explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

635: Locke and Demosthenes

2015-03-26T09:11:12Z

173.245.53.146: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 635
| date = September 11, 2009
| title = Locke and Demosthenes
| image = locke_and_demosthenes.png
| titletext = Dear Peter Wiggin: This letter is to inform you that you have received enough up votes on your reddit comments to become president of the world. Please be at the UN tomorrow at 8:00 sharp.}}

==Explanation==
This comic reimagines a scene from {{w|Ender's Game}}, by {{w|Orson Scott Card}}. In the book, Ender is an above-average-intelligence boy who is selected to become a potential leader of Earth's "Defense" Forces in the event of another {{w|Formics|Bugger}} (For those wondering about the Wikipedia link, in future books the Buggers are renamed to the Formics to avoid having a slur referring to gay men/English swear word as the name of a race) invasion. Meanwhile, Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine decide to save the world from itself. They do this by asserting themselves as wise demagogues who comment on political events on what are known as the "free nets" which are nets open to comment by anyone in the world. They choose pseudonyms to write under, as no one would take the words of children seriously, they choose Locke (Peter's pseudonym), and Demosthenes (Valentine's) and begin work. Eventually they gain enough respect to be invited to participate in moderated political debates in the higher class nets. By the end of the book, Peter has become the leader of the world, as Valentine runs away with Ender to a planet formerly inhabitted by Buggers to live out their lives in peace.

The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of what blogging has become, without the becoming-the-head-of-government outcome, obviously. [[Randall]] is suggesting that if the book was set with today's technology, Locke and Demosthenes would be getting extremely low exposure with their wordpress blogs as evidenced by the 0 comments on each post; the title text sarcastically invites Peter to be head of the UN. Also note that the sarcastic note is addressed to "Peter" rather than "Locke"; Peter's attempt to remain anonymous has failed miserably.

If you happen to be wondering about the squirrel, Peter Wiggin is portrayed as a sadistic sociopath. There is a scene in the book where Valentine stumbles across a skinned squirrel still twitching in pain.

==Transcript==
:[Valentine is laying on her back on the ground. Peter is feeding a squirrel.]
:Valentine: Ender's up there saving the world, but down here it's falling apart politically. What can we do?

:Peter: I know — we get on the nets and anonymously post political opinions. People reading our articles will see our intelligence, recognize how clear and logical our arguments are, and insist that we be put in charge, so we can fix everything!
:Valentine: Brilliant!
:[The squirrel is eating Peter's food.]

:[A blog.]
:LOCKE
:Powered by Wordpress

:[Articles, partly scrolled down.]
:[...] which is why we must reach out to the Russian leadership.
::Posted at 3:15AM by Locke
::Comments (0)

:[In a larger font]
:The Problem with China
:In recent months much has been made of [...]

:[In a sidebar]
:Recent posts:
:>> A few thoughts on...
::Comments (0)
:>> Russian Aggression...
::Comments (1)
:>> Trade policy and the...
::Comments (0)
:>> And one more thing...
::Comments (0)
:>> Everyone's wrong about...
::Comments (1)

:[A list of links to other websites.]
:Blogroll:
:>> Demosthenes
:>> FiveThirtyEight

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Ender's Game]]

311: Action Movies

2014-11-16T14:33:45Z

173.245.53.146: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 311
| date = September 3, 2007
| title = Action Movies
| image = action_movies.png
| titletext = By my count, only 48 of the 158 minutes in Live Free or Die Hard have action. That's pathetic, guys. Crank is better, but needs a bigger budget and more Summer Glau.
}}

==Explanation==

A common complaint about {{w|Action film|action films}} is that they are light on plot and heavy on pointless violence and special effects. {{w|Live Free or Die Hard}} and {{w|Crank (film)}} are both typical action films in this respect.

[[Cueball]] reverses this complaint, stating that proportional to the run-time of the movie, there could be much ''more'' action and much ''less'' plot. [[Megan]] adds that a pre-existing character could further eliminate the need for exposition and provide more time for action. "River Tam Beats Up Everyone" is a hypothetical title for such a film, and also a complete plot summary. {{w|River Tam}} is a character (played by {{w|Summer Glau}}) from the short-lived TV series {{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}, a character who could plausibly beat up a large number of people in an entertaining way.

