explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2814: Perseids Pronunciation

2023-08-16T08:40:14Z

172.71.178.35:

I'm afraid to google the Kentucky Meat Shower. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.139|162.158.158.139]] 14:43, 11 August 2023 (UTC)
:SPOILER ALERT
:I can give you a very quick summary: when startled, vultures will sometimes regurgitate their last meal, both to lighten themselves for a quick escape, and make a potential predator lose its appetite. Apparently, something startled a bunch of vultures at the same time, and nobody knows exactly what. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.42|172.69.247.42]] 14:55, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_meat_shower [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 14:59, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

"can" is repeated in the title text. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.54|141.101.68.54]] 14:53, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

On August 11, 2023, XKCD was not the only web comic to reference the "Kentucky Meat Shower". It is the full subject of the day's Dinosaur Comics, at http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4085. And August 11 is not even an anniversary of the event (March 3, 1876). Coincidence? Time travel? You be the judge. [[User:JohnB|JohnB]] ([[User talk:JohnB|talk]]) 15:32, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

This tells me neither how acceptable things like my default lazy pronunciation, nor the original ancient greek pronunciation of its namesake, are considered. How am I supposed to guess where combinations of variations like PEER-, -seh-, and -ides would affect placement in the list? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.35|172.71.142.35]] 19:12, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

It's not ''wrong'', per-se. (ed.)
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:40, 11 August 2023 (UTC)
:That's exactly how I pronounce it. (per se) + ids. per-say-ids. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.4.168|172.68.4.168]] 10:04, 12 August 2023 (UTC)
::ed ≠ id, though.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:07, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

*PER-see-ids: standard(ish, YMMV) 3-syllable verson of the word.
*PURSE-yids: standardish 2-(/2.5-)syllable version.
*Per-SEE-ids: yeah, I'd accept that emphisis, in a pinch.
*Per-SAY-ids: ok, so you like ''that'' version of the 'ei' digraph; might even be 'classical'.
*Per-SIDES: Germanic digraph and irregular (in this case) phomeme boundries, but each to their own.
*Per-ZAY-uds: I can see most of this, accent permitting; the '<schwa>ds' is a surprising twist.
*PER-suds: you dont care about the digraph at all, do you?
*Perky-ids: Back-formed through "C/S equivalence", I'm guessing, but from the wrong s(e)ide?
*Pewpewpews: Onomatopœia!!!
*Per-say-say: Bowdlerised, as if the original is a 'naughty' word.
*Percies: Shortened through familiarity.
*Purps: Shortened/perhaps linked to "perp(etrator)s".
*Pepsids: Sponsorship! (Did we also get the "Dracokids", 6-10 Oct?)
*Peeps: Anthopomorphised, the lot of 'em!
...my first thoughts, but I'm sure there are competing claims so I'll leave this down here for the time being. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.47|162.158.74.47]] 23:28, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

: Per-ZAY-uds seems like it could be acceptable in New Zealand. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.35|172.71.178.35]] 08:40, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

The list in the Explanation's table was missing most of them, and the Transcript separated the two-word entries into separate entries! Fixed all that. Filled in my analyses of the missing pronunciations, I'm sure others can flesh them out better, add relevant links as I couldn't be bothered to both think of th8ngs to link and figure out the best way to link them (and make the multi-entry rows look proper). Also, someone severely misunderstood what "Peeps" would mean, it seems clearly to be the slang for "people". The goofy entries seemed to require separate descriptions, so I left them as separate rows as the cleanest/clearest layout I can think of for that, with the rudimentary understanding of Wiki tables I could glean from what was already there. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:46, 12 August 2023 (UTC)
:I'm convinced it's "Percies" and "Purps" and "Pepsids" and "Peeps", at the end, not "Percies Purps" and "Pepsids Peeps". Just arrayed in two columns as they're shortened enough to make it an unasethetic layout to extend by two rows and add so much gap at the end of four lines. "Pewpewpews" aside, none of the others more than double the "p"s from the original single one. It can be forgiven to bookend a short phoneme (Purps, Peeps), but sounds off to revisit the pattern (twice!) in this manner, with no clear connection between paired elements. Just my own observation, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.46|162.158.74.46]] 20:22, 12 August 2023 (UTC)
::I know! Look at the size of the spacing between the left and right elements - those aren't two-word terms, no way.

