explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2831: xkcd Phone Flip

2023-09-20T23:57:06Z

172.68.34.38:

this is my first time editing, did i do well? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.202|172.70.134.202]] 21:39, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:Decent enough, assuming you were the one giving the reference to the Z-series. But it'll be expanded, improved and reformatted a lot, I predict. I put in my own (intended) first-edit, but clearly there's you (and possibly A.N. Other) already adding their own thoughts. (Which I am counting on, rather than trying to write it all in one go all by myself... I'll wait for it to settle down and ''then'' see if there are various tweaks I'll want try on whatever form it becomes.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.7|172.70.90.7]] 21:50, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:The other person was me, but I think there's someone else as well reformatting and rewriting things.--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.38|172.68.34.38]] 23:57, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

So, what is the meaning of "flip" here? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 22:07, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:It's a reference to the Samsung Galaxy line of folding smartphones, which is marketed as 'Galaxy Z Flip' phones. While there had been double-screened smartphones in the past, Samsung was able to figure out some way to have the actual screen flex and fold in the middle so that when it's closed the primary screen is protected, but when opened up the user sees a single screen without a hinge in the middle. The current model (the 'Z Flip 5') is the sixth iteration of the device since it was originally introduced in China in 2019. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 22:36, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

:I think it's just part of the whole marketroid feeling these are supposed to have. It's part of the name and the [alleged] "marketing" department, as is typical, came up with something extremely dumb and useless. See: [https://serverfault.com/questions/117799/which-version-of-sunos SunOS vs Solaris] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.197.132|162.158.197.132]] 22:32, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Anybody else think the main sequence battery is a fusion cell that is also the chemical flashlight and full spectrum backlight that necessitates the SPF 15 coating? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.83|172.71.151.83]] 22:36, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:I'm thinking it's a reference to the Cyalume lightsticks which need to be bent, which shatters a small glass vial inside and releases a hydrogen peroxide solution into a second solution of an oxalate ester and electron-rich dye contained within the outer plastic shell. The resulting chemiluminescent reaction creates visible light. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 22:42, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2823: Fossil

2023-09-06T04:21:26Z

172.68.34.38: Booping may generally be affectionate, but the good\badness of being booped is dependent on the boopee's interpretation.

Boop! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 07:53, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Came here to find out what in the heck ‘boop’ has to do with anything, learned absolutely nothing (autospell changed it to “book” so I’m not alone). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.76|172.71.154.76]] 08:17, 2 September 2023 (UTC)
:There's a link there now (not sure when anyone added it, might have been after your query) which satisfies me somewhat. Seems to be a playful tagging/"you're it!" sort of thing, though, like "punch buggy <yellow/etc>", it's not something I really knew of though probably appears to be in Randall's childhood/whatever cultural background and that's good enough for me. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.152|172.69.79.152]] 09:53, 2 September 2023 (UTC)
::I agree that "boop" needs an extra explanation for non native speakers of English. The link is useful (thanks to whoever added it) but the Wiktionary definition alone is too terse to get the pun.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 11:54, 2 September 2023 (UTC)
:::Wait wait wait.... It's a <i>pun</i>? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.147.191|172.70.147.191]] 00:35, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
:I added the wikitionary link and I was not entirely happy with it, but it's a starting point. Please do improve it. To me, "boop" is a friendly pat on the nose that one might do to, especially, a dog's nose; see https://www.hillspet.com/dog-care/play-exercise/do-dogs-like-dog-boops?. Definitely more affectionate and less aggressive than the "punch buggy" action (which can get out of hand), or even tagging. I was surprised that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boop did not have a mention of this, not even on the talk page; yeah, it's not the most encyclopedic of topics, but discussing social behaviors is beyond the bounds of wiktionary, and Urban Dictionary isn't a great place to cite to (even if it were helpful). [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 12:26, 2 September 2023 (UTC)
::To the non-native English speakers, it's basically just playfully, gently touching a dog or other animal/pet on the nose while saying "Boop". Like "I got your nose." Not really petting/stroking; just a form of play or affection. I'm not surprised there isn't a lot documented on this as it's not really a "thing". Kind of like Randall's use of pew pew pew noises while pretending to fire a ray gun. You understand what he's doing and may have done it yourself, but it's not the kind of thing you expect to find on Wikipedia. :) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.125|172.71.254.125]] 15:40, 2 September 2023 (UTC) Pat
:"Boop" can also be a great training tool: Dogs love to poke us with their noses, so a lot of them can readily be trained to come put their nose in your hand when you hold it palm out & say "Boop"! Adorable & handy. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.57|172.68.35.57]] 03:03, 4 September 2023 (UTC)
::Huh, and here I was thinking that it must be something people did to annoy animals, cats in particular don't enjoy being poked in the nostril. I am somewhat mystified by this entire thing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.226.104|108.162.226.104]] 22:08, 4 September 2023 (UTC)
:::Oh doing it ''to'' a cat is ''definitely'' a surefire way to tick them off; though I've known quite a few male cats so affectionate as to boop their face against any hand extended near enough to them. When ''they'' boop ''us'', it's a sign of affection, when ''we'' boop ''them'', the response depends greatly on the boopee's demeanor & mood. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.38|172.68.34.38]] 04:21, 6 September 2023 (UTC)
: Try searching "boop", "nose boop" or similar on TikTok and you'll know what it's about. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 15:22, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

