explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2167: Motivated Reasoning Olympics

2019-06-25T03:10:31Z

162.158.58.243: Add wiki link

{{comic
| number = 2167
| date = June 24, 2019
| title = Motivated Reasoning Olympics
| image = motivated_reasoning_olympics.png
| titletext = [later] I can't believe how bad corruption has become, especially given that our league split off from the statewide one a month ago SPECIFICALLY to protest this kind of flagrantly biased judging.
}}

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

[[Cueball]] is talking to [[Ponytail]] about the trophy he won for winning the “Motivated Reasoning Olympics” (hence the title). [[Ponytail]] rightly points out that the trophy says he only got second place. [[Cueball]] then displays the “[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning motivated reasoning]” in question by claiming that the athlete who beat him cheated in an earlier round and that the judges were “certain” to disqualify him after reviewing. Here, the cognitive dissonance that should result from believing that he won first place but having a trophy that says second place is reduced by [[Cueball]]'s motivated reasoning. He has developed a narrative that explains away the inconsistent fact of the label on the trophy, and thus, convinces himself that there couldn't have been any short coming in his own performance. These are all characteristics of motivated reasoning. [[Cueball]] goes on like this for a while.

The title text is a continuation, where [[Cueball]] suggests the board is biased in favor of the original winner, whom they approve. He further states that this is evidence of corruption and is the reason why his league split off from the official state-sponsored league just prior to the Motivated Reasoning Olympics. Of course, {{w|Motivated reasoning}} is an emotion-biased decision-making phenomenon, by definition, so he really should expect the judging to be biased.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is holding a trophy with a 2 engraved on it, showing it off to Ponytail]

:Cueball: Check it out, I won first place at the Motivated Reasoning Olympics!
:Ponytail: That trophy says "second."
:Cueball: Well, the guy who won was caught cheating in an earlier round, so the board is almost certain to strip him of his win once they review the...

{{comic discussion}}

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

2162: Literary Opinions

2019-06-12T18:25:05Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ ce

{{comic
| number = 2162
| date = June 12, 2019
| title = Literary Opinions
| image = literary_opinions.png
| titletext = If I really focus, I can distinguish between John Steinbeck and John Updike, or between Gore Vidal and Vidal Sassoon, but not both at once.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Hunter S Thompson was high while writing it. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Megan]] is telling [[Cueball]] about a literary opinion she has: She believes that {{w|William S. Burroughs}}, {{w|Hunter S. Thompson}}, {{w|Chuck Palahniuk}}, and {{w|David Foster Wallace}} are different names for the same person. To believe that different people are actually a same person is known as the {{w|Fregoli delusion}}; the person is usually believed to change appearance.

She then says that ''{{w|Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas}}'' (by Thompson) and ''{{w|Fight Club (novel)|Fight Club}}'' (by Palahniuk) are the same book with different covers, probably because the title and promotional images for both hint at fighting taking place in a big city (i.e., she is literally {{w|Don't judge a book by its cover|judging the books by their covers}}), when in reality the books are vastly different. Books sometimes have [https://www.rifflebooks.com/list/170553 different covers and titles in different regions].

Cueball realizes anyone who has so much as looked at the first page would know this to be false, and so offers Megan the chance to check. She refuses and just moves on to the next opinion she wants to share.

Cueball realizes all her "literary opinions" are probably about books she has not or refuses to read, and tries to interrupt her, humorously proposing she should start a {{w|Book discussion club|book club}} to discuss them. This may be to congregate all people who criticize books without reading them, or in hopes that it will be attended by people who have read the book and can prove to Megan her opinions are baseless.

Megan finishes telling him her opinion anyway, which is that {{w|E.B. White}} and {{w|T.H. White}} are the same person. This is apparently an opinion that Cueball can agree with, as he tells her that he believes it. This is likely a joke that the two names are hard to distinguish due to the having the same last name with only initials instead of a first name. In reality, the books they authored are very different, with E.B. White writing children's books (''{{w|Charlotte's Web}}'', ''{{w|Stuart Little}}'', etc.) and T.H. White writing adult books about King Arthur (''{{w|The Sword and the Stone}}'' and its sequels), although his works ''were'' adapted into a {{w|The Sword in the Stone (1963 film)|Disney movie}} so they could, to some degree, be considered children's books.

The title text continues with this, with Megan saying that she can distinguish between {{w|John Steinbeck}} and {{w|John Updike}}, as well as between {{w|Gore Vidal}} and {{w|Vidal Sassoon}}, but she can't do so simultaneously. Again this is likely due to the similarities in their names. Additionally, the mention of simultaneity could be a nod to the {{w|Heisenberg uncertainty principle}}, which states that there is a trade-off in precision when simultaneously measuring position and momentum.

===Explanation of people===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Description
|-
| {{w|William S. Burroughs}}
| (1914–1997), American writer and visual artist. Wrote many semi-autobiographical works, best known for ''{{w|Naked Lunch}}'' and ''{{w|Junkie (novel)|Junkie}}''.
|-
| {{w|Hunter S. Thompson}}
| (1937–2005), American journalist and author. Founder of the {{w|Gonzo journalism}} movement. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas}}''.
|-
| {{w|Chuck Palahniuk}}
| born 1962, American novelist and freelance journalist. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Fight Club (novel)|Fight Club}}''.
|-
| {{w|David Foster Wallace}}
| (1962–2008), American writer and university professor for English and creative writing. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Infinite Jest}}''.
|-
| {{w|E.B. White}}
| (1899–1985), American writer. Co-author of the English language style guide ''{{w|The Elements of Style}}''. Also known for his children's books, including ''{{w|Stuart Little}}'', ''{{w|Charlotte's Web}}'', and ''{{w|The Trumpet of the Swan}}''.
|-
| {{w|T.H. White}}
| (1906–1964), English author. Known for his Arthurian novel series, ''{{w|The Once and Future King}}''.
|-
| {{w|John Steinbeck}}
| (1902–1968), American novelist. Known for his novels set in Central California, including ''{{w|Tortilla Flat}}'', ''{{w|Cannery Row (novel)|Cannery Row}}'', ''{{w|East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden}}'', ''{{w|Of Mice and Men}}'', and ''{{w|The Grapes of Wrath}}''.
|-
| {{w|John Updike}}
| (1932–2009), American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. Known for his prolific career and for his "Rabbit" series, chronicling the life of {{w|Rabbit Angstrom}}.
|-
| {{w|Gore Vidal}}
| (1925–2012), American writer and public intellectual. A political commentator and essayist, as well as a novelist.
|-
| {{w|Vidal Sassoon}}
| (1928–2012), British-American hairstylist, businessman, and fashion icon. Founded a worldwide chain of hairstyling salons as well as a line of hair treatment products. A philanthropist later in life.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Megan is walking with a finger raised toward Cueball, who is seated in a chair with a book.]
:Megan: Literary opinion:
:Megan: I firmly believe that William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk, and David Foster Wallace are different names for the same person.
:Cueball: ...I see.

:[Megan puts down her hand.]
:Megan: ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' and ''Fight Club''? Same book with different covers, I bet.
:Cueball: I have both. Want to open them and check?
:Megan: I do not.

:[Cueball turns back to his book.]
:Megan: Moving on: my next opinion--
:Cueball: You should start a book club for discussing the books you refuse to read.
:Megan: --is that E.B. White and T.H. White are the same person.
:Cueball: Ok, ''that'' I believe.

{{comic discussion}}

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

2162: Literary Opinions

2019-06-12T18:24:45Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ wlink,ce

{{comic
| number = 2162
| date = June 12, 2019
| title = Literary Opinions
| image = literary_opinions.png
| titletext = If I really focus, I can distinguish between John Steinbeck and John Updike, or between Gore Vidal and Vidal Sassoon, but not both at once.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Hunter S Thompson was high while writing it. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Megan]] is telling [[Cueball]] about a literary opinion she has: She believes that {{w|William S. Burroughs}}, {{w|Hunter S. Thompson}}, {{w|Chuck Palahniuk}}, and {{w|David Foster Wallace}} are different names for the same person. To believe that different people are actually a same person is known as the {{w|Fregoli delusion}}; the person is usually believed to change appearance.

She then says that ''{{w|Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas}}'' (by Thompson) and ''{{w|Fight Club (novel)|Fight Club}}'' (by Palahniuk) are the same book with different covers, probably because the title and promotional images for both hint at fighting taking place in a big city (i.e., she is literally {{w|Don't judge a book by its cover|judging the books by their covers}}), when in reality the books are vastly different. Books sometimes have [https://www.rifflebooks.com/list/170553 different covers and titles in different regions].

Cueball realizes anyone who has so much as looked at the first page would know this to be false, and so offers Megan the chance to check. She refuses and just moves on to the next opinion she wants to share.

Cueball realizes all her "literary opinions" are probably about books she's has not or refuses to read, and tries to interrupt her, humorously proposing she should start a {{w|Book discussion club|book club}} to discuss them. This may be to congregate all people who criticize books without reading them, or in hopes that it will be attended by people who have read the book and can prove to Megan her opinions are baseless.

Megan finishes telling him her opinion anyway, which is that {{w|E.B. White}} and {{w|T.H. White}} are the same person. This is apparently an opinion that Cueball can agree with, as he tells her that he believes it. This is likely a joke that the two names are hard to distinguish due to the having the same last name with only initials instead of a first name. In reality, the books they authored are very different, with E.B. White writing children's books (''{{w|Charlotte's Web}}'', ''{{w|Stuart Little}}'', etc.) and T.H. White writing adult books about King Arthur (''{{w|The Sword and the Stone}}'' and its sequels), although his works ''were'' adapted into a {{w|The Sword in the Stone (1963 film)|Disney movie}} so they could, to some degree, be considered children's books.

The title text continues with this, with Megan saying that she can distinguish between {{w|John Steinbeck}} and {{w|John Updike}}, as well as between {{w|Gore Vidal}} and {{w|Vidal Sassoon}}, but she can't do so simultaneously. Again this is likely due to the similarities in their names. Additionally, the mention of simultaneity could be a nod to the {{w|Heisenberg uncertainty principle}}, which states that there is a trade-off in precision when simultaneously measuring position and momentum.

===Explanation of people===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Description
|-
| {{w|William S. Burroughs}}
| (1914–1997), American writer and visual artist. Wrote many semi-autobiographical works, best known for ''{{w|Naked Lunch}}'' and ''{{w|Junkie (novel)|Junkie}}''.
|-
| {{w|Hunter S. Thompson}}
| (1937–2005), American journalist and author. Founder of the {{w|Gonzo journalism}} movement. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas}}''.
|-
| {{w|Chuck Palahniuk}}
| born 1962, American novelist and freelance journalist. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Fight Club (novel)|Fight Club}}''.
|-
| {{w|David Foster Wallace}}
| (1962–2008), American writer and university professor for English and creative writing. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Infinite Jest}}''.
|-
| {{w|E.B. White}}
| (1899–1985), American writer. Co-author of the English language style guide ''{{w|The Elements of Style}}''. Also known for his children's books, including ''{{w|Stuart Little}}'', ''{{w|Charlotte's Web}}'', and ''{{w|The Trumpet of the Swan}}''.
|-
| {{w|T.H. White}}
| (1906–1964), English author. Known for his Arthurian novel series, ''{{w|The Once and Future King}}''.
|-
| {{w|John Steinbeck}}
| (1902–1968), American novelist. Known for his novels set in Central California, including ''{{w|Tortilla Flat}}'', ''{{w|Cannery Row (novel)|Cannery Row}}'', ''{{w|East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden}}'', ''{{w|Of Mice and Men}}'', and ''{{w|The Grapes of Wrath}}''.
|-
| {{w|John Updike}}
| (1932–2009), American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. Known for his prolific career and for his "Rabbit" series, chronicling the life of {{w|Rabbit Angstrom}}.
|-
| {{w|Gore Vidal}}
| (1925–2012), American writer and public intellectual. A political commentator and essayist, as well as a novelist.
|-
| {{w|Vidal Sassoon}}
| (1928–2012), British-American hairstylist, businessman, and fashion icon. Founded a worldwide chain of hairstyling salons as well as a line of hair treatment products. A philanthropist later in life.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Megan is walking with a finger raised toward Cueball, who is seated in a chair with a book.]
:Megan: Literary opinion:
:Megan: I firmly believe that William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk, and David Foster Wallace are different names for the same person.
:Cueball: ...I see.

:[Megan puts down her hand.]
:Megan: ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' and ''Fight Club''? Same book with different covers, I bet.
:Cueball: I have both. Want to open them and check?
:Megan: I do not.

:[Cueball turns back to his book.]
:Megan: Moving on: my next opinion--
:Cueball: You should start a book club for discussing the books you refuse to read.
:Megan: --is that E.B. White and T.H. White are the same person.
:Cueball: Ok, ''that'' I believe.

{{comic discussion}}

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

2162: Literary Opinions

2019-06-12T18:21:21Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ copyedit, better wlink

{{comic
| number = 2162
| date = June 12, 2019
| title = Literary Opinions
| image = literary_opinions.png
| titletext = If I really focus, I can distinguish between John Steinbeck and John Updike, or between Gore Vidal and Vidal Sassoon, but not both at once.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Hunter S Thompson was high while writing it. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Megan]] is telling [[Cueball]] about a literary opinion she has: She believes that {{w|William S. Burroughs}}, {{w|Hunter S. Thompson}}, {{w|Chuck Palahniuk}}, and {{w|David Foster Wallace}} are different names for the same person. To believe that different people are actually a same person is known as the {{w|Fregoli delusion}}; the person is usually believed to change appearance.

