explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

535: It Might Be Cool

2021-11-15T10:02:53Z

172.69.54.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 535
| date = January 26, 2009
| title = It Might Be Cool
| image = it_might_be_cool.png
| titletext = 'And ovaries. Man, ovaries, huh?' [awkward pause] '... faithfully.'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] (or [[Randall]]) is musing about the possibility of being a woman, to the confusion of the man next to him. His uninsightful rambling would likely be unimpressive and somewhat odd in most situations, but not odd enough on its own to prompt the second man's baffled reaction. However, the true reason for his confusion is revealed by the caption: Cueball is administering the {{w|Oath of office of the President of the United States|presidential oath}}. The oath is administered by reciting it to prompt a new president to repeat them back to him. However, he botches it completely by forgetting about his task completely and wondering aloud about an unrelated topic. Thus, the president's confused question at the beginning is not him asking for clarification; he is repeating what he at first believed to be the oath of office, but got flustered when he realized Cueball had deviated from the script. When Cueball then continues by replying that "the menstruation thing is freaky," the president is completely derailed.

Cueball might be an [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Egg egg]

On January 20, 2009 the inauguration of {{w|Barack Obama}}'s first office took place. Chief Justice {{w|John Roberts}}, who was administering the oath, {{w|Oath of office of the President of the United States#Oath mishaps|made a mistake}} while reciting the words. This comic references the event and wildly exaggerates the deviation from the oath for comedic purposes.

In truth, the error was rather small: the oath as prescribed in the constitution is:
:I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Due to a missed memo on the pauses planned by the Chief Justice, Obama inadvertently interrupted Roberts during the first phrase - Roberts begins by saying I, Barack Obama, do solemnly swear, and Obama repeats his name while Roberts finishes that sentence. This disturbs Roberts who was not using notes, and he rendered the next phrase as "that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully," misplacing the word ''faithfully'' and saying ''president to'' instead of ''president of''. Obama repeated, "that I will execute", then paused. Roberts attempted to correct the wording, but stumbled: "the off— faithfully the pres— the office of President of the United States." Obama then repeated Roberts' initial incorrect wording.

However small the error was it was big enough that Obama did {{w|Oath of office of the President of the United States#Oath mishaps|retake the oath of office}} the day after the mistake was made.

The title text continues the wondering about being a woman going on from the {{w|menstruation}} to the {{w|ovaries}}. To make sure it is clearly the oath mistake that is referenced the sentence ends with '... faithfully.' Thus mimicking the real mistake of placing this word last.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is administering the presidential oath.]
:Cueball: You know, it might be cool to be a woman.
:President: It... might be cool to be a woman?
:Cueball: Yeah, but the menstruation thing is freaky.
:President: Yeah, but... the... um. What?
:[Caption below the frame:]
:Turns out I'm even worse at administering the presidential oath than John Roberts.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2538: Snack

2021-11-09T10:27:53Z

172.69.54.202:

{{comic
| number = 2538
| date = November 5, 2021
| title = Snack
| image = snack.png
| titletext = Although grad students, suddenly reminded that food exists, tend to just grab and devour both without further discussion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the APPLE COOKIE REVIEW BOARD- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many psychological studies involve participants being asked to make decisions under varying conditions, to determine how those conditions influence decision making. A common example is to give subjects a choice between eating a healthy snack (such as an apple) or a tasty snack (such as a cookie), which may be used as a simple proxy for whether they're prioritizing long-term health or short-term gratification. In most cases they are not made aware of the nature of the experiment, as knowing the premise of the study is liable to influence their behavior and alter the results. Instead subjects may deliberately be given a false impression of the purpose of the study, or they may be offered a choice under conditions where they're not aware that they're part of an experiment at all.

Examples of experiments like this are the {{w|Stanford marshmallow experiment}} and [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8656339/ this study].

This sort of psychological study is most commonly done by universities, which means that using university students as subjects is generally the most convenient option. This means both that psychological studies tend to be heavily skewed towards the demographics of college students, and that university students have a pretty good chance of being invited to participate in a study at some point.

The joke in this strip is based on the premise that psychology majors are sufficiently aware of such studies that it would make them suspicious of any circumstances which ''could'' be part of a study. If they've studied (or even conducted) such experiments, anything that reminded them of such a study could cause them to become suspicious. In [[Cueball]]'s case this is exaggerated into outright paranoia, and [[Ponytail]] is apparently playing on that to prank him, offering options that could easily be part of such an experiment just to spook him into suspicion.

