explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2709: Solar System Model

2022-12-10T09:01:46Z

172.70.210.49: ~"typo" error noted

Like the [https://outerwilds.fandom.com/wiki/Quantum_Moon Quantum Moon] from Outer Wilds. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 06:30, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

The lead sentence needs correcting: ELECTRONS orbit the nucleus, not ATOMS orbit the nucleus
([[User talk:ArtK|talk]]) 08:54, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 08:56, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

Also, the electrons ORBIT, not REVOLVE.
([[User talk:ArtK|talk]]) 09:01, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 09:01, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2709: Solar System Model

2022-12-10T08:56:25Z

172.70.210.49: ~"typo" error noted

Talk:2704: Faucet

2022-11-29T13:11:29Z

172.70.210.49:

Are faucet designs considered to be confusing? I'm never confused by normal ones like [https://www.ikea.com/us/en/images/products/sundsvik-kitchen-faucet-chrome-plated__0756711_pe749051_s5.jpg?f=s these] {{unsigned|Flekkie|02:12, 29 November 2022}}

:Yeah I came here wondering the same thing. Is the joke perhaps not so much that the controls are confusing in terms of intent, but just in terms of determining the bounds? Eg, with two identical faucet controls and identical water pressures, "full blast hot" still translates to something radically different, if one building has a water heater set to 120F and the other building has a water heater set to 160F.{{unsigned ip|172.69.170.189|02:46, 29 November 2022}}

:(I find °F confusing, personally, but...) ...the easiest thing is to have two taps, one hot and one cold. Yes, they can combine into a single spout, but there are various conflicting plusses and minuses of that over having the two independent ones per outlet. Speaking (as I'm sure mixer-tap afficionados worldwide will appreciate) as a Brit. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.24|172.70.85.24]] 03:03, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

::Relevant Tom Scott video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfHgUu_8KgA Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps]. TL;DR: British houses used to get their hot water from rat-filled cisterns so they wanted to keep the hot water separate from the cold water, and old habits die hard. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.152|162.158.63.152]] 03:34, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:::Silliness of dual-taps aside, that doesn't solve the issue of identical tap hardware yielding radically different results depending on what the hot water thermostat is set to. Maybe that's not the original joke (I'm still not sure what it was) but it's worth mentioning at least. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.146|172.69.170.146]] 03:39, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

: I don't think those are confusing, but in many cases the feedback is too slow (e.g. due to the water in the pipes coming from the hot water source having cooled since the tap was last used), or inconvenient (e.g. the pressure of the hot water not being enough to trigger on-demand gas heaters). While theoretically that design allows exploring the whole temperature/pressure space, in practice one needs some trial-and-error and delay to find the correct setting (as Randall points out in the title text) to make it work. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:54, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:It's really a joke we are too European to understand. Visit the US to see faucet control disasters in all their glory. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.203|172.68.51.203]] 10:56, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:: Yeah, here in Europe I've seen faucets with mechanical thermostats to regulate the temperature and therefore two dials for either flow or temperature. This was more than 20 years ago. --[[User:Sarsey|Sarsey]] ([[User talk:Sarsey|talk]]) 12:01, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

I sympathize with Randall here; even controls designed to independently control temperature and flow rarely meet both the "intuitive to use at a glance" and "function as described" requirements to make them non-confusing. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 03:44, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Wouldn't it be super simple to just have a slider that goes from hot to cold, and a second one that goes from slow to fast flow? Or one for hot, one for cold, with the higher the slider goes, the more the flow is increased? I don't see how much simpler you can get it. Hell, you could even use a dial for temperature (all dials turn clockwise to increase) with a digital readout. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.44|172.70.131.44]] 05:25, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

: I suppose the issue with that is that, unlike simple mixer taps that control the flow of hot and cold water independently, relying on the human to find the right mixture that creates the desired flow and temperature, what you're describing requires a more complex system that is able to do that process automatically, so it can't be a simple mechanical valve. It would require temperature and pressure sensors for both the hot and cold water streams, and it would have to dynamically adjust the physical valve settings depending on all six parameters (position of the flow handle/slider/knob, position of the temperature handle/slider/knob, temperature of the hot water, temperature of the cold water, pressure of the hot water, pressure of the cold water). I'm not even sure this is possible with a fully mechanical system — likely some electronics would need to be involved, which might complicate things. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:50, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

This is probably the very first xkcd comic where I have absolutely no idea where Randal is coming from. While different people have different preferences for different designs, I've never heard of anyone being confused by any faucet design.
Maybe he's trolling us, by trying to get a rise out of people wondering what the hell he's talking about? [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:20, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

This may be a reference to "Design of Everyday Things - Dan Norman" or books in that direction. Although he talked a lot more about creating doors wrong he also mentioned faucet designs as terrible. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.29|198.41.242.29]] 09:17, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
::  I was initially drawn to the parallel/derivation from the "{{w|Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door|Build a better mousetrap...}}" concept, which vastly predates {{w|Don Norman|''Don''}} Norman. But it's such a widespread trope that I can't be sure it should be mentioned 'officially'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 11:13, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

: I am actually puzzled by how many people ''don't'' relate to this, judging by the comments here. I guess I've been unlucky with the faucets I've encountered so far? Over the years I've had spontaneous conversations with multiple people abut how tap designs are either inconvenient (i.e. hard to find the right handle positions to produce the desired temperature and flow), or confusing to use, especially for hotel showers. In fact I'm adding this comment mostly so other people who share the same perception don't feel gaslighted or otherwise confused by so many people not recognizing this issue. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:50, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Is that hairy? looks like him? [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 10:07, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Is it too pedantic to point out the distinction between a helix (the shape of the control) and a spiral (mentioned by the character)?
:Not really, but it could be a very shallow (by radial increase/decrease per turn) 3D spiral, I'm more concerned by the "tightening", wondering if it's a flexible spiral/helix that is manipulated dynamically, rather than merely a tap* with a funny-shaped handle/head to rotate through into the backplate.
::<nowiki>*</nowiki> - 'faucet' just makes me wait for a "force it" pun. It's a very American word that I'm not personally aware of being used throught the rest of the anglosphere. Maybe Canada, but probably not Aus/NZ/etc if my uptake of their TV/film exports is correctly remembered... Somebody may want to correct me on this issue, or add English As A Second Language metrics to this.
:What is also interesting is that the 3D-perspective drawing by our in-frame inventor, upon the perspectivised drawing surface as depicted by Randall, makes it look like very much like an actual sticky-outy object within the drawn world. Like it's actually a moulded/similar relief model/mockup, surrounded by the more standard 'wall notes' used to suggest on-the-go calculations/annotations. An interesting artistic choice (or possibly an unintentional consequence) by Randall. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 11:13, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

I think it should be added that the issue is mainly for the US. In Europe, and in the other of the rest of the world - except US - the thermostatic head has replaced most other faucet in shower, and the hand washing is not so much of an issue. My shower in some US hotels were a nightmare, where I remember taking multiple minute to understand how it might work.

I think it should be added that the issue is mainly for Europe, especially Americans traveling in Europe. In the USA, where proportioning valves are common and anti-scald protection is mandated by code, controls are both intuitive and safe.

2659: Unreliable Connection

2022-11-20T07:52:38Z

172.70.210.49:

Good day!

You won't find a fluffier blanket elsewhere. Guaranteed.

Dogs and cats are the best snuggle buddies on unrelentingly cold days, but we need to keep our pets warm, too.

One simple way to keep them cozy is to use a heated blanket or bed, but pet parents have expressed concerns over the potential fire hazard, and also high energy cost!

That’s why we designed the blanket with special materials as a self-warming mat.

It includes a reflective thermal layer inside the plush faux lambswool quilt, making it an incredibly efficient (and affordable) way for pets to keep cozy.

As fellow cat or dog owners, we get you want the best for your friend.

The one thing we can wholeheartedly promise is that our blanket will change the way your pets relaxes and sleeps.

"You will find these blankets everywhere in my home when watching my channel ! Cleo absolutely LOVES this fleece blanket mat. He sat on it as soon as I unboxed the product. Perfect for winter and the cold season. 10/10 recommend!"

Diana Olson - Youtuber, Pets channel

<img src="https://www.levilands.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/img_9_Soft_Flannel_Thickened_Pet_Soft_Fleece_P-1.jpg" alt="cat mat" />

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https://www.levilands.com

Best Regards,
Janice

2697: Y2K and 2038

2022-11-11T19:18:13Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ move link, ce

{{comic
| number = 2697
| date = November 11, 2022
| title = Y2K and 2038
| image = y2k_and_2038_2x.png
| imagesize = 527x190px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's taken me 20 years, but I've finally finished rebuilding all my software to use 33-bit signed ints.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Y2K-BRICKED BOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The Y2K bug, or more formally, the {{w|year 2000 problem}}, was the computer errors caused by two digit software representations of calendar years not correctly handling the year 2000, such as by treating it as 1900 or 19100. The {{w|year 2038 problem}} is a similar issue with timestamps in {{w|Unix time}} format, which will overflow their {{w|Signed number representations|signed}} 32-bit binary representation on January 19, 2038.

While initial estimates were that the Y2K problem would require about half a trillion dollars to address, there was widespread recognition of its potential severity several years in advance. Concerted efforts among organizations including computer and software manufacturers and their corporate and government users reflected unprecedented cooperation, testing, and enhancement of affected systems costing substantially less than the early estimates. On new years day 2000, few major errors actually occurred. Those that did usually did not disrupt essential processes or cause serious problems, and the many fewer of those that did were usually addressed in days to weeks. The software code reviews involved allowed correcting other errors and providing various enhancements which likely made up for the the cost of merely correcting the date bug.{{Actual citation needed}}

It is unclear whether the 2038 problem will be addressed as effectively in time, but documented experience with the Y2K bug and increased software modularity has allowed many otherwise vulnerable systems to already upgrade to wider timestamp and date formats, so there is reason to believe that it may be even less consequential and expensive.

The caption in this comic provides a punchline: everyone should have completed their "Y2K recovery" as it has been a full 22 years since the year 2000. It is highly unlikely that there are any older systems that still suffer from this bug, and any modern systems have already been built to handle the years 2000 and later.

The title text refers to replacing the 32-bit signed Unix time format with a hypothetical new 33-bit signed {{w|Integer (computer science)|integer}} time and date format, which is very unlikely as almost all computer data structure formats are allocated no more finely than in 8-bit bytes. Taking 20 years to develop and implement such a format is not entirely counterproductive, as it would add another 48 years of capability.

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

[A timeline rectangle spanning from 2000 to 2038 divided into two halves. The first is labeled "Recovering from the Y2K bug" and the second labeled "Preparing for the 2038 bug." An arrow labeled "Now" is pointing approximately at the year 2022.]

[Caption:] By now you should have finished your Y2K recovery and be several years into 2038 preparation

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Timelines]]

2697: Y2K and 2038

2022-11-11T18:58:27Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ cap.

{{comic
| number = 2697
| date = November 11, 2022
| title = Y2K and 2038
| image = y2k_and_2038_2x.png
| imagesize = 527x190px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's taken me 20 years, but I've finally finished rebuilding all my software to use 33-bit signed ints.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Y2K-BRICKED BOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The Y2K bug, or more formally, the {{w|year 2000 problem}}, was the computer errors caused by two digit software representations of calendar years not correctly handling the year 2000, such as by treating it the same as 1900 or 19100. The {{w|year 2038 problem}} is a similar issue with timestamps in {{w|Unix time}} format, which will overflow their signed 32-bit binary representation in 2038.

While initial estimates were that the Y2K problem would require about half a trillion dollars to address, there was widespread recognition of its potential severity several years in advance. Concerted efforts among organizations including computer and software manufacturers and their corporate and government users reflected unprecedented cooperation, testing, and enhancement of affected systems costing substantially less than the initial estimates. On new years day in 2000, few major errors actually occurred. Those that did usually did not disrupt essential processes or cause serious problems, and the few that did were usually addressed in days to weeks. The software code reviews involved allowed correcting other errors and providing various enhancements which likely made up for the the cost of merely correcting the date bug.{{Actual citation needed}}

It is unclear whether the 2038 problem will be addressed as effectively in time, but documented experience with the Y2K bug and increased software modularity has allowed many otherwise vulnerable systems to already upgrade to wider timestamp and date formats, so there is reason to believe that it may be even less consequential and expensive.

The title text refers to replacing the 32-bit signed Unix time format with a new, 33-bit time and date format, which is very unlikely as almost all computer data structure formats are allocated no more finely than in 8-bit bytes. Taking 20 years to develop and implement such a format is not entirely counterproductive, as it would add another 48 years of capability.

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

A timeline rectangle spanning from 2000 to 2038 divided into two halves. The first is labeled RECOVERING FROM THE Y2K BUG and the second PREPARING FOR THE 2038 BUG. An arrow labeled NOW is pointing approximately at the year 2022.

Caption:
REMINDER: BY NOW YOU SHOULD HAVE FINISHED YOUR Y2K RECOVERY AND BE SEVERAL YEARS INTO 2038 PREPARATION

{{comic discussion}}

2694: Königsberg

2022-11-05T05:27:58Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ ce

{{comic
| number = 2694
| date = November 4, 2022
| title = Königsberg
| image = konigsberg_2x.png
| imagesize = 448x343px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = At first I thought I would need some gold or something to pay him, but then I realized that it was the 18th century and I could just bring a roll of aluminum foil.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WOLF, TWO GOATS, AND THREE BAGS OF GRAIN. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[File:Konigsberg bridges.png|frame|right|{{w|Königsberg}} in Euler's time, showing the Pregel river and its seven bridges]]

This comic is about the {{w|Seven Bridges of Königsberg}}, a seminal {{w|graph theory}} problem solved by the famous mathematician {{w|Leonhard Euler}}. The problem is to devise a path through the city that would cross each of the seven bridges exactly once, without crossing the river forks any other way. In 1736, Euler proved that there was no such path. This result is considered to be the first theorem of graph theory and the first proof in the theory of networks[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/courses/2004/cscs535/review.pdf] — a subject now generally regarded as a branch of {{w|combinatorics}} — and presaged the development of {{w|topology}}. Combinatorial problems of other types had been considered since antiquity.

[[Cueball]] attempts to cheat on the final exam in his algorithms class by traveling back in time to commission the construction of an eighth bridge before Euler could learn of the problem, granting it a trivial solution that would remove much impetus for mathematical analysis. He hopes that this would alter his present-day timeline in such a way that the test becomes easier because graph theory might never have been developed.

With the addition of the eighth bridge, it becomes possible to create a path that crosses each bridge exactly once, starting at the north bank and ending on the eastern island (or vice-versa). However, there would remain no way to traverse each bridge exactly once and return to your starting point, because the altered graph would have an {{w|Euler trail}} but not an {{w|Euler cycle}}. Thus, the problem might still have been sufficiently interesting to spark Euler's curiosity. Adding a ninth bridge connecting the north bank to the east island would render the problem completely trivial. Without the seven bridges problem, Euler could have focussed on a different foundation for graph theory, possibly making an even harder examination in Cueball's time.

The title text alludes to the fact that ordinary {{w|aluminum foil}}, which was not commercially available until 1911, would have been a tremendously valuable curiosity in the 18th century, which didn't even have {{w|tin foil}}. Aluminium itself was a highly priced metal before the 1880s, when methods were developed to cheaply refine it. Famously, the {{w|Washington Monument}} was constructed with a tip made of pure aluminum due to its great value and conductive capacity. Aluminum had not even been extracted in its pure form at the time of Euler, and was only known in compounds such as {{w|alum}}, so it would have been unique and exotic.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball, standing next to two men wearing wigs, pointing with a pointer at a map showing the 7 bridges problem, with an extra bridge added in dashed lines]
:Cueball: Lord Mayor of Königsberg, I will reward you handsomely if you construct this bridge before my friend Leonhard arrives.

:[Caption below the panel]
:I tried to use a time machine to cheat on my algorithms final by preventing graph theory from being invented.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Programming]]

574: Swine Flu

2022-10-24T22:07:15Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ GRAMMAR

{{comic
| number = 574
| date = April 27, 2009
| title = Swine Flu
| image = swine flu.png
| titletext = Bad flu epidemics can hit young adults hardest because they provoke their powerful immune systems into overreaction, so to stay healthy spend the next few weeks drunk and sleep-deprived to keep yours suppressed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Swine influenza|Swine flu}} is a strain of the flu which can be transmitted from pigs to humans. In 2009, it was the origin of the {{w|Pandemic H1N1/09 virus}}, which most news stations called either "H1N1" (the subtype name) or "swine flu". Because of the ambiguous name given to it and the somewhat hazy description of the transmittal process and dangers to humans, many people were concerned about the virus in ways that weren't going to be threats. This comic pokes a bit of fun at the overreaction by users on {{w|Twitter}}.

[[Randall]] (or someone else) seems to have created Twitter accounts for all referenced handles (that may not have already existed). Some of the handles continue their interactions with each other in later tweets.

[https://twitter.com/SKEEVE37 Skeeve37] is a self-described {{w|Hypochondriasis|hypochondriac}}. The tweet exemplifies the general populace's over-concern with the "animal themed" pandemics. Similarly after the {{w|Avian influenza|bird flu}} scare, people avoided eating chicken.

[https://twitter.com/hanneloreEC Hanneloreec] is a self-described "young lady who is concerned about many things". She is a reoccurring character in the webcomic {{w|Questionable Content}} by Jeph Jacques, who also manages her twitter handle.

[https://twitter.com/PAULYSHOREFAN Paulyshorefan]'s tweet is a reference to the flash game "[https://www.crazygames.com/game/pandemic-2 Pandemic 2]", in which players try to create a disease that infects the whole world. {{w|Madagascar}} is the most difficult country to infect, as it only has 1 port and often closes it at the slightest hint of an infection. The difficulty of infecting Madagascar has caused it to become a [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything meme]. The user's Twitter handle is a reference to {{w|Pauly Shore}}, a comedian who was briefly popular in the 1990s before quickly becoming out of favor and derided as unfunny.

[https://twitter.com/CrackMonkey74 CrackMonkey74]'s tweet is a parody of viral Christian(?) messages that say that current tragedies are God's punishment, [http://bible.cc/mark/13-7.htm despite the fact that the Bible says that the end is not yet to come.] More specifically, Crackmonkey74 blames the {{w|American Civil Liberties Union|ACLU}}, {{w|Lesbian|lesbians}} (a reference to the current culture wars that give big press towards proponents of {{w|Same-sex marriage|same-sex marriage}} against fundamentalist Christians), {{w|September 11 attacks|9/11}} (the day when the {{w|World Trade Center (1973–2001)|Twin Towers}} fell, causing controversy on whether {{w|Muslim}} terrorists crashed their planes on the towers or whether the government {{w|9/11 conspiracy theories|staged}} this by purposefully demolishing the towers) and {{w|Nanorobotics|nanobots}} (possibly a reference towards the highly promising but still relatively not understood field of nanotechnology, plus another reference towards the phrase "playing God"). He is likely the same Crackmonkey74 from [[406: Venting]] and [[202: YouTube]].

[https://twitter.com/Twilight7531 Twilight7531]'s tweet implies that she got a {{w|Bone fracture#Orthopedic|bone fracture}} which ended up protruding from her arm. However, she seems to lack medical knowledge, so she is worried that her fracture is actually swine flu (though how she can be typing with a broken arm is confusing).

[https://twitter.com/Wigu Wigu]'s tweet is a reply towards [https://twitter.com/Untoward Untoward]'s. Given the context, Untoward seems to have "gotten intimate" with a pig (since {{w|syphilis}} is a venereal disease). Given the fact that Untoward got sick because of a pig, Untoward seems to have concluded that he got swine flu.

The last comment by [https://twitter.com/2011SENIORSRULE 2011Seniorsrule] references a medical paper published by the journal {{w|The Lancet}}, in which it is proposed that {{w|Autism|autism}} is caused by {{w|Vaccine|vaccination}}. Since then, the paper was partially retracted in 2004, and fully retracted in 2010 because of conflicts of interest. The entire incident has been defined as the {{w|MMR vaccine controversy}}. This stance has still been seen since the retraction of the paper, and still holds some popularity by {{rw|cranks}}, {{rw|quacks}}, {{rw|pseudoscience|pseudoscientists}}, and {{rw|conspiracy|conspiracy theorists}} alike who are convinced that the {{rw|CDC}} is {{rw|Release_the_data|hiding vital data}} that proves {{rw|Anti-vaccination_movement#Autism|vaccines cause autism}}. The most famous figure in support of it is {{w|Jenny McCarthy}}. This Twitter user is not only using a debunked study about a completely different set of vaccines, they have also confused cause and effect (i.e. even if vaccines caused autism, that doesn't mean that autistic people carry flu vaccines). Also, licking vaccinated people isn't how vaccines are administered. On top of that, fear of germs and/or hypersensitivity is common among autistic people, so "licking an autistic kid" may be a difficult and possibly painful experience for the lickee. (By contrast, allistic children are well known to enjoy being licked.)

