explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1672: Women on 20s

2025-01-03T23:34:02Z

162.158.62.195: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1672
| date = April 25, 2016
| title = Women on 20s
| image = women_on_20s.png
| titletext = I get that there are security reasons for the schedule, but this is like the ONE problem we have where the right answer is both easy and straightforward. If we can't figure it out, maybe we should just give up and just replace all the portraits on the bills with that weird pyramid eye thing.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic portrays a series of press conferences with a {{w|US Treasury}} spokesperson (different from [[Cueball]] in the first panel as he has a bit of hair). The panels after the first summarize and ridicule the recent controversy over the upcoming redesign of US currency. The dialog between the US Treasury and reporters is paraphrased for comedic effect, but the events depicted are {{w|United_States_twenty-dollar_bill#Proposal_for_a_woman.27s_portrait|otherwise factual}} (including the punchline).

American currency has only once had a woman as the primary portrait on paper currency ([https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/martha-washington/martha-on-1/ Martha Washington] was on the $1 Silver Certificate in the 1880s and 1890s), which is widely seen as a real problem. A large-scale petition was organized which advocated replacing {{w|Andrew Jackson}} on the {{w|United States twenty-dollar bill|$20 bill}} with a woman, to be chosen by public voting. The {{w|Trail of Tears}} is a reference to the {{w|Andrew_Jackson#Indian_removal_policy|forced re-locations}} of Native American peoples that Andrew Jackson conducted during his presidency. This is now seen as a human rights violation on a massive scale and is presented as a reason why Andrew Jackson should not be honored on American currency.

The timing of the release of this new bill with a woman was to be scheduled with the 100-year anniversary of {{w|Women's suffrage in the United States|Women's suffrage}} in 2020 and should thus preferably also be on the $20 bill.

The voting process [http://www.womenon20s.org/results selected] {{w|Harriet Tubman}}, a 19th century {{w|abolitionist}} and a major figure in the {{w|Underground Railroad}} system which freed {{w|Slavery in the United States|American slaves}}. Cueball is seen to be clearly pleased and excited about this prospect in the first panel, where he votes for her first, among several other options.

The list shows that Cueball chooses Tubman first representing the generic everyman and thus represents the about one in five that choose her first. But he may select up to three out of the fifteen selected candidates.
*The other two women he chooses are:
**{{w|Eleanor Roosevelt}}, an American politician, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving {{w|First Lady of the United States}}, holding the post from March 1933 to April 1945 during her husband President {{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt}}'s four terms in office. She became the runner-up in the vote.
**{{w|Rachel Carson}}, a pioneering environmentalist who is most famous for her book ''{{w|Silent Spring}}''.
Since Carson was not one of the options for the final round, where only four were selected (the other two were {{w|Rosa Parks}}, 3rd; and {{w|Wilma Mankiller}}, 4th), it is clear that Cueball was already voting in the primary ballot, where Roosevelt actually came in first.

At this point, bureaucratic and political complications arise. The Treasury Department announces that, instead of replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, she would replace {{w|Alexander Hamilton}} on the {{w|United States ten-dollar bill|$10 bill}}. The {{w|United_States_ten-dollar_bill#Future_redesign|reason given}} is that the $10 bill was scheduled for redesign first. A reporter asks why they can't simply change the schedule, but doesn't get a clear answer.

There is a suggestion from "Steve" to put {{w|Martin Shkreli}} on the {{w|United States five-dollar bill|$5 bill}}. Shkreli is a pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager who provoked controversy when he {{w|Martin_Shkreli#Price_hike_controversy|acquired the rights to an anti-parasite drug and raised the price}} by over 5000%, making it unaffordable for many people. He became known as "the most hated man in America". Naturally, Steve's suggestion receives short shrift, not least of which because it's [https://www.quora.com/Can-anybody-or-anything-be-put-on-American-currency-other-than-dead-presidents a violation of Treasury policy and US law] (as Shkreli is still alive). This may be the same Steve who messed up both [[809: Los Alamos]] and [[1532: New Horizons]].

The plan to replace Hamilton likely seemed like an uncontroversial decision at the time. He was not especially well known among the American public and few people had an emotional attachment to his legacy. However, this changed abruptly when {{w|Hamilton_(musical)|a Broadway musical}} about his life came out and become massively popular. By total coincidence, this play creates a flood of interest in Hamilton right at the time the currency decisions are being made and makes replacing his portrait politically complicated. The spokesperson suggests putting both Hamilton and Tubman on the $10 bill, but the reporters are clearly unhappy with this solution, probably because it seems to dilute the recognition being given to Tubman.

Finally, the spokesperson announces that they will put Tubman on the $20 bill, but their schedule demands that they do the $10 bill first. They decide to put a "mural to women" on the new $10 bill to try and contain the tension until the new $20 bill is released. The reporters say that the Treasury has total control over the release of currency, so the simpler solution is just to change the schedule, but they apparently ignore that suggestion.

In the final panel, the spokesperson mentions that Jackson's portrait will still appear on the new $20 bill, seriously weakening the symbolism of replacing him and adding irony since Jackson was a slave owner. This is likely an effort to head off the complaints of traditionalists but is seen here as an unfortunate attempt to avoid taking a real stand.

In the title text [[Randall]] reiterates that this is a rare case in politics in which there's a clear and simple solution. The Treasury has the authority to redesign currency, and a petition to Congress could change the release schedule to fit their needs. That makes all the compromises and backtracking unnecessary: they could simply replace Jackson with Tubman and hypothetically release the new $20 bill whenever they choose. Randall appears frustrated with the artificial constraints that are holding back what should be a simple and straightforward process although he does acknowledge that it takes time to evaluate the security of a redesign's resistance to {{w|Counterfeit money|counterfeiting}}.

The mention of the "[https://google.com/search?q=illuminati+confirmed&tbm=isch weird pyramid eye thing]" is a reference to the {{w|Eye of Providence}}, which is an old and {{rw|Illuminati|somewhat arcane symbol}} that appears on the {{w|United States one-dollar bill|US $1 bill}}. Randall seems to be using this as an example of the outdated and frankly strange design of American currency, the implication that using that on all US dollar bills would constitute giving up on ever having a design relevant to the modern world. Also by replacing all portraits with this image, there would no longer be any gender controversy.

As of 2025, progress on updating both the $10 and the $20 has stalled, with the Treasury stating that [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/us/harriet-tubman-bill.html no new changes will be unveiled until next year].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at his laptop. Above him is the text he reads on the screen, then he speaks, and below that text is the list of women from his computer showing his three picks, each with a gray "drop-down menu" triangle to the right of the names. Below this, is his final spoken line. At the top of the panel is a small frame breaking the top left border with a caption:]
:2015
:Website: Petition: Replace Andrew "Trail of Tears" Jackson with a woman on the $20 for the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in 2020.
:Cueball: Hey, good idea!
:Website:
::Vote for your three picks:
::1 Harriet Tubman
::2 Eleanor Roosevelt
::3 Rachel Carson
:Cueball: Tubman for #1, definitely.

:[An executive from the department of treasury, with a wee bit of hair on his head, stands behind a lectern. On the front of the lectern the top part of the image inside the seal for the department of treasury is visible inside a circle, showing the scales and the tip of the triangular band beneath it. The rest of this image is hidden below the panel frame. There is text written above this image. At the top of the panel is a small frame breaking the top left border with a caption:]
:Soon...
:Treasury Executive: After a flood of public interest, the Treasury has decided to feature a woman on our money!
:Offscreen voice 1: Yay!
:Treasury Executive: She will replace Hamilton on the $10.
:Offscreen voice 1: Yay-- wait, what? Why not the $20?
:Offscreen voice 2: ''Are we mad at Hamilton?''
:Text above the seal: Treasury

:[The executive with a hand on the lectern is seen from the side.]
:Treasury Executive: The $10 was scheduled for the next redesign by a board made up of-
:Offscreen voice 3: Can't you just do the $20 next?
:Treasury Executive: We will review the...
:Offscreen voice 3: *Sigh*
:Offscreen voice 4 (Steve): ''Put Martin Shkreli on the $5!''
:Offscreen voice 5: Shut up, Steve.

:[The executive lifts both hands, the one over the lectern points a finger up. Again seen from the side. At the top of the panel is a small frame breaking the top left border with a caption:]
:Later in 2015...
:Treasury Executive: Wow, some musical came out, and now suddenly Hamilton has ''tons'' of fans.
:Offscreen voice 6: So do the $20 next. Problem solved!
:Treasury Executive: Maybe he and a woman can ''share'' the $10!
:Offscreen voice 6: Are you serious.

:[The executive, again with a hand on the lectern, is seen from the side. At the top of the panel is a small frame breaking the top left border with a caption:]
:2016:
:Treasury Executive: We've decided to put Harriet Tubman on the $20.
:Offscreen voice 7: Perfect! Happy ending.
:Treasury Executive: -After we do the new $10.
:Offscreen voice 7: What?

:[The executive again from the front behind the lectern. On the front of the lectern, only the text and the very top of the circle around the image can be seen.]
:Treasury Executive: We'll put a mural to women on the back of the $10. Hopefully, that will tide you over until we get to the $20?
:Offscreen voice 8: ''Seriously?'' How is this so complicated? Just say "We're putting Harriet Tubman on the $20," then do it.
:Text above the seal: Treasury

:[The executive with hands down behind the lectern is seen from the side.]
:Treasury Executive: We'll do the $20 ASAP, but we can't change the-
:Offscreen voice 9: C'mon, your hands aren't tied here. You're the freaking Treasury. This is the '''''one''''' thing you're definitely in charge of.

:[The executive lifting a hand above the lectern is seen from the side.]
:Treasury Executive: Oh, and we're putting Andrew Jackson on the back.
:Three offscreen voices: '''''What.'''''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Money]]

Talk:2639: Periodic Table Changes

2022-08-16T15:35:36Z

162.158.62.195: nitpick

The format of this comic appears most similar to https://xkcd.com/1902/. Is it worth noting that, in some representations of the periodic table (see https://ptable.com/#Electrons), Helium is indeed placed in the second column next to Hydrogen? [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 21:54, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

Nice. I'm doing the old "what elements have been obscured/overwritten" thing, after far too long since actually memorising the Periodic Table that was on my school's lab wall... But, hey! Where has Hahnium got to? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 22:25, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

I wonder why he kept the Latinate abbreviations for Antimony and Mercury. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:17, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

The changes by Asdf seem like they mostly belong in the Transcript, not Explanation.
:I moved some of my lengthy descriptions from Explanation to Transcript, hopefully this helps. Sorry if I caused inconvenience. -[[User:Asdf|Asdf]] ([[User talk:Asdf|talk]]) 00:00, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Laaaaame! Not revolutionary enough! Why not simply get rid of all these historical accidents and indicate any element by its nuclear charge? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.117|172.71.102.117]] 07:05, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Anyone else find it ironic that the new kinds of carbon are indexed with Roman numerals on the same comic where it says "this isn't Ancient Rome"? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.27|162.158.38.27]] 07:18, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

For the language nerds among us, "I" for iron wouldn't work at all well in Dutch. Although the element is typewritten "ijzer", the first two characters are treated as a single letter and are capitalised together (IJzer). It's pronounced EI and is listed in the Dutch alphabet alongside (or sometimes even instead of) Y.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.55|162.158.233.55]] 08:37, 30 June 2022 (UTC)
:Clearly there isn't much consideration given to any other language than English. The "annoying W" is for Wolfram or something close in many languages, "Na" is Natrium, "K" is Kalium - frankly, Mr. Munroe just uses the wrong language. Then again, "Fe" really is annoying, of course it should be "Ei" for Eisen ... [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:32, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

This feels more like a parallel to corporate reorganisations that are based on idealised concepts of how an organisation 'should' work than on the practicalities of what people actually do, than it does to economic plans. Particularly with the reference to training elements to adapt to their new positions. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 10:47, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

For the language bit he somehow missed Mercury (Hg: Hydrargyrum). [[User:Thaledison|Erin Anne]] ([[User talk:Thaledison|talk]]) 15:21, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

He also missed Cu. Since copper is more familiar than cobalt, except for certain classes of scientist, it gets Co and cobalt gets Cb. Which will never get confused with niobium, will it? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.30|172.70.175.30]] 21:28, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

The title may also mean "Periodic" tables changes, i.e. the table changes every few months. That's what I understood at first glance. [[User:Lamty101|Lamty101]] ([[User talk:Lamty101|talk]]) 15:01, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

=== Table galore ===
Can we please get back to a less table-ceneterd style? Tables are a neat tool to order various data. "Text" and "Explanation" are not in that category. That's what (section)headlines are for. Or do you write your articles/homework/thesis/whatever in Excel (or equivalent)? I know people who LOVE to use excel for text work, so that's not that unheared of, but there's a general rule: Use the right tool for the right job. Tables are not the right tool for "Text" and "Explanation". /edit: And such wide tables are generally bad to view/handle in mobile [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:22, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

:I do not edit the Wiki frequently, though I noticed that the style of the comic matched that of https://xkcd.com/1902/ so I changed the style of the explanation to match that as well. I will note that in my personal opinion, I prefer a table for explanations which cover multiple individual parts of a comic, though someone who is much more experienced than me can feel free to revert the edit, I apologize if I missed a convention rule on the wiki page. A side note: While you may be correct that a table is the wrong way to contain data, the purpose of the wiki in my opinion is not to organize and collect information, it is to present it to readers. I believe that the table accurately breaks down the comic into each comment from Randall. However, I have edited very few wikis, and I could be 100% wrong. I just thought I would explain the reasoning behind adding a table, such that any other user could understand its purpose. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.32|108.162.246.32]] 17:19, 1 July 2022 (UTC)
:: Don't worry, it's fine - there is no written or unwritten rule (that I am aware of) that you might have broken. I just think that tables are the wrong tool for that specific task (i.e. as you said it: Present information to readers) in this specific case, which by the way would in my opinion also apply to 1902. There are cases where a table is absolutely fine and desirable. This is just not such a case :) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 09:41, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:::I see where you're coming from, but many of the annotations here are just far too much text for a section header, or even a dictionary list. The table is the only way to go here, even if I might prefer a dictionary list (line prefixes ';' and ':' in wikitext) for [[1902]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 12:15, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

As long as we can all agree on the spellings. I propose that we all use the spelling "aluminum" but as a compromise adopt "platinium" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.75|108.162.237.75]] 14:34, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

For "Ty, Dh and Jk", I wonder if it's no coincidence that the first and last are common online abbreviations ("Thank you" and "Joke", the former last used by Randall in the result of the Turtle Instructions, from memory)... Not sure about Dh (I'm not a cool hip cat that's down with all the rad kids, daddyo, etc, etc...) but if someone else knows that's something then might be worth an official mention? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.62|172.70.91.62]] 12:12, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Just to nitpick the above comment of 5 July, JK is an initialism of Just Kidding, that said joking and kidding are synonyms so it works out the same
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 15:35, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
'''Abortion spam'''

Is there any way to stop the abortion spam? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.47|172.70.178.47]] 18:03, 1 July 2022 (UTC)
:I had a look, and see nothing (in the last few hours) that is this... But the answer is that a lot of spam is being prevented from happening (see the User Creation Log for all the accounts created that then don't do anything) and those that do happen get quickly reverted by us, the editors. There's not much more that can be done (and still have a workable wiki), But I know the current admins aren't idle, either, so maybe of there's a tweak or two that could be done, it may yet be. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.71|162.158.34.71]] 19:35, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

2303: Error Types

2020-05-07T03:21:44Z

162.158.62.195: /* Elaborated on Type VI */

{{comic
| number = 2303
| date = May 6, 2020
| title = Error Types
| image = error_types.png
| titletext = Type IIII error: Mistaking tally marks for Roman neumerals
}}

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

The comic is riffing on {{w|Type I and type II errors}}, also known as "false positive" and "false negative", respectively. The first two rows of the comic's table are correct definitions for established terms in statistics. Further rows contain suggestions for new terminology.

