explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2712: Gravity

2023-08-14T16:55:05Z

162.158.38.212: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2712
| date = December 16, 2022
| title = Gravity
| image = gravity_2x.png
| titletext = It's a long way down.
}}
{{TOC}}
*To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|2712|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
This interactive comic promotes Randall's new book [[What If? 2]], which was released in September and is available for purchase. You pilot a small spaceship throughout a vast area in space exploring various bodies and planets within the play area, many containing easter eggs alluding to the book What If? 2 and previous xkcd comics. The flight mechanics are Newtonian so the spaceship can use the gravity of planets to alter its trajectory or enter orbit. The spaceship has indicator circles around it which appear when a gravitational body comes into range, showing the direction towards their center of gravity and the size of the body. A circle also appears around the spaceship whenever it collides with a gravitational body, acting as a shield. The shield remains until the player orients the spaceship upright so its landing gear can deploy.

You can easily fly between planets if you pay attention to orbital mechanics: don't just floor the accelerator. The background stars show your velocity and orientation relative to the nearest gravity well. If you are having difficulties navigating space, point towards a gravity orb and accelerate for only a few seconds. Wait until the background stars spin wildly, and then reduce your velocity to 0 before gently accelerating towards the object.

With a keyboard the arrow keys rotate the spaceship and accelerate it forward and backward. You can also use the standard first-person shooter keys 'w', 'a', 's' and 'd', and the standard vi text editor navigation keys 'h', 'j', 'k', and 'l' to control the spaceship. Despite some spaceships having no unique backward texture, they can all reverse. On mobile the comic will full screen, pressing either side of the center rotates the spaceship, and pressing in the center accelerates it forward. Various additional glitches may occur if you're playing on mobile. Having a starting position slightly below the take-off pad means you're already 'glitched' inside the planet from the off. Escaping the planet may need inverted 'accelerating' (turning perpendicular to the local vertical and thrusting backwards until you can glitch back out into more open space. You may also be trapped within the cannonball 'orbit', with seemingly inconsistent collision-detection, such that you can be sat ''with landing gear extended'' upon features (projectile tracks, etc) that seem not to count as solid for most other purposes.

There is no "universal" point of view — the bottom of the window, "down", is oriented towards the object exerting the most gravity upon the player. Multiple things found in this comic draw attention to this, such as how on Earth Ponytail says to White Hat, "I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me", and he replies "Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone." Throughout the play area are coins that change the spaceship into different rockets and non-space-based vehicles.

===Celestial Bodies===

This is a table of all celestial bodies:

{|class="wikitable sortable"
!
!
!
! colspan="4"|References
!
|-
! Name
! Transcript
! Tiles (X, Y)
! What If?
! xkcd
! Movies
! Other
! Explanation
|-
|'''Starting Planet'''

<code>origin</code>
|
Cueball: "To celebrate the world of ''What If? 2'', here is your very own tiny planet to explore!

Megan: "Welcome!"

*Ground caption: "Give someone the science question-and-answer book ''What If? 2'' for the Holidays: xkcd.com/whatif2"

*Cueball feeding T-Rex: "Burger?"

Isaac Newton: "Robert Hooke must be down there ''somewhere!''"

Megan to Cueball: "If you ever get lost in space, just fly down. That's where the ground is."

Beret Guy to squirrel: "Hi!"
|(0, 0)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|The player begins on the launch pad in a landed position. Collecting the orbiting cannonball will transform you into a different rocket, although it does not improve your abilities.

Cueball feeding the T-Rex is possibly a reference to What If #78: {{what if|78|T-rex Calories}}.

{{w|Isaac Newton}} is referencing the {{w|Newton's cannonball}} thought experiment, where a cannon is fired at greater and greater speeds until the cannonball goes into orbit. Newton's comment suggests that instead of demonstrating orbits, he is firing repeatedly to hit his rival, {{w|Robert Hooke}}.
|-
|'''Earth'''

<code>earth</code>
|
"How am I supposed to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs if they keep moving out from under my comet?"

"Unusually high-speed squirrels."

"Jump in! The water's fine!"

"Ugh, the frame rate is really bad out today."

"I don't know why people complain about going down rabbit holes. These lil guys are adorable!"

"Ahh, the mysterious natural wonders of sailing stones"

"I'm Bananas Georg.
Every year our company publishes global per capita banana consumption numbers, so to make the printing easier, I eat enough bananas on December 31st to make sure it's a round number."

"Weird, I feel ''heavier''."

"Hey"

"I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me"
"Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone"
|(27867, -35648)
|Y
|Y
|
|Y
|A planet with among other things:
* A {{what if|162|crane dropping a comet}} onto a dinosaur
* Unusually high-speed squirrels (creating a sonic boom). Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 56: Walking Backward in Time, where these squirrels are surprisingly present in the past
* Megan inviting Cueball into a pool
* A region where the frame rate is intentionally limited. Reference to Chapter 56 again, where the weather and sun cycle fast enough to cause similar strange visual effects
* A flagpole
* A literal {{w|burrow|rabbithole}} referencing the figuratively speaking [[wikt:rabbit hole|rabbit hole]]
* Someone playing [[1920|consequence archery]]
* A lake with an eel
* The {{what if|157|earth-moon firepole}}
* A "doot cone," a reference to [[Volcano Types]]
* Two figures being attacked by a third with a sword
* Two kids playing soccer (Catching the ball will turn the spaceship into a soccer ball)
* A farmer on a tractor being stuck in gooey candy. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 64: Lemon Drops and Gumdrops, where it rains candy
** A nearby hummingbird excited by all the sugar
** Cueball attempting to eat the falling candy, but having it hit his teeth painfully
* A banana pile being consumed by "Bananas Georg" to make the per capita annual banana count round, referencing the "[https://reallyreallyreallytrying.tumblr.com/post/40033025233/average-person-eats-3-spiders-a-year-factoid Spiders Georg]" meme as well as ''What If? 2'' Chapter 11: Banana Church, where he also makes an appearance
* Megan and Cueball digging a hole (in the center of this planet is the "Earth's core", referenced below)
* The {{what if|147|Niagara Falls water being redirected into the LHC}} (Large Hadron Collider)
* Japan leaving earth. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand
* A tube to the bottom of the ocean. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 30: Mariana Trench Tube
* Ponytail and White Hat making a reference to [https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com downforeveryoneorjustme.com]
* Two mini asteroid moons: A tiny version of B612 with Little Prince and the rose, plus one with just Cueball standing on it. They can be found by flying straight up from the Super Mario flagpole.
|-
|Earth's Core
|
|(28850, -28570)
|
|
|
|
|[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] floating in a small space in the center of the planet in inverted rotations. Can be legally accessed using a high velocity collision onto the surface of the planet, although requires tapping the up arrow afterwards many, many times.
|-
|'''Europa'''

<code>europa</code>
|
|(13180, -2540)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons (in real life). A broken, icy crust has a single path into its core.
|-
|Europa's Crust
|
"It's so unfair we don't get to compete in EuroVision."

