explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2437: Post-Vaccine Party

2024-08-27T22:09:04Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */ Wikipedia uses "M&M's" as page-title, the branding is more "m&m's", I absolutely hate apostrophes for plurals but you need to respect both of these. Can't find "the official singular" so compromised with that, indicating figurativeness.

{{comic
| number = 2437
| date = March 15, 2021
| title = Post-Vaccine Party
| image = post_vaccine_party.png
| titletext = [Future update] Well, someone accidentally dropped an M&M in their cup of ice water, and we all panicked and scattered.
}}

==Explanation==
This is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

As more and more people are getting [[:Category:COVID-19 vaccine|vaccinated]] against COVID-19, and as the CDC has released guidelines suggesting vaccinated people can start gathering in larger groups, there is increasing excitement about the possibility to resume get-togethers, and have a party. However, being very cautious, [[Randall]] is cutting down the scope for his first "post-pandemic" party from that of a normal party. Not all of the scope reductions make sense.{{Citation needed}}

===Drinks===
* Instead of serving the alcoholic or sugary beverages that would be typical for a party, the scope is reduced by serving plain ice water.
* Instead of serving the ice water in ordinary-sized cups, the scope is further reduced by serving it in small cups.

===Food===
* A person holding an ordinary party might provide large quantities of foods of various sorts. Randall is reducing scope by serving only two types of food, {{w|M&M's|''m&m's''}} and {{w|saltine cracker}}s.
* He is further reducing scope by limiting the quantities: each guest will be provided with three individual pieces of candy and one single cracker.

===Entertainment===
* Instead of party music, Randall's party has slower-paced {{w|ambient music}}.
* {{w|Karaoke}} has been eliminated completely.
* The big-screen TV has been reduced to a standard TV, and instead of showing sports games, it will show painting lessons by {{w|Bob Ross}}.

===Activities===
* Board games have been replaced with {{w|52 pickup}}. Having already downsized to a single game, he further reduces the scope by reducing the number of cards involved from 52 to 3.
* His original notes indicate that the party might include both video games and ping pong, but he has reduced scope here as well by merging these activities and offering only a single video game, {{w|Pong}}.
* Finally, while conversation will be allowed, Randall is reducing scope by reducing quality. This element of the party plan is qualitatively different from the others because it's generally the guests themselves that provide the majority of the conversation at a party, so it's possible that Randall is simply acknowledging [[2424|the effect]] that the pandemic has had on peoples' ability to converse normally.

The title text mentions that even the incredibly mild disruption of 'an m&m' falling into a cup of water caused the party-goers to panic and flee, much as Cueball and Ponytail did in [[2330: Acceptable Risk|a similar situation]].

==Transcript==
:[The comic consists of four underlined headings, two by two grid, with three or four lines of text beneath each. Almost all of the original lines of text have been fully or partially crossed out (marked with <del> below), and five new items have been added (marked with <ins> below), plus some brackets and one arrow. Even one of the added items has been modified.]
:Drinks
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Soda</del>
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Wine</del>
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Beer</del>
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Cocktails</del>
:* <ins style="color: red">Small cups of ice water</ins>

:Food
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Pizza</del>
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Nachos</del>
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Various snacks</del>
:* <ins style="color: red">Three M&Ms and a saltine per person</ins>

:Entertainment
:* Music <ins style="color: red">(ambient)</ins>
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Karaoke</del>
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Big screen</del> TV showing <del style="text-decoration-color: red">sports</del> <ins style="color: red">Bob Ross</ins>

:Activities
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Board games</del> <ins style="color: red"><del>52</del></ins> <ins style="color: red">3-card pickup</ins>
:* Video Games
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Ping</del> <ins style="color: red">(</ins>Pong<ins style="color: red">)</ins> [A red arrow points from "Video Games" to "(Pong)"]
:* <del style="text-decoration-color: red">Good</del> conversation

:[Caption below the panel:]
:We're planning our first post-vaccine party, but we want to start slow.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:COVID-19 vaccine]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Video games]]

Talk:2976: Time Traveler Causes of Death

2024-08-27T08:34:08Z

172.70.86.173:

