explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2287: Pathogen Resistance

2024-07-25T14:58:09Z

172.69.195.6:

Note that the title text says "not not" -- meaning we're both trapped in here together [[User:John.Adriaan|John.Adriaan]] ([[User talk:John.Adriaan|talk]]) 04:38, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:Randall fixed that. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:38, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Do bacteriophages "afflict" humanity? To my knowledge, they only infect bacteria and are even considered a possible future alternative to antibiotics by some. What is up with them being represented here? 09:12, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
: Yeah, bacteriophage is just wrong here, it's a generic virus. This type of virus is depicted on the bacteriophage wikipedia page but viruses that affect humans can have that shape also. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.94|172.68.51.94]]
: There are no known human viruses of that shape (source: I'm a biologist), so this seems like more of a mistake on Randall's side (albeit an odd one for him to make, so perhaps somehow deliberate?). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.155|162.158.91.155]] 08:55, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
::But... if it affects bacteria and humen have many bacteria (and many/most of them useful) in them, shouldn't it affect the human then as well? indirectly? Source: I have very vague knowledge :D --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:06, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
::It may be deliberate in the sense that almost everyone will go "Oh, that's a virus!" when they see this shape, contrary to the other 2 which look more like big molecules or bacteria.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.7|162.158.111.7]] 09:20, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:: The bacteriophage point is now very nicely addressed in the explanation. Good job to all who contributed to that part! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.105|162.158.93.105]] 21:04, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Don’t worry, pathogens! All is not lost. There will always be some humans whose brains don’t work very well, who will buy into ideas like “vaccines cause autism”, or “faith healing”, or “natural remedies”, or “Trump is always right”. You’ll still have hosts. [[User:Tualha|Tualha]] ([[User talk:Tualha|talk]]) 07:27, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:That's right [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.158|108.162.216.158]] 13:13, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
::Not really "always". Those might eventually go extinct. Assuming this kind of stupidity is hereditary ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:::Arthur C. Clarke said decades ago "It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value." Likewise the hope the COVID-19 pandemic will eliminate people based on their unintelligent behavior is not proven. Based on limited data I am guessing the behavior of people around us affect our survival more then our own behavior.[[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 13:24, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
::::I'm not speaking about stupid people in general, but specifically about antivaxers. THOSE might be completely eradicated by some epidemic. Maybe not this one - definitely not before we find some vaccine for it (although, you know, there ARE some reports about TB vaccine having some effect) - but eventually ... hmmm ... actually, that would be quite effective pattern. Imagine some new patogen related to some we already vaccinate against but much more contagious. All people not vaccinated could be dead before we realize what they have in common and what allows the other to survive it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:22, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Bacteriophages only infect bacteria and some kinds of Archaea, not humans, so the explanation is slightly wrong. They are probably the prettiest and easiest to recognise viral shape though, which is why they are so commonly used in cartoons and illustrations.[[User:Phil|Phil]] ([[User talk:Phil|talk]]) 08:29, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:I am just as much a hobby-virologist as anybody else suddenly is, but I have no clue what you are talking about. I don't even know which of the 3 shapes you mean. So please edit the explanation yourself if you see, that it is wrong. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:37, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:: The narrator-virus in the middle of the three, that looks somewhat like a rotation of a mosquito, with a D20 on top. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage#/media/File:PhageExterior.svg Wikipedia diagram] [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.13|141.101.69.13]] 12:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:::D20 systems have a lot to answer for. The original D6 Star Wars worked well enough, and now I learn the D20 version spread viruses! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 11:23, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

"They bought lots of pasta." More like they bought lots of toilet paper! Humans, when we think rationally, can make great things happen. Humans, when we panic, can make incredibly foolish decisions. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 11:32, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:It's both. At least in the supermarkets close to my place (western Germany), pasta, toilet paper, rice, milk, flour, yeast are all common to be out of stock or almost out of stock and usually their shelfes have by now signs that they will only sell a certain amount of them to each customer. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:14, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
::Here in Italy toilet paper was never missing, whereas in some supermarket there was a pasta shortage (except for ''pennette lisce'', obviously, which nobody likes so they stayed on the shelves).
::--[[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.160|188.114.102.160]] 03:03, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

:Any chance this reveals Randall as a secret Pastafarian? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.46|162.158.34.46]] 13:23, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Why does one of the voices say, "I hate lungs"? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.62|108.162.216.62]] 13:08, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:Isn't it just a reference to Grouchy Smurf ? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.210|108.162.229.210]] 08:27, 3 April 2020 (UTC)
:To emphasize that they really do want to destroy those lungs. All good here. 13:13, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
::It actually doesn't make sense. Pathogens LOVE lungs - it's a great place for them to have party in. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:::I always imagined it was just a reiteration of a past conversation, to whit something like: "Not another lung? We never get to see anything else. Really, George, I don't know why you keep on booking the same old package deal ''every'' time we go abroad. You know, Janice's family always try something different. Instead of just flying in and sitting on the lung all the time they do exciting things like camping out on an interesting door handle then hitching rides on fingers into noses, or even dining out and taking a chance on an unwashed cup to introduce them to an interesting new throat..." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 11:23, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

This comic is a positive message giving good advice to people on how to beat the current COVID-19 spread. But the numbers clearly show it is not working (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-52066105/coronavirus-us-death-rates-v-china-italy-and-south-Korea, and many other locations on the internet.) Continuing to believe this pandemic can be beat with only lock-downs, hand washing and telling people to not do things they do naturally without thinking, is the public health equivalent of engineering design with friction-less surfaces and mass-less pullies. We need solutions that understand human nature and tell people to do things they actually will do, not keep saying the same things over and over again despite experience screaming at us that people are not doing it. The 6 places that have controlled the outbreak (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan) have used different methods of testing, tracing, isolating, restricting travel, etc., but the one thing they have in common is a large portion of the population is wearing masks in public. The 5 places with the largest uncontrolled outbreaks (USA (especially NYC) Italy, Spain, Germany and France) are all using the same lock down strategy and all have public health officials discouraging / preventing people from wearing masks in public. This should not be hard to figure out. And saying the limited supply of masks need to go to certain people, not working to increase the number of masks, is what failure looks like. {{unsigned|Godzilla}}
:You know that it's possible to make a mask from piece of fabric at home? It may not be as good as professional mask but would still provide some sort of protection. Also, the amount of masks will go up if China starts making them ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:Masks like the 1.2 million defective ones that a Chinese manufacturer sold to the Dutch government for the care workers? Or the simpler ones that Dutch experts say aren't effective because they're bound to be used incorrectly and thus give a false sense of security? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.219|172.69.54.219]] 18:09, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:In a situation like the current one it is wise even for expert epidemiologists, virologists and medical practitioners to be very careful in their assumptions, analyses and conclusions. For anyone with little or no expertise in those fields, that goes doubly so. Note, for instance, that the regions you name as having controlled the outbreak also have very different social customs from those you name as uncontrolled. To an Italian, the everyday way Asians (excuse the generalizations) interact with each other is pretty much equivalent to "social distancing". When you regularly shake hands or hug (and then touch your nose or eyes, which people do constantly and subconsciously), the mask is not protective. In other words, there are many factors beyond simply wearing masks that can explain the current differences in virus spread, if such differences are even real (the current numbers are heavily skewed by test availability and criteria for who gets tested). More generally, we currently simply do not have enough information to confidently answer all the questions about this disease and how we should best combat it. Thus, I would recommend using expressions such as "this should not be hard to figure out" sparingly, especially given the knowledge that many very smart and highly trained people are working on "figuring it out"... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.105|162.158.93.105]] 21:21, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
::I agree it's not so trivial to figure out, but also that we should both start wearing masks and stop with the shaking hands - both is easy enough to try. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
:::"In a situation like the current one it is wise even for expert epidemiologists, virologists and medical practitioners to be very careful in their assumptions, analyses and conclusions. For anyone with little or no expertise in those fields, that goes doubly so. Note, for instance, that the regions you name as having controlled the outbreak also have very different social customs from those you name as uncontrolled. To an Italian, the everyday way Asians (excuse the generalizations) interact with each other is pretty much equivalent to "social distancing"."
These statements are true. It is also true the the 6 places that have controlled the outbreak the best have very different social customs from each other. Likewise with the 5 places where the outbreak is spreading the most; Germans generally do not behave in public like Italians, but both cultures are experiencing similar 2-3 day double rates.
"...given the knowledge that many very smart and highly trained people are working on "figuring it out"..." We all know countless examples in history of "very smart and highly trained people" being wrong for very long periods of time (no-such-things-as-germs, the-earth-is-the-center-of-the-universe, etc.) And the differences in the spread of this outbreak in different countries is not trivial; it is spreading 10s or 100s of time faster in some places then others. These differences are not being explained adequately by the "very smart and highly trained people". At some point we need to realize what we are being told does not match what we are seeing. When we do we will start solving the problem. [[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 13:24, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
:To summarize your argument: Because even experts *can* be wrong (true!) we should always critically evaluate any information we receive (fully agree!). If in doing so we recognize an apparently obvious and seemingly reasonable pattern, we should assume our conclusions are true (uh-oh) and the experts must be wrong (uuuh) and we should announce our truth on the internet while deriding others' efforts to handle the crisis (ouf). You may be right about the masks, you may not be right. Time and more research will surely tell. Either way, however, I hope you can appreciate why someone might take issue with your approach to the problem. Cheers! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.101|162.158.91.101]] 12:43, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

