explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1673: Timeline of Bicycle Design

2016-04-27T14:29:55Z

173.245.54.52:

I have deleted the entire paragraph with the Alternatively, explanation that this could be an analogue to the process of meiosis and pregnancy... It seems extremely far fetched to me... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:01, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Seconded. This is a bizarre comic, and there will be a bizarre explanation, but that is clearly not it. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.181|141.101.70.181]] 13:04, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

That 1860 bike looks like the {{w|American Star Bicycle}}, but the year doesn't match. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.49|141.101.79.49]] 13:10, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

(Moved here from explanation:) The randomness of the designs reminds me of the strange designs produced by the genetic evolution AI in the game BoxCar2D.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.78|141.101.80.78]] 15:05, 27 April 2016‎

This comic strongly remind me of http://boxcar2d.com/ [[User:Dorus|Dorus]] ([[User talk:Dorus|talk]]) 14:24, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

I third the above comments. It could also help explain the title text, as the 1955 panel shows a broken and failed cycle, which can happen when a detrimental mutation (like weak wheel linkages) is selected by the AI to be passed on.

Beret Guy

2016-01-10T22:10:57Z

173.245.54.52:

{{Infobox character
| image = Beret_Guy.png
| imagesize = 40px
| caption = Beret guy, as seen in [[1117: My Sky]]
| first_appearance = [[167: Nihilism]]
}}
'''Beret Guy''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. He is distinguished by his white beret.

==Characteristics==
Beret Guy is an optimist, and sometimes a naive one (although he is rarely a victim in the strip). He enjoys philosophizing, often taking the role of the {{w|existentialist}}. He has a very surreal side to him, often thinking about or being involved in bizarre situations. He also is shown to take things far too literally, sometimes making things surreal.

He has been quite fascinated with bakeries as in [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport]] and [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]], in particular with {{w|scone}}s (see [[452: Mission]] as well as the title text of [[677: Asshole]] and [[1030: Keyed]].)

Beret Guy had a steady job as a bartender, in three comics [[328: Eggs]], [[474: Turn-On]], and [[712: Single Ladies]]. However, in later comics, he apparently quit his job to become a "business professional", according to [[1032: Networking]]. See all comics about [[:Category:Beret Guy's Business|Beret Guy's Business]]. He apparently, makes a load of money from doing this, but has no reasons other than the fact that he is "a business grown-up who makes business profits". He appears again, now with his own "real building he found" in [[1293: Job Interview]]. In [[1493: Meeting]], his business returns again, this time with a name ([http://CompanyName.website/ CompanyName.website]) and an explanation, albeit an unusual one, for how it makes money ("Money keeps appearing, but we have no idea how or why."). At this time, it is still massively successful, somehow. As of [[1533: Antique Factory]] it seems Beret Guy has reorganized his business and branched out from his technology area of expertise, and operating what he refers to as an antique factory. In reality the factory is simply a room with furniture in it where Beret Guy waits as the items age.

Beret Guy also seems to be a miracle maker - see a list of the [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers of Beret Guy]]. In [[1099: Tuesdays]], he grows "endless wings" and in the aforementioned [[1293: Job Interview]], he seems to be pouring soup from an electrical socket, as well as in [[1486: Vacuum]], where he misinterprets quantum physics and manages to get unlimited power from a vacuum cleaner. In [[1490: Atoms]], he appears to have a supernatural ability to see individual atoms (or at least the atomic make-up of items) and his mother seems to have had an unexplained amount of plutonium in her body. However, Beret Guy seems to have no doubt that these events are perfectly normal; in fact, he just seems to accept them as they are without question.

In the What if? [https://what-if.xkcd.com/6/ Glass Half Empty], he seems to be quite oblivious to pain, especially about foreign objects sticking into his head. This may explain why we never see him without his beret as it may have been stapled to his head - see title text of [[291: Dignified]]. Said comics also speculates he might have been born by Caesarean section.

To sum up, Beret Guy is a very naive man with the strange superpower of having the world around him acting according to his naive vision.

He shares several traits with Beriah from [http://www.meninhats.com/ Men in Hats], as [[Black Hat]] does with Aram from the same series, but in contrast to the latter, this doesn't appear to have been officially acknowledged.

See also: [[:Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]].

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Characters with Hats]]

589: Designated Drivers

2015-12-16T22:00:32Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 589
| date = May 27, 2009
| title = Designated Drivers
| image = designated_drivers.png
| titletext = Calling a cab means cutting into beer money.
}}

==Explanation==
When a group of people go together to any kind of event where they expect to drink alcohol, and would like to drive to and from the event, it is usual to select one who has to be the '''{{w|designated driver}}'''. This person will then stay sober during the event, and can thus safely drive the other people home afterwards disregarding how drunk the other people becomes.

However, as this comic points out, if it not a simple task of going from A to B and back, all together at the same time, then it becomes an complex problem that requires an intricate kind of strategy and logical thinking to solve. And may need more than one driver.

In this comic [[Cueball]] addresses his friends, ([[Megan]] and two other Cueball-like guys), regarding this problem right before they enter a bar. It seems they have already decided that one of the friends (Tom) will be the designated driver. But then Cueball mentions that they will have to leave in two groups. And for some reason one of these groups will need at least two drivers (this is hard to explain - see below under [[#Number of drivers|number of drivers]].) So now they already need three designated drivers. Furthermore someone has to go and pick up Paul. (This could be one of the designated drivers though). And also two girls (Julia and Emily) has to leave earlier than the rest by 10:00. (That could then be be one of the two groups that Cueball mentions, and then one of these girls should drive).

In the third panel the situation seems to be illustrated. Three people are drawn outside the bar with three lines going to the bar, so the number of lines leaving and entering each destination seems to represent a person each. Since the number of people leaving and entering each destination is the same, this makes it seem like the diagram is intended to be accurate. There are four people entering and exiting the bar and six people entering and exiting both the party and the dinner. The confusing part of the diagram is that there are only three people at the bar to begin with, not the four shown in the first panel. It also seems strange that someone will go back to the bar and especially that another goes back to the dinner from the party. It is thus not easy to make the diagram fit the description. See below for a possible take on [[#The chart|the chart]].

But the general concept would be that some people meet at a bar before joining the rest of a group at dinner, then later most of these move on to a party. After the party (or bar/dinner) people are going to head home in different groups.

The enormous complexities of planning who {{w|car pool}}s with whom, from where to where, and when, make an excellent logic puzzle. And what is worse, anyone who has to drive needs to stay sober. So it is important to solve the puzzle before the drinking starts, or else there will be too few that can drive, or two many who never gets to drink.

To make matters worse the last Cueball-like guy complicates this already complicated {{w|logical puzzle}}, by involving the classic logic puzzle of the {{w|Wolf, goat and cabbage puzzle|wolf, goat and cabbage}}. In the last panel the guy is shown standing with a goat on a tether, saying he can't be in the car with the wolf. Cueball is then brought to swearing over this. (The goat puzzle was also the subject of [[1134: Logic Boat]]). This must mean that one of the people who has yet to arrive comes with a wolf. And this may go some way of explaining why there needs to be a [[[[#Number of drivers|number of drivers]]]. But since it did not seem like Cueball was thinking about this fact when he mentioned this, that cannot be the explanation.

The title text makes it clear why ordering a taxi is out of the question as it would take money out of the beer budget. Of course it also cost money to use your own car for gas etc. But when you already have a car, it is always cheaper to use that than pay for a taxi.

===The chart===
Since the first panel must take place before any drinking takes place, to make the title of the comic make sense, then there is already missing one from the bar, since we know that there are four at the bar at the start of the comic. To make the diagram fit the fourth person should then be the one coming from the party. But he would thus come from there before anyone else arrived at the party. And then someone will have to leave directly from the bar without going to the dinner or party, since no one will come back later. And since Julia and Emily leaves together, this cannot be either of them. That would also mean that only five leaves the party since one of the leaving arrows was the fourth to get to the bar early. And there are six arriving, all of which must be assumed to arrive later yet. And since no one enters the party from outside, someone must have been at the party site from the start and would stay there afterwards.

All this will at first make very little sense, so in the end it does not seems likely that the diagram in any way can represent the situation precisely. Except if the party is thrown by one of the guys, and he starts and finishes there. Her below is a possible explanation that would explain all the information and the chart. It this was at all intended to be possible by [[Randall]] is not certain but it fits:

*The three people outside the bar are the one represented on the diagram.
**Two Cueball-like guys of which the last one is Tom, the designated driver, and Megan represents one of the girls mentioned later Emily or Julia.
**They arrive together to the bar.
*Here they meet Cueball.
**It is Cueball who throws the party. So the party is at his place, and he has arrived at the bar from there.
**There is thus no arrow entering the party for him to begin with, as he lives there.
*There are now four at the bar.
**Later Cueball will take a route past his house (the party place) before going to the dinner.
**Two of the other three in the bar will go straight to the place of the dinner.
**The last in the bar is the one who has to go after Paul. He thus leaves the chart.
*The guy who picked up Paul will return together with him to the dinner as the two arrows coming in from the top.
*The second girl (apart from Megan) is the last long arrow coming in alone from the right.
*Now all six people are at the dinner.
**After the dinner one of these six people (a guy) will leave alone
**The other five including Cueball will continue to the party at his house.
*There are thus five at the party but only four of these leaves afterwards in two groups of two.
**Two of these are the girls that leaves already at 10:00 leaving only three guys in the house.
**When the two last leave Cueball will stay at home, thus explaining why only four leaves.

===Number of drivers===
The chart offers no solution to the puzzle of why a single group would need more than one driver. As neither of the groups leaving the party is more than two people it would be hard to get more than two drivers. And hard to explain why there would be need for more than one.

The only time more than two lines are following each other from one place is the three that arrives together at the bar and the five that moves from dinner to party. And even five people can normally fit in one car.

Of course when we begin to take into account that one of them has a goat and one of the others have a wolf, then there are suddenly eight living beings that needs transport. And this may explain the need for two cars. But still not the more than one driver for a single car.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is addressing three people outside a bar (two Cueball-like guys and Megan).]
:Cueball: Wait, who's driving?
:First Cueball-like guy: Why?
:First Cueball-like guy: Tom, right?

:[Zoom in on Cueball.]
:Cueball: Yes, but we have to leave in two groups. One of which will need at least two drivers.

:[There is text both above and below a flowchart with arrows between a group of the three people Cueball is talking to, and three houses that are labeled 'bar', 'dinner', and 'party'. Three lines point from the group of people to the bar and a fourth arrives from the party. Four lines points away from the bar. Two goes to the dinner one to the party and one away to the left. There are six arrows arriving at the dinner. Apart from the two lines coming from the bar, there is one long arrow pointing to the dinner from the left and two coming in from above. One more comes from the party below. Six arrows points away. One arrow goes away to the top right, the other five arrows points straight down to the party. There are also six arrows coming and leaving the party. Apart from the five from the dinner there was the one coming in from the bar. The six arrows leaving are the one arrow that went to the bar and the one to the dinner. The other four leaves in two groups of two, on straight down and two curving to the left.]
:Cueball (off-panel): Someone has to get Paul, and Julia and Emily have to leave by 10:00.
:Labels: Bar
:Labels: Dinner
:Labels: Party
:Cueball (off-panel): The logistics of who can get drunk are nontrivial.

:[The second Cueball-like guy to the right has an goat on a string behind him, which was not visible in the first panel, as he was at that time only partly inside the frame.]
:Second Cueball-like guy: Yeah, and I can't ride in a car with the wolf because he'll eat my goat.
:Cueball: Dammit, guys.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:1598: Salvage

2015-11-02T14:29:50Z

173.245.54.52:

as randall points out, the whole rice thing is a myth. either there isn't water inside your phone, in which case it's going to work anyway, or there is and the rice will only get the moisture off the outside and it won't. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.8|108.162.216.8]] 13:40, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
:Ahah! I just inserted something along those lines. (Also, the Wiki's server clock looks to be fast.) While I didn't go into it myself, the biggest problem is water pooling in the casing and being held by surface-tension between two planes (e.g. circuit board and plastic frame). It's possible that absorbing rice (or other substance) in concact with the vents could draw water (or other liquids!) through the vents, like a wick, even from further inside, but I'd normally dismantle a device as much as I'd dare (certainly not beyond the point that I'd obviously break it ''more'') and leach off the liquid directly with appropriate material.
:A careful dab/wipe wash in distilled water (or suitable non-water cleaning liquids) is sometims also necessary for long-standing residues (e.g. of coffee that went into laptop keyboards), but the absolute main thing is to turn off a device ''as soon as possible'' after a soaking, including removing batteries, so that you've not already pre-ruined anything delicate by a spurious back-voltage.
:But don't take my word as definitive, because it depends on the device, the degree of soaking and what it's soaked with and the rice might work sufficiently or nothing might... Go seek a professional, if you're not just feeling lucky. (Luck''ier'' than when you got it wet, anyway. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.233|141.101.64.233]] 14:07, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

I used to have a digital clock that stopped when it got wet, and didn't start again until it dried out, 11.5 hours later. The weird thing was that it was ''always'' 11.5 hours - I checked (to within a few dozen minutes) at least four separate times. To this day I have no idea why. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.78|141.101.81.78]] 13:44, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
:More mysterious than the precise timing of your digital clock's resurrection is what you were doing to get it wet so often. :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.210|162.158.90.210]] 14:00, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
::Also saying always 11.5 hours when you also says that it is to within 1 hour is not so precise. The one hour comes from the fact that [[1070: Words for Small Sets |a few means 2-5]], and 5 x 12 minutes = 1 hour ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:10, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Could here be an additional joke from the old movie {{w|Raise the Titanic (film)}}?I'm not sure how this will be pronounced in different part of the English world, but could it be pronounced just like '''''Rice''' the Titanic''? That would be a joke where you do not need he title text to get it... (Which is usually the case - the title text often just adds and extra layer to the joke). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:14, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

If you Google "rice cell phone" there is quite a bit of information, such as https://www.gazelle.com/thehorn/2014/05/06/gazelles-guide-water-damage-truth-rice-galaxy-everything/. Not sure what belongs in this article. [[User:Matchups|Matchups]] ([[User talk:Matchups|talk]]) 14:24, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Is this the first strip to use "my hobby" in the title-text rather than the actual comic? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 14:29, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

550: Density

2015-10-30T21:26:18Z

173.245.54.52:

{{comic
| number = 550
| date = March 2, 2009
| title = Density
| image = density.png
| titletext = If only I had asked 4chan for ideas for what I should do to prevent this!
}}

==Explanation==
First up, we have a sex scene where [[Cueball]] is together with [[Megan]] who doesn't wish to become pregnant. Unfortunately for both of them, Cueball ends up {{w|ejaculating}} prematurely before "pulling out"...

Rather than apologize or try and salvage the relationship, Cueball responds in perhaps the most absurd possible way and invokes five then-popular {{w|Internet meme}} in one sentence: 
''Sup dawg, I herd you didn't liek forming babby, but I accidentally in your base.''

The sentence can be translated into: 
''Whats up girl, I heard that you don't want to get pregnant but I accidentally came inside you''.

Below the frame the pros and cons of uttering such a sentence is listed.
*Cons: Cueball's life is now thoroughly "ruined" as he now may become a father with a girl who did not wish a baby. Also the incident with the memes would likely put a damper on his relationship with Megan even if she did not get pregnant.
*Pros: The sentence set the new '''density''' record for memes (most memes referenced in fewest words). This explains the title of he comic. But it will be a very superficial and respectless world record to hold when the return is a ruined life.

The five memes used are:
*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/xzibit-yo-dawg Yo Dawg]
**This can also be used with ''Sup Dawg'' as in this comic.
*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-herd-u-like-mudkips I herd u liek Mudkips]
**{{w|Mudkip}} is a {{w|Pokémon}}, but here it is about not liking the next memes text.
*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-is-babby-formed How is babby formed?]
**Full question in Yahoo Answers was "how is babby formed / how girl get pragnent".
**This was already referenced in the title text of [[481: Listen to Yourself]] and in [[522: Google Trends]].
*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-accidentally I Accidentally].
**In this meme the verb is omitted.
**In this case the omitted verb is ''came'' or ''ejaculate''.
**Referenced again in 997: "Wait Wait["https://xkcd.com/997/].
*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-ur-base in ur base].
**This is extra funny in the relation {{w|Baseball metaphors for sex|to what base your date went}}, (see [[540: Base System]]).

The title text references {{w|4chan}}, a site known for its memes, {{w|Troll (Internet)|trolls}} and other assorted internet clutter, and sarcastically implies that any advice they might give would in any way be at all helpful. Due to its population of trolls and other unhelpful sorts, advice given by 4chan would normally be useless at best and actively detrimental at worst; however, the title text implies that Cueball regrets that he did not ask 4chan for advice, and maybe have used them for this earlier. Maybe to ask ''How is babby formed''...