"The region of the solar system where liquid water can exist on the surface is the habitable zone, and the region where it can exist beneath the surface of moons is the Eurozone."

"WHIRRRR"
|
|Y
|
|
|
|Europa's crust, with a single entrance into the core demarcated by an octopus leaving a hole.
EuroVision is a European song competition that includes many European countries, and it's not too much of a leap to claim that "Euro" includes Europa

Cueball states that Europa, with liquid underneath its surface, is in the Eurozone, a pun on the ''other'' Eurozone.

A Roomba whirs across the icy crust.

Cueball has a hairdryer and is melting the surface of the crust. A direct reference to {{what if|35|What If's Hairdryer}}.
|-
|Europa's Core
|"We've always used neutrinos for astronomy, but if we place my 'optical telescope' in orbit above the kryosphere, we could potentially observe the universe using electromagnetic waves. Who knows what else there is out there besides stars! There could be other worlds!"

"Hi, I'm Annie. Welcome to the depths of Europa. There's some weird stuff down here."

"We were caught in a powerful November gale on the Great Lakes outside Whitefish Bay. Our ship foundered and sank here." "This is Jupiter's moon Europa." "It was a REALLY powerful gale."

"Does our book club really need this much secrecy?" "That sounds like a question a SPY would ask."
|
|
|
|Y
|
|A watery ocean with octopi looking out into the great unknown using telescopes. This is a reference to octopus's intelligence here on earth! It may also be a reference to (Spoilers!) a certain 2013 science-fiction film featuring Europa, if not a 1987 book. There's also a secret path leading to a book club, through the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The woman presenting herself as Annie is a reference to Annie Rauwerda, the creator of the popular social media accounts {{w|Depths of Wikipedia}}.

The November gale discussion is a reference to the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and the actual events described in the song.
|-
|'''B-612'''

<code>b612</code>
|
Probe: "Asteroid deflection mission to earth. The package is delivered. Commencing planetary threat neutralization."

Sign: "Welcome to B-612"
|(2610, 3700)
|Y
|Y
|
|Y
|A reference to [[618: Asteroid|Asteroid]]. In a tragic turn of events, the Earth-bound asteroid being blown up is the home of {{w|The Little Prince|the little prince}}.
|-
|'''Dog Park Planet'''

<code>dogplanet</code>
|
[Dog Park]

"I want more dogs!"

"Ball! Again!"

"I hope it lands soon."

"English adjective order means that you're "Clifford the Big Red Dog" but not "Clifford the Red Big Dog""

"You can't have too many dogs!"

|(1240, 11230)
|Y
|Y
|
|
|A planet covered in dogs, along with dog walkers, some fences, and a sign that reads "Dog Park". Two dogs watch a ball which is traveling in what appears to be a circular orbit around the planet. One dog is much larger than anything else on the planet. A hole is being dug by two dogs. Visible at the bottom, there is an empty space in the center of the planet in the shape of a dog bone.

Planets named "Giant Dog Planet" and "Tiny Dog Planet" appear in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]].

Ponytail's explanation of adjective order was originally miswritten, saying "Clifford the Red Big Dog" twice.

The two Cueballs excited by all the dogs reference ''What If? 2'' Chapter 60: Dog Overload.
|-
|'''What If? 2 Planet'''

<code>goodhart</code>
|
Cueball to White Hat: "The tower over there is the Vehicle Assembly Building, and then behind it is the Vehicle Disassembly Building."

Ponytail to Cueball: "You know how tires pollute the environment with rubber particles? Well, I've developed a solution."

"MMM SPIDERS HOMF HOMF"

Shooting star caption: "THE MORE YOU KNOW"
Sauropod: "Oh no!"

Person on uncontrolled helicopter: "AAAAAA"

Geyser: "Fwoosh!"
Cueball and Megan: "Oooh!"

Giant phone crushing city: "ALERT" "Giant phone crushing city" "Dismiss" "More"

Cueball with jetpack: "Wheeeee!"

Cueball to Megan: "Do you ever look up at the night sky and think, "Wow, I bet those little white dots taste ''delicious!''"

Neighbor: "Why is my house on fire ''again?!''"
Cueball: "Dunno"
Laser captioned: "Laser"

Person with Washington Monument: "Okay, let it drop!"
|(-13300, -3260)
|Y
|Y
|
| Y
| In aerospace, a Vehicle Assembly Building is where spacecraft are constructed. Randall Munroe whimsically refers to the launchpad as the Vehicle Disassembly Building.

Contains a figure in a cave saying "MMM SPIDERS HOMF NOMF", which refers to [[1268: Alternate Universe|Alternate Universe]] and may also be a reference to the [https://reallyreallyreallytrying.tumblr.com/post/40033025233/average-person-eats-3-spiders-a-year-factoid Spiders Georg] meme.

Collecting the small dot above the mountain peak will turn the spaceship into a flying person figure.

''What If? 2'' references include:
* A car preventing rubber pollution by being in a rubber ball, referencing Chapter 25: Tire Rubber
* People catching helicopters, one by the skid and another by the blade, referencing Chapter 2: Helicopter Ride (by the blade is reportedly more effective for downing the helicopter)
* Old Faithful, which appears in Chapter 8: Geyser
* A giant phone, presumably running on archaic {{w|vacuum tube}}s, from Chapter 36: Vacuum Tube Smartphone
* A jetpack takeoff appearing in Short Answer Section #1
* A T-Rex being weighed against an elephant, referencing Chapter 7: T. Rex Calories
* Igniting a house with a laser, referencing Chapter 37: Laser Umbrella
* Dropping the Washington Monument to propel a plane, referencing Chapter 18: Airliner Catapult
|-
|'''The Sun'''

<code>sun</code>
| "The sun is governed by magnetohydrodynamics, or 'Magic' for short"

"My countertop!"

"This will make a good soup base"

"Can I touch it yet?" "No, be patient. It's still too hot. Give it another 20 or 30 billion years."

"It's okay. I'm wearing five layers of sunscreen."

