explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2831: xkcd Phone Flip

2023-09-22T17:22:10Z

172.70.91.152:

this is my first time editing, did i do well? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.202|172.70.134.202]] 21:39, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:Decent enough, assuming you were the one giving the reference to the Z-series. But it'll be expanded, improved and reformatted a lot, I predict. I put in my own (intended) first-edit, but clearly there's you (and possibly A.N. Other) already adding their own thoughts. (Which I am counting on, rather than trying to write it all in one go all by myself... I'll wait for it to settle down and ''then'' see if there are various tweaks I'll want try on whatever form it becomes.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.7|172.70.90.7]] 21:50, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:The other person was me, but I think there's someone else as well reformatting and rewriting things.--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.38|172.68.34.38]] 23:57, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

So, what is the meaning of "flip" here? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 22:07, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:It's a reference to the Samsung Galaxy line of folding smartphones, which is marketed as 'Galaxy Z Flip' phones. While there had been double-screened smartphones in the past, Samsung was able to figure out some way to have the actual screen flex and fold in the middle so that when it's closed the primary screen is protected, but when opened up the user sees a single screen without a hinge in the middle. The current model (the 'Z Flip 5') is the sixth iteration of the device since it was originally introduced in China in 2019. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 22:36, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

:I think it's just part of the whole marketroid feeling these are supposed to have. It's part of the name and the [alleged] "marketing" department, as is typical, came up with something extremely dumb and useless. See: [https://serverfault.com/questions/117799/which-version-of-sunos SunOS vs Solaris] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.197.132|162.158.197.132]] 22:32, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Anybody else think the main sequence battery is a fusion cell that is also the chemical flashlight and full spectrum backlight that necessitates the SPF 15 coating? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.83|172.71.151.83]] 22:36, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:I'm thinking it's a reference to the Cyalume lightsticks which need to be bent, which shatters a small glass vial inside and releases a hydrogen peroxide solution into a second solution of an oxalate ester and electron-rich dye contained within the outer plastic shell. The resulting chemiluminescent reaction creates visible light. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 22:42, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:I assumed main sequence refers to stellar evolution in astronomy. {{w|Main sequence}} These stars have a relatively long life, matching the description. The SPF 15 coating and full spectrum would also make sense. However I am not sure that description as a chemical flashlight would follow appropriate. The primary energy generation would be nuclear (fusion). It has been long enough since I took astronomy I don't remember all the details of how the energy is converted into light, and whether that would ultimately be considered a chemical, thermal, or nuclear process (or combination thereof). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.152|172.69.22.152]] 00:20, 21 September 2023 (UTC)
::Even relatively cold parts of stars are too hot for any chemical reactions. The photons produced from fusion are caught and re-emitted by atoms in outer layers of stars and the spectrum DOES match thermal radiation, so thermal maybe. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:21, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Arch support may also refer to the Linux distro [[Special:Contributions/162.158.110.237|162.158.110.237]] 08:42, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

I initially misread the title text as being a ''Thanos'' partnership. In which case, presumably inadvertently touching the button could wipe out half the population of the universe.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.77|172.71.242.77]] 10:25, 21 September 2023 (UTC)
:Can destroy mountains with one click, but not half the population [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.220|172.70.90.220]] 10:32, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

The breaking the glass might refer to “ Break glass (which draws its name from breaking the glass to pull a fire alarm) refers to a quick means for a person who does not have access privileges to certain information to gain access when necessary.”

With a chemical flashlight, I assume the free refills might actually come in handy (though it doesn't say there is a chemical flashlight and with the flip form, bending might just refer to some mechanical switch activating the flashlight - or considering the possibly stellar power source, it just removes shielding). [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:01, 21 September 2023 (UTC)
:At least it isn't a "chemical fleshlight". Moreover one activated by severe bending! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 11:20, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Had thought to note (but couldn't find a way to slip it into the Explanation) that the origami-form relies upon a square sheet, but the unfolded form seems to be (close enough to) 2:1 ratio. If it ''is'' 2:1 (give or take excess to go around the initial bend), the first step might of course be to make the screen effectively 2-ply, then worry about how to seemlessly fold ''that'' into the Fortune Teller, with convex/concave folds and the necessary compound corners. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 11:20, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

"One pixel display" - I was surprised by the suggestion that this could be a static image, like a slide; I had imagined, and would like to see (perhaps more explicitly) the alternative, that the whole screen simply lights up in a single color (within the __-bit colorspace). --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.177|108.162.245.177]] 17:03, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

I agree with the latter - I would consider the pixel as the minimum picture element, no subdetails. [[User:Vdm|Vdm]] ([[User talk:Vdm|talk]]) 20:30, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

:A single pixel with a lot of display states need not be static. Show a bunch in sequence like a film based movie projector. Pixel is the minimum addressable picture element. Think about ASCII art (e.g., printing Mona Lisa on a daisywheel printer), or graphics on the IBM PC monochrome display, Commodore PET, etc. There are also those pieces of art where each pixel is a small photograph (I don't know if there is a name for that). Not typical pixels, bit of a gray area. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.15|172.71.158.15]] 21:10, 21 September 2023 (UTC)
::A name for that: {{w|Photographic mosaic}}.
::Also, consider perhaps waving a single pixel around fast and using ''time'' and actual position at that time with sufficient image-retention (by the static viewer) to build up an observable but very temporary image. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.152|172.69.79.152]] 22:22, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Anyone thinks the "Main sequence battery" could be a reference to [https://xkcd.com/1422 1422: My Phone Is Dying]? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.97.11|141.101.97.11]] 08:00, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

I wonder if the "we didn't actually mean" thing is a reference to those bendy iPhones almost a decade ago? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.74|162.158.38.74]] 08:45, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Maybe the explanation should also mention that kid's game that you do with a folded paper like the images on the right. I don't know how it is called, but this Facebook comment by "AJ Himmel" references it:
"Can also be used to find out who you'll marry someday! Just repeatedly flip it open then unfold a flap!"
[[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 17:01, 22 September 2023 (UTC)
:It already ''does'' mention the kids' (note apostrophe!) game... "paper fortune teller". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 17:22, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2782: Wikipedia Article Titles

2023-05-30T15:39:45Z

172.70.91.152:

Of course, I had to search for those keywords and found this: [https://www.playbill.com/article/bulletin-meryl-streep-in-talks-to-do-seagull-in-central-park-com-87578 Playbill: Bulletin: Meryl Streep in Talks to Do Seagull in Central Park]. Couldn't find anything about a Seagull *incident*, however. We may have to wait until the production has completed. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:44, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
:Or doesn't happen at all. The incident might be a fight between Streep and someone involved in the production. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:07, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
::Whatever happens we need to somehow inject the name "Meyrl Street seagull incident" into the news coverage so that the Wikipedia article can be created. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.101|172.70.162.101]] 14:24, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

'''''Ah-HAH!''''' https://www.salon.com/2001/08/27/seagull/ "a 40-ish man was found dead in the bushes from a single gunshot wound near the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, just yards away from where Philip Seymour Hoffman offs himself with a single gunshot wound every night as Konstantin Gavrilovich in Anton Chekhov's ''The Seagull.''" (in which Streep was his co-star.) Thanks to ChatGPT-4's WebPilot plug-in, by the way. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.214|172.69.134.214]] 17:24, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Re the transcript: I don't think they're called checkmarks. Tick marks, maybe.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.232|172.71.182.232]] 18:00, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
:{{done}} [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.96|172.69.134.96]] 18:14, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
::Well, given that {{w|Check mark}} and (redirected there, anyway) {{w|Tick mark}} don't actually refer to those things, I changed the transcript to use the {{w|Graduation (scale)}} terminology as the best(?) of various such terms that I'd more happily use. Which probably is going to annoy someone else, so maybe expect it to change again... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.179|172.70.162.179]] 20:36, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
:::I did not do this transcript, but I have used the tick marks in numerous transcripts using charts like this. I'm not native English speaker, and there have never been anyone changing it before, and seems like another user also believed tick mark could be used... So it would be nice to find out of it is actually normal to use tick marks for the "ticks" on a graph axis, else there will be 100 of transcripts to fix (as I have been involved in writing most of them). I have never head of the graduation scale terminology...--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:55, 30 May 2023 (UTC)
::::Quick serach came up with [https://grapherhelp.goldensoftware.com/Axes/Tick_Marks.htm this page] using tick marks as I have always done, first after the wiki article on check marks which I have never heard called tick marks before. I will correct back to tick marks --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:56, 30 May 2023 (UTC)
:::: Microsoft refers to them as Tick Marks - don't know whether or not that counts as supporting evidence.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 15:39, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

"User disambiguation pages" also exist. See http:/ /esolangs.org/wiki/User_talk:XKCD_Wrong_Times_Table and http://esolangs.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/XKCD_Wrong_Times_Table_(disambiguation) . [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.126|172.69.22.126]] 02:07, 30 May 2023 (UTC)
:Those pages are not on Explain xkcd, is this spam? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:55, 30 May 2023 (UTC)
::The first link looks like perhaps unintentional spam. I'm delinking it. In any case, the message is unclear. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.175|162.158.166.175]] 08:34, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

I think that an important addition to the possible "incident" would be one where a seagull named Meryl Streep caused or was the victim of it. I'll let you work out how to word it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.19.7|172.68.19.7]] 14:52, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2775: Siphon

2023-05-14T09:16:01Z

172.70.91.152: /* Title text */

My understanding was that siphoning can essentially be explained by the Bernoulli equation? There is a difference in potential energy between the upper and lower container so it flows. The weight of water in the downhill part of the tube pulls water up the uphill section of the tube (think like a vacuum), and so on until there's either no difference in head or no more water. Siphoning will work with any diameter tube. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 15:43, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:That's right. The only mention of capillary action in the siphon wikipedia article is when talking about phenomenon that *isn't* a siphon. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:15, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Agree, capillary action does not seem to be referenced or implied in the comic, presenting only the (not "functioning") siphon phenomenon. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.134.142|172.68.134.142]] 16:23, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:Seconded/thirded. Capillary action isn't even what they were expecting. The small amount of water in the lowe receptical indicates they correctly ''filled'' the tube, but then as the longer length drained it did not then induce further flow up and over through the shorter length. e.g. nature no longer abhored the resulting vacuum (or there was increased negative-pressure vapourisation, beyond that previously expected, or other method of seepage 'airlock'-breaking) and thus the short-end also drained straight back out again instead of becoming a potentially self-sustaining inflow to the whole siphoning setup.
::If the upper end got restricted (say by touching the side of the bucket) the loss of flow would allow air to enter the bottom end and drain out the tube. I've done this. :-( [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 19:07, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:::Indeed, even having an especially large diameter "tube" (/pipe etc) can allow air from the bottom to flow up to the peak & break the siphon effect. For reliable results, the lower end needs to be kept immersed or the hose needs to be relatively small in diameter. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:11, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
:While the capilliary action element ''could'' induce the start of a rather limited 'empty' siphon setup to start (maybe, I'd have doubts about the 'fluid friction' actually acting against the gravity-feed part, once the surface-tension bit has "climbed the mountain" and started to merely seep out of the other end, almost incidentally, for a sufficiently thin tubing where CA is a significant factor), this suddenly failing for whatever reason (surface-tension effects being nullified) wouldn't then send a token amount of water into the low bucket, nor particularly stop unrelated siphon-flow from continuing properly (in fact, suddenly 'interaction-free' liquid and tubing might siphon ''faster'', with effectively zero fluid boundary effects dragging on the induced flow).
:But perhaps someone with more QFD experience could explain where my assessment is wrong. So not going to personally rewrite the current Explanation intro just now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.161|172.70.162.161]] 16:21, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:I'd like to contribute as one more data point. I also don't see capillary action as being relevant. In particular, as another commenter said, the water in the lower bucket quite clearly supports the idea that the siphon effect was the subject of the characters' confusion. How else is Randall supposed to depict the siphon effect anyway? I agree that the drawing alone ''could'' also suggest capillary action is what's being investigated, but I don't think it suggests that the caption has ''incorrectly'' referred to it as the siphon effect. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.100|172.71.254.100]] 18:44, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Of course, if some physical law would actually stop working, people wouldn't be confused. They would drop dead. Due to physical laws working on level of elementary particles, every change would have lot of different effects ... and living organism live only thanks to being very carefully balanced in lot of regards. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 20:49, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Bug report 6EQUJ5: Odd signal emitted from Sagittarius constellation. Status: Closed - could not reproduce. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.69|172.71.26.69]] 03:20, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

Siphoning is NOT because of capillary action! That should be changed!! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.90|172.70.127.90]] 15:35, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

== Potential inspiration ==

One potential source of inspiration for this comic is the Twitter [https://twitter.com/earth_updates account @Earth_Updates], which produces a lot of similar content. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 19:54, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

I think if I added it to the article body it would get reverted, but the content seems very similar to how AI media produced delusional worlds for so many factions of people. It is not at all a big stretch to imagine people stepping into a metaverse or matrix where they aren’t sure what is real and physical laws match their intuition more than is actually correct. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.171|162.158.158.171]] 08:23, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

== Title text ==

Isn't the title text about stars like our sun rather than about plutonium? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.95|198.41.242.95]] 00:55, 13 May 2023 (UTC)h
:Seems to me unlikely that anyone would refer to stars as 'rocks'.[[User:Catherine|Catherine]] ([[User talk:Catherine|talk]]) 02:54, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
::There is Slate that turn into lava spontaneously after lying around for thousands of years. I think the area they are in is called "Smoking Hills". There was recent research why that slate does this while in much the rest of the world slate is just flat, black rocks. I still believe this title text is about plutonium, though, as that slate produces so much heat, that one still hasn't managed to measure how hot it gets - but it produces that heat not for an near-infinite duration.--[[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]]) 01:48, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
:::The only {{w|Smoking Hills}} that came to mind was natural shale-fires (chemical burning, and not hot enough for remelting to magma/lava.
:::Possibly there is a {{w|natural nuclear fission reactor|situation}} where it has done as you say (in some natural mass of rock, spotted somewhere in this planet's lithosphere, or elsewhere out there), but given the fine line between nicely sustaining and runaway chain-reactions, I'm not sure how easy it is for nature to 'engineer' a way to land on the {{w|Corium (nuclear reactor)|middle ground}} and not go supercritical.
:::In order for accumulating ores to not just start a low-level fizzle (as above), over millenia, you might need separate ore-patches either side of a fault to come together in a suddenish techtonic slip, rather than a slow buckling of layers to increase effective ore-densities. And then you've got earthquakes, already, so not sure if the very low-grade nuclear explosion that is awfully close to being possible in this chance contrived example (at one end of the probability curve, unless U238 content is somehow preferentially leached out?) is going to be noticable.
:::But ''just'' hot enough for lava? If not already close to melting, anyway, under local temperatures and pressures? Not sure we've seen anything like it, even if it is technically feasible given enough happenstance setups by geology(/exo-geology), since planets formed. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 09:16, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

== Title Text-Radiation ==

The title text is referring to the heat created by natural radioactive decay, not humans harnessing it in reactors.

The literal rocks of particularly radioactive elements still in the ground are constantly producing small amounts of heat without our assistance

[[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.48|172.71.151.48]] 06:27, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

User talk:Malgond

2023-05-12T10:20:25Z

172.70.91.152: /* Cosmetic suggestion */ new section

Hey, thanks for replying to my table project. I wanted to let you know that I replied to your comment:
>''[...] ... I think it shall be somehow reflected in the table. For example: one column for Message (a value always present), another for Item name (may be empty) and another for Effect (may be empty). Unfortunately, the spreadsheet does not contain the kind of visual representation (a dot, a star, a star with a dot inside, or none at all).''
Yeah I noticed that too, but tbh I don't think it's SO important that needs to be included in the table or even in the entire page. Also, it would be very time-consuming.
> ''the Explanation column is currently a short description (of a planet) and some of its features, the way to get there, only sometimes containing an explanation of what the planet name refers to. These should be separate.''
I don't think they should be separate, because it would mean that the table would get even bigger and navigating it would be harder. You're welcome to add any information in the explanation section, as I'm not editing its contents.
> ''explanation for the Message/Item of "11 squares packed into a larger square" shall have a reference to [[2740:_Square_Packing]] and a short description of the mathematical problem involved.''
I totally agree, and as I said in the initial message (above the table), I plan on adding item-specific explanations next to the item "names".
> ''I also think we may need separate tables for planets (with very general descriptions and directions), features on the planets, possibly one table per planet (containing architecture, vegetation, animals, people etc. - if worth noting or there's some pun or reference), items and messages to be collected by the player (maybe one per planet), and for words spoken by the people and messages written somewhere (again, only if they contain a pun or a reference).''
I'm sorry but the amount of effort I'm putting in this ''"simple"'' table is already IMMENSE. I hope you understand that this would probably require dozens of hours between exploration and formatting. I won't be doing that myself, that's for sure :)

By the way, do you know where to find the coordinates of each planet? Thanks, [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:58, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

== Cosmetic suggestion ==

All those <code><nowiki>[[wikipedia:Page_link|Link text]]</nowiki></code> examples, in your rapidly expanding table 'sandboxing', would fit better (from an editing POV) with the {{template|w}}-template we try to use universally for wiki links. Such as <code><nowiki>{{w|Page link|Link text}}</nowiki></code>. (Noting also that the underline/space issue is largely irrelevent in both, under most circumstances, with pipe-delimiting. It's only <code><nowiki>[url://server/various_folders/whatever_filename.html Full URLs space-delimitered from any Link Text]</nowiki></code> where such things as underlines (<code>&amp;</code> reserved-character escaping!) needs quite so much strict honouring at all.)
 Not worth revising all of what you're building up, but if you're making future changes (or ever decide to copy and paste it elsewhere), you might want to try transitioning some/all. Then check the Preview, to make sure you haven't mixed up <code><nowiki>[external_page blah text]</nowiki></code>, <code><nowiki>[[internalised page|blah text]]</nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki>{{w|Wiki Page Title#Optional section|blah text}}</nowiki></code> formats!
 There's also similarly templated {{template|wiktionary}} and {{template|tvtropes}}, amongst others, should you need them. Used right, they make the page source that little nicer to review and keep correct, I find. YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 10:20, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

1092: Michael Phelps

2023-05-09T10:41:00Z

172.70.91.152: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1092
| date = August 8, 2012
| title = Michael Phelps
| image = michael phelps.png
| titletext = [shortly] ...he ate ALL of it!?
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Michael Phelps}} is an American {{w|Olympics|Olympic}} swimmer, who could easily be considered the best swimmer worldwide: he is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, with 28 medals, 23 of them gold (won in the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 summer Olympics, so it would have been 18 Olympic gold medals at the time the comic was published). He was most dominant in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he won gold in all of the eight events in which he competed, the record for a single games.

