explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

813: One-Liners

2025-02-05T09:26:03Z

172.70.147.47: ditto, fixed

{{comic
| number = 813
| date = November 1, 2010
| title = One-Liners
| image = one liners.png
| titletext = "Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash player to view THIS content, bitch." ::triggers detonator::
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, Randall presents a series of phrases, ordered by how likely they are to be used as a {{w|One-line joke|one-liner}} by a character in an {{w|action movie}}. One-liners are short, punchy phrases, typically witty or funny, and are routinely used in films by the antagonist to taunt the protagonist (or vice versa). The perfect one-liner leaves the recipient at a loss for a comeback, and should make sense immediately. If the phrase doesn't make sense or has to be explained, the effect is lost.

The phrases shown adhere to the witty and punchy stereotype of a classical one-liner, but quickly become more niche and only understandable for an informed subgroup.

;You're going down the memory hole now, asshole.
:The {{w|Memory hole}} is a mechanism for redacting documents, photographs, etc., and a reference to {{w|George Orwell}}'s novel ''{{w|Nineteen Eighty-Four}}''. In this instance it implies that the character on the floor is about to be 'erased' from existence.

;Hey! You forgot to carry the two.
:[[Cueball]], lying on the ground in a fight, while his opponent has the high ground, still appears to be at an advantage since he has a gun and his opponent only has a knife, is pointing out an arithmetic error in his opponent's calculations. This may simply be Cueball adding insult to injury "I'm about to shoot you, but first I'm going to point out that you suck at math". Alternatively, it could be a ruse to distract the knife wielding opponent, or a case of well-timed [[356|nerd-sniping]]. It could also be that Cueball is buying time to cock or reload his gun. Alternatively Cueball is implying the missing carry caused the shown situation, and Cueball is monologuing (albeit a very short monologue), which may also serve to explain to the audience how his victory was achieved. Such an explanation would likely be necessary, as it is difficult to imagine any situation where this would be the case. A fourth way to explain the situation is that Cueball is stating with this phrase, that his opponent overlooked something small but critical, leading to a non anticipated (wrong) outcome. In this case his opponent would have overlooked that Cueball is carrying a gun, yielding to an unexpected and unfortunate outcome of his knife attack.

;Looks like the Fed just lowered the interest rate.
:[[Ponytail]] is standing on a desk with documents on it, probably in a banking or business related environment, dominating [[Cueball]] in a sword fight. The {{w|Federal Reserve System}}, usually referred to as The Fed, is the central banking system in the United States. The interest rates are usually lowered during a recession or a crisis, to revive the economy by providing businesses with cheap money. The dropped rates correlate with his chances to win and reflect his troubled situation.

;Guess you should've scrolled ''all'' the way to the bottom before clicking "Agree."
:A common feature encountered when registering for user accounts or installing software is a very lengthy {{w|Terms of service}} document, describing the things you agree to abide by. The vast majority of people simply click Agree without reading the document, essentially agreeing to anything and everything that the author decided to include, which sometimes leads to things like [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/17/gamestation-grabs-souls-o_n_541549.html giving your immortal soul to a company]. In the context of this panel, perhaps the user agreed to be executed at random.

;Bangarang, motherfucker.
:This phrase is very similar to the line "Yippee-Ki-Yay motherfucker" used by {{w|John McClane}} in the ''{{w|Die Hard (film series)|Die Hard}}'' series. {{wiktionary|bangarang|Bangarang}} is, among other things, the Jamaican word for "uproar." It was popularized (without the addition of 'motherfucker') as the cheer of the {{w|Lost Boys (Peter Pan)|lost boys}} in the film ''{{w|Hook (film)|Hook}}'', via the popular dubstep Skrillex song {{w|Bangarang|”Bangarang”}}.

;Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash player to view THIS content, bitch.
:This title text is another suggested one-liner phrase, referring to an update reminder that would frequently pop up when one attempted to view visual media content on a webpage. After delivering the line, the character triggers a detonator (Double colons are sometimes used in text to denote an action), presumably setting off an explosive of some kind.
:The phrase states that you need the latest {{w|Adobe Flash}} player to view this (presumably for older flash players too spectacular) explosion.
:Also wordplay is involved since a "flash" is one visual representation of a explosion.
:Of course, in real life, one doesn't need a "flash player" to view an explosion,{{Citation needed}} especially due to its [https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html official end-of-life] at the end of 2020 rendering the software completely defunct.

==Transcript==
:Probability of phrases becoming action movie one liners:
:[Panels are arranged from More Likely on the left to Less likely on the right.]

:[A woman points a gun down at Cueball who is on the floor, his gun just out of reach.]
:Woman: ''You're'' going down the memory hole now, asshole.

:[Man on ground points gun up at blade-armed man standing next to a board with science on it.]
:Man with gun: ''Hey!'' You forgot to carry the two.

:[Ponytail on desk points sword at man standing on floor.]
:Ponytail: Looks like the Fed just lowered the interest rate.

:[Cueball with gun looks down at Megan slumped on floor.]
:Cueball: Guess you should've scrolled ''all'' the way to the bottom before clicking "Agree."

:[Megan holds pistol to the back of the head of Ponytail holding a rifle.]
:Megan with pistol: Bangarang, motherfucker.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

813: One-Liners

2025-02-05T09:23:05Z

172.70.147.47: linking to wiktionary for the word definition instead of wikipedia

{{comic
| number = 813
| date = November 1, 2010
| title = One-Liners
| image = one liners.png
| titletext = "Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash player to view THIS content, bitch." ::triggers detonator::
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, Randall presents a series of phrases, ordered by how likely they are to be used as a {{w|One-line joke|one-liner}} by a character in an {{w|action movie}}. One-liners are short, punchy phrases, typically witty or funny, and are routinely used in films by the antagonist to taunt the protagonist (or vice versa). The perfect one-liner leaves the recipient at a loss for a comeback, and should make sense immediately. If the phrase doesn't make sense or has to be explained, the effect is lost.

The phrases shown adhere to the witty and punchy stereotype of a classical one-liner, but quickly become more niche and only understandable for an informed subgroup.

;You're going down the memory hole now, asshole.
:The {{w|Memory hole}} is a mechanism for redacting documents, photographs, etc., and a reference to {{w|George Orwell}}'s novel ''{{w|Nineteen Eighty-Four}}''. In this instance it implies that the character on the floor is about to be 'erased' from existence.

;Hey! You forgot to carry the two.
:[[Cueball]], lying on the ground in a fight, while his opponent has the high ground, still appears to be at an advantage since he has a gun and his opponent only has a knife, is pointing out an arithmetic error in his opponent's calculations. This may simply be Cueball adding insult to injury "I'm about to shoot you, but first I'm going to point out that you suck at math". Alternatively, it could be a ruse to distract the knife wielding opponent, or a case of well-timed [[356|nerd-sniping]]. It could also be that Cueball is buying time to cock or reload his gun. Alternatively Cueball is implying the missing carry caused the shown situation, and Cueball is monologuing (albeit a very short monologue), which may also serve to explain to the audience how his victory was achieved. Such an explanation would likely be necessary, as it is difficult to imagine any situation where this would be the case. A fourth way to explain the situation is that Cueball is stating with this phrase, that his opponent overlooked something small but critical, leading to a non anticipated (wrong) outcome. In this case his opponent would have overlooked that Cueball is carrying a gun, yielding to an unexpected and unfortunate outcome of his knife attack.

;Looks like the Fed just lowered the interest rate.
:[[Ponytail]] is standing on a desk with documents on it, probably in a banking or business related environment, dominating [[Cueball]] in a sword fight. The {{w|Federal Reserve System}}, usually referred to as The Fed, is the central banking system in the United States. The interest rates are usually lowered during a recession or a crisis, to revive the economy by providing businesses with cheap money. The dropped rates correlate with his chances to win and reflect his troubled situation.

;Guess you should've scrolled ''all'' the way to the bottom before clicking "Agree."
:A common feature encountered when registering for user accounts or installing software is a very lengthy {{w|Terms of service}} document, describing the things you agree to abide by. The vast majority of people simply click Agree without reading the document, essentially agreeing to anything and everything that the author decided to include, which sometimes leads to things like [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/17/gamestation-grabs-souls-o_n_541549.html giving your immortal soul to a company]. In the context of this panel, perhaps the user agreed to be executed at random.

;Bangarang, motherfucker.
:This phrase is very similar to the line "Yippee-Ki-Yay motherfucker" used by {{w|John McClane}} in the ''{{w|Die Hard (film series)|Die Hard}}'' series. {{wiktionary|Bangarang}} is, among other things, the Jamaican word for "uproar." It was popularized (without the addition of 'motherfucker') as the cheer of the {{w|Lost Boys (Peter Pan)|lost boys}} in the film ''{{w|Hook (film)|Hook}}'', via the popular dubstep Skrillex song {{w|Bangarang|”Bangarang”}}.

;Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash player to view THIS content, bitch.
:This title text is another suggested one-liner phrase, referring to an update reminder that would frequently pop up when one attempted to view visual media content on a webpage. After delivering the line, the character triggers a detonator (Double colons are sometimes used in text to denote an action), presumably setting off an explosive of some kind.
:The phrase states that you need the latest {{w|Adobe Flash}} player to view this (presumably for older flash players too spectacular) explosion.
:Also wordplay is involved since a "flash" is one visual representation of a explosion.
:Of course, in real life, one doesn't need a "flash player" to view an explosion,{{Citation needed}} especially due to its [https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html official end-of-life] at the end of 2020 rendering the software completely defunct.

==Transcript==
:Probability of phrases becoming action movie one liners:
:[Panels are arranged from More Likely on the left to Less likely on the right.]

:[A woman points a gun down at Cueball who is on the floor, his gun just out of reach.]
:Woman: ''You're'' going down the memory hole now, asshole.

:[Man on ground points gun up at blade-armed man standing next to a board with science on it.]
:Man with gun: ''Hey!'' You forgot to carry the two.

:[Ponytail on desk points sword at man standing on floor.]
:Ponytail: Looks like the Fed just lowered the interest rate.

:[Cueball with gun looks down at Megan slumped on floor.]
:Cueball: Guess you should've scrolled ''all'' the way to the bottom before clicking "Agree."

:[Megan holds pistol to the back of the head of Ponytail holding a rifle.]
:Megan with pistol: Bangarang, motherfucker.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

Talk:2768: Definition of e

2023-05-04T23:51:58Z

172.70.147.47: /* r = n * (2^(1/n) - 1) */

This is of course one way of arriving at the value of e: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant)#Compound_interest [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:55, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

I do not know who said that Miss Lenhard is after a dollar - but that is so not her![[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 09:15, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

One explanation may be that Miss Lenhart is in a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes claim to offer unbelievably high returns that are actually paid by later investors, it will invariably crash, but by the time, the scammers will have vanished with the money. Here, Miss Lenhart effectively offers +172% annual returns, which is way above what a honest bank can offer, and she seems to push the student into investing, which is aligned with the Ponzi scheme goal of getting as many people to invest as possible. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.22.234|162.158.22.234]] 11:25, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

==e^iπ + 1==
'''e''' is an inherent feature of mathematics. The equation e^iπ + 1 = 0 is made of the 5 most important numbers. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 13:10, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
:i is not a number, it is the imaginary ''unit''. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 16:00, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
::i is a number. 1 is also sometimes called ''the unit'' by mathematicians. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.105|172.71.22.105]] 21:01, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
:Every number is an inherent feature of mathematics, but I don't think the number e is as special as formulas like this make it appear. What's really significant is the exponential function exp, and the number e is just exp 1. It is therefore similar in significance to √2 or ln 2. Similarly, in the identity you provide, the general form is exp iθ = cos θ + i sin θ, and plugging in θ = π is just one special case. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:33, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
:e^ipi is genuinely quite boring. I would prefer e^i2pi = e^0 = 1 because its more immediately apparent that e^ix forms a circle/periodic function[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.225|172.69.33.225]] 06:29, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Does anyone else see the buttons at the top as being weird? The first comic arrow is split into two buttons separated by a new line. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.17|172.70.38.17]] 12:24, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
: Agree. It does not appear on the main comic, just here. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]])

Maybe the bank was originally owned by Beret Guy? That would explain why it continues to stay in business despite effectively giving away money. It's not suggested anywhere in the comic, but the idea is very much in line with his powers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.137|162.158.158.137]] 13:40, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

The current explanation is vague regarding the identity of the speaker in the title text, but it seems clear to me that the title text is being said by Miss Lenhart - she's explaining how she came into possession of the bank account in question. Her high school teacher set it up, and then she engineered the takeover so she could continue to use the account after passing the class. [[User:Snuffysam|Snuffysam]] ([[User talk:Snuffysam|talk]]) 16:12, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
:Why would she need to pass the class to use the bank? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 16:35, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

==r = n * (2^(1/n) - 1)==
This demonstrates a misunderstanding of the way banks, and other financial institutions, quote interest rates. A bank that pays 100% interest rate annually, will pay $1 on 1$: at the end of the first year the balance will be $2.00. That is not (1+100%/n)**n, and is not $2.71, because the interval compounding rate is not 100%/n for n <>1. The interval compounding rate for 100% per annum is r = n * (2^(1/n) - 1). I leave working out the limit as n approaches infinity as an exercise for the reader :) I don't know if math teachers in the USA actually use this example as a math teaching method: if so, they should certainly have a discussion with a 'business studies teacher' or 'business math teacher' about the meaning of the words they are using, because they are doing a disservice to students by misleading them about the meaning of common savings and loan terms of business.
:This would mean there is no difference between interest “compounded annually” vs. “compounded daily”? Also, deleted the last paragraph of the exp. Seems clear to me that the title text speaker is the student in the strip, later relating the very incident illustrated. (And no need for comment on characters’ future business endeavors.) [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 10:58, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
::Unremoved the last para. The teacher deecribed is male, '''Miss''' L is not.{{Citation needed}} But if the suggestion is that the narrating person is Miss L (after the year has passed?), then we have other problems to explain (how she thinks she got it to work, hypercompetent as she is but as impossible the setup is).
::I read it as someone else, off-panel (traditionall Randall's voice, but not in this case?), who is describing a different time and who clearly didn't/doesn't grasp reality (did not get taught/listen that well, at school, seems convinced they did something clever), or can actually ignore the problems (like Beret Guy). But it could do with streamlining. ''Or'' various brief arguments for and against who is saying it, split up. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.161|172.70.162.161]] 12:35, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
:::I initially (mis?)read “his bank” as reflecting not ownership, but where he banked, but you’re probably right. Either way, the whole thing seems both unclear as to the referents and somewhat misconceived - When a bank pays absurdly high rates, the last thing one would want is to acquire it! [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 15:09, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
::The difference between "compounded annually" and "compounded monthly" was/is that "compounded monthly" is computed on the "minimum monthly balance". Savings banks moved to "compounded daily" when computers meant that the work involved wasn't completely unreasonable. With "compounded daily", you get paid interest even if you have one day in the month when the balance was $0.01 and all the other days were $100K.
::If you are buying a 90 day bond, the interest really is quoted as n*90/365 (or n*90/360, or n*90/366 or %90/90, depending on the exchange rules). And if you re-invest, you get more. And you can do the same with over-night money (daily rollover). But that's "re-investment", not "daily-compounding". And the thing is, working out "true cost" is difficult for most people, and most people don't know and haven't thought about what "daily compounding" is, and probably wouldn't understand the math if they do think about it. It's easy to believe that teachers are miss-using the business terms used for ordinary savings accounts, but if so, that's unfortunate.

Talk:927: Standards

2022-10-04T17:40:54Z

172.70.147.47: Add comment

But this new video codec might just be the one that solves all our problems! You never know until you try it! '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:19, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
:There are sixteen competing standards [[User:StillNotOriginal|StillNot]][[User talk:StillNotOriginal|Original]] 02:13, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Is the mini-USB vs micro-USB standards rift a good representative example of what this comic is hinting at? [[User:Dexterous|Dexterous]] ([[User talk:Dexterous|talk]]) 10:19, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

:Yeah, it is. Though, basically, there were even more variants than that around. Before each maker basically had their own socket, most kept it through their phone models, mostly. But everyone basically just uses Micro-USB nowadays... Some still use Mini-USB, but those numbers are dwindling. What really fits to this comic is something that was just recently announced: USB 3.1. If you Google for the new USB 3.1 plugs, you see they're completely different but "cover all use cases"... Let's see how that goes. [[User:Sinni800|Sinni800]] ([[User talk:Sinni800|talk]]) 13:43, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

:: 3.1 type-c was meant to be fairly quickly adopted and designed to meet all use-cases for the foreseeable future. when the foreseeable future presents currently unforseeable use-cases a new standard will likely be rapidly developed and deployed. this is a functional model, different than the one that leads to competition amoungst hardware/software developers. Also, MKV is another example of a sustainable standard (container for media files). Googles VP9, and the coming VPx 18 month update cycle, seem to be the best current option for an open video codec standard.