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is in a bed with Megan.]
:Cueball: Sup dawg, I herd you didn't liek forming babby, but I accidentally in your base.
:[Below the frame:]
:Cons: Ruined life.
:Pros: Sentence set the new meme density record.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Sex]]

Talk:1585: Similarities

2015-10-30T21:18:45Z

173.245.54.52:

;Origins

I've heard 50 Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan fiction, but don't know how The Martian came to be. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.115|108.162.216.115]] 05:56, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

-- Still missing from the explanation is what kind of brand ''The Martian'' is about... -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.217|162.158.114.217]] 08:18, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:NASA? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.238|108.162.229.238]] 08:22, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:A Mars bar? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.65|141.101.98.65]] 09:09, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:I'm going with NASA. --[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 09:30, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:The Martian has a feel a lot like Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and other Mars stories. [[User:Jv|Jv]] ([[User talk:Jv|talk]]) 18:37, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: It is Twilight fan-fiction. The original version is still availble for free. They just renamed the characters and removed references to Christian being a sparkling vampire and published it as a new book.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.115.22|162.158.115.22]] 08:43, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
::Allegedly removed by the author, first from the fan fiction sites and then her personal site just prior to publication! And you're right, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/02/11/the-most-scandalous-part-of-fifty-shades-of-grey-isnt-the-sex-and-bondage/ the original is 89% similar to the published trilogy]. Names have been changed to protect the author from legal battles, and [http://www.avclub.com/article/holy-crow-fifty-shades-grey-crazy-similar-its-twil-215185 crucial changes from "holy cow" to "holy crap"] were also made.
::[http://www.literarykiss.com/2012/10/communication-in-fifty-shades-of-trey.html I even found a few graphs about its literary horror and crap references, for people like me who are easily amused. Unfortunately it's so bizarre I'm feeling the effects of Poe's law here. Is it really that bad, or is this some parody? I'll never read the books to find out. --[[User:Fedora-tionOfPlanets|Fedora-tionOfPlanets]] ([[User talk:Fedora-tionOfPlanets|talk]]) 11:28, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

I believe Ponytail is not terrified by suggested title. That's more like she thinksthat Cueball will almost certainly read it and dares him to say otherwise. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.53|141.101.80.53]] 11:46, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
: I agree; the ''tell'' is italicized, and that emphasis indicates she's using an American idiom to indicate her enthusiasm for the idea. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.143|108.162.219.143]] 12:11, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: To clarify: in English (American?) slang there are two ways to use "tell me you didn't/wouldn't X".
:A) "(''please/AUGH'') tell me you didn't X" can be translated as "I am horrified to think you did/would-do X, please reassure me you didn't/wouldn't do it:" (usually preceded by a pleading "please" or some exclamation of horror): "please tell me you didn't cross the streams", "ARGH! Please tell me you didn't tell Blackhatguy my email-address, living address and greatest fear!"
:B) (smugly/challenging) "tell my you didn't/wouldn't X" would be translated as "I know you well enough to be 99% sure that you actually _did_/_would_ do X, and I really enjoy your blushing right now because you realise I caught you red-handed, but you cannot lie about it to deny me": "Oh dear Randall, tell me you wouldn't watch a debate between the reanimated corpses of Feynman and Einstein. *Randall blushes in guilty admission* Haha I knew you would"
:[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.193|162.158.90.193]] 12:31, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

:I agree, that was my reading of it too. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.141|108.162.221.141]] 12:48, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: I also agree that she thinks it's a great book idea, I made the change. Not sure how I like the wording I jsed so please edit. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 12:53, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Considering the timing, I wouldn't be surprised if Randall did indeed saw the movie, but had the comics ready in advance and after the movie only added the title and published it. So the part about him not liking the movie based on comics is unfounded. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:47, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

:It also seems like pure speculation. Is Randall's opinion on Fifty Shades of Grey even known? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.114|108.162.216.114]] 15:08, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Is the sojourner used to communicate in the movie? It seems like it is just kept around to beetle around the hah module and the Lander is used for comms. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.180|141.101.98.180]]IB

As you've given me a spoiler for the film, I've added a spoiler warning [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:52, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Curiously, in Italian the third book of the series (fifty shades freed) has been actually translated as "Fifty Shades of Red". --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.23.193|162.158.23.193]] 13:22, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Is it of any relevance that "red" is a common safe-word for bdsm?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.79|141.101.80.79]] 15:29, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: My first thought was that it's a reference to menstruation. And isn't there an infamous tampon scene in the book/movie? [[User:PhantomLimbic|PhantomLimbic]] ([[User talk:PhantomLimbic|talk]]) 10:50, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
::The tampon scene is only in the book. I think most people can understand the decision to leave it out of the movie ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:55, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

Just saw The Martian today, and it is really great. Now I think I have to put the book on my x-mas wish list ;-) (and of course a pet mars rover) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:55, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

So "The Martian" could be more validly compared to "John Dies At The End"? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 21:18, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Talk:167: Nihilism

2015-10-30T21:03:08Z

173.245.54.52:

That's his logic for dong random stuff?[[User:Guru-45|Guru-45]] ([[User talk:Guru-45|talk]]) 16:33, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

:He is saying that climbing a tree is as reasonable a response to nihilism as acting all mopey and depressed. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 03:21, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

:And also suggesting that it is the better option (or at least the one he'd rather be doing) of the two. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.158|108.162.237.158]] 22:00, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

And he is soooo correct. I wish I knew now what a waste of time worrying about certain things happening or not happening would wind up being. I wish I'd spent more time climbing trees or doing other things that made me feel happy or that I had fun doing instead of worrying about how I would look to others doing so. Life should come with a users manual or at least a FAQ or something. I know, I know there's lots of books out there that attempt to do that but I mean one that you KNOW is true because it was written for YOU. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.190|173.245.54.190]] 10:37, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

You might as well not bother being nihilistic. It's not like you'll accomplish anything by it. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 21:03, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

1171: Perl Problems

2015-10-30T20:44:52Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1171
| date = February 8, 2013
| title = Perl Problems
| image = perl problems.png
| titletext = To generate #1 albums, 'jay --help' recommends the -z flag.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Perl}} is a scripting language that makes heavy use of {{w|Regular expression|regular expressions}}, which are good for dealing with large amounts of text quickly. In the comic, the man wearing sunglasses parodies the song "{{w|99 Problems}}" in which the rapper {{w|Jay-Z}} says:

:If you're havin' girl problems
:I feel bad for you, son-
:I got 99 problems,
:But a bitch ain't one.

In the comic however, the rapper tries to solve his problems with Perl's regular expressions, and ends up only creating another problem for himself, which is a reference to a [http://regex.info/blog/2006-09-15/247 famous quote by Jamie Zawinski] (whose name could also be shortened to "Jay-Z"): "Some people, when confronted with a problem, think 'I know, I'll use regular expressions.' Now they have two problems." (This quote was revisited in [[1313: Regex Golf]].)

"program --help" is a common way, originating with the GNU project, to ask a program to show documentation on its usage and supported parameters; which, for some program, could include a "-z" command-line argument ("flag"), so the command would read "jay -z". In this case, it is just an obvious play on the rapper's name. [http://www.cs.rit.edu/~ats/projects/lp/doc/jay/package-summary.html '''jay'''] is also an actual C program that is a compiler-compiler for java, but it doesn't have a "-z" flag.

This sort of problematically recursive [[self-reference]] is reminiscent of strip 927, "Standards"[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Standards].

==Transcript==
:[Man with sunglasses talking (or, alternatively, rapping) to Cueball.]
:Sunglasses: If you're havin' perl problems I feel bad for you, son-

:Sunglasses: I got 99 problems,

:Sunglasses: So I used regular expressions.

:Sunglasses: Now I have 100 problems.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Regex]]

1313: Regex Golf

2015-10-30T20:37:12Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1313
| date = January 6, 2014
| title = Regex Golf
| image = regex_golf.png
| titletext = <nowiki>/bu|[rn]t|[coy]e|[mtg]a|j|iso|n[hl]|[ae]d|lev|sh|[lnd]i|[po]o|ls/ matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents.</nowiki>
}}

==Explanation==
The comic talks about {{w|regular expressions}}, which are a way to specify textual patterns. Given a regular expression, one can search for the pattern it specifies inside a text string. If the pattern is found, it's said that the pattern "matches" the string; if it's not found, it's said they do not match.

The title of the comic and the first panel is based on "[http://regex.alf.nu/ regex golf]", which is a discipline of "{{w|code golf}}", a game in which programmers attempt to solve a given programming problem using as few characters as possible, analogous to the number of {{w|golf}} shots it takes to reach the goal. In regex golfing, the programmer is given two sets of text fragments, and he/she tries to write the shortest possible regular expression which would match all elements of one set, while at the same time not matching any element from the other set.

The regex golf challenge Megan faces consists of matching all subtitles of (then extant) ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' films, while not matching any subtitle of ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' movies. {{w|Subtitle (titling)|Subtitles}} are the secondary titles of the movies, after the ''"Star Trek: "'' or ''"Star Wars Episode N: "''. For example, in ''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'', the subtitle is ''The Phantom Menace''. In the first panel, she created a 12-character regex solving the challenge.

Then she moved on to building a tool which would automatically build such a regex for arbitrary lists of text, which could be described as {{w|meta}}- regex golfing. But as she has lost this tool, she needs to search through her files and chooses a tool called "{{w|grep}}" to find it. This implies that she needs a regular expression that would find any code that appears to be a regex golf generator, which leads to another "meta-" layer of abstraction. At the end, Megan notes this sequence of meta-meta-... might go to infinity and Cueball quips that she now has "infinite problems" as a result of her efforts; Megan retorts that she already had "infinite problems" because she's geeky enough to run meta-versions of programs on themselves, and stubborn enough to continue on until she fails, to the exclusion of all else. This also seems to be a reference to a famous quote (see also ''[[1171: Perl Problems]]''):

<blockquote>''Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.''</blockquote>

===Regular expressions===
The first regex Megan uses is <code>/m | [tn]|b/</code>, said to match ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.

The forward slashes <code>/</code> just mark the start and end of the regex. The <code>|</code> character means "or", so the regex matches any string that contains the patterns "<code>m </code>", "<code> [tn]</code>" or "<code>b</code>" (including the spaces). The square brackets match one of the enclosed characters, meaning that "<code> [tn]</code>" matches either "<code> t</code>" or "<code> n</code>". The regex is apparently case-insensitive, because it wouldn't work otherwise.

The Star Wars subtitles match the parts of the regex in the following way:
*"The Phantom Menace" is matched by "<code>m </code>".
*"Attack of the Clones" is matched by "<code> [tn]</code>".
*"Revenge of the Sith" is matched by "<code> [tn]</code>".
*"A New Hope" is matched by "<code> [tn]</code>".
*"The Empire Strikes Back" is matched by "<code>b</code>".
*"Return of the Jedi" is matched by "<code> [tn]</code>".
Note that if one included the animated film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" it would not be matched by "<code> [tn]</code>" because the T is the start of the subtitle and is not preceded by a space. (The string also will likely fail to match some or all of the upcoming post-Disney-acquisition Star Wars films, which the comic predates; it definitely does not match the first such film, 2015's "The Force Awakens".)

On the other hand, none of the Star Trek subtitles contains an M followed by a space, a T or an N preceded by a space, or any B, so the regex does not match any of them. Note that in the original series all subtitles start with a "T" but it's the first character so it's not preceded by a space.

Here is the list that Megan probably used:
*Original series:
**The Motion Picture
**The Wrath of Khan
**The Search For Spock
**The Voyage Home
**The Final Frontier
**The Undiscovered Country
*The Next Generation:
**Generations
**First Contact
**Insurrection
**Nemesis
*Reboot series:
**''the one without a subtitle''
**Into Darkness

In the last panel "and beyond" Megan uses the regular expression <code>/(meta-)*regex golf/</code> to describe her problem. <code>*</code> means "zero or more" of the preceding character/group (parentheses <code>()</code> group characters). So this regex matches "regex golf", "meta-regex golf", "meta-meta-regex golf", etc. In a way this is regex golf in itself, matching all levels of meta-regex golf while not matching anything else.

In the title text, there is a long regex that is the solution of another regex golf challenge: matching the last names of all elected US presidents but not their opponents. Note that the list of opponents include some people who were previously or later became presidents, so taken literally this is impossible. To make this work the list of opponents must exclude anyone who was also president. The regular expression itself works in a very similar way to the Star Wars/Trek one, including several different patterns separated by <code>|</code>. Each elected president matches one pattern while each opponent matches none.

Here is a list of elected president and the patterns they match:
{| class="wikitable"
!Number
!President
!Matched expression
|-
|1
|{{w|George Washington|George Washington}}
|<code>sh</code>
|-
|2
|{{w|John Adams|John Adams}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|3
|{{w|Thomas Jefferson|Thomas Jefferson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|4
|{{w|James Madison|James Madison}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|5
|{{w|James Monroe|James Monroe}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|6
|{{w|John Quincy Adams|John Quincy Adams}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|7
|{{w|Andrew Jackson|Andrew Jackson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|8
|{{w|Martin Van Buren|Martin Van Buren}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|9
|{{w|William Henry Harrison|William Henry Harrison}}
|<code>iso</code>
|-
|11
|{{w|James K. Polk|James K. Polk}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|12
|{{w|Zachary Taylor|Zachary Taylor}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|14
|{{w|Franklin Pierce|Franklin Pierce}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|15
|{{w|James Buchanan|James Buchanan}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|16
|{{w|Abraham Lincoln|Abraham Lincoln}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|17
|{{w|Andrew Johnson|Andrew Johnson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|18
|{{w|Ulysses S. Grant|Ulysses S. Grant}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|19
|{{w|Rutherford B. Hayes|Rutherford B. Hayes}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|20
|{{w|James A. Garfield|James A. Garfield}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|22
|{{w|Grover Cleveland|Grover Cleveland}}
|<code>lev</code>
|-
|23
|{{w|Benjamin Harrison|Benjamin Harrison}}
|<code>iso</code>
|-
|24
|{{w|Grover Cleveland|Grover Cleveland}}
|<code>lev</code>
|-
|25
|{{w|William McKinley|William McKinley}}
|<code>n[hl]</code>
|-
|26
|{{w|Theodore Roosevelt|Theodore Roosevelt}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|27
|{{w|William Howard Taft|William Howard Taft}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|28
|{{w|Woodrow Wilson|Woodrow Wilson}}
|<code>ls</code>
|-
|29
|{{w|Warren G. Harding|Warren G. Harding}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|30
|{{w|Calvin Coolidge|Calvin Coolidge}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|31
|{{w|Herbert Hoover|Herbert Hoover}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|32
|{{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin D. Roosevelt}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|33
|{{w|Harry S. Truman|Harry S. Truman}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|34
|{{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight D. Eisenhower}}
|<code>n[hl]</code>
|-
|35
|{{w|John F. Kennedy|John F. Kennedy}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|36
|{{w|Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon B. Johnson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|37
|{{w|Richard Nixon|Richard Nixon}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|39
|{{w|Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|40
|{{w|Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|41
|{{w|George H. W. Bush|George H. W. Bush}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|42
|{{w|Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|43
|{{w|George W. Bush|George W. Bush}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|44
|{{w|Barack Obama|Barack Obama}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|}

Note that some presidents are missing because they weren't elected but became presidents after the resignation/death of their formers.

Note also that Randall's regular expression must be modified slightly, because it also matches {{w|John C. Fremont|John C. Fremont}}, the runner-up to James Buchanan in 1856, as discussed by {{w|Peter Norvig}} at [http://nbviewer.ipython.org/url/norvig.com/ipython/xkcd1313.ipynb xkcd 1313: Regex Golf]. Note that Norvig provides a small amount of Python code which actually plays regex golf with arbitrary lists, and found a shorter solution than Randall's for the ''Star Wars'' vs ''Star Trek'' game.

==Transcript==
:Regex golf:
:[Megan is sitting at a laptop. Cueball is standing behind her.]
:Megan: You try to match one group but not the other.
:Megan: /m | [tn]|b/ matches ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.
:Cueball: Cool.

:Meta-regex golf:
:[A close-up of Megan at her laptop.]
:Megan: So I wrote a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary lists...
:Cueball (offscreen): Uh oh...

:Meta-meta-regex golf:
:[Megan typing at her laptop.]
:Megan: ...But I lost my code, so I'm grepping for files that look like regex golf solvers.
:[Cueball facepalming.]

:...And beyond:
:[Another closeup of Megan at her laptop.]
:Megan: Really, this is all /(meta-)*regex golf/.
:Cueball: Now you have ''infinite'' problems.
:Megan: No, I had those already.

==Trivia==
*There are now at least four comics that references regular expressions. The other three are: [[208: Regular Expressions]], [[224: Lisp]] and [[1171: Perl Problems]].
*Additionally, regular expressions are mentioned in title text of [[1277: Ayn Random]].
*A regular expression is used in the [http://what-if.xkcd.com/75/ 75th] episode of [[what if?]] to calculate the answer that week's question.
*Also, Randall mentions [http://regex.alf.nu/ a website with a regexp golf game] he got distracted by while researching for the [http://what-if.xkcd.com/78/ 78th] episode of [[what if?]] (which was published one day after this comic).

