explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2375: Worst Ladder

2020-10-22T17:57:53Z

162.158.74.213: /* clarification */

{{comic
| number = 2375
| date = October 21, 2020
| title = Worst Ladder
| image = worst_ladder.png
| titletext = [Six months later] "Well, our 'worst ladder' subscription series was a surprisingly lucrative success, but was completely canceled out by the losses from the disastrous Home Depot merchandising tie-in."
}}

==Explanation==

An always present concern of media industries is consumers shifting tastes or indeed abandoning a medium altogether (such as print newspapers or in-person theaters). This depicts one such scenario prompting a meeting to discuss the problem. The other attendees suspect the consumers are simply shifting to an online platform, but Megan reveals they are instead shifting towards image search results.

Of course, during the age of the internet, there are many sources of free entertainment. {{w|YouTube}} and {{w|TikTok}} provide examples of these services, as practically anyone can choose from a tremendous variety of content. Therefore, this hurts services that require money to see their content, particularly when this content does not have any factors that make it inherently more appealing than the free services. The {{w|Quibi}} paid service shut down, just 6 months after it opened, on the same day that this comic appeared.

The joke here is that instead of YouTube or TikTok, possible customers are going to the Google Image search page for "worst ladder". Even the meeting participants are entranced by it, so the meeting devolves into everyone showing their favorites to each other.

Searching for images is an unorthodox source of entertainment, frequently only seen when searching for memes (this, in fact, is how {{w|Know Your Meme}} gauges interest in a meme). While this may be entertaining for a short period of time, the page's content remains roughly stagnant from day to day (contrasted with other services that contain new posts nearly every second), and the quality of any Google Images page will decline with scrolling. Therefore, this is not a sustainable source of entertainment{{Citation needed}}, and would be unlikely to compete with the service in this comic.

Search results currently tend to vary widely from person to person, as Google uses the user's search history, IP address, and location to try to find the most relevant result for each person, even if they are not logged in. This provides social opportunities around searching, sometimes exploited by social media posts (which may be how Megan originally found out).

The title text explains that the company actually decided to use the idea, and created a subscription service for these images. The idea was a success and was indeed very lucrative. They then tried selling actual "worst ladders" at a hardware store, thinking that people who enjoy looking at others mistakes would also enjoy making that mistake themselves.

==Transcript==

:[Ponytail, Cueball, Hairy and Hairbun are sitting around a boardroom table. Megan is giving a presentation and pointing to a chart behind her.]
:Megan: Our entertainment division is failing. We can't compete with free content.

:[A frameless panel. Only Megan is shown, with her pointer to her side.]
:Off-panel voice: Where are they going? YouTube? TikTok?
:Megan: No.

:[Zoomed in on Megan.]
:Megan: The Google Images search results for '''''worst ladder'''''.
:Off-panel voice: Huh?
:Off-panel voice: Let me see ...

:[Ponytail and Cueball are looking at one laptop, and Hairy and Hairbun are looking at a second. Megan has her arms out in front of her, frustrated.]
:Ponytail: Yikes, look at this one! The stepladder is balanced on --
:Hairy: Wow, they ''tied'' a ladder to --
:Hairbun: Ooh, check out the --
:Megan: ''No!''

==Trivia==
Searching for "worst ladder" at the time the comic was posted allows observing ladders that are comically unsafe or poorly designed (see [https://drive.google.com/file/d/10xQ63VpvSBmz9e1rmKyUbHDKa5jIYPLK/view?usp=sharing sample results from shortly after the comic was posted]). It is worth noting that, while normally it does not undergo much change, the "worst ladder" page will likely now contain a barrage of results related to this xkcd comic, as happened with [[369: Dangers]]. This is similar to the {{w|Slashdot effect}}. For reference, at the time of posting (0:00 UTC), the comic was the 30th Google image result. From about 0:20 to 1:15 UTC, it was the 18th result; by 1:30 UTC, it had become the third result.

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

1864: City Nicknames

2020-10-18T14:02:15Z

162.158.74.213:

{{comic
| number = 1864
| date = July 17, 2017
| title = City Nicknames
| image = city_nicknames.png
| titletext = This place has so many demonyms. Northlanders. Fair Folk. Honey Barons. Lake Dwellers. Treasurers. Swamp Watchers. Dream Farmers. Wellfolk. Rockeaters. Forgotten Royals. Remote Clients. Barrow-Clerks. The People of Land and Sky.
}}

==Explanation==

Cities often have official or unofficial nicknames. For instance, {{w|St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri}}, is known as "Gateway to the West" among several other nicknames. The nicknames typically invoke some historical or geographic feature of the city, but can sometime be opaque to those not familiar with the city. [https://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/introduction/fullname.php The full, formal name of Bangkok] includes a long list of superlatives translating as "The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn."

Despite the skyline being clearly recognizable as St. Louis due to the {{w|Gateway Arch}}, [[Black Hat]] calls it New York City. However, the nickname he gives is neither a common New York nickname (such as "{{w|List of nicknames of New York City|The Big Apple}}") nor a St. Louis nickname. [[Megan]] tries to correct him, but it becomes clear that Black Hat is making up nicknames. Many of his suggestions are puns for real nicknames of other places.

The title text contains made up {{w|demonym}}s in the same pattern. A demonym is a word for the people who live in a particular place. They are typically derived from the name of the place (e.g. "St. Louisan" for people from St. Louis, or New Yorker for those from New York), but some regions have an {{w|Demonym#Informal|informal demonym}} that can be used colloquially by those familiar with the place to refer to its residents (e.g. Hoosier for people from Indiana).

===Nicknames and Demonyms===

{| class=wikitable
! City nickname in comic
! Reference
! Explanation

|-
| The Hot Tamale
| {{w|Hot Tamales}}
| Possibly a reference to the term [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=big%20enchilada big enchilada] (something of great importance). In the movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(1996_film) Independence Day], the phrase "Big Tamale" is used in a similar manner as "Big Enchilada" to describe the alien fighter held at Area 51.

|-
| The Winged City
| The Windy City
| Chicago. Possibly also [http://www.airport-technology.com/projects/incheon-international-airport/ Incheon International Airport (ICA/RKSI), South Korea].

|-
| The Gold Trombone
|
| Possibly a reference to the {{w|Golden Horn}} in Istanbul.

|-
| Castleopolis
| {{w|Cassopolis}}, or possibly Dictionopolis.
| Literally "Castle city." {{w|Polis}} (from the Greek πόλις for city) is commonly used as a suffix for city names, like {{w|Minneapolis}} or {{w|Alexandroupolis}}; {{w|Metropolis}} can either be a type of city, or one of the real or fictional cities bearing the name. Possibly a reference to The Phantom Tollbooth, which has both castles and cities named Dictionopolis and Digitopolis. In the Industrial Revolution, places known for certain industries had nicknames such as {{w|Cottonopolis}} ({{w|Manchester}}), Copperopolis ({{w|Swansea}}) and Juteopolis ({{w|Dundee}}). Could also be a city in {{w|Castlevania}}.

|-
| The Kissing Kingdom
| {{w|United Kingdom}}
| This would make a ''Very'' United Kingdom.

|-
| Sandland
|
| {{w|Sandland}} is a village in northern Norway, most likely coincidentally.

|-
| The High Place
| {{w|Denver}}
|Denver is known as the Mile High City. Also, in English translations of the Old Testament, the Hebrew term במה (bamah, plural במות bamot) is rendered as "{{w|high place}}," and denotes a place of worship. In modern Jewish synagogues, the "High Place" (bimah) is the elevated platform from which the Torah is read. In Gene Wolfe's ''Free Live Free'', one character claims to come from the "High Place". The others consider this a metaphor, or simply a lie. Eventually this is discovered not to be the case. It could also a reference to {{w|The Man in the High Castle}}, a novel by {{w|Philip K. Dick}} which was adapted into a TV series (at the time of this comic, two seasons had been produced and a third is espected before the end of 2017).

|-
| Ol' Ironhook
| {{w|Old Ironsides}}
| Old Ironsides is a nickname for the USS Constitution (docked in Charlestown, MA). Ol' Ironhook may be a conflation of Old Ironsides (also a nickname for English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell) with Old Hookey (a nickname for Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, English general and PM, who was also nicknamed The Iron Duke) or Old Kinderhook (a nickname for US President Martin Van Buren).
|-
| The Thousand Spires || The City of a Hundred Spires / City of Dreaming Spires|| Prague / Oxford.
|-
| The Graveyard of Kings || The Graveyard of Champions / City of Kings / Graveyard of Empires || ''Graveyard'': Court 2 at Wimbledon, where former champions are often defeated (the playing environment is very different from Centre Court and Court One, which are larger and where games involving highly-ranked players are preferentially located). The comic was released one day after the 2017 Wimbledon Championships were finished. ''Kings'': Nickname of [[wikipedia:Lima|Lima, Peru]] and [[wikipedia:Palermo|Palermo, Sicily]]. The {{w|Valley of the Kings}} in Egypt is literally a graveyard of kings, namely the Pharaohs.
Alternatively, Afghanistan is also known as the "Graveyard of Empires" due to its success in defending against would-be conquerors.
|-
| Bloomtown || [[wikipedia: Boomtown|Boomtown]] || Generic term for a town undergoing rapid growth. Used in the 2002 TV series of the same name as a nickname for Los Angeles. Might also be referring to [[wikipedia:Bloom County|Bloom County]], a comic by [[wikipedia:Berkeley Breathed|Berkeley Breathed]], or Dublin, as the setting for Ulysses by James Joyce. Bloomtown also invokes an image of many flowers, so it could be a reference to a large garden, or a city known for its gardens or flowers.
|-
| Lantern City USA || {{w|Tree City USA}} || A designation supporting municipalities that showcase urban forestry, in connection with Arbor Day. Lantern city is a fictional, steam-punk serial.
|-
| The City of Many Daughters || {{w|City of Daughters}} || Might be a reference to {{w|City of Daughters}} album by [[wikipedia:Destroyer (band)|Destroyer]].
|-
| Big Mauve || [[wikipedia: Big_Red_(drink)|Big Red Soda]] || Big Red Soda. Big Red is also a chewing gum by Wrigley's. The Cornell teams are known as the [[wikipedia:Cornell Big Red|Big Red]] as is Western Kentucky's mascot [[wikipedia:Big Red (Western Kentucky University)|Big Red]]. The Dartmouth football team is the Big Green. IBM is sometimes known as Big Blue.
|-
| The Glass Cradle || [[wikipedia:The Glass Menagerie|The Glass Menagerie]] || A play by Tennessee Williams. Or Golden Cradle, referencing Mesopotamia.
|-
| The Road Source ||{{w|Rome}} || From the saying that {{w|All Roads Lead to Rome}}. Possibly Rome's antipode, since the saying makes Rome the Road Sink.
|-
| London Prime || London || In the DC comics, to incorporate multiple continuties, there were multiple universes. London Prime would be "real London" on Earth Prime. Various cities named {{w|New London}} in the United States and elsewhere are imagined as London in alternate continuities. Alternatively in mathematics, a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_(symbol)#Use_in_mathematics.2C_statistics.2C_and_science prime mark], x' can be the next iteration of variable x.
|-
| Hamtown || {{w|Boston}}, {{w|Hamburg}}, {{w|Toronto}} || Boston is known as [[wikipedia:Boston nicknames|beantown]], pork and beans are commonly cooked together (as in {{w|Boston baked beans}}), and ham is a form of pork. The German word ''Burg'' means castle or fort and is often used as suffix for town names. The origin of the prefix ''Ham'' is uncertain, but the food {{w|Hamburger}} derives from this city and ''Hamburger'' in German is the demonym of Hamburg. Toronto is sometimes nicknamed Hogtown.
|-
| The Salad Bowl || || A theory of cultural integration in the US, one that stands in contrast to the older 'Melting Pot' theory. Could also refer to the [[wikipedia: Dust Bowl|Dust Bowl]]. Could also refer to Salinas, CA, the "Salad Bowl of the world".
|-
| God's Boudoir || God's Waiting Room || State of {{w|Florida}}, where many elderly retire then expire. As a ''{{w|boudoir}}'' is a room reserved for a female (host), this usage would implicate that either God is a woman, or that God frequents there often.
|-
| The Glittering Swamp || [[wikipedia:Great Dismal Swamp|The Great Dismal Swamp ]], {{w|Washington, D.C.}} || A large swamp in Virginia and North Carolina. Also, the city of {{w|Washington, D.C.}} has often been referred to as a "swamp," owing partly to its past as a [http://networks.h-net.org/node/28441/pages/36129/swamps-and-city-washington malarial swamp].
|-
| The Steel Forest || The Concrete Jungle || The Concrete Jungle is a name often given to New York's Manhattan area. There was also a book and movie titled ''The Petrified Forest''.
|-
| The Mobius Strip || The Strip || The Strip is a shortened and commonly used name for the Las Vegas Strip, the main area of hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. A {{w|Mobius strip}} is a one-sided piece of paper created by rotating the short edge of the strip 180 degrees and attaching it to the other short edge. The Vegas strip has more or less only one side as well.
|-
| The Land of Trains and Fog || || Britain was home to early developments in railroading, and some portions are known for fog and mists.
In the webcomic [[wikipedia:Homestuck | Homestuck]] many events take place on various planets named in the format "Land of X and Y", e.g. "Land of Light and Rain". A series of novels by George R.R. Martin, which was made into the ''Game of Thrones'' TV show, is called ''A Song of Ice and Fire''. The Grand Canyon is known as "The House of Stone and Light" by some native people.
|-
| The Meeting Place || [[wikipedia:Canberra|Canberra]] || The capital city of Australia has its name derived from 'Meeting Place' in the local Aboriginal language, because of a seasonal food boom (Bogong Moths) that drew tribes to the area each year.
|-
| The Dark Star || || ''Dark Star'' is a 1974 science fiction comedy film.
|-
| The Walled Garden || {{w|Walled garden (technology)}} || A walled garden is a virtual environment where the user can only view content that is published or permitted by the proprietor, e.g. AOL or Facebook. Likely a reference to the {{w|Garden Of Eden}}.This could also be a reference to walled cities, e.g. from the Middle Ages, or the {{w|Kowloon Walled City}} in the modern era. ''The Secret Garden'' is a book by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
|-
| Skin City || [[wikipedia:Sin City (description)|Sin City]] || Specifically Las Vegas. Also a generic term for a city well known for gambling, drugs, prostitution, and/or other vices.
|-
| The Horse Rotary || || Horse and rotary are both types of clothes dryer. Might reference The Windy City, which would also likely be good for drying clothes.
|-
| Turkeytown || Turkeytown || A town in Lincoln County, Kentucky.
|-
| The Naked Towers || || ''The Naked City'' was a television series. ''The Two Towers'' is a book by Tolkien, and ''Naked Lunch'' is a book by Burroughs.
|-
| The Meta-City || Metacity || A term for a heterogenous, sprawling urban center with multiple dense centers, such as Tokyo or New York City. Metacity was also the window manager in the Linux GNOME 2 desktop.
|-
| The Urban Orb || || The screen name of a Let's Player on Youtube and Twitch. - Also maybe once more: Rome and the Rest of the world, as in the popes address to the urbi (city: meaning Rome ) and orbi (circle: meaning the world)
|-
| The City of Angles || City of Angels || Los Angeles. Also, the titular City of Angles in the web novel [http://stefangagne.com/cityofangles/ City of Angles]. There also exist several songs with that name, a few of them listed here: {{w|City of Angels}}.
|-
| The Big Wheel || [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041179/ The Big Wheel] || A 1949 movie about a race car driver. Alternatively, a child's plastic tricycle with an oversized front wheel.
|-
| Bird City USA || || A program started by the Audubon Society.
|-
| The City of Seven Crowns || City of Seven Hills || Rome. Also occasionally refers to Moscow. The next nickname is likely a reference to the 'wrong' part of this nickname.
|-
| Hilltopia || The Hilltop || May be reference to The Hilltop in AMC's The Walking Dead.
|-
| Bug City || || A nickname for the bug-infested Chicago in the roleplaying game Shadowrun. Also, a sourcebook for the game.
|-
| The Bottomless Cup || || There are many mentions of Bottomless Pits in stories. Additionally, restaurants offering unlimited refills on drinks may refer to this offer by terms like "Bottomless Soda."
|-
| Lorde's Fen || Lord's Fen || [[wikipedia:Lorde| Lorde]] is a musical artist from Herne Bay, New Zealand - an area near Waitemata Harbour. A [[wikipedia:Fen| fen]] is a type of wetland, which could loosely connect to Herne Bay.
|-
| The Last Town || || The third book in the Wayward Pines series.
|-
| The Empty Set || || The concert hall in the video game Transistor. In mathematics, the {{w|empty set}} refers to an unique set with no elements, often notated as "{}" or "∅".
|-
| Ghost Harbor || || The name for a brewing company in North Carolina.
|}

