explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3014: Arizona Chess

2024-11-22T11:39:01Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3014
| date = November 20, 2024
| title = Arizona Chess
| image = arizona_chess_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x315px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Sometimes, you have to sacrifice pieces to gain the advantage. Sometimes, to advance ... you have to fall back.
}}

==Explanation==

[[White Hat]] and [[Cueball]] are playing a timed game of tournament-style chess. At the start of the comic White Hat has the advantage because, as well as having one more pawn than Cueball, he has more time left to play his remaining moves — 6 minutes and 35 seconds, versus Cueball's 28 seconds, as shown on the {{w|chess clock}} display above them. This means that Cueball cannot afford to consider his moves as carefully as White Hat.

However, Cueball has an unexpected advantage. The building is sited across the border of Arizona with another state, with White Hat on the Arizona side, and the game is being played at a very particular time of year, when (most of) the United States exits {{w|Daylight Saving Time}}, which happens at 2:00 AM on the morning of the first Sunday in November. When this happens, clocks in those other states 'gain' an hour (i.e. they show that an hour less has passed than previously). As Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time (DST), clocks there continue to progress time as normal.

At this time, White Hat's time remains normal, but Cueball's time "falls back" one hour, giving him 60 additional minutes of play time. White Hat immediately protests, likely trying to communicate that such is not how chess clocks work. They are fancy timers, tracking how much time each player has used since the beginning of the match, and sometimes, depending on the rules of specific tournament, adding a specified increment of time every turn. They're not supposed to be based on local time, and changing the time remaining during play would certainly be a violation of the rules. Even clocks that do track local time are generally not so carefully calibrated that they would reliably switch times so close to a state line.

Cueball ignores these protests, and now seems confident of victory, since he has far more play time remaining. Daylight Slaying Time is a pun on Daylight Saving Time, but note that the comic takes place as the non-Arizona clock stops observing DST and joins the Arizona clock in Standard Time. A pun on Daylight Saving Time was also made in [[673: The Sun]].

The title text makes use of a pun. To "fall back" in a strategic sense means to withdraw from an attack, or even to retreat. This can be part of a valid strategy, as withdrawing from an engagement can consolidate your forces into a more defensible position or formation, allow you to press the attack elsewhere, at a more advantageous time and place, or draw enemy forces into an attack under circumstances that you control. [https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/spring-forward-fall-back.html "Spring forward, fall back"] is a mnemonic used for daylight saving time; we advance the clock forward when entering DST in the spring, and move it backward when leaving it in the fall (autumn).

There are buildings in the US that are built across state lines (and county and city boundaries), and even some buildings that extend across international boundaries (these are known as {{w|line house}}s). The existence of these buildings can result in eccentric situations when laws and ordinances vary substantially between the locations. For example, a casino might be built on a state border where gambling is legal in one state but illegal in the other. In such a case, the gaming can only happen on one side of the building (the other side being reserved for other services and functions). It's not uncommon for businesses and tourist attractions to lean into the novelty of this by demarking the boundary inside the building and specifically encouraging things that are legal only on one side of the line. Such situations are likely the inspiration for this strip, but using such a line to manipulate a competition based on time zone is highly unlikely.

Ongoing state-level efforts to end time changes could also increase the number of places where this situation could happen, as more DST/non-DST boundaries arise.

The comic was published five days before the start of the {{w|World Chess Championship 2024}} in Singapore.

==Transcript==

:[White Hat and Cueball are sitting across from each other playing chess. The time, shown above them in white on a black screen, reads 6:35 for White Hat, and 0:28 for Cueball.]
:White Hat: It’s late, I’m up a pawn, and you’re out of time. It’s over.
:Cueball: Ah, you’re forgetting something.

:[Cueball gestures with one hand above the chessboard. His time now reads 0:19.]
:Cueball: Did you know this building straddles the Arizona border?
:Cueball: It actually runs right through the table. You're on the Arizona side.

:[Cueball raises his hand further to gesture at his time. It beeps and is now blank and white.]
:Cueball: This tournament started Saturday, November 2nd. Now it's almost 2AM on the 3rd.
:Cueball: And there's something you should know about Arizona.
:Chess clock: BEEP

:[White Hat raises his head slightly to look at the timer. Cueball's time now reads 60:07. Cueball lowers his hand to make a move.]
:White Hat: '''''What?!''''' No! That's not how... '''''No!!'''''
:Cueball: Looks like it's daylight '''''slaying''''' time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

3011: Europa Clipper

2024-11-14T19:36:36Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3011
| date = November 13, 2024
| title = Europa Clipper
| image = europa_clipper_2x.png
| imagesize = 333x356px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They had BETTER make this a sample return mission.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete|Created by a JOVIAN DESSERT. Please consider deleting this tag too soon, but refrain from doing so.}}

[[File:Animation of Europa Clipper trajectory around Jupiter.gif|thumb|right|The ''Europa Clipper's'' projected course around {{w|Jupiter}}, represented as the stationary green dot. In gold is Jupiter's moon {{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}, in cyan is the moon {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}} — the primary target of the spacecraft's study — and in orange-red is the innermost of Jupiter's four {{w|Galilean moons|"Galilean"}} moons, {{w|Io (moon)|Io}}. The spacecraft's track is shown in magenta. Jupiter's largest moon {{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}} is not shown, but its gravitational pull affects the ''Clipper's'' trajectory. A mission goal is to achieve a 6:1 {{w|orbital resonance}} with Europa [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin-Ozimek/publication/383115312_AAS_24-433_Europa_Clipper_Mission_Analysis_Pump_Down_Trajectory_Design/links/66bcd845311cbb094938dbd6/AAS-24-433-Europa-Clipper-Mission-Analysis-Pump-Down-Trajectory-Design.pdf by September 2034]. ]]

The ''{{w|Europa Clipper}}'' space probe was launched from the {{w|Kennedy Space Center}} in Florida on [https://europa.nasa.gov/mission/about/ October 14, 2024]. It is expected to arrive at Jupiter and begin exploration of Jupiter's moons, particularly {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}, in April of 2030.

Europa is an icy moon. Water ice covers its surface. Beneath the ice, there is expected to be liquid water which may contain some [https://europa.nasa.gov/why-europa/ingredients-for-life/ basic forms of life]. To sample this liquid, its icy crust would need to be breached.

Europa's surface of ice over liquid water can be compared to the caramelized crust on the popular dessert {{w|crème brûlée}}, perhaps because the {{w|Cassini-Huygens}} probe, after landing on Saturn's moon Titan in January of 2005, found that its surface had what was described as [https://www.sciencenews.org/article/world-unveiled-cr%C3%A8me-br%C3%BBl%C3%A9e-titan a "crème brûlée" consistency]. The hard surface of the caramel cream dessert is traditionally cracked open with a spoon, and so [[Randall]] posits that such equipment will be deployed by the ''Europa Clipper''.

In truth, no such spoon is present on the probe, and Europa's icy crust is too thick to be easily penetrated by a spoon of such size. Advanced measures are needed to prevent contamination of liquid water by Earth's organisms such as {{w|tardigrade}}s, {{w|deinococcus radiodurans}}, or {{w|bacillus subtilis}}. The ''Europa Clipper's'' course has been charted to avoid any contact with the surface of Europa (although it will fly through sparse material it ejects into space) so as to prevent {{w|Planetary protection|contamination by microorganisms from Earth}}. The successful deployment of any spacecraft's instrument is considered a cause for celebration because deployable spacecraft instruments often fail to correctly extend, unfurl or undock. The craft is equipped with a magnetometer that will be used at the end of a 8.5 meter boom (not apparent in the comic which, spoon extension aside, is an otherwise fairly accurate depiction) as part of its closer studies.

<div style="display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; margin: 1em 0;">
<div style="text-align: center; margin: 0 1em;">
[[File:Europa_-_Perijove_45_(cropped).png|200px|alt=Europa]]
<div>Europa</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center; margin: 0 1em;">
[[File:2014_0531_Crème_brûlée_Doi_Mae_Salong_(cropped).jpg|200px|alt=Crème brûlée]]
<div>Crème brûlée</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center; margin: 0 1em;">
[[File:Europa_Clipper_spacecraft_model.png|200px|alt=The Europa Clipper spacecraft]]
<div>The ''Europa Clipper'' spacecraft</div>
</div>
</div>

The title text expands on the joke by stating that the spacecraft "had BETTER" return samples of Europa to Earth. However, the ''Europa Clipper'' is not a {{w|sample-return mission}}.

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

:[A space probe with two rectangular solar panels, a circular dish of the front, and a very large spoon extending beneath, longer than the span of both solar panels]

:[Below the panel:]
:Good news: NASA's '''''Europa Clipper''''' is en route to Europa and has successfully deployed its crème brûlée spoon.

==Trivia==
Initially, the ''Europa Clipper'' mission was planned to include a lander component, but it was removed from the project early on. The Europa Lander proposal lags significantly behind the Clipper in development and has not secured funding. An actual sample return mission is currently far into the future of {{w|Ocean Worlds Exploration Program|the pertinent plans for exploration}}.

In Arthur C Clarke's novel '''2010''', the monolith aliens tell humanity ''"All these worlds are yours - except Europa. Attempt no landing there."'' Contrary to the suggestion of the comic, no landing or any other physical interaction beyond observation of the surface of Europa is planned.

In {{w|Greek mythology}}, {{w|Europa (consort of Zeus)|Europa}} was said to be a {{w|Phoenician}} princess who {{w|Zeus}}, the king of the gods, abducted after transforming himself into a bull. The name of the continent Europe derives from a northern province and/or river of ancient Greece that may have been associated with this legend. Although, as with {{w|Asia#Etymology|Asia}}, the region/continent name may have instead been derived from one of the {{w|Europa (Greek myth)|totally different Europas}}, namely a member of the many {{w|Oceanids}} (daughters of a pair of water-themed Titans that legendarily predate Zeus's times). Jupiter's moon was thematically {{w|Europa (consort of Zeus)#Moon of Jupiter|named after the princess}} in relatively recent times, much as the {{w|Tethys (mythology)|Oceanid Europa's mother}} features in a differently themed naming of Saturnian moons. With the caramel cream dessert believed to have been [https://archive.org/details/lagastronomieaug00sabb/page/272/mode/2up invented in Europe], there is an extremely vague and contrived possibility that mythology, rather than any more mundane cullinary analogy, could have inspired [[Randall]] to start down the path of eventually suggesting that the spacecraft may encounter crème brûlée and require a spoon.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Food]]

2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect

2023-08-16T11:16:32Z

172.70.86.44: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 2241
| date = December 13, 2019
| title = Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect
| image = brussels_sprouts_mandela_effect.png
| titletext = I love Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect; I saw them open for Correct Horse Battery Staple.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Brussels sprouts}} are a leafy vegetable from the cabbage family which were cultivated in {{w|Brussels}}, in what is now Belgium, in the 13th century, giving them their name. Many adults and children [https://www.camdenliving.com/blog/why-do-we-hate-brussel-sprout dislike Brussels sprouts], perhaps because of their bitterness.

[[Cueball]] was one of these people who thought he had a dislike for Brussels sprouts, but after trying them recently he had a change of heart and likes them now. He feels "misled" by the public dislike for Brussels sprouts. [[Megan]] chimes in and notes that it is not just him. Farmers started to develop a newer {{w|cultivar}} of Brussels sprouts in the 1990s (as opposed to the 15 years ago referenced in the comic), which taste less bitter than the "original" cultivar of Brussels sprouts that Cueball grew up eating. (A [https://npr.org/773457637 source] is provided in the comic as a foot note to Megan's statement. This would be the first of two comics in a row with this type of reference given, the second coming in [[2242: Ground vs Air]].)

A {{w|False_memory#Mandela_Effect|Mandela Effect}} is a pseudoscience explanation for a false memory held in common by a substantial number of people. {{w|false memory|False memories}} may arise via suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution, and {{w|False_memory#Commonly_held_false_memories|they can be shared}}, sometimes widely, when one of these triggers happens to many people in a population. But a fringe theory holds that such memories are actually real, in some way related to either reality warping or alternate universes, leaving many people in a reality that contradicts their memory in minor but specific ways. The name comes from multiple people reporting vivid memories of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, despite Mandela famously becoming President of South Africa and living until 2013.

The characters realizing that brussels sprouts taste good, despite having all of them having distinct memories of the vegetable being unpleasant, is seen as similar to having a widespread false memory

In the last panel, [[Ponytail]] then tricks Cueball into thinking that {{w|licorice}}, [https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/why-do-so-many-us-hate-black-licorice-few-theories-963738 another widely disliked food], is good tasting. At this point Megan realizes that this must be a trap. Unlike Brussels sprouts, the taste of licorice has not changed noticeably, so people who hated the taste before are likely to still find it unpleasant.

That Ponytail is up to no good is shown to be true when she additionally claims that {{w|Silica_gel|silica gel}} packets are actually edible and taste delicious. This is very false! {{w|Silica_gel#Desiccant|Silica gel packets}} are typically used as a desiccant, to keep electronics and other moisture sensitive items dry. They are typically marked "[https://www.123rf.com/photo_72752039_single-silica-gel-packet-isolated-on-white-background-.html Do Not Eat]" to warn people that they are not edible. Although not toxic, and even {{w|Silica_gel#Food_additive|allowed in some form in food}}, silica gel has a sand-like texture and no flavor or nutritional value, can {{w|Silica_gel#Hazards|cause irritation}} if digested in the raw form, and the packets may contain {{w|Silica_gel#Humidity_indicator_(blue/orange_silica_gel)|potentially toxic additives}}.

Cueball, having been prepped by both his own experience and Megan's facts are totally ready to believe Ponytail, even to the extent that he seems to feel cheated by the makers of silica gel packets, who he must now think has written ''Do Not Eat'' just to keep that delicious gel for themselves. Hopefully Megan can convince him not to find and eat them. Ponytail is often not nice to Cueball, although in other comics it is more like she talks him down, see [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]], not directly trying to harm him.

The title text suggests that "Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect" is a music band, who once were the {{w|opening act}} for the presumably better known band "Correct Horse Battery Staple". This latter group is a reference to [[936: Password Strength]]. It hints at the "{{tvtropes|AGoodNameForARockBand|good name for a musical band}}" trope, which Randall before tried to replace by a dot tumblr dot com trope in [[1025: Tumblr]]. Indirectly, he also suggests that ''Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect'' would be a great long password that is now easy to remember (as long as you remember [https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/comments/6meq1a/brussel_sprouts_right/ there is an S] at the end of {{w|Brussels}} (at least in English, but not in Dutch, which is one of the official languages of Brussels/Belgium)).

For a comic about awkwardly named bands, see [[119: Worst Band Name Ever]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing between Ponytail and Megan talking to them.]
:Cueball: I always thought of Brussels sprouts as terrible, but they're actually really good! I can't believe I let everyone mislead me!

:[In a frame-less panel Megan replies. Below her is a footnote with a citation to back up her statement.]
:Megan: It's not just you! Farmers developed a less-bitter cultivar like 15 years ago.*
:*npr.org/773457637

:[Back to all three as Megan continues to explain while holding her arms away from her.]
:Megan: Now the whole world is having this revelation, one person at a time. It's like a real Mandela effect. We secretly switched to the parallel universe where Brussels sprouts taste good.
:Cueball: ''Cool.''

:[Ponytail lifts a finger as Cueball and Megan turns to look at her.]
:Ponytail: Also, licorice is good now.
:Cueball: Whoa, really?
:Megan: This is a trap.
:Ponytail: And those silica gel packets that say "Do not eat"? '''''Delicious.'''''
:Cueball: ''I knew it.''

==Trivia==
* The URL given was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/5/5d/20191216154116%21brussels_sprouts_mandela_effect.png originally] given [https://npr.org/773457633 npr.org/77345763'''3'''] but this was an error!
**The actual URL is number 77345763'''7''' which was later corrected by an updated comic.
**Here is the [https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=773457637 plain HTML version] and here the [https://npr.org/773457637 full site].
*As always when Randall offers his opinion on some sort of food, it may lead to [[388:_Fuck_Grapefruit#Controversy|controversy]] and lots of discussion in the [[Talk:2241:_Brussels_Sprouts_Mandela_Effect|talk page]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category: Food]]
[[Category:Footnotes]]

Disappearing Sunday Update

2023-08-16T11:15:02Z

172.70.86.44: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| date = August 4, 2019
| title = Disappearing Sunday Update
| image = disappearing_sunday_update.png
| titletext = This comic won't exist in the archives. NOTHING IS REAL.
| ldomain = web.archive.org/web/20190804230254/https://www
| lappend = #
| extra = yes
}}

==Explanation==
The comic is a special Disappearing comic that was placed between the Friday comic [[2184: Unpopular Opinions]] but before the normal Monday comic update, which became [[2185: Cumulonimbus]].

It was, of course, released on [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (August 4th), becoming only the fifth comic to be released on a Sunday.

It is the first comic that was fully deleted from the xkcd archives, as it was replaced by the normal Monday update, leaving no trails on xkcd, but lots of trails in many other sites, like this one and in the [http://web.archive.org/web/20190804230254/https://www.xkcd.com/#/ Internet Archive] of the {{w|Wayback Machine}}. Also the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/disappearing_sunday_update.png image] (and its [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/disappearing_sunday_update_2x.png 2x version]) was still on the xkcd image server after it had disappeared.

The entire comic is an advertisement for [[Randall|Randall's]] upcoming book "[[How To]]".

The entire comic was a link directly to https://xkcd.com/how-to/. This link was also mentioned in the text of the comic. But as Randall has never learned how to make a different part of an image into a different link, his [[Blag]], the other link mentioned in the text, was not linked from the comic. The link to this is https://blog.xkcd.com/. When this comic was released the top blog post was the one about the ''How To'' book.

The first part of the comic, the advertisement, included a drawing of the cover, two sets of pages, showing the open book, and a sampling of the table of contents of the book. The full table of contest can be found in the Blag post mentioned above.

The second part of the comic, the joke, shows Randall (as [[Cueball]]) at the bottom where he in advance apologized for the various bots, that automatically catalog xkcd comics, which might break because of this special comic. See more under [[#Unusual Means|Unusual Means]].

This ''Explain xkcd'' website is one example of such a page, where the bot that creates new pages, was assigning the comic a number of 2185 despite the comic not having a designated number at the time it was released.

The comic even broke the xkcd site itself as the previously released Friday comic, [[2184: Unpopular Opinions]], then had a next button that linked to comic 2185, which did not exist at time of release! So using that button from comic 2184 displayed a [[404]] error. Later this was fixed by giving this comic the number 2185, although only temporarily, see the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section. At this time it was thus also included in the archive, see below regarding the title text.

In the title text it is stated that: ''This comic won't exist in the archives. NOTHING IS REAL.''. However, as shown in the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section, Randall had so many problems with his plans for this comic, that he ended up making it a normal numbered comic and thus also put it into the archives, ensuring that the title texts statement was not real. But when the normal Monday comic was released it was removed from the xkcd site, and the archive. But then so was this title text, so for most of the time it was available, it was not true!

One of the bot methods mentioned may be in reference to the recent comic [[2180: Spreadsheets]], where [[Cueball]] debates making a real program to do a task, or to use a Google spreadsheet instead.

Two weeks later he released a permanent comic with a reference to one of the chapters in his book with [[2190: Serena Versus the Drones]].

===Unusual Means===
Randall notes that ''if you read xkcd through unusual means... ... I hope this ephemeral ghost comic doesn't break them too badly''.

Between the dots he suggested different methods of reading xkcd, other than on the {{xkcd}} home page. These methods get progressively sillier (many still need explanations). Here is a list:

; Apps
: The Android app [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.tap.easy_xkcd easyxkcd] was broken by this comic when used in offline mode, as reported [https://github.com/tom-anders/Easy_xkcd/issues/162 here].
: An iOS app called xkcd: Open-Source is broken by this comic, permanently assigning the comic number 2185 to this comic, and not replacing it with the *actual* 2185 comic. Because of that, this comic can be viewed in the app, but the real 2185 isn’t viewable.
; Custom screen-scraping systems
: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_scraping#Screen_scraping
; Google Reader clones
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Reader Google Reader] was an RSS/Atom aggregator that Google discontinued in 2013. Enthusiasts created a full-featured work-alike replacement, called [https://theoldreader.com/ The Old Reader.]
; Twitter bots
: Scripts that automatically post content to a designated [https://twitter.com/ Twitter] account.
; BASH scripts
: A popular Unix shell; one might, say, write a script in it to run on one's personal Unix machine, checking for a new xkcd comic and displaying it somewhere.
; Gopher portals
: [https://www.minnpost.com/business/2016/08/rise-and-fall-gopher-protocol/ Gopher] was a method of surfing the Internet that predated the Web (by about five months) and was vastly more popular (for about three years).
; Lynx-based ASCII art browsers
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29 Lynx] is a text-based Web browser. It can launch external programs to view images, but Randall is suggesting that instead a Lynx variant might convert images to [https://www.asciiart.eu/ ASCII art], which renders images using the 94 visible ASCII keyboard characters.
; Third-party Second Life feeds
: [https://secondlife.com/ Second Life] is a virtual world that opened in 2002 and has [http://www.gridsurvey.com/charts/historicalconcurrency.png averaged about 40,000 simultaneous users for the past five years].
; RFC 2549
: An RFC is a proposal for how to run the Internet. [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549 RFC 2549] is about transmitting data using carrier pigeons (this was one of the earliest [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day April Fools' Day] RFCs).
; Massive Google docs sheets
: See #[[2180]].

Another unusual method is [http://uni.xkcd.com/ UNIXkcd], which was reported here to have broken, but was later working.

==Transcript==
:[Heading:]
:~Special Disappearing Sunday comic~

:[Below the header to the right are the following text:]
:I'm posting this ephemeral Sunday update to let you know that I wrote a book! It's a guide to solving everyday problems in terrible ways using science.
:It comes out next month, and it's available for preorder now.

:[Below this text is an arrow to an image of the book to the left. The arrow comes from this text:]
:The cover looks like this

:[The book is shown to the left as a black rectangle with large blue text and smaller white text. On the book cover, in white drawings, are seen Ponytail with a ladder and either Black or White Hat (hard to say on black background). Both are looking up on Cueball who is floating in the air with a quadcopter beneath either leg, trying to plug in an electric light bulb in a naked lamp hanging down near him. It seems he has already removed the broken light bulb, as he has one in both hands. And now he tries to put in the new one. He could have let Ponytail use the ladder...]
:[The header in blue above it all:] How To.
:[Sub header in white to the left of Cueball:] Absurd Scientific Answers to Common Real-world Problems
:[Author name in blue below the drawing:] Randall Munroe
:[Sub header to this below in white:] Creator of xkcd
:[Sub header to this below in white:] Author of ''what if?'' and ''Thing Explainer''

:[Below the text with the arrow to the book is the following text with an arrow pointing down to an image of two pages in the open book, shown to the right:]
:And the inside looks like this.

:[To the left of the open book are the following text:]
:Chapters include:
:'''How to charge your phone'''
:'''How to throw a pool party'''
:'''How to move'''
:'''How to build a lava moat'''
:'''How to ski'''

:[The open book to the right has almost only unreadable text. The left page shows a drawing of car in front of a trailer which is loaded with about 15 of boxes in four layers. Two stick figures are standing between the car and the trailer, talking with each other. The trailer is not attached to the car. There are some lines of text beneath the drawing and then what appears to be a chapter heading. It probably says something as "How to move", as this is mentioned as a chapter in the text to the left of these pages, but there one of two more unreadable words at the end of that heading. Beneath that the rest of the page is text and at the bottom there seems to be a footnote. The right page shows a house that seems to be floating a couple of meters above the ground, two arrows pointing up to the bottom of the house on either side. A stick figure stands to the left of the house which float at the figures head height. There is text beneath this drawing. Beneath that there is another drawing of a house towed on a truck, which speeds up a steep hill and jumps over a cliff to get to the other side. Seems like it will work. The speed of the truck seems to be very high as indicated by two curly lines indicating exhaust from the truck. It becomes three small clouds further behind the moving house. There is a footnote beneath the drawing. The driver of the truck yells as the truck jumps. This can actually be read:]
:Driver: ''Woooooo''

:[Beneath the above text and pages are another image of the open book with two other pages. This time to the left. This time there is text to the right.]

:[These book pages are also mainly unreadable. At the top of the left page is a drawing of what could be a lake. Two people seems to be standing out in the water, only heads showing above the water. A sign is standing on the brink, is may say "Sorry"? Behind the lake is some mountains in the background. Beneath the drawing is some text of, then a smaller diagram like drawing which may show some black clouds above and below a line in the middle of this drawing. One of the clouds are beneath a curly bracket which are beneath the line. The curly bracket lies down and has the same length as the cloud. Beneath this drawing is more text and then a third drawing at the bottom. Here is shown a cross section of the lake. At the left side of the lake the water is shallow and a stick figure is standing in the water on the bottom, head above water with its arms held up in the air. It is directing its attention to the four stick figure standing on the brink to the left looking at the figure in the water. To the right the lake becomes more than three times as deep. Clouds are above the lake, one large just right of the stick figure and one smaller further right. At the right edge the lakes edge is vertical. On the brink is what may be a diving board protruding over the lake. Something is lying on top of the board. And above is what seems to be another cloud. To the right of the lake is a pile of earth with what appears to be a large black Nuclear bomb (with the nuclear icon on it) stuck with its tip in the pile. On the right page is a line coming down from the top, which then turns to the right ending in an arrow. There is a line of text above the horizontal part of the line. The arrow points to a large heading in two rows. (See below). Beneath the heading are a few lines of text. Then a drawing of a torn map (like an old treasure map whit a X at the end of a trail marked with dots. Mountains indicated with small "^" and coast line is visible. There seems to be text beneath the X. There are text beneath the drawing. Beneath that are a header with a line beneath it, and then text beneath the line.]
:How to Dig a Hole

:[To the right of these pages are the following text:]
:You can learn more and preorder it at '''xkcd.com/how-to'''
:And read an excerpt at '''blog.xkcd.com'''

:[Beneath all this Randall (drawn as Cueball) is telling about the problem this disappearing comic may cause:]
:Randall: If you read xkcd through unusual means, including apps, custom screen-scraping systems, Google reader clones, Twitter bots, bash scripts, gopher portals, lynx-based ASCII art browsers, third-party Second Life feeds, RFC 2549, or massive google docs sheets full of =IMPORTHTML() and =IMAGE() formulas, I hope this ephemeral ghost comic doesn't break them too badly.
:Randall: It will disappear with the normal Monday update.
:Randall: (At least, I think it will. I've never tried this before. So I'm honestly not sure what the server will do.)

==Trivia==
*This August 4th 2019 [[:Category:Sunday comics|Sunday comic]] was first posted on the front page without any number relating to it. Thus breaking the next comic button on xkcd.
**Since it was scheduled to be deleted on Monday August 5th 2019, when the next comic arrives on xkcd, it was not supposed to have a number or be in the archive. But seems like this caused too many problems for the xkcd site it self (not just for all the other sites Randall jokes about).
**So later it was given the next number in the comic list (2185) and was also included in the archive for the duration of its stay on the xkcd front page.
**It was later removed from the archive and 2185 was assigned to the Monday comic [[2185: Cumulonimbus]].
*Here are some pictures documenting that the comic at some point between release and the next comics release worked like a normal comic with number 2185 as shown in the web address at the top.
*[[File:Disappearing Sunday Update with number 2185.png]]
*It was also part of the archive with the release date showing correctly when hovering over the title:
*[[File:Archive with Disappearing Sunday Update and date.png]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Extra comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]] 
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:How To]]
[[Category:Comics with color]] 
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Deleted comics]]
[[Category:Footnotes]]

2641: Mouse Turbines

2022-07-06T20:23:25Z

172.70.86.44: Undo revision 288326 by 108.162.246.212 (talk)-no

{{comic
| number = 2641
| date = July 4, 2022
| title = Mouse Turbines
| image = mouse_turbines.png
| titletext = It's sad seeing those videos of turbine blade being torn apart in high winds, but it's the only way they can disperse their seeds.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a RENEWABLE ENERGY RODENT - Elaborate on the title text. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Beret Guy]] and [[Megan]] are walking during the summer, where Beret Guy expresses his appreciation for typical features of a summer day. Though, considering the rest of the comic, Beret Guy could mean there are {{w|Cloud computing|large (or popular) server farms}} [[908: The Cloud|somewhere]] and that the bugs are {{w|Zoom (software)|video chatting}}. He also mentions "wind turbines" put up by field mice, which Megan initially assumes to be referring to {{w|Taraxacum|dandelions}} (similar to the wordplay that Beret Guy utilized in [[1322: Winter]].) However, Beret Guy turns out to be speaking literally, as he picks up what is in fact a tiny {{w|wind turbine}}, says to [https://www.dandelionpress.com/dandelion-blog/2015/4/6/how-to-wish-on-a-dandelion make a wish,] and blows into it. This causes the blades of the turbine to spin rapidly, generating a lot of power for the structure it is connected to, thus causing a field mouse to cheer in excitement.

The comic was published on the 40th anniversary of the film release of {{w|The Secret of NIMH}},[https://twitter.com/DonBluth/status/1543282578173489153] a story featuring field mice and rats who escaped from a lab experiment which left them with a similar intelligence to human beings. The story takes place as the rats strive to achieve self-sufficiency, so that they no longer need to steal power from human-built electrical lines. (The novel this film was based on, {{w|Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH}}, describes the experiments and the rats' struggles in more detail.)

The title text builds on the similarities between small wind turbines and dandelions by claiming that turbines reproduce by dispersing their blades, in the manner of dandelion {{w|seed dispersal}}. Randall's suggestion of turbine seeds conflicts with Beret Guy's assertion that the turbines were built by field mice.

== Efficacy ==

Sadly, the power output per size of wind turbines increases with their size,[https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/wind-turbines-bigger-better] a limitation not shared by other forms of renewable energy such as {{w|solar panel}}s and {{w|pico hydro}}. According to [https://www.omnicalculator.com/ecology/wind-turbine this calculator], a 10 centimeter radius wind turbine powered by a 5.7 meter/second breath[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215098616300830] would produce one watt at just 26% efficiency.

Further frustrating mouse use of wind power, {{w|Wind gradient|windspeed increases logarithmically with height}} above ground. Windspeed is reported as its value 10 meters above ground, where it is 1.5 times faster than at ground level.[https://www.nooutage.com/wind.htm] In the U.S., where Randall lives, average year-round windspeed is about 15 km/h,[https://sciencing.com/average-daily-wind-speed-24011.html] or about 2.8 m/s at ground level, yielding only 0.11 watts from such turbines. However, a typical adult mouse weighs 25 grams,[https://web.jhu.edu/animalcare/procedures/mouse.html] compared to about 81 kilograms for humans in the U.S.,[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3408371/] so we could estimate that mouse electricity needs would be about 0.03% of people's.{{Dubious}} The average U.S. residential customer uses 1,242 watts of electricity,[https://www.electricchoice.com/blog/electricity-on-average-do-homes/] 0.03% of which is 0.37 watts. Therefore, the three turbines visible in this comic could serve about 89% of a mouse's needs. While this figure does not account for necessary {{w|home energy storage}} efficiency (92.5% for the {{w|Tesla Powerwall}}) overhead, mice usually live much less extravagantly than typical Americans,{{citation needed}} so three turbines per mouse should be sufficient.

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

:[Megan and Beret Guy are walking on grass.]
:Beret Guy: Ahh, summer!
:Beret Guy: The clouds are big, the bugs are zooming,

:[Beret Guy stops walking. There are three small trefoil structures and a tiny building on the grass in front of him.]
:Beret Guy: and the field mice have put up their little wind turbines.

:[Beret Guy picks up one of the turbines. Under the turbine there is a wire attached to the ground.]
:Megan (off-panel): You mean dandelions?
:Beret Guy: No.

:[Beret Guy holds the turbine in front of him.]
:Beret Guy: Make a wish!

