explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2625: Field Topology

2024-04-24T00:38:15Z

172.68.34.58: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2625
| date = May 27, 2022
| title = Field Topology
| image = field_topology.png
| titletext = The combination croquet set/10-lane pool can also be used for some varieties of foosball and Skee-Ball.
}}

==Explanation==
Field Topology is [https://encyclopediaofmath.org/wiki/Topological_field a subject in mathematics], but in this comic, Randall is instead examining the topology of playing fields used for various sports. The comic strip depicts a situation in which the common practice of multi-use athletic facilities has been organized by the "topology department" and constructed to be shared by all sports whose normal playing fields are {{w|topology|topologically equivalent}}. One key assumption in topology is that you can ignore the specificities of shape, size and material of the objects concerned. This presents an amusing contrast as the "equivalent" topology department playing fields are actually not very appropriate for the activities listed in the comic, as the standard positioning, size and shape of hoops, nets and bars and the material of the field itself are not equivalent to the real playing fields used for those activities.

(Not to be confused with {{w|Field (mathematics)|mathematical fields}}, or the {{w|Fields Medal}} prize -- although the concept is likely a further pun in the comic, as math (including topology), and most things once can imagine really, are mostly performed ("played") within mathematical fields.)

In topology, shapes which can be smoothly deformed into one another without adding or removing holes are considered equivalent. A topological hole is an area of the nominal space (or area, or other manifold) through which nothing restricted to this topology can pass. A loop is a path across the allowable territory of a topology (or a viable circuit to make through the world it describes) that end up where it started. For example, when describing the space taken up by a solid object such as a coffee mug, the handle forms a loop with a hole through it. If a loop cannot be tightened (ultimately adjusted to take a shorter path) down to a single point, then it must be wrapped around at least one "topological hole", and you have separately unique paths (or points, i.e., on different disconnected topologies) where you cannot adjust one loop to take the route of another without severing a looped path and reconnecting it.

When describing a negative space, such as the space around an archway, the 'hole' would be the material of the arch itself. This is because a loop formed by a ring around any part of the arch material can only be shortened to a finite length, not to a point; the 'hole' is the arch-shaped obstruction which forces the existence of these loops. A {{w|basketball}} hoop connected to the ground forms a similar obstruction with a loop through it, so the space around the hoop contains an equivalent hole. In this comic the topology department has analysed the spaces where various sports are played by the number of such obstructions in the playing area. Each space depicted in the comic is then signposted with the sports which are played on a field with that number of holes.

{{w|Baseball}}, {{w|tetherball}} and {{w|soccer}} are played on fields which are continuous in three-dimensional space. This means it is possible to traverse any path around or over any of the structures defining the field, while there are no obstructions which can be traversed through in a loop around them. The goals on a soccer field presumably do not create holes because the goalposts and crossbar are connected to the field by the net; Randall apparently considers these to form continuous surfaces which do not allow loops through them, or possibly he has mixed up football and soccer in this comic.

{{w|Volleyball}} and {{w|badminton}} are played using a net suspended from poles, and the {{w|high jump}} has a bar that contestants jump over. The structure formed by the net or bar and the supporting poles can be considered to be a "hole" through the playing field, as a path over and under the net/bar forming a loop cannot be contracted to a single point, so their playing fields in the comic all have one "hole".

[[File:Double torus illustration.png|thumb|150px|A genus two surface]]

A basketball court has two hoops. {{w|Parallel bars}} can be thought of as two archways. Both have opportunities to pass through either (or both) structures, and so the material of the structures define a hole in the topological abstract of the playing 'space'. Since we are told that these sports fields belong to the Topology Department - and are not necessarily generalized to all sports fields - we might assume that their "football" field is either for {{w|Rugby_sevens|rugby}} or for American football using H-shaped {{w|Goal (sports)|uprights}}.

An {{w|Olympic-sized_swimming_pool|Olympic-sized swimming pool}} has ten lanes, and thus nine lane dividers which are fastened to the walls of the pool at each end, creating topological holes through the play area. Each hoop in {{w|croquet}} is similarly a hole through the space; while most versions of croquet use six hoops, nine hoops are used for "backyard croquet" which is played recreationally in the United States and Canada. The fact that the space in a swimming pool is typically filled with water{{citation needed}} has been overlooked by the topology department.

As mentioned in the title text, this last configuration is also {{w|homeomorphism|homeomorphic}} to a {{w|foosball}} table (with each rod sustaining the player figures above the table defining a hole) or a {{w|Skee-Ball}} lane (which is even more straightforward, as it is just a plane with several holes in which to throw balls). These "fields" don't actually have the same number of holes, but are apparently lumped together by the Topology Department as having "many" holes.

Unfortunately, the Topology Department does not seem to have a field for {{w|hurdling}} events.

==Transcript==
:[A row of four signs, each held up by two posts, followed by a row of four rounded lozenge shapes, one for each sign. The signs and lozenge shapes are shaded as if three-dimensional objects, all being flattish with a small third dimension; the four lozenge shapes each have one pair of sides horizontal and the other pair at a slight angle from vertical, denoting a horizontal plane perpendicular to the signs extending "out" towards the viewer, which places each shape "in front" of its sign. All but the first lozenge shape have various numbers of ellipses within the shape - ovoids shaded to denote holes piercing through the objects.]

:[Leftmost sign:]
:Baseball
:Soccer
:Tetherball
:[The shape below this sign contains no ellipses.]

:[Second sign from left:]
:Volleyball
:Badminton
:High jump
:[This shape has one large ellipse in the center.]

:[Third sign:]
:Basketball
:Football
:Parallel bars
:[This shape has two large ellipses - one in the top half and one in the bottom half.]

:[Fourth and rightmost sign:]
:Olympic swimming
:Croquet
:[This shape has nine small ellipses - eight arranged symmetrically towards the edges of the shape and one in the center.]

:[Caption underneath the signs and shapes:]
:No one ever wants to use the topology department's athletic fields.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Sport]]

2922: Pub Trivia

2024-04-19T14:55:05Z

172.68.34.58:

{{comic
| number = 2922
| date = April 19, 2024
| title = Pub Trivia
| image = pub_trivia_2x.png
| imagesize = 422x666px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Bonus question: Where is London located? (a) The British Isles (b) Great Britain and Northern Ireland (c) The UK (d) Europe (or 'the EU') (e) Greater London
}}

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

The comic shows [[Cueball]] reading off bad trivia questions which are either confusing or don't have an answer.
The caption states that this is because he was paid to sabotage other bars that offer trivia so that people will want to go to the one that hired him.

1. Which member of {{w|BTS}} has a birthday this year?

Problem: Multiple answers

BTS is a {{w|K-Pop}} group. Every member would have a birthday each year. In fact, all humans have a birthday every year. (Unless you were born on leap day and trying to be pedantic.)

2. How many sides does a {{w|platonic solid}} have?

Problem: Multiple answers

There are five platonic solids, with 4, 6, 8, 12, or 20 faces (colloquially called sides) in {{w|Euclid|Euclidean}} {{w|Euclidean geometry|3-space}}.

3. What is the smallest lake in the world?

Problem: Arguable

Unknowable as there are many small bodies of water in the world, and determining which is the smallest while still being large enough to count as a {{w|lake}} is a complicated question.

4. Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks? {{w|Jaws (movie)|Jaws (1875)}} or {{w|Lincoln (movie)|Lincoln (2012)}}

Problem: Trivial

Jaws, as Lincoln has a surprising lack of shark attacks.{{cn}}

5. How many planets were there originally?

Problem: Ambiguous

Question lacks context, since it doesn't define what originally means, and there is no way to know when humans first found out that the wandering stars were actually other worlds, or that Earth is a planet. And if this includes {{w|exoplanets}}, it's unknowable since we have no way of detecting these planets in ancient times.