Studies done on humans are subject to important ethical controls, particularly if the subjects are not fully informed of the study's purpose. "IRB" stands for {{w|Institutional Review Board}}, which is a committee (for example, at a university) which must approve such research to ensure that there's no significant risk of doing harm to the subjects of the study.

The title text jokes that graduate students have so much work to do that they are liable to forget to eat entirely and stereotypically too impoverished to afford adequate amounts of food; when presented with an offer of a snack, they don't ponder the implications or potential ulterior motives, they just eat it quickly and get back to work.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail, holding a cookie up in one hand and an apple up in the other, addresses an alarmed Cueball. His alarm is shown by seven lines radiating away from his head, and he also holds his arms stretched out.]
:Ponytail: Hey, do you want a cookie? Or an apple?
:Cueball: '''''Who are you!? Did the IRB approve this!? Is everyone here an actor!?'''''

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:The best prank you can play on psych majors is just to offer them a snack.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Food]]

224: Lisp

2021-11-09T08:32:05Z

172.69.54.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 224
| date = February 16, 2007
| title = Lisp
| image = lisp.jpg
| titletext = We lost the documentation on quantum mechanics. You'll have to decode the regexes yourself.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}} is a computer programming language with simple, highly regular syntax. The language's most notable feature is that programs take the same form as the language's primary data structure (the linked list). This blurs the line between code and data and permits programs to inspect and even alter their own source code, thereby opening up deep opportunities for {{w|metaprogramming}}. Lisp is also a {{w|Functional programming|functional programming language}} (though not purely functional, as {{w|Haskell (programming language)|some more recent languages are}}), meaning that programs are expressed in terms that are simple elaborations or extensions of the {{w|lambda calculus}}, a formal mathematical model of computation. This gives programs written in functional languages such as Lisp a distinctively abstract, mathematical form that is commonly considered difficult to fully {{w|Grok#In_computer_programmer_culture|grok}} (see [[1270: Functional]]).

The phrase ''A suffusion of blue'' is a reference to {{w|Douglas Adams}}' book ''{{w|The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul}}''. In it, an ''{{w|I Ching}}'' calculator calculates that everything above the value of 4 is ''a suffusion of yellow''.

In the comic, Cueball marvels at the fundamental and complete nature of the language of creation that he sees in his dream. In the Lisp programming language, "car" is a primitive (i.e. basic) function that produces the first item in a list. The line "My God, It's full of '{{w|CAR_and_CDR|car}}'s" is a pun, most likely referring to the movie {{w|2010 (film)|2010: The Year We Make Contact}}, the sequel to {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey}}. In the book {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, when astronaut David Bowman accidentally activates a star gate, he exclaims as he enters it "The thing's hollow — it goes on forever — and — oh my God - it's full of stars!", although he does not say anything in the first movie during the final sequence. It may also come from the name of a chapter in {{w|The Little Schemer}} called ''*Oh My Gawd*: It's Full of Stars''.

In the second panel, Cueball remarks that, "At once, just like they said, I felt a great enlightenment." This is a reference to a pattern of observations among programmers and computer scientists that while Lisp often seems alien or arcane — even deliberately so, even to experienced hackers, even with repeated exposure over time — truly ''understanding'' Lisp in a deep, non-superficial way, results in a profound epiphany, a sudden and abiding ''illumination'' wherein one's preconceived notions about computation and programming are fundamentally transfigured, oftentimes over the course of a very short span such as during a single all-day hacking binge. Lispers commonly describe the experience as being akin to learning programming for the first time ''again''; {{w|Daniel P. Friedman}} (author of much ground-breaking research and many popular introductory texts on Lisp and programming language design) described it as "[learning] ''to think {{w|Recursive_definition|recursively}}''," and contended that "''thinking about'' [functional] ''computing is one of the most exciting things the human mind can do''."

Cueball's remarks about patterns, metapatterns, and the disappearance of syntax are reactions to the elegant simplicity of the Lisp programming language, in which it is relatively easy to build immensely sophisticated programs using simple recursive elaborations of structure. This is fundamentally unlike the much more typical and common {{w|Imperative programming|imperative programming languages}}, in which programs are written as chains of instructions for the machine to follow.

Cueball then, in the third, borderless panel, muses that this has to have been the language the gods used to create the universe, which is a pretty bold statement that Cueball seems to make because he views Lisp as something flawless and perfect, as these are qualities that often subjectively apply to things that people, like Cueball, claim to have been made or used by gods or other holy beings.