:[Beret Guy blows into the turbine blades and makes them spin. The wire transfers electricity towards the ground.]
:''Puff''
:⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
:Voice at ground level: Yaaay!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:2641: Mouse Turbines

2022-07-06T08:11:57Z

172.70.86.44:

Is anybody going to try to calculate the amount of power such a turbine could collect? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 19:24, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Good idea; what should we use for an estimate of the geometry for https://www.omnicalculator.com/ecology/wind-turbine ? The final panel makes it look like the blade diameter is about twice the size of a fist. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215098616300830] says "exhaled air velocity varies from 2.2 m/s to 9.9 m/s (5.66 ± 1.57 m/s, mean ± SD) and exhalation time varies from 2.10 s to 8.21 s (4.42 ± 1.73s, mean ± SD)."
:I guessed 10 cm radius and used that mean breath speed. I should have used the top 9.9 m/s though, shouldn't I? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 20:56, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:After a closer look at that article, the mean is more appropriate. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 21:19, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
: I'm not sure how you'd judge that it's twice the size of a fist, given that stick people don't really have fists. I would assume that they're meant to be about the same size as dandelion heads - so about 3 or 4 cm (unless US dandelions are bigger than UK ones). They certainly look about that size in the second panel. You'd also need to factor in problems of interference, given the 'planting density' of these turbines, and the sub-optimal location surrounded by grasses, etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 08:08, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

Although these miniscule wind turbines don't generate much power, mice probably don't need much. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:17, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:That's certainly a fair point. How much power would a mouse-sized fridge need? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 21:23, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
::Mice consume a lot more food per body weight (especially for body heat because heat transfer scales with surface area, not mass/volume) than humans. Mouse-sized fridge efficiency would also be poor both because of the same size issue and reduced room for insulation. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::A 480 ml insulin travel fridge uses 5 watts on a 3% duty cycle depending on the ambient temperature and how much it's loaded, so that's in the realm of possibility, and seems large enough. I used to feed lab mice about 5 grams of Purina Lab Rodent Chow daily, which was maybe 8ml volume, but it doesn't need to be refrigerated. Googling suggests field mice can get all the water they need from a diet of seeds. It seems to me that if mice could use electricity, they'd need it more in the winter than the summer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 22:01, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Someone please check my mouse energy needs math and assumptions. I made a couple misplaced decimal mistakes getting to where it is now, and I'm going to have another beer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 22:17, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Not sure about numbers but some (if not most) energy requirements scale by surface area ({{w|Square–cube law}} or other measurements. There are also efficiency issues with at least lots of human-made miniature machines. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::What energy requirements scale by surface area? Pumping water, cooking, and refrigerating scales by mass. Converting footcandles to lumens depends on area, but that doesn't account for much lower mouse ceilings. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.6|172.69.34.6]] 22:27, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

I'm confused by the statement that smaller turbines are less "efficient". There's nothing about efficiency at that link. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.43|172.70.114.43]] 22:33, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:The graph shows the ratio between size and output has risen from about half to 85%. What is a better term for this? I'm pretty sure one of the multiple definitions of efficiency is technically correct, but it can never hurt explaining better. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.113|172.69.33.113]] 22:42, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Changed to "relative power output" but I'm not sure that captures the idea very well either. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.113|172.69.33.113]] 22:44, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

Well wind turbines may not scale down ideally but still better than nuclear power plants. I suspect those have fixed minimal size and it's pretty big. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:32, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

:Apparently nuclear power can be [https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-294 "as small as a button cell"] but mice are vulnerable to radioactive hazards, and haven't solved the waste disposal problem. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 23:45, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

Isn't the power output of a solar panel directly dependent on its size (and wether it's covered with snow, angle to the sun, clouds? And prolly something I'll think of as soon as I hit save).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.106|172.70.131.106]] 23:55, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Yes, but the power per size doesn't increase with size like wind turbines do. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.63|172.69.33.63]] 00:01, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

What is the smallest Tesla Powerwall available for purchase? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.163|172.70.206.163]] 02:00, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:You probably want an {{w|18650}} or similar cell, which are [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsJMj7FtroY frequently discarded on the street] and thus easily obtainable by mice. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.171|172.69.33.171]] 03:02, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Why doesn't pico hydro have the same problems scaling down as wind? They're both fluid turbines. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 02:24, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:For the same reasons that small fans have several vanes, but large wind turbines have only three. I remember reading something about the physics (it's a laminar versus turbulent thing) but I can't remember the details now. I'll update here if I can find it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 03:08, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:[https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/why-do-wind-turbines-have-three-blades/ Here's part of it,] but doesn't really get to the heart of the matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 03:10, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:I think it has more to do with the relative magnitude of drag in gases instead of liquids. I don't have a good source though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 03:21, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::Turbine efficiency (especially for very small turbines) mostly depends on pressure differential and mass throughput. Water has three orders of magnitude higher density than air. Also, even with just a meter of water column, water offers a 10 kPa pressure differential while you only rarely get that much of a pressure differential in air (at the same height) even between areas of high and low pressure usually at least dozens (and commonly hundreds) of miles apart (there may be exceptions for things like tornadoes but good luck using their wind power), certainly not between the high and low pressure sides of a turbine. Efficiency in practice mostly depends on moved mass (of turbine blades, etc) compared to moved medium (water or air), friction (mount, generator, maybe a gearbox) compared to total power input and (if electricity is desired) generator efficiency which itself depends on generator size and rotation speed (hence the need for a gearbox). For a very small turbine, all those things would need to be extremely light as well. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Who is Beret Guy telling to make a wish - Megan or the mice? -- [[User:Ken g6|Ken g6]] ([[User talk:Ken g6|talk]]) 04:48, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

[https://www.cornel1801.com/animated/Secret-of-NIMH-1982/pictures/64.jpg I must tell you about NIMH.] - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.81|172.70.254.81]] 16:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Sometimes the explanation is funnier than the comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.159|172.68.133.159]] 03:28, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2641: Mouse Turbines

2022-07-06T08:08:21Z

172.70.86.44:

Is anybody going to try to calculate the amount of power such a turbine could collect? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 19:24, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Good idea; what should we use for an estimate of the geometry for https://www.omnicalculator.com/ecology/wind-turbine ? The final panel makes it look like the blade diameter is about twice the size of a fist. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215098616300830] says "exhaled air velocity varies from 2.2 m/s to 9.9 m/s (5.66 ± 1.57 m/s, mean ± SD) and exhalation time varies from 2.10 s to 8.21 s (4.42 ± 1.73s, mean ± SD)."
:I guessed 10 cm radius and used that mean breath speed. I should have used the top 9.9 m/s though, shouldn't I? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 20:56, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:After a closer look at that article, the mean is more appropriate. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 21:19, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
: I'm not sure how you'd judge that it's twice the size of a fist, given that stick people don't really have fists. I would assume that they're meant to be about the same size as dandelion heads - so about 3 or 4 cm (unless US dandelions are bigger than UK ones). You'd also need to factor in problems of interference, given the 'planting density' of these turbines, and the sub-optimal location surrounded by grasses, etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 08:08, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

Although these miniscule wind turbines don't generate much power, mice probably don't need much. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:17, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:That's certainly a fair point. How much power would a mouse-sized fridge need? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 21:23, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
::Mice consume a lot more food per body weight (especially for body heat because heat transfer scales with surface area, not mass/volume) than humans. Mouse-sized fridge efficiency would also be poor both because of the same size issue and reduced room for insulation. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::A 480 ml insulin travel fridge uses 5 watts on a 3% duty cycle depending on the ambient temperature and how much it's loaded, so that's in the realm of possibility, and seems large enough. I used to feed lab mice about 5 grams of Purina Lab Rodent Chow daily, which was maybe 8ml volume, but it doesn't need to be refrigerated. Googling suggests field mice can get all the water they need from a diet of seeds. It seems to me that if mice could use electricity, they'd need it more in the winter than the summer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 22:01, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Someone please check my mouse energy needs math and assumptions. I made a couple misplaced decimal mistakes getting to where it is now, and I'm going to have another beer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 22:17, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Not sure about numbers but some (if not most) energy requirements scale by surface area ({{w|Square–cube law}} or other measurements. There are also efficiency issues with at least lots of human-made miniature machines. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::What energy requirements scale by surface area? Pumping water, cooking, and refrigerating scales by mass. Converting footcandles to lumens depends on area, but that doesn't account for much lower mouse ceilings. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.6|172.69.34.6]] 22:27, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

I'm confused by the statement that smaller turbines are less "efficient". There's nothing about efficiency at that link. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.43|172.70.114.43]] 22:33, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:The graph shows the ratio between size and output has risen from about half to 85%. What is a better term for this? I'm pretty sure one of the multiple definitions of efficiency is technically correct, but it can never hurt explaining better. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.113|172.69.33.113]] 22:42, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Changed to "relative power output" but I'm not sure that captures the idea very well either. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.113|172.69.33.113]] 22:44, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

Well wind turbines may not scale down ideally but still better than nuclear power plants. I suspect those have fixed minimal size and it's pretty big. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:32, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

:Apparently nuclear power can be [https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-294 "as small as a button cell"] but mice are vulnerable to radioactive hazards, and haven't solved the waste disposal problem. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 23:45, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

Isn't the power output of a solar panel directly dependent on its size (and wether it's covered with snow, angle to the sun, clouds? And prolly something I'll think of as soon as I hit save).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.106|172.70.131.106]] 23:55, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
:Yes, but the power per size doesn't increase with size like wind turbines do. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.63|172.69.33.63]] 00:01, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

What is the smallest Tesla Powerwall available for purchase? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.163|172.70.206.163]] 02:00, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:You probably want an {{w|18650}} or similar cell, which are [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsJMj7FtroY frequently discarded on the street] and thus easily obtainable by mice. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.171|172.69.33.171]] 03:02, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Why doesn't pico hydro have the same problems scaling down as wind? They're both fluid turbines. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 02:24, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:For the same reasons that small fans have several vanes, but large wind turbines have only three. I remember reading something about the physics (it's a laminar versus turbulent thing) but I can't remember the details now. I'll update here if I can find it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 03:08, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:[https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/why-do-wind-turbines-have-three-blades/ Here's part of it,] but doesn't really get to the heart of the matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 03:10, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:I think it has more to do with the relative magnitude of drag in gases instead of liquids. I don't have a good source though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 03:21, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::Turbine efficiency (especially for very small turbines) mostly depends on pressure differential and mass throughput. Water has three orders of magnitude higher density than air. Also, even with just a meter of water column, water offers a 10 kPa pressure differential while you only rarely get that much of a pressure differential in air (at the same height) even between areas of high and low pressure usually at least dozens (and commonly hundreds) of miles apart (there may be exceptions for things like tornadoes but good luck using their wind power), certainly not between the high and low pressure sides of a turbine. Efficiency in practice mostly depends on moved mass (of turbine blades, etc) compared to moved medium (water or air), friction (mount, generator, maybe a gearbox) compared to total power input and (if electricity is desired) generator efficiency which itself depends on generator size and rotation speed (hence the need for a gearbox). For a very small turbine, all those things would need to be extremely light as well. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Who is Beret Guy telling to make a wish - Megan or the mice? -- [[User:Ken g6|Ken g6]] ([[User talk:Ken g6|talk]]) 04:48, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

[https://www.cornel1801.com/animated/Secret-of-NIMH-1982/pictures/64.jpg I must tell you about NIMH.] - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.81|172.70.254.81]] 16:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Sometimes the explanation is funnier than the comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.159|172.68.133.159]] 03:28, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

2626: d65536

2022-07-01T05:25:22Z

172.70.86.44: Undo revision 287935 by 172.70.210.125 (talk) #1, what don't you find intuitive? The prism answer? Surely not... #2, you want {{actual citation needed}} if you actually need a citation.

{{comic
| number = 2626
| date = May 30, 2022
| title = d65536
| image = d65536.png
| titletext = They're robust against quantum attacks because it's hard to make a quantum system that large
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HEXAKISMYRIAPENTAKISCHILIAPENTAHECTATRIACONTAKAIHEXAHEDRON - The claim in the trivia that the numbers refer to a comic, should be substantiated with an explanation. If true interesting, if not... Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In binary computing, 16 bit unsigned numbers range from 0 to 65535, for a total of 65536 unique numbers, a number which is hence well-known to software engineers. Generating large numbers in a manner that is truly random is a recurring problem in cryptography, required to send private messages to another party. People today still use dierolls to generate private random numbers.

In role-playing games (and occasionally in other tabletop games), multiple shapes of dice are often used to generate random numbers in specific ranges. By convention, these are referred to as d''n'' according to their number of faces. A traditional six-faced die would be a d6, and many popular pen-and-paper role-playing games use dice ranging between d4 and d20. While there are larger dice used in tabletop games (most commonly d100), these are usually split into multiple smaller ones. For example, a d100 is often two d10s rolled together, with one die providing the first digit and the other die giving the second digit — the total number of possible combinations (100) is the product of the number of faces of the two dice (10 * 10). While "real" {{w|Zocchihedron|d100s}} and other large-numbered dice do exist, most people consider them to be impractical: they need to be either impractically large or have very small faces (resulting in small print for the numbers), they're close enough to being spheres that it's difficult to get them into a stable resting position, and even if they are stationary, determining which face is "on top" is difficult to do by eye. The Zocchihedron (d100) die is also difficult to ensure as unbiased because of geometry requiring dissimilar faces and therefore a different mixture of 'stopping factors' for each face it could land upon. The largest unbiased die is a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disdyakis_triacontahedron d120] (excluding the bipyramids, which can theoretically be made with arbitrarily many sides), so it is very likely that [[Cueball|Cueball's]] d65536 die is also biased.

Here, Cueball has constructed a d65536 for generating random 16 bit numbers. It may have solved the problem of generating large random numbers with fewer die rolls, but it magnifies all of the problems with large-numbered dice to ludicrous extremes. In order for the faces to be readable, the die is ridiculously huge, dwarfing the human standing next to it. Rolling such a die is not only physically challenging, but it would also need a huge space in which to roll if the result is to be random, and that space would need to have an extremely flat and rigid surface in order for the die to come to rest. And even if those problems were solved, simply getting to a vantage point to see the top of the die would be a major challenge, and determining which number was truly on top would be near impossible to do by eye. If one really wished to use dice, it would be much easier to simply use multiple dice rolls. For instance, one could roll eight d4 dice (or use 16 coin flips), and convert the result into binary. This has the same randomness as a single die roll{{fact}}?, but can take much longer, so people do purchase d16s to simplify it and speed it up.

The closest regular shape similar to the depicted in the comic could be a {{w|Goldberg polyhedron}}. However, no such polyhedron exists with exactly 65536 hexagonal faces. The closest Goldberg Polyhedron has a mixture of 65520 hexagons and 12 pentagons, totaling 65532 faces. It is possible to construct a fair die without a matching regular shape by limiting the sides which it could land on and designing those sides to be fair (for instance, a prism with rectangular facets that extend its entire length, and rounded ends to ensure it doesn't balance on end).

The title text references how cryptographic systems (especially RSA and other factoring-is-hard based systems) are vulnerable to quantum attacks as quantum computing technology develops. The title text is essentially punning on the idea of a "large" quantum system. "Large" in the quantum computing sense would be on the order of 64 qubits each of which would be an atom or two at most. This would still be microscopic and will never be as large as the giant die the comic is centered on; but for a well-observed environment and human rolling without sufficient entropy (consider somebody obsessed with a certain number dropping the die on something soft), a conventional computer could predict some rolls. See also [[538]] for non-mathematical paths of cryptography.

==Transcript==
:[A large sphere with a several lines, and in some places grids, are shown. Cueball, standing next to it, is dwarfed by its size, as it is at least seven times as tall as he is. The sphere has many lines following various great circles or parallel lesser circles around the curve of the sphere, and some patches of cross hatching to suggest further texturing along these lines hovering just below the degree of most of the illustrative detailing. The lines and grids cover the sphere in three layers of parallel axes, angled sixty degrees from each other, implying a huge mesh of equilateral triangles or hexagons. In the top right part of the ball is a black circle. An arrow points to this circle, and the end of the arrow goes to a larger circle that partly obscures the rightmost part of the sphere. The circle shows a zoom in on the surface in the black circle on the sphere. The zoom shows a small portion of the sphere's surface, showing that the grid comes along because the sphere is divided into elongated hexagonal faces with numbers up to at least five-digits. Seven numbers can be fully seen, but there are nine other faces partly shown, five of these with part of their numbers visible, one of these clearly only have four digits. One of the empty faces must also have a number with only 1-3 digits, as no numbers are visible although a significant part of the face is visible.]

:[Here follows the numbers in the zoomed in part of the sphere, with "..." represents numbers being cut off. The numbers are read in lines left to right, even though the numbers are tilted from down towards the right, which could have suggested a different reading order.]
:30827
:16[bottom part of a cut-off line][small cut-off circle]
:...38
:11875
:25444
:...[top part of a cut-off line]5
:12082
:28525
:3 [left part of a cut-off line]...
:13359
:13874
:[Two cut-off lines, likely the start of the number 2]...

:[Caption below the image:]
:The hardest part of securely generating random 16-bit numbers is rolling the d65536.

==Trivia==
*If a real d65536 were constructed with each number having an equal area and each printed in 12 point font, the resulting die would be about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter, which isn't several times the size of a person as the comic suggests, but is still large enough to be hilariously inconvenient. If it were made out of standard acrylic, and not hollow, it would weigh about 2 tons (1700kg).
*This die would have a 0.00001526 chance of rolling a natural one (or any other number).
*There are seven 16-bit numbers fully visible in the picture: 30827, 25444, 11875, 28525, 12082, 13874 and 13359. [https://dotnetfiddle.net/fjLYZe They conceal a message.] If these numbers are split big-endian into two 8-bit ASCII characters each, the result is <code>xkcd.com/2624/</code>. For example, converting the first number 30,827 to hexadecimal (in which a four digit number covers exactly 65,536 different values) converts to a hex value of 786B. Splitting this into 78 and 6B, these are the hex ASCII codes for "x" and "k" respectively.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:1955: Robots

2022-06-30T06:16:56Z

172.70.86.44:

The door handle is a lever, which is relatively easy to open. A doorknob would be harder.
[[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 06:04, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Apparently, a lot of the YouTube comments reference "black mirror" a lot. Can someone explain this to someone out of the loop?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.183|162.158.62.183]] 06:22, 14 February 2018 (UTC)Jury76
: {{w|Black Mirror}} is a British science fiction anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker, with Brooker and Annabel Jones serving as the programme showrunners. It examines modern society, particularly with regard to the unanticipated consequences of new technologies. Episodes are standalone, usually set in an alternative present or the near future, often with a dark and satirical tone, though some are more experimental and lighter. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:26, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

: refering to this episode: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_(Black_Mirror)[[Special:Contributions/172.68.253.23|172.68.253.23]] 08:57, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Added a (very basic) explanation of the comic. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 07:27, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

I don't think that the title text is a trope reference. If robots are, indeed, a threat, it will be because various corporate teams have spent a lot of money to develop and build them. Basically, the only mad scientist with the resources to do this would be Elon Musk, who is clearly on record with his concerns about such a possibility. [[User:Schnitz|Schnitz]] ([[User talk:Schnitz|talk]]) 19:26, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Why does the last panel start with "So"? It that some American grammar thing? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.70|198.41.238.70]] 20:36, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

: So why do you suggest this is American? (See what I did there?) Anyway, read more on this usage here: http://www.dictionary.com/e/sentence-initial-so/
: It goes into detail on the many ways "so" is used to start a sentence. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 22:18, 14 February 2018 (UTC)
:: So "so-so" ''so'' describes the American Randall's grammar. (See what I did there? Answered your question, of course.) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.70|198.41.238.70]] 08:21, 15 February 2018 (UTC)
:: I think I answered yours too - I don't believe that usage is limited to American english, even though Randall is indeed American. (Note: moved 2nd half of my earlier post above your reply.) [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 18:16, 15 February 2018 (UTC)
:I don't think any thing in that article describes Randall's "so". This use of "so" is as a perfectly normal coordinating conjunction meaning "For that reason". This is grammatical everywhere English is used. Some people might object to starting a sentence with a conjunction. But that would be prissy. And they would not have a leg to stand on.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.213|162.158.74.213]] 18:30, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

One of my favourite cartoons: "Knowing how it could change the lives of canines everywhere, the dog scientists struggled diligently to understand the Doorknob Principle." -- _The Far Side_
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.220|108.162.216.220]] 05:42, 15 February 2018 (UTC) Gene Wirchenko genew@telus.net

When seeing the moment where the dog-bot opens the door, somehow I can't help but think of the scene in the 2005 Doctor Who reboot where Christopher Eccleston's Doctor and Rose are facing the Daleks for the first time, and they go up the stairs. The lack of Daleks' ability to navigate stairs was a longstanding joke in the original series. Then, the Dalek says "ELEVATE!" and the pursuit resumes... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.95|108.162.238.95]] 11:46, 16 February 2018 (UTC)
: That's only a joke among people who weren't fans of the series, and only familiar with it through general pop-culture osmosis. Actual fans of the series will know that Daleks were able to fly back in the 1980s. It was only their ''original'' incarnation when they first appeared back in their very first episode that had serious mobility limitations.

This article is completely incorrect. The title text points out that the people that have the ability to build the robots are the ones who we should be worried about. It's not about "tropes" in "science fiction". In reality the people funding the development of super AI are large corporations and governments. This is a statement about being cautious about the people who hold the power, not the robots themselves. This is the same point Elon Musk and others involved in and worried about AI have made. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.25|172.68.189.25]] 23:50, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Is there any reason to think that Cueball is being sarcastic when he says 'that doesn't sound like humans'? It seems like exactly the kind of thing he'd say sincerely. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.41|162.158.159.41]] 06:12, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Talk:936: Password Strength

2022-06-27T15:49:42Z

172.70.86.44: The commemtator concerned looks to have misunderstood the usual signature positioning (probably bevause the one two items a ove looks like it 'headers' the comment only one item above?)

''Fix the software first.'' If you double the time it takes to enter each repeated password attempt you make brute force attacks pointless. Imagine you allowed a hurried user who screws up their own password entry w/ frozen fingers. If their system starts out with a 1 second delay, then doubles to two, then to four, etc. the time it takes to wait is 2^n. Six screw ups cost you a minute, twenty errors and you are waiting 291 hours before your next log-in attempt.... kmc 2015-05-10 {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.124}}

: That's not how brute force attacks work. They steal the hashes of the passwords and then brute force them locally. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.107|198.41.235.107]] 23:43, 10 January 2016 (UTC)
:: Both are brute force. It is specified in the comic that we assume an attack against a weak remote web service though. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.231|162.158.150.231]] 13:10, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

You still have to vary the words with a bit of capitalization, punctuation and numbers a bit, or hackers can just run a dictionary attack against your string of four words. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:12, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
: Several discussions around the internet around this -- the consensus [ http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/936 looks like] that once this scheme is published it is fairly simple to run a dictionary attack on the password. My advise to most people is to use a password manager like lastpass or onepass that can generate pure random password. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.253.6|162.158.253.6]] 23:52, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

No you don't. Hackers cannot run a dictionary attack against a string of four randomly picked words.
Look at the number of bits displayed in the image: 11 bits for each word.
That means he's assuming a dictionary of 2048 words, from which each word is picked randomly.
The assumption is that the cracker knows your password scheme.
[[Special:Contributions/86.81.151.19|86.81.151.19]] 20:17, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
Willem

:I just wrote a program to bruteforce this password creation method. https://github.com/KrasnayaSecurity/xkcd936/blob/master/listGen936.py Once I get it I'll try coming up with more bruteforcing algorithms such as substituting symbols, numbers, camel case, and the like. Point is, don't rely on this or any one method. I wouldn't be surprised if the crackers are already working on something like this. [[User:Lieutenant S.|Lieutenant S.]] ([[User talk:Lieutenant S.|talk]]) 07:03, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
:It took 1.25 hours to bruteforce "correcthorsebatterystaple" using the 2,000 most common words with one CPU. [[User:Lieutenant S.|Lieutenant S.]] ([[User talk:Lieutenant S.|talk]]) 07:09, 9 September 2014 (UTC)
:: 1) ... as compared to 69 milliseconds for the other method. 2) Since you are able to test 3,9 billion passwords as second (very impressive!) I am guessing that your setup is not performing its attack over a ”weak remote service”, which is breaking the rules of the #936 game. 3) five words and a 20k-wordlist would get you 9400 years (still breaking the weak remote service rule).--[[User:Gnirre|Gnirre]] ([[User talk:Gnirre|talk]]) 09:13, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
:: 2) Two thoughts: You use itertools.permutations, which only covers non-repeating words, but mainly you don't actually hash the password. If you have a plain-text password, there no need to crack the password because you could just look at it. Example of an actual crack for this type of password: https://github.com/koshippy/xkcd_password/blob/master/password_crack.py My computer gets 10,000,000 guesses in ~16 seconds (non-hashed takes ~2 seconds), meaning it would take almost a year to try every combination. (2048^4 total password space). Even optimizing by using c++/java or JtR, you wouldn't see huge improvement since most of the time is from the SHA hashing. Point being: a typical user can't crack this type of password in a short amount of time, even if they know your wordlist. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.212|199.27.128.212]] 12:05, 17 February 2015 (UTC) Koshippy

Sometimes this is not possible. (I'm looking at you, local banks with 8-12 character passwords and PayPal) If I can, I use a full sentence. A compound sentence for the important stuff. This adds the capitalization, punctuation and possibly the use of numbers while it's even easier to remember then Randall's scheme. I think it might help against the keyloggers too, if your browser/application autofills the username filed, because you password doesn't stand out from the feed with being gibberish. [[Special:Contributions/195.56.58.169|195.56.58.169]] 09:01, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

The basic concept can be adapted to limited-length passwords easily enough: memorize a phrase and use the first letter of each word. It'll require about a dozen words (you're only getting 4.7 bits per letter at best, actually less because first letters of words are not truly random, though they are weakly if at all correlated with their neighbors -- based on the frequencies of first letters of words in English, and assuming no correlation between each first letter and the next, I calculate about 4 bits per character of Shannon entropy). SteveMB 18:35, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Followup: The results of extracting the first letters of words in sample texts (the {{w|Project_Gutenberg|Project Gutenberg}} texts of ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', ''The War of the Worlds'', and ''Little Fuzzy'') and applying a {{w|Entropy_(information_theory)|Shannon entropy calculation}} were 4.07 bits per letter (i.e. first letter in word) and 8.08 bits per digraph (i.e. first letters in two consecutive words). These results suggest that first-letter-of-phrase passwords have approximately 4 bits per letter of entropy. --[[User:SteveMB|SteveMB]] ([[User talk:SteveMB|talk]]) 14:21, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Addendum: The above test was case-insensitive (all letters converted to lowercase before feeding them to the [[http://millikeys.sourceforge.net/freqanalysis.html frequency counter]]). Thus, true-random use of uppercase and lowercase would have 5 bits per letter of entropy, and any variation in case (e.g. preserving the case of the original first letter) would fall between 4 and 5 bits per letter. --[[User:SteveMB|SteveMB]] ([[User talk:SteveMB|talk]]) 14:28, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

I just have RANDOM.ORG print me ten pages of 8-character passwords and tape it to the wall, then highlight some of them and use others (say two down and to the right or similar) for my passwords, maybe a given line a line a little jumbled for more security. [[Special:Contributions/70.24.167.3|70.24.167.3]] 13:27, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
:Remind me to visit your office and secretly replace your wall-lists by a list of very similar looking strings ;) --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 13:53, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Simple.com (online banking site) had the following on it’s registration page:

“Passphrase? Yes. Passphrases are easier to remember and more secure than traditional passwords. For example, try a group of words with spaces in between, or a sentence you know you'll remember. "correct horse battery staple" is a better passphrase than r0b0tz26.”

Online security for a banking site has been informed by an online comic. Astounding.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.78|173.245.54.78]] 21:22, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

The Web service Dropbox has an Easter egg related to this comic on their sign-up page. That page has a password strength indicator (powered by JavaScript) which changes as you type your password. This indicator also shows hints when hovering the mouse cursor over it. Entering "Tr0ub4dor&3" or "Tr0ub4dour&3" as the password causes the password strength indicator to fall to zero, with the hint saying, "Guess again." Entering "correcthorsebatterystaple" as the password also causes the strength indicator to fall to zero, but the hint says, "Whoa there, don't take advice from a webcomic too literally ;)." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.95|108.162.218.95]] 15:17, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

The explanation said that the comic uses a dictionary[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=936:_Password_Strength&oldid=59309]. In fact it's a word list, which seems similar but it's not. All the words in the word list must be easy to memorize. This means it's better not to have words such as ''than'' or ''if''. Also, it's better not to have homophones (''wood'' and ''would'', for example). The sentence ''dictionary attack'' doesn't apply here. A dictionary attack requires the attacker to use all the words in the dictionary (e.g. 100,000 words). Here we must generate the 17,592,186,044,416 combinations of 4 common words. Those combinations can't be found in any dictionary. At 25 bytes per "word" that dictionary would need 400 {{w|tebi|binary terabytes}} to be stored. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 21:37, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

This comic was mentioned in a TED talk by Lorrie Faith Cranor on in March 2014. After performing a lot of studies and analysis, she concludes that "pass phrase" passwords are no easier to remember than complex passwords and that the increased length of the password increases the number of errors when typing it. There is a lot of other useful information from her studies that can be gleaned from the talk. [http://www.ted.com/talks/lorrie_faith_cranor_what_s_wrong_with_your_pa_w0rd Link]. What she doesn't mention is the frequency of changing passwords - in most organizations it's ~90 days. I don't know where that standard originated, but (as a sys admin) I suspect it's about as ineffective as most of our other password trickery - that is that it does nothing. Today's password thieves don't bash stolen password hash tables, they bundle keyloggers with game trainers and browser plugins.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.75|173.245.50.75]] 18:14, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Lorrie Faith Cranor gets the random part of #936 word generation correct, which is great. Regarding memorizability, this study (https://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2012/proceedings/a7_Shay.pdf) does not address #936. The study uses no generator for gibberish of length 11. Most comparable are perhaps two classes of five or six randomly assigned characters. None of the study's generators has 44 bits of entropy – its dictionary for the method closest to #936 – noun-instr – contains only 181 nouns. The article contains no discussion of the significance of these differences to #936. In her TED Lorrie Faith Cranor says ”sorry all you xkcd fans” which could be interpreted as judgement of #936, but there is no basis in the above article for that. It does however seem plausible that the report could be reworked to address #936. --[[User:Gnirre|Gnirre]] ([[User talk:Gnirre|talk]]) 10:42, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

:Password-changing frequency isn't about making passwords more ''secure'', but instead it's about ''mitigating the damage'' of a successfully cracked password. If a hacker gets your password (through any means) and your password changes every 90 days, the password the hacker has obtained is only useful for a few months at most. That might be enough, but it might not. If the hacker is brute forcing the passwords to get them, that cuts into the time the password is useful. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.168|173.245.54.168]] 22:22, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
::However, brute-forcing gets much ''easier'' that way.
::Say the average employee is around for 10 years, which is reasonable for some companies , absurdly high for others, and a bit low for a family business. That's 40 password changes.
::Now if you have to remember another password every now and then, you sacrifice complexity, lest you forget it. A factor of 40 is like one character less. But how much shorter will the password be? It's more likely that it's gonna be 3 or 4 characters less. Congrats, you just a factor of 1000's for a perceived "mitigation", which doesn't even work. Pro attackers can vacuum your server in a DAY once they have the PW. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Just because you are required to have a password that has letters and numbers in it doesn't mean you can't make it memorable. When caps are required, use CamelCase. When punctuation is required, make it an ampersand (&) or include a contraction. When numbers are required, pick something that has significance to you (your birthday, the resolution of your television, ect.). Keep in mind that, if your phrase is an actual sentence, the password entropy is 1.1 bits per character (http://what-if.xkcd.com/34), so length is key if you want your password to be secure. (Though no known algorithm can actually exploit the 1.1 bits of entropy to gain time, so it might be more like 11 bits of entropy per word. Even then, my passwords have nonexistent and uncommon words in them, (like doge or trope), which also adds some entropy.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.213|108.162.246.213]] 22:18, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
:Flip side of the story, the "capital plus small plus other char" policy doesn't make your password any safer.
:The German company T-online had an experimental gateway with the password, "internet". Now that sucked. No problem, tho, because that gateway wasn't accessible from outside. When they went live, they "improved" the password to "Internet1". There are still lots of these passwords around: first letter is a Cap, and the only non-alphabetic char is a 1 at the end. This doesn't add any entropy. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
::[http://ask.metafilter.com/193052/Oh-Randall-you-do-confound-me-so#2779020 This] shows that about one third of all digits in a sample of passwords was "1" . [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:14, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
You can also troll the brute-force engine by using words from other languages, fictional books and video games.--[[User:Horsebattery|Horsebattery]] ([[User talk:Horsebattery|talk]]) 03:04, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
:That's a good idea; it adds to the entropy bits per word. If you really want to throw them off, mix different languages. Just don't use very well-known words; I'm sure the hackers have ''cojones'' and ''Blitzkrieg'' in their dictionaries. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Also, passwords that are 'hard to remember' are themselves a security vulnerability. A password reset scheme (or even a lockout scheme) is a vulnerability. The more it needs to be used, the harder it becomes to police that vulnerability. Relatedly, hard-to-remember passwords leave users uncertain whether their password has been changed by someone else or they've just forgotten it. [[User:Ijkcomputer|Ijkcomputer]] ([[User talk:Ijkcomputer|talk]]) 15:32, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi there, this comic gave me the idea for a password generator that can (optionally) use dictionary words. Have a look if you're interested: https://wordypasswords.com Use your common sense though about what is and isn't secure! Hope someone finds it useful. [[User:Mackatronic|Mackatronic]] ([[User talk:Mackatronic|talk]]) 08:23, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

I have not read all of the replies and in truth most of the detail is boring to me but it has occurred to me that with this sort of problem and since the Snowden affair, serious security devices will have to make the keyboard redundant.