This particular comic is widely cited in about four different SDO's that I participate in [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.9|108.162.216.9]] 08:10, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

==Politics==
This is more applicable to politics. It's so prevalent in the left and I frequently reference it on /r/socialism and stuff. Once in a while there will be a person posting saying that we need to form one major socialist party that appeals to als many tendencies as possible like Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, Trotskyism, with the parties like SAlt, SPUSA, etc. It's like. NO. YOU'LL JUST FURTHER SHATTER THE LEFT. Forget parties. We all have the common goal of class consciousness and worker ownership of the means of production. Let's first work on that and *later* argue about the specifics. Like seriously. For the organizing the left is known for, there seems to be less organizing and more arguing going on... [[User:International Space Station|International Space Station]] ([[User talk:International Space Station|talk]]) 02:10, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

:Hah, with that kind of talk, it's no wonder your Popular Front for Galilee only has one member, bleedin' splitter! The goal of the People's Popular Liberation Front for East Judea (Bethlehem) is to free our country from the Judean People's Front (and the Romans after that) but there is no way allying with Samarian splitters like you is going to bring us closer to that goal! We will defeat the People's Popular Liberation Front for East Judea (Bethlehem) and free our country! Bloody SPLITTERS! Long live the People's Popular Liberation Front for East Judea (Bethlehem-North)!
:Sorry, but after seeing that comment I couldn't resist :P --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.106|172.68.50.106]] 01:55, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

::Truth. Marking this topic for anchor linking. -- [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 19:33, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

UTF-8 and UTF-16 can both encode the entire Unicode character set, so I edited the page to say this. (In actual fact, UTF-16 is more commonly thought of as the more limited version, by people who confuse it with UCS-2.) --[[User:Sophira|Sophira]] ([[User talk:Sophira|talk]]) 00:07, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

== Mobile phone chargers have mostly converged on a common USB-based solution... ==

Regarding ''Mobile phone chargers have mostly converged on a common USB-based solution'', it may be worth mentioning the reason they converged was China. China passed legislation standardizing the charging interface because competing designs proliferated and were not interoperating. It was causing excessive waste as millions of good chargers were discarded every year. Europe is cosidering similar legislation. Also see [https://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/06/chinas_big_government_hand_wor.html China’s Big Government Hand Works Just Fine] and [https://www.geek.com/apple/apple-will-be-forced-to-use-micro-usb-chargers-by-2017-1587862/ Apple will be forced to use micro USB chargers by 2017].

: Except they didn't, because USB-C happened before micro-USB convergence actually occured in the West, and iPhones *still* aren't conforming to any sort of charger standard in 2019. And now we have 9 different standards running over a USB-C connector...

: Relevant news on this aspect: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51137069 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.93|162.158.158.93]] 17:19, 18 January 2020 (UTC)
: (Was that me, that posted that? Possibly, it's written how I might have written it, from the same source that inspired me to bring the following here...)
: Latest: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58665809
: Also I'm noting in passing that I've got several devices ''still'' only MicroB-charging (one older thing is still mini-USB, I think, but only for data and not used for charging which is so much more easily accomplished by just swapping in new/recharged AA cells), the newest slightly over a year since bought first-hand, and not yet had a fabled USB-C one yet. Maybe I just don't pursue the bleeding edge, like most people (nor Apple stuff). ;) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.246|173.245.54.246]] 17:05, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

== Solutions ==

What are the solutions to this "competing standards" problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.189.10|172.70.189.10]] 17:06, 11 September 2022 (UTC) Ignis
:Well, there's always the technodespot who prescribes ''the'' sole standard that is to be used... Even if it isn't one that is the best/sufficient/workable, but... people can always adjust. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.32|141.101.99.32]] 20:31, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

:: True! For example, this just happened: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33078596 (EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.147.47|172.70.147.47]] 17:40, 4 October 2022 (UTC) Ignis

Talk:2656: Scientific Field Prefixes

2022-08-16T09:16:15Z

172.70.147.47: more link fixes for comment

I think Mr. Monroe made up these numbers rather than researching them [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.105|172.71.22.105]] 17:07, 9 August 2022 (UTC) anon, a mouse.
:Given how easy it is to look them up, I think this is unlikely. I haven't checked all of them, but each of the eight or so that I '''have''' checked were correct. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:14, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Checked it out of curiosity: [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22computational+dentistry%22 The data's correct], however, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22theoretical+dentistry%22 the searches must be done with quotes]

Interestingly enough, the last time I was at a dentist, I ask them if they had seen any research work on how to do dentistry in zero-g, like if you got a toothache halfway to Mars.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.56|162.158.107.56]] 01:58, 9 August 2022 (UTC) BCS
:Comment on comment: there should have been work done on dental procedures aboard orbiting stations, and also on e.g. Antarctic bases. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.25|162.158.134.25]] 04:39, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Pär Leijonhufvud
::That's "Space Dentistry". Or, in the other case, something that surely should involve the term "Polar Molar" somewhere in the paper abstract! :-p
::'Astro-' is "of the stars", or of the things that are more in their vicinity than not. If it isn't dentristrying (or massaging) the stars themselves, it'd be learning how to apply the parent field to astrozoological subjects (assuming xenodentristry and xenomassage aren't the best terms for the otherwise xenobiological clientelle). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.128|172.70.91.128]] 11:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Those who say that there's no such thing as High-Energy Theology should be taken with a pinch of salt. Or even a {{w|Lot's wife|Lot}}! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.80|172.70.91.80]] 02:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I'm a little concerned with Theoretical Theology. How much more theoritical can base theology be? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.198|108.162.250.198]] 02:22, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Beechmere

'Theoretical theology' is a tautology. So the first word is redundant.
[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 06:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Theoretical theology returns 1.6 million results, so the comic is wrong, and high energy theology is wrong as well, searching on these three terms results in 602,000 results, not 0. I think perhaps Scholar.google.com has detected your skepticism, and is returning incorrect results for you, in accordance with the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Theology, in which God only exists for those who are not atheists.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:29, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::"high energy theology" in quotes returns zero. "theoretical theology" actually returns 726 results, as in the comic. Searching without quotes is a double-edged sword: On one hand it would get results in which the terms are mentioned in separate sentences, and thus aren't relevant to the (non-existant{{Citation needed}}) scientific field called "high energy theology". On the other it would get results about fields similar to what one would imagine these combinations would describe. For example there's only one result for "marine dentistry", but there's several articles on dentistry on sea mammals, which would use both "marine" and "dentistry" in the same article. In any case, Randall used quotes in his search and his numbers look correct to me. [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 14:19, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I'd love to conduct research on Marine Massage! How do I find the link? (Purposes.)
:We need another dimension for Theoretical Marine Massave [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:03, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Unfortunately the "Marine dentistry" one appear to be a false positive: it contains the test string "...Marine, Dentistry..." in a list of possible fields where AR technology could be useful (Novakova, N.G., 2019. Innovation potential of augmented technologies in industrial context. Industry 4.0, 4(1), pp.24-28).
Also the "high-energy psychology" one was similarly a dud: student newspaper with a help wanted ad for a "high energy psychology student" (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217247671.pdf). The lack of manual curation of Scholar sometimes gives you these finds. Thirdly, Randall definitely searched with quote marks: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=marine+dentistry yields over 100 k results while https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%252C5&q=%22marine+dentistry%22 only yields one, with at least one of the former being papers on marine mammal dentistry (I have for practical porpoises no interest in dentistry, but I *want* to read https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119545804.ch11). In summary: by searching for the exact phrase Randall eliminated a large number of false positives, but also missed a large number of interesting papers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.157|162.158.134.157]] 04:32, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Pär Leijonhufvud

honestly I'm mostly worried about computational theology [[Special:Contributions/172.71.6.65|172.71.6.65]] 04:40, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: It's a fairly common subject in science fiction. Fredric Brown's short story "Answer", for example. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:46, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::Could have sworn that was Asimov's _The Last Answer_[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:::I think you're thinking of Asimov's "The Last Question", about Multivac and its descendants. His "The Last Answer" is a different story, and doesn't involve a computer. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:24, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: Isn't that better known as {{w|numerology}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 08:49, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Of course, you meant to write "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 11:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some research into use of synchrotron radiation in treating cancers in the jaw. Doesn't that count as "high energy"? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:46, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

'High Energy Theology' sounds like an area of study extremely NOT conducive to the long-term survival of the human race. See this quote from the PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA:

'Mal-2 was once asked by one of his Disciples if he often prayed to Eris. He replied with these words: "No, we Erisians seldom pray, it is much too dangerous. Charles Fort has listed many factual incidences of ignorant people confronted with, say, a drought, and then praying fervently -- and then getting the entire village wiped out in a torrential flood."

We got ourselves into enough trouble when we split the atom. Gods only know what would result if we ever manage to split the thaum.