TV Anchor: "The forecast for today is lots of sun"

"This should be enough sunscreen"
|(-14950, 12080)
|Y
|Y
|
|
|Difficult to escape from if you hit the core. The description of magnetohydrodynamics is a reference to [[1851: Magnetohydrodynamics]]. Throwing a countertop into the Sun is a reference to {{what if|89|What If? Tungsten Countertop}}. Both the five layers of sunscreen (effective against ultraviolet) and the ten-meter blob (still ineffective against heat) are references to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 62: Sunscreen. Waiting for it to cool down before touching it may reference Chapter 64: Walking on the Sun.
|-
|Sun's Core
|Cueball: "The core of the sun may seem hot, but it only produces about as much energy per volume as a lizard" Megan: "Wow. So how many lizards are there?" Cueball: "No-one knows."
|
|Y
|
|
|
|Difficult to escape from. Can be escaped by rotating around the Sun until reaching an escape-like velocity. Comparing the Sun's heat per volume to lizards is a reference to {{what if|148|What If? Eat the Sun}}.
|-
|'''Soupiter'''

<code>soupiter</code>
|"I think it's chicken noodle? Hard to tell."
|(-800, -9040)
|Y
|
|
|
|A model of the solar system filled with soup out to the orbit of Jupiter. As commented by Cueball, noodle soup. Soupiter was the title of ''What If? 2'' Chapter 1, but it filled the Solar System ''out to'' Jupiter and became a black hole, rather than another fun planet.
|-
|'''Earth without Japan'''

<code>nojapan</code>
|"Something is missing."
|(-7680, -5850)
|Y
|
|
|
|Earth, except it's missing Japan. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand.
|-
|'''Just Japan'''

<code>japanmoon</code>
|
|(-5930, -5800)
|Y
|
|
|
|A moon with water surrounding... just Japan. In ''What If? 2'', this is a possibility for where Japan might go without intending to return.
|-
|'''A blob labeled "Pigeons"'''

<code>pigeons</code>
|
|(-9020, -2490)
|Y
|
|
|
|A reference to Chapter 6 of ''What If? 2'', where it would take 1.6 x 10^25 pigeons to lift you and a chair up to the halfway point of Australia's Q1 skyscraper.
|-
|'''Starship Enterprise'''

<code>enterprise</code>
|
|(2389, -60879)
|Y
|
|
|
|Star Trek reference: The Enterprise-C, 2344, commanded by Captain Garrett's. While defending a Klingon outpost, the weapons discharges resulted in the creation of a temporal rift, through which the badly damaged Enterprise drifted. In the comic, there is a large, invisible gravity distortion near the Enterprise-C.
|-
|'''Dinosaur Planet'''

<code>qwantz</code>
|"Welcome... to Jurassic Park."
|(20403, -49559)
|
|
|Y
|
|An homage to [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaur Comics], a webcomic Randall has mentioned several times before. All the dinosaurs on the planet are black-and-white versions of the clip art dinosaurs in that comic. Also references the Jurassic Park movies, with CEO John Hammond welcoming paleontologists Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant to the planet. The long grass depicted is a plot point in later films.
|-
|'''Cat blocking traffic flowing through portals'''

<code>roads</code>
|
|
|Y
|
|
|
|Roads in space may reference ''What If? 2'' Chapter 5: Cosmic Road Trip.
|-
|'''Edge of the Universe'''

<code>outside</code>
|"Welcome, traveler!" (found inside the edge of the bubble universe)
|(6081, 26138)
|
|Y
|
|
|It looks like a planet labeled "edge of the universe". Outside the universe, so inside the "edge of the universe" planet, is another universe, the bubble universe, whose outside is labeled "edge of the bubble universe". Hidden entrance is between 10 and 11 'o clock. It is a reference to [[Bubble Universes]].
|-
|'''A tree larger than the planet it's growing on'''

<code>roads</code>
|
|
|
|Y
|
|
|May be a reference to [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)|Petit Trees]]. More probably, a reference to ''The Little Prince'', a French children's novel about a traveler from a distant asteroid. In the novel, baobab trees are a serious threat to the Prince's home asteroid, as they are so large that their roots would engulf the asteroid entirely. Randall has alluded to The Little Prince numerous times before, especially in what-if articles.
|-
|'''Milliways'''

<code>outside</code>
|
|''in code:'' (0, -14500)'', in game:''(0, 29000)
|
|
|Y
|Y
|A reference to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. On one side of the planet, Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, and other characters gather on the patio of the Milliways restaurant; on the other side, the Sojourner rover examines a rock.
|-
|'''The Great Attractor'''

<code>greatattractor</code>
|
|(-596048, 247952)
|
|Y
|
|
|Beret Guy stands on the surface of a large ball labeled "The Great Attractor". The gravity is extremely strong (over 200 times that of the black holes), leading to various bugs and collision issues. It's a reference to [[Great Attractor]], in which Beret Guy is gravitationally attracted to the Great Attractor more strongly than usual.
|-
|'''Present'''

<code>present</code>
|
"I didn't do any of my Christmas shopping yet because I was too busy drawing tiny planets."

"I'm done with my shopping! I got everyone What if? 2"

"...You got me my own book?"

"Yeah! I figured that since you wrote it, it must be right up your alley."

"It does make a good gift, though. You can get it at xkcd.com/whatif2"

"I got you this present!"

"Is it an angry bobcat?"

"It might not be."
|in code: <code>[22820,-18920]</code> in game: <code>[45640,37840]</code>
|
|Y
|
|
|The xkcd cast react to giving each other What if 2? as a present. Black Hat gives Cueball a "gift" which he claims, "might not be a bobcat", a reference to [[A-Minus-Minus]] A quarter of the planet was missing on the release day, but it's fixed now.
|-
|'''Black hole cluster'''

''from'' <code>maw1</code> ''to'' <code>maw14</code>
|
|
|
|
|Y
|
|A cluster of black holes with extremely high gravitational strength, set to the maximum of 2048. Not particularly easy to land on with multiple conflicting gravitational fields, but once landed on, rather difficult to escape. Likely a reference to the [[wikia:w:c:starwars:Maw Cluster|Maw Cluster]] in Star Wars.
|-
|'''Remnant'''

<code>remnant</code>
|"All right, that's close enough"
"Oh no"

{{w|Walkin' on the Sun|"So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out"}}

"In 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of fuel and suffer gigennial burnout."

"The immense gravity of the sun's remnant means that this is the tallest possible skyscraper."
|(19620, 3800)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|A white dwarf stellar remnant, with high gravity (making it difficult to escape, although it's possible to achieve escape velocity by flying sideways). Has various small landmarks, including a "skyscraper" and suspension bridge, using a penny for scale. There is a set of images of a rocket descending towards the planet, falling, and then trying to escape by sledding. The band is performing Smash Mouth's "Walkin' on the Sun". Most of these are references to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 63: Walking on the Sun.
|-
|'''Steerswoman Planet'''

<code>steerswoman</code>
|"As a Steerswoman, I have to answer any question anyone asks me, or I'm expelled from the order."
"What's one question that you would be unwilling to answer?"
"Oh no."