The title text suggests that [[Randall]] did not find too much action in the contemporary "Live Free or Die Hard" compared with the rest of the film.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are talking together as they walk away from a cinema.]
:Cueball: Another summer gone without a mindless big-budget action movie.
:Megan: Huh? Die Hard was nothing BUT action!
:Cueball: No, it was too talky.
:Megan: What? Too talky?
:Cueball: I tallied it minute-by-minute. It's at least 60% people walking and talking. ALL those movies are.
:Cueball: Just once, I want a real action movie. 30 seconds of exposition followed by a perfect 90-minute action scene. One with a huge budget, a good choreographer, and a great director.
:Megan: And they should center it around some character we already know, someone we never get tired of watching.
:Cueball: I think we've got something here...
:[A movie poster is shown.]
: Coming this summer
: River Tam
: Beats up EVERYONE
:[The movie shows a line of houses, there are people beat up and lying in doorways, out of windows, and on the sidewalk. River Tam is doing a flying kick into someone's face.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Summer Glau]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Firefly]]

Talk:1335: Now

2014-03-05T16:20:50Z

173.245.53.146: Added implementations section

<pre>| custom = [http://c.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/now]</pre>
This doesn't work. Maybe if we added *.xkcd.com/* to the (external) image whitelist or something? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.121|108.162.231.121]] 07:27, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
:A fine suggestion. I'm probably going to shoot for full archival like we did with [[time]], but this is an ample good solution in the meantime. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:30, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
:Hold on, having wee issues, will resolve soon. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:37, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Here is a scaled animation of every image. The full size version was too big for me to upload.
[[File:now-100ms_small6-1.gif|none]]
[[User:Ti84p|Ti84p]] ([[User talk:Ti84p|talk]]) 07:47, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

For Australia and New Zealand, at least, the clock shows local time with summer time factored in. I bet that it undergoes some changes in March and April as various jurisdictions go on or off daylight saving. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.224|108.162.249.224]] 09:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: Good point! I added this to the explanation. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 13:15, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

:: There's also British Summer Time and all the ''other'' national seasonal adjustments(1)... could you perhaps de-specify the "move the list of North American cities and regions for Daylight-Saving Time (which is the same thing as Summer Time)" statement to remove the inadvertent US-centrism? Maybe "...of northern-latitudes cities for Daylight-Saving Time or equivalent Summer Time designation"..? (Definitely could be better phrased than I just put, though.)
:: (1) Note, they don't even all switch at the same time, necessarily. If Randall is going to change the basic map template (pre-rotation) for any Summer/non-Summer transition, he's probably going to have to do it multiple times each spring/autumn, as various regions jiggle about. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.41|141.101.99.41]] 13:52, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

::: Exactly, they don't all switch at the same time. North America isn't mentioned to be US-centric, it's mentioned because the change happens there first. Sure, we could bring up BST and all the rest, but there's no need to make the discussion longer than necessary. (The original wording also was not US-centric, privileging the non-US term "Summer Time" that's used where it's currently being observed, but somebody changed that.) —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:14, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
::::I made that change just to use the same title as the Wikipedia page to which we are linking. I don't feel strongly about it. --[[User:BlueMoonlet|BlueMoonlet]] ([[User talk:BlueMoonlet|talk]]) 18:46, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

As for the map itself, I think the title text should provide the exact time for the location under the cursor, by doing calculations for the mouseover event and updating the t.t. accordingly. I imagine it is doable for Randall. For accuracy's sake, the Antarctic region could be excluded. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.225|141.101.89.225]] 12:19, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
: Or maybe someone'll fancy doing it as a userscript. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.225|141.101.89.225]] 12:23, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

I made a version that the user can rotate themselves. It only loads a single image. http://c0la.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd1335.html {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.182}}

The gif image is very good to understand this comic. However it would be very nice if it rotated a little slower. Instead of one turn every ten seconds it could be one every minute. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 14:37, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: When I look a little off-centre, it always seems that South America is about to catch up with Antarctica, but it never does! —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:14, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

