, so we get 1.6cm to a side. If I did that right, then you're right: those are fairly large faces. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.39|172.69.70.39]] 05:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:I ran the calculations for the Trivia section. I used 12pt font which gave each number an area of 1/6 square inch (about 1 square cm) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.237|162.158.106.237]] 06:57, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Should the title and picture file use "d" or the comic's difficult to type "ᴅ"?
[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:55, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Since xkcd uses small caps as lowercase letters, the "ᴅ" should just be considered xkcd-font for "d", and as such need not be used on the title, which is not using the xkcd font.
:: Ah! [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 06:15, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

If you really did want to generate a 16 bit integer with physical dice, it would be much simpler to roll a [https://www.thediceshoponline.com/impact-opaque-hexidice-d16-hexadecimal-dice hex die] four times. [[User:Clayot|Clayot]] ([[User talk:Clayot|talk]]) 23:30, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Rolling a binary die 16 times would also work. You can get binary dice for 1¢ each. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 01:31, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Those 1¢ "dices" are not exactly guaranteed to be random. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:12, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:::They seem as random as other dice? Am I wrong? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 09:33, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I think the hardest part (or maybe second-hardest part) is figuring out which facet is the one on top. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.109|162.158.78.109]] 00:46, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:Roll it on a glass table, check from below which face it's landed on instead. Wait until it has settled safely, though, or it might land on ''your'' face! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.227|172.70.90.227]] 04:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Good plan. Assuming standard dice design, subtract the value from 65537 to get the value of the uppermost face. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.39|172.69.70.39]] 05:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

What material should it be to be light enough to easily roll it but cheap enough that doing the 1,5 meters doest cost a fortune ? Sorry if the question is not clear. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.30|141.101.69.30]] 05:50, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:I recommend making it hollow. You could probably do something like this for $3000 if you made it out of 1/8th inch acrylic plate. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.237|162.158.106.237]] 07:02, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:At first I thought aluminum for sturdiness, but really you could make this out of cardboard for dirt cheap, lasercutting precise shapes, but you'd have to design its structural frame to keep it intact, exchanges design effort for price. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 09:32, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I disagree with this dice being really random. Like, sure, if thrown correctly, but that's going to be quite hard. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:12, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

:True. For a rolled die to be random, it needs to roll far enough so that the initial orientation no longer governs the outcome. Say, ten times the circumference, or about 150 meters? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 10:28, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Interesting to consider the 'necessary minimum'. Simplify to a "wheel of fortune" (just one axis of continual rotation) it would depend upon the potential variation of imparted rotation. If (say) 'aiming' at two whole rotations has a (perhaps 'normal') spread of variance that relates to ±½ rotational uncertainty at the 1st and 3rd quartile of probability then the sub-first and above-third 'tails' might wrap around to (roughly) equalise the chances that 2±(whatever fraction) spins lands just about anywhere just about equally. Aiming at four whole rotations (similary ±1 spin at the given quartiles, and the tailing chancs 'filling in' above 5 rotations and below 3) would smooth things out, all else equal, but takes twice as much perceived/attempted effort for not much more 'randomising'.
::Similarly, requiring 10 full rolls (maybe honestly aiming for 10, but allowing it to be 7.5 or less if not obviously 'just nudged') seems overkill, in the single dimension.
::Except, of course that you also need enough distance (on top of whatever factor you consider practical as a variation-wrapping value, which might not be the ½-in-2 I give) to also roll ''sideways''. If for some reason you really don't want to roll 65536 or 1 (or is it 65535 and 0?), which may be on polar-opposite faces, you might make sure that they are directly to the left and right before you propel the die forwards ''a little'', not caring which distribution of numbers is on/near the rolling-equator (2 is acceptible to you, and 65533, etc; other very low/high values conceivably placed on that thin band of "wheel-like chance" but you're just avoiding the very largest and smallest, or specifically just the one of them) but knowing that it's more unlikely to easily present the exact face(s) you dislike than it might be in a truly 'fair' roll.
::Perhaps the best thing is to have a rolling track to send the thing down that puts it the required "two or so rotations" forward to then either hit a wall or climb slightly up a slope (at a roughly 45 degree angle) that then sends it back roughly sideways to the original vector for a similar distance with a perpendicular or even composite moment of rolling rotation, to bring 'initially axial' numbers fully into play... And that dog-leg would require a sligthly shorter length from launch-position to where the thoroughly mixed-up final stopping point should be, whilst significantly foiling the master-manipulators who actually try to arrange an initial setup that favours better final results (rather than just nudge it, uncaring, for a result not as totally random but certainly not more predominently of desired-for ranges than otherwise). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.8|141.101.99.8]] 12:28, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Should it be related to https://xkcd.com/221/ ? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.246|162.158.183.246]] 08:07, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I'm going to wait, I think - I don't think there's room in my attic for this as well as all the Betamax kit, my drawers full of MiniDiscs and my Zune collection. No, I'll sit tight - I'm hearing encouraging things about the introduction of the Magic 65536-Ball... [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 09:41, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator

2022-05-01T09:24:40Z

141.101.99.8: /* Explanation */ mentioned western sahara

{{comic
| number = 2613
| date = April 29, 2022
| title = Bad Map Projection: Madagascator
| image = bad_map_projection_madagascator.png
| titletext = The projection's north pole is in a small lake on the island of Mahé in the Seychelles, which is off the top of the map and larger than the rest of the Earth's land area combined.
}}

==Explanation==
This is another comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series. This time, Randall used the classic {{w|Mercator projection}} but instead of placing the North Pole on top and the South Pole on the bottom it is oriented so that the top is the island of {{w|Mahé, Seychelles|Mahé}}. The map projection is technically a {{w|Oblique Mercator projection}}, with an unusual choice of the cylinder's axis. Since the Mercator projection tends to visually distort areas near the top and bottom of the resulting map, this gives some areas, notably Madagascar, very unusual shapes.

The Mercator projection became the standard projection for world maps during the 1800s because it is ''conformal of normal aspect'': a {{w|rhumb line}} is displayed as a straight line in a Mercator map. During the age of sail, when navigation was performed by compass - this was a very valuable feature, since one could plot a course between two locations by measuring the direction from one to another on the map and then accounting for the difference between the magnetic and actual north poles to determine which rhumb should be taken. In the mid-20th century this trend was {{w|Mercator_projection#Criticism|criticized}} because the distortion towards the north and south poles gave an inaccurate impression of relative sizes. The most common example given of this distortion is that on a Mercator map of the world Greenland looks to have more area than Africa, when in real life Africa covers 14 times that of Greenland. Thus the reference to making Madagascar larger in this projection. Madagascar is a large island off the south east coast of the main African continent, but has only a quarter the coverage of Greenland. Greenland is often listed as the largest island in the world (which excludes continents in their own right, e.g. Australia) followed by New Guinea, Borneo and then Madagascar in fourth place.

Mahé, mentioned in the title text as the north pole's new location, is the largest island in Seychelles, with an area of 60.7 square miles. The claim in the title text, however, that it is "larger than the rest of the Earth's land area combined", is hard to verify when it is not actually displayed in the projection. That is, if you limit yourself to the comic. Clicking on the actual comic will open a website that displays Mercator projections with the North Pole transplanted to various locations, with the location of the one opened set to Mahé. With this, it is possible to see that the island is indeed larger than the rest of the map's land area combined, with a single national park within the island rivalling Africa in size, and eventually reaching a scale of distortion where a road is thicker than Panama. This also reveals that the location of the North Pole, the lake mentioned by Randall, is the Rochon Dam.

Unlike previous Bad Map Projections, Morocco and Western Sahara are drawn as one unlabeled country.

