explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2695: Soil

2022-11-08T13:41:13Z

162.158.159.73: /* Transcript */ Replacing "on all four"(s [sic]) with a better description and other tweaks to flow.

{{comic
| number = 2695
| date = November 7, 2022
| title = Soil
| image = soil_2x.png
| imagesize = 547x217px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = You might want to bring your frost-sensitive plants in from the patio. The high-level aerosols may result in short-term cooling across the entire backyard.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an EXPLANATION SEED. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Beret Guy]] seems to be using {{w|volcano}} seeds to grow tiny volcanoes as an alternative to fertilizing [[Cueball]]'s garden. In reality, volcanoes are caused by the pressure of {{w|magma}} (underground lava) from below the Earth's crust pushing up through it, not seeds.{{Citation needed}}

Volcanic soil is [https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/volcanic-soil generally fertile] and replenishes depleted elements in the soil just like commercial fertilizers. Although as Cueball points out, despite the long-term benefits the process of eruption is destructive to whatever plants are ''presently'' in his garden. Beret Guy's announcement in the final panel resembles the voice-over from nature documentaries.

In the first panel, Beret Guy states that he "made these seeds himself", presumably using his proven-skills at [[2446: Spike Proteins|exotic bioengineering]]. It is unclear whether his volcano is capable of {{w|Plant propagation|self-propagating}} but, until his 'help' with maintaining the garden, there would probably be no particular risk of volcanic activity.

The title text alludes to the fact that sulfate {{w|aerosol}}s from volcanic eruptions may cause a [https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/volcanic-soil short-term cooling effect] because the aerosols in the atmosphere block out energy from the sun. This expands on the comedy from a small scale volcano by adding small scale volcano effects. Realistically a small supply of aerosols would be blown away and dispersed by wind. Not to mention the fact that, of course, the currently flowing lava is potentially harmful to all plants near the garden anyway.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing, holding a trowel, in a vague outdoor area. Beret Guy is kneeling, one hand on the ground, as he carefully pours the contents of a small bag into a hole in the ground with the other.]
:Cueball: Thanks for the gardening help!
:Beret Guy: I made these seeds myself!

:[Beret Guy is now standing next to a small eruption coming from the ground.]

:[Beret Guy looks down on a knee-high volcano in full eruption. It produces a large plume above and smaller clouds above that, which are mainly drifting away from Beret Guy. Lava flows down from the top of the volcano.]
:Beret Guy: The infusion of nutrient-rich volcanic soil will revitalize your garden.

:[Beret Guy spread his arms out to the sides as he looks at the now waist-high volcano. The plume is much bigger, more lava is flowing from the top and there are flames on its sides. Cueball speaks from off-panel.]
:Cueball (off-panel): All my plants are on fire.
:Beret Guy: But soon, life will return to these slopes!

{{comic discussion}}

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

1468: Worrying

2022-10-21T19:11:30Z

162.158.159.73: /* Table */ Better/more readable alternative to the prior correction (not looking like "multiple hatchets")

{{comic
| number = 1468
| date = January 2, 2015
| title = Worrying
| image = worrying.png
| titletext = If the breaking news is about an event at a hospital or a lab, move it all the way over to the right.
}}

==Explanation==
This chart is a visual representation of how worried people should be by various events in real life compared to the same events in movies, based on the likelihood of the event causing serious harm. In effect, it's poking fun at various cliches and the emphasis on dramatic flair, regardless of realism. The chart's Y-axis indicates how worrying an event is in real life (from "not very worried" to "very worried"), while its X-axis shows how worrying the event is in movies. Nine events are shown in the chart, all of them cliches in the medium of film:

*'''Spilling a drink on your shirt''': In both real life and in movies, this just causes a stain and maybe a little embarrassment.
*'''Nosebleed''': Nosebleeds are common in real life, as they can result from even a mild impact to the face, or even dried out sinuses. There are some conditions where nosebleeds can indicate something more serious (such as a stroke, or radiation poisoning), but those are vastly outnumbered by bleeds that are relatively harmless. Unless there's a reason to believe that a nosebleed is connected to something else, they rarely even require medical attention. {{tvtropes|DeadlyNosebleed|Nosebleeds in movies}} are almost always a sign that something ''is'' seriously wrong - the common, mundane nosebleeds almost never come up.
*'''Breaking news''': People in real life commonly don't pay much attention to the news at all, so many breaking stories go unnoticed until much later. Most breaking news stories are also about non-threatening events (e.g. presidential addresses) or events that are far removed from the viewer. However, in movies, "breaking news" broadcasts are almost always a means to introduce a significant plot element which directly impact the protagonists, and are usually very serious events. XKCD has referenced [[1387|news reports as foreshadowing before]].
*'''Parking ticket''': Tickets in movies are almost always ignored, but in real life, they are moderately worrying because they cost money and can tarnish your driving record.
*'''Persistent cough''': In real life, coughing fits can be a sign of serious illness, and are worth having checked out, but the large majority of them indicate only minor and common illnesses. In movies, just like with nosebleeds, a {{tvtropes|IncurableCoughOfDeath|persistent cough}} almost always indicates a potentially deadly disease.
*'''"We need to talk."''': This phrase is a common, stereotypical lead-in to a serious conversation, usually about a couple's relationship status. In real life, as in the movies, prefacing a conversation with that phrase indicate that something serious, and possibly very upsetting, is about to be discussed. such conversations are rarely deadly, but are often upsetting.
*'''Getting knocked out by a punch''': In movies, a character who is {{tvtropes|TapOnTheHead|knocked out by a punch}} always wakes up sometime later with no lasting effects, making it less cause for concern than a spilled drink. In real life, being rendered unconscious by a physical impact is extremely serious, it can result in a variety of permanent impacts, up to and including brain damage and even death.
*'''Chest wounds''': The chart mentions wounds on both your right and left sides. In real life, a chest wound to either side is extremely worrying. But in movies, getting wounded on the right side of the chest will rarely deal lasting damage to the hero or primary villain, to show how badass they are. Wounds on the ''left'' side of the chest generally signify swift death. This is likely due to the common misconception that the heart is on the left side of the chest - it is actually in the center, with a slight tendency to the left. However, even left-side chest wounds in movies are apparently still less worrisome than coughs and nosebleeds. It must also be noted that the term "chest wound" is broader than what the author of the comic appears to mean. More narrow terms of "thoracic gunshot wound", "gunshot chest wound", "thoracic ballistic trauma" or "penetrating chest wound" (the latter is slightly broader and includes the damage inflicted by blades and other impaled objects) would be more appropriate because just a "chest wound" includes such insignificant events as minor skin cuts in the chest area.

The title text expands on the aforementioned breaking news reports. While already overly worrying whenever they occur in movies compared to real life, should the movie's news report cover an event at a hospital (usually an outbreak of some major disease) or a laboratory (a monster escaping, a toxic gas released, an explosion, etc.), these events are universally much more worrisome than any other type of news story since they are guaranteed to be important for the protagonists in short order. In real life, breaking news from such locations may be more likely to be serious, but are still very unlikely to impact the viewer directly.

==Table==
The comic shows an X-Y plot of events, showing how worried you should be ''in real life'' on the vertical axis and ''in movies'' on the horizontal axis. Each axis goes from "not very worried" to "very worried".

Below is a table listing the coordinates for each event according to how worrying it is. The coordinates have been found by measuring each dot to the two axises and then assuming that the extremes are at 100%.
*Note that this gives two possible ways to interpret the Y-axis "In real life" coordinate.
**Either chest wound is at 100% - this is the first Y-axis coordinate given below under "In real life".
**But alternatively it could be the most worrisome event overall that should be set to 100% including also the most worrisome event on the X-axis for "In movies". In this case, the nosebleed event sets the 100% bar higher, thus lowering the percentage for the "In real life" events. Either way could be argued, and thus this other coordinate is given as In Real Life vs. Nose Bleed ('''IRL vs. NB''').
*For the "In movies" coordinate nosebleed is at 100%. However, since nosebleed is located past the end of the x-axis arrow it could be argued that it is this event that is off the chart in the movies. But this table will assume this as the 100% mark either overall or at least for the X-axis for "In Movies".

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! In real life !! IRL vs. NB !! In movies !! Event
|-
| 100% || 73% || 30% || Chest wound on your right side
|-
| 100% || 73% || 80% || Chest wound on your left side
|-
| 81% || 59% || 9% || Getting knocked out by a punch
|-
| 75% || 55% || 62% || "We need to talk."
|-
| 51% || 37% || 90% || Persistent cough
|-
| 28% || 20% || 8% || Parking ticket
|-
| 24% || 18% || 74% || Breaking news
|-
| 12% || 8% || 11% || Spilling a drink on your shirt
|-
| 11% || 8% || 100% || Nosebleed
|}

==Transcript==
:'''How worried should you be when various things happen to you:'''
:[A chart with a scatter plot on which 9 dots are labeled. Each axis has a title and a scale. Reading from the top to the bottom and then left to right along the axis are:]
:Very worried
:'''...In Real Life'''
:Not very worried

:Not very worried
:'''...In Movies'''
:Very worried

:[The labels in the chart from the top:]
:[This first entry is standing in the middle of a square bracket that points to the two next entires both of which are at the same level:]
:Chest wound
:...on your right side
:...on your left side
:Getting knocked out by a punch
:"We need to talk."
:Persistent cough
:Parking ticket
:Breaking news
:Spilling a drink on your shirt
:Nosebleed

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Rankings]]

2685: 2045

2022-10-17T10:12:48Z

162.158.159.73: As per Talk

{{distinguish|2045: Social Media Announcement}}
{{comic
| number = 2685
| date = October 14, 2022
| title = 2045
| image = 2045_2x.png
| imagesize = 350x457px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "Sorry, doctor, I'm going to have to come in on a different day--I have another appointment that would be really hard to move, in terms of the kinetic energy requirements."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GIGANTIC NUCLEAR FURNACE (THE SUN) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The characters are talking about upcoming total {{w|solar eclipses}}. Partial solar eclipses are fairly frequent (2–5 per year), but total eclipses are less frequent (about every 18 months), and most of them will not be in convenient locations for a particular set of people. Cueball seems to be talking about total eclipses visible in much of North America: {{w|Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024|April 8, 2024}} and {{w|Solar eclipse of August 12, 2045|August 12, 2045}}. (There's also a {{w|annular eclipse}} on October 14, 2023.) Making plans for eclipses is awkward given the uncertainty present for anything else far in the future, such as whether the attendees will have children by then, and even whether another scheduling program will catch on and replace Google Calendar.

Black Hat claims he can't make it, as he vaguely and obscurely claims he already knows he has "a thing" on August 12, 2045. People do not usually have events scheduled for precise dates that far in the future in their personal calendars and, combined with the fact that Black Hat remembers this date without checking (but also without specifying what he'll be doing then), implies that this could be another of his grand and sinister plans... or he just doesn't want to go.

The title text is someone asking to reschedule a medical appointment to see the eclipse. The eclipse is hard to move because that would require hastening or delaying it by moving the Earth, Moon or Sun, any of which would require vast amounts of energy.{{Citation needed}}

This was published a year before the next eclipse; so, if you're someone who plans things a year in advance, this serves as a reminder to put it on your calendar.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball, a friend also drawn as Cueball, Danish, and Black Hat are standing together. Danish is looking at her phone.]
:Cueball: ...And then after the one in 2024, there's another on August 12, 2045.
:Friend: We're in! We can invite our kids, assuming we have any.
:Danish: I'll create an event. Do you think we'll still be using Google Calendar in 2045?
:Black Hat: Sorry, I'd love to make it, but I have a thing that day.

:Caption: It's weird making plans for eclipses.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

2410: Apple Growers

2022-10-16T09:23:39Z

162.158.159.73: Undo revision 296820 by 172.68.175.10 (talk) rv childish vandalism

{{comic
| number = 2410
| date = January 11, 2021
| title = Apple Growers
| image = apple_growers.png
| titletext = Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll be able to resume our apple-focused updates, because we have SO MUCH to say about Cosmic Crisp.
}}

==Explanation==

On 2021-01-06, a group of supporters of President {{w|Donald Trump}} {{w|2021 storming of the United States Capitol|stormed the United States Capitol}} while Congress was in session to certify the results of the {{w|2020 United_States_presidential_election|2020 election}}, in which President Trump lost a bid for re-election. The attack resulted in an evacuation of Congress, a disruption of the operations of the legislature, and the deaths of several people. While Trump was not directly involved with the riot, he has been accused of contributing to it by consistently refusing to accept the election results, claiming that his opponent's victory was fraudulent, and using inflammatory rhetoric when speaking to his supporters. As a result, officials from both major political parties have called upon Trump to resign, and other avenues to remove him from office have been proposed. At the time of publication, Trump's second impeachment had been mooted but it, and all other events that followed, had not yet happened.

Normal American life, already strained under the [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19 pandemic]], was dealt another blow by the conflict. Normally planned events continue to be held, but the shadow of current events impacts everything. This comic depicts one such event, a news conference hosted by the State Apple Growers (of an unspecified state). This group apparently had a scheduled meeting to discuss apple variety standards, but their meeting was instead dominated by discussions of events in government, resulting in them issuing a formal statement calling upon President Trump to resign. This statement obviously has nothing to do with apples,{{Citation needed}} and when pressed, the spokesperson makes generic statements in favor of apples, but points out that they're too distracted by more urgent matters to focus on their normal jobs.

This strip appears to be based on a number of private companies and other organizations without specific political missions, which nonetheless felt the need to respond to the event. Famously, both {{w|Twitter}} and {{w|Facebook}} banned the president from their platforms in the aftermath. The events of the strip are reminiscent of {{w|Signature Bank}} and the {{w|National Association of Manufacturers}} calling on Trump to resign. [https://www.axios.com/business-donations-capitol-riot-0b4e26df-ee16-4d5c-9604-e9a3c1e3f284.html Many national brands] released statements of condemnation and announced plans to cut political contributions for legislators who voted against certification of the election results. The joke appears to be that even small and local organizations feel compelled to weigh in on an issue of this significance, even though their influence in the matter is likely minimal.

{{w|Cosmic Crisp}}, mentioned in title text, is a variety of apples developed in the Washington State University that has been on sale since 2019, amid a large marketing campaign. The implication of the title text is that the people involved ''are'' in fact, very interested in and concerned with details of apple cultivation and marketing, and hope to return to a state in which they they can focus on those. But the more immediate draw of events makes it difficult to focus on what they usually like to talk about.

[[Beret Guy]] is shown to be a member of the State Apple Growers' Association; in [[2209: Fresh Pears]], he sells "fresh pears" (so fresh, he doesn't even plant seeds until a customer pays for one) and expresses an interest in growing apples, and evidently has either figured out robotic grafting or chosen another approach (or maybe, given his usual eccentricity, he is only a member of the Association as an ''aspiring'' apple grower). This is one of very few comics with [[Beret Guy]] where he is not really doing anything, although this is also a weird turn of events that the Apple Growers discuss Trump. However, usually Beret Guy is not interested in real-life problems.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Cueball stand on either side of Megan with her hair unkempt. They stand behind a lectern with an image of an apple on the front of it. Unreadable text is written on both side of the apple in two rows.]
:Megan: *Ahem*
:Megan: The state apple-growers' association has decided to formally call on President Donald Trump to resign.

:[A wider shot shows Beret Guy, Megan, and Cueball on a podium behind the lectern. The visible audience consist of a Cueball-like guy, Hairy, and Ponytail, who is holding a microphone to her mouth as she addresses those on the podium.]
:Ponytail: Weren't you meeting to update the standards for new apple varieties?
:Megan: Yes, but we talked it over and this is what we decided.
:Megan: We feel strongly that this is important.

:[There is a narrow shot with a zoom in on Megan.]
:Ponytail (off-panel): Did you discuss anything on your actual agenda?
:Megan: Thanks for the question!
:Megan: We did not.

:[Beret Guy, Cueball and Megan is again seen from the front behind the lectern, Megan's hair even more unkempt.]
:Ponytail (off-panel): Do you have any apple-related announcements at all?
:Megan: Uh, apples are great. Best fruit. Everyone should buy 1,000 of them.
:Megan: '''''We're a little distracted right now, okay??'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Trump]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Politics]]

[[Category:Public speaking]]

1976: Friendly Questions

2022-10-16T09:22:11Z

162.158.159.73: Undo revision 296818 by 172.68.174.183 (talk) reverting a vandali-revert

{{comic
| number = 1976
| date = April 4, 2018
| title = Friendly Questions
| image = friendly_questions.png
| titletext = Just tell me everything you're thinking about in order from most important to last, and then we'll be friends and we can eat apples together.
}}

==Explanation==
A common theme in xkcd is [[:Category:Social interactions|social awkwardness]]. Oftentimes [[Cueball]]/[[Randall]] will grossly overthink casual social interactions, such as small talk.

In this comic, Cueball has prepared a note to himself, preparing for the said small talk with [[Hairy]], but it ultimately backfires. This is very similar to the comic [[1961: Interaction]] which came out just 5 weeks before this one. And a similar interaction between Cueball and Hairy occurs in [[1917: How to Make Friends]] from less than half a year before this comic.

In this comic, Cueball has prepared for a conversation with Hairy, by writing an instructional note for himself. The note tells him to start the conversation by asking some questions about the other person. In theory, this is perfectly good conversational advice; unfortunately, Cueball's understanding of social interactions is so abstract that he actually has no idea ''what'' questions to ask. He hastily improvises a question about the number of apples Hairy has eaten in his lifetime, which, although it does meet the criteria suggested by the note, is not a particularly interesting or meaningful question to ask someone. Cueball realizes from Hairy's reaction that he has made a mistake, and decides to abort the interaction.

Normally, one would ask questions such as "How are you?" or "What have you been up to lately?", instead of asking random facts of someone else's life, such as "How many apples have you eaten in your life?"{{Citation needed}}

The title text continues to show the flaws in Cueball's approach to social interaction, which is very systematic: he seems to trying to create some kind of reproducible methodology that he can follow in order to carry out a conversation, unaware that conversations tend to be spontaneous and do not follow rigidly defined rules. Additionally, one of the main points of conversation is to gain some understanding of the other person; by focusing on the conversation ''itself'', Cueball is denying the very purpose of the interaction.

A slight side-joke is the list being numbered despite only containing one item, although this could imply that Cueball has other notes that he would have continued to refer to if the first one produced a successful result.

The advice to "Ask them about themselves", specifically noted as the "first thing" after introducing yourself, was promoted to overcome society anxiety in the {{w|Periscope}}-based videocast of {{w|Scott Adams}}, creator of the ''{{w|Dilbert}}'' comic strip (see audio-only podcast [http://blog.dilbert.com/2018/04/04/episode-12-youtube-shooter-amazon-com-trade-war-and-overcoming-social-anxiety/]). Given Randall's personality and previous professional vocation (working with nerds at {{w|NASA}} and in academia), it is highly likely he would be a fan of the strip and also the creator's related works such as Adams's blog, Twitter feed, and the like. The real coincidence is the videocast in question likely occurred ''just a day before this comic was published''; the audio was published the same day as the comic and usually delays the video by a day.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Hairy meet each other.]
:Cueball: Hey!
:Hairy: Oh, hi!

:[Cueball looks down at a sticky note in his hand.]

:[The yellow sticky note reads:]
:Normal human conversation
:<hr width="150" style="background-color:black" align="left">
:1. Ask them about themselves

:[Cueball looks at Hairy.]
:Cueball: How many...apples...have you eaten?
:Hairy: ...Like, in my life?
:Cueball: Yes.
:Hairy: ...
:Cueball: ...I should go.
:Hairy: OK.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

2682: Easy Or Hard

2022-10-11T09:36:22Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ I'm not sure that original phrasing is valid (could be dialect!), but this one definitely is.

{{comic
| number = 2682
| date = October 7, 2022
| title = Easy Or Hard
| image = easy_or_hard_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x400px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "Friction-driven static electrification is familiar and fundamental in daily life, industry, and technology, but its basics have long been unknown and have continually perplexed scientists from ancient Greece to the high-tech era. [...] To date, no single theory can satisfactorily explain this mysterious but fundamental phenomenon." --Eui-Cheol Shin et. al. (2022)
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE EIFFEL TOWER TAKING A TYLENOL - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic uses a table to compare the perceived difficulty of various questions with how easily they're answered in real life. [[Randall]] has a long history of comics with similar themes, comparing perceptions to reality. In this case, both the perception and the reality are divided into three levels of difficulty, giving a total of nine categories. Accordingly three of the problems listed are effectively as difficult as one would expect, and the remaining six are not. All three of the questions whose answers are "actually pretty easy to find out" relate to the Eiffel Tower, though there's no apparent theme among the other six questions.

It's likely that this comic was at least partially inspired by writing the books ''[[How To|How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems]]'', [[what if|''What if?'', and ''What If? 2'']], the latter of which was published just a few weeks before this comic. These books involve answering very elaborate questions from a scientific point of view. This process likely emphasized that some really strange questions are actually difficult to answer, while some questions that seem simple continue to confound scientific knowledge. ''What if? 2'' mentions the fact that no one understands why static charges separate.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Question !! Perceived Difficulty !! Real Difficulty !! Explanation
|-
|How tall is the Eiffel Tower?||Easy||Easy||The height of any structure that can be easily observed can be calculated without much difficulty. The Eiffel Tower was constructed to be the centerpiece of the {{w|1889 World's Fair}}. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest man-made structure on earth, which meant that its height was widely publicized since it was first constructed (312m when constructed, and now 330 meters, or 1083 feet, with the antenna added later on). This number is widely published, and easily confirmed.
* albeit with a ±6 inch differential depending on local air temperature; as the Eiffel Tower is built out of cast steel, it expands according to how much heat builds up in the metal, which in turn is derived from the intensity & daily duration of the sun's energy. It can also be argued that the number given above is due to rounding, and at sub-millimetrical lengths, the tower's exact height is fluctating constantly as a result of the aforementioned thermal expansion.
|-
|Where was Mars in the sky from Paris on the day the Eiffel Tower opened?||Difficult||Easy||The date of the opening of the tower to the public is well known (May 6, 1889). Since the motions of the planets are predictable, it's clear that calculating the answer should be possible, but it involves enough factors that one might expect it to be very difficult. However, thanks to the existence of [https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php?no_cookie=1&latitude=48.85&longitude=2.35&timezone=1.00&year=1889&month=5&day=6&hour=9&min=0&PLlimitmag=2&zoom=182&ra=3.78242&dec=20.26465 online tools], which automatically calculate exactly this sort of thing, finding the answer is quite easy. (It was in the constellation of Taurus, and extremely close to where the Sun also was in the sky during that time so probably not easily directly observable). Alternately, to use the tools available at the time, one might check a nautical almanac for 1889, which gives the position of the major planets (and various other celestial bodies) in the sky throughout the year.
|-
|How much does the {{w|Eiffel Tower}}'s gravity deflect baseballs in Boston?||Near Impossible||Easy||This problem sounds extremely specific and esoteric, concerning an effect far too small for direct experimentation. But in theory, it's actually a very simple physics problem. {{w|Newton's law of universal gravitation|Gravitational acceleration}} is determined entirely by masses and distance, and here even the mass of the baseball can be ignored. Since the mass of the Eiffel Tower and the geographic details of both the tower in Paris and any given location in Boston (perhaps {{w|Fenway Park}}, a famous baseball stadium) are easy to look up, the calculation is quite simple.
|-
|How does {{w|general anesthesia}} work?||Easy||Difficult||While biology is always complex, inducing unconsciousness seems relatively simple. In fact, keeping a person unconscious and insensate without causing permanent damage or death is a difficult proposition, requiring a medical specialist. Despite this field being well-established, it might surprise people to know that {{w|Theories of general anaesthetic action|the mechanism of general anesthesia}} is still the subject of research, and recent studies have revealed things that we didn't previously understand.
|-
|How many ants are there?||Difficult||Difficult||While the existence of ants is a mundane part of life for many people, there are so many of them that coming up with a total number of ants in the whole world sounds exceedingly difficult. It is, in fact, a difficult problem, but experts have done a significant amount of work and have come up with well-founded estimates [https://phys.org/news/2022-09-ants-earth-quadrillion.html in the range of 20 quadrillion ants on earth].
|-
|What time of year did the Cretaceous impact happen?||Near Impossible||Difficult||The "Cretaceous impact" (the {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event}}) happened approximately 66 million years ago. The margins of error on calculating something that ancient are necessarily thousands of years wide at least, so the notion of determining the time of year seems far-fetched. In fact, the problem is a difficult one, but many of the animals killed in the impact were fossilized, and comparing those fossils to modern-day animals at different points in their seasonal growth cycles has led to [https://www.science.org/content/article/springtime-was-season-dinosaurs-died-ancient-fish-fossils-suggest the suggestion that the impact happened in the northern-hemisphere spring.]
|-
|Why does your hair get a static charge when you rub it with a balloon?||Easy||Near Impossible||Inducing a {{w|Static electricity|static charge}} by {{w|Triboelectric effect|rubbing together two materials}} is a method that's been known since ancient times. Since human hair has a marked tendency to develop a positive charge, and the latex commonly used in balloons tends to develop a negative charge, rubbing the two together is a very simple way to create an electric field. This process is so simple that it's used for both party tricks and as a fun demonstration of electrical phenomena. Because of this simplicity, most people would assume that the phenomenon is well understood. So it's surprising that the actual mechanism remains an unsolved problem in physics. This also has previously been mentioned in [[1867: Physics Confession]]. The title text quotes [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360674587_Derivation_of_a_governing_rule_in_triboelectric_charging_and_series_from_thermoelectricity a paper] explaining that, as common as this phenomenon is, there's still no theory that can adequately explain what we observe.
|-
|How does {{w|Tylenol (brand)|Tylenol}} work?||Difficult||Near Impossible||Tylenol is a brand name for {{w|Paracetamol|paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen}}, a drug commonly sold without prescription for pain relief and fever reduction. This drug has been widely used since 1950, and has been well established as being both effective and safe when used properly. Although one would expect the biological mechanism for any drug to be complicated, most people would assume that a drug that's been widely used and studied for so long to be well-documented. Surprisingly, however, the precise action still isn't fully understood.
|-
|How can {{w|Theory of relativity|relativity}} be reconciled with {{w|quantum mechanics}}?||Near Impossible||Near Impossible||This remains one of the {{w|Theory of everything|great unsolved questions}} in physics. The problem sounds almost unsolvable to laypeople, and remains unsolved even to experts in the field.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Actually pretty easy to find out !! Very hard, but there have been recent breakthroughs !! Extremely hard, currently unsolved
|-
! Sounds borderline unsolvable
|How much does the Eiffel Tower's gravity deflect baseballs in Boston?||What time of year did the cretaceous impact happen?||How can relativity be reconciled with quantum mechanics?
|-
! Sounds pretty hard, but you'd assume someone knows
|Where was Mars in the sky from Paris on the day the Eiffel Tower opened?||How many ants are there?||How does Tylenol work?
|-
! Sounds like it would be easy to look up
|How tall is the Eiffel Tower?||How does general anesthesia work?||Why does your hair get a static charge when you rub it with a balloon?
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Ants]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

2669: Things You Should Not Do

2022-10-10T08:43:58Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ wlink, etc

{{comic
| number = 2669
| date = September 7, 2022
| title = Things You Should Not Do
| image = things_you_should_not_do.png
| titletext = Now I'm tempted to start telling people that I secretly don't actually know how to do any physics calculations, and so all the answers in What If are based on me actually trying to do the thing and then reporting what happened, but phrased as if it's hypothetical.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SUNSCREEN BALL. Seem people forget that he learned this from writing the new book, thus no reason to assume they reference old stuff, for instance see the update to the peel the planets crust away, that clearly is a reference to a new what if in the book. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic references various questions submitted to be used in the [[what if|''what if?'']] blog/books. In particular, promoting [[Randall]]'s new book, ''What if? 2'' (released 6 days after the date of this comic publication). This comic has a list of things not to do, an extension of a previous list, and is purportedly things Randall discovered as he was doing research for his book. A visit to the [https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ What If? archive] shows the titles, publishing date, and a thumbnail for each article. Many of the acts described under the "new" section of the list are depicted in these thumbnails (see table below); others are references to examples or hypotheticals explored within the articles. The entries are all in order of their appearance in the book.

The title text says that Randall is tempted to tell people that all the things in the book were things that he actually tried to do, not that he calculated the solutions for their problems. Many of the questions and answers in his new book are impossible to attempt in real life.{{citation needed}}

===Table of things you should not do===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Number !! Entry !! ''What If? 2'' section referenced !! Explanation
|-
! colspan="4" | From existing list
|-
|156,812
|Eat Tide Pods
|N/A
|{{w|Consumption of Tide Pods|Tide Pod}}s are a brand of laundry detergent sold in small packets ("pods") of water-soluble gel. Many children have tried to eat them, thinking them to be candy, and have had to go to the hospital to treat poisoning. In 2017 and 2018, a satirical "challenge" originated around eating Tide Pods.
|-
|156,813
|Walk on stilts in a thunderstorm
|N/A
|Taller objects are more likely to be struck by lightning, so walking on stilts outdoors would increase the risk of death by electrocution. It would also presumably risk falling and injuring oneself that way, since the ground becomes wet in a rainstorm.
|-
|156,814
|Set off fireworks at a gas station
|N/A
|This has the risk of potentially causing an explosion in the gas station, from the sparks of the fireworks.
|-
|156,815
|Feed your cat treats that are the exact shape and texture of a human hand
|N/A
|This probably runs the risk of the cat attempting to eat your hand, instead of a cat treat.
|-
! colspan="4" | New!
|-
|156,816
|Lean over a geyser vent and try to look down into it
|Geyser
|Geysers shoot steam and hot water upward. If a person were to lean over the geyser and look down during an eruption, they would be struck in the face by this hot liquid and gas mixture and severely injured or killed. This is a reference to the question from ''What-If? 2'' (called, appropriately enough, "Geyser"), in which it is asked what might happen to a person if they stood on top of the Old Faithful geyser as it erupted.
|-
|156,817
|Fly a hot-air balloon over a firing range
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/81/ Catch!]
|A hot air balloon could present an irresistible target to the people firing their weapons at the range. The balloon could be shot and you could fall to your death.
|-
|156,818
|Peel away the earth's crust
|Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way
|This is a reference to an entry in the new book, and an image of what it would look like is shown in [[2575: What If? 2]], where a potato peeler is used to remove the crust of the Earth. Several *What If* blog posts also result in massive damage to the earth's crust, including what happened to Texas [https://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ here].

This is a reference to a chapter from the new book, which refers to removing the Earth's mass to lose weight.
|-
|156,819
|Try to paint the Sahara Desert by hand
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/84/ Paint the Earth]
|This would be difficult and require more paint than humanity has ever produced.
|-
|156,820
|Remove someone's bones without asking
|Short Answers #2
|A reference to a short answer question in ''What If? 2''.
|-
|156,821
|Spend 100% of your government's budget on mobile game in-app purchases
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/108/ Expensive Shoebox]
|A reference to one of the examples listed in the answer.
|-
|156,822
|Fill a lava lamp with actual lava
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/122/ Lava Lamp]
|A {{w|lava lamp}} is a glass lamp, which contains a wax mixture inside, and heats so that the wax rises and falls. Putting actual lava inside a regular lava lamp would most likely cause the lamp to melt and the glass to shatter, not to mention handling lava is very dangerous.{{citation needed}} However, in this entry, Randall says it would be fairly easy to find a material that would be able to handle the heat of the lava and thus this would be rather anticlimactic.
|-
|156,823
|Drink the blood of someone with a viral hemorraghic (''sic'') fever
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/98/ Blood Alcohol]
|Drinking someone else's blood is a bad idea unless you are a vampire. If someone has a {{w|viral hemorrhagic fever}}, it is much worse, as they have a very serious and likely deadly disease which can be transmitted by sharing bodily fluids, such as blood. Drinking blood is the theme of this answer.
|-
|156,824
|Eat meat from rabid animals
|Short Answers #4
|Eating meat from rabid animals could give you {{w|rabies}}, a virus which is nearly always fatal if not treated prior to the appearance of initial symptoms. Pathogen contamination in cooked foods can persist on the surface of ''e.g.'' tongs, chopsticks, or a fork used to grill, which is why the USDA doesn't generally allow kitchen utensils to touch raw or ready to eat foods at all. Exceptions for utensils which touch only raw or partially cooked foods, such as grill spatulas and the like, are often allowed and can be negotiated on a case-by-case basis when they would otherwise be prohibited. The rabies virus permeates essentially all nerve tissue before symptoms appear.
|-
|156,825
|Perform your own laser eye surgery
|Eyeball
|Refers to an answer in the book regarding seeing your own eyeball as well as the end of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/82/ this answer]
|-
|156,826
|Tell California poultry regulators that your farm is selling Pokemon eggs
|Read All the Laws
|While issuing false statements to government regulators is a violation of both California and Federal law, for which prison sentences can reach ten years and fines can reach ten thousand dollars plus any compensatory damages, as per [https://california.public.law/codes/ca_penal_code_section_132 California Penal Code § 132] and [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001 18 U.S. Code § 1001], there is some question about whether any competent regulatory authority would ever take such an assertion seriously, and whether they would be liable for greater damages for doing so than the potential liability of the original culprit involved. Actually doing this, even to county level regulators, could result in a series of events very disadvantageous to you, your farm, and your employees. However, declaring that you're producing Pokémon eggs to your local municipality is probably harmless, and likely to brighten the day of your local regulators.{{cn}} Furthermore, as mentioned in ''What If? 2'', [https://california.public.law/codes/ca_food_and_agric_code_section_27637 California Food and Agricultural Code § 27637] bars anyone from making false or misleading statements about eggs, and Poké Balls could be considered a type of egg.
|-
|156,827
|Funnel the entire flow of Niagara Falls into the open window of a physics lab
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/147/ Niagara Straw]
|An oblique reference to the image near the end of this answer.
|-
|156,828
|Pump ammonia into your abdomen
|Ammonia Tube
|{{w|Ammonia}} is an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPA_list_of_extremely_hazardous_substances extremely hazardous substance] and pumping it into your abdomen would result in a painful death due to ammonia toxicity. As the book mentions, however, at the very least some of it would be neutralized with your stomach acid.
|-
|156,829
|Suspend yourself inside a 10-meter ball of sunscreen and fall into the Sun
|Sunscreen
|Despite its name, sunscreen only protects against some types of radiation from the sun. No amount is going to be adequate protection if you are right inside the sun.{{Actual citation needed}} Also, sunscreen, being a gel, would evaporate when exposed to vacuum. When exposed to the plasma of the coronal surface or the Sun's interior, it would quickly ionize along with anything inside it, becoming plasma like the rest of the Sun.
|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption:]
:Updates to my "Things You Should Not Do" list, based on what I learned writing ''What If? 2''
:(out 9/13, xkcd.com/whatif2)

:[The rest of the text appears in a box.]

:<big>Things You Should Not Do</big> 
:(part 3647 of ????)

