explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2280: 2010 and 2020

2020-03-13T19:50:10Z

162.158.122.10: /* Explanation */ Basic

{{comic
| number = 2280
| date = March 13, 2020
| title = 2010 and 2020
| image = 2010_and_2020.png
| titletext = 2030: "I just bought a house for one bitcoin. No, it's the equivalent of a dollar. Houses are often transferred for a nominal fee because the buyer is taking responsibility for containing the holo-banshees in the attic."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SARS-CoV-2 VIRUS. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

White Hat, who lives in 2010, uses some kind of time machine to contact Cueball, living in 2020. White Hat wants to learn about the life in 2020, and he's partucularly interested in bitcoin and whether it becomes an acceptable currency. Cueball answeres that bitcoin still exists, and that he just bought a bottle of hand sanitizer for the price of one bitcoin. White Hat probably assumes that bitcoin is a widely accepted currency worth a few dollars, and thinks that the situation is "normal".

At the time of this comic, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, known as Coronavirus, is spreading around the world, causing thousands of people to die and billions to panic. This increased the demand for hygene products, including hand sanitizers, and therefore their prize. One bitcoin is worth a few thousand dollars, not a few dollars. Therefore, buying a hand sanitizer for a dollar is not as normal as White Hat assumes.

The price of hand sanitizers has not reached the price of a bitcoin (yet).

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

{{comic discussion}}

743: Infrastructures

2020-03-09T19:06:33Z

162.158.122.10: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 743
| date = May 21, 2010
| title = Infrastructures
| image = infrastructures.png
| titletext = The heartfelt tune it plays is CC licensed, and you can get it from my seed on JoinDiaspora.net whenever that project gets going.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has sent an essay to his bearded friend (possibly a caricature of {{w|Richard Stallman}}) who is an advocate of free and open-source software. While the essay itself was good, his friend was worried because the essay was in the {{w|Doc (computing)|.doc}} format, the {{w|Proprietary Software|proprietary format}} that old versions of {{w|Microsoft Word}} used. The friend advises Cueball to use a format based on an open standard, possibly a format like ODF, ODT, ODS, ODP, or OpenOffice XML.

Cueball, who does not appreciate his friend criticizing the file format over the actual contents of the file, accuses his friend of pedantically stirring up trouble instead of simply caring that the software works (which is what most regular users would be concerned about). Given that it can be a challenge to move from a familiar proprietary application to an open-source rival which may lack compatibility, features, support and popularity, Cueball's stance is not entirely unjustified.

The bearded guy tries to explain that he is just concerned about the current proprietary software infrastructure that forces users to use software in a specific way, penalizing them for sharing the software or even preventing looking at the source code in order to learn what the program actually does or how it works. Cueball, however, isn't buying it, and accuses his friend of having [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html an arrogance that crowds out his perspective], while also claiming that he is {{w|Autism|autistic}} - an epithet often aimed, particularly by denizens of online forums and imageboards, at people who have an intense fixation on seemingly trivial things.

Seven years later, Cueball runs to the friend, having become alarmed at Facebook's immense control and dubious policies about the personal information it collects. Since this is exactly the kind of situation the bearded guy was warning against, he sarcastically retorts by producing "the world's tiniest open-source violin". This is a twist on "{{tvtropes|WorldsSmallestViolin|playing the world's smallest violin}}", a gesture used to convey sarcastic pity at someone else's misfortune. Interestingly, the guy does actually appear to possess the physical instrument itself, which is uncommon; usually it's just a quip or gesture. This implies that the bearded guy has been carrying around the violin for this eventuality, or perhaps he uses this sarcastic expression often enough to warrant it.

The title text references the following pieces of infrastructure that are compatible with the "free software" ideology:
* [http://www.creativecommons.org Creative Commons licenses] (CC licensed) use existing copyright law to permit someone to share a creative work anywhere so long as the sharer attributes credit to the creator of the work. The particular CC license chosen may also allow for modification, derivative works, and/or commercial usage. The fellow's phrase "you can get it" in the title text is ambiguous: is he offering to share the code for the violin, or the tune that the violin plays? But since CC licenses are not used for software, we can assume "it" refers to the tune: either an audio recording of it, or perhaps source material from which to make modified versions.
* [http://joindiaspora.com joindiaspora.com] (formerly joindiaspora.net) is the central host of {{w|Diaspora (social network)| Diaspora*}}, an open-source alternative to Facebook which puts the user in control of how their information is used. Of course this sort of use of Diaspora would eliminate Cueball's concern over how Facebook handled his information. Few months after this comic released, a consumer alpha version of Diaspora* was released. A officially launched version is still not available as of 2020, so "whenever that project gets going" seems to be a pretty real view regarding the platform
* a Diaspora "seed" is a personal web server that interacts in a Diaspora "pod" of servers. It stores all of your information (such as the tune in this case) and shares it with your friends, in a way that respects your preferences around privacy, etc.

