explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2965: Chili Tornado Quake

2024-07-30T14:03:53Z

172.70.90.176: /* Explanation */

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2965: Chili Tornado Quake

2024-07-30T14:03:17Z

172.70.90.176: /* Explanation */

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

2963: House Inputs and Outputs

2024-07-26T16:34:44Z

172.70.90.176: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2963
| date = July 24, 2024
| title = House Inputs and Outputs
| image = house_inputs_and_outputs_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x684px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = People think power over ethernet is so great, and yet when I try to do water over ethernet everyone yells at me.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a possible reference to [[1037: Umwelt]] in panel 16 - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is another comic in a series depicting {{w|confusion matrix|confusion matrices}}, similar to [[2813: What To Do]], [[2420: Appliances]], and [[1890: What to Bring]]. It is arranged as a table of five columns of conduits to and from a house, by five rows of resources and people, each of which typically enter, exit or both enter ''and'' exit the house via at least one of the identified conduits. The table cells have a green background for compatible methods of transit; a red tint is used for the more problematic pairings. Each panel can be read as "[row label] [entering and/or exiting] the house via the [column label]", for example, "Fresh water entering the house via the well".

{| class="wikitable" style="background-color: lightpink;"
|+ Explanations of the "House Inputs and Outputs" table cell drawings
! !! Well !! Garage !! Power lines !! Front door !! Septic tank
|-
! Fresh water (Input)
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| The purpose of a well is usually to supply fresh water into the home, primarily for drinking or washing. It may be unnecessary in many places if a reliable {{w|water supply network}} is available. || Long gone are the days of {{w|Labours_of_Hercules#Fifth:_Augean_stables|having to clean up after your primary mode of transportation}}, for most people. A source of water may be useful to clean a vehicle itself, although this would perhaps be more commonly done outside. || Power lines conduct electricity, not water. The two functions are inherently dangerous if carelessly combined. Water can be used to cool high-energy lines, such as fast battery charger cables[https://www.connectortips.com/where-liquid-cooled-connectors-and-connectors-for-liquid-cooling-used-in-evs-faq/] and cables supplying electric arc furnaces, but not overhead residential power lines. || Many people prefer to control the amount of water they get, and the water may damage things inside the house. || Pumping water into a septic tank could cause it to back up, resulting in the unpleasant contents being forced back in to the house. Also, if this were the only supply of water, most people would prefer anything they drink not to contain (or go through pipes that have contained) sewage.
|-
! Cars (Input/Output)
| Most cars can't fit inside most wells. Storing them in a well is also likely to be inconvenient when you come to need to use them again.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| Garages are in fact built for the storage of cars and other similarly-sized vehicles. Placing a car in one will both help protect it from the elements and make it easier to access from inside your own home. || As of yet, cars cannot be transferred through power lines and require roads to travel on. This could significantly reduce travel costs. However, the illustration here has the car actually balancing upon the strained wire, indicating a more mundane (but still not easy!) method of transit. || Most cars can’t fit through a typical front door, and are likely to cause damage if forced. || Comedian {{w|Garrison Keillor}}'s 2008 ''More News from Lake Wobegon'' includes a story where an old septic tank is discovered to actually be a buried car.[https://theseriouscomedysite.com/comedy-cd-or-download/garrison-keillor-more-news-from-lake-wobegon/]
|-
! Electricity (Input)
| Wells are not designed to safely and effectively transfer power to the devices that require it. The water would mostly just conduct the electricity into the surrounding construction. || In the United States, lightning is responsible for causing around 24,600 structure fires annually, resulting in $8 to $10 billion in losses. It is possible, though, for the house's junction box (where the main utility line terminates in order to supply the house's own wiring) to be located in or on the outside wall of the garage, so, in a sense, this may be workable.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| Power lines are designed to facilitate the connection of individual homes to the broader local power network. [[Randall]] omits the fact that electricity can also be an output; e.g. houses with solar panels regularly export electricity too. || {{w|Benjamin Franklin}} invented the {{w|lightning rod}} to prevent lightning strike damage to structures. || As Knit Cap observes, septic tanks are not a source of electric power.
|-
! People (Input/Output)
|style="background-color: lightpink"| Inserting people into wells can be very dangerous.{{Citation needed}} The comic depicts a view from inside a well (as a [[:Category:Comics with inverted brightness|dark scene]], it is drawn red-on-black). The motif resembles poster art for the 2002 horror movie remake ''{{w|The Ring (2002 film)|The Ring}}'', which involves a girl left to die in a well who becomes a vengeful ghost (see also [[396: The Ring]]).
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| A person can enter and exit their home through a garage door, provided the garage has an internal door to the rest of the home. Not the best way to welcome unfamiliar guests though. || Overhead power lines to homes are generally not strong enough to climb, and attempting to do so incurs a very serious risk of electrocution.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| The front door of a home is designed for entry and exit of humans and similarly sized items. || In general, people find crawling through waste unpleasant. Also, the septic tank is not connected to the street.
|-
! Sewage (Output)
| Sewage in drinking water can cause disease. It is/was the main cause for most {{w|cholera}} epidemics.
|colspan=3| Sewage spills are smelly, disgusting and hard to clean. They can destroy carpets, floors, drywall and property value.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| A {{w|septic tank}} is an underground chamber through which wastewater flows for basic {{w|sewage treatment}}.
|}

The title text references {{w|Power over Ethernet|power over ethernet (PoE)}}, first implemented in the early 2000s, to provide electric power along with data on twisted-pair Ethernet cabling. A welcome development, it removed the need for many separate power supplies. While networked water delivery ("running water") is also a welcome development, doing so over ethernet cables would be extremely problematic, risking the several top points of failure, while providing limited amounts of water. However, again, electric vehicle fast charging cables and arc furnace power inputs are sometimes water-cooled.

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

:[A 5x5 grid of squares. The columns are labeled: Well, Garage, Power lines, Front door, Septic tank. Each row's label has an arrow and a basic house icon next to it. The rows are: Fresh water (horizontal arrow towards house), Cars (two-directional horizontal arrow and house), Electricity (horizontal arrow into house), People (two-directional horizontal arrow and house), Sewage (vertical arrow out of bottom of house).]

:Well, Fresh water: [green]
::[A many-featured house front and cross-sectional subsurface infrastructure, with various aspects that recur throughout most further grid-squares in one or other form. This particular one is distinguished by an arrow indicating movement up through a pipe leading inwards from an adjacent external borehole]
::Voice from house: Mmm! Refreshing!

:Garage, Fresh water: [red]
::[An obliquely off-frontal view of the house, featuring a set of Cueball-like figures directing a hosepipe's stream of water into the open garage-port doorway]
::''Fwoosh''

:Power lines, Fresh water: [red]
::[A different oblique angle concentrated upon the edge of the house upon which the overhead powerlines connect to, from a pole with transformer box and other wire coming from off-frame; the house wire appears to be dripping liquid]

:Front door, Fresh water: [red]
::[Normal frontal view of the house, featuring the hosepipe cueballs directing water into the front door]
::Voice from house: Stop it!
::''Fwoosh!''

:Septic tank, Fresh water: [red]
::[Normal frontal view; The subsurface septic tank feature has an arrow leading up from it through the diagonal pipe that connects to the house itself]
::Voice from house: Eww.

:Well, Cars: [red]
::[A view only of a ground pipe/borehole-head; A car seemingly upended and balanced atop on a front corner, being manhandled by Cueball and Megan figures]

:Garage, Cars: [green]
::[Normal frontal view; Garage door open, car seen parked inside]

:Power lines, Cars: [red]
::[Two power-line poles, the rightmost with transformer, having cables from off-left, between the poles and off-right; Two cueballs stand on the ground below, looking at a car heavily balanced mid-way along the central stretch of wire]

:Front door, Cars: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; Front doorway has surrounding damage and a car tightly wedged into it with two figures (Beret Guy and a Cueball) visible through the windows]
::Beret Guy, from car: Do you think I scratched the paint?