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] find that the Olympic medalist is in Megan's pool. He refuses to leave, and is too fast to be caught. Cueball brings in boxes of {{w|Jello}} Mix to fill the pool with, thereby gelifying the pool and trapping Phelps or forcing him to leave.

However, according to the title text, after having waited the time necessary for the water to gelify, Cueball realizes that Phelps has eaten all of the resulting Jello. This may be a reference to Phelps being used to eating [https://web.archive.org/web/20101113024452/http://www.michaelphelps.net/michael-phelps-diet/ impressive food quantities (about 12,000 calories daily)], to keep up with his strenuous exercise regimen; or it may be a reference to pictures of Phelps smoking from a bong that arose after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, as Marijuana use is often associated with an increased appetite. Otherwise, the text may simply be a reference to Phelps being capable of achieving super-human feats, such as devouring an entire pool full of Jello.

Interestingly enough, just pouring Jello powder into a pool would not solidify the water into Jello. The water would have to be boiled, then quickly chilled, for the Jello to set correctly. As Randall is a scientist, he should have known this; therefore, it's possible that he purposefully ignored this fact in favor of the humor. Michael Phelps' top speed is also only around 2.3 m/s, which can easily be outrun by anyone on land.

This may also be a reference to [[Magnus]]

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball standing outside their en-Phelps-ified swimming pool.]
:Cueball: Why is Michael Phelps in your backyard pool?
:Megan: I don't know. He's been there all day. ''Go home, Michael!''
:Michael Phelps: Woo! 18 gold medals!

:[Megan and Cueball break out a pair of pool nets and unsuccessfully try to snag Phelps.]
:Cueball: Can you get him?
:Megan: He's so '''''fast'''''!
:Phelps: Ha hah! Can't catch me!
:''Splash splash''

:[Cueball heads off to fetch something.]

:[Cueball returns with a hand truck full of Jello mix.]
:Phelps: Oh crap.

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2466: In Your Classroom

2023-04-28T10:53:30Z

172.70.91.152:

{{comic
| number = 2466
| date = May 21, 2021
| title = In Your Classroom
| image = in_your_classroom.png
| titletext = Ontology is way off to the left and geography is way off to the right.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Randall]] has created a thought experiment and corresponding chart about school courses. The idea is, "the subject of the class appears in the classroom" and the chart compares how dangerous and how unusual that would be.

In the title text two points that are off the chart to the left and right are also mentioned. See details about all the subjects in the [[#Table of subjects|table]] below.

Note that Randall uses similar diagrams in each of [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]], [[1242: Scary Names]] and [[1501: Mysteries]], which also contain different items. They also have extra points mentioned in the title text. In the first two comics the points are also off the chart, whereas for the last the description of the point is too long to fit on the chart. Extra info outside the chart is also used in the title text of [[1785: Wifi]], but this is a line graph.

==Table of subjects==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Breakdown of Subjects
|-
!Course Topic
!Weirdness
!Badness
!Explanation
|-

!scope=row|Atmospheric Physics
|0%
|0%
|Absent very strange and unprecedented circumstances, every classroom on Earth has an atmosphere (although going by the exact wording of the starting hypothesis, "The thing you study just showed up in your classroom", the implication is that up until that point, the room in which the class is being held contained a vacuum, which in and of itself is interesting to physics students.)
|-

!scope=row|Ethics
|25%
|0%
|Ethical thinking and behavior are widely considered good and should normally be present in education, but are sadly not universal.
|-

!scope=row|Education
|0%
|10%
|Learning usually goes on in classrooms, so education as a concept is both being learned about and present in the form of learning itself.
|-

!scope=row|Bibliography
|25%
|7%
|Bibliography is the study of books, and books are normally present in classrooms, particularly bibliography classrooms. Although, more commonly speaking academically, a bibliography is a list of all sources used to compose a research paper, considered mandatory in all branches of academics but occasionally falsified or written in an incorrect style.
|-

!scope=row|Human Physiology
|0%
|20%
|This comic assumes that there are humans learning in the classroom, which was true at the time this comic was published, although in many places at the time the comic was published, many classrooms were closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
|-

!scope=row|Public Speaking
|25%
|15%
|Some classes require students to present things in front of the class, which is likely a requirement in a public speaking class. Thus, public speaking itself would be present in the class.
Some classes also have a teacher talking or presenting to the students from the front of the class, another form of public speaking.
|-

!scope=row|Architecture
|0%
|30%
|All buildings can be considered architecture, and most classes take place in buildings{{Citation needed}}. This comic also refers to a class''room'', which is a room, and therefore considered architecture.
|-

!scope=row|Library Science
|25%
|25%
|Library science is concerned with the organization of knowledge, and is useful for finding information. Many classes require [https://papersowl.com/pay-for-research-paper research papers] that require the use of books and other sources of information to complete them. This would be even more appropriate for a class actually taught in the school library.
|-

!scope=row|Furniture Design
|0%
|40%
|Most rooms have furniture,{{Citation needed}} so this would probably be present in a classroom. May also be implying the classroom furniture has not been assembled yet, making it not as good and a lesson in furniture design.
|-

!scope=row|Culinary Arts
|40%
|30%
|Most studies of culinary arts include the teacher and/or students preparing food using the tools and/or techniques that have been taught, so it would be fairly normal for food to be a result of classroom activities. How ''good'' it is, however, can be a mixed bag, especially for student cooking attempts{{Citation needed}}.
|-

!scope=row|Ergonomics
|5%
|45%
|Ergonomic equipment and workspaces promote comfort and efficiency, while non-ergonomic ones may be unpleasant, unhealthy, or even immediately dangerous.
|-

!scope=row|Botany
|40%
|40%
|The near-neutral position of botany (aka plant biology) suggests that the most likely reason for plants to be present would be something like a potted plant, which is not uncommon, and usually not unpleasant, but not very noteworthy. There are other potential reasons for plants to be present, but those are generally less likely.
|-

!scope=row|20th Century Authors
|65%
|10%
|Literature classes would benefit greatly from an open discussion or interview with the author themself. Sadly such things are rare, but not unheard of, putting it slightly on the "weird" side of the spectrum. Well-known authors of the 20th century have an increased likelihood of being dead by 2021{{Citation needed}}, but there are still some authors of the 20th century who were well-established enough to be studied and still alive at the time this comic was published.
|-

!scope=row|Exobiology
|100%
|0%
|Exobiology is the study of extraterrestrial life. This would mean that an alien lifeform was in the classroom. This is extremely weird{{Citation needed}} but very good for people to investigate and research the alien.
|-

!scope=row|21st Century Authors
|60%
|20%
|21st century authors have the advantage (over 19th and 20th century authors) of typically being alive and active at the time this comic was published. However, most authors who were primarily active in the 21st century are still developing their body of work, and/or still awaiting the judgment of history. The better availability of such authors, as compared to 20th century author probably explains the slightly lower "weirdness" score, while the limited body of truly prominent authors probably explains the lower "goodness" score.
|-

!scope=row|19th Century Authors
|100%
|15%
|No author who was active in the 19th century was alive at the writing of this comic,{{Citation needed}} hence, having one of them show up in class would be extremely weird. The opportunity to interact with such a person would be utterly unique, meaning that it scores pretty high on the "goodness" metric, though interestingly not as high as a 20th century author. Possibly, the potential "badness" of having a zombie or other reanimated being show up in your class is weighed against the advantage of having a historical figure there in person. It may also be that someone from the 19th century has an increased danger of having outdated ethics, which may result in discomfort on the part of the students.
|-

!scope=row|Paleontology
|100%
|25%
|Paleontology is the study of the history of life on Earth as based on fossils. In geology classes, it would be normal to have some fossils in the classroom. However, fossils are not usually found in other classrooms, and especially below the college level. Randall is also probably implying the weirdness of finding a live ''Jurassic Park''-style dinosaur.
|-

!scope=row|Robotics
|55%
|30%
|A course on robotics would often be expected to have some form of working models of the robots being discussed. However, for it to have "showed up" in your classroom could imply an actual functioning robot prototype walked into the classroom. While not cause for concern (as long as nobody in the class is named Sarah Connor), this would be a bit weird.
|-

!scope=row|Martian Soil Chemistry
|100%
|35%
|Martian soil only reaches Earth in small amounts, so it would be unusual to find a meaningful amount anywhere, except Mars{{Citation needed}}.
|-

!scope=row|Tourism
|75%
|40%
|Tourists coming into an active classroom would be quite unusual; while tourists sometimes visit university campuses, it would generally be rude for a tour guide to lead them into a classroom when class is in progress. This could also refer to the students leaving to become tourists in another location.
|-

!scope=row|Child Psychology
|60%
|45%
|Children are rarely students in classrooms advanced enough to teach child psychology{{Citation needed}}. In order for child psychology to be on display, presumably someone would have to have brought a child (either for a demonstration, or for some other reason), which is slightly weird, but not unheard of. This is considered slightly "good", presumably because it would give students some opportunity for firsthand observation, and because most people like, or at least tolerate, children{{Citation needed}}.
|-

!scope=row|Entomology
|15%
|55%
|Entomology is the study of insects. Insects getting into a classroom is a very common event, even putting aside the possibility of someone bringing insects specifically to study. Most insects that might get in are relatively benign, but some (such as mosquitoes) might sting or bite, and many people simply don't like insects, even when they're not harmful, pushing this slightly into "bad" territory.
|-

!scope=row|Occupational Therapy
|10%
|62%
|Injury, illness or mental health problem that hinder your participation in life/school. Many students who have significant physical injuries and conditions that require occupational therapy would generally not engage in those activities during a class, although volunteers may be brought in as a demonstration of a particular health problem or method of treatment.
|-

!scope=row|Hydraulic Engineering
|40%
|62%
|Likely in the form of flooding or plumbing problems.
|-

!scope=row|Pest Control
|25%
|70%
|This is not dissimilar to entomology, but pest control tends to involve larger infestations, as opposed to individual insects, and also includes non-insect animals, such as rats. Such events in classroom are not as common as individual insects getting in (especially in a well-maintained building), but are far from unheard of, and risk many negative effects, from bug bites to structural damage, and may require evacuation and fumigation to deal with.
|-

!scope=row|Foodborne Illness
|15%
|80%
|Sometimes students in a culinary arts class do not properly observe hygiene standards and the food they present would lead to illness in those that consume the food. Thankfully, this is rare if the teacher is paying enough attention to proceedings. Students could also be ill from food eaten outside of class.
|-

!scope=row|Criminal Law
|45%
|85%
|This might happen if a crime occurs in the class. While an armed robbery is unlikely{{Citation needed}}, incidents involving theft or drug use are not particularly uncommon. Regardless, such an incident would be very bad.
|-

!scope=row|Physiology of Stress
|0%
|90%
|Stress in a classroom, even stress that's bad enough to manifest itself in physical symptoms, is all too common. Stress that bad is very harmful, and a student realizing that they were manifesting the symptoms they're studying should take it as a warning sign.
|-

!scope=row|Oncology
|25%
|100%
|Oncology is the medical practice of treating cancer. For someone in a classroom full of students to have cancer is, unfortunately, not an uncommon event, putting it on the "normal" side of the scale. While not abnormal, it's clearly very bad.
|-

!scope=row|Ornithology
|60%
|55%
|Ornithology is the study of birds. A bird getting into a classroom would be somewhat strange, but there are circumstances under which it would happen. In most cases, that's not especially dangerous, but it would be disruptive, and introduce the possibility of the bird making a mess, and possibly getting hurt (or even hurting others), which makes it slightly bad.
|-

!scope=row|Animation
|100%
|56%
|Presumably Randall isn't referring to examples of animated works being displayed to the students in an animation class, as that would be normal. However, it would be very weird for animated characters to appear physically in the classroom instead of being projected on screens. Possibly a reference to movies such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' in which cartoon characters actively interact with the live action cast. As many of the characters abide by different physics, and a couple are depicted as insane, this would be very weird and potentially bad.
|-

!scope=row|Petroleum Geology
|65%
|60%
|Crude oil coming up through the floor of the classroom would be ''very'' weird. Any potential for hands-on learning experience would be limited, and quickly outweighed by classes being disrupted entirely (be it damage to the building, or oil companies trying to negotiate for the land).
|-

!scope=row|Highway Engineering
|75%
|65%
|A highway being built through an active classroom would be very unusual and not that safe{{Citation needed}}.
|-

!scope=row|Toxicology
|55%
|75%
|Most likely, a toxic substance is present in the room. This is not very weird if the room is in a building that has {{w|asbestos}}-containing insulation (typically associated with buildings constructed before the 1990s, although it has not been specifically outlawed in the United States due to industrial lobbying) or lead paint (which was fully outlawed in 1978, so any paint must have been applied prior to that date). However, toxic substances are unsafe for humans.{{Citation needed}}
|-

!scope=row|Hematology
|75%
|70%
|Hematology is the study of blood. Given that there should be blood in each of the students present,{{Citation needed}} we should probably assume Randall means "large quantities of blood outside of one's body", which would indeed be both bad and weird.
|-

!scope=row|Hostage Negotiation
|70%
|85%
|Reasons as to why there would be hostage negotiations taking place at a school have horrifying implications for the students and teacher. The 'weird'ness rating of this occurence would presumably change depending on location, school shootings and hostage situations being (unfortunately) much more 'normal'ised in the USA than any other country.
|-

!scope=row|History of Siege Warfare
|100%
|80%
|This would be an exceptionally strange event. Given that the topic is "history", having it show up implies that either historical figures have the classroom under siege (possibly through time travel or reanimation) or at least that the besiegers are using traditional weapons and methods in their attack. In either case, it would be a very weird event, and also very bad.
|-

!scope=row|Trauma Surgery
|55%
|95%
|An injury severe enough to require trauma surgery would be rare in a classroom, but there are circumstances under which it could realistically happen. Such an injury would be, by its very nature, a very bad thing.
|-

!scope=row|Volcanology
|75%
|95%
|Having a live volcano in one's classroom is both very dangerous and very weird {{Citation needed}}. Volcanoes mature over very long time frames, but even the earliest stages are highly disruptive and potentially deadly, as seen in the {{w|Parícutin#Formation|1943 eruption of Paricutín}} and the {{w|2018_lower_Puna_eruption#Eruption|2018 flank eruption of Kilauea}}. Note this also applies to [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar | baking soda and vinegar volcanoes that are offshoots of much larger vinegar hotspots]].
|-

!scope=row|Quasar Astronomy
|75%
|100%
|{{w|Quasars}} are distant{{Citation needed}} astronomical objects that release large amounts of energy. Not only would the power of a quasar destroy the classroom (as well as the rest of Earth), quasars are too large to fit inside any known classroom. For example, {{w|ULAS J1342+0928}} has a mass of 8*10^8 solar masses. This means the event horizon of the black hole is almost 16 AU in radius, and this size does not include the accretion disk.
|-

!scope=row|Ontology (title text)
|<0%
|?
|Ontology is the philosophical study of existence and being. Since there must be ''something'' learning in the classroom, it is unsurprising that ontology is a normal subject to appear in the classroom. It would, in fact, be more bizarre to have a lack of ontology in the classroom{{Citation needed}}.
|-

!scope=row|Geography (title text)
|>100%
|?
|Geographers study the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth. While each classroom classroom contains a small portion of the Earth's surface (normally not enough of it to be interesting to geographers), having the ''entire Earth'' appear inside a classroom would likely demand explanation{{Citation needed}}. In particular, if this is an ordinary classroom (i.e. located ''on'' the Earth), the planet's simultaneous appearance within its walls would both defy our current understanding of spacetime, and risk [[1515: Basketball Earth | disastrous consequences at the hands of curious students.]] This could also be implying the classroom is suddenly being located on top of a geographic border, which would be highly unlikely{{Citation needed}}, especially if it happened without warning.

|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption above scatter plot with labeled axes]
:Caption: The thing you study just showed up in your classroom! That's...
:Top: good
:Bottom: bad
:Left: normal
:Right: weird

Items are listed row by row, left to right, top to bottom.