:[A numbered list, the first four items in a lighter grey]

:<nowiki>#156,812 Eat Tide pods</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,813 Walk on stilts in a thunderstorm</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,814 Set off fireworks at a gas station</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,815 Feed your cat treats that are the exact shape and texture of a human hand</nowiki>

:[A horizontal divider with the text "''New!''" in the middle in black. The remaining items on the list are also in black.]

:<nowiki>#156,816 Lean over a geyser vent and try to look down into it</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,817 Fly a hot air balloon over a firing range</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,818 Peel away the Earth's crust</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,819 Try to paint the Sahara Desert by hand</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,820 Remove someone's bones without asking</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,821 Spend 100% of your governments budget on mobile game in-app purchases</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,822 Fill a lava lamp with actual lava</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,823 Drink the blood of someone with a viral hemorraghic fever</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,824 Eat meat from rabid animals</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,825 Perform your own laser eye surgery</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,826 Tell California poultry regulators that your farm is selling Pokemon eggs</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,827 Funnel the entire flow of Niagara Falls into the open window of a physics lab</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,828 Pump ammonia into your abdomen</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,829 Suspend yourself inside a 10-meter ball of sunscreen and fall into the sun</nowiki>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Cats]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

what if

2022-10-10T08:41:47Z

162.158.159.73: Mostly, I suppose.

{{xkcdmeta}}
<noinclude>:''For other instances of this title, see [[What If (disambiguation)]]</noinclude>.
[[File:whatifbanner.jpg|200px|right|]]

'''''[http://what-if.xkcd.com/ what if?]''''' is a blog hosted on the [[xkcd]].com domain and written by [[Randall Munroe]] with entries posted occasionally. Before publishing the first ''what if?'' book, articles were posted weekly.

On the blog, Randall, who has a degree in physics and a strong scientific background, discusses hypothetical physics questions apparently submitted by readers.

Since 2014, there's also a book of the blog.

In 2022 the follow up book ''What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions'' was released on September 13. This was announced on xkcd on January 31st when the comic [[2575: What If? 2]] came out. This came out after a three week countdown revealing the image from the cover of the new book over 136 frames released with about 4 hours between each frame. This has become known as the [[Countdown in header text]], see all details on that page. Later he released a different countdown with comic [[2636: What If? 2 Countdown]].

Unlike other sites which answer readers' questions, ''what if?'' typically takes the question beyond the original scope likely intended by the reader and takes it to some extreme for humorous effect. For example, in {{what if|1|the first article}}, he discusses what would happen if a baseball were pitched at 90% of the speed of light. After effectively describing what would occur as a nuclear explosion, leveling the stadium and the surrounding mile radius, he concludes with the note ''"A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered 'hit by pitch', and would be eligible to advance to first base."''

The questions Randall tackles range from realistic possibilities (e.g. the probability of achieving a {{what if|2|perfect SAT score by guessing}}) to completely fictional questions (e.g. {{what if|3|How much Force power}} can {{w|Yoda}} output?). In his explanations, Randall, often uses diagrams in an ''xkcd'' style. Regardless of the context, Randall tends to take the questions extremely literally and responds seriously to them, even if they are whimsical (such as the Yoda question). This is clear from his response to the question of what would happen if everybody on Earth stood together and {{what if|8|jumped at the same time}}. After acknowledging that the question has been answered elsewhere, he recaps the result, but then focuses more intently on the unasked resulting issue of the aftermath of everyone on Earth being magically transported to one location as they all try to return home.

This site is not under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License] like [[xkcd]] is.

==The book==
[[File:WhatIfBanner.png|290px|right]]
[[Image:What_If?.jpeg|300px|right|thumb|The general cover of the book]]
[[Image:whatifcover.jpg|260px|right|thumb|The alternate cover of the book]]
Randall announced his ''what if?'' book on 12 March 2014 in [http://blog.xkcd.com/2014/03/12/what-if-i-wrote-a-book/ the blag]. It was published on September 2, 2014, and the UK edition of the book was published on September 4, 2014. It is the 2nd book published by Randall.
It is just like 'xkcd:volume 0' a compilation of some questions from the website, but half of them are new.

In the UK edition of the book, Randall included a preface about his thoughts on the units used in the UK. (The Metric System)

===Summary===
====General====
Randall Munroe left NASA in 2005 to start up his hugely popular site XKCD 'a web comic of romance, sarcasm, math and language' which offers a witty take on the world of science and geeks. It now has 600,000 to a million page hits daily. Every now and then, Munroe would get emails asking him to arbitrate a science debate. 'My friend and I were arguing about what would happen if a bullet got struck by lightning, and we agreed that you should resolve it . . . ' He liked these questions so much that he started up What If.

*If your cells suddenly lost the power to divide, how long would you survive?
*How dangerous is it, really, to be in a swimming pool in a thunderstorm?
*If we hooked turbines to people exercising in gyms, how much power could we produce?
*What if everyone only had one soulmate?
*When (if ever) did the sun go down on the British empire?
*How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?
*What would happen if the moon went away?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, studded with memorable cartoons and infographics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion. Far more than a book for geeks, WHAT IF: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much the smarter for having read.

====UK edition====
''Hey! Thanks for looking at my book. If you're thinking about buying it, here are some things you might want to know:''

Humans can't digest the cellulose in paper, but if we could, eating this book would give you about 2,300 calories (including the cover).

This book can't stop most bullets; if you want to use it for armour, you may want a lot more than one copy.

If you have a good arm, you could probably throw this book about 45 feet. With practice, it's possible to throw a book every 800 milliseconds, which means that if human attackers are sprinting towards you, you'll have three or four chances to hit them before they reach you. If, on the other hand, you're being attacked by a coyote, it's higher top speed means you'll have only one chance to hit it. Aim carefully.

''HIDDEN FEATURE: The inside of this book has words and pictures, plus a special UK foreword.'' It answers many important questions, including whether you could jump from a plane with a helium tank and inflate balloons fast enough to slow your fall and survive (yes) and whether you could hide from a supersonic windstorm in Finland (yes, but it won't help).

==Trivia==
*There is an easy way to link to a given what if? story by using [[Template:what if|a template]]. For instance, write the following:
**<nowiki>See the [[what if]] ''{{what if|147|Niagara Straw}}''.</nowiki>
*Copy paste the above text and correct the number and the title to get this result:
**See the [[what if]] ''{{what if|147|Niagara Straw}}''.
*There used to be an article called ''Peptides'' but it disappeared, leaving ''Hide the Atmosphere'' in its place.

==Release schedule==
*The two first articles were released on the same day, Tuesday July 10, 2012, probably to get the blog going, and let users of xkcd see that there was going to be more.
**After that they were released weekly for almost three years, with just a few times with two (and once three) weeks between releases, up until article 136 was released on April 12, 2015 (2 years and 40 weeks).
**First after 25 releases was there a two week Christmas break before article 26 was released on December 31, 2012.
**After that there were five more two weeks break, one three week break (before December 11, 2014) and two releases in a row (133-134 towards the end of this period of 136 articles), where the release dates where shifted so the two came out over three weeks' time with about 1.5 weeks between them.
**The second break came a year after the first and was also a Christmas break before article 77 was released on December 31, 2013
**Then from August 2014 there came several two week breaks, one in August, one in September and two in November, the last lasting three weeks into December, and on top of that the normal two weeks Christmas break.
**After this less orderly period there came a period of 10 weeks in a row with 10 releases starting on January 1, 2015.
*The release day was fixed to once a week on a given weekday, except for a few articles that were delayed a day (or two) in one week, but then next week's article would again be released on the normal day.
**To begin with the release day was '''Tuesdays''', and the third article was released a week after the first two on Tuesday July 17, 2012.
**The release day shifted to '''Wednesday''' from article 100 released on Wednesday June 11, 2014.
**The release day shifted once more to '''Thursday''' from article 117 released on Thursday October 23, 2014.
**The final six articles in this period were released on four different week days, only two of them with one week apart.
*The result of the above is that over the first 144 weeks 136 articles where released with never more than 3 weeks between releases. As the first two were released on week 1, this means that there were 134 articles released over the next 143 weeks, meaning there were only 9 weeks without an article.
*After article 136 was released on April 12, 2015, Randal took a '''13 week break''' from updates until July 14, 2015.
**At the time Randall wrote a note stating "What If updates are temporarily on hold, and will resume on July 14th, 2015 at 7:49:59 AM EDT."
**This was the date and time that the {{w|New Horizons}} probe achieved its closest approach to {{w|Pluto}}.
**The article 137 from July 14, 2015 was about the New Horizons probe.
*After the break only three articles were released, two more were released after article 137 over three weeks, the last article 139 released on August 4, 2015.
**But then there were '''two more breaks''', so only one more article was released in 2015, with article 150 released after more than 6 weeks on September 18, 2015.
*First after 17 more weeks releases began again with article 141 on Tuesday January 16, 2016.
**After that articles began coming out regularly with a total of 9 releases out before the end of March 2016, mainly on Tuesdays to begin with, then one on a Friday before the last two came on Saturdays with two weeks breaks before each, the last being article 149 on March 26, 2016.
*Since then only three more articles were released in 2016, the first two with about 8 weeks between them and then more than 12 weeks.
**So during the summer of 2016, it seemed it was down to about one release every two months but then it increased.
*The what if? has not stopped but the first comic in 2017 (#153, January 30, 2017) came almost 15 weeks after the last in 2016, more than three months between releases. This was so far the second longest break.
**But the next one (#154) was indeed released only a bit more than week after the one with 15 weeks break, and then less than 3 weeks after followed yet an article on February 28 2017.
**It was almost a year ago that two comics had been released with less than two full weeks between them (that was #147 released February 26, 2016). In the year following that release only 8 articles where released including both #147 and #154.
**Interesting to see if they will begin appearing regularly again during the spring of 2017, as seems possible with three articles in less than a month and #156 was again released with less than two weeks between it and #155.
*It then seemed to stop completely after those two, and it took more than a year (62 weeks) before #157 {{what if|157|Earth-Moon Fire Pole}} came out in May 2018.
*Since then there was no new posts for almost four years.
**With the announced release of the what if? 2 book, in [[2575: What If? 2]], the break in release on the blog has likely been explained. And there may be a long time before they return in weekly doses.
***But just maybe as a teaser some (one) of the new from the book, might get released...
****Only 17 days under four years after the release of #157, we finally have #158: {{what if|158|Hot Banana}}.
****The next came just two months later, {{what if|159|Hailstones}}, the upcoming book most likely the reason.
*See more details for breaks in the releases in the table with a list of all the [[#Articles|articles]] down below.
**At the moment it seems impossible to guess when a new post is released so:
**'''It would be nice if anyone noticing a new post, that they made a note in the discussion of the next comic released.'''

==Articles==
*Below is a list of the articles released in the what if? blog.
*For a more brief and arrangeable list, see [[What If chapters]].
**This list can also be found in the [https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ archive section] on the what if? blog.
**But here more data can be added...
{| class="wikitable " |
! No.
! Title
! Release date
! Weeks since last release
! Question(s) answered/Topic
! Comment/Short note on subject
! Thumbnail
|-
| 1 || {{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}} || July 10, 2012 || || What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? || The very first what if? The result would be some kind of nuclear explosion. || [[File:Relativistic Baseball.png]]
|-
| 2 || {{what if|2|SAT Guessing}} || July 10, 2012 || 0.0 || What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple-choice question? How many perfect scores would there be? || This second article was released on the same day as the first, probably to get the blog going, and let users of xkcd see that there was going to be more. No one would get a perfect score || [[File:SAT Guessing.png]]
|-
| 3 || {{what if|3|Yoda}} || July 17, 2012 || 1.0 || How much Force power can Yoda output? || First regular release. From here on standard release day was Tuesday. || [[File:Yoda.png]]
|-
| 4 || {{what if|4|A Mole of Moles}} || July 24, 2012 || 1.0 || What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place? || As a mole is such a high number this would be tricky. || [[File:A Moles of Moles.png]]
|-
| 5 || {{what if|5|Robot Apocalypse}} || July 31, 2012 || 1.0 || What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last? || Humanity would survive if the robots cared about keeping themselves alive as well. If not, then we all die. || [[File:Robot Apocalypse.png]]
|-
| 6 || {{what if|6|Glass Half Empty}} || August 7, 2012 || 1.0 || What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty? || As in a vacuum? It would explode. || [[File:Glass Half Empty.png]]
|-
| 7 || {{what if|7|Everybody Out}} || August 14, 2012 || 1.0 || Is there enough energy to move the entire current human population off-planet? || No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings and everything else behind. || [[File:Everybody Out.png]]
|-
| 8 || {{what if|8|Everybody Jump}} || August 21, 2012 || 1.0 || What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant? || Earth would be unaffected but the human race would be wiped out due to everyone trying to get home at the same time. || [[File:Everybody Jump.png]]
|-
| 9 || {{what if|9|Soul Mates}} || August 28, 2012 || 1.0 || What if everyone actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world? || Almost nobody would find their soul mate. || [[File:Soul Mates.png]]
|-
| 10 || {{what if|10|Cassini}} || September 4, 2012 || 1.0 || What would the world be like if the land masses were spread out the same way as now - only rotated by an angle of 90 degrees? || Mass biosphere collapse. || [[File:Cassini.png]]
|-
| 11 || {{what if|11|Droppings}} || September 11, 2012 || 1.0 || If you went outside and lay down on your back with your mouth open, how long would you have to wait until a bird pooped in it? || 195 years. Assuming you are in a area with a reasonable amount of birds. But why would you ''want'' to catch bird poop in your mouth? || [[File:Droppings.png]]
|-
| 12 || {{what if|12|Raindrop}} || September 18, 2012 || 1.0 || What if a rainstorm dropped all of its water in a single giant drop? || The surrounding area would be obliterated and there would be mass panic for many following years. || [[File:Raindrop.png]]
|-
| 13 || {{what if|13|Laser Pointer}} || September 25, 2012 || 1.0 || If every person on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at the same time, would it change color? || Not with regular lasers, but with more power, you could destroy the world. || [[File:Laser Pointer.png]]
|-
| 14 || {{what if|14|Short Answer Section}} || October 2, 2012 || 1.0 ||
* How long would the Sun last if a giant water hose were focused upon it?
* What if you shined a flashlight (or a laser) into a sphere made of one-way mirror glass?
* If Michael Phelps could hold his breath indefinitely, how long would it take for him to reach the lowest point in the ocean and back if he swam straight down and then straight back up?
* In the first Superman movie, Superman flies around Earth so fast that it begins turning in the opposite direction. This somehow turns back time [... ] How much energy would someone flying around the Earth have to exert in order to reverse the Earth's rotation?
* How fast would you have to go in your car to run a red light claiming that it appeared green to you due to the Doppler Effect?
* What would happen if you opened a portal between Boston (sea level) and Mexico City (elev. 8000+ feet)?
* When my wife and I started dating she invited me over for dinner at one time. Her kitchen had something called Bauhaus chairs, which are full of holes, approx 5-6 millimeters in diameter in both back and seat. During this lovely dinner I was forced to liberate a small portion of wind and was relieved that I managed to do so very discretely. Only to find that the chair I sat on converted the successful silence into a perfect, and loud, flute note. We were both (luckily) amazed and surprised and I have often wondered what the odds are for something like that happening. We kept the chairs for five years but despite laborious attempts it couldn't be reproduced.
|| || [[File:Short Answer Section.png]]
|-
| 15 || {{what if|15|Mariana Trench Explosion}} || October 9, 2012 || 1.0 || What if you exploded a nuclear bomb (say, the Tsar Bomba) at the bottom of the Marianas Trench? || It would warm a small patch of the ocean and not do much. With a bigger bomb, it could destroy the world. Again. || [[File:Mariana Trench Explosion.png]]
|-
| 16 || {{what if|16|Today's topic: Lightning}} || October 16, 2012 || 1.0 ||
* How dangerous is it to be in a pool during a thunderstorm?
* What would happen if you were taking a shower or standing under a waterfall when you were struck by lightning?
* What would happen if you were in a boat, plane or a submarine that got hit by lightning?
* What if you were changing the light at the top of a radio tower and lightning struck? Or what if you were doing a backflip? Or standing in a graphite field? Or looking straight up at the bolt?
* What would happen if lightning struck a bullet in midair?
* What if you were flashing your BIOS during a thunderstorm and you got hit by lightning?
|| || [[File:Today's topic- Lightning.png]]
|-
| 17 || {{what if|17|Green Cows}} || October 23, 2012 || 1.0 || If cows could photosynthesize, how much less food would they need? || 4% less. There just isn't enough area. || [[File:Green Cows.png]]
|-
| 18 || {{what if|18|BB Gun}} || October 30, 2012 || 1.0 || In Armageddon, a NASA guy comments that a plan to shoot a laser at the asteroid is like “shooting a b.b. gun at a freight train.” What would it take to stop an out-of-control freight train using only b.b. guns? || 40000 people and some magic. Stopping an asteroid with a laser on the other hand is a lot easier. || [[File:BB Gun.png]]
|-
| 19 || {{what if|19|Tie Vote}} || November 6, 2012 || 1.0 || What if there's LITERALLY a tie? || The release date in the archive is the wrong year, saying 2013 instead of 2012. || [[File:Tie Vote.png]]
|-
| 20 || {{what if|20|Diamond}} || November 13, 2012 || 1.0 || If a meteor made out of diamond and 100 feet in diameter was traveling at the speed of light and hit the earth, what would happen to it? || || [[File:Diamond.png]]
|-
| 21 || {{what if|21|Machine Gun Jetpack}} || November 20, 2012 || 1.0 || Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward firing machine guns? || Yes, but you need to talk to the Russians to do it right. || [[File:Machine Gun Jetpack.png]]
|-
| 22 || {{what if|22|Cost of Pennies}} || November 27, 2012 || 1.0 || If you carry a penny in your coin tray, how long would it take for that penny to cost you more than a cent in extra gas? || Never. || [[File:Cost of Pennies.png]]
|-
| 23 || {{what if|23|Short Answer Section II}} || December 4, 2012 || 1.0 ||
* If my printer could literally print out money, would it have that big an effect on the world?
* What would happen if you exploded a nuclear bomb in the eye of a hurricane? Would the storm cell be immediately vaporized?
* If everyone put little turbine generators on the downspouts of their houses and businesses, how much power would we generate? Would we ever generate enough power to offset the cost of the generators?
* Using only pronounceable letter combinations, how long would names have to be to give each star in the universe a unique one word name?
* I bike to class sometimes. It's annoying biking in the wintertime, because it's so cold. How fast would I have to bike for my skin to warm up the way a spacecraft heats up during reentry?
* How much physical space does the internet take up?
* What if you strapped C4 to a boomerang? Could this be an effective weapon, or would it be as stupid as it sounds?
||
* Printing $100 bills 24/7 for a year can make you about $200 million per year. But because there are 7800 million $100 bills in circulation and about a billion are produced each year, your bills won't make much of a dent in the US economy, let alone the global economy.
* According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who get asked this question a lot, this is a very bad idea.
* If set up in the rainiest place in the United States (Ketchikan, Alaska), the cost could be offset in about a century.
* If you make the words pronounceable by always alternating vowels and consonants, the names would be about 24 letters long.
* You would have to go 200m/s. Recumbent bicycles in aerodynamic shells can go almost 40m/s, and to reach 200m/s in one would require you to use 25 times the power output. Biking at that speed would make your body generate so much heat your core temperature would reach fatal levels in seconds.
* Just about the size of an oil tanker.
* This is neither aerodynamic nor a good idea.
||
[[File:Short Answer Section II.png]]
|-
| 24 || {{what if|24|Model Rockets}} || December 11, 2012 || 1.0 || How many model rocket engines would it take to launch a real rocket into space? || About 65,000, give or take a few. || [[File:Model Rockets.png]]
|-
| 25 || {{what if|25|Three Wise Men}} || December 18, 2012 || 1.0 || The story of the three wise men got me wondering: What if you did walk towards a star at a fixed speed? What path would you trace on the Earth? Does it converge to a fixed cycle? || No, but it does make some really cool patterns. (Also, Randall misspelled Bethlehem)|| [[File:Three Wise Men.png]]
|-
| 26 || {{what if|26|Leap Seconds}} || December 31, 2012 || 1.9 || Every now and then we have to insert a leap second because the Earth’s rotation is slowing down. Could we speed up Earth’s rotation, so that we do not need Leap Seconds? || The first two weeks Christmas break. || [[File:Leap Seconds.png]]
|-
| 27 || {{what if|27|Death Rates}} || January 8, 2013 || 1.1 || If one randomly chosen extra person were to die each second somewhere on Earth, what impact would it have on the world population? || Not much. The world just has too many people. || [[File:Death Rates.png]]
|-
| 28 || {{what if|28|Steak Drop}} || January 15, 2013 || 1.0 || From what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground? || From the very edge of the atmosphere and even then it might not be fully cooked. || [[File:Steak Drop.png]]
|-
| 29 || {{what if|29|Spent Fuel Pool}} || January 22, 2013 || 1.0 || What if I took a swim in a typical spent nuclear fuel pool? Would I need to dive to actually experience a fatal amount of radiation? How long could I stay safely at the surface? || As long as you don't touch strange things and you don't swim too close to the fuel rods, it would be just like a regular pool. || [[File:Spent Fuel Pool.png]]
|-
| 30 || {{what if|30|Interplanetary Cessna}} || January 29, 2013 || 1.0 || What would happen if you tried to fly a normal Earth airplane above different Solar System bodies? || :( || [[File:Interplanetary Cessna.png]]
|-
| 31 || {{what if|31|FedEx Bandwidth}} || February 5, 2013 || 1.0 || When - if ever - will the bandwidth of the Internet surpass that of FedEx? || NEVER!!!
|-
| 32 || {{what if|32|Hubble}} || February 12, 2013 || 1.0 || If the Hubble telescope were aimed at the Earth, how detailed would the images be? || A smudge of colour.
|-
| 33 || {{what if|33|Ships}} || February 19, 2013 || 1.0 || How much would the sea level fall if every ship were removed all at once from the Earth's waters? || Less than a human hair's width.
|-
| 34 || {{what if|34|Twitter}} || February 26, 2013 || 1.0 || How many unique English tweets are possible? How long would it take for the population of the world to read them all out loud? || Forever, literally.
|-
| 35 || {{what if|35|Hair Dryer}} || March 5, 2013 || 1.0 || What would happen if a hair dryer with continuous power was turned on and put in an airtight 1x1x1 meter box? || Bad things. Like lava.
|-
| 36 || {{what if|36|Cornstarch}} || March 12, 2013 || 1.0 || How much cornstarch can I rinse down the drain before unpleasant things start to happen? || Define unpleasant. [[Megan]] seems to be having fun.
|-
| 37 || {{what if|37|Supersonic Stereo}} || March 19, 2013 || 1.0 || What if you somehow managed to make a stereo travel at twice the speed of sound, would it sound backwards to someone who was just casually sitting somewhere as it flies by? || Assuming the stereo is indestructible then yes.
|-
| 38 || {{what if|38|Voyager}} || March 26, 2013 || 1.0 || With today's technology, would it be possible to launch an unmanned mission to retrieve Voyager I? || We could possibly spend a ton of money and resources to get a probe to Voyager. Getting it back is another story.
|-
| 39 || {{what if|39|Hockey Puck}} || April 2, 2013 || 1.0 || How hard would a puck have to be shot to be able to knock the goalie himself backwards into the net? || This is another impossible senario.
|-
| 40 || {{what if|40|Pressure Cooker}} || April 9, 2013 || 1.0 || Am I right to be afraid of pressure cookers? What's the worst thing that can happen if you misuse a pressure cooker in an ordinary kitchen? || The worst thing? Science.
|-
| 41 || {{what if|41|Go West}} || April 16, 2013 || 1.0 || If everybody in the US drove west, could we temporarily halt continental drift? || Not even by a bit.
|-
| 42 || {{what if|42|Longest Sunset}} || April 23, 2013 || 1.0 || What is the longest possible sunset you can experience while driving, assuming we are obeying the speed limit and driving on paved roads? || 95 minutes at the right place at the right time.
|-
| 43 || {{what if|43|Train Loop}} || April 30, 2013 || 1.0 || Could a high-speed train run through a vertical loop, like a rollercoaster, with the passengers staying comfortable? || No, not even if we change the requirements to just the passengers staying alive.
|-
| 44 || {{what if|44|High Throw}} || May 7, 2013 || 1.0 || How high can a human throw something? || 16 giraffes.
|-
| 45 || {{what if|45|ISS Music Video}} || May 14, 2013 || 1.0 || Is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo this] the most expensive music video ever? || No. Just no.
|-
| 46 || {{what if|46|Bowling Ball}} || May 21, 2013 || 1.0 || I've been told that if the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a bowling ball, it would be smoother than said bowling ball. My question is, what would a bowling ball look like if it were blown up to the size of the Earth? || The finger holes would collapse and then not much would happen.
|-
| 47 || {{what if|47|Alien Astronomers}} || May 28, 2013 || 1.0 || Let's assume there's life on the the nearest habitable exoplanet and that they have technology comparable to ours. If they looked at our star right now, what would they see? || This ----->
|-
| 48 || {{what if|48|Sunset on the British Empire}} || June 4, 2013 || 1.0 || When (if ever) did the Sun finally set on the British Empire? || It hasn't set and it won't for thousands of years.
|-
| 49 || {{what if|49|Sunless Earth}} || June 11, 2013 || 1.0 || What would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off? || We would see a variety of benefits across our lives but we would also freeze and die.
|-
| 50 || {{what if|50|Extreme Boating}} || June 18, 2013 || 1.0 || What would it be like to navigate a rowboat through a lake of mercury? What about bromine? Liquid gallium? Liquid tungsten? Liquid nitrogen? Liquid helium? || As with a lot of these answers, just don't
|-
| 51 || {{what if|51|Free Fall}} || June 25, 2013 || 1.0 || What place on Earth would allow you to freefall the longest by jumping off it? What about using a squirrel suit? || Mount Thor would allow the longest fall an-AAAAAAAAAAA...
|-
| 52 || {{what if|52|Bouncy Balls}} || July 2, 2013 || 1.0 || What if one were to drop 3,000 bouncy balls from a seven story parking structure onto a person walking on the sidewalk below? Should the person survive, what would be the number of bouncy balls needed to kill them? What injuries would occur and what would the associated crimes be? || The release date in the archive is the wrong month June.
|-
| 53 || {{what if|53|Drain the Oceans}} || July 9, 2013 || 1.0 || How quickly would the ocean's drain if a circular portal 10 meters in radius leading into space was created at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the ocean? How would the Earth change as the water is being drained? || NETHERLANDS RULE!!! P.S., everyone dies.
|-
| 54 || {{what if|54|Drain the Oceans: Part II}} || July 16, 2013 || 1.0 || Supposing you did {{what if|53|Drain the Oceans}}, and dumped the water on top of the Curiosity rover, how would Mars change as the water accumulated? || it would split into many islands and the Netherlands will take over.
|-
| 55 || {{what if|55|Random Sneeze Call}} || July 23, 2013 || 1.0 || If you call a random phone number and say “God bless you”, what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed? On average, not just in spring or fall. || 1 in 40000
|-
| 56 || {{what if|56|Restraining an Airplane}} || July 30, 2013 || 1.0 || If you wanted to anchor an airplane into the ground so it wouldn't be able to take off, what would the rope have to be made out of? || whale hair.
|-
| 57 || {{what if|57|Dropping a Mountain}} || August 6, 2013 || 1.0 || What if a huge mountain—Denali, say—had the bottom inch of its base disappear? What would happen from the impact of the mountain falling 1 inch? What about 1 foot? What if the mountain's base were raised to the present height of the summit, and then the whole thing were allowed to drop to the earth? || The first scenarios are pretty boring. the last is devastating.
|-
| 58 || {{what if|58|Orbital Speed}} || August 12, 2013 || 0.9 ||
* What if a spacecraft slowed down on re-entry to just a few miles per hour using rocket boosters like the Mars-sky-crane? Would it negate the need for a heat shield?
* Is it possible for a spacecraft to control its reentry in such a way that it avoids the atmospheric compression and thus would not require the expensive (and relatively fragile) heat shield on the outside?
* Could a (small) rocket (with payload) be lifted to a high point in the atmosphere where it would only need a small rocket to get to escape velocity?
||
|-
| 59 || {{what if|59|Updating a Printed Wikipedia}} || August 20, 2013 || 1.1 || If you had a printed version of the whole of (say, the English) Wikipedia, how many printers would you need in order to keep up with the changes made to the live version? || 6, but they would cost much more than you could afford.
|-
| 60 || {{what if|60|Signs of Life}} || August 27, 2013 || 1.0 || If you could teleport to a random place of the surface of the Earth, what are the odds that you'll see signs of intelligent life? || 70% of the time you would end up in the ocean.
|-
| 61 || {{what if|61|Speed Bump}} || September 3, 2013 || 1.0 || How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? || Surprisingly fast, but beware destroying the city, and fines.
|-
| 62 || {{what if|62|Falling With Helium}} || September 10, 2013 || 1.0 || What if I jumped out of an airplane with a couple of tanks of helium and one huge, un-inflated balloon? Then, while falling, I release the helium and fill the balloon. How long of a fall would I need in order for the balloon to slow me enough that I could land safely? || 2500 cubic feet.
|-
| 63 || {{what if|63|Google's Datacenters on Punch Cards}} || September 17, 2013 || 1.0 || If all digital data were stored on punch cards, how big would Google's data warehouse be? || big enough to bury the world many times.
|-
| 64 || {{what if|64|Rising Steadily}} || September 24, 2013 || 1.0 || If you suddenly began rising steadily at one foot per second, how exactly would you die? Would you freeze or suffocate first? Or something else? || Assuming you had a good coat, you would survive to the death zone and die.
|-
| 65 || {{what if|65|Twitter Timeline Height}} || October 1, 2013 || 1.0 || If our Twitter timelines (tweets by the people we follow) actually extended off the screen in both directions, how tall would they be? || Very tall.
|-
| 66 || {{what if|66|500 MPH}} || October 8, 2013 || 1.0 || If winds reached 500 mph, would it pick up a human? || Absolutely! But first worry about what caused the 500 MPH winds...
|-
| 67 || {{what if|67|Expanding Earth}} || October 15, 2013 || 1.0 || How long would it take for people to notice their weight gain if the mean radius of the world expanded by 1cm every second? (Assuming the average composition of rock were maintained.) || 10 years, give or take.
|-
| 68 || {{what if|68|Little Planet}} || October 22, 2013 || 1.0 || If an asteroid was very small but supermassive, could you really live on it like the Little Prince? || yes, but it would be very inconvenient.
|-
| 69 || {{what if|69|Facebook of the Dead}} || October 29, 2013 || 1.0 || When, if ever, will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than of living ones? || A decade or a century, depending if Facebook would still be popular.
|-
| 70 || {{what if|70|The Constant Groundskeeper}} || November 5, 2013 || 1.0 || How big of a lawn would you have to have so that when you finished mowing you'd need to start over because the grass has grown? || Very big, bigger if you're a cougar.
|-
| 71 || {{what if|71|Stirring Tea}} || November 12, 2013 || 1.0 || I was absentmindedly stirring a cup of hot tea, when I got to thinking, "aren't I actually adding kinetic energy into this cup?" I know that stirring does help to cool down the tea, but what if I were to stir it faster? Would I be able to boil a cup of water by stirring? || No, and don't even try.
|-
| 72 || {{what if|72|Loneliest Human}} || November 19, 2013 || 1.0 || What is the furthest one human being has ever been from every other living person? Were they lonely? || Possibly the Apollo Astronauts but they definitely weren't lonely.
|-
| 73 || {{what if|73|Lethal Neutrinos}} || November 26, 2013 || 1.0 || How close would you have to be to a supernova to get a lethal dose of neutrino radiation? || About 2.3 AU
|-
| 74 || {{what if|74|Soda Planet}} || December 3, 2013 || 1.0 || How much of the Earth's currently-existing water has ever been turned into a soft drink at some point in its history? || 0.0000005%.
|-
| 75 || {{what if|75|Phone Keypad}} || December 10, 2013 || 1.0 || I use one of those old phones where you type with numbers—for example, to type "Y", you press 9 three times. Some words have consecutive letters on the same number. When they do, you have to pause between letters, making those words annoying to type. What English word has the most consecutive letters on the same key? ||nonmonogamous
|-
| 76 || {{what if|76|Reading Every Book}} || December 17, 2013 || 1.0 || At what point in human history were there too many (English) books to be able to read them all in one lifetime? || Depends, as many were burned.
|-
| 77 || {{what if|77|Growth Rate}} || December 31, 2013 || 2.0 || What height would humans reach if we kept growing through our whole development period (i.e. till late teens/early twenties) at the same pace as we do during our first month? || The second two weeks Christmas break
|-
| 78 || {{what if|78|T-rex Calories}} || January 7, 2014 || 1.0 || If a T-rex were released in New York City, how many humans/day would it need to consume to get its needed calorie intake? || One large sized one per day.
|-
| 79 || {{what if|79|Lake Tea}} || January 14, 2014 || 1.0 || What if we were to dump all the tea in the world into the Great Lakes? How strong, compared to a regular cup of tea, would the lake tea be? || Not strong enough to make a difference.
|-
| 80 || {{what if|80|Pile of Viruses}} || January 21, 2014 || 1.0 || What if every virus in the world were collected into one area? How much volume would they take up and what would they look like? || It would be like a Super Bowl of pus.
|-
| 81 || {{what if|81|Catch!}} || January 28, 2014 || 1.0 || Is there any way to fire a gun so that the bullet flies through the air and can then be safely caught by hand? e.g. shooter is at sea level and catcher is up a mountain at the extreme range of the gun. || It is possible, but beware the police.
|-
| 82 || {{what if|82|Hitting a comet}} || February 5, 2014 || 1.1 || Astrophysicists are always saying things like "This mission to this comet is equivalent to throwing a baseball from New York and hitting a particular window in San Francisco." Are they really equivalent? || The baseball is much harder.
|-
| 83 || {{what if|83|Star Sand}} || February 11, 2014 || 0.9 || If you made a beach using grains the proportionate size of the stars in the Milky Way, what would that beach look like? || It would be a bunch of boulders with some patches of sand.
|-
| 84 || {{what if|84|Paint the Earth}} || February 18, 2014 || 1.0 || Has humanity produced enough paint to cover the entire land area of the Earth? || So close!!!
|-
| 85 || {{what if|85|Rocket Golf}} || February 25, 2014 || 1.0 || Assuming that you have a spaceship in orbit around the Earth, could you propel your ship to speeds exceeding escape velocity by hitting golf balls in the other direction? If so, how many golf balls would be required to reach the Moon? || If you cheat, a bag a little smaller than the Moon.
|-
| 86 || {{what if|86|Far-Traveling Objects}} || March 4, 2014 || 1.0 || In terms of human-made objects, has Voyager 1 travelled the farthest distance? It's certainly the farthest from Earth we know about. But what about the edge of ultracentrifuges, or generator turbines that have been running for years, for example? || The Mariner 1 has traveled much farther than Voyager 1.
|-
| 87 || {{what if|87|Enforced by Radar}} || March 11, 2014 || 1.0 || I've occasionally seen "radar enforced" on speed limit signs, and I can't help but ask: How intense would radio waves have to be to stop a car from going over the speed limit, and what would happen if this were attempted? || Intense enough to cause a medium sized nuclear explosion. Better to just carry a sign.
|-
| 88 || {{what if|88|Soda Sequestration}} || March 18, 2014 || 1.0 || How much CO2 is contained in the world's stock of bottled fizzy drinks? How much soda would be needed to bring atmospheric CO2 back to preindustrial levels? || Enough soda to cover Earth with ten layers of cans.
|-
| 89 || {{what if|89|Tungsten Countertop}} || March 25, 2014 || 1.0 || How far would a tungsten countertop descend if I dropped it into the Sun? || It would be vapourized before it got close to the Sun.
|-
| 90 || {{what if|90|Great Tree, Great Axe}} || April 3, 2014 || 1.3 ||
''If all the seas were one sea, 
''What a great sea that would be! 
''If all the trees were one tree, 
''What a great tree that would be! 
''If all the men were one man, 
''What a great man that would be! 
''If all the axes were one axe, 
''What a great axe that would be! 
''And if the great man took the great axe, 
''And cut down the great tree, 
''And let if [sic] fall into the great sea, 
''What a great splish-splash that would be!'' 
... How great would all of these things be?
|| The tree and splash would be great. The others not so much.
|-
| 91 || {{what if|91|Faucet Power}} || April 8, 2014 || 0.7 || I just moved into a new apartment. It includes hot water but I have to pay the electric bill. So being a person on a budget ... what's the best way to use my free faucet to generate electricity? || Just give it to make drinking water.
|-
| 92 || {{what if|92|One-Second Day}} || April 15, 2014 || 1.0 || What would happen if the Earth's rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second? || KA-BLOOSH!!!!!
|-
| 93 || {{what if|93|Windshield Raindrops}} || April 22, 2014 || 1.0 || At what speed would you have to drive for rain to shatter your windshield? || Fast enough so you would need a speedometer in scientific notation.
|-
| 94 || {{what if|94|Billion-Story Building}} || April 29, 2014 || 1.0 || My daughter — age 4.5 — maintains she wants a billion-story building. It turns out not only is that hard to help her appreciate this size, I am not at all able to explain all of the other difficulties you'd have to overcome. || First of all, it would not stand under its own weight. Also, it would be many times the distance the Earth is from the Moon.
|-
| 95 || {{what if|95|Pyramid Energy}} || May 6, 2014 || 1.0 || What took more energy, the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza or the Apollo Mission? If we could convert the energy to build the Great Pyramid, would it be enough to send a rocket to the Moon and back? || No
|-
| 96 || {{what if|96|$2 Undecillion Lawsuit}} || May 14, 2014 || 1.1 || What if Au Bon Pain lost [http://loweringthebar.net/2014/05/2-undecillion-dollar-demand.html this lawsuit] and had to pay the plaintiff $2 undecillion? || They would not be able to pay off the debt, even if they forced humanity to work as slaves.
|-
| 97 || {{what if|97|Burning Pollen}} || May 20, 2014 || 0.9 || What if you were to somehow ignite the pollen that floats around in the air in spring? Other than being a really bad idea, what effect would it have? || It would just warm up the air by a bit.
|-
| 98 || {{what if|98|Blood Alcohol}} || May 27, 2014 || 1.0 || Could you get drunk from drinking a drunk person's blood? || Not before other nasty things happened.
|-
| 99 || {{what if|99|Starlings}} || June 3, 2014 || 1.0 || I was watching [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY this video] and was wondering: How many birds there would need to be for gravity to take over and force them into a gargantuan ball of birds? || Enough to make a black hole
|-
| 100 || {{what if|100|WWII Films}} || June 11, 2014 || 1.1 || Did WWII last longer than the total length of movies about WWII? For that matter, which war has the highest movie time:war time ratio? || From here on standard release day was Wednesday.
|-
| 101 || {{what if|101|Plastic Dinosaurs}} || June 18, 2014 || 1.0 || As plastic is made from oil and oil is made from dead dinosaurs, how much actual real dinosaur is there in a plastic dinosaur? || Not much
|-
| 102 || {{what if|102|Keyboard Power}} || June 25, 2014 || 1.0 || As a writer, I'm wondering what would be the cumulative energy of the hundreds of thousands of keystrokes required to write a novel. || less than enough energy to microwave a burrito.
|-
| 103 || {{what if|103|Vanishing Water}} || July 2, 2014 || 1.0 || What would happen if all the bodies of water on Earth magically disappeared? || like with most of the other scenarios, everyone dies.
|-
| 104 || {{what if|104|Global Snow}} || July 9, 2014 || 1.0 || From my seven-year-old son: How many snowflakes would it take to cover the entire world in six feet of snow? (I don't know why six feet...but that's what he asked.) || Too much.
|-
| 105 || {{what if|105|Cannibalism}} || July 16, 2014 || 1.0 || How long could the human race survive on only cannibalism? || ................................
|-
| 106 || {{what if|106|Ink Molecules}} || July 23, 2014 || 1.0 || Suppose you were to print, in 12 point text, the numeral 1 using a common cheap ink-jet printer. How many molecules of the ink would be used? At what numerical value would the number printed approximately equal the number of ink molecules used? || An 18 digit number.
|-
| 107 || {{what if|107|Letter to Mom}} || July 30, 2014 || 1.0 || What’s the fastest way to get a hand-written letter from my place in Chicago to my mother in New Jersey? || Missiles, obviously.
|-
| 108 || {{what if|108|Expensive Shoebox}} || August 13, 2014 || 2.0 || What would be the most expensive way to fill a size 11 shoebox (e.g. with 64 GB MicroSD cards all full of legally purchased music)? || The third two weeks break.
|-
| 109 || {{what if|109|Into the Blue}} || August 20, 2014 || 1.0 || If I shot an infinitely strong laser beam into the sky at a random point, how much damage would it do? || Most of the time it would not hit anyhing.
|-
| 110 || {{what if|110|Walking New York}} || August 27, 2014 || 1.0 || Could a person walk the entire city of NY in their lifetime? (including inside apartments) || 30 years to walk, much longer for the sentence.
|-
| 111 || {{what if|111|All the Money}} || September 2, 2014 || 0.9 || People sometimes say "If I had all the money in the world ..." in order to discuss what they would do if they had no financial constraints. I'm curious, though, what would happen if one person had all of the world's money? || the only thing to do would be to make a swimming pool.
|-
| 112 || {{what if|112|Balloon Car}} || September 17, 2014 || 2.1 || My 12-year-old daughter is proposing an interesting project. She is planning to attach a number of helium balloons to a chair, which in turn would be tethered by means of a rope to a Ferrari. Her 13-year-old friend would then drive the Ferrari around, while she sits in the chair enjoying uninterrupted views of the countryside. Leaving aside the legal and insurance difficulties, my daughter is keen to know the maximum speed that she could expect to attain, and how many helium balloons would be required. || The fourth two weeks break.
|-
| 113 || {{what if|113|Visit Every State}} || September 24, 2014 || 1.0 || How fast could you visit all 50 states? || in 5 sattelite orbits!
|-
| 114 || {{what if|114|Antimatter}} || October 1, 2014 || 1.0 || What if everything was antimatter, EXCEPT Earth? || Earth go boom!!!
|-
| 115 || {{what if|115|Into the Sun}} || October 8, 2014 || 1.0 || When I was about 8 years old, shoveling snow on a freezing day in Colorado, I wished that I could be instantly transported to the surface of the Sun, just for a nanosecond, then instantly transported back. I figured this would be long enough to warm me up but not long enough to harm me. What would actually happen? || you would not be warmed if you went to the surface. The core on the other hand, would vapourize you.
|-
| 116 || {{what if|116|No-Rules NASCAR}} || October 15, 2014 || 1.0 || If you stripped away all the rules of car racing and had a contest which was simply to get a human being around a track 200 times as fast as possible, what strategy would win? Let's say the racer has to survive. || Hard to do while surviving
|-
| 117 || {{what if|117|Distant Death}} || October 23, 2014 || 1.1 || What is the farthest from Earth that any Earth thing has died? || From here on standard release day was Thursday.
|-
| 118 || {{what if|118|Physical Salary}} || October 30, 2014 || 1.0 || What if people's incomes appeared around them as cash in real time? How much would you need to make to be in real trouble? || A normal person would not get buried. A CEO on the other hand, would be in trouble.
|-
| 119 || {{what if|119|Laser Umbrella}} || November 13, 2014 || 2.0 || Stopping rain from falling on something with an umbrella or a tent is boring. What if you tried to stop rain with a laser that targeted and vaporized each incoming droplet before it could come within ten feet of the ground? || The fifth two weeks break.
|-
| 120 || {{what if|120|Alternate Universe What Ifs}} || November 20, 2014 || 1.0 || Dispatches from a horrifying alternate universe ||
|-
| 121 || {{what if|121|Frozen Rivers}} || December 11, 2014 || 3.0 || What would happen if all of the rivers in the US were instantly frozen in the middle of the summer? || The only three weeks break, the sixth break in total.
|-
| 122 || {{what if|122|Lava Lamp}} || December 18, 2014 || 1.0 || What if I made a lava lamp out of real lava? What could I use as a clear medium? How close could I stand to watch it? || It would be too bright to watch and it would turn into rock quickly.
|-
| 123 || {{what if|123|Fairy Demographics}} || January 1, 2015 || 2.0 || How many fairies would fly around, if each fairy is born from the first laugh of a child and fairies were immortal? || The third two weeks Christmas break, the seventh break in total
|-
| 124 || {{what if|124|Lunar Swimming}} || January 8, 2015 || 1.0 || What if there was a lake on the Moon? What would it be like to swim in it? Presuming that it is sheltered in a regular atmosphere, in some giant dome or something. || that would be ''so'' cool!!!
|-
| 125 || {{what if|125|Bowling Ball}} || January 15, 2015 || 1.0 || You are in a boat directly over the Mariana Trench. If you drop a 7kg bowling ball over the side, how long would it take to hit the bottom? || Two hours and 20 minutes.
|-
| 126 || {{what if|126|Stairs}} || January 22, 2015 || 1.0 || If you made an elevator that would go to space (like the one you mentioned in the billion-story building) and built a staircase up (assuming regulated air pressure) about how long would it take to climb to the top? || A week or two.
|-
| 127 || {{what if|127|Tug of War}} || January 28, 2015 || 0.9 || Would it be possible for two teams in a tug-o-war to overcome the ultimate tensile strength of an iron rod and pull it apart? How big would the teams have to be? || Not too big.
|-
| 128 || {{what if|128|Zippo Phone}} || February 5, 2015 || 1.1 || What in my pocket actually contains more energy, my Zippo or my smartphone? What would be the best way of getting the energy from one to the other? And since I am already feeling like Bilbo in this one, is there anything else in my pocket that would have unexpected amounts of stored energy? || The Zippo.
|-
| 129 || {{what if|129|Black Hole Moon}} || February 12, 2015 || 1.0 || What would happen if the Moon were replaced with an equivalently-massed black hole? If it's possible, what would a lunar ("holar"?) eclipse look like? || It would not have a big impact unless it happened during the space age.
|-
| 130 || {{what if|130|Snow Removal}} || February 19, 2015 || 1.0 || I've long thought about putting a flamethrower on the front of a car to melt snow and ice before you drive across it. Now I've realized that a flamethrower is impractical, but what about a high-powered microwave emitter? ||
|-
| 131 || {{what if|131|Microwaves}} || February 27, 2015 || 1.1 || I have had a particular problem for as long as I can remember. Any time I attempt to heat left over Chinese food in a microwave, it fails to heat completely through somewhere. Usually the center but not always and usually rice, but often it will be a small section of meat. It's baffling and has made me automatically adjust heating times to over 2 minutes. In most cases this tends to heat the bowl or plate more than the food. So I suppose the question is what is the optimal time to heat left over Chinese food in the microwave, how about an 800 watt microwave? || The release date in the archive is the wrong year 2014. From here on there seems to no longer be a standard release day for some time.
|-
| 132 || {{what if|132|Hotter than Average}} || March 7, 2015 || 1.1 || I saw a sign at a hot springs tub saying "Caution: Water is hotter than average" with water at about 39°C. Although they were presumably trying to say "hotter than the average swimming pool," this got me wondering: What is the average temperature of all water on the Earth’s surface, and how does that temperature compare to 39°C? || There is a water average. Give the signmakers some credit.
|-
| 133 || {{what if|133|Flagpole}} || March 17, 2015 || 1.4 || So, you're falling from a height above the tallest building in your town, and you don't have a parachute. But wait! Partway down the side of that skyscraper there's a flagpole sticking out, sans flag! You angle your descent and grab the pole just long enough to swing around so that when you let go you're now heading back up toward the sky. As gravity slows you and brings you to a halt, you reach the top of the skyscraper, where you reach out and pull yourself to safety. What's the likelihood this could happen? || The first of two longer shifts in release day two weeks in a row which resulted in only two releases over three weeks, resulting in the eight break in total.
|-
| 134 || {{what if|134|Space Burial}} || March 28, 2015 || 1.6 || I've often joked I'd like to have my remains put into orbit. Not in a "scatter my ashes" sense, but, like, "throw my naked corpse out the airlock" sense. Honestly, my main motivation is to baffle someone in the distant future, but it's an interesting scientific question: what would happen to my body in orbit over the course of years, decades or centuries? || The second of two longer shifts in release day two weeks in a row which resulted in only two releases over three weeks, resulting in the eight break in total.
|-
| 135 || {{what if|135|Digging Downward}} || April 5, 2015 || 1.1 || What would happen if I dug straight down, at a speed of 1 foot per second? What would kill me first? || Magic, because science just works like that.
|-
| 136 || {{what if|136|Spiders vs. the Sun}} || April 12, 2015 || 1.0 || Which has a greater gravitational pull on me: the Sun, or spiders? Granted, the Sun is much bigger, but it is also much further away, and as I learned in high school physics, the gravitational force is proportional to the square of the distance. || The Sun. But spiders are a lot more scary.
|-
| 137 || {{what if|137|New Horizons}} || July 14, 2015 || 13.3 || What if New Horizons hits my car? || The second longest break up til summer 2016, the only one to have been announced. The ninth break in total.
|-
| 138 || {{what if|138|Jupiter Submarine}} || July 28, 2015 || 2.0 || What if you released a submarine into Jupiter's atmosphere? Would it eventually reach a point where it would float? Could it navigate? || The sixth two weeks break, tenth break in total. Answer: NO!!!!!
|-
| 139 || {{what if|139|Jupiter Descending}} || August 4, 2015 || 1.0 || If you did {{what if|138|fall into Jupiter's atmosphere in a submarine}}, what would it actually look like? What would you see before you melted or burned up? || You would see...brown.
|-
| 140 || {{what if|140|Proton Earth, Electron Moon}} || September 18, 2015 || 6.4 || What if the Earth were made entirely of protons, and the Moon were made entirely of electrons? || First and shortest of two long breaks in a row, the 11th break in total. For the answer, the universe would be destroyed.
|-
| 141 || {{what if|141|Sunbeam}} || January 12, 2016 || 16.6 || What if all of the sun's output of visible light were bundled up into a laser-like beam that had a diameter of around 1m once it reaches Earth? || Second and longest break so far of two long breaks in a row, the 12th break in total. From here on standard release day was again Tuesday. Answer: A literal Death Star.
|-
| 142 || {{what if|142|Space Jetta}} || January 20, 2016 || 1.1 || What if I tried to re-enter the atmosphere in my car? (a 2000 VW Jetta TDI). Would it do more environmental damage than it is already apparently doing? || Actually, it would be more clean than it is currently!
|-
| 143 || {{what if|143|Europa Water Siphon}} || January 26, 2016 || 0.9 || What if you built a siphon from the oceans on Europa to Earth? Would it flow once it's set up? (We have an idea for selling bottled Europa water.) || No, at least not with a siphon.
|-
| 144 || {{what if|144|Saliva Pool}} || February 2, 2016 || 1.0 || How long would it take for a single person to fill up an entire swimming pool with their own saliva? || 8345 years.
|-
| 145 || {{what if|145|Fire From Moonlight}} || February 9, 2016 || 1.0 || Can you use a magnifying glass and moonlight to light a fire? || NO!!!!!!
|-
| 146 || {{what if|146|Stop Jupiter}} || February 16, 2016 || 1.0 || I understand that the New Horizons craft used gravity assist from Jupiter to increase its speed on the way to Pluto. I also understand that by doing this, Jupiter slowed down very slightly. How many flyby runs would it take to stop Jupiter completely? || This can never happen, even if we were to throw Earth at Jupiter.
|-
| 147 || {{what if|147|Niagara Straw}} || February 26, 2016 || 1.4 || What would happen if one tried to funnel Niagara Falls through a straw? || From here on there is no longer any standard release days. Answer: The International Niagara Committee, the International Niagara Board of Control, the International Joint Commission, the International Niagara Board Working Committee, and probably the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee would be angry. Also, the Earth would be destroyed.
|-
| 148 || {{what if|148|Eat the Sun}} || March 12, 2016 || 2.1 || What percentage of the Sun's heat (per day) does the population of Earth eat in calories per year? What changes could be made to our diets for the amount of calories to equal the energy of the Sun? || The seventh two weeks break, 13th break in total.
|-
| 149 || {{what if|149|Pizza Bird}} || March 26, 2016 || 2.0 || My boyfriend recently took a flight on a plane with wifi, and while he was up there, wistfully asked if I could send him a pizza. I jokingly sent him a photo of a parrot holding a pizza slice in its beak. Obviously, my boyfriend had to go without pizza until he landed at JFK. But this raised the question: could a bird deliver a standard 20" New York-style cheese pizza in a box? And if so, what kind of bird would it take? || The eight two weeks break, 14th break in total.
|-
| 150 || {{what if|150|Tatooine Rainbow}} || May 23, 2016 || 8.3 || Since rainbows are caused by the refraction of the sunlight by tiny droplets of rainwater, what would rainbow look like on Earth if we had two suns like Tatooine? || First two months break of at least two in a row, the 15th break in total.
|-
| 151 || {{what if|151|Sun Bug}} || July 21, 2016 || 8.4 || How many fireflies would it take to match the brightness of the Sun? || Second two months break of at least two in a row, the 16th break in total. The release date in the archive is the wrong month June. It was released [http://web.archive.org/web/20160718014924/http://what-if.xkcd.com/ between 18-20 July], as the link here was posted on the 20th. But on the [http://web.archive.org/web/20160724210016/https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ archive page] is says it was released on June 21, which should probably have been July 21.
|-
| 152 || {{what if|152|Flood Death Valley}} || October 18, 2016 || 12.6 || Since Death Valley is below sea level could we dig a hole to the ocean and fill it up with water? || After two 8 weeks breaks this one waited almost three months. Regarding the question it could be done, but why did the guy asking the question whish to do such a horrible thing Randall ends up asking back. Most of the what if? goes with citing temperature records and other trivia actually naming a Jeopardy master. At least two comics coming out right after this was referencing this article. [[1748: Future Archaeology]] and [[1750: Life Goals]].
|-
| 153 || {{what if|153|Hide the Atmosphere}} || January 30, 2017 || 14.9 || Earth’s atmosphere is really thin compared to the radius of the Earth. How big a hole do I need to dig before people suffocate? || With close to 15 weeks this was the second longest break between articles so far. The hole needs to be Very big it turns out, but under the right circumstances a five mile hole over the entire state of Texas might suffice... But beware of messing with the Texans.
|-
| 154 || {{what if|154|Coast-to-Coast Coasting}} || February 8, 2017 || 1.3 || What if the entire continental US was on a decreasing slope from West to East. How steep would the slope have to be to sustain the momentum needed to ride a bicycle the entire distance without pedaling? || The article is about the slope needed to be able to coast on a bike, without using the pedals, across mainland USA. It turns out the ramp would need to be five miles high (8 km) to make this possible, and that would be at a speed slower than walking. Also you would need oxygen the first third of the way down... Unlike the last article, out after almost a 15 weeks break, this one was released only a bit more than week after that. It is almost a year ago that two comics have been released with less than two full weeks between them (that was #147 released February 26, 2016). In that year (assuming no more comics before February 26 2017), only 8 articles where released including both 147 and this one.
|-
| 155 || {{what if|155|Toaster vs. Freezer}} || February 28, 2017 || 2.9 || Would a toaster still work in a freezer?|| With less than 3 weeks between releases, releases seems to have become more regular in the beginning of 2017. The question is not asked of Randall this time, but rather one he has found discussed on [http://www.maximumfun.org/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/mbmbam-343-sauce-doctors-blessing Episode 343] of the {{w|My Brother, My Brother and Me|advice podcast}} ''[http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/my-brother-my-brother-and-me My Brother, My Brother and Me]'' (links are those given in the article) where the three brothers McElroy are discussing a {{w|Yahoo! Answers}} question.
|-
| 156 || {{what if|156|Electrofishing for Whales}} || March 9, 2017 || 1.3 || I used to work on a fisheries crew where we would use an electro-fisher backpack to momentarily stun small fish (30 - 100 mm length) so we could scoop them up with nets to identify and measure them. The larger fish tended to be stunned for slightly longer because of their larger surface area but I don't imagine this relationship would be maintained for very large animals. Could you electrofish for a blue whale? At what voltage would you have have to set the e-fisher? || Second time with less than two weeks between release in 2017. The answer focuses more on the bad side effects of electrofising, both long term effect on fish and also mentions killing of Dolphins. So it seems more of an protect the animal article than an answer. But the fact is that larger animals (and especially mammals) is likely to die rather than just get stunned. But it is also harder to get any effect in saltwater, which explains why electrofishing is mainly done in rivers and lakes. The higher conductivity of saltwater makes to current prefer to avoid the less salt whale rather than go through it. This is less of an issue in fresh water. So basically it just won't work on blue whales.
|-
| 157 || {{what if|157|Earth-Moon Fire Pole}} || May 21, 2018 || 62 || My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth? || After two in as short period of time in March 2017 more than a year (62 weeks) passed before the next entry came in May 2018... After a discussion of the extreme challenges that this set-up would face (an extreme form of the challenges of a space elevator), Randall details the different domains of the new slowest extreme sport: climbing out of the Moon's gravity, accelerating through the middle transfer phase, and then decelerating to your supersonic arrival on earth. Fun.
|-
| 158 || {{what if|158|Hot Banana}} || May 4, 2022 || 206.3 || I heard that bananas are radioactive. If they are radioactive, then they radiate energy. How many bananas would you need to power a house? || Just under four years passed before a new What If. This new release is probably due to the upcoming release of the What If? 2 book. Bananas are not very radioactive; it would take an absurdly large number. However, gathering that many bananas in one place would have negative consequences. New York no longer exists.
|-
| 159 || {{what if|159|Hailstones}} || July 5, 2022 || 9 || My 4 year old son and I were wondering about soccer ball sized hail today. How much damage would a hail storm with size 5 soccer ball sized hail do? || Two month between releases, and relased two weeks after the previous comic promoting the new book, [[2636: What If? 2 Countdown]]. No real chance of producing that big hail stones, but if they could be lethal even if staying indoors.
|-
| 160 || {{what if|160|Transatlantic Car Rental}} || September 6, 2022 || 9 || My daughter recently received her driver's permit in the US, and aspires to visit mainland Europe someday. She has learned enough about the rules of the road to know never to drive into the ocean; however, she jokingly suggested that given a sufficient quantity of rental cars, she could eventually get to Europe by driving east repeatedly. The question is, how many vehicles would it take to build a car-bridge across the Atlantic? || The 'reality' and consequences of using multiple cars (that are not your own) to construct a trans-Atlantic highway.
|}