The title text at first states the fact that some flu symptoms are actually the symptoms of the body's reaction, and can in some cases be more dramatic than the initial infection. E.g. A fever is a defense mechanism of the body against a disease. Then the title text makes the recommendation to protect oneself from an overreaction by living an unhealthy life. This is not good advice. {{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Caption:]
:Twitter is great for watching
:uninformed panics unfold live.

:[The comic shows a twitter search results page with "Swine flu" in the search box and a gray search button.]
:twitter [Swine flu] (search)

:[The results is displayed in a frame below the search panel:]
:Realtime results for '''Swine flu''' 0.05

:[This next line is highlighted in yellow. Most text here and below is written in normal black font, but the underlined links in the main text is in blue. Below each tweet is a line with info and reply links etc. all in gray font. Between the yellow line and the first tweet and between each tweet is a dotted line.]
:1,918 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Skeeve37: Oh god I ate pork yesterday before I knew about swine flu!
 
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Hanneloreec: Without duct tape I can't seal the door to keep out swine flu but I can't get duct tape without going outside! Help!
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Paulyshorefan: How long until the swine flu reaches me here in Madagascar?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:CrackMonkey74: Swine flu is God's punishment for the ACLU and lesbians and 9/11 and nanobots!
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Twilight7531: I fell down the stairs and there was a crack and a jagged white thing is sticking out of my arm guys is this swine flu?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from twitterific ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Wigu: @Untoward: No, that sounds like syphilis, not swine flu. What did you say you did with a pig?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from tweetdeck ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:2011Seniursrule: My Dad said flu vaccines are linked to autism, so to be safe from swine flu I'm trying to lick an autistic kid.
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

==Trivia==

*CrackMonkey74 has appeared in two earlier comics: [[202: YouTube]] and [[406: Venting]].
*Randall's dismay over uninformed panics, especially regarding disease, will be mirrored in numerous comics concerning the very real COVID-19 pandemic over 10 years later.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:9/11]]

2689: Fermat's First Theorem

2022-10-24T20:26:49Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ not necessarily caps

{{comic
| number = 2689
| date = October 24, 2022
| title = Fermat's First Theorem
| image = fermats_first_theorem_2x.png
| imagesize = 280x248px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Mathematicians quickly determined that it spells ANT BNECN, an unusual theoretical dish which was not successfully cooked until Andrew Wiles made it for breakfast in the 1990s.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BACON ANT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is a reference to {{w|Fermat's Last Theorem}}, humorously implying that Fermat created a similar theorem as a child. Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation an+bn=cn for any integer value of n greater than 2. It is notable for having remained unproved for hundreds of years, despite many attempts to prove it, before being proved true by {{w|Andrew Wiles}} in the 1990s.

Little Fermat didn't try to prove the mathematical equation, but simply tried to read it as words, treating the "+" sign as a "t" so that "AN+" can be read as "ANT". His interpretation was quickly disproved because there's no "A" between "B" and "C", and no "O" bectween "C" and "N".

In the title text, the "words" are "ANT BNECN", treating the "=" as an "E"; "=" doesn't really look like "E", but it doesn't look like any other letter either, and it's pronounced "equals" which begins with "E". The text then references Wiles, asserting that he proved this modified form of Fermat's First Theorem as well by cooking this "ant bnecn" (whatever "bnecn" is) as breakfast.

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

:[A Hairy-like boy, representing Pierre de Fermat as a child, stands at a blackboard holding a piece of chalk. To his right is Miss Lenhart. The following text is written on the blackboard:]
:AN + BN = CN
:Spells
:Ant Bacon

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Fermat's ''First'' Theorem was quickly disproved

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2689: Fermat's First Theorem

2022-10-24T20:26:17Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2689
| date = October 24, 2022
| title = Fermat's First Theorem
| image = fermats_first_theorem_2x.png
| imagesize = 280x248px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Mathematicians quickly determined that it spells ANT BNECN, an unusual theoretical dish which was not successfully cooked until Andrew Wiles made it for breakfast in the 1990s.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BACON ANT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is a reference to {{w|Fermat's Last Theorem}}, humorously implying that Fermat created a similar theorem as a child. Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation an+bn=cn for any integer value of n greater than 2. It is notable for having remained unproved for hundreds of years, despite many attempts to prove it, before being proved true by {{w|Andrew Wiles}} in the 1990s.

Little Fermat didn't try to prove the mathematical equation, but simply tried to read it as words, treating the "+" sign as a "t" so that "AN+" can be read as "ANT". His interpretation was quickly disproved because there's no "A" between "B" and "C", and no "O" bectween "C" and "N".

In the title text, the "words" are "ANT BNECN", treating the "=" as an "E"; "=" doesn't really look like "E", but it doesn't look like any other letter either, and it's pronounced "equals" which begins with "E". The text then references Wiles, asserting that he proved this modified form of Fermat's First Theorem as well by cooking this "ant bnecn" (whatever "bnecn" is) as breakfast.

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

:[A Hairy-like boy, representing Pierre de Fermat as a child, stands at a blackboard holding a piece of chalk. To his right is Miss Lenhart. The following text is written on the blackboard:]
:AN + BN = CN
:SPELLS
:ANT BACON

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Fermat's ''First'' Theorem was quickly disproved

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2688: Bubble Universes

2022-10-21T22:24:09Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ not part of transcript

{{comic
| number = 2688
| date = October 21, 2022
| title = Bubble Universes
| image = bubble_universes_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x188px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The theory finally unifies cosmic inflation and regular inflation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a UNIVERSE OF BUBĽÉS (WASHED UP AND APPEARING IN A BUBLY AD) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A {{w|Eternal_inflation#Overview|bubble universe}} is a concept in the {{w|Inflation (cosmology)|inflation theory of cosmology}} in which our observable universe is just one of many "bubbles" of matter and radiation that formed after the {{w|Big Bang}}.

The comic seems to be recursive, where one Cueball's bubble universe contains another Cueball doing the same thing, blowing bubbles, seeming to contain the whole scene within one of the bubbles in the original scene. This may reference cosmological models like the {{w|Big Bounce}}, in which a new universe emerges from a previous universe. A similar view is in the "{{w|turtles all the way down}}" view of the universe, but here the universe is suspended in bubbles, and those bubbles suspended in a universe suspended in bubbles, "all the way down" (or at least one layer down).

"Finally unifies cosmic inflation and regular inflation" where "regular inflation" refers to the inflation of bubbles. Cosmic inflation refers to the expansionary phase of the universe shortly after the Big Bang; this would explain why that happened with the simple proposition that it was a bubble and inflated like regular bubbles do. (Ignoring various issues – like the sheer size of the universe, at least in terms of its own scale.)

The scene looks like it could be part of an infinite recursion. The two Cueballs and grounds are similar but not identical, a self-similarity (also known as expanding symmetry or unfolding symmetry) common in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal fractals].

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

[Cueball blowing expanding bubbles. In the largest one is a whole new universe with another Cueball blowing similar bubbles. The bubbles are progressively darker: the first ones are regular transparent/white bubbles, and as they grow, they turn grey then dark, to match the black night sky, with stars, galaxies, planets and other astronomical bodies]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Puns]]

2688: Bubble Universes

2022-10-21T22:23:21Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ cats

{{comic
| number = 2688
| date = October 21, 2022
| title = Bubble Universes
| image = bubble_universes_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x188px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The theory finally unifies cosmic inflation and regular inflation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a UNIVERSE OF BUBĽÉS (WASHED UP AND APPEARING IN A BUBLY AD) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A {{w|Eternal_inflation#Overview|bubble universe}} is a concept in the {{w|Inflation (cosmology)|inflation theory of cosmology}} in which our observable universe is just one of many "bubbles" of matter and radiation that formed after the {{w|Big Bang}}.

The comic seems to be recursive, where one Cueball's bubble universe contains another Cueball doing the same thing, blowing bubbles, seeming to contain the whole scene within one of the bubbles in the original scene. This may reference cosmological models like the {{w|Big Bounce}}, in which a new universe emerges from a previous universe. A similar view is in the "{{w|turtles all the way down}}" view of the universe, but here the universe is suspended in bubbles, and those bubbles suspended in a universe suspended in bubbles, "all the way down" (or at least one layer down).

"Finally unifies cosmic inflation and regular inflation" where "regular inflation" refers to the inflation of bubbles. Cosmic inflation refers to the expansionary phase of the universe shortly after the Big Bang; this would explain why that happened with the simple proposition that it was a bubble and inflated like regular bubbles do. (Ignoring various issues – like the sheer size of the universe, at least in terms of its own scale.)

The scene looks like it could be part of an infinite recursion. The two Cueballs and grounds are similar but not identical, a self-similarity (also known as expanding symmetry or unfolding symmetry) common in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal fractals].

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

[Cueball blowing expanding bubbles. In the largest one is a whole new universe with another Cueball blowing similar bubbles. The bubbles are progressively darker: the first ones are regular transparent/white bubbles, and as they grow, they turn grey then dark, to match the black night sky, with stars, galaxies, planets and other astronomical bodies]

Title text: This theory finally unifies cosmic inflation and regular inflation

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Puns]]

2687: Division Notation

2022-10-20T00:20:44Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ ce

{{comic
| number = 2687
| date = October 19, 2022
| title = Division Notation
| image = division_notation_2x.png
| imagesize = 235x310px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Science tip: Scientists hardly ever use the two-dot division sign, and when they do it often doesn't even mean division, but they still get REALLY mad when you repurpose it to write stuff like SALE! ALL SHOES 30÷ OFF!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GROUP OF SCHOOLCHILDREN DIVIDED AMONGST THEMSELVES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic pokes fun at some of the ways to write the {{w|Division (mathematics)|division}} operation in math. In this comic, Randall has used A as the dividend (the number being divided) and B as the divisor (the number that A is divided by).

The first two are respectively the {{w|division sign}} (÷) and {{w|long division}} symbol. (Note: the long division symbol is only used in English-speaking countries). These methods of division are often used by school children as the first ÷ is what people learn when first learning division, and the second long division symbol is usually the first type of long division learned (it's easier to do it visually on paper that way).

The third line is the way the division is often written in software code. The 4 standard operations in programming usually are +, -, *, /. This one was missing in the first version of the comic. This is most commonly seen in regular mathematics as it somewhat saves space, and is easy to type with the slash key.

The fourth notation is the way division is written in science, dividend on top line and divided on bottom line. This is the closest format to how a {{w|Fraction|fraction}} would be written. This format would likely only be used in written math, as typing the fraction symbol requires the math markup language.

The fifth notation uses a negative exponent. The exponent -1 has the same effect as dividing by the base. It can be used to keep an equation on 1 line.

The final form of notation appears to be not a simple notation for division. Rather, it looks like a definition of a notion of division which is customized to a particular setting. This situation is likely to occur in abstract algebra, where one might have to define what "division" might mean for two elements of a mathematical object such as a group, ring, or magma. One example would be an object G, such that, for two elements A and B of G, "A divided by B" is defined as an element C such that CB=A, or alternatively as an element C such that BC=A. These definitions might differ if multiplication in G is not commutative. Furthermore, if such a C is not unique, a function F(A,B) might have to be chosen to select a unique value for "A divided by B" for each A and B. Thus, the F(A,B) in the comic might not even refer to a uniquely defined operation, but simply to the property of a function F(A,B) that is a valid division operation on G, given some definition of division.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A÷B and A⟌B both indicating schoolchild.

A/B left to software engineer.

A/B as in unicode ½ left to normal person or Unicode enthusiast.

A over B left to scientist.

AB^-1 left to fancy scientist.

F(A, B) such that F(G)= (text getting smaller) next to oh no, run.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Science tip]]

2687: Division Notation

2022-10-20T00:20:33Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ tip in title text

2687: Division Notation

2022-10-20T00:18:36Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ cat

2687: Division Notation

2022-10-20T00:17:44Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */

2687: Division Notation

2022-10-20T00:16:18Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ cats

{{comic
| number = 2687
| date = October 19, 2022
| title = Division Notation
| image = division_notation_2x.png
| imagesize = 235x310px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Science tip: Scientists hardly ever use the two-dot division sign, and when they do it often doesn't even mean division, but they still get REALLY mad when you repurpose it to write stuff like SALE! ALL SHOES 30÷ OFF!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GROUP OF SCHOOLCHILDREN DIVIDED AMONGST THEMSELVES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic pokes fun at some of the ways to write the {{w|Division (mathematics)|division}} operation in math. In this comic, Randall has used A as the dividend (the number being divided) and B as the divisor (the number that A is divided by).
The first two are respectively the division sign (÷) and long division symbol. (Note: the long division symbol is only used in English-speaking countries). These methods of division are often used by school children as the first ÷ is what people learn when first learning division, and the second long division symbol is usually the first type of long division learned (it's easier to do it visually on paper that way).

The third line is the way the division is often written in code. The 4 standard operations in programming usually are +, -, *, /. This one was missing in the first version of the comic. This is most commonly seen in regular mathematics as it somewhat saves space, and is easy to type with the slash key.

The fourth notation is the way division is written in science, dividend on top line and divided on bottom line. This is the closest format to how a {{w|Fraction|fraction}} would be written. This format would likely only be used in written math, as typing the fraction symbol requires the math markup language.

The fifth notation uses a negative exponent. The exponent -1 has the same effect as dividing by the base. It can be used to keep an equation on 1 line.

The final form of notation appears to be not a simple notation for division. Rather, it looks like a definition of a notion of division which is customized to a particular setting. This situation is likely to occur in abstract algebra, where one might have to define what "division" might mean for two elements of a mathematical object such as a group, ring, or magma. One example would be an object G, such that, for two elements A and B of G, "A divided by B" is defined as an element C such that CB=A, or alternatively as an element C such that BC=A. These definitions might differ if multiplication in G is not commutative. Furthermore, if such a C is not unique, a function F(A,B) might have to be chosen to select a unique value for "A divided by B" for each A and B. Thus, the F(A,B) in the comic might not even refer to a uniquely defined operation, but simply to the property of a function F(A,B) that is a valid division operation on G, given some definition of division.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A÷B and A⟌B both indicating schoolchild.

A/B left to software engineer.

A/B as in unicode ½ left to normal person or Unicode enthusiast.

A over B left to scientist.

AB^-1 left to fancy scientist.

F(A, B) such that F(G)= (text getting smaller) next to oh no, run.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Science]]

2570: Captain Picard Tea Order

2022-10-07T19:02:25Z

172.70.210.49: /* Other Words */

{{comic
| number = 2570
| date = January 19, 2022
| title = Captain Picard Tea Order
| image = captain_picard_tea_order.png
| titletext = We can ask the Earl for his order once he's fully extruded from the dispenser.
}}
*This was the fifth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
Captain {{w|Jean-Luc Picard}} is a primary character in the science fiction TV series ''{{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation}}'', which is focused on the crew of a starship. The ship is equipped with {{w|Replicator (Star Trek)|replicators}}, which can create virtually any object or material requested, including food and drink, and which respond to verbal commands.

In the show, Picard's beverage of choice is {{w|Earl Grey tea}}. His habitual method for ordering is to first specify what he wants (tea, in this case), then specify a particular type (Earl Grey), and then give specific instructions for how it is to be served (hot, as opposed to {{w|iced tea}}). Because this is his favored drink, he repeatedly places the exact order "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaAT6-dY1QI Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.]" The first picture in the strip implies that the display shows each part of the order, and provides a list of options for the next step.

[[Randall]] parodies this repeated order by suggesting [[#Other Words|other words]] that could follow "Tea. Earl Grey.", starting from ones he considers more "normal" moving to those he presumes increasingly "less normal" down a long and winding arrow.

The results of two examples from the normal/less-normal scale are also illustrated: Sticky tea and loud tea. Sticky is kind of obvious, though perhaps not immediately understandable, the loud version is a tea that screams "Teeee..." The vibrating and screeching teacup may be a reference to the various ''Star Trek'' episodes about {{w|tribble}}s, which behave in a similar way in the presence of Klingons.

The very last qualifying addition, the least normal is not a single word but "Tea for him, too." This reinterprets the meaning of the standard introductory words, suggesting that "tea", and "Earl Grey" are separate orders, which implies that he wants the replicator to produce tea, then replicate a human being named Earl Grey (either one of the {{w|Earl Grey|Earls Grey}} or a person surnamed Grey with the given name of Earl), then a second tea to serve to this newly created person. {{w|Earl Grey tea}} is named after the {{w|Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey}}, a 19th century British Prime Minister, and Captain Picard possibly wishes to have said Earl be generated to provide him with company.

In contrast to the often trivial use of a replicator as merely a potentially infinitely versatile vending machine, the comic sets up a number of quite esoteric options, culminating in Earl Grey himself potentially drinking (generic) tea, after both the tea and he have been replicated into existence by Picard.

In the title text, someone tells Picard that they should wait until the Earl has been fully extruded from the dispenser, and ''then'' ascertain what he would actually wish to drink. The presumption is that it could take some time to get a full living person out of the replicator. This sort of operation would be better suited for the holodeck, which has been used to create simulacra of other historical figures, including Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, and Sir Isaac Newton, with the limitations that they are mere simulations without their own autonomy and cannot exist beyond the limits of the fixed holotransmitters; though at least two others seem to have gained full sentience, and granted (or be convinced they were granted) physical freedom.

In the various versions of ''{{w|Star Trek}}'', it's established that {{w|Replicator_(Star_Trek)#Origins_and_limitations|replicators aren't capable of producing living things}}, so canonically this version of the order could not be filled.

===Other Words===
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=1 class="wikitable"
! Word !! Explanation
|-
| Hot
| A fairly normal word to be used when ordering tea. Although that it even needs specifying is itself a clue that other variations (such as "Iced", below) are available. This is the chosen word of the five visible words Picard is potentially presented with in the first drawing. The act of requesting this is thus illustrated, though not of the appearance of the tea itself.
|-
| Iced
| {{w|Iced tea}} is a typical variation of tea. In the United States, iced tea is a popular alternative to soft drinks and makes up about 85% of all tea consumed.
|-
| Decaf
| Traditional teas (from {{w|Camellia sinensis}}) tend to have caffeine in them. Asking for {{w|Decaffeination|decaffeinated}} tea is not particularly uncommon if the drinker requires it. In the series ''Picard'', set several decades after ''The Next Generation'', Picard does actually order "Tea, Earl Grey, decaf" in [https://tvline.com/2020/01/26/star-trek-picard-premiere-easter-eggs-earl-grey-decaf/ one scene]. Earl Grey tea typically has [https://simplelooseleaf.com/blog/black-tea/earl-grey-tea-caffeine/ about 30 milligrams of caffeine,] depending on how long it is {{w|Steeping|steeped}}.
|-
| Good
| A normal, subjective term. Most people drinking tea would want it to be good, but to specify it like this would perhaps be strange. This is one of the words in the first drawing, as a listed alternative to Hot. It is possible that he is saying it after the machine has dispensed its tea.
|-
| Lukewarm
| While this is a temperature that tea can be at, most people (including Jean-Luc) do not want their teas to be lukewarm.
|-
| Tasty
| Similar to good, most people would want their tea to be tasty, or at least flavorsome. This word being below 'lukewarm' may imply that Randall dislikes Earl Grey. Or perhaps he actually considers it implicit, and thus is fairly redundant to specify - unlike even 'hot'.
|-
| Boiled
| Boiling the water used to make the tea is a common and normal way to increase the flavor and nutrients extracted from the tea leaves, though it is suggested that the actual ideal temperature of hot water is 75-98°C (167-210°F), according to whether it is a light tea or a dark one, and that perhaps it should be sipped at around 65°C/150°F-ish if desired 'hot'.
Having made a tea and ''then'' bringing it back to the boil (especially after adding milk/etc.) may destroy some of the desirable qualities previously imbued. {{w|Masala chai}} is generally boiled, but would never be made with Earl Grey.
|-
| Watery
| Tea is a drink that often involves water, but this perhaps suggests over dilution or under infusion in some way.
|-
| Sour
| Many people do not enjoy a sour taste, which can accompany rot and is a strange thing to specify when ordering Earl Grey tea. Although lemon juice is often an additive used in the same way (but as a complete alternative) to milk.
|-
| Meaty
| Most teas are plant-based. While meat-based teas such as {{w|beef tea}} do exist they are more generally regarded as either a soup or a medicine, and unlikely to be combined with actual tea. Meaty is also a descriptive term that could be used for robustly flavoured teas, such as an Assam. However, Earl Grey is a light, floral tea, for which this descriptor is unlikely to be appropriate.
|-
| Solid
| Tea is usually drunk as a liquid. It would be strange to ask for solid tea, unless there was a situation where it could be rehydrated later. Alternatively, Picard could be asking for frozen tea, or ice, which would begin solid but melt in his mouth.
|-
| Dry
| {{w|Dryness (taste)|"Dry"}} most often describes alcoholic beverages with no sweetening ingredients, and all the sugar has been consumed by the fermentation. It can refer to a particular "mouth feel," also caused by lack of sweetness. While unsweetened tea is nothing unusual, describing it as "dry tea" is. Alternatively Picard might be asking for literal dry tea, either unmade (e.g. tea leaves in their un-infused form) or freeze-dried back into a dehydrated form.