{| class=wikitable
! Demonym in comic
! Reference
! Explanation
|-
| Northlanders || {{w|Norsemen}} || Norsemen, literally men from the north, people from Nordic countries. Could also be a reference to highlanders, the people of the {{w|Scottish Highlands}}, with a similar demonym. The "High" in "Highlands" is a reference to the mountainous landscape, not the geographical position. It may or may not have to do with the northernmost province of {{w|New Zealand}}.
|-
| Fair Folk || {{w|Fairy}} || The fair folk is a name for fairies in folklore. The elves in ''The Lord of the Rings'' are referred to as the 'fair folk'.
|-
| Honey Barons || [[wikipedia: Robber_baron_(industrialist) | Robber Barons]], [[wikipedia: Honey_badger | Honey Badgers]], [[wikipedia: Honey bear| honey bear]] || Possibly a play on The Robber Barons, a group of powerful industrialists in the late 1800s known for questionable business ethics, and honey badgers, animals known for their tough skin, bad tempers, and tenacity. Honey bear is a name for a few types of bear, as well as kinkajous.
|-
| Lake Dwellers || The Hobbit || Most likely a reference the people of the Laketown in J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Hobbit".
|-
| Treasurers || || A {{w|treasurer}} is a person in charge of running the treasury of an organization, for example a governmental department. The Auditors were characters in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books who did the book-keeping for reality, and wanted to simplify the universe by destroying life.
|-
| Swamp Watchers || ||
|-
| Dream Farmers || The Dream Factory || Hollywood, California, in its role as the center of the American film industry.
|-
| Wellfolk || Werefolk, Weefolk || The were folk were people who could change into animals: e.g. werewolves. Wee folk is another name for {{w|Fairy}} in folklore.
|-
| Rockeaters || [[Wikipedia:List_of_The_Neverending_Story_characters#Pyornkrachzark_and_the_other_messengers| Rockbiter]] || In the ''Never Ending Story'', Pyornkrachzark, more commonly known as "Rock Biter" is a large creature made completely of stone, named due to their diet of rocks.
May also refer to {{w|Lotus-eaters}}; while these mythical people slept in narcotic apathy, rockeaters might have a tougher time.
|-
| Forgotten Royals || [[wikipedia:Forgotten Realms | Forgotten Realms]] || Royalty from Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaign setting.
|-
| Remote Clients || [[wikipedia:Remote_computer|Remote client]] || In computing, a remote client is a program used to access a computer or service over a network. From a System Administrator's perspective, these are typically the users (though sometimes the administrators) of the system.
|-
| Barrow-Clerks || [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Barrow-wights Barrow-wights] || Wraith-like creatures in ''The Lord of the Rings''. The hobbits come across them in the [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Barrow-downs Barrow-downs.]
Those who keep records of items deposited in a grave mound or barrow.
|-
| The People of Land and Sky || [[wikipedia:Sea_Peoples|Sea Peoples]] || Sea peoples were raiders that attacked during the Late Bronze Age collapse.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, Megan, and Ponytail are standing on a hill overlooking a city. The Gateway Arch is visible, as well as a number of skyscrapers in the skyline.]
:Black Hat: Ah, New York. The Hot Tamale.
:Megan: This is St. Louis. Also, that's not–
:Black Hat: The Winged City. The Gold Trombone. Castleopolis.
:Megan: It's none of those.

:[Close-up of Black Hat]
:Black Hat: The Kissing Kingdom. Sandland. The High Place. Ol' Ironhook.
:Megan (off-panel): Still wrong.
:Black Hat: The Thousand Spires. The Graveyard of Kings. Bloomtown. Lantern City USA.
:Megan (off-panel): Please stop.

:[Black Hat, Megan, and Ponytail are walking]
:Black Hat: The City of Many Daughters. Big Mauve. The Glass Cradle. The Road Source. London Prime. Hamtown. The Salad Bowl. God's Boudoir. The Glittering Swamp. The Steel Forest. The Mobius Strip. The Land of Trains and Fog. The Meeting Place. The Dark Star. The Walled Garden. Skin City. The Horse Rotary. Turkeytown. The Naked Towers. The Meta-City. The Urban Orb. The City of Angles. The Big Wheel. Bird City USA. The City of Seven Crowns. Hilltopia. Bug City. The Bottomless Cup. [Text size getting smaller] Lorde's Fen. The Last Town. The Empty Set. Ghost Harbor.
:Megan: How long does this last?
:Ponytail: No city has ever let him stay long enough to find out.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:LOTR]]

Talk:2372: Dialect Quiz

2020-10-15T05:00:35Z

162.158.74.213: Added Comment

Fun fact: shallots, scallops, and scallions ran against each other in [[1529: Bracket]]. (This will probably end up in the Trivia tab when one is created.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.10.135|172.69.10.135]] 20:50, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Cosmetology both sounds like "Cosmology" but it's also the fancy word for people who study cosmetics. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.92|172.68.174.92]] 21:22, 14 October 2020 (UTC)
: Aren't stars the people we took cosmetics advice from before there were influencers? Or are they the same thing? Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.102|162.158.155.102]] 00:55, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

I mean the water fountains might as well be gutter pipes
21:49, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

@kswoll: Pretty sure this is a direct parody of the NYTimes quiz here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html

* I agree, this was also tweeted about 3 days earlier by Nate Silver [https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1315348221565206530] - based on [[2371: Election Screen Time]], it's likely that Randall saw that tweet [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.27|162.158.62.27]] 03:29, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

The Google pronunciation question might be a reference to a reference to [https://youtu.be/epj8OzP6z-M?t=177 a scene] from the second-to-last episode of Halt and Catch Fire. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.165|162.158.79.165]] 23:35, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

My guess is it is a reference to Yahoo another search engine that had commercials with high pitched yelp and some might put emphasis on either the "Ya" or the "hoo"

While I agree that most people know what a hammer is, this is not hammer - or rather, may not be considered "standard" hammer. Personally I would call it "Hammer with that thing for pulling nails out", but I could be easily convinced that it has some other name which doesn't include the word "hammer", instead of (presumably correct) {{w|claw hammer}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:55, 14 October 2020 (UTC)
* Yeah, I was thinking it was a claw hammer, also. I do have a friend that pronounces the word jen-er-uh, even though I have specifically said the word correctly around him after he has used it. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:40, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
:: "genera" is a word. I typed it into Google, marvelled at the incomprehensible phonetic version, and tapped a speaker button. My computer said "Genera" and a box popped up that reads "Learn to pronounce", which I consider to be rude. But after all, I pressed the button. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.225|162.158.158.225]] 00:51, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
::Russian probe sent to Venus? And I'm so confident about that, that I shall not even check before posting. (No idea how it's said in Russian, but the Anglophone versios doesn't differ between anglophonic countries as much as "Moscow" does.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.72|162.158.155.72]] 01:34, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
::Yeah, yeah, so I now know I merged two different Russian space-thingies. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.140|162.158.159.140]] 01:40, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Ok, who’s the joker that put “Citation needed” at the end of “ "Google" is not generally pronounced with a high-pitched yelp on either syllable.[citation needed]”

Talk:Blue Eyes

2020-05-18T08:19:32Z

162.158.74.213: Added my solution to the talk session.

