explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2552: The Last Molecule

2021-12-09T07:59:22Z

162.158.91.106:

Unsuccessfully tried to search for a match to the image of the chemical compound. Did find this, which is difficult to use on a cellphone: OSRA: Optical Structure Recognition: https://cactus.nci.nih.gov/cgi-bin/osra/index.cgi

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.172|172.70.211.172]] 07:43, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

I truly don't understand the God part of the current explanation.

[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.121|172.68.110.121]] 07:55, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Chymistry. I love chemistry :-) There is a concept called "Chemical Space" that I learned about in school. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_space may help, in short: Chemical space is a huge but finite space of all possible atom arrangements in molecules. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.106|162.158.91.106]] 07:59, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

2546: Fiction vs Nonfiction

2021-11-25T08:52:07Z

162.158.91.106: Bobba Fett's armor is definitely Beskar, as shown in the Mandalorian season 2. However, there are conflicting official star wars publications that mention his armor being durasteel. The commonly accepted solution is that it is an alloy of both.

{{comic
| number = 2546
| date = November 24, 2021
| title = Fiction vs Nonfiction
| image = fiction_vs_nonfiction.png
| titletext = The real challenge is how to file Boba Fett's biography of Doris Kearns Goodwin.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A NONFICTIONAL BOBA FETT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] is asking [[Ponytail]] and [[White Hat]] to classify different ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' books and movies as fiction or nonfiction. ''Star Wars'' is a multimedia franchise, which includes films, TV series, novels, etc. The classifications get more complicated to determine as the conversation progresses.

Nonfiction (also spelled non-fiction) is any document or media content that intends, in good faith, to present only truth and accuracy regarding information, events, or people. In contrast, fiction offers information, events, or characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary, or else leaves open if and how the work refers to reality.

{| class="wikitable"
!Media name
!Explanation
|-
| ''Star Wars''
| ''Star Wars'' is fiction because it is a movie.{{citation needed}}
|-
| ''The Making of Star Wars''
| This is a video or book about how ''Star Wars'' was made, which would make it nonfiction.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''
| This is a ''Star Wars'' episode or film, and is in-universe, making it fictional.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''
| While the content of this guidebook is entirely fictional, the book is factual. Boba Fett (a fictional character) does in fact [https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/253196 have durasteel]/[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Boba_Fett%27s_armor Beskar] armor (a fictional material), so the book is technically non-fiction.
|-
| ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''
| This could either be a non-fictional book or docuseries similar to the previous entry, or instead an in-universe adventure series or film.
|-
| ''Boba Fett: A Life'' by Doris Kearns Goodwin
| {{w|Doris Kearns Goodwin}} is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of many influential people. Since Goodwin is a non-fiction writer, it could be difficult to determine whether the biography is a fictional account of the character, or a factual account of the fictional history of the character. If the book doesn't establish any new canon, and is instead citing only recorded (fictional) facts from the Star Wars Universe, it could legitimately be considered non-fiction.
|-
| (title text) Boba Fett's biography on Doris Kearns Goodwin
| It is unclear how a fictional character would write a biography on a real life person.
|}

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

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars''?
:Ponytail: Fiction.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''The Making of Star Wars''?
:White Hat: Nonfiction.

:[Closeup of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''?
:Ponytail (off-panel): Fiction.

:[Closeup of Ponytail.]
:Cueball (off-panel): ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''?
:Ponytail: Nonfiction, technically.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''?
:Ponytail: ...Fiction? It depends.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat. Ponytail has turned towards White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett: A Life'', by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin?
:Ponytail: Hm.
:White Hat: Maybe we should just have a Boba Fett section.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:2536: Wirecutter

2021-11-03T12:23:17Z

162.158.91.106:

Note: they don't say they tried out a large number of ''religions'' but a large number of '''belief systems'''. This could include things like "Libertarianism" or "Monarchists". (By CWALLENPOOLE, but not signed in.)
:But the picture of the article title says “The Best Religion” [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.233|108.162.216.233]] 20:31, 1 November 2021 (UTC)

The phrase "highly controversial" should not be used in the explanation. For the record, I am opposed to the things listed in that sentence and my objection is not based in a desire to defend them. Religion itself might be said to be "highly controversial" so the use in the last sentence is both superfluous and biased. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.82.53|172.70.82.53]] 00:34, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