:[First quadrant (good and weird)]
:20th century authors
:Exobiology
:21st century authors
:19th century authors
:Robotics
:Paleontology
:Martian soil chemistry
:Child psychology
:Tourism
:[Second quadrant (good and normal)]
:Atmospheric physics
:Ethics
:Education
:Bibliography
:Human physiology
:Public speaking
:Architecture
:Library science
:Furniture design
:Culinary arts
:Ergonomics
:Botany
:[Third quadrant (bad and normal)]
:Entomology
:Occupational therapy
:Hydraulic engineering
:Pest control
:Foodborne illness
:Criminal law
:Physiology of stress
:Oncology
:[Fourth quadrant (bad and weird)]
:Ornithology
:Animation
:Petroleum geology
:Highway engineering
:Toxicology
:Hematology
:Hostage negotiation
:History of siege warfare
:Trauma surgery
:Volcanology
:Quasar astronomy

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Scatter plots]]

2457: After the Pandemic

2023-04-28T10:33:07Z

172.70.91.152:

{{comic
| number = 2457
| date = April 30, 2021
| title = After the Pandemic
| image = after_the_pandemic.png
| titletext = I'm looking forward to having to worry a lot less about covid, but wouldn't mind if we worried a little more about giving each other colds. Colds are bad!
}}

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

There is no hidden humor in this comic{{Citation needed}}, it simply states an opinion. [[Randall]] is saying that he is looking forward to not having to wear a mask everywhere after the pandemic is over. Mask mandates were a common way various organizations reduced the spread of Covid-19. Now that the vaccines exist, people are assuming that these mask mandates will soon end, and in many jurisdictions they have already.

However, Randall hopes that people will continue to wear a mask when they are sick, as is common in many East Asian countries. This lets other people know the person may be sick, or trying to avoid becoming sick, so they can give the person extra distance. Wearing a mask reduces the spread of infectious droplets when one exhales or coughs, and reduces exposure to droplets from others. Both features help reduce the spread of communicable diseases. Also, Randall thinks other people coughing on him is gross, as do most people.

Masking when ill would help reduce influenza, [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110517162020.htm tuberculosis] and colds. The flu is a deadly disease that usually kills tens of thousands of people each year.

People with less common diseases, like tuberculosis, may be more likely to wear a mask if mask wearing becomes more common, so they don't feel as conspicuous. For less severe illnesses and less vulnerable populations xkcd's wish may not be such a good idea, as every cold - albeit unpleasant - constantly trains the immune system and keeps it alert.[https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/common-cold-infection-may-train-the-body-to-recognise-and-fight-coronavirus/articleshow/77366133.cms?from=mdr]

The title text continues this line of reasoning by saying Randall wants to worry less about COVID-19, but hopes people would worry more about colds. Colds are generally mild and might cause someone to spend a few days home sick from work or school. However, colds cost [https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20030224/cost-of-common-cold-40-billion tens of billions of dollars annually] in the US. Costs include the value of lost productivity at work or school, time spent caring for the sick, cost of doctor visits and medications. Inappropriate treatment of colds with antibiotics is common, and contributes to the rise of {{W|antimicrobial resistance|antibiotic resistant bacteria}}, and {{W|clostridium difficile infection|clostridium difficile infections}}.[https://www.cdc.gov/antibiotic-use/community/for-patients/common-illnesses/colds.html].

Randall has made a specific corona comic targeted at colds before: [[2306: Common Cold]]. And in 2015 he probably had a severe cold (or more than one) as he published these two comics [[1612: Colds]] and [[1618: Cold Medicine]] in December 2015.

==Transcript==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|Things I will not miss one bit after the Pandemic
|Things I hope stick around and become normalized
|-
|Wearing masks everywhere
|Wearing masks when you're feeling sick, because it's an easy way to tell people to give you space, and also getting coughed on is gross
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]

1687: World War III+

2023-04-27T22:35:47Z

172.70.91.152: Undo revision 311754 by 172.71.178.137 (talk) Really? Do you mean a *real* Citation Needed?

{{comic
| number = 1687
| date = May 30, 2016
| title = World War III+
| image = world_war_iii.png
| titletext = I hate how the media only ever uses the first part of this quote, stripping it of its important context.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic takes a famous quote {{w|wikiquote:World War III |attributed}} to {{w|Albert Einstein}}, and expands upon it to absurd levels. The original quote is: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." The basic premise of this quote is that World War III would be so devastating to the world that all humanity's progress would be wiped out and we would return to the technological level of the Stone Age.

The original quote is meant to be taken with a poetic license, with "sticks and stones" taken as a metaphor. Any literal interpretation reveals the quote to be faulty - a world war implies battles occurring through the world, on multiple continents, as part of a single war. Such a war can only occur in the presence of advanced communication networks, and advanced political/diplomatic structures; both of which would also imply weaponry far more sophisticated than sticks and stones. This comic pokes further fun at the literal interpretation of the quote, by appending to it other "literal statements" of a similarly ridiculous nature.

This comic expands the original quote letting Einstein suggest what other weapons future World Wars will be fought with:
*V: {{w|Crossbow}}s. Crossbows are type of bow that is easier to use than a regular longbow, but is much more difficult to load. Most often used in medieval era.
** When loaded with metal tip darts and cocked with a winch crossbows have a potentially higher penetrating power than a regular longbow. Fired from short range, these darts could pierce a knight's armor.
** It's also notable that the crossbow was the only weapon to be banned by the Vatican, due to the comparative lack of skill required to operate.
*VI: {{w|Laser}}s. In science fiction, blasts of lasers are often used instead of conventional guns. This suggests that society would have managed to rebuild lasers by World War VI.
*VII: {{w|Blowgun}}s. A blowgun is a small tube loaded with a small dart or other projectile, fired by blowing into one end. Once again, the world has been devastated, and returned to a simpler technology.
*VIII-XI: Skipped over.
*XII: The same weapons as III, but in underground tunnels. This is a parody of saying that X is basically Y 'but in space/underwater/etc', and, if the quote's well-known meaning is accepted, this has terrifying implications for the state of the world. It could also be a reference to HG Wells's {{w|The Time Machine}} where the {{w|Morlock}}s are the master race of the future living in underground caves. Also the fact that he did not know which weapons were used in III makes it weird that he knows the same weapons will be used again later. He may be referencing the famous quote by {{w|wikiquote:George_Santayana|George Santayana}}: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." In which case, he is implying that by this time III is forgotten.
*XIII is completely unmentioned. This could be an error, but it makes some sense, considering that 13 is a number considered unlucky in many Western cultures and is sometimes skipped. For example, many tall buildings don't have a floor numbered 13, skipping straight from 12 to 14.
*Before Einstein can discuss World War XIV, the audience of his quote seems to be going away. Einstein claims to have 'a whole list', suggesting that he may know a lot about the future wars to come more so than he has already suggested.

In the title text [[Randall]] feigns annoyance about how the media only use the first part of the quote, thus taking it out of context. He implies that this is actually a full quote by Einstein and that all other occurrences using only the "original" version of this quote are misrepresenting it. In this particular case it is a much stronger quote than the long version from the comic, but it is often the case that quotes taken out of context seem to have an entirely different meaning than originally intended.

Incidentally, if you investigate the original context of the actual quotation, it turns out that Einstein may not have even said it in this exact form, and may in any case have got the idea from someone else. See the dicussion at {{w|wikiquote:World War III|Wikiquote}}.

==Transcript==
:[A quote with white text on black background:]
:{| class="wikitable"
|style="background-color:black;"|"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. World War V will be fought with crossbows, World War VI will be lasers, and World War VII will be blowguns. I don't know about World Wars VIII through XI. World War XII will use the same weapons as III, but will be fought entirely within underground tunnels. World War XIV will—Hey, come back! I have a whole list!"                   —''Albert Einstein''
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

84: National Language

2023-04-27T09:14:47Z

172.70.91.152: Not banned. (But Oxford Commas should be!)

{{comic
| number = 84
| date = April 3, 2006
| title = National Language
| image = national_language.jpg
| titletext = She's pretty sharp when provoked.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about the concept of {{w|Nativism (politics)|nativism}}, which is the view that those who are native to a place should have more rights than immigrants. A frequently expressed view in the U.S. (and in other countries) is that immigrants should learn English, which is the primary language in the United States.

In the comic, one character is arrogantly arguing the nativist position. However, the woman next to him interrupts him and says a phrase in the {{w|Cherokee}} language - "Hello, my name is Sarah" - which is an Iroquoian language used by the Cherokee {{w|Native Americans in the United States|Native American}} people. Although Cherokee seems to be a relatively {{w|Cherokee#Origins|young culture}}, it is much more native to America than any European culture, such as English.

The woman is therefore effectively suggesting a "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" argument, that if the Europeans did not have to learn the native language, why should current immigrants learn English? She points out that even the English speakers are immigrants who did not learn the native language. Alternatively, she is saying that the term "national language" has no clear meaning, especially in the United States, where there is no official language; therefore, the "language they speak there" can be any of the languages spoken in the country: e.g. English, Spanish, German, Cantonese or Cherokee, to name just a few.

The title text reveals that Ponytail (identified as Sarah in the comic) is in fact Randall's friend; in the comic it is unclear who his friend is.

==Transcript==
:[Caption on top:]
:This happened to my friend:

:[Three men and two women are standing in a row, next to a table on the right.]
:Cueball: English should be the national language. These immigrants should have to learn English when they come here.
:Megan: Yeah.

:Cueball: When you go to live somewhere, you learn the language they speak there.
:Cueball: English is the language of the land.

:Ponytail: Excuse me, but osio Sarah dawado.

:Cueball: What the hell was that?
:Ponytail: Cherokee.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

Talk:2763: Linguistics Gossip

2023-04-14T14:32:18Z

172.70.91.152:

Added initial explanation [[User:Bamboo|Bamboo]] ([[User talk:Bamboo|talk]]) 14:08, 14 April 2023 (UTC)Bamboo

Added possible explanation of title text [[User:Bamboo|Bamboo]] ([[User talk:Bamboo|talk]]) 14:14, 14 April 2023 (UTC)Bamboo

Has anyone asked O what they think of all this?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 14:32, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2761: 1-to-1 Scale

2023-04-12T18:58:52Z

172.70.91.152:

Really want an explanation for this one. [[User:JobbieJimmies|Melomaniac]] ([[User talk:JobbieJimmies|talk]]) 03:23, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

My comment got deleted by a bot!!! [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:23, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:RIP... [[User:JobbieJimmies|Melomaniac]] ([[User talk:JobbieJimmies|talk]]) 03:25, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, UC, it just got overwritten by the 'bot, when it did its job and (re)created the whole initial state of the various pages to depict the new comic coming out. (Noting that you'd not set them all up fully/correctly.)
:That you had spotted it already and had ''just'' gotten in ahead of the 'bot clearly isn't something it was prepared to handle. But as someone spotting it can usually wait a short while for the 'bot to catch up, I don't think it's a problem. In fact, you could have just copied your old contributions into the now receptive page(s), with nary any comment. Too late now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 03:44, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:: This may have broken the next link on the previous page. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.36|172.71.160.36]] 06:41, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The lines represent the surfaces of the planets I think, so it's basically all the planets overlaid on top of each other. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.35|172.71.142.35]] 03:28, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:Yup, I think it's what he meant - but I find it unlikely that the gas giants would have this clear cutoff of a "surface". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.189.241|162.158.189.241]] 03:34, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::If there is a gas - liquid phase transition (and I think at least the gas giants have them): Why not? OK, you could see "rain" as blurring a clear cutoff, but wouldn't that also apply to Earth, then?[[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 08:04, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

I’d think the same citation as stands for ridiculously large would also cover larger than currently exists on earth, and his that citation is not in fact needed? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.186|162.158.174.186]] 06:53, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:It seems like the gas-covered worlds are explicitly those with clearly cutoff "surfaces," so maybe in those cases the cutoff is some specific gas density -- which occurs at a consistent radius throughout the planet, thus creating a flat surface. While for rocky worlds (except Venus, which is treated like a gas planet here), a density cutoff can lead to bumpiness due to terrain. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:57, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:: just to be very clear (this being a explanation site!) that Venus is "treated like a gas giant" because of it's thick atmosphere. It would be just as correct to say "All the gas giants are treated like Venus" After all, ordinary telescopes couldn't take a picture that sees through any atmospheres, except Earth, where you'd see clouds but often surface where clouds don't appear. Sorry if that's an overexplanation [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 19:10, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

On Twitter there seems to be concern that all planets are depicted flat. This may make this a contribution/mockery of the ongoing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth Flat Earth] discussions in some corners of the internet. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.132|198.41.242.132]] 06:49, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:You can't see the curvature of the Earth when standing on it; doesn't mean it's flat. Since we're looking at the planets at a 1:1 scale, we're literally only seeing a couple of inches of each of their edges (notwithstanding the whole gas-giants-don't-have-a-sharp-edge issue). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.20|162.158.239.20]] 12:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:actually you can see it, standing on the shore of any large lake on a calm day looking at a shore that's ~6.5 miles (10.5km) away. You'll lose ~8ft (2.5m) below the horizon - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.213|162.158.186.213]] 13:55, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The display for an uncropped version of the image would not only be larger than any display on earth. It would be larger than earth. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.243|162.158.86.243]] 06:59, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:By necessity, at least as large as Jupiter. Maybe slightly above two Jupiters (max dimension squared compared to display height*width of any common aspect ratio) if you wanted to not overlay any of the others at all. And make the lower limit a packing-problem, then add a buffer so there isn't the actual need for any to touch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.253|172.70.90.253]] 10:02, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::I'm going to add that. Someone was confused enough to put {{cite needed}} there, which may be a joke onto itself?, I can't tell. I've removed the cite needed, but I guess it needs to be more clear why it's totally nonsensical and doesn't need a citation? [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 19:16, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:::The four inner planets are small enough to fit the upper left corner of any display big enough for Jupiter. As Uranus and Neptune are smaller than the latter one, they cannot extend past its top, bottom or right edge in the constellation shown, so they will not need additonal screen space either. Only Saturn is shifted so far to the left that he will require more width than Jupiter itself, but will still fit within the same height. Knowing Randall, the shown angles are not random, but were calculated to match a commercial available display ratio with Saturn placed touching the left edge and Jupiter touching the top, bottom and right edges. 16:9 or 16:10 at 142 km hight would be a fair guess, so I would not rule out 4:3 resulting in total width significantly smaller than two Jupiters. Of course Randall might also be playing hardcore nerd: The outer diameter of Saturns F ring, which is almost always included in representations, has almost exactly a ratio of 32:9 to Jupiters polar diameter, making a picture showing the former in front of the latter a perfect match for those new fancy double wide monitors. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.77|162.158.111.77]] 00:22, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

1-to-1 scale means 'assume all planets are the same size,' right? I see Earth's grass is shown to be as large as Martian rocks, because Earth is a third again as large. (At the scale where grass is visible, Earth looks flat.) At first I thought the point was that altitude variation in cloud-tops varied so little that a gas giant shrunk down to Earth size would be featureless and have a distinct edge, but that's wrong. Ground isn't cloud-tops. Do gas giants have any solid ground? We've seen Jupiter eat comets, and it makes sense they would've collected at least some minerals and metals. According to [[https://www.teachastronomy.com/textbook/The-Giant-Planets-and-Their-Moons/Internal-Structure-of-the-Gas-Giant-Planets/|Teach Astronomy]], gas giants have Earth-sized solid cores. I'm guessing gas giants' immense gravity compresses their cores into featureless spheres, which, if scaled to Earth-size and viewed at the scale where one could see grass, would look flat. Yes?
[[User:EllenNB|EllenNB]] ([[User talk:EllenNB|talk]]) 10:14, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:Gravity itself won't compress (and 'flatten') the cores. "Shell theory" shows that gravitational force only counts from the proportion of the body that is within the radius of the bit you're concerned with. But there'll also be the external pressure (from being at the bottom of a thick atmosphere that ultimately ''is'' above far more of the planetary mass) and possibly a degree of compression density to make any Earth-sized core slightly heavier than if it was just a bare core of the same size but shorn of outer layers.
:As to flatness, I can take you to very flat stretches of Earth and very lumpy bits (depends which direction I go, from where I am now), all within 30 minutes' drive. We can'teven know how representative a sample of planetary cross-sections we are seeing (once we get over the issues of gas/space boundaries for gas-giants), but I bet there are bits that resemble the diagram... If you ''really'' want it to be so real. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 11:05, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, 1-to-1 means that they are actual size, not the same size. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 13:37, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

There are several pieces of information here that are featured but don't make sense to me. What's the function of the dark polygon in the center? Why are the lines showing each surface going in random directions? Why is the surface of each planet so flat at a full scale rendition? When I look out my window at full sized Earth, it's not flat. It's quite bumpy, actually. But perhaps he doesn't mean these are full size, he might be saying that they're all shrunk, but the same amount, so 1:1:1:1:1... but even then, I'm totally lost.