At the moment all I can imagine is a series of pictures like hieroglyphs but even using a rolling code of ever changing font glyphs would do. When the security required by money minders reaches the stage of development possible with keyboards that can supply that sort of security, we will have some idea which banks have some idea about security.

Tip:
Not Barings. They have an history of intransigence and stupidity. (Still revered in banks though as able to cure colon cancer with poor investment strategies.)

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 13:46, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

The D0g..................... (24 characters long) is NOT stronger than PrXyc.N(n4k77#L!eVdAfp9 (23 characters long). The reason why, is that the later password is random. There is no pattern. The former, "padding" technique can be very easily cracked. You just need to assume that each character be repeated 1~30 times. Then the first password would become : 1(D)1(0)1(g)21(.), which, is then of complexity 30^4 + 96^4, versus 96^23 for the random password. And that is assuming that any character can be repeated 1~30 times, so DDDDDDDDD0000000ggggggg...... also would be cracked extremely quickly. If you limit yourself to only last character padding, your password now becomes 30*96^4 possibilities. {{unsigned ip|108.162.222.235}}

And that's why it is stupid to explain this kind of joke : it depends on many (MANY) parameters such as brute-force method and encryption/hash algorithm. Giving this kind of (wrong) explanations about "pass cracking" (as if it was always the same way to process ...) is ridiculous. And they talk about entropy .......... Holy shit, go back to school and stop screwing cryptography up. zM_

I just use a password with a ␡ character or two, and ␇ for banks. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.21|108.162.242.21]] 08:33, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I'am astonished that even someone like Schneier don't get 936 right immediately after reading it. So, I think I know what was going on in Munroes mind conceptually. Maybe there are some grans of salt, but I don't have a problem with these. But I do have one (or two) quantitative problem(s) with 936:
* I was not able to find out, how Munroe get the value of about 16 bits of entropy for the "uncommon" nine letter lower case "non-gibberish base word". This would mean: On average, a letter of such a word will have about 1.8 bits of entropy. May be, but how do we know? "Citation needed!" ;-)
* (Secondly: The "punctuation" should have 5, not 4 bits of entropy. There are 32 (2^5) ASCII punctuation characters (POSIX class [:punct:]). But I assume this is a lapse.)
Can someone enlighten me? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.236|162.158.91.236]] 17:31, 19 September 2015 (UTC)
:I have missed the sentence "Randall assumes only the 16 most common characters are used in practice (4 bits)". Hm. There is a huge list with real world passwords out there, leaking from RockYou in 2009. After some processing to remove passwords containing characters that are not printable ASCII characters (ñ, £, ๅ, NBSP, EOT, ...), the list contains about 14329849 unique passwords from about 32585010 accounts (there are some garbage "passwords" like HTML code fragments). The following are the number of accounts using a password containing a particular printable character (one or more tokens of a particular type):
<nowiki>
226673 .
186883 _
179264 !
125846 -
104224 @
95237 *
92802 (space)
60002 #
36522 /
31172 $
28550 &
27686 ,
23905 +
18704 =
18268 )
17927 ?
16401 (
16074 '
14407 ;
11819 <
11118 %
10723 ]
8975 \
7718 [
7209 :
5815 ~
5673 ^
4995 `
2847 "
2741 >
1050 {
939 }
502 |

(NB: 1222815 accounts were using a password containing at least one of these.)
</nowiki>
:Sorry, I have no "citation". But you can play with the leaked RockYou password list yourself. Here is a way to reach that playground:
<nowiki>
$ # Download the compressed list (57 MiB; I have no idea what "skullsecurity"
$ # is, it was simply the first find and I assume it's the said list):
$ wget http://downloads.skullsecurity.org/passwords/rockyou-withcount.txt.bz2

$ # Decompress the list (243 MiB), or, to speak more exact, it's a table:
$ bzip2 -dk rockyou-withcount.txt.bz2

$ # The content of the table is: "How many accounts (first row) were using that
$ # password (second row)?" Let's take a peek:
$ head -n5 rockyou-withcount.txt
290729 123456
79076 12345
76789 123456789
59462 password
49952 iloveyou

$ # The following command processes the table to remove lines with passwords
$ # containing characters that are not printable ASCII characters (14541
$ # lines/passwords, 18038 accounts), and lines insisting that there were some
$ # accounts with no password (1 line, 340 accounts). Moreover, the command
$ # removes every space character not belonging to a password, makes the rows
$ # tab-delimited and writes the result in a file called "ry" (161 MiB; many
$ # bloating spaces removed).
$ LC_ALL=C sed -n 's/^ *$[1-9][0-9]*$ $[[:print:]]\{1,\}$$/\1\t\2/p' rockyou-withcount.txt >ry

$ # The following are shell functions to build commands. They will be explained
$ # below using examples (I can not express myself well in this language).
$ counta() { LC_ALL=C awk 'BEGIN { FS = "\t"; p = 0; a = 0 } { if ($2 ~ /'"$(printf %s "$1" | sed 'sI/I\\/Ig')"'/) { p++; a += $1 } } END { print a " (" p ")" }' "$2" ;}
$ countap() { LC_ALL=C awk 'BEGIN { FS = "\t"; p = 0; a = 0 } { if ($2 ~ /'"$(printf %s "$1" | sed 'sI/I\\/Ig')"'/) { p++; a += $1; print $0 } } END { print a " (" p ")" }' "$2" ;}

$ # We have reached the playground. Here are some examples for how to use the
$ # toys:

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing the string love:
$ counta 'love' ry
671599 (188855)

$ # The first operand of the above command is a extended regular expression
$ # (ERE). The second operand is a file, namely the previously generated file
$ # called "ry", that is the (processed) table. The first number of the output
$ # means: "That many accounts were using a password matching the ERE." The
$ # second number inside parentheses means: "That many unique passwords matching
$ # the ERE." If the first number is greater than the second number, some
$ # accounts sharing the same password (we will see this clearly in one of the
$ # examples below).

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing at least one
$ # character:
$ counta '.' ry
32585010 (14329849)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing exactly one
$ # character:
$ counta '^.$' ry
144 (45)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing exactly one numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '^[0-9]$' ry
55 (10)

$ # Let's have a look at the distribution:
$ countap '^[0-9]$' ry
29 1
6 7
6 3
3 9
3 2
2 6
2 5
2 0
1 8
1 4
55 (10)

$ # Obove we see the second command at work. You see what it does and what it
$ # does different. And here we see clearly the meaning of the first number and
$ # the second number inside parentheses.

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing at least one
$ # numeric character:
$ counta '[0-9]' ry
17609065 (9761364)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password ending with a numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '[0-9]$' ry
15728238 (8313698)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password beginning with a numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '^[0-9]' ry
6409397 (3283946)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing only numeric
$ # characters:
$ counta '^[0-9]+$' ry
5192990 (2346744)

$ # And, last but not least, count how many accounts were using a password
$ # containing that "uncommon non-gibberish base word" in 936, with an upper
$ # or an lower case first letter, with or without some of the "common
$ # substitutions":
$ counta '[tT]r[o0]ub[a4]d[o0]r' ry
3 (3)

$ # Yes, there are some. 14 million unique passwords are a lot. Let's see what
$ # exactly was used:
$ countap '[tT]r[o0]ub[a4]d[o0]r' ry
1 troubador1
1 troubador
1 darktroubador
3 (3)
</nowiki>
:[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.236|162.158.91.236]] 06:23, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Interesting read about the generated password streangth: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/01/friday_squid_bl_508.html#c6714590 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.190|162.158.91.190]] 08:09, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

: That person sounds confused. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.107|198.41.235.107]] 23:43, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

;You've Already Memorized It

Originally I logged in to report a local xkcd related phenomenon, and ask if anyone else had experienced it. The destiny, seemingly inescapable, that at once became my own upon seeing that last panel; the effect of the self-fullfilling combination of the very specific look of inquiry -- one I recognize immediately and associate with the words ''"interesting, Captain"'' -- and the insidiously performative ''"You've already memorized it."'' At first I doubted this was actually the case, but soon I could no longer, since not only did the phrase readily come to the mind and out the mouth, it also came up often. The ''"correct"'' soon replaced the word ''"right"'' in everyday conversation, then ''"right you are"'' and ''"yes"'' and so forth, then its opposite (with a ''"no"'' in front), then replacing the direction, the verb involving pen and paper (the most recent development was merely a quick under the breath aside of an acronym of the remaining words). All followed by the rest of the absurdly perfect password. '''Now here's the kicker: I logged on to tell you all this for some reason, only to find, I had memorized ''"correct horse staple battery"'' instead of ''"correct horse battery staple."'''''[[User:A female faust|A female faust]] ([[User talk:A female faust|talk]]) 03:58, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

:If you go to https://howsecureismypassword.net/ and type in the suggested password in the comic, it says that the password would be cracked instantly, and adds a section titled "xkcd".
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 14:18, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Would you believe it, the guy who made the bad password rules switched his philosophy to this comic's: "Long, easy-to-remember phrases now get the nod over crazy characters" "In a widely circulated piece, cartoonist [[Randall Munroe]] calculated it would take 550 years to crack the password “correct horse battery staple,” all written as one word. The password Tr0ub4dor&3—a typical example of a password using Mr. Burr’s old rules—could be cracked in three days" [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 11:57, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

The 44 bits of entropy breaks down rapidly when you realize in real life, most people will choose a passphrase that contains words like "pass", "phrase", "remember", "long", "company" and quite likely "stupid". It's the passphrase equivalent of "password123". If the words are selected randomly and then assigned to a person, that would fix that problem (but create others, like mistrust of a computer that assigns passwords for you to log into that same computer with). [[User:Nerfer|Nerfer]] ([[User talk:Nerfer|talk]]) 21:19, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

There is one aspect which has been left out the whole time. I do not question things like wordlist length, entropy, or substitutions. However, doing shoulder surfing will either reveal a full password or in parts. A full password should not be topic of discussion. In the case of partial success, it is in the proposed method far easier to guess the rest of the password than in the traditional one. [[User:CommingFromTheSide|CommingFromTheSide]] ([[User talk:CommingFromTheSide|talk]]) 15:16, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

As for "author's 28 bits mistake". I believe that Randall does mean the common lexicon with mangling substitutions. That means that counterexample "J4I/tyJ&Acy" does have 72bits, but nonetheless is irrelevant to character/personage strategy of choosing a memorable yet strong password. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.215.113|172.68.215.113]] 13:17, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Ah... this reminds me of one of my old password.

> It had quote.

> It had comments.

> There were "10e9 characters". (Don't worry, as much as it length backfired, if you types fast, you could type by hand in less than 5 minutes)

> It had typo.

> It had hints of itself in itself.

--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.154.70|172.68.154.70]] 08:22, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Ah yes, now Microsoft has disabled plaintext words in passwords. I can see where they were trying to go with this but it completely backfired for everyone who doesn't use the password "password". -[[User:Alpha2|Alpha2]] ([[User talk:Alpha2|talk]]) 15:20, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

This scheme (four words) was used for the default wifi and admin passwords on a T Mobile wireless home internet gateway received on 2022-Jun-23 --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.146|172.70.175.146]] 14:51, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Talk:1944: The End of the Rainbow

2022-06-27T10:16:34Z

172.70.86.44:

Hey, an early comic that I understand! Typed up a transcript (though the description of the first panel was already there, and the empty explanation already had the Incomplete Explanation set as "Created by a LEPRECHAUN"), but using an iPad and typing in Notes to avoid editing conflicts, so I can't see the comic while I'm typing. So the inherent magic of the Telephone Game comes into play, where the mind likes to summarize and put into different words, LOL! I think I managed to get it completely accurate, though. I'll see if I can come up with an explanation shortly. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:10, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

If you think about leprechauns while thinking about pots of gold then there will indeed be leprechauns at both ends.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.125|162.158.166.125]] 08:09, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

There is a *huge* difference between 10^-7 and 10^7... just fyi[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.82|162.158.2.82]] 08:12, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
:This is one of those cases where the phrase "Orders Of Magnitude" comes in, LOL! Kind of glad someone else beat me to providing an explanation now, not my goof. LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 08:22, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

I don't think that the part about solar gold volume is correct. The density used only applies to gold in solid state in room temperature, and the Sun is neither. In a way, gold indise Sun has the volume of the Sun itself. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.168|162.158.90.168]] 10:41, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
: Yes I realized that a few minutes after posting my original edit, and added a parenthesis to explain that I used the volume that much gold would have on Earth-like conditions. Not that the fact has any concrete application anyway, but I thought it would show that the claim that there is more gold in the Sun than water on Earth can't simply be pictured as an ocean volume of gold. Maybe there's a sea somewhere that's about the right volume and you could say "taking all the gold from the Sun would fill <that particular sea>" [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.16|141.101.88.16]] 11:21, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

:There may be more gold in the sun than water in the oceans but the oceans have a higher concentration of gold than the sun does. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.136|172.69.62.136]] 11:40, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Leprechauns live on the night side of the Sun to avoid being incinerated, that's why we can't see them from this side.
Zetfr 12:46, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
:The night side... Of the sun... Is there a cartoon about this? I feel like there needs to be a cartoon about this. Just one observation: On the night side of the sun, there's no moon? Or if there is, what's lighting it up? ;D This is even better than the "dark" side of the Moon. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:33, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
::Reminds me of this [https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/7awoek/nepal_space_exploration_flag/dpdetpi/ Reddit conversation] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.138|162.158.167.138]] 09:42, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
:::That ''is'' amusing. On that flag, I'm more concerned with why there's a massive explosion depicted on the moon at the top of the flag: It can't be the sun, because the sun goes behind the moon, not the other way around, therefore that starburst must represent a catastrophic explosion of some kind. It's like a space exploration flag made for people with no understanding of astronomy. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 19:03, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

"far more than a [...] leprechaun's pot of gold" - I'm pretty sure a leprechaun's pot of gold is self-refilling, and therefore infinite.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.204|162.158.111.204]] 13:06, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
:Oh no, the pot is just a container they had handy; The pot of gold is the measure of their ransom. ... No idea why I feel so sure of that. I don't think I want to re-read all the lore I studied as a kid to find the source... [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:33, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

did anyone else notice that the cone from the clouds to your eye isn't actually a cone, since it's slightly truncated at the point, otherwise we'd see an ideal point (i.e. not see it.) just me, then. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.170|162.158.88.170]] 13:08, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
:Wellllllll the cone comes to a point inside your eyeball, assuming you have perfect far vision, and then redisperses to project the image onto your retina upside-down and backwards. But we're really starting to split the hairs of 'what is a rainbow' here, as the rainbow is visible from a wide variety of vantage points, and the paths of light (and positions at which the light bounces off the cloud particles) are all different, some minutely, some vastly. Our eye is not a pinhole camera, and different views of the rainbow will enter it and hit the retina at slightly different spots. But the rainbow isn't this set of particular projections. It seems more arguable that the rainbow is either the rough set of cloud vapor that happens to reflect the light from the areas the rainbow is visible combined with this light reflected (a partial, fuzzy circle, and a partial, fuzzy cone) ... or simply the phenomenon of the water and light forming this image to us. Where is the rainbow???? If you move closer, it will move too! It's over there if and only if you are over here. It's certainly in that direction ... right? Or is it just in your brain? Maybe the rainbow is in your eyes for perceiving scattered light at all. Rainbows kind of violate the consensus we've come to in language about referring to objects. Perhaps they show that our language is insufficient to describe all of our experiences accurately. It looks pretty in the sky over there. That's a rainbow! It looking pretty in the sky with a curved band of color. Like a blur. Where is the blur? Okay; now I agree with Randall; the rainbow exists on your retina, and in the projected image you see, which forms a cone shape. But somebody else can see the same rainbow, and their cone is different! So clearly that's insufficient. It's like having the idea of a shared projected image. Like a reflection. Where is the reflection? There we go. Perhaps if the reflection is in the mirror, the rainbow is in the clouds.[[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 18:26, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
::Two monks were watching a flag flapping in the wind. One said to the other, “The flag is moving.”
::The other replied, “The wind is moving.”
::Huineng overheard this. He said, “Not the flag, not the wind; mind is moving.” --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.170|162.158.88.170]] 13:58, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

I think the logic of the title text is: gold is at the other end of the rainbow is there, because in that moment the person (his/her brain) is thinking about the gold. To put in a dumber way: when you think about gold, then gold is in your brain, ergo if your brain is one end of the rainbow, and you're wondering if there's gold at the end of the rainbow, then in a self-fulfilling way, it is. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.82|162.158.238.82]] 13:53, 19 January 2018 (UTC) .tnm

:I don't think the current title-text explanation makes any sense: The title-text portion of the comic doesn't seem to reference leprechauns at all. Was the comic edited after being posted? [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:33, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

:I fixed the title text explanation. Also does this comic imply that if someone thinks about carnivorous giant neon zombie tomatoes while looking at a rainbow, then they exist at one end? ;) [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 15:45, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the numbers are completly wrong, 0.3 parts per trillion probably comes from [https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-gold-in-the-sun-If-so-how-much-gold-could-be-contained-in-it here] (because the same article was used as a reference at some point in the history of the explanation), but I think this is the ratio of atoms, not mass. The answer on quora uses the same value of 0.3 parts per trillion but instead of 6*10^17 kg of gold, deduces from that number that there is 10^20 kg of golds. One atom of gold is ~195 times as heavy as one atom of hydrogen, and since the Sun is mostly hydrogen and also some heavier elements, the mass of gold over the average mass of atoms in the Sun should be a little below 195. The ratio between 10^20 and 6*10^17 is 167.
There's still a ratio of 20 between that value (10^20 kg) of the mass of gold on the sun and the one [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(abundance+gold+sun)+*+(mass+sun) from wolframalpha], and I'm quite expecting Randall to have used the latter, which is of 2 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers quintillion] tons of gold on the Sun, IE "quintillions of tons" as expressed by Megan. Maybe that value is wrong, but I think it should be mentionned to show that Randall probably didn't just make up a number. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.16|141.101.88.16]] 17:42, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
:I've attempted to get to the bottom of this - Wikipedia gives limited sources. A search for [[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(abundance+gold+sun)|(abundance+gold+sun) on WolframAlpha]] gives 10^-7% by mass, but again, their references don't seem to support that (at least from a brief scan). Quora cites [[http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1968PASAu...1..133A&data_type=PDF_HIGH&filetype=.pdf&type=PRINTER&whole_paper=YES|a 1968 paper] but I can't read that very well - I've attempted to analyse their data but I'm afraid I've been unable to determine how Quora reached their ".3 parts per trillion" from that paper. (I might drag out some textbooks and try again later.) In any case these two numbers are in wild disagreement, even if we assume Quora meant atomic ratios and multiply their number by 197 (atomic mass of gold; gold only has one stable isotope).
:As mentioned, WolframAlpha's number gives 2.0x10^21 kg, or 2 quintillion tonnes, whereas Quora's gives 6.0x10^17 kg, or 0.0006 quintillion tonnes (0.12 quintillion tonnes if we mutiply by 197).
:Of course, none of these results are small! I'd be happy with a pot of gold of even half a quadrillion tonnes. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 20:26, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

How can 'more than' be off by a factor of anything, given that it's non-specific? It could be 'fractionally more than' or 'a thousand times more than'.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.204|162.158.111.204]] 18:07, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
:In this case, because the true amount is LESS than, not more than. (The author of that part of the explanation assumed the minimum amount that could be called "quintillions" is 2 quintillion, and the calculated true amount is 4000 times smaller.) [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 20:30, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Okay, I've got a different quibble about sizes here. Despite the fact that the sun is so far away from the earth that it appears as a relatively small disk in the sky, the sun is thousands of times LARGER than our planet. As such, the longer cone in Megan's explanation is such a gross oversimplification of the way light from the sun works as to be wildly inaccurate. If anything, this cone should be reversed (larger at the sun's end) to illustrate the portion of the sun's light energy that actually hits the whole planet, let alone just the area that any person is looking at when they see a rainbow. (Granted, the angle of the cone would be extremely shallow due to the distances involved, but it would still be larger-to-smaller, not smaller-to-larger as explained here.) The cone as she describes it only makes sense if we're talking about a very small portion of the sun's surface emitting that light. It's unclear to me if this was meant to be a flawed, oversimplified or metaphorical explanation (in which case it's not very clear), or if Randall was actually attempting to explain how this works, but this particular comic feels pretty far "off" to me in that respect, compared to similar comics he's done in the past. [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 02:27, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
:That occurred to me as well. The cone is just from a single point (in the comic's diagram, the centre of the apparent disc of the sun).
:A ray diagram would show that each ray traces a single path, which means it does in fact come from a single point on the sun. For a given colour, therefore, this is correct; the various paths for the rainbow's ring of colour would indeed trace out a cone, from a single point. Other colours would trace out a different cone, but the difference would be the arrival point (on your retina), not the departure point (on the sun).
:My explanation is slightly lacking, in that (a) I haven't considered the variable distances to each individual raindrop, and (b) a verbal description is nothing compared to a diagram. I may try to draw one later, if I have time. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 18:19, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
::The color a cell on your retina sees is not from a single ray. It's from multiple rays that have passed through the area of your pupil, from the area of the sun disc, through the areas on the surfaces of the water molecules that produce the correct angles for each combination of points in your pupil and on the sun given the index of refraction for the water. That's why rainbows look so blurry! [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 20:39, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
: I think the reality is that it isn't a two-ended cone, it's just... a cone. Wide end at the sun, point on your retina, rainbow is where the cone is bent back, bounced in your direction. Megan's explanation is probably just a simplification due to it being difficult to think of the sun as anything but a point. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 00:06, 21 January 2018 (UTC)
:: Given the sun's great distance from the Earth and the Earth's minuscule size in proportion, it is safe to assume that all light rays from the Sun are parallel. This is an assumption made in countless contexts and is close enough to reality for all practical purposes. As such, you've got parallel rays from the sun that get refracted by the rain drops, causing some wavelengths to focus on your retina, forming a cone (with the point at the focal point of your eye's lens). So the shape we're probably really talking about is a cone from your eye (apex) to the apparent position of the rainbow and a cylinder from there to a similar-sized circle on the sun's photosphere. At least it seems plausible to me. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 21:32, 21 January 2018 (UTC)

Extra credit to Baffo32 for "the value of gold would plummet astronomically". :o) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.204|162.158.111.204]] 23:42, 20 January 2018 (UTC)

The accuracy of Megan's statement is being discussed in https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/24590/how-much-gold-is-there-in-our-sun and their conclusions are contradicting the one published here. I haven't still checked but I think somebody should.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 11:46, 21 January 2018 (UTC)

Relating to the trivia section, couldn't you hold the gold and increase the supply at roughly the growth rate of the economy, which would keep the value consistent? (I mean, technically you couldn't store that much gold, but since we're considering selling it I think we can assume you have a Bag of Holding or something and can store it.) I don't know if I'm misunderstanding economics with this idea though. Also, I don't know how long it would take to sell everything with that strategy, but I imagine you could get your future generations into the scheme, and they could profit too. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.172|198.41.230.172]] 12:04, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

I wonder if the light which refracts in the raindrops to create the image of the rainbow actually come from ONE POINT on the surface of the sun, or come from a 'circle' on the surface of the sun with a radius the size of the apparent rainbow. (The sun is, after all, SEVERAL TIMES the size of the earth.) I remember in physics classes we always treated 'rays of sun' to be parallel to each other, but that may have just been due to the angle between them being so very small. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.29|162.158.79.29]] 17:56, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

The author giving 0.3ppt of gold has misinterpreted the referenced paper. The values in the paper are NOT ppt! The concentration (mass fraction) is calculated as 197 * 10^(0.32 - 12). The value of 0.32 is from the table in the paper, and the value of 197 is the atomic mass ratio of Au to H. This gives a mass concentration of 0.4ppb (0.4 x 10^-9). I have not changed the explanation of the comic because it would require a complete rewrite. Note that other sources give different values for Au. For example, [[http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/~patscott/publications/ApSS_328_179.pdf]] gives a value of 0.92 in the Sun's photosphere, which, if assumed to hold for the entire sun, gives a mass fraction of 1.64ppb! [[User:Sigma9|Sigma9]] ([[User talk:Sigma9|talk]]) 01:27, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Megan says in panel 3: “One end of that cone is your retina”. Another cool thing about this comic is that the neural cells tiling your retina, transducing photon energy into neurochemical signals and thus beginning the pathway through which visual information is transmitted to the rest of your brain, are your “cone” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoreceptor_cell photoreceptors]. So - at the end of all those “inside-out two-ended” optical cones, arising from each point emitter in the sun, are a set of neural cones essential for discerning the rainbow’s poem-inspiring colours. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unweaving_the_Rainbow Unweave the rainbow], indeed! ☺ - Andrew [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.58|162.158.2.58]] 03:41, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

; "Inside out"?

No-one's worked out what an "inside out" cone is then? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.70|198.41.238.70]] 07:50, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
: The "inside out" cone is a reference to the second cone, between the circular reflection of the light and the point it is received in the eye. This cone is "inside out" because the surface which is usually on the interior of a hollow cone is on the outside of the completed shape. A hollow cone would typically be closed off by a circle where the rainbow appears, but because the shape is formed by the path of light from the sun, the shape is instead closed by another cone outside of the one in question - because the closing cone encompasses what is usually considered the outside of the cone in question it becomes the inside, and vice versa, making the cone "inside out"
:--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.7|162.158.158.7]] 23:11, 11 November 2020 (UTC)
::The problem with that is that if the cone doesn't have an end cap then it doesn't *have* an inside and an outside, being topologically equivalent to a disc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 10:16, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2637: Roman Numerals

2022-06-26T17:01:19Z

172.70.86.44:

Immediately came to this site as soon as the comic popped up [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.43|172.70.114.43]] 22:43, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

For anyone wondering about the alt text: "CheCk out thIs InnoVatIVe strIng enCoDIng IVe been DeVeLopIng! It's VIrtuaCy perfeCt! ...hang on, what's a "virtuacy"?" Roman numerals are in uppercase. : [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.209|162.158.90.209]] 23:00, 24 June 2022 (UTC)
:I didn't see this comment, but I decoded it above. Feel free to update with your text, which includes the casing.
::It should be virtually - LL is 50 50, C is 100. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 00:37, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
:By the way, this encoding is not that innovative: back when Roman numbers still meant something to people they were oftentimes hidden inside inscriptions on churches and monuments. If you ever stand in front of a church and wonder why certain letters in a sentence of an inscription are capitalized seemingly at random, this may be the reason. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.231|172.70.250.231]] 06:12, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
::The (almost) exact encoding style of the alt text also was used before, e.g. in works of fiction - the first I can think of is Howard Taylor's Schlock Mercenary (used for AI names) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.45|172.70.242.45]] 13:41, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

Relevant OEIS entry: https://oeis.org/A093788 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.117|162.158.129.117]] 23:43, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Well, I immediately got the comic, when I saw it, but (though I admire the effort put in) the explanation that seems to have been given is... overly long, IMO. I have no wish to invalidate all the thought put into it, but I really feel it says too much. Even by my standards (I'm often a waffler, as I 'improve' the accuracy and all-inclusiveness of such text). But don't want to rain on the existing author(s) parade, myself, so just sayin'... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.15|162.158.159.15]] 02:01, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
:It's not overly long if someone spent the time writing it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:10, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
::I wondered too when first reading but like it geeky like that. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.15|172.68.50.15]] 05:37, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
:I've repeatedly had my edits, longer and shorter, reverted completely away. I've occasionally started the same to manage the experience. Your opinion is a breathe of fresh air but I wouldn't be worried about increases in quality that shorten the text. One can even leave concepts in by replacing them with links. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.241|172.70.110.241]] 12:01, 26 June 2022 (UTC)
::One thing you learn, when contributing to a wiki, is that you better be prepared to [https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-does-it-mean-to-kill-your-darlings Kill Your Darlings], or have them killed by others. The many's the time I've written something I'm (eventually) quite pleased about, but it gets wiped out either by someone disagreeing with my particular form of self-satisfaction, or just completely rearranging things and either crashing through the carefully crafted copy or ruthlessly removing my radient repartee. But such is life...
:And often I feel that whoever got in there with the first footprint of explanation has ''not'' done it the way I would (surprisingly often I had the same idea, but obviously there are so many ways to do it... but here I may disagree entirely rather than "I'll happily work with it, then, however different it is...") and I might be ''very'' tempted to replace it wholesale. I don'5 think I have ever done so, but I might tweak it a ''lot'', in bits and pieces. It may still upset an OP who finds it bears little relationship to what they submitted, but I try never to do anything beyond the general hum of the community. Coward that I am. But it can happen to anyone. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 17:01, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

I, in a rather faint and not really concerned way, object to the use of the phrase 'archaic' with regard to Roman Numerals. That would imply that they aren't in use at all, whereas when I look around me I can see a number of examples of current usage of Roman Numerals, e.g. Clock Faces, Chapter Numbering (some books) and the most important, the 'Manufacture Date' of a televisual programme from the BBC shown at the bottom of the end-credits. I believe a better phrase may be 'venerable' or 'historical' or 'unmodern'.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 07:46, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
:I was also thinking that. But maybe qualified as "archaic but still commonly seen" (or similar), were my thoughts. I was wondering if it was a local perspective, though. 'Historical' US usage is rather sparser, I imagine, than the accumulation of Old World monuments/etc, from deeper back into the times it was more usual, so making only the "stylstically old" things predominantly use them (certain clock faces, etc). Meanwhile, even our programmes broadcast on the BBC still regularly close with the date in letters (anything from this year is "MMXXII") on the final frame/line of the credits, while our other broadcasters go with contemporary numerals in the same context. (I wonder, was 1999 "MIMIC", rather than "MCMXCIX"..? I think it was...) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.221|141.101.98.221]] 11:58, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
::In mathematics, Roman numerals are archaic (obsolete, no longer in active use), common use is just for numbering (monarchs - themselves a somewhat archaic concept, generations of using the same name, events, sequels, volumes, paragraphs or appendices, etc.) or very occasionally for years (e.g. of construction) - "archaic" is correct even if you mean from the/an archaic period which may be the period when a civilization built the foundation for a later "classical" period ("Golden Age") (some exemptions may apply) or specifically the time of the Greek archaic era leading up to Classical (Hellenic) Greece, usually defined some time between about 800 and 480 BCE (they did (probably) originate from the Roman archaic period which overlaps with the Greek one) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.45|172.70.242.45]] 13:41, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

In case anyone is interested, I created a small encoder/decoder program (Python+PyQt): https://gist.github.com/MaurizioB/6bedeca961b5152006d030f56f817a2f [[User:Musicamanate|Musicamanate]] ([[User talk:Musicamanate|talk]]) 17:05, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-23T22:52:52Z

172.70.86.44:

I've started the table to explain all the calendar entries. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:19, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Is the dog minutes calculation backwards? 777,777 dog minutes should be 777,777 x 7 human minutes, which is over 10 years. Randall seems to be dividing instead of multiplying. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:36, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: No - 1 human year = 7 dog years; 1 dog year = 1/7 human year; 1 dog minute = 1/7 human minute; 777,777 dog minutes = 111,111 human minutes = 77 days, 3 hours, 51 minutes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 11:32, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

First entry is probably mistake by Randall, e^pi would give value of 84.5 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.38|162.158.203.38]] 11:57, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: That would be too high, though. 82.xxx days (from midnight at the start of launch day) would fall within the 83rd day before it (Jun 22). 84.5 would fall within the 85th (Jun 20). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 12:15, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Not sure if this is even worth mentioning, but he forgot the box around the date number in the top corner for August 29th. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.151|172.70.126.151]] 12:49, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Fyi, used wolfram alpha for most of the calculations. Seems to be able to handle anything I throw at it (nanocenturies, megaseconds, fortnights etc) [[User:Aditya95sriram|Aditya95sriram]] ([[User talk:Aditya95sriram|talk]]) 13:02, 23 June 2022 (UTC)aditya95sriram

Some of the calculations done forward (assuming what Randall means as a Generation, for example) might be best done as "to get this many days, what does Randall think ilhe is starting from. And see if 365, 365.25 or even 365.24 days per year works best, where relevent. Although I think in many cases you'll find the fractional differences negligable, when done right. (I'm also a bit surprised by the off-by-one errors in days-to-go and derived value, but I suspect that this is because of [[2585: Rounding|assymetric rounding effects]] that would be revealed by running the assumption backwards and seeing how different (or otherwise) the decimals actually are.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.211|172.70.85.211]] 13:32, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: I would suggest using 365.2425 days per year, as that's consistent with current leap year conventions. [[User:Dansiman|Dansiman]] ([[User talk:Dansiman|talk]]) 21:49, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:: Did not see your comment, but already done trivial replacement. No recalculation that goes more complicated than magnitude, though.
::(For the mathematically curious, in the Gregorian calendar it's normally 365 days, but a leap day every four years (+0.25 => 365.25), except no leap day every century (-0.01 => 365.24), except there is every fourth century (+0.0025 => 365.2425). Which is very very close to the more astronomically-precise figure of 365.2422, at least at this point in our planet's history and definitely over the timescale of the Gregorian calendar itself.)
::On the other hand, the old adage is "no use being precise over imprecise details". One can perhaps apply it to nominal decades (the true average decade; though a given decade might be 10*365 days plus either ''two'' or ''three'' leap-days, for 3652.5±0.5 days in that instance... not equally likely each way, though) but the Generations calculation already ''assumes'' 27 years per generation (not even 27.5, exactly half way between 22 and 33, which already seems a dubious backformation to suit other purposes) and gets a good-enough ''approximate'' number. Using a factor precise to around 1 in 146000 alongside one that's unlikely to be even as accurate as 1 in 54 is a bit rich and overly anal (rather than analytic) in the long-run.
::But this is explainxkcd, so I'm not saying it's misplaced, just that those who would be pedantic about everything (myself included) might find themselves even more out-pedanted in very reasonable circumstances... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 22:47, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Not sure about most numbers but at least the order of magnitude seemed plausible. I can't quite find a proper way to read August 28th. π^π^π is roughly 80662.666 - if you read πcoseconds as "picoseconds", that's way less than a second. I have no idea what π * coseconds are supposed to be. π * c * o * seconds doesn't look much better - there are values associated with "c" (speed of light, for example) but I have no idea what "o" could be and certainly nothing that would make this a unit of time. Sixteen days would be 1,353,600,000,000,000,000 ps (picoseconds). π^π^π^π is three orders of magnitude too small, π^π^π^π^π is many orders of magnitude too big a number. Am I missing something (really obvious, maybe?) here? [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 14:52, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: Exponent towers are by convention evaluated top-down, so pi^pi^pi should be read as pi^(pi^pi), which is ~1.34e18, which in picoseconds is ~15.51 days. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.71|172.70.114.71]] 15:21, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

10,000 minutes in Heaven is making out for a week. I was able to find a record for the longest kiss (58 hours, 35 minutes), but not the longest make-out session. I think Randall may be indulging in some nerdy wishfull thinking. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:27, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

When the beer song reached F(0) how would you 'take one down' from -1 bottles of beer? Would they be imaginary bottles of beer? (Joking) At F(n-1) would there be a matter/antimatter annihilation, where Randal could do a riff of What-If #1 and describe the play by play of the bartender turning into exotic forms of matter? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.88|172.69.68.88]] 15:58, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:(Not ✓-1, it's just straight repeated subtraction, not a power function...) After so much beer, you probably think it a good idea (even necessary) to fill cans up and start to put them back up on the wall... Not sure you could sustain it, to the point of F(-99), but I think someone'd be more than ready to start the process when F(-1) is invoked, for any group of just a few likely individuals.. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 16:23, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:This begs the question of what beer bottles are doing on a wall, rather than a shelf. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:26, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

We've finally filled in all the units columns in the table. Hopefully someone can automate turning that into a transcript. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:51, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Funfact: This comic mentions Cyndi Lauper by name, and it was published on her birthday… [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.27|162.158.38.27]] 20:51, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Looks like someone's math is wrong on the explanation for July 18. I calculated using 4681 and 4763 years and they came out to 51.29 days and 52.19 days, respectively. So then I worked backwards and determined that Randall would actually have to be using a number closer to 5200 years to arrive at the correct result of 57 days. [[User:Dansiman|Dansiman]] ([[User talk:Dansiman|talk]]) 21:49, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Randall seems to be wrong about "It's a Small World". The song is about 2 minutes long, so at 1/10,000 speed it's 20,000 minutes = 14 days. He seems to be using a length a little over 3 minutes. I found a YouTube video of the ride that's 3:45, but the song ends at 2:15 and the rest is silent. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:16, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxRW-duSCLA This video of it] on YouTube lasts 3:02. It was uploaded by Universal Music Group (allied with Disney), making it some kind of 'official' version, and its length fits Randall's calculation. (Also, thanks for making the table!) [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 22:38, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-23T22:52:07Z

172.70.86.44: Yeah, I said Julian instead of Gregorian... Correcting and enhancing.