She then says that ''{{w|Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas}}'' (by Thompson) and ''{{w|Fight Club (novel)|Fight Club}}'' (by Palahniuk) are the same book with different covers, probably because the title and promotional images for both hint at fighting taking place in a big city (i.e., she is literally {{w|Don't judge a book by its cover|judging the books by their covers}}), when in reality the books are vastly different. Books sometimes have [https://www.rifflebooks.com/list/170553 different covers and titles in different regions].

Cueball realizes anyone who has so much as looked at the first page would know this to be false, and so offers Megan the chance to check. She refuses and just moves on to the next opinion she wants to share.

Cueball realizes all her "literary opinions" are probably about books she's refused to read, and tries to interrupt her, humorously proposing she should start a book club to discuss them. This may be to congregate all people who criticize books without reading them, or in hopes that it will be attended by people who have read the book and can prove to Megan her opinions are baseless.

Megan finishes telling him her opinion anyway, which is that {{w|E.B. White}} and {{w|T.H. White}} are the same person. This is apparently an opinion that Cueball can agree with, as he tells her that he believes it. This is likely a joke that the two names are hard to distinguish due to the having the same last name with only initials instead of a first name. In reality, the books they authored are very different, with E.B. White writing children's books (''{{w|Charlotte's Web}}'', ''{{w|Stuart Little}}'', etc.) and T.H. White writing adult books about King Arthur (''{{w|The Sword and the Stone}}'' and its sequels), although his works ''were'' adapted into a {{w|The Sword in the Stone (1963 film)|Disney movie}} so they could, to some degree, be considered children's books.

The title text continues with this, with Megan saying that she can distinguish between {{w|John Steinbeck}} and {{w|John Updike}}, as well as between {{w|Gore Vidal}} and {{w|Vidal Sassoon}}, but she can't do so simultaneously. Again this is likely due to the similarities in their names. Additionally, the mention of simultaneity could be a nod to the {{w|Heisenberg uncertainty principle}}, which states that there is a trade-off in precision when simultaneously measuring position and momentum.

===Explanation of people===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Description
|-
| {{w|William S. Burroughs}}
| (1914–1997), American writer and visual artist. Wrote many semi-autobiographical works, best known for ''{{w|Naked Lunch}}'' and ''{{w|Junkie (novel)|Junkie}}''.
|-
| {{w|Hunter S. Thompson}}
| (1937–2005), American journalist and author. Founder of the {{w|Gonzo journalism}} movement. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas}}''.
|-
| {{w|Chuck Palahniuk}}
| born 1962, American novelist and freelance journalist. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Fight Club (novel)|Fight Club}}''.
|-
| {{w|David Foster Wallace}}
| (1962–2008), American writer and university professor for English and creative writing. Best known for his novel ''{{w|Infinite Jest}}''.
|-
| {{w|E.B. White}}
| (1899–1985), American writer. Co-author of the English language style guide ''{{w|The Elements of Style}}''. Also known for his children's books, including ''{{w|Stuart Little}}'', ''{{w|Charlotte's Web}}'', and ''{{w|The Trumpet of the Swan}}''.
|-
| {{w|T.H. White}}
| (1906–1964), English author. Known for his Arthurian novel series, ''{{w|The Once and Future King}}''.
|-
| {{w|John Steinbeck}}
| (1902–1968), American novelist. Known for his novels set in Central California, including ''{{w|Tortilla Flat}}'', ''{{w|Cannery Row (novel)|Cannery Row}}'', ''{{w|East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden}}'', ''{{w|Of Mice and Men}}'', and ''{{w|The Grapes of Wrath}}''.
|-
| {{w|John Updike}}
| (1932–2009), American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. Known for his prolific career and for his "Rabbit" series, chronicling the life of {{w|Rabbit Angstrom}}.
|-
| {{w|Gore Vidal}}
| (1925–2012), American writer and public intellectual. A political commentator and essayist, as well as a novelist.
|-
| {{w|Vidal Sassoon}}
| (1928–2012), British-American hairstylist, businessman, and fashion icon. Founded a worldwide chain of hairstyling salons as well as a line of hair treatment products. A philanthropist later in life.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Megan is walking with a finger raised toward Cueball, who is seated in a chair with a book.]
:Megan: Literary opinion:
:Megan: I firmly believe that William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk, and David Foster Wallace are different names for the same person.
:Cueball: ...I see.

:[Megan puts down her hand.]
:Megan: ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' and ''Fight Club''? Same book with different covers, I bet.
:Cueball: I have both. Want to open them and check?
:Megan: I do not.

:[Cueball turns back to his book.]
:Megan: Moving on: my next opinion--
:Cueball: You should start a book club for discussing the books you refuse to read.
:Megan: --is that E.B. White and T.H. White are the same person.
:Cueball: Ok, ''that'' I believe.

{{comic discussion}}

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

2161: An Apple a Day

2019-06-10T18:47:40Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ ce, wlink

{{comic
| number = 2161
| date = June 10, 2019
| title = An Apple a Day
| image = an_apple_a_day.png
| titletext = Even the powerful, tart Granny Smith cultivar is proving ineffective against new Gran-negative doctors.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an APPLE-RESISTANT DOCTOR. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
"{{w|An apple a day keeps the doctor away}}" is a common English proverb. It suggests that eating one apple daily will keep you healthy, and therefore, reduce your necessity to go to the doctor.

However, in this comic, this expression is reinterpreted to mean that the reason an apple a day keeps a doctor away is because apples literally prevent doctors from coming. It also suggests that keeping doctors away is of great importance, presumably because doctors in this scenario are threatening.

Next, when the comic says that some doctors are resistant to apples, this references situations where creatures can adapt to deal with threats. In this case, the comic advocates stockpiling apples to prepare a strategic assault on the doctors who adapted.

Additionally, this comic is a clear reference to the overuse of antibiotics in modern medicine, leading to an increase in antimicrobial resistance ("Superbugs"), which has seen increasing awareness in the last few years. The World Health Organization had the first [https://antibioticawareness.ca Antibiotic Awareness Week] in 2015, where a talk similar to the one in the comic would seem very appropriate.

In the title text this is taken further: Gran-negative is a pun on {{w|Gram-negative}}, a type of bacteria. A well-known technique called {{w|Gram staining}} distinguishes two types of bacteria (Gram positive versus Gram negative) on the basis of properties of their cell walls.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan stands at a podium.]
:Megan: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
:Megan: Or at least, it used to.

:[The comic zooms out on the stage. Megan is pointing at a poster promimently featuring Doctor Ponytail and three apples.]
:Megan: Over time, some doctors have developed a resistance to apples. Keeping them away takes two or three apples instead of one.
:Megan: And there are worrying signs that a few doctors have become completely immune.

:[The comic zooms in again on Megan and her podium.]
:Megan: So we must stockpile our finest apples in reserve, using them to fend off only the very worst doctors.
:Megan: Honeycrisps still work on most of them, but we don't know for how long.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

2154: Motivation

2019-05-24T17:55:21Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ ce

{{comic
| number = 2154
| date = May 24, 2019
| title = Motivation
| image = motivation.png
| titletext = What's even worse is, a month ago they transferred me to work on the game I was already playing, and suddenly I found myself procrastinating by playing the one I'd been assigned before. It's possible they're onto me and this is all part of the plan.
}}

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

Motivation to do your assigned task or job can be hard.{{Citation needed}} As Ponytail is feeling unmotivated to do her job, she decides to procrastinate by playing a video game on her laptop instead, with the hope that she will eventually be more motivated to do her assigned task. Cueball seems to understand her sentiment, and admits to being in the same situation in the past.

The punch line for this comic comes when Ponytail admits that her actual job is a {{w|Game testing|video game playtester}}, someone whose job is to test and play video games. So it seems that Ponytail is avoiding doing her task to test video game X by playing video game Y. Though being a game tester can be seen as glamorous and fun to people who enjoy playing video games ("I get to play video games all day at work"), it is [https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/29/the-tough-life-of-a-games-tester less rewarding than it may seem][https://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-be-a-video-game-tester-2015-6].

The title text continues Ponytail's admission, adding that her company may have caught on to her procrastination by changing her assignment to work on video game Y that she was already playing to procrastinate. To further procrastinate herself, Ponytail changed to play video game X, the original video game that she was assigned. This would serve to have her work on her original task to test video game X.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball and Ponytail sitting at a desk, working on their laptops]
:Cueball: What are you working on?
:Ponytail: Playing a game that involves exactly as much planning, problem-solving and boring drudgework as the actual job I'm avoiding.

:[Zoom in on Cueball]
:Haha, yeah, I've definitely been there.

:[Zoom back out to Cueball and Ponytail sitting at a desk, working on their laptops]
:Cueball: What's your job these days, anyway?
:Ponytail: Video game playtester.
:Cueball: ...
:Ponytail: Look, motivation is weird, ok?

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

2154: Motivation

2019-05-24T17:53:24Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ other link

{{comic
| number = 2154
| date = May 24, 2019
| title = Motivation
| image = motivation.png
| titletext = What's even worse is, a month ago they transferred me to work on the game I was already playing, and suddenly I found myself procrastinating by playing the one I'd been assigned before. It's possible they're onto me and this is all part of the plan.
}}

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

Motivation to do your assigned task or job can be hard.{{Citation needed}} As Ponytail is feeling unmotivated to do her job, she decides to procrastinate by playing a video game on her laptop instead, with the hope that she will eventually be more motivated to do her assigned task. Cueball seems to understand her sentiment, and admits to being in the same situation in the past.

The punch line for this comic comes when Ponytail admits that her actual job is a {{w|Game testing|video game playtester}}, someone whose job is to test and play video games. So it seems that Ponytail is avoiding doing her task to test video game X by playing video game Y. Though being a game tester can be seen as glamorous and fun to people who enjoy playing video games ("I get to play video games all day at work"), it is [https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/29/the-tough-life-of-a-games-tester less rewarding than it may seem][https://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-be-a-video-game-tester-2015-6].

The title text continues Ponytail's admission, adding that her company may have caught on to her procrastination by changing her assignment to work on video game Y that she was already playing to distract herself. To further distract herself, Ponytail changed to play video game X as a distraction, the original video game that she was assigned. This would serve to have her complete her task to test video game X.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball and Ponytail sitting at a desk, working on their laptops]
:Cueball: What are you working on?
:Ponytail: Playing a game that involves exactly as much planning, problem-solving and boring drudgework as the actual job I'm avoiding.

:[Zoom in on Cueball]
:Haha, yeah, I've definitely been there.

:[Zoom back out to Cueball and Ponytail sitting at a desk, working on their laptops]
:Cueball: What's your job these days, anyway?
:Ponytail: Video game playtester.
:Cueball: ...
:Ponytail: Look, motivation is weird, ok?

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

2154: Motivation

2019-05-24T17:47:47Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ ce

{{comic
| number = 2154
| date = May 24, 2019
| title = Motivation
| image = motivation.png
| titletext = What's even worse is, a month ago they transferred me to work on the game I was already playing, and suddenly I found myself procrastinating by playing the one I'd been assigned before. It's possible they're onto me and this is all part of the plan.
}}

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

Motivation to do your assigned task or job can be hard.{{Citation needed}} As Ponytail is feeling unmotivated to do her job, she decides to procrastinate by playing a video game on her laptop instead, with the hope that she will eventually be more motivated to do her assigned task. Cueball seems to understand her sentiment, and admits to being in the same situation in the past.

The punch line for this comic comes when Ponytail admits that her actual job is a {{w|Game testing|video game playtester}}, someone whose job is to test and play video games. So it seems that Ponytail is avoiding doing her task to test video game X by playing video game Y. Though being a game tester can be seen as glamorous and fun to people who enjoy playing video games ("I get to play video games all day at work"), it is [https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/29/the-tough-life-of-a-games-tester less rewarding than it may seem].

The title text continues Ponytail's admission, adding that her company may have caught on to her procrastination by changing her assignment to work on video game Y that she was already playing to distract herself. To further distract herself, Ponytail changed to play video game X as a distraction, the original video game that she was assigned. This would serve to have her complete her task to test video game X.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball and Ponytail sitting at a desk, working on their laptops]
:Cueball: What are you working on?
:Ponytail: Playing a game that involves exactly as much planning, problem-solving and boring drudgework as the actual job I'm avoiding.

:[Zoom in on Cueball]
:Haha, yeah, I've definitely been there.

:[Zoom back out to Cueball and Ponytail sitting at a desk, working on their laptops]
:Cueball: What's your job these days, anyway?
:Ponytail: Video game playtester.
:Cueball: ...
:Ponytail: Look, motivation is weird, ok?