"What's the function of the dark polygon in the center?"
I think it is a view of the dark sky, "above" the surface of the Earth, Mars, etc. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 11:43, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:I think the "polygon" is a grassy Earth itself, with the white above it sky. Earth is the rearmost planet pictured. Then in front of Earth, on all sides except the top, are the overlays of the various planets, what little of each one as can fit. But then maybe the polygon is night starry sky, and Earth is the white area above it. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::No, the polygon is the sky. Zoom in and you see the Milky Way and stars and other space stuff. And the ant on the Earth has its legs pointing upwards (in the reference frame of the image). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.26|162.158.239.26]] 03:09, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Agreed. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 13:43, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

Is this an ant on earth, over the letters "EA" ? On my monitor, set for my less-than-perfect vision, it is 15mm long, which (at a 1:1 scale) makes it a cow ant, or a large african ant. I guess people with normal vision get fire and carpenter ants instead? And those on smartphones get pavement ants?[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.73|172.68.50.73]] 11:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:I do believe it is! It's 6 mm on my desktop monitor and 3 mm on my phone. We also don't know what side of the Earth we're looking at, so I suppose it could really be any ant, including the one in your local area. I like to think it's a black garden ant (''Lasius niger''), since I'm most familiar with those :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.25|162.158.239.25]] 12:16, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

It took me a good while to figure out this one; I don't normally need to come here, but this one stumped me at first. (The comments as of right now weren't too illuminating either.) I think the lack of color was an issue; I first thought the black polygon in the center was the earth, and then interpreted the various lines as a really weird diagram type I'd never seen before, like a phase diagram or something; I also considered one-dimensional planets. [https://imgur.com/a/yJOYvk1 I colored in the planets to aid me.] The way I now interpret this one is thus: imagine an observer sitting a tremendous distance away from the solar system, and they have a camera with an extremely supremely highly zooming telephoto lens. Then a lining-up of all eight planets happens – I believe this is impossible IRL (because of resonances or something), but just go with it. The observer manages to snap this incredible image of a teeny tiny spot of the sky, which simultaneously manages to include the very very edges of all the planets as well as some of the sky behind them all. The sky is the black polygon: it has nebulae and stars. Neptune is in front of Uranus, and that as well as Mercury are in front of Saturn, which is in front of both Jupiter and Mars; Venus is between Mercury, Mars and the Earth, and the Earth is also behind Jupiter. The reason why these are all so smooth is because it's such a small area: we're literally only seeing a couple of square inches of the surface of each of the rocky planets. (See, you can see an individual ant on the Earth. Go to the most rugged mountain range you can find and observe a couple of square inches; it'll be locally flat.) The lack of atmospheres on the rocky planets as well as the hard edges of the gas giants are artistic license. This one is a member of the genre of "true yet unhelpful diagrams"; I'm surprised that isn't a category on this wiki. – [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.4|162.158.238.4]] 12:58, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

((Written whilst 162.158.238.4 was editing, above, and I got an edit conflict on that. The editor concerned touches on this ordering business, but I'm pasting my original in unaltered, not rejigged as a more focused reply.)) I was wondering abut the "overlap order" for a while, until I twigged it. May not be worth officially documenting, but my analysis, showing that (perhaps depending upon specific orbital positions, during a given range of times, which can of course be checked) it's ''probably'' based upon distance away from Earth.
*Earth is bottom-most. Could be 1st/2nd, shared with Mars, as their overlap isn't shown.
*Mars is our nearest neighbour. (As above, could be 1st ''or'' 2nd on stack.)
*Venus next. Although it could be 7th (only obscured by Mercury) or anywhere else down to 3rd.
*Jupiter as 4th from bottom. (''Could'' be 3rd..5th, though.)
*Saturn takes 5th-up position. (4th..6th)
*Mercury as 6th. (Or all the way to topmost, but I made an assumption about its relationship to the last two.)
*Uranus as 7th. (6th/7th a possibility, depends on Mercury)
*Neptune as 8th. (7th/8th possible, Mercury again.)
...or at least that's what my mental notes tell me. Not helped by starting off counting from near to far and possibly messing up my numbers when I realised it made sense to flip them. It could also be "delta-V needed to reach the planet concerned" (either without or ''including'' flyby slingshot momentum borrowing/burning), but that's something I'd also need to check. I doubt it really needs tying down/Explaining, and when I edited the Transcript I decided not to record every nuance of the "variously orientated surfaces", as I think it adds nothing so long as the description gives the general idea. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.121|141.101.98.121]] 13:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

So no one is going to mention that for the clarity depicted you'd need to literally place the planets inside of each other, or have some sort of focal length from zero to infinity? I'm not sure if that bothers me more or less than the missed trick of making the length of ground shown relate to some comparative parameter (albedo might have been a fun one) - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.213|162.158.186.213]] 13:55, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:To be fair, you're also going to have to choose a "flat" few inches of surface that stands proud of the local geography (such that anything higher is below the curvature of the Earth for its proximity), and deal with an impossible resolution of an impossibly zoomed telephoto shot from a viewpoint unimaginably distant (''whilst'' a near-enough non-Solar conjunction/asterism is happening, or at least was, when the light passed each body), without significant atmospheric distortion (which is a relatively minor issue, compared with the scarcity of photons that reach the camera ''anyway'').
:Can we perhaps instead assume that these are just individual 1:1-scale cross-sectional diagrams (or even carefully curated local photos) drawn together into a hybrid image to accurately retain the scaling verisimilitude, and individual contexts, but happily faking the relative positions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.56|172.70.85.56]] 15:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

It would take some work to check, but I'm wondering if the angle of the horizons of the various planets are perpendicular to the line made between the earth and the planet in question [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.141|162.158.154.141]] 15:36, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

This is how I interpret this image: [https://imgur.com/a/WwdbXkN I didn't want to make the black dot as small as in the picture so dimensions are insanely larger] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.80|172.69.194.80]] 20:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
: that is a very clarifying picture, thank you! Shall we include it on the explanation page? It belongs there IMO [[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]] ([[User talk:Flekkie|talk]]) 22:19, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:: You may by me. The original picture is from NASA https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/686/solar-system-sizes/ and they have no restrictive copyright either. I view this picture as 2D planets stacked and not real planets viewed in space since this is clearly impossible orientation and you couldn't see half the planets, let alone ant on Earth's surface, from behind Neptunes orbit [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.26|162.158.239.26]] 10:43, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
: Is this right though? Based off the image Mercury is in front of Saturn. For this to happen, Mercury has to be closer distance wise, so Saturn has to be on the opposite side of the sun. But that can't be true if Saturn is in front of Jupiter and behind Uranus/Neptune?

I don't like the current explanation, since the planets never line up like this. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.40|162.158.203.40]] 07:11, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

This is truly one of the comics of all time. AzureArmageddon 08:48, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

We have a 1::1 bird book, where each page has a photo of the bird (or a portion of the bird, in case of flamingos) at 1::1 scale. This comic is a play on those books. -- Bob Jenkins [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.174|172.71.150.174]] 15:25, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
:Regarding the flamingo, and anything else bigger than the book, what a waste of an opportunity for a fold-out section..! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 18:58, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

2754: Relative Terms

2023-03-31T09:59:22Z

172.70.91.152: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2754
| date = March 24, 2023
| title = Relative Terms
| image = relative_terms_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x442px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Small sewing machines are sewing machines that are smaller than a sewing machine. A sewing machine is larger than a small sewing machine, but quieter than a loud sewing machine.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT IS LARGER THAN A BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The terms "small" and "big" are used to refer to size; the terms "loud" and "quiet" are used to refer to (audial) volume.

While these terms are relative, they are often used even when there is nothing obvious being compared against (e.g. "A windmill is a big thing" or "An ant is a small thing"). This comic humorously suggests that the item defined to be in the middle of all four terms ("neither small nor big; neither quiet nor loud") is a sewing machine, as a sewing machine seems (at least in comparison to the other items on the graph) to be neither particularly big nor particularly small, neither particularly quiet nor particularly loud.

An alternative argument may be that the in the center would be the average adult human (as this is the perspective from which most people use language), though this observation would lose some of the comic's comedic value.

The center of the chart is a sewing machine, and the comic is claiming that the scales of "loud and quiet" and "big and small" are measured in comparison to a standard size sewing machine. A standard sewing machine is roughly 60dB in volume and approximately 42” X 21”, although this is for industrial machines, and those in the home would be both smaller and quieter.

Many of the items appear to have been placed in the wrong quadrant for their actual attributes; locations seem to reflect more how people generally think of these things, as opposed to their real-life relationship to a sewing machine.

The title text is humorously tautological because it compares the standard against those things that are themselves defined against the standard.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and quiet (upper left)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Ant || Randall has used ants as a small comparator in [[2733:_Size_Comparisons|a previous comic]] on the topic of comparisons.
|-
| Balloon || A party balloon is quite loud when it pops, or if someone 'squeaks' it by rubbing; a hot-air balloon is big enough to carry a few humans, and the burner can be surprisingly loud.
|-
| Book || Books are typically sized to be handheld, and thus smaller than a sewing machine, though some very large books do exist.[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/longest-book-in-the-world-impossible-to-read-180980814/#:~:text=At%2021%2C450%20Pages%2C%20the%20Longest,World%20Is%20Impossible%20to%20Read&text=Artist%20Ilan%20Manouach%20bound%20together,the%20commodification%20of%20comic%20books.] Similarly, books are associated with quiet activity, making no more sound than a quiet turning of a page in typical use, but could make a very loud bang if slammed shut on thrown forcefully on to a hard surface.
|-
| Bun (rabbit or pastry) || "Bun" is an informal term for a rabbit and a loaf of bread, this comparison was made in [[1871: Bun Alert]]
|-
| Butterfly || Butterflies are used as an exemplar of something small, unnoticeable and seemingly insignificant in the metaphor of the Butterfly Effect.
|-
| Hat ||
|-
| Mouse || A mouse is a very small, quiet animal. This might also be a reference to the expression "quiet as a mouse", meaning very quietly.
|-
| Newt ||
|-
| Pin drop || The expression "hear a pin drop" is used to indicate that an area is exceptionally quiet; the idea is that the space is so silent that even something as insubstantial and tiny as a pin can be heard hitting the ground.
|-
| Snow globe || A {{w|snow globe}} is much smaller than a sewing machine. Some snow globes have a small music box that can be wound up to play a melody. Snow globes without a music box are silent.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and loud (upper right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Baby || Babies are usually considered small, and can be quite loud when they cry.
|-
| Blender || Blenders make a lot of noise when in use. Most household blenders are smaller than a sewing machine.
|-
| Cricket || Given that it is in the small/loud quadrant, this would refer to the insect, which is pretty small and can be quite loud; the sport of cricket or a cricket game would be much larger (though potentially much louder).
|-
| Fire alarm || The primary purpose of a fire alarm is to notify people of fire, so fire alarms are usually very loud, but ideally take up little space.
|-
| Firecracker || A {{w|Firecracker}} is a small explosive firework that makes a very loud bang when lit.
|-
| Flute || An example of a small musical instrument that can nevertheless be audibly quite dominant.
|-
| Harmonica || See Flute.
|-
| Popcorn || A snack that is known for being annoyingly loud in a cinema setting. However, this is largely due to the otherwise low volume environment, and arguably a sewing machine might be equally or more annoying. Also, some helpings of popcorn in some cinemas may actually be larger than a sewing machine.
|-
| Songbird ||
|-
| Whistle || This is of course the device known as a whistle, as it is small. The act by humans to whistle has no size (other than that of the whistler). A whistle is used as an alert or signal, or could be another musical instrument. The loudest human whistle ever recorded was 8372 Hz and roughly 110 DB, which is a C9 in the standard musical scale and is roughly as loud as a jackhammer[https://www.vnews.com/West-Lebanon-man-sets-a-world-record-for-whistling-24480844#:~:text=Guinness'%20website%20says%20Stanford%20reached,in%20the%20standard%20musical%20notation.]. Since a whistle should be able to beat this it must be seen as loud.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and quiet (lower left)
|-
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Anaconda ||
|-
| Giraffe || Giraffes can be quite loud, but they usually vocalise using frequencies well below the range of human hearing. So, to a human, giraffes are quiet.
|-
| Northern lights || "In 2016, a Finnish study confirmed that the Aurora Borealis does produce a sound that can be heard" [https://www.techexplorist.com/listen-sound-aurora-borealis/47421/]
|-
| Shark ||
|-
| Statue || Most statues are larger than a sewing machine. Most statues are silent, but some have fountains or other devices that make sound.
|-
| The Moon || Lower left corner; the Moon is very, very big{{fact}}, but it is also completely silent{{fact}} as sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space.
|-
| Tree ||
|-
| Windmill ||
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and loud (lower right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Airplane ||
|-
| Cannon ||
|-
| Riding mower ||
|-
| [[wikipedia:Calliope_(music)|Steam calliope]] || A large musical device which functions by sending steam (or more recently compressed air) through attached whistles.
|-
| Train ||
|-
| Tuba ||
|-
| Volcano || Lower right corner. Volcanic eruptions can be extremely loud. The {{w|1883 eruption of Krakatoa}} made a pressure wave of 180 dB, the loudest sound ever recorded.
|-
| Waterfall ||
|-
| Whale ||
|}

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

:[A chart, with "Quiet" to "Loud" on the X-axis, and "Small" to "Big" on the Y-axis. It is split into four quarters, with "Sewing machine" in the center.]

:[Upper left quadrant (Small & Quiet items):] Butterfly, Pin drop, Mouse, Ant, Bun (rabbit or pastry), Snow globe, Newt, Balloon, Book, Hat

:[Upper right quadrant (Small & Loud items):] Popcorn, Cricket, Songbird, Whistle, Baby, Harmonica, Flute, Fire alarm, Blender, Firecracker

:[Lower left quadrant (Big & Quiet items):] Shark, Tree, Anaconda, Giraffe, Statue, Windmill, Northern lights, The Moon

:[Lower right quadrant (Big & Loud items):] Tuba, Riding mower, Cannon, Airplane, Train, Waterfall, Steam calliope, Whale, Volcano

:[Caption below the panel:]
:''Big'', ''Small'', ''Loud'', and ''Quiet'' are relative terms. The thing they're relative to is a sewing machine.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Food]]

2169: Predictive Models

2023-03-25T01:15:15Z

172.70.91.152: /* Explanation */ Rephrased to better allow that you still can do, when you intend to.

{{comic
| number = 2169
| date = June 28, 2019
| title = Predictive Models
| image = predictive_models.png
| titletext = WE WILL ARREST THE REVOLUTION MEMBERS [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab] "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown."
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Predictive text}} is a feature on many systems where as you type the system automatically suggests likely words or phrases to follow what you have written to that point. For instance, if you type "I'm heading" the system may suggest "home" or "back" as likely words to follow. Predictive systems usually use prior input to generate their predictions, so if you frequently type "Totally amazing!" the system will suggest "amazing!" every time you type "totally" even if you actually go on to type "totally true" sometimes.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] is using predictive text to uncover a plot against his organization/government, but instead of using only his personal input, the system is using input from ''all'' users. By typing in an obscure phrase related to revolution and a meeting, he gets the predictive text algorithm to display where and when the next supposedly secret meeting will be held based on other users input. This works because it is unlikely that anyone else other than revolutionaries would be typing this phrase, thus the only data the algorithm has to predict from is the actual message from the revolutionaries on their next meeting. The caption of the comic is pointing out that systems which use prior input for predictive purposes in this way can end up leaking information that might otherwise be considered private. (However, this method may produce outdated information. On June 29, 2019, typing in Google "Long live the revolution. Our next meeting will be at" gave the predicted completion "long live the revolution. our next meeting will be at comic con 2018", which would not be useful information to anyone looking for revolutionaries, because Comic-Con 2018 was already over.)

The title text shows the revolutionaries using the same technique. By typing in "We will arrest the revolution members" they are hoping that the algorithm will suggest the time and date of their planned arrest, since no one other than the authorities would be typing in that phrase. Pressing the key [tab] to autocomplete that text produces "WE WILL ARREST THE REVOLUTION MEMBERS [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING]", and the revolutionaries then say "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown." The revolutionaries have apparently made the serious mistake of holding secret meetings on regular, predictable dates (such as the 28th day of each month, the last date guaranteed to exist in any month of the Gregorian Calendar), and the authorities have successfully figured this out, either through the predictive-text attack or by other means.

Both examples assume that the revolutionaries and the authorities would be talking about very secret information in the clear on a network accessible to their adversaries. In the real world people engaged in sensitive activities would communicate via code, encryption, or both, or would do so through what they believe to be secure channels. There is still the danger of secret information leaking via non-secret channels, however.

{{w|Side-channel attack|Side-channel attacks}} use information gained from the implementation of a system to deduce supposedly protected information. A famous example occurred in World War II. The Germans kept tank production figures a secret, but they gave items like engine blocks sequential serial numbers. The Allies wanted to know exact tank production figures, so they solved the {{w|German tank problem}} by using statistical methods to analyze the distribution of these numbers on captured vehicles. They were able to predict tank production figures extremely accurately, to the point they predicted 270 tanks in a month when 276 were actually built. Thus the secret information on tank production leaked.

Some systems require frequent password change, in an effort to limit danger from a password being discovered. However, people respond by choosing passwords in patterns, so it is easy to predict what subsequent passwords will be, given old ones, thus defeating the purpose of requiring frequent changes.[https://www.troyhunt.com/passwords-evolved-authentication-guidance-for-the-modern-era/ Passwords Evolved: Authentication Guidance for the Modern Era]

Although the comic title is "Predictive Models", the term {{w|Predictive modelling}} usually refers to computer programs that try to predict outcomes from data aggregation, such as reviewing health records to identify people most at risk from certain diseases based on weight, prior injuries, etc., before testing directly for the diseases themselves. This is similar to but not precisely like the example in the comic, since predictive text is using direct input to predict further input, while predictive modelling is using related input (such as make and model of a car along with driver acceleration patterns) to predict a different output (such as likelihood of a crash). Both predictive text and predictive modelling could leak information as the comic suggests, however.

Predictive text and the possibility to leak unintended information has been parodied on xkcd before in [[1068: Swiftkey]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in an office chair at a desk typing on a laptop. Above him is the text he writes along with what the predictive text tool suggests, the latter in grey text. The TAB at the end is in a small frame.]
:Cueball typing: Long live the revolution. Our next meeting will be at| the docks at midnight on June 28 [tab]
:Cueball: ''Aha, found them!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:When you train predictive models on input from your users, it can leak information in unexpected ways.

==Trivia==
*On its original release, the alt text was bugged. The full text would not display in certain browsers, and clicking the comic takes you to this page: [https://xkcd.com/%5BAT%2520THE%2520JULY%252028TH%2520MEETING%5D%5Btab%5D <nowiki>https://xkcd.com/[AT%20THE%20JULY%2028TH%20MEETING][tab]</nowiki>], which only shows "404 Not Found".
**The anchor actually contains invalid HTML <nowiki><a href=" [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab] "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown.""></nowiki>. This would suggest that [[Randall]] didn't intend this behaviour.
**The image and alt text were later corrected, long before July 28th, 2019, further implying it was a simple mistake on Randall's part.
*Some browsers, only show the first part of the title text "WE WILL ARREST THE REVOLUTION MEMBERS." For example Firefox version 66 Windows does this, evidently some versions of Firefox and chrome do likewise on GNU/Linux, also Windows 10 Microsoft Edge

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1482: NowPlaying

2023-03-21T09:46:35Z

172.70.91.152: Problematic username involved in cross-talk with conveniently handy IP. (And re-reverting the Discord comment, as well, as there's not enough visual info to narrow down to any specific platform - generic style of headshot notification stream).

