explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3024: METAR

2024-12-14T04:22:00Z

172.70.230.143: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3024
| date = December 13, 2024
| title = METAR
| image = metar_2x.png
| imagesize = 640x360px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In the aviation world, they don't use AM/PM times. Instead, all times are assumed to be AM unless they're labeled NOTAM.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WITH NO SIGNIFICANT OTHER :(. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In aviation, the {{w|METAR}} (Meteorological Aerodrome Report) is used to give pilots a brief overview of the current meteorological conditions at the airport. The METAR follows a specific structure and makes heavy usage of abbreviations, which makes it hard to read for anyone not familiar with it. The comic makes fun of that by assuming meaning of the words based on what non-aviation people might think the different elements of the METAR report may represent. The METAR in the comic is fairly alarming, describing dangerously fast winds, a possible tornado, freezing volcanic ash (in New York!), lightning, and impossibly high atmospheric pressure.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Code !! Real Meaning !! According to the comic
|-
| METAR
| Type: Meteorological Aerodrome Report
| The comic assumes that this is just a spelling error and it should be "meter"
|-
| KNYC
| Station ID: 4 character identifier; for an airport, this would be the ICAO code. In this instance the identifier represents the automated weather station at Belvedere Castle in Central Park, NYC. Airport, weather, and radio station call signs share a common heritage.
| "Station ID", which is actually correct, although most people unfamiliar with METAR-reporting stations may presume this is a TV or radio broadcaster's registered identification.
|-
| 251600Z
| Time of observation: 25th day of the month at 4 PM UTC. Z is not part of the time, but simply shorthand for GMT or "Zulu" time.
| Misreading the "Z" as a 2, resulting in a nonsensical time. Hours greater than 24 are sometimes used to indicate a time after midnight, e.g., in Japan 17~25h means from 5 P.M. to 1 A.M. the following day. A normal METAR does not use more than 24 hours, instead incrementing the day, so 25 hours further adds to the nonsensical nature of the interpretation.
|-
| 18035G45KT
| Wind direction and speed: Wind direction 180° (directly from the south, degrees based on 0°=magnetic north), speed 35 knots, gusting to 45 knots
| Instead of interpreting the first 5 digits as direction and speed, it is assumed that it is one big number and the G45 stands for the time span in which this was observed with "G" standing for "good". 18,035 knots is an unrealistically high wind speed, faster than orbital velocity; the {{w|jet stream}} typically contains the highest winds on Earth, and may reach about 250 knots.
|-
| 6SM
| In weather reports related to aviation, "6SM" stands for 6 statute miles of visibility, meaning that objects can be seen clearly up to 6 miles away.<ref>https://weather.cod.edu/notes/metar.html#:~:text=6SM%2DVisibility,SM)%20up%20to%2010%20SM.</ref> This indicates clear enough weather to fly without instruments; the value has a max range of 10SM.
| The comic interprets "6SM" to humorously mean a "Size '''6 Sm'''all".
|-
| VCFCFZVA
| In the vicinity (VC): funnel cloud (FC) and freezing (FZ) volcanic ash (VA).
| A riff on the repeated letters which give off the impression the string is constructed by randomly keypresses on the keyboard, as exemplified by a [[1689: My Friend Catherine|cat on the keyboard]]. There is a long history of this problem, as well as [http://bitboost.com/pawsense/ attempted solutions].
This string may or may not actually look like the pattern of characters that a walking cat could produce (and be reliably detected). All the letters are in a cluster at the lower left of the (QWERTY) keyboard, with some adjacently paired characters perhaps indicative of stepping on multiple keys and other neighbouring keys having been stepped over, not uncommon of an oblivious feline wandering across your desk. But the repeated cluster of "CFCF", and other implied paw-press events, seem less likely to emerge even from a rapid quadrupedal gait. A more casual stroll would likely also create single-character duplications, unless the keyboard repeat delay was set unnaturally high.
|-
| +BLUP
| Heavy (+) blowing (BL) unknown precipitation (UP)
| Riffing on the fact that it looks like an onomatopoetic word
|-
| NOSIG
| No significant change is expected to the reported conditions within the next 2 hours
| The comic assumes that the transmitter of the METAR report wants the receivers to know that they do not have a significant other, which the comic finds sad. The observer could be trying to abuse the METAR report as a dating platform.
|-
| LTG OHD
| Lightning overhead
| OHD is interpreted as "overheard" instead of "overhead", indicating that they did not observe it themselves and instead just overheard people talking about it.
|-
| A3808
| Altimeter setting: (calculated) air pressure at {{w|Mean_sea_level|mean sea level}} at the airport is 38.08. The value of 38.08 inHg is extremely high. The standard atmospheric pressure used in aviation is 29.92 inHg, the highest recorded surface pressure on Earth was 32.01 {{w|Inch_of_mercury|inches of mercury (inHg)}}<ref>https://learn.weatherstem.com/modules/learn/lessons/125/18.html</ref> ("A" for inHg, used primarily in USA, Canada and Japan, "Q" would indicate a value in hPa). This is used to adjust the altimeter in the aircraft to the local air pressure, instead of using the standard setting used in higher air spaces.
| The comic says that the observer saw an {{w|Airbus_A380|Airbus A380-800}}, a very large passenger plane. Note: The {{w|List_of_ICAO_aircraft_type_designators|ICAO aircraft type code}} for the Airbus A380-800 is A388 and not A3808.
|-
| RMK
| Beginning of the section with remarks
| Remarkable. A comment about the A380.
|-
| AO2
| The weather station is automated (A) and has a precipitation discriminator (O2), which can tell the difference between liquid and frozen precipitation.
| A reference to the {{w|fan fiction|fanfic}} site [https://archiveofourown.org/ Archive of Our Own], often abbreviated as AO3. It's nonsensical to describe this site as having a precipitation discriminator.
|-
| SLP130=
| {{w|Sea_level_pressure|Sea-level pressure}} is 1013.0 hPa (approx. 29.91 inHg). The equal sign signifies the end of the METAR.
| "SLP" interpreted as abbreviation for sleepy, the numbers as a time, and the = sign as "around" (maybe confused with ≈)
|-
| NOTAM (title text)
| Not part of a METAR report, but instead another aviation abbreviation. It stands for {{w|NOTAM|Notice to Air Missions}} (previously Notice to Airmen).
| Parsed as "not A.M.", indicating that a given time is to be interpreted as P.M. While AM and PM are indeed not used in aviation, as the comic says, they use a 24-hour clock system, not an "A.M.-by-default" 12-hour clock system.
|}

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

:Decoding a METAR report:

:[A METAR report is shown with annotations. The report is:]

:<code>METAR KNYC 251600Z 18035G45KT 6SM VCFCFZVA +BLUP NOSIG LTG OHD A3808 RMK A02 SPL130=</code>

:[The annotations are:]

:* <code>METAR</code> "METER" (Usually misspelled)
:* <code>KNYC</code> Station ID
:* <code>251600Z</code> Time (25:16:002)
:* <code>18035G45KT</code> Wind speed has been 18,035 knots for a good 45 minutes now
:* <code>6SM</code> Observer is a size 6 small
:* <code>VCFCFZVA</code> Sorry, the station cat walked on the keyboard
:* <code>+BLUP</code> Weird noise the sky made earlier
:* <code>NOSIG</code> Observer has no significant other :(
:* <code>LTG OHD</code> We overheard someone saying there was lightning
:* <code>A3808</code> Hey look, an Airbus A380-800!
:* <code>RMK</code> Remarkable!
:* <code>A02</code> Fanfic Archive equipped with a precipitation sensor
:* <code>SLP130=</code> Observer got sleepy around 1:30

==References==
{{reflist}}
[https://e6bx.com/metar-decoder/ Metar Decoder]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

2634: Red Line Through HTTPS

2022-06-20T21:47:15Z

172.70.230.143: tried to smooth in information of a different vein. work still needed.

{{comic
| number = 2634
| date = June 17, 2022
| title = Red Line Through HTTPS
| image = red_line_through_https.png
| titletext = Some organization has been paying to keep this up and it hasn't been removed from search results. Seems like two votes of confidence to me.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SPY AGENCY THAT PRETENDS TO NOT BE DISCUSSED - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Some web browsers display https with a red line through it (<s>https</s>) to indicate that there is a problem with the HTTPS connection. The red line is supposed to be a clear warning to the user that the connection is not secure, and that anything about the site, or that you send to the site (like passwords) may be observed or modified in transit by anyone. This danger is true of HTTP connections as well, but HTTPS connections are used for secure communications such as banking and email.

In practice, some sites are misconfigured, or have not been updated to use newer security measures: this happens especially when security data called certificates expire before they are renewed, or when the user's clock is set to the wrong year. In these cases the red line through https is not from a malicious attack, but generally still indicate that the connection is vulnerable.

Before system and network compromise had become a means of international power, the primary concern around the HTTPS connection issue was whether or not the user was viewing the correct website, or one maliciously inserted by a blackhat neighbor or a virus. If there was a reasonable explanation for the problem, people would view the website anyway, and this habit became so normal that at times it became common for malicious actors to just rely on users to ignore the warning. Cueball takes this line of reasoning to the extreme, concluding that webpages with the red line are perhaps more likely to be safe than webpages that are more modern and supposed to be more secure.

Some may see the comic as sarcasm, that there are all these security measures in place, but people are not sure what to do when the flags are raised, maybe moreso when things become more established and complex.

When you see this red line, the proper thing to do is first to download the certificate and pin it in the system's store. This will raise a notice if it ever changes. For homemade certificates, called "self-signed", this is a normal situation. Nowadays self-signed certificates are no longer needed for normal public websites. The second thing to do is to contact the owner, and the community, via channels that are more secure, and engage the situation until it is properly addressed.

There are a wide variety of reasons why an HTTPS connection might not be secure. A list of reasons associated with dangerous misconfigurations can be found on badssl.com[https://badssl.com/]. An HTTPS certificate (which offers reassurance that your information won't be stolen by a third party) is free to set up at for example https://letsencrypt.org, and takes only a few minutes, although note that this is not a barrier for someone building a site intentionally to steal your information. A phisher could set up a site with HTTPS and have it trick you into giving up your info for some time before being caught and brought down. You can do this to your neighbor using free man-in-the-middle software, and they will be shown the red line indicating that you did so. The outdated-ness of the red line through the https refers to the situation of people not renewing their certificates when a site is abandoned; the expression mocks a common mistake of coming up with any relevent excuse to avoid the confusing situation of not being able to rely on https to verify you are communicating with the real website you visited.

The title text uses two very circumstantial (and not really dependable) details as if they were factors reinforcing the misplaced trust. For the first, you may perhaps think that if someone is still paying domain/hosting fees that they are still confident about their site's content. For the second, the search engines/archives appear to have not lost ''their'' confidence in it for whatever reason. There are problems with both these assumptions, and it does little to restore sanity to the already shaky understanding being exhibited. It is misusing a norm of factors of trust, in sarcasm around poor security of the modern day.

Spy organizations such as the NSA are known to invest man-hours in influencing the global landscape to reduce security, so as to ease their work. This is likely the cause of the situation.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat is sitting in an office chair at his desk facing his laptop while Cueball is standing behind him looking over his shoulder.]
:White Hat: What does the red line through https mean?
:Cueball: Oh, just that the site hasn't been updated since 2015 or so.
:Cueball: And since it's been around that long it means it's probably legit.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computer security]]
[[Category:Internet]]

2631: Exercise Progression

2022-06-11T11:12:22Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2631
| date = June 10, 2022
| title = Exercise Progression
| image = exercise progression.png
| titletext = They said after I got into a routine, I'd enjoy getting progressively stronger and stop whining so much about how hard exercise was. Well, they were half right!
}}

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

This graph shows how when most people start exercising, their whining and complaining slowly decreases and they increase the difficulty over time, as their bodies become accustomed to regular exercise. However, Randall is showing that his whining and complaining just increases, at a steady pace as opposed to decreasing in accordance with the "normal" graph.

This is indicative and typical of people who are aggressively uninterested in and not accustomed to exercise. The first time such a person exercises it feels particularly difficult, usually leading to intensely sore muscles the next day. This can make a feedback loop where people avoid the exercise just enough to not increase their fitness so that it becomes easy.

The title text refers to the common response to such whining by people who '''are''' accustomed to exercise, the reassurance that getting stronger through an exercise routine will encourage him, leading to a reduction in how much he whines. He says they were half right, implying that he indeed enjoys getting stronger, that the exercise simply doesn't become easier. This is not normal for fit nor unfit people. It could be because there are other things about exercise Randall dislikes, or it could be associated with a medical problem.

When people get old or cognitively injured, it can become hard for their mind to learn new things the way a person with a healthier brain would. This can also produce curves like the one drawn.

A reasonable rule of thumb is that it can take up to 6 months for the mind and body to acclimate to a serious change and really appreciate it. Military boot camps are 6-13 weeks.

==Transcript==
:[A graph is shown with labelled axis, and arrows at the tip of each axis. There are two thick arrows plotted, both starting mid-range on the Y-axis, one of them goes upwards at a constant angle of about 40°. The other, which lies over the first mentioned where they overlap close to the Y-axis, first rises a bit before it bends downward and then after having increased its downward bend for a bit it changes to a continuously lower down bending rate and seemingly converges towards a constant y-value close to zero before the end of the graph. Both arrows tip ends at the end of the X-axis. Inside each arrow there is a label.]
:Y-axis: How much you whine and complain about doing exercise"
:X-axis: Workout difficulty
:Upwards arrow: My progression over time
:Downwards arrow: Normal progression over time

{{comic discussion}}

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

2629: Or Whatever

2022-06-07T22:20:11Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */ Add Burj Khalifa to make discussion current

{{comic
| number = 2629
| date = June 6, 2022
| title = Or Whatever
| image = or_whatever.png
| titletext = Oh yeah, I didn't even know they renamed it the Willis Tower in 2009, because I know a normal amount about skyscrapers.
}}

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

The {{w|Willis Tower}} (formerly the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, 442.1 meter skyscraper in Chicago. It is currently the third tallest building in North America, and was indeed the tallest building in the world for 25 years, surpassing the {{w|World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center}} upon opening in 1973, and being surpassed by the Petronas Towers upon their opening in 1998.

[[White Hat]] conveys some interesting historical trivia to [[Cueball]], regarding the {{w|Sears Tower}}. Cueball then sets the record straight by correcting White Hat's use of the word tower: In the category of 'tower', the Willis Tower was never the tallest. Cueball then realizes he just one-upped White Hat with what ''he'' knows about tall structures in general, which might make him sound obsessive, so he tags on the meaningless caveat of "or whatever".

This is meant to diffuse the tension he may have added by his well-meaning contradiction, but could also be taken as a passive-aggressive behaviour by interlocutors who may already be touchy about the original 'correction'.

In the title-text, being already self-conscious that he has overstepped the mark for polite smalltalk, he then hypercorrects the self-perceived tone of his response by explicitly denying that he knows far more about the tower, but only by providing the very facts that he is trying to claim not to know.

This comic hinges on the [https://www.engineersupply.com/What-is-the-difference-between-building-and-construction.aspx debate] about the tallest structure vs tallest ''building''. A {{w|building}} is generlly defined as a human-built structure ''fit for human habitation'' when it is fit for human habitation, while a {{w|structure}} is generally defined as anything humans make. (Or in some cases, anything an animal makes, like [[2418: Metacarcinization|crab shells.]])

It is far from unusual for the tallest building (habitable) to be shorter than the tallest structure (uninhabitable), such as in 1974 when the tallest structure was the {{w|warsaw radio mast}} at 646.38 meters. The radio mast was uninhabitable,{{Citation needed}} so the tallest building was (sort-of coincidentally) the Sears Tower at 442.1 meters. The Warsaw tower collapsed in 1991, so it was not the tallest structure for the majority of the '90s.

The debate surrounding the tallest building does not stop there. Architects have long argued about what the height definition of a building should be. Should it include antennas sitting at the top of the building? How about spires that form part of the architectural design of the building but are not part of the habitable space? Should we focus instead on the highest habitable floor? The debate has historically had relevance every time a new record is claimed by developers eager to reach new heights using any means possible ([https://www.npr.org/2013/11/08/243714332/size-does-matter-at-least-in-the-tallest-building-debate Size Does Matter, At Least In The Tallest Building Debate]).

{{w|List of tallest structures|Wikipedia lists}} the tallest structures, and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkMWb_8IiB4 this YouTube video] explains a bit more about tall buildings/structures. Since 2010 the {{w|Burj Khalifa}} has been both the tallest structure and the tallest building in the world.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and White Hat looking out on a skyline.]
:White Hat: You know, back in the 90s, the Sears Tower was the world's tallest tower.
:Cueball: Yeah! Or "building." The CN Tower and the KVLY-TV Antenna were taller, but the CN Tower isn't always considered a building and the antenna is supported by guy wires or whatever.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Whenever I get self-conscious about how obsessive I sound about some random topic, I panic and tack on "or whatever."

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

2622: Angular Diameter Turnaround

2022-05-22T00:45:37Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2622
| date = May 20, 2022
| title = Angular Diameter Turnaround
| image = angular_diameter_turnaround.png
| titletext = Thank you to Katie Mack for teaching me about this effect, and to Janelle Shane for describing redshifts as 'like galaxies sinking into a pool of dilute blood,' which is how I'll see them from now on.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Galaxy-branded phone with minimal writing experience- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic references multiple physics and maths concepts, including {{w|Angular diameter}}, {{w|Angular diameter distance}}, {{w|Redshift}}, and {{w|phones|mobile phones}}, although mobile phones are not a core science at this time{{Citation needed}}.

The comic shows the galaxies of the universe as Samsung Galaxy mobile phones, pairing the age we see them at from earth, the degree they are redshifted, and how much of the sky they take up, known as their angular diameter. The mobile phones that are closer and older have depleted batteries, whereas the batteries are full for those phones from which the light is still only beginning to reach us. This is how galaxies appear in the sky, if they were phones that had batteries lasting billions of years, light reaching us from deeper into the past as it comes from objects that are farther away. Phones at a low battery may be a reference to [[1373: Screenshot]], where Randall commented that it is hard to pay attention to any phone with a low battery as the need to charge it is so urgent.

An important takeaway from this comic is that the events that occurred at the very start of our universe are etched in our sky ''as if they are still happening now'', in a detailed faint timeline, that we are still learning more and more from. Using the mobile phone metaphor helps as, when the technology space was young and smaller there were {{w|mobile phones}}, such as the original {{w|iPhone}}, which one might still remember despite there being many more recent and better ones in a more crowded marketspace.

Randall's intent appears to be to highlight how just a few very distant galaxies occupy incredibly large proportions of the sky, and are seen as they were at a very young age. Mobile phones have this similarity, of massive presence, relatively early stages of new technology, and bringing information from far away.

The large galaxies can be seen dark red in the background, as if the unimaginably ancient child galactic bodies are looming forebodingly behind everything else. The title text refers to galaxies falling into a pool of dilute blood as if the void beyond were hell. This completely misses the point as to what red shift is, being an effect on the wavelength of light, rather than light being filtered through regions of infernal suffering or far galaxies being stained by the blood of the enemies of Android phones.

This physical concept has a lot of juxtaposition of things that usually contradict, and Randall has put energy into attempting to highlight that.

Katie Mack tweet: https://twitter.com/AstroKatie/status/1516548836709343238

{{w|Spacetime diagram}} possibly has reasonable visualisations of the kinds of relations bodies have when they are moving this far apart, including angular diameter distance. Simultaneity no longer exists at such distances. Distance is debated too, although that would be a different article.

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

:Angular Diameter Turnaround
:Illustrated using phones instead of galaxies
:(Brightness and redshift adjusted to keep phones visible)
:Things that are far away look smaller, but things that are ''really'' far away look ''bigger'', because when their light was emitted, the universe was small and they were close to us.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Puns]]

Talk:2622: Angular Diameter Turnaround

2022-05-21T15:38:57Z

172.70.230.143: all same person futzing with their joke

== Congratulations, you won a brand new galaxy! ==

Your new galaxy will be delivered in only 3 billion years, to a drop-off point only 1 million light years from your home planet. With this cutting-edge protogalaxy, which will be mature upon delivery, you will find incredible features such as:
* supermassive black hole
* exotic spacefaring lifeforms
* intriguing dense matter that does not emit radiation, you'll never have enough
* unique and enthralling galactic formations, each with ancient magical myths told in history by the spacefaring lifeforms
* and the ability to grow brand new stars of your very own!
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.247|172.70.114.247]] 00:07, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

== Comments ==



Slightly creepy, NGL[[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.10|172.69.34.10]]
: Warning, horrible content: The universe was created by the severed bloody hands of google employees convincing phone manufacturers to ditch the previous phone backends and explode the google play store throughout reality in a mess of intergalactic gore. Our planet developed from an angrybirds download, nourished by the decaying corpse of the owner who played it all their life. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.209|172.70.110.209]] 20:37, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

So apparently this is a real thing, which I never knew [[wikipedia:Angular_diameter_distance#Turnover_Point]] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.81|108.162.221.81]] 20:46, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

Could be related to comic 1422, what with both containing expanding phones analogous to some cosmic structure. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 21:46, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
:[[1422]] has been crapped. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.221|172.70.126.221]] 21:50, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

So confusing…I thought that 13 billion years ago they had flip phones. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 22:32, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

Before this explanation is marked “complete” it had better mention that “sinking into dilute blood” is a terrible (one could even say ignorant or stupid) description of red shift, completely missing the fundamental cause and completely distorting the effect. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.159|108.162.216.159]] 23:23, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
:Pretty sure that was just a description of its appearance? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 10:18, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
::Randall implies this was an analogy among people who knew the physical underpinnings well. But I agree that it, and the concept of mobile phones, are neither pleasant nor appropriate at all for the outer reaches of our universe. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 15:28, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

I assumed the reference was that very old cell phones (1990s etc.) were enormous - think carphones; technology allowed them to shrink (giving, say, the Nokia 8850 I owned in 1999 and the original smallish iPhone), and then recent phones have (on average) grown again as the benefits of a larger screen area have been seen to outweigh the convenience of a smaller device. Also older phones tended to have batteries that lasted longer, mostly because neither the screen nor the processor were pulling much power. It's not just that the original iPhone was smaller than current ones (nor, for some of us, does the original iPhone count as an "early cellphone"). Am I alone in this interpretation? The description (at time of writing) didn't seem to cover that.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.121|162.158.159.121]] 10:15, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

== Hooray! ==

Something good is happening!!!!!! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.215|172.70.126.215]] 21:22, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
: No. It just means you can't get a date tonight {{citation needed}}. {{citation needed}}. (I presume you're the "crap"per, right? Eager to fill your own worthless {{citation needed}} life by making ''everybody else'' actually feel useful... How ironic.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 00:08, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
:: I thought it was just a visitor I worried I had badly depressed with my story of severed google hands, wanting to add positivity. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.112|162.158.79.112]] 00:21, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
: the "crap"er is a bot called "Explain xkcd server admin". -> https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:Explain_xkcd_server_admin/common.js [[User:Firestar233|Firestar233]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|talk]]) 00:11, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Yes, same (style) as the umpteen previous times. No imagination {{citation needed}} and rather boring {{citation needed}}.
:: Now I'm limited in what I can do (still, been reverting pages left right and centre, to hold my bit up) but the "Hooray!" commenter (as, I suspect, the one who 'wished the crap would happen again' the other day, or words to that effect) seems to be very much like someone's idea of taunting us, thus proving that he (if you'll excuse that assumption) can't get laid and for some reason they haven't discovered the more solo method of getting their rocks off {{citation needed}}, so he's rubbing up against us and trying to generate the satisfying feeling of friction in his groin {{citation needed}}.
:: (You know when your dog has a favourite stuffed toy? Like that.)
:: Pretty boring, really, for us. But small things amuse small minds. And maybe that's the reason why {{citation needed}}. Also having small... 'feet' {{citation needed}}. Too shy to show his 'feet' to girls {{citation needed}}. Can't earn enough to get 'feet' enlargement surgery {{citation needed}}. No personality either {{citation needed}}. Pity. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.211|172.70.85.211]] 02:43, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

2622: Angular Diameter Turnaround

2022-05-20T20:49:07Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T15:36:45Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2620
| date = May 16, 2022
| title = Health Data
| image = health_data.png
| titletext = Donate now to help us find a cure for causality. No one should have to suffer through events because of other events.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A UNIQUE SEQUENCE OF PAST EVENTS YIELDING FURTHER INFORMATION IF INVESTIGATED - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his "numbers" have revealed some "measurements" and "variables" but doesn't specify what they are. The fact that there are measurements and variables relate to them having been taken, but is correlated with very few outcomes other than those associated with measurement.

In response to being asked whether this is bad, she ominously says that they are the number one cause of "outcomes." This is obvious, and therefore unhelpful, since every outcome is the product of some set of variables. Additionally, outcomes can be good, bad, or indifferent, so it does not address the question.

Cueball tries to cut to the root of the issue by asking "what are my chances of survival?" Ponytail asks what is Cueball's family history, but rather than asking if his family has a history of similar symptoms to Cueball himself she is just asking if he has any family history whatsoever. Her apparent concern on discovering that he does is presumably due to the fact that everyone who has a family history dies, and therefore she sees this as a negative thing. However, this is not medically informative, since everyone has some kind of family history, and everyone eventually dies.

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death. It could also be referencing metaness in general, a frequent topic in the webcomic, or how people can be "talked away" with language they don't understand, especially in times of information conflict. It could also be a reference to incredibly heightened paranoia in current times.