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

2154: Motivation

2019-05-24T17:47:13Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ explain

{{comic
| number = 2154
| date = May 24, 2019
| title = Motivation
| image = motivation.png
| titletext = What's even worse is, a month ago they transferred me to work on the game I was already playing, and suddenly I found myself procrastinating by playing the one I'd been assigned before. It's possible they're onto me and this is all part of the plan.
}}

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

Motivation to do your assigned task or job can be hard.{{citation needed}} As Ponytail is feeling unmotivated to do her job, she decides to procrastinate by playing a video game on her laptop instead, with the hope that she will eventually be more motivated to do her assigned task. Cueball seems to understand her sentiment, and admits to being in the same situation in the past.

The punch line for this comic comes when Ponytail admits that her actual job is a {{w|Game testing|video game playtester}}, someone whose job is to test and play video games. So it seems that Ponytail is avoiding doing her task to test video game X by playing video game Y. Though being a game tester can be seen as glamorous and fun to people who enjoy playing video games ("I get to play video games all day at work"), it is [https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/29/the-tough-life-of-a-games-tester less rewarding than it may seem].

The title text continues Ponytail's admission, adding that her company may have caught on to her procrastination by changing her assignment to work on video game Y that she was already playing to distract herself. To further distract herself, Ponytail changed to play video game X as a distraction, the original video game that she was assigned. This would serve to have her complete her task to test video game X.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball and Ponytail sitting at a desk, working on their laptops]
:Cueball: What are you working on?
:Ponytail: Playing a game that involves exactly as much planning, problem-solving and boring drudgework as the actual job I'm avoiding.

:[Zoom in on Cueball]
:Haha, yeah, I've definitely been there.

:[Zoom back out to Cueball and Ponytail sitting at a desk, working on their laptops]
:Cueball: What's your job these days, anyway?
:Ponytail: Video game playtester.
:Cueball: ...
:Ponytail: Look, motivation is weird, ok?

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

2154: Motivation

2019-05-24T17:31:14Z

162.158.58.243: /* Transcript */ ce

2154: Motivation

2019-05-24T17:30:28Z

162.158.58.243: /* Transcript */ ce

2154: Motivation

2019-05-24T17:29:44Z

162.158.58.243: /* Transcript */ transcript and categories

Talk:2147: Appendicitis

2019-05-08T19:54:00Z

162.158.58.243:

started a very brief explanation. I'm unsure what actual medical procedure the "salting of the abdomen" is supposed to refer to.[[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 17:16, 8 May 2019 (UTC)
: probably refers to this: {{w|Salting the earth}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.167|172.69.33.167]] 17:23, 8 May 2019 (UTC)
Not a medical expert, but could this be cancer? [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:14, 8 May 2019 (UTC)
: my guess is appendicitis (as that is the title of the comic). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.160|162.158.59.160]] 18:28, 8 May 2019 (UTC)
Randall was supposed to appear at an Adam Savage book release event Tuesday night, but the host reported he was in the hospital recovering from Appendicitis, so I amended the comment about the possibility to make it certain. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 19:41, 8 May 2019 (UTC)
: Is this reported somewhere, like in the news or on Twitter? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.243|162.158.58.243]] 19:54, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

2145: Heists And Escapes

2019-05-04T07:57:23Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ clarify

{{comic
| number = 2145
| date = May 3, 2019
| title = Heists And Escapes
| image = heists_and_escapes.png
| titletext = The interactive experience is built on a single theological framework that unites Dante, George R. R. Martin, every major heist movie, and Erin Gloria Ryan's "Kevin is dead" Home Alone theory.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an Escape room. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Randall is trying to create the "greatest {{w|escape room}} game of all time".

The top six panels show a stylized version of various options where people try to get in or out of rooms:

* Escape rooms: An escape room is a type of puzzle/adventure game where people are locked in the room (discounting emergency exits) and have a certain amount of time to solve the puzzles and leave.
* {{w|Heist film|Heist movies}}: In heist movies, the thieves are initially outside of the room they are trying to get in to steal what's inside.
* ''{{w|Home Alone}}'' (1990): This refers to the first movie in a franchise, where the home that the burglars tried to rob was protected by someone from the inside, Kevin McCallister (also mentioned in the title text).
* The Battle of Winterfell: This refers to the {{w|The Long Night|3rd episode}} of the 8th season of ''{{w|Game of Thrones}}''. Here the dead tried to enter the {{w|keep}} (the middle room in the picture), but the keep already contained a crypt, with the dead inside, who could also try to leave that internal "room" as well.
* ''{{w|Inception}}'' (2010): This refers to the movie ''Inception'' where the protagonists could not only enter the dream world of others but while in those dreams could continue this again (entering the dream of someone inside the dream, etc.). ''Inception'' can be categorized as a "heist" movie, as the main characters are thieves who steal information from their victim's subconscious.
* ''{{w|Divine Comedy|The Divine Comedy}}'' (1320): This refers to Dante's work - in particular its first part ''{{w|Inferno (Dante)|Inferno}}'', which depicts Hell as nine concentric circles. {{w|Purgatorio|purgatory}} and {{w|Paradiso (Dante)|paradise}} are similarly concentric, but they are not likely to need to be escaped.

At the end, Randall proposes a combination of all of these things, and also combining it with others, to form the "greatest escape room game of all time":

* ''{{w|The Truman Show|Truman Show}}'': This refers to a movie, where the protagonist - unknown by him - was living in a constructed reality show.
* Kevin McCallister's house/subconscious: Refers to the 8-year-old boy who is the main character in the movie ''Home Alone'' who protects his home from the burglars.
* {{w|Styx}}: Refers to a deity and a river in Greek mythology that forms the boundary between Earth and Underworld ("Hades"). It is necessary to cross the river Styx to enter and exit the Underworld.

The title text refers to [https://www.thedailybeast.com/home-alone-is-so-much-better-if-kevin-mccallister-is-dead this article], which claims that Kevin McCallister is dead, and is actually a ghost.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Seven different room scenarios are shown with characters attempting to get inside or outside, each with a label below them.]

:[Cueball and Ponytail trying to exit a room.]
:Escape rooms

:[Cueball and Megan trying to enter a room.]
:Heist movies

:[Cueball, presumably representing Kevin, standing in the middle of a room while two people are trying to enter.]
:''Home Alone'' (1990)

:[A room is shown inside a larger room. Two characters try to enter from outside and two others try to exit from the inner room while Megan and Cueball are standing between them.]
:The Battle of Winterfell

:[Four rooms are shown inside of each other. Two characters try to enter from outside while three Cueballs in each room are standing while asleep.]
:''Inception'' (2010)

:[Smaller rooms are recursively shown inside of larger ones, with two characters trying to escape from each.]
:''The Divine Comedy'' (1320)

:[At the bottom a more complicated combination of various rooms shown in gray, with arrows labeled with question marks showing escape routes for two characters in black.]
:[Labels of various rooms and obstacles in gray:]
:Truman Show
:Bank
:Room
:Vault
:The dead
:Kevin McCallister's house
:Kevin McCallister's subconscious
:Styx
:Dante's Inferno
:[Label in the bottom in black:]
:My plan for the greatest escape room game of all time

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2145: Heists And Escapes

2019-05-04T07:49:39Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ more

{{comic
| number = 2145
| date = May 3, 2019
| title = Heists And Escapes
| image = heists_and_escapes.png
| titletext = The interactive experience is built on a single theological framework that unites Dante, George R. R. Martin, every major heist movie, and Erin Gloria Ryan's "Kevin is dead" Home Alone theory.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an Escape room. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about various things where people attempt to get in or out. In heists, people are trying to open a vault to steal money or valuable items, and then escape with them.

The top six panels show a stylized version of the various options where people try to get in or out of rooms:

* {{w|Escape room}}s: In an escape room, people are locked in the room (discounting emergency exits) and have a certain amount of time to solve the puzzles and leave.
* {{w|Heist film|Heist movies}}: In heist movies, people are outside of the room they are trying to get in to (usually) steal what's inside.
* ''{{w|Home Alone}}'' (1990): This refers to the first movie in a franchise, where the home that the villains tried to rob was protected by someone from the inside, Kevin McCallister (also mentioned in the title text).
* The Battle of Winterfell: This refers to the {{w|The Long Night|3rd episode}} of the 8th season of ''{{w|Game of Thrones}}''. Here the dead tried to enter the {{w|keep}} (the middle room in the picture), but the keep already contained a crypt, with the dead inside who could also try to leave that internal "room" as well.
* ''{{w|Inception}}'' (2010): This refers to the movie ''Inception'' where the protagonists could not only enter the dream world of others but while in those dreams could continue this again (entering the dream of someone inside the dream, etc.). ''Inception'' can be categorized as a "heist" movie, as the main characters are thieves who steal information from the subconscious.
* ''{{w|Divine Comedy|The Divine Comedy}}'' (1320): This refers to Dante's work; in particular its first part ''{{w|Inferno (Dante)|Inferno}}'', which depicts Hell as nine concentric circles (although {{w|Purgatorio|purgatory}} and {{w|Paradiso (Dante)|paradise}} are similarly concentric, they are not likely to need to be escaped).

At the end Randall proposes a combination of all of these things, and also combining it with others, to form the "greatest escape room game of all time":

* ''{{w|The Truman Show|Truman Show}}'': This refers to a movie, where the protagonist - unknown by him - was living in a constructed reality show.
* Kevin McCallister's house/subconscious: Refers to the 8-year-old boy who is the main character in the movie ''Home Alone'' that protects his home from the burglars.
* {{w|Styx}}: Refers to a deity and a river in Greek mythology that forms the boundary between Earth and Underworld ("Hades"). It is necessary to cross the river Styx to enter and exit the Underworld.

The title text refers to [https://www.thedailybeast.com/home-alone-is-so-much-better-if-kevin-mccallister-is-dead this article], which claims that Kevin McCallister is dead, and is actually a ghost.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Seven different room scenarios are shown with characters attempting to get inside or outside, each with a label below them.]

:[Cueball and Ponytail trying to exit a room.]
:Escape rooms

:[Cueball and Megan trying to enter a room.]
:Heist movies

:[Cueball, presumably representing Kevin, standing in the middle of a room while two people are trying to enter.]
:''Home Alone'' (1990)

:[A room is shown inside a larger room. Two characters try to enter from outside and two others try to exit from the inner room while Megan and Cueball are standing between them.]
:The Battle of Winterfell

:[Four rooms are shown inside of each other. Two characters try to enter from outside while three Cueballs in each room are standing while asleep.]
:''Inception'' (2010)

:[Smaller rooms are recursively shown inside of larger ones, with two characters trying to escape from each.]
:''The Divine Comedy'' (1320)

:[At the bottom a more complicated combination of various rooms shown in gray, with arrows labeled with question marks showing escape routes for two characters in black.]
:[Labels of various rooms and obstacles in gray:]
:Truman Show
:Bank
:Room
:Vault
:The dead
:Kevin McCallister's house
:Kevin McCallister's subconscious
:Styx
:Dante's Inferno
:[Label in the bottom in black:]
:My plan for the greatest escape room game of all time

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2145: Heists And Escapes

2019-05-04T07:46:53Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ wlink

{{comic
| number = 2145
| date = May 3, 2019
| title = Heists And Escapes
| image = heists_and_escapes.png
| titletext = The interactive experience is built on a single theological framework that unites Dante, George R. R. Martin, every major heist movie, and Erin Gloria Ryan's "Kevin is dead" Home Alone theory.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an Escape room. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about various things where people attempt to get in or out. In heists, people are trying to open a vault to steal money or valuable items, and then escape with them.

The top six panels show a stylized version of the various options where people try to get in or out of rooms:

* {{w|Escape room}}s: In an escape room, people are locked in the room (discounting emergency exits) and have a certain amount of time to solve the puzzles and leave.
* {{w|Heist film|Heist movies}}: In heist movies, people are outside of the room they are trying to get in to (usually) steal what's inside.
* ''{{w|Home Alone}}'' (1990): This refers to the first movie in a franchise, where the home that the villains tried to rob was protected by someone from the inside, Kevin McCallister (also mentioned in the title text).
* The Battle of Winterfell: This refers to the {{w|The Long Night|3rd episode}} of the 8th season of ''{{w|Game of Thrones}}''. Here the dead tried to enter the {{w|keep}} (the middle room in the picture), but the keep already contained a crypt, with the dead inside who could also try to leave that internal "room" as well.
* ''{{w|Inception}}'' (2010): This refers to the movie ''Inception'' where the protagonists could not only enter the dream world of others but while in those dreams could continue this again (entering the dream of someone inside the dream, etc.). ''Inception'' can be categorized as a "heist" movie, as the main characters are thieves who steal information from the subconscious.
* ''{{w|Divine Comedy|The Divine Comedy}}'' (1320): This refers to Dante's work; in particular its first part ''{{w|Inferno (Dante)|Inferno}}'', which depicts Hell as nine concentric circles (although {{w|Purgatorio|purgatory}} and {{w|Paradiso (Dante)|paradise}} are similarly concentric, they are not likely to need to be escaped).

At the end Randall proposes a combination of all of these things, and also combining it with others:

* ''{{w|The Truman Show|Truman Show}}'': This refers to a movie, where the protagonist - unknown by him - was living in a constructed reality show.
* Kevin McCallister's house/subconscious: Refers to the 8-year-old boy who is the main character in the movie ''Home Alone'' that protects his home from the burglars.
* {{w|Styx}}: Refers to a deity and a river in Greek mythology that forms the boundary between Earth and Underworld ("Hades").