Is it really incomplete on the grounds that Joel hasn't be identified? Explanations of comics 57-59 leave no more explanation of "Scott" than that he appears to be Randall's friend. The fact that we don't have a last name for him doesn't make either [[Scott]] or those comic explanations incomplete. Similarly, not have a full identifier for "Joel" in this one doesn't, in my opinion, warrant an incomplete tag. I'm removing the tag. If anyone object, revert it. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 19:22, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

The proof for this puzzle is incomplete, if not wrong. The theorem is too weak, it should be: "Theorem: N blue eyed people with Nth order knowledge of all N people being logicians, N people having blue eyes, and any blue eyed person will leave as soon as possible after deducing they have blue eyes, will be able to leave on the Nth day." This may seem pedantic, but it really gets to the heart of the problem, which is trying to illustrate the use of orders of knowledge. In the theorem as stated, just N blue eyed people will leave on the Nth day, the proof for the inductive steps does not hold. You need to further assume that the person is able to deduce the hypothesis (which should be proven). In other words, you say X-1 people would leave on the (X-1)th day by hypothesis, so the Xth person knows he can leave on the Xth day. But you did not prove that the Xth person can actually deduce this, namely that he has all the information necessary to do so. In the correctly stated hypothesis, you then need to show that N + 1 people with (N+1)th order knowledge of all those things can deduce that the N people would leave if it was just them, and further that N+1 people have (N+1)th order knowledge of all these things. This is very important, and holds true (Since N+1th order knowledge is equivalent to knowing the N people have the Nth order knowledge necessary to fulfill the hypothesis, and by symmetry if the N logicians can figure it out the (N+1)th can too. Also, they have (N+1)th order knowledge of people leaving as soon as they can and everyone being a logician since in the proper statement of the puzzle it should be noted this is common knowledge, and the guru makes the knowledge of someone having blue eyes common knowledge.). Then you have a full proof, since you have now included that they can actually deduce the inductive step. Again, this may seem pedantic, but is really necessary both to be correct and as it illustrates the key of the puzzle, namely the guru gives 100th order knowledge of someone having blue eyes (this is the main problem people have, realizing the concrete piece of information the guru gives). [[User:Jlangy|Jlangy]] ([[User talk:Jlangy|talk]]) 00:29, 9 July 2015

What I don't follow here is that there's no clarification that the Guru is talking about someone different each time. Just because she says "I see someone with blue eyes" N times doesn't mean that there are N people with blue eyes; she could be talking about the same person every time, or each of two people half the time, etc. Can anyone clarify this?
Thanks - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.47|108.162.218.47]] 13:20, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

(EDIT: Observe the process of comprehension in action...or don't? I've been thinking about my own brain, with itself, long enough for one day, I'm tired.)
So, maybe I am indeed just "dumb", as the wiki insists. Clearly, I do not have a perfect understanding of formal logic. But frankly, my read of this puzzle is that "formal logic" just enables you to jump to ridiculous conclusions.
Let's theorize a simpler version of this puzzle. There are now only two people besides the Guru on the island, both with blue eyes. We'll call them Bill and Ted (totally bogus, I know). No matter how logical Bill and Ted might be, when Bill hears the Guru say "I see a person with blue eyes" to himself and Ted, and Bill has seen Ted's blue eyes himself, why would Bill assume anything about his own eye color? It would seem to Bill that Guru was just talking about Ted's eyes, and Ted would believe the reverse. Even knowing* that Ted would leave that night if Ted deduced he had blue eyes too, I still don't see why Bill would jump to the conclusion that the Guru was talking about him - he remains in the dark, as does Ted, and neither of them can be any more certain of anything than they previously were. Adding 98 more blue-eyed people, let alone doubling the island's population with irrelevant brown-eyers, hardly reduces the confusion.
* This was the point at which I began to think I had understood it, but then I became unsure again. Like I said in the "edit", my brain is tired.
--So, that settles it, I do not understand how the puzzle can be true, and I'm not convinced that it actually is. Knowing Randall is, in general, smarter than me...I still do not have the ability to completely accept that he's always right, or that I'm always wrong to ignorantly question his rightness. I have long maintained that certain well-respected "systems of knowledge", of which formal logic is a textbook example, have been respected too well for too long for not-good-enough reasons. To me, they seem to be founded on an assumption which is itself founded on nothing. I'm not trying to insult Randall or anyone else, I'm just utterly failing to comprehend. I will appreciate if anyone else attempts to educate me on the subject, but I may prove an intractable student, since I am unable to extend much faith or trust (or even, on a day where my mood is worse than today, the moderate degree of politeness as I've already managed) to a teacher. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 19:18, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

In your simplified version of the puzzle, Bill sees Ted has blue eyes. 
Here's Bill reasoning: 
- Either my eyes are blue or not. 
- If my eyes are not blue, then Ted knows that his eyes are blue, because the Guru said at least one of us has blue eyes, and he'll leave the island tonight. 
- Let's wait. If Ted doesn't leave tonight, that means he doesn't know his eyes are blue, and therefore my hypothesis is false. 
When Bill sees Ted doesn't leave that night, he can deduce that he has blue eyes. 
Ted can do the same reasoning. 
After that first night, both will know they both have blue eyes. 
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.228.5|108.162.228.5]] 14:09, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

;Superrationality

The solution relies on the fact that "at least 1 blue" is new information which triggers a cascade.

Wouldn't the entire population of the island be able to conclude that everyone else on the island knows there is at least 1 blue eyed individual already?

For example, every person on the island will see at least 99 blues and 99 browns. From this, they can assume that everyone else on the island can see at least 98 blues and 98 browns. Of course, the actual numbers will differ, but 98 is the lower limit for all perspectives.

A blue will see 99 blues and 100 browns, so he will assume that all other blues can see at least 98 and all browns can see at least 99 blues. Similar logic for a brown or any observer.

[[User:Flewk|Flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 09:26, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

The solution here is different to Randall's solution, and I think is actually incorrect for two reasons that add confusion and prevented me from understanding the solution until I'd thought about Randall's solution and realised these are actually different.
* It seems to falsely presume that the Guru is speaking to them each day, when this is explicitly not the case in the puzzle.
* I also believe it is incorrect to state that the brown-eyed people can be disregarded. The solution is actually dependent on a *combination* of hypothesis testing and on theory of mind; not just one or the other. It matters that everyone is also thinking about what the brown-eyed people around them must be thinking, otherwise you can't explain why mistakes will not happen with brown-eyed people getting on the ferry when they're not supposed to, and screwing up everybody else's logic.
- If you're on the island and you have blue eyes, there are two hypotheses: either there are 99 people with blue eyes or 100. If there are 99, then everyone one of those 99 people is thinking "either there are 98 people with blue eyes, or there are 99" (and therefore you do not have blue eyes). Blue-eyed people also know that if there are 99 of them, then the brown-eyed people are thinking, "Either there are 99 blue eyed people, or 100." If there are 100, then the brown eyed people are thinking, "Either there are 100, or 101". To summarise, blue eyed people are deciding between 99 or 100, and presuming that other blue eyed people are either suspecting there could be 98/99, or 99/100, while presuming that brown-eyed people are either suspecting there are 100/101, or 99/100.
- If there are 99, then blue-eyes are thinking 98/99, and brown-eyes are thinking 99/100. Blue eyes will plan to leave if the 98th day passes and nobody has left, brown-eyes will plan to leave if the 99th day passes and nobody has left.
- If there are 100, then blue-eyes are thinking 99/100, and brown-eyes are thinking 100/101. Blue eyes will plan to leave if the 99th day passes and nobody has left, brown-eyes will plan to leave if the 100th day passes and nobody has left.
- So you know that if you have brown eyes, you'll watch all the blue-eyes leave on the 99th day. And you know that if you have blue eyes, you'll watch all the brown-eyed people hold back in case their day is the 101st. If you're allowed to leave, there will be no situation where brown-eyed people mistakenly leave on the 100th day, thus confusing things. If you're not allowed to leave, there'll be no reason for you to mistakenly make an attempt to leave on the 99th day.
- Thinking about this fact - what the brown-eyed people are thinking - also reveals why the Guru's comment matters, and adds information, even though it should seem to most people as if no information is being added (because they can all already see that blue-eyed people exist). I think this is a key part of why the problem is so tricky. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 07:42, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

The new information the guru gives is nothing more than a common marker (the day of the announcement) to use as a starting point for counting days. Before the announcement, being unable to communicate with each other, they were unable to coordinate a means of figuring out their own eye color.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.59.105|172.68.59.105]] 21:52, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

That's wrong. In that case the browned eyed people would do the same, but they can't.

What I'd like to know: If there were 100 blue-eyes, 200 brown-eyes, 300 grey-eyes and 400 red-eyes, and the Guru says "I don't see anyone with a unique eye color", would that permit everyone to leave (except the Guru herself) using the same logic? Meaning the blue-eyes leave again on day 100, the brown-eyes on 200, the grey-eyes on 300, and the red-eyes on 301.

I think it would actually be days 99, 199, 299, and 300, because the 'what if there were only two blue-eyes' case would be solved on day 1 - i.e. both would see only one blue-eye and deduce that they are also a blue-eye, and both would leave - so everything gets moved up by one day.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 13:52, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

This was bugging me today - specifically the guru doesn't seem to actually give any information, because with at least 3 blue-eyed people, everyone on the island knows that the guru sees people with blue eyes, and also everyone knows that everyone knows the guru sees people with blue eyes. So for a while I thought the brown-eyed people must have as much information as the blue-eyed people, and either they both could leave or neither could leave.

After a bunch of reading and testing possibilities I think I've actually figured it out now and why only blue-eyed people leave, but I haven't seen an actual good explanation for it yet, so here's my explanation: The information the guru gives is that, NO MATTER HOW MANY BLUE-EYED PEOPLE THERE ARE, they can figure out they have blue eyes. It is important that it is possible for blue-eyed people to be able to solve it for EVERY number, even if everyone knows there is more people than that number (basically because, everyone doesn't know that everyone knows there is more than that number and there's a gap in their logic without knowing that). If there is any number for which blue-eyed people cannot figure it out, then any solution (namely, what I thought before testing possibilities) would require that there is a number N of blue-eyed people that cannot leave, but a number N+1 of blue-eyed people that can leave. This is self-contradicting though. If N blue-eyed people can't figure it out, than N+1 people (regardless of eye color) can't get meaningful information from the action of those N blue-eyed people. And since they can't get meaningful information from N people's actions, N+1 people can't tell if there are N people and that individual is not blue eyed, or N+1 people and they are blue-eyed. It would be logically incorrect for them to assume an eye color at that point, which means they don't know if they can leave, and then N+2 people are similarly unable to get meaningful information from N+1 people's actions, and so on. Because a single blue-eyed person cannot figure it out, more blue-eyed people (regardless of number) cannot make any assumptions without additional information. Then the guru effectively states a single blue-eyed person could leave immediately (which means 2 could leave the next night confidently, and thus 3 the next, and so on in an UNBROKEN chain). Kejardon - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.82|162.158.214.82]] 11:15, 9 January 2020 (UTC) (I doublechecked and edited/corrected my post kind of at the same time, so your reply doesn't make sense anymore, sorry Lupo. Feel free to delete these two sentences if you change/delete your reply)
:You bring up 2 points. First about the common marker. This is true, but it contains more information than "start counting from today," because every blueeyed person has 2 scenarios: With 99 blue eyed people and with 100. The numbers are not important, and it would also be needed with 1,2,3,etc. blue eyed people. The point about the brown eyed people: The brown eyed people have no way to conclude (remember, they are "perfect logicans" and their task is to figure out, not to make an estimated guess) that their own eyes are in fact brown, and not red, or green just like the Gurus. If the guru just said: "Start counting", then noone woul leave at any given night. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:05, 9 January 2020 (UTC)

I figured this out in less than a minute... there were so many warnings about the solution being convoluted that I thought I couldn't possibly have it right. It's not really that confusing and I've seen waaaaaaay harder logic problems.

This image is listed under "My Hobby" for some reason, despite not even being a comic, let alone a "My Hobby" comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.151|162.158.111.151]] 00:58, 9 September 2019 (UTC)How sign edit

Apostle's Solution: The first person to look into the water and see their own reflection. For a logic puzzle, people seem to forget about the situations actual logic.

== Unstated assumption (about motives) ==

While trying to solve this, I started questioning my assumptions about the motives of the islanders. It turns out my assumptions were correct, but I think they deserve to be explicitly stated:
# Everyone wants to leave the island ASAP.
# An islander only "figures out" their eye color through logical deduction (no guessing or playing the odds)
# The Guru's statement is meant to help others leave the island. (but as stated above, it may not be the optimal means of helping others leave -- "nobody has a unique eye color")
:Regarding the 1st point: Yes, that needs to be stated.--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:37, 9 January 2020 (UTC)
:Regarding the 2nd point: It should be mentioned, but could be implied by the words "figure out" and by the fact that everyone is a "Perfect logican". --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:37, 9 January 2020 (UTC)
:Regarding the 3rd point: If it was not meant to help people leave, it would still do the same job. Also the statement from the Guru "nobody has a unique eye color" would be wrong and misleading! In that case everyone would wrongly assume: "I must have green eyes, as otherwise the Guru would have an unique eye color." - The alternative statement "I see noone with a unique eye color" would work. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:37, 9 January 2020 (UTC)

Storming lighteyes (not sorry) [[User:SilverMagpie|SilverMagpie]] ([[User talk:SilverMagpie|talk]]) 17:50, 10 January 2020 (UTC)

Category:Incomplete explanations

2020-03-28T07:28:43Z

162.158.74.213: This is such intensely strange spam that I'm half just hoping they get something new when they come back.