He used an Azimuthal equidistant projection?!?!? ;_; [[User:Swhouseworth|Swhouseworth]] ([[User talk:Swhouseworth|talk]]) 16:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: Yeah, should have been equal area! —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:14, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

:: On the Transcript for this comic the last line erroneously describes the innermost circle as "the Earth as seen from the south pole", when as Swhouseworth correctly points out, this is an Azimuthal equidistant projection centered on the south pole. —[[User:Andrewpost|Andrewpost]] ([[User talk:Andrewpost|talk]]) 14:43, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Question: If there are 24 Hours in a day, why in the description does it go from hour 0 to hour 21? That's only 22 hours. Where are the other 2 hours? Even if it isn't listed on the comic (I think it's the time zones in the Atlantic between Eastern Brazil and the UK - basically UTC-1hr and UTC-2hr), shouldn't there be spaces in the charts showing those hours? I don't think any of the islands in that region use those time zones (opting instead to use GMT - like Iceland for example), but I think those hours should still be included since they ''are'' on the static part of the map. Also, it makes sense to me that the center of the words ''NOON'' and ''MIDNIGHT'' are edges of segments themselves, making 24 segments in total. Randall just couldn't draw those discrete segments and also easily have the words written for our convenience. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 16:46, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: Every time zone is used somewhere in international waters (well, every one that's a whole number of hours off of Universal Time), so they certainly should all be included. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:14, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
: Added South Georgia as UTC-2 and Cape Verde as UTC-1. According to Wikipedia, coastal Brazil and Greenland are both UTC-2 during the summer, but Brazil just ended summer time last Sunday (Feb. 23), and Greenland won't start until late March. There are approximately no permanently inhabited places that use UTC-2 all year, so I just went with South Georgia because it's historically significant. [[User:Fryhole|Fryhole]] ([[User talk:Fryhole|talk]]) 20:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Randall's continent naming scheme is interesting. The most commonly taught model in the U.S. has seven continents, but the purple continent is Australia rather than Oceania. The name Oceania is common in Spanish-speaking countries, but those places generally have a six-continent model with the Americas merged. Is Randall's model standard anywhere? [[User:Fryhole|Fryhole]] ([[User talk:Fryhole|talk]]) 20:00, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: FIBA and, before 2006, FIFA. (In 2006 FIFA moved Australia from Oceania to Asia). As a further parallel neither the sporting bodies nor the comic actually mention Antarctica. Note that the comic does not say these are continents. Oceania has some distinct characteristics, so it often shows up as a "region of the world".
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.59|108.162.218.59]] 19:08, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
distinoften shows up as a "region of the world". It has some distinct characteristics, which is why FIFA, FIBA and others treat it as a region.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.59|108.162.218.59]] 19:08, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Kamchatka is probably a reference to 850: https://xkcd.com/850/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.48|108.162.216.48]] 20:22, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Hey, I'd just like to note that GIMP "Optimize for GIF" reduced the GIF size to 7.1MiB from current 9.3MiB. If I reduced the colours to 32, which still looked "good enough" in my opinion, the GIF was only 3.5MiB.
http://m8y.org/tmp/temp.gif (optimize)
http://m8y.org/tmp/temp2.gif (optimize + colour reduction)

It might be worth replacing to improve load times.
You might want to make your own since I didn't check frame times or anything, I just ran "index" and "optimize" and then exported{{unsigned ip|108.162.219.77}}
:You are right, but that picture should be less then 1MB. I will do some tests, and if it does work I will talk about this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:51, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
::m'k - well. Using 20 colours and scaling it down 50% resulted in 1.1MiB... http://m8y.org/tmp/temp3.gif
:::I'm now at the time frame at "Rude to call", but nevertheless the PNG files have to be optimized to a GIF, after that an animated GIF should be much smaller. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 01:03, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
::::I'm guessing an indexed APNG could be smaller (due to more efficient compression) than a GIF, but unfortunately I don't thing apngasm is as efficient as GIMP's optimize for gif feature.