A cloudy, bearded man, presumably representing God, states that this is untrue, and after a surprised inquiry from Cueball replies that the universe was actually hacked together with the programming language {{w|Perl}}. Perl employs an idiosyncratic syntax that borrows liberally from a number of other languages. Although a versatile language often employed for assembling projects quickly (the much-loved {{w|Programming Perl}} introduces it as "[the] ''language for getting your job done''"), Perl has a reputation for being ugly and inelegant, partly as a result of its pidgin-like fusion of many inconsistent language elements and code styles. It was famously described as a "{{w|Swiss Army knife|Swiss-Army}} chainsaw," because it is very powerful but also unwieldy and unattractive. By way of contrast to Daniel Friedman above, {{w|Larry Wall}}, the creator of Perl, criticized the highly cerebral Lisp attitude toward programming with the words
<blockquote>"By policy, LISP has never really catered to mere mortals.</blockquote>
<blockquote>And, of course, mere mortals have never really forgiven LISP for not catering to them."</blockquote>

The joke is that the Creator, like many software developers, was a bit rushed and chose to quickly throw together a working prototype rather than do the job right from the beginning; concurrently, that Cueball, thinking he has discovered an amazing and beautiful secret in the hidden world of Lisp, learns that in fact the real world is filled with ugly hacks and quick-and-dirty imperative code.

A (possible) hidden joke might be an oblique reference to {{w|Greenspun's tenth rule}} when God replies with "I mean, ostensibly, yes." Greenspun's tenth rule says that any sufficiently complex program written in another high level programming language will necessarily contain an imperfect, undocumented, slow, and bug-ridden implementation of about half of {{w|Common Lisp}}. Greenspun's tenth rule was meant to express the belief that Common Lisp, a large, full-featured Lisp dialect, is so flexible and robust that any attempt to render any really sophisticated program in most other languages requires the programmer to expend extraordinary effort unwittingly reinventing, in needlessly convoluted fashion, features and systems that would be elegant and trivial in Common Lisp. This explains why such a program might look or feel "Lispy" to an unfamiliar observer, and why the universe (if viewed as such a program) might ''look'' to mathematicians and scientists as though it probably has a beautifully simple mathematical basis, even if in reality it was just hacked together with a bunch of ersatz, special-case rules.

The title text continues the analogy by suggesting that the theory of {{w|quantum mechanics}} was written in {{w|Regular expression|regular expressions}} ("regexes"), a complex language for pattern matching used heavily in Perl. Regular expressions are often criticized as being a {{w|write-only language}}, that is, a language so complicated in syntax that any significant program written in them cannot be understood by anybody (often not even the original author). Documentation is essential to assist in the understanding of complex regular expressions. The title text claims that at some point, the documentation for quantum mechanics was lost, which explains why quantum mechanics is so bizarre and counterintuitive.

==Transcript==
:[Floating in space.]
:Speaker: Last night I drifted off while reading a Lisp book.
:Cueball: Huh?
:Speaker: Suddenly, I was bathed in a suffusion of blue.

:[Floating in space before a vast concept tree.]
:Speaker: At once, just like they said, I felt a great enlightenment. I saw the naked structure of Lisp code unfold before me.
:Cueball: My God
:Cueball: It's full of 'car's
:Speaker: The patterns and metapatterns danced. Syntax faded, and I swam in the purity of quantified conception. Of ideas manifest.

:[Close-up of floating in space before part of a concept tree.]
:Truly, this was the language from which the gods wrought the Universe.

:[Floating in space with God appearing through a line of clouds.]
:God: No, it's not.
:Cueball: It's not?
:God: I mean, ostensibly, yes. Honestly, we hacked most of it together with Perl.

==Trivia==
*In his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24#t=29m11s Google-speech], [[Randall]] said that he spent 3–4 hours on getting the blue shading just right.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Regex]]

2259: Networking Problems

2021-11-08T07:05:48Z

172.69.54.202: previous editor seems to be new around here

{{comic
| number = 2259
| date = January 24, 2020
| title = Networking Problems
| image = networking_problems.png
| titletext = LOOK, THE LATENCY FALLS EVERY TIME YOU CLAP YOUR HANDS AND SAY YOU BELIEVE
}}

==Explanation==
Computer problems are frequent and can be difficult to solve {{Citation needed}}. Networking problems in particular can puzzle even seasoned people and sometimes seem to have arbitrary issues causing them. {{w|Network packet|Packets}} are units of data transfer used in computer networking, and one measure of network performance is ''lag'', the amount of time it takes for data to travel from one point to another (and perhaps back); saying a packet's transmission is 'laggy' means it is unacceptably slow.