Talk:2275: Coronavirus Name

2020-03-02T22:14:34Z

162.158.74.213:

Covid-19 is more dangerous than the flu and has already killed more people. And any death rate that starts with 0.00 and then has a number other than zero can only be called "basically zero" if you value human life very little. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.132|162.158.94.132]] 21:49, 2 March 2020 (UTC)
addendum: this seems to depend on what source you use for the chinese yearly flu death rate. number of deaths is either much higher or somewhat lower.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.123|162.158.91.123]] 21:53, 2 March 2020 (UTC)
It's Trump taking point that the coronavirus is a hoax and no worse than the flu. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.213|162.158.74.213]] 22:14, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

2275: Coronavirus Name

2020-03-02T22:12:49Z

162.158.74.213: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2275
| date = March 2, 2020
| title = Coronavirus Name
| image = coronavirus_name.png
| titletext = It's important to keep the spider from touching your face.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MUTANT T. ANNEXA WOLF SPIDER WITH COVID-19. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is [[Randall|Randall's]] take on the hysteria in the media regarding the Coronavirus, which is actually called Covid-19, since it is like calling a specific strain of flu for ''The Influenza virus''.

But with all the mass media hysteria going on, for something that is basically a mild version of a flu, the name Coronavirus has been hammered in, so now the Covid-19 strain of coronavirus will always just be known as Coronavirus making it difficult to discuss other types of Coronavirus later on.

Covid-19 has a 20% hospitalization rate and a 2% death rate by current estimates... A death rate a single order of magnitude higher than the flu.

In this comic [[Ponytail]] is mentioning that it is by now too late to try calling the virus it's real name Covid-19, as the name Coronavirus has stuck. [[Cueball]] reacts with dismay, since there are many other types of Coronaviuses. But Ponytail then says it is not a big deal, ad then compares it to the fact that the car eating spider living on top of the skyscrapers of the town, is also just called "The Spider" even though it is technically a mutated Wolf spider. Everyone know what you mean when you say "Coronavirus", as they do when you mention "The Spider".

[[Megan]] then asks if they should not also do something about the spider, but Ponytail and Cueball agrees that they can only tackle one problem at a time, and Coronavirus takes up all their time. Only thing is that Ponytail now takes another commute, probably to avoid getting her car eaten.

The point is that because of all the coverage of the Coronavirus all other world problems are pushed to the back of peoples mind. And considering that the virus is likely not really that bad, most people recover faster than from the flu, this is a lot of fuss for nothing. And takes away resources from where they are more urgently needed.

The title text references the health advice that people avoid touching their face with unwashed hands, in order to prevent infections that they picked up by touching things from entering their mucous membranes. (It's a lot easier for an infection to enter the body through the inside of your nose than your hands.) It is likewise quite important to keep giant spiders from touching your face, but for the dissimilar reason that they'll bite and eat you.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is carrying a box with biohazard symbols on it towards a desk where Ponytail (wearing safety glasses) is working on a laptop, across from Cueball (also wearing safety glasses) who is putting a test tube into a centrifuge. There's also a flask on the desk.]
:Ponytail: Feels like we missed the window for the "Covid-19" renaming. "Coronavirus" is just to catchy.
:Cueball: But it's not specific! There are a lot of coronaviruses.

:[In a frameless panel, Ponytail (still wearing safety glasses) is pointing at a screen or picture showing a modern city skyline with a large spider crawling across three of the high-rises.]
:Ponytail: I think it's fine. It's like, you know the giant spider downtown that sits on the buildings and sometimes eats cars? I think ''technically'' it's a mutant ''T. annexa'' wolf spider, but everyone is just calling it "the spider" and we all know what they mean.

:[Back to the setting from the first panel. Megan is standing and Ponytail had turned towards her and Cueball has stepped back from the machine.]
:Megan: I've been meaning to ask, what's '''''with''''' that spider? Should we...do something?
:Ponytail: Honestly I've been too busy with the virus stuff to look into it-I just changed my commute to avoid Main St.
:Cueball: Yeah, that's fair. One thing at a time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Spiders]]

2215: Faculty:Student Ratio

2019-10-15T01:49:25Z

162.158.74.213: Corrected payment assuming 40 hour work week

{{comic
| number = 2215
| date = October 15, 2019
| title = Faculty:Student Ratio
| image = faculty_student_ratio.png
| titletext = They managed to briefly hit the top of the rankings when they rejected everyone except one applicant, published 5 billion research papers that just said "Hi," and hired one of their graduates for $50 trillion/year (then fired them after 10 microseconds.)
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an XKCD UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PAPER - HI. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Schools are usually rated for parents/students to pick which one to attend. One of the metrics that schools use is a {{w|Student–teacher ratio|ratio between the number of faculty members to the number of students}}. Typically this is expressed as student-teacher ratio, but Randall reverses the metric here. Normally, this determines how much teachers get to spend individual time with students. The lower the ratio, i.e. fewer students per teacher, the smaller classes teachers have to teach, and thus notice individual students more.

However, having more teachers than students is a bad idea. Many people trying to teach one person is normally a bad idea, as an individual student would not be helped much, and one teacher would suffice for the job. {{Citation needed}}

In the title text, other metrics are skewed to be in the school's favor:

*Having a high standard for entry (which is usually associated with high prestige or better schools) is subverted by the fact that it is near impossible for one to get in, thus making the school undesirable to try and apply to.

*A high amount of research papers would normally indicate a high number of scientific studies conducted at the school, however these research papers are devoid of any sort of useful information.

*A high hiring rate (percentage of students that have gotten a job after education) and a high average salary after graduation is favorable, as it is the endgame for many students attending these types of schools. However, the school in question artificially inflated it by having one out of their one students be hired by them (having a 100% hiring rate) and giving them a starting salary that is very high, but not giving them enough time to actually reasonably gain that amount. $50 trillion/year for 10 microseconds is approximately $15.85 (= 10 / 10^6 / 3600 / 24 / 365 * 50*10^12). Assuming fifty 40-hour work weeks this comes out to <abbr title="69.44=(50e12/2000)*10/(3600*1e6)">$66. 59</abbr>).

This comic satirizes the very real culture of schools modifying their process to inflate artificial proxies. For instance, some schools will reject students whose test scores, résumé, etc. are much higher than average for the school, since it's likely that college is a "safety school" and the student won't actually go. This can increase the college's rejection rate, a common measure of a school's exclusivity and therefore prestige. However, if the above-average student does want to attend that school, they are unable to, even though it would be good for the college.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[Cueball is sitting hunched over a desk writing while ten professors crowd around him.]

:Professor: How's the work going?
:Cueball: Can you all at least stand back a little?

[Caption below the panel]:
My school tried to game the ratings by having a 30:1 faculty:student ratio

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

378: Real Programmers

2019-10-10T18:15:56Z

162.158.74.213: Doubtful

{{comic
| number = 378
| date = February 1, 2008
| title = Real Programmers
| image = real_programmers.png
| titletext = Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a satire on the idea of a {{w|Real Programmer}}. To quote Wikipedia "...the computer folklore term Real Programmer has come to describe the archetypical 'hardcore' programmer who eschews the modern languages and tools of the day in favour of more direct and efficient solutions—closer to the hardware." The implication is that modern programmers are coddled by today's tools of the trade, which eschew detailed understanding for simple workflows.

The first figure is writing a piece of code when another programmer ridicules him for using {{w|GNU nano}}. Nano is a {{w|text editor}} - a program often used to edit the source code of other programs; it is modern, simple, and easy-to-use. He goes on to say that "REAL" programmers use {{w|Emacs}}. {{w|GNU Emacs}} is a popular editor known for its vast profusion of features and extensions to perform all sorts of functions beyond simple text editing, and is widely regarded as one of the best examples of software. The comic continues from here as a series of programmers state progressively more obscure or outdated methods. Culminating in the final programmer who claims that "real" programmers use butterflies.

His description of his rather surreal programming method is ludicrously complicated and would require an absurd amount of knowledge and forethought to pull off, bordering on omniscience. In the final panel the Emacs programmer claims that there's an Emacs code to do that.

Emacs and {{w|Vim (text editor)|Vim}} are both text editors. {{w|ed (text editor)|ed}} is a {{w|line editor}}. These represent progressively more "old school" solutions to the problem of editing code. {{w|cat (Unix)|cat}} is a Unix program that concatenates and outputs the contents of files; and it's usually run from a {{w|Unix shell}}, which allows its output to be written or appended to a file.

Using a magnetised needle to flip bits on a hard drive requires nanometric precision and intuitive mastery of binary code, but in the early days of programming people did use needles sometimes to fix bugs on {{w|Punched card|Punched cards}}.

When final character suggests the utterly surreal idea of using butterflies he is referring to the {{w|Butterfly effect in popular culture|Butterfly effect}}, a "phenomenon whereby a minor change in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome" as illustrated in the short story {{w|A Sound of Thunder}}. The joke at this point relies on stretching the connection between the ideas of "difficult-to-use" and "requires detailed understanding of underlying principles", to suggest that not only do ''Real'' Programmers know everything about how computers work, but they know how to manipulate the ambient physical environment in elaborate ways to cause computers to do what they want, akin to performing {{w|trick shot}}s that accomplish feats of programming.

The fact that Emacs already has a command for this simply exasperates the programmers frustration with modern programming tools.

{{w|GNU Emacs}} succeeds despite being riddled with {{w|Feature creep|featuritis}}.

Emacs commands are usually referred to by the key sequence required to activate them, such as "C-x M-c" (Control-x Meta-c, though this exact key sequence is a bit different from most Emacs commands. The butterfly programmer saying "Dammit, Emacs" plays on Emacs' notoriety for its kitchen sink design approach of tossing in all the features and options that anybody might ever conceivably want. By way of example, later versions of Emacs actually added a totally useless "M-x butterfly" command as an easter egg, in reference to this very comic: see the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtxhuX6ano YouTube demo] and [http://www.screenr.com/a2s screenr demo].

The title text further suggests manipulating the {{w|Physical constant|universal constants}} in order to create a universe in which the required computer data will exist. Programming of this sort would require power and knowledge akin to the Abrahamic God.

According to the logic, the programmers shown may even represent the fulfillment of this master programmers plan. The universe may have been designed in such a way that the programmers ancestry would result in his parents, who would meet and have a child, who would learn programming and eventually find himself in a position where he undertakes the task of creating a program, which fills the disk with the desired data. In tandem, of course, all of the people involved with creating and developing all the required hardware, software, raw materials, computer science, electricity, logic (etc., etc., etc.) would have to be part of the master plan. Put simply, it would probably be simpler just to use Emacs.

The use of a magnetized needle may also be a reference to the {{w|Apollo Guidance Computer|Apollo AGC guidance computer}}, whose instructions were physically written as patterns of wires looped around or through cylindrical magnets in order to record binary code.

This comic hints at the "{{w|editor wars}}", an ongoing debate of Vim and Emacs users over which of the two editors is the best. The editor wars are mentioned again in [[1823: Hottest Editors]].

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball like man sits at a computer, programming. Cueball stands behind him and looks over his shoulder.]
:Cueball: <code>nano</code>? Real Programmers use <code>emacs</code>.

:[Megan appears behind him.]
:Megan: Hey. Real Programmers use <code>vim</code>.

:[A second Cueball like man appears behind her.]
:Ed Cueball: Well, Real Programmers use <code>ed</code>.

:[A third Cueball like man appears behind him.]
:Cat Cueball: No, Real Programmers use <code>cat</code>.

:[Hairbun appears behind him.]
:Hairbun: Real Programmers use a magnetized needle and a steady hand.

:[A fourth Cueball like man enters, facing them all. We see him facing the last two Cueball like men and Hairbun.]
:Butterfly Cueball: Excuse me, but Real Programmers use butterflies.

:[A Cueball like programmer is standing and holding out a butterfly in front of his computer. The butterfly flaps its wings.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narrating off-screen): They open their hands and let the delicate wings flap once.