The title text refers to [https://www.thedailybeast.com/home-alone-is-so-much-better-if-kevin-mccallister-is-dead this article], which claims that Kevin McCallister is dead, and is actually a ghost.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Seven different room scenarios are shown with characters attempting to get inside or outside, each with a label below them.]

:[Cueball and Ponytail trying to exit a room.]
:Escape rooms

:[Cueball and Megan trying to enter a room.]
:Heist movies

:[Cueball, presumably representing Kevin, standing in the middle of a room while two people are trying to enter.]
:''Home Alone'' (1990)

:[A room is shown inside a larger room. Two characters try to enter from outside and two others try to exit from the inner room while Megan and Cueball are standing between them.]
:The Battle of Winterfell

:[Four rooms are shown inside of each other. Two characters try to enter from outside while three Cueballs in each room are standing while asleep.]
:''Inception'' (2010)

:[Smaller rooms are recursively shown inside of larger ones, with two characters trying to escape from each.]
:''The Divine Comedy'' (1320)

:[At the bottom a more complicated combination of various rooms shown in gray, with arrows labeled with question marks showing escape routes for two characters in black.]
:[Labels of various rooms and obstacles in gray:]
:Truman Show
:Bank
:Room
:Vault
:The dead
:Kevin McCallister's house
:Kevin McCallister's subconscious
:Styx
:Dante's Inferno
:[Label in the bottom in black:]
:My plan for the greatest escape room game of all time

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2145: Heists And Escapes

2019-05-04T07:41:15Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ more explain

{{comic
| number = 2145
| date = May 3, 2019
| title = Heists And Escapes
| image = heists_and_escapes.png
| titletext = The interactive experience is built on a single theological framework that unites Dante, George R. R. Martin, every major heist movie, and Erin Gloria Ryan's "Kevin is dead" Home Alone theory.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an Escape room. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about various things where people attempt to get in or out. In heists, people are trying to open a vault to steal money or valuable items, and then escape with them.

The top six panels show a stylized version of the various options where people try to get in or out of rooms:

* {{w|Escape room}}s: In an escape room, people are locked in the room (discounting emergency exits) and have a certain amount of time to solve the puzzles and leave.
* {{w|Heist film|Heist movies}}: In heist movies, people are outside of the room they are trying to get in to (usually) steal what's inside.
* ''{{w|Home Alone}}'' (1990): This refers to the first movie in a franchise, where the home that the villains tried to rob was protected by someone from the inside, Kevin McCallister (also mentioned in the title text).
* The Battle of Winterfell: This refers to the 3rd episode of the 8th season of ''{{w|Game of Thrones}}''. Here the dead tried to enter the {{w|keep}} (the middle room in the picture), but the keep already contained a crypt, with the dead inside who could also try to leave that internal "room" as well.
* ''{{w|Inception}}'' (2010): This refers to the movie ''Inception'' where the protagonists could not only enter the dream world of others but while in those dreams could continue this again (entering the dream of someone inside the dream, etc.). ''Inception'' can be categorized as a "heist" movie, as the main characters are thieves who steal information from the subconscious.
* ''{{w|Divine Comedy|The Divine Comedy}}'' (1320): This refers to Dante's work; in particular its first part ''{{w|Inferno (Dante)|Inferno}}'', which depicts Hell as nine concentric circles (although {{w|Purgatorio|purgatory}} and {{w|Paradiso (Dante)|paradise}} are similarly concentric, they are not likely to need to be escaped).

At the end Randall proposes a combination of all of these things, and also combining it with others:

* ''{{w|The Truman Show|Truman Show}}'': This refers to a movie, where the protagonist - unknown by him - was living in a constructed reality show.
* Kevin McCallister's house/subconscious: Refers to the 8-year-old boy who is the main character in the movie ''Home Alone'' that protects his home from the burglars.
* {{w|Styx}}: Refers to a deity and a river in Greek mythology that forms the boundary between Earth and Underworld ("Hades").

The title text refers to [https://www.thedailybeast.com/home-alone-is-so-much-better-if-kevin-mccallister-is-dead this article], which claims that Kevin McCallister is dead, and is actually a ghost.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Seven different room scenarios are shown with characters attempting to get inside or outside, each with a label below them.]

:[Cueball and Ponytail trying to exit a room.]
:Escape rooms

:[Cueball and Megan trying to enter a room.]
:Heist movies

:[Cueball, presumably representing Kevin, standing in the middle of a room while two people are trying to enter.]
:''Home Alone'' (1990)

:[A room is shown inside a larger room. Two characters try to enter from outside and two others try to exit from the inner room while Megan and Cueball are standing between them.]
:The Battle of Winterfell

:[Four rooms are shown inside of each other. Two characters try to enter from outside while three Cueballs in each room are standing while asleep.]
:''Inception'' (2010)

:[Smaller rooms are recursively shown inside of larger ones, with two characters trying to escape from each.]
:''The Divine Comedy'' (1320)

:[At the bottom a more complicated combination of various rooms shown in gray, with arrows labeled with question marks showing escape routes for two characters in black.]
:[Labels of various rooms and obstacles in gray:]
:Truman Show
:Bank
:Room
:Vault
:The dead
:Kevin McCallister's house
:Kevin McCallister's subconscious
:Styx
:Dante's Inferno
:[Label in the bottom in black:]
:My plan for the greatest escape room game of all time

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2145: Heists And Escapes

2019-05-03T19:32:33Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */

1105: License Plate

2019-05-01T09:04:32Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1105
| date = September 7, 2012
| title = License Plate
| image = license_plate.png
| titletext = The next day: 'What? Six bank robberies!? But I just vandalized the library!' 'Nice try. They saw your plate with all the 1's and I's.' 'That's impossible! I've been with my car the whole ti-- ... wait. Ok, wow, that was clever of her.'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has obtained a new {{w|Vehicle registration plate|license plate}}. The license plate number one receives is often the next in sequence, available at the time and place of registration. However, in many localities, for an additional fee one can select his or her own "personalized" license plate number (called a {{w|vanity plate}}), subject to certain criteria, and availability.

In this comic, Cueball has elected to purchase the personalized license plate number "1I1-III1" or "one, letter I, one, dash, letter I, letter I, letter I and one". He believes the ambiguity between the letter I and the digit 1 on the plate will make it very difficult for anyone to correctly identify his vehicle if he commits a crime. Some localities have more distinct "1" and "I" characters in their license plate font than others, but often when a crime is committed witnesses only has a short time to look at the plate, and will then be confused.

In principle his idea did work, because when the police end up interviewing a witness of a crime scene in the end of the comic, he can only say that "The thief's license plate was all "1"s or something". What Cueball does not count on is that there are no other license plates made up entirely of the letter I and the digit 1. Thus, when witnesses report a vehicle with a license plate of either/or I's and 1's, the police know exactly who the perpetrator is.

Given the fact that the police still haven't caught him even though they have his address written on a {{w|Post-it note}} in their car, it seems like they had already thought of the same idea, and when Cueball registered such a license plate they put up the address in the police cars, as they expected him to begin committing crimes. He may already have committed more than one, but they would soon stop him before it turned into a crime spree. (An alternative interpretation is that his crime spree has so far consisted of minor offenses, so they haven't arrested him, just issued him warnings or citations -- although one would expect him to stop once it became obvious they were onto him.)

[http://imgur.com/jaiblHk Someone in New Hampshire appears to have done this in real life.]

The title text appears to be a conversation between Cueball and the police the next day when they show up at his address. It turns out that the police suspect Cueball of six bank robberies. Cueball responds that "all" he did was vandalize the library. But the police disregards this as a ''nice try'' to avoid being arrested because witnesses saw a his license plate with all 1's and I's was used. Cueball does not understand this because he was with his car the entire time since he got the license plate. And just as he says this, he has an epiphany and states ''wait. OK, wow that was clever of her''. It is thus clear that he suspects that [[Megan]] have made a false license plate also with only a combination of I's and 1's. And then she has robbed six banks knowing that the police would be sure to suspect Cueball, who was so foolish to show his criminal intent by registering such a plate in the first place.

Knowing that the police will assume the car is his she has thus {{w|frameup|framed}} him. Hopefully for Cueball he can prove he was not involved in the robberies, but the polices certainty that they knew who the stupid guy was that committed the crimes, they may not have taken so much care in collecting evidence the first day of the crimes, and this will have given Megan time to run away with all the money, as no one was looking for her. So she may well have left the country with no one looking for a woman. This will make it more difficult for Cueball to avoid the blame.

It is clear that Megan would not be so stupid as to register another plate, because then they would know that there could be more than one criminal person. Also she would not have had time to get it, if the crime spree began soon after Cueball showed the plate to her. But if the fake plate makes people tell about the 1s and Is then the police would not ask further and maybe discover that the plate might have looked fake.

Note the yellow police line seems to say ''Police strip do not cross'', where ''Police line do not cross'' seems to be the only sentence used normally (unless it is ''crime scene do not cross'', but that also does not fit). (Of course, this could be a pun about the fact that this occurance is a comic ''strip''.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking in from the right holding a license plate up with both hands for an off-panel Megan to see. It is possible to see the plate, but here it looks like all I's (or 1's).]
:Cueball: Check out my personalized license plate!
:Megan (off-panel): <nowiki>"1I1-III1"?</nowiki>
:Cueball: It's perfect!
:Plate: III-IIII

:[In this frame-less panel Megan is sitting in an office chair holding and looking at the plate while Cueball stand next to her rubbing his hands together in front of him.]
:Cueball: No one will be able to correctly record my plate number!
:Cueball: I can commit any crime I want!
:Megan: Sounds foolproof.

:[A man with hair only around his neg and glasses holds out a hand towards a bald male police officer with a black peaked cap with white emblem on the front. The police man interviews their witness holding a notepad and a pen. Another likewise caped female officer is Ponytail who walks to the left arm pointing left. There is a line of yellow police tape behind them with text partially obscured by the characters. At the top left of the panel there is a small frame with a caption:]
:Soon:
:Witness: The thief's license plate was all "1"s or something.
:Police officer: Oh. ''That'' guy.
:Ponytail: His address is on a post-it in the squad car.
:Yellow strip (text not visible in brackets): Poli[ce strip] do not cross [poli]ce stri[p do not] cross.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1310: Goldbach Conjectures

2019-04-28T18:17:37Z

162.158.58.243:

If a bot can create the text I read here, we have made great strides in artificial intelligence. Probably a human editor forgot to change the "incomplete/incorrect" heading. [[User:Tenrek|Tenrek]] ([[User talk:Tenrek|talk]]) 05:53, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
:You never know, AI has come a loong way. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:39, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

::Let's ask: Tepples, are you a bot? And 199.27.128.62, what about you? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:09, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

:::Yes, I'm a bot. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.62|199.27.128.62]] 21:42, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

I thought that <nowiki>{{incomplete|Created by a BOT}}</nowiki> means that the template was inserted by a BOT. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 13:55, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
:It does mean that. But as others edit the page, they should keep the "incomplete" reason up-to-date. I've changed it to "incomplete|surely not quite complete yet..." ;) [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 14:28, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
::I will change this text template beginning at the Friday update when I'm back home. Happy NEW YEAR to everybody! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:16, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

It all seems to work except that the extremely strong seems to imply the opposite of the extremely weak [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 02:19, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
:I think the mistake is in the implication of the very weak to the extremely weak version. In fact, if there is any connection between those two statements it is an implication that goes the other way round. If the extremely strong version is true, we are not looking at the natural numbers. Thus, "Every number greater than 7 is the sum of two other numbers." does ''not'' imply "Numbers just keep going.", at all. (Also this accounts for no numbers at all, so the very weak version would still be correct.) Then there is the case that the extremely strong version is false. An implication from something false to anything is always true. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.200|173.245.53.200]] 07:30, 1 January 2014 (UTC)
---I disagree with this, as it is not incorrect to say that "numbers keep going towards seven" as there are an infinite number of numbers approaching 7. Also, the extremely weak conjecture could easily refer to numbers in the negative direction only. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.61}}

I always find it amusing that people assume that something phrased 'scientifically' is therefore right, whereas something phrased unscientifically (eg religious beliefs taken on faith) are automatically wrong. There seems to be an unexamined assumption that science is some magical dark art for uncovering infallible truths. Of course science is really just a methodological system for testing theories. Whenever I try to explain this concept, I try to come up with a general, untestable (non-scientific) assertion that is nonetheless true, alongside a very specific, repeatedly testable (falsifiable) assertion that is therefore eminently scientific, but which happens to be wrong. (Eg "it sometimes rains on Wednesday" and "it rains at least 100mm every Wednesday in Riyadh"). So for me this comic is a commentary on that principle - that the "strength" of a statement is only really impressive if it has also survived testing. [[User:Tarkov|Tarkov]] ([[User talk:Tarkov|talk]]) 10:47, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
:The assumption is not "that science is some magical dark art for uncovering infallible truths" but that science works. [[54: Science|Bitches]]. Also, the example you have given is quite bad considering that your first statement is so vague that it is essentially meaningless and apparently, what you want to say with your second statement is that falsifiable claims are falsifiable, which is pretty trivial. Finally, the statements that are phrased unscientifically are not assumed to be automatically wrong but they are impossible to be proven or disproven and are often worded so vaguely that nobody in the known universe knows just what the hell they are supposed to even mean. They are just empty phrases that carry no information whatsoever. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.200|173.245.53.200]] 07:30, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