It may also be a comment on the impenetrability of some medical diagnoses, where high levels of jargon and non-contextualised statistics, combined with a lot of hedging language, can leave patients none the wiser about their prospects, or the relative merits of various courses of treatment.

It may also be a joke about replacing the name of an effect with simply, "effect", thus being similar in a sense to a simple random generator, like [[2243: Star Wars Spoiler Generator]].

The title text simply continues the joke, claiming that doctors are searching for a cure to 'causality'. This is obviously absurd and impossible, as it would destroy reality as we know it.

The concept of a cure for causality, and the comic as a whole, relates further to information warfare, as convincing people of something false requires avoidance of the facts in a convincing manner. Problems with information warfare produce a kind of cold war around artificial intelligence, which can stimulate fears of everything known being misused by an advanced system or power. Parts of such fears are influencing our politics.

The comic as a whole is reminiscent of [[830: Genetic Analysis]] and [[1840: Genetic Testing Results]] (particularly the title text of the latter), as the information given by the doctor in all three is self-evident and useless as a result.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Doctor Ponytail are talking to each other. Cueball is sitting on an examination table and Doctor Ponytail, in a doctor's coat, is looking down and reading from a clipboard with some illegible writing on it.]
:Doctor Ponytail: I'm taking a look at your numbers, and it doesn't look good.
:Doctor Ponytail: You have a lot of measurements. Quite a few variables.

:[Same setting but Doctor Ponytail looks up at Cueball.]
:Cueball: Is that... bad?
:Doctor Ponytail: Variables are the #1 risk factor for outcomes.
:Doctor Ponytail: The past is a big contributor to the future.

:[Same setting but Doctor Ponytail puts her arm with the clipboard down.]
:Cueball: Isn't that just causality?
:Doctor Ponytail: Causality is the leading cause of death in this country.

:[Same setting.]
:Cueball: So what are my odds?
:Doctor Ponytail: Do you have a family history?
:Cueball: Of what?
:Doctor Ponytail: Just, in general.
:Cueball: ...Yes?
:Doctor Ponytail: Oh no.

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T15:35:44Z

172.70.230.143:

Did a basefor the setup[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.34|108.162.246.34]] 23:51, 16 May 2022 (UTC)a

"Cure for Causality" sounds like a pretty good band name. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.4|141.101.104.4]] 07:13, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Panel 1 reminds me of a conversation I had with one of my docs. I'd had some blood work done and the doc said, "The numbers look good. For a man your age." I mean, really; for a man my age? I didn't think we'd been talking about some teenager . . . . [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.161|172.70.130.161]] 08:40, 17 May 2022 (UTC)
:Yeah, but it's possibly even worse when a gynacologist says those exact words... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 11:23, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Is poisoning other than drug overdoses that rare? The linked source states:
"1. Poisoning
Due in large part to the opioid epidemic, poisoning has overtaken car crashes as the country’s leading cause of accidental death, with 64,795 poisoning deaths in 2017, 22,000 of them from opioid painkillers. Additionally, people can be poisoned by common household substances, including:

Carbon monoxide
Pesticides and cleaning products
Lead"

even without the 22,000 opoid painkiller deaths posioning would still be number 1.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.50.68|162.158.50.68]] 09:25, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Should we also link 1471 Gut Fauna wich shows another ewemple of Dr Ponytail practicing a weird form of medicine ?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.50.68|162.158.50.68]] 09:25, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

It is meant as a joke here, but ultimately life might just achieve this one day, uncoupling action from harm.

'Vagueness' is really an insufficient description for the absolute insanity that is blaming the passage of time for your problems. Almost to the point of being humorous in its own right. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.199|172.69.33.199]] 10:13, 17 May 2022 (UTC)
: My nice little homo sapiens is turning into robots and they haven't even solved war. Curse evolution! I should have given them long distance communication thousands of years ago! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.143|172.70.230.143]] 15:35, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Can it be also a pun: 'causality' vs 'casualty'? [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 10:32, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T15:34:15Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2620
| date = May 16, 2022
| title = Health Data
| image = health_data.png
| titletext = Donate now to help us find a cure for causality. No one should have to suffer through events because of other events.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his "numbers" have revealed some "measurements" and "variables" but doesn't specify what they are. The fact that there are measurements and variables relate to them having been taken, but is correlated with very few outcomes other than those associated with measurement.

In response to being asked whether this is bad, she ominously says that they are the number one cause of "outcomes." This is obvious, and therefore unhelpful, since every outcome is the product of some set of variables. Additionally, outcomes can be good, bad, or indifferent, so it does not address the question.

Cueball tries to cut to the root of the issue by asking "what are my chances of survival?" Ponytail asks what is Cueball's family history, but rather than asking if his family has a history of similar symptoms to Cueball himself she is just asking if he has any family history whatsoever. Her apparent concern on discovering that he does is presumably due to the fact that everyone who has a family history dies, and therefore she sees this as a negative thing. However, this is not medically informative, since everyone has some kind of family history, and everyone eventually dies.

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death. It could also be referencing metaness in general, a frequent topic in the webcomic, or how people can be "talked away" with language they don't understand, especially in times of information conflict. It could also be a reference to incredibly heightened paranoia in current times.

It may also be a comment on the impenetrability of some medical diagnoses, where high levels of jargon and non-contextualised statistics, combined with a lot of hedging language, can leave patients none the wiser about their prospects, or the relative merits of various courses of treatment.

It may also be a joke about replacing the name of an effect with simply, "effect", thus being similar in a sense to a simple random generator, like [[2243: Star Wars Spoiler Generator]].

The title text simply continues the joke, claiming that doctors are searching for a cure to 'causality'. This is obviously absurd and impossible, as it would destroy reality as we know it.

The concept of a cure for causality, and the comic as a whole, relates further to information warfare, as convincing people of something false requires avoidance of the facts in a convincing manner. Problems with information warfare produce a kind of cold war around artificial intelligence, which can stimulate fears of everything known being misused by an advanced system or power. Parts of such fears are influencing our politics.

The comic as a whole is reminiscent of [[830: Genetic Analysis]] and [[1840: Genetic Testing Results]] (particularly the title text of the latter), as the information given by the doctor in all three is self-evident and useless as a result.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Doctor Ponytail are talking to each other. Cueball is sitting on an examination table and Doctor Ponytail, in a doctor's coat, is looking down and reading from a clipboard with some illegible writing on it.]
:Doctor Ponytail: I'm taking a look at your numbers, and it doesn't look good.
:Doctor Ponytail: You have a lot of measurements. Quite a few variables.

:[Same setting but Doctor Ponytail looks up at Cueball.]
:Cueball: Is that... bad?
:Doctor Ponytail: Variables are the #1 risk factor for outcomes.
:Doctor Ponytail: The past is a big contributor to the future.

:[Same setting but Doctor Ponytail puts her arm with the clipboard down.]
:Cueball: Isn't that just causality?
:Doctor Ponytail: Causality is the leading cause of death in this country.

:[Same setting.]
:Cueball: So what are my odds?
:Doctor Ponytail: Do you have a family history?
:Cueball: Of what?
:Doctor Ponytail: Just, in general.
:Cueball: ...Yes?
:Doctor Ponytail: Oh no.

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:2619: Crêpe

2022-05-13T19:47:32Z

172.70.230.143:

You can almost make the same weird circumflex by using combining diacritics. e, then inverted breve then circumflex. Doesn't seem to render properly with firefox at least --> ȇ̂ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.241|172.70.114.241]] 14:20, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
: U+2372 is a caret with a tilde through it: ⍲ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.251|108.162.245.251]] 14:45, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Would you like a crē̂pe?
: Is it possible to vertically stretch a character? A combination of a "regular" circumflex and a vertically-stretched circumflex might work. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 18:41, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

I think the circumflex is not an "A" but more of a split-and-stretched delta, or an arrowhead. Maybe show a zoom-in of the circumflex (obviously from the 2x image) in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 14:47, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
: Also, i noticed there are weird white dots past the corners of the border. They are even more visible in the 2x! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 14:50, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
: A chevron, perchance? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.15|172.68.50.15]] 14:52, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Is it not also a play on "weird flex but OK"? https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/weird-flex-but-okay/

IPA would be appreciated

It doesn't really look like an "A". It's more a hollow outline of a circumflex. You can see it more clearly in the 2x version. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.54.247|172.70.54.247]] 19:28, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

2616: Deep End

2022-05-08T01:51:04Z

172.70.230.143:

{{comic
| number = 2616
| date = May 6, 2022
| title = Deep End
| image = deep_end.png
| titletext = Hey! No running in the back-arc basin!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This article needs additional citations for verification. Unsourced articles may be given an espresso and a free lolcat. The transcript also needs reformatting. - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Pools, like oceans, contain water.{{Citation needed}} This comic produces a schematic for the former, derived from science about the latter. On Earth, the surface consists of tectonic plates which move around. In this comic, [[Randall]] equates swimming pools with {{w|plate tectonics}}, to explain how deep ends form in said pools. Unfortunately,[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''clarification needed'']]] swimming pools aren't really formed by plate tectonics.{{Citation needed}}

A {{w|swimming pool}} is a pool of water, typically used for swimming. Most of these have a deep end and a shallow end. This is intentional, usually to accommodate for new swimmers to have somewhere to stand while accommodating for more confident swimmers for whom the floor would get in the way.

{{w|Subduction}}, a geological process in which one plate slips beneath another and is forced down into the mantle, is shown here as the reason swimming pools have deep ends. This usually takes place between continental plates and oceanic plates, although it could happen with two oceanic plates. The comic depicts the former; an oceanic plate subducting under a continental one.

A splash zone is an area of a waterpark with water being sprayed around, allowing people to get wet without the need to get into the pool. In this comic, the splash zone is actually geysers, fed by the bubbles of water from the subduction. While this particular scenario as shown in the comic is obviously far-fetched, subduction zones do create similar effects: water moving up from subducting plates is the origin of many {{W|volcanic arc|volcanic arcs}}. These volcanic systems sometimes include features such as the geysers depicted in the comic's splash zone.

The title text refers to {{W|back-arc basin|back-arc basins}}, zones of depression that sometimes occur slightly beyond volcanic arcs due to a rift in the tectonic plate. The ban on running in this area likely has more to do with its proximity to the pool area than any danger intrinsic to back-arc basins. A typical safety rule around swimming pools is to avoid running on the pool deck to prevent injuries due to slipping and falling on the hard deck.

Other comics that mention unusual tectonic plate motion include [[1388: Subduction License]] and [[1874: Geologic Faults]].

==Transcript==

{{incomplete transcript}}
On the left of the image is the shallowest water in the pool, about the height of [[Megan]], excluding her head. Going to the right from there, the pool floor (Representing the oceanic plate) begins to curve downwards towards the subduction zone. As the floor goes down, the water gets deeper. In the deepest area, it is labeled "Deep End".

At the bottom of the deep end, there is a curve and a deposit on the plate/pool floor. This is likely sediment buildup from waterborne debris that has settled there. Within the sediment, there are some small interstitial pools of trapped water within. An arrow upon the subducting material indicates that the oceanic plate is moving left-to-right across the image. Some of the water is dragged along by the oceanic plate, while others float up through the continental plate until they reach the "Splash zone". Several children (small versions of [[Ponytail]], [[Hairy]], and an unidentifiable character) are seen frolicking in the splash zone, as would normally be expected.

To the left of the splash zone is an area labelled the "Pool deck", above which a [[Cueball]] figure is jumping off the diving board.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones

2022-05-06T18:18:14Z

172.70.230.143: Updating the distortions of Africa.

{{comic
| number = 1799
| date = February 15, 2017
| title = Bad Map Projection: Time Zones
| image = bad_map_projection_time_zones.png
| titletext = This is probably the first projection in cartographic history that can be criticized for its disproportionate focus on Finland, Mongolia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
}}
A [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/bad_map_projection_time_zones_2x.png double sized version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at the comic on xkcd.com.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|[[#Table of countries and their time zones|Table]] now has all relevant countries and is sortable. But needs to be filled out for each country with explanation of its time zone and why it looks as it does on the map. (Especially those from title text needs explanation like that). Some of the info already given in the explanation could be moved to the table.}}
This is the second comic in the series of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] and presents Bad map projection #79: Time Zones. It was first with this comic that it became a series. The series began a month earlier with [[1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize]] (#107). It was followed almost three years later with [[2256: Bad Map Projection: South America]] (#358).

This comic shows a {{w|Map projection|map projection}} in which countries are placed according to the {{w|Time zone|time zones}} that they fall under. It seems that [[Randall]], being Randall, runs with the idea as he has made yet another map projection that is not only inaccurate, but utterly unusable, though less so than the previous one.

The first "Liquid Resize" was #107, while this comic features #79. Since the ''liquid resize'' was purely aesthetic, whereas this one at least conveys some meaningful information it makes sense that this projection is ranked higher.

Conceptually, the series is a comment on the fact that there is no perfect way to draw a map of the world on a flat piece of paper. Each one will introduce a different type of distortion, and the best projection for a given situation is sometimes very disputed. Randall previously explored 12 different projections in [[977: Map Projections]], and expressed his disdain for some types he sees as less efficient but whose users feel superior. None of them are really good as any 2D map projection will always distort in a way the spherical reality, and a map projection that is useful for one aspect (like navigation, geographical shapes and masses visualization, etc.) will not be so for all the others. Local maps of smaller areas can be quite accurate, but the idea of both these map projection comics is to map the entire globe on a flat surface.

Time zones are based on the way the Sun shines on the Earth, so these time zones, which are based on the sun's position in the sky, would best be divided by roughly longitudinal (North-to-South Pole) lines. However, this is not the case in practice, as the defined time zones tend to have very jagged boundaries, and furthermore some countries use a completely different time than the zones they are in, at least for some parts (see {{w|China}}). Since Randall knows he cannot fix the boundaries of the time zones, he instead "fixes" the world by making a map appear to match up with the time zone system, as shown in [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1f/1799_Map_with_Labeled_time_zones.PNG this map], also posted in the [[#Map with Labeled time zones|trivia]]. This results in bizarre distortions such as the large, gum-like strands of {{w|Greenland}} (these are the towns of {{w|Danmarkshavn}} (UTC) and {{w|Ittoqqortoormiit}} (UTC-1), which use different time zones to the rest of the island) and three enormous gulfs in {{w|Russia}} (some time zones in Russia are only used in southern areas, leaving two-hour differences between some adjacent areas on the country's northern border). See also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5b/1799_overlay.png this map] with a [[#Time zone map overlayed the comic|time zone map overlayed the comic]].

The effect of this map is to "punish" large countries with a single time zone - for instance, China, which uses UTC+8 across the whole country - and countries that share large time zones - for instance, almost all of {{w|Europe}} is packed into the Central European UTC+1 zone - by shrinking these down. Conversely, countries that use multiple time zones without filling them out are stretched out - for example, the {{w|Democratic Republic of the Congo}} (DRC) and {{w|Mongolia}}, as pointed out in the title text - as are slim countries that do not fill out the full width of their time zones but where their neighbors use different timezones so they have to fill the entire width of their time zone. For instance {{w|Finland}} (also mentioned in the title text) and the {{w|Baltic countries}}, who look huge because their western and eastern neighbors do not use the UTC+2 Eastern Europe time, and thus have to fill out the distance between the countries that are pushed to the zones on their east/west borders.

Other map projections distort countries this way as well, but based on their actual physical location as opposed to their position on imaginary time zones. The {{w|Mercator projection}} is infamous for distorting Greenland in this way, to the point that it appears to be larger than {{w|Africa}} despite being nowhere near the same size.

See the [[#Table of countries and their time zones|table]] below for lots more information on the comic, but here are some further details.

===Map imperfections===
The map is imperfect for several reasons:

Randall attempts to preserve adjacency where possible - for instance, Chad and Sudan are neighbors even though Chad uses West Africa Time (UTC+1) and Sudan uses East Africa Time (UTC+3). Randall draws an extremely thin strand connecting the countries through Central/South Africa Time (UTC+2), even though no part of Chad or Sudan uses this time. Similarly, a thin strand of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan is shown projecting into the UTC+4 time zone in order to separate Russia and Iran, which do not really share a border. Worst of all is China, which has to have borders to several countries that do not share the single eastern time zone of east China, which the whole China is forced to use. A thin strand, resembling the {{w|Yangtze}} river, is shown passing through time zones that China does not use. This is the most complicated preservation of adjacency shown in the map.

There is no mention of daylight saving time - all countries shown are given the base winter time. Depending on the time of year, countries will shift around - around June, many northern hemisphere countries will move east, while some southern hemisphere countries will move east around December.

The map doesn't allow for half-hour time zones. (India, for instance, is on UTC+5.5) Instead, countries that use fractional time zones are shifted so they straddle the two time zones, and are then marked with an asterisk (*). This is also true of regions within countries, including the island of Newfoundland in Canada and a section in the center of Australia.

The only extra detail mentioned in the map is also for Australia. It is the {{w|UTC%2B08:45|UTC+8:45}} time zone that is used only by 5 roadhouses covering a population of only a few hundred people.

There are several errors in the map, see [[#Errors|below]].

===Table of countries and their time zones===
This sortable table includes all countries shown in the map, not just those are labeled, as well as the continents and some other regions are mentioned.

The countries or continents are mentioned approximately in reading order. If a country is not labeled with full name the abbreviation is in brackets behind the name. If the country is not labeled, labeled wrong or not even shown in the comic, there is a note after the name. Countries labeled with a footnote by an asterisk (*) are shown together with that asterisk at the name.

If a country has more than one time zone all are listed.

====Table====
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Country/Continent
! Time zone(s)
! Distortions
! Explanation
|-
| {{w|North America}} (not labeled) || UTC-9 – UTC-3:30 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Canada}} || UTC-8 – UTC-3:30 || West coast is flattened, and the east coast is stretched out. ||
*Canada has two main distortions:
** The west coast is on UTC-8 time, and shares a border with Alaska, which is UTC-9. In this map, the border is much further east than the real border and is straightened out. While the border between the Yukon Territory and Alaska is mostly straight at 141°W, the division between the time zones are at 127.5°W; and the border between British Colombia and Alaska is not straight.
** On the east coast is the island of Newfoundland at UTC-3:30, which is marked with an asterisk; in the map it is depicted more eastward due to the extra half-hour difference. Also, the southeastern tip of Labrador shares the UTC-3:30 time zone, though not marked with an asterisk, it is stretched out to line up with the island of Newfoundland.
|-
| {{w|United States}} || UTC+10, UTC+12, UTC-12 – UTC-4 || Alaska appears thinner than usual, and Texas' coast has been smushed. || Usage of time zones in U.S. territories is {{w|Time_in_the_United_States|complicated}}. The contiguous United States use times zones from UTC-5 (East Coast) to UTC-8 (West Coast), the State of {{w|Alaska}} uses UTC-9, and {{w|Puerto Rico}} uses UTC-4. These are the only parts shown on Randall's map. Other territories, not shown on the map, use the following time zones:
* {{w|United States Virgin Islands}} use UTC-4.
* {{w|Navassa Island}} and the disputed {{w|Bajo Nuevo Bank}} and {{w|Serranilla Bank}} use UTC-5.
* The State of {{w|Hawaii}}, most of the {{w|Aleutian Islands}} and {{w|Johnston Atoll}} use UTC-10.
* {{w|Jarvis Island}}, {{w|Midway Atoll}}, {{w|Palmyra Atoll}} and {{w|Kingman Reef}} all use UTC-11.
* {{w|Baker Island}} and {{w|Howland Island}} use UTC-12.
* {{w|Wake Island}} uses UTC+12.
* {{w|Guam}} and the {{w|Northern Mariana Islands}} use UTC+10.
|-
| {{w|Mexico}} || UTC-8 – UTC-5 || Guadalajara and the Yucatan Peninsula are too far east || The east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula goes as far east as the Florida Keys here - this because the state of {{w|Quintana Roo}} is the only one to use UTC-5 (equivalent to US Eastern Time).
|-
| {{w|Antilles}} (not labeled) || UTC-5 – UTC-4 || No distortion. || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Cuba}} || UTC-5 || No distortion. ||
|-
| {{w|Haiti}} || UTC-5 || No distortion. ||
|-
| {{w|Jamaica}} (Jam.) || UTC-5 || No distortion.||
|-
| {{w|Dominican Republic}} (D.R.) || UTC-4 ||No distortion. ||
|-
| {{w|Guadeloupe}} (not labeled) || UTC-4 ||No distortion. || Not labeled. Tentatively identified as one of four dots in the Lesser Antilles region of Randall's map.
|-
| {{w|Dominica}} (not labeled) || UTC-4 ||No distortion. || Not labeled. Tentatively identified as one of four dots in the Lesser Antilles region of Randall's map.
|-
| {{w|Martinique}} (not labeled) || UTC-4 ||No distortion. || Not labeled. Tentatively identified as one of four dots in the Lesser Antilles region of Randall's map.
|-
| {{w|Saint Lucia}} (not labeled) || UTC-4 ||No distortion. || Not labeled. Tentatively identified as one of four dots in the Lesser Antilles region of Randall's map.
|-
| {{w|Trinidad and Tobago}} (not labeled) || UTC-4 ||No distortion. || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Central America}} (not labeled) || UTC-6 || Squashed together ||Not labeled. Apart from Panama, all Central American countries use the same time zone. This means Panama is stretched out, while the other countries are pushed back west of Florida.
|-
| {{w|Guatemala}} (Gua.) || UTC-6 || Stretched out. ||
|-
| {{w|Belize}} (not labeled) || UTC-6 || Greatly decreased in size, represented by only a few pixels. || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|El Salvador}} (not labeled) || UTC-6 || Greatly decreased in size, represented by only a few pixels. || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Honduras}} (Hon.) || UTC-6 || The left side is flattened and pushed inwards. ||
|-
| {{w|Nicaragua}} (Nic.) || UTC-6 || No distortion, other than that Lake Colcibolca is exaggerated for no apparent reason. ||
|-
| {{w|Costa Rica}} (C.R.) || UTC-6 || Flattened and decreased in size. ||
|-
| {{w|Panama}} (Pan.) || UTC-6 || Stretched out. ||
|-
| {{w|South America}} (not labeled) || UTC-5 – UTC-3 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Colombia}} || UTC-5 || Eastern border straightened ||
|-
| {{w|Venezuela}} || UTC-4 || Western boarded straightened. Country shrunk top to bottom. ||
|-
| {{w|Guyana}} || UTC-4 || Shrunk slightly top to bottom. ||
|-
| {{w|French Guiana}} (labeled Suriname) || UTC-3 || Minimal distortion || Labeled incorrectly.
|-
| {{w|Suriname}} (labeled F.G.) || UTC-3 || Minimal distortion || Labeled incorrectly.
|-
| {{w|Ecuador}} (not labeled) || UTC-6 – UTC-5 || || Not labeled. UTC-6 is used only on {{w|Galápagos Islands}} (not shown).
|-
| {{w|Peru}} || UTC-5 || Mostly intact ||
|-
| {{w|Brazil}} || UTC-5 – UTC-3 || Eastern shore shrunk in size ||
|-
| {{w|Bolivia}} || UTC-4 || Compressed shape, slight rotation ||
|-
| {{w|Paraguay}} (Par.) || UTC-4 || Country shrunken and location with respect to (new) Argentina has changed ||
|-
| {{w|Chile}} || UTC-5, UTC-3 || || UTC-5 is used only on {{w|Easter Island}} (not shown).
|-
| {{w|Argentina}} || UTC-3 || ||This is stretched out vertically to fit the entire country into the UTC-3 timezone that it uses.
|-
| {{w|Uruguay}} || UTC-3 || Minimal distortion ||
|-
| {{w|Europe}} (not labeled) || UTC-4 – UTC+4 || Compressed with the countries of central and western Europe pressed closer in east-west direction while eastern countries are stretched in all directions. Iceland is moved east. Greenland is stretched horizontally and got strange protruding peninsulas. || Not labeled. Europe uses mostly UTC+1, which causes severe distortion. Disproportionally smaller areas utilize UTC±0, UTC+2 and UTC+3. UTC-4, UTC-1 and UTC+4 are used only marginally. Greenland, even if it belongs to North America geographically, is counted here as well as it lies within the Denmark rule.

* UTC-4 is used solely in {{w|Thule Air Base}} in western Greenland.
* Only Greenland uses UTC-3, throughout most of its territory.
* UTC-2 is not used at all.
* {{w|Azores}}, being an autonomous region of Portugal, and a Greenland settlement of {{w|Ittoqqortoormiit}} observe UTC-1.
* The United Kingdom and Ireland both use UTC±0. {{w|Portugal}} is the only country in mainland Europe which uses UTC±0 as well – that's why it sticks out a bit towards the British Isles which share the time zone with Portugal. Greenland's settlement of {{w|Danmarkshavn}} uses UTC±0 as well, and {{w|Iceland}} is here, too.
* Most of Europe uses UTC+1 but these countries in reality spread over a much larger area than just one zone. This is why central and western countries are so compressed. {{w|Svalbard}} archipelago in the Arctic Ocean also belongs here.
* The eastern countries (except Belarus and the European part of Russia but not the Kaliningrad exclave) use UTC+2. These are: {{w|Finland}}, {{w|Latvia}}, {{w|Estonia}}, {{w|Lithuania}}, {{w|Belarus}}, {{w|Moldova}}, {{w|Ukraine}}, {{w|Bulgaria}}, {{w|Romania}}, {{w|Greece}} and {{w|Cyprus}}. In reality, they occupy a smaller area on the map, but on Randall's map they are stretched to fill the UTC+2 zone strip.
* Belarus, most of the European part of Russia and Crimea use UTC+3. See below for peculiarities regarding Russia and Ukraine.
* UTC+4 is used in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and some parts of Russia.

