explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2584: Headline Words

2022-02-22T15:42:38Z

172.70.85.79:

It is ironic how Cueball, being bald, doesn't have any "headlines". [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.68|172.68.11.68]] 06:48, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

I mean, I would be pretty annoyed too if someone talked like that instead of saying "Wow, I can't believe you shot down the idea for the party venue that everyone likes" and "I'm reconsidering my plan (to speak in headline words) since people are starting to get annoyed" (also, "Everyone hated the headline-word thing, so I'm gonna stop") [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.113|172.70.178.113]] 07:09, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

I have made a new section for trying to explain each of Cueball's three headlines. I tried to make some sense of the first, but think I failed... So please feel free to change or improve my text completely. For sure the above comment gets the correct meaning, but I do not think it is a translation, more a possible sentence to be said instead. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:55, 22 February 2022 (UTC)
: I tried to expand that :) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.34|108.162.238.34]] 13:02, 22 February 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
::After including the stipulation that they "remove grammar" (a vital element to compressing into Headlinese, except of course when it introduces unintentional ambiguity!) I went through and made my own changes to make the "Literal" versions each pad out into the more proper statement(s). I changed some 'literal' wording, but left most and still followed the general source-structure without it being a total rewrite. (Which left some compromises, but should allow the interested reader to still map the various chunks one-to-one and in sequence.)
::Obviously, I expect future-editors to advance (or retract) my changes in various ways because they disagree with my idea of 'literal' language, and indeed what is Headlinese. Which is perhaps more British-biased - If I read newspaper headlines (of papers that I often don't intend to pick off the stands) I seem to see a lot of needless alliteration also going into the mix. "Boris backs down over Brexit border boob!" might be a (made up, especially as he tends not to do tgat, but probably not far from someone's likely interpretation) certain tabloid-style pronouncement. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 15:42, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

It may be possible that Randall is reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Shipping News” which is written entirely in headline format. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.93|172.70.178.93]] 15:11, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2583: Chorded Keyboard

2022-02-19T03:41:30Z

172.70.85.79: Additional comment and tidy up the prior contribution.

Why is it H+<Left> rather than H+<Right>? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 03:22, 19 February 2022 (UTC)
:Probably for the rhyme with "Shift" in the previous verse. In terms of practicality, though, I agree — <Right> would make more sense for a real keychord. {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.154}}
::A pity Shift and Left don't rhyme very well. But then neither do Chord and Word. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 03:41, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

145: Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics

2022-02-13T10:22:46Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ There are already far too many break-out/clausing commas here, so had to get rid of the oxford commas. Really needs a complete rewrite. And moved list-commas outside of the quotes to also agree with the comic/Randall's prefered style.

{{comic
| number = 145
| date = August 18, 2006
| title = Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics
| image = dinosaur_comics.png
| titletext = Guys: while I was writing this, I accidentally swallowed a table-size slab of drywall. I know! Wacky.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a part of the [[:Category:Parody Week|Parody Week]], just joking about other {{w|webcomics}}. This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday-Friday), not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule, and it comprises the following five {{w|parodies}}:
*[[141: Parody Week: Achewood]]
*[[142: Parody Week: Megatokyo]]
*[[143: Parody Week: TFD and Natalie Dee]]
*[[144: Parody Week: A Softer World]]
*[[145: Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics]]

{{w|Dinosaur Comics}} is a webcomic by {{w|Ryan North}}. The artwork never changes, save a few rare exceptions, and only the dialogue is different. [[Randall]] traced the comic's usual artwork, though the drawing of the house about to be squashed in panel 3 is a more rudimentary rendition, and the person about to be squashed in panel 4 has been changed into [[Cueball]] rather than a woman in bright yellow and pink clothes.

For those who haven't read it, this is a [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1387 typical strip], and [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2079 here's] a strip dealing with the same subject as this comic (but posted five years after it). See also [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2420 this particular example], where the title text actually refer to Randall and xkcd.

Randall makes several shots at recurring themes in Dinosaur Comics. T-Rex, the green {{w|Tyrannosaurus}}, is bold and enthusiastic, discussing various topics, a favorite of which appears to be linguistics (North got his degree in computational linguistics). This time, he is talking about "{{w|Singular_they|they}}" being used as a {{w|Grammatical_person|third person}} {{w|Grammatical number|singular}} {{w|Gender-specific_and_gender-neutral_pronouns|gender-free pronoun}} and how it should be more widely used, even though its acceptance varies. {{w|Dromiceiomimus}}, the white dinosaur in the third panel, usually responds calmly to T-Rex's discussions. T-Rex then elaborates on how singular "they" has been used for centuries (specifically since the fourteenth century), with the change in convention being relatively recent (having fallen out of "fashion" in the nineteenth century). Technically, the English language lacks {{w|Personal pronoun|personal pronouns}} that are {{w|Epicenity|gender-neutral}} in the singular third-person — that is, there are only gender-specific personal pronouns such as "{{w|He (pronoun)|he}}" and "{{w|She (pronoun)|she}}" — so when a gender-neutral pronoun is needed, {{w|Plural|plural}} pronouns such as "{{w|They|they}}" (which ''are'' gender-neutral) are often used instead. There is some debate about whether this is a grammatical error, which may result in the use of grammatically correct, but cumbersome, gender-neutral phrases such as "he or she", "him or her", "his or hers" and so on. To compensate for these shortcomings, other gender-neutral personal pronouns for the singular third-person have also been introduced, such as "he/she", "s/he" and "xe" instead of "he or she", or "hirs" instead of "his or hers." T-Rex considers these constructs to be "ridiculous" and points out that they can be avoided by simply using the singular "they" instead.

While "he/she" and "s/he" are commonly used as a gender-neutral pronoun when gender is unknown, "xe" and "hirs" are often used for {{w|genderqueer}} individuals. Genderqueer persons do not subscribe to a "binary" definition of gender, where the only genders are male and female, and may identify as having, just to name a few examples, a gender between male and female, a combination of both male and female genders, no gender (terms for this include "genderless", "agender," and "neutrois"), a {{w|Third Gender|separate gender}} from male and female, an unnameable gender, or a "fluid" gender identity that shifts between multiple genders ("genderfluidity").

{{w|Utahraptor}}, the orange dinosaur, typically contradicts T-Rex, but Randall subverts this pattern and has him agree. The comic suggests that the perpetual disagreement stems from a 'rift' in the author's mind, which would be healed if only he lived in a world where there were a {{w|Beringia|land bridge between Asia and North America}}.

In the last panel, the narrator starts with "In a world…" a phrase made famous by {{w|Don LaFontaine}} in movie trailers. "In a world…" is also likely a reference to the recurring gag of Dinosaur Comics suddenly jumping to alternate worlds or time periods that have whatever conditions T-Rex and his friends have been discussing, to humorous effect.

The last sentence suggests that in this other world, everyone is {{w|bi-curious}}. This is a phenomenon in which people of a {{w|heterosexual}} or {{w|homosexual}} identity who, while showing some curiosity for a relationship or sexual activity with a person of the sex they do not favor, distinguish themselves from the {{w|bisexual}} label. Bi-curious has been used as the word of the day two days in a row on [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=311 May 11th] and [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=312 May 12th] 2004, so it's no wonder Randall put the word in this comic. The suggestion that "everyone is bi-curious" could be a reference to {{w|Arthur C. Clarke|Arthur C. Clarke's}} book ''{{w|Imperial Earth}}'', where bisexuality is the norm. Deliberately trite and awkward explorations of this subject matter are also a recurring theme in Dinosaur Comics.

Like [[xkcd]], Dinosaur Comics has [[title text]]s. Ryan's title texts are often bizarre non-sequiturs; the title text for the [http://qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2593 2593rd comic], eleven years after the appearance of the first comic, read "the sixth panel and the second panel are just zoomed versions of each other. IT'S TRUE. I'M SORRY. I COULDN'T BEAR CARRYING THIS TERRIBLE SECRET ANY LONGER." The title text in this parody fits this pattern.

T-Rex from ''Dinosaur Comics'' later appeared in [[1350: Lorenz]] (see this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:f2b12f1e-bbae-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd example story line] and also the Dinosaur section under [[1350: Lorenz#Themes|Lorenz themes]]), where the actual images from the first three panels of Ryan's comic are used, rather than like here where Randall copied them himself and in [[1452: Jurassic World]], where it was the last image from the actual comic that was used.

==Transcript==
:[T-Rex, a large green Tyrannosaurus, holds out his small arms to each side and the tail pointing up while speaking with a wide open pink mouth showing all his teeth. All the text is written like on a typewriter with both caps and lowercase letters, which is not normal in xkcd.]
:T-Rex: THINGS I AM UPPITY ABOUT: "They" as a third-person singular gender-free pronoun.

:[Zoom in on T-Rex head holding his hands up under his mouth, and mouth even wider open so also the red tongue can be seen.]
:T-Rex: I'm all for it!

:[Zoom out to show T-Rex to the left, mouth almost closed, arms in normal position, the tail pointing up, and lifting his left leg ready to smash his foot down through the roof of a brown log cabin with chimney and porch with a blue car holding in front of the house to the right. Further right is a smaller white/yellow dinosaur, Dromiceiomimus, standing away from T-Rex, but turning its long neck toward him.]
:Dromiceiomimus: But isn't that terrible grammar?
:T-Rex: Only by recent convention! It's been in use that way for centuries, and its use is widely accepted! ALSO: This lets us avoid ridiculous constructs like "he/she", "s/he", "xe" or "hirs"!

:[T-Rex is moving left, so part of his head and his lifted right foot are outside the panels frame, pink mouth again partly open so tongue can be seen, but no teeth are drawn. Arms are still in normal position and the tail is pointing up. Beneath the part of his right foot visible, there is Cueball about to be squashed. Behind him an orange dinosaur, Utahraptor, has appeared. It looks like a smaller version of T-Rex, but with longer arms and very large claws on its rear legs. It has its pink mouth wide open to show its red tongue and teeth, also holding arm in front of it and the tail pointing up. It is moving forward standing only on one leg, the other lifted high up.]
:Utahraptor: T-Rex, I . . . agree.
:T-Rex: What?
:Utahraptor: That sounds good to me!

:[T-Rex stand with both legs down, but wide spread out. The tails is almost down to the ground, only the tip pointing up. The arms are still in front of it towards the left, but it has turned its head, mouth almost closed, toward right looking at Utahraptor, which now stands on both legs, but like it is leaning forward on its toes, stretching up with arms held high, mouth less open, but tongue and teeth visible.]
:Utahraptor: Normally I'd jump in with an objection, but I think your point makes sense.
:T-Rex: Could it be that the rift in our author's mind has finally healed? Is he no longer locked in perpetual war with the self-doubt that lurks in his subc-

:[The final part of the final words from T-Rex is interrupted in the previous panel and first finishes here after a narrator "speaks" before T-Rex with bold capital letters to the top right, and after to the bottom left. T-Rex is seen in full figure standing with wide open mouth, teeth and tongue visible, arms and tail up.]
:Narrator: '''IN A WORLD WHERE THERE IS STILL A LAND BRIDGE BETWEEN ASIA AND NORTH AMERICA FOR SOME REASON:'''
:T-Rex: -onscious?
:Narrator: '''ALSO HOW ABOUT IN THIS WORLD EVERYONE IS BICURIOUS'''

==Trivia==
*This was the [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=830 Dinosaur Comics strip] released the day before this comic
**Dinosaur Comics released MTWT, so there was no release on the Friday of this comics release.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Parody Week]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] 
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Sex]]

2417: 1/1,000th Scale World

2022-02-12T22:02:37Z

172.70.85.79: /* Table */ Minor change

{{comic
| number = 2417
| date = January 27, 2021
| title = 1/1,000th Scale World
| image = 1_1000th_scale_world.png
| titletext = We're worried that a regular whale will get into a 30-foot-deep ocean trench section and filter-feed on all the tiny whales.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is the third in the [[:Category:Scale World|Scale World]] series.

Yet again, [[Randall]] has a seemingly complete {{w|scale model}} of {{w|Earth}}, this time at a larger {{w|Scale (ratio)|scale}} of 1:1000 – that is, 1 meter in this scale world represents 1000 meters in the real world. (This is ten times the size of Randall's [[2411|original scale world]].) Again, real-world features and phenomena (such as several underground {{w|neutrino detector}}s) are depicted at scale and labeled with warnings. Several of the warnings point out humorous consequences of the scale, such as non-scaled goldfish eating scaled-down blue whales. Other than the usual homo sapiens, the introduction of non-scaled animals into the scaled world (with consistently humorous consequences) is an addition to the earlier comics of the series.

===Table===
{| class="wikitable"
!Rule
!Reason
!Notes
|-
| Keep hot objects off the ice sheet over the south pole neutrino observatory
| Hot objects may melt the ice that shields the detectors from particles other than neutrinos.
| The fact that people are not supposed to create false positives implies that the neutrino detector is functional.
|-
| Be patient: Niagara falls will take a few minutes to fill your water glass
| The flow rate is scaled down with the size. According to the [[what if]] ''{{what if|147|Niagara Straw}}'', the Niagara Falls flow is regulated to 100,000 cubic feet per second on the tourist season and to 50,000 cubic feet per second offseason and at night. Once scaled to 1/1000, that flow would be 2.83 or 1.41ml per second. If a standard glass of water is 250ml, it would take about 90–180 seconds for the waterfall to fill it.

However, a 1/1000th replica of scale Niagara falls would be over a meter wide, so without some kind of system to divert the whole flow into one spot, it would not be possible to fill a glass this quickly. Also, the height of the scaled-down Niagara falls would be 5cm, with another 5cm between the water level and the riverbed, so it might be difficult to fill a glass depending on its height.
| This item may be a reference to the famous Arthur C. Clarke quote: "Getting information from the internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls."
|-
| Watch for small planes
| Taking the popular Cessna 172 as an example, 1/1000th scale small planes would be about 8mm in length, and cruise at speeds of about 6cm/s, much slower than comparable flying insects. A Cessna of that size travelling at that speed would probably cause much more damage to itself than a person if it crashed into one, so the warning is probably there to protect the models rather than the guests. The planes are flying along 1-foot {{w|Flight level|flight levels}} according to the direction they are flying in, following the {{w|Flight level#Semicircular/hemispheric rule|semicircular rule}} of aviation.
|
|-
| Warning! Choking hazard! Keep small children away from ascending/descending airliners
| Airplanes are apparently small enough for children to fit into their mouths but large enough to potentially make them choke.
| In the US, small parts are defined by [https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Business-Guidance/Small-Parts-for-Toys-and-Childrens-Products 16 C.F.R. Part 1501.2] as fitting in a cylindrical test fixture of 1.25 inches diameter that approximates the size of the fully expanded throat of a child under three years old. Once scaled, any object smaller than 31.75 meters would fit in that cylinder. A lot of medium-sized and small airplanes would qualify. Furthermore, since pieces that break off during testing that simulates use or abuse by children could also pose a choking hazard, even large airliners are also a choking hazard because stripped wings and parts of the fuselage would fit in the required size.
|-
| Do not remove safety caps
| This is similar to the warning, "Be careful not to step on cities with especially pointy towers, like Toronto, Seattle, and Dubai" from [[2411: 1/10,000th Scale World]]. It's possible that many visitors to that scaled world did not heed the warnings and complained to the scaled world's creators, causing them to cover pointy towers with safety caps for this scaled world.
The buildings pictured are the {{w|CN Tower}} of Toronto, the {{w|Burj Khalifa}} of Dubai and the {{w|Eiffel Tower}} of Paris.
| It is not clear whether the {{w|Egyptian pyramids}} are included in the warning. In this model they are located adjacent to the other structures and appear to also have safety caps, but unlike the other structures there is no arrow pointing to them from the warning.
Seattle's {{w|Space Needle}} is notably absent from this model.
|-
| No open flames in Zeppelin area
| The iconic Zeppelins, as with many other early airships, were filled with hydrogen to give them the buoyancy required to fly. However, hydrogen is very flammable and prone to explosions. The most famous of these disasters was when the {{w|Hindenburg disaster|Hindenburg}} caught fire in 1937.
In more modern times, almost all airships, blimps and balloons use either helium or hot air (sometimes both). This includes the six operational 'Zeppelin NT' craft, a modern semi-rigid design produced by the spiritual and economic successor to the original Zeppelin company.
| The inclusion of Zeppelins in an otherwise modern model is an amusing anachronism.
Normal-sized flames would likely be a serious danger to many elements in the scale model.
|-
| Do not bother the meteor crater ducks
| It is unclear whether the 'meteor crater' represents specifically {{w|Meteor Crater}} in Arizona, or some other unspecified or abstract meteor crater. The former is over a kilometer wide, so at 1/1000 scale it could be a small duck pond of 1.186m in diameter, and 17cm deep at its lowest point. This is (barely) enough space for a duck to swim in if filled to the brim with water. Meteor craters often leave behind lakes as they become filled with water, with examples being {{w|Lake Siljan}} in Europe. The ducks appear to be regular-sized as opposed to scaled-down, so they have probably added afterwards as an attraction as opposed to them coming with the landscape.
| Even though a lot of craters are filled with lakes, Meteor Crater is not filled with water, or ducks, in real life. {{Citation needed}}
|-
| Trip hazard: The Gateway Arch
| The {{w|Gateway Arch}} is a monument in Saint Louis, Missouri. Being a 192 m high arch once scaled it would be 19.2 cm high, ideal for tripping.
|
|-
| Drone altitude limit
| The FAA drone altitude limit is 400ft above the ground, which would be about 12cm on a 1/1000th scale. This appears to be the number Randall is using, as the limit in the comic is about the same height as the pyramids, which are also around 400ft tall in the real world.
|
|-
| Do not mix up the USS Enterprises
|
The ship is presumably a model of the USS ''Enterprise'' (CVN-65), the longest naval vessel ever built, which would be 34cm long on a 1/1000th scale.
The spaceship is the USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701) from the Star Trek franchise.
It's unclear whether mixing up the models is prohibited because it would damage them, or simply because that's not where they are supposed to be.
The Starship ''Enterprise'' might be corroded by seawater, or unable to handle external pressure (spacecraft are designed for the exact opposite pressures in a vacuum). If lifted into the air, the Aircraft Carrier ''Enterprise'' would probably fall back down because it can't fly {{Citation needed}}.
| The Enterprise from the Kelvin timeline in the JJ Abrams films has been seen to hide underwater and take off again without significant problems, however the Original Series version has not been seen to fly lower than Earth's outer atmosphere. Based on the depiction of the ''Enterprise'', it is hard to tell exactly which version of the ''Enterprise'' it is, and thus its exact capabilities.

|-
| No connecting the Dead Sea to the ocean
| The surface of the Dead Sea is 430.5 metres (1,412 ft) below sea level, so connecting it to the ocean could cause catastrophic flooding of the area.
| This has actually been proposed: {{w|Mediterranean–Dead Sea Canal|Dead Sea Canal}}
|-
| Do not let ants into the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
| The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory was a neutrino observatory located at the 2100-meter depth level of the Creighton Mine in Ontario, Canada. It has since been upgraded to the SNOLAB facility. At 1/1000th scale, its meters-scale tunnels would be millimeters across, and its 3,000-meter maximum depth would reach three meters underground. This would make it ideal for habitation by ants, but as the mine is in rock, and not soil, extracting the ants after they get in would be much more difficult than most pest control operations. Also, some types of ants would eat the insulation around the wires, causing electrical short-circuits and other problems, which would be bad because, as noted above, the model's neutrino detectors are apparently functional.
|
|-
| Only one person on the Golden Gate Tightrope at a time
| The {{w|Golden Gate Bridge}} is a suspension bridge in San Francisco, 2.7 km long and 27 m wide. Scaled-down, it would be 2.7 m long and 2.7 cm wide, and it would be tempting to use it as a tightrope.
| The bridge's live load capacity is officially [https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/statistics-data/design-construction-stats/#deflection 4000 lbs per lineal foot]. Because mass is proportional to volume, which is distance cubed, this suggests that the model bridge would be rated for 0.000004 lbs per scale lineal foot, or 0.004 lbs per 'real-life' lineal foot. If it is able to hold even one person at a time, this model bridge must be several orders of magnitude stronger than its real-life counterpart.
|-
| Do not remove Statue of Liberty LEGO minifig
| Whoever has made this model has decided to use a small LEGO Minifigure rather than a more accurately sculpted replica of the Statue of Liberty. The person would likely not want it to be removed because it would then have to be replaced.
| LEGO has released a [https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/magnet-statue-of-liberty-2016-853600 Statue of Liberty minifigure] which is 5.3cm tall. The real Statue of Liberty, from head to toe, is 46 meters tall. At a 1/1000 scale, this would be a 4.6cm figurine, so the LEGO Minifigure would indeed be an appropriate representation at that scale.
|-
| Please stop releasing goldfish in the ocean. They keep eating the blue whales.
| Blue whales are the largest animal species in the world. They usually grow to about 20m long in real life, meaning that at 1/1000th scale they would be only 2cm long, meaning that they could be consumed by a goldfish. Goldfish are omnivores, so they would eat tiny blue whales. Goldfish are freshwater fish, but there is [https://mashable.com/2017/09/20/saltwater-bearing-goldfish-australia/ evidence] that they can tolerate some amount of saltwater.

| This might also be a reference to the video game ''Tasty Blue,'' in which a goldfish eats animals of increasing size and eventually becomes large enough to eat blue whales.
|-
| We're worried that a regular whale will get into a 30-foot-deep ocean trench section and filter-feed on all the tiny whales.
| The ~10 deepest ocean trenches are in the vicinity of 30,000 ft, so they would be 30 ft deep in the model. A blue whale is about 15 ft tall, and there are several smaller species of whale, so a full-sized whale would fit into the scaled-down trench.
Blue whales usually eat {{w|krill}}; the tiny whales would be about the same size, though nowhere near the same density, so any feeding whale would soon go hungry. However, a 15-foot (ca. 5 meters) diameter whale in a trench only 30 feet (ca. 9 m) deep (ignoring displacement, for the moment) might have difficulty feeding anyway.
| Following on to the full-size goldfish:scaled-down blue whale comparison, the title text compares a full-sized whale to the depth of the scaled-down ocean.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[At the top of the image, inside the panel, a large title is floating in the air.]
:RULES

:For visitors to my 1/1,000th scale world

:1 meter = 1 km 1 ft = 1,000 ft

:[Each of the following rules is written near a character or point of interest on the map.]

[Keep hot objects off the ice sheet over the south pole neutrino observatory]

[Do not bother the meteor crater ducks]

[No connecting the dead sea to the ocean]

[Be patient: Niagara falls will take a few minutes to fill your water glass]

[Trip hazard: the Gateway arch]

[Do not let ants into the Sudbury neutrino observatory]

[Megan balances on the Golden Gate bridge,her legs wobbling.]

[Only one person on the Golden Gate tightrope at a time]

[Watch for small planes]

[Drone altitude limit]

[Do not remove statue of liberty LEGO minifig]

[Do not remove safety caps]

[Caution: sharp]

[Do not mix up the USS enterprises:]

[Two zeppelins float in the sky.]

[No open flames in zeppelin area]

[A fish at a size relevant to the characters in the strip faces towards two small two small horizontal lines, presumably whales.]

[Please stop releasing goldfish in the ocean. They keep eating all the blue whales.]

[An arrow points to a small line in the sky resembling an airplane.]

[Warning! Choking hazard! Keep small children away from ascending/ descending airliners]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Illustrations of scale]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Scale World]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|1/10]]

Talk:2575: What If? 2

2022-02-10T19:26:26Z

172.70.85.79: No idea what went on, with the prior attempt, but given someone is now once more not signed I'll do what I'd have done at the time.

Yay! \o/ [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 15:09, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

Note that there is actually a term for the 13th month of the year, and it's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecimber Undecimber].
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 15:12, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
:And the Jewish calendar has a 13th month every 2-3 years, since it's a lunar calendar. But rather than a completely different month name, the month Adar is doubled to Adar I and Adar II. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:12, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

This is awesome! I really hope one of the answers is about cotton candy breaking one's fall, since it was foreshadowed in book one. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.23|172.69.90.23]] 15:21, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT YAYAYAYAYYAY!!!! [[User:Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)|Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)]] ([[User talk:Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)|talk]]) 16:37, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

According to the Simpsons the 13th month is Smarch. What do we do when Simpsons and Randall disagree?
Also, pretty sure 2021 was the first year that 13th month aligned with our reality. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.18|172.70.211.18]] 17:28, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

I can't shake the feeling that he announced it on 31/01 because it's coming out on 13/09 and that's nearly 13/10 which is 31/01 with the month and day digits switched. But I might be one of those numerology people without realising it --[[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 17:38, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
:If you're not, you should count yourself lucky! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 18:15, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
:: :D great pun, you win 1 internet 🎁 --[[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 15:09, 1 February 2022 (UTC)

The pre-order through all the different sources is good, but **What if** someone wanted a hard copy of the book autographed by Randall? I don't see any provision for that. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 00:16, 1 February 2022 (UTC)

Is it just me, but is 7 months in advance a bit early to announce a book release? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.228|108.162.250.228]] 01:04, 1 February 2022 (UTC)
: Seems an oddly advanced announcement to me too, but I guess with transport lines being so messed up, it's an attempt to be prepared well ahead for anything. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.87|108.162.249.87]] 05:12, 1 February 2022 (UTC)

: Yes. Especially in the world of ebooks and audiobooks which have no distirbution delays. With such a delay between completion and release, I'm expecting an ebook and audiobook edition to be available on the release day. I wonder if this sort of delay is normal in the publishing world, or if Randall is just a low priority for his publishers? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.234|108.162.250.234]] 05:05, 2 February 2022 (UTC)
::I think it's the opposite. Books have always needed months to actually fully be published, at least properly without resorting to letrasetting and sneaking time on the office photocopier/Gestetner for ultra-small initial runs - and definitely on a simultaneous worldwide release arranged from the start.
::What we see here is not a delay from the announcement, but the earlier and earlier time at which the announcement gets to the wider public, even the avid fanbase. Even so, there's probably been at least a month or three since Randall signed the contract and submitted the first proofs (of presumably already a roughly compiled proposal that got him that contract to sign), and distributors like Amazon clearly were tipped off enough to prepare for the release...
::And while it might be fairly easy to get the digital print-proofs into eBook format, save for some slight adjustments necessary to make it properly sellable, I imagine the fuss of getting an audiobook recorded (''without'' the complications of sufficiently audio-describing what will surely be an illustration-heavy book) is a task in itself.
::I don't know if they've even put ink to paper yet (or given any audiobook narrator the studio time) except for the proof-run. Even if they have started the mass-printing they probably are far from being able to put sufficient stock into shops tomorrow to meet expectations. We're just learning about it once it is officially inevitable (or even a day before!) rather than wandering into a bookshop in mid-September and getting a pleasant surprise, much like has happened for most ordinary consumers of literature across the entire extent of the book-publishing history. (IMO) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.225|141.101.98.225]] 09:49, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

This is one of the few times, it is quite explicit that Randall himself is in the comic instead of him as fictional narrator. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 07:01, 1 February 2022 (UTC)
:Is it now canon that going forth any character in the actual comic with that appearance is in fact Randall himself? [[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]]) 04:59, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

It comes out on my birthday! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.95|172.70.214.95]] 09:22, 1 February 2022 (UTC)
:Happy birthday! ...in advance. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 12:51, 1 February 2022 (UTC)

It's a crummy commercial? Son of a glitch. {{unsigned ip|172.69.71.163}}

This seems like an oddly-specific date to me. When I was at IBM it wasn't unusual for rumors about a product to start circulating more than a year before it would be released, and then IBM would announce that yes, it really was happening and specify something like mid-year of the next year for FCS (First Customer Ship) but the actual FCS date wouldn't be firm until a month or two before the FCS happened . . . and sometimes the FCS would get slipped, even by months like in the case of the S/38 which was the first product I was involved with. Of course, a book is a little bit of a smaller project, but still . . . . [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 10:16, 2 February 2022 (UTC)
:I think for tech releases, you could benefit from juggling the practical (official) release-date much closer to that point, rather than stockpiling a lot of potentially useful items uselessly in a warehouse just to make sure you have them.
:Alternately, promising a date based on Just-In-Time estimates then suffering delays that push release back is not a good thing either. (Also misestimating demand, see XBox/etc problems.) So, to stop too much of either, you get the rumour-mill going but make it officially official closer to the confirmed/confirmable delivery time.
:A book, probably deliberately scheduled explictly for a particularly popular (pre-)pre-Christmas purchase slot, has less issue being sent to storage for months at a time, and gives you leeway to organise additional print-runs from other partners if any (not uncommon) printing/binding places suffer problems (unlike what we've seen if issues hit one or more of the few specialist chip-fabricators).
:There are probably similar pressures and opportunities. But at different scales which changes the optimal buffer-times between various stages (hint, rumour, confirmation, official confirmation, near-certainty, actuality), and all under the microscope of the modern information-led world.
:(I remember the early days of Discworld series publication. Suddenly there would be a new Pratchett book in the bookstores, without knowing anything of it in advance, even when it was becoming a twice-yearly probability. By the end, attendees of the Discworld Conventions, and then thus all the readers of various official/fan-led online resources, would know roughly what books were in the pipeline a couple of years in advance and were counting down the days for several of them at a time, pretty much knowing the subject and main characters of them already and wildly speculating about storylines long since set in stone while Pterry had already started to work on the successor's successor, or beyond...)
:Not that I know the inside-out of the book industry, and also not so much of the electronics one as yourself, but this is my extrapolation from what I do know/think about them both. I think there's a wide range of possible schedules, with this one not at all being an outlier. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 15:10, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

No comic today (Wednesday 2022-02-02)? When's the last time Randall missed a comic? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.219|172.70.250.219]] 23:54, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

The 13th month is called [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcMTHr3TqA0 Gormanuary].--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 23:54, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
:[https://dwwiki.mooo.com/wiki/Calendar#The_months Ick]... (...or [https://wiki.lspace.org/Discworld_calendar#Months_Of_The_Discworld_Year December], depending upon your chosen version of canon.)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 01:16, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

1589: Frankenstein

2022-02-10T10:00:35Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1589
| date = October 12, 2015
| title = Frankenstein
| image = frankenstein.png
| titletext = "Wait, so in this version is Frankenstein also the doctor's name?" "No, he's just 'The Doctor'."
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|Frankenstein|Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus}}'' is a novel by Mary Shelley published in 1818. In it, Victor Frankenstein is a human who creates a {{w|Frankenstein%27s_monster#Namelessness|monster}} (who is never named). In popular culture, however, "Frankenstein" is taken to be the name of the monster, not its creator.