[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 06:58, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: Isn't that what happened to Soddom and Gemorrah? Genesis 19. Certainly enough energy to transmute Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. External to scripture, there's a recent theory about the image on the Shroud of Turin as well that is based in high energy physics.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Why is the "explanation" someone nitpicking the search method (and mixing up the "former" and "latter" order of unquoted vs. quoted), rather than an explanation of the joke? [[User:Conster|Conster]] ([[User talk:Conster|talk]]) 08:13, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Because sadly after ParL did their nitpicking, nobody else felt qualified to actually explain the joke [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 10:09, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I worked on giving actually competent editors a base to modify, but then someone else had already made an explanation. Here's my attempt:

"Within each branch of science, like physics, chemistry or biology, there are different scientific fields. Some of the prefixes, like theoretical, quantum or astro-, are used across multiple branches of science. For example {{w|Quantum mechanics|quantum physics}} is about the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles, while {{w|Quantum chemistry}} is about the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems.

Randall combines a bunch of different [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TitleDrop Scientific Field Prefixes] with another bunch of scientific branches, creating combinations that form several real fields of science, but also nonsense ones. To get a grasp on whether that scientific field is real and/or well-known, he searches for the combinations on {{w|Google Scholar}}, a web search engine that indexes the contents of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines, counting the number of results for each combination. Some term combinations are common, and can thus be assumed to be real scientific fields, while others are uncommon, suggesting that those fields are not well known. Four combinations are not found even once, suggesting that they are "potential research opportunities", as the title text says.

There are problems with Randall's method though:"

Maybe some of this may be useful, I don't know [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 11:21, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

:''Ah, that was me. Apologies. And you ECed the following attempt to post into here, so hete it is repasted. ;) Still applies. Your contribution also clearly appreciated...''
:I hated it so much, I rewrote it ("/* Explanation */ Nixing the downer 'explanation'. Perhaps some points can be extracted from it, even as my attempt is improved or (in turn) overwritten with something better."). Was going to suggest a table of prefixes/suffixes to describe each, but someone added the (sortable) tables in for the full forms (caused me much edit-conflict pain, hope I didn't cause someone else ECs in return) so maybe that's overkill. But "what exactly is 'Astro-Dentistry'?", etc, might be a useful addition in there, if it doesn't make the table(s) hard to read... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 11:28, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::''Postscript to above'': Yes, your explanation does things that I was going to do if I hadn't had my first attempt to nix/rewrite hit the table-adding. i.e. go into the major-suffix/minor-prefix sets, or even whole-term where it exists, and spell out and wikilink accordingly. I would be honoured to see your blocked text integrated into mine (or satisfied with yours going there again with barely a smidgen of mine still remaining). Up to you/the others, though, as I'm not wanting to add further ECs to the rush... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.13|172.70.85.13]] 11:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::I like that idea, maybe as an additional table? I can imagine it would take up a whole screen so maybe putting it at the end of the page could help so those that don't need it don't have to scroll over it. I don't feel capable enough to make such a big table (especially with 48 explanations) but I do support that idea. [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 11:36, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:::I have added all three tables now. Both with plain numbers, for explanation and the one in the transcript (which should not be sort-able and not include massage!) Feel free to fill out the table. I have put it in a new section so editing that section or the explanation section does not edit conflict! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:52, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:It feels like the current explanation is rather burying the core of the joke, which is about research students deliberately selecting topics in the most obscure sub-fields they can find (which are probably unstudied for a reason), more for the fact that it gives them more opportunity to produce something novel than to add something useful to the body of knowledge. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 08:15, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

High energy magic is definitely a legitimate scientific subject, see for example https://wiki.lspace.org/High_Energy_Magic_Building
--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.114.7|172.71.114.7]] 13:28, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Worth noting is that all these prefixes are those found commonly on physics and chemistry! Would you find "cosmetic physics", "veterinary physics", "paediatric physics" and so on... which are probably as common in medical field as "high-energy" or "quantum" might be in physics/chemistry. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]] 15:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Interestingly enough, "pediatric physics" gets hits. So does "pediatric theology". --[[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 12:49, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Considering some of the pseudoscientific woo that my late mother-in-law believed in, and the shelves of books of "healing energy" babble she had, I'm not in the least surprised that there are hits on "quantum massage". Quantum ''anything'' is going to pop up eventually. There were books about homeopathic colour, and about magic trampolining. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:57, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

*"theoretical linguistics": 64,100
*"quantum linguistics": 148
*"high-energy linguistics": None
*"computational linguistics": 887,000
*"marine linguistics": 3 (two french-language results and a paper on the "development of the maritime mentality")
*"astrolinguistics": 70 (most seem to focus on designing a way to communicate with aliens)
--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.175|172.69.33.175]] 23:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Randall missed some even more interesting prefixes here. Such as: "forensic", "structural",
"poststructural", "civil", "Biblical", "feminist", "postcolonial", "pediatric".
Open research areas include "forensic massage", "poststructural engineering", "Biblical dentistry", "postcolonial physics".--[[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 12:46, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

; Expansion plans
Given that multipie editors have reported differing results, one ''or more'' people need to double-check them on Scholar, Books Ngrams, and Trends for both web and news, and combine it all into a database that users can click through to some Pandas and plotting code on Colab for analysis and visualization. Maybe if I have time later. I'm thinking of using, e.g., a CSV embedded in a Colab notebook, but it would be great if those services don't require any API keys so everyone can generate and examine the results from their respective locales.

Also, is there a way we can work the {{w|simulation hypothesis}} into high-energy theology? I'm on the fence about that last one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.105|172.70.214.105]] 21:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Why Colab and not Pyodide? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.83|172.69.33.83]] 00:57, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Doesn't fall the Higgs under High-Energy Theology, "The God Particle" and such? :-) (Not even trying to list all pop physic books with "God" in the title, for increased sales...) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.115|198.41.242.115]] 07:01, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Three of the theology ones (in parenthesis) are covered by the first sentence of the Nicene Creed, as well as a couple other possible combinations [in brackets]: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty (high-energy theology), Maker of heaven (astrotheology) and earth [geotheology], and of all things visible [phototheology] and invisible (theoretical theology)." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.109|172.71.22.109]] 17:42, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2656: Scientific Field Prefixes

2022-08-16T09:14:49Z

172.70.147.47: Further link fixes

I think Mr. Monroe made up these numbers rather than researching them [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.105|172.71.22.105]] 17:07, 9 August 2022 (UTC) anon, a mouse.
:Given how easy it is to look them up, I think this is unlikely. I haven't checked all of them, but each of the eight or so that I '''have''' checked were correct. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:14, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Checked it out of curiosity: [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22computational+dentistry%22|The data's correct], however, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22theoretical+dentistry%22|the searches must be done with quotes]

Interestingly enough, the last time I was at a dentist, I ask them if they had seen any research work on how to do dentistry in zero-g, like if you got a toothache halfway to Mars.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.56|162.158.107.56]] 01:58, 9 August 2022 (UTC) BCS
:Comment on comment: there should have been work done on dental procedures aboard orbiting stations, and also on e.g. Antarctic bases. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.25|162.158.134.25]] 04:39, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Pär Leijonhufvud
::That's "Space Dentistry". Or, in the other case, something that surely should involve the term "Polar Molar" somewhere in the paper abstract! :-p
::'Astro-' is "of the stars", or of the things that are more in their vicinity than not. If it isn't dentristrying (or massaging) the stars themselves, it'd be learning how to apply the parent field to astrozoological subjects (assuming xenodentristry and xenomassage aren't the best terms for the otherwise xenobiological clientelle). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.128|172.70.91.128]] 11:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Those who say that there's no such thing as High-Energy Theology should be taken with a pinch of salt. Or even a {{w|Lot's wife|Lot}}! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.80|172.70.91.80]] 02:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I'm a little concerned with Theoretical Theology. How much more theoritical can base theology be? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.198|108.162.250.198]] 02:22, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Beechmere

'Theoretical theology' is a tautology. So the first word is redundant.
[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 06:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Theoretical theology returns 1.6 million results, so the comic is wrong, and high energy theology is wrong as well, searching on these three terms results in 602,000 results, not 0. I think perhaps Scholar.google.com has detected your skepticism, and is returning incorrect results for you, in accordance with the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Theology, in which God only exists for those who are not atheists.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:29, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::"high energy theology" in quotes returns zero. "theoretical theology" actually returns 726 results, as in the comic. Searching without quotes is a double-edged sword: On one hand it would get results in which the terms are mentioned in separate sentences, and thus aren't relevant to the (non-existant{{Citation needed}}) scientific field called "high energy theology". On the other it would get results about fields similar to what one would imagine these combinations would describe. For example there's only one result for "marine dentistry", but there's several articles on dentistry on sea mammals, which would use both "marine" and "dentistry" in the same article. In any case, Randall used quotes in his search and his numbers look correct to me. [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 14:19, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I'd love to conduct research on Marine Massage! How do I find the link? (Purposes.)
:We need another dimension for Theoretical Marine Massave [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:03, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Unfortunately the "Marine dentistry" one appear to be a false positive: it contains the test string "...Marine, Dentistry..." in a list of possible fields where AR technology could be useful (Novakova, N.G., 2019. Innovation potential of augmented technologies in industrial context. Industry 4.0, 4(1), pp.24-28).
Also the "high-energy psychology" one was similarly a dud: student newspaper with a help wanted ad for a "high energy psychology student" (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217247671.pdf). The lack of manual curation of Scholar sometimes gives you these finds. Thirdly, Randall definitely searched with quote marks: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=marine+dentistry yields over 100 k results while https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%252C5&q=%22marine+dentistry%22 only yields one, with at least one of the former being papers on marine mammal dentistry (I have for practical porpoises no interest in dentistry, but I *want* to read https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119545804.ch11). In summary: by searching for the exact phrase Randall eliminated a large number of false positives, but also missed a large number of interesting papers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.157|162.158.134.157]] 04:32, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Pär Leijonhufvud