===Comparison of actual/mapped areas===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Landmass
! Status
! data-sort-type="number"|Actual Area<ref name="act">Major contiguous land areas that should exclude all islands, ''especially'' major ones, '''''especially''''' especially those listed separately</ref> (Millions of Km²)
! data-sort-type="number"|Proportion Land Area
! data-sort-type="number"|Proportion Image Area<ref name="pri">Of only these listed areas listed</ref>
! data-sort-type="number"|Distortion<ref name="dis">NB. Difference between percentages, rather than percentage difference</ref>
|-
| Africa<ref name="suez">Edge at Suez Canal</ref> || data-sort-value="C2"|Continent 2nd largest || 29.7 || 19.95% || 35% || +15.1%
|-
| Eurasia<ref name="suez" /> || data-sort-value="C1"|Continent Largest || 53.4 || 35.83% || 30% || -5.83%
|-
| North America<ref name="pan">Edge at Panama Canal</ref> || data-sort-value="C3"|Continent 3rd largest || 19.3 || 12.96% || 15% || +2.04%
|-
| South America<ref name="pan" /> || data-sort-value="C4"|Continent 4th largest || 17.8 || 11.96% || 7.8% || -4.16%
|-
| Antarctica<ref name="ice">Significant ice-sheets may complicate mapped/actual 'land' areas</ref> || data-sort-value="C5"|Continent 5th largest || 14.2 || 9.53% || 5.3% || -4.23%
|-
| Madagascar || data-sort-value="I04"|Island 4th largest || 0.592 || 0.40% || 2.9% || +2.50%
|-
| Australia || data-sort-value="C7"|Continent Smallest || 7.55 || 5.07% || 2.5% || -2.57%
|-
| Greenland<ref name="ice" /> || data-sort-value="I01"|Island Largest || 2.17 || 1.45% || 0.87% || -0.58%
|-
| Borneo || data-sort-value="I03"|Island 3rd largest || 0.749 || 0.50% || 0.37% || -0.13%
|-
| New Guinea || data-sort-value="I02"|Island 2nd largest || 0.786 || 0.53% || 0.32% || -0.21%
|-
| Japan<ref name="hon">Honshu only</ref> || data-sort-value="I07"|Island 7th largest || 0.228 || 0.15% || 0.10% || -0.05%
|-
| Mainland Britain || data-sort-value="I09"|Island 9th largest || 0.209 || 0.14% || 0.10% || -0.04%
|-
| Island of Ireland || data-sort-value="I20"|Island 20th largest || 0.082 || 0.05% || 0.03% || -0.02%
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Bad map projection #248: Madagascator

Mercator projection but with the North Pole in the Indian Ocean so it exaggerates the size of Madagascar instead of Greenland

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]

1409: Query

2014-08-20T12:19:33Z

141.101.99.8: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1409
| date = August 17, 2014
| title = Query
| image = query.png
| titletext = SELECT * FROM GHOSTS
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] picks up a strange device that mysteriously asks her to enter a query after stating "LOADED TABLE: PEOPLE / ENTER QUERY." In computer databases, "{{w|Table (database)|tables}}" are groups of similar information consisting of records each having certain attributes. Databases are generally made up of many tables, each containing different types of records. A database for a traditional library might have a "Books" table and a "Cardholders" table with records of all of the books in the library, and all of the people who have library cards. Each table will have different columns for certain attributes for every record. For example, the "Books" table might have columns for "title", "author", "date", etc.

A request from a database by a user is called a "query". {{w|SQL}} (Structured Query Language) is a programming language designed for databases, and has a certain syntax for its queries. A common query is "select" which requests certain information from the database. In the library example, one might select (in plain English) all books written by a certain author or published after a certain date, etc.

Megan uses the device by entering an SQL query into it: "SELECT * FROM PEOPLE WHERE AGE > 30" (show all the people older than 30). It appears that the actual people around her who are over 30 are wrapped in a yellow light, which does not apply to Megan in this query. Megan then tries other experimental queries, presumably to determine whether the results are correct. First, she queries for people with a high annual income (a group that does not include her), then for those who are afraid of flying (which does include her). Because the results for herself are valid both times, she then indulges her curiosity by asking who has watched porn in the preceding twelve hours. This suggests that whatever "database" she is accessing is extremely thorough as it contains ongoing records of people's day-to-day activities.

Finally, she types "DROP TABLE PEOPLE". Drop is an SQL command to delete a table. When she enters the command the entire table disappears and because she is also in this table she disappears, too. The implications are unclear. It may be a suggestion that all of reality is a computer program, all of the people are merely "data" in the program, and Megan was somehow granted access to the database for the program. It could also be an allusion to the fact that human life is so rich, diverse & interesting, but also, extremely fragile. A government who controls much power, simply with the press of a few buttons, can erase everything that thousands or millions of people had worked so hard on.