This comic may have been inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, as there is a lot of medical testing being done for the disease, and thus there are instances of false positives and negatives for the disease.

{|class = "wikitable"
|+Explanation of error types
|-
!Type
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|Type I
|{{w|False_positives_and_false_negatives#False_positive_error|False positive}}
|A false positive is a result that indicates a correlation, when there is no correlation in reality. For example, a person may test positive (indicating that he has a disease), but in actuality he ''does not'' have the disease.
|-
|Type II
|{{w|False_positives_and_false_negatives#False_negative_error|False negative}}
|A false negative is a result that indicates no correlation, when there is a correlation in reality. For example, a person may test negative (indicating that he does not have a disease), but in actuality he ''does'' have the disease.
|-
|Type III
|True positive for incorrect reasons
|"{{w|Type III error}}" is a nonstandard term meant to build off the notion of type I and II errors. Randall's explanations of this and of Type IV errors line up with some relatively common definitions of them, but others have also been proposed. None have yet been widely adopted.
|-
|Type IV
|True negative for incorrect reasons
|As with "Type III", this definition is nonstandard and usage of the phrase is often a bit tongue-in-cheek.
|-
|Type V
|Incorrect result which leads you to a correct conclusion due to unrelated errors
|Here we get into errors entirely made up by Randall. The idea behind this one is that a botched statistical test might accidentally result in a true conclusion due to completely unrelated errors in the other direction--perhaps during data collection or aggregation.
|-
|Type VI
|Correct result which you interpret wrong
|An unfortunately common occurrence. For example, statistical tests on observational data can only determine correlation, not causation, yet press releases and subsequent popular articles often imply or explicitly state a causal relationship ("Drinking 10 cups of coffee per day reduces your risk of cancer by 20%!" or whatnot). This has actually been [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_III_error#Marascuilo_and_Levin proposed as a definition of a Type IV error].
|-
|Type VII
|Incorrect result which produces a cool graph
|It is commonly believed that [https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/ data is beautiful]. Sometimes, that's still true even when the data is bogus!
|-
|Type VIII
|Incorrect result which sparks further research and the development of new tools which reveal the flaw in the original results while producing novel correct results
|A hypothetical example might be if the Fleischmann–Pons {{w|cold fusion}} experiment, discredited as it was, had by its investigation successfully prompted the discovery of a truly usable alternate technique. (So far, in reality, it seems not to have.)
|-
|Type IX
|The Rise of Skywalker
|''{{w|Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker}}'' is the ninth and final film in the ''Star Wars'' Skywalker saga. It received far less critical acclaim than the previous two films in the sequel trilogy.
|-
|Type IIII
|Mistaking tally marks for Roman neumerals ''[sic]''
|Title text. "I", "II", and "III" could be representations of the numbers one, two, and three in either {{w|tally marks}} or {{w|Roman numerals}}. It's only when you get to "IV" or "IIII" that it becomes apparent which system is being used. Some clocks use Roman numerals but with "IIII" instead of "IV" at the four o'clock position; the exact reason for this is unknown, but [https://www.electrictime.com/news/roman-iiii-vs-iv-on-clock-dials/ several plausible hypotheses] have been advanced. Ironically, Randall seems to have made a typographical error of his own when spelling the word "numerals".
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
* Type I Error: False positive
* Type II Error: False negative
* Type III Error: True positive for incorrect reasons
* Type IV Error: True negative for incorrect reasons
* Type V Error: Incorrect result which leads you to a correct conclusion due to unrelated errors
* Type VI Error: Correct result which you interpret wrong
* Type VII Error: Incorrect result which produces a cool graph
* Type VIII Error: Incorrect result which sparks further research and the development of new tools which reveal the flaw in the original results while producing novel correct results
* Type IX Error: The Rise of Skywalker

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

2303: Error Types

2020-05-07T03:12:30Z

162.158.62.195: /* rephrased a few things */

{{comic
| number = 2303
| date = May 6, 2020
| title = Error Types
| image = error_types.png
| titletext = Type IIII error: Mistaking tally marks for Roman neumerals
}}

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

The comic is riffing on {{w|Type I and type II errors}}, also known as "false positive" and "false negative", respectively. The first two rows of the comic's table are correct definitions for established terms in statistics. Further rows contain suggestions for new terminology.

This comic may have been inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, as there is a lot of medical testing being done for the disease, and thus there are instances of false positives and negatives for the disease.

{|class = "wikitable"
|+Explanation of error types
|-
!Type
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|Type I
|{{w|False_positives_and_false_negatives#False_positive_error|False positive}}
|A false positive is a result that indicates a correlation, when there is no correlation in reality. For example, a person may test positive (indicating that he has a disease), but in actuality he ''does not'' have the disease.
|-
|Type II
|{{w|False_positives_and_false_negatives#False_negative_error|False negative}}
|A false negative is a result that indicates no correlation, when there is a correlation in reality. For example, a person may test negative (indicating that he does not have a disease), but in actuality he ''does'' have the disease.
|-
|Type III
|True positive for incorrect reasons
|"{{w|Type III error}}" is a nonstandard term meant to build off the notion of type I and II errors. Randall's explanations of this and of Type IV errors line up with some relatively common definitions of them, but others have also been proposed. None have yet been widely adopted.
|-
|Type IV
|True negative for incorrect reasons
|As with "Type III", this definition is nonstandard and usage of the phrase is often a bit tongue-in-cheek.
|-
|Type V
|Incorrect result which leads you to a correct conclusion due to unrelated errors
|Here we get into errors entirely made up by Randall. The idea behind this one is that a botched statistical test might accidentally result in a true conclusion due to completely unrelated errors in the other direction--perhaps during data collection or aggregation.
|-
|Type VI
|Correct result which you interpret wrong
|This has actually been proposed as a definition of a Type IV error by Marascuilo and Levin.
|-
|Type VII
|Incorrect result which produces a cool graph
|It is commonly believed that [https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/ data is beautiful]. Sometimes, that's still true even when the data is bogus!
|-
|Type VIII
|Incorrect result which sparks further research and the development of new tools which reveal the flaw in the original results while producing novel correct results
|A hypothetical example might be if the Fleischmann–Pons {{w|cold fusion}} experiment, discredited as it was, had by its investigation successfully prompted the discovery of a truly usable alternate technique. (So far, in reality, it seems not to have.)
|-
|Type IX
|The Rise of Skywalker
|''{{w|Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker}}'' is the ninth and final film in the ''Star Wars'' Skywalker saga. It received far less critical acclaim than the previous two films in the sequel trilogy.
|-
|Type IIII
|Mistaking tally marks for Roman neumerals ''[sic]''
|Title text. "I", "II", and "III" could be representations of the numbers one, two, and three in either {{w|tally marks}} or {{w|Roman numerals}}. It's only when you get to "IV" or "IIII" that it becomes apparent which system is being used. Some clocks use Roman numerals but with "IIII" instead of "IV" at the four o'clock position; the exact reason for this is unknown, but [https://www.electrictime.com/news/roman-iiii-vs-iv-on-clock-dials/ several plausible hypotheses] have been advanced. Ironically, Randall seems to have made a typographical error of his own when spelling the word "numerals".
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
* Type I Error: False positive
* Type II Error: False negative
* Type III Error: True positive for incorrect reasons
* Type IV Error: True negative for incorrect reasons
* Type V Error: Incorrect result which leads you to a correct conclusion due to unrelated errors
* Type VI Error: Correct result which you interpret wrong
* Type VII Error: Incorrect result which produces a cool graph
* Type VIII Error: Incorrect result which sparks further research and the development of new tools which reveal the flaw in the original results while producing novel correct results
* Type IX Error: The Rise of Skywalker

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

998: 2012

2020-02-28T05:08:21Z

162.158.62.195: /* Explanation */ Phrase "for obvious reasons" used. A citation is needed, for obvious reasons.

<noinclude>:''This page refers to the comic named "2012". For comic #2012, see [[2012: Thorough Analysis]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 998
| date = January 2, 2012
| title = 2012
| image = 2012.png
| titletext = To compensate for this, I plan to spend 2013 doing nothing but talking about Mayans. My relationships with my friends and family may not fare well.
}}

==Explanation==
This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]] is in reference to the fact that the {{w|Maya civilization|Mayans}}, an ancient civilization in the {{w|Central America|America}}s, created a calendar that ends (or, more accurately: restarts) on December 21, 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the calendar used by the Mayan culture. Knowing this, some thought that the world was going to end on that date.

Consequently, a lot of people were talking about the Mayans, concerned that the world might end. After December 21, 2012 passed uneventfully, everyone was less concerned about the Mayans, because the world didn't end{{Citation needed}}. It is worthy of note that this comic was published nearly a year ''before'' the "significant" date and that Randall predicted both the hype and the aftermath perfectly.

There is a measure of irony to be had in how the Mayans who still exist today were largely ignored by the doomsayers. "Or acknowledging that huge city-building ancient American civilizations existed at all."

In the final frame, [[Megan]] parodies the phrase, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it," applying a twist to suggest an academic context. In most American schools, a Grade Point Average is computed by assigning numeric value to each letter grade: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, and F=0; receiving high marks (all A's) thus yields a 4.0 GPA. However, if you "Fail to learn from History" — that is, get a failing grade, F, and had at least 3 other classes (not an unusual course load) — you would still get a 3.0 with A's in those other classes. She is making the callous — if roundabout — observation that failing to grasp history, while no doubt troubling, isn't an academic show-stopper (perhaps explaining why so many Americans are so bad at it). Her comment may also be taken to suggest that people who feared the Mayan "prediction" of the end of the world would come to pass had failed to appropriately extrapolate from the numerous other faulty {{w|List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events|predictions of the end of the world}}. In fact the Mayans never actually predicted the end of the world with their calendar, those who failed to learn from history jumped to conclusions yet again.

The title text jokes that to make up for the lack of Mayan discussion, Randall plans to spend 2013 talking solely about Mayans. For obvious reasons{{Citation needed}}, people would probably get sick of this very quickly, hence his comment that his relationships might not fare well. Thankfully, as of 2014, not a single published xkcd comic of 2013 featured any Mayans, so we're pretty sure this promise wasn't kept.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are talking.]
:Cueball: Well, it's 2012.

:[Cueball and Megan in frameless panel.]
:Megan: Yup.
:Megan: Only 354 days left until everybody abruptly stops talking about Mayans.

:[Cueball and Megan in wide panel to fit longer text content.]
:Cueball: Or thinking about Mayans.
:Cueball: Or acknowledging that huge city-building ancient American civilizations existed at all.
:Megan: You know what they say — those who fail to learn from history can still manage a 3.0 if they ace their other subjects.

==Trivia==
*December 21 is the 355th day of the year (and the 356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar and because this comic was released on January 2 and 2012 was a leap year there were exactly 354 days left.
*Two years later another New Years comic with just the new years number as the title was released: [[1311: 2014]]. But actually the content of that comic was more related to the previous comic before this one [[997: Wait Wait]], which is also a New Year comic, that took a look at what could happen in 2012, just as 2014 does for 2014... In 2016 a comic, with only the new year as the name theme, occurred again [[1624: 2016]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|2012]]

2249: I Love the 20s

2020-01-03T13:37:33Z

162.158.62.195: /* Explanation */ Corrected relationship of VH1 to MTV

{{comic
| number = 2249
| date = January 1, 2020
| title = I Love the 20s
| image = i love the 20s.png
| titletext = Billboard's "Best of the 80s" chart includes Blondie's 1980 hit "Call Me." QED.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PEDANT. Explain title text.}}
This comic was released on the first day of {{w|2020}}. It was the second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year.

[[Megan]], [[Cueball]], and [[Ponytail]] are all happy for the beginning of the new {{w|decade}}, from 2020-2029, for a variety of reasons, but [[White Hat]] has objections to this beginning of a new decade.

It begins with Megan wishing happy new decade and Ponytail naming it the {{w|2020s|'20s}}. At this point White Hat tries to get in with an objection to this, but he is interrupted twice before he can make his point.

First Ponytail is excited that decades have "easy names" again. Decades such as the {{w|1960s}} or {{w|1970s}} had easy "names" - '60s, '70s, etc. The {{w|2000s_(decade)|2000s}} were {{w|2000s_(decade)#Name_for_the_decade|sometimes}} named the "{{w|Aughts}}" and the {{w|2010s}} the "Teens", names that did not enter popular usage, but we can return to the shortened decades name with the '20s decade.