I've started the table to explain all the calendar entries. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:19, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Is the dog minutes calculation backwards? 777,777 dog minutes should be 777,777 x 7 human minutes, which is over 10 years. Randall seems to be dividing instead of multiplying. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:36, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: No - 1 human year = 7 dog years; 1 dog year = 1/7 human year; 1 dog minute = 1/7 human minute; 777,777 dog minutes = 111,111 human minutes = 77 days, 3 hours, 51 minutes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 11:32, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

First entry is probably mistake by Randall, e^pi would give value of 84.5 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.38|162.158.203.38]] 11:57, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: That would be too high, though. 82.xxx days (from midnight at the start of launch day) would fall within the 83rd day before it (Jun 22). 84.5 would fall within the 85th (Jun 20). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 12:15, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Not sure if this is even worth mentioning, but he forgot the box around the date number in the top corner for August 29th. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.151|172.70.126.151]] 12:49, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Fyi, used wolfram alpha for most of the calculations. Seems to be able to handle anything I throw at it (nanocenturies, megaseconds, fortnights etc) [[User:Aditya95sriram|Aditya95sriram]] ([[User talk:Aditya95sriram|talk]]) 13:02, 23 June 2022 (UTC)aditya95sriram

Some of the calculations done forward (assuming what Randall means as a Generation, for example) might be best done as "to get this many days, what does Randall think ilhe is starting from. And see if 365, 365.25 or even 365.24 days per year works best, where relevent. Although I think in many cases you'll find the fractional differences negligable, when done right. (I'm also a bit surprised by the off-by-one errors in days-to-go and derived value, but I suspect that this is because of [[2585: Rounding|assymetric rounding effects]] that would be revealed by running the assumption backwards and seeing how different (or otherwise) the decimals actually are.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.211|172.70.85.211]] 13:32, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: I would suggest using 365.2425 days per year, as that's consistent with current leap year conventions. [[User:Dansiman|Dansiman]] ([[User talk:Dansiman|talk]]) 21:49, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:: Did not see your comment, but already done trivial replacement. No recalculation that goes more complicated than magnitude, though.
::(For the mathematically curious, in the Gregorian calendar it's normally 365 days, but a leap day every four years (+0.25 => 365.25), except no leap day every century (-0.01 => 365.24), except there is every fourth century (+0.0025 => 365.2425). Which is very very close to the astronomically-precise figure of 365.2422, at least at this point in our planet's history and definitely over the timescale of the Gregorian calendar itself.)
::On the other hand, the old adage is "no use being precise over imprecise details". One can perhaps apply it to nominal decades (the true average decade; though a given decade might be 10*365 days plus either ''two'' or ''three'' leap-days, for 3652.5±0.5 days in that instance... not equally likely each way, though) but the Generations calculation already ''assumes'' 27 years per generation (not even 27.5, exactly half way between 22 and 33, which already seems a dubious backformation to suit other purposes) and gets a good-enough ''approximate'' number. Using a factor precise to around 1 in 146000 alongside one that's unlikely to be even as accurate as 1 in 54 is a bit rich and overly anal (rather than analytic) in the long-run.
::But this is explainxkcd, so I'm not saying it's misplaced, just that those who would be pedantic about everything (myself included) might find themselves even more out-pedanted in very reasonable circumstances... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 22:47, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Not sure about most numbers but at least the order of magnitude seemed plausible. I can't quite find a proper way to read August 28th. π^π^π is roughly 80662.666 - if you read πcoseconds as "picoseconds", that's way less than a second. I have no idea what π * coseconds are supposed to be. π * c * o * seconds doesn't look much better - there are values associated with "c" (speed of light, for example) but I have no idea what "o" could be and certainly nothing that would make this a unit of time. Sixteen days would be 1,353,600,000,000,000,000 ps (picoseconds). π^π^π^π is three orders of magnitude too small, π^π^π^π^π is many orders of magnitude too big a number. Am I missing something (really obvious, maybe?) here? [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 14:52, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: Exponent towers are by convention evaluated top-down, so pi^pi^pi should be read as pi^(pi^pi), which is ~1.34e18, which in picoseconds is ~15.51 days. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.71|172.70.114.71]] 15:21, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

10,000 minutes in Heaven is making out for a week. I was able to find a record for the longest kiss (58 hours, 35 minutes), but not the longest make-out session. I think Randall may be indulging in some nerdy wishfull thinking. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:27, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

When the beer song reached F(0) how would you 'take one down' from -1 bottles of beer? Would they be imaginary bottles of beer? (Joking) At F(n-1) would there be a matter/antimatter annihilation, where Randal could do a riff of What-If #1 and describe the play by play of the bartender turning into exotic forms of matter? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.88|172.69.68.88]] 15:58, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:(Not ✓-1, it's just straight repeated subtraction, not a power function...) After so much beer, you probably think it a good idea (even necessary) to fill cans up and start to put them back up on the wall... Not sure you could sustain it, to the point of F(-99), but I think someone'd be more than ready to start the process when F(-1) is invoked, for any group of just a few likely individuals.. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 16:23, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:This begs the question of what beer bottles are doing on a wall, rather than a shelf. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:26, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

We've finally filled in all the units columns in the table. Hopefully someone can automate turning that into a transcript. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:51, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Funfact: This comic mentions Cyndi Lauper by name, and it was published on her birthday… [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.27|162.158.38.27]] 20:51, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Looks like someone's math is wrong on the explanation for July 18. I calculated using 4681 and 4763 years and they came out to 51.29 days and 52.19 days, respectively. So then I worked backwards and determined that Randall would actually have to be using a number closer to 5200 years to arrive at the correct result of 57 days. [[User:Dansiman|Dansiman]] ([[User talk:Dansiman|talk]]) 21:49, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Randall seems to be wrong about "It's a Small World". The song is about 2 minutes long, so at 1/10,000 speed it's 20,000 minutes = 14 days. He seems to be using a length a little over 3 minutes. I found a YouTube video of the ride that's 3:45, but the song ends at 2:15 and the rest is silent. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:16, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxRW-duSCLA This video of it] on YouTube lasts 3:02. It was uploaded by Universal Music Group (allied with Disney), making it some kind of 'official' version, and its length fits Randall's calculation. (Also, thanks for making the table!) [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 22:38, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-23T12:31:12Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ One of the stupid edits from that annoying individual that still needed undoing. (Restoring version that it had overwrit, pending any better ideas)

{{comic
| number = 2636
| date = June 22, 2022
| title = What If? 2 Countdown
| image = what_if_2_countdown.png
| titletext = If you don't end the 99 Bottles of Beer recursion at N=0 it just becomes The Other Song That Never Ends.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT IS WONDERING ABOUT THINGS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic takes the idea of {{w|Advent calendar}}s, and takes it to the extreme. It uses rather absurd and/or obscure ways to measure the amount of time until [[Randall]]'s new book What if? 2 is released, with esoteric units or esoteric numbers. And often both.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Days !! Date !! Units !! Exact value !! Explanation
|-
| 83 || Jun 22 || πe millidecades || 82.0304 days || π =~ 3.14159, e =~ 2.718, so πe is about 22.459. A millidecade is 1/1000 decade, or 1/100 year, or about 3.6525 days. Multiplying these results in 82.03 days.
|-
| 82 || Jun 23 || 7 megaseconds || 81.0185 days || 7,000,000 seconds
|-
| 81 || Jun 24 || e lunar months || 80.27247 days || A lunar month =~ 29.53059 days, e =~ 2.718
|-
| 80 || Jun 25 || 60 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 79.67 days || The Foucault's pendulum measures and/or prooves earth's rotation. Possibly a reference to the Bogdanow brothers who used pointless circumlocutions with the Foucalt pendulum as tech babble in their fake dissertation
|-
| 79 || Jun 26 || 8 milligenerations || 78.84 days || A generation is in general 22-33 years, the mean is 27; so 8 * 0.001 (mili) * 365 (not accounting for leap years) * 27 =~ 78.84 days
|-
| 78 || Jun 27 || 777,777 dog minutes || 77.16 days|| A popular myth is that dogs age 7 times faster than humans, so 1 dog minute equals 1/7 human minutes.
|-
| 77 || Jun 28 || 7! episodes of Jeopardy! (skipping ads) || 77 days || 7!=7*6*…=5040 - The standard episode of Jeopardy is 22-26 minutes skipping ads - taking the lowest value you get 110880 minutes total which is the exact value needed.
|-
| 76 || Jun 29 || 5,000 repeats of 99 Bottles of Beer || ||
|-
| 75 || Jun 30 || 5 baker's fortnights (15 days) || 75 days || A {{w|baker's dozen}} is a dozen (12) plus 1 extra item. Randall has generalized this to adding 1 to any unit. A fortnight is 2 weeks, so a baker's fortnight is 15 days. 5x15 is 75 days.
|-
| 74 || Jul 1 || √2 dog years || 73.79 days||
|-
| 73 || Jul 2 || π millivics (1/1000th of Queen Victoria's reign) || || Queen Victoria ruled between 20 June 1837 and 22 January 1901.
|-
| 72 || Jul 3 || 42 drives from NYC to LA (Google Maps estimate) || || According to Google Maps, the drive from New York City to Los Angeles via I-80 E takes 41 hours.
|-
| 71 || Jul 4 || 1,000 viewings of ''Groundhog Day''|| 70.14 days|| Using 101-minute run time.
|-
| 70 || Jul 5 || 100,000 minutes || 69.44 days||
|-
| 69 || Jul 6 || 1/10th of Martian year || 68.70 Earth days || Martian sidereal and tropical years both round to 687.0 Earth days
|-
| 68 || Jul 7 || 1,234,567 sound-miles || ||
|-
| 67 || Jul 8 || 2^π^e seconds || ||
|-
| 66 || Jul 9 || 2^16 beats (Swatch Internet Time) || ||
|-
| 65 || Jul 10 || 1,000 ISS orbits || ||
|-
| 64 || Jul 11 || || ||
|-
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==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}

1747: Spider Paleontology

2022-06-21T10:38:01Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1747
| date = October 17, 2016
| title = Spider Paleontology
| image = spider_paleontology.png
| titletext = Whenever you see a video of birds doing something weird, remember: Birds are a small subset of dinosaurs, so the weirdness of birds is a small subset of the weirdness of dinosaurs.
}}

==Explanation==
This Monday comic was the first in a [[:Category:Time traveling Sphere|series]] of two comics that continued in the next release [[1748: Future Archaeology]] on Wednesday. Both comic in this series have titles of a noun followed by a field of research.

A {{w|time travel|time-traveler}} (the black floating energy Sphere) visits the present day from the far future. {{w|Spiders}} are the Sphere civilization's current craze, just as {{w|dinosaurs}} are currently our craze. The {{w|Jurassic Park}} media franchise began with the {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|first film}} in 1993 and the year before the release of this comic in 2016, the fourth movie {{w|Jurassic World}} were released with at least {{w|Jurassic_Park#Fifth_film_.282018.29|one more film}} in development. We also have {{w|Dinosaur World (theme parks)|theme parks}} and kids dressing up as dinosaurs.

The time-traveler arrives in the presence of [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]], and tells them who it is and why it is here, to see spiders which they learned about through {{w|fossils}} (See the explanation of the next comic about the strange fact that it speaks English). Megan points it towards a spider sitting in its web; the Sphere is awestruck to see the object of its obsession in the living flesh, but seeing it sitting in it's web, the Sphere asks why it has been caught. Megan realizes that because it only knows about spiders from fossils, it could come as a big surprise that the spiders sit in their webs like this. {{w|Spider web|Spider silk}} does in fact {{w|Spider#Fossil_record|fossilize in amber}} (and most fossils of spiders are also found in {{w|amber}} because the soft body of a spider does not easily {{w|petrify}}). The reason we know that silk threads in amber are the spider's web is because we can compare fossils with the spiders of today. If not for the fact that we knew about spiders' webs in advance, it would be hard to say if we would have made the connection from the amber fossils. The Sphere is thus surprised to see the spider in a web since they had not understood any possible hint of spider webs in the fossil records, from which the Sphere's civilization gathered all their knowledge of spiders. Spiders have been on Earth at {{w|Spider#Evolution|least for 380 million years}} and are still thriving and more than 40,000 species are known.

With our current knowledge, we know that webs are an essential part of a spider's life. Making sense of a spider's life is practically impossible without including their webs. However, the future-people have done just that until now; discovering how wrong they are is bound to become an intense experience for them. It should be noted that there have been multiple present-day discoveries of fossilized spiders' webs preserved in amber - however, since fossils forming like this is a rare event, it is quite possible that none would have been found (or rediscovered our own current stock) by the future-people.

Megan immediately connects the fact that the Sphere did not know about spider webs to our current understanding of dinosaurs: If a future civilization thinks they understand spiders based on fossils, while missing something as essential as their web, what is the human civilization missing about dinosaurs? Cueball quickly catches on, and Megan asks if they can borrow the time-machine to experience their own revelations about dinosaurs just like the revelation the Sphere has just had about spiders.

The title text calls back to one of [[Randall|Randall's]] favorite facts (see [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs]]) - that {{w|birds}} are technically part of the {{w|clade}} ''Dinosauria''. Birds do lots of weird stuff - like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY starlings flocking], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7QZnwKqopo the dances of birds of paradise], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y lyrebird mimicry] or [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii_w8og8RXg petrels puking stomach oil]. Randall says that for every time a bird does something weird then it is likely that dinosaurs would have had equally strange behaviors, and birds are only a small subset of all dinosaurs. So there would have been even more strange behaviors among the dinosaurs than among the present days birds. It is, however, basically impossible to tell from the fossil record. All we know is that dinosaurs had features such as display feathers (like on a {{w|Peafowl}} (a descendant of dinosaurs)), {{w|neck frill|neck frills}}, and crests (like on the {{w|Dimetrodon}}, which lived before the dinosaur with which it is not related) which likely played a role in mating and territorial shows.

It is unclear what the Sphere is. Since it states that what they know about spiders comes from fossils on our planet, it seems likely that the Sphere is neither human nor from our planet. So most likely they are a space traveling species and not human. The appearance as a sphere may either be an indication that they did not travel in person but rather only look out at the past through the energy sphere, or it may be that these aliens are actually spheres, floating as energized objects in space. In that case this is an actual alien floating in front of Megan and Cueball. It seems like the Sphere's civilization already had the spider craze before they invented time travel, and they decided to use time travel the first time to go back to see real spiders on Earth. This also tells us that they are from so far into the future that there are no spiders left. Of course with climate changes etc. going on, that may not necessarily be too far into the future. As long as the human race (or knowledge of spiders) has also disappeared from Earth. But since the Sphere itself tells us that it comes from a distant future, the setting is not related to how fast humans and spiders becomes extinct. As is seen in the next follow up comic, there is very little left of our current civilization, and no records of spiders and their webs.

This is the second comic with special mentioning of a science related directly to spiders, the first being [[1135: Arachnoneurology]].

In this comic Randall manages to combine no less than three of his favorite recurring subjects with [[:Category:Time travel|time travel]], [[:Category:Spiders|spiders]] and, of course, [[:Category:Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]].

==Transcript==
:[The Sphere, a time-traveler depicted as a solid floating black energy sphere surrounded by six outwardly-curved segments) seems to have materialized in front of Megan and Cueball who is in the right part of the panel facing left towards it. The Sphere looks like this except in the zoom in from panel two. A voice emanates from the Sphere.]
:Sphere: I'm here from the distant future!
:Megan: Cool! What for?
:Sphere: ''Spiders!''

:[A close-up of the Sphere, still depicted as a black sphere, but not perfectly round at this zoom level and also clearly with some white dots in the dark area. It is also now surrounded by seven (rather than six) narrow rays with irregular dots between the rays. Megan answers it from off-panel.]
:Sphere: We've learned about your planet's spiders from fossils.
:Sphere: There's a whole spider craze. We have spider theme parks, spider movies, spider costumes...
:Sphere: Such beautiful animals!
:Megan (off-panel): I guess...

:[Same setting as in the first panel but Megan is pointing left past the Sphere.]
:Sphere: Now we've got time travel, so I'm here to see one for myself!
:Megan: Sure! There's one over there!

:[The Sphere floats over a leafless branch sticking out of the ground. A spider web is strung between the left border of the panel (four spokes) and the branch (three spokes). A spider (almost as large as the Sphere) sits in the center of the web. Megan answers it from off-panel.]
:Sphere: ''Woowwww!''
:Sphere: What's that giant net it's caught in?
:Megan (off-panel): You mean its web?
:Sphere: Its what?

:[Same setting as in the first panel.]
:Megan: Oh, right, fossils. So you wouldn't know about...

:[In a frame-less panel only Megan is shown facing left while she ponders. Beat panel.]
:Megan: ...

:[Again a scene similar to the first.]
:Megan: Oh my God. Dinosaurs must have been ''so weird''.
:Cueball: Holy crap, yeah.
:Megan: Listen, can we borrow your time machine?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Time traveling Sphere]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2519: Sloped Border

2022-06-15T19:22:40Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ .A choice between ..to respect/to be respecting. Went for the latter.

{{comic
| number = 2519
| date = September 22, 2021
| title = Sloped Border
| image = sloped_border.png
| titletext = "The slope will be 74° at ground level." "Okay, I think we can hack together a ... wait, why did they specify ground level? It's 74° everywhere, right? ... Oh no, there's a whole section in the treaty labeled 'curvature.'"
}}

==Explanation==

Every country has land and sea {{w|international borders}} that demarcate the extent of their territory and their legal jurisdiction. These borders are established through law, treaty, or consensus. Establishing an international border is maintained by present-day customs, immigration, and security checks. Some countries (like {{w|Cyprus}}) have established a {{w|buffer zone}} outside of their international border in order to gain additional protection during a conflict, and most countries have an offshore {{w|Exclusive Economic Zone}} in order to preserve exclusive proprietorship of marine resources such as oilfields and fishing grounds.

In this comic, Cueball and Blondie have established a "sloped" international border through a treaty. Usually borders are perpendicular to the ground{{citation needed}} so that all the air(space) above the ground belongs to the same country. This is called {{w|Air sovereignty}}. Thus it suffices to define the border on the earth surface, as 1D lines across the curved 2D surface. The precise definition is that a line from the center of the Earth through the point of the border is drawn. Sloped terrain is immaterial to the border of the air sovereignty which is still vertical, even if not perpendicular to the terrain.

If the borders were sloped (with respect to the horizontal ground level) an airplane would need to know its precise height to decide if another country's jurisdiction currently applies. With the help of the {{w|Global Positioning System}} this would be in principle possible, although the height information of GPS is less reliable. (It might be possible to program a computer to use altitude data from the airplane's altimeter along with latitude and longitude data from the GPS and a relevant ground relief database to make an accurate determination.)

Most countries would not agree to a border that cuts into their airspace and shrinks their territory as the altitude increases; most cases of countries losing area have come about as a result of trying to avert, or losing, an armed conflict. It is entirely possible that Cueball's country has compelled Blondie's country to accept its demands, of which the redrawn border is one. Alternatively, Cueball's country may be deliberately reducing its own airspace purely because it will cause problems.

There is at least one famous case of a border being affected by elevation: the Franco-Swiss border bisects the staircase of the {{w|Hotel Arbez}}. Hence, although part of the upper floor is geographically in France, the entire floor is Swiss territory, because it is only accessible through Switzerland.

The mathematical computation for an angled air sovereignty seems relatively straight-forward at low level and could be expressed with a single line of code or a single equation, although the people acting on the information are likely unfamiliar with code and equations and likely use tools with completely no support for sloped borders. The mention of curvatures in the title text may reveal some emergent problems that need accounting for.

A totally straight line drawn far enough upwards at an angle will find the surface of the Earth curving away beneath it (not even considering terrain undulations) and the angle to the local vertical will reduce as it continues, tending towards vertical as you head towards infinite altitude.

Alternately (although it seems this is not the case) the profile of the sloped border may be assumed to remain at a constant angle to the shifting vertical, in which case it describes a certain {{w|Logarithmic spiral|form of spiral}} (which will eventually loop around the earth).

A third option is that it gains altitude at a constant rate, with respect to the passage of land measured on its surface track, to form a {{w|Archimedean spiral|different spiral}}, in which case it will still loop around the Earth but at an angle that increasingly tends towards horizontal.

While the comic doesn't mention this, such a boundary should probably also extend underground, in the opposite direction. (The straight-line version, if implemented, will eventually reach a depth at which it is tangential to the radius and then rise back through the surface an equal distance further around the planet.) This would then impact, at practical depths for such things, planning rights for property foundations and, at deeper levels, mining rights for minerals.

Practically, an upper-limit to a nation's claim (somewhat below satellites, e.g. the Karman Line) and a lower limit (well before reaching the Earth's mantle) will prevent many of these complications, together with intersections with other (probably vertical) 'territorial volume' borders that will supercede in any compound claims to ownership. - However, it is still ''very important'' to specify exactly which curve (i.e. with respect to what) the boundary is designed to be respecting.

"GIS" refers to {{w|geographic information system}}, a set of tools and methods for capturing, analyzing and presenting spatial and geographic data. While altitude is already an (optional) element in the blocks of information, people developing these systems would be inconvenienced by the additional requirements demanded by the border described in the comic.

It is possible this comic is inspired by such boundary disputes as the {{w|Beaufort_Sea#Border_dispute|Beaufort Sea 'wedge'}} which, while in this case perpendicular to the surface, suffers from alternative interpretations of how to extend it from the shoreline out towards international waters.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Blondie are standing on a podium. They are holding a document together between them, filled with unreadable text. On either side of the podium are two informational graphics each on a stand. They are placed a bit behind the back side of the podium. The graphic to the left shows a cross-sectional view of a non-vertical border, shown as a dotted line going up between Cueball and Blondie, who both are standing on the ground. The angle is indicated and noted, and the line tilts towards Blondie's side. The graphic on the right shows a skewed perspective of a similar setup of the non vertical border, shaded so what is behind it becomes gray. There are also some lines on this plane to indicate where it is. It almost looks like a window, but people can move through it. There are also two more persons than on the left, Megan, who is on the same side of the border as Cueball, and another Cueball-like guy standing next to Blondie. Megan is entirely on Cueball's side of the plane, but the other three are positioned so they are intersected by the 'shaded plane' of the border, with the effect that some or most of their bodies are beyond the sloped boundary, in the gray area, but not all. Cueball and Blondie are postureed in a mutual greeting across this border, as the others look on.]
:Cueball: With this treaty, we are proud to announce the creation of the world's first '''''sloped''''' international border!
:Angle: 74°

:[Caption below frame:]
:If I'm ever put in charge of a country, I'm going to spend all my time trying to think of new ways to make life a nightmare for GIS people.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category: Geography]]

Talk:2632: Greatest Scientist

2022-06-14T13:25:08Z

172.70.86.44:

If anyone knows how to get this to work with the bar at the top, please do it! [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:32, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
:[[User:SqueakSquawk4]] for everything to display correctly I think you need to follow the steps here: [[User:DgbrtBOT#When_the_BOT_fails...]] [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 18:43, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
::A) Following them now. B) Bookmarked. [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:45, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
:::Should be fixed now. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 18:49, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

Saying Viviani already proved that the acceleration due to gravity on an object is independent of mass runs into a snag: Viviani suggest that it was Galileo who showed him that. So whether Galileo actually dropped any balls from the Tower of Pisa or was even the first to assert the principle in writing, he seems to be the driving force behind Vivian's proofs of it. Dismissing Galileo here is wrong. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.159|172.69.70.159]] 21:53, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me. Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Figaro.... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.41|162.158.159.41]] 23:22, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

He did this before in 1531, where he combines several principles into a single comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.31|108.162.245.31]] 23:39, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

;Pavlov was inhumane
Pavlov did a lot more than just ring some bells. For example (Trigger warning for dog lovers), he drained them of stomach acid until they were dead for profit alone, and sewed dogs heads onto each other. I think this should be acknowledges. I have put this in the main article, but it has been removes. I've tried re-phrasing, and want to know how well that will stick.
:What do you think should happen. I think it is important to acknowledge, but at the same time it is not directly relevant to the comic. Please discuss. [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 23:16, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
::It was I who removed the first phrasing, and as it is written now I think it's good. Perhaps a trivia section would be appropriate for it, as someone else mentioned, and I saw no problem with having a link in the previous version. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|speak]]) 09:19, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
:Seems most appropriate for a Trivia section and not the main article. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]]

;Two Petri dishes
The title text says that "''One'' of the petri dishes" fell (emphasis added). Is that an obscure reference to the {{w|Twin paradox}}?
:Proposed new text:
{| class="wikitable"
| (Title text) One of the petri dishes fell and one did not || The {{w|Twin paradox}} thought experiment: ... || See {{1432}} || {{w|Albert Einstein}}
|}
::No I think that is very far fetched. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:21, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
::: I have added it, with a "Possible" note next to it. (Or will have in a min)
::: Also, I assume you meant [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]], not [[1432: The Sake of Argument]].
::: Also Also, two Square brackets [ ] around an internal link, not two fancy/curly brackets {} [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 11:23, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
::::I will remove it. There is not sign of twin paradox in that title text! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:24, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

;Height shadow
I'm not sure which scientist (or probably ancient philosophy) it might be referencing, but I get the direct impression that the ''first'' shadow in the spiel (which KarlMann just removed the row for, and I agree that that it was redundant to the latter shadow, insofar as it was written) is directly referencing the principle of using a [https://geometryhelp.net/similar-triangles-calculating-height-tall-objects-using-shadow/ shadow to calculate height], as indicated by the illustration, as opposed to the 'shadow to calculate radius' of the latter one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.227|172.70.90.227]] 10:19, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
: I think you're right, and I may have been a bit hasty. But also, I don't know of any association of that shadow measurement with Eratosthenes. I'd guess that it well pre-dates him (pun not intended). But I have no idea who might have done it first, or whether their name may have been lost to the mists of history, much less any citation to back myself up on this. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 10:23, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
:: No, not hasty, as Erato's involvement was clearly less useful in that bit (and I take it that the ''h2'' local-horizontal to the dog is a typical Randall-joke comparison to the ''h1'' local-height to the tower-top), and it would just invite reversion to have merely cleared out the existing 'explanation' without something convincing to replace it. And I've nothing convincing (or based upon a definite named historic figure, or even an alleged/fabled one) in my mind, because I imagine the principle is Older Than The Pyramids, possibly back to Babylon/Ur/whatever if not even a hunter-gatherer rule-of-thumb.
::(Literally? Making an L with thumb and fingers and touching the thumb onto the end of your nose and sighting the tips of the upheld tips of fingers to a tree you're cutting down is also a pretty decent indicator (a couple of extra strides backwards might be reasonable!) of how far back is a safe distance when felling it. If you don't have that stick often mentioned in the arms'-length method. For some reason... despite being tolerably near at least one tree and having a handy axe available to you... ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.177|172.70.85.177]] 13:23, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

641: Free

2022-06-14T09:55:55Z

172.70.86.44: /* Trivia */ A namesake is usually coincidental (or possibly commonly inspired-by an Ur example, via one or more separate steps) not the direct inspiration...

{{comic
| number = 641
| date = September 25, 2009
| title = Free
| image = free.png
| titletext = Asbestos is bad; definitely get the one on the right. Wait -- this one over here has no swine flu! Now I can't decide.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Asbestos}} is a fibrous material most commonly known and used for its heat-resistant properties. It was commonly used in housing insulation until its astonishingly destructive effects on human lungs were discovered. The use of asbestos in housing is now banned, but asbestos is still quite common in laboratory hot pads, as well as in concrete industrial buildings where the risk of it getting into the air is minimal.

The comic depicts a common advertising trick taken to an absurd extreme; quite clearly all of the cereal products depicted are asbestos-free, but most have opted not to advertise that fact (if it even occurred to them at all) because it should be obvious. A more realistic example can be found in {{w|Confectionery|confectionery}} products, wherein the term "{{w|fat}} free" might be applied when it's clear that {{w|sugar}}, {{w|gelatin}}, and other ingredients involved in the product are in no way related to, or contain, fat. Note that in some countries, like Germany for example, this practice is actually not allowed, since it counts as "misleading advertising".

While the suggestive implication might be that competitive products do not declare as asbestos free because they cannot truthfully say this, the irony may be that the "asbestos-free" disclaimer could also cause a customer to ''distrust'' the product on the grounds of {{w|Damning with faint praise|damning by faint praise}}—if the best thing they can say about a product is that it doesn't contain a toxic building material, do we really want to know what actually ''is'' in this stuff?