Lag in packet transmission and other network performance measures can appear quite random. Just to start with, your ISP may be engaged in traffic shaping, which can do very weird things indeed to your packets (making the first megabyte of a transfer faster than any other, for example); now imagine that your ISP's ISP (usually known as an "Upstream Provider") is engaged in something similar, and you begin to see the scale of the problem. Wireless latency can relate to things as unexpected as where people are standing, what they are touching, the weather, viruses and other system compromises, network activity by other unseen users, and so on. Because humans are wired to perceive patterns, they will {{w|Apophenia|find them even in random data}}, a fallacy that Cueball is probably suffering from here. He variously attributes the network behavior he sees to the packet number being even vs. odd, packet arrival time being before vs. after noon, and packet arrival day being today vs. yesterday. Such a pattern would make sense if it were merely "every other packet" regardless of odd or evenness, but that still leaves unexplained the other "patterns" Cueball is seeing.

These non-existent patterns that Cueball is 'finding' are driving him mad, so much so that he says he believes in ghosts now. The statement of belief in ghosts may be a reference to the intermittent or fluctuating nature of the network issues being caused by mischievous or malevolent spirits. Ghosts generally are not concerned with expressions of belief, but there are some religious traditions that include group clapping and chanting. Many works of fiction depict a future or alternate history where {{tvtropes|MachineWorship|machines are worshiped as gods or spirits}}, such as the Adeptus Mechanicus of ''{{w|Warhammer 40,000}}''. Some of this terminology can be found in present-day IT and other support personnel, including references to "{{w|Daemon (computing)|daemons}}" and "[http://catb.org/jargon/html/B/black-magic.html black magic]". Another possible reference Randall may be making is to the {{w|Ghost_in_the_machine|Ghost in the machine}}, a term describing AI. A third possibility is that Cueball's brain had stopped working, as Randall had suggested in his chart. it may also be a reference to [[1316: Inexplicable]], in which Megan concludes Cueball's computer is haunted.

The title text continues Cueball's maniacal attempts at self-assurance, with him alluding to J.M. Barrie's play ''{{w|Peter Pan}}'' by saying that latency falls every time you "CLAP YOUR HANDS AND SAY YOU BELIEVE". In the play, Peter Pan says, "If you believe in fairies, wave your handkerchiefs and clap your hands."{{Actual citation needed}} A more mundane explanation of the network behavior Cueball is experiencing might be that it is random but he's seeing a pattern anyway, or that there is a loose connection or trace and the vibration of clapping and speaking in the vicinity of the equipment in question closes the connection.

Similar superstition regarding computer devices was used previously in [[1457: Feedback]].

==Transcript==
:[A chart is shown with one horizontal line with 13 ticks (the first larger) and ending in an arrow. There are three labels along the line, at the start in the middle an towards the end before the arrow. Below are two clouds in gray with labels. The first cloud is long and it is getting thinner towards the right. It goes between the first and second label above the chart. The second blob is smaller and of equal thickness and it goes from the last label towards right. Above the chart is a heading and a subheading:]
:<big>Types of Computer Problems</big>
:By how much debugging them makes your brain stop working

:[The three labels above and the two in the clouds:]
:None
:Some
:A lot
:Normal problems
:Networking problems

:[Below the chart, only in the right part of the comic is a comic drawing. Cueball is kneeling before a rack of servers. One of the server blades is extended and connected by a cable to a laptop sitting on a box, which Cueball is using. Behind Cueball, there is a wireless router sitting on a stool, which is connected by a cable to another wireless router sitting on the floor, which is connected to another laptop. From behind him to the right an off-panel voice emanates from a starburst at the edge of the panel.]
:Cueball: '''''Before''''' noon, '''''odd'''''-numbered packets were laggy, but ''after'' noon, '''''even'''''-numbered ones are! It's the '''''opposite''''' of yesterday!
:Off-panel voice: Are you sure you're okay?
:Cueball: '''''I'm fine and I believe in ghosts now!'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

1618: Cold Medicine

2021-11-04T09:41:45Z

172.69.54.202: /* Explanation */ visibility of vital information?