Then she continues to discuss cultural trends and Cueball chimes in. In decades before the 2000s, trends were named for the decade in which its members reached adulthood / teenage years, e.g. a trend from the '90s. After 2000, many trends have been labeled with the "{{w|millennials}}" term, which refers to an entire generation who grew up in the 2000s. Cueball and Ponytail hope that trends will not be labeled as "millennial" or by generations in this new decade. This phenomenon was previously discussed in [[1849: Decades]]. Millennials have also been mentioned in [[1962: Generations]] and in [[2165: Millennials]].

The main point of the comic, however, is White Hat's claim that the new decade does not start until 2021. Ponytail claims that he is pedantic but in that case he should at least be right... Of course both sides believe they are correct. White Hat's argument appears to be analogous to the point often made at the turn of the millennium, which is that, because the Gregorian calendar doesn't include a year 0, the first century started in year 1, the second century began in the year 101, and so forth, so the 21st century didn't begin until the start of 2001. Nevertheless, most people were celebrating the shift from 19 to 20, as the first two numbers in the year, much more than they did the next year when the new millennium officially began.

Ponytail retorts that decades aren't numbered cardinally: any set of ten years constitutes a decade. While the 203rd decade of the Common Era doesn't begin until 2021, "the twenties" refers to all years that include a "twenty". White Hat appears not to accept this argument, insisting that that Ponytail doesn't "get it", he even wish to draw her a diagram which makes Ponytail interrupt again to respond in kind.

At this point Megan stops their heated argument claiming she can resolve this. She then states that {{w|MC Hammer}}'s song "{{w|U Can't Touch This}}", released in 1990, was featured in a 1990s-themed television show ({{w|I Love the '90s (American TV series)|''I Love the '90s''}}) instead of its 1980s-themed counterpart. Ponytail then claims that this settles the discussion. And White Hat throws in the towel stating that he accepts VH1's authority and lets Ponytail win. This comment can be read in two ways: sarcastic ("VH1 is a random pop culture organization with no expert knowledge, you have presented a poor argument") or legitimate ("I accept VH1 as a legitimate authority and defer to them," which would be humorous because VH1 is a random pop culture organization with no expert knowledge of the calendar). {{w|VH1}} and MTV, its sister channel on cable TV, are known for grouping music by decades.

However, reading the {{w|decade|Wikipedia page on decade}} it is clear that neither White Hat nor Ponytail can claim to be correct. There is no consensus about what a decade should mean regarding 2021-2030 vs 2020-2029. On the other hand saying the '20s is much clearer defined as those years with two thousand and twenty something. But that was not what Megan was saying. Ponytail on the other hand uses that version.

Perhaps [[Randall]] may be concerned that a single datum-point is not sufficient proof, so in the title text he continues this theme with a hit song from 1980 grouped with the 1980s, not the 1970s. In this case it is {{w|Blondie (band)|Blondie's}} 1980 hit "{{w|Call Me (Blondie song)|Call Me}}" which is featured in {{w|Billboard (magazine)|Billboard's}} chart [https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboards-top-songs-80s Best of the 80s].

The title text ends with {{w|Q.E.D.|QED}}, "quod erat demonstrandum", literally meaning "what was to be shown", traditionally used at the end of a mathematical proof to mean "thus it has been demonstrated", as if this second landmark piece of evidence sufficiently proves Megan's point beyond a doubt, as conclusive as a mathematical proof.

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks in from the left greeting Cueball, White Hat, and Ponytail standing in a line, the last two looking in her direction.]
:Megan: Happy new decade!
:Ponytail: Welcome to the '20s!
:White Hat: '''''Actually—'''''
:Ponytail: I'm excited we can name decades again.
:Ponytail: "Aughts" and "teens" never caught on.

:[Megan stops next to Cueball as White Hat has his finger raised.]
:White Hat: Actually, the new decade doesn't start-
:Ponytail: Mostly, I'm just glad we can go back to attributing cultural trends to decades instead of generations.

:[All four just stand normal.]
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Cueball: Decades were silly, but making everything about "millennials" turned out to be even worse.
:Ponytail: Seriously.

:[Only White Hat and Ponytail are shown, both with their arms held out to the sides.]
:White Hat: It's technically not a new decade until '''2021'''.
:Ponytail: OK, listen.
:Ponytail: If you're going to be pedantic, you should at least be right.
:White Hat: I '''''am''''' right!
:Ponytail: You're '''''not'''''.

:[Zoom in on White Hat and Ponytails upper parts as they gesture towards each other both raising their hands palm up. Megan interrupts them from off panel, as made clear in the next panel. Her voice comes out of a star burst on the left panel frame.]
:White Hat: See, the 20th century didn't start until--
:Ponytail: But decades aren't centuries. They're not cardinally numbered.
:White Hat: You don't get it. Let me draw a--
:Ponytail: No, '''''you''''' don't--
:Megan (off-panel): Stop!

:[All four characters are displayed again. Megan has raised a finger and all the others look at her.]
:Megan: I can resolve this.
:Megan: *Ahem*
:Megan: MC Hammer's ''U Can't Touch This'' (1990) was featured in '''''I Love the '90s''''', not ''''' '80s'''''.
:Ponytail: ...That settles that.
:White Hat: Yeah, I accept VH1's authority.
:White Hat: You win.

==Trivia==
Traditionally, the First Century starts in year 1 and ends in the year 100, the Second Century starts in the year 101 and runs through the year 200, and so on, because {{w|Zero-based numbering|zero indexing}}, like the number zero itself, was not in wide use at the time. However, due to an error by {{w|Dionysius Exiguus}}, the year 1 was after the death of {{w|Herod the Great}}, so Jesus could not have been born in that year, and was probably born either in 4 B.C. or 6 B.C., so the first, second, etc., century after his birth would actually end in the mid '90's.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:New Year]]

740: The Tell-Tale Beat

2019-05-29T00:23:00Z

162.158.62.195: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 740
| date = May 14, 2010
| title = The Tell-tale Beat
| image = the_tell_tale_beat.png
| titletext = You fancy me mad. Could a madman have outsmarted the greatest electronica/techno artists of our era? Next to fall will be Roderick Usher's house/trance band.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Daft Punk}} is a French electronic music group. The beat used in electronic music can be vocalized or spelled as "unn-tss". '{{w|The Tell-Tale Heart}}' is a short story by {{w|Edgar Allan Poe}}, in which the narrator tries to appear sane while describing how he killed a man and hid his body in the floorboards. Eventually, he imagines he hears the dead man's heartbeat through the floorboards.

[[Cueball]] narrates that he killed Daft Punk and hid their bodies under the floorboards, as the narrator of 'The Tell-Tale Heart' did. (Having to outsmart a band named {{Wiktionary|daft|Daft}} Punk is quite ironic.) He says he has been haunted by the sound of the band's beats.

In the title text, the narrator continues trying to assert his sanity. The line, "You fancy me mad," comes directly from The Tell-Tale Heart. He then insinuates that he will kill Roderick Usher's band; Roderick Usher was a character in '{{w|Fall of the House of Usher}}', another story by Edgar Allan Poe, making puns on 'house' and 'trance', genres of electronic music (the character of Madeline Usher in the story suffers from catalepsy, frequently falling into trances).

==Transcript==
:[The three panels show portions of a single scene. Although the characters are still stick figures, the artwork style is heavily crosshatched and shaded.]
:[In the first panel there is a desk with monitor on it, and a painting of a woman above that. Next to it is a bookshelf.]
:Ever since I murdered Daft Punk

:[There is a fireplace, with no fire. A rug lies before it. At the left end of the mantelpiece are two bottles, one tall, one round. Another photograph of a woman is in a frame at the right end. The bookshelf continues from the previous panel.]
:And hid their bodies beneath the floorboards, I've been haunted

:[The narrator is clutching his head and leaning forward. A grandfather clock is behind him, next to a doorway. Above the doorway is a pallid bust of Pallas.]
:By this ''pounding''.
:[White text on black.]
:Unn-Tss
:Unn-Tss
:Unn-Tss

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Music]]

2152: Westerns

2019-05-20T14:32:41Z

162.158.62.195: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2152
| date = May 20, 2019
| title = Westerns
| image = westerns.png
| titletext = Sitting here idly trying to figure out how the population of the Old West in the late 1800s compares to the number of Red Dead Redemption 2 players.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 PLAYER IN THE 1800s. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The "western" genre refers to narrative works set in the American "Old West", which is loosely defined as North America (particularly the United States) west of the Mississippi river between the years of 1865 (when the Civil War ended) and 1895 (when the US Census officially declared the frontier to be closed. These dates are naturally somewhat arbitrary, but most works in the genre are set more or less in that relatively narrow window of time.

This era in American history was marked by aggressive settling of western lands. The US had pursued an expansionist policy known as "Manifest Destiny", which had the primary goal of extending US borders across the continent. This led to various strategies to increase the lands under US control (ranging from diplomatic efforts to expansionist wars), displacing, containing, and eliminating native peoples from the land, and encouraging American settlement in the western territories. Settlers were encouraged to go west with the promise of cheap or free land for agriculture, mineral riches, and freedom from the dangers of large cities.

These sparsely populated lands quickly gained a reputation for being dangerous, unpredictable, and violent. The men and women who settled them were admired as rugged individualists, civilizing a wild frontier through hard work, courage and persistence. The mythos of the "wild west" arguably continues to impact American culture to this day.

The timeline in this strip suggests that the Western genre began almost immediately after the frontier closed. This matches the "official" timeline. The first critically recognized Western novel ({{W|The Virginian}}) was published in 1902, and one of the earliest silent films ({{W|The Great Train Robbery}}) was made in 1903. However, it should be noted that pulp novels and magazines set in the frontier, as well as "Wild West Shows" that toured the eastern states and Europe had begun decades earlier. And the end of the "Wild West" era can be considered to have lasted into the 1910's, or even the 1920's. In other words, Westerns were an established genre while the real western frontier was still in existence. The genre transitioned from a contemporary setting to a historical one without significant disruption.

The Western genre has varied in popularity, but has never gone away, and continued to produce popular works throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. Artists who grew up admiring western heroes have proceeded to use the genre for their own visions, and have reinterpreted the setting across multiple generations, and an evolving media landscape. Literature, music and live performances gave way to film, then television, and now video games. This strip points out the irony that the actual Old West took place over a fairly limited time and space, but the setting has managed to accommodate a genre that's maintained popularity for over a century (at least three times as long as the actual frontier era) and is consumed both throughout the US and across the world.

The title text is in reference to the popular video game ''{{w|Red Dead Redemption 2}}'', which takes place in an Old West setting. According to the United States Census of 1870, the population of the States was around 39 million, whereas ''Red Dead Redemption 2'' has sold in excess of 24 million copies.

A similar question was asked in [[what if?]] [https://what-if.xkcd.com/100/ WWII Films.]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A horizontal timeline spanning between the years 1840 and 2020. Every decade is indicated by a tick below the line, and labeled every 50 years. Two ranges are highlighted by brackets and labeled:

1862-1898: The “Wild West” era

1902-2019: Western films, books, video games, etc

Below the timeline:

It's weird to realize that the Western genre has now existed for three times longer than the period it's based on.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2149: Alternate Histories

2019-05-17T22:38:39Z

162.158.62.195: Response to comment

;Hands
The hands on the 500 deep versions are quite different. Does anyone have an idea of what that might refer to? {{unsigned|The quiet one}}
:I thought they were big bangly bracelets. [[User:Yomikoma|Yomikoma]] ([[User talk:Yomikoma|talk]]) 19:54, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
::I think they are puffy shirt sleeve cuffs: [http://effortlessgent.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/seinfield-660x474.jpg] [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:31, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
:::Let's compromise and say "big circle shapes on their arm connectors." {{unsigned ip|172.68.54.118}}
::::The hands changed because history changed. DUH! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.100|162.158.214.100]] 12:41, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

In *my* alternate history, Al Gore loses the presidency, but it is to Bill Nye. As a result, Bill Nye causes sweeping educational reform. However, this causes the U.S. to buckle in comparison to the world economy, as the lowered military power (about a 3% decrease by the end of his presidency in comparison to the "true" timeline) means that Indonesia is able to push their limits a little, leading to Kuwait, West Timor and Luxembourg doing the same. Also, because of the lack of a Haliburton loophole, the Everglades are larger than today. Unfortunately, when David Tenant tried out for the role of the Doctor, this results in a live alligator attacking him. This throws the show biz industry into a tailspin, and so... - SD [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.196|162.158.78.196]] 19:54, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
:''Un''fortunately? ... I think we disagree on our choice of practitioner. ] ; > [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 23:36, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
Something of the meme must have leaked through the æther, one way or another. Just yesterday I was involved in intensive discussions about how world history would have turned out with a different power-structure had the Darien Scheme not gone totally wrong, Scotland had cornered the Pacific/Atlantic trading markets, had been in a position to accept ''England'', et al, into ''its'' parliamentary structure in a differing version of the Union, and created a particularly caledonially-influenced New World and Scottish Empire (provisionally titled the 'gaelosphere') from where the future (or at least contermperaneously alternate) history of the world developed out of. There was no mention of hovercraft, admitedly, but I now imagine they'd have been terribly useful upon certain parts of the isthmus, or particularly in dealing with the treacherous tides running through Caledonia Bay by Fort St Andrew. So, GOOMHR! If it's not we who should get out of his, of course [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.119|162.158.158.119]] 22:44, 13 May 2019 (UTC)

;Hat
Is there a name for the hats Cueball and Megan are wearing, or is it just a top hat that Randall added a ball to to make it look different? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 22:35, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
:I imagine the Nth-Alternate Universe version of the page https://theoutline.com/post/868/why-do-we-all-have-pom-pom-balls-on-our-hats might mention them. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.86|162.158.155.86]] 22:51, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
::There has never been a hat that wasn't ridiculous.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.210|172.68.65.210]] 23:38, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
:::EVERYONE looks better wearing a hat. DUH! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.100|162.158.214.100]] 12:41, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

;Created by <nowiki>[thing]</nowiki>
Is there a category or history filter or something to specifically list all of the "created by a [thing]" tags that have appeared over time? CYBERNETIC HORSE EMPEROR is the best phrase I have heard all day. It is going straight into my Robotech\Rifts RPG campaign.
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 23:36, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
: Thank you very much, and not that I know of, sadly. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.102|141.101.105.102]] 11:13, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