Finland looks specifically distorted, partly because in reality it borders with {{w|Norway}} on the north, and Norway uses UTC+1. On Randall's map Norway is compressed into UTC+1 strip and Finland suddenly got some coast on Barents Sea. Poland (abbreviated ''POL.'' on the map) and Belarus (''BEL'') have common border but differ by two time zones, Poland uses UTC+1 but Belarus uses UTC+3 (Moscow time). Therefore on the map they have protruding 'fingers', touching one another, squeezed between Lithuania and Latvia on the north and Ukraine on the south.

Randall got Turkey a bit wrong, however: its European part is stretched into UTC+2 zone, but in reality Turkey uses UTC+3 on its whole territory.
|-
| {{w|Greenland}}|| UTC-4 – UTC±0 || Two landmasses stretched from the rest of the country || Greenland stretches from UTC-4 to UTC±0 with most of the country being UTC-3. UTC-4 is only applicable to Thule Air Base in the southern part of the Hayes-Peninsula, while UTC-1 and UTC±0 are used in smaller areas on the east coast of Greenland. Even though UTC-2 is not used in Greenland at all, the country is depicted as a single landmass with two small strips of land connecting the UTC-1 and UTC±0 landmasses. These two strips should be considered infinitesimally thin but depicted to clarify the two areas are not separate islands but connected with the rest of Greenland.
|-
| {{w|Iceland}} || UTC±0 || No shape distortions, but different location. || Iceland, even if it geographically lies mostly within the UTC-1 time zone, uses UTC±0. It is therefore moved east on Randall's map.
|-
| {{w|Norway}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Sweden}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Finland}} || UTC+2 || Stretched horizontally because it borders Norway on the north, which uses UTC+1. ||
|-
| {{w|Ireland}} || UTC±0 || None. || Ireland uses UTC±0 as the rest of British Isles.
|-
| {{w|United Kingdom}} (UK) || UTC±0 || None. || The country is fully within the single time zone used for the country. UK defined the time zones so their time zone is by definition the one with UTC±0 (or GMT).
|-
| {{w|Denmark}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Lithuania}} || UTC+2 || ||
|-
| {{w|Latvia}} || UTC+2 || ||
|-
| {{w|Estonia}} || UTC+2 || ||
|-
| {{w|Belarus}} (Bel.) || UTC+3 || || Belarus lies entirely in the UTC+3 time zone yet the map depicts a small strip of land in the UTC+2 zone. This is most likely to allow for Belarus to have a common border with Poland even though the countries do not have two consecutive time zones (Poland uses UTC+1)
|-
| {{w|Russia}} (First label) || UTC+2 – UTC+12 || || See Asia section for explanation. It is the only country labeled twice.
|-
| {{w|Netherlands}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Belgium}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Germany}} (Ger.) || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Poland}} (Pol.) || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Ukraine}} || UTC+2 (UTC+3 in disputed regions) || Crimea stretched away from the rest of the country. || Since the {{w|annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation}}, the peninsula has used Moscow time (UTC+3). The sovereignty of Crimea is disputed, but it is currently ''de facto'' controlled by Russia, and Randall colors it like Russia. Two breakaway provinces in the east, Donetsk and Luhansk, also use Moscow time. These are not shown.
|-
| {{w|France}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Switzerland}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Austria}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Czech Republic}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Slovakia}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Slovenia}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Hungary}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Italy}} (It.) || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Romania}} || UTC+2 || ||
|-
| {{w|Moldova}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Portugal}} || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Spain}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Croatia}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Bosnia and Herzegovina}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Serbia}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Montenegro}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Albania}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Macedonia}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Bulgaria}} || UTC+2 || ||
|-
| {{w|Greece}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Cyprus}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Georgia}} (not labeled) || UTC+4 || Squashed into thin horizontal strip. Merged with Azerbaijan. || Not labeled. Georgia uses UTC+4 but has coast on the {{w|Black Sea}} which on Randall's map is shown entirely within UTC+2 and UTC+3 zones. Therefore Georgia is depicted as a thin strip touching the Black Sea squashed between Russia and Turkey and the main part is shown as a slightly wider blob in the east supposedly lying in the UTC+4 strip. However in the process Georgia got some coast on the {{w|Caspian Sea}} in the place {{w|Azerbaijan}} shall be located, including the {{w|Absheron Peninsula}} with the Azerbaijani capital, {{w|Baku}}.
|-
| {{w|Azerbaijan}} (not labeled) || UTC+4 || Heavily shrunk, displaced south. || Not labeled. Most or all of the Azerbaijani territory including its capital area is mistakenly attributed to Georgia, see above. In reality, Azerbaijan is the only country with coast on the Caspian Sea between Russia and Iran. However, in the Randall's map there are two tiny patches touching the Caspian Sea just north of Iran. The northern one can be tentatively identified as Azerbaijan.
|-
| {{w|Armenia}} (not labeled) || UTC+4 || Displaced east to Caspian Sea coast. || Not labeled. A tiny patch of land on the Caspian Sea coast just north of Iran can be tentatively identified as Armenia. However, Armenia ia a landlocked country in reality.
|-
| {{w|Africa}} (not labeled) || UTC±0 – UTC+3 ||Compressed in the northwest and along the southeast coast. || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Western Sahara}} (labeled Morocco) || UTC±0 || || Labeled incorrectly.
|-
| {{w|Tunisia}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Morocco}} (labeled W.S.) || UTC±0 || || Labeled incorrectly.
|-
| {{w|Algeria}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Mauritania}} || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Senegal}} (Sen.) || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Gambia}} (not labeled) || UTC±0 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Mali}} || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Niger}} || UTC+1 || Slightly compressed in the west||
|-
| {{w|Libya}} || UTC+2 || Stretched vertically | Nations located to the south of Libya tend to use either UTC+1 (Chad) or UTC+3 (Sudan), but not UTC+2, which Libya uses. In order to fill in this area, Libya, one of the few countries in the area which uses the intermediate UTC+2, has been used to demonstrate the two-hour gap. ||
|-
| {{w|Egypt}} || UTC+2 || Stretched vertically | Egypt uses the UTC+2 time zone, while most countries located to its south use UTC+3. Since the area of central Africa using UTC+2 is small compared to the section using UTC+3, those countries in UTC+2 are extended to cover more of that time zone. ||
|-
| {{w|Sudan}} || UTC+3 || Sudan and South Sudan (S.S.) are fully in UTC+3 zone, but in the map a little part of them has been stretched to meet the borders with Chad the Central African Republic which are in UTC+1. ||
|-
| {{w|South Sudan}} (S.S.) || UTC+3 || || See Sudan’s explanation.
|-
| {{w|Eritrea}} (not labeled) || UTC+3 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Guinea-Bissau}} (GB.) || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Guinea}} (Guin.) || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Burkina Faso}} (B.F.) || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Sierra Leone}} (S.L.) || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Liberia}} || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Côte d'Ivoire}} || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Ghana}} || UTC±0 || ||
|-
| {{w|Togo}} (not labeled) || UTC±0 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Benin}} (not labeled) || UTC+1 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Nigeria}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Chad}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Cameroon}} (Cam.) || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Central African Republic}} (C.A.R.) || UTC+1 || Displaced to the southwest. It is also extended to retain its border with South Sudan despite being two timezones apart.||
|-
| {{w|Ethiopia}} || UTC+3 || Compressed horizontally.||
|-
| {{w|Somalia}} || UTC+3 || ||
|-
| {{w|Equatorial Guinea}} (E.G.) || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Gabon}} || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Republic of the Congo}} (R. of Congo) || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Democratic Republic of the Congo}} (Dem. Rep. of the Congo) || UTC+1 || ||
|-
| {{w|Rwanda}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || Shifted northwards.|| Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Burundi}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || Shifted northwards.|| Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Uganda}} (not labeled) || UTC+3 ||Gains border with Burundi. || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Kenya}} || UTC+3 || Slightly horizontally compressed.||
|-
| {{w|Angola}} || UTC+1 || Eastern border straightened.||
|-
| {{w|Zambia}} || UTC+2 || Slightly stretched horizontally.||
|-
| {{w|Malawi}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || Rotated slightly clockwise and loses border with Tanzania. || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Tanzania}} || UTC+3 || Horizontally compressed; loses border with Rwanda.||
|-
| {{w|Namibia}} || UTC+1 ||Loses Caprivi Strip to Botswana. ||
|-
| {{w|Botswana}} (Bots.) || UTC+2 || Border with Namibia simplified.||
|-
| {{w|Zimbabwe}} (Zimb.) || UTC+2 || ||
|-
| {{w|Mozambique}} || UTC+2 || Horizontally compressed.||
|-
| {{w|Madagascar}} || UTC+3 || None. || Madagascar has the correct shape and position.
|-
| {{w|South Africa}} || UTC+2 || Loses some of Atlantic coast to Namibia.||
|-
| {{w|Lesotho}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Swaziland}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Asia}} (not labeled) || UTC+3 – UTC+12 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Turkey}} || UTC+3 || ||
|-
| {{w|Lebanon}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Syria}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Iraq}} || UTC+3 || ||
|-
| {{w|Iran}}* || UTC+3:30 ||Is a bit inflated in the northeast corner. ||
|-
| {{w|Israel}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Jordan}} (not labeled) || UTC+2 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Saudi Arabia}} || UTC+3 || ||
|-
| {{w|Kuwait}} (not labeled) || UTC+3 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Qatar}} (not labeled) || UTC+3 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|United Arab Emirates}} (not labeled) || UTC+4 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Yemen}} || UTC+3 || ||
|-
| {{w|Oman}} || UTC+4 || ||
|-
| {{w|Russia}} (2nd label) || UTC+2 – UTC+12 || Three deep troughs almost cutting Russia into pieces, but not quite, also eastern parts stick out of proportion relative to Eastern Asian countries. || Only country with two labels. Russia has {{w|Time_in_Russia|a peculiar}} usage of time zones, therefore it is the most distorted country on Randall's map. It covers eleven time zones but uses them very unevenly. Each of {{w|Federal subjects of Russia|constituent entities}} of Russia (also called federal subjects) uses a specific time zone throughout its territory, the only exception being Yakutia, the largest administrative subdivision, which spans three time zones. The time zone assignments are quite arbitrary, however.
* UTC+2 ({{w|Kaliningrad_Time|MSK-1}}) is used in {{w|Kaliningrad Oblast}} only, an {{w|exclave}} on {{w|Baltic Sea}} between {{w|Poland}} and {{w|Lithuania}}. On Randall's map it can be seen as a small green patch north-east of Poland.
* UTC+3 ({{w|Moscow_Time|MSK+0}}) is used throughout most of the European part of Russia including Northern Caucasian republics, covering 49 constituent entities of the Russian Federation in total. These parts make up the easternmost mass of Russia on Randall's map, stretching from the {{w|Black Sea}} in the south including the area between the Black Sea and {{w|Caspian Sea}} to the {{w|White Sea|White}}, {{w|Barents Sea|Barents}} and {{w|Kara Sea|Kara}} seas in the north and includes the arctic archipelagoes of {{w|Novaya Zemlya}} and {{w|Franz Josef Land}} as seen in the upper part of the map.
* UTC+4 ({{w|Samara_Time|MSK+1}}) is used in {{w|Udmurtia}}, {{w|Astrakhan Oblast}}, {{w|Samara Oblast}}, {{w|Saratov Oblast}} and {{w|Ulyanovsk Oblast}}, forming three disjoint areas lying more or less along the Ural mountains on their western side. Astrakhan Oblast has coast on the Caspian Sea. Saratov and Samara oblasts have a common border and lie somewhat to the north-east of Astrakhan Oblast. Udmurtia lies still somewhat to the north. On Randal's map they are represented by a patch of land north-east to the Caspian Sea. Further north there's a huge 'bay' reflecting the time-gap between northern parts of Russia that use either UTC+3 or UTC+5 but not UTC+4, even if they are adjacent to each other.
* UTC+5 ({{w|Yekaterinburg_Time|MSK+2}}) is used by the administrative subdivisions lying on and close to {{w|Ural mountains}}, both on western and eastern sides of them, also covering major part of {{w|West_Siberian_Plain|Western Siberia}}. These include {{w|Bashkortostan}}, {{w|Perm Krai}}, {{w|Kurgan Oblast}}, {{w|Orenburg Oblast}}, {{w|Sverdlovsk Oblast}}, {{w|Tyumen Oblast}}, {{w|Chelyabinsk Oblast}}, {{w|Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug}} and {{w|Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug}}. The lands are represented on the Randall's map by the second-from-the-left major land mass within Russia. These parts border mostly with areas utilizing either UTC+3 or UTC+7, therefore Randall has drawn huge patches of sea on both sides. In the north, one can recognize somewhat distorted shapes of the {{w|Yamal Peninsula|Yamal}} and {{w|Gydan_Peninsula|Gydan}} peninsulas.
* UTC+6 ({{w|Omsk_Time|MSK+3}}) is used solely in the {{w|Omsk Oblast}} in the southeastern {{w|Siberia}}, bordering {{w|Kazakhstan}}. On Randall's map it is shown as a strip of land joining the second and the third land mass from the left, just to the left of the ''RUSSIA'' inscription. However, taking into account the relatively small area of the Omsk Oblast, it should have been much thinner.
* UTC+7 ({{w|Krasnoyarsk_Time|MSK+4}}) is used in federal subjects located in the central and parts of eastern and western Siberia: {{w|Altai Republic}}, {{w|Tuva}} Republic, Republic of {{w|Khakassia}}, {{w|Altai Krai}}, {{w|Krasnoyarsk Krai}}, {{w|Kemerovo Oblast}}, {{w|Novosibirsk Oblast}} and {{w|Tomsk Oblast}}. These lands border mostly with areas using non-adjacent time zones, namely UTC+5 and UTC+9, and therefore form the tallest pillar on the Randall's depiction of Russia between two large seas. This part of Randall's Russia also has a strange thin strip of land going south and touching China's tendril just between Kazakhstan and {{w|Mongolia}} – this is to represent the fact that there is a short length of Russian-Chinese border there. The rest of the border is depicted elsewhere, see below. {{w|Taymyr Peninsula}} and {{w|Severnaya Zemlya}} archipelago can be seen atop that area of the map.
* UTC+8 ({{w|Irkutsk_Time|MSK+5}}) is used in {{w|Buryatia}} and {{w|Irkutsk Oblast}} only, which lie in eastern Siberia, on both sides of {{w|Lake Baikal}} (not shown on the map). This is represented by a patch located just northwest of a protruding fragment of China, which shares the time zone with these parts; however neither Buryatia nor Irkutsk Oblast border with China.
* UTC+9 ({{w|Yakutsk_Time|MSK+6}}) is used in {{w|Amur Oblast}}, {{w|Zabaykalsky Krai}} and in most of Yakutia also known as the {{w|Sakha Republic}}. On Randall's map this time zone is joined together with the remaining three eastern time zones forming a strange shape connected to the rest of Asia with a weird-looking isthmus. This is actually the part of Russia that has the longest part of the border with China along the {{w|Amur River}}, but here it is torn away because of the strange map 'projection'. {{w|New Siberian Islands}} are depicted in the far north.
* UTC+10 ({{w|Vladivostok_Time|MSK+7}}) is used in north-eastern parts of Yakutia, {{w|Jewish Autonomous Oblast}}, {{w|Khabarovsk Krai}} and {{w|Primorsky Krai}}. In reality these parts (except Yakutia) all border with China, all the way down to North Korea. On Randall's depiction they are torn away from Chinese border to represent time zone difference. The strange hook is the southernmost part of Primorsky Krai with the big haven of {{w|Vladivostok}}, the tip of the hook shall actually touch North Korea in reality.
* UTC+11 ({{w|Magadan_Time|MSK+8}}) is used in extreme north-eastern parts of Yakutia, {{w|Magadan Oblast}} and {{w|Sakhalin Oblast}}. The {{w|Sakhalin}} island is clearly recognizable in this strip of the map, but it is far removed from {{w|Japan}} which lies next to it in reality. The shape of the {{w|Sea of Okhotsk}} is somewhat recognizable, and the location of {{w|Magadan}} is clearly seen as a small hook on the shoreline near Kamchatka.
* UTC+12 ({{w|Kamchatka_Time|MSK+9}}) is used in {{w|Kamchatka Krai}} and {{w|Chukotka Autonomous Okrug}}. This is probably the least distorted part of Russia, the characteristic shapes of {{w|Kamchatka_Peninsula|Kamchatka}} and {{w|Chukchi_Peninsula|Chukchi}} peninsulas are totally recognizable.

A notable thing is that Russian railways use Moscow time (UTC+3) exclusively, all timetables are expressed in this time, even in the most remote eastern parts of Russia. You'd better know your local time zone while awaiting your train at the station.
|-
| {{w|Kazakhstan}} || UTC+5 – UTC+6 || Vertically: stretched in eastern part, squeezed in western part. Horizontally: squeezed in eastern part, stretched in western part|| UTC+5 is used in the smaller western part and UTC+6 in the larger eastern part. The division goes more or less along the 60th meridian. On Randall's map Kazakhstan's shape is heavily distorted, because in the bordering Russia only one small part, namely Omsk oblast, uses UTC+6 – therefore the eastern part of Kazakhstan is squeezed to fit. On the other hand, the western part of Kazakhstan borders with parts of Russia using as far as UTC+3, which is depicted by a long west-reaching finger. Kazakhstan has a significant part of {{w|Caspian Sea}} coast, but here it has only a tiny stretch.
|-
| {{w|Mongolia}} || UTC+7 – UTC+8 || Vertically stretched in the western half as mentioned in the Title-Text | Mongolia primarily uses the UTC+8 time zone but has some western portions using the UTC+7 time zone. Its neighbor to the south, China, is geographically located across three time zones (UTC+6-UTC+8) but by governmental decision only uses the eastern UTC+8 time zone. This choice by China has caused it to shrink towards the east on the map, requiring other countries to replace the unoccupied map area in the UTC+6 and UTC+7 time zones. Mongolia is one of very few countries using the UTC+7 time zone near China, and therefore it has been the primary recipient of the extra space generated by China's shrinking. It has occupied much of what would on an ordinary map be central Chinese territory.
|
|-
| {{w|Turkmenistan}} || UTC+5 || ||
|-
| {{w|Uzbekistan}} || UTC+5 || ||
|-
| {{w|Afghanistan}}* || UTC+4:30 || ||
|-
| {{w|Tajikistan}} (Taj.) || UTC+5 || ||
|-
| {{w|Pakistan}} || UTC+5 || ||
|-
| {{w|India}}* || UTC+5:30 || ||
|-
| {{w|Sri Lanka}} (not labeled) || UTC+5:30 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Nepal}}* || UTC+5:45 || ||
|-
| {{w|Bhutan}} (unreadable label) || UTC+6 || || Labeled unreadable.
|-
| {{w|China}} || UTC+8 || Heavily squashed horizontally, with finger-like tendrils to the west || All of China is in UTC+8 (usage of UTC+6 exists in Western Xinjiang but is unofficial). However, it reaches as far west as Tajikistan, in UTC+5, and even has an extremely short border with Afghanistan in UTC+4.5. A border is also shown with Pakistan - this is disputed by some who support India in the {{w|Kashmir conflict}}, but represents the ''de facto'' {{w|Line of Control}} between India and Pakistan.
|-
| {{w|Taiwan}} (not labeled) || UTC+8 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|North Korea}}* (N.K.) || UTC+8:30 || || In the map North Korea is smushed West of South Korea because North Korea at the time of publication had a time zone that is set half an hour off from South Korea's time zone.
|-
| {{w|South Korea}} (S.K.) || UTC+9 || ||
|-
| {{w|Japan}} || UTC+9 || ||
|-
| {{w|Bangladesh}} (Ban.) || UTC+6 || ||
|-
| {{w|Myanmar|Burma}}* (Bur.) || UTC+6:30 || ||
|-
| {{w|Laos}} || UTC+7 || ||
|-
| {{w|Vietnam}} || UTC+7 || ||
|-
| {{w|Thailand}} || UTC+7 || ||
|-
| {{w|Cambodia}} (not labeled) || UTC+7 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Philippines}} || UTC+8 || ||
|-
| {{w|Oceania}}/{{w|Australia}} (not labeled) || UTC+7 – UTC+12 || || Not labeled.
|-
| {{w|Malaysia}} || UTC+8 || Malaysia and {{w|Singapore}} (not shown) stretched East from the rest of peninsular Southeast Asia || Malaysia and Singapore both switched to using UTC+8 on 1 January 1982, after using GMT+7.30 under British rule and UTC+9 during the Japanese occupation. This change was due to Malaysia wanting to standardise time between East and West Malaysia, with Malaysia choosing to use the time in East Malaysia, with Singapore following suit.
|-
| {{w|Indonesia}} || UTC+7 – UTC+9 || ||
|-
| {{w|Papua New Guinea}} || UTC+10 – UTC+11 || ||
|-
| {{w|Australia}} || UTC+8, UTC+9:30, UTC+10 || || Although the UTC+8:45 region is acknowledged by local authorities, legally the region shares the same time zone as the rest of Western Australia, UTC+8.
|-
| {{w|New Zealand}} || UTC+12 || None. || The main islands use UTC+12. There is a small archipelago under New Zealand's rule, the {{w|Chatham Islands}}, which use non-standard UTC+12:45 time, but it is too small to depict.
|}

==Transcript==
:Bad map projection #79:
:<big>Time Zones</big>
:Where each country '''''should''''' be,
:based on its time zone(s)

:[A world map is shown divided and colored by political boundaries. There are many distortions, and especially Russia looks weird. Many countries have their name listed in a gray font and at the bottom below Australia there are two specialties mentioned for time zones which are not divided in full hours. One of these is a footnote used by other countries as well.]

:[The labels are listed here in order of the "continents" as they come from top left to down right. Similarly within each continent's list the countries which are usually said to belong to a given continent (at least politically or partially, e.g. Greenland and Turkey in Europe) are listed in a similar reading order as accurately as possible.]

:[North America. (Newfoundland, the most easterly part of Canada, is labeled with a star *):]
:Canada, *, United States, Mexico, Gua., Hon., Nic., C.R., Pan., Cuba, Haiti, Jam., D.R.

:[South America:]
:Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, F.G., Suriname, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Par., Chile, Argentina, Uruguay

:[Europe. (Russia is as the only country mentioned twice, the other place is over the central part in the Asia section):]
:Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, UK, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bel., Russia, Ger., Pol., Ukraine, France, It., Romania, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Turkey

:[Africa:]
:W.S., Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Sen., Mali, Niger, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Gb., Guin., B.F., S.L., Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Chad, Cam., C.A.R., S.S., Ethiopia, Somalia, E.G., Gabon, R. of Congo, Dem. Rep. of the Congo, Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Bots., Zimb., Mozambique, Madagascar, South Africa

:[Asia. (Russia is the only country mentioned twice, the other label is within the European border. The text written over Bhutan is unreadable in the image and marked with a question mark in this list):]
:Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran*, Oman, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan*, Taj., Pakistan, India*, Nepal*, ?, China, N.K.*, S.K., Japan, Ban., Bur.*, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines

:[Oceania/Australia. (In Australia there is a star * in the middle of it above the name):]
:Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, <nowiki>*</nowiki>, Australia, New Zealand

:[Below Australia there is an arrow pointing to the south coast and below that a footnote for the stars * used above:]
:UTC+8:45
:(One small area)

:<nowiki>*</nowiki>=Half-hour offset

*'''Click''' to expand for a more detailed description:
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
 
:[There are no more text from the comic here below:]

:[A world map is shown divided and colored by political boundaries. Antarctica is not included. Bodies of water are white. The map is clearly distorted, with Europe and Africa in the center, but not all continents or countries look wrong. Africa, Australia and North America seem least distorted. But the bottom part of of South America is very slim, Greenland has two chewing gum like blobs stretched away from it to the right, Iceland is over the UK, and most of Europe has been compressed. Finland is too large though. In Africa especially Dem. Rep. the Congo has been enlarged. The worst distortion is in Asia, where especially Russia looks weird with three deep troughs down the length of the country and the end to the right seems to be much longer than usually. But also China is completely wrong as it has been compressed, Mongolia taking up most of its usual position.]

:[Most countries over a certain size have their name listed in a gray font. Small countries like Ireland and Haiti has their name listed in the oceans around them. Most other countries have the name inside the country, but if there is not enough room abbreviations are used. There are also a few specialties mentioned when time zones are not divided in full hours, for instance a footnote regarding time zones with a half hour offset.]
</div>
 

==Trivia==
===Errors===
* Mixing labels:
** Randall mixes up Morocco and Western Sahara (a disputed territory)
** Suriname and French Guiana also have switched labels.
*Wrong time zones:
** {{w|East Thrace}}, the European portion of Turkey, is shown in Eastern European time (UTC+2). Actually, like the rest of Turkey, it uses UTC+3.
** Nepal's time zone is UTC+5:45
** {{w|Thule Air Base}} in northwestern Greenland follows UTC-4 rather than UTC-3, and should thus be shown on a tendril to the west, directly above Labrador and the rest of Atlantic Canada; instead, it is shown using UTC-3, like most of the rest of Greenland. This is especially strange considering that Randall has correctly drawn {{w|Danmarkshaven}} as using UTC and {{w|Ittoqqortoormiit}} as using UTC-1.
* Borders and adjacency are not always preserved although often attempted as mentioned in the section on [[#Map imperfections|map imperfections]]:
** Estonia is shown sharing a border with Finland - in fact, the two countries are separated by the {{w|Gulf of Finland}}. This sea should run to {{w|St Petersburg}} in Russia - instead, the city is shown as landlocked.
** Norway should border Russia. See {{w|Norway–Russia border}}.
** Azerbaijan territory is mistakenly attributed to Georgia – Georgia should not have coast on the Caspian Sea. Armenia should not have coast on the Caspian Sea as well.
** Tajikistan should not border Kazakhstan and follows UTC+5 rather than UTC+6. These would apply to Kyrgyzstan, which is not drawn in the map; Kyrgyzstan, however, does not border Afghanistan.
** Malawi has lost its border with Tanzania.