When everything that everyone carried (cell phones, ice cream cones) drop to the ground, the tablet Megan originally found falls to the same spot it was in the first panel. Perhaps this cycle has repeated itself before, with the mysterious device on the ground, a group of people ambling in, and then someone like Megan picking up the tablet and starting the process all over again.

There is a subtle pun included here. If we were to assume that the device ''physically contains'' the table "people". When Megan tasks the device with dropping the table, it not only causes the data table to be dropped, but also the physical storage itself to be dropped.

The title text suggests the possibility that when the people disappeared or "died", their records were moved to a table called "GHOSTS". The query would then, presumably, see all the people that were deleted. In some implementations of databases deleted records are still hidden and remain until a "Ghost Cleanup Process" removes the data permanently. The title text may also allude to this process.

==Transcript==
:[Megan picks up a device.]
:Device: ''LOADED TABLE: PEOPLE''
:Device: ''ENTER QUERY''

:[Megan types into the device:] SELECT * FROM PEOPLE WHERE AGE > 30

:[Five people are highlighted.]

:[Megan types:] SELECT * FROM PEOPLE WHERE ANNUAL_INCOME > 100 000

:[One person is highlighted.]

:[Megan types:] SELECT * FROM PEOPLE WHERE AFRAID_OF_FLYING = TRUE

:[Four people, including herself, are highlighted.]

:[Megan types:] SELECT * FROM PEOPLE WHERE HOURS_SINCE_WATCHING_PORN < 12

:[Three people are highlighted.]

:Megan: Neat
:Megan: ...
:[Megan types:] DROP TABLE PEOPLE

:[Everyone disappears; the items they were holding drop to the ground.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:1330: Kola Borehole

2014-02-14T21:07:48Z

141.101.99.8:

Reminds me of the title text in #[[1218]]: Doors of Durin. [[User:Whimsye|Whimsye]] ([[User talk:Whimsye|talk]]) 06:21, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Surely this is a Dwarf Fortress reference. The Soviets breached the Happy Fun Stuff! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.5|108.162.250.5]] 06:42, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

:Well, DF ''has'' that connotation, but both the [[wikipedia:Kola_Superdeep_Borehole|real thing]] and the [[wikipedia:Well_to_Hell_hoax|hoax]] are older than Toady's game, so perhaps not so much a reference to DF (although Black Hat does propose a typically DF-player solution... I hope he's prepared for [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/FPS FPS Hell] from the flowing liquids). Randall ''[[1223|knows]]'' about DF, of course.
:(BTW, from that (first, factual event) page: "In 1983, the drill passed 12,000 m (39,000 ft), and drilling was stopped for about a year to celebrate the event." ...Russians!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.176|141.101.98.176]] 08:18, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Lakes and Oceans #[[1040]] also mentions the Kola Borehole.[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.70|199.27.128.70]] 09:03, 14 February 2014 (UTC)Nix

If Hell would be a physical place, I don't think {{w|Lucifer}} would still be ruling there. In next war between Heaven and Hell, the winners will be anime and/or computer games nerds. Both Heaven and Hell will lose. :-) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:06, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

One may recall from the ''Divine Comedy'' that Dante's imagery of Hell is a negative-mountain-shaped abyss that starts widest at the surface of our allegorical planet and ends at a point far below the surface where Satan resides. The deeper you go, the narrower the abyss gets, like a cone, and the more heinous the sinners. On the other side of the planet there is a mountain made from all that earth God removed to dig the Inferno. The Saints (all those who are saved by faith from the other fate) progress up the mountain through Purgatory to reach Paradise. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 14:01, 14 February 2014 (UTC)''

I remember reading about this in Dial the Truth ministries: http://www.av1611.org/hell.html
Either way, in the war between Earth and Hell, I shall be in Heaven. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 14:51, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

In Dante's Inferno, Hell is depicted as being a cold place since it is far from the warmth of the Creator. The modern hot version of hell is a byproduct of the fire and brimstone of the reformation period. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.254|108.162.210.254]] 16:47, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

About the kola superdeep borehole being welded-shut - that seems to be actualy true. The wikipedia page on the borehole has a picture of it being welded shut, and the reference about the bore hole project being abandonded, an article in russian[http://www.rg.ru/2008/10/15/skvazhina.html], says that it was welded shut in 1995. Could someone update that? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.8|141.101.99.8]] 21:07, 14 February 2014 (UTC)