;Plausibility of scenario
I have a few issues with the current explanation saying it is impossible for such a scenario to arise, though I'm not sure how exactly to restructure it. First, past events can be altered as an explanation for alterations to the timeline, demonstrated clearly in-comic ("the pajama craze never caught on" explains the future of "truman becomes god-emperor"). So, things could be changed before the world war, and thus anything is theoretically possible. Second, it's clear the humor and understanding of the comic doesn't require a judgement of how likely the scenario is. So that section of the explanation is at best unnecessary and at worst wrong, I think. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.31|172.68.189.31]] 09:13, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

Let's assume that any given alternate history has a 1% chance of being detailed enough to consider the alternate history's alt-history, and (for simplicity's sake) that no alternate histories develop in such a way as to eliminate interest in alternate histories. Given these assumptions, reaching the 500th level would require...um, my calculator isn't giving me an answer, let's just say a LOT of top-level alternate histories where the Nazis won WW2 to get anything that reached that deep. Even if each alt-history had coinflip odds of reaching the next level, you'd still need something like 3.3e150 alternate histories to get that deep; even 90% odds need 7.5e22 alt-histories. This sort of infinite regression is only practical if some aspect of an alternate history makes it and its descendants more likely to generate further alt-histories. At this point, evolution would kick in and before you got more than a dozen levels deep nearly all alt-histories would be from well-adapted alt-histories. It seems likely to me that alt-histories with lots of little details and weird contrivances would be more likely to spawn alt-histories, so this comic seems pretty accurate in that regard. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 16:56, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

Does anyone think some of this might be a shot at the Kaiserreich/story inside kaiserreich/so on thing? {{unsigned ip|172.69.68.129}}

This is actually a thing with the Hearts of Iron IV mod, Kaiserreich. It's an alt-history mod where Germany won WWI, and within it there's an event describing a variant where Germany lost WWI, but instead of the Nazis the nat-pop party which takes over are known as Volkists. This was then made into a mod, which has within it an event describing a scenario where Germany lost WWI... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.221|172.69.33.221]] 21:16, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

:True, though you only need 100 alternate histories in each history. Until you hit the alternate history where the war with Italy causes us to stop using the roman alphabet, you're likely to get at least that many in each setting. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 22:38, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

2150: XKeyboarCD

2019-05-15T14:25:51Z

162.158.62.195: rewrite key travel section to be more relevant to keyboards

{{comic
| number = 2150
| date = May 15, 2019
| title = XKeyboarCD
| image = xkeyboarcd.png
| titletext = The key caps use LCD displays for all the vowels, so they can automatically adjust over the years to reflect ongoing vowel shifts while allowing you to keep typing phonetically.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a KEY BOAR USING AN XKKEYBOARCD. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In the same vein as the xkcd Phone series, the XKeyboarCD seems to be an overly inventive and borderline ludicrous keyboard intended for some unknown audience. It has an assortment of features (some fairly normal, some more exotic) which give it a..."diverse skill set".

*'''54 Configurable Rubik's Keys'''
The smaller cubes on a {{w|Rubik's cube}} resemble computer keys, so this feature makes fun of that by adding a spinnable Rubik's cube above the keyboard.

*'''Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji'''
This feature might actually be useful for what it's worth.

*'''Serif Lock'''
{{w|Serifs}} are small lines on the ends of certain characters in fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia. However, "locking" serifs doesn't make any sense, as there is no key you need to hold down, as with caps lock. Instead, serifs are dealt with in the font menu, which doesn't generally change suddenly.

*'''Unlimited Key Travel'''
On a keyboard, key travel refers to the distance the key moves between its unpressed and pressed states. On a typical keyboard, keys only move a few millimeters before bottoming out. The usefulness of having unlimited key travel is unclear, and the question of how this would be physically possible in the keyboard depicted remains unanswered.

*'''Diagonal Spacebar'''
A diagonal spacebar wouldn't be very useful, as many typists are used to having a spacebar at the bottom, and there's no reason to change it.

*'''Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)'''
Most computers have four arrow keys: up, left, right, and down. However, this comic suggests that it would be more practical to have just one that can be rotated. This has the added bonus of allowing the arrow keys to point more than four different directions.

*'''15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad'''

*'''Ergonomic Design'''

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Introducing the
XKeyboarCD
A keyboard for powerful users and their powerful fingers

[Arrow to the various features of a keyboard labelling them.]

54 Configurable Rubik's Keys

Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji

Serif Lock

Unlimited Key Travel

Diagonal Spacebar

Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)

15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad

Ergonomic Design
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2148: Cubesat Launch

2019-05-10T18:27:55Z

162.158.62.195:

Ahh, yes kites! Or actually, that is a '''very''' strong kite with very strong thread. Must be nice to knock-off a spacecraft! - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.231.24|162.158.231.24]] 15:29, 10 May 2019 (UTC)
(P. S. Please don't interrupt ANY space launch, kids!)

To whomever edited the explanation to say the Megan is planning to board the Cubesat rocket: Cubesat rockets launch cubesats only. There is no place for astronauts. If Megan boarded the rocket, she would die from lack of air (among other things). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.112|172.68.90.112]] 16:28, 10 May 2019 (UTC)SiliconWolf

This is weird. The first time I went to the page, I sow a bunch of conspiracy theory nonsense, but when I go back, all of that stuff has been deleted. I thank you, whoever did this, but who the heck made all that conspiracy theory stuff? -Spongepants Squarebob

Talk:2135: M87 Black Hole Size Comparison

2019-05-05T07:09:09Z

162.158.62.195:

inb4 anti-semitic troll vandalizes the page [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.64|162.158.78.64]] 19:38, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
:Jeez, it hasn't happened yet? --[[User:Youforgotthisthing|Youforgotthisthing]] ([[User talk:Youforgotthisthing|talk]]) 19:54, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
::Shhh! You'll jinx it! [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 21:07, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
::I’m surprised. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 23:06, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
::I always miss it, you guys are too fast for me to see it. Not that I want to see it of course. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 12:08, 11 April 2019 (UTC)
:Well, we made it until 15:40 on the 11th. Since it was created at 18:50 on the 10th, that's about... 20 hours and 15 minutes. Considering how it only took 13 minutes for #2133 to be vandalized-I-mean-corrected, and 25 minutes for #2125, it seems they're getting slower! I wonder if the poor lil fellas need more attention. :( --[[User:Youforgotthisthing|Youforgotthisthing]] ([[User talk:Youforgotthisthing|talk]]) 00:43, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

Am I the only to one who is amazed at just how *far* Voyager has come? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.61|162.158.111.61]] 19:52, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

I thought the dark disk on the photo is 2.6 Schwartzchild radii, not 1? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.46|172.68.54.46]] 20:50, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

I Googled to get a sense of scale. Apparently the sun would be less than 4 miles across if compressed into a black hole. The magnitude is incomprehensible. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.210.64|172.69.210.64]] 02:54, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

I believe "Voyager I" in the title text is a typo and Randall meant to say Voyager II. The location Randall notes would correspond closer to Voyager II than I(9.3 billion miles away from earth vs 11 billion miles). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.4|172.69.247.4]] 06:21, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

I updated a few things in the explanation a couple hours back. It should read more smoothly now.
[[User:Fmccarthy|Fmccarthy]] ([[User talk:Fmccarthy|talk]]) 08:01, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
'''Rephrase scale reference'''
2.5 times smaller is not a good way to express reduction in size. It's clearer to say that it's two-fifths as big or it's 40% of the size. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.16|162.158.38.16]] 09:58, 11 April 2019 (UTC)
: It's what the official website says. [[User:Numberland|Numberland]] ([[User talk:Numberland|talk]]) 20:28, 14 April 2019 (UTC)

Is anyone agreeing with the source ? haven't found a clear attribution of the image to NSF; and also would be suprised to find one.
: [https://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/A-Consensus.jpg NSF link to image], [https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=298276&org=NSF NSF page with attribution], "The National Science Foundation (NSF) played a pivotal role in this discovery by funding individual investigators, interdisciplinary scientific teams and radio astronomy research facilities since the inception of EHT. Over the last two decades, NSF has directly funded more than $28 million in EHT research, the largest commitment of resources for the project." [https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=298276 Source Article and NSF relation to EHT] --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.138|162.158.106.138]] 16:30, 11 April 2019 (UTC)Zenthere
:: but in your news link, the NSF itself gives credit to EHT, so the source should be EHT for the image. Just my opinion.

This is alot like the Pluto comic from a few years back. [[User:Take The A Train To Watertown|Take The A Train To Watertown]] ([[User talk:Take The A Train To Watertown|talk]]) 12:10, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

Why is pluto bigger than the sun? [[User:Lekkin007|Lekkin007]] ([[User talk:Lekkin007|talk]])

:the circle is more likely to be pluto's _orbit_, in which there is a small break, in which there is a small dot, which is more likely to represent pluto. the arrow points to the dot. [[User:Ocæon|ocæon]] ([[User talk:Ocæon|talk]]) 23:03, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

::Lies. If it was pluto's orbit, it would say so. It clearly says Pluto. The small break is probably just a mountain or some other surface anomaly. I think that pluto is actually smaller than the sun, but it was closer to the camera, so it appears bigger. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.58|172.68.51.58]] 02:05, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

I am trying to spread truth and good critical thinking, but IP editors keep reverting My well-intention edits! What can I do?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.79|162.158.107.79]] 16:59, 11 April 2019 (UTC)
:See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo[[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.82|162.158.78.82]] 18:26, 11 April 2019 (UTC)
:: HAVE YOU TRIED WALKING INTO THE SEA (can't find the relevant xkcd sorry) on a more serious note, I'd be for banning IP editors myself, it wouldn't matter much and just stop me from editing on mobile. If the comments section could somehow be left IP editable but not the articles, that would be an interesting Midway point, but any degree necessary is fine.{{unsigned|172.68.78.100}}
:::Sign your posts you fucking cunt [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.97|162.158.107.97]] 15:37, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

:::[[1912: Thermostat]] -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:24, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

Anyone else find it ironic for an IP editor to refer to logged-in editors as IP editors? That's the pot calling the brass teapot black! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 06:09, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

As I understand the link "The black hole’s boundary — the event horizon from which the EHT takes its name — is around 2.5 times smaller than the shadow it casts and measures just under 40 billion km across." This is actually showing the wrong scale by a factor of 2.5 - voyager 1 is about at the event horizon, only 40% of the way out of the shadow. Going to edit this but wanted to add discussion here as well. [[User:Numberland|Numberland]] ([[User talk:Numberland|talk]]) 20:28, 14 April 2019 (UTC)

Note that the dimension of the shadow should be measured from the centroid of the ring, not from its inner boundary, since this is a greatly unresolved convolution of a sharp, narrow ring with a roughly gaussian beam from the EHT. Considering that, Munroe's dimensions appear to be essentially correct. -astronomer who happened by this page today but doesn't have an account

Images from this page[https://aasnova.org/2019/04/10/first-images-of-a-black-hole-from-the-event-horizon-telescope/] show an exact scale in microarcseconds. 1 microarcsecond at 4.978×10^23 meters away is 2.414×10^12 meters across. And there's 50 of those in that white line. First off, whoa. Second off, the diameter of the orbit of Pluto should then be about 9.788% of the length of the line. I'll leave it to someone else to figure out how that corresponds to the image in the comic exactly.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 07:09, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2144: Adjusting a Chair

2019-05-01T23:15:44Z

162.158.62.195:

I believe "degrees of freedom" is referring to the how the term is used in scientific theories, where degrees of freedom refers to how many variables exist in the theory to "tune" its predictions. A theory with many degrees of freedom is less constrained in what it can predict, like with the Big Bang theory of cosmology. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:22, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
:I stand by my definition on mechanical degrees of freedom, aka axes of rotation/extension/motion. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 19:52, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
::That's definitely the correct meaning for this. See {{w|Degrees of freedom (mechanics)}} and {{w|Six degrees of freedom}}. And maybe specifically number of degrees of freedom on robotic arms (which tends to be number between 3 and 14). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:08, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

This feels like it would have been a good concept for an April Fools comic if it were made to be interactive [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.13|108.162.242.13]] 16:57, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

So, English question, somebody corrected the explanation on this. Is it "maneuver" or "manoeuvre"? I think it's a matter of British or American English, and I'm not sure what the wiki prefers. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 19:52, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

Clearly this chair is one of the products that [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Beret_Guy's_Business Beret Guy's Business] sells. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 23:15, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

2142: Dangerous Fields

2019-04-27T14:41:55Z

162.158.62.195: astronomers and cold mountaintops

{{comic
| number = 2142
| date = April 26, 2019
| title = Dangerous Fields
| image = dangerous_fields.png
| titletext = Eventually, every epidemiologist becomes another statistic, a dedication to record-keeping which their colleagues sincerely appreciate.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an INEXORABLE PROCESS. Percentages needed to be added (like [[1895: Worrying Scientist Interviews]]). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a chart of "fields of study by danger", with mathematics being the least dangerous and gerontology being the most. Gerontology is shown as multiple times more dangerous than the other fields, so it is far on the right side of the graph. Generally speaking, the "study of ageing" does not seem likely to kill you, but approaching it philosophically, ageing is a cause of death.

This comic was posted the day after {{w|Joe Biden}} entered the race for the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, which is shaping up to feature the [https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/national-today-newsletter-american-politics-scarecrow-1.5107181 oldest set of candidates] in history.

===Fields===
*{{W|Mathematics}} is such a pure non-physical field that the probability of it being the direct cause of death is extremely low, barring workplace disputes or absent-mindedly wandering in front of traffic while pondering (as in xkcd [[356: Nerd Sniping]]).