(Hey, people have been putting replies to someone else's unsigned comment under my joke. Lemme just move mine down here. -Jacky720)
{|class="wikitable"
|
Pathogens: ''infect humans through day-to-day contact'' 
Humans: ''stop day-to-day contact'' 
Humans: Checkmate.
|}
[[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:38, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

:Coccus bacteria: It's not over, right? They can't sustain this. They must be bored and tired. 
:Coccus bacteria: Will they give up? 
:
:2 Years Later... 
:Yes, we absolutely gave up. Some parts of the population did so instantly, and are even doing things to assist the disease. It is never going to end now.
:--[[User:Davidgro|davidgro]] ([[User talk:Davidgro|talk]]) 21:44, 17 June 2022 (UTC) 

OK the news is saying the CDC is reconsidering their position on the public wearing masks. Note it is not you wearing a mask that protects you, but everyone else wearing one, including the people with the virus who do not show symptoms. The mask catches many of the droplets infected people exhale, sneeze or cough out. This reduces the amount of virus containing droplets in the air for you to breath in, reduces the virus on surfaces you touch and then bring to your face with your hand, etc.

Here is the one study on home made masks, finding them to be roughly 1/3 as effective as surgical masks: [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/0921A05A69A9419C862FA2F35F819D55/S1935789313000438a.pdf/testing_the_efficacy_of_homemade_masks_would_they_protect_in_an_influenza_pandemic.pdf Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks]

Here is one of a few studies showing the public wearing masks is effective against the spread of the flu, colds, etc:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6993921/pdf/CD006207.pdf Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses]

Here is one (of many) source for making a mask: [https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/1/21203241/coronavirus-diy-face-mask-homemade-tutorials Everything you need to know about making your own face mask]

[[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 23:06, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

The text on xkcd.com just below the logo has been changed to read "Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!" Not sure if that's worth mentioning anywhere here, or on tomorrow's explanation once the Thursday comic goes up. [[User:Ijpete98|Ijpete98]] ([[User talk:Ijpete98|talk]]) 03:25, 2 April 2020 (UTC)
:We shouldn't rule out some type of April Fool's Day joke! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 04:55, 2 April 2020 (UTC)
:: As far as I'm concerned, the question is whether he has something with elaborate Javascript that he's still working on lined up for slightly belated April Fool's, or is the delay itself the joke, in a way that might make more sense once we do see it? Time will tell. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 11:10, 2 April 2020 (UTC)
:::He ended up postponing the April Fool's joke [[Garden]] for three days because it was too complex. SO sounds like it is this. Was wondering if he would do one after all these corona comics. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:15, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Didn't rabies discover the solution to this? It affects the brain and causes changes in behavior that help it spread. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:29, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

I really wish I had ever been as optimistic about it as Randall here. Even more, I wish I had been wrong not to be.
--[[User:Davidgro|davidgro]] ([[User talk:Davidgro|talk]]) 21:48, 17 June 2022 (UTC)

Oh man did this entire era of xkcd age poorly. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.53|162.158.155.53]] 13:35, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
:It seems that too many people just aren't concerned enough about simply being careful (or instead insist upon their personal 'freedoms', no matter what). Whether by forcing lock-downs to be unlocked-up again prematurely or just not being considerate and easing back into the old "I'll cough and sneeze on anyone I choose to" thoughlessness. Emperically obvious, as having to have followup lockdowns (despite all the pressures to terminate the earlier one(s)) shows that the first ones weren't held in place enough to deal with that one initial reason for the lockdowns in the first place, when they could have made the basis for subsequent 'waves' much less substantial.
:Whether or not it was the best solution (no worse than "doing nothing", given the circumstances, and in general terms definitely better) the resulting slide back into complacency and all the perverse counter-lockdown 'justified noncomplience' need not have been the obvious rebound behaviour from the well-intentioned initial public health measures. And one's personal rights should never extend to infringing upon the "life and liberty" rights of those more blameless than oneself. But we are human. And humanity is self-destructive in ''so'' many ways that it need not be. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.6|172.69.195.6]] 14:58, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2957: A Crossword Puzzle

2024-07-23T21:16:16Z

172.69.195.6:

compare https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.236|162.158.158.236]] 20:50, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:randall has now updated the header for this comic to "Today's comic accidentally inspired by this Buttersafe comic from 2011!" and i feel bad for having spotted the similarity and commented on it within 1 minute of this page's creation --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.248|162.158.62.248]] 03:48, 11 July 2024 (UTC) (same anon as above)
::I have made this [[2957:_A_Crossword_Puzzle#Trivia|trivia]] about it and updated the [[Header text]] with this comics new one. This will ave to be updated after Fridays comic comes out. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:06, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

it's *A* crossword puzzle for a reason ;) -- 21:05, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:I suspect that that reason is that someone will inevitably compare the information content of solving this crossword puzzle to the information content of narrating 1190. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.21|172.70.35.21]] 01:25, 11 July 2024 (UTC) I didn't sign. Was that rude? I'm new here, is it ok if I just ask questions?

