explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2160: Ken Burns Theory

2019-06-10T16:14:02Z

162.158.178.111: Added more explanation; some grammar fixes; deleted "well-known" since Vietnam war facts are debatable (certainly not as well-known as the Revolutionary war or WWII)

{{comic
| number = 2160
| date = June 7, 2019
| title = Ken Burns Theory
| image = ken_burns_theory.png
| titletext = Some of the KBCU ancillary works try a little too hard to tie everything together. Doris Kearns Goodwin, the sports journalist featured in "Baseball," was somehow ALSO a famous historian who wrote bestselling biographies of Lincoln AND Johnson? Unrealistic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a "BASEBALL" FANFIC WRITER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Some fiction writers and filmmakers set some (or all) of their works in a common, or shared, {{w|fictional universe|universe}}, meaning that characters in one work can conceivably meet characters in another work via conventional travel. As an analogy, consider two non-touching pieces of paper: it's possible to draw a continuous line from one point to any other point on the same piece of paper, but not to the other piece of paper without moving the paper or going across your desk. Often, it's not mentioned or even outright denied that two distinct works take place in the same universe, but nevertheless fans may try to find a way to relate them to a common storyline (such as the examples of fan theories described in [http://mentalfloss.com/article/62835/5-common-universe-theories-movies this Mental Floss article]).

{{w|Ken Burns}} is an American filmmaker renowned for his historical documentaries. Therefore all his documentary series are set in a common universe - this one - and usually the setting is a small part of it: the United States in the last two centuries. The series mentioned are
* {{w|The Civil War (miniseries)|''The Civil War''}}, covering the history of the American Civil War (1861-1865), released in 1990.
* {{w|The Vietnam War (TV series)|''The Vietnam War''}}, covering the history of the Vietnam War (1955-1975), released in 2017.
* {{w|Baseball (TV series)|''Baseball''}}, covering the history of baseball from the 1840s to the 1990s, released in 1994.

The joke here is that Cueball is trying to find the common features between Ken Burns' series to set them in a common universe, as a fiction fan would do, "discovering" similarities between series that are simply facts in American history. For example, several series have an office named "President", which Cueball "guesses" to be the same for {{w|Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln}} and {{w|Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson}}, and which obviously is just the {{w|President of the United States}}. Cueball has also drawn inferences from facts established in one series to draw conclusions about another, when he ({{w|Opposition_to_United_States_involvement_in_the_Vietnam_War|correctly}}) concludes that the 1960s protesters depicted in ''Baseball'' were protesting "Johnson's war" as depicted in ''The Vietnam War''.

The title text continues the joke by saying these stories are set in the "KBCU", an acronym which stands for "Ken Burns Cinematic Universe" similar to the popular {{w|Marvel Cinematic Universe}} (MCU).

{{w|Doris Kearns Goodwin}}, mentioned in the title text, is a famous historian who has written biographies of several U.S. Presidents. She is also a fan of baseball's Boston Red Sox and a sportswriter who appeared in the ''Baseball'' miniseries. Cueball states that having a character that was both a historian and a sportswriter was "unrealistic". Finding that certain aspects of reality seems unrealistic is [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealistic quite common]: this is because our judgement on how 'realistic' something is mostly comes down to comparing it to past events that we know happened - if it is similar to a past event, then it's plausible that it could have happened too, thus it is "realistic"; if not, then it's implausible, and thus it's "unrealistic". In this case, since we do not often hear of a famous historian who is also a sportswriter, we (or rather, Cueball) deem it as unrealistic.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is standing next to Megan.]
:Cueball: Lincoln was "President" in ''The Civil War'' (1990), the same office held by Johnson in ''The Vietnam War'' (2017).
:Cueball: And ''Baseball'' (1994) briefly showed 1960s "protesters." I think they were protesting Johnson's war!
:Cueball: It all fits!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I have a fan theory that every Ken Burns miniseries exists within a single cohesive universe.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1966: Smart Home Security