Or it could be trivially 0, if "originally" means when the universe first formed in the {{w|Big Bang}}.

6. What {{w|NFL}} player has scored the most points outside of a game?

Problem: No answer

As points are not usually scored outside of games, this is a nonsense question.

7. The {{w|Wright brothers}} built the first airplane. Who built the last one?

Problem: Unknowable

Since airplanes are built continuously, there is no way to know who built the last one. Alternatively, if 'the last one' means 'the last one ''ever''', then it probably hasn't been built yet.

8. Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?

Problem: Unknowable

This is {{w|Goldbach's conjecture|an open question}} in math.

9. Not counting {{w|Canberra}}, what city is the capital of {{w|Australia}}?

Problem: No answer

Nonsense question, since Australia has only one capital. Unless you count 'A'.

10. Who played the drums?

Problem: Ambiguous

Lots of people have played the drums{{cn}}, famous or not. This question needs context.

The alt-text bonus question: Where is {{w|London}} located? (a) The {{w|British Isles}} (b) {{w|Great Britain and Northern Ireland}} (c) The {{w|UK}} (d) {{w|Europe}} (or 'the {{w|EU}}') (e) Greater London

Problem: Multiple answers

All choices are technically correct as they are various geographical areas that include the city of London, England. (d) incorrectly conflates Europe, a geographical area that London is located in, with the EU, which the UK (and consequently London) has not been in since {{w|Brexit}} in 2020.


|}

This is apparently deliberate (at least on behalf of the organisers), perhaps to upset or otherwise impede groups of overconfident quizzers who would otherwise dominate any genuinely good quiz. -->

Many pubs have trivia nights, where patrons form teams and compete to best answer questions about a range of topics. Cueball has apparently been hired by one bar to infiltrate other bars' quiz nights and write particularly bad questions for them, which he has accomplished using different strategies. The idea is that by making the trivia nights at other pubs horrible, he will drive business to the pub that hired him.

1. Which member of BTS has a birthday this year?

Since everyone has a birthday every year (with the exception of those born on February 29), this question does not have unique answer. And since this comic was published in 2024, even the possible February 29 exception does not apply (and no BTS member was born on February 29).

2. How many sides does a Platonic solid have?

This question is ambiguous in at least two ways. First, a solid does not have "sides"; it has edges and faces. There are five Platonic solids, with 4, 6, 8, 12, and 20 faces, and 6, 12, 8, 30, and 30 edges.

3. What is the smallest lake in the world?

A lake is defined by Wikipedia as a "relatively large and fixed body of water." As there is no universal definition for how large and how fixed a body of water must be in order to qualify as a lake, this question is impossible to answer.

4. Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks - Jaws (1975) or Lincoln (2012)?

Jaws is a famous movie about a killer shark, and features at least five fatal shark attacks. Lincoln is a movie about the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and contains zero shark attacks. Unlike the previous unanswerable questions, this is a question that no reasonable person could get wrong.

5. How many planets were there originally?

The ancient Greeks named seven planets: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Eventually, it was decided that the Earth is also a planet, and that the Sun and the Moon were not. Uranus and Neptune were eventually discovered, followed by Ceres, Vesta, Juno, and Pallas, all of which were considered planets prior to the invention of the term "asteroid". Then Pluto was discovered, and the count of "planets" stabilized at 9 until 2006, when the discovery of Kuiper Belt objects larger than Pluto led to creation of the term "dwarf planet", leaving us with 8 known planets and 5 known dwarf planets. Today there are also thousands of known exoplanets (planets that orbit stars other than the sun).
The joke here is that "originally" is so poorly defined that it could mean anywhere from 0 (the number of planets prior to formation of the solar system) to infinity (number of planets in the universe if the universe is indeed infinite).

6. What NFL player has scored the most points outside of a game?

American football has a somewhat complicated scoring system, and record keeping involves (for instance) crediting the 6 points for a touchdown to both the receiver and the passer in some situations. This question does not address any of this complexity, but adds a new level of ambiguity as the "points" a player can score outside of a game are undefined.

7. The Wright Brothers built the first airplane. Who built the last one?

It is exceedingly unlikely that the last airplane has been built, and because plane assembly is complicated, it is difficult to assess when a particular aircraft counts as complete, so this is another unanswerable question.

8. Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?

This is Goldbach's Conjecture. Mathematicians widely believe that it is true, and there is substantial numerical evidence to suggest that it is true, but there is as yet no accepted proof. The joke is that trivia questions should have clear and agreed on answers, and this question does not.

9. Not counting Canberra, what city is the capital of Australia?

Canberra is the capital of Australia. Sydney is larger and possibly more famous, so that asking the capital of Australia would be a good trivia question: people who know there capitals would respond with Canberra and less knowledgeable people would guess Sydney. Australia is divided into states
and territories, each with its own capital, but this would leave multiple equally valid answers to the question.

10. Who played the drums?

If this question asked who played the drums for a particular band or on a particular album, track, or performance, it would be an example of a good trivia question. As it is, it has many possible answers and no way to choose between them.

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

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1664: Mycology

2024-03-26T17:16:40Z

172.68.34.58:

Sounds like a reference to the parasite that infects cats and migrates to humans/rats/mices that make them likes cats so that the parasites can infect other cats. The parasite has been very successful in history
( Toxoplasma gondii ) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.64|173.245.52.64]] 14:17, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
:I just heard that urban legend the other day. Unfortunately, Googling doesn't turn up anything for me to cite. Still, I feel like that is what the comic is referencing. [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 18:13, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
::What "urban legend"? {{w|Toxoplasma gondii}} behavior is described on wikipedia, with references. Only it's not really "like" cats as much as not fear them. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:42, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

At first glance, this seems like a beneficial method to promote the spread of the fungus. However, I believe this to be an evolutionary dead end. Everyone affected will be easily identified by their desire to study fungus. And their research will eventually reveal efficient ways to kill the fungus without harming the host. Plus, the behavior modifier doesn't cause the host to want to study that particular fungus, but just fungus in general. So the human hosts won't have any instinctive or intellectual need to protect the fungus from eradication. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.72|108.162.216.72]] 20:50, 6 April 2016 (UTC)SiliconWolf

This reminds me of [http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgins Captain Higgins], the parasitic flatworm. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.92|108.162.216.92]] 22:46, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Isn't the title text almost the same argument as Michael Pollan's <i>Botany of Desire</i>? Also, there actually is a corn fungus that is eaten in Mexico called corn smut.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.126|108.162.215.126]] 23:21, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

There's a new latest comic, but there's no page for it. I don't know what's supposed to happen now, but I clicked the button that was supposed to fix it and it didn't. Does the page for the new comic need to be manually created first or something? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.72.59|162.158.72.59]] 15:41, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

I actually thought this was a general reference to how academia often trains people to study academic subjects for the sake of themselves and not necessarily any practical real world application. Thus a successful academic department is one that successful brainwashes its students into loving its subject and wanting to stay, become a professor, and perpetuate the field. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.66|108.162.216.66]] 17:58, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
:YESSSSSSSSSSS BRAiNWAsHinG [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.58|172.68.34.58]] 17:16, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

Sounds like a reference to psychedelic mushrooms imho. The biological role of psilocybin which is produced by those mushrooms is still somewhat unclear but it has intense effects on mammals brains functions when consumed. One hypothesis is that psychedelic mushrooms are psyhemerophile and thus depend on humans/farm animals as their main distribution vector. Opening a whole new lab for growing them after experiencing them seems like the logical way to go. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.149|162.158.150.149]] 20:47, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