While this is an often-corrected "error", it has been argued that it is not technically incorrect to call the monster "Frankenstein" as well, since he is the "offspring" of his "father", Victor Frankenstein. Since a child usually takes on the last name of their father, it may be said that the monster's last name actually ''is'' "Frankenstein". He also refers to himself in the novel as "the Adam of your labors" - a reference to the Biblical Adam, the first of his kind - and some have taken to calling the monster "Adam Frankenstein" to differentiate him from the scientist, Victor Frankenstein.

Others have argued that the monster's namelessness is an important part of his characterization in the story since it reflects the doctor's complete rejection of his creation. While the monster identifies Victor as his "father" in the novel, Victor does not consider the creature to be his "son".

[[Randall]] apparently finds this argument tedious and pedantic, so he has created his own work of fiction, in which the monster is named Frankenstein. He rationalizes that it is now correct to call the monster Frankenstein, assuming that his comic strip is as authoritative as the original novel. "{{w|Canon (fiction)|Canonical}}" (rule, standard) means that this comic should be used as the authoritative work on the naming of the monster.

However, xkcd's ''Frankenstein'' would be unlikely to be accepted by anyone as canonical, except for its stated purpose of settling the naming argument. The original version of any story is usually assumed to be the canonical one, and any derivative work would have to have widespread influence and recognition to supplant it in the popular imagination. This is not likely to happen with xkcd's ''Frankenstein,'' as it makes almost no effort to stand on its own; it exists only to be a version of ''Frankenstein'' where the monster is named "Frankenstein." It emphasizes this point several times, and ends within a single panel, having accomplished its only goal. Almost no readers would find this version entertaining or substantive enough to displace Mary Shelley's original as the definitive version of the story.

The {{w|Public_domain|copyright}} on Mary Shelley's novel has expired long ago, so it is perfectly legal to create works derived from the original story. It should be noted, however, that Universal holds the copyright on the common [https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2011/10/24/how-universal-re-copyrighted-frankensteins-monster/ image of the monster] (green skin, flat-top head, scar, bolts on the neck and protruding forehead). To qualify as a {{w|derivative work}} the story needs to be substantially different from the original. The monster believing in {{w|moon landing conspiracy theories}} would probably qualify, but may reference retellings of the tale where a damaged or derranged brain was used (as an alternate 'explanation' why the supposedly perfect creation inevitably runs amok). Additionally, the original Frankenstein's monster was seen by its creator as hideous and repulsive due to its physical appearance despite the project being a success. Randall makes the same correlation in his version by having Frankenstein claim the moon landings were faked, which produces the same feelings in The Doctor.

Alternatively, the monster being a moon landing denier is meant as a throwaway absurdist non sequitur. As the only point of this story is to make a canonical version of ''Frankenstein'' where "Frankenstein" is the monster's name, it should logically end once it has finished making that point clear. However, Randall throws a curveball by having the monster blurt out an uncomfortable and controversial point of view before the ending, then ending the story abruptly before the monster's statements can be addressed.

It is also possible that Randall is making reference to the fact that the kind of people who become engrossed in the debate that is attempted to be resolved in this comic and would bother to create a piece like this (which incidentally, complicates matters further rather than simplifying it, similar to the effect of many pieces of evidence in internet discussions) could be compared to the kind of people who deny the Moon Landings in obscure forums. He is drawing attention to how inane and unnecessary the comic is.

The title text raises the question of what the monster's creator is named in this version, since the name "Frankenstein" is instead given to the monster. The canonical answer is that the creator is simply "The Doctor", like the title character of the series {{w|Doctor_Who|"Doctor Who"}}. This might be a reference to similar pedantic nitpicking that occurs when that character is incorrectly referred to as "Doctor Who" rather than "The Doctor" which is in turn referenced in comic [[1221: Nomenclature]]. As it happens, people who make that mistake can also claim canonical support, in that some early episodes of the series list the character's name as "Doctor Who" in the credits, or reference the recharacterisation in the {{w|Dr. Who (Dalek films)|cinematic retellings}}.

==Transcript==
:[A text only panel. Between the last two lines is a lightning bolt.]
:Like many people, I'm tired of the nitpicking about Frankenstein's monster's name.
:Luckily, ''Frankenstein'' is public domain.
:Therefore, I present
:xkcd's
:'''''Frankenstein'''''
:(''The monster's name'')

:[Cueball is turning down a lever while looking at a monster with black hair that is lying on a bed under a bedsheet. There are two wires connecting to the neck of the monster.]
:Frankenstein: ''Graaar''!
:Cueball: Frankenstein is alive! I am a modern Prometheus!
:Frankenstein: ''Raaaar''!
:Cueball: To be clear, your name is ''Frankenstein'', canonically.
:Frankenstein: ''Graaaaar''!
:Frankenstein: ''The moon landings were faked''!
:Cueball: Wait, what?

:[Another text only panel. The first word is written between two curvy lines.]
:'''Fin.'''
:There.
:Feel free to call the monster "Frankenstein."
:If anyone tries to correct you, just explain that this comic is your canonical version.
:Thank you.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Doctor Who]]

2579: Tractor Beam

2022-02-09T21:16:19Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ Thinko.

{{comic
| number = 2579
| date = February 9, 2022
| title = Tractor Beam
| image = tractor_beam.png
| titletext = Did you base the saucer shape on pop culture depictions of aliens, or was that stuff based on your ships? Does the rotational symmetry help with ... hey, where are you going?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN ANNOYING CUEBALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Randall is being pulled into a spaceship by a beam of light, called a {{w|tractor beam}} in the title. This is a {{tvtropes|AlienAbduction|common trope}} in science fiction, and usually pretty scary for the person involved. However, while Randall is being pulled up, he asks a series of questions about the beam, about the force on the ship, and about the ship itself. The punch line is the caption - the aliens, frustrated by Randall's questioning, release him and move on, to presumably find a different human to abduct and study. Many people have reported {{w|Alien abduction|being abducted by aliens}} in real life, though none of these have been confirmed.

The first three questions deal with the properties of the beam – how it can be controlled to pull only him (and his clothes), not anything else. He also wonders whether the beam would still continue to lift his shoes if he took them off midway. Perhaps his apparel is only rising with him because it normally stays attached to him, perhaps it is similarly levitated with equal force or impulse. Maybe even it is only his clothing that is being lifted, although done without sufficient finesse this could cause damage to the clothing or the person, such that it would be tempting to call this a {{tvtropes|NegativeSpaceWedgie|Space Wedgie}}.

Next, Randall asks if his weight is pulling the ship downward. This would be the case, for example, if he were hoisted upwards by a rope instead of the beam, as equal but opposite forces act against each other, but not if the beam alters the nature of his surroundings such as with {{w|The First Men in the Moon
Article Talk|Cavorite}} or another means of {{w|gravitational shielding}} or alteration.

Then he asks what will happen if a bat flies through the beam. Things that could happen include the beam breaking (and him falling downward) due to the projected effect being interrupted, the bat being pulled up ahead of him as it enters the effective volume of the levitating beam or else nothing at all as it is outside the target area. It may presumably have a relationship with the same focal effect as that which avoids the ground upon which he previously stood being drawn upwards. If the bat casts a 'shadow' down the beam in some form (at least the accompanying illumination) this could also reference the appearance of the {{w|Bat-Signal}}.

As the ship leaves, Randall continues asking questions, as shown in the title text.

The implication is that immediately after Randall arrived onboard the ship, he started badgering the aliens with questions. They got fed up and decided to abandon him instead of revealing their knowledge.

The excessive amount of questions, from a person that is presumably a trained scientist, implies that the principles of flying saucers and tractor beams are likely to be silly or illogical based on our current understanding of physics.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A flying saucer is hovering over some generally flat terrain, with a few rocks and hills in the background. A beam of light is pulling Cueball up towards the ship.]
:Cueball: Does this beam only lift me? How do you avoid pulling up dirt and leaves and stuff? If I kick off my shoes, will they fall?
:Cueball: Is my weight pulling your ship downward? What will happen if a bat flies through the beam?
:Cueball: Hey, why does your ship have those blinky lights? Are they...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Moments later, the aliens set me back down and left.

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

Talk:2578: Sword Pull

2022-02-08T00:34:10Z

172.70.85.79:

I was going to opine that the title text should have said "mini bike" instead of "dirt bike" since the former is usually started by a recoil pull rope and the latter by a kick start. But I guess technically neither one is started by a magic sword so kind of a toss up. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.221|172.70.126.221]] 22:48, 7 February 2022 (UTC)Pat
Hope u like my explanation {{unsigned ip|172.70.110.151}}

I though the sword belongs to {{w|Lady of the Lake}} ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:29, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
:The sword from the stone (proof of lineage/fate) really should be considered differently from the one from the lake ("strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government"), but they do tend to be conflated by some versions of the storytelling. But the various myths were already that confused/contradictory/clashing centuries ago. (Some versions have Excalibur drawn from the stone to etart his destiny, the
have him (have a trusted but reluctant knight) 'return' it to the Lady Of The Lake, from whence it presumably came (via the stone), at thevend of his life.
:But I choose to go with the strand of canon that says that the 'kingmaker' sword was separate, got broken in a personal combat he should not rightfully have fought, and that only after reparations for the incident was he directed to go receive Excalibur, as its replacement, from its watery source.
:Really though, it probably is all a mistelling (and probably very Freudian, in every way!) of what never quite happened anyway. Except for the version where the time-traveller does the setting up of the contest with tidally-powered electromagnets and possibly an unintended recipient of the legend made true... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 00:34, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-07T19:01:17Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ Wikilink it

{{comic
| number = 2577
| date = February 4, 2022
| title = Sea Chase
| image = sea_chase.png
| titletext = There are two rules on this ship: Never gaze back into the projection abyss, and never touch the red button labeled DYMAXION.
}}

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

In this comic, Randall returns to one of his pet subjects: [[977: Map Projections|map projections]]. Unusually, this time it is from the perspective of people living - or, in this case, sailing - upon the world that is quite literally being mapped.

Two sailing ships, of circa 18th century design, are engaged in a close chase across the {{w|Atlantic}}, the aggressor flying the Skull and Crossbones of a stereotypical pirate vessel. It can be seen from the flags of both ships that they are tacking into the wind, the trailing ship seeming to be lighter and yet deploying more effective canvas with two active sails than the forward one can with three. The ship being chased has a plan to escape and the means to do so. At a crucial moment, [[Cueball]] is told to flip a large incongruous switch that (like several [[1620: Christmas Settings|other]] [[1763: Catcalling|artifacts]] in the xkcd universe) alters the nature of their reality.

Whereas beforehand the world is directly represented upon a simply contiguous map, the {{w|Robinson projection}}, it is now changed to one (which is actually the new reality) known as {{w|Goode homolosine projection|Goode Homolosine}} in which the flattening of the world mitigates localised warping of angle/distance/area by introducing discontinuities in relatively 'unused' parts of the mapped world, such as the center of the Atlantic.

By precisely timing the change (as they cross a particular {{w|meridian}}, possibly the 40°W one), they leave the pursuer now on the wrong side of the very real gap, allowing the pursued ship to escape whatever fate they were trying to avoid. Though there is still an oceanic connection, it requires sailing down the edge towards the tropics, rounding this particular rent in the planet's surface and heading back up the other side. This is vastly further than Cueball's ship needs to travel to reach (presumably) any European port in which they can safely moor.

The title text elaborates on the policies of the ship: crewmates are never to look into the "projection abyss" and to never hit the red button labeled "{{w|Dymaxion_map|DYMAXION}}."

The first rule suggests that changing the projection of physical reality produces a gap in reality, a void. This may be dangerous to gaze into or simply unnerving to crewmates, hence the rule. This may also be a reference to a well known quote by philosopher {{w|Friedrich Nietzsche}}: “He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” See [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm Beyond Good and Evil at Project Gutenberg]

[[Image:Dymaxion_projection.png|thumb|300px|Dymaxion projection of the world]]

The second rule references a button that seems to do the same thing as the lever but changes the world into a {{w|Dymaxion map|Dymaxion projection}}. The Dymaxion map projects the Earth onto 20 triangles, which are typically chosen such that land mass are contiguous while adding many discontinuities in the oceans. This would make navigating by ship in such a 2D world even more difficult than in the Goode homolosine projection. In particular, crossing the Atlantic ocean becomes impossible because of the introduction of a projection abyss from Norway to the Caribean.

The Robinson, Goode Homolosine, and Dymaxion projections have been referenced in [[977: Map Projections]].

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

:[A pirate ship flying the Skull and Crossbones is sailing after a merchant ship.]
:Merchant ship sailor #1: They're closing in!
:Merchant ship sailor #2: Hang on, we're almost at the meridian!

:[A map of the Earth in the Robinson projection, with two red dots in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A voice comes from the red dot further to the east.]
:Merchant ship sailor #2: ''Now!'' Throw the switch!

:[Cueball, representing merchant ship sailor #1, pulls down a giant lever switch labeled "Projection", from "Robinson" to "Goode Homolosine".]

:[A map of the Earth in the Goode Homolosine projection, with one red dot on the American side of the split and one red dot on the European side of the split.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-06T20:23:10Z

172.70.85.79:

The flag on the lefthand ship (port-side, if you will :P) looks like the {{w|Rising Sun Flag}} that the Japanese Navy uses as its ensign. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.147|172.70.110.147]] 02:31, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:Actually, that the Navy used in 1889 (not uses). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.147|172.70.110.147]] 02:31, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:I reckon it looks more like a Jolly Roger. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.87|108.162.249.87]] 02:44, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
::Ah, you're right. I was thinking Union Jack for a minute but thought there were too many streaks. The upper and lower portions of the skull nearly touch the edge of the flag, making it look like something akin to a sunburst. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.99|172.70.114.99]] 02:46, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

Okay, I added an initial description for the title text and made a bunch of edits. I'll stop now to let other people get in on the action. :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.99|172.70.114.99]] 02:54, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
:Yeah, I kept edit-conflicting (except the first time, when I ended up just appended to some else's first edit) and I ''think'' I have reached the point where I've unruined everything of everyone else's that I didn't fully intend to change or add to. But it's late (GMT) and I need my sleep so if I've accidentally rushed through some stuff I shouldn't have then please fill your boots and tweak it back (or onwards) to how it should be. G'night! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.11|162.158.159.11]] 03:07, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
::G'night. I think we were conflicting. It was my first experience live editing and it was fun. lol [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.157|172.70.230.157]] 03:08, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

If that is the goode one, I'd like to keep clear of the Baad Homolosine. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.41|141.101.105.41]] 14:08, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

What's the reason for thinking the ships are sailing towards Europe? The prevailing wind in the north Atlantic is more or less westerly, so ships tacking into the wind are more likely to be heading west. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.155|162.158.222.155]] 20:00, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
:They're pointing right, which matches the map? (Was posting the following comment, but might as well answer this straight away.) Also, being chased by a pirate ''towards'' all those lovely New World riches seems funny idea, on balance. Although of course it depends on when and how a privateer discovers a possible prize... for some reason in the very middle of the Atlantic rather than in a more bottlenecked part of the trade-routes.
:Perhaps the merchantman was spotted leaving the vicinity of Bermuda (they have the sails for it!), with signs of carrying cargo of value, and it was considered worth chasing all the way to the mid-Atlantic, just about catching them up.
:The voice 'from the map' comes from the Easterly ship, as well, so that can really only mean that it went just a little more east prior to the gap-in-the-map appears and it would make Europe the most practical destination afterwards.
:As for the winds, matching the map position with prevailing/trade-wind diagrams, they could easily be caught in a north-westerly/north-easterly zone that naturally forms a gyre in the atmospheric flow (on average, and of course passing weather systems can send contrary winds any which way off the various edges of a rotating or counter-rotating pressure-system as it moves loosely across the ocean.
:On the whole I think it was a reasonable assumption to make that they're Europe-bound (by inclination and/or because that's the way the chase takes them), based upon both illustrative convention and the general logistics of the situation, but then with the possible top-mast flags 'error' I'm not sure exactly how strictly Randall intended this all to be. He could have colour-coded the dots, individually, if he was even that bothered - not just made them both red. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 20:23, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

So by my (less than encyclopedic) reckoning, that's a fast gaff-rigged sloop flying chasing what appears to be a more cumbersome gunter-rigged (or bermuda?) schooner (iffy on that one, but it's not a ketch). What's most strange is that they're triangular, not square, as a merchantman/non-raider should need (especially in a chase such as this) as much sail as possible just to get its deeper and wider hull moving. Neither are using topsails, maybe because the wind conditions are contrary. Yes, the top-flags are pointing backwards, but then that's also a common artist error (with anything other than a modern wingsail), while both ships are flying clearly foreward sails (not spinnakers, I'm sure) and the chased one seems distintly inflated to the direction of travel. Era-specific peculiarities are beyond my easy assessment (or indeed what century such an encounter might actually be in). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 20:23, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

== The strange large anachronistic square incongruous inscribed otherworldly ¿synthetic? reality-warping switch.... ==

Interesting edits about the switch, along the way. Generally I think compounded adjectival descriptors go by the order of opinion, size, age, shape, (existential) quality, colour, origin, material and purpose - though there are disagreements and alternate versions of that list. What is incongruousity? An opinion or a quality (or origin, at a push?), I'd guess, making each order potentially valid. (In advance of any further arguments, I suggest "strange large" rather than an edit-war, though I personally like its incongruousness being mentioned, and incongruousicity in general. YMMV.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:22, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-05T02:27:56Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ Sorry, it didn't complain about edit conflict, just conflated. Let me put bits of your para into my set.

Talk:492: Scrabble

2022-02-04T19:02:13Z

172.70.85.79:

Does anyone know the points for "Ostrich", "Historic", and "Coistril"? I know the game but I don't have it at home.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:25, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

:Not sure what double word type modifiers they have but here are the base scores:

clitoris 10 + 50
coistril 10
ostrich 12
historic 13

:Choosing '''historic''' would be the best family friendly option, but is a far less desirable choice. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 05:43, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

:: The only placement for ''historic'' would get it onto the triple word score with one doubled letter, making 42. Still nowhere near ''coistril'' or ''clitoris'', though (which can both get the 50 point bonus and the double letter score for the C). [[Special:Contributions/94.13.166.227|94.13.166.227]] 21:25, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Please do a separate post and do not destroy the former discussions.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:49, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

Update by ‎67.0.215.76:
clitoris 60
coistril 60
ostrich 12
historic 42
:{{unsigned ip|‎67.0.215.76}}

:The best option would be ''lictors'' and ''hic'', scoring 71 points. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.85|108.162.254.85]] 14:48, 12 May 2014 (UTC)
::Any prove? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:19, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Randall uses the word "Ostrich" as an alternate word, but "Historic" or "[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coistril Coistril]" would gain more points. {{unsigned|Matchup}}

Top 17 Options taking into account what of the board opens up.
[Hic/Lictors 71points], [Lictors/Chi, 69 points], [Hit/Lictors, 69 points], [His/Lictors, 69 points],
[Lictors/Sh, 69 points], [Lictors/Li, 69points], [Trochils, 64 points], [Clitoris, 63 points]x2,
[Coistril, 63]x2, [Historic, 42], [Col/Oh/Li, 17 points], [Hic/Col, 15 points], [Hit/Lotic, 21 points],
[Chi/Col, 14 points], [Li, 3 points]
Top 14 Scoring words
[Lictors, 64-69]x6, [Trochils, 64], [Clitoris, 63]x2, [Coistril, 63]x2, [Historic, 42], [Lotic,21],
[Lictor,18-20]x3, [Colts,19], [Cots,18]x2, [Cost,18]x2, [Colt,18], [Cols,18], [Cist,18], [Scot,18]
Ostrich is a bad plan either way. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.99|141.101.98.99]]

---
How can you get "historic" from the tiles shown? The player doesn't have an "h" and has only one "i." [[User:Jelsemium|Jelsemium]] ([[User talk:Jelsemium|talk]]) Jelsemium

:Because 'Historic' starts with 'Hi', which has already been played. He can place 'storic' on the end of the existing 'Hi'. -Graptor [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.185|162.158.79.185]] 04:19, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

How on earth can "clitoris" ever be an inappropriate word? That is so sexist! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 15:51, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Can't believe nobody mentioned the smaller size of lefthand Cueball. Neither the granny (presumably) nor the other grown woman (Mother? Older sister?) there might be too bothered personally (depends on the individuals concerned), but with an adolescent child (a boy in particular) it would greatly add to the issues in most family circumstances. Added to the transcript, accordingly. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 19:02, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

942: Juggling

2022-02-03T20:55:27Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ Though a valid word, it's not really being applied correctly.

{{comic
| number = 942
| date = August 24, 2011
| title = Juggling
| image = juggling.png
| titletext = Later: 'Why is there a book hovering over the trash can?'
}}

==Explanation==
In an attempt to learn to juggle [[Cueball]] begins practicing after reading an instruction book. In the third panel, it seems as though he is juggling normally after tossing the balls into their air. However, in a baffling phenomenon the balls he throws into the air seem to stop adhering to the strict laws of physics part of the way through his throw. As can be proven in simple demonstrations things tend to fall toward the largest center of gravity unless other forces are at play as well.{{citation needed}}

The joke here is partially making fun of the idea that in a comic, the visuals of juggling would be the same as the visuals sitting in place in the air. So at first while reading, we assume Cueball is juggling, until it is revealed he has no control over the position of the balls at all.

Cueball is understandably perplexed, but instead of ascribing the event to some inexplicable supernatural agent, he concludes that the book's juggling instructions were faulty and throws it away. The title text furthers the joke by implying the book too seems to have become caught up in this phenomenon, which might now occur whenever Cueball throws something.

Many things could be taken away from this. Perhaps Cueball is so spectacularly bad at juggling his failure breaks the laws of physics. Or perhaps the book assumes gravity and momentum are present where you choose to juggle. Or perhaps the book merely instructs you how to juggle like the picture on the front of the cover, where the balls can also be thought to hover.

However it seems that for some reason physics has only stopped acting on these objects as Cueball himself is able to jump and fall back down without any trouble and the book was previously on the floor, implying it had been dropped there.

While it is possible to reach zero gravity (or at least microgravity), there is no place in our universe where objects with mass have no momentum. Some possible explanations might be that Cueball is outside of our universe, he has just discovered something that's theoretically impossible, or he is just dreaming, or [[Randall]] has taken comedic license on the "momentum" part for the sake of the joke. Or he could be in a place where the surrounding fluid, instead of having the normal properties of earth's atmosphere, is a very thick or viscous fluid in which things simply become stuck. Or, perhaps the fourth wall is broken, and Cueball doesn’t recognize he’s in a web comic, but we do.

This may also be a reference to a motto often brought up in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series: if you forget about physics, they will forget about you.

This comic is part of the following unpublished comic from the [[:Category:Five-minute comics|five-minute comics]]; specifically the unpublished [[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4|fourth part]].

==Transcript==
:[The panel shows a close up of Cueball reading a book. The book is called "How To Juggle" and has a picture of a person juggling on the cover.]

:[The view now shows the entirety of Cueball. The book is splayed on the floor behind them, and he is holding some juggling balls.]

:[Cueball throws the juggling balls in the air.]

:[He lowers his arms to prepare to catch the balls. The balls are hovering in mid-air.]

:[Cueball now stands with his arms by his sides. The balls have not moved and are still suspended in mid-air.]

:[Cueball jumps, trying to grab the lowest ball. He can't reach.]

:[Cueball scratches his head and stares at the still floating juggling balls.]

:[Cueball throws the book into a trash can.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

942: Juggling

2022-02-03T20:54:20Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ Don't think it's funny enough, but repositioning it correctly WRT punctuation standards.

{{comic
| number = 942
| date = August 24, 2011
| title = Juggling
| image = juggling.png
| titletext = Later: 'Why is there a book hovering over the trash can?'
}}

==Explanation==
In an attempt to learn to juggle [[Cueball]] begins practicing after reading an instruction book. In the third panel, it seems as though he is juggling normally after tossing the balls into their air. However, in a baffling phenomenon the balls he throws into the air seem to stop adhering to the strict laws of physics partway through his throw. As can be proven in simple demonstrations things tend to fall toward the largest center of gravity unless other forces are at play as well.{{citation needed}}

The joke here is partially making fun of the idea that in a comic, the visuals of juggling would be the same as the visuals sitting in place in the air. So at first while reading, we assume Cueball is juggling, until it is revealed he has no control over the position of the balls at all.

Cueball is understandably perplexed, but instead of ascribing the event to some inexplicable supernatural agent, he concludes that the book's juggling instructions were faulty and throws it away. The title text furthers the joke by implying the book too seems to have become caught up in this phenomenon, which might now occur whenever Cueball throws something.

Many things could be taken away from this. Perhaps Cueball is so spectacularly bad at juggling his failure breaks the laws of physics. Or perhaps the book assumes gravity and momentum are present where you choose to juggle. Or perhaps the book merely instructs you how to juggle like the picture on the front of the cover, where the balls can also be thought to hover.

However it seems that for some reason physics has only stopped acting on these objects as Cueball himself is able to jump and fall back down without any trouble and the book was previously on the floor, implying it had been dropped there.

While it is possible to reach zero gravity (or at least microgravity), there is no place in our universe where objects with mass have no momentum. Some possible explanations might be that Cueball is outside of our universe, he has just discovered something that's theoretically impossible, or he is just dreaming, or [[Randall]] has taken comedic license on the "momentum" part for the sake of the joke. Or he could be in a place where the surrounding fluid, instead of having the normal properties of earth's atmosphere, is a very thick or viscous fluid in which things simply become stuck. Or, perhaps the fourth wall is broken, and Cueball doesn’t recognize he’s in a web comic, but we do.

This may also be a reference to a motto often brought up in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series: if you forget about physics, they will forget about you.

This comic is part of the following unpublished comic from the [[:Category:Five-minute comics|five-minute comics]]; specifically the unpublished [[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4|fourth part]].

==Transcript==
:[The panel shows a close up of Cueball reading a book. The book is called "How To Juggle" and has a picture of a person juggling on the cover.]

:[The view now shows the entirety of Cueball. The book is splayed on the floor behind them, and he is holding some juggling balls.]

:[Cueball throws the juggling balls in the air.]

:[He lowers his arms to prepare to catch the balls. The balls are hovering in mid-air.]

:[Cueball now stands with his arms by his sides. The balls have not moved and are still suspended in mid-air.]

:[Cueball jumps, trying to grab the lowest ball. He can't reach.]

:[Cueball scratches his head and stares at the still floating juggling balls.]

:[Cueball throws the book into a trash can.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:2576: Control Group

2022-02-03T02:57:36Z

172.70.85.79:

This is my first explanation, feel free to improve upon it. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 00:30, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Ran into your edit when I tried to submit mine, hah.
I don't actually like Know Your Meme that much but I'm not sure where else I could source that joke. Maybe it's unnecessary. [[User:Obw|Obw]] ([[User talk:Obw|talk]]) 00:36, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:Sorry about that. Thanks for expanding my explanation, especially the description of the "study" aspect. I think the joke is fine, though we'll see what others think. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 00:43, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:Your explanation of the title text actually helped me understand the joke there! I added a bit more to flesh out the explanation [[User:Obw|Obw]] ([[User talk:Obw|talk]]) 00:45, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:Thanks! Your edits definitely helped clear up the study terminology. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 00:50, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Is the text exceptionally large for an xkcd comic? I was seeing if my browser was zoomed in, but the previous comics are all a normal size [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.215|172.70.134.215]] 00:55, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:I noticed that, too. It looks about 1.5 times larger than normal. I don't think it means anything, though; Randall probably just made the image the wrong size by accident. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 01:00, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:The image is the size normally used for the _2x version. In this case, the main image is the same size as the _2x version for some reason. Normal image: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/control_group.png; 2x image: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/control_group_2x.png; Normally the _2x version is double size for hi-DPI displays. I'm hoping that will get fixed and we'll get the normal size back. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 01:11, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
::This size is way better though. Do people still use low-res monitors? When I check the website, it shows up as 478 x 613 pixels, which is absurdly small, even for a webcomic. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 01:33, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:::The site standard is to give the standard version, for various reasons not just confined to monitor (or, in my case, tablet) resolution. It doesn't happen here, but the double-wide version of some comics would often make my device shrink the rest of the page to make the image fit within the width.
:::(Ironically, my device seems to load the _2x in the original published context, in normal non-huge comics, ''without'' changing the xkcd site dimensions, so maybe there's a CSS solution to that, as well as it clearly heing the reason for the current problem due to hard-coded pixel-widths adding up to less than necessary to wholey contain the image-width.)
:::If the _2x version is necessary to see details (not the case here), a link to that version is given. Or if it has been uploaded as well, I suppose. But anyone can go to the source and get the _2x if they want it. But for this comic it adds little value. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 02:57, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2574: Autoresponder

2022-01-30T15:11:18Z

172.70.85.79:

In Russia, this comic won't be relatable. Bosses here still use e-mail, and use regular phone calls for ASAP-like urgent requests. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.10.207|172.68.10.207]] 05:21, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
:(This comment reinstated. Looks like an editing error by the person who added something else... Is definitely relevent.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 15:11, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

1) Why is White Hat is hairless, and 2) what’s with the nested panels? [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 06:48, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
:White Hat never has hair. Yes the nested panel is a bit special but not unique. But should be mentioned in the transcript. I think it is to indicate the immediate response. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:27, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

Is the harness an auto responding exoskeleton?--[[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]]) 06:59, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

I'm definitely going to need to come back when this has an explanation. I know what an email autoresponder is but that doesn't explain the joke. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.91|172.70.130.91]] 07:23, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
: Randall's riffing on the theme of advanced technology trickling into the commonplace. The autoresponder is a robot made with AI. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.147|172.70.110.147]] 18:53, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
: It could also be seen as a more subtle joke that people are enslaving members of opposing political parties to be their autoresponders. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.99|172.70.114.99]] 09:45, 30 January 2022 (UTC)
:: Very subtle. I don't see it. It's the absurdity of a physical in-presence response, given how most rogue out-of-workhours emailers wouldn't even be a mere shove away from being responded to in such a way. (Now, if everyone had a swordsperson/-bot behind them and your own one of these attacked you when it sensed/was told you had made such an email. That would be 'workable', if strange to implement. This comic has a (usually) unworkable solution that's even stranger!)
:: PS., I think it works best with a (to my eye) female adversary, whether swordswoman or fembot. An armoured Cueball (or most anybother male character) wouldn't have the same "Summer Glau"-type femme fatale thing about them. La Femme Nikita, Mrs Steed, etc. "The female of the species is deadlier than the male" sort of thing. Good choice of characterisation, Randall! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 15:11, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

I've never once been sent an autoresponder message about the hour, just OOTO vacations and the like. Are the former common these days? What about people in different time zones? Or who work different shifts? Isn't the whole idea about using asynchronous email instead of synchronous chat or DM or whatever that the time of day doesn't matter? Weird. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 08:03, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
:Some territories, and/or businesses are moving to a situation which respects work/life-balance, again, after the 24/7 always-online world started to eat into (mostly) after-hours time off - e.g. the EU's Working Time Directive, or the automatic shutdown of office computers at the end of the (nominal) working day. But there are still ways for employer/employee to get round these measures if they 'need' to (or feel pressurised to).
:The US as a whole isn't that advanced in such things, I understand... Certainly regressive in other employment issues. But it would depend upon what position White Hat actually has in what kind of business. It seems he can (and feels he can) set up something, but of course he seems to have gone over oard in the configuration of it! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 12:29, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
:: I'm perfectly happy to ignore emails until an appropriate hour, but I don't want someone to forgo sending me an email they or I need because of the time. That's what asynchronous means! This is just nuts. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.205|172.70.206.205]] 17:33, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

Deletion of: "(probably, as electronic tickets with one-use QR Codes, in case they are separated before they arrive, to save time.)" - I found that necessary to be explained, myself. I can't see how/why the email is even sent, otherwise. Like being given your physical ticket, in advance (but only yours) after someone else bought the set of 'Upper Circle, Row F seats 15-20' for your little group, in advance. Either that or Cueball keeps the tickets (physical or electronic) and is there to get his whole party (WH and anybody else they'll plan to meet on the way) past the entrance to the theatre/arena/whatever by showing them all to the gatekeeper/whatever. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 15:08, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
:I had to go all the way down here to find any explanation whatsoever of “email [a way to send information] the tickets [physical pieces of paper]” but at least the explanation (of sorts) is here somewhere.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.167|108.162.245.167]] 22:45, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

Also, separate point, this is one of the first comics to not only not be ''about'' the pandemic, but seems to indicate ''normality'' with no notable remaining effects of it, suggesting it is not even a significant background factor. Though of course we can't know what precautions (reduced-capacity spacing, recent negative testing documents, proof-of-vaccination, whatever) might be seen off-strip, at the event itself, and I know it'd be a rash set of xkcd characters that aren't still fully aware and (somehow) reducing the ongoing risks, still. But for those who complained about too much Covid-focus, here you are, and then sorry I mentioned it (even for the good reason of making it clear that they should feel happier now, if they hadn't already realised it). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 15:11, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

2574: Autoresponder

2022-01-29T04:07:33Z

172.70.85.79: /* Transcript */ Not happy about the exact details, but some of this is probably important.