honestly I'm mostly worried about computational theology [[Special:Contributions/172.71.6.65|172.71.6.65]] 04:40, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: It's a fairly common subject in science fiction. Fredric Brown's short story "Answer", for example. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:46, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::Could have sworn that was Asimov's _The Last Answer_[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:::I think you're thinking of Asimov's "The Last Question", about Multivac and its descendants. His "The Last Answer" is a different story, and doesn't involve a computer. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:24, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: Isn't that better known as {{w|numerology}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 08:49, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Of course, you meant to write "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 11:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some research into use of synchrotron radiation in treating cancers in the jaw. Doesn't that count as "high energy"? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:46, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

'High Energy Theology' sounds like an area of study extremely NOT conducive to the long-term survival of the human race. See this quote from the PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA:

'Mal-2 was once asked by one of his Disciples if he often prayed to Eris. He replied with these words: "No, we Erisians seldom pray, it is much too dangerous. Charles Fort has listed many factual incidences of ignorant people confronted with, say, a drought, and then praying fervently -- and then getting the entire village wiped out in a torrential flood."

We got ourselves into enough trouble when we split the atom. Gods only know what would result if we ever manage to split the thaum.

[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 06:58, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: Isn't that what happened to Soddom and Gemorrah? Genesis 19. Certainly enough energy to transmute Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. External to scripture, there's a recent theory about the image on the Shroud of Turin as well that is based in high energy physics.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Why is the "explanation" someone nitpicking the search method (and mixing up the "former" and "latter" order of unquoted vs. quoted), rather than an explanation of the joke? [[User:Conster|Conster]] ([[User talk:Conster|talk]]) 08:13, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Because sadly after ParL did their nitpicking, nobody else felt qualified to actually explain the joke [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 10:09, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I worked on giving actually competent editors a base to modify, but then someone else had already made an explanation. Here's my attempt:

"Within each branch of science, like physics, chemistry or biology, there are different scientific fields. Some of the prefixes, like theoretical, quantum or astro-, are used across multiple branches of science. For example {{w|Quantum mechanics|quantum physics}} is about the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles, while {{w|Quantum chemistry}} is about the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems.

Randall combines a bunch of different [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TitleDrop Scientific Field Prefixes] with another bunch of scientific branches, creating combinations that form several real fields of science, but also nonsense ones. To get a grasp on whether that scientific field is real and/or well-known, he searches for the combinations on {{w|Google Scholar}}, a web search engine that indexes the contents of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines, counting the number of results for each combination. Some term combinations are common, and can thus be assumed to be real scientific fields, while others are uncommon, suggesting that those fields are not well known. Four combinations are not found even once, suggesting that they are "potential research opportunities", as the title text says.

There are problems with Randall's method though:"

Maybe some of this may be useful, I don't know [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 11:21, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

:''Ah, that was me. Apologies. And you ECed the following attempt to post into here, so hete it is repasted. ;) Still applies. Your contribution also clearly appreciated...''
:I hated it so much, I rewrote it ("/* Explanation */ Nixing the downer 'explanation'. Perhaps some points can be extracted from it, even as my attempt is improved or (in turn) overwritten with something better."). Was going to suggest a table of prefixes/suffixes to describe each, but someone added the (sortable) tables in for the full forms (caused me much edit-conflict pain, hope I didn't cause someone else ECs in return) so maybe that's overkill. But "what exactly is 'Astro-Dentistry'?", etc, might be a useful addition in there, if it doesn't make the table(s) hard to read... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 11:28, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::''Postscript to above'': Yes, your explanation does things that I was going to do if I hadn't had my first attempt to nix/rewrite hit the table-adding. i.e. go into the major-suffix/minor-prefix sets, or even whole-term where it exists, and spell out and wikilink accordingly. I would be honoured to see your blocked text integrated into mine (or satisfied with yours going there again with barely a smidgen of mine still remaining). Up to you/the others, though, as I'm not wanting to add further ECs to the rush... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.13|172.70.85.13]] 11:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::I like that idea, maybe as an additional table? I can imagine it would take up a whole screen so maybe putting it at the end of the page could help so those that don't need it don't have to scroll over it. I don't feel capable enough to make such a big table (especially with 48 explanations) but I do support that idea. [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 11:36, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:::I have added all three tables now. Both with plain numbers, for explanation and the one in the transcript (which should not be sort-able and not include massage!) Feel free to fill out the table. I have put it in a new section so editing that section or the explanation section does not edit conflict! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:52, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:It feels like the current explanation is rather burying the core of the joke, which is about research students deliberately selecting topics in the most obscure sub-fields they can find (which are probably unstudied for a reason), more for the fact that it gives them more opportunity to produce something novel than to add something useful to the body of knowledge. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 08:15, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

High energy magic is definitely a legitimate scientific subject, see for example https://wiki.lspace.org/High_Energy_Magic_Building
--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.114.7|172.71.114.7]] 13:28, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Worth noting is that all these prefixes are those found commonly on physics and chemistry! Would you find "cosmetic physics", "veterinary physics", "paediatric physics" and so on... which are probably as common in medical field as "high-energy" or "quantum" might be in physics/chemistry. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]] 15:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Interestingly enough, "pediatric physics" gets hits. So does "pediatric theology". --[[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 12:49, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Considering some of the pseudoscientific woo that my late mother-in-law believed in, and the shelves of books of "healing energy" babble she had, I'm not in the least surprised that there are hits on "quantum massage". Quantum ''anything'' is going to pop up eventually. There were books about homeopathic colour, and about magic trampolining. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:57, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

*"theoretical linguistics": 64,100
*"quantum linguistics": 148
*"high-energy linguistics": None
*"computational linguistics": 887,000
*"marine linguistics": 3 (two french-language results and a paper on the "development of the maritime mentality")
*"astrolinguistics": 70 (most seem to focus on designing a way to communicate with aliens)
--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.175|172.69.33.175]] 23:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Randall missed some even more interesting prefixes here. Such as: "forensic", "structural",
"poststructural", "civil", "Biblical", "feminist", "postcolonial", "pediatric".
Open research areas include "forensic massage", "poststructural engineering", "Biblical dentistry", "postcolonial physics".--[[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 12:46, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

; Expansion plans
Given that multipie editors have reported differing results, one ''or more'' people need to double-check them on Scholar, Books Ngrams, and Trends for both web and news, and combine it all into a database that users can click through to some Pandas and plotting code on Colab for analysis and visualization. Maybe if I have time later. I'm thinking of using, e.g., a CSV embedded in a Colab notebook, but it would be great if those services don't require any API keys so everyone can generate and examine the results from their respective locales.

Also, is there a way we can work the {{w|simulation hypothesis}} into high-energy theology? I'm on the fence about that last one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.105|172.70.214.105]] 21:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Why Colab and not Pyodide? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.83|172.69.33.83]] 00:57, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Doesn't fall the Higgs under High-Energy Theology, "The God Particle" and such? :-) (Not even trying to list all pop physic books with "God" in the title, for increased sales...) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.115|198.41.242.115]] 07:01, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Three of the theology ones (in parenthesis) are covered by the first sentence of the Nicene Creed, as well as a couple other possible combinations [in brackets]: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty (high-energy theology), Maker of heaven (astrotheology) and earth [geotheology], and of all things visible [phototheology] and invisible (theoretical theology)." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.109|172.71.22.109]] 17:42, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2656: Scientific Field Prefixes

2022-08-16T09:14:15Z

172.70.147.47: Fixed link formatting

I think Mr. Monroe made up these numbers rather than researching them [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.105|172.71.22.105]] 17:07, 9 August 2022 (UTC) anon, a mouse.
:Given how easy it is to look them up, I think this is unlikely. I haven't checked all of them, but each of the eight or so that I '''have''' checked were correct. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:14, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Checked it out of curiosity: [[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22computational+dentistry%22|The data's correct]], however, [[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22theoretical+dentistry%22|the searches must be done with quotes]]