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Regex]]

1313: Regex Golf

2015-10-30T20:35:56Z

173.245.54.52: /* Regular expressions */

{{comic
| number = 1313
| date = January 6, 2014
| title = Regex Golf
| image = regex_golf.png
| titletext = <nowiki>/bu|[rn]t|[coy]e|[mtg]a|j|iso|n[hl]|[ae]d|lev|sh|[lnd]i|[po]o|ls/ matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents.</nowiki>
}}

==Explanation==
The comic talks about {{w|regular expressions}}, which are a way to specify textual patterns. Given a regular expression, one can search for the pattern it specifies inside a text string. If the pattern is found, it's said that the pattern "matches" the string; if it's not found, it's said they do not match.

The title of the comic and the first panel is based on "[http://regex.alf.nu/ regex golf]", which is a discipline of "{{w|code golf}}", a game in which programmers attempt to solve a given programming problem using as few characters as possible, analogous to the number of {{w|golf}} shots it takes to reach the goal. In regex golfing, the programmer is given two sets of text fragments, and he/she tries to write the shortest possible regular expression which would match all elements of one set, while at the same time not matching any element from the other set.

The regex golf challenge Megan faces consists of matching all subtitles of ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episodes, while not matching any subtitle of ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' episodes. {{w|Subtitle (titling)|Subtitles}} are the secondary titles of the movies, after the ''"Star Trek: "'' or ''"Star Wars Episode N: "''. For example, in ''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'', the subtitle is ''The Phantom Menace''. In the first panel, she created a 12-character regex solving the challenge.

Then she moved on to building a tool which would automatically build such a regex for arbitrary lists of text, which could be described as {{w|meta}}- regex golfing. But as she has lost this tool, she needs to search through her files and chooses a tool called "{{w|grep}}" to find it. This implies that she needs a regular expression that would find any code that appears to be a regex golf generator, which leads to another "meta-" layer of abstraction. At the end, Megan notes this sequence of meta-meta-... might go to infinity and Cueball quips that she now has "infinite problems" as a result of her efforts; Megan retorts that she already had "infinite problems" because she's geeky enough to run meta-versions of programs on themselves, and stubborn enough to continue on until she fails, to the exclusion of all else. This also seems to be a reference to a famous quote (see also ''[[1171: Perl Problems]]''):

<blockquote>''Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.''</blockquote>

===Regular expressions===
The first regex Megan uses is <code>/m | [tn]|b/</code>, said to match ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.

The forward slashes <code>/</code> just mark the start and end of the regex. The <code>|</code> character means "or", so the regex matches any string that contains the patterns "<code>m </code>", "<code> [tn]</code>" or "<code>b</code>" (including the spaces). The square brackets match one of the enclosed characters, meaning that "<code> [tn]</code>" matches either "<code> t</code>" or "<code> n</code>". The regex is apparently case-insensitive, because it wouldn't work otherwise.

The Star Wars subtitles match the parts of the regex in the following way:
*"The Phantom Menace" is matched by "<code>m </code>".
*"Attack of the Clones" is matched by "<code> [tn]</code>".
*"Revenge of the Sith" is matched by "<code> [tn]</code>".
*"A New Hope" is matched by "<code> [tn]</code>".
*"The Empire Strikes Back" is matched by "<code>b</code>".
*"Return of the Jedi" is matched by "<code> [tn]</code>".
Note that if one included the animated film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" it would not be matched by "<code> [tn]</code>" because the T is the start of the subtitle and is not preceded by a space. (The string also will likely fail to match some or all of the upcoming post-Disney-acquisition Star Wars films, which the comic predates; it definitely does not match the first such film, 2015's "The Force Awakens".)

On the other hand, none of the Star Trek subtitles contains an M followed by a space, a T or an N preceded by a space, or any B, so the regex does not match any of them. Note that in the original series all subtitles start with a "T" but it's the first character so it's not preceded by a space.

Here is the list that Megan probably used:
*Original series:
**The Motion Picture
**The Wrath of Khan
**The Search For Spock
**The Voyage Home
**The Final Frontier
**The Undiscovered Country
*The Next Generation:
**Generations
**First Contact
**Insurrection
**Nemesis
*Reboot series:
**''the one without a subtitle''
**Into Darkness

In the last panel "and beyond" Megan uses the regular expression <code>/(meta-)*regex golf/</code> to describe her problem. <code>*</code> means "zero or more" of the preceding character/group (parentheses <code>()</code> group characters). So this regex matches "regex golf", "meta-regex golf", "meta-meta-regex golf", etc. In a way this is regex golf in itself, matching all levels of meta-regex golf while not matching anything else.

In the title text, there is a long regex that is the solution of another regex golf challenge: matching the last names of all elected US presidents but not their opponents. Note that the list of opponents include some people who were previously or later became presidents, so taken literally this is impossible. To make this work the list of opponents must exclude anyone who was also president. The regular expression itself works in a very similar way to the Star Wars/Trek one, including several different patterns separated by <code>|</code>. Each elected president matches one pattern while each opponent matches none.

Here is a list of elected president and the patterns they match:
{| class="wikitable"
!Number
!President
!Matched expression
|-
|1
|{{w|George Washington|George Washington}}
|<code>sh</code>
|-
|2
|{{w|John Adams|John Adams}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|3
|{{w|Thomas Jefferson|Thomas Jefferson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|4
|{{w|James Madison|James Madison}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|5
|{{w|James Monroe|James Monroe}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|6
|{{w|John Quincy Adams|John Quincy Adams}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|7
|{{w|Andrew Jackson|Andrew Jackson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|8
|{{w|Martin Van Buren|Martin Van Buren}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|9
|{{w|William Henry Harrison|William Henry Harrison}}
|<code>iso</code>
|-
|11
|{{w|James K. Polk|James K. Polk}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|12
|{{w|Zachary Taylor|Zachary Taylor}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|14
|{{w|Franklin Pierce|Franklin Pierce}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|15
|{{w|James Buchanan|James Buchanan}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|16
|{{w|Abraham Lincoln|Abraham Lincoln}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|17
|{{w|Andrew Johnson|Andrew Johnson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|18
|{{w|Ulysses S. Grant|Ulysses S. Grant}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|19
|{{w|Rutherford B. Hayes|Rutherford B. Hayes}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|20
|{{w|James A. Garfield|James A. Garfield}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|22
|{{w|Grover Cleveland|Grover Cleveland}}
|<code>lev</code>
|-
|23
|{{w|Benjamin Harrison|Benjamin Harrison}}
|<code>iso</code>
|-
|24
|{{w|Grover Cleveland|Grover Cleveland}}
|<code>lev</code>
|-
|25
|{{w|William McKinley|William McKinley}}
|<code>n[hl]</code>
|-
|26
|{{w|Theodore Roosevelt|Theodore Roosevelt}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|27
|{{w|William Howard Taft|William Howard Taft}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|28
|{{w|Woodrow Wilson|Woodrow Wilson}}
|<code>ls</code>
|-
|29
|{{w|Warren G. Harding|Warren G. Harding}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|30
|{{w|Calvin Coolidge|Calvin Coolidge}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|31
|{{w|Herbert Hoover|Herbert Hoover}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|32
|{{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin D. Roosevelt}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|33
|{{w|Harry S. Truman|Harry S. Truman}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|34
|{{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight D. Eisenhower}}
|<code>n[hl]</code>
|-
|35
|{{w|John F. Kennedy|John F. Kennedy}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|36
|{{w|Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon B. Johnson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|37
|{{w|Richard Nixon|Richard Nixon}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|39
|{{w|Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|40
|{{w|Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|41
|{{w|George H. W. Bush|George H. W. Bush}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|42
|{{w|Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|43
|{{w|George W. Bush|George W. Bush}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|44
|{{w|Barack Obama|Barack Obama}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|}

Note that some presidents are missing because they weren't elected but became presidents after the resignation/death of their formers.

Note also that Randall's regular expression must be modified slightly, because it also matches {{w|John C. Fremont|John C. Fremont}}, the runner-up to James Buchanan in 1856, as discussed by {{w|Peter Norvig}} at [http://nbviewer.ipython.org/url/norvig.com/ipython/xkcd1313.ipynb xkcd 1313: Regex Golf]. Note that Norvig provides a small amount of Python code which actually plays regex golf with arbitrary lists, and found a shorter solution than Randall's for the ''Star Wars'' vs ''Star Trek'' game.

==Transcript==
:Regex golf:
:[Megan is sitting at a laptop. Cueball is standing behind her.]
:Megan: You try to match one group but not the other.
:Megan: /m | [tn]|b/ matches ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.
:Cueball: Cool.

:Meta-regex golf:
:[A close-up of Megan at her laptop.]
:Megan: So I wrote a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary lists...
:Cueball (offscreen): Uh oh...

:Meta-meta-regex golf:
:[Megan typing at her laptop.]
:Megan: ...But I lost my code, so I'm grepping for files that look like regex golf solvers.
:[Cueball facepalming.]

:...And beyond:
:[Another closeup of Megan at her laptop.]
:Megan: Really, this is all /(meta-)*regex golf/.
:Cueball: Now you have ''infinite'' problems.
:Megan: No, I had those already.

==Trivia==
*There are now at least four comics that references regular expressions. The other three are: [[208: Regular Expressions]], [[224: Lisp]] and [[1171: Perl Problems]].
*Additionally, regular expressions are mentioned in title text of [[1277: Ayn Random]].
*A regular expression is used in the [http://what-if.xkcd.com/75/ 75th] episode of [[what if?]] to calculate the answer that week's question.
*Also, Randall mentions [http://regex.alf.nu/ a website with a regexp golf game] he got distracted by while researching for the [http://what-if.xkcd.com/78/ 78th] episode of [[what if?]] (which was published one day after this comic).

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Regex]]

Talk:139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards

2015-10-30T20:03:46Z

173.245.54.52:

I can hardly believe that Randall yet had any thougt of Danish, as he introduced her in [[377: Journal 2]]. It's just a "chic", like "Megan-2", who only just happens to have a little longer hair. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:53, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
:We know Randall likes electric skateboards. And most of his early comics are not on a deeper sarcasm. This was just a fun comic. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:13, 29 May 2013 (UTC)
Do you really want a longer explanation, if there's nothing more to explain? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 13:23, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
:Your link to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bitches-love-x bitches] is definitively wrong. I am sure it is related to this song: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicks_Dig_It Chicks DigIt] by Chris Cagle. The video was performed at a skate park and he tries to impress females, because the "chicks dig it". What do you think?--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:49, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
::Randalls arrows pointing towards "chicks" is probably not referencing anything else than the chicks. It's just a word. I don't know who linked to the "biches love X" meme, but I am quite sure it was just for the fun of it, and nothing more. :) –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 18:12, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
:::I was just checking the early history of this explain and this "bitches" are from "Revision as of 20:04, 17 September 2012 by Lcarsos". Maybe I did misunderstood you but this explain still does need some polish. So I will work on this soon.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:52, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
:::I feel that the connections are too vague for the conclusion that the comic was inspired by the "Chicks dig it"-song. The comic doesn't use the phrase "chicks dig it", and the song doesn't seem to touch upon skateboarding.

:::I don't think the comic has anything to do with the "bitches love X"-meme either, I think lcarsos only linked to it because it humorously related to the topic (like the song). I suggest that we have those two things somehow linked from the explanation or trivia without any claims that the comic was inspired by or references them. ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 00:18, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

I did remove the "bitches" last week and now I found a proper sentence for the title text. The "incomplete" tag is removed.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:50, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
:Often it feels like explanations of self-evident stuff just describes or repeats the stuff concerned... Secondly, how about: "I suggest that we have those two things somehow linked from the explanation or trivia without any claims that the comic was inspired by or references them." ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 22:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)
:Please never edit posts by other people! Ok? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:29, 9 June 2013 (UTC)
::Hey, I didn't edit your post, I indented it, only to help people follow the conversation. I assumed it was a reply, since you were talking about the "bitches"-meme. Sorry if I misinterpreted. Why did you remove "bitches love X"? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 12:00, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Is it Cueball or Randall talking in the title text? I always thought of it as Randall's side note, rather than the characters in the comic saying it. [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 23:47, 7 November 2013 (UTC)
:I agree. Unless it's a clear continuation of a thought expressed by a character, I tend to assume that the title text is directly from Randall. In this case no characters are talking so Cueball likely wasn't even assigned enough personality for this comic to have that kind of back story. He's just a guy with an electric skateboard.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.192|108.162.219.192]] 04:02, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

This explanation seems to miss the main point. Electric skateboards get you from point A to point B and by the time you get there you will have a crowd of screaming chicks chasing after you (because the skateboard is just that awesome). What's all this talk about a song that was at no point clearly referenced?--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.192|108.162.219.192]] 03:54, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

I absolutely agree with the above poster's point. Nowhere in the explanation does it even mention the entire point of the comic, which in my interpretation is an understated joke that if you use an electric skateboard just to get around, by the time you get to where you are going, there will be a group of chick cheering and following you are because electric skateboards are just that awesome. Also, I agree with the assertion that the title text is directly from Randall, especially because we know that Randall has had two electric skateboards break in the past from his weblag, and eventually bought a new one when he moved. Thus, the explanation should reflect these two points.[[User:Rmyere|Rmyere]] ([[User talk:Rmyere|talk]]) 14:42, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

I think a big part of the joke is the phonetic similarity between "Click" and "Chick" (only one letter difference): The electric Skateboard allows cueball to turn a "click" into "Chicks."
Also, I read points 'A' and 'B' to represent states of being (A: alone, clicking; B: with admiring Chicks) [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 09:02, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Also, electric skateboards. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 20:03, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards

2015-10-30T20:02:46Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 139
| date = August 9, 2006
| title = I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards
| image = electric_skateboards.png
| titletext = Both the skateboards I owned were pretty cheap and broke from heavy use; I'm gonna get a really nice one if I move to the city.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Randall Munroe|Randall}} likes {{w|electric skateboard|electric skateboards}} and this comic is just showing a simple move where [[Cueball]] drives one from A to B. It's not very artistic but the "chicks" are cheering. The humor of the comic is an understated joke that if you use an electric skateboard just to get around, by the time you get to where you are going, there will be a group of chicks cheering and following you are because electric skateboards are just that awesome. ("Pickup artists"[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Pickup_Artists] would be disappointed to learn that this is not actually accurate, as it would save them the bother of "sleazy" social manipulation of the desired "chicks", assuming they can afford to acquire an electric skateboard instead.)

In the title text Randall tells us that both of his two electric skateboards were cheap and have been worn down by heavy use. If he ever moves to a (the) city he will buy a really nice skateboard. If it is to be able to get around over the shorter distances of the city or if it is just because there are many more "chicks" to impress is left up to the readers imagination.

Electric skateboards have been the subject of several other comics like [[409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)]], a panel in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]] and the entire [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:The_Race The Race] five part comic series.

==Transcript==
:How Electric Skateboards Work:

:[Cueball is standing on a skateboard, next to a sign that says "Point A" and pushes a button.]
:''click''

:[He skates.]
:''whirrr''

:[He stops, with a sign saying "Point B" to his right and a group of chicks (labeled "chicks") to his left.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Electric skateboard]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]

139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards

2015-10-30T20:01:24Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 139
| date = August 9, 2006
| title = I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards
| image = electric_skateboards.png
| titletext = Both the skateboards I owned were pretty cheap and broke from heavy use; I'm gonna get a really nice one if I move to the city.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Randall Munroe|Randall}} likes {{w|electric skateboard|electric skateboards}} and this comic is just showing a simple move where [[Cueball]] drives one from A to B. It's not very artistic but the "chicks" are cheering. The humor of the comic is an understated joke that if you use an electric skateboard just to get around, by the time you get to where you are going, there will be a group of chicks cheering and following you are because electric skateboards are just that awesome. (Pickup artists[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Pickup_Artists] would be disappointed to learn that this is not actually accurate, as it would save them the bother of sleazy social manipulation, assuming they can afford to acquire an electric skateboard.)

In the title text Randall tells us that both of his two electric skateboards were cheap and have been worn down by heavy use. If he ever moves to a (the) city he will buy a really nice skateboard. If it is to be able to get around over the shorter distances of the city or if it is just because there are many more "chicks" to impress is left up to the readers imagination.

Electric skateboards have been the subject of several other comics like [[409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)]], a panel in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]] and the entire [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:The_Race The Race] five part comic series.

