explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2177: Gastroenterology

2019-08-09T02:34:17Z

172.68.46.77: /* Transcript */ good to me

{{comic
| number = 2177
| date = July 17, 2019
| title = Gastroenterology
| image = gastroenterology.png
| titletext = "Mostly it means that I'm acutely aware that the kid one table over coughed as the server walked past with our food."
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Gastroenterology}} is the study of the normal function and diseases of the digestive system: esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon and rectum, pancreas, gallbladder, bile ducts and liver.

{{w|Antibiotics}} are substances that kill bacteria. They are effective at treating bacterial infections, including in the gut; unfortunately, they can also kill the normal gut bacteria. {{w|Probiotics}} are harmless or helpful bacteria which are sometimes used to replace the bacteria killed by an antibiotic. This reduces chances of re-infection by pathogens, and allows the natural gut microbiome to recover more effectively; [[1471|comic 1471]] was about the same theme. Probiotics are included in many foods, such as yogurt, as well as supplements, and are marketed as having health benefits.

The comic plays on the names probiotic and antibiotic. When {{w|matter}} and {{w|antimatter}} are mixed, they {{w|annihilation|annihilate}} each-other, rapidly releasing energy (an explosion).
This comic imagines a similar process when probiotics and antibiotics are mixed: Ponytail and a nurse runs into a room, with someone chasing after them, leading the nurse to exclaim that “they’re right behind us.” Ponytail mixes the probiotics and antibiotics, and throws the jar like a grenade, before continuing to run with the nurse. The reaction between the probiotics and antibiotics causes the jar to explode presumably killing the pursuer. In reality, antibiotics and probiotics are often used simultaneously during treatment, but they are taken so that they do not mix (taken at different times or by different methods). Mixing them as in the comic, would just cause the antibiotic to kill the probiotic bacteria. Explosive reactions between antibiotics and probiotics are highly unlikely{{Citation needed}}.

Matter and antimatter would react pretty much instantly upon mixing, not a short time later, as in the comic. (Also, one could not keep antimatter in a normal jar, or pour it in an atmosphere). The reaction shown is similar to the reaction between a strong acid and a strong base, which could cause an explosion after a short delay if kept in a tightly sealed container like a water bottle, as in the explosion here.

In the last panel, Ponytail is giving a more mundane summary of what gastroenterology is like (lots of paperwork) this is similar to Indiana Jones saying that archaeology is boring{{Citation needed}}. The explosion sequence might be Ponytail's action fantasy of what the job could be, or it might be Megan's fantasy, and Ponytail is telling her what it is actually like, or the action could be real, and Ponytail is covering it up.

In the title text, Ponytail adds that her work makes her aware of a child coughing as the server was bringing food at the restaurant table, exposing the food to possible germs that could cause a gastrointestinal infection.

==Transcript==
:[The first five panels appear in a single row.]
:[Ponytail, wearing a lab coat, and a guy wearing a scrubs hat rush in from the right side of the panel. Ponytail is holding a water bottle. There is a desk on the left of the panel with two jars.]
:Hat guy: Hurry, they're right behind us!

:[Zoom in on Ponytail, behind the desk, pouring the two smaller jars into the water bottle.]
:An arrow points to the left jar: Probiotic
:An arrow points to the right jar: Antibiotic

:[A borderless panel. Zoom out on Ponytail shaking the water bottle to mix the two substances.]
:Shake Shake Shake

:[Ponytail throws the water bottle toward the right side of the panel, at something off-screen.]

:[Hat guy and Ponytail run toward the left side of the panel, as the water bottle explodes.]
:BOOM

:[The last panel is the only panel in its row, appearing at the far right end of the row and slightly narrower than the fifth panel above it.]
:[Megan and Ponytail sitting at a table, facing each other, having a meal.]
:Megan: So what's gastroenterology like?
:Ponytail: Pretty boring. Lotta paperwork.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2182: When I'm Back at a Keyboard

2019-08-09T02:33:17Z

172.68.46.77: /* Explanation */ looks good to me

{{comic
| number = 2182
| date = July 29, 2019
| title = When I'm Back at a Keyboard
| image = when_im_back_at_a_keyboard.png
| titletext = [after typing 1,500 words on feathered dinosaurs, paleontology, sexism, lava, and dinosaurs as animals rather than movie monsters] Sorry to cut it short, I'm on my phone. When I'm back at a keyboard, I can give you another 5,000 words.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is texting someone on his phone. However, since with a {{w|Computer keyboard|full sized physical keyboard}} you can type with all of your fingers, which is generally a much faster and more accurate way than using an on-screen keyboard on a smartphone, Cueball cuts off the conversation and says he will get back to whoever he was talking to when he can type on an actual keyboard, presumably at home and on his computer. While there are multiple techniques for making a smartphone increasingly easier to enter words into using its on-screen {{w|virtual keyboard}}, such as keyboard swiping, on-the-fly spelling and grammar checkers, and voice recognition to minimize using the keyboard at all, the combination of a full-sized keyboard along with a generous sized screen is hard to beat for speed and accuracy when typing larger blocks of text.

The joke is that despite claiming to be more proficient with a physical keyboard, rather than a digital one, [[Randall]] still {{tvtropes|BerserkButton|goes into long rants}} through messages on his smartphone, whenever anybody brings up ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}''.

