explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3092: Baker's Units

2025-05-27T08:21:16Z

172.70.162.159: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3092
| date = May 21, 2025
| title = Baker's Units
| image = bakers_units_2x.png
| imagesize = 349x310px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 169 is a baker's gross.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by baker's bot. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A '{{w|Dozen#Baker's dozen|baker's dozen}}' is an expression referring to the number 13, as opposed to the normal 'dozen', meaning 12. This stems from a tradition in medieval times whereby salespeople would include 13 items when selling a 'dozen'. This was due to them having to pay penalties (in some regions, {{w|Ducking stool|draconian}} ones) when customers were [https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/obscure-medieval-laws/ sold one item short], which could easily be done unintentionally with items numbering in the dozens. To avoid the customer complaints and the penalty, bakers added a safety margin that allowed them to still serve a dozen in a hurry: If a count had incorrectly inflated the assumed number, the baker may still have given out twelve items; if no miscount (or an undercount) had happened, the baker would have given away only a token extra item (or two), and to someone who was probably a good enough customer to make it a worthwhile business practice.

[[Randall]] proceeds to apply this principle to other things involving the number 12. A reader might anticipate this means simply applying a count of 13 of a thing, or adding one to the most prominent quantity. But it slowly becomes clear that, instead, Randall finds something about the thing that consists of 12 units, changes that to 13, and demonstrates the logical consequence.

The results gradually gradually become more unexpected and silly:
* Imperial feet are 12 inches long; a 'baker's foot' would be 13 inches long.
* Noon is 12 o'clock (also 12:00 in {{w|24-hour clock}} notation); 'baker's noon' would be 1 o'clock PM (13:00 in 24-hour notation). Local noon has often been a vital piece of information for those who need to know when the working daylight is half-way through, or specifically for noting the {{w|Solar time|local solar maximum}} for astronomical or navigation purposes, whilst 1 PM does not usually merit any note beyond that of any other hour — except during daylight saving time, when baker's noon may be closer to local noon than 12 o'clock.
* A {{w|dodecahedron}} is a solid shape having 12 faces ("dodeca" = "twelve"). The best-known kind is the regular dodecahedron, a {{w|Platonic solid}} whose faces are regular pentagons (the shape that most {{w|Dice#Polyhedral dice|d12}}s take the form of), but there are others such as the {{w|rhombic dodecahedron}} and {{w|Pyritohedron#Pyritohedron|pyritohedron}}. A 'baker's dodecahedron' would have thirteen faces, making it, in fact, a tridecahedron, typically a form with some combination of triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons and/or hexagons. One way of forming a tridecahedron is to truncate one vertex of a dodecahedron, essentially "replacing" it with an additional small face. Tridecahedrons are not Platonic solids, and their use in dice-based games (though not impossible) would result in an unbalanced skew of possibilities, as well as one extra result (perhaps zero or thirteen) that a gaming system might not be designed to anticipate.
* Under the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}, years have 12 months and, in most Western traditions, New Year's Eve is celebrated on the last day of the 12th of these. Therefore a baker would celebrate 'baker's New Year's Eve' at the end of an extra 13th month, on January 31 (possibly implying that their New Year would shift by one month each year, relative to everyone else's calendars). There are proposed calendars that have 13 months in every year, such as the {{w|International Fixed Calendar}}.
* In {{w|12 equal temperament|12-tone music systems}}, octaves contain 12 half-steps, also known as semitones. (A half-step is the distance between adjacent notes, such as F and F#.) A 'baker’s octave' would have 13 semitones, corresponding to a minor ninth, and would cause problems in musical composition as baker's octaves are dissonant instead of consonant. However, Randall's musical notation actually shows a ''major'' ninth, with ''fourteen'' semitones. If he wanted thirteen semitones, Randall could have used D♭ instead of D, or drawn a bass clef instead of a treble clef. Another way would have been to shift two notes up to make the pair E and F, or one note down to make it B and C, as these pairs are actually 13 semitones apart.
* Trial juries in the Anglo-Saxon law tradition ({{w|Common Law}}) consist of 12 peers. The 'baker’s jury' would have 13 peers. This might be considered to make little practical difference, though it does mean that in situations where a jury is allowed to present a majority verdict instead of requiring unanimity, the odd number of jurors would prevent exact ties. (Note that {{w|Trial by jury in Scotland|Scottish juries}}, start with the expectation of there being 15 jurors, and may well end up reduced to 13 or even 12.)
* The {{w|Flag of Europe}} has 12 stars forming a circle (as a symbol of harmony); unlike in the US flag, the stars do not represent member states. The flag was first adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955, when it already had 13 members; today there are over 40. The European Communities adopted the Flag of Europe in 1986 before the EC turned into the European Union, which currently 27 member states. A 13th star could potentially be added to make a 'baker's EU flag' without major damage to the symbol. In the United States, 13 stars in a circle is associated with the {{w|Betsy Ross flag}}, the first U.S. flag, in which each star represented a state.
* Magnesium is element number 12, with 12 protons. Aluminum is element number 13 and is a very different material.{{Citation needed}} 'Baker's magnesium' actually has more applications than standard magnesium in baking such as {{w|sodium aluminium phosphate}}, used in some baking powders, and {{w|aluminum foil}} (often called tinfoil), sometimes used to protect pans or baked goods during baking, but it does not have as much nutritional value.
* In the title text, 144 (12x12) is a gross. Thus, 169 (13x13) would be a 'baker's gross', an addition of not just one but 25 units.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove too soon.}}
:Baker's units
:[A formation comprising 13 items] - Baker's dozen
:[A ruler divided into 13 parts] - Baker's foot
:1:00 PM - Baker's noon
:[A polyhedron with 13 faces] - Baker's dodecahedron
:January 31st - Baker's New Year's Eve
:[Two notes on a staff 14 half-steps apart] - Baker's octave
:[13 people standing in a row] - Baker's jury
:[A flag with 13 stars forming a circle] - Baker's EU flag
:Aluminum - Baker's magnesium

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]

285: Wikipedian Protester

2025-04-17T20:55:27Z

172.70.162.159: /* Explanation */ I believe that point is every bit as explained as we could hope for, without forcibly dredging Randall's own memories and motivations...

{{comic
| number = 285
| date = July 4, 2007
| title = Wikipedian Protester
| image = wikipedian_protester.png
| titletext = SEMI-PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] holds up a sign reading "[Citation needed]" during a political speech. The sign text is based on the {{w|Wikipedia:Citation needed|Wikipedia template}} that can be placed next to statements that need citations, (that look like this[citation needed]) usually because of questionable validity. Cueball is using this template to challenge the politician's speech, as political speakers often throw out claims having dubious or no factual basis.
The title text represents an alternative sign the protester could be holding. It is a pun on popular phrase "protect the Constitution", which urges politicians to pass and enforce laws in a way that preserves the rules and rights set down by the {{w|Constitution of the United States|U.S. constitution}}. "Semi-protect" is a reference to the {{w|Wikipedia:Semi-protection policy|Wikipedia semi-protection policy}}, which is used to prevent important articles from being edited anonymously or by new users. Semi-protection on an article is shown by displaying this lock [[File:semi-protection-lock.png|12px]] on the top right of an article. Constitutional amendments are proposed by Congress, which isn't anonymous, meaning that in effect, all articles of the Constitution are technically already semi-protected. Funnily enough, the "{{w|Constitution}}" and "{{w|Constitution of the United States}}" articles on Wikipedia are now semi-protected due to excessive vandalism.

This comic was posted on Independence Day in 2007, which may explain its focus on classically American issues such as free speech, protest, and the Constitution (as well as the presence of the country's flag on the podium).