:Septic tank, Cars: [red]
::[Frontal view of the house; Within the underground sceptic tank, displacing some of the shallow dark liquid, is a car with two occupants]

:Well, Electricity: [red]
::[Borehole pipe-head; Cueball holds a laptop with a power lead trailing down into the pipe]
::Cueball's laptop: ⚠Low battery

:Garage, Electricity: [red]
::[Frontal view of house, with lightning strike explosively hitting the area of the garage door]
::''BOOM''

:Power lines, Electricity: [green]
::[Frontal view of house, arrow leading down the power-cable and several 'electricity' symbols scattered around]

:Front door, Electricity: [red]
::[Frontal view of house, with lightning strike explosively hitting the area of the front door]
::''BOOM''

:Septic tank, Electricity: [red]
::[Toilet and cistern, seat raised, with Knit Cap looking at a computer system, set up nearby on the floor, with a power lead draped into the toilet-bowl and (sic) a single 'electricity' symbol indicating power flow]
::Knit Cap: Why won't my console turn on?

:Well, People: [red (though overwhelmingly black)]
::[A mostly black tile with a rough circular outline of sketchy red lines]

:Garage, People: [green]
::[Frontal view of house; A Cueball exits the open (darkened) garage doorway, waving]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Power lines, People: [red]
::[Oblique side view of house; A Cueball is climbing up the power-line towards the top of the pole]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Front door, People: [green]
::[Frontal view of house; A cueball exits the open front doorway, waving]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Septic tank, People: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; A Cueball crawls into the elbow-deep dark liquid of the subsurface septic tank, emerging from the house-draining pipes]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Well, Sewage: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; Speech-line emerges from the house]
::Voice from house: ''Why do I keep getting sick???

:Garage, Sewage: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; Garage door is open, revealing Cueball knee-deep in dark liquid]
::Cueball: Oh no.

:Power lines, Sewage: [red]
::[Oblique side view of house; Wide pipe-end emerges from the roof, disgorging a stream of dark liquid out onto the rising power-cable]
::Cueball: Eww.

:Front door, Sewage: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; Front door is open, revealing Cueball knee-deep in dark liquid]
::Cueball: Oh ''no''.

:Septic tank, Sewage: [green]
::[Frontal view of house; Dark liquid drains down drain-pipes into sceptic tank, with an arrow indicating the direction of flow]
::''Flush''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Confusion matrices]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:2960: Organ Meanings

2024-07-19T13:37:06Z

172.70.90.176:

how is thymus formed [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.102|172.70.85.102]] 07:00, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
: It grows from seed.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.97|172.69.194.97]] 12:23, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

You think Randall might have made this one as a ploy to have explain xkcd educate him on the organs and metaphors mentioned? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.33|162.158.146.33]] 07:59, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Why is 'Liver' so high up on the metaphor scale? The only one I can think of is 'lily-livered', which doesn't appear to make much sense at all. On the other hand, I'd have 'Spleen' nearer the top, and 'Tongue' fairly high up as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 08:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:Agreed; personally I’d have liver and tongue switch places, and I’d guess the one who added silver-tongued and biting one’s tongue would probably agree also. But that might be because I understand the biological function of a liver better than the average person does. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.5|172.70.210.5]] 08:21, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:: Are those really metaphors, though? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.40.152|162.158.40.152]] 09:24, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
::: They aren't, or at least not metaphors to the tongue. Just done an edit, before having read this, to remove the visibility of "silver tongue" (a tongue that is metaphorically as silver... or maybe even quicksilver) and a "bitten tongue" (the tongue as if restrained by biting). Though there are other forms, the metaphor to biological function must be of the general "it is the tongue of the <something else>" type, maybe such as a tongue of lava or the tongue of an oil-can (one being an extending appendage, the other additionally being a contact depositor of liquid - though not always consistent in application).
::: Something can more easily be understood as the metaphorical heart/nerves/spine/etc of something, and we also have a good understanding of what the originals do. A sewage treatment plant can be considered the kidneys of a town (arguably more understood than a liver of one, for example, so I'd have personally switched the two), but it gets more complex with some of them. In the case of the appendix, we pretty much ''only'' know (in lay-use) that it's a spare fleshy bit that might or might not have any use, so the metaphorical 'equivalent biological function' of a "town's 'appendix'" is probably more understood than a body's ''actual'' appendix, for most people, the opposite of the situation with metaphorical/actual tongues. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.64|172.70.91.64]] 10:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:::: Your understanding of metaphors is... unique. A "silver tongue" certainly is a tongue-based metaphor; we're referring to someone's manner of speech as their "tongue".{{unsigned|Collapsinghrung}}
::::: From my perspective, that's a tongue-''targetting'' metaphor. "He has a tongue of silver" (in this case "tongue" is a metonym of "manner of talking", not a metaphor). Your understanding of what the tongue refers to is different from metaphor/simile, etc, as it ''is'' the thing (the talking) that is refered to. It's the silverness that's an metaphorical element. Or, like "To bite one's tongue", having become an established idiom. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.145|172.70.86.145]] 16:46, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
: The one I think of is "What am I chopped Liver". Though according to google that is usually a Jewish metaphor (which I am) {{unsigned ip|162.158.158.103}}
:Liver has medieval English metaphors for bravery too, but afaik usually in the context of weak-liver = cowardly; e.g. lily-livered. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.130.19|172.69.130.19]] 14:25, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:Euch ist wohl ne Laus über die Leber gelaufen! (German proverb, "=someone angered you?!") [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.115|172.71.160.115]] 07:12, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that 'Metaphor meaning' is going to work as a column in the table - several of these have multiple metaphors associated, often with varied and little-related meanings.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.249|172.70.160.249]] 12:20, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

I just added the line about anatomical metaphors varying from culture to culture. Would people like to include any examples of culturally variable metaphors? I think it was Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" where an Eastern European character kept shouting out "spleen". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.172|172.70.46.172]] 12:58, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:One example off the top of my head - and might need a proper reference to add - is the common use of Kidneys in metaphor. Afaik, the most common-slang in NA for that is "ow my kidneys" as in "I laughed so hard, my kidneys hurt now." Meanwhile, in many East Asian cultures, references to the 'kidneys' is most commonly used as an euphemism for sexual performance due to the connection to traditional medicine, where having sex is seen as 'exerting/damaging the kidneys.' E.g., feeding someone food 'good for the kidneys,' references to 'oh, your kidneys have been overexerted lately,' 'are your kidneys okay,' etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.38|172.69.214.38]] 14:05, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
::Kidneys are also often referred to, typically facetiously, as a high value object one can sell in a pinch. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.184|172.69.140.184]] 08:44, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I think tongue is placed strangely low on the metaphor axis. Usage of "tongue" to mean language, conversation, or other speech (i.e. "mother tongue," "silver-tongued," "speaking in tongues") is well-established. Secondly, I also feel kidneys should be higher with the added metaphorical definition of value, as in "you'd have to sell a kidney." [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.184|172.69.140.184]] 08:44, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
:Tongue (as per language) is a metonym, not a metaphor. And other examples I'm seeing are verging upon similes (also different from metaphors). People seem to be confused about this, but possibly also Randall (hard to tell, as he doesn't really give examples, just his graphic conclusions). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 09:48, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
:: Added a poscript paragraph to try to cover the scope of these contentions between y'all. I (hurridly) provided examples for each linguistic form, but I might not have gone with the best ones (for example, I was going to add such as "a brain like a computer", at the appropriate point, but then realised that "brain" wasn't even featured in the comic so obviously better rhetorical examples could be provided instead/as well. Bear in mind that different literary backgrounds might understand the references as different rhetoric devices, especially once a phrase becomes idiomatic in its own right. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.176|172.70.90.176]] 13:37, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Bodily fluids ({{w|humors}}) had the same overlap, with early doctors thinking that fluids influenced moods (giving us terms like "sanguine", "phlegmatic", "bilious"). Could someone add a section about that? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.23|172.70.47.23]] 15:28, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Your table in the article says that "appendix" has a metaphorical meaning of "uselessness", but I don't think this is true. Can you find a dictionary that has a figurative sense? Wiktionary for example does not [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/appendix]. I think Randall may be a little confused about what is a metaphor, and may have intended "appendix" here in the sense of an extra part added to a book or academic paper etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.138|172.70.85.138]] 08:05, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
: I have, albeit rarely, heard people refer to something as 'a mere appendix to ''x'' '. However, I suspect the metaphor in those cases is more in reference to appendix as a part of a book, rather than a biological organ.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.94|172.70.90.94]] 09:55, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
:: Both biological and bibliographical uses derive, in their own way, from the Latin root term for "to hang upon(/off of)", as an added on element to something else. And most 'metaphorical' use does not deviate too far from this concept so could be considered a reference to both (or neither), according to the intent of the one who invokes it or the perception of one who receives such an invoked reference. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.176|172.70.90.176]] 13:37, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