The claim in the title text—that a rival product has no {{w|swine flu}}—is equally superfluous, as any food product containing disease-causing viruses would be subject to recalls, severe fines, and quite a few people losing their jobs; the fact that the product is actually on a supermarket shelf implies that it already has a stellar reputation for not causing serious illness.{{Citation needed}} The use of it here could also be a reference to [[574: Swine Flu]].

The competing claims, however, sets up the ''hopefully'' false risks involved in whether to choose the one with definitely no asbestos (but possibly contains swine flu) or the other that definitely has no swine flu (but may include asbestos).

* GenCo probably stands for {{w|Generic brand|Generic}} or General Company and may be a reference to {{w|General Mills}}

* [http://ghostbusters.wikia.com/wiki/Stay_Puft_Marshmallows Stay Puft] is also the company that produces marshmallows in the movie franchise [[wikipedia:Ghostbusters_%28franchise%29| Ghostbusters]].

* [http://redfarmnyc.com/ RedFarm] is a Chinese restaurant in NYC.

Misleading advertising is also the subject of the previous comic [[624: Branding]], and of subsequent comics [[870: Advertising]] and [[993: Brand Identity]].

==Trivia==

* This comic is the TropeNamer of a [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AsbestosFreeCereal trope], as well as being the page image for the trope's entry.

==Transcript==
:[A shelf holds 3 boxes of cereal. Each box shows a bowl of cereal.]
:GenCo Ⓞat Cereal
:StayPuft Oat Cereal
:RedFarm Oat Cereal (with additional text in a star) Asbestos-free!
:I hate whatever marketer first realized you could do this.

{{comic discussion}}

1951: Super Bowl Watch Party

2022-06-10T12:02:16Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ Additional correction

{{comic
| number = 1951
| date = February 5, 2018
| title = Super Bowl Watch Party
| image = super_bowl_watch_party.png
| titletext = It's going to be weird near the end of May when the screen goes blank for over 18 hours.
}}

==Explanation==

The {{w|Super Bowl}} is the annual championship game of the {{w|National Football League}} (NFL), the highest level of professional {{w|American football}}. In late January or early February each year, the winner of the {{w|American Football Conference}} (AFC) plays the winner of the {{w|National Football Conference}} (NFC) to determine the champion. In {{w|Super Bowl LII}} held on Sunday, February 4, (the day before this comic's release), the NFC champion {{w|Philadelphia Eagles}} defeated the AFC champion {{w|New England Patriots}} 41-33. Based on its wide-reaching cultural impact, the Super Bowl is the single most important American football game of the year. Over a hundred million people (across the world) watch it, many of whom are not even fans of American football.

Many people have parties centered on watching the game. The full game lasts around four hours, including breaks for advertisements and a halftime. The halftime show of the Superbowl includes a live musical performance, and is generally considered one of the most prestigious shows in the country, meaning it will generally be an elaborate show by a particularly popular artist or group. Because of the high viewership of the Superbowl, advertising time is very expensive ($5 million for a 30-second national spot, as of 2019). This has led to companies putting substantial resources into producing the commercials, to make them as memorable as possible. The net effect is that the halftime show and the commercials, despite being interruptions to the game, have become attractions in their own right, with some viewers tuning in primarily, or even solely, to watch them.

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] (on the couch) have such a Super Bowl Watch Party going with their friends (hence the title), but in order to watch the game so that the end will be at the start of the next game, they have slowed down the broadcast so the game takes an entire year to watch. Television in the United States is broadcast at [https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-frame-rates/ 29.97 frames per second] (usually rounded up to 30fps) and takes four hours, for a total of 431568 frames. But by slowing the video down by a factor of 2300, the show would last a full year. (Actually it would last 33,119,967 seconds which is 383 days, 18 days more than a year. To make it last a year, minus 4 hours, it should be slowed down by a factor of 2189). Each frame would be shown for about 76.7 seconds. Each day of watching the slow video would cover just under 40 seconds of "actual" time. With this method of viewing, the watchers are instead reduced to analyzing the game frame-by-frame, which may make it easier to understand the sequence of events, but also creates a feeling of tedium.{{Citation needed}}

Due to this extension creating a lack of variety, [[Megan]] tries to make it interesting by guessing the next frame shown will be a cut to a different camera angle. Cuts happen frequently during the broadcast, especially when the ball is not in play, and these cuts may be marked by a black screen. If this is the case, then the cut will be around a minute of nothing to look at at this speed. Megan has a relatively high probability (albeit still incredibly low, with cuts being less than one in every 1000 frames) of being right simply by chance that the next frame will be a cut, but Cueball's tired comment that she always guesses that indicates that the game is so slow or the cuts are so rare that she is almost never correct.

[[Ponytail]] asks if they think the first ad block will come out before the end of February, about 20 days after the start of the Super Bowl show. The ads and halftime show are considered integral parts of the broadcast, and many advertisers debut elaborate commercials especially for this game, since so many people watch it. Many people claim to watch the Super Bowl only for the commercial breaks, as mentioned in [[60: Super Bowl]], and the anticipation for these is exaggerated for this game, as the wait is much longer with the extended broadcast. (In exchange, however, the commercials will be longer, too.)

The title text refers to how, during a commercial break during the 2018 Super Bowl, [https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/02/04/super-bowl-nbc-equipment-failure-blank-screen-super-bowl-commercial/305623002/ only blackness was broadcast for 28 seconds] due to equipment failure at NBC. At the rate they watch it would last almost 18 hours as described (17 hours 53 minutes).

In previous comics regarding the Super Bowl, [[Randall]] has explained that he now watches the Super Bowl ([[1480: Super Bowl]]), despite previously expressing a lack of interest in the game ([[60: Super Bowl]]) or any other sport ([[1107: Sports Cheat Sheet]]). A slowly updating video is similar to the concept behind [[1190: Time]], and is also reminiscent of Douglas Gordon's 1993 art installation {{w|24 Hour Psycho}}. Also, {{w|As Slow as Possible}} is an organ piece that is currently played in a German church - it will end in 2640, after 639 years of continuous playing. The theme of a group becoming interested in frame-by-frame shots is reminiscent of [[915: Connoisseur]]. Related to frame-by-frame film watching is the ''Cinema interruptus'' concept used by film critic {{w|Roger Ebert}} at the {{w|Conference on World Affairs}}, where you first watch a film at normal speed, without interruptions, and then you watch it again, over several afternoons - while everybody present can stop the film at any time, and have a discussion about anything related to the scene. This is also a method that coaches use to discuss recordings of games.

==Transcript==
:[A woman, looking like Megan, walks up to a group of people watching TV. Cueball and Megan (with shorter hair than the walking woman) are sitting on a couch. A Cueball-like guy sits in front of them, while Ponytail lies on the ground, head resting on a hand, in front of a TV, which is quite far from the couch.]
:Woman: Morning. How's the game?
:Cueball: Eagles got to the 26-yard line around midnight. They've been walking across the field since then. Just entered a huddle.
:Megan: I bet the next frame will be a cut.
:Guy on floor: You always say that.
:Ponytail: Do you think the first ads will come by the end of February?

:[Caption below the comic:]
:I'm at a year-round Super Bowl watch party. We're playing the stream at 1/2300x speed, so it will end just as next year's Super Bowl starts.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:American football]]
[[Category:Super Bowl]]
<references/>

2630: Shuttle Skeleton

2022-06-08T13:33:50Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ Starter?

{{comic
| number = 2630
| date = June 8, 2022
| title = Shuttle Skeleton
| image = shuttle_skeleton.png
| titletext = It's believed to be related to the Stellar Sea Cow.
}}

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

The {{w|Space Shuttle}}, a reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system, was used from 1981 to 2011, where after, as mentioned in the caption, it was decommissioned.

With its shape, shown in the small image, and the tail fin, it could look a bit like a fish, maybe even a shark because of the fin. But it is actually not an animal{{citation needed}}.

The joke is that after the shuttle was taken out of use, its skeleton was analyzed, and as shown in the comic, this is the typical skeleton of a mammal, maybe like a whale. Of course the skeleton of a space craft, is not made of bones but of metal and plastic and other manufactured materials. But some would call parts of the space craft for its skeleton.

In the title text the joke is continued by stating that there are other animals related to this Shuttle mammal, and the Stellar Sea Cow is mentioned. Maybe a joke also on the animal {{w|Seahorse}}.

In taxinomy, as the understanding of the natural world developed, many misconceptions were overturned such as that dolphins were 'fish'. Or at least the scientific terminology was tightened. Because of convergent evolution, the tendency for different families of species to adapt similarly to a given environment, it is often not easy to properly visually distinguish the more distantly related creatures from each other just by observing their exterior (e.g. a body that works well in an aquatic environment).

In leiu of a proper genetic analysis, or even sufficient observation of them in the wild, the main progress in understanding the differences was often in dissecting the corpses of creatures found stranded (or possibly caught in nets) or reconstructing them from skeletal remains. Together with fossil evidence, big insights were developed about their origins (and any differences from others' origins).

In this comic, Randall suggests that the nature of the {{w|Space Shuttle}} was in doubt, or misunderstood, until either an intact 'specimen' (of which there are four) has been dissected, or possibly remains reassembled (from the two that were lost in accidents).

The title-text conflates the now-extinct {{w|Steller's sea cow}}, an aquatic mammal, with the word "stellar" that relates to various space-related terms (being of a star or stars, such as inter-stellar space or stellar masses).

==Transcript==
:[In the upper right part of the panel there is a small drawing of the Space Shuttle as seen from above. Beneath it, and to it's left, is a much larger drawing with the same outline as the Shuttle. But this time the outer layers have been removed to reveal the inside. This has revealed a skeleton taking up the entire space inside. The head is in the front, and legs and tail at the rear, with arms and fingers in the wings. Probably looking somewhat like a bats "hand/wings". The bones are white with the frame of the shuttle gray or black. Some of the lines outlining the design of the shuttle is both on the small and the large drawing, along the wings and rear engines. Both feet and arms have five fingers/toes.There seems to be 24 ribs in the very long rib-cage.]

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:The Space Shuttle was long assumed to be a type of fish or shark, but after it was decommissioned in 2011, anaylysis of its skeleton determined that it was actually a mammal.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Space]]

2628: Motion Blur

2022-06-04T01:56:33Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ Some thoughts, ready tobe ripped up by future editors.

{{comic
| number = 2628
| date = June 3, 2022
| title = Motion Blur
| image = motion_blur.png
| titletext = I can't speak for your other subjects, but MY motion was as smooth and natural as the framerate allowed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a bBboOotTt - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[White Hat]] is taking a panning photograph, where the camera rotates. [[Cueball]] notices that the camera's shutter speed is too fast, which could cause the result to look unnatural or too sharp when turning the camera. Cueball decides to solve this problem by making himself blurrier than normal, counteracting the problems of the high shutter speed.

This is similar to a trick actually 'used' by {{w|Flash (DC Comics character)#Jay_Garrick|some fictional characters}} who have the power to make themselves unclear to observers or cameras alike.

The opposing problem is that of a camera not sufficiently matching the relative motion of a moving object, with a shutter speed that is too slow (and may need to be, given the choice of aperture and lighting conditions). Sports photographers must learn how to scan-and-pan their subjects (runners, horses, vehicles, etc) with enough synchronicity to capture them sharply, and possibly seemingly hanging frozen in mid-air against an artistically-blurred background.

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

:[A strip of three panels, featuring White Hat, Cueball and Ponytail. Cueball and Ponytail stand next to each other and White Hat stands to the left of them.]

:[White Hat is facing away from Cueball and Ponytail, and holds a camera.]
:White Hat: Okay, I'm going to pan around.
:Cueball: No, wait, your shutter speed is too fast, it will look choppy if—

:[White Hat turns towards Cueball and Ponytail, now pointing the camera away from the viewer. Cueball clenches his fists and hunches his shoulders.]

:Cueball: ''Hnnnnngh''

:[White Hat is now facing Cueball and Ponytail. Cueball now appears blurry while the others appear similar as to in previous panels.]

:[Caption below panel:]
:Expert photographers can learn to generate their own motion blur to compensate for other people's bad camera settings.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]

Talk:2626: d65536

2022-06-02T12:48:55Z

172.70.86.44:

I wonder: can we even make a fair polyhedron with 65536 faces? In Randal's illustration, the faces seem to be irregular hexagons. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 21:37, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: This is better than my question, which was simply if you could tile a sphere with these. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 23:01, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Definitely possible, just create two identical right pyramids with a 32768-gon base and glue the bases together. [[User:Clam|Clam]] ([[User talk:Clam|talk]]) 23:53, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: Would this design be fair? Consider a set of 256 lines of latitude overlapping another set, with the second set's polar axis at the equator of the first. Cut flat quadrangles between the intersection points of the lines of latitude. Doesn't use hexagons like the comic does though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 09:41, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Fairness is a given for pyramids (if that's what you're asking). As long as there's enough 'rolling energy' to get either of the pyramids 'facing up', any N-agon base to the pyramids should have enough indeterminate impetous to then finally roll around a bit to end up with any of those exposed faces on top.
::(Interesting to note that for odd-numbered N-agonal bases, like that in a D10, you need to offset the bases and instead of sticking to the triangular faces base-to-base you now have kite-shapes that interlock in a serration that is no longer strictly planar along the axis's perpendiculars.)
::That might need a selection of the pyramidal slope. A very wide pair of bases with very little tip-'elevation' (to fit tightly within an oblate spheroid) should transition very well between same-pyramid faces, like a bulgy button, but one with highly acute tip-angle (prolate, likewise) might find the dominant behaviour to be tip-to-tip tipping, more like a toggle-fastener. OTOH, for odd-numbered end-agons it would probably ratchett to subsequent sides as it tips back and forth so long as it has enough energy to it.
::If you're asking about lines of latitude intersecting, consider that near the poles of either latitudinal reference the division of the other reference-system is going to be spliced more irregularly and thus give varying degrees of stability to rest upon.
::(Also, do you have a latitudinal line that crosses ''both'' pairs of poles, or are you deliberately moving them by half a phase (1/512th of the relevent circumference) so that you at least don't have them entirely coincident.)
::I believe the suggested scheme would be to take a dodecahedron or icosohedron (either of the two duals can be used to start with) and then subdivide each face in such a manner that equally-sized (but differently distorted) hexagons – and 12 little regular pentagons of identical area fitting in at the old dodecahedron centre/the old icosahedron vertex – emerge from the required segmentation/vertex-truncation and readjustment the radiality of all new mid-edge vertices (or maybe the newer-edges' centres or the newer-faces' centres) to touch the unit sphere. If done symmetrically, it should be entirely fair.
::The face-count might be troublesome, though. The twelve necessary pentagonal faces leaves 65524 hexagons, to split evenly between* either 12 or 20 zones, and it should be obvious that neither is possible**, in whole numbers, given the starting point of 2n faces...
:::(* - you can, and probably will in this design, have some that cross between two of the top-level polygons, but you can fully 'donate' as many as you then fully ''get'' donated from the next face around, so it might as well be just counted as a group of whole tiles on an a set of Escher-like interlocking 'rough' polygons.)
:::(** - If you're using 12 zones, that's 3x4x(however many in the zone + one corner each) and there's no factor of 3 in ''any'' value that is 2n. Arranging into 20 symmetrical zones (5x4), you will find that 65524 isn't divisible by 5, either...)
::You could probably arrange an N-ahedron with the number of faces being 12+(12a) or 12+(20b), for some higher value (a bit of mental arithmatic suggests 65592 might be that value) and mark all the 'excess' faces (56?) with "Roll Again!". Or perhaps some pithy motivational slogans that also convey roughly the same meaning... :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 11:32, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Postcript: Ok, so this is my idea for face-placing. Take a D8 (octahedron) and divide each of its 8 originally triangular faces into 8192 smaller faces (alternatively, start with a cube and progressively truncate its corners towards the same end). This is not a divisible by three number (neither can you put one in the centre, the rest are divisble by three and can surround it symmetrically), but you don't need strict rotational symmetry in any way. The opposing side can reflect/copy the non-symmetry as required to create any useful symmetry across the whole of the structure (and make floored-base/upmost-face pairings, amongst other things).
::As long as you make the faces equally likely to land on ''and stay on'' (could be hyperstellated as a slightly flat irregular 8192agon-based right-pyramid with the pyramid-faces of adjacent sides matching or meshing edges with those of each other, or a complicated mostly-hexagonal mesh, or a triangular one that's a limited fragment of a fine geodesic-like bulged pattern) by some suitable scheme governing area, aspect ratio and inter-face angle of incidence (probably normalising features to touch the unit sphere, for a start) then it should do it fairly and with ''exactly'' 65536 faces. I leave the fine-tweaking up to someone else. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 12:59, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I don't know why it's so big? Seems like it should have a diameter of approx. 1 meter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 21:37, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: Cueball is 50 pixels high. The ball is 340 px high. Assuming Cueball is an average-height male (1.7m), and is standing the same distance from the viewer as the center of the ball, roughly how large is each face of the polygon? Area of a sphere is 4.pi.r.r, r=0.85, so 9.08 m^2 or 9080000 mm^2, divide by number of faces, get 277 mm^2, so we get 1.6cm to a side. If I did that right, then you're right: those are fairly large faces. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.39|172.69.70.39]] 05:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:I ran the calculations for the Trivia section. I used 12pt font which gave each number an area of 1/6 square inch (about 1 square cm) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.237|162.158.106.237]] 06:57, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Should the title and picture file use "d" or the comic's difficult to type "ᴅ"?
[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:55, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Since xkcd uses small caps as lowercase letters, the "ᴅ" should just be considered xkcd-font for "d", and as such need not be used on the title, which is not using the xkcd font.
:: Ah! [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 06:15, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

If you really did want to generate a 16 bit integer with physical dice, it would be much simpler to roll a [https://www.thediceshoponline.com/impact-opaque-hexidice-d16-hexadecimal-dice hex die] four times. [[User:Clayot|Clayot]] ([[User talk:Clayot|talk]]) 23:30, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Rolling a binary die 16 times would also work. You can get binary dice for 1¢ each. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 01:31, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::The lowest-value coin of all is the Tiyin from Uzbekistan. Some 3,038 equate to one UK penny (and 2,000 tot up to one US cent) from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21572359. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 15:13, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Those 1¢ "dices" are not exactly guaranteed to be random. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:12, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:::They seem as random as other dice? Am I wrong? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 09:33, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:::: You can reduce bias by taking two not quite fair coins. Flip them together. If both heads, or both tails, then record a 0. If different, record a 1. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 15:13, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I think the hardest part (or maybe second-hardest part) is figuring out which facet is the one on top. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.109|162.158.78.109]] 00:46, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:Roll it on a glass table, check from below which face it's landed on instead. Wait until it has settled safely, though, or it might land on ''your'' face! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.227|172.70.90.227]] 04:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Good plan. Assuming standard dice design, subtract the value from 65537 to get the value of the uppermost face. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.39|172.69.70.39]] 05:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::: Because computer binary counting starts with ZERO (and in this case ends with 65535) one has to subtract from 65535. This die would not have a 65536 and it would have a zero. [[User:Inquirer|Inquirer]] ([[User talk:Inquirer|talk]]) 22:38, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::::Notice that the parent comment says “assuming standard dice design” and standard dice start with 1 and end with their d number: a standard d4 has faces 1,2,3,4; a standard d6 has faces 1,2,3,4,5,6; a standard d10 1,2,3,[…],10; and a standard d100 has faces 1 through 100. Which is why rolling 2xd10 does NOT yield the same results as rolling 1xd100, because one cannot roll a 1 OR a 100 with two d10’s, and other numbers are over represented. This is why I have both a d12 and a d100 in my set of dice…[[User:John|John]] ([[User talk:John|talk]]) 11:40, 2 June 2022 (UTC)
:::::D10s are frequently (IME) numbered 0..9, with underlines to distinguish 6 from 9, whether or not that is as a deliberate sop to pairing up for percentiles ("It's the red dice first...", "It isn't!", "It is, it's ''always'' the red dice first, that's a 9 percent fail, not at 90 percent success!"). The 0 opposite 9, 1 opposite 8, etc.
:::::If you're rolling 1..10s (depends upon the system being used for... and arguments about the original intentions, possibly, where 10 of something or zero of something turning up/discovered means a lot to what exactly happens next) you ''treat'' them as full 10s, and double-zero can (again, hopefully understood in advance) be a "natural 100", rather than a natural-zero, to someone's obvious advantage or detriment.
:::::Similarly, games with D4 may use 0..3 as its outcomes, or D3s (D6/2s) have 0,0,1,1,2,2 as faces. Or if you are somehow stuck with a 1-based die of the appropriate (or divisible) range, and need to play something that requires a 0-based one, you agree that MAXNUM->ZERO or N=N-1.
:::::From my recollections of the truly huge collection of multicoloured, multisized and variously multifaceted dice that was dragged out for wargaming/role-playing sessions, years of accumulations from various sources, the D6s (spotted, not "Hit", "Missfire", <arrows for miss direction>, or otherwise for other uses), D8s, D12s and D20s were habitually 1-upwards, and Ds with 3, 4 and 10 almost all 0-upwards. D6s were the most numerous, but D10s well up there (enough for colour-mismatched pairs for each of a whole battalion of participants, even if the Hit/Miss die had to be passed around at need, and the few big yellow D20s might need to be offered onwards/rolled on someone's behalf on occasion).
:::::In short, the 'standard' is perhaps more firmly that opposite sides add up to double the average (not possible with D4, which is also "point-marked", not one number per side), though I'd like to check a D3 to see if it's 0 opposite 2 (x2) and 1 opposite 1 (which also happens to be a 0..5-dice with the opposition rule, but modded by 3) or perhaps in a basic {1..6}mod3 conversion 1 opposes 0(=6), 2 opposite 2(=5), 0(=3) opposite 1(=4). Maybe next time I go a gaming I'll get the chance. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 12:48, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

What material should it be to be light enough to easily roll it but cheap enough that doing the 1,5 meters doest cost a fortune ? Sorry if the question is not clear. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.30|141.101.69.30]] 05:50, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:I recommend making it hollow. You could probably do something like this for $3000 if you made it out of 1/8th inch acrylic plate. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.237|162.158.106.237]] 07:02, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:At first I thought aluminum for sturdiness, but really you could make this out of cardboard for dirt cheap, lasercutting precise shapes, but you'd have to design its structural frame to keep it intact, exchanges design effort for price. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 09:32, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I disagree with this dice being really random. Like, sure, if thrown correctly, but that's going to be quite hard. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:12, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

:True. For a rolled die to be random, it needs to roll far enough so that the initial orientation no longer governs the outcome. Say, ten times the circumference, or about 150 meters? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 10:28, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Interesting to consider the 'necessary minimum'. Simplify to a "wheel of fortune" (just one axis of continual rotation) it would depend upon the potential variation of imparted rotation. If (say) 'aiming' at two whole rotations has a (perhaps 'normal') spread of variance that relates to ±½ rotational uncertainty at the 1st and 3rd quartile of probability then the sub-first and above-third 'tails' might wrap around to (roughly) equalise the chances that 2±(whatever fraction) spins lands just about anywhere just about equally. Aiming at four whole rotations (similary ±1 spin at the given quartiles, and the tailing chancs 'filling in' above 5 rotations and below 3) would smooth things out, all else equal, but takes twice as much perceived/attempted effort for not much more 'randomising'.
::Similarly, requiring 10 full rolls (maybe honestly aiming for 10, but allowing it to be 7.5 or less if not obviously 'just nudged') seems overkill, in the single dimension.
::Except, of course that you also need enough distance (on top of whatever factor you consider practical as a variation-wrapping value, which might not be the ½-in-2 I give) to also roll ''sideways''. If for some reason you really don't want to roll 65536 or 1 (or is it 65535 and 0?), which may be on polar-opposite faces, you might make sure that they are directly to the left and right before you propel the die forwards ''a little'', not caring which distribution of numbers is on/near the rolling-equator (2 is acceptible to you, and 65533, etc; other very low/high values conceivably placed on that thin band of "wheel-like chance" but you're just avoiding the very largest and smallest, or specifically just the one of them) but knowing that it's more unlikely to easily present the exact face(s) you dislike than it might be in a truly 'fair' roll.
::Perhaps the best thing is to have a rolling track to send the thing down that puts it the required "two or so rotations" forward to then either hit a wall or climb slightly up a slope (at a roughly 45 degree angle) that then sends it back roughly sideways to the original vector for a similar distance with a perpendicular or even composite moment of rolling rotation, to bring 'initially axial' numbers fully into play... And that dog-leg would require a sligthly shorter length from launch-position to where the thoroughly mixed-up final stopping point should be, whilst significantly foiling the master-manipulators who actually try to arrange an initial setup that favours better final results (rather than just nudge it, uncaring, for a result not as totally random but certainly not more predominently of desired-for ranges than otherwise). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.8|141.101.99.8]] 12:28, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::At what point does the structural material the die is composed of, combined with its mass, create a smoothing effect that will destroy the fairness of the die. I mean a small plastic die is no problem. A 2-ton acrylic die would start grinding off the edges of some faces with every roll, would it not? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.122|172.69.69.122]] 13:35, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Should it be related to https://xkcd.com/221/ ? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.246|162.158.183.246]] 08:07, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I'm going to wait, I think - I don't think there's room in my attic for this as well as all the Betamax kit, my drawers full of MiniDiscs and my Zune collection. No, I'll sit tight - I'm hearing encouraging things about the introduction of the Magic 65536-Ball... [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 09:41, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:The number of sides on the die inside the ball is not what determines the name of the ball. It's the exterior housing which is colored in the manner of an Eight Ball. The classic design uses a d20, and is still called an Eight Ball, not a Twenty Ball. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.195|172.70.130.195]] 18:00, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Full disclosure: I don't have any of those things in my attic. And I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think Randall thinks rolling a d65536 is genuinely the hardest part of generating random 16-bit numbers. And Grape Nuts contain neither grapes nor nuts. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 23:37, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I'm suprised the hidden message points to 2624. I would've thought it would point to 2626 to refer to itself. Maybe things didn't get published as intended? Or maybe Randall really just wanted to point people to the Voyager comic? [[User:Linux2647|Linux2647]] ([[User talk:Linux2647|talk]]) 18:13, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:I'm no ASCII expert, but from the description provided I'm pretty sure the comic URL would require the number representing "26" to show up twice. A die with, say, two 13,359 faces would obviously not be fair. If only Randall had published this as #2625 or #2627! (Or maybe he ''planned'' to publish it last week and had to shuffle his schedule after finalizing this comic?) [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 18:24, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Probably the latter, seeing as it doesn't actually line up so that any of them are actually "26". The numbers are xk-cd-.c-om-/2-62-4/, so the 26 and 24 aren't lined up like that. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 19:38, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:Perl code to decode the ASCII: <pre>perl -E 'for (30827, 25444, 11875, 28525, 12082, 13874, 13359) { print chr($_ >> 8), chr($_ & 0xff) }; print "\n"'</pre>

<big><big>'''Remember that "die" is singular and "dice" is plural'''</big></big> [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 09:30, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

;Might be worth offering some easier alternatives..
Needless to say, 16 ordered coins (eg ordered by the date of their minting) provide a much easier alternative to a d65536.

Other (easy to find) d p^2 - such as 8 ordered d4, or 5 ordered d8 and a coin (or bit-shave a dice.)
It's true some rules need to be applied (the highest number of the die is treated as a 0, and the order of the dice is strictly followed).

For example using a rainbow spectrum ordering of 6d8,
I role: 7, 1, 2, 8, 3, 5. Each dice represents 3 bits -
111-001-010-000-011-101. We shave off the last two bits (because we want 16 bits, not 18, for a d65536)
1110 0101 0000 0111. Hex = E507, which is decimal 58,631.

While it takes a few seconds for a human to convert the number it is quite trivial to write a program to convert an image capture.

There are also specialist dice - such as d16 'hexidice' which provide 4 bits per ordered die, and far less human calculation.
There are even d256 hex dice made, but they suffer the same problem that a d65536 would have.

[[User:20040302|20040302]] ([[User talk:20040302|talk]])
: how are you trivially converting image captures? i still use my keyboard. what's the update? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.120|162.158.79.120]] 18:26, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

I found an octahedral Goldberg with 65538 sides, 6 squares and 65532 irregular hexagons, notated GP₄(128,0). Can be constructed by chamfering a cube 7 times (Conway cccccccC). I don't think anything can be closer. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 04:37, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

User talk:Jacky720

2022-05-26T12:16:20Z

172.70.86.44: /* IP blocks */

<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" data-expandtext="Old stuff, no longer really relevant.">
== To talk to me ==
I will make my comments only in this section, and underlined, so we can all tell who's who faster. Be advised that although I may keep up-to-date, I might be shying away, screening my calls, so I could but won't answer everything. [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 02:23, 9 November 2016 (UTC)

Yay! Glad to see another happy user of the group! (And another coder!) :D I didn't know anyone else on this site played Minecraft... --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:08, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Same to you! [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 15:52, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

(That's right, go HTML!)

:What kind of stuff do you like to program? Are you a game designer? Or a web coder kind of person? --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 17:12, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

::It isn't a job or anything, just a hobby of messing with webpages. Also, if you don't own a domain, and you tell everyone, you can operate a totally '''free''' subdomain through [http://www.000webhost.com $0.00 webhost.] Although you might want to backup your site. If you don't visit it enough, it shuts down and you need to re-register. Just some tips. (P.S. My web portal has seen better days. (P.P.S. [[859: (]] [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 19:49, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

::Wait, I just looked at your page and you '''publish games?''' Like I said above... But nice. I don't do that kind of thing, but I have made a couple of 9001% informal games, like on [https://scratch.mit.edu/users/Jacky720/ Scratch] and stuff.

:::What a coincidence! I use Scratch too! However, I haven't really used it in a while, as I'm sticking to normal game development, but I do still go on there from time to time to see the crazy stuff that people come up with. I was going to make a game on there called '''"Darkness"''', but development proved to be too difficult and I was only able to finish the first level and a teaser for the game. I did eventually re-vitalize the game, but with a new name and new story, and it eventually became ''' 'This Isn't Home' ''', and then I ran into problems with the development with that, and I had to take it down from GameJolt yesterday. Life of a game designer... your work is never finished. I'm going to have to fix that one now. :P --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:27, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

::::Nice, but I couldn't find your account or the game. Links? [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 19:34, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

:::::I never uploaded 'Darkness', but I did upload a 'teaser' for it and my account is : https://scratch.mit.edu/users/JayRulesScratch/ --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:17, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

:Hey, I play Minecraft too! In fact, I've been shying away from explainxkcd because I've been playing it so much... [[User:GizmoDude|GizmoDude]] ([[User talk:GizmoDude|talk]]) 21:20, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
:P.S. I do Scratch as well! Well, not currently, but I posted about 20 projects on my old account 2 or 3 years ago...
::That's kind of the same reason why I "left" for a short period of time. Minecraft and Game design have been taking up a good chunk of my life. Life of a gamer/game designer. :) --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:07, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
:::I've also steadily become more encumbered by schoolwork. I've still been reading xkcd, but not so much editing. I've gotten back into Minecraft, especially since I started my YouTube channel. [[User:GizmoDude|GizmoDude]] ([[User talk:GizmoDude|talk]]) 12:40, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
::::Schoolwork? You mean I'm not the only editor not through college yet? I never knew that. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 15:54, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
:::::Schoolwork is frustrating. I'm not even in college yet... I'm a sophmore in high school. Game design, school, and still have time to actually have fun and play games.. yikes. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:38, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
::::::I also spend a lot of time on Minecraft (mostly messing with redstone), and I used to have a scratch account too (made a few games, but then stopped a few years ago). And it's nice to know I'm not the only editor with a bunch of schoolwork to deal with. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 10:41, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

You seem pretty cool! I also code, and with the same languages, and play MC!
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.64|108.162.219.64]]

===[http://jackm.000webhostapp.com/transcript.html Official Transcript]===
Here is the code: (with links to where I got it)
<code>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script>
[https://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/cors/ function createCORSRequest(method, url) {
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
if ("withCredentials" in xhr) {
// Check if the XMLHttpRequest object has a "withCredentials" property.
// "withCredentials" only exists on XMLHTTPRequest2 objects.
xhr.open(method, url, true);
} else if (typeof XDomainRequest != "undefined") {
// Otherwise, check if XDomainRequest.
// XDomainRequest only exists in IE, and is IE's way of making CORS requests.
xhr = new XDomainRequest();
xhr.open(method, 'https://xkcd.com/info.0.json');
} else {
// Otherwise, CORS is not supported by the browser.
xhr = null;
}

return xhr;
}

var xhr = createCORSRequest('GET', "https://xkcd.com/info.0.json");
if (!xhr) {
alert('CORS not supported');
} else {
alert('This site uses CORS.');
} ]

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19706046/how-to-read-an-external-local-json-file-in-javascript function readTextFile(file, callback) {
var rawFile = new XMLHttpRequest();
alert("raw file");
rawFile.overrideMimeType("application/json");
alert("json");
rawFile.open("GET", file, true);
alert(rawFile.responseText);
alert(rawFile.readyState);
alert(rawFile.status);
rawFile.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (rawFile.readyState === 4 && rawFile.status == "200") {
callback(rawFile.responseText);
alert("done?");
}
}
} ]

//My code

function getScript() {
if (parseInt(document.getElementById("ComicNumber").value)) {
var comic = new Number(
document.getElementById("ComicNumber").value);
var link = "https://xkcd.com/" + comic + "/info.0.json";
try {
readTextFile(link, function(text) {
var output = JSON.parse(text);
alert(output);
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML =
output.transcript;
});
} catch(Err) {alert("Oops! Something went wrong.");}

} else {
alert("This is not an integer!");
}
alert("The function completed.")
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="text" id="ComicNumber">
<input type="button" onclick="getScript();" value="Get Transcript">
 

</body>
</html>
</code>

==To talk about me ==
</div>
== newest comic ==

Thanks for adding the newest comic. Just as a note though, please follow the steps here: [[User:DgbrtBOT]], to make the rest of the links work. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 22:02, 20 December 2019 (UTC)
:Ah, I missed that formal procedure. Good to know there is one; I suppose I just messed up the templates in doing so?