2018-03-13T02:41:23Z

162.158.178.111:

{{comic
| number = 1966
| date = March 12, 2018
| title = Smart Home Security
| image = smart_home_security.png
| titletext = If they're getting valuable enough stuff from you, at least the organized crime folks have an incentive to issue regular updates to keep the appliance working after the manufacturer discontinues support.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FACELESS ENGINEER - Can someone find some examples if anyone has been spied on by "hackers"? Confirm that the graph means "the oldest the device, worst the best-case is".}}

With all the sensors on a smart appliance, a common fear is that someone (Whether it be a hacker, or even the company that released the product) is spying, collecting information on everything you do.

Now, with all the potential incentive, it is pretty likely that hackers are, and have been trying to find exploits to take over the device.
Assuming it is taken over, it could be added to a {{w|botnet}}. The collected data could then be sold, and the hardware could be used for DDOS attacks etc. Either could yield the "hacker" a hefty profit.

With the potential threat always looming, security updates must be constantly pushed, and exploits must be found by the original developers and "white hat" hackers (The faceless team of engineers [[Randall]] describes), before they could be found (and get used) by "black hat" hackers. At any time, these people could quit, leaving devices defenseless.

The graph shows the various cases of how well things go on the y axis, compared to how long it has been owned on the x axis. The older a device/software is, the less likely it is to consistently receive security updates for protection, so they are more likely to be hacked, even in the best case. After 10 years, the device/software, is most likely outdated and is not being used anymore. Companies then no longer find it profitable to continually update the product, and then pull support out, even if people are still using it, leaving them vulnerable. The exact thing happened to many users, when Microsoft halted updates to Windows XP in 2014, even though many people still used the operating system.

The title text suggests that being easy to hack may actually be a positive thing for old devices becasue it means that criminals have a vested interest in keeping them operational.

==Transcript==
:[A graph is shown inside a frame. There is one dotted line going from the middle of the left edge, then dipping slightly before rising slowly at first, then more rapid and finally slowing its ascend down as it nears the top right corner.]

:[Above the frame is the title of the x-axis, and from each end of this text, there is a small line going out and then down, to indicate a time range, which is shown below with four times:]
:How long you've had your smart appliance
:6 months     1 year     5 years     10 years

:[Along the left part of the frame there runs a double arrow and at the top and bottom of these arrows there are legends at the top and bottom of the panels height:]
:Best-case
:Worst-case

:[Inside the panel there is text above the dotted line to the right, and below the dotted line to the left:]
:You're constantly being rescued from peril by a faceless team of engineers who could wander away at any time

:Your appliance is part of a botnet run by organized crime

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Virtual Assistants]]

Talk:1952: Backpack Decisions

2018-02-08T03:08:21Z

162.158.178.111:

Great, now I can't decide how to write the transcript [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 15:00, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

And I now want a new backpack. I'm fine with the one I have, but *I want a new one dammit!* But I can't decide which one [[User:Jdluk|Jdluk]] ([[User talk:Jdluk|talk]]) 15:08, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

The knapsack optimization problem is famous for being NP-hard ([[wikipedia:Knapsack problem|Knapsack problem]]). Seems to be an allusion to it. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.191|162.158.91.191]] 15:53, 7 February 2018 (UTC)
: Nope, see below. The knapsack problem is about optimizing the amount of stuff put into something, while Cueball goes through a [[wikipedia:buying decision process|buying decision process]]. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.100|162.158.114.100]] 17:49, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

This comic is an illustration of the [[wikipedia:law of triviality|law of triviality]] aka the bike-shed effect. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.100|162.158.114.100]] 17:42, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

: I don't believe the bike-shed effect is related, since that would imply that he is focusing on unimportant issues instead of important ones. In this case, the problem is trying to satisfy a number of important needs that are not fully met by any one backpack, forcing him to decide which can be left unsatisfied by any particular backpack. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 18:59, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