Does anybody know what clock Randall is using? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.75|199.27.128.75]]EvanJM42

Randall no doubt knows about the Time Zone Database (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database) so he may well have coded this page to incorporate seasonal time changes from that database. We'll have to watch what happens.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.15|108.162.219.15]] 12:59, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Any idea of a way of using this image as a wallpaper for OSX in a way that updates every 30 minutes? Yes, n00b question, but I cannot think of an easily implemented solution. {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.77}}
::Hey. I don't know too much about how OSX does wallpapers, but under Linux, the desktop wallpaper will automatically update if the image is modified. This means you could make a simple shell script that copies (or possibly updates a symlink) to wallpaper.png based upon the current time. The file for the copy or symlink could be referenced as... H=$(date -u +%H); M=$(date -u +%M); FILE="${H}h${M}m.png" I use a similar approach for automatically rotating the image in http://m8y.org/images/sandy_1280_1024_stripped.svg in a cronjob using sed. The sed modification of the svg automatically updates the background. With any luck, you can do the same thing in OSX once you've pointed your wallpaper at a location. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.56}}

==Implementations ==
Hi, I'm new and a tad confused by how this discussion page editing works, but: I made a time zone converter based on this XKCD comic, over here: http://www.xkcdnow.com - I think it could be fitting to add a link to it somewhere to this article, but I don't wanna come across as spammy, and couldn't find any other explainxkcd articles with an external links section (wikipedia style)... Any thoughts? - wauter
: This is a great site! Maybe we could insert an "Implementations" category into the article. If we do so, I could provide another cool one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.phillab.xkcd_now which is a widget for Android - including tribute to explainxkcd -- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.146|173.245.53.146]] 16:20, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

1052: Every Major's Terrible

2014-01-08T14:46:29Z

173.245.53.146: /* Explanation */ there-->their

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|not all panels are included}}
The header refers to an satiric opera from the 19th century. {{w|Modern Major-General's Song}} is a patter song from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. The song satirises the idea of the "modern" educated British Army officer of the latter 19th century. It is one of the most difficult patter songs to perform, due to the fast pace and tongue-twisting nature of the lyrics. Here's a YouTube video of "I Am the Very Model of A Modern Major's General" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSGWoXDFM64] for those who need to get the tune.

{{w|Major general}} is a military rank in many countries. [http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html Here] is Tom Lehrer's Elements. And [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3zAbQ0aMK8 here] is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins.

The panels are showing a song, some sentences are going over two or more panels. The refrain is like this: "put me down as "undecided" - Every Major's Terrible".

In panel 1, the stick figure is posed as {{w|Rodin}}'s {{w|The Thinker}}, a common symbol for Philosophy. The equation in the background (two plus light bulb equals sailboat) is nonsense, hence "math sans rigor, sense or practicality"

In panel 2, a cannon is firing. However, instead of going in the normal parabolic arc (a precept of reality), the cannonball splits and splits again in a binary tree fashion, a component of {{w|chaos theory}}.

In panel 3, a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) is the most common major, often chosen by people who want to run their own business, or, as the comic illustrates, who don't spend their entire life in college.

In panel 4, Stamp collecting refers to the famous quote by {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, "All science is either physics or stamp collecting." {{w|Methyl acetate}} is the solvent used to remove stamps from their envelope.

In panel 8, {{w|underwater basket weaving}} is a commonly used metaphor for any college major that is easy or worthless.

Panel 13 refers to the inability of {{w|seismology}} to reliably predict catastrophic {{w|earthquake}}s, even after centuries of extensive research.

In panel 14, the formal logic proposition "X ∴ ∃X" says "I say there's this thing called X, therefore, there exists this thing called X".

In panel 15, programming languages, like {{w|Lisp_(programming_language)|Lisp}}, use parenthesis as part of their syntax. Typically, a open parenthesis will be closed with a closing parenthesis. If not the code is not properly formatted for presentation, it can make it difficult for a programmer to determine where the unbalanced parenthesis begins or ends.

In panel 16, virology is the study of infectious diseases. The symbol above the central figure is the biohazard symbol.