[[Category:Books]]

2669: Things You Should Not Do

2022-10-10T08:40:00Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Repaired a seemingly nonsensical "as well as," by substantially rijigging the sentence(s) involved.

{{comic
| number = 2669
| date = September 7, 2022
| title = Things You Should Not Do
| image = things_you_should_not_do.png
| titletext = Now I'm tempted to start telling people that I secretly don't actually know how to do any physics calculations, and so all the answers in What If are based on me actually trying to do the thing and then reporting what happened, but phrased as if it's hypothetical.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SUNSCREEN BALL. Seem people forget that he learned this from writing the new book, thus no reason to assume they reference old stuff, for instance see the update to the peel the planets crust away, that clearly is a reference to a new what if in the book. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic references various questions submitted to be used in the what if? blog/books. In particular, promoting [[Randall]]'s new book, ''What if? 2'' (released 6 days after the date of this comic publication). This comic has a list of things not to do, an extension of a previous list, and is purportedly things Randall discovered as he was doing research for his book. A visit to the [https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ What If? archive] shows the titles, publishing date, and a thumbnail for each article. Many of the acts described under the "new" section of the list are depicted in these thumbnails (see table below); others are references to examples or hypotheticals explored within the articles. The entries are all in order of their appearance in the book.

The title text says that Randall is tempted to tell people that all the things in the book were things that he actually tried to do, not that he calculated the solutions for their problems. Many of the questions and answers in his new book are impossible to attempt in real life.{{citation needed}}

===Table of things you should not do===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Number !! Entry !! ''What If? 2'' section referenced !! Explanation
|-
! colspan="4" | From existing list
|-
|156,812
|Eat Tide Pods
|N/A
|{{w|Consumption of Tide Pods|Tide Pod}}s are a brand of laundry detergent sold in small packets ("pods") of water-soluble gel. Many children have tried to eat them, thinking them to be candy, and have had to go to the hospital to treat poisoning. In 2017 and 2018, a satirical "challenge" originated around eating Tide Pods.
|-
|156,813
|Walk on stilts in a thunderstorm
|N/A
|Taller objects are more likely to be struck by lightning, so walking on stilts outdoors would increase the risk of death by electrocution. It would also presumably risk falling and injuring oneself that way, since the ground becomes wet in a rainstorm.
|-
|156,814
|Set off fireworks at a gas station
|N/A
|This has the risk of potentially causing an explosion in the gas station, from the sparks of the fireworks.
|-
|156,815
|Feed your cat treats that are the exact shape and texture of a human hand
|N/A
|This probably runs the risk of the cat attempting to eat your hand, instead of a cat treat.
|-
! colspan="4" | New!
|-
|156,816
|Lean over a geyser vent and try to look down into it
|Geyser
|Geysers shoot steam and hot water upward. If a person were to lean over the geyser and look down during an eruption, they would be struck in the face by this hot liquid and gas mixture and severely injured or killed. This is a reference to the question from ''What-If? 2'' (called, appropriately enough, "Geyser"), in which it is asked what might happen to a person if they stood on top of the Old Faithful geyser as it erupted.
|-
|156,817
|Fly a hot-air balloon over a firing range
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/81/ Catch!]
|A hot air balloon could present an irresistible target to the people firing their weapons at the range. The balloon could be shot and you could fall to your death.
|-
|156,818
|Peel away the earth's crust
|Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way
|This is a reference to an entry in the new book, and an image of what it would look like is shown in [[2575: What If? 2]], where a potato peeler is used to remove the crust of the Earth. Several *What If* blog posts also result in massive damage to the earth's crust, including what happened to Texas [https://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ here].

This is a reference to a chapter from the new book, which refers to removing the Earth's mass to lose weight.
|-
|156,819
|Try to paint the Sahara Desert by hand
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/84/ Paint the Earth]
|This would be difficult and require more paint than humanity has ever produced.
|-
|156,820
|Remove someone's bones without asking
|Short Answers #2
|A reference to a short answer question in ''What If? 2''.
|-
|156,821
|Spend 100% of your government's budget on mobile game in-app purchases
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/108/ Expensive Shoebox]
|A reference to one of the examples listed in the answer.
|-
|156,822
|Fill a lava lamp with actual lava
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/122/ Lava Lamp]
|A {{w|lava lamp}} is a glass lamp, which contains a wax mixture inside, and heats so that the wax rises and falls. Putting actual lava inside a regular lava lamp would most likely cause the lamp to melt and the glass to shatter, not to mention handling lava is very dangerous.{{citation needed}} However, in this entry, Randall says it would be fairly easy to find a material that would be able to handle the heat of the lava and thus this would be rather anticlimactic.
|-
|156,823
|Drink the blood of someone with a viral hemorraghic (''sic'') fever
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/98/ Blood Alcohol]
|Drinking someone else's blood is a bad idea unless you are a vampire. If someone has a {{w|viral hemorrhagic fever}}, it is much worse, as they have a very serious and likely deadly disease which can be transmitted by sharing bodily fluids, such as blood. Drinking blood is the theme of this answer.
|-
|156,824
|Eat meat from rabid animals
|Short Answers #4
|Eating meat from rabid animals could give you {{w|rabies}}, a virus which is nearly always fatal if not treated prior to the appearance of initial symptoms. Pathogen contamination in cooked foods can persist on the surface of ''e.g.'' tongs, chopsticks, or a fork used to grill, which is why the USDA doesn't generally allow kitchen utensils to touch raw or ready to eat foods at all. Exceptions for utensils which touch only raw or partially cooked foods, such as grill spatulas and the like, are often allowed and can be negotiated on a case-by-case basis when they would otherwise be prohibited. The rabies virus permeates essentially all nerve tissue before symptoms appear.
|-
|156,825
|Perform your own laser eye surgery
|Eyeball
|Refers to an answer in the book regarding seeing your own eyeball as well as the end of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/82/ this answer]
|-
|156,826
|Tell California poultry regulators that your farm is selling Pokemon eggs
|Read All the Laws
|While issuing false statements to government regulators is a violation of both California and Federal law, for which prison sentences can reach ten years and fines can reach ten thousand dollars plus any compensatory damages, as per [https://california.public.law/codes/ca_penal_code_section_132 California Penal Code § 132] and [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001 18 U.S. Code § 1001], there is some question about whether any competent regulatory authority would ever take such an assertion seriously, and whether they would be liable for greater damages for doing so than the potential liability of the original culprit involved. Actually doing this, even to county level regulators, could result in a series of events very disadvantageous to you, your farm, and your employees. However, declaring that you're producing Pokémon eggs to your local municipality is probably harmless, and likely to brighten the day of your local regulators.{{cn}} Furthermore, as mentioned in ''What If? 2'', [https://california.public.law/codes/ca_food_and_agric_code_section_27637 California Food and Agricultural Code § 27637] bars anyone from making false or misleading statements about eggs, and Poké Balls could be considered a type of egg.
|-
|156,827
|Funnel the entire flow of Niagara Falls into the open window of a physics lab
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/147/ Niagara Straw]
|An oblique reference to the image near the end of this answer.
|-
|156,828
|Pump ammonia into your abdomen
|Ammonia Tube
|{{w|Ammonia}} is an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPA_list_of_extremely_hazardous_substances extremely hazardous substance] and pumping it into your abdomen would result in a painful death due to ammonia toxicity. As the book mentions, however, at the very least some of it would be neutralized with your stomach acid.
|-
|156,829
|Suspend yourself inside a 10-meter ball of sunscreen and fall into the Sun
|Sunscreen
|Despite its name, sunscreen only protects against some types of radiation from the sun. No amount is going to be adequate protection if you are right inside the sun.{{Actual citation needed}} Also, sunscreen, being a gel, would evaporate when exposed to vacuum. When exposed to the plasma of the coronal surface or the Sun's interior, it would quickly ionize along with anything inside it, becoming plasma like the rest of the Sun.
|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption:]
:Updates to my "Things You Should Not Do" list, based on what I learned writing ''What If? 2''
:(out 9/13, xkcd.com/whatif2)

:[The rest of the text appears in a box.]

:<big>Things You Should Not Do</big> 
:(part 3647 of ????)

:[A numbered list, the first four items in a lighter grey]

:<nowiki>#156,812 Eat Tide pods</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,813 Walk on stilts in a thunderstorm</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,814 Set off fireworks at a gas station</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,815 Feed your cat treats that are the exact shape and texture of a human hand</nowiki>

:[A horizontal divider with the text "''New!''" in the middle in black. The remaining items on the list are also in black.]

:<nowiki>#156,816 Lean over a geyser vent and try to look down into it</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,817 Fly a hot air balloon over a firing range</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,818 Peel away the Earth's crust</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,819 Try to paint the Sahara Desert by hand</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,820 Remove someone's bones without asking</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,821 Spend 100% of your governments budget on mobile game in-app purchases</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,822 Fill a lava lamp with actual lava</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,823 Drink the blood of someone with a viral hemorraghic fever</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,824 Eat meat from rabid animals</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,825 Perform your own laser eye surgery</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,826 Tell California poultry regulators that your farm is selling Pokemon eggs</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,827 Funnel the entire flow of Niagara Falls into the open window of a physics lab</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,828 Pump ammonia into your abdomen</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,829 Suspend yourself inside a 10-meter ball of sunscreen and fall into the sun</nowiki>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Cats]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

739: Malamanteau

2022-09-17T22:30:39Z

162.158.159.73: /* External links */ Cat "Lowercase" added due to the very good spot just made by Char Latte49‎...

{{comic
| number = 739
| date = May 12, 2010
| title = Malamanteau
| image = malamanteau.png
| titletext = The article has twenty-three citations, one of which is an obscure manuscript from the 1490s and the other twenty-two are arguments on LanguageLog.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|malapropism}} is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical utterance. An example of a {{w|malapropism}} is {{w|Yogi Berra}}'s statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes". A {{w|portmanteau}} is a word made up of two or more combined words. For example, motel is a portmanteau, from the words motor and hotel. A {{w|neologism}} is simply a newly coined word that is not yet in common use.

Here, [[Randall]] shows a hypothetical Wikipedia page of the word "malamanteau" which is both a portmanteau of "malapropism" and "portmanteau" and a neologism. The method used to create this new word is one of the very words used in the process. This is called a [[917|meta]] or "self-referential" joke.

By using many large obscure words in one sentence, Randall may also be picking on linguists, [[114|one]] [[1483|of]] his [[1602|favorite]] [[2390|subjects]], who are known for coining and using such words.

"Malamanteau" was originally coined in 2007, when it was proposed by user [http://www.metafilter.com/user/17900 ludwig_van] on [http://www.metafilter.com Metafilter] as a term for language errors like "flustrated" (flustered & frustrated) and "misconscrewed" (misconstrued & screwed).

The bottom line of the comic (Ever notice how Wikipedia has a few words it ''really'' likes?) is a reference to a large number of Wikipedia pages that start by labeling their subject matter as a malapropism, a portmanteau, or a neologism.

In response to this comic, editors at Wikipedia created a {{w|malamanteau}} page. It was deleted multiple times and eventually turned into a redirect to the Wikipedia page for {{w|xkcd}}. Malamanteau and the controversy at Wikipedia got coverage at ''The Economist'' and ''The Boston Globe''. The comic is used to illustrate this section of the xkcd Wikipedia article. In order for this to be possible Randall had to change the license for this particular comic. This has been explained in a unique [[xkcd Header text]] that is only displayed on the [[xkcd_Header_text#Malamanteau|page for Malamanteau]].