According to the strong twin prime conjecture, all positive numbers greater than one are prime, due to 2 and 3 both being prime and extrapolation on primes from there. Thus, this nearly proves the very strong Goldbach conjecture, excluding one. Should this be noted in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.4|108.162.237.4]] 02:08, 1 January 2014 (UTC)(Kyt)

: I don't know if it's worth complicating things to bring the matter up. It's potentially more complicated than a simple error; in Goldbach's day, people still sometimes thought of 1 as a prime number (which simplifies his conjectures). —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:00, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

This also reminds me of those psychological tests that ask how you feel about this and that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.226.228|108.162.226.228]] 15:02, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Don't forget the first rule of tautology club. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.236|141.101.98.236]] 18:07, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

;Moved from explain:
I disagree with this, as it is not incorrect to say that "numbers keep going towards seven" as there are an infinite number of numbers approaching 7. Also, the extremely weak conjecture could easily refer to numbers in the negative direction only. (Edited by some people.) --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:18, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

"Therefore, the "extremely strong" conjecture could not possibly imply (however indirectly) the validity of the "extremely weak" conjecture, as it would if proved true."
: It can be argued that since the "extremely strong" conjecture is obviously a contradiction (as in the logical sense, "a formula that's always false"), thereby, can imply any other formula. That is, if p is always false, then (p->q) for any q is always true. In this sense, if the "strong" version gets proved somehow, you get an inconsistent logical system, in which each and every formula can be proved as true, including those weaker forms. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.56|108.162.215.56]] 13:03, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

This sentence is problematic: "The weak conjecture does not, however, imply the strong conjecture." "A does not imply B" technically means "A and not B" which, I'm sure, isn't what was meant. I added "in any evident way" which I think corrects it. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.59|199.27.133.59]] 08:52, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

The paradoxical prime conjecture states that the paradoxical prime conjecture is false. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.220|108.162.250.220]] 07:58, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

KYT's conjecture - prime numbers pattern

KYT's conjecture is described as follows:

a is a positive integer and is even, a>=8, b=a+18, a=c+D, c, D,E are prime numbers.

a=c+D
b=c+E

E=D+18=b-c

There must be a prime number c that satisfies the two equations above.
More examples are as follows:

10=3+7;5+5
28=5+23;11+17
46=3+43;5+41;17+29;23+23
64=3+61;5+59;11+53 ;17+47;23+41
82=3+79;11+71 ;23+59;29+53;41+41

1535: Words for Pets

2019-03-05T00:36:11Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1535
| date = June 8, 2015
| title = Words for Pets
| image = words_for_pets.png
| titletext = Seventh year: Perfectly coherent words, but in the pet's language, not mine.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows four similar {{w|Euler diagram}}s, one for each of the first four years of living with a {{w|pet}}. The diagrams depict sets of words which have varying efficacy in actually identifying the pet, and each one shows how the words used by [[Randall]] to refer to his pet change year by year and becoming less and less specific as time goes on.

In the first year it is dominated by the actual name of the pet or words closely related. For example, a dog named Lassie might be called either "{{w|Lassie}}", "dog", "collie" or "boy/girl".

Moving on to the second year, these related words like "dog" and "collie" get more abundant while the actual name is seldom used. Phrases such as "good dog" or "here, boy" are likely common. Giving a dog the name "Dog" is so common that there is a {{tvtropes|ADogNamedDog|trope}} about that.

In the third year, the pet's name is no longer used at all and the owner probably uses simple phrases like "come" or "come here" to call the pet, omitting the name. This is also probably referring to expletives.

The fourth year entails the use of just any sound, not {{w|Coherence (linguistics)|coherent words}}. This may be referring to something like {{w|baby talk}} or attempted mimicry of the pet's vocalizations.

This development can be attributed to the fact that some animals don't listen to their own name but rather react to the sound of the voice of their owner. It could also refer to the growing bond between owner and the pet, as well as the effect described in [[231: Cat Proximity]].

The title text suggests that the inevitable result of this continuing pattern is that by the seventh year, Randall will be communicating with the pet in its own language. This might refer to the tendency of some pet owners to mimic or imitate their pets' vocalizations, as if speaking to them. Alternatively, this could be interpreted as a joke that pets don't have proper {{w|language}} and the owner has degenerated to a lack of language themselves as time goes on.

The title text and the caption makes it a little difficult to be certain if the comic refers to when you talk about your pet to other people ("my ''dog'' is always hungry") or when you call at it, which would be the only time it would make sense to use ''coherent words in the animals own language'' - "Woof" = come here.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the frame:]
:Words I use to refer to a pet over the years I live with it:

:[Inside the box are four diagrams. Each diagram contains three elliptical sections containing the previous one, each section is drawn identical from diagram to diagram and they are labeled the same way from diagram to diagram. A fourth section (a red ellipse) moves from diagram to diagram and its label changes from diagram to diagram.]

:[The red section of the first diagram mainly overlaps the innermost section, but about a third of it is in the second section. The labels are written above the three white sections and then inside the red section. The labels from inside and out and last the label of the red section:]
:The pet's name
:Words related to the pet
:Coherent words of any kind
:First year

:[The red section of the second diagram mainly overlaps the right part of the second section, but it just touches both the first and the third section. The labels are written above the three white sections and then inside the red section. The labels from inside and out and last the label of the red section:]
:The pet's name
:Words related to the pet
:Coherent words of any kind
:Second year

:[The red section of the third diagram mainly overlaps the right part of the third section, but about a third of it is inside the second section and a small part is outside of the third section. The labels are written above the three white sections and then inside the red section. The labels from inside and out and last the label of the red section:]
:The pet's name
:Words related to the pet
:Coherent words of any kind
:Third year

:[The red section of the fourth diagram is completely outside the third section and has to be so far to the right, that the other sections has been moved from the center of the frame to the left. The labels are written above the three white sections and then inside the red section. The labels from inside and out and last the label of the red section:]
:The pet's name
:Words related to the pet
:Coherent words of any kind
:Fourth year onward

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Euler diagrams]]

2116: .NORM Normal File Format

2019-02-27T17:22:33Z

162.158.58.243: /* Transcript */ done

{{comic
| number = 2116
| date = February 25, 2019
| title = .NORM Normal File Format
| image = norm_normal_file_format.png
| titletext = At some point, compression becomes an aesthetic design choice. Luckily, SVG is a really flexible format, so there's no reason it can't support vector JPEG artifacts.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball's friend seems to have sent him a rather unusual datafile passed off as a new "normal" standard.

Here is a photo example of what Cueball might have seen, but presumably with numbers or other data rather than words:

[[File:XKCD2116.norm.jpg|100px]]

People who work with data, and need data sent to them electronically, typically need it sent in a way that they can easily use it – either in a text format that can be copy-pasted, or as a spreadsheet or CSV file that can be imported into a spreadsheet program, or such.
Information sent by Cueball's friend in this fashion – a photograph of a spreadsheet embedded into a word processing file – is absolutely useless for any purpose beyond being looked at. The recipient has no choice but to retype the entire data set, or attempt to use optical character recognition (OCR), and hope that no mistakes are made in the process.

Any functional relationships between data (such as formulas used to compute data values) have been lost. Further, the size of the data is bloated by being converted first from numbers and formulas into text, then text into graphics, and then from graphics to embedded graphics in a word processing document. This adds nothing to the content, and only adds steps to the process of retrieving the data.

However useless this kind of data manipulation might be, it is becoming more and more common, especially as more non-computer literate people find "creative" ways to exchange information. Cueball's friend suggests that this is now a normal way to send files, and that Cueball should update his system to support this new type of file, represented by a ".norm" suffix.

The caption acknowledges that this has become a ''de facto'' standard and that we should just accept and formalize it.

The comic image links to a [https://twitter.com/openelex/status/853977391747801088 tweet by OpenElections] that displays an Excel file produced by the City of Detroit that contains a lookup table for the city's absentee precincts in 2016. The data had been input as clip art (images) of the values, instead of being entered in the spreadsheet cells.

This comic is reminiscent of the comic [[763:_Workaround|Workaround]], which also describes convoluted formats.

The title text suggests that eventually compression (or at least compression with data/quality loss) will be unnecessary as technology improves in the future. SVG ({{w|Scalable Vector Graphics}}) is a vector graphic format that is fundamentally a lossless format, representing images using geometric figures. {{w|JPEG}} is a lossy format, representing images as an array of rectangles approximating the original image. Randall suggests that some people in the future may choose to include JPEG artifacts to SVG vector graphics for its "aesthetics", perhaps as a throwback to when lower quality JPEG images were commonplace, or as a form of {{w|glitch art}}. It is possible that some in the future will view JPEG artifacts as giving their images a quaint/retro feel, much the way that some people today use sepia-tone filters on their images.

This is made even more reasonable by the fact that the SVG spec employs a lot of filters, and already can embed regular pixel-based JPEG files. Furthermore, it allows JavaScript to be used to manipulate objects, meaning such an effect may be implementable in the current SVG 2.0 spec.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is at a computer. Someone is talking to him from off-panel.]
:Voice: I sent you the data.
:Cueball: Thanks!
:Cueball: …this is a Word document containing an embedded photo you took of your screen with the spreadsheet open.
:Voice: Yeah? Does your computer not support .NORM files? Maybe you need to update.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Since everyone sends stuff this way anyway, we should just formalize it as a standard.

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]

{{comic discussion}}

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-22T17:34:00Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ add for "random walk" note

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Technical analysis}} is a field which attempts to study stock markets, cryptocurrency markets, etc. statistically (without regard to the fundamental value of the assets), seeking to profit off the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the {{w|time value of money}}. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a {{w|Candlestick chart|stock price chart}}, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense from the perspective of technical analysis, but do accurately describe the graph itself: "{{w|allegro}}" (a musical term used to set the tempo at the beginning of a score), "{{w|prologue}}" (an introductory section of a play, book, or similar), "{{w|lumbar}} support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"), "{{w|uptalk}}" (a speech pattern). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

{| class="wikitable"
|+Graph labels and possible meanings
|-
|{{w|Allegro_(music)|Allegro}}
|Tempo notation in music: played quickly and brightly - a series of very small changes in this region of the graph might suggest notes played quickly
|-
|Prologue
|A prologue is an introduction to a book or other work; this presumably refers to the initial period of minimal growth which is moving toward a much more active period
|-
|Decline
|Describes a negative trend
|-
|Doldrums
|A stagnant section of the graph with little movement
|-
|Spline
|A {{w|Spline (mathematics)|spline}} is a mathematical means of generating a smooth curve, referring to the smoothed curve shown here
|-
|{{w|Lumbar}} Support
|A cushion or other device that provides support to the lower part of the ''spine'', a play on the preceding ''spline''
|-
|Renewal
|Strong upward trend; also might suggest the growth of green bars, like greening up in the spring
|-
|Hmm!
|The three circles this label points to mark periods of growth that immediately preceded a decline. Ideally for someone performing a technical analysis, if such occurrences can be foreseen accurately it would be a major boon for the stockholder, as they could be tipped to sell it right away before the price drops and net a cash profit.
|-
|Hark! The cliffs!
|A long bar suggesting a steep cliff
|-
|Declination
|Another term for a downward trend
|-
|Inflection
|A point at which the slope of a graph changes
|-
|Uptalk
|A pattern of speech in which each sentence ends with rising inflection? like a question? A play on "uptick", and also on the second meaning of "inflection"
|-
|Bathtub
|possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"
|-
|These two points define a line! Promising signal.
|In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line; also looks somewhat like a communication line between two towers. It is tempting when looking at market charts to draw imaginary lines that connect the extrema and hope it means something about the future. The drawn line in this case also just so happens to ignore the many periods of decline marked under "Declination" -- in this case it did eventually recover, but later labels (such as "likely to continue forever" at the end) suggest that this is more likely a case where blind optimism just so happens to have been right for those two particular points (as opposed to the many more possible pairs of points where the line wouldn't be so positive).
|-
|Yikes
|
|-
|Wrong!
|The circled pair of bars are the only pair in the whole graph where two red bars (negative growth) that large are next to each other -- larger red bars exist, but not next to another one of similar magnitude. Labeling it "wrong" suggests the analyst is choosing to ignore reality by throwing out actual past data rather than revise the theory being held.
|-
|If I add some lines here I can convince myself I'm doing something more than just seeing patterns in the graph of a random walk
|A {{w|random walk}} is a mathematical object that describes a path that consists of a succession of random steps. Randall is trying to convince himself that the patterns in the stock chart are more meaningful than just random data. The {{w|Random walk hypothesis|random walk hypothesis}} is a financial theory that states that stock prices evolve according to a random walk, thus price changes are random and cannot be predicted.
|-
|Slope
|The {{w|slope}} of a graph is the ratio of the "vertical change" to the "horizontal change". This could also be a play on a second meaning of slope, meaning a rising or falling surface in general.
|-
|Could be an omen
|
|-
|Red + Green = Christmas
|Red and green are traditional colors for the {{w|Christmas}} holiday in the U.S.
|-
|Likely to continue forever
|This is the opinion held by everyone who buys at an all time high. It's been rising so much, surely it's the best time to buy! We could make millions! Such times are generally followed by a sharp downturn resulting in significant losses, as can be seen historically farther back on the chart. Cryptocurrency communities have significant members who call themselves "hodlers" -- these people always trust that the price will eventually go up even higher, because it has recovered so many times in the past.
|}

The title text is a quote from {{w|James Tobin}} (from his 1984 paper [https://economicsociologydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tobin-on-the-efficiency-of-the-financial-system.pdf ''On the efficiency of the financial system'']) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. The quote was about the stock market and high speed traders in particular. It comments on the 'financialization' of the economy, where activities like speculation and abstracted financial products have become an increasingly large part of the economy, as opposed to investment in productive industry.