:: Yes, you are right. I had the comparison chart in mind and incorrectly connected the dots here. The correct description of the situation is of course [[wikipedia:analysis paralysis|analysis paralysis]]. Snap decisions apparently aren't infallible, either. :P [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.100|162.158.114.100]] 19:38, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

:: Now that you point out your reasoning, I can see where someone might think deciding on a backpack is less important than buying a car or picking a college, which is consistent with the bike-shed effect. You deserve points for thinking of it, even though I think it really is more important to Cueball in this case. In fact, I'm surprised that Cueball didn't have a laptop in hand, calculating a composite feature weighted score per backpack to totally geek things up! ;-) [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 22:05, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

The description completely identifies the author with his figure. Mixes them up. That's very bad form and impolite. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.236|162.158.88.236]] 21:39, 7 February 2018 (UTC)
:: On top of that, it makes no sense. Nothing in this comic says anything about laptop choices. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.111|162.158.178.111]] 03:08, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1904: Research Risks

2017-10-26T20:34:09Z

162.158.178.111:

Entymology? Misspelled "entomology" or (more confusingly) "etymology"?
Psychology lower risk than micology? Absolutely hogwash!
:The comic has been updated, so it was just a typo. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.35|141.101.99.35]] 16:05, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
:How do I update picture. Last update always matches first upload for whatever reason --[[User:Trimutius|Trimutius]] ([[User talk:Trimutius|talk]]) 17:24, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Molasses storage is misplaced -- should be in the quadrant to its right. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood]. 21 dead and 150 injured. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 14:12, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Agreed that it did get out and kill people. But only once in something like 200 years and only a few. (Is this where the phrase slower than molasses in January comes from?)
I would not expect that this would be a common danger. (unsigned)

Ah, but there was another [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu_molasses_spill|spill in 2013 in Honolulu]. (I just learned of it from the "See Also" section of the Wikipedia page on the Great Molasses Flood.) That one didn't kill any people (though it was an ecological disaster) but it speaks to risk. Anyway, the item ''is'' in the right quadrant. Arguably is should be further to the right, but also arguably not, since conducting experiments in the area could lead to more accidents.[[User:Jqavins|Jqavins]] ([[User talk:Jqavins|talk]]) 16:08, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
:Only, even assuming there's such a thing as molasses storage research, it's unlikely that your lab is going to contain life-threatening quantities of molasses. It's not as if a few liters escaping could reproduce and turn into thousands of tons. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.35|141.101.99.35]] 16:27, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
:: Personally, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't research into the optimum large-scale storage of foodstuffs, given the potential high-value losses that could occur. Perhaps there might be something [https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-stored-products-research here] on it?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 16:30, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Plus how many times have robots escaped from a lab in real life? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.70|172.68.78.70]] 12:11, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I think entymology is a reference to [https://xkcd.com/1012 1012]
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.95|162.158.91.95]] 14:50, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

I think the title text may have a somewhat humorous naming scheme derived from the Great Molasses Flood Wikipedia discussion page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Great_Molasses_Flood
There's a lengthy discussion about changing the name from "Boston Molasses Disaster" to "Great Molasses Flood". I noticed that Randall used both approaches to describing the events in the title text, but maybe that was a coincidence.