The title text refers to Wikipedia's requirements of citations for a page on there to exist. It also refers to the wide range of places citations can be obtained from, showing a direct opposition due to the use of very different citations (The Language Log arguments are modern and informal, whereas the obscure manuscript is formal and much older). The title text also refers to the fact that [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/ Language Log] is frequently used for Wikipedia citations.

Language Log is a blog that posts content relating to language and linguistics, including things like malapropisms and portmanteaus. While an informal source, it has produced new linguistic terms before, such as {{w|eggcorn}}. Its comments sections frequently contain discussions and arguments about English, whose participants are probably the same people who write Wikipedia articles about linguistic phenomena like malamanteaus. In actual fact, [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2758 Malamanteau] did not appear on Language Log until after this strip. Malamanteau has since been referenced on the Language Log website, with a link to the comic in question. Language Log has referenced xkcd many times before, reposting the comics and linking to the xkcd website.

The title text jokingly refers to the "malamanteau" citations being Language Log references and a document from the 1490s, in reference to the fact that linguists, like those who post on Language Log, often use old documents as evidence, possibly to prove that construction is a longstanding feature of the language. The joke is that the only references to this word or concept are a 500-year-old document and linguists informally arguing about what it means. In reality, if these citations were the only evidence of the term's use, then it would be unlikely to be a notable feature worthy of a Wikipedia article. Most articles that are only cited by a single website tend to get deleted unless the subject has achieved significant coverage in outside news media.

The comic shows Wikipedia as it would have looked at the beginning of May 2010, using its then-current logo and the then-default “Monobook” skin. Incidentally, just a day after the comic’s publication, a new version of the {{w|Wikipedia logo}} was published, and the default skin was [[mw:Special:Code/MediaWiki/66383|switched]] to the “Vector” skin. Both of these still define the look of Wikipedia as of 2021 (though Vector undergoes continuous updates).

Interestingly, the "f" in Wikipedia's tagline "Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" is lowercase. This differs from the other letters, which are written in xkcd's standard all-caps font.

==Transcript==
:[The strip is set up as the top of a Wikipedia page.]
:[The Wikipedia logo.]
:Wikipedia
:The free encyclopedia
:[Side navigation options.]
:Navigation
:-Main Page
:-Contents
:-Featured Content
:-Current Events
:[Wikipedia header options.]
:Article Discussion Edit this page History
:[The article itself.]
:Malamanteau
:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
:A malamanteau is a neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism. It is itself a portmanteau of [...the article cuts off.]
:[Below the panel.]
:Ever notice how Wikipedia has a few words it ''really'' likes?

==External links==
*[http://wiki.xkcd.com/irc/Malamanteau Malamanteau] at the xkcd wiki
*[http://malamanteaus.blogspot.com/ Malamanteaus], a blog dedicated to the creation and proliferation of malamanteaux
*[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Malamanteau Malamanteau] at urbandictionary.com
*[http://wordsquirt.com/Word/View/Malamanteau/dbb34d48-e565-4012-bcc8-56718f351712 Malamanteau] at wordsquirt.com
*[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/index.php?s=malamanteau Entries referencing "malamanteau"] at LanguageLog.com
*Malamanteau Talk Page Archives {{w|Talk:Malamanteau/Archive 1|1}} and {{w|Talk:Malamanteau/Archive 2|2}} at Wikipedia.com
*{{w|Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Malamanteau}}
*{{w|File:Malamanteau page history.jpg|Screen capture}} of the deleted history for the "Malamanteau" page from Wikipedia
*[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Malamanteau Wikipedia Log for "Malamanteau"]
*Beutler, William (May 5, 2010) "[http://thewikipedian.net/2010/05/18/much-ado-about-malamanteau/ Much Ado About Malamanteau]". ''The Wikipedian''
*McKean, Erin (May 30, 2010) "[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/05/30/one_day_wonder/ One Day Wonder]". ''The Boston Globe''
*R.L.G (Nov 4th 2010) "[http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/11/neologisms Eggcorn, mashup, malamanteau or other?]". ''The Economonist''
*July 17, 2007 "[http://ask.metafilter.com/67192/How-to-define-this-language-mistake How to define this language mistake?]" - MetaFilter thread with the first usage

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]
[[Category:Portmanteau‏‎]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

2673: Cursed mRNA Cocktail

2022-09-17T01:23:35Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Silly and inappropriate introduction to the rest of the sentence.

{{comic
| number = 2673
| date = September 16, 2022
| title = Cursed mRNA Cocktail
| image = cursed_mrna_cocktail_2x.png
| imagesize = 331x513px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Serve one each to guests whose last cursed cocktail was more than 2 months ago.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VACCINE DRINKER. Do NOT drink the mRNA Cocktail. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Approximately two dozenth in [[:Category:Comics featuring cursed items|the "cursed" series]], this comic describes a process to approximate the molecular composition of certain {{w|mRNA}}-based vaccines in drinkable form. It contains the variety and relative concentrations of the simple molecular constituents found within the injectable mixture. i.e. mostly water, some sugar, lipids (and an amino acid "or" biological and genetic material.)

Like much of what we eat or drink, the stomach and intestines will neutralise much of the complexity of either the vaccines or this ersatz replica of them, reducing them to simpler proteins of some slight nutritional value. For the vaccine to work, it has been designed to be injected into the body e.g. {{w|intramuscular}}ly to bypass the hostile environment of the human digestive system. While there are similar vaccines administered as a nasal spray, the fragility of mRNA in the human digestive system has curtailed the search for ingestible analogs. [[Randall]]'s replacement mixture '''might provoke generally unwise physiological reactions.''' While very few people would find such a mixture palatable, it is likely nontoxic,{{cn}} and contains moisture, protein, and calories, all important if elementary nutritional components. Because it doesn't contain a complete spectrum of essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, you can't live on it alone.

The title text suggests the mixture can be served as a "booster" to a prior dose or serving after an initial treatment. There is much study of vaccine efficacy relative to the timing of subsequent doses. Too little time between makes the new dose not necessarily cause the immune system to react in the way that it should; however most pairs of distinct vaccines work well if delivered on the same day.{{Actual citation needed}} The comic recommends not redosing within two months of the last attempt.

The instruction to serve in {{w|shot glasses}} is a play on the actual vaccines being given as a {{w|Injection (medicine)|shot}} (U.K.: {{wiktionary|jab#Noun|jab}}; Scotland: {{wiktionary|jag#Noun|jag}}).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Ever wondered what it would be like to drink the new COVID booster?
:This recipe approximately recreates the taste and nutritional profile!
:''(Note: does not protect against COVID.)''

:[The following two testimonies are displayed in spiky bubbles.]
:"...What? Eww." -CDC spokesperson
:"Please stop." -Dr. Anthony Fauci

:Ingredients
:2 cups water
:3 tbsp mayonnaise
:¼ tsp MSG or nutritional yeast
:1 tbsp sugar

:Directions
:Pour 1 cup of water into a blender. Add the mayonnaise and MSG. Blend until smooth.
:Pour the other cup of water into a glass. Add the sugar and 1 tsp of the mixture from the blender. Stir well.
:Serve in shot glasses.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring cursed items]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2673: Cursed mRNA Cocktail

2022-09-16T20:00:04Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Forgot the tt.

{{comic
| number = 2673
| date = September 16, 2022
| title = Cursed mRNA Cocktail
| image = cursed_mrna_cocktail_2x.png
| imagesize = 331x513px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Serve one each to guests whose last cursed cocktail was more than 2 months ago.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VACCINE DRINKER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic describes the process to approximate the composition of the mRNA-based vaccines, in drinkable form. It has no theraputic value (except, perhaps, in treating dehydration) but contains the variety and relative concentrations of the basic molecular constituents found within the injectable mixture. i.e. mostly water, some sugar, fatty-lipids and a probably similar dose of genetic material.

Like much of what we eat or drink, the stomach and intestines will neutralise much of the complexity of either vaccine or this ersatz replica of it, reducing it to more basic proteins of some slight nutritional value. For the vaccine to work, it has been designed to be injected into the body (either intravenously or intramuscular) to bypass the hostile environment of the digestive system. Randall's replacement mixture probably would not do very much good, if injected, as it has not been designed to interact with cellular processes in any useful manner. Also, especially in the volume of liquid you would obtain through this recipe, it might provoke other physiological reactions that would be unwise to invoke without significant medical understanding and expertise.

The title text suggests that this can be served as a "booster" to a prior dose/serving, much as a second (or third or more) injection can be given to augment an initial injection. There is much study made of the optimal time to refresh the body's experience of a vaccine, too little time between makes the new dose not necessarily make the immune system react anew in the way that it should. Though this will not actually apply, in the form of this drinkable fake, it still recommends not redosing within two months of the last attempt.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Ever wondered what it would be like to drink the new COVID booster?
:This recipe approximately recreates the taste and nutritional profile!
:''(Note: does not protect against COVID.)''

:[The following two testimonies are displayed in spiky bubbles.]
:"...What? Eww." -CDC spokesperson
:"Please stop." -Dr. Anthony Fauci

:Ingredients
:2 cups water
:3 tbsp mayonnaise
:¼ tsp MSG or nutritional yeast
:1 tbsp sugar

:Directions
:Pour 1 cup of water into a blender. Add the mayonnaise and MSG. Blend until smooth.
:Pour the other cup of water into a glass. Add the sugar and 1 tsp of the mixture from the blender. Stir well.
:Serve in shot glasses.

{{comic discussion}}

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T15:42:41Z

162.158.159.73: /* Esoterica */ Some technical esoterica, for the possible future record.

{{comic
| number = 2668
| date = September 5, 2022
| title = Artemis Quote
| image = artemis_quote.png
| titletext = Another option: "It is an honor to be the first human to set foot on the moon."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|created by a COLLABORATIVE EFFORT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|Artemis program}} is a series of planned space missions that will land people on the Moon and begin to set up infrastructure for a permanent crewed presence. People first landed on the Moon in 1969 as part of the {{w|Apollo program}}. They have not been back since 1972.

When {{w|Neil Armstrong}} became the first person to walk on the Moon, he famously said, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." However, he was intending to say, "That's one small step for '''''a''''' man; one giant leap for mankind [emphasis added]." [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Frase_de_Neil_Armstrong.ogg The audio recording] omits the word "a", making the sentence confusing, as "man" and "mankind" have the same meaning when referring to all people. That it was apparently elided by Armstrong in the excitement, changing the meaning of the historical phrase, is controversial and thus humorous. Subsequently, Armstrong and others have blamed insufficiently tuned {{w|voice activity detection}} hardware circuitry intended to save power in radio voice transmission, but NASA engineers, third-party historians and their hired experts have never been able to corroborate that explanation.[https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/a11.step.html][http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003645.html] Armstrong later said he hoped, "history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it was not said," and, on p.126 of the June 1982 edition of ''Omni,'' "the 'a' is implied, so I'm happy if they just put it in parentheses."

[[Randall]] suggests that the first Artemis astronaut to set foot on the Moon has a duty to utter an even more confusing quote, saying the sentence, "This is one of my favorite historical quotes — the first words spoken by an Artemis astronaut on the moon," aloud as they step onto the Moon. That would be confusingly self-referential, as if they were alluding to something from the past. This is very unlikely, and funny merely as a recommendation. If it actually happened, it might be both hilarious and scandalous.

The title text suggests an alternate phrase by which the Artemis astronaut could say being the first (rather than 13th) human on the Moon is a great honor. People hearing this quote in the future could assume that Artemis was the first crewed mission to the Moon. It could feed into contemporary conspiracy theories that the Apollo landings were faked, furthering the confusion. Alternatively it could also imply all previous astronauts who set foot on the moon weren't human, or simply state a truth which has no connection with the Artemis mission.

=== Esoterica ===
* The {{w|schwa}} indefinite article "a" is optional in certain contexts of most dialects of American English.[https://linguapress.com/grammar/article-in-english.htm]
* While the comic's lunar lander has similarities to the {{w|Starship HLS|current plans}} for the Artemis lander,[https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/as-artemis-moves-forward-nasa-picks-spacex-to-land-next-americans-on-moon] it is a generic drawing, perhaps in homage to classic space science fiction, with the exit portal at an unlikely position near the base of the {{w|SpaceX Starship}} lander.[https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-moon-elevator-nasa-prototype/]
** The 'ladder' could be very basic steps, from their practical width and if the onward-facing lunarnaut figure has indeed walked forward to make their 'first step' — not waited to speak until they had alighted and then pivoted around. Even the high-res version of the comic does not clarify fully enough, but the scenario needs to distinguish a possible "one small step" from some "We came to the Moon..." final-footprints situation. Probably another reason that the more currently canonical elevator/winch setup was not drawn instead.
* This comic coincides with the canceled launch of {{w|Artemis 1}}, an uncrewed test mission which will serve as the start of the Artemis program. The mission was intended to launch on 29 August 2022, and later on 3 September 2022, but was repeatedly postponed due to a series of technical problems and will now take place no earlier than late September 2022. The decision to return the whole {{w|Space Launch System|SLS stack}} to the {{w|Vehicle Assembly Building|VAB}}, rather than attempt adjustments upon the pad, was probably made even as Randall was getting ready to 'launch' this particular comic, but the typically two-hour launch window had already closed; the soonest following useful launch slot then becoming the 19th of September, if no further delays occur.
* In [[893: 65 Years]], Randall made a graph showing the number of living people who had been on the moon, and estimated the day when zero would be alive. (Very depressing). At that time 9 of the 12 where still alive. Upon this comic's release, only four are still among the living. But, with the Artemis project, it may not reach zero as soon. It would be interesting if Randall would make an update of the comic after the first successful mission, to show that the graph is unlikely to reach zero any time soon, if they make it before the last four (rather old) men themselves depart.

==Transcript==
:[A vertical rocket is standing on four deployed legs on the surface of the Moon. The surface is depicted with characteristic craters and rocks with a slightly curved horizon. The rocket is standing in the left part of the panel. A short ladder leads down from a hatch in the lower part of the rocket body. An astronaut has stepped down from a ladder onto the Moon's surface, and is speaking:]

:Astronaut: This is one of my favorite historical quotes — the first words spoken by an Artemis astronaut on the Moon.

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:Neil Armstrong's "man"/"a man" quote created a lot of historical confusion, and I think it's our duty to expand on that legacy with Artemis.

{{comic discussion}}

explain xkcd talk:Editor FAQ

2022-09-03T04:25:13Z

162.158.159.73: /* Punctuation inside quotes and parentheses */ Opinion/counter and general opposition to the suggestion.

Feel free to enter any question about editing this Wiki and don't forget to sign you comment. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:18, 31 May 2018 (UTC)

== Formatting of explanations ==

Many pages contain tables where a definition list would be 1) easier to read 2) mobile friendly, for example: [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1957:_2018_CVE_List&oldid=160469 1957].

I was also involved in rewriting the transcript for [[1963]], where the discussion came up about how those should be styled. ("as if you were reading the comic to someone")

I think we should have a small style guide to encourage sane formatting. What else should such guidelines contain?

Edit: One more thing I'd love to see: semantic headlines (i.e. < h3> headlines for explanation subchapters instead of < h2> which is the same level as the explanation itself)

(Sidenote: I've been active on explainxkcd for quite some time, but only now got around making an account.) [[User:Gir|//gir.st/]] ([[User talk:Gir|talk]]) 15:01, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

:Thanks for your remarks. First: There is no need to start every new sentence at a new line. Tables are meant for small content in all other cases it's bad layout. I recently changed this [[2034: Equations]] to a proper floating text. At the transcript tables should never be used, even when there is a table in the comic image it should be described by text. The guide here was mainly written by me because there was nothing like this here before. Some people already helped and I'm happy for any further remarks to enhance it. And this table issue is definitely one; I just not wanted to be the only (arrogant) layout master. Your help is welcome to write something, otherwise I will do so soon.
:For headlines we don't use HTML-code but WIKI-code. The main headlines are written like this: <nowiki>==Explanation==</nowiki>, <nowiki>==Transcript==</nowiki>, and (optional) <nowiki>==Trivia==</nowiki>. Headlines inside that chapters should be done in this way: <nowiki>;Subtitle</nowiki>. The preceding semicolon causes the entire line to be rendered in bold. Only when the explanation really needs sub-chapters it can be done by this: <nowiki>===Sub header===</nowiki> (three equal signs before and after the text). I will put this also into the FAQ.
:Welcome and thanks for helping. PROTIP: Always use the preview button to check the layout before saving. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:39, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
::hi, I'm aware about the headlines and stuff, it was just shorter to write it this way in the comment. I see you started a bit with a styleguide already; I hope I can contribute to it next week, when things cool down at work a bit. //gir.st/, who is to lazy to log in [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.190|172.68.51.190]] 06:51, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

So, one more thing, regarding 'What is the proper layout for headers?'. I think we should better use small <code><nowiki>====headings====</nowiki></code> instead of just description titles (<code><nowiki>;bold text</nowiki></code>), since it makes the intent clearer. what is your reasoning behind suggesting it the other way round? greetings, [[User:Gir|//gir.st/]] ([[User talk:Gir|talk]]) 14:49, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
:Thanks for your input and of course Wiki markup headers should be valid. I just believe that the simplest way should also be valid for less experienced writers. When a new explanation starts it's often awful and chaotic; giving a simple but effective structure at the beginning helps against this chaos. So, I'm thinking about dividing the section "What is the proper layout for headers?" (it's a question because it's a FAQ) into two subsections:
:*easy: a semicolon, the colon at the following paragraph may be mentioned - but I'm not sure about the colon because it should be ''easy''
:*advanced: <code><nowiki>===headings===</nowiki></code> if the comic really can be divided into chapters; <code><nowiki>====headings====</nowiki></code> as a replacement for the semicolon; and <code><nowiki>==headings==</nowiki></code> is forbidden because it belongs to expl, trnsc, trivia. The semicolon, colon issue should be mentioned here.
:Please consider that there was many chaos in the past and many writers will do their edits without reading this FAQ. So keeping this simple as possible seems to me to be inevitable. And dividing sections by using the semicolon for a header is still much better than many of those tables. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:41, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
::Based on this discussion I edited the current comic here: [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2037%3A_Supreme_Court_Bracket&type=revision&diff=161880&oldid=161841] and compare it to this former version [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2037:_Supreme_Court_Bracket&diff=prev&oldid=161841]. Do not focus on the edits, just scroll down to the resulting page.
::This brought me to another important issue: NO links in a header. At Wikipedia this is also not welcome. This site isn't Wikipedia but in this case I feel this is a good rule. But the TOC (Table of content) is shown in the preview while it's not at the resulting page. The result is preferred but the TOC in the preview may confuse editors here.
::So, I'm still looking for simple instructions, layouts which advanced people always can enhance.
::And consider that some editors are probably younger than xkcd is. Not sure about this but there are definitely young people here and I welcome them all. And I'm NOT getting old like Randall sometimes feel, I like to support every editor despite any other background. And this has to be simple on the first place. STOP(I could talk much more) --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:49, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
:::Sorry, I missed this. I'd personally go with the "advanced" option, but mentioning both is fine too. Nice work on 2037! Really enjoying our conversations about this, I hope i'm not a bother ;-) [[User:Gir|//gir.st/]] ([[User talk:Gir|talk]]) 11:20, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
OK, after a few days and some more edits (for example see here: [[2035: Dark Matter Candidates]]) I believe this would be the best guide:
*<code><nowiki>====headings====</nowiki></code> should be preferred because the advantage is that each header has it's own edit button. One other advantage is that the header text will be shown at the summary in the history.
*The semicolon may be used as a preliminary layout for new comics until it's clear of what content the explanation is composed of.
*On more rare circumstances the <code><nowiki>===headings===</nowiki></code> may divide the explanation into different larger chapters.
*<code><nowiki>==headings==</nowiki></code> is reserved to the general layout and has not to be used.
And I still oppose to the colon at the beginning of any paragraph at all. Any thoughts? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:17, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

== Please '''''do not''''' use semicolon-lines as "headings" ==

Hi, sorry to butt in, but I was going to mention this here anyway after I saw it in the FAQ. Please ''don't'' continue to give this advice to editors:
<blockquote>For headlines you have to use Wiki-style code. The simplest way is a preceding semicolon at the beginning of the line which causes the entire line to be rendered in bold.<ref>§ [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ#What_is_the_proper_layout_for_headers.3F|What is the proper layout for headers?]] of the [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ|Editor FAQ]]</ref>

====References====
<references/>
</blockquote>

The [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ#In_which_case_tables_are_meaningful_and_when_not.3F|previous Editor FAQ section]] has it right: in wikicode, the semicolon opens a ''description list'', and will be translated into equivalent HTML. In other words, the wikicode is processed as follows:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Wikicode !! HTML
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |<pre>; xkcd
: a popular webcomic</pre>
|<pre><dl>
<dt>xkcd</dt>
<dd>a popular webcomic</dd>
</dl></pre>
|}

One or more lines started with a semicolon ''must'' be followed by at least one line that starts with a colon, to provide the <code><dd>...</dd></code> part of the description list block.

It is a {{w|Help:List#Common_mistakes|common mistake}} to use semicolon-lines as "headings". Unfortunately the result is '''invalid HTML''', since the HTML spec requires that a <code><dl></code> block contain:
<blockquote>Zero or more groups each consisting of one or more dt elements followed by one or more dd elements</blockquote>
It's fine to have multiple semicolon-lines in a row (as the HTML standard allows for groups of several <code><dt>...</dt></code> blocks in sequence), but they must '''always''' be followed by at least one <code><dd>...</dd></code> block, created in wikicode by following a line started with a semicolon with another line that starts with a colon.

Just like lines started with <code>*</code> or <code>#</code>, a line started with a <code>;</code> creates a list element, and has syntactic requirements that must be followed. Abusing the description-term wikicode for purposes other than description-list creation not only breaks the HTML on the resulting page, but it makes the content much harder for screen readers and other assistive technologies to parse and accurately reproduce.

(And, yes, technically Mediawiki's use of <code>:</code>-lines for indenting, as on talk pages, is also invalid since it creates a <code><dl><dd>...</dd></dl></code> block with no <code><dt></code> element. So it's bad enough on talk pages, it's 100x worse to encourage doing it on '''article''' pages.) Please consider removing this bad advice from the Editor FAQ. Thanks. -- [[User:FeRDNYC|FeRDNYC]] ([[User talk:FeRDNYC|talk]]) 05:48, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

:Thanks for your remarks, that's why I started this FAQ and the discussion about it. Especially the header section is still preliminary, just check the section above here at the talk page.
:My first purpose is to keep it as simple as possible for writers having not much or no knowledge about wiki code or HTML. After that an advanced section should follow and define the rules for a complete article.
:Please check my summary from 29 August 2018 just above here. You're right the semicolon isn't a header, that's why I'm saying it should be used only temporary. And after reading your remarks here I would propose a single line with bold text and a following empty line instead of that semicolon thing.
:Keep it simple for people who just want to write something here; advanced users will change it to an appropriate layout later. Consider: When a new comic is out the explanation often starts in chaos. And for now I'm really happy that the overwhelming usage of tables is stopped.
:Let me know what you do think about the bold text line (not by semicolon) and the more sophisticated header guidance for the final layout as I've mentioned on 29 August 2018. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:45, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
::And of course the usage of a semicolon should also be mentioned together with the colon because it's a list. An entire paragraph "How do I format lists?" has still to be written yet. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:51, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
::One more: I've checked the definition for <code>dd/dt/dl</code> and it's clear the <code>dd</code> tag must be followed by at least one (either <code>dt</code> or <code>dl</code>) child. This tells me that the indent done by a colon is proper HTML. This is very important because every transcript since the first comic uses this indentation. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:20, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
:::On one hand, yes, the HTML is technically invalid, but on the other hand, every browser gets the intended layout correct, in no small part because these sorts of errors have been parts of industry-wide regression test suites since the mid-1990s. Asking users to try to achieve completely unnecessary perfection is a waste of time. Even screenreaders are completely unfazed by this nominal flaw. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 01:29, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

==Incomplete tags==
The FAQ says to use <code><nowiki>{{incomplete transcript|YOUR REASON}}</nowiki></code> but instead of rendering like this (like with the incomplete template):

{{notice|'''This transcript is incomplete:''' ''YOUR REASON'' If you can address this issue, please '''[{{fullurl:{{{target|{{FULLPAGENAME}}}}}|action=edit}} edit the page]!''' Thanks.}}

It renders like this:

{{notice|'''This transcript is incomplete.''' Please help [{{fullurl:{{{target|{{FULLPAGENAME}}}}}|action=edit}} editing] it! Thanks.}}

Can someone please change this? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.180|172.68.133.180]] 02:55, 13 October 2018 (UTC)
:The FAQ also says: "The reason at the transcript is not shown to the viewer." You can see it when you edit the transcript. And because the reason for the comic is also often not given this should be enough for the transcript. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:49, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

== math markup ==

Just to note - I was curious about the "math markup" message at the top of each page, and duly followed the link to the Editor FAQ as instructed, but ther--e is no mention of why it shouldn't be used... (no account yet, as I've not made any edits - yet! and i use google data saver, so this is not my ip -->) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.22|162.158.34.22]] 23:49, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

:damn, I'm tired - just re-read the section titles, and there it is. It's late, so sorry! --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.22|162.158.34.22]] 23:54, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

::I think the reason given is incomplete, but wanted to check here before I amended it. Transcripts are for the benefit of visually-challenged visitors, so using math markup, and thus rendering the text as images, is counterproductive. Right? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 15:06, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

:::The explanation is (in my opinion) somewhat silly, as the image generated by MathML has an alt tag for text browsers/accessible use. Further, if this wiki's settings were chosen correctly, the image would be output with MathML alongside, which is the ''actual'' (non-plaintext) accessible solution for displaying mathematical formulas on the web. See also: https://accessibility.princeton.edu/about/blog/mathml-accessible-math-markup [[User:DimeCadmium|DimeCadmium]] ([[User talk:DimeCadmium|talk]]) 02:20, 12 October 2019 (UTC)

== Create page for new comic ==

Should there be a paragraph about this?
Since the bot is not working anymore, people need to do this. I know I have seen isntructions somewhere on this wiki, but cannot find them... [btw: there is a new comic up, right now, as I post this line, which is not yet in the wiki. SO if you know how to do it, do it before explaining it on the FAQ :)] --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:27, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

== Page targeted by Spam ==

The page is currently targeted heavily by Spambots. I am not sure why they target this specific page. It might be, because it is linked in the header? Since Admins (who could protect the FAQ) seem to be currently absent from the page, anyone got any ideas what to do about it? leave it to spam and create a seperate FAQ with the same content? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:08, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

== Spaces ==

Seriously, why oh why is [[1285:_Third_Way|1285]] not linked into the statement about the one space / two space [[1285:_Third_Way | controversy]]? This feels like an inexplicable gap. Is there a policy insisting the FAQ remain fastidiously humorless in all ways? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.231|162.158.107.231]] 02:10, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

== Duplicating the hover text/title in the transcript section? ==

Is there a reason not to duplicate the title/hovertext in the transcript section, so a screenreader user can be sent there and not have to page back up for that bit (besides "one or more editors would need to check all entries and edit it in where missing")? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.43|141.101.68.43]] 00:11, 28 November 2021 (UTC)
:For my two (or three) cents:
:1) You'd be duplicating it, so you ought to lose the sub-image record if you do that or you could get silly with all kinds of repeating of everything..
:2) It's a Transcript to try to record/present the text (and imagery) you cannot already screen-read.
:3) It doesn't need manual editing (and manual editing is more likely to have mistakes, anyway).
:...Perhaps some Template(-pair?) could be developed to sit post-template to "display:screenreader-only" (or whatever the markup format would be) the upper-templated titletext field? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.12|172.70.86.12]] 04:00, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

== it's/its typo ==

At §[[explain_xkcd:Editor_FAQ#How_do_I_enter_mathematical_or_chemical_formulas.3F| How_do_I_enter_mathematical_or_chemical_formulas?]] please change “it's Wikipedia help page” to “'''its''' Wikipedia help page” (for the same reason that "our" and "their" don't have apostrophes).
[[User:Kurahaupo|Kurahaupo]] ([[User talk:Kurahaupo|talk]]) 23:44, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
: Came here to say this, but I see I'm two months too late. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 12:32, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

== Punctuation inside quotes and parentheses ==

Can we add a section saying <tt>."</tt> or <tt>,"</tt> is always better than putting the quotation mark first, and <tt>.)</tt> or <tt>.")</tt> are similarly preferable to <tt>).</tt> and <tt>").</tt> please? We also need to remind editors that numbered hyperlinks come after periods, commas, and parentheses, not before them. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.83|172.69.33.83]] 03:30, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
:...Erm. For quotes, it depends. If a proper sentence(-fragment) then I'd put punctuation in front (entry and exit), with ','=>'.' or vice-versa, as required by the full container sentence, but retaining notable exclamation- and question-marks. <tt>He said, "Erm," with a hint of hesitation, "For quotes, it depends."</tt> I know this is how I was taught to deal with quoted speech (close on fifty years ago), although I know standards change, and it may not even then have been so necessary for non-speech quotations. Yet certainly if I were to mention a set of randomish words like "Red green blue" (or "Red", "Green" and "Blue", perhaps) I would unhesitatingly consider it utterly wrong to move punctuation within any such quotation section. And note that an Oxford Comma (even without the quotes) would confuse matters in that second example.
:As for <tt>.)</tt> (etc), I've seen somebody ''wrongly'' do this. Do not do it if you have a in-sentence parenthesis (like this). I have never seen any suggestion that you'd do that (like this.) And, even if it works "like a quote", it ''really'' looks wrong to me. (The clear exception is when you entirely make a sentence parenthetical, like this.
:Now, this is just my own experience/preference/habituation. I have no doubt there are alternative points of view, which I would welcome to be added hereafter. But, whilst supporting the ''initial'' idea to precede quotes with punctuation (yet content to let it slip when others have prior authorship and it causes no additional confusion), I rail against it as an unwavering/absolutist style for all quotes ("quotes" ''and'' 'quotes', and maybe even «quotes» and the rest?) and especially it having any bearing at all in any bracketting/bracing/parenthesi(s|z)ing situations where full and proper start/end mark nesting should be adhered to as the ''only'' useful criteria.
:An interesting counter-examplee, however, might even mean individualised punctuation either side of a close-paren (if the sentence somehow does not require the same mark as the aside somehow begs, whether that be exclamation, question or even… ellipsis…?!?). Just so. But I'd normally consider rewriting that, as too stream-of-consciousness-like. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 04:25, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2667: First Internet Interaction

2022-09-03T03:12:09Z

162.158.159.73: If you have a problem, Green Day isn't the problem

Is this related to https://www.kerrang.com/green-day-fans-remind-the-internet-not-to-post-wake-me-up-when-september-ends-jokes/ ? {{unsigned ip|172.70.114.87|21:51, 2 September 2022‎}}

((Hey, what a coincidence. You edit-conflict the following ramble (that mentiones the September thing) that I was trying not to make too wordy and mostly failed at...)) 
Not entirely sure what my first Internet thing was (pre-web, might have been telnetting - or even Kermitting - to the software ftp/whatever server at Univeristy of Kent, but that was pretty much not an 'interaction'). And I may have IRCed/Usenetted already, with forgettable results, but I'm fairly sure my very first email to anyone outside of the campus networks (and certainly my first outside of JANET) was to Terry Pratchett. {{cot|...even more boringly nostalgic bit}}
I decided to pointing out something interesting I'd thought of after reading Wyrd Sisters. Which his reply made obvious that he clearly already knew and was definitely riffing off of. (That was me being naive, definitely. It was a very personable knock-back, really. But as 'one of probably many' I never did apologise for my stupidity in any future interactions.)
{{cob}}
Mind you, I'd only just become sort of reassured that I didn't have to pay any kind of postage for email. (Probably.)
 I think I had to wait until after The Eternal September to start getting the comic-like responses. But then I probably lost my patience with various Eternal Septemberites (AOL/WebTV/etc) myself, though never with Greenday details. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.173|172.69.79.173]] 22:10, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

is there a related comics section? If so, https://xkcd.com/1053/ is probably related. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.8|172.69.34.8]] 00:46, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
:Good one. I know I've seen Green Day mentioned in <s>at least a few other xkcds</s> some other media about Randall. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.79|172.70.214.79]] 01:01, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

I think the title text is implying that he does have a serious problem [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.35|172.69.33.35]] 01:15, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
:The reply was a conditional, so we can't really infer that generality. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.59|172.70.214.59]] 01:30, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
: Maybe Cueball's socialization issues. Or possibly that the internet is broadly searchable if you don't know something, so you needn't ask humans. But while I'm outside American culture, I doubt that now or at any time has it been "a serious problem" to not know what or, as it turns out, who is/are "Green Day".
: The name isn't apparently a reference to St Patrick's holiday, but, says Wikipedia, "slang in the San Francisco Bay area" for what I can call taking a herbal holiday. At least, I assume I can, but rules may be subjective. And it's local, so perhaps in New York it does mean St Patrick's Day. Japan celebrates "Greenery Day" for, indirectly, historic reasons. I expect they don't try to say "greenery".
: Anyway, would "AOL Kids" tell you about the San Francisco meaning? It is "A Logic Named Joe" all over again, as has been noticed often. Incidentally, it appears that Green Day were founded as "Sweet Children". Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 03:12, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

2661: Age Milestone Privileges

2022-08-20T00:47:36Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ That they shouldn't edit their own page; and that they might now do *anything* to the other one.

{{comic
| number = 2661
| date = August 19, 2022
| title = Age Milestone Privileges
| image = age_milestone_privileges.png
| titletext = If you reach 122, you get complete unrevertible editorial control over Jeanne Calment's Wikipedia article.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BABY GOD-EMPRESS MAKING THE PRESIDENT'S LETTER R-RATED - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a list of "age milestones" in the United States. As usual for Randall, he has added many fictional entries to supplement some real life ones.

25 years is also the threshold for being allowed to run for the United States House of Representatives, but the fact that other countries have different laws and regulations with different age-restrictions makes this comic America-centric. Also, this comic is incorrect; one must be at least 30 years old in order to ''become'' Senator, not ''run'' for Senate. Joe Biden was 29 years old when he was elected to Senate but turned 30 before being sworn in.

68 refers to a "Skip ads" button on live TV. Some DVRs and streaming applications have a feature to skip over commercial breaks in recorded programs, but this could not be available in live TV, since it would require jumping forward in time. Time travel is currently impossible.{{citation needed}}

In the UK you get a telegram from the Queen on your 100th birthday. In the US you get mentioned by Willard Scott on the {{w|Today Show}}.

Bilbo Baggins Farewell Birthday Party took place on his eleventy-first (111th) birthday.

Obviously, the god-empress does not actually exist because this comic is visible to people under 45 years old.{{citation needed}}

128 is a reference to computers, though 128 would become either -128 or -0 (depending upon implementation) in signed 8-bit, which means you would have a weird experience of your next phase of life. For unsigned integers, the correct rollback number would be 256.