*{{W|Astronomy}} mostly deals with extremely far-away things, so assuming there isn't a meteor impact, astronomy is probably not going to kill you. Astronomy is slightly more dangerous than mathematics though, since it studies physical objects instead of abstract concepts. In addition to meteor or asteroid impacts, astronomical phenomena that might cause death include nearby supernovas, distant magnetar quakes, a solar flare or solar nova (the likelihood of which will increase over the next billion-odd years), perturbations in earth's orbit, increased or decreased solar radiation, alien invasion, etc. Given that the density of magnetars and potentially hostile alien civilizations in the potentially lethal radius is (like the radius itself) completely unknown, and not all past mass extinctions are explained, this one might be misplaced a bit. The lethal stroke may be unlikely, in absolute terms, but most cut quite a broad swath. Altitude sickness can be deadly; some 29 observatories are located above 10,000 feet / 3000 m, high enough to cause altitude sickness to susceptible individuals. Astronomers no longer spend time at observatories, but in the old days could succumb to the cold.

*{{W|Economics}} is the study of markets, which through recessions and scarcity can kill you in any way that capitalism or other economic systems can affect the availability of goods and services you need to survive.

*{{W|Law}} in this context refers to the rules people have to follow in society, and given the nature of laws (civil and criminal), the odds that your death is related to law is low. Possible causes of death more-or-less directly related to the study of law would include attacks by someone you are prosecuting or defending, prosecution for a capital crime, persecution under legal authority (such as being shot or strangled by an officer of the law), attack by a guard or fellow prisoner, or for lack of medical treatment, while incarcerated, or death by exposure after expulsion from one's repossessed or otherwise legally confiscated home.

*{{W|Criminology}} is very similar to law, but is the study of crime, meaning it's more dangerous than just "law." Criminologists may be directly involved with criminals in the course of their studies, increasing their exposure to potentially life-threatening behavior.

*{{W|Meteorology}} is the study of weather, and in large weather events such as hurricanes and tornadoes, death is a distinct possibility.

*{{W|Chemistry}} is the study of chemicals and reactions of those chemicals. Since everything in existence is made up of chemicals (and chemists often use especially reactive or dangerous chemicals), the likelihood of a chemist's death being caused by chemistry (e.g., explosions, poisoning, chemical burns, suffocation...) is not insignificant.

*{{W|Marine Biology}} is the study of marine life. Many marine creatures are venomous, many are very large, many are very hungry. Death could result from exposure to pathogenic bacteria, toxins (such as those produced by cone snails, and "red tide" dinoflagellates), allergies to shellfish, drowning (e.g. in strong ocean currents), scuba accidents, or water pollution, in addition to such perhaps more obvious (but overwhelmingly rarer) risks as shark attacks.

*{{w|Volcanology}} involves the study of {{w|volcanoes}}, {{w|lava}}, and {{w|magma}}, with obvious risks to the scientists studying them in the field. At least 67 scientists have been killed in volcanic eruptions, as of 2017 ("[https://cosmosmagazine.com/geoscience/volcanologists-lose-their-lives-in-pursuit-of-knowledge Volcanologists lose their lives in pursuit of knowledge]").

*{{w|Gerontology}} involves the study of aging, and of growing old in general. As everyone ages and eventually dies, those who study gerontology are not immune to dying in old age even if they evade all the other possible causes of death - thus making it the most likely among all shown fields. A gerontologist still can die from something else first, though.

The title text is about {{w|Epidemiology}}: the study of health and disease conditions in populations. In the event of an epidemic, there is a strong chance that epidemiologists in the search for the causation, transmission and treatment will be exposed and become victims of the disease in their own right. However, the title text refers more broadly to the role of epidemiology in maintaining detailed statistical records of diseases and other causes of death, such that eventually any epidemiologist (whatever the cause of death) will become one of his/her own statistics.

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

:[A line chart is shown going from left to right with two arrows on either side. On the line are ten dots spread out unevenly from close to each end. The first four dots are clustered together on the left side. Then follows 5 more dots unevenly spaced, all to the left of center. On the far right of the line, near the end, there is one dot. Beneath each dot there goes a line down to a label written beneath each line. Above the chart there is a big title and below that an explanation. Below that again, there is a small arrow pointing to the right with a label above it.]
:<big>Probability that you'll be killed by the thing you study</big>
:By field

:[Arrow label:]
:More likely

:[Labels for the ten dots from left to right:]
:Mathematics
:Astronomy
:Economics
:Law
:Criminology
:Meteorology
:Chemistry
:Marine Biology
:Volcanology
:Gerontology

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Rankings]]

Talk:192: Working for Google

2018-06-12T18:24:03Z

162.158.62.195:

I honestly can't see anything incomplete about it. But then, I may be naive about it. Anonymous 04:57, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
: Neither can I, however there is a bit of irrelevant information such as, how not to pad your resume and having original ideas -- the explanation probably should be edited down to be more consisce and to the proint of what the comic is about i.e. "sour grapes" [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])

Perhaps the cake was foreshadowing http://xkcd.com/195/, the Map of The Internet. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.85}}

A cake that has the shape of the Internet might actually be one shaped of Internet Explorer. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 18:00, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
:No, it may not. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 19:25, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

There are some true stories of people showing up at Google interviews with gifts for the interviewers. In case if you wonder, they don't get hired. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.5|108.162.246.5]] 02:17, 29 January 2014

The cake should be created with a series of tubes.00:14, 23 September 2014 (UTC)~

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. In this case there is no reason to call one Cueball and the other friend. It could easily be the other way. So I have changed to remove Cueball. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:33, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

By saying he baked a "cake in the shape of the Internet," he inadvertently revealed that he has no clue what is the Internet, and that he exhibited said cluelessness openly to his interviewers -- explaining his rejection. [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 02:54, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Google {Search} is a monopoly that violates US Antitrust Law. Google pays couple of billions of USD each year to The Congress so The Congress lets it slip. The rest of the Google (including Google re-branding) is a theater of absurd where people with pedigrees think that they are important, but mostly getting paid for non competing with Google.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 18:24, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:187: The Familiar

2018-06-12T18:00:43Z

162.158.62.195:

Do you think this has anything to do with the Animorphs book The Familiar? It has the same title, and Randall has shown that he likes Animorphs before.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.67|162.158.111.67]] 15:09, 9 October 2017 (UTC)

Cueball is an invention by this Wiki and other sites discussing about xkcd. But he is always an active person who likes the nature. The both persons should be switched.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:10, 25 June 2013 (UTC)
:It is not possible to say what Cueball likes the best, since he is not always the same from comic to comic. See the [[Cueball]] page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:06, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. In this case there is no reason to call one Cueball and the other friend. It could easily be the other way. So I have changed to remove Cueball.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:06, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

I interpreted the 3rd panel with the unmotivated conversant alone, as indicating that his friend went without him. The addition of the 4th panel, with him still alone, implies the somewhat deflated feeling of having left behind and miss out on life because of lack of motivation. [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 01:00, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

The 4th panel actually indicates that the previous statment "im tired" is just a lazy excuse that always works, because in fact it is easy to stay awake for hours after the discussion. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.248}}

Is anyone else bothered by the lack of the word "the" before "sunrise" in the first panel?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.40|108.162.238.40]] 17:01, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

I think that "The Familiar" refers to the 4th slide, which is not so easy to rationalize. When you all alone again and trying to figure out how that happened.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 18:00, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

1196: Subways

2018-06-06T06:16:08Z

162.158.62.195: /* Boston */

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}
*The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
[[File:North American subways.svg.png|right|border|link=http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html|North America Subways by Prof. Bill Rankin]]
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map have whimsically named connections, such as the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles, or the "Rocky Mountain Tunnel" connecting the Blue Lines of Chicago and San Francisco. Vancouver and San Francisco are connected through a station called Richmond, which appears to double as {{w|Richmond, British Columbia}} and {{w|Richmond, California}}. The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), but its approximate location on this map would suggest the [http://www.seattlemonorail.com/ Seattle Monorail], or perhaps Springfield, Oregon, which [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Matt-Groening-Reveals-the-Location-of-the-Real-Springfield.html Matt Groening revealed was the inspiration for the Simpsons' hometown].

The [http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America] map (right) created by [http://hshm.yale.edu/rankin Yale Professor Bill Rankin] on his web site [http://www.radicalcartography.net/ Radical Cartography] in 2006 presents all of the subway systems in North America at the same scale using geographic, instead of topological, layout.

The networks on xkcd's map are displayed in (relatively) geographic position, with {{w|Vancouver}} being the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – East/West and North/South order are correct, but distances are not (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example). The map's design is modeled after the system map of the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}} in Boston where Randall is from.

===City-specific notes===

====Vancouver====
*The {{w|Canada Line}} and the {{w|Expo Line (TransLink)|Expo Line}} are shown as the same color; SkyTrain's official maps depict them with light blue and dark blue respectively.
*{{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the southernmost terminus of the Canada Line is located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, California}} (see San Francisco section.)

====Boston====
*The "Green Line Extension to Canada" references {{w|Green Line Extension|the actual project}} to extend the {{w|Green Line (MBTA)|Green Line}} into Medford, north of Boston.
*The "Ashmont–Manhattan High-Speed Line" shown as connecting Boston's Red Line to New York City's 1 train is a play on the {{w|Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line}} in Boston.
*The {{w|Red Line (MBTA)|Red Line}} stops "Skinflower" and "Bonevine" are plays on the actual name of the Red Line's terminus, {{w|Braintree (MBTA station)|Braintree}}.
*The {{w|Orange Line (MBTA)|Orange Line}} terminates in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain in Dorchester. Therefore, it is connected to the {{w|Jamaica–179th Street (IND Queens Boulevard Line)|Jamaica 179 St}} station on the map.

====San Francisco====
*Both Muni and BART are depicted in San Francisco's map and are completely separate systems, although the map gives the impression that trains interline between the two. Non-wheelchair-accessible stops on Muni lines are omitted.
*{{w|Richmond, California|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the northern terminus of the {{w|Richmond-Fremont line|Richmond–Fremont}} and the {{w|Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae line|Richmond–Daly City/Millbrae}} BART lines are located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond, British Columbia}} (see Vancouver section.)
*"Sunnydale" is the {{w|Sunnydale Station|actual name}} of the terminus of the Muni {{w|T Third Street}} line, not to be confused with {{w|Sunnydale|the city}} where ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is set.

====Los Angeles====
*The {{w|Gold Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Gold Line}} and the {{w|Orange Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Orange Line}} are shown with swapped colors.
*The Orange Line is the only {{w|bus rapid transit}} (BRT) line to be shown on the map. LA Metro also operates a second BRT line, the {{w|Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Silver Line}}, which is not shown.

====New York City====
*The {{w|New York City Subway}}, {{w|Port Authority Trans-Hudson}} (PATH), and the single line of the {{w|Staten Island Railway}} (with a connection via the {{w|Staten Island Ferry}}) are shown.
*{{w|Jamaica, Queens|Jamaica}} is the name of the neighborhood in Queens where the E, F, and J/Z trains terminate. Kingston is the capital and largest city in the country of {{w|Jamaica}}.
*The actual {{w|G (New York City Subway service)|G train}} is notorious for unreliable service, hence the "Random Service" notation.
*The "Robert Moses High-Speed Line" refers to the NYC urban planner {{w|Robert Moses}}, who was one of the most influential planners in supporting cars over all public transport, creating the car-dependent {{w|New York metropolitan area}}.

====Philadelphia====
*Both {{w|SEPTA}} subway lines, a portion of the {{w|SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines}}, and the {{w|PATCO Speedline}} are shown.
*"Trolley Rt. 10 to California" is a play on the actual {{w|SEPTA Route 10|Route 10}} trolley.

====Washington, DC====
*The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system advising passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevator doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected.
*The "Morgantown, WV Automated Line" references the {{w|Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit}} system, which was built in 1975 as a {{w|personal rapid transit}} demonstrator and serves the three campuses of West Virginia University.
*{{w|Greenbelt (WMATA station)|Greenbelt}} is the northern terminus of the Washington Metro's Green and Yellow lines, hence the Green line being depicted as forming a belt.
*This comic was made before the Silver line was constructed, so it does not appear in the comic.

====Miami====
*The "Caribbean Metromover" references the {{w|Miami Metromover}}, a people mover in downtown Miami (not shown on the map.)
*The airport [https://www.logoventure.com/ logo] for Miami International Airport (MIA) is replaced with a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRjZoRtu0Y paper airplane]. [https://logomines.com/ Logo Design].

====San Juan====
*The "Puerto Rico Submarine" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and New York refers to the fact that San Juan is on an island, namely {{w|Puerto Rico}}.
*The "Mona Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and Santo Domingo may refer to the island of {{w|Isla de Mona|Mona}}, which lies between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

====Monterrey====
*The "Chicxulub Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of Santo Domingo and Monterey refers to the 65-million-year-old {{w|Chicxulub crater}}, which lies roughly between the two cities.

===Official subway maps===
*Atlanta - http://www.itsmarta.com/rail-schedules-or-route.aspx
*Baltimore (MTA Maryland) - http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/metro-subway.jpg
*Boston (MBTA) - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
*Chicago (CTA) - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
*Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
*Los Angeles (LACMTA) - http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rail_map.gif
*Mexico City - http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/imagenes/red/redinternet.pdf
*Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
*New York City (MTA) - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
*New York City (PATH) - http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html
*Philadelphia (SEPTA and PATCO) - http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html
*San Francisco (BART) - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif
*San Francisco (MUNI) - http://transit.511.org/static/providers/maps/SF_712200722845.gif
*Toronto (TTC) - https://www.tourbytransit.com/toronto/public-transit/subway
*Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
*Washington (WMATA) - http://wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm

{{clear}}

==Transcript==
:'''Subways of North America'''
:[A subway-line style (bold colored, 45-degree aligned lines with white bars indicating stations) map has been constructed by combining and linking various parts of the subway maps from many different cities, as if all of the transit systems were connected directly. The cities include (from top to bottom, left to right) Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Monterrey, San Juan, Santo Domingo, and Mexico City.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]

1196: Subways

2018-06-06T06:15:51Z

162.158.62.195: /* Boston */

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}
*The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
[[File:North American subways.svg.png|right|border|link=http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html|North America Subways by Prof. Bill Rankin]]
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map have whimsically named connections, such as the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles, or the "Rocky Mountain Tunnel" connecting the Blue Lines of Chicago and San Francisco. Vancouver and San Francisco are connected through a station called Richmond, which appears to double as {{w|Richmond, British Columbia}} and {{w|Richmond, California}}. The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), but its approximate location on this map would suggest the [http://www.seattlemonorail.com/ Seattle Monorail], or perhaps Springfield, Oregon, which [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Matt-Groening-Reveals-the-Location-of-the-Real-Springfield.html Matt Groening revealed was the inspiration for the Simpsons' hometown].