==Transcript==
:[A man (presumably some sort of electoral candidate) with flat, dark hair is standing at a podium. He is speaking to a crowd while standing behind a lectern. The lectern has a microphone on the top and sports an American flag in color on the side. He holds an arm on the lectern and the other arm is held up in front of him with a finger pointing upwards. There are four red stars on the side of the podium below him and behind him something that could be high curtains. There is an empty gap between the podium and the first people in the crowd followed by a stick with a red top, which indicates a fence to keep the crowd at a distance from the podium. After the fence there is a large crowd of people listening, most of them only partly drawn, and a lot of them lacking hair. Three signs can be seen above the heads of the crowd, but two are just blank white, except for one in the middle of the crowd. There, a Cueball has been raised above the rest of the crowd (possibly on someone else's shoulders) while holding a large sign above his head in both hands. The sign has blue text in black square brackets:]
:<big>[Citation needed]</big>

==Trivia==
* Randall's ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' blog and [[explain xkcd|this wiki]] use the {{Template|Citation needed}} template as a joke, after statements that are blatantly obvious. For example, "The light from the Sun illuminates the Earth.{{Citation needed}}". On this wiki, clicking the template leads to this comic's explanation instead of the {{w|Wikipedia:Citation needed}} page. Because of this, this wiki instead uses the {{tl|Actual citation needed}} template for statements that are unsourced and require actual reliable citations. [[explain_xkcd:Editor_FAQ#citation|Learn more at the Editor FAQ]].

* Randall {{w|User talk:Xkcd#http://xkcd.com/c285.html|re-licensed this comic}} under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ the CC-BY 2.5 license] so that it could be {{w|File:Webcomic xkcd - Wikipedian protester.png|used on Wikipedia}}. By default, xkcd comics are licensed under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ CC-BY-NC 2.5], which is [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Licensing#Acceptable_licenses considered too restrictive for Wikimedia content]. On Wikipedia, this comic was featured as the {{w|Template:POTD/2018-11-23|picture of the day}} on November 23, 2018 and is used in the "{{w|Citation needed}}" article, the "{{w|Wikipedia:Citation needed}}" information page, and the "{{w|Wikipedia:Why Wikipedia cannot claim the Earth is not flat}}" essay.
{{Quote| I feel like I've already fielded requests on this particular image elsewhere in the three years since this debate, so the issue has probably been resolved. In case I haven't: yes—I am willing to release comic #285 under CC-BY-SA, so Wikipedia can use it. Sorry for any trouble!|[[Randall Munroe]]|{{w|User talk:Xkcd#http://xkcd.com/c285.html|User talk:Xkcd}}}}

* The template in this comic used to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20211215010112/https://store.xkcd.com/products/citation-needed-sticker-pack available as a sticker pack] in the xkcd store before it was [[Store|shut down]].

* xkcd fans have made [https://blog.xkcd.com/2007/10/01/the-meetup/comment-page-2/#:~:text=There%20were%20several%20gallant%20protesters%20insisting%20that%20all%20assertions%20be%20fully%20backed%2Dup. "Citation needed" signs in real life] as a joke.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

3070: Orogeny

2025-04-01T12:01:35Z

172.70.162.159: /* Explanation */ Maybe a good reason to not try to join the dots between just two points. ;)

{{comic
| number = 3070
| date = March 31, 2025
| title = Orogeny
| image = orogeny_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x303px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Most properties can only boast INDOOR heated floors.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a OUTDOOR HEATED FLOOR - Needs someone who knows geology to add stuff. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about an {{w|orogeny}}, the creation of mountain ranges at convergent plate boundaries.

The mountain range that [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] are looking at was formed a billion years ago, but the mountains themselves have been eroded away and replaced. This could reference the {{w|Ship of Theseus|Theseus’ Ship}} thought experiment. Cueball analogizes this to a fully-renovated home, and Ponytail continues the analogy by (jokingly) pretending to use this as a business opportunity, offering it for sale to Cueball. She makes the sales pitch that this is good old good solid {{w|Intrusive rock|plutonic bedrock}}, freshly uplifted , i.e. from below the surface from the collision of the tectonic plates. Cueball plays along by saying he'd prefer 'new construction', in this case a volcanic seamount, which Ponytail rejects on the basis of them being quite literally 'too hot' (i.e. covered in lava or soon to be so).

The title text talks about how magma is technically a heated floor. While most houses only have indoor heated floors, the volcanic seamounts can heat the ground outside when they erupt.

Orogeny was also mentioned in [[1082: Geology]].

This comic is reminiscent of the [[:Category:Home Inspections|Home Inspections]] series but, given that there is not yet a home to assess, it is not strictly part of that category. There was also the recent [[3051: Hardwood]], about defining underlying geology as part of a house, which might hint at Randall working all around a wider theme.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Ponytail are seen from afar standing together on hill and looking out at a mountain range with mountains going all the way to the horizon, wit more than 20 peaks. The hills they are standing on is grassy and strewn with rocks.]
:Cueball: I hear these mountains are a billion years old.
:Ponytail: Well, sort of.

:[Close up of Cueball and Ponytail on a white background. Ponytail holds her hand palm up out towards Cueball.]
:Ponytail: An ancient collision created the mountain belt, but the actual rock layers have been continually uplifted and eroded away.

:[In a frame-less panel Cueball atkes his hand to his chin looking down, while Ponytail now gestures away from Cueball with her palm held out.]
:Cueball: So it's an old mountain range, but it's been fully renovated?
:Ponytail: Yessir, torn down to the roots. This is good solid plutonic bedrock, freshly uplifted. Great value.
:Ponytail: You in the market?

:[They are now just standing normally talking to each other.]
:Cueball: I dunno, I was looking for new construction. You got any emerging volcanic seamounts?
:Ponytail: Nah, that market is a little too hot right now.

{{comic discussion}}

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

3056: RNA

2025-02-26T17:39:05Z

172.70.162.159: add more

{{comic
| number = 3056
| date = February 26, 2025
| title = RNA
| image = rna_2x.png
| imagesize = 566x291px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 2040s: RNA formed the basis for life each of the five known times it arose on the early Earth.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT FROM RNAWORLD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

EARLY EXPLANATION THIS IS A BASE: This Is a comic about the evolution of our understanding of RNA over time as our understanding of it improved. In the 1960s, our understanding was limited to DNA, but as the frames progress, we realized RNA also did things, and it turned weird as we learned that RNA is almost more important than DNA. People now believe that life evolved as RNA and then evolved proteins and DNA later, this is called the "RNA world" theory. It is unknown if life arose more than once on Earth, the title text mocks this; current theories believe in a single-celled common ancestor for all life on earth.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[In each panel, Cueball is standing in front of a poster. On the poster there is a picture of a double helix (presumably DNA) and some illegible text, although the poster is different in each panel. Each panel has a header indicating the decade in which it takes place.]

:'''1960s'''
[Cueball has a hand up in an explanatory pose]
:Cueball: Life is based on DNA, which uses RNA to make proteins do stuff.

:'''1980s'''
:[Cueball faces towards the poster, with his hand on his chin.]
:Cueball: Also, the RNA does some stuff itself, which is weird.

:'''2000s'''
:[Cueball has his arms raised in the air.]
: Cueball: There are ''so'' many types of RNA. It's doing ''so'' much stuff.

:'''2020s'''
[Cueball has both his hands down]
:Cueball: Life is a seething mass of RNA that sometimes uses DNA to take notes.
:Person out of frame: What do the proteins do?
:Cueball: Errands for RNA.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]

2383: Electoral Precedent 2020

2024-11-07T14:54:15Z

172.70.162.159: Removing the 'inline' {{incomplete}}, etc, and re-editing to address the issues it was intended to raise.

{{comic
| number = 2383
| date = November 9, 2020
| title = Electoral Precedent 2020
| image = electoral_precedent_2020-new.png
| titletext = He also broke the streak that incumbents with websites are unbeatable and Delawareans can't win, creating a new precedent: Only someone from Delaware can defeat an incumbent with a website.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is an update to [[1122: Electoral Precedent]], adding "broken precedents" for the US presidential elections in 2016 and 2020. It was published six days after the 2020 election took place, and two days after {{w|Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference|most news networks "called" the election}}, projecting Biden as the winner. The majority of the comic's panels are duplicates from 1122, with the exception of the 2012 panel (modified to show that Obama did in fact break the streak), the 2016 panel (added to reflect the election of Donald Trump), and the two 2020 panels. It continues the theme of pointing out that an arbitrary 'precedent' can always be invoked to predict the outcome of an election. Presidential elections happen rarely enough that each is a unique event, and ''something'' is always happening for the first time. Like with the other examples, the precedents mentioned here mix factors that could plausibly impact the election (such as one candidate having been impeached), with precedents that are just a product of time and chance (like a successful challenger having a website).