The problem with the lack of open source and Facebook is also the subject of [[1390: Research Ethics]].

==Transcript==
:2003:
:[Cueball approaches a bearded fellow.]
:Cueball: Did you get my essay?
:Bearded Fellow: Yeah, it was good! But it was a .doc; You should really use a more open-
:Cueball: Give it a ''rest'' already. Maybe we just want to live our lives and use software that ''works'', not get wrapped up in your stupid nerd turf wars.

:Bearded Fellow: I just want people to care about the infrastructures we're building and who-
:Cueball: No, you just want to feel smugly superior. You have no sense of perspective and are probably autistic.

:2010:
:Cueball: Oh my God! We handed control of our social world to Facebook and they're ''DOING EVIL STUFF!''

:Bearded Fellow: Do you see this?

:[Inset, the bearded fellow rubs his index and middle fingers against his thumb.]
:Bearded Fellow: ''It's the world's tiniest open-source violin.''

==Trivia==
* In response to this comic, a [http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3193 3D model for a tiny violin] was released as open source files.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

Talk:2271: Grandpa Jason and Grandpa Chad

2020-02-23T17:18:22Z

162.158.122.10:

Is the Title Text a callback to 2268 with the "no further research is needed" comment? [[User:Stickfigurefan|Stickfigurefan]] ([[User talk:Stickfigurefan|talk]]) 17:58, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
*That was the first thing that came to my mind. Since researching when people named Jason and Chad became grandparents is far from a top research priority, one can indeed say that further research is not "needed". That said, though, I would have liked to have seen the female counterparts, to indicate what "Grandma" names are also coming into vogue now. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.195|162.158.74.195]] 18:05, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
**Agree. I added a few sentences to that effect. To ela*borate: Enough research has been done to support the main joke which is the incongruity between what specific names implied in the 70's and what they imply today. More specific information would not improve the joke. And, let's face it, would not be very interesting. [[User:Epsilon|Epsilon]] ([[User talk:Epsilon|talk]]) 11:04, 22 February 2020 (UTC)
**Note: Should we explain *x* to any non-nerds (or, the non-nerd ?) reading this? For text rendered in plain ASCII the asterisks surrounding a word or a phrase imply that this text should have been rendered in bold. I.e. emphasized. This might not be obvious to everybody. [[User:Epsilon|Epsilon]] ([[User talk:Epsilon|talk]]) 11:04, 22 February 2020 (UTC)
*Looks like I may have edited the page at the same time as someone else. Sorry about that! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 18:41, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
*Does someone know of -- and can add to the explanation -- a reason why Jason and Chad are coming into popularity as names? In Australia, Jason Donovan was an actor who played a lead character in the popular soap "Neighbours" alongside Kylie Minogue (which is why, in Australia, we'd be getting "Grandma Kylie" coming into vogue. [[User:DrSamCarter|DrSamCarter]] ([[User talk:DrSamCarter|talk]]) 20:51, 21 February 2020 (UTC)DrSamCarter
**Well, to be precise, Jason and Chad came into popularity about 50 years ago, but I don't know why that happened at that time. While it's true that you should be seeing a bunch of "Grandma Kylie"s in Australia now, Kylie Minogue can't take the credit for that. She was born into a generation where the name was already popular. In 1970, Kylie was the 5th most popular name for baby girls in Australia, so Kylie Minogue, born in 1968, might have gone to school with a number of other Kylies, well before she joined the cast of "Neighbours" in 1986. The name Kylie didn't catch on in the U.S. until much later, so it'll be years before we see a significant number of "Grandma Kylie"s here. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.17|162.158.74.17]] 00:38, 22 February 2020 (UTC)
***{{w|Jason and the Argonauts (1963 film)|Jason and the Argonauts}} came out in 1963. Given the slower speed of film distribution, it is not farfecthed to think that some future parents were seeing it for the first time in the 70s and thought that would be a groovy name for their kids, or just watched it growing up and the name stuck with them. (Source for this being the most famous Jason: the Baby Boomers of America wouldn't talk about any other Jason while I was growing up).
:::Chad is a little harder. While there ''is'' a {{w|The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come|movie in the same time period with a protagonist named Chad}}, it was nowhere near as successful as Jason and the Argonauts. There was also a {{w|Chad Allan (musician)|famous Canadian TV host named Chad}} at the time. Since the nickname {{w|Chad (slang)|originated near the Canadian border}}, it seems like a more likely candidate.
:::--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.10|162.158.122.10]] 17:15, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