i’m trying to table-ify it but i keep getting edit conflicted. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.93|172.71.30.93]] 21:24, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Surprised something like "Jagged and loose Hawaiian lava flow (2)" couldn't be fit in (unless I've missed it). Maybe because there were no two-letter answers at all, of course. (I think... Again, maybe I'm missing them.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.38|172.70.86.38]] 21:30, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:In most standard American crossword puzzles, two-letter answers are not allowed; the minimum answer length is 3. However, judging from the quality of the fill in this grid, Randall might have considered an answer such as "Two jagged and loose Hawaiian lava flows next to each other (4)" for AAAA. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.128|172.69.58.128]] 03:04, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

unfortunate that [https://tmbw.net/wiki/Aaa "antepenultimate track of They Might Be Giants' ''Glean''"] did not make it in --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.200|172.70.230.200]] 21:35, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:And where is "Fonzie's catch-phrase"? Or does that end with a Y? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:02, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Did I use the calculator wrong, or 12356631 in base 26 equals 111111, not AAAAAA? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.180|172.69.90.180]] 22:33, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:anyone using base 26 is probably likely to be using all 26 letters, instead of ten numbers and sixteen letters. contextless, i would usually assume any base has standard decimal digits, but liberties have already been taken here so why not (please sign)
::I wasn’t sure enough to comment, but it looks like he miscalculated. 26^5 + 26^4 + 26^3 + 26^2 + 26^1 + 26^0 = 12355631 = 111111 in base 26. To be AAAAAA it would have to be 123556310. Of course, maybe he’s using A through Z instead of the expected 0 through 9 followed by letters A through P, the way hexadecimal is. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.52|172.70.210.52]] 23:16, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:::If he’s using the letters A through Z as the ‘digits’ for base 26, then he’s still wrong, because A would be 0, Z would be 25 and 12355631 decimal would be BBBBBB in that base 26. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.235|172.70.210.235]] 00:54, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:::: I've often seen the digits for base 10 expressed as 1234567890 - perhaps he did similar in his system and Z is 0. {{unsigned ip|172.71.194.44|17:27, 15 July 2024}}
:::It's possibly just a typo and the clue was meant to be 123556310. [[User:TimeLurker|TimeLurker]] ([[User talk:TimeLurker|talk]]) 15:21, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
:The "Qalculate" program has a number base setting called "Bijective base 26", which outputs the answer as "AAAAAAB26. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:23, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm surprised he didn't make this interactive, so you could type into all the cells to fill out the crossword. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:02, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

I made and discarded various theories what the joke might be while I read through the questions, including all numbers, at least two possible solutions for the entire puzzle (I think that happened once in a newspaper), unknowable answers, … Only when I got to the "disregard for gravity" thing did I suspect the right answer and only because I once saw a meta gaming Stack exchange question about its tag. Otherwise it might have taken me until the Morse code question. This was really well hidden! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:23, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

i dare not think about how long this took to make. [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 01:31, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

:In all honesty, this is probably easier to make than a regular crossword puzzle. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.3.146|172.69.3.146]] 05:48, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

https://crosshare.org/crosswords/2YcIAgtQCMBK6clsrNK4/mini-39-literally-screaming [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.4|172.71.146.4]] 02:29, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

It's traditionally doctors that ask you to "say AAAAAAA" when they examine your throat. I'm pretty sure 36 across is supposed to be a joke about how dentists make smalltalk with their fingers in your mouth. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.10|172.70.126.10]] 04:24, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I filled in the answers. Can someone add the solved image? I don't have file upload permissions. https://i.imgur.com/AlDIT1p.png --[[User:Elfakyn|Elfakyn]] ([[User talk:Elfakyn|talk]]) 06:47, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:We need someone to make a picture where it has been solved... :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:15, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
::It seems useful (and funny) to supply the answer(s). Should we show the completed puzzle (which raises questions of font choice) or add a column to the table? My preference would be adding the column. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 11:01, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:::The two above comments was made after Elfakyn's post. I have moved them both here. And then I have downloaded the image and added it to the trivia segment of the explanation. Thanks Elfakyn. I will credit you, please change the credit if you wish to be credited otherwise or not at all. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:13, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

bro tried to nerd-snipe us 😭 [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.96|172.69.194.96]] 07:30, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

People without aphantasia can visualize words in front of them to solve puzzles like 18-across? That's quite impressive, I have to painstakingly count the letters in my head! [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 08:05, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
: ''Some'' people. It's not an all-or-nothing - you can have access to some sorts of visualisation but not others, and it may be clearer or vaguer from person to person.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.118|141.101.98.118]] 07:45, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Every third letter in 'aphantasia' is 'hti'.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.18|172.70.162.18]] 08:17, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:The clue is written like '''E'''ve'''R'''... to give that hint, that it starts on the first letter. Also if you need 4 letters startign on the first and ending on the last is the only way to get a 4 letter answer out of it. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:12, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
::What?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.230|172.69.195.230]] 15:02, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
::Oh - now I'm looking at the comic itself I see what you mean. I was just looking at the explanation before, which was lacking the emphasis - I've put it in now. Still a bit lame as a clue IMO though.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 15:08, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

The Ruby Rhod one is misleading; his ''actual'' catchphrase in the movie is "green", which fits perfectly in the given space. -[[User:Nyerguds|Nyerguds]] ([[User talk:Nyerguds|talk]]) 09:22, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

SHA256 can be cracked much faster than 100 tries/sec. See [https://john-users.openwall.narkive.com/d9vvJ59x/hashcat-cpu-vs-jtr this performance discussion] from 10 years ago, which found that a single thread could do 9068K hashes per second. Recalculating the time for [A-Z]{8}, we find that it would take around 6.4 hours to crack. Still a while, but a far cry from 66 years. Using any form of parallelism (GPU, multicore CPU) would reduce the time further. --[[Special:Contributions/199.111.224.109|199.111.224.109]] 16:37, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:As nobody is doing it this, it's an entirely theoretical speed. And you can rather envisage something happening at a rate of "a hundred a second" for years better than "more than nine million a second" for hours, and thus what it would mean to do something at this rate for this long (or as long as necessary). Though, traditionally, it would perhaps be "one a second" for approximately 6,600 years, I think I rather like the '66 years' value, aesthetically, so one full test every hundredth of a second seems to be nicely demonstrative.
:And going, needlessly, through them at the rate which 'solves' the problem in 6.5 hours doesn't so much impress upon you the difficulty of the task as much as it does the speed one can attempt such a classicly time-consuming problem. Even if you then add the overhead needed to check/collate all the collisions you get along the way. Every time you hit a 'possible', you'd probably do at least a disk-IO to keep a record of it, as you couldn't be sure that you won't have untold number of right-looking but incorrect results and at some poine you probably need to sanity-check and rank what you have in order of most to least likely. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.122|172.70.90.122]] 17:34, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I haven't thought about Dejobaan Games in a very, ''very'' long time. Such a shame Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby never finished, the whole "play rhythm games to your own music" niche never seemed to have gotten off the ground. Still, what a throwback. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.57|172.69.22.57]] 19:32, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall should know that a 1.5V storage device is a cell, not a battery. [[User:HughNo|HughNo]] ([[User talk:HughNo|talk]]) 19:46, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:It's a battery consisting of a single cell.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.225|141.101.98.225]] 07:50, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

There are multiple opportunities for a rebus in here. Are we sure the answers are correct? I believe the first cell of 8D could be a rebus of great length...--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.92|172.70.100.92]] 21:35, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm [[356|really tempted]] to write a program to find out if there's another answer to "string whose SHA-256 hash ends '…689510285e212385'". —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 03:36, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
:For bonus nerd-points, also find out all the ''other'' alternate answers that slot across that different answer (and down over the alternate acrosses, and...). For all we know, the ''whole grid'' might have a valid entirely different solution, but we're feeling so smug for solving it all the 'wrong' way, diverted by fiendishly multivalent clues... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.98|172.70.90.98]] 11:03, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Eh? {{unsigned ip|172.70.90.129|07:37, 12 July 2024}}

I wonder if the black squares could be a pattern for Conway's Game of life... —Potiron[[user talk:Potiron|talk]] 08:58, 12 July 2024(UTC)

:[http://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3316&p=189641#p189641 It doesn't look interesting.] [http://catagolue.hatsya.com/object/xp140_gggw8w78gzy2248zy012sw2w111/ -] [[User:CipherGuide|CipherGuide]] ([[User talk:CipherGuide|talk]]) 12:38, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

There are exactly 60 clues, by the way, although I’m not sure where it would be useful to include that information. [[User:Usb-rave|Usb-rave]] ([[User talk:Usb-rave|talk]]) 14:53, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
:If there had been 65 (or U+0041) clues, that would have been worth mentioning it. Do you know any character encoding where A is encoded as the number 60? {{unsigned ip|162.158.203.68|20:30, 23 July 2024}}

322: Pix Plz

2024-07-23T21:14:31Z

172.69.195.6: Undo revision 347007 by 42.book.addict (talk) Grammatically unsound. Needs redoing, depending upon what the exact intention was.