The title text mentions {{w|Jeanne Calment}}, who holds the record for the oldest person ever (there are biblical references to older people, such as {{w|Methuselah}}, who supposedly lived to 969, but their ages haven't been verified); she was age 122 when the died in 1997. Randall claims that if you match her age you get editorial control over her Wipedia page. Although if anyone managed to exceed her age, presumably they would get their own page (albeit that they should not be encouraged to {{w|Wikipedia:Editing Your Own Page|edit it}} themselves) and hers would cease to be as interesting, although that might depend on what use is made of the unparalleled editorial control now granted.

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

<big>Age Milestones</big> 
and associated privileges

16  Drive 
17  Attend R-rated movies alone 
18  Vote 
21  Buy alcohol 
25  Rent a car 
32  Run for senate 
35  Run for president 
40  Rent a flying car 
45  Learn about the God-Empress 
50  Join AARP 
52  Click to skip captchas 
55  Vote for God-Empress 
62  $80 National parks lifetime pass 
65  Eligible for Medicare 
67  Collect Social Security 
68  See "Skip Ads" button on live TV 
70  Run for God-Empress 
75  Ride any animal in a national park 
80  Eligible for MegaCare 
85  Click to toggle whether any ad is positive or negative about the product 
90  Click to make any movie R-rated 
100  Get a letter from the president 
102  (35+67) Collect a presidential pension 
105  Get a birthday card from the God-Empress 
111  Leave your own birthday party early by putting on a magic ring 
118  Vote 100 times 
120  Collect the pensions of all elected officials 
125  Drink alcohol in an R-rated movie while getting a shingles vaccine from the president 
128  Age rolls over, become a baby again

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

Talk:1962: Generations

2022-08-18T12:33:27Z

162.158.159.73:

Table guy! Maybe this could be a table with "Year", "Generation Name", "References" and "Speculation". Or something. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.172|198.41.230.172]] 17:31, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

The highlighted generations are clearly the ones Pew Research named, but I can't figure out why Randall's numbers don't seem to match Pew's here: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/11/millennials-surpass-gen-xers-as-the-largest-generation-in-u-s-labor-force/ft_15-05-11_millennialsdefined/ [[User:TheAnvil|TheAnvil]] ([[User talk:TheAnvil|talk]]) 17:37, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

—••— means X in Morse code [[User:Inexorably advancing wall of ice|Inexorably advancing wall of ice]] ([[User talk:Inexorably advancing wall of ice|talk]]) 18:21, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

But seriously, it was funny the first time. I'm sorry for the above incomplete tag in the comments{{Citation needed}},but it feels like most comics since maybe #1900 ([[1914: Twitter Verification]] comes to mind...) have this kind of thing for their incomplete tag. Maybe if it's spaced out more, instead of put into nearly every comic nowadays, it won't be so much of a problem. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.184|162.158.75.184]] 18:02, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
: If you can address this problem, please edit the user. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.26|162.158.155.26]] 23:04, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
::Removed the incomplete tag, changed the citation needed tag into the correct one. Dude, please don't do that again, it's not funny, just seriously annoying. The incomplete tag is not there for you to abuse. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 12:07, 3 March 2018 (UTC)
:::Oh, and now that I've finally caught up to you, 162.158.155.26, please check your talk page. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 12:07, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Can someone help me? [[User:Halo422|Halo422]] ([[User talk:Halo422|talk]]) 20:20, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

What's the emoji 2000-2017? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.214|172.68.141.214]] 21:05, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
:I think I found it: 💅 [https://emojipedia.org/nail-polish/ "nail-polish"] (Comes up very different on different systems) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.233|162.158.79.233]] 21:20, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
:Couldn't this emoji, and hence the title "Generation 💅", refer to the rise of nail care salons or manicure salons during the recent years? I don't know about other countries, but at least in certain parts of Europe, Germany in particular, there seems to be such a boom of this kind of establishments that I often wonder how they survive and open even more such businesses, even though it appears there's more nail salons than (manicured) nails in town. [[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 20:56, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

I have to believe the 1748 - 1765 generation is some form of "Long s" such as U+1E9C or U+1E9D [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.233|162.158.79.233]] 21:12, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

: It looks more like a forte ([https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1d191/index.htm U+1D191]). I'm not sure why that would be funny—maybe because of [[Wikipedia:fortepiano|fortepiano]]s? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.214|172.69.69.214]] 21:43, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
::My position comes from the fact that documents written by this generation (i.e. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s#/media/File:Long-s-US-Bill-of-Rights.jpg Declaration of Independance] and the US Constitution) are noted for having this letter form. The script form of the long s looks like what Randall has written, which, to your point, looks like a "forte" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.233|162.158.79.233]] 22:51, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
::: Actually, it quite clearly is '''not''' long s. Long s only has the tic on the left side of the main stroke, not on both sides as is the case here. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.118|162.158.78.118]] 22:24, 3 March 2018 (UTC)
:::: I read it as an italic lower-case F, ''f'', as used to denote [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Function_(mathematics) mathematical functions]. I think it looks more like one of those than a [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Long_s long s], ſ, though I don't have an explanation for why that would be used to name a generation. [[User:Smylers|Smylers]] ([[User talk:Smylers|talk]]) 09:50, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Hitler was born in 1889, about three years before the "Oops, one of us is Hitler" generation ... --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.240|141.101.105.240]] 21:37, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Can someone who's a big Trekkie than I am help explain the dates for ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''? If we're going off of the events of the show + movies, it seems to start well before the events of the show and end before the last of the movies. [[User:PvOberstein|PvOberstein]] ([[User talk:PvOberstein|talk]]) 21:49, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
:Year 2378 may be explained by last episode of Voyager happening that year, but no idea about year 2360. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:59, 3 March 2018 (UTC)
::Year 2360 is when the humans who became adults (18) in 2378 were born. This time-span is probably when the majority of human TNG characters would have been born (not necessarily notable ones). This is similar to how people born in 1982 became the first new adults in the new millenium. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.143|172.68.46.143]] 05:02, 3 March 2018 (UTC)
:::William T. Riker was born in 2335, Jean Luc Picard 2305, Deanna Troi 2336, Data 2338, Guinan ... ehmmm ... well she was already adult in 1893. Even Wesley Crusher was born 2348. They don't allow children on bridge. Usually. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:49, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

Filled in most of the table with explanations (I'm pretty sure most of the latter generation names are references to potential transhumanist futures), but I'm not sure what "Second-Greatest" Generation refers to unless it's about the Civil War. Also, I'm not entirely certain whether the generation before the gilded one was cut a lot of slack. And I'll let someone more versed in standard sociological history fill in the common reasons for the core 20th century generations.[[User:WingedCat|WingedCat]] ([[User talk:WingedCat|talk]]) 22:49, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

;Paperclip machine
I think the paperclip machines refer to the browser game "Universal Paperclips", where paperclip machines take over the universe. [http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html]. Best regards, [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.10|172.68.110.10]] 11:55, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

The incomplete explination tag seemed to be a useless joke, so I deleted it.

;Ω
Wow that’s a lot of speculation on the Ω generation! 177 words of it! Who knew people could imagine so much inspired by a single character (and no historical context to extrapolate from). Personally, I tend to think of it as the “resistance generation” given my electronic background 😜. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 15:11, 4 March 2018 (UTC)
:Ω may be a reference to Year Omega in the novel {{w|The Children of Men}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.172|172.69.69.172]] 18:04, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Why is there an incomplete tag in the transcript? What's wrong with it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 22:49, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

Millennials were *originally* called "Echo Boomers" (after the Baby Boomers, and because most of them are that generation's kids), "Generation Y" came later but before "Millennials" stuck as a non-snowclone name. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.100|162.158.63.100]] 01:56, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Generation X being the tenth generation of Americans seems a bit of a stretch. A generation is generally 35 years, and seems unlikely to be less than 20. And [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X#Origin_of_term Douglas Coupland], who coined this use of the term, used "X" as lazy shorthand for alienation and a rejection of societal norms. If no one objects, I'll update the text. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.33|162.158.158.33]] 09:02, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

"1730 - 1747 Most of the United States' Founding Fathers were born in this period. (But not all: Benjamin Franklin, for instance, was born two generations prior, in 1706.)" So, since when is a generation 12 years? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 00:35, 19 June 2022 (UTC)
:It's the first time I've read(/noticed) that, and I'm not sure I would have said it myself, but... One generation in those days might well average at <26 years, so the intergenerational gap might be best considered as two such generations (e.g. like a great-uncle, being your grandfather's youngest brother, sort of age) rather than one (just an uncle, such as your mother's ''eldest'' brother), what with the tendency for early children ''and'' big families making the advance of generations more pertinent than their onward persistence through time.
:I may be overthinking it, but that sounds to me like a credible justification for the choice of words, should it not just be an error/thinko... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.121|162.158.159.121]] 03:22, 19 June 2022 (UTC)

“ This also implies that Napoleon's generation was named after him.” Why does it say this when there is absolutely no such implication? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.116|108.162.246.116]] 12:02, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
:The others namechecked in Mixed Bag, (Hitler and Licoln) have generations here-named for (or, better, ''about'') them. I agree it's not quite right. Perhaps "This also implies that a neo-Napoleonic generation might have been named for their own neo-Napoleon". i.e. only because of the competing neo-Hitler/neo-Lincoln characters was it not, with the same caveat thst the ur-Napoleon was also snubbed (and his namesake successors, obviously). Perhaps or perhaps not for differing reasons but conceivably Wellington/etc supporters had mutually exclusively been adamant about which historic figure was Le Grande Fromage originally born amongst that cohort.
:Of course "Hitler's Generation" and even "Lincoln's Generation" are also geographically ''and'' socially a subset of the temporal bracketting (of those born when their figurehead was prominant, not at the time their future-figrehead was born), with connotations of their own, for good or ill according to the eye of the beholder.
:...So it's bad phrasing, but I can imagine why it was written. Not quite how to succinctly write it better, though, even to my own satisfsction. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 12:33, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

2611: Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects

2022-04-26T10:21:01Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ "L" is next to backspace on this thing. And there's no haptic feedback, so touch-typing is fraught with danger.

{{comic
| number = 2611
| date = April 25, 2022
| title = Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects
| image = cutest_sounding_scientific_effects.png
| titletext = The Stroop-YORP number of a scientific paper is how many of the 16 finalist names (sans 'effect') it manages to casually sneak into the text.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A GUY WITH A Stroop-YORP Effect NUMBER OF 16! - Fill in the [[#Result of the twitter polls|Result of the twitter polls]] as it comes in! Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] has compiled [[:Category:Tournament bracket|yet another]] {{w|Tournament bracket|single-elimination tournament bracket}} for a knock-out competition between 16 different scientific effect names that Randall considers cute-sounding.

As of the release day, he is determining the result in a [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518701311763570689 series of Twitter polls]. These results can be entered on Explain xkcd here: [[#Result of the twitter polls|Result of the twitter polls]].

See [[#Effects|below]] for explanations for what each of the 16 effects are.

Several unrelated scientific effects were previously combined in [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]], which also included the Stroop effect (the last S).

In the title text, Randall coins the term "Stroop-YORP Effect" as a count of how many 'casual' references a future publication can sneak into it from the 16 finalist names for cutest effect. It specifies that it should be without the word effect after the words (sans 'effect').

Tongue-in-cheek 'counting scores' are familiar in the likes of the {{w|Erdős_number|Erdős}} and {{w|Bacon_number|Bacon}} numbers, both of which are being referenced by [[599: Apocalypse]] (the latter only in the title text). Albeit in these cases the ideal is to get the ''lowest'' number as opposed to here where higher is better. The cross-field hybrid {{w|Erdős–Bacon number}} is one in which the desired score is the lowest sum of both values (neither being undefinable) by dint of having participated in both arenas of respective achievement, but not necessarily (or practically) in a single combined presentation.

For instance the Stroop-YORP Effect could be high for a wildlife paper. That could possibly use "butterfly" and "rabbit" (possibly needing the latter to be specifically 'cutaneous', to count), which may both be found in "little parks" with some "popcorn" seen littered around without too much "oddity"; and of course a (Dr.?) "fox" could be in the area, getting a score of 6. But other words may be a stretch, with an imaginative reference to a "woozle" possibly easier to employ than to evoke anything of the "nocebo".

On the other hand, for a space-science paper there may be more obvious (mis)uses for physics-related terms, and mentioning YORP might well be expected. But it may need creative thinking to introduce the rabbit or the more psychological idea of Stroopicity, etc, without reason to discuss the responses of animal or human payloads being sent there.

It is not actually obvious wherher Randall intends the score to only be valid if the insertions are off-field and/or undetected, such as when someone is wagered that they can slip unrelated song lyrics into a public speech without the rest of the audience twigging.

==Effects==
;{{w|YORP effect}}: The YORP effect is the effect of sunlight on an asteroid with variations of shape and/or albedo, which can increase its rotation rate and/or modify its axis of rotation. It can cause objects to eventually spin apart or drastically change their orbit.
:It is an acronym of the names Yarkovsky, O’Keefe, Radzievskii and Paddack, who were instrumental in its discovery. More than a century ago, Yarkovsky determined that heat applied to a symmetrical rotating body would be asymmetrically re-emitted and apply a small but continuous thrust, and this was added to by considering the forces to non-symmetrical bodies.
;{{w|Nocebo effect}}: An effect in which a recipient of medication who believes that it will have negative side-effects is more likely to experience those negative side-effects, whether they can be really caused by the medication or not. Opposite of the {{w|placebo effect}}, which focuses on positive side-effects that arise beyond the true efficacy of a given treatment.
;{{w|Woozle effect}}: If a study gets repeatedly cited and otherwise disseminated, then people will start to believe it regardless of whether it has any evidence behind it. And if there is not any evidence, it becomes an urban myth.
:Named after a Winnie-the-Pooh story in which Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet try to catch an imaginary animal called a woozle, and accidentally follow their own tracks in circles.
;{{w|Stroop effect}}: The Stroop effect (referenced in [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]]) is a psychological phenomenon in which it is easier to name the visual color of a word when the word refers to its own color, than when the word refers to a different color.
:i.e that saying that '''Red''' is red is easier than to say that '''Blue''' is green.
;{{w|Pockels effect}}: A phenomenon where an electric field passed through a medium can cause the medium's refractive index to depend upon the polarization and propagation direction of the refracted light, a property known as {{w|birefringence}}.
;{{w|Cheerios effect}}: A phenomenon where objects floating in a liquid appear to attract or repel each other.
:Named after the cereal Cheerios, which are an everyday demonstration of this phenomenon because many eat Cheerios in a bowl of milk.
;{{w|Hot chocolate effect}}: A phenomenon where the sound created by tapping a cup of hot liquid rises in pitch as a soluble powder is added.
;{{w|Perky effect}}: An experiment in which participants were asked to visualize an object while staring at a screen on which the outline of that object was subtly projected. Participants believed the projected shape to be only a product of their imaginations.
;{{w|Bouba/kiki effect}}: An observation that people, despite different native languages, will relatively consistently assign names with certain sounds to blobby or spiky shapes, suggesting the association of sound and shape is non-arbitrary.
;{{w|Cutaneous rabbit effect}}: A phenomenon where, when tapped on one part of the body in rapid succession and then switching to another, the subject feels the tapping at locations in between the two.
:For example, if rapidly tapping the wrist then switching to the elbow, the subject will subjectively feel as if they are being tapped at progressive intervals between the wrist and elbow, when they are not.
;[https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smallfirmeffect.asp Small firm effect]: An economic theory that small firms usually perform better than larger ones
;{{w|Little–Parks effect}}: A phenomenon where a fluctuating magnetic field passed through a superconductor can slightly suppress its superconductivity, inducing small fluctuations in its electrical resistance.
:When juxtaposed against the "small firm effect", as in the bracket, one might get the impression that it is somehow related to urban architecture or civil engineering.
;{{w|Dr. Fox effect}}: A disputed theory that student evaluations of their teachers are likely unreliable because they are largely based on the teacher's charisma instead of the quality of their content.
;{{w|Oddity effect}}: A theory that when fish assemble in shoals (large social groups), any that stand out appearance-wise will be attacked by a predator, explaining why shoals tend to have similar-looking members.
;{{w|Butterfly effect}}: The butterfly effect is the sensitivity of chaotic systems to small changes in initial conditions. The weather system of Earth is chaotic, and so an arbitrarily small change in air patterns (such as could be caused by the flapping of a butterfly's wing) could ultimately change the weather for the whole world.
;{{w|Popcorn effect}}: A phenomenon exhibited by crushed ore placed on a vibrating screen for separation in mineral processing, in which larger particles tend to bounce higher than smaller particles.

==Transcript==
:[A tournament bracket tree is shown with 16 scientific effect names, with 8 on the left and 8 on the right side. From both sides toward the middle the brackets reduce from eight to four, to two, then to one line where the latter join to a rectangle in the middle for the winners name of the final match. Above the bracket there is a title:]
:<big>Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects</big>

:[Left side:]
:Yorp effect
:Nocebo effect

:Woozle effect
:Stroop effect

:Pockels effect
:Cheerios effect

:Hot chocolate effect
:Perky effect

:[Right side:]
:Bouba/kiki effect
:Cutaneous rabbit effect

:Small firm effect
:Little Parks effect

:Dr. Fox effect
:Oddity effect

:Butterfly effect
:Popcorn effect

==Trivia==
*Randall has made polls on twitter to determine the outcome of this version of his [[1819: Sweet 16|sweet 16]]:
===Result of the twitter polls===
Here the results for the polls can be mentioned, without cluttering the explanation above.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Tournament bracket]]

2611: Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects

2022-04-26T10:19:09Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Readjusting the splitting, as best intended, and improving the meaning elsewhere.

{{comic
| number = 2611
| date = April 25, 2022
| title = Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects
| image = cutest_sounding_scientific_effects.png
| titletext = The Stroop-YORP number of a scientific paper is how many of the 16 finalist names (sans 'effect') it manages to casually sneak into the text.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A GUY WITH A Stroop-YORP Effect NUMBER OF 16! - Fill in the [[#Result of the twitter polls|Result of the twitter polls]] as it comes in! Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] has compiled [[:Category:Tournament bracket|yet another]] {{w|Tournament bracket|single-elimination tournament bracket}} for a knock-out competition between 16 different scientific effect names that Randall considers cute-sounding.

As of the release day, he is determining the result in a [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518701311763570689 series of Twitter polls]. These results can be entered on Explain xkcd here: [[#Result of the twitter polls|Result of the twitter polls]].

See [[#Effects|below]] for explanations for what each of the 16 effects are.

Several unrelated scientific effects were previously combined in [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]], which also included the Stroop effect (the last S).

In the title text, Randall coins the term "Stroop-YORP Effect" as a count of how many 'casual' references a future publication can sneak into it from the 16 finalist names for cutest effect. It specifies that it should be without the word effect after the words (sans 'effect').

Tongue-in-cheek 'counting scores' are familiar in the likes of the {{w|Erdős_number|Erdős}} and {{w|Bacon_number|Bacon}} numbers, both of which are being referenced by [[599: Apocalypse]] (the latter only in the title text). Albeit in these cases the ideal is to get the ''lowest'' number as opposed to here where higher is better. The cross-field hybrid {{w|Erdős–Bacon number}} is one in which the desired score is the lowest sum of both values (neither being undefinable) by dint of having participated in both arenas of respective achievement, but not necessarily (or practically) in a single combined presentation.

For instance the Stroop-YORP Effect could be high for a wildlife paper. That could possibly use "butterfly" and "rabbit" (possibly needing the latter to be specifically 'cutaneous', to count), which may both be found in "little parks" with some "popcorn" seen littered around without too much "oddity"; and of course a (Dr.?) "fox" could be in the area, getting a score of 6. But other words may be a stretch, with an imaginative reference to a "woozle" possibly easier to emoy than to evoke anything of the "nocebo".

On the other hand, for a space-science paper there may be more obvious (mis)uses for physics-related terms, and mentioning YORP might well be expected. But it may need creative thinking to introduce the rabbit or the more psychological idea of Stroopicity, etc, without reason to discuss the responses of animal or human payloads being sent there.

It is not actually obvious wherher Randall intends the score to only be valid if the insertions are off-field and/or undetected, such as when someone is wagered that they can slip unrelated song lyrics into a public speech without the rest of the audience twigging.

==Effects==
;{{w|YORP effect}}: The YORP effect is the effect of sunlight on an asteroid with variations of shape and/or albedo, which can increase its rotation rate and/or modify its axis of rotation. It can cause objects to eventually spin apart or drastically change their orbit.
:It is an acronym of the names Yarkovsky, O’Keefe, Radzievskii and Paddack, who were instrumental in its discovery. More than a century ago, Yarkovsky determined that heat applied to a symmetrical rotating body would be asymmetrically re-emitted and apply a small but continuous thrust, and this was added to by considering the forces to non-symmetrical bodies.
;{{w|Nocebo effect}}: An effect in which a recipient of medication who believes that it will have negative side-effects is more likely to experience those negative side-effects, whether they can be really caused by the medication or not. Opposite of the {{w|placebo effect}}, which focuses on positive side-effects that arise beyond the true efficacy of a given treatment.
;{{w|Woozle effect}}: If a study gets repeatedly cited and otherwise disseminated, then people will start to believe it regardless of whether it has any evidence behind it. And if there is not any evidence, it becomes an urban myth.
:Named after a Winnie-the-Pooh story in which Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet try to catch an imaginary animal called a woozle, and accidentally follow their own tracks in circles.
;{{w|Stroop effect}}: The Stroop effect (referenced in [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]]) is a psychological phenomenon in which it is easier to name the visual color of a word when the word refers to its own color, than when the word refers to a different color.
:i.e that saying that '''Red''' is red is easier than to say that '''Blue''' is green.
;{{w|Pockels effect}}: A phenomenon where an electric field passed through a medium can cause the medium's refractive index to depend upon the polarization and propagation direction of the refracted light, a property known as {{w|birefringence}}.
;{{w|Cheerios effect}}: A phenomenon where objects floating in a liquid appear to attract or repel each other.
:Named after the cereal Cheerios, which are an everyday demonstration of this phenomenon because many eat Cheerios in a bowl of milk.
;{{w|Hot chocolate effect}}: A phenomenon where the sound created by tapping a cup of hot liquid rises in pitch as a soluble powder is added.
;{{w|Perky effect}}: An experiment in which participants were asked to visualize an object while staring at a screen on which the outline of that object was subtly projected. Participants believed the projected shape to be only a product of their imaginations.
;{{w|Bouba/kiki effect}}: An observation that people, despite different native languages, will relatively consistently assign names with certain sounds to blobby or spiky shapes, suggesting the association of sound and shape is non-arbitrary.
;{{w|Cutaneous rabbit effect}}: A phenomenon where, when tapped on one part of the body in rapid succession and then switching to another, the subject feels the tapping at locations in between the two.
:For example, if rapidly tapping the wrist then switching to the elbow, the subject will subjectively feel as if they are being tapped at progressive intervals between the wrist and elbow, when they are not.
;[https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smallfirmeffect.asp Small firm effect]: An economic theory that small firms usually perform better than larger ones
;{{w|Little–Parks effect}}: A phenomenon where a fluctuating magnetic field passed through a superconductor can slightly suppress its superconductivity, inducing small fluctuations in its electrical resistance.
:When juxtaposed against the "small firm effect", as in the bracket, one might get the impression that it is somehow related to urban architecture or civil engineering.
;{{w|Dr. Fox effect}}: A disputed theory that student evaluations of their teachers are likely unreliable because they are largely based on the teacher's charisma instead of the quality of their content.
;{{w|Oddity effect}}: A theory that when fish assemble in shoals (large social groups), any that stand out appearance-wise will be attacked by a predator, explaining why shoals tend to have similar-looking members.
;{{w|Butterfly effect}}: The butterfly effect is the sensitivity of chaotic systems to small changes in initial conditions. The weather system of Earth is chaotic, and so an arbitrarily small change in air patterns (such as could be caused by the flapping of a butterfly's wing) could ultimately change the weather for the whole world.
;{{w|Popcorn effect}}: A phenomenon exhibited by crushed ore placed on a vibrating screen for separation in mineral processing, in which larger particles tend to bounce higher than smaller particles.

==Transcript==
:[A tournament bracket tree is shown with 16 scientific effect names, with 8 on the left and 8 on the right side. From both sides toward the middle the brackets reduce from eight to four, to two, then to one line where the latter join to a rectangle in the middle for the winners name of the final match. Above the bracket there is a title:]
:<big>Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects</big>

:[Left side:]
:Yorp effect
:Nocebo effect

:Woozle effect
:Stroop effect

:Pockels effect
:Cheerios effect

:Hot chocolate effect
:Perky effect

:[Right side:]
:Bouba/kiki effect
:Cutaneous rabbit effect

:Small firm effect
:Little Parks effect

:Dr. Fox effect
:Oddity effect

:Butterfly effect
:Popcorn effect

==Trivia==
*Randall has made polls on twitter to determine the outcome of this version of his [[1819: Sweet 16|sweet 16]]:
===Result of the twitter polls===
Here the results for the polls can be mentioned, without cluttering the explanation above.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Tournament bracket]]

2611: Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects

2022-04-25T21:33:19Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */

2610: Assigning Numbers

2022-04-23T18:23:15Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Let's try this...

{{comic
| number = 2610
| date = April 22, 2022
| title = Assigning Numbers
| image = assigning_numbers.png
| titletext = Gödel should do an article on which branches of math have the lowest average theorem number.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by YÖDEL'S COMPLETENESS THEOREM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] is falling into a common trap, because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Faced with some sort of information, of an unknown kind but seemingly not intrinsically mathematical in nature, he has decided that one possible way to proceed is to somehow translate everthing into values which can be combined and compared numerically.

This is a very common thing to do, in fields as diverse as {{w|computational linguistics}} or {{w|sports analytics}}, and can be a powerful tool for understanding and learning new things about a subject as {{w|Data science}} tries to extract knowledge and insights from potentially noisy and disordered facts. But it is also used to implement bad science by using incorrect or misguided ideas about how to represent the source material. While it's possible to casually assign numeric values to random pieces of data, these numbers are generally not meaningful enough to compute with and draw any useful inferences from. It is generally possible to perform statistical analysis only on actual measurements, not on what may effectively be arbitrarily-assigned values.

Machine learning algorithms, which are commonly used by data scientists, typically require all their inputs to be numerical. However, most datasets contains categorical features (e.g. the description of a piece of furniture: chair, table, ...). Data scientists therefore use encoding techniques to convert these categorical features to a numerical form so they can be used as inputs to a machine learning model. For instance, label encoding consists of arbitrarily assigning an integer to a category (chair=0, table=1, ...) which may appear meaningless to most observers. In various cases, they may be right.

So, as well as being the mechanism that underlies one of the most profound theorems of 20th century mathematics, it can be mis-used for all kinds of bad or misguided science. From Cueball's attitude, it is far from clear that his attempt will reliably translate his project into a numerical system, nor that his attempt to "do math on it!" will be any more competent.

One of the major characters who looked at the concept is Kurt Gödel he introduced the idea {{w|Gödel numbering}} with his landmark {{w|incompleteness theorems}}. In it a unique natural number is assigned to each atom, statement, and proof, which might otherwise be difficult to accurately process in any other kind of approach. Instead, it is now possible to create metamathematical statements in the language of mathematics.

As the formulation in use was itself definable with numbers, in doing so, Gödel also proved the existence of a statement that essentially said "this statement has no proof." If the statement could be proven, the statement would there be false, and the mathematics being used would be inconsistent. The only other possibility is that the statement is true without a mathematical proof, and therefore the mathematics of the system is incomplete. Gödel's theorem led to a fundamental reckoning in the world of mathematics when it was published.

The title text suggests that Gödel should perform such an analysis on different branches of mathematics, by calculating the average of all the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers. This is nonsensical for a number of reasons:
:1) Gödel is long dead, and dead people can't write articles{{citation needed}};
:2) Gödel numbers grow very large very quickly, and depend heavily on the specific values assigned to each logical operator. Therefore the results could be manipulated simply by changing the numbering order of each operator;
:3) It may be very hard to gather all theorems in a field, or even a representative sample;
:4) Different fields of science, like biology or human behaviour, may not be able to write their theorems in the the mathematical language of Gödel's incompleteness theorem
If anyone were to attempt this form of analysis, it would be an example of the bad data science described in the title text.

==Transcript==

Cueball thinking while observing a whiteboard: If I assign numbers to each of these things, then it becomes ''data'', and I can do ''math'' on it!

Caption: The same basic idea underlies Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and all bad data science.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2603: Childhood Toys

2022-04-18T19:39:41Z

162.158.159.73: /* Transcript */ Cueball's helmet isn't necessarily a bicycle helmet

{{comic
| number = 2603
| date = April 6, 2022
| title = Childhood Toys
| image = childhood_toys.png
| titletext = The rope keeps breaking, I'm covered in bruises and scrapes, and I've barely reached the end of my driveway, but I don't care--I'm determined to become the first person to commute to work by tetherball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by YOUR BOSS LEAVING WORK BY A SPINLAUNCHER ON A SLIP'N'SLIDE NEXT TO YOUR PARKED HANDMADE ROBODRAGON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows various objects, ranked by how practical they would be for long-distance transportation. The objects are described as childhood toys.

The "Practical" panel shows objects designed for convenient transportation, namely {{w|bicycles}} and {{w|Motorized_scooter|electric scooters}}. Most people know how to ride a bicycle, and can easily go several miles on it. Scooters (shown in the comic panel) are also relatively easy to use, and may have a motor allowing them to be used for significant distances — the one shown has the appearance of one with a battery unit rather than being 'leg-propelled', and is named as such in the list for which it has been depicted. These are often not considered "toys", as they have been heavily developed for adult-sized transportation modes, as well as at the smaller-scale for play by children. The practicality of bicycles and e-scooters tends to depend more on local infrastructure and amenities (i.e., the presence of a safe cycle route and the destination being within a sensible distance) than on the equipment itself. Bicycles can carry {{w|Cargo bicycle|substantial loads}}. In some countries e-scooters are legally restricted or prohibited on public roads which may make commuting on them unviable.

The "Less Practical" panel has objects designed for transportation, but which may be harder to use than the first panel. {{w|Skateboards}} and {{w|roller skates}}, while designed for transportation, don't work great over long distances or when carrying objects, and {{w|Big Wheel (tricycle)|Big Wheels}} and {{w|unicycles}} (shown in the panel) are simply less practical bikes.

In the "Impractical" panel are objects that are designed for transportation, but are ''very much not'' designed for convenience, especially over long distances. {{w|Stilts}} are long poles that one stands on to extend their legs; while they increase the user's stride length, it takes quite a bit of practice to use them, especially if they're very long. A {{w|jump rope}} is a rope that the user swings around their body while they jump over it whenever the rope passes below their feet; it doesn't actually provide any transportation by itself, the user is simply hopping to their destination, which is a very tiring way to travel (but very good exercise if you can do it). A {{w|toy wagon|wagon}} has no propulsion of its own, it has to be pulled by the user; parents sometimes use it to transport their children short distances (such as to a playground). Larger wagons are used commercially. A {{w|Pogo stick}} is a pole with a spring at the bottom and a platform for standing on, which can be used to bounce; while fun for bouncing a few yards (as shown in the panel), like the jump rope it would be tiring for long distances.

The "Very Impractical" panel has objects that may be used for transportation, but to an ''incredibly'' limited degree. {{w|Slip_%27N_Slide|Slip 'N Slides}} (shown in the panel) only work (effectively) downhill, and only where they are placed down. {{w|Trampolines}} and {{w|Tire swing|Tire swings}} could let you go somewhere, but you'd need to set up multiple in a row leading to your destination beforehand. {{w|Hot Wheels}} cars could be put onto the bottom of shoes to create ''extremely'' ill-advised{{citation needed}} improvised rollerskates, but the car on its own has effectively no merit for transportation.

The title text refers to {{w|tetherball}}, a game found in many playgrounds where a ball is attached to a pole by a long rope. This is also very impractical, as the rope just winds around a stationary pole. It's possible that he is swinging from the rope and letting go (which would explain the bruises and scrapes, as well as the torn rope), but there is no ''remotely'' practical way to use this to commute.{{citation needed}} Nevertheless, if you were able to swing quickly enough and cut the rope at exactly the right moment, you might be able to achieve a short commute to a nearby target. This method may have been inspired by NASA [https://www.aerospacetestinginternational.com/news/space/spinlaunch-to-test-suborbital-accelerator-launcher-with-nasa.html purchasing a launch] via the [https://www.spinlaunch.com/ SpinLaunch] rocket system the same week as the comic appeared.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Title:] Childhood Toys
:[Subtitle:] By Practicality for Commuting

:[Caption of the first box:] Practical
*Bicycle
*Electric Scooter
:[Cueball, wearing a helmet, drives by on an electric scooter, passing another Cueball and Hairbun, who is holding a briefcase.]
:Scooter Cueball: Hi, boss!

:[Caption of the second box:] Less Practical
*Skateboard
*Roller Skates
*Big Wheel
*Unicycle
:[Ponytail rides by White Hat on a unicycle.]
:Ponytail: Good Morning!

:[Caption of the third box:] Impractical
*Stilts
*Jump Rope
*Wagon
*Pogo Stick
:[Cueball bounces past Megan on a pogo stick.]
:Pogo Stick: Boing boing
:Cueball: How's it going?

:[Caption of the fourth box:] Very Impractical
*Trampoline
*Tire Swing
*Hot Wheels
*Slip 'N Slide
:[Cueball slides past Hairy(?) on a Slip 'N Slide.]
:Cueball: Wheeeee
:Cueball: Hi Boss!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2603: Childhood Toys

2022-04-18T19:38:47Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Discuss practicality of bikes and e-scooters

{{comic
| number = 2603
| date = April 6, 2022
| title = Childhood Toys
| image = childhood_toys.png
| titletext = The rope keeps breaking, I'm covered in bruises and scrapes, and I've barely reached the end of my driveway, but I don't care--I'm determined to become the first person to commute to work by tetherball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by YOUR BOSS LEAVING WORK BY A SPINLAUNCHER ON A SLIP'N'SLIDE NEXT TO YOUR PARKED HANDMADE ROBODRAGON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows various objects, ranked by how practical they would be for long-distance transportation. The objects are described as childhood toys.

The "Practical" panel shows objects designed for convenient transportation, namely {{w|bicycles}} and {{w|Motorized_scooter|electric scooters}}. Most people know how to ride a bicycle, and can easily go several miles on it. Scooters (shown in the comic panel) are also relatively easy to use, and may have a motor allowing them to be used for significant distances — the one shown has the appearance of one with a battery unit rather than being 'leg-propelled', and is named as such in the list for which it has been depicted. These are often not considered "toys", as they have been heavily developed for adult-sized transportation modes, as well as at the smaller-scale for play by children. The practicality of bicycles and e-scooters tends to depend more on local infrastructure and amenities (i.e., the presence of a safe cycle route and the destination being within a sensible distance) than on the equipment itself. Bicycles can carry {{w|Cargo bicycle|substantial loads}}. In some countries e-scooters are legally restricted or prohibited on public roads which may make commuting on them unviable.

