Talk:2579: Tractor Beam

2022-02-10T12:54:50Z

162.158.187.232:

This feels a lot like a SMBC outtake. (In a good way.) --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.147|172.70.110.147]] 20:42, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
:This reads like a bash.org comment. (In a good way.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.221|172.70.126.221]] 21:24, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

So, if I were rising in a tractor-beam, I think there'd be clues as to the scope of the effects. Are my clothes hanging off me, floating round me or am I being upwardly cradled by them? Do I feel like I'm standing on something, hanging upside-down by my feet (from a topsy-turvey horizontal) or freefalling? What's my inner-ear telling me? Is the air around me rushing up, feels still (even though I'm moving vertically through it) or is it like I'm being raised up through it? Does the air feel like treacle, can I push against it, angle my arms to spin in the 'wind' like with indoor freefalling? Does any lateral wind still pass by as it did before the beam (small adjustments for being away from ground-effects, allowed for) or swirl oddly laterally or vertically? Is anything in the air (bat or smoke or rain or whatever dust I kicked up as I scrabbled for footing upon the first surprise of being tractored up) going up or down or neither, or revealing eddies? A bat, or anything else that flies, is going to have excess lift until any confusion (again with the inner-ear?) stops it from using its wings to counteract any non-existent 'weight' element, if applicable. If I hold one hand atop another (easier to experiment with, and switch over, than feet being below my torso, especially if I can't control attitude) do I feel a 'force shadow' where levity does not pass and/or gravity from below is no longer nullified/negated? Am I held as vertically (or similarly, perhaps can adopt a 'seated' poise) or am I unable to hold my attitude/able to change it? ...And loads more obvious things to potentially experience, depending upon how I deal with the first few tests and how quickly I can form less open-ended and more practical/emperical theories about what all I have started to learn means... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 21:47, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
:Hypothetically, Cueball might be being moved by forces similar to the one causing [https://www.bbc.com/news/56643677 this] - levitation would be an amazing thing to have --[[User:Char Latte49|Wielder of the Staple Gun]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 01:28, 10 February 2022 (UTC)

Very interesting that Randall has been creating a string of comics on UFOs recently. Wonder if he knows something we don't? Jokes aside, it's interesting to see how his brain works, exclusively from a creative-output perspective. The string of UFO comics must be related to something that he experienced in his life recently. Similar to his cursed connectors run a few months ago: one can only wonder what weird, jerry-rigged solution he needed to some frustrating problem. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.245|172.70.110.245]] 01:47, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
:There has been a lot about UFOs spotted by the US Airforce, I think? I still don't believe it's aliens... [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-never-aliens-until-it-is/ It's never Aliens] ;-) I guess once he get's one idea for a specific comic, then this may easily spawn other ideas. So I'm not sure there are any particular reason he got the first idea, but that may explain the others that followed. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:00, 10 February 2022 (UTC)

Let's imagine that a bat between the UFO and Cueball creates a shielding effect from the tractor beam. Part of Cueball would feel the traction but others not. He could be torn apart! Poor Cueball.
:If not the part of his body that is not attracted simply goes along with the actively pulled parts, like when you lift a baby in its armpits.
:[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 12:27, 10 February 2022 (UTC)

I feel like it is Randall, not Cueball, as it is "me" in the caption. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.232|162.158.187.232]] 12:54, 10 February 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

2345: Wish on a Shooting Star

2022-01-31T10:12:02Z

162.158.187.232:

{{comic
| number = 2345
| date = August 12, 2020
| title = Wish on a Shooting Star
| image = wish_on_a_shooting_star.png
| titletext = Congratulations to whoever wished for revenge on a forest near the Tunguska River, a 1980 Chevy Malibu in Peekskill NY, Alabama resident Ann Hodges, every building in Chelyabinsk with glass windows, and the non-avian dinosaurs.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic was published at the annual peak of the {{w|Perseids}} {{w|meteor shower}}. It is a common practice to make a wish when one sees a shooting star, in hopes that the wish comes true. This comic consists of a [[:Category:Venn diagrams|Venn diagram]] showing what things are commonly wished for upon seeing a shooting star, and what things the shooting star may cause. Shooting stars, as they are actually meteors, can only cause changes to physical phenomena, such as radio noise or the appearance of the sky as they burn up in the upper atmosphere. The only thing that is shared between the potential wish side of the diagram and the shooting star caused side is revenge. This would occur when a shooting star actually hits the planet, becoming a meteorite. This is frequently highly destructive, given the high speed of falling meteors. As such, it would be possible for the meteorite to hit something that someone for some reason or another wished revenge upon. However, given the massive surface area of the planet, the likelihood that someone's revenge would be "granted" by a meteorite would be very low (although not quite as low as [[2328: Space Basketball|dunking a meteorite through a basket]]). The title text makes fun of this by detailing several incidents where a meteorite landed and caused damage.

List of things that were damaged by meteorites (from title text):
* On June 30, 1908 ({{w|Gregorian Calendar}}, Russia still used the {{w|Julian Calendar}} and was recorded there as June 17), an {{w|airburst}} caused by the {{w|Tunguska Event|breakup of a 100-meter falling meteorite or comet}} with the energy of some 30 megatons of {{w|TNT}} flattened some 80 million trees over 830 square miles (2,150 km<sup>2</sup>) of land in central {{w|Siberia}} near the {{w|Podkamennaya Tunguska|Tunguska River}}. Due to the remoteness of the area, no people were confirmed dead in the incident.
* On October 9, 1992, a meteorite {{w|Peekskill meteorite|totaled a 1980 Chevrolet Malibu in Peekskill, New York}}.
* On November 30, 1954, a {{w|Sylacauga (meteorite)|fragment of a meteorite}} passed through the roof of a house and struck a woman named Ann Hodges. She survived. Only [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/5511619/14-year-old-hit-by-30000-mph-space-meteorite.html two other people] are known to have been [https://www.space.com/earliest-evidence-meteorite-killed-person.html hit by meteorites.]
* On February 15, 2013, a meteorite {{w|Chelyabinsk meteor|exploded in an airburst}} over Chelyabinsk, Russia, creating a shockwave that shattered windows in the area.
* The {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event|extinction of the dinosaurs}} around 66 million years ago is believed to be caused by an {{w|Alvarez hypothesis|impact of a comet or asteroid}}. Randall mentions "non-avian" dinosaurs, as birds are dinosaurs, though the general public not trained in science often doesn't realize this. No humans were alive to wish for the extinction of the dinosaurs,{{citation needed}} but perhaps the wish was made by some ancestral mouse-like mammal (or else wishes may violate causality).

If there is a "message" to this comic strip, it could be similar to those of [[1024: Error Code]] and [[2247: Weird Hill]]: that we shouldn't bother wishing for things that shooting stars can't give us, but should instead take time away from our temporal concerns and just relax and appreciate their beauty. Or maybe the message is that, if you ''must'' wish on a shooting star, you should wish for revenge, because that's something that might come true. Of course, as the title text makes clear, meteorites don't really land according to our designs and schedules, and if you're close enough to a shooting star to see it, and you wish for it to avenge you, and it ''is'' big enough to hurt someone, you're probably at risk yourself.

Meteorites were most recently mentioned in [[2328: Space Basketball]]. Randall has discussed strange and "impossible" wishes in [[1086: Eyelash Wish Log]].

==Transcript==
:[A Venn diagram is shown:]

:[The left circle is labeled "Things people wish for" and contains:]
:Love
:Money
:Fame
:Health
:Power
:Luck
:Success

:[The right circle is labeled "Things shooting stars can cause" and contains:]
:Radio noise
:Dust and ionized gas in the upper atmosphere
:Infrasound
:Cool lights in the sky

:[The only item in the overlapping section is:]
:Revenge

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2579: Tractor Beam

2345: Wish on a Shooting Star