explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2472: Fuzzy Blob

2021-06-05T10:43:45Z

162.158.158.131: /* Explanation */ Just a thought.

{{comic
| number = 2472
| date = June 5, 2021
| title = Fuzzy Blob
| image = fuzzy_blob.png
| titletext = If there's no dome, how do you explain the irregularities the board discovered in the zoning permits issued in that area!?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an UNIDENTIFIED FUZZY BLOB. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Cueball is taking a picture of his house, but sees a large fuzzy blob on the side of the picture. This blob likely comes from Cueball making the mistake of putting one of his fingers partially in front of the lens. This is a common enough occurrence with smartphones or compact cameras that an ordinary user should immediately be able to identify the problem; however, the comic derives humor from having neither Cueball nor anyone else come to this conclusion.

Likely, this comic stems from the resurgent talk of {{w|Unidentified Flying Objects}}, (UFO,) now dubbed "{{w|Unidentified Aerial Phenomena}}", or UAP. The topic regained popularity after the {{w|Department of Defense}}, (DoD,) recently [https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/04/politics/pentagon-ufo-enquiry/index.html confirmed the authenticity of 3 videos] taken by {{w|United States Navy | US Naval}} personnel. It has been much discussed in mainstream news, not just among {{w|extraterrestrial}} enthusiasts or {{w|conspiracy theorists}}, some of whom have created {{w|QAnon}} spin-off theories. (Thankfully, some people do [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FLPLeig95M4 recover].)

Randall likely wished to clarify that UAP are probably not of alien origin, and appears to be suggesting that there is a simple and obvious explanation for the objects, such as birds or dirt on the navy's camera lenses, that most people in the general public are missing and that [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2359:_Evidence_of_Alien_Life any definitive conclusion of aliens is overhyped].

The tendency to make unwarranted connections to unrelated but synchronous 'evidence' is shown in the Title Text. Investigation of this phenomena has brought to light 'irregularities' in the local {{w|Zoning|zoning permits}}, which are almost certainly just instances of mundane corruption, incompetence or inconsistency such as might be revealed in many such places once you put extra resources into investigating every trivial aspect of an area.

An alternate intention of the word 'irregularities' might be due to the necessarily zig-zaggy nature of defining a 'circular' zone footprint by drawing best-fit boundary lines only along streets, within any established grid-based system of city 'blocks'.

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

:[Cueball takes picture]

:[Below showing an image of a house with a fuzzy blob with a caption "what the..."]

:White Hat: What's that fuzzy blob next to your house? It's huge!

:Cueball: I don't know! I looked up and it was gone!

:White Hat: How can a giant structure vanish?

:White Hat: ...Cloaking device?!!

:Blondie: The fuzzy blob, dubbed "flob" by internet sleuths, has city planners stumped.

:City Planner: No, that's not any type of building I'm familiar with.

:Megan: Could be an experimental military dome.

:Hairbun: The zoning board investigation has found no evidence of a cloaked dome structure. The historical commission will be joining the research into these domes and other unusual buildings, such as the historic 4th ave church...

:Blondie: This only raises more questions.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]

Talk:2465: Dimensional Chess

2021-05-19T22:25:58Z

162.158.158.131:

How best to describe the addition of dimensions? The admirable first author goes as far as the second row, but there appear to be more... ahem... 'depths'. The first is 'sideways', though from this non-playing angle it's depthways; the second adds verticality; the third initially looks to be '4d represented in 3d' perspective (now further represented in 2d, by perspective method), but the sole cube atop confuses me; the fourth is... busy... and seems to go with a hyper(hyper)cubic continuation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.161|141.101.99.161]] 18:05, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

not quite what is demonstrated in the comic but there is a game called 5 dimensional chess with multiverse time travel --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.57.189|172.68.57.189]] 19:00, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