==Transcript==
:How Electric Skateboards Work:

:[Cueball is standing on a skateboard, next to a sign that says "Point A" and pushes a button.]
:''click''

:[He skates.]
:''whirrr''

:[He stops, with a sign saying "Point B" to his right and a group of chicks (labeled "chicks") to his left.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Electric skateboard]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]

Talk:1120: Blurring the Line

2015-10-30T19:53:59Z

173.245.54.52:

This comic might refer to the movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation_%28film%29 Adaptation] --[[User:Mambro|Mambro]] ([[User talk:Mambro|talk]]) 10:53, 12 October 2012 (UTC)
:There's a whole host of movies that white hat might be referring to. We can't know just from one theme present in the play, as there's a bajillion possible movies that it could be. Best to leave it unnamed.[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 11:54, 12 October 2012 (UTC)
::Or we could just mention the best-known (recent enough that a plurality of modern First-Worlders remember the ad blitz for it, yet old enough that many of those already probably regard it as a classic) example of such a movie, "Inception". I could say a lot more on the subject of MNG, but I'm not exactly an unbiased witness, so I'll leave the topic alone for now. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 19:53, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

I don't think he was "passing the conversational ball" so much as it was meant to be a humorous blurring of the line between metaphor and reality (he's the "Michael Jordan" of blurring the line between metaphor and reality and then he has an actual basketball).
Also, what is "masturbatory naval gazing" supposed to mean? If someone could explain that portion, that would be great. [[User:Trek7553|Trek7553]] ([[User talk:Trek7553|talk]]) 14:51, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Referring to the basketball's orange color in the transcript could make a more accurate transcript. The appearance of the coloured basketball in the otherwise black and white panels is a very dramatic intrusion of "more reality" into the black and white 2D panel. "More reality" since color is an important property most of us experience in our real lives. A very abstract 2D drawing of people discussing 3D movie depictions of our shared actual reality (i've never considered xkcd to reference Flatland) seems to be playing with levels of abstraction visually, in addition to the self-referential language.[[User:Rashby|Rashby]] ([[User talk:Rashby|talk]]) 07:07, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Wow!
Really?

Is sexual self arousal the goal of masturbation?[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 17:33, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

"Masturbatory navel gazing" is a contradiction in terms, hence the cursor text.

From Merriam-Webster: Naval-gazing is useless or excessive self-contemplation. One could define a movie about movies in this way. Masturbation is self-love, and a movie about movies could be thought of as a form of self love too. --[[User:Johngardner|Johngardner]] ([[User talk:Johngardner|talk]]) 15:44, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Talk:440: Road Rage

2015-10-30T19:45:59Z

173.245.54.52:

;Incomplete (as of August 26, 2013)
*At the title text Black Hat is avoiding a crash.
*While many explains are monster explains, here is the WIFI missing, this explain is just more a transcript.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:44, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
The idea is that the tailgater (I'll name him Phil for ease of understanding) will be distracted while he contemplates his loss, so when Black Hat slams on the brakes, Phil hopefully won't have enough stopping distance to avoid a collision, slamming into Black Hat's car. The accident is always caused by the car behind, meaning Phil will be at fault.[[User:Lyusternik|Lyusternik]] ([[User talk:Lyusternik|talk]]) 15:26, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Okay, I've been bold, completely rewrote the explanation AND removed the incomplete banner. It now looks less like a transcript and (I think) everything is covered. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.161|173.245.53.161]] 17:28, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Whew, I've been more offensive than Black Hat in the past and I'm still happy today that I did survive this. I did not slam the brake, no stoplight, just releasing my foot from the gas pedal at high speed and my car slowed down without any warning to the one behind me. There was happily no accident and NEVER TRY SOMETHING LIKE THIS. But after this incident the guy did slam his own brake and he never did try to overtake me again. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:36, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

In light of the last paragraph of the explanation, I wish Randall's drawing made it clear whether BH and Danish were wearing seatbelts. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 19:45, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

440: Road Rage

2015-10-30T19:44:01Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 440
| date = June 23, 2008
| title = Road Rage
| image = road rage.png
| titletext = Okay, now just as the loss hits him, slam on the brakes.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] is driving a car, and [[Danish]] is with him in the passenger's seat. Black Hat gets annoyed because the car behind him is "tailgating" (in this context, the term means that the other car is following too close to the back bumper of Black Hat's car).

Danish decides to fight back, so she turns on her laptop and finds that the car behind them also has a laptop running. Since the cars are so close, the other laptop is well within WiFi range, so she manages to establish a WiFi connection with the laptop in the other car. Then, Danish finds a security hole (in the comic, a "remote exploit"). She uses it to break into the laptop and install a speech synthesizer.
This means that the laptop in the car behind just starts saying words at Danish's will.

The driver of the other car is puzzled when he starts hearing a voice. He's completely clueless about where the voice comes from. Also, he's driving alone so he's probably frightened (or nervous at least) to find that someone is speaking inside his car. The fact that the voice says "she'd be alive if it weren't for you" surely won't help him relax. The "shot in the dark" is the gamble that this statement is especially meaningful and poignant to the driver.

In the title text, Danish is continuing her revenge, asking Black Hat to slam on the brakes. As it is now to be expected that the driver is nervous, puzzled and surprised on top of being distracted, looking for the voice's source, while already driving unsafely close, it is clear that Danish hopes he won't have enough stopping distance to avoid a collision, slamming into Black Hat's car. Since the blame for such types of accident is always given to the driver of the car behind, and since we know Black Hat is a sadistic bastard, Black Hat will no doubt enjoy adding both the blame and the traffic accident on top of what Danish has already accomplished. This may seem ironic as Black Hat was annoyed to begin with, but he would no doubt rather make an example than avoid the accident.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is driving and Danish who seems to be his equal is in the passenger's seat. They are closely followed by some other vehicle.]
:Black Hat: That guy's tailgating me.
:Danish: I'll take a look.

:[A car is shown to be closely behind Black Hat's car.]
:Danish: His laptop's running, probably in the back seat. And... yup, the WiFi autoconnects.

:[Close-up of Danish using a laptop.]
:Danish: Now we just scan for remote exploits... install speech synth... And take a shot in the psychological dark.

:[Cueball's car.]
:Laptop: Hello.
:Cueball: What? Who's there?
:Laptop: She'd be alive if it weren't for you.
:Cueball: ...Oh God.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]

Talk:1176: Those Not Present

2015-10-30T19:32:26Z

173.245.54.52:

Seems pretty straight forward. The more a group talks badly of a person who's not present, a bad habit, the less Munroe wants to be associated with it. Therefore, he slowly scoots away, until he eventually reaches an other group, who, hopefully, won't have said bad habit. [[Special:Contributions/95.35.63.88|95.35.63.88]] 05:28, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
:I don't think there's much more to say about this one. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 06:39, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
::There's much more to say about it, actually. The comic is pointing out that it is the nature of groups to talk about those not present. The scooting from one to another (doing the same thing, even when the subject is something like squid), is to show that there's no escape from gossip.[[Special:Contributions/24.70.188.179|24.70.188.179]] 15:56, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
One can make assuptions about the age of those in the first group because of the shape of the beverage vessels. A wine or champagne glass might be used for it's name sake. Suggesting that they are older than the legal drinking age. Though the conversation seems like one expected in high school or college.{{unsigned|74.215.40.250}}
Is this actually this simple or are we missing something? Maybe it's just a bit crappy? [[Special:Contributions/134.226.83.27|134.226.83.27]] 14:03, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
:I was actually expecting it to proceed to some sort of equilibrium situation where the various groups slowly force him into some stationary position at a distance from each group relative to their various levels of behind the back talking.[[User:Schmammel|Schmammel]] ([[User talk:Schmammel|talk]]) 15:22, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
::I was expecting the same thing--[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 16:08, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
:::I was expecting the first group will start talking about him, when he's away. [[Special:Contributions/37.108.11.242|37.108.11.242]] 23:31, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
:::: They will. But that doesn't affect him, because he doesn't want to be associated with them anyway. It might be the reason why he doesn't want to associate with them. As the conventional warning against indulging in gossip goes: "Be wary of people that say things about others behind their backs, because they might do the same about you." Of course, the real reason we ought not to engage in gossip is beyond niceties. Contrary to what most people believe, it isn't about with-holding all criticism. It's about fair representation, and accurate communication. However, given umwelt, it's not like everyone will have the same viewpoint anyway. Still, understanding that and being non-judgmental involves no slagging-people-behind-their-back, or consigning them to inferiority or incapability. Even if you do it to their faces [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 12:19, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Is that person ''actually'' called Harry? [[Special:Contributions/117.194.203.214|117.194.203.214]] 16:23, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
:Nope, it was made up in [[1028: Communication]] to describe generic male characters with hair. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 20:51, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Technically, by scooting away, they are free to talk badly about him, as he is no longer present. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.9|173.245.54.9]] 02:15, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

==What can we learn from this?==
I've learned that talk shows don't work, unless they allow the person they are talking about to represent their point of view. If you see someone doing this on purpose, switch the channel as you are not missing much. - e-inspired [[Special:Contributions/24.51.197.187|24.51.197.187]] 19:11, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

==A dissenting view==
Evidently Randall is not familiar with the concept of "Minnesota Nice". Criticizing people in their presence leads to acromony; not criticizing them at all is a good way to make yourself burst from repression. Trash-talking people while safely outside their presence is a perfectly reasonable pressure-release valve; the only sin is indiscretion, and the only crime is allowing the "victim" to learn that they were "attacked". [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 19:32, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Talk:603: Idiocracy

2015-10-30T19:28:20Z

173.245.54.52:

This explanation seems to be incorrect. The key point was that White Hat actually was wrong! The average education has gone up, and the average IQ ''cannot'' sink! By allowing Cueball to agree with clearly false laments, he baits him into revealing his stupidity. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 19:58, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
:The title text pretty much spells out that, in Randall's mind, White Hat is correct. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.66|199.27.128.66]] 06:14, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

I propose that the hatted figure is not in fact [[White_Hat|White Hat]], as neither the hat shape nor the personality are consistent with other appearances. ([[:Category:Comics featuring White Hat‏‎]]) The real White Hat, when he speaks, is generally a bit of a wet blanket or well-meaning buffoon. This one, whom I'll dub [[White_Derby|White Derby]], is speaking counter-buffoonery, what we may reasonably guess to be the actual thoughts of the author. Usually Cueball fills this role (eg [[258:_Conspiracy_Theories]]), and in fact if the roles here were reversed I'd tend to ignore the misshapen hat. But two and two, together, well... --[[Special:Contributions/66.114.70.139|66.114.70.139]] 18:39, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
:Eh. He hasn't appeared in any other strips, and it's not too harmful to put him under the umbrella of the real White Hat. I see your point; White Hat is no longer a generic character like [[Hairy]], but an actual recurring one.
:Also, have Black Hat and White Hat ever appeared in the same comic? (Click and Drag doesn't count.) [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 09:08, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

So, does this page qualify for Complete now? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.66|199.27.128.66]] 05:36, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Sorry Randall. You're wrong here. IQ can change. Just because there is a mean for the IQ of the current population, doesn't mean that average can't shift over time. And if we used to be cavemen then either the IQ did shift, or we've always been this smart, which means we couldn't have evolved.

In this case, IQ is exactly the same as morality. Both shift ever so slightly over time, such that the mean is always the acceptable "norm". You can't feel this shift unless you study it. The difference is that morality exhibits locality, so morality shifts slower or faster depending on the subsection of society. Thus you have people who believe they are more right than others, but no one believes they are outright wrong (as a culture). Proof in the pudding is doing a poll on the population as to how smart they think they are. They always rate themselves such that the mean is shifted 1 or 2 deviations up. Same thing with morality. People all espouse a morality that they think is 1 or 2 deviations greater than the standard, whether they are a religious sect or secularists.

But the short of it, a population mean doesn't imply the mean never changes.[[User:Cflare|Cflare]] ([[User talk:Cflare|talk]]) 21:12, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

:While IQ can change, the way you're explaining it is not the way the Cueball or "White Hat" is explaining it. In fact, "White Hat" never explicitly states that IQ doesn't evolve at all; just not to the depressing trend Cueball here thinks it does. Anonymous 23:04, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

In fact average IQ cannot change. The average IQ of humanity is always 100, because that is the definition of the IQ scale.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.129|108.162.216.129]] 01:15, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

If there is reason for climate change it is almost certainly due to the destruction of trees. Any ridiculous assertions about carbon dioxide can not be confirmed or denied and the political machinations about carbon dioxide stem from Margaret Thatcher's war on the coal miners in Britain.

It would be a simple matter to replant forests. All we would have to do is pay for that in higher latitudes and send in drones to deal with illegal loggers in lower latitudes. 20 years or so should sort out most of the problems.

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 17:03, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

: I see what you did there... This is the bit where you go "Everything I just said was wrong" --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 17:26, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

Elitism is an eminently more desirable trait than stupidity to breed into one's offspring. An elitist might be hated, but he will be *competent*; he will *accomplish things*, while a stupid person will harm themselves and others through their stupidity, often remaining well-liked in spite of being cancerous and toxic to everything nearby. Elitism is the bitter taste of medicine which will make you better; stupidity is the delicious candy to which you will become hopelessly addicted at a formative age, leading to a miserable lifetime of diabetes and an early death by heart failure. I only wish I intended to reproduce, so that I could practice what I preach on this regard. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 19:28, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Talk:Blue Eyes

2015-10-30T19:18:45Z

173.245.54.52:

Is it really incomplete on the grounds that Joel hasn't be identified? Explanations of comics 57-59 leave no more explanation of "Scott" than that he appears to be Randall's friend. The fact that we don't have a last name for him doesn't make either [[Scott]] or those comic explanations incomplete. Similarly, not have a full identifier for "Joel" in this one doesn't, in my opinion, warrant an incomplete tag. I'm removing the tag. If anyone object, revert it. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 19:22, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

The proof for this puzzle is incomplete, if not wrong. The theorem is too weak, it should be: "Theorem: N blue eyed people with Nth order knowledge of all N people being logicians, N people having blue eyes, and any blue eyed person will leave as soon as possible after deducing they have blue eyes, will be able to leave on the Nth day." This may seem pedantic, but it really gets to the heart of the problem, which is trying to illustrate the use of orders of knowledge. In the theorem as stated, just N blue eyed people will leave on the Nth day, the proof for the inductive steps does not hold. You need to further assume that the person is able to deduce the hypothesis (which should be proven). In other words, you say X-1 people would leave on the (X-1)th day by hypothesis, so the Xth person knows he can leave on the Xth day. But you did not prove that the Xth person can actually deduce this, namely that he has all the information necessary to do so. In the correctly stated hypothesis, you then need to show that N + 1 people with (N+1)th order knowledge of all those things can deduce that the N people would leave if it was just them, and further that N+1 people have (N+1)th order knowledge of all these things. This is very important, and holds true (Since N+1th order knowledge is equivalent to knowing the N people have the Nth order knowledge necessary to fulfill the hypothesis, and by symmetry if the N logicians can figure it out the (N+1)th can too. Also, they have (N+1)th order knowledge of people leaving as soon as they can and everyone being a logician since in the proper statement of the puzzle it should be noted this is common knowledge, and the guru makes the knowledge of someone having blue eyes common knowledge.). Then you have a full proof, since you have now included that they can actually deduce the inductive step. Again, this may seem pedantic, but is really necessary both to be correct and as it illustrates the key of the puzzle, namely the guru gives 100th order knowledge of someone having blue eyes (this is the main problem people have, realizing the concrete piece of information the guru gives). [[User:Jlangy|Jlangy]] ([[User talk:Jlangy|talk]]) 00:29, 9 July 2015

What I don't follow here is that there's no clarification that the Guru is talking about someone different each time. Just because she says "I see someone with blue eyes" N times doesn't mean that there are N people with blue eyes; she could be talking about the same person every time, or each of two people half the time, etc. Can anyone clarify this?
Thanks - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.47|108.162.218.47]] 13:20, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

(EDIT: Observe the process of comprehension in action...or don't? I've been thinking about my own brain, with itself, long enough for one day, I'm tired.)
So, maybe I am indeed just "dumb", as the wiki insists. Clearly, I do not have a perfect understanding of formal logic. But frankly, my read of this puzzle is that "formal logic" just enables you to jump to ridiculous conclusions.
Let's theorize a simpler version of this puzzle. There are now only two people besides the Guru on the island, both with blue eyes. We'll call them Bill and Ted (totally bogus, I know). No matter how logical Bill and Ted might be, when Bill hears the Guru say "I see a person with blue eyes" to himself and Ted, and Bill has seen Ted's blue eyes himself, why would Bill assume anything about his own eye color? It would seem to Bill that Guru was just talking about Ted's eyes, and Ted would believe the reverse. Even knowing* that Ted would leave that night if Ted deduced he had blue eyes too, I still don't see why Bill would jump to the conclusion that the Guru was talking about him - he remains in the dark, as does Ted, and neither of them can be any more certain of anything than they previously were. Adding 98 more blue-eyed people, let alone doubling the island's population with irrelevant brown-eyers, hardly reduces the confusion.
* This was the point at which I began to think I had understood it, but then I became unsure again. Like I said in the "edit", my brain is tired.
--So, that settles it, I do not understand how the puzzle can be true, and I'm not convinced that it actually is. Knowing Randall is, in general, smarter than me...I still do not have the ability to completely accept that he's always right, or that I'm always wrong to ignorantly question his rightness. I have long maintained that certain well-respected "systems of knowledge", of which formal logic is a textbook example, have been respected too well for too long for not-good-enough reasons. To me, they seem to be founded on an assumption which is itself founded on nothing. I'm not trying to insult Randall or anyone else, I'm just utterly failing to comprehend. I will appreciate if anyone else attempts to educate me on the subject, but I may prove an intractable student, since I am unable to extend much faith or trust (or even, on a day where my mood is worse than today, the moderate degree of politeness as I've already managed) to a teacher. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 19:18, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

1393: Timeghost

2015-10-30T18:39:15Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1393
| date = July 11, 2014
| title = Timeghost
| image = timeghost.png
| titletext = 'Hello, Ghostbusters?' 'ooOOoooo people born years after that movie came out are having a second chiiiild right now ooOoooOoo'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] has been haunted by a ''Timeghost'' for some time. It is obviously not the first time the ghost arrives to let Megan know that "...ooOOOOOOOOooo... Tiiiime is passiiiing!" The ghost is dedicated to making people feel old by having them think about the passage of time. It is shown to reference time periods related to well-known people and events, such as famous actors and the release of movies and TV shows. Megan is just annoyed that it is back and wishes it to go away.

