explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2795: Glass-Topped Table

2023-06-29T11:39:56Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2795
| date = June 28, 2023
| title = Glass-Topped Table
| image = glass_topped_table.png
| titletext = You can pour a drink into it while hosting a party, although it's a real pain to fit in the dishwasher afterward.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a pair of GLASSES.}}
A play on the common term for a table, such as a dining or coffee table, that has a glass surface. "Glass-topped table" usually means the table top is made of glass, but in this comic the phrase represents, instead, a table with a glass surface where surface has been "topped" with a drinking glass. Notably, the glass is part of the table top, merged with the regular glass surface so that the glass can not be lifted off of the table. This would thus require the use of a straw to drink from it.

Furthermore, the otherwise normal-looking drinking glass looks like it has been placed over the edge of the table and is about to fall off. This could make anyone unfamiliar with the table likely to automatically reach out for the glass to prevent what appears to be an imminent disaster. This could potentially have unfortunate consequences, since the glass is not independently movable without shifting the entire table. Assuming the person does not hurt their hand or arm, from the unexpected load as they take the strain through sheer reflex, they may successfully move the glass ''and entire table'' to cause other things on/adjacent to the table to be toppled/struck sideways. (

It is not certain if the advertisement for this item makes this configuration clear. By its name alone, buyers might expect to get an ordinary table with a glass surface, but few of them would be interested in buying one when they discover the extra glass attached and the caption says this is the least popular item in their furniture store. At first glance, in a store, most people would be drawn to 'prevent the imminent accident' and end up thwarted or creating other problems. In a web-page/catalogue picture, the glass would just look like part of the scenic depiction presentation of the table, albeit a weird one. It is not unusual that a table in a commercial would feature glasses, or other accessories artfully placed upon it, to give it a sense of scale and contextual use, but the dissonance of the 'carelessly' positioned glass would work against the usual advertising pressures employed. Anyone who still ordered the table, without establishing the true nature of its permanent feature, is also then likely to complain and negotiate a refund/replacement (negating whatever sales were actually made) and write bad reviews (discouraging others from even looking at the product).

The title text adds to this by saying it would be difficult to put the glass in a dishwasher, since you would need to bring the table with it. There are dishwashers [https://www.thekbzine.com/pages/13317/worlds_largest_dishwasher_unveiled/#:~:text=Bosch%20unveiled%20the%20world's%20largest,water%20and%20stay%20perfectly%20dry big enough] to fit tables, but they are not for regular households.{{cn}} And that won't make moving the table any easier. Cleaning the glass after a drink would thus have to be done by hand, and the water in the glass has to be sucked out, mopped up or drained by inverting the whole table (or entire top, if detachable) in a non-damaging way.

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows a square table with a glass surface. The glass surface is not clear enough to see through. A drinking glass stands nearly half-way over the right edge of the table, so it looks like it is in 'danger' of falling. Apparently, however, is seems that this glass is merged with the glass surface of table, thus it cannot fall off. There is a caption below the panel:]
:The least popular item at my furniture store is probably the table with a decorative drinking glass built into the edge of the glass top.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Puns]]

Talk:2789: Making Plans

2023-06-15T09:06:10Z

172.71.178.137:

Help, I can't move my comment down! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.54|AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]] 01:28, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Here I was expecting something about cryptography and how Charlie just invited himself along.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.146|172.71.146.146]] 04:08, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

The alphabetical citation bias occurred in psychology but not biology or geoscience. (Biologist married to psychologist, gloating.) ---- {{unsigned ip|162.158.186.213}}

I disagree with the explanation about the alphabetical sorting of Cueball on Yvonne's phone. AFAIK, Cueball is only the fan nickname given on this wiki, and not an in-universe name, right?
Names starting with R would be pretty far down an alphabetical list, like in Rob... or Randall
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.69|162.158.233.69]] 06:49, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:I agree and have already deleted this. Made a comment on my changes along the idea you wrote here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:04, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

I feel like a better reference point for this than academic citations or ballot paper ordering would be old paper phone directories, where you'd find companies calling themselves things like 'AAA Assistance' in order to appear at the top of their sector listings. Can anyone find a non-anecdotal reference for this?[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 09:06, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2789: Making Plans

2023-06-15T09:05:45Z

172.71.178.137:

Talk:2783: Ruling Out

2023-06-02T18:43:14Z

172.71.178.137:

Wow. the amount of citation needed tags is excessive. Here's a fun idea, do like that SMBC comic and actually find and give citations. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.72|172.69.70.72]] 19:41, 31 May 2023 (UTC)Bumpf
:Definitely. I fixed one (it should have been ''after'' the comma), during some other edits, but was sorely tempted to remove maybe two of them to just keep the funniest one(s). Whichever that(/they) might be. I expect they'll almost all evaporate in a future edit, though, as there's plenty of editting bound to be done. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.219|172.70.90.219]] 19:47, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
::Nice work to whomever on that! Xkcd never fails to make me smile if not LOL, and Explainxkcd never fails to teach cool facts. o7 [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.147|172.69.134.147]] 21:28, 31 May 2023 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure there has been serious scholarship about the habitable zone of some quasars. Let's see.... Here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2364/1/012057/pdf Not absolutely certain, but absolutely '''not''' ruled out. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.24|172.69.134.24]] 20:02, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
:I think that Cueball's scientific team did a study to discount the possibilities of quasars in the habitable zone of a star, not of a habitable zone around a quasar.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.249|172.71.166.249]] 20:52, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
::A quasar could exist in the habitable zone of a star, and if it was particularly dim, it wouldn't make the zone inhabitable. There's no minimum brightness for quasars, is there? For example, [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/728/1/26] defines quasars in terms of relative magnitude, so I don't see why a tiny black hole with a small but sufficient accretion disk in translunar orbit couldn't qualify. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.162|172.69.134.162]] 20:54, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
:::Relative to their ''entire galaxy!'' Fixed explanation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.175|162.158.166.175]] 09:02, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

I don't know how to properly describe the length of time the Moon's orbit of the Earth has been known. If you think that the moon orbits the earth, but you also think the sun, stars, and planets orbit the earth, do you actually have any way to justifiably say that you know that the Moon orbits the Earth? Also, is it worth pointing out the reasons that the moon is such an obvious thing to know about (i.e. its visibility and prominence to the naked eye, its cultural significance,...)?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.183|162.158.174.183]] 20:59, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
:Interesting xkcd (sort-of) reference here. Back when What-If questions started being solicited, I sent in something (roughly) like "When trying to justify the original geocentric theory of the solar system, it is said that it had always 'looked like everything went round the Earth'... What would it have looked like if it had always looked like everything, including the Earth, went round the Sun?" ...which I'm pretty sure never got answered. Probably didn't spark enough possible scope for that good old xkcd magic. But I saw plenty of other good stuff, so no regrets on my part. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.251|172.70.162.251]] 23:14, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
::I think your question was particularly difficult to answer in any way other than "Everything ''does'' go around the sun. To see what that looks like, look up." I suppose your question (if I'm understanding what you may be looking for) may be stated otherwise as "How different would the movement of our Solar System need to be in order to make it obvious that everything revolves around the sun (to a layperson observer on Earth)"? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.194|172.70.206.194]] 14:50, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
:::I don't see much difference between the two ways of putting it (unless you think your one means seeing the 'orbital rails' upon which everything encircles things, or something).
:::Maybe, though, a fairly visible (lunar-sized) satellite of Mars/Venus might be on the edge of discernability (not needing Galileo's assisted view of the Saturnian system, just the kind of patience that raw-eyeballing astronomers used with discerning 'close' stars from each other) thus demonstrating non-geocentrism much earlier and easier and somewhat more undeniable. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.128|172.71.242.128]] 17:29, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
::::My proposed question was meant to clarify, so it shouldn't be much different :-) I don't know what the answer would be, but my hope was to clear up that the question wasn't simply "What would it look like if the Earth revolved around the sun?" which is what I had originally interpreted the question as before I decided that it probably wasn't the question that was meant to be asked [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.90|172.70.210.90]] 17:40, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
:::::Maybe clunkily given here (really we need to see the original Q, not the half-recalled paraphrasing so many years after) but "in order to make it obvious that everything revolves around the [S]un" doesn't look like what you say you first read it as. So to bad writing (capital 'S'!) perhaps add bad reading, I suspect. But we're all fallible. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.171|172.70.91.171]] 17:57, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Y'know, I'm not entirely convinced that "tectonically active black holes" is something that we're actually capable of ruling out [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.190|172.68.174.190]] 22:33, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
:Even if the black hole is tectonically active, its activity is in one direction only: forward, where you can never catch up to it. The damage is extreme, but it's held safely in the boundary of the singularity. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.203|172.70.130.203]] 01:10, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
:I agree; black holes occupy a non-zero volume. Since the space below the event horizon has depth, I don't see any reason why the arrangement of mass inside could not shift. Indeed, the evidence of gravitational irregularities affecting their accretion discs, seems like evidence of nonhomogeneity within that volume. I think black holes probably ''do'' have "tectonic" activity!
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:27, 2 June 2023 (UTC)
::Counting all the volume within the event horizon (infinite, due to the infinite curvature), the density wouldn't support tectonics. The acretion disc is affected by what is on the verge of falling in (minus what has ''actually'' fallen in which just acts as a hairless 'lump'). Not sure you can call what happens in the disc as 'tectonics'... No pressures from below (the opposite) it's just interactions of decaying orbits. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 18:43, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

Did anyone else see the connection between this comic and the NASA briefing yesterday on UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, their term for UFOs)? In the briefing they discussed that the approach they'd need to take is one of ruling out everything else instead of saying for certain that "this is a UAP". I think that's the entire intent of this joke - to comment on the NASA briefing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.175.113|162.158.175.113]] 11:50, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, the first two classes of object listed couldn't be 'ruled out' by a study, since they're non-existent by definition, and therefore can't be subject to any meaningful proof or disproof.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 15:58, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
:While exoplanets in our solar system are non-existent by definition, ruling out earth-like stars does need some study to prove that earth is neither star nor sufficiently star-like. Note that you CAN find Jupiter-like stars. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 20:55, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
:I think part of the joke is that the "study" is just a scientist saying "Yup, that can't exist." [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 01:19, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

I think the entire point of including “habitable-zone quasars” was completely missed so far. It’s not that a quasar can’t have a habitable zone near it, even if that’s unlikely, nor is it that a quasar couldn’t be in a star’s habitable zone. It’s that SO WHAT IF IT IS? You couldn’t inhabit a quasar regardless what ‘zone’ it was in. If you were looking for a new home, you’d look at homes within a price range you could afford (not too expensive, but not TOO cheap). Looking for a quasar in the habitable zone of a star would be like asking a realtor to show you an active volcano within your price range. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.155|172.69.33.155]] 20:13, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
:Well ... "active volcano within my price range" is exactly what traditional Evil Overlord asks for. The smarter ones ask for volcanos which are non-active but can be made looking active. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 20:55, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
::Volcano?!? Most of us can't even afford a sinkhole.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:31, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

Given the text at the bottom of the drawing, this also sounds like a reference to Hempel's paradox (aka raven paradox) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_paradox
[[User:Gisbert|Gisbert]] ([[User talk:Gisbert|talk]]) 21:01, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Talk:1418: Horse

2023-05-17T02:41:40Z

172.71.178.137: Undo revision 313283 by 172.71.154.87 (talk) Read the whole contribution. "The force population.."? It's *all* 'typo', that's clearly the point Artyer was making. Don't bother to edit.

*May the horse be with you Luke.
*The horse is strong with this one.
*I felt a tremor in the horse.
Why did he forget SW. That is not like Randall ;) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:50, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
: I gotta think maybe Randall's making a subtle statement that Star Wars just ain't so relevant these days... [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 21:50, 15 September 2014 (UTC)
::They are all news headlines [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.61|141.101.70.61]] 17:54, 5 June 2016 (UTC)
: Yeah, I'm surprised that the mouseover-text wasn't "Use the horse, Luke." or something. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.183|162.158.69.183]] 14:05, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

----

Following up on the title text... "Why was he suspended?" "Due to allegations of excessive horse."

[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.201|173.245.56.201]] 09:01, 8 September 2014 (UTC) Siuntio

So I linked it to the old substitutions page - gjgfuj [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.219|108.162.250.219]] 10:05, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

Like the "Clouds-to-butts" plugin for Chrome. {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.231}}
:More information in Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/24odjt/cloud_to_butts_extension/]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 14:16, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

I added a modified version of Cloud-to-Butt plugin [https://www.dropbox.com/s/0mswga09c5uf9h4/cloud2butt2.xpi?dl=0 to my dropbox]. All credit for coding/programming goes to [https://github.com/DaveRandom/cloud-to-butt-mozilla Steven Frank], its creator - I just unpacked the XPI file, added the Force->Horse and force->horse text replacement (while of course still keeping "the cloud" going to "my butt" because that is awesome) and then repacked it. You can install it in Firefox like any other .XPI file. Enjoy! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.221|108.162.221.221]] 16:19, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

:I edited your comment. I suppose you meant "Force->Horse" but it was written "Horse->Horse", probably as a consequence of the plugin in action. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.99.189|188.114.99.189]] 05:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

----

Would it be funny the other way?
*The force population has been in decline since the industrial revolution
*Rules of polo: You need a force.
*People do not like it when there is force in their beef.
*Cause I'm coming at you like a dark force (in {{w|Katy Perry}}'s song "Dark Force")
*A force is running at 9 meters per second and tries to catch up with a car (from physics textbook)

I do ;) —[[User:Artyer|Artyer]] ([[User talk:Artyer|talk]]) 18:33, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
:+1 for the reference to a certain beef production incident in europe [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.61|141.101.70.61]] 17:56, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

----
Correctforcebatterystaple [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.163|173.245.56.163]] 22:18, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

I originally (earlier today) read it as "Iraqi Air [FH]orse grow'''l'''ing"... Which made less sense than I'd have expected, but I couldn't unread it until just now. Still surreal, but at least not outright Dada[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.233|141.101.98.233]] 00:21, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

"A police horse is a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enhorse the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. (...) Law enhorsement, however, constitutes only part of policing activity." --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.161|141.101.104.161]] 07:21, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

maybe the officer suspended from horse was a reference to the police officer who shot a black person? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.106|108.162.254.106]] 07:39, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Aqua teen hunger horse. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.226|108.162.246.226]] 00:54, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

----

I had previously posted a grumpy comment here (now removed) --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 07:38, 11 September 2014 (UTC)
:Sorry, but that's totally wrong. The discussion section is meant to replace what used to be the old blog's comments section, and is for any discussion relevant to the comic. If you're new here, there's a section on the main page titled "New Here?" which explains the basics of explainxkcd, and it's worth checking out. It also lists the handful of rules we have, including the fact that the discussion page is for talking about the comic. [[User:Az|Az]] ([[User talk:Az|talk]]) 06:59, 11 September 2014 (UTC)
::Sorry about that, and thanks for the pointer. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 07:38, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

----
Explanation Quarks:
Sorry, could not resist... [[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 11:39, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

How about the portion of the Police Horse who are on forceback? {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.170}}

Last time XKCD featured one of these text replacements, people started posting scripts for implementing the text replacement automatically in browsers. I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet. [[User:Diszy|Diszy]] ([[User talk:Diszy|talk]]) 22:03, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

:A few comments back... [[Special:Contributions/188.114.99.189|188.114.99.189]] 05:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

http://bitcoinshell.mooo.com/users/noiob/dev/horse.user.js Here you go. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.179|141.101.104.179]] 16:26, 13 September 2014 (UTC)

----
Interestingly, a sound change from an initial /f/ to /h/ happened in the evolution of Spanish. Examples: fornax --> horno, ferrum --> hierro, factus --> hecho. Of course, all h's subsequently went silent. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.171}}

Cueball is using a desktop computer. Perhaps this will be the last desktop in xkcd? In the last 8 months its been all laptops. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.99}}

That first one certainly hits differently now. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.145|172.70.90.145]] 21:40, 5 May 2022 (UTC)
:Only by some order of magnitude or so. Without looking up the exact dates, the comic was likely topically soon after the initial Crimea-grab and initiation of the 'hot' Donbas internal conflict with the 'rebels'. Including a somewhat more covert presence of actual Russians, back then, but only to 'deniable' levels, and even then not convincingly so to anybody who cared.
:Maybe it makes it less funny, now, or should have been considered less funny then, but I'm not sure this makes it so that it is/was bad-humour. Doesn't change the reality, for better or worse, though.
:Future readers may be more shocked, or more bemused, of course. I can only wave to The Future (hiya!) and hope they properly understand our current and prior perspectives. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.137|162.158.159.137]] 23:21, 5 May 2022 (UTC)

----
I'm no linguist, but "Force" rhymes with "horse". [[What If]] the word "force" as a ''verb'' get replaced by "horse"? Also there is "''horse''power" which measures power, not force. And, you know, the phoneme "f" and "h" sound very similar in some languages. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 08:43, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

692: Dirty Harry

2023-05-03T17:45:17Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */ To clarify which gun he could usefully grab (and why he has to).

{{comic
| number = 692
| date = January 22, 2010
| title = Dirty Harry
| image = dirty_harry.png
| titletext = Sci-fi has energy weapons because otherwise the people like me who watch it get distracted counting shots.
}}

== Explanation ==
The comic references {{w|Dirty Harry}} and {{w|Rain Man}}, two classic American films, from very different genres.

''Dirty Harry'' is an action thriller about a police officer named "Dirty" Harry Callahan, who's notorious for being aggressive with criminals and quick to resort to lethal force. His weapon of choice is a .44 magnum revolver (which holds six rounds of ammunition). The comic references one of the most famous scenes in the film, in which Harry has a criminal at gunpoint, following a fire-fight. As the criminal considers reaching for the weapon he had dropped, Harry claims to have lost track of how many bullets he's fired, meaning that there may or may not be one round left in his gun, and coldly tells his opponent "you must ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky?". The implication being Harry will definitely fire if the man reaches for his gun, and his life will depend on whether there are any bullets left. In the original scene, the suspect surrenders himself rather than risk being killed. It's then revealed that Harry ''had'' emptied his gun, meaning that the other man could have 'won' the stand-off, had he managed to keep track of the shots fired.

''Rain Man'' is a comedy-drama about the relationship between two brothers. One of the brothers, Raymond (AKA "Rain Man"), is autistic and has an {{w|eidetic memory}}. Several times in the film he encounters a number of objects that would be difficult for most people to count (such as toothpicks spilled from a box) and immediately knows how many there are.

The comic portrays a mash-up between the two films, in which Dirty Harry faces Rain Man, instead of a less numerically gifted adversary. Rain Man accurately tracks every bullet fired, and knows that Harry's gun is now empty (with the implication that he can safely grab his own gun and kill Harry).

The title text implies that Randall tends to obsess about tracking quantities, even while watching action films, and thus gets 'distracted' keeping track of how many rounds each person fires. There's a long history in film and television in which scenes involving shoot-outs will have little rigor as to shots fired: characters will routinely fire more rounds that could realistically be contained in the gun, without ever reloading, to the annoyance of mathematically-minded viewers. Science fiction shows will frequently get around this by using various forms of "energy weapons", which don't fire traditional projectiles, and therefore aren't limited to a specific number of shots (at least, not an identifiable number). Randall jokes that this trope exists because "people like me" would otherwise get distracted counting shots. The implication is that science fiction fans have a high percentage of people with obsessive, numerically rigorous tendencies who find such inconsistencies to be a distraction from enjoying the shows.

==Transcript==
:[Detective "Dirty" Harry Callahan stands near a wall, pointing a revolver at another figure, presumably a suspect, reclined on the ground. A shotgun is on the ground next to the reclined figure.]
:Harry Callahan: I know what you're thinking--"Did he fire six shots or only five?" In all this excitement, I-
:Suspect: Six. Definitely six.
:Harry Callahan: Shit.