This is one of the five words Picard was seen presented with in the first drawing.
|-
| Raw
| This describes tea that has not been "cooked", so it would just be tea made with room-temperature water. {{w|Iced_tea#Sun_tea|Sun tea}} is a form of iced tea that can be brewed by placing tea in a large glass container with water and leaving the container in the sun for hours, resulting in a smoother flavor. A replicator could likely produce sun tea at the same speed as hot tea, making it a viable (if somewhat exotic) choice of preparation.
|-
| Deep-fried
| Tea is not usually deep-fried. But you'll probably {{w|Deep-fried Mars bar|find someone}} who has tried it, [https://www.pitco.com/blog/deep-fried-liquids-trend one way or another].
|-
| Sticky
| Perhaps significantly dehydrated, or thickened with enough of a hydrophilic substance, this would produce something very unlike most teas that would usually be requested. For example, the addition of significant amounts of sugar may lead to a more viscous brew.
This scenario is illustrated to show a clearly messy product that awkwardly sticks to and drips from the replicator as well as Picard.
|-
| Grilled
| Meats and vegetables can be prepared via grilling, as can sandwiches and other foods. However, the grilling process requires that the comestible in question be solid so as not to fall through the grill; beverages are notorious for lacking solidity, and thus are not typically grilled.
|-
| Fossilized
| Fossilizing leaves replaces their biological molecules with minerals. Brewing fossilized tea leaves would dissolve some of those and produce a beverage that resembles mineral water more than tea.
|-
| Magnetic
| Tea is not magnetic. Magnetic metals would have to be added to the tea, which would not be pleasant to drink. In addition, consuming more than one magnetic source may end up squeezing tissues in the intestines or bowels, with potentially lethal consequences. However, this would not be the {{w|Irn-Bru|first drink}} to be supplemented with iron.
|-
| Ballistic
| Usually, the replicated beverage is deposited in a stationary cup, but Picard could ask for it to be dropped or thrown out instead. Unless the good captain has a sufficiently quick reaction time and the dexterity to catch the projectile cup, the tea will likely end up spilled onto the floor or splattered against a wall, making the temperature setting of the tea a moot point.
|-
| Unstable
| This word is often used to refer to radioactive or explosive materials, which hopefully is not a property that would apply to something meant to be ingested. Alternatively, this could imply that the receptacle into which the tea is delivered should be unstable - being unbalanced, or lacking a flat bottom. This is likely to lead to the tea being spilled.
|-
| Blessed
| Tea is a beverage, and it may be strange to ask a machine to create 'blessed' tea. However, if the machine were to use holy water, already blessed by a human, it is [https://www.quora.com/When-does-Holy-water-lose-its-Holiness-If-its-boiled-is-the-resulting-water-vapor-still-considered-Holy-Does-it-lose-its-Holy-property-when-it-transfers-into-a-gas-Is-it-still-Holy-when-it%E2%80%99s-frozen#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20as%20long,else%2C%20it%20remains%20holy%20water.&text=a%20simple%20change-,Never.,He%20is%20faithful possible] for it to remain "blessed" after the water is used to make tea. It is also possible that this is a reference to tea which could be used in [http://www.archbishoplefebvre.com/blog/baptism-can-i-use-any-liquid baptism].
In role-playing games, items can be Blessed, i.e. having greater positive or lesser negative effects. This includes potions, a class of drinks that do not usually include any teas but could contain the "potion of water", which may also, therefore, be the basis of this blessed brew.
|-
| Blurry
| Being blurry is not a normal state for tea to have. Cloudy, on the other hand, is quite normal for certain brews.
|-
| Loud
| While molecules in tea (especially hot tea, and vitally so in an {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel)|Infinite Improbability Drive}}) do move vigorously, this does not usually result in distinct audible effects.
However, as illustrated, it seems the requested cup of tea is produced capable of emitting a high-pitched, high-volume whining sound that entirely dominates the vicinity. It actually appears to somewhat vocalize what it is, Teeeee...
|-
| Virtual
| Virtual tea cannot be produced physically, so asking a physical tea machine for it would be very strange. However, it might be useful on the holodeck, a device that can produce a virtual environment able to be interacted with.
|-
| Intravenous
| This means the tea would be injected directly into the customer's veins, likely a very painful experience if the tea comes out boiling. Instrument of choice would probably be a {{w|Infuser|''tea infuser''}}.
|-
| Expanding
| In a sense, most hot tea is expanding: as the water in the tea evaporates, it becomes much less dense, increasing in "size".
But most people would probably argue that the evaporated water is no longer part of the tea. Water, like most materials, usually expands as it increases in temperature—except between freezing and about 4° C, where it has the unusual property of {{w|Water_%28molecule%29#Density_of_water_and_ice|''contracting slightly''}} as temperature increases. If tea behaves similarly despite the extra dissolved compounds, then "expanding tea" would describe any tea between 4° C and boiling point. Possibly beyond, and explosively so, if {{w|Superheating|superheated}} and then nucleating points are introduced.
On the other hand, this tea may simply be tea spilled on the floor, which could then spread out as it evaporated.
|-
| Ironic
| How tea could be ironic will be a mystery if your culture has no understanding of irony. The irony of the most celebrated Frenchman in science fiction history delighting in a very British beverage is a nice touch of cosmopolitanism. There is also a possibility that the tea will speak or otherwise communicate in ironic terms. While this is very strange and unlikely, it can be considered, given the other scenarios on this list.
|-
| Segmented
| Tea is usually served in a cup. There is the simple explanation that the cup is divided into segments, though this is the cup, and not technically the tea itself. Tea tends to stick together and form one liquid making it hard to segment. Separating the tea into segments would not be possible without some form of an emulsifying gel.
|-
| Verbose
| This describes using lots of words and language, and would not likely be used for tea, because it cannot speak. Command-line computer programs often run in a 'silent' mode without displaying every step of what happens on the screen. Such programs may have a {{w|Verbose mode|''-verbose'' parameter}} that disables the silent mode. As the replicator is run by a computer, the verbose parameter could be applied to the process of tea-making, with the replicator providing an info-dump on the molecular arrangement of the tea, together with the cup of liquid.
|-
| Cursed
| As with "Blessed", above, items can be Cursed in role-playing games, i.e. having greater negative or lesser positive effects; while there are strategic uses for Cursed items, generally the player would prefer uncursed ones (neutral or blessed). Amongst curseable items are potions, a class of consumables that do not usually include any teas but does contain the "potion of water", which may therefore be the cause of this cursed cuppa.
Cursed items have featured in xkcd previously: [[2332: Cursed Chair]], [[2376: Curbside]], and [[:Category:Cursed Connectors]].

"Cursed items" are more vaguely defined in real life, making "cursed tea" something rare. However, it is possible for a drink to be [https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-know-if-my-drink-had-a-witchs-hex-potion hexed].
|-
| Unexpected
| By definition, Picard is asking for tea, expecting it promptly. Perhaps the request for it to be "unexpected" would cause it to be delivered at an unknown time in the future, or to have some alteration.
|-
| Bipedal
| Bipedal organisms have two feet. As tea does not walk, this would be a very strange term to use when describing tea.
|-
| Afraid
| Tea does not have feelings. Although water {{w|Water memory|may remember things}} (at least pseudo-scientifically) or [https://www.quotes.net/mquote/901305 consider some things to be unpleasant].
|-
| Infinite
| The scope of this request is unclear. It could mean endless production (a steady stream of tea, without obvious limits so long as servicing the request remains practical), an instantaneous production of an infinite volume of tea (possibly more immediately shown to be flawed in its method of execution), or tea which will exceed the heat death of the universe. Either could result in an infinitely ''dense'' tea (eventually?), but this may no longer be {{w|No-hair theorem|identifiable as tea}} so might be one of the less practical options, even amongst those on this list.
Indeed, Randall ranks it as the least 'normal', except for just ''one'' further named order.
|-
| Tea for him, too
| The comic ends its punchline by suddenly changing the syntax. Instead of adding a second adjective, Picard adds a second order of tea for an unseen guest. In ''Star Trek'', Jean-Luc Picard often offers tea to other people, so it is unclear why this would be the least normal, other than to place it at the bottom of the chart.
The change in syntax can be further combined with the title text: now this Replicator order is for "Tea" (not otherwise qualified), plus a replicated version ''of'' the Earl Grey (one or other of those {{w|Earl Grey|of that name}}, possibly the {{w|Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|2nd Earl}} for whom the tea blend was supposedly named), and a second such beverage for him to later drink. See more in the [[#Explanation|explanation]] above regarding the title text.
|-
! colspan="2" | Words Picard could have seen in the first drawing, but which were not included as labels on the line
|-
| Cold
| Like Iced tea, asking for cold tea is a relatively normal request.
|-
| Pink
| Earl grey is usually an orange-brown color, not pink. There are, however, a wide variety of [https://www.adagio.com/search/index.html?query=rose teas which come from pink leaves] or [https://www.flourandspiceblog.com/karachi-style-kashmiri-chai-pink-tea/ whose color is "pinkish"].
|}

==Transcript==
:[At the top of the panel, there is a large caption covering two lines with a sub-caption below in a normal-sized font:]
:<big>Other words Captain Picard tried at the end of his tea order before settling on "hot"</big>
:From most normal to least

:[Bellow this we see Picard, drawn bald except for a bit of hair near his ears and behind his head. He stands next to a machine, which is a standing rectangle of the same dimensions as Picard. In the front, there is an opening around the middle, a dispenser from where the ordered items can be retrieved. There is a label at the top of the machine. Picard is giving a command to the machine. His first three words are clearly spoken out as they stand, but then at the end of the sentence, instead of just adding one more word, there is a list of five words in a column between two gray lines. Five words are visible, but the top and bottom words are fading out, presumably other words are above and below, but no longer visible. All except the middle are gray. The middle word is placed as the direct follow up to the first three words in the sentence Picard speaks out, and this word is black like the previous three words. So this middle word is clearly the one he actually speaks out. The others were options, presumably on his mind.]
:Label: Replicator
:Picard:
Good.
Cold.
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
Dry.
Pink.

:[To the left of the machine, a long arrow begins snaking its way towards the bottom, where it ends in an arrow pointing down towards the bottom of the panel. At the top, there is a broad and thick bar from which it starts. Beneath this there are several ticks, the first three are close together and on a part of the arrow that goes almost straight down. But then the arrow curves in under the drawing of Picard, and goes over another drawing of him, placed in a captioned frame. The arrow goes around this and up on the other side, where it goes around another drawing of Picard in a similarly captioned frame. After having gone around this frame it goes a bit up before turning almost straight down before the final arrowhead that points down. In total there are 36 labeled ticks on the arrow, see labels below. The ticks have very varying distances between them. There are especially long between them around the first panels with Picard, but closer together at the start and towards the very end. Above the top bar from where the arrow starts there is also a label and just below this and to the left of the long arrow is a smaller arrow pointing down in the direction of the long arrow. This small arrow has a label at its starting point.]
:Bar label: Normal
:Small arrow label: Less normal

:[The second drawing of Picard, shows him standing next to the labeled machine. Picard is this time holding a cup, with sticky lines connecting his hands and the machine to the cup. He clearly looks down at the cup rather than on the machine, as the hair behind his ear is turned differently than the first drawing, where he looks straight towards the machine. Above is a label inside a frame overlaid on the top line of the panel, with what Picard ordered:]
:"Tea. Earl Grey. Sticky."
:Label: Replicator

:[The third drawing of Picard, only displays him and not the machine. He is holding a vibrating cup in both hands and has now turned the other way, away from where the machine was in the previous drawings (again clearly seen by his hair). Very large letters are displayed in three lines behind him to the exclusion of all else. Four of the 15 letters are partly hidden behind the panel's frame, and seven of them are partly covered by Picard. Above is a label inside a frame overlaid on the top line of the panel, with what Picard ordered:]
:"Tea. Earl Grey. Loud."
:Teacup: <big>'''Teeeeeeeeeeeeee'''</big>

:[Words on the arrow from start to finish:]
:Hot
:Iced
:Decaf
:Good
:Lukewarm
:Tasty
:Boiled
:Watery
:Sour
:Meaty
:Solid
:Dry
:Raw
:Deep-fried
:Sticky
:Grilled
:Fossilized
:Magnetic
:Ballistic
:Unstable
:Blessed
:Blurry
:Loud
:Virtual
:Intravenous
:Expanding
:Ironic
:Segmented
:Verbose
:Cursed
:Unexpected
:Bipedal
:Afraid
:Infinite
:Tea for him, too

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring cursed items]]

Talk:2682: Easy Or Hard

2022-10-07T14:17:58Z

172.70.210.49: https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.023131

For other people not in US: active ingredient of Tylenol is {{w|Paracetamol}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:51, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

"Now paleontologists have pinpointed during what time of year that millions of years event happened, all thanks to new fossil evidence" (from [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okOnVovooeM SciShow]) It is probably what's referenced in the "What time of year did the cretaceous impact happen?" [[User:Ppete pete|Pete Ratchatakul]] ([[User talk:Ppete pete|talk]]) 13:36, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Paper cited in the title text: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360674587_Derivation_of_a_governing_rule_in_triboelectric_charging_and_series_from_thermoelectricity
[[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 13:39, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
:AKA https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.023131 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 14:17, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Papers related to the time of the year of the impact:

"... reveal that the impact occurred during boreal Spring/Summer, shortly after the spawning season for fish and most continental taxa." - [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-03232-9 Seasonal calibration of the end-cretaceous Chicxulub impact event]

"Here, by studying fishes that died on the day the Mesozoic era ended, we demonstrate that the impact that caused the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction took place during boreal spring." - [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04446-1 The Mesozoic terminated in boreal spring]

[[User:Ppete pete|Pete Ratchatakul]] ([[User talk:Ppete pete|talk]]) 13:46, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

1643: Degrees

2022-10-05T23:43:59Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1643
| date = February 15, 2016
| title = Degrees
| image = degrees.png
| titletext = "Radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius?" "Uh, sorry, gotta go!"
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is being asked by a friend for the {{w|temperature}}. While he is checking his smartphone for the weather, he begins pondering what unit he should use when answering the question. (See below for [[#Cueball's reasoning|Cueball's reasoning]].)

In the US (where Cueball and [[Randall]] are from), the {{w|Conversion of units of temperature|temperature scale}} used in daily life is {{w|Fahrenheit}}. However, most of the rest of the world uses {{w|Celsius}} in daily life, and even in the US it is commonly used for science. This is also why Randall has previously made the comic [[526: Converting to Metric]]. There are also people who wish the US to change to the metric system, although some of them still wish to keep the Fahrenheit scale as mentioned in [[1982: Evangelism]]

:'''The Celsius scale''' is from the {{w|metric system}}. Though this system has been officially sanctioned for use in the US since 1866, it is not frequently used in daily American life (except for some things, like liter bottles of soda), although it is the preferred system for trade and commerce according to the {{w|Metric Conversion Act}} of 1975. The US remains the only industrialized country, and one of few countries period, that does not use the metric system for everyday measurements, and in which official government documents and signage do not enforce metric units. The unit ''degree Celsius'' or °C is an accepted {{w|International System of Units#Derived units|derived unit}} from the {{w|International System of Units}} (SI units) used in science (which again is the modern form of the metric system). The SI unit of temperature is the {{w|kelvin}}, but this temperature scale is linearly related to the Celsius scale, which is why Celsius can be derived from it.
:'''The Fahrenheit scale''' is from the {{w|United States customary units|US customary system}} and the (British) {{w|Imperial units|imperial system}}. The unit is ''degree Fahrenheit'' or °F, and the relation to the Celsius scale is not easy to find in a mental calculation. The relations are: [°F] = [°C]×9⁄5 + 32 or [°C] = ([°F] − 32)×5⁄9. (For this exact reason Randall has previously made a helpful table for these situations in [[526: Converting to Metric]].)

Unlike most areas of measurement, where the metric system is widely considered superior, there is considerable debate about the relative merits of Fahrenheit vs. Celsius. Cueball weighs up the benefits of both scales, but fails to find a solution he can live with, and since he feels he has to give his friend an answer now, he panics and gives the answer 0.173 {{w|radians}}.
:'''Radian''' is the standard unit of angular measure, used in many areas of mathematics. An angle's measurement in radians is numerically equal to the length of a corresponding arc of a {{w|unit circle}}. It has no units and is denoted with the superscript c, but more commonly rad, lest it be confused with {{w|Degree (angle)|angular degrees}}. One radian is an angle of approximately 57.3 degrees.
:'''Angular degrees''' is a system used to measure {{w|angles}} in {{w|geometry}}, and although it too uses the symbol ° and the word "degrees", it has nothing to do with temperature measurements of any sort. Potentially he is referring to a monitor on his phone that is giving him data on which he is deliberating.

Thus, this answer is unhelpful and the joke is that traditionally both geometric angles and temperature are measured in "degrees", but there is no connection between the two.

The title text indicates that Cueball's friend still wants to know whether the answer is in radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius, which, despite being a silly way to express temperature, would actually enable the friend to get some meaning out of the reply. But this just takes Cueball back to the problem he failed to solve in the first place of choosing one scale in preference to the other, so suddenly he announces has to go and runs off without ever clarifying what he meant. This result is probably because he is afraid of being a bad friend according to his very last point regarding Fahrenheit: ''Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend.''

The answer Cueball gives of 0.173 radians corresponds to a geometric angle 9.91° (0.173 × 360°/2π). If this were "radians Celsius" it would be 9.91 °C corresponding to 49.8 °F and if it were "radians Fahrenheit" it would be 9.91 °F corresponding to -12.3 °C. [http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/02/13/new-england-freezing-temperatures-valentines-day-weekend/ Given the temperatures] in {{w|Massachusetts}} (where Randall lives) when this comic came out, the day after Valentine's Day 2016, Cueball was probably giving his answer in radians Fahrenheit.

=== Cueball's reasoning ===
==== Degrees Celsius ====
;International standard
:Degrees Celsius is derived unit in the SI system of units used to measure temperature in most countries today. Using the SI system would allow Cueball to be easily understood in most countries and is by far the most recognized system, but it is not the most commonly used in the United States, his presumed location in the comic.
;Helps reduce America's weird isolationism
:The United States uses its own set of units, including degrees Fahrenheit, called the {{w|United States customary system}} (similar but not equal to the imperial system), in contrast to most of the rest of the world, which uses the SI system. The US's system of units is therefore considered "weird" as it makes the US different from most of the world, but previous efforts to convert the US to the SI system have failed. Cueball evidently believes that by using SI units, he will help to eventually convert the US to the SI system, bringing considerable trade and tourism benefits and reducing confusion when dealing with foreigners.
;Nice how "negative" means below freezing
:On the Celsius scale, the freezing point of water at standard atmospheric pressure (101.325 kilopascals) is very close to 0 °C, and any temperature below that is below the freezing point. The Fahrenheit scale uses different points of reference (using a water/ammonium chloride chemical reaction for the lower calibration, while the upper calibration is set such that water freezing and water boiling are 180 degrees apart), and as a result the freezing point of water is a less memorable 32 °F.
;Physics major loyalty
:Cueball is apparently a physics major, like Randall, and SI units are more commonly used for scientific work (as the kelvin scale is sometimes used in physics and other sciences), even in the US. By using the Celsius scale in casual conversation, he would show his loyalty to the system used by actual physicists.
;Easier to spell
:"Celsius" is generally considered to be an easier word to spell than the German surname "Fahrenheit" (at least this is the case for Cueball, but not necessarily for those who more commonly use Fahrenheit than Celsius). In this case the word is being spoken and the point is not immediately relevant, but part of the joke is that Cueball is overthinking things and worrying about the general use of the word when an answer is needed in this specific case.
;We lost a Mars probe over this crap
:The {{w|Mars Climate Orbiter|Mars Climate Orbiter}} disintegrated in Mars' atmosphere because Lockheed used US customary units instead of the contractually specified metric units. This had nothing to do with temperature scales, but was the use of the unit pound-seconds where newton-seconds should have been used. This was a great and tragic loss for science in general, Mars exploration in particular, and thus also for Randall who has shown deep interest in any kind of space exploration, especially regarding Mars (mentioning many Mars probes in his comics so far).