Interestingly, this comic appeared the day after [https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/billionaire-wealth-grows-by-25-billion-a-day-while-poorest-wealth-falls/ Oxfam] reported that the world's 2,200 billionaires had added 12% to their wealth in 2018, while the 3.8 billion people comprising the poorest half of the world's population had lost 11%. Perhaps this prompted what appears to be Randall's jab at those whose business is merely making money.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A series of red and green box-and-whisker plots form a line that starts in the bottom left corner of the image and wiggles up to the top right corner, with a series of peaks and troughs that resemble a typical stock market diagram. The diagram is annotated with lines, arrows and text.]

::[Title in top left corner]
::The basics of technical analysis

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes:]
::Allegro

::[A horizontal bracket encompasses the next three sections]
::Prologue

::[Slope becomes slightly negative. Mostly red boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Decline

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Doldrums

::[Line curves upwards with mostly green boxes, with a dashed black line below:]
::Spline

::[Three green boxes at minor peaks in the line are circled and indicated with arrows:]
::[Hmm!]

::[A section with slight positive slope and a mixture of red and green boxes, with a solid black line below:]
::Lumbar support

::[Slope increases. All green boxes, with a black line through the centre:]
::Renewal

::[A sharp upwards incline, with two large green boxes:]
::Hark! The cliffs!

::[Two black dots and a dashed black line connect two major peaks:]
::These two points define a line! Promising signal

::[Inside trough between two major peaks is a roughly drawn black triangle:]
::Bathtub

::[Slope becomes negative, mostly red boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Declination

::[At the lowest point of the trough:]
::Inflection

::[Slope becomes positive, mostly green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Uptalk

::[Slight negative slope, with large error bars. Mixture of red and green boxes. One red box is marked with an arrow:]
::Yikes!

::[Negative slope, all red boxes. Gap between two central boxes is circled:]
::Wrong!

::[Line rises then falls. Mixture of red and green boxes with non-parallel dashed black lines above and below:]
::If I add some lines here I can convince myself I'm doing something more than just seeing patterns in a graph of a random walk.

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Slope!

::[One error bar on a green box is circled:]
::Could be an omen?

::[Arrow indicating peak:]
::Red + Green = Christmas!

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a wiggly black arrow through the centre. A separate arrow points off the edge of the page:]
::Likely to continue forever

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Christmas]] 
[[Category:Music]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-22T17:29:08Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ fix wlink

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Technical analysis}} is a field which attempts to study stock markets, cryptocurrency markets, etc. statistically (without regard to the fundamental value of the assets), seeking to profit off the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the {{w|time value of money}}. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a {{w|Candlestick chart|stock price chart}}, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense from the perspective of technical analysis, but do accurately describe the graph itself: "{{w|allegro}}" (a musical term used to set the tempo at the beginning of a score), "{{w|prologue}}" (an introductory section of a play, book, or similar), "{{w|lumbar}} support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"), "{{w|uptalk}}" (a speech pattern). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

{| class="wikitable"
|+Graph labels and possible meanings
|-
|{{w|Allegro_(music)|Allegro}}
|Tempo notation in music: played quickly and brightly - a series of very small changes in this region of the graph might suggest notes played quickly
|-
|Prologue
|A prologue is an introduction to a book or other work; this presumably refers to the initial period of minimal growth which is moving toward a much more active period
|-
|Decline
|Describes a negative trend
|-
|Doldrums
|A stagnant section of the graph with little movement
|-
|Spline
|A {{w|Spline (mathematics)|spline}} is a mathematical means of generating a smooth curve, referring to the smoothed curve shown here
|-
|{{w|Lumbar}} Support
|A cushion or other device that provides support to the lower part of the ''spine'', a play on the preceding ''spline''
|-
|Renewal
|Strong upward trend; also might suggest the growth of green bars, like greening up in the spring
|-
|Hmm!
|The three circles this label points to mark periods of growth that immediately preceded a decline. Ideally for someone performing a technical analysis, if such occurrences can be foreseen accurately it would be a major boon for the stockholder, as they could be tipped to sell it right away before the price drops and net a cash profit.
|-
|Hark! The cliffs!
|A long bar suggesting a steep cliff
|-
|Declination
|Another term for a downward trend
|-
|Inflection
|A point at which the slope of a graph changes
|-
|Uptalk
|A pattern of speech in which each sentence ends with rising inflection? like a question? A play on "uptick", and also on the second meaning of "inflection"
|-
|Bathtub
|possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"
|-
|These two points define a line! Promising signal.
|In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line; also looks somewhat like a communication line between two towers. It is tempting when looking at market charts to draw imaginary lines that connect the extrema and hope it means something about the future. The drawn line in this case also just so happens to ignore the many periods of decline marked under "Declination" -- in this case it did eventually recover, but later labels (such as "likely to continue forever" at the end) suggest that this is more likely a case where blind optimism just so happens to have been right for those two particular points (as opposed to the many more possible pairs of points where the line wouldn't be so positive).
|-
|Yikes
|
|-
|Wrong!
|The circled pair of bars are the only pair in the whole graph where two red bars (negative growth) that large are next to each other -- larger red bars exist, but not next to another one of similar magnitude. Labeling it "wrong" suggests the analyst is choosing to ignore reality by throwing out actual past data rather than revise the theory being held.
|-
|Slope
|The {{w|slope}} of a graph is the ratio of the "vertical change" to the "horizontal change". This could also be a play on a second meaning of slope, meaning a rising or falling surface in general.
|-
|Could be an omen
|
|-
|Red + Green = Christmas
|Red and green are traditional colors for the {{w|Christmas}} holiday in the U.S.
|-
|Likely to continue forever
|This is the opinion held by everyone who buys at an all time high. It's been rising so much, surely it's the best time to buy! We could make millions! Such times are generally followed by a sharp downturn resulting in significant losses, as can be seen historically farther back on the chart. Cryptocurrency communities have significant members who call themselves "hodlers" -- these people always trust that the price will eventually go up even higher, because it has recovered so many times in the past.
|}

The title text is a quote from {{w|James Tobin}} (from his 1984 paper [https://economicsociologydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tobin-on-the-efficiency-of-the-financial-system.pdf ''On the efficiency of the financial system'']) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. The quote was about the stock market and high speed traders in particular. It comments on the 'financialization' of the economy, where activities like speculation and abstracted financial products have become an increasingly large part of the economy, as opposed to investment in productive industry.

Interestingly, this comic appeared the day after [https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/billionaire-wealth-grows-by-25-billion-a-day-while-poorest-wealth-falls/ Oxfam] reported that the world's 2,200 billionaires had added 12% to their wealth in 2018, while the 3.8 billion people comprising the poorest half of the world's population had lost 11%. Perhaps this prompted what appears to be Randall's jab at those whose business is merely making money.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A series of red and green box-and-whisker plots form a line that starts in the bottom left corner of the image and wiggles up to the top right corner, with a series of peaks and troughs that resemble a typical stock market diagram. The diagram is annotated with lines, arrows and text.]

::[Title in top left corner]
::The basics of technical analysis

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes:]
::Allegro

::[A horizontal bracket encompasses the next three sections]
::Prologue

::[Slope becomes slightly negative. Mostly red boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Decline

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Doldrums

::[Line curves upwards with mostly green boxes, with a dashed black line below:]
::Spline

::[Three green boxes at minor peaks in the line are circled and indicated with arrows:]
::[Hmm!]

::[A section with slight positive slope and a mixture of red and green boxes, with a solid black line below:]
::Lumbar support

::[Slope increases. All green boxes, with a black line through the centre:]
::Renewal

::[A sharp upwards incline, with two large green boxes:]
::Hark! The cliffs!

::[Two black dots and a dashed black line connect two major peaks:]
::These two points define a line! Promising signal

::[Inside trough between two major peaks is a roughly drawn black triangle:]
::Bathtub

::[Slope becomes negative, mostly red boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Declination

::[At the lowest point of the trough:]
::Inflection

::[Slope becomes positive, mostly green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Uptalk

::[Slight negative slope, with large error bars. Mixture of red and green boxes. One red box is marked with an arrow:]
::Yikes!

::[Negative slope, all red boxes. Gap between two central boxes is circled:]
::Wrong!

::[Line rises then falls. Mixture of red and green boxes with non-parallel dashed black lines above and below:]
::If I add some lines here I can convince myself I'm doing something more than just seeing patterns in a graph of a random walk.

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Slope!

::[One error bar on a green box is circled:]
::Could be an omen?

::[Arrow indicating peak:]
::Red + Green = Christmas!

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a wiggly black arrow through the centre. A separate arrow points off the edge of the page:]
::Likely to continue forever

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Christmas]] 
[[Category:Music]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-22T17:27:21Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ more direct

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Technical analysis}} is a field which attempts to study stock markets, cryptocurrency markets, etc. statistically (without regard to the fundamental value of the assets), seeking to profit off the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the {{w|time value of money}}. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a {{w|Candlestick chart|stock price chart}}, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense from the perspective of technical analysis, but do accurately describe the graph itself: "{{w|allegro}}" (a musical term used to set the tempo at the beginning of a score), "{{w|prologue}}" (an introductory section of a play, book, or similar), "{{w|lumbar}} support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"), "{{w|uptalk}}" (a speech pattern). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

{| class="wikitable"
|+Graph labels and possible meanings
|-
|{{w|Allegro_(music)|Allegro}}
|Tempo notation in music: played quickly and brightly - a series of very small changes in this region of the graph might suggest notes played quickly
|-
|Prologue
|A prologue is an introduction to a book or other work; this presumably refers to the initial period of minimal growth which is moving toward a much more active period
|-
|Decline
|Describes a negative trend
|-
|Doldrums
|A stagnant section of the graph with little movement
|-
|Spline
|A {{w|spline}} is a mathematical means of generating a smooth curve, referring to the smoothed curve shown here
|-
|{{w|Lumbar}} Support
|A cushion or other device that provides support to the lower part of the ''spine'', a play on the preceding ''spline''
|-
|Renewal
|Strong upward trend; also might suggest the growth of green bars, like greening up in the spring
|-
|Hmm!
|The three circles this label points to mark periods of growth that immediately preceded a decline. Ideally for someone performing a technical analysis, if such occurrences can be foreseen accurately it would be a major boon for the stockholder, as they could be tipped to sell it right away before the price drops and net a cash profit.
|-
|Hark! The cliffs!
|A long bar suggesting a steep cliff
|-
|Declination
|Another term for a downward trend
|-
|Inflection
|A point at which the slope of a graph changes
|-
|Uptalk
|A pattern of speech in which each sentence ends with rising inflection? like a question? A play on "uptick", and also on the second meaning of "inflection"
|-
|Bathtub
|possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"
|-
|These two points define a line! Promising signal.
|In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line; also looks somewhat like a communication line between two towers. It is tempting when looking at market charts to draw imaginary lines that connect the extrema and hope it means something about the future. The drawn line in this case also just so happens to ignore the many periods of decline marked under "Declination" -- in this case it did eventually recover, but later labels (such as "likely to continue forever" at the end) suggest that this is more likely a case where blind optimism just so happens to have been right for those two particular points (as opposed to the many more possible pairs of points where the line wouldn't be so positive).
|-
|Yikes
|
|-
|Wrong!
|The circled pair of bars are the only pair in the whole graph where two red bars (negative growth) that large are next to each other -- larger red bars exist, but not next to another one of similar magnitude. Labeling it "wrong" suggests the analyst is choosing to ignore reality by throwing out actual past data rather than revise the theory being held.
|-
|Slope
|The {{w|slope}} of a graph is the ratio of the "vertical change" to the "horizontal change". This could also be a play on a second meaning of slope, meaning a rising or falling surface in general.
|-
|Could be an omen
|
|-
|Red + Green = Christmas
|Red and green are traditional colors for the {{w|Christmas}} holiday in the U.S.
|-
|Likely to continue forever
|This is the opinion held by everyone who buys at an all time high. It's been rising so much, surely it's the best time to buy! We could make millions! Such times are generally followed by a sharp downturn resulting in significant losses, as can be seen historically farther back on the chart. Cryptocurrency communities have significant members who call themselves "hodlers" -- these people always trust that the price will eventually go up even higher, because it has recovered so many times in the past.
|}

The title text is a quote from {{w|James Tobin}} (from his 1984 paper [https://economicsociologydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tobin-on-the-efficiency-of-the-financial-system.pdf ''On the efficiency of the financial system'']) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. The quote was about the stock market and high speed traders in particular. It comments on the 'financialization' of the economy, where activities like speculation and abstracted financial products have become an increasingly large part of the economy, as opposed to investment in productive industry.