{{comic
| number = 322
| date = September 28, 2007
| title = Pix Plz
| image = pix_plz.png
| titletext = But one of the regulars in the channel is a girl!
}}

==Explanation==
Though this comic predates it, there is an [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet Internet meme] best stated as "there are no girls on the Internet." It is also known as [http://rules-of-the-internet.urbanup.com/2799580 Rule 16] or [http://rulesoftheinternet.com Rule 30] [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rules-of-the-internet of the Internet]. This comes partly from a supposition that girls aren't smart enough to go on the Internet or even use technology, and more directly from the idea that they are afraid of interacting in such a male-dominated subculture, so anyone claiming to be female on the Internet must be a guy pretending to be one for the purposes of active or passive trolling. Thankfully for humanity at large, the meme is now the opposite of true, but still lives on as a joke, albeit not always a pleasant one. For many users, the {{Wiktionary|puerile}} nature of the Internet creates a repulsive force because of exactly what [[Cueball]] is doing. As soon as anyone claims to be a woman online, there will invariably be a slew of "[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tits-or-gtfo tits or gtfo]" replies.

[[Randall]] projects this stereotypical Internet douchebaggery onto [[Cueball]], who behaves this way out of {{w|misogyny}} thinly disguised as a joke. This barely-a-joke, found in certain areas of the Internet (especially IRC and 4chan), holds the view that women are only "good for" sex and porn. By making such a huge deal out of her being a girl, he directs unwanted sexual attention at any woman who joins.

[[Black Hat]], while usually a destructive force and self-proclaimed [[classhole]], here switches positions with Cueball, standing up for women everywhere. (This makes sense when you consider that Black Hat tends to pursue Randall's thoughts in a more controversial way, see [[86: Digital Rights Management]]). However, he still keeps some of his destructive tendencies and knocks down Cueball's door. He enlists the help of a [[Ponytail]] character named Joanna to [http://banhammer.urbanup.com/1921346 ban] Cueball from the Internet. (More than 9 years later, Joanna is hired to help {{w|Hillary Clinton}} win the {{w|2016 United States presidential election}} in [[1756: I'm With Her]], released the day before that election. She is also shown in the [[1000: 1000 Comics]], where [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2d/1000_Comics_-_The_second_zero_in_thousand_Left_with_numbers.png she is seen at number 653].)

{{w|IRC}} is the acronym for Internet Relay Chat. It is a protocol that eventually evolved into the {{w|instant messenger}}s, {{w|chat room}}s, and {{w|XMPP|XMPP (formerly Jabber)}} servers around today. With the advent of live-streaming video online, IRC channels are making a come-back as a way for hosts and audiences to communicate with each other in real-time.

An {{w|Electromagnetic pulse|EMP}} is an electromagnetic pulse that will disrupt electronics from functioning normally. An EMP is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Small EMPs will disrupt electricity momentarily, while larger EMPs are capable of burning out circuitry and erasing hard drives.

At the title text, Cueball tries to defend his misogyny by claiming that one of his IRC chat system acquaintances is a girl, as if to imply that that makes his words no longer misogynist (this is similar to the defense "I'm not racist! Some of my best friends are black!").

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat stands in the entrance to a room. The door has been broken down. A surprised Cueball has turned away from his computer to face the remains of the door.]
:Black Hat: Hi. I'm here about the girl who visited your IRC channel last night looking for Java help.
:Cueball: What did you do to my door?

:Black Hat: When someone with a feminine username joins your community and you say "OMG a woman on the Internet" and 'jokingly' ask for naked pics, you are being an asshole. You are not being ironic. You are not cracking everybody up. You are the number one reason women are so rare on the Internet.
:Black Hat: At least, the parts of it you frequent.

:[Joanna enters the room, holding some sort of device.]
:Black Hat: As someone who likes nerdy girls, I do not appreciate this. I'm here to ban you from the Internet. The gal behind me with the EMP cannon is Joanna - she'll be assigned to you for the next year. Try to go online and she'll melt your PC.
:Cueball: Dude, she's hot. Is she single?
:Black Hat: Joanna, fire.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:2962: President Venn Diagram

2024-07-23T04:10:34Z

172.69.195.6:

Another really timely comic. Biden just dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris yesterday. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 01:58, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Forget Biden, Hillary, and Obama. This is the endorsement that counts. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.199|172.68.23.199]] 01:58, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

I suppose no one is allowed to say that the upper right circle is mislabeled. It was supposed to say incompetent, dishonest, and despicable. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.25|162.158.90.25]] 02:07, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
:You're allowed to say it, but then we're allowed to suggest (with rather more emperical proof) that her presumptive opponent better fits your rewording. How about we all just don't try to re-run the old arguments (or pre-run the upcoming election) in that sort of tone, eh?
:(To be clear, Randall has made positive comments to his favoured candidate, rather than stooping to arbitrarily attacking their opponent. If you can't at least be as positive in your own convictions then it's really not going to help your cause.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.6|172.69.195.6]] 04:10, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
Well Kamala, you had a good run. Randall has the touch of death when it comes to picking political candidates. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.39|162.158.154.39]] 03:02, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall angling for VP? [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 02:59, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

I think Randall would be good president. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:52, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

The layout of this Venn diagram reminds me of https://xkcd.com/112/ {{unsigned ip|162.158.166.234|03:04, 23 July 2024}}

I think I would probably swap the two. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.23|162.158.174.23]] 04:03, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

2960: Organ Meanings

2024-07-19T17:17:56Z

172.69.195.6:

{{comic
| number = 2960
| date = July 17, 2024
| title = Organ Meanings
| image = organ_meanings_2x.png
| imagesize = 407x346px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = IMO the thymus is one of the coolest organs and we should really use it in metaphors more.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT'S PINEAL GLAND - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is a graph by [[Randall]] ranking how well he understands the function of certain human organs, compared to how much he understands {{w|metaphor}}s using them. 

A number of organs (and other body parts) are used in common vernacular for metaphorical meaning. The English language is full of sayings like "she had a lot of heart", "go with your gut", and "he hasn't got the stomach for it". One might expect understanding an organ's role and its use in metaphor to be strongly correlated, since the metaphors generally work by drawing a parallel to biological function. However, since our understanding of biological functions has evolved dramatically over time, and metaphorical language does not always keep up, the correspondence is often much looser. To complicate matters, many such anatomical metaphors vary from culture to culture, even though the biological functions remain largely consistent.{{Citation needed}}

The {{w|pineal gland}}, located in the center of the brain, was described as the "Seat of the Soul" by the {{w|Mind–body dualism|mind-body dualist}} {{w|René Descartes}} in the 17th century. If this was true, the metaphors that might be derived from it would be quite clear. It was only in the mid-20th century that its real neuroendocrine (hormone-producing) biological role was grasped. Thus, the real meaning of the metaphor "the pineal gland of something" is uncertain, as is its actual function for the layman. It was also described as a "third eye", as its regulation of the circadian rhythm used to be linked to light perception in the organ, and still is in {{w|Tuatara|Tuataras}}. It is also jokingly stated as still the location of the soul within discordianism.

