explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2987: Tectonic Surfing

2024-09-19T19:38:52Z

172.69.140.184:

{{comic
| number = 2987
| date = September 18, 2024
| title = Tectonic Surfing
| image = tectonic_surfing_2x.png
| imagesize = 447x210px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The worst is when you wipe out in the barrel and you're trapped for several million years until erosion frees you.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OVERCROWDED SURFBOARD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Surfing (disambiguation)|Surfing}} is a sport where the participant tries to stand or otherwise remain stable on a moving surface as long as possible. Traditionally the name "{{w|surfing}}" refers to riding a {{w|surfboard}} that is itself floating on the {{w|Wind wave|ocean waves}} as they crash into shore, but in colloquial English it is possible to "surf" other things such as a {{w|Crowd surfing|crowd of people}}, the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN9I2kwQLbw floor of a moving bus], or the {{w|Internet}}.

In this comic, [[Beret Guy]] is surfing the Earth's tectonic plates. Tectonic plates move very slowly compared to a normal surfing experience. So slowly, ordinary people perceive them to be stationary ground. But Beret Guy, in typical Beret Guy fashion, sees the broader picture in the most whimsical way possible and is now surfing the plates across the Earth's mantle below. He seems to be moving horizontally at about 4-5 cm/year (~1 m/20 yrs) which would put him on one of the moderately fast plates,<ref>https://www.pnsn.org/outreach/about-earthquakes/plate-tectonics</ref><ref>https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/tectonics.html</ref> at least relative to the more stable North American plate.

While doing this he says [https://www.wavetribe.com/blogs/surfboards-waves/glossary-of-surfing-terms-and-surf-slang#R "Radical"], [https://www.starsurfcamps.com/news/know-your-surfing-lingo-surf-jargon/ "Gnarly"], and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka_sign "Hang loose"] which are commonly used among surfers. And after 20 years he is still standing there having moved 1 m with the continental plate. This is thus another of the [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|Strange powers of Beret Guy]], being able to stay in place for 20 years. This was also seen in [[1088: Five Years]], where he waited five years to find out where he would be after that time. So this comic only spans a four times longer interval.

The title text refers to riding the barrel, in which one surfs inside the hollow part of a breaking wave, while a wipe out means you get swept off your surf board. If you wipe out in a barrel, you most likely submerge under water. If this were possible in tectonic surfing, you would be stuck under a tectonic plate and you would have to wait until the material in which you're trapped erodes. In reality, there's no such thing as breaking waves in plate tectonics, but there are {{w|Fold (geology)|geological folds}} that can be seen as similar to the way that turbulent water mixes. Things do get trapped when two tectonic plates collide in a process called {{w|subduction}}, in which one plate disappears below another.

Of note, Beret Guy is mentioned to have a "subduction license", as seen in [[1388: Subduction License|this comic]], so he may have some recourse in such a situation . And because of said lincense, he will survive and reemerge from the continental plate barrel in a million years time.

A previous comic about tectonics being slow is [[2061: Tectonics Game]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball walks up to Beret Guy who is standing with one leg in front of another and his arms spread wide.]
:Cueball: What are you doing?
:Beret Guy: Tectonic surfing!

:[Cueball is standing behind Beret Guy, who is in the same pose.]
:Beret Guy: Radical!
:Beret Guy: Gnarly!
:Beret Guy: Hang loose!

:[Beret Guy is alone, still in the same position in the center of the panel.]

:[Beret Guy is in the same position, but at the right edge of the panel with his head partly outside the right edge. Above him is a box with a Caption:]
:20 years later:

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Geology]]

Talk:2960: Organ Meanings

2024-07-19T08:44:09Z

172.69.140.184:

how is thymus formed [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.102|172.70.85.102]] 07:00, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
: It grows from seed.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.97|172.69.194.97]] 12:23, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

You think Randall might have made this one as a ploy to have explain xkcd educate him on the organs and metaphors mentioned? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.33|162.158.146.33]] 07:59, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Why is 'Liver' so high up on the metaphor scale? The only one I can think of is 'lily-livered', which doesn't appear to make much sense at all. On the other hand, I'd have 'Spleen' nearer the top, and 'Tongue' fairly high up as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 08:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:Agreed; personally I’d have liver and tongue switch places, and I’d guess the one who added silver-tongued and biting one’s tongue would probably agree also. But that might be because I understand the biological function of a liver better than the average person does. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.5|172.70.210.5]] 08:21, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:: Are those really metaphors, though? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.40.152|162.158.40.152]] 09:24, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
::: They aren't, or at least not metaphors to the tongue. Just done an edit, before having read this, to remove the visibility of "silver tongue" (a tongue that is metaphorically as silver... or maybe even quicksilver) and a "bitten tongue" (the tongue as if restrained by biting). Though there are other forms, the metaphor to biological function must be of the general "it is the tongue of the <something else>" type, maybe such as a tongue of lava or the tongue of an oil-can (one being an extending appendage, the other additionally being a contact depositor of liquid - though not always consistent in application).
::: Something can more easily be understood as the metaphorical heart/nerves/spine/etc of something, and we also have a good understanding of what the originals do. A sewage treatment plant can be considered the kidneys of a town (arguably more understood than a liver of one, for example, so I'd have personally switched the two), but it gets more complex with some of them. In the case of the appendix, we pretty much ''only'' know (in lay-use) that it's a spare fleshy bit that might or might not have any use, so the metaphorical 'equivalent biological function' of a "town's 'appendix'" is probably more understood than a body's ''actual'' appendix, for most people, the opposite of the situation with metaphorical/actual tongues. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.64|172.70.91.64]] 10:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:::: Your understanding of metaphors is... unique. A "silver tongue" certainly is a tongue-based metaphor; we're referring to someone's manner of speech as their "tongue".{{unsigned|Collapsinghrung}}
::::: From my perspective, that's a tongue-''targetting'' metaphor. "He has a tongue of silver" (in this case "tongue" is a metonym of "manner of talking", not a metaphor). Your understanding of what the tongue refers to is different from metaphor/simile, etc, as it ''is'' the thing (the talking) that is refered to. It's the silverness that's an metaphorical element. Or, like "To bite one's tongue", having become an established idiom. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.145|172.70.86.145]] 16:46, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
: The one I think of is "What am I chopped Liver". Though according to google that is usually a Jewish metaphor (which I am) {{unsigned ip|162.158.158.103}}
:Liver has medieval English metaphors for bravery too, but afaik usually in the context of weak-liver = cowardly; e.g. lily-livered. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.130.19|172.69.130.19]] 14:25, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:Euch ist wohl ne Laus über die Leber gelaufen! (German proverb, "=someone angered you?!") [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.115|172.71.160.115]] 07:12, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that 'Metaphor meaning' is going to work as a column in the table - several of these have multiple metaphors associated, often with varied and little-related meanings.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.249|172.70.160.249]] 12:20, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