== Nomination ==

See [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Coordination#New_admins]] '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:08, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

== Please don't block IPs ==

Hello,

The way this wiki is set up, if an IP is blocked, it affects a lot of people. IPs are randomized by the reverse proxy. Please don't block IPs, and please disable autoblock when blocking users. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.195|172.70.130.195]] 22:01, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
: I'm new to adminhood, and I don't exactly know what you mean in the last sentence. Is there some MediaWiki configuration page you want me to look at? [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 22:15, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Since I'm not an admin here, I'm not sure exactly what it looks like here. However, I am an admin on another MediaWiki wiki, so I can give instructions for that site, and they should be similar here. When you block someone, there should be a checkbox with this/a similar label: "Automatically block the last IP address used by this user, and any subsequent IP addresses they try to edit from" When blocking anyone, make sure you do not check that, and uncheck it if it is already checked. Then, go to [[Special:BlockList]]. On the block for "Xray Kilo Charlie Delta," click "change block", then uncheck that checkbox, click the "confirm block" checkbox, and click "Re-block the user with these settings." Also, go back to [[Special:BlockList]], and unblock any IPs that you see. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.115|172.70.178.115]] 22:38, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
::: Looking at the block log, it seems automatic IP blocks only last 24 hours. As for manual ones... Oh, there are hundreds of these. Most dating back to 2013. I'll do something about that. [[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 23:06, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
::::The old ones are probably fine; just undo the recent one (it looks like there's only one recent one) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.115|172.70.178.115]] 23:07, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
:::::Done —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 23:10, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

== IP blocks ==

It looks like you just blocked an IP? Those blocks affect a lot of users too, not just autoblocks. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.154|108.162.246.154]] 03:14, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
: Well, they were directly trolling from that IP. I'm not giving them immunity to protect the five people who get assigned that address before the block expires and probably weren't going to edit anyway. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 10:57, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
:: I hope you checked with Davidy22. I get the impression that there are many more such attempts of a similar nature that are already blocked from happening, you may just be throwing the occasional baby away with a ''very small'' remaining amount of bathwater.
:: If you [https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/172.70.142.105 check the IP], it's a gateway in Singapore, though how much actual geolocation that smooches up into that (and other Singaporean) IP I wouldn't care to say. It could cover huge swathes of the region or just a fraction (by random timehsharing?) of the city itself. Probably somewhere between the two.
:: I doubt only the spammers' backroom operation are active uses of that particular Cloudflare gateway, and possibly some others in the region are. The calculation that it causes more trouble to the spam-engine than the next Singaporean who genuinely wishes to usefully contribute is a big assumption.
:: I won't argue too much with your ability or keenness to do this administrative fire-fighting (I note that you've been busy, in that regard, and all are somewhat reasonable acts) but the activity of the IP in question had just two (identical-ish) spam-type uses across virtually the span of an entire week, whereas in less than three weeks of time (before that) there were six interactions that (superficially, from the Contrib page) look like entirely genuine edits. That's not counting those via that IP who are logging into accounts, which I'm not sure you aren't in danger of blocking also.
:: If we guess that the next scripted spamming of this kind will be a further week onward (and assume we can predict it still arriving from the same assigned gateway) we need to have the block in place for another week (and may not know if our block was encountered, unless it pops up from another vector and we know that it wasn't, so whether to extend the block for additional week(s) is going to be a difficult question to answer). At the same time, maybe two genuine edits get stymied. The spambot machine won't care (its owner may not even notice!) but the real humans might do.
:: Sorry, just a dispassionate (if possibly passionately presented) opinion. For your consideration. I'm just saying that rolling back one page once a week is no problem, and something I've done in this particular signature of edit a number of times before. The stupid spam that is being sent there (and elsewhere) doesn't even appear to have any use ''as a spam'', given the content. But the precedent of blocking an IP is troubling to me. Doubtful that particular one would ever be 'mine', in any given instant, but you could easily do me (and others like me) a disservice in the future if you take a consistent stance on this concept of blocking at the IP level and target one that is servicing my little corner of the webosphere.
:: I hope you get my reasoning. Longer in the telling than in the thinking of, unfortunately. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 11:48, 24 May 2022 (UTC) <- I'm a different IP-type person from 108.162.246.154 - Whether it appears the same or (very likely) different from the original correspondent in this aside.
:One way or another, I just reverted [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2503:_Memo_Spike_Connector&diff=276988&oldid=276788|another one of these], also from Singapore, but a different IP. Either by chance or because they(/their script) deliberately swerved round any block by trying again until it worked. FYI, but sorted for the time-being. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.32|141.101.99.32]] 11:52, 26 May 2022 (UTC) -- addendum: Though of the 15 similar replacements on that page since October have had large gaps, from the last couple of weeks it looks like both a Tuesday and a Thursday cycle might exist. Probably manually triggered, though. Could just be a coincidence. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 12:16, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

== Crap ==

How can I help get rid of crap? [[User:Anticrap|Anticrap]] ([[User talk:Anticrap|talk]]) 15:48, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
: It's all gone at the moment. If pages start turning into crap, revert the edits and wait for an admin to arrive. You really do not need a dedicated account for this. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 16:10, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
::The CAPTCHAs make it hard to revert crap quickly, especially because I could use the one-click revert script without them. When will the CAPTCHAs go away? [[User:Anticrap|Anticrap]] ([[User talk:Anticrap|talk]]) 23:29, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

Talk:528: Windows 7

2022-05-25T08:26:27Z

172.70.86.44: /* Vista */

Is this a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law Godwin's Law]? [[User:Saibot84|Saibot84]] ([[User talk:Saibot84|talk]]) 21:59, 13 April 2013 (UTC)
:An ironic one, possibly. --[[User:Qwach|Qwach]] ([[User talk:Qwach|talk]]) 13:54, 31 August 2013 (UTC)
::A second opinion: No. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 19:30, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I think the title-text joke is mainly in the word "hardly" instead of "not" when describing the hitler-y-ness of the beta. {{unsigned|Gigahertz}}

;Hitler-y
I don't know but look at this: [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hitlery hitlery]. It really seems that it belong to Hillary Clinton. Look at Goooogle: [https://www.google.com/#q=Hitler-y Hitler-y]. This has to be explained, even for non US citizens. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:03, 3 June 2014 (UTC)
:I added some description clarifying the implied Hitler reference. I believe it has to do with Adolf Hitler because it has a hyphen before the "Y" implying a general characteristic description rather than a nickname. --[[User:themacman33|themacman33]] ([[User talk:themacman33|talk]])
:I can't imagine the use of "Hitler-y" here, especially with the hyphen, is used to mean anything other than "Hitler-like". --[[User:Alex|Alex]] ([[User talk:Alex|talk]]) 23:09, 24 June 2014 (UTC)
:The entry given was created by author "anti-communist/anti-fascist" who also wrote definitions for the terms "kkk" and "gay marriage." Not only were the entries written eight years ago, they were also written down the same day. It seems obvious that said author took that day to spread his own personal political views, and should not be treated as normal day-to-day speech. Furthermore, there is no other reference to Hilary Clinton in this strip. I am removing the incomplete tag from this explanation. If the need is felt to restore it, please give a more justifiable reason. [[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 02:13, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
:I think it's pretty clear that Hitler-y is simply the way Randall adjectived Hitler. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.87}}
:Considering [[1756]], I am almost 100% certain it wasn't a slam on Secertary Clinton. [[User:Eeddgg|Eeddgg]] ([[User talk:Eeddgg|talk]]) 17:42, 23 February 2021 (UTC)
I'm pretty sure that this is a reference to a German play called The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui). It's a satirical allegory about Hitler, where Hitler's name in the play is Ui. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resistible_Rise_of_Arturo_Ui [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.173|108.162.221.173]] 12:04, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
:Sorry, but there's no way this is the case. It's too much of a stretch for an incredibly obtuse visual pun. Hitler was just chosen because he's probably the worst thing you could have stuck on your monitor forever. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.134|108.162.242.134]] 09:08, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Worse then the original goatse.cx?{{NSFW}} [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.166|108.162.216.166]] 12:18, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Yo, Windows is NOT N*zism. Seriously. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.239|162.158.187.239]] 18:20, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

This comic reminds me of a blog post Raymond Chen has written on The Old New Thing about [https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20030825-00/?p=42803 Windows bringing out the Rorschach test in everyone]. Funny enough, said blog post mentions about beta users mentioning that one the generic user icon looking like Hitler near the end when Windows XP was getting tested. [[User:Toastadieu|Toastadieu]] ([[User talk:Toastadieu|talk]]) 16:44, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

== Vista ==

Am I the only person in the world who liked Windows Vista? [[User:Hago caca en paginas|Hago caca en paginas]] ([[User talk:Hago caca en paginas|talk]]) 13:27, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
:I've done a quick survey of everyone in the room and the answer to that is probably "Yes", with 100% of me not liking Vista. And that is [[1478: P-Values|statistically significant at a p>0.05 level]]! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.211|172.70.85.211]] 14:04, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
::I actually like Vista. I've never had any problems with it, and it had the beautiful Aero aesthetic that was only really appreciated when Windows 7 was released. [[User:Vandalbane|Vandalbane]] ([[User talk:Vandalbane|talk]]) 02:05, 25 May 2022 (UTC)
:::As a power-user, for me it marked the terminal decline of Windows being useful in 'just work, damnit' terms. XP was the perfect blend of NT robustness and 9x usability, then they started to add too many abstract and aesthetic-bells-and-whistles-over-everything changes (actually, XP's "Fisherprice" rounded buttons did that, too, but you could ignore them).
:::Vista added complications to the OS which caused cleaning up others' user-errors to be more... complicated. 8 annoyed ''even the everyday users'' enough that 8.1 was needed to bring it back in line with expectations, but still alienated me, 10 was "the last version of Windows they'd produce" but with the expectation of willingly accepting many more incremental updates that more easily broke perfectly servicable legacy products (or you stay offline, with other issues) and I haven't bothered touching 11 at all because who needs a major forced upgrade that we were told would never happen.
:::I've transfered my major computer use to other systems (while still retaining the 2K and XP systems that work how I need them for what I need them for) and where possible used an honest, not-at-all-Aero-like, desktop look that wastes processor cycles on transparent pixels. And invent radical 'new' features (according to the ads) like being able to tile application windows (oh look, "tile windows vertically/horizontally" has been around since... at least Win 3.0, it seems, maybe earlier but I'd have to get some old system booted up to check).
:::Just my opinion, doubtless a minority one. And juvyr V'z urer, gurer vf n arj nppbhag jub cbfgrq ba Wnpxl'f Gnyx cntr gung V nz jnel bs. Haqvq fbzr penccvatf ''irel'' dhvpxyl naq abj jnagf gb xabj jura pncgpun tbrf njnl. Rvgure trahvar rntre crefba ''be'' gelvjt gbb uneq gb or 'gehfgrq'... Maybe I'm the only person who thinks like that, but I thought it worth putting down in the record. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 08:26, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

2623: Goofs

2022-05-24T14:09:32Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ Insert space.

{{comic
| number = 2623
| date = May 23, 2022
| title = Goofs
| image = goofs.png
| titletext = The film is set in 2018, but when Commander Bremberly chases the hologram through Times Square, there's a billboard for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Depending on the date, that billboard would have been advertising either Infinity War or this movie.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ALL FICTION IS SUPPOSED TO TAKE PLACE IN ALTERNATE UNIVERSES- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
IMDb is the {{w|Internet Movie Database}}, a website that contains detailed, user-contributed information about movies and TV shows. One of the sections in many entries is "[[#Goofs|Goofs]]". This may list bloopers, inconsistencies, implausible actions, anachronisms, etc. in the movie. While some people find enjoyment in searching for these errors, to others, the entries listed can often be overly pedantic and missing the point.{{Citation needed}} The comic makes fun of this with several goofs that simply point out differences between something in the movie and reality; but since the movie is fiction (in this case, a science fiction film that includes a space detective, a cybernetic dog, blimp drones, and a hologram kissing scene), one cannot say that these "goofs" might simply be more differences between the movie world and our own.

In the first goof, a named street doesn't actually exist in the city in which the movie is set. Unless the address is important to the plot (Manhattan has a number of streets with well-known characters, e.g. the main theatre district is on Broadway, Fifth Avenue is a major shopping district, and Wall Street is known for large financial institutions), screenwriters can and do make up street names; it might actually be expedient to 'rename' a setting in many cases, to avoid issues such as fans showing up at said street and harassing the residents.

In the second example, they point out that there's no harpoon store at the location where the characters obtain a harpoon in the movie, and the nearest actual harpoon store doesn't have a display window. Movies take liberties with details like this for plot expediency, and is not considered a goof. Manhattan does not appear to have ''any'' notable harpoon stores, with or without the kind of frontage described. 

In the third example, the background of a scene is of an apartment in Downtown Vancouver (a cheap and popular filming location that frequently stands in for other cities). The goof points out that the real-life apartment does not belong to the character who supposedly lives in it. Fictional movie characters do not exist in reality, and many scenes are set in fictional locations that are completely separate from their real-life filming locations. As such, this is only a "goof" if the scene is taken entirely literally.

The title text describes an actual anachronism. The film is set in 2018, but there's a billboard for the movie ''{{w|Avengers: Age of Ultron}}'', which came out in 2015, while the next Avengers film, ''{{w|Avengers: Infinity War}}'', came out in 2018. Assuming the movie was filmed before 2018, the filmmakers wouldn't have known what films would be current at the time it would be released, and certainly not the artwork they'd be using to promote them. They could have chosen to set it during the time of initial filming, but again, unless the specific date is significant to the plot, it's common to set (or rather, assume) a film takes place about the same time it's released. Generic advertisements for fictional (or {{w|Last Action Hero|parody}}) films might be put over egregiously obvious existing material, physically or in post-production editing, as might references to major brands – perhaps replaced by those agreed with from {{w|product placement}} partners.

The title text also mentions the possibility of a self-reference – the billboard could be for this film itself since it's being released at the same time it's set. This assertion that {{w|Blazing Saddles|in-universe self-reference}} is plausible for a movie production is likely another example of the goof's writer failing to understand the basic "premise of fiction". Most movies do not exist within the fictional world they portray, and many audiences would find self-reference to be a far greater obstacle to suspending disbelief than an ad for the wrong Avengers movie.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An excerpt from an Internet Movie Database web page showing a list of goofs from a film. Each item has some small illegible text below it, which on the real IMDb would say something like "7 of 72 found this interesting | Share this". The first and third items have a faint yellow-tinted background. The third item is only partially visible at the bottom of the "screen".]
:[Heading:]
:'''Goofs (78)'''
:[List:]
:The space detective's office is on Chestnut Ave, but Lower Manhattan has no street by that name. Agent Glennifer pursues the cybernetic dog onto what is clearly Ludlow Street.
:The agents destroy the blimp drones in Union Square with harpoons from a store display rack. The nearest harpoon store is several blocks away and has no outdoor displays.
:The apartment in the background of the hologram kissing scene actually exists in downtown Vancouver. We called the owners, who confirmed they had no residents named [...]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Sometimes the IMDB "Goofs" section really seems to struggle with the whole premise of fiction.

==Goofs==
* There is no entry for a film featuring an agent called Glennifer on IMDB. Randall is clearly failing to do basic research.
* On the real IMDb, each item in the Goofs section would be listed under a category such as "Errors in geography" (which might apply to the three goofs listed in the main cartoon) or "Anachronisms" (which might apply to the goof in the title text). However, no such category is displayed here.
* On real Goofs pages, the information below each entry includes a public feedback listing (X of Y found this interesting) and a link entitled "Share this". In the comic, only unintelligible squiggles are included in their place, which really breaks the immersion of the purported "webpage". Of course, on a real IMDb page, all of the text would also be in the Verdana font, not Randall's handwriting.
* The comic features two entries with a yellow background, which is impossible. On IMDb, entries alternate between having white and gray backgrounds and only turn yellow when the mouse hovers over them.
* On IMDb, the number of goofs is located in a navigation box between the header and the goofs list. In the comic, the number is placed in the header, and there is no navigation box at all.
* A similar Goofs section exists in the [[explain xkcd]] wiki's page for this comic, [[2623: Goofs]], but it fails even more evidently to recreate the look of IMDb's Goofs page. Additionally, the last entry is recursive, which is clearly unprofessional.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

2623: Goofs

2022-05-24T13:50:16Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ Correcting CN tag (punctuation, capitalisation). And *all* fiction(al!) characters do not exist in real life, by definition. (Though the original version covering all characters in movies might be correct, it could need to be enumerated)

{{comic
| number = 2623
| date = May 23, 2022
| title = Goofs
| image = goofs.png
| titletext = The film is set in 2018, but when Commander Bremberly chases the hologram through Times Square, there's a billboard for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Depending on the date, that billboard would have been advertising either Infinity War or this movie.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ALL FICTION IS SUPPOSED TO TAKE PLACE IN ALTERNATE UNIVERSES- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
IMDb is the {{w|Internet Movie Database}}, a website that contains detailed, user-contributed information about movies and TV shows. One of the sections in many entries is "[[#Goofs|Goofs]]". This may list bloopers, inconsistencies, implausible actions, anachronisms, etc. in the movie. As often happens with sites that rely on user contributions for their content, the entries listed can often be overly pedantic and missing the point.{{Citation needed}} The comic makes fun of this with several goofs that simply point out differences between something in the movie and reality; but since the movie is fiction (in this case, a science fiction film that includes a space detective, a cybernetic dog, blimp drones, and a hologram kissing scene), it's not expected to exactly mirror reality. Randall is pointing out that IMDb users are ignoring the main foundation of fiction: Not being real (sometimes referred to as being set in a slightly different world). Some prefer to express this as "it's just a movie dude".

In the first goof, the street doesn't actually exist in the city in which the movie is set. Unless the address is important to the plot (Manhattan has a number of streets with well-known characters, e.g. the main theatre district is on Broadway, Fifth Avenue is a major shopping district, and Wall Street is known for large financial institutions), screenwriters often just make up street names and it might actually be expedient to 'rename' a setting in many cases, to avoid the actual collision of fictional and actual setting such as having {{w|A_Nightmare_on_Elm_Street|"A Nightmare On <Your Streetname>"}}.

In the second example, they point out that there's no real harpoon store at the location where the characters obtain a harpoon in the movie, and the nearest actual harpoon store doesn't have a display window like the one in the movie. Movies usually take liberties with details like this for plot expediency, it's not considered a goof. Manhattan does not appear to have ''any'' notable harpoon stores, with or without the kind of frontage described. 

In the third example, the background of a scene is of an apartment in Downtown Vancouver (a cheap and popular filming location that frequently stands in for other cities). The goof points out that the real-life apartment does not belong to the character who supposedly lives in it. Fictional movie characters do not exist in reality, and many scenes are set in fictional locations that are completely separate from their real-life filming locations. As such, this is only a "goof" if the scene is taken entirely literally.

The title text describes an actual anachronism. The film is set in 2018, but there's a billboard for the movie ''{{w|Avengers: Age of Ultron}}''. That movie came out in 2015, while the next Avengers film, ''{{w|Avengers: Infinity War}}'', came out in 2018. Assuming the movie was filmed before 2018, the filmmakers wouldn't have known what films would be current at the time it would be released, and certainly not the artwork they'd be using to promote them. They could have chosen to set it 3 years earlier, but again, unless the specific date is significant to the plot, it's common to set a film at about the same time it's released but with a bare minimum of fakery by trying not to show ''unimportant'' newspaper dates, etc, so that set-dressing and props-department budgets aren't excessive. Generic advertisements for fictional (or {{w|Last Action Hero|parody}}) films might be put over egregiously obvious existing material, physically or in post-production editing, as might references to major brands – perhaps replaced by those agreed with from {{w|product placement}} partners.

The title text also mentions the possibility of a self-reference – the billboard could be for this film itself since it's being released at the same time it's set. This assertion that {{w|Blazing Saddles|in-universe self-reference}} is plausible for a movie production is likely another example of the goof's writer failing to understand the basic "premise of fiction". Most movies do not exist within the fictional world they portray, and many audiences would find self-reference to be a far greater obstacle to suspending disbelief than an ad for the wrong Avengers movie.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An excerpt from an Internet Movie Database web page showing a list of goofs from a film. Each item has some small illegible text below it, which on the real IMDb would say something like "7 of 72 found this interesting | Share this". The first and third items have a faint yellow-tinted background. The third item is only partially visible at the bottom of the "screen".]
:[Heading:]
:'''Goofs (78)'''
:[List:]
:The space detective's office is on Chestnut Ave, but Lower Manhattan has no street by that name. Agent Glennifer pursues the cybernetic dog onto what is clearly Ludlow Street.
:The agents destroy the blimp drones in Union Square with harpoons from a store display rack. The nearest harpoon store is several blocks away and has no outdoor displays.
:The apartment in the background of the hologram kissing scene actually exists in downtown Vancouver. We called the owners, who confirmed they had no residents named [...]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Sometimes the IMDB "Goofs" section really seems to struggle with the whole premise of fiction.

==Trivia==
* The users of this page did not take long to add a Goofs section for this comic itself.
** As it, of course, does nothing to explain the comic, it has now been moved to this trivia section.
** As many clearly found it funny, it merits that it stays on this page.
===Goofs===
* There is no entry for a film featuring an agent called Glennifer on IMDB. Randall is clearly failing to do basic research.
* On the real IMDb, each item in the Goofs section would be listed under a category such as "Errors in geography" (which might apply to the three goofs listed in the main cartoon) or "Anachronisms" (which might apply to the goof in the title text). However, no such category is displayed here.
* On real Goofs pages, the information below each entry includes a public feedback listing (X of Y found this interesting) and a link entitled "Share this". In the comic, only unintelligible squiggles are included in their place, which really breaks the immersion of the purported "webpage". Of course, on a real IMDb page, all of the text would also be in the Verdana font, not Randall's handwriting.
* The comic features two entries with a yellow background, which is impossible. On IMDb, entries alternate between having white and gray backgrounds and only turn yellow when the mouse hovers over them.
* On IMDb, the number of goofs is located in a navigation box between the header and the goofs list. In the comic, the number is placed in the header, and there is no navigation box at all.
* A similar Goofs section exists in the [[explain xkcd]] wiki's page for this comic, [[2623: Goofs]], but it fails even more evidently to recreate the look of IMDb's Goofs page. Additionally, the last entry is recursive, which is clearly unprofessional.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

User talk:Vandalbane

2022-05-23T22:44:21Z

172.70.86.44: Undo revision 276698 by 172.70.178.95 (talk) While I'm scanning for damage, pre-empting what you would want to do as soon as you noticed.

I wonder if I can keep my page unvandalised if I never use a lowercase T.

1872: Backup Batteries

2022-05-21T10:29:51Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ spelling

{{comic
| number = 1872
| date = August 4, 2017
| title = Backup Batteries
| image = backup_batteries.png
| titletext = If it falls below 20% full, my bag turns red and I start to panic.
}}

==Explanation==
Most {{w|smartphone|smartphones}} (except {{w|IPhone#Battery|iPhones}} and a few others) use replaceable batteries. So it's often possible to buy additional batteries and use them as a backup in case there is no external power source available to recharge the phone. Otherwise it's possible to buy a charging device (also with batteries) that could be connected via cable to the phone to recharge the internal battery. Since there is no cable in the comic picture [[Cueball]] probably shows a battery that could replace an empty one in the phone.

Cueball gets stressed when his phone is at low battery because the device may run out at any moment, interrupting his activities. In an effort to prevent stress, Cueball decides to carry a backup battery so he can just replace the current battery when it runs low. Cueball realizes that the backup battery itself is prone to depletion, and so he carries a second. He then comes to the same realization for the second backup battery, and indeed every subsequent battery he can carry. Finally this would lead to an unending series of backup batteries, hence his speech is cut off, becoming unending as well.

What Cueball never grasps is that his irrational need to hoard a supply of batteries tending to the infinite is the real cause of his stress. In reality, he only needs to consider the maximum amount of time that he spends between recharging his phone, and divide that by the average lifespan of a phone battery, and round up that figure to get the minimum number of batteries required to avoid a power outage (multiplied by 1.5 if the mere state of running low causes stress). If he charges up his phone and backup batteries every night, he would only need 2 to 3 backup batteries, tops.

The title text says that Cueball's backpack will turn red if it is less then 20% of it is filled with batteries, similar to the battery indicator on a smartphone when at low battery to warn the user. Cueball probably gets similarly stressed when that happens, perhaps requiring a backup backup-battery backpack. Most backpacks do not have this function.{{Citation needed}} It is unclear by what mechanism the backpack turns red or detects that it should do so.

That [[Randall]] has issues with low battery power on cell phones can be seen in the earlier comics [[1373: Screenshot]] and [[1802: Phone]] and in the later comic [[1965: Background Apps]].

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is talking to White Hat. He is wearing a large backpack and holding a phone battery.]
:Cueball: I get stressed out when my phone battery is low, so I carry this backup battery.
:Cueball: But then I worry about the backup running low, so I carry this second backup.
:Cueball: Then I worry—

:[Caption below the frame:]
:My bag is 90% backup batteries.

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]

{{comic discussion}}

306: Orphaned Projects

2022-05-21T10:19:58Z

172.70.86.44: Undo revision 273548 by 172.70.211.52 (talk) Disagree. A very feasible allusion, as per "similar to the famous Yoda quote from..."

{{comic
| number = 306
| date = August 22, 2007
| title = Orphaned Projects
| image = orphaned_projects.png
| titletext = His date works for Red Hat, who hired a coach for her, too. She advised her to 'rent lots of movies like Hitch. Guys love those.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Debian}} is a {{w|GNU/Linux}} distribution (but also ships {{w|GNU Hurd}} and {{w|BSD}} versions). {{w|Red Hat}} is the company behind {{w|Fedora Linux}} and {{w|RHEL}}.

The comic is about orphaned Linux projects, because volunteer FOSS developers will often leave their projects aside whenever something of greater importance to them requires more time (like dating, relationships, tiredness, sickness, boredom, natural disasters, wild boar attacks, zombie apocalypses, robot uprisings, desire for snacks, etc.). Some companies/foundations, while not needing these developers, can greatly benefit from community-maintained projects. The Debian Team uses a phrase that is, intentionally or otherwise, similar to the famous {{w|Yoda}} quote from ''{{w|Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace}}'' in the first panel "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering," by replacing it with dating and orphaned projects.

{{w|Hitch (film)|''Hitch''}} is a {{w|romantic comedy}} in which {{w|Will Smith}} plays a "dating coach," who helps men to have successful dates with women. To avoid losing their developers (in this case, Cueball), the people at the "Debian HQ" have opted to hire [[Black Hat]] to give the developer intentionally bad dating advice, thus sabotaging his relationship before it could become distracting. Cueball is advised to "constructively criticize" his date in an attempt to appear more intelligent. This technique is very unlikely to work, but is nonetheless attempted by some men. It is unclear whether this is "negging" (See [[1027: Pickup Artist]]) or simply a demonstration of hubris, neither of which would be an attractive attribute in a potential long-term partner or mate.{{Citation needed}}

In the title text, the woman is being similarly advised by a representative hired by Red Hat. She is advised to rent lots of romantic comedies, presumably to watch with her date. The prevailing stereotype is that young men strongly dislike films in that genre.

==Transcript==
:[Voices are coming from behind a door with a sign that reads "Debian Linux HQ."]
:First voice: Problem: One of the volunteer developers has a date this weekend. Dates lead to romance, romance leads to orphaned projects.
:Second voice: What's the plan?
:First voice: We're hiring him a relationship coach. He's like Will Smith in "Hitch," but he only gives bad advice.
:[Black Hat is talking to Cueball, who is standing in front of a mirror.]
:Black Hat: Okay, remember: The key to conversation is constructive criticism.
:Black Hat: You need to show you're smart enough to solve her problems.
:Cueball: Makes sense.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

413: New Pet

2022-05-20T22:03:28Z

172.70.86.44: Undo revision 271555 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk) (vandalism)

{{comic
| number = 413
| date = April 21, 2008
| title = New Pet
| image = new pet.png
| titletext = ONE LAPTOP PER HAMSTER!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] create a new pet by putting an {{w|Eee PC}} into a {{w|hamster ball}}, allowing it to roll around.

The {{w|Asus Eee PC}} was one of the first subnotebook computers available on the American market, noted for its small size and coming pre-installed with Linux. With a diagonal size of 11 inches, it would take a big hamster ball to carry it like this.

{{w|Omniwheel}}s are wheels with rollers mounted on the edge to allow the wheel to slide sideways. The wheels in the drawing look more like {{w|Mecanum wheel}}s, which have rollers mounted at an angle to the edge. Both omniwheels and Mecanum wheels are used in omni-directional drive systems, like you would use to drive a hamster ball from the inside. A {{w|webcam}} is connected magnetically to the top of the hamster ball, which connects to an rf link to transmit wirelessly to the computer.

TCO is {{w|total cost of ownership}}, which is exactly what it sounds like: the purchase price of something, plus all costs of keeping, operating, and/or maintaining that something. It's used in accounting to determine something's true cost-to-value evaluation. In the case of a cat, TCO would primarily consist of food, litter, veterinary care, etc. Refer to [[#Trivia|trivia for more details]]. For the device in the comic, there would be a small ongoing cost (occasional recharges for the batteries) after the initial investment.

A {{w|Roomba}} is a self-directed robotic vacuum cleaner made by iRobot, which has no feelings and cannot make friends.{{Citation needed}}

{{w|Python (programming language)|Python}} is a programming language popular among geeks running Linux. Among other features, it has a large number of easily installed 3rd-party libraries that make it easy to add features to programs. In this case, [[Cueball]] is importing the "soul" library to give the new pet a soul – something that a programming language cannot actually do.{{Citation needed}}

The title text refers to the {{w|One Laptop per Child}} project spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte around 2005, with the goal of building an inexpensive, durable sublaptop that could be distributed to children in developing countries to give them an educational edge.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is placing EEE PC inside hamster ball. Cueball scratches his head.]
:Cueball: What are you doing?
:Megan: Mounting your EEE PC in a hamster ball.

:Megan: Well, the TCO of a cat is like $1,000/year, so we're saving money.

:[Cueball is typing.]
:Megan: Microcontrollers are all wired up! How's the brain coming?
:Cueball: I've taught it obstacle avoidance and blogging.

:Cueball: Aww, look, it's making friends with the Roomba.
:EEE PC: ''RRRRR''
:Roomba: ''Beep!''

:[A blueprint in the background shows a webcam, RF links, bearings, omni wheels, magnets, EEE PC, omni wheels, and a battery all hooked up to Megan and Cueball's "pet."]

:[Hamster ball bounces down a flight of stairs.]
:Hamster ball: ''Bonk bonk''
:Off-panel: Man, I hope it's okay that we're laughing at this.

:[Megan picks up a ball.]
:Megan: I think my mothering instinct took a wrong turn somewhere.
:Cueball: You mean an awesome turn.

:[Cueball is typing.]
:Megan: Too bad we can't give it a soul.
:Cueball: Sure we can.
:Cueball types: import soul
:Megan: Oh, right. Python.