<noinclude>:''The correct title of this page is '''1482: #NowPlaying'''. It appears incorrectly here because of {{w|mw:Manual:Page title|technical restrictions}}.''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 1482
| date = February 4, 2015
| title = #NowPlaying
| image = nowplaying.png
| titletext = If you click on the post, it takes you to search results for the note on various online music stores.
}}

==Explanation==
There are a variety of applications that post a user's music-listening habits on their preferred social network. In this comic, [[Randall]] takes that notion to its extreme, envisioning a program that does this note-by-note, rather than just song-by-song (This program is hard to implement in reality, as most of the music files shared online are wave tables <code>.mp3</code>, and it may be difficult to extract notes from them). As songs play several dozen notes a minute (and some songs, many more), this would lead to the flooding of friends' notification streams. In the example, the software is sharing the notes that Brian is listening to; and his friends Mike and Caitlin are getting annoyed with the number of posts they are receiving.

There are typically many hundreds of notes in any song. Any song with more than a single line of music contains multiple different {{w|Note|notes}} whose names according to the English convention are communicated here. All but the slowest songs will require reporting dozens to hundreds of notes every minute (a single {{w|glissando}} may cover a dozen or more notes in less than a second), meaning that anyone who can see your stream of posts will be [[Literally|literally]] inundated by posts from the service. Even if you could keep up with the speed of the posted notes that someone is listening to, the similarity in {{w|Phrase (music)|phrases}} in many songs (especially pop songs, e.g. [http://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM Pachelbel's Rant]) means that many different songs may include the same sequence of notes, though possibly in different {{w|Octave|octaves}} or at different speeds. The so-called "Black MIDI" music files would contain thousands, or even millions of notes (a notable example being "Pi" by TSMB2 on YouTube{{actual citation needed}} with 3 million notes in total: an average of about 10000 notes per second), and this may annoy Mike and Caitlin even more - probably by crashing their phone system with too many notifications.{{citation needed}}

The comic's title alludes to the fact that you can "play a song" but can also "play a note." It may also allude to the visual similarities between the hash/pound/{{w|number sign}} (#) and the {{w|Sharp (music)|sharp sign}} (♯). ''C sharp'', above Mike's comment, is the only note not given by a single letter (after the correction - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]]).

The title text continues the joke of this new musical service: ''If you click on the post, it takes you to search results for the note on various online music store.'' Since many songs in similar {{w|Key (music)|keys}} contain at least some of the notes posted, you would be given a list of a large part of the music you can buy in any on-line music stores. Of course this is at least as useless as being told which note someone is listening to.

The notes appear to be the beginning of ''{{w|I'll Be There for You (The Rembrandts song)|I'll Be There For You}}'' by {{w|The Rembrandts}}, the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-9kPks0IfE title music] of the TV series "{{w|Friends}}". This could be an internal reference to the idea that it "notifies" (converts into musical notes) your "friends" of the notes (a {{w|Pun|play on words}}).

Or we've been [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniped]].

==Transcript==
:[A social network news feed with user images for each of the three different contributors. The top of the first post is partly obscured, and for the last post only half of the first line is visible.]

:''[Partially Visible]'' '''Brian''' is now listening to: E
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: B
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: D
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: C sharp
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Mike''' What the hell
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: B
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Caitlin''' Can someone call him?
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: E
:Today • 3:29 PM

:''[Partially Visible]'' '''Brian''' is now listening to: A

:My new social music service notifies your friends about what notes you're listening to.

==Trivia==
*In the [[Media:OriginalNowPlaying.png|original]] comic there were a few errors/mistakes that were corrected later the same day:
**One of the messages was out of order. The instance where "Brian is now listening to A" above Caitlin's post was {{w|timestamp}}ed at 3:29, but the next two posts were timestamped at 3:28. Now this timestamp has been corrected to 3:28 so only the last timestamp reads 3:29, the rest 3:28.
**The first partially visible "note" post was "{{w|E major}}". This is not a single note but rather a chord or {{w|major scale|scale}}. The "major" was removed from the comic so it now reads simply "E".

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Music]]

2749: Lymphocytes

2023-03-16T13:33:29Z

172.70.91.152: /* Explanation */ miskey

{{comic
| number = 2749
| date = March 13, 2023
| title = Lymphocytes
| image = lymphocytes_2x.png
| imagesize = 651x733px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's very hard to detect, but recent studies have determined that when plasma B cells are producing antibodies, they go 'pew pew pew'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the WORLD'S SECOND COOLEST IMMUNOLOGIST - Table is cool, but some entries miss mention or explanation of the text in the comic, when it may have relation to the real life cell etc. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The human body contains many different types of immune cells. This comic is a list of {{w|lymphocyte}}s, a specific type of immune cell that is found in blood and lymph. As the comic goes on, in the style of many "informative" xkcd comics, the descriptions of the names of the cells get more and more removed from reality. Though many of the cells are real, only two descriptions are accurate, those for the plasma B cell and that of the out of context D cell. The diagrams are either uninformingly similar to each other, as an extremely generic diagram of a biological cell, or made to look somewhat like the item spoofed by the description.

The title text is possibly a reference to this recent study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.3c00638

{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Real Lymphocyte? !! Randall's description !! Comment
|-
| {{w|Plasma B cell}}s || Yes || Churn out antibodies || Does as the comic says.
No parody, except for the very vague diagram of a cell with a perinuclear region within it that could also just be a fried egg.
|-
| Naïve B cells || Yes || Try to stop pathogens by asking nicely || {{w|B cell}}s that have not yet been exposed to an antigen. Can only "ask nicely" for pathogens to stop because they cannot yet contribute to the immune system.
Image remains as much just a 'fried egg' as the prior image.
|-
| {{w|Memory B cell}}s || Yes || Very quietly sing {{w|Memory_(Cats_song)|"Memory" from ''Cats''}} at all times || Long-lived B cells that "remember" an antigen they have previously encountered, allowing them to quickly respond to a reappearance of the same antigen.
"Memory" is one of the most famous songs from the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber ''{{w|Cats (musical)|Cats}}'' musical, and the otherwise very similar diagram appears to be singing notes.
|-
| {{w|Regulatory B cell}}s || Yes || Required by local ordinance || Suppress certain immune responses, or in other words, regulates the immune response, which is their actual namesake, as opposed to the made-up namesake of only being in the body because some regulation requires it.
Cells do follow instructions from DNA, and their environment, which might be considered to be local ordinances. The image is again just another ''slightly'' different version of the generic cell image.
|-
| CD8+ T cells || Yes || Melee combat || {{w|Cytotoxic T cell}}, responsible for killing cells which are cancerous or infected. Named after the surface protein "CD8" ("Cluster of Differentiation") it uses when searching for targets.
Possibly a reference to the tabletop gaming terminology where "d8" means 8-sided dice, "d4" means 4-sided dice, etc. D&D and many of its derivatives use d8s primarily for damage, particularly for some of the most common weapons like rapiers, longswords, and longbows, and also for several spells like Chill Touch or Ray of Frost. The image is again fairly generic without any gross distinction to it.
|-
| CD4+ T cells || Yes || Scream at other cells || {{w|T helper cell}}, releasing cytokines as a signal that prompts the immune system into action, thus "screaming" at other cells. Named after the surface protein "CD4" (see above), that is used for binding to other cells while "screaming".
The generic cell image seems to be shouting "AAAAAAAAA!". Possibly also a reference to the D&D spell "Vicious Mockery" which may involve screaming and does damage based on a "d4" die.
|-
| {{w|Gamma delta T cell|Gamma-Delta T cell}}s || Yes || Unknown / classified || T cells found largely in mucous membranes of the gut, with different T-cell receptors than normal. Effectively the immune system's first line of defense.
The image, this time, has a dashed outer line and a question-mark instead of any nucleus. ''{{w|Delta Force|Delta Force}}'' is a famous military special forces organization involved in classified and not-generally-known operations, and its operatives are unlikely to be identified in publically available images.
|-
| CDRW+ T cells || No || Rewritable, 700MB || Here, the meaning of "CD" is switched from {{w|Cluster of Differentiation}} to {{w|Compact Disc}}, as in the {{w|CD-RW}} re-writable media format. 700 megabytes is a common size format for CDs.
By skewing the 'cell' diagram into an oval, with concentric central 'nucleus' and adding some subtle radial and concentric lines, it now resembles a typical item of optical media.
|-
| DVD+R T cells || No || Different from DVD-R, though no one is sure how || {{w|DVD+R}} is a DVD format designed by {{w|HP Labs}}, while DVD-R (pronounced "dash R") came originally from {{w|Pioneer Corporation}} and was the earlier accepted system. The two formats are not trivially compatible, but many (re)writing DVD drives were made multiformat to automatically handle both of these, {{w|DVD-RAM}}, read/write versions and CD-density media, as necessary, under the general label of "DVD±RW". The user then ends up not usually needing, or bothering, to know the technical differences.
Another 'skewed oval', with a few more lines (to perhaps suggest greater data density) but not functionally different from the prior diagram.
|-
| {{w|Natural killer cell}}s || Yes || Named by the world's coolest immunologist || Kills cells infected by intracellular pathogens and other malfunctioning (e.g. cancerous) cells, similar to CD8+ cells but part of the {{w|innate immune system}}. Randall likes the name of these cells more than the next item, making Rolf Kiessling and Hugh Pross "the world's coolest immunologist(s)."
The cell image is a bit more crinkled at the edge, than any prior cell, but otherwise not remarkably distinctive.
|-
| ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 cells || Yes || Named by a significantly less cool immunologist || {{w|Innate lymphoid cell}}s, regulating the innate immune system through signaling molecules. Named in [https://www.nature.com/articles/nri3365 this paper in Nature] by Hergen Spits, David Artis, Marco Colonna, Andreas Diefenbach, James P. Di Santo, Gerard Eberl, Shigeo Koyasu, Richard M. Locksley, Andrew N. J. McKenzie, Reina E. Mebius, Fiona Powrie and Eric Vivier, making them collectively much less cool than Kiessling and Pross above.
Represented by three small cell-images, snuggling close to each other without touching, and no real reason to assume which of the three is which.
|-
| D cells || No || Larger than C and AA cells, used in old flashlights || This is not a blood cell, but a {{w|D battery|"D cell" battery}}. (A battery is technically a package of cells in series. Without examining the contents of one, however, the contents of a single-cell {{w|Alkaline battery#Construction|''battery''}} is indistinguishable from a {{w|Nine-volt battery#Technical specifications|multi-cell}} version to the casual user.) Biological cells called "D cells" or {{w|delta cell}}s do actually exist, but they are not lymphocytes.
Drawn as a diagramatic 'cylinder', the cell edge forming a round-ended rectangle with a faint 'nearside' line to hint at its [[2509: Useful Geometry Formulas|3D nature]]. The 'nucleus' is pushed into one end of the shape, reminiscent of the distinctive 'cap' to {{w|Duracell|some batteries, commonly imitated}}, emphasising the polarity of the item, but also represents a highly simplified version of how the electrolyte might be placed within the housing.
|}

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

:[Title] Lymphocytes
:[Subtitle] And their functions
:[A 4 by 3 grid of frames, each containing the name of the lymphocyte, a visual depiction of the cell and a description]

:[Row 1, Column 1]
:Plasma B cells
:[Egg-like shaped cell with the nucleus right from the middle]
:Churn out antibodies

:[Row 1, Column 2]
:Naïve B cells
:[Almost circular cell with the nucleus in the middle]
:Try to stop pathogens by asking nicely

:[Row 1, Column 3]
:Memory B cells
:[Like panel 2, but with some music notes next to it, as if it produces sound]
:Very quietly sing "memory" from Cats at all times

:[Row 1, Column 4]
:Regulatory B cells
:[Like panel 2]
:Required by local ordinance

:[Row 2, Column 1]
:CD8+ T cells
:[Also oblong, but with the nucleus left from the middle]
:Melee combat

:[Row 2, Column 2]
:CD4+ T cells
:[Circular, with a large nucleus, saying ‘AAAAAAAAA!’]
:Scream at other cells

:[Row 2, Column 3]
:Gamma-Delta T cells
:[Dashed circle with a question mark in the middle]
:Unknown / classified

:[Row 2, Column 4]
:CDRW+ T cells
:[Shaped like a CD, with a large hole in the middle]
:Rewritable, 700MB

:[Row 3, Column 1]
:DVD+R T cells
:[Shaped like a DVD, with a bit smaller hole in the middle]
:Different from DVD-R, though no one is sure how

:[Row 3, Column 2]
:Natural killer cells
:[Irregularly shaped oblong cell with nucleus in the middle]
:Named by the world's coolest immunologist

:[Row 3, Column 3]
:ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 cells
:[Three cells]
:Named by a significantly less cool immunologist

:[Row 3, Column 4]
:D cells
:[Cylindrical shaped ‘cell’, with a smaller cylindrical ‘nucleus’ inside it at the right, roughly shaped like a D battery]
:Larger than C and AA cells, used in old flashlights

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:2750: Flatten the Planets

2023-03-16T10:57:56Z

172.70.91.152:

I have to wonder, would you slide down to the sun, or be flung outwards? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
: The discs are centered on the orbit of the parent planet, and presumably rotating at the same frequency as the parent planet's orbit. That means the inner edge of each disc is going slower than you'd need to orbit the Sun at that distance, and the outer edge faster. If you moved inward from the original planet's orbit, the Sun's gravity would pull you in, but when you crossed the boundary to the next disc, you'd get flung back outward.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.61|162.158.62.61]] 19:58, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
::No Each planet fills out the space within their orbit into the next planet. Easy to see as the outer edge of Neptune's orbit is the same as with the planet flattened. There is a distance from Mercury to the Sun indicated. Maybe because it would melt if it got any closer? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
:::First, they're rings not discs, but I'm skeptical of the math. And it looks to me like the ring's edges are halfway between the orbits, with Neptune extended outwards the same distance as halfway to Uranus's orbit. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.4|172.69.22.4]] 20:08, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

{{cot|My mistake, Randall's math is correct, sorry.}}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
|-
! Planet !! Volume (109 km3) !! Orbital radius (106 km) || halfway to prior || halfway to next || Annulus area (10<s>9</s> ''12'' OOPS! km2) || Thickness (<s>cm</s> ''10s of microns'')
|-
| Mercury || 61 || 58 || 29 (to 0) || 83 || 19,000 || 321
|-
| Venus || 928 || 108 || 83 || 129 || 30,637 || 3,029
|-
| Earth || 1,083 || 150 || 129 || 189 || 59,942 || 1,802
|-
| Mars || 163 || 228 || 189 || 504 || 685,794 || 24
|-
| Jupiter || 1,4310,00 || 779 || 504 || 1,107 || 3,051,847 || 46,890
|-
| Saturn || 827,130 || 1,434 || 1,107 || 2,154 || 10,726,236 || 7,711
|-
| Uranus || 68,340 || 2,873 || 2,154 || 3,684 || 28,061,145 || 244
|-
| Neptune || 62,540 || 4,495 || 3,684 || 5,304 (symmetry) || 45,743,348 || 137
|}

:::: The volumes in this table are at 2 different scales. Only the Mercury to Mars volumes are at 1010 km3. Jupiter to Neptune are at 1012 km3 [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 21:01, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
::::: Thanks, fixed; I had the scale wrong for the radii too. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 21:16, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
:::Someone please double-check this, I think Randall is off by a factor of 1000. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 21:37, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
:::: I did my own spreadsheet, and my figures agree with Randall's (roughly). I think your thinkness figures are mostly out by 1000, and a few of your volume figures also have the wrong scale (Mercury is smaller than Mars, and the giants are too big by a factor of 10). [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 22:07, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
::::: 61 * 10^9 km^3 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=61+*+10%5E9+km%5E3+in+cm%5E3 6.1 × 10^25 cm^3], 19000 * 10^9 km^2 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=19000+*+10%5E9+km%5E2+in+cm%5E2 1.9 × 10^23 cm^2], and (6.1 × 10^25 cm^3) / (1.9 × 10^23 cm^2) is [https://www.google.com/search?q=%286.1+%C3%97+10%5E25+cm%5E3%29+%2F+%281.9+%C3%97+10%5E23+cm%5E2%29 3.2 meters]. I'm afraid I'm correct. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.145|172.69.22.145]] 22:31, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
::::: According to {{w|List_of_Solar_System_objects_by_size#Objects_with_radius_over_400_km}} yes I had Mars wrong (corrected) but the others are roughly correct. I stand by my claim that Randall is in error. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 22:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
:::::: Mercury's orbital radius is about 58 * 106 km, not 58 * 109 km, which makes the annulus' area 19000 1012 km2. [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 23:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
::::::: I fixed that label, hold on... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 23:30, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
::::::: You're right. Thanks. Sorry. Reverted on main. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.215|172.71.154.215]] 23:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

|} 

This makes about as much sense as other Flat Earth theories. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.137|172.70.200.137]] 20:00, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
:But this would actually be a flat Earth. Albeit with a rather larger surface area ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

But what does the plot of surface gravity vs distance from the Sun look like? Gravity of an infinite plane and all that?--[[User:Brossa|Brossa]] ([[User talk:Brossa|talk]]) 00:01, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

The explanation currently says that it would require "several solar system's worth" of matter, but isn't there enough matter in the actual solar system? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 00:49, 16 March 2023 (UTC)
:That was said in reference to the Alderson Disk, which requires 1000km or so of thickness. Clearly more than the proposal here that gives a minute thickness (relatively) from the ''actual'' planetary mass in the solar system. Even if you reduced its extent (smaller outer, bigger hole for the Sun) it wouldn't thicken up enough. The prior (non-xkcd) version would require a mass of material rivaling, if not exceeding, that of the Sun itself. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.222|172.70.162.222]] 02:07, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

One of the reasons NASA rejected this could've been the use of inches. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.13|172.71.102.13]] 02:26, 16 March 2023 (UTC)
: Except for Mars. I can only imagine that use of the metric system for the Mars ring is a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure Mars Climate Orbiter] fiasco, which certainly would not endear Randall, or his proposal, to a NASA granting agency program officer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.150|172.70.214.150]] 02:45, 16 March 2023 (UTC)
:: I assume the use of microns there is simply because 5/512 is a really awkward fraction. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.25|172.71.223.25]] 05:48, 16 March 2023 (UTC)
::: Awkward? Its vulgar!
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 08:05, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

If the planets of the solar system were to become disks centered on the respective planet's current orbit, how do we deal with the different orbital eccentricities? For example, per That Other Wiki, Venus has an orbital eccentricity of 0.006772, Earth has 0.0167086, and Mars has 0.0934. Not to mention Neptune's 0.008678 and Pluto's 0.2488; Pluto's orbit actually crosses Neptune's. Surely that would cause issues with the disks? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.5|172.71.98.5]] 08:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)
:Pluto isn't involved, so at least that difficulty doesn't have to be dealt with. Maybe Pluto and other dwarf planets could be used to supplement the asteroid ball bearings.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.63|172.71.242.63]] 10:55, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

2606: Weird Unicode Math Symbols

2023-03-14T01:48:59Z

172.70.91.152: Undo revision 308461 by 162.158.166.230 (talk) I don't see the relevence to 153: Cryptography, or see any obvious place that this link was intended to be (>>, Not or reverse?)