{{comic
| number = 2574
| date = January 28, 2022
| title = Autoresponder
| image = autoresponder.png
| titletext = I ADMIRE HOW YOU SET BOUNDARIES AND I HOPE YOUR COLLEAGUES RESPECT THEM! PLEASE SPARE MY LIFE!
}}
*This was the ninth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

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

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and White Hat are facing each other, and a figure stands behind White Hat, who could be Meghan, drawn with thicker/rougher lines as if clad in bulky clothing, wearing spiky knee and elbow guards, a spike-embossed and notably scarred crash-helmet upon their head and a holding a glintingly sharp sword in their hand]
:Cueball: Ready to go?
:White Hat: Yup! Can you email me the tickets before we leave?
:Cueball: Sure, one sec.

:Cueball: Okay, I sent it to-
[The third figure aggressively moves forward, sword-arm raised, the other hand now pushing White Hat behind them, by the face, causing him to stumble backwards and his hat to start falling off]
:Armored figure: '''''It is outside work hours!'''''
:Armored figure: '''''Prepare to die!'''''
:Cueball: ''Augh!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I always feel bad when I trigger my friends' work autoresponders.

{{comic discussion}}

2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-28T09:24:26Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ Makes better sense to shift the 'or' to not sound like Russian Doll saucers, if you want to suggest they're sentient-saucers.

{{comic
| number = 2573
| date = January 26, 2022
| title = Alien Mission
| image = alien_mission.png
| titletext = Fine, we can go search the Himalayas for the Yeti ONE more time, but keep a safe altitude over the Pacific and PLEASE watch where you're going. We can't afford another Amelia Earhart incident.
}}
*This was the eighth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by BIGFOOT LOOKING FOR A COPY OF ALIEN (1979) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic portrays a conversation between aliens inside two flying saucers (or alternately, two aliens whose form is that of flying saucers) in which they discuss their long-secret observation of Earth. It seems that the leader of the mission is in the right saucer, as the alien in left saucer begins by saying "Sir, can we talk". The left alien then continues to state that they have been secretly observing Earth for almost a century (perhaps from the early 1930's or late 1920's, and the title text suggests they already were there in 1937). During these almost 100 years, they have repeatedly flown over every (square) inch of Earth's surface, while trying to avoid being spotted by humans. (This is related to the previous comic, which is about improving cell-phone cameras making it increasingly difficult for flying saucer occupants to avoid being photographed.)

This leads up to the punchline, which reveals that the leader in the right saucer has been hunting for {{w|Bigfoot}}. The left alien tells him that if a Bigfoot exist anywhere in the universe, it is not on planet Earth. Apparently even advanced aliens have been unable to spot Bigfoot. The alien leader continues his delusion by citing intriguing human videos of something that looks like Bigfoot. When the other alien sighs, implying that this conversation has occurred many times before, the leader continues his arguments with the typical conspiracy line, "How else do you explain the..."

The first panel alludes to the fact that UFO sightings became {{w|Roswell_Incident|commonplace only in the 1940s}}.

The humor derives from the fact that {{w|UFO}} enthusiasts and {{w|cryptozoology}} enthusiasts have a similar mindset: They both believe in phenomena that the scientific establishment believes baseless. Both systems are fully lacking in clear evidence but have an abundance of eyewitness accounts and vague/blurry photographic evidence. And both belief systems have existed for many years, but rapidly advancing technology, accumulating data, and ubiquity of high quality cameras have still failed to capture any clear and detailed evidence. ([[Randall]] seems to find this point particularly significant, and although his previous comic explained the bad flying saucer photos, he already made the comic [[1235: Settled]] long ago, where he calls it settled that Bigfoot, UFOs, and similar phenomena don't exist since everyone has a camera handy at all times.) While these concepts are parallel, they're logically independent, as one deals with species that are presumably native to Earth and the other deals with advanced alien species visiting the Earth. The notion of alien visitors being interested in cryptozoology is incongruous: to them, all Earth animals would presumably seem equally alien.

In previous strips, Randall has suggested playing conspiracy theories off against one another (see [[966: Jet Fuel]]). This comic has a similar theme: suggesting that UFOs are here to search for Bigfoot (and the Yeti) sounds ridiculous on its face. But any explanation of ''why'' it's ridiculous would apply equally well to the notion of Bigfoot and UFO's individually.

Some of the aliens clearly have a similar belief, at least in Bigfoot, which is why they came to Earth. This implies that they had some prior knowledge or suspicion of its existence, and only then possibly narrowed it down to this one planet because of the videos humans have made.

Whatever the arguments about Bigfoot, the title text reveals a separate discussion regarding the {{w|Yeti}}, a similar large hominid purported to reside in the {{w|Himalayas}}, and the tentative permission to conduct ''one last search'' for it. As the Yeti and Bigfoot are very similarly described, they could also be seen as the same, so the only difference is that finding a Bigfoot in the Himalayas would make it a Yeti. In the discussion about this last search, they caution about staying high above the Pacific and watch where they are going. This is because, as it turns out, they were the cause of the Amelia Earhart incident. {{w|Amelia Earhart}} disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 and neither her nor her plane have ever been found. The title text implies that she disappeared because of an encounter with a flying saucer. She has previously been the main character in [[950: Mystery Solved]] and has since been a [[:Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

That their clearly superior observation technology and methods have been apparently unable to resolve these issues at first seems like it shouldn't bode well for our own cryptozoologists. But since lack of results does nothing to deter them, and since it is always impossible to prove a negative, they would likely not change their beliefs even if they heard of the alien results: "Bigfoot of course hides when the aliens look! And how else do you explain the..."

This comic followed directly after [[2572: Alien Observers]], in which aliens in similar-looking flying saucers observe Earth. It is not specifically stated that these two form a series, but this comic could be seen as a direct follow up to the previous one, indicating that the aliens are the same in the two comics.

==Transcript==
:[Two 'classic' Flying Saucer spacecraft are hovering in the sky with speech-lines indicating communication from someone within each saucer. The rightmost is tilted a bit, like it is being attentive to the left.]
:Left Saucer: Sir, can we talk?
:Left Saucer: We've been observing earth for almost a century.

:[Same setting but both saucers are level.]
:Left Saucer: Hovering and zooming from place to place, trying to avoid being spotted by humans.
:Right Saucer: Yeah.

:[In a Frameless panel only the left saucer is shown. The right saucer's voice emerges from an edge-of-panel starburst.]
:Left Saucer: By now we've flown over every inch of the surface many times.
:Right Saucer (off-panel): Yes? And?

:[Same setting as in the first panel, with the right one tilted towards the left saucer.]
:Left Saucer: Face it: If Bigfoot '''''is''''' real, he's not anywhere on this planet.
:Right Saucer: But humans have captured some intriguing videos!
:Left Saucer: ''*sigh*''
:Right Saucer: How else do you explain the...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart]]

2572: Alien Observers

2022-01-26T00:39:49Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ Critical grammar failure correction, and rephrase.

{{comic
| number = 2572
| date = January 24, 2022
| title = Alien Observers
| image = alien_observers.png
| titletext = ALERT: Human 910-25J-1Q38 has created a Youtube channel. Increase erratic jerkiness of flying by 30% until safely out of range.
}}
*This was the seventh comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
There is speculation by many people that there could be some form of extraterrestrial life observing us, hovering around in various flying vehicles, or perhaps using some form of giant telescope. These claims are often backed up by blurry pictures which claim to be of alien vehicles. In this comic, the joke is that the aliens are deliberately making sure that all sightings are made unverifiable. However, with [[1235:_Settled|most people now carrying a camera with them all the time]], a sighting that would be unverifiable just by eyewitness testimony could now be captured by a smartphone camera.

This means that in order for the aliens to keep creating unverifiable sightings for humans, they must keep track of what camera capabilities each human has, leading to different distance restrictions for each human, as seen in the diagram. The effective range of each person's camera is depicted as a circular (or spherical) envelope around themselves, two on the cross-sectional diagram and at least one located off beyond the image edge.

There is also an apparently flat ground-hugging 'no fly zone' connecting two of these areas. This may be part of a general prohibition against landing (and/or causing verifiable ground effects, such as {{w|crop circles}}) or it could be there to show that the capability of a self-focussing camera is greatly enhanced when it also has ground-features to autofocus upon rather than a subject surrounded by nothing but sky.

The comic attempts to explain away the issue already discussed in prior comics, such as [[718: The Flake Equation]] and [[1235: Settled]], in which the phenomenon of UFO sightings/reports is still left not resolved (either way) despite what modern technology should suggest is possible. It appears that the reason for this is that the {{tvtropes|SufficientlyAdvancedAlien|sufficiently advanced aliens}} actually make more than enough observations of the human race to continuously determine how to stay just on the side of plausible deniability in any interactions that they still seem to wish to make.

The attitude of the aliens also mirrors that of a subset of humans, namely those who hold disdain for the {{w|consumerism|consumerist}} mindset. These humans are frustrated by the tendency of their fellow humans to compulsively buy the latest and greatest versions of products at all times, often at great expense and without regard for the practical benefits of upgrading. Cellphones are one such product, as Apple and their competitors typically release new phone models annually (occasionally semi-annually), often introducing only minor or cosmetic changes with each new iteration.

In the title text, the aliens note that one particular human now has a YouTube account, meaning they are likely to record video instead of attempting to capture still images. This means that the alien craft used to create the sighting must behave as erratically as possible, in order to avoid being identified. This relates to the often wildly oscillating (as well as blurry) films and videos of 'UFOs' that have been taken by the impromptu human observer, beyond the limit of their ability to hold their fully-zoomed camera steady. Although here it is explained away as the flying saucers ''actually'' moving in an improbably jerky manner to prevent detailed recording of their craft. Further briefings of the sort depicted would doubtless accompany upgrades in optical/digital-stability features or the purchase of a camera tripod.

It appears the aliens have a classification and tracking system for all humans. It is unclear what the system for assigning these identifiers is, since we see two different formats (''38XT11-B-C54'' and ''910-25J-1Q38''). One possibility is that there are two different tracking systems represented, with at least two possibilities for the relation between them.
# Perhaps the two tracking systems are from two different alien agencies dedicated to human tracking, perhaps isomorphic to each other. One may come from a live observation while the other comes via an online alerting system, with no definitive link agreed between the two systems as not even the aliens can guarantee to resolve online anonymity, obfuscation or duplication of identity.
# On the other hand, perhaps the identifier system evolved over time and any given human only has an identifier from one system or the other. Assuming all numbers and letters are usable and each identifier could have only a letter or number in that place, the first identifier represents a space with at least 10*10*26*26*10*10*26*26*100=457 billion entries, while the space of the second is 10*10*10*10*10*26*10*26*10*10=68 billion. Perhaps, like IP addresses evolving from IPV4 to IPV6 because of the fear of exhaustion, the alien tracking systems similarly changed. This would imply the second (YouTube-posting) human is older than the first (cellphone carrying).
# A third possibility is simply regional variations, where different sectors of the Earth have developed their own identification systems, perhaps when population movements (or vacations) were far fewer and intercontinental travel was very rare indeed. Starting from an arbitrary point of time in history, one system may have applied to the Americas and the other to Eurasia (for example) with different challenges of recognising and serupticiously tracking all individuals from cradle to grave within their communities (the shorter identifier of which forms some part of their full personal code). A revised globally-used system might be in development (or even now be in use, as per the above suggestion) but the diverse legacy systems could still apply to those born before the implementation period).

The identifier for the one buying the phone begins with "Human 38XT11". This seems likely to be a reference to {{w|THX 1138}}. This was the title of {{w|George Lucas}}' first film, which is also {{w|THX_1138#Etymology_and_references|referenced}} in the original {{w|Star Wars (film)|Star Wars}} film. The name contains the number in reverse as well as the letters if human could be written as H.

These aliens look like, but not exactly the same as, the one in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/20 What-If #20].

==Transcript==
:[Three aliens are looking at a screen. They each have six tentacles, of which four are used as legs, and the other two can be used as arms. They also have a small mouth and two eye stalks with a large eye at the end of each. The eyes has large eyelashes all the way around. One of the aliens is standing to the left of the screen, pointing to it by raising one of its tentacles. The other two aliens stand to the right of the screen looking at the picture. The screen's image depicts a cross-sectional diagram showing two humans in a rough landscape. There is a shaded area above each of the humans and the terrain. The shaded area's boundary consists of arcs of differing sizes centered upon each human. To the left of the first human there is also a small straight area over the ground. To the left of this towards the edge of the screen, what appears to be an arc with a very large radius that begins and rises high up compared to the other two arcs, around a point beyond the on-screen image's edge. The rightmost human's zone has a dashed region between concentric radii of different sizes indicating that this zone has been revised further out than before. Four flying-saucer like spaceships are shown in the air close to, but above, the shaded areas. One high near the left curve, one over the flat area, one near the intersection between the two small arcs and one over the middle of the right arc.]
:Left Alien: Human 38XT11-B-C54  just bought a new phone with a 10x zoom, so we have to expand our restricted flight zone by 1,800 meters to keep our ship blurry.
:Right Alien 2: Seriously? Didn't they '''''just''''' upgrade?
:Left Alien: I know, I know...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The hardest part of being an alien observing Earth is keeping track of what cameras everyone has.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]
[[Category:Comics referencing THX 1138]]

Talk:Countdown in header text

2022-01-24T15:16:00Z

172.70.85.79: To be more accurate.

The talk on from [[2565: Latency]] and [[2566: Decorative Constants]] has been moved here by me when I created this page --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:01, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

;From Latency:
What is happening around Feb 1st, there is a countdown that appeared a few hours ago in the upper right corner of the xkcd index. There is also the directory xkcd.com/count-wimRikmef which might be an acronym, if it isnt a countdown package? {{unsigned ip|172.70.130.57}}
:Damn you beat me to it ;-). But I have made a [[2565:_Latency#Trivia|Trivia]] here on this comics page and links to more detail on the [[xkcd Header text]] page. I belie you are a day of, but someone will likely correct me if I'm wrong. As I can see it will be January 31st, 9:59 in Randall's home town Boston.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::But damned if I can wait. Sure millions will watch the page when it goes to zero! At least it is no April 1st. :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:10, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

;From Decorative Constants
Any idea what's going on with the clock that's counting downwards in the banner? Currently counting down from 20 days 16 hours? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.95|172.70.214.95]] 22:08, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:(Simultaneous edit) What is the days-hours-minutes in the box above the comic referring to? The image itself is dated yesterday, as you can see by saving it. Worst-case-scenario, is this a countdown to the end of XKCD? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.223|108.162.245.223]] 22:11, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:: It's going to hit zero at around midnight on Jan 31st 2022 CST? [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 22:16, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::'''Posted this on the previous comics discussion. But lets take it here where there will be more traffic:''' --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:44, 10 January 2022 (UTC) -- Copy paste from previous comics discussion:
::::Damn you beat me to it ;-). But I have made a [[2565:_Latency#Trivia|Trivia]] here on this comics page and links to more detail on the [[xkcd Header text]] page. I believe you are a day of, but someone will likely correct me if I'm wrong. As I can see it will be January 31st, 9:59 in Randall's home town Boston.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::But damned if I can wait. Sure millions will watch the page when it goes to zero! At least it is no April 1st. :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:10, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::::Yeah - you're right - I messed up. So as I type this, it's Jan 10th 2022 at 4pm - 1600 hrs Mountain time - which is 1800 hours EST. At this moment, the countdown reads 20d 16h 0m - so Jan 30th + (18+16) hours = which is Jan 30th + 34 hours - which is Jan 31st + 10am in Boston (EST). [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 23:05, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::Hey great, can see they agree in the link to reddit below. So happy I got it right both in UTC and Boston. It will be 15:59 here in DK. Not 16:00. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:44, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Counting down to Backwards Day? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.88|162.158.91.88]] 23:28, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:There's a reddit thread discussing it: https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/s0oynl/xkcd_countdown_timer_20d_21h_49m_remaining_until/ I think the most likely guess is that Randall has a new book coming out. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:40, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::Would still seem strange if it came out that day with only promotion before being a count down. But then again, he will have the xkcd communities boiling if he gives no other hint. So every one will see if he promotes a book. Also as they wrote at the time I looked at reddit I do not think it is the end of xkcd, or Webb related. Although Webb was the first I thought about. But I mean even if it came to L2 at that day, it is not going to any specific point but just in orbit. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:47, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

::The date fits the idea of it being Backwards Day (https://nationaldaycalendar.com/backward-day-january-31) but what about the choice of time? [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 03:38, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::Backwards day... Never head of it until now. Is it big in the US. I mean when looking after dates so obscure they are not mentioned on wikipedia then there are probably lots of things happening on that day? But maybe it is a think in the US? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:48, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::: I haven't heard of it until now either, so it is probably one of the bajillions of holidays no one actually cares about, and is unrelated to the countdown. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 13:22, 11 January 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

Someone has noticed the image is changing with pixels added at the bottom left corner and is keeping track of it here: https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.107|198.41.238.107]] 05:49, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:Looks like an image is "moving" into the frame because at the moment you can see some white pixel in the lower left, i.e. the black part might end up as a line as part of some comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.8|162.158.89.8]] 08:31, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
::Thanks used that to pinpoint the start of the countdown. Have added this info to the header text page, and the original trivia. Also just added a line of trivia to this explanation with the link. This was when this comic came out most people noticed the count down. But it did came out while [[Latency]] was up. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:43, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::Speculating on what it could be, the only thing that makes sense at that angle is a character's arm. 04:47, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:As of 7 PM PST, the two lines appear to be disconnected from anything else, which rules out a lot of the theories put forth here. Hmmm… I can’t really think of anything it could be other than the wing of an airplane. Maybe it’ll zoom out after it moves into view?[[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 03:17, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

The header changes page says that it's forcing "Friday" to move down to the next line. Not for me. Did he fix it, or is it browser-specific? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:It must be browser specific. But i have tried bot the old Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome and Firefox, and it does it in all cases and zooming does nothing.. Which browser do you use? I have corrected to in some browsers though, in the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|explanation]] you refer to. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:31, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

This is much more likely a count down related to the James Webb Space Telescope. At approximately the day the count down indicates the telescope will be orbiting the L2 gravitational spot.Perhaps most of the mirrors will be approximate place to allow for months of fine tuning. An example of a slightly similar idea is https://www.space.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-next-steps
[[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]]) 15:35, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:I really do not think so. There is nothing special about a specific moment for reaching L2. It will go in orbit around it, but when to day it is there or in orbit is hard to pinpoint. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:13, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
::And after I looked at it, it seems it will reach L2 several days before the countdown. See [[Countdown in header text#Theories]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:31, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I think the Countdown should get its own entry. What do we think? [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 16:25, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
: I think it should! What with the count itself, the speculation about what it could mean, and now the slowly arriving image (?) this seems like something beyond either of the two comics since it started! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.49|108.162.219.49]] 18:00, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
: I'm surprised it doesn't have one already. This is one of the more unique situations in a long while, more speculation could happen. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 22:26, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
::I have now created this page and talk page for us to continue the discussion and make dedicated changes about this countdown here. And have moved all discussion from the two pages that had some already (except a few on the first talk page that was also mentioned here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:13, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

If you take a look at this [[https://xkcd.com/count-wimRikmef/state|link]] it displays this: '''{"img":"72cb154b23f959f908f5dc8eb03069c6df3f0f54aae896a0e7ed27befb2ee639.png","start":"2022-01-10T17:00:00Z","target":"2022-01-31T15:00:00Z","until":"2022-01-11T20:55:38.205303701Z"}''' [[User:Hoodiesandboba|Hoodiesandboba]] ([[User talk:Hoodiesandboba|talk]]) 20:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:To correct your link:
:"...If you take a look at this [https://xkcd.com/count-wimRikmef/state link] it displays..."
:As to where the "72cb154b23f959f908f5dc8eb03069c6df3f0f54aae896a0e7ed27befb2ee639.png" is rooted, I haven't dug into that (or what transforms might be being applied), but it looks like a manipulation of browser states might be able to prematurely reveal it. (I'm on mobile at the moment, and it's significantly more fiddly to poke into the page-scripting and markup than I can be bothered with this moment, but I know what I'd do with a good acreage of screen, mouse control and a proper keyboard to rattle away at. And the combined minds here surely can do even better than myself.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 22:38, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
::The filename is a random number long enough to prevent brute force guessing to find future images. The state-file looks like some information for the javascript script where this URL comes from. I haven't looked into the script that much but from the values I'd say that it's telling when to start doing refreshs (2022-01-10T17:00:00Z) and when to stop doing that (2022-01-31T15:00:00Z). While these values are constant, the third value changes and is ten minutes after the time the page has been requested. I suppose this is telling the script, when to do a refresh of the image load. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.16|141.101.77.16]] 11:05, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
:::After some fiddeling, I've found the origin of the filename: It's the SHA-256 hash of the image [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.16|141.101.77.16]] 11:05, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
::::There's already a note that it would be impossible to brute-force the filenames. But as the images are very similar to each other, would it be feasible to programmatically generate images similar to the last one (extending up and to the right, different variations of the line shape), hash those files, and test to see if they match images on the server? I'd expect it to reduce the number of possibilities by orders of magnitude, but not sure if that's enough to make brute-force attempts feasible and non-destructive. (Also don't know the PNG format well enough to know if an image with the same pixels in it is guaranteed to produce the same bytes in the file across different implementations) -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 11:16, 14 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::Hmm… if it was pure black and white, the total number of possible images would be within the realms of sanity to brute force. But add antialiasing and the numbers rapidly become silly. Even if you only allow pixels to change within a certain distance of the previous image, and restrict greys to places between a black and a white, the numbers quickly become absurd. Although that makes me think about making 1-bit versions of all the images so far, predicting a set of "next frame" possibilities at each step, and training a CNN to pick the correct next one; and if it gets accurate enough by the time we get to the present… hmm. How predictable is antialiasing? Do we know the software he's using to create the images; and if so is there a relatively predictable algorithm applied along the edges? [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 11:41, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

I think it counts down to Lunar New Year (the Year of the Tiger), as measured in Korea (the earliest timezone where that is celebrated). Actually, it reaches 0 one minute before the New Year, so maybe it will switch to seconds for the last minute. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.98.75|172.70.98.75]] 05:10, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:Could be, but why. Randall has never to rarely? mentioned this new year... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:13, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I think we are seeing a zoom out of some image. Perhaps it is the arm of Cueball? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:36, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:It looks like there's a little curve at the top left of the line entering the frame! This makes the Cueball arm hypothesis more likely. [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 14:18, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
::I also noticed that (and moved your comment up here, as it is kind of a reply to that). Seems like the picture updates every four hours, and that it happened last time at noon UTC today. And thus it will also be at midnight. So 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24. But it is not certain yet and not sure it happened like that the first day or two. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:46, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I have added the first 12 images on this page: [[Countdown in header text/images]] - anyone may help uploading the new ones there. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:43, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
: Thank you! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.194|173.245.52.194]] 12:44, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Does anyone mind if I make a few spelling/grammar corrections to the article? It feels like the kind of thing that could be interpreted as rude, so I wanted to ask first. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.167|172.70.114.167]] 13:00, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:No no please help me with my poor spelling. I'm Danish and not very good at spelling in English. Also anything I write is up for debate and can be changed. Just because I started this page do not give me ownership over it. As long as relevant info is not deleted the entire layout maybe changed. But better to get the page going sooner rather than later.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:46, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
::Alright!! Thank you so much for all your great work on this page! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.151|172.70.110.151]] 18:02, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

I originally put this (without realising it wasn't the Talk page) in the Images sub-page, in response to the revelation it was (very probably) the SHA256 of the image data that was used to name the file:
*When I first looked at it and decided it was an obvious hash (yes SHA256 sounds about right, but nice to know someone's tried it) I personally had hoped it would be a hash of the datetime (plus a salt, maybe, to give it that extra little frisson of difficulty in reverse engineering... ;) ). But if it's as you say I think I'll refrain from getting any rainbow-tables set up and bashing through the possibilities in the rather huge phase-space it could represent. Of course, there must be a look-up table used by the server. It'd be too much to hope for that it's publically exposed though, and totally a rookie-error if it is. (That Randall, and maybe anyone he actually drafted in to implement it to save himself the worry, is surely not going to commit.)
...anyway, bringing it here, as being more conversational than informative. Still thought I should say it, but stupidly long as a comment so maybe I needn't have repasted it again! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 03:39, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

(Put this in here as it was before in the explanation --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:02, 13 January 2022 (UTC):)
Was going to say it's Hangman, but it looks like it's zooming in on the diagonal instead of continuing to make a gibbet. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 06:37, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

I read the javascript of the countdown and noticed one thing that i didn't see mentioned anywhere on this page: the countdown text is moving upwards. When the countdown started the text was exactly in the middle of the image and at the end of the countdown the text will be at the top (you can see how it will look by changing the time in your system). The code will also make the text disappear and leave only the image after the countdown goes to zero. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.41|162.158.90.41]] 23:52, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
:Uuuh thanks that was interesting. Maybe to make more room for the image? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:09, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

The Greensboro sit-ins started on Feb 1, though the time is different.. But black history month? {{unsigned ip|172.70.135.48}}

Thanks to [[User:Theusaf|Theusaf]] for helping with putting the images up on the image page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:09, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

Anyone here that can make an animation out of the images and put it in the explanation? If it is "easy" could it be updated some times on the way towards the final image on January 31st... Like the one on [[Time]]. That would be really nice. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:02, 14 January 2022 (UTC)
:I made an animation: [https://imgur.com/a/INh77nL] (Now i realize it wasn't needed because there already is automatically updating animation linked from the page...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.105|162.158.159.105]] 18:18, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
::Not if you would let us use it here on xkcd. I have no contact to munvoseli. But if you made one we could upload here on xkcd on this page and then update it a few times, until we have a final version, then that would be much better than having one on a private persons page. Which may be deleted at any time. So cool you made one. If it is possible I would like to have one like the one at [[Time]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:41, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

There's something else moving into the frame... We'll have to see what it is. [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 19:12, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

To even find this page, I had to page backward through the comic to get to Decorative Constants, go to the discussion, and come across the link to this page from there. I suggest that there be a direct link to this page from the explanation of every comic that existed while the countdown was in progress. A second question: has anyone determined for sure whether the ‘camera’ is zooming out from a blank spot in the final image, in which case we can expect other stuff to come into view from above and right, OR is it panning onto an image that is not changing size, in which case nothing will appear except from the direction it’s moving toward? And if it’s panning, has anyone tried estimating where the current stuff will end up?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.76|108.162.246.76]] 07:42, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
:I agree with you and have now changed the four comics that was active while the count down was active so far, so the link to this page is above their explanations. If people keep updating like this for new comics, there will be a link to the countdown page from the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page front page]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:40, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

Does Randall already have kids? If not, maybe his wife is expecting? That's something you'd announce and the last two comics are about kids. Another idea: he's going to space 🚀. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.115|162.158.233.115]] 20:47, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
:I’m sure he would have a birth announcement afterward, but I doubt he would try to predict it to the exact second, 21 days in advance.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.105|162.158.106.105]] 22:36, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
::Maybe it's a C section? Those are usually scheduled. lol but yeah that's unlikely.Wouldn't rule it out though.[[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 13:58, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