In case someone wants to do further research on The Netherlands, here's some data on first names popularity: https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/english --[[User:IByte|IByte]] ([[User talk:IByte|talk]]) 09:55, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

Current wiki link to Chad (slang) might be better changed to {{w|Chad (name)}}. And, while we're there, one could also make Jason into the {{w|Jason_(given_name)}} link or similar? ((Re-edit to say that I understand the Chad Slang link is important. Maybe put that over another useful leap-off term, letting legitimate Jasons and Chads get their own glory???)) And I find the range of ages of grandparentage to be interesting, with both friends and relatives having rushed into new generations far quicker than me. (I have... four..? first cousins twice removed, if I haven't forgotten another one of them, and I think one of ''them'' might become a parent before I do.) Or maybe I'm just taking too long to settle down? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.26|162.158.159.26]] 15:12, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

I look at that graph, then think about the fact that my grandfather was born in 1870, my father in 1918, and I in 1969 (so my grandfather was 48 when my dad was born, and would have been 99 when I was born) and if things work out and I have my first child this year I will be 51 when it is born. Who are the people having kids so young to pull that curve down so far that 50 is the *average* age for being a *grandparent?* I know there are occasional out-of-wedlock births to kids in college or even high school, but if those stats are correct that would seem to dramatically underscore the need for better sex education, and better access to birth control, in schools.
--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.139|172.69.63.139]] 07:00, 23 February 2020‎ (UTC)
:For what it's worth, I'm a millennial and my parents "had me" at 32, and it was considered "a little late in life" by their peers, even though they were just following my grandparents before them. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.10|162.158.122.10]] 17:15, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2271: Grandpa Jason and Grandpa Chad

2020-02-23T17:15:24Z

162.158.122.10:

Is the Title Text a callback to 2268 with the "no further research is needed" comment? [[User:Stickfigurefan|Stickfigurefan]] ([[User talk:Stickfigurefan|talk]]) 17:58, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
*That was the first thing that came to my mind. Since researching when people named Jason and Chad became grandparents is far from a top research priority, one can indeed say that further research is not "needed". That said, though, I would have liked to have seen the female counterparts, to indicate what "Grandma" names are also coming into vogue now. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.195|162.158.74.195]] 18:05, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
**Agree. I added a few sentences to that effect. To ela*borate: Enough research has been done to support the main joke which is the incongruity between what specific names implied in the 70's and what they imply today. More specific information would not improve the joke. And, let's face it, would not be very interesting. [[User:Epsilon|Epsilon]] ([[User talk:Epsilon|talk]]) 11:04, 22 February 2020 (UTC)
**Note: Should we explain *x* to any non-nerds (or, the non-nerd ?) reading this? For text rendered in plain ASCII the asterisks surrounding a word or a phrase imply that this text should have been rendered in bold. I.e. emphasized. This might not be obvious to everybody. [[User:Epsilon|Epsilon]] ([[User talk:Epsilon|talk]]) 11:04, 22 February 2020 (UTC)
*Looks like I may have edited the page at the same time as someone else. Sorry about that! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 18:41, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
*Does someone know of -- and can add to the explanation -- a reason why Jason and Chad are coming into popularity as names? In Australia, Jason Donovan was an actor who played a lead character in the popular soap "Neighbours" alongside Kylie Minogue (which is why, in Australia, we'd be getting "Grandma Kylie" coming into vogue. [[User:DrSamCarter|DrSamCarter]] ([[User talk:DrSamCarter|talk]]) 20:51, 21 February 2020 (UTC)DrSamCarter
**Well, to be precise, Jason and Chad came into popularity about 50 years ago, but I don't know why that happened at that time. While it's true that you should be seeing a bunch of "Grandma Kylie"s in Australia now, Kylie Minogue can't take the credit for that. She was born into a generation where the name was already popular. In 1970, Kylie was the 5th most popular name for baby girls in Australia, so Kylie Minogue, born in 1968, might have gone to school with a number of other Kylies, well before she joined the cast of "Neighbours" in 1986. The name Kylie didn't catch on in the U.S. until much later, so it'll be years before we see a significant number of "Grandma Kylie"s here. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.17|162.158.74.17]] 00:38, 22 February 2020 (UTC)
***{{w|Jason and the Argonauts (1963 film)|Jason and the Argonauts}} came out in 1963. Given the slower speed of film distribution, it is not farfecthed to think that some future parents were seeing it for the first time in the 70s and thought that would be a groovy name for their kids, or just watched it growing up and the name stuck with them. (Source for this being the most famous Jason: the Baby Boomers of America wouldn't talk about any other Jason while I was growing up).
:::Chad is a little harder. While there ''is'' a {{w|The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come|movie in the same time period with a protagonist named Chad}}, it was nowhere near as successful as Jason and the Argonauts. There was also a {{w|Chad Allan (musician)|famous Canadian TV host named Chad}} at the time. Since the nickname {{w|Chad (slang)|originated near the Canadian border}}, it seems like a more likely candidate.
:::--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.10|162.158.122.10]] 17:15, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