"Handle this artifact with great care. It contains a magical wizard's potion which the ancients called 'trinitrotoluene'"
|(-35070, -2500)
|
|
|
|Y
|A reference to the Steerswoman series of books by Rosemary Kirstein. Includes a number of references to the series, including a group of people observing a small object orbiting the planet.

Trinitrotoluene is better known as {{w|TNT}}, a powerful explosive.
|-
|'''Peeler'''

<code>peeler</code>
|
|(-9270, 620)
|Y
|
|
|
|A reference to the question posed by ''What If? 2'' Chapter 13: Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way. A large potato peeler is seen removing the earth's crust.
|}

===Spaceships===

This is a table of all spaceships:

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Filename
! Name
! Description
! Location
|-
| <code>ship2</code>
| '''Default'''
| The starting spaceship.
| It is possible to change back to this spaceship by collecting a dot located within the Black Hole cluster
|-
| <code>ship-tintin</code>
| '''Tintin'''
| Spaceship in the shape of the {{w|Destination Moon (comics)|moon rocket from Tintin}}
| On the starting planet; can be obtained by collecting the cannonball in orbit
|-
| <code>ship-figure</code>
| '''Figure'''
| Stick figure
| On Goodhart, atop the mountain up which Sisyphus is pushing his boulder.
|-
| <code>ship-soccer</code>
| '''Soccer Ball'''
| Soccer-ball-shaped spaceship
| On Earth, between two figures playing ball
|-
| <code>ship1</code>
| '''Alternative Spaceship'''
| Default spaceship with KSP-style parachutes on both sides of the spaceship. The parachutes seem to disappear on landing.
| Only available by using console to change Comic.ship = ship1
|}

==Data and Maps==

View the data embedded in the comic on [[2712: Gravity/Data|this page]].

Maps created by the community:
*https://bacontime.github.io/xkcd2712 | A zoomable map of the universe with markers for all planets, coins and with the option to highlight secret passages
*https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/zpe7bz/i_rendered_the_entire_what_if_2_universe_as_a/ | The whole universe rendered as one big image

==Hacks==
Various modes and hacks have been found or developed by the community and can be activated by opening the browser console (F12, Ctr+Shift+I or Cmd+Option+I to open your browser's developer tools, then choose the Console tab) and typing a command. <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
 
*'''Speedhack:''' <code>ship.engines = "warp"</code> - Speed hacking, sets speed to 1.4x. set to "standard" to reset to normal speed
*'''Teleport to planet:''' <code>[Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = Comic.planetRects.'''''origin'''''.slice(0,2)</code> - teleport near a planet, in this example near earth. You'll still have to fly a bit towards the nearest planet to reach it. Replace '''''origin''''' with the ID of the planet you want to go to, from the table above.
*'''Teleport to coordinate:''' <code>[Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = '''''[0, -2000]'''''</code> - teleport to an exact coordinate. <code>[0, -2000]</code> happens to take you to the starting area.
*'''Improved radar:''' <code>Comic.wayfinderFarDistance = Infinity</code> - make the direction of all objects visible. This can be hard to understand though. reset with <code>Comic.wayfinderFarDistance = 10000</code>.
*'''Chaos Mode:''' <code>ship.engines="infinite improbability drive"</code> - Seems to randomly teleports the ship. A reference to its namesake in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
*'''Insta Death:''' <code>ship.shields = false</code> - Kill the player if they land on a planet, the code never sets it to false, so it seems to be always true.
*'''No Clip:''' <code>noclip = true</code> - Enables noclip.
*'''Select ship:''' <code>Comic.ship = "ship-tintin"</code> - Select ship (use filename from list of ships)
*'''Autorotate:''' <code>Comic.cameraRotation = false</code> - View does not rotate with ship
*'''Goggles:''' <code>ze.goggles()</code> - returns a warning: "they do nothing!". This is a reference to Hoverboard, where ''ze.goggles()'' would give you the ability to see false walls. Both of which are a reference to the Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man" (season 7, episode 2), where Rainier Wolfcastle, playing Radioactive Man, complains that his safety goggles do nothing against a deluge of acid, sounding like "Ze goggles, zey do nothing!" with his accent.
*'''Python:''' <code>python("import antigravity")</code> - reverses gravity, so the ship falls away from planets. A reference to [[353: Python]]. Reset with <code>Comic.gravityConstant = 100</code>.
*'''Light Mode''' <code>Comic.lightMode = true</code> - inverts the color of the comic. reset with <code>Comic.lightMode = false</code>
</div>
 

==Trivia==
The objects in the mini universe of this browser game are all at fixed positions and do not interact through gravity, however, the ship controlled by the player is affected by gravity. While this makes it technically a relatively easy integration problem (of the position of the player ship forward in time), the integrator used seems to be a relatively simple one, but certainly not a simplistic one, because it does not conserve angular momentum. This can be seen when one manages to get into orbit around some object, e.g., the core of the sun. The orbit slowly decays over time.

The logic for extending the landing legs and landing is rather simple. A ship can (normally) land if it is facing away from the surface it collides with, and if its momentum is more-or-less directed towards the surface. Once landing is triggered, the ship will rotate to face directly away from the object exerting the most gravity on the player, regardless of how sloped the surface is. The only way to get into space again is to accelerate forwards, as neither turning nor accelerating backwards cancels the landed state. All of this can be abused to land on almost everything. To land on the underside of an object, simply point your ship away from the object and slowly accelerate backwards to counteract the force of gravity. Landing on the side of an object is more difficult, as ships cannot accelerate sideways. The first method is to accelerate backwards to launch yourself upwards and towards the object so that at the top of your arc you will collide with the object. Then, rotate your ship accordingly to land. Method two is to just repeatedly slam your back of your ship into the object until you land. Note that with any of these weird landing methods, your ship will turn to face away from the source of gravity and can clip into objects.

Executing <code>window.python("import antigravity")</code> or <code>python("import antigravity")</code> as Javascript on the page will reverse gravity, multiplying the gravity constant by -1.

Executing <code>window.ze.goggles()</code> or <code>ze.goggles()</code> as Javascript on the page will show a warning in the console: "<code>they do nothing!</code>"

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
===Origin:===
Megan: Welcome!

Cueball: To celebrate the world of what if? 2, here is your very own planet to explore!