::I can see how an at-a-glance read might come up with "Pepsids Peeps" and "Percies Perps"...but at-a-glance reading seems a little out of place on an analytical forum!

::Those are four seperate names.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 07:35, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

I think the "Pepsids Peeps" is a reference to the Pepsi x Peeps soda that got released a few months ago—the first word could be a cross between PEPSI and perseiDS. Presumably, they are very sugary meteors. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.46|172.68.150.46]] 12:00, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

Is someone familiar with the phonetic notation system used in the comic able to convert it to something more generally acceptable like IPA? [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 17:14, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

: It's "informal", and seems to be similar to the wikipedia one. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.54|198.41.238.54]] 01:50, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
No "per-seed"? I once heard a newscaster say it that way. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 18:38, 12 August 2023 (UTC)
:I heard a BBC newsreader say "PER-sid" yesterday. As though it were a compound of "perse" and "id".[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 07:41, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

Why not "per-sayds"? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.54|198.41.238.54]] 01:50, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

It seems likely to me this is going to be regional. I was always taught "Per-SAY-ids" to be correct (EN-GB). I've never heard anyone say "PER-see-ids" or "PURSE-yids". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.218|172.70.85.218]] 09:58, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

I've been saying pur-see-IDES (where instead of ids, i say ides, like the Ides of March) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.222.253|172.71.222.253]] 19:03, 14 August 2023 (UTC)

2668: Artemis Quote

2022-09-05T23:09:18Z

172.71.178.35: /* Explanation */ Whatever else, this deserves a para-break as a viewpoint-shift in the issue. Intent, then legacy.

{{comic
| number = 2668
| date = September 5, 2022
| title = Artemis Quote
| image = artemis_quote.png
| titletext = Another option: "It is an honor to be the first human to set foot on the moon."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|created by a WOMAN INHERITS THE EARTH. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|Artemis program}} is a series of planned space missions that will land humans on the moon and begin to set up infrastructure for a permanent human presence. Humans first landed on the moon in 1969 as part of the Apollo program. They have not been back since 1972.

When the first human to walk on the moon, {{w|Neil Armstrong}}, took the first step there, he was intending to say, "That's one small step for '''a''' man, but a giant leap for mankind [emphasis added]." The audio recording omits the first instance of the word "a", making the sentence confusing, because ''e.g.,'' conflating "a" man with "mankind" is potentially self-contradictory.

This recording was broadcast worldwide at the time and has become a famous historical quote. However, that the {{w|schwa}} grammatical article, "a", optional in certain contexts of most dialects of American English,{{Actual citation needed}} was apparently elided by Armstrong in the excitement, modifying the semantic meaning of the historical phrase, is controversial and therefore funny. Subsequently Armstrong and others have blamed insufficiently tuned {{w|voice activity detection}} hardware circuitry intended to save power in radio voice transmission, but NASA engineers, third-party historians and their hired experts have never been able to corroborate that explanation.

Randall proposes that the first Artemis astronaut should create an even more confusing quote by proposing a sentence that actually appears to be a mere reference to whatever it is they have said. Speaking as if they are alluding to something from the past, it would add contextual confusion to any attempt to directly quote or replay the words from then on. This is very unlikely, and funny merely as a recommendation. If it actually happened, it might be both hilarious and scandalous.

The title text suggests an alternate phrase by which the Artemis astronaut would claim to be the first (rather than 13th) human on the moon. People hearing this quote in the future could assume that Artemis was the first manned mission to the Moon. 

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

:[The surface of the moon, with craters and rocks, and a rocket with a ladder attached and an astronaut stepping onto the moon's surface.]
:Astronaut: This is one of my favorite historical quotes -- the first words spoken by an Artemis astronaut on the moon.