In case someone wants to do further research on The Netherlands, here's some data on first names popularity: https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/english --[[User:IByte|IByte]] ([[User talk:IByte|talk]]) 09:55, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

Current wiki link to Chad (slang) might be better changed to {{w|Chad (name)}}. And, while we're there, one could also make Jason into the {{w|Jason_(given_name)}} link or similar? ((Re-edit to say that I understand the Chad Slang link is important. Maybe put that over another useful leap-off term, letting legitimate Jasons and Chads get their own glory???)) And I find the range of ages of grandparentage to be interesting, with both friends and relatives having rushed into new generations far quicker than me. (I have... four..? first cousins twice removed, if I haven't forgotten another one of them, and I think one of ''them'' might become a parent before I do.) Or maybe I'm just taking too long to settle down? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.26|162.158.159.26]] 15:12, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

I look at that graph, then think about the fact that my grandfather was born in 1870, my father in 1918, and I in 1969 (so my grandfather was 48 when my dad was born, and would have been 99 when I was born) and if things work out and I have my first child this year I will be 51 when it is born. Who are the people having kids so young to pull that curve down so far that 50 is the *average* age for being a *grandparent?* I know there are occasional out-of-wedlock births to kids in college or even high school, but if those stats are correct that would seem to dramatically underscore the need for better sex education, and better access to birth control, in schools.
--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.139|172.69.63.139]] 07:00, 23 February 2020‎ (UTC)
:For what it's worth, I'm a millennial and my parents "had me" at 32, and it was considered "a little late in life" by their peers --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.10|162.158.122.10]] 17:15, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2271: Grandpa Jason and Grandpa Chad