The {{w|thymus}}, highlighted in the title text, plays an important role in the immune system. It is not commonly used in metaphors,{{Citation needed}} but is perhaps ripe for use in ones describing such things as resilience, indomitability, and adaptability to changing circumstance, were more people to know what it was.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Organ !! Biological understanding !! Metaphor understanding !! Biological function !! Metaphor meaning(s) !! Comments
|-
| {{w|Appendix_(anatomy)|Appendix}} || 3% || 85% || Maintaining gut flora, introducing pathogens to the immune system || Uselessness; extraneousness || The appendix was long assumed to be vestigial and have no useful function, and thus could be removed with minimal consequences. Modern research has shown that it retains utility as reservoir for useful micro-organisms. It is also unclear whether metaphorical usages have in mind the body part, or the alternative usage referring to a part of a publication.
|-
| {{w|Nerves}} || 40% || 90% || Sensing stimuli, and controlling muscles and organs || Courage; lack of courage; unsettledness; arrogance; (emotional) feeling ||
|-
| {{w|Spine}} || 50% || 80% || Holding other bones up, protecting the spinal cord || Courage; resoluteness; structural integrity; centrality ||
|-
| {{w|Heart}} || 80% || 90% || Circulation of blood || Emotion; feeling; sympathy; love; courage; resilience; core; essence; the vulnerable self || The function of the heart is (relatively) easy to understand, since it is, in essence, a circulatory pump. However, it has long been culturally associated with emotion and resolve.
|-
| {{w|Bones}} || 75% || 80% || Holding the body up, protection of underlying organs || Basic/underlying structure; something hidden; core; essence; an issue of debate || Bone marrow is the actual source of blood, associated with {{w|four humours|sanguine moods}}, previously believed to be created in the liver
|-
| {{w|Stomach}} || 70% || 65% || Repository for cake and other, less important, foods || Ability to tolerate unpleasant circumstances; motivation || The stomach's primary function is as part of the digestive system, but it's often one of the first organs impacted by illness or disgust, which has made a strong stomach a metaphor for constitution and resolve.
|-
| {{w|Liver}} || 10% || 48% || Processing alcohol and other less important metabolic functions like glycemia regulation, toxin processing, decomposition/production of amino acids and lipids, etc. || Courage or lack thereof (e.g., lily-livered) || Actual source of yellow bile, stored in the gall bladder, associated with {{w|four humours|choleric moods}} but previously believed to be the source of blood
|-
| {{w|Lungs}} || 60% || 52% || Oxygenation of blood, exhalation of carbon dioxide || Loudness (e.g., of singing); purification; aerobic stamina || Source of phlegm, associated with {{w|four humours|phlegmatic moods}}
|-
| {{w|Spleen}} || 22% || 34% || Storing extra blood, filtering blood for damaged cells and pathogens || Anger; viciousness, "venting one's spleen" || Source of black bile, associated with {{w|four humours|melancholy}}
|-
| {{w|Thymus}} || 10% || 13% || Training immune cells (T-Cells) || ||
|-
| {{w|Kidneys}} || 47% || 19% || Filtering blood for metabolic wastes and excess minerals || ||
|-
| {{w|Pineal gland}} || 2% || 2% || Produces melatonin || || Philosophers from Herophilus to Descartes speculated that the pineal gland might be the seat of the soul, or regulate the flow of vital spirits, or otherwise serve an important metaphysical function.
|-
| {{w|Tongue}} || 70% || 5% || Taste, chewing, speaking || Language; unidentified speakers (particularly in relation to gossip/secrets); something long and extended ||
|}

As [[Randall]] does not provide any examples, only his general ratings, it is not entirely clear whether he has restricted himself to metaphors drawing upon the nature of organs (e.g. "heart of the city" or "bone dry") and/or metaphorically describing these organs in terms of another idea ("a heart of gold" or "his bones turned to jelly"). As well as metaphor, the assessment might also involve all closely related (or overlapping) rhetorical devices such as {{w|simile}} ("his heart fluttered like a butterfly"), {{w|metonymy}} ("my mother tongue"), other references with an intent more figurative than literal ("he was a bundle of nerves"), or misattributed bodily functions ("I feel it in my bones"). As such, any contributed examples given here could be disputed in all but the broadest of terms.

==Transcript==
:[A graph is shown with X and Y-axis without arrow or ticks. To the left of the Y-axis and below the X-axis there are labels with an arrow pointing up from the top of the Y-axis label and an arrow pointing right above the X-axis label, just beneath the x-axis.]
:Y-axis: How well I understand what it means when used in metaphors
:X-axis: How well I understand its actual biological function

:[On the graph is a scatter plot with 13 labels. Each label is written inside a line that goes just around the words. There are most in the top right corner, but they are spread all over the graph. Here in approximate reading order from top left with indicating of where on the graph the words are located:]
:[Top left:]
:Appendix
:[Top middle:]
:Nerves
:Spine
:[Top right:]
:Heart
:Bones
:Stomach
:[Center left:]
:Liver
:Spleen
:[Center right:]
:Lungs
:[Bottom left:]
:Thymus
:Pineal gland
:[Bottom middle:]
:Kidneys
:[Bottom right:]
:Tongue

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Language]]

2915: Eclipse Clouds

2024-07-09T11:16:21Z

172.69.195.6: Undo revision 345886 by 172.69.130.122 (talk) Useless "though"s, that should have been comma-asided. No real reason for them, though. (<= that's how you use it!)

{{comic
| number = 2915
| date = April 3, 2024
| title = Eclipse Clouds
| image = eclipse_clouds_2x.png
| imagesize = 526x251px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The rare compound solar-lunar-nephelogical eclipse
}}

==Explanation==

Following on from [[2914: Eclipse Coolness]], Randall makes another comic about the {{w|Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024|solar eclipse occurring on April 8, 2024}}.

[[Cueball]] is checking the weather forecast. At the time that this comic was posted, much of the eclipse path was projected to be overcast, and Cueball expresses disappointment as someone wishing to watch the Moon slowly block out the Sun (and not the clouds obscuring both). The off-panel voice points out the mild irony that he wanted to see something block out the Sun, so the clouds technically fit his wish, leading Cueball to exclaim that he has a specific taste for things blocking the Sun.

The title-text references the 'alignment' of Sun, Moon ''and'' cloud (Nephele [νεφέλη] is Greek for cloud), describing it as rare, although this is not really as desirable as it might make it sound. Sun/Moon conjunctions are already quite rare, so that the balance against Sun/Moon/no-cloud probabilities isn't really so notable. In theory, it should equal being the difference between cloud and no-cloud on any average day for your chosen location. In practice, scholars such as {{w|Murphy's law|Edward A. Murphy}} and {{w|Finagle's law|Finagle}} would argue that conjunctions of the Sun, Moon, and clouds are considerably more likely than a Sun/Moon conjunction occurring on a sunny day.