How'd I do for my first 'explanation?' I know it's short...[[User:Onestay|Onestay]] ([[User talk:Onestay|talk]]) 17:56, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
:I added to it. It's a good start. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.191|172.69.134.191]] 17:57, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
::Please sign your comments [[User:Onestay|Onestay]] ([[User talk:Onestay|talk]]) 18:01, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
:::How's this [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 18:24, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
:::added a table [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:20, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
::::added a very necessary "citation needed" thingy - it's traditional [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 08:40, 24 August 2024 (UTC)
I, sometime this century, tripped over a story about a poor fucker who died because he couldn't get out of his Tesla. Turns out iirc that in the foot place in the back is a !!under! the carpet emergency lever that opens the doors. Iirc for no battery power to open the doors to get out of a Tesla you have to rip thecarpet out of the backseat footwell to find the emergency door open lever. I don't recall lawsuits. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.195|172.70.174.195]] 01:45, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be a thin line for "meteor" just below "trampled", if the time traveller lands during the Chicxulub impact event? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 18:56, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
:Probably a mistake on Randall’s part. He might correct it later (he’s updated other comics before), but unless you have a magic red telephone that reach his personal number right now, all we can do is wait (or add it to the Explanation/Trivia). [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:20, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
::For sure not a mistake. Only one day in the entire history of Earth you would die directly from the impact. But the heavy bombardment there would be many days this would happen. Although I just updated the table saying that asphyxiation would still go much faster than waiting for such a meteor. I'm certain that Randall would not update the comic for that. Mainly he updates if he has made a spelling mistake that could alter the meaning or has forgotten some part of a drawing that might seem important. And these events are rare.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:47, 24 August 2024 (UTC)
:: He might even go back and correct it before he makes it.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.173|172.70.86.173]] 08:34, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
:"Meteors" doesn't refer to "the impact" that killed the dinosaurs, it refers to the bombardment period, where the atmosphere was heated to furnace temperatures... No waiting necessary; the impacts were constant for thousands of years. Technically it'd be the heat, not the impacts, that'd kill you, but the heat was a direct result of megatons of debris making atmospheric entry on an ongoing basis. (For a fun fictional description of such a phenomena, check out 'Seveneves' & take the ending with a huge block of salt.)
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 03:32, 25 August 2024 (UTC)
::Was the Chicxulub aftermath at all sufficient for "thousands of years" of 'aftershock' impacts? (Or at least enough to make a line on the comic, essentially the same marker as the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary layer is, geologically.) There were long-term climate effects, but by "bombardment" you seem to refer more to the Late Heavy Bombardment 'Meteors'. From "Seveneyes", which I haven't yet read but I have a general idea of the setup, you're effectively invoking a rerunning the aftermath of the Theia impact (4.5b years ago) in that much of the impact mass/broken Earth that had not at that time fallen back to Earth is now doing so.
::To be thorough, showing thin lines for various "Traps" (like the Deccan ones, coincidental and maybe or maybe not coincidental with Chicxulub, or the Siberian ones) where vulcanism and/or climate might be a very brief (geologically speaking) alternative to the surrounding non-volcano and non-climate 'primary threat'. But it's funnier, as it is, glossing over such transient issues. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.245|172.69.43.245]] 04:12, 25 August 2024 (UTC)
::: Yeah, Chicxulub was ''much'' later than the last major bombardment period, & relatively brief even compared to the shorter ice ages, whereas the bombardment period was basically hell on earth for a ''very'' long time... Then again, given the number of species that died out after Chicxulub, even looked at over a million year period or more (anything less than 10 MY would be a bit hard to represent at the scale shown), I do think somewhat indirect results of the "dino-killer" impact(s), such as increased volcanism & climate shift & food chain disruption, which occurred ''because'' of such impact, ''should'' be counted all as one cause of death, in the context of this chart; I guess Randall didn't agree, though?
:::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:46, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

I didn't think that the Cryogenian Ice Age was cold enough to be an immediate threat to a typical human, especially if that human was wearing winter clothes, just a long-term threat (mostly due to food). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.68|162.158.41.68]] 21:09, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
:Given asphixiation issues could be avoided by taking along appropriate breathing apparatus (and other life-saving solutions may exist for other periods), or just by not leaving your 'tardis' machine (with its airtight door, as hinted at, which may only be a problem if you can't open it again upon return), I think we're talking of essentially unprepared travel to these other times.
:Maybe without a machine (or without taking it with you, given the comic indicating there is one). Not realising what you're walking into, like stumbling through a {{w|Primeval (TV series)|swirling time-wedgie}} or {{w|Pebble in the Sky|being blasted through time}}, might be the primary reason to become a time-traveler. And the everyday Joe that finds themselves doing that out of ignorance is mostly unlikely to have been pre-prepared for any such trip.
:Or otherwise explain the stuck-door of the 'now-ish' era as being you generally would survive most now-ish trips (assuming you didn't do something like land in WW2 directly under a bomb or become captured by people who would be highly suspicious of your digital watch and your lack of valid id), or not actually going anywhen at all, then your death causes could be headlined by something ''really'' trivial like being stuck in a cupboard that forms the basis of the time-machine. (Or {{w|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe|a wardrobe}}... Which I wouldn't put past being Randall's actual reference, on past form.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.174|172.69.43.174]] 22:50, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
:It's not that hard to die of hypothermia in modern winters. Surely that's more likely during an ice age. And the claim isn't that you're really likely to die from these things, just that they're the most likely cause of death at the time. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 03:28, 24 August 2024 (UTC)
::Seems like the entire idea dwells on the fact that you do not think about going back to the present when realizing you are in a dangerous place. If there are air in the time machine then you should have time to go back before dying of the lack of oxygen. But of course if you land in lava it may be too late. What if you went further back and ended in a gas cloud. Would you die of lack of oxygen as well? Guess the actual biggest problem about time travel, if they where possible, is you also have to travel vast distances in space, since Earth has moved quite a bit no matter if you travel 1 hour into the past or a million/billion years. You would end up in empty space unless you also could travel very long distances through space... Sun moves around the galaxy so wont matter going a year back since the Earth are still not back to where it was. And the galaxy also moves... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:47, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

The door is stuck, and you seem to assume the poor traveler is stuck /inside/. I would rather scream for the time police to save me if I am stuck /outside/ in this crappy age :-) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.109.54|172.69.109.54]] 08:37, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

For all the times xkcd has focused on raptors and how to prevent predatory raptor attacks, I'm disappointed that "Trampled" is the main concern for travelers going to the Mesozoic Era. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:00, 24 August 2024 (UTC)
:Maybe the Mesozoic raptors also just tended to get trampled? Only in the modern day are raptors free from the threat of trampling and thus to become a threat to Randall. Especially if the present-day threat is a merely a stuck door. It all fits because, when it comes to things like doors, raptors are known to be Clever Girls! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.79|141.101.98.79]] 00:12, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2969: Vice President First Names

2024-08-07T17:33:53Z

172.70.86.173:

I mentioned [[1122]] in the description. Are there any other comics about election trends/rules? Well, [[2383]], of course. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.150|172.71.182.150]] 14:33, 7 August 2024 (UTC)