The furries gonna have a field day with this one :] [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.178|172.71.154.178]] 22:07, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

I was actually curios as whether any eye had ever seen a 400 million old fossil. Had to look it up to see when the first eyes evolved. But seems it was around [https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/eyes-how/ 550 million years ago], so some eyes may have seen the animal that turned in to the fossil Cueball now sees. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:47, 3 September 2023 (UTC)
: "... see an animal that no one has laid eyes on..." strongly implies that the "no one" means "no human being". Which doesn't really make sense in this context. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 02:15, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

I thought that the rock with the trilobite looks like a remote control button that makes a "beep" or "boop" when you push it. Or alternatively an infant's toy that has a button that makes a sound like a clown's nose. So Cueball is pressing the trilobite and vocalizing the "boop" sound that would be expected from these objects. Although "booping" a child's nose is a thing ... although it seems very rude ... I did not associate the fossil rock with the trilobite with noses, but I did associate it with remote control devices that have a flat pad with a button (or many buttons) on it. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 13:26, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

Here is an example picture of a trilobite which has two large eyes and a centre area which might be booped. The fossil is 3D meaning it is not flat.
[[File:trilobite.jpg|300px]]
In contrast a fossil fish will often be flat, almost 2D, and show only one eye. Many people in North America do not like to see the head of a fish and so the head of a fossil fish can also seem odd.
[[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]]) 22:07, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

Can someone provide a pronunciation guide, preferrably a phonetic representation, of the word fossiliferous ? Anyone except native speakers of English who are also paleonthology enthousiasts will likely be unsure whether to pronounce it as "fossi-LI-ferous" or "fossili-FE-rous". [[User:Blagae|Blagae]] ([[User talk:Blagae|talk]]) 12:15, 4 September 2023 (UTC)
:I'm not a palæontologist, who might know differently, but as an English speaker (one of a multitude of potentially different Englishes) I'd say fossi-LI-ferous, as I would carbo-NI-ferous or splen-DI-ferous, it seeming to be the general pattern for {{wiktionary|Rhymes:English/ɪfəɹəs|that type of word}}.
:But emphasis would so easily change, at need. "That limestone is not only CARBONiferous, but particularly FOSSILiferous, too!" would be a rhetoric stress. (Though the number of times people mis-stress things... It's not "The cousins came to the party. Not only Jack JONES, but Pete JONES too...", which sounds weird to me when one should stress JACK and PETE, both of them 'merely' Joneses. So often do I hear this sort of thing done wrongly, it makes me wonder if actually I'm wrong about it all!)
:Does that help? Noting that wiktionary gives /splɛnˈdɪfəɹəs/, with the ˈ in it where I'd generally agree, but that isn't included as an -iferous rhymer and certainly fossiliferous doesn't have a full IPA, with or without the ˈ point. And someone with a full classicist education might well have other ideas anyway (also yer average Leftpondian, especially Randall, but differently so again). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.156|172.71.178.156]] 16:43, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2799: Frankenstein Claim Permutations

2023-07-08T08:12:39Z

172.68.34.38:

Expanding on [[1589: Frankenstein]], clearly. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:17, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

The last permutation is a garden path sentence that starts off talking about the TV show ''Doctor Who''. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.175|162.158.62.175]] 03:21, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

:The title text seems straightforward enough to me, anyways: "No, the doctor (who creates Mary Shelley (in Frankenstein's novel)) doesn't have a name." Not much of a garden path sentence at all. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.187|172.70.34.187]] 03:43, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

The best part of this comic is that every last one of these claims is wrong. In the original novel, Victor Frankenstein is an obsessive undergrad, notably with no medical degree. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.35|172.71.151.35]] 03:54, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

You could argue rather that Walton and Saville were the names of the authors. The monster Shelly created was named Victor von Frankenstein. The tragic hero was unnamed. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 04:02, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

Pretty sure that Randall saw the image of the misprinted book where the title is Mary Shelly, and the author is Frankenstein. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.35|172.71.151.35]] 06:54, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