I noticed that it almost appears to be the tail fin of an airplane. I don’t know if it is, or if an airplane even makes sense? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.57|172.70.230.57]] 22:11, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
:There's not enough time for it to make the several passes necessary, before the big 'reveal', but I'd have suspected Randall capable of parodying the {{w|Airplane!}} in-title parody of {{w|Jaws}}. Would have somewhat been a {{w|Shaggy dog story|shaggy}}-{{tvtropes|Brick_Joke|brick}} joke, but wouldn't put it past him... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 00:18, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
:: I actually think, after watching the animation so far on musoveli’s page, it looks more like a main wing of a swept wing commercial aircraft. If it is, and the pattern continues, we should be able to see the main body or an engine nacelle at least. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.108|162.158.62.108]] 13:39, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
:::I agree now. First I was sure it was the tail of an airplane, but the way it moves into the image now, makes me think of the wing, with the plane body soon coming into view. That was at image 59... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:48, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
::::I think at the time of posting the body has just come into view! I may be wrong, as it is only a tiny sliver, but I am hopeful!--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.151|172.70.110.151]] 01:59, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::I'm still more mentally-prepared for it being a tailfin (seen from the side, the 'new' line being the mid-dorsal surface of the main aircraft hull) than the port wing (the new bit being of the lateral airframe surface forward of the wings and perhaps just behind the cockpit point). But this POV will doubtless be overturned by the revelation of the next frame(s), which will make many of us look just as misdirectedly creduluous as each other. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 02:50, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
::::::I can see the tailfin too, but because I am a human, and we dont shift our opinons easily, i still think its a plane. We might all be wrong though! This makes me think of a game from elementary school where on kid would draw a line, we would guess what it was, then the would draw another, and so on, until we guessed it. (I just realized that I wasnt logged in for my previous few posts here). --[[User:BlackBeret|BlackBeret]] ([[User talk:BlackBeret|talk]]) 13:34, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
::::::(Me again, 172.70.86.22, whatever this signs as.) In case you read me wrong, I was meaning a tailfin ''of a plane'' (rudder surface, vertical stabiliser, whatever), so I think we have agreement. Or had. Not seen the latest picture update(s), so my views may imminently change in a few moments when I actually do, and/or yours also will by the time you read this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 16:18, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::::I understood what you meant by tail fin. I also now think you are right, becuase I think I can see a tiny little line poking out from the bottom corner that could be the vertical tail fin. (Is there a better word for it?)--[[User:BlackBeret|BlackBeret]] ([[User talk:BlackBeret|talk]]) 00:46, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
::::::::Once again, my opinion has changed. I now once more believe that it is a wing, now that we can see the windows of the plane. It almost looks like spaceshiptwo, which in my opinion is the coolest rocket in the industry right now. But it isn’t, because it doesn’t have the right wings. That was unrelated.--[[User:BlackBeret|BlackBeret]] ([[User talk:BlackBeret|talk]]) 02:54, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::::::On a second look, it could be SpaceShipTwo in “shuttlecock” formation for reentry. Wouldn’t it be cool to see Randall in space? --[[User:BlackBeret|BlackBeret]] ([[User talk:BlackBeret|talk]]) 15:23, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
::::::::::{{w|SpaceShipTwo}} is not really looking at all like this commercial plane I believe it is. A passenger plane is my idea of how it looks now. I cannot tell if it is the wing or tail we see, but is inclined to sat that the thin line is the top of the passenger hull, and thus it is a wing, as the tailfin would not need this extra line as it is fused with the planes body. I also now begins to think the plane will land somewhere we can recognize (sky line) when the counter ends, and Randall is going there. But if he can actually land somewhere that precise seems farfetched. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:07, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

I believe it looks like he would draw the arm and upper "body" of a person running to the left. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.107|172.68.50.107]] 01:11, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Am I the only one thinking it'll be another extra long comic like 1190? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.91|108.162.241.91]] 02:52, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Randall is secretly in space, having launched a few days after JWST, and the countdown is to when NASA will see the fruits of his elaborate plan to create the most epic photo bomb of all time. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.220|162.158.187.220]] 20:59, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Surprised no one has linked to the xkcd comic called Countdown. It centers on the problem of having a countdown to something and people not knowing what it is (and also not being able to see all relevant information). Seems relevant in a couple ways. https://xkcd.com/1159/ {{unsigned ip|172.70.230.157}}
:Yes but there we don't know when the count ends, but we know what it is about. So kind of the reverse of this countdown. But I think I will add a line about it in the explanation. Also a search for [[Countdown]] goes there so maybe I also add a link here from that comic. (Remember to sign you comment) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:32, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Did anyone calculate the speed/acceleration of the object moving in the frame? We can predict future positions if nothing changes {{unsigned ip|172.70.162.155}}
:It just changed direction so nothing will come from that now. (Remember to sign you comment) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:32, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Randall's new comic is about [[Hypothesis Generation|hyposthesis genration]] (Sound familiar?), and the title text makes a lot of sense if you think about it from his perspective. [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 13:06, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
:I really do not think this comic is a comment on the countdown. But I can see why it could be funny for us here at explain. But I'm quite sure that Randall stays away from all these fora discussing his comics. We put way to much importance to this site if we think he actually comes here... ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:14, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

What do the comments in the explanation above that say "the timer may be using EST" mean? The timer is just counting down days, hours, and minutes. We should all see the timer reach zero at the same time even though that may be morning for some readers, afternoon for others, and night for other readers. Randall's living on Eastern Standard Time isn't going to make the countdown run any faster or slower than it would if he lived in a different time zone. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 16:00, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
:Agreed have removed all ref to EST. It is UTZ that is interesting and of course Randall's local time zone in Boston. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:29, 18 January 2022 (UTC) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.20|172.70.115.20]] 03:54, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
::Guys put that back! It's referring to comic 1061! Not that I think it's likely, butlet's not dismiss that out of hand. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.20|172.70.115.20]] 03:54, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
:::That is ridiculous! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:42, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

I think the image entering the frame is a boomerang! [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 12:53, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
:Well Randall has sure been fond enough of those that we have the [[:Category:Boomerangs]]. However, in none of those have he drawn that extra line that have appeared before you suggested this. So I would say, it is not!--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:24, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Yay, started by the new development with the counter in the [[xkcd Header text]], I was inspired to continue the work I started back in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=xkcd_Header_text&oldid=175813 June 2019] when I created the page regarding changes in the header. When I began adding the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] at the top I became aware that I had left a period of more than a year with [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=xkcd_Header_text&oldid=224089#Changes_not_documented_yet_2 Changes not documented yet 2] from September 2015 to November 2016 ([[xkcd_Header_text#Changes_not_documented_yet_1|Changes not documented yet 1]] is anything earlier than March 2014). And today I finished documenting the gap so now [[xkcd_Header_text#2016-04-04_-_Protip_on_Garden|Protip on Garden]] is suddenly also here, just below where the undocumented section was, which I deleted today. And thus the protip is now not just mentioned in the trivia on the [[1663: Garden]] page. Of course it would be great to continue backwards, but it is a hughe project. But there where some important changes in the now closed gap, among other the longest running book promotion for [[Thing Explainer]]. Of course I cannot say it is complete back to march 2014, but anything staying longer than two weeks in the front page header I believe I would have found. But I have not walked through every archived version ;-) They load terribly slow. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:39, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

I guess when more windows come into view, we’ll finally know whether the windows continue far to the left of the wing, or stop well short of the tail fin (which the two currently showing already seem to me to be too close to). {{unsigned ip|162.158.107.188}}
:That is true. Wonder if the plane will land in a city that can be recognized when the counter runs out? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:07, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

<s>That new bottom-left line worries me. [...]</s> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 15:50, 22 January 2022 (UTC)
:Retracted. I was still thinking a viewpoint mildly downward, or exactly level with the aircraft, but a very slight upward view (and from slightly forward?) onto the underside of the HS surface would conceivably produce that profile.
:Note that I'm commenting on xkcd.com directly, as the frames in the /images page have been left fallow for a while now. I presume someone is going to catch us up again when they have the wherewithall (unfortunately, I don't right now, hard to edit complex things on this device, and I wouldn't be able to upload the frames to the wiki anyway). ...no rush, we have... 8d 0h 23m left, at least, to be thorough about this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 14:37, 23 January 2022 (UTC)
::I have now uploaded up to the current on xkcd nr. 85. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:09, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

I wondered if there was anything else interesting in the js file that updates the countdown. [https://gist.github.com/Toby222/bff2734e98efadd9e9c3b2dc64902c43 So I de-minified it.] (There is nothing noteworthy.) [[User:Toby|Toby]] ([[User talk:Toby|talk]]) 17:20, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

The new parachute theory could be a possibility. I have added this and two others to the top of the image theories and moved all else into an Early theory section. For sure it is a plane. And also added the parachute idea to the countdown theory section. Not my theory, but moved it to two other places than where it was first stated. (Left it there though!). Not special certain it will be, but could be. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:09, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

Maybe Randall found D.B. Cooper? ;D [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 13:49, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:Maybe he's going to announce he ''is'' D.B. Cooper..! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 14:01, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

I've been checking the possible aircraft used for Zero-G (parabolic) flights, and currently - in the US at least - none of the models used have 'standard' hull-mounted horizontal stabilisers, as in the picture. They're either T-tails or cruciform (midway up the vertical stabiliser), possibly for very good reasons. (i.e., at the most crucial part of the flight envelope, it keeps the control surfaces out of the immediate wake of the wings. Handy feature, more than overcoming the engineering compromises needed to mount things that way.) Assuming any attempt at accuracy{{fact}} this might rule that option out. (And skydiving is usually high-winged non-jets, and this seems to be a low-winged jet.) Though A300-ranged planes have been used in Europe and conceivably loosely fit the given profile. But it looks like a smaller plane than many of the Vomit Comets (and larger than most parachute-party planes). Unfortunately, it still rules far too many other options in, never mind artistic <s>innacuracy</s> drift. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 15:14, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:Countdown in header text

2022-01-24T15:14:22Z

172.70.85.79:

The talk on from [[2565: Latency]] and [[2566: Decorative Constants]] has been moved here by me when I created this page --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:01, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

;From Latency:
What is happening around Feb 1st, there is a countdown that appeared a few hours ago in the upper right corner of the xkcd index. There is also the directory xkcd.com/count-wimRikmef which might be an acronym, if it isnt a countdown package? {{unsigned ip|172.70.130.57}}
:Damn you beat me to it ;-). But I have made a [[2565:_Latency#Trivia|Trivia]] here on this comics page and links to more detail on the [[xkcd Header text]] page. I belie you are a day of, but someone will likely correct me if I'm wrong. As I can see it will be January 31st, 9:59 in Randall's home town Boston.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::But damned if I can wait. Sure millions will watch the page when it goes to zero! At least it is no April 1st. :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:10, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

;From Decorative Constants
Any idea what's going on with the clock that's counting downwards in the banner? Currently counting down from 20 days 16 hours? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.95|172.70.214.95]] 22:08, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:(Simultaneous edit) What is the days-hours-minutes in the box above the comic referring to? The image itself is dated yesterday, as you can see by saving it. Worst-case-scenario, is this a countdown to the end of XKCD? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.223|108.162.245.223]] 22:11, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:: It's going to hit zero at around midnight on Jan 31st 2022 CST? [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 22:16, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::'''Posted this on the previous comics discussion. But lets take it here where there will be more traffic:''' --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:44, 10 January 2022 (UTC) -- Copy paste from previous comics discussion:
::::Damn you beat me to it ;-). But I have made a [[2565:_Latency#Trivia|Trivia]] here on this comics page and links to more detail on the [[xkcd Header text]] page. I believe you are a day of, but someone will likely correct me if I'm wrong. As I can see it will be January 31st, 9:59 in Randall's home town Boston.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::But damned if I can wait. Sure millions will watch the page when it goes to zero! At least it is no April 1st. :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:10, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::::Yeah - you're right - I messed up. So as I type this, it's Jan 10th 2022 at 4pm - 1600 hrs Mountain time - which is 1800 hours EST. At this moment, the countdown reads 20d 16h 0m - so Jan 30th + (18+16) hours = which is Jan 30th + 34 hours - which is Jan 31st + 10am in Boston (EST). [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 23:05, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::Hey great, can see they agree in the link to reddit below. So happy I got it right both in UTC and Boston. It will be 15:59 here in DK. Not 16:00. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:44, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Counting down to Backwards Day? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.88|162.158.91.88]] 23:28, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:There's a reddit thread discussing it: https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/s0oynl/xkcd_countdown_timer_20d_21h_49m_remaining_until/ I think the most likely guess is that Randall has a new book coming out. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:40, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::Would still seem strange if it came out that day with only promotion before being a count down. But then again, he will have the xkcd communities boiling if he gives no other hint. So every one will see if he promotes a book. Also as they wrote at the time I looked at reddit I do not think it is the end of xkcd, or Webb related. Although Webb was the first I thought about. But I mean even if it came to L2 at that day, it is not going to any specific point but just in orbit. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:47, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

::The date fits the idea of it being Backwards Day (https://nationaldaycalendar.com/backward-day-january-31) but what about the choice of time? [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 03:38, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::Backwards day... Never head of it until now. Is it big in the US. I mean when looking after dates so obscure they are not mentioned on wikipedia then there are probably lots of things happening on that day? But maybe it is a think in the US? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:48, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::: I haven't heard of it until now either, so it is probably one of the bajillions of holidays no one actually cares about, and is unrelated to the countdown. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 13:22, 11 January 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

Someone has noticed the image is changing with pixels added at the bottom left corner and is keeping track of it here: https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.107|198.41.238.107]] 05:49, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:Looks like an image is "moving" into the frame because at the moment you can see some white pixel in the lower left, i.e. the black part might end up as a line as part of some comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.8|162.158.89.8]] 08:31, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
::Thanks used that to pinpoint the start of the countdown. Have added this info to the header text page, and the original trivia. Also just added a line of trivia to this explanation with the link. This was when this comic came out most people noticed the count down. But it did came out while [[Latency]] was up. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:43, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::Speculating on what it could be, the only thing that makes sense at that angle is a character's arm. 04:47, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:As of 7 PM PST, the two lines appear to be disconnected from anything else, which rules out a lot of the theories put forth here. Hmmm… I can’t really think of anything it could be other than the wing of an airplane. Maybe it’ll zoom out after it moves into view?[[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 03:17, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

The header changes page says that it's forcing "Friday" to move down to the next line. Not for me. Did he fix it, or is it browser-specific? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:It must be browser specific. But i have tried bot the old Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome and Firefox, and it does it in all cases and zooming does nothing.. Which browser do you use? I have corrected to in some browsers though, in the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|explanation]] you refer to. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:31, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

This is much more likely a count down related to the James Webb Space Telescope. At approximately the day the count down indicates the telescope will be orbiting the L2 gravitational spot.Perhaps most of the mirrors will be approximate place to allow for months of fine tuning. An example of a slightly similar idea is https://www.space.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-next-steps
[[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]]) 15:35, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:I really do not think so. There is nothing special about a specific moment for reaching L2. It will go in orbit around it, but when to day it is there or in orbit is hard to pinpoint. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:13, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
::And after I looked at it, it seems it will reach L2 several days before the countdown. See [[Countdown in header text#Theories]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:31, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I think the Countdown should get its own entry. What do we think? [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 16:25, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
: I think it should! What with the count itself, the speculation about what it could mean, and now the slowly arriving image (?) this seems like something beyond either of the two comics since it started! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.49|108.162.219.49]] 18:00, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
: I'm surprised it doesn't have one already. This is one of the more unique situations in a long while, more speculation could happen. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 22:26, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
::I have now created this page and talk page for us to continue the discussion and make dedicated changes about this countdown here. And have moved all discussion from the two pages that had some already (except a few on the first talk page that was also mentioned here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:13, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

If you take a look at this [[https://xkcd.com/count-wimRikmef/state|link]] it displays this: '''{"img":"72cb154b23f959f908f5dc8eb03069c6df3f0f54aae896a0e7ed27befb2ee639.png","start":"2022-01-10T17:00:00Z","target":"2022-01-31T15:00:00Z","until":"2022-01-11T20:55:38.205303701Z"}''' [[User:Hoodiesandboba|Hoodiesandboba]] ([[User talk:Hoodiesandboba|talk]]) 20:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:To correct your link:
:"...If you take a look at this [https://xkcd.com/count-wimRikmef/state link] it displays..."
:As to where the "72cb154b23f959f908f5dc8eb03069c6df3f0f54aae896a0e7ed27befb2ee639.png" is rooted, I haven't dug into that (or what transforms might be being applied), but it looks like a manipulation of browser states might be able to prematurely reveal it. (I'm on mobile at the moment, and it's significantly more fiddly to poke into the page-scripting and markup than I can be bothered with this moment, but I know what I'd do with a good acreage of screen, mouse control and a proper keyboard to rattle away at. And the combined minds here surely can do even better than myself.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 22:38, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
::The filename is a random number long enough to prevent brute force guessing to find future images. The state-file looks like some information for the javascript script where this URL comes from. I haven't looked into the script that much but from the values I'd say that it's telling when to start doing refreshs (2022-01-10T17:00:00Z) and when to stop doing that (2022-01-31T15:00:00Z). While these values are constant, the third value changes and is ten minutes after the time the page has been requested. I suppose this is telling the script, when to do a refresh of the image load. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.16|141.101.77.16]] 11:05, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
:::After some fiddeling, I've found the origin of the filename: It's the SHA-256 hash of the image [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.16|141.101.77.16]] 11:05, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
::::There's already a note that it would be impossible to brute-force the filenames. But as the images are very similar to each other, would it be feasible to programmatically generate images similar to the last one (extending up and to the right, different variations of the line shape), hash those files, and test to see if they match images on the server? I'd expect it to reduce the number of possibilities by orders of magnitude, but not sure if that's enough to make brute-force attempts feasible and non-destructive. (Also don't know the PNG format well enough to know if an image with the same pixels in it is guaranteed to produce the same bytes in the file across different implementations) -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 11:16, 14 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::Hmm… if it was pure black and white, the total number of possible images would be within the realms of sanity to brute force. But add antialiasing and the numbers rapidly become silly. Even if you only allow pixels to change within a certain distance of the previous image, and restrict greys to places between a black and a white, the numbers quickly become absurd. Although that makes me think about making 1-bit versions of all the images so far, predicting a set of "next frame" possibilities at each step, and training a CNN to pick the correct next one; and if it gets accurate enough by the time we get to the present… hmm. How predictable is antialiasing? Do we know the software he's using to create the images; and if so is there a relatively predictable algorithm applied along the edges? [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 11:41, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

I think it counts down to Lunar New Year (the Year of the Tiger), as measured in Korea (the earliest timezone where that is celebrated). Actually, it reaches 0 one minute before the New Year, so maybe it will switch to seconds for the last minute. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.98.75|172.70.98.75]] 05:10, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:Could be, but why. Randall has never to rarely? mentioned this new year... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:13, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I think we are seeing a zoom out of some image. Perhaps it is the arm of Cueball? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:36, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:It looks like there's a little curve at the top left of the line entering the frame! This makes the Cueball arm hypothesis more likely. [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 14:18, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
::I also noticed that (and moved your comment up here, as it is kind of a reply to that). Seems like the picture updates every four hours, and that it happened last time at noon UTC today. And thus it will also be at midnight. So 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24. But it is not certain yet and not sure it happened like that the first day or two. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:46, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I have added the first 12 images on this page: [[Countdown in header text/images]] - anyone may help uploading the new ones there. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:43, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
: Thank you! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.194|173.245.52.194]] 12:44, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Does anyone mind if I make a few spelling/grammar corrections to the article? It feels like the kind of thing that could be interpreted as rude, so I wanted to ask first. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.167|172.70.114.167]] 13:00, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:No no please help me with my poor spelling. I'm Danish and not very good at spelling in English. Also anything I write is up for debate and can be changed. Just because I started this page do not give me ownership over it. As long as relevant info is not deleted the entire layout maybe changed. But better to get the page going sooner rather than later.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:46, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
::Alright!! Thank you so much for all your great work on this page! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.151|172.70.110.151]] 18:02, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

I originally put this (without realising it wasn't the Talk page) in the Images sub-page, in response to the revelation it was (very probably) the SHA256 of the image data that was used to name the file:
*When I first looked at it and decided it was an obvious hash (yes SHA256 sounds about right, but nice to know someone's tried it) I personally had hoped it would be a hash of the datetime (plus a salt, maybe, to give it that extra little frisson of difficulty in reverse engineering... ;) ). But if it's as you say I think I'll refrain from getting any rainbow-tables set up and bashing through the possibilities in the rather huge phase-space it could represent. Of course, there must be a look-up table used by the server. It'd be too much to hope for that it's publically exposed though, and totally a rookie-error if it is. (That Randall, and maybe anyone he actually drafted in to implement it to save himself the worry, is surely not going to commit.)
...anyway, bringing it here, as being more conversational than informative. Still thought I should say it, but stupidly long as a comment so maybe I needn't have repasted it again! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 03:39, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

(Put this in here as it was before in the explanation --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:02, 13 January 2022 (UTC):)
Was going to say it's Hangman, but it looks like it's zooming in on the diagonal instead of continuing to make a gibbet. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 06:37, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

I read the javascript of the countdown and noticed one thing that i didn't see mentioned anywhere on this page: the countdown text is moving upwards. When the countdown started the text was exactly in the middle of the image and at the end of the countdown the text will be at the top (you can see how it will look by changing the time in your system). The code will also make the text disappear and leave only the image after the countdown goes to zero. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.41|162.158.90.41]] 23:52, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
:Uuuh thanks that was interesting. Maybe to make more room for the image? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:09, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

The Greensboro sit-ins started on Feb 1, though the time is different.. But black history month? {{unsigned ip|172.70.135.48}}

Thanks to [[User:Theusaf|Theusaf]] for helping with putting the images up on the image page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:09, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

Anyone here that can make an animation out of the images and put it in the explanation? If it is "easy" could it be updated some times on the way towards the final image on January 31st... Like the one on [[Time]]. That would be really nice. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:02, 14 January 2022 (UTC)
:I made an animation: [https://imgur.com/a/INh77nL] (Now i realize it wasn't needed because there already is automatically updating animation linked from the page...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.105|162.158.159.105]] 18:18, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
::Not if you would let us use it here on xkcd. I have no contact to munvoseli. But if you made one we could upload here on xkcd on this page and then update it a few times, until we have a final version, then that would be much better than having one on a private persons page. Which may be deleted at any time. So cool you made one. If it is possible I would like to have one like the one at [[Time]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:41, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

There's something else moving into the frame... We'll have to see what it is. [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 19:12, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

To even find this page, I had to page backward through the comic to get to Decorative Constants, go to the discussion, and come across the link to this page from there. I suggest that there be a direct link to this page from the explanation of every comic that existed while the countdown was in progress. A second question: has anyone determined for sure whether the ‘camera’ is zooming out from a blank spot in the final image, in which case we can expect other stuff to come into view from above and right, OR is it panning onto an image that is not changing size, in which case nothing will appear except from the direction it’s moving toward? And if it’s panning, has anyone tried estimating where the current stuff will end up?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.76|108.162.246.76]] 07:42, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
:I agree with you and have now changed the four comics that was active while the count down was active so far, so the link to this page is above their explanations. If people keep updating like this for new comics, there will be a link to the countdown page from the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page front page]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:40, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

Does Randall already have kids? If not, maybe his wife is expecting? That's something you'd announce and the last two comics are about kids. Another idea: he's going to space 🚀. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.115|162.158.233.115]] 20:47, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
:I’m sure he would have a birth announcement afterward, but I doubt he would try to predict it to the exact second, 21 days in advance.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.105|162.158.106.105]] 22:36, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
::Maybe it's a C section? Those are usually scheduled. lol but yeah that's unlikely.Wouldn't rule it out though.[[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 13:58, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

I noticed that it almost appears to be the tail fin of an airplane. I don’t know if it is, or if an airplane even makes sense? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.57|172.70.230.57]] 22:11, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
:There's not enough time for it to make the several passes necessary, before the big 'reveal', but I'd have suspected Randall capable of parodying the {{w|Airplane!}} in-title parody of {{w|Jaws}}. Would have somewhat been a {{w|Shaggy dog story|shaggy}}-{{tvtropes|Brick_Joke|brick}} joke, but wouldn't put it past him... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 00:18, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
:: I actually think, after watching the animation so far on musoveli’s page, it looks more like a main wing of a swept wing commercial aircraft. If it is, and the pattern continues, we should be able to see the main body or an engine nacelle at least. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.108|162.158.62.108]] 13:39, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
:::I agree now. First I was sure it was the tail of an airplane, but the way it moves into the image now, makes me think of the wing, with the plane body soon coming into view. That was at image 59... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:48, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
::::I think at the time of posting the body has just come into view! I may be wrong, as it is only a tiny sliver, but I am hopeful!--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.151|172.70.110.151]] 01:59, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::I'm still more mentally-prepared for it being a tailfin (seen from the side, the 'new' line being the mid-dorsal surface of the main aircraft hull) than the port wing (the new bit being of the lateral airframe surface forward of the wings and perhaps just behind the cockpit point). But this POV will doubtless be overturned by the revelation of the next frame(s), which will make many of us look just as misdirectedly creduluous as each other. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 02:50, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
::::::I can see the tailfin too, but because I am a human, and we dont shift our opinons easily, i still think its a plane. We might all be wrong though! This makes me think of a game from elementary school where on kid would draw a line, we would guess what it was, then the would draw another, and so on, until we guessed it. (I just realized that I wasnt logged in for my previous few posts here). --[[User:BlackBeret|BlackBeret]] ([[User talk:BlackBeret|talk]]) 13:34, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
::::::(Me again, 172.70.86.22, whatever this signs as.) In case you read me wrong, I was meaning a tailfin ''of a plane'' (rudder surface, vertical stabiliser, whatever), so I think we have agreement. Or had. Not seen the latest picture update(s), so my views may imminently change in a few moments when I actually do, and/or yours also will by the time you read this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 16:18, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::::I understood what you meant by tail fin. I also now think you are right, becuase I think I can see a tiny little line poking out from the bottom corner that could be the vertical tail fin. (Is there a better word for it?)--[[User:BlackBeret|BlackBeret]] ([[User talk:BlackBeret|talk]]) 00:46, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
::::::::Once again, my opinion has changed. I now once more believe that it is a wing, now that we can see the windows of the plane. It almost looks like spaceshiptwo, which in my opinion is the coolest rocket in the industry right now. But it isn’t, because it doesn’t have the right wings. That was unrelated.--[[User:BlackBeret|BlackBeret]] ([[User talk:BlackBeret|talk]]) 02:54, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::::::On a second look, it could be SpaceShipTwo in “shuttlecock” formation for reentry. Wouldn’t it be cool to see Randall in space? --[[User:BlackBeret|BlackBeret]] ([[User talk:BlackBeret|talk]]) 15:23, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
::::::::::{{w|SpaceShipTwo}} is not really looking at all like this commercial plane I believe it is. A passenger plane is my idea of how it looks now. I cannot tell if it is the wing or tail we see, but is inclined to sat that the thin line is the top of the passenger hull, and thus it is a wing, as the tailfin would not need this extra line as it is fused with the planes body. I also now begins to think the plane will land somewhere we can recognize (sky line) when the counter ends, and Randall is going there. But if he can actually land somewhere that precise seems farfetched. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:07, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

I believe it looks like he would draw the arm and upper "body" of a person running to the left. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.107|172.68.50.107]] 01:11, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Am I the only one thinking it'll be another extra long comic like 1190? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.91|108.162.241.91]] 02:52, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Randall is secretly in space, having launched a few days after JWST, and the countdown is to when NASA will see the fruits of his elaborate plan to create the most epic photo bomb of all time. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.220|162.158.187.220]] 20:59, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Surprised no one has linked to the xkcd comic called Countdown. It centers on the problem of having a countdown to something and people not knowing what it is (and also not being able to see all relevant information). Seems relevant in a couple ways. https://xkcd.com/1159/ {{unsigned ip|172.70.230.157}}
:Yes but there we don't know when the count ends, but we know what it is about. So kind of the reverse of this countdown. But I think I will add a line about it in the explanation. Also a search for [[Countdown]] goes there so maybe I also add a link here from that comic. (Remember to sign you comment) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:32, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Did anyone calculate the speed/acceleration of the object moving in the frame? We can predict future positions if nothing changes {{unsigned ip|172.70.162.155}}
:It just changed direction so nothing will come from that now. (Remember to sign you comment) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:32, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Randall's new comic is about [[Hypothesis Generation|hyposthesis genration]] (Sound familiar?), and the title text makes a lot of sense if you think about it from his perspective. [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 13:06, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
:I really do not think this comic is a comment on the countdown. But I can see why it could be funny for us here at explain. But I'm quite sure that Randall stays away from all these fora discussing his comics. We put way to much importance to this site if we think he actually comes here... ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:14, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

What do the comments in the explanation above that say "the timer may be using EST" mean? The timer is just counting down days, hours, and minutes. We should all see the timer reach zero at the same time even though that may be morning for some readers, afternoon for others, and night for other readers. Randall's living on Eastern Standard Time isn't going to make the countdown run any faster or slower than it would if he lived in a different time zone. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 16:00, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
:Agreed have removed all ref to EST. It is UTZ that is interesting and of course Randall's local time zone in Boston. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:29, 18 January 2022 (UTC) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.20|172.70.115.20]] 03:54, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
::Guys put that back! It's referring to comic 1061! Not that I think it's likely, butlet's not dismiss that out of hand. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.20|172.70.115.20]] 03:54, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
:::That is ridiculous! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:42, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

I think the image entering the frame is a boomerang! [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 12:53, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
:Well Randall has sure been fond enough of those that we have the [[:Category:Boomerangs]]. However, in none of those have he drawn that extra line that have appeared before you suggested this. So I would say, it is not!--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:24, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Yay, started by the new development with the counter in the [[xkcd Header text]], I was inspired to continue the work I started back in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=xkcd_Header_text&oldid=175813 June 2019] when I created the page regarding changes in the header. When I began adding the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] at the top I became aware that I had left a period of more than a year with [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=xkcd_Header_text&oldid=224089#Changes_not_documented_yet_2 Changes not documented yet 2] from September 2015 to November 2016 ([[xkcd_Header_text#Changes_not_documented_yet_1|Changes not documented yet 1]] is anything earlier than March 2014). And today I finished documenting the gap so now [[xkcd_Header_text#2016-04-04_-_Protip_on_Garden|Protip on Garden]] is suddenly also here, just below where the undocumented section was, which I deleted today. And thus the protip is now not just mentioned in the trivia on the [[1663: Garden]] page. Of course it would be great to continue backwards, but it is a hughe project. But there where some important changes in the now closed gap, among other the longest running book promotion for [[Thing Explainer]]. Of course I cannot say it is complete back to march 2014, but anything staying longer than two weeks in the front page header I believe I would have found. But I have not walked through every archived version ;-) They load terribly slow. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:39, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