:Dirty Harry Meets Rain Man

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

1963: Namespace Land Rush

2023-05-02T19:20:24Z

172.71.178.137: Xkcd covers printed examples of the comic. And removing irrelevent self-refererences to this site.

{{comic
| number = 1963
| date = March 5, 2018
| title = Namespace Land Rush
| image = namespace_land_rush.png
| titletext = You can also just mash the keyboard at random, but you might end up with a gibberish name no one can pronounce.
}}

==Explanation==

When a new web service starts, such as a forum, a social media server or an email portal, the people who sign up get to choose their username on the service, which, in most cases, blocks future users from using those usernames. Common names such as "john" are likely to be taken quickly. This is analogous to the way that land was distributed in America, with the first to claim able to choose the best land.

This comic is a list of usernames [[Randall]] suggests should be used if they are available.

The title text is a self-reference to "xkcd"; the name of the comic is a purposefully unpronounceable phrase created by Randall. The fact that an unpronounceable name is portrayed as a disadvantageous outcome is also humorous because the comic has a section dedicated to unpronounceable usernames.

(Note: for a more serious list of problematic user names to block from a service provider’s point of view, see [https://ldpreload.com/blog/names-to-reserve Hostnames and usernames to reserve] as well as [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2142 RFC 2142].)

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
!style="width:30%"|Entry
!style="width:70%"|Explanation
|-
!colspan=2|Straightforward (Usernames that a person would use under typical circumstances)
|-
|<Your usual username, if any>
|Most internet users will have settled on some unique handle that they try to use across all platforms. Even if this wasn't a new service, most people would try this first.
|-
|<Your given name>
|More rare is using one's nickname or first name as their username, since the amount of common names will mean many users share a name. Thus, if you can get your given name, you will have a simple username that many others wanted, and without resorting to prefixes or numbers (i.e. Xx_MyName00_xX)
|-
|<Your full name>
|Similar to your given name, but slightly more unique since a last name and/or middle name is added.
|-
|<Initial><Surname>
|A common second choice if a given or full name is already in use.
|-
|<Surname>
|Possibly available if your last name is more uncommon; names like "Smith" or "Kim" will probably be taken faster than even given names.
|-
!colspan=2|Recognizable (Usernames that would make it look like the email came from an official source within the organization named)
|-
|Google
|Registering the name "Google" would allow for communicating on the site (or even outside of it) with a name that appears to be an official Google account. For any of the examples in this section, you would select the names for the same reason. This has been done in the past with both [https://twitter.com/BiIIMurray humorous] and [http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/technology/ct-russian-twitter-account-tennessee-gop-20171018-story.html nefarious] results.
|-
|iPhone
|Many services would mark messages sent from an iOS client on iPhone as "sent from iPhone".
This could make people believe that your messages are sent from an iPhone even if you don't own one.
|-
|Facebook
|Similar to Google above.
|-
|Bitcoin
|One could pose as the Bitcoin Core development group by using this handle and/or scam uninformed users interested in cryptocurrencies.
|-
|Obama
|Impersonating the former president, supposedly to send messages as them to make them seem bad (or not).
|-
|Canada
|Impersonating a whole country might get you in trouble.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|NFL
|The American "National Football League".
|-
|Garfield
|In the original "GMail" service on the Internet, the G stood for "Garfield".
|-
|<Your city>
|Impersonating the official account for your place of residence.
|-
|NASA
|The American "National Aeronautics and Space Administration". Randall worked there as a contract programmer and roboticist.
|-
|<Name of person who runs the service>
|Impersonating the site owner can allow you to gain the trust of users.
|-
!colspan=3|Causing Trouble (Usernames that might cause errors when mixed with the service's back-end code)
|-
|User
|This is usually the default username for a non-administrative account. This may trick a user that this is owned by the operator of the service.
|-
|Username
|See above.
|-
|Name
|See above.
|-
|You
|Many services display "You" as the signed-on user, so naming oneself "You" makes users think that they are you/they are signed on when they aren't.
|-
|Guest
|Attempts to fool users into thinking that they have a guest account.
|-
|Account
|The opposite of "Guest" (someone without an account). However, for someone with an account, their username will usually be displayed. There is an active user named "Account" on Explain XKCD.
|-
!colspan=2|Causing More Trouble
|-
|Admin
|Impersonating to be a system administrator will let someone fool people and cause a lot of trouble. In particular, it could be used to obtain SSL certificates by demonstrating ownership of a supposedly internal address.
|-
|Administrator
|See above.
|-
|System
|Pretending to be a system-controlled account - might give permissions if the server checks by name.
|-
|<Name of service>
|Pretending to be the official account of the service. There are a lot of spammers who did this on Explain XKCD.
|-
|Help
|Pretending to be the help account. This could led to many questions from new users.
|-
|Error
|This may trick users to do what the user says as they could claim that it was a legitimate error.
|-
!colspan=2|Impossible to Say
|-
|Hyphen-Emdash
|Could be read "Hyphen hyphen Em dash" or "Hyphen dash em dash". In addition, in many markup languages (such as the one used by this very wiki) one can create a larger hyphen with some variation of an "&mdash" command, which could theoretically be pronounced "emdash."
|-
|Dash-8hyphen-8
|Could be read "Dash dash eight hyphen dash eight" or "Dash hyphen eight hyphen hyphen eight". "Hyphen eight" sounds like "hyphenate".
|-
|Zero0ne2numeral2
|Could be read "Zero zero one two numeral two" or "Zero zero ne two numeral two" or "Zero oh ne two numeral two".
|-
|KrisasinHemsworth
|This would be confusing to say out loud, as it would sound like the user was saying that their username was "Chris," spelled the same way that famous actor {{w|Chris Hemsworth}} spells his name. However, the actual username uses the name "Kris," spelled a completely different way than Chris Hemsworth's name, and the phrase "as in Hemsworth" being also part of the username, rather than a clarification of the spelling of "Kris" as would be assumed.
|-
|TheWord&Ampersand
|This would also be confusing and difficult to communicate, as anyone trying to read the username to someone else would say "The word ampersand ampersand" which could be interpreted as "ampersand&" or "ampersand ampersand". Having the phrase "the word" in front of a symbol makes it quite difficult to communicate which variation of ampersand (word or symbol) is actually being referred to.
|-
|ZettaWith3Teees 
|Read aloud, this would lead the listener to expect a username of 'Zettta'. Clarifying that "with three tees" is text and not description would in turn make it difficult to explain the spelling of 'Zetta' with two 't's, and 'Teees' with three 'e's.
|-
!colspan=2|Misc
|-
|<Single Letters> and <Single Numbers>
|These are highly valuable. The Twitter handle "@n" for example is constantly bombarded with offers and hacking attempts.
|-
|<Common Words>
|Also highly valuable; overlaps with "Recognizable" and "Causing (more) Trouble".
|-
|<SQL/JS Injection>
|Codes such as "Drop Table" intended to cause errors or even damage the service's back-end code. (See [[327|Comic 327]])
|-
|ASDF and QWERTY
|Since those keys are right next to each other (on English language layouts), they are often typed as placeholders.
|-
|Yes
|This might be a [[Beret Guy]]-esque misunderstanding when filling out the sign up form. When encountering the form field "Username:" someone may type "Yes" (as in "yes, I want a username") instead of specifying it.
|-
|Bot and Computer
|Pretending to be a bot.
|-
|Blocked
|When users get banned or blocked, their name is often replaced by a string like this.
|-
|Deleted
|Some services like Reddit keep up user posts and data after account deletion, marking the content as submitted by the user "[Deleted]" or "Deleted".
|-
|Jeeves
|Might refer to {{w|Ask Jeeves}} (now Ask.com), a Internet Search Engine.
|-
|Narrator
|In books, radio plays and movies it is quite common to have a narrator explain parts of the story. In an online forum however, it is not.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|Internet
|"The Internet" sometimes refers to a large group of users, the collective hive-mind if you will. However, there cannot be a single user account speaking on behalf of them, as they aren't a single entity.
|-
|NPC
|Stands for Non-player character.
|-
|Password
|If the user accidentally typed their password into the username field, this would be the result.
|-
!colspan=2|Permissive Character Sets
|-
|<Space>
|Usernames containing only whitespace can not only be confusing for other people, but often systems 'trim' (remove whitespace at the beginning and end) user input. If the username was only made of spaces, after trimming it would be completely empty, which can cause a whole slew of other problems.
|-
|<nowiki>@ é |</nowiki>
|The @ separates the local part from the domain part of email addresses. If a service decides to create email addresses for their users, they will have a hard time if they allowed the "at" character as part of a username.
é is encoded in many character sets, like Latin-1 and Unicode. In Unicode, it can even be described either "U+00E9 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE" or as the sequence "U+0065 LATIN SMALL LETTER E" and "U+0301 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT". If a system uses {{w|Unicode normalization}} after the check if the username is available, this might allow someone to take over someone else's account.
|-
|<nowiki>“ ” " ‘ ’ ' `</nowiki>
|Various quotation marks.
“, ”,‘ and ’ (Unicode quotes): can expose a system's inability to handle multi-byte-encodings. If they are converted to their ASCII counterparts, they might cause code injections.
' and " (ASCII single and double quotes): often used as string delimeter (causing the rest of the name to be interpreted as HTML, or worse, code.
` (ASCII grave / backtick): Sometimes used as string delimeter; Perl (which some websites are still programmed in) executes commands ("shell code") when between backticks.
|-
|<NBSP>
|Unicode character "U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE". Similar attack vector as <Space>, but some programming languages will not strip non-ASCII whitespace (therefore the validation will pass).
|-
|<nowiki>\ . #</nowiki>
|The backslash is very often used for "escape sequences", that get expanded to other characters. (\n -> newline, \t -> tab character, \b -> backspace character (deletes the character to its left), etc.)
The period can be problematic in emails. RFC 2822 forbids periods at the beginning or end of the local part or more than one period in a row.
In URLs, the Octothorpe (#) is used as the 'anchor'. Anything following a # will not be transmitted to the server. If a user is named 'logout#blahblah' (which might be a valid username) and the user profile is located at http://example.com/<the_username>, the server might generate the URL http://example.com/logout#blahblah. Since the URL will be truncated at the '#', any user attempting to view this profile will be logged out of the service.
|-
|<RTL override>
|The right to left override is an Unicode character which forces text after it to be laid out right to left. Thus, in left-to-right locales, it flips everything after it. This can be rather amusing if permitted. (See [[1137|Comic 1137]])
|-
|<nowiki>– - _ /</nowiki>
|Includes both the em-dash and the hyphen, which are easily confused and are highly unusual for user names. The forward slash is also the path delimeter for URLs; if user profiles are located at e.g. <nowiki>http://example.com/user/the_username</nowiki>, this can cause obvious issues. Explain XKCD does not allow <code>/</code> in usernames.
|-
|<Any emoji>
|Current databases are not set up to store emojis as characters. Explain XKCD does allow emoji in usernames. {{actual citation needed}}
|-
|","
|In CSV files this separates one column or data item from another. This could cause bugs if the usernames are used as part of a CSV file since the next column on the row could be left blank filled with other data.
|-
|<nowiki>&NBSP</nowiki>;
|The special entity in HTML (web page language) for a non-breaking space, or a space that prevents an automatic line-break at its position. When rendered as part of an HTML page without sanitization, this would only display a space. However, if the username in question is really long, this would increase the page's width (details needed).
|-
|<nowiki></HTML></nowiki>
|This is trying to inject code for the web page using the user name. If the user name is not sanitized and does not have special characters encoded, this HTML end tag could end the HTML document, leading to page errors.
|-
|&LT;/HTML&GT;
|&lt; and &gt; are special character entities in HTML that represent < and >, repectively. So all together, when rendered as part of an HTML document, this would print "<nowiki></HTML></nowiki>" Although this would look similar to the previous <nowiki></HTML></nowiki> entry, it would be unlikely to cause problems as the symbols are not interpreted if encoded as special entities.
|-
|OkThisIsKindOfConfusingButIt's <LessThan\ForwardSlashHTML GreaterThanActualGreaterThan Symbol>Yes,ThatWasAllPartOfThe Name,ButSoIs...Ok,LetMeStartOver”
|The abundance of symbols and symbol related worlds and phrases such as ActualGreaterThanSymbol would make this extremely difficult to vocally communicate to another person. This difficulty is further compounded by the parts at the beginning and end, which sound like they are part of the explanation despite being part of the name itself.
|-
|}

==Transcript==
'''Namespace Land Rush Cheat Sheet'''
(Note: if an item is "quoted", it is meant literally, otherwise the reader is supposed to substitute their own information for words in <angle brackets>)

When a new service appears that lets you register a name, here are some you may want to try and get first:

* Straightforward
** <Your usual username, if any>
** <Your given name>
** <Your full name>
** <Initial><Surname>
** <Surname> (Bold & Slightly Unconventional)

* Recognizable
** "Google"
** "iPhone"
** "Facebook"
** "BitCoin"
** "Obama"
** "Canada"
** "NFL"
** "Garfield"
** <Your city>
** "NASA"
** <Name of person who runs the service>

* Causing Trouble
** "User"
** "Username"
** "Name"
** "You"
** "Guest"
** "Account"

* Causing More Trouble
** "Admin"
** "Administrator"
** "System"
** <Name of service>
** "Help"
** "Error"

* Impossible to Say
** "Hyphen-Emdash"
** "Dash-8hyphen-8"
** "Zero0ne2numeral2"
** "KrisasinHemsworth"
** "TheWord&Ampersand"
** "ZettaWith3Teees" 

* Misc
** <Single Letters>
** <Single Numbers>
** <Common Words>
** <SQL/JS Injection>
** "ASDF"
** "QWERTY"
** "Yes"
** "Bot"
** "Computer"
** "Blocked"
** "Deleted"
** "Jeeves"
** "Narrator"
** "Internet"
** "NPC"
** "Password"

* Permissive Character Sets
** <Space>
** <NBSP>
** <RTL override>
** <Any emoji>
** "<nowiki>&NBSP</nowiki>;"
** "<nowiki></HTML></nowiki>"
** "&LT;/HTML&GT;"
** one or more of the following symbols: <nowiki>@ é | “ ” \ . # " ‘ – - _ / ’ ' `</nowiki>
** "," (including quote marks)
** "OkThisIsKindOfConfusingButIt's<LessThan\ForwardSlashHTMLGreaterThanActualGreaterThanSymbol>Yes,ThatWasAllPartOfTheName,ButSoIs...Ok,LetMeStartOver”"

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics_with_lowercase_text]]
[[Category:iOS]]
[[Category:Internet]]

1687: World War III+

2023-04-27T20:51:13Z

172.71.178.137:

{{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{{citation needed}} 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]]

Talk:2763: Linguistics Gossip

2023-04-18T08:05:21Z

172.71.178.137: Highlighting your obfuscation attempt.

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)

NOTE: I'm assuming the IE/VE ligature is IE, where the I is tilted
Could this also be a reference to the historical Latin pronunciation of Æ, and its separation into "AA" (which could be represented by "ar" in English ("r" is silent), hence the ligature "AR") and "IE" (which would be pronounced "ee" as in "relieve") [[User:1844161|1844161]] ([[User talk:1844161|talk]]) 15:21, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: I disagree. The title text strongly points towards VE as the logical interpretation [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 15:52, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: Me too. Also, funnily I thought of Andy Warhol...but in his "LOVE" pop art, the O is tilted, not the V.[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.133|198.41.242.133]] 09:20, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
::That wasn't Warhol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(image) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.151|162.158.63.151]] 13:33, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

I think it might be helpful to readers to provide a parenthetical describing the pronunciation of the 'ash' glyph, so that people who aren't old language aficionados aren't left in the lurch if they're the sort who read aloud in their head. I'm going to add it, but if someone removes it I won't be miffed. Also, there's no way the new E ligature is meant to be IE. The title text only makes sense if it's VE.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.136|172.69.67.136]] 15:56, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: Thank you. That was super helpful as I'm language-curious, but not an æficænado. Any chance we could get similar explanations of the AR (seems legit) & AV(seems not)? [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 13:49, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

I hope AR wedding hat a pirate theme. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 16:05, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

The AR ligature is used in aeronautical engineering for the aspect ratio of a wing. This mainly applies to handwritten work, since there isn't an easy way to insert that glyph when typing. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 17:18, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: Example of 🜇 in aeronautics: http://tug.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/aspectratio/ar.pdf . It was also used in antiquity: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exempla_Mensurarum_Sal%C3%B2.JPG [[User:Jlearman|Jlearman]] ([[User talk:Jlearman|talk]]) 19:29, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

The AR (🜇) ligature also stands for a substance that can mix with gold. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.125|162.158.166.125]] 09:09, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
:If you mean {{w|Aqua regia}}, it's not so much 'mix with' as 'dissolve'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.34|172.70.90.34]] 18:08, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
::Is this comic inspired by an "aqua regia" incident? [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 02:07, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Does it have to be? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.31|172.70.86.31]] 19:24, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

2763 -MathHacked

I suppose the Æsop is that it's not necessary to maintain a chimæric quæstionability just for primævally æsthetic reasons, or have sæcularly dæmonic adhærence to adhæsively mæandering through an anæsthetic tædium of hæritage fæcality. Unless that's all just hæretical hyperbolæ, casting pædagogical umbræ on the matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.160|172.70.162.160]] 21:22, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: Well plæd.
: AUGH!!! Just make it stop!!!!
It's just too bad they all now live in the same ''small recreational vehicle'' because that leads to awkwardness. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.159|172.71.142.159]] 02:07, 15 April 2023 (UTC)
: Seems pretty roomy based on the space between them.;)

A and E got REM🜇RIED?! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.96|172.70.38.96]] 05:28, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

It is downright incorrect to refer to the ae-ligature as 'ash', as this is only true when it is used to Latinize the aesc-rune in Old English, which is anything but the most common use of this ligature. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.192|172.70.46.192]] 18:01, 15 April 2023 (UTC)
: Does it really matter? It's certainly not the only glyph(s) which are supposed to be multiple letters but get grouped and treated as identical because the difference is tomayto/tomahto. Take the diaresis and the umlaut, for example. Different origins, different functions, Unicode only assigns one codepoint for both. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.51|162.158.178.51]] 04:02, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

I went looking for "AR" and "VE" ligatures in general use (and in Unicode), and found nothing. Are they in general use? If not, a comment to that effect in the explanation would be helpful. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 21:44, 15 April 2023 (UTC)
:(Ignoring that D5xtgr said there was an AR, and an IP even ''wrote'' an 🜇...) Of course they weren't in general use, because A and E were together all that time, but now they're recoupled..! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 21:58, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

I'm no linguist, but this may refer to the fact that many languages with the AE ligature are romance languages, while English is not. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 09:04, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

[[https://battlefordreamisland.fandom.com/wiki/2,763 2763]] is a running gag in BFDI :) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.106|172.71.22.106]] 19:02, 16 April 2023 (UTC)Bumpf
:Probably unrelated. By the way, is it OK for me to edit comic explanations? [[User:Missed Connections|935: Missed Connections]] ([[User talk:Missed Connections|talk]]) 22:58, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
:Don't feign ignorance, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2763:_Linguistics_Gossip&diff=prev&oldid=310554 CG]. Do as you know you should do and (whatever accounts you use) make any useful edits to Explanations that you think are necessary, but refrain from rewording Talk stuff from anyone else (without very good reason, such as reverting vandalism of spam). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.169|172.70.85.169]] 08:09, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

AE could refer to Adam and Eve

Then we get EV as Eve.
Not yet sure where AR refers to, Adam and Romeo, Augmented Reality?
Love does contain VE as reverse of EV.
[[User:XKCDnl|XKCDnl]] ([[User talk:XKCDnl|talk]]) 04:16, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

AR stands for:
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%9F%9C%87
synonym for
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%9F%9C%86#Translingual
stands for to "aqua regia" that means:
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/aqua_regia
"royal water"

So we have Eve and the royal water, so is she now baptised and blessed with love?
[[User:XKCDnl|XKCDnl]] ([[User talk:XKCDnl|talk]]) 14:48, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
The letter Æ is, to me pronounce "fuckit, not gonna read this book!" The ita initial teaching does include a similar character.