In panel 17, if there is a need for an IT position (in which IT Professionals are employed) there are computers which need fixing - hence the IT Professional is always fixing computers, which may or may not have been [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19980506 "broken" by users].

In panel 19, {{w|Richard Feynman}} was a 20th-century physicist known for his sense of fun, including being photographed for one of his books while holding a bongo drum.

In panel 20, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Redirect redirect on Wikipedia] is a page which immediately sends the visitor to a different page. This implies that the title of the first is either a synonym or a sub-topic of the second. Physics majors usually learn to code, and the standard joke is that they invariably get hired as computer programmers after graduation. The Wikipedia page {{w|physics major}} didn't actually exist when this comic was published. It was created the same day, but as a redirect to {{w|physics education}}. In the subsequent days, there were dozens of instances of people changing it to redirect to {{w|engineer}}, usually reverted within minutes.

In panel 25, {{w|supermoon}} and {{w|zodiac}} are terms invented not by astronomers, but rather by early {{w|astrology|astrologists}}.

In panel 26, {{w|agronomy}} is the science of farming, while {{w|agoraphobia}} is the fear of wide open spaces.

In panel 27, {{w|herpetology}} is the study of reptiles, while ophiophobia is the fear of snakes.

In panel 28, as the pun sugests, {{w|gastroenterology}} is the study of the human digestive system.

In panel 29, pre-med is a major chosen by students hoping to go on to medical school and eventually become doctors. Medical school is extremely competitive and usually requires a very high undergraduate GPA for prospective students.

In panel 30, the text is in all lower-case and strangely laid out compared to text in other panels. All lower case and "free" layout are both associated with 20th century "Modernist" poetry, especially the works of {{w|e.e.cummings}}.

Panels 31 and 32 refer to forensic criminology shows, like CSI, that often dramatize, exaggerate or otherwise prevaricate the science behind forensics.

In panel 33 and 34, the singer refers to economics. Economists claim that economics is a science like any other; scientists in other fields sometimes disagree.

And {{w|Sophie's Choice}} is any dilemma where choosing one cherished person or thing over the other will result in the death or destruction of the other, derived from the theme of the novel, and has also been turned into a romantic drama film.

From the title text 'Undeclared' is sometimes called "General Studies".

===Trivia===
People of the SFU Choir have done renditions to this xkcd song. See [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seGpYa8UO0E SFU Choir - Every Major's Terrible]. The transcription is also shown at the scenes, so it is more easy to understand the text.

==Transcript==
:'''Every Major's Terrible'''
:to the tune of Gilbert & Sullivan's
:'''Modern Major-General Song'''
:(Which you may know from Tom Lehrer's ''Elements''. If not, just hum ''Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.)

:Philosophy's just math sans rigor, sense, and practicality
:: ''[Cueball thinking, chin on fist, à la Rodin's sculpture; in the air is a pseudo-mathematical expression "2 + <picture of light bulb> = <picture of sailboat>"]
:and Math's just physics unconstrained by precepts of reality.
:: ''[a cannon firing: a dashed line indicates the cannonball's trajectory, which bifurcates twice, although the sum of the momentums of the four resulting 1/4 sized cannonballs is presumably mathematically identical to the original]''
:A Business Major's just a thing you get so you can graduate
:: ''[a student receives a diploma from a dean on a podium, while a second student, diploma in hand, runs gleefully away, shedding robe and mortarboard]''
:and Chemistry's for stamp collectors high on methylacetate.
:: ''[a ponytailed student wearing goggles and holding an Erlenmeyer flask dances wildly to a light show -- or is it the Periodic Table? -- in the background]''
:Why anyone who wants a job would study Lit's a mystery
:: ''[Cueball, saying this, holds up hands questioningly]''
:unless their only other choice were something like Art History.
:: ''[Cueball again, holding his chin speculatively]''
:A BA in communications guarantees that you'll achieve
:: ''[close-up of a graduate wearing embroidered robe and tasseled mortarboard]''
:a little less than if you'd learned to underwater basket-weave
:: ''[the same graduate, now underwater, surrounded by fish and a wicker basket]''
:I'd rather eat a Fowler's toad than major in Biology,
:: ''[Cueball holding a frog at arm's length, which says:]''
:: Frog: RIBBIT
:and Social Psych is worse than either Psych or Sociology.
:: ''[Megan indicating: a scruffy individual, an individual holding something which might be a chainsaw, and a scruffy individual holding something which might be a chainsaw]''
:The thought of picking any one of these is too unbearable.
:: ''[Cueball at his adviser's desk holding a course catalog]''
:Just put me down as "Undecided" - Every Major's Terrible.
:: ''[he tosses the course catalog over his shoulder]''