===Omissions===
Some countries and territories are missing from the map. Most of these omissions are undoubtedly deliberate, but some are likely mistakes.

* Countries supposedly too small to show on the map's scale are omitted. These include small European countries: {{w|Andorra}}, {{w|Kosovo}}, {{w|Liechtenstein}}, {{w|Luxembourg}}, {{w|Malta}}, {{w|Monaco}}, {{w|San Marino}} and the {{w|Vatican City}}, {{w|Djibouti}} in Africa, {{w|Singapore}} in Asia.
* All the Pacific Ocean isles, including {{w|Hawaii}}.
* All Atlantic and Indian Ocean isles excluding {{w|Sri Lanka}} and {{w|Madagascar}}.
* Most of the small Caribbean countries and territories; however four small dots in the {{w|Lesser Antilles}} are depicted, but are unlabelled and cannot be definitively identified.
* Kyrgyzstan is clearly omitted by mistake.

===Map with Labeled time zones===
*[[:File:1799 Map with Labeled time zones.PNG| Here]] is a map with labeled time zones, made by a user who posted the link in the [[#Discussion|discussion]]. 

===Time zone map overlayed the comic===
*And [[:File:1799_overlay.png| here]] is an attempt that shows a {{w|time zone}} map overlayed with the comic. 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]

1574: Trouble for Science

2022-05-04T19:22:23Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 241776 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1574
| date = September 7, 2015
| title = Trouble for Science
| image = trouble_for_science.png
| titletext = Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution
}}

==Explanation==
The comic highlights the fact that several well-publicized scientific critiques have recently been published that raise questions about some commonly accepted scientific methods. For scientists, these critiques serve as reminders of the dangers of overconfidence in any method, hopefully leading those who have naively accepted results to remember that any scientific conclusion is by its very nature tentative and limited by methodological reliability. However, popular press reporting of these papers may lead a general public of modest scientific literacy to the impression that science might be in trouble, as implied by the title. Some of these methodological issues and shortcomings are well known in the scientific community but are – for better or worse – the best toolkit science has at its disposal today. This is however greatly exaggerated by the last (fictional) headline, which suggests that Bunsen burners in fact have a cooling effect, which is of course absolutely ridiculous, but would nevertheless change one more fundamental scientific belief drastically. Additionally, each headline contains irony or a double meaning for comical effect.

The titles of five scientific articles are shown:

;Many commercial antibody-based immunoassays are unreliable
This sentence is true. See Kebaneilwe Lebani, [http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:352531 Antibody Discovery for Development of a Serotyping Dengue Virus NS1 Capture Assay], 2014. In this Ph.D. thesis, 11 references are given.

;Problems with the p-value as an indicator of significance
In empirical research, one is usually interested in effects, results and relationships in a population. However, for practical reasons, only smaller subsets of populations, called samples, are available to the researcher. Usually, an effect of interest is tested using a sample. The purpose of hypothesis testing is to determine whether the observed effect (or lack of effect) in a sample is a random artifact of our particular sample, or whether there is a good chance that it also exists in the population.

Generally, a null hypothesis states that there is no effect in the population while the alternative hypothesis states that there is an effect.

P-values are used in hypothesis testing. The p-value is the probability of observing an effect, result or relationship in your sample data, given that no such effect, result, or relationship exists in the population. It is based on the sample data and the particular statistic (such as sample average, t or F). A statistic is the result of a calculation based on the sample. A p-value can be calculated for each statistic of interest. Formally, the p-value is the probability of observing a test statistic equal to or greater than the one based on the sample data, given that the null hypothesis is true.

The threshold for p-value cutoff, α, is pre-specified (usually 5% or 1%, which is more conservative). When the p-value is lower to or equal to α, the null hypothesis is rejected in favor of the alternative hypothesis. When it is higher than α, the null hypothesis is retained.

The value used for ''α'' has been proposed by [http://web.lru.dk/sites/lru.dk/files/lru/docs/kap9/kapitel_9_126_On_the_origins.pdf Fisher] and is arbitrary.

The use of p-values as a measure of statistical significance is frequently criticized, for example in [http://web.archive.org/web/20161021014340/http://wiki.bio.dtu.dk/~agpe/papers/pval_notuseful.pdf Hubbard & Lindsay]. Randall has demonstrated this problem in the past in [[882: Significant]].
;Overfeeding of laboratory rodents compromises animal models

[http://tpx.sagepub.com/content/24/6/757.full.pdf Keenan et al.] makes this case. Additionally, the word model takes on two meanings. In one sense, "model" can refer to a scientific description that makes sense of a phenomenon; in another sense, "model" can refer to an individual whose job it is to demonstrate fashions, typically fashionable outfits. Fashion models are notorious for being exceptionally thin, and so overfeeding would compromise their job as a model.

;Replication study fails to reproduce many published results
A [https://explorable.com/replication-study replication study] is a study designed to duplicate the results of a previous study by using the same methods for a different set of subjects and experimenters. It aims to recreate the results to gain confidence in the results of the previous study as well as ensure that the findings of the previous study are transferable to other similar areas of study.

Randall is probably referring to this recent study described in Nature: [http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248 Over half of psychology studies fail reproducibility test.] It might also be a reference to at least 3 studies mentioned here: http://www.jove.com/blog/2012/05/03/studies-show-only-10-of-published-science-articles-are-reproducible-what-is-happening. There is also irony in the phrasing of the title because in biology replication is a form of reproduction.

Another possible interpretation of this headline is that a replication study, which may have successfully replicated the results of the specific study it was designed for, failed to reproduce the published results of many other unrelated studies. The headline is quite vague as to which results have been considered in this study.

;Controlled trials show Bunsen burners make things colder
The theme of this comic is that commonly accepted scientific methods can be unreliable, and the joke here is that a Bunsen burner, a device intended to heat things, is newly discovered to always cool things instead, which would be absurd.

In theory, yes, putting a Bunsen Burner underneath an object that's already incredibly hot would, slowly, equalize the temperature between the flame and object resulting in cooling. Given that a Bunsen Burner burns between 1000 K and 2000 K, there is probably some methodological error if the testing materials were already much hotter than the flame (more than 2000 Kelvin). It's also possible that if the "controlled trial" involved a Bunsen burner that was not lit, but was turned on to allow gas to flow, it would have a cooling effect as the gas expanded from the line pressure to atmospheric pressure. Another alternative theory is that a cold substance, such as cold water or frigid air, was fed through the burner against a warmer object.

Alternatively, a trial could be set up to test something against a Bunsen burner on the one hand, and an even hotter flame on the other hand. As compared to that hotter flame, the Bunsen burner would not heat up the tested material as much, resulting in something being made "colder" than the alternative.

As in the previous headline, the key to understanding the joke here is to examine the headline's ambiguity, as no clue is given about ''how'' the trials were controlled.

;(Title text) Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution
This is another joke of a premise that is obviously untrue. The {{w|Gaussian function|Gaussian distribution}} is a mathematical construct that is generally known as the bell curve or the Normal distribution. As it is an ideal mathematical construction, by definition, it cannot have any irregularities - similar to how the equation y = 2x + 1 cannot have small-scale irregularities. The joke probably alludes to the fact that many types of observations are frequently initially modeled as a Gaussian distribution, though on careful observation the actual distribution of outcomes will often deviate from a pure Gaussian distribution.

In addition, an experiment to test a Gaussian distribution will have a finite sample size, giving a non-exact Gaussian distribution. A possible paper submitted would conclude that this result is "approximately a normal distribution" with "small-scale irregularities". A news reporter without knowledge of statistics could easily misinterpret that this paper decisively concludes errors in the mathematical definitions (rather than coming from random error inherent in experimenting).

==Transcript==
:[Five panels, each with the top part of a scientific article, where only the title is legible. Below is the list of authors and subheading and text in unreadable wiggles.]

:Many Commercial Antibody-Based Immunoassays Are Unreliable

:Problems With the p-Value as an Indicator of Significance

:Overfeeding of Laboratory Rodents Compromises Animal Models

:Replication Study Fails to Reproduce Many Published Results

:Controlled Trials Show Bunsen Burners Make Things Colder

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Research Papers]]

448: Good Morning

2022-05-04T19:21:52Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 241770 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 448
| date = July 11, 2008
| title = Good Morning
| image = good_morning.png
| titletext = As my standard, I use going to sleep at midnight and waking up at 8 AM.
}}

==Explanation==
Both characters have irregular sleeping schedules (possibly because they are programmers). As such, their {{w|circadian rhythms}} have become out of sync with one another, and probably out of sync with everyone else in their own {{w|timezone}}. They therefore experience something similar to the "{{w|jet lag}}" experience by travelers going from one timezone to another.

The title text clarifies that they are using "going to sleep at midnight and waking up at 8 AM" as their standard of measurement. If the drowsy man was "in Honolulu" yesterday and has woken up "in Taipei," it means he has gone to sleep 6 hours later than yesterday, and is now also waking up 6 hours later than yesterday (if you don't take the {{w|International Date Line}} into consideration).

This comic may (like in [[320]]) be a commentary of the {{w|28 hour day}} where a person shift their sleep patterns to 6 x 28 hours a week instead of the usual 7 x 24 hours.

==Transcript==
:[A drowsy Hairy walks over to Cueball on a computer.]
:Hairy: *Yawn* Good morning from Taipei.
:Cueball: You're drifting west. You were in Honolulu just yesterday.
:Our sleep schedules are so messed up that's it's easiest to just refer to where our internal clocks seem to be.

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

530: I'm An Idiot

2022-05-04T19:21:22Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 241757 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

:''Not to be confused with [[68: Five Thirty]]''
{{comic
| number = 530
| date = January 14, 2009
| title = I'm an Idiot
| image = im an idiot.png
| titletext = Sadly, this is a true story. At least I learned about the OS X 'say' command.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]], locked out of his {{w|dorm}}/{{w|apartment}}, is trying to get his roommate [[Megan|Megan's]] attention so that she'll unlock the door. He tries various increasingly obscure ways of contacting her: calling her cell phone, {{w|IRC}}, the window, and finally remotely logging into their Mac computer (via {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}}) to make it shout at her, which involves working out a way to turn up the computer's volume. [[Ponytail]] informs him of the most obvious solution—the doorbell—which prompts a moment of realization. The content of this realization—"I'm An Idiot"—is stated in the title of the comic. The humor of the comic derives from the rhythm of the panels: a long buildup followed by a short quip, then a sudden, silent pause for the implied realization moment.

Additionaly some readers will be familiar with the behavior shown in the comic, since most every person who likes solving problems has experienced a moment of realization similar to Cueball's at one point or another. They, like Cueball, get distracted by solving an interesting problem [[356: Nerd Sniping|''because solving problems is fun'']], and fail to notice that the problem has an easier solution that they haven't considered. This same issue of getting lost in a sub-problem [in this case, the-sub problem of how to remotely control text-to-speech in OS X] at the expense of overall problem-solving ability is further covered in [[761: DFS]].

The title text states that this is a true story, so Cueball must represent [[Randall]]. It also mentions that, although missing an obvious solution can be humiliating, one often learns a lot from trying new solutions, which would explain why the behavior persists.

This comic follows a similar storyline to [[349: Success]] and [[1518: Typical Morning Routine]], as Cueball and [[Hairy]] respectively in these comics, encounters an issue and attempts proceedingly more absurd solutions to the issue.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail approaches Cueball, who is sitting on porch steps, laptop in lap and backpack open.]
:Ponytail: Should I ask?
:Cueball: I'm locked out, and I'm trying to get my roommate to let me in.

:[Unplugged cell phone on table.]
:Cueball: First I tried her cell phone, but it's off.

:[Cueball sitting on steps, laptop in lap and gesturing.]
:Cueball: Then I tried IRC, but she's not online.

:[Cueball standing in front of house and looking up at window.]
:Cueball: I couldn't find anything to throw at her window,

:[Living room with couch easy chair and computer set up.]
:Cueball: So I SSH'd into the Mac Mini in the living room and got the speech synth to yell at her for me.
:Computer: Hey I'm locked out downstairs

:[Megan sitting at table with laptop open.]
:Cueball: But I think I left the volume way down, so I'm reading the OS X docs to learn to set the volume via command line.

:[Ponytail facing Cueball, who is still sitting on the porch with his laptop.]
:Ponytail: Ah.
:Ponytail: I take it the doorbell doesn't work?

:[Beat panel.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1941: Dying Gift

2022-05-04T01:34:22Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236664 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1941
| date = January 12, 2018
| title = Dying Gift
| image = dying_gift.png
| titletext = And to you, I leave my life-sized ice sculpture replica of the Pietà which was blessed by the Pope. You must never let it melt! Now, remember, all gifts must be removed from my estate within 24 hours.
}}

==Explanation==
In some cultures it is customary to make bequests, usually in written form called a will, of some or all of your possessions, to be given to people close to you after your death. Often, items bequeathed may be of purely sentimental value to the giver. That sentimental value may not carry over to the recipient, but they may, nonetheless, feel obliged to keep possession of them in order to respect the giver's wishes. In some cases, if the items are unwanted, unusable, or the recipient simply doesn't know what to do with them, they may elect to place the items in storage, rather than dispose of them.

Randall therefore suggests the following prank to be played by someone near death: bequeath an item that is intentionally very difficult to store or even move. In this case, the old dying man gives his {{w|Foucault pendulum}} to someone in his family.

A Foucault pendulum is a type of pendulum that is commonly used in science museums to practically demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. In order to attain the sensitivity required to do this, the pendulum must be very long - in this case, it is thirty feet (approximately nine meters) in length: about the height of a large hall. It must also be undisturbed; any disruption, such as a touch on the pendulum, will prevent it from accurately portraying the rotation of the Earth.

By insisting that the pendulum never stop swinging, the old man has made it impossible for the pendulum to be simply detached and stowed away. Even transporting it will be extremely difficult, as it is thirty feet tall, and any change to its orientation will disrupt its swing. (Note, however, that the old man didn't specify that it has to ''work'' as a Foucault pendulum; merely, that it must not stop swinging.) He has also added an extra layer of guilt to the 'gift' by suggesting that if they do ever let it stop swinging it will be because they have forgotten him.

The title text takes it even further, with a life-sized ice sculpture replica of the Pietà which was blessed by the Pope. A {{w|Pietà}} is a representation of the body of {{w|Jesus Christ}} on the lap of his mother, {{w|Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary}}, in the aftermath of his {{w|Crucifixion of Jesus|Crucifixion}}. When styled "The Pietà" it usually refers to ''{{w|Pietà (Michelangelo)|Pietà}}'' a {{w|Renaissance}} sculpture by Florentine artist {{w|Michelangelo}}. It is widely considered one of the masterpieces of {{w|sculpture}}. While {{w|Replicas of Michelangelo's Pietà|replicas of ''Pietà''}} do exist, there are none known to have been {{w|Ice sculpture|made of ice}}, let alone made of ice ''and'' {{w|Blessing in the Catholic Church|blessed}} by the {{w|Pope}}. That said, if such a sculpture were made, there are several ways to obtain a papal blessing. Such a sculpture would be over six feet tall and weigh several tons, and would have to be constantly maintained at sub-zero temperatures. While the gift could potentially be very valuable, the statement "all gifts must be removed from my estate within 24 hours" would dramatically increase its chances of melting.

For both the pendulum and the ice sculpture, it is theoretically possible to devise a way to remove, transport, and store them with all the necessary conditions met, but they would probably be huge and very expensive logistical feats, requiring substantial planning and preparation. The final condition that everything must be removed within 24 hours makes such a feat practically impossible.

As a side note: Catholic canon law would discourage selling such a sculpture and, were such a sculpture to melt, the water would need to be collected "burned, buried, or consumed". These are the [https://books.google.com/books?id=YgmeWy4jm_kC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=burned,+buried,+or+consumed+catholic&source=bl&ots=aTXNljqPsi&sig=N0un0VGd5huxKafGgwX2iK17ZRQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiA99ulmt7YAhVCY6wKHbg4Bl8Q6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=burned%2C%20buried%2C%20or%20consumed%20catholic&f=false| proper ways] to dispose of a blessed object.

Alternatively, the title text could be read as meaning that there is ''a'' Pietà that has been blessed by the Pope, which formed the basis for this replica, though that would make the ice sculpture itself somewhat less remarkable.

==Transcript==
:[An old man (wrinkled and deformed head with a bit of hair left) is lying in his bed, head on a pillow, body beneath a blanket. He points to one of the three people standing along the side of the bed, Ponytail, Cueball, and a kid with spiky hair.]
:Old man: And to you...
:Old man: I leave the 30-foot Foucault Pendulum from the main hall.
:Old man: It has been swinging for fifty years. As long as you remember me, you must never let it stop!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:A fun prank: as you're dying, leave people gifts that will be as difficult as possible to put into storage.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols

2022-05-04T01:01:39Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236598 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

<div style="display: none">crap</div>
{{comic
| number = 2606
| date = April 13, 2022
| title = Weird Unicode Math Symbols
| image = weird_unicode_math_symbols.png
| titletext = U+2A0B ⨋ Mathematicians need to calm down
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A SNAKE AVOIDING A BEE ON A WHITEBOARD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic proposes joke explanations for various {{w|unicode symbols}} with obscure or no known uses.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Symbols
|-
! Codepoint !! Symbol !! Unicode Name !! Actual use !! Randall's meaning || Explanation
|-
| U+29CD || ⧍ || Triangle with Serifs At Bottom || No standard use, but resembles the {{w|National Park Service}} cartographic symbol for a campsite.[https://github.com/nationalparkservice/symbol-library/] || Shark || May look like a shark fin sticking out of the water.
|-
| U+23E7 || ⏧ || Electrical Intersection || Indicates where wires branch off || Traffic circle || Looks like a diagram of a {{w|roundabout}} as might be shown on a minimap beside a routing direction.
|-
| U+2A33 || ⨳ || {{w|Smash product}} || The quotient of the underlying spaces of two {{w|pointed space}}s, where points in the {{w|product spaces}} are identified if they contain either labeled point as an element. || Hashtag || Looks somewhat like the {{w|Number sign|hash}} symbol (#) – commonly used for indicating tags called {{w|hashtag}}s in social media – turned by 45 degrees.
|-
| U+2A7C || ⩼ || Greater-Than with Question Mark Above || Used in proofs to indicate a greater-than relation that should exist but hasn't been proven yet (non-rigorous) || Confused alligator || One metaphor used when teaching inequality signs in primary school is that the sign looks like an alligator mouth "eating" the larger number. Question marks are commonly used in cartoons to indicate confusion on the part of a character.
|-
| U+299E || ⦞ || Angle with S Inside || Plural for the angle symbol (∠) [https://www.quora.com/Unicode-How-is-the-s-in-triangle-glyph-used-in-mathematics][https://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/1114/Homework%20Helper%20Unit%203%20ch%209-10.pdf] rarely used || Snack || May look like a mouth eating an S, where the S symbolizes some snack food.
|-
| U+2A04 || ⨄ || {{w|Arity|N-ary}} Union Operator with Plus || Disjoint union[https://books.google.com/books?id=531cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%E2%A8%84&source=bl&ots=oYXkMNXP-T&sig=ACfU3U2QvMRBkD7uVG0OSumKI0JQtjTIKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwios862ypL3AhWXVTABHTnQALQQ6AF6BAgKEAM] (joining a family of sets that have no elements in common) || Drink refill || Looks like a cup with a plus to indicate adding drink to the cup.
|-
| U+2B48 || ⭈ || Rightwards Arrow Above Reverse Almost Equal To || Pairs with ⭂ which could conceivably mean {{w|Assignment (computer science)|assignment}} of an {{w|Approximation|approximation}}, but neither seem to be in use. || Snakes over there || Looks like two squiggles to represent snakes and an arrow indicating the direction where they may be found.
|-
| U+225D || ≝ || Equal To By Definition || Indicates an equation where the left side is to be defined as the right side[https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1z1mty/can_someone_please_explain_the_equal_to_by/] usually used in proofs to indicate a definition is being introduced|| Definitely, for sure || "Def" is a contraction of "definitely" used in slang; the equal sign looks like a double underline, indicating heavy emphasis.
|-
| U+237C || ⍼ || Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow || No purpose is known.[https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html] Speculation includes "Y axis continues downward," a diode with a gate, proof by contradiction, a proofreaders' mark to split a word, and indication of polarization direction. || Larry Potter || Looks like the letter "L" and a lightning bolt. {{w|Harry Potter (character)|Harry Potter}} is known for having a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The character {{w|Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series#Nancy_Stouffer|Larry Potter}} figured in a fraudulent legal claim against J.K. Rowling.
|-
| U+2A50 || ⩐ || Closed Union with Serifs and Smash Product || Indicates that a collection of topological spaces is {{w|Union-closed sets conjecture|closed}} when taking arbitrary unions and smash products. That is, if you take the union of any collection of topological spaces in the collection (even uncountably many), or the smash product of them, the result will also be in that collection. This is apparently important because the sets can't be isomorphic (one cannot be rearranged to be exactly the other.) [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/196084/counterexample-for-associativity-of-smash-product] || Spider caught with a cup and index card || Spiders or other bugs found within someone's house or workspace may be caught with a glass and something flat, often a card or a magazine, to be released outside. The projecting lines of the smash product symbol resemble the legs of a spider. Confusingly, some fonts display this symbol with different numbers of "legs": eight, as a 45°-rotated hash symbol, or six as an asterisk.
|-
| U+2A69 || ⩩ || Triple Horizontal Bar with Triple Vertical Stroke || Emblem of the Romanian {{w|Iron Guard}} fascist political movement; possibly a four-by-four {{w|tic-tac-toe}} board.[https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sandlund/NumericalTicTacToe.pdf] || ℍ𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕘 || Hash symbol with one extra vertical and horizontal line, or perhaps a hash symbol which has been accidentally double-struck or overprinted.
|-
| U+2368 || ⍨ || APL Functional Symbol Tilde Diaeresis || Used for a two-argument operation to [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Commute commute] (swap) its arguments or allow it to use a single provided argument in both argument slots, and to convert a value into a [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Constant constant] function || :/ || Looks like a confused or disappointed face. Randall's use is in fact common among {{w|APL (programming language)|APL}} programmers in the comments, as documented [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/APL_Orchard#Emoticons here] and [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Humour#Glyph_puns here].
|-
| U+2118 || ℘ || Script Capital [''sic''] P || A stylized {{w|round hand}} 'p' used by Weierstrass for his "{{w|Weierstrass elliptic function|p-function}}," with features of both capital 𝒫  and small 𝓅. Sometimes also used as the {{w|power set}} operator.
|| Snake || This symbol coils around like a long snake, with a tapering-off tail on one end and a small "head" on the other.
|-
| U+2AC1 || ⫁ || Subset with Multiplication Sign Below || Indicates that one set is subset of another by means of the cross product || <div style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: center;">User experience</div> || Looks like the letters "Ux" sideways; UX is a common abbreviation for {{w|user experience}}.
|-
| U+232D || ⌭ || {{w|Cylindricity}} || A symbol used in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) to represent a parameter called "cylindricity" which describes the statistical deviation of an ensemble of surfaces from a reference cylinder. [https://cimquest-inc.com/metrology-minute-cylindricity/ example use] || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball || Looks like two flat hands (perhaps like stick-figure arms) rolling a ball between them. Rolling dough between one's hands to make it into a ball is an important step in making many kinds of pastry and bread.
|-
| U+2A13 || ⨓ || Line Integration with Semicircular Path Around Pole || Very rare symbol for half of a closed {{w|Contour integration|contour}} or {{w|Line integral|line}} integral which contains the {{w|Origin (mathematics)|origin}} in its interior. Contour integrals which circle the origin are very important in complex analysis. If such an integral were split into two parts, each could be represented by this symbol (which can be mistaken for ⨔, the integral not including the {{w|Zeros and poles|pole}}, with a wider and more complete arc around an offset dot.) [https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2299363/where-is-the-%E2%A8%93-integral-symbol-defined]
|| Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard || Looks like an {{w|integral}} symbol with a bump that goes around a dot, as if a professor was drawing an integral on a whiteboard but did not want to disturb a bee that had landed right in the path of their marker.
|-
| U+2A0B (title text)|| ⨋ || Summation with Integral || The sum of the sum of the discrete elements (∑) and the integrals (∫) over the connected pieces. This symbol requires context to be meaningful but could occur, for instance, when computing probabilities using mixed distributions.
[https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/1308743505309822977 see also]
|| Mathematicians need to calm down || Each of the two symbols is specifically used to represent a kind of summation that is calculated completely differently from the other. Combining them could produce frustration for people unfamiliar with the usage. The comment given may make fun of mathematicians' tendency to form increasingly complex expressions in their work. It may as well be a pun on the pronounciation of the letter {{w|Esh_(letter)|Esh}} (Shhhh).
|-
|}

This comic may have been inspired by [https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html this blog post], which went viral (in a limited sense) the same day the comic was published.