But then when [[Cueball]] ask "How long has it been doing this?" the ghost suddenly predicts that Megan and Cueball will die in a shorter amount of time than the time that has passed since the ghost began its hauntings. This disturbs Megan who stops her complaining and asks "'''What!?'''" This is not the first time she has been haunted by the ghost but it has probably not been that long, so this is a very scary thought to her (and Cueball).

We do, however, not know how long the ghost has been haunting Megan. Also the "staaaaart of my haunting" may refer to the first time the ghost haunted anyone, not just Megan. This could be a long time ago and thus be true for anyone it meets today. Or it could mean since the start of this particular manifestation, meaning their deaths are imminent! It is also possible Timeghost is being deliberately ambiguous in an effort to frighten them even more. This is of course only scary if you believe the ghost can predict the future, which is not what it has been doing so far. There is no example in the comic where it makes a prediction that we know is accurate - only comparing time spans we can look up - see below.

But one thing about the prediction is true - they will eventually '''die'''. And this is the scary part about realizing how old you are and that you are quickly getting older: You will die, and "soon" (for some value thereof).

The comic seems to be using "factoid" to mean a small fact. "{{w|Factoid}}" can also mean a "questionable or spurious statement presented as a fact", but this does not seem to be intended usage here. In this instance, some of the factoids are easily verifiable, while others are reasonable assumptions based on the number of years passed since the individual events. Several sources advocate the use of the word "factlet" to express a brief interesting fact, while using the word "factoid" for unverifiable or untrue statements passed as fact.

While ''factoids'' tend only to have mostly only entertainment value, the last ''fact'' from the ghost is a prediction of the future (Megan and Cueball's death) which is actually of some practical value if it can be trusted.

"Timeghost" might be a literal interpretation of {{w|Zeitgeist}}, which is a German term for "spirit of time" and refers to the school of thought that influences or dominates the art and culture of a time period. All the events and people mentioned in this comic may be considered influences on present day art and culture.

In the title text Megan calls {{w|Ghostbusters}} (from the 1984 movie) to help get rid of the Timeghost. This of course makes the ghost state that "people born years after that movie came out are having a second chiiiild right now" making her feel old once more.

[[Randall]] has covered making people feel old several times in [[647: Scary]], [[891: Movie Ages]], [[973: MTV Generation]], and [[1477: Star Wars]]. Also see the blag post [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/09/29/odd-temporal-milestones/ Odd Temporal Milestones]. This is, however, so far the only one that makes a prediction of anyone's death. A similar ghost with a much different agenda was seen in [[1108: Cautionary Ghost]]. Similarly annoying fact(oids) were given in [[1272: Shadowfacts]].

'''Timeline'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Year||Event
|-
|1955-1975||{{w|Vietnam War}}
|-
|colspan="2"|19 years
|-
|1994||{{w|Forrest Gump (film)|Forrest Gump}}
|-
|colspan="2"|20 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1964||{{w|Keanu Reeves}} (Actor) born
|-
|colspan="2"|2 years
|-
|1966||Today's new grandparents born (Average age: 48 in the US)
|-
|colspan="2"|48 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1990||[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf Today's new parents born] (Average age: 24 in the US)
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1993-1994||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 5
|-
|colspan="2"|2 years (from '93 to '95)
|-
|1994-1995||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 6
|-
|colspan="2"|4 years
|-
|1999||{{w|Eminem}} (Rapper) got big (second album)
|-
|colspan="2"|15 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1984||{{w|Ghostbusters}}
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1987||[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf Today's people just having a second child born] (Average age at first childbirth (24) + average gap between first two births (3))
|-
|colspan="2"|27 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are approached by a floating ghost]
:Timeghost: ''...ooOOOOOOOOooo... Tiiiime is passiiiing!''
:Megan: Ugh. Timeghost.
:Cueball: Huh?
:Megan: Here come the factoids.

:[Timeghost floats around.]
:Timeghost: ''Forrest Gump'' came out closer to the Vietnam War than to the present daaay.
:Megan: Go ''away!''
:Timeghost: The average new grand-parents are younger than Keanu Reeeeves!
:Cueball: That can't be right...

:[Megan clutches her head, possibly attempting to cover her ears.]
:Timeghost: ''Today's new parents were ten when Eminem got big. Daaaaaad muuuuusic. They remember Simpsons season 5 or 6 at the '''earliest'''''.
:Megan: Argh!
:Cueball: How long has it been ''doing'' this?

:[Megan and Cueball looks up at the Timeghost as it delivers its most scary message.]
:Timeghost: ''The staaaaart of my haunting is now further away than your deaaaths!''
:Megan: Will you sto- -'''''WHAT!?'''''
:Timeghost: ''ooOOOOOOOoo''
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

Talk:293: RTFM

2015-10-30T18:30:08Z

173.245.54.52: Created page with "In this writer's opinion, expecting anyone to read a manual that is more than a page or two long, in this Internet-speed era, is unreasonable. ~~~~"

In this writer's opinion, expecting anyone to read a manual that is more than a page or two long, in this Internet-speed era, is unreasonable. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 18:30, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

343: 1337: Part 3

2015-10-30T18:24:54Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 343
| date = November 14, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 3
| image = 1337 part 3.png
| titletext = I once asked an NSA guy whether they'd broken RSA. And I know I can trust him, because I asked if he was lying to me and he said no.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Adrian Lamo}} is a hacker known for being a threat analyst and has penetrated many corporate networks. As far as we know, he has not penetrated any government networks, so helping Elaine physically break into the {{w|NSA}} would probably inspire second thoughts. The use of a rug to cross the barbed wire fence is likely a reference to a scene in Fight Club, where the same method is used to break into a liposuction clinic.

{{w|RSA (algorithm)|RSA}} is an encryption algorithm that allows decryption using {{w|Public-key cryptography|public keys}}. No efficient method to {{w|RSA problem|break RSA}} is known. But if the NSA knew any such method, it would be unlikely for them to admit that.
However, the NSA have paid RSA to put a [http://theverge.com/2013/12/20/5231006/nsa-paid-10-million-for-a-back-door-into-rsa-encryption-according-to backdoor] into one of their encryption schemes.

{{w|Lawrence Lessig}} is a political activist focusing on copyright law and intellectual property, as well as a founding board member of {{w|Creative Commons}}.

{{w|Steve Jobs}} was the two-time {{w|CEO}} of {{w|Apple Inc.}} In partnership with {{w|Steve Wozniak}} he founded Apple. He oversaw Apple's return from near bankruptcy, the introduction of the original Macintosh, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. But in the 90s, most of this had not happened yet. The comic is implying that it was Elaine, in fact, who planted those ideas in Jobs' mind (while perching on his bedpost, a nearly-impossible physical task for even a relatively small and light human being - such a stance is often depicted for gargoyles or fictional vampires, the latter of which are associated with nocturnal bedroom-invasions like this).

The final panel is a pun on the Riot grrrls - from Wikipedia {{w|Riot grrrl}} is an underground feminist punk rock movement. This metamorphises in the hands of Randall into Riot Prrl - who presumably prefer to code in {{w|Perl}}. The real Riot Prrl are from {{w|Northampton}} and are into {{w|Yarn bombing|guerilla knitting}}.

The title text may refer to the {{w|urban legend}} that leads petty criminals to ask each other [http://www.snopes.com/risque/hookers/cop.asp "Are you a cop?"] the bottom line being that liars can lie about whether they're lying.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*343: 1337: Part 3 (this one)
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[Outside, Adrian Lamo is helping Elaine Roberts over a barbed wire fence.]
:It was the late 90's. Elaine crisscrossed the country with Adrian Lamo, the 'Homeless Hacker', learning to gain entry into systems both virtual and physical.
:Adrian Lamo: So you just throw a rug over the fence and... say, what ''is'' this place anyway?
:Roberts: Nowhere special.
:Lamo: ...Elaine, is this NSA Headquarters?
:Roberts: ...Look, I just want to see if they've broken RSA.

:[Inside, Lawrence Lessig is sitting at a table, Roberts is standing across the table swinging a knife.]
:She learned, from Lawrence Lessig, about the monstrosity that is U.S. Copyright Law.
:Roberts: So, how do we fix the system? Stab bad guys?
:Lessig: I'm starting something called "Creative Commons"
:''Shink''
:Elaine Roberts: I think we should stab bad guys...

:[Steve Jobs is lying up in his bed, Roberts is balancing while crouched on the foot of Jobs' bed.]
:She met with Steve Jobs to discuss the future of Apple.
:Roberts: Compression and bandwidth are changing everything.
:Jobs: Who are you? It's 3:00AM!
:Roberts: Apple should make a portable music player.
:Jobs: I'm calling the police.
:Roberts: Hey, idea — integrate it with a cell phone!

:[Scene has two of Elaine's activities. In one she is drumming, in the other she has an electric guitar on her shoulders, one hand on the frets. The other hand is holding a laptop by the touchpad.]
:She even, for a time, took up drumming, and helped start a movement among teen girls, a culture of self-taught female programmers and musicians, coding by day and rocking out by night—
:Roberts: Riot Prrl.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Steve Jobs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:1337|03]]
[[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Puns]]

526: Converting to Metric

2015-10-30T17:54:45Z

173.245.54.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 526
| date = January 5, 2009
| title = Converting to Metric
| image = converting to metric.png
| titletext = According to River, "adequate" vacuuming systems drain the human body at about half a liter per second.
}}
==Explanation==
Most people will eventually develop an intuitive feel for how big certain measurements are (e.g., how long an inch or a foot is, how much a pound weighs). This comic points out that people who were brought up using the {{w|United States customary units|United States system of customary units}} probably don't have the same intuitive understanding for metric units and attempts to provide some benchmarks for these people. Most of the benchmarks are common sense, highly-useful ones (e.g., if it's 30 degrees centigrade [86 °F], you'd be quite comfortable outside dressed for the beach) but some of the benchmarks are humorous and/or completely useless. Benchmarks include:

===Temperature===
* {{w|Extremes on Earth|Earth's hottest}}: 60⁠°C [140 °F]: The hottest temperature recorded on earth is actually {{W|List_of_weather_records#Heat|"only" 56.7}}. There have been reports of ten-twenty degrees higher (70-80⁠°C) but these measurements are not verified or accepted as world records.
* Various heat waves: {{w|Dubai}} is a city in the United Arab Emirates, and is smack-dab in the middle of an equatorial desert, so their heat waves can get ''hot!''. The southern Unites States will typically be a few degrees hotter than the northern United States simply because it's closer to the equator, but as mentioned they're both above "Beach Weather".
*30°C [86 °F]: A little too hot so perfect for a trip to the beach.
*20°C [68 °F]: Is defined as room temperature in many experimental settings. For some this would feel a little cool. But 25°C [77°] would as mentioned be too warm for room temperature...
*10°C [50 °F]: Definitely wear a jacket. Especially if there is just a little breeze.
*0⁠°C [32 °F]: The freezing point of water (32°⁠F)
*-5 to -10°C: In Moscow -10°C is not really that cold - it can go "spit goes clink" cold in {{W|Moscow#Climate|Moscow}}, whereas -5°C [23 °F] in {{W|Boston#Climate|Boston}} may be very cold...
*-20°C: FuckFuckFuckCold and -30°C - Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!: This is implied to be basically what some people would say when they step outside at this temperature. In reality, it would be best to keep ones's mouth firmly closed. At -30°C, without taking wind chill into account, exposed skin will feel painful in under a minute and frostbite could begin in as little as ten minutes [http://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather/default.asp?lang=En&n=5FBF816A-1]. The differing statements seem to imply that at -20°C, the user would be saying "fuck" repeatedly, whereas at -30°, the user is incapable of closing their mouth after starting the first "fuck", and so extends it into one long one.
*-40⁠°C: Spit goes "clink": As shown in the drawing your spit would freeze ''before'' it hits the ground. This is the crossing point of the two temperature scales i.e. -40°C = -40 °F.

===Length===
*1 cm [.4 inch] : Width of microSD card and 3 cm - Length of SD card: Refers to the {{w|MicroSD card|memory cards}} used in cell phones, digital cameras, etc.
*12 cm [almost 5 inches]: CD-ROM is a common object so nice to know it is a dozen centimeters.
*14 cm [5 1/2 inches]: Most males would probably exaggerate the size of their penis, but 14–15 cm is very average.
*15 cm [almost 6 inches]: A Bic pen
*80 cm [31 1/2 inches]: A typical doorway is also of standard size. This is barely over the minimum size typically required by codes for buildings [30 inches or 76.2 cm], but more than 50% over the size required for aircraft emergency exits. (It may seem illogical that larger doors are required in buildings than in airplanes, given airplanes are arguably more dangerous. However, there is no real disadvantage to using larger doors in buildings, which are not significantly pressurized, but using larger doors in aircraft would increase the force on the door caused by cabin pressure proportionally.)
*1 m [39.37 inches]: {{w|Lightsaber|Lightsaber blade}}: Refers the weapon used in the {{w|Star Wars}} movie franchise. Canonically, the length of a lightsaber's blade varies greatly depending on the setting of the weapon, but "one meter" is by no means a bad approximation.
*170 cm [5 feet, 7 inches]: {{w|Summer Glau}}: Refers to the height of the actress who portrays the character River Tam on the TV show {{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}.
*200 cm [6 feet, 6 and 3/4 inches]: Darth Vader: Refers to the height of the main antagonist from Star Wars.
*2.5 m [almost 10 feet]: Ceiling - of course very much depending on which type of building you are in!
*5 m [almost twenty feet]: Car length - also very much depending on the car...
*16 m 4 cm: Human tower of Serenity crew: Again, this refers to the Firefly TV show, which takes place mostly on a space ship called Serenity.
**Presumably, if all the crew of Serenity were stacked on top of each other, this would be their combined height.
**The comic depicts four characters from the show standing on top of each other; the bottom figure is the crew's captain, {{w|Malcolm Reynolds}} in his signature coat. Judging from the other drawing of Summer Glau from the volume section, she is standing on top of the captain.
**The other five members of the crew should also be stacked on top of these four to reach the 16m height - giving them an average height of 1.82 m (12 cm more than Summer Glaus height!)

===Speed===
:Here both the SI unit m/s as well as the more used unit kph (km per hour) is given.
*5 kph [3 mph] - 1.5 m/s: Walking at a normal pace
*13-25 kph [8-15 mph]: Jogging to sprinting.
*35 kph [21.75 mph] - 10 m/s: Fastest human: As of 2009, the fastest a human has been recorded to run in a single sprint is actually 45 kph, a record set by {{w|Usain Bolt}}.
*45-55 kph: Both cats and rabbits go much faster than normal people.
*75 kph [46.6 mph] - 20 m/s: Raptor: It's a comic written by [[Randall]], of course a reference to the {{w|velociraptors}} from ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}'' was going to be here.
*100 kph - 25 m/s: A slow highway (62 mph).
*110 kph [68.35 mph] - 30 m/s: Interstate (65 mph): Refers to the {{w|Interstate|American highway system}}. (65 mph would actually be only 104.6 kph.)
*120 kph - 35 m/s: Speed you actually go when it says "65": People routinely break the aforementioned speed limit, and the police typically don't mind as long as it's not posing any danger. For the record, 120 kph is 74 mph.
*140 kph - 40 m/s (87-89mph): Raptor on hoverboard: The {{w|hoverboard}} is probably a reference to the ''{{w|Back to the Future Part II}}'', though it's a fairly common trope in older science fiction stories. Randall obviously did a lot of google searching on this subject the week before - see [[522: Google Trends]].