==Trivia==
*According to [http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2137&aid=1542 Pet Education's list], the TCO for a cat is between 310 and 1169 USD per year.
*In January 2020, Samsung named the pet{{Citation needed}} [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7N5UDZX7TQ "Ballie"], while Python support has not been confirmed yet.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Roomba]]

Talk:2621: Mainly Known For

2022-05-19T13:41:57Z

172.70.86.44:

Title text: the movies are Star Wars, 1) Keira Knightly starred as one of the handmaidens of Padme, 2) The Land Before Time had George Lucas as executive producer 3) The guy from Jurassic Park and Ghostwriter is Samuel L. Jackson 4) Billie Lourd's mom is Carrie Fisher.--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.121|172.70.254.121]] 04:19, 19 May 2022 (UTC)
:The hard part must have been finding out that she did script work, because she is not credited for this even on IMDb... I would like a citation for that actually, rather than the silly ones that was in the explanation at this time. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:06, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

Re. John Lennon/Ringo Starr: Could one make the argument that the whole Beatles section is further proof of Megan's tendencies because Ringo is widely cited as the least famous and recognisable of the Beatles, meaning that the fact that she mentions him before the probably much more famous Paul McCartney and George Harrison is also misjudging who the Beatles are mainly known for consisting of??
:Agree that this could be mentioned --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:06, 19 May 2022 (UTC)
:Being the "least famous Beatle" still makes him one of the most famous people in the world. You have to go to Pete Best, the original drummer he replaced, to have a Beatle that isn't known by most most people. I also think Ringo may have been more well known during the Beatles' heyday, as he seemed to be more vocal in interviews than George Harrison, who was the "quiet one". He didn't have as big a solo career as the others after the breakup, but that's also a high bar. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:13, 19 May 2022 (UTC)
::It's not just whether he's the least well known of the four, though. Apparently, to Megan, he's more well known than Lennon, who is certainly the most well-known of them to the rest of the world. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.44|172.70.86.44]] 13:41, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

Question in general, but don't know where to ask: why are panels 1, 2 and 4 boxed off, and is 3 open? Going back in time, the first example I found where a panel is not boxed off, is [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2581:_Health_Stats Health Stats], in which it's also the 3rd one that is open...[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.89|162.158.233.89]] 10:00, 19 May 2022 (UTC)
:No it is relatively common, but something that I strive to mention when it happens, as it is a defining characteristic of those comics where it occurs. I'm not sure I have used the same wording every time, but searching for ''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=500&offset=0&profile=default&search=%22in+a+frameless+panel%22 in a frameless panel]'' I got 35 results from other comics transcripts. So Randall uses this on a regular basis. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:04, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

1954: Impostor Syndrome

2022-05-18T22:38:52Z

172.70.86.44: You say that as if it's a bad thing.

{{comic
| number = 1954
| date = February 12, 2018
| title = Impostor Syndrome
| image = impostor_syndrome.png
| titletext = It's actually worst in people who study the Dunning–Kruger effect. We tried to organize a conference on it, but the only people who would agree to give the keynote were random undergrads.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Impostor_syndrome|Impostor syndrome}} is a common psychological phenomenon where successful individuals are unable to internalize their success and fear being exposed as a "fraud" or "impostor." Events and accomplishments that would seem to be evidence of competence, skill, intelligence, and so forth, are instead viewed (by the person) as luck, timing, and the ability to appear more confident/competent than they actually are.

[[Ponytail]], representing Dr. Adams, is introduced by Megan as "the world's top expert on impostor syndrome." Dr. Adams then demonstrates that she herself (like a relatively large number of women according to some reports [http://www.paulineroseclance.com/pdf/ip_high_achieving_women.pdf]) is afflicted by this syndrome. She realizes this after she reacts to the flattering introduction by starting about "other scholars" whom she deems to be superior to her.

The {{w|Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect|Dunning–Kruger effect}}, mentioned in the title text, is a cognitive bias wherein people who possess comparatively little direct expertise in a given field may unrealistically inflate their estimation of their own level of expertise in that field; while those who actually are highly competent (and especially experts on the topic at hand) are likely to downplay their level of expertise. This cognitive bias arises when people of low relevant ability lack the practical knowledge to validly assess their competence: The criteria for good or poor performance in a given field may not be weighed accurately by someone lacking direct expertise and formal training in that specific field. For instance, a commuter experienced in filtering through traffic quickly may consider themselves to be excellent at driving, while a professional evaluating driving habits may observe adherence to regulations and best practices for safety to be the primary criteria for being a "good" driver.

Conversely, people with extensive knowledge of a given field may develop an acute awareness of the necessarily limited scope of their (or any one person's) expertise. While this effect primarily refers to cognitive ability, it is also sometimes used to refer to people who are competent in one area (and thus not lacking {{w|Metacognition|metacognitive}} skills) believing that their abilities grant them unusually-high aptitude in a different but seemingly related area.

In practice, more expertise still largely correlates to higher confidence in one's expertise (that is to say that competence remains positively correlated with an individual's perception of their own competence), but a lack of the appropriate cognitive skills can result in that perception of competence starting at a high level yet increasing at a slower rate. However, in popular usage, the Dunning–Kruger effect is used to claim that a ''negative'' correlation exists, and that non-experts will claim expertise and confidence at a higher overall level than actual experts.

In the title text, a conference for the Dunning–Kruger effect was having trouble, presumably because the actual researchers were downplaying their knowledge and expertise to the point where they refused to be the keynote speaker, while the random undergrads (who lack experience in the topic) felt sufficiently confident in their knowledge of it to give the keynote. This more closely matches both the secondary usage (as undergrads are unlikely to lack metacognitive skills, but may inflate their understanding) and the popular usage (as the confidence is inverse to the actual competence) than the primary and in-practice observance made in the original research.

==Transcript==
:[Megan points at Ponytail and introduces her to Cueball.]
:Megan: This is Dr. Adams. She's a social psychologist and the world's top expert on impostor syndrome.
:Dr. Adams: Haha, don't be silly! There are lots of scholars who have made more significant…
:Dr. Adams: …Oh my God.

{{comic discussion}}

[[category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Dr. Adams]]
[[category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1948: Campaign Fundraising Emails

2022-05-17T16:41:27Z

172.70.86.44: /* The emails */ Some (awkward) expansion on this.

{{comic
| number = 1948
| date = January 29, 2018
| title = Campaign Fundraising Emails
| image = campaign_fundraising_emails.png
| titletext = The establishment doesn't take us seriously. You know who else they didn't take seriously? Hitler. I'll be like him, but a GOOD guy instead of…
}}

==Explanation==

Many politicians and organizations in the United States have taken to using email to conduct aggressive fundraising drives seeking campaign contributions. Signing a petition or expressing interest in a cause can lead to being added to a myriad of mailing lists for similar groups, all looking for support. This comic shows a caricature of the kind of inbox that can result from this. The emails get more and more absurd as the list goes on. For example, the last one combines a request for campaign contributions with the infamous 'Nigerian prince' {{w|advance-fee scam}} phishing scheme.

==The emails==

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
! E-mail Body !! Explanation
|-
|'''Donate now.''' It's crunch time, and we're low on cash. If you chip in just $5 by midnight, we…
|This is the classic formula for campaign fundraising emails, and may be a real example. It is always "crunch time" during a campaign (at least between filing for candidacy and election day), and campaigns are always "low" on cash relative to the unlimited funding they would prefer. The ends of financial reporting periods, often at midnight, are conflated with "deadlines" of significant consequence. Further, the donation requested is less about the actual money - even if $5 each from several thousand voters can add up - but to get a donor to have their money placed on a candidate, making it more likely that donor will vote for the candidate (via encouraging {{w|Sunk cost#Loss_aversion_and_the_sunk_cost_fallacy|the "sunk cost" fallacy}}), or to allow the targeting of future messages based on how engaged the recipient is with the campaign.
|-
|'''Donate $35.57 now!''' Our data team has determined that we should ask you for $35.57 to optimize the…
|A key factor in the success of a fundraising campaign is the amount of the donation that is asked for or suggested. Even if the donor is ultimately free to donate whatever amount they want, the initial 'ask' can have a significant effect on the amount donated, due to the psychological effect of {{w|Anchoring (cognitive bias)|anchoring}}. Increasing the suggested amount may increase the amount of the average donation, but it may also put some people off donating altogether. Finding the sweetspot allows the fundraiser to maximise the income generated.

Most modern bulk mailing platforms allow users send different versions of their emails to recipients at random. Using analytics packages, they can then determine which version of their messages is most effective at eliciting the desired result (such as making a purchase, reading a story, etc.) from recipients, or even from particular segments, and to refine future emails accordingly. Use of these techniques has resulted in fundraisers moving away from traditional 'round' numbers ($10, $25, etc.) to ask for more unusual looking amounts which increase the average amount donated, either by exploiting {{w|Psychological pricing|such effects}} as the "99 cent" phenomenon or giving those that ask an appearance of 'knowing what they're talking about' to give the potential donor the impression that they're good with details and wouldn't be overwhelmed by the pressures of being in office.

However, it would be unusual to use quite such a precise amount told them, which may actually appear cynical in its attempt to bleed the donor to a maximal amount, and put many off donating altogether. This is rather than at least the pretense to be coming directly from a more optimal and restrained need/capability calculation. The email then compounds this by stating outright that this is what they have done, and entirely sheds any of the veil of it not being calculated ''simply'' to manipulate the recipient (even/especially if it had not been recalculated to differing odd values for each recipient), plus explicitly suggest that someone other than the message author did this so no longer conveys much of any innate confidence and trustworthiness one might have had in the sender themself.
|-
|'''Help.''' Our campaign made some mistakes and we need a lot of money ASAP. Any kind, but cash is…
|This email is honest about the campaign's incompetence, but is not likely to get much sympathy, except perhaps from those already very sympathetic to the candidate. Any campaign reduced to this level has probably already lost. The email appears to be suggesting that they would much prefer that donors send cash, presumably in the mail. This would raise several red flags: it might suggest that the campaign's finances are in such disarray that it cannot process checks, credit cards, etc. in a timely manner, or it might be that they want to keep donations off the books so that they can be diverted elsewhere, or to circumvent electoral spending restrictions. Even if no dishonesty is intended, it would increase the chances that cash could be stolen or otherwise misused more readily than other forms of payment.
|-
|'''Washington is broken.''' When I win, I'll look those other senators in the eye and tell them: "Jobs." Then I…
|This email, apparently from a candidate for the US Senate, takes a common right-wing populist approach of repeating various {{w|Dog-whistle_politics|dog-whistle}} phrases to imply that they will stand up for the interests of the common people against a system that is rigged against them, without giving any meaningful indication of what they intend to achieve. Not only is the mere statement of "jobs", without any kind of explanation of what problems they believe there are, or what they suggest doing about it, entirely unhelpful, they also seem to suggest that, despite them being elected, it would be everybody else's responsibility to solve it.
|-
|'''Hopeless.''' It's bad. Really bad. If you don't chip in now, the darkness spreading across the land will…
|This is a favorite of moral campaigns, on both sides of a debate. Grand statements about evil and corruption taking over the country if the campaign does not get enough support are common, but they are extremely biased and dramatic. The wording in this case is also somewhat archaic and melodramatic, making it sound like something from a fantasy novel.
This might also refer to comic 1391, where everyone forgets about the day and night cycle, and reporters are reporting on the darkness that has spread as far west as Texas.
|-
|As the first woman to fly a fighter jet through our state's formerly all-male university, I learned…
|Candidates often like to portray themselves as trailblazers for a particular community, who have persevered and achieved despite the odds. Normally, one would make a virtue of being the first ''from'' a university to do something, rather than the first to achieve something involving the university itself. Flying a plane through a university is risky, at the very least, and depending on the definition of "through", could imply destruction of buildings or the plane itself, which might paint the candidate in an irresponsible light. The implication of "formerly all-male university" may be that the university was changed from being all-male in response to this candidate wrecking it with a fighter jet. This may also refer to the viral 2017 Congressional campaign ad of {{w|Amy McGrath}}, the first female Marine to fly an {{w|McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet|F-18}} in combat.
|-
|'''We're broke.''' No paid staff. No ads. And the cafe has told us to stop using their WiFi to send fundraising…
| This campaign tactic attempts to appeal to the reader's sympathy by describing financial struggles and poverty, but these tactics may instead make the movement look pathetic and poorly-organized, especially because the group is apparently so poor, they can't afford premises of their own to run the campaign from, or an internet connection to continue sending emails to ask for funding.
|-
|When Amy decided to run for Congress, I was like "Huh?" but I checked Wikipedia, and apparently it's a branch of…
|The first few words here might suggest the writer is about to explain how, having initially been sceptical, Amy's inspirational message and / or character has won them over to her campaign. This kind of message is used to make a candidate seem relatable and credible. In fact, though, they just didn't know what she was talking about, as they didn't know what Congress was. Since they clearly don't know much about the subject, this would fail to lend the weight it is aiming to.

Furthermore, while a familiar tone could also be part of a communication strategy to make the message seem relatable, this takes it to an extreme that would probably come across as unprofessional and lacking in seriousness.
|-
|'''Are you familiar''' with the Dutch painter Hieronymous Bosch? His work illustrates my opponent's plan for…
|The works of {{w|Hieronymus Bosch}} are famous for depictions of {{w|Hell}} and {{w|Limbo}} as brutal places of highly imaginative torments, which the sender implies would be similar to the country under their opponent's plan. This mocks the tendency of political campaigns to present an exaggerated view of how bad things would be if their political rivals were elected.
|-
|Being a single mom running a small business while going to law school while being deployed to Iraq taught me…
|Each of these are typical credentials that a candidate might cite in order to imply that they are hardworking and committed. However, it is extremely unlikely that one person would take on all of these responsibilities at the same time, and attempting to do so might suggest that they lack focus and aren't really that committed to any one thing. Also, it would be very difficult for someone to do all of these things simultaneously (e.g. running a small business while deployed in Iraq), so the person might come across as lying in order to impress people.
|-
|'''I will lead the fight''' against the big banks, special interests, the Earth's climate, and our children. I…
|This is another populist message listing off hot button topics. However, after starting out with some typical promises to fight fairly commonly despised things, it then becomes more controversial. It promises to fight the climate, with the peculiar implication that damaging the climate is the goal, and 'our children', which most voters would think would need protecting. This may be suggesting that politicians using these kind of messages are likely to be hiding bad intentions behind their attractive sounding slogans (or they may be just trying and failing to write a populist message without fully understanding it). The fight "against our children" may be a reference to a popular {{w|Bushism}}.
|-
|'''Wow.''' Have you seen this video of the squirrel obstacle course? Incredible! Anyway, I'm running because I…
|A typical form of {{w|clickbait}}. (Don't read another table entry until you've followed that link! Reference #10 will shock you). It also may be referencing the Mark Rober squirrel obstacle course, which was a widespread video at the time of this publishing.
|-
|'''Outrageous.''' Granted, this was a few years ago, but did you hear what President Ford said about…
|When a politician makes an offensive comment, it's common for the politician's opponents to send out fundraising emails pointing out the politician's offensiveness as a way of generating donations to the fight against them. Political strategists will often keep dossiers of such remarks to be used when needed in campaigning season. More recently, there has been a trend for trawling opponents' social media accounts for controversial comments they may have made several years previously, or even as a youth. Here, the sender's reaction and e-mail fundraising effort appears to be unusually delayed, as it refers to an alleged comment by {{w|Gerald Ford}}, whose term as President of the United States ended in 1977 and who died in 2006.
|-
|'''Whoops.''' Due to a typo, we spent months running attack ads against Tom Hanks. Now, we need to make up for…
|The email apologises for running months of attack ads against American actor {{w|Tom Hanks}}. Hanks is generally a popular and uncontroversial figure with [http://archive.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2008/01/06/nice_guy_tom_hanks/ a reputation] for being [https://www.ranker.com/list/tom-hanks-was-the-best/lisa-waugh nice and likable in person], making him an unusual target for attack ads. This implies that the sender does not even know who their opponent is, and has mistakenly targeted the wrong person, demonstrating some significant ignorance and incompetence.
|-
|'''They say we can't win—'''that we're "underdogs" with "no money" who "lost the election last week." But they don't…
|In multi-candidacy electoral races, campaigns will often suggest that a rival 'can't win here', sometimes prefaced with an appeal to authority, such as 'Polls show...'. The hope is that some supporters of the candidate being attacked may be persuaded to switch their vote to the candidate whose campaign it is, in an effort to prevent a third, more disliked, candidate from being elected. Here, the approach seems to be a campaign mocking the opposition's statements about themselves, defiantly exhibiting the negative feedback against them before leading into some point to prove the arguments wrong. However, the complaints being mocked seem like serious flaws in the campaign, and indeed, it seems to confess that they ''already lost'', and thus have no purpose for a campaign anymore. Any campaign continuing to email supporters after losing is clearly in deep denial, especially if it thinks the negative press about it is unjustified.

This may refer to {{w|Roy Moore#U.S. Senate special election campaign|Roy Moore's attempts}} to overturn his loss in the December 2017 election for one of Alabama's US Senate seats, which came about a month before this comic and made national headlines. After the initial election count had him losing, he demanded a recount. That initial count said he had lost by a large enough margin that Alabama law required him to pay up front for a recount, and his campaign did not have enough funds available.
|-
|'''Our campaign's only chance''' is to seduce Jennifer ActBlue, heir to the ActBlue fortune. For that, we need a fancy…
|This e-mail alludes to [https://secure.actblue.com/ ActBlue], a political action committee that provides technology to help Democrat and progressive organizations to campaign and collect donations online. In reality, there is no ActBlue family, nor any "Jennifer ActBlue" who is the heir to its fortune; the name ActBlue is a portmanteau from the words "action", in a political sense, and the color "blue", which is {{w|Red states and blue states|closely associated}} with the Democratic Party in the USA. Even if Jennifer ActBlue was a real heiress, a candidate whose only hope to win revolved around seducing a wealthy woman would be facing serious problems.
|-
|'''Doom.''' Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed, like rain on…
|This is an excerpt from {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien's}} poem ''[http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Lament_for_the_Rohirrim Lament of the Rohirrim,]'' appearing in ''{{w|The Two Towers}}'': 
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? 
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing? 
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing? 
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing? 
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; 
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. 
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning, 
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?
|-
|'''Warmest greetings.''' I am the crown prince of Nigeria. I am running for Congress because I believe that…
|The opening line is designed to sound like spam for an {{W | Advance-fee scam}}. These scams typically involve impersonating someone rich, often a Nigerian prince, who claims to be in trouble and promises to share a large sum of money if the victim helps him by sending a small fee in advance. However, the second sentence of this email switches to sounding like a political fundraising email instead of an outright scam. This is either to establish a degrading comparison between flagrant scams and fundraising emails, or just to create a bait-and-switch joke. Another possibility is that the email sounds like it is a scam because it is a scam.
|-
|The establishment doesn't take us seriously. You know who else they didn't take seriously? Hitler. I'll be like him, but a GOOD guy instead of… (title text)
|A candidate who compares himself to {{w|Hitler}}, even when promising to be GOOD instead, will probably not get many votes. The title text does however conform to {{w|Godwin's law}}.
|}

==Transcript==
:[An e-mail inbox window is displayed. On each line appears an illegible e-mail address and a checkbox.]
:'''Donate now.''' It's crunch time, and we're low on cash. If you chip in just $5 by midnight, we…
:'''Donate $35.57 now!''' Our data team has determined that we should ask you for $35.57 to optimize the…
:'''Help.''' Our campaign made some mistakes and we need a '''lot''' of money ASAP. Any kind, but cash is…
:'''Washington is broken.''' When I win, I'll look those other senators in the eye and tell them: "Jobs." Then I…
:'''Hopeless.''' It's bad. Really bad. If you don't chip in now, the darkness spreading across the land will…
:As the first woman to fly a fighter jet through our state's formerly all-male university, I learned… 
:'''We're broke.''' No paid staff. No ads. And the cafe has told us to stop using their wifi to send fundraising…
:When Amy decided to run for Congress, I was like "Huh?" but I checked Wikipedia, and apparently it's a branch of…
:'''Are you familiar''' with the Dutch painter Hieronymous Bosch? His work illustrates my opponent's plan for…
:Being a single mom running a small business while going to law school while being deployed to Iraq taught me…
:'''I will lead the fight''' against the big banks, special interests, the Earth's climate, and our children. I…
:'''Wow.''' Have you seen this video of the squirrel obstacle course? Incredible! Anyway, I'm running because I…
:'''Outrageous.''' Granted, this was a few years ago, but did you hear what President Ford said about…
:'''Whoops.''' Due to a typo, we spent months running attack ads against Tom Hanks. Now, we need to make up for…
:'''They say we can't win—'''that we're "underdogs" with "no money" who "lost the election last week." But they don't…
:'''Our campaign's only chance''' is to seduce Jennifer ActBlue, heir to the ActBlue fortune. For that, we need a fancy…
:'''Doom.''' Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed, like rain on…
:'''Warmest greetings.''' I am the crown prince of Nigeria. I am running for Congress because I believe that…

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

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T15:03:04Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his health data has revealed some "measurements" and "variables" but doesn't specify what they are. Presumably, anyone who had had the panel of tests Cueball has been given would have had equally as many measurements and variables.

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

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

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T15:02:36Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his health data has revealed some "measurements" and "variables" but doesn't specify what they are. Presumably, anyone who had had the panel of tests Cueball has been given would have had equally as many measurements and variables.

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

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

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T15:01:54Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his health data has revealed some "measurements" and "variables" but doesn't specify what they are. Presumably, anyone who had had the panel of tests Cueball has been given would have had equally as many measurements and variables.

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

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

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T14:58:17Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his health data has revealed some "measurements" and "variables" but doesn't specify what they are. Presumably, anyone who had had the panel of tests Cueball has been given would have had equally as many measurements and variables.

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

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

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T14:51:37Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his health data has revealed some "measurements" and "variables" but doesn't specify what they are. Presumably, anyone who had had the panel of tests Cueball has been given would have had equally as many measurements and variables.

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

Cueball tries to cut to the root of the issue by asking "what are my chances of survival?" Ponytail asks what is Cueball's family history, but rather than asking if his family has a history of similar symptoms to Cueball himself she is just asking if he has any family history whatsoever, another unhelpful inquiry as it does nothing to help with Cueball's questions.

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T14:47:55Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his health data has revealed some "measurements" and "variables" but doesn't specify what they are. Presumably, anyone who had had the panel of tests Cueball has been given would have had equally as many measurements and variables.

In response to being asked whether this is bad, she ominously says that they are the number one cause of "outcomes." This is tautological, simply defining what the words "variables" and "outcomes" mean.

Cueball tries to cut to the root of the issue by asking "what are my chances of survival?" Ponytail asks what is Cueball's family history, but rather than asking if his family has a history of similar symptoms to Cueball himself she is just asking if he has any family history whatsoever, another unhelpful inquiry as it does nothing to help with Cueball's questions.

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T14:40:57Z

172.70.86.44:

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

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

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

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

Carbon monoxide
Pesticides and cleaning products
Lead"

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

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

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

'Vagueness' is really an insufficient description for the absolute insanity that is blaming the passage of time for your problems. Almost to the point of being humorous in its own right. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.199|172.69.33.199]] 10:13, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

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

Talk:2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T14:40:30Z

172.70.86.44:

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

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

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

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

Carbon monoxide
Pesticides and cleaning products
Lead"

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

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

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

'Vagueness' is really an insufficient description for the absolute insanity that is blaming the passage of time for your problems. Almost to the point of being humorous in its own right. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.199|172.69.33.199]] 10:13, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

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

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T14:38:09Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his health data has revealed some "variables" but doesn't specify what those variables are, only that they are the number one cause of "outcomes." This is tautological, simply defining what the words "variables" and "outcomes" mean.

Cueball tries to cut to the root of the issue by asking "what are my chances of survival?" Ponytail asks what is Cueball's family history, but rather than asking if his family has a history of similar symptoms to Cueball himself she is just asking if he has any family history whatsoever, another unhelpful inquiry as it does nothing to help with Cueball's questions.

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2620: Health Data

2022-05-17T14:36:00Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EFFECTS THE SITUATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is at the hospital for some form of check-up. [[:Category:Doctor Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]] comes in to inform him of the tests they have run, but her statements are frustratingly generic, and so lacking in diagnostic usefulness. She says that his health data has revealed some "variables" but dances around what those variables are, only that they are the number one cause of "outcomes." This is tautological, simply defining what the words "variables" and "outcomes" mean.

Cueball tries to cut to the root of the issue by asking "what are my chances of survival?" Ponytail asks what is Cueball's family history, but rather than asking if his family has a history of similar symptoms to Cueball himself she is just asking if he has any family history whatsoever, another unhelpful inquiry as it does nothing to help with Cueball's questions.

The comic might be making fun of poorly defined health statistics: statistics for the [https://www.gwclaw.com/blog/accidental-death-causes/ leading causes of accidental death in the United States], for example, typically cite 'poisoning' as the number one cause, even though poisoning other than drug overdoses is actually quite rare. The comic takes vague statistics to the extreme, citing 'causality' as the leading cause of death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2619: Crêpe

2022-05-17T14:31:15Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2619
| date = May 13, 2022
| title = Crêpe
| image = crepe.png
| titletext = A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ÇRÊPË - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:crêpe.png|thumb|The word "crêpe" in the comic]]
[[Cueball]] has made a {{w|crêpe}}, a thin pancake known for its legendary status in French cuisine, which he proudly announces. However, the {{w|circumflex}} (the accent above the e) is written strangely. Instead of the usual simple angle (^), it looks more like the outline of a flattened arrowhead (⮝). [[Megan]], who can apparently {{tvtropes|PsmithPsyndrome|hear the orthography}} of spoken text, comments on the odd shape with an appropriate pun.

Megan's response, "Weird circumflex but okay" is a play on the recent expression [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Weird%20flex%20but%20ok Weird flex, but ok]. A "flex" is bragging about something. A "weird flex" is used when the speaker acknowledges (perhaps ironically) that the first person is attempting to brag about something, but doesn't recognise the thing as brag-worthy.

Her answer could also be applied to the shape of the crêpe, as circumflex means "bent around".

In some dialects of English (e.g. British English), and in the original French pronunciation, "crêpe" is said so that the ê is pronounced as in "get" (i.e. "cr-eh-p"), but American English speakers pronounce it like an "A" (i.e. "cr-ay-p").

The title text continues the wordplay by saying that "A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic".

The word diäretic is a pun on {{w|diuretic}} (a substance promoting increased urine production), {{w|Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis}} (a symbol in the form of two dots placed above a vowel, as the ä in the made up word diäretic; the adjective form of diaeresis can be spelled "[https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Diaresis dieretic]") and {{w|diacritic}} (a glyph added to a letter to distinguish its sound from the normal version, what both the circumflex and the diaeresis are). See also the comic [[1647: Diacritics]] about the use of these. Taking a diäretic medicine would supposedly cause you to use diaeresis (also known as umlaut) över möre lëtters thän wöuld üsuallÿ bë thë cäse.

Diacritics are rarely used in English, potentially because of the diverse set of origin languages it developed from, or the wide variation of pronunciations within a same nation, but are a common feature of other languages. In English, they are normally only seen in specific loanwords (such as crêpe) or used for emphasis or decoration (for example the {{w|metal umlaut}} seen in rock bands like {{w|Motörhead}}, {{w|Mötley Crüe}}, {{w|Queensrÿche}}, or {{w|Spın̈al Tap}}). The exception to this is the diaresis, which when it is used at all, is placed over the second vowel in a double-vowel word to indicate a morphological break between them as opposed to a dipthong (e.g. naïve or coöperation). The diaresis is optional, and, especially with words beginning with the co- prefix (e.g. cooperation, coevolution, or coincidence), rarely used. The New Yorker magazine is a famous outlier, advising consistent use of the diaresis in [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis its style guide].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a plate up in both hand, showing Megan the crepe lying on the plate. His word for crêpe has a different diacritic over the "e" than the normal circumflex (^). Instead it looks more like an open arrow head.]
:Cueball: Check out this crêpe I made!
:Megan: Weird circumflex, but okay.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Food]]

2619: Crêpe

2022-05-17T14:29:13Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2619
| date = May 13, 2022
| title = Crêpe
| image = crepe.png
| titletext = A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ÇRÊPË - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:crêpe.png|thumb|The word "crêpe" in the comic]]
[[Cueball]] has made a {{w|crêpe}}, a thin pancake known for its legendary status in French cuisine, which he proudly announces. However, the {{w|circumflex}} (the accent above the e) is written strangely. Instead of the usual simple angle (^), it looks more like the outline of a flattened arrowhead (⮝). [[Megan]], who can apparently {{tvtropes|PsmithPsyndrome|hear the orthography}} of spoken text, comments on the odd shape with an appropriate pun.

Megan's response, "Weird circumflex but okay" is a play on the recent expression [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Weird%20flex%20but%20ok Weird flex, but ok]. A "flex" is bragging about something. A "weird flex" is used when the speaker acknowledges (perhaps ironically) that the first person is attempting to brag about something, but doesn't recognise the thing as brag-worthy.

Her answer could also be applied to the shape of the crêpe, as circumflex means "bent around".

In some dialects of English (e.g. British English), and in the original French pronunciation, "crêpe" is said so that the ê is pronounced as in "get", i.e. "cr-eh-p", but American English speakers pronounce it like an "A", i.e. "cr-ay-p".

The title text continues the wordplay by saying that "A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic".

The word diäretic is a pun on {{w|diuretic}} (a substance promoting increased urine production), {{w|Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis}} (a symbol in the form of two dots placed above a vowel, as the ä in the made up word diäretic; the adjective form of diaeresis can be spelled "[https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Diaresis dieretic]") and {{w|diacritic}} (a glyph added to a letter to distinguish its sound from the normal version, what both the circumflex and the diaeresis are). See also the comic [[1647: Diacritics]] about the use of these. Taking a diäretic medicine would supposedly cause you to use diaeresis (also known as umlaut) över möre lëtters thän wöuld üsuallÿ bë thë cäse.

Diacritics are rarely used in English, potentially because of the diverse set of origin languages it developed from, or the wide variation of pronunciations within a same nation, but are a common feature of other languages. In English, they are normally only seen in specific loanwords (such as crêpe) or used for emphasis or decoration (for example the {{w|metal umlaut}} seen in rock bands like {{w|Motörhead}}, {{w|Mötley Crüe}}, {{w|Queensrÿche}}, or {{w|Spın̈al Tap}}). The exception to this is the diaresis, which when it is used at all, is placed over the second vowel in a double-vowel word to indicate a morphological break between them as opposed to a dipthong (e.g. naïve or coöperation). The diaresis is optional, and, especially with words beginning with the co- prefix (e.g. cooperation, coevolution, or coincidence), rarely used. The New Yorker magazine is a famous outlier, advising consistent use of the diaresis in [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis its style guide].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a plate up in both hand, showing Megan the crepe lying on the plate. His word for crêpe has a different diacritic over the "e" than the normal circumflex (^). Instead it looks more like an open arrow head.]
:Cueball: Check out this crêpe I made!
:Megan: Weird circumflex, but okay.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Food]]

2619: Crêpe

2022-05-14T07:14:42Z

172.70.86.44: /* Explanation */ better

62: Valentine - Karnaugh

2022-05-11T18:31:06Z

172.70.86.44: Undo revision 265474 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 62
| date = February 10, 2006
| title = Valentine - Karnaugh
| image = valentine_karnaugh.png
| titletext = Love and circuit analysis, hand in hand at last.
}}

==Explanation==

A {{w|Karnaugh map}} is a Boolean algebra tool that is used to simplify expressions. The final picture, the one that looks like a crossword puzzle, is similar to the way that a Karnaugh map is used on a Boolean truth table, to identify areas that can be simplified. [http://www.utdallas.edu/~dodge/EE2310/lec5.pdf This PDF document] shows how the process is used to simplify logic circuits. The lament of the {{w|Valentine's Day|Valentine}} is that feelings don't yield themselves to the same kind of analysis.

This comic has four pictures with lines of text alongside them. The text can be used to understand the picture. The first three pictures show love to become more coherent and well-defined but yet complicated. The last picture and text alongside it show [[Cueball]]'s desire that there should be a way to simplify complications in love, just like Karnaugh maps for Boolean expressions.

The first line means that love is such an overwhelming feeling that it is hard to understand it and even harder to explain. The picture alongside has incoherent lines depicting the feelings of someone in love and hearts represents the overwhelming love.

The second picture and related text mean that the feelings are now identified to some extent but are numerous, and there are too few words to explain them. The picture depicts Cueball and [[Megan]] on separate side of his heart crisscrossed by many feelings. It shows that his inability to explain his feelings is like a barrier between them.

The third picture shows that Cueball has a much better understanding of love and now sees it as a matrix of desires and tangled relations, but it is still very complex to fully understand love.

The fourth picture shows a Karnaugh map that Cueball wishes he could find in the future to solve the matrix of desires and tangled relations that is love.

==Transcript==
:[Squiggly heart design.]
:You make me feel so much
:it all runs together
:I wish I could tell you
:[Crisscrossing heart design. Cueball and Megan on opposite sides of big heart.]
:So few words
:for so many feelings
:crisscrossing my heart
:[Heart matrix design.]
:A matrix of desire
:Tangled relations
:I can't simplify
:[Karnaugh map of hearts.]
:I wish I could find
:the Karnaugh map
:for love.