2957: A Crossword Puzzle

2024-07-11T15:10:56Z

172.70.90.176: /* Table */

{{comic
| number = 2957
| date = July 10, 2024
| title = A Crossword Puzzle
| image = a_crossword_puzzle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x937px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hint: If you ever encounter this puzzle in a crossword app, just [term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality].
}}

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

{{notice|<big>'''SPOILER ALERT!'''</big> If you read on without trying to look at the crossword clues first, the joke is spoiled and your chance of finding out the joke yourself is gone instantly!|image=warning!!.png}}

This is a crossword puzzle. On a surface level, the answers seem extremely difficult, with questions covering a wide variety of trivia, linguistics, mathematics in various forms, alongside wordplay typical of crossword puzzles. But the joke is that every single letter of every single answer is "A". See explanation for all 51 clues in the [[#Table|table]] below. All the black squares are in a symmetrical pattern, which is generally the case for crossword puzzles in the US and UK. See description of the pattern in the [[#Transcript|transcript]].

The name of this comic, “A Crossword Puzzle”, is a double entendre; the “A” can be interpreted both as the indefinite article “a”, and as an identifier saying that this crossword puzzle is specifically an “A” puzzle, due to the answer being all “a”s.

The title text is a play on a "type A" personality. The term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality is "Type A". In the context of the title text, this answer is a hint that the entire puzzle can be completed in a crossword-solving app by typing the letter A repeatedly.

[[Randall]] pays tribute to a similar comic in the header text of this comic. See the [[#Trivia|trivia]] section below. In that trivia section there is also a picture of the solved puzzle.