==Transcript==
<big>Weird Unicode Math Symbols</big>
And their meanings

{|
| U+29CD || ⧍ || Shark
|-
| U+23E7 || ⏧ || Traffic circle
|-
| U+2A33 || ⨳ || Hashtag [the text is slanted counterclockwise]
|-
| U+299E || ⦞ || Snack
|-
| U+2A04 || ⨄ || Drink refill
|-
| U+2B48 || ⭈ || Snakes over there
|-
| U+225D || ≝ || Definitely, for sure
|-
| U+237C || ⍼ || Larry Potter
|-
| U+2A50 || ⩐ || Spider caught with a cup and index card
|-
| U+2A69 || ⩩ || [The word "hashtag" but with extra horizontal and vertical lines]
|-
| U+2368 || ⍨ || :/
|-
| U+2118 || ℘ || Snake
|-
| U+2AC1 || ⫁ || [The words "user experience" rotated clockwise 90 degrees]
|-
| U+232D || ⌭ || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball
|-
| U+2A13 || ⨓ || Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Unicode]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Harry Potter]]

2013: Rock

2022-05-04T01:00:18Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236350 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2013
| date = June 29, 2018
| title = Rock
| image = rock.png
| titletext = It traveled so far to reach me. I owed it my best.
}}

==Explanation==

Megan either knows enough about geology to tell on sight how this particular rock formed, or has brought this rock from a collection. Alternatively she’s simply guessing. Despite admiring its formation, all she wants is to use it as a skipping stone to give it "a weird day in its life" (similar to [[325: A-Minus-Minus]]), and possibly confuse future geologists.

Megan provides three pieces of information about the rock: It formed at the south pole, during an ice age, just before multicellular life developed. Unfortunately, due to disagreements among geologists and palaeontologists about when exactly the first multicellular life emerged it is unclear which time Megan refers to - and consequently where she is and what kind of rock she is holding. There are two possibilities:

# The {{w|Francevillian biota}}, living about 2.1 billion years ago, has been proposed as the first multicellular life. If Megan subscribes to this theory, then the Ice age just before would be the {{w|Huronian glaciation}} which extended from 2.4 to 2.1 billion years ago. The land which was at the South pole at that time would eventually [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwWWuttntio become part of Africa].
# However, not all scientists accept the Francevillian biota as the first multicellular life. If Megan shares this view the first fossils multicellular life would be only 600 million years old (e.g. in the {{w|Doushantuo Formation}}). In this case the ice age "just before" would be the {{w|Cryogenian}} lasting from 720 million to 635 million years ago. The land occupying the South Pole at the time became present-day Scandinavia and Baltic sea.

Thus — assuming that Megan has accurately identified the stone — the stone is either from Western Africa or Northern Europe and has "travelled" from there to get to her.

{{w|Stone skipping}} is the art of throwing a flat stone across water in such a way that it bounces off the surface. Despite there being many factors attributed to successfully skipping a stone (including the attributes of the stone itself), Cueball and Megan are in agreement that skipping this particular stone five times is an above-average throw. (It is, however, far short of the world record of 88 skips set by Kurt Steiner in 2013).

This comic is one of many that look at everyday things from a new, philosophical perspective.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are looking at a rock that Megan is holding up in one hand.]
:Megan: This rock erupted from a volcano near the South Pole when the world was frozen over, just before multicellular life arose.

:[Zoom out reveals that Cueball and Megan are standing on the beach of a bay with hills in the background. The water surface is quite flat without any waves. Megan throws the rock which skips 5 times across the water before it sinks.]
:Stone: Skip Skip Skip Skip Skip Plunk

:[Zoom back on Cueball and Megan who are still looking in the direction she threw the stone.]
:Megan: Now it'll be covered in sediment that becomes a new rock layer. It will likely stay buried until it melts down, erodes away, or the earth is consumed by the sun.

:[Cueball and Megan still looking the same way.]
:Cueball: Today was a weird day in its incredibly long life.
:Megan: Five brief skips, then eons of darkness.
:Cueball: Five is a lot, though!
:Megan: It '''''was''''' a good throw.

==Trivia==
Megan throws the rock with her left hand, which supposes that she may be left-handed.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]

2606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols

2022-05-04T00:59:54Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236260 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

2605: Taylor Series

2022-05-04T00:58:40Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236256 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

<div style="display: none">crap</div>
{{comic
| number = 2605
| date = April 11, 2022
| title = Taylor Series
| image = taylor_series.png
| titletext = The Taylor series should have been canceled after the first term.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE MACLAURIN SERIES EVALUATED AT X PLUS EPSILON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In mathematics, a {{w|Taylor series}} {{w|Polynomial expansion|expansion}} is a {{w|polynomial}} {{w|power series}} approximation of a function[https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/a/10212] around a given point, composed of an infinite sum of the function's {{w|Derivative|derivatives}}, each both divided by successive {{w|Factorial|factorials}} and multiplied by the incrementally increasing {{w|Exponentiation|power}} of the distance from the given point. Such expansions usually continue without end. Beyond approximation of functions, Taylor series are also useful for deriving numerical approximations of {{w|Irrational number|irrational}} values, {{w|Machin-like formula|such as π}}, as well as {{w|Symbolic integration|symbolic}} forms to make functions easier to integrate or otherwise manipulate with calculus.[https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/taylor-series.html] However, because they involve difficult calculus operations, and can be annoyingly tedious to {{w|Numerical analysis|calculate by hand}}, they are often not loved by math students.[https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/comments/gbo8tm/taylor_series_can_fuck_off/]

[[Miss Lenhart]] appears to be teaching a class about how to use a Taylor series. She presumes her students want to keep learning about the series, in that they, "wish it would never end." She then says "Good news!" because the series does not end. The cartoon's humor is based on the contrast between wishing the series won't end, ordinarily desired of sequences of enjoyable events, and the infinite nature of the Taylor series, which is less likely appreciated by her students struggling to understand why the sums {{w|Convergent series|converge}} to their resulting value.

The title text is a reference to the common practice among physicists and engineers of abbreviating the Taylor series to only the first few terms, typically one or two, in order to simplify the mathematics of their models. The title text is also a pun on the use of the word "series" to refer to a television program. It symbolizes the terms of the mathematical series as a {{w|metaphor}} with a television season, suggesting that only the first term is useful. It makes fun of the common sentiment against bad {{w|screenwriting}} of a series by saying that, "The series should have been cancelled after the first season," replacing "season" with "term." (Notably, both "term" and "season" are used to refer to a stretch of time during which a program is airing—generally, a television or scholastic program, respectively.) Also note that US President {{w|Zachary Taylor}} died during his first term. In a way, his presidency was cancelled during his first term.

==Transcript==

:[Miss Lenhart pointing a stick at a whiteboard, which has some scribbled text written on it and one line is circled.]
:Miss Lenhart: At this point, you're probably thinking, "I love this equation and wish it would never end!"
:Miss Lenhart: Well, good news!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Taylor series expansion is the worst.

{{comic discussion}}

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

2608: Family Reunion

2022-05-04T00:58:04Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236250 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

<div style="display: none">crap</div>{{comic
| number = 2608
| date = April 18, 2022
| title = Family Reunion
| image = family_reunion.png
| titletext = Grandma says that because of differences in primate and feline lifespans, the cat is actually my 17,000,000th cousin 14,000,000 times removed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE PERSON WHOSE RELATIVE IS A CAT AND A HUMAN (WHOOPS) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Because all humans are descended from a {{w|Mitochondrial Eve|common ancestor}}, every human is, at some point, related to every other human, albeit distantly. Similarly, all life forms on Earth are presumed (with good reasons) to be descended from a single {{w|Most recent common ancestor|even more distant relative}} whose ultimate lineage {{w|Last universal common ancestor|became more relevant}} than any from its own 'cousins' at the time, and thus ''all'' life forms are distantly related. This makes every interaction with another life-form, technically, a family reunion, if not in the traditional sense.

The general English definition of a {{w|cousin}}, which is a person sharing an ancestor who is not a direct parent of either party, can be qualified by two numbers. There is the ''n''th-ness of the relationship (the fewest generations you need to go beyond one's parentage, "a first cousin" implies that a grandparent is the key link) - for example, [[Cueball|this Cueball's]] relation to [[White Hat]] is via a great-grandparent, whilst that with [[Hairbun]] is through a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent. A "removed" number is any difference in this number between the two individuals, such that a child of a direct cousin invokes a "once removed" relationship between the two (without individually qualifying who is the 'senior' generation, from whom the 'nth' count is determined). You would normally only qualify "first cousin" if this fact is considered important, and "zero times removed" would also be considered implicit.

As pointed out in the title text, cat lifespans (or, more importantly, inter-generational breeding cycles) are somewhat different from those of humans. Although they would have still been very similar immediately after the divergence from the appropriate most recent common ancestor (MRCA), the differences will have built up to a generational-count displacement of a similarly extreme nature. i.e. that while the shared ancestor is Cueball's 17-million-or-so-Great Grandparent, the cat is in turn the 31-million-or-so-Great Grandchild. Exactly how accurate, or even precise, Randall considers these numbers is unknown, but it is the kind of fact that we know he likes to research and use expert opinion for.

According to [https://www.quora.com/How-many-generations-of-human-beings-recognizably-the-same-as-us-have-there-been this Quora page], there have been about 13,000 generations of modern humans, so the people at this party would be quite closely related, all things considered.

[https://www.evogeneao.com/en/learn/tree-of-life The Evogeneao Tree of Life diagram] indicates that humans and cats diverged around 90 million years ago and humans and plants diverged around 1.8 billion years ago.

If we presume that generations of humans (including proto-humans, pre-humans, etc) since the divergence from cathood (including proto-cats, pre-cats, and the rest, back to the common ancestral form) have averaged around 5 years, then a 17 millionth cousin may be about right. Many of our (and cats') early ancestors will have necessarily been small burrowing mammals — to have been amongst the ones who survived the asteroid around 66 million years ago that killed off most of the dinosaurs — with contemporary equivalents having breeding cycles in terms of a year at the most. But we currently have a large feasible range of generational cycle (15-50 years, ''very'' roughly, with or without technical/social help or hinderances), that may have started to drag our long-term average upwards since at least the age of the early hominids, if not the age of our primate forebears or earlier.

To get a 50 billionth cousin from the potted plant, then the generations of (eventually) humans since we were of the same form as that time's ancestral plants (or vice-versa) would need to average two weeks. This is possible, but difficult to be precise about due to the lack of much of the required evidence in the known fossilized remains. Any reasonable estimate, however, should be heavily weighted towards generation spans common for unicellular eukaryotes, rather than the longer generations common for multicellular eukaryotes: the general consensus on the most recent common ancestor for of animals and plants identifies it as a unicellular eukaryote.
Given the above analysis of eukaryotes as cousins one wonders why Randal Monroe didn't include that every lack of gathering is also a family reunion.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Like seriously, don't}}

:[Megan, White Hat, Cueball, Hairy, Danish, a cat, Hairbun, a chair, and a potted plant on a cabinet are "standing" in a line. White Hat is holding a cup and Hairy has his hands to the side. There are arrows pointing to each of the living creatures.]

:14th cousin [Megan]
:2nd cousin [White Hat]
:Me [Cueball]
:12th cousin [Hairy]
:35th cousin [Danish]
:17,000,000th cousin [cat]
:9th cousin [Hairbun]
:50,000,000,000th cousin [potted plant]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Really, ''every'' gathering is a family reunion.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Cats]]
[[Category:Biology]]

2610: Assigning Numbers

2022-05-04T00:57:38Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236245 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

<div style="display: none">crap</div>{{comic
| number = 2610
| date = April 22, 2022
| title = Assigning Numbers
| image = assigning_numbers.png
| titletext = Gödel should do an article on which branches of math have the lowest average theorem number.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by YÖDA'S COMPLETENESS THEOREM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

'''This explanation is by mathematical necessity either incomplete or incorrect.'''

[[Cueball]] is falling into a common trap, because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Faced with some sort of information, of an unknown kind but seemingly not intrinsically mathematical in nature, he has decided that one possible way to proceed is to somehow translate everything into values which can be combined and compared numerically.

This is a very common thing to do, in fields as diverse as {{w|computational linguistics}} or {{w|sports analytics}}, and can be a powerful tool for understanding and learning new things about a subject as {{w|Data science}} tries to extract knowledge and insights from potentially noisy and disordered facts. But it is also used to implement bad science by using incorrect or misguided ideas about how to represent the source material. While it's possible to casually assign numeric values to random pieces of data, these numbers are generally not meaningful enough to compute with and draw any useful inferences from. It is generally possible to perform statistical analysis only on actual measurements, not on what may effectively be arbitrarily-assigned values.

Machine learning algorithms, which are commonly used by data scientists, typically require all their inputs to be numerical. However, most datasets contains categorical features (e.g. the description of a piece of furniture: chair, table, ...). Data scientists therefore use encoding techniques to convert these categorical features to a numerical form so they can be used as inputs to a machine learning model. For instance, label encoding consists of arbitrarily assigning an integer to a category (chair=0, table=1, ...) which may appear meaningless to most observers. In various cases, they may be right.

So, as well as being the mechanism that underlies one of the most profound theorems of 20th century mathematics, it can be mis-used for all kinds of bad or misguided science. From Cueball's attitude, it is far from clear that his attempt will reliably translate his project into a numerical system, nor that his attempt to "do math on it!" will be any more competent.

One of the major characters who looked at the concept is Kurt Gödel. He introduced the idea of {{w|Gödel numbering}} with his landmark {{w|incompleteness theorems}}. In it a unique natural number is assigned to each axiom, statement, and proof, which might otherwise be difficult to accurately process in any other kind of approach. Instead, it is now possible to create metamathematical statements in the language of mathematics.

This allowed Gödel to make the statement "This statement cannot be proven based on the axioms provided" in a mathematically rigorous way. A simple proof by contradiction shows that the statement cannot be false, and therefore (in most logical systems) must be true. The proof goes as follows: 1. Assume that "This statement cannot be proven from the axioms" (Call this statement G) is false (Call this assumption A). 2. Therefore G can be proven from the axioms (Because the negation of the negation is an affirmation. Based only on A) 3. The axioms exist (Call this assumption B). 4. Therefore, G is true (via {{w|Modus ponens}} applied to 2 and 3, based on A and B). 5. Therefore, G and also not G (via And Introduction applied to 1 and 4, based on A and B). 6. This is a contradiction, and therefore A or B must be wrong. We are not willing to sacrifice assumption B, so we must conclude that A is false, given B ({{w|Reductio ad absurdum}} applied to 1,3, and 5). 7. Therefore, G.

Notice that the truth of Gödel's statement does not depend on any particular set of axioms, and adding axioms (such as "Gödel's particular statement is true") only opens up new iterations of the statement which cannot be proven based on the expanded set of axioms (A statement such as "All statements of a similar nature to Gödel's particular statement" is not precise enough to serve as an axiom.). As such, with a little more legwork, it can be proven that any logical system robust enough to accommodate arithmetic must necessarily contain facts that are true within the system but cannot be proven or disproven within the system. The importance of this result cannot be understated, as it upended the entire philosophy of mathematics. {{w|David Hilbert}}'s famous proclamation "We must know, we will know" is simply incorrect. ... Either that, or (ironically) Gödel used an "inconsistent" or "incomplete" system to produce his result.

The title text suggests that Gödel should perform such an analysis on different branches of mathematics, by calculating the average of all the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers. This is nonsensical for a number of reasons:
:1) Gödel is long dead, and dead people can't write articles;{{Dubious}} - see [[599: Apocalypse]]
:2) Gödel numbers grow very large very quickly, and depend heavily on the specific values assigned to each logical operator. Therefore the results could be manipulated simply by changing the numbering order of each operator;
:3) It may be very hard to gather all theorems in a field, or even a representative sample;
:4) Different fields of science, like biology or human behaviour, may not be able to write their theorems in the mathematical language of Gödel's incompleteness theorem
If anyone were to attempt this form of analysis, it would be an example of the bad data science described in the caption.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holds a hand up to his chin while he ponders the contents of what may be a whiteboard. There are five general lines of unreadable scribbling on the board, and between the two bottom lines, there is a square frame to the right with another scribble to the left. Cueball's thoughts are shown above him in a large thought bubble.]
:Cueball's thinking: If I assign numbers to each of these things, then it becomes '''''data''''', and I can do '''''math''''' on it!

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:The same basic idea underlies Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and all bad data science.

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

2611: Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects

2022-05-04T00:57:14Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236241 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

<div style="display: none">crap</div>{{comic
| number = 2611
| date = April 25, 2022
| title = Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects
| image = cutest_sounding_scientific_effects.png
| titletext = The Stroop-YORP number of a scientific paper is how many of the 16 finalist names (sans 'effect') it manages to casually sneak into the text.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A GUY WITH A Stroop-YORP Effect NUMBER OF 16! - Fill in the [[#Result of the twitter polls|Result of the twitter polls]] as it comes in! Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] has compiled [[:Category:Tournament bracket|yet another]] {{w|Tournament bracket|single-elimination tournament bracket}} for a knock-out competition, by public vote, between 16 different scientific effect names that he seems to consider worthy of being cute-sounding.

As of the release day, he is determining the result in a [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518701311763570689 series of Twitter polls]. These results are shown [[#Result of the Twitter polls|here]].

See [[#Effects|below]] for explanations for what each of the 16 effects are.

Several unrelated scientific effects were previously combined in [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]], which also included the Stroop effect (the last S).

In the title text, Randall coins the term "Stroop-YORP number" as a count of how many 'casual' references a future publication can sneak into it from the 16 finalist names for cutest effect. It specifies that it should be without the word effect after the words (sans 'effect').

Tongue-in-cheek 'counting scores' are familiar in the likes of the {{w|Erdős_number|Erdős}} and {{w|Bacon_number|Bacon}} numbers, both of which are referenced by [[599: Apocalypse]] (the latter only in the title text). In these cases the ideal is to get the ''lowest'' number, whereas here higher is better. The cross-field hybrid {{w|Erdős–Bacon number}} is one in which the desired score is the lowest sum of both values (neither being undefinable) by dint of having participated in both arenas of respective achievement, but not necessarily (or practically) in a single combined presentation.

For instance the Stroop-YORP number could be high for a wildlife paper. That could possibly use "butterfly" and "rabbit" (possibly needing the latter to be specifically 'cutaneous', to count), which may both be found in "little parks" with some "popcorn" seen littered around without too much "oddity"; and of course a (Dr.?) "fox" could be in the area, getting a score of 6. But other words may be a stretch, with an imaginative reference to a "woozle" possibly easier to employ than to evoke anything of the "nocebo".

On the other hand, for a space-science paper there may be more obvious (mis)uses for physics-related terms, and mentioning YORP might well be expected. But it may need creative thinking to introduce the rabbit or the more psychological idea of Stroopicity, etc, without reason to discuss the responses of animal or human payloads being sent there.

It is not actually obvious whether Randall intends the score to only be valid if the insertions are off-field and/or undetected, such as when someone is wagered that they can slip unrelated song lyrics or a 'hello' to Jason Isaacs into a public speech without the rest of the audience twigging.

A search of google scholar indicates many articles with a score of 2 (e.g. [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/87559129.2012.714435 this paper], which refers to butterfly shaped popcorn), but 3 or more seems to not be attested.

==Effects==
;{{w|YORP effect}}: The YORP effect is the effect of sunlight on an asteroid with variations of shape and/or albedo, which can increase its rotation rate and/or modify its axis of rotation. It can cause objects to eventually spin apart or drastically change their orbit.
:It is an acronym of the names Yarkovsky, O’Keefe, Radzievskii and Paddack, who were instrumental in its discovery. More than a century ago, Yarkovsky determined that heat applied to a symmetrical rotating body would be asymmetrically re-emitted and apply a small but continuous thrust, and this was added to by considering the forces to non-symmetrical bodies.
;{{w|Nocebo effect}}: An effect in which a recipient of medication who believes that it will have negative side-effects is more likely to experience those negative side-effects, whether they can be really caused by the medication or not. Opposite of the {{w|placebo effect}}, which focuses on positive side-effects that arise beyond the true efficacy of a given treatment.
:''Nocēbō'' is Latin for “I shall harm”, coined to oppose ''placēbō'', “I shall please”.
;{{w|Woozle effect}}: If a study gets repeatedly cited and otherwise disseminated, then people will start to believe it regardless of whether it has any evidence behind it. And if there is not any evidence, it becomes an urban myth.
:Named after a Winnie-the-Pooh story in which Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet try to catch an imaginary animal called a woozle, and accidentally follow their own tracks in circles.
:A similar effect was discussed in [[978: Citogenesis]], wherein a sourceless statement on Wikipedia can become apparently credible via simple repetition.
;{{w|Stroop effect}}: The Stroop effect (referenced in [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]]) is a psychological phenomenon in which it is easier to name the visual color of a word when the word refers to its own color, than when the word refers to a different color; i.e. the fact that saying that '''Red''' is red is easier than to say that '''Blue''' is green.
:Named after {{w|John Ridley Stroop}}.
;{{w|Pockels effect}}: A phenomenon where an electric field passed through a medium can cause the medium's refractive index to depend upon the polarization and propagation direction of the refracted light, a property known as {{w|birefringence}}.
:Named after {{w|Friedrich Carl Alwin Pockels}}.
;{{w|Cheerios effect}}: A phenomenon where objects floating in a liquid appear to attract or repel each other.
:Named after the cereal Cheerios, which are an everyday demonstration of this phenomenon because many eat Cheerios in a bowl of milk.
;{{w|Hot chocolate effect}}: A phenomenon where the sound created by tapping a cup of hot liquid rises in pitch as a soluble powder is added.
;{{w|Perky effect}}: An experiment in which participants were asked to visualize an object while staring at a screen on which the outline of that object was subtly projected. Participants believed the projected shape to be only a product of their imaginations.
:Named after {{w|Cheves Perky}}.
;{{w|Bouba/kiki effect}}: An observation that people, despite different native languages, will relatively consistently assign names with certain sounds to blobby or spiky shapes, suggesting the association of sound and shape is non-arbitrary. ''Bouba'' and ''kiki'' were two of the words used in the experiment.
;{{w|Cutaneous rabbit effect}}: A phenomenon where, when tapped on one part of the body in rapid succession and then switching to another, the subject feels the tapping at locations in between the two.
:For example, if rapidly tapping the wrist then switching to the elbow, the subject will subjectively feel as if they are being tapped at progressive intervals between the wrist and elbow, when they are not.
;[https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smallfirmeffect.asp Small firm effect]: An economic theory that small firms usually perform better than larger ones
;{{w|Little–Parks effect}}: A phenomenon where a fluctuating magnetic field passed through a superconductor can slightly suppress its superconductivity, inducing small fluctuations in its electrical resistance.
:When juxtaposed against the "small firm effect", as in the bracket, one might get the impression that it is somehow related to urban architecture or civil engineering.
;{{w|Dr. Fox effect}}: A disputed theory that student evaluations of their teachers are likely unreliable, because they are largely based on the teacher's charisma instead of the quality of their content.
;{{w|Oddity effect}}: A theory that when fish assemble in shoals (large social groups), any that stand out appearance-wise will be attacked by a predator, explaining why shoals tend to have similar-looking members.
;{{w|Butterfly effect}}: The butterfly effect is the sensitivity of chaotic systems to small changes in initial conditions. The weather system of Earth is chaotic, and so an arbitrarily small change in air patterns (such as could be caused by the flapping of a butterfly's wing) could ultimately change the weather for the whole world.
;{{w|Popcorn effect}}: A phenomenon exhibited by crushed ore placed on a vibrating screen for separation in mineral processing, in which larger particles tend to bounce higher than smaller particles.