Ground text: Give someone the science question-and-answer book what if? 2 for Christmas:
xkcd.com/whatif2

Beret Guy: Hi!

Megan to cueball: If you ever get lost in space, just fly down. That's where the ground is.

Sir Isaac Newton: Robert hooke must be own there somewhere!

Cueball to dinosaur: Burger?

===B612:===

Robot: Asteroid Deflection mission to earth. The package is delivered. Commencing planetary threat neutralisation.

===Europa:===

====Surface:====

Roomba: Whirrr

Cueball to Megan: The region of the solar system where liquid water can exist on the surface is the habitable zone, and the region where it can exist beneath the surface of moons is the Eurozone.

Cueball's hairdryer: Whirrr

Megan to Cueball: It's so unfair that we don't get to compete in Eurovision

====Underwater:====

Blondie: Hi, I'm Annie! Welcome to depths of Europa! There's some weird stuff down here!

Unnamed sailor guy to Cueball: We were caught in a powerful November gale on the great lakes outside Whitefish bay. Our ship foundered and sank here.

Cueball to Unnamed sailor guy: This is Jupiter's moon Europa.

Unnamed sailor guy to Cueball: It was a really strong gale.

Octopus: We've always used neutrinos for astronomy, but if we place my new "optical telescope" in orbit above the kryosphere, we could potentially observe the universe using electromagnetic waves.
Octopus: Who knows what else there is besides stars! There could be other worlds!

=====Secret book club hidden beneath the Unnamed sailor guy's ship:=====

Cueball: Does our book club really need this much secrecy?

Danish: Sounds exactly like the sort of question a spy would ask!

===nojapan & japanmoon:===

Megan: something is missing

===Goodhart:===

Guiser: Fwoosh!

Cueball & Megan: Oooh!

Alert on the giant phone: Alert! Giant phone crushing city! Dismiss. More.

Cueball in jetpack: Wheeeee!

Cueball to Megan: Do you ever look up at the night sky and think "Wow, I bet those little white dots taste Delicious!"

Cueball 1: Why is my house on fire again?!

Cueball 2: Dunno

Cueball: Okay, let it drop!

Cueball to White hat: Over there is the vehicle assembly building, and then behind it is the vehicle disassembly building.

Ponytail to Cueball: You know how tires pollute the environment with rubber particles? Well, I've developed a solution.

Cueball: Mmm spiders Homf Nomf

Brontosaurus: Oh no!

Text above star falling on Spinosaurus: The more you know

Cueball & pilot of Helecopter 1: Aaaaaa

===Soupiter:===

Cueball or Ponytail (impossible to tell): I think it's Chicken Noodle? Hard to tell.

===Earth:===

Beret Guy: I don't know why people complain about going down rabbit holes. These lil guys are adorable!

Ponytail to Megan: Ah, the mysterious natural wonder of sailing stones

(as cueball is climbing the firepole down to earth): Climb Climb Fling Fling Boom

Volcano: Doot!

Hummingbird: Yesssssss!

Candies as they fall on cueball's teeth: Plink

Cueball: Ow!

Candies as they fall on cueball's teeth: Plink

Cueball: Ow!

Bananas Georg: I'm bananas Georg. Every year, our company publishes global per capita banana consumption numbers, so to make the printing easier, I eat enough bananas on December 31st to make sure it's a round number.

Cueball to Megan, both in deep pit: Weird, I feel heavier.

Ponytail: I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it said just me.

White hat: Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone.

Person in crane: How am I supposed to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs if they keep moving out from under my comet?

Knit cap while looking at supersonic squirrel: Unusually high speed squirrels

Megan to cueball: Jump in! The water's fine!

Knit cap: Ugh, the frame rate's really bad out today. (if you go in the rectangle containing the words, the whole game begins to stutter.)

===Sun:===

====Outside:====

Jill: This would make a good soup base.

Hairy to Cueball: Can I touch it yet?

Cueball to Hairy: No, Be Patient. It's still to hot. Give it another 20 or 30 billion years.

Unnamed guy with baseball cap: My countertop!

Megan to Cueball: The sun is governed by Magnetohydodynamics, or "Magic" for short.

====Inside:====

Hairy: This should be enough sunscreen.

Ponytail on the news: The forecast for today is lots of sun

Cueball 1 to Cueball 2: It's okay, I'm wearing five layers of sunscreen

=====Core:=====

Ponytail but with black hair to Cueball: The core of the sun may seem hot, but it only produces about as much energy per volume as a lizard.

Cueball to Ponytail but with black hair: Wow. so how many lizards are in there?

Ponytail but with black hair to Cueball: Nobody knows.

===Remnant:===

Band consisting of 2 Hairies & a Beret guy: So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out

Spaceship captain: All right, that's close enough.

Spaceship captain: Oh no.

Ponytail 1 to Cueball 1: The immense gravity of the sun's remnant means that this is the tallest possible skyscraper.

Ponytail 2 to Cueball 2: In 5 billion years, the sun will run out of fuel & suffer gigential burnout.

===Dogplanet:===

Cueball: I want more dogs!

dog 1: Ball! Again!

dog 2: I hope it lands soon.

Ponytail: English adjective order means that you're "Clifford the big red dog" but not "Clifford the red big dog"

Cueball to Ponytail: You can't have too many dogs!

===Quantz:===

Unnamed Gardener Guy: Welcome ... to Jurassic park.

===Enterprise:===

Ground text: U.S.S. Enterprise

Ground text: NCC-1701-C

===Greatattractor:===

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Bobcats]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:What If?]]

2793: Garden Path Sentence

2023-07-27T17:20:41Z

162.158.38.212: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2793
| date = June 23, 2023
| title = Garden Path Sentence
| image = garden_path_sentence.png
| imagesize = 273x273px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Arboretum Owner Denied Standing in Garden Path Suit on Grounds Grounds Appealing Appealing
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a bird watcher strikes judge then modified by said strikes. Please add information here regarding what remains to be done for the article. (Clarity should be added to the first explanation. More possible explanations maybe should be added?)}}

A {{w|garden-path sentence}} is one in which the first or most obvious attempt at parsing the beginning of a sentence leads to the wrong meaning, causing confusion when the sentence is completed. A classic example of a garden path sentence is "The old man the boat.", leading to an initial incorrect parsing of "the old man" as a noun phrase, and therefore to assuming there is no verb before the noun "the boat". The actual correct way to parse this sentence is to treat "the old" as a noun and "man" as a verb, meaning "to crew", so the sentence means "The old people operate the boat."