In checking all names, surprised to see so many "né"s, but not overly surprised to see no "neé"s. (I mean, "Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (née H. D. Rodham)" would have been one, of course, in a different trouserleg of time. But Harris stayed as "Harris", not taking/adding "Emhoff" from the person who may well become the first First Gentleman.) Interesting though. Had to resist adding "Dubya", "Ronnie" and "Rocky" nicknames, of course, as they were not the 'formal' nickname that the respective people prefered to go by. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.130|172.70.90.130]] 16:29, 7 August 2024 (UTC)

Going from the beginning you're pretty much limited to Johns and a Levi prior to the chart. There a few potential Hanks and Bills, and a possible Ted more commonly referred to as Teddy. I've never heard anyone refer to Tom Jefferson or Chet A. Arthur. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 16:42, 7 August 2024 (UTC)
:What about {{w|Hannibal Hamlin|Hann}}? And, {{w|Schuyler Colfax|'Sky'}} (Unless you decide to pronounce the latter more like "Schu". Because, if you did, those two together would fit them like a {{wiktionary|Handschuh#German|glove}}...) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.157|172.68.186.157]] 17:03, 7 August 2024 (UTC)

Alright, it seems that ''somebody'' has removed my earlier comment protesting the ongoing genocide that Harris supports. Has this wiki fallen too? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.130|172.70.90.130]] 17:09, 7 August 2024 (UTC)
:A quick runthrough of article edits doesn't show anything of what you say, unless I've missed it as too subtle. But, I have to say, that the wording you use here is indicative of the problem being with your 'interpretation'. "Genocide" is a heavy allogation to make and such extraordinary claims would require extraordinary justification, not just talking points taken from the fast-and-loose fringes of public opinion. (Not to mention that if your political rivals were as wicked as that, then you'd be risking your life/freedom to oppose them. But, hey, you apparently have the free speech to say utter nonsense with!) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.173|172.70.86.173]] 17:33, 7 August 2024 (UTC)

2965: Chili Tornado Quake

2024-07-30T14:09:15Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2965
| date = July 29, 2024
| title = Chili Tornado Quake
| image = chili_tornado_quake_2x.png
| imagesize = 302x252px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SCALED GHOST PEPPER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
As with the recent [[2950: Situation]], and occasional other comics, [[Randall]] has contrived an incident that combines multiple scenarios into an improbable whole. [[Cueball]], as a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], is reporting on a tornado that struck a chill pepper processing plant during an earthquake.


In this case, the purpose is to give a value to the scale of the disaster based (in some undefined way) upon the combination of the various scales that might be used to measure the individual elements. Cueball rates the event as 55,000 on the (fictional) Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale. The {{w|Richter scale}} is a historic (but still well known) logarithmic scale for rating the intensity of {{w|earthquakes}} that theoretically ranges from minus infinity to infinity, with practically relevant scores ranging from about 3 to 9.5. The {{w|Fujita scale}} is a scale for rating the intensity of damage caused by {{w|tornadoes}} which ranges from 0 to 5. The {{w|Scoville scale}} is a scale for the spiciness of {{w|chili peppers}} and can go from 0 (not at all spicy) all the way up into the millions.

It would seem fairly likely that the three base numbers are multiplied, as with {{w|Foot-pound (energy)|similar}} compound-unit calculations, to give the single combined measure, although some nominal types are treated as {{w|Erdős–Bacon number|additive}}. Given the image this is not a 5 on the tornado scale. Also since the building is still there it is not a 9 on the Richter scale. So at worst it would be 4x8 for those two. This would then leave the rest for the Scoville scale, which would give around 1700 on that scale as a minimum. The other two numbers could easily be smaller so that the Scoville number would be reaching above 3000.

In the title text it is mentioned that buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts [due] to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating. The {{w|Mohs scale}} is a scale for mineral hardness which ranges from 1-10, with lower numbers being softer and higher numbers being harder. Chili peppers are strong in a spicy sense, but very soft on the Mohs scale, so if it was only the chilies that hit other buildings it would only be very soft material that would take any damage. Of course there would also be building material hitting nearby houses, thus they would do more damage than the chili. A number, where the hardness of the materials hitting nearby buildings was taken into consideration, could have been given, adding a fourth number to consider in the scale, but no such number is provided.

The comic [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]] also dealt with a hybrid multi-disciplinary amalgum of measurements.

==Transcript==
:[Close-up of Cueball, a news anchor, next to an image with a headline above it to the left of him. The image shows of black tornado descending from sky-cover above. It is striking a building that has been damaged near where the tornado hits. Two large chilies can be seen flying through the air in the foreground, with pieces of the building and more chilies flying off further away. Straight beneath the building and going up in the middle of it there is a crack, that divides into three inside the building. The ground is also higher to the right of the point where the crack enters the building. Cueball is speaking which is shown above the image and him.]
:Headline: Breaking news
:Cueball: A tornado that struck a chili pepper processing plant during an earthquake was rated 55,000 on the Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale.

==Trivia==
*It seems the title text is missing the word "due":
**"Buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts '''due''' to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Earthquakes]]

2961: CrowdStrike

2024-07-22T09:36:06Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2961
| date = July 19, 2024
| title = CrowdStrike
| image = crowdstrike_2x.png
| imagesize = 322x384px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We were going to try swordfighting, but all my compiling is on hold.
}}

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

This comic is about the {{w|2024 CrowdStrike incident}} occurring on the day of the comic's release. CrowdStrike makes security software to protect computers from malware, ransomware and other cyberattacks. The software is sold to businesses and large enterprises like hospitals, airlines and retailers. CrowdStrike frequently releases updates to their software to handle new types of malware they know about. A faulty update for one of their software products caused computers with the software installed to crash (a {{w|Blue Screen of Death}}) very early on when booting up. This meant the computers could not be quickly or automatically fixed. Because many large businesses with large numbers of computers used CrowdStrike's software on at least some of their systems, or relied upon businesses that did, the resulting disruption was very widespread and very visible, preventing those businesses from operating and, in many cases, preventing their employees from working while their computers were affected.