The "Less Practical" panel has objects designed for transportation, but which may be harder to use than the first panel. {{w|Skateboards}} and {{w|roller skates}}, while designed for transportation, don't work great over long distances or when carrying objects, and {{w|Big Wheel (tricycle)|Big Wheels}} and {{w|unicycles}} (shown in the panel) are simply less practical bikes.

In the "Impractical" panel are objects that are designed for transportation, but are ''very much not'' designed for convenience, especially over long distances. {{w|Stilts}} are long poles that one stands on to extend their legs; while they increase the user's stride length, it takes quite a bit of practice to use them, especially if they're very long. A {{w|jump rope}} is a rope that the user swings around their body while they jump over it whenever the rope passes below their feet; it doesn't actually provide any transportation by itself, the user is simply hopping to their destination, which is a very tiring way to travel (but very good exercise if you can do it). A {{w|toy wagon|wagon}} has no propulsion of its own, it has to be pulled by the user; parents sometimes use it to transport their children short distances (such as to a playground). Larger wagons are used commercially. A {{w|Pogo stick}} is a pole with a spring at the bottom and a platform for standing on, which can be used to bounce; while fun for bouncing a few yards (as shown in the panel), like the jump rope it would be tiring for long distances.

The "Very Impractical" panel has objects that may be used for transportation, but to an ''incredibly'' limited degree. {{w|Slip_%27N_Slide|Slip 'N Slides}} (shown in the panel) only work (effectively) downhill, and only where they are placed down. {{w|Trampolines}} and {{w|Tire swing|Tire swings}} could let you go somewhere, but you'd need to set up multiple in a row leading to your destination beforehand. {{w|Hot Wheels}} cars could be put onto the bottom of shoes to create ''extremely'' ill-advised{{citation needed}} improvised rollerskates, but the car on its own has effectively no merit for transportation.

The title text refers to {{w|tetherball}}, a game found in many playgrounds where a ball is attached to a pole by a long rope. This is also very impractical, as the rope just winds around a stationary pole. It's possible that he is swinging from the rope and letting go (which would explain the bruises and scrapes, as well as the torn rope), but there is no ''remotely'' practical way to use this to commute.{{citation needed}} Nevertheless, if you were able to swing quickly enough and cut the rope at exactly the right moment, you might be able to achieve a short commute to a nearby target. This method may have been inspired by NASA [https://www.aerospacetestinginternational.com/news/space/spinlaunch-to-test-suborbital-accelerator-launcher-with-nasa.html purchasing a launch] via the [https://www.spinlaunch.com/ SpinLaunch] rocket system the same week as the comic appeared.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Title:] Childhood Toys
:[Subtitle:] By Practicality for Commuting

:[Caption of the first box:] Practical
*Bicycle
*Electric Scooter
:[Cueball, wearing a bicycle helmet, drives by on an electric scooter, passing another Cueball and Hairbun, who is holding a briefcase.]
:Scooter Cueball: Hi, boss!

:[Caption of the second box:] Less Practical
*Skateboard
*Roller Skates
*Big Wheel
*Unicycle
:[Ponytail rides by White Hat on a unicycle.]
:Ponytail: Good Morning!

:[Caption of the third box:] Impractical
*Stilts
*Jump Rope
*Wagon
*Pogo Stick
:[Cueball bounces past Megan on a pogo stick.]
:Pogo Stick: Boing boing
:Cueball: How's it going?

:[Caption of the fourth box:] Very Impractical
*Trampoline
*Tire Swing
*Hot Wheels
*Slip 'N Slide
:[Cueball slides past Hairy(?) on a Slip 'N Slide.]
:Cueball: Wheeeee
:Cueball: Hi Boss!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2607: Geiger Counter

2022-04-16T14:51:19Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Adding just a little more value, interestingly...

{{comic
| number = 2607
| date = April 15, 2022
| title = Geiger Counter
| image = geiger_counter.png
| titletext = At first I didn't get why they were warning me about all those birds sitting on the wire, but then I understood.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A CLICKING BIRD COUNTER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is a simple {{w|pun}}. [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] are standing in what looks to be a desert, and Cueball is holding a {{w|Geiger counter}} in his hand. Cueball remarks that he did not understand why he was asked to carry a Geiger counter, but that it then "clicked" with him.

Geiger counters are devices used to measure the amount of {{w|radiation}} in an area. When a particle of ionizing radiation hits the sensor of a Geiger counter, it will give off a distinct "clicking" noise. "Click" can also be a slang term for the {{w|Eureka effect}}, a sudden moment of understanding. The pun in this comic insinuates that Cueball realized why he was asked to bring the Geiger counter when it clicked, indicating radiation nearby. In radioactive areas, it is usually a good idea to carry around some sort of radiation detector for safety reasons.

This is likely a {{w|parody}} of a fairly well-known pun that takes advantage of a similar double meaning: "I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me." Just as that pun uses "hit me" to mean both the action of the ball and to understand, this comic uses the "clicking" to mean both the action of the Geiger counter and to understand. A related variety of pun, told in the {{w|Narration#Third-person|third person}}, is the {{w|Tom Swifty}}.

The title text is also a pun, since "I" stand under the birds on the wire (under-stood, stood under), with the implication being that some birds on the power line pooped on him.

note: The title text can also have a different meaning: a reference to the Hitchcock film 'The Birds'

==Transcript==

{{incomplete transcript}}
:[Cueball and Ponytail are wearing hard hats and standing in what looks to be some sort of desert or rocky area. Cueball is holding a Geiger counter in his hands. Ponytail is holding a clipboard.]
:Cueball: At first I was confused about why they wanted me to carry a Geiger counter here, but then it clicked.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Characters with Hats]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Puns]]

Talk:2604: Frankenstein Captcha

2022-04-08T16:36:15Z

162.158.159.73:

Don't forget it's cannon the Frankenstein is the name of the Monster https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1589:_Frankenstein

The other squares contain things that might also be ambiguously named:

There is tortoise/turtle ship/boat/yacht monster Napolean/Nelson

puddle/pond/lake girl/woman magma/lava squash/pumpkin/gourd/..

Frankenstein (sandwich?) (stop sign?) monster

Rocket/spaceship(Or planet/dwarf planet?) (couple?) (traffic light?) monster.

I can't think of any other term for the sandwich, the couple, or the traffic signals. Are these a call back to the self driving car captcha https://xkcd.com/1897/

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.125|162.158.159.125]] 16:28, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

2503: Memo Spike Connector

2022-04-08T07:48:31Z

162.158.159.73: Undo revision 229900 by 172.70.123.58 (talk) Sheer stupidity...

{{comic
| number = 2503
| date = August 16, 2021
| title = Memo Spike Connector
| image = memo spike connector.png
| titletext = Backward-compatible with many existing cables, and can connect directly to phones or tablets if you press them down hard enough.
| imagesize =
}}

==Explanation==
This is the third installment in the series of [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] and presents Cursed Connectors #102: The Memo Spike. It follows [[2495: Universal Seat Belt]] (#65) and was followed 9 days later by [[2507: USV-C]] (#280).

The comic depicts a large metal spike with a wire coming from the base. The spike stabs through two other wires, thus creating an electrical connection between the three. As the name suggests, the spike resembles a {{w|Spindle_(stationery)|stationery spindle}}, colloquially known as a spike, called a Memo Spike here by Randall. However, unlike normal spindles, this one has a cable of some kind coming out of it, suggesting this is a hub of some sort.

Spindles are used to temporarily hold paper by "spindling" or impaling the paper onto the spike (as depicted in the comic). They're most known for their use in restaurants as a way to hold bills that have been paid, or traditionally in offices that work with many bits of paper, e.g. with invoices in a finance department or hardcopy in newspaper editing, to prevent accidental disturbance/shuffling, at the expense of a small puncture mark in each sheet so impaled. (This could cause errors in papers with punch-holes that are meant to be read by machines, hence the admonition against "{{w|Punched_card#Do_Not_Fold,_Spindle_or_Mutilate|folding, spindling, and mutilating}}".) In the latter context, the editor might put all the rejected stories onto a spike (rather than into a wastebasket) to prevent them going astray, and this might be the source of the term '{{w|Spike (journalism)|spiked}}'.

The joke of the comic is while any number of non-destructive connection standards exist, a large spike can provide much of the same results: a conductive object that retains a connection of multiple wires in a way that allows electricity to pass through. Indeed, in the early days of Ethernet, {{w|Vampire tap|vampire taps}} were used, essentially spikes that bit into a cable to establish a new branch in the network. Another type of connection which involves piercing the wire is a {{w|Punch-down block|punch-down block}}, a type of {{w|Insulation-displacement_connector|insulation-displacement connector}}, where one or more wires are pushed into a cutting channel instead of onto a spike.

Depending on the type of cable it is also likely to create a short circuit, e.g. by connecting both strands of a twisted pair of strands in a typical Ethernet cable, or the central wire and the sheath of a coaxial cable. In an enterprise environment, this could even happen on a {{w|Power_over_Ethernet|PoE-Connection}}, which actually carry more noticeable amounts of power (up to 25.5W). Even if this is avoided, the single spike may be large enough to mechanically sever a random subset of the finer strands that exist within a multicore cable such as is commonly in use today.

The title text takes this a bit further. It says that it is backwards compatible with many existing cables. This means any cable large enough to be impaled by the spike could be used. Needless to say it will likely not work anyway. It also continues by saying that phones and tablets can also be connected using this method if you press them down hard enough over the spike. Thus if you actually manage to make the spike penetrate the device's coverings to reach the electrical parts, then there is a connection. The implication is that any device or cable can be connected to any other device or cable as a form of universal adapter/splitter/combiner across arbitrary hardware and communications/power standards. In reality, this could be even more dangerous and will surely destroy the phone/tablet either directly or by overloading their cable connection.{{citation needed}} Also be careful not to impale your hand while trying to push the spike through your tablet's screen.

==Transcript==
:[A memo spike is shown (a device also called a Spindle). It is a long spike standing up from a round base plate. A wire is coming in from the left and appears to be hardwired into the spike's base element. Two other wires comes in from the right. Both are firmly impaled down upon the spike, penetrated completely through shortly before their apparently unterminated ends. The end of the impaled wire closest to the base faces out and the details appear to show it to be of some variety of multicore (rather than co-axial) manufacture. The other cable's end is a bit higher and points into the image. Above is a title and below is a label.]
:Cursed Connectors #102
:The Memo Spike

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Cursed Connectors]]

Talk:256: Online Communities

2022-04-05T10:08:28Z

162.158.159.73:

I'm gonna try and put together some sort of explanation at all for this one. A couple of things I could use help on in terms of location if people want to chip in: series of tubes within myspace; the Icy North; the islands bounded by the Ocean of Subculture, Sea of Memes, and P2P Shoals; and the location of some of the tiny islands around the map (e.g. why is the Lonely Island near friendster, Google's Volcano Fortress off the IRC Isles, etc.). Thanks in advance!! [[User:Amurfalcon|Amurfalcon]] ([[User talk:Amurfalcon|talk]]) 20:30, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
:I've found Googling some of the more obscure things and half-readable things helps a lot. It's how I got Xu Jinglei. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.219|141.101.99.219]] 17:03, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
The Lonely Island may be a reference to the comedy band of the same name. Shortly before this map was made they blew up after appearing on SNL. I do not know if this is relevant to its location on the map. [[User:CloverOtsworth|CloverOtsworth]] ([[User talk:CloverOtsworth|talk]]) 00:03, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Can someone remove that stray line break before "A larger version..."? It irks me and I don't know how to get rid of it.

;bay of trolls

Might this be a reference to bay of pigs? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.135|173.245.48.135]] 03:58, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
:Possibly, but, well, it'd be rather speculative to include it, and there's [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3APrefixIndex&prefix=Bay+of&namespace=0 lots] of other "Bay of X" places, e.g. Bay of Fundy. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.235|141.101.99.235]] 05:46, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

; Map of the Internet

I don't know if or how much this art was inspired by this comic, but if you like 256 you'll love the [http://jaysimons.deviantart.com Map of the Internet]. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 16:14, 6 January 2015 (UTC)''

"World of Warcraft ... based on a previously-existing RPG series" i'm not sure about this statement. The first thing that most people think about would be Warcraft but that's not an RPG series (they are strategy games) unless we are considering it so for the minimal RPG elements in Warcraft 3. Perhaps it's referencing an other series (maybe Diablo) or I'm missing something and since i'm far from an expert in either WOW or xkcd i'll let someone else decide if it should be changed (a possible minimal change would be changing "RPG series" to either "game series" or "video game series"). [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.125|188.114.111.125]] 07:49, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

There's no explanation of the "anthropomorphic dragons" bit. I mean, I'm sure many of us know what it means (wink wonk), but some may be confused. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.33|108.162.246.33]] 03:31, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

what is a one-syllable way to say "practical" or "practicals"? [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 07:05, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
:As a noun? I suppose "prop(s)" fits that ("a practical effect", as supposed to a special one, for something in a movie scene). Or "skill", in context of what a practical ability is. Or "test" (i.e. a "practical exam"), if you think "trial" is >1 syllable (I say 1.5!)... As a non-noun, never pluralised in any context I can think of and I'm short of 1-syllable answers, but I'm sure a visit to a dictionary+thesaurus site would help greatly. But I'm now wondering why anyone even asked this question here... Perhaps I need to reread the page for long-forgotten context? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 09:51, 5 April 2022 (UTC) - addendum: Ahah! The compass rose! Lemme think more about the word. Or let others find your question, equipped with an innately more at hand answer... - additional addendum: it refers to those who "can", maybe? The "Cans", with the Intellectuals opposite being more like the "Coulds", rather than dimetrically Cannots. The 1S limit is rather restrictive. Can't even role out "able(rs)", or the like. But I presume you have singly-short-style names for the othe three (or seven?) points of the rose... Have fun. Hope you get better ideas from the next editor! -- ~sameIP~~slightlylater~

1585: Similarities

2022-03-22T13:34:39Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Tweaking your tweak.

{{comic
| number = 1585
| date = October 2, 2015
| title = Similarities
| image = similarities.png
| titletext = I just came from The Martian, and I just have to say: Forget BB-8; I want a pet Sojourner! It's always been the cutest of our Mars rovers.
}}

==Explanation==
There's a common punchline in which the plot lines of two thematically-different works of fiction (usually movies) are compared in greatly-abbreviated form, and the speaker sarcastically concludes that the two movies are "basically the same". For sake of example, Disney's ''{{w|Aladdin (1992 Disney film)|Aladdin}}'' and {{w|James Cameron}}'s ''{{w|Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic}}'' [http://imgur.com/gallery/kasCMYd both feature a story] in which a lower-class boy and an upper-class girl fall for each other, among other cherry-picked yet interesting parallels. But due to the different emotional tones of the films (a family-friendly "happy ever after" tale and a disaster thriller respectively), one would not normally describe them as similar.

This comic spoofs the idea. Instead of comparing plot lines of two movies, [[Ponytail]] and [[Cueball]] compare the respective movies' development histories.

''{{w|The Martian (Weir novel)|The Martian}}'' was originally a serialized story written by {{w|Andy Weir (writer)|Andy Weir}} on his blog which was later compiled into an ebook for people to easily download, then published into a physical book, and has now had a {{w|The Martian (film)|movie}} created based on it. The movie was officially released in the US on the same day this comic was released (October 2, 2015).

''{{w|Fifty Shades of Grey}}'' began as a {{w|fan fiction}} of a well known brand (the {{w|Twilight (novel series)|Twilight book series}}). It was originally written on the internet by {{w|E. L. James}}. It was then transformed into a successful book series which was later turned into a {{w|Fifty Shades of Grey (film)|movie}} released in February 2015. The book was already referenced back in 2012 in [[1128: Fifty Shades]].

Since ''Fifty Shades'' is a romance story about a sadomasochistic relationship, and ''The Martian'' is a very technical story about surviving completely alone on a hostile planet, the two books could not be any more different, hence the joke due to the juxtaposition.

Cueball continues the joke by joining the two titles using red for Mars, to make a new book title, that should cover both books: ''Fifty Shades of Red.'' Ponytail says to Cueball that such a book would be irresistible for him. She does this by daring him to say that he wouldn't read it, believing he could not say so without lying. The red could also be a reference to the safe word used in the Fifty Shades series, for when things hurt instead of being pleasing. It means stop! But stop should be a word you can say, without the other one stopping, adding to the illusion of being forced; actually stopping would be done by saying ''red''. Reading it like that, the title would be ''Fifty Shades of Stop''!

It is not clear from the comic if [[Randall]] liked the movie. Since he now compares it to a book series that has been {{w|Fifty_Shades_of_Grey#Background|described}} as ''mommy porn'' it could indicate that he was not so satisfied with the movie. On the other hand, he may just have noticed this connection and found that it would make a great joke here on the release day.

An alternative explanation is that Randall is commenting on the [http://screencrush.com/the-martian-damon-interstellar/ frequent] [http://io9.com/sorry-interstellar-we-just-saw-some-of-the-martian-an-1699793860 comparisons] made between The Martian and the movie {{w|Interstellar (film)|Interstellar}}, comparisons centering on the fact that in both {{w|Matt Damon}} plays an astronaut stuck on a deserted planet, but also mentioning, among others, the appearance of {{w|Jessica Chastain}} and the similar design of the spacesuits used in both movies. These comparisons have been prevalent on the Internet long before the release of The Martian, so evidently spurred by the movie trailers, rather than by reviews of viewers. Randall is making the point that to one who has seen the movie, comparing The Martian to Interstellar is as far-fetched as comparing it to Fifty Shades of Grey. According to this interpretation, Randall is not ridiculing The Martian, but rather Interstellar. By proxy, he is praising The Martian. Given that Randall has chosen (now for the second time) to mention the film explicitly on his site, the idea that he is promoting The Martian is perhaps more plausible than the idea that he is expressing dissatisfaction with it. The title text, where he makes a similar comparison, favoring The Martian over Star Wars: The Force Awakens, further boosts this explanation.

It is possible that the brand that ''The Martian'' derives from is {{w|NASA}} itself. ''The Martian'' has been compared to the film {{w|Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13}} by Randall in [[1536: The Martian]]. ''Apollo 13'' does indeed glorify the roles of the NASA engineers, and ''The Martian'' does a similar thing. That Randall would go see this movie as soon as it was released was already made perfectly clear back in June when he released the comic [[1536: The Martian]] showing how excited he is about the book. He then really looked forward to the movie.

Randall indicates in the title text that he has just seen the movie (certainly possible, if he caught a midnight screening; perhaps he drew this comic in advance and wrote the title text after) and finds the Sojourner rover adorable. Of course, he could also have seen it in the trailers.

The [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BB-8 BB-8] mentioned in the title text is the {{w|astromech droid}} from the movie {{w|Star Wars: The Force Awakens}} and is available as a toy (see also BB-8 on the [http://www.starwars.com/databank/bb-8 official Star Wars] home page). {{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}} was the Mars ''Pathfinder'' robotic rover used by Mark Watney, the protagonist of ''The Martian'' (played by Matt Damon in the movie), to allow him to contact Earth. Randall indicated that he thinks the Sojourner is much cuter than BB-8, and that he would like to have one as a pet. He then states that the Sojourner has always been the cutest among all the [[:Category:Mars rovers|Mars rovers]]. The cuteness of Mars Rovers is also mentioned in [[2433: Mars Rovers]]. There have been four so far the other three being {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}, {{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}} and {{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}} which have already been used in xkcd comics: [[695: Spirit]], [[1091: Curiosity]] and [[1504: Opportunity]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is talking to Cueball.]

:Ponytail: So it's a work of fiction about a well-known brand. written on the Internet by an enthusiast, republished as a bestselling book, and then made into a big movie.
:Cueball: Yup.

:[Ponytail holds her hand to her chin. Beat panel.]

:[Ponytail is talking to Cueball again.]
:Ponytail: Yeah, ''The Martian'' and ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' are basically the same book.
:Cueball: "''Fifty Shades of Red?''"
:Ponytail: Man, ''tell'' me you wouldn't read that.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Fiction]] 
[[Category:Mars rovers]] 
[[Category:Star Wars]] 
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Twilight]]

Talk:1651: Robotic Garage

2022-03-15T21:28:00Z

162.158.159.73:

[[493: Actuarial|First Post]] (just read that comic (and [[269: TCMP|this]]) the other day and couldn't help my self :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:40, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

black hat axe hmmm fire rescue axe? maybe? possibly damaging the car defeating the purpose of an automatic "aprking" system that handles cars like top gear handles valet keys? [[User:Needforsuv|Needforsuv]] ([[User talk:Needforsuv|talk]]) 12:16, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
:Well, an axe would definately damage everyone else's car. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 21:00, 5 March 2016 (UTC)
::For some reason, I thought the axe was "hack a hole into the bottom of the bin, to gain access/egress for your car", although that would have meant BlackHat has as little regard of his own 'storage device' as the cars themselves... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.95|162.158.152.95]] 12:52, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

When I first read this I did it as Cueball being mistaken that it was a parking garage when it really was a car crusher, and since Blackhat then would get money from the recycling of the car he does not care if Cueball gets it back ever [[User:Wjbodin3|WJBodin3]] ([[User talk:Wjbodin3|talk]]) 02:26, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Ya'll think this is a joke about Black Hat being disrespectful of other people's things again. It's not (well, it is, but it's not just that). This is actually reasonably accurate. I've seen cars go vertical on the elevators in a robotic garage. And if the automation software goes wrong (as it very well can), getting the correct car out can be difficult. {{unsigned ip|199.27.129.17}}

It seems like the explanation is perfect as it is, and you guys are overcomplicating Black Hat's quote. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.72}}
: Agree. I removed the icomplete-tag. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:18, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

I think this is also a reference to a common practice of having a "bowl of keys" to prevent people from driving drunk from a party. You put your key in the bowl, and when you've leaving for the night the host makes you're sober to drive and digs the key out of the bowl. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.25|172.70.178.25]] 18:00, 15 March 2022 (UTC)
:I've never been to a party where that happens. But, then again, I've also never been to a party where a bowl of car-keys has been used for a different purpose, at the start of the evening. So it probably just confirms what I already knew: that I don't go to enough parties. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 21:27, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2590: I Shouldn't Complain

2022-03-08T04:38:47Z

162.158.159.73:

Added title text explanation. I'm intrigued to know if it was a clothes-dryer, hand-dryer, hair-dryer or some other form of dryer, because that puts different interpretive spins on the {{tvtropes|NoodleIncident|trope I've suddenly remembered the name of}}. This is surely intentionally vague? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.211|172.70.85.211]] 02:41, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

I suspect it is a dish dryer or clothes dryer. Both produce a lot of heat and have vents to remove the heated air, which is close enough to be considered an exhaust vent. [[User:R3TRI8UTI0N|R3TRI8UTI0N]] ([[User talk:R3TRI8UTI0N|talk]]) 02:53, 8 March 2022 (UTC)
:''Dish'' dryer? That's a plastic thing on your draining-board that you stand wet dishes on when you use a sink, surely? If you use a dish-washer, I presume it's easier to dry things in that than transfer - like some do with clothes from washing machine to tumble-dryed (I hang mine up to dry, personally). Sorry, culture-shock of strange terms/practices, clearly. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 04:38, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

I feel that the key ingredient missing from this discussion is that, with all the terrible things happening in the world right now, there is more of this kind of apologizing for even mentioning your own problems than usual. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.190|108.162.250.190]] 03:14, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

2590: I Shouldn't Complain

2022-03-08T02:43:43Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Noodle. I remember now!

{{comic
| number = 2590
| date = March 7, 2022
| title = I Shouldn't Complain
| image = i_shouldnt_complain.png
| titletext = Bald-faced hornets are only a 2 on the Schmidt pain index, so I shouldn't complain. The tennis ball ejected from the dryer exhaust vent could have ricocheted off the nest of a much higher-scoring insect before knocking me off the ladder. Really, I'm lucky.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BEE PROVING THE HAIRY BALL THEOREM (WITH A COX-ZUCKER MACHINE) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Megan has had a very unfortunate experience of falling into a garbage can and being stung by wasps. Cueball expresses an approriate amount of horror about it. However, Megan seeks to downplay this experience by saying "I shouldn't complain" and that she's "lucky" it wasn't worse.

In the title text, Megan continues to downplay her experience even though it was very painful. The {{w|Schmidt sting pain index}} is a pain scale for different insect stings, which ranges from 1 to 4. Megan says her stings were a 2 on the scale, which compared to a pain of 4 is "less painful", but still worse than not being stung at all!

She further downplays by focusing attention on the sting pain index instead of the sting lethal capacity, described by the [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3810666/ author of the pain index]. The two are not necessarily equivalent. Assuming all insects in the colony affected stung Megan at least once over her two hour ordeal, potentially delivering enough venom to kill 84 kg (185 pounds) worth of mice (or human?), the scenario shown (Megan standing in routine conversation, casually discussing the incident soon after the fact) is implausible. She is far more likely to be in hospital, and in a [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32252275/ gruesome fight for her life].

Victims of severe abuse offer have learned habits to downplay the most severe suffering, which could be a reminder for visitors or readers with exposure to such things. It's possible Randall is engaging personal experience in such an area, making a joke about how difficult it is to process somebody behaving that way.

The title text suggests a quite improbable single {{tvtropes|NoodleIncident|initiating event}} caused both the entrapment and the insect attack. Whether the tennis ball was lodged in the dryer vent deliberately (or by some form of incompetence/error) might indicate if there actually was a reason to complain about some other person who singularly caused the predicament.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Megan standing together. Cueball has his hands on his chin, shocked.]
:Cueball: I can't believe you fell headfirst into a garbage can and were stuck there for two hours while wasps stung your exposed legs!
:Megan: I shouldn't complain! Lots of people have been stuck for longer in worse places.
:Megan: Really, I'm lucky.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:The more unpleasant someone's experience is, the more they apologize for complaining because it could be worse.

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

Talk:1792: Bird/Plane/Superman

2022-03-08T01:45:21Z

162.158.159.73:

The explanation says that "birds evolved from dinosaurs". But birds **are** dinosaurs --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.100|172.68.54.100]] 05:40, 31 January 2017 (UTC)
:You're right. The sentence is literally true, in the sense that humans evolved from other humans (e. g. ''Homo erectus'') but it's misleading. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:29, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
:: Backforming your parallel, "Birds evolved from other birds". Not sure that's what you meant. Humans evolved from ''hominids'', apes, or (more of an equivalent?) mammals, you might wish to say. Also, plenty of mammals/dinosaurs did not evolve into humans/birds. (And birds are vastly more diverse than humans, so perhaps "¿hominids? evolved from..." would be better equivalence, as well, though still imperfect.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.211|172.70.85.211]] 16:00, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
:::The point is, we are still apes, apes are still mammals, mammals are still reptiles, and reptiles are still fishes. (Many intermediate designations omitted.) You don't stop being a Christian because you are a Baptist, for one analogy. This is the modern cladistic taxonomy now used in biology. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 16:37, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
::::Hmmm, a stretch. We are reptiliomorph (by classical measures, those tetrapods/amniotes that are not in the lissamphibia family). But birds are ([[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs|a subset of]]) dinosaurs even if neither they nor ourselves are actually reptillian. And it is all too common to talk of "...Christians ''and Catholics''", although I think that's stupid and probably based upon historic religious divisions in (Western) Europe. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 01:45, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

;Sunbathing
Randall missed that a plane can lose it's ability to fly via excessive icing on surfaces. While it is not usually the way in which it is cured (using deicing solution and onboard aircraft systems to melt them,) sunbathing the plane in greater than freezing temperatures is an excellent way to regain the ability to fly. (And without additional energy cost, too!) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.34|108.162.216.34]] 17:58, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Now that we have solar planes, some planes may occasionally require a sunbath to get airborne again. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.88|162.158.114.88]] 21:51, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

;Flapping
Perhaps we should mention the pre-twentieth century attempts at powered flight some of which were powered by flapping.

Also should we mention that a hta craft pwered by flapping would be an ornithopter.

;Mating & Peeping David
Given their is only one David Attenborough and he does not spend his entire life making wildlife documentaries the chance of his observing any individual bird copulation is remarkably small.

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.137|141.101.99.137]] 19:28, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

What sort of birds mate in mid flight? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.52|141.101.80.52]] 19:47, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
:Swifts for example. --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 21:37, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
:: You seem to be right about swifts mating in mid flight. According to [http://www.commonswift.org/Aerial-mating.html | this] source, the common swift (Apus apus) is the only species who engages in this behavior.--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.160|141.101.98.160]] 14:59, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

;mid flight poop
From what I understand, superman gets the majority of his energy from the sun. Is there any confirmation that he can poop mid flight, or even poop at all? Maybe he just slowly releases various gasses?--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.17|173.245.51.17]] 22:47, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Well Superman does eat, so it is likely he does poop too. Sun gives him super power thing, but he frequents restaurants as Clark Kent. --[[User:Trimutius|Trimutius]] ([[User talk:Trimutius|talk]]) 04:00, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Planes are definitely capable of releasing their poop intentionally. They choose not to. Truth Rating: Pants On Fire. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.76|108.162.219.76]] 14:47, 31 January 2017 (UTC)
: It depends what you mean by 'plane poop'. Is it engines exhaust? Fuel, hydraulic oil or other technical fluids? Or is it ''passengers' '' poop... If you mean the latter than no, there's no "empty toilet in mid flight" functionality. A malfunction may cause the toilet contents to spill over but it is not intentional. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 11:39, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

The Indian government thinks planes do intentionally release their poop. Citation: [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-fine-airlines-dropping-human-waste-poo-passenger-jets-on-homes-a7488491.html] -- [[21:48, 2 February 2017 (UTC) User:Scryer]]

There were several aircraft in the early days of flight that had toilets that were directly connected outside. One such one, the Supermarine Stranraer, got the nickname "whistling shithouse" because when the toilet seat was lifted, the airflow through the tube caused it to whistle. Also, during WW2 on bomber aircraft, they would sometimes crap in a cardboard box and throw it overboard rather than use the difficult to use and unpopular chemical toilets. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.17|108.162.250.17]] 06:59, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

I was under the impression that birds either do not have sphincters, or do but can't control them to hold their poop in. Would this not mean that birds should not be ticked, or am I completely wrong?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.52|141.101.98.52]] 06:35, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

;punching
No need to go to ostriches or emus, swans can fly well, and certainly take a punch, though i would *strongly* recommend against trying. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan#/media/File:The_swan_attacks_man.Hokkaido-toyako,%E4%BA%BA%E3%82%92%E8%A5%B2%E3%81%86%E6%B4%9E%E7%88%BA%E6%B9%96%E3%81%AE%E7%99%BD%E9%B3%A5P6200258%E3%83%A2%E3%82%B6%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF.jpg]. Geese are also probably not much safer. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.43|162.158.89.43]] 12:27, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

;Title text
I've never seen such a sticker with a spider web - unless on Helloween. But stickers depicting silhouettes of birds on the other hand: https://www.google.com/search?q=vogel+aufkleber&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjj64Xlv-zRAhXGtxQKHS3ABh0QsAQIgwE&biw=1920&bih=914 But it seems as if this is a regional (Germany - or maybe Europe) thing, since searching for "bird stickers" didn't yield such a clear result... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:22, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

;Magnetic navigation
There is no evidence that Superman is not able to fly in Magnetic navigation mode... [[Special:Contributions/188.114.103.11|188.114.103.11]] 17:33, 31 January 2017 (UTC)
:There is no evidence that Superman exists. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.22|162.158.150.22]] 15:00, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

;Other Comparisons
Missing: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underdog_(TV_series)#Characters Frog and Underdog]. Underdog would be a disappointing subset of Superman, Frog a subset of Bird. [[User:Schnitz|Schnitz]] ([[User talk:Schnitz|talk]]) 20:09, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

This page has quite a few typos and instances of awkward phrasing. I'll go through it and clean it up in a bit. --[[User:Sensorfire|Sensorfire]] ([[User talk:Sensorfire|talk]]) 01:03, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

2585: Rounding

2022-02-24T09:27:25Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ A couple of plurals, and some enumeration for more immediate understandug

{{comic
| number = 2585
| date = February 23, 2022
| title = Rounding
| image = rounding.png
| titletext = I've developed a novel propulsion system powered by loss of precision in unit conversion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT moving at ᛟ smoots per millibarn attometer (rounded) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about the follies of unit conversion. Normally, when you say you can ride a bike at 45 {{w|Miles per hour|mph}} if you round, you mean that you can ride at a speed between 44.5 and 45.5, something most people are incapable of doing.{{Citation needed}} The joke is that he actually means if you go through a extremely long chain of rounding imprecisely (see [[#Table of rounding|below]]), starting at 17 mph (which is equivalent to 27.4 km/h and not an improbable speed for an ordinary road-bike and a reasonably fit rider), you can get to the value of 45 (72.4 km/h).

The title text furthers the joke by taking the imprecise rounding literally, implying that this increase could actually be used/abused as a novel form of propulsion, but it isn't clarified for what type of vehicle. It could be an engine for ground or air travel, but contains the implication that it is trying to 'trick physics' similar to the {{w|Alcubierre drive|theoretical 'warp drive'}} conceived to propel interstellar spacecraft at otherwise impossible speeds. One interpretation of the supposed chain of conversions is that it has somehow created a great deal of energy from nothing. Suppose there existed a device or system that could magically accelerate an object from 17 mph to 45 mph without any energy input. The sped-up object could be harnessed to a generator or engine in such a way that the object was slowed back down to 17 mph, with the difference in energy being output in a useful way, and the object fed back into the device. The result would be an engine that could create both free energy and non-conserved changes in momentum.

Randall also esoterically uses some more historic units here: fathoms/sec, furlongs/min, and furlongs/hr. A {{w|fathom}} is a unit of length, in the modern era being equivalent to six feet, usually used to measure the depth of water. Fathoms/sec could potentially be used to measure the ascent/descent speed of a submersible, but it would normally be a strange choice to enumerate the speed of a bike. A {{w|furlong}} is also a unit of length, there being eight to the mile (each being 660 feet or 110 fathoms) but is mostly unused except in horse racing. It is possible that furlongs/min or furlongs/hour could be used to measure the speed of a horse. {{w|Knot (unit)|Knot}}s (nautical miles per hour) are a standard unit of measuring speed, but are typically used for measuring speed for airplanes or ships, not speed on land. However, km/h (kilometers per hour, spelled kph in the comic) is commonly used internationally to state the speed of land vehicles, while m/s (meters per second) is a measurement encountered in scientific usage.