==Table==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Location !! Clue !! Explanation !! Squares
|-
| 1-Across || Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote || Reference to the {{w|Wilhelm scream}}. || 10
|-
| 11-Across || IPv6 address record || An IPv4 record is an "A" record; an IPv6 record is four times the length and is designated an "AAAA" record. || 4
|-
| 15-Across || “CIPHERTEXT” decrypted with Vigenère key “CIPHERTEXT” || A "{{w|Vigenère Cipher}}" translates the original text by the distance from A from the key, letter by letter. For instance, if the plaintext is "XK" and the key is "CD", the C shifts X 2 forward to become Z, and the D shifts K 3 forward to become N, yielding a ciphertext of "ZN". Since the ciphertext and the key are the same in this case, decryption just shifts all the letters back to A, akin to subtracting a number from itself and getting 0. || 10
|-
| 16-Across || 8mm diameter battery || An {{w|AAAA battery}} is a 1.5V battery that measures 8.3 mm in diameter, 2.2 mm smaller than the more common AAA battery. || 4
|-
| 17-Across || “Warthog” attack aircraft || The {{w|A-10 Warthog}} is an attack aircraft. Here, A-10 has been turned into AAAAAAAAAA (ten As). || 10
|-
| 18-Across || '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for “inability to visualize” || Aphantasia is the inability to visualize. Following the instruction, we determine that '''A'''ph'''a'''nt'''a'''si'''a''' gives us the word "aaaa". This clue is particularly mean because of how it instructs you to visualize the word in order to get the answer. || 4
|-
| 19-Across || An acrostic hidden on the first page of the dictionary || The first page of the dictionary (if you ignore the copyright page and the index) is the list of words starting with A. An acrostic of this page, taking the first letter of each line and arranging them in order, would just be a sequence of A's. || 10
|-
| 21-Across || Default paper size in Europe || {{w|A4 paper}} (here written as AAAA) is the default size in Europe. At 210x297 mm, it is approximately 0.24" narrower and 0.71" longer than the 8.5"x11" paper used in the United States, and due to having an aspect ratio of 1:sqrt(2), can be cut in half to create two half-sized sheets with exactly the same aspect ratio. || 4
|-
| 22-Across || First four unary strings || A unary number system represents numbers using just one symbol. E.g. 32 in unary would be 11111111111111111111111111111111. The first four strings in unary, if you used A as the first (and only) symbol, would be A, AA, AAA, AAAA. || 10
|-
| 23-Across || Lysine codon || {{w|Lysine}} is an amino acid, with codons AAA and AAG. || 3
|-
| 24-Across || 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution || [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-63?toc=1 "40 CFR Part 63"] refers to federal air pollutant regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations. The subpart for "asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing" is AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 25-Across || Top bond credit rating || The highest {{w|credit rating}} for bonds is AAA. || 3
|-
| 26-Across || Audi coupe || First of three Audi references. {{w|List_of_Audi_vehicles|Audi's car models}} range from A1 (subcompact hatchback) to A8 (full-size luxury sedan); the A5 is a compact executive coupé. || 5
|-
| 27-Across || A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted || Two AAA batteries (AAAAAA). "Inserted" is often a cryptic hint that one word should surround another. || 6
|-
| 29-Across || Unofficial Howard Dean slogan || A reference to Howard Dean, an American Democrat who ran for the party's nomination in 2004. He famously [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0 yelled at a rally] in a way that was thought to be bizarre and which, it is thought, doomed his campaign. || 7
|-
| 32-Across || A 4.0 report card || A 4.0 GPA, at least {{w|Academic_grading_in_the_United_States|in the USA}}, is all A's. This clue assumes seven classes. || 7
|-
| 33-Across || The “Harlem Globetrotters of baseball” (vowels only) || The {{w|Savannah Bananas}}, the vowels for whom are aaaaaa. || 6
|-
| 34-Across || 2018 Kiefer song || [https://genius.com/Kiefer-aaaaa-lyrics AAAAA]. || 5
|-
| 35-Across || Top Minor League tier || The top {{w|Minor League Baseball}} tier is AAA. || 3
|-
| 36-Across || Reply elicited by a dentist || Dentists ask patients to "say aaaaaaa", i.e. "open up". This could also be an expression of pain; particularly the only kind you can make with dental tools in your mouth. (As Autechre put it: [https://youtu.be/UppsLKz1iD4 "Now, I don't want you to panic... just lean back and relax."]) || 7
|-
| 38-Across || Anaa’s airport || {{w|Anaa}} is an atoll in the {{w|Tuamotu archipelago}} of {{w|French Polynesia}}. AAA is the {{w|IATA}} code for the airport there. || 3
|-
| 41-Across || Macaulay Culkin’s review of aftershave || In the movie {{w|Home Alone}}, Kevin (played by Macaulay Culkin) puts on his father's aftershave lotion. The six-year-old boy is not used to the lotion's antiseptic and screams as the stinging sensation kicks in. || 10
|-
| 43-Across || Marketing agency trade grp. || The {{w|American Association of Advertising Agencies}}, also called the 4A's (here AAAA). || 4
|-
| 44-Across || Soaring climax of Linda Eder’s ''Man of La Mancha'' || Refers to [https://youtu.be/BWP7l0OTXJI?t=130 the 20 second long wordless passage in Eder's opus]. Or possibly the final high note in the song The Impossible Dream || 10
|-
| 46-Across || Military flight community org. || The {{w|Army Aviation Association of America}}, or AAAA. || 4
|-
| 47-Across || Iconic line from ''Tarzan'' || Tarzan has a famous {{w|Tarzan yell|war cry}} he shouts, usually when swinging from a vine. || 10
|-
| 48-Across || Every other letter of Jimmy Wales’s birth state || The birth state of {{w|Jimmy Wales}}, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is Alabama. Taking every other letter of '''A'''l'''a'''b'''a'''m'''a''' gives "Aaaa". || 4
|-
| 49-Across || Warthog’s postscript after “They call me ''mister'' pig!” || Pumba in {{w|The Lion King}} yells "aaaaaaaaaa" while charging at the hyenas who insulted him. || 10
|-
| 50-Across || Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2'' || The call which Elsa hears in {{w|Frozen 2}} is a sequence of four notes which resemble the requiem music {{w|Dies Irae#Music|Dies irae}}. The sequence is sung entirely with an open rounded vowel sound, or a soft "a" sound. || 4
|-
| 51-Across || Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run'' || In ''{{w|Run Lola Run}}'', Lola (Franka Potente) [https://youtu.be/OTSz1w-cuZM?si=2vc51WCWvn20Hjoo&t=116 screams loud enough to affect the outcome] of a roulette wheel where she has just bet all her money on Black 20. The scream could be transcribed as "AAAAAAAAAAA" || 10
|-
| 1-Down || Game featuring “a reckless disregard for gravity” || {{w|AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity}} - notably the title is commonly extended in promotional material beyond 6 A's. || 6
|-
| 2-Down || 1010101010101010101010102→16 || 10101010 10101010 10101010 in binary is equivalent to "AAAAAA" in hexadecimal. || 6
|-
| 3-Down || Google phone released July ’22 || The {{w|Pixel 6a}} was released in July 22. Stylized in this puzzle as "AAAAAA" ('A'*6) || 6
|-
| 4-Down || It’s five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce || 5 times better than {{w|A1 steak sauce}} would be A5, stylized in this puzzle as "AAAAA". || 5
|-
| 5-Down || ToHex(43690) || The decimal number 43690 converted to hexadecimal is AAAA. || 4
|-
| 6-Down || Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure'' || A drawn-out 'Aaaaahhhh' rising in pitch. || 15
|-
| 7-Down || Full-size Audi luxury sedan || Second of three Audi references. As mentioned previously, the A8 is their full-size luxury sedan. || 8
|-
| 8-Down || Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey || The "fast path" is just to select the first option over and over again. Usually the options are labeled A, B, C, and D (or more) - choosing the first option for every question would be answering entirely with A's. || 7
|-
| 9-Down || 12356631 in base 26 || Randall is expressing base 26 using the letters of the alphabet with 1=A, in which case 1235663110 = AAAAAA26. (It's unclear how one would express the digit 026 this way.) || 6
|-
| 10-Down || Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus || A reference to the music video for Kirin J Callinan's song '{{w|Big Enough}}', which features Jimmy Barnes in a cowboy hat screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" while in the sky over mountain scenes. || 15
|-
| 11-Down || Ruby Rhod catchphrase || Ruby Rhod is a radio host in the film '{{w|The Fifth Element}}'; he has a scene with a memorable scream. || 5
|-
| 12-Down || badbeef + 9efcebbb || In hexadecimal, badbeef and 9efcebbb add together to equal AAAAAAAA (195,935,983, 2,667,375,547, and 2,863,311,530 in decimal respectively). || 8
|-
| 13-Down || In Wet Leg’s ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing || In the song "{{w|Ur Mum}}" by Wet Leg, the bridge starts with "Okay, I've been practicing my longest and loudest scream", which is apparently eight As long. || 8
|-
| 14-Down || Refrain from Nora Reed bot || The "Endless Scream" bot on social media, made by Nora Reed, posts "AAAAAAAAAAA" (with or without an h) at varying lengths. || 8
|-
| 20-Down || Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith’s walls || {{w|Minas Tirith}}. In Mario games you typically use the A button to jump. In games where you don't press a button to move (e.g. games with a joystick) then the button presses required to ascend a vertical structure would probably all be A. This clue might have been inspired by the {{w|A-button challenge}} / [https://ukikipedia.net/wiki/A_Button_Challenge A Button Challenge], which tallies the amount of A presses needed to beat ''Super Mario 64''. Additionally, Minas Tirith is a city with seven concentric rings, each with a wall around it and higher than the last ring. Presumably, it takes seven jumps to get to the highest area of the city, so the answer is "AAAAAAA". || 7
|-
| 24-Down || Vermont historic route north from Bennington || {{w|Vermont Route 7A}}, or AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 26-Down || High-budget video game || A high budget video game is usually referred to as a Triple-A game, or AAA. || 3
|-
| 28-Down || Unorthodox Tic-Tac-Toe win || Tic-Tac-Toe is usually won by getting either three Xs or three Os in a row, making XXX and OOO normal Tic-Tac-Toe wins. One could achieve a win of AAA by making the unorthodox choice of playing with the letter A instead of X or O. Alternatively, Randall is envisaging the grid as defined by rows 1, 2, 3, and columns A, B, C, so an AAA win would be simply playing in the first column each time - a strategy which should be obvious and easy to stop, even for young children who have not yet worked out that ''any'' route to winning can be blocked. || 3
|-
| 29-Down || String whose SHA-256 hash ends “…689510285e212385” || <code>printf AAAAAAAA <nowiki>|</nowiki> sha256sum</code> outputs <code>c34ab6abb7b2bb595bc25c3b388c872fd1d575819a8f55cc689510285e212385</code>.
Note that this 'clue' would be normally be ''particularly'' difficult, in isolation, as the nature of a {{w|hash function}} means that it is possible for multiple inputs to produce a given output, and that finding any of these (and definitely identifying ''all'' of them, to ensure you have the correct original) would require a {{w|brute-force attack}}; i.e. a test of all possible initial states to discover which of them might be viable candidates. Even more problematic is that we are only given a partial hash string, meaning we are possibly talking of a multiple of full hashes, each of them with a possible multiplicity of original plaintexts behind them.
 The number of possible hashes in the clue is 1664/1616, i.e. 1648, or approximately 6x1054, although there really is no reason (aside from the fundemental impracticality) to try to solve this problem from each and every 'hash end'. Instead you would 'only' check every combination of 8 letters (presuming no digits, punctuation or whitespace would be inserted, that no 'foreign'/accented characters are present and that uppercase is universally presumed, is 268; i.e. ~208 {{w|billion|short-scale billion}} possibilities) and discover which (one?) of these sufficiently matches the hash fragment given. Testing a hundred of these every second, it would take a little over 66 ''years'' to complete the task of checking every single possibility (rather than stopping at the first confirmed answer, which might well be the initial one in this particular case).
 In the context of a crossword such as this, however, you can significantly reduce this search by having established (or at least sufficiently narrowed down) the answers to the various across-clues which intersect with ever character of it (this form of crossword grid being of the {{w|Crossword#American-style crosswords|dense type}}, with no singly-clued spaces as with the more open lattice-types), reducing the necessary checks drastically. This could mean, having solved at least some of the perpendicular answers, that you have enough information to 'guess' at some likely answer, and then merely need to ''confirm'' that whatever guess(es) you make will resolve themselves into the clue-answer provided. (Much as you might with a more normally difficult clue, where you merely have to satisfy yourself that the surprise answer is at least justified as resulting from the original hint.)
| 8
|-
| 30-Down || Arnold’s remark to the Predator || A reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFYPVxHKdc this scene] from '{{w|Predator (film)|Predator}}'. || 8
|-
| 31-Down || The vowels in the fire salamander’s binomial name || The vowels in {{w|Salamandra salamandra}} are aaaaaaaa. || 8
|-
| 32-Down || Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line || The iconic scene in {{w|Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho}} is the shower scene, in which Janet Leigh gives a long piercing scream as she is murdered, which can be written as 8 "As" if one wishes. || 8
|-
| 34-Down || Seven 440Hz pulses || A sound with a frequency of 440 Hz is a middle "A" note. Seven such pulses would be AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 37-Down || Audi luxury sports sedan || Third of three Audi references. The A6 is their executive car. Actually, the A7, their executive liftback sedan, would fit the prompt of "luxury sports sedan" better, but 37 Down only has room for six As. || 6
|-
| 38-Down || A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks || Eggs can be [https://www.saudereggs.com/blog/egg-grading-system/ "graded on a variety of aspects"], with grades B, A, or AA. Eggs with a reasonably firm yolk are graded A, so having half a dozen of them gives you AAAAAA eggs. || 6
|-
| 39-Down || 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad || A "{{w|multi-tap|multitap keyboard}}" is a text entry system for mobile phones. Most numbers are associated with three letters, and tapping the same number multiple times in rapid succession selects the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd number. 2 is "a", 22 is "b", 222 is "c", 3 is "d", etc. 2-2-2-2-2-2 translates to "aaaaaa". || 6
|-
| 40-Down || .- .- .- .- .- .- || .- is Morse Code for A. It reads out as AAAAAA. || 6
|-
| 42-Down || Rating for China’s best tourist attractions || China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism provides ratings for many tourist attractions in China on a scale from A to AAAAA, with AAAAA being the best. Examples of well-known tourist attractions with the AAAAA rating include the Forbidden City, sections of the Great Wall of China, and the Terracotta Army. || 5
|-
| 43-Down || Standard drumstick size || 5A is a common, middle-range size for drumsticks (the sticks used to play drums, not the drumsticks that get eaten). Here, it's written as AAAAA. || 5
|-
| 45-Down || “The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain” rhyme scheme || An AAAA rhyme scheme means each of the four lines ends with the same sound. || 4
|}