No, Frankenstein is the name of the novel created by the monster (according to her sleepless readers) Mary Shelley. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.38|172.68.34.38]] 08:12, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

2792: Summer Solstice

2023-06-22T14:54:07Z

172.68.34.38: /* Removed redundant word, apparent artifact of a previous edit */

{{comic
| number = 2792
| date = June 21, 2023
| title = Summer Solstice
| image = summer_solstice_2x.png
| imagesize = 238x373px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Then I'll start work on my lunar engines to line the Moon up with the ecliptic so we can have a solar eclipse every month (with a little wobble so they're not always on the equator.)
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE ENJOYER- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT look directly at the sun, unless there's a total solar eclipse.}}
[[Cueball]] celebrates the northern {{w|summer solstice}}, which occurred on the day of this comic's release. [[Megan]] then comments on this by saying that there will be six days to the latest sunset of the year, to which [[White Hat]] exclaims ''Wait, what?'' - confused as to why these are not the same occasion.

The summer solstice occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. Although the summer solstice is the longest day of the year for that hemisphere, the dates of earliest sunrise and latest sunset vary by a few days. This is because Earth orbits the Sun in an ellipse, and its orbital speed varies slightly during the year, and due to the tilt of the Earth's axis, the sun has a different transit time across the sky depending on the season and latitude. The difference between the transit time of the sun and the mean solar time displayed on the clock can be as much as seven minutes. During the solstice this discrepancy is greatest. White Hat, a laymen, assumed that the latest sunset would occur on the summer solstice.

Similarly the earliest sunrise already happened before the solstice. This is given since the day (time the sun is over the Horizon) was longest on the solstice, but the Sun will set later for the next six days, meaning the sun will rise even later than previous days during those six days to make the days get shorter after the solstice.

The caption says that [[Randall]] is working on a giant machine capable of adjusting the Earth's orbit. And once finished the first thing he will use it for is to fix this discrepancy so the longest day will also have the latest sunset (and thus earliest sunrise). This could be accomplished by either making Earth's orbit circular, or making the solstices match the days of closest or furthest distance from the Sun (perihelion or aphelion). This "fix" would avoid people like White Hat getting confused.

The title text discusses his next plans for increasing the number of {{w|solar eclipses}} from 0-1 each year to one each month. Solar eclipses occur when the {{w|Moon}} is directly between the Sun and Earth. Because of the tilt of the Moon's orbit to the {{w|ecliptic}} (the plane of the Earth's orbit, as ''sort of'' [[1878: Earth Orbital Diagram|demonstrated here]]), most of the times when the moon is between the Sun and the Earth they're not in direct alignment, so the Moon's shadow misses the Earth and we don't get an eclipse. Randall's engine will shift the Moon's orbit so it's not tilted so far and we get eclipses every month. But if it were exactly aligned with the ecliptic, eclipses would always be near the equator, so he'll leave a little wobbling so other areas will get eclipses too. Randall thinks solar eclipses are extremely cool, as noted in [[1880: Eclipse Review]], and would prefer that some of the eclipses will be visible from where he lives. He just had one six years ago ([[:Category:Total Solar Eclipse 2017|2017]]), and will soon get another ([[1928: Seven Years|2024]]), but after that there will not be any eclipses over mainland USA for many years.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Megan and White Hat are standing. Cueball and Megan have their arms raised.]
:Cueball: Happy summer solstice!
:Megan: Only six days until the latest sunset of the year!
:White Hat: ...Wait, what?

:[Caption below the panel:]
:When I finally finish building my giant engine capable of shifting the Earth's orbit, this is the first thing I'm fixing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Time]]

2791: Bookshelf Sorting

2023-06-20T15:26:21Z

172.68.34.38: Added reference to Incipits

{{comic
| number = 2791
| date = June 19, 2023
| title = Bookshelf Sorting
| image = bookshelf_sorting_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x255px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Of course, I sort all my bookshelves the normal way, alphabetically (by first sentence).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOOKSHELF SORTED THE NORMAL WAY. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Some people like to sort their bookshelves by the visible color of the book's spine, for example by hue to create a rainbow effect. This is pleasing to the eye, but may be unhelpful when [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxmPHLU9oA trying to find a specific book]. For literary enthusiasts (AKA "Book People"), this arrangement could be seen as annoying, as they would like to be able to find specific books when the color is unknown, and would more likely sort them by the author's last name, or by a more rigorous organizational scheme such as the {{w|Dewey Decimal Classification}}.