I assumed that this was a reference to Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which affects the behavior of ants such that they suicide to propagate the fungus. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 21:44, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

The corn parasite thing is part of the plot to the joke John Green novel Zombiecorn. [[User:Ejetzer|Ejetzer]] ([[User talk:Ejetzer|talk]]) 02:41, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
:Oh lawdy. I am strangely obsessed with mind control, but the title text kind of scares me. O-O [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.59|172.68.3.59]] 17:15, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:1380: Manual for Civilization

2024-03-20T14:56:00Z

172.68.34.58:

There's probably some connection between Eno and animorphs/post-apocalyptic earth, but because I don't know him, I only added info on the animorphs [[User:Shadowmanwkp|Shadowmanwkp]] ([[User talk:Shadowmanwkp|talk]]) 08:40, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Brian Eno is associated with Long Now foundation as a board member: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Now_Foundation
--------
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.45|108.162.222.45]] 08:50, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

The joke at the end of the comic about the list being 'all' animorph books is not that not all animorph books are included in the list but that the list contains the megamorph and the andalite books in addition to all the animorph books. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.92.231|141.101.92.231]] 09:03, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

I wonder why only Megamorphs and Andalite Chronicles were mentioned. Does Eno not like the others? 12:40, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, and aren't there also the Hork-Bajir Chronicles? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.58|172.68.34.58]] 14:56, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Am I the only one who saw "Manual for Civilization" and thought: "I am Gandhi of the Indians. Our words are backed with NUCLEAR weapons. We have decided to rid the world of your pathetic civilization. Goodbye." -? Ah, that takes me back. Sid Meier, you owe me many hours. [[User:Fluppeteer|Fluppeteer]] ([[User talk:Fluppeteer|talk]]) 13:15, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
:Great comment - yes he ''owes me'' a lot of hours too! I had not seen it but it is very obvious - although probably not intended ;) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:38, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
:: It's what happens when you don't properly program your peaceniks. (To those who don't know, Gandhi in the original Civ had an Aggression stat of 1. When a nation went democratic, it would reduce their Aggression stat by 2. Due to an oversight, this meant Gandhi's Aggression went negative, and because of the way the game handled (or didn't handle) negative numbers, it meant a democratic Gandhi went from 1 to 255 points worth of pure omnicidal nuclear rage.) -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.221|162.158.2.221]] 04:53, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

I disagree with the Asimov Foundation pun - I do not think Randall refeers to that at all. It was put at the top before the explain of the Amorph books. As it is a side issue I moved it down to the bottom of the explain where it might belong. But I think it should be removed! But I will leave that for others to decide! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:38, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

:The first thing I thought of when seeing "Long Now Foundation" and the reference to a person saying books are needed to help rebuild society ''was'' Asimov's Foundation series. So I think it should remain in the explanation. It my not be a pun, but I think significant reference to it is possible, and maybe likely. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 17:34, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
:: For what it's worth, the Long Now Foundation really is building a Manual for Civilization: http://blog.longnow.org/02010/04/06/manual-for-civilization/ --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.113|199.27.128.113]] 18:55, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
::: Thank you for linking to this! I came to this explainxkcd page because I wanted to know the answer to that very question. I think this link should be included in the article. {{unsigned ip|199.27.130.210}}
::: For the record, I had the idea for a "Post-apocalyptic Survival Guide" in 2008. I believe 3 text-book sized volumes could contain enough information on wilderness knowledge, engineering, science, medicine, and psychology for an individual or small community to exist quite happily. I considered making it a wiki, but that defeats the purpose, since nobody's going to have internet after an apocalypse. If you're actually trying to rebuild society to its present advancement, the hard part won't be finding the information, it will be finding people more interested in rebuilding than in their own survival. ''The Postman'' comes to mind...--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.55|108.162.215.55]] 20:58, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
::::Actually, we can assume there WILL be some warning apocalypse is coming. Post-apocalyptic Survival Guide must therefore be wiki-based system with simple "print" button, to be pressed (on multiple computers) in moment of such warning, immediately transferring the data to local computer before the Internet collapses and printed hopefully before the electrical grid collapses (and/or backup generators run out of fuel). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:34, 14 June 2014 (UTC)
:::::I think the best method, considering the quantity of information such a guide could contain in electronic form, would be to make it a wiki that is published as an app that receives regular content updates. Each device with the app would sync and retain a full copy of the entire guide. In order to ensure the device continues to function post-apocalypse, the app would come with instructions for protecting a device from damage/EMP and for generating power. I'd love to market a ruggedized and EMP shielded tablet with a hand generator.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.130|108.162.215.130]] 16:20, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

:::: ::::: I've had a stab at writing such a manual for rebooting civilisation, at least as far as is possible in a single hardback, in a popular science book published this year called "The Knowledge: How to Rebuild our World from Scratch" ( [http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/buy-the-book/] ). The complete bibliography for the book should offer a pretty complete library for genuinely restarting from scratch ( [http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/bibliography/] ). And if you're interested, I've also contributed a selection to The Manual for Civilization for The Long Now Foundation ( [http://blog.longnow.org/02014/04/19/the-knowledge/] ) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.8|141.101.98.8]]{Lewis Dartnell}

---

:: I always though that in Asimov's Foundation, the Encyclopedia Galactica itself was not actual point. The point was that the Foundation, that is the organization writing the Encyclopedia, consisted of large amount of educated people concentrated on one place and equipped with lot of informations they supposedly were formating for inclusion into the Encyclopedia. So, when the Empire collapsed, they could start rebuilding civilization with this initial advantage. Not speaking of other advantages Seldon prepared, like the position of that place. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:34, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

"If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied." - Richard P. Feynman (quote mentioned in Daniel Bor's "The Ravenous Brain", and sourced from: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/11/richard-feynman-lectures-on-physics/) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.169|108.162.208.169]] 17:40, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Don't have time to create an account today, or I would do so to correct a typo: Asimov's character's first name was "Hari", not "Harry" (Seldon). Sorry if this seems like nitpicking...
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.114|108.162.241.114]] 16:36, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

---

Any reference in this comic to "The Knowledge"[http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/]? {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.210}}

--> Not directly, I don't think, no. {Lewis Dartnell} {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.8}}

---

I wonder whether part of the point of this comic is that Eno/the experts are implicitly suggesting that the most likely failure mode for civilization is that humanity will be taken over by Yeerks and that the Animorph books therefore represent the best guide to recovery. And if the experts believe this then most likely they believe that the Yeerks are here already (otherwise, why Animorphs not some other alien invasion story?) And of course is very hard to prove the Yeerks AREN'T here. Which also makes me wonder whether that means the experts/Eno are, themselves, Animorphs since who else would know about Yeerks and be prepared to talk about it?

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.237|108.162.249.237]] 04:14, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

--------

the KISS in the end would be a reference to lovemaking, creating children and thus the most vital aspect of recreating civilization! {{unsigned|Solsang}}

--------

My only question is... How many of these books did Randall read to know that *that* is the most ohmygod worthy moment of the series? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.235|108.162.210.235]] 05:28, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

2880: Sheet Bend

2024-02-08T16:26:07Z

172.68.34.58:

{{comic
| number = 2880
| date = January 12, 2024
| title = Sheet Bend
| image = sheet_bend_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x244px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = A left-handed sheet bend creates a much weaker connection, especially under moderate loads.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the seventh installment in the series of [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] and presents Cursed Connectors #46: The Sheet Bend. At the time of release this was the lowest number used for a cursed connector, replacing [[2495: Universal Seat Belt|#65: Universal Seat Belt]] (with [[2507: USV-C|#280: USV-C]] being the one with the highest number).