The final two panels again show how, no matter which candidate won in 2020, it would be a 'first' in some way.
* No sitting president who was impeached was even nominated for the office again until Donald Trump. (Only two other US presidents have been impeached. Bill Clinton couldn't run again afterward due to term limits, Andrew Johnson failed to be nominated at the 1868 Democratic Convention.) After the election, it remains true that no impeached president has ever been re-elected. (As of July 2024, Trump is considered the Republican nominee, should he win that election, this statement could become false, depending on how exactly one interprets it.)
* Prior to the 2020 election, no challenger with a website ever won. This, however, is easily explained by the fact that incumbent presidents usually win, and websites are a fairly new technology. The last time a challenger beat an incumbent was in 1992 before Internet use was widespread. By 1996 that had changed and both the incumbent [http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/websites/cg96/ Bill Clinton campaign] and the challenger [http://www.dolekemp96.org/main.htm Bob Dole campaign] had websites that look very simple by today's standards. The title text points out that one could just as easily say that incumbents with websites are unbeatable, until that precedent was broken in 2020.

The 2020 election was also precedent breaking in a few ways that Randall didn't mention:
* At 78, [[Joe Biden]] was the oldest president ever on the day of his inauguration.
* Biden's running mate Kamala Harris is the first-ever female vice president, first Black vice president, and the first Asian vice president (her parents are from Jamaica and India). She's also the first Democratic vice president from the West.
* Biden received over 80 million votes, the highest ever, beating Obama 2008's previous record of just under 69.5 million votes. The second-highest raw vote total was for Trump, with approximately 74.2 million votes, ''also'' beating Obama 2008. Turnout as a percentage of the eligible population was the highest in over a century. Unlike the other precedents, however, this one was not an inevitable outcome of a Biden-Harris victory.

Also, Biden is the first president from the state of Delaware, thus he broke the "precedent" that Delawareans can't win. Randall then proceeds to combine these 2 facts to create a new precedent: Only Delawareans can defeat incumbents with a website.

==Table of New Broken Precedents==

All original options can be found at [[1122: Electoral Precedent]].

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Broken Precedent !! Explanation !! Validity

|-
|2012
|Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers. ... Until Obama did.
|Mitt Romney stood 6' 2", an inch taller than President Obama. Nonetheless, Obama was re-elected for a second term.
|True
|-
|2016
|No one has become president without government or military experience. ... Until Trump did.
|Every president prior to Trump had either been a general in the US Army, a congressman, a state governor, or a cabinet member.
|True
|-
|2020?
|No one has won after being impeached. ✓
|None of the two prior presidents who were impeached even ran for re-election. This was the first time this specific condition had even been tested.
|Trump was impeached, ran and lost, so this test remained true at this point in history.
This same test could have been proposed again for the 2024 election cycle, with the same candidate, but would have then been proven untrue in this later case.
|-
|2020?
|No challenger with a website has won. X
|The ''possibility'' of having a website only arose in the 1990s and Bill Clinton seems to not have had one when he succeeded Bush Sr. Although websites became increasingly ubiquitous, no president since had ever been defeated by their respective challengers.
|"...until Biden did."
|}

==Transcript==
:The problem with statements like
:"No <party> candidate has won the election without <state>"
:Or
:"No president has been reelected under <circumstances>"

:<nowiki>★</nowiki> Updated for 2020 ★

:[Each statement below has its own panel. The year is in a caption, the precedent is stated by a standing Cueball in the main panel, and the president who broke it is below the panel.]
:1788... No one has been elected president before. ...But Washington was.
:1792... No incumbent has ever been reelected. ...Until Washington.
:1796... No one without false teeth has become president. ...But Adams did.
:1800... No challenger has beaten an incumbent. ...But Jefferson did.
:1804... No incumbent has beaten a challenger. ...Until Jefferson.
:1808... No congressman has ever become president. ...Until Madison.
:1812... No one can win without New York. ...But Madison did.
:1816... No candidate who doesn't wear a wig can get elected. ...Until Monroe was.
:1820... No one who wears pants instead of breeches can be reelected. ...But Monroe was.
:1824... No one has ever won without a popular majority. ...J.Q. Adams did.
:1828... Only people from Massachusetts and Virginia can win. ...Until Jackson did.
:1832... The only presidents who get reelected are Virginians. ...Until Jackson.
:1836... New Yorkers always lose. ...Until Van Buren.
:1840... No one over 65 has won the presidency. ...Until Harrison did.
:1844... No one who's lost his home state has won. ...But Polk did.
:1848... As goes Mississippi, so goes the nation. ...Until 1848.
:1852... New England Democrats can't win. ...Until Pierce did.
:1856... No one can become president without getting married. ...Until Buchanan did.
:1860... No one over 6'3" can get elected. ...Until Lincoln.
:1864... No one with a beard has been reelected. ...But Lincoln was.
:1868... No one can be president if their parents are alive. ...Until Grant.
:1872... No one with a beard has been reelected in peacetime. ...Until Grant was.
:1876... No one can win a majority of the popular vote and still lose. ...Tilden did.
:1880... As goes California, so goes the nation. ...Until it went Hancock.
:1884... Candidates named "James" can't lose. ...Until James Blaine.
:1888... No sitting president has been beaten since the Civil War. ...Cleveland was.
:1892... No former president has been elected. ...Until Cleveland.
:1896... Tall Midwesterners are unbeatable. ...Bryan wasn't.
:1900... No Republican shorter than 5'8" has been reelected. ...Until McKinley was.
:1904... No one under 45 has been elected. ...Roosevelt did.
:1908... No Republican who hasn't served in the military has won. ...Until Taft.
:[The precedent takes up the entire panel this year. Consequently, there is no Cueball.] 1912... After Lincoln beat the Democrats while sporting a beard with no mustache, the only Democrats who can win have a mustache with no beard. ...Wilson had neither.
:1916... No Democrat has won while losing West Virginia. ...Wilson did.
:1920... No incumbent senator has won. ...Until Harding.
:1924... No one with two Cs in their name has become president. ...Until Calvin Coolidge.
:1928... No one who got ten million votes has lost. ...Until Al Smith.
:1932... No Democrat has won since women secured the right to vote. ...Until FDR did.
:1936... No president's been reelected with double-digit unemployment. ...Until FDR was.
:1940... No one has won a third term. ...Until FDR did.
:1944... No Democrat has won during wartime. ...Until FDR did.
:1948... Democrats can't win without Alabama. ...Truman did.
:1952... No Republican has won without winning the House or Senate. ...Eisenhower did.
:1956... No one can beat the same nominee a second time in a leap year rematch. ...Until Eisenhower.
:1960... Catholics can't win. ...Until Kennedy.
:1964... Every Republican who's taken Louisiana has won. ...Until Goldwater.
:[The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 1968... No Republican vice president has risen to the Presidency through an election. ...Until Nixon.
:[The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 1972... Quakers can't win twice. ...Until Nixon did.
:1976... No one who lost New Mexico has won. ...But Carter did.
:1980... No one has been elected president after a divorce. ...Until Reagan was.
:1984... No left-handed president has been reelected. ...Until Reagan was.
:[The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 1988... No one with two middle names has become president. ...Until "Herbert Walker".
:[The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 1992... No Democrat has won without a majority of the Catholic vote. ...Until Clinton did.
:[The precedent takes up the entire panel this year. Consequently, there is no Cueball.] 1996... No Dem. incumbent without combat experience has beaten someone whose first name is worth more in Scrabble. ...Until Bill beat Bob.
:2000... No Republican has won without Vermont. ...Until Bush did.
:[The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 2004... No Republican without combat experience has beaten someone two inches taller ...Until Bush did.
:2008... No Democrat can win without Missouri. ...Until Obama did.
:2012... Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers. ... Until Obama did.
:[The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 2016... No one has become president without government or military experience. ... Until Trump did.
:2020? No one has won after being impeached. <big>✓</big>
:2020? No challenger with a website has won. <big>X</big>

:[Caption below the comic]
:Congratulations to President-Elect Joe Biden for breaking the website curse!