I think this would require 5 dimensions rather than 4 as the middle rows are 4d slices of a 5d space just as the second row is a 2d slice of a 3d space
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.193|172.69.35.193]] 20:23, 19 May 2021 (UTC)
:I see it as there being a basic 1D between the opponents. On the Nth row away from you (on your half of the board) there's an additional N lateral dimensions. Row 1, sideways (8 columns). Row 2, sideways and up/down (7 levels). Row 3, those plus some form of superimposition indicated by scale/perhaps a sub-gridlevel elevation (6 of these?). Row 4, all those plus ??? (gonna assume 5). (...Row 5=Profit?) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.131|162.158.158.131]] 22:25, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Is there an error on the top board of this image? If I look at the sequence of squares on the vertical, they alternate black/white except for the top board. Even if I were missing some aspect of the logic, I feel like there should be some symmetry between top and bottom. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.70|108.162.221.70]] 20:52, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Note that white made a horse move on the left side of the board, forward one and up two [[Special:Contributions/172.68.57.189|172.68.57.189]] 21:11, 19 May 2021 (UTC)
:There's at least one black piece on (its) row 3, possibly a knight, and both players have at least one of their pieces on (their) row 3. There are four obvious white pieces forward of the two starting ranks (with no obvious sign that these are established starting positions in this esoteric board*) so there may be a third black piece out there, obscured from clear view. Or more likely that black Knight's movement (two squares forward, three up, one sideways and 0+ squares in the fourth-way direction) is multiple moves (2f1u then 2u1s would be the most simple projected moves).
:(* - The starting ranks appear to be as per 2D chess, with white's far bishop no longer in starting position, but if that's the one now in the nearest start-level 4th rank then it must not have made just one single 2D-like bishop's move to get there, nor is it obviously a pawn brought forward (2f starter then 1f second move, with or without an en-passant), so it may not be quite so simple, or else we've seen more than 4 white moves (and 3/4 black ones). Or both plus some possible exchange of pieces already.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.131|162.158.158.131]] 22:25, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

I interpreted the comic as the first row is normal chess- 2 dimensional. The second row starts the boards above and below- 3d. The third row would be 4d, and the 4th row would be 5d. ----

Pretty sure this is just funny commentary on people making more and more complex variations of chess, Quantum Chess, 4D Chess, 5D chess with time travel etc... but part of me looks at this and goes "that could be a real game... that could actually be a good game." just me? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.20|108.162.221.20]] 21:35, 19 May 2021 (UTC) Sam

Talk:2463: Astrophotography

2021-05-15T02:43:33Z

162.158.158.131:

So are any of those "balls" actually sunspots or the transit of Venus or something?
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.227|173.245.54.227]] 22:47, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

This looks like Destin from Smarter Every Day's lunar eclipse shot

https://youtu.be/Nk0MRxXqo9s?t=610

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.78|108.162.219.78]] 23:20, 14 May 2021 (UTC)Yeedle

Destin also caught the ISS transiting during a previous eclipse: https://youtu.be/lepQoU4oek4?t=230
[[User:Astroboy|Astroboy]] ([[User talk:Astroboy|talk]]) 02:11, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

This is actually really cool. [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 02:26, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

It might have been better with two planes that didn't look like they were dangerously within normal flight separation distances. Given they're not obviously 1000ft (300m) vertically apart (and very likely in Opposite Conflict, heading-wise) horizontal separation depthwise to the image should make the two similar models towing (similarly-sized?) banners noticeably off-scale to each other, even with the extreme foreshortening from the much distant cameraman. (Maybe the viewing angle 'up the mountain' would provide sufficient composite diagonal separation to comply with Reduced Flight Levels for two planes obeying hemispherical RVSM, but still with notable off-scaling.) They could be a stunt-pair, of course, asked for and given ATC dispensation (further complicated by the banner-towing) to cross absurdly close (by normal, sane standards) as per a fast-jet criss-cross at an airshow. It might have been even more impressive if one had been a notably 'bigger' class of plane (but silouetted at the same or smaller size) towing a similarly (give or take) rescaled banner. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.131|162.158.158.131]] 02:43, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2462: NASA Award

2021-05-13T09:30:12Z

162.158.158.131:

Possibly a reference to this? (I'm sure there are other examples, though.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydonia_(Mars) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.100|172.70.34.100]] 04:25, 13 May 2021 (UTC)
:More likely it's this recent nonsense: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a36356445/mushrooms-on-mars-nasa-photos-life-on-mars/ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.229|162.158.187.229]] 05:42, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

Ironically, while many of us are still holding out for visible space fauna, practically every test we've constructed to check for the biochemical ''signs'' of life has returned positive results. Even as far back as the Viking landers, we've been sending out probes & conducting tests, designed to detect trace compositions ''only known to form via biological processes'', & over & over we find those traces right where one would expect. From otherwise inexplicably high methane production, to complex sugars forming around a distant star, it often appears that the universe may be ''teeming'' with life, & we simply haven't collected it somewhere so observable as a petri dish, yet. As near as I can tell, the only reason we haven't declared "extraterrestrial life confirmed" is because we keep raising the bar for proving it. At this rate, I feel like we could discover martian sunflowers & honeybees, & somehow there would still be some question of "Yeah, but are they really truly technically & inarguably ''alive'', exactly? What is life, anyway?" ... So far, I'm not aware of many chemical tests performed to check for signs of life in space which ''didn't'' detect signs of life?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 08:12, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

Ponytail gives a rock as a prize, but tells Hairy that from an angle it can look like a Nobel. She is using the same semantics when people look at Mars photos and recognize structures or figures in oddly shape rocks. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.131|162.158.158.131]] 09:30, 13 May 2021 (UTC)