2020-02-23T16:54:59Z

162.158.122.10: Please sign your comments

Is the Title Text a callback to 2268 with the "no further research is needed" comment? [[User:Stickfigurefan|Stickfigurefan]] ([[User talk:Stickfigurefan|talk]]) 17:58, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
*That was the first thing that came to my mind. Since researching when people named Jason and Chad became grandparents is far from a top research priority, one can indeed say that further research is not "needed". That said, though, I would have liked to have seen the female counterparts, to indicate what "Grandma" names are also coming into vogue now. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.195|162.158.74.195]] 18:05, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
**Agree. I added a few sentences to that effect. To elaborate: Enough research has been done to support the main joke which is the incongruity between what specific names implied in the 70's and what they imply today. More specific information would not improve the joke. And, let's face it, would not be very interesting. [[User:Epsilon|Epsilon]] ([[User talk:Epsilon|talk]]) 11:04, 22 February 2020 (UTC)
**Note: Should we explain *x* to any non-nerds (or, the non-nerd ?) reading this? For text rendered in plain ASCII the asterisks surrounding a word or a phrase imply that this text should have been rendered in bold. I.e. emphasized. This might not be obvious to everybody. [[User:Epsilon|Epsilon]] ([[User talk:Epsilon|talk]]) 11:04, 22 February 2020 (UTC)
*Looks like I may have edited the page at the same time as someone else. Sorry about that! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 18:41, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
*Does someone know of -- and can add to the explanation -- a reason why Jason and Chad are coming into popularity as names? In Australia, Jason Donovan was an actor who played a lead character in the popular soap "Neighbours" alongside Kylie Minogue (which is why, in Australia, we'd be getting "Grandma Kylie" coming into vogue. [[User:DrSamCarter|DrSamCarter]] ([[User talk:DrSamCarter|talk]]) 20:51, 21 February 2020 (UTC)DrSamCarter
**Well, to be precise, Jason and Chad came into popularity about 50 years ago, but I don't know why that happened at that time. While it's true that you should be seeing a bunch of "Grandma Kylie"s in Australia now, Kylie Minogue can't take the credit for that. She was born into a generation where the name was already popular. In 1970, Kylie was the 5th most popular name for baby girls in Australia, so Kylie Minogue, born in 1968, might have gone to school with a number of other Kylies, well before she joined the cast of "Neighbours" in 1986. The name Kylie didn't catch on in the U.S. until much later, so it'll be years before we see a significant number of "Grandma Kylie"s here. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.17|162.158.74.17]] 00:38, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

In case someone wants to do further research on The Netherlands, here's some data on first names popularity: https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/english --[[User:IByte|IByte]] ([[User talk:IByte|talk]]) 09:55, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

Current wiki link to Chad (slang) might be better changed to {{w|Chad (name)}}. And, while we're there, one could also make Jason into the {{w|Jason_(given_name)}} link or similar? ((Re-edit to say that I understand the Chad Slang link is important. Maybe put that over another useful leap-off term, letting legitimate Jasons and Chads get their own glory???)) And I find the range of ages of grandparentage to be interesting, with both friends and relatives having rushed into new generations far quicker than me. (I have... four..? first cousins twice removed, if I haven't forgotten another one of them, and I think one of ''them'' might become a parent before I do.) Or maybe I'm just taking too long to settle down? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.26|162.158.159.26]] 15:12, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

I look at that graph, then think about the fact that my grandfather was born in 1870, my father in 1918, and I in 1969 (so my grandfather was 48 when my dad was born, and would have been 99 when I was born) and if things work out and I have my first child this year I will be 51 when it is born. Who are the people having kids so young to pull that curve down so far that 50 is the *average* age for being a *grandparent?* I know there are occasional out-of-wedlock births to kids in college or even high school, but if those stats are correct that would seem to dramatically underscore the need for better sex education, and better access to birth control, in schools.
--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.139|172.69.63.139]] 07:00, 23 February 2020‎ (UTC)

2271: Grandpa Jason and Grandpa Chad

2020-02-23T16:52:23Z

162.158.122.10: /* Explanation */ citation needed

{{comic
| number = 2271
| date = February 21, 2020
| title = Grandpa Jason and Grandpa Chad
| image = grandpa_jason_and_grandpa_chad.png
| titletext = The AARP puts the average age of a first-time grandparent close to 50, and the CDC has some data. But I don't have first-parent age distributions for specific names, or generational first-child age correlations, so the dotted line is just a guess. Still, let's be honest: No further research is really *needed.*
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GRANDPA NAMED CHAD. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic contains three separate curves, with the x-axis being the date and the y-axis being the frequency of three separate sets of data:
* The number of people in the US with the name "Jason", a curve that reaches its maximum in 1977, when Jason became the [http://www.babynames.it/top100/1/year-1977.html second most common name] and reached the [https://www.everything-birthday.com/name/m/Jason maximum number of babies born with that name]
* The number of people in the US with the name "Chad," a similar curve that reaches its maximum in 1973, when [https://www.everything-birthday.com/name/m/Chad the number of babies named Chad reached ''its'' maximum]
* An estimate of the birth years of people that are becoming grandparents, with its maximum in 1968, 52 years ago. The title text explains this is the age at which, on average, most people become grandparents, citing an [https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/surveys_statistics/life-leisure/2019/aarp-grandparenting-study.doi.10.26419-2Fres.00289.001.pdf AARP study]
The comic exists to show the significant overlap between these names and being a grandparent.