:Caption: Neil Armstrong's "man"/"a man" quote created a lot of historical confusion, and I think it's our duty to expand on that legacy with Artemis.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2666: Universe Price Tiers

2022-09-01T23:09:24Z

172.71.178.35:

We seem to be in Universe Standard, based on the cosmic speed limit
[[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 22:03, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Is the price per user (human)? Or payed by the "god" who runs the universe?
The interpretation would change quite a bit. If per user, some could travel fast while others would not see ads and could even be immortal.
If per universe, would the concept of ads disappear?
[[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 22:25, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

General comment, I think each line of the table should have a separate one-line or one-paragraph explanation, rather than squishing it into one column of a table which mostly reproduces the comic text. i.e. we don't need the table in the explanation, although it works fine in the transcript imo. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.71|172.69.62.71]] 23:40, 31 August 2022 (UTC)edit: a word

"Yes, and he cheats" may be a reference to a quote from ''Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri''.
::I fully expected something like ''"Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out 'til too late that he's been playing with two queens all along."'' (from ''Interesting Times'' by Terry Pratchett) [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 01:47, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
::The SMAC quote is "Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded. - Chairman Sheng-ji Yang", from the Probability Mechanics tech. Also, the "God does not play dice" quote is stated during the Supercollider secret project movie. I doubt the comic is referencing any particular media here, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.5|172.69.22.5]] 02:40, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
::Meanwhile, Stephen Hawking said "Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen." -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 16:01, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

Under ''Number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin'', '64' is 2⁵ and may be making reference to the Nintendo 64 game system. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 01:54, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
::And just for the record, 4096 is 2¹². [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]])

:: Note that the philosophical question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin turns to have much more useful meaning if we realize that the question wasn't if 64 or 4096, but if it's a finite or infinite number, that is, if angels are subject to {{w|Pauli's exclusion principle}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 15:59, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

::: I think the answer is [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8071704/characters/nm0000531 to be found elsewhere]. And it is a different power of 2! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 17:26, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

Who is paying our subscription? How do we ensure we don't get demoted to lite?

Here, the sound of one hand clapping is pretty much "toop." Put your hand out flat fingers together, and no thumb involved, quickly make a fist. Toop. Edit I'm not making a fist. Im keeping the last joints straight and smacking my hand[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.95|172.70.134.95]] 15:59, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
:But two hands each doing that (or slapping another bit of body) aren't "two hands clapping", but more like two hands ''clasping''/something-or-other-like-that.
:If you could bring your one hand to a sudden stop in mid-air ''as if'' hitting another hand, it might be closer, but there's no sudden stop possible like a contact-stop. Plus a full-fledged clap for maximum ovational volume involves cupped hands trapping a resonant volume of air between them, almost sealed (wet hands so positioned can be used to force a squeaky-fart sound out from between them), and neither an "air clap" or the toop-clasp can do anything so dramatic with a solo hand. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.154|141.101.99.154]] 17:54, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

I have a problem with the "Bad things..." portion. ''If'' I was a bad person, then I would never pay for the universe, as I would be better off in the free version, where nothing bad would ever happen to me. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:17, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

The "bad things" section is a bit bothersome: good things don't exist without bad things. Without bad things, good things are just...things. So maybe awareness of bad things is still extant in UniPro? That way, good things would still be at the upper end of a theoretical scale.

But the subjectivity of badness is concerning in a bad-things-don't-happen realm. I reckon plenty of people who could spring for fifty bucks a month would list rum, Katharine Hepburn movies, gay people and Jews as bad things that therefore won't happen. If I stump up my Pro subscription, do I have to share the universe with these douchebags, or do we each get our own? And if it's the latter, how much of a douche must you be to be excluded from my universe? Can we differ a little and still coexist, or do we have to gel perfectly? And how would that ever happen...and would it be tolerable to live surrounded by my opinion-clones? Is this...is this the too-perfect Matrix v.1.0? Am I buying a ticket to a simulated utopia while my body atrophies?
You monster! Guards! Guards! Let me out.....

[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.35|172.71.178.35]] 23:09, 1 September 2022 (UTC)