Apparently, Cueball and Ponytail's company, or possibly a company providing a service their work depends on, uses CrowdStrike to secure their computers. Without being able to work, they have found something more entertaining to do -- Cueball, riding a scooter and with a rope tied around his waist, is towing Ponytail, who is sitting on a swiveling chair, around their office or neighborhood. Performing this activity is probably a bad idea.{{cn}}

Of course, CrowdStrike itself is a software company. As the caption suggests, its employees don't have the luxury of slacking off while their computers are broken: they have to address the faulty update, and help the businesses using their software to fix their computers. In the event, CrowdStrike had released a patch for the software around six hours after it came to light, at which point it is then the responsibility of those companies' own IT departments to roll out the necessary fixes (as well as continuing to deal with the original fallout, while the workers dependent upon their work wait for personal resolutions to their issues).

The title text refers to [[303: Compiling]], in which Cueball also found an alternative way to spend time at work when 'forced' to step away from his computer, albeit for a less disruptive reason. But, because of ''this'' problem, even the compiling is on hold. If sword fighting is 'officially allowed' only during actual compiling, as that comic implied, then during this instance (forced to be {{w|Glossary of video game terms#AFK|AFK}} for different reasons) they must resort to yet ''other'' activities: e.g. the one in this comic.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat is pointing his finger at Ponytail and Cueball. Ponytail is crouched on a moving office chair, holding with both hands onto a rope tied around the waist of Cueball, who is riding an electric scooter.]
:White Hat: Hey, aren't you supposed to be working on the—
:Ponytail: Sorry, that's all on hold today because of the CrowdStrike thing.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Protip: As long as you're not actually in charge of '''''fixing''''' the CrowdStrike thing, you can use this excuse for pretty much anything you want to do today.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computer security]]

1938: Meltdown and Spectre

2024-07-16T11:44:10Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */ you're not very good at this are you

{{comic
| number = 1938
| date = January 5, 2018
| title = Meltdown and Spectre
| image = meltdown_and_spectre.png
| titletext = New zero-day vulnerability: In addition to rowhammer, it turns out lots of servers are vulnerable to regular hammers, too.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic was inspired by the {{w|Meltdown (security vulnerability)|Meltdown}} and {{w|Spectre (security vulnerability)|Spectre}} bugs found in certain processors; these vulnerabilities were disclosed to the public in the week of this comic. The bugs result from flawed implementations of {{w|speculative execution}}, and made big news because they broke the "walls" between programs executing concurrently on the same computer, in some circumstances allowing malware to steal secrets from normal, bug-free programs.

Speculative execution is a technique used to speed up the execution of computer programs. Processors handle instructions in {{w|Instruction pipelining|a series of steps}}, like an assembly line. The processor works on several successive instructions, each at a different stage in the assembly line. It may start speculatively executing instructions that follow a particular result of a decision before the execution of the logic that makes that decision is finished. Once the decision is made, it keeps results from the selected path, and discards unnecessary results. This allows it to keep doing useful work while some slower decision is made.

In the Meltdown and Spectre bugs, the results of speculatively executed instructions are not completely discarded, allowing them to affect things that the program logic should have prevented.

[[Ponytail]] uses the {{w|Trolley Problem}}, and {{w|Tram|trolley (tram)|trolley}} tracks in general, as an analogy for streams of instructions in a program. The Trolley Problem is a thought experiment where an out-of-control trolley is heading to a switch which you control. Leaving the switch as-is will cause it to kill multiple people (typically five) stuck on the tracks, but switching the track will cause it to kill only one person, who would not have died if the switch was left untouched. This creates the ethical dilemma of passively causing multiple deaths, versus actively causing one. The Trolley Problem has gained significant memetic traction, helped in no small part by its frequent inclusion in “introduction to philosophy” type courses. The problem has seen revitalized interest with the emergence of {{w|autonomous car}}s, which may be faced with what are, essentially, {{w|autonomous car#Moral issues|such choices}} in emergency situations.

As an analogy for multiple mutually exclusive paths being executed at the same time, Ponytail invokes certain {{w|interpretations of quantum mechanics}}, where quantum-level particles can be viewed as taking every possible path at once, with the result being the sum of all of them. This is an idea popularized by the {{w|Copenhagen interpretation|common interpretation}} of {{w|Schrödinger's cat}}, where the cat is both dead and alive until some event results in one of the states being selected.

The phantom trolley driving through walls is an analogy for the computer instructions being able to access areas of memory that should be protected from them. This may also be a reference to {{w|quantum tunnelling}}, or even simply a joke about the phantom trolley being a literal phantom, i.e. incorporeal.

In many cases, contrary to what the comic implies, both paths are not taken simultaneously during speculative execution. A {{w|branch predictor}} may be used to select the most likely path, and the effects should be completely erased if the predicted path is incorrect. To use Ponytail's analogy, a phantom trolley is sent down one path (hopefully the most likely one), and either becomes real once it's determined that that path was correct, or vanishes and is replaced by a real trolley starting down the other path from the branching point. Both branch prediction and taking both paths (known as eager evaluation) are considered speculative execution and are affected by these bugs.