===Table of rounding===
{| class="wikitable"
! step !! mph !! {{w|Metre per second|m/s}} !! {{w|Knot (unit)|knots}} !! {{w|fathom}}s/sec !! {{w|furlong}}s/min !! {{w|Kilometres per hour|km/h}} !! furlongs/hour !! {{w|yard}}s/sec
|-
! 1
|style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 17 ||style="background-color:green;"| 7.59968 || || || || || ||
|-
! 2
| 17.9 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 8 ||style="background-color:green;"| 15.5508 || || || || ||
|-
! 3
| 18.41 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 16 ||style="background-color:green;"| 4.50083 || || || ||
|-
! 4
| 20.45 || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 5 ||style="background-color:green;"| 2.72727 || || ||
|-
! 5
| 22.5 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 5.50001 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 3 || || ||
|-
! 6
| 24.55 || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 6 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 39.5021 || ||
|-
! 7
| 24.85 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 21.5983 || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 40 || ||
|-
! 8
| 25.32 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 22 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 40.744 || ||
|-
! 9
| 25.48 || || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 41 ||style="background-color:green;"| 203.809 ||
|-
! 10
|style="background-color:green;"| 25.5001 || || || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 204 ||
|-
! 11
|style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 26 ||style="background-color:green;"| 11.623 || || || || || ||
|-
! 12
| 26.84 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 12 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 3.57909 || || ||
|-
! 13
| 30 || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 4 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 14.6667
|-
! 14
| 30.68 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 7.5 || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 15
|-
! 15
| 32.73 ||style="background-color:green;"| 14.6304 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 8 || || || ||
|-
! 16
|style="background-color:green;"| 33.554 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 15 || || || || || ||
|-
! 17
|style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 34 || || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 4.53332 || || ||
|-
! 18
| 37.5 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 32.5867 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 5 || || ||
|-
! 19
| 37.98 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 33 || || || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 18.5659
|-
! 20
| 38.86 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 9.5 || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 19
|-
! 21
| 40.91 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 35.549 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 10 || || || ||
|-
! 22
| 41.43 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 36 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 5.52373 || || ||
|-
! 23
|style="background-color:green;"| 45.0001 || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 6 || || ||
|-
! 24
|style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 45 || || || || || || ||
|}

==Transcript==
:[In the top left part of the panel is a small drawing where Cueball, wearing a bike helmet and holding a bike, is speaking to Megan.]
:Cueball: I can ride my bike at 45 MPH.
:Cueball: If you round.

:[To their right is a large number with unit, with an arrow going straight down to a normal sized similar number. From there and proceeding all the way down to the bottom, the rest of the comic shows arrows connecting conversions from one measures unit into another unit. When lines are changing the arrow is curved down to the next line. When more measures are on the same line they are connected with straight arrows, alternating from left to right from line to line. The last in the string ends close to the middle of the panel, with a straight arrow down to another large number with unit, like the first.]
:<big>'''17 MPH'''</big>
:8 meters/sec
:16 knots
:5 fathoms/sec
:3 furlongs/min
:6 fathoms/sec
:40 KPH
:22 knots
:41 KPH
:204 furlongs/hr
:26 MPH
:12 M/S
:4 furlongs/min
:15 yards/sec
:8 fathoms/sec
:15 M/S
:34 MPH
:5 furlongs/min
:33 knots
:19 yards/sec
:10 fathoms/sec
:36 knots
:6 furlongs/min
:<big>'''45 MPH'''</big>

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-05T17:23:12Z

162.158.159.73: /* The strange large anachronistic square incongruous inscribed otherworldly ¿synthetic? reality-warping switch.... */

The flag on the lefthand ship (port-side, if you will :P) looks like the {{w|Rising Sun Flag}} that the Japanese Navy uses as its ensign. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.147|172.70.110.147]] 02:31, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:Actually, that the Navy used in 1889 (not uses). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.147|172.70.110.147]] 02:31, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:I reckon it looks more like a Jolly Roger. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.87|108.162.249.87]] 02:44, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
::Ah, you're right. I was thinking Union Jack for a minute but thought there were too many streaks. The upper and lower portions of the skull nearly touch the edge of the flag, making it look like something akin to a sunburst. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.99|172.70.114.99]] 02:46, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

Okay, I added an initial description for the title text and made a bunch of edits. I'll stop now to let other people get in on the action. :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.99|172.70.114.99]] 02:54, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:Yeah, I kept edit-conflicting (except the first time, when I ended up just appended to some else's first edit) and I ''think'' I have reached the point where I've unruined everything of everyone else's that I didn't fully intend to change or add to. But it's late (GMT) and I need my sleep so if I've accidentally rushed through some stuff I shouldn't have then please fill your boots and tweak it back (or onwards) to how it should be. G'night! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.11|162.158.159.11]] 03:07, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
::G'night. I think we were conflicting. It was my first experience live editing and it was fun. lol [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.157|172.70.230.157]] 03:08, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

== The strange large anachronistic square incongruous inscribed otherworldly ¿synthetic? reality-warping switch.... ==

Interesting edits about the switch, along the way. Generally I think compounded adjectival descriptors go by the order of opinion, size, age, shape, (existential) quality, colour, origin, material and purpose - though there are disagreements and alternate versions of that list. What is incongruousity? An opinion or a quality (or origin, at a push?), I'd guess, making each order potentially valid. (In advance of any further arguments, I suggest "strange large" rather than an edit-war, though I personally like its incongruousness being mentioned, and incongruousicity in general. YMMV.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:22, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-05T17:22:12Z

162.158.159.73: /* The strange large anachronistic square incongruous inscribed otherworldly ¿synthetic? reality-warping switch.... */ new section

The flag on the lefthand ship (port-side, if you will :P) looks like the {{w|Rising Sun Flag}} that the Japanese Navy uses as its ensign. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.147|172.70.110.147]] 02:31, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:Actually, that the Navy used in 1889 (not uses). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.147|172.70.110.147]] 02:31, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:I reckon it looks more like a Jolly Roger. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.87|108.162.249.87]] 02:44, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
::Ah, you're right. I was thinking Union Jack for a minute but thought there were too many streaks. The upper and lower portions of the skull nearly touch the edge of the flag, making it look like something akin to a sunburst. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.99|172.70.114.99]] 02:46, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

Okay, I added an initial description for the title text and made a bunch of edits. I'll stop now to let other people get in on the action. :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.99|172.70.114.99]] 02:54, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:Yeah, I kept edit-conflicting (except the first time, when I ended up just appended to some else's first edit) and I ''think'' I have reached the point where I've unruined everything of everyone else's that I didn't fully intend to change or add to. But it's late (GMT) and I need my sleep so if I've accidentally rushed through some stuff I shouldn't have then please fill your boots and tweak it back (or onwards) to how it should be. G'night! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.11|162.158.159.11]] 03:07, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
::G'night. I think we were conflicting. It was my first experience live editing and it was fun. lol [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.157|172.70.230.157]] 03:08, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

== The strange large anachronistic square incongruous inscribed otherworldly ¿synthetic? reality-warping switch.... ==

Interesting edits about the switch, along the way. Generally I think compounded adjectival descriptors go by the order of opinion, size, age, shape, (existential) quality, colour, origin, material and purpose - though there are disagreements and alternate versions of that list. What is incongruousity? An opinion or a quality, I'd guess, making each order potentially valid. (In advance of any further arguments, I suggest "strange large" rather than an edit-war, though I personally like its incongruousness being mentioned, and incongruousicity in general. YMMV.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:22, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-27T13:46:17Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ (The last rewrite seemed excessive, but might as well correct minor things in it.)

{{comic
| number = 2573
| date = January 26, 2022
| title = Alien Mission
| image = alien_mission.png
| titletext = Fine, we can go search the Himalayas for the Yeti ONE more time, but keep a safe altitude over the Pacific and PLEASE watch where you're going. We can't afford another Amelia Earhart incident.
}}
*This was the eighth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by BIGFOOT LOOKING FOR A COPY OF ALIEN (1979) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic followed directly after [[2572: Alien Observers]] where aliens use similarly looking flying saucer type spacecrafts to observe Earth. It is not specifically stated that these two form a series, but this comic could be seen as a direct follow up to the previous one, indicating that the aliens are the same in the two comics.

The comic portrays a conversation between the aliens inside two extraterrestrial flying saucer type spacecrafts, in which they discuss their long secret observation of Earth. It seems that the leader of the mission is in the right saucer, since the alien in left saucer begins by saying "Sir, can we talk". The left alien then continues to state the fact that they have been secretly observing Earth for almost a century (so back from the early 1930's or late 1920's would be a realistic guess at when they began, given that this comic was released in 2022, and the title text suggests they already were there in 1937). During almost 100 years they have flown over every (square) inch of Earths surface many times, while trying to avoid being spotted by humans (this is a direct relation to the theme of the previous comic, about the type of cameras individual people have!).

All this lead up to the punchline which reveals that the leader in the right saucer has been hunting for {{w|Bigfoot}}. The left alien tells him that he has to face it, that if a Bigfoot exist anywhere in the universe, then he is not on planet Earth. So apparently even advanced aliens have been unable to spot Bigfoot. The alien leader continues his delusion by citing human videos with intriguing captures of something that looks like Bigfoot. When the other alien sighs the leader continues his arguments with the typical conspiracy line, "How else do you explain the..."

The first panel alludes to the fact that UFO sightings only became {{w|Roswell_Incident|commonplace in the 1940s}}.

The humor derives from the fact that {{w|UFO}} enthusiasts and {{w|cryptozoology}} enthusiasts have a similar mindset: They both believe in phenomena that the scientific establishment declares to be baseless. Both systems are fully lacking in clear scientific evidence, but have an abundance of eyewitness accounts and vague/blurry photographic evidence. And both belief systems have existed for many years, but rapidly advancing technology, accumulating data, and ubiquity of high quality cameras have still failed to capture any clear and detailed evidence of either (a point which [[Randall]] seems to find particularly significant, and although his previous comic kind of explained the bad alien photos, he already made this comic [[1235: Settled]] long ago, where he calls it settled that there are nothing unexplained with UFOs or similar phenomena since everyone has a camera handy at all time). But, while these concepts are so parallel, they're logically independent, as one deals with species that are presumably native to Earth, and the other deals with advanced alien species visiting the Earth. The notion of alien visitors being interested in cryptozoology is incongruous: to them, all earth animals would presumably seem equally alien.

In previous strips, Randall has suggested playing conspiracy theories off against one another (see [[966: Jet Fuel]]). This has a similar theme: suggesting that UFOs are here to search for Bigfoot (and the Yeti) sounds ridiculous on its face. But any explanation of ''why'' it's ridiculous would apply equally well to the notion of Bigfoot and UFO's individually.

Some of the aliens clearly have a similar belief, at least in the Bigfoot, which is why they came to Earth. This implies that they had some prior knowledge (or suspicion) of its existence, and only then (possibly) narrowed it down to this one planet, because of the videos humans have made.

Whatever the arguments about Bigfoot, the title text reveals a separate discussion regarding the {{w|Yeti}} (a similar large hominid purported to reside in the {{w|Himalayas}}), and the tentative permission to conduct ''one last search'' for it. As the Yeti and Bigfoot are very similarly described, they could also be seen as the same, so the only difference is that searching for Bigfoot in Himalaya would make it a Yeti. In the discussion about this last search they caution about staying high above the Pacific and watch where they are going. This is because, as it turns out, they were the cause of the Amelia Earhart incident. {{w|Amelia Earhart}} disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 and neither her nor her plane have ever been found. The title text explains that an encounter with one of the flying saucers was the reason why she disappeared. She has previously been the main character in [[950: Mystery Solved]] and has since been a [[:Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

That their clearly superior observation technology and methods have been apparently unable to resolve these issues at first seems like it shouldn't bode well for our own cryptozoologists, but since lack of results does nothing to deter them, and since it is always impossible to prove a negative, they would likely not change their beliefs even if they heard of the alien results; because "Bigfoot of course hides when the aliens look! And how else do you explain the..."

==Transcript==
:[Two 'classic' Flying Saucers type spacecrafts are hovering in the sky with speech-lines indicating communication between the crew on the saucer. The right is bend a bit down, like it is looking at the left.]
:Left Saucer: Sir, can we talk?
:Left Saucer: We've been observing earth for almost a century.

:[Same setting but both saucers are level.]
:Left Saucer: Hovering and zooming from place to place, trying to avoid being spotted by humans.
:Right Saucer: Yeah.

:[In a Frame-less panel only the left saucer is shown. The right saucers reply comes from a starburst next to the frame of the next panel.]
:Left Saucer: By now we've flown over every inch of the surface many times.
:Right Saucer (off-panel): Yes? And?

:[Same setting as in the first panel, with the right "looking" at the left saucer.]
:Left Saucer: Face it: If Bigfoot '''''is''''' real, he's not anywhere on this planet.
:Right Saucer: But humans have captured some intriguing videos!
:Left Saucer: ''*sigh*''
:Right Saucer: How else do you explain the...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart]]

Talk:730: Circuit Diagram

2022-01-22T13:14:22Z

162.158.159.73: Caution: Balloon

So, is the arena a new kind of comparator or something? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:28, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

11:13, 10 April 2013 (UTC)11:13, 10 April 2013 (UTC)[[User:Jh6p|Jh6p]] ([[User talk:Jh6p|talk]])
The 3 liter capacitor could also be a ball approximately 6 inches in diameter if the seams on the ball were similar to the seams on a basketball. Perhaps a volleyball?

: "A squirrel. What it does as a circuit element is unsure."
Perhaps an allusion to a {{w|Squirrel-cage rotor|squirrel cage}}?
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 18:51, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

: The shape of the squirrel's tail reminds me of a {{w|hysteresis}} curve, although this is admittedly a bit of a stretch. —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 16:02, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

The 'to scale' motor would be about half a mile wide. Powering the rabbit on Gaia's vibrator (also included)? --[[User:StarChaser Tyger|StarChaser Tyger]] ([[User talk:StarChaser Tyger|talk]]) 08:40, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

I beg to differ on the flux capacitor thing, as cool as it sounds. Since it is right above the I-90 notation, it is more likely a fork in the road (notice the road stripes indicating that you can pass at any point in the fork). [[Special:Contributions/97.87.12.114|97.87.12.114]] 02:15, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
: Oh, I'm pretty sure it's a flux capacitor. Compare some of [http://www.google.com/search?q=flux+capacitor&tbm=isch these images]. Yes, there are several road references in this comic, but an electronic reference (especially to a ''fictional'' electronic component!) makes more sense. Also I've never seen a Y-shaped highway intersection that looked quite like that (and especially not on an interstate). —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 14:52, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

I have wasted 4 hours on the puzzle, and after wasting 9 pages of A5 paper, the resistance of that terrible resistor mess worked out to be exactly 25265/33783 ohm, or about 0.74786135 ohm. --KopaLeo [[Special:Contributions/199.48.226.89|199.48.226.89]] 15:16, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

I think that the "fishing float" might actually be a picture of an ordinary push switch (similar to foot switches used on standard lamps). [[Special:Contributions/87.194.171.29|87.194.171.29]] 16:12, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

Isn't the "YES" resistor a reference to the anecdote of how John Lennon and Yoko Ono met? That's what I thought when I saw it, but then, I kinda like The Beatles a bit. [[Special:Contributions/200.70.22.74|200.70.22.74]] 12:27, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

I think the attempt to explain every single piece of the comic is rather silly. The humor largely draws from the absurdity of the diagram, and that can probably be summarized without going into detail about the possible references of each individual component. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.180|199.27.130.180]] 03:22, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
: I disagree. The joke works on multiple levels, both the absurdity of the circuit, and the smaller parts of which it is comprised. [[User:Hydroksyde|Hydroksyde]] ([[User talk:Hydroksyde|talk]]) 02:40, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

I concur with KopaLeo - I got the same answer for the resistance of the grid of resistors - about 0.748 when rounded. What a problem!
--techdude
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.65|108.162.215.65]] 20:45, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

I feel like I should point out that putting a ground connection in holy water probably creates {{w|Holy Ground}} [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.197|108.162.212.197]] 11:36, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

To center of Sun could possibly be another map reference. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.202|108.162.250.202]] 01:08, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

The 'moral rectifier' seems like it's built of diodes which prevent current flow to the left, which might mean it's making the current 'more right'? with right being a synonym for moral?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.18|108.162.212.18]] 00:15, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

;3L capacitor

The capacitor reminded me of a time I asked my dad why desktop PCs (the kind we could afford at the time were 200-500 W) couldn't have capacitors to protect them from 1-second or shorter power interruptions without the cost of a UPS. He said such a capacitor would have to be as wide and tall as a 2L pop bottle. (He didn't say how much it would weigh.) [[User:Promethean|Promethean]] ([[User talk:Promethean|talk]]) 04:38, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Where did the claim that the EKG is atrial fibrillation come from? At best it it hard to tell without a time scale what the ventricular rate is, but there is no evidence of extra P waves between QRS complexes that I see. If the diagnosis is made based on the absence of P & T waves, keep in mind that some recording conditions make those (especially T) hard to see. In an {{w|Einthoven's triangle}} arrangement, they might not show up at all above the noise. If we had a time scale that let us calculate ventricular rate, we might be able to conclude {{w|supraventricular tachycardia}}, but I'm hesitant to make a strong claim that this is abnormal at all given that it's hand drawn and we have no scale.[[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 21:07, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Does this really belong in Category:Charts? I'm moving it to Category:Maps instead. [[User:gijobarts|gijobarts]] ([[User Talk:gijobarts|talk]]) 21:38, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

Are we really explaining "vibrator" as "a motor with an off-center weight attached to it"? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.97|141.101.91.97]] 06:51, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

I just spent 3 hours trying to work out the resistor nest. I was unsuccessful. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:32, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

I did an LTSpice simulation or the resistor mess. It looks like the 25265/33783 ohm answer above is correct. It drew 1.3371463 amps from a one volt source. {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.133}}

Based on Randall's promotion of international standards (such as ISO 8601), it seems odd that he's using the US zigzag symbol for a resistor, rather than the IEC rectangular one. [[User:Walale12|Walale12]] ([[User talk:Walale12|talk]]) 21:37, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Looking at the label "Tear Collector" I think it refers to the heartbeat below it, not the symbol above, suggesting that a heart (or heart break) is a likely source of tears. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.44}}

I'm not sure why the rat's nest of resistors is considered such a difficult problem. I would like to respectfully point out that by far the easiest way to solve it is by assuming a constant current through the network. You can then assign a name to each of the nodes, set one of the end nodes to 0V, and solve by KCL. Granted, there are 13 unknowns and 14 equations, but it still took less than 30 minutes to complete since they are all 1st order! archerator [[User:Archerator|Archerator]] ([[User talk:Archerator|talk]]) 04:57, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

120×72 @ 537,847: the coil symbol next to "Take off shirt while wiring this part. Ooh, yeah, I like that." is similar in appearance to chest hair in stylized comic strips. [[User:Thaledison|Thaledison]] ([[User talk:Thaledison|talk]]) 17:19, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

144×177 @ 31,753 - Could the rats next of 1 Ohm resister be a reference the the sign that Blackhat holds up in: https://xkcd.com/356/ as you can't show an infinite numbers of 1 ohm resistors in the diagram?{{unsigned ip|141.101.98.108}}

To me, the arena calls to mind the one in the Labyrinth in the Percy Jackson book series. One of the figures resembles a centaur, which was a gladiator that was defeated in said arena in the scene it is introduced. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.46|108.162.245.46]] 22:16, 30 October 2016 (UTC)

And here I was thinking that the fishing float was a Pokeball... [[User:Whoop whoop pull up|Whoop whoop pull up]] ([[User talk:Whoop whoop pull up|talk]]) 19:03, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

I think that "take off shirt while wiring this" could be sexual reference- there is "ooh, i like that"

:I always thought that the 555 timer was called so because of the three 5k ohm resistors...apparently it is a myth! Does anybody know the real reason?

Regarding the resistor part - I read http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ResistanceDistance.html and implemented it in Mathematica. <nowiki>g = Graph[{1 <-> 2, 1 <-> 3, 1 <-> 4, 1 <-> 5, 2 <-> 3, 2 <-> 6, 3 <-> 6, 3 <-> 7, 3 <-> 8, 4 <-> 7, 4 <-> 5, 5 <-> 9, 5 <-> 10, 6 <-> 12, 6 <-> 11, 7 <-> 12, 7 <-> 11, 7 <-> 13, 7 <-> 14, 7 <-> 9, 8 <-> 15, 8 <-> 10, 9 <-> 14, 10 <-> 15, 11 <-> 12, 11 <-> 13, 13 <-> 14, 14 <-> 15}]; m = KirchhoffMatrix[g] + 1/15; inverse = Inverse[Table[m[[i, j]], {i, 1, 15}, {j, 1, 15}]]; omega[i_, j_] := inverse[[i, i]] + inverse[[j, j]] - 2*inverse[[i, j]]; omega[1, 13]</nowiki>. The result was 167294/195327 = 0.856482...

I feel that it needs to be electronic eel more than an electric one.

Ok, who the hell did the explanation for Magic Smoke? I even had to make a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[285|REAL Citation needed]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> sign to indicate that the needed citation wasn't a joke.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.21|108.162.242.21]] 15:02, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

Isn't it 616 not 666 citation[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast]--[[User:Galactic ascencion|Galactic ascencion]] ([[User talk:Galactic ascencion|talk]]) 07:32, 17 March 2020 (UTC)
:Well the image clearly shows a 666. Also the wikipedia article you use as a citation here, states also both numbers. The number should be most famous (at least to people who do not follow the bible/quran word by word and to specific translation) due to its use by iron maiden in the song "the number of the beast" which also states it as 666, and other pop culture references. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:10, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

Could wimp also stands for {{w|weakly interacting massive particles}}, a candidate of {{w|dark matter}}? Then it will reasonably omit the electromagnetic interactions running in this circuit diagram.--[[User:Lamty101|Lamty101]] ([[User talk:Lamty101|talk]]) 14:13, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

; Balloon

The line of the balloon also crosses another circuit, which could be a hazard in itself (flying kites or balloons near high-voltage lines is quite dangerous, and helium-filled balloons are often forbidden in railway stations with overhead catenary). This may also be what the "caution" arrow is indicating. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 13:14, 22 January 2022 (UTC)

1636: XKCD Stack

2022-01-21T00:13:23Z

162.158.159.73: /* Title text */ Correcting awkward abbrvs (including missing space) and expanding/clarifying it a little more while I'm here.

{{comic
| number = 1636
| date = January 29, 2016
| title = XKCD Stack
| image = xkcd_stack.png
| titletext = This site requires Sun Java 6.0.0.1 (32-bit) or higher. You have Macromedia Java 7.3.8.1¾ (48-bit). Click here [link to java.com main page] to download an installer which will run fine but not really change anything.
}}

==Explanation==
In software engineering, a {{w|Solution stack|tech stack}} is the set of technology platforms and tools that a company or app uses. A common tech stack is {{w|LAMP (software bundle)|LAMP}}, composed of a {{w|Linux}} {{w|Operating system|operating system}}, an {{w|Apache HTTP Server|Apache}} {{w|Web server}}, a {{w|MySQL}} {{w|Database}}, and the {{w|PHP}} programming language. In this comic, the XKCD stack is introduced. The technologies it comprises are either non-existent, unreliable, outdated, or entirely irrelevant.

Another example of a tech stack is featured in [[2166: Stack]].

===Explanation of Layers===
;EBNF/CSS
:BNF or {{w|Backus–Naur Form}} is a syntax used for describing {{w|context-free grammars}}. {{w|Extended Backus–Naur Form|EBNF}} is "Extended BNF", it is the same thing as BNF with a few more syntactic constructs intended to ease its use in the most common cases. [[1343: Manuals]] mentioned EBNF.
:CSS or {{w|Cascading Style Sheets}} is a language used to describe what a web page should look like. Web pages are usually written in {{w|HTML}}, which describes the ''structure'' of the page (i.e. divides the document into paragraphs, lists, etc.) complemented with CSS which describes the ''look and feel'' of the page (colors, fonts, margins, etc.). EBNF/CSS would suggest CSS with strange syntax.
;Broken Java Applet
:In recent years it has become more difficult to run {{w|Java (programming language)|Java}} {{w|Applet|applets}} in several browsers. {{w|Google Chrome|Chrome}} 45 stopped supporting {{w|NPAPI}}, {{w|Mozilla Firefox|Firefox}} dropped support in version 52, and {{w|Microsoft Edge|Edge}} does not support NPAPI plugins at all. Furthermore, two days before this comic was published {{w|Oracle Corporation|Oracle}} (the developer of Java) [https://blogs.oracle.com/java-platform-group/entry/moving_to_a_plugin_free announced] plans to officially end support of Java applets in an upcoming version.
;Archive.org Mirror
:{{w|Internet Archive|Archive.org}} is a website which archives websites, and created the {{w|Wayback Machine}}. It's ambiguous whether the "Archive.org mirror" would be a copy of the xkcd server or of Archive.org itself.
;Hypercard.js
:{{w|HyperCard}} can be considered as a kind of predecessor for powerpoint developed at {{w|Apple Inc.|Apple}}. The file extension .js indicates that is was rewritten in {{w|JavaScript}}. A similar reference to JavaScript is found in [[1508: Operating Systems]].
;QBasic on Rails
:A mix between {{w|QBasic}} and {{w|Ruby on Rails}}. {{w|BASIC}} is a programming language that was very widespread during the 80s. QBasic is an implementation of BASIC created by Microsoft in early 90s, that, among other things, added support for {{w|structured programming}}. QBasic, lacking several of the features present on modern computer languages, is known for its spaghetti code. {{w|Ruby (programming language)|Ruby}} is a rather modern language, often used with Ruby on Rails web application {{w|Software framework |framework}}. QBasic on Rails would likely mean a port of Ruby on Rails, replacing Ruby with QBasic. QBasic no longer runs on modern computers, but there are a couple of free {{w|open source}} implementation of QBasic, one being [http://www.qb64.net/ QB64] and the other [http://www.freebasic.net/ FreeBASIC], which are available for Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android. There also exists a webserver on BASIC called [http://www.runbasic.com/ RunBasic].
;[Blocked by AdBlocker]
:{{w|Ad blocking}} software are extensions to browsers that try to remove ads from web pages, so the user is not distracted by them. [[624: Branding]] shows what "browsing without adblock" looks like. The joke is that AdBlocker is preventing us from seeing what makes up this portion of the stack. This could be because:
:*Someone inserted an ad in the stack description. Some sites do insert ads in the middle of tables and lists, a typical case being between posts in forums.
:*An ad is actually an integral part of the stack. Some sites make ads an integral part of the site content, so that users with ad blocking software will be forced to disable ad blocking to be able to properly interact with the site. Usually, in real life, this is not really a case of ads being part of the site, only that the site artificially refuses to work until it has some confirmation that ads have been properly loaded in the client side (by means of some script within the ads which sends the confirmation to the server).
:*Ad blocking software has misidentified that portion of the stack as an ad, when in fact it is not (i.e. a false positive). This happens in real life, and it is a common source of great pains for the owner of the site which is being misidentified as an ad.
;MongoDB/Excel
:{{w|MongoDB}} is a modern {{w|NoSQL}} {{w|Database|database}} system, {{w|Microsoft Excel}} is a {{w|Spreadsheet|spreadsheet}} program from Microsoft, which is sometimes used as a database system (rarely a good choice).
;Some piece that works so nobody asks any questions
:Writing any non-trivial piece of software always require a phase of {{w|debugging}}, which consists in finding and fixing {{w|Software bug|bugs}}. With complex software, this is a long and tiring process, so when the product is finally finished no one dares to modify it any further for fear that it will fail in unexpected ways. After some time passes, it is even worse because nobody really remembers how the software was ''supposed'' to work, so the product becomes some kind of godlike treasure which must be treated with the utmost respect and reverence because, you know, if it stops working we're all doomed ([[1421: Future Self]]). After completion, {{w|Refactoring}} is the process of rewriting code for greater efficiency or reliability. However, if the performance is not 'too bad' (i.e. not unusably terrible in normal use) there is a great temptation to avoid this, in favour of the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' methodology. This could lead, for example, to a trained monkey and an abacus being used to crunch numbers. It works, but could be done far better. However, nobody wishes to change it, for fear of breaking a presently functional, if inefficient, system.
;Triply-Nested Docker
:{{w|Docker (software)|Docker}} is a {{w|Operating-system-level virtualization|software container}}, which is a way that allows a complete operating system to run under different operating system (OS) (as long they share the same kernel, among other things). Triply-nested docker would mean OS A running under OS B running under OS C running under OS D (running under OS E?). That would likely be a performance and management nightmare
;Paravirtual Boy®
:This is a reference to the {{w|Virtual Boy}}, a failed portable console created by {{w|Nintendo}}. It was [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKK6FH1vGw promoted as being a highly immersive, incredible experience], but the poor technology that it used caused it to be [https://youtu.be/OyVAp0tOk5A?t=56s very criticized] for not meeting the high expectations. {{w|Paravirtualization}} is a way of virtualization, that requires cooperation of the guest operating system, contrary to {{w|full virtualization}}, on which the guest operating system is not required to do anything special and the host handles everything.
;A dev typing real fast
:A dev is a {{w|Software developer|software developer}}. This is possibly a reference to [[341: 1337: Part 1]], where [[Mrs. Roberts]] edits the {{w|Transmission Control Protocol|TCP}} stream live while wearing oven mitts and baking cookies. It looks like the xkcd Webserver is not a computer after all -- we have a person manually replying to HTTP protocol queries. Such a feat would indeed require real fast typing. If this is the case, then its possible that almost none of the other layers of the stack actually do anything.
;Older version of our software
:People are often reluctant to switch to newer versions of software because, even though newer versions are supposed to have more features and fewer bugs, they end up confusing users. Users of older versions are used to doing everything with less features and circumventing old bugs. They don't know how to use the new features, which of course come with new bugs they haven't learned how to circumvent yet. It is also often the case that newer versions remove weird unused old features, breaking the workflow of users who actually did use such features and are left without a suitable replacement ([[1172: Workflow]]). Alternately, since higher parts of a stack are dependent on lower parts, this could also be a reference to how the consumer versions of Microsoft Windows (3.x, 95, 98, and ME) ran on the "older version" software Microsoft DOS until Windows NT. Paired with the previous layer, it could instead mean that the human is merely retyping the output of the older version.
;Mystery Networking Horror
:Randall suggests here that the whole networking stuff behind the XKCD service is both mysterious (no one actually knows the details) and horrific (technically questionable architecture and implementation, or somehow tentacled and eldritch in nature).
;Microsoft Bob Server®
:{{w|Microsoft Bob}} was a short-lived, failed attempt by Microsoft, around 1995, to provide a user-friendly interface for the {{w|Microsoft Windows|Windows}} 3.1x, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems. It consisted of a virtual "house" and "rooms", and clicking on objects in the room would open applications, for instance clicking on a pen would open the word processor. It was heavily criticized and was soon discontinued. Randall seems to be making the suggestion that Bob has continued to be developed and now there's a Bob Server, similarly to Windows server.
;A giant {{w|Central processing unit|CPU}} someone built in Minecraft
:{{w|Minecraft}} is a popular sandbox game where you place blocks to build things. Since the introduction of Redstone objects (materials used to create basic electric circuits within the game) people have made many machines within Minecraft, including calculators and clocks. The most complex of these machines simulate simple computers, capable of storing several lines of code and performing basic mathematical operations such as division, which requires thousands of blocks and extremely complex designs. A Minecraft CPU capable of hosting a website would be ridiculously huge.

=== Title text ===

The title text contains several jokes about the Java programming language:

*First, it refers to Java both as {{w|Sun Microsystems|Sun}} Java and {{w|Macromedia}} Java. This is a pun on the fact that older documents refer to "Sun Java" where newer documents refer to "{{w|Oracle Corporation|Oracle}} Java", as if there were two different languages. The fact is that Java was designed originally by Sun and then bought by Oracle, so it "changed name" even though the language is the same. Macromedia was the company that developed Flash before it was bought by Adobe. Both Flash and Java were popular in the early WWW to have interactive web pages, but both are being deprecated in favor of JavaScript.

*Second, the version numbers: older software products used to have two version numbers: major and minor (e.g. in {{w|MS-DOS}} 6.22 the major number is 6 and the minor is 22). Newer products tend to have hundreds of minor revisions, all of them numbered, so a typical user may well find themselves updating version 6.0.0.1 to 7.3.8.1 without knowing at all the differences between both versions or which other versions are in between. The ¾ in the Macromedia Java version is a joke on complex version numbers, which (so far) have never included fractions.

*Third, the 32-bit or 48-bit version: The {{w|Intel 80386}} processor used an architecture known as {{w|IA-32}}, which implies the {{w|Address bus|address bus}} is 32-bit wide and thus able to handle up to 4{{w|Gibibyte|GiB}} of {{w|Random-access memory|RAM}} memory. This was plenty for the early 1990s, when a typical home PC would have about 8MiB (this is 512 times less than 4GiB). However, about 10 years after that, a typical home PC could well use more than 4GiB of RAM, so several {{w|64-bit computing|64-bit architectures}} were created. These architectures are not compatible (32-bit software may run on 64-bit hardware of the same family, but software compiled as 64-bit doesn't work on a 32-bit system), so programs (including the Java Runtime Environment, or JRE) often have 32-bit and 64-bit versions to allow the most appropriate version to be installed. Furthermore, the JRE is heavily used by many web browsers, and for this to work the JRE and browser need to be the same "number of bits". This means that most people have installed both versions of the JRE to be able to use it with both 32-bit and 64-bit browsers. There's no 48-bit architecture (though some 64-bit processors including the {{w|x86-64|most common ones}} don't actually use all 64 bits everywhere, ignoring some bits so actual virtual or physical memory is smaller (in the case of the most common ones, 48bits virtual and 40bits physical), they simulate a full 64-bit environment to allow adding more bits later, so there are no specific 48-bit applications).

*Fourth, an application trying to let the user install a new version of the JRE should direct the user to the download page in the [http://java.com/ java.com site], not to the main page which deals with lots of issues with java and is not particularly helpful when trying to update the JRE.

*Fifth, and continuing with the joke of users updating from 7.3.8.1¾ to 6.0.0.1 and not knowing why they should, the new version is said to "run fine but not really change anything". This is the usual behavior for Java updates: they run fine (possibly in opposition to [[1197: All Adobe Updates]], where updating must be done several times and the user is never sure they have installed all the newest updates), but after finished updating the user can't see any difference with the previous behavior, and/or may still be told that an update is required. Considering that 7.3.8.1¾ is bigger number than 6.0.0.1, it can also refer to the fact that the test for upgrading is incorrect and 7.3.8.1¾ is actually newer version or that a downgrade is required for the applet to work properly, because no one fixed it to work with the newer version.