Interestingly enough, the last time I was at a dentist, I ask them if they had seen any research work on how to do dentistry in zero-g, like if you got a toothache halfway to Mars.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.56|162.158.107.56]] 01:58, 9 August 2022 (UTC) BCS
:Comment on comment: there should have been work done on dental procedures aboard orbiting stations, and also on e.g. Antarctic bases. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.25|162.158.134.25]] 04:39, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Pär Leijonhufvud
::That's "Space Dentistry". Or, in the other case, something that surely should involve the term "Polar Molar" somewhere in the paper abstract! :-p
::'Astro-' is "of the stars", or of the things that are more in their vicinity than not. If it isn't dentristrying (or massaging) the stars themselves, it'd be learning how to apply the parent field to astrozoological subjects (assuming xenodentristry and xenomassage aren't the best terms for the otherwise xenobiological clientelle). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.128|172.70.91.128]] 11:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Those who say that there's no such thing as High-Energy Theology should be taken with a pinch of salt. Or even a {{w|Lot's wife|Lot}}! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.80|172.70.91.80]] 02:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I'm a little concerned with Theoretical Theology. How much more theoritical can base theology be? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.198|108.162.250.198]] 02:22, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Beechmere

'Theoretical theology' is a tautology. So the first word is redundant.
[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 06:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Theoretical theology returns 1.6 million results, so the comic is wrong, and high energy theology is wrong as well, searching on these three terms results in 602,000 results, not 0. I think perhaps Scholar.google.com has detected your skepticism, and is returning incorrect results for you, in accordance with the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Theology, in which God only exists for those who are not atheists.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:29, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::"high energy theology" in quotes returns zero. "theoretical theology" actually returns 726 results, as in the comic. Searching without quotes is a double-edged sword: On one hand it would get results in which the terms are mentioned in separate sentences, and thus aren't relevant to the (non-existant{{Citation needed}}) scientific field called "high energy theology". On the other it would get results about fields similar to what one would imagine these combinations would describe. For example there's only one result for "marine dentistry", but there's several articles on dentistry on sea mammals, which would use both "marine" and "dentistry" in the same article. In any case, Randall used quotes in his search and his numbers look correct to me. [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 14:19, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I'd love to conduct research on Marine Massage! How do I find the link? (Purposes.)
:We need another dimension for Theoretical Marine Massave [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:03, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Unfortunately the "Marine dentistry" one appear to be a false positive: it contains the test string "...Marine, Dentistry..." in a list of possible fields where AR technology could be useful (Novakova, N.G., 2019. Innovation potential of augmented technologies in industrial context. Industry 4.0, 4(1), pp.24-28).
Also the "high-energy psychology" one was similarly a dud: student newspaper with a help wanted ad for a "high energy psychology student" (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217247671.pdf). The lack of manual curation of Scholar sometimes gives you these finds. Thirdly, Randall definitely searched with quote marks: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=marine+dentistry yields over 100 k results while https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%252C5&q=%22marine+dentistry%22 only yields one, with at least one of the former being papers on marine mammal dentistry (I have for practical porpoises no interest in dentistry, but I *want* to read https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119545804.ch11). In summary: by searching for the exact phrase Randall eliminated a large number of false positives, but also missed a large number of interesting papers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.157|162.158.134.157]] 04:32, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Pär Leijonhufvud

honestly I'm mostly worried about computational theology [[Special:Contributions/172.71.6.65|172.71.6.65]] 04:40, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: It's a fairly common subject in science fiction. Fredric Brown's short story "Answer", for example. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:46, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::Could have sworn that was Asimov's _The Last Answer_[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:::I think you're thinking of Asimov's "The Last Question", about Multivac and its descendants. His "The Last Answer" is a different story, and doesn't involve a computer. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:24, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: Isn't that better known as {{w|numerology}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 08:49, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Of course, you meant to write "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 11:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some research into use of synchrotron radiation in treating cancers in the jaw. Doesn't that count as "high energy"? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:46, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

'High Energy Theology' sounds like an area of study extremely NOT conducive to the long-term survival of the human race. See this quote from the PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA:

'Mal-2 was once asked by one of his Disciples if he often prayed to Eris. He replied with these words: "No, we Erisians seldom pray, it is much too dangerous. Charles Fort has listed many factual incidences of ignorant people confronted with, say, a drought, and then praying fervently -- and then getting the entire village wiped out in a torrential flood."

We got ourselves into enough trouble when we split the atom. Gods only know what would result if we ever manage to split the thaum.

[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 06:58, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: Isn't that what happened to Soddom and Gemorrah? Genesis 19. Certainly enough energy to transmute Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. External to scripture, there's a recent theory about the image on the Shroud of Turin as well that is based in high energy physics.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Why is the "explanation" someone nitpicking the search method (and mixing up the "former" and "latter" order of unquoted vs. quoted), rather than an explanation of the joke? [[User:Conster|Conster]] ([[User talk:Conster|talk]]) 08:13, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Because sadly after ParL did their nitpicking, nobody else felt qualified to actually explain the joke [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 10:09, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I worked on giving actually competent editors a base to modify, but then someone else had already made an explanation. Here's my attempt:

"Within each branch of science, like physics, chemistry or biology, there are different scientific fields. Some of the prefixes, like theoretical, quantum or astro-, are used across multiple branches of science. For example {{w|Quantum mechanics|quantum physics}} is about the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles, while {{w|Quantum chemistry}} is about the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems.

Randall combines a bunch of different [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TitleDrop Scientific Field Prefixes] with another bunch of scientific branches, creating combinations that form several real fields of science, but also nonsense ones. To get a grasp on whether that scientific field is real and/or well-known, he searches for the combinations on {{w|Google Scholar}}, a web search engine that indexes the contents of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines, counting the number of results for each combination. Some term combinations are common, and can thus be assumed to be real scientific fields, while others are uncommon, suggesting that those fields are not well known. Four combinations are not found even once, suggesting that they are "potential research opportunities", as the title text says.

There are problems with Randall's method though:"

Maybe some of this may be useful, I don't know [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 11:21, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

:''Ah, that was me. Apologies. And you ECed the following attempt to post into here, so hete it is repasted. ;) Still applies. Your contribution also clearly appreciated...''
:I hated it so much, I rewrote it ("/* Explanation */ Nixing the downer 'explanation'. Perhaps some points can be extracted from it, even as my attempt is improved or (in turn) overwritten with something better."). Was going to suggest a table of prefixes/suffixes to describe each, but someone added the (sortable) tables in for the full forms (caused me much edit-conflict pain, hope I didn't cause someone else ECs in return) so maybe that's overkill. But "what exactly is 'Astro-Dentistry'?", etc, might be a useful addition in there, if it doesn't make the table(s) hard to read... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 11:28, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::''Postscript to above'': Yes, your explanation does things that I was going to do if I hadn't had my first attempt to nix/rewrite hit the table-adding. i.e. go into the major-suffix/minor-prefix sets, or even whole-term where it exists, and spell out and wikilink accordingly. I would be honoured to see your blocked text integrated into mine (or satisfied with yours going there again with barely a smidgen of mine still remaining). Up to you/the others, though, as I'm not wanting to add further ECs to the rush... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.13|172.70.85.13]] 11:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::I like that idea, maybe as an additional table? I can imagine it would take up a whole screen so maybe putting it at the end of the page could help so those that don't need it don't have to scroll over it. I don't feel capable enough to make such a big table (especially with 48 explanations) but I do support that idea. [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 11:36, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:::I have added all three tables now. Both with plain numbers, for explanation and the one in the transcript (which should not be sort-able and not include massage!) Feel free to fill out the table. I have put it in a new section so editing that section or the explanation section does not edit conflict! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:52, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:It feels like the current explanation is rather burying the core of the joke, which is about research students deliberately selecting topics in the most obscure sub-fields they can find (which are probably unstudied for a reason), more for the fact that it gives them more opportunity to produce something novel than to add something useful to the body of knowledge. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 08:15, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

High energy magic is definitely a legitimate scientific subject, see for example https://wiki.lspace.org/High_Energy_Magic_Building
--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.114.7|172.71.114.7]] 13:28, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Worth noting is that all these prefixes are those found commonly on physics and chemistry! Would you find "cosmetic physics", "veterinary physics", "paediatric physics" and so on... which are probably as common in medical field as "high-energy" or "quantum" might be in physics/chemistry. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]] 15:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Interestingly enough, "pediatric physics" gets hits. So does "pediatric theology". --[[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 12:49, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Considering some of the pseudoscientific woo that my late mother-in-law believed in, and the shelves of books of "healing energy" babble she had, I'm not in the least surprised that there are hits on "quantum massage". Quantum ''anything'' is going to pop up eventually. There were books about homeopathic colour, and about magic trampolining. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:57, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

*"theoretical linguistics": 64,100
*"quantum linguistics": 148
*"high-energy linguistics": None
*"computational linguistics": 887,000
*"marine linguistics": 3 (two french-language results and a paper on the "development of the maritime mentality")
*"astrolinguistics": 70 (most seem to focus on designing a way to communicate with aliens)
--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.175|172.69.33.175]] 23:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Randall missed some even more interesting prefixes here. Such as: "forensic", "structural",
"poststructural", "civil", "Biblical", "feminist", "postcolonial", "pediatric".
Open research areas include "forensic massage", "poststructural engineering", "Biblical dentistry", "postcolonial physics".--[[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 12:46, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

; Expansion plans
Given that multipie editors have reported differing results, one ''or more'' people need to double-check them on Scholar, Books Ngrams, and Trends for both web and news, and combine it all into a database that users can click through to some Pandas and plotting code on Colab for analysis and visualization. Maybe if I have time later. I'm thinking of using, e.g., a CSV embedded in a Colab notebook, but it would be great if those services don't require any API keys so everyone can generate and examine the results from their respective locales.