====Degrees Fahrenheit====
;0 °F to 100 °F good match for temperature range in which most humans live
:In the context of air temperature, 0 °F and 100 °F correspond to "just about as cold as it gets" and "just about as hot as it gets" in temperate zones, thereby making Fahrenheit a useful temperature scale for weather reporting where most people live. By contrast, in Celsius a range of common temperatures in temperate zones is -20 °C to 40 °C, which is a less intuitive range for those used to the Fahrenheit scale.
;Rounds more usefully (70's, 90's)
:An argument sometimes heard for the continued use of Fahrenheit temperatures is that each 10 degrees change is meaningful in how we feel the temperature. Thus, it is convenient to talk about the temperature being in the 70's today, or in the 90's, etc. Since the Celsius degrees are almost twice as large, a similar statement about the temperature being in the 20's or 30's is not as useful, unless more precision is added by using phrases like low 20's or high 30's. However, this seems likely to be more a matter of which scale you are used to using than anything inherent in one scale or the other.
;Unit-aware computing makes imperial less annoying
:If you need to constantly convert between imperial and SI measurements in your head, or even between different imperial units (e.g., ounces and pounds), it gets annoying and is a strong argument for everyone using metric measurements all the time. But when it is easy to get the temperature - or any other measurement - reported in whatever units you want just by selecting the units you want your computer to report, then the annoyance is minimized, and the arguments for why we should stop using a familiar scale are weakened. Note that Cueball is looking at his smart-phone to get the current temperature.
:As with many Americans, Randall is treating the {{w|United States customary units|United States customary system}} as identical to the {{w|imperial system}} as previously used in most of the rest of the English speaking world. They have many commonalites, and both systems have temperature measured in degrees Fahrenheit, but also differ in some ways (especially with certain units of volume).
;SI prefixes are less relevant for temperatures
:One of the nice things about SI measurements is how the same basic unit scales by factors of 10 with common prefixes - e.g., kilometer, millimeter, kilogram, milligram, etc. Imperial measurements don't have this feature - you don't talk about long distances as kiloinches or small weights as millipounds. But, we generally don't use multiple units for atmospheric temperature (millidegrees or kilodegrees), so this argument for using SI measurements for length, mass, volume, etc., isn't as applicable for temperature scales.
;Fahrenheit is likely more clear in this context
:The fact that Cueball is having this conflict at all implies that the conversation is taking place in America, presumably between Americans. Given that, and given that the discussion is about the weather, the typical assumption is that temperatures will be given in Fahrenheit, unless specified otherwise. An answer in Fahrenheit is therefore likely to be easily understood, while an answer in Celsius risks being confusing, or even incomprehensible.
;Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend
:The final thing Cueball considers is to question why he would give an answer that attaches more value to promoting standardization of units when all his friend wants to know is whether it is cold or warm outside. Wouldn't it be more friendly to just answer the question the way his friend will find most convenient? This is probably the reason he ends up not giving any real answer, as giving the answer in Celsius would make him a bad friend. Panicking and giving the answer in radians makes him a weird friend, which might or might not be preferable to being a bad friend.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking at his smartphone while a friend calls to him from off-panel. Cueball is thinking as indicated with a thought bubble.]
:Off-screen voice: Hey, what's the temperature outside?
:Cueball (thinking): Should I give it in °F or °C?

:[Zoom in on Cueballs head with a list of reason to use Celsius above him:]
:'''Degrees Celsius'''
:* International standard
:* Helps reduce America's weird isolationism
:* Nice how "negative" means below freezing
:* Physics major loyalty
:* Easier to spell
:* We lost a Mars probe over this crap

:[Same view of Cueballs head, but wider frame to accommodate a broader a list of reason to use Fahrenheit:]
:'''Degrees Fahrenheit'''
:* 0°F to 100°F good match for temperature range in which most humans live
:* Rounds more usefully (70's, 90's)
:* Unit-aware computing makes imperial less annoying
:* SI prefixes are less relevant for temperatures
:* Fahrenheit is likely more clear in this context
:* Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend

:[Cueball is holding his smartphone down while thinking as indicated with another thought bubble floating at the top. He then speaks and gets a reply from his off-panel friend.]
:Cueball (thinking): Crap, gotta pick something. Uhh...
:Cueball: ...0.173 radians.
:Off-screen voice: I'll just go check myself

==Trivia==
* At -0.698 radians (-40 degrees) it would not have mattered whether it was radians Celsius or radians Fahrenheit as the two scales are equal at this point: -40 °F is the same temperature as -40 °C.

* The Fahrenheit/Celsius debate was later referenced in [[1923: Felsius]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]
[[Category:Weather]]

Talk:2678: Wing Lift

2022-10-02T21:25:56Z

172.70.210.49: Reply

Any chance this is related to the equal-transit-time fallacy? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.57|162.158.146.57]] 16:19, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
:For more information have a look at my paper here-https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.00690 [[User:AerospaceDoctor|AerospaceDoctor]] ([[User talk:AerospaceDoctor|talk]]) 02:59, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

"The plane of the wing" - looks like Randall messed up on the title text [[User:InfoManiac|InfoManiac]] ([[User talk:InfoManiac|talk]]) 05:52, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
:Or maybe not: It's the plane of the wing of the plane! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.160|172.68.51.160]] 07:21, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
: Yeah, I also don't think that this is a mistake. The word "plane" is not used as the device that can fly but as the description for the (bottom) surface of the wing. One word for two totally unrelated things. I removed the trivia-part. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(geometry) vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 09:23, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
::"Unrelated"? How so? The wing is an aeroplane, as you describe; the vehicle fitted with said aeroplanes is now referred to by the same name. They now mean different things, but, in as much as the one created the other and they are superficially identical, there doesn't seem to be much of a case for their being "totally unrelated". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.245|172.70.90.245]] 09:48, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
If you want to know how a wing really produces lift, it's complicated, and the best reference on the net for that is [http://www.av8n.com/how/ See How It Flies]. [[User:B jonas|B jonas]] ([[User talk:B jonas|talk]]) 09:39, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
:There's also a [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/no-one-can-explain-why-planes-stay-in-the-air/ Scientific American] article from a couple of years ago that says there's no scientific concensus. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:13, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
:It's quite simple really - without wings, people wouldn't believe the plane would fly - the wings create faith, and faith lifts the plane.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.125|162.158.159.125]] 15:15, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
:It's even simpler than that. As the air goes over the curved top of the wing, it has farther to travel; this creates a pressure differential between that mass of air and the air beneath the wing. This low pressure draws the wing up, like pulling liquid up a straw. So in other words, airplanes fly because the wings suck. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 21:58, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
::You seem to be describing the "equal transit time fallacy". Air going over the top of a wing doesn't necessarily have to travel further (that depends on the shape of the airfoil), and even if it does that doesn't in itself imply anything about the pressure. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 20:11, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
::Lift is not complicate if you look at Prandtl’s original work, and Doug Mclean has done a good job editing the actual Wikipedia article. If you consider the entire atmosphere the asymmetric flow around an asymmetric body in a fluid results in an asymmetric pressure distribution, which is equal and opposite the pressure on the ground. That is, a wing produces a pressure difference that is transmitted in steady state to the earths surface which ultimately supports the aircraft as a reaction force. The asymmetry in the flow is the result of fluid mechanics and can be determined from Navier Stokes, which is Newtons laws of motion applied to a fluid, with viscosity. People get lost because they want to invoke momentum transfer, which is not needed in the global view. To see where the momentum transfer is occurring, you can only utilise think slices of the atmosphere as the control volume, hence the reason it is confusing. This is compounded by people seeing trailing vortices and stating that those must be the mechanism for the momentum transfer, and they are not. This was all established over 100 years ago. That Scientific American article is click bate, and I immediately asked the editor if I could write a response to it, and I got no reply. [[User:AerospaceDoctor|AerospaceDoctor]] ([[User talk:AerospaceDoctor|talk]]) 02:39, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

Could the spooky skulls be an inderect reference to quantum spooky action? Not sure how that would apply to lift, though.
:I assumed this was in reference to recurrent discussions of the use of 'golf ball' dimpling in anything related to aerodynamics. AFAIK this is entirely theoretical/experimental as far as use in aircraft wings, but I imagine it's something that crops up a lot in semi-informed lay conversations on the subject. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.26|172.70.86.26]] 15:31, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

This, following "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate", suggests to me that Randall is in the middle of a private pilot training course and reflecting on its lessons. BTDT. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.237|172.70.38.237]] 14:32, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

it says 3 main reasons and then lists 2?? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.20|172.69.68.20]] 15:13, 29 September 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
: If you mean 1) Bernoulli, 2) the angle, and 3) Coanda... that's definitely three. If you don't, then I'm not so sure what you're referring to. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.187|172.71.178.187]] 21:15, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

Can anyone help fix my reference. It said citation needed, so I went to the first great source, which is Prandtl. However, even though I followed the wikipedia way for making a reference, it has not produced a helpful link at the bottom. [[User:AerospaceDoctor|AerospaceDoctor]] ([[User talk:AerospaceDoctor|talk]]) 02:46, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
:I can see why this was confusing. On this site, there's an inside joke surrounding the citation needed tag, based on an older comic and on the way it's used in the What If section of xkcd. It basically means the opposite of what it means on wikipedia, and is sometimes inserted as a joke behind obvious statements or common knowledge. Your edit was fine, don't worry. No actual citation needed. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.49|172.71.102.49]] 07:26, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
::He was refering to the citation that ended up below this discussion page on the main page. In stead of in a ref section:
Tietjens, Oskar Karl Gustav; Prandtl, Ludwig (1957). Fundamentals of Hydro- and Aeromechanics. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-60374-2
::We usually do no make this kind of references, but just links to them. Also therefore I do not know how to make the ref section, and would also prefer it was just a link to something usefull. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:01, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
:::I agree there must be a much better link for this than a half century old book, but I put a <tt><references/></tt> tag before the transcript. I'm not sure if you wanted it there exactly. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 21:25, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

2679: Quantified Self

2022-10-01T05:58:26Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ reword

{{comic
| number = 2679
| date = September 30, 2022
| title = Quantified Self
| image = quantified_self_2x.png
| imagesize = 386x328px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's made me way more excited about ferris wheels, subways, car washes, waterslides, and store entrances that have double doors with a divider in the middle.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PERSON STRANGLED TO DEATH WITH IMAGINARY PATH-STRING - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] (presumably a representation of [[Randall]] in this comic) is talking about how he embraces the {{w|quantified self}}, a popular philosophy promoting monitoring yourself with devices and data in the hope to help your well-being. He claims to apply this philosophy to his life, but as is usual for Randall, he does so in his very unique and absurdly humorous way, with help from a smart watch or handheld mobile device.

Typically, fitness apps and wearable devices will track the number of steps that users take and distances walked or run. This is to encourage users to be more physically active. However, Randall has chosen to track a modified version of this metric, in which his path is post-processed by contracting it. Ordinarily, people begin and end their days in bed; in this case, it can get 'caught' where Randall has passed through topological tunnels. (See [[2658: Coffee Cup Holes]] and [[2625: Field Topology]] for details.) In the comic strip, we see that, over the course of his week, Randall has looped around his house twice (which could itself conceal any number of activities, so long as he left through his front door and returned through his back door) and crossed under two highway overpasses, a highway sign, and apparently the St. Louis {{w|Gateway Arch}} before almost returning home.

This comic appeared two days after [https://blog.google/products/search/new-ways-to-make-more-sustainable-choices/ Google's announcement that Maps Directions will be sortable by sustainability.]

The title text mentions all the things that become useful adjuncts to this way of thinking and measuring, such as passing (one way) through any tube, tunnel or frame made of solid material that could thus capture the imaginary string and help to keep its ultimate distance as lengthy as possible.

===OCD interpretation===

The quantity Randall measures can be recognized as a specific type of OCD where people feel like they have an imaginary string connecting them to where they come from.
(See for instance [https://www.reddit.com/r/OCD/comments/1ve309/invisible_thread_attached_to_my_back_am_i_the/])
As they move around, that string gets entangled and they feel the urge to untangle it. When they enter a car, they feel the need to exit the car from the same door, to avoid that the string gets trapped by forever passing through the car. When they enter a building, they feel they need to exit using the same staircases and doorway(s), to avoid entangling the string in the building. Some situations, like turning around a lamp post, are OK because you can imagine removing the loop over the top of the lamp post, such that it is not really entangled.

Randall tries a new approach to deal with this OCD by integrating it in his quantified self. He defines precisely how to measure the length of the imaginary string, reduced to its minimum, and chooses this as a quantity to monitor. Unlike most people with this OCD, who feel the urge to minimize the length, Randall takes the opposite stance and actually tries to maximize the (optimally minimal) length of the string.

This could be thought as a therapy. By defining as a target to achieve a given length every day, he creates a drive to embrace situations that entangle the string. This drive opposes the natural compulsion to avoid them and hopefully cancels it. The joke of the title text is that Randall now becomes overly interested in all the things that are disturbing for people with the OCD. The monitoring has just reversed his obsession.

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

:[A red path links two red Cueballs. It start from the left Cueball, does two loops through a small house, under a first road bridge, under a gantry sign, under a second road bridge, under the Gateway Arch, and to a second red Cueball on the right. That Cueball is looking at a smart watch or a mobile device.]

:Red Cueball's watch or mobile device: Good job! You hit your weekly goal for "total length of your path through space if you minimize its length by pulling it taut, maneuvering it around solid objects but not through them."

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I'm into the quantified self, but only for really arbitrary quantities.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2679: Quantified Self

2022-10-01T00:53:01Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ cat

{{comic
| number = 2679
| date = September 30, 2022
| title = Quantified Self
| image = quantified_self_2x.png
| imagesize = 386x328px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's made me way more excited about ferris wheels, subways, car washes, waterslides, and store entrances that have double doors with a divider in the middle.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PERSON STRANGLED TO DEATH WITH IMAGINARY PATH-STRING - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] (presumably a representation of [[Randall]] in this comic) is talking about how he embraces the {{w|quantified self}}, a popular philosophy promoting monitoring yourself with devices and data in the hope to help your well-being. He claims to apply this philosophy to his life, but as is usual for Randall, he does so in his very unique and absurdly humorous way, with help from a handheld mobile device.

Typically, fitness apps and the like will track the number of steps that users take and distances walked or run. This is to encourage users to be more physically active. However, Randall has chosen to track a modified version of this metric, in which his path is post-processed by contracting it (perhaps on a weekly or daily basis). Normally, people begin and end their days in bed, so the path would shrink away to nothing (much like [[2320: Millennium Problems|flaws in the proof of the Poincaré conjecture]]), except that it can get 'caught' where Randall has passed through topological tunnels. In the comic strip, we see that, over the course of his week, Randall has looped around his house twice (which could itself conceal any number of activities, so long as he left through his front door and returned through his back door) and crossed under two highway overpasses, a highway sign, and the St. Louis {{w|Gateway Arch}} (or a facsimile thereof) before almost returning home.

This comic appeared two days after [https://blog.google/products/search/new-ways-to-make-more-sustainable-choices/ Google's announcement that Maps Directions will be sortable by sustainability.]

The title text mentions all the things that become useful adjuncts to this way of thinking and measuring, such as passing (one way) through any tube, tunnel or frame made of solid material that could thus capture the imaginary string and help to keep its ultimate distance as lengthy as possible.

===OCD interpretation===

The quantity Randall measures can be recognized as a specific type of OCD where people feel like they have an imaginary string connecting them to where they come from.{{Actual citation needed}} As they move around, that string gets entangled and they feel the urge to untangle it. When they enter a car, they feel the need to exit the car from the same door, to avoid that the string gets trapped by forever passing through the car. When they enter a building, they feel they need to exit using the same staircases and doorway(s), to avoid entangling the string in the building. Some situations, like turning around a lamp post, are OK because you can imagine removing the loop over the top of the lamp post, such that it is not really entangled.

Randall tries a new approach to deal with this OCD by integrating it in his quantified self. He defines precisely how to measure the length of the imaginary string, reduced to its minimum, and chooses this as a quantity to monitor. Unlike most people with this OCD, who feel the urge to minimize the length, Randall takes the opposite stance and actually tries to maximize the (optimally minimal) length of the string.

This could be thought as a therapy. By defining as a target to achieve a given length every day, he creates a drive to embrace situations that entangle the string. This drive opposes the natural compulsion to avoid them and hopefully cancels it. The joke of the title text is that Randall now becomes overly interested in all the things that are disturbing for people with the OCD. The monitoring has just reversed his obsession.

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

:[A red path links two red Cueballs. It start from the left Cueball, does two loops through a small house, under a first road bridge, under a gantry sign, under a second road bridge, under the Gateway Arch, and to a second red Cueball on the right. That Cueball is looking at a smart watch on its wrist.]

:Red Cueball's watch: Good job! You hit your weekly goal for "total length of your path through space if you minimize its length by pulling it taut, maneuvering it around solid objects but not through them."

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I'm into the quantified self, but only for really arbitrary quantities.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:2676: Historical Dates

2022-09-24T12:38:09Z

172.70.210.49: Edit my comment

Source for the Excel/Lotus 123 relation with Dec 30th, 1899: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/f1eef5fe-ef5e-4ab6-9d92-0998d3fa6e14/what-is-story-behind-december-30-1899-as-base-date?forum=accessdev
[[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 08:14, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

I feel this one. My birthday happens to be within 24 hours of [[1179: ISO 8601|1970-01-01]], so I keep getting caught off guard for a moment whenever I see my birthday showing up in one of these contexts. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 08:35, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

We're going to need the date stamp format for 1890 ticker tape for this one. Anyone? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.183|172.70.214.183]] 11:59, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
:MM/DD/YY, with leading zeros omitted, and no I don't know why, but I suggest Google Books Ngrams might have a clue as to when that abomination started. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.61|172.69.22.61]] 12:03, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
::Not necessarily with pairs of the slash '/' _ . . _ . but also hyphens '-' _ . . . . _ and periods '.' . _ . _ . _ were used as delimiters in MM?DD?YY, which if I remember right dates to the 1500s when accounting ledgers were invented. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.8|172.70.207.8]] 12:10, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
:::That would be [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40697544 1299]. But I'm not sure how this is going to help us explain the comic, unless you perhaps are suggesting we enumerate date representation clusters somehow? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.61|172.69.22.61]] 12:32, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

Just putting 2009-11-10 here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/33119937 [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.161|172.69.22.161]] 12:28, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

2675: Pilot Priority List

2022-09-24T12:25:00Z

172.70.210.49: /* Table of extended priority items */ absolutely true but not explanatory

{{comic
| number = 2675
| date = September 21, 2022
| title = Pilot Priority List
| image = pilot_priority_list_2x.png
| imagesize = 369x548px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = CELEBRATE: Serve passengers tiered cakes shaped like the airspace class diagram
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by using an ELUCIDATE, EXPLICATE, ANNOTATE, DEMONSTRATE, CITATE AND ILLUSTRATE CHECKLIST. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The [https://elevate-aviation.com/blog/pilots-priority-checklist "ANC" Pilot Priority Checklist] is a list of three guidelines, sorted by priority, that pilots should follow to prevent them from being distracted. Failing to follow it might make the aircraft crash or suffer other problems. As a {{w|mnemonic}} device, all the activities end in ''-ate''.

# '''Aviate''' means keeping the aircraft in control. If the pilot fails to do this the aircraft might crash, so this should be the highest priority for the pilot.
# '''Navigate''' means knowing where you are and where you're going. Failing to follow this might make the aircraft go into restricted airspace, for example, make the journey take too long, or cause the flight to crash into terrain obscured by clouds.
# '''Communicate''' means talking with air traffic control (ATC) and your company's people through the radio. In the standard list, this is the lowest priority because talking through the radio might distract the pilot from other more important tasks.

By deferring less important activities until the prior need is deemed satisfied, the immediate dangers of flight into terrain ({{w|United Airlines Flight 173|uncontrolled}} and {{w|controlled flight into terrain}}) are reduced — as the pilot's {{w|Loss of control (aeronautics)|current circumstances}} allow — and yet can provide for addressing {{w|Separation (aeronautics)|other hazards}}.

[[Randall]] humorously "extends" this standard list with other ''-ate'' checklist items that pilots could do if they're not too busy aviating, navigating and communicating. These extra tasks range from somewhat hilarious to physically impossible or dangerous; see the [[#Table of extended priority items|table]] below for explanations. These actions {{w|Sterile flight deck rule|should generally not be taken}}, as they could distract the pilot and prevent them from reaching the cabin in case of an emergency, or vaporize everyone inside along with portions of the airframe.

[[File:Airspace classes (United States).png|thumb|Airspace classes in the United States]]

The title text adds another ''-ate'' item to the checklist: Celebrate. It refers to airspace with stricter entry requirements overhead of large airports. In the US, the {{w|Airspace_class_(United_States)|airspace class}} over airports starts with a small circle over the airport and then becomes wider in one or two steps at higher altitudes. When depicted graphically, this looks like an {{w|File:Airspace classes (United States).png|inverted tiered cake}}, as opposed to a [https://3brothersbakery.com/product/wedding-white-chandelier-tier/ regular tiered cake]. Randall suggests that after having congratulated yourself for flying an aircraft, you could then celebrate by serving the passengers cakes in this inverted shape. It would, however, be unsuitable for an aircraft to serve cakes that are smaller at the bottom than at the top because of turbulence.