Possible grammatically correct interpretations of the sentences in this comic are:

There was a court case regarding green walkways. The case was resolved with a sentence relating to an olive garden path. That sentence was vacated (cancelled) by a judge. That judge was flying an airplane. The airplane struck multiple birds. The plane overturned, but righted (turned right-side-up) and landed safely.

After (bird strikes)1, (judge)2, (who ordered)3 (olive garden-path sentence)4 in (case of green walkways)5 (vacated)3, (overturned but rights and lands safely.)2

# "[[wikipedia:bird strike|bird strike]]s": Airplane colliding with birds in flight, or alternatively "bird strikes" could refer to the strikes called by the Bird union that this judge was known for or involved in the ruling of.
# "judge ... overturned but rights and lands safely": The judge (and presumably the plane they were in) flipped over but was able to get right-side up again and land safely
# "who [[wikipedia:Court order|ordered]] [the sentence to be] [[:wikipedia:Vacated judgment|vacated]]": Identifies the judge as one who issued a ruling cancelling an earlier ruling.
# "[[wikipedia:Olive|olive]] garden path [[wikipedia:Sentence (law)|sentence]]": The thing that was cancelled was a punishment related to a path in an olive garden
# "[[wikipedia:Legal case|case]] of [[wikipedia:Greenway (landscape)|green walkways]]": The punishment was in a court case about shared-use walkways (likely the same paths listed above, which may have been placed in an olive garden)

This interpretation is backed by the images below the headline on the depicted newspaper which show an airplane and a map with apparently a flight path with two markings in between.

Another way to break it down is, "After [the] bird strikes, [the] judge... [is] overturned, but [she] rights and lands safely." And she was "[the] judge who ordered [that the] olive garden-path sentence" (the legal sentence concerning a path in an olive garden) "in" (what is known as) "[the] Case of [the] Green Walkways [be] vacated."

A third way is: "The stuff in this article happened after a bird hits a judge's plane where they ordered an "olive garden path" punishment in a court case about green footpaths and is now ON their empty plane which then overturns but then turns right and lands in a safe manner."

This comic also pokes fun at newspaper headlines, which typically have minimal punctuation or articles and use only capital letters, leading to such ambiguities.

For another valid parsing of the sentence, here are some explanatory notes that aid in understanding:
* A criminal court case occurred involving green-colored walkways.
* The sentence handed down in the case involved a specific walkway (a garden path) and a specific shade of green (olive).
* A certain judge had ordered that the sentence be vacated (a legal term meaning undone or expunged).
* That judge was recently piloting a plane which, due to being struck by birds, overturned.
* The judge righted the plane (turned it right-side-up) and landed safely.

A mostly similar, but slightly more comical interpretation (though less likely for a newspaper headline) can be:
After (a) bird strikes, (the) judge ... (as above) (is) overturned, but rights and lands safely. In this case, the judge is standing, a bird strikes her and she is overturned, but she manages to right herself and land safely on the ground (not banging her head, for instance).

Another way of diagramming this (where noun phrases are in parenthesis and verbal clauses in brackets) would be:
[ after
(bird strikes)
],
[ ( the judge
[ who ordered
( ( ( olive garden path)
sentence
)
[ in case of
(green walkways)
]
) be vacated
]
)
is overturned, but
[ (she) rights (herself) and
[lands safely]
]
].

Certain combinations of words in the sentence are particularly easy to parse incorrectly. For example:
* "bird" the headline is in all caps so this could be an avian but could also mean a person with the name of Bird such as Larry Bird the basketball player.
* "bird strikes judge" can be interpreted to mean that a bird deliberately hit the judge with an appendage or weapon. If bird is a person or other worker, the phrase might mean a labour dispute in which Bird is withdrawing services
* "Olive Garden" is the name of a restaurant chain, and "ordered Olive Garden" could mean "placed an order for food from Olive Garden"
* Olive Garden could be a person who was the subject of the case in question
* "Garden path sentence" is a type of (written language) sentence
* "Green" could be referring to "green" initiatives, environmentally-friendly practices being used or to the color green, rather than to a park area
* "in case of" can mean "in the event of" (e.g. "in case of emergency, break glass")
* "vacated" and "overturned" can both mean "undone" in a legal context, and "rights" can refer to legal or constitutional rights

Ignoring the pictures showing a plane and flight path and only focusing on the headline, it could also be interpreted this way:
* "After bird strikes judge", "overturned but rights and lands safely": an avian creature flew into the judge, and as it bounced off it was upside-down, but it managed to recover in time to go right-side-up to land nearby.
* "case of green walkways", "olive garden path sentence": There was a case about green walkways, and the ruling was for an olive garden path (or it is dubbed the "Olive Garden path sentence" for the restaurant chain, because it is strongly linked to the chain - either they wanted this sentence as it benefits them or the chain is notorious for it).
* "judge who ordered", "vacated": The aforementioned judge is known to people for ordering that the sentence be vacated (perhaps this was highly controversial), thus making this event significant enough to warrant a headline.

If one focuses on the word "judge", many of the phrases relate to legal proceedings, making the parsing of the sentence especially difficult:
* "strike": to remove or delete from a legal document and especially from the record of a trial
* "order": a direction issued by a court or a judge requiring a person to do or not do something
* "sentence": punishment assigned to a defendant found guilty by a court
* "case": a civil or criminal proceeding at law or in equity
* "vacate": to legally annul, set aside, or render void
* "overturn": to disagree with a decision made earlier by a lower court
* "rights": powers or privileges held by the general public as the result of a constitution, statute, regulation, judicial precedent, or other type of law

Furthermore, the word "lands" can have two meanings:
* The present simple variation of "to land": in the context of an airplane, to come down through the air and alight on the ground
* The plural of "land", a common issue in legal proceedings

The title text is also an example of a garden path sentence. The meaning is probably the following: Arboretum owner, [who was] denied [legal] standing in [the] garden-path [law]suit on grounds (the reason) [that the garden] grounds [are] appealing, [is] appealing [the ruling]. Alternatively: Arboretum owner, [who was] denied [legal] standing in [the] garden-path [law]suit on grounds (reasoning) grounds (why it was denied), [is] appealing appealing [the ruling].