Note, as of the posting of this comic the weather reports had consistently shown the Eclipse path in Northern Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, the points nearest to Randall's actual home in Cambridge, MA, to have the best potential viewing in the country with near 0% projected cloud cover. While this should in theory negate Randall's anxiety, the historical forecast called for a 75% chance of cloud cover and may have prompted Randall to make other plans like visiting friends or family in sunnier portions of the eclipse path like Texas. Randall may therefore be still faced with the choice of altering his eclipse viewing plans, even if the situation technically favors New England.

"Nephelogical" appears to mean "related to clouds", but misspelled from "{{wiktionary|nephological}}".

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

:[Cueball sits on an office chair at a desk, typing at his laptop.]
:Cueball: These eclipse weather forecasts are killing me.
:Laptop: ''refresh''

:[Cueball remains at his desk. An off-panel voice from the left speaks.]
:Off-panel voice: So you really want to see something block out the sun...

:[Cueball is still at his desk.]
:Off-panel voice: ...But not a cloud. It has to be the Moon specifically.
:Cueball: '''''My tastes are very singular!'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Solar eclipses]]

2955: Pole Vault

2024-07-08T09:08:14Z

172.69.195.6: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2955
| date = July 5, 2024
| title = Pole Vault
| image = pole_vault_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x179px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Ugh, and we JUST went through this yesterday with javelin.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LONG POKEY STICK - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In the comic, [[Cueball]] is making a run as part of a {{w|pole vault}} competition. However, the pole pierced the surface of the Earth, causing it to pop and violently deflate similarly to a balloon.

This does not normally happen during a pole vault,{{Citation needed}} but the title text suggests that the same recently happened during a {{w|Javelin throw|javelin}} competition, presumably when one of the spears pierced the surface in a similar manner to Cueball's pole. No explanation is provided for how the Earth was patched or re-inflated, but apparently the problem was solved in a single day without needing to cancel the event, suggesting that this is a normal occurrence.

The comic ''may'' be inspired by the upcoming {{w|2024 Summer Olympics|Paris Olympics}}, and the geographical location of the burst is indeed somewhere in the European continent. The view of the ragged and deflating Earth suggests the possible epicenter of the burst has more of a vague relationship with that area than it might to [[Randall|Randall's]] own location in the US (the other 'logical' definite setting he might use). The comic precedes any of the actual official competitions (or indeed the official Opening Ceremony) by three weeks, but perhaps this event (and the javelin one) occurred at one or other of the attending nations' training camps, or national trials for a local athletics squad, already established in the general region.

Three comics before this one Randall released [[2952: Routine Maintenance]], where the Earth is being subject to a routine maintenance by pushing the tip of a high pressure canister into Earth and blowing air into Earth to expel debris from inside Earth's volcanoes. That idea seems to be similar, but opposite the one from this comic. With so few days between the releases there might have been some similar thoughts behind the creation of both.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a pole vaulting stick up into the air while running.]

:[Cueball puts the tip of the pole to the ground, making it bend, and causing damage to the ground as indicated with four small lines both above and below the ground where the tip touches it.]

:[In a frame-less panel a big white word is shown inside a black blast bubble:]
:<big>''Pop!''</big>

:[In a black panel a white drawing shows that the Earth has burst, seemingly around Europe, and is now flying through space like a deflating balloon. A curving path is left behind indicating the path the Earth took, maybe indicating the matter (or air) expelled from the burst Earth. The part of the surface visible on the deflating Earth shows most of Asia and Australia and at the far left the eastern edge of Africa.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Geology]]

1501: Mysteries

2024-06-17T12:10:49Z

172.69.195.6: /* Table */ This was always my interpretation, so I'm just going to leave it here (#softserve4thewin) :-)

{{comic
| number = 1501
| date = March 20, 2015
| title = Mysteries
| image = mysteries.png
| titletext = At the bottom left: The mystery of why, when I know I needed to be asleep an hour ago, I decide it's a good time to read through every Wikipedia article in the categories 'Out-of-place artifacts', 'Earth mysteries', 'Anomalous weather', and 'List of people who disappeared mysteriously'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a graph in which several "mysteries" are mentioned and placed on the graph according to how weird they are on the x-axis and the y-axis indicates whether [[Randall]] has an explanation or not for the mystery. Each item is listed in the [[#Table|table below]].

Items near the top-right corner (such as the {{w|Malaysia Airlines Flight 370|MH 370}} disappearance) are both mysterious and strange. Items near the bottom-left corner (such as Randall's absent-mindedness regarding ice cream) have a clear explanation and are not really strange either. Items near the top-left corner (such as the meaning of ''{{w|You're So Vain}}'') are mysterious but not really strange. Items near the bottom-right corner (such as the {{w|Dyatlov Pass incident}}) have a clear explanation but are quite strange.

The title text refers to the mystery of Randall staying up late to read Wikipedia articles, when he was already supposed to be asleep an hour ago. This is apparently not very unusual for him (see for instance [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia]]). And this mystery actually has an obvious explanation: Following up on an idea that eventually led to today's cartoon.

Some of these mysteries have already been explored in xkcd. See [[950: Mystery Solved]] where Randall "solves" Amelia Earhart, Lost Roanoke Colony, Jimmy Hoffa; [[593: Voynich Manuscript]]; and [[1400: D.B. Cooper]].

Note that Randall uses similar diagrams in both [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]], [[1242: Scary Names]] and [[2466: In Your Classroom]], which also contain different items. The first two also have an extra point, and the last two extra points mentioned in the title text. But all these points are in the title text because they are far off the chart, whereas in this comic it's the description of the point that is too long to fit on the chart. Extra info outside the chart is also used in the title text of [[1785: Wifi]], but this is a line graph.

==Table==
The X axis in the graph indicates weirdness. The table assumes that the item to the far left is 0% (not that weird) and the item to the far right is 100% (weird as hell). The Y axis indicates if Randall has an explanation. The table assumes that the item at the bottom is 100% (Randall has a clear explanation) and the item at the top is 0% (Randall has no explanation).