2758: My Favorite Things

2023-04-04T00:28:49Z

172.71.178.137: /* Transcript */ Just "kettle", in the lyrics. Even if exluding that tea postdates Ea-nāṣir (and possibly recognisable roses, even kettles of any form), we can't say that they aren't generic kettles. Plus "teakettle" sounds awkward, to my English ear.

{{comic
| number = 2758
| date = April 3, 2023
| title = My Favorite Things
| image = my_favorite_things_2x.png
| imagesize = 277x426px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = When an Ur guy / sells Nanni things / but the copper's bad, / He simply records his complaint for all time / "I got a bad deal / I'm maaaaad"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a STONE BOT WITH COPPER VENEER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Cueball is singing a song, beginning with the words from "{{w|My Favorite Things (song)|My Favorite Things}}", which begins "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens/Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens". But instead of the actual words, he instead notices that his copper kettles are "flaking" off. He complains about Ea-nāṣir, referencing the {{w|complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir}}, the earliest known complaint.

Notably, the complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir was about poor-quality copper. It was also referenced in [[2650: Deepfakes]].

The title text continues to the middle of the song, which is this: "When the dog bites/When the bee stings/When I'm feeling sad/I simply remember my favorite things/And then I don't feel so bad".

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

:[Cueball is standing between a small rosebush and a kitten.]
:Cueball (singing): Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

:[Cueball is now wearing mittens and holding a kettle with flakes falling off it. The kitten is looking up at him. There is another kettle on the ground next to the rosebush.]
:Cueball (singing): Bright copper kettles leave ...flakes on my mittens!?

:[Cueball has turned the kettle he's holding upside down and is examining it. More flakes are falling off of it.]
:Cueball (singing): Hey, these are stone with a copper veneer!

:[Cueball is holding his hands out with his elbows bent, still wearing the mittens. The two kettles are next to each other on the ground by the rosebush. The kitten is looking up at him again.]
:Cueball (singing): I've been bamboozled by Ea-nāṣir!

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

Talk:2169: Predictive Models

2023-03-25T01:20:48Z

172.71.178.137:

If you click on the comic, it opens a page with error 404. Looking at the URL, it says "At the July 28th meeting", which I assume is the prediction result to the title text suggesting that they will be 1 month late. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.174|162.158.106.174]] 17:13, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

: Fixsed it, my years of mediawiki knowledge have finally come to use. [[User:Iggyvolz|Iggyvolz]] ([[User talk:Iggyvolz|talk]])

In the HTML tag for the link (the <a> tag surrounding the comic image) after the link it says "cancel the meeting! our cover is blown" [[User:Everlastingwonder|Everlastingwonder]] ([[User talk:Everlastingwonder|talk]]) 17:21, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

In the [https://m.xkcd.com/2169/ mobile version], you can read «See also: [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab] "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown."» It leads to a 404, like the other examples in the comments here. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.44.136|172.69.44.136]] 17:31, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

This looks a whole lot like Gmail's [https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/smart-compose-using-neural-networks-to.html Smart Compose] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.76|172.68.206.76]]

Today GMail actually predicted the beginning of my mail correctly. I typed literally zero characters and it already knew how to continue. In the future, we won't even have to upload our brains to a computer, a backup will already be available there automatically. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 21:32, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

Not a backup, a simulation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.184|108.162.219.184]] 04:46, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

: If you can't tell the difference, does it matter? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.147|173.245.48.147]] 17:04, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

On my Mac the title text only shows "WE WILL ARREST THE REVOLUTION MEMBERS" while on my iPad (where you long press to see title texts) long pressing only shows the link. Weird. Also someone remind me to check the link again on July 28. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 13:10, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

: On my Ubuntu system, both Firefox and Chrome display "WE WILL ARREST THE REVOLUTION MEMBERS" as the title text and "<nowiki>https://xkcd.com/[AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab]</nowiki>" as the link target, which is also what's in the HTML source. Additionally, the HTML source is malformed, with quotes inside quotes in the href attribute. - [[User:Linneris|Linneris]] ([[User talk:Linneris|talk]]) 14:37, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
::Malformed. Precisely! I think there was a glitch while the comic was uploaded, which used the title text as a link in addition to as the title text. It didn't include the last part due to the quotes. It will be either fixed or legitimate, or at least make the href a little nicer. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 21:24, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
:::Actually... Looking at the comic again (for the first time on my PC), I would like to rethink that. I think this is Randall's method of demonstrating the [tab]; clicking and looking at the URL. [EDIT] Man, the more I think, the weirder it gets. Maybe it's about how sometimes you can find the information on the client side in the code where it should be hidden? I don't know anymore. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 21:27, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
::When you look at the source of [https://xkcd.com/2169/%5BAT%20THE%20JULY%2028TH%20MEETING%5D%5Btab%5D that 404 page], you can see six HTML comments with the content ''a padding to disable MSIE and Chrome friendly error page''. This is to prevent MSIE and Chrome from displaying "helpful" proprietary error pages. If you change the link in the slightest, you will also get a 404 page, but without these comments. I assume that either this was a glitch (intended or unintended) and this particular 404 page was modified so that everyone can see that the authors are aware of it, *or* it's a hint pointing to somewhere else. A rabbit hole maybe? I would like the latter to be true, but I haven't found anything.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.168|162.158.90.168]] 22:42, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
:::Not for me. I see the same tiny Nginx 404 page with the same HTML source as any other 404 page due to invalid link on xkcd.com. - [[User:Linneris|Linneris]] ([[User talk:Linneris|talk]]) 07:14, 30 June 2019 (UTC)
::My computer did that, but then it didn't happen anymore and the title text was complete.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.44.146|172.69.44.146]] 13:09, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

This reminds me of that time where via data analytics on things like shopping habits, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html Target figured out that a teen girl was pregnant before her father did]. [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 06:42, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

I tried this on google, and got "we will arrest chamisa" and "the meeting will be in room 27" and "our next meeting will be at 3 p.m. on wednesday". Any more? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.214|162.158.59.214]] 19:16, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

I decided to see what a more sophisticated predictive model would do, so I plugged it into Talk to Transformer. The output: "Long live the revolution. Our next meeting will be at 10 a.m. on December 14 at the Cressey Building, 1636 S. Second St. Please invite your friends, family, and coworkers! For those interested in donating to the cause, please contact:" I'm legitimately impressed. [[User:Arcorann|Arcorann]] ([[User talk:Arcorann|talk]]) 01:03, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Thinking about predictive text, in combination with the advice on the futility of making people change their passwords frequently, perhaps systems which require people to change their passwords could be more helpful by observing the pattern the user is using, and suggesting what the next password should be. [https://www.troyhunt.com/passwords-evolved-authentication-guidance-for-the-modern-era/ Passwords Evolved: Authentication Guidance for the Modern Era] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.216|162.158.106.216]] 20:05, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

This paragraph was in the explanation, however the cited source gives no information about how the private correspondence was obtained, and no suggestion that the privacy of the communication channel was compromised. (The most obvious way that such information would be obtained is that somebody who was party to the communication made it available.) I moved it here in case somebody has sources to show that it was a breach of security.
"As humanity adapts to a digital world, people are finding that their digital communications provide the illusion of confidentiality, with damaging results when the information leaks out. Real-life examples include a [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36391957 2016 British trainee doctor strike], where a technically-secure WhatsApp group leaked information to the press." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.220|108.162.245.220]] 05:18, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

Incomplete tag worth saving for posterity, due to H2G2 reference: Created by a PREDICTIVE MODEL THAT WILL BE FIRST AGAINST THE WALL WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.240|172.68.47.240]] 01:56, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

So... is that midnight at 00:00hrs or 24:00hrs upon that date? Might the intending captors choose wrongly and lose the opportunity to pounce upon those they wish to take captive? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 01:20, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

== Social media has been used in revolutions ==

Once revolutions achieve critical mass, they often communicate on more insecure channels. Many of the Arab Spring revolutions involved spread through Twitter. Broadly speaking the security vs contagiousness issues often cause disagreement among revolutionaries.

I.E. Trotskyist/Stalinist disagreements over "Permanent revolution" (expansionist) vs "Socialism in one country" (security and development of the USSR without spending all available surplus on spreading communism directly).

850: World According to Americans

2023-03-10T02:30:31Z

172.71.178.137: Undoing a further series of 'spoiler' edits, clearly meant to disguise misinformed viewspoints.

{{comic
| number = 850
| date = January 21, 2011
| title = World According to Americans
| image = world according to americans.png
| titletext = It's not our fault we caught a group on their way home from a geography bee. And they taught us that Uzbekistan is one of the world's two doubly-landlocked countries!
}}
*A [http://xkcd.com/850_large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==

There's a somewhat well-circulated image on the internet entitled "[http://google.com/search?q=the+world+according+to&tbm=isch The World According to Americans]" which plays on the stereotype of the ignorant American. In it, the entirety of Eastern Europe and most of Asia are entitled "commies" and the Middle-East as "evil-doers," and so on. Later, other people created similar maps to re-do the concept. It later spread to other cultures.

This comic is an anti-joke playing on that idea. You expect to see something which plays on the {{w|stereotypes}} that exist in American culture of various parts of the world. However, instead, the map is remarkably well-informed, and shows how sampling bias can be used to conflate results. See below the [[#Table of items in the map|table of items in the map]].

The title text jokes that in fact the only reason that the map is fairly well annotated is that the group of people labeling it were actually on the way back from a {{w|National Geographic Bee|geography bee}}. This could add weight to the 'Ignorant American' stereotype as these individuals should know more than the common person, implying that if even apparent geography buffs use vague labels such as "rest of South America" and "various former Soviet states" instead of using more detailed labels, the average American must be even less geographically knowledgeable (Although, as the illustrators wrote below Cape Horn, the reason they did not draw Antarctica or many South American, Middle Eastern and British countries and the lack of detail may be because the people who asked them to draw this map were beginning to 'look impatient' since they did not get the expected ignorant result.)

A {{w|landlocked country}} is a country that does not border any major bodies of water. Furthering the concept, a {{w|Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked|doubly-landlocked}} country is a country that not only has no connection to water, but is only bordered by ''other'' landlocked countries. As the title text states, there are only two such countries in the world as of 2012: {{w|Uzbekistan}} and {{w|Liechtenstein}}. This is the type of fact that may be stereotypically expected of a geography bee competitor.

===Table of items in the map===
{| class="wikitable"
!style="width: 25%;"|Annotation
! Further details
|-
| Hey so what projection should we use? I’ll aim for "Robinson".
| Any flat [[977|map projection]] of a sphere must have inaccuracies. {{w|Mercator projection}} displays shapes well at the expense of size. For example, Mercator's Greenland appears larger than South America, but is actually one eighth the size. {{w|Gall-Peters projection}} does the opposite, showing accurate surface area with distorted ("awful") shapes. {{w|Robinson projection}} compromises between shape & size for aesthetics; hence Greenland is "still too big".
|-
| Did you know Maine is actually the US state closest to Africa?
| The distance is about 5076 km (~3754 mi). Measurement points are {{w|Sail Rock (disambiguation)|Sail Rock (Maine)}}, the most eastern point of the USA, and a point which seems to be the most southern (and as such western) point of el-Beddouza Beach, {{w|Morocco}}. It's not the most western point of Morocco (or Africa), though.
|-
| Do we have to label all the Virgin Islands?
| Which are {{w|Virgin_Islands#Larger_Islands|9 larger}} and about 100 {{w|List of Caribbean islands#British Virgin Islands|smaller}} {{w|List of Caribbean islands#United States Virgin Islands|islands}} - surely a lot of labels.
|-
| French, and I think Dutch and English
| The three separated areas are (from west to east) {{w|Guyana}} (former British colony), {{w|Suriname}} (former Dutch colony) and {{w|French Guiana}} (still officially part of France). The former two often switched between French, Dutch and British colonial rule. The latter was French most times except for a short Portuguese episode.
|-
| Brazil (Portugese-speaking)
Rest of South America (Spanish-speaking)
| In green is Portuguese-speaking (misspelled) Brazil, and in blue are the Spanish speaking Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.
|-
| {{w|Greenland}} (Still too big!)
Yeah, but the Peters map is awful
| Relating back to the choice of map projection, the apparent size of Greenland is one of the most commonly known projection based inaccuracies. The {{w|Gall-Peters projection}} shows accurate surface area, but with distorted ("awful") shapes.
|-
|Scandanavia
| A typo of {{w|Scandinavia}}. The area shown includes Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, but the actual area of Scandinavia excludes Finland. The Scandinavian peninsula countries include Norway, Finland, and Sweden, and those can be collectively (and nerdily) referred to as "Fennoscandia."
|-
| Western Europe
Eastern Europe
| The line here approximately follows that of the {{w|Iron Curtain}} that separated the {{w|Warsaw Pact}} states (the Soviet Union and other Communist allies) from the {{w|NATO}} (US-allied) and neutral states. However, all of Germany is included in Western Europe (when during the Cold War it was divided into East and West Germany) while Austria (which was officially neutral in the Cold War but closely tied to the West and therefore blocked off from its Communist neighbors) is marked as Eastern Europe. Here, Eastern Europe also includes the {{w|Balkans}} (the southern peninsula east of Italy), which are usually considered separate. During the Cold War, the Balkans were divided between Soviet-allied Albania (which later left the Pact) and Bulgaria, NATO-allied Greece and Turkey, and Yugoslavia, which was a neutral Communist state. It's also worth noting that there should be a blob of Russian red in the middle of Eastern Europe, representing the Russian exclave of {{w|Kaliningrad oblast}}.
|-
| British Isles
Ireland
| Although {{w|Ireland}} belongs to the {{w|British Isles}} geographically, it does not belong to the {{w|British Islands}} politically. That may be the reason why Ireland is labeled additionally - to show it's known that Ireland does not belong to the {{w|United Kingdom}}. {{w|Northern Ireland}} does, though.
|-
| Rainforest DRC
| The area shown is actually not completely the {{w|Democratic Republic of the Congo}} (DRC), but since one of the persons who made this map says they don't know the African map very well (see statement below), it's fairly accurate. Also the area called rainforest is somewhat larger than the area depicted as {{w|tropical rainforest}} on Wikipedia.
|-
| So this is one of those things where you point out our ignorance and stereotypes?
Yeah – I mean I freely admit I don’t know the African map very well, which speaks volumes in itself.
| Here two of the persons involved in drawing this map discusses what their lack of knowledge about Africa says about them. The African portion of the map is for sure the most poorly labeled, which lends weight to the stereotype of the 'Ignorant American'. Although it has to be mentioned, that the geography of Africa is in general not well known - at least within the Western world. So that's not really an American thing, here. The few countries which are labeled here mostly are well known because of their unstable political situation or because of their remarkable location. The labeled locations (and the presumably reasons of their "publicity") are west to east, north to south: {{w|Morocco}} ({{w|Arab Spring}}, location), {{w|Algeria}} (Arab Spring, {{w|Algerian Civil War|Civil War}}), {{w|Sahara|Sahara Desert}} (largest hot desert of the world), {{w|Sudan}} ({{w|Second Sudanese Civil War|Civil war}}, Arab Spring), {{w|West Africa}} ({{w|West Africa#Postcolonial eras|Lots of Civil wars}} and thus bad humanitarian situation, {{w|Blood diamond|Blood diamonds}}), {{w|Somalia}} ({{w|Somali Civil War|Civil war}}, {{w|Piracy in Somalia|pirates}}), {{w|Lake Victoria}} (largest lake of Africa, quite remarkable even at large scale maps (as here)), {{w|Mozambique}} ({{w|Mozambican Civil War|Civil war}}), {{w|Angola}} ({{w|Angolan Civil War|Civil War}}) and {{w|Madagascar}} (one of the worlds large island at the east coast - quite remarkable).
|-
| Cape Horn
| {{w|Cape Horn}} is the southern tip of ''South America'', not ''Africa''. The southern tip of Africa is called {{w|Cape Agulhas}}.
|-
| Should we include {{w|Antarctica}}?
Let’s not – these guys are looking impatient
| Here it is made clear that those who came with this assignment are getting impatient since their project of proving how little Americans know about the world has failed miserably. It also shows that if some labels or parts are missing, then it could be because of this and not for lack of knowledge. This is also a joke on the lack of labels that would be required for the map of Antarctica. Drawing Antarctica and labeling it would probably take less time than having the discussion about whether to include it, and then writing that discussion on the map.
|-
| {{w|Aral Sea}} (Gone)
| Formerly one of the largest fresh-water lakes of the world, now actually not completely gone, but almost.
|-
| Various former Soviet states
| Which are (west to east) {{w|Kazakhstan}}, {{w|Turkmenistan}}, {{w|Uzbekistan}}, {{w|Tajikistan}} and {{w|Kyrgyzstan}}. The former {{w|Soviet Union|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics}} was dissolved in 1991 and thus the {{w|Cold War}} ended.
|-
| Middle East
| Drawn here to include {{w|Egypt}} and {{w|Turkey}}. Whether these should be included depends on whether you mean the phrase ''Middle East'' politically or geographically. They are both Muslim countries, but geographically Egypt is in Africa and Turkey is usually not included because of its close affiliation with Europe.
|-
| Boxing Day quake
Wait, "Boxing Day"? There’s no way you’re American.