I guess when more windows come into view, we’ll finally know whether the windows continue far to the left of the wing, or stop well short of the tail fin (which the two currently showing already seem to me to be too close to). {{unsigned ip|162.158.107.188}}
:That is true. Wonder if the plane will land in a city that can be recognized when the counter runs out? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:07, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

<s>That new bottom-left line worries me. [...]</s> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 15:50, 22 January 2022 (UTC)
:Retracted. I was still thinking a viewpoint mildly downward, or exactly level with the aircraft, but a very slight upward view (and from slightly forward?) onto the underside of the HS surface would conceivably produce that profile.
:Note that I'm commenting on xkcd.com directly, as the frames in the /images page have been left fallow for a while now. I presume someone is going to catch us up again when they have the wherewithall (unfortunately, I don't right now, hard to edit complex things on this device, and I wouldn't be able to upload the frames to the wiki anyway). ...no rush, we have... 8d 0h 23m left, at least, to be thorough about this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 14:37, 23 January 2022 (UTC)
::I have now uploaded up to the current on xkcd nr. 85. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:09, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

I wondered if there was anything else interesting in the js file that updates the countdown. [https://gist.github.com/Toby222/bff2734e98efadd9e9c3b2dc64902c43 So I de-minified it.] (There is nothing noteworthy.) [[User:Toby|Toby]] ([[User talk:Toby|talk]]) 17:20, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

The new parachute theory could be a possibility. I have added this and two others to the top of the image theories and moved all else into an Early theory section. For sure it is a plane. And also added the parachute idea to the countdown theory section. Not my theory, but moved it to two other places than where it was first stated. (Left it there though!). Not special certain it will be, but could be. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:09, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

Maybe Randall found D.B. Cooper? ;D [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk about me behind my]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ/ back]) 13:49, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:Maybe he's going to announce he ''is'' D.B. Cooper..! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 14:01, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

I've been checking the possible aircraft used for Zero-G (parabolic) flights, and currently - in the US at least - none of the models used have 'standard' hull-mounted horizontal stabilisers, as in the picture. They're either T-tails or cruciform (midway up the vertical stabiliser), possibly for very good reasons. (i.e., at the most crucial part of the flight envelope, it keeps the control surfaces out of the immediate wake of the wings. Handy feature, more than overcoming the engineering compromises needed to mount things that way.) Assuming any attempt at accuracy{{fact}} this might rule that option out. (And skydiving is usually high-winged non-jets, and this seems to be a low-winged jet.) Though A300-ranged planes have been used in Europe and conceivably loosely fit the given profile. But it looks like a smaller plane than any of the Vomit Comets (and larger than most parachute-party planes). Unfortunately, it still rules far too many other options in, never mind artistic <s>innacuracy</s> drift. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 15:14, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Countdown in header text

2022-01-24T03:59:31Z

172.70.85.79: /* Early theories */ ...and, having seen the need to adjust bulleted indentation levels, decided it was an error of search-and-replace by the "No" remover... ;)

{{comic
| date = January 10, 2022
| title = Countdown in header text
| image = Countdown_in_header_text.png
| before = The countdown will probably last 21 days. After February 1st 2022 it is likely to have disappeared. See this [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] archive version.
| ldomain = www
| lappend =
| extra = yes
}}
*Go directly to the list of [[Countdown in header text/images|images]].
**Or [[Countdown in header text/images#newestpicture|Jump to the newest picture]]
***The images can also be found [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here] on munvoseli's page where comparison of two images and an animation can be seen.
{{TOC}}
==Explanation==
*On January 10th 2022, [[Randall]] added a countdown in the top right corner of the [[xkcd Header text]] on {{xkcd}}.
**This happened while the comic [[2565: Latency]] was up.
***First the xkcd Header text was [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-08_-_Back_to_standard_text|changed back]] to the [[xkcd_Header_text#Header_text|standard text]] for the first time in almost three years:
****xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
***But already while this Friday-comic was still up on the following Monday the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] was added.
****This was thus up when the Monday comic [[2566: Decorative Constants]] was released, drawing more people to the xkcd page.
*The first [[#Archived Versions|archived version]] from [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] read 20d 20h 27m.
**It looks like it started on [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ 01-10 17:00 UTC].
***At that time it would have read 20d 21h 59 min. Just two hours and 1 minute short of 3 weeks.
*This countdown will reach zero on Monday 2022-01-31 at 14:59 (2:59 PM) {{w|UTC}}, or 9:59 AM in Boston, Randall's home town.
**If seconds will be added towards the end, it seems likely that it may end exactly at 15:00 UTC (10:00 AM in Boston).
***However, if it's using EST, introduced in comic [[1061: EST]], it would count backward for four hours before reaching zero, and end only at 2022-01-31 23:59 UTC
****This is extremely farfetched though!
****Though either way, it would fall on Monday 2022-01-31, and therefore the day comic 2575 should be released.
*The next day on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220111153818/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] a diagonal black bar appeared in the lower left-hand corner of the countdown box and started to move further into the image on following changes to the [[#Images|image]].
**This development called for the creation of this dedicated [[Countdown in header text]] page.
**The line had already moved further into the image at this time, but the latest version will never be available in the web archive.
***This development is reminiscent of the huge comic [[1190: Time]].
*As mentioned above, [https://munvoseli.github.io/ Munvoseli] is keeping [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ track of the changes] to the image on the countdown.
**Although there are (at 2022-01-12 12:35 UTC) thirteen different frames we know of, the first three looks the same (because the diagonal bar was not in the frame yet) and the seventh and the eighth also seems to be the same, even though the bar had already begun moving across the frame from the fourth. This is either on purpose, a slipup or means that The FrameTM might not be zooming out of a larger image.
***However, the images that look the same all have individual addresses on the xkcd server. See more under [[#Images|Images]] below.

Randall has previously made a comic simply called [[1159: Countdown]]. However, in that the roles are reversed. There we know that the countdown is for (Super Volcano) but not if it will happen soon or very much later. Here we know when, and it is rather soon, but not what.

==Images==
*Images will be put on [[Countdown in header text/images|this separate page]].
**The images can also be found [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here] on munvoseli's page.
***It is possible to compare two images, chosen between those released, on that page!
***From 2022-01-14 it has also been possible to see an animation.
**See more details at the top of the image page.
*After a few days the black lines forming the image came into conflict with the clock, which has a rounded white frame around it. This can be seen in one of the earliest examples here:
[[File:Countdown in header text Clock Cover Black Lines.png]]
*Also at this time a new development happened after the "plane tail" moved forward it stopped on 2022-01-18 and started moving up (or zooming in). See for instance these two comparison from munvoseli's page showing the difference from the 8 pictures before today, and then after three out today:
[[File:Countdown in header text Compare 40 to 48.png]] [[File:Countdown in header text Compare 48 to 51.png]]

===Ongoing description===
** Frames 1-12: A diagonal line.
** Frame 13: A curve seems to begin at the top left of the line.
** Frame 18: The curve connects the diagonal line with a horizontal line.
** Frame 27-28: A new line appears in the bottom left corner.
** Frame 40-42: The new line turns out to be connected to the horizontal line, forming a corner which is not attached to any other line.
** Frame 49: The "camera movement" direction changes, while the object is still moving upward it stopped moving towards the left side, moving towards the right instead.
** Frame 54: A slight upward curve seems to appear in the right line, the left line seems to have a small bend downwards, though that could at that point just be a straight line that randall drew without a ruler.
** Frame 60-62: A new line appears in the bottom right corner, it turns out to be a continuation of the first original line which curves upward and has a positive slope at that point of the picture, between about 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock. The downward bend of the left line continues on straight in the same direction, it was probably an intentional bend and not an irregularity in drawing a straight line by hand.
** Frame 63: In the minimum of the right curved line a new line starts appearing, way thinner than the others (which were up to this point all rather part of one line) and going slightly downwards and very much to the left, at an angle somewhere between 8 o'clock and 9 o'clock.
** Frame 67: A possible feature becomes visible at the bottom edge of the image that might resolve the exact nature of the (currently presumed) aircraft, e.g. which particular aerodynamic surface we have been seeing and thus from which particular orientation we are viewing it.
** Frame 68-72 makes it clear this must be an aircraft by showing windows and a door and clearly the tail fin. As late as frame 69 some people argued that the tail fin could have been a wing.
** Frame 73-83 brings a side wing on the rear into view.

==Theories==
*Here different theories for what the countdown is for and what the picture is going to reveal can be added.

===The picture===
*Theories about the picture:
**From 2022-01-21 it became certain that it was a plane! Passenger plane. Door and windows are visible.
***From 2022-01-22 it became clear that it was the rear end, so it was a tailfin that came into the panel to begin with. Up til the day before it was still a bit uncertain if it could have been a wing.
**What will this lead up to - theories about this.
***It could be an airplane with a banner like in [[1355: Airplane Message]].
****That would very soon be clear as the bottom part of the rear end seems to be coming into view during 2022-01-24, if the direction does not change again.
***It could end up landing in a city, perhaps with a skyline pinpointing where Randall will be or move.
****However, unlikely to manage this in real life as the count down ends.
***Maybe Cueball will make a parachute jump, and Cueball could represent a real life Randall, as this could in principle be timed very accurately.
****However, it could very easy be that the weather in January could foil the attempt, or at least the timing.

====Early theories====
Many early theories were generated before the picture was decisively revealed to be a plane.

*It seems after two days and 12 pictures like either something is moving into the frame or that it is a zoom out from a white area of a large picture. Maybe it is the arm of Cueball that will come into view.
*The second line makes it look somewhat like the tail fin of an aircraft.
**Or the wing of an aircraft (left if looking down at it). Perhaps the plane is towing a banner that will fly through the frame.
***After almost a week this looks like the most promising suggestion so far. Now that the direction of the camera movement has changed, we might get to see the rest of the aircraft soon.
****From picture 63, it more and more seems like it was the tail fin of a plane and now we can see the body.
*****It's almost certainly the tail (and now a bit of the rear fuselage) of an aircraft.
******It could just as easily be the left wing and part of the fuselage (showing windows on the right side of an airliner), with the tail fin out of view to the rear, as being the tail fin from an angle where the left wing is out of view behind the fuselage.
*******judging by the relative size of the (presumed) windows, I think it's more likely to be the left wing than the tail fin.
*******Based on the way planes are drawn in [[1868: Eclipse Flights]]. [[1355: Airplane Message]] and [[1669: Planespotting]], plane wings have a point on their edge and tail fins have a flat side, and (if a line is present) a thick line separates wings from the body, whereas thin lines or no lines separate tail fins, so this is a tail fin.
*******In the bottom left there appears to be the top part of a horizontal stabilizer, implying this is the tail.
********It’s a tail fin, that’s finally clear, but that’s the underside of the stabilizer. Which means this would be the best angle to view Cueball/Randall parachuting out of that door, something that would be predictable to the exact minute (barring all kinds of things that could go wrong).
*******Appears to be a door to the left of the windows
*******It could be an airplane with a banner like in [[1355: Airplane Message]]
***Tail of a space shuttle, perhaps?
****While I think Randall would've also drawn in the signature black part of the rudder, the shape fits perfectly
****Timing is close (though not exact) to the Columbia disaster anniversary (2003-02-01 1359 UTC)
***I'm thinking the tail of a Zeppelin.
****Although those normally have longer tail fins.
*Maybe it is some kind of vehicle rolling into frame, like a car?
*Or the word xkcd? (or xkcd 2?)
*Could have been "Hangman", but it looks like it's zooming in on the diagonal instead of continuing to make a gibbet.
*With the new second line appearing in the corner as of frame 28 it looks like it's definitely zooming out of an image. It looks like it could be someone's arm in a running position.
*I think it could also be two legs of a reclining stick person.
*The lines suggest a shark fin and the movement would suggest it swimming across the frame.
**If it was a shark fin, then the most likely candidates would be the first dorsal fin and the pectoral fin, but both end in points rather than edges like in the pictures of the header puzzle. An aircraft tail fin still seems most likely.
*Maybe it's a two-dimensional shape viewed from a weird angle?
**Like a rectangle viewed from a floating, tilted perspective
**Or the top of the k in xkcd
**Or a boat dock?

===Countdown===
*Theories about the countdown:
*Several have already been mentioned in the discussion:
**Notice that as of now - 22-Jan-2022 7am PST - (not sure exactly when it happened) the countdown has disappeared. Temporarily (perhaps to make the image cleaner?) or permanently?
**Randall's next book, either the countdown is counting down to the start of promotion or it is released when the countdown ends.
***Usually Randall has made month long [[:Category:Book promotion|book promotions]] before release. So if it is the release day it is a new way to do it. But he will get a lot of attention. If it is just the start of promoting it, people might get disappointed…
****For instance he began promoting his [[xkcd_Header_text#2015-05-14_-_New_book_Thing_Explainer|new book Thing Explainer]] in the header text. That was in May 2015 and the book was first released [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ late November 2015]. Most of this time the header text was promoting the book.
**{{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (JWST) going into orbit about L2 {{w|Lagrange point}}.
***Randall has already made several comics about the telescope. The latest [[2564: Sunshield]] was released just five days prior to the countdown was started.
***But the telescope will not reach the point but rather go into a large orbit around it, so a precise timer counting down to it seems a bit farfetched.
***On NASA's page on JWST it seems like it will [https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer.html#25 go into orbit] 29.5 days after its [[December 25th Launch]], on Christmas Day, so it should have already started the orbit by the 23rd or 24th of January - 8 days before the countdown.
***Also No based on the image.
**{{w|Lunar New Year}}
***In China it starts on February 1st and a [https://yourcountdown.to/chinese-new-year countdown for China] is 8 hours behind.
****The South Korean time zone is UTC+9, hence 14:59 UTC = 23:59 in South Korea, one minute to Feb 1.
*****But it's weird if Randall that has basically never mentioned this holiday suddenly makes a three week countdown for it, and why choose South Korea when most would think of China in this context…?
**Randall will stop making xkcd (Goodbye in the image).
***Hopefully not.
****Agreed, {{tvtropes|PoisonOakEpilepticTrees|to be avoided}}
***It might be a temporary stop (hiatus).
**[https://nationaldaycalendar.com/backward-day-january-31/ National Backward Day]
***This is not a day mentioned on Wikipedia at the time of release of the countdown, so seems unlikely.
**Maybe it will be an announcement of xkcd 2, a new and improved version for… some reason?
***Seems unlikely…
**{{w|Black History Month}}. The {{w|Greensboro sit-ins}} started on Feb 1 1960. Black History Month also begins on February 1st, also in 2022.
***But this countdown stops early on January 31st so seems unlikely.
***However, before changing the Header recently it was about [[xkcd_Header_text#2020-06-03_-_Black_Lives_Matter|Black Lives Matter]] for more than 1.5 years, first ending on December 20th 2021, less than a month before the countdown began. In between that there was a short Christmas sale reminder until a week into 2022. So it could just be another way of reminding of us the issues faced by black people in the US.
****If this was true, I feel like it would be simpler to just change back to the Black Lives Matter text at the top of the screen. Also, it seems increasingly likely as of Jan. 20th that the image is some kind of plane, which doesn't really have much to do with Black History Month (that I know of?)
**The accompanying header says specifically "xkcd updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday"--maybe the countdown is to the reveal of a new update schedule?
***Very unlikely. This was the standard header for a long time. It was used when Randall had nothing better to say. But with all his books and the trouble in US with elections and BLM, he has used the header as a platform most of the time many years now. So the standard text is rare. But he did return it for two days before adding the count down, making it seem just like normal.
***A guess is that it returned to this, so the header text did not take any focus away from the countdown.
**[[:Category:Red Spiders|Red spider]] attack?
***Un-Likely
**He will become a father - could be a planned C-section.
***As this is unpredictable, and could go wrong, then this would be a dangerous countdown, people can be very superstitious, even if scientist.
**As it currently looks (after a [[1070: Words for Small Sets|few days]] into the countdown) it may be a trip he is taking by plane.
***Maybe going somewhere people could meet him.
****Book tour?
***Moving a long way from home (down under or the like).
****Maybe he's moving to Japan? Could be a plane, and the time zone would fit, at least.
*****Then the countdown would be until when the plane lands, not to midnight.
******What has time zones to do with this clock? It counts down to the same time all over the world, and will reach zero at the same time no matter what time zone you are in.
******Time zones have to do with where it will be midnight when the countdown reaches zero. If it's a countdown to when January ends (a moment before February begins), then it's until that moment in the time zone where the countdown reaches zero at that time.
****If it is a plane, then maybe it will land in a new city Randall moves to when the counter ends, and the skyline will be visible...
**Perhaps it's a start to a new series like [[1190: Time]].
***It is already a series that works like Time, so seems unlikely.
**Zero-G flight, really looks like plane to me.
***Could be time he will first go weightless which could be fairly well known except for bad weather
**A parachute jump by Randall. Could be predicted as well as the zero G.
**How about the [https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/09/09/star-trek-picard-season-2-release-date-plot-cast/ new series of Picard]?
***{{w|Star Trek: Picard (season 2)}} is set to run from March 3 2022, which both Wikipedia (link before) and [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8806524/episodes?season=2 IMDb] agrees upon so bad to miss by more than a month, and what would the plane in the image have to do with this anyway?
***So No!
** The xkcd world tour!! I wish

===count-wimRikmef===
* The identifier of the script contains what is probably an acronym, but for what?
** count / wim (?) / Rik (name) & me f(light)
** Or it's just the output of whatever js minimizer was used.
** R = Randall?
* The "img" tag has a misspelled "heigth" attribute. Probably just a typo?

==Archived Versions==
;Seems like the links are (currently?) not working properly?
*Here is a list of the versions that has been saved to the web archive during the countdown.
**The counter in that version is written behind the date of the web archive.
**Note that the counter is active on the archived version counting minutes down from the start. Some of the versions almost changing the minutes just after loading. But it will always count from the time given here:
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] 20d 20h 27m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110214138/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] 20d 17h 18m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220111011115/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] 20d 13h 48m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220112005828/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-12] 19d 14h 1m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220113044552/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-13] 18d 10h 14m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220114010759/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-14] 17d 13h 51m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220114195624/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-14] 16d 19h 3m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220115052737/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-15] 16d 9h 32m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220116074923/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-16] 15d 7h 10m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220116225217/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-16] 14d 16h 7m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118050255/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-18] 13d 9h 57m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118195259/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-18] 12d 19h 6m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220119213308/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-19] 11d 17h 26m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220120103559/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-20] 11d 4h 23m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220121102349/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-21] 10d 4h 36m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122002328/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 9d 14h 36m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122223018/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 8d 16h 29m

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Meta]]

Countdown in header text

2022-01-24T03:57:05Z

172.70.85.79: /* Early theories */ Don't know if it was an over-edit in compressing two points, or happened (somehow) when all the "No"s were removed as bullet-points, which might be the only reason this *was* compacted, maybe? Doesn't matter, it works Ok like this...

{{comic
| date = January 10, 2022
| title = Countdown in header text
| image = Countdown_in_header_text.png
| before = The countdown will probably last 21 days. After February 1st 2022 it is likely to have disappeared. See this [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] archive version.
| ldomain = www
| lappend =
| extra = yes
}}
*Go directly to the list of [[Countdown in header text/images|images]].
**Or [[Countdown in header text/images#newestpicture|Jump to the newest picture]]
***The images can also be found [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here] on munvoseli's page where comparison of two images and an animation can be seen.
{{TOC}}
==Explanation==
*On January 10th 2022, [[Randall]] added a countdown in the top right corner of the [[xkcd Header text]] on {{xkcd}}.
**This happened while the comic [[2565: Latency]] was up.
***First the xkcd Header text was [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-08_-_Back_to_standard_text|changed back]] to the [[xkcd_Header_text#Header_text|standard text]] for the first time in almost three years:
****xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
***But already while this Friday-comic was still up on the following Monday the [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] was added.
****This was thus up when the Monday comic [[2566: Decorative Constants]] was released, drawing more people to the xkcd page.
*The first [[#Archived Versions|archived version]] from [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] read 20d 20h 27m.
**It looks like it started on [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ 01-10 17:00 UTC].
***At that time it would have read 20d 21h 59 min. Just two hours and 1 minute short of 3 weeks.
*This countdown will reach zero on Monday 2022-01-31 at 14:59 (2:59 PM) {{w|UTC}}, or 9:59 AM in Boston, Randall's home town.
**If seconds will be added towards the end, it seems likely that it may end exactly at 15:00 UTC (10:00 AM in Boston).
***However, if it's using EST, introduced in comic [[1061: EST]], it would count backward for four hours before reaching zero, and end only at 2022-01-31 23:59 UTC
****This is extremely farfetched though!
****Though either way, it would fall on Monday 2022-01-31, and therefore the day comic 2575 should be released.
*The next day on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220111153818/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] a diagonal black bar appeared in the lower left-hand corner of the countdown box and started to move further into the image on following changes to the [[#Images|image]].
**This development called for the creation of this dedicated [[Countdown in header text]] page.
**The line had already moved further into the image at this time, but the latest version will never be available in the web archive.
***This development is reminiscent of the huge comic [[1190: Time]].
*As mentioned above, [https://munvoseli.github.io/ Munvoseli] is keeping [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ track of the changes] to the image on the countdown.
**Although there are (at 2022-01-12 12:35 UTC) thirteen different frames we know of, the first three looks the same (because the diagonal bar was not in the frame yet) and the seventh and the eighth also seems to be the same, even though the bar had already begun moving across the frame from the fourth. This is either on purpose, a slipup or means that The FrameTM might not be zooming out of a larger image.
***However, the images that look the same all have individual addresses on the xkcd server. See more under [[#Images|Images]] below.

Randall has previously made a comic simply called [[1159: Countdown]]. However, in that the roles are reversed. There we know that the countdown is for (Super Volcano) but not if it will happen soon or very much later. Here we know when, and it is rather soon, but not what.

==Images==
*Images will be put on [[Countdown in header text/images|this separate page]].
**The images can also be found [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here] on munvoseli's page.
***It is possible to compare two images, chosen between those released, on that page!
***From 2022-01-14 it has also been possible to see an animation.
**See more details at the top of the image page.
*After a few days the black lines forming the image came into conflict with the clock, which has a rounded white frame around it. This can be seen in one of the earliest examples here:
[[File:Countdown in header text Clock Cover Black Lines.png]]
*Also at this time a new development happened after the "plane tail" moved forward it stopped on 2022-01-18 and started moving up (or zooming in). See for instance these two comparison from munvoseli's page showing the difference from the 8 pictures before today, and then after three out today:
[[File:Countdown in header text Compare 40 to 48.png]] [[File:Countdown in header text Compare 48 to 51.png]]

===Ongoing description===
** Frames 1-12: A diagonal line.
** Frame 13: A curve seems to begin at the top left of the line.
** Frame 18: The curve connects the diagonal line with a horizontal line.
** Frame 27-28: A new line appears in the bottom left corner.
** Frame 40-42: The new line turns out to be connected to the horizontal line, forming a corner which is not attached to any other line.
** Frame 49: The "camera movement" direction changes, while the object is still moving upward it stopped moving towards the left side, moving towards the right instead.
** Frame 54: A slight upward curve seems to appear in the right line, the left line seems to have a small bend downwards, though that could at that point just be a straight line that randall drew without a ruler.
** Frame 60-62: A new line appears in the bottom right corner, it turns out to be a continuation of the first original line which curves upward and has a positive slope at that point of the picture, between about 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock. The downward bend of the left line continues on straight in the same direction, it was probably an intentional bend and not an irregularity in drawing a straight line by hand.
** Frame 63: In the minimum of the right curved line a new line starts appearing, way thinner than the others (which were up to this point all rather part of one line) and going slightly downwards and very much to the left, at an angle somewhere between 8 o'clock and 9 o'clock.
** Frame 67: A possible feature becomes visible at the bottom edge of the image that might resolve the exact nature of the (currently presumed) aircraft, e.g. which particular aerodynamic surface we have been seeing and thus from which particular orientation we are viewing it.
** Frame 68-72 makes it clear this must be an aircraft by showing windows and a door and clearly the tail fin. As late as frame 69 some people argued that the tail fin could have been a wing.
** Frame 73-83 brings a side wing on the rear into view.

==Theories==
*Here different theories for what the countdown is for and what the picture is going to reveal can be added.

===The picture===
*Theories about the picture:
**From 2022-01-21 it became certain that it was a plane! Passenger plane. Door and windows are visible.
***From 2022-01-22 it became clear that it was the rear end, so it was a tailfin that came into the panel to begin with. Up til the day before it was still a bit uncertain if it could have been a wing.
**What will this lead up to - theories about this.
***It could be an airplane with a banner like in [[1355: Airplane Message]].
****That would very soon be clear as the bottom part of the rear end seems to be coming into view during 2022-01-24, if the direction does not change again.
***It could end up landing in a city, perhaps with a skyline pinpointing where Randall will be or move.
****However, unlikely to manage this in real life as the count down ends.
***Maybe Cueball will make a parachute jump, and Cueball could represent a real life Randall, as this could in principle be timed very accurately.
****However, it could very easy be that the weather in January could foil the attempt, or at least the timing.

====Early theories====
Many early theories were generated before the picture was decisively revealed to be a plane.

*It seems after two days and 12 pictures like either something is moving into the frame or that it is a zoom out from a white area of a large picture. Maybe it is the arm of Cueball that will come into view.
*The second line makes it look somewhat like the tail fin of an aircraft.
**Or the wing of an aircraft (left if looking down at it). Perhaps the plane is towing a banner that will fly through the frame.
***After almost a week this looks like the most promising suggestion so far. Now that the direction of the camera movement has changed, we might get to see the rest of the aircraft soon.
*****From picture 63, it more and more seems like it was the tail fin of a plane and now we can see the body.
******It's almost certainly the tail (and now a bit of the rear fuselage) of an aircraft.
*******It could just as easily be the left wing and part of the fuselage (showing windows on the right side of an airliner), with the tail fin out of view to the rear, as being the tail fin from an angle where the left wing is out of view behind the fuselage.
********judging by the relative size of the (presumed) windows, I think it's more likely to be the left wing than the tail fin.
********Based on the way planes are drawn in [[1868: Eclipse Flights]]. [[1355: Airplane Message]] and [[1669: Planespotting]], plane wings have a point on their edge and tail fins have a flat side, and (if a line is present) a thick line separates wings from the body, whereas thin lines or no lines separate tail fins, so this is a tail fin.
********In the bottom left there appears to be the top part of a horizontal stabilizer, implying this is the tail.
*********It’s a tail fin, that’s finally clear, but that’s the underside of the stabilizer. Which means this would be the best angle to view Cueball/Randall parachuting out of that door, something that would be predictable to the exact minute (barring all kinds of things that could go wrong).
********Appears to be a door to the left of the windows
********It could be an airplane with a banner like in [[1355: Airplane Message]]
***Tail of a space shuttle, perhaps?
****While I think Randall would've also drawn in the signature black part of the rudder, the shape fits perfectly
****Timing is close (though not exact) to the Columbia disaster anniversary (2003-02-01 1359 UTC)
***I'm thinking the tail of a Zeppelin.
****Although those normally have longer tail fins.
*Maybe it is some kind of vehicle rolling into frame, like a car?
*Or the word xkcd? (or xkcd 2?)
*Could have been "Hangman", but it looks like it's zooming in on the diagonal instead of continuing to make a gibbet.
*With the new second line appearing in the corner as of frame 28 it looks like it's definitely zooming out of an image. It looks like it could be someone's arm in a running position.
*I think it could also be two legs of a reclining stick person.
*The lines suggest a shark fin and the movement would suggest it swimming across the frame.
**If it was a shark fin, then the most likely candidates would be the first dorsal fin and the pectoral fin, but both end in points rather than edges like in the pictures of the header puzzle. An aircraft tail fin still seems most likely.
*Maybe it's a two-dimensional shape viewed from a weird angle?
**Like a rectangle viewed from a floating, tilted perspective
**Or the top of the k in xkcd
**Or a boat dock?