===Volume===
*3 ml: The amount of blood in a fieldmouse. A similar amount is used in comic [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport]], but instead of a fieldmouse, the measurement of blood is of a churchmouse, an imaginary animal created by Lewis Carroll. Click [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport|here]] for a more on [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport|comic 434]].
*5 ml: A teaspoon - a very common measure.
*30 mL: Nasal passages and 40mL - Shot glass: The comic points out that you could just about fill a shot glass using the mucus from your nose. Since shot glasses are usually used for mixed drinks, the comic jokes that this mucus could constitute a new, disgusting drink - and this is depictured in the drawing.
*350 ml: Soda can (this is roughly correct for the cans used in the U.S., which hold 12 fluid ounces; in Europe, soda cans commonly hold 330ml or 500 ml).
*500 ml: Water bottle (this is the also the volume of a European water bottle).
*3 L: Two-liter bottle: Refers to a bottle which contains two liters (in the US usually soda). There is debate as to the reason for the discrepancy in volume. It may be a reference to stereotypical Americans consuming a lot of high-calorie foods and drinks.
*5 L: An adult male has about 5 L of blood in his body (An ''adequate'' vacuuming system could drain this blood out in 10 s - as per the title text!)
*30 L: Milk crate: Refers to a {{w|Milk crate|type of small box}} originally used to transport milk but now often in demand to be used as bicycle basket, storage spaces, etc.
*55 L: Summer Glau: Again, this refers to the actress from Firefly.
*65 L: {{w|Dennis Kucinich}}: An American politician belonging to the {{w|Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic party}}, noted for his relatively strong (for the US) leftist views.
*75 L: {{w|Ron Paul}}: An American politician belonging to the rival {{w|Republican Party (United States)|Republican party}}, noted for his strong rightist views.
*200 L: Volume of refrigerator.
*As shown in the drawing of this part of the comic, the three persons mentioned above - Glau, Kucinich and Paul (summing up to 195 L) - could in principle all fit inside a standard refrigerator. Cueball thus attempts to push them all inside of one - though it would obviously be very uncomfortable for all parties involved to be trapped in such a small space with not much room between them.

===Mass===
*3 g: {{w|M&M's|Peanut M&M}}: A small chocolate candy with a peanut inside
*100 g: Cell phone - this very much depends on the age of the cell phone, and the type etc.
*500 g [1 lb.]: A bottle of water contains 500 ml according to the volume section and thus have mass of 500 g.
*1–3 kg: Different types of laptops. The newest and the best is the lightest...
*5 kg [11 lb.]: {{w|LCD monitor}}: A modern flat-screen-style monitor.
*15 kg: {{w|CRT monitor}}: An older-style, cathode ray tube-based monitor.
**This ends the section on computer screens, which overrode the normal sequence by weight as the next two feline inspired entries are lighter than the two before. This was presumably done so that the reader's eye will be confused or amused at seeing (in the comic's caseless captioning font) CRT immediately followed by CAT in the vertical text column.
*4 kg: Cat and 4.1 kg - Cat (with caption): Refers to the internet's love of putting {{w|Lolcat|captions on cats}}. Usually, this is done in a graphics program, but here the cat is actually physically carrying around his caption. The "with caption" part is most likely a reference to [[262: IN UR REALITY]], where [[Black Hat]] glues captions to cats, after running out of staples.
*60 kg [130 lb.]: Lady - for instance if she is Summer Glau - could be her again depicted in the comic - average weight of an adult woman.
*70 kg [150 lb.]: Dude - here depicted as Cueball who is the average guy, and 70 kg is average weight for an adult man.
*150 kg: Shaq: {{w|Shaq|Shaquille O'Neal}}, a famously tall basketball player.
*200 kg [440 lb.]: Your mom
*220 kg: Your mom (incl. 20 kg of cheap jewelry) and
*223 kg: Your mom (also incl. 3 kg of makeup)
*These last refers to a common type of {{w|Your mom}} joking insult whereby someone insults someone else's mother in a creative way. Here, the comic slyly calls your mom fat, then implies she wears way too much jewelry and finally also almost 7 pounds of makeup. This is a common theme in [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Your_Mom xkcd]. (Twenty kg of "cheap" jewelry has several times the volume than 20 kg of gold jewelry, because of the difference in density.)

===Title text===
The title text refers once again to Summer Glau's Firefly character, {{w|River Tam}}, who (after being subjected to a long series of medical experiments) is severely mentally ill and often comes out with macabre — though scientifically accurate — pronouncements.

==Transcript==
:'''Guide to Converting to Metric'''

:[There are five frames with tables for different units. Between the two upper frames is the following text:]
:The key to converting to metric is establishing
:new reference points. When you hear "26°C",
:instead of thinking "That's 79°F" you should think,
:"that's warmer than a house but cool for swimming."
:Here are some helpful tables of reference points:

:[The frame to the left of the above text:]
:Temperature:
:{| class="wikitable"
|60°C||Earth's hottest
|-
|45°C||Dubai heat wave
|-
|40°C||Southern US heat wave
|-
|35°C||Northern US heat wave
|-
|30°C||Beach weather
|-
|25°C||Warm room
|-
|20°C||Room temperature
|-
|10°C||Jacket weather
|-
|0°C||Snow!
|-
| -5°C||Cold day (Boston)
|-
| -10°C||Cold day (Moscow)
|-
| -20°C||Fuckfuckfuckcold
|-
| -30°C||Fuuuuuuuuuuck!
|-
| -40°C||Spit goes "clink"
|}
:[Next to the last three entries we see Cueball spitting on the ground. The spit bounces.]
:Cueball: Ptoo
:Spit: Clink!

:[The frame to the right of the above text:]
:Length
:{| class="wikitable"
|1 cm||Width of microSD card
|-
|3 cm||Length of SD card
|-
|12 cm||CD diameter
|-
|14 cm||Penis
|-
|15 cm||BIC pen
|-
|80 cm||Doorway width
|-
|1 m||Lightsaber blade
|-
|170 cm||Summer Glau
|-
|200 cm||Darth Vader
|-
|2.5 m||Ceiling
|-
|5 m||Car-length
|-
|16 m 4 cm||Human tower of Serenity crew
|}
:[To the right of the table is a human tower of four of the people from the Serenity crew. The head of the upper person is right below the first entry.]

:[The frame below to the left:]
:Speed
:{| class="wikitable"
|kph|| m/s||
|-
|5||1.5||Walking
|-
|13||3.5||Jogging
|-
|25||7||Sprinting
|-
|35||10||Fastest human
|-
|45||13||Housecat
|-
|55||15||Rabbit
|-
|75||20||Raptor
|-
|100||25||Slow highway
|-
|110||30||Interstate (65 mph)
|-
|120||35||Speed you actually go when it says “65”
|-
|140||40||Raptor on hoverboard
|}

:[The frame below in the middle:]
:Volume
:{| class="wikitable"
|3 mL||Blood in a fieldmouse
|-
|5 mL||Teaspoon
|-
|30 mL||Nasal passages
|-
|40 mL||Shot glass
|-
|350 mL||Soda can
|-
|500 mL||Water bottle
|-
|3 L||Two-liter bottle
|-
|5 L||Blood in a human male
|-
|30 L||Milk crate
|-
|55 L||Summer Glau
|-
|65 L||Dennis Kucinich
|-
|75 L||Ron Paul
|-
|200 L||Fridge
|}
:[Next to the entry on nasal passages and shoot glass (starting one entry higher and finishing one entry lower) are the following text:]
:So, when it's blocked
:the mucus in your
:nose could about
:fill a shot glass.
:[Below this text is a drawing of a mucus filled shot glass.]
:Related: I've
:invented the
:worst mixed
:drink ever.
:[Below this next to the four last entries we see Cueball shoving Summer Glau, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul into an open fridge. Above the fridge in a loosely drawn ellipse are the following text:]
:55+65+75<200

:[The frame below to the right:]
:Mass
:{| class="wikitable"
|3 g||Peanut M&M
|-
|100 g||Cell phone
|-
|500 g||Bottled water
|-
|1 kg||Ultraportable laptop
|-
|2 kg||Light-medium laptop
|-
|3 kg||Heavy laptop
|-
|5 kg||LCD monitor
|-
|15 kg||CRT monitor
|-
|4 kg||Cat
|-
|4.1 kg||Cat (with caption)
|-
|60 kg||Lady
|-
|70 kg||Dude
|-
|150 kg||Shaq
|-
|200 kg||Your mom
|-
|220 kg||Your mom (incl. cheap jewelry)
|-
|223 kg||Your mom (also incl. makeup)
|}
:[Next to the entries of cat and cat (with caption) are two drawings of cats. The second one has a caption across its chest.]
:Cat (with caption): Mrowl?
:[Below this and next to the lady and dude entries (and the Shaq entry) are drawings of Megan and Cueball.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Firefly]]

1015: Kerning

2015-10-30T16:06:24Z

173.245.54.52:

{{comic
| number = 1015
| date = February 10, 2012
| title = Kerning
| image = kerning.png
| titletext = I have never been as self-conscious about my handwriting as when I was inking in the caption for this comic.
}}

==Explanation==
In typography, {{w|kerning}} refers to the spacing between consecutive letters in printed material or the process of adjusting said spacing. Examples of bad kerning include text that adds so much spa ce between letters of one word that it appears to be two words, or by including so little space between letters that they run together "A" and "V" might have their slanting sides overlap or "r" and "n" together might look like an "m". (This latter case has resulted in the slang term "{{w|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning#Automatic_and_manual_kerning|keming}}" for this type of kerning.) Extreme Behꜹior of bad kerning can lead to humorous or inappropriate text.

Kerning has been an issue in typography since the early era of printing presses and movable type but has taken on new challenges with digital printing. Typical non-designers using basic word processing software don't pay much attention to kerning. A good graphic designer, however, can compensate for bad kerning by individually adjusting the spacing between problem letters. People who specialize in graphic design or layout (and, thus, who are exposed to digital text on a regular basis) can become hyper-sensitive to bad kerning, seeing it in signs or other printed materials prepared by people without such sensitivity to bad kerning.

In the comic, the kerning in the sign is badly done: the spacing between C and I (in "City"), between C and E (in "Offices"), and even slightly between F and I (also in "Offices") is inconsistent. The space between the C and E is almost as wide as the space between the words. One character is clearly frustrated while the other character doesn't notice the problem at all.

The comic explains that once a person learns what good kerning is, he or she will get irritated by shoddy kerning in the future. And since it is very irritating to be annoyed every time this happens, [[Randall]] suggest that you teach this to someone you really hate. Unfortunately, the comic itself has also taught us to be annoyed. Thanks, Randall.

Incidentally, Google Search features an easter egg regarding this very topic: searching for the word "[https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=kerning kerning]" causes every instance of that word to be badly overspaced. On the other hand, searching for "[https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=keming keming]" will cause every instance to be even more badly underspaced.

The title text is written by Randall explaining that as he was writing this comic about kerning, he was very self-conscious of his own handwriting. The act of thinking about kerning (and likely, the act of drawing an example of such bad kerning) made him aware of it in his own writing. He probably hates the one who made him aware of this, although it gave him this idea for a comic (that if he is correct, will make a lot of people hate him now). This aspect suggests a parallel with strip 972, "November"[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/972:_November], which also suggests the idea of annoying a person by calling their attention to something which usually does not merit it.

== Transcript ==
:[There is a poorly-kerned sign on the side of a building. Two Cueball-like guys are standing in front of it. The first guy has his hands in fits up in front of him and a black cloud over his head.]
:C ITY OFF IC ES
:First guy: ''Argh!''
:Second guy: What?
:[Caption below the frame:]
:If you really hate someone, teach
:them to recognize bad kerning.

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

1360: Old Files

2015-10-29T21:05:59Z

173.245.54.52:

{{comic
| number = 1360
| date = April 25, 2014
| title = Old Files
| image = old_files.png
| titletext = Wow, ANIMORPHS-NOVEL.RTF? Just gonna, uh, go through and delete that from all my archives real quick.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic came out the day after [http://news.sky.com/story/1248397/andy-warhol-originals-found-on-floppy-disk Sky News published the story] of original {{w|Andy Warhol}} artwork, created in 1985 on an {{w|Amiga 1000}}, which was recovered from recently found floppy disks.

[[Cueball]] is shown literally digging through a pile of old files; which is a metaphor for looking through old files on his computer. The layers of the pile are arranged much like geological rock formations where older strata are deeper down than younger layers. The files are in concentric layers because each directory is imbedded in the previous directory. Therefore, the "Documents" folder contains an "Old Desktop" folder, which contains a folder with files recovered from an older system, which itself contains a "My Documents" folder, which contains a folder with files copied from a {{w|Zip Disk}} from high school. The result is that files from high school have survived in his present-day machine. These older folders serve as a time capsule of sorts, storing old files from {{w|AOL}}, NYET, and {{w|Kazaa}}. These files are meant to be analogous to the fossils and artifacts found in lower, older rock layers.

The sizes of the files decrease as Cueball goes deeper, since data storage has gotten cheaper over time. When the Zip Drive first came out, it cost $200 USD (plus $20 per 100 MB floppy). Today, $200 could buy you a 4 TB portable external hard drive. In the 1990s, during AOL's heyday, 10+ GB hard drives were prohibitively expensive and a terabyte of data was unimaginable to most users.

Deep down, Cueball discovers several files he is surprised about, including a poetry file which embarrasses him as he does not remember writing poetry. In the title text, he mentions also finding an "{{w|Animorphs}} Novel", which may be a text copy of one of the original books, but judging by his reaction it may more likely be a fan fiction of the ''Animorphs'' series. The series was released between 1996 and 2001, consistent with the fact that these files were created during Cueball/Randall's high school years. The series was extremely popular at the time. See also [[1380: Manual for Civilization]] for other references to Animorphs.

===Files and Folders===
The folders and files in detail:

'''Documents''' (47 GB): A large folder containing many of [[Cueball]]'s personal files.
*''misc.txt'': A miscellaneous {{w|text file}} of unknown and unknowable content. It appears unreasonably large for a txt file, so it may be a large {{w|encryption|encrypted}} volume with an intentionally misleading name. It is the only non-video file in the topmost layer - the implication is that Cueball encrypts all his current documents.
*''Video projects'': As video files can take up a lot of space, this likely makes up a considerable portion of the 47 GB.

'''Old desktop''' (12 GB): A backup from a former computer.
*''{{w|Facebook}} pics'': Pictures that were intended to be added to Facebook (and/or ones which were downloaded *from* Facebook).
*''Pics from other camera'': Unknown pictures from a second camera.
*''Temp'': Temporary folders generally contain cached files and files that are used temporarily to install programs.
*''Misc {{w|Portable Document Format|PDF}}s'': PDFs are often used for documentation, but could be any collection of digitized books or other documents.
*''{{w|MP3}}'': MP3 is a widely-used format for digital audio files.

'''Recovered from drive crash''' (4 GB): When a {{w|Hard disk drive|hard drive}} crashes, some or all data may be recovered.
*''Temp'': Temporary files.
*''Work misc'': Unknown work related projects.
*''{{w|Audiobook|Audio books}}'': Recordings of books being read out loud.

'''My Documents''' (570 MB): {{w|Windows XP}} user accounts came with a "My Documents" folder that was widely used for storing personal files. The items in this archive came from the era when {{w|Windows XP}} was popular.
*''Downloads'': The default download folder for most browsers of the time.
*''{{w|Kazaa}} shared'': Kazaa is a defunct peer-to-peer file sharing program. The "shared" folder is shared with other members.
*''AYB'': {{w|All your base are belong to us|ALL YOUR BASE are belong to us}} is an internet {{w|Meme|meme}} inspired by a bad translation from ''{{w|Zero Wing}}''. Also referenced in [[286: All Your Base]].
*''{{w|Escape Velocity Override|EV Override}}'': An {{w|Apple Macintosh}} video game, released in 1998.
*''[http://rephial.org/ Angband]'': A game named after a fictional stronghold created by {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}}.
*''{{w|GIF}}s'': An image format widely used for transparent or animated images.
*''{{w|Fight Club}}.wmv'': A movie. As feature movies are typically compressed to 700 megabytes, and this folder only contains 570 MB, it must be of low quality or a small screen size. Also referenced in [[992: Fight Club]].
*''{{w|Elasto Mania}}'': A physics-simulation game that claims to show real physics.
*''{{w|AOL Instant Messenger|AIM}} Direct Connect files'': Files transferred via AOL Instant Messenger.
*''{{w|4chan}}'': An image-board where users can upload pictures anonymously. Randall impulsively saves pictures from there. This entry is something of an anomaly, the rest of the files at this level were most notable around 1998 to 2001 while 4chan was only launched at the end of 2003.
*''{{w|ICQ}} logs'': Logs from an instant messaging program introduced in 1996 and no longer commonly used in North America.

'''High school {{w|Zip drive|Zip disk}}''' (94 MB): The most popular form of {{w|superfloppy}}, introduced in 1994 with a capacity of 100 MB.
*''{{w|Korn}} MIDI'': Korn is an American {{w|nu metal}} band formed in 1993. {{w|MIDI}} is a protocol for communication with electronic musical instruments. The result tends to be sounds of low quality.
*''Photos3'': This is a folder of old photos.
**''{{w|Prom}}'': Pictures taken at prom.
*''lovenote.txt'': An old text file of a {{w|love letter}}, probably to a classmate in high school. Possibly referencing [[340: Fight]].
*''{{w|Gorillas (video game)|Gorillas}}.bas'': A game written in {{w|BASIC}}, to be run on {{w|QBasic}}, and supplied with MS-DOS.
*''Dream.txt'': Some private dreams.
*''James.txt'': Perhaps [[James]] is a friend of Randall, and the same as the one who came up with [[107|xkcd #107]].
*''{{w|AOL}}'': An early online and internet service, founded in 1985 and popular in the 1990s.
**''{{w|Citadel (software)|Citadel}}'' - A {{w|BBS}} and email platform that was widely used in the 1980s and early '90s.
*''{{w|QBasic}}'': An {{w|Integrated development environment|IDE}} released by {{w|Microsoft}} in 1991, which was used to write and run computer programs in the BASIC language.
*''NYET'': ''NYET'' was a {{w|Tetris}}-like game for MS-DOS, released in 1988.
*''Jokes.txt'': An old text file of jokes.