{{clear}}

===Table of extended priority items===
{| class="wikitable"
! Checklist item
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| Decorate || Make the cockpit fancy || {{w|Interior design}} of aircraft cockpits is usually starkly utilitarian and could conceivably benefit from enhancements if they aren't distracting. See for example [https://futurism.com/boeings-spaceship-cockpit-looks-strikingly-different-spacexs this comparison of SpaceX and Boeing space capsule cockpits.]
|-
| Accelerate || See how fast you can go || While pilots are often keenly interested in the extents of their aircraft flight capabilities, maximum speed is inefficient in jet aircraft, and probably best explored during testing rather than passenger flights.
|-
| Roller skate || Zoom down the aisle || Passengers would probably not appreciate this,{{cn}} although fellow crew members might be amused. Or possibly ''vice versa''.
|-
| Exfoliate || Scrub away dead skin || {{w|Emery board}}s and {{w|pumice}} are used to prevent flaking and the development of {{w|callus}}es but dermatologists caution exfoliation is very often unnecessary and can have unwanted consequences.
|-
| Sublimate || Turn directly into a vapor || To the contrary, one of the most important duties of aircraft pilots is to prevent passengers and crew from vaporizing because the ANC checklist is impossible to perform in gaseous form. But it's fine for anyone to {{w|Perspiration|perspirate}} for {{w|Evaporative_cooler#Physical_principles|evaporative cooling}}.
|-
| Pollinate || Fly low to stir up pollen || Low-flying helicopters can assist in plant {{w|pollination}},[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037842901931175X] and are offered as a [http://www.flyingmair.com/ag-services/corn-pollination/ commercial service by helicopter pilots.]
|-
| Congratulate || You're doing a good job flying a plane! || Self-esteem is an important component of mental health, and affirmations can help build it.{{cn}}
|-
| Celebrate (title text) || Serve passengers tiered cakes shaped like the airspace class diagram || See discussion of the title text above.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A list with ten numbered points are shown. Above the list is a large header. Below this is a divided line with a section header written in a smaller than standard font. The three first numbered points are below this. Then follows another divided line with section header written in smaller font and below this the next seven numbered points. All ten points have two lines of text. A line with a normal sized font and below each of these a description in a smaller light gray font.]
::<big>Pilot Priority List</big>
:-----------Standard section-----------
:1. Aviate
::Maintain control of the aircraft
:2. Navigate
::Figure out where you're going
:3. Communicate
::Stay in touch with ATC and others
:-----------Extended section-----------
:4. Decorate
::Make the cockpit fancy
:5. Accelerate
::See how fast you can go
:6. Roller skate
::Zoom down the aisle
:7. Exfoliate
::Scrub away dead skin
:8. Sublimate
::Turn directly to a vapor
:9. Pollinate
::Fly low to stir up pollen
:10. Congratulate
::You're doing a good job flying a plane!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Food]]

2676: Historical Dates

2022-09-24T08:07:43Z

172.70.210.49: typo fixes

{{comic
| number = 2676
| date = September 23, 2022
| title = Historical Dates
| image = historical_dates_2x.png
| imagesize = 305x438px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Evidence suggests the 1899 transactions occurred as part of a global event centered around a deity associated with the lotus flower.
}}

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

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

Historical records show millions of business transactions occurred on Dec 30th, 1899.

This economic activity sparked the digital age, culminating in a "data festival" on Jan 1st, 1970, when many early digital files were created.

It's going to be weird when historians forget why some dates show up a lot.

{{comic discussion}}

2671: Rotation

2022-09-12T19:07:44Z

172.70.210.49: Balls

{{comic
| number = 2671
| date = September 12, 2022
| title = Rotation
| image = rotation.png
| titletext = It's okay, we can just feed the one-pixel image into an AI upscaler and recover the original image, or at least one that's just as cool.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an AI upscaler - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

A phone in portrait orientation shows an image. It is then rotated, showing the image smaller with bars in landscape view, then this repeats many times, shrinking it every time as labels tell us what sizes it reaches at certain levels.

Text:among us balls

"9 rotations: original image is smaller than a pixel."

"25 rotations: original image is smaller than an atom."

"101 rotations: original image is smaller than the Planck length, at which the concept of distance may break down."

Bottom caption: "Phone tip: don't rotate and screenshot an image too many times or it will become lost in the quantum foam of the universe."

{{comic discussion}}

2670: Interruption

2022-09-11T01:18:46Z

172.70.210.49: Extraneous

{{comic
| number = 2670
| date = September 9, 2022
| title = Interruption
| image = interruption.png
| titletext = It's been extra bad ever since my GPS got stuck on Phoebe Judge mode.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GPS VOICE SYNTHESIZER. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about listening to a {{w|podcast}} while driving with GPS navigation using {{w|speech synthesis}} for {{w|turn-by-turn navigation}} driving instructions. Car audio systems typically allow voice navigation instructions to interrupt whatever else is playing so they can be heard clearly. It's usually easy for the driver to recognise such instructions due to the sudden change in characteristics of the voice.

However, if the synthetic voice is similar to the speech that was playing then it may be hard to distinguish between the two, especially if the navigation instructions coincide logically with the interrupted speech. In cases like this, the listener might not realise that the navigation instructions have interrupted the audio playing, and think that the instruction is part of the what that they were listening to, especially if they are concentrating intently on driving instead of the audio.

The comic suggests [[Randall]] misinterpreted driving instructions as part of the story being told in a podcast because the voices sound similar. The comic illustrates the instructions as if they were part of the story from the podcast. Due to the mysterious nature of the story and character being described, they conceivably could have said the navigation instruction line as part of the podcast, leading to a humorous ambiguity between the two.

The title text suggests this confusion worsened after Randall's navigation instructions voice got stuck emulating {{w|Phoebe Judge}}, known for the {{w|Criminal (podcast)|''Criminal''}} and {{w|This Is Love (podcast)|''This Is Love''}} podcasts, implying he often listens to her.

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

[First panel, Cueball and Ponytail recording a conversational podcast at a table.]

Cueball: ...And that's when you knew she had betrayed you?"

Ponytail: Yeah, she picked up the money and walked out."

[Second panel, zoomed in on Ponytail]

Ponytail: To this day, I don't know if she planned it all.

Ponytail: But there was one moment that makes me think, maybe she did.

[Third panel, a silhouette in a doorway]

Ponytail (as voiceover) Just before she disappeared, she paused at the door, looked back at me, and said,

Silhouette (as diagetic speech): Hey - if I ever see you again,

[Fourth panel, zoomed in version of third panel]

Silhouette: Turn left at the next light

[Caption below the panels:]

It's so disorienting when a podcaster has a voice that's similar to my navigation app.

{{comic discussion}}

2670: Interruption

2022-09-11T01:12:04Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ there's nothing in the comic about the Bechtel test, which AFAIK is only intended for full length feature films

{{comic
| number = 2670
| date = September 9, 2022
| title = Interruption
| image = interruption.png
| titletext = It's been extra bad ever since my GPS got stuck on Phoebe Judge mode.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GPS VOICE SYNTHESIZER. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about listening to a {{w|podcast}} while driving with GPS navigation using {{w|speech synthesis}} for {{w|turn-by-turn navigation}} driving instructions. Car audio systems typically allow voice navigation instructions to interrupt whatever else is playing so they can be heard clearly. It's usually easy for the driver to recognise such instructions due to the sudden change in characteristics of the voice.

However, if the synthetic voice is similar to the speech that was playing then it may be hard to distinguish between the two, especially if the navigation instructions coincide logically with the interrupted speech. In cases like this, the listener may at first not realise that the navigation instructions have interrupted the audio playing, and think that the instruction is part of the what that they were listening to, especially if they are concentrating intently on driving instead of the audio.

The comic suggests [[Randall]] misinterpreted driving instructions as part of the story being told in a podcast because the voices sound similar. The comic illustrates the instructions as if they were part of the story from the podcast. Due to the mysterious nature of the story and character being described, they conceivably could have said the navigation instruction line as part of the podcast, leading to a humorous ambiguity between the two.

The title text suggests this confusion worsened after Randall's navigation instructions voice got stuck emulating {{w|Phoebe Judge}}, known for the {{w|Criminal (podcast)|''Criminal''}} and {{w|This Is Love (podcast)|''This Is Love''}} podcasts, implying he often listens to her.

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

[First panel, Cueball and Ponytail recording a conversational podcast at a table.]

Cueball: ...And that's when you knew she had betrayed you?"

Ponytail: Yeah, she picked up the money and walked out."

[Second panel, zoomed in on Ponytail]

Ponytail: To this day, I don't know if she planned it all.

Ponytail: But there was one moment that makes me think, maybe she did.

[Third panel, a silhouette in a doorway]

Ponytail (as voiceover) Just before she disappeared, she paused at the door, looked back at me, and said,

Silhouette (as diagetic speech): Hey - if I ever see you again,

[Fourth panel, zoomed in version of third panel]

Silhouette: Turn left at the next light

[Caption below the panels:]

It's so disorienting when a podcaster has a voice that's similar to my navigation app.

{{comic discussion}}

2669: Things You Should Not Do

2022-09-09T10:32:59Z

172.70.210.49: /* Table of things you should not do */ legalese

{{comic
| number = 2669
| date = September 7, 2022
| title = Things You Should Not Do
| image = things_you_should_not_do.png
| titletext = Now I'm tempted to start telling people that I secretly don't actually know how to do any physics calculations, and so all the answers in What If are based on me actually trying to do the thing and then reporting what happened, but phrased as if it's hypothetical.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SUNSCREEN BALL. Seem people forget that he learned this from writing the new book, thus no reason to assume they reference old stuff, for instance see the update to the peel the planets crust away, that clearly is a reference to a new what if in the book. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic references various questions submitted to the what if? blog, and is a promotion for [[Randall]]'s new book, ''What if? 2'' (to be released 6 days from the date of this comic publication). This comic has a list of things not to do, an extension of a previous list, and is purportedly things Randall discovered as he was doing research for his book. A visit to the [https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ What If? archive] shows the titles, publishing date, and a thumbnail for each article. Many of the acts described under the "new" section of the list are depicted in these thumbnails (see table below); others are references to examples or hypotheticals explored within the articles. Other entries do not seem to reference currently published ''What If?'' content and may therefore be found in the upcoming book, but this cannot be confirmed as of yet.

The title text says that Randall is tempted to tell people that all the things in the book were things that he actually tried to do, not that he calculated the solutions for their problems. Many of the questions and answers in his new book are impossible to attempt in real life.{{citation needed}}

===Table of things you should not do===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Number !! Entry !! Explanation
|-
! colspan="3" | From existing list
|-
|156,812
|Eat Tide Pods
|{{w|Consumption of Tide Pods|Tide Pod}}s are a brand of laundry detergent sold in small packets ("pods") of water-soluble gel. Many children have tried to eat them, thinking them to be candy, and have had to go to the hospital to treat poisoning. In 2017 and 2018, a satirical "challenge" originated around eating Tide Pods.
|-
|156,813
|Walk on stilts in a thunderstorm
|Taller objects are more likely to be struck by lightning, so walking on stilts outdoors would increase the risk of death by electrocution. It would also presumably risk falling and injuring oneself that way, since the ground becomes wet in a rainstorm.
|-
|156,814
|Set off fireworks at a gas station
|This has the risk of potentially causing an explosion in the gas station, from the sparks of the fireworks.
|-
|156,815
|Feed your cat treats that are the exact shape and texture of a human hand
|This probably runs the risk of the cat attempting to eat your hand, instead of a cat treat.
|-
! colspan="3" | New!
|-
|156,816
|Lean over a geyser vent and try to look down into it
|Geysers shoot steam and hot water upward. If a person were to lean over the geyser and look down during an eruption, they would be struck in the face by this hot liquid and gas mixture and severely injured or killed.
|-
|156,817
|Fly a hot-air balloon over a firing range
|A hot air balloon could present an irresistible target to the people firing their weapons at the range. The balloon could be shot and you could fall to your death. See image on [https://what-if.xkcd.com/81/ this entry].
|-
|156,818
|Peel away the earth's crust
|This is a reference to an entry in the new book, and an image of what it would look like is shown in [[2575: What If? 2]], where a potato peeler is used to remove the crust of the Earth. See also [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/mercator this comic]. Several *What If* blog posts also result in massive damage to the earth's crust, including what happened to Texas [https://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ here].
|-
|156,819
|Try to paint the Sahara Desert by hand
|This would be [https://what-if.xkcd.com/84/ difficult] and require more paint than humanity has ever produced[https://what-if.xkcd.com/84/].
|-
|156,820
|Remove someone's bones without asking
|Possibly a reference to ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'', in which Professor Gilderoy Lockhart removes all the bones of Harry's arm (instead of merely fixing a broken bone).
|-
|156,821
|Spend 100% of your government's budget on mobile game in-app purchases
|A reference to one of the examples listed in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/108/ this post].
|-
|156,822
|Fill a lava lamp with actual lava
|A {{w|lava lamp}} is a glass lamp, which contains a wax mixture inside, and heats so that the wax rises and falls. Putting actual lava inside a regular lava lamp would most likely cause the lamp to melt and the glass to shatter, not to mention handling lava is very dangerous.{{citation needed}} However, in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/122/ this entry], Randall says it would be fairly easy to find a material that would be able to handle the heat of the lava and thus this would be rather anticlimactic.
|-
|156,823
|Drink the blood of someone with a viral hemorraghic (''sic'') fever
|Drinking someone else's blood is a bad idea unless you are a vampire. If someone has a {{w|viral hemorrhagic fever}}, it is much worse, as they have a very serious and likely deadly disease which can be transmitted by sharing bodily fluids, such as blood. Drinking blood is the theme of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/98/ this article].
|-
|156,824
|Eat meat from rabid animals
|Eating meat from rabid animals could give you {{w|rabies}}, a virus which is nearly always fatal if not treated prior to the appearance of initial symptoms. Pathogen contamination in cooked foods can persist on the surface of ''e.g.'' tongs, chopsticks, or a fork used to grill, which is why the USDA doesn't allow any kitchen utensils to touch raw or ready to eat foods at all. Exceptions for utensils which touch only raw or partially cooked foods can be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. The rabies virus permeates essentially all nerve tissue before symptoms appear.
|-
|156,825
|Perform your own laser eye surgery
|Refer to the end of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/82/ this article]
|-
|156,826
|Tell California poultry regulators that your farm is selling Pokemon eggs
|While issuing false statements to government regulators is a violation of Federal law, for which prison sentences can reach ten years and fines can reach ten thousand dollars plus any compensatory damages, as per [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001 18 U.S. Code § 1001], there is some question{{cn}} about whether any competent regulatory authority would ever take such an assertion seriously, and whether they would be liable for greater damages for doing so than the potential liability of the original culprit involved.
|-
|156,827
|Funnel the entire flow of Niagara Falls into the open window of a physics lab
|Likely an oblique reference to the image near the end of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/147/ this article].
|-
|156,828
|Pump ammonia into your abdomen
|{{w|Ammonia}} is an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPA_list_of_extremely_hazardous_substances extremely hazardous substance] and pumping it into your abdomen would result in a painful death.
|-
|156,829
|Suspend yourself inside a 10-meter ball of sunscreen and fall into the Sun
|Despite its name, sunscreen only protects against some types of radiation from the sun. No amount is going to be adequate protection if you are right inside the sun. Also, sunscreen, being a gel, would evaporate when exposed to vacuum. When exposed to the plasma of the coronal surface or the Sun's interior, it would quickly ionize along with anything inside it, becoming plasma like the rest of the Sun.
|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption:]
:Updates to my "Things You Should Not Do" list, based on what I learned writing ''What If? 2''
:(out 9/13, xkcd.com/whatif2)

:[The rest of the text appears in a box.]

:<big>Things You Should Not Do</big> 
:(part 3647 of ????)

:[A numbered list, the first four items in a lighter grey]

:<nowiki>#156,812 Eat Tide pods</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,813 Walk on stilts in a thunderstorm</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,814 Set off fireworks at a gas station</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,815 Feed your cat treats that are the exact shape and texture of a human hand</nowiki>

:[A horizontal divider with the text "''New!''" in the middle in black. The remaining items on the list are also in black.]

:<nowiki>#156,816 Lean over a geyser vent and try to look down into it</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,817 Fly a hot air balloon over a firing range</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,818 Peel away the Earth's crust</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,819 Try to paint the Sahara Desert by hand</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,820 Remove someone's bones without asking</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,821 Spend 100% of your governments budget on mobile game in-app purchases</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,822 Fill a lava lamp with actual lava</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,823 Drink the blood of someone with a viral hemorraghic fever</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,824 Eat meat from rabid animals</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,825 Perform your own laser eye surgery</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,826 Tell California poultry regulators that your farm is selling Pokemon eggs</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,827 Funnel the entire flow of Niagara Falls into the open window of a physics lab</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,828 Pump ammonia into your abdomen</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,829 Suspend yourself inside a 10-meter ball of sunscreen and fall into the sun</nowiki>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Cats]]

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T20:39:46Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ cat

{{comic
| number = 2668
| date = September 5, 2022
| title = Artemis Quote
| image = artemis_quote.png
| titletext = Another option: "It is an honor to be the first human to set foot on the moon."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|created by a COLLABORATIVE EFFORT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|Artemis program}} is a series of planned space missions that will land people on the Moon and begin to set up infrastructure for a permanent crewed presence. People first landed on the Moon in 1969 as part of the {{w|Apollo program}}. They have not been back since 1972.

When {{w|Neil Armstrong}} became the first person to walk on the Moon, he famously said, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." However, he was intending to say, "That's one small step for '''''a''''' man; one giant leap for mankind [emphasis added]." [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Frase_de_Neil_Armstrong.ogg The audio recording] omits the word "a", making the sentence confusing, as "man" and "mankind" have the same meaning when referring to all people. That it was apparently elided by Armstrong in the excitement, changing the meaning of the historical phrase, is controversial and thus humorous. Subsequently, Armstrong and others have blamed insufficiently tuned {{w|voice activity detection}} hardware circuitry intended to save power in radio voice transmission, but NASA engineers, third-party historians and their hired experts have never been able to corroborate that explanation.[https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/a11.step.html][http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003645.html] Armstrong later said he hoped, "history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it was not said," and, on p.126 of the June 1982 edition of ''Omni,'' "the 'a' is implied, so I'm happy if they just put it in parentheses."

[[Randall]] suggests that the first Artemis astronaut to set foot on the Moon has a duty to utter an even more confusing quote, saying the sentence, "This is one of my favorite historical quotes — the first words spoken by an Artemis astronaut on the moon," aloud as they step onto the Moon. That would be confusingly self-referential, as if they were alluding to something from the past. This is very unlikely, and funny merely as a recommendation. If it actually happened, it might be both hilarious and scandalous.

The title text suggests an alternate phrase by which the Artemis astronaut could say being the first (rather than 13th) human on the Moon is a great honor. People hearing this quote in the future could assume that Artemis was the first crewed mission to the Moon. It could feed into contemporary conspiracy theories that the Apollo landings were faked, furthering the confusion. Alternatively it could also imply all previous astronauts who set foot on the moon weren't human, or simply state a truth which has no connection with the Artemis mission.

This comic coincides with the canceled launch of {{w|Artemis 1}}, an uncrewed test mission which will serve as the start of the Artemis program. The mission was intended to launch on 29 August 2022, and later on 3 September 2022, but was repeatedly postponed due to a series of technical problems and will now take place no earlier than late September 2022. The decision to return the whole {{w|Space Launch System|SLS stack}} to the {{w|Vehicle Assembly Building|VAB}}, rather than attempt adjustments upon the pad, was probably made even as Randall was getting ready to 'launch' this particular comic, but the typically two-hour launch window had already closed; the soonest following useful launch slot then becoming the 19th of September, if no further delays occur.

=== Esoterica ===
* The {{w|schwa}} indefinite article "a" is optional in certain contexts of most dialects of American English.[https://linguapress.com/grammar/article-in-english.htm]
* While the comic's lunar lander has similarities to the {{w|Starship HLS|current plans}} for the Artemis lander,[https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/as-artemis-moves-forward-nasa-picks-spacex-to-land-next-americans-on-moon] it is a generic drawing, perhaps in homage to classic space science fiction, with the exit portal at an unlikely position near the base of the {{w|SpaceX Starship}} lander.[https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-moon-elevator-nasa-prototype/]
** The 'ladder' could be very basic steps, from their practical width and if the onward-facing lunarnaut figure has indeed walked forward to make their 'first step' — not waited to speak until they had alighted and then pivoted around. Even the high-res version of the comic does not clarify fully enough, but the scenario needs to distinguish a possible "one small step" from some "We came to the Moon..." final-footprints situation. Probably another reason that the more currently canonical elevator/winch setup was not drawn instead.

* In [[893: 65 Years]], Randall made a graph showing the number of living people who had been on the moon, and estimated the day when zero would be alive. (Very depressing). At that time 9 of the 12 were still alive. Upon this comic's release, only four are still among the living. But, with the Artemis project, it may not reach zero as soon. It would be interesting if Randall would make an update of the comic after the first successful mission, to show that the graph is unlikely to reach zero any time soon, if they make it before the last four (rather old) men themselves depart.