:[The next two panels are smaller and the two texts below are written uninterrupted respectively above and below both panels. The first panel is the Cueball like programmer with the butterfly, and above him four curved arrows pointing up or down. The second panel shows the upper atmosphere, with large clouds far below and the earth even further down. Also here are shown seven of the same type of arrows.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narrating off-screen): The disturbances ripple outward, changing the flow of the eddy currents in the upper atmosphere.
:Butterfly Cueball (narrating off-screen): These cause momentary pockets of higher-pressure air to form,

:[Also the next two panels are smaller and the texts below are written uninterrupted above both panels. The first panel shows the atmosphere, again with clouds, and four parallel lines coming from above, and then they begin to merge, getting quite close at the bottom of the panel. The second panel shows the four lines merging on a driver platter.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narrating off-screen): Which act as lenses that deflect incoming cosmic rays, focusing them to strike the drive platter and flip the desired bit.

:[All the programmers who has commented so far stands in the order they have commented facing the last Cueball like man who slaps his forehead.]
:Cueball: Nice. 'Course, there's an emacs command to do that.
:Cat Cueball: Oh yeah! Good ol' <code>C-x M-c M-butterfly</code>...
:Butterfly Cueball: Dammit, Emacs.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Emacs]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Rankings]]

Talk:1984: Misinterpretation

2018-04-24T01:30:25Z

162.158.74.213:

“covering your eyes and ears and yelling logically correct statements into the void” — isn’t this the definition of Twitter?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.214|108.162.237.214]] 15:10, 23 April 2018 (UTC)
:Alas, no... Twitter doesn't have any requirement for logical correctness. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.229|172.68.189.229]] 18:26, 23 April 2018 (UTC)
::Which is why the US president manages to use it so successfully... ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:20, 23 April 2018 (UTC)
:Alas and alack .. Twitter is not connected to the void either.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.213|162.158.74.213]] 01:30, 24 April 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1966: Smart Home Security

2018-03-14T17:39:30Z

162.158.74.213:

When I went to explainxkcd right after the comic posted, I saw this in the incomplete tag: "Created by ORGANIZED CRIME". Today is the day this website has officially swallowed its own tail. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 15:50, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
:Oh no! We must eradicate this enemy- We must start violent purging- No one can be trusted! [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 16:46, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
::(We are talking about McCarthyism right now in class while I write this... heh.) [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 16:46, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

Hmm. Isn't the concern for smart appliances usually that since they're internet-connected, they can be used to for DDoS and other nefarious purposes? I mean, a smart thermostat doesn't really have the capability to spy on its owners, right?
:They can spy on your temperature preferences! (Dun dun dah!). You do have a point though. I originally was thinking more like smart home assistants, as that seems to be the craze now. That is ignoring the majority smart devices in the market though. You could get some information from most though, even it is minimal. You could get a rough floorplan from a roomba, you could get an idea what kind of products people buy with smart fridges... etc. We may never know what Randall's original intention was though. I wonder if he reads this wiki... Does he ever edit it?
:A smart thermostat often knows when you are home and not. It could easily be used to develop a pattern of behavior to determine when would be the best time to rob your house. Then there's smart door locks, with the obvious consequences of hacking. But yes, botnets are one of the biggest problems. Note that the graph (accurately!) shows a not-so-great best case on day 1, as most IoT security is awful.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.67|173.245.52.67]] 17:18, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
:Agreed. A much more likely scenario is that your device is being used for a botnet. Smart appliances aren't updated as reliably as personal computers (since they're "set and forget" devices), and the owner is less likely to notice if they've been hacked (because you won't notice if your thermostat is running a little slow), so they're a prime target for hackers. That's also why the graph shows the risk increases as time goes by - the manufacturer stops patching the device, but the hacker will keep trying to get in. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.89|162.158.79.89]] 17:24, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

:The risk in a smart thermostat is not the information it sends, but the fact that it is connected to your network. If the security on the thermostat is weak, it provides a gateway to the rest of your network. Hack the thermostat and install malware that sits there silently trying password combinations to the rest of your devices. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 13:32, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

::The risk of IOT devices is that they control physical objects and that can be used to do physical harm. A smart thermostat controlling an A/C or heat pump switch a multi-kilowatt load. Switching a few thousands, or a few hundreds of thousands, of those synchronously may do real damage to the power grid. If your more selfish the evil doer can wait till your out of town (data from the thermostat) and turn the heat to minimum or maximum so you come home to an expensive mess. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.213|162.158.74.213]] 17:39, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

I’m going to give them an update they can’t refuse

Is it just me or is it strange that the older the device is the better the case? I just do not understand the graph and the explanation as it is now, does not make sense to me. In case it is just me that fails to understand it, then the explanation is still not good enough... Because: "Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb." :D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:26, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
:It seems to me that you need to look at the area on either side of the curve. So, if a device is 10 years old, the section on the "worst case" side of the curve is larger. Therefore, it is more likely that your device is to be compromised. --[[User:Detroitwilly|Detroitwilly]] ([[User talk:Detroitwilly|talk]]) 19:38, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
::I somewhat disagree. I don't think that it's a discrete best-case, worst-case only problem that's divided by the line, rather that it becomes so unlikely that there will be people protecting you, the best case scenario would be having your thing part of an organized crime. It's simple so unlikely that you're being protected, that having a hacked device is the best scenario. Perhaps there is some worse, unseen scenario that is so bad that having a hacked device is better in comparison. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.244|172.68.211.244]] 20:12, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
:::It's referring to how, the older the device gets, the less likely it is the manufacturer is still maintaining it and keeping it working.
:::In that scenario, having your device be part of a botnet eventually becomes the best-case scenario, as the hackers would be providing the "support" and updates you need to keep the device working, as per the title text.
:::The curve indicates that the older the device gets, the more likely it is it would be considered a best-case scenario for the device to be part of a botnet, for the aforementioned reasons. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 06:46, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
::::I must admit that nothing written here above or the new explanation helps me understand the curve or the legends in the graph. Also it seems people disagree so it is not just me ;-) To me it seems that it shows that the older the device is the better a case you are with. Maybe because you will have regular updates from the owners of the bot net, more so than from the company you bough it from even to begin with, and the dip is when they slow down the updates, at which point you are overtaken by the bot net and get's more updates. But it still doesn't really make sense... :D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:20, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

In all honesty, being added to a botnet is not really a disadvantage for the average joe. 99.99% of all "undocumented administrators" have no interest in the user, only in the power and network speed of their device. So who cares if your "smart lightbulb" is mining bitcoins for the russian mafia? Average Joe certainly doesn't
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.106|172.68.51.106]] 08:35, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

I read this as Smart Home-Security, not Smart-Home Security. In other words, that it's talking about IOT home security cameras and other security devices, not just generic IOT stuff. This seems to explain the "rescued from peril" and "organized crime" parts a bit better. [[User:TheAnvil|TheAnvil]] ([[User talk:TheAnvil|talk]]) 16:05, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

Is this really about white hat hackers? It seems more like a commentary on the state of manufacturer security updates for Smart Devices. With a 50% chance that your software is already depreciated. With the title text suggesting that maybe organised crime might end up providing the updates. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.101|108.162.238.101]] 02:45, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-02-20T03:35:09Z

162.158.74.213:

[[First]] post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, the explanation looks like a train wreck, and I'm not sure if a rearranging it into a table or just adding bullet points to everything is better. I'm guessing that a table would be better, but I don't know how I can rearrange it. Can somebody help? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 06:35, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Added a table layout to the sandbox. Might be of some use to another editor. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 07:32, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: ''Edit: Looks like it's been adapted in; I've cleared the sandbox for future use.'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 11:53, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Thanks, I think a table is a good way to go. I'm adding it to the article as a place to start. Rather than format the original explanation into the table, I'm leaving the cells blank. The original poorly formatted text can be a starting point, but isn't directly adaptable. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 09:55, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Never ever have I heard anyone pronounce SQL as "sequel" - Is that a reqional dialect? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.15|162.158.93.15]] 07:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I heard it's common among MS-SQL users.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:02, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh BTW, look at our IPs. Are you an easybell customer? :-) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::: I somewhat doubt we are using easybell, from the looks of it it's not suited for the size of our company. But I can neither verify nor deny that claim as I am not responsible for the WAN connection at our company. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.9|162.158.93.9]] 15:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Some people pronounce it that way, yes. Don't know if it is "common among MS-SQL users", though. The only person I encountered saying "sequel" never used MS-SQL. [[User:LordHorst|LordHorst]] ([[User talk:LordHorst|talk]]) 09:54, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Not sure if it's regional or not. I personally say "sequel" and I'd say anecdotally that it's about 50/50 among people that I've worked with. I went to school and work in the Midwest US. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 15:40, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I've also seen references to Oracle users saying "sequel" rather than S-Q-L. That would make sense as it's the DB I'm primarily working with. http://patorjk.com/blog/2012/01/26/pronouncing-sql-s-q-l-or-sequel/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 15:43, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: When I was in college a couple decades back I have memory of the professor that taught SQL saying that pronouncing it "sequel" had been registered as a trademark of Micosoft. He instructed us to avoid that pronunciation whenever possible because of this. I have not fact-checked this statement. [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 22:00, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:I like to pronounce it "squeel" because that's equally correct phonetically & it never fails to raise eyebrows. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 00:33, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

I want to take a moment to congratulate the dedication of whomever wrote the original explanation. Second languages are hard, bro. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.10|108.162.215.10]] 07:48, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Has someone tried contacting Randall about "extploit"? If not, what would be the best way? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Hack his computer to display a message demanding he fix it if he wants his hard drive decrypted.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.26|162.158.155.26]] 09:24, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks, will do.

::how to hack complooter
::why does google not work
::how to delete text
::[[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:44, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:If anyone is getting this changed to correct silly errors, removing the full stop in “…<tt>one. Computer</tt>…” would be nice. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.197|141.101.99.197]] 15:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Urban Dictionary suggestion: EXTploit - A trojan (usually bearing a harmless looking icon) which takes advantage of the idiotic practice of hiding filename extensions by default within major operating systems. This increases the likelihood that a user will execute the trojan, thinking it is a media file because they cannot see the actual file-extension. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 00:33, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Regarding "Factor a prime": Factoring a prime is easy: The prime itself is the only factor, so it's sufficient to use [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKS_primality_test AKS] or whatever to check that. Public-key encryption relies on how hard it is to factor the product of two primes, which is a much harder problem. Maybe this is a typo in the comic? {{unsigned|Comment Police}}
: I don't think it is a typo. It's exactly the type of "inside-joke" I would expect from XKCD. :) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.214|162.158.134.214]] 10:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: AFAIK, there aren't any primality tests known to run in O(log n). For instance, AKS runs in O(log n ^ 7.5). So for numpy to actually achieve factoring as stated would require assuming the input is prime and just returning (1,n). --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 12:45, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:::Doesn't testing for primality (just) require a list of all primes up to sqrt(n)? So the best possible time is sqrt(however fast you can calculate primes up to a number). That time can at most be square (divide every number by every other number below it), so a primality test only needs O(n) time. Or do I understand something wrong? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:46, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::::Oh yes, I missed that log(n) is less than n. Nevermind then. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:50, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:On the other hand, consider the following phrases that describe a process using the end result of the process as their direct object: "cook scrambled eggs", "bake a cake", "chop firewood", "encode an MP3", and "factor primes". One would "factor primes" out of the semiprime associated with an RSA key. --[[User:Tepples|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples|talk]]) 15:58, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Can I edit some spelling errors? There seems to be some spelling errors here and there.Boeing-787lover 10:19, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Of course, that's what a Wiki is for. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 12:10, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
I think the explanation of the one about injecting arbitrary text onto a page with the comments box is overthinking the joke. I think it really is just about the fact that you can write whatever you like in a comment. Look, I just hacked this page to display the word "penguin". [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 10:26, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Since when is Bruce Schneier not real? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.75|162.158.93.75]] 13:05, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: He never was - it's a cleverly executed art project. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.209|141.101.99.209]] 14:20, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I've added some clarification to the "CRITICAL" item. I know there are several xkcd comics referencing similar problems but I unfortunately don't have the time to look them up, can someone do that and link them appropriately in the table? [[User:Domino|Domino]] ([[User talk:Domino|talk]]) 13:11, 19 February 2018 (UTC)domino
:Isn't the joke really in the hilarious severity assessment? The vulnerability is supposedly CRITICAL!!!!11!1!!one!, while description shows both a ridiculously small vulnerable population and ridiculously low impact. Population: a single, very old kernel version on a rare, outdated architecture, in one timezone only - and WHICH timezone! UTC+14 means just a couple of islands in the Pacific (Tonga, Kiribati...) - the probability of even one vulnerable system actually existing seems almost zero. Impact: the only possible consequence is switching from 12h to 24h (only in this direction)? This whole entry is very creative - just TRY to come up with a possible vulnerability (yes, it would classify as an actual vulnerability, why not?) that would have a LOWER severity than that...--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.89|162.158.91.89]] 13:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::Agree [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 15:45, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I think the article should start with an explanation of what is the CVE. From https://cve.mitre.org/
"CVE® is a list of entries—each containing an identification number, a description, and at least one public reference—for publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
CVE Entries are used in numerous cybersecurity products and services from around the world, including the U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD)."
-{{unsigned|Comment Police}}

"MySQL server 55.45" it is 5.5.45 if you zoom in a bit. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.161|162.158.91.161]] 13:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)Blocki

"An attacker can execute malicious code on their own machine and no one can stop them" might be a jab at the trend toward more closed systems, where even the owner of a device is limited in what they can do on it. 
"A flaw in Mitre's CVE database allows arbitrary code insertion" could be meant as an explanation for the whole comic, i.e. those joke vulnerabilities were added to the CVE database using this flaw. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.225|141.101.69.225]] 13:52, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Monty (BDFL for MySQL) always pronounces it as "My ess cue ell". [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 18:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

It's my first comment here, so I may be wrong. I see the "CRITICAL" as a "differential” joke exhibiting that the requirement standards may be very different from a constructor to another. In fact, it seems that the apple’s bugs described here (crash, fire, remote access granted) are the mosst critical ones. The only two concerning Linux are the one labeled as critical and the one about bribery. I don’t know what to think about the almost complete absence of windows though. Feriaman.