==Transcript==
:[A square 15x15 crossword puzzle is shown. Only 21 of the 225 squares are black. The black squares are in a pattern that are 180 degree rotationally symmetrical. Three black squares down from the 11th column and similarly three black squares up from the 5th column. Three black squares out from the right in row 7 and then two more black squares diagonally up from the end. Similarly three black squares out from the left in row 9 with two more black squares diagonally down from the end. A single black square is three above the first black square on the diagonal going down to the right and similarly there is a black square three under the first of the diagonal squares going down to the left. (Row 6 column 12 and Row 10 column 4). Finally there are three black squares on a diagonal crossing over the central point by going up from the left through the central point (Row 8 column 8). There are numbers at the top of every column (except the one that is a black square) and similarly at the left edge of all rows (except the one that is a black square). There are also numbers at the bottom of every black segment (except the one that reaches the bottom) and all rows after black segments except the one that reaches the right edge. In total all numbers from 1 to 51 is written. They are written in reading order from 1 to 51.]
:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

:[Below the square there are two rows of clues for each number that belongs to across (rows) and to the right there are one row of clues for each number that belongs to down (columns). Both segments have an underlined and bold title above the clues. Clue 1 goes in both across and down as the only number to be presented in both segments.]
:<big>'''Across'''</big>
:1. Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote
:11. IPv6 address record
:15. "CIPHERTEXT" decrypted with Vigenère key "CIPHERTEXT"
:16. 8mm diameter battery
:17. "Warthog" attack aircraft
:18. '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for "inability to visualize"
:19. An acrostic hidden on the first page of the dictionary
:21. Default paper size in Europe
:22. First four unary strings
:23. Lysine codon
:24. 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution
:25. Top bond credit rating
:26. Audi coupe
:27. A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted
:29. Unofficial Howard Dean slogan
:32. A 4.0 report card
:33. The "Harlem Globetrotters of baseball" (vowels only)
:34. 2018 Kiefer song
:35. Top Minor League tier
:36. Reply elicited by a dentist
:38. ANAA's airport
:41. Macaulay Culkin's review of aftershave
:43. Marketing agency trade grp.
:44. Soaring climax of Linda Eder's ''Man of La Mancha''
:46. Military flight community org.
:47. Iconic line from ''Tarzan''
:48. '''E''''''v''''''e''''''r''''''y'''''' o''''''t''''''h''''''e''''''r''' letter of Jimmy Wales's birth state
:49. Warthog's postscript after "They call me ''mister'' pig!"
:50. Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2''
:51. Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run''

:<big>'''Down'''</big>
:1. Game featuring "a reckless disregard for gravity"
:2. 1010101010101010101010102→16
:3. Google phone released July '22
:4. It's five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce
:5. ToHex(43690)
:6. Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure''
:7. Full-size Audi luxury sedan
:8. Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey
:9. 12356631 in base 26
:10. Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus
:11. Ruby Rhod catchphrase
:12. badbeef + 9efcebbb
:13. In Wet Let's ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing
:14. Refrain from Nora Reed bot
:20. Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith's walls
:24. Vermont historic route north from Bennington
:26. High-budget video game
:28. Unorthodox Tic-Tac-Toe win
:29. String whose SHA-256 hash ends "...689510285e212385"
:30. Arnold's remark to the Predator
:31. The vowels in the fire salamander's binomial name
:32. Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line
:34. Seven 440Hz pulses
:37. Audi luxury sports sedan
:38. A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks
:39. 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad
:40. .- .- .- .- .- .-
:42. Rating for China's best tourist attractions
:43. Standard drumstick size
:45. "The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain" rhyme scheme

==Trivia==
*This comic got a [[Header_text#A_Crossword_Puzzle|comic-specific header text]] after the first day it was up.
**This was because one of the comics Randall lists as one of those he enjoys, [https://www.buttersafe.com/ Buttersafe], had already posted a similar comic back in 2011: [https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ Crosswords].
**Randall had forgotten this, but now pays tribute to this, stating that he must have been accidentally inspired by that comic.
*[[User:Elfakyn|Elfakyn]] posted a link to a picture of the solved crossword puzzle in the [[Talk:2957:_A_Crossword_Puzzle#Solved_puzzle_picture|coments]] and allowed it to be included here:
[[File:2957_A-Crossword_Puzzle-Solved.png]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]

Talk:2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-05T14:33:14Z

172.70.90.176: Primarily, add a missed date to an unsigned(-non-IP), just to be friendly to future readers. Secondarily, revisit my own comment with a thing I *meant* to do but skipped over in my haste to post the origional. (Little things, but I think nicer...)

ummm. How does editing this stuff work. Is this HTML? Why can't we have a gooey? Also, I only sort of get this comic, but it's not that funny.
<marquee behavior="scroll" direction="up">Here is some scrolling text... going up!</marquee>
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.102|172.69.58.102]] 05:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
: Have a WHAT? - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.88|172.70.179.88]] 09:26, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: A [https://kirby.fandom.com/wiki/Gooey Gooey]. Although I'm not sure how that would help.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.121|172.70.163.121]] 11:27, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: I'm sure that should be GUI (Graphical User Interface. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.76|141.101.69.76]] 11:40, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The "violin" symbols look like an upside-down bag symbol (multiset symbol) to me, moreso than integrals. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.135|172.69.58.135]] 18:09, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Did my best with my first ever contribution - I know there's a chart feature but I cba to relearn html. Feel free to fix it and PLEASE finish my bad explanations. [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

⌊⌋ are floor brackets (and you can now copy-paste them from here into the explanation as needed) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.33|162.158.126.33]] 06:03, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

As for the spaghetti, in Python, it'd be a list containing a tuple containing a list containing a set containing an empty tuple. Probably doesn't mean anything specific and pretty much useless), but it *is* legal code [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.164|162.158.126.164]] 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Yay, I figured out how to use a table! [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:42, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm British, ex 60+ years and I'm sure I was taught in school to use "for first person speech" and 'for quoting others'. I hadn't even noticed printers doing the opposite. But there again I didn't go to Grammar School. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:36, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: [Update] Researching this issue, using " or ' is acceptable in the UK as long as you are consistent in any work. However, most British authored books I have use '. Then, thought I, Douglas Adams did his own type setting, what did he use? In my box set of HHG2G it's '. But then I found a first (paperback) print run of Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency... And he used ". I don't think he would have been fickle, so that tells me the ' in British books is a printers' foible. (Controversially, they were responsible for a lot of extra u's being added to 'Latinise' spelling, even in words with Greek or Germanic roots and the replacement of Fall with Autumn) YMMV.[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 10:42, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
::: I remember thinking it was to 'save ink'. After all in a 300 page novel with a lot of "speech", imagine how much savings you might have with 'speech', instead... ;)
::: But I'll accept "printer's foible" (or 'prïnter"s foïble'!) as an answer, given that we were still taught to ''write'' with doubles (and using fountain pens). Pity they couldn't have also refused to print Oxford Commas, though, which are complete waste of space (and, in their case, ink!)... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.64|172.69.195.64]] 12:30, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
:I'm British, too, and as I recall my school says sixty years ago, the symbols () are just called brackets and parenthesis is just the grammatical construct in which they can be used. But you can use dashes or even commas to indicate a parenthesis. This has been discussed on such blogs has Ben Yagoda's Not One-off Britishisms. https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2015/12/15/square-brackets/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.178|172.70.90.178]] 08:16, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah - I don't know where this weird idea that British people use single quotes comes from - it's not my experience. Generally seems to be double quotes for direct speech, and single quotes for paraphrasing, scare quotes, 'jargonisms', etc. I've added to the explanation to reflect that a bit.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.176|172.69.195.176]] 11:33, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
::Similar vintage of Brit, here. Always taught to write "66s and 99s" on any primary quotation (you'd '6 and 9' quotes-within-quotes and 66/99 quotes-within-quotes-within-quotes). Except books often seemed to be single(-double(-single))-nesting, always assumed that was the US standard, as they tended to have the likes of "color" and "sulfur", too.
::In typing (typewriter, word processor and on into the internet age) I'd use ""s as my primary, unless it 'wasn't really speech'... essentially scare-quotes, or emphasis. Though in the text-only information age (usenet, etc), I'd use some of the others for /Italics/, *Bold* and _Underline_ purposes.
::For coding purposes, I'd have to use whatever the programming language required (I added the note about Pascal's character/string differentation), except in Perl, where I go for a 'sensible' mix of aesthetics/readability and practicality as I make wide use of the [https://perldoc.perl.org/perlop#Quote-Like-Operators full range of options] available to me, in quotation context, whatever doesn't clash badly with any use of q[array], qq{sub or hash}, qx|binary OR|, =~s/whatever is in my/regexp/, etc... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.36|172.69.194.36]] 12:54, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The integral sign (and its reverse) in the context of string instruments are the so-called 'F-holes', and they're not just decorative elements but help in the instrument(s) resonate more freely. Other shapes exist as well. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_hole here] for an in-depth explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.151.27|172.69.151.27]] 09:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