I read BBC News, OK?
| On December 26, 2004, a {{w|2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami|huge earthquake}} struck off the coast of Indonesia, causing severe tsunamis. December 26, the day after {{w|Christmas Day}}, is celebrated as {{w|Boxing Day}} in the UK, Canada, Australia, and some other English-speaking countries, but not the US. As such, the earthquake became known as the Boxing Day Quake.
One of the people who came asked these people to draw this map picks up on the use of 'Boxing Day' as something no American would say and questions if this person is, in fact, American. But an American reader of {{w|BBC News}} (part of the British Broadcasting Corporation) may start to use the phrase "Boxing Day" about the Tsunami.
|-
| India -> Mostly Muslim
India -> Mostly Hindu
| In general {{w|India}} is separated in {{w|Religion in India|two religious groups}}. Muslims in the north-west, Hindus in the rest. As visible on the [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Religion_in_India.svg map] in Wikimedia Commons, the area with a predominant Muslim population is far smaller (and mostly concentrated to Kashmir) than depicted in the comic.
|-
| Tibet (contested)
| The area was annexed by the {{w|People's Republic of China}} in the 1950s. Since then there are struggles to gain independence. The marked area is fairly inaccurate, though. Today's {{w|Tibet Autonomous Region}} (former {{w|Kingdom of Tibet}}) is roughly the southern half of the marked area extended a bit to the south-east.
|-
| Kamchatka Peninsula, but I admit I only know this one from Risk
|''{{w|Risk (game)|Risk}}'' is a board game played on a map of the world, where players own territories and battle each other for world domination. The person in the comic admits to knowing {{w|Kamchatka Peninsula}} only from the territory "Kamchatka" in the game. Kamchatka is notable among the territories in the game because it and Alaska are connected, despite being on opposite sides of the board- a fact that can easily be overlooked.
|-
| Koreas
| The two Koreas are the "{{w|Democratic People's Republic of Korea}}" (North Korea) and the "{{w|Republic of Korea}}" (South Korea).
|-
| Japan, duh.
| Well...{{w|Japan}}.
|-
| Taiwan (actually called "The Republic of China" – it's complicated).
| This is a reference to the complicated political history of {{w|Taiwan}}. After the {{w|Chinese Civil War}}, the Nationalists fled {{w|mainland China}} for the island of Taiwan and set up a {{w|martial law in Taiwan|martial law}} there, vowing to return. In the intervening 70 years or so, Taiwan eventually began to transform into a democracy and a country of its own, but hasn't shed the name, or the animosity with China. China and Taiwan are separate countries, but many countries include the latter as part of the former. The government of China also claims {{w|Political status of Taiwan|sovereignty of Taiwan}} and the island ountry is not represented separately by the United Nations...hence the "it's complicated" tag. There is also a missing end-paren here, which is either a typo or a reference to [[859]]. The tag "it's complicated" is one of the options for relationship statuses on Facebook, and denotes two people whose relationship defies the usual labels. In this case, it is the relationship between the countries which is complicated.
|-
| Sulawesi
| As a running gag, the island of {{w|Sulawesi}} (formerly known as Celebes) is depicted in several map-like drawings and charts (see [[256: Online Communities]], [[273: Electromagnetic Spectrum]], [[802: Online Communities 2]], and [[1555: Exoplanet Names 2]]). Of course, there are good reasons to show it on an actual world map like the one here.
|-
| Paupa New Guinea
| A spelling mistake of {{w|Papua New Guinea}}.
|-
| Phillipines
| A spelling mistake of the {{w|Philippines}}.
|-
| Southeast Asia
| {{w|Southeast Asia}} is a region in Asia, which includes Buddhist-majority countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, Muslim-majority countries of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, and Christian-majority countries of the Philippines and Timor-Leste. However, in this map, Indonesia is depicted separately from the rest of SE Asia.
|-
| Malaysia
| Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia (it is not known why it was excluded on the map)
|-
| Indonesia
| Indonesia is another country in Southeast Asia (it is not known why it was excluded on the map).
|-
| Sri Lanka
| Sri Lanka is a small island country near India.
|-
| Tasmania
| Tasmania is an Australian state.
|}

==Transcript==
:THE WORLD
:According to a Group of
:'''AMERICANS'''
:who turned out to be unexpectedly good at geography, derailing our attempt to illustrate their country's attitude toward the rest of the world.

:[Left to right, up to down.]

:[North of Canada.] Hey so what projection should we use?
:I'll aim for "Robinson."

:[North America.] Alaska; Canada; Hudson Bay; Québec; United States
:Did you know Maine is actually the US state closest to Africa?; Bermuda (British!)

:[Central America.] Baja California (Mexico); Mexico; Central America; Panama Canal; Gulf of Mexico; Cuba; Hispañola; POR.; Jamaica
:Do we have to label all the Virgin Islands?

:[South America.] Rest of South America (spanish-speaking); Brazil (portugese-speaking); French, and I think Dutch and English; Tierra del Fuego

:[Greenland.] Greenland (still too big!); Yeah but the Peters map is awful; Iceland

:[Europe.] British Isles; [https://iecasimile.com/ Ireland]; Gibralter; Scandanavia; Western Europe; Eastern Europe; Black sea; Middle East

:[Africa.] Morocco; Algera; Sahara Desert; West Africa; Sudan; Rainforest DRC; Lake Victoria; Somalia; Angola; Mozambique; South Africa; Cape Horn; Madagascar

:[West of DRC.] So this is one of those things where you point out our ignorance and stereotypes?
:Yeah – I mean, I freely admit I don't know the African map very well, which speaks volumes in itself.

:[West Asia.] Russia; Aral sea (Gone); Various former Soviet states; Afghanistan & Pakistan; India; Mostly Muslim; Mostly Hindu

:[Indian Ocea.] Sri Lanka; Boxing Day Quake
:Wait, "Boxing day"? There's no way you're American.
:I read BBC News, OK?

:[East Asia.] Mongolia; Tibet (contested); China; Southeast Asia

:[Pacific Ocean.] Kamchatka Pennisula, but I admit I only know this one from Risk.
:Koreas; Japan, duh.; Taiwan (actually called "The Republic of China." – it's complicated.); Phillipines; Malaysia; Indonesia; Sulawesi; Paupa New Guinea; Australia; Tasmania; New Zealand

:[South of Africa.] Should we include Antarctica?
:Let's not – these guys are looking impatient.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Board games]]

Talk:2746: Launch Window

2023-03-08T09:10:57Z

172.71.178.137:

Looks like Randall posted this one really late this time. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.75|172.70.111.75]] 05:22, 7 March 2023 (UTC)

Is this about an actual window being open? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.189|172.70.250.189]] 06:11, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
yes, that seems to be the joke. it's actually a pretty good one.

It's definitely quite abstract; I think it's talking about an actual window of the building that the rocket is supposedly "inside" [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.142|172.71.30.142]] 06:14, 7 March 2023 (UTC)

I've added a bit more to the explanation, but I wasn't sure what, if anything, could be said about the 'sunlight' comment... Is it just a joke about the stereotypical "computer nerd/engineer" never stepping foot in the sun, or am I missing something there? Also, could someone please add the characters' names in to the explanation where necessary? I can't remember them well enough to be confident in who's who [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.186|108.162.245.186]] 06:34, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
:I think it's more general than nerds (though possibly speaking as a probable nerd myself). Depending upon the local clime, and time of year, while having some Sun can be nice (whether or not it's warm, and it's warm enough for the local bugs) I know that even in the winter mornings, where a few streets I might often walk up face directly into the rising Sun, the glare can be severe and I really need to remember my hat so I can tilt its brim down. Even if it isn't simultaneously dropping water (or ice) on my head at the time.
:I get the impression that this launch-building is (like most launch sites) far more equatorial than my 50-odd degrees of latitude, it's probably <s>a fansite</s> equipped with HVAC and though it might still be nice enough to go outside with your packed lunch (bugs excepted) for a while, actually having to work on an external rocket and its launch-pad would not be a matter of moderation and choice to nip back in again because it is too bright (and possibly hot, even in the shade) to be comfortable. Not when the "launch room" had been set up with a nice, predictable temperature and illumination level.
:But I don't want to speak for those actually habituated to the great outdoors. ("There's no bad weather, only bad clothing," etc.) Which even some nerds are, when not working on necessarily indoors tasks... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 13:21, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
:I think it's a little of both. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:50, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
:I updated the explanation to indicate which character said what. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.216|172.71.154.216]] 04:23, 8 March 2023 (UTC)
:I think there's clearly a play on mission control-type spaces, as shown here, being dark, air conditioned, and insect-free.
:Title text should have had someone say that they'd fetch scrubs from the gear locker to do the scrubbing in. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.17|162.158.187.17]] 21:27, 7 March 2023 (UTC)

Could this be a reference to kernel space program 2. It was very recently released. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.198|172.71.167.198]]
:Doubtful; a reference would have needed to be much more direct. And there's already a comic about it that speaks much more directly. It's likely just a normal XKCD-style STEM joke that happens to be focused on rocketry. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.28|172.70.34.28]] 03:48, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2741: Wish Interpretation

2023-02-24T19:25:40Z

172.71.178.137:

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)
::To "No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO": I have granted your wish, hope that will teach you a valuable lesson. If the Thexkcdnerd or any one else need the same favor just write me a message on my page --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:06, 24 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)
::Yes, I've read some story where a wish-granting entity generated money by re-printing money lost in some catastrophe (like, burned down, sunk in ship or something). Technically, such banknote is counterfeit, but it's impossible to prove it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:58, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
:::A all powerful genie could make a 20 dollar bill that is now valid without taking it from anyone. Just making a new one and changing reality so it is one of the "real" bills. Also after all the trouble with Black Hat and the Genie offering the bill I'm sure it is valid. Suggesting he has his own money it ridiculous. What should he use those for? I'm sure it is a perfectly valid 20 dollar bill. And the discussion above is irrelevant for such a powerful genie. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:18, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
::::What would he have it for? For buying his frappegenieos, obviously.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.56|172.70.85.56]] 09:08, 24 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)
::Citation needed is used way too much{{citation needed}} and we are already two that have removed two of those from the explanation. It is rarely funny{{citation needed}} and should really only be used when a citation is needed{{citation needed}}. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:18, 24 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)
::Wouldn't the simplest thing be to just turn the house inside-out?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 16:48, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:::"I've turned your house inside-out, and we redefine 'inside' and 'outside'. Everything, including the house itself, is within the 'outside' surface of the house." Except the small amount of air 'outside', of course. See also the "Asylum" in Douglas Adams's ''So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish''. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:55, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::::This idea has already been used by Randall in [[2403: Wrapping Paper]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:20, 24 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)
:...--[[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 01:02, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

In https://xkcd.com/1086/, it's shown that Black Hat gained the ability to wish on his eyelashes via wish; and if his wish on February 6th is anything to go by it's likely that whichever entity granted that wish deliberately misinterprets wishes in much the same way as this genie wants to. Should this be mentioned in the explanation? --[[User:A Stingray|A Stingray]] ([[User talk:A Stingray|talk]]) 19:47, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Curious - if you put all the objects of the world's surface into Black Hat's house, would that be a neutron star, or would it get to a micro black hole? {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.56|19:49, 23 February 2023}}
:The Schwarzschild radius of the whole Earth is less than 1cm, so we can say for sure that an accumulation of 'just' all things upon its surface into a volume the size of any house would be far short of gravitational collapse into a singularity.
:I don't offhand know how much stuff there actually will be, thoug. We could start by extrapolating from [https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2018/5/29/17386112/all-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas something like this] to work out how dense a packing you'd need in any given volume of house.
:Likely still not anywhere near neutronium level, I'm guessing, because a tablespoon of neutron star apparently is the mass of Mt Everest, and you could fit a lot of tablespoons (or pour a lot of tablespoons'-worth of stuff into, though the distinction itself hardly matters) into even the smallest "bedsit" living space. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.128|172.70.86.128]] 21:01, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:an Earth-mass neutron star wold be 305m in diameter (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star#Density_and_pressure). If you compress that down to the size of a typcal house, it would collapse into a black hole (question 3 here: https://www.astro.umd.edu/~miller/teaching/questions/neutron.html therefor if you have a house-size neutron star and add enough mass to make an earth-mass neutron star, it would collapse to a black hole). Ergo, if you have earth-mass matter in the space of a house, it would immediately become a singularity, and collapse down to the size of a coin. however, there is also another possibility, depending on how the genie adds the mass to the house. If the genie simple adds matter to the house, if slow enough it would start to undergo fusion and radiate the energy away. Third possibility. There is no known process to get neutronium except in supernovae, so we have to assume the genie will simply start with a house-sized amount of neutronium, and added mass. This would quickly form a VERY SMALL black hole. Adding mass from here would put the material in the BH's accretion disk; some would fall in, some would stay in the disk, and some would radiate away. - Weylin Piegorsch [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.186|172.70.34.186]] 03:22, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
::Everything in the world could mean the entire universe too. And even if just the Earth, what then about Earth it self? If threes are things then what about rocks? If rocks are things then what about molten rocks? And if that's a thing then the entire Earth should be in the house. Still it would not become a black hole. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:18, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
:::If it's everything in the XKCD world, then it's all 2-dimensional, so would have no mass. The genie could just colour in Black Hat's house solid black (the blackest black there is) and erase everything else XKCD from existence, including Black Hat himself. And the genie. Of course, that would meet essentially the same problem as the 'never rain' scenario.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 09:17, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
:::Ooh I like previous answer :) But to "not a black hole" - an Earth-mass neutron star (assuming you can make one) would be 300m in diameter. That's bigger than a typical house. I suppose you could consider "House of God", which means Genie could get away with making no changes at all, or Buckingham Palace, which might just be big enough to fit that neutron star. Otherwise, to get the neutron star down to the size of a house, once you get it *just a little* smaller than 300m it near-instantly collapses to a Black Hole. So a Earth-mass black hole is far smaller than a house, but there is no possible Earth-mass thing the size of a house, excpet perhaps the accretion disk around a near-Earth mass black hole. -Weylin Piegorsch [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.167|162.158.78.167]] 17:22, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
::::For everything ''in'' the world, I would not expect to count the entire world (or universe!) itself. ''Maybe'' whole mountains (or significant volumes of water, or swathes of atmosphere) as it encompasses "things of importance" within (unexcavated diamonds, all the fish, every in-flight airplane?), but not significant amounts of lithosphere (on top of the pedosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere). So we're nowhere near an Earth-mass, by my estimation. But IANAGenie, so I haven't been shown the SOP or manual that covers such interpretations... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 19:25, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

2736: Only Serifs

2023-02-11T13:42:01Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2736
| date = February 10, 2023
| title = Only Serifs
| image = only_serifs_2x.png
| imagesize = 246x112px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you ever want to get beaten up by a bunch of graphic designers, try removing the serifs from Times New Roman and adding them to Comic Sans.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SHERIFF - explain the comic more, what is the text? Do NOT delete this tag until Friday, May 9th, 2023..}}

This is a play upon the main difference between {{w|serif}} and {{w|sans-serif}} fonts. Serifs are ticks, or end-bars, at the ends of lines that make up letters, commonly seen in {{w|Calligraphy|calligraphic}} lettering (written with a flat-nibbed pen) or {{w|Signwriter|signwriting}} (often painted and detailed with fine brushes). Rather than mere lines, there are (for example) "feet" put at the bottom of a letter such as A, and possibly also at angles such as its peak. (In the comic, the first three elements appear to be of such an "A", with the text as a whole appearing to be "Aa Bb Cc Dd"). Fonts that use this visual decoration are called "Serif" fonts, while others do not and are thus "Sans Serif" fonts ("sans" being French for "without"). Randall is suggesting a font using ''only'' these accent pieces and skipping the "body" of the letters entirely. Of course, this renders the text basically unreadable.{{Citation needed}}

As for the title text, {{w|Times New Roman}} is a widely available and recognized typeface with serifs, being one of the most commonly used fonts of its type. {{w|Comic Sans}} is a ''mostly'' sans-serif typeface (hence the “Sans” in the name) designed to look like (non-{{w|cursive}}, or {{w|Block letters|block}}-style) handwriting, more akin to a basic and unadorned lettering written freehand by thick-nibbed pen, paintbrush, spraycan or chalk/marker upon a backboard/whiteboard. Many graphic designers {{w|Comic_Sans#Opposition|dislike Comic Sans}} due to a history of amateurs using it in contexts where its informal style is inappropriate, simply in order to vary the font away from the standards of Times or Arial styles (two major serifed and non-serifed families of font respectively). Defenders claim that it is easier for dyslexics to read, and that it works well in less formal, typically children's contexts. Randall is suggesting here that if you want to severely anger a bunch of graphic designers (i.e. enough to beat you up), then you should try removing the characteristic and aesthetic serifs on Times New Roman and add them instead to the hated Comic Sans – which would probably make it look even worse to a graphic designer.

The font is probably one of the many variants of {{w|Caslon}}, with its variety of A-serifs; some variants (3, 540) having the double-seriffed C.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[The capital and lowercase forms of the first four letters of the alphabet are written on handwriting paper in a font only consisting of serifs between three gray horizontal lines. Underneath the panel there are two lines of text (in a sans-serif font)]
:Aa Bb Cc Dd

:Instead of serif or sans-serif,
:my new font is '''''only''''' serifs.

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

2735: Coordinate Plane Closure

2023-02-09T09:37:19Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2735
| date = February 8, 2023
| title = Coordinate Plane Closure
| image = coordinate_plane_closure_2x.png
| imagesize = 271x376px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 3D graphs that don't contact the plane in the closure area may proceed as scheduled, but be alert for possible collisions with 2D graph lines that reach the hole and unexpectedly enter 3D space.
}}

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

This comic is a "Math Notice," which is presumably a warning or reminder for mathematicians or others who interact with the field of mathematics, in a similar way to how a "Travel Notice" may prewarn drivers of planned road closures for repairs (or [https://www.cameroncountytx.gov/spacex/ rocketry]). Specifically, this one advises those who are using the coordinate plane to avoid drawing any graphs in the area with a hole until the damage is patched or fixed. This comic invents this concept of Math Notices, and is also very similar to that of a {{w|Notice to mariners}} or {{w|NOTAM|airmen}}, where nautical or aeronautical navigation might be impinged by a clear area (or volume) that should be kept clear from in the near future. The comic also resembles notices from websites or software providers about planned maintenance, which alert users about upcoming outages.

{{w|Coordinate planes}} are used in math for drawing graphs. The joke here is that a small section has been "closed for maintenance," likening the concept of a coordinate plane to an actual physical platform used by math, which is therefore vulnerable to damage such as is shown in the comic. In reality, the coordinate plane cannot be damaged as it is not a tangible thing.{{citation needed}}

Closure in mathematics can be a term relating to sets, specifically operations on sets, and a coordinate plane is a particular set of numbers. A set is closed under an operation if all the "answers" to the operation are also in the set. The coordinate plane is said to be closed under vector addition for example - adding together any two coordinates produces another coordinate in the plane. Many functions and operators may be said to have closure on the real plane, and this comic may be a pun on that term. However, if there actually is a hole in the plane, then suddenly the plane will no longer exhibit closure.

Also related to closure is the {{w|closure problem}}. Put simply, the closure problem is to find the highest or lowest weight of a closure in certain types of graphs. This comic may also be talking about the closure problem, as it talks about a hole in the graph, and to minimise it would be referring to the closure problem.

Closure can also be used in another sense, relating to the topology of a set; roughly speaking, a description of what parts of the set are "close" to others. In this sense, if one takes the closure of a plane with a hole, the result is indeed an intact plane, provided the hole is sufficiently (infinitesimally) small.

The title text notes that 3D graphs that cross the relevant x and y coordinates, but with non-zero z coordinates, should be fine, since the hole only exists in the plane where z = 0. However, if they pass close - i.e. the z coordinate is small in this region - they should be wary of two dimensional graph lines suddenly become three-dimensional and interfering with them. This could be because they have intentionally entered three-dimensional space to avoid the closure, or possibly they have inadvertently entered it by falling in to the hole. This is similar to warnings to road traffic in open lanes being warned of traffic merging from lanes that have been closed due to works.

==Transcript==

:<big>⚠️ Math Notice ⚠️</big>[emojis written without color]

:The coordinate plane will be closed Thursday between (1.5, 1) and (2, 1.5) to repair a hole.

:[A coordinate graph is shown, with a gray hole between (1.5, 1) and (2, 1.5). There are small fractures around the hole. The hole is highlighted with two dots in the corners of a hollow rectangle with split border lines.]

:If your graph uses this area, please postpone drawing until Friday or transform it to different coordinates.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2716: Game Night Ordering

2023-02-01T21:57:06Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */ Needed recommaing ("since..."). Tried semcolon, parens, etc, to make readable. Redid sentence breaking (revised). And, memory alone being clearly insufficient, broadened the scope of validation technique. "Is this the kind of name used?"

{{comic
| number = 2716
| date = December 26, 2022
| title = Game Night Ordering
| image = game_night_ordering_2x.png
| imagesize = 293x471px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = One good trick, if you get called on a fake service, is to build a working version of it and mention it again the next week.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is poking fun at the [[927: Standards|proliferation]] of apps and internet services such as for [https://builtin.com/consumer-tech/food-delivery-companies food delivery] and [https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/best-ways-to-send-money money transfer]. The characters are discussing which to use during an evening of tabletop gaming. The group has a running competition to see who can mention fake apps or services without being called out. The idea being that, since there are so many, it is difficult to identify which are real.