Could we get an ''Air Bud'' category? It seems to be a recurring theme in his comics. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.88|162.158.246.88]] 18:50, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:List of direct mentions of "air bud" in the explanations: [[115:_Meerkat]], [[1439:_Rack_Unit]], [[1506:_xkcloud/Table_of_Permalinks]], [[1552:_Rulebook]], [[1819:_Sweet_16]], [[1957:_2018_CVE_List]]
:List of direct mentions of "air bud" in the transcripts: [None]
:Beep, boop, I'm not a bot. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 20:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Anyone happen to notice that instead of writing "mischievous," Randall opted for the non-standard spelling "mischevious?" The standard form would have been an I-before-E word... --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.164|162.158.88.164]] 00:45, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

"Diacritics are the accents found on letters in some languages (eg. č, ģ ķ, ļ, ņ, š, ž). These would not be found on emojis." This misses the point. There is nothing that stops a unicode emoji being followed by unicode combining diacritical mark. The rendering engine does not have to display this in any particular way, but catching fire would be considered a bug by must users.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.213|162.158.74.213]] 03:35, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1955: Robots

2018-02-16T18:30:13Z

162.158.74.213:

The door handle is a lever, which is relatively easy to open. A doorknob would be harder.
[[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 06:04, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Apparently, a lot of the YouTube comments reference "black mirror" a lot. Can someone explain this to someone out of the loop?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.183|162.158.62.183]] 06:22, 14 February 2018 (UTC)Jury76
: {{w|Black Mirror}} is a British science fiction anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker, with Brooker and Annabel Jones serving as the programme showrunners. It examines modern society, particularly with regard to the unanticipated consequences of new technologies. Episodes are standalone, usually set in an alternative present or the near future, often with a dark and satirical tone, though some are more experimental and lighter. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:26, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

: refering to this episode: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_(Black_Mirror)[[Special:Contributions/172.68.253.23|172.68.253.23]] 08:57, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Added a (very basic) explanation of the comic. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 07:27, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

I don't think that the title text is a trope reference. If robots are, indeed, a threat, it will be because various corporate teams have spent a lot of money to develop and build them. Basically, the only mad scientist with the resources to do this would be Elon Musk, who is clearly on record with his concerns about such a possibility. [[User:Schnitz|Schnitz]] ([[User talk:Schnitz|talk]]) 19:26, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Why does the last panel start with "So"? It that some American grammar thing? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.70|198.41.238.70]] 20:36, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

: So why do you suggest this is American? (See what I did there?) Anyway, read more on this usage here: http://www.dictionary.com/e/sentence-initial-so/
: It goes into detail on the many ways "so" is used to start a sentence. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 22:18, 14 February 2018 (UTC)
:: So "so-so" ''so'' describes the American Randall's grammar. (See what I did there? Answered your question, of course.) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.70|198.41.238.70]] 08:21, 15 February 2018 (UTC)
:: I think I answered yours too - I don't believe that usage is limited to American english, even though Randall is indeed American. (Note: moved 2nd half of my earlier post above your reply.) [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 18:16, 15 February 2018 (UTC)
:I don't think any thing in that article describes Randall's "so". This use of "so" is as a perfectly normal coordinating conjunction meaning "For that reason". This is grammatical everywhere English is used. Some people might object to starting a sentence with a conjunction. But that would be prissy. And they would not have a leg to stand on.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.213|162.158.74.213]] 18:30, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

One of my favourite cartoons: "Knowing how it could change the lives of canines everywhere, the dog scientists struggled diligently to understand the Doorknob Principle." -- _The Far Side_
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.220|108.162.216.220]] 05:42, 15 February 2018 (UTC) Gene Wirchenko genew@telus.net

When seeing the moment where the dog-bot opens the door, somehow I can't help but think of the scene in the 2005 Doctor Who reboot where Christopher Eccleston's Doctor and Rose are facing the Daleks for the first time, and they go up the stairs. The lack of Daleks' ability to navigate stairs was a longstanding joke in the original series. Then, the Dalek says "ELEVATE!" and the pursuit resumes... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.95|108.162.238.95]] 11:46, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations

2018-01-03T17:53:40Z

162.158.74.213: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1937
| date = January 3, 2018
| title = IATA Airport Abbreviations
| image = iata_airport_abbreviations.png
| titletext = IATA stands for International AirporT Abbreviation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Expansion needed. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is making fun of the three-letter codes assigned to all airports. These codes are overseen by the IATA (International Air Transport Association). Some airport codes are very intuitive, taking letters from the city name (e.g., DEN for Denver). Other codes are somewhat intuitive, taking a letter or two from the nearby city name but adding an additional letter (e.g., LAX for Los Angeles). Other codes make seemingly no sense at all (e.g., ORD for Chicago's O'Hare International, due to it formerly being named Orchard Field). In many cases, the airport codes appear to have been chosen (or invented) because they are also common abbreviations and acronyms.

If we use the table provided, Randall's friend is flying into Edwards Air Force Base and then down to whatever. This is not a typical flight{{Citation needed}}. In actuality, the friend is flying into Newark tonight and Detroit tomorrow.

{| class="wikitable"
|'''IATA Code''' || '''Actual Assigned City/Airport''' || '''Description in the comic''' || '''Explanation'''
|-
| AMD || Ahmedabad || Amsterdam || Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. Its airport (called Schiphol) has the IATA code AMS. "AMD" is also a brand of computer processors.
|-
| ANC || Anchorage || Ankh-Morpork || Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state featured in {{w|Discworld}}.
|-
| ATL || Atlanta || Atalantë || Another name for J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional island of Númenor (which is in turn a reference to the sinking of Atlantis).
|-
| BAE || Barcelonnette || Beijing || Beijing is the capital of China. Its airport has the IATA code PEK (possibly from Peking, alternate former spelling of its name). "Bae" is a slang term meaning girlfriend, boyfriend, or significant other.
|-
| BLT || Blackwater || Baltimore || A "BLT" is a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.
|-
| BUF || Buffalo || Sunnydale || Sunnydale is the fictional setting of '''''Buf'''fy the Vampire Slayer''.
|-
| CLT || Charlotte || [CENSORED] || The censored word may be "clitoris." Randall has used this word in the comic before, so it is not known why he censors it here.
|-
| DFW || Dallas/Fort Worth || Down For Whatever
|-
| DTF || not assigned || Dartford || "DTF" is an acronym used to indicate "Down To Fuck". Dartford is a town in Kent, UK, about 10 miles SE of London.
|-
| DTW || Detroit || Down To Whatever
|-
| DWI || not assigned || Delaware International || "DWI" is an acronym for "Driving While Intoxicated" or "Driving While Impaired." Randall notes in the ''what if?'' book that Delaware has no airports.
|-
| EWR || Newark || Edwards Air Force Base || Edwards Air Force Base (which has the IATA code EDW) is a United States Air Force installation in southern California, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lancaster and 15 miles (24 km) east of Rosamond.
|-
| FFS || not assigned || Flagstaff Station || "FFS" is an acronym for "For Fuck's Sake".
|-
| FHQ || not assigned || FHQWHGADS || The string "fhqwhgads" appeared as the sender name in a spam email sent to Strong Bad in the {{w|Homestar Runner}} cartoons; Strong Bad ended up writing a song dedicated to the "character".
|-
| FYI || not assigned || Fayetteville || "FYI" often stands for "For Your Information".
|-
| HGM || not assigned || Hogsmeade || Hogsmeade is a fictional location in the Harry Potter series.
|-
| HSV || Huntsville || Huntsville || This is one where Randall and the IATA agree. HSV is better known as the Hue-Saturation-Value color space or German soccer club Hamburger SV
|-
| IAD || Washington (Dulles) || Idaho (Boise) || IAD is the symbol for Dulles Int'l Airport (which was originally "DIA" but it was felt that could be confused when hand-written with "DCA", the sign for nearby {{w|Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport}}). The Idaho Falls airport is IDA, while Idaho (Boise) is BOI, so it's unclear why BOI was chosen instead of IDA.
|-
| IUD || Doha || Washington (Dulles) || An "IUD" is an "IntraUterine Device," or form of birth control.
|-
| JFC || not assigned || Jefferson City || "JFC" is an acronym for "Jesus Fucking Christ."
|-
| KUL || Kuala Lumpur || Kingdom of Loathing || Kingdom of Loathing is an online, browser-based RPG.
|-
| LAX || Los Angeles || Las Angalas || "Las Angalas" is a "Los Angeles" with every vowel replaced with an "a" character. It's sometimes used as a joking nickname for "Los Angeles."
|-
| LOL || Lovelock || Louisville || "LOL" often stands for "Laughing Out Loud".
|-
| MDW || Chicago, IL (Midway) || Midway Atoll || Midway Atoll was the site of one of the most significant World War II Pacific naval battles. Its actual IATA code is MDY.
|-
| MIA || Miami || Colombo, Sri Lanka || MIA is a rapper who is of Sri Lankan heritage. It also frequently stands for "Missing In Action".
|-
| OMW || not assigned || Omaha || Eppley Airfield in East Omaha, Nebraska, has an IATA code of OMA. "OMW" is an acronym for "On My Way."
|-
| ORD || Chicago, IL (O'Hare) || Orlando || O'Hare was once known as Orchard Place/Douglas Field, hence ORD
|-
| PDX || Portland || Pordlanx || Consider how LAX has a random "X" at the end. And "ORD" is an actual IATA code. Randall here messes with "Portland" in much the same way.
|-
| PHL || Philadelphia, PA || Pittsburgh || Pittsburgh International Airport has a IATA code of PIT.
|-
| SAN || San Diego || San Diego San Juan San Jose San Francisco San Antonio || SAN Puerto Rico: SJU and SIG, and Argentina: UAQ. USA: SJC, Costa Rica: SJO, Mexico: SJD, Philippines: SJI SFO SAT 
|-
| SEA || Seattle/Tacoma or SeaTac || [Indicates Water Landing] || This is possibly a reference to the fact that "SEA" could be interpreted as "Sea". Like some other major airports (e.g., {{w|San Francisco International Airport}} and {{w|LaGuardia Airport}}), SEA is very close to a large body of water, in SeaTac's case {{w|Puget Sound}}: thus, missing the airport may end up in a water landing. SeaTac is also a city in WA, adjacent to the airport.
|-
| SMH || Sapmanga || Smithfield || "SMH" often stands for "Shaking My Head".
|-
| STL || St. Louis || Silent Hill || Silent Hill is a fictional city appearing in the series of video games and movies with the same name.
|-
| SWF || Newburgh, New York || Sherwood Forest || .swf is the file extension for ShockWave Flash files. "SWF" can also stand for "Single White Female" in personal ads.
|-
| TBA || Tabibuga || Tribeca || "TBA" often stands for "To Be Announced".
|-
| TMI || Tumlingtar || Turkmenistan International || "TMI" often stands for "Too Much Information".
|-
| YYY || Mont-Joli || Toronto Downtown || The small airport in downtown Toronto is Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport which has an IATA code of YTZ.
|-
| YYZ || Toronto || Toronto Pearson || This one is correct. The band Rush are from Toronto and named an instrumental after the airport call sign.
|-
|}