This comic shows two double-core cables being joined in a knot to make an electrical connection. The knot used to tie the two halves of the cable is a {{w|sheet bend}}, which is often used to join two ropes of different thicknesses, and explains the name for this type of cursed connector, which seems to be made by ensuring each cable end is terminated with identical electrical connections to the outer sleeving in a manner similar to various 'ring' connections in {{w|Phone connector (audio)|'phone' connectors}}, but as significantly longer and more separated sleeves.

In contrast to more normal methods, [[Randall]] has proposed yet another of his 'cursed' connectors. This one requires ''no'' additional plugs, sockets, enclosures or even tools to use. Any two cables with such ends can be brought together and simply knotted together. This particular knot, and the specific spacing of its two external conductors, appears to be chosen in order to rather elegantly create consistent connections between the respective contacts, with a minimum of fuss.

However, there are potentially many unaddressed but conspicuous problems with this connection method, thus rendering it a 'cursed' connector. Among the issues are:
* The need to have suitable ends to any cables, which would involve issues in the manufacture (and the materials used) as cable's cores must be separately tapped and reliably connected to an external length of conductive sleeving.
* The consistent ability of a cabler to tie the correct knot, which is a skill that will need practice. Done wrongly the electrical connections may not be made correctly, or at all (including as discussed in the title text).
* Even if initially tied correctly, knots can slip or distort when subsequently pulled more taut.
* Even if the user is a competent and consistent knot-tier, this is inherently more effort, and therefore less convenient, than the more usual practice of simply pushing two connectors together.
* The external conducting patches of the cable are an uncommon feature of electrical junctions, with issues in both high-power and low-power situations.
** If the cables are supposed to carry high voltages, any bare conductors ought to be safely isolated from easy contact with equipment/people. In particular, plugs and sockets that carry anything approaching mains-voltages have active and passive elements integrated which protect the person connecting or disconnecting the equipment. There is no physical precaution visible to protect the person tying or untying the cable from potential shock. Instead, they must rely upon the ''other'' end of the potentially 'live' cable being disconnected. And, when left unattended, there would continue to be a high risk of injury (including death), fire or more basic damage due to the lack of any proper physical isolation.
** Low-voltage cables that pass signals between equipment (e.g. networking data or audio signals) are susceptible to external contact disrupting the flow. Random static charges, built up and transfered into the connector, instead make other equipment or people the potential threat to the cabled-up equipment, causing disruption to the normal purpose of the cable, where a more standard plug-and-socket/hard-wired connection would not.
* The bending, twisting and rubbing of the cables each time the cables are connected and disconnected will very likely cause wear and damage over time.
* The knot provides a possible snag point by which the cable could be caught; anything which catches or tugs on the knot could cause disconnection.

The title text says that a left-handed sheet bend would provide a weaker connection. The difference between a left-handed and right-handed sheet knot is that the two free ends of the knotted 'cords' are in the same orientation for a right-handed sheet knot (here, both on the lower side of the image), but on opposite sides for a left-handed sheet knot. A left-handed sheet bend provides less strength to the knot, due to the possibility of distorting (e.g. {{w|Knot#Capsizing|''capsizing''}}) and/or allowing one or both cables to pull through the knot.

This makes the title text a pun on the double meaning of "moderate load", which could be a moderate amount of physical tension applied through the cables ''or'' a moderate amount of electrical current passing through them. Together, it would be expected that tension drawing two conductive surfaces together would create less resistance between them, strengthening the electrical connection as well, but only if the knot holds as expected.

A knot was also the subject of the relatively recent [[2738: Omniknot]].

And yet, Randall just made another cursed connector.

==Transcript==
:[Above the drawing there is a header. Below the header there is a double-core wire going in from the left and stopping just past the middle of the picture. It shows how the inside of the wire looks and how the silver and golden wires inside are connected to two rectangular pieces of silver and golden material respectively. The golden piece is to the left and the silver piece to the right, closest to the end of the wire. Beneath this wire is shown two double-core wires forming a knot of the sheet bend type. Here it becomes clear that the silver and golden pieces are on the outside of the wires (but connected to the wires running inside the wires). In the knotted part of the wires gold touches gold and silver touches silver, without them touching the other color. Beneath this knot there is a label for the connector.]
:Cursed Connectors #46:
:The Sheet Bend

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Cursed Connectors]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:2891: Log Cabin

2024-02-07T20:57:17Z

172.68.34.58:

:: "''The odd part about it is the bottom right corner, which appears to be infinitely recursive copies..''"
The whole right side is the left side, shrunk and recursed. Each iteration rotated 90 degrees. The 'shrink' is about 1.616 by my squint, a lot like a "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio Golden Ratio]" LOGarithmic spiral, as NickM says. [[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 19:49, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

::This is a LOGarithmic spiral [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.103|172.70.210.103]] 19:52, 7 February 2024 (UTC)NickM

Assuming a standard 36" wide front door, then the next "front" door would be 22.27 inches, then 13.78 inches, then 8.53 inches, at which point I doubt the inspector could squeeze through it, though I guess they could still take a peek inside the next recursion. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.58|172.68.34.58]] 20:57, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

2888: US Survey Foot

2024-02-07T18:27:14Z

172.68.34.58:

{{comic
| number = 2888
| date = January 31, 2024
| title = US Survey Foot
| image = us_survey_foot_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x606px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Subway refuses to answer my questions about whether it's an International Footlong or a US Survey Footlong. A milligram of sandwich is at stake!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VERY SHORT 84 FEET - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic pokes fun at the difference in length between the {{w|Foot_(unit)#U.S._survey_foot|US Survey Foot}} and the {{w|Foot_(unit)|International Foot}}. After Carl Edvard Johansson's {{w|Carl_Edvard_Johansson#Johansson_and_the_inch|gauge blocks}} in 1912 led to {{w|International_yard_and_pound|an international agreement}} in 1959, the foot has been defined to be exactly 0.3048 metres, whilst the US survey foot continued to use the {{w|Mendenhall Order|definition of 1893}}, making it a bit longer than the international foot at 1200/3937 meters. However, the difference between the two is proportionately too small to be meaningful for most purposes, as they only differ by 2 parts per million. At foot-length scales, the difference is a fraction of a micron, with longer measures (where the error grows to a notable degree) requiring an already excessive implied precision likely to mismatch its true accuracy. Some engineering or scientific applications ''may'' involve such tolerances, but would be expected to consistently use some more modern standard of measurement to {{w|Mars Climate Orbiter|avoid such confusion}}.

In the third panel, Cueball says that someone is using the survey foot again: it turns out to be [[Black Hat]], an action that sounds very typical for him. Cueball claims that he is drawing the world 610nm closer to madness, which is about the difference between the two measures (per foot). Cueball, outraged, then says that the {{w|National Institute of Standards and Technology}} (usually abbreviated as NIST) will capture Black Hat to stop him from using the US survey foot. The joke here is that his coordinates show that he is 8,000 miles away, but since he is using the US survey foot, he is 0.016 miles away from the search team, making them unable to find him at that exact spot. (A good strike team would likely keep looking, but perhaps being strictly NIST-trained to adhere to particularly exacting standards has ironically made them vulnerable to the same inaccuracies that they are supposed to be preventing.)

Note – 0.016 miles is about 28.16 yards (84.48 feet), or 84.4798 US Survey Feet, or 25.749 metres; they are shown as probably being at the same lake in the last two frames, with maybe little more than a frame border between them.