==Transcript==
:[A vertical rocket is standing on four deployed legs on the surface of the Moon. The surface is depicted with characteristic craters and rocks with a slightly curved horizon. The rocket is standing in the left part of the panel. A short ladder leads down from a hatch in the lower part of the rocket body. An astronaut has stepped down from a ladder onto the Moon's surface, and is speaking:]

:Astronaut: This is one of my favorite historical quotes — the first words spoken by an Artemis astronaut on the Moon.

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:Neil Armstrong's "man"/"a man" quote created a lot of historical confusion, and I think it's our duty to expand on that legacy with Artemis.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T20:39:31Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ cats

893: 65 Years

2022-09-06T20:36:54Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ update

{{comic
| number = 893
| date = May 2, 2011
| title = 65 Years
| image = 65 years.png
| titletext = The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is showing the number of still living humans who have walked on another world for the 65-year period that begins in 1969 (when a human first walked on the moon). Up to 2011 (when the comic was drawn), he has drawn a single line for the actual figures.

For the subsequent years, he has drawn three lines using {{w|actuarial table}}s or life tables (such tables show, for each age, the probability that a certain person will die within the next year).

The line marked "5th Percentile" indicates that there is a 95% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 5% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 5% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2023, and a 95% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

The line marked "95th Percentile" indicates that there is a 5% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 95% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 95% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2035, and a 5% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

The middle line is not identified, but is probably the "50th Percentile" (see [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ these tables]). If so, it indicates that there is a 50% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 50% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 50% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2028 (see previous link), and a 50% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

Although the term ''other world'' would include all other worlds on which humans have walked, there is currently only one other world on which humans have walked, which is the moon. The humans that have walked there are the 12 {{w|List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon|Apollo astronauts}} who landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.

In particular, {{w|Neil Armstrong}} and {{w|Buzz Aldrin}} landed in July 1969. {{w|Pete Conrad}} and {{w|Alan Bean}} landed in November. {{w|Alan Shepard}} and {{w|Edgar Mitchell}}: February 1971. {{w|David Scott}} and {{w|James Irwin}}: July 1971. {{w|John Young (astronaut)|John Young}} and {{w|Charles Duke}}: April 1972. {{w|Eugene Cernan}} and {{w|Harrison Schmitt}}: December 1972.

Irwin died in 1991. Shepard and Conrad died in 1998 and 1999 respectively, making the total 9 as of the date this comic was published. Since then Armstrong died in 2012, Mitchell in 2016, Cernan in 2017, Young on January 6, 2018, and Bean on May 26, 2018. The current (as of September 2022) number is 4, which lies close to the middle line (the supposed 50th Percentile). The oldest living person to have landed on the moon is Aldrin at 91. Also living are Scott at 88, Schmitt at 85, and Duke at 85.

The chart assumes that no other humans will go to walk on another world within the time-frame plotted and the title text implies that this is primarily an economically determined decision. While noting that not exploring space is a justifiable and sensible decision which may also be made by many hypothetical cultures on other worlds, the text implies a grandness to a civilization that would be given the opportunity to discover, study and memorialize the 'one-world graves' of other civilizations by choosing to explore space despite the economic difficulty. This also implies that the likely consequence of not exploring space is that a civilisation which chooses to do this is doomed to go extinct eventually while those which do explore and colonise may last long enough to be safely established on multiple worlds and discover the remains of civilisations which acted on a purely economic basis and hence ensured their own collapse. High five for exoplanet archaeology.

==Transcript==
:[A graph titled 'Number of Living Humans Who Have Walked on Another World' - its y-axis is numbered 5, 10, 15, its x-axis increments every ten years from 1960-2040. The line of the graph has a bracket above it that says '65 Years', starting at 1969, ending in 2034.
:The line starts at 1969 and increases steeply to 12 by 1972. It then plateaus until the early nineties, declines gradually to 9 between 1991-1999, and then plateaus again.
:From 2011-2035, which is labeled 'Projected Actuarial Tables', the line branches into three and begins to decline more steeply to zero. The area between the first and second branch is shaded and labeled '5th percentile' and the area between the second and third branch is shaded and labeled '95th percentile.']

==Trivia==
*The theme of actuarial projections was explored earlier in [[493: Actuarial]]; Randall's morbid python script for both was given in [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ the blag].
{| class="wikitable"
|+Table of men who walked the moon
|- style="background:#ccc;"
| style="width:20px;"|
| '''Name'''
| '''Born'''
| '''Died'''
| '''Age at first step'''
| '''Mission'''
| '''Lunar dates'''
| '''Service'''
| '''Alma Mater'''
|- style="background:#def;"
| 1. || {{w|Neil Armstrong}}|| 1930-08-05 || 2012-08-25 || 38y 11m 15d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 11}} ||rowspan="2"| July 21, 1969 || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|University of Southern California}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 2. || {{w|Buzz Aldrin}}|| 1930-01-20 || || 39y 6m 0d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 3. || {{w|Pete Conrad}} || 1930-06-02 || 1999-07-08 || 39y 5m 17d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 12}} ||rowspan="2"| November 19–20, 1969 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Princeton University}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 4. || {{w|Alan Bean}}|| 1932-03-15 || 2018-05-26 || 37y 8m 4d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|University of Texas, Austin}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 5. || {{w|Alan Shepard}} || 1923-11-18 || 1998-07-21 || 47y 2m 18d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 14}} ||rowspan="2"| February 5–6, 1971 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 6. || {{w|Edgar Mitchell}}|| 1930-09-07 || 2016-02-04 || 40y 4m 19d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Carnegie Mellon University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 7. || {{w|David Scott}} || 1932-06-06 || || 39y 1m 25d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 15}} ||rowspan="2"| July 31 - August 2, 1971 || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|University of Michigan}} (freshman year, and later, an honorary doctorate), {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 8. || {{w|James Irwin}} || 1930-03-17 || 1991-08-08 || 41y 4m 14d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|University of Michigan}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 9. || {{w|John Young (astronaut)|John W. Young}}|| 1930-09-24 || 2018-01-06 || 41y 6m 28d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 16}} ||rowspan="2"| April 21–23, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Georgia Institute of Technology}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 10. || {{w|Charles Duke}} || 1935-10-03 || || 36y 6m 18d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 11. || {{w|Eugene Cernan}} || 1934-03-14 || 2017-01-16 || 38y 9m 7d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 17}} ||rowspan="2"| December 11–14, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 12. || {{w|Harrison Schmitt}} || 1935-07-03 || || 37y 5m 8d || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Caltech}}, {{w|University of Oslo}} (exchange), {{w|Harvard University}}
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

893: 65 Years

2022-09-06T20:35:36Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ ce

{{comic
| number = 893
| date = May 2, 2011
| title = 65 Years
| image = 65 years.png
| titletext = The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is showing the number of still living humans who have walked on another world for the 65-year period that begins in 1969 (when a human first walked on the moon). Up to 2011 (when the comic was drawn), he has drawn a single line for the actual figures.

For the subsequent years, he has drawn three lines using {{w|actuarial table}}s or life tables (such tables show, for each age, the probability that a certain person will die within the next year).

The line marked "5th Percentile" indicates that there is a 95% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 5% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 5% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2023, and a 95% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

The line marked "95th Percentile" indicates that there is a 5% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 95% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 95% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2035, and a 5% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

The middle line is not identified, but is probably the "50th Percentile" (see [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ these tables]). If so, it indicates that there is a 50% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 50% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 50% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2028 (see previous link), and a 50% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

Although the term ''other world'' would include all other worlds on which humans have walked, there is currently only one other world on which humans have walked, which is the moon. The humans that have walked there are the 12 {{w|List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon|Apollo astronauts}} who landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.

In particular, {{w|Neil Armstrong}} and {{w|Buzz Aldrin}} landed in July 1969. {{w|Pete Conrad}} and {{w|Alan Bean}} landed in November. {{w|Alan Shepard}} and {{w|Edgar Mitchell}}: February 1971. {{w|David Scott}} and {{w|James Irwin}}: July 1971. {{w|John Young (astronaut)|John Young}} and {{w|Charles Duke}}: April 1972. {{w|Eugene Cernan}} and {{w|Harrison Schmitt}}: December 1972.

Irwin died in 1991. Shepard and Conrad died in 1998 and 1999 respectively, making the total 9 as of the date this comic was published. Since then Armstrong died in 2012, Mitchell in 2016, Cernan in 2017, Young on January 6, 2018, and Bean on May 26, 2018. The current (April 2021) number is 4, which lies close to the middle line (the supposed 50TH PERCENTILE). The oldest living person to have landed on the moon is Aldrin at 91. Also living are Scott at 88, Schmitt at 85, and Duke at 85.

The chart assumes that no other humans will go to walk on another world within the time-frame plotted and the title text implies that this is primarily an economically determined decision. While noting that not exploring space is a justifiable and sensible decision which may also be made by many hypothetical cultures on other worlds, the text implies a grandness to a civilization that would be given the opportunity to discover, study and memorialize the 'one-world graves' of other civilizations by choosing to explore space despite the economic difficulty. This also implies that the likely consequence of not exploring space is that a civilisation which chooses to do this is doomed to go extinct eventually while those which do explore and colonise may last long enough to be safely established on multiple worlds and discover the remains of civilisations which acted on a purely economic basis and hence ensured their own collapse. High five for exoplanet archaeology.

==Transcript==
:[A graph titled 'Number of Living Humans Who Have Walked on Another World' - its y-axis is numbered 5, 10, 15, its x-axis increments every ten years from 1960-2040. The line of the graph has a bracket above it that says '65 Years', starting at 1969, ending in 2034.
:The line starts at 1969 and increases steeply to 12 by 1972. It then plateaus until the early nineties, declines gradually to 9 between 1991-1999, and then plateaus again.
:From 2011-2035, which is labeled 'Projected Actuarial Tables', the line branches into three and begins to decline more steeply to zero. The area between the first and second branch is shaded and labeled '5th percentile' and the area between the second and third branch is shaded and labeled '95th percentile.']

==Trivia==
*The theme of actuarial projections was explored earlier in [[493: Actuarial]]; Randall's morbid python script for both was given in [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ the blag].
{| class="wikitable"
|+Table of men who walked the moon
|- style="background:#ccc;"
| style="width:20px;"|
| '''Name'''
| '''Born'''
| '''Died'''
| '''Age at first step'''
| '''Mission'''
| '''Lunar dates'''
| '''Service'''
| '''Alma Mater'''
|- style="background:#def;"
| 1. || {{w|Neil Armstrong}}|| 1930-08-05 || 2012-08-25 || 38y 11m 15d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 11}} ||rowspan="2"| July 21, 1969 || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|University of Southern California}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 2. || {{w|Buzz Aldrin}}|| 1930-01-20 || || 39y 6m 0d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 3. || {{w|Pete Conrad}} || 1930-06-02 || 1999-07-08 || 39y 5m 17d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 12}} ||rowspan="2"| November 19–20, 1969 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Princeton University}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 4. || {{w|Alan Bean}}|| 1932-03-15 || 2018-05-26 || 37y 8m 4d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|University of Texas, Austin}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 5. || {{w|Alan Shepard}} || 1923-11-18 || 1998-07-21 || 47y 2m 18d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 14}} ||rowspan="2"| February 5–6, 1971 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 6. || {{w|Edgar Mitchell}}|| 1930-09-07 || 2016-02-04 || 40y 4m 19d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Carnegie Mellon University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 7. || {{w|David Scott}} || 1932-06-06 || || 39y 1m 25d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 15}} ||rowspan="2"| July 31 - August 2, 1971 || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|University of Michigan}} (freshman year, and later, an honorary doctorate), {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 8. || {{w|James Irwin}} || 1930-03-17 || 1991-08-08 || 41y 4m 14d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|University of Michigan}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 9. || {{w|John Young (astronaut)|John W. Young}}|| 1930-09-24 || 2018-01-06 || 41y 6m 28d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 16}} ||rowspan="2"| April 21–23, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Georgia Institute of Technology}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 10. || {{w|Charles Duke}} || 1935-10-03 || || 36y 6m 18d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 11. || {{w|Eugene Cernan}} || 1934-03-14 || 2017-01-16 || 38y 9m 7d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 17}} ||rowspan="2"| December 11–14, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 12. || {{w|Harrison Schmitt}} || 1935-07-03 || || 37y 5m 8d || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Caltech}}, {{w|University of Oslo}} (exchange), {{w|Harvard University}}
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T20:34:06Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ relevant to main comic

Talk:2666: Universe Price Tiers

2022-09-06T06:18:16Z

172.70.210.49:

We seem to be in Universe Standard, based on the cosmic speed limit
[[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 22:03, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Is the price per user (human)? Or payed by the "god" who runs the universe?
The interpretation would change quite a bit. If per user, some could travel fast while others would not see ads and could even be immortal.
If per universe, would the concept of ads disappear?
[[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 22:25, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
::The tree sound can't be a particular human's experience, and the speed limit seems intended to be per universe.

General comment, I think each line of the table should have a separate one-line or one-paragraph explanation, rather than squishing it into one column of a table which mostly reproduces the comic text. i.e. we don't need the table in the explanation, although it works fine in the transcript imo. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.71|172.69.62.71]] 23:40, 31 August 2022 (UTC)edit: a word

"Yes, and he cheats" may be a reference to a quote from ''Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri''.
::I fully expected something like ''"Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out 'til too late that he's been playing with two queens all along."'' (from ''Interesting Times'' by Terry Pratchett) [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 01:47, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
::The SMAC quote is "Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded. - Chairman Sheng-ji Yang", from the Probability Mechanics tech. Also, the "God does not play dice" quote is stated during the Supercollider secret project movie. I doubt the comic is referencing any particular media here, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.5|172.69.22.5]] 02:40, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
::Meanwhile, Stephen Hawking said "Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen." -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 16:01, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

Under ''Number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin'', '64' is 2⁵ and may be making reference to the Nintendo 64 game system. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 01:54, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
::And just for the record, 4096 is 2¹². [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]])
:::64 = 26 != 25 = 32. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.17|172.68.50.17]] 19:43, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
:: Note that the philosophical question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin turns to have much more useful meaning if we realize that the question wasn't if 64 or 4096, but if it's a finite or infinite number, that is, if angels are subject to {{w|Pauli's exclusion principle}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 15:59, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
::: I think the answer is [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8071704/characters/nm0000531 to be found elsewhere]. And it is a different power of 2! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 17:26, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
:::: Damn, now I want to see that scene again to see what the hell the gavotte is, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 15:50, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
::::: Here is an [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQtUr7-wMYw extended version] (with uploader's additional soundtrack?), but it seems like the most demonstrative publically available clip at first glance. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.211|172.69.79.211]] 18:38, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
:No. You can't use the 64 to try to inject a reference, 64 is too important and common a number, Nintendo and Randall simply got the number from the same place, being 2^6 (it's 6, not 5, 5 is 32. One to six is 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64). You need SOMETHING else to wonder if there's a question/reference. Like if the N64 had some game where angels dance on the head of a pin (or at least dancing angels). In which case it'd be a reference to that game. In the same way you could claim it's a reference to 64-bit versions of Windows, or about how iOS switched to requiring 64-bit apps and dropped support for 32-bit apps a couple of years ago, both of which are more recent and thus could be considered more likely. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 15:41, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
:Not only are the numbers all powers of 2, they're all perfect squares as well. This might imply 2x2, 8x8, and 32x32 "resolution" on the universe, as in "how many pixels can dance on the head of a pin?" --[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 19:19, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Who is paying our subscription? How do we ensure we don't get demoted to lite?

Here, the sound of one hand clapping is pretty much "toop." Put your hand out flat fingers together, and no thumb involved, quickly make a fist. Toop. Edit I'm not making a fist. Im keeping the last joints straight and smacking my hand[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.95|172.70.134.95]] 15:59, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
:But two hands each doing that (or slapping another bit of body) aren't "two hands clapping", but more like two hands ''clasping''/something-or-other-like-that.
:If you could bring your one hand to a sudden stop in mid-air ''as if'' hitting another hand, it might be closer, but there's no sudden stop possible like a contact-stop. Plus a full-fledged clap for maximum ovational volume involves cupped hands trapping a resonant volume of air between them, almost sealed (wet hands so positioned can be used to force a squeaky-fart sound out from between them), and neither an "air clap" or the toop-clasp can do anything so dramatic with a solo hand. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.154|141.101.99.154]] 17:54, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
: the sound can be more clap like if you bend your hand upwards and keep it like that. Then loosen your fingers, and smash your upward lower arm to the front and back. My one armed brother taught me. It's handy (hehe) if one hand is holding a drink. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.204|172.68.51.204]] 07:36, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

I have a problem with the "Bad things..." portion. ''If'' I was a bad person, then I would never pay for the universe, as I would be better off in the free version, where nothing bad would ever happen to me. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:17, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

The "bad things" section is a bit bothersome: good things don't exist without bad things. Without bad things, good things are just...things. So maybe awareness of bad things is still extant in UniPro? That way, good things would still be at the upper end of a theoretical scale.

But the subjectivity of badness is concerning in a bad-things-don't-happen realm. I reckon plenty of people who could spring for fifty bucks a month would list rum, Katharine Hepburn movies, gay people and Jews as bad things that therefore won't happen. If I stump up my Pro subscription, do I have to share the universe with these douchebags, or do we each get our own? And if it's the latter, how much of a douche must you be to be excluded from my universe? Can we differ a little and still coexist, or do we have to gel perfectly? And how would that ever happen...and would it be tolerable to live surrounded by my opinion-clones? Is this...is this the too-perfect Matrix v.1.0? Am I buying a ticket to a simulated utopia while my body atrophies?
You monster! Guards! Guards! Let me out.....

[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.35|172.71.178.35]] 23:09, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
Note that Universe Lite is marked as trademark, Universe Standard as a registered trademark, and Universe Pro as...BOTH. This is a joke; more is better, esp. in lists of features. But there's no point in claiming a mark is both a trademark and a registered trademark.

How to clap with one hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwoq3QBaQAY [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:38, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

If a tree falls in a forest and there's no one there to hear it, then there is NO SOUND. The act of the tree falling will create vibrations in the air, but those vibrations only become 'sound' when they impact on a tympanic membrane (such as an eardrum) that is connected to a brain. Sound happens in your head, folks. Of course, in practice, the likelihood of a tree falling in an area that contains NO tympanic membranes at all is impossible given the abundance of miniature scaled life on Earth. That said, we have no idea whether insects actually perceive those air vibrations as 'sound' in the same way that humans do - the fairy fly, for example, is so small that it can 'swim' through air rather than flying, so probably perceives sound waves the same way that humans experience ocean waves.
[[User:MarquisOfCarrabass|MarquisOfCarrabass]] ([[User talk:MarquisOfCarrabass|talk]]) 05:50, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
: <-----Pish-Posh. Sound happens regardless of aby tympanic membranes. Sound: noun 1. vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear. The definition is CAN be heard, not ARE heard. Sound vibrations cause MANY things to happen besides vibrating tympanic membranes, and it's STILL SOUND.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.60|172.70.100.60]] 11:47, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
::These two viewpoints are ''exactly'' why this is a point of philosophical discussion instead of a solved problem. [[User:Noëlle|Noëlle]] ([[User talk:Noëlle|talk]]) 20:36, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
:::Yes, it comes down to how one defines "sound". Is it a set of air vibrations with a certain set of characteristics, or is it someone's ''perception'' of such a set of vibrations? The question about the tree falling is indeterminate as stated because of the lack of that definition. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 21:40, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

We should do a comparison of universe standard vs our universe see if that's what we're doing [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 08:13, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
:...hang on, I already downloaded a crack to repatch the executables to get around the pesky copy protection/licence-key manager. The patcher utility says it might take some time, and I've had to give it superuser access to the entire system for some reason, so it might be a good idea to save your current session and let it do its job before messing about in the menus or we might find unexpected results! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.5|172.70.85.5]] 11:01, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
:I looked in the leaked payment notes, and found that biblicalGod31, the current payer, refused to pay 2 geomagnetic reversals ago, so our subscription got demoted to standard. Looking in the End God License Agreement, it seems that next geomagnetic reversal we will be demoted to lite. (Sorry if I didn't do humor well). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.11|172.70.126.11]] 13:38, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
::I definitely want to see this movie/read this book now. Our heroes discover that the universe is in fact a simulation. Not a malevolent one like The Matrix, but a for-fun one like implied by this comic. The heroes come to realize that the entity playing the simulation is about to screw it up somehow (possibly by not paying the subscription fee), and they have to figure out how to break out of the simulation and convince the apathetic entity to care about the inhabitants of the universe and save it from annihilation or demotion to the free tier. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.65|172.70.178.65]] 15:01, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
:::Meanwhile, the apathetic entity realizes that his universe is a simulation, so he has to figure out how to break out ... Hey, how many levels up does this go? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 06:18, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Except for the Cosmic Speed Limit - which I didn't know what speed this meant until the explanation - I found it quite clear THIS is UniverseLite! We ARE using it free. Bad things DO only seem to happen to good people. God DOES seem to play dice and cheat. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:54, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

I seem to remember a recent Jeopardy episode referenced a question similar to "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" (I think "What are angels?" was the correct answer but no one got it.) Could there be a connection between that and the mention of that question in this comic? [[User:Brian-K-1016|Brian-K-1016]] ([[User talk:Brian-K-1016|talk]]) 05:53, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

In the Universe Pro Edition, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freewill_(song) Freewill] comes with a signed 8x10 photo of your choice of Geddy, Alex, or Neil.