Unfortunately, [[Randall]] has found a ''much'' worse method of book organization - instead of sorting the books as discrete units, he has sorted their individual ''pages'' by number. This would require physically dissecting each book into its individual pages, and then organizing them into groups by page number. This organization method has a number of significant drawbacks. Firstly, it would be rather time-consuming to take each book apart. Taking books apart also effectively destroys the book, losing all of the physical benefits of having pages bound as a single unit, such as portability and durability. Without their protective cover, the pages would be more susceptible to damage, loss, or disruptions such as drafts. It would also reduce the resale value of the book.

Adding a book to the shelf would also be extremely inefficient, as Randall would have to locate the correct group to insert each page into. Since books can be hundreds of pages long, there could easily be hundreds of page groups on the shelf. The reverse operation - taking a book from the shelf - would also now be significantly more difficult since one would have to locate all of the book's individual pages separately. If the pages have no identifying marker to indicate which book they originally came from, it may even be impossible, especially since no secondary sorting has been specified, so, for example page 1 of a book could appear early in the group of page 1s, while page 2 of the same book could appear towards the end of the group of page 2s. In practice, though, Randall appears to have sorted secondarily by length of book, from longest to shortest (which accounts for the repeating patterns seen in the size of the pages).

It should be noted that the term "page" has an ambiguous meaning when referring to physical pages - "page" can refer both to the numbered page, and to the sheet of paper that the page is printed on. For books, this distinction is important as most books print on both sides of the paper - thus, a single sheet actually comprises ''two'' numbered pages. Books may also contain multiple different page numbering systems - which would make it unclear how to sort, say, roman numerals vs arabic ones - and often contain unnumbered pages.

Randall's system appears to work by absolute physical page count, including the front and rear covers as 'pages', so that the front cover is the first 'page'. All the front covers are on the left side, then the first internal leaf of each book (counted as the second page), then the second internal leaf, etcetera. This produces repeating patterns of taller and shorter loose-leaf pages, echoing the proportions of each cover, having gathered together a page of the same position in each different book. The back covers are mixed in to whatever group falls after the last internal leaf from the same book, and so are intermixed with pages from longer books. At the end, there are only the last pages of the longest book left, now all uniform in size, and its rear cover.

The caption claims that this is a way of sorting that "book people" hate, even more so than sorting by color of the cover/spine. It is not clear if the spine part is thrown away or just not visible, maybe being sorted towards the wall. This would make it a sort of antithesis to color sorting - not only is it not sorted by color, but the spines that usually define the color sorting are either to the back or fully removed. It might be the intent to have "the absolute opposite" of color sorting and follow this idea ad absurdum.

In the title text Randall begins by saying that he of course sorts his bookshelf alphabetically, like book people, but then he states that he sorts books by first '''sentence''' instead of the book author or book title. This may be a reference to sorting books by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incipit Incipit], which was common before books had titles. It is somewhat impractical for many purposes of finding, as people then cannot find a book they haven't read (and remembered the first sentence). But at least it doesn't destroy the books and can also be accomplished by a quick glance inside each book (which bibliophiles should certainly enjoy, if it does not distract them from the task at hand) rather than having to pay much attention to exactly how you shuffle and collate many loose-leafs. You can use something like a simple {{w|merge sort}} to arrange the shelf from scratch, or do a {{w|binary search algorithm|binary search}} to find where to insert individual new books.

In addition, some books have very well-known first lines, such as "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" ({{w|A Tale of Two Cities}}) and "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" ({{w|Pride and Prejudice}}). So, sorting by first line would not only be practical in some cases, but it could used to demonstrate a level of literary sophistication on the part of the bookshelf owner.

==Transcript==
:[A bookshelf hanging on a wall is shown. It is covered almost from left to right but not with ordinary books. To the left there are 11 covers next to each other without any paper between them. They have different heights and shades of gray. After the last of these there follows many leaves of paper of differing heights similarly to that of the covers. The top of the papers thus form a wave shape with more than twenty peaks before they reach another cover. After that there follows similar patterns with paper in different height and then a cover in between more papers. But there is a much shorter distance between the first and second cover than before the first cover, after the initial 11 covers. The next two covers are close to the first, then there is a longer stretch of paper to the fourth, much less to the fifth, and then the next three covers comes very close. There is again quite long distance to the ninth and tenth cover, and here the number of different heights for the paper are clearly less than the previous paper stretches. Finally before the last and 11th cover all the paper, not much of it though, are of the same height, and just a bit lower than the final cover. The 11 covers at the start matches the 11 covers later and they comes in reverse order throughout the paper stretches as they are sorted to begin with, so the first and last cover matches, as does number 2 and the second last etc. There is a caption beneath the panel:]
:Book people hate seeing books sorted by colors, but it turns out they get ''way'' more angry if you sort the pages by number.

{{comic discussion}}