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Entry
!Weirdness
!Explainability
!Further details
|-
|MH370
|100%
|0% 
|On 8 March 2014, {{w|Malaysia Airlines Flight 370}} cut off radio contact and diverted from its flight path with 227 passengers aboard, eventually heading over open ocean, eventually crashing in a remote part of the Indian Ocean. The disappearance remains without explanation, although parts were found on Reunion Island in July 2015. Since the publication of this comic, [https://www.vice.com/en/article/zm8vy8/experts-now-believe-mh370s-pilot-was-on-a-suicide-murder-mission evidence] has emerged to support a mass murder-suicide explanation, which posits that the pilot intentionally depressurized the cabin after locking his copilot out of the cockpit, and then continued to fly the plane after everyone else on board had died from hypoxia by using the cockpit oxygen supply, which lasts much longer than the oxygen masks in the cabin. Under this theory, either the pilot continued flying until the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean, or intentionally crashed the airplane where the wreckage would sink into a deep ocean trench. However, the mystery is [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-missing-flight-mh370.html far from settled].
|-
|Lead masks case
|99%
|12% 
|In 1966 two Brazilian electronic technicians were found dead on a hill top. No injuries. {{w|Lead Masks Case|Both were wearing lead masks}}. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the men may have died of drug overdoses, believing that they were able to communicate with aliens.
|-
|Salish Sea feet
|96%
|31% 
|Over a dozen dismembered human feet {{w|Salish Sea human foot discoveries|were found}} between 2007 and 2016 on the coasts of the Salish Sea in British Columbia (Canada) and Washington (United States).
|-
|DB Cooper
|76%
|20% 
|[[D. B. Cooper]] was an airplane hijacker who jumped from a plane after successfully extorting a large ransom in 1971. The man's whereabouts remain unknown to this day, though [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401312/Parachute-used-hijacker-DB-Cooper-escape-stealing-200-000-goes-display.html some of the ransom money has been recovered]. Previously referenced in [[1400: D.B. Cooper]], which compares Cooper to film director {{w|Tommy Wiseau}}, and later referenced in [[2452: Aviation Firsts]]. Note that this "Mysteries" comic was published shortly after [http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2zdzik/tommy_wiseau_creator_of_the_room_and_the_new_tv/ Tommy Wiseau did a Reddit AMA.]
|-
|The WOW signal
|55%
|20% 
|The {{w|Wow! signal}} was a strong and clean radio transmission near 1420 MHz received by the Big Ear Radio Observatory at Ohio State University in 1977 that [http://www.universetoday.com/93754/35-years-later-the-wow-signal-still-tantalizes/ appears to have originated from interstellar space.] This is the strongest evidence to date of radio signals transmitted by extraterrestrial intelligent beings.
|-
|Mary Celeste
|70%
|43% 
|The ''{{w|Mary Celeste}}'' was a sailing ship found adrift off the {{w|Azores Islands}}, mysteriously abandoned yet otherwise undisturbed, in 1872. Most likely the crew abandoned ship, wrongly believing it was in danger. Its name has become a watchword for mysteriously abandoned ships. Previously referenced in [[516: Wood Chips]], where Cueball attempts to involve the shipwreck in his elaborate hoax.
|-
|UVB-76
|40%
|23% 
|{{w|UVB-76}} is a mysterious shortwave radio station, Possibly serving as a {{w|numbers station}}, apparently originating from Russia, that has broadcast a monotonous buzz tone since 1982 with occasional other content.
|-
|Who Carly Simon is singing about in ''You're So Vain''
|9%
|4% 
|The ironically self-referential lyrics of the 1972 song include "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." There has been {{w|You%27re_So_Vain#Subject_of_the_song|much speculation}} regarding the person or persons to whom Simon was referring. Quoting Wikipedia: Simon [has stated] that the song refers to three men, only one of whom she has named publicly, actor Warren Beatty.
|-
|Zodiac letters
|62%
|62% 
|A set of letters were written by the so-called {{w|Zodiac Killer}}, a serial killer who was active in California in the 1960s and 1970s. The letters are publicly available from multiple places, [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Zodiac_Killer#Letters including Wikisource]. Some of the letters are encoded, only some of which have been deciphered. The killings remain unsolved.
|-
|Dyatlov Pass incident
|93%
|96% 
|On 2 February 1959, nine skiers in the northern Ural Mountains apparently {{w|Dyatlov Pass Incident|fled their tents naked}}. They were found dead, some with physical injuries. Considering his skepticism towards paranormal, conspiracies, or UFO-related phenomena, it is likely that Randall subscribes to the theory that the unusual physical injuries were the result of a {{w|Avalanche#Slab_avalanches|slab avalanche}} or the natural result of decomposition, and that the nudity of the hikers was due to 'paradoxical undressing' - which occurs in some cases with hypothermia. A very interesting YouTube video on the subject is available [https://youtu.be/Y8RigxxiilI?si=fDwub2Lvr_DXo2Ai here].
|-
|Kentucky meat shower
|85%
|93% 
|In 1876, a number of chunks of meat {{w|Kentucky meat shower|fell from the sky}} in Kentucky; this was possibly [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/2014/12/01/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-mystery-unwound-by-projectile-vulture-vomit/ projectile vomit from vultures.]
|-
|Lindbergh baby
|17%
|25% 
|The {{w|Lindbergh kidnapping}} was the kidnapping and murder of 20-month old Charles Lindbergh Jr. in 1932. Various {{w|Lindbergh kidnapping#Controversy|conspiracy theories}} surround the event.
|-
|Lost colony
|74%
|83% 
|The {{w|Roanoke Colony}} was the first English attempt to establish a permanent settlement in the New World. The colony of over a hundred settlers disappeared some time in the late 1580s, with no signs of violence and no definitive evidence as to what happened. However, given the hardships faced by the colonists when they were left and that the buildings in the colony were dismantled, indicating departure was not hurried, it is likely they moved and/or integrated with the local tribes. Which probably accounts for Randall's high "explainable" rating. (See title text of [[950: Mystery Solved]])
|-
|Toynbee tiles
|25%
|34% 
|{{w|Toynbee tiles}} are colorful tiles with cryptic messages that have been found embedded in asphalt in the streets of various midwestern-to-eastern cities in the United States and four South American cities. Analysis has shown that they are linoleum and tarpaper, laid on hot days and pressed into the soft road surface by passing cars.
|-
|Amelia Earhart
|56%
|74% 
|{{w|Amelia Earhart}} and her navigator tried to circumnavigate the earth along the equator in a small airplane in 1937, but {{w|Amelia Earhart#Speculation on disappearance|disappeared}} over the Pacific Ocean without any trace. See also [[950: Mystery Solved]].
|-
|Jimmy Hoffa
|10%
|42% 
|{{w|Jimmy Hoffa}} was an American labor union leader who disappeared in 1975. He is widely believed to have been murdered. (See title text of [[950: Mystery Solved]]). Randall marks this as very much not weird, because Hoffa was heavily involved in organized crime - however he was killed, the motive seems clear.
|-
|Voynich manuscript
|35%
|68% 
|The {{w|Voynich manuscript}} is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. It came to public attention in the early 20th century and probably was written in Italy in the early 15th century. See also [[593: Voynich Manuscript]].
|-
|Loch Ness monster
|64%
|100% 
|The {{w|Loch Ness Monster}} is a supposed animal that reputedly inhabits Loch Ness, a lake in Scotland. Multiple complete scans of the lake using sonar show no evidence of the monster, and the lake ecosystem is far too small to support even a single creature as large as the monster is alleged to be.
|-
|Bigfoot
|60%
|98% 
|{{w|Bigfoot}} is a supposed animal or hominid that reputedly inhabits the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The best piece of evidence for Bigfoot, the {{w|Patterson–Gimlin film}}, retains some mystery - scientists are divided as to whether it's possible for a person in a suit to mimic the walk of the creature in the film - but contains so many features not seen on any real ape (for instance, dark palms and hairy breasts) that few scientists take it seriously. More generally, no corpses or skeletons have ever been found, despite the presence of logging crews in many places where Bigfoots have been seen, and fur and droppings always turns out to be human or from another animal.
|-
|JFK
|38%
|86% 
|The 1963 {{w|Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination of President John F. Kennedy}} has inspired many conspiracy theories, beginning almost immediately after the event. The subsequent murder of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald added fuel to the fire by encouraging speculation that he was silenced to cover up the true story. Many of the details that were initially considered weird - for instance, {{w|Single-bullet theory|the path of the bullet}}, which early analysis showed had flown in a strange curve, audio recordings of multiple shots, and discrepancies in Lee Harvey Oswald's life story - have been found to be erroneous. In particular, careful analysis of the positions of Kennedy and Governor John Connally, who was riding in the car with Kennedy and was also struck by the bullet, show that a single bullet could have caused all the wounds suffered by the two men.
|-
|Oak Island money pit
|32%
|98% 
|An indentation in the ground on {{w|Oak Island}} (off the east coast of Nova Scotia, Canada), led to over 200 years of treasure hunting, with the excavations repeatedly hampered by flooding pit collapses. A few flagstones, and periodic layers of logs are all that have been found. Rumors abound as to what it conceals: Marie Antoinette's jewels, pirate treasure and Shakespeare's manuscripts have all been suggested. It is called The Money Pit, because of all the money that has been wasted in trying to solve the mystery.
|-
|Why I keep putting ice cream back in the fridge instead of the freezer
|0%
|96% 
|Apparently, Randall absent-mindedly puts his ice cream container into the refrigerator rather than into the freezer. These two appliances are very similar and perhaps easily confused. Refrigerators tend to see more use than freezers, overall. Alternatively, Randall could be doing this deliberately to soften the ice cream for when he next eats some, perhaps because this makes it easier to serve, or simply because he prefers softer ice cream.
|}