The [http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America] map (right) created by [http://hshm.yale.edu/rankin Yale Professor Bill Rankin] on his web site [http://www.radicalcartography.net/ Radical Cartography] in 2006 presents all of the subway systems in North America at the same scale using geographic, instead of topological, layout.

The networks on xkcd's map are displayed in (relatively) geographic position, with {{w|Vancouver}} being the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – East/West and North/South order are correct, but distances are not (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example). The map's design is modeled after the system map of the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}} in Boston where Randall is from.

===City-specific notes===

====Vancouver====
*The {{w|Canada Line}} and the {{w|Expo Line (TransLink)|Expo Line}} are shown as the same color; SkyTrain's official maps depict them with light blue and dark blue respectively.
*{{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the southernmost terminus of the Canada Line is located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, California}} (see San Francisco section.)

====Boston====
*The "Green Line Extension to Canada" references {{w|Green Line Extension|the actual project}} to extend the {{w|Green Line (MBTA)|Green Line}} into Medford, north of Boston.
*The "Ashmont–Manhattan High-Speed Line" shown as connecting Boston's Red Line to New York City's 1 train is a play on the {{w|Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line}} in Boston.
*The {{w|Red Line (MBTA)|Red Line}} stops "Skinflower" and "Bonevine" are plays on the actual name of the Red Line's terminus, {{w|Braintree (MBTA station)|Braintree}}.
*The {{w|Orange Line (MBTA)|Orange Line}} terminates in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain in Dorchester. Therefore, it is connected to the {{w|Jamaica–179th Street (IND Queens Boulevard Line)|Jamaica 179 St}} station on the map.
"

====San Francisco====
*Both Muni and BART are depicted in San Francisco's map and are completely separate systems, although the map gives the impression that trains interline between the two. Non-wheelchair-accessible stops on Muni lines are omitted.
*{{w|Richmond, California|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the northern terminus of the {{w|Richmond-Fremont line|Richmond–Fremont}} and the {{w|Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae line|Richmond–Daly City/Millbrae}} BART lines are located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond, British Columbia}} (see Vancouver section.)
*"Sunnydale" is the {{w|Sunnydale Station|actual name}} of the terminus of the Muni {{w|T Third Street}} line, not to be confused with {{w|Sunnydale|the city}} where ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is set.

====Los Angeles====
*The {{w|Gold Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Gold Line}} and the {{w|Orange Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Orange Line}} are shown with swapped colors.
*The Orange Line is the only {{w|bus rapid transit}} (BRT) line to be shown on the map. LA Metro also operates a second BRT line, the {{w|Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Silver Line}}, which is not shown.

====New York City====
*The {{w|New York City Subway}}, {{w|Port Authority Trans-Hudson}} (PATH), and the single line of the {{w|Staten Island Railway}} (with a connection via the {{w|Staten Island Ferry}}) are shown.
*{{w|Jamaica, Queens|Jamaica}} is the name of the neighborhood in Queens where the E, F, and J/Z trains terminate. Kingston is the capital and largest city in the country of {{w|Jamaica}}.
*The actual {{w|G (New York City Subway service)|G train}} is notorious for unreliable service, hence the "Random Service" notation.
*The "Robert Moses High-Speed Line" refers to the NYC urban planner {{w|Robert Moses}}, who was one of the most influential planners in supporting cars over all public transport, creating the car-dependent {{w|New York metropolitan area}}.

====Philadelphia====
*Both {{w|SEPTA}} subway lines, a portion of the {{w|SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines}}, and the {{w|PATCO Speedline}} are shown.
*"Trolley Rt. 10 to California" is a play on the actual {{w|SEPTA Route 10|Route 10}} trolley.

====Washington, DC====
*The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system advising passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevator doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected.
*The "Morgantown, WV Automated Line" references the {{w|Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit}} system, which was built in 1975 as a {{w|personal rapid transit}} demonstrator and serves the three campuses of West Virginia University.
*{{w|Greenbelt (WMATA station)|Greenbelt}} is the northern terminus of the Washington Metro's Green and Yellow lines, hence the Green line being depicted as forming a belt.
*This comic was made before the Silver line was constructed, so it does not appear in the comic.

====Miami====
*The "Caribbean Metromover" references the {{w|Miami Metromover}}, a people mover in downtown Miami (not shown on the map.)
*The airport [https://www.logoventure.com/ logo] for Miami International Airport (MIA) is replaced with a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRjZoRtu0Y paper airplane]. [https://logomines.com/ Logo Design].

====San Juan====
*The "Puerto Rico Submarine" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and New York refers to the fact that San Juan is on an island, namely {{w|Puerto Rico}}.
*The "Mona Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and Santo Domingo may refer to the island of {{w|Isla de Mona|Mona}}, which lies between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

====Monterrey====
*The "Chicxulub Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of Santo Domingo and Monterey refers to the 65-million-year-old {{w|Chicxulub crater}}, which lies roughly between the two cities.

===Official subway maps===
*Atlanta - http://www.itsmarta.com/rail-schedules-or-route.aspx
*Baltimore (MTA Maryland) - http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/metro-subway.jpg
*Boston (MBTA) - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
*Chicago (CTA) - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
*Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
*Los Angeles (LACMTA) - http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rail_map.gif
*Mexico City - http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/imagenes/red/redinternet.pdf
*Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
*New York City (MTA) - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
*New York City (PATH) - http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html
*Philadelphia (SEPTA and PATCO) - http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html
*San Francisco (BART) - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif
*San Francisco (MUNI) - http://transit.511.org/static/providers/maps/SF_712200722845.gif
*Toronto (TTC) - https://www.tourbytransit.com/toronto/public-transit/subway
*Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
*Washington (WMATA) - http://wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm

{{clear}}

==Transcript==
:'''Subways of North America'''
:[A subway-line style (bold colored, 45-degree aligned lines with white bars indicating stations) map has been constructed by combining and linking various parts of the subway maps from many different cities, as if all of the transit systems were connected directly. The cities include (from top to bottom, left to right) Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Monterrey, San Juan, Santo Domingo, and Mexico City.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]

1891: Obsolete Technology

2017-09-19T17:08:28Z

162.158.62.195: commenters have a point: meltdowns are not the same as explosions. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are thriving metropolises, not nuclear wastelands. The fukishima/chernobyl comparisons are improper.

{{comic
| number = 1891
| date = September 18, 2017
| title = Obsolete Technology
| image = obsolete_technology.png
| titletext = And I can't believe some places still use fax machines. The electrical signals waste so much time going AROUND the Earth when neutrino beams can go straight through!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Someone please find some statistics for annual fireworks casualties and injuries.}}

This comic mocks people who criticize an industry for using obsolete technology, even when said technology is sufficient for the task at hand. The claim often comes with the implication that those in charge of the industry are behind the times and cannot adapt to the cutting edge. What these critics often fail to realize is that there are cost benefits to sticking with "obsolete" infrastructure, and that upgrading to the newest tech can introduce unwanted side effects and other risks.

Here, [[Ponytail]] is one such critic, complaining that the business is taking "forever" to get with the times. [[Megan]] uses sarcasm to deliver her counterargument (although she may be serious): despite the advent of nuclear weapons, fireworks use the ancient technology of {{w|gunpowder}} (invented in the 9th century), because fireworks are used by civilians for celebratory purposes and should have as few lethal side effects as possible{{Citation needed}}. As they use gunpowder, fireworks do claim a handful of lives and cause thousands of injuries each year due to improper handling procedures. Nuclear-based fireworks would not only cause much larger and immediately lethal explosions, but would also release radiation that would poison spectators. Between June 18th and July 18th of 2016 (thus including the {{w|Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day}} celebrations on July 4th), fireworks caused an estimated 11,000 injuries, of which 7,000 had to be treated in hospitals. In the whole year of 2016, four people died. (U.S. stats, [http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2017/06/30/456213.htm]). In the same time, nuclear fireworks directly caused neither injuries nor deaths, suggesting (obviously in error) that health hazards could be lowered by using nuclear fireworks.

However, what is not stated in the comic is that nuclear explosions can have detrimental effects on human health. For example, should a nuclear explosion at a firework display be too powerful, the spectators, and possibly the neighborhood around the display, would be vaporized instantly. Fallout from a nuclear reaction could spread radiation across a wide area, leading to increased risks of cancers and other detrimental genetic mutations.

In other words, sometimes using newer technology is "overkill" for the purpose, and it might be costlier to switch to a newer technology. For example, many industrial machines were designed and sold in the 1990s when {{w|floppy disk}}s were the prevalent means of storing the instructions, but those machines still have one or two or even more decades of usable lifetime left, and the instruction files still fit on those floppy disks. So, in 2017, there are several companies that thrive on buying, refurbishing and selling floppy disks. This [https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/why-do-floppy-disks-still-exist-the-world-isnt-ready-to-move-on/ report] portrays one of these companies.

{{w|MS-DOS}} is a computer operating system made by {{w|Microsoft}} that was dominant during much of the 1980s. When Microsoft released Windows, a newer operating system (or series of operating systems), they encouraged people to switch to that, which many did. MS-DOS became essentially obsolete when Microsoft released {{w|Windows 95}} in 1995. However, there remain rare circumstances in which MS-DOS (or another command-line operating system) is still preferred, such as when no mouse, touchscreen, or other pointing hardware is available, or when the hardware does not support a newer operating system. To make matters simpler, there is {{w|DOSBox}}, a free and open-source MS-DOS emulator which is actively maintained and extended. Likewise, {{w|FreeDOS}} is a free and open-source variant of MS-DOS, compatible with both older and newer computers.

The title text uses a different twist: it criticizes the current use of {{w|fax}} machines, which many find obsolete compared to e-mail (black and white only, text sent as image making further treatment complicated, waste of ink and paper for recipient while sender has to pay per fax in some countries), then argues it is obsolete due to being electron-based, while {{w|neutrino}}-based communication would be faster. In 2017 neutrino detectors are heavy and expensive, used for nuclear research only. Electronic communications travel at a fair share of speed of light and the advantage of path would be at most a factor of π/2, so neutrino-based communication would normally be way too expensive compared to the speed gain. Even in the most extreme case (communicating between {{w|antipodes}}), the time saving would be a few hundredths of a second – insignficant for almost all purposes, but potentially enough to gain an edge in {{w|high-frequency trading}}. Real-world fax detractors would rather replace it with other electronic communication systems, not neutronic ones.

Fax machines are a peculiar topic among "obsolete" technology. In some fields, like lawyer offices, pharmacies and medical practices, they staunchly hold their ground, as they offer a way to quickly transfer handwritten and hand-signed documents. Confidentiality is also an issue; fax, which uses a landline, is more difficult to intercept than internet-based traffic. In some countries, a telecopy is a valid document, having the same legal value as the original. So, a patient can call his doctor to fill a prescription, which is faxed to the pharmacy where the patient can fetch his drugs, saving precious time. In the same manner, a legal request can be sent to the receiver, without having to use a courier or express mail.

==Transcript==

:[Ponytail sits in front of an old computer. Megan stands behind her.]
:Ponytail: Whoa, this is running MS-DOS! It's weird how new technology takes forever to reach some industries.
:Megan: Yeah. Like how we still use gunpowder for fireworks, even though we've had nuclear weapons for over 70 years.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category: Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Computers]]

1617: Time Capsule

2017-09-11T15:51:46Z

162.158.62.195:

{{comic
| number = 1617
| date = December 16, 2015
| title = Time Capsule
| image = time_capsule.png
| titletext = Oh no, I changed the future and now I'm disappearing! Wait, never mind, it was just my hat slipping down over my eyes.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is watching [[Ponytail]] who has unearthed a {{w|time capsule}}, that must have been buried in the ground many years ago.

A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists or historians.

However, when she manages to open the capsule [[Beret Guy]] turns out to have been hiding inside while the capsule has been buried. It turns out that he has mixed up the purpose of a {{w|Time travel|time machine}} and a time capsule; when Ponytail asks him where he came from he tells her: ''The past! I traveled here in this time machine.''

He cannot explain how he got there, but he claims that he could not have prevented it. This is a reference to the fact that you cannot avoid being pushed forward through time, see [[1524: Dimensions]]. Beret Guy has also previously traveled to the future in a similar manner, see [[209: Kayak]].

Beret Guy claims he has been eating newspapers to survive; newspaper clippings are a stereotype content of time capsules. He also managed to live underground in the time capsule, which would typically be an airtight sealed box, for what must be assumed to be at least several years. Although some time capsules are meant to be opened after just a few years (10 or 25 years for instance) the plan should be that it is not opened for at least several years after it is created. So this comic is one more example of the [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers of Beret Guy]] - i.e. living by eating paper and without breathing oxygen. But he has before displayed patience enough to sit still for five years in [[1088: Five Years]].

Beret Guy mentions he got inside his "time machine" to attempt an assassination of {{w|Adolf Hitler}} (using the hammer he is holding). Traveling to the past in a time machine to assassinate Hitler is a common trope in speculative fiction, as a way to try to prevent the {{w|second world war}} - however the scheme only works via travel into the past, to some time before Hitler rose to power and started the war, rather than "into the future" as Beret Guy did. Of course, when Beret Guy entered the "time machine" Hitler may still have been alive. If it was realized early enough what kind of threat Hitler was posing a plan could have been devised, where Beret Guys traveled to a future time where it would become possible to kill Hitler, and where it would still make a difference if he did (however, it would have been more practical to just wait, though Beret Guy is never practical).

Since he did not travel into the past, but forward in time by letting time pass normally, and since he did not get out until long after Hitler's demise, Ponytail can tell him that Hitler has been dead for a long time (70 years at the time of the comic's release). So if the capsule was opened on the day of the release of the comic, then he was 70 years too late. But of course the comic could be set at any time after the war, also in the future, as long as it would make sense to say that Hitler died long ago.