I really want this article to be real. ----Dave
: Me too. I did something similar in my early 20s, and feel such an article honestly done would be a great help to many. In fact, the current description is slightly inaccurate- in that even lifelong practitioners, do usually have a wandering time in early adulthood if not given direction. Such an article would give some direction.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 15:03, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

The major problem with trying multiple religions is that to fully test a religion you need to die - and most people only die once, with the ability to die multiple times being exclusive feature of small number of religions. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 04:49, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
:I ain't mad Hkmaly, but the idea that a religion's primary purpose is to promote a vision of the afterlife is alien to a lot of religions (including my own flavor of Judaism), whose policy on the hereafter is "afterlife, shmafterlife, pass the bagels." Hence also my edits toning down the "religions are about provable belief claims" rhetoric (eyeroll). ----Ben

It doesn't look like the search bar text says "search," but I can't make out what it actually says.--[[User:KrazyKat|KrazyKat]] ([[User talk:KrazyKat|talk]]) 06:33, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
:Maybe it says Seance, since for "seach" the high stoke from the H is missing. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.10|162.158.203.10]] 07:33, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
::or Sermon maybe, that would fit the theme
:Could be Search with large S and smaller caps for the rest? Anyone subscribe to the NYT and care to visit the actual WireCutter site to see the formatting? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.147.195|172.70.147.195]] 12:40, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
:: Don't need to be a subscriber to see the site. It says "Show me the best..." [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 13:26, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

I don't want to sound controversial but tithing would be a refreshing change comparing to current tax systems [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 10:31, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
: Agreed- 10% is much less than the near 50% I'm paying when I figure it all in.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 15:03, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
:: You really want to pay tithes AND taxes? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.63|108.162.249.63]] 18:54, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Last night I was writing a huge thing about religions' almost universal reluctance to be 'tried out' (lestways allowing easy unsubscription at the end)  but on reflection, after a night's sleep, I'm wondering if they just had 70+ 'mystery shoppers' tasked to report back on one assigned 'product' each, their reports aggregated so this didn't matter too much (to the overall report-writers, at least). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.175|172.70.85.175]] 14:31, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Also, the 'religious' wars metaphor extends quite easily to different platforms, yet (say) laptop reviews might compare a set of Windows vs a Mac or two (vs Chromebook, and maybe others) as options. And when it comes to keyboards, the QWERTY-Othodoxy and the Dvorak-Reformists both have bad (and untrue) things to say about each other, when 'enough time' with any given layout should be good enough to prosper in that. (That said, I had a {{w|Casio_FX-702P|programmable calculator}} from the '80s until it gave up the ghost some time post-Millenium, and I really did not get on with its ''alphabetical''-order keyboard all that time, perhaps because I was QWERTYing almost everywhere else.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.175|172.70.85.175]] 14:31, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
:In the case of religions though, the wars are not allegorical, they are literal. Nothing else in human experience really compares to the effects of a religious war (except ''maybe'' our wars to support a certain socioeconomic idealogy). The impact of format wars don't even come close; even if you count Uranium VS Thorium. This comic doesn't really draw a ''comparison'' between reviewing religions & reviewing products; so much as it ''contrasts'' the enormous differences in how we approach the two subjects... <br />
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:41, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

(Also also: QWERTY with UK-layout is my own personal sub-sect, with occasional need to adapt to US-layout (physically printed keycaps and/or what the computer ''thought'' was plugged in) with " and # and ~ characters amongst the main jumbled up ones, and no easy £ access. Which wasn't actually as unnerving as being in the 'wrong' bit of Belfast, but had the same subtle note of discordant undertone to it until I shifted my mental gears or ideally corrected the situation satisfactorarily by configuration.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.175|172.70.85.175]] 14:31, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

There's a book by John S. Dunne, ''The Way of All the Earth'', that advocates essentially trying out religions while keeping one foot in one's own (Dunne describes it as "crossing the abyss and crossing back"). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.158|162.158.74.158]] 17:17, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Surprised no-one has yet mentioned this joke was done in almost exactly the same way on the UK satirical TV show TW3 in 1963 by David Frost (of later Frost/Nixon fame). --- jg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRZWyfERiCc

I was just looking for psychological/psychiatrical papers that say something about the frequency of mental illnesses by religion. Maaaaaaaaaayyybeeeeeeeeee there is a religion that is clearly superior to other religions in that regard, and so government health officials could make a recommendation to change to a specific religion. :-P --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.57|162.158.88.57]] 10:58, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
:But then, illnesses (as well as the symptoms of the same illness) depend on the culture, so my sardonic idea was probably left unresearched...--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.106|162.158.91.106]] 12:23, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2516: Hubble Tension

2021-09-20T11:35:45Z

162.158.91.106:

Having noticed that 85 KPH is slower than 85 MPH, it took me a while to work out that 85 MPH is much slower than 68 km/s (and I was blindly assuming that the universe is at least one megaparsec in radius), after which the title-text joke started making sense. Congratulations on being almost too subtle for me.00:46, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Is the 85 mph number significant in any way? Why does "Dave" who points radar guns in random directions get this number? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.167|108.162.245.167]] 03:41, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
:Well, it's probably over the speed limit in most places. Maybe Dave is a traffic cop? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.129.137|172.68.129.137]] 04:55, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the explanation only explains the things everyone can read on the internet anyway. 85 mph or 85 km/h have the wrong unit, because for the expansion speed we need to look at two points of space, measure how fast they move away from each other. Obviously this should be a number that increases linearly with the distance of the two points (if space is created equally everywhere in the universe). Thus the 85 km/h misses the length. Is the joke here that a random dudes results are reported equally (false equivalence)? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.142|162.158.93.142]] 04:41, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Dave again: "But when they hit 88 mph, we're gonna see some REALLY weird shit!" [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 06:50, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Just a thought: maybe Dave is talking about Fords Galaxies? -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.222|162.158.183.222]] 08:39, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
:I had already added that before I saw your comment. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:37, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Relating (coincidentally) with several of the above comments, I added in a "what Dave could be measuring" paragraph (ultimately: just traffic!), via a diversion where I totally messed up a factor and it sent me down a rabbithole of completely the wrong distance! ((Sanity-check my new figures, please: e.g. 85mph => ~0.038km/s => ~0.0005588(of the 68km/s/Mpc figure) => therefore 558.8pc, etc and onwards)) Anyway, perhaps Dave just is/wants to be a traffic-cop? (If you can find humour in the 'all directions' - presumably ''away from'' - then obviously supercede the 'both directions' bit.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.47|172.70.134.47]] 09:16, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

I believe a radar speed gun pointed at the sky would actually display something like "no reading" when it doesn't receive any radar echo, rather than 85 miles/h. It wouldn't do to fine drivers for speeding when the measurement fails. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.208|162.158.183.208]] 09:39, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
:Dave is measuring Ford Galaxies that are all speeding away from him, either way too fast, or if kph just moderately speed for a normal road between cities. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:37, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
::Unless it ''is'' actual some kind of a Ford MPV Owners' Club 'burn out' session of some kind, I read it as more general "large, relatively unwieldy family-style vehicle passing in conspicuous quantities and not actually holding up the rest of the traffic" rather than truly committing traffic violations (in excess of any other vehicle on the road). To "book it" is to hurry, but (more colloquial understandings allowing) more as in the "not dawdling" sense. (They'd be noteworthy only for narrative punning reasons, really, as one of the comic's hooks. But that's only meta.)
::Though (outwith the most obviously speed-trapped areas) my personal experience is indeed that driving ''at'' the posted speed limit often means being treated as an inconvenient mobile-roadblock, by more than half the rest of the vehicles that come up behind and tailgate or pass, I would still consider hugging-the-limit (whatever it is) as going fast and not actually slow. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.11|162.158.159.11]] 12:49, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

I think we've missed an important joke in the last panel. Dave says the galaxies are moving at 85mph/kph and "booking it". However, KM/S/Mpc is going to be on the scale of several thousand times faster than 85mph/kph. Dave's reference to "booking it" is actually moving quite slow. [[User:Pconwell|Pconwell]] ([[User talk:Pconwell|talk]]) 12:57, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
:Dave is used to measuring car speeds, and 85 MPH is very fast (significantly over the speed limit) in most places. The joke is that he's totally out of context and measuring the wrong thing, but it happens to be a number in the same ballpark as the Hubble Constant. Of course, this is just a coincidence, since the units are different. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:20, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