{{comic
| number = 1618
| date = December 18, 2015
| title = Cold Medicine
| image = cold_medicine.png
| titletext = Seriously considering buying some illegal drugs to try to turn them back into cold medicine.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Cueball]] is probably representing [[Randall]] who seems to have been suffering from a long lasting {{w|Common cold|cold}} that he just can't get rid of. Two weeks before this comic Randall posted another comic about how a cold works: [[1612: Colds]]. This is also supported by the way the title text is phrased to make it sound like something Randall writes, disconnected with the action in the comic (see below).

The comic was released in December, and since Randall is living in {{w|Massachusetts}} in the {{w|Geographical zone|North Temperate Zone}} he, and everyone else living in this zone, is very likely to catch a cold at least at some point during fall and winter.

In the comic Cueball is evidently suffering from a cold and he is searching the shelves labeled cold and {{w|Influenza|Flu}} at a {{w|pharmacy}} for any kind of '''cold medicine''' (hence the title), to alleviate his symptoms. Note that this is all he can hope for, as there are still {{w|Common_cold#Management|no cure}} that really helps getting rid of the cold any faster. All medication can do is help relieving the symptoms until the body's own {{w|immune system}} takes care of the relatively harmless cold virus.

After looking at several different options Cueball is clearly unsatisfied with what he finds. Either he doesn't feel that any of the unmonitored drugs available on the serve-yourself-shelf is useful, or he is actually too sick to properly ascertain which medicine he needs. In the end he approaches the counter and asks the {{w|pharmacist}} ([[Ponytail]]) to give him one of every kind of cold medicine which requires an ID to purchase. Two years later Randall finds a solution for Cueball's problem with a new cold medicine with only active ingredients, including among other all the active ingredients from all the cold medicines on the market, see [[1896: Active Ingredients Only]].

'''Warning:''' <span style="background-color: #ff5233;">{{tvtropes|ArtisticLicenseMedicine|Taking lots of different medicines together in real life could harm, or even kill you}}</span>, because certain combinations of medications interact in ways that make them dangerous or even lethal.

Back in the comic, Ponytail tries to warn Cueball of another danger, that by simply ''purchasing'' so much cold medicine he would end up on a law enforcement watchlist, presumably one of the government agencies ({{w|DEA}}, {{w|FBI}}, {{w|CIA}} etc.) But she never gets to finish her sentence because Cueball is beyond caring and tells her this.

In the USA, cold medicines containing {{w|pseudoephedrine}} are kept behind the counter and IDs purchasing them are monitored, because pseudoephedrine can be used to make the {{w|List of Schedule I drugs (US)|scheduled}} drug {{w|methamphetamine}} or meth (a more hydrophobic - and thus potent - version of {{w|amphetamine}}). However, it is also an extremely effective {{w|decongestant}} (a pharmaceutical drug that is used to relieve {{w|nasal congestion}}/plugged nose), much more so than the common substitutes such as {{w|phenylephrine}} and {{w|oxymetazoline}} which have no clinically proven decongestant effect.

This could be one reason why Cueball just requests all kinds of cold medicines of amongst other this type; he does not appear to care what exactly he is purchasing, believing that his one criterion will provide him medicine powerful enough for his illness. It may also be that he is just too sick to care or realize that this will arouse suspicion of him being a drug dealer, or to recognize the need to select only one medication of these type.

This could be a reference to the medicine with the brand name {{w|Sudafed}}, sold as an over the counter decongestants with pseudoephedrine as the active ingredient. Now the manufacturer also sells a different type of medicine with the same brand name without pseudoephedrine, but with phenylephrine, which seems to be much less effective. If you buy this off the shelf (where it can be sold because it does not contain methamphetamine precursors) then you could easily get home with the once effective Sudafed, only to realize later that it does not alleviate any symptoms. This could offer another explanation for Cueball's request and outburst in the final panel.

The title text seems to be Randall's own comment on how badly he is affected by his cold. He thus, humorously, suggests that he is now ready to purchase illegal drugs (this would then be ''meth'') in order to turn it back into a cold medicine (i.e. pseudoephedrine). This would not be safe to do, but may be a reference to this spoof paper: ''[http://heterodoxy.cc/ A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From N-Methylamphetamine''], a take on the long-going joke about the recent difficulty in obtaining pseudoephedrine, i.e. it is now easier to get your hands on the illegal drug made from it.