==Transcript==
:[In a frame at the top left of the panel:]
:'''Mysteries'''

:[A chart with two crossing lines with double arrows. Each arrow is labeled:]
:X-axis left: Not that weird
:X-axis right: Weird as Hell
:Y-axis top: I have no explanation
:Y-axis bottom: Explanation seems pretty clear

:[In the chart there are 22 bullets. Each bullet is labeled. Below the labels are given from top to bottom in each of the four quadrants of the chart:]

:[Top left quadrant:]
:Who Carly Simon is singing about in ''You're So Vain''
:UVB-76
:Lindbergh baby
:Toynbee tiles
:Jimmy Hoffa

:[Top right quadrant:]
:MH370
:Lead Masks Case
:DB Cooper
:The Wow signal
:Salish Sea feet
:Mary Celeste

:[Bottom left quadrant:]
:Voynich manuscript
:JFK
:Why I keep putting ice cream back in the fridge instead of the freezer
:Oak Island Money Pit

:[Bottom right quadrant:]
:Zodiac letters
:Amelia Earhart
:Lost Colony
:Kentucky meat shower
:Bigfoot
:Loch Ness Monster
:Dyatlov Pass incident

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Paranormal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring D. B. Cooper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart]]

Talk:2942: Fluid Speech

2024-06-06T13:10:35Z

172.69.195.6:

I've noticed that this doesn't seem to be the case in all languages. For example, when native Polish speakers talk rapidly (even when speaking English), they enunciate every sound accurately in quick succession while flattening out the tone and rhythm of their speech. I wonder if this is because Polish is an inflected language where the grammar of the sentence is determined by endings of words rather than word order. Does anyone know if there have been any studies on this? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.49|162.158.74.49]] 23:12, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

:I'm not linguists but based on how many those are, definitely. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:10, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

:Russian also has vowel reduction like English and it's a Slavic language like Polish, so I don't think so. Although someone who knows more than me might be able to chip in on whether the effect is stronger in English. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.198|162.158.114.198]] 03:24, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

I've just added a very barebones version of an explanation based on what I could understand from the comic. I can tell that the four diagrams depict that of the human mouth but since I am not a linguist, I lack the knowledge of various terms and thus, can't fully explain the comic. I understand what the comic is trying to convey, I just can't explain it. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 00:22, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

I don't think #4 is a real IPA symbol, but as I am not a linguist, I have no idea. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.36|162.158.91.36]] 01:38, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
:/ə̃/ is a {{w|Nasal_vowel|nasalized}} {{w|schwa}} --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.92|172.71.160.92]] 08:53, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

The hovertext joke is that every English speaker fully pronounces the first "t" in "Hot Potato". It's at the end of "hot". Nobody says "ha potato". [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:01, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

:Unless you mean "the glottal stop should be considered an allophone of <t> at the end of syllables" then yes they do. It's /hoʔ/, not /hotʰ/. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.198|162.158.114.198]] 03:24, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

:(Edit conflicted with 162, above, so this is my own reply...) I thought it was that it isn't "ho T'p otato", with the "teh-peh" awkwardness. For me, the natural way to say it is to glottalstop the first T for more "ho'potato" (the other Ts, there I find awkward ''not'' to get the "t>s<" out of, the ">s<"-tail being what makes a full-T not a lazy one). But clearly a different accent involved, as "ha" doesn't work at all for me unless I try to use some sort of (probably awful) Goodfellas-type accent. And my native accent is notoriously good at glottlestopped Ts (that most people misinpersonate badly, by attaching them to the wrong adjacent syllable).
:As for "going to", experimentally holding my finger over the length of my tongue, it seems it barely has to move at all in "going" (the whole tongue wants to rise on the "i", but I can suppress that and do the tone-change from further back, if not straight from the vocal chords). Though continuing through to the "to", with my finger in there, it's no better than "going ku" as I prevent the tongue-tip doing the necessary small movement to fulfil any form of T. I can do better through basic gastromancy, but behind my unmoving jaw and lips (''without'' the finger almost down my throat, of course), I can feel the tongue tip doing it's small but vital "crossing the T" work. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 03:53, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
:For me, it's more like "ho'buh-deh-duh" - so none ot the t's get pronounced properly. And I'd drop the n in 'going to' before I dropped the t.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 08:22, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

Unless someone's willing to start an "explain explain xkcd", I think this explanation still needs a lot of work to be intelligible to non-linguists (myself included). That aside, I do appreciate whoever took the time to type all that up. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.210|162.158.166.210]] 03:31, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
:The current explain reads, to me at least, more like a 102 lecture than an explanation of the comic. I of course have no idea what is in a 101 first week lecture so shrug. (Aside, wth? This keyboard doesn't have a tilda. Copy and paste ftw) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.38|172.71.223.38]] 05:51, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
:::Meta-response about the {{w|tilde}}: at the top of this editing window is a bar of formatting buttons (which I mostly just try to avoid accidentally clicking when I touchscreen-scroll). The second from the right gives <code><nowiki>--~~~~</nowiki></code>, having a depiction of a signature. (The "--" is not necessary, nor does anything with actual formatting/markup, but comes from quite old text communications standards.) Personally, in this current situation of using an onscreen keyboard, my configurstion hides the tilde behind the "?123" then "=\<" change-keyboard buttons.
:::(Ironically, all three of "=", "\" and "<" are already available as long-presses of the primary keyboard layout. But the much more useful "/" is hidden behind the "?123" press, ''except'' when it explicitly detects that I'm in a browser address field. Some UI designers have strange ideas that definitely mis-mesh with my usage!)
:::That's where I usually go, to sign-off. But on physical keyboards, depending upon internationalisation options, it might be either off the top-left (left of "1" key) 'triple-key, perhaps needing Shift or AltGr fingering (from experience of US (mis)configuring), or the key in the "hook" of the <Enter> key (all my physical UK keyboards, even the most squished-up laptop ones, have that as #~). If you're neither in US nor UK (and your device knows this), then where it gets shuffled out of the way of any ß, ē or ø type stuff, I wouldn't know for sure, but using the AltGr (right-Alt) ''might'' reveal characters you never ever knew you had... ;)
:::Copypasting out of the "<nowiki>Please sign your posts with ~~~~</nowiki>" Infobox or any residual from the {{template|unsigned}} templates is, of course, also a valid option. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.184|172.69.43.184]] 10:18, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
: I think it's fine if you can read/interpret the {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA}}. If you don't it's utterly incomprehensible. I think we need some examples here as to how the sounds written here are pronounced. Like "sound <x> as in <word>" [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:52, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
:: Yeah, except [[2819]] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 08:30, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

>Alien impersonating a human

Sounds like a normal Runglish to me, just like the one you can hear in this clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXNKUo5MrbM]

I hate that he pointed this out, because I'm going to start pronouncing things the way they're supposed to sound and everyone will think I'm weirder. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 12:37, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
: How are you pronouncing 'Psychoticpotato'?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.6|172.69.195.6]] 13:10, 6 June 2024 (UTC)