==Transcript==
Confused by those airport abbreviations used by your friends who fly a lot? Just memorize this list.
:Aside 1: I'm flying into EWR tonight, then DTW tomorrow.
:Aside 2: Ok, cool. I definitely know what those mean without Googling.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| AMD || Amsterdam
|-
| BAE || Beijing
|-
| ORD || Orlando
|-
| IAD || Idaho (Boise)
|-
| JFC || Jefferson City
|-
| IUD || Washington Dulles
|-
| FYI || Fayetteville
|-
| LOL || Louisville
|-
| ATL || Atalante
|-
| HGM || Hogsmeade
|-
| OMW || Omaha
|-
| ANC || Ankh-Morpork
|-
| HSV || Hunstville
|-
| SAN || San Diego
|-
| SAN || San Juan
|-
| SAN || San Jose
|-
| SAN || San Francisco
|-
| SAN || San Antonio
|-
| DWI || Delaware International
|-
| DFW || Down for Whatever
|-
| DTW || Down to Whatever
|-
| TMI || Turkmenistan International
|-
| LAX || Las Angalas
|-
| EWR || Edwards Air Force Base
|-
| PHL || Pittsburgh
|-
| SWF || Sherwood Forest
|-
| KUL || Kingdom of Loathing
|-
| STL || Silent Hill
|-
| BUF || Sunnydale
|-
| TBA || Tribeca
|-
| SMH || Smithfield
|-
| BLT || Baltimore
|-
| YYY || Toronto Downtown
|-
| YYZ || Toronto Pearson
|-
| MIA || Colombo, Sri Lanka
|-
| CLT || Censored
|-
| FHQ || Fhqwhgads
|-
| FFS || Flagstaff Station
|-
| DTF || Dartford
|-
| MDW || Midway Atoll
|-
| PDX || Pordlanx
|-
| SEA || Indicates Water Landing
|}

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

{{comic discussion}}

1933: Santa Facts

2017-12-27T07:01:59Z

162.158.74.213: /* Table of facts */

{{comic
| number = 1933
| date = December 25, 2017
| title = Santa Facts
| image = santa_facts.png
| titletext = We've gotten him up to 20% milk and cookies through an aggressive public campaign, but that seems to be his dietary limit. Anything above that and he starts developing nutritional deficiencies.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This, second [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comic]] in a row, provides some dubious "Facts" and "Figures" of the creature known as "Santa." We can see from the drawing this is obviously meant to be either {{w|Santa Claus}} or a parody of Santa Claus.

This comic is reminiscent of the [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phones series]].

==Table of facts==
{| class="wikitable"
!Fact/Figure
!Explanation
|-
|Taxonomy Note
|I would comment that is solely about the Saint Nicolas - Siberian Shamanic crossover and has nothing to do with the Druidic Father Christmas (and other local names). This conflation is something that really needs sorting out!
|-
|Type: Flying/Psychic
|A reference to {{w|Pokémon}}. The {{w|Gameplay_of_Pokémon#Pok%C3%A9mon_types|type}} of a Pokémon describes and determines its abilities (including attacks), affinities, and general nature. In most stories Santa Claus rides a sled pulled by flying reindeer (all other [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Flying_(type) Flying-type] Pokémon fly under their own power) and some kind of magical power. Psychic possibly refers to his ability to know a child's activities and behavior, including when they are {{w|Santa_Claus_Is_Comin%27_to_Town| sleeping or awake}}, implying a Psychic ability to read minds. In the Pokémon Go Christmas event which began on December 22nd a new Christmas Pokémon was released, [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Delibird_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Delibird] which looks a lot like Santa Claus with a tail it holds in its hand so it looks like a bag of presents, and it can actually attack with an attack type called Present, and is known to share the food it stores in its tail, like a real Santa. Also the most known Pokémon, {{w|Pikachu}} appeared in a Santa Claus hat.
|-
|Plural: "Santa"
|The plural form of 'Santa' conveniently parallels that of 'reindeer' (as well as those of several ''Pokemon'' creatures).

In real life, "santa" means "saint" in most {{w|Romance languages}}. However "santa" is not plural in any of these languages (for example, in Portuguese the proper plural would be "santos"). Under the usual rules for making a plural noun, Santa would have a plural of "Santas". Taking "Santa Claus" as a separate noun, the plural would be "Santa Clauses".
|-
|Active warrants: 5
|There is an active warrant for Santa's arrest in 5 jurisdictions, presumably for breaking and entering or for operating a flying sleigh without the proper licensing, while drunk, or over the speed limit.
|-
|Lubricated for easy passage down chimneys
|The diagram indicates that Santa's attire is lubricated to ease his traditional method of ingress and egress. This explanation is incomplete, however, as a great many chimneys have cross-sectional area substantially smaller than that of a normal human body, let alone a portly one, as commonly described. The common presence of chimney caps, fireplace dampers, and the like would also impede Santa's passage down a great many chimneys. That said, if we take the classic poem "{{w|A Visit from St. Nicholas}}" into account, the statement is technically true, just "lubricated" with magic rather than physical lubrication.

Less classic example of Santa going down the chimney with help of magic can be seen in The Santa Clause[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBaQwGTHCL8]

"Lubricated" is also a reference to lubricated condoms - see "Ribbed" below.
|-
|Vertical Leap: 14 Miles
|A vertical leap of 14 miles (~23 km), ''ignoring air resistance'' would require an initial launch velocity of slightly more than 2180 feet per second (665 m/s), somewhat over twice the speed of sound. Achieving this velocity by means of bending then straightening the legs would require an acceleration of roughly 25,000 G, placing extraordinarily high demands on the strength of the legs. As Santa does not have a particularly aerodynamic shape, air resistance would increase the launch velocity and launch acceleration requirements substantially.
|-
|Sleigh Flag of Convenience: Panama
|The {{w|Flag_of_convenience|Flag of Convenience}} identifies the country in which an ocean-going vessel has its registration information. Panama maintains one of the top three open registries. Owners of a vessel may choose to use an open registry to avoid labor or safety regulations of the owner's country. They may also choose such a registry to help obscure ownership of the vessel. Which concern applies in the case of Santa's sleigh is not stated, or (more likely) not known. It may also be the only type of registration available, since the north pole is not in any country, so there is no "owner's country".

However, a ship's flag state exercises regulatory control over the vessel and is required to inspect it regularly, certify the ship's equipment and crew, and issue safety and pollution prevention documents. One suspect that this does in fact '''not''' happen regularly with Santa's sleigh. Also, as a ''flying'' sleigh, the registry for ''ocean-going'' vessels is not applicable. Instead, it would be registered as an aircraft, with the FAA (in the U.S.), EASA (in Europe), or the equivalent in another country. Civilian aircraft have their registration number painted on their tails, but are not required to display a "flag". (However, U.S. Airways used a stylized version of a U.S. flag as a corporate logo prior to its merger with American Airlines.)
|-
|9th in Presidential Line of Succession
|The {{w|United_States_presidential_line_of_succession|Presidential Line of Succession}} specifies the order in which persons may become or act as {{w|President of the United States}} if the incumbent President becomes incapacitated, dies, resigns, or is removed from office. Having Santa as the 9th in that order would place him above the {{w|United States Secretary of Agriculture|Secretary of Agriculture}}. An alternative interpretation would hold that Santa '''is''' the present Secretary of Agriculture, {{w|Sonny Perdue}}.

Assuming Sonny Perdue is not Santa Claus (citation not needed), Santa is likely ineligible for the Presidency, as most origin stories of Santa have him a natural-born citizen of a European country (or of Turkey) rather than the United States. Alternately, Santa might be old enough to qualify under the "citizen at the time of the adoption of this constitution" clause, although in light of the information that Santa is actually an arthropod and/or a vampire makes his status as an American citizen dubious.
|-
|Not technically an insect — actually an arthropod
|This "fact" uses an absurd misconception to correct a relatively common misconception. Absurdly, Randall has mistaken Santa for a lobster, given his bright red coloration and the surname Claus (which is pronounced the same as a lobster's "claws"). This may be an homage to the film the Nightmare Before Christmas, where Jack Skellington believes Christmas Town is led by "Sandy Claws" who is "like a lobster, huge and red."

There is a relatively common misconception that lobsters are insects. In fact, lobsters are crustaceans rather than insects, but there is a kernel of truth to the misconception, as crustaceans and insects are related (both are arthropods). Thus, the "fact" states that Lobster-Santa is not technically an insect; he is actually an arthropod.

|-
|Only known vampire able to enter house without being invited
|Vampires cannot enter dwellings without the occupant of the dwelling inviting them in. Santa must enter houses uninvited to do his job, so if he is a vampire he is the exception to that rule. In traditional vampire folklore, a vampire cannot enter an abode without an invitation from the owner of the same. Santa, however, seems to be able to enter houses even without explicit invitation (although plenty of children do welcome him either via written notes or by their general sentiments). This juxtaposes interestingly with the previous point about his arthropod nature.

His being a vampire is perhaps related to his dressing all in red, and alleged immortality.
|-
|Works with Alexa
|May mean that Alexa (Amazon's virtual assistant) is Santa's colleague, that Santa uses Alexa in his work, or Santa is functionally compatible with Alexa. A common advertisement states that a product is compatible with Amazon's smart device, Alexa. But it could also be a play on the idea or fear that Alexa may be used to spy on people from the privacy of their own homes, much like what is claimed of Santa ("he sees you when you're sleeping, [...]").
|-
|Ribbed
| A reference to condoms, which have ridges or ribbing in order to promote pleasurable stimulation during coitus (see "Lubricated" above). This also puns on the fact that, as a humanoid, Santa presumably has a rib cage. (This might directly contradict the claims about his being an arthropod).
|-
|IUCN Red List: Critically endangered
| The [https://www.iucn.org/about International Union for Conservation of Nature] (IUCN) monitors the size and viability of populations of organisms; 'critically endangered' marks a population as being highly susceptible to extinction. Santa, being one (or possibly two, if we include his wife) of a kind and lacking any offspring (and, indeed, likely being incapable of effectively producing any), will most likely be the last member of his population; thus extinction will arrive with his or his wife's death. Note, however, that the presence on the Red List implies that "Santa" is a biological species, not a fantasy, robot, or other non-biological entity. This is consistent with Santa being an arthropod and/or vampire, but would suggest that there are many specimens of Santa, while other 'Facts' (such as having a definite ranking in the Presidential Line of Succession) suggest Santa to be a single individual.
|-
|Diet: 80% Reindeer
|A mocking allusion to Santa Claus's sleigh, usually pulled by reindeer. Usual folklore depict Santa Claus being extremely fond of his reindeer, thus making it a humorous contrast to suggest he'd be ''eating'' reindeer meat on a daily basis.

The Title Text states that prior as a result of intervention that the diet is now 20% milk & cookies, implying that previously it was 100% Reindeer.

If he is indeed a vampire, it is odd that Santa could survive on a diet of reindeer and milk & cookies, being that vampires supposedly need human blood to survive. Of course, his entering without being invited already shows Santa to be a highly unusual vampire. Additionally, it is possible that he consumes ''reindeer'' blood as part of his reindeer diet (vampires living off animal blood is not unheard of in modern fantasy). Related to that may be the observation that he seems to develope "nutritional deficiencies" when going below 80% reindeer meat, as that would logically result in him consuming less blood and thus starvation because of his vampiric nature.
|-
|Liability Insurance: None
|As a result of his diet (see above), alleged criminal activity (ditto), species ambiguity, and occupation, Santa would find the cost of liability insurance quite high. He instead chooses to 'go bare' and operate without any.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An annotated picture of Santa]
:'''Santa'''
:Facts and Figures

:Type: Flying/Psychic
:Plural: "Santa"
:Active Warrants: 5
:Lubricated for easy passage down chimneys
:Vertical leap: 14 Miles
:Sleigh flag of convenience: Panama
:9th in presidential line of succession
:Not technically an insect—actually an arthropod
:Only known vampire able to enter house without being invited
:Works with Alexa
:Ribbed
:IUCN red list: Critically endangered
:Diet: 80% Reindeer
:Liability Insurance: None

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]

1902: State Borders

2017-10-13T20:47:40Z

162.158.74.213: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1902
| date = October 13, 2017
| title = State Borders
| image = state_borders.png
| titletext = A schism between the pro-panhandle and anti-panhandle factions eventually led to war, but both sides spent too much time working on their flag designs to actually do much fighting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Add a table of all the proposed changes, explain title text... Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, graphic designers take control of the United States, but the only thing they do is to change the state and national borders, as well as to some extent the coast line, using primarily esthetic criteria.