Part of the joke is the imaginative idea that NIST employs and dispatches strike teams to apprehend persons that use incorrect measurements. This may be a play on words about the {{w|Nuclear Emergency Support Team}}, or "NEST", a {{w|United States Department of Energy}} group who respond to nuclear and radiological emergencies such as reactor accidents or nuclear terrorism, and who might reasonably have access to resources such as the helicopters depicted during a crisis.

The title text references a {{w|Subway (restaurant)#Sandwich_size|2013 lawsuit}} over the length of a "Footlong" sandwich sold by Subway fast food chain. However – in contrast to the issue at stake in that lawsuit – the difference in length between an 'international footlong' sandwich and a 'US survey footlong' sandwich is way below the precision ''or'' accuracy by which sandwiches are usually produced – making it understandable that Subway would not think it necessary to clarify which definition of 'foot' they use for their products.

===Explanation of the comic's underlying assumptions and implications===
Randall appears to be playing a bit fast-and-loose here. To make this joke work implies a rather absurd situation: that both Black Hat and the searchers have set their devices to measure and report location ''in reference to'' the same location (the place where Cueball is and that is at one end of the 8,000 mile measurement) and not just use GPS and lat/long like every other smartphone on the planet.

The only origin location that can be reasonably inferred based on the comic's info is NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

In the unlikely event that the searchers' phones measure and report location in reference to NIST HQ, evidently Black Hat has also overridden his device's in-built GPS to report its location in reference to NIST headquarters as a way to toy with them and then traveled EXACTLY 8,000 miles away, knowing NIST would be in hot pursuit. After all, Black Hat is known for his preternatural powers of mischief.

Where might Black Hat be hiding? If he was in U.S. territory that would give them clear jurisdiction over him, but there is no U.S. territory which is [https://www.mapdevelopers.com/draw-circle-tool.php?circles=%5B%5B12874687.81%2C39.1450494%2C-77.2161307%2C%22%23AAAAAA%22%2C%22%23000000%22%2C0%5D%5D exactly 8,000 miles from NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland] (regardless of which foot is used). The closest U.S. territory would probably be Cocos Island, Guam, 7923.92 miles away from Gaithersburg; the closest U.S. jurisdiction is probably the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, at 8015.14 miles. This implies that Black Hat is not on U.S. soil, which means that the NIST strike team is operating in a legal gray area, like a SEAL team catching an international terrorist.

==Transcript==

:[Closeup on Cueball.]
:Cueball: We thought it was over. After 60 years of struggle, the US survey foot was dead, deprecated by NIST in 2023.

:[Cueball is shown to be talking to Ponytail, Hairy, and Megan. He has a presentation behind him.]
:Cueball: We thought architects and engineers could rest easy, free of the headaches of having two conflicting definitions of the foot that differ by 610 nanometers.
:International foot: 0.304 800 000 m
:US survey foot [crossed over in gray] <span style="color:gray">R.I.P.</span>: 0.304 800 609... m

:[Cueball points at an image of Black Hat with unreadable writing above it.]
:Cueball: But I bring dire news:
:Cueball: ''Someone has started using the US survey foot again.''

:[Closeup on Cueball again.]
:Off-panel voice: Why!?
:Cueball: We don't know.
:Cueball: Some people just want to drag the world 610nm closer to madness.

:[Farther view of Cueball only. He clenches a fist.]
:Off-panel voice: What can we do!?
:Cueball: A NIST team is already in the air. We will capture the scofflaw and end this nightmare.

:[Two helicopters flying, with mountains in the background.]

:Caption: 8,000 miles away
:[Two operatives in a forest by a pond with NIST helmets. One talks on a walkie-talkie.]
:Operative: We've reached the coordinates of the target's device. There's no one here.
:Voice from walkie-talkie: How!?

:Caption: 8,000.016 miles away
:[Black Hat walking elsewhere (by the same pond) in the forest, very close by. He appears to be holding a device of some sort.]
:Black Hat: ♫ ♪

==Trivia==

The number of miles in the last panel was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/5/5f/20240131173446%21us_survey_foot_2x.png originally] 8,000.014, but was changed to 8,000.016. The latter matches the 2 ppm difference between the international foot and the US survey foot.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)

2024-02-07T17:24:35Z

172.68.34.58:

I think the "double comic" reference is just that. There are just two - unrelated - comics strung together here, with no relation to the original Sunday format, which Watterson abandoned halfway through, in favor of the "latter" comic's style. Anonymous 22:39, 3 December 2013 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.91}}

I think the reference in the first comic is to Mario Kart Double Dash, where there were two characters on the kart. In the game, both characters were able to hold and utilize "weapons", sometimes different weapons, like the one red turtle shell used by Megan and the three green turtle shells used by Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.240.18|108.162.240.18]] 14:56, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

bill if youre reading this please do a pairing comic [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.5|173.245.54.5]] 00:06, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Big fan of both Calvin and Hobbes ''and'' xkcd. Randall pulled this one beautifully. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.58|172.68.34.58]] 17:24, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

2885: Spelling

2024-01-24T17:40:59Z

172.68.34.58:

{{comic
| number = 2885
| date = January 24, 2024
| title = Spelling
| image = spelling_2x.png
| imagesize = 281x333px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Any time I misspell a word it's just because I have too much integrity to copy answers from the dictionary.
}}

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

Some words are difficult to remember how to spell, but Google and other search engines have autocorrect for misspelled words in search terms, which will return results with the correct spelling, so some people enter their best guess of the spelling on Google, then copy the corrected version and paste it into their document.

Cueball isn't sure whether copying ''individual words'' without attribution is considered plagiarism (appropriating the work of others without permission or credit), and he can't avoid thinking about this moral dilemma when copying the word 'plagiarism' itself.

The title text takes the idea one step further, with Cueball saying he only ever misspells words because he would rather not "copy from the dictionary," as he considers that plagiarism. Of course, the ''entire point'' of the dictionary is to serve as a reference precisely for people to look up the spelling and definition of words, and the words defined in the dictionary cannot be individually copyrighted on their own.{{cn}}

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

:[Cueball is sitting at a desk and looking at a laptop. Megan is standing behind him and looking at the laptop as well.]
:Megan: When I can't spell a word I usually just Google the word, then copy and paste it from the results.
:Cueball: Yeah, but I can't do that '''''HERE!!'''''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Why spelling "plagiarism" is especially hard

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:2870: Love Songs

2023-12-21T15:08:37Z

172.68.34.58:

I need to know which axis means “does the ‘me’ like them” because I fail to understand it.--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.164|172.71.134.164]] 23:53, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
:Pick a song you know that isn't near the (X=Y) line, and it should explain it.
:e.g. "That don't impress me much", at centre-top. Clearly the other party is trying to impress (likes the 'me') but Shania is ambivalent in response (she doesn't actually love their being a rocket-scientist, nor hate it).
:"Killing me softly..." is from 'me' having love, whilst "You're so vain..." is actively insulting the other party (but indifference by the target ''could'' be the attitude).
:Though for X=Y items (e.g. "I will survive" - it's declared to be an unamicable but ultimately mutually-acceptable split) the way round of course doesn't matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.224|172.69.194.224]] 00:12, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

I'm hoping "I Will Survive" isn't a reference to the Zootopia abortion comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.82|172.68.174.82]] 23:56, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
:Well, some of the (apparently obvious) references I didn't know. First thought about "Girlfriend" was the {{w|Girlfriend in a Coma (song)|The Smiths song}} ''almost'' of that name. (And it looks like there are almost thirty possible songs... not sure how many are covers of others... {{w|Girlfriend (disambiguation)#Songs|under that exact name}}.) Can I suggest that any possible songs that could be confused (but maybe not match the plotted position, being of a different story/tone) be recorded in a "Not to be confused with..." section? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.177|172.71.178.177]] 01:02, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

not pictured: Jim Steinman songs, which spend most of their time out of the XY plane. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.109|172.69.214.109]] 00:14, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