===Countdown===
*Theories about the countdown:
*Several have already been mentioned in the discussion:
**Notice that as of now - 22-Jan-2022 7am PST - (not sure exactly when it happened) the countdown has disappeared. Temporarily (perhaps to make the image cleaner?) or permanently?
**Randall's next book, either the countdown is counting down to the start of promotion or it is released when the countdown ends.
***Usually Randall has made month long [[:Category:Book promotion|book promotions]] before release. So if it is the release day it is a new way to do it. But he will get a lot of attention. If it is just the start of promoting it, people might get disappointed…
****For instance he began promoting his [[xkcd_Header_text#2015-05-14_-_New_book_Thing_Explainer|new book Thing Explainer]] in the header text. That was in May 2015 and the book was first released [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ late November 2015]. Most of this time the header text was promoting the book.
**{{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (JWST) going into orbit about L2 {{w|Lagrange point}}.
***Randall has already made several comics about the telescope. The latest [[2564: Sunshield]] was released just five days prior to the countdown was started.
***But the telescope will not reach the point but rather go into a large orbit around it, so a precise timer counting down to it seems a bit farfetched.
***On NASA's page on JWST it seems like it will [https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer.html#25 go into orbit] 29.5 days after its [[December 25th Launch]], on Christmas Day, so it should have already started the orbit by the 23rd or 24th of January - 8 days before the countdown.
***Also No based on the image.
**{{w|Lunar New Year}}
***In China it starts on February 1st and a [https://yourcountdown.to/chinese-new-year countdown for China] is 8 hours behind.
****The South Korean time zone is UTC+9, hence 14:59 UTC = 23:59 in South Korea, one minute to Feb 1.
*****But it's weird if Randall that has basically never mentioned this holiday suddenly makes a three week countdown for it, and why choose South Korea when most would think of China in this context…?
**Randall will stop making xkcd (Goodbye in the image).
***Hopefully not.
****Agreed, {{tvtropes|PoisonOakEpilepticTrees|to be avoided}}
***It might be a temporary stop (hiatus).
**[https://nationaldaycalendar.com/backward-day-january-31/ National Backward Day]
***This is not a day mentioned on Wikipedia at the time of release of the countdown, so seems unlikely.
**Maybe it will be an announcement of xkcd 2, a new and improved version for… some reason?
***Seems unlikely…
**{{w|Black History Month}}. The {{w|Greensboro sit-ins}} started on Feb 1 1960. Black History Month also begins on February 1st, also in 2022.
***But this countdown stops early on January 31st so seems unlikely.
***However, before changing the Header recently it was about [[xkcd_Header_text#2020-06-03_-_Black_Lives_Matter|Black Lives Matter]] for more than 1.5 years, first ending on December 20th 2021, less than a month before the countdown began. In between that there was a short Christmas sale reminder until a week into 2022. So it could just be another way of reminding of us the issues faced by black people in the US.
****If this was true, I feel like it would be simpler to just change back to the Black Lives Matter text at the top of the screen. Also, it seems increasingly likely as of Jan. 20th that the image is some kind of plane, which doesn't really have much to do with Black History Month (that I know of?)
**The accompanying header says specifically "xkcd updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday"--maybe the countdown is to the reveal of a new update schedule?
***Very unlikely. This was the standard header for a long time. It was used when Randall had nothing better to say. But with all his books and the trouble in US with elections and BLM, he has used the header as a platform most of the time many years now. So the standard text is rare. But he did return it for two days before adding the count down, making it seem just like normal.
***A guess is that it returned to this, so the header text did not take any focus away from the countdown.
**[[:Category:Red Spiders|Red spider]] attack?
***Un-Likely
**He will become a father - could be a planned C-section.
***As this is unpredictable, and could go wrong, then this would be a dangerous countdown, people can be very superstitious, even if scientist.
**As it currently looks (after a [[1070: Words for Small Sets|few days]] into the countdown) it may be a trip he is taking by plane.
***Maybe going somewhere people could meet him.
****Book tour?
***Moving a long way from home (down under or the like).
****Maybe he's moving to Japan? Could be a plane, and the time zone would fit, at least.
*****Then the countdown would be until when the plane lands, not to midnight.
******What has time zones to do with this clock? It counts down to the same time all over the world, and will reach zero at the same time no matter what time zone you are in.
******Time zones have to do with where it will be midnight when the countdown reaches zero. If it's a countdown to when January ends (a moment before February begins), then it's until that moment in the time zone where the countdown reaches zero at that time.
****If it is a plane, then maybe it will land in a new city Randall moves to when the counter ends, and the skyline will be visible...
**Perhaps it's a start to a new series like [[1190: Time]].
***It is already a series that works like Time, so seems unlikely.
**Zero-G flight, really looks like plane to me.
***Could be time he will first go weightless which could be fairly well known except for bad weather
**A parachute jump by Randall. Could be predicted as well as the zero G.
**How about the [https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/09/09/star-trek-picard-season-2-release-date-plot-cast/ new series of Picard]?
***{{w|Star Trek: Picard (season 2)}} is set to run from March 3 2022, which both Wikipedia (link before) and [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8806524/episodes?season=2 IMDb] agrees upon so bad to miss by more than a month, and what would the plane in the image have to do with this anyway?
***So No!
** The xkcd world tour!! I wish

===count-wimRikmef===
* The identifier of the script contains what is probably an acronym, but for what?
** count / wim (?) / Rik (name) & me f(light)
** Or it's just the output of whatever js minimizer was used.
** R = Randall?
* The "img" tag has a misspelled "heigth" attribute. Probably just a typo?

==Archived Versions==
;Seems like the links are (currently?) not working properly?
*Here is a list of the versions that has been saved to the web archive during the countdown.
**The counter in that version is written behind the date of the web archive.
**Note that the counter is active on the archived version counting minutes down from the start. Some of the versions almost changing the minutes just after loading. But it will always count from the time given here:
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] 20d 20h 27m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110214138/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] 20d 17h 18m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220111011115/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] 20d 13h 48m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220112005828/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-12] 19d 14h 1m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220113044552/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-13] 18d 10h 14m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220114010759/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-14] 17d 13h 51m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220114195624/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-14] 16d 19h 3m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220115052737/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-15] 16d 9h 32m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220116074923/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-16] 15d 7h 10m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220116225217/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-16] 14d 16h 7m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118050255/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-18] 13d 9h 57m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118195259/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-18] 12d 19h 6m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220119213308/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-19] 11d 17h 26m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220120103559/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-20] 11d 4h 23m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220121102349/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-21] 10d 4h 36m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122002328/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 9d 14h 36m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122223018/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 8d 16h 29m

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Meta]]

Talk:1558: Vet

2022-01-22T13:17:22Z

172.70.85.79:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct4Rl4VrMp8 [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 11:20, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

"There is something wrong with my dog" and "The Migratory Bird Treaty act" is really messed up. Roomba might be produced in US, but a dog is not a bird so Megan must be really confused. Except for just a few species, birds can fly and the last Roomba that flown got help from its owner into a wall for being a walking hazard. Or could Megan mean that among the dirt is feathers (from pillows maybe) that got stuck in the wheels and therefor ascends directly from birds and dinosaurs. [[User:Aquaplanet|Aquaplanet]] ([[User talk:Aquaplanet|talk]]) 13:06, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
:That whoosh sound was the joke going way over your head. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.141|173.245.54.141]] 14:39, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
:{{w|Bird_Dog_(song)|Bird dog}}..? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 06:32, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

It looks to me like this is a vet at a big-box pet supply store; that would explain the lack of a separate waiting room. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.167|173.245.56.167]] 15:02, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

:I was going to say that maybe it's just a returns counter or complaint department. Are there actually vets at Petsmart-or-others that operate like this? Vet being a desk that you just queue up for? [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 19:36, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

The pet of the second customer fits into the carrier, because it apparently is HALF-dog (head and a pair of legs). {{unsigned ip|173.245.55.99}}

"...Perhaps he has another small dog in there..." Actually, he may have arrived by bus or car, with the dog inside the carrier during the ride (for safety and convenience) but walking into the clinic with the dog on a leash because, hey! carrying even a smallish dog inside its carrier is a lot more work than getting the dog to carry himself, while carrying the much lighter carrier in the other hand. [[User:NoniMausa|NoniMausa]] ([[User talk:NoniMausa|talk]]) 01:38, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:Reading the explanation about dog being too big, I got another idea: the second person is going to complain about the dog not fitting in the carrier (because it grown, likely) and would want the vet to do something with the dog to fix it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:43, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

::I cannot see why the drawn dog should not fit into the carrier. I have changed the explanation using some of the ideas from this discussion page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:55, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

So, note that a Roomba was introduced into Questionable Content[https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=695]] back in 2006. Hannelore named it "Spot" (so thinks of it as a pet). Eventually it escaped into the wild, found a mate, and started producing offspring. (Then it disappeared from the story.) [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 14:09, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

;Add discussion of what would really happen when she released it into the wild

Would it be able to move on the ground outdoors?

Start trying to vacuum up the dirt under it and just dig itself into a hole?

Get stuck due to inability to move on a surface that isn't horizontal?

Eventually, it's going to "die" because the batteries run out, but what happens until then.

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.56.215|162.158.56.215]] 13:29, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:Well, if it finds a mate to reproduce with, and quickly enough to raise the young Roombairns to maturity before it does expire... Evolution! Maybe the race of Roombae will develop to inhabit an unused ecological niche, and proliferate! Or, because there rarely ''are'' unused ecological niches, become an aggressive 'invader', causing the decline or even extinction of the existing wildlife in that footprint.
:As the Roombakind's main ability is moving dirt, I predict that it will be the two major large-scale creatures who move dirt who may be effected. The beaver, and humanity.
:Good luck, Homo North Americanus! Unluckily for you (but luckily for us, across the ocean) the Roombae are currently not well suited for travel over or through water. But maybe by the time they develop the means to do so (perhaps by cooperatively forming "Roombacraft", coming together in a group and selectively reversing their airflow to create a cushion of air to first cross the Panama Canal and the gaps between the ice sheets over the top of the Arctic, whilst some tilt to provide thrust, and perhaps even ultiamtely the oceans themselves....), humanity in Europe, Asia, Australasia and elsewhere will have found a developing natural predator of this potential planetary scourge.
:And then we can but only hope that this natural predator, whatever it might be, does not itself evolve to become an even worse threat to humanity's existence!
:...You will of course find my logic to be faultless, throughout this entire speculation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 16:36, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:: "Unluckily for you (but luckily for us, across the ocean) the Roombae are currently not well suited for travel over or through water."
:: May not be a problem much longer ...
:: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/24/travel/trans-siberian-road/
:: --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:53, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

;Order of explanation
Actually, what I was going to write was that I think the explanation needs some shuffling. Currently it's "What a Rhoomba is; Other comics mentioning Rhoombas; The details of the comic (in the light of the knowledge of Rhoombas); The details of the title-text." To be consistent to the general form, it seems like it needs to be "The details of the comic (albeit without over-assumption of pre-knowledge concerning Roombas); What a Rhoomba is; (And add why it wouldn't survive 'in the wild', if you wish.); Explain the title-text; Conclude with the links to the other comics." Or similar. But that'd need a hefty re-write for forward/backward references. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 16:46, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

'''Releasing appliances into the wild:'''
The idea of releasing a Roomba into the wild reminds me of a (barely remembered) story I read back when I was 8 or 9 (1977 or 78) about some (intelligent) household appliances that had been forgotten or abandoned and they travelled to find their owner or something like that. There was a self-propelled vacuum cleaner (which was how they all travelled, the toaster and others rode on the top of the vacuum). I think a car battery was wired up for power. Anyone here have ANY idea what I'm talking about? I'm curious to know the story, now that I've remembered some of it. The only other detail that comes to mind was that the vacuum would run over its own cord when it was anxious or depressed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.134|173.245.56.134]] 00:11, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

'''Migratory Bird Act'''

The Migratory Bird Act reference may have been inspired by http://www.loweringthebar.net/2015/04/chillin-with-a-owl-followup.html where, among other things, it is pointed out that not all listed birds are migratory. Randall may be taking this point to the extreme. What If question 96 came from the author of Lowering the Bar, so the degree of separation between the two is definitely one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.31|108.162.225.31]] 08:18, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

'''Releasing appliances into the wild:'''

The Brave Little Toaster {{unsigned ip|199.27.130.186}}

:Oh, god! What did I do? All the other comments are gone! {{unsigned ip|199.27.130.186}}

(The above by an unsigned poster, who wiped the entire Comments at the same time.)
(Note to the unsigned poster @199.27.130.186: Don't treat it as an "delete everything you're not replying to" forum reply. If your error wasn't accidentally selecting all before typing your reply.) (Actually, it's nice to see someone who ''does'' clean up their replies, but ''this is not the place to do that''.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 15:26, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

'''Tamagotchi Effect:'''

Perhaps we could relate it to the Tamagotchi effect. Check Wikipedia. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.180}}

Rolled back the edit that placed citation needed tags on the phrases "dogs are not birds" and "roombas are also not birds" as the link to the roomba wiki page should be citation enough for the latter phrase and I don't feel it's normally within the scope of this wiki to cite an example regarding the former. I feel the citation needed tag on the phrase "dogs cannot cross-breed with robots" is dubious as well, but it has been in place longer than the other two and would like to hear other opinions on its necessity before removing it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.242|108.162.237.242]] 09:56, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Well, not far off: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-60084347 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 13:17, 22 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2570: Captain Picard Tea Order

2022-01-20T07:40:53Z

172.70.85.79: Added reference to Bovril

...{{w|Builder's tea|Builders}}. I mean, Picard is French and Trek(/Randall) is 'Merican but I suspect it would still be a valid option to give the Ready-Room replicator... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 23:31, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

In ''Star Trek: Picard'', Picard is seen requesting "tea, earl gray, decaf". [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.202|172.69.68.202]] 03:33, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Presumably infinite tea could be the beverage to accompany [[1099|Endless Wings]]. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:45, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

I showed it to a friend an their response was: "[In early 20th century England] they added condensed beef stock to their tea for breakfast", so ''meaty'' tea is very much a possibility. Then they linked some brand promotional materials for "Vimbos: The Prince of Fluid Beef" and "Vimbos: an ox in a teacup". Because I was just about to sign off for the evening, I'm not going to do the due diligence to research, cite, and edit the main article to reflect this discovery--but I thought it should at least be written here to see if others found it interesting enough to add. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 04:21, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

{{w|Bovril|Bovril}} is a standard beef tea [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 07:40, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

2570: Captain Picard Tea Order

2022-01-19T23:27:50Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */

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

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

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=1 class="wikitable"
! Word !! Explanation
|-
| Hot
| A fairly normal word to be used when ordering tea. Although that it even needs specifying is itself a clue that other variations (such as "Iced", below) are availablee.
|-
| Iced
| {{w|Iced Tea}} is a 'normal' variation of tea.
|-
| Decaf
| Traditional teas (from {{w|Camellia sinensis}}) tend to have caffeine in them. Asking for {{w|Decaffeination|decafeinated}} tea is not particularly uncommon if the drinker requires it.
|-
| Good
|
|-
| Lukewarm
| While this is a temperature that tea can be at, most people do not want their teas to be lukewarm.
|-
| Tasty
|
|-
| Boiled
|
|-
| Watery
| Tea is a drink that often involves water.
|-
| Sour
|
|-
| Meaty
| Most teas are plant-based.
|-
| Solid
| Tea is usually drunk as a liquid. It would be strange to ask for solid tea.
|-
| Dry
| Tea is a liquid usually made with water or milk. Neither is capable of being dry in the usual liquid form.
|-
| Raw
|
|-
| Deep-fried
|
|-
| Sticky
|
|-
| Grilled
|
|-
| Fossilized
|
|-
| Magnetic
| Tea is not magnetic. Magnetic metals would have to be added to the tea, which would not be pleasant to drink.
|-
| Ballistic
|
|-
| Unstable
|
|-
| Blessed
|
|-
| Blurry
|
|-
| Loud
|
|-
| Virtual
|
|-
| Intravenous
|
|-
| Expanding
|
|-
| Ironic
|
|-
| Segmented
|
|-
| Verbose
| This describes words and language, and would not likely be used for tea.
|-
| Cursed
|
|-
| Unexpected
|
|-
| Bipedal
| Tea does not walk.{{citation needed}} This would be a very strange term to use when describing tea.
|-
| Afraid
| Tea does not have feelings.
|-
| Infinite
|
|-
| Tea for him, too
| {{w|Earl Grey tea|Earl Grey}} is a tea blend.
Taken along with the context of the Titletext, this Replicator order is for "Tea" (not otherwise qualified), a replicated version ''of'' the Earl Grey (one or other of those {{w|Earl Grey|of that name}}, possibly the 2nd) and a second beverage for his own sake.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[There is a line going towards the bottom of the panel in a curve with marks and words next to them. Various pictures of Captain Picard, are displayed next to the curves.]
:[Caption at top of the panel:]
:Other words Captain Picard tried at the end of his tea order before settling on "hot"
:[Subtitle below the caption:]
:From most normal to least
:[Picard stands next to a machine labeled 'REPLICATOR', giving a command. Some options such as 'Good,' 'Cold,' 'Dry,' and 'Pink' are displayed perpendicularly adjacent to 'Hot', the latter clearly selected.]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
:[Below, another version of Picard standing next to the replicator is displayed. Picard is holding a cup, with sticky lines connecting his hands and the machine]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Sticky.
:[This time, Picard is holding a vibrating cup and large letters are displayed in the background to the exclusion of all else.]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Loud.
:Teacup: '''TEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'''
:[Words on the arrow from start to finish. The tail of the arrow is labeled 'Normal.' There is a parallel arrow pointing in the same direction labeled 'Less normal.']
:Hot
:Iced
:Decaf
:Good
:Lukewarm
:Tasty
:Boiled
:Watery
:Sour
:Meaty
:Solid
:Dry
:Raw
:Deep-fried
:Sticky
:Grilled
:Fossilized
:Magnetic
:Ballistic
:Unstable
:Blessed
:Blurry
:Loud
:Virtual
:Intravenous
:Expanding
:Ironic
:Segmented
:Verbose
:Cursed
:Unexpected
:Bipedal
:Afraid
:Infinite
:Tea for him, too

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Trek]]

2570: Captain Picard Tea Order

2022-01-19T23:24:55Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2570
| date = January 19, 2022
| title = Captain Picard Tea Order
| image = captain_picard_tea_order.png
| titletext = We can ask the Earl for his order once he's fully extruded from the dispenser.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EXTRUDED EARL GREY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
*This was the fifth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=1 class="wikitable"
! Word !! Explanation
|-
| Hot
| A normal word to be used when ordering tea. That it even needs specifying is itself a clue that other variations are possible.
|-
| Iced
| {{w|Iced Tea}} is a 'normal' variation of tea.
|-
| Decaf
| Traditional teas (from {{w|Camellia sinensis}}) tend to have caffeine in them. Asking for {{w|Decaffeination|decafeinated}} tea is not particularly uncommon if the drinker requires it.
|-
| Good
|
|-
| Lukewarm
| While this is a temperature that tea can be at, most people do not want their teas to be lukewarm.
|-
| Tasty
|
|-
| Boiled
|
|-
| Watery
| Tea is a drink that often involves water.
|-
| Sour
|
|-
| Meaty
| Most teas are plant-based.
|-
| Solid
| Tea is usually drunk as a liquid. It would be strange to ask for solid tea.
|-
| Dry
| Tea is a liquid usually made with water or milk. Neither is capable of being dry in the usual liquid form.
|-
| Raw
|
|-
| Deep-fried
|
|-
| Sticky
|
|-
| Grilled
|
|-
| Fossilized
|
|-
| Magnetic
| Tea is not magnetic. Magnetic metals would have to be added to the tea, which would not be pleasant to drink.
|-
| Ballistic
|
|-
| Unstable
|
|-
| Blessed
|
|-
| Blurry
|
|-
| Loud
|
|-
| Virtual
|
|-
| Intravenous
|
|-
| Expanding
|
|-
| Ironic
|
|-
| Segmented
|
|-
| Verbose
| This describes words and language, and would not likely be used for tea.
|-
| Cursed
|
|-
| Unexpected
|
|-
| Bipedal
| Tea does not walk.{{citation needed}} This would be a very strange term to use when describing tea.
|-
| Afraid
| Tea does not have feelings.
|-
| Infinite
|
|-
| Tea for him, too
| {{w|Earl Grey tea|Earl Grey}} is a tea blend.
Taken along with the context of the Titletext, this Replicator order is for "Tea" (not otherwise qualified), a replicated version ''of'' the Earl Grey (one or other of those {{w|Earl Grey|of that name}}, possibly the 2nd) and a second beverage for his own sake.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[There is a line going towards the bottom of the panel in a curve with marks and words next to them. Various pictures of Captain Picard, are displayed next to the curves.]
:[Caption at top of the panel:]
:Other words Captain Picard tried at the end of his tea order before settling on "hot"
:[Subtitle below the caption:]
:From most normal to least
:[Picard stands next to a machine labeled 'REPLICATOR', giving a command. Some options such as 'Good,' 'Cold,' 'Dry,' and 'Pink' are displayed perpendicularly adjacent to 'Hot', the latter clearly selected.]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
:[Below, another version of Picard standing next to the replicator is displayed. Picard is holding a cup, with sticky lines connecting his hands and the machine]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Sticky.
:[This time, Picard is holding a vibrating cup and large letters are displayed in the background to the exclusion of all else.]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Loud.
:Teacup: '''TEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'''
:[Words on the arrow from start to finish. The tail of the arrow is labeled 'Normal.' There is a parallel arrow pointing in the same direction labeled 'Less normal.']
:Hot
:Iced
:Decaf
:Good
:Lukewarm
:Tasty
:Boiled
:Watery
:Sour
:Meaty
:Solid
:Dry
:Raw
:Deep-fried
:Sticky
:Grilled
:Fossilized
:Magnetic
:Ballistic
:Unstable
:Blessed
:Blurry
:Loud
:Virtual
:Intravenous
:Expanding
:Ironic
:Segmented
:Verbose
:Cursed
:Unexpected
:Bipedal
:Afraid
:Infinite
:Tea for him, too

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Trek]]

447: Too Old For This Shit

2022-01-18T16:05:57Z

172.70.85.79: /* Transcript */ First-person-identifier capitalised.

{{comic
| number = 447
| date = July 9, 2008
| title = Too Old For This Shit
| image = too_old_for_this_shit.png
| titletext = They say if a mathematician doesn't do their great work by age eleven, they never will.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic makes fun of the fact that most mathematical geniuses have done their exceptional work (for which they eventually become famous) in their early years by exaggerating it, particularly given that "too old for this shit" is a phrase more appropriately used by people later in age. At the age of thirteen, even precocious mathematicians would not be pushing the frontier of mathematical knowledge, let alone to the point where they would be "too old for it." As such, this is more a joke about a young boy attempting to dismiss the world around him. It also plays on the fact that in xkcd comics, it is often difficult to tell age because of lack of detail, which is necessary to set up the final punchline.

A striking example is {{w|Carl Friedrich Gauss}}, the famous mathematician, who wrote his exceptional masterpiece ''{{w|Disquisitiones Arithmeticae}}'' at the early age of 21. This idea was for instance used in the fictional biography of Gauss, ''{{w|Measuring the World}}'', where he admits to having trouble understanding his own work when he got older because of his age.

The "age theory'" applies to physics as well. {{w|Albert Einstein}} was also very young (26) when he published his {{w|Annus Mirabilis papers|four groundbreaking papers}} in the same year (his {{w|Annus Mirabilis}} in 1905) including the one that eventually gave him the {{w|Nobel Prize}}. Later in life, for instance, he never accepted the theory of {{w|quantum physics}} - which is now a very well established theory.

The title of the comic, "Too Old For This Shit," is also a reference to the ''{{w|Lethal Weapon}}'' series, in which one of the main characters (Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover) is repeatedly quoted as saying things along the line of "I'm too old for this shit."

The title text asserts that thirteen is way too old as it claims that mathematicians should do their '''great work''' at the age of eleven! If not - they will never do anything great.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueballs are standing in front of a whiteboard. They are facing away from each other, not yet fully conversing with each other.]
:Cueball 1: I wish I could do math like when I was young.
:Cueball 2: Huh?

:[The two now face each other. They talk to each other.]
:Cueball 1: It doesn't come easy like it once did.
:Cueball 2: Uh huh.

:[Still talking.]
:Cueball 1: Math is a game for the young. I need to sit back and let the future happen.

:[Still talking.]
:Cueball 2: You're thirteen.
:Cueball 1: Yes, and it's time I accept that.

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

447: Too Old For This Shit

2022-01-18T16:04:33Z

172.70.85.79: /* Transcript */ a) Started by converting "Cueball 2" to "the other Cueball" to avoid misunderstanding that "2 Cueballs face..."; b) Realised stage-left/-right was just as confusing; c) Changed to show initial comment was to self/thinking out loud.

{{comic
| number = 447
| date = July 9, 2008
| title = Too Old For This Shit
| image = too_old_for_this_shit.png
| titletext = They say if a mathematician doesn't do their great work by age eleven, they never will.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic makes fun of the fact that most mathematical geniuses have done their exceptional work (for which they eventually become famous) in their early years by exaggerating it, particularly given that "too old for this shit" is a phrase more appropriately used by people later in age. At the age of thirteen, even precocious mathematicians would not be pushing the frontier of mathematical knowledge, let alone to the point where they would be "too old for it." As such, this is more a joke about a young boy attempting to dismiss the world around him. It also plays on the fact that in xkcd comics, it is often difficult to tell age because of lack of detail, which is necessary to set up the final punchline.

A striking example is {{w|Carl Friedrich Gauss}}, the famous mathematician, who wrote his exceptional masterpiece ''{{w|Disquisitiones Arithmeticae}}'' at the early age of 21. This idea was for instance used in the fictional biography of Gauss, ''{{w|Measuring the World}}'', where he admits to having trouble understanding his own work when he got older because of his age.

The "age theory'" applies to physics as well. {{w|Albert Einstein}} was also very young (26) when he published his {{w|Annus Mirabilis papers|four groundbreaking papers}} in the same year (his {{w|Annus Mirabilis}} in 1905) including the one that eventually gave him the {{w|Nobel Prize}}. Later in life, for instance, he never accepted the theory of {{w|quantum physics}} - which is now a very well established theory.

The title of the comic, "Too Old For This Shit," is also a reference to the ''{{w|Lethal Weapon}}'' series, in which one of the main characters (Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover) is repeatedly quoted as saying things along the line of "I'm too old for this shit."

The title text asserts that thirteen is way too old as it claims that mathematicians should do their '''great work''' at the age of eleven! If not - they will never do anything great.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueballs are standing in front of a whiteboard. They are facing away from each other, not yet fully conversing with each other.]
:Cueball 1: I wish I could do math like when i was young.
:Cueball 2: Huh?

:[The two now face each other. They talk to each other.]
:Cueball 1: It doesn't come easy like it once did.
:Cueball 2: Uh huh.

:[Still talking.]
:Cueball 1: Math is a game for the young. I need to sit back and let the future happen.

:[Still talking.]
:Cueball 2: You're thirteen.
:Cueball 1: Yes, and it's time I accept that.

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

2568: Spinthariscope

2022-01-18T06:55:09Z

172.70.85.79: Undo revision 224648 by 162.158.50.86 (talk) Missing the point about Citation Needed in xkcd context. And nothing says there *isn't* further alpha-decay, but gamma/beta made more likely.

{{comic
| number = 2568
| date = January 14, 2022
| title = Spinthariscope
| image = spinthariscope.png
| titletext = Other high scorers are melt-in-your-hand aluminum-destroying gallium and tritium-powered glowsticks. Lawn darts are toward the other end.
}}
*This was the third comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SPINTHARISCOPE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is another comic with one of [[Randall|Randall's]] [[:Category:Fun fact|fun facts]].

As stated in the comic, a {{w|spinthariscope}} is a device with a small amount of radioactive material ({{w|americium}} or
{{w|thorium}}) and a screen. When one of the radioactive atoms decays, it emits an {{w|alpha particle}}, which strikes the screen, which emits a small flash of light. You can see these flashes by looking through a lens.

It was invented in 1903 initially as a scientific instrument, but was soon replaced by more accurate and quantitative devices. But the original device was still popular for some time as an educational toy for children, and you can still get them today.

The joke in the comic is that most people have little understanding of radiation, and overreact to any mention that something is radioactive. So when Cueball tells Megan, White Hat, and Ponytail that the toy contains radioactive material, they're shocked and scared. But the amount of radioactive material in the toy is very tiny and the radiation is itself so trivially contained that there's practically no risk from it. The short-ranged {{w|alpha particles}} are likely stopped by the lens through which the harmless flashes of light (from particles that instead hit and neutralise in the internal screen element) are seen. Alpha decay always leads to an unstable decay product, which results in further decay (always gamma decay, and sometimes beta decay as well) which are less easily blocked; but the amount of such radiation from these decay products is negligible.

The fun fact in the caption says that Spinthariscopes have the highest ratio of "that can't possibly be safe and legal" to actual safety and legality of any known toy. Because, when people hear about Spinthariscopes for the first time, they instantly assume, due to the radioactive material inside, that they must be very dangerous. They thus also question if such a toy is at all legal to make or own in the first place. But the fact is that Spinthariscopes are both safe and are legal to make, sell and own. So, the perceived danger and presumption that it must be illegal is at a very high number, and the actual danger and the actual legality results in a very low number on the same scale. It is this ratio between those two numbers that are the highest for Spinthariscopes, higher than for any other known toys.

The title text mentions some other materials/toys that sound dangerous but aren't. {{w|Gallium}} is a metallic element with a low melting point of 29.76°C (85.568°F) so it will melt in your hand. Additionally, gallium has strange properties when it interacts with aluminum, causing aluminum to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgXNwLoS-Hw "melt"] or become brittle. {{w|Tritium}} is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, but {{w|Tritium radioluminescence|can be used}} to create {{w|glowstick}}s and other lighted objects. Though these two toys might seem dangerous, they are actually typically used perfectly safely.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is {{w|lawn darts}}, a toy containing large darts that are thrown into the air to fall back down onto a target that's placed or marked upon the ground quite near the players' positions. Contrary to the spinthariscope, which sounds dangerous but is actually harmless, lawn darts sound relatively innocent but can cause severe injury if you accidentally hit a person (and a few children were even {{w|Lawn darts|killed}}), so they were {{w|Lawn_darts#Safety_and_bans_in_the_U.S._and_Canada|banned in the US and Canada}} in the 1980s. When sharpened, these toys even [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EFAVGIylqE compare] quite favorably to {{w|plumbata|weapons of war}}.

Today many houses have {{w|Smoke_detector|smoke detectors}} using {{w|Smoke_detector#Ionization|ionization}} caused by radioactive decay of {{w|Americium-241}} to detect the smoke. So having something with radioactive material in your house is quite common, and in this case increases the safety level for those houses.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a small item up in on hand in front of his three friends. Megan has her arms lifted and bent in front of her, White Hat has his arms raised over his head and Ponytail is pointing at Cueball while her other hand, held down behind her, is balled into a fist.]
:Cueball: It's a spinthariscope, a 1940s toy with a radioactive isotope inside. If you let your eyes adjust to total darkness and look into the lens, you can see the flashes of individual atoms decaying.
:Megan: What??
:White Hat: ''Aaaaa!''
:Ponytail: Get it away!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Fun fact: Spinthariscopes have the highest ratio of "that can't possibly be safe and legal" to actual safety and legality of any known toy.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Fun fact]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:Countdown in header text

2022-01-18T00:18:01Z

172.70.85.79:

Talk:Countdown in header text

2022-01-13T03:39:47Z

172.70.85.79:

Talk:2567: Language Development

2022-01-12T21:29:02Z

172.70.85.79:

Has a small, child-size, stick figure been used before? I did not find a category on explainxkcd. This might be an interesting trivia to add. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.129|198.41.242.129]] 18:45, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

: There have definitely been kids on xkcd before. For example: [[1145: Sky Color]] (but I'm sure there are others). --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 20:04, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

:: Other examples are [[674: Natural Parenting]], [[441: Babies]] and [[1650: Baby]] [[User:Kvarts314|Kvarts314]] ([[User talk:Kvarts314|talk]])

Actually words linguists use when they try to talk in very old languages sometimes sound like the things my little son might say between his first perfectly pronounced single words.--[[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]]) 18:53, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Someone needs to say “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.151|172.70.206.151]] 18:56, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Looking at Wiktionary, I believe the child is saying "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/milk#Etymology_1 Milk] [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/please#Etymology_1 Please]" See also [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h%E2%82%82mel%C7%B5- Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂melǵ-] [[User:Bpendragon|Bpendragon]] ([[User talk:Bpendragon|talk]]) 18:57, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Hopefully he won't say the proto-Indo-European word for "bear". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.26|162.158.74.26]] 19:09, 12 January 2022 (UTC)Pat
:You mean *hrktos? 20:45, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
:: Oops. I think a brown one ate my IP address.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.92|162.158.187.92]] 20:49, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

The pace of early stage development isn't necessarily an indicator for continued development pacing. I didn't start Proto-Indo-European until I was almost 2, but had completed full vowel shift before second grade. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.73|108.162.237.73]] 21:20, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Though the explanation eventually touches on this (perhaps multiple editors got in there and shuffled this nearer the end) I believe it should really have ''started'' with something about how Language Development (in a child) is being confused/conflated wifh Language Development (in human (pre)history). It would get straight to the point, I believe. It could then continue to go the further mile in getting into the deconstruction of it all. I'm leaving it unedited by myself, for now, because it deserves a lot more text-shuffling and refining than I can promise to do myself right now, but putting this idea out there to pique the interest of other possible editors. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 21:29, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

2556: Turing Complete

2022-01-09T04:43:24Z

172.70.85.79: Undo revision 223845 by 172.70.233.187 (talk) Yeahbutno. Contextless link is not constructive, and you've not even tried to be subtle *or* relevent.