「かっこ」[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.151|108.162.250.151]] 09:24, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall missed an opportunity to reference catamorphisms i.e. banana brackets. There may be some better examples missed as well.

Who is that? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.156|172.68.186.156]] 10:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Likely reference to the quote and catchphrase "We can't stop here, this is bat country" from ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas''? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.242|162.158.134.242]] 11:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The 'violin' quotes may look similar (but not identical) to the S-Shaped bag delimiters (U+27C5 & U+27C6), though these are normally used in the opposite order to enclose multisets.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.90.10|172.71.90.10]] 13:52, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The French quotation marks « » are better known as guillemets. They are also used in Spanish, and probably several other written languages. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.167|172.71.142.167]] 15:10, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The single-/double-quotes being recursively embedded with the other reminds me of a short story I once read. It had the form of a tale a person was telling of when he encountered a stranger with a tale of his own. In that tale, the stranger made the aquaintance of a particularly talkative individual. That individual reported the story he heard from a further interlocutor, that story featuring the reminiscences of someone else... ''Which came to a conclusion." ...is the way it ended.' ...and so went that story" ...but of course that was just what was heard.' ...if, of course, you could credit it."'' (It was more layers deep, of course, and with both starting quotes and the paragraph-maintaining standards of opening quotes, which yet still managed to suck you in.) Cannot remember who it was by/what it was called, but obviously the play on the style (a bit more clever than ''just'' "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said, "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said "..."'"'") made a big impression on me at the time. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.18|172.70.162.18]] 19:51, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

'''"~~ I'm being sarcastic and..."''' The symbol ≈ means approximately equal to. This is much used in some engineering writing. "Output level should be ≈1 Volt." In casual work this may be approximated as "~", or "~~" which is less liable to be confused for a negative sign. {{unsigned|PRR|04:02(+:03), 5 July 2024}}
:It can also be used for such as "~240V", AC power supply, and I use tildes an awful lot in Perl for both regexp operations and bitwise negation (though I also like it as a nicely distinctive choice of delimiter character for joined/split data transportation, at times) . As to the comic text, I sort of associate it with the 'decorated' usernames (akin to Dwarf Fortress 'item quality modifiers', but of course not inspired by such, not sure if they inspired it) along the lines of <code>.~·«wIeRdLyReNdErEdNaMe»·~.</code> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.158|172.70.91.158]] 10:21, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

== Square brackets NOT used in screenplays / teleplays ==

As the only person to get an Academy Technical Achievement Award for inventing screenplay text formatting (and a produced screenwriter in the WGAw), I’m here to let you know square brackets are NOT used in screenplays, teleplays, or stage plays to denote stage direction. Square brackets aren’t used for ANYTHING in those script forms. This should be corrected (by someone more conversant with edits) to indicate that normal parenthesis are used in screenplay or teleplays to indicate stage direction associated with specific passages of dialog. These are typically called “parenthetical action” or “parenthetical.” Some stage play formats omit parenthetical action but place parentheses around passages of stage action. But NEVER square brackets. {{unsigned|SMGxkcd|13:11, 5 July 2024}}
:Per this unsigned comment, I've made the requested move from square brackets to parentheses. I don't know if this is correct or not, so maybe additional discussion could confirm or refute this claim. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 13:34, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

== Animorphs ==

Should we start up an Animorphs category now? It's been referenced a few times now, [[1380]], [[1817]], and also in [[1187]] and [[1360]]. [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 14:00, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

: has existed since 2014, and this comic is (as of now) tagged with it: Category:Animorphs --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.29|172.70.114.29]] 14:16, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

:: ('_')b [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 14:18, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

2949: Network Configuration

2024-07-05T14:21:06Z

172.70.90.176: /* Explanation */ Netting a catalogue of networkable categories that catalyse a nete but catchy lot of nettley Netherlandish netsukes catastophically cataleptic on catamites' catamarans.

{{comic
| number = 2949
| date = June 21, 2024
| title = Network Configuration
| image = network_configuration_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you repeatedly rerun the development of technological civilization, it turns out that for some reason the only constant is that there is always a networking utility called 'netcat', though it does a different thing in each one.
}}

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

In this comic, [[Cueball]] takes an uncommon networking bug - needing to establish a fresh connection for each {{w|Network_packet|packet}} sent - to the extreme. Instead of merely redoing the appropriate handshakes for data transfer, he is reconstructing the entire {{w|Human_history|history of human civilization}} each time. As this originally took multiple millennia, doing it for every network packet would make communication ''extremely'' slow; in modern networking, we send and receive thousands of packets every second.

Randall may be using a double meaning of the word "rebuild." Instead of just rebuilding his network settings - starting fresh with a clean setup - he is rebuilding civilization itself from scratch, an extreme type of "first principles thinking."

In the last frame of the comic, Cueball looks shaggy and dirty and has a {{w|Hoe_(tool)|grub hoe}} behind him, making it clear he is performing these tasks ''in real life'' just to get his network working again. He says the network packet was stuck in the {{w|Neolithic}} era, the final period of the Stone Age that marked the transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. Apparently, Cueball had to go through the effort of inventing farming (one of the developments of the {{w|Neolithic Revolution}}) to keep communicating with [[Ponytail]]. He has also had to build himself a new wooden chair (and possibly desk), and hasn't yet got to the point of developing a notebook computer, so is using an under-desk tower PC connected to a chunky monitor. Presumably his previous equipment and furniture were lost in resetting to the Neolithic, though this seems to have been a localized effect, given that Ponytail appears unaffected.

"Inventing farming takes '''''forever'''''" references the actual rather complex process of inventing farming. First, we needed the last Ice Age to end - around 11,000 years ago - to create suitable climatic environments for agriculture. Then we required advancements in plant cultivation, animal domestication, and tool development - lots of time and experimentation involved there. And the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary farming communities also needed significant social and cultural adaptations (e.g., new organizational structures).

Randall Munroe is familiar with the popular creative nonfiction topic of what it takes to rebuild civilization, the subject of a book he blurbed on its cover, [https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/ How to Invent Everything], by Ryan North, fellow cartoonist.
* The topic of rebuilding a civilization from scratch was also referenced in comic [[1380: Manual for Civilization]] and in the title text of [[2347: Dependency]].

The title text discusses {{w|netcat}}, a simple utility to make a {{w|Transmission Control Protocol|TCP connection}} which comes in annoyingly incompatible [https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/netcat-traditional/nc.1.en.html nc.traditional] and [https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/netcat-openbsd/nc.1.en.html nc.openbsd] varieties.

In addition, the tendency for civilizations to independently develop netcat may be an allusion to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which 85% of all planets invariably develop a cocktail whose name is, by pure coincidence, a phonetic homophone to “gin and tonic”, such as the Jynnan tonnyx, while varying wildly in composition. The word "netcat" is a composite of "net" (most likely standing for network each time, although could relate to some form of mesh/trap, a topology or an amount less any deductions), while "cat" may be an abbreviation (for example for catalogue, category, catalyst, catastrophe etc.), or even actually referring to a cat. The various possible combinations could encompass a wide variation in function of similarly named processes.