It is a humorous exaggeration of how far Randall is willing to go to get the best cold medicine, and the potency of the drugs needed to treat his apparently debilitating illness. There are many illegal drugs that when first synthesized were planned to be used as a medical drug, but then later abused by drug addicts, but given the subject of the comic, the title text obviously refers to meth.

Randall continued in the medical world with the next comic: [[1619: Watson Medical Algorithm]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing in a drug store, with a drug in his hand he has taken from the shelf he is standing next to. The shelf is labeled.]
:Cueball: *Sniffle*
:Label: Cold & Flu

:[Cueball is standing alone, examining some medicine he is holding up, while having some other medicine in the other hand.]
:Cueball: *Cough*
:Cueball: *Sniff*

:[Cueball continues examining more medicine. Looking down on one in his hand, having another in the other hand and there are also three packages at his feet.]
:Cueball: Ughhh...

:[Cueball is at the labeled counter in the drug store with computer etc. Ponytail is behind the counter.]
:Counter label: Sale
:Cueball: Just gimme one of every kind of cold medicine you need ID to buy.
:Ponytail: You'll go on the watchlist for—
:Cueball: Don't care.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:2238: Flu Shot

2021-11-04T09:20:26Z

172.69.54.202:

I don't know why, but the buttons above the comic are all outta wack on my phone. I don't know if they look bad on a desktop, and I don't know how to fix it, so if someone could figure that out, could they tell me so I can fix it in the future?--[[User:TaperingBirch|EightofspadeS]] ([[User talk:TaperingBirch|talk]]) 02:30, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:ditto[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.24|108.162.219.24]] 17:53, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
::The buttons have always displayed poorly on mobile for me: The text is cut off at the top of the button (at default text size, default zoom) & the buttons don't display all on one line. Looks that way across most, if not all, mobile devices I've used.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:09, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:::The buttons have only ever looked odd with this one comic for me, though. That must be a pain to have the buttons like that all of the time. --[[User:TaperingBirch|EightofspadeS]] ([[User talk:TaperingBirch|talk]]) 05:43, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
Is it really necessary to include mention of the "untreated/unfiltered probiotic" water fad? It doesn't really say anything about the content in the comic. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:50, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
: I thought it might be relevant to mention why Megan might want to leave her water unboiled. --[[User:NotaBene|NotaBene]] ([[User talk:NotaBene|talk]]) 18:15, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:: Well I thought it was because she thought she was immune from any contaminants, not that she thought it was healthier for her! lol [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 18:35, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:::Ironically (relative to this comic, anyway) people who drink "raw" unpurified water are probably much more likely to _avoid_ vaccination. I do find the topic relevant enough to be worth mentioning, though.
:::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:50, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
'Bitten by bats'.. From a future perspective, turns out the real problem is biting bats, or perhaps biting things that have bitten bats. [[User:Davidgro|davidgro]] ([[User talk:Davidgro|talk]]) 18:12, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Is there a category about comics that seem to have somewhat predicted the future? Or one with comics that contain what could be later misinterpreted as references to events happening after the release of the comic?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.202|172.69.54.202]] 09:20, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2074: Airplanes and Spaceships

2021-11-03T08:32:37Z

172.69.54.202:

Damn, Randall was 3 months late with this comic ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:38, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

:Should the Explanation section contain a note on when the comic was posted; and the correct difference in time? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.2.76|172.68.2.76]] 06:58, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

By the time of the first spaceflight, air travel was available to the general public. Where is the space plane today??[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.28|108.162.229.28]] 16:24, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

:Elon's working on it, isn't he? (Hate him all you want. He's doing more to advance space flight than anyone else just be being highly visible.)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.101|162.158.79.101]] 20:21, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
:Branson is too. https://www.virgingalactic.com - I believe prices start at a mere quarter-million.[[User:Daemonik|Daemonik]] ([[User talk:Daemonik|talk]]) 16:25, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

NASA released a video 2 days back - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeA7edXsU40
Do you think that's why this comic was uploaded? I would have added it in, but I could use an opinion [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.120|162.158.167.120]] 17:56, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

This is... depressing. RIP Project Constellation, you will be missed.[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 18:03, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

I suggest adding something related to steam-powered rail travel to the explanation or in a trivia section. Though, exactly what is beyond my expertise, given the information found in a quick search of Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotive#United_Kingdom[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.101|162.158.79.101]] 20:21, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Randall referenced ''The Core'' a little while back. Given that it's a relatively obscure movie from the early 2000's, I have no idea why this would be. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.117|173.245.48.117]] 21:54, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Is there a collection of all of the "there is now more time between X and Y, than Y and Z" style comics? He's done them with 9/11 and the pyramids also
:There's a "Comics to make one feel old" category, but I'm not sure if the ones you mention are there.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.128|162.158.88.128]] 14:35, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
:You could make a subcategory in [[:Category:Timelines]] [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.157|141.101.76.157]] 08:29, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