:Now, if you can't prognosticate, that's ok in Seismology,
:: ''[seismograph chart; about halfway across one trace begins oscillating vigorously]''
:but if your hindsight's weak as well, you'd best stick to Theology.
:: ''[a bearded individual pontificates]''
:: Bearded individual: X ∴ ∃X
:CS will make each day a quest to find a missing close-paren.
:: ''[a code fragment]''
:: code: <code>(((()((((()(</code>
:: code: <code>))))())())())</code>
:Virology will guarantee you'll never get a hug again.
:: ''[a girl with a green Biohazard symbol floating above her head stands alone; to the left and right several people shun her]''
:I.T. prepares you for a life of fighting with PCs nonstop.
:: ''[Megan running at a PC with an axe raised over her head]''
:As Pratchett said, "Geography's just physics slowed with trees on top."
:: ''[image of Pratchett, speaking this line]''
:Though physics seems to promise you a Richard Feynman-like career,
:: ''[Richard Feynman plays the bongo drums while Megan and Ponytail look on admiringly]''
:the wiki page for "Physics Major" redirects to "Engineer."
:: ''[screenshot of so-mentioned redirect]''
:They say to study history or find yourself repeating it,
:: ''[flowchart: a grey box with a sad face chains to a decision diamond reading simply "?"; the "yes" branch leads to a yellow happy-face box while the "no" branch loops back to the initial sad face]''
:but all that it prepares you for is forty years of teaching it.
:: ''[teacher with boxy spectacles and a bun at a chalkboard indicating dates: 1935, 1969, 1991]''
:I recognize my four-year plan's at this point not repairable,
:: ''[Cueball at his adviser's desk again]''
:but put me down as "Undecided" - Every Major's Terrible.
:: ''[adviser has his hand to his mouth as if gasping]''

:Astronomers all cringe when they hear "Supermoon" or "Zodiac".
:: ''[image of an astrologer espousing theories]''
:Agronomy's a no-go; I'm a huge agorophobiac.
:: ''[silhouette of Cueball, agitated, in an open field near a fence and a tractor]''
:I'm too ophiophobic to consider Herpetology,
:: ''[Cueball looking aghast at a snake on the ground; the snake may have other ideas]''
:: snake: ♥?
:and I can't stomach any part of Gastroenterology.
:: ''[anatomical image of a stomach]''
:While Pre-Med gives you twitchy-eyed obsession with your GPA,
:: [a badly disheveled individual, glasses askew, clutching folders and papers and dropping several]
:a poetry degree bespeaks bewildering naivete.
:: ''[Ponytail reciting poetry; her poem is this panel's line, in a lighter, lower-case font]''
:TV's behind the rush into Forensic Criminology
:: ''["CSI: Miami" logo]''
:(or so claims Meta-academic Epidemiology).
:: ''[Ponytail holding notebook, and balding individual wearing glasses and holding pipe, watch a wall-mounted flatscreen TV on which "CSI: Miami" logo is showing]''
:By dubbing Econ "Dismal science" adherents exaggerate;
:: ''[Cueball discoursing on his opinion here]''
:the "Dismal"'s fine - it's "science" where they patently prevaricate.
:: ''[close-up on Cueball]''
:In terms of choices, I'd say only Sophie's was comparable.
:: ''[Cueball at his adviser's desk once more]''
:Just put me down as "Undecided" - Every Major's Terrible!
:: ''[Cueball makes a final dramatic flair]''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Songs]]