{{comic
| number = 2556
| date = December 17, 2021
| title = Turing Complete
| image = turing_complete.png
| titletext = Thanks to the ForcedEntry exploit, your company's entire tech stack can now be hosted out of a PDF you texted to someone.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NATION-STATE THAT CAN RUN DOOM, CRYSIS, GRAND THEFT AUTO AND YOUR COMPANY'S CORPORATE ETHICS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A {{w|Turing machine}} is a theoretical computer that has an infinite tape of symbols. It can read and change the symbols on the tape as it moves up and down this tape according to a set of instructions (program).

This very simple machine can be shown to do every computational task that what we think of as a "computer" can do, given the right program and enough time. Something that is {{w|Turing complete}} is able to act as a Turing machine, though generally physical examples are limited to having a finite tape,{{citation needed}} and this means it is also able to do basically every computational task.

Many pieces of hardware and software are supposed to be Turing complete (even Excel, as previously pointed out in [[2453: Excel Lambda]]). Some other things turn out to be Turing complete, even if they weren't designed for it (for instance, the tabletop game [https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/its-possible-to-build-a-turing-machine-within-magic-the-gathering/ Magic: The Gathering] or, at least within xkcd meta-reality, [[505: A Bunch of Rocks|rocks in a desert]]). Whatever [[Ponytail]] has been referring to is not shown, but it seems to be an anecdote about how something seemingly too simple and/or specialised to exhibit such a computational equivalence has been discovered to actually be that capable. Ponytail may refer to the recent articles about the background of the NSO zero click exploit for iPhones, e.g. [https://securityboulevard.com/2021/12/nso-zero-click-exploit-turing-complete-cpu-in-image-file/ this].

{{w|Mario}} is the lead character in a long running series of video games including {{w|Donkey Kong}}, {{w|Super Mario Bros}} and {{w|Mario Kart}}. Running video games, [https://hackaday.com/tag/does-it-run-doom/ such as Doom], is one common way of demonstrating the ability to run arbitrary programs on devices that were not intended as general purpose computers. With complex processors being installed in more and more devices, it's plausible that someone could get a dishwasher to play Mario.

However, another reason to make a device run arbitrary code is to {{w|Arbitrary code execution|breach security.}} If the owner of a system assumes that it can only do one specific thing, like operate a dishwasher, they may not take precautions against hacking. But if the system is actually Turing-complete, a hacker could potentially make it do something else, like become part of a {{w|botnet}}. Therefore, "this is actually Turing-complete" could be the prelude to a complicated hacking attempt. Sophisticated hacking attacks are often the work of hackers that have the support of a government, or {{w|nation-state}}.

The {{w|FORCEDENTRY|ForcedEntry}} exploit is a way that was developed to allow {{w|PDF}} files to force malware onto various devices. PDF files are normally used to present documents. The exploit uses a PDF's ability to do logic operations on pixels to implement [https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html a simple virtual CPU] within one of the PDF renderer's decompression functions. Constructing a CPU in this way is similar to how a hardware CPU is made of individual logic gates. ForcedEntry was publicized a few days before this comic came out.

In the title-text it is suggested that this mechanism can be used for what might be more legal and practical purposes, although this might be up to some interpretation depending upon who has the right (and permission) to do what.

A {{w|Solution stack|tech stack}} is one shorthand way of describing the way an integrated grouping of communicating software packages provides everything from the deepest data handling (even as low-level as an operating system itself) to the user interface. All of these will normally be on a computer (or possibly many of them, whether locally or distributed worldwide) and if a sufficiently functional surrogate system is capable of emulating this (computing what the original computer(s) would do) then it can be considered to effectively ''be'' the same stack of technology and duplicate or replace the originals.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail has raised her hand, palm up, as she addresses Cueball.]
:Ponytail: ...Now, it turns out this is actually Turing-Complete...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:This phrase either means someone spent six months getting their dishwasher to play Mario or you're under attack by a nation-state.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Video games]]

2565: Latency

2022-01-08T06:28:13Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ What I meant.

{{comic
| number = 2565
| date = January 7, 2022
| title = Latency
| image = latency.png
| titletext = Each SCAPDFATIAT point increases the chance that the process will involve the phrase 'by the next business day.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by SOMEONE WITH "20 years of Ctrl-C Ctrl-V experience" ON THEIR RESUME - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about the time it takes for a request to be processed, a total of 1 second is devoted to automated processes, but 2-15 minutes or longer are devoted to an not-yet-automated process that is performed by a human.

Part of the humor comes from the fact that most, if not all, instances of a person copying and pasting data from one place to another could be trivially automated and included as part of the automated steps, if only a programmer could take the time to program the process. Having a human take several minutes to move data that a computer could move in fractions of a second is incredibly inefficient, and reflects the humorously poor optimization present in many routine processes.

The title text refers to SCAPDFATIAT, which is defined in the comic as Someone Copies and Pastes Data From a Thing Into Another Thing.

Because it requires a human worker to fully accomplish, in-between various other work commitments as well as possibly personal/non-work activities, it is plausible that (even if the copying was started promptly enough) the person involved will not have pasted onwards by the time their effective working day ends. It might be reasonable to assume that a job that ought to take no more than a few actual minutes thus is only 'guaranteed' to be concluded at some point the following working day (which may be a whole long weekend away, possibly including public holidays). The business will therefore state (e.g. in contractual service agreements) that the guaranteed response times are of the order of "within one working day". Even if they hope and expect that any request passed to their staff is handled within a much shorter timescale. If reliably capable of being fully automated (e.g. with a resilient and continually maintained server infrastructure), could be fulfilled almost instantly at any time of day or night. But it may be the need to keep an 'intelligent' human in the loop (as well as to "under-promise and over-deliver", rather than the reverse) that makes the concept of "next-working-day" a more attractive commitment to make.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[bar graph titled Typical Response Latency showing 3 major sections]

[section 1: Automated Steps: 800 ms]

[section 2: Someone Copies and Pastes From a Thing Into Another Thing: 2-15 minutes (more if the person on call is busy)]

[section 3: Automated Steps: 200ms]
{{comic discussion}}

2565: Latency

2022-01-08T06:27:15Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */ Lotta words... Maybe someone with better down-editing skills can improve upon this justification for the business-day referencing.

{{comic
| number = 2565
| date = January 7, 2022
| title = Latency
| image = latency.png
| titletext = Each SCAPDFATIAT point increases the chance that the process will involve the phrase 'by the next business day.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by SOMEONE WITH "20 years of Ctrl-C Ctrl-V experience" ON THEIR RESUME - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about the time it takes for a request to be processed, a total of 1 second is devoted to automated processes, but 2-15 minutes or longer are devoted to an not-yet-automated process that is performed by a human.

Part of the humor comes from the fact that most, if not all, instances of a person copying and pasting data from one place to another could be trivially automated and included as part of the automated steps, if only a programmer could take the time to program the process. Having a human take several minutes to move data that a computer could move in fractions of a second is incredibly inefficient, and reflects the humorously poor optimization present in many routine processes.

The title text refers to SCAPDFATIAT, which is defined in the comic as Someone Copies and Pastes Data From a Thing Into Another Thing.

Because it requires a human worker to fully accomplish, in-between various other work commitments as well as possibly personal/non-work activities, it is plausible that (even if the copying was started promptly enough) the person involved will not have copied onwards by the time their effective working day ends. It might be reasonable to assume that a job that ought to take no more than a few actual minutes thus is only 'guaranteed' to be concluded at some point the following working day (which may be a whole long weekend away, possibly including public holidays). The business will therefore state (e.g. in contractual service agreements) that the guaranteed response times are of the order of "within one working day". Even if they hope and expect that any request passed to their staff is handled within a much shorter timescale. If reliably capable of being fully automated (e.g. with a resilient and continually maintained server infrastructure), could be fulfilled almost instantly at any time of day or night. But it may be the need to keep an 'intelligent' human in the loop (as well as to "under-promise and over-deliver", rather than the reverse) that makes the concept of "next-working-day" a more attractive commitment to make.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[bar graph titled Typical Response Latency showing 3 major sections]

[section 1: Automated Steps: 800 ms]

[section 2: Someone Copies and Pastes From a Thing Into Another Thing: 2-15 minutes (more if the person on call is busy)]

[section 3: Automated Steps: 200ms]
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1610: Fire Ants

2022-01-07T18:42:18Z

172.70.85.79:

misinterpreting a question as an invitation to talk about one's pet obsession is symptomatic of autistic spectrum disorder. although not necessarily so. as, i suppose, is wanting to do science in academe. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.223|108.162.210.223]] 13:12, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

i don't think she was misinterpreting the question,she probably is so obsessed about ants that she tries to talk about them every chance she gets. {{unsigned ip|173.245.62.29}}

:ok, so "misinterpreting" was a poor choice. try "interpreting, wrongly". and only autists feel like that. to a neuro-typical this isn't even an issue. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.233|141.101.106.233]] 12:57, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Theoretically, there's a hidden analogy in that a colony of rather simplistic and specialist individuals can ensure their own survival in the face of adverse environmental conditions by keeping themselves all in one location so that they can continue to perpetuate themselves in the future. And as it is with those heading off to Grad School, so it may also be with ants. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.185|141.101.75.185]] 13:29, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

I've just joined, so please forgive the new boy. Perhaps the joke is really to do with biblical references and metaphors, as I have suggested in my contribution to the main article. (User:Paw 42)

There is absolutely no reason to junk up this explanation with biblical references. Please correct, or I will do so. --[[User:BobTheMad|BobTheMad]] ([[User talk:BobTheMad|talk]]) 14:41, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
:Ooh, scary threat. The biblical reference is completely justified. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.32|198.41.238.32]] 22:59, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
::Hey jerk, it wasn't a threat. When I made the comment, around 2/3 of the article was about biblical references. It has since been resolved because most people agreed with me. But thanks for playing anyway. --[[User:BobTheMad|BobTheMad]] ([[User talk:BobTheMad|talk]]) 14:28, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Really?? Life of Brian is the most popular? Sorry, that's either crazy inaccurate or needs a citation. I'm pretty confident the Biblical reference was more accurate as a phase origin, though I can't say I feel it adds much to the explanation. Google likes "Consider the lobster" and "Consider the source" better than either when I search for it. When I search for it adding the keyword "phrase," it gives the Biblical reference, but still not as a first result. The Life of Brian doesn't show up in any front page results. [[User:Ancientt|Ancientt]] ([[User talk:Ancientt|talk]]) 15:13, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

During an initial read through I assumed that he was speaking to a career adviser. Thus, the "consider the fire ant" statement was a take off from the Biblical "consider the ant" statement found in Proverbs 6:6-8. For those who don't know, that particular Proverb is a reprimand to lazy people to consider the diligence and foresight of ants who prepare for the future without being told to do so. Where, lazy people typically have to be micro-managed to get any results from them. So, you assume that hair bun girl is calling cueball lazy because he is rethinking grad school (in this view he is sacrificing diligence and future planning for the now). However, she takes the statement in such a radical direction it loses this meaning - it becomes a rant about how cool fire ants are. Which seems odd until you read the title text and you discover he is in the entomology department (study of insects). Unless cueball regularly visits the entomology department for career advice you can assume that his grad school is about the study of insects. Thus in conclusion, her weird rant about ants really IS meant as a parallel to Proverbs; however, instead of contrasting his behavior to that of ants she is encouraging him to continue his study of insects because of how cool they are. Thus, the joke of using the statement "consider the ant" as a means to get someone to live more responsibly is still being used exactly for that purpose. That's my understanding of it.--[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 17:06, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
:I like this explanation much better. And even if you use Life of Brian this is still a reference to the bible (as the whole film spoofs Jesus). Hope someone will change to incorporate these bible verses. I do not know them so will stay out of this ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:17, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
::I added the above explanation as alternate because I wasn't sure how to mix in elements of the existing explanation. The quotes from the book of Matthew referenced by Life of Brian may have used the same "consider the" format but it is clear to me by Randall's use of fire ants and the situational context of the joke that he was referencing Proverbs. So I didn't find the Life of Brian reference to have any meaning to the explanation.--[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 18:00, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
::It's just a really, really minor point (and not germane to anything - but I do feel quite strongly about it) The Life of Brian does not "spoof Jesus" it spoofs the attitudes and behaviours of the people surrounding Jesus.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.147|162.158.34.147]] 09:06, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
:::Thank you to whoever helped by merging the explanations. I moved the Life of Brian fact to the end because it breaks up the explanation and because it is not found in the same area. The wording is similar but meaning is entirely different.--[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 21:30, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Here's my interpretation. I don't think hair bun girl is making an analogy whatsoever. She is simply expressing her obsession/love of ants. By doing so in response to cue ball's plea for advice, she illustrates (knowingly or unknowingly) why she herself attended grad school (I'm assuming she is a professor of entomology - which I think is reasonable given her comment and the title text). She is so obsessed with ants that she attended grad school (a very large undertaking) in order to study them further. Then she proceeded to pursue a career in Academia to continue to study ants. To her, the very idea of having second thoughts of pursuing graduate school to further her studies is probably ridiculous. She probably never had them. Hence she demonstrates all that she needed to know to pursue graduate school - she is big on ants. A little background on me since it informs my interpretation: I spent a lot of time trying to answer this question for myself: "Should I pursue graduate school?" I saw a common thread amongst my professors, leading graduate students, etc. They all wanted nothing more than to learn more about their field of study. The very fact that I was having doubts ended up being a sign to myself that I did not really want to go to graduate school to study, I wanted to go for other reasons that would have made grad school unfulfilling. [[User:Supersixfour|Supersixfour]] ([[User talk:Supersixfour|talk]]) 20:27, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
:I tried to incorporate your thoughts into the alternate explanation as her reason for launching into the cool fact about fire ants. That is to persuade him that the study of insects is really cool and worthwhile. We never learn Cueball's motivation and whether her enthusiasm won him over or made him realize he wasn't committed enough to that field or level of study. The joke seems to have little to actually do with grad school and more to do with how we give advice or attempt to motivate others through difficult tasks.--[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 18:00, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Maybe Cueball meant to go to the Etymology Dept, not the Entomology Dept. {{unsigned|Ren0901}}
:I'm not sure he would find any more answers to his question in the etymology department than he did in entomology. It would make for a different twist on the same joke though! Probably have less cool information about fire ants though.--[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 18:00, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

As someone who has been fascinated by ants my entire life (60+ years) I totally get Hair Bun Girl's enthusiasm. My family treats me the same way when I get on my favorite topic (as I often do and they they always have). Ants are super cool - they've the unofficial mascot for the ALife community, and arguably the most studied insect in most entomology departments. Ed Wilson is one of my heroes (he was the first to form the hypothesis that ants communicate using chemical signals), not only for his work on ants but his impact on all of natural science, and his sincere concern for the future of our world and all the creatures in it. I was excited and happy to see xkcd referring to ants in both the Hoverboard game and the 11/30/15 comic (as well as [https://xkcd.com/638 #638 The Search]). From the perspective of a life-long myrmecophile I don't think there's anything complex behind HBG's responses except one I heartily endorse: "Because ANTS!" (maybe I'm on the spectrum, too.) As for the biblical reference, I don't specifically think of it as a "biblical" reference except in as much as it seems to refer to an oft-quoted phrase in the book. Most entomologists and myrmecologists know it well: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise..." (probably referring to a species of Harvester ants that gathers and stores grain). One reason they love it is that it correctly identifies the ones doing the work as female. Personally I think the bible is hilarious (full disclosure - not a believer). I love pointing out (especially to Christians) that there are not 10 but 600 to 1,000 commandments in the bible (depending on your version, affiliation, definition, etc.) including a prohibition against eating hoopoes (a colorful woodpecker-like bird in Afro-Eurasia that eats ants). Finally I would say that there are a large number of more interesting facts about ants that might be used. These could include suicide bombers who blow themselves up to harm enemies, turtle ants with plug-shaped heads to seal nest entrances, honey-pot ants who gorge on food and become living storage vessels to feed the colony - nearly endless fascinating adaptations (see some [http://bogleech.com/bio-ants.html here]). I also take exception to the comment that the queen controls all the other ants. In reality, ants perform different functions depending on caste, age, etc. The queen produces eggs and receives food and chemical feedback about the colony's health and requirements, and adjusts her production of quantity and type of eggs (castes, etc.) as a result of this feedback. She's basically an egg-laying machine enslaved by the colony. And now I'm at risk of someone saying, "Wait, what lesson am I supposed to take from that?" So go to the [http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Welcome_to_AntWiki AntWiki] thou sluggard; consider its ways and be wise. [[User:Usagi|Usagi]] ([[User talk:Usagi|talk]]) 19:56, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
:Fascinating. You are correct about the larger number of commandments in the Bible (greater than ten); however, they can all be understood with just two. Full disclosure, I am a believer. If you want to talk about it (friendly-like) you can always give me a chat. :) --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 21:30, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Could the lesson be "if you're struggling, ask your classmates for help"? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 15:40, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

At my university, the adviser assigned to me is in the physics department. My friend is in information sciences, and his adviser is in the computer science department. Is this uncommon? The explanation currently seems to suggest that the person Cueball is speaking to wouldn't be an adviser by virtue of what department they are in. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.206|108.162.210.206]] 01:05, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

Replace the adviser's dialogue with this:

Consider the supernova. One strong enough to create a black hole momentarily creates so much energy, only the Big Bang was more powerful.

SPACE IS SO COOL.

Here in the astronomy department, 1) we're big on space, and 2) We don't remember your question because we were thinking about space.

Then you have me. XD [[User:International Space Station|International Space Station]] ([[User talk:International Space Station|talk]]) 20:15, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

Contrary to [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1610:_Fire_Ants&curid=17000&diff=223779&oldid=205591 this change], my assumption was always that this person was an Educator of some kind that Cueball was asking aevice of. Either:
* a pre-Grad School trusted tutor (sorry, not sure how the US education system works, exactly, High School is it?) such as a favoured teacher who was finally taking the opportunity to make a pointed pointer towards her pet interest she has until now held back from overtly promoting, or
* more likely, a Grad-School teacher/administrator there during Freshers' Wekk to resolve newly-enrolled students's last minute issues. Her 'day job' is of course in the department that she is passionate about.
...but that's just my (original) first reading of the comic. Translating the experience back to a UKcentric scenario. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 18:42, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

1723: Meteorite Identification

2022-01-06T18:21:28Z

172.70.85.79: Undo revision 223747 by 162.158.187.92 (talk) As far as I can tell, there was no reason to remove this legitimate link.

{{comic
| number = 1723
| date = August 22, 2016
| title = Meteorite Identification
| image = meteorite_identification.png
| titletext = Click for an actual flowchart for identifying a meteorite. My favorite part is how 'Did someone see it fall? -> Yes' points to 'NOT A METEORITE.' This is not a mistake.
}}

'''Note:''' Clicking on the image on xkcd (click the date above the comic to go to the comic on xkcd) takes you to the (now defunct, mirror [http://imgur.com/a/RNYQ7 here]) ''[http://meteorites.wustl.edu/check-list.htm Meteorite or meteorwrong? Self-Test Check list]'' flow chart at the [https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences] at {{w|Washington University in St. Louis}}. The chart is now at https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/self-test-check-list/

==Explanation==
{{w|Meteorite}}s form when a {{w|meteoroid}} survives entrance through the Earth's atmosphere as a {{w|Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor}}. Thus, they are very rare rocks that come from space, and can stem from broken {{w|asteroids}}, the {{w|Moon}}, and sometimes (very rarely) even from {{w|Mars}}.

The {{w|flowchart}}, though facetious, would actually work the vast majority of the time a person picks up a rock and believes it to be a meteorite, since any single rock one finds on the surface of the earth is almost definitely not a meteorite.

Flowcharts are often used ([[:Category:Flowcharts|in xkcd]]) to give the inexperienced a step-by-step process to follow (see a guide to flowcharts here: [[518: Flow Charts]]). Meteorite identification, however, is very difficult, so the brevity of this flowchart in a way pokes fun at the need for a flowchart to identify meteorites, since laypeople are not experienced enough to confirm that a rock is indeed a meteorite. A similar short flowchart as this has been used recently in [[1691: Optimization]], and another only two box chart was used in [[1195: Flowchart]].

In the title text [[Randall]] mentions that the comic image is a link to the more detailed (now defunct, mirror [http://imgur.com/a/RNYQ7 here]) ''[http://meteorites.wustl.edu/check-list.htm Meteorite or meteorwrong? Self-Test Check list]'' flowchart at the [http://eps.wustl.edu/ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences] at {{w|Washington University in St. Louis}}.

The authors of those resources notes that they have received many rock samples and photos (or even personal visits) from people claiming to have discovered meteorites and thus they would likely benefit from just providing people the shortcut flowchart from Randall, as a way of saying, "leave meteorite identification to the professionals."

Randall also mentions in the title text that his favorite part of this real flowchart, which is the part where if anyone saw the "meteor" fall then it is 'NOT A METEORITE.' What he most likes about it is that this is not a mistake.

First of all the chance of actually being near a falling meteorite is exceedingly small. From the flowchart was a link to a 64 point long checklist, which basically all ends in "..., then it's not a meteorite." In point 3 is noted the following:
:Since 1900, the numbers of recognized meteorite "falls" is about 690 for the whole Earth. That's 6.3 per year. Only 98 of those occurred in the US. That's less than 1 per year. Even when a meteorite is observed to fall, experienced meteorite hunters may find only a few stones when hunting dawn to dusk for a week.

Second, meteors that can be seen falling almost definitely cannot be found on the ground immediately after. Any meteor big enough to glow and be visible while falling all the way to the ground will leave a large impact crater, rather than simply sit on the ground as a rock. Smaller meteors do not fall fast enough to glow all the way to the ground. Either they will burn up completely (not leaving any meteorite) or they will be slowed down before they burn all the way up (but typically end up much smaller than the original meteoroid). After that they will stop glowing and will brake even further until they reach a {{w|terminal velocity}} due to air resistance. Their small size, and lack of glow, make them practically impossible to follow with the naked eye even in daylight. If a person stands close by the impact location of a meteor it may be possible to hear a swish and a thunk, from when it passes by and then hit the ground. It will then be possible to locate the meteorite, but such a falling stone could also have been dropped from an airplane or by a storm. But in some few cases people have actually heard a real meteor falling and found it afterwards. This is what happened with the 690 events mentioned above. All this is described on [http://www.meteoritemarket.com/metid2.htm How to Identify a Meteorite] from [http://www.meteoritemarket.com/ The Meteorite Market] which is linked in point 48 in the table from Washington University. But they did not see it fall!

What Randall finds so funny about this part of the flowchart is that there are three arrows leading to the question "Did someone see it fall?", but from there only a "Yes" option is possible, and then this gives the result "Not a meteorite." This indicates that if you have found a rock that has no dark crust or [http://meteorites.wustl.edu/id/regmaglypts.htm regmaglypts] (the options that by saying no takes the user to the question about seeing it fall), then it is not a meteorite, and then the only reason people might still believe it to be a meteorite must be because someone saw it fall and assumed it came from space (rather than more likely scenarios, such as a stone coming loose from a cliff or building, or being dropped by a bird or aircraft).

If the rock actually has those thumbprint like impressions on the surface (that scientists call {{w|Glossary of meteoritics#Regmaglypts|regmaglypts}}) then the creator of the flowchart actually asks to see the rock (photo or sample). The other features that are interesting is if it has a dark thin crust (from the melting during entry), but only if it also has either regmaglypts or if it has a lighter color inside than the outer crust.

See also [[1405: Meteor]] about how people mistake the words meteorite with meteor. The many misspellings of meteorite is mentioned in point 63 in the table.

==Transcript==
:[A caption is above a flowchart with only two boxes. The first box is a diamond shaped box with an arrow down to the next rectangular box below. Each box has a text.]
:How to identify a possible meteorite:
:Start
:No, it's not a meteorite.

==Trivia==
*In December 2012 (almost four years before this comic) a flowchart was posted under the title ''[http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,11,279733,279733#msg-279733 Meteorite identification flowchart]'' on [http://www.mindat.org/ mindat.org] a page dedicated to sharing information about minerals. (Check the attached gif file).
**The user posting this earlier flowchart ([http://www.mindat.org/user-1.html Jolyon]) seems to have posted a note in the [[Talk:1723:_Meteorite_Identification|discussion]] on this page about the fact that Randall has "borrowed" his idea.
***He later added this: "UPDATE: I have heard from Randall and we're sorting things out."
**Randall did so later, because when the comic was originally released the message at the top of the page was [http://web.archive.org/web/20160826002155/http://xkcd.com/1723/ the standard] about the release days of xkcd.
**But no later than September 1st [http://web.archive.org/web/20160903154053/https://xkcd.com/1723/ this message] had been changed to:
***Note: Jolyon, founder of [http://www.mindat.org/ mindat.org], made a similar chart way before me!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

Category:Tips

2022-01-06T14:29:32Z

172.70.85.79: Cleaning up general runthrough of grammar, typos ("was" meant to be "way"?) and otherwise trying to restore and clarify the meaning I *assume* was intended, but got lost a bit. Would've written it differently from scratch, but wanted to proserve intents.

*[[:Category:Protip|Protip]] came first, but since then there have been all kind of protip that have not been named protip directly.
**'''Click''' to expand for a more detailed explanation:
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
 
*This category is reminiscent of the [[:Category:Facts]]. It was created after the [[:Category:Fun fact]] but, in similar way to the [[:Category:Protip]], it is much older than this. These two are, however, now sub categories.
*One other type of tip has been used more than once and has now also gotten it's own category:
**[[:Category:Science tip|Science tip]]
*So far there have been the following other one time only tips:
#[[897: Elevator Inspection|Industry tip]]
#[[1077: Home Organization|Home Organization Tip]]
#[[1215: Insight|Insight tip]]
#[[1567: Kitchen Tips|Kitchen tips]]
#[[1696: AI Research|AI tip]]
#[[1715: Household Tips|Household tips]]
#[[1754: Tornado Safety Tips|Tornado safety tips]]
#[[1820: Security Advice|Security tips]]
#[[1829: Geochronology|Geology tip]]
#[[2173: Trained a Neural Net|Engineering tip]]
#[[2213: How Old|Interaction tip]]
#[[2260: Reaction Maps|Texting tip]]
#[[2400: Statistics|Statistics tip]]
#[[2483: Linked List Interview Problem|Coding interview tip]]
#[[2499: Abandonment Function|Tech Tip]]

The comic [[1215: Insight]] doesn't mention the word tip, but it is clearly a tip.

See also the comic [[2199: Cryptic Wifi Networks]] which has a ''Tech Trivia'' as the caption, which could as well have been named ''Tech Tip''. But since it is not necessarily seen as as Tip, it will not be listed in this category.
</div>
 

[[Category:Comics by topic]]

Talk:2564: Sunshield

2022-01-05T18:41:33Z

172.70.85.79: Better way of saying what I meant. Still awkward.

i thought this is common knowledge. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.173|162.158.90.173]] 15:00, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

It's normally supposed to block sunlight from reaching the telescope. This comic turns this on its head by suggesting the telescope emits light instead of collecting it. The emitted light is claimed to outshine the sun.
The title text means that the flash is bright enough to scar the surface of Mars, which is unlikely.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.154.143|172.68.154.143]] 15:12, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
: According to wikipedia it is about preventing heat from reaching the telescope and only secondary about the light. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.139|172.68.110.139]] 15:16, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
:: The comic mentions the role of blocking light which is why I mentioned it's light-blocking property.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.154.141|172.68.154.141]] 15:34, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
::: Obviously, the comic distorts the facts to make it funny. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.121|172.68.110.121]] 15:33, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
::The point of the title text is that if the flash really were bright enough to serve its purpose, it ''would'' scar the surface of Mars (when Mars happens to be in that general direction).
Also, the JWST is drawn here to resemble the old Polaroid Land SX-70 Instant Camera (of just about 50 years ago.) Hmmmm. "Instant" raises issues of relativistic simultaeity....
:Worse than that, shutter-click and ''then'' a flash (at least a frame of time apart) isn't that useful.
:Trigger the flash and ''then'' the shutter around the time the flash returns. Depending upon distance and depth-of-field involved (also the duration of the flash and the movement of the subjects) you might have a longer shutter-open taking in passive light ''already'', but only if you're happy mostly registering the 'bounce-back' from any given distance as the overwhelming flash gets there and back and don't mind the low amount of non-flash light leaching in, perhaps revealing motion.
:(See various planetary nebulae photos where 'shells' of illumination, from subsequent flareups in the active centre, make it look like there's shells of matter, when it's more that these are volumes of debris that were in the right place at the right time to give us the current reflected glory. It makes for interesting mind-experiments.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 18:39, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2563: Throat and Nasal Passages

2022-01-03T18:53:57Z

172.70.85.79: sorry

at time of publishing, the title text contained a typo ("neeeded"). Im pretty sure it is going to be corrected soon though.