==Trivia==
* This comic seems to have used the same image as [[1122: Electoral Precedent]], and so the original version of this comic had a ghost image of the original 2012 2nd "streak": "No nominee whose first name contains a "K" has lost."
* Also, the panels for past elections that were wrong before continue to be wrong, including 1812, 1816, 1820, 1904, and 1952. See [[1122: Electoral Precedent]], Table of Broken Precedents for details.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ronald Reagan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring John F. Kennedy]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Trump]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Joe Biden]]

2810: How to Coil a Cable

2023-08-02T18:16:48Z

172.70.162.159: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2810
| date = August 2, 2023
| title = How to Coil a Cable
| image = how_to_coil_a_cable_2x.png
| imagesize = 366x713px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The ideal mix for maximum competitive cable-coiling energy is one A/V tech, one rock climber, one sailor, and one topologist.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CLIMBING MARINE A/V TOPOLOGIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic humorously states that the best way to coil a cable is to proclaim the cable must be broken, whereupon a certain type of know-it-all, but well-meaning, people will be glad that their obscure knowledge of cable-coiling is finally able to help someone (a bit like in [[208: Regular Expressions]]) and in the end coil it for you.

This is reminiscent of {{w|Ward_Cunningham#Law|Cunningham's Law}}, which states that "the best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer".

Long cables left in a random pile develop knots and look messy, especially if there are several different cables. The causes of this are not well understood, but may relate to socks disappearing in the wash and to clothes ending up within duvet covers.

The obvious way of coiling a cable - taking hold of the cable's trailing end as it leaves the hand, and bringing it back around into the hand in a circle, so it forms a simple helix - causes the cable to twist along its length in the same direction for each turn, and requires the person unravelling it to cope with the twisting.

The audio technician's way of coiling a cable involves alternating each obvious helix loop with a backhand loop where the loop spirals the same way as the other loops, but its trailing end ends up between the rest of the gathered cable and the most recent loop. This causes the twists and antitwists to cancel out, resulting in a cable that does not twist while coiled and uncoiled.

The rock climber’s way of preventing twists and tangles in a rope involves “Flaking” a rope - running it through your hands and piling it loosely - which is used when unwinding a coil in to a pile on the ground. This reference to rock climbing is later mentioned in the title text when having a rock climber present is mentioned.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:How to Coil a Cable Properly

:Step 1
:Cueball: I need to buy a different brand of cable! This one always twists into spirals and gets tangled.

:Step 2
:White Hat: No! That's because of how you're coiling it!

:Step 3
:Ponytail / White Hat / Hairy: ...over-under method... ...figure-8... ...quarter-turn... ...flaking...

:Step 4
:Neatly coiled!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

1520: Degree-Off

2023-07-26T14:58:27Z

172.70.162.159: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1520
| date = May 4, 2015
| title = Degree-Off
| image = degree off.png
| titletext = I'M SORRY, FROM YOUR YEARS OF CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE 'SQUISHY SCIENCES', I ASSUMED YOU'D BE A LITTLE HARDER.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] (physics), [[Hairbun]] (biology), and [[Megan]] (chemistry) appear to be on a talk show stylized as a game show called Degree-Off, hosted by [[Hairy]], where representatives of different fields, try to explain why their field is the best and why to get a degree in their field. The title "Degree-Off" is a portmanteau of "{{w|Academic degree|degree}}", as in the recognized completion of studies at a school or university, and "{{w|face-off}}", a direct confrontation between two people or groups. Since there are three participants, this is not a true face-off, unless Megan, who does not speak, is not counted.

The host asks the physicist Cueball to go first. He light-heartedly begins to tell what appears to be long story, beginning with a {{w|Richard Feynman}} anecdote. During the {{w|Manhattan Project}} in Los Alamos, Richard Feynman got bored because of the isolation and started learning {{w|lock picking}} on the secret documents' safes. Using these new skills, he played lots of pranks on his colleagues, like leaving notes and spooking them into believing there was a spy among them (which, of course, {{w|Klaus_Fuchs|there was}}). He finishes his case with [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford a quote] from {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, implying that his speech was quite long and winding. The quote communicates the idea that physics is the only fundamental framework, so that the job of chemists, biologists and other scientist simply is to catalog and systematize observations ("collect stamps") on phenomena too complicated to presently be fully described in terms of physics. This idea was earlier lampooned by [[Randall]] in [[435: Purity]] (and is also stated in the title text of [[1158: Rubber Sheet]]).

The biologist goes next, showing with a graph (see below) that the field of biology has helped reduce disease. She then goes on to claim that the heroes in biology (the part known as Medicine) have even "{{w|Eradication_of_infectious_diseases|slain}}" one of the {{w|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse}}. Different traditions designate the Four Horsemen differently, but it is common for their number to include Plague or Pestilence. Hairbun claims that the field of biology has eliminated widespread {{w|Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse#As_infectious_disease|Pestilence}}; at the time of writing it was not readily apparent that {{w|COVID-19_pandemic|the old dog still has some teeth}} (although the rate of death from infectious disease in 2020–21 is still less than 200 per 100 thousand, far lower than the early 20th century). The imagery of Pestilence being thwarted by modern medicine was also used in the book {{w|Good Omens}}, by {{w|Terry Pratchett}} (of whom Randall is a fan, see [[1498: Terry Pratchett]]) and {{w|Neil Gaiman}}, where Pestilence has retired after the discovery of {{w|Penicillin}}, and been replaced by {{w|Pollution}}.

The graph shows the death rate from infectious disease in the USA with the range of 1900-2000. The spike is attributable to the {{w|1918 flu pandemic}}. It has been published in the paper [http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=768249 Trends in Infectious Disease Mortality in the United States During the 20th Century].

The woman then goes on to directly accuse Cueball (i.e. physicists) of creating a new Horseman to replace the one slain by the biologists. She refers to the development of the {{w|atomic bomb}}, which was built and tested in the {{w|New Mexico desert}}. The new horseman is therefore the atomic bomb, or the various perils associated with it.

The woman's implied condemnation of the physics community has been echoed by some of the scientists involved in the project itself. After the test detonation of the first nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, {{w|J. Robert Oppenheimer}}, the director of the {{w|Los Alamos National Laboratory}}, found himself inwardly quoting the {{w|Bhagavad Gita}}: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." {{w|Kenneth Bainbridge}}, the organizer of the actual Trinity test (which he called a "foul and awesome display"), remarked more prosaically to Oppenheimer that day, "Now we are all sons of bitches."

This harsh moral judgement shocks Cueball, who exclaims "I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!" While the set-up is of a frivolous friendly competition, the woman's presentation is surprisingly dark. Her retort in the final panel reveals that she was angered by the off-hand dismissal of 'soft' sciences as "stamp-collecting" and turned the game from a light-hearted fun into something more serious.

In the title text the biologist goes on to declare in {{w|All caps}} that she is surprised a physicist isn't "harder", after all their condescending towards the "squishy" sciences. The use of 'hard' and 'squishy' is a play on the colloquial division between the so-called 'hard' sciences (such as physics and chemistry) and 'soft' sciences (such as biology and geology). 'Hard' sciences usually refer to the perception that in fields like physics, precisely repeatable experiments and measurements are possible, as opposed to 'soft' sciences seen as placing less emphasis on precisely quantifiable predictability - however Hairbun is extending 'hard' to its meaning of 'stoic', mocking Cueball for not being able to weather a personal moral attack. Again, she is indicating that she's upset by directly referencing a mocking portrayal of other fields allegedly made by Cueball.