==Transcript==
:[A tournament bracket tree is shown with 16 scientific effect names, with 8 on the left and 8 on the right side. From both sides toward the middle the brackets reduce from eight to four, to two, then to one line where the latter join to a rectangle in the middle for the winners name of the final match. Above the bracket there is a title:]
:<big>Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects</big>

:[Left side:]
:YORP effect
:Nocebo effect

:Woozle effect
:Stroop effect

:Pockels effect
:Cheerios effect

:Hot chocolate effect
:Perky effect

:[Right side:]
:Bouba/kiki effect
:Cutaneous rabbit effect

:Small firm effect
:Little Parks effect

:Dr. Fox effect
:Oddity effect

:Butterfly effect
:Popcorn effect

==Trivia==
* Randall has created [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518701311763570689 Twitter polls] to determine the outcome of this version of his [[1819: Sweet 16|sweet 16]]:

===Result of the [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518698708824727554 Twitter polls]===
====First wave====
The first wave ran from April 25, 2022 at 5:19pm ET to the next day at 5:42pm ET.
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518701311763570689 '''YORP effect (67.7%)''' vs Nocebo effect (32.3%)], 8,996 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518702773075943425 '''Woozle effect (74.4%)''' vs Stroop effect (25.6%)], 8,517 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518704819720044544 Pockels effect (42.4%) vs '''Cheerios effect (57.6%)'''], 7,513 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518705352342228998 '''Hot chocolate effect (56.2%)''' vs Perky effect (43.8%)], 7,379 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518705724737662977 '''Bouba/kiki effect (64%)''' vs Cutaneous rabbit effect (36%)], 7,563 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518706168440541194 Small firm effect (18.4%) vs '''Little Parks effect (81.6%)'''], 7,209 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518706772999118848 '''Dr. Fox effect (67.5%)''' vs Oddity effect (32.5%)], 7,852 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518707180320481280 '''Butterfly effect (56.5%)''' vs Popcorn effect (43.4%)], 7,825 votes

====Second wave====
The second wave started on April 26, 2022 at 5:56pm ET and ended around 11:56am ET.
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519073013781647365 YORP effect (35.7%) vs '''Woozle effect (64.3%)'''], 7,026 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519074868637147138 Cheerios effect (49.5%) vs '''Hot chocolate effect (50.5%)'''], 6,672 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519077131376074754 '''Bouba/Kiki effect (72.8%)''' vs Little parks effect (27.2%)], 7,466 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519079116993183749 Dr. Fox effect (47.9%) vs '''Butterfly effect (52.1%)'''], 6,752 votes

====Third wave====
The third wave started on April 27, 2022 at 6:54pm ET and ended around 12:54pm ET.
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519450011674759169 '''Woozle effect (71.2%)''' vs Hot chocolate effect (28.8%)], 8,237 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519455938096373761 '''Bouba/Kiki effect (77.6%)''' vs Butterfly effect (22.4%)], 7,223 votes

====Fourth wave====
The fourth wave started on April 28, 2022 at 4:30pm ET and ended around 10:30pm ET.
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519776107821740033 Woozle effect (46.1%) vs '''Bouba/Kiki effect (53.9%)'''], 10,774 votes

====Bonus wave====
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1520109683503161344 '''Bouba (57%)''' vs Kiki (43%)], 9,723 votes

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Tournament bracket]]

2614: 2

2022-05-04T00:56:41Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236385 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

<div style="display: none">crap</div><noinclude>:''This page refers to the comic named "2". For comic #2, see [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)]].''</noinclude>
{{notice|'''WARNING:''' The vast majority of the pages of ExplainXKCD are currently vandalized. {{#expr: {{LATESTCOMIC}} - {{PAGESINCAT:All comics|R}}}} out of {{LATESTCOMIC}} ({{#expr: 100 - ({{PAGESINCAT:All comics|R}} / {{LATESTCOMIC}} * 100 round 0)}}%) are vandalized, leaving only {{PAGESINCAT:All comics|R}} ({{#expr: ({{PAGESINCAT:All comics|R}} / {{LATESTCOMIC}} * 100 round 0)}}%). ''Users:'' You can help combat this! Click "Random page" and undo/revert the vandalism in the page history. Every bit of help counts! (Admins, are you there?)}}
{{comic
| number = 2614
| date = May 2, 2022
| title = 2
| image = 2.png
| titletext = It's like sigma summation notation, except instead of summing the argument over all values of i, you 2 the argument over all values of 2.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A VERY JEALOUS NUMBER ₃½ⁿ₇₇₇ⅥⅣ₆⁸⁴⁴½⅔⅜ↆ↉↉∂, WHO DEMANDS TO HAVE THEIR OWN WEBCOMIC NEXT - Please change this comment when editing this page. The titletext needs to be worked in there, but I think I got everything else in some sort of order, pending general improvements. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This demonstrates the different ways in which the number 2 can be typeset in various scientific fields. Whilst these typefaces are used with any number, using the number 2 in this instance provides a clear illustration of where adding numbers can signify either a feature of a concept (such as the number of electrons in an atom) or a mathematical operation on it (such as raising a value to it's second power).

The dotted box represents any character (presumably a letter or bigram of letters). All the other notation consists only of the digit 2, in various fashions with occasional additional punctuation, and labelled as to what the 'purpose' might normally be of any particular element(s) as indicated, with respect to the general term, in the following fashions:
;Regular Math
:Precedes the term. "2x" indicates two times the value of ''x'' in normal {{w|algebra|algebraic}} use that should be familiar for many people. {{Citation needed}}
;Physics
:A preceding superscript. "2H" would indicate the particular {{w|isotope}} of Hydrogen with the atomic weight of two, i.e. deuterium, which is most often encountered when working with the atomic level of matter where the total number of neutrons and protons in the atom is important. It can also represent tetration, which is iterated exponentiation.
;Chemical Physics
:A preceding subscript, "2He" indicates the atomic number of an atom, which is the number of protons it contains, and thus a guide to the number of electrons its unionised form usually has and hence meaningful in its potential chemical interactions with other atoms. This should be invariant for any particular named element, but is usually given simultaneously with the presuperscripted mass number where it can be indicative of the applicable nuclear physics. {{w|Chemical Physics}} is a subdiscipline of physics and chemistry and **must never** be confused with {{w|Physical Chemistry}}. It can also represent pentation, which is iterated tetration.
;Regular Math or Footnotes
:A trailing superscript is typical of a {{w|Exponentiation|power value}}, in this case "x²" would be ''x'' multiplied by a second copy of itself, and a fairly typical mathematical standard.
:Additionally, superscripted numbers are one common way to mark words in a line of text in a way to refer to a {{w|Note (typography)|footnote}}, typically placed at the bottom of the page, with additional information that would not be appropriate or easily comprehendable to edit into the main text itself. The ambiguity between footnotes and exponents was used in [[1184: Circumference Formula]]
;Chemistry
:A trailing subscript is used in chemistry to indicate a multiple of the element (or group of elements, in brackets) in a {{w|chemical formula}}. "H2O" indicates two hydrogen atoms bond with a single oxygen atom in a molecule of water.
;Matrices! ("2,2")
:Extending the trailing subscript with a comma-separated value usually indicates a multidimensional array (e.g. establishing a 2-by-2 square of numbers, or this particular position in such an array), which is in the realms of {{w|Matrix (mathematics)|matrix mathematics}}. This is a little bit beyond 'everyday algebra' for many people, as seemingly indicated by the exclamation of the mere mention of matrices!
;The Physicists Are At It Again ("2;2")
:This label encompasses a mark that turns the prior comma into a semicolon, as part of the trailing subscript. This is a common notation for the {{w|Covariant derivative}} of a tensor field, which is commonly used in the mathematics of general relativity.
;Either High School Math Function or Incomprehensible Group Theory
:The number 2 in parentheses that follow a term would normally be the argument to a {{w|Function (mathematics)|function}}, e.g. "f(2)", which means that you should take the value (in this case 2) and find the result if manipulated by the predefined function ''f''. It is generally taught as part of algebraic mathematics already described, i.e. at {{w|Secondary school|High School}}.
:In {{w|group theory}}, however, the number 2 in parentheses could indicate a cyclic subgroup or ideal generated by two or a special case of cycle notation for elements of symmetry groups used to mean an element that keeps 2 fixed. This may be somewhat beyond high-school level.{{citation needed}}
;Oh no. Whatever this is, it's cursed.
:A symbol centered underneath another symbol is normally reserved for doing summations, where the big symbol is Σ, or some other operation applied to a sequence of numbers.
:It does not make sense to have a single number there, as indicated in the alt text. As with [[2529: Unsolved Math Problems|other things]] in Randall's comic universe, the explanation for this particular anomaly is that it is 'Cursed'. The usage mentioned in the alt text is an operation (Σ, summation) over a variable usually indicated by a letter such as i, where the operation is performed over all values of the variable, i.e. you Σ the argument over all values of i. In the "2" case, the alt text says you "you 2 the argument over all values of 2", i.e. the Σ operation has been replaced by the "2" operation and the i variable has been replaced by the "2" variable. 2 is usually not an operation, though the definition of 2 under {{w|Church_encoding#Church_numerals|church encoding}} is a function that takes in and produces functions. However, 2 is not a variable (and definitely not both at the same time).
:: Things being cursed is a common trope within recent XKCD comics which have mentioned items including [[2332:_Cursed_Chair|Cursed chairs]] and [[Category:Cursed_Connectors]]. This notation is one of the few occasions where the supernatural have demonstrable implications on science and mathematics for those foolhardy enough to use it.

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

:[An apparent generalisation of a scientific expression consisting of a dotted rectangular 'box' outline, left empty, and various commonly-themed symbology around it:]

:[as normal text, to the left of all the rest:] 2
:[superscript to the immediate left of the box:] 2
:[subscript also to the immediate left of the box:] 2
:[superscript to the immediate right of the box:] 2
:[subscript also to the immediate right of the box:] 2;2 [i.e. separated by a semicolon]
:[as normal text, to the right of almost all the rest:] (2) [i.e. enclosed in standard parentheses]
:[smaller subscript, centered immediately beneath the 2 within the parentheses:] 2

:[Further details are drawn in grey tone, around or near various of the elements of the expression:]
;[Captions above the numbers]
:[with an arrow pointing to the leftmost 2:] Regular Math
:[with an arrow pointing to the leftwards superscript 2:] Physics
:[with an arrow pointing to the rightwards superscript 2:] Regular math or footnotes
:[with an arrow pointing to the parenthetical 2 at the right:] Either high school math functions or incomprehensible group theory

;[Captions below the numbers]
:[with an arrow pointing to the leftwards subscript 2:] Chemical Physics
:[with an arrow pointing to just the rightwards subscript 2:] Chemistry
:[with an arrow pointing to a distorted grey ring snaking around only the comma of the semicolon and the following 2 of the rightmost subscript:] Matrices!
:[with an arrow pointing to a larger grey ring that passes fully around the whole semicolon and final 2 of the rightmost subscript:] The physicists are at it again
:[with an arrow pointing to the small 2 placed below the parenthetical 2:] Oh no. Whatever this is, it's cursed.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cursed Items]]

2609: Entwives

2022-05-04T00:55:59Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236216 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

<div style="display: none">crap</div>{{comic
| number = 2609
| date = April 20, 2022
| title = Entwives
| image = entwives.png
| titletext = No, we actually do have a woman who's basically part of our fellowship. She lives in Rivendell, you wouldn't know her.
}}
*The comic is a link to a YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2qCjL6-n4 video].

==Explanation==
In {{w|The Lord of the Rings}}, the {{w|Ent|Ents}} are a species of tree-like humanoids, such as the one depicted in this comic. The comic shows an Ent, presumably {{w|Treebeard}}, meeting with some of the nine from the {{w|Fellowship_of_the_Ring_(characters)|Fellowship of the Ring}}. The image is inaccurate inasmuch as it shows three {{w|hobbits}}: during the Ents' interactions with the Fellowship, two of the four hobbits ({{w|Frodo Baggins|Frodo}} and {{w|Samwise Gamgee|Sam}}) were elsewhere in {{w|Middle Earth}}, so it was only {{w|Merry Brandybuck|Merry}} and {{w|Pippin Took|Pippin}} who met the ents. The other three in the image are the human {{w|Aragorn}}, the Dwarf {{w|Gimli (Middle-earth)|Gimli}} and the Elf {{w|Legolas}}. The last two of the nine, not depicted, were the wizard {{w|Gandalf}} and the human {{w|Boromir}}.

Part of the backstory of the Ents is that all the females of their species (the Entwives that this comic is named for) had disappeared thousands of years before during {{w|Sauron}}'s war of the {{w|History_of_Arda#Second_Age|second age}}. The Ents and the Entwives lived in separate locations, and eventually, when the Ents went to visit the Entwives, the latter were seemingly nowhere to be found. The Ents have been searching for their lost mates ever since. The loneliness of the Ents' all-male society is considered a great tragedy in their culture. It is several thousands years ago in the time of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Ents have all but forgotten how the Entwives even looked. They live for many thousands of years.

This comic uses that backstory to satirically comment on the extreme gender imbalance of the protagonists of Lord of the Rings; when presented with the all-male Fellowship, the Ent assumes that they must come from a race afflicted by a similar tragedy. In a broader sense, this can be read as a commentary on how few female characters there are in the trilogy overall. In reality, the general lore presents, or at least mentions, the existence of at least multiple (if not numerous) female characters of almost all races that make up the fellowship (dwarf, man, elf, hobbit), and does not suggest that what happened with the Ents and their Entwives happened to any other race.

The clickable link on the image leads to the satirical video ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2qCjL6-n4 Lord of the Rings Trilogy but it's EVERY scene where two female characters interact]''. The creator claims that this shows all the scenes from the trilogy where two female characters interact. There is only one 3 second long scene, which only emphasizes how few female characters there are in the trilogy. The inclusion of this clip may be a reference to the {{w|Bechdel test}}, a baseline indicator of the representation of women in a piece of media that requires two women to have a conversation about something other than a man. Whether this three-and-a-half-word exchange is sufficient to pass the test is debatable. Later versions of the test suggest that the two women should be named (i.e. not just two incidental characters that have very few lines), whereas this scene is between {{w|Éowyn}} and an unnamed girl. There is debate as to if there are other scenes with women speaking with women, and if we are only talking about human women, or if other races females would also count. There are at least three important female characters, but they do not meet/speak much if at all. But they have several scenes where they talk, even a long monologue... But if they speak to someone it is male characters.

The title text most likely refers to the character of {{w|Arwen}}, an elf woman and, later, wife of Aragorn; while somewhat important to the story, she is nowhere near as significant as the males of the Fellowship, despite being used more prominently in the movies than in the books. Even if she were part of the Fellowship, a single important woman wouldn't counterbalance the heavily male-centric storytelling.

The way that the title text is phrased is a reference to the proverbial (and implicitly imaginary) "{{tvtropes|GirlfriendInCanada|Girlfriend in Canada}}," a trope in which a single American character claims to have a girlfriend that their friends wouldn't know "because she lives in Canada" (or some other sufficient separation such as "goes to another school"), when in reality the reason that nobody else has met her is because she doesn't exist. {{w|Canada}} is one of only two countries with which the United States has land borders, making it a potentially plausible place for some American's long-distance girlfriend to live, and presumably the Fellowship consider the Elf kingdom of {{w|Rivendell}} to be sufficiently distant to allow the Ent to accept the plausibility of the statement without any further delving into potentially awkward details.

==Transcript==
:[A large treelike person (an Ent, maybe Treebeard) is holding one of his arms out towards six characters that are all looking at him. A man (Aragorn) with beard stubble and long hair, a dwarf (Gimli) with a helmet and a very large beard, an elf (Legolas) with long blonde hair (holding a bow down), and three short persons, hobbits, two with dark hair, and the middle one with blonde hair.]
:Ent: Alas, there are no Ent women. The Entwives all vanished in the second age, during Sauron's war.
:Aragorn: I'm so sorry.
:Ent: And what about you all? Same story, I assume?
:Aragorn: Huh? No, what do you mean?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:LOTR]]

2017: Stargazing 2

2022-05-04T00:55:01Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 236346 by 172.69.235.151 (talk)

<noinclude>:''"2017", this comic's number, redirects here. For the comic named "2017", see [[1779: 2017]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2017
| date = July 9, 2018
| title = Stargazing 2
| image = stargazing_2.png
| titletext = I mean, it wasn't exactly MY thesis. When the FAA came to shut down our observatory for using the telescope mirror to shine light at airplanes, I took a thesis and a bunch of doctorates from the supply cabinet on my way out.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the second comic in the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series: The first was [[1644: Stargazing]], two and a half years earlier. It was followed by [[2274: Stargazing 3]] one and a half years later.

This comic continues with [[Megan]] as a TV host mixing accurate astronomical information with trivialities, as well as utterly bizarre statements. (See this [[1644: Stargazing#Relevant TV-shows|section]] from the original Stargazing comic about the host and also the [[1644: Stargazing#Trivia|trivia]], from the original comic, regarding the gender of the host).

In the first panel, the host voices surprise that the stars are visible again after disappearing during daylight.

The host mentions three stars in a constellation which she says is called The Triangle, likely referring to the constellation {{w|Triangulum}}, which is in fact just three main stars in a narrow triangle. However, this may also simply be intended to show the host's lack of knowledge of constellations, since she then goes on to point out three other stars forming a triangle and concludes that one can form lots of triangles by connecting groups of three stars. In Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, any set of three non-collinear points will form a triangle, so to say that there are a "lotta triangles" is both trivial and an understatement.{{Citation needed}} (There are about 125 billion triangles visible in the night sky with around 9096 visible stars.)

Then she points to planets, calling them dots known as "fool's stars" (like fool's gold). Planets such as Venus and Jupiter are often mistaken as stars, and the word itself is derived from the Greek, ''planētēs'' or "wanderer." She also notes that lacking interstellar transportation, humanity will likely only reach the planets within our solar system. However, she then makes the seemingly ludicrous assertion that humans will turn these planets into interplanetary landfills, which might be a comment on how humans have used the Earth.

The host also notices a dot of "space trash": An artificial satellite. Since the nascent Space Age, the Earth's orbit has gradually accumulated artificial materials that include satellites, spent rockets, and space stations. There are concerns such debris accumulation will increasingly imperil current and future space projects. However, the host claims there is an app that can tell you "whose fault it is," presumably a satellite-tracking smartphone app such as [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skyview-satellite-guide-find/id694309958?mt=8 SkyView] which can inform you who launched a given satellite and thus whose "fault" that particular bit of space-junk might be.

The host eventually goes off on a tangent when someone from the audience points out something blinking in the sky. The host says it is a plane, and tells them what is inside it. The host continues, "don't bother trying to catch that one." This could be understood as she means it's too hard to point the telescope at it properly because it is moving too fast. In the title text, however, she means this literally, revealing that at one point during her studies she apparently used the reflective mirror of a telescope to shine light directly at airplanes, which caused the {{w|Federal Aviation Administration}} (FAA) to close down the observatory. She claims it was worth getting shut down by the FAA because she completed her thesis for her graduate degree. "Got a thesis out of it" is a phrase typically used by a scholar after discussing a research project, as a way of indicating that it was actually the main research they had conducted as a student in graduate school. Conducting research and writing it up in a thesis is one of the major hurdles toward earning a graduate degree (masters or doctorate).

In the title text, she clarifies that as she was exiting the observatory, she literally "got", as in "stole", someone else's thesis paper and multiple doctorates (presumably framed degrees), either to fraudulently claim them as her own accomplishments, or perhaps just because she wanted to steal stuff. Usually "got a thesis" is shorthand for the process of "writing a lengthy thesis paper and having it be accepted as a requirement for graduation", however in this case she simply swiped someone else's document. The revelations that she's extremely unqualified (and unethical) would explain her many bizarre statements.

==Transcript==
:[In a dark panel, Megan is a TV host standing in front of a group of 5 people: two Cueballs, Ponytail, Hairbun and a Megan-like woman.]
:Host: Welcome back to stargazing.
:Host: When the stars disappeared this morning, I figured I had to find a new job, but they're ''back!'' This ''rules!''

:[A frame-less white panel in which the host points to the upper right with the Megan-like woman, Ponytail and Cueball looking in that direction.]
:Host: Those three stars form a constellation called the triangle.
:Host: Those three are another triangle.
:Host: Lotta triangles. Very important shape.

:[Back to a dark panel with the host now pointing to the upper left in a close-up.]
:Host: Those dots are planets, or "fool's stars." Without interstellar travel, they're the only ones we can realistically hope to dump trash on.
:Host: Speaking of space trash, that dot is a satellite. There are apps that will tell you whose fault it is.

:[The host is now turned right not pointing, still in a close-up.]
:Off-panel voice: What's that blinking one?
:Host: Airplane. They're full of snacks and money and stuff, but don't bother trying to catch them- they're ''way'' too high up.
:Host: Learned that the hard way in grad school.
:Host: Got a thesis out of it, at least.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Stargazing]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Stargazing]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Research Papers]]

Talk:1673: Timeline of Bicycle Design

2022-05-04T00:27:12Z

172.70.230.143:

I have deleted the entire paragraph with the Alternatively, explanation that this could be an analogue to the process of meiosis and pregnancy... It seems extremely far fetched to me... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:01, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Seconded. This is a bizarre comic, and there will be a bizarre explanation, but that is clearly not it. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.181|141.101.70.181]] 13:04, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

That 1860 bike looks like the {{w|American Star Bicycle}}, but the year doesn't match. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.49|141.101.79.49]] 13:10, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

(Moved here from explanation:) The randomness of the designs reminds me of the strange designs produced by the genetic evolution AI in the game BoxCar2D.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.78|141.101.80.78]] 15:05, 27 April 2016‎

This comic strongly remind me of http://boxcar2d.com/ [[User:Dorus|Dorus]] ([[User talk:Dorus|talk]]) 14:24, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

I third the above comments. It could also help explain the title text, as the 1955 panel shows a broken and failed cycle, which can happen when a detrimental mutation (like weak wheel linkages) is selected by the AI to be passed on. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.52}}

Would have seconded it, only looks like I'm fourthing it, instead. Also I adjusted 1925's transcript description as the numbers were wrong. (I also suspect it's related to the stabilisation applied to the [https://postalheritage.wordpress.com/tag/pentacycle/ Pentacycle], only without visible in/out-of-page stability. (Because the third dimension doesn't exist? Well apart from 1900 that looks to be a bicycle version of the [http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/cycling.html Rudge], with a solid insert to the spoked wheel ('poor man's disc-wheel' kit?) obscuring all but the spurious over-wheel drive-chain and the rider's head.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.137|141.101.98.137]] 15:09, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Can you include the 'Alternatively,' explanation down here so I (and presumably others) don't have to wade through the page's history? We could list all sorts of far-fetched explanations, it has definitely happened on other comics. {{unsigned ip|108.162.242.135}}

I have a feeling that this is related to the idea that nobody can draw a bicycle. For example, [https://www.behance.net/gallery/35437979/Velocipedia this artist created 3D renderings of bicycles drawn by strangers]. [[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 14:51, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
:I'm not certain there's a relation, unless it's Randall pointing out that it's rather difficult for him to draw a bicycle while maintaining a simple stick-figure theme? Regarding that guy's experience asking strangers to draw a bicycle: Most people do not draw very well. At all... Many people can't even draw faces very well & we look at faces *all the time*. We're predisposed to spot faces even when they're not there, yet most people get the proportions wrong. I'm not sure why he was surprised that most people couldn't draw a mechanically accurate representation. Bicycles are moderately complex machines that many people feel overwhelmed by, to the point of omitting otherwise advantageous equipment, such as multiple gears. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.25}}
::Well, as you could see, most of the people who tried to draw bicycles were able to at least sketch something that resembled a bicycle. You don't have to be an artist to get the basic idea down. The thing I found more interesting was that many of the drawings were just plain wrong (e.g. the chain going all the way between the front and back wheels) or lacked significant parts. In some cases, it's clear that the drawer just overlooked one or two things - easy to do - and in other cases, it shows that the person actually had difficulty recalling the basic structure of a bicycle. Everyone who participated clearly knows what a bike is and, from a practical standpoint, how it works. But from a brain-sciences perspective, there's a difference between the symbolic memory of a bicycle (I know what it is and how to use it, and I can remember what color mine is, etc.) and detailed visual memory (I know all the parts and can reconstruct them visually). That's what's being exposed in that experiment. :)
::That said, I agree that I don't think there's a strong relation between this comic and that experiment. I think it's more likely that Randall is poking fun at both genetic algorithms (perhaps self-learning AIs) and design prototyping (throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks). [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 16:56, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Does anyone else think the 1980 bike resembles a horse-drawn carriage minus the horses? Specifically, the two long parts Megan is holding look like reins. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.122|108.162.246.122]] 16:06, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
: This one rather makes me think of a chopper, only without the engine. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 16:49, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
:: Indeed, there is a movement for both chopper and lowrider bicycles. I have seen both and the 1980's bicycle looks almost like a lowrider bike I saw in Arvada CO probably in 2014. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.89|162.158.255.89]] 17:29, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
The 1980 design is reminiscent of long-wheelbase recumbent bicycles, which were originally designed in the 1930s and enjoyed a resurgence starting in the later 20th century. An Iowa company produced a bicycle called a 'Linear' about this time which did have extremely long handlebars; steering it was more like using a tiller on a boat. The fallacy here is using a chaindrive to power the (steerable) front wheel; this simply would not work. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 20:18, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
:actually, chain drive to the front wheel would work fine. You would have to fix the front wheel rigidly to the frame, of course, which means the rear wheel must do the steering. It seems possible the odd structure holding the rider (Megan) is intended to let her steer the rear wheel by twisting her body. {{unsigned ip|108.162.212.50}}
I came here thinking I did not get the joke. After reading the description I see I am not the only one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 16:23, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

: Same here. I think the joke is just Randall exaggerating actual bicycle designs. Either that or it's "The Evolution of the Bicycle" in an alternate reality. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.62|173.245.52.62]] 17:30, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Is the point of the timeseries that while most things in biology evolve gradually over time (think all of those Evolution of Man t-shirts), undergoing great changes in form, we basically hit all the possible bicycle designs in the first 20 years and it has gone along essentially unchanged ever since? There are specialty bikes made possible by new frame materials, but they are all "Safety Bicycles". The takeaway of the comic could be either about the simplicity of the solution to the bicycle "problem", or about the difference between engineered design and the natural selection. [[User:Peregrinus|Peregrinus]] ([[User talk:Peregrinus|talk]]) 17:27, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

The 1955 design reminds me of the movie "Rubber". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1612774/ Is that too tenuous of a connection?
[[User:ChrisPwildcat|ChrisPwildcat]] ([[User talk:ChrisPwildcat|talk]]) 19:11, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
: I definitely made the same connection. (Wow, the scene where the tire stares into its own reflection & remembers all of its actions so far... I felt empathy for that tire. WTH?) The 1955 design definitely implies that the wheels are trying to kill Cueball. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.25}}
:: Perhaps you are feeling sorry for the 1955 tires. That is because you are crazy. The 1980 design is much better. </ikea> :) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 14:38, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