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T03:56:40Z

172.70.210.49: Prototype source

{{comic
| number = 2668
| date = September 5, 2022
| title = Artemis Quote
| image = artemis_quote.png
| titletext = Another option: "It is an honor to be the first human to set foot on the moon."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|created by a COLLABORATIVE EFFORT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|Artemis program}} is a series of planned space missions that will land people on the Moon and begin to set up infrastructure for a permanent crewed presence. People first landed on the Moon in 1969 as part of the {{w|Apollo program}}. They have not been back since 1972.

When {{w|Neil Armstrong}} became the first person to walk on the Moon, he famously said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." However, he was intending to say, "That's one small step for '''''a''''' man, [but] one giant leap for mankind [emphasis added]." [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Frase_de_Neil_Armstrong.ogg The audio recording] omits the word "a", making the sentence confusing, as "man" and "mankind" have the same meaning when referring to all people. The {{w|schwa}} indefinite article "a" is optional in certain contexts of most dialects of American English.[https://linguapress.com/grammar/article-in-english.htm] That it was apparently elided by Armstrong in the excitement, changing the meaning of the historical phrase, is controversial and thus humorous. Subsequently, Armstrong and others have blamed insufficiently tuned {{w|voice activity detection}} hardware circuitry intended to save power in radio voice transmission, but NASA engineers, third-party historians and their hired experts have never been able to corroborate that explanation.[https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/a11.step.html][http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003645.html] Armstrong later said he, "would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it was not said," and, on p.126 of the June 1982 edition of ''Omni,'' "the 'a' is implied, so I'm happy if they just put it in parentheses."

[[Randall]] suggests that the first Artemis astronaut to set foot on the Moon has a duty to utter an even more confusing quote, saying the sentence, "This is one of my favorite historical quotes — the first words spoken by an Artemis astronaut on the moon," aloud as they step onto the Moon. When quoted by later historians, that would be confusingly self-referential, as if they were alluding to something from the past. This is very unlikely, and funny merely as a recommendation. If it actually happened, it might be both hilarious and scandalous. While the comic's spacecraft has similarities to the {{w|Starship HLS|current plans}} for the Artemis lander,[https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/as-artemis-moves-forward-nasa-picks-spacex-to-land-next-americans-on-moon] it's a generic drawing, perhaps in homage to classic space science fiction, with the exit portal at an unlikely position near the base of the {{w|SpaceX Starship}} lander.[https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-moon-elevator-nasa-prototype/]

The title text suggests an alternate phrase by which the Artemis astronaut would say being the first (rather than 13th) person on the Moon is a great honor. People hearing this quote in the future could assume that Artemis was the first crewed mission to the Moon. It could feed into contemporary conspiracy theories that the Apollo landings were faked, furthering the confusion.

This comic coincides with the canceled launch of {{w|Artemis 1}}, an uncrewed test mission which will serve as the start of the Artemis program. The mission was intended to launch on 29 August 2022, and later on 3 September 2022, but was repeatedly postponed due to a series of technical problems and will now take place no earlier than late September 2022.

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

:[The surface of the Moon, with typical craters and rocks across a landscape with a subtle but visibly curved horizon. In the foreground, a vertical rocket standing on four deployed legs. A short ladder, or set of steps, leads down from a hatch in the lower part of the rocket body. The figure of an astronaut is shown having just now stepped forward onto the Moon's surface.]
:Astronaut: This is one of my favorite historical quotes — the first words spoken by an Artemis astronaut on the Moon.

:Caption: Neil Armstrong's "man"/"a man" quote created a lot of historical confusion, and I think it's our duty to expand on that legacy with Artemis.

{{comic discussion}}

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T02:43:09Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ less repetitive

Talk:2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T02:34:11Z

172.70.210.49: Reply

The first quote is self-referential (and confuses people, when quoted). The second plays unto the myth that the moon landing was staged. It is nice to be able to choose words, which are cited. A great opportunity to confuse people. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.143|172.68.110.143]] 21:09, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

To those of you wondering [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2668:_Artemis_Quote&diff=294177&oldid=294176 why, "<tt>mankind" ,[emphasis</tt>," currently appears in the wikitext,] I would direct you to [[explain xkcd talk:Editor FAQ#Punctuation inside quotes and parentheses]]. I am discouraged by such pettiness. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.59|172.70.214.59]] 21:26, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:Waitwhat? ...Quote-Space-Comma-OpenBracket..? Good job it isn't like that now, or I'd be rewriting it. (Probably put the <tt>[emphasis added]</tt> within the quotes, for starters, before worrying about the other punctuation.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 23:02, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Perhaps the first Artemis astronaut to set foot on the moon will prefer to come with her own idea of what to say. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.75|172.71.142.75]] 21:55, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:I'm hoping for interpretive dance. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.59|172.70.214.59]] 22:31, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

The quote in the title text is factually true, adding to the confusion it would cause, as it does not actually claim that the Artemis astronaut is the first human to set foot on the Moon, only that it is a great honor to be the first. [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 22:34, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

It is not [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2668:_Artemis_Quote&diff=prev&oldid=294204 feeding trolls] to acknowledge that these <s>trolls</s> people exist (and are exactly the kind of people Randall [[690: Semicontrolled Demolition|likes to bait]]. But I won't 'unedit' that. (Someone else can either restore it or get rid of the silly compromise of being commented out with a confusingly 'inline' text-comment. Only by checking the precise version dif would it even make much sense.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.141|172.71.178.141]] 22:57, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

I interpreted the second (alt text) option as being intended to cause a similar mis-hearing (or suspected mis-hearing) debate as was the case with the original man/a man quote. The word "human" could possibly be mis-heard as "woman" over a poor-quality audio transmission, leading to a debate about which was intended. (According to the comic, the intended word would in fact be "human", but if the person was female most listeners would likely assume that it is supposed to be "woman" as most people are aware that humans have been on the moon before but probably unsure of whether or not a woman has ever been on the moon.)

Questions: Has a woman ever been to the moon, and is NASA planning to choose a woman for the new mission? It wouldn't surprise me if they were planning to send a woman this time around for PC points. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.128|172.70.91.128]] 23:13, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:Yes, I believe Artemis has announced that they intend to let a woman of color be the 13th on the Moon, but I'm not up to date on the official press releases. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.126|172.70.211.126]] 23:20, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
::I'm Hoping it will be an African-American woman chosen specifically as commander for identity purposes, who says "It's Great to be Black on the Moon!" [Obref Netflix _Space Force_][[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 23:23, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:[Written before two other replies, above, appeared... One maybe answering an issue I raise below about the 'twofer'...] One of the main 'selling points' has been that the {{w|Artemis 3|first landing mission}} would definitely include a female crewmember, and a 'person of colour'. I've never been quite clear that this is to be the two identities of the two crew or if the intention is that there'll be one person fulfilling them both as a "twofer". So those worrying about (or applauding!) "PC points" are already happy to have their fears(/hopes) confirmed.
:As a side note, I find the "PoC" term a horrible phrase, in my mind, but I'm British and I know that whatever problems we have with what terminology to use (BAME, etc) are quite different from the US. And there are near-universally undeniably worse terms to use. And "of colour" (or "color", in Leftpondian) doesn't seem to mean much except not being pure-Saxon. Apparently Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (neé Markle) is mixed-race (some even say "black") but I wouldn't have known (and, now knowing, am not at all bothered by the fact) given that tanning salons output a steady stream of darker-skinned anglo-saxon or even celtic-heritage locals.
:Anyway, there'll be complaints by the anti-PC brigade regardless, not that I mind them being upset. So long as they have good individuals (no Iron Sky 'just send a model', purely as a vanity passenger) they should be able to pick and choose which of various suitable candidates works well in the grand scheme of things.
: (And I don't agree with the "human/woman confusion thing", seems far too clumsy. Even as deliberately awkward phrasing.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.141|172.71.178.141]] 23:46, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

I don't understand <tt>because e.g., conflating "a" man with "mankind" is potentially self-contradictory</tt>. There's no conflation in "a man is an individual, but mankind is a group", and the issue is surely more that so seen in "man is an individual, but mankind is a group" where "man"=="mankind" in this respect so that the logic ends up as (A==B)&(A!=B) by trivial analysis... Whatever, I just don't think that explains what is 'wrong'. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.141|172.71.178.141]] 23:46, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

If the astronaut removed his boot before saying "It is an honor to be the first human to set foot on the moon." He/she would technically be correct. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 23:28, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
: It's a terrible idea to place an unclothed foot on {{w|lunar regolith}}, not only because of the vacuum and temperature, but it's like a layer of somewhat coarsely ground glass reasonably likely to cause puncture or laceration even from the diminished weight of any adult. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.213|172.70.206.213]] 23:44, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:: I forget where, but I've seen a 'hard'/speculative SF treatment of future Moon tourism options that includes a run out of one handy airlock and almost immediately into another whilst suited and ''singly-''booted (an extremely tight ligature on the other lower leg, for the necessary duration) for those wishing to make their 'ultimate footprint' in the regolith. With a bit of practice beforehand, there is probably a (comparatively) safe hop-step gait that doesn't cause much more damage than the briefly decompressive coldness betwixt the portals connecting to the safer internal environment of the moonbase this all happens at. Still a 'thrill' activity, with inherent risks both in the execution and afterwards. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.33|172.70.85.33]] 23:58, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:::I have no doubt that someone will leave their actual footprints on the Moon someday, but I hope they use crutches and some way to get their foot back into their pressure suit ASAP. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 02:34, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Someone ''really'' likes to remove "redundant" words, in edits, amongst other minor adjustments (described similarly laconically) that I'm not sure are truly justified. I bet if I put some of them back (just the ones that I felt served a purpose, and I can imagine the original authors thought so too) they'd just be removed again. And no easy way to argue the toss, so I'll spare you the arguments and put up with the potential travesties. But I get the feeling that there's a particularly opinionated editor out there, active at this very moment, who is more pleased with themself than they rightfully have reason to be. There are valid rhetorical uses for emphasis, you know, and your 'perfection' might not be so universally agreeable despite your sniping. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.33|172.70.85.33]] 00:24, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
:Is there a Unicode glyph for saying wiki editors need to calm down? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.8|172.70.207.8]] 00:32, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
::There must be one for "copyedit". Which seems to just mean that an edit is being made, without any proper comment. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.33|172.70.85.33]] 00:47, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
::: ⛚✎ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 01:03, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T02:13:30Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ unnecessary

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T02:12:30Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ better representation of intent

Talk:2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-06T01:03:37Z

172.70.210.49: Reply

The first quote is self-referential (and confuses people, when quoted). The second plays unto the myth that the moon landing was staged. It is nice to be able to choose words, which are cited. A great opportunity to confuse people. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.143|172.68.110.143]] 21:09, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

To those of you wondering [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2668:_Artemis_Quote&diff=294177&oldid=294176 why, "<tt>mankind" ,[emphasis</tt>," currently appears in the wikitext,] I would direct you to [[explain xkcd talk:Editor FAQ#Punctuation inside quotes and parentheses]]. I am discouraged by such pettiness. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.59|172.70.214.59]] 21:26, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:Waitwhat? ...Quote-Space-Comma-OpenBracket..? Good job it isn't like that now, or I'd be rewriting it. (Probably put the <tt>[emphasis added]</tt> within the quotes, for starters, before worrying about the other punctuation.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 23:02, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Perhaps the first Artemis astronaut to set foot on the moon will prefer to come with her own idea of what to say. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.75|172.71.142.75]] 21:55, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:I'm hoping for interpretive dance. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.59|172.70.214.59]] 22:31, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

The quote in the title text is factually true, adding to the confusion it would cause, as it does not actually claim that the Artemis astronaut is the first human to set foot on the Moon, only that it is a great honor to be the first. [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 22:34, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

It is not [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2668:_Artemis_Quote&diff=prev&oldid=294204 feeding trolls] to acknowledge that these <s>trolls</s> people exist (and are exactly the kind of people Randall [[690: Semicontrolled Demolition|likes to bait]]. But I won't 'unedit' that. (Someone else can either restore it or get rid of the silly compromise of being commented out with a confusingly 'inline' text-comment. Only by checking the precise version dif would it even make much sense.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.141|172.71.178.141]] 22:57, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

I interpreted the second (alt text) option as being intended to cause a similar mis-hearing (or suspected mis-hearing) debate as was the case with the original man/a man quote. The word "human" could possibly be mis-heard as "woman" over a poor-quality audio transmission, leading to a debate about which was intended. (According to the comic, the intended word would in fact be "human", but if the person was female most listeners would likely assume that it is supposed to be "woman" as most people are aware that humans have been on the moon before but probably unsure of whether or not a woman has ever been on the moon.)

Questions: Has a woman ever been to the moon, and is NASA planning to choose a woman for the new mission? It wouldn't surprise me if they were planning to send a woman this time around for PC points. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.128|172.70.91.128]] 23:13, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:Yes, I believe Artemis has announced that they intend to let a woman of color be the 13th on the Moon, but I'm not up to date on the official press releases. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.126|172.70.211.126]] 23:20, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
::I'm Hoping it will be an African-American woman chosen specifically as commander for identity purposes, who says "It's Great to be Black on the Moon!" [Obref Netflix _Space Force_][[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 23:23, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:[Written before two other replies, above, appeared... One maybe answering an issue I raise below about the 'twofer'...] One of the main 'selling points' has been that the {{w|Artemis 3|first landing mission}} would definitely include a female crewmember, and a 'person of colour'. I've never been quite clear that this is to be the two identities of the two crew or if the intention is that there'll be one person fulfilling them both as a "twofer". So those worrying about (or applauding!) "PC points" are already happy to have their fears(/hopes) confirmed.
:As a side note, I find the "PoC" term a horrible phrase, in my mind, but I'm British and I know that whatever problems we have with what terminology to use (BAME, etc) are quite different from the US. And there are near-universally undeniably worse terms to use. And "of colour" (or "color", in Leftpondian) doesn't seem to mean much except not being pure-Saxon. Apparently Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (neé Markle) is mixed-race (some even say "black") but I wouldn't have known (and, now knowing, am not at all bothered by the fact) given that tanning salons output a steady stream of darker-skinned anglo-saxon or even celtic-heritage locals.
:Anyway, there'll be complaints by the anti-PC brigade regardless, not that I mind them being upset. So long as they have good individuals (no Iron Sky 'just send a model', purely as a vanity passenger) they should be able to pick and choose which of various suitable candidates works well in the grand scheme of things.
: (And I don't agree with the "human/woman confusion thing", seems far too clumsy. Even as deliberately awkward phrasing.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.141|172.71.178.141]] 23:46, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

I don't understand <tt>because e.g., conflating "a" man with "mankind" is potentially self-contradictory</tt>. There's no conflation in "a man is an individual, but mankind is a group", and the issue is surely more that so seen in "man is an individual, but mankind is a group" where "man"=="mankind" in this respect so that the logic ends up as (A==B)&(A!=B) by trivial analysis... Whatever, I just don't think that explains what is 'wrong'. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.141|172.71.178.141]] 23:46, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

If the astronaut removed his boot before saying "It is an honor to be the first human to set foot on the moon." He/she would technically be correct. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 23:28, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
: It's a terrible idea to place an unclothed foot on {{w|lunar regolith}}, not only because of the vacuum and temperature, but it's like a layer of somewhat coarsely ground glass reasonably likely to cause laceration even from the diminished weight of any adult. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.213|172.70.206.213]] 23:44, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
:: I forget where, but I've seen a 'hard'/speculative SF treatment of future Moon tourism options that includes a run out of one handy airlock and almost immediately into another whilst suited and ''singly-''booted (an extremely tight ligature on the other lower leg, for the necessary duration) for those wishing to make their 'ultimate footprint' in the regolith. With a bit of practice beforehand, there is probably a (comparatively) safe hop-step gait that doesn't cause much more damage than the briefly decompressive coldness betwixt the portals connecting to the safer internal environment of the moonbase this all happens at. Still a 'thrill' activity, with inherent risks both in the execution and afterwards. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.33|172.70.85.33]] 23:58, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Someone ''really'' likes to remove "redundant" words, in edits, amongst other minor adjustments (described similarly laconically) that I'm not sure are truly justified. I bet if I put some of them back (just the ones that I felt served a purpose, and I can imagine the original authors thought so too) they'd just be removed again. And no easy way to argue the toss, so I'll spare you the arguments and put up with the potential travesties. But I get the feeling that there's a particularly opinionated editor out there, active at this very moment, who is more pleased with themself than they rightfully have reason to be. There are valid rhetorical uses for emphasis, you know, and your 'perfection' might not be so universally agreeable despite your sniping. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.33|172.70.85.33]] 00:24, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
:Is there a Unicode glyph for saying wiki editors need to calm down? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.8|172.70.207.8]] 00:32, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
::There must be one for "copyedit". Which seems to just mean that an edit is being made, without any proper comment. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.33|172.70.85.33]] 00:47, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
::⛚✎ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.49|172.70.210.49]] 01:03, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-05T23:40:13Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ current term

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-05T22:14:11Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ please don't edit war over extremely nonstandard punctuation; not self-contradictory

2667: First Internet Interaction

2022-09-03T03:12:15Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ tense

{{comic
| number = 2667
| date = September 2, 2022
| title = First Internet Interaction
| image = first_internet_interaction.png
| titletext = To that stranger on the KOOL Tree House chat room, I gotta hand it to you: You were, ultimately, not wrong.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN AMERICAN IDIOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, [[Cueball]], very likely as an autobiographical representation of [[Randall]], describes to [[Megan]] the first time he interacted with a group of people unknown to him over the internet; in an {{w|AIM (software)|AOL Instant Messenger}} forum for children called the "KOOL Tree House chat room" in 1993, when Randall was about nine years old. He read a discussion about {{w|Green Day}}, asked who they are, and was told that not knowing was a serious problem. As Megan says, judging people for lack of pop culture knowledge has remained typical online behavior.

Green Day is an American rock band formed in the East Bay of California in 1987. In 1993, they were still known merely as an independent punk band, and a year away from releasing their major-label debut album ''{{w|Dookie}}'', their first mainstream success. Anyone, especially a nine year-old, not recognizing the band in 1993 would be perfectly normal. After 1993, Green Day would go on to be a widely popular and influential rock band with many acclaimed albums.

This inital online social interaction was a significant formative experience for Cueball, molding his online behavior ever since, in that it still causes him to consider his correspondents' perspective when communicating. The social dynamics at play are reminiscent of the mathematics of others' perspectives described in [[1053: Ten Thousand]]. Relating the personal experience of an oversized effect from a casual insult is usually considered humorous, and the extent to which early experiences can affect people can be both ironic and profound.

The title text indicates Randall agrees with the reply to the question, suggesting he believes the band is important culturally. Randall probably subsequently became a Green Day fan, or at least acquired more than a passing knowledge of their ouvre, recently mentioning in [[2665: America Songs]] their song "{{w|American Idiot (song)|American Idiot}}."

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Four panels depicting a conversation between Megan and Cueball]

:[First panel, Megan and Cueball talking]
:Cueball: You know,
:Cueball: I remember the first thing anybody ever said to me on the internet.
:Megan: Yeah?

:[Second panel, part-height to accomodate Cueball's narration above and the memory of a scene below that features 'Young Cueball', with a mop-head of hair, knelt atop a chair to use a computer with CRT and keyboard on the desk, cabled down into a floor-standing minitower case below]
:Cueball (narrative): I was in an AOL Kids chat room in 1993.
:Cueball (narrative): People there kept using a name I didn't recognise.
:Cueball (narrative): After a while I asked what it was.
:Young Cueball (via the use of the keyboard): W... H... O...  I... S...  G... R...

:[Third panel, close-up of Cueball's adult head, continuing the framing conversation]
:Cueball: Someone replied
:Cueball: "If you don't know who Green Day is, you have a serious problem."
:Cueball: And that was it.
:Cueball: My first virtual interaction.

:[Fourth panel, continuing the conversation, Megan and Cueball now seen walking rightwards as they speak]
:Megan: In some ways, the Internet has changed surprisingly little in the last 30 years.
:Cueball: Every time I reply to someone, I think
:Cueball: What if this is their Green Day moment?