Despite the caption's rather blasé reaction to the graphic designers' master plan, the changes they propose could be rather tumultuous. Many U.S. residents will be made to live in new states, and thus be required to pay different taxes and obey different state laws. Some particularly unlucky (or lucky depedning one your point of view) U.S. citizens living Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska and Minnesota could be required to file for citizenship in Mexico or Canada if they wish to continue living in their current homes.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Proposed change !! Explanation
|-
| Give to Canada || {{w|Minnesota}} has a small northern enclave (the {{w|Northwest Angle}}) which is accessible from the rest of the US only via the {{w| Lake of the Woods}} or by travelling through Canada. The new borders suggest giving this territory to Canada to simplify the state and national border.
|-
| This should be {{w|Wisconsin}} || {{w|Michigan}} is divided into two parts by {{w|Lake Michigan}}. The graphic designers suggest eliminating a boundary line by assigning the upper peninsula of Michigan to Wisconsin.
|-
| If we're going to have a panhandle, why not commit to it? || {{w|Oklahoma}} has a "panhandle" to its west, which is a kind of {{w|Salient (geography)|Salient}}. The obvious fix would be to give it to Texas. In a twist, the graphic designers suggest extending it even further, across the northern parts of {{w|Arizona}} and {{w|New Mexico}}.
|-
| Let's be honest, this should be Canada too || {{w|Southeast Alaska}} should be given to {{w|Canada}}, presumably because it more neatly fits with {{w|British Columbia}}. This is slightly problematic, as the state capital, {{w|Juneau}}, is within this section.
|-
| Unlabelled cleanup at the junction of {{w|Texas}}/{{w|Oklahoma}}/{{w|Arkansas}}/{{w|Louisiana}} || Square off {{w|Southwest Arkansas}}, and move {{w|Lousiana's}} northwest border to meet up, presumably because square corners are better.
|-
| Unlabelled cleanup at the junction of {{w|Nevada}}/{{w|Arizona}} || Continue the line of Utah's western border and Arizona's far northwestern border south (replacing part of the {{w|Colorado River}} boundary), transferring part of Arizona's {{w|Mohave_County,_Arizona|Mohave county}} to Nevada.
|-
| Clean up (Arizona/New Mexico/Texas) || One of {{w|New Mexico}}'s borders should be extended into a single line. This results in ceding some land to Mexico, having {{w|El Paso}} split across New Mexico and Texas, and Highway 62 alternating between two states.
|-
| Unlabelled cleanup at the junction of {{w|Kentucky}}/{{w|Virginia}} || Virginia's western border is shifted east to align it with the borders to the north and south, forming a continuous line along the {{w|Appalachian_Mountains|Appalachains}}.
|-
| Fix this thing || The border of {{w|Missouri}} cuts into {{w|Arkansas}}, in the so-called {{w|Missouri Bootheel}}. The Design Team has awarded that piece to {{w|Arkansas}}, straightening the border.
|-
| Align to Grid || Most of the Western states are variations on "Let's have a large box", but there's something a bit irregular about them. Never fear, the Design Team has fixed!
|-
| Why should Florida get Alabama's coastline? It has plenty. ||
The {{w|Florida Panhandle}} borders southern {{w|Alabama}} denying the state all but a sliver of coastline. Given that Florida already has an abundance of coast, the Graphic Designers consider the present arrangement unfair. Ceding the Florida counties west of the {{w|Apalachicola River}} have actually been {{w|Florida_Panhandle#Alabama_annexation_proposals|raised since the 19th century}}. This change would have the additional benfit of more neatly aligning Florida's western border with that of neighboring {{w|Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia}}.
|-
|Enlarge Rhode Island & Delaware || {{w|Rhode Island}} and {{w|Delaware}}, the two {{w|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area#Area_by_state.2Fterritory|smallest U.S. states by area}}, are often difficult to make out on a map of the United States. Expanding Delaware to occupy the entire {{w|Delmarva_Peninsula|Delmarva peninsula}} eliminates some boundary lines the designers apparently consider excessively fiddly; expanding Rhode Island eastward would reduce the number of land borders it has to too (one to its west with Connecticut and one to its north with Massachusetts) and make it easier to see on a map.
|-
| Clean Up (Arizona/New Mexico/Texas) || One of {{w|New Mexico}}'s borders should be extended into a single line. This results in ceding some land to Mexico, having {{w|El Paso}} split across New Mexico and Texas, and Highway 62 alternating between two states.
|-
| Move Long Island to NJ or CT, or make it its own state || {{w|Connecticut}} and {{w|New Jersey}} are very close to each other but don't actually border, separated only a few miles by {{w|New York State}}. {{w|Long Island}} is part of New York State, which visibly juts out into the Atlantic and apparently drives graphic designers crazy who see an association with New Jersey or Connecticut or even becoming its own state more logical than being a part of New York State. This would have some issues, not least of which is that Long Island contains two of {{w|New York City}}'s five boroughs ({{w|Brooklyn}} and {{w|Queens}}) and more than half the city's population.
|-
| Clean Up (Maryland/Pennsylvania/Virginia/West Virginia) || Maryland's western panhandle and both of West Virginia's to the east and north would be smoothed out to have nice, straight, shorter lines.
|-
| Good Curve! Keep (Florida/Georgia/South Carolina) || The only thing the design team likes already about the shape of the US is the shape of the Atlantic coast in northern {{w|Florida}}, Georgia, and {{w|South Carolina}}, as it seems to bend into the US smoothly.
|-
| Straighten to fix survey errors (Tennessee) || {{w|Tenneesse}}'s southern border is supposed to be the 35th parallel north, but due to surveying errors made in the 19th Century the marked border is one mile south of that line. At many times since, Georgia has sought to fix this by various means (at least partly because doing so would net them some rights to the water from the Tennessee River) including bringing its case to the US Supreme Court - with the Design Team in charge, they wouldn't need those lawyers any more. Farther westward, Tennessee's actual southern border suddenly juts south at the Tennessee River between Alabama and Mississippi - again, the Design Team would rather see it smoothed out. Tenneesse's northern border with Kentucky has similar hitches that prevent it from being a straight line that the Design Team wants to address.
|}

In the title text, the graphic designers have a civil war between the ones that favor "panhandles" in the borders, such as the Oklahoma one which is enlarged in the map, the Florida one which is removed in the map, and maybe others such as the Texas region known as the "Texas panhandle". However, they get too caught up in making the flag designs for their faction to actually fight. Randall has shown interest for vexillology (the study of flags) in the past.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An outline map of the United States is shown, including state boundaries. The following edit marks are shown in red text:]
:[Minnesota's Northwest Angle is circled] Give to Canada
:[Border between Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula is crossed out] This should be Wisconsin
:[New York's Long Island is circled, with arrows and question marks pointing to New Jersey and Connecticut] Move Long Island to NJ or CT or make it its own state
:[New York's eastern border has been straightened]
:[Wyoming's western border is moved to align with that of Colorado. The Montana/Idaho and Idaho/Utah borders are extended to reach the new border. Similarly, Colorado's eastern border is moved to align with that of Wyoming, and the Nebraska/Kansas border has been extended] Align to grid
:[West Virginia's northern panhandle has been given to Ohio and part of its eastern panhandle has been given to Maryland. In return, Western Maryland has been given to West Virginia. The altogether effect is that West Virginia and Maryland have more compact shapes] Clean Up
:[Rhode Island has been enlarged to encompass southeastern Massachusetts, and Delaware now takes up the entire Delmarva Peninsula] Enlarge Rhode Island & Delaware
:[The Oklahoma Panhandle has been extended west until it reaches Nevada, taking the northernmost parts of Arizona and New Mexico with it] If we're going to have a panhandle, why not commit to it?
:[The Missouri Bootheel has been given to Arkansas] Fix this thing
:[The part of Virginia west of the Appalachian Mountains has been given to West Virginia]
:[The southwestern and eastern borders of Nevada have been extended into Arizona until they meet a point. A part of California is slightly extended to reach the revised border]
:[Parts of Arizona and New Mexico have been ceded to Mexico, and part of Texas has been given to New Mexico, so that the southern borders of Arizona and New Mexico and the northern border of the Trans-Pecos area of Texas collectively form a straight line] Clean Up
:[Parts of northeastern Texas have been given to Arkansas and Louisiana]
:[The northern and southern borders of Tennessee have been straightened] Straighten to fix survey errors
:[A line has been traced along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida] Good curve! Keep.
:[Alaska's southeastern panhandle has been circled] Let's be honest - this should be Canada, too.
:[The Alabama/Florida border has been erased, and Alabama's eastern border has been extended south until it meets the Gulf of Mexico] Why should Florida get Alabama's coastline? It has plenty.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It was scary when graphic designers seized control of the country, but it turned out they just wanted to fix some things about the state borders that had always bothered them. 

{{comic discussion}}

198: Perspective

2017-09-28T02:51:10Z

162.158.74.213: added comma for clarity

{{comic
| number = 198
| date = December 18, 2006
| title = Perspective
| image = perspective.png
| titletext = I wonder what I was dreaming to prompt that. I hope it wasn't the Richard Stallman Cirque de Soleil thing again.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Firefox}} is a popular browser, and in 2006, it was the second most commonly used browser. Its more fervent supporters sometimes wrote as if there was a moral imperative to use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer.

[[Cueball]], presumably representing [[Randall]], wakes up with a reasonable perspective on the relative unimportance of an internet browser within the world at large, but quickly loses that perspective as his enthusiasm for nerdy things like Firefox gets the better of him. The humor stems from the irony that Cueball is relieved to trade a richer perspective for a simpler, browser-oriented world view.

The title text references {{w|Richard Matthew Stallman|Richard Stallman}}, an American software freedom activist and computer programmer, and {{w|Cirque du Soleil}}, an entertainment company specializing in big-top circus performances. The two have no connection with one another, so this is one example of an odd combination of topics that would only (and commonly) be connected in dreams.

Alternately, the dream may be a reference to Stallman's forceful defense of software freedom, which could be seen as "over-the-top" or circus like.

Another possible joke is that the comic, unlike most other xkcd comics, is drawn with {{w|Perspective (graphical)|perspective}} as well as being about a more metaphorical perspective.

==Transcript==
:Sometimes, when I first wake up, I am caught in the horrible grip of perspective.
:[Cueball sitting up in bed.]
:Cueball: It may be a jewel of open source, but Firefox is '''just a browser.''' It shows '''webpages.''' What the hell is '''wrong''' with us?
:Fortunately, this subsides quickly.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

1890: What to Bring

2017-09-15T05:35:54Z

162.158.74.213: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1890
| date = September 15, 2017
| title = What to Bring
| image = what_to_bring.png
| titletext = I always figured you should never bring a gun to a gun fight because then you'll be part of a gun fight.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A graph based on variations of the phrase "never bring a knife to a gun fight", an idiom usually attributed to either {{w|Elmer Keith}} or ''{{w|The Untouchables (film)|The Untouchables}}''.

The second part of the graph is based on reactions to an {{w|Class B fire|oil fire}}, which should be extinguished by removing the oxygen (such as by covering it with a lid). Attempting to apply water to an oil fire will result in a large, potentially dangerous flame.

* If you bring a knife to a knife fight, you will be evenly matched with your opponent.

* If you bring a knife to a gunfight, you will be at a perilous disadvantage.

* Attempting to fight a wood fire with a knife will lead to you being burned.

* Attempting to fight an oil fire will lead to you being burned, in addition to causing metallic scrapes.

* Shooting either a wood or an oil fire is an ineffective way of extinguishing them.{{Citation needed}}

* Bringing a gun to a gunfight will leave you {{w|Mexican standoff|evenly matched with your opponent}}.

* Attempting to put a lid on the head of a knife-wielder will probably not help matters, as it may only serve to agitate said knife-wielder. There's a possibility that your attacker may be momentarily stunned by the surrealism of the situation, but even that will only buy you about a ten-foot running start.

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

{{comic discussion}}