This reminds me of certain videos I watched about evolution, in sequence, the picutres could be describe various models (some of them apparently unfit, thus discontinued) of bicycles as if they were derived from the laws that govern evolution (random mutation and natural selection). [[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.242|198.41.243.242]] 21:42, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Could the 1955 design be backwards cheese rolling? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.44|173.245.54.44]] 21:54, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

(Re: 1955) "This is obviously the most ridiculous of all of these designs" - clearly, someone has really badly misspelt the word "awesome" here. Please fix. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.92|141.101.98.92]] 08:12, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
:And the text I quoted is no longer in the article. Muahahaha, the power of the talk page! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.92|141.101.98.92]] 15:58, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Someone using the 2016 bicycle wouldn't be very welcome in Skyrim (milkdrinkers...) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.79|108.162.219.79]] 14:36, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

This could be an example of a (badly parameter-ed) genetic algorithm. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.244}}

I added a table describing each bicycle design (not copied from the transcript), naming things the design is similar to (e.g. unicycles, Pennyfarthings, etc.), and what's wrong with it. :) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 14:36, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

1940 bicycle: Megan looks as if she is propelling her bike like a Venetian gondola.[[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]])

Could this be related to either UI design philosophies or business process design ideas that prevailed in those eras? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.18|162.158.255.18]] 20:00, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

;Categories

Quick question: I noticed this explanation is included in "Category:Multiple Cueballs". Is this correct? It stands to reason that we may just have the same Cueball appearing in multiple photos as he attempts to demonstrate how to use each bike design. If we do consider this an instance of multiple Cueballs, should we also have a category for multiple Megans, since she appears three times as well? [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 17:17, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

I'm almost certain he is making fun of https://vimeo.com/73581450 {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.47}}

In my honest opinion, it is a reference to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOFws_hhZs8 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.196.191|162.158.196.191]] 00:09, 2 May 2016 (UTC)GianniPiccioni

Could the 1940 design resemble a tank? It was the beginning of WWII. {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.151}}

Regarding the explanation of the 1900's design: "... but it's unclear what he's doing.": Imho it's not unclear but quite obvious that Cueball's operating the device with somthing like this: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/industrial-wheel-valve-handle-vintage-rusty-equipment-machine-part-40567595.jpg What do you think? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:37, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
: And for the 1940's design: Why does using a pole not count for propulsion and steering? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punt_%28boat%29 [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:49, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
:: I'm honestly not sure how you can make out what Cueball is doing on the 1900 bike - do you have access to a higher-resolution image than I do? Even zooming in on the one in the comic, I can only make out that Cueball is standing on the thing, but otherwise not determine what he's doing. As for the 1940 design: Pushing the pole against the ground is a means of external propulsion - as in, the bike has no way to be propelled within itself (pedals, etc.). Using the pole on the ground is in the same vein as pushing a wheelbarrow from behind - the only difference is that the person pushing the pole is on the bike, and so you can still call it a vehicle. [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 19:51, 3 May 2016 (UTC)

:: Maybe my mind is just filling the gaps, but I derive it from Cueball's posture. But indeed, I cannot actually see what he's doing. Maybe we could agree on something like "Due to low resolution it's not perfectly clear what he's doing, but presumably the upper wheel might be something like a big crank wheel Cueball's operating"? For the 1940's: To be honest I don't see why this should be called "external" (and therefore being invalid as propulsion at all?). The wheelbarrow on the other hand is external. Why? The 1940's design is - from a propulsion point of view - the same as a rowboat, while the wheelbarrow is a sailboat. Or if you get more modern: The 1940's design is a normal rocket while the wheelbarrow is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam-powered_propulsion. But that's not my point. I simply want to know what's making using a pole invalid in regard to being a means of propulsion at all. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:17, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Someone keeps insisting that Megan appears 4 times and Cueball only 3, and at one point they specifically said it was Megan on the 1900 bike. I'm pretty sure it's Cueball on the 1900 bike, so he would appear in 1825, 1900, 1915 and 1955, with Megan showing up in 1860, 1940 and 1980. Does anyone see differently here? [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 20:09, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
: Agree. 3 Megan, 4 Cueball (and 1 Ponytail) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:17, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

On the 1925 bicycle, I don't think it's just the wheels at the ends that touch the ground; it seems like all of them do. A reason for the wheels at the end to be farther down could just be because of the way Randall accidentally drew them; when I draw fractals like that, it's hard to keep the tiniest bits in line with the rest because of how small they would have to be (don't know if that makes sense at all). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.179|172.68.142.179]] 19:02, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

Somebody replaced the entire article with “crap crap crap crap”

2097: Thor Tools

2022-05-03T21:21:06Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 232498 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2097
| date = January 11, 2019
| title = Thor Tools
| image = thor_tools.png
| titletext = CORRECTION: After careful evaluation, we have determined that the axis label on this chart was printed backward.
}}

==Explanation==

In Norse mythology, {{w|Thor}} is the name of a god of thunder and lightning. His signature weapon is a magic hammer called {{w|Mjölnir}}. In popular culture Thor might be best known for his role in {{w|Thor (Marvel Comics)|Marvel comics and films}}, which his appearance here seems to be referencing. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor also wields an axe named Stormbreaker.

Although this hammer was historically a weapon, this comic interprets it as it would more commonly be interpeted today -- as a tool. The comic is listing various hand tools in order of utility and viability as Thor's weapon, besides his actual, enchanted hammer. Hammers are heavy, blunt, and can do large amounts of damage to an opponent, whereas a hand plane is sharp, but only in one place, and will only inflict surface wounds.

Some of these tools require power, which would generally require Thor to stay near an outlet or keep a battery charging, such as the circular saw, or Dremel. However, being the god of lightning may allow him to circumvent this, by producing electricity for the direct current (D.C.) tools, although he would need an inverter to convert the lightning (D.C.) to alternating current (A.C.) for the tools requiring it. Thor would also need compressed air for the nail gun or jackhammer, only allowing Thor so many shots before reloading the air tank at an outlet, or via a concentrated wind storm.

The nail gun and staple gun would also require nails or staples respectively to function as a weapon. Although Mjölnir is believed to return to Thor if thrown, it's not clear how a similar system could work with nails and staples.

The usefulness of the nail gun as a weapon might depend on whether it was an older one that can be bump-fired or a newer one that requires a separate trigger pull for each nail.

In the title text, [[Randall]] writes that the order of the axis label should be reversed, making the plane the best tool and Mjölnir the worst. Considering that the title of the comic is "Thor Tools" ("tools", instead of "weapons"), the argument seems to be that a hammer is less useful than the rest, by seeing them as tools and not as weapons.

A few other interpretations of this could be:
* Randall proposes that Thor armed with a plane or digital calipers would be much more fearsome than with a hammer.
* The "value" of the more strange-seeming items would be much higher than his traditional hammer, perhaps more gory or more humorous.
* Thor tends to cause collateral damage, and would cause less with a plane or calipers.
* "Best" and "worst" are to be interpreted for Thor's enemies rather than Thor himself.
* Randall might just find the idea of Thor wielding a Plane as a weapon to be really funny.

The title may be a reference to Gary Larson's ''The Far Side'' comic, ''Cow Tools''. The comic depicted a cow next to a set of crude tools, and was famous for no one understanding it.

===List of tools===

All shown tools are explained below:
;Hammer
:A {{w|hammer}} ''is a tool consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object''. Thor was a hammer-wielding god and produced the lighting by using this tool. A {{w|war hammer}} was an actual blunt weapon used for combat in medieval times, and is the original Thor's attribute. There exists a variety of craftsman's hammers designed for specific purposes which can be used as weapons of opportunity to various degrees, depending on the tool's size, weight and material.
;Axe
:An {{w|axe}} or just ax is another old human tool used to split and cut wood, but it also was used as a dangerous weapon in the medieval times. The battle-axes of old were of considerably different design than the woodworking ones, being lighter and having thinner and wider blades. A woodworking axe, though not designed for combat, could be a formidable weapon of opportunity. Notably, this tool is placed slightly below the hammer, possibly indicating Randall's thoughts on Thor's axe, 'Stormbreaker' which features in the Marvel films. (Note: In Norse mythology Thor is depicted exclusively with a hammer rather than an axe).
;Claw hammer
:A {{w|claw hammer}} is a hammer tool primarily used for driving nails into other objects, but also for pulling nails from them. This item seems a bit redundant in the presence of a general hammer on the axis, but could be seen as more scary because it has a pointed, curved and split back head (used for pulling nails). In fact, the usefulness of its back head for combat is debatable at least. On the other hand, it is smaller and lighter than some other craftman's hammers, and less scary than a true war hammer, so its place on the axis may be justified.
;Circular saw
:A {{w|circular saw}} is using a, mostly electric powered, fast-revolving toothed disc to cut materials. A stationary version is called a ''table saw'' but the figure of Thor drawn above presents him using a lighter hand-held version making a buzzing sound. Since the power of the saw is far beyond the human power it is quite a dangerous tool and could be fatal to the user himself. However, it would be rather unwieldy in combat, as it is quite heavy and bulky. Also, electric circular saw would be limited by its cord length, however cordless (battery-operated) saws exist today. This item could be a mock reference to a common trope in horror movies or computer games, when a {{w|chainsaw}} (not a circular saw) is used a weapon.
;Shovel
:A {{w|shovel}} is also a historic tool. It can be used to dig into the ground, move snow or dirt, harvest, and much more. Because it has a relatively thin, sharp metal blade at the end of a pole, it can be used as a weapon of opportunity. Indeed, a small (sometimes foldable), sturdy {{w|Entrenching tool|spade}} was and still is a standard issue item for an infantryman in some countries, intended mainly for entrenching work, but also usable as a weapon – and the soldiers are trained to use it as such, sometimes to a high skill, specifically among special forces. It is rumored that Russian Spetznaz operators are specifically trained to use their spades as throwing weapons. It is therefore more useful in combat than a circular saw – but may be seen as less scary.
;Jackhammer
:A {{w|jackhammer}} is a power tool used to drill and crush hard but brittle materials like stone, concrete etc. It has heavy body with a protruding shaft that makes hard and rapid back-and-forth (and optionally also rotary) movements that drive an implement (a drill, a chisel etc.) into the worked material. Like the circular saw jackhammer is a tool that is powered far beyond single human capabilities. Most jackhammers are very heavy and can be reasonably used only in a facing-down position to work on floors, pavements and other near-horizontal surfaces, nullifying combat application. However, since Thor is purportedly very strong, he may be able to hold it horizontally for some combat...
;Socket wrench
:A handle attached to a {{w|socket wrench}} is mostly used to tighten bolts or nuts. But since it is quite heavy and resembles a hammer it could also be used in a similar fashion. It may be a self-reference to [[538: Security|comic 538]].
;Bolt cutters
:{{w|Bolt cutters}} are cutters with very long handles, typically 2 or 3 feet long, and comparatively tiny jaws. The length of the handles provides the user enough mechanical advantage to sheer through things like bolts, chain links, and lock shackles. Although this tool can cut some fairly tough objects, its usefulness in combat is limited – as far as the cutting action goes at least. On the other hand they are quite heavy and can be used as a blunt weapon.
;Hacksaw
:A {{w|hacksaw}} is a type of hand saw with very small teeth. Hacksaws are well suited to cutting materials like metal and plastic, where the larger teeth of a wood saw would tend to bind or damage the material around the cut. Hacksaw blades are fairly unlikely to seriously injure people, though a hacksaw may be useful against metal baddies like Ultron.
;Nail gun
:A {{w|nail gun}} is a tool for driving nails or other fasteners into various materials ranging from soft wood to hard concrete by a single powerful "shot" to the nail being driven. There are models powered by compressed air, electricity (several types of mechanisms) or explosive charges similar to firearm ammunition (most often compatible with {{w|.22 Short}} blank cartridges). They are normally used by slightly pushing the "nozzle" against an object, disengaging a safety nose contact mechanism, and pulling the trigger. These are quite dangerous tools and can be potentially modified – by removing safety mechanisms – to act similarly to a handgun, shooting nails as high-speed projectiles. Its place in the middle of the axis seems not right compared to the work hazard level of other tools placed left of it. If safety mechanisms are left intact, a nail gun would need to be used in close combat by pressing it against an opponent which would make it difficult to apply, but if applied successfully it would inflict grievous wounds.
;Staple gun
: A {{w|staple gun}} is a tool used to drive {{w|Staple (fastener)|staples}} (C-shaped pieces of hard wire) into relatively soft materials such as wood, plastics and light masonry in order to fix something to them. There exist spring-loaded hand-operated staple guns as well as power ones utilizing either electricity or compressed air. The power discharged during staple action is a lot less than that of a nail gun and would inflict minor skin wounds at most. If one manages to eject a staple into the air (not against an object) it won't travel very far. A figure of Thor is drawn above the axis showing him using a staple gun this way, with staples falling short onto the ground. The gun held by Thor makes ''kachunk'' sounds characteristic for a spring-loaded version of the tool.
;Coping saw
: A {{w|coping saw}} is a hand saw with a thin replaceable blade and is used to cut curves and shapes in wood or other relatively soft materials. While it could produce a surface wound and draw blood, a person would generally not stand still long enough to be seriously hurt by being sawed at by a coping saw, plus they could bend or break the blade relatively easily.
;Screwdriver (flat)
:A (flat) {{w|screwdriver}} is a metal rod with a handle, flattened and ground at the other end to form a fairly sharp but short edge perpendicular to the rod. It is normally used to drive {{w|Screw|screws}} into a material, by putting the edge into a groove on the screw's head and turning it while pressing firmly. It is not very dangerous normally, but many people have cut their fingers while driving screws in, or sometimes [[1474: Screws|whilst using it incorrectly to unscrew a bolt]]. It could potentially be used as a stabbing weapon similarly to a dagger, but much less effectively, or alternatively the heavy handle may be used as a bludgeon, though the smooth rod would be difficult to grip. Some nations seem to regard it so much dangerous as to ban its possession in public along knives.
;Ball-peen hammer
: Like a regular hammer, a {{w|Ball-peen hammer|ball-peen hammer}} has a flat head designed to hammer things like nail. However instead of the "claw" a regular carpenter's hammer has to pull out nails, it has a second head that is shaped like a ball and which is used to bang surfaces such as sheet metal directly. A ball-peen hammer is probably the smallest of traditional hammers, and usually used for more delicate work. Thor's Hammer has two flat surfaces for pounding (no claw), so a ball peen might be like a smaller Thor's Hammer and could be pretty deadly in his hands. The ball part would probably not be any more or less effective than the flat part, except it might bounce or deflect off some surfaces where a flat one might not.
;Screwdriver (Phillips)
:Similar to a flat screwdriver, but with a cross-shaped tip, designed to drive screws with matching cross-shaped heads. While a Phillips screwdriver could potentially be used as an improvised weapon to stab or strike like a flat screwdriver, the blunter, cross shape is less likely to inflict cutting injury, likely leading to its lower position on the list.
;Awl
:An {{w|Stitching awl|awl}} is a hand tool, basically a rather short, thin, sharp (sometimes curved) spike with a handle. It is used for punching holes through soft material (leather, fabrics) or to {{w|Scratch awl|mark points}} or lines on wood or metal to assist further work such as cutting or drilling. In a pinch, it could be used as a stabbing weapon like a dagger, but a screwdriver is more sturdy for such purpose.
;Digital Caliper
:{{w|Digital calipers}} are an instrument for precisely measuring the dimensions of small objects. Typically, digital calipers can measure inner diameters, outer diameters, and depth. The reason they are considered more formidable than Dremels and planes is likely how surprisingly sharp the calipers are. They need to be sharp to make accurate measurements, but it is not uncommon for people to cut themselves while using a digital caliper.
;Dremel
:Dremel is a brand name (often used in a generic sense) of small {{w|Die grinder|rotary power tools}} that can be used in precise work involving small objects such as engraving, milling, drilling, grinding, cutting, polishing etc. It consists of a relatively small and lightweight body housing a high-speed electric motor driving a shaft equipped with a {{w|Chuck (engineering)|chuck}}. Various implements can be fixed to the chuck – drills, milling cutters of various shapes, small cutting disks, grinding stones, brushes, soft polishing disks etc. Typically the tool is used handheld against an object held in a vice. It can also be mounted in a stand with a {{w|flexible shaft}} attached, at the other end of which an implement is fixed in a chuck, allowing for still more precise work. A Dremel would be rather useless in combat, effecting in superficial wounds only. It could be seen as a baby circular saw, therefore much less scary and placed much more to the right of the scale. However, it is still a heavy object with a firm grip, and could plausibly be wielded as a bludgeon, making it slightly more effective than a plane.
;Plane
:A {{w|Plane_(tool)|hand plane}} is a tool for shaping wood using muscle power to force the cutting blade over the wood surface. It is designed to scrape layers of wood off the surface. While a plane does have a sharp edge and can cause painful injuries if misused, its awkward shape and the small size of the cutting edge would make it impractical to wield and nearly useless as a combat weapon, even for bludgeoning. A hand plane could plausibly be used as a particularly brutal ''torture'' device on a restrained victim, but as Thor is typically depicted as an honorable and heroic character it is unlikely that he would use one in this manner. Could also mean an actual plane that is meant to fly. Most likely to be used as a thrown projectile or, since Thor can fly using Mjölnir, he can use the plane to fly as well.

==Transcript==

:[A wide image is shown in a single frame.]
:Hand tools Thor could have ended up with
:[Below is a small centered horizontal line with arrows at both ends, labeled "Best" to the left and "Worst" on the right.]

:[The rest of the image shows an other horizontal line in the middle, also with arrows at both ends, covering the full width. Items are marked by a dot with a text above or below, and sometimes a figure wearing a winged helmet, above the line, uses a tool mentioned below:]
:Hammer
:Axe
:Claw hammer
:Circular saw
:[Above, the winged helmet guy uses a circular saw:]
:''Bzzzz zzzz''
:Shovel
:Jackhammer
:Socket wrench
:[Above, the winged helmet guy spins the socket of a socket wrench with a tiny sound.]
:Bolt cutters
:Hacksaw
:Nail gun
:Staple gun
:[Above, the winged helmet guy fires staples into the ground in front of him:]
:''Kachunk kachunk''
:Coping saw
:Screwdriver (flat)
:Ball-peen hammer
:Screwdriver (Phillips)
:Awl
:Digital Caliper
:Dremel
:[Above, the winged helmet guy shows a running Dremel to the left:]
:''Bzzzzz''
:Plane

{{comic discussion}}

1262: Unquote

2022-05-03T21:20:54Z

172.70.230.143: Undo revision 232501 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1262
| date = September 9, 2013
| title = Unquote
| image = unquote.png
| titletext = I guess it's a saying from the Old Country.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Randall]] poses the future possibility that at some time in the future, even a popular film as ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' will become forgotten by society.

"{{w|May the Force be with you}}" is one of the many famous phrases from the ''Star Wars'' movies. ''Star Wars'' has become popular enough to remain part of today's popular culture almost forty years since its initial release, and the source and meaning of the quote is commonly recognized. This comic suggests that eventually even the enormously popular Star Wars will fade into obscurity — by which time, ironically, Star Wars-like hovercraft will have been invented.

It is not uncommon for once-popular sayings to lose popularity and come into disuse; particularly when the sayings are sourced from a pop-culture reference such as a book or film. In fact, there are entire [http://www.amazon.ca/Lets-Bring-Back-Collection-Forgotten-Yet-Delightful/dp/1452105308 books] dedicated to such topics. Each generation generally develops its own pop culture-references which frequently become unrecognizable to the next generation. Only a handful of pop-culture quotes tend to survive for decades. For example, the phrase "Sit on it", coined by the creators of "{{w|Happy Days}}" as a TV-friendly but derogatory-sounding comeback for the character Fonzie. The phrase was very popular during the show's 1970s-80s heyday, but today is far less recognizable to those born after that era, and is not commonly referenced today.

The title text suggests that the characters will write off the phrase as a saying from the "Old Country" (the foreign country or place where one's ancestors emigrated from). This is a play on the fact that ubiquitous film and TV quotes have not been around long enough for society to generally forget their origins, and the most common source for unfamiliar sayings in today's world are sayings from other countries where one's ancestors originated. The use of the expression in this comic implies that the speaker has no idea about the origins of the phrase. To him it might be a translation of a foreign expression, or from a long left-behind homeland.

A similar topic was addressed in [[493: Actuarial]], with [[Black Hat]] predicting when the last of the original Star Wars cast would die, and in [[1093: Forget]], predicting when the release of ''The Return of the Jedi'' would be forgotten. Also, [[794: Inside Joke]] is about how much pop culture of centuries past has been forgotten.

The sentiment in this comic is similar to a quote from psychiatrist and author Irvin D Yalom:

<blockquote>“Some day soon, perhaps in forty years, there will be no one alive who has ever known me. That's when I will be truly dead - when I exist in no one's memory. I thought a lot about how someone very old is the last living individual to have known some person or cluster of people. When that person dies, the whole cluster dies, too, vanishes from the living memory. I wonder who that person will be for me. Whose death will make me truly dead?”</blockquote>

==Transcript==
:[Two figures with spiky hair and backpacks are conversing. One is riding in a hover-car, or similar.]
:Future Hair: Bye!
:Friend: May the Force be with you!
:Future Hair: Huh?
:Friend: It's just something my grandma used to say. No idea what it means.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I wonder on what date ''Star Wars'' will be quoted for the last time.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Star Wars]]

Talk:2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator

2022-04-30T17:35:20Z

172.70.230.143:

Hopefully the vandal won't bother this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
:Looks like they did, but they seem to be done because someone gave them the emoticon. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 22:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
::A mistake. We already know it's likely they'll be back at a later date with some other stunt to stroke their supremely fragile ego. (Whether or not things like this comment provokes them, I definitely consider my conscience clear in this regard.) But what happens, happens. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 22:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Is it any surprise they're already back? The emoticon was a cheap excuse for the infantile, childish behaviour of someone without a life that gets their shits and giggles out of being nothing more than a pest.[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 23:01, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Anyone else want to play this (and the other bad map projections) as maps in a 4X/Grand Strategy game? [[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 18:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Clicking on the original comic brings up the actual projection used, it looks like.

this page is kinda sussy tbh [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 18:11, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Why was this page mentioning Among Us? The game has no relation to map projections at all[[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.112|172.70.251.112]] 18:16, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

among us has many relations to map projections tho [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.35|172.69.33.35]] 18:17, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

- Among Us: deception based video game
- Map projections: how to put the globe on a flat surface
I see no relations at all, what are you on? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.65|172.70.246.65]] 18:33, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

no among us is actually very related, take a look at the wikipedia page [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 18:36, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
I have looked at the Wikipedia pages, and there is _no_ reference to Among Us on any map-related pages (and vice versa). What is your problem? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.195|172.70.242.195]] 18:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

maybe you didnt look hard enough [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 18:45, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

I take it you're the vandal... [[User:Something|Something]] ([[User talk:Something|talk]]) 19:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

ID does imply they are the vandal, they were adding the lyricis earlier today...[[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:23, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

I'm on an old machine here (because it usually doesn't matter), and clicked on the image on the xkcd site to get the image, to be told that ''Your browser does not support WebGL :'('' by the URL https://mrgris.com/projects/merc-extreme/#-4.64274,55.45253 - I will have to check from a less 'primitive' device, but it looks like it's got a special click-through, which might be worth mentioning in the Explanation. I can check myself in a few minutes, but noting here first in case I get delay. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 19:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

I have added the click. It opens an website app showing a Mercator with the North Pole set to wherever you want, with this one in particular set Mahé just as Randall said. [[User:Mapron01|Mapron01]] ([[User talk:Mapron01|talk]]) 19:40, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Added a table, based upon some rapid pixel-analysis I did. No, I didn't include Indonesia, etc, and the "Africa size probably includes Madagascar" sort of thing could need sorting, but I mentioned that below so nobody is under misapprehension. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 22:04, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
: I think having the official size also be a percent of the world (or at least another column like that) would make it easier to see how the distortion affects the size. And/or distortion from a normal Mercator projection

2609: Entwives

2022-04-20T15:45:25Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2609
| date = April 20, 2022
| title = Entwives
| image = entwives.png
| titletext = No, we actually do have a woman who's basically part of our fellowship. She lives in Rivendell, you wouldn't know her.
}}

==Explanation==
In {{w|The Lord of the Rings}}, the {{w|Ent|Ents}} are a species of tree-like humanoids, such as the one depicted in this comic. Part of the backstory of the Ents is that all of the women of their species (the Entwives that this comic is named for) left many years ago over a dispute with the male Ents, who have since been searching for them in an attempt to make amends and preserve the future of their species. The loneliness of the Ents' all-male society is considered a great tragedy in their culture.

This comic uses that plot point to satirically comment on the extreme gender imbalance of the cast of Lord of the Rings; when presented with the all-male Fellowship of the Ring, the Ent assumes that they must come from a culture afflicted by a similar tragedy. In reality, of course, the dwarves, elves, hobbits, and men all have a roughly even gender ratio, and the lack of women in the Fellowship is due not to cultural tragedy, but to strict gender roles excluding women from an adventuring party. Or the author simply neglected to include any female characters.

The clickable link leads to a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2qCjL6-n4 video showing the singular scene where two women interact], which is there to emphasize how few women there are in the franchise. The inclusion of this clip may be a reference to the {{w|Bechdel test}}, a metric for judging the representation of women in a piece of media that requires to women to have a conversation about something other than a man. Whether this two-and-a-half-word exchange is sufficient to pass the test is debatable.