[[Cueball]] mentions three food delivery services, {{w|Grubhub}}, {{w|DoorDash}}, and Food.net, and [[Ponytail]] asks him to reimburse her using {{w|Venmo}}, {{w|PayPal}}, or Yahoo Cash. Cueball expresses skepticism about Yahoo Cash, after which Ponytail admits it's a fake service and is thus obligated to pay for Cueball's meal. (Incidentally, Yahoo does provide a money transfer service to facilitate private party gambling on {{w|fantasy sports}}, called [https://sports.yahoo.com/wallet/dailyfantasy/referafriend/ Yahoo Fantasy Wallet], but it uses PayPal.) Food.net, which Cueball mentioned without being called out, is not a real service; https://food.net exists but is "not available for use," and is not related to food.

Based on Ponytail's offer, if someone is correctly called out then they apparently must pay for the player who caught them, but what happens when a player isn't caught (e.g. when Cueball mentioned Food.net) isn't clear. The rules might be similar to variants of the card game often known as "{{w|Cheat (game)|Cheat}}," in which a successful bluff merely allows play to continue on until someone is caught bluffing or incorrectly accuses another player.

The title text offers a tip for winning the competition after being called out for mentioning a fake service: building a working version of it and then mentioning it again the next week. While it could be possible to prototype a user interface and possibly use it to perform food deliveries with a very limited number of drivers in a small area, or provide a front end interface to an existing money transfer service with strong API support, building a full-fledged viable service for either in a week is humorously beyond the reach of typical gamers. Also, as in Ponytail's case, it could cause trademark issues with brand names.

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

:[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail are sitting at a table to order food. Cueball is on his phone, and Ponytail, sitting opposite, on her laptop.]
:Cueball: What should we use to order? Grubhub? DoorDash? Food.net?
:Ponytail: I'll do Grubhub; you can send me money. Do you do Venmo? Paypal? Yahoo Cash?
:Cueball: Yahoo Cash ''has'' to be fake.
:Ponytail: Yes. Dang. I'll get your share.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Our game night has an ongoing competition to see who can mention the most fake apps and services without getting called on it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Games]]

2729: Planet Killer Comet Margarita

2023-01-26T19:17:47Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */ Turning a seemingly obvious (in the xkcd sense) Citation Needed into an actually question-begging Actual Citation Needed. With an explanation why embedded therein.

{{comic
| number = 2729
| date = January 25, 2023
| title = Planet Killer Comet Margarita
| image = planet_killer_comet_margarita_2x.png
| imagesize = 607x942px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I'll take mine on the rocks, no ice.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MARGARITAFIED METEOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|margarita}} is a popular cocktail made from {{w|tequila}}, {{w|agave}}, {{w|triple sec}}, and {{w|lime juice}}. The frozen margarita variety is blended with ice, and this comic suggests making an enormous drink using the ice from a {{w|comet nucleus}} – the one depicted having more than a passing similarity to the much studied {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}}. Based on the amount of ice in a typical comet, it extrapolates the quantity of the other ingredients. The size of this drink will fill {{w|Lake Mead}}, a massive reservoir on the {{w|Colorado River}} created by the water held by the {{w|Hoover Dam}}.

Beyond the unusual quantities and mixing method, Randall uses the general term "orange liqueur" here rather than specifying triple sec. (As of this writing, {{w|orange liqueur}} redirects to "triple sec" on Wikipedia.) Assuming that each oil tanker holds exactly the same amount of liquid, the tequila:triple sec ratio in the comic is 4:1, meaning more tequila is used than necessary (the ratio should be 5:2).

''{{w|Armageddon_(1998_film)|Armageddon}}'' is a movie starring {{w|Bruce Willis}} about a team of astronauts and oil drill engineers on a mission to blow up an asteroid that's on a collision course with the Earth. The oil drill would be used to drill a hole deep into the asteroid, into which they'll drop a nuclear bomb to destroy it. The comic suggests using the same technique to explode the comet nucleus to get the ice. It should be noted that consuming any cocktail which has been infused with the radioactive byproducts commonly resulting from the detonation of a thermonuclear weapon may pose health risks which exceed those typically associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages in general.{{Actual citation needed|It would be the relatively small primary charge that creates the radioisotopes, the thermonuclear secondary stage is practically uncontaminating beyond the initial pulse of ionising radiation and any external matter boosted by the neutron flux. To quantify the risks of alcohol vs the mean radioisotope contamination seems like a question to ask Randall to talk to his contacts about.}}

In the title text, he asks for it "{{w|on the rocks}}", with no ice. In the context of cocktails this means to serve with ice. But the comet nucleus also contains lots of rocky material. If you explode the nucleus and remove the ice, the drink will be full of rocks.

In the header, it says "Today's comic was drawn for Daniel Becker, based on [https://what-if.xkcd.com/162/ his winning question] submitted to the [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ What If? 2] contest." As explained in the What If? entry melting a comet on Earth has enough negative effects on the climate to negate the cooling effect a couple thousand times over – thus this margarita may in fact proudly wear the title "planet killer".

Assuming an average oil tanker size of 25.8 million gallons, this provides approximately 1,705 servings of tequila per adult on the planet. Therefore it is a planet killer in terms of alcohol poisoning and killing off all humans of adult drinking age.

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

:<big>The Planet Killer</big>
:Comet Ice Margarita

:Ingredients
:4,000 oil tankers full of tequila
:1,000 tankers full of orange liqueur
:1,000 tankers full of agave
:The juice from 20 trillion limes
:One comet nucleus

:Instructions
:(1) Drain Lake Mead, combine ingredients behind Hoover Dam
:(2) Detonate comet using Bruce Willis's drilling rig from ''Armageddon'' (1998)
::''Boom''
:(3) Dispense drink through Hoover Dam turbines

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:2728: Lane Change Highway

2023-01-24T19:04:23Z

172.71.178.137:

There's a section of the M25 motorway around London which does this... Never did like it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.201|172.70.85.201]] 07:14, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
:I hope you are kidding ;-) Although there are some funny histories about that road. For instance Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. (Now a series - see [https://youtu.be/M0S3a32RzEo?t=112 Crowley Creates (and Destroys) The M25 - Good Omens]. :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:25, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

:A lot of highways in France do something similar. At every ascend, the ascending traffic gets its own new lane, presumably to keep ascending cars from doing merging manoeuvres. To keep the same number of lanes, the leftmost lane merges into the adjacent lane before the ascend. So if you simply stay on your lane, you kind of drift to the left with every ascend. I am not sure if this really helps to cut accidents, but I think it is a clever solution at least for some accident-prone ascends. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.36|172.71.160.36]] 08:32, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
:: That sounds like using passing lanes, so that slower traffic, with more difficulty going up the hill, like transport trucks, will use the outside lane and faster cars will be on the inner lane, to not be significantly impeded by the slower traffic. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 14:44, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
::: That sounds odd to me. Even taking into account that my "left lane" is the US/French "right lane" (the one close to the kerb, furthest from the median/dividing line), "outside lane" to me means the overtaking or 'fast' lane, with "inside lane" the one most to the roadside (the driver is on the outside edge of a vehicle, assuming the usual local parity between Foo-side-driving and Bar-side-driv''er'').
::: But I do know some roads (on undulating landscapes) that on the bottom of an uphill section will have a new road-edge lane (vehicles expecting to go slow will filter into that, hopefully without crawling past a marginally slower climbing vehicle to get ahead of them) and then, near the top of the rise, the centre-lane is forced back into the left just in time to encounter the end of the contrary direction's two-lane rise up ''its'' hill.
::: That is, three lanes for most of the time, the centre being assigned to the direction going uphill on any given stretch (a permant type of 'Tidal Flow' traffic management system). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 19:04, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Saved the image to the wayback machine here https://web.archive.org/web/20230124073752/https://xkcd.com/ [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:41, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
:Doesn't that happen automatically? I like they are there, but do webcrawlers not manage that on a daily basis? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:17, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
::Huh, didn't know that. Better safe than sorry! [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 08:33, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
It's really a very wide single-lane road. The left lanes originate from the edge of the road so no cars feed into them, and on the right side once you merge there is no where to go except to merge into the next right-hand side, so the net effect is that the road is 4 lanes wide, but is functioning as a single-lane road. That assumes everyone is entering from the right side. But I guess they could be entering from the left but still in a very short time all cars are on the right. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 12:24, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

This is very similar to major roundabouts, in the UK at least, that have a spiral outwards. If entering a four-way junction (and there can be more feed-offs than that) , you may be invited to assume one of three entry lanes (as soon as the feed-in is wide enough to accommodate them) for left (the side of the road upon which we drive), forward or right that lead onto one of three lanes going clockwise round the island.
 (Sometimes the left-lane becomes marking- or even curb-separated from the island lanes, effectively skirting the island so there's no waiting for traffic on the island to pass. It merges with the feed-out lane, or becomes a two-lane carriageway direction, some useful distance from the junction.)
 On safely entering the junction (by giving way to anything already on it ''or'' being filtered by traffic signals), the semi-perpendicular lane markings (oblique crosses at the lane-edge intersections) guide you to the outer/inner or any median encircling lane which, as each outlet is passed, shifts over by one with a new 'inner' lane for that latest input road's "(almost) all the way round" traffic. (For some junctions, 180 degree change of travel is also a necessity, e.g. due to no cross-traffic (right-hand turning) possible on the lead up to the island, but a sub-junction comes off it in that direction anyway.)
 It tends to work best on the rounder roundabouts with periodic entry/exit points, or on the truly huge ones that act like a town-centre one-way inner ring-road, only without the town. When there's a large complex with straights and curves, the guiding lines (especially across the 'crosses' might not be so obvious (if they are for the first car on the road, the one immediately behind might not have sufficient sight of the outward jinks in the indicated path and lose track of which path they should be on (especially if it is their first use of the junction) and the cross-overs can get worn and/or dirtied to make it less obvious), so inevitably there's lane-drift (and ''more'' wear/obscuration of the lane-guides).
 But, in general, with only accidental merging needed ("no, not this exit, it's the next one... there's nothing behind, so quickly...") and continuous lane-generation (to which the rarer all-the-way-round traffic can shift over into), I think there's a parallel. But this not being the inspiration or reference. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.65|172.71.178.65]] 13:12, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

I feel like this comic was posted later in the day than usual. It would be interesting to see a graph of what time of day comics were posted in (ignoring the day of posting, just in hours since the previous midnight EST) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.66|172.69.68.66]] 14:41, 24 January 2023 (UTC)Bumpf
:Yes, it was very late, after midnight EST. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:56, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

I personally would LOVE this road, as I would stay to the left and floor it. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 15:30, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2725: Sunspot Cycle

2023-01-17T16:23:46Z

172.71.178.137:

Holy cow, just made my first edit! It was SUPER stressful, and I didn't even know how to make a 'citation needed' thing. Hopefully it was ok, I tried to match the style of the wiki. [[User:GordonFreeman|GordonFreeman]] ([[User talk:GordonFreeman|talk]]) 03:06, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
:Welcome to explain xkcd then. Any edit that is not vandalism is a good edit, because it makes other think about what should be here. So even if it is later completely changed it got things going. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Is it perhaps worth mentioning that sunspots, while they're darker than the rest of the sun's surface, are not actually black. They are cooler than surrounding regions and appear dark by contrast, but they're emitting lots of IR and some visible light. A sunspots-only (ignore the oxymoron) sun would still emit light and heat, just less. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:18, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Wouldn't the cycle be 20 ("every other decade") or 22 years (11 in each half of the cycle)? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.173|162.158.166.173]] 03:51, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
:The cycle of darkness of the sun would be 22 years, but the 11-year cycle referred to in the comic, and described by both diagrams within the comic, is the cycle of "number of sunspots" which peaks when the sun is half light, half dark, and decreases again as there are so many spots that they start to merge into fewer, larger spots. It cycles from very few (or zero) sunspots, when the sun is light, through many sunspots, sun is heavily light/dark spotted, and completes the cycle when the number of spots returns down to near-zero, when the sun is dark. {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.201}}

To what "financial crash of 2014" does this refer? I recall the housing crisis causing financial trouble, but that was around 2008. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.173|162.158.166.173]] 03:51, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
:This has nothing to do with finance so if you think the peak at 2014 should have any meaning I think you are wrong. there where just for some reason more sunspots even though the sun was still in the dark period. Maybe most of the few huge sunspots broke into smaller but with only thin lines between, so still dark but the count goes up. Then they closed again later keeping the sun dark but the number of spots fluctuating. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Does anyone have any idea what is supposed to be on the Y axis of the bottom graph? Something that goes up when the sun is transitioning between brightnesses and is at its lowest when the sun is either fully bright or fully dark? {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.213}}
:It's the "number of spots" (whether light or dark), since a fully bright sun has no dark spots and a fully dark sun has no "light spots"[[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 05:02, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
::But what are the thin lines indicating, it it just to show that the sun is not yet really dark? Like a gray shade with very long between the dark lines? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Did anyone else notice that the sine-wave is wrong? the trough should be the same every cycle, yet it's drawn as bright in the first trough and dark in the second trough. -Weylin Piegorsch [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.117|172.70.126.117]] 06:52, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
:If you reefer to the bottom graph it is correctly drawn. The sunspots number are near zero when the sun is bright in the first through and then it is again near zero when the sun is dark as there are then only one sunspot. So that is why it is alternating between light and dark for every through. Just as shown in the upper graph. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
::Ah - the y axis of the upper graph is #subspots (which maximizes as they merge and minimizes at full dark/full bright), not magnitude of brightness. Thanks for the clarification! -Weylin Piegorsch [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.79|172.70.114.79]] 14:47, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

I do not think it is set in an alternate universe per se, but in the images of the sun spots the minimum brightness of the whole sun is subtracted. So only the sun spots stay visible. So the sun images are depictions of our sun. The number of sun spots loses common-sense meaning after merging starts. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.10|162.158.86.10]] 07:58, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
:Well since the sun is dark in this universe for 10 years, then it cannot be our universe, and since they also have 90s memes, then it is either a parallel universe or well... Randall's fantasy :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

I didn't have enough space in my last edit summary to explain my change. As if anyone who needs to really reads those, anyway... So here (unconstrained by petty character limits!) is why I took off the apostrophes in "90's kid", etc...:
/* Explanation */ Removing apostrophes not used by Randall. (I would personally say '90s, the apostrophe being for the contraction of 1990s, but here only the quoting-apostrophes of '90s kid' seems necessary and capable of being consistent. "The 90s" is a pluralisation of all years of the decade based upon (19)90. A kid *of* the 90s could be a 90s' kid, but I think we're intended to treat this as an adjectival descriptor, not a posessive element.)
And I outright reject the idea that apostrophes can ever be used for pluralising, despite some 'authorities' on the matter. Especially where it clashes with plural-possessive, contraction ''and'' single-quoting uses in a single case, upon a wiki where doubled-up apostrophes would incite ''italics''. Better to rewrite. But, for now, I've just rationalised to go with actual demonstrated usage (both from Randall and {{w|1990s|more or less in general}}) and intent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.133|172.70.85.133]] 10:27, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
: Well, I don't think there's any value in spending 000's of hours debating it.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.46|172.70.85.46]] 15:13, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Does this remind anyone else of oscillations in population dynamics (increase in population eventually causes overpopulation and triggers a period of reduction before the population starts to recover, etc.)? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.201|172.70.85.201]] 15:24, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
:I had thought to say that a budding sunspot would become 'dark' if it was forming on light surface and 'light' if forming on darkened surface, which has a relationship with some biological population frequencies/responses (even within the same population, an expressed variation can be linked to the perception of what is/is not lacking in its fellows or just various overlapping territories). But a simple scenario (of instantaneous points; having the choice of locale to materialise, or else the accident of 'birth' into any given situation from which to sway their appearance) would settle into an equilibreum as a slightly more than half-dark Sun would spawn proportionately more 'light spots' than a slightly more than half-light one.
:It needs to have a time-delayed aspect (as with natural creature populations, a post-gestation glut being based upon pre-gestation plenty; or upon the opposite negatively influencing pressures), so budding might start (and be fixed into its identity) years before it becomes a visible member of the population. A resonant {{w|hysteresis}}, of some kind? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.132|172.70.85.132]] 16:20, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

2723: Outdated Periodic Table

2023-01-12T16:12:35Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */ All EC issues resolved, hopefully...

{{comic
| number = 2723
| date = January 11, 2023
| title = Outdated Periodic Table
| image = outdated_periodic_table_2x.png
| imagesize = 360x350px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Researchers claim to have synthesized six additional elements in the second row, temporarily named 'pentium' through 'unnilium'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by BERYLLIUM-BASED LIFE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows figure 6.14 from a science text book, which displays ''The periodic table of the elements'', but with only the first four elements are shown ({{w|Hydrogen}}, {{w|Helium}}, {{w|Lithium}} and {{w|Berylium}}). [[Randall]] claims, in the caption, that you can use the layout of an included {{w|Periodic table}} to date a publication based upon the elements present or missing. The joke here is that his book was somehow published just half an hour after the {{w|Big Bang}}, at which time those four elements were the only ones present.

From about 10 seconds until about 20 minutes after the Big Bang, the phase that is known as the {{w|Big Bang nucleosynthesis}} occurred. At that time, hydrogen ions (single photons) provided for helium in abundance and traces of lithium. Some berylium-7 was also formed, which is an unstable {{w|Isotopes of beryllium|isotope}}, and with a half life of 53 days, an appreciable amount of what had been created would still be there several months after the Big Bang, and certainly most of what was created would be there half an hour after.

The conclusion is that Randall's science book was published when those four elements were the only ones in existence, and before the point where practically all the beryllium had decayed. After that point, only the three first would be present, until star formation began and started the process of {{w|Stellar nucleosynthesis}}.

Of course no life as we know it could exist until long after stellar nucleosynthesis had created all the other elements needed to support {{w|Carbon-based life}}. And no life, as we could even imagine, would be able to exist for the first 370,000 years after Big Bang as atoms (in a form that could eventually form molecules) could not exist until the {{w|Recombination (cosmology)|Recombination}} phase of the universe, due to the high energy of the {{w|Cosmic background radiation}}. Textbooks, also being Carbon-based {{Citation needed}} could not exist either.

Even now, many {{w|Chemical elements|elements}} do not occur naturally on Earth and have to be {{w|Synthetic element|synthesized}} to be practically studied, or deduced from what was seen during their often short lives. Others were always very hard to detect, collect enough in pure form or purify enough to properly discover them. Until these elements were discovered, one way or another, they where not included in the periodic table. Various versions of the periodic table had left spaces for these {{w|Mendeleev's predicted elements|expected elements}}, but these are all now filled, and all recent changes have been additions to the end of the prior version of the table or possibly {{w|List of chemical element naming controversies|the names given}} to recent additions. As printed scientific textbooks do not update themselves after being published, one can determine the general age of the work by checking which elements were present in the periodic table that was included.

The title text refers to how yet-undiscovered elements are given a {{w|systematic element name}} as a temporary name, until a more permanent name is decided upon. The names are based upon a standard group of Greek and Latin roots (depicting the decimal digits used to 'spell out' an element's unique {{w|atomic number}}, i.e. the number of protons) and adding an -ium at the end. The claim in the title text is that, in the text book with the figure, researchers claim they have synthesized six additional elements in the second row, temporarily named 'pentium' (atomic number "5") through to 'unnilium' ("one zero", or "10"), just as element "118" was provisionally called "ununoctium". At the time of release of this comic, element 118 is currently the last confirmed element and has been officially called {{w|Oganesson}}. The title text of [[2639: Periodic Table Changes]], the previous comic to draw a periodic table, also refers to this.

Element number five is, in our time and reality, actually well known as {{w|Boron}}). (The 'provisional' name of {{w|Pentium}} was also used for a series of microprocessors launched by Intel in the 1990s, which Randall was almost certainly consciously making an oblique reference to.) "Unnilium", element number 10, is {{w|Neon}}, that (along with other {{w|Noble gas}}es) was only discovered at the very end of the 19th century – this actually included helium. Despite helium being one of the first elements to exist, and still one of the most common in the universe (roughly 24%, by mass, with hydrogen being around 75% and every other element combined being the remainder), it did not appear in the earliest period tables. It was only first detected from afar, as a constituent of the Sun, about thirty years before it was finally physically discovered in an actual lab here on Earth. It is also possible that neon's provisional name in 'early science' might have been something more along the lines of "decium", all else being equal.