==Transcript==
:[A simple table with only one column and fifteen rows is shown. Text above:]
:Introducing
:'''The XKCD Stack'''

:[The list of cells:]
:EBNF/CSS
:Broken Java Applet
:Archive.org Mirror
:Hypercard.js
:QBasic on Rails
:[Blocked by AdBlocker]
:MongoDB/Excel
:Some piece that works so nobody asks any questions
:Triply-Nested Docker
:Paravirtual Boy®
:A dev typing real fast
:Older version of our software
:Mystery Networking Horror
:Microsoft Bob Server®
:A giant CPU someone built in Minecraft

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Minecraft]]

2570: Captain Picard Tea Order

2022-01-20T01:16:52Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2570
| date = January 19, 2022
| title = Captain Picard Tea Order
| image = captain_picard_tea_order.png
| titletext = We can ask the Earl for his order once he's fully extruded from the dispenser.
}}
*This was the fifth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EXTRUDED EARL GREY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Captain {{w|Jean-Luc Picard}} is the captain of the starship ''USS Enterprise'' in the TV series ''{{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation}}''. {{w|Earl Grey tea}} is a beverage that he requests many times in the series, with the exact phrase "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaAT6-dY1QI Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.]" Randall is parodying this expression with other words that could follow "Tea. Earl Grey.", from "most normal" to "least normal".

The machine that Picard is using is a {{w|Replicator (Star Trek)|replicator}}, which can create objects, such as Picard's requested Earl Grey tea. The title text refers to the last item, "Tea for him, too." which presumes that the replicator has produced a regular (unspecified) tea and "Earl Grey", a person (either one of the {{w|Earl Grey}}s or a person named Grey with the title of {{w|earl}}), and Picard has requested a tea for him. And so Picard also will ask the Earl for his exact order of tea after he is fully created.

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=1 class="wikitable"
! Word !! Explanation
|-
| Hot
| A fairly normal word to be used when ordering tea. Although that it even needs specifying is itself a clue that other variations (such as "Iced", below) are available.
The act of requesting this is illustrated, though not of the appearance of the tea itself.
|-
| Iced
| {{w|Iced Tea}} is a 'normal' variation of tea.
|-
| Decaf
| Traditional teas (from {{w|Camellia sinensis}}) tend to have caffeine in them. Asking for {{w|Decaffeination|decafeinated}} tea is not particularly uncommon if the drinker requires it.
|-
| Good
| A normal, subjective term. Most people drinking tea would want it to be good.
|-
| Lukewarm
| While this is a temperature that tea can be at, most people do not want their teas to be lukewarm.
|-
| Tasty
| Similar to good, most people would want their tea to be tasty.
|-
| Boiled
| Boiling the water used to make the tea is a common and normal way to increase the flavor and nutrients extracted from the tea leaves, though it is suggested that the actual ideal temperature of hot water is 75-98°C (167-210°F), according to whether it is a light tea or a dark one, and that perhaps it should be sipped at around 65°C/150°F-ish if desired 'hot'.
Having made a tea and ''then'' bringing it back to the boil (especially after adding milk/etc) may destroy some of the desirable qualities previously imbued.
|-
| Watery
| Tea is a drink that often involves water.
|-
| Sour
| Many people do not enjoy a sour taste, which can indicate rot and is a strange thing to specify when ordering Earl Grey tea.
|-
| Meaty
| Most teas are plant-based.
|-
| Solid
| Tea is usually drunk as a liquid. It would be strange to ask for solid tea.
|-
| Dry
| Tea is a liquid typically made with water and may have milk. A dry version might be either unmade (e.g. tea leaves in their un-infused form) or freeze-dried back into a dehydrated form.
("Dry" can also be used to describe {{w|Dryness (taste)|less-sweet varities of wine}} ''or'' {{w|Prohibition|enforced alcohol-free scenarios}}. For either option, it assumes a default serving with an {{w|Hot_toddy#Variations|alcoholic component}}, or an entirely {{w|Long Island iced tea|alternate basis}} for the beverage, which the request needs to be specify it is not.)
|-
| Raw
| This describes tea that has not been "cooked", so it would just be tea made with room-temperature water. This is {{w|Iced_tea#Sun_tea|possible}} but generally takes many hours.
|-
| Deep-fried
| Tea is not usually deep-fried.
|-
| Sticky
| Perhaps significantly dehydrated, or thickened with enough of a hydrophilic substance, this would produce something very unlike most teas that would usually be requested.
This scenario is illustrated to show a clearly messy product that awkwardly sticks to and drips from the replicator as well as Picard.
|-
| Grilled
| Tea is not usually grilled.
|-
| Fossilized
| Since tea is a liquid, it would be tricky to figure out how to fossilize it.
|-
| Magnetic
| Tea is not magnetic. Magnetic metals would have to be added to the tea, which would not be pleasant to drink.
|-
| Ballistic
| Usually, the replicated beverage is deposited in a stationary cup, but Picard could ask for it to be dropped or thrown out instead.
|-
| Unstable
| This word is often used to refer to radioactive materials, which hopefully is not a property that would apply to something meant to be ingested.
|-
| Blessed
| Tea is a beverage, and it may be strange to ask a machine to create 'blessed' tea.
In role-playing games, items can be Blessed, i.e. having greater positive or lesser negative effects. This includes potions, a class of drinks that do not include any teas but could contain the "potion of water", which may therefore be the basis of this blessed brew.
|-
| Blurry
| Being blurry is not a normal state for tea to have.
|-
| Loud
| While molecules in tea (especially hot tea, and vitally so in an {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel)|Infinite Improbability Drive}}) do move vigorously, this does not usually result in distinct audible effects.
However, as illustrated, it seems the requested cup of tea is produced capable of emitting a high-pitched, high-volume whining sound that entirely dominates the vicinity.
|-
| Virtual
| Virtual tea cannot be produced physically, so asking a physical tea machine for it would be very strange.
|-
| Intravenous
| This means the tea would be injected directly into the customer's veins, likely a very painful experience if the tea comes out boiling.
|-
| Expanding
| In a sense, most hot tea is expanding: as the water in the tea evaporates, it becomes much less dense, increasing in "size".

But most people would probably argue that the evaporated water is no longer part of the tea. Water, like most materials, usually expands as it increases in temperature—except between freezing and about 4° C, where it has the unusual property of {{w|Water_%28molecule%29#Density_of_water_and_ice|''contracting slightly''}} as temperature increases. If tea behaves similarly despite the extra dissolved compounds, then "expanding tea" would describe any tea between 4° C and boiling point. Possibly beyond, and explosively so, if {{w|Superheating|superheated}} and then nucleating points are introduced.
|-
| Ironic
| How tea could be ironic is a mystery.
|-
| Segmented
| Tea is usually served in a cup. It tends to stick together and form one liquid. Separating the tea into segments would not be possible.
|-
| Verbose
| This describes using lots of words and language, and would not likely be used for tea, because it cannot speak.{{citation needed}}
|-
| Cursed
| As with "Blessed", above, various items can be Cursed, in {{w|NetHack}}, i.e. having greater negative or lesser positive effects; while there are straegic uses for Cursed items, generally the player would prefer uncursed ones (neutral or a tually blessed). Amongst the cursable items are potions, a class of consumables that do not include any teas but does contain the "potion of water", which may therefore be the cause of this cursed cuppa.
|-
| Unexpected
| By definition, Picard is asking for tea, expecting it promptly. Perhaps the request for it to be "unexpected" would cause it to be delivered at an unknown time in the future, or to have some alteration.
|-
| Bipedal
| Tea does not walk.{{citation needed}} This would be a very strange term to use when describing tea.
|-
| Afraid
| Tea does not have feelings.
|-
| Infinite
| The scope of this request is unclear. It could mean endless production (a steady stream of tea, without obvious limits so long as servicing the request remains practical) or an instantaneous production of an infinite volume of tea (possibly more immediately shown to be flawed in its method of execution). Either could result in an infinitely ''dense'' tea (eventually?), but this may no longer be {{w|No-hair theorem|identifiable as tea}} so might be one of the less practical options, even amongst those on this list.
Indeed, Randall ranks it as the least 'normal', except for just ''one'' further named order.
|-
| Tea for him, too
| {{w|Earl Grey tea|Earl Grey}} is a tea blend.
Taken along with the context of the title text, this Replicator order is for "Tea" (not otherwise qualified), a replicated version ''of'' the Earl Grey (one or other of those {{w|Earl Grey|of that name}}, possibly the {{w|Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|2nd Earl}} for whom the tea blend was supposedly named) and a second such beverage for him to later drink.
|-
! colspan="2" | Descriptions included in comic, but not on the line
|-
| Cold
| Like Iced tea, asking for cold tea is a relatively normal request.
|-
| Pink
| Earl grey is usually an orange-brown color, not pink.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[There is a line going towards the bottom of the panel in a curve with marks and words next to them. Various pictures of Captain Picard, are displayed next to the curves.]
:[Caption at top of the panel:]
:Other words Captain Picard tried at the end of his tea order before settling on "hot"
:[Subtitle below the caption:]
:From most normal to least
:[Picard stands next to a machine labeled 'REPLICATOR', giving a command. Some options such as 'Good,' 'Cold,' 'Dry,' and 'Pink' are displayed perpendicularly adjacent to 'Hot', the latter clearly selected.]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
:[Below, another version of Picard standing next to the replicator is displayed. Picard is holding a cup, with sticky lines connecting his hands and the machine]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Sticky.
:[This time, Picard is holding a vibrating cup and large letters are displayed in the background to the exclusion of all else.]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Loud.
:Teacup: '''TEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'''
:[Words on the arrow from start to finish. The tail of the arrow is labeled 'Normal.' There is a parallel arrow pointing in the same direction labeled 'Less normal.']
:Hot
:Iced
:Decaf
:Good
:Lukewarm
:Tasty
:Boiled
:Watery
:Sour
:Meaty
:Solid
:Dry
:Raw
:Deep-fried
:Sticky
:Grilled
:Fossilized
:Magnetic
:Ballistic
:Unstable
:Blessed
:Blurry
:Loud
:Virtual
:Intravenous
:Expanding
:Ironic
:Segmented
:Verbose
:Cursed
:Unexpected
:Bipedal
:Afraid
:Infinite
:Tea for him, too

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:Food]]

538: Security

2022-01-17T13:22:44Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 538
| date = February 2, 2009
| title = Security
| image = security.png
| titletext = Actual actual reality: nobody cares about his secrets. (Also, I would be hard-pressed to find that wrench for $5.)
}}

==Explanation==
The "crypto nerd" would be concerned with strongly encrypting data on their personal machine. This would conceivably come in handy when "villains" attempt to steal information on his computer. The crypto nerd imagines that due to his advanced encryption, the crackers will be ultimately defeated. [[Randall]] suggests that in the real world, people with the desire to access this information would simply {{w|Rubber-hose cryptanalysis|use torture}} to coerce the nerd to give them the password. Both panels also reference the amount of money used to access the data. In the first the villain is willing to use millions of dollars to construct a {{w|TWIRL|super computer}} which may still not fulfill their aim, while in the second, he simply uses a $5 wrench and 'the personal touch'. The comic effectively states, completely accurately, that the weakest part of computer security is usually not the computer, but the user.

{{w|RSA (algorithm)|RSA}} is a commonly used public key encryption method. Current standards typically use 1024, 2048, and (more recently) 4096 {{w|Key size|bit keys}}. These encryption methods are not yet (feasibly) breakable. A 4096-bit key will remain unbreakable for the foreseeable future.

The title text pokes fun at typical users, who do not have data that would be worth anything to anyone but themselves. Therefore, it is unlikely that the above situation would ever occur. Additionally, the wrench used in the second panel is large, and presumably more than the $5 referenced by the thug.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a laptop up in two hands, showing it to his Cueball-like friend who is examining it while holding a hand up to his head. Above the top of the panels frame, there is a box with a caption:]
:A Crypto nerd's imagination:
:Cueball: His laptop's encrypted. Let's build a million-dollar cluster to crack it.
:Friend: No good! It's 4096-bit RSA!
:Cueball: Blast! Our evil plan is foiled!

:[Cueball is holding a a closed laptop down in one hand while giving his Cueball-like friend a wrench with the other. The friend reaches out for it. Above the top of the panels frame, there is a box with a caption:]
:What would actually happen:
:Cueball: His laptop's encrypted. Drug him and hit him with this $5 wrench until he tells us the password.
:Friend : Got it.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]

Countdown in header text

2022-01-14T04:41:58Z

162.158.159.73: Premature to talk in the past sense (and with definitiveness!). Can be re-past-tensed in a couple of weeks or so.

{{comic
| date = January 10, 2022
| title = Countdown in header text
| image = Countdown_in_header_text.png
| before = The countdown will probably last 21 days. After February 1st 2022 it is likely to have disappeared. See this [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] archive version.
| ldomain = www
| lappend =
| extra = yes
}}
*Go directly to the list of [[Countdown in header text/images|images]].
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
*On January 10th 2022, [[Randall]] added a countdown in the top right corner of the [[xkcd Header text]] on {{xkcd}}.
**This happened while the comic [[2565: Latency]] was up.
***First the xkcd Header text was [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-08_-_Back_to_standard_text|changed back]] to the [[xkcd_Header_text#Header_text|standard text]] for the first time in almost three years:
****xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
***But already while this Friday-comic was still up on the following Monday the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] was added.
****This was thus up when the Monday comic [[2566: Decorative Constants]] was released, drawing more people to the xkcd page.
*The first archived version from [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] read 20d 20h 27m.
**It looks like it started on [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ 01-10 17:00 UTC].
***At that time it would have read 20d 21h 59 min. Just two hours and 1 minute short of 3 weeks.
*This countdown will reach zero on Monday 2022-01-31 at 14:59 (2:59 PM) {{w|UTC}}, or 9:59 AM in Boston, Randall's home town.
**If seconds will be added towards the end, it seems likely that it may end exactly at 15:00 UTC (10:00 AM in Boston).
*The next day on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220111153818/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] a diagonal black bar appeared in the lower left-hand corner of the countdown box and started to move further into the image on following changes to the [[#Images|image]].
**This development called for the creation of this dedicated [[Countdown in header text]] page.
**The line had already moved further into the image at this time, but the latest version will never be available in the web archive.
***This development is reminiscent of the huge comic [[1190: Time]].
*[https://munvoseli.github.io/ Munvoseli] is keeping [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ track of the changes] to the image on the countdown.
**Although there are (at 2022-01-12 12:35 UTC) thirteen different frames we know of, the first three looks the same (because the diagonal bar was not in the frame yet) and the seventh and the eighth also seems to be the same, even though the bar had already begun moving across the frame from the fourth. This is either on purpose, a slipup or means that The FrameTM might not be zooming out of a larger image.
***However, the images that look the same all have individual addresses on the xkcd server. See more under [[#Images|Images]] below.

==Images==
*Images will be put on this separate page [[Countdown in header text/images]]
**The images can also be found [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here].
***It is possible to compare two images, chosen between those released, on that page!
**See more details at the top of the image page.

==Theories==
*Here different theories for what the countdown is for and what the picture is going to reveal can be added.

===The picture===
*Theories about the picture:
**It seems after two days and 12 pictures like either something is moving into the frame or that it is a zoom out from a white area of a large picture. Maybe it is the arm of Cueball that will come into view.
***A curve seems to begin at the top left of the line in picture 13.
***Maybe it is some kind of vehicle rolling into frame, like a car?
***Or the word xkcd?
**Could have been "Hangman", but it looks like it's zooming in on the diagonal instead of continuing to make a gibbet.

===Countdown===
*Theories about the countdown:
*Several have already been mentioned in the discussion:
**Randall's next book, either the countdown is to the start of promotion or it is released without other promotion than this countdown.
***Usually Randall has made month long [[:Category:Book promotion|promotions]] before release. So if is the release day it is a new way to do it. But will get a lot of attention. If it is just the start of promoting it, people might get disappointed...
****For instance he began promoting his [[xkcd_Header_text#2015-05-14_-_New_book_Thing_Explainer|New book Thing Explainer]] in the header text. That was in May 2015 and the book was first released late [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ November 2015]. Most of this time the header text was promoting the book.
**{{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (JWST) going into orbit about L2 {{w|Lagrange point}}.
***Randall has already made several comics about the telescope. The latest [[2564: Sunshield]] just five days prior to the countdown was started.
***But the telescope will not reach the point but rather go into a large orbit around it, so a precise timer counting down to it seems a bit farfetched.
***On NASA's page on JWST it seems like it will [https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer.html#25 go into orbit] 29.5 days after it's [[December 25th Launch]], on Christmas Day, so it should have already started the orbit by the 23rd or 24th of January - 8 days before the countdown.
**{{w|Lunar New Year}}
***In China it starts on February 1st and a [https://yourcountdown.to/chinese-new-year countdown] for China is 8 hours behind.
****The South Korean time zone is UTC+9, hence 14:59 UTC = 23:59 in South Korea, one minute to Feb 1.
*****But weird if Randall that has basically never mentioned this holiday suddenly makes a three week countdown for it, and why choose South Korea when most would think of China in this context...?
**Randall will stop making xkcd (Goodbye in the image).
***Hopefully not.
****Agreed, To be avoided[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees]
**[https://nationaldaycalendar.com/backward-day-january-31/ National Backward Day]
***This is not a day mentioned on Wikipedia at the time of release of the countdown, so seems unlikely.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Meta]]

Talk:2557: Immunity

2021-12-21T17:34:02Z

162.158.159.73:

well, if you look at society as a whole it makes more sense. the reason we have so many mutations is that we have a significant portion of the populous with no immunity [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.125|172.68.110.125]] 20:49, 20 December 2021 (UTC) mark ifi
:But the mutations come about from the virus replicating a lot, i.e in people with the virus. It still doesn't make sense to catch it, because you have a chance of your infection being the one that produces a terrible mutation [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.130|141.101.77.130]] 22:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::That isn't how mutations work. Mutations are able to propagate strongly only in environments where there is something killing off the parent species, and where the mutation provides better survivability. Like a functioning immune system attacking the parent virus, but a mutation allows something to slip by. Thus, people with the partial immunity provided by either vaccines or infection, are the ones more likely to create a mutation than new patients with no inherent immunity, or people with natural immunity from previous bouts with related diseases.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

I can see this one annoying a lot of people. It's the lot of people who can already be annoying, so I don't think that's a big problem. (A few, who misread it as about ''vaccination'' giving immunity, may actually think it supports them. I'm not sure we can do anything about that either.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.85|162.158.159.85]] 21:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Would you kindly provide a link to the "Mount Stupid" comic for reference.{{unsigned|172.70.174.119}}

To be fair, if the vaccination would only protect you for ONE infection it wouldn't be worth it. The idea about immunity is that immunity trained by either vaccination or infection will then protect you from '''multiple''' following infections. The problem with it is that in case of covid (or flu), the immunity wanes off with time AND the virus mutates into new variants the immunity doesn't work as well against. Sure, it still makes sense to vaccinate, but just because the virus spread so much you are very likely to catch it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:32, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
:Are you making the mistake (without the other baggage) I mentioned above about misreading the comic? This comic isn't about the vaccination at all. It's about infection. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 22:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::Infection is the normal method of vaccination. Until recently with mRNA vaccines, almost all vaccines were about infection- either with the disease itself, a weakened version of the disease, or a related disease.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:(And, to add, if the vaccine just protected against ONE infection, where that one infection was sufficiently dangerous, it would indeed be worth it. Better than chancing the infection on a naïve immune system and hoping to come out the other side with a similarly infection-specific immune effect (c.f. annual flu waves) but without the QC and care given to the vector.) ((See, I knew it'd spark response, didn't intend to say much. Maybe I should just stay out of this until it blows over.)) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 23:01, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::Of course it is about the vaccination - this supports Randall's earlier statements for being pro vaccine, that you should get the immunity from vaccination and not from infection! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:24, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Hmmm, no. It's about COVID (and that by inference). It doesn't mention the vaccine. The conversation ''might'' have been about the vaccine, but the comic (and its discussion of what it is sensible to do, or not) is vaccine free. It's "anti-infection", but not directly "pro-vaccine". (He, I and you ''are'' all sensibly pro-vaccine, I think. The comic itself is only vocal on that subject by omission and a chain of logic that will never occur to those stuck at the original fallacy.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

People who know a lot about the immune system could also be referring to people who are aware of possibilities like the varicella zoster virus which causes chickenpox, but stays dormant in your body after you recover and can come back later as shingles. This is less likely to happen if you get the vaccine to prevent chickenpox in the first place. --[[User:Norgaladir|Norgaladir]] ([[User talk:Norgaladir|talk]]) 00:32, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

A vaccination doesn't necessarily give you immunity, e.g. with the Covid or influenca vaccines, so you still can get infected. But being vaccinated reduces the risk of suffering complications like death that can ruin your and other peoples' life.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.229|162.158.94.229]] 07:59, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:...''significantly'' reduces the risk, in fact. It likely also (though it's a harder thing to establish) reduces the catch-and-transmit rate, thus yet another thing to do to help others, even those you'll never meet directly, who are unable or (ugh!) unwilling to think this far ahead. Unmitigated (and, especially, sought-after) 'natural' infection as represented in the comic just helps spread the thing further and faster and does a gross disservice to onward contacts, contacts-of-contacts, etc, etc. Excuse my preaching to the choir here, but it needs to be said. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
::You're not preaching to the choir exclusively, plenty of lurkers (like me) are reading along. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.143|108.162.241.143]] 17:01, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

While trying to update the explanation for 'neutrality of tone' and address some infectious disease history, I came across this [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120728/#!po=44.6721|Highly Infectious Diseases in Critical Care] article
from the NIH published January 3 of 2020 which includes a comparison of smallpox, measles, SARS-1, and MERS-cov illustrating how significantly vaccination has reduced global infections. Check out the graph of measles from 1980. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.227|172.70.110.227]] 13:46, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

My hero is the person who added the citation needed to "Diseases are bad", as well as those who realize that vaccination is largely a form of infection on purpose (within one of the following five options: infection by the disease itself, infection by a weakened disease, infection by a killed and inactive version of the disease, infection by a related less dangerous disease that shares some characteristics with the original disease, infection by a laboratory created RNA strands that mimic the disease being attacked). Therefore, catching the disease on purpose, is a form of vaccination. Israel did a study on infection by the disease itself and found 6.7 times stronger immune response than other forms of COVID-19 vaccination. [https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:This should indicate that a better (at preparing your immune system to resist future infection) vaccine (process) may be possible. Without saying that current vaccines are ineffective. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.97|108.162.241.97]] 17:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

I would like to add that the comic criticizes only a part of ''anti-vaxxers'' population that show the circular logic presented. There are other parts, e.g. those who are not quite sure if the cost/benefit (or rather risk/risk) calculus is right for the rapidly developed and hastily officially approved (in comparison to long-established vaccines against other diseases) and/or novel (mRNA) vaccine products, fearing long-time side effects of the vaccine. On the other hand, long-term effects of the disease itself are also not known yet, even if some middle-term ones are known or being investigated already. There are still other parts like those who oppose governmental obligations or pressure to vaccinate against covid and related restrictions, and take the refusal as a personal freedom stance. There may be others. -- [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.219|198.41.242.219]] 15:09, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

This very much feels like a straw man. I get that it's a webcomic, but can we talk about this? The description says that natural immunity is "short lived" (as in, how short-lived, and how much compared to vaccination?) but meanwhile I hear like one in five COVID hospitalizations were vaccinated patients. Are there studies on reinfection with COVID in vaccinated vs non-vaccinated patients? It seems to me from the latest comics that Randall is frustrated. I think everyone is frustrated. Citation needed, haha. But I get tired of reading "haha the other side is dumb" from both sides of every damn issue these days, and the bigger the impact an issue has, the more furious the mudslinging. One could, for example, make the same "circular argument" jab at trusting the FDA in this example, or in a more agnostic case, the value of a college degree or a certification: Ex. "we're qualified to make decisions about what's right or smart for the populace because we're a bunch of people who say so, and we have a pretty looking seal to prove it, and also please keep giving us a lot of money." I mean, for those of us who have been to college, haven't we all churned our way through that just to get into the workforce and discover that it's completely different than what we actually needed to know? Would we call people "anti-uni's" and laugh at their incompetence for questioning the system? Even at the unlikely minimum of "anti-vaxxers (or x-person who disagrees with me) are 100% dumb and wrong and that's a fact", isn't the discourse important? I understand that the opposite extreme is "I'd rather let my child die of Polio than trust another human being", but isn't that just another straw man? When are we going to stop polarizing? Thoughts?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.147|108.162.237.147]] 16:28, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:It might be Randall is (intentionally or accidentally) touching on your point by making this comic's thesis ambiguous. People who aren't thinking deeply about the topic on both sides will initially think it confirms their worldview, until they see more discussion on the matter. So the comic's ambiguity might prompt more discussion by and between both sides. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.143|108.162.241.143]] 17:18, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
::Re: "I hear like one in five COVID hospitalizations were vaccinated patients." ....if less than one in five people are vaccinated, this is a problem. If more (and hopefully significantly more) than 20% of the populace are vaccinated then this is actually a positive sign for the whole issue. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:34, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

(Re: "Why does my IP keep changing?" Edit-comment. Because your gateway/pathway between yourself and the site goes through a limited and shared ''set'' of possible IPv4s. There's no guarantee you'll get the same IP (or even obvious range!) between edits, nor that your current IP won't be used by someone else in a few minutes. It's just a technical thing that greases the wheels of the Internet, even if it has funny repurcussions for some things like this.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:34, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

2546: Fiction vs Nonfiction

2021-11-25T09:08:47Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Better

{{comic
| number = 2546
| date = November 24, 2021
| title = Fiction vs Nonfiction
| image = fiction_vs_nonfiction.png
| titletext = The real challenge is how to file Boba Fett's biography of Doris Kearns Goodwin.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A NONFICTIONAL BOBA FETT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] is asking [[Ponytail]] and [[White Hat]] to classify different ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' books and movies as fiction or nonfiction. ''Star Wars'' as a whole is a multimedia franchise, which includes films, TV series, novels, etc, but often singularly refers to {{w|Star Wars (film)|the original 1977 film}} later more lengthily titled ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope''. The classifications get more complicated to determine as the conversation progresses.

Nonfiction (also spelled non-fiction) is any document or media content that intends, in good faith, to present only truth and accuracy regarding information, events, or people. In contrast, fiction offers information, events, or characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary, or else leaves open if and how the work refers to reality.

{| class="wikitable"
!Media name
!Explanation
|-
| ''Star Wars''
| ''Star Wars'' is fiction because it is a movie.{{citation needed}}
|-
| ''{{w|The Making of Star Wars}}''
| This was a television special about how ''Star Wars'' was made, which would make it nonfiction.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''
| This would be one of the ''Star Wars'' franchise's continuity of stories, making it fictional.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''
| While the content of this guidebook is entirely fictional, the book is factual. Boba Fett (a fictional character) does in fact [https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/253196 have durasteel]/[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Boba_Fett%27s_armor Beskar] armor (a fictional material), so the book is technically non-fiction.
|-
| ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''
| This could either be a non-fictional book or docuseries similar to the previous entry, or instead an in-universe adventure series or film.
|-
| ''Boba Fett: A Life'' by Doris Kearns Goodwin
| {{w|Doris Kearns Goodwin}} is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of many influential people. Since Goodwin is a non-fiction writer, it could be difficult to determine whether the biography is a fictional account of the character, or a factual account of the fictional history of the character. If the book doesn't establish any new canon, and is instead citing only recorded (fictional) facts from the Star Wars Universe, it could legitimately be considered non-fiction.
|-
| (title text) Boba Fett's biography on Doris Kearns Goodwin
| It is unclear how, or why, a fictional character would write a biography on a real life person, but there's always the possibly that there was a fictional Doris, in-universe to Boba, whose own life and exploits would be natural for an actually fictional factual output.
|}

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

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars''?
:Ponytail: Fiction.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''The Making of Star Wars''?
:White Hat: Nonfiction.

:[Closeup of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''?
:Ponytail (off-panel): Fiction.

:[Closeup of Ponytail.]
:Cueball (off-panel): ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''?
:Ponytail: Nonfiction, technically.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''?
:Ponytail: ...Fiction? It depends.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat. Ponytail has turned towards White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett: A Life'', by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin?
:Ponytail: Hm.
:White Hat: Maybe we should just have a Boba Fett section.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:905: Homeownership

2021-11-17T16:37:20Z

162.158.159.73:

Thank god he didn't buy an apartment flat. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:48, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

"This is an example for the misuse of statistics." Also, statics... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.113|108.162.254.113]] 16:51, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

This has got to be a "financial collapse" "house collapse" pun. [[User:Jimbo1qaz|Jimbo1qaz]] ([[User talk:Jimbo1qaz|talk]]) 23:43, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

I think the title text might refer to the fact these types of drills are common in construction. To think that at least 60% of these assets would have had that tool involved in their creation seems like a conservative estimate.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.118|108.162.245.118]] 17:36, 6 January 2017 (UTC)

: Many houses are old enough to predate power drills. And the crash did hit a lot of older and poorer neighborhoods particularly hard. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 00:39, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

This isn't true for a lot of people in the US. There are homeowners' associations that would punish you for this kind of thing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 16:37, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Talk:905: Homeownership

2021-11-17T16:37:09Z

162.158.159.73:

2510: Modern Tools

2021-09-02T16:20:18Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ ...unless the typos (also bad grammar of the prior version) are the joke?

{{comic
| number = 2510
| date = September 1, 2021
| title = Modern Tools
| image = modern_tools.png
| titletext = I tried to train an AI to repair my Python environment but it kept giving up and deleting itself.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by CUTTING EDGE ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] tells [[White Hat]] how he has trained a {{w|artificial neural network|neural net}} to generate mostly valid {{w|Make_(software)#Makefile|Makefiles}}.

This is the file type that the {{w|Make (software)|Make}} searches for. In software development, Make is a build automation tool that automatically builds executable programs and libraries from source code by reading files called Makefiles which specify how to derive the target program. (See [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]]).

Then Cueball continues to tell that he next will train it to distinguish between Bash and Zsh.

{{w|Bash (Unix shell)|Bash}} and {{w|Z_shell|Zsh}} are two {{w|Command-line_interface|command line interfaces}} for {{w|Unix-like}} OSes. The way to execute commands is almost identical, making detecting a script that contains a mixed syntax nearly impossible. This was previously referenced in [[1678: Recent Searches]].

A human-designed 'random Makefile'-maker might have been written with this explicit choice amongst the earlier decisions in the generation process, but an AI might be assumed to have started (many, many generations ago) with something close to utter nonsense and painstakingly reached the stage of (mostly!) valid files along the way. Some might say that the differentiation training would have been better added at another point in the lengthy process.

On top of that, the current (mostly valid) results may even be {{w|Polyglot (computing)|polyglot}} and/or {{w|Agnostic (data)|shell-agnostic}}. Dependant upon the {{w|Fitness function|fitness tests}} in use, many other {{w|List of command-line interpreters|$SHELL}}-choices and Makefile styles may have been coevolved as valid (if rarer) subgenus of outputs, such as a ''command.com''-based makefile.

In the caption it states that Cueball is using modern tools to make ancient technology, as opposed to other people who use ancient tools and UIs ({{w|User interface}}) to develop Modern Tools.

In the title text Randall states that he tried to train an AI ({{w|Artificial intelligence}}) to repair [[1987: Python Environment|his horribly broken Python environment]]. But the AI kept giving up and deleting itself. The joke partly relates to when it or is not appropriate to personify goal-driven processes. In the study of alignment of artificial intelligence, it is common to consider AIs finding ways to meet the tasks they are given that are highly unexpected, and then developing into an {{w|Instrumental_convergence#Paperclip_maximizer|apocalypse}}. A common unexpected solution encountered in research is that the agent finds a way to disable itself as more efficient to meet its reward parameters than anything else it discovers, and then learns to repeatedly do so. The AI might be so intelligent that it had developed critical 'personal' opinions that led it to be so intellectually appalled by the task, or else just found it impossible to fix the python environment and therefore justify its own existence, that it had no other recourse but to commit a form of suicide. [[Python]] has been a recurring subject as has [[:Category:Programming|Programming]] and [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting on an office chair at his desk typing on his laptop. White Hat is standing behind the desk looking at Cueball.]
:Cueball: Okay, I've got this neural net generating mostly valid makefiles.
:Cueball: Next I'm going to train it to distinguish between Bash and Zsh...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:People often use ancient tools and UIs to develop modern cutting-edge technology, but I do it the other way around.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]

Talk:2510: Modern Tools

2021-09-02T10:44:22Z

162.158.159.73:

Note that this is the second time Randall tried to tell bash and zsh apart. (First time was in [[1678]].) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.83|162.158.88.83]] 05:44, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
:Great memory. Has added it to this first attempt at an explanation. Do not know enough about these files, environment etc. so I hope someone will improve. Rare I come here and there is nothing added to the explanation yet. Only your coment showed me I was not here first. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:48, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
You can generate makefiles today with a number of causal language models. I wonder what other approaches there are. [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 10:02, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Is randall literally just making jokes for himself and nobody else at this point? Even if someone knows what this all means, I doubt it many of them find it funny. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.125|172.70.130.125]] 10:09, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
: How does the joke land with you? I tell jokes like Randall's a lot to process how my life was destroyed by AI, and I found the comic as funny as I find my own jokes, but big and public. It seems nice that people are learning about and talking about these things. [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 10:12, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
: @172.70.130.125: YMMV. I can say that I find it funny. Certainly amusing, and thought-provoking. And then after a few moments contemplating... *POW*. ...the idea of actually doing this also starts to appeal to me (as a pipe-dream, perhaps). But I am just a single datum-point, and you are another. Maybe neither of us are entirely representative of the usual audience.
: And, even if nobody found it funny, except Randall, he can post anything he wants (within ethical and legal bounds, etc), even if it's just AI-autogenerated rubbish. And then you can stop reading if your own fun-maximiser function decides it would be more beneficial to its goals. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 10:44, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Modern tools… require modern problem? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:33, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

2507: USV-C

2021-08-25T18:54:57Z

162.158.159.73: /* Explanation */ Rewikilinking

{{comic
| number = 2507
| date = August 25, 2021
| title = USV-C
| image = usv_c.png
| titletext = Ultra-Serial Violet C light is unpolarized, so you don't have to flip the polarizing filter over when you get the orientation wrong the first time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE CURATOR OF THE EVER EXPANDING CURSED CONNECTORS COLLECTION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is the fourth installment in the series of [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] and presents Cursed Connectors #280: USB-C to UV-C. It follows [[2503: Memo Spike Connector]] (#102).

The comic depicts a cable with a USB-C connector on one end and a UV-C LED on the other.

USB-C is a type of USB connector which supports many different types of data. UV-C is a type of Ultraviolet light.

This comic depicts a cable that converts from USB-C (at the top of the picture) to UV-C (at the bottom).

{{w|USB-C}} is a rotationally symmetrical {{w|Universal Serial Bus}} connector.

{{w|Ultraviolet#UVC|UV-C}} is a range of ultraviolet light with wavelengths between 100 and 280 nm. This is often used as a germicide, so this comic may also be related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The title text mentions that UV-C is unpolarized. This mirrors the fact that USB-C is symmetrical. So neither of them requires you to get the orientation right when using it.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A cable with a USB-C connector on one end and a UV-C LED on the other end is shown]
:Cursed Connectors #280
:USB-C to UV-C
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category: Cursed Connectors]]
[[Category: Comics with color]]