The fact that Hitler is already dead does not bother Beret Guy, on the contrary he is pleased, as he just realizes his job has already been done. What he thus fails to realize, is that he was probably supposed to kill Hitler before he got the second world war started. This was the same type of failure made by [[Black Hat]] in [[1063: Kill Hitler]]. Black Hat did actually travel 67 years back in time and killed Hitler, sadly it was in the last days of the war in 1945 just before Hitler would have died anyway, so it had no effect on history either, and the time machine was a one shot thing.

When he finds out that his job is done he asks Ponytail if they should get some sandwiches. It is a known feature of Beret Guy that he likes bakers and bread, though not specifically sandwiches. Realizing he is in the future he suddenly becomes aware that this concept may have been forgotten, and he asks if they still exist in this future. This is a reference to another comic where Megan has traveled through time in the same way as Beret Guy; see [[630: Time Travel]]. It may also be a reference to the new version of [http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Montgomery_Scott_%28alternate_reality%29 Star Trek], in which Scotty's response to learning someone is from the future is "Do they still have sandwiches there?"

In the title text Beret Guy becomes afraid that he will now disappear because he has changed the future in a way so he would no longer exist. A typical example would be to go back and kill your parents before you were born (or just prevent them from falling in love as in the movie ''{{w|Back to the Future}}''). This creates a {{w|Grandfather paradox|paradox}} where you will never be born, and thus cease to exist. Of course the paradox is that you could thus not have prevented your birth in the first place, if you did not already exist. (Another good example of how this might feel is displayed in the movie {{w|Timecop}}).

However, it turns out that in Beret Guy's case it was only his sight that was "disappearing", and that was only because his beret had fallen over his eyes. In any case the fear is baseless since he only traveled forward in time, not backwards, and thus could not have changed his own past. It is also unknown how his hat could slip over his eyes, as it is stapled to his head.

Time machines have been referenced in many xkcd comics, see the [[:Category:Time travel|Time travel category]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is watching and Ponytail is about to open a time capsule that has just been dug out. A shovel is stuck in the ground next to a heap of dirt on the right side of a hole in the ground. Cueball is standing on the other side and Ponytail is in the hole, proceeding to lift up the lid of the box that makes up the time capsule.]
:Ponytail: All right, let's open the time capsule.

:[Slight zoom in on Ponytail and the box, without Cueball but still the shovel and dirt, when Beret Guy comes out of the capsule looking up at Ponytail who takes a step back up.]
:Beret Guy: Hi!
:Ponytail: Where did you come from?!
:Beret Guy: The past! I traveled here in this time machine.

:[Frame widens to include Cueball, in the same position as in the first frame. Ponytail relaxes a little and Beret Guy turns in the capsule to face Cueball.]
:Cueball: How did you... '''''get''''' here from the past?
:Beret Guy: I dunno. I couldn't '''''not'''''.
:Cueball: But... what did you ''eat?''
:Beret Guy: Newspapers, mostly.

:[Zoom in again in a bigger frame with Ponytail and the capsule, shovel and dirt. Beret Guy faces her again, but now he is holding a hammer.]
:Beret Guy: Anyway, I'm here to kill Hitler.
:Ponytail: But he died long ago!
:Beret Guy: Oh, good! That was easy.
:Beret Guy: Want to get sandwiches?
:Beret Guy: Do you still have sandwiches?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hitler]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

Talk:936: Password Strength

2017-02-11T14:18:24Z

162.158.62.195: ~~~~

''Fix the software first.'' If you double the time it takes to enter each repeated password attempt you make brute force attacks pointless. Imagine you allowed a hurried user who screws up their own password entry w/ frozen fingers. If their system starts out with a 1 second delay, then doubles to two, then to four, etc. the time it takes to wait is 2^n. Six screw ups cost you a minute, twenty errors and you are waiting 291 hours before your next log-in attempt.... kmc 2015-05-10 {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.124}}

: That's not how brute force attacks work. They steal the hashes of the passwords and then brute force them locally. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.107|198.41.235.107]] 23:43, 10 January 2016 (UTC)
:: Both are brute force. It is specified in the comic that we assume an attack against a weak remote web service though. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.231|162.158.150.231]] 13:10, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

You still have to vary the words with a bit of capitalization, punctuation and numbers a bit, or hackers can just run a dictionary attack against your string of four words. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:12, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
: Several discussions around the internet around this -- the consensus [ http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/936 looks like] that once this scheme is published it is fairly simple to run a dictionary attack on the password. My advise to most people is to use a password manager like lastpass or onepass that can generate pure random password. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.253.6|162.158.253.6]] 23:52, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

No you don't. Hackers cannot run a dictionary attack against a string of four randomly picked words.
Look at the number of bits displayed in the image: 11 bits for each word.
That means he's assuming a dictionary of 2048 words, from which each word is picked randomly.
The assumption is that the cracker knows your password scheme.
[[Special:Contributions/86.81.151.19|86.81.151.19]] 20:17, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
Willem

:I just wrote a program to bruteforce this password creation method. https://github.com/KrasnayaSecurity/xkcd936/blob/master/listGen936.py Once I get it I'll try coming up with more bruteforcing algorithms such as substituting symbols, numbers, camel case, and the like. Point is, don't rely on this or any one method. I wouldn't be surprised if the crackers are already working on something like this. [[User:Lieutenant S.|Lieutenant S.]] ([[User talk:Lieutenant S.|talk]]) 07:03, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
:It took 1.25 hours to bruteforce "correcthorsebatterystaple" using the 2,000 most common words with one CPU. [[User:Lieutenant S.|Lieutenant S.]] ([[User talk:Lieutenant S.|talk]]) 07:09, 9 September 2014 (UTC)
:: 1) ... as compared to 69 milliseconds for the other method. 2) Since you are able to test 3,9 billion passwords as second (very impressive!) I am guessing that your setup is not performing its attack over a ”weak remote service”, which is breaking the rules of the #936 game. 3) five words and a 20k-wordlist would get you 9400 years (still breaking the weak remote service rule).--[[User:Gnirre|Gnirre]] ([[User talk:Gnirre|talk]]) 09:13, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
:: 2) Two thoughts: You use itertools.permutations, which only covers non-repeating words, but mainly you don't actually hash the password. If you have a plain-text password, there no need to crack the password because you could just look at it. Example of an actual crack for this type of password: https://github.com/koshippy/xkcd_password/blob/master/password_crack.py My computer gets 10,000,000 guesses in ~16 seconds (non-hashed takes ~2 seconds), meaning it would take almost a year to try every combination. (2048^4 total password space). Even optimizing by using c++/java or JtR, you wouldn't see huge improvement since most of the time is from the SHA hashing. Point being: a typical user can't crack this type of password in a short amount of time, even if they know your wordlist. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.212|199.27.128.212]] 12:05, 17 February 2015 (UTC) Koshippy

Sometimes this is not possible. (I'm looking at you, local banks with 8-12 character passwords and PayPal) If I can, I use a full sentence. A compound sentence for the important stuff. This adds the capitalization, punctuation and possibly the use of numbers while it's even easier to remember then Randall's scheme. I think it might help against the keyloggers too, if your browser/application autofills the username filed, because you password doesn't stand out from the feed with being gibberish. [[Special:Contributions/195.56.58.169|195.56.58.169]] 09:01, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

The basic concept can be adapted to limited-length passwords easily enough: memorize a phrase and use the first letter of each word. It'll require about a dozen words (you're only getting 4.7 bits per letter at best, actually less because first letters of words are not truly random, though they are weakly if at all correlated with their neighbors -- based on the frequencies of first letters of words in English, and assuming no correlation between each first letter and the next, I calculate about 4 bits per character of Shannon entropy). SteveMB 18:35, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Followup: The results of extracting the first letters of words in sample texts (the {{w|Project_Gutenberg|Project Gutenberg}} texts of ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', ''The War of the Worlds'', and ''Little Fuzzy'') and applying a {{w|Entropy_(information_theory)|Shannon entropy calculation}} were 4.07 bits per letter (i.e. first letter in word) and 8.08 bits per digraph (i.e. first letters in two consecutive words). These results suggest that first-letter-of-phrase passwords have approximately 4 bits per letter of entropy. --[[User:SteveMB|SteveMB]] ([[User talk:SteveMB|talk]]) 14:21, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Addendum: The above test was case-insensitive (all letters converted to lowercase before feeding them to the [[http://millikeys.sourceforge.net/freqanalysis.html frequency counter]]). Thus, true-random use of uppercase and lowercase would have 5 bits per letter of entropy, and any variation in case (e.g. preserving the case of the original first letter) would fall between 4 and 5 bits per letter. --[[User:SteveMB|SteveMB]] ([[User talk:SteveMB|talk]]) 14:28, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

I just have RANDOM.ORG print me ten pages of 8-character passwords and tape it to the wall, then highlight some of them and use others (say two down and to the right or similar) for my passwords, maybe a given line a line a little jumbled for more security. [[Special:Contributions/70.24.167.3|70.24.167.3]] 13:27, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
:Remind me to visit your office and secretly replace your wall-lists by a list of very similar looking strings ;) --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 13:53, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Simple.com (online banking site) had the following on it’s registration page:

“Passphrase? Yes. Passphrases are easier to remember and more secure than traditional passwords. For example, try a group of words with spaces in between, or a sentence you know you'll remember. "correct horse battery staple" is a better passphrase than r0b0tz26.”

Online security for a banking site has been informed by an online comic. Astounding.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.78|173.245.54.78]] 21:22, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

The Web service Dropbox has an Easter egg related to this comic on their sign-up page. That page has a password strength indicator (powered by JavaScript) which changes as you type your password. This indicator also shows hints when hovering the mouse cursor over it. Entering "Tr0ub4dor&3" or "Tr0ub4dour&3" as the password causes the password strength indicator to fall to zero, with the hint saying, "Guess again." Entering "correcthorsebatterystaple" as the password also causes the strength indicator to fall to zero, but the hint says, "Whoa there, don't take advice from a webcomic too literally ;)." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.95|108.162.218.95]] 15:17, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

The explanation said that the comic uses a dictionary[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=936:_Password_Strength&oldid=59309]. In fact it's a word list, which seems similar but it's not. All the words in the word list must be easy to memorize. This means it's better not to have words such as ''than'' or ''if''. Also, it's better not to have homophones (''wood'' and ''would'', for example). The sentence ''dictionary attack'' doesn't apply here. A dictionary attack requires the attacker to use all the words in the dictionary (e.g. 100,000 words). Here we must generate the 17,592,186,044,416 combinations of 4 common words. Those combinations can't be found in any dictionary. At 25 bytes per "word" that dictionary would need 400 {{w|tebi|binary terabytes}} to be stored. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 21:37, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

This comic was mentioned in a TED talk by Lorrie Faith Cranor on in March 2014. After performing a lot of studies and analysis, she concludes that "pass phrase" passwords are no easier to remember than complex passwords and that the increased length of the password increases the number of errors when typing it. There is a lot of other useful information from her studies that can be gleaned from the talk. [http://www.ted.com/talks/lorrie_faith_cranor_what_s_wrong_with_your_pa_w0rd Link]. What she doesn't mention is the frequency of changing passwords - in most organizations it's ~90 days. I don't know where that standard originated, but (as a sys admin) I suspect it's about as ineffective as most of our other password trickery - that is that it does nothing. Today's password thieves don't bash stolen password hash tables, they bundle keyloggers with game trainers and browser plugins.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.75|173.245.50.75]] 18:14, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Lorrie Faith Cranor gets the random part of #936 word generation correct, which is great. Regarding memorizability, this study (https://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2012/proceedings/a7_Shay.pdf) does not address #936. The study uses no generator for gibberish of length 11. Most comparable are perhaps two classes of five or six randomly assigned characters. None of the study's generators has 44 bits of entropy – its dictionary for the method closest to #936 – noun-instr – contains only 181 nouns. The article contains no discussion of the significance of these differences to #936. In her TED Lorrie Faith Cranor says ”sorry all you xkcd fans” which could be interpreted as judgement of #936, but there is no basis in the above article for that. It does however seem plausible that the report could be reworked to address #936. --[[User:Gnirre|Gnirre]] ([[User talk:Gnirre|talk]]) 10:42, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

:Password-changing frequency isn't about making passwords more ''secure'', but instead it's about ''mitigating the damage'' of a successfully cracked password. If a hacker gets your password (through any means) and your password changes every 90 days, the password the hacker has obtained is only useful for a few months at most. That might be enough, but it might not. If the hacker is brute forcing the passwords to get them, that cuts into the time the password is useful. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.168|173.245.54.168]] 22:22, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
::However, brute-forcing gets much ''easier'' that way.
::Say the average employee is around for 10 years, which is reasonable for some companies , absurdly high for others, and a bit low for a family business. That's 40 password changes.
::Now if you have to remember another password every now and then, you sacrifice complexity, lest you forget it. A factor of 40 is like one character less. But how much shorter will the password be? It's more likely that it's gonna be 3 or 4 characters less. Congrats, you just a factor of 1000's for a perceived "mitigation", which doesn't even work. Pro attackers can vacuum your server in a DAY once they have the PW. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Just because you are required to have a password that has letters and numbers in it doesn't mean you can't make it memorable. When caps are required, use CamelCase. When punctuation is required, make it an ampersand (&) or include a contraction. When numbers are required, pick something that has significance to you (your birthday, the resolution of your television, ect.). Keep in mind that, if your phrase is an actual sentence, the password entropy is 1.1 bits per character (http://what-if.xkcd.com/34), so length is key if you want your password to be secure. (Though no known algorithm can actually exploit the 1.1 bits of entropy to gain time, so it might be more like 11 bits of entropy per word. Even then, my passwords have nonexistent and uncommon words in them, (like doge or trope), which also adds some entropy.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.213|108.162.246.213]] 22:18, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
:Flip side of the story, the "capital plus small plus other char" policy doesn't make your password any safer.
:The German company T-online had an experimental gateway with the password, "internet". Now that sucked. No problem, tho, because that gateway wasn't accessible from outside. When they went live, they "improved" the password to "Internet1". There are still lots of these passwords around: first letter is a Cap, and the only non-alphabetic char is a 1 at the end. This doesn't add any entropy. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
::[http://ask.metafilter.com/193052/Oh-Randall-you-do-confound-me-so#2779020 This] shows that about one third of all digits in a sample of passwords was "1" . [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:14, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
You can also troll the brute-force engine by using words from other languages, fictional books and video games.--[[User:Horsebattery|Horsebattery]] ([[User talk:Horsebattery|talk]]) 03:04, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
:That's a good idea; it adds to the entropy bits per word. If you really want to throw them off, mix different languages. Just don't use very well-known words; I'm sure the hackers have ''cojones'' and ''Blitzkrieg'' in their dictionaries. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Also, passwords that are 'hard to remember' are themselves a security vulnerability. A password reset scheme (or even a lockout scheme) is a vulnerability. The more it needs to be used, the harder it becomes to police that vulnerability. Relatedly, hard-to-remember passwords leave users uncertain whether their password has been changed by someone else or they've just forgotten it. [[User:Ijkcomputer|Ijkcomputer]] ([[User talk:Ijkcomputer|talk]]) 15:32, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi there, this comic gave me the idea for a password generator that can (optionally) use dictionary words. Have a look if you're interested: https://wordypasswords.com Use your common sense though about what is and isn't secure! Hope someone finds it useful. [[User:Mackatronic|Mackatronic]] ([[User talk:Mackatronic|talk]]) 08:23, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

I have not read all of the replies and in truth most of the detail is boring to me but it has occurred to me that with this sort of problem and since the Snowden affair, serious security devices will have to make the keyboard redundant.