Gotta say, Perfect is a far better Ed Sheeran song than Shape of You

The fault here is not so much with the axes or their interpretation as with the verb, "to love." [http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~heycock/thurber-only.html Nothing can be done about the verb "to love."] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.62|172.70.210.62]] 04:19, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

(reads comic) (automatically sorts in all "Offspring" love songs) (thanks very much, xkcd, you got me again) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.124|172.71.160.124]] 09:24, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

"Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet doesn't remotely follow the narrative in the explanation, but could nevertheless be graphed as shown.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 10:07, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

Why is "I Will Always Love You" higher on the Y axis than the X axis?? The title and chorus seem genuine to me, and the rationale for breaking up is "I'm not what you need." [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.58|172.68.34.58]] 15:08, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

229: Graffiti

2023-12-20T19:10:32Z

172.68.34.58: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 229
| date = February 28, 2007
| title = Graffiti
| image = graffiti.png
| titletext = FOR AN INTRIGUING TIME CALL
}}

==Explanation==
The humor in this comic comes from the irony of a deep philosophical musing on the nature of individuals sharing a private space in a public place, unknown to one another and separated by time. The graffiti text is juxtaposed with more common bathroom stall scrawlings - insults, slurs, and "[Name] was here."

This comic makes use of the existential idea of "finding meaning where you look for it," a recurring theme in xkcd. The caption implies that a bathroom stall isn't a place where Randall would like to find meaning in life, so he shouldn't look for it there.

The title text parodies one of the archetypical pieces of graffiti: "For a good time, call [phone number]," which indicates that the person reachable at that number is available for prostitution, casual sex, and/or phone sex. However, 'good' has been replaced with 'intriguing,' implying that instead of sex, the writer is offering witty and insightful conversation.

There may be a reference to this comic in [[1810: Chat Systems]] with the chat system called ''Wall (bathroom)''.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits on a toilet in a bathroom. The stall sidewall next to him is covered in graffiti: "you suck," "Mike sucks cock," "CUNT," "fuck," "BITCHAS," "dane was here" struck through and "dane is a fag" written under it, a crude pictogram of a penis, and various other unreadable scribbles.]
:[One block of graffiti is salient:]
::This graffiti is
::fleeting human contact
::both of us lost,
::but for a moment
::we're lost together.
::I wonder who you are.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:I think I look for meaning in the wrong places sometimes.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

Talk:1988: Containers

2018-05-02T22:48:31Z

172.68.34.58:

Pretty much a description of my social interactions ... [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 17:51, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
:Pretty much a description of all my "useful" programs. {{unsigned|Linker}}

I feel the thrust of this comic is partly “people use docker because they don’t know how to do things properly”; notably such people get tasks done easier and faster, but their work involves wasting a lot of computing reaources to do small tasks inside entire emulated systems. Agree? Disagree? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.153|162.158.62.153]] 18:59, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

I don't know if its just docker, almost any time I've gone to build mobile anything the API needs new libraries, their "secure" connecting functions must be used, or some other blackbox MUST be /glued/ to my work. If I don't stay on top of every platform, this in and of itself is a head ache I can't imagine what it'd be like if I had to learn and comply with the content of these libraries. {{unsigned ip|172.69.90.40}}

When did any tablet with a browser not support <tt><nowiki><frame></nowiki></tt>s and <tt><nowiki><iframe></nowiki></tt>s? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.58|172.68.34.58]] 22:48, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

1969: Not Available

2018-03-21T07:35:55Z

172.68.34.58: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1969
| date = March 19, 2018
| title = Not Available
| image = not_available.png
| titletext = If my country ever picks a new national flag, this is on my shortlist for designs to argue for, but I think in the end I'll go with the green puzzle piece or broken image thumbnail.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs to be expanded. What is a "broken image icon", please provide examples. Do NOT remove this tag too soon.}}

A very common, yet frustrating issue on the internet is finding a broken link, taking you to an "{{w|HTTP 404|Error 404}}" page (See "missing xkcd comic" [[404: Not Found]]). The purpose of the page is to tell the user that the content they were looking for has been either moved or deleted or was never there in the first place.

Randall has suggested replacing the standard "page not found" text, to "This content is not available in your country". This could fool the user into thinking the media they are looking for is actually there, but is {{w|Regional lockout|region locked}}, which is another great source of frustration for internet users. Using a {{w|VPN}} and/or {{w|Tor (anonymity network)|TOR}} to try and access the content from another country wouldn't work, because it isn't actually region locked; it is just an error 404 page, wasting even more time, most likely frustrating the user a great deal in the process.

The title text suggests setting the picture as a national flag. This would be very ironic, as it would suggest that the country's flag itself, something that is used to represent the country across the globe, is region locked. The country in the title text likely does not refer to the United States, but rather to the new country featured in [[1815: Flag]]. The first flag of this country included a phone notification bar, so changing it to a "page not found" icon would continue with a trend of technology imagery. Instead he argues for a green puzzle piece, which was Firefox's "plugin is missing" icon (now it's a grey Lego brick). Chrome also has a comparable "plugin is missing" puzzle piece icon which is gray. He also argues for an equally frustrating broken image icon (which is used in lieu of a photo that is either missing or incompatible with the browser).

==Transcript==
:[A gray box on a black background with white text:]
:This content is not available in your country.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:If you ever ''really'' want to make people mad, set this as your 404/"Not Found" page.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Internet]]

1969: Not Available

2018-03-19T21:46:42Z

172.68.34.58: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1969
| date = 19 March, 2018
| title = Not Available
| image = not_available.png
| titletext = If my country ever picks a new national flag, this is on my shortlist for designs to argue for, but I think in the end I'll go with the green puzzle piece or broken image thumbnail.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Actually not created by a bot this time. Fix the wikipedia links... add links to other xkcd comics on the topic of nation flags. Explain green puzzle piece/broken image in title text. Don't remove this tag too soon.}}

A very common, yet frustrating issue on the {{w|internet}} is finding a broken link, taking you to an "{{w|HTTP 404|Error 404}}" page. The purpose of the page is to tell the user that the content they were looking for has been either moved, or deleted. Randall suggested replacing the standard "page not found" text, to "This content is not available in your country". This could fool the user into thinking the media they are looking for is actually there, but is {{w|Regional lockout|region locked}}. Using a {{w|VPN}} and/or {{w|Tor (anonymity network)|TOR}} to try and access the content from another country wouldn't work, because it isn't actually region locked; it is just an error 404 page, wasting even more time, most likely frustrating the user a great deal in the process.

The title text suggests setting the picture as a national flag. This would be very ironic, as it would suggest that the country's flag itself, something that is used to represent the country across the globe, is region locked. The country in the title text likely does not refer to the United States, but rather to the new country featured in [[1815: Flag]]. The first flag of this country included a phone notification bar, so changing it to a "page not found" icon would continue with a trend of technology imagery. Instead he argues for a green puzzle piece, which was/is firefox's "plugin is missing" icon. He also argues for an equally frustrating broken image icon.

==Transcript==
:[A gray box shown on a black background says "This content is not available in your country."]
:Caption: If you ever ''really'' want to make people mad, set this as your 404/"Not Found" page.