Maybe this is the current next step https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9
Javier Jelovcan from Argentina [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.100|108.162.210.100]] 16:39, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

2532: Censored Vaccine Card

2021-10-29T09:48:24Z

172.69.54.202: Undo revision 220042 by 172.68.132.228 (talk) already covered in numerical trivia

{{comic
| number = 2532
| date = October 22, 2021
| title = Censored Vaccine Card
| image = censored_vaccine_card.png
| titletext = CVS's pharmacies are fine, but I much prefer their [censored]s.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a B?T. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is another entry in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic|2020-21 pandemic}} of the {{w|SARS-CoV-2}} virus, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}, specifically regarding the [[:Category:COVID-19 vaccine|COVID-19 vaccine]].

The comic hinges on the sharing of vaccination card photos on social media as proof that the user has been vaccinated against COVID-19 (in this case, gotten a {{w|Booster dose|booster shot}}, a third dose of the vaccine). When people in the United States first started receiving their vaccine shots, a large number of them shared photos of the CDC vaccination proof cards that they received alongside the vaccines; it was enough of a trend that the {{w|Federal Trade Commission|FTC}} released an official statement warning vaccine recipients [https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2021/02/social-media-no-place-covid-19-vaccination-cards not to share photos], due to the cards containing {{w|Personal data|personal identification}} that probably should not be made public.

The irony here is that [[Randall]] has {{w|Sanitization (classified information)|"censored"}} (redacted) some impersonal lines, such as the instructions that are identical on all vaccination cards, and many easy-to-guess lines, while not censoring any of said personal information.
Considering the date of the 3rd dose (one day prior to the comic's uploading), it is likely that the blackouts in the last line are only covering whitespace.

The caption indicates that his intention is to "seem more mysterious". This is best exemplified by blanking most of the word "clinician" to leave the acronym "{{w|Central Intelligence Agency|CIA}}", referring to a US government agency known for its frequently "mysterious" (classified) activity, as well as its liberal use of redaction like that in the comic.

[[File:CDC_COVID-19_Vaccination_Record_Card.jpg|thumb|300px|A real and appropriately censored CDC vaccination record.]]

The "19" in COVID-19 is systematically censored in the comic. This is humorous because currently COVID-19 is the only thing that could be meant by "COVID-[anything]", and so the redaction is pointless. This may also be intended, in the interest of mystery, to imply some future outbreak of a similar disease (given an identifier based on the year of its inception).

The sentence at the top of the card, which appears once in English and once in Spanish, has equivalent portions redacted in both languages:
* "medical information" and "the vaccines you have received" in the English version, and
* "información médica" and "las vacunas que ha recibido" in the Spanish.
This is the first comic including a sentence (or, given the censorship, at least a good portion of one) in Spanish.

{{w|CVS Pharmacy}} is a pharmacy chain in the US which provides COVID-19 vaccinations. CVS #05309 is in Pineville, LA, while Randall lives in Massachusetts; it is not clear why he would have received his first vaccine dose in Louisiana.

The title text comments on the "Provider or clinic site" of the second dose on the card. Where the word "pharmacy" appears in the previous row (and would be on a real card), it is censored in the comic. The most reasonable assumption is that the word is still "pharmacy" and that Randall has simply chosen to redact that instance for some reason, but the title text humorously implies that it was in fact some ''other'' CVS-related venture where he got his second dose, for instance a "CVS Parking lot" or perhaps an {{w|anti-submarine warfare carrier}}.

CVS's parent company, {{w|CVS Health}}, does have other enterprises with compatible names: {{w|CVS Caremark}} and {{w|CVS Health#CVS Specialty|CVS Specialty}}. However, neither of these provide COVID-19 vaccinations.

===Numerical trivia===
Randall's patient number is the 2nd to 9th digits of the fractional part of the decimal expansion of {{w|pi}} inclusively: 41592653.

The lot numbers of the first and second doses allude to two numbers that appear frequently in Star Wars and other works related to George Lucas: 1138, and 2187. The lot number of the third dose is the {{w|1729 (number)|Ramanujan-Hardy number}}.