To be fair to Cueball, the outbreak of disease is more a topic for epidemiology, and biology has spawned multiple diseases, atrocities, and bad movies. However, the Manhattan Project marked the first time in history that humanity possessed the ability to destroy itself — and shortly thereafter humanity got {{w|Cold War|perilously close to doing so}}.

In [[520: Cuttlefish]] Randall shows that he personally respects biologists — or at least fears them.

Within a year Randall has made several other comics about nuclear weapons, this one was the first of these the second, [[1539: Planning]], came out just 1½ month after this one and after that these two were released early in 2016: [[1626: Judgment Day]] and [[1655: Doomsday Clock]]. Nuclear weapons are also mentioned twice in ''[[Thing Explainer]]'', specifically they are explained in the explanation for ''Machine for burning cities'' about {{w|Thermonuclear weapon|thermonuclear bombs}}, but they are also mentioned in ''Boat that goes under the sea'' about a submarine that carries nukes. All three comics and both explanations in the book, does like this comic, comment on how insane it is that we have created enough firepower to obliterate Earth several times (or at least scourge it for any human life).

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is acting as the host of a TV talk show, ''Degree-Off'' holding a microphone up. Cueball, a woman with a bun, and Megan are acting as representatives of physics, biology, and chemistry, respectively. They each stand behind their own lectern with the respective subject label.]
:Hairy: Welcome to the '''''Degree-Off''''', where we determine which field is the best! Physics, wanna go first?
:Cueball (Phys): Sure! I'd like to tell the story of Richard Feynman's Manhattan project lockpicking pranks...
:Labels: Phys Bio Chem

:[Zoom in so Megan is no longer visible. Cueball lifts his hand]
:Cueball (Phys): ...and as he said, "all science is either physics or stamp collecting."
:Cueball (Phys): Thank you.
:Hairy: ''Great!'' Bio, you wanna go next?
:Grown-Up Jill (Bio): Okay.
:Labels: Phys Bio

:[Zoom in on Grown-Up Jill so only she and her lectern are shown. A graph is shown above her. There us a label for the y-axis to the left of the axis which has four ticks with numbers. The x-axis is a timeline without ticks but three years indicating the start center and end of the axis. The graph shows a curve falling off, with one great spike up around 1920.]
:Y-axis label: Per 100,000
:Y-axis:
::800
::600
::400
::200
:X-axis: 1900 1950 2000
:GUSG (Bio): This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country.
:Labels: Bio

:[Zoom back to original scene with Hairy holding the microphone down and Grown-Up Jill raising her left hand, while Cueball looks at her.]
:GUSG (Bio): The heroes of my field have '''''slain''''' one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
:Labels: Phys Bio Chem

:[Zoom in on only Cueball and Grown-Up Jill who is pointing aggressively at Cueball who leans away from her one hand on his lectern for support.]
:GUSG (Bio): While the heroes of '''''your''''' field gathered in the desert to create a new one.
:Labels: Phys Bio

:[Zoom back to previous scene all are holding their hands down.]
:Cueball (Phys): ...Jeez, what the hell? I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!
:GUSG (Bio): '''''You must have been thinking of stamp collecting.'''''
:Labels: Phys Bio Chem

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Science]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]

Talk:2659: Unreliable Connection

2023-07-24T21:19:56Z

172.70.162.159: Undo revision 318749 by 172.70.179.92 (talk) I'm not sure you got our "fuck off, we don t need your spamvertising/malwarelinking/vapourware trash"... But you're an automated spammer...

I don’t think this has anything to do with teleconferencing. Am I missing something? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 22:46, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:Yes. The impliction is that people are expecting you to be available for online communications, and you can use the unreliable Internet connection as an excuse to get out of it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:51, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
::I think it's more about communication in general. He doesn't want anybody calling him or sending him emails, so by saying he has an "unreliable" connection people might assume it will be hard to get in touch with him.
:::Back in the day, email was usually configured so that it could easily overcome such unreliability, and it's still doable,[https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/running-from-home/6459/7] but today email for most people is a web or local client-server app, as opposed to a local mail store in a peer-to-peer app. Even people in urban areas can suffer unreliable internet, when squirrels or backhoes gnaw through data cables, copper theives strike, or 5G mind control base stations are congested. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.143|172.70.210.143]] 23:45, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:::This could equally cover other instant communication methods where your availability is advertised (e.g. Whatsapp). It could also be about alleviating the social pressure the subject feels to continuously check and immediately respond to messages (including emails), because the immediacy is already hindered by the spotty connection (cf the standard "I will have limited access to email" out of office line, which gives the account owner psychological permission to check it infrequently). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.5|172.70.85.5]] 09:02, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

According to a PhET simulator (https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/plinko-probability/latest/plinko-probability_en.html) for this situation, the ideal standard deviation is 1.732 and ideal mean is 6. I don’t feel like doing the calculations :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 23:34, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:If we assume 50-50 for each bounce, the probability that internet is off will be about (11 choose 3)/(2^11), or 8%.--[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 23:51, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
::My first thought was, why so complicated? ''If'' each of the twelve switches is equally (and solely) likely to be struck by each ball, it's (100/12)% of the time, or 8⅓%.
::Although the equal-chance is wrong, so you're definitely doing "end up with exactly 7 bounce rights and 3 bounce lefts, but in any combination" or similar are you? I'd have summed it differently, though. And not sure where the choose ''3'' comes in... Just one bounce left off any row-end pin 11 sends to 11 if all others bounce right. Three bounces left hits switch 9, not eight. If I'm counting correctly. Or am I doing telegraph-poles/wires miscounting?
::Too early in the morning for me to untangle. The only thing I'm sure about is your division by 2^11 (how many total paths there are to get down). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 05:00, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:::Me again. I hadn't checked that the transcript (which said it was switch #8) was correct. Have now, and found it to be wrong. Have hence also just corrected the Transcript. So I'm gonna assume your 11-choose-3 is entirely correct after all. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 05:08, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:It's actually 12 switches, not 11, but that doesn't affect the math too much. I originally thought "off" was switch 10, which would have changed the math (to 3%), but that's just the one the current ball hit. The actual "off" switch is switch 9. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]])
::It previously said that there were eleven "on" switches and one "off" switch (which is twelve in total, but it didn't add them up explicitly), and the change to say that there are 12 Ons and 1 Off made it wrong. I corrected/rephrased it (see if you agree with however it looks by the time you get around to reading this) to avoid that reading error (one which happened to me with my own first glance at the phrasing used, but I thought that was just me at the time) without adding any new misinterpretation or easy misinterpretationality.
::The maths above is indeed correct enough. The 2^11 relates to the total number of unique paths it can take (assuming a bounce left/right just enough to strike the nearest offset pin below to force a new left/right bounce choice) from the first divider through to any of the 11 final left-right pin-bounces (and onto the 12 switches, at which point we're not bothered with the bouncing - diagram suggests the balls leap outwards and don't hit any other switches).
::"11 choose 3" is a way how to ask, given 11 items (possible bounces), how many unique and unordered combinations of exactly 3 of these must exist (leftward-bounces, the rest being right-bounces) to filter onto the off-connected switch. (This is the same as "11 choose 8", if you decide to ask how many right-bounces are necessary, the rest being left-bounces.) That could be layer 1 (the 1-pin), 2 (the 2-pins) and 3 (...), before going consistently right to the final strike of the switch, or layers 9+10+11 (after being pure-right 1..8), but with many intermediate tracks across the pin-spacs (165 in total, as it happens; and it would be 55 to hit switch 10. Or 2, instead of 3, if you orientate things the other way round).
:: 165/2048 (paths hitting the off-switch (at #9) divided by all paths that might happen) is a tad over 8%. On the assumption that it's fair and unbiased and you don't get more rattling around than a simple (single half-step) left/right distribution. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 03:20, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