{{comic discussion}}

869: Server Attention Span

2018-02-18T15:01:42Z

172.68.34.58: Corrected Java link (was linking to the island before)

{{comic
| number = 869
| date = March 7, 2011
| title = Server Attention Span
| image = server_attention_span.png
| titletext = They have to keep the adjacent rack units empty. Otherwise, half the entries in their /var/log/syslog are just 'SERVER BELOW TRYING TO START CONVERSATION *AGAIN*.' and 'WISH THEY'D STOP GIVING HIM SO MUCH COFFEE IT SPLATTERS EVERYWHERE.'
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows - in human language - part of the conversations that a browser and web server do in order to get the right page. The protocol they use is called {{w|Hypertext Transfer Protocol|HTTP}}.

This comic makes fun of the issue that many web-servers that see a mobile browser will automatically suggest to load the mobile version of the website, but then serve the front page of the mobile site, not the page the user had requested. In quite a few sites, there is no 1-to-1 correspondence of pages between the regular and the mobile site, so this problem is difficult to solve and very annoying.

A second issue with HTTP is identified in the last panel. HTTP is a {{w|stateless protocol}}. After serving the web page, the connection is severed. Any new request for a page will have to start afresh - which is where the server starts with again: "Hi! I'm a server!" Of course, browsers do not have egos nor do they hold grudges but it can be annoying for users. This design issue can also slow down the browsing experience.

The title text is a joke that all the other servers in the rack think the web server is being childish. <tt>/var/log/syslog</tt> is where Linux (used by the vast majority of servers) and other POSIX systems store their system log messages. The 'trying to start conversation' comment is probably a joke on {{w|Address Resolution Protocol|ARP}} discovery packets that are sent out to the network to see who is who. All servers send out ARP packets to see what other machines are on the network, but some machines send them out every 5 minutes, which can be extremely annoying for someone monitoring network traffic logs.

The coffee comment is another jab at web servers. Some websites use {{w|Java (programming language)|Java}}, or other {{w|JVM}} based languages ({{w|Grails}}, {{w|Scala}}, etc.) as the back end of the website, as opposed to using {{w|PHP}} or {{w|Active Server Pages|ASP}}. Of course, java is another word for coffee, so a web server running on coffee is likely to be well-caffeinated, and well-caffeinated people tend to bounce off the walls with enthusiasm.

==Transcript==
:[Single server in a server rack.]
:Server: Hi! I'm a server! Who are you?

:[Mobile device with a web browser.]
:Browser: I'm a browser. I'd like to see this article.

:Server: Oh boy! I can help! Let me get it for— ...Whoa! You're a ''smartphone'' browser?

:Browser: Yeah.
:Server: Cooool! Hey, I've got this new mobile version of my site! Check it out! Isn't it pretty?

:Browser: Sure, but this is just your mobile site's main page. Where's the article I wanted?

:Server: What article?
:Browser: The one I—
:Server: Who are you?
:Browser: I—
:Server: Hi! I'm a server!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:1844: Voting Systems

2017-05-31T15:37:30Z

172.68.34.58: /* Consolidate Information */

== Consolidate Information ==

Looks like 2 of us added explanations at the same time. Someone else want to consolidate them and produce a concise explanation?

~blackhat

I tried merging our explanations, so there is a small improvement, but there is still some duplicated information. Plus I'm not a native english speaker, so a consolidation by a third editor would be welcome.

Something I don't understand about the Arrow Impossibility Theorem: In the example given, the result of the election is obviously a 3-way tie, where each candidate got exactly equal support. Surely the Arrow Impossibility Theorem doesn't complain about voting system's inability to intuitively break an exact tie?

1340: Unique Date

2017-04-06T23:21:09Z

172.68.34.58: added citation needed

{{comic
| number = 1340
| date = March 10, 2014
| title = Unique Date
| image = unique_date.png
| titletext = If our current civilization lasts another 8,000 years, it's probably fair to assume the Long Now Foundation got things right, and at some point we started listening to them and switched to five-digit years.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Cueball]] is excited about the current date and he states this date (the date the comic was released) as 2014-03-10, with year first then month and date. This follows the international standard as defined in the {{W|ISO 8601}} standard. He then continues to points out, to [[Megan]] and another Cueball that this date will never happen again.

The {{W|Gregorian calendar}} is the current way to count time in years, months and days. Since time moves only forward{{Citation needed}}, dates will never repeat. Every date is thus equally unique, even when the digits aren't in a pattern.

Many people do, however, make a big deal about dates when the digits follow an interesting pattern, such as 2000-01-01 or 2012-12-12. They might plan special events on these "unique" days. For instance, [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/08/nation/na-weddings8 2007-07-07] was considered a "lucky" day and had a record number of weddings. This is because humans in general are superstitious and like (and recognize) patterns in every day life, also including patterns in the numbers used for stating dates. But this does not make these dates more unique than any other dates.

Nevertheless, Cueball has made it into [[:Category:My Hobby|his hobby]] to point this daily uniqueness out, and having to listen to him, stating this fact everyday, would be incredibly annoying to his friends.

The title text refers to the {{W|Long Now Foundation}}, who uses [http://blog.longnow.org/02013/12/31/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-and-10k-compliance-at-home/ five-digit years] (e.g. this comic's date would be written "02014-03-10"). This is an effort to encourage people to think in terms of long-term benefits, rather than only the coming years or decades. The {{w|Y2K problem}} was due to using only two digits to store the year, which would have made dates ambiguous when it rolled from 99 back to 00. Similarly, the {{w|Maya calendar}} had a repeating cycle of 52 years, and even their "long count" rolled over after 7885 years. As we currently use four-digit years this may cause a {{w|Year 10,000 problem|Y10K problem}}.

The Long Now Foundation designs a [http://longnow.org/clock/ 10,000-year clock] that should be able to run for this long — and in principle it could display every date up to 9999-12-31. 8000 years from the date of the comic would be 10014 AD — [[Randall]] jokes that by switching to 5-digit years, we'd prove the Long Now Foundation correct, although of course by this point there would be no other way to show years except for rebooting the calendar.

A previous comic on date formats was [[1179: ISO 8601]]. Randall addresses date formatting confusion again in the title text of [[1467: Email]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball speaking to Megan and another Cueball-like guy.]
:Cueball: Whoa, it's 2014-03-10!
:Cueball: Under our system, that date will ''never happen again!!''
:[Caption below the frame:]
:My Hobby: Pointing this out every day.

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

374: Journal

2017-03-19T22:38:22Z

172.68.34.58: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 374
| date = January 23, 2008
| title = Journal
| image = journal.png
| titletext = And the journal is filled with all the things I'd say to her if I were nice like you. I burn it when it's full.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] isn't the type of person to keep a journal, so [[Cueball]] is understandably surprised when he sees Black Hat's journal. Black Hat lives up to his reputation though, as it turns out that the journal is just part of a plot to hurt innocent, preferably shy, girls.

He explains his scheme to Cueball, about how he sits in a train and writes in the journal while sitting across from such a girl. His intention is to make eye contact with her, only to look bashfully down. This is construed to make her believe that he is an emotional guy, that is embarrassed, both about writing the journal, but also because she has caught him staring. He also tries to let her believe that he may be interested in her. He is just waiting for her to start smiling, and then he gets to the point of it all. By rolling his eyes at her while giving her a quick glare only to resume writing he attempts to make her feel {{w|Social alienation|alienated}}. Black Hat assumes that this feeling will stay with the poor girl for the rest of they day. The only thing Black Hat gets out of this is the knowledge of having ruined the girls day. As he says ''It's great!''

Cueball thinks Black Hat is sickening. And exclaims that "this is why we can't have nice people". This is probably a reference to the meme [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things].