{{comic
| number = 2606
| date = April 13, 2022
| title = Weird Unicode Math Symbols
| image = weird_unicode_math_symbols.png
| titletext = U+2A0B ⨋ Mathematicians need to calm down
}}

==Explanation==
This comic proposes joke explanations for various {{w|unicode symbols}} with obscure or no known uses, see the [[#Table of symbols|table]] below.

It may have been inspired by this blog post [https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html U+237C ⍼ RIGHT ANGLE WITH DOWNWARDS ZIGZAG ARROW]. It was posted four days prior to this comic's release. The blog post went viral (in a limited sense) the same day the comic was published, perhaps as a consequence of it mentioning one of the symbols of the comic, Larry Potter. This caused the blogger to update his post with a [[33: Self-reference|reference]] to both xkcd and explain xkcd:
:"XKCD #2606 mentions ⍼ and its Explain XKCD entry cites this post"

The title text includes yet another special symbol ⨋, and this symbol prompts [[Randall]] to ask Mathematicians to calm down. See more details in the table below, where the title text symbol is mentioned in the last entry.

===Table of symbols===
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Symbols
|-
! Codepoint !! Symbol !! Unicode Name !! Actual use !! Randall's meaning || Explanation
|-
| U+29CD || ⧍ || Triangle with Serifs At Bottom || No known mathematics use, but resembles the {{w|National Park Service}} cartographic symbol for a campsite.[https://github.com/nationalparkservice/symbol-library/] || Shark || May look like a shark fin sticking out of the water.
|-
| U+23E7 || ⏧ || Electrical Intersection || Indicates where wires branch off || Traffic circle || Looks like a diagram of a {{w|roundabout}} as might be shown on a minimap beside a routing direction.
|-
| U+2A33 || ⨳ || {{w|Smash product}} || The quotient of the product of the underlying spaces of two {{w|pointed space}}s, where points in the {{w|product space}} are identified if they contain either labeled point as an element. || Hashtag || Looks somewhat like the {{w|Number sign|hash}} symbol (#) – commonly used for indicating tags called {{w|hashtag}}s in social media – turned by 45 degrees.
|-
| U+2A7C || ⩼ || Greater-Than with Question Mark Above || Used in proofs to indicate a greater-than relation that should exist but hasn't been proven yet (non-rigorous) || Confused alligator || One metaphor used when teaching inequality signs in primary school is that the sign looks like an alligator mouth "eating" the larger number. Question marks are commonly used in cartoons to indicate confusion on the part of a character.
|-
| U+299E || ⦞ || Angle with S Inside || Plural for the angle symbol (∠) [https://www.quora.com/Unicode-How-is-the-s-in-triangle-glyph-used-in-mathematics][https://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/1114/Homework%20Helper%20Unit%203%20ch%209-10.pdf] rarely used || Snack || May look like a mouth eating an S, where the S symbolizes some snack food, or the word "snack".
|-
| U+2A04 || ⨄ || {{w|Arity|N-ary}} Union Operator with Plus || Disjoint union[https://books.google.com/books?id=531cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%E2%A8%84&source=bl&ots=oYXkMNXP-T&sig=ACfU3U2QvMRBkD7uVG0OSumKI0JQtjTIKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwios862ypL3AhWXVTABHTnQALQQ6AF6BAgKEAM] (joining a family of sets that have no elements in common) || Drink refill || Looks like a cup with a plus to indicate adding drink to the cup.
|-
| U+2B48 || ⭈ || Rightwards Arrow Above Reverse Almost Equal To || Pairs with ⭂ which could conceivably mean {{w|Assignment (computer science)|assignment}} of an {{w|Approximation|approximation}}, but neither seem to be in use. Possibly intended to describe ill-defined projections. || Snakes over there || Looks like two squiggles to represent snakes and an arrow indicating the direction where they may be found.
|-
| U+225D || ≝ || Equal To By Definition || Indicates an equation where the left side is to be defined as the right side[https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1z1mty/can_someone_please_explain_the_equal_to_by/] usually used in proofs to indicate a definition is being introduced|| Definitely, for sure || "Def" is a contraction of "definitely" used in slang; the equal sign looks like a double underline, indicating heavy emphasis.
|-
| U+237C || ⍼ || Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow || No purpose is known.[https://ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angzarr.html] Speculation includes a diode with a gate, proof by contradiction, a proofreaders' mark to split a word, and indication of polarization direction. {{w|GPT-3}} has suggested it could indicate particles interacting in physics.[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2606:_Weird_Unicode_Math_Symbols#GPT-3.27s_ideas_about_.E2.8D.BC] || Larry Potter || Looks like the letter "L" and a lightning bolt. {{w|Harry Potter (character)|Harry Potter}} is known for having a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The character {{w|Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series#Nancy_Stouffer|Larry Potter}} figured in a fraudulent legal claim against J.K. Rowling.
|-
| U+2A50 || ⩐ || Closed Union with Serifs and Smash Product || Indicates that a collection of topological spaces is {{w|Union-closed sets conjecture|closed}} when taking arbitrary unions and smash products. That is, if you take the union of any collection of topological spaces in the collection (even uncountably many), or the smash product of them, the result will also be in that collection. This is apparently important because the sets can't be isomorphic (one cannot be rearranged to be exactly the other.) [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/196084/counterexample-for-associativity-of-smash-product] || Spider caught with a cup and index card || Spiders or other bugs found within someone's house or workspace may be caught with a glass and something flat, often a card or a magazine, to be released outside. The projecting lines of the smash product symbol resemble the legs of a spider. Confusingly, some fonts display this symbol with different numbers of "legs": eight, as a 45°-rotated hash symbol, or six as an asterisk.
|-
| U+2A69 || ⩩ || Triple Horizontal Bar with Triple Vertical Stroke || Emblem of the Romanian {{w|Iron Guard}} fascist political movement; possibly a four-by-four {{w|tic-tac-toe}} board.[https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sandlund/NumericalTicTacToe.pdf] || ℍ𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕘 || Hash symbol with one extra vertical and horizontal line, or perhaps a hash symbol which has been accidentally double-struck or overprinted.
|-
| U+2368 || ⍨ || APL Functional Symbol Tilde Diaeresis || Used for a two-argument operation to [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Commute commute] (swap) its arguments or allow it to use a single provided argument in both argument slots, and to convert a value into a [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Constant constant] function || :/ || Looks like a confused or disappointed face. Randall's use is in fact common among {{w|APL (programming language)|APL}} programmers in the comments, as documented [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/APL_Orchard#Emoticons here] and [https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Humour#Glyph_puns here].
|-
| U+2118 || ℘ || Script Capital [''sic''] P || A stylized {{w|round hand}} 'p' used by Weierstrass for his "{{w|Weierstrass elliptic function|p-function}}," with features of both capital 𝒫  and small 𝓅. Sometimes also used as the {{w|power set}} operator.
|| Snake || This symbol coils around like a long snake, with a tapering-off tail on one end and a small "head" on the other.
|-
| U+2AC1 || ⫁ || Subset with Multiplication Sign Below || Indicates that one set is subset of another by means of a product || <div style="writing-mode: vertical-rl; text-align: center;">User experience</div> || Looks like the letters "Ux" sideways; UX is a common abbreviation for {{w|user experience}}.
|-
| U+232D || ⌭ || {{w|Cylindricity}} || A symbol used in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) to represent a parameter called "cylindricity" which describes the statistical deviation of an ensemble of surfaces from a reference cylinder. [https://cimquest-inc.com/metrology-minute-cylindricity/ example use] || Rolling dough between your hands to shape it into a ball || Looks like two flat hands (perhaps like stick-figure arms) rolling a ball between them. Rolling dough between one's hands to make it into a ball is an important step in making many kinds of pastry and bread.
|-
| U+2A13 || ⨓ || Line Integration with Semicircular Path Around Pole || Very rare symbol for half of a closed {{w|Contour integration|contour}} or {{w|Line integral|line}} integral which contains the {{w|Origin (mathematics)|origin}} in its interior. Contour integrals which circle the origin are very important in complex analysis. If such an integral were split into two parts, each could be represented by this symbol (which can be mistaken for ⨔, the integral not including the {{w|Zeros and poles|pole}}, with a wider and more complete arc around an offset dot.) [https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2299363/where-is-the-%E2%A8%93-integral-symbol-defined]
|| Integral that avoids a bee on the whiteboard || Looks like an {{w|integral}} symbol with a bump that goes around a dot, as if a professor was drawing an integral on a whiteboard but did not want to disturb a bee that had landed right in the path of their marker.
|-
| U+2A0B (title text)|| ⨋ || Summation with Integral || The sum of the sum of the discrete elements (∑) and the integrals (∫) over the connected pieces. This symbol requires context to be meaningful but could occur, for instance, when computing probabilities using mixed distributions.
[https://twitter.com/fermatslibrary/status/1308743505309822977 see also]
|| Mathematicians need to calm down || Each of the two symbols is specifically used to represent a kind of summation that is calculated completely differently from the other. Combining them could produce frustration for people unfamiliar with the usage. The comment given may make fun of mathematicians' tendency to form increasingly complex expressions in their work. It may as well be a pun on the pronounciation of the letter {{w|Esh_(letter)|Esh}} (Shhhh).
|-
|}

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

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

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

1500: Upside-Down Map

2023-03-12T15:56:15Z

172.70.91.152: Undo revision 308398 by 172.69.34.41 (talk) So I said something about this on the Map According To Americans talk. But I now think this is the vandaliser anyway.

{{comic
| number = 1500
| date = March 18, 2015
| title = Upside-Down Map
| image = upside_down_map.png
| titletext = Due to their proximity across the channel, there's long been tension between North Korea and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Southern Ireland.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic plays on the idea that maps with the {{w|South-up map orientation|south pole at the top}} will "change your perspective of the world". Most world maps orient north in the upward direction, placing the north pole as the top. Such an orientation is purely a matter of convention, as 'up' and 'down' don't apply in a planetary context. The north = up tradition probably emerged because most historical cartographers hailed from the northern hemisphere, and placed their own nations at the top. Some people and groups object that this convention subtly, but perniciously, advances the assumption that countries in the northern hemisphere are inherently more important than those in the southern hemisphere. This is especially sensitive because most of the wealthier and more powerful countries in the world are in the northern hemisphere, while relatively fewer southern hemisphere countries have as much wealth or global influence. Early maps had eastern Asia oriented at the top of the map, beyond Israel and the Holy Land in the middle, and western Europe at the bottom.

To remedy this, some advocate the use of maps with the south pole oriented at the top. Some want such maps in common use, while others simply use them to encourage people to rethink their assumptions about how the world should be seen. Such a map can easily be achieved by simply rotating a normal map 180 degrees, though the text labels would also be upside-down and harder to read. A [https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&q=upside-down%2Bmap%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bworld Google Images] search reveals many examples of upside-down maps with the text-oriented correctly for reading.

This map is a comedic play on such maps, where each landmass is in the same position it would be in a traditional north-top map but rotated 180 degrees (presumably around some central point of the landmass) to the orientation it would have in a south-top map. Such a map is, of course, almost completely useless in real life, because it completely distorts the relative positioning of the landmasses. Moreover, it keeps the northern countries at the top of the map, which means one of the chief complaints about traditional maps is unaddressed.

Note that individual islands are rotated about their own centers, rather than following the rotation of the neighboring continent; however, some are displaced as necessary to keep them from being overlapped by the rotated continents. For instance, {{w|Madagascar}} would be overlapped by the {{w|Sahara}} if it remained in position, but is instead displaced eastward to keep it in the Indian Ocean. On the other hand, all the islands of the {{w|Mediterranean Sea}} have disappeared under {{w|Asia}}.

Asia is so broad that almost the entire {{w|Indochinese Peninsula}} (with for instance {{w|Vietnam}} and {{w|Thailand}}) has been rotated out of the top of the map. Similarly, the map omits {{w|Antarctica}} in the south.

To keep their familiar shapes on a rectangular map, the continents would also have to be heavily distorted compared to their actual shapes, becoming much narrower (along the lines of latitude) near the poles and wider towards the equator. See also [[977: Map Projections]].

The basic climates for several areas would be distinctly different. For example, the former Central America area would be in the arctic zone, while Siberia would be subtropical.

This arrangement of the world's landmasses would have great advantages for trade because there are (presumably navigable) straits between the {{w|Americas}} and between Africa and Asia, removing the need for the {{w|Panama Canal}} and the {{w|Suez Canal}}.

The title text references the fact that, in this new map, the {{w|United Kingdom|UK}} is now next to Asia – specifically the {{w|Korean Peninsula}}. {{w|North Korea}} is mentioned in the text as having a history of hostile relations with nearby countries. However, on this map North Korea would be the part of {{w|Korea}} we today know as {{w|South Korea}}. Furthermore, {{w|Northern Ireland}} is now at the south of the {{w|island of Ireland}}, so the UK's full name would need to change to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and '''Southern''' Ireland. There have been several wars concerning the {{w|English Channel}}, mainly, but not only, between {{w|England}} and {{w|France}}. Likewise, there has been a history of animosity between Korea and {{w|Japan}}, separated by a similar body of water. Since, on this world map, a channel now exists between the UK and North Korea (the real world's South Korea) there could obviously have been many wars for the dominance over the said channel.

Along the same line of thinking, interesting speculations could be made about the following "new" facts:
*{{w|Cuba}} is now off the east coast (formerly west coast) of {{w|Canada}} (and the {{w|USA}}).
*{{w|Japan}} is next to the coast of {{w|Portugal}} and {{w|Spain}}.
*Madagascar lies next to {{w|Morocco}} and {{w|Mauritania}} on the east coast (formerly west coast) of the Sahara.
*{{w|Taiwan}} (officially called the Republic of China) is now next to {{w|France}}. This might be a game-changer for the {{w|Cross-Strait relations}}, an ongoing rivalry with {{w|China|China}} (officially called the People's Republic of China).
*{{w|Greenland}} lies next to {{w|Mexico}}.
*{{w|Sri Lanka}} is located next to the {{w|Yamalsky District}} of {{w|Russia}}.
*{{w|Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego|Tierra del Fuego}}, an island just south of the southern tip of South America, which is divided between {{w|Argentina}} and {{w|Chile}}, is now located in a similar manner next to {{w|Colombia}} and {{w|Venezuela}}, so it would probably have been divided between these two countries.
*The {{w|Falkland Islands}} (not named in the map – they are probably represented by the single island above the T in Tierra) where Argentina and the UK have an ongoing {{w|Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute|sovereignty dispute}}, could now be claimed by {{w|Ecuador}} or {{w|Peru}}.
*The Mediterranean islands seem to have vanished entirely, as they are now in approximately the same place as {{w|Mongolia}}.
*{{w|India}} is nowhere near the {{w|Indian Ocean}}.
*{{w|Norway}} almost touches the {{w|Philippines}}.

==Transcript==
:[Map of the world with all the landmasses rotated upside-down.]
:[Four oceans and all the visible continents have been named in large letters in a bold font. The Pacific has been named both to the left and right. Several islands (large and small) have been designated with name but in grey and in a much smaller normal font. For all continents the names are written on them. For the island the name is written in the ocean except for Greenland.]

:[Below the names on the map are given in the order they appear reading from left to right, first for the northern and then the southern hemisphere:]

:[Northern hemisphere:]
:'''North America'''
:Cuba
:Greenland
:'''Atlantic Ocean
:Iceland
:UK
:'''Asia'''
:Sri Lanka
:'''Europe'''
:'''Arctic Ocean'''
:Taiwan
:Japan
:'''Pacific Ocean'''

:[Southern hemisphere:]
:'''Pacific Ocean'''
:'''South America'''
:Tierra del Fuego
:'''Africa'''
:'''Indian Ocean'''
:Madagascar
:Indonesia
:'''Australia'''
:New Zealand

:[Below the main frame:]
:'''This upside-down map will change your perspective on the world!'''

