explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:590: Papyrus

2021-12-16T13:54:15Z

162.158.187.208:

For reasons that should be obvious, I've put the whole page in a certain much-hated font. *Cackles maniacally.* [[User:PinkAmpersand|PinkAmpersand]] ([[User talk:PinkAmpersand|talk]]) 11:15, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

:I rather doubt whether this is really helpful. In my opinion, the purpose of this wiki is to deliver background information about the comics, not to ruminate its jokes. Besides, the page uses some Serif font for me (as I do not have Papyrus installed) which is stylistically inconsistent. If we should reach consent that this page MUST absolutely be in Papyrus, we should at least provide some appropriate fallback font. [[User:LotharW|LotharW]] ([[User talk:LotharW|talk]]) 12:46, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
::[[1167: Star Trek into Darkness]] '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:04, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
:::I must say I do not particularly like that page either. I think it looks childish and nonserious. Also, a second example does not necessarily justify the first. But as you see, I did not revert or change anything. If it be so, we should at least do it correctly. In the current state, the page looks simply strange to anyone who does not have the font. (As far as I know, it was included only in some versions of Microsoft Office.) Does anybody know whether the license allows web embedding? [[User:LotharW|LotharW]] ([[User talk:LotharW|talk]]) 13:54, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
Over the years I have grown a hatred towards Papyrus because it's so overused, so this comic resonated with me well. But then this week I watched Firefly and Serenity which are now both my favorite TV show and movie, and they use Papyrus. I know Randall also loves them. But now I have no idea how I should feel about the font, as I would be rather hypocritical to hate the font used so heavily in my favorite show and movie. [[User:Keavon|Keavon]] ([[User talk:Keavon|talk]]) 01:48, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

I feel the same way about the "Algerian" font. The most over used business sign font ever. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.195}}

NYEH HEH HEH! -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 04:06, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
::This was expected, and it is great (''incidental music from sans''), though this comic came before Undertale. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.215|108.162.237.215]] 15:46, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

My Favorite font is Comic Sans :) {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.8}}

I have zero respect for any typeface whose capital I is nothing more than a rectangle. I resent Helvetica in particular for making precisely that mistake while being so overly popular.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.221|172.68.142.221]] 01:26, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

== Have a "joke" version of this page that's all in Papyrus? ==

Provide a link to it right at the top of the explanation? Many of us would like to see this just for funzies (since it seems poetically appropriate), but I understand the desire to keep things readable for people who actually do need the explanation.
Hopefully it would result in less temptation for people to make edits that mods keep having to revert. Idk, thoughts? MeZimm[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.56|172.69.170.56]] 22:39, 18 March 2021 (UTC)
:Copy the whole page, paste in into word or google docs, then change the font to papyrus. It won't be perfect, but it will give some approximation. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 13:20, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

what fun hating person removed the font--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.130|162.158.187.130]] 16:37, 15 December 2021 (UTC)
:Probably no-one. I don't have Papyrus on this device, and certainly it doesn't show, though I have seen it working on a desktop. Maybe you are currently reading from a similar one.
:And if you're the one that added the ''extra'' span-tags (two opening ones, but no extra closing ones) then you clearly didn't see the span-tags (open+close) within the first paragraph. I undid you. Do it properly if you do it again (but I don't think you should). Take ccare and use Preview to check before submitting.
:(Also I'm deleting a rogue signature-insertion here in Talk, clearly a misclick... Check the diffs to see what I mean.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 19:32, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

How do I add closing tags? I just looked in revision history when the font was up and copied whatever made the font papyrus--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.208|162.158.187.208]] 13:54, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

590: Papyrus

2021-12-15T16:41:01Z

162.158.187.208: added font

{{comic
| number = 590
| date = May 29, 2009
| title = Papyrus
| image = papyrus.png
| titletext = I secretly, deep in my guilty heart, like Papyrus and don't care if it's overused. [Cue hate mail in beautifully-kerned Helvetica.]
}}

==Explanation==
One of the comics in the "[[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]]" series, this one touches on the fact that {{w|Papyrus (typeface)|Papyrus}} (the font) is considered to be overused by many typography geeks, including the font's own creator. Pretending that he doesn't know that, [[Cueball]] gives [[Ponytail]] a heartfelt card written in that font just to see her twitch.

 title text says that [[Randall]] actually ''likes'' Papyrus, even if it ''is'' overused, and refers to the fact that he will soon be receiving hate-mail from people who dislike Papyrus. Those mails will be written in {{w|Helvetica}}, another commonly-used sans-serif font that is highly esteemed by typography geeks, designers, and often hipsters. It suggests that the designers would also take the time to check the '' beautifully-{{w|kerning|kerned}}'', editing the spacing between individual letters to be visually pleasing - a time-consuming activity that, it can be suggested, would only be noticed by other designers. See also [[1015: Kerning]].

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:<big>My Hobby:</big>
:Getting typography geeks heartfelt cards printed in "Papyrus" and watching them struggle to act grateful.