I am not impressed. Movie supervillains often use paleontology (dinosaurs), geology (volcano/earthquake) and astronomy (comets). Also, there is a tendency to pair marine biology with laser-optics. And, to actually dominate the world, a real-life villain will probably need to use cunning linguistics at some level or the other. --[[User:Nialpxe|Nialpxe]], 2017. [[User_talk:Nialpxe|(Arguments welcome)]]
:I had the same initial reaction, but note how Randall didn't write "movie supervillain", but just "supervillain", so you should only take into account what is currently feasible in technology state-of-the-art, or what we can reasonably foresee for the next decade or so. I don't see any madman being able to revive (and control!) dinosaurs, capture a comet or trigger an earthquake in the next 10-20 years. As for shark-mounted lasers, they are cool to show off and inspire fear, but hardly useful to achieve world domination by themselves. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.35|141.101.99.35]] 16:18, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
::When we get into the realm of supervillainy - especially given XKCD's history - we're almost certainly talking fiction. And if we're talking fiction, Randall's forgotten about ''Moonraker'', where astronomy and dentistry both play a significant role in the supervillain's plot, and should thus rate higher on the vertical scale. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.16|172.68.78.16]] 02:42, 19 October 2017 (UTC)
::Comets? What about black holes at relativistic speeds? Although those tend to be hard to see ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:39, 19 October 2017 (UTC)
::I think it's safe to assume that most supervillains have read [[1883]] are not going to use geology in that way. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.10|172.68.54.10]] 07:30, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Looks like the "Research Risk" column is just a comment field open for speculation -- can we merge Comments and Research Risk into one column? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebob]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 03:34, 19 October 2017 (UTC)
: I'd suggest it'd be better to have one column for the supervillain risk factors, and one for the escaped research risk factors.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 08:47, 19 October 2017 (UTC)
:: I'd suggest that it would be interesting to have a few examples (movies/TV/real) listed beneath a sentence or two in each of those columns. --[[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 13:38, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Interestingly, I referenced the Great Molasses Flood in a tangential comment to comic 1900 - is Randall now browsing this site to find inspiration for new comics? ;o) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 08:53, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I feel like the linguistics section is missing an opportunity for a Snow Crash joke...[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.29|141.101.99.29]] 10:38, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Surely the risk of escape from Linguistics should be high - language is inherently hard to contain and control, and often ends up infecting the world with dangerous rubbish like 'solutioning synergistic opportunities going forward'.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 11:34, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

"Fungi cannot move..." - tell that to {{w|Toad_(Nintendo)|this guy}}.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 11:43, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

If ''Marathon Man'' is anything to judge by, dentistry can be used by a superillain in his bid to take over the world... just not to actually conquer the world. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.56|162.158.155.56]] 14:57, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

What about prosthetic robotic dentistry? I refer you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattery_Teeth_(short_story)
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.87|162.158.69.87]] 15:05, 19 October 2017 (UTC)
: What about prosthetic robotic dentistry on insects? That would be truly terrifying.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 16:26, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I found my Ph.D. work about lanthanide organometallics to be rather unyieldy for supervillainry...and that's why I'm studying computer science now :-) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.178|141.101.76.178]] 16:19, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Geology rates low for risk of studied object to break free and threaten local population!? Did Randall miss the high tension around Norways [https://www.thelocal.no/20171018/norways-mannen-landslide-postponed-until-next-year 'the man']? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.182.154|162.158.182.154]] 17:50, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Paleontology? Are velociraptors breaking free not a big deal?

Talk:1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize

2017-01-11T05:56:14Z

162.158.178.111:

I'm not too experienced with PhotoShop, but I think that the tool is a selective delete that he used on water bodies, so removing most of the water while maintaining relative shapes and sizes?
Mostly just from the fact that India looks desiccated.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.197|162.158.166.197]] 05:06, 11 January 2017 (UTC)Girish
Australia is pretty mutilated, so I think the tool was used on land too [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.111|162.158.178.111]] 05:55, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize

2017-01-11T05:55:05Z

162.158.178.111:

I'm not too experienced with PhotoShop, but I think that the tool is a selective delete that he used on water bodies, so removing most of the water while maintaining relative shapes and sizes?
Mostly just from the fact that India looks desiccated.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.197|162.158.166.197]] 05:06, 11 January 2017 (UTC)Girish
Australia is pretty mutilated, so I think the tool was used there too [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.111|162.158.178.111]] 05:55, 11 January 2017 (UTC)-->