How is the expansion rate different from an acceleration? The (correct) units surprise me. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.87|172.70.130.87]] 14:15, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
:In acceleration, the velocity increases over time. In expansion, the velocity increases over distance. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:20, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

With all this talk about units, I would like to mention that Google ever-so-helpfully says that 1 km/s/Mpc is "3.24077929e-20 hertz". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.195|172.70.126.195]] 16:22, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
: Google also says 68 km/s/Mpc is 2.20372992 × 10-18 hertz, which is perhaps unsurprisingly about one over the age of the universe, also known as the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble%27s_law#Hubble_time "Hubble time"]. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.106|162.158.91.106]] 11:35, 20 September 2021 (UTC)

I see two things to comment on about Dave's response. First, if everything measured always shows the same velocity, then the "per megaparsec" part of the result becomes largely irrelevant, as Dave's results are the same regardless of this value. This means that Dave's results are "it doesn't matter how far away, it is all 85 MPH!" If taken seriously, this would be a challenge to the standard model of an expanding universe much bigger than the actually existing controversy.

Second, I believe the joke here is that Dave's radar gun is a police model that consistently reports that anything being measured is speeding. A recurring accusation, and occasional actual problem that requires police radar units to be tested regularly to avoid, is that radar guns that report speeds higher than they actually are are used to issue tickets unfairly. When used as an accusation, or in fictional media, it sometimes comes with an accusation that this happens with the full knowledge of a cop who cares more about issuing tickets than doing his job properly. In this case it appears that either every Ford Galaxy, all traffic, or even possibly the sky itself, is consistently "speeding" in this fashion.[[User:Geek Prophet|Geek Prophet]] ([[User talk:Geek Prophet|talk]]) 20:34, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Dave's radar could have been pointed at a Ford Galaxie: https://mystarcollectorcar.com/the-out-of-this-world-ford-galaxie1959-to-1974/ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.191|172.70.178.191]] 09:09, 17 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2517: Rover Replies

2021-09-18T20:46:12Z

162.158.91.106:

Hi! I have added most of the description, but this is my first major edit so could someone please review it? Thank you! [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 16:19, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

I checked out the linked account. First reply to it that I saw was dramatically lamenting about the rover account being a mockery of "proper scientific communication", second reply I saw was sneering at the rover and claiming SpaceX would build Mars bases or something while NASA was "playing with rocks". I don't want to read any more comments. All I can say is that my experience with the rover replies was not the wholesome experience that was promised. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.87|172.68.133.87]] 17:09, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

I think the title text may also be assuming that the rover is using its phone to post the tweets. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]])

I'm torn between the anti-conspiracy response being basically "We don't want you trollers here, let us have our happy shiny place" at an intruder or "This is considered holy ground, and we shall all be back trolling elsewhere shortly..." directed at a shitposting-padawan who hasn't learnt the subtleties of (mis)behaviour from the more experienced ones. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.106|162.158.91.106]] 20:46, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

2517: Rover Replies

2021-09-18T06:15:00Z

162.158.91.106: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2517
| date = September 17, 2021
| title = Rover Replies
| image = rover_replies.png
| titletext = I'm so glad NASA let you take your phone to Mars!
}}

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

There is a [https://twitter.com/nasapersevere?lang=en twitter account for NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover], which recently collected samples. The twitter account tweets in the first person like in the comic. Likely a human on earth is playing the role of the rover. However, it is also possible that some form of chatbot was sent with the rover to mars.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A post of a rocky landscape and a close-up of a rock is next to a profile picture of the camera of a Mars rover.]
:Just collected a sample!
:[Comments below:]
:These pictures are great!
:I'm so proud of you
:Wow you know a lot about rocks
:Go go go go go!
:More propaganda from NASA's 5G vaccine microchip factory
::Quiet, we're not doing that here
:Hello from Missouri (Earth)!
:Did you find any skeletons yet
:I hope your helicopter comes back!
:[Caption below frame:]
:The most unexpectedly wholesome place on the internet is the replies to NASA's rovers on social media.
{{comic discussion}}