explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2454: Fully Vaccinated

2021-04-26T13:09:02Z

162.158.186.250:

Is there a category for overgeneralizations like this? There have been many comics where a character interprets "you're allowed to do X" outside the specific context that the authorization was intended. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:48, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
:No I do not think so, but I also think this is a concept of comics, that are very broad and maybe could be used for a large fraction of the comics (any comic for that matter) so I think it is not good for a category. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:22, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

Kynde, it didn't warn me about any edit conflict between my original Incomplete Template change (no matter, go with yours) and the appending of my few paragraphs. Sorry, would not have let it post straight if I'd known you were working on it too. Also would have immediately removed it, but I see you already got stuck into Americanizing my Anglicised prose (maybe other things) so silly to revert my own thin again. (This one's ''early'' for Randall... A good 6 or 7 hours before I'd normally have expected to see a new Next button on the prior comic.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.146|141.101.98.146]] 16:15, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
:The transcript is complete. If it is that. If there are some minor tweaks it did not make it incomplete before. The page is using American English since it is an American comic. I do not care that much being Danish, but thinks it makes sense with Randall living in Boston. There are a lot of edits right now. Usually I first see it the day after due to the late release for me in Denmark. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:20, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
::I don't particularly ''care'' to write in the Mothertongue rather than the Colonial version native to our intellectual patron (arguments about the primacy of Msrs Johnson and Webster, aside), I just do it automatically because it ''feels right''. ;) Anyway, you (and at least one other AnonIP out there) have done far more to build this explanation up (never mind adding the Transcript, which I usually fear to get wrong) than my single most meaningful post of several paragraphs did only while I thought there was still a vacuum waiting to be filled. Skål! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.106|141.101.98.106]] 16:34, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
:::Well I'm not sure of all the vampire lore there is, but also "Skål" to you ;-) or "skull" now we are in the more dark side with vampires ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:42, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

Alternate interpretation: the homeowner is Cueball, suspicious of anyone (friends or not) who may be potentially infected with CoVID-19, which is why Megan reassures him that she's been fully vaccinated. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.145|162.158.178.145]] 21:40, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
:Granting that the identities of and relationships among the characters in XKCD can vary, I don't think this strip would be funny if Megan knew the homeowner; the point of the strip is that Megan is interpreting the CDC guidance to mean that she is free to visit ''anybody's'' house, whether or not she actually knows the person. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.57.53|172.68.57.53]] 04:07, 26 April 2021 (UTC)
:Given that he literally ask if he knows her, and she literally says "no", I find this interpretation completely unfounded. Funny speculation, but not much more relevant than a speculation that he has a dead bird in the house because he put a mask on it and forgot to let it drink/eat. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.250|162.158.186.250]] 13:09, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Talk:810: Constructive

2021-02-18T15:49:39Z

162.158.186.250:

I know just the guy to create this system. I'm going to PM him now :D {{unsigned ip|184.11.73.88}}

No guys, if spammers invent a bot which can give constructive comments, that will be an ***AI***, i.e. a major breakthrough in itself. {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.200}}

Mission. A-Fucking. Complished. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.7}}

One problem: trolls who rate everything as non-constructive. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.11|108.162.218.11]] 01:32, 1 March 2014 (UTC)
:But Trolls like that are also unable to make constructive comments, so they won't get counted anyway (at least, if the system is designed with any sense) Anonymous 15:02, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Guys, isn't this how Slashdot works? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.64|173.245.49.64]] 19:04, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Okay, I came here to get a better explanation of how the system would actually work. Assuming it operates at sign-up, the bots would go through and rate comments, which would have no effect if the system didn't already know whether they were good or not, then it makes it own comments that need time to be rated; so you would have to give it time to start 'contributing' to the community while waiting for others to rate it, or else users would basically be on a community-approval waiting list. So in short, I feel like the system is flawed; presumably because I'm understanding it wrong. (Bonus: Captcha while posting this) - Zergling_man [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.231|162.158.2.231]] 12:41, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Wouldn't work. People could rate anything they disagree with as'nonconstructive'. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.158|141.101.98.158]] 13:31, 13 November 2016 (UTC)

This sounds exactly like Civil Comments: https://medium.com/@aja_15265/saying-goodbye-to-civil-comments-41859d3a2b1d [[User:Enervation|Enervation]] ([[User talk:Enervation|talk]]) 10:56, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to make something that ''looks'' constructive than to actually be constructive. A lot of spambots these days are like "Wow, this was super interesting! I found another article that seems relevant: [link to spam site]," which is enough to fool a simple spam filter. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.250|162.158.186.250]] 15:49, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

2423: Project Orion

2021-02-11T01:26:46Z

162.158.186.250: /* Explanation */ Added to explanation

{{comic
| number = 2423
| date = February 11, 2021
| title = Project Orion
| image = project_orion.png
| titletext = If you tune out again, when you tune back in you'll be hearing about dusty plasma fission fragment rockets.
}}

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

White Hat and Cueball are having a conversation. In the first panel, Cueball is telling White Hat about his gardening experiences. White Hat tunes out for the middle two panels, and when he starts paying attention againn, Cueball is discussing {{w|Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)|Project Orion}}.

Project Orion was an ambitious plan to launch enormous spaceships into orbit by detonating a series of nuclear bombs below them. The force from the explosions would be absorbed by a pusher plate on the bottom of the rocket, which is the detail Cueball is sharing when White Hat tunes back in. Its coolness and the fact that it involves physics and engineering may be why physicists' conversations tend to converge to it.

The fact that physicists' conversations tend to converge towards Project Orion is similar to how biologists' conversations tend to converge towards carcinization in [[2418: Metacarcinization]]. This may turn out to be part of a series, similarly to the scaled world series, that will show similar examples in other fields, such as meteorologists' conversations converging toward tornadogenesis, mathematicians' conversations converging toward the Riemann hypothesis, or Randall's conversations converging toward dinosaurs.

Project Orion has been mentioned before, in [[786: Exoplanets]], where Beret Guy sums it up as "nuke-riding city ships."

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is explaining to White Hat.]
:Cueball: Our garden grew really well last year, so we think we might put a second raised bed along the garage, if we can find a... [text fades to white]

:[Cueball looks around in confusion.]

:Cueball: [text fades back in] ...thanks to X-ray [ablation?], the pusher plate would absorb the nuclear blast, recoil, and then return to position for the next bomb. Such a wild idea! Probably good that it was abandoned.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]