'''AAAFILES''' (9.4 MB): Some of [[Cueball]]'s oldest documents, likely prefixed with "AAA" to put the folder at the top of an alphabetically-sorted list.

'''TXT''' (850 K): Old text files, which include poetry he didn't remember writing.

==Transcript==
:Megan (on top of stack of files): You OK down there?

:'''Documents''' (47 GB)
::misc.txt
::Video projects
:'''Old desktop''' (12 GB)
::Facebook pics
::Pics from other camera
::Temp
::Misc PDFs
::MP3
:'''Recovered from drive crash''' (4 GB)
::Temp
::Work misc
::Audio books
:'''My Documents''' (570 MB)
::Downloads
::Kazaa shared
::AYB
::EV Override
::Angband
::GIFs
::FIGHT CLUB.wmv
::Elasto Mania
::AIM Direct Connect files
::4chan
::ICQ logs
:'''High school Zip disk''' (94 MB)
::Korn MIDI
::Photos3 (Prom)
::lovenote.txt
::Gorilla.bas
::Dream.txt
::James.txt
::AOL (Citadel)
::QBasic
::NYET
::Jokes.txt
:'''AAAFILES''' (9.4 MB)
:'''TXT''' (850 K)
:Cueball (deep inside the AAAFILES section looking at his txt files): Oh my god. I wrote '''poetry'''.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animorphs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring James]]

Talk:1179: ISO 8601

2015-10-29T20:58:36Z

173.245.54.52:

Apparently there are some mistakes in the Roman numerals in the comic, the year MMXII is 2012. Also LVII/CCLXV = 57/265, whereas February 27th is the 58th day of the year (which has 365 days). --[[User:Ulm|ulm]] ([[User talk:Ulm|talk]]) 07:55, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:Just guessing, but could this have something to do with the divergence of various Roman calendars, e.g. Julian vs. Gregorian? [[Special:Contributions/98.122.166.235|98.122.166.235]] 13:55, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:Another error: Obviously 1330300800 is intended to be Unix time, but it corresponds to 2012-02-27 00:00:00 UTC. --[[User:Ulm|ulm]] ([[User talk:Ulm|talk]]) 08:10, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:The day part "57" is not wrong: Since Feb 27 is the 58th day of the year, at the beginning of that day, 57 days have gone by since the year started. (At the end of the day, 58 days have gone by) Since we associate days with their beginning (like we do with e.g. hours and minutes), 57 is the correct number (or else Dec 31 would be 2013+365/365 = 2014, and therefore in the wrong year) -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 13:53, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
::The day part is ambiguous. It could be as Xorg suggests, the fraction of the year past at the start of the day. On the other hand it could be interpreted as "day 57 or 365," as with pieces in a shipment or page numbers. In the latter case it should be 58/265. But then, that (ambiguity) is the point, isn't it? [[User:Jqavins|Jqavins]] ([[User talk:Jqavins|talk]]) 17:40, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
::Meanwhile the comic was replaced, with CCLXV corrected to CCCLXV. --[[User:Ulm|ulm]] ([[User talk:Ulm|talk]]) Prima vigilia, XVI Kal. Mar. MMDCCLXVI
::I was just about to publish my theory of how "2012" in the Roman numerals in just the same vein might be intended to indeed represent the year we denote "2013", but by counting only the finished years. This would also connect with the confusion over {{w|year zero}}, another thing that ISO 8601 tried to straighten out. (They placed it before year 1.) Everything fit so well. Then there was an edit conflict, following Randalls correction to "2013". I guess you can't always be right. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:03, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Can anyone explain 01237 (last interpretation before the cat)? Thanks [[Special:Contributions/68.230.38.154|68.230.38.154]] 08:04, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:The small numbers above and below the larger ones show which digit is used where. For example, the 2nd and 5th digit is a 0, the 3rd digit is a 1 etc. [[Special:Contributions/82.115.151.1|82.115.151.1]] 08:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:01237 are the digits used in the date, and the numbers above and below them reflect the order in which they are written; 0 is the second and fifth digit, 1 is the third digit, 2 is the first, sixth and seventh digit, 3 is the fourth digit, and 7 is the eighth digit: 20130227 [[User:Bdemirci|Bdemirci]] ([[User talk:Bdemirci|talk]]) 08:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Someone can explain me what means: ((3+3)×(111+1)-1)×3/3-1/33? {{unsigned|95.23.147.48}}
:Read the comic explanation. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:58, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Many of these format mirror how the dates are spoken in languages. For example, Americans will say "February 27, 2013" and write "2/27/2013", whereas the French will say "27 février 2013" and write "27-02-2013". As a scientist, I was encouraged to write "27 II 2013" (which is apparently standard in Hungary, according to the explanation above) in my lab notebook to avoid ambiguity. --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 13:16, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

A strange thing is that he forgot the form mostly used in Europe: 27.01.2013. --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 12:44, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:: That form is mostly used in Germany. Belgium and France use 27/01/2013 more, Netherlands use 27-01-2013. No idea what the UK prefers although I could imagine 01.27.2013.[[Special:Contributions/62.159.14.62|62.159.14.62]] 12:58, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
::: The UK prefers 27/02/2013 --[[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 13:20, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
::: That form (27.02.2013) is also common in all of Scandinavia. --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 14:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

The image text has a subtle twist as "12/01/04" offers no contextual clues to it meaning at all, can be read three different ways : "December 1st 2004", "January 12, 2004" or "January 4th, 2012" (as opposed to, for example, "01/15/98" which could only be interrupted as "January 15th, 1998") [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 14:29, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
: Technically speaking, it could also be interpreted as April 1st 2012 or April 12th 2001, though that would be the least likely interpretation. I personally like spelling out 3 letters of the month and using an apostrophe before the year, such as 27 Feb '13. --[[User:Joehammer79|Joehammer79]] ([[User talk:Joehammer79|talk]]) 15:07, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:: And of course December, 4th 2001 Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.118.249|178.26.118.249]] 19:54, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Is there any way to convert the time-stamp placed on these comments to the YYYY-MM-DD format? --16:17, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
: If you're logged in, you can set your [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-datetime|date and time preferences]]. I doubt it will affect the timestamps on this page, though, since those appear to be saved as plain text. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 23:01, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

I feel like the cat thing is a reference to something, but I'm not sure what... is it something? A quick google image search pulls up nothing. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:26, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
: Seems to me that Randall missed an opportunity: Why a cat? Why not a '''bob'''cat? It still could be some other reference that I'm missing too.
:: Black cats are considered unlucky. I don't see any reference beyond that. [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 17:59, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
::: It's taking the last two digits from 2013 and emphasizing triskaidekaphobia. Doing a web image search on "Cat 13" will pull up similar artwork of hissing black cats combined with the number 13, including both flyers for Friday 13th drink specials at bars, and combat airplane noseart. Apparently combining the unlucky "13" with an unlucky black cat emphasized that they were bad luck for the enemy. [[User:Columbus Admission|Columbus Admission]] ([[User talk:Columbus Admission|talk]]) 19:20, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:::: "You're a Kitty!" http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=231
::::: The cat's "Hissss" could be a reference to timestamp formats in PHP web programming, where the desired date format is generally followed by "H:i:s", the standard 24-hour time format. That would explain the specifically lowercase "i" in the cat's hiss.[[Special:Contributions/208.87.234.180|208.87.234.180]] 13:28, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Cool, this is my birthday. [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 17:59, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

"However the list then starts listing formats ranging from uncommon to absurd, such as writing the date partly in Roman numerals [...] " -
My math teacher uses a very similar format (in reverse order, d/m/yy, with m being in Roman numerals, because this is Germany (see above)), so I wouldn't call it absurd. She is the only person I know who uses it though. [[Special:Contributions/87.189.150.212|87.189.150.212]] 19:36, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

The image and explanation needs to be updated for the corrections. I could do the explanation part, but I have no idea how to do the image part. And one without the other would be confusing for the readers, so I'll leave that to wiki-magic. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 21:09, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

: I updated the image as well as the explanation (and transcript). There is still the error on the Unix timestamp though (will this comic be fixed a third time?...). - [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 21:57, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Sweden uses the ISO 8601 format. (If only food producers could understand this as well..)
[[Special:Contributions/46.59.16.141|46.59.16.141]] 21:42, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

- What can we learn from this? - I've learned that no matter the system we use today to communicate with others, it's probably seems silly for someone else. It's great to document what we do and propose it as an option to others, but it will be next to impossible to force them to adopt. When someone will develop a time reference that makes sense to everyone, it will be adopted all over the world without much effort. - e-inspired [[Special:Contributions/24.51.197.187|24.51.197.187]] 19:07, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps the cat (because of the vagueness of the system) was referring to not the 27th of February 2013. but instead referring to the 13th of February in 1327 which would make it Friday the 13th. {{unsigned|66.35.1.98}}

Just so you know, Explainxkcd wiki uses the ISO certified date standard for its "All Comics" page. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:57, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Personally I've always preferred to use Year-Month-Day my personal stuff. I like it because the format is written the way we write any other number: Most significant to left, least significant to right. I didn't know this was a standardized method and I've always wondered why it wasn't used. Nice to know it is![[Special:Contributions/172.191.224.64|172.191.224.64]] 04:09, 28 February 2013 (UTC)ExternalMonologue

Personally, I like yyyy-mm-dd because it sorts correctly. I really hate running into a list of dates sorted by month name, or worse, day of the week. I suspect this was part of why ISO chose this format. I've never been able to remember the american vs european ordering... My only other options is: February 27, 2013. [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 12:11, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

: I'm not sure what standard the Canadian Military officially uses, but as soldiers we were all taught to use a "7 Feb 2013" format when writing dates. Seems the most clear and concise to me. {{unsigned|24.85.225.143}}

:: Most of the dates I've seen used by the Canadian Military have been of that format but have only used 2-digit years - e.g. 27 Feb 13 (they didn't learn from Y2K!) {{unsigned|64.140.113.219}}

- What can we learn from this? - I've learned that keeping our time relative to earth rotation is outdated, we keep having to add seconds here and there just to keep time. And as an engineer don't get me started on complexity of mktime function. I personally think of time as oscillation of a flawed crystal in my circuits that I constantly need to keep accounting for through endless calibrations, and keep wishing that better time references would be cheaper (to me good is never good enough) - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 15:05, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Ha ha E-inspired you should read the "falsehoods programmers believe about times" http://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time http://infiniteundo.com/post/25509354022/more-falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-time-wisdom [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 20:14, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

:Dude, you've just made my DAY! I forgot the last time I've laughed as hard. Why didn't I know about this site before? - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 20:43, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Why is the date of this comic written as "February 27, 2013" and not "2013-02-27"? [[Special:Contributions/93.73.186.104|93.73.186.104]] 08:46, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

The hover hint says "ISO 8601 was published on 06/05/88 and most recently amended on 12/01/04." which must be a joke - because it is impossible to know whether these days are 6 May 1988 and 12 January 2004 or 5 June 1988 and 1 December 2004. Why make a comic about ISO 8601 then use ambiguous dates in the hint? {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.95}}

Amateurs, you don't put periods in format with roman month number. So it's 27 II 2012 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.209|141.101.89.209]] 12:48, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

The chief advantage of the American system is that placing the year last makes it easy to simply drop the year in casual conversation, given how slowly years change. While it might technically follow just as logically to have the day precede the month, in practice the sequence means less for the first two numbers. The 31 days or fewer between month changes are relatively frequent, while the 365.25 days between year changes can easily go "out of sight, out of mind" except when approaching a transition. In either case, placing the nigh-irrelevant year number first in the text string causes the reader to pay attention to that number first, and have to "skip ahead" to discover the month and day, when in truth the day is the most salient datapoint. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 20:58, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

1110: Click and Drag

2014-04-30T18:11:58Z

173.245.54.52:

{{comic
| number = 1110
| date = September 19, 2012
| title = Click and Drag
| image = click_and_drag.png
| titletext = Click and drag.
}}
To experience the interactivity, visit the [http://xkcd.com/1110/ original comic].
<div style="float:right"> __TOC__ </div>

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Some of the jokes in the larger world might benefit from an explanation.}}
This comic is a take on how vast and rich the world is, and on the thrill of exploring it. The world can be described as sad, as well as it can be described as wonderful, even if this seems a bit contradictory, just because there are so many different things happening in it.

[[Cueball]] comments about this, and the title text invites the reader to, with their mouse, click and drag the inside of the last panel, and by dragging and dragging, explore what is hidden outside that panel. The image displayed at first turns out to be part of a huge landscape, filled with big or small things, humorous details, people here and there, cave mazes, things floating in the air, jokes and references, unexpected things, relaxing views, etc.

The fact that we only see a small part of the landscape at once refers to the idea that we cannot in real life comprehend the whole world altogether, but only what is around us and/or in the range of our understanding at the time. The click-and-drag process, in which it is impossible to go as fast as we would want to, also draws a parallel with the fact that exploration is always done gradually, step by step, and trying something (i.e. here dragging in a certain direction) always has a cost. This click-and-drag exploration reproduces the thrill of discovering new horizons, getting lost sometimes, finding unexpected things, seeing beauty, humor, desolation or happiness here and there... which can easily captivate an xkcd reader for a long time (and as such qualifies as [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]]).

==Transcript==
This transcript will only cover the first 3 panels.

:Cueball [narration]: From the stories
:Cueball [narration]: I expected the world to be sad
:[Cueball is floating by holding onto a balloon with one hand.]
:Cueball [narration]: And it was

:Cueball [narration]: And I expected it to be wonderful.
:[Cueball has grabbed hold of the balloon with both hands.]

:[The wind picks up and blows Cueball eastward.]
:Cueball [narration]: It was.

:[Full width panel, initial view of the world. Part of tile 1n1e.]
:Cueball [narration]: I just didn't expect it to be so ''BIG''.
:[Scene opens up. You see Cueball is about a tree's-height from the ground. To the right there is a tall tree with no leaves on it and a broken limb.]

==Viewers==
*http://xkcd.com/1110/ (native zoom, click-and-drag)

'''''Warning:''' there are cheating possibilities, people have implemented ways to explore that world more easily, but the best way to enjoy this comic is to play the game, explore the comic's world the way you're supposed to, get lost in the caves or in the sky, be startled by unexpected things or happy when finding some people after lengthy click-and-dragging through a repetitive landscape... So if you didn't do that already, '''reading any below will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic.'''''

Though you can download the full view, the easiest way to browse it is through a {{w|Zooming user interface}}.

*http://victorz.ca/xkcd_map/ '''[recommended]''' (all features of following viewer plus: content highlighted, minimap, less memory and bandwidth, goes to infinity)
*http://xkcd-map.rent-a-geek.de/ (zoom controls, scroll-zoom, click-and-drag, hash permalinks, full-screen)
*http://clickanddrag.azurewebsites.net/ (zoom controls, scroll-zoom, click-and-drag)
*http://sumamimasen.com/xkcd/1110/ (native zoom, keyboard controls, Flash-only)
*http://xkcdmap.webege.com/ Google-maps-style navigation and zooming, with tiles with content highlighted in black or white, allows easy finding of interesting tiles with small things hidden in the ground and sky

==Trivia==
*The click-and-drag portion of this comic is divided up into 2592 sections of 2048x2048 pixels.
*There are 225 separate 2048x2048 PNG files (plus the PNG container with the first panels). The other 2337 sections are simply filled black (in the south) or white (in the north) with HTML.
*The populated area is 81 frames wide (33 West - 48 East) and 32 frames tall (13 North - 19 South)
*According to [[Randall]] in #xkcd on the night this was released, a full size image of this comic, leaving out the blanks would be 60 gigapixels, a true single rectangular image would be close to a terapixel. The online version is 1 gigapixel without the blanks and 10 gigapixel as rectangular image (2048x2048x225 = 943,718,400 and 2048x2048x2592 = 10,871,635,968).
*Based on the height of figures as well as the "two mile" figure given on the left-hand side, the scale should be approximately 32 pixels per 5 feet, making the entire map 25920 feet wide (4.9 miles or 7.9 kilometers) by 10240 feet tall (1.9 miles or 3.1 kilometers). If it were an overhead area, it would be about 9.5 square miles (6093 acres or 24.7 square km), roughly the size of Block Island, Rhode Island, USA. Just the POPULATED area (225 tiles with something drawn on them) would be 529 acres, or 0.826 square miles — about the size of Princeton University.
*If the 2048x2048 PNGs were to be printed out as a single poster at 300 dpi, the poster would be 15.36 yards (14.05 meters) long and 6.07 yards (5.55 meters) tall. Most of the detail would be invisible, as these PNGs are optimized for ~72 dpi screens.
*There is one (very dark) green pixel in {{1110|9|s|7|e}} at 1643,1165. The remainder is all grayscale.
*At the end of the right side it shows Cueball pondering where he'll float next.