==Trivia==
* Since at least 2021-04-16 this comics on xkcd.com appears rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. Apparently, this is due to change to the image itself (and not, for example, because of HTML on comics' page).

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Valentines]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

1628: Magnus

2022-05-11T18:29:35Z

172.70.86.44: Undo revision 265473 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1628
| date = January 11, 2016
| title = Magnus
| image = magnus.png
| titletext = In the latest round, 9-year-old Muhammad Ali beat 10-year-old JFK at air hockey, while Secretariat lost the hot-dog-eating crown to 12-year-old Ken Jennings. Meanwhile, in a huge upset, 11-year-old Martha Stewart knocked out the adult Ronda Rousey.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] shows [[Megan]] an {{w|mobile app|app}}, [http://magnuscarlsen.com/playmagnus Play Magnus] ([https://itunes.apple.com/app/play-magnus/id808138395?mt=8 iOS], [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.mw.playmagnus Android]) which claims to simulate playing {{w|chess}} against {{w|Magnus Carlsen}} at various ages. Carlsen is a {{w|chess grandmaster}} who is the world champion as of the date this comic was released.

The idea behind the app is that as Carlsen grows up he becomes better at chess and thus it become exceedingly difficult to beat him as he gets older. As Cueball claims he could have beaten Magnus when he was 8½-year-old, but not a half-year later, we can now estimate Cueballs strength to be that of a typical adult hobbyist, with a FIDE rating of [https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/2qcv95/what_is_the_strength_of_the_play_magnus_app_at/ about 1200].

Taking the idea a step further, Megan wants such an app for other sports {{w|tennis}} and {{w|Swimming (sport)|swimming}}, where skill couldn't imaginably be simulated via an app at all. She wants to compare herself to an 8-year-old {{W|Serena Williams}}, a top-ranked professional tennis player. Or to a 6-year-old {{W|Michael Phelps}}, the {{w|List_of_multiple_Olympic_medalists#List_of_most_Olympic_medals_over_career|most decorated Olympian competitor}} of all time.

Cueball expands beyond sport, wishing to determine if he could cook better than an 11-year-old {{W|Martha Stewart}} (author of several cookbooks). Megan wonders if she'd have won an election against a 12-year old JFK ({{W|John F. Kennedy}}, the 35th American President). Obviously, cooking and politics were skills acquired later in life for both figures. Also, the U.S. Constitution prohibits anyone from serving as President {{w|Age of candidacy laws in the United States|before the age of 35}}, so it seems unlikely that any 12-year-old candidate could win, regardless of skill level, simply because voters would not want to elect someone ineligible to serve for another 23 years. Such a contest would likely be prohibited altogether, as ineligible candidates tend to have {{w|ballot access}} issues.

Cueball and Megan continue speculating about an app simulating the skills of random celebrities at various ages, even beyond the talents that made them famous. They finally end up comparing 8-year-old Magnus's swimming skill against 9-year-old Martha's (he wins). But they'd both lose a {{w|hot dog}}-{{w|Competitive eating|eating contest}} against the championship race horse {{W|Secretariat (horse)|Secretariat}}. At this point even Megan realizes (with considerable understatement) their project "has gotten weird".

The title text extends the point to even greater absurdity, e.g. the ludicrous prospect of a young Martha Stewart knocking an adult {{W|Ronda Rousey}} (professional wrestler and actress) unconscious, or 9-year-old {{W|Muhammad Ali}} (professional boxer and activist) beating a 10-year-old JFK in {{w|air hockey}}. The former may be a reference to the fact that professional wrestling is more entertainment than competition, and the outcomes are often pre-staged, so the victor would not depend on which contestant was more skilled. This was also referenced in the title text of [[2291: New Sports System]]. The horse also gets re-mentioned in the title text, losing in a hot dog eating contest against 12-year-old {{W|Ken Jennings}} (at time of comic writing record-holder of winning streak on {{w|television game show}} ''{{W|Jeopardy!}}'').

Chess was previously compared to {{w|basketball}} in [[1392: Dominant Players]], which also mentioned Magnus. This is the tenth [[:Category:Chess|comic about chess]] on {{xkcd}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball walks from the right towards Megan while holding up his smartphone.]
:Cueball: Magnus Carlsen has an app where you can play chess against a simulated version of him at different ages.
:Cueball: I can beat the 8½-year-old, but lose to him at 9.

:[While Megan talks to Cueball he lifts his hand to his chin, while holding the smartphone down.]
:Megan: I want that, but for other games. Can I beat 8-year-old Serena Williams at Tennis? Swim laps faster than a 6-year-old Michael Phelps?
:Cueball: We should make a simulator.

:[Cueball walks out left and Megan follows him. He must have pocketed his phone as it is not in his hand.]
:Cueball: ...Why limit it to games? Can I cook a better chicken than 11-year-old Martha Stewart?
:Megan: Win an election against 12-year-old JFK?

:[At the top frame of this panel there is a small frame with a caption. Below lies Megan on the floor to the left in front of her laptop, while Cueball sits on the floor to the right facing her in front of his own laptop. Between them are some heavy books.]
:Soon...
:[Cueball and Megan sitting at laptops in the bottom of the panel.]
:Megan: Looks like 8-year-old Magnus Carlsen can swim faster than 9-year-old Martha Stewart.
:Cueball: But they both lose a hot-dog-eating contest to 2-year-old Secretariat.
:Megan: This project has gotten weird.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring John F. Kennedy]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1052: Every Major's Terrible

2022-05-11T18:27:18Z

172.70.86.44: Undo revision 265472 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1052
| date = May 7, 2012
| title = Every Major's Terrible
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = every_majors_terrible.png
| titletext = Someday I'll be the first to get a Ph. D in 'Undeclared'.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] has written a song called ''Every Major's Terrible'' and this comic illustrates the song. In this song the term {{w|Major (academic)|Major}} refers to the US version of an academic major. The point of the song is that it makes no sense to pick any major since they are all terrible!

The header notes that the song is written to the tune of the satirical {{w|Major-General's Song}} from {{w|Gilbert and Sullivan's}} 1879 comic opera ''{{w|The Pirates of Penzance}}''. The song satirizes the idea of the "modern" educated British Army officer of the latter 19th century. {{w|Major general}} is a military rank in the United Kingdom and many other countries. (As of August 2018, the title text has been changed to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhaEjgnmy3c a link to the said song]). The meter in the Major-General's Song is {{w|iambic octameter}}, which means that in each line there are eight iambs, where an iamb is two syllables in an unstressed-stressed pattern. Therefore, each line contains 16 syllables.

The panels show Randall's rewritten lyrics to the song. Below each of the three verses are described in detail (go to [[#Verse 1|Verse 1]], [[#Verse 2|Verse 2]] or [[#Verse 3|Verse 3]]). Each verse ends with "Just put me down as 'Undecided' - Every Major's Terrible", which gives the song its name — and "Major's Terrible" is similar enough to "Major General", the corresponding lyrics in the original version, to serve as a callback. The last line of the first verse in each song goes as follows:
*Original: I am the very model of a modern Major-General
*Randall's: Just put me down as undecided- every major's terrible

The lyrics are commonly rewritten, the most famous rewrite likely being {{w|The Elements (song)}} by {{w|Tom Lehrer}} which is also mentioned below the main header. This song is also [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM available on-line].

His last suggestion, "{{w|Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious}}", from ''{{w|Mary Poppins}}'', is another fast-paced patter-song with a somewhat similar tune, though it doesn't fit quite so well, and the match falls apart at the end of the fourth line, when the "Um-diddly"s start up — still, it's better than nothing.

There are at least two performances of this xkcd song online where the transcription is shown to make it easier to understand the text:
*A video with each major acted out by the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seGpYa8UO0E SFU Choir - Every Major's Terrible].
*A solo with piano: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRexBMPeRTo Every Major's Terrible' by Ben Miller].
**See also this article [http://www.uproxx.com/gammasquad/2012/08/ben-miller-xkcd-every-majors-terrible/ Xkcd's 'Every Major's Terrible' Is Now A Real Song].

Regarding the title text: "Undeclared" is sometimes called "General Studies". Most U.S. universities will not let you get a degree in this, let alone an advanced degree such as a {{w|Ph.D.}} Also, it should probably be noted that this song refers to U.S.-like university systems, in other countries, one will study little to nothing outside your major, making it more-or-less impossible to be undecided as to major.

It should also be noted that the title text fits the cadence of the first line of the song, possibly teasing a fourth verse. As to what that consists of, only Randall knows.

===Verse 1===
;Panel 1, ''Philosophy's just math sans rigor, sense, and practicality'': [[Cueball]] is posing as {{w|Rodin}}'s {{w|The Thinker}}, a common symbol for {{w|philosophy}}. The equation in the background (two plus light bulb equals sailboat) is nonsense, hence "{{w|math}} sans rigor, sense or practicality" ([http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sans sans] meaning without).

;Panel 2, ''And math's just physics unconstrained by precepts of reality.'': A cannon is firing. However, instead of going in the normal parabolic arc (a precept of reality and thus {{w|physics}}), the cannonball splits and splits again, so that it looks like a {{w|bifurcation diagram}} from {{w|chaos theory}}. The dashed line indicates the cannonball's trajectory, which bifurcates twice, although the sum of the momentums of the four resulting (1/4 sized?) cannonballs is presumably mathematically identical to the original.

;Panel 3, ''A business major's just a thing you get so you can graduate'': {{w|Business education|Business}} is the most common major, often seen as a practical choice applicable to a wide variety of careers, or, as the comic illustrates, preferred by those who just want an easy way to graduate. Cueball gets his diploma and runs away from the dean on the podium while shedding both his robe and his {{w|square academic cap}} (or Mortarboard).

;Panel 4, ''And chemistry's for stamp collectors high on methylacetate.'': Stamp collecting refers to the [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford famous quote] by {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, "All science is either physics or stamp collecting." {{w|Methyl acetate}} is a solvent that for instance can be used to remove stamps from their envelope (although water will do the same). The stamps in the background form the {{W|periodic table}} of the chemical elements. And since {{w|chemistry}} is not physics, according to the quote, {{w|chemists}} must be stamp collectors (as, the high on methylacetate, [[Ponytail]] wearing goggles and holding an {{w|Erlenmeyer flask}}).

;Panels 5 and 6, ''Why anyone who wants a job would study lit's a mystery'', ''Unless their only other choice were something like art history.'': These lines, both sung by Cueball, refer to subjects where a majority of graduates will end up unemployed or eventually working in a field outside their majors. Topics such as {{w|Literature}} or {{w|Art History}} are often and historically said to be in this category — although from [http://www.studentsreview.com/unemployment_by_major.php3?sort=Rate actual statistics], it is clear that there are far worse majors these days.

;Panels 7 and 8, ''A BA in communications guarantees that you'll achieve'', ''A little less than if you'd learned to underwater basket-weave'': Here Cueball first has a major in {{w|Communication studies|Communications}} and next he is seen underwater with a basket. {{w|Underwater basket weaving}} is a commonly used metaphor for any college major that is easy and/or worthless. "Communications" is a major chosen by people interested in news broadcasting or other media. Note that, if following the original music exactly, the line "A little less than if you'd learned to underwater basket-weave." will be repeated three times by the chorus after these panels.

;Panel 9, ''I'd rather eat a Fowler's toad than major in biology,'': We see Cueball holding a frog out in front of him while taking his hand to his head (in disgust?). A {{w|Fowler's toad}} is a relatively common toad in the eastern US, and a stereotype of studying {{w|biology}} is a frog {{w|dissection}}, which is likely part of the reference, albeit oblique. Fowler's Toad emits a {{w|Bufo_fowleri#Behavior|noxious secretion}} that [http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/amphibians-reptiles-and-fish/toads.aspx irritates skin] and thus probably also the mucous membranes in the mouth. It would thus be rather painful to eat, making it very bad for Cueball to major in biology since he would rather eat such a toad.

;Panel 10, ''And social psych is worse than either psych ''or'' sociology.'': {{w|Social psychology}} is compared to {{w|sociology}} (study of humans in society) and {{w|psychology}} (study of human minds). Psychology is represented by a {{w|serial killer}} with a chainsaw, and sociology is represented by a {{w|zombie}}. These are to the left of [[Megan]]. To her right is a zombie serial killer with chainsaw. She is standing between them undecided as to take one, the other or both. They are all terrible options...

;Panels 11 and 12, ''The thought of picking any one of these is too unbearable,'' ''Just put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible.'': End of the first verse where Cueball tells his academic advisor that he is undecided as every major's terrible. He even throws away his {{w|study guide}}. Every verse ends with some variation of this couplet, and in the original tune, each of these couplets are repeated by the chorus afterwards.
:''Unbearable'' and ''terrible'' rhyme for people who have the {{w|English-language vowel changes before historic /r/#Mary–marry–merry merger|Mary-merry merger}}.

===Verse 2===
;Panel 13, ''Now, if you can't prognosticate, that's OK in seismology,'':[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prognosticate Prognosticate] means "to predict". This refers to the inability of {{w|seismology}} to reliably predict catastrophic {{w|earthquake}}s, even after centuries of extensive research. The panel shows {{w|Seismic wave|seismic waves}} from a {{w|seismograph}}. The seismograph chart has four traces and about halfway across one trace begins oscillating vigorously indicating an earthquake. Five months after this comic was published several seismologists in Italy were [http://www.nature.com/news/italian-court-finds-seismologists-guilty-of-manslaughter-1.11640 convicted of crimes] that effectively stemmed from an inability to predict an earthquake. This does not go down well for the message of this panel... Their conviction was [http://www.nature.com/news/italian-seismologists-cleared-of-manslaughter-1.16313 overturned on appeal] in 2014.

;Panel 14, ''But if your hindsight's weak as well, you'd best stick to theology.'': The bearded [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/theologist theologist] represents {{w|Theology}} by stating the formal logic proposition shown in the illustration: "X ∴ ∃X". This says "I can describe this thing called X, therefore X exists". This is what Anselm’s {{w|ontological argument}} for God boils down to. Briefly, it asks you to imagine the best possible deity, which, by definition, would be God. A God which exists in both reality and theory would be greater than one who exists in merely the latter. Therefore, this proposition concludes that God exists. The fatal flaw of this argument is that it can be used to prove the existence of anything (e.g. a vacuum cleaner which exists in both reality and theory is greater than one which exists merely in theory). Just because a perfect God would exist does not mean he does. Thus it has been largely rejected. (See [[1505: Ontological Argument]].)

;Panel 15, ''CS will make each day a quest to find a missing close-paren.'': "CS" is short for "{{w|Computer Science}}." Most programming languages use parentheses as part of their syntax, and often have multiply-nested parenthetical expressions. This is especially true of {{w|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}}. It is often difficult for a programmer to determine where the unbalanced parenthesis begins or ends when the code and parentheses are not properly formatted and indented. In the panel there is one more left "(" parenthesis (13) than right ")" or ''close-paren'' (12).

;Panel 16, ''Virology will guarantee you'll never get a hug again.'': {{w|Virology}} is the study of {{w|infectious diseases}}. The green symbol above the central figure is the {{w|Hazard_symbol#Biohazard_sign|biohazard symbol}}, implying that people who study infectious diseases, and are therefore located near them at some points in time, will be shunned like the plague, because they're probably carrying it. Thus no hugs to Megan as three Cueballs and Ponytail lean back away from her.

;Panel 17, ''I.T. prepares you for a life of fighting with PCs nonstop.'': "I.T." is short for "{{w|Information Technology}}", a degree for people who maintain computer systems. If there is a need for an I.T. position (in which I.T. professionals are employed) there are computers which need fixing — hence the I.T. Professional is always fixing (or fighting) computers, which may or may not have been [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19980506 "broken" by users]. In the panel Megan, wielding an axe, is in a real fight with a PC.

;Panel 18, ''As Pratchett said, "Geography's just physics slowed with trees on top."'': This is a slightly amended quote from {{w|Discworld}} author {{w|Terry Pratchett}}, from his book "{{w|Feet of Clay (novel)|Feet of Clay}}". The actual quote is "{{w|Geography}} is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it." But the meaning is the same, that physics also describes geography - a similar quote to the one about physics vs. stamp collections mentioned under panel 4.

;Panel 19, ''Though physics seems to promise you a Richard Feynman-like career,'': {{w|Richard Feynman}} was a 20th-century {{w|Nobel Prize|Nobel}}-laureate {{w|physicist}} known for his great sense of humor, including being photographed for one of his books while holding a {{w|bongo drum}}. Here he is depicted with the drum and with both a blond woman and Megan looking admiringly upon him. Feynman made physics seem cool, and many a young fan might choose the subject in the hope of obtaining a Feynman-like career. This is, however, very unlikely for most people as is also shown in the next panel.

;Panel 20, ''The wiki page for "Physics major" redirects to "Engineer."'': A redirect on Wikipedia is a page which immediately sends the visitor to a different page. This implies that the title of the first is either a synonym or a sub-topic of the second. Physics majors usually learn to code, and the standard joke is that they invariably get hired as {{w|computer programmers}} after graduation, but here in this comic they get hired as {{w|engineers}}. This relates back to the previous panel, as it is here shown that most of those that major in physics end up as engineers and not like Feynman. The Wikipedia page physics major didn't actually exist when this comic was published. It was created the same day, but as a [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Physics_major&redirect=no redirect] to {{w|physics education}}. It is such a redirect page that is shown in the panel. In the subsequent days, there were dozens of instances of people changing it to redirect to engineer, usually reverted within minutes. The redirect page was ''fully protected'' and locked for editing. As with the underwater basket-weaving line in the first verse, after the soloist sings this, the line would be repeated three times by the chorus.

;Panels 21 and 22, ''They say to study history or find yourself repeating it,'' ''But all that it prepares you for is forty years of teaching it.'': This uses a version of a quote by {{w|George Santayana}} (although often attributed to others as well), ''Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'' as a reason to study {{w|history}} — only to be followed by an indication that by studying history as a major, you will only be prepared to become a history teacher, and you will then spend the rest of your life teaching history. The first panel shows a flow chart that will lead you to repeat your sad past if you cannot remember it, and only move on to happier times if you can. In the next panel we see a [[Hairbun]] as a history teacher, with glasses and her gray hair tied up in a bun, standing in front of a green {{w|blackboard}} with three important years for her current history class.

:One connection between these years could be pivotal points in Jewish history concerning the formation of nationality: the Nurenberg Laws of 1935 removing citizenship from Jews in Germany, Israel's claims on Jerusalem, and the UN Security Council's condemnation of the treatment of Palestines by Israel.

:A more lighthearted connection, more in line with the message of learning from history, is the collapse of three notable communications towers: the wooden radio tower in Langenberg in 1935 (by tornado), a TV mast at Emley Moor in 1969 (due to ice build-up), and the Warsaw radio mast in 1991 (due to construction errors). This demonstrates various attempts and failures to learn from engineering mistakes from the past, connecting this with the earlier mentioning of physicists becoming engineers, and perhaps not taking real-world practical considerations into account (such as storms or ice build-up).

:Of course, in practice, with a narrow enough subject, there are likely to be many more examples fitting these three years. The two examples above were from general world history.

;Panels 23 and 24, ''I recognize my four-year plan's at this point not repairable,'' ''But put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible.'': End of the second verse where Cueball again talks to his academic advisor saying that he is undecided. In the last of the two panel he says almost the same as at the end of the first verse. In the first, however, he mentioned his "four-year plan" which is the list of all the courses a student plans to include in their degree program. If you change majors every semester, or do not decide on one until too late, this list gets really difficult to turn into any one degree. Again these lines would be repeated by the chorus afterwards.

===Verse 3===
;Panel 25, ''Astronomers all cringe when they hear "supermoon" or "zodiac".'': {{w|Supermoon}} is a term invented by {{w|astrologers}} in the 1970s, with no significance in {{w|astronomy}} other than being the co-occurrence of orbital {{w|perigee}} and full-moon. But it comes up often in the press, linked to supernatural behavior. That also Randall dislikes seems realistic and he also "mocked" the term soon after in [[1080: Visual Field]] and then finally confirmed what he thought about the term directly when he published [[1394: Superm*n]]. This was the first comic referencing supermoon, here is [[:Category:Supermoon|a list]] of all such comics. The {{w|zodiac}} is the circular band in the sky containing the apparent path of the sun, moon and planets. Most often when people talk about it, they're referring to {{w|astrology}} and {{w|horoscopes}} and other pseudo-scientific notions which often lead to conversations which are frustrating to astronomers, like the bearded one from the panel.

;Panel 26, ''Agronomy's a no-go; I'm a huge agorophobiac.'': {{w|Agronomy}} is the science of farming, while {{w|agoraphobia}} is the fear of wide open spaces. Fields, where most farming happens, are wide open spaces. In the panel an anxious Cueball is standing near a fence on an open field with a tractor. Presumably he may be OK inside the tractor, but once he gets outside he becomes anxious.

;Panel 27, ''I'm too ophiophobic to consider herpetology,'': {{w|Herpetology}} is the study of {{w|reptiles}} and {{w|amphibians}}, while {{w|ophiophobia}} is the fear of {{w|snakes}} (a reptile). The panel shows sweating Cueball holding his hands to his mouth while looking at a green snake asking for his love? It is possible that Cueball is afraid of the snake, who is harmless and just wants to be friends.

;Panel 28, ''And I can't stomach any part of gastroenterology.'': As the pun suggests, {{w|gastroenterology}} is the study of the human digestive system and the image shows the human {{w|stomach}}. To [http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/cannot+stomach not be able to stomach something] means you can't stand or tolerate this thing.

;Panel 29, ''While pre-med gives you twitchy-eyed obsession with your GPA,'': {{w|Pre-med}} (pre-medical) is a major chosen by students hoping to go on to {{w|medical school}} to study {{w|medicine}} and eventually become {{w|Doctor of Medicine|doctors}}. Medical school is extremely competitive and usually requires a very high undergraduate {{w|GPA}} for prospective students. Hence we see a pre-med student holding all his grades.

;Panel 30, <tt>a poetry degree bespeaks bewildering naïveté.</tt>: The text is in all lower-case, a different font and strangely laid out compared to the text in all the other panels. All-lower-case and "free" layout are both associated with 20th century "{{w|Modernist}}" {{w|poetry}}, especially the works of {{w|E. E. Cummings}}. Ponytail is actually reciting this line of the song.

;Panels 31 and 32, ''TV's behind the rush into forensic criminology'', ''(Or so claims meta-academic epidemiology).'': This refers to how {{w|forensic}}-{{w|criminology}} shows, specifically {{w|CSI: Miami}} (Crime Scene Investigation: Miami) as shown on the TV screen in both panels, often dramatize, exaggerate or otherwise confuse the science behind forensics; this gives people unrealistically glamorous views of the career, thus encouraging them to join it. {{w|Epidemiology}} is the study of causes and effects of events and trends. We see a pipe smoking epidemiologist standing with Ponytail and watching CSI - presumably making wild claims on cause and effect based only on what they see on TV. This is, again, the point where the chorus joins in three times, as in the previous two verses.

;Panels 33 and 34, ''By dubbing econ "dismal science" adherents exaggerate;'' ''The "dismal"'s fine - it's "science" where they patently prevaricate.'': "Econ" is short for "{{w|economics}}". {{w|Thomas Carlyle}} declared economics "{{w|the dismal science}}" in the {{w|Victorian era}} as a derogatory alternative name. {{w|Economists}} often claim that economics is a {{w|science}} like any other; however, as the predictive powers of all economic theories are exceedingly weak compared to those of any science, this is disputed by those outside the field at times. It is of course also disputed by this song, in which Cueball "clearly" (see below) states that economics should not call itself a science - that is the ''dismal science'' is not derogatory enough for him.
*The sentences uttered by Cueball in these two panels are extremely difficult English for non-native English speakers.
*Here is some help in understanding the sentences:
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dub Dubbing] something means ''giving it a nickname''.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dismal Dismal] science means (in this context) ''the disappointingly inadequate science''.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adherent Adherents] means ''supporters''.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/patently Patently] means ''in a clear and unambiguous manner''
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prevaricate Prevaricate] means to ''evade the truth''.
*Using these meanings of the words the two sentences can be re-written as:
**By giving economics the nickname "the inadequate science" the supporters [of economics] exaggerate;
**The "inadequate" is fine - it's "science" where they evade the truth in a clear and unambiguous manner.
*That is, Cueball is saying that "inadequate science" is too nice of a term for economics, he thinks it's not even science at all.

;Panel 35, ''In terms of choices, I'd say only Sophie's was comparable.''
;Panel 36, ''Just put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible!'': End of the third verse, with yet another variant on the closing couplet. Choosing a major is compared to {{w|Sophie's Choice}}, which is any {{w|dilemma}} where choosing one cherished person or thing over the other will result in the death or destruction of the other, derived from the theme of the {{w|Sophie's Choice (novel)|novel}} of the same name, which has also been turned into a {{w|Sophie's Choice (film)|romantic drama film}}. So Cueball tells the academic advisor that choosing any of the majors over any other is as horrible as to have to choose which cherished person should die to save the other. Although in his case, it is the other way around, since he thinks all choices suck. Again these lines would be repeated by the chorus.

==Transcript==
{{Incomplete transcript}}
:[Headings to the left and above the 36 panels:]
:<big><big>Every Major's Terrible</big></big>
:to the tune of Gilbert & Sullivan's
:<big>Modern Major-General Song</big>
:(Which you may know from Tom Lehrer's ''Elements''.
:If not, just hum ''Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.)

:[To make it easier to read the lyrics, the lyrics text is double indented. If no one says the line it is just written after the description. Unless otherwise stated, the text is inside the frame of the panel above the drawing. If any other text is present it will be written after the lyrics.]

:[Panel 1: Cueball sitting with his chin on fist on a gray rock. Next to him is a mathematical expression "2 + a picture of yellow glowing light bulb = picture of Cueball in sailboat on a blue sea".]
::Philosophy's just math sans rigor, sense, and practicality
:Expression: 2+[lightbulb]=[sailboat]

:[Panel 2: A black and brown cannon standing on a green hill fires and a dashed line indicates the cannonball's trajectory. The line splits in two twice ending up at 4 cannonballs.]
::And math's just physics unconstrained by precepts of reality.

:[Panel 3: A student in robes and square academic cap receives a diploma from a dean on a brown podium, while Cueball, diploma in hand, runs away on the green lawn, arms in the air, shedding both robe and cap.]
::A business major's just a thing you get so you can graduate

:[Panel 4: Ponytail wearing goggles and holding a flask with the periodic table in the background. Three stars and circle lines around her head indicates that she is dizzy.]
::And chemistry's for stamp collectors high on methylacetate.

:[Panel 5: Cueball holds up hands questioningly.]
::Cueball: Why anyone who wants a job would study lit's a mystery

:[Panel 6: Cueball holding his chin.]
::Cueball: Unless their only other choice were something like art history.

:[Panel 7: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is a close-up of Cueball as a graduate wearing yellow embroidered robe and yellow tasseled mortarboard.]
::A BA in communications guarantees that you'll achieve

:[Panel 8: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is again the same Cueball graduate. Only now he is emerged in blue water. A wicker basket flows to the left, where air bubbles escape from Cueball. To the right are two fish.]
::A little less than if you'd learned to underwater basket-weave

:[Panel 9: Cueball holding a gray frog at arm's length.]
::Cueball: I'd rather eat a Fowler's toad than major in biology,
:Frog: Ribbit

:[Panel 10: Megan indicating to the left a scruffy individual and an individual holding a chainsaw, and to the right another scruffy individual holding a chainsaw.]
::Megan: And social psych is worse than either psych or sociology.

:[Panel 11: Cueball stands in front of a brown desk holding a gray course catalog. Behind the desk sits a man with glasses and hair at the back of his head. He sits on his gray office chair. There is a stack of papers on the desk.]
::Cueball: The thought of picking any one of these is too unbearable.

:[Panel 12: Same picture as panel 11, only now Cueball tosses the course catalog over his shoulder.]
::Cueball: Just put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible.

:[Panel 13: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is a seismograph chart with four traces; about halfway across one trace begins oscillating vigorously.]
::Now, if you can't prognosticate, that's OK in seismology,

:[Panel 14: A bearded man with white hair states a formula with his left arm lifted.]
::But if your hindsight's weak as well, you'd best stick to theology.
:Bearded man: X ∴ ∃X

:[Panel 15: Two lines with gray parenthesis.]
::CS will make each day a quest to find a missing close-paren.
:(((()((((()(
:))))())())())

:[Panel 16: Megan with a green biohazard symbol floating above her head stands alone; to the left and right three Cueball-like guys and Ponytail shun her.]
::Virology will guarantee you'll never get a hug again.

:[Panel 17: Megan running at a PC on a brown table with a brown and black axe raised over her head.]
::I.T. prepares you for a life of fighting with PCs nonstop.

:[Panel 18: The frame is a little smaller than the other frames. Above the frame is the first part of the text. In the frame is an image of a bearded man with glasses who says the rest of the text. ]
::As Pratchett said,
::Pratchett: "Geography's just physics slowed with trees on top."

:[Panel 19: A man with black hair plays on brown bongo drums while a blond woman and Megan look in at him from left and right.]
::Though physics seems to promise you a Richard Feynman-like career,

:[Panel 20: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is screenshot of a wiki redirect page. Below the title is the normal text for such a page. This is unreadable though, although it is possible to imagine it is possible to read the first line which would say: ''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia''. But not the other line which would be ''Redirect page''. Below this line is an arrow down to the page the redirect points to. This is written in blue letters.]
::The wiki page for "Physics major" redirects to "Engineer."
:Wiki page:
::Physics major
:: Engineer

:[Panel 21: Flowchart: a gray box with a sad face chains to a decision diamond reading simply "?"; the "yes" branch leads to a yellow happy-face box while the "no" branch loops back to the initial sad face.]
::They say to study history or find yourself repeating it,
:Flow chart:
::?
::No
::Yes

:[Panel 22: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is Hairbun as a teacher with boxy spectacles and a bun in front of a green chalkboard with three years in white.]
::But all that it prepares you for is forty years of teaching it.
:Chalkboard:
::1935
::1969
::1991

:[Panel 23: Cueball at his adviser's desk again as in panel 12, but now without any catalog and holding his arms down.]
::Cueball: I recognize my four-year plan's at this point not repairable,

:[Panel 24: Same as panel 23 except Cueball has raised a first and the adviser has his hand to his mouth.]
::Cueball: But put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible.

:[Panel 25: Image of a bald man with beard and glasses. He raised both hands one as a fist the other pointing up. There are lines out from his head to the left and lightning lines out from his head to the right.]
::Astronomers all cringe when they hear "supermoon" or "zodiac".

:[Panel 26: Silhouette of Cueball, agitated, in an open field near a fence and a tractor.]
::Agronomy's a no-go; I'm a huge agorophobiac.

:[Panel 27: Cueball looking aghast at a green snake on the ground, both hands at his mouth and sweat jumping from his head. The snake also thinks about Cueball but in red and black.]
::I'm too ophiophobic to consider herpetology,
:Snake: ♥ ?

:[Panel 28: Anatomical image of a stomach in pink and red.]
::And I can't stomach any part of gastroenterology.

:[Panel 29: A man with wild hair, glasses askew, clutching folders and papers (green, blue and white), and dropping several.]
:Man:
::While pre-med gives you twitchy-eyed obsession with your GPA,

:[Panel 30: Ponytail reciting poetry; her poem is this panel's line, in a lighter, lower-case font.]
::Ponytail: <tt>a poetry degree bespeaks bewildering naïveté.</tt>

:[Panel 31: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. The frame is a TV screen with the ''CSI: Miami'' logo, CSI in yellow.]
::TV's behind the rush into forensic criminology
:TV screen:
::''' CSI: '''
::'''Miami'''

:[Panel 32: A balding man wearing glasses and holding a smoking pipe together with Ponytail holding a notebook watch a wall-mounted flat-screen TV on which the ''CSI: Miami'' logo from the previous panel is showing.]
::(Or so claims meta-academic epidemiology).
:TV screen:
:: CSI:
::Miami

:[Panel 33: Cueball is talking with his left arm raised, palm up.]
::Cueball: By dubbing econ "dismal science" adherents exaggerate;

:[Panel 34: Close-up on Cueball with left arm up.]
::Cueball: The "dismal"'s fine—it's "science" where they patently prevaricate.

:[Panel 35: As panel 23 with Cueball at his adviser's desk once more though with both hands held out in front of him.]
::Cueball:In terms of choices, I'd say only Sophie's was comparable.

:[Panel 36: Same as panel 35 except that Cueball makes a final dramatic flair spreading both arms out.]
::Cueball:Just put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible!

{{comic discussion}}
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