==Trivia==
Map projections are also the subject of [[977: Map Projections]]. In fact, if this comic was released later, it would certainly have "Bad Map Projection #''n''" on the top, and would be part of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|the category]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Maps]]

Talk:850: World According to Americans

2023-03-12T15:53:19Z

172.70.91.152:

NB: Paupa (sic!) New Guinea [[User:Leob|Leob]] ([[User talk:Leob|talk]]) 20:10, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

:You're right, there's a typo in the comic! Good catch ;) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:10, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

::The group did come from the geography bee, not the spelling bee. --[[User:Tepples|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples|talk]]) 15:22, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

98% of American's would only be able to locate about 4 countries so this is way too generous ~JFreund
:"American's" [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 12:12, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Made a typo with Phillipines. It's Philippines. @JFreund No stereotyping, please. I can list 51 or 52 countries and I'm not even in middle school. Add a bit more thinking and I've got to 58.[[User:Randomperson4000|Randomperson4000]] ([[User talk:Randomperson4000|talk]]) 01:59, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

@JFreund: That's not true... I'm a seventh grader who can't stand geography for the life of me, yet I can name a good twenty or so.
And as a very very simplified example, most fifth graders can easily name America (duh), Mexico, Canada, Russia, and England.
That is rather, for lack of a better term, racist of you. ~jazz14456

@jazz14456 Well for comparison I'm an seventh grader from europe(We call it year eight there) and I can name 64 off the top of my head, that's 320% more. Therefore the point of the comic and @JFreund 's point still stand. ~Samarthwiz

:Your brand of negativism, as well as the additional above, does nothing to advance any sort of constructive dialogue. Please check your misconceptions, generalizations, and inaccuracies about entire populations at the door. They're not welcome in communities of thinking people. [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 12:25, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

::While the petty point scoring is of no value, it is worth noting that Europeans have an advantage when it comes to the trite 'How many countries can you name' or 'How many countries have you visited' competitions. You can quite easily spend a day driving through Europe and visit (drive through) 5 countries. As an example: England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany. The fact that an American can do this across different states, or may be able to name all 50 states in addition to however many countries, or have travelled far and wide within the states doesn't seem to carry any weight. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:03, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

:::I wholeheartedly agree. They are regions with their own flags and laws and geography too only one slight criticism is that most of them call it America. So they want to be classed as an whole continent or two, a country that is more correctly called the USA and they want credit for knowing where Delaware or Rhode Island is. [[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 18:48, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

::::I think it's sad that I'm an American in eighth grade and the only reason that I can name 87 (88 if you count Vatican City as its own country) is because I play Call of War and Conflict of Nations--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.73|173.245.52.73]] 20:54, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

::::: There really is no need to be smug just cause you're European. Only 64? I had known at least 80 when I was in eighth grade, as well as the climates, geography, religions, capitals, international organizations they were in, and a little bit of the economy of said country. And you're being smug just because you can name more countries than others? And let's not forget the individual states, many of which could pass as a country on their own... so add 50 to that total. You think you're so smart? Try me. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 13:27, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

BTW, the Robinson drawing in the comic is '''much''' too accurate to be pure freehand. He probably used tracing or grid point marks. -- [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:46, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

*Randall considers this to be 'good at geography'?! They only named, like, 30 or so countries... There's 197!* [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.184|173.245.56.184]]

It's probably sarcasm too that "Tibet" is incorrectly labelled on Xinjiang. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.223.47|108.162.223.47]] 01:20, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

"Aral sea (??Toane" is probably "Aral sea (gone)" {{unsigned ip|173.245.55.60}}
:This is a wiki. Edit it in yourself next time (done it for you this time).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.11|141.101.104.11]] 05:32, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

I added some comments/explanations. The distance between Afrcia and USA was measured by google maps. I tried out several spots. If someone finds a shorter distance, fell free to correct :) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:01, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

The annotation regarding the poor labelling of Africa needs more/better explaining, especially what it means by it 'speaking volumes'. Although I've put that it lends weight to the 'Ignorant American' viewpoint, my feeling is that there is actually a more widespread ignorance amongst the rest of the world towards Africa (in general, not just geographically). While I could probably name a few more countries in Africa, I wouldn't be able to place them within the continent. I have an average knowledge of world geography, but the big hole in my knowledge would definately be Africa, and I suspect that the majority of people I know would say the same. I could come up with all sorts of theories as to why it is Africa I know so little about, but this comment is already too long! --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:49, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

: Done, I think. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 17:47, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure if it's necessary to include all the other not yet mentioned/explained areas, such as Western/Eastern Europe and others. We ''could'' make lists of which countries belong to that regions similar to the "Various former soviet states"-area, but that would simply result in a list of all nations of the world. If you agree, we could remove the incomplete-tag, I think. If not... well... there are a lot of countries ;) On the other hand, I'm not quite sure, if the colors may have a special meaning... But I think most likely not. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 17:47, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

: I've added a bit more detail on the title text. Personally I don't think we need to add all the labels, unless there is something specific on this comic which can be explained about that label. Like you say, it would turn into a list of countries with no relevant additional information. As far as colours go, I can't see any obvious pattern behind their assignment. I vote we remove the incomplete tag, in my view any other additions serve to enhance the article rather than to complete it. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:23, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

The opening paragraph is inaccurate; the comic satirises portrayals of American geographical ignorance (X% of Americans can't locate Y on a map!) rather than jokey maps about cultural stereotypes.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.84|141.101.99.84]] 09:56, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Please improve the explanation for India. It is not clear, and the mostly Hindu/Muslim regions seem to be referring to the countries India and Pakistan. I tried editing, but someone reverted it claiming that it was not Pakistan. {{[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.229|162.158.154.229]] 08:48, 19 April 2017 (UTC)}}
: That was me. Pakistan is obviously included in the part labeled as "Afghanistan & Pakistan". If you compare the red area of India in the comic's map with an actual map of India (e.g. this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Political_map_of_India_EN.svg) you'll see that the red area actually _is_ India. Ofc, the border drawn in this comic is not 100% accurate, but that is true for almost all borders. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:18, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

Well, as a neutral outsider I can point out that people from the USA are consistently showing their ignorance here of the difference between a continent and a country. "America" is a continent, the USA is a country. Same goes for Africa, it's not a country, it's a continent. The only continent that is also a country is Australia.

I wonder if the people who make comments like the one above also insist on referring to the UK as the UKGBNI(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). While the de facto name of the country established in 1776 is the Unite States of America, Its people are known as Americans. This is distinguished from other people of the 1 (or 2) continents called The Americas or North and South America.(North Americans, and South Americans) While referring to the USA as the USA, the US or the States is one way you distinguish the country from its neighbors, it's not the only way.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.76|172.70.178.76]] 17:06, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
:The biggest problem with UK(oGB&NI) is that various terms (Britain, Great Britain, England, British Isles; and grammatically derivative versions) often get used in situations where they are actually a subset, superset or misaligned set against the intended scope. And often the more precise you try to be, the more likely you are to accidentally get the real coverage wrong. (Compare the statuses of Gibaltareans, the Manx, Channel Islanders, Falklanders, etc, etc... Some of those are British Isles, some of those are British, some are part of the realm of the UK... and others are not, but in different combinations).
:Plus I might consider myself (geographically) a european, still, even if not (politically) a European.
:And the {{w|List of countries that include United States in their name}} reveals some possible contemporary (as well as historical) confusions, when untied from a certain set of anglocentric (or 'USA'-centric!) assumptions. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.64|172.71.178.64]] 18:02, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

The edit [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=850:_World_According_to_Americans&curid=6034&diff=308397&oldid=307463 here] seems to be accurate about the edit-war, but isn't correct about the non-Americans part (speaking as a non-American). The issue seems mostly to be with specifically China-slanted rephrasing being snuck in (in contradiction with the wikipedia page being linked). Also, if Taiwan ''does'' ever get actually ruled by China, the current explanation is still correct as of the time of publishing. Perhaps better to just add more to the reasons why it is complicated, but don't flip the reality (or else add more when the next time comes to flip it away from the CCP-skewed perspective). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 15:53, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

2661: Age Milestone Privileges

2023-03-12T15:42:28Z

172.70.91.152: /* Explanation */ Smoother cover-all

{{comic
| number = 2661
| date = August 19, 2022
| title = Age Milestone Privileges
| image = age_milestone_privileges.png
| titletext = If you reach 122, you get complete unrevertible editorial control over Jeanne Calment's Wikipedia article.
}}

==Explanation==
This is a list of "age milestones" in the United States. As usual for Randall, he has added many fictional entries to supplement some real life ones. The real milestones are the ages at which Americans are generally allowed to do certain things for the first time. These are a mix of legal restrictions (such as the age for driving and voting), rules from private companies (such as movie theaters and car rental companies) and medical guidance (like the shingles vaccine).

{| class="wikitable"
! Age || Privilege || Real? || Description
|-
| 16 || Drive || Yes || Legal driving age in the US is set by the individual states, but the general rule is that Americans are allowed to begin driving on public roads at age 16. There are various levels of restrictions on this privilege, however. In Randall's state of {{w|Driver's licenses in the United States#Licenses for adults and minors; GDL laws|Massachusetts, and in 8 other states}}, 16 is the minimum age to apply for a learner's permit. {{w|Driver's licenses in the United States#/media/File:Restricted license age requirements by US state.svg|In most of the country, 16 years is the minimum age for a restricted driver's license.}}
|-
| 17 || Attend R-Rated movies alone || Yes || In the US, the Motion Picture Association assigns {{w|Motion_Picture_Association_film_rating_system|ratings}} to movies based on whether they consider the film's content to be suitable for children. In this classification, "R" stands for "restricted", and the guidance from the MPAA is that no one under the age of 17 should be allowed to see it if not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. It should be noted that this guidance does not have force of law, but is sufficiently accepted that nearly all US theaters adopt it as a policy.
|-
| 18 || Vote || Yes || The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents a minimum age of voting from being set above eighteen, meaning that eighteen-year-olds are old enough to legally vote anywhere in the country. Some states allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they will turn 18 before the general election, but Randall's state of Massachusetts is not one of them.
|-
| 21 || Buy alcohol || Yes || While individual states have official power over the drinking age, the {{w|National Minimum Drinking Age Act}} restricts federal funding from states that do not enforce a drinking age of 21 years. This has resulted in a ''de facto'' national drinking age of 21 in the US, which is higher than most countries. It should be noted that some states allow minors to drink alcohol under certain circumstances, but no state allows anyone under 21 to buy alcohol.
|-
| 25 || Rent a car || Generally || Car rental companies set their own age restrictions on renting cars. The industry standard in the US is to charge a higher rate for drivers under the age of 25. Thus, there was not a "prohibition" per se, but 25 is a milestone for "regular" rates and fees on car rentals.
|-
| 30 || Run for Senate || Almost || This entry is slightly incorrect: According to {{w|Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause 3: Qualifications of senators|Article 1, Section 3, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution}}, one must be at least 30 years old in order to ''become'' Senator, not ''run'' for Senate. For example, Joe Biden was 29 years old when he was first elected to Senate but turned 30 before being sworn in.
|-
| 32 || Rent a Senator's car || No || This is the first joke entry in the table. For one thing, most Senators do not rent out their cars, which they probably need to use regularly themselves because they have jobs{{Citation needed}} to commute to, and it would be a security hazard to allow random strangers access to their vehicle.

This could also be a reference to the Ambassador, a now defunct car brand.
|-
| 35 || Run for president || Almost || In the United States, according to {{w|Article Two of the United States Constitution#Clause 5: Qualifications for office|Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution}}, a person must be at least 35 years old to be eligible to hold the Office of President. Similar to the age 30 entry, this is slightly incorrect. However, unlike the Senate case, this technicality has not been relevant for anyone elected as United States president—at least not yet (as of 2022).
|-
| 40 || Rent a flying car || No || A 25-year-old might be able to rent a non-flying car today, but not a flying car, because the technology is not mature enough to the point where they're available to rent. The joke is that by the time a 25-year-old reader becomes 40, the technology will exist and they'll be able to rent a flying car. Unlike the earlier lines, the limitation has nothing to do with their age, just technological development.
Alternatively, even once flying cars are developed, their usage will be more restricted. For example, young people are perceived to be more reckless and/or otherwise dangerous.

This whole issue may be virtually negated if the newly developed flying cars are introduced only as ''self-''flying cars (an off-shoot of self-driving technology but devoid of many of the dangers of navigating roads, i.e. person-controlled vehicles, pedestrians and other ground-based hazards), in which case the age (or even presence) of the renter may be very much more irrelevant than the nature of any route/destination the guidance computer is tasked to fulfill. The question would then be how much a potential passenger would trust pure electronics to avoid all the actual dangers for what is essentially a flying taxi, compared to a human controller who may be fallible but presumably at least has their own fully developed common sense and a degree of self-preservation as well as any requisite training.
|-
| 45 || Learn about the God-Empress || No || Obviously, the restriction of knowledge of the "God-Empress" does not actually exist because this comic is visible to people under 45 years old.{{Citation needed}} According to [[1413]], she will be public knowledge by 2040 anyway.
|-
| 50 || Join AARP || Yes || Full {{w|AARP}} (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) membership is available to anyone age 50 and over. Officially, there are no age restrictions to membership, but members under the age of 50 do not have access to full benefits.
|-
| 50 || Get a shingles vaccine || Recommendation || At the time of the comic, the [https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/public/shingrix/index.html CDC recommended] that adults 50 years and older get the shingles vaccine called Shingrix (this line was not in the original version of the comic, corrected later)
|-
| 52 || Click to skip captchas || No || Older people might have more difficulty understanding [[:Category:CAPTCHA|captchas]]. Also, they could be more inconvenienced because some older people move more slowly, so it would take them longer to move the mouse, and people would care more about older people anyway. However, this would be impractical to implement because if the computer knew the person's age, it would know that the user is a person, not a bot, so there would be no point in a captcha anyway.
|-
| 55 || Vote for God-Empress || No || It appears that a person must have knowledge of the existence of the God-Empress for ten years before they are sufficiently qualified to elect a new one. Since the God-Empress is (presumably) in power for life, it is likely that most people would have to wait much longer than ten years.
|-
| 62 || $80 national parks lifetime pass || Yes || The US National Parks Service has a [https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm lifetime membership pass] for Americans ages 62 and over, which allows access to national parks and other areas managed by the NPS.
|-
| 65 || Eligible for Medicare || Yes || {{w|Medicare (United States)|Medicare}} is a US government-run health insurance for older people, and indeed begins eligibility at age 65 for the general public.
|-
| 67 || Collect Social Security || Yes || {{w|Social Security (United States)|Social Security}} is a system of benefits for retired individuals, disabled persons and widows/widowers. U.S. individuals may collect reduced Social Security benefits starting at age 62, and they can collect increased Social Security benefits if they wait until age 70. 67 is considered "Full Retirement Age." There is some debate about whether one would be better off waiting or taking it right away, but for most people Full Retirement Age (67) is at least close to optimal.
|-
| 68 || See "Skip ads" button on live TV|| No || Some DVRs and streaming applications have a feature to skip over commercial breaks in recorded programs, but this could not be available in live TV, since it would require jumping forward in time. Time travel is currently impossible.{{citation needed}}
|-
| 70 || Run for God-Empress || No || The name suggests that this would also only be available to women.
|-
| 75 || Ride any animal in a national park || No || The National Parks Service probably could institute this relatively safely because most people over 75 would not be able to run fast enough to outrun/catch up to an animal and mount it{{Citation needed}} and would not have the rebellious/risk-taking/adventurous streak that would incline them to try.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| 80 || Eligible for Megacare || No || This is based on becoming eligible for Medicare at age 65.
|-
| 85 || Click to toggle whether an ad is positive or negative about the product || No || In line with previous milestones regarding advertisements, this implies the ability to control reality and change the mood of the ad one is watching as it is running. Obviously, this is impossible, but could potentially be pulled off by adding an option to change the ad to another ad about the same product, but with the opposite viewpoint of the product. Ignoring the issue that ads that are just negative about a specific target don't tend to be commissioned. Except perhaps in certain areas of political campaigning. Furthermore, the wording appears to imply the new ad is the same as the one you were watching previously, ie. same actors, rather than a different ad about the same product.
|-
| 90 || Click to make any movie R-rated || No || It is unclear whether this would actually make the movie less appropriate or change the Motion Picture Association's rating to be erroneous. Also, what if the rating was previously NC-17?
|-
| 100 || Get a letter from the president || No || In the US (which other milestones, such as running for president starting at age 35, indicate is the country being referred to), you can instead get [https://www.today.com/series/today-celebrates/celebrate-today-ask-al-roker-wish-your-loved-ones-happy-t69606 congratulated] by the weatherman ({{w|Al Roker}}) on the {{w|Today (American TV program)|Today Show}}. However, the United Kingdom is much closer. People there can [https://www.royal.uk/anniversary-messages-0 apply to receive a card] (formerly a telegram, later a TeleMessage) from the monarch on their 100th birthday.
|-
| 102 || (35+67) Collect a {{w|Former_Presidents_Act#Pension|presidential pension}} || No || The idea behind this joke is that it is the minimum age of presidency plus the minimal age to collect Social Security. There are several reasons why this must be a joke. Two are that Social Security begins 67 years after the person was born, not 67 years after the person's job started, and that the United States government would not bother to set up such a system because the vast majority of people, including former presidents, do not live to 102 years old. In fact, as of 2022, no former United States president has ever lived to 102 years old. The current oldest former U.S. President is Jimmy Carter at 97. Good luck Jimmy, only 5 more years!
|-
| 105 || Get a birthday card from the God-Empress || No || Being a God-Empress would be more important than being the leader of a single country. This would make the God-Empress's time more valuable, so she only has to send a birthday card to the few people who reach the age of 105. Contrariwise, the God-Empress is presumptively all-powerful and furthermore capable of delegation of ministerial tasks such as card transmission, so the utilitarian fact that the scarcity of 105-year-old people reduces workload is not a plausible justification.
|-
| 111 || Leave your own birthday party early by putting on a magic ring || No || This is a reference to the {{w|Lord of the Rings}} where Bilbo leaves his eleventy-first birthday party (the Bilbo Baggins Farewell Birthday Party) invisibly by using {{w|the One Ring}}.
|-
| 118 || Vote 100 times || No || Presumably a joke meaning the person can now cast 100 votes, for each election issue that a younger person can only vote for once, giving their opinion a vastly increased personal weight (or subtlety, if they vote more across the board than merely grant 100 votes to the same outcome), although it may not greatly change the result unless sufficient voters exist (of a like mind) to disproportionately swing the result towards the result desired more by these elder voters than their one-vote juniors.
It is the 100th anniversary of their having (potentially) first voted, and as such is a century milestone. But if there were exactly one election at the same time each year, the first vote on or after their birthday would actually be the 101st vote the person has been eligible to cast in their lifetime. If the sole election of each year were held at a different time of each year, someone who voted in every election might vote for the 100th time at either age 116, 117, or 118. However this milestone would happen earlier because there are often multiple elections per year, e.g., primaries, general elections and possibly runoffs. There may also be several reasons why the person may not have been given the opportunity to vote every year since they were 18, e.g. prior to the {{w|Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|women's suffrage}} being officially ratified barely 100 years ago, but most importantly that the mandated minimum voting age was 21 until {{w|Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution|much more recently}}.
|-
| 120 || Collect the pensions of all elected officials || No || It is very unlikely that any government would award the pensions of all elected officials to anyone because they have reached the age of 120 years.{{cn}}
|-
| 125 || Drink alcohol in an R-rated movie while getting a shingles vaccine from the president || No || This entry references four earlier milestones (attending an R-rated movie, drinking alcohol, becoming President, and getting the shingles vaccine) whose corresponding ages (17, 21, 35, and 50) sum to 123. While not exactly 125, this may have contributed to the inspiration or age selection of this milestone.
|-
| 128 || Age rolls over, become a baby again || No{{Citation needed}} || {{w|Integer overflow}} happens in computers when there are not enough bits (binary digits) to store the result of a calculation, and typically happens in computers at a given power of two, such as 128. An unsigned 7-bit number can hold the values 0 to 127 (127 being 27 - 1) and an attempt to go beyond 127 will overflow, also called rollover, back to zero. 7-bit numbers are not common native values in today's computers. For the more usual integers of one byte (8 bits), while a signed byte would roll over after 127, it would typically rollover to -128 rather than to zero, whereas an unsigned byte would rollover to zero but not until after 255. 