There might also be a reference on Dennis Nedry, a character from the first ''Jurassic Park'' film. The programmer is responsible for a security sabotage and intends to be away from his keyboard only for a short while, but dies (not altogether) unexpectedly, worsening the situation in the park.

The title text shows a typical sentence from Randall after having been in a chat over his phone. Before the sentence he has written 1500 words on his phone, all related to Jurassic Park, more or less. When he finally have written his fingers off he then says that he will have to stop now but once back at a keyboard, and even though he just typed 1500 words on his phone, he is ready to type even more (5000 words) using his keyboard.

The widespread uptake of mobile devices has stark implications for {{w|user-generated content}} sites on the internet. According to [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/technology/wikipedia-vs-the-small-screen.html a 2014 ''New York Times'' article,] only one percent of the changes to Wikipedia articles were made via mobile devices, although they displayed about a third of all Wikipedia page views that year.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking while holding his phone in both hands. A line from the screen on the phone goes to the text above him, indicating what he writes:]
:Cueball (texting): Sure, I can reply once I'm back at a keyboard and can type more easily.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I say this a lot for someone who routinely types thousands of words in text message conversations when someone brings up ''Jurassic Park''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]

Talk:2139: Email Settings

2019-04-20T16:00:49Z

172.68.46.77:

Character set: I read the choice to be between ASCII only and non-ASCII only. That is, if you select non-ASCII only then you have no ordinary English letters, no decimal digits, no ordinary punctuation. Rather minimally useful.
:: Non-unicode can show ordinary English letters, for example the group starting at U+FF0x, but an ASCII system will see it as binary garbage that will generate unexpected beeps, corrupt terminals, and crash old software. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.196|162.158.78.196]] 20:23, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

ASCII, '''OLD''' ASCII, which is characters 0-127, includes '''ONLY CAPS''', plus the common punctuation and whitespace. The lower case letters are all part of '''EXTENDED ASCII'''. So, limiting to old ASCII, is limiting to all-caps, and limiting to only the second half of ASCII is even worse, as it has all the lower case letters, but, not only no caps, but also no punctuation, whitespace, or numerals.
I'll leave it to someone with a login to make the correction.
:: {{w|ASCII}} 0-127 includes _both_ uppercase and lowercase. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.196|162.158.78.196]] 20:23, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

Show unread email count: Wording in the graphic is ambiguous for me. Does show unread email count on my projected day of death mean a) show, today, what will be the count on my projected day of death, or b) wait to show any count until the very day I will probably to die. Choice a is indeed probably depressing. Choice b is more of a pop-up surprise if you didn't know it was coming, saying Hey, buddy, here's your final score, well done. JohnB [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.37|173.245.54.37]] 14:15, 19 April 2019 (UTC)
:: I interpreted the unread email count as you laid out in option "b," this could be a reference to the relatively new features of social networks which create "memorialized" profiles for members who died. This number would undoubtedly be like a memorial, provided you actually died on that day. If you didn't die it would be like a pop-up. It could also be a simple exaggeration of the statement that you'd rather not see your number, as seeing the number is depressing. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.59|172.69.70.59]] 15:24, 19 April 2019 (UTC) Sam

I was going to edit the page with specifics on when html e-mail came into use, because I was sure I was using/experimenting with html in e-mail as early as 20 years ago. But looking at the wikipedia page on the topic seems to suggest that the adoption was much sooner than that, but I can still remember using html when I was a teenager, so I'm not sure what's going on here... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.59|172.69.70.59]] 15:24, 19 April 2019 (UTC) Sam
::I certainly remember sending emails with HTML formatting back in the late 90's. IIRC, I was using Netscape Communicator(?) and it used html snippets in an otherwise ascii email. At my first job in the early oughts, I had to manage an email subscription list for a newsletter that used mime-encoded multipart html emails. Not all the subscribers could see the html part, and I think AOL users often got gibberish due to bad support for mime-encoded messages in the AOL email client. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.77|172.68.46.77]] 16:00, 20 April 2019 (UTC)

Seems to be that since the first option says 'reply functionality' the option which says 'Forward to Address Book' does not allow you to type a reply. Rather than 'forwarding your reply to your address book' I believe this would simply forward the email to everyone in your address book. Make sense as a joke at the expense of people who just forward emails/email chains. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.44.144|172.69.44.144]] 16:26, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

Despite what the explanation currently indicates, "reply all" definitely means reply to all recipients of the original email. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.59|172.69.70.59]] 21:15, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

2135: M87 Black Hole Size Comparison

2019-04-11T15:52:21Z

172.68.46.77: Anti-Semitic diatribe by Troll deleted.

{{comic
| number = 2135
| date = April 10, 2019
| title = M87 Black Hole Size Comparison
| image = m87_black_hole_size_comparison.png
| titletext = I think Voyager 1 would be just past the event horizon, but slightly less than halfway to the bright ring.
}}

==Explanation==

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

:Size comparison:
:'''The M87 Black Hole'''
:and
:'''Our Solar System'''

:EHT Black Hole Image
:Source: NSF

:[An image of the M87 black hole captured by the event horizon telescope on the day that this comic was published is shown. A white ring about 1/4 of the diameter of the central black portion of the image is labelled with an arrow as 'Pluto'. A small white circle at the centre of the image is labelled with an arrow as 'Sun'. A small white dot on the right hand edge of the central black portion of the image is labelled with an arrow as 'Voyager 1'.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]