:[Ponytail is holding a card, with lines of indiscernible text, open and looking down, specifically neither on the card nor on Cueball, who is watching her instead. An angry tic is flicking on her forehead.]
:Ponytail: Thank you for the ''*twitch*'' ... lovely... ''*twitch*'' birthday card!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]

2542: Daylight Calendar

2021-11-16T13:11:18Z

162.158.187.208:

{{comic
| number = 2542
| date = November 15, 2021
| title = Daylight Calendar
| image = daylight_calendar.png
| titletext = Could be worse. In some towns north of here, it's already December, and the 21st will last for nearly a week.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created at CINNAMON O'CLOCK - No comment yet on Cueball's delight in the extra dead line time. No direct explanation on how the 21 december for a week comes about in the title text. Only indirect from other parts of explanation. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

At the time of this posting, the United States had ended {{w|daylight saving time}} (DST) recently, on November 7, and returned to standard time. Daylight saving time is a practice of setting clocks ahead by 1 hour during warmer months to effectively 'borrow' some of the typically unused early morning light and pass it down to the late evening where more people can make use of it. In the United States, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

A result of ending of daylight saving time is the sun setting earlier than people are used to, as people have become acclimatised to the shifted clocks — though it does mean an 'extra' hour of light has returned to the seasonally redarkening mornings. The first sentence of the comic may be the start of a typical comment about how the sun seems to set earlier than usual in November; which it does anyway (north of the equator) but the clock-shift makes it even more obvious.

In this comic, however, Randall turns the normal talk about DST on its head by devising a [[:Category:Calendar|calendar system]] where the dates "change" based on 12 hours of daylight. This causes shorter "days" in the summer months, which may get more than 12 hours of daylight in a "solar day" and longer "days" in the winter months which would have less hours of daylight in a "solar day". As mentioned in the title text, this change would be very pronounced near the poles, which may only get a few hours of daylight in the winter, but conversely may get 20 or more hours of daylight in the summer.

At temperate latitudes and above, as the calendar goes towards winter (for your hemisphere) the length of daylight per daily cycle shortens. Instead of having "long summer days" (i.e. periods of daylight) and shorter ones in the winter, but still the artificial pressures of a regulated 24-hour cycle to adhere to, the proposal seems to be that the date gets incremented whenever (and ''only'' when) twelve hours of daylight have passed.

In the summer, a day-count starting at sunrise could require a late-afternoon switch to 'tomorrow', which would in turn be switched earlier still the next day as it was already partly used up, with possibly two date-changes per astronomical day (early morning and mid-evening, for example). As winter draws on, not enough daylight will pass to guarantee a date-change in any single period. On the day of this comic's release - November 15, 2021 - Massachusetts, where Randall lives, gets ten hours and forty five minutes between {{w|civil twilight}}s. It is possible that the last day-mark was late during the previous daylight cycle and the next one won't be until early in the following one.

Exactly how the time is marked is not fully explained. Starting each day-period at 00:00 would be easiest, but could be a psychological step too far. One possibility is to set a nominal 00:00 six hours before a day-change, in line with an 'idealised' twelve-hours-of-daylight day, but disregard hours 'belonging' to a prior daylight period. Then keep the clock running (throughout any intervening nights and into the next daylight as necessary) until the date clicks over and realigns as necessary. Clock times would not reach 23:59 for most of the summer, and could far exceed that in the winter. Megan's clock has reached 26:15, by this sunset, and may well be due to be far into the 30-hours range before more daylight and the moving on to the new date and reset time, if not beyond.

Beyond the arctic (and antarctic) circle, twelve hours of daylight would be accumulated up twice per traditional day, at times, while being effectively on hold for much of the other six months, depending upon actual latitude.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is looking down at her phone which she holds up in her hand, while Cueball stands next to her]:
:Megan: Ugh, I hate November. It's 26:15 and the sun is setting ''again!''
:Megan: 3-day days are the worst.
:Cueball: I like it. I know it's dark, but it's nice to have the extra time on deadlines.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:In our new calendar system, the date changes after every 12 hours of daylight, regardless of how long that takes.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Calendar]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

Talk:2525: Air Travel Packing List

2021-10-07T03:20:11Z

162.158.187.208:

I'll work on this one, so I don't get edit conflicted. {{User:PoolloverNathan/Signature}} 23:16, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

A lot of these items that are listed as needed during a crash are not that related to crashing but some things that paranoid potential passengers feel they should have anyway. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 02:04, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I had a teacher that was a retired engineer. He complained about working on an airplane and he wanted to design a lightweight floor, but the heel of high heeled shoes would pierce through so he had to make it heaver than he wanted. One can imagine an alternate world where the lighter floors were chosen, where airplane shoes would be some kind of pressure distributing shoe.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.125|172.69.42.125]] 02:32, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I think that the Flag for international flights is referring to a national flag not to a flag used for signaling messages. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.208|162.158.187.208]] 03:20, 7 October 2021 (UTC)