|}

The title text mentions {{w|Jeanne Calment}}, who holds the record for the oldest person ever (there are biblical references to older people, such as {{w|Methuselah}}, who supposedly lived to 969, but their ages haven't been verified). She reportedly was age 122 when she died in 1997. There's some controversy whether Calment actually claimed her mother's records, including birth certificate, as her own. "Editing wars" have been fought over her Wikipedia page. Randall claims that if you match her age you get sole editorial control over that article. However, if anyone managed to exceed her achieved age, presumably they would get their own page (albeit that they should not be encouraged to {{w|Wikipedia:Editing Your Own Page|edit it}} themselves) and hers would cease to be as interesting - although that might depend on what use is made of the unparalleled editorial control now granted.

==Transcript==

<big>Age Milestones</big> 
and associated privileges

16  Drive 
17  Attend R-rated movies alone 
18  Vote 
21  Buy alcohol 
25  Rent a car 
32  Run for senate 
35  Run for president 
40  Rent a flying car 
45  Learn about the God-Empress 
50  Join AARP 
50  Get a shingles vaccine 
52  Click to skip captchas 
55  Vote for God-Empress 
62  $80 National parks lifetime pass 
65  Eligible for Medicare 
67  Collect Social Security 
68  See "Skip Ads" button on live TV 
70  Run for God-Empress 
75  Ride any animal in a national park 
80  Eligible for MegaCare 
85  Click to toggle whether any ad is positive or negative about the product 
90  Click to make any movie R-rated 
100  Get a letter from the president 
102  (35+67) Collect a presidential pension 
105  Get a birthday card from the God-Empress 
111  Leave your own birthday party early by putting on a magic ring 
118  Vote 100 times 
120  Collect the pensions of all elected officials 
125  Drink alcohol in an R-rated movie while getting a shingles vaccine from the president 
128  Age rolls over, become a baby again

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:CAPTCHA]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

970: The Important Field

2023-03-08T03:30:49Z

172.70.91.152: /* Explanation */ Just in case the correct target involved fully intentional killing. Which it might or might not, depending upon the mission.

{{comic
| number = 970
| date = October 28, 2011
| title = The Important Field
| image = the important field.png
| titletext = I hear in some places, you need to fill one form of ID to buy a gun, but two to pay for it by check. It's interesting to see who has what incentives to care about what mistakes.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, a soldier with a green hat with a black emblem on the front, is using his computer to access an online web interface to launch a missile at a target. The joke is that even though the interface only asks him to enter the target coordinates once, it asks for his email address twice, even though the coordinates are by far the more important detail to get right (launching the missile at the wrong target could result in a disastrous unintended loss of life or property damage).

It is common for online interfaces to force users to type certain details twice, as a form of redundancy checking to ensure that the user really has entered the correct details and hasn't made an error. Some forms even go the extra step of preventing the user from copy-pasting into the second field, which would render it useless as a redundancy check.

This is usually done for email addresses and when creating new passwords, which are used to identify and authenticate users, and are therefore important to get right.

In the title text, [[Randall]] suggests that the presence of redundancy checks can give you an interesting insight into what things people deem to be important. He gives a (supposed) real-life example of a merchant that requires only one form of ID in order to buy a gun, but two forms if you want to pay for it by check - suggesting that the seller is more worried about the safety of their money than the potential danger of giving a lethal weapon to someone untrustworthy.

==Transcript==
:[A soldier with a green military hat, with an black emblem on the front, is sitting in an office chair typing at his computer. Sounds are shown when he types, and the message he reads on the screen is shown above with a zigzag line coming from the computer screen. In the first panel he only uses one hand on the keyboard.]
:Computer: Welcome to the missile launch web interface!
:''Click''

:[Same setting but the soldier types with both hands.]
:Computer: Enter the target's coordinates.
:''Type Type''

:[Same setting as previous panel.]
:Computer: Enter your email address for our records.
:''Type Type''

:[Same setting except the soldier has stopped typing.]
:Computer: Enter your email again, to ensure you typed it correctly.

==Trivia==
*This is the only comic so far to feature a soldier using such a green Hat.
**The green hat with the black emblem implies that he is part of the military. The color code of his hat is #123E0E.
**Until realizing that the hat is green not black it could look like [[Black Hat]].
***Although the hat seems in the first panel to only have a lie going towards the front of the cap, this changes in the later images, making it here look more like a Black Hat type of hat.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Email]]
[[Category:Computer security]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]

Talk:2742: Island Storage

2023-02-27T09:59:31Z

172.70.91.152:

Hey at least New Zealand made it onto this map! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.48|172.70.178.48]] 17:46, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Of course the proper storage mode involves packing the continents back to Gondwada layout and then hiding them on the far side ;-) [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:59, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

It seems worth noting that the scale was distorted to make some islands fit. Greenland has a longitudinal height of 2671 km, but has been shrunken considerably in order to be wedged into a 1725 km gap in the Gulf of Mexico. [[User:Altay|Altay]] ([[User talk:Altay|talk]]) 19:58, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
:I thought it was the size of Africa. ---[[User:Theunlucky|Theunlucky]] ([[User talk:Theunlucky|talk]]) 20:35, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
:Maybe he started with a cursed projection that makes Greenland smaller. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:35, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Seeing the ?? next to the British Isles, I think part of the islands there are the Danish islands squeezed aside to make space. (Okney Islans, Fair Isle, Shetland, Hebrides, Føroyar, etc. are probaly used to fill the gaps...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.95.82|162.158.95.82]] 20:54, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
:Those are all pretty small. I think it's more likely Svalbard/Spitsbergen. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.181|172.70.131.181]] 02:09, 25 February 2023 (UTC)
::There's quite a lot of Nowegian islands, some of which are fairly large. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.184|172.69.79.184]] 07:37, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

Where do we mention the typo in the title text? (Should be "Scandinavian".) --[[User:Flicky|Flicky]] ([[User talk:Flicky|talk]]) 12:30, 25 February 2023 (UTC)
:I'll see what I think works. If all else fails, I could add a Trivia section (as I'm going to add an auxilliary reference), but maybe I don't need to... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.128|172.70.86.128]] 13:15, 25 February 2023 (UTC) EDIT: Edit done. But some further tweaks planned, if no-one else improves/revises it before I get there.

I think the additional island nudged into Scandinavia with Britain and Ireland might be Tierra del Fuego at the bottom tip of South America? It sure looks like it. [[User:XKCDFan|XKCDFan]] ([[User talk:XKCDFan|talk]]) 13:45, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

No, I believe Tierra del Fuego has been relocated to St. Lawrence Bay.

Isn't it Sjaelland, turned upside down to fit, since Ireland has taken its spot? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 19:48, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

As one who'll remain furious about Brexit until the second they repeal the bastard, I look at this with misty-eyed hope. It's a Yes from me. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 00:20, 26 February 2023 (UTC)

What's Brexit ?? [[User:I27.O.O.I|127.0.0.1]] ([[User talk:I27.O.O.I|talk]]) 02:59, 26 February 2023 (UTC)
:A few years ago BRitain voted to EXIT (hence "Brexit") the European union, to remain/return to being politically etc separate after the countries of Europe united - such as adopting the Euro as a shared currency. Brexit seems a largely unpopular concept, widely considered a bad idea with mostly downsides, even before the decision was made, so not sure how the hell it passed (I'm Canadian, an outsider to this living across the ocean, so I only know these broad strokes). [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:01, 26 February 2023 (UTC)
::<People who did not like the EU>: We don't like the EU! We demand to leave!
::<Prime Minister> I shall try to change things so we all like the EU...
::<EU> Yeah, maybe some of that, but definitely not the other stuff.
::<People...> Boo, hiss! We'll start our own political party! With blackjack and hookers!
::<Various other people who tried this before> Yeah, we'll join that. Down with the establishment! (Which some of us are part of.) We demand a vote on the issue.
::<PM> That's a worrying amount of people who should be supporting me, and may split my vote. Ok, we'll have a vote, to settle the issue (less risky than the Opposition getting in).
::<People... + Various...> Great. So, anyway, we promise; an XBox in every home; chocolate cake will stay just as delicious but not be fattening; and those people you don't like..? They're about to camp out in your roof-space, ''unless'' you vote to Leave. [...paraphrased/analogous, the real arguments being many and varied]
::<Others> That's... just wrong. And what about the good reasons to stay? If we leave then...
::<People... interupting> You're scaremongering. We will create a perfect idyll. But if we don't leave, everyone will end up being forced to all the time speak French or German or Italian or Spanish... or Arabic!
::<Others> But..?
::<People...> Stop trying to scare us! Beware the scary EU instead!
::[...much more of this... 'Leave' promises/threatens, 'Remain' warns and tries to explain how the status quo is Ok. Most traditional political parties have some people wanting to Leave, some wishing to Remain, and some people don't care about Brexit but don't like the Remain-leaning PM]
::[Vote happens]
::[Around a third of voters vote Remain, marginally more vote Leave, the rest don't vote]
::[Or, roughly a quarter each are Remain, Leave, Didn't vote and Couldn't vote.]
::<People...> An overwhelming landslide! Right, lets Brexit. How do we do that again?
::[Arguments range amongst Brexiteers between total international isolation and just trying to get marginally better deal. Those who disliked the Prime Minister are already happy, because he quit and left the next couple of PMs try to herd the Brexit cats, etc, over the next half dozen years... and continuing still with 'minor' issues such as how to circle the square which is Ireland (seeing as it involves Eire, Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain)...]
::...opinions about whether this is the true tone of the timeline will vary, but I contend that it is at least not ''wrong''. Maybe someone can update us on attitudes and recollections upon these matters in another decade? <s>Or when it finally gets completely and sorted in a mutually satisfactory manner, if that happens earlier.</s> ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 19:56, 26 February 2023 (UTC)

Anyone else left thinking that this would severely mess up the ecology of a number of islands, particularly where species have evolved in the absence of predators found on the mainland? No? Probably just me, then.... [[User:Zoid42|Zoid42]] ([[User talk:Zoid42|talk]]) 15:21, 26 February 2023 (UTC)

== Where is Hawaii? ==

I don't see it mentioned in the list of where things were moved to. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.73|172.70.34.73]] 03:25, 26 February 2023 (UTC)
:Agreed, I added it to the Incomplete tag (don't want to assume). Tiny at this scale, I suspect Gulf Of Mexico? [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:01, 26 February 2023 (UTC)
:Whoever put things away took it home with them. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 09:59, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2741: Wish Interpretation

2023-02-23T15:47:21Z

172.70.91.152:

To all you people reading the discussion, why can't I add my own person page? I mean, is a year too new? I think I know, [[User:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|(but I'm not completely sure.)]] ([[User talk:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|talk]]) 23:29, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

:Oh, you have to have an old enough account to make one? I had been wondering how to. [[User:Thexkcdnerd|Thexkcdnerd]] ([[User talk:Thexkcdnerd|talk]]) 00:02, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Ironically, a banknote created by a genie would be counterfeit, although the odds of legal trouble over $20 are nonetheless low. 23:43, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
:It doesn't have to be. The genie could take one away from someone, or just get one that's been lost. Also, the sentence for counterfeiting is the same regardless of the denomination. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:31, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:The sentence for counterfeiting may be the same but the probability someone would actually go through the trouble of prosecuting you for $20 is much less than say $10,000 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.151|172.70.214.151]] 03:04, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::The US Treasury Dept. prosecutes every case it can prove. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 04:06, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:::So 2 things: First of all they need to prove it. For that someone has to notice. Not every 20-Dollar-note will be scanned, and I guess the genie could make a pretty good copy (if he needs to copy it). Also noone said US-Dollar. The Genie could make a twist and use one of over 20 other currencies called dollar. Not sure if US Treasury Dept. would be interested in that :D by the way, the eastern caribean dollar has the short "XCD" - does anyone think that a thousand of those would be labeled XkCD? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:13, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::::Or he could use Monopoly money. Or Geniedollars. He never said it would be legal tender, after all.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 14:42, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:::::For me, Monopoly Money has always been in £s (the board I always used going from Old Kent Road to Mayfair, naturally), though I've noticed that online (hyperinternational) representations, that I see in game-ads, now seem to use a special "barred-M" currency symbol (to copy how £, €, ¥ and $ are variously barred versions of L, E, Y and S).
:::::What Cueball-genie would use is an interesting phosophical question. I suspect he just gets whatever he needs (for personal use) out of petty cash and settles it up later. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 15:47, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

That's cool. Try https://what-if.xkcd.com/23/. Part 1. I need a new signature. [[User:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|(but I'm not completely sure.)]] ([[User talk:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|talk]]) 23:46, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

I would (as the genie) just teleport Black Hat to the desert. No other trickery or devastation needed. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:34, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

The oldest "Wish that I wish I didn't wish" I am personally aware of is Midas turning everything he touched into gold, including the food he tried to eat and his beloved daughter. Personally, I'd wish that the genie teach me a lesson. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:16, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

It's kinda funny how a citation is needed for claiming that wishing rain doesn't exist is bad because Randall will just cover it in "What If 3" 20:59, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
:He already replaced the rain with candy in What If 2. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.151|162.158.129.151]] 07:28, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

The proper way of teaching Black Hat a lesson would be twisting his wish to make it beneficial to humanity. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 08:20, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

"And I want you to put it in my house." / [POOF!] - "Here, I turned your house into a Klein bottle."
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.39|172.71.160.39]] 08:25, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:That would better satisfy "And I want my house to contain it", from one single-step literalist perspective... Wishes-gone-strange ''usually'' work on the basis of the 'laziest' misinterpretation (with or without the intention of mallice) that doesn't require too much reinterpretation.
:But how to misinterpret "put it in my house"? Hmmm... Nothing to suggest that it must stay there. Perhaps everything is going to be squeezed in through the front door and (Niagra Straw-like) eventually pushes most out of the back door. The house structure (but not fixtures and fittings) magically strengthened to continue being houselike, even as whatever the back yard is like (before it gets its own turn of being sequentially transported through) fills up with mountains (literally!) of the resulting wreckage/mishmash.
:But not sure if the house itself is not already "in the house", i.e. its structure, to be exempt by prior "in"ness (if not ownership)... I'm not a genie, and have not gone through the rather extensive training/job-orientation that they clearly go through. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.34|172.70.90.34]] 14:56, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

I had a good laugh when I saw [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2741:_Wish_Interpretation&diff=prev&oldid=306692 one of these 'corrections']. US English mandates "fulfill", where the UK/etc English version is "fulfil", yet it also goes the other way and uses words like "reveler" where most (all?) other versions of English would prefer "reveller".
 And would hope that, whenever words get USified, the editor involved realises (or "realizes", yet surprisingly not ever "realizez"!) that they aren't actually correcting typos (like they sometimes comment), merely relocalising the wordz.. sorry.. ''words''! :P [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.65|172.71.178.65]] 15:21, 23 February 2023 (UTC)