explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2854: Date Line

2023-11-14T17:08:48Z

162.158.90.218: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2854
| date = November 13, 2023
| title = Date Line
| image = date_line_2x.png
| imagesize = 443x522px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They estimate the rocket should be free by approximately ... uh ... well, in about two hours.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SNAGGED LINE THAT COULDN'T FINISH THE EDITING JOB - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|International Date Line}} is a nominal line on Earth near the {{w|180th meridian|antimeridian (180°)}} that marks where travel across will require your clock to be adjusted by a full day (forwards or backwards), give or take the 'normal' time of day adjustment. It is one of three situations where the date might change for you, the usual one being when (in your time zone) you pass from the hour of 11 pm across beyond midnight, but also may occur if you travel directly between time zones at such a time (usually that being a window of just one specific hour, at night) where they are each either side of midnight.

Most people don't travel at or around midnight, and just being awake as the clocks tick over is not often such a remarkable thing other than to perhaps mark reaching a special date (significant birthdays, perhaps, or {{w|New Year's Day}}), but travel across or between areas of east and west Pacific (or [[503: Terminology|vice-versa]]) is not so uncommon yet comes with it the special need to effectively adjust your watch by a full day (plus or minus any other time to be adjusted).

The International Date Line is not a physical string,{{Citation needed}} and therefore could not be caught by a rocket. It should also be noted that the International Date Line is not a straight line, but extends either side of the antimeridian to avoid confusion on internal land journeys (like Russia, {{w|Chukotka Autonomous Okrug|a portion of which}} overlaps the antimeridian), similarly cutting off 'nearby' outlying island territories or adding needless complexity {{w|Tokelau#Timezone|when dealing with chosen trading partners}}. (There may also be the niche tourism-led motivation of being able to claim 'first' in experiencing the new date.)

Based off what is shown in the comic, the rocket could have been launched by the Russians (e.g. from the {{w|Vostochny Cosmodrome}}), but the caption implies that the American space agency is the one expecting to resolve the issue (whoever's original error it was), and all orbital flights are pretty much guaranteed to cross (over) the dateline at some point in the initial track. Of course, the odds of a rocket getting stuck on such a line (if it existed) would be incredibly slim. Additionally, striking such an object wouldn’t trap the rocket. Instead, the rocket would undergo what many [[:Category:Kerbal Space Program|KSP]] users have encountered, a Rapid Unplanned Disassembly.

The caption suggests that this event has messed up the normal regulation of time, and is somehow unsafe to 'use' as a result, so people should pause their usage of it by stopping their clocks and calendars. Also, because time is not behaving normally, ‘they’ can’t give a time for when it will be fixed. If, say, it was 8:00 when the rocket got snagged, then it is 8:00 until they fix it. This means that no matter how much time should have passed, until they fix it, it will remain 8:00. in reality, even if a physical dateline did exist, and if disturbing it were to mess up our ability to measure time, synchronize clocks, and so on, time itself would continue to flow regardless, and pausing one's clock would have no effect on this. Indeed, if time stopped operating, it's not entirely clear what an amount of time that 'should have passed' would even mean, or if we would be able to perceive that anything was wrong.

The title text states that the estimated time the rocket should be free is "about two hours,” but the speaker/writer hesitates
when about to give a estimated time stamp, as normal time cannot work if the IDL is not working

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

:[The earth, with the date line as a physical band being pulled off of the surface by a rocket, cutting into the land on the other side.]
:Caption: Timekeeping announcement: a rocket accidentally became snagged on the international date line during launch. Please pause all clocks and calendars until NASA is able to free it and safely resume the normal flow of time.

==Trivia==
* '''This trivia section was created by a BOT'''
* The [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/date_line.png standard size] image was uploaded with a resolution/size larger than the supposed 2x version.
* This may have been an error.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Calendar]]

2793: Garden Path Sentence

2023-10-07T07:14:58Z

162.158.90.218: /* Transcript */ huh, none

{{comic
| number = 2793
| date = June 23, 2023
| title = Garden Path Sentence
| image = garden_path_sentence.png
| imagesize = 273x273px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Arboretum Owner Denied Standing in Garden Path Suit on Grounds Grounds Appealing Appealing
}}
==Explanation==
A {{w|garden-path sentence}} is one in which the first or most obvious attempt at parsing the beginning of a sentence leads to the wrong meaning, causing confusion when the sentence is completed. A classic example of a garden path sentence is "The old man the boat.", leading to an initial incorrect parsing of "the old man" as a noun phrase, and therefore to assuming there is no verb before the noun "the boat". The actual correct way to parse this sentence is to treat "the old" as a noun and "man" as a verb, meaning "to crew", so the sentence means "The old people operate the boat."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:1608: Hoverboard

2015-11-25T11:54:38Z

162.158.90.218:

Can't be bothered working out how to edit the page, but the explanation contains the phrase "People holding anchor lines to a Star Destroyer" - they're holding anchor lines to a CR90 Corvette, specifically the Tantive IV, commonly referred to as the "Rebel Blockade Runner", which in turn is being *attacked by* a Star Destroyer. I'll get my coat.

Well, this will be the next incomplete explanation for a while. -[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.165|162.158.90.165]] 21:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Yes, one thing to note is how to get the hell out of the cave near the volcano [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.159|108.162.249.159]] 22:38, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The image is made up of small images with addresses of the form http://xkcd.com/1608/XXXX:-YYYY+s.png (although not every coordinate inside the bounds has an image associated). A script could probably dump out all the images and paste them together. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.6|108.162.216.6]] 22:46, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

West -- Under Lava Pools -- Elon Musk's Secret Volcano Base (not as enjoyable as you might expect).