==Transcript==
:[A newspaper titled ''News'' with two pictures on the front page: one showing a judge with an airplane in the background, and the other displaying a map depicting the airplane's route. Above the pictures there is the following headline, displayed in all capital letters:]
:AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE WHO ORDERED OLIVE GARDEN PATH SENTENCE IN CASE OF GREEN WALKWAYS VACATED OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]

1113: Killed in Action

2023-07-25T17:27:03Z

162.158.38.212: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1113
| date = September 26, 2012
| title = Killed in Action
| image = killed in action.png
| titletext = We can't let this happen again. We need to build a secure TWO-day-before-retirement safe room.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic plays with the TV and film trope of {{tvtropes|Retirony}}, in which a cop is killed in action only a short time before (often the day before) retirement, usually producing a sense of even greater tragedy in the timing of the death. The humor of this strip arises from the notion that, given so many policemen are killed the day before retirement, retiring cops could be sequestered in a secure facility on the day before their retirement to avoid retirony. Unfortunately this merely results in tragedy when a cop is killed the day before being sequestered.

The title text is a reference to the reactionary nature of security procedures often put in place in the aftermath of an incident, and how they typically fail to address the root cause of the problem. If the logic expressed in the title text was followed repeatedly, eventually the number of days police officers spent in the secure room would encompass their entire career.
A certain similarity could be drawn between this and the US Army's problematic policy of only having combat troops serve for a single year in combat during the Vietnam war (unlike during WWII, when combat units were put into the front line and left there until the war was over, with losses being made up with a constant flow of individual replacements, which was even more problematic). Having troops only serve for a single year led to a far lower rate of troops "broken" from constant combat stress, but it also led to soldiers increasingly avoiding risk
once the halfway point of their year was passed and their time to go home got closer; not only that, but the stress of the last few months, knowing one was almost "home safe", yet forced into danger repeatedly could also psychologically damage men. It also created an incentive to just make it alive through the war, no matter what it took, unlike a situation where a soldier knows they are stuck there until the war is over; this can be a great incentive to fight harder, or at least to just give up any real hope that you'll live long enough to see the end anyway. They later revisited this "combat year" approach also, and tried yet another new idea.

See also the {{w|Unexpected hanging paradox|paradox of the "unexpected hanging"}}.

==Transcript==
:([[Hairbun]], [[Danish]] and [[Cueball]] are standing in the background by a coffin. A policeman and the policewoman Ponytail are standing in the foreground.)
:Ponytail: Good cop. It's a real shame—
:Ponytail: He was just one day away from getting put in the locked, heavily guarded room where all cops stay for the last day before they retire.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

1113: Killed in Action

2023-07-25T17:26:21Z

162.158.38.212: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1113
| date = September 26, 2012
| title = Killed in Action
| image = killed in action.png
| titletext = We can't let this happen again. We need to build a secure TWO-day-before-retirement safe room.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic plays with the TV and film trope of {{tvtropes|Retirony}}, in which a cop is killed in action only a short time before (often the day before) retirement, usually producing a sense of even greater tragedy in the timing of the death. The humor of this strip arises from the notion that, given so many policemen are killed the day before retirement, retiring cops could be sequestered in a secure facility on the day before their retirement to avoid retirony. Unfortunately this merely results in tragedy when a cop is killed the day before being sequestered.

The title text is a reference to the reactionary nature of security procedures often put in place in the aftermath of an incident, and how they typically fail to address the root cause of the problem. If the logic expressed in the title text was followed repeatedly, eventually the number of days police officers spent in the secure room would encompass their entire career.
A certain similarity could be drawn between this and the US Army's problematic policy of only having combat troops serve for a single year in combat during the Vietnam war (unlike during WWII, when combat units were put into the front line and left there until the war was over, with losses being made up with a constant flow of individual replacements, which was even more problematic). Having troops only serve for a single year led to a far lower rate of troops "broken" from constant combat stress, but it also led to soldiers increasingly avoiding risk
once the halfway point of their year was passed and their time to go home got closer; not only that, but the stress of the last few months, knowing one was almost "home safe", yet forced into danger repeatedly could also psychologically damage men. It also created an incentive to just make it alive through the war, no matter what it took, unlike a situation where a soldier knows they are stuck there until the war is over; this can be a great incentive to fight harder, or at least to just give up any real hope that you'll live long enough to see the end anyway. They later revisited this "combat year" approach also, and tried yet another new idea.

See also the {{w|Unexpected hanging paradox|paradox of the "unexpected hanging"}}.

==Transcript==
:([[Hairbun]], a woman and Cueball are standing in the background by a coffin. A policeman and the policewoman Ponytail are standing in the foreground.)
:Ponytail: Good cop. It's a real shame—
:Ponytail: He was just one day away from getting put in the locked, heavily guarded room where all cops stay for the last day before they retire.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

1113: Killed in Action

2023-07-25T17:25:35Z

162.158.38.212: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1113
| date = September 26, 2012
| title = Killed in Action
| image = killed in action.png
| titletext = We can't let this happen again. We need to build a secure TWO-day-before-retirement safe room.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic plays with the TV and film trope of {{tvtropes|Retirony}}, in which a cop is killed in action only a short time before (often the day before) retirement, usually producing a sense of even greater tragedy in the timing of the death. The humor of this strip arises from the notion that, given so many policemen are killed the day before retirement, retiring cops could be sequestered in a secure facility on the day before their retirement to avoid retirony. Unfortunately this merely results in tragedy when a cop is killed the day before being sequestered.

The title text is a reference to the reactionary nature of security procedures often put in place in the aftermath of an incident, and how they typically fail to address the root cause of the problem. If the logic expressed in the title text was followed repeatedly, eventually the number of days police officers spent in the secure room would encompass their entire career.
A certain similarity could be drawn between this and the US Army's problematic policy of only having combat troops serve for a single year in combat during the Vietnam war (unlike during WWII, when combat units were put into the front line and left there until the war was over, with losses being made up with a constant flow of individual replacements, which was even more problematic). Having troops only serve for a single year led to a far lower rate of troops "broken" from constant combat stress, but it also led to soldiers increasingly avoiding risk
once the halfway point of their year was passed and their time to go home got closer; not only that, but the stress of the last few months, knowing one was almost "home safe", yet forced into danger repeatedly could also psychologically damage men. It also created an incentive to just make it alive through the war, no matter what it took, unlike a situation where a soldier knows they are stuck there until the war is over; this can be a great incentive to fight harder, or at least to just give up any real hope that you'll live long enough to see the end anyway. They later revisited this "combat year" approach also, and tried yet another new idea.

See also the {{w|Unexpected hanging paradox|paradox of the "unexpected hanging"}}.