The title-text most likely refers to the character of Arwen; while somewhat important to the story, she is nowhere near on the level of the Fellowship, and even if she were, a single important woman wouldn't counterbalance the heavily male-centric storytelling. The way that the title text is phrased is a reference to the proverbial (and implicitly imaginary) "{{tvtropes|GirlfriendInCanada|Girlfriend in Canada}}," a trope in which a single character claims to have a girlfriend that their friends wouldn't know "because she lives in Canada" (or some other sufficient separation such as "goes to another school"), when in reality the reason that nobody else has met her is because she doesn't exist. {{w|Canada}} is one of the United States' two neighboring countries, making it a potentially plausible place for some American's long-distance girlfriend to live, and presumably the Fellowship consider the Elf kingdom to be sufficiently distant to allow the Ent to accept the plausibility of the statement without any further delving into potentially awkward details.

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

[Ent Man stands to the left, facing right. Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and three hobbits stand to the right of Ent Man, facing him.]

Ent Man: Alas, there are no Ent women. The Entwives all vanished in the second age, during Sauron's war.

Aragorn: I'm so sorry.

Ent Man: And what about you all? Same story, I assume?

Aragorn: Huh? No, what do you mean?

{{comic discussion}}

2602: Linguistics Degree

2022-04-05T19:45:11Z

172.70.230.143:

{{comic
| number = 2602
| date = April 5, 2022
| title = Linguistics Degree
| image = linguistics_degree.png
| titletext = You'd think 'linguistics' would go to someone important in the field, but it's actually assigned to a random student in Ohio who barely graduated and then went into automotive marketing.
}}

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

[[Megan]] is obtaining a linguistics degree from [[Hairbun]], and is assigned one word she is "in charge of," "{{wiktionary|bassoon}}." Ponytail and Cueball compare the words they were assigned when ''they'' got their linguistics degrees, "{{wiktionary|jackalope}}" and "{{wiktionary|slurp}}."

It is never clarified what being "in charge of" a word entails. It could mean being in charge of keeping track of the word, or having actual authority over the use of the word, which is unlikely as normally [[1726|language use cannot be dictated by a single person]]. Also, no specific university has control over all of linguistics as far as we know, so it would require every university capable of giving people linguistics degrees to co-operate, so nobody is assigned the same word.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Hairbun and Megan, who is wearing a graduation cap, are standing on a platform with Ponytail and Cueball standing below. Hairbun is handing a roll to Megan.]
:Hairbun: Congratulations on the degree! Your word is "Bassoon."
:Ponytail: Oh nice! Not as cool as my "Jackalope," but still not bad.
:Cueball: You all are lucky. I'm stuck with "Slurp."
:[Caption below panel:]
:Every linguistics degree comes with one word that you're put in charge of.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2602: Linguistics Degree

2022-04-05T19:44:17Z

172.70.230.143: Grammar

{{comic
| number = 2602
| date = April 5, 2022
| title = Linguistics Degree
| image = linguistics_degree.png
| titletext = You'd think 'linguistics' would go to someone important in the field, but it's actually assigned to a random student in Ohio who barely graduated and then went into automotive marketing.
}}

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

[[Megan]] is obtaining a linguistics degree from [[Hairbun]], and is assigned one word she is "in charge of," '{{wiktionary|bassoon}}'. Ponytail and Cueball compare the words they were assigned when ''they'' got their linguistics degrees, '{{wiktionary|jackalope}}' and '{{wiktionary|slurp}}' respectively.

It is never clarified what being "in charge of" a word entails. It could mean being in charge of keeping track of the word, or having actual authority over the use of the word, which is unlikely as normally [[1726|language use cannot be dictated by a single person]]. Also, no specific university has control over all of linguistics as far as we know, so it would require every university capable of giving people linguistics degrees to co-operate, so nobody is assigned the same word.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Hairbun and Megan, who is wearing a graduation cap, are standing on a platform with Ponytail and Cueball standing below. Hairbun is handing a roll to Megan.]
:Hairbun: Congratulations on the degree! Your word is "Bassoon."
:Ponytail: Oh nice! Not as cool as my "Jackalope," but still not bad.
:Cueball: You all are lucky. I'm stuck with "Slurp."
:[Caption below panel:]
:Every linguistics degree comes with one word that you're put in charge of.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2593: Deviled Eggs

2022-03-29T14:16:19Z

172.70.230.143:

{{comic
| number = 2593
| date = March 14, 2022
| title = Deviled Eggs
| image = deviled_eggs.png
| titletext = The foil on the toothpick represents the blue flash.
}}

==Explanation==

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

A {{w|deviled egg}} is a dish created by cutting a hard-boiled egg into halves and replacing the yolk with a paste frequently made using the yolk itself, additional ingredients such as {{w|mustard}} and {{w|mayonaise}}, and topped with a red spice (usually {{w|paprika}}). Importantly, the paste has a larger volume than the original yolk because of the added ingredients (and probably some air) into the originally homogonous yolk substances. Randall Munroe parodies the dish by creating several alternative versions of the dish for other professions using word plays on the name of the dish.

;Chef - Deviled egg
The original dish with the excess paste piled above the egg white.
;Landscaper - Leveled egg
Many landscaping projects involve leveling irregular ground surfaces.{{Citation needed}} A landscaper may prefer to serve their deviled egg with a leveled flat surface. (This happens to resemble a normal hard-boiled egg cut in half.)
;Designer - Beveled egg
{{w|Bevel}}s are a design pattern of creating non-perpendicular surfaces between adjacent edges. A designer may prefer to serve their egg with the edge of the white beveled to give their eggs a more modern, aesthetically pleasing look.
;Physicist - Demon egg
This deviled egg is designed to look like the {{w|Demon Core}} which was a sub-critical plutonium sphere manufactured during the {{w|Manhattan Project}} to investigate the properties of {{w|Critical_mass|criticality}}. The Demon Core consisted of three parts: two plutonium-gallium hemispheres and a ring designed to keep neutron flux from "jetting" out of the joined surface between the hemispheres during implosion. The set of plutonium pieces got their name from the 2 {{w|criticality_accident|criticality incidents}} that occurred when scientists were investigating this property. The first accident resulted in the death of {{w|Harry Daghlian}}. In the second incident, experimenters covered the core with two neutron reflecting shells separated only by a handheld screwdriver. (No, really.) The screwdriver slipped, causing the core to become completely covered by the neutron reflecting shell, bringing the core past its criticality limit. A large amount of radiation caused the subsequent death of physicist {{w|Louis Slotin}}. The dome of the boiled egg and the toothpick resemble the configuration of the experiment.

The demon core was also referred to in [[1242: Scary Names]].

The title texts refers to {{w|ionized-air glow}}, a blue light emitted by air submitted to an energy flux from radiation and seen during the [https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/56722 incidents involving the demon core].

For a detailed explanation of the Demon Core, Kyle Hill produced an [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFlromB6SnU Youtube Documentary regarding the Demon Core. ]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[The comic consists of four variations of deviled eggs.]

:[A typical deviled egg, with half of the white part of a hard-boiled egg and a paste of yolk.]
:Chef
:Deviled egg

:[A deviled egg, except the paste has been flattened to be level with the white.]
:Landscaper
:Leveled egg

:[A deviled egg, except the edge of the white has bevels.]
:Designer
:Beveled egg

:[A deviled egg, except the paste is now two hemispheres, one set in (and level with) the white and the other on top with a toothpick wedged between the two hemispheres at the left ege keeping them separated.]
:Physicist
:Demon egg

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2598: Graphic Designers

2022-03-26T11:12:25Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */ Added a missing line of text

{{comic
| number = 2598
| date = March 25, 2022
| title = Graphic Designers
| image = graphic_designers.png
| titletext = They might make it past that first line of defense. For the second, you'll need some picture frames, a level, and a protractor that can do increments of less than a degree.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by HEX CODE #D3D3D3 AND FRIENDS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Cueball is inviting a friend into his freshly repainted residence. The friend is presumably a graphic designer (per the caption) and doesn't want to enter. The caption analogizes this with a specific bit of vampire lore: Vampires can only enter a house if invited in by the owner. The joke is that if you paint each wall a slightly different shade of off-white, a graphic designer will be so repulsed that they are physically unable to enter the room.

In the title text, it mentions a contingency against the designer managing to actually overcome this disgust. In this case, Cueball sets up a second way to troll his graphic designer friend using some picture frames, a {{w|Level (instrument)|level}}, and a protractor that can measure increments of less than a degree. If these are left out, the graphic designer will be obsessed with ensuring that the pictures are hung perfectly level, so he won't have time to bother you with boring conversation — analogous to some folk tales where vampires exhibit {{w|Arithmomania#Folklore|symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder}} and can be distracted by triggering their tics. Alternatively Cueball may be skewing his picture frames by an extremely small amount, noticeable only to the designer friend, to disgust him even further — similar to the effect of [[1015: Kerning|bad kerning]], which a version of Cueball suffers from, but here applied like the use of {{w|Christian cross|crosses}} which vampires are famously repulsed by.

True to the comic's joke, Randall has colored each segment of the comic differently to each other. The hexadecimal color codes are:
* Floor: FF FF FF
* Ceiling: F3 F7 F8
* Walls (left-to-right)
** F2 F0 EE
** F3 F4 F2
** F2 F3 F4
** F3 F2 F4
* Door: F1 F3 F1
* Box seat top: EE F1 EC
* Box seat front: F2 EE F0
* Rug outer ring: F0 F2 F1
* Rug inner panel: F0 EF F1

Also note that the window ledges are slightly inclined, falling subtly from left to right - which might be a variant of the second level defense proposed in the title text.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball stands in a lightly adorned room of a house, facing an open doorway. Knit Cap stands in the open doorway, as if about to enter the house. Cueball is reaching towards the doorway, inviting Knit Cap to enter.]
:Cueball: Come on in! We just repainted.
:Knit Cap: I... can't.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:If you want to set up a vampire-style barrier to keep graphic designers from entering your house, just paint every surface a slightly different shade of off-white.

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

2597: Salary Negotiation

2022-03-24T01:03:59Z

172.70.230.143: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2597
| date = March 23, 2022
| title = Salary Negotiation
| image = salary_negotiation.png
| titletext = "We can do 0.33 or 0.34, but our payroll software doesn't allow us to--" "NO DEAL."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SALARY OF $61,333.3333333333 PER YEAR (ROUGHLY) - Please change this comment when editing this page, for fun and profit. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Sincerely, management.}}

Cueball has been offered a new job, with a starting salary of $55,000. He is flummoxed by this high-stakes situation and starts to ramble with decreasing coherence.

When offered a new job, it is common to negotiate on aspects of the offer such as salary, and employers may offer below the market rate initially in the expectation that the final negotiated amount will be higher. Given that one's future income depends on the outcome of a one-time process requiring skills unrelated to the job one is hired for, it is advisable to take one's time and do as much research as possible. Cueball has clearly done some research, but perhaps too much as he takes out several sheets of paper and confuses himself further.

Eventually he settles on a number with a repeating decimal, which cannot be paid in whole cents. However, if he would be happy with an arrangement such as a leap cent every three years, the issue would be resolved.

This can be read as a cautionary tale about taking time to compose one's thoughts before responding to a situation. The confusion caused by the wad of papers also reminds us that more information does not necessarily mean more clarity.

For more interview-related XKCDs, see: [[125: Marketing Interview]], [[1088: Five Years]], [[1094: Interview]], [[1293: Job Interview]] and [[1545: Strengths and Weaknesses]].

This could also be taken in series with Cueball (possibly as a stand in for Randall) misunderstanding classically "adult" ideas, see: [[905: Homeownership]], [[1674: Adult]], and [[616: Lease]]

==Transcript==

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

:[Ponytail sits at an office desk, with Cueball sitting on the other side. It appears as though he is being interviewed]
:Ponytail: We'd like to extend an offer! The starting salary is $55,000.
:Cueball: Wow. I guess I'm inside a negotiation!
:Ponytail: I ... weird to phrase it like that, but--
:Cueball: I can do this.

:[Zoom in on Cueball's upper half]
:Cueball: I won't accept a penny over $50,000. Sorry, I mean under. Under $60. I mean, $600. Thousand. $600,000. I want a 15% cut of the salary. Raise. Double down. Fold. Pass. Fill it up with regular.

:[The same shot, except Cueball is now holding three pieces of paper]
:Ponytail: Are you--
:Cueball: Sorry, sorry. Let me start over. Ok, my chart says... ...can I borrow a calculator? What's 20% of $55,000?

:[Zoom out again. Cueball has put the papers on his lap and has raised his hand in the air, pointing. In his other hand he holds a small rectangular device]
:Ponytail: Listen, if you need to--
:Cueball: I won't take this job for less than $61,333 point 3 repeating!
:Ponytail: Sure, $61,333 is fine. That's actually--
:Cueball: [boldened] POINT 3 REPEATING OR I WALK!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Job interviews]]

2594: Consensus Time

2022-03-16T19:45:57Z

172.70.230.143:

{{comic
| number = 2594
| date = March 16, 2022
| title = Consensus Time
| image = consensus_time.png
| titletext = Now, you may argue that the varying hour lengths and feedback effects would cause chaos. To which I say, yeah, and I'm also curious to see how the weekday cycle interacts with it! So, you in?
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Daylight Saving Time}}, which recently occurred at the time of this comic, is frequently complained about due to having been invented for a no-longer-relevant cause. one of many complaints about this is that it will still "feel" like 5am at 6, or whatever other case. [[Randall]], partly to mock this, proposes a system that allows everybody to say when it "feels" like 9am, and then the average 9am will become the real 9am. this happens every day. as the title text points out, this would be chaotic and, to put it bluntly, awful.

Presumably the times indicated on this diagram are as the clocks in this time zone would indicate, as opposed to an "ordinary" reference time.

Although the hours between midnight and 9 am are labeled as "longer" (which we can assume means each would take longer than an hour of ordinary time to pass) the effect on the remaining hours is left unstated. If we assume that the remaining hours pass at the usual rate then this would suggest that midnight would come sooner or later than normal and hence the next vote would occur sooner or later respectively. This implies the time in this time zone could drift further than a day (or even multiple days) from existing time-zones which could be what is meant by "feedback", "chaos" and the effect on weekdays mentioned in the title text.

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

:Proposal: Consensus Time

:Every day, anyone in the time zone can press a button when they feel like it's 9 AM. The next day, clocks slow down or speed up to match the median choice from the previous day.

:Midnight
:6AM
:9AM today
:Median
:Noon
:6PM
:Midnight
:Longer hours
:6AM
:9AM tomorrow
:Noon
:6PM
:Midnight

:Beep
:Beep

{{comic discussion}}

2593: Deviled Eggs

2022-03-15T03:06:24Z

172.70.230.143:

{{comic
| number = 2593
| date = March 14, 2022
| title = Deviled Eggs
| image = deviled_eggs.png
| titletext = The foil on the toothpick represents the blue flash.
}}

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

A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviled_egg deviled egg] is a dish created by cutting a hard-boiled egg into halves and replacing the yolk with a paste frequently made from the yolk itself. Randall Monroe parodies the dish by creating several alternative versions of the dish for other professions using word plays on the name of the dish.

Many landscaping projects require a leveled ground to work on{{Citation needed}}. As such, a landscaper may prefer serve their deviled egg with a perfectly flat surface.

Bevel is a design pattern of creating non-perpendicular surfaces between adjacent edges. A designer may prefer to serve their eggs with beveled edges to give their eggs a more modern, aesthetically pleasing look.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core The Demon Core] is a piece of sub-critical plutonium created during the Manhattan Project to investigate the properties of criticality. The piece of plutonium got its name from the 2 criticality incidents that occurred when scientists were investigating this property, resulting in the deaths of several scientists present in the room. In the second accident, the core was covered between two neutron reflecting shells separated by a screwdriver. The screwdriver became dislodged, causing the core to become completely covered by the neutron reflecting shell, bringing the core past its criticality limit. A large amount of radiation caused the subsequent death of physicist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin Louis Slotin]. Randall Monroe may have created this version to remind the scientific community that sometimes it may take a little more than just a piece of repurposed screwdriver to protect scientists from suffering fatal accidents in the laboratory.

The title texts revers to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation Cherenkov Radiation], the "sonic boom" created by particles travelling faster than the speed of light in a medium.

==Transcript==
(Below image of ordinary deviled egg) '''Chef''' Deviled Egg (Below image of flat deviled egg resembling half of a hard-boiled egg) '''Landscaper''' Leveled Egg (Below image of egg resembling ordinary deviled egg, except with edges of white chamfered) '''Designer''' Beveled Egg (Below image of egg with hemispherical white as before, but full spherical yolk within and feathered toothpick inserted into core yolk sideways at a slight angle to the equator) '''Physicist''' Demon Egg{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
This comic is one of a limited number containing color; in this case, the yellow of the egg yolk, burnt red of presumably paprika, and blue toothpick foil are the only colors added. The toothpick foil is drawn in a way vaguely resembling arrow feathering.

2593: Deviled Eggs

2022-03-15T03:05:19Z

172.70.230.143:

{{comic
| number = 2593
| date = March 14, 2022
| title = Deviled Eggs
| image = deviled_eggs.png
| titletext = The foil on the toothpick represents the blue flash.
}}

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

A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviled_egg deviled egg] is a dish created by cutting a hard-boiled egg into halves and replacing the yolk with a paste frequently made from the yolk itself. Randall Monroe parodies the dish by creating several alternative versions of the dish for other professions using word plays on the name of the dish.

Many landscaping projects require a leveled ground to work on{{Citation needed}}. As such, a landscaper may prefer serve their deviled egg with a perfectly flat surface.

Bevel is a design pattern of creating non-perpendicular surfaces between adjacent edges. A designer may prefer to serve their eggs with beveled edges to give their eggs a more modern, aesthetically pleasing look.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core The Demon Core] is a piece of sub-critical plutonium created during the Manhattan Project to investigate the properties of criticality. The piece of plutonium got its name from the 2 criticality incidents that occurred when scientists were working to investigate this property, each event resulting in the deaths of scientists present in the room. In the second accident, the core was covered between two neutron reflecting shells separated by a screwdriver. The screwdriver became dislodged, causing the core become completely covered by the neutron reflecting shell, bringing the core past its criticality limit. A large amount of radiation caused the subsequent death of physicist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin Louis Slotin]. Randall Monroe may have created this version to remind the scientific community that sometimes it may take a little more than just a piece of repurposed screwdriver to protect scientists from suffering fatal accidents in the laboratory.

The title texts revers to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation Cherenkov Radiation], the "sonic boom" created by particles travelling faster than the speed of light in a medium.

==Transcript==
(Below image of ordinary deviled egg) '''Chef''' Deviled Egg (Below image of flat deviled egg resembling half of a hard-boiled egg) '''Landscaper''' Leveled Egg (Below image of egg resembling ordinary deviled egg, except with edges of white chamfered) '''Designer''' Beveled Egg (Below image of egg with hemispherical white as before, but full spherical yolk within and feathered toothpick inserted into core yolk sideways at a slight angle to the equator) '''Physicist''' Demon Egg{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
This comic is one of a limited number containing color; in this case, the yellow of the egg yolk, burnt red of presumably paprika, and blue toothpick foil are the only colors added. The toothpick foil is drawn in a way vaguely resembling arrow feathering.

Talk:2005: Attention Span

2022-03-13T20:51:02Z

172.70.230.143:

Do you think the book being referenced is a Dragon Lance book?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.24|162.158.106.24]] 04:33, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
: I think with the "thicker than its wide" comment, it does sound like Dragonlance Chronicles. Also, it IS a classic [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.104|162.158.155.104]] 07:40, 12 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Also, hasn’t Randall expressed interest in the works of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in the past. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.118|108.162.245.118]] 17:50, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Btw I hopped over to the forums to see if they had any good ideas, it didn’t yield much but one person suggested one of the Deathgate Cycle books, another suggested a Brandon Sanderson book, though none to my knowledge have Dragons on the cover, and someone else suggested it might be a D&D rulebook, though I don’t know of any of those that meet the thickness described[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.118|108.162.245.118]] 18:32, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
: Sounds like a Wheel of Time omnibus, if such a thing actually exists. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 16:29, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:: If you're talking about omnibus editions of a series, there are many that could easily get this thick. But I'm at a loss to think of a single book that is thicker than it is wide. Although my mass-market paperback edition of ''Les Misérables'' comes pretty close (but has nothing to do with fantasy). [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 15:09, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
:: I don't think a WoT omnibus could exist, after 5 minutes on google, I came up with 10700 pages. I think maybe Brandon Sanderson's "Oathbringer" paperback comes close. Its cover is small, and it's 1000 pages long.
::: I'm certain Randall's employing hyperbole. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.214|162.158.134.214]] 21:18, 14 June 2018 (UTC)
:Or it could be one of the alternate art covers of one of the Dark Sword books, or is that too deep a cut even for Randall? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.24|162.158.106.24]] 22:46, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
: I doubt he's referring to any real book, but rather making use of the fact that fantasy novels tend to be notoriously long and involving a ridiculous image (a dragon with a sword in its teeth) to show that this particular book is of dubious quality. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.83|108.162.212.83]] 16:52, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

The comic contains a hyperlink to what appears to be exactly the kind of article Cueball apparently "''just'' finished reading", or at least my mobile reader is picking up a hyperlink. I've added a small note about this; I'm not linking the article directly for personal reasons. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.227|108.162.221.227]] 05:51, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
: I linked it. If it's linked in the original then it should be here, too. Maybe it belongs more to the trivia section, I don't know, but it definitely has to be shown here somewhere. On a side node: did Randall ever do something like that before? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:53, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Linking other content behind the image? Yes, I think he did it several times before. The only actual comic I remember, however, is [[351: Trolling]]. --[[User:YMS|YMS]] ([[User talk:YMS|talk]]) 09:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:Considering that the link contains a link to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jltKnDlH_OA I believe that omission is no an option [[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.58|162.158.234.58]] 09:51, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:::[[1723: Meteorite Identification]], [[1506: xkcloud]], [[1572: xkcd Survey]]... just to name a few more. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 09:55, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:::: Ah, very well :) The difference between those three and this one and 351 is that in the latter the link is "hidden". The others say "Click here" either directly or in alt-text. And in xkcloud it isn't an external link. Whatever. Maybe we should consider making a category of them? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:04, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

I must admit to never having watch the seminal movie Surf ninjas but wikipedia tells me there is not only a novelisation, by A L Singer (Peter Lerangis) but also the screenplay. {{unsigned|Arachrah}}

I once advanced the theory that Sodor is the future of Mordor after the machines won and evolved into trains. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.51|162.158.62.51]] 12:46, 11 June 2018 (UTC) Jedman67
: Sounds like Mieville's Railsea. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 16:29, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Dragonsbane isn't nearly long enough to meet the thickness requirement --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.196|162.158.75.196]] 17:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)RyanR

Does anyone feel like the punchline is misplaced? Start with claim that he has no attn span any more, then she lists various overly long works he clearly does read while he protests and defends, then he concludes with punchline "no attn span for anything good." In fact, she should probably deliver the line, after discovering what he has on his bookshelf. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.42|162.158.122.42]] 20:25, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:The key here was diminishing attention span with age, so he indicated "...for anything good ANYMORE." The joke is that this isn't something that changed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.112|108.162.216.112]] 22:13, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

What bumps me about this comic is that the book Megan describes to make her point sounds like it would be an excellent well-structured book, very high quality reading, akin to Lord Of The Rings (Cueball even specifies it's a classic). REALLY doesn't fit with the theme of low quality crap reading this comic is going for. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:51, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

I've read all of the books mentioned as possible matches. And none of them have dragons holding a sword in their mouth. And since the book cover sounds EXACTLY like something I would enjoy reading, I really must insist that we demand that Randall admit which book he was referring to. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.22|172.68.90.22]] SiliconWolf

I wonder if the book Megan spots on the bookshelf is a sly reference to the classic (but rather staid) computer-science textbook "''Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools''" by Aho, et al, AKA "The Dragon book". The cover of the first edition ''does'' has both a dragon & a sword on it, althought the sword isn't in the dragon's mouth, and it is a bit thinner than it is wide. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 20:05, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

"Thicker than it's wide - It's a classic" is probably referencing the "If it's longer than it's wide, it's a phallus" joke poem. {{unsigned ip|172.68.239.107}}

"It is unclear how one could possibly spend six hours reading such an article." Hmm, it appears you are unfamiliar with this concept called the "World Wide Web." See, any given article has small text snippets indicated by a special color or style called "hyperlinks". Clicking a hyperlink will take you to a different article, typically on a topic relevant to the original article or phrase linked. This hyperlinked article will again link to several more articles, and so on for each succeeding article. Clicking from link to link is an activity often referred to as "browsing cyberspace" and, if pursuing an interesting topic, a reader can easily spend several hours browsing from link to link exploring just about any given topic.

For more information about this astonishing phenomenon, please consult [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfMrVKnGzwg any 1990s guide to the vast new online arena called the world-wide web]. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.52|172.68.150.52]] 20:55, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

I don't know about y'all, but I just spent the last 2 hours down the Thomas the Tank rabbit hole. {{unsigned ip|172.69.70.59}}

Talk:2592: False Dichotomy

2022-03-11T18:53:21Z

172.70.230.143: correct typo

This is my second explanation ever, it probably isnt great but its good for others to have something to start from. if anybody who knows how to do the links and everything, for all of the characters and the fancy words, please do that. [[User:ElijahRock|ElijahRock]] ([[User talk:ElijahRock|talk]]) 17:57, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

And here I thought it was a pun on tracheotomy...

Talk:2592: False Dichotomy

2022-03-11T18:53:02Z

172.70.230.143: Proposed unlikely alternative explanation