To whomever did [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2659:_Unreliable_Connection&diff=292862&oldid=292861], doesn't [https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2018/8817/pdf/LIPIcs-FUN-2018-26.pdf] prove that symmetrical configurations nearly identical to those shown can produce uniform distributions? They seem to show it's just a matter of horizontal pin spacing. However, I for one can not verify the proof, which uses unusual (novel?) non-Unicode math notation, and a fairly opaque method of proof. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 00:07, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:Not sure, but [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%98%E8%AA%BF%E6%95%B4 this Japanese Wikipedia article] is fascinating. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.213|172.70.206.213]] 01:51, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:Please see section 3.5 on pp. 16-18 of the currently first reference [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.05706.pdf]. I am particularly intrigued by, "Open Problem 2: Is every uniform distribution of output probabilities of the form 1/2k constructible by a 50-50 Pachinko?" on p. 18. However I haven't dived in enough to even know where the parentheses are supposed to be in that expression, yet. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 17:27, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
: Good question! https://ibb.co/sRwGwB9 don't look triangular, but it seems the proof might suggest much more triangular solutions. Worth thinking about! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.115|172.69.33.115]] 21:24, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

What is the chance that the ball will bounce off the first pin, go down the outside of the pins and miss all the switches?
:Probably quite high if it's a bouncy ball. With idealized physics though it'd just hit the leftmost/rightmost switch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.127|172.70.254.127]] 00:45, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

I would describe the device as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galton_board. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.109|172.70.230.109]] 00:30, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

I was watching the photo and hover-over text and the image disappeared and "Unreliable Connection" showed up in its place. I don't know how often this happens.
: Very neat if not a fluke! Can anyone replicate this experience on https://xkcd.com ? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 14:21, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

"An added source of humour is that Randall could likely achieve the same effect by looking through the router's settings - which most modern ones have a feature to turn on and off at scheduled times - or via purchasing a smart power strip." But by using these other methods, the connection would still be reliable. If it goes out at regular or pre-scheduled intervals then you know when it will be available or not, hence reliable. I think the joke here is that the contraption does in fact make the connection unreliable. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.77|172.70.114.77]] 14:18, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
: Addressed at [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2659:_Unreliable_Connection&diff=292926&oldid=292924]. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 14:44, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:(Edit conflicted by at least the above, but my answer to the same question...) From a user POV, unless they happen to know that at 11:53 each day (and 12:14, 15:02, 15:07, 16:31, etc...) the scheduler disables tracfic for one (or two, or three) minutes, it is still unreliable, if ultimately predictable ''once you know'' the schedule, having seen it go round a few times and taken note. Similarly a timered power-strip could be used (or even several, in serial, the two or three daily interventions by the first also stopping and delaying the subsequent strips' interventions, making their timings uneven, further down the chain) and until you got the pattern it might as well be 'random', not entirely deterministic. (I'm wondering about some OR-gate-like/etc implementation, so power can pass by at least one parallel timer-shut-off to maintain power at the lower levels while ''some'' mid-way timers get depowered and thus 'shuffled' in interesting ways, and the resulting single output is governed by an intricate multi-dependent set of routes, but I bet an electrician would be wary about wiring that up...)
:You could hack (or patch) the management firmware to be a bit more (pseudo)random about it, though it would still be pseudorandom LFSR/Xorshift with a (long) repetition cycle.
:Or make it dependant upon an external factor (if the modulo 12 of the cumulative sum of all observed packet-destination IPs is zero, shut off for the five times the prior modulo 12 test value, in seconds..?), but that's ''practically'' the pachinko solution but with software hacking rather than hardware-making/hacking as per the comic.
:More effort is needed to make it ultimately unpredictable, but it can still be considered unreliable if it goes out just when you 'want' it.... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.5|172.70.85.5]] 15:02, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

For real though, isn't this kind of a good idea? [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 14:34, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:Talk to edtech people in the {{w|MOOC}} space and they will tell you asynchronous is worth it, but talk to people who study educational quality factors like time to receive answers to unanticipated questions, and they will have different ideas. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 14:44, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

Does anyone have an openWRT (or other) implementation of this feature yet?
:You can induce it on stock firmware without reflashing, but you need to know the parameters like how often balls come out of the hopper, and what exactly the on/off switches do. As pseudocode:
::<tt>#!/bin/sh</tt>
::<tt>while true ; do</tt>
:::<tt>sleep </tt>''seconds''
:::<tt>if [ `rand100` -le 8 ] ; then</tt>
::::<tt>wifictrl off</tt>
:::<tt>else</tt>
::::<tt>wifictrl on</tt>
:::<tt>fi</tt>
::<tt>done</tt>
:[[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 00:38, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

There are spaces between the button that the balls can fall into, and this could complicate the stuff a bit. However if the ratio between probability of hitting ON and probability of hitting OFF remain the same (1883:165), the average OFF time will still be the same (165/2048 of the time). The behavior that the network is switching between ON and OFF will probably be changed though. [[User:Lamty101|Lamty101]] ([[User talk:Lamty101|talk]]) 04:44, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

I would have expected the negative reviews to have mentioned all the balls on the floor and perhaps the need to periodically refill the hopper. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 16:18, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
:If it's a Pachinko machine instead of just a Galton board, then refilling the hopper is done automatically by robotics behind the back wall of the device. Someday remind me to tell you about the Japanese recession caused by out-of-work hopper refillers when that innovation was introduced. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 02:12, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

There is an online chat program called UC and it had stopped upgrading since 2012. Many people stopped using it probably due to its "unreliable connection". [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 02:05, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

2794: Alphabet Notes

2023-06-29T20:07:50Z

172.70.162.159: /* Explanation */ Acronyms ''ought'' to be pronouncable as words; abbreviation covers acronyms, and (if "Just Kidding", rather than "JoKe") also it being an initialism.

{{comic
| number = 2794
| date = June 26, 2023
| title = Alphabet Notes
| image = alphabet notes.png
| titletext = Listen, you're very cute, but if you rearrange the alphabet to put U and I together it will RUIN the spacing!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BAD U&I JOKE. Do NOT rearrange the alphabet too soon. Need more on MN!}}
This comic is Randall's "design notes" for the {{w|English alphabet}}. The English alphabet is a {{w|Latin-script alphabet}} used to write modern English. The comic lists the A to Z alphabet, in black block letters, from left to right. Forming these supposed design notes are many red annotations:

#At the top, the vowels are listed. Randall apparently likes how these are spaced. He places a question mark near Y, as it sometimes functions as a vowel but sometimes functions as a consonant as well. Plus he seems to think the last five letters (maybe even six) of the alphabet should have been left out, see below.
#"A" is described favorably as the start.
#Randall considers the five early consonants B, C, D, F, and G to be acceptable but nothing special, with the exception of D which he considers solid. It's not clear if his judgement is based on the appearances of the glyphs, or the sounds that they correspond to. In speech, a {{w|consonant}} is a sound that is articulated by obstructing the vocal tract, producing a percussive kind of effect. In English phonology, D is the {{w|voiced alveolar plosive}}.
#The words "hi" and "no", which both appear uninterrupted when the letters of the English alphabet are listed from A-Z, are highlighted.
#That "ij" (in lowercase) may be considered friends because they both have dots in the lowercase version. No other characters are given lowercase treatment, however, to ''prove'' that these two are the only (common versions of) glyphs which cannot be written with a single press of the pen against the page. The separate dots and main strokes could also be interpreted as the heads and torsos of two reductionist character drawings. The symbols "i" and "j" are the respective mathematical and electrical-engineering notations of the {{w|Imaginary unit|square root of -1}}, and so may be considered both professionally and personally in a close relationship, as well as neighbours. There is also a {{w|Digraph (orthography)|digraph}}, or unconnected {{w|Ligature (writing)#Dutch IJ|ligature}}, of "ij" (or "IJ", as a leading capital) used as a letter in its own right (considered distinct from either "i" or "j") in the Netherlands. It should be noted that "J" {{w|J#History|appeared sometime around the Middle Ages}} as a variant of "I", explaining why they look similar and are located together in the alphabet.
#"JK" is an abbreviation/initialism for "just kidding", similar to "LOL" for "laughing out loud".
#In the standard "{{w|Alphabet song|alphabet song}}" for the US (sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"), most letters occur upon the beat of an easy and sedate tempo. But to scan ''and'' rhyme, the letters L-O are run through at double the tempo ("el-em-en-oh-pee"), with perhaps P best considered to cross two of the quick beats that end this musical phrase.
#Randall finds it weird that the dividing line between the two halves of the alphabet would go between M and N. It's not clear what exactly he thinks is weird about this. M and N are similar-looking letters, both consisting of a zigzag sequence of lines. Possibly Randall is commenting on the fortuitous coincidence that the sides of M and N are both straight and vertical, providing a natural lane through which to draw a dividing line. He also lists several words that contain MN in sequence, and speculates on the significance of this rare digram seemingly only being used for "fancy" words.
#Randall considers the placement of "Q" strange. He may even consider the existence of "Q" strange, perhaps because the sound "Q" denotes in English could be replaced with the digraph "KW". "C" and "X" are also replaceable with single or multiple alternate characters in English. These include "S" or "K" for the former ("accent" could perhaps be re-written as "aksent", but it is unknown what would replace the "C" in words like church.) and "(C)KS" (e.g. "ax(e)" as "aks") or "Z" (regarding "xylophone" or any "xeno-" word). But these, and other orthographic inconsistencies, are not obviously called out by Randall.
#Randall considers "RST" a strong cluster of consonants, possibly because that three-character sequence does occur in some words (eg. BURST, WORST). Both "strong" and "cluster" also include the letters R, S and T. The use of an {{w|R-S-T system|RST code}} is a traditional way of describing the reception quality of radio communications.
#Randall is not a fan of the letter "U" for some odd reason, and thinks it is the weirdest of the 5 vowels. This assertion may refer to the fact that "U" has two sounds that are considered to be long: "oo" and "yoo," and which of the two is pronounced may depend on the accent (for example in the word "tune").
#The letters V, W, X, Y, and Z are "haunted".
#Randall seems to be confused about "VW", it could refer to {{w|Volkswagen}}, or he might wonder why "W" is called "double U" rather than "double V". Or why both are needed. Both "{{w|W#History|W}}" and "{{w|U#History|U}}" are derived from "V", which might explain a lot.
#Randall questions whether "X" is even a letter. It is the Roman numeral for 10, though he does not complain about C, D, I, L, M or V in the same way so he is most likely talking of ''x'' as used in algebraic contexts. Alternatively, he could simply be talking about the appearance of the letter "X".
#The comment that the alphabet may have been better if it had stopped at "T" is likely a reference to the fact that {{w|Phoenician alphabet|the original Phoenician script}}, which is the ancestor of many modern scripts including English, had as its last letter {{w|Taw}}, which the modern letter "T" is derived from. It is still the last letter of the modern Hebrew alphabet, although the Greek alphabet added several letters after it, some of which persist into modern English. Randall seems to believe that the Phoenician script was fine as-is and that the letters U-Z are weird and/or unnecessary.

The title text makes a joke about the pick-up line "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together.", where the letters "U" and "I" are pronounced like the pronouns "you" and "I". It is such a corny act of flirtation that any recipient of it could easily have a rejection (''or'' a flirty acceptance, if they so wish) ready to respond with in an appropriate vein. As well as reflecting the diagram's noted preference for well-spaced vowels, it might be presumed that anyone (unironically) using the "U and I" line might be left dumbfounded at the rather technical nature of the riposte. This pickup line was also the subject of [[1069: Alphabet]]. The word "ruin" does indeed have 'u' and 'i' together.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[A list of the letters of the alphabet, from A to Z, in black]
:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

:[A red line above the letters, with tick marks and their associated vowels at A, E, I, O, and U. Y has a question mark instead of a tick.]
:Love the spacing between the vowels!

:[Red annotations near various letters.]

:A: Strong start!
:BCD, FG: Decent consonants but no real heavy hitters here in the first third ("D" is solid, at least)
:HI: Hi!
::IJ: [additional lowercase "ij" given, in red]: The dotted letters are friends!
:JK: Jk (lol)
:LMNOP: Part that's fun to sing
::Weird how the line between "M" and "N" is the halfway mark.
::They're similar, but "MN" only shows up in fancy words like "mnemonic", "column", "amnesty", and "hymn", significance??
:NO: No
:Q: Why is this ''here?''
:RST: Strong cluster!
:U: Weirdest of the main 5 vowels by far
:VWXYZ: Haunted letters (keep out!!)
:VW: ??
:X: Not sure this is even a letter. Did you include a number by mistake?
::...Listen.
::Maybe we should've stopped at "T".

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Design notes on the alphabet

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

Talk:2795: Glass-Topped Table

2023-06-29T01:18:31Z

172.70.162.159:

First! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.52|172.71.167.52]] 19:01, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

How is "glass-topped" not a term found often online, yet I'm so used to calling it that in verbal conversation (Western Canadian, for reference). Searching for "glass-topped" (with quotes) shows this comic first in results (past ads) :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.105|162.158.146.105]] 19:09, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

It's not "instead of" -- the table has both a glass surface and a drinking glass. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:32, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

…You could always hand-wash the cup. [[User:PxP|PxP]] ([[User talk:PxP|talk]]) 19:45, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
:Not sure about you, but when I hand-wash something, I'm doing it over sink. Getting the table to sink would be quite hard, although probably easier than fitting it into dishwasher. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:18, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
::It would also be difficult to pour out either the drink or the washwater.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.51|172.69.247.51]] 23:46, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
:::Pressurised water... If you have anything hose-like (or it's within range of one of those extensible tap-attachments) then gush water into it and anything not actually stuck to the glass (any really gloopy liquid - like a partly dried old smoothie left there too long that may need a bit of mechanical wiping too) gets diluted and pressured out. (...Onto the floor, unless you are prepared for that.)
:::A quick rub with a dishcloth can wick up most of what doesn't jump straight back out (you need a quick shut-off to the water supply, ideally, so it doesn't dribble-fill so much, anyway) and if it was hot enough then the last bits of dampness 'self dry'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.159|172.70.162.159]] 01:18, 29 June 2023 (UTC)

Some of the unpopularity probably comes from it being halfway off of the table, giving you the ever-present feeling that it might fall. [[User:TheLittlePeace|TheLittlePeace]] ([[User talk:TheLittlePeace|talk]]) 19:50, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

2771: College Knowledge

2023-05-05T14:23:40Z

172.70.162.159: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2771
| date = May 3, 2023
| title = College Knowledge
| image = college_knowledge_2x.png
| imagesize = 649x266px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Your chitin armor is no match for our iron-tipped stingers! Better go hide in your jars!' --common playground taunt
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT GOING TO IO TO GET MORE DIODES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A common playground rhyme which children will often recite when divided by gender is that "girls go to college to get more knowledge; boys go to {{w|Jupiter}} to get more stupider," with the genders being interchangeable depending on the rhyme's singer.

Starting out with this cadence, three characters (or child versions) {{w|Skipping rope|jump rope}} and explore parts of the solar system and beyond by taking it in turns to provide the rhythm's tempo. First [[Science Girl]] (who is turning the left end of the rope), then a [[Cueball]] (at the right), followed by a [[Ponytail]] (doing the jumping), before returning to Science Girl. As they concentrate on various stellar bodies that are harder and harder to rhyme, their chants become increasingly hesitant and obscure, ruining the rhythm and resulting in ever more contrived "rhymes", to the point where they eventually seem compelled to abandon the whole game.

The title text refers back to some of the rhymes the characters mention, making sure to stay consistent with whichever gender acquires which object. Speaking from the perspective of the college-bound gender, who had acquired {{w|ferrous}} iron from {{w|Eris}} (or perhaps {{w|ferrous|become more like it}}, by bodily transformation), the girls playfully threaten the boys with iron-tipped {{w|stingers}}, for which the boys' acquired armour of {{w|chitin}} (a material commonly found on the exoskeletons of various insects, including in any stings these might normally have) is purportedly no match. The girls then also refer to the jars which the boys had acquired from {{w|Mars}}, telling the boys that they'd better hide in them if they wanted any sort of protection from the iron-tipped stingers. To top it all off, the title text finally claims that this is supposedly a "common playground taunt" among children (which itself depends on the rhymes which the characters in the comic had made).