Interestingly, this comic appeared the day after [https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/billionaire-wealth-grows-by-25-billion-a-day-while-poorest-wealth-falls/ Oxfam] reported that the world's 2,200 billionaires had added 12% to their wealth in 2018, while the 3.8 billion people comprising the poorest half of the world's population had lost 11%. Perhaps this prompted what appears to be Randall's jab at those whose business is merely making money.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A series of red and green box-and-whisker plots form a line that starts in the bottom left corner of the image and wiggles up to the top right corner, with a series of peaks and troughs that resemble a typical stock market diagram. The diagram is annotated with lines, arrows and text.]

::[Title in top left corner]
::The basics of technical analysis

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes:]
::Allegro

::[A horizontal bracket encompasses the next three sections]
::Prologue

::[Slope becomes slightly negative. Mostly red boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Decline

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Doldrums

::[Line curves upwards with mostly green boxes, with a dashed black line below:]
::Spline

::[Three green boxes at minor peaks in the line are circled and indicated with arrows:]
::[Hmm!]

::[A section with slight positive slope and a mixture of red and green boxes, with a solid black line below:]
::Lumbar support

::[Slope increases. All green boxes, with a black line through the centre:]
::Renewal

::[A sharp upwards incline, with two large green boxes:]
::Hark! The cliffs!

::[Two black dots and a dashed black line connect two major peaks:]
::These two points define a line! Promising signal

::[Inside trough between two major peaks is a roughly drawn black triangle:]
::Bathtub

::[Slope becomes negative, mostly red boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Declination

::[At the lowest point of the trough:]
::Inflection

::[Slope becomes positive, mostly green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Uptalk

::[Slight negative slope, with large error bars. Mixture of red and green boxes. One red box is marked with an arrow:]
::Yikes!

::[Negative slope, all red boxes. Gap between two central boxes is circled:]
::Wrong!

::[Line rises then falls. Mixture of red and green boxes with non-parallel dashed black lines above and below:]
::If I add some lines here I can convince myself I'm doing something more than just seeing patterns in a graph of a random walk.

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Slope!

::[One error bar on a green box is circled:]
::Could be an omen?

::[Arrow indicating peak:]
::Red + Green = Christmas!

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a wiggly black arrow through the centre. A separate arrow points off the edge of the page:]
::Likely to continue forever

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Christmas]] 
[[Category:Music]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-22T17:26:42Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */ add, wlinks

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Technical analysis}} is a field which attempts to study stock markets, cryptocurrency markets, etc. statistically (without regard to the fundamental value of the assets), seeking to profit off the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the {{w|time value of money}}. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a {{w|Candlestick chart|stock price chart}}, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense from the perspective of technical analysis, but do accurately describe the graph itself: "{{w|allegro}}" (a musical term used to set the tempo at the beginning of a score), "{{w|prologue}}" (an introductory section of a play, book, or similar), "{{w|lumbar}} support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"), "{{w|uptalk}}" (a speech pattern). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

{| class="wikitable"
|+Graph labels and possible meanings
|-
|{{w|Allegro}}
|Tempo notation in music: played quickly and brightly - a series of very small changes in this region of the graph might suggest notes played quickly
|-
|Prologue
|A prologue is an introduction to a book or other work; this presumably refers to the initial period of minimal growth which is moving toward a much more active period
|-
|Decline
|Describes a negative trend
|-
|Doldrums
|A stagnant section of the graph with little movement
|-
|Spline
|A {{w|spline}} is a mathematical means of generating a smooth curve, referring to the smoothed curve shown here
|-
|{{w|Lumbar}} Support
|A cushion or other device that provides support to the lower part of the ''spine'', a play on the preceding ''spline''
|-
|Renewal
|Strong upward trend; also might suggest the growth of green bars, like greening up in the spring
|-
|Hmm!
|The three circles this label points to mark periods of growth that immediately preceded a decline. Ideally for someone performing a technical analysis, if such occurrences can be foreseen accurately it would be a major boon for the stockholder, as they could be tipped to sell it right away before the price drops and net a cash profit.
|-
|Hark! The cliffs!
|A long bar suggesting a steep cliff
|-
|Declination
|Another term for a downward trend
|-
|Inflection
|A point at which the slope of a graph changes
|-
|Uptalk
|A pattern of speech in which each sentence ends with rising inflection? like a question? A play on "uptick", and also on the second meaning of "inflection"
|-
|Bathtub
|possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"
|-
|These two points define a line! Promising signal.
|In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line; also looks somewhat like a communication line between two towers. It is tempting when looking at market charts to draw imaginary lines that connect the extrema and hope it means something about the future. The drawn line in this case also just so happens to ignore the many periods of decline marked under "Declination" -- in this case it did eventually recover, but later labels (such as "likely to continue forever" at the end) suggest that this is more likely a case where blind optimism just so happens to have been right for those two particular points (as opposed to the many more possible pairs of points where the line wouldn't be so positive).
|-
|Yikes
|
|-
|Wrong!
|The circled pair of bars are the only pair in the whole graph where two red bars (negative growth) that large are next to each other -- larger red bars exist, but not next to another one of similar magnitude. Labeling it "wrong" suggests the analyst is choosing to ignore reality by throwing out actual past data rather than revise the theory being held.
|-
|Slope
|The {{w|slope}} of a graph is the ratio of the "vertical change" to the "horizontal change". This could also be a play on a second meaning of slope, meaning a rising or falling surface in general.
|-
|Could be an omen
|
|-
|Red + Green = Christmas
|Red and green are traditional colors for the {{w|Christmas}} holiday in the U.S.
|-
|Likely to continue forever
|This is the opinion held by everyone who buys at an all time high. It's been rising so much, surely it's the best time to buy! We could make millions! Such times are generally followed by a sharp downturn resulting in significant losses, as can be seen historically farther back on the chart. Cryptocurrency communities have significant members who call themselves "hodlers" -- these people always trust that the price will eventually go up even higher, because it has recovered so many times in the past.
|}

The title text is a quote from {{w|James Tobin}} (from his 1984 paper [https://economicsociologydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tobin-on-the-efficiency-of-the-financial-system.pdf ''On the efficiency of the financial system'']) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. The quote was about the stock market and high speed traders in particular. It comments on the 'financialization' of the economy, where activities like speculation and abstracted financial products have become an increasingly large part of the economy, as opposed to investment in productive industry.

Interestingly, this comic appeared the day after [https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/billionaire-wealth-grows-by-25-billion-a-day-while-poorest-wealth-falls/ Oxfam] reported that the world's 2,200 billionaires had added 12% to their wealth in 2018, while the 3.8 billion people comprising the poorest half of the world's population had lost 11%. Perhaps this prompted what appears to be Randall's jab at those whose business is merely making money.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A series of red and green box-and-whisker plots form a line that starts in the bottom left corner of the image and wiggles up to the top right corner, with a series of peaks and troughs that resemble a typical stock market diagram. The diagram is annotated with lines, arrows and text.]

::[Title in top left corner]
::The basics of technical analysis

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes:]
::Allegro

::[A horizontal bracket encompasses the next three sections]
::Prologue

::[Slope becomes slightly negative. Mostly red boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Decline

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Doldrums

::[Line curves upwards with mostly green boxes, with a dashed black line below:]
::Spline

::[Three green boxes at minor peaks in the line are circled and indicated with arrows:]
::[Hmm!]

::[A section with slight positive slope and a mixture of red and green boxes, with a solid black line below:]
::Lumbar support

::[Slope increases. All green boxes, with a black line through the centre:]
::Renewal

::[A sharp upwards incline, with two large green boxes:]
::Hark! The cliffs!

::[Two black dots and a dashed black line connect two major peaks:]
::These two points define a line! Promising signal

::[Inside trough between two major peaks is a roughly drawn black triangle:]
::Bathtub

::[Slope becomes negative, mostly red boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Declination

::[At the lowest point of the trough:]
::Inflection

::[Slope becomes positive, mostly green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Uptalk

::[Slight negative slope, with large error bars. Mixture of red and green boxes. One red box is marked with an arrow:]
::Yikes!

::[Negative slope, all red boxes. Gap between two central boxes is circled:]
::Wrong!

::[Line rises then falls. Mixture of red and green boxes with non-parallel dashed black lines above and below:]
::If I add some lines here I can convince myself I'm doing something more than just seeing patterns in a graph of a random walk.

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Slope!

::[One error bar on a green box is circled:]
::Could be an omen?

::[Arrow indicating peak:]
::Red + Green = Christmas!

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a wiggly black arrow through the centre. A separate arrow points off the edge of the page:]
::Likely to continue forever

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Christmas]] 
[[Category:Music]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:1583: NASA Press Conference

2018-05-23T22:19:15Z

162.158.58.243:

I think the alt image text refers to the Elon Musk's idea of Mars colonization with nuclear bombs
[[User:This that|This that]] ([[User talk:This that|talk]]) 10:00, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:Yep! I suppose that too.--[[User:Complynx|Complynx]] ([[User talk:Complynx|talk]]) 10:33, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:Um, Musk didn't suggest colonizing with nuclear bombs. (Lots of Little Boy bombs on Mars running around with their moms and dads?) He said nuking the poles would be a fast way to get Mars warmer and more Earth-like so it could be colonized with people. - Equinox [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.178|108.162.238.178]] 14:10, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::And we realize he was throwing it out there as a terrible hypothetically quick way of making Mars habitable. He is not olanning on doing that in any way. He is lookibg at making it habitable, but he does say it will take quite a long time to make it happen. Many, many years with biodomes. I know this doesn't change what is saidnin the comic, but let's all realize he's not planning on actually doing it. {{unsigned|Sean timmons}}
:::And let us ALSO keep in mind that even if Elon Musk wanted to and was planning on going through with it, he would not be able to acquire nuclear weapons. Say what you want about the government's excessive reliance on federal contractors, but we still keep NORAD in-house. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 21:20, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Maybe this could be linked somewhere: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/08/how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars.html [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:27, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

the star wars thing should be explained. i realise that the possibility of anyone who doesn't already know caring at all is pretty small, but this ''is'' explain xkcd after all. (https://youtu.be/g6PDcBhODqo?t=93 scene?)--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.34|141.101.98.34]] 11:52, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
: Yeah, but what were they really trying to accomplish? I've never questioned this before. I feel so alone and incomplete.... [[User:Puck0687|Puck0687]] ([[User talk:Puck0687|talk]]) 15:37, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
: I have the feeling it was just someone trying to cause trouble. They saw Luke and Obi Wan, knew that they weren't regulars there and decided to pick a fight with a n00b. Kind of like YouTube comments. Obi Wan slicing off Ponda Baba's arm was the equivalent of a presumed n00b on the YouTube comments making a "your mom" burn. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.134|173.245.55.134]] 15:49, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Is there something in the books that explains that? [[User:NotLock|NotLock]] ([[User talk:NotLock|talk]]) 16:18, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Yeah, Obi Wan showing off that he was a Jedi knight (when he just showed in the last scene that he also has mind control powers) was a dick move, and the opposite of keeping a low profile in a city under Stormtrooper control. But he had to do it, or else the audience wouldn't have known that a lightsaber was a deadly weapon until the duel with Darth Vader. So, yeah, it's a good question. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.189|108.162.237.189]] 18:36, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::: Could Ben do a "This isn't the fight you're trying to pick" on both the two 'gentlemen'? ''And'' possibly anybody else currently interested in whether these two were easy pickings or not? The stormtroopers are perhaps easy to sway (indoctrinated to follow orders, so if you can tweak ''just'' the right bit... perhaps even make 'em think it was their commanding officer that told them it wasn't those droids, over their comsets) but this is a pair of bruisers, probably the resident 'noob testers', ''maybe'' even given this task by someone even more fearsome who likes to keep his hands clean.
::: It's not a low-profile approach, whipping out the blade, but it's not a stormtrooper-friendly bar and it conversely probably kept things quiet enough for long enough to start the process of getting off-world, compared to a brawl that spills out into the street. Instead, it was quick and surgical and could have been mistaken for some other act of seemingly random violence with an energy weapon, a bit like when Han shot Greedo (first!), over in the side-booth.
::: Word would spread, but details would be lost in the retelling (perhaps a general mind-force attempt by Ben to cloud the issue in the minds of all the witnesses; easy to do when everyone's already readily in a "I was never there, I never saw anything" mindset to start with, when they were doubtless prepared to turn a blind eye to a barside-assault upon Luke) and, besides which, there ''are'' no Jedi left. Something else must have happened, and they were deliberately not paying attention, right?
::: Or it could be a cock-up in the script, but as it's not the Prequel Trilogy, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 14:47, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
:I came to this page specifically because I now need an answer to that question. Thank-you, fellow explainers. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.158|108.162.250.158]] 05:13, 24 May 2016 (UTC)
:I also came here for the answer to that question. Thanks much! (I still think it should be included in the actual explanation, though.)
I think the "is it ruined" line of questions in the third panel is treating Mars as a smartphone, considering Mars to be damaged because it "got wet" and asking if Mars will be okay after it "dries out". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.42|108.162.216.42]] 18:14, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::actually, I think it refers to a mars bar. If that gets (too) wet, it's not really edible anymore... {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.105.180}}
:::I think it means that mars was "cool" until news about it having water made it not cool anymore. Randall visits 4chan and in that board people enjoy things until they get popular, as popularity brings a lot of undesirable people to a fandom and kills the fun for them. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.212|141.101.98.212]] 00:19, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

Could we maybe include a few examples of ill-informed questions from previous press conferences? {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.129}}
:: [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2771075/First-Russian-woman-International-Space-Station-gets-angry-pre-flight-press-conference-asked-hair-make-up.html Here] is an example. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 14:04, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

So apparently no one thought moss and cockroaches was a good idea? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.225|162.158.38.225]] 14:21, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

In the second panel, I don't think he is asking how the news impacts the fields of sports and medicine. He is literally asking how the data compares with data from those fields. They are two fields which are often using data for comparisons within the field, and it is nonsensical to compare data for data's sake.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.144|108.162.250.144]] 00:31, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

For a moment I thought he was asking if the water would be fixed when it dries out, which added another layer of surrealism to the proceedings. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.243|162.158.58.243]] 22:19, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

1377: Fish

2017-12-29T19:31:46Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1377
| date = June 4, 2014
| title = Fish
| image = fish.png
| titletext = [Astronomer peers into telescope] [Jaws theme begins playing]
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Fermi Paradox}} is the contradiction that arises between high estimates of the likelihood of {{w|extraterrestial life}} and the fact that no evidence for it has thus far been found.