Since life could not have existed at the time this book should have been published, the idea of researchers synthesizing elements, or indeed the existence of books or even researchers, is of course just part of the joke.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Subheading]: Figure 6.14
:[Title]: The periodic table of the elements

:[The following four rectangles featuring the large element abbreviation, with the full element name written below, in a typical periodic table style]
:[Top row, far left]: H Hydrogen
:[Top row, far right, detached from any other box]: He Helium
:[Bottom row, attached directly below the "H" box]: Li Lithium
:[Bottom row, attached directly to the right of "Li"]: Be Beryllium

:[Caption below the panel]:
:You can spot an outdated science textbook by checking the bottom of the periodic table for missing elements. For example, mine was published half an hour after the Big Bang.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]

2716: Game Night Ordering

2022-12-29T02:18:20Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */ Though I doubt this is quite equivalent, correcting what looks to be a mere transcription error.

{{comic
| number = 2716
| date = December 26, 2022
| title = Game Night Ordering
| image = game_night_ordering_2x.png
| imagesize = 293x471px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = One good trick, if you get called on a fake service, is to build a working version of it and mention it again the next week.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BORED FOOD.NET DRIVER BETWEEN DELIVERIES. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is poking fun at the proliferation of apps and internet services such as for [https://builtin.com/consumer-tech/food-delivery-companies food delivery] and [https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/best-ways-to-send-money money transfer]. The characters are discussing which to use during an evening of tabletop gaming. The group has a running competition to see who can mention fake apps or services without being called out. The idea being that since there are so many, it is difficult to remember which are real.

[[Cueball]] mentions three food delivery services, {{w|Grubhub}}, {{w|DoorDash}}, and Food.net, and [[Ponytail]] asks him to reimburse her using {{w|Venmo}}, {{w|PayPal}}, or Yahoo Cash. Cueball expresses skepticism about Yahoo Cash, after which Ponytail admits it's a fake service and is thus obligated to pay for Cueball's meal. (Incidentally, Yahoo does provide a money transfer service to facilitate private party gambling on {{w|fantasy sports}}, called [https://sports.yahoo.com/wallet/dailyfantasy/referafriend/ Yahoo Fantasy Wallet], but it uses PayPal.) Food.net, which Cueball mentioned without being called out, is not a real service; https://food.net exists but is "not available for use," and is not related to food.

Based on Ponytail's offer, if someone is correctly called out then they apparently must pay for the player who caught them, but what happens when a player isn't caught (e.g. when Cueball mentioned Food.net) isn't clear. The rules might be similar to variants of the card game often known as "{{w|Cheat (game)|Cheat}}," in which a successful bluff merely allows play to continue on until someone is caught bluffing or incorrectly accuses another player.

The title text offers a tip for winning the competition after being called out for mentioning a fake service: building a working version of it and then mentioning it again the next week. While it could be possible to prototype a user interface and possibly use it to perform food deliveries with a very limited number of drivers in a small area, or provide a front end interface to an existing money transfer service with strong API support, building a full-fledged viable service for either in a week is humorously beyond the reach of typical gamers. However, one reader did set up an online bank on a LAN when he was eleven years old, and had something pseudo-usable within a few days; said reader could probably do so in one day now, and with far fewer SQL injection vulnerabilities.

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

:[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail are sitting at a table to order food. Cueball is on his phone, and Ponytail, sitting opposite, on her laptop.]
:Cueball: What should we use to order? Grubhub? DoorDash? Food.net?
:Ponytail: I'll do Grubhub; you can send me money. Do you do Venmo? Paypal? Yahoo Cash?
:Cueball: Yahoo Cash ''has'' to be fake.
:Ponytail: Yes. Dang. I'll get your share.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Our game night has an ongoing competition to see who can mention the most fake apps and services without getting called on it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Games]]

2715: Pando

2022-12-23T13:48:04Z

172.71.178.137: /* Transcript */ As a transcript was needed, here's my version. Doubtless can be improved, so not removing Incomplete at all.

{{comic
| number = 2715
| date = December 23, 2022
| title = Pando
| image = pando_2x.png
| imagesize = 422x372px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The presents under the tree are actually a single gift connected by an underground ribbon system.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CHRISTMAS PANDA — Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Pando_(tree)|Pando}} is a {{w|Populus tremuloides|quaking aspen}} tree colony in {{w|Fishlake National Forest}}, Utah. Depending on how you measure[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWAA-SrrFUQ], Pando is the largest living organism on earth, and is thereby also the largest tree on earth. (By dry mass (Weight not including water), Pando is the largest living thing humans have found. There is [https://www.forbes.com/sites/linhanhcat/2019/02/22/largest-organism-in-the-world/?sh=43fdf2a444ac one fungus in Oregon] which may weigh more including water, but that fungus is not a tree)

Pando is a Tree colony, a type of {{w|Clonal colony}} made of trees. Clonal colonies all form from the same seed or other origin, and are all genetically identical. Tree colonies spread using their extensive root system. Under all trees there are {{w|Root|roots}}, which gather nutrients and water from soil. On clonal trees (Such as the Quaking Aspen, Pando's Species), when roots from one tree surface they can form another tree/stalk. This additional stalk is a genetic clone of the original. This clone then grows its own root network, and where they surface they too form more clones. However, crucially, the roots between the clones do not naturally separate, so all clones naturally stay attached. Each clone has a limited lifespan, only a few decades/centuries, but the colony can live for millennia. For example, the only known wild example of {{w|Lomatia tasmanica|''Lomatia tasmanica'', aka King's lomatia,}} is a clonal shrub thought to be at least 43,600 years old, and Pando itself is thought to be around 14,000 years old.

{{w|Christmas}} is a celebration on the 25th of December, traditionally celebrating the birth of {{w|Jesus}}, but that festival being built heavily upon pagan traditions[https://chefin.com.au/blog/these-6-christmas-traditions-are-actually-pagan-customs/] and annual social customs, then arguably converted into a far more secular event (with or without rampant consumerism). This comic was published on the 23rd of December, 2 days until Christmas, or [[Christmas Eve Eve]]

The concept of a {{w|Christmas tree}}, itself, is rooted in various pre-Christian folkloric traditions and, in the modern era, may be adapted or adopted as required by local and personal circumstances, and need not be an {{w|Evergreen}} fir tree with an angel (or star) atop, but merely any handy plant (or artificial substitute) strewn with such decorations and/or {{w|Christmas lights|lights}} as the owner wishes. Because humans are, well, humans, people and places often compete to hold the record for the largest Christmas tree. At time of publishing (And writing), the tallest Christmas tree is officially a 64.36m (221ft) tall {{w|Douglas fir}} that was displayed in {{w|Northgate Station (shopping mall)|Northgate Shopping Center}}{{Actual citation needed}}, Seattle, WA in 1950[https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/77271-tallest-christmas-tree][https://www.historylink.org/File/21359]. The most widely spread, however, is likely the [https://www.italybyevents.com/en/events/umbria/world-largest-christmas-tree-gubbio/ Christmas tree display] in {{w|Gubbio}}, a town in Umbria, Italy, where hundreds of trees on a mountain face are lit up with light to form a Christmas tree shape.

Sidenote: A lot of articles say that the Gubbio tree has a Guinness world record. However, I can't find a citation for that. If anyone can, please add it. That would be appreciated.

In this comic, [[Randall]] proposes putting Christmas lights all the way around Pando to turn into (Technically) a Christmas tree. As Pando is the worlds largest tree then, if this plan were to be carried out, it would safely take the record and hold it for quite some time.

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

:[The main comic frame is a profile view of a number of separated trees, of varying heights and maturity, across each of which (of those with sufficient height) has apparently been draped a single chain of decorative lights that goes from off-image at one side to off-image at the other.]

:[Inset in the bottom right is a mini-map implicating that these light-linked 'trees' are actually all risers from a single large superorganism (as a shaded complex but contiguous shape labelled "Pando"), the map has a "N"orth pointer, a scale bar indicating the length of "1,000 ft" (approximately a third of the shaded mass's full width) and a convex hull perimiter line tightly fitting the shaded area that has an indicative arrow from a label indicating that its length would be "9,300 ft".]

:[Caption below:] Christmas Science Fact: Pando is approximately 9,300 feet away from being the world's largest Christmas Tree.

{{comic discussion}}

1: Barrel - Part 1

2022-12-22T13:22:36Z

172.71.178.137: Undo revision 303065 by SilverTheTerribleMathematician (talk) Future "*Boy* and the Barrel"-related comics (and official transcripts) justify this enough

{{comic
| number = 1
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Barrel - Part 1
| image = barrel_cropped_(1).jpg
| titletext = Don't we all.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows a young boy floating in a barrel in an ocean that doesn't have a visible end. It comments on the unlikely optimism and perhaps naïveté people sometimes display. The boy is completely lost and seems hopelessly alone, without any plan or control of the situation. Yet, rather than afraid or worried, he is instead quietly curious: "I wonder where I'll float next?" Although not necessarily the situation in this comic, this is a behavior people often exhibit when there is nothing they can do about a problematic situation for a long time; they may have given up hope or developed a cavalier attitude as a coping mechanism.

The title text expands on the philosophical content, with the boy representing the average human being: wandering through life with no real plan, quietly optimistic, always opportunistic and clueless as to what the future may hold.

The isolation of the boy may also represent the way in which we often feel lost through life, never knowing quite where we are, believing that there is no one to whom to turn. This comic could also reflect on Randall's feelings towards creating xkcd in the first place; unsure of what direction the web comic would turn towards, but hopeful that it would eventually become the popular web comic that we know today.

This is the first in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features a [[:Category:Barrel|character]] that is not consistent with what would quickly become the [[xkcd]] [[stick figure]] style.

The full series can be found [[:Category:Barrel|here]]. They are listed below in the order Randall chose for the short story above:
* [[1: Barrel - Part 1]]
* [[20: Ferret]]
* [[11: Barrel - Part 2]]
* [[22: Barrel - Part 3]]
* [[25: Barrel - Part 4]]
* [[31: Barrel - Part 5]]

After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on xkcd, it has been clear that the original [[Ferret]] story should also be included as part of the barrel series.

In [[1110: Click and Drag]] there is a reference to this comic at {{1110|1|n|48|e}}.

==Transcript==
:[A boy sits in a barrel which is floating in an ocean.]
:Boy: i wonder where i'll float next?

:[A smaller frame with a zoom out of the boy in the barrel seen from afar. The barrel drifts into the distance. Nothing else can be seen.]

==Trivia==
*This was the 5th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous comic was [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)]].
**The next was [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]].
*The original title was "Barrel".
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "He's fairly upbeat about the situation!"
*This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on Friday September 30, 2005.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*This is the first of the original drawings that was not drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].
*A more realistic description of the behavior of a barrel in water is here: [http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/should-dwarves-stand-up-in-floating-barrels/ Wired Science: Should Dwarves Stand Up in Floating Barrels?]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 05]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 05]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Barrel|01]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Barrel 01]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

2708: Mystery Asterisk Destination

2022-12-12T16:50:43Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */ Initial comma correction was clearly applied to wrong comma in that sentence. Repunctuated in a way with more natural flow of phrasing.

{{comic
| number = 2708
| date = December 7, 2022
| title = Mystery Asterisk Destination
| image = mystery_asterisk_destination_2x.png
| imagesize = 288x248px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you ever see the † dagger symbol with no unmatched footnote, it means the writer is saying the phrase while threatening you with a dagger.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic pertains to the use of asterisks and other symbols for footnotes or endnotes*. It jokes that when an asterisk appears after a word without a corresponding footnote, it refers to this comic. Missing footnotes can be frustrating, so this comic may provide closure for some readers; similar in spirit to [[391: Anti-Mindvirus]] and opposite to the tension created by the unmatched parenthesis in [[859: (]].

The title text jokes that unmatched instances of † (the dagger symbol, also used for footnotes) are threats being made by the author to the reader with a physical dagger. As of this writing, it states "If you ever see the † dagger symbol with no '''''un'''''matched footnote...", forming a double negative. This is likely a typo intended as "...no matching footnote."

† In some contexts, an unpaired asterisk or dagger may not refer to a footnote, and thus not constitute a mystery. Examples include programming languages and mathematical expressions using asterisks such as for the multiplication operator, and dates of birth and death which are sometimes indicated with an asterisk or dagger respectively.

==Transcript==
:[A blank panel with text at the bottom.]
:'''*'''Whenever you see a mystery asterisk that doesn't have a matching footnote, it points here.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Footnotes]]

477: Typewriter

2022-12-04T02:26:34Z

172.71.178.137: Undo revision 300302 by 172.70.131.43 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 477
| date = September 17, 2008
| title = Typewriter
| image = typewriter.png
| titletext = Somewhere in the world, my actual grandmothers are reading this and angrily exclaiming that I never write even malformed thank-you notes. DEAR GRANDMOMS: I AM SORRY! YOU ARE WONDERFUL PEOPLE AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING LOVE reddit.com RANDALL.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is writing a letter to his grandmother on a typewriter, thanking her for taking him and at least one other person on a trip. However, due to a habit he's developed from using a computer for so long, Randall inadvertently litters the letter with chunks of blank space followed by website URLs. As if through muscle memory, Randall periodically attempts to check the latest news by pressing a combination involving the Tab key, typing the URL of a specific website, then pressing a combination using the Tab key again.

On a computer, the ''Ctrl+Tab'' keyboard combination usually switches to between browser tabs within a window, such as between two {{w|Firefox}} tabs, while ''Alt+Tab'' switches between windows. However, there is only a simple ''Tab'' key on an old-fashioned typewriter. Pressing Tab there doesn't switch to another screen, it just moves the platen (the typewriter's cursor, so to speak) to the next tab stop, leaving a wide space before the next typing on the same piece of paper. So the key combination that would satisfy Randall's somewhat hyperactive impulses on a computer is dramatically different on a typewriter, where that key instead causes movement of the platen. So, he hits the tab key, types a URL, and hits the tab key again right in the middle of his letter. It also shows Randall's love of news and information websites.

The title text references that Randall's real grandmothers, upon seeing this comic, might feel bad that he doesn't write to them at all — not even poorly-written letters like in the comic. To remedy this, he writes a brief thank you note to his grandmothers... which also includes one ''Ctrl/Alt+Tab'' combination.

==List of websites==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Website address
! Name of website
! Description
|-
| [http://www.cnn.com/ cnn.com]
| CNN
| News website
|-
| [http://www.reddit.com/ reddit.com]
| Reddit
| Discussion forums
|-
| [http://www.news.google.com/ news.google.com]
| Google News
| Collection of news websites
|-
| [http://www.boingboing.net/ boingboing.net]
| BoingBoing
| Blogging
|-
| [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ bbc.co.uk]
| BBC
| British Broadcasting Corporation's website
|-
| [http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ fivethirtyeight.com]
| FiveThirtyEight
| News, mainly politics
|-
| [http://www.slashdot.org/ slashdot.org]
| Slashdot
| News and forums
|}

==Transcript==
:[A typewriter is shown with the following letter in it:]
<pre>
Dear Grandmom, cnn.com
I hope this reddit.com letter
finds you well. I wanted to say I
really news.google.com enjoyed the
trip you boingboing.net took us on,
and am looking forward to bbc.co.uk
visiting later fivethirtyeight.com
this year.
Love, slashdot.org

Your grandson,
</pre>

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I didn't realize how bad my habit of tabbing to Firefox every few seconds to check news sites had gotten until I tried writing on a typewriter.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]

54: Science

2022-12-04T02:25:23Z

172.71.178.137: Undo revision 300293 by 172.68.73.50 (talk) Don't be stupid. (This you again? Usually you're a Friday-night/Saturday-morning kind of vandal...)

{{comic
| number = 54
| date = January 18, 2006
| title = Science
| image = science.jpg
| titletext = Bonus points if you can identify the science in question
}}

==Explanation==
The solid line represents the theoretical {{w|blackbody radiation|radiation for a blackbody}} at 2.73 K according to {{w|Planck's Law}} (derived as early as 1900 by {{w|Max Planck}}). The formula, almost as written in the graph, can be found {{w|Black-body radiation#Planck's law of black-body radiation|here}}. The only changes are that on Wikipedia, the frequency ''f'' is represented by the Greek letter ''ν'' (nu) and the temperature ''T'' is included as an independent variable, so ''I''(''f'') becomes ''I''(''v'',''T''). However, ''I''(''v'',''T'') still represents the {{w|Radiance#Spectral radiance|spectral radiance}} (similar to energy density). In this formula, ''h'' is the Planck constant, ''c'' is the speed of light in a vacuum, and ''k'' is the Boltzmann constant. The frequency (''f'' or ''v'') along the ''x''-axis is measured in {{w|gigahertz}}. The curve peaks at 160.4 GHz. There is no scale or unit on the {{w|energy density}} on the ''y''-axis.

The theory is that the blackbody in question was the universe at the point when it had cooled down enough {{w|Decoupling (cosmology)|to allow photons to escape}}, {{w|Chronology of the universe|0.38 million years}} into its {{w|Big Bang|13.8 billion years}} history. The photons that reach us today are the ones that have been travelling to us at lightspeed since then. As the light from astronomical objects suffers from {{w|redshift}} due to the expansion of the universe, and this shift becomes more pronounced with distance from the observer, this light displays in the infrared range.

The title text praises viewers who can identify where this equation and corresponding graph come from (without consulting this wiki, of course).

===Official T-shirt explanation===
This comic was made into a T-shirt, but is no longer available.

On the xkcd store, there was both an '''explanation for the title:'''

Science: We finally figured out that you could separate fact from superstition by a completely radical method: observation. You can try things, measure them, and see how they work! {{w|Bitch (insult)|Bitches}}.


And specifically an '''explanation for the graph:'''

The graph on the back of the shirt is data from the {{w|COBE|COBE mission}} which looked at the background microwave glow of the universe and found that it fit perfectly with the idea that the universe used to be really hot everywhere. This strongly reinforced the Big Bang theory and was one of the most dramatic examples of an experiment agreeing with a theory in history -- the data points fit perfectly, with error bars too small to draw on the graph. It's one of the most triumphant scientific results in history.


The above is a direct copy paste, with errors. The current wiki page of the COBE mission can be found at {{w|Cosmic Background Explorer}} on {{w|Main Page|Wikipedia}}.

==Transcript==
:[A graph with a curve that begins at zero, then peaks at a given frequency, indicated via a thin vertical line, and then fades down towards zero. It is possible to see the data points, which fit the curve perfectly. The y-axis is labelled. Along the x-axis, the zero point and the frequency where the peak has its maximum are labelled and close to the arrow the unit of this axis is written.]
:y-axis: Energy Density
:Along the x-axis:
::0
::160.4
::GHz
:[Above the graph to the right is the following formula, with the last inner parentheses only included to make the formula clear, since in the drawing the fractions are written above and below horizontal lines:]
:I(f) = (2hf3/c2)(1/(ehf/kT-1))
:[Below the graph is written the following:]
:'''Science.'''
:It works, bitches.