In [[1202: Girls and Boys]], boys and girls both go to college ''and'' to Jupiter, both to get more knowledge.

==Note==
Going to Mars to get more jars may be a reference to a 1955 {{w|Burma-Shave}} campaign promising a free trip to Mars for whoever sent in 900 empty jars. The joking offer was accepted by a Wisconsin shopkeeper named Arliss French. The company enjoyed the publicity, and sent him and his wife to {{w|Moers}}.

{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)}} "is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter."

{{w|Chitin}} is a polysaccharide found in the bodies of insects and fungi.

{{w|Tim Berners-Lee}} is the inventor of the World Wide Web.

{{w|Pamplemousse}} is the French word for grapefruit or pomelo, depending on dialect.

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

:[Science Girl, Ponytail and Cueball are jumping rope while singing a common playground song. Science Girl and Cueball are swinging the ends of the rope, Ponytail is jumping in the middle.]
:Science Girl: Girls go to college to get more knowledge
:Science Girl: Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider

:Cueball: Girls go to Ceres to get more theories
:Cueball: Boys go to Mars to get more jars

:Ponytail: Girls go to Eris to get more ferrous
:Ponytail: Boys go to Triton to get more chitin

:[The three have stopped playing.]
:Science Girl: Girls go to...Mercury...to...meet Tim Berners-Lee
:Science Girl: Boys go to... ...Betelgeuse...to get more... ...pamplemousse
:Cueball: I think we're done.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cobson]]
[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Food]]

1214: Geoguessr

2023-04-27T22:40:29Z

172.70.162.159:

{{comic
| number = 1214
| date = May 20, 2013
| title = Geoguessr
| image = geoguessr.png
| titletext = I'm not sure if you can get Epcot, but my friend just got LegoLand. He guessed California but it was the one in Denmark. Meanwhile, I'm rapidly becoming a connoisseur of unmarked dirt roads over flat, barren landscapes.
}}

==Explanation==
[//Geoguessr.com Geoguessr] is a game in which the player is given a location in {{w|Google Street View}} and asked to guess precisely where in the world they are, by clicking on a map of the world, based only on the 360-degree view in the Street View display.

Cueball is upset because he keeps making his guesses based on landmarks and his guesses end up being wrong. After all, the landmark he based his guess off of was a replica of the real one (the {{Wikipedia|Parthenon (Nashville)|Parthenon in Nashville}}, which is more than 9000 kilometers or 5600 miles away from the {{Wikipedia|Parthenon|Greek original}}).

Of course, from a statistical perspective, this makes sense. For every famous object, there are countless replicas; however, most people will be familiar with the specific location of the original object, and the vast majority of famous objects (except a few notable works of art) exist in only one place in the world. Take the {{w|Statue of Liberty}}, for instance — although the original is based in New York (well, actually, the original maquette is in {{w|Paris}}...), it has {{w|Replicas of the Statue of Liberty|hundreds of replicas all over the planet}}.

{{w|Epcot}} is a {{w|Disney}} theme park in {{w|Florida}} which among other attractions includes pavilions of various countries, including {{w|Germany}}, which are built to resemble the typical style (architecture, vegetation, etc.) of the countries. Therefore, similarly to the replicas of landmarks, in this specific case, recognizing classic German architecture would put you on the wrong continent.

However, as the title text alludes to, you're far more likely to find a dirt road than to find anything recognizable, since Google Street View maps roads more than anything else (hence its name). Becoming a connoisseur of such a mundane thing bears similarity to [[915: Connoisseur]].

Anyone who's ever played with Geoguessr knows, also, that seemingly helpful clues can sometimes be useless. For instance, if you recognize the {{w|Cyrillic script}} on a sign, the countries using the Cyrillic script such as Bulgaria, Mongolia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia encompasses an enormous area, so unless you can recognize a specific region, there's no obvious place to guess where you can hope to get high points. Unlike somewhere like England, where guessing London is guaranteed to put you within a reasonable distance from a global perspective. {{w|Legoland}} is a good example of this: If you can't tell if you're in Denmark or California (or any of the {{w|Legoland#Parks|other locations}}), it's not like you can just guess halfway between and do well.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is using a laptop, playing a game.]
:Cueball: This one's easy; There's the Parthenon. Athens.
: *''CLICK''*
:Cueball: What!? Why the hell is there a Parthenon in ''Nashville''?
: *''CLICK''*
:Cueball: OK, I'm ''clearly'' in Germany.
: *''CLICK''*
:Cueball: Dammit, Germany Pavilion at Epcot.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:My scores in Geoguessr would be higher if people quit building replicas of everything.

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

Talk:1294: Telescope Names

2023-04-23T17:02:56Z

172.70.162.159:

Historically, one of the first times the issue was raised on the internet was [http://science.slashdot.org/story/00/06/28/1321221/ask-chris-mckinstry-about-giant-telescopes-etc this Slashdot article], where the name ''BFT'' [http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=6288&cid=971019 was first proposed] in 2000. Did Randall know it? {{unsigned ip|‎108.162.231.211}}

The "Final Telescope" aka "James Webb Space Telescope". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.209|108.162.222.209]] 11:01, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

How could he leave off the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Magellan_Telescope Giant Magellan Telescope]? [[User:Matchups|Matchups]] ([[User talk:Matchups|talk]]) 14:13, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Does anyone think the latter names are a nod to Doctor Who? The Nightmare Child, the Plains of Devastation, etc. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.148|199.27.128.148]] 17:48, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

The infinite is the size of the univers. Still there is a final after that ;-) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:28, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Just a note concerning the cancelled 'Overwhelmingly Large Telescope' (=OWL): Today OWL means „Once Was Large“ because it is replaced by the ELT {{unsigned ip|108.162.231.21}}

;Similar topic

I remember
a short piece in SCIAM many years ago, where a well known physicist
ironicly discussed the wish/planning/building of ever bigger colliders.
Among the biggest of them, the "final collider" was described
as having a diameter about the dimension of galaxy clusters.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.54|108.162.231.54]] 22:28, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

::The "Infinite" and "Final Telescopes" may be a poke at the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Crisis Infinite Crisis] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Crisis Final Crisis] crossover events in the DC Comics... --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 10:43, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

The Final Telescope is a reference to Asimov's "The Final Question", which literally describes the last question answered in the lifetime of the universe. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 21:39, 22 April 2023 (UTC)
:Sounds more like a reference to the Glam Rock band "Europe", to me. (i.e., I disagree with how definite you seem to be.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.184|172.69.79.184]] 23:14, 22 April 2023 (UTC)
::You have to consider how big a science fiction nerd Randall is (nearly as big as me). [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 01:01, 23 April 2023 (UTC)
:::It's still tenuous. There are loads of "The Final <something>"s. And, in TFQ, it isn't even the final question (the final ''remaining'' question, perhaps) as it has been asked before, many times. What's more important is the final ''answer'' (or the first answer that isn't non-commital, or maybe it's the ''first'' answer in the time beyond), and surely a reference to that would be more nerd-worthy than what we have.
:::I think Asimov is just too subtle, it could have come from anywhere and the ''intention'' to use Asimov, specifically, could have been flagged somehow.
:::Alternate nerd references could have been "The Second Greatest Telescope" (shades of Deep Thought, already thinking ahead to its successor) or similar. And we don't see "antepenultimate" used often enough, either (or on through "propreantepenultimate"), so a missed trick there too. But I don't fully know Randall's mind, just have an impression that even when he's Muggle-indecipherable, he's rarely quite so shy about acknowledging his inspiration, and very rarely quite so nerd-shy. Even his easter-eggs are at least obvious enough once you realise they are there to be found. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.159|172.70.162.159]] 17:02, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Category:Astronomy

2023-04-03T20:58:15Z

172.70.162.159: Was that a troll? It most definitely is not. At least by anyone who knows the difference.

Randall often uses [[xkcd]] to express his fascination with the science of space, which is commonly known as ''astronomy''.

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]