Black Hat excuses himself for doing this because it is so easy. He mixes two different concepts together while doing so. {{w|Shooting fish in a barrel}} is an {{w|idiom}}, describing an effortless or simple action, with guaranteed success. So that is easy pleasure. The adding of ''lonely [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=angsty angsty]'' makes the fish sound more like teenagers. The girls Black Hat targets are probably best described as ''lonely angsty teenagers'' which may be a way to describe several young people. And they are the easy targets, i.e. the fish in the barrel, for him to shoot. And this is just so easy and so fun that he cannot help himself.

The title text implies that Black Hat actually does write in the journal, filling it with the kind of things a nice guy like Cueball might wish to say to a shy girl. But that is only so he can burn it when it is full, thus again cementing the fact that he is a complete sociopath.

It is clear from the comic that he has already done this several time with great success, but where this comic might be interesting in it self, it was actually only the setup for introducing [[Danish]], whom we meet for the first time in the second installment of the [[:Category:Journal|Journal]] series, of which this comic was just the first. Danish cheeseburgur turns out to be a match for Black Hat in every way of the word. If you want to see how Black Hat's scheme worked on Danish, check out [[377: Journal 2]], released the following week after this one.

The whole "[[:Category:Journal|Journal]]" story are:
*[[374: Journal]]
*[[377: Journal 2]]
*[[405: Journal 3]]
*[[432: Journal 4]]
*[[433: Journal 5]]

==Transcript==
:[Cueball picks up book from a table, as Black Hat turns his head towards Cueball while sitting at his desk with his computer.]
:Cueball: Since when do you keep a journal?
:Black Hat: Oh, I pretend to write in it on the train, and wait for a shy-looking girl to sit across from me.

:[Scene change to inside a train wagon with two poles and two rows of seats facing each other across the central pathway. Black Hat writing in his journal is sitting to the right across from Megan to the left who sits with her arm on her handbag standing on the seat next to her. The windows of the train are completely black. The door to the next wagon can be seen at the back of the wagon. Black Hat is telling the story from the previous frame, so the text is written above the two characters but does not belong to the Black Hat in the panel.]
:Black Hat (narrating): I glance up and wait for her to make eye contact, then look down bashfully and, if I can, blush.

:[Scene back to original room with Cueball looking down while holding the journal down, and Black Hat has turned around in his chair to face towards Cueball. Black Hat leans back on the chair with both arms behind him.]
:Black Hat: Then, when I see her start to smile at me, I roll my eyes and hit her with a quick glare, then resume writing.
:Black Hat: The alienation stays with her all day. It's great.

:[Cueball looks at Black Hat who has turned back starting to type on his computer.]
:Cueball: You're sickening. This is why we can't have nice people.
:Black Hat: I can't help it. It's like shooting lonely, angsty fish in a barrel.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Journal|01]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Journal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

Talk:1585: Similarities

2017-02-01T05:01:14Z

172.68.34.58:

;Origins

I've heard 50 Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan fiction, but don't know how The Martian came to be. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.115|108.162.216.115]] 05:56, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

-- Still missing from the explanation is what kind of brand ''The Martian'' is about... -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.217|162.158.114.217]] 08:18, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:NASA? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.238|108.162.229.238]] 08:22, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:A Mars bar? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.65|141.101.98.65]] 09:09, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:I'm going with NASA. --[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 09:30, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:The Martian has a feel a lot like Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and other Mars stories. [[User:Jv|Jv]] ([[User talk:Jv|talk]]) 18:37, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: It is Twilight fan-fiction. The original version is still availble for free. They just renamed the characters and removed references to Christian being a sparkling vampire and published it as a new book.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.115.22|162.158.115.22]] 08:43, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
::Allegedly removed by the author, first from the fan fiction sites and then her personal site just prior to publication! And you're right, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/02/11/the-most-scandalous-part-of-fifty-shades-of-grey-isnt-the-sex-and-bondage/ the original is 89% similar to the published trilogy]. Names have been changed to protect the author from legal battles, and [http://www.avclub.com/article/holy-crow-fifty-shades-grey-crazy-similar-its-twil-215185 crucial changes from "holy cow" to "holy crap"] were also made.
::[http://www.literarykiss.com/2012/10/communication-in-fifty-shades-of-trey.html I even found a few graphs about its literary horror and crap references, for people like me who are easily amused. Unfortunately it's so bizarre I'm feeling the effects of Poe's law here. Is it really that bad, or is this some parody? I'll never read the books to find out. --[[User:Fedora-tionOfPlanets|Fedora-tionOfPlanets]] ([[User talk:Fedora-tionOfPlanets|talk]]) 11:28, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

I believe Ponytail is not terrified by suggested title. That's more like she thinksthat Cueball will almost certainly read it and dares him to say otherwise. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.53|141.101.80.53]] 11:46, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
: I agree; the ''tell'' is italicized, and that emphasis indicates she's using an American idiom to indicate her enthusiasm for the idea. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.143|108.162.219.143]] 12:11, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: To clarify: in English (American?) slang there are two ways to use "tell me you didn't/wouldn't X".
:A) "(''please/AUGH'') tell me you didn't X" can be translated as "I am horrified to think you did/would-do X, please reassure me you didn't/wouldn't do it:" (usually preceded by a pleading "please" or some exclamation of horror): "please tell me you didn't cross the streams", "ARGH! Please tell me you didn't tell Blackhatguy my email-address, living address and greatest fear!"
:B) (smugly/challenging) "tell my you didn't/wouldn't X" would be translated as "I know you well enough to be 99% sure that you actually _did_/_would_ do X, and I really enjoy your blushing right now because you realise I caught you red-handed, but you cannot lie about it to deny me": "Oh dear Randall, tell me you wouldn't watch a debate between the reanimated corpses of Feynman and Einstein. *Randall blushes in guilty admission* Haha I knew you would"
:[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.193|162.158.90.193]] 12:31, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

:I agree, that was my reading of it too. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.141|108.162.221.141]] 12:48, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: I also agree that she thinks it's a great book idea, I made the change. Not sure how I like the wording I jsed so please edit. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 12:53, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Considering the timing, I wouldn't be surprised if Randall did indeed saw the movie, but had the comics ready in advance and after the movie only added the title and published it. So the part about him not liking the movie based on comics is unfounded. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:47, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

:It also seems like pure speculation. Is Randall's opinion on Fifty Shades of Grey even known? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.114|108.162.216.114]] 15:08, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Is the sojourner used to communicate in the movie? It seems like it is just kept around to beetle around the hah module and the Lander is used for comms. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.180|141.101.98.180]]IB

As you've given me a spoiler for the film, I've added a spoiler warning [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:52, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Curiously, in Italian the third book of the series (fifty shades freed) has been actually translated as "Fifty Shades of Red". --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.23.193|162.158.23.193]] 13:22, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Is it of any relevance that "red" is a common safe-word for bdsm?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.79|141.101.80.79]] 15:29, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: My first thought was that it's a reference to menstruation. And isn't there an infamous tampon scene in the book/movie? [[User:PhantomLimbic|PhantomLimbic]] ([[User talk:PhantomLimbic|talk]]) 10:50, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
::The tampon scene is only in the book. I think most people can understand the decision to leave it out of the movie ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:55, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

Just saw The Martian today, and it is really great. Now I think I have to put the book on my x-mas wish list ;-) (and of course a pet mars rover) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:55, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

So "The Martian" could be more validly compared to "John Dies At The End"? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 21:18, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Why are there no references to the London Fire Brigade's "Fifty Shades of Red" campaign? See here: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/558213/Fifty-Shades-of-Red-London-Fire-Brigade-tweets-funny-callouts --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.58|172.68.34.58]] 05:01, 1 February 2017 (UTC)