==Trivia==
*This was the 48th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[50: Penny Arcade]].
**The next was [[51: Malaria]].
*This comic kept its original title: "Science"
**It is part of the last six comics on LiveJournal that all had a title without the word "Drawing" in it.
**Five of these had exactly the same title on both sites.
**Only 11 comics have the same title on both sites.
**Apart from the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal, there were only three other comics without the word "Drawing" in the title before these last six.
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "Bonus points if you can identify the science in question."
**Only difference between this and the title text on xkcd is the last period: "."
**It is rare that these two texts are so similar.
*This comic was one of the last 11 comics posted on LiveJournal.
**These 11 comics were [[:Category:Posted on LiveJournal after xkcd|posted both on LiveJournal and xkcd]] after the [[xkcd]] site opened on the 1st of January 2006.
**The first six comics were posted on both sites on the same day. But not this one.
*For some reason, this comic was first posted a week later on xkcd (25 January 2006), on the day that [[53: Hobby]] was released on LiveJournal.
**On the day 54: Science was released on LiveJournal (18 January 2006), another comic ([[51: Malaria]]) was released on xkcd.
**[[51: Malaria]] also became the next comic released on LiveJournal, but this meant that three comics in a row were posted a release day earlier on xkcd than on LiveJournal.
**Only with the last comic released on LiveJournal, [[55: Useless]], did the two sites release the same comic on the same day again.
* "It works, bitches" has been quoted by Richard Dawkins in 2013, when questioned on the superiority of science. It is not sure whether he was quoting xkcd, though. See https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/2/4173576/richard-dawkins-on-science-it-works-bitches

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 48]]
[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal after xkcd]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Analysis]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

Talk:2702: What If 2 Gift Guide

2022-11-25T21:40:29Z

172.71.178.137:

The puzzle is almost certainly a reference to the Monty Hall problem, since that's usually framed in terms of 3 doors: behind 2 are goats (bad prizes), behind the third is a new (the desirable prize). While the other puzzles share some attributes, I doubt they're intended. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:55, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
:Who says goats are a bad prize? If you want to make goat's milk cheese, they are quite necessary. Whereas a car may be a burden, most states still require the recipient to pay sales tax, which can be thousands of dollars. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 01:58, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
:Maybe figuring out how to transport the goats in the new car without the goats ruining it would also be a puzzle.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.215|172.71.102.215]]

The goat can be left on its own, but not with the fox or the cabbage. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.135|172.70.162.135]] 00:12, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Another problem with the James Webb photo is that, from its orbit, the Earth appears too close to the Sun to be safe to photograph. So, the recipient of the gift would have to travel into deep space, well past the orbit of the Moon, for the shoot. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.29|172.70.111.29]] 22:22, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

Wasn't Bobcat in a Box inspired by xkcd #576 and its title text, which wasn't even the first boxed bobcat in xkcd? Feels weird to say that the boxed bobcat is a reference to an external brand and not xkcd's rich internal history of mailing people bobcats. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 06:14, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

I assume that even if the platinum (or platinum-iridium) cylinder used to define kilogram was recreation, rather than original, it would still be very expensive ($31,965 per kg). --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 11:40, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

== "Katherine and Brandon" ==

Could someone explain those Names in the "Chemistry" entry to me? It would be very atypical for Randall to make a mistake in that place, but both seem to be impossible to spell with the periodic table of elements.
Potassium, Astatine and Helium would give K-At-He- (and some radiation posioning) and Iodine and Neon -Id-Ne. But neither Rubidium (Ru), nor Radium (Ra), nor Ruthentium (Ru), nor Rhodium (Rh) nor Radon (RN) give you a pure "R" and likewise there is no Element Ri or Er, so it is impossible to put the "R" into "Katherine".
Likewise "Brandon" could be started with Boron (B), Radon (Ra), Nitrogen (N) and finished with Oxygen (O) and again Nitrogen (N), but there are only two "D"s in the whole peridoic table and both are fixed to other letters, that would not fit: Paladium (Pd) and Gadolinium (Gd).
P.S.: 3 full Minutes of Captcha-solving for a Wiki? WTF??? {{unsigned ip|172.70.247.13|23:40, 23 November 2022}}
:Potassium-Astatine-Hydrogen-'''Erbium'''-Iodine-Neon [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.184|172.69.79.184]] 23:59, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
:As for Brandon, you seem to have missed '''Neodymium''' (Nd). So, Boron-Radon-Neodymium-Oxygen-Nitrogen [[User:TurZ|TurZ]] ([[User talk:TurZ|talk]]) 07:00, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
Could he be limiting himself to rendering only the capital letters of each element? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.43|172.71.160.43]] 00:17, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
But Astatine is so radioactive that no one has ever seen it. A lump big enough to physically see would instantly sublimate with its own heat of radioactivity. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.7|172.68.210.7]] 00:08, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Due to the prior comic, I actually bought a Cybiko (I'm into older computer collecting). Now that he's mentioned it again, I'm thankful I got it quick, before the inevitable price rise. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.106|108.162.221.106]] 01:00, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
:Is it good? —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&printable=yes printable version] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&action=info page information] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:While_False what links there] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&days=30&from=&target=User%3AWhile_False related changes] | [https://www.google.com Google search] | current time: {{CURRENTTIME}}) 05:28, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
:I got one, long ago. I think it has a serial connection (RS232?) as well as a radio of whatever kind, and there was reasonably good SDK support for writing your own software, on PC, to download to the Cybiko. I had and have an RSI problem with my hands, and what I tried to do is to use it as a one-handed PC keyboard - so I had to do some pretty simple programming for that, to transmit keys. On the PC end, I think that a serial keyboard was or is a standard supported disability aid option. It might wear out, thought. But currently I do better with a touch screen PC and the "FITALY" on-screen typing program - the man who wrote that died, though. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.222|172.70.162.222]] 13:03, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

== Psychology ==

Hi, this is my first edit, I hope I'm doing it right. The psychology example is most likely about the norm of reciprocity (see Wikipedia). It's a very strong norm. Violations of this norm can indeed cause distress to a point where people express anger if they can't reciprocate (which seems somewhat irrational at times).
I'm a psychology student from Germany, I might do some errors when writing in english :) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.85|198.41.242.85]] 06:15, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
: Welcome! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.156|172.71.154.156]] 21:58, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

== Baby Shoes ==

Has nobody mentioned the xkcd comic that references this yet? https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1540:_Hemingway

Artinum [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.186|172.71.178.186]] 09:45, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

The alt text is a reference to Ernest Hemingway's 6 word short story [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_worn "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."] This is also referenced in comic 1540 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1540:_Hemingway —[[User:Robm|Robm]] ([[User talk:Robm|talk]]) 19:04, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

...this was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2702:_What_If_2_Gift_Guide&diff=299763&oldid=299762 already Explained] before any of the above was added to the discussion. (It had to be improved, e.g. the wikilink, but now it's fairly well resolved unless you think it needs tweaking.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 21:40, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

2699: Feature Comparison

2022-11-17T15:03:42Z

172.71.178.137: /* Services */ Intermediate edit, remaining commented, while establishing the final result.

{{comic
| number = 2699
| date = November 16, 2022
| title = Feature Comparison
| image = feature_comparison_v2.png
| imagesize =
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Below the Web, and the Dark Web, a shadowy parallel world of Cybiko users trade messages on the Translucent Neon Plastic Web.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MULTIHOMED MESH NODE. Read HTML comments to expand. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is comparing different remote communication services, including the relatively well-known {{w|Twitter}}, {{w|Discord}}, {{w|Mastodon (software)|Mastodon}}, {{w|Facebook}} (FB), {{w|Slack (software)|Slack}}, {{w|Signal (software)|Signal}}, {{w|Internet Relay Chat}} (IRC), {{w|Tumblr}}, {{w|Reddit}}, and {{w|SMS}} (mobile telephone text messages). It also includes the less well-known "{{w|Cybiko}}® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)".

Against each of these, it attempts to indicate the various features available to them.

===Services===


;Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens
:This was a handheld computer designed for teens and released in 2000, which featured its own two-way radio text messaging capabilities along with built-in games and a music player. Additional information about it is available at [http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Cybiko the Dead Media Archive], as the device has not been manufactured since 2003.
:The chart suggests that the Cybiko has an advantage over all of the other listed communication services, as it is capable of all eight of the table's listed features listed, with none of the others being close.
:Purchasing a Cybiko or finding friends who own one can be its own challenge, as device was discontinued nearly 20 years ago. Additionally, the Cybiko is a ''device'' rather than a ''service''; a more fair comparison would be to a modern {{w|smartphone}}, which can provide get most of these features via multiple apps, including those apps written especially for such rival services.

===Features===

;{{w|Mesh networking}}
:A form of connectivity that reduces or removes the need for a centralized server or predefined gateways to a communications 'backbone'. Nodes communicate directly with any nodes that happen to be contactable, and from there may connect through to whatever nodes are in mutual contact, or to be found further afield, either in real-time or asynchronously.
:The Cybiko has this ability, as well as wireless message delivery because it communicates directly to other devices via radio, hence the ability to operate without any internet connectivity at all. There are several {{w|Comparison of software and protocols for distributed social networking|ongoing projects for distributed social networking}}.


This comic contains several errors. Mastodon doesn't require a central server, or support file transfer. Discord does not provide for user-run instances itself. (There are two third party Discord server implementations, but it is unclear whether those could be counted as user-run instances of Discord.) Slack does not provide for user-run instances itself. Reddit does not provide for user-run instances at all, only user moderation and administration. IRC does require at least one central server,[https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1459.html] and relegate file transfer support to the domain of client extensions. Signal is heavily used in user-run instances via a diverse ecosystem of code forks; many of these don't require a central server, a couple use mesh networking. Reddit occasionally does have built-in games. Finally, Tumblr does have a form of group chats.

An earlier version of the comic suggesting that Mastodon has no user-run instances was corrected by [[Randall]] shortly after publication of the original.




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

:[A table with checkmarks to indicate which features various messaging services have. Each column is labeled with a service name and its logo beneath, except that for the last column, the device's longer name is written higher than all the other services' names, with an arrow pointing to a drawing of the device below it.]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
! Twitter
! Discord
! Mastodon
! FB
! Slack
! Signal
! IRC
! Tumblr
! Reddit
! SMS
! Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
|-
! Direct messages
| ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓
|-
! Group chats
| ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓
|-
! File transfer
| || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓
|-
! Built-in games
| || ✓ || || ✓ || || || || || || || ✓
|-
! User-run instances
| || ✓ || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓
|-
! Doesn't require central server
| || || || || || || ✓ || || || || ✓
|-
! Mesh networking
| || || || || || || || || || || ✓
|-
! Wireless message delivery works without internet
| || || || || || || || || || ✓ || ✓
|-
|}

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

2696: Precision vs Accuracy

2022-11-09T15:01:00Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2696
| date = November 9, 2022
| title = Precision vs Accuracy
| image = precision_vs_accuracy_2x.png
| imagesize = 501x462px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Barack Obama is much less likely than the average cat to jump in and out of cardboard boxes for fun' is low precision, but I'm not sure about the accuracy.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WITH FEWER LEGS THAN OBAMA'S CAT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic parodies the difference between 'accuracy' and 'precision' with a table. Accuracy and Precision are common concepts to be encountered in the scientific field and often students have issues with the differences between them. The comic explores this concept by comparing President Barack Obama, the former President of the United States with cats. Confusingly, he measures different statistics between Barack Obama and cats (sometimes measuring them in terms of cats) leaving the unwary reader just as confused as encountering accuracy vs precision for the 1st time.

Being precise is typical of calculations that roll out an excess of significant digits, often in the form of trailing decimals. Precision is lowered by using more rounded figures, or merely being comparative but largely unaffected by whether the original values used were accurate or even correct. Accuracy is a cumulative function of the accuracy given to the intermediate values used for any calculation, and can be degraded by using figures that are themselves in some way inaccurate or imprecise.

The numbers mentioned in the top row of the table all use exactly the same digits, those of the most accurate and precise quantity, dictating that a full five digits of precision are used in them all. For the medium accuracy the number is an anagram, giving a value that is reasonable but would be overly exact, whilst the low accuracy number is just a repeat of the first's digits with a shifted decimal but clearly at the wrong scale. For the latter, he replaces the thousands separator with the decimal point (perhaps as a visual pun) but, if Randall had ever intended ''any'' accuracy, he could have shifted the decimal point on further place to the left and been well within an order of magnituded of the true measurement.

The title text compares Obama's and cats' enjoyment of playing with cardboard boxes. While cats are known to do this {{citation needed}}, we don't know whether Obama does.

{| class="wikitable"
!Precision
!Accuracy
!Statement
!Explanation
|-
|High
|High
|Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours
|Within an hour, this is the official length of {{w|Barack Obama}}'s 8-year presidency, including 2 {{w|leap year|leap days}}.
|-
|High
|Medium
|Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats
|The accuracy would depend on the mass of the cats in question. Also a human's mass can vary by a few pounds in a small amount of time as meals are consumed, resources are used in metabolism and wastes are eliminated, and thus this may be overly precise due the margin of error in both the mass of cats and the mass of Mr. Obama.
|-
|High
|Low
|Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall
|A highly precise (5 significant digits) measurement, but not that close to his actual height, published as 6'1".

|-
|Medium
|High
|Most cats have 4 legs
|Like other mammals, cats are tetra-pods, which means "four feet". Unless there is a genetic or other developmental issue, or an an injury that causes the loss of a limb, then cats generally have 4 legs.
|-
|Medium
|Medium
|Barack Obama is 6'1"
|While not very precise, that is the former president's published height.
|-
|Medium
|Low
|Barack Obama has 4 legs
|Barack Obama, being a mammal, does qualify as a tetra-pod, but as a primate, his two forelimbs have been modified into arms and hands, and like other humans, he does not generally use them for locomotion, but to manipulate his environment.

|-
|Low
|High
|Most cats have legs
|A true (high accuracy) statement without much information (low precision).
|-
|Low
|Medium
|Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat
|Again, this will depend on the cat, but in general, true.
|-
|Low
|Low
|Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs
|Low precision. Barack Obama owns a four-legged dog named Sunny, but is not known to have owned a cat.
|-
|Low
|Unsure
|Barack Obama is much less likely than the average cat to jump in and out of cardboard boxes for fun
|Barack Obama has never publicly jumped in and out of cardboard boxes for fun{{citation needed}}, but the possibility that he does in private exists

|}

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

:[A table with 3 rows and 3 columns]

:;High precision
::High accuracy: Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours
::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats
::Low accuracy: Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall

:;Medium precision
::High accuracy: Most cats have 4 legs
::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama is 6'1"
::Low accuracy: Barack Obama has 4 legs

:;Low precision
::High accuracy: Most cats have legs
::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat
::Low accuracy: Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2696: Precision vs Accuracy

2022-11-09T15:00:11Z

172.71.178.137:

87.532% of all statistics are just made up. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.220|172.70.178.220]] 11:10, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

Why is 'Barack Obama is 6'1"' and 'Barack Obama has 4 legs' medium precision? It seems to give exact value, so high precision. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 11:44, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
: OK, I get it. 6'1" means something between 6'0.50" and 6'1.49". For height it's OK, but when counting legs, it seems like a stretch. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 12:30, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:: The four legs are probably considered to be only medium precise, not because of the number but because of the imprecise term "leg". While humans can walk on all four extremities, thereby using them as legs, the upper two are commonly referred to as arms. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 14:54, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:: (ECed by Bischoff) Plus a person's height (excluding differences to footwear and perhaps hairstyle) varies by an inch or so over the course of a day, as the spine compresses whilst mostly upright (would depend a bit upon your daily activities, but "an inch" or 2-3cm is the typical quoted value, with all the questions about precision ''as well as'' accuracy). Within an inch of such a foot-and-inch value is basically between slightly over a percentage point of drift across a continuum of ultimately non-integer values.
:: The number of legs is ''generally'' a whole number (perhaps lower-limb amputees could claim "half a leg", but is that for above the knee or below or... that's beyond my wish to define, I would leave it up to the individual amputee to finesse to their own liking) and assigning decimals, even .000(recurring), would be ''over-''precise. A definite plain figure (however inaccurate) being the happy and acceptable medium between that and the vague imprecision (never mind inaccuracy) of the kind in the cell below. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 15:00, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

Someone should add an explanation of the difference between precision and accuracy. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 13:13, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:Tried it myself. Maybe made it too compact, but I often go on too long so I tried made it as brief and snappy as I felt I could. Over to other editors to rewrite or replace. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 15:00, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

How is 17.082 palindromic? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:54, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:My error, I meant an anagram! (Was going for "anagramic", and my brain clearly rebelled.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 15:00, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2684: Road Space Comparison

2022-10-13T03:03:34Z

172.71.178.137:

Hold on, I'm trying to concoct an interesting 30 goats/20 cabbages/10 wolves problem... [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 20:53, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
S3C0ND P0ST [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.131|172.71.150.131]] 21:12, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

You have no idea how many car-centric infrastructure arguments happen in my discord servers, this is a fantastic comic to post for that[[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.55|188.114.102.55]] 21:23, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

What if the last panel also references other river crossing puzzles like the "Missionaries and cannibals problem" or the Flash "Japanese River Crossing" puzzle so you have extra rules for each member of each species? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.97|172.71.98.97]] 22:11, 12 October 2022 (UTC) Alex

My name is GreyFox, and I added the transcript for this page. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.171|172.71.150.171]] 22:13, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

So [[1035|the takeway is]]... we can put humans in hamster balls by the handful all season and feel no worse about it than about cars driving down the road? This is awesome! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.215|162.158.2.215]] 22:20, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

Saw this one recently, can't be a coincidence [https://files.fietsersbond.nl/app/uploads/2011/07/18104628/enfb_ruimtegebruik.jpg NL Fietsersbond Ruimtegebruik] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.105|108.162.221.105]] 22:25, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

I'm a bit unsure about the linked "52 person tandem" (also, the way it is currently made a bottom-of-page reference link, which we avoid on this site). It took me a while (behind all the popups the referenced link gave me, typically) to realise the only picture of it was the miniscule thumbnail planted at the start. Which explained the anomolous wheel-count, if I understand the low-res image correctly. I would dispute Ripleys'/Guiness's acceptance of that thing as a 'tandem'. It is clearly a multi-stage {{w|Trailer bike|Rann Trailer}}-style construction (possibly with individual tandem-'trailers' in there to get the wheel count down to ''no more'' than the rider-count). Also, how on earth would a linked line of trailers actually start bursting tyres? The load of riders plus frames would spread out about as evenly as for any given single occupant bike (certainly less than the forces on the wheels of a proper tandem/trandem, or even a tandem-trike!), so I'm not sure how they even buckled a wheel. So I'd like to know what the longest two-/three-wheel tandem is (and certainly how anything like Randall's slightly snaking frame does not buckle), if anybody has their finger on that rather more relevent information, rather than that faux-tandem. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 03:03, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2679: Quantified Self

2022-10-01T02:26:55Z

172.71.178.137: Close-tag.