The Starship out east contains, among other things, Darth Vader, apparently explaining Steven Universe to a subordinate. (Steven and the Crystal Gems can be found a the west end of the ship, near an ice cream cooler.) The same ship contains an elaborate homage to the original Prince of Persia. {{unsigned ip|162.158.56.5}}

There, have at thee an image! [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 22:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

There are 168 coins spread throughout the map according to the source code [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 23:03, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

When using a device, instead of saying "use arrow keys to move", it says "tilt to move, tap to jump". It's also a lot harder to control. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.159}}

It's actually 169 coins (t.length). --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 23:22, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

I got 153 coins!! :D There's two starships, one's a star destroyer with an expansive maze dropping regular torpedoes on the other. May be noteworthy that there are various references to Star Wars and Steven Universe throughout. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 23:27, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The second starship is the TantiveIV, Leia's ship at the beginning of episode 4. Note directly below the Tantive, the terrain seems to be sand dunes. Also there are two more space ships by the volcano; an X-wing at a gas station and an Apollo Command Module. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.24}}

https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.js - Looks like there's an easier to read version of the code there. Maybe that'll help someone with extracting all the images. {{unsigned ip|

I've got all the images downloaded. Zipping/uploading now. Should I post a link here when complete or what's the best way to share these? I'm also working on setting up a zoomable map. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 23:57, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The collision detection is glitchy. I keep landing/bumping against platforms I'm far away from. Is getting stuck against walls normal? --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.234|199.27.130.234]] 00:01, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Tiles are located here in a zip: https://up1.ca/#Gi51KPFyPRELe0T1D6q9Mw All I did was iterate over http://xkcd.com/1608/X:-Y+s.png from X=[916...1116] and Y=[916...1116]. I'm working on putting a zoomable map together. If anyone has interest in helping we could hop on IRC? [[User:Jcox|Jcox]] ([[User talk:Jcox|talk]]) 00:15, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I've written a zsh script to iterate over all possible tiles (does anyone know the height limits? the source only gives the left and right limits) and glue them together into one giant file. I'll upload the results as soon as it's finished. [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 00:17, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't think it's limited vertically at all. I found a zoomable map on the reddit topic http://codepen.io/KyleDavidE/full/605dc87b614ff6b2bd716f4c6f640203/ (by kyledavide) [[User:Miraries|Miraries]] ([[User talk:Miraries|talk]]) 00:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)Miraries

Here's a zoomed out map of all the game area: https://i.imgur.com/rNU9ZgN.png. From ''luke_in_the_sky'' at Reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc1245]. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 00:35, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Alright, the full png of the entire map is almost finished, I should have used white tiles as blank tiles but I guess I can fix that up in gimp, and I'm not sure how to account for the 1 pixel overlap with just imagemagick convert. The last step is to merge allthe layer images into one giant image, wish my laptop the best of luck! [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 01:00, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Someone beat you to it, but keep on it: that one doesn't have right limit tiles. https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc0p8x --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 01:19, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps we can change the screenshot at the top to this? It's a quickly hacked overview of the entire map: http://imgur.com/Mz9arHz [[Special:Contributions/199.27.129.167|199.27.129.167]] 01:27, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
: I think it might make more sense to just add it as another image, mediawiki supports this after all. The syntax should be: <nowiki>[[File:filename.png|thumb|Subtitle|alt=alt]]</nowiki> [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 01:34, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

[http://files.mckaysalisbury.com/xkcd/hoverboard.html] This one loads all of the images quickly (From the xkcd site), and uses browser zooming. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 01:29, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

:The impassible backgrounds are RGB(0,0,0), and the passable ones are RGB(1,1,1). <code>#explore > :first-child {filter:brightness(30);-webkit-filter:brightness(30);-moz-filter:brightness(30);-o-filter:brightness(30);-ms-filter:brightness(30);}</code> ... See https://twitter.com/BadPhysics/status/669354631869304832 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 03:40, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Here are all the secret passages marked I could find: http://imgur.com/a/fKE1Q --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.220|162.158.91.220]] 00:50, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I wrote a tampermonkey script that shows you your coordinates and lets you teleport; will make coordinate sharing a lot easier. You do need tampermonkey installed for this to work. [https://github.com/minerguy31/xkcd-hoverboard-mod/raw/master/XKCD%20Hoverboard%20Mod.user.js Click to install] [[User:Minerguy31|Minerguy31]] ([[User talk:Minerguy31|talk]]) 04:17, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I got 159 coins without the map. If you guys are still wondering how to escape the volcano, move to the right for as long as you think you can, then start spamming the up key while switching between holding the left and right keys. It worked for me on my first try.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.119|162.158.252.119]] 07:06, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Didn't take down the coordinates, but the layout to the first level of the original Prince of Persia is in there, including the guard standing by with his scimitar! I found it in the ship atop the pyramid east of the play area. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.245|108.162.218.245]] 06:24, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Just thought this was interesting, when you "complete" the game by dropping coins, the following line of javascript is run, which sends your result to the server (L is number of coins, z is seconds used):
(new Image).src = "//xkcd.com/events.gif?coins=" + L + "&seconds=" + z;
Don't be tricked by the .gif extension, it doesn't show an image when opened, and the server probably handles this request by logging it to somewhere.

Is there a way that we can merge the "game" part of this comic with the map of [[1110: Click and Drag]]? Allowing us to explore that one in a similar way? [[User:Bon|Bon]] ([[User talk:Bon|talk]]) 11:03, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Well I managed to find (nearly) everything, except the floating rock island, and 162 coins without the map, but even with looking at several maps, I didn't pass any graveyard nor found the way to the grey ocean, which I assume is underneath the "continent". Does anyone know where the entrance is? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.218|162.158.90.218]] 11:54, 25 November 2015 (UTC)