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.115|162.158.233.115]] 13:08, 3 January 2022 (UTC)
:Hasn't yet been corrected, but I'm sure it will be. Anyways I added a transcript and although I did try my best I doubt it's good, so if you can improve it, I won't exactly be mad. *[[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk]]) 15:30, 3 January 2022 (UTC)
::I have added a [[2563:_Throat_and_Nasal_Passages#Trivia|Trivia]] about the error. When/if it gets corrected this should be mentioned here. I also changed the transcript. Not so much the content more the order. Also I believe that all text written in the picture should be written beneath explanations of the image. And try to leave out any explanations or theories, leaving that part to the explanation above. The transcript should help people that cannot see the comic well enough to get the idea, so they can form their own ideas, before reading what others think ;-) But always great when people fill in the transcript. So thanks for the effort. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:54, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

I think the title text might be related to [[972: November]], since that also dealt with people being made aware of their tongue. Should it be added in the explanation (I know that editors should be at least somewhat bold, but it seems a bit of a tenuous connection, so I want an opinion from a more experienced editor). --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.213|172.70.130.213]] 18:34, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2557: Immunity

2021-12-25T01:27:19Z

172.70.85.79:

well, if you look at society as a whole it makes more sense. the reason we have so many mutations is that we have a significant portion of the populous with no immunity [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.125|172.68.110.125]] 20:49, 20 December 2021 (UTC) mark ifi
:But the mutations come about from the virus replicating a lot, i.e in people with the virus. It still doesn't make sense to catch it, because you have a chance of your infection being the one that produces a terrible mutation [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.130|141.101.77.130]] 22:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::That isn't how mutations work. Mutations are able to propagate strongly only in environments where there is something killing off the parent species, and where the mutation provides better survivability. Like a functioning immune system attacking the parent virus, but a mutation allows something to slip by. Thus, people with the partial immunity provided by either vaccines or infection, are the ones more likely to create a mutation than new patients with no inherent immunity, or people with natural immunity from previous bouts with related diseases.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Luckily we have Randall's subtext to warn us about that middle category of people who know a little about how immune systems work, enough to be dangerous. (1) viruses are not bacteria: antibiotics killing 'ordinary' bacteria leave space for 'nasty' bateria to proliferate; unless you plan on destroying your respiratory tract, there's plenty of space for all viruses and their mutations; (2) viruses have a chance to mutate as soon as they take over a cell; no need to eliminate the parent, all you need is for the mutation to be more effectively infectious when spat out to infect the next victim; (3) anybody catching the virus will pass it on if it replicates; 'partial immunity' makes no difference to short-term reinfection, only to longer-term illness (at which point most sensible people will avoid contact) and ICU usage and death; the only possible negative to partial immunity is that people catch it, don't feel too sick and keep breathing over everybody else; (4) I suspect this comic will sound the death-knell for explainxkcd as it used to be, because even 'named' contributors are coming out with mad anti-vax arguments, and (5) editors, please feel fee to delete all of the above starting at (1) if you feel it to be necessary. I'd prefer you kept the first phrase though... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.196|141.101.69.196]] 00:25, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Even immune system without vaccine or prior infection is killing Covid a lot, providing plenty of opportunities for more effective mutation. And infection typically last LONGER if patient is not vaccinated, providing more TIME for virus to mutate. So, mutation can occur in both vaccinated or unvaccinated, with hard to compare probabilities. It's true that mutation from someone vaccinated has higher CHANCE to be vaccine-resistant, but on the other hand, seems omikron is from unvaccinated population ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:32, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

I can see this one annoying a lot of people. It's the lot of people who can already be annoying, so I don't think that's a big problem. (A few, who misread it as about ''vaccination'' giving immunity, may actually think it supports them. I'm not sure we can do anything about that either.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.85|162.158.159.85]] 21:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Would you kindly provide a link to the "Mount Stupid" comic for reference.{{unsigned|172.70.174.119}}

mount stupid: https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2475 ˜˜˜˜

To be fair, if the vaccination would only protect you for ONE infection it wouldn't be worth it. The idea about immunity is that immunity trained by either vaccination or infection will then protect you from '''multiple''' following infections. The problem with it is that in case of covid (or flu), the immunity wanes off with time AND the virus mutates into new variants the immunity doesn't work as well against. Sure, it still makes sense to vaccinate, but just because the virus spread so much you are very likely to catch it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:32, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
:Are you making the mistake (without the other baggage) I mentioned above about misreading the comic? This comic isn't about the vaccination at all. It's about infection. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 22:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::Infection is the normal method of vaccination. Until recently with mRNA vaccines, almost all vaccines were about infection- either with the disease itself, a weakened version of the disease, or a related disease.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:::As far as I know, while some vaccines do use a weakened live virus, many use essentially sliced-up spike proteins that are unable to spread. However, historically, the first true vaccination (as well as the earlier variolization), did use an unweakened live virus (smallpox for variolization, cowpox for the first vaccination). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.213|172.70.130.213]] 16:36, 22 December 2021 (UTC)
:(And, to add, if the vaccine just protected against ONE infection, where that one infection was sufficiently dangerous, it would indeed be worth it. Better than chancing the infection on a naïve immune system and hoping to come out the other side with a similarly infection-specific immune effect (c.f. annual flu waves) but without the QC and care given to the vector.) ((See, I knew it'd spark response, didn't intend to say much. Maybe I should just stay out of this until it blows over.)) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 23:01, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::Of course it is about the vaccination - this supports Randall's earlier statements for being pro vaccine, that you should get the immunity from vaccination and not from infection! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:24, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Hmmm, no. It's about COVID (and that by inference). It doesn't mention the vaccine. The conversation ''might'' have been about the vaccine, but the comic (and its discussion of what it is sensible to do, or not) is vaccine free. It's "anti-infection", but not directly "pro-vaccine". (He, I and you ''are'' all sensibly pro-vaccine, I think. The comic itself is only vocal on that subject by omission and a chain of logic that will never occur to those stuck at the original fallacy.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

People who know a lot about the immune system could also be referring to people who are aware of possibilities like the varicella zoster virus which causes chickenpox, but stays dormant in your body after you recover and can come back later as shingles. This is less likely to happen if you get the vaccine to prevent chickenpox in the first place. --[[User:Norgaladir|Norgaladir]] ([[User talk:Norgaladir|talk]]) 00:32, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

A vaccination doesn't necessarily give you immunity, e.g. with the Covid or influenca vaccines, so you still can get infected. But being vaccinated reduces the risk of suffering complications like death that can ruin your and other peoples' life.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.229|162.158.94.229]] 07:59, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:...''significantly'' reduces the risk, in fact. It likely also (though it's a harder thing to establish) reduces the catch-and-transmit rate, thus yet another thing to do to help others, even those you'll never meet directly, who are unable or (ugh!) unwilling to think this far ahead. Unmitigated (and, especially, sought-after) 'natural' infection as represented in the comic just helps spread the thing further and faster and does a gross disservice to onward contacts, contacts-of-contacts, etc, etc. Excuse my preaching to the choir here, but it needs to be said. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
::You're not preaching to the choir exclusively, plenty of lurkers (like me) are reading along. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.143|108.162.241.143]] 17:01, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

While trying to update the explanation for 'neutrality of tone' and address some infectious disease history, I came across this [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120728/#!po=44.6721|Highly Infectious Diseases in Critical Care] article
from the NIH published January 3 of 2020 which includes a comparison of smallpox, measles, SARS-1, and MERS-cov illustrating how significantly vaccination has reduced global infections. Check out the graph of measles from 1980. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.227|172.70.110.227]] 13:46, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

My hero is the person who added the citation needed to "Diseases are bad", as well as those who realize that vaccination is largely a form of infection on purpose (within one of the following five options: infection by the disease itself, infection by a weakened disease, infection by a killed and inactive version of the disease, infection by a related less dangerous disease that shares some characteristics with the original disease, infection by a laboratory created RNA strands that mimic the disease being attacked). Therefore, catching the disease on purpose, is a form of vaccination. Israel did a study on infection by the disease itself and found 6.7 times stronger immune response than other forms of COVID-19 vaccination. [https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:This should indicate that a better (at preparing your immune system to resist future infection) vaccine (process) may be possible. Without saying that current vaccines are ineffective. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.97|108.162.241.97]] 17:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:I like how you make sure to use the "laboratory created" modifier for the RNA vaccine, but not the other types. As if they all grew on trees or something. Here's a hint: all vaccines were created in a lab, though many were created more directly by modifying an existing virus, in that lab. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 21:15, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
I would like to add that the comic criticizes only a part of ''anti-vaxxers'' population that show the circular logic presented. There are other parts, e.g. those who are not quite sure if the cost/benefit (or rather risk/risk) calculus is right for the rapidly developed and hastily officially approved (in comparison to long-established vaccines against other diseases) and/or novel (mRNA) vaccine products, fearing long-time side effects of the vaccine. On the other hand, long-term effects of the disease itself are also not known yet, even if some middle-term ones are known or being investigated already. There are still other parts like those who oppose governmental obligations or pressure to vaccinate against covid and related restrictions, and take the refusal as a personal freedom stance. There may be others. -- [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.219|198.41.242.219]] 15:09, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

This very much feels like a straw man. I get that it's a webcomic, but can we talk about this? The description says that natural immunity is "short lived" (as in, how short-lived, and how much compared to vaccination?) but meanwhile I hear like one in five COVID hospitalizations were vaccinated patients. Are there studies on reinfection with COVID in vaccinated vs non-vaccinated patients? It seems to me from the latest comics that Randall is frustrated. I think everyone is frustrated. Citation needed, haha. But I get tired of reading "haha the other side is dumb" from both sides of every damn issue these days, and the bigger the impact an issue has, the more furious the mudslinging. One could, for example, make the same "circular argument" jab at trusting the FDA in this example, or in a more agnostic case, the value of a college degree or a certification: Ex. "we're qualified to make decisions about what's right or smart for the populace because we're a bunch of people who say so, and we have a pretty looking seal to prove it, and also please keep giving us a lot of money." I mean, for those of us who have been to college, haven't we all churned our way through that just to get into the workforce and discover that it's completely different than what we actually needed to know? Would we call people "anti-uni's" and laugh at their incompetence for questioning the system? Even at the unlikely minimum of "anti-vaxxers (or x-person who disagrees with me) are 100% dumb and wrong and that's a fact", isn't the discourse important? I understand that the opposite extreme is "I'd rather let my child die of Polio than trust another human being", but isn't that just another straw man? When are we going to stop polarizing? Thoughts?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.147|108.162.237.147]] 16:28, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:It might be Randall is (intentionally or accidentally) touching on your point by making this comic's thesis ambiguous. People who aren't thinking deeply about the topic on both sides will initially think it confirms their worldview, until they see more discussion on the matter. So the comic's ambiguity might prompt more discussion by and between both sides. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.143|108.162.241.143]] 17:18, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:Re: "I hear like one in five COVID hospitalizations were vaccinated patients." ....if less than one in five people are vaccinated, this is a problem. Either it means there is a problem with the vaccine (unlikely) or that the vaccinated are putting themselves more at risk thinking they are more 'virusproof' than they are. If more (and hopefully significantly more) than 20% of the populace are vaccinated then this is actually a positive sign for the whole issue - even if there's still social hubris underestimating the precautions they still may need to take.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:34, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
::At least in the US, significantly more than 1 in 5 people are vaccinated. It's a little over 3 in 5 fully vaccinated. But I would suggest that even that isn't necessarily the statistic to look at - pretty sure covid is still more likely to be serious for older people and folks with preexisting conditions, all else being equal, and those populations have an even higher vaccination rate. 78% of folks 50-64 are fully vaccinated, and 84% 65+, per the CDC. So that makes the 1 in 5 represent *even less* risk.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.45|172.70.110.45]] 18:30, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

(Re: The "Why does my IP keep changing?" asked as an Edit-comment (see page history)... Because your gateway/pathway between yourself and the site goes through a limited and shared ''set'' of possible IPv4s. There's no guarantee you'll get the same IP (or even obvious range!) between edits, nor that your current IP won't be used by someone else in a few minutes. It's just a technical thing that greases the wheels of the Internet, even if it has funny repurcussions for some things like this.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:34, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

"However, what Cueball (and by extension Randall) fail to note is that bad or not, there are plenty of instances where someone has already recovered, and therefore already in possession of natural immunity." - Isn't that what the comic is about? I'm confused as to why this is on the explanation page? --[[User:Enchantedsleeper|enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 19:45, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

I think people are overcomplicating this. A common anti-covax trope you sometimes see is that natural immunity is "better than" the immunity provided by a vaccine. But it is a total non sequitur The *only way* the vaccine could prevent you from acquiring the coveted "natural" immunity would be if it saved you from getting infected in the first place. If you never end up infected, then I guess you didn't need the natural immunity after all. If you do get infected, well now you have it. There is no sense rushing out to get infected on purpose, which is the equivalent of refusing a vaccine. Of course, people can have many other reasons for not vaccinating, but this particular "reason" truly makes no sense.

To add to the pile: if you get infected, you don't have to *worry* as much about future infections. It's over with (at least psychologically). Balloon popping is bad, but it's the anticipation that's the worst part for me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.13|162.158.122.13]] 00:39, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
:That depends on if it's a "you only catch this once" thing. That's not so certain. Probably{{fact}} you can't catch a particular greek-letter-version twice, but you've got a dozen other (and potentially more later) greek letters to maybe/maybe-not fend off in future, with some variants clearly being able to at least possibly get past the protection (viral or vaccinal) that come from others.
:And they also say Omicron is only half as lethal (or hospitalising) as Delta, but that may just be because many Omicron-catchers had already made themselves infectees of Delta/whatever so they 'only' get the half-unsure vulnerability of the partially-naive/partially-protecting Delta-trained immume system of those that survived the prior round.
:And once you have more than twice as many Omicron infections because "it's not as bad as the other one", that still gives you more deaths than the 'more fatal' prior version. If you're thinking you're doing the Cowpox/Chickenpox thing of ''deliberately'' 'pre-infecting' yourself then you're just giving it more people to ''try'' to kill, yourself and any collateral infectees and (even if your individual chances are better, for whatever reason) it results in worse total statistics than if you'd been sensible until everyone possible had at least been able to be given a non-disease lesson in at least a similar-looking thing.
:...Oh, I don't think half the questions about all this have been answered, and won't be tied down for a while yet, but some supposed answers are clearly wishful thinking and should be easy dismiss as quackery. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 01:27, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2550: Webb

2021-12-24T16:28:13Z

172.70.85.79:

Ah, without edit-conflict being indicated (probably because subsequent new paragraphs could be considered as not 'treading on the toes' of the first one posted), I seem to have added repetitious information. Also I can see that I misbalanced the paragraph sizes as I went into increasingly more detail as I got into the edit. Was going to go back to wikilink/fix/etc, but I should probably leave it to a new eye to better re-edit the whole think 'nicer', taking how much or little inspiration the current mess of text might provide. Have fun! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.41|172.70.85.41]] 04:49, 4 December 2021 (UTC)
: I tried to restructure it a bit (grouping related info, rebalancing paragraph sizes) and resolve the duplication without losing any important information. Hope it looks okay? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.99|172.68.133.99]] 05:46, 4 December 2021 (UTC)
:: wtg guys for clearly describing these abstract issues and addressing them [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.227|172.70.110.227]] 16:38, 5 December 2021 (UTC)

Could someone explain why the numbers are arranged the way they are?
: It looks like the mirror on the telescope. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.171|172.70.110.171]] 14:04, 4 December 2021 (UTC)
: If a magic hexagon was possible, he would have done it. However, the numbers add up to 243, and with 5 rows, this makes it impossible for each row to add up to the same number. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.173|172.70.110.173]] 16:29, 4 December 2021 (UTC)
: I know some advent calendars go in exact order, but a lot of them are actually ordered randomly. I've got one in my living room where the top row is "2, 17, 8, 10" [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.237|172.70.210.237]] 23:42, 4 December 2021 (UTC)

Alternate explanation: all the astronomers are Moldovian Orthodox Catholics, and they timed the telescope to launch on Christmas Eve in their slightly out-of-sync calendar in which Christmas replaced days 2 & 3 of their week long Winter Solstice Party.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 17:28, 4 December 2021 (UTC)

Why does it have the small hexagons oriented "pointy side up"? I know this is generally considered a good thing, as far as rocket launches are concerned, but in this case? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.91|162.158.88.91]] 20:28, 4 December 2021 (UTC)
:That's the way the hexagonal mirrors are oriented in the JWST [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk]]) 12:09, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

The cells on the calendar go from 5 to 22, which I assumed was a reference that astronomers have been waiting since 2005 (when the current mission was replanned) until 2022 (the year the telescope will become active). Rather than counting down 25 days until Christmas, astronomers are counting down 18 years (inclusive) until they get their new toys to play with. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.23|172.70.134.23]] 00:29, 5 December 2021 (UTC)
: It's also just the number of mirrors the telescope has, and the day it launches. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.227|172.70.110.227]] 16:38, 5 December 2021 (UTC) [[User:Cwallenpoole|Cwallenpoole]] ([[User talk:Cwallenpoole|talk]])
: I was wondering why 1–4 were missing. [[User:Cwallenpoole|Cwallenpoole]] ([[User talk:Cwallenpoole|talk]]) 14:28, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

JWST is as fixable as Hubble, if you have Starships. Which NASA is already counting on (and funding) for Artemis.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.191|172.70.134.191]] 21:37, 5 December 2021 (UTC)
:Not yet available... Current tech is woefully unable (or unwilling to be put to use) to help with HST, never mind JWST. Retired tech could do Hubble, as proven, but would have been stretched to deal with the Webb. And the Webb isn't even designed ''to'' be fixed (though I'm sure they'll still have people working on it if they discover a washer's-worth of mirror misalignment, or whatever...).
:That sweet smell of Musk isn't yet right for the job. Even if the business plan says that it will be flying within the next few months, it'd be wishful thinking to rely on it at this point.
:(More so than with the sample-driller/collect/return chain of missions currently only a fraction of the way through realisation upon Mars. There's the Return stage to implement almost from scratch (setting up remote launch-site, fully fueled, etc) but the whole rover-with-manipulator thing isn't really an engineering challenge, more a matter of design nuances and the usual amount of (apparently increasing, but surely not infallible) skill and luck in executing the required landings.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 00:13, 6 December 2021 (UTC)
::Off topic now, but the point about manned missions to Mars is that you _don't_ come back, you colonise. good luck.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 13:19, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Could it also have to do with the fact that so called "Advent Calendars" tend to have 25 days, even though the Advent Season (Starting 4 Sundays before Christmas) is dependant on what day of the week Dec 25th falls on, and at a minimum 28 days long? Or am I the only one bothered by the fact that the companies making these calendars ignore the meaning of "advent" in the Christmas context, and just arbitrarily start them in December?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.165|172.70.34.165]] 14:24, 6 December 2021 (UTC)
:In Denmark we just call it a Christmas Calender (Julekalender) and has no reference to Advent (or the Christ for that matter, they never managed to make us real Christians ;-p ) Also we celebrate on th Eve before the 24th so Santa ha to come while we are still up, as we open the presents on the 24th and thus our x-mas calenders end on the 24th. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:19, 8 December 2021 (UTC)
::In Finland it's complicated. My Lego calendar has 24 windows, daughters L.O.L. toy calendar has 25 windows (haven't seen this kind before) and church sells ones that start on 28.11. since that's the first advent this year.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.239|162.158.238.239]] 04:38, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
It's because hexagons are the bestagons. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.98|172.69.71.98]] 17:07, 6 December 2021 (UTC)
:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOifuHs6eY Hexagons are the Bestagons]! love it ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:19, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

In retrospect, Cueball wasn't wrong - it should have been all the way to December 25. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 16:28, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1730: Starshade

2021-12-24T12:20:39Z

172.70.85.79: I know this is a talk comment, but it was badly formatted. Doing it how you doubtless intended.

I would like to note that in the last frame the microphone booms on the headsets are on the right side, rather than on the left, which would have been more common. [http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/60749/why-most-of-the-microphones-are-placed-on-the-left-of-headsets-headphones Stackexchange discussion] {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.83}}
:Wauw that is not important here ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:24, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Does "kickstart" refer to {{w|Kickstarter}}? --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 14:15, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
: Pretty clearly, but it might be good to make that explicit, and point out that either there is no such [https://www.kickstarter.com/signup?context=new_project&then=%2Fprojects%2Fnew%3Futf8%3D%25E2%259C%2593%26project%255Bcategory_id%255D%3D16%26project%255Bname%255D%3DWebb%2BStarshade%26project%255Bcountry%255D%3DUS%26commit%3DSave%2Band%2Bcontinue Kickstarter] project yet, or (less likely) link to the project.
: —[[User:FlashSheridan|FlashSheridan]] ([[User talk:FlashSheridan|talk]]) 14:59, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
::Have mentioned this in the explanation. Not sure it is a reference to that. She does not call is kickstarter... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

May be related to 975: Occulting Telescope (https://xkcd.com/975/).
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.120|108.162.245.120]] 17:08, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
:Definitely worth referring too. Thanks and done. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

The reaction in the last panel seems rather extreme. I wonder if perhaps this was a custom starshade resembling the final image at the bottom of this page: https://what-if.xkcd.com/136/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.67|108.162.216.67]]siliconwolf

The James Webb Telescope already has measures to shade the stars!
[http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/nircam.html http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/nircam.html]: "NIRCam is equipped with coronagraphs, instruments that allow astronomers to take pictures of very faint objects around a central bright object, like stellar systems. NIRCam's coronagraphs work by blocking a brighter object's light, making it possible to view the dimmer object nearby - just like shielding the sun from your eyes with an upraised hand can allow you to focus on the view in front of you. With the coronagraphs, astronomers hope to determine the characteristics of planets orbiting nearby stars." - Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.168|162.158.83.168]] 18:26, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
:From a [https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exep/about/probe-scale-stdt/Exo-C_InterimReport.pdf NASA report]: "JWST/Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) coronagraphy should be capable of detecting companions at contrasts of 10−6 at separations beyond 1.5 arcsec, capturing objects like our own Jupiter in 4.5 μm thermal emission if they are orbiting the nearest M stars. The uncertain luminosity evolution of young giant planets clouds the picture somewhat (Marley et al. 2007), but it appears that the some of the more massive planets orbiting nearby (d < 20 pc), young (age < 1 Gyr), low-mass (M < 1.0 Msun) stars could be in view by 2024." - it talks about detecting, not imaging, objects like Jupter. - Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.168|162.158.83.168]] 18:57, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
::Included in the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps it should be mentioned in the article that the James Webb is a near infrared and middle infrared telescope (+ orange visible light). For good infrared images one needs high mountains or space. Nasa has an article why infrared is good for examining (the spectra of) exoplanets: [http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2013/10/24/maggies-blog-why-infrared-exoplanet-edition/ http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2013/10/24/maggies-blog-why-infrared-exoplanet-edition/] - Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.168|162.158.83.168]] 18:33, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
:Included in the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

I made it so it's not incomplete anymore. Also, the comic isn't random, because it's 2016 and it's scheduled to launch in less than two years (because 2016 is almost over). I also added a citation to the Wikipedia article for the James Webb Telescope with links to the "budget issues" revealed in the comic. I hope this clears up a few things. :) -- [[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 7:41, 9 September 2016 (EDT)

:This comic makes sense in context of 2016 launch date. As of 2021, JWST still has not launched. See [[2014: JWST Delays]] and [[2550: Webb]] for further Cueball commentary on the subject. --[[User:Tlynnec|Tlynnec]] ([[User talk:Tlynnec|talk]]) 00:29, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

"Ponytail may be referring to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, but it does not seem like there is any project (yet) for a Starshade for Webb (or for New Worlds Mission, see title text explanation)." I am absolutely flabbergasted that there is even a hint of a doubt expressed here, in the article, or in this discussion. This is 100%, without a doubt, unequivocably, unquestionably a reference to Kickstarter. "Kickstarter" and "Kickstart" are words that simply do not exist in the English language outside of the world of Kickstarter. The closest is where they clearly got their name, the kick starting of a motorcycle (which to the best of my knowledge is two words, or at least hyphenated). With the rising popularity of Kickstarter, people have coined the verb "Kickstart", meaning to start a Kickstarter campaign to fund the verb's object, which is how Ponytail is using it here. As for there not being such a Kickstarter project, OF COURSE THERE ISN'T! This is a comic! It's a joke! And Ponytail isn't a real person who can start one! Non-existant concepts have appeared throughout the history of XKCD! For example, the comic where Black Hat breaks into an Internet Troll's house to tell him off for being disgusting to nerd girls on the internet, he's followed by a girl with a weapon he names an EMP cannon. I seriously doubt such a portable weapon exists, yet there it is in the comic. Or the Rule 34 comic, where they started a WetRiffs website. Nobody started that, it didn't exist until Randall did afterwards for giggles because of his comic.

Doubt on this point is inappropriate, dilutes this site's credibility, and it should be removed. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.172|108.162.218.172]] 06:01, 11 September 2016 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. (Wow, I'm surprised that idiotic line is still in the explanation, that nobody ever fixed it. I'm all about caution in making statements, but this is ridiculous) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 10:39, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Talk:2556: Turing Complete

2021-12-23T23:41:15Z

172.70.85.79: What about DOOM?

This is a reference to the new FORCEDENTRY exploit analysis by Google's project zero: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html
The exploit runs a full (turing-complete) VM within a PDF decompression algorithm. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 22:37, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

I don't think "attack by a nation-state" is referring to Turing's WWII work. I think it means a modern nation-state is using FORCEDENTRY to attack you via some unexpected device. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:56, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
: I think it actually is a reference to national security agencies being able to get into your phone and get all your private data and so on [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.5|108.162.237.5]] 01:00, 18 December 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

The explanation should probably also mention that https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html was published just two days before this comic. Frank [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.165|162.158.94.165]] 11:09, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

I added in a much needed [[A Bunch of Rocks]] reference. I mean, it's a possibly ''broken'' Turing Machine (because the operator is 'only human' and occasionally makes mistakes in his process. But, by definition, anything capable of simulating (many!) things that are themselves considered Turing Complete is thus by itself Turing Complete as it carries out (or could carry out) all the tasks that are successfully (or potentially) carried out by them 'on their own'. It's a metaphysical (metaphilosophical? metasomethingorother...) issue, of course. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.84|172.70.91.84]] 00:29, 19 December 2021 (UTC)
:(Actually, that was before I then went back and fully read ABOR, to fulfill my nostalgia. I forgot that it ''actually says'' it is TC in an in-frame footnote. That might be what prompted me to think of it, so forget about me being too clever, it's just true. Voice Of God, etc.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.84|172.70.91.84]] 00:34, 19 December 2021 (UTC)
::It is also one of my favorite and I remember the footnote without reading it again now ;-) Wow a dust mote just disappeared in front of me... :-D (updated your post with a link to the comic!) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:03, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Do things feel more and more like Stross's Accelerando to you as well? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.246.129|172.68.246.129]] 09:09, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

Honestly surprised Randall didn't reference Doom in this comic. It's the one game that's synonymous with running on unusual hardware. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 23:41, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2557: Immunity

2021-12-20T23:01:28Z

172.70.85.79:

2556: Turing Complete

2021-12-17T23:19:35Z

172.70.85.79: /* Explanation */

Talk:590: Papyrus

2021-12-15T19:32:34Z

172.70.85.79:

For reasons that should be obvious, I've put the whole page in a certain much-hated font. *Cackles maniacally.* [[User:PinkAmpersand|PinkAmpersand]] ([[User talk:PinkAmpersand|talk]]) 11:15, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

:I rather doubt whether this is really helpful. In my opinion, the purpose of this wiki is to deliver background information about the comics, not to ruminate its jokes. Besides, the page uses some Serif font for me (as I do not have Papyrus installed) which is stylistically inconsistent. If we should reach consent that this page MUST absolutely be in Papyrus, we should at least provide some appropriate fallback font. [[User:LotharW|LotharW]] ([[User talk:LotharW|talk]]) 12:46, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
::[[1167: Star Trek into Darkness]] '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:04, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
:::I must say I do not particularly like that page either. I think it looks childish and nonserious. Also, a second example does not necessarily justify the first. But as you see, I did not revert or change anything. If it be so, we should at least do it correctly. In the current state, the page looks simply strange to anyone who does not have the font. (As far as I know, it was included only in some versions of Microsoft Office.) Does anybody know whether the license allows web embedding? [[User:LotharW|LotharW]] ([[User talk:LotharW|talk]]) 13:54, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
Over the years I have grown a hatred towards Papyrus because it's so overused, so this comic resonated with me well. But then this week I watched Firefly and Serenity which are now both my favorite TV show and movie, and they use Papyrus. I know Randall also loves them. But now I have no idea how I should feel about the font, as I would be rather hypocritical to hate the font used so heavily in my favorite show and movie. [[User:Keavon|Keavon]] ([[User talk:Keavon|talk]]) 01:48, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

I feel the same way about the "Algerian" font. The most over used business sign font ever. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.195}}

NYEH HEH HEH! -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 04:06, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
::This was expected, and it is great (''incidental music from sans''), though this comic came before Undertale. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.215|108.162.237.215]] 15:46, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

My Favorite font is Comic Sans :) {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.8}}

I have zero respect for any typeface whose capital I is nothing more than a rectangle. I resent Helvetica in particular for making precisely that mistake while being so overly popular.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.221|172.68.142.221]] 01:26, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

== Have a "joke" version of this page that's all in Papyrus? ==

Provide a link to it right at the top of the explanation? Many of us would like to see this just for funzies (since it seems poetically appropriate), but I understand the desire to keep things readable for people who actually do need the explanation.
Hopefully it would result in less temptation for people to make edits that mods keep having to revert. Idk, thoughts? MeZimm[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.56|172.69.170.56]] 22:39, 18 March 2021 (UTC)
:Copy the whole page, paste in into word or google docs, then change the font to papyrus. It won't be perfect, but it will give some approximation. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 13:20, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

what fun hating person removed the font--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.130|162.158.187.130]] 16:37, 15 December 2021 (UTC)
:Probably no-one. I don't have Papyrus on this device, and certainly it doesn't show, though I have seen it working on a desktop. Maybe you are currently reading from a similar one.
:And if you're the one that added the ''extra'' span-tags (two opening ones, but no extra closing ones) then you clearly didn't see the span-tags (open+close) within the first paragraph. I undid you. Do it properly if you do it again (but I don't think you should). Take ccare and use Preview to check before submitting.
:(Also I'm deleting a rogue signature-insertion here in Talk, clearly a misclick... Check the diffs to see what I mean.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 19:32, 15 December 2021 (UTC)