==Transcript==
:[ [[Hairbun]], a woman and Cueball are standing in the background by a coffin. A policeman and the policewoman Ponytail are standing in the foreground.]
:Ponytail: Good cop. It's a real shame—
:Ponytail: He was just one day away from getting put in the locked, heavily guarded room where all cops stay for the last day before they retire.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:2701: Change in Slope

2022-11-22T11:31:48Z

162.158.38.212: PCA / SVD / Kernel methods

I am an occasional data scientist, and I can confirm this is why we have monitor stands that tilt. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.94.50|172.71.94.50]] 16:33, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

The third e in "neeed" in the title text seems to be a typo
[[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 16:41, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
:I think Randall may have added it to represent that the speaker prolongs the "e" sound for emphasis, although that's usually done with 4-5 e's. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:53, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
::I had to double-check this, myself (presumed the 'Bot created the lage faithfully, but went straight to source to see if I needed to find a vandalism post to revert). May need a comment (to prevent hypercorrection, if not to note the implied emphisis) and certainly will if it turns out to be a typo and gets corrected (for which I'm sure a future checker will discover Randall's revisiting, but then worth a note to that effect). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.2|172.70.90.2]] 17:42, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
:::I guess Randall fixed it, because I'm only seeing 2 'e's in the title text. Just updated it on the wiki. [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 01:26, 22 November 2022 (UTC)
Bender Bot was one of the main characters in Futurama. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:54, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
:Just donning my unnecessary pedantry hat for a moment: his name is Bender Bending Rodriguez --[[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 23:02, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

A couple(?) of authors used the word(s) "(point of) inflection", which is {{w|Inflection point|not really suitable}} for a join between two straight segments. Was tempted to talk about "discontinuity", but that really only applies to the meta-slope (derivatives, to one degree or other) where it suddenly jumps (at a point), or the derivative's derivative has jumps (as it enters and leaves the smoothly linking curve). Hope it works well enough how I left it, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.176|162.158.142.176]] 21:28, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

For anyone curious, I used an image editor to turn the entire comic sideways and [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/525939879805190154/1044395695525875712/xkcd_sideways.png it actually does seem to work,] to some degree anyway. [[User:SuperSupermario24|SSM24]] 23:37, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
:Added; thanks! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.230|172.71.158.230]] 00:14, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

This one shows the beauty of Explainxkcd: people reading the explanation are likely to learn accessible methods of substantial practical utility. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.173|162.158.166.173]] 00:38, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

Hey, if it works for picking out lumber at Lowe’s, why not for graphs, too? - MadMarie

Whoever wrote the 1st explanation needs to go touch grass and learn how real people talk, pissed me off so much I just effectively rewrote the whole thing from scratch [[Special:Contributions/172.71.202.46|172.71.202.46]] 06:34, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

Going in a different direction than "this is silly" - if we ignore the "viewing point/parallax" issue, doing a change of basis like this is similar to linear methods like [SVD https://hadrienj.github.io/assets/images/ch12_svd/ch11_SVD_geometry.png] & [https://jakevdp.github.io/PythonDataScienceHandbook/figures/05.09-PCA-rotation.png PCA], and considering the graph as a mappingg in a "higher dimension" is similar to the "kernel trick" popularized by [https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wqSTBCguVyU/maxresdefault.jpg Support] [https://miro.medium.com/max/4800/1*gtF6KeL7b9zNHd7pXtC1Nw.png Vector] [https://dinhanhthi.com/img/post/ML/support-vector-machine/svm-3.jpg Machines] 11:31, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

Talk:311: Action Movies

2016-10-11T07:47:25Z

162.158.38.212:

Dangit, I want to see this. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.148|199.27.130.148]] 04:44, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

He used Papyrus. :| [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.57|108.162.225.57]] 11:19, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

Madness combat minus hank plus river tam? 08:03, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Could this comic be the inspiration for John Wick? {{unsigned ip|108.162.217.155}}

This movie actually exists and it's called Chocolate [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_(2008_film)] {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.202}}

'Beats up everyone', to me it seems a reference to video game of type 'Beat them all' which match with the image of the movie. {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.112}}

There is an error in the explanation. Crank is listed as being in the Die Hard series. This is incorrect, Crank did have a sequel (High voltage) but neither had anything to do with Die Hard franchise. {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.100}}

And now, 8 years later, we have Mad Max: Fury Road. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.212|162.158.38.212]] 07:47, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

938: T-Cells

2015-11-01T11:53:13Z

162.158.38.212: Typo (unless "wider patent group" was intentional...

{{comic
| number = 938
| date = August 15, 2011
| title = T-Cells
| image = t cells.png
| titletext = 'We're not sure how to wipe out the chimeral T-cells after they've destroyed the cancer. Though I do have this vial of smallpox ...'
}}

==Explanation==
This is a cancer and leukemia related comic. Two characters are having a discussion about a [http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232581.php new trial] in cancer treatment. A trial is done to test a proposed treatment on a select group of patients before approval for the wider patient group.

In this case, the two characters are talking about a trial in which immune cells are taken out of the patient's body and genetically modified. The modified cells are able to both attack the cancer cells and to replicate very quickly. However, to make these genetic changes inside the cells, they used {{w|HIV}} as the vehicle to introduce these new genes as it is specialized in invading and modifying immune cells.

Basically, this treatment seems to replace one terrible disease with another terrible disease. As the title text says, they don't know how to get rid of the modified T-cells after they remove the cancer. And the last part of the title text is a joke, in which the doctor suggests yet another disease to inject into the patients body.

The treatment described remains experimental, controversial, highly expensive (because it requires customized set of alterations for each individual cancer), and has had some promising results along with some mixed effects: see [http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6140/1514 this summary in science magazine].

==Transcript==
:[Two people are standing facing each other, having a conversation. One is holding a laptop.]
:Cueball (with laptop): What's the deal with this leukemia trial? <nowiki>{{Citation: Nejm, Aug 10, 2011}}</nowiki>
:Friend: Gotta wait and see.
:Friend: Helping the immune system attack tumors has been a longtime research target.
:Friend: Lots of promising leads. Often they don't pan out.

:Cueball: What'd these guys do?
:Friend: They took some of the patient's T-cells and patched their genes so they'd attack the cancer. That hasn't been enough in the past but their patch also added code to get the T-cells to replicate wildly and persist in the body.

:Cueball: Which worked, but created its own set of problems?
:Friend: How'd you guess? But I think the craziest part is the way they insert the patched genes.
:Cueball: How?
:Friend: Well, think - What specializes in invading and modifying T-cells?
:Cueball: Seriously?
:Friend: Yup. Must've been a fun conversation.

:[The last panel is set in a doctors office. A patient is sitting on the observation bed talking to their doctor.]
:Patient: Ok, so I have blood cells growing out of control, so you're going to give me different blood cells that ''also'' grow out of control?
:Doctor: Yes, but it's ok, because we've treated ''this'' blood with HIV!
:Patient: Are you sure you're a doctor?
:Doctor: Almost definitely.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Biology]]