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

:[Ponytail is sitting on an office chair at her computer with a headset on. A zigzag line indicates what is shown on the computer screen]
:Ponytail (typing): Ugh, your connection is so laggy.
:Computer: Yeah, sorry.

:[Cueball is sitting on an office chair at his laptop]
:Cueball (typing): It's because I messed up my network configuration and now I have to rebuild a separate civilization from scratch for each packet.

:[Ponytail at her computer]
:Ponytail (typing): Huh?
:Ponytail (typing): What are you talking about?
:Ponytail (typing): ...Hello?

:[Beat panel, with Ponytail sitting in front of her computer waiting for a response from Cueball]

:[Cueball, with dirt on his head and around him, is at an old computer setup with a hoe leaning on his now non-office chair, blade on the floor]
:Cueball (typing): Sorry, got stuck in the Neolithic that time.
:Cueball (typing): Inventing farming takes '''''forever'''''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

Talk:2952: Routine Maintenance

2024-07-02T08:57:19Z

172.70.90.176:

Ooooh, if this were only true... All the "Nobody tells me what to do" stubborn people would have died out years ago, and Covid would have been a LOT shorter! :) Added an initial explanation, all I found here was a basic transcript.

The vent off of Alaska is poking out, is there a volcano around there? Feels a little north to be Mount Fuji, but I have a suspicion most if not all are supposed to be actually volcanos... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:12, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
:Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula (the long "teardrop" hanging below the Siberian Peninsula) is very volcanically active. The others look like reasonable places to expect volcanoes - I've added a couple of lines. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.207|172.68.64.207]] 05:25, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

Is the image SUPPOSED to be that tiny? It's not even 800 pixels! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.166|141.101.109.166]] 05:46, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

Should the direction of up/down actually being away/towards the planet due to gravity and not the panel's up/down direction be addressed in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.31.150|172.71.31.150]] 13:34, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

The current explanation says that cans of compressed air are pressurized with a propellant gas. This seems unlikely to me, but it's not ''impossible''... it's just that I'd expect a can of compressed air to be only that, without needing a propellant. What I'm seeing in a quick search on-line supports that. Do cans of air/propellant exist? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:09, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
:It would be impractical to have ''just normal air, compressed''. A typical spray can cannot hold the pressures needed to have significant (i.e. useful) amounts of compressed 'normal air' (still gas, but a ''lot'' of it... think, basically, of a cylinder of Nitrogen gas, because air is mostly that anyway). And 'typical air' doesn't readily liquify (the way of concentrating it without ''necessarily'' extreme pressure), not without applying/maintaining extremely low temperatures.
:On the whole, regular mostly nitrogen plus significant oxygen plus some CO2 and a host of trace gases would never practically fit in a handy spray can such as you could hold (and, probably, afford to use) as an alternative to any pumped compressed (or fan-blown) air in 'trivial' tasks such as just blowing a tiny bit of dust off of a mobo.
:What the 'air' is, in such cans, is probably (mostly) whatever handy liquid-adjacent gas is usable as an actual propellant. As you only need the 'general gas', you might as well just put propellant in the thing (one that works well) and ''nothing else''. (Unlike things like air-fresheners/bug-spray, which need the 'freshener'/insecticide as well. There's no advantage to reducing the propellant to fit 'air' in, which would soon be so diluted by gasified propellant that you'd basically have no 'air' left).
:The listed possible gases in a {{w|gas duster}} are the likes of butane, propane, 1,1-difluoroethane, 1,1,1-trifluoroethane or 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane, with the first two being flammable (so would be problematic in some circumstances) and the rest being more inert but still not being 'safe' if improperly used. Or abused.
:I don't actually have a can, at hand, or I'd check its stated ingredients (and warnings). I probably am more likely to (carefully) blow dust away with my own breath, or get the vacuum cleaner out with a suitable attachment. In fact, I've used very few, ever, though I probably first did back in the early '80s (which means it ''might'' even have been basically an example (or mix) of a CFC gas, before the problems with that became 'a thing'), as part of a cleaning kit sold to service my BBC Micro. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.35|172.70.86.35]] 17:44, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
:The popular 'can dusters' are '''NOT''' compressed ''air'' (oxygen/nitrogen mix) despite the label -- air cannot stay liquid at room temperature, it is high above the critical points of both nitrogen and oxygen. Many of such dusters don't display ingredients, but have a prominent '''FLAMMABLE''' warning sign! It is a propane/butane mix most of the time, maybe some CFCs in old ones. You could make a flame torch out of them! so be careful, turn off your device and provide very good ventilation. Best use it outdoors or on a patio, etc. -- [[Special:Contributions/172.68.159.20|172.68.159.20]] 18:04, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
::I was looking at [https://www.amazon.ca/EMPACK-EMP47020-Duster-500-295-74-Moisture-Free/dp/B007Z7OK3Y this] product, which claims to be VOC-free. But when I dug into [https://emzone.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/p7-047020___________emzone_air_duster_-_284_g_en.pdf its SDS], I saw that it's based on 1,1-difluoroethane. "Non-flammable product. However, content in liquid form is flammable." [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 22:38, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

The image looks SO much like a first-draft storyboard for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceballs 'Spaceballs']. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:15, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
: Given that a second one is apparently in the making... Maybe Randall knows more than we would guess. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:53, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm thinking that the 'tidal' effect of the can is probably going to start tearing both earth and can apart, so it's unlikely to become secondary to losing magnetic field.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.176|172.70.90.176]] 08:57, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

2952: Routine Maintenance

2024-07-01T08:35:14Z

172.70.90.176: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2952
| date = June 28, 2024
| title = Routine Maintenance
| image = routine_maintenance_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x413px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The worst was the time they accidentally held the can upside down and froze all the Earth's magma chambers solid.
}}

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

A recommended routine maintenance step for many electronics, such as desktop computer towers, is to remove the buildup of dust on a regular basis. This bit of routine maintenance can help prevent the electrical components from overheating, and lengthen the lifetime of these electronics. To make this job easier, safer, and cleaner, there exist {{w|Gas duster|cans}} of high-pressure gas, as depicted, which force through high-flow gas to displace the dust. (Attempting to do this with air from the lungs would be less effective, may add unintended moisture to the electronics, and could result in a faceful of dust).

The comic suggests that a similar maintenance step is performed on the Earth itself, blowing gas into the Earth to force out the dust from it's magma chambers. However, filling the atmosphere with dust would be unhealthy and fatal to living beings, so as a safety measure everyone would have to take shelter.

This may be a reference to one theory about the K-T extinction event — that a crashing meteor sent so much dust into the air that it killed off many plants and animals, including all non-avian dinosaurs, in a much wider area than that directly affected by the initial impact. Those lineages that chanced to survive the global effects must have been able to escape the worst of the disrupted ecosphere while the worst of the atmospheric effects subsided, and were then able to exploit various newly vacant (and/or changed) environmental niches. (This would include our own mammalian ancestors, and the avian dinosaurs that led to todays birds; some of them may, perhaps, have survived by already being more inclined/suited to living in burrows.) However, this dust cloud would have lasted longer than the 48 hours suggested in the comic.

The image suggests that the "routine maintenance" for Earth would involve using the {{w|Hawaii hotspot}} (possibly via its most active volcano, {{w|Kilauea}}), as the point to insert the high-pressure gas, causing volcanoes to erupt in Iceland, the {{w|Aleutian Islands}} or the {{w|Kamchatka Peninsula}}, the {{w|Andes}}, and elsewhere; the two geographically-indeterminate plumes may represent Italy and Indonesia.

The title text mentions using the can upside-down, and this freezing solid the magma chambers. Pressurised canisters of air, as with similar aerosol sprayers, make use of a propellant gas that condenses into a liquid when compressed. When the spray valve is opened, the release of pressure allows some of the liquid to evaporate and take the place of the released gases, or become some of the gas subsequently released (or all of it, if its purpose is not to spray other contents). The transition of the propellant liquid/gas from dense liquid to space-filling gas requires it to 'boil off', this process needing to pick up {{w|Enthalpy of vaporization|heat (or 'enthalpy') energy}}. Under typical operation, the cooling liquid/gas takes heat from the general mass of the can itself as it tries to attain thermal equilibrium. As a result, the can (and the expelled gases) will be cooled a little. Then (ultimately) heat will also be taken from anything touching or surrounding the slightly cooled can and its spray. This is precisely how a purposeful refrigerant acts, either as a one-time process or as a reversible cycle where repressurising a suitable gas can 'release' heat (the heat/enthalpy of condensation) at the 'hot side' of a refrigerator, returning the gas in the system to liquid that it can later let boil again and cool the 'cold side' of the refrigerator.