Also, is there a way we can work the {{w|simulation hypothesis}} into high-energy theology? I'm on the fence about that last one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.105|172.70.214.105]] 21:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Why Colab and not Pyodide? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.83|172.69.33.83]] 00:57, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Doesn't fall the Higgs under High-Energy Theology, "The God Particle" and such? :-) (Not even trying to list all pop physic books with "God" in the title, for increased sales...) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.115|198.41.242.115]] 07:01, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Three of the theology ones (in parenthesis) are covered by the first sentence of the Nicene Creed, as well as a couple other possible combinations [in brackets]: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty (high-energy theology), Maker of heaven (astrotheology) and earth [geotheology], and of all things visible [phototheology] and invisible (theoretical theology)." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.109|172.71.22.109]] 17:42, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2656: Scientific Field Prefixes

2022-08-16T09:13:20Z

172.70.147.47: Added comment

I think Mr. Monroe made up these numbers rather than researching them [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.105|172.71.22.105]] 17:07, 9 August 2022 (UTC) anon, a mouse.
:Given how easy it is to look them up, I think this is unlikely. I haven't checked all of them, but each of the eight or so that I '''have''' checked were correct. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:14, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Checked it out of curiosity: [[The data's correct|https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22computational+dentistry%22]], however, [[the searches must be done with quotes|https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22theoretical+dentistry%22]]

Interestingly enough, the last time I was at a dentist, I ask them if they had seen any research work on how to do dentistry in zero-g, like if you got a toothache halfway to Mars.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.56|162.158.107.56]] 01:58, 9 August 2022 (UTC) BCS
:Comment on comment: there should have been work done on dental procedures aboard orbiting stations, and also on e.g. Antarctic bases. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.25|162.158.134.25]] 04:39, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Pär Leijonhufvud
::That's "Space Dentistry". Or, in the other case, something that surely should involve the term "Polar Molar" somewhere in the paper abstract! :-p
::'Astro-' is "of the stars", or of the things that are more in their vicinity than not. If it isn't dentristrying (or massaging) the stars themselves, it'd be learning how to apply the parent field to astrozoological subjects (assuming xenodentristry and xenomassage aren't the best terms for the otherwise xenobiological clientelle). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.128|172.70.91.128]] 11:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Those who say that there's no such thing as High-Energy Theology should be taken with a pinch of salt. Or even a {{w|Lot's wife|Lot}}! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.80|172.70.91.80]] 02:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I'm a little concerned with Theoretical Theology. How much more theoritical can base theology be? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.198|108.162.250.198]] 02:22, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Beechmere

'Theoretical theology' is a tautology. So the first word is redundant.
[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 06:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Theoretical theology returns 1.6 million results, so the comic is wrong, and high energy theology is wrong as well, searching on these three terms results in 602,000 results, not 0. I think perhaps Scholar.google.com has detected your skepticism, and is returning incorrect results for you, in accordance with the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Theology, in which God only exists for those who are not atheists.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:29, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::"high energy theology" in quotes returns zero. "theoretical theology" actually returns 726 results, as in the comic. Searching without quotes is a double-edged sword: On one hand it would get results in which the terms are mentioned in separate sentences, and thus aren't relevant to the (non-existant{{Citation needed}}) scientific field called "high energy theology". On the other it would get results about fields similar to what one would imagine these combinations would describe. For example there's only one result for "marine dentistry", but there's several articles on dentistry on sea mammals, which would use both "marine" and "dentistry" in the same article. In any case, Randall used quotes in his search and his numbers look correct to me. [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 14:19, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I'd love to conduct research on Marine Massage! How do I find the link? (Purposes.)
:We need another dimension for Theoretical Marine Massave [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:03, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Unfortunately the "Marine dentistry" one appear to be a false positive: it contains the test string "...Marine, Dentistry..." in a list of possible fields where AR technology could be useful (Novakova, N.G., 2019. Innovation potential of augmented technologies in industrial context. Industry 4.0, 4(1), pp.24-28).
Also the "high-energy psychology" one was similarly a dud: student newspaper with a help wanted ad for a "high energy psychology student" (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217247671.pdf). The lack of manual curation of Scholar sometimes gives you these finds. Thirdly, Randall definitely searched with quote marks: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=marine+dentistry yields over 100 k results while https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%252C5&q=%22marine+dentistry%22 only yields one, with at least one of the former being papers on marine mammal dentistry (I have for practical porpoises no interest in dentistry, but I *want* to read https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119545804.ch11). In summary: by searching for the exact phrase Randall eliminated a large number of false positives, but also missed a large number of interesting papers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.157|162.158.134.157]] 04:32, 9 August 2022 (UTC) Pär Leijonhufvud

honestly I'm mostly worried about computational theology [[Special:Contributions/172.71.6.65|172.71.6.65]] 04:40, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: It's a fairly common subject in science fiction. Fredric Brown's short story "Answer", for example. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:46, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::Could have sworn that was Asimov's _The Last Answer_[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:::I think you're thinking of Asimov's "The Last Question", about Multivac and its descendants. His "The Last Answer" is a different story, and doesn't involve a computer. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:24, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: Isn't that better known as {{w|numerology}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 08:49, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Of course, you meant to write "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 11:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some research into use of synchrotron radiation in treating cancers in the jaw. Doesn't that count as "high energy"? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:46, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

'High Energy Theology' sounds like an area of study extremely NOT conducive to the long-term survival of the human race. See this quote from the PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA:

'Mal-2 was once asked by one of his Disciples if he often prayed to Eris. He replied with these words: "No, we Erisians seldom pray, it is much too dangerous. Charles Fort has listed many factual incidences of ignorant people confronted with, say, a drought, and then praying fervently -- and then getting the entire village wiped out in a torrential flood."

We got ourselves into enough trouble when we split the atom. Gods only know what would result if we ever manage to split the thaum.

[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 06:58, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
: Isn't that what happened to Soddom and Gemorrah? Genesis 19. Certainly enough energy to transmute Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. External to scripture, there's a recent theory about the image on the Shroud of Turin as well that is based in high energy physics.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Why is the "explanation" someone nitpicking the search method (and mixing up the "former" and "latter" order of unquoted vs. quoted), rather than an explanation of the joke? [[User:Conster|Conster]] ([[User talk:Conster|talk]]) 08:13, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Because sadly after ParL did their nitpicking, nobody else felt qualified to actually explain the joke [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 10:09, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I worked on giving actually competent editors a base to modify, but then someone else had already made an explanation. Here's my attempt:

"Within each branch of science, like physics, chemistry or biology, there are different scientific fields. Some of the prefixes, like theoretical, quantum or astro-, are used across multiple branches of science. For example {{w|Quantum mechanics|quantum physics}} is about the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles, while {{w|Quantum chemistry}} is about the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems.

Randall combines a bunch of different [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TitleDrop Scientific Field Prefixes] with another bunch of scientific branches, creating combinations that form several real fields of science, but also nonsense ones. To get a grasp on whether that scientific field is real and/or well-known, he searches for the combinations on {{w|Google Scholar}}, a web search engine that indexes the contents of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines, counting the number of results for each combination. Some term combinations are common, and can thus be assumed to be real scientific fields, while others are uncommon, suggesting that those fields are not well known. Four combinations are not found even once, suggesting that they are "potential research opportunities", as the title text says.