At the moment all I can imagine is a series of pictures like hieroglyphs but even using a rolling code of ever changing font glyphs would do. When the security required by money minders reaches the stage of development possible with keyboards that can supply that sort of security, we will have some idea which banks have some idea about security.

Tip:
Not Barings. They have an history of intransigence and stupidity. (Still revered in banks though as able to cure colon cancer with poor investment strategies.)

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 13:46, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

The D0g..................... (24 characters long) is NOT stronger than PrXyc.N(n4k77#L!eVdAfp9 (23 characters long). The reason why, is that the later password is random. There is no pattern. The former, "padding" technique can be very easily cracked. You just need to assume that each character be repeated 1~30 times. Then the first password would become : 1(D)1(0)1(g)21(.), which, is then of complexity 30^4 + 96^4, versus 96^23 for the random password. And that is assuming that any character can be repeated 1~30 times, so DDDDDDDDD0000000ggggggg...... also would be cracked extremely quickly. If you limit yourself to only last character padding, your password now becomes 30*96^4 possibilities. {{unsigned ip|108.162.222.235}}

And that's why it is stupid to explain this kind of joke : it depends on many (MANY) parameters such as brute-force method and encryption/hash algorithm. Giving this kind of (wrong) explanations about "pass cracking" (as if it was always the same way to process ...) is ridiculous. And they talk about entropy .......... Holy shit, go back to school and stop screwing cryptography up. zM_

I just use a password with a ␡ character or two, and ␇ for banks. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.21|108.162.242.21]] 08:33, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I'am astonished that even someone like Schneier don't get 936 right immediately after reading it. So, I think I know what was going on in Munroes mind conceptually. Maybe there are some grans of salt, but I don't have a problem with these. But I do have one (or two) quantitative problem(s) with 936:
* I was not able to find out, how Munroe get the value of about 16 bits of entropy for the "uncommon" nine letter lower case "non-gibberish base word". This would mean: On average, a letter of such a word will have about 1.8 bits of entropy. May be, but how do we know? "Citation needed!" ;-)
* (Secondly: The "punctuation" should have 5, not 4 bits of entropy. There are 32 (2^5) ASCII punctuation characters (POSIX class [:punct:]). But I assume this is a lapse.)
Can someone enlighten me? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.236|162.158.91.236]] 17:31, 19 September 2015 (UTC)
:I have missed the sentence "Randall assumes only the 16 most common characters are used in practice (4 bits)". Hm. There is a huge list with real world passwords out there, leaking from RockYou in 2009. After some processing to remove passwords containing characters that are not printable ASCII characters (ñ, £, ๅ, NBSP, EOT, ...), the list contains about 14329849 unique passwords from about 32585010 accounts (there are some garbage "passwords" like HTML code fragments). The following are the number of accounts using a password containing a particular printable character (one or more tokens of a particular type):
<nowiki>
226673 .
186883 _
179264 !
125846 -
104224 @
95237 *
92802 (space)
60002 #
36522 /
31172 $
28550 &
27686 ,
23905 +
18704 =
18268 )
17927 ?
16401 (
16074 '
14407 ;
11819 <
11118 %
10723 ]
8975 \
7718 [
7209 :
5815 ~
5673 ^
4995 `
2847 "
2741 >
1050 {
939 }
502 |

(NB: 1222815 accounts were using a password containing at least one of these.)
</nowiki>
:Sorry, I have no "citation". But you can play with the leaked RockYou password list yourself. Here is a way to reach that playground:
<nowiki>
$ # Download the compressed list (57 MiB; I have no idea what "skullsecurity"
$ # is, it was simply the first find and I assume it's the said list):
$ wget http://downloads.skullsecurity.org/passwords/rockyou-withcount.txt.bz2

$ # Decompress the list (243 MiB), or, to speak more exact, it's a table:
$ bzip2 -dk rockyou-withcount.txt.bz2

$ # The content of the table is: "How many accounts (first row) were using that
$ # password (second row)?" Let's take a peek:
$ head -n5 rockyou-withcount.txt
290729 123456
79076 12345
76789 123456789
59462 password
49952 iloveyou

$ # The following command processes the table to remove lines with passwords
$ # containing characters that are not printable ASCII characters (14541
$ # lines/passwords, 18038 accounts), and lines insisting that there were some
$ # accounts with no password (1 line, 340 accounts). Moreover, the command
$ # removes every space character not belonging to a password, makes the rows
$ # tab-delimited and writes the result in a file called "ry" (161 MiB; many
$ # bloating spaces removed).
$ LC_ALL=C sed -n 's/^ *$[1-9][0-9]*$ $[[:print:]]\{1,\}$$/\1\t\2/p' rockyou-withcount.txt >ry

$ # The following are shell functions to build commands. They will be explained
$ # below using examples (I can not express myself well in this language).
$ counta() { LC_ALL=C awk 'BEGIN { FS = "\t"; p = 0; a = 0 } { if ($2 ~ /'"$(printf %s "$1" | sed 'sI/I\\/Ig')"'/) { p++; a += $1 } } END { print a " (" p ")" }' "$2" ;}
$ countap() { LC_ALL=C awk 'BEGIN { FS = "\t"; p = 0; a = 0 } { if ($2 ~ /'"$(printf %s "$1" | sed 'sI/I\\/Ig')"'/) { p++; a += $1; print $0 } } END { print a " (" p ")" }' "$2" ;}

$ # We have reached the playground. Here are some examples for how to use the
$ # toys:

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing the string love:
$ counta 'love' ry
671599 (188855)

$ # The first operand of the above command is a extended regular expression
$ # (ERE). The second operand is a file, namely the previously generated file
$ # called "ry", that is the (processed) table. The first number of the output
$ # means: "That many accounts were using a password matching the ERE." The
$ # second number inside parentheses means: "That many unique passwords matching
$ # the ERE." If the first number is greater than the second number, some
$ # accounts sharing the same password (we will see this clearly in one of the
$ # examples below).

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing at least one
$ # character:
$ counta '.' ry
32585010 (14329849)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing exactly one
$ # character:
$ counta '^.$' ry
144 (45)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing exactly one numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '^[0-9]$' ry
55 (10)

$ # Let's have a look at the distribution:
$ countap '^[0-9]$' ry
29 1
6 7
6 3
3 9
3 2
2 6
2 5
2 0
1 8
1 4
55 (10)

$ # Obove we see the second command at work. You see what it does and what it
$ # does different. And here we see clearly the meaning of the first number and
$ # the second number inside parentheses.

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing at least one
$ # numeric character:
$ counta '[0-9]' ry
17609065 (9761364)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password ending with a numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '[0-9]$' ry
15728238 (8313698)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password beginning with a numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '^[0-9]' ry
6409397 (3283946)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing only numeric
$ # characters:
$ counta '^[0-9]+$' ry
5192990 (2346744)

$ # And, last but not least, count how many accounts were using a password
$ # containing that "uncommon non-gibberish base word" in 936, with an upper
$ # or an lower case first letter, with or without some of the "common
$ # substitutions":
$ counta '[tT]r[o0]ub[a4]d[o0]r' ry
3 (3)

$ # Yes, there are some. 14 million unique passwords are a lot. Let's see what
$ # exactly was used:
$ countap '[tT]r[o0]ub[a4]d[o0]r' ry
1 troubador1
1 troubador
1 darktroubador
3 (3)
</nowiki>
:[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.236|162.158.91.236]] 06:23, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Interesting read about the generated password streangth: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/01/friday_squid_bl_508.html#c6714590 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.190|162.158.91.190]] 08:09, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

: That person sounds confused. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.107|198.41.235.107]] 23:43, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

;You've Already Memorized It

Originally I logged in to report a local xkcd related phenomenon, and ask if anyone else had experienced it. The destiny, seemingly inescapable, that at once became my own upon seeing that last panel; the effect of the self-fullfilling combination of the very specific look of inquiry -- one I recognize immediately and associate with the words ''"interesting, Captain"'' -- and the insidiously performative ''"You've already memorized it."'' At first I doubted this was actually the case, but soon I could no longer, since not only did the phrase readily come to the mind and out the mouth, it also came up often. The ''"correct"'' soon replaced the word ''"right"'' in everyday conversation, then ''"right you are"'' and ''"yes"'' and so forth, then its opposite (with a ''"no"'' in front), then replacing the direction, the verb involving pen and paper (the most recent development was merely a quick under the breath aside of an acronym of the remaining words). All followed by the rest of the absurdly perfect password. '''Now here's the kicker: I logged on to tell you all this for some reason, only to find, I had memorized ''"correct horse staple battery"'' instead of ''"correct horse battery staple."'''''[[User:A female faust|A female faust]] ([[User talk:A female faust|talk]]) 03:58, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

If you go to https://howsecureismypassword.net/ and type in the suggested password in the comic, it says that the password would be cracked instantly, and adds a section titled "xkcd".
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 14:18, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

287: NP-Complete

2017-01-08T02:24:18Z

162.158.62.195: /* Transcript */ indent

{{comic
| number = 287
| date = July 9, 2007
| title = NP-Complete
| image = np_complete.png
| titletext = General solutions get you a 50% tip.
}}

==Explanation==
Another entry in the "[[My Hobby]]" series of cartoons. [[Cueball]] is embedding {{w|NP-complete|NP-complete problems}} in restaurant orders. Specifically, he is ordering appetizers not by explicitly stating the names, but by the total price of them all. This is a simplified example of the {{w|Knapsack problem|knapsack problem}}. This is a problem in combinatorial optimization, as follows: If you have a knapsack (backpack or rucksack) which can hold a specific amount of weight, and you have a set of items, each with its own assigned value and weight, you have to select items to put into the knapsack so that the weight does not exceed the capacity of the knapsack and the combined value of all the items is maximized.

In {{w|Computational complexity theory|computational complexity theory}}, NP stands for "nondeterministic polynomial time," which means that problems which are NP take polynomial running time (i.e. the time a CPU would take to run the program would be polynomial in the input size) to verify a solution, but it is unknown whether finding any or all solutions can be done in polynomial time. Polynomial time is considered efficient; exponential and higher times are considered unfeasible for computation. NP-complete problems are ones which, if a polynomial time algorithm is found for any of them, then all NP problems have polynomial time solutions. In short, particular guesses in NP-complete problems can be checked easily, but systematically finding solutions is far more difficult.

The waiter's problem is NP-complete, since a given order's price can be found and checked quickly, but finding an order to match a price is much harder. (Formal proofs of the NP-completeness of the knapsack problem can be found at the above link.) The most straightforward way for a human to find a solution is to methodically start by first listing all the (6) ways of choosing one appetizer, and their total costs, then list all the (21) ways of choosing two appetizers (allowing repeats), and then list all the (56) ways of choosing three appetizers, and so forth. As any combination of eight appetizers would be more than $15.05, the process need not extend beyond listing all the (1715) ways of choosing seven appetizers.

Another famous NP-complete problem is the {{w|Travelling salesman problem|travelling salesman problem}}, mentioned by Cueball at the end, referring to the waiter's claim that he has 6 more tables to get to. (see also [[399: Travelling Salesman Problem]]).

The title text refers to the fact that NP-complete problems have no known polynomial time general solutions, and it is unknown if such a solution can ever be found. If the waiter can find an efficient general solution to this he will have solved one of the most famous problems in mathematics. This problem is one of the six remaining unsolved {{w|Millennium Prize Problems}} stated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000, for which a correct solution (including proving that such a solution doesn't exist) is worth US$1,000,000. A 50% tip is slightly less than fair.

For those curious, there are exactly two combinations of appetizers which total $15.05 and solve the problem posed in the comic strip:
#A combination of two orders of hot wings, one order of mixed fruit, and one sampler plate
#Seven mixed fruit orders (this solution was not intended - see [[#Trivia|trivia]] below)

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Embedding NP-Complete problems in restaurant orders
:[A menu is shown.]
:'''Chotchkies Restaurant'''
:Appetizers
::Mixed Fruit 2.15
::French Fries 2.75
::Side Salad 3.35
::Hot Wings 3.55
::Mozzarella Sticks 4.20
::Sampler Plate 5.80
:Sandwiches
::Barbecue 6.55
:[Megan, another person, and Cueball are sitting at a table. Cueball is holding the menu as well as a thick book and is ordering from a waiter. Megan is facepalming.]
:Cueball: We'd like exactly $15.05 worth of appetizers, please.
:Waiter: ...Exactly? Uhh...
:Cueball: Here, these papers on the knapsack problem might help you out.
:Waiter: Listen, I have six other tables to get to—
:Cueball: —As fast as possible, of course. Want something on traveling salesman?

==Trivia==

*"Chotchkies" (slightly misspelt) is Yiddish slang for little accessories and trinkets. It is also the name of the restaurant in the 1999 Mike Judge-directed comedy ''{{w|Office Space}}''.

*In [http://www.maa.org/mathhorizons/MH-Sep2012_XKCD.html an interview] with the Mathematical Association of America, Randall said that the trivial answer to this problem was a mistake.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Math]]