The Clinician number for the first shot is the last 4 digits of the phone number for "Jenny" 867-5309.

Given the reasonable assumption{{citation needed}} that the partially censored year relates to the twentieth century, the date of birth on the card corresponds to that given in the acknowledged [[Randall_Munroe#Timeline|timeline]] for Randall. The censorship of that specific part of his date of birth might be related to the fact that the number "19" has been systematically redacted on the card. Another interpretation is that Randall is implying he is either over one hundred years old or a time traveler, although neither is likely to be true.{{citation needed}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Profile picture of a Cueball's head and shoulders, with unreadable lines of text to the right.]
:Check it out, I just got my booster!

:[Picture of the U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card attached on a media post. The card includes pre-printed information in black and handwritten information in blue, the latter indicated here by bold text. Some of the text has been blacked out, indicated here by "[censored]".]

:COVID-[censored] Vaccination record card
:[At the upper right of the card appears the logo of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a stylized eagle surrounded by the words "Department of Health & Human Services USA", although those words are not legible in this drawing. Next to that appears the logo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a shaded box with the letters "CDC" and the words "Centers for Disease Control and [censored]" below it.]

:Please keep this record card, which includes [censored]
:about [censored]
:Por favor, guarde esta tarjeta de registro, que incluye [censored]
:[censored] sobre [censored]

:'''Munroe''' '''Randall'''
----
:Last Name First Name

:'''10-17-[censored]84''' '''41592653'''
----
:Date of birth Patient number

:[A table fills the remainder of the card. It has four columns and five rows. The first row gives the column names:]
:Vaccine. Manufacturer lot number. Date. Provider or clinic site.
:[The rest of the rows have been filled out. Each "date" cell also includes pre-printed "MM DD YY" below the line where the date is written.]
:1st dose COVID-[censored]. '''Pfizer ER1138'''. '''04'''/'''01'''/'''21'''. '''CVS Pharmacy Clinician #5309'''.
:2nd dose COVID-[censored]. '''Pfizer ES2187'''. '''04'''/'''22'''/'''21'''. '''CVS''' [censored] [censored].
:Other. <sup>'''3rd dose'''</sup> [censored] '''FH1729'''. '''10'''/'''21'''/'''21'''. [censored] [censored] [censored]'''CIA'''[censored].
:Other. [censored]. [censored]/[censored]/[censored]. [censored].

:[Caption below panel:]
:Security tip: To seem more mysterious, try censoring only ''non''-identifying information.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:COVID-19 vaccine]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]

Talk:2503: Memo Spike Connector

2021-08-17T03:14:57Z

172.69.54.202:

Just made my first ever wiki edit! There was no text yet so I filled in some basic info. I guarantee what I wrote will be removed though :( . Oh well, I tried! [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 15:20, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

:Your first edit inspired me to my own first edit. Maybe at the end there will be a good article made entirely by noobs. :) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.115|172.68.110.115]] 16:33, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

In restaurants these are not used for orders for the kitchen. Those are usually put on an order wheel or ticket holder, which have clips that the order can easily pulled out of. The spike is at the checkout counter, and it's used after the bill is paid. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:57, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Do we want to mention the vampire taps in both the article and trivia? Cause that's how it currently is. [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 21:27, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

My first comment too! Where it says... "The implication is that any cable can be connected to any other cable as a form of universal adapter/splitter/combiner"... That's not the title text joke. It's that a device like an iPad could also be impaled on the spike, making electrical connection to its innards. It says nothing about cable to cable connections. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.18|108.162.246.18]] 21:47, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
:Didn't see this comment until I intervened, under the same impression, but I totally agree. Looked like an orphan comment intended for the pre-titletext 'explanation'. Still valid, and rather than move it I expanded it to fit better where it is. Doubt it'll be the 'final' version, though.
:(Anecdotal explanation of my thinking: If I put my tablet down on my opened laptop, it'll sometimes 'agitate' the laptop trackpad. Technically I could probably get the tablet to control this inbuilt mouse deliberately through whatever ¿field-effect? is interacting with the ¿capacitative? finger-sensor. I am imagining something like this (only more puncturing!) is what is 'promised' if I impale two otherwise incompatible devices on the same spike. But also lets one connect otherwise incompatible cables to further cables/devices. Like I don't have an ethernet dongle that works with the tablet, but spike them both and I'd be laughing.... Right?) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.202|172.69.54.202]] 03:14, 17 August 2021 (UTC)