There are problems with Randall's method though:"

Maybe some of this may be useful, I don't know [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 11:21, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

:''Ah, that was me. Apologies. And you ECed the following attempt to post into here, so hete it is repasted. ;) Still applies. Your contribution also clearly appreciated...''
:I hated it so much, I rewrote it ("/* Explanation */ Nixing the downer 'explanation'. Perhaps some points can be extracted from it, even as my attempt is improved or (in turn) overwritten with something better."). Was going to suggest a table of prefixes/suffixes to describe each, but someone added the (sortable) tables in for the full forms (caused me much edit-conflict pain, hope I didn't cause someone else ECs in return) so maybe that's overkill. But "what exactly is 'Astro-Dentistry'?", etc, might be a useful addition in there, if it doesn't make the table(s) hard to read... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 11:28, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::''Postscript to above'': Yes, your explanation does things that I was going to do if I hadn't had my first attempt to nix/rewrite hit the table-adding. i.e. go into the major-suffix/minor-prefix sets, or even whole-term where it exists, and spell out and wikilink accordingly. I would be honoured to see your blocked text integrated into mine (or satisfied with yours going there again with barely a smidgen of mine still remaining). Up to you/the others, though, as I'm not wanting to add further ECs to the rush... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.13|172.70.85.13]] 11:35, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
::I like that idea, maybe as an additional table? I can imagine it would take up a whole screen so maybe putting it at the end of the page could help so those that don't need it don't have to scroll over it. I don't feel capable enough to make such a big table (especially with 48 explanations) but I do support that idea. [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 11:36, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:::I have added all three tables now. Both with plain numbers, for explanation and the one in the transcript (which should not be sort-able and not include massage!) Feel free to fill out the table. I have put it in a new section so editing that section or the explanation section does not edit conflict! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:52, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:It feels like the current explanation is rather burying the core of the joke, which is about research students deliberately selecting topics in the most obscure sub-fields they can find (which are probably unstudied for a reason), more for the fact that it gives them more opportunity to produce something novel than to add something useful to the body of knowledge. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 08:15, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

High energy magic is definitely a legitimate scientific subject, see for example https://wiki.lspace.org/High_Energy_Magic_Building
--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.114.7|172.71.114.7]] 13:28, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Worth noting is that all these prefixes are those found commonly on physics and chemistry! Would you find "cosmetic physics", "veterinary physics", "paediatric physics" and so on... which are probably as common in medical field as "high-energy" or "quantum" might be in physics/chemistry. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]] 15:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Interestingly enough, "pediatric physics" gets hits. So does "pediatric theology". --[[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 12:49, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Considering some of the pseudoscientific woo that my late mother-in-law believed in, and the shelves of books of "healing energy" babble she had, I'm not in the least surprised that there are hits on "quantum massage". Quantum ''anything'' is going to pop up eventually. There were books about homeopathic colour, and about magic trampolining. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:57, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

*"theoretical linguistics": 64,100
*"quantum linguistics": 148
*"high-energy linguistics": None
*"computational linguistics": 887,000
*"marine linguistics": 3 (two french-language results and a paper on the "development of the maritime mentality")
*"astrolinguistics": 70 (most seem to focus on designing a way to communicate with aliens)
--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.175|172.69.33.175]] 23:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Randall missed some even more interesting prefixes here. Such as: "forensic", "structural",
"poststructural", "civil", "Biblical", "feminist", "postcolonial", "pediatric".
Open research areas include "forensic massage", "poststructural engineering", "Biblical dentistry", "postcolonial physics".--[[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 12:46, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

; Expansion plans
Given that multipie editors have reported differing results, one ''or more'' people need to double-check them on Scholar, Books Ngrams, and Trends for both web and news, and combine it all into a database that users can click through to some Pandas and plotting code on Colab for analysis and visualization. Maybe if I have time later. I'm thinking of using, e.g., a CSV embedded in a Colab notebook, but it would be great if those services don't require any API keys so everyone can generate and examine the results from their respective locales.

Also, is there a way we can work the {{w|simulation hypothesis}} into high-energy theology? I'm on the fence about that last one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.105|172.70.214.105]] 21:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
:Why Colab and not Pyodide? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.83|172.69.33.83]] 00:57, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Doesn't fall the Higgs under High-Energy Theology, "The God Particle" and such? :-) (Not even trying to list all pop physic books with "God" in the title, for increased sales...) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.115|198.41.242.115]] 07:01, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Three of the theology ones (in parenthesis) are covered by the first sentence of the Nicene Creed, as well as a couple other possible combinations [in brackets]: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty (high-energy theology), Maker of heaven (astrotheology) and earth [geotheology], and of all things visible [phototheology] and invisible (theoretical theology)." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.109|172.71.22.109]] 17:42, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

2652: Proxy Variable

2022-07-30T04:10:06Z

172.70.147.47: look who's being a janny, waiting all their time put coal up

{{comic
| number = 2652
| date = July 29, 2022
| title = Proxy Variable
| image = proxy_variable.png
| titletext = Our work has produced great answers. Now someone just needs to figure out which questions they go with.
}}

__NOTOC__

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PROXY BOT IN NO WAY CORRELATED WITH THE ORIGINAL BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In statistics, a {{w|proxy variable}} is one used as a stand-in for one or more other variables that are difficult to measure. In order to be useful as such, proxy variables must be correlated with what they are intended to represent.

For example, a drug might aim to reduce deaths from a slow-acting disease. But testing if it reduces deaths might take many years, so you might test for a "proxy outcome" instead, like whether it prevents loss of bone density or damage to cells, to see if the drug is making a difference. Hairy is dismissing the question of whether this is the right variable to study as too expensive to answer.

Choosing the wrong proxy variable might make the research irrelevant, or as the title text suggests, answer the wrong question. The title text indirectly bemoans the difficulty of separating correlation from causation when interpreting proxy variable analysis.

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

:[Hairy is showing Cueball a poster of a graph]
:Hairy: We want to study this variable, but it's too hard to observe.

:[Cut the panel in half so you can only see Hairy and the poster]
:Hairy: So we're studying this proxy variable.

:[Cueball and Hairy are standing with the poster out of frame]
:Cueball: Is it correlated with the other variable?
:Hairy: Look, we don't have the funding to answer every little question.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2652: Proxy Variable

2022-07-30T03:59:50Z

172.70.147.47: /* this dude keeps spamming */ new section

Maybe Randall is commenting on this recent article [https://www.nature.com/articles/s43588-022-00281-6 Nature Computational Science: Automated discovery of fundamental variables hidden in experimental data]?
02:10, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
suggested by a proxy editor

Sorry for the mild crassness, especially as a new user, but some Nazi f*ck is vandalizing the page. May someone please ban them?

Nah, they're using multiple IPs. Someone could semi-protect it or something but there ain't any mods doing their job it seems.

Where are the mods, anyways?

== this dude keeps spamming ==

Article has been restored but some idiots keep spamming the page with random things. pls do something mods

2652: Proxy Variable

2022-07-30T03:58:31Z

172.70.147.47: this dude keeps spamming

{{comic
| number = 1337
| date = July 5554, 2022
| title = YOU WILL ACCEPT THE NEW NORMAL
| image = Soyjak.png
| titletext = Self-portrait of janny, 2022
}}

2652: Proxy Variable

2022-07-30T03:57:12Z

172.70.147.47: Replaced content with "{{comic | number = 1337 | date = July 5554, 2022 | title = YOU WILL ACCEPT THE NEW NORMAL | image = Soyjak.png | titletext = Self-portrait of janny, 2022 }..."

{{comic
| number = 1337
| date = July 5554, 2022
| title = YOU WILL ACCEPT THE NEW NORMAL
| image = Soyjak.png
| titletext = Self-portrait of janny, 2022
}}

stop spamming

Talk:2652: Proxy Variable

2022-07-30T03:55:18Z

172.70.147.47:

2652: Proxy Variable

2022-07-30T03:54:55Z

172.70.147.47: removed spam

{{comic
| number = 1337
| date = July 5554, 2022
| title = YOU WILL ACCEPT THE NEW NORMAL
| image = Soyjak.png
| titletext = Self-portrait of janny, 2022
}}

⣿stop spamming

389: Keeping Time

2022-03-30T09:39:49Z

172.70.147.47: My Hobby

{{comic
| number = 389
| date = February 27, 2008
| title = Keeping Time
| image = keeping_time.png
| titletext = You can identify them ahead-of-time -- they lead with their left foot when the music starts.
}}

==Explanation==
[http://imgs.xkcd.com/blag/xkcd_389.mp3 Listen to the music] played here.

A member of a marching band, after spending seasons marching in time to their music for their shows, ends up naturally walking with the rhythm of any music they hear around them, like at a shopping mall. Pausing the music for a split second would throw off the rhythm, supposedly enough to cause them to fall. The line of music in the comic is a piano reduction of a well-known song, linked [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ here]. [[Randall]] talks about this music line in one of his [https://youtu.be/z_zwyJ6IYR0?t=35m48s talks].

This comic is part of the “My Hobby" series.

The title text refers to the fact that almost all marching bands start marching with the left foot, so marching band members tend to naturally start with the left foot.

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Pausing in-store music for a split second and watching the ex-marching band kids stumble.
:[On a balcony overlooking a supermarket, Cueball presses a button on a pedestal. The in-store music, the first four bars of a well-known song, pauses briefly after the third bar, and one of the store's patrons falls on her face.]
:''FWOMP''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Rickrolling]]