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are having a conversation regarding this — since new planets are found all the time around distant stars, Cueball comments that this makes it an even greater paradox. Megan suggests that perhaps our search for extraterrestrial life is like looking at a patch of ocean floor looking for a fish. The diver knows that there must be a fish somewhere, but is unable to actually find it. She then goes on to ask why the fish would be hidden — i.e. camouflaged, and what it means about the remaining fish. The suggestion is that the fish would be hidden to avoid being eaten by predators, and perhaps the reason no extraterrestrial life is sending any sign of existence back is that they fear they might be destroyed soon after they revealed their location. Maybe they have even actively tried to hide the presence of their entire planet if they obtain the technological means. This potentially refers to the [http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/gif/1983QJRAS..24..283B/0000296.000.html Deadly Probes scenario] where a space faring species has developed deadly probes that self replicate and spread through the void between the stars - homing in on radio signals and destroying young civilizations in the cradle...

The camouflaged fish could be identified by using more sophisticated technologies like infrared cameras. Looking at the Earth from space beyond {{w|Low Earth orbit}} only with the naked eye wouldn't show any hint to our {{w|ecosystem}}. This is like the actual possibility in astronomy when observing {{w|Exoplanet|exoplanets}} — the nature of those more than 1,500 known planets is unknown due to the lack of better technologies to the scientists. And there are a couple of hundred billion planets at our galaxy still camouflaged to human scientists.

The final panels take the metaphor further, suggesting that there is literally a planet sized shark swimming through space eating planets, and since the view is panning away from earth and over to the shark, the shark seems to be heading our way. It looks like Earth is the next fish, presumably because we did not reach a high enough technology level in time to recognize the danger and hide.

This also explains the title text that has the theme from the movie ''{{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}'' playing while astronomers look into their telescopes. This may also be a reference to the film ''{{w|Alien (film)|Alien}}'', which was pitched with the three word proposal "''Jaws'' in Space."

{{w|Stephen Hawking}} famously warns, "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans." Chinese sci-fi author {{w|Liu Cixin}} wrote an award-winning sci-fi trilogy called the ''{{w|The Three-Body Problem (novel)|Three-Body Problem}}'' which draws on a similar idea; the title of the second book, ''The Dark Forest'', is a reference to the same Fermi paradox solution described in the comic. Even {{w|Carl Sagan}} called the practice of Broadcasting and Signaling presence of Life on Earth "deeply unwise and immature," and recommended that "the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes, before shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand."

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are walking down a hill.]
:Cueball: The Fermi paradox keeps getting worse. If planets are common, where '''is''' everybody?

:Megan: Imagine you're a scuba diver looking at the ocean floor. You know there's a fish there, but you can't see it. Why?

:Cueball: Maybe the fish looks like sand.
:Megan: Yeah...

:[Zoom out to the Earth from space.]
:Megan: ...and what would that tell you about the ecosystem?

:[The Earth is moving out of the panel and then a shark is shown swimming through space towards Earth.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Sharks]]

1377: Fish

2017-12-29T19:31:07Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1377
| date = June 4, 2014
| title = Fish
| image = fish.png
| titletext = [Astronomer peers into telescope] [Jaws theme begins playing]
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Fermi Paradox}} is the contradiction that arises between high estimates of the likelihood of {{w|extraterrestial life}} and the fact that no evidence for it has thus far been found.

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are having a conversation regarding this — since new planets are found all the time around distant stars, Cueball comments that this makes it an even greater paradox. Megan suggests that perhaps our search for extraterrestrial life is like looking at a patch of ocean floor looking for a fish. The diver knows that there must be a fish somewhere, but is unable to actually find it. She then goes on to ask why the fish would be hidden — i.e. camouflaged, and what it means about the remaining fish. The suggestion is that the fish would be hidden to avoid being eaten by predators, and perhaps the reason no extraterrestrial life is sending any sign of existence back is that they fear they might be destroyed soon after they revealed their location. Maybe they have even actively tried to hide the presence of their entire planet if they obtain the technological means. This potentially refers to the [http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/gif/1983QJRAS..24..283B/0000296.000.html Deadly Probes scenario] where a space faring species has developed deadly probes that self replicate and spread through the void between the stars - homing in on radio signals and destroying young civilizations in the cradle...

The camouflaged fish could be identified by using more sophisticated technologies like infrared cameras. Looking at the Earth from space beyond {{w|Low Earth orbit}} only with the naked eye wouldn't show any hint to our {{w|ecosystem}}. This is like the actual possibility in astronomy when observing {{w|Exoplanet|exoplanets}} — the nature of those more than 1,500 known planets is unknown due to the lack of better technologies to the scientists. And there are a couple of hundred billion planets at our galaxy still camouflaged to human scientists.

The final panels take the metaphor further, suggesting that there is literally a planet sized shark swimming through space eating planets, and since the view is panning away from earth and over to the shark, the shark seems to be heading our way. It looks like Earth is the next fish, presumably because we did not reach a high enough technology level in time to recognize the danger and hide.

This also explains the title text that has the theme from the movie ''{{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}'' playing while astronomers look into their telescopes. This may also be a reference to the film ''{{w|Alien (film)|Alien}}'', which was pitched with the three word proposal "''Jaws'' in Space."

{{w|Stephen Hawking}} famously warns, "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans." Chinese sci-fi author {{w|Liu Cixin}} wrote an award-winning sci-fi trilogy called the ''{{w|The Three Body Problem (novel)|Three Body Problem}}'' which draws on a similar idea; the title of the second book, ''The Dark Forest'', is a reference to the same Fermi paradox solution described in the comic. Even {{w|Carl Sagan}} called the practice of Broadcasting and Signaling presence of Life on Earth "deeply unwise and immature," and recommended that "the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes, before shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand."

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are walking down a hill.]
:Cueball: The Fermi paradox keeps getting worse. If planets are common, where '''is''' everybody?

:Megan: Imagine you're a scuba diver looking at the ocean floor. You know there's a fish there, but you can't see it. Why?

:Cueball: Maybe the fish looks like sand.
:Megan: Yeah...

:[Zoom out to the Earth from space.]
:Megan: ...and what would that tell you about the ecosystem?

:[The Earth is moving out of the panel and then a shark is shown swimming through space towards Earth.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Sharks]]

1377: Fish

2017-12-29T19:29:36Z

162.158.58.243: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1377
| date = June 4, 2014
| title = Fish
| image = fish.png
| titletext = [Astronomer peers into telescope] [Jaws theme begins playing]
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Fermi Paradox}} is the contradiction that arises between high estimates of the likelihood of {{w|extraterrestial life}} and the fact that no evidence for it has thus far been found.

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are having a conversation regarding this — since new planets are found all the time around distant stars, Cueball comments that this makes it an even greater paradox. Megan suggests that perhaps our search for extraterrestrial life is like looking at a patch of ocean floor looking for a fish. The diver knows that there must be a fish somewhere, but is unable to actually find it. She then goes on to ask why the fish would be hidden — i.e. camouflaged, and what it means about the remaining fish. The suggestion is that the fish would be hidden to avoid being eaten by predators, and perhaps the reason no extraterrestrial life is sending any sign of existence back is that they fear they might be destroyed soon after they revealed their location. Maybe they have even actively tried to hide the presence of their entire planet if they obtain the technological means. This potentially refers to the [http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/gif/1983QJRAS..24..283B/0000296.000.html Deadly Probes scenario] where a space faring species has developed deadly probes that self replicate and spread through the void between the stars - homing in on radio signals and destroying young civilizations in the cradle...

The camouflaged fish could be identified by using more sophisticated technologies like infrared cameras. Looking at the Earth from space beyond {{w|Low Earth orbit}} only with the naked eye wouldn't show any hint to our {{w|ecosystem}}. This is like the actual possibility in astronomy when observing {{w|Exoplanet|exoplanets}} — the nature of those more than 1,500 known planets is unknown due to the lack of better technologies to the scientists. And there are a couple of hundred billion planets at our galaxy still camouflaged to human scientists.

The final panels take the metaphor further, suggesting that there is literally a planet sized shark swimming through space eating planets, and since the view is panning away from earth and over to the shark, the shark seems to be heading our way. It looks like Earth is the next fish, presumably because we did not reach a high enough technology level in time to recognize the danger and hide.

This also explains the title text that has the theme from the movie ''{{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}'' playing while astronomers look into their telescopes. This may also be a reference to the film ''{{w|Alien (film)|Alien}}'', which was pitched with the three word proposal "''Jaws'' in Space."

{{w|Stephen Hawking}} famously warns, "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans." Chinese sci-fi author {{w|Liu Cixin}} wrote an award-winning sci-fi trilogy called the ''{{w|Three Body Problem (novel)|Three Body Problem}}'' which draws on a similar idea; the title of the second book, ''The Dark Forest'', is a reference to the same Fermi paradox solution described in the comic. Even {{w|Carl Sagan}} called the practice of Broadcasting and Signaling presence of Life on Earth "deeply unwise and immature," and recommended that "the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes, before shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand."

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are walking down a hill.]
:Cueball: The Fermi paradox keeps getting worse. If planets are common, where '''is''' everybody?

:Megan: Imagine you're a scuba diver looking at the ocean floor. You know there's a fish there, but you can't see it. Why?

:Cueball: Maybe the fish looks like sand.
:Megan: Yeah...

:[Zoom out to the Earth from space.]
:Megan: ...and what would that tell you about the ecosystem?

:[The Earth is moving out of the panel and then a shark is shown swimming through space towards Earth.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Sharks]]

1786: Trash

2017-01-16T08:20:17Z

162.158.58.243:

{{comic
| number = 1786
| date = January 16, 2017
| title = Trash
| image = trash.png
| titletext = Plus, time's all weird in there, so most of it probably broke down and decomposed hundreds of years ago. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to get in touch with Yucca Mountain to see if they're interested in a partnership.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a human with slightly more intelligence than a BOT- Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

Black hat is, once again, thoroughly confusing a house guest/room mate. (Shown previously in The Cloud and others). This time, when enquired about a chute extruding from his wardrobe, he explains that it is a trash chute into another dimension, Narnia. this is a reference to The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and the other Narnia books by C. s. Lewis. In the books, the characters use a portal that they find in a wardrobe (and later other places) to travel to a magical dimension called Narnia, where time passes differently from on Earth. Apparently, Black Hat has gotten his hands on the titular wardrobe and is using it to dispose of trash. There are many problems with this. First, the portal only works some times, so the rest of the time the wardrobe would just fill with trash. Also, Narnia is considered magical, so it may seem sacrilegious to be throwing trash there.
The cat he refers to its Aslan, a Magical lion that inhabits and watches over Narnia. He would probably be really pissed that someone is throwing trash there. He would probably try to stop this by any means necessary, even if that means coming up through a trash chute into another dimension. But, because lions are a type of cat (feline), apparently he can be repelled with an ordinary spray bottle, usually used on small house cats.
The system would dispose of trash very efficiently because time passes much faster on Narnia than on earth (previously mentioned in five minute comics: part 3). Because of this, within just a few Earth minutes, the trash could completely decompose. Yucca Mountain is a radioactive waste repository. Black hat wants to allow them to transfer this waste to Narnia, where it will decay quickly by our time scale, likely for a profit for black hat.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball looking at garbage chute attached to wardrobe]
:Cueball: What is this thing on your wardrobe?
:[Black Hat off-panel]
:Black Hat: Garbage chute.

:[Cueball and Black Hat face each other]
:Cueball: Into a wardrobe?
:Black hat: There's some sort of magical portal in there. Half the furniture I get has them - It's kind of a pain.

:Cueball: You dump your trash in Narnia?
:Black Hat: Yeah, it's a real time-saver.
:There's a huge cat in there, but i have a spray bottle i use when he tries to come up trough the chute.

{{comic discussion}}