I just added the line about anatomical metaphors varying from culture to culture. Would people like to include any examples of culturally variable metaphors? I think it was Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" where an Eastern European character kept shouting out "spleen". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.172|172.70.46.172]] 12:58, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:One example off the top of my head - and might need a proper reference to add - is the common use of Kidneys in metaphor. Afaik, the most common-slang in NA for that is "ow my kidneys" as in "I laughed so hard, my kidneys hurt now." Meanwhile, in many East Asian cultures, references to the 'kidneys' is most commonly used as an euphemism for sexual performance due to the connection to traditional medicine, where having sex is seen as 'exerting/damaging the kidneys.' E.g., feeding someone food 'good for the kidneys,' references to 'oh, your kidneys have been overexerted lately,' 'are your kidneys okay,' etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.38|172.69.214.38]] 14:05, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
::Kidneys are also often referred to, typically facetiously, as a high value object one can sell in a pinch. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.184|172.69.140.184]] 08:44, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I think tongue is placed strangely low on the metaphor axis. Usage of "tongue" to mean language, conversation, or other speech (i.e. "mother tongue," "silver-tongued," "speaking in tongues") is well-established. Secondly, I also feel kidneys should be higher with the added metaphorical definition of value, as in "you'd have to sell a kidney." [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.184|172.69.140.184]] 08:44, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

==Humors==
Bodily fluids ({{w|humors}}) had the same overlap, with early doctors thinking that fluids influenced moods (giving us terms like "sanguine", "phlegmatic", "bilious"). Could someone add a section about that? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.23|172.70.47.23]] 15:28, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

== Confusion about "appendix" ==

Your table in the article says that "appendix" has a metaphorical meaning of "uselessness", but I don't think this is true. Can you find a dictionary that has a figurative sense? Wiktionary for example does not [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/appendix]. I think Randall may be a little confused about what is a metaphor, and may have intended "appendix" here in the sense of an extra part added to a book or academic paper etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.138|172.70.85.138]] 08:05, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2883: Astronaut Guests

2024-01-21T18:14:19Z

172.69.140.184:

Bot's down so i took the liberty of making the page myself [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 03:12, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
:The bot isn't actually down. I think you just saw the comic before it did! —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 03:37, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
:: If that's the case i find it really weird that Randall posted at *checks time* 10:40 PM... uncharacteristically late upload from my experience, assumed bot was down [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 03:47, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
Dining room is 50 meters long? ----Bob thé Farmer----
:I don't think that's how long they were over the dining room, but how long they were over the property. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.56|172.69.247.56]] 16:35, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

It is quite curious that this comic was published exactly when an italian wannabe astronaut (twice discarded by ESA) finally managed to get into outer space by having the italian armed forces pay for his ticket, so now he's on ISS as a *guest*. Of course it's impossible that Randal was hinting at this, but it's an amazing coincidence. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.114.175|172.71.114.175]] 17:26, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Noting in the Explanation that the length of the ISS solid angle 'area' is going to be a footprint slightly smaller than the stated size of the ISS (not by much, as it isn't really that far up, compared with how far the centre of the Earth is down, but it ''will'' be smaller. Also that (by my own from-first-principle calculations - please ''do'' check my stated working assumptions given in the relevent Edit Summary, or just do it yourself from scratch) slightly over a fifth of the Earth's surface ''never'' gets to experience the ISS being directly overhead. I was going to enumerate the sort of 'general chance that any given point at any given latitude might have the ISS above it', perhaps then to shove overflying speed (assuming zero eccentricity - which it pretty much is), compared with any given proportion of a surface latitude (assuming zero Earth oblateness - even though it is certainly a little bit, even at first approximation). But that seems overkill to actually Explain. Though I think it ''will'' make an interesting graph of +/-latitude vs overlfly 'timeshare' so I'll perhaps do that for my own entertainment momentarily. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.67|172.70.86.67]] 20:34, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Alright, who's going to start trying to narrow down the specific places where this comic could be set, assuming a reasonable definition of "dinnertime" and "mid-August"? Not it. [[User:Reschultzed|Reschultzed]] ([[User talk:Reschultzed|talk]]) 16:49, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

If anyone is interested, his guests that day would have been ISS Expedition 32: Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin, and Yuri Malenchenko of Russia, Joseph M. Acaba and Sunita Williams of the US, and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.64|172.69.247.64]] 17:13, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Someone needs to make a calculator for this. I need to use this statement but I also don't want to be flat out wrong. Like, enter in a GPS coordinate and you get sets of dates the ISS was overhead and who was in it. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.184|172.69.140.184]] 18:14, 21 January 2024 (UTC)