==Whole Image==
[[File:1110 full tiny.png|none|frame|Whole Image at 0.5% Zoom. The part visible at the beginning is marked red.]]

==List of details and references==

The 225 existing tiles are sorted by columns from West to East and from North to South in each column.

{| class="wikitable" |
! width="130px" | Grid coords
!Explanation and Transcript
|-
|{{1110|1|n|33|w}}
|[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] reach the western edge of the image and decide to live there. This is a reference to the last line in the film ''{{w|Groundhog_Day_(film)|Groundhog Day}}''.
;Transcript
:[Cueball and Megan are in a valley at the western edge of the world. Megan is checking their distance traveled with a {{w|GPS}} device. Cueball is looking behind them (eastward).]
:Cueball: We've walked pretty far. We must be on the other side of the world by now.
:Megan: Let's see, we've gone... Two miles.
:Cueball: Darn. You know, this is a nice spot. Let's just live here.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|32|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|31|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|30|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|29|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|28|w}}
|The hillocks in this panel appear to be the face and belly of a giant sleeping on its back. The feet extend into the next panel to the east. Possibly a reference to the giant's drink from {{w|Ender's Game}}. '''Check this is in the right section, I don't see it'''
|-
|{{1110|1|n|27|w}}
|The westernmost hillock appears to be the feet of a giant sleeping on its back, continued from the next panel west. {{w|Velociraptor}}s in the high grass.
;Transcript
:[Rolling hills with tall grass.]
:[On the left there are two Velociraptors. The east-facing one looks to be a modern interpretation of the raptor, the west-facing is more Jurassic Park like.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|26|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|25|w}}
|A large {{w|radio telescope}} with a female listening for a signal. Possibly a reference to the movie {{w|Contact (film)|Contact}}.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|24|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity. Very nice trees though.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|23|w}}
|More nice trees.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|22|w}}
|The top of a large rocket that looks similar to the {{w|Saturn V}} rocket (the base is in {{1110|1|n|22|w}}).
;Transcript
:[A Launch Tower with a waiting Saturn V rocket look-alike attached by the umbilical lines. There are two Cueball-type characters standing on the top.]
:Person 1: So why did we build this? There have ''got'' to be other ways to get to space.
:Person 2: Believe it or not, this is the ''least'' crazy one anyone has come up with.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|22|w}}
|The base of the {{w|Saturn V}} rocket on a launchpad.
;Transcript
:[A Launch Pad and Tower with a waiting Saturn V rocket attached by the umbilical lines. There is a person scaling the rocket. They are at the base of the Second Stage.]
:[A military guardsman is walking the grounds unaware of the person on the rocket.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|21|w}}
|[[Cueball]] asks Jesus why his footprints look like tire tracks. This is a reference to the inspirational text ''{{w|Footprints (poem)|Footprints}}'' as well as a reference to the {{w|Transformers}}.
;Transcript
:[Two characters stand on the shore by the sea. One has unkempt hair, the other is a Cueball character.]
:Cueball: Jesus, why do your footprints change to tire tracks whenever I was threatened by Decepticons?
|-
|{{1110|1|n|20|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|1|n|19|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|1|n|18|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|1|n|17|w}}
|The scruffy character beneath the {{w|palm tree}} might be a reference to {{w|Desert Island Discs}}, a BBC radio program in which a celebrity chooses the records they would like to be stranded with if castaway. The hatch is a reference to {{w|Lost (TV series)|Lost}} in which the passengers on board a flight over the Pacific Ocean find themselves stranded on a strange island. Their first clue that they stumbled on something out-of-the-ordinary is the hatch.
;Transcript
:[An island in the middle of the sea. On its westward side is a hatch that leads down deep underground. A person is looking at the hatch. Meanwhile a person quietly climbs up a ladder built into the wall of the tunnel inside of the hatch.]
:[On the other side, a scruffy man is looking at a disc while being shaded by a tall coconut palm tree.]
|-
|{{1110|1|s|17|w}}
|A miner. The sliding stone walls behind him (to keep back the water if he digs too far) are a reference to Ted Chiang's "Tower of Babylon".
|-
|{{1110|2|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets wider the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|3|s|17|w}}
|A reference to the game {{w|AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!_–_A_Reckless_Disregard_for_Gravity|AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!}}, where the game play consists of falling down while avoiding objects.
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets wider the deeper you go. A man wearing a headband has set up a lemonade stand on a plank stuck into the wall. There are people falling down the shaft right next to him.]
:Falling people: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
:Lemonade man: Lemonade? ...Aww, OK. Lemonade? ...Aww, OK. Lemonade?
|-
|{{1110|4|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets wider the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|5|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets wider the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|6|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft.]
|-
|{{1110|7|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft.]
|-
|{{1110|8|s|17|w}}
|An {{w|X-Wing}} fighter flies up a vertical shaft, its pilot communicating over radio. The quote is a reference to a scene of the {{w|Star Wars}} movie ''{{w|Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi|Return of the Jedi}}'', with an X-Wing piloted by {{w|Wedge Antilles}} escaping from inside the {{w|Death Star}} ([http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000060/quotes]):
:{{w|Lando Calrissian}}: "All right, Wedge. Go for the power regulator on the north tower."
:Wedge Antilles: "Copy, Gold Leader. I'm already on my way out."
;Transcript
:[Deep underground, in a vertical shaft. There is an X-Wing fighter running along the shaft.]
:X-Wing pilot [over radio]: Copy that, Gold Leader. I'm already on my way out.
|-
|{{1110|9|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets slimmer the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|10|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets slimmer the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|11|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft.]
|-
|{{1110|12|s|17|w}}
|Cueball and Megan looking up from the bottom of the shaft.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|16|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A calm day out at sea.]
|-
|{{1110|12|s|16|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a tunnel comes from the west. A few feet before the end of it a vertical shaft goes down, just about wide enough for a single person to go down. It stops in a man-made cavern, then a tunnel continues eastward.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|15|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A calm day out at sea.]
|-
|{{1110|12|s|15|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a tunnel comes from the west and meets a tall cavern, buts keeps going all the way to the east. Cueball has dug up from the ceiling tunnel and is shoveling out a little cavern.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|14|w}}
|People today can't seem to turn off their phones, unplug and just be by themselves. It has become a societal expectation that every person is constantly connected to the world and is there to respond at any moment. The idea of being indisposed has become a foreign concept.
;Transcript
:[To the west is a sea. There is a beach. Further in-land there are lots of trees with park benches under them.]
:[Cueball and White Hat are walking towards the benches.]
:White Hat: Do you ever put your phone away and just take a moment to breathe and be alone with your thoughts?
:Cueball: Yeah, once. It was ''terrifying''.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|14|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a tunnel with a very rough ceiling goes all the way from west to east.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|13|w}}
|A rocky hill with a {{w|lighthouse}}. [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]] sit atop the hill. A half-buried {{w|Statue of Liberty}} is on the other side in reference to ''{{w|Planet of the Apes(film)|Planet of Apes}}'' with [[Cueball]]'s "You Maniacs!" line parodying the final line from the film. Another western shore makes this a very small landmass.
;Transcript
:[Cueball shaking his fist at the half-buried Statue of Liberty.]
:Cueball: You ''maniacs!''
:Cueball: That sand sculpture trophy was supposed to be ''mine!''
|-
|{{1110|12|s|13|w}}
|Someone in a straw hat saying "Becky?". He is carrying either a grappling hook or the end of a rope. Probably a reference to {{w|The Adventures of Tom Sawyer}} in which the title character rescues his sweetheart, Becky Thatcher, from a cave.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|12|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|12|s|12|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a two distant tunnels run from west to east connected by a thin vertical shaft. The lower tunnel has a man-made cavern dug out.]
|-
|{{1110|11|n|11|w}}
|An empty white tile with symmetric coordinates (11 North, 11 West).
|-
|{{1110|1|n|11|w}}
|{{w|Marco Polo (game)|Marco Polo}} is a game similar to tag but played in a swimming pool. The person who is "it" closes their eyes, or is blind-folded and calls out "Marco". All the other players must respond "Polo". The person who is it then tries to find the people by a sort of echo-location. It is a reference to {{w|Marco Polo}} the Venetian merchant who was the first European to make it to Central Asia and China.
;Transcript
:[Out at sea. A blindfolded character playing Marco Polo alone.]
:Blindfolded man: ...Marco? ...Marco?
|-
|{{1110|11|s|11|w}}
|A black tile with symmetric coordinates (11 South, 11 West).
Note, that this PNG file contains an ICC section which means that the blackness in this image is properly {{w|Color correction|color-corrected}}.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|11|w}}
|Deep underground, a cavern opens up to reveal trees, grass, rocks, and a lake. A bird flies toward the trees. A person sits on a rock thoughtfully gazing into the water.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|10|w}}
|Water.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|10|w}}
|A tunnel runs across the top of the tile. It grows rougher on the east side.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|{{w|Bitcoin}} is a peer-to-peer currency, making it more difficult to trace than traditional currency. It is also difficult, if not impossible, for governments to confiscate. {{w|Peter Thiel}} is a co-founder of {{w|Seasteading#The_Seasteading_Institute|The Seasteading Institute}} that promotes permanent, autonomous ocean communities (similar to a {{w|micronation}}), enabling innovation with new political and social systems. Peter Thiel is also a co-founder of {{w|PayPal}}, a global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Peter Thiel and other co-founders' original vision for PayPal was to have an online payment service that enabled account holders to send money to anyone in the world with just an e-mail address. xkcd also supports [http://xkcd.com/bitcoin bitcoin donations]. This might be a reference to the unspent bitcoins from a recent [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19633980 $250,000 theft]. If they don't have any internet access they might find it hard to spend their loot.

{{w|Edwin S. Shneidman}} was a pioneer in the field of suicide prevention. He published 20 books on suicide and its prevention, one of which, ''A Commonsense Book of Death'', defines most people to be death-postponers. A death-postponer hopes that death will not occur in anything like the foreseeable future; the event must be staved off for as long as possible. The reference to a "death-postponer" is also the literal opposite to the actual name of the item Cueball throws, a {{w|life preserver}}.
;Transcript
:[Out at sea. There is an anti-aircraft platform with four people aboard, and one person in the water.]

:[On the west side of the aircraft a man with hair is speaking to a bearded man half a head taller than the haired man.]
:Man with hair: I'm not saying our bitcoin-only island nation was a bad idea, but we really should've secured Internet access ''before'' we left.

:[On the east side of the platform a man wearing a sailor's hat walking toward the control tower. Cueball is on the edge holding a lifebuoy.]
:Cueball: Hey, you in the water! Hang on-
:Cueball: I'm gonna throw you a death postponer!
|-
|{{1110|2|s|9|w}}
|Jellyfish playing some sort of console game.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|9|w}}
|A rocky tunnel descends unevenly from the west, growing wider to the east. In the middle, a curving roof with two pointed recesses, together with the upward arching tunnel on either side, is reminiscent of the shape of a bat with wings spread.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|8|w}}
|{{w|Poop deck}} is the nautical term for the deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear of the ship.

The character climbing the rigging is apparently {{w|Elizabeth Warren}}, who said at the {{w|2012 Democratic National Convention}}, "People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: They're right. The system is rigged."

The {{w|pirate}} onboard is shouting "{{w|Glossary of nautical terms#Avast|Avast!}}" (meaning stop), but no one is apparently listening. Possibly a reference to the comic being released on {{w|International Talk Like a Pirate Day}}.

The three-masted sailing ship with the pirate could be a reference to {{w|Monty Python}}'s short film {{w|The Crimson Permanent Assurance}} in which rebellious office clerks turn their office building into a pirate ship, raiding financial districts in numerous big cities, before falling off the edge of the world.
;Transcript
:[Out at sea. There is a three-masted sailing ship at full sail with a healthy wind billowing the sails. There are five crew out on deck, four are aloft, and one on watch in the bowsprit.]

:[A girl is seated on the spanker.]
:Girl: Haha, "Poop Deck."

:[Aloft on the mizzen-mast a woman is standing talking to another woman climbing the rigging between the mizzen and main masts.]
:Mizzen-mast woman: Elizabeth, why are you climbing the rigging?
:Elizabeth: Forget ''this'' rigging. The whole ''system'' is rigged against the middle class and families trying to ''climb'' out of poverty.
:Mizzen-mast woman: ...Ok, but for real, what are you doing on this boat?

:[Fore of the mizzen-mast a classic bearded pirate stands with his sword drawn.]
:Pirate: Avast! Avast! ...Avast?

:[Fore of the main-sail, a Cueball-type character looks over the railing.]

:[Aloft a man is swinging around the fore-mast pretending to be Spiderman.]

:[Lower on the fore-mast a Cueball-type character is adjusting the rigging. On the deck another is adjusting more rigging.]

:[Out on the bowsprit Megan is keeping watch, and telling the runner Ponytail what is ahead.]
:Megan: We should go slow -
:Megan: That water up ahead looks pretty deep.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|8|w}}
|A wide rocky tunnel slopes from the west off the bottom of the tile.
|-
|{{1110|13|s|8|w}}
|An opening from above narrows and flattens out as the rough tunnel turns eastward.
|-
|{{1110|7|n|7|w}}
|A {{w|Boeing 717}} in landing configuration.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|7|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|13|s|7|w}}
|A tunnel descends unevenly from the west, opening up somewhat in the bottom corner to the east. [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]] are climbing a near-vertical section of the rocky wall.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|7|w}}
|Loose stones form the bottom of a small cavern that extends upward out of the tile. A tunnel runs out of it to the east.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|6|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|1|s|6|w}}
|Jellyfish
|-
|{{1110|13|s|6|w}}
|Mostly solid rock; the east side and roof of a cave is in the lower westward corner.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|6|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. There is a hint that the ceiling draws away from the floor to the west. Cueball is walking east along the tunnel.]
|-
|{{1110|6|n|5|w}}
|Red spiders from earlier comics falling from the sky
|-
|{{1110|1|n|5|w}}
|"{{w|I'm on a Boat}}" is a single from {{w|The Lonely Island}}'s debut album {{w|Incredibad}}.
;Transcript
:[Out at sea. On the west side are two buoys, on the east is only one, in the center there is a sailboat. Cueball and another person wearing a beanie are on the small sailboat.]
:Beanie: I'm on a boat! I expected more from the experience! Instead, all I can think to do is tell people where I am! ...I'm on a boat!
|-
|{{1110|14|s|5|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking.]
|-
|{{1110|2|n|4|w}}
|An {{w|Embraer E-Jet family|Embraer E-190}}
|-
|{{1110|1|n|4|w}}
|The coast of the body of water at a beach with some sea birds and beachgoers.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|4|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. The shaft grows in diameter as it goes eastward.]
|-
|{{1110|3|n|3|w}}
|
; Transcript
:[High in the sky.]
:[Cueball is sitting in a swing attached to the end of a crane, and is swinging.]
:Cueball: WHEEE!
|-
|{{1110|2|n|3|w}}
|An empty white tile.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|3|w}}
|The west wall of a large building which staircases narrower as it rises.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|3|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. A small vertical shaft goes up to a very small cavern.]
|-
|{{1110|8|n|2|w}}
|This seems to be the peak of the {{w|Burj Khalifa}} to which {{1110|6|n|27|e}} refers.
|-
|{{1110|7|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{1110|6|n|2|w}}
|[[Black Hat]] is seen in the picture with a {{w|gatling gun}}, probably the Imperial cannons referred in {{1110|8|n|6|e}}. Also at bottom, a cueball is flying a paper airplane off the building.
;Transcript
:Ponytail: We're so high up that if you threw a penny off the edge, inflation would reduce its value to 0.00999999975 by the time it landed.
:[Further south, on a balcony]
:Megan: The Wikipedia article on this balcony says the view is nice.
:Cueball: I thought so.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|2|w}}
|A construction crane lifting another, smaller, construction crane. Possibly a reference to the [http://vimeo.com/46359692 Truck Truck Truck] gag from the Simpsons. Also, self-erecting {{w|tower crane}}s do usually not lift {{w|crawler crane}}s
|-
|{{1110|4|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|2|w}}
|On the west side, the top of a (different) construction crane. On the east side, Cueball is firing a clay pigeon launcher while Ponytail fires a shotgun at the target. Meanwhile, someone else (Danish?) comes up from behind with CDs.
;Transcript
:Danish: I found some more CDs
:Ponytail: PULL!
|-
|{{1110|2|n|2|w}}
|On the west side, the bottom of the construction crane. On the upper eastern side, a person is laid back, relaxing in a chair while using a laptop. On the next step down, a party crowd is out on a balcony.
;Transcript
:Person: I'm working at a small startup. Our business model is 'taking free drinks from industry events and reselling them.'
:Person: Oh, hey, I should get going...
|-
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|The bulk of the base of the building with one terrace visible on either side. Megan says "I came here to chew bubblegum... And I'm all out of bubblegum" is a reference to the movie {{w|They Live}} in which the character Nada famously says "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum". That line is