Jason and {{w|Chad (slang)|Chad}} are names associated with stereotypical young, partying bros who couldn't care less about responsibility, so the idea that statistically some of them are now grandparents, who are stereotyped as being wise and responsible, is weird to say the least. [[2165: Millennials]] is similarly about how a label has outlived the demographic that it was used to describe, while the people described by the label have outgrown the traits that the label entails.

The title text adds a caveat to the assertion, mentioning the lack of any real evidence for the distribution of ages of Grandparents, but stands firm in the conclusion that this is the final word on the fact that there are many people who are grandparents named Jason and Chad.

Other possible caveats of the data:
* The Y-axis is in percent of the highest year, not absolute numbers. So while it jokingly implies that, in a few years, all grandparents will be named Jason and Chad, in actuality it will probably be in the order of the hundreds of thousands of people (less than 2% of [https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2017/record-number-grandparents.html all grandparents]), but still common enough compared to other "ages" to be "the age of Grandpa Jason and Grandpa Chad"
* There are many fewer [https://www.mynamestats.com/First-Names/C/CH/CHAD/index.html people whose legal name is Chad] than [https://www.mynamestats.com/First-Names/J/JA/JASON/index.html people who's legal name is Jason], so "Grandpa Jason" will probably be much more common than "Grandpa Chad"
* Since Chad is more often {{w|Chad_(name)|used as a nickname}}, it's harder to quantify exactly how many people of that age go by "Chad", so there is no practical way to know just how much more common "Grandpa Jason" will be than "Grandpa Chad"

The title text ends with the text "No further research is really *needed,*" referencing [[2268: Further Research is Needed]]. This is also a joke in itself. The emphasis on *needed* is an admission that although more research is *possible*, it would be rather pointless.

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

A progression chart covering the period of years between 1950 to 1995. One line which is dotted begins low at the start, climbs, then steeply declines. Two solid lines begin in the early 1960s, rise almost concurrently, however one declines steadily while the other has a curve almost before the end of the chart. The lines show the following data:

Birth years of people becoming grandparents this year (United States, very rough estimate)
A dotted line which begins at 1950, rises to its peak at 1970, then steeply declines to zero by the late '70s.

Birth years of people named "Jason" and "Chad" (Social Security data)
Chad: A solid line beginning at 1962, rises to its peak by 1975, then drops through the '80s and '90s. Jason crosses underneath it in 1985, but then re-crosses it in 1993.
Jason: A solid line beginning at 1963, rises to its peak between 1977-80, then declines, dropping beneath Chad around 1985 but climbing above it again in 1993.

Fun fact: We have now entered the era of "Grandpa Jason" and "Grandpa Chad."

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

861: Wisdom Teeth

2020-01-24T22:47:22Z

162.158.122.10: Added comparison to modern Minecraft options, which did not exist at the time.

{{comic
| number = 861
| date = February 16, 2011
| title = Wisdom Teeth
| image = wisdom_teeth.png
| titletext = I heard the general anesthesia drugs can cause amnesia, so when I woke up mid-extraction I started taking notes on my hand so I'd remember things later. I managed 'AWAKE BUT EVERYTHING OK' before the dental assistant managed to find and confiscate all my pens.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Wisdom teeth}}, as many people are no doubt {{w|Wisdom teeth#Post-extraction problems|painfully aware}}, are the third set of molars found in humans. Because human jaws are smaller than other ape jaws, most of us don't have room for a third set of molars, and the teeth become impacted so they grow straight into the other teeth, requiring a painful, debilitating procedure to remove them.

Because recovering from dental surgery often entails a period of rest following the operation and the use of {{w|painkillers|prescription painkillers}} (which have a tendency to make a person go a little loopy), [[Cueball]] prepares to play ''Minecraft'' the entire time. ''{{w|Minecraft}}'' is a PC game known for its addictive qualities; the game itself primarily revolves around a three-dimensional world in which the goal of the player is centered on the aspects of structural creation using blocks found in the environment and the creation of different materials for use in building these structures. Despite its addictive nature, the game doesn't provide the player with a goal, so most people take to building lots of nifty stuff, such as large cities, computers made from the game's built-in automation mechanics, massive scale replicas of Earth, etc.