It is not normally useful for such a can to allow the liquid propellant-in-waiting to exit the container, as it would waste its usefulness as a source of pressure once it does. But by holding the container the wrong way up (which way that is being dependant upon its design, and intended use...) the pressurised contents push the liquid out via the nozzle's stream. The now exposed propellant is now free to evaporate into the air at atmospheric pressure, typically much lower than the constraints it had within the can, after landing directly upon whatever the can was sprayed at. The resulting demand for heat energy (much more rapid than normal, and likely concentrated upon a much smaller target than the can itself represents) produces a greater localised drop in temperature and can lead to freezing nearby liquids (which may or may not be intended/useful). Of course, the total 'cooling effect' of such a can does not change, depending upon how it is (mis)used, it merely changes the extent (and lifetime) of application, and how extreme the temperature change may be within a much more limited 'liberation' of its cooling ability.

Spraying canned "air" in reverse is a party trick used to very quickly cool beverages, being able to bring them down from room temperature to ice cold in seconds, if performed correctly. Some 'spray cans' are ''designed'' to let you freeze things (e.g. to help in plumbing repairs) or safely chill surfaces (e.g. for first-aid purposes), but these are exceptions (that require judicious use) and generally it is a wasteful use of a spray-can, if not actually unwise.

Given the location of the planetary-scale dust-busting 'air canister', it may be considered confusing which 'way up' is the correct orientation, given that Earth-gravity would be pulling the contents sideways (however that changes what the nozzle ends up ejecting from the can itself). But such as large can would also have its own significant internal 'can-centric' gravity that possibly (depending upon how full of still-liquid propellant it is) exceeds that of the Moon, possibly letting all the denser liquid hold itself into the centre of the canister, even against the nearby Earth's gravity. Being significantly closer to the Earth than the Moon is, this can could also be a far greater influence upon Earth's own tides (not alluded to in the comic), making the dusting of the atmosphere or the freezing of some of its magma secondary issues to the sheltering population.

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

:[The nozzle of a "Dust-Off" (compressed air) gas duster can is pointing into a hole on the Earth's surface in the Pacific Ocean around where Hawaii is located, and its trigger is pressed as an arrow indicates, resulting in dust clouds being released from five visible spots of the Earth. These eruptions can be seen in the Aleutian Islands or Kamchatka Peninsula, Iceland, the Andes, and two further in the eastern hemisphere on the other side of the Earth.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I know routine maintenance is important, but I hate how we all have to take shelter for 48 hours every year while they flush out the Earth's magma system for cleaning.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Geology]]

2940: Modes of Transportation

2024-06-03T09:10:22Z

172.70.90.176: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2940
| date = May 31, 2024
| title = Modes of Transportation
| image = modes_of_transportation_2x.png
| imagesize = 510x518px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My bold criticism might anger the hot air balloon people, which would be a real concern if any of them lived along a very narrow line directly upwind of me.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Transportationally convenient but insidiously dangerous robotic car - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall's chart compares different modes of transportation of convenience and danger. At the top (high in convenience and low in danger) are cars and trains, as these are both fast moving but heavy vehicles that many millions of dollars have been spent to make them safer. Motorcycles are at the same convenience level however are rated much more dangerous as careless drivers (of cars) can easily hit a motorcycle and cause extreme harm. Much lower on the convenient scale are things like unicycles and skis, which both aren't very fast or easy way's to travel and are relatively easy to fall on. However, rated least on convenience and highest on danger is the hot air balloon.

Because a hot air balloon is rated so poorly, if an optimization algorithm considers it the optimal mode of transportation, it must be the result of a sign error (e.g. having a minus sign where a plus sign is supposed to be, or vice versa), making the algorithm optimize for the opposite result by mistake. Presumably, modes of transportation similar to hot air balloons (like zeppelins and blimps) are left off of the chart to increase the gap for comedic effect. This comic is the second comic in a row to feature an algorithm.

The title text makes a joke that if an angry hot air balloon enthusiast disagrees with the ranking, they will have a difficult time getting to Randall's house with their preferred mode of transportation. In reality, hot air balloons have some freedom to choose their direction of travel, since by controlling their altitude they can access different wind directions at different heights. Randall should, therefore, be concerned about hot air balloonists who live within a wedge spanned by the various wind directions accessible on a given day. In principle, if the weather conditions are favorable, this could cover every direction from Randall's house. The phrase "hot air balloon people" is reminiscent of "autogyro people" from the title text of [[1972: Autogyros]].

Curiously, the comic includes most common forms of transport, and a number of less common ones, but omits examples such as buses (a mass transit solution arguably more convenient than trains). It is not clear if this is an error, or a deliberate choice to maintain the comic's layout and presentation.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Transportation !! Description !! Convenience !! Danger !! Zone
|-
|{{w|Train}}s
|Mass transit on rails Very convenient ''if'' scheduled services along established routes are well suited for your journey. Many people can make journeys in complete safely on dedicated tracks (Incidents can affect many people at once, but are comparatively rare.)
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Airliner}}s
|Mass transit aircraft As long as there are convenient airports, and operators. Air travel is ''very'' safe, accounting for the number of miles traveled and passengers carried. (Accidents can be catastrophic both to the passengers/crew and potentially anybody on the ground, however.)
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Car}}s
|Motorised road vehicle Most common method of long distance travel used to get anywhere from a mile to 200 miles. It is mostly safe since it is the most common form of travel, quite a lot of time and money is spend to make it safer that safer.
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|Scooters
|Either: 
*{{w|Kick scooter}} - ...
*{{w|Motorized scooter|Engine-powered scooter}} - ...
*{{w|Scooter (motorcycle)|Low powered motorbike/moped}} - ...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Bicycle}}s
|Human-powered (or {{w|Electric bicycle|mostly so}}) two-wheeled road vehicle ...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Boat}}s
|Watercraft of various types ...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Walking}}
|Personal bipedal ambulation 
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Motorcycle}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Helicopter}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Light aircraft}}
|In the United States, the general category of [https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/small_airplanes/categories small aircraft] covers a variety of aircraft certified to weigh 19,000 pounds (8618 kg) or less at takeoff. Maximum allowed weight varies by specific category.
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Go-kart}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Skateboard}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Inline skates|Rollerblades}}
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Ski}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Unicycle}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Sled}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Bumper Cars}}
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Hot Air Balloon}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|?????
|}

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

:[A chart is shown, where the Y axis is labeled "Convenient for travel" and has an arrow pointing up and the X axis is labeled "Dangerous" and has an arrow pointing right.]
:[The following modes are shown in the "Zone of practicality" (a large irregular area fitting in to the top left corner of the chart), highlighted with a gray background, starting with the first few bunched at highest convenience, :]
:Trains [very convenient, very safe]
:Airliners
:Cars
:Scooters [the most dangerous of this set, at medium-low danger]
:Bicycles
:Boats [medium-high convenience, a slight amount of danger]
:Walking [the least convienient, at roughly half, and lowest danger of this set]
:[The following modes are shown in the "Zone of specialty and recreational vehicles" (a large irregular swathe from the top right to the bottom left, not quite touching the prior zone), highlighted with a gray background, the nodes spread in rough order from high convenience/danger to low convenience/danger:]
:Motorcycles [highly convenient, nearly maximum danger]
:Helicopters [not quite fully convenient, most danger]
:Light aircraft
:Go karts
:Skateboards
:Rollerblades
:Skis
:Unicycles
:Sleds
:Bumper cars [lowest convenience and lowest danger item]
:[The following is labeled "?????" (in the bottom right corner), and has a gray background all to itself in a small blob notably distant from the nearest other group:]
:Hot air balloons [placed as almost the least convenient and most dangerous, of all labels]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Hot air balloons are the optimal mode of transportation, if your optimization algorithm has a sign error.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]