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


[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]

2625: Field Topology

2022-08-30T00:41:50Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ move to correct location

{{comic
| number = 2625
| date = May 27, 2022
| title = Field Topology
| image = field_topology.png
| titletext = The combination croquet set/10-lane pool can also be used for some varieties of foosball and Skee-Ball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A NEGATIVE SPACE WEDGIE THROUGH THE HANDLE OF A COFFEE MUG. Please make sure the topological holes through the playing space have been corrected for each sport, and edit for clarity. And maybe move the mathematical fields/Fields Medal diversion to a footnote regarding the title. And could someone please keep track of the linguistic differences between "ellipse", "ellipses", and "ellipsis"? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Field Topology is [https://encyclopediaofmath.org/wiki/Topological_field a subject in mathematics], but in this comic, Randall is instead examining the topology of playing fields used for various sports. The comic strip depicts a situation in which the common practice of multi-use athletic facilities has been organized by the "topology department" and constructed to be shared by all sports whose normal playing fields are {{w|topology|topologically equivalent}}. One key assumption in topology is that you can ignore the specificities of shape, size and material of the objects concerned. This presents an amusing contrast as the "equivalent" topology department playing fields are actually not very appropriate for the activities listed in the comic, as the standard positioning, size and shape of hoops, nets and bars and the material of the field itself are not equivalent to the real playing fields used for those activities.

(Not to be confused with {{w|Field (mathematics)|mathematical fields}}, or the {{w|Fields Medal}} prize -- although the concept is likely a further pun in the comic, as math (including topology), and most things once can imagine really, are mostly performed ("played") within mathematical fields.)

In topology, shapes which can be smoothly deformed into one another without adding or removing holes are considered equivalent. A topological hole is an area of the nominal space (or area, or other manifold) through which nothing restricted to this topology can pass. A loop is a path across the allowable territory of a topology (or a viable circuit to make through the world it describes) that end up where it started. For example, when describing the space taken up by a solid object such as a coffee mug, the handle forms a loop with a hole through it. If a loop cannot be tightened (ultimately adjusted to take a shorter path) down to a single point, then it must be wrapped around at least one "topological hole", and you have separately unique paths (or points, i.e., on different disconnected topologies) where you cannot adjust one loop to take the route of another without severing a looped path and reconnecting it.

When describing a negative space, such as the space around an archway, the 'hole' would be the material of the arch itself. This is because a loop formed by a ring around any part of the arch material can only be shortened to a finite length, not to a point; the 'hole' is the arch-shaped obstruction which forces the existence of these loops. A {{w|basketball}} hoop connected to the ground forms a similar obstruction with a loop through it, so the space around the hoop contains an equivalent hole. In this comic the topology department has analysed the spaces where various sports are played by the number of such obstructions in the playing area. Each space depicted in the comic is then signposted with the sports which are played on a field with that number of holes.

{{w|Baseball}}, {{w|tetherball}} and {{w|soccer}} are played on fields which are continuous in three-dimensional space. This means it is possible to traverse any path around or over any of the structures defining the field, while there are no obstructions which can be traversed through in a loop around them. The goals on a soccer field presumably do not create holes because the goalposts and crossbar are connected to the field by the net; Randall apparently considers these to form continuous surfaces which do not allow loops through them.

[[File:Double torus illustration.png|thumb|150px|A genus two surface]]

{{w|Volleyball}} and {{w|badminton}} are played using a net suspended from poles, and the {{w|high jump}} has a bar that contestants jump over. The structure formed by the net or bar and the supporting poles can be considered to be a "hole" through the playing field, as a path over and under the net/bar forming a loop cannot be contracted to a single point, so their playing fields in the comic all have one "hole".

A basketball court has two hoops. {{w|Parallel bars}} can be thought of as two archways. Both have opportunities to pass through either (or both) structures, and so the material of the structures define a hole in the topological abstract of the playing 'space'. Since we are told that these sports fields belong to the Topology Department - and are not necessarily generalized to all sports fields - we might assume that their "football" field is either for {{w|Rugby_sevens|rugby}} or for American football using H-shaped {{w|Goal (sports)|uprights}}.

An {{w|Olympic-sized_swimming_pool|Olympic-sized swimming pool}} has ten lanes, and thus nine lane dividers which are fastened to the walls of the pool at each end, creating topological holes through the play area. Each hoop in {{w|croquet}} is similarly a hole through the space; while most versions of croquet use six hoops, nine hoops are used for "backyard croquet" which is played recreationally in the United States and Canada. The fact that the space in a swimming pool is typically filled with water{{citation needed}} has been overlooked by the topology department.

As mentioned in the title text, this last configuration is also {{w|homeomorphism|homeomorphic}} to a {{w|foosball}} table (with each rod sustaining the player figures above the table defining a hole) or a {{w|Skee-Ball}} lane (which is even more straightforward, as it is just a plane with several holes in which to throw balls). These "fields" don't actually have the same number of holes, but are apparently lumped together by the Topology Department as having "many" holes.

Unfortunately, the Topology Department does not seem to have a field for {{w|hurdling}} events.

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

:[A row of four signs, each held up by two posts, followed by a row of four rounded lozenge shapes, one for each sign. The signs and lozenge shapes are shaded as if three-dimensional objects, all being flattish with a small third dimension; the four lozenge shapes each have one pair of sides horizontal and the other pair at a slight angle from vertical, denoting a horizontal plane perpendicular to the signs extending "out" towards the viewer, which places each shape "in front" of its sign. All but the first lozenge shape have various numbers of ellipses within the shape - ovoids shaded to denote holes piercing through the objects.]

:[Leftmost sign:]
:Baseball
:Soccer
:Tetherball
:[The shape below this sign contains no ellipses.]

:[Second sign from left:]
:Volleyball
:Badminton
:High jump
:[This shape has one large ellipse in the center.]

:[Third sign:]
:Basketball
:Football
:Parallel bars
:[This shape has two large ellipses - one in the top half and one in the bottom half.]

:[Fourth and rightmost sign:]
:Olympic swimming
:Croquet
:[This shape has nine small ellipses - eight arranged symmetrically towards the edges of the shape and one in the center.]

:[Caption underneath the signs and shapes:]
:No one ever wants to use the topology department's athletic fields.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Sport]]

2625: Field Topology

2022-08-30T00:40:35Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ right align

{{comic
| number = 2625
| date = May 27, 2022
| title = Field Topology
| image = field_topology.png
| titletext = The combination croquet set/10-lane pool can also be used for some varieties of foosball and Skee-Ball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A NEGATIVE SPACE WEDGIE THROUGH THE HANDLE OF A COFFEE MUG. Please make sure the topological holes through the playing space have been corrected for each sport, and edit for clarity. And maybe move the mathematical fields/Fields Medal diversion to a footnote regarding the title. And could someone please keep track of the linguistic differences between "ellipse", "ellipses", and "ellipsis"? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Field Topology is [https://encyclopediaofmath.org/wiki/Topological_field a subject in mathematics], but in this comic, Randall is instead examining the topology of playing fields used for various sports. The comic strip depicts a situation in which the common practice of multi-use athletic facilities has been organized by the "topology department" and constructed to be shared by all sports whose normal playing fields are {{w|topology|topologically equivalent}}. One key assumption in topology is that you can ignore the specificities of shape, size and material of the objects concerned. This presents an amusing contrast as the "equivalent" topology department playing fields are actually not very appropriate for the activities listed in the comic, as the standard positioning, size and shape of hoops, nets and bars and the material of the field itself are not equivalent to the real playing fields used for those activities.

(Not to be confused with {{w|Field (mathematics)|mathematical fields}}, or the {{w|Fields Medal}} prize -- although the concept is likely a further pun in the comic, as math (including topology), and most things once can imagine really, are mostly performed ("played") within mathematical fields.)

In topology, shapes which can be smoothly deformed into one another without adding or removing holes are considered equivalent. A topological hole is an area of the nominal space (or area, or other manifold) through which nothing restricted to this topology can pass. A loop is a path across the allowable territory of a topology (or a viable circuit to make through the world it describes) that end up where it started. For example, when describing the space taken up by a solid object such as a coffee mug, the handle forms a loop with a hole through it. If a loop cannot be tightened (ultimately adjusted to take a shorter path) down to a single point, then it must be wrapped around at least one "topological hole", and you have separately unique paths (or points, i.e., on different disconnected topologies) where you cannot adjust one loop to take the route of another without severing a looped path and reconnecting it.

[[File:Double torus illustration.png|thumb|150px|A genus two surface]]

When describing a negative space, such as the space around an archway, the 'hole' would be the material of the arch itself. This is because a loop formed by a ring around any part of the arch material can only be shortened to a finite length, not to a point; the 'hole' is the arch-shaped obstruction which forces the existence of these loops. A {{w|basketball}} hoop connected to the ground forms a similar obstruction with a loop through it, so the space around the hoop contains an equivalent hole. In this comic the topology department has analysed the spaces where various sports are played by the number of such obstructions in the playing area. Each space depicted in the comic is then signposted with the sports which are played on a field with that number of holes.

{{w|Baseball}}, {{w|tetherball}} and {{w|soccer}} are played on fields which are continuous in three-dimensional space. This means it is possible to traverse any path around or over any of the structures defining the field, while there are no obstructions which can be traversed through in a loop around them. The goals on a soccer field presumably do not create holes because the goalposts and crossbar are connected to the field by the net; Randall apparently considers these to form continuous surfaces which do not allow loops through them.

{{w|Volleyball}} and {{w|badminton}} are played using a net suspended from poles, and the {{w|high jump}} has a bar that contestants jump over. The structure formed by the net or bar and the supporting poles can be considered to be a "hole" through the playing field, as a path over and under the net/bar forming a loop cannot be contracted to a single point, so their playing fields in the comic all have one "hole".

A basketball court has two hoops. {{w|Parallel bars}} can be thought of as two archways. Both have opportunities to pass through either (or both) structures, and so the material of the structures define a hole in the topological abstract of the playing 'space'. Since we are told that these sports fields belong to the Topology Department - and are not necessarily generalized to all sports fields - we might assume that their "football" field is either for {{w|Rugby_sevens|rugby}} or for American football using H-shaped {{w|Goal (sports)|uprights}}.

An {{w|Olympic-sized_swimming_pool|Olympic-sized swimming pool}} has ten lanes, and thus nine lane dividers which are fastened to the walls of the pool at each end, creating topological holes through the play area. Each hoop in {{w|croquet}} is similarly a hole through the space; while most versions of croquet use six hoops, nine hoops are used for "backyard croquet" which is played recreationally in the United States and Canada. The fact that the space in a swimming pool is typically filled with water{{citation needed}} has been overlooked by the topology department.

As mentioned in the title text, this last configuration is also {{w|homeomorphism|homeomorphic}} to a {{w|foosball}} table (with each rod sustaining the player figures above the table defining a hole) or a {{w|Skee-Ball}} lane (which is even more straightforward, as it is just a plane with several holes in which to throw balls). These "fields" don't actually have the same number of holes, but are apparently lumped together by the Topology Department as having "many" holes.

Unfortunately, the Topology Department does not seem to have a field for {{w|hurdling}} events.

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

:[A row of four signs, each held up by two posts, followed by a row of four rounded lozenge shapes, one for each sign. The signs and lozenge shapes are shaded as if three-dimensional objects, all being flattish with a small third dimension; the four lozenge shapes each have one pair of sides horizontal and the other pair at a slight angle from vertical, denoting a horizontal plane perpendicular to the signs extending "out" towards the viewer, which places each shape "in front" of its sign. All but the first lozenge shape have various numbers of ellipses within the shape - ovoids shaded to denote holes piercing through the objects.]

:[Leftmost sign:]
:Baseball
:Soccer
:Tetherball
:[The shape below this sign contains no ellipses.]

:[Second sign from left:]
:Volleyball
:Badminton
:High jump
:[This shape has one large ellipse in the center.]

:[Third sign:]
:Basketball
:Football
:Parallel bars
:[This shape has two large ellipses - one in the top half and one in the bottom half.]

:[Fourth and rightmost sign:]
:Olympic swimming
:Croquet
:[This shape has nine small ellipses - eight arranged symmetrically towards the edges of the shape and one in the center.]

:[Caption underneath the signs and shapes:]
:No one ever wants to use the topology department's athletic fields.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Sport]]

2665: America Songs

2022-08-30T00:33:14Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ wlink

{{comic
| number = 2665
| date = August 29, 2022
| title = America Songs
| image = america_songs.png
| titletext = Juraaaassic Park, Juraaaassic Park, God shed his grace on theeeee
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a JURASSIC PARK SONGWRITER. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many songs, particularly those written by Americans, contain the word "America."{{citation needed}} These songs usually either praise America for its perceived virtues or mock it for its perceived flaws. Regardless of the content of the song, you could (in principle) sing any such song while replacing each usage of the word "America" or "American" with another four-syllable word or phrase with emphasis on the second syllable, without disrupting the meter of the song. Words and phrases like this are said to "scan to" the word "America," which means to conform to its previously stated metrical pattern.

The comic provides a list of said names (most of which are locations). While some of these share virtues or flaws with America, whatever may be meant by that term, most would fit songs about America poorly, and few are prominent enough to justify writing a song praising or mocking them. Hence, the substitution is, in many cases, humorous.

Note that the adjective form of many of the places listed either does not exist or does not fit the same rhythmic structure as "American". (For instance, while "Antarctican Idiot" scans to "American Idiot," "St. Petersburgian Idiot" does not.) In these cases, it would be necessary to use the noun form of the name to preserve the song's meter.

The title text provides an example: substituting "{{w|Jurassic Park}}" for "America" in the song "{{w|America the Beautiful}}".

Also note that "Sasketchewan", denoting the Canadian province, is spelt incorrectly; the correct spelling is "Saskatchewan".

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

:[A header is written above a map of the US mainland:]
:<big>Places whose names scan to "America," so they can be substituted into songs such as:</big>
:''America the Beautiful''
:''God Bless America''
:Neil Diamond – ''America''
:West Side Story – ''America''
:The Guess Who – ''American Woman''
:Green Day – ''American Idiot''
:[Above the map, towards the left:]
:Sasketchewan
:[Towards the right:]
:Ontario
:[A number of places are marked on the map. From top to bottom, left to right:]
:Olympia
:Yosemite
:Los Angeles

:Lake Michigan
:Peoria
:Columbia (in Missouri)

:Acadia
:Montpelier
:Schenectady
:Connecticut
:LaGuardia
:Centralia
:Annapolis
:Virginia Beach
:Columbia (in South Carolina)
:Vidalia
:The Villages
:St. Petersburg
:Miami Beach
:[Below the map, in columns:]
:Australia
:Armenia
:Monrovia
:Brasilia
:Australia
:Valencia

:Byzantium
:Assyria
:Beringia
:Antarctica

:Sokovia
:Andromenda

:Lothlorien
:Subnautica

:The Metaverse
:EconoLodge

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Songs]]

2665: America Songs

2022-08-30T00:31:34Z

172.70.210.49: /* Transcript */ cats

{{comic
| number = 2665
| date = August 29, 2022
| title = America Songs
| image = america_songs.png
| titletext = Juraaaassic Park, Juraaaassic Park, God shed his grace on theeeee
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a JURASSIC PARK SONGWRITER. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many songs, particularly those written by Americans, contain the word "America."{{citation needed}} These songs usually either praise America for its perceived virtues or mock it for its perceived flaws. Regardless of the content of the song, you could (in principle) sing any such song while replacing each usage of the word "America" or "American" with another four-syllable word or phrase with emphasis on the second syllable, without disrupting the meter of the song. Words and phrases like this are said to "scan to" the word "America," which means to conform to its previously stated metrical pattern.

The comic provides a list of said names (most of which are locations). While some of these share virtues or flaws with America, whatever may be meant by that term, most would fit songs about America poorly, and few are prominent enough to justify writing a song praising or mocking them. Hence, the substitution is, in many cases, humorous.

Note that the adjective form of many of the places listed either does not exist or does not fit the same rhythmic structure as "American". (For instance, while "Antarctican Idiot" scans to "American Idiot," "St. Petersburgian Idiot" does not.) In these cases, it would be necessary to use the noun form of the name to preserve the song's meter.

The title text provides an example: substituting "Jurassic Park" for "America" in the song "America the Beautiful."

Also note that "Sasketchewan", denoting the Canadian province, is spelt incorrectly; the correct spelling is "Saskatchewan".

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

:[A header is written above a map of the US mainland:]
:<big>Places whose names scan to "America," so they can be substituted into songs such as:</big>
:''America the Beautiful''
:''God Bless America''
:Neil Diamond – ''America''
:West Side Story – ''America''
:The Guess Who – ''American Woman''
:Green Day – ''American Idiot''
:[Above the map, towards the left:]
:Sasketchewan
:[Towards the right:]
:Ontario
:[A number of places are marked on the map. From top to bottom, left to right:]
:Olympia
:Yosemite
:Los Angeles

:Lake Michigan
:Peoria
:Columbia (in Missouri)

:Acadia
:Montpelier
:Schenectady
:Connecticut
:LaGuardia
:Centralia
:Annapolis
:Virginia Beach
:Columbia (in South Carolina)
:Vidalia
:The Villages
:St. Petersburg
:Miami Beach
:[Below the map, in columns:]
:Australia
:Armenia
:Monrovia
:Brasilia
:Australia
:Valencia

:Byzantium
:Assyria
:Beringia
:Antarctica

:Sokovia
:Andromenda

:Lothlorien
:Subnautica

:The Metaverse
:EconoLodge

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Songs]]

2659: Unreliable Connection

2022-08-29T22:31:29Z

172.70.210.49: /* Explanation */ parens

{{comic
| number = 2659
| date = August 15, 2022
| title = Unreliable Connection
| image = unreliable_connection.png
| titletext = NEGATIVE REVIEWS MENTION: Unreliable internet. POSITIVE REVIEWS MENTION: Unreliable internet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ROUND TRIP LATENCY BACKOFF. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In today's world, the Internet, pervasive mobile technology and the COVID pandemic have all caused an implicit expectation for many people to be available all hours of the day, whether for work or social communications, even when on vacation. In this comic, [[Randall]] addresses the issue with a deliberately suboptimal internet device that drops Internet connectivity intermittently and at unpredictable intervals, thereby causing activities that require a constant, uninterrupted connection to be unusable. The device appears to be an internet {{w|modem}} connected to an automated version of a {{w|Galton board}} or {{w|Jin Akiyama}}'s mathematical {{w|pachinko}} machine[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.05706.pdf] with a series of twelve switches at the bottom to be pressed by falling balls, eleven of which are linked to a big item labeled "on" and one is linked to a second labeled "off", both such items apparently directly controlling the routing device. This solves the social problem of demands for the likes of {{w|synchronous conferencing|synchronous teleconferencing}}, by causing {{w|Asynchronous communication|asynchronous}} methods of communication to be relatively more reliable and efficient for personal use.

This is funny because such a device could likely much more easily be implemented in the {{w|firmware}} of the internet or WiFi modem or {{w|Router (computing)|router}}s. (See [[1785: Wifi]] for an explanation of firmware.) It's not clear whether the switches merely interrupt the connection momentarily or control power to the modem, which would involve a much longer booting sequence. The "unreliable" connection provides an excuse to be unavailable for work or social calls, and thus free to enjoy one's vacation. However the device also allows the user to have a fast internet connection most of the time, enabling them to use it for leisure purposes, such as downloading movies for entertainment, or to connect with others on one's own terms. It thus retains most of the benefit of a good connection.

The probability of a ball hitting the "off" switch is 165/2048, or about 8% (assuming the machine is ordinary[https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2018/8817/pdf/LIPIcs-FUN-2018-26.pdf]) because it's in the ninth position. We don't know the frequency with which new balls are dropped, so we can't estimate the frequency at which the device is likely to trigger {{w|Session Initiation Protocol}}, {{w|Transmission Control Protocol}}, or similar {{w|Timeout (computing)|timeout}} conditions that would likely close synchronous {{w|VOIP}}, video conferencing, and e.g. {{w|VRChat}} connections. Even if such connections were to survive the induced service interruptions, the {{w|application layer}} call or teleconference quality would suffer during them. The device may cause interruptions rarely enough that the connection is usable for casual purposes, but the user can still reasonably claim that it's unreliable to get out of online obligations.

The title text reflects on today's increasingly always-connected world, where emphasis may be changing from finding rare vacation spots that have reliable internet, to now finding somewhere worthwhile to go that still doesn't have it. It could also be a comment on the mild paradox that a nominally unreliable internet connection has advantages for those whose communication schedule, volume, or style preferences make synchronous teleconferencing less practical, desirable, or both. The reviews for the new vacation spot indicate that disconnections are found to be both desirable and undesirable, possibly even by the same person.

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

:[There are twelve switches under an automated Galton board or pachinko machine, eleven of which are linked to a large item marked "on" but the ninth of which is linked to one marked "off", apparently controlling the operation of a modem connected to a gigabit data-cable and also connected onwards to a WiFi router. There is a supply of balls in a hopper above the board, with the triangular configuration of pins directing the balls chaotically to one or other of the switches, as shown by a single released ball and a motion path partially showing how it had rebounded from around half-way down until after hitting and rebounding away off a bottom-layer "on" switch.]

:[Caption below the panel]:
:My new vacation spot has very fast internet that turns off randomly every now and then, just so you can tell people you'll be staying somewhere without a reliable connection.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]