Cueball's conversation with [[Megan]] indicates that he has previously decided against playing ''Minecraft'' precisely due to its addictive gameplay and lack of internal goal, deeming it unproductive. However, 'productivity' is not something that Cueball believes he can achieve post-extraction, and so Cueball decides that addictive gameplay and lack of internal goal "sounds like the perfect distraction".

Unfortunately for Megan (and any other users of her server), Cueball, while intoxicated with painkillers, has instead opted to flatten an entire continent and sort it into layers (by type of block, presumably). While there's no real indication of how big the continent is, as ''Minecraft'' worlds are randomly generated, sea level in ''Minecraft'' is at Y level 64, which means he sorted at least 65 layers of a continent large enough to be sufficiently developed, so it is clear that this task would take a lot of time. Collecting a block in ''Minecraft'' takes a certain minimum amount of time, depending on the block type, so even if he did everything as fast as he possibly could, there's still a substantial lower bound.

Ironically, in the second panel Megan says she'll set Cueball up on her server, which indicates she probably uses a whitelist to secure the server from griefers who might destroy structures created by others, not expecting that Cueball would do exactly that. The last panel simply illustrates that painkillers tend to make one loopy.

The title text refers to people waking up during surgery. Because anesthesia requires a lot of careful calibration and dosage - there's a reason anesthesiologists are paid hundreds of dollars an hour to be there, after all - it's possible to sometimes get it wrong, resulting in the patient waking up in the middle of the surgery. The three most important parts of anesthetics used for surgery are an analgesic (blocks pain), a sedative (puts you to sleep), and a paralytic (keeps you from moving). The worst-case scenario that most people hear about is when the analgesic and sedative are under-dosed, but the paralytic is correct, leaving the person awake, able to feel pain, but unable to alert the surgeons that anything is wrong. As a result, some countries and medical institutions have passed laws requiring surgeons to monitor brain activity so that these problems can be quickly remedied. The situation the title text is describing, with both the sedative and paralytic wearing out (leaving the person able to write notes), would be quite unlikely. As for confiscating all the pens, it was probably just to keep the patient from disturbing the procedure while the anesthesiologist corrected the dosage.

In reality, sorting a ''Minecraft'' map into layers (assuming the grass in the comic is at sea level—y=64 blocks) would take an unbelievable amount of time, even in creative mode, as you would have to mine away everything below that, and then sort it into layers. ''Minecraft'' maps are extremely big, so it would actually be almost impossible to sort the entire map into layers. Randall, like Cueball, has also tried to do weird things with ''Minecraft'', see [https://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ this] for more details.

In the current version of Minecraft: there is a way to create a world flattened with the option superflat world. However, this option was not avaliable at the time the comic was published, so Cueball really flattened an entire world himself. Also, in the current version, by standard, worlds are infinite, again, this was not avaliable at the time.
==Transcript==
:Cueball, on phone: Hey! Know how you've been bugging me to play Minecraft for the past year? I'm game.
:Megan, on phone: But you said you didn't want to "get hooked and spend days on end moving virtual cubes around while sitting motionless." What changed?

:Cueball, on phone: I'm having my wisdom teeth out, and I'll be useless and doped up on painkillers for the next few days, so that actually sounds like the perfect distraction.
:Megan, on phone: Oh. I'll set you up on our server!

:72 hours later...
:[Megan sitting at computer.]
:Megan, on phone: Hey — starting to feel better? Enjoying the game? Let's see what you've... What the hell? Where ''IS'' everything?

:[View of a Minecraft screen showing a vast empty expanse of land. In Cueball's hotbar is, from left to right, an stone pickaxe, sword, and shovel, seven feathers, 42 torches, a non-enchanted bow, a blank space, 64 blocks of stone and a clock. He has full health and 15 armor points.]
:Megan, offscreen: ...You made the entire continent perfectly flat?
:Cueball, offscreen: And sorted it into layers.
:Megan, offscreen: ...
:Cueball, offscreen: I feel good about things. This is a good game.

:[Cueball sitting on the floor at his laptop, bleeding from the mouth, surrounded by bloody wadded-up tissues and holding a bottle of medication.]
:Megan, on phone: ...What exactly is in the painkillers they gave you?
:Cueball, woozy: I can't read the label because I'm a hologram.

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