This could also be a call back to the Billy Path comics run in Family Circus. I don't have time today to add that research though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.59|172.70.214.59]] 16:00, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

Here is an explanation of what it is about
https://www.reddit.com/r/OCD/comments/1ve309/invisible_thread_attached_to_my_back_am_i_the/ {{unsigned|Florian F|18:11, 30 September 2022‎}}
:I was going to guess sorting Google Maps Directions by sustainability announced this past Wednesday. https://blog.google/products/search/new-ways-to-make-more-sustainable-choices/ [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.17|172.69.134.17]] 18:53, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
::How is this comic about optimizing for sustainability?
:I think you're way off. I don't see any hint that it's about OCD. If it's similar to the condition you referenced, it's just a coincidence. The whole thing needs to be started from scratch. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.105|108.162.221.105]] 20:41, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
:That is why this site exists. To explain things you don't see. I don't think many people are familiar with this compulsion about an imaginary string retracing your path in space, but when you are, it is spot on. [[User:Florian F|Florian F]] ([[User talk:Florian F|talk]]) 23:09, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

GOOMHR! - Although for me it was the opposite aim. I've had periods of time when I wouldn't even like (if I noticed, I wasn't like OCD or anything[1]!!!) to make a return journey that meant I even crossed the road at a different point and thus passed under a different telegraph wire between a different set of adjacent poles, on the presumption that if I were to 'retract my path' then it would be irrevocably looped around at least one telegraph poles. (But normal lamp-posts were Ok... the path-'string' could just pass over and around the top and continue to retract. And it could pass above/below anything movable like cars, people, etc.) My ideal would be to be topologically contracted to zero length. Nut I wasn't actually obsessed by it, just... sometimes noticed when I was forced to do something that would cause such 'problems' and might deliberately ensure that any such loop was fully reversed (in strict reverse order to any such transit adding them in) ''if at all possible''. Of course, once it was spoilt by one end of the journey being held by a loop, the rest didn't matter so much. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.71|162.158.34.71]] 18:21, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
:''[1] Not even CDO, which is like OCD but ordered alphabetically!''
:: I definitely am also someone who always played it your way, the reverse XKCD. My cats play it straight though, running into the house, through, and out a different entrance repeatedly one day, then the other way the day after. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.45|172.68.210.45]] 19:35, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

; Red string of Fate
The drawing looks like the red thread connecting people in chinese mythology.
-[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.188|162.158.91.188]] 18:21, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

What happens to the string if you crawl under a car which then drives off?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.141|172.70.134.141]] 20:05, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
:You probably would only count objects that were stationary after you passed them.[[User:Anonymouscript|Anonymouscript]] ([[User talk:Anonymouscript|talk]]) 21:10, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
::If it can conceivably move over your 'thread', then it isn't a 'tangling loop'. You have to allow for any degree of mysterious topological optimisation that can magically unhook itself from anything that can be unhooked from, no matter {{w|Alexander horned sphere|how much work it has to do to do so}}, and if that has to include choosing just the right time (with perfect prescience, where necessary!) to allow it to untangle wherever/whenever possible. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.205|162.158.34.205]] 21:25, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
:::That doesn't make sense, taken to the extreme, since all things will turn to dust eventually.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.42|162.158.107.42]] 21:47, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
::::Within the period of your concern (e.g. per daily routine), I would presume. That gantry over the road will be (partially, perhaps in stages) dissasembled for maintenance at some point, if not outright taken down, allowing an arbitrarily future-sensitive thread to not be caught up in it any more. Tachyonic thread-behaviour could happily unwrap around the time ''before'' the gantry (or bridges, or arch) were built, and as for the house... Before completion or after the next F5 tornado, the 4D constraints are far less (a line snagged permanently in a 4D 'passage' suggests something a bit more interesting, given a closed door doesn't 'snag' in 3D, only the use of two different doorways, with or without actual doors). But limiting it to a daily assesment bookends the whole 4D construct with a virtual lintel over (and under, in the ''t''-dimension) any potential gap for thread-movement that might be considered a way to be optimising to minimal necessary set of straight-line distances... Well, unless you learn the gantry was only assembled that morning, or that it had sufficient Ship Of Theseus-style repairs during the day, or a truck hit it by the end of the day... then it still acts as a looped-snagger
::::The car is trivial, in comparison, as we ''know'' it drives away in the posited scenario (and within the duration of the scenario). Even if our mental thread-pull does not allow us to tug it under the firmly ground-planted tyres, by reducing to periods of instaniousness as the 'trapped' thread is then rolled over (and even more tightly trapped, without violating the 'through solid matter' issue) you reach a point where it is now rolled ''off'' of (no longer underneath the car at all) so you can consider it untrapped. Unlike any thread that was threaded in through the driver's side door but out again through the passenger-side one, which traps loops completely (except for convertables, of course, or if Black Hat subsequently does a more width-wise [[562: Parking|version of the "cut'n'shut", with or without the "shut" bit]].
::::But that's just my interpretation. Thread-line obsessions probably come in various flavours and twists (can a thread-line knot about itself? And, insofar as the car example, is it basically forced to stay 'loose' but looped under the car as it drives, at least until enough of the car's wheels lose contact with the ground due to excessive speed over a humped bridge or even speedbump?) and I can't speak for all of them, but my reasonable (FCVO 'reasonable') assessment suggests that there are get outs ''and'' constraints that might be more universal than not. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.48|172.70.91.48]] 01:47, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

{{cot|When it was all about the OCD}}
This is about a type of OCD where some people feel like they have an imaginary string connecting them to where they come from. As they move around, that string gets entangled and they feel the urge to untangle it. When they enter a car, they feel the need to exit the car from the same door, or else the string will be trapped as forever passing through the car. When they enter a building, they feel they need to exit using the same doorway(s), to avoid entangling the string in the building.

Some cases, like turning around a lamp post are OK because you can imagine removing the loop over the top of the lamp post, such that it is not really entangled.

There may not be an official clinical name for this variety of OCD, but one suggested one is the "imaginary path-string".

Randall treats this OCD like a new measure to add to one's quantified self. The quantified self normally refers to the collection of measurements about your activity, like the number of steps you walk in a day, or monitoring your weight, blood pressure or calories intake. Here, Cueball measures his OCD, i.e. how long this imaginary string has become at the end of the day, after mentally untangling the string as much as possible with valid changes, like moving it around objects, but never through solid matter.

Unlike most people with this OCD, who feel the urge to minimize it, Randall/Cueball takes the opposite stance and actually prefers to maximize the (optimally minimal) length of that imaginary string.

The alt text tells about all the things that become useful adjuncts to this way of thinking and measuring, such as passing (one way) through any tube, tunnel or frame made of solid material that could thus capture the imaginary string and help to keep its ultimate distance as lengthy as possible. All of these situations are dreaded by the people with the more traditional version of OCD.
{{cob}}
...because someone [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2679:_Quantified_Self&diff=295745&oldid=295744 ''just deleted it''], and didn't even appear to attempt to replace it with anything useful themselves. (It did need a lot of editing, but not sure it is totally inapplicable, given the demonstrated familiarity with the basic concept by Randall's target audience...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.205|162.158.34.205]] 21:25, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

;Comics with color, red-line subset
As [[:Category:Comics with color]] doesn't have a currently extant Talk-page to it, mentioning it here (although not sure if this one counts, as much, for my suggestion). Many CwC examples are basically "monochrome with added red" ([[2639: Periodic Table Changes|'corrections' to periodic tables]], e.g.) that are distinct from "having lines of various colours" (like [[657: Movie Narrative Charts|multidata plottings]], which are in turn distinctive from [[2598: Graphic Designers|floodfilled]] or [[1024: Error Code|brushstroked]] multihue images. A simple(ish) algorithm could autoclassify all images with any non-greyscale pixels in them, but (from a human perspective, which is [[1530: Keyboard Mash|definitely my kind of perspective]]!) I think that we could sub-split CwC candidates into something like "(Monochrome) Comics with added red lines", and the rest. Doubtless some are going to be edge-cases (is this one technically a red-line one? Probably, but it's not really the same as a 'correction/annotation' red-lined comic), but such subcategorisation might still be broadly useful. - Just a wild idea, that you could perhaps safely ignore. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.117|172.70.90.117]] 02:25, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

2677: Two Key System

2022-09-26T20:49:05Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */ Partial re-edit blitz (worried about edit-conflicts, to be continued!)

{{comic
| number = 2677
| date = September 26, 2022
| title = Two Key System
| image = two_key_system_2x.png
| imagesize = 645x316px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our company can be your one-stop shop for decentralization.
}}

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

As an allegory, the comic relates the results of software development to the reputed safeguards of nuclear missile launch systems.

Such precautions include the {{w|Two-man rule|need for two independent operators for authorization}}, to prevent honest mistakes or the rogue actions of lone-actors. This in several ways may include the use of the {{w|Nuclear Briefcase}) (or 'Football'), where a verification process involves senior figures other than the current leader, but in this case it is more clearly delicting the kind of procedure used at a launch site, where two duty officers need to turn two respective keys at the same time, physically separated so that neither can possibly initiate the sequence by themselves.

In being related to software development, and perhaps the rise of 'auto-filling' password fields in a browser, it is shown that the 'nuisance' of the safeguards (e.g. having to remember your password every time you visit a site) has prompted the development of a method to circumvent the previously enforced requirement. Rather than typing in passwords on every visit, browsers have long since been capable of remembering authentication details, and/or web-sites often providing {{w|HTTP cookie|'cookies'}} if you ask them to "Remember your login" each time you connect to them – which may be fine for most situations. Thus, in the comic, something else is developed to make the safeguards easier to deal with, a dual key-turner device that allows the deliberately secure operation to be accomplished as if it were a single-operator task.

When we find out that the thing used to make the safeguards less of a nuisance actually defeats the purpose of the safeguards, rather than simply removing the problem, a new safeguard is added which does the exact same thing as the original, nuisance included.

The title text mentions a one-stop-shop for decentralization which is a self-contradiction — because a one-stop-shop is by definition centralized.

This comic is posted on September 26th as a reference to Stanislav Petrov correctly rejecting the false detection of an incoming nuclear missile strike from the US on September 26th, 1983. [[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]]

For related xkcd on software cycles, see [[2044: Sandboxing Cycle]] and [[1306: Sigil Cycle]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Caption:]
:All software development, eventually

:[Cueball is talking, while pointing to a drawing. It represents two keys, pointing to Cueball and Ponytail turning keys of a missile launch briefcase]
:Cueball: We've installed a two-key system to prevent accidental missile launches.

:[An arrow is pointing to the next panel:] Soon

:[The drawing now represents a device which allows Cueball to activate the briefcase by himself]
:Cueball: We've developed a dual-turner device to allow a user to efficiently turn multiple keys.

:[An arrow is pointing to the next panel:] Soon

:[The drawing now represents two keys, pointing to Cueball and Ponytail turning keys of a box containing the device of panel 2]
:Cueball: We've installed a two-key lock on the dual-turner device to prevent accidental use.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]

2672: What If? 2 Flowchart

2022-09-14T11:02:49Z

172.71.178.137: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2672
| date = September 13, 2022
| title = What If? 2 Flowchart
| image = what_if_2_flowchart_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x729px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Don't worry, the dogs are all fine. That's actually kind of the problem.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an EARTH-DESTROYING FLOWCHART - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic celebrates the release of [[Randall|Randall's]] new book, ''[[What If?|What If? 2]]'', which was released on the same day as this comic: Tuesday, September 13, 2022. The comic thus appeared on a Tuesday, replacing that week's normal Wednesday release to coincide with the release day. The [[xkcd Header text]] also [[xkcd Header text#2022-09-13 - What if? 2 is available now|changed that day]] to shout out that the book was released on that day. (It had been counting down the last week, from [[xkcd Header text#2022-09-07 - Less than one week to What if? 2 comes out|less than a week]], [[xkcd Header text#2022-09-12 - Three days to What if? 2 comes out|three days]] and [[xkcd Header text#2022-09-12 - One day to What if? 2 comes out|one day]] while the previous comics [[2670: Interruption]] and [[2671: Rotation]] was on the front page. The latter only for one day due to the Tuesday release).

While announcing that his '''What If? 2''' book is finally out (the entire comic is a [https://xkcd.com/whatif2 link] to the books page on xkcd), Randall gives us a flowchart we can follow to find the relevant article in the book based on what we are planning to do today. Once a relevant possibility is reached in the flowchart a page number in the book is given. It thus assumes we are doing something that the crazy scenarios in the book could potentially help us with. Which hopefully is highly unlikely. See the [[#Table of questions in the flowchart|table below]] for explanations.

The title text refers to the last line in the flow chart which is concerned with wanting a dog. If you are then satisfied the flowchart ends with fulfillment. But if you want more than one dog, the flowchart continues three times where you can get more dogs. If that is enough you will get back to the fulfillment ending. But else you can end in the scenario where all in the universe it consumed by dogs, and then you should read page 308.

The title text assures the reader that this insane amount of dogs are all fine. As in movies where a statement ensures the viewer that no animals was harmed in the making of this movie. But then continues to state that the real problem is that all these dogs are still fine.

==Table of questions in the flowchart==
The flowchart questions and their possible answers are described in the following table:
{| class="wikitable"
! Text
! Connected
|-
| Congratulations, you have acquired a copy of ''What if? 2!'' (out today, [xkcd.com/whatif2])
| What do you want to do today?
|-
| rowspan="3" | What do you want to do today?
| I don't know: Reflect on your life
|-
| Go to neighborhood party: Do you like your neighbor?
|-
| Brunch: Where do you go?
|-
| rowspan="2" | Do you like your neighbor?
| Yes: '''Page 78'''
|-
| No: What do you want to bring?
|-
| rowspan="4" | What do you want to bring?
| Jupiter: '''Page 70'''
|-
| Iron vapor: '''Page 18'''
|-
| Weird Opinions: Do you think bugs should get paid?
|-
| My fake identity: Have you committed any crimes?
|-
| rowspan="2" | Do you think bugs should get paid?
| Yes: '''Page 96'''
|-
| No: Reflect on your life
|-
| rowspan="2" | Where do you go?
| The sun: Are you wearing sunscreen?
|-
| A diner: How do you get there?
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you wearing sunscreen?
| Yes: '''Page 319'''
|-
| No: How do you want to visit?
|-
| rowspan="2" | How do you want to visit?
| Briefly, via teleporter: '''Page 314'''
|-
| I want to land a probe on the surface: '''Page 323'''
|-
| rowspan="3" | How do you get there?
| Helicopter: Where do you sit in the helicopter?
|-
| Plane: '''Page 83''', Are you flying near any strong magnets?
|-
| Car: How do you want to drive?
|-
| rowspan="2" | Where do you sit in the helicopter?
| On the rotor: '''Page 6'''
|-
| Inside: Are you flying near any strong magnets?
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you flying near any strong magnets?
| Yes: '''Page 171'''
|-
| No: Okay, there's the diner!
|-
| rowspan="2" | Okay, there's the diner!
| Keep driving forever: '''Page 128'''
|-
| Stop: What food do you order?
|-
| rowspan="5" | What food do you order?
| The sun: '''Page 303'''
|-
| Breadsticks: '''Page 299'''
|-
| Ammonia: '''Page 284'''
|-
| A cloud: '''Page 195'''
|-
| Soup: How much soup?
|-
| rowspan="2" | How much soup?
| 1 bowl: '''Page 197'''
|-
| 1040 bowls: '''Page 1'''
|-
| rowspan="3" | How do you want to drive?
| Fast: '''Page 180'''
|-
| With a bird: '''Page 171'''
|-
| Normal: Does this road lead to Rome?
|-
| rowspan="3" | Does this road lead to Rome?
| Yes: Pick a different road
|-
| No, but it should: '''Page 154'''
|-
| No: Okay, there's the diner!
|-
| Pick a different road
| Does this road lead to Rome?
|-
| Okay, there's the diner!
| Keep driving forever: '''Page 128'''
|-
| rowspan="3" | What do you really want to do?
| I want to shoot a laser at a sorceress: '''Page 43'''
|-
| I want to tell people things about eggs: What kinds of things about eggs?
|-
| I want a dog: Get a dog
|-
| rowspan="2" | What kinds of things about eggs?
| True things: '''Page 300'''
|-
| False things: '''Page 258'''
|-
| Get a dog
| Are you satisfied?
|-
| rowspan="2" | Are you satisfied?
| Yes: '''Fulfillment!'''
|-
| No, I think we need more dogs: Get more dogs
|-
| Get more dogs
| Enough? (1)
|-
| rowspan="2" | Enough? (1)
| Yes: '''Fulfillment!'''
|-
| No. You can never have too many dogs: More dogs
|-
| More dogs
| Enough? (2)
|-
| rowspan="2" | Enough? (2)
| Yes: Fulfillment!
|-
| No. You can literally never have too many dogs. We should not stop until all that exists in the cosmos has been consumed by a happy, barking mass: '''Page 308'''
|-
| rowspan="3" | Have you committed any crimes?
| Not sure: '''Page 255'''
|-
| Yes: Travel back in time to undo your crimes
|-
| No: Do you want to?
|-
| rowspan="2" | Do you want to?
| No: '''Page 255'''
|-
| Yes: '''Page 258'''
|-
| Travel back in time to undo your crimes
| '''Page 277'''
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A large flowchart, with the first box in the top left corner.]
:Box 1: Congratulations, you have acquired a copy of '''''What if? 2!''''' (out today, xkcd.com/whatif2)
::[Arrow to Box 2]
:Box 2: What do you want to do today?
::[Arrow to Box 3] I don't know
::[Arrow to Box 4] Go to neighborhood party
::[Arrow to Box 5] Brunch
:Box 3: Reflect on your life
::[Arrow to Box 6]
:Box 4: Do you like your neighbor?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 78'] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 7] No
:Box 5: Where do you go?
::[Arrow to Box 8] The Sun
::[Arrow to Box 9] A diner
:Box 6: What do you really want to do?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 43'] I want to shoot a laser at a sorceress
::[Arrow to Box 10] I want a dog
::[Arrow to Box 11] I want to tell people things about eggs
:Box 7: What do you want to bring?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 70'] Jupiter
::[Arrow to Box 12] Weird opinions
::[Arrow to Box 13] My fake identity
:Box 8: Are you wearing sunscreen?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 319'] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 14] No
:Box 9: How do you get there?
::[Arrow to Box 15] Helicopter
::[Arrow to Box 16 with the words 'page 83'] Plane
::[Arrow to Box 17] Car
:Box 10: Get a dog
::[Arrow to Box 18]
:Box 11: What kinds of things about eggs?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 300'] True things
::[Arrow to the words 'page 258', same words as from Box 19] False things
:Box 12: Do you think bugs should get paid?
::[Arrow to Box 3] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 96'] Yes
:Box 13: Have you commited any crimes?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 255', same words as from Box 19] Not sure
::[Arrow to Box 19] No
::[Arrow to Box 20] Yes
:Box 14: How do you want to visit?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 314'] Briefly, via teleporter
::[Arrow to the words 'page 323'] I want to land a probe on the surface
:Box 15: Where do you sit in the helicopter?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 6'] On the rotor
::[Arrow to Box 16] Inside
:Box 16: Are you flying near any strong magnets?
::[Arrow to Box 21] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 171'] Yes
:Box 17: How fast do you want to drive?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 180'] Fast
::[Arrow to Box 22] Normal
::[Arrow to the words 'page 176'] With a bird
:Box 18: Are you satisfied?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 26 and 29]
::[Arrow to Box 23] No. I think we need more dogs.
:Box 19: Do you want to?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 255', same words as from Box 13] No
::[Arrow to the words 'page 258', same words as from Box 11] Yes
:Box 20: Travel back in time to undo your crimes
::[Arrow to to the words 'page 277']
:Box 21: Okay, there's the diner!
::[Arrow to the words 'page 128'] Keep driving forever
::[Arrow to Box 24] Stop
:Box 22: Does this road lead to Rome?
::[Arrow to Box 25] Yes
::[Arrow to the words 'page 154'] No, but it should
::[Arrow to Box 21] No
:Box 23: Get more dogs
::[Arrow to Box 26]
:Box 24: What food do you order?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 303'] The Sun
::[Arrow to the words 'page 299'] Breadsticks
::[Arrow to Box 27] Soup
::[Arrow to the words 'page 284'] Ammonia
::[Arrow to the words 'page 195'] A cloud
:Box 25: Pick a different road
::[Arrow to Box 22]
:Box 26: Enough?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 18 and 29] Yes
::[Arrow to Box 28] No. You can never have too many dogs.
:Box 27: How much soup?
::[Arrow to the words 'page 197'] 1 bowl
::[Arrow to the words 'page 1'] 1040 bowls
:Box 28: More dogs
::[Arrow to Box 29]
:Box 29: Enough?
::[Arrow to the word 'Fulfillment!', same word as from Boxes 18 and 26]
::[Arrow to the words 'page 308] No. You can literally never have too many dogs. We should not stop until all that exists has been consumed by a happy, barking mass.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]