The {{w|Row hammer}} problem had been known for many years before this comic was published. A {{w|Dynamic random-access memory|common form of computer memory}} is constructed from tiny capacitors organized in a two-dimensional grid of rows and columns. Capacitors store charge to represent information. By applying a pattern of memory access that rapidly changes a row of capacitors, you can cause charge to overflow to nearby rows and incorrectly change their states.

Ponytail mentions that we especially suck at building "shared computers" because Row hammer, Spectre, and Meltdown all break down the security divisions built between programs and between users. A hacker running a separate program in a separate account shouldn't be able to access your data or change the behavior of your program, but these problems allow them to. This is particularly dangerous for time-sharing, servers, and {{w|Cloud computing|the cloud}}, where different programs, websites, or even companies can be sharing the same hardware.

Cueball takes her explanation literally, and comes to the conclusion that the cloud "is full of phantom trolleys armed with hammers", and Ponytail cannot be bothered correcting him (it could also be, considering xkcd's absurdist humor, that this quite literally is the case in the comic's world, and Ponytail is telling Cueball that he is indeed correct). Cueball's final line ironically suggests that these exploits can be repaired with a simple software update. This seems to be mocking the naive misunderstanding that software can make up for flawed hardware. However, the exploits discussed in this comic are not trivial oversights, but reflect fundamental issues in the design of modern processors.

A {{w|zero-day (computing)|zero-day}} vulnerability is an attack that takes advantage of a vulnerability that hasn't been published yet, and so is not patched in any vulnerable system. The title text suggests that, until it was 'disclosed' here, nobody was aware that as well as Row hammer, computer servers can also be harmed by regular hammers. In reality, this would be obvious to most people.{{Citation needed}} One might "patch" a server against this attack by plating it with stronger metal.

==Transcript==
:[Zoom out with Cueball and Ponytail walking to the right on the ground.]
:Cueball: The Meltdown and Spectre exploits use "speculative execution?" What's that?
:Ponytail: You know the trolley problem? Well, for a while now, CPUs have basically been sending trolleys down '''''both''''' paths, quantum-style, while awaiting your choice. Then the unneeded "phantom" trolley disappears.

:[Zoom in on only Ponytail who has turned towards Cueball off-panel left.]
:Ponytail: The phantom trolley isn't supposed to touch anyone. But it turns out you can still use it to do stuff.
:Ponytail: And it can drive through walls.

:[Cueball and Ponytail, lifting both her palms up, are standing, facing each other.]
:Cueball: That sounds bad.
:Ponytail: Honestly, I've been assuming we were doomed ever since I learned about Rowhammer.

:[In a frame-less panel they continue talking, both with their arms down.]
:Cueball: What's ''that''?
:Ponytail: If you toggle a row of memory cells on and off really fast, you can use electrical interference to flip nearby bits and—
:Cueball: Do we just suck at...computers?
:Ponytail: Yup. Especially shared ones.

:[Zoom out again as they resume walking to the right on the ground. Cueball is lifting his smartphone up and looks at the screen.]
:Cueball: So you're saying the cloud is full of phantom trolleys armed with hammers.
:Ponytail: ...Yes, that is exactly right.
:Cueball: Okay. I'll, uh... install updates?
:Ponytail: Good idea.

==Trivia==

Although this is clearly not part of the series [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]], it might be the same two characters, with Ponytail again displaying a much better understanding of computers than Cueball with his [[:Category:Cueball Computer Problems|Computer Problems]].

The Trolley problem was mentioned a month before this comic in the last ''milestone'' on this list in [[1925: Self-Driving Car Milestones]]; see more there regarding why this problem might have resurfaced in xkcd. Three years before that comic, a comic was even named after the problem: [[1455: Trolley Problem]].

The fact that compromising IT systems is sometimes easier done physically than logically is also mentioned in [[538: Security]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Computer security]]
[[Category:Programming]]

2959: Beam of Light

2024-07-16T05:23:42Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */ Additional

{{comic
| number = 2959
| date = July 15, 2024
| title = Beam of Light
| image = beam_of_light_2x.png
| imagesize = 235x419px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Einstein's theories solved a longstanding mystery about Mercury: Why it gets so hot. "It's because," he pointed out, "the sun is right there."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT FLYING ALONGSIDE A BEAM OF LIGHT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Thought experiments, such as those posited by {{w|Albert Einstein}} to illustrate the principles of {{w|Special Relativity}} (that deals with the interactions between high speeds and the perceptions of time), can sometimes reveal what appear to be fundamental principles of the universe that can revolutionise scientific understanding. But it is not always so. In this comic, we find Einstein being thoughtful about the scenario that would later help to make him famous, but at a point in time before any particularly profound revelations have been established. It is currently just, so to speak, a flight of fantasy.

In a similar vein, one of the long-standing issues about the orbit of Mercury is that it doesn't ''quite'' orbit the Sun in the way that Newtonian physics would suggest. We now know that this is accounted for by {{w|General Relativity}}, another of Einstein's suggestions (that relates the effects of gravity upon time perception), but we once more find ourselves overhearing his thoughts well before we get anywhere near any developments that we know will start to explain this, and is stuck at just 'imagining' that Mercury is hot due to its proximity to the Sun, which isn't a particularly novel or useful conclusion or in any way what we would now recognise as Einstein's much lauded theory.

The largely irrelevent (at least in any basic terms of Relativity) issue of the heat from the Sun would seem to have more relevence to the {{w|Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism}}, at one time proposed as the cause of the Sun's heat but superceded by the eventual discovery and understanding of nuclear fusion, or the {{w|Yarkovsky effect}}, in which thermal effects were shown to have effects upon the orbital dynamics of minor bodies. Neither of these things were the focus of Einstein's own studies.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Albert Einstein sitting on a chair, with a thought bubble above his head.]
:Einstein: ''Nyoooooooooom!''
:Einstein: I'm so fast!
:Einstein: ''Nyyooooooooom!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The first few times Einstein imagined flying alongside a beam of light, he didn't have any particular insights.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Physics]]

525: I Know You're Listening

2024-07-13T21:13:29Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */ Tweak

{{comic
| number = 525
| date = January 2, 2009
| title = I Know You're Listening
| image = i know youre listening.png
| titletext = Basically it's Pascal's Wager for the paranoid prankster.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] occasionally says "I know you're listening" aloud in empty rooms. The idea is that, with nobody listening, he doesn't lose anything; if somebody ''is'' listening, however, he gains by freaking them out. In this case, another Cueball-like surveillance man does get quite the shock.

As mentioned in the title text, this is similar to {{w|Pascal's Wager}}. {{w|Blaise Pascal}} was a French philosopher and mathematician who discussed the issue of the possibility that God actually does exist or not. According to Pascal, a rational person should live as though (a Christian) God exists, because he would lose negligible things if this turns out not to be true, but would gain immensely if it is true, by going to heaven in the afterlife. As Pascal himself recognized, this is not a proof of any god's existence, Christian or otherwise, but rather an inexorable choice made by every human being. Cueball makes a similar choice here, though hardly for such a moral reason.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Game Theory Matrix of Cueball's Choice
|-
| || Nobody's spying on Cueball || Somebody's spying on Cueball
|-
| Cueball does nothing || Null outcome || Cueball is being spied on
|-
| Cueball claims to know that they're listening || Only an omniscient observer would be privy to the absurdity of Cueball's actions || Cueball freaks out the spies
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Game Theory Matrix of Pascal's Wager
|-
| || God does not exist || God exists 
|-
| Atheism || Null outcome || Hell 
|-
| Faith || Wasted effort || Heaven 
|}

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the two panels of the comic:]
:Now and then, I announce "I know you're listening" to empty rooms.

:[Cueball is sitting in an armchair, reading. He murmurs something unreadable.]

:[A second Cueball-like surveillance man with headphones seems to have gotten up from his office chair so fast that is has fallen over and lies behind him. He is now standing in front of a large computer terminal with two screens. He can hear Cueball's mumble as it is shown as coming from one of the screens. The surveillance man is leaning back away from the terminal while holding a hand to his headphones.]

:[Caption below the panels:]
:If I'm wrong, no one knows. And if I'm right, maybe I just freaked the hell out of some secret organization.

==Trivia==
*This comic has a clear resemblance to the [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series. This would also make it clear that the Cueball in this comic is actually [[Randall]].
*10 years later, Randall made a similar comic: [[2203: Prescience]].
*See also [[628: Psychic]] for similar guess work to make you look cool.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

1357: Free Speech

2024-03-06T23:39:25Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */ Better hyphenation. And better mdashing. (Both would be better if rewritten.)

{{comic
| number = 1357
| date = April 18, 2014
| title = Free Speech
| image = free_speech.png
| titletext = I can't remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express.
}}

==Explanation==
Both on the Internet and in the physical world, people with unpopular or poorly thought-out opinions may complain that their freedom of speech is being restricted because others express their distaste for those opinions. As a defense, these individuals may invoke the {{w|First Amendment to the United States Constitution}}, which provides, among other things, {{w|freedom of speech}} for any entity or person under the legal jurisdiction of the U.S. More specifically, it states that "Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press". Originally intended as a restriction on the powers of the U.S. federal government, which the Constitution defines, structures, and delimits, over time the First Amendment, as well as several others, were "incorporated" via the {{w|Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment}} to apply to state and local governments as well. This protection of free speech, however, does not extend to illegal activities (for example, the concept of a "clear and present danger"), and it does not compel others to listen to or acknowledge the speech. The intended targets of the speech may simply choose to stop listening or to speak louder in protest.

An example of this is the incident involving the TV program ''{{w|Duck Dynasty}}'' in December 2013, in which television network {{w|A+E Networks}} [http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/12/18/duck-dynasty-robertson-phil/?hpt=hp_t2 suspended the host after he made homophobic remarks], causing some to comment that his rights had been infringed upon. Similarly in April 2014 [http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-26895858 controversy erupted when Brendan Eich was forced to resign] as CEO of {{w|Mozilla Corporation|Mozilla}} because it was revealed he had donated money to anti gay-marriage efforts in California. In actuality, the First Amendment was never meant to provide immunity from any consequences.

[[Cueball]], representing [[Randall]], is addressing those who use the freedom of speech argument as a defense against societal censorship. He states that one’s legal right to take a stance on an issue does not require others to listen to said stance. In addition, he also states that this right does not require a commercial or social entity — such as a TV network, a website, or its community — to support a person in spreading their message, even if it had supported you in the past. If someone says something that others find unjustified or offensive, they should be ready to accept the consequences of others' responses.

The title text points out that regardless of how free speech works, anyone appealing to it as a defense for their argument or opinion is not persuasive in any case. If the only thing that someone can say in support of an argument is effectively that it is not ''illegal'', then {{w|Damning with faint praise|they are severely undermining it}} by essentially admitting that they don't have any better defense for it.

It should be noted that the first panel of this comic conflates, under certain schools of thought about justice and rights, a right such as {{rw|free_speech|free speech}} and the legal protections of such. Many viewpoints consider rights to be granted by the government; others consider rights to be innate regardless of what the government does. The former is frequently reflected throughout governments in Europe while the latter is more common throughout the Americas. According to the former, the first panel is technically correct by definition, because the right of free speech is granted by the government's laws and, as such, can only affect the government's influence: thus, the 1st Amendment grants the right to free speech, which by definition cannot be restricted by congress. According to the latter, the first panel is strictly nonfactual because the 1st Amendment only recognizes that the right of free speech exists and, rather than delimiting the right, it instead proscribes the government's actions. However, between these two schools of thought, the remaining panels aren't affected by whether or not the first panel is factual by definition.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Public Service Announcement: The '''Right to Free Speech''' means the government can't arrest you for what you say.

:Cueball: It doesn't mean that anyone '''''else''''' has to listen to your bullshit, or host you while you share it.

:Cueball: The 1st Amendment doesn't shield you from criticism or consequences.

:Cueball: If you're yelled at, boycotted, have your show canceled, or get banned from an Internet community, your free speech rights aren't being violated.

:Cueball: It's just that the people listening think you're an asshole,

:[A picture of a partially open door is displayed.]
:Cueball: And they're showing you the door.

==Trivia==
*One famous example of this is {{w|Schenck_v._United_States|Schenck v. United States}}, where the expression "{{w|shouting fire in a crowded theater}}" gave rise. The ruling went along with war hysteria to justify the conviction of peaceful protesters and had nothing to do with creating a dangerous situation or giving false information. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said in the ruling, "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." He later drastically revised his views and became a strong supporter of free speech.
*The {{w|Speakers' Corner}} at Hyde Park in London is another example, everybody can hold a speech but there is no guarantee for a big auditorium.
*As currently construed by the courts, the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution is not limited to preventing the government from arresting people. For example, the [http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/01/argument-preview-the-first-amendment-public-employment-and-misperceived-political-association/ SCOTUS Blog] notes that the government may not penalize employees, with some exceptions, on the basis of their political views.
*This comic is featured in the Wait But Why post “Idea Labs and Echo Chambers”.

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

405: Journal 3

2023-11-09T16:22:51Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */ Really, "final curtains of the earth" is not a figurative phrase in use. "An">"A", forced by another edit.

{{comic
| number = 405
| date = April 2, 2008
| title = Journal 3
| image = journal 3.png
| titletext = Oh, and, uh, if the Russian government asks, that submarine was always there.
}}

==Explanation==
In [[374: Journal]], [[Black Hat]] explains to [[Cueball]] that a hobby of his is to pretend to write in a journal while on the subway, acting embarrassed if anyone sees. He then proceeds to silently scorn the person once they give him any kind of reassurance.

In [[377: Journal 2]], however, [[Danish]] sees through his ruse. She counteracts it by proving that she understands him, and attempts to resign him to the fact that he will never see her again, thus robbing him of the satisfaction of a proper social connection. She leaves, taking his hat in the process.

Initially vanquished, Black Hat seems to have quickly recovered and tracked Danish down, even to the ends of the earth. He tells Danish that although she was able to read him brilliantly, she miscalculated one minor detail. We are led to believe that this is some mistake in the covering of her tracks, but then he explains that it was simply how much he values his hat. It may also be the possibility that Black Hat placed a tracking device of some sort on his hat. This way he gets back at her. She thought that he would mourn the loss of her - the only person who understands him - but he deflates her ego when claiming that he likes his hat (implicitly saying that he doesn't care for her). The series continues in [[432: Journal 4]].

The title text continues the theme of Black Hat's supernatural ability to troll and to dodge the consequences: If Black Hat stole a military submarine, said military is probably going to be hot on his tail, but he writes it off with: "just tell them it was always here," as if it is no big deal. Black Hat will even be blamed for stealing the submarine in [[496: Secretary: Part 3]]. However, since this is (presumably) the American Senate reviewing him, it may be that he simply has stolen two submarines. It is also possible that the submarine is the American submarine and the title text refers to the Russian Government because their current location is in their territory, and he is shifting any reason for the submarine being there away from himself.

It is perhaps a strange point that this comic includes the line "So, you found me after all", given that the previous comic number [[404: Not Found]] was skipped, leading instead to an HTTP 404 Not Found error page.

The whole "[[:Category:Journal|Journal]]" story is:
*[[374: Journal]]
*[[377: Journal 2]]
*[[405: Journal 3]]
*[[432: Journal 4]]
*[[433: Journal 5]]

==Transcript==
:[Two women ice-skating outside.]
:Ponytail: Wait up!
:Danish (wearing Black Hat's Hat): Skate faster!

:[Danish sees cracking ice.]
:''Crack Crack''

:[Danish on chunk of ice broken off.]
:''Crack Rumble''

:[Submarine dorsal fin emerging.]
:''AWOOGA''

:[Black Hat (without hat) coming out of hatch.]
:''CREAK''
:Black Hat: Hi.

:Black Hat: That's my hat you're wearing.

:Danish (wearing Black Hat's Hat): So, you found me after all.
:Black Hat (out of frame): You didn't make it easy.

:Black Hat: You saw through me, all right. But not quite well enough.

:Black Hat: Because if you wanted to stay lost forever, you made one mistake

:[Black Hat climbing out of hatch.]

:[Black Hat sliding down a sheet of ice.]

:[Black Hat snatches hat from Danish's head as he slides by on the ice.]

:[Black Hat skidding to a stop and putting hat back on his head.]

:Black Hat: You took my hat.

:Black Hat: I '''LIKE''' my hat.

:[Black Hat walking away.]

:[Danish left standing.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Journal|03]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Journal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

2845: Extinction Mechanisms

2023-10-31T10:20:16Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2845
| date = October 23, 2023
| title = Extinction Mechanisms
| image = extinction_mechanisms_2x.png
| imagesize = 307x438px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Late Heavy Bombardment was followed a few billion years later by the Comparatively Light but Oddly Specific Bombardment.
}}

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

Around 66 million years ago there was a {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event|mass extinction event}} responsible for the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs. This is why there are no more dinosaurs (except for birds! [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1211:_Birds_and_Dinosaurs]) There have been a number of explanations for this, but most currently accepted explanations center on the {{w|Chicxulub crater|Chicxulub impact}}, in which a large asteroid (the comic suggests it was a comet) hit the Earth. The exact mechanism for the extinction caused by this event, however, is not clear. The comic suggests three possibilities: {{w|impact winter}} caused by dust released from the impact, {{w|firestorms}} along with {{w|ocean acidification}} from acids generated by the impact, and the enhanced eruption of volcano(es) in the {{w|Deccan Traps}} region in India. Here all three possibilities have been crossed out and a fourth one, "the rocks hit the dinosaurs," is circled as the correct answer.

The argument is that the comet had a volume of 500 km3 (10 km diameter), or 5×1014 L. Earth has a surface area of around 500 million km2, or 5×1014 m2. The idea is that the comet broke up into liter-sized rocks that were somehow evenly distributed over the Earth's surface, one per square meter, hitting each of the dinosaurs (but presumably somehow not hitting the other forms of life that did not go extinct). It is unclear how such a breakup or scattering might have occurred – a body that passes within Earth's {{w|Roche limit}} will eventually break up into a ring, but this limit is generally a single-digit multiple of the planet's radius, so an object on an inbound collision course would only experience high tidal forces for a matter of minutes before impact.

The title text refers to a hypothetical event early in Earth's history, ironically known as the Late Heavy Bombardment, in which a number of asteroids struck the Earth and other terrestrial planets around 4 billion years ago. The mass extinction event of 66 million years ago is then referred to as the "Comparatively Light but Oddly Specific Bombardment", presumably because it isn't as heavy as the LHB, but oddly specific in its targets.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A drawing of the Chicxulub meteor]
:Marking to the right: ≈ 500 km3 (5 × 1014 L)
:[Five arrows show individual small rocks coming from the meteor and spreading across the Earth. A sixth arrow provides more elaboration.]
:Marking of the separate rock: 1 liter rocks
:[The rock is shown entering a square marked "1 m2", which has another arrow to a larger grid of squares, before an arrow back to the Earth.]
:Marking near example square meter: >1 rock per m2

:[Four dinosaurs are drawn, including a theropod, what may be a velociraptor, a sauropod, and a triceratops. Each has a small rock falling directly toward it.]

:[List header, underlined:] Comet Extinction Mechanism Ideas
:[The first three list items are crossed out]
:Dust caused impact winter
:Firestorms and ocean acidification
:Triggered Deccan Traps magma
:[The fourth suggestion is circled rather than struck through:]
:The rocks hit the dinosaurs

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Paleontologists are missing the obvious answer.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]

2825: Autumn and Fall

2023-09-06T23:09:24Z

172.70.86.173: /* Explanation */ Caveat... Because there are always other logics, but presuming Randall is firmly based in anglocentric (not even celtic) versions.

{{comic
| number = 2825
| date = September 6, 2023
| title = Autumn and Fall
| image = autumn_and_fall_2x.png
| imagesize = 392x212px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Of course in reality this is just a US/UK thing; in British English, 'fall' is the brief period in between and 'autumn' is the main season.
}}

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

{{w|Autumn}}, also known as "fall" in the United States, is the season between summer and winter. These terms are used interchangeably, but Randall in this comic treats them as separate seasons. His timeline uses "autumn" as the season between the end of summer and the "{{w|September equinox|fall equinox}}", and the season of "fall" as the period after that until winter. Of course, while many different parts of the world use different ways of reckoning the {{w|seasons}} (eg, a two-season system in the tropics or a six-season system in South Asia), nowhere uses the type of five-season system shown in the comic.{{Citation needed}}

The comic depicts two of the commonly used boundaries, for any given hemisphere, for the recognised end of summer. While other cultures have adopted yet other dates, according to their own calendars or local experience, [[Randall]] may have encountered up to three different 'standard' methods of dividing the year.
* Some treatments of the seasons (not shown) treat the summer solstice very much as "midsummer", and all other seasons also more or less equally straddling their own equinoxes/remaining solstice, putting the seasonal boundaries half way between each of these astronomically significant points.
* For others, the equinoctial/solstitial dates are used for the changeover time, so that autumn/fall starts upon the equinox (shown) and ends at the astronomically shortest day which is then the start of winter. This system tends to be traditional where the annual warming and cooling of the climate significantly 'lags' the solar calendar.
* Meteorological seasons are handily aligned to months, for administrative reasons. Spring is March through May, summer across June to August, the September start (to the close of November) is as illustrated, leaving winter to be covered by December and on until the end of the following February. Or shifted round by two of the triples for the southern hemisphere.

The title text makes fun of the transatlantic difference in terms, as it claims one must ''reverse'' these two distinct season names. The term "autumn" is, in reality, the word overwhelmingly used in the UK for the season commonly (but not exclusively) refered to as "the fall" in the US, regardless of which of the calendar offsets is to be assumed. The latter is rarely used 'natively' in the UK, although it will usually be understood. The main exception being that it handily allows for the mnemonic of "spring forward, fall back", which uses wordplay to refer to how and roughly when British Summer Time (UTC+1) takes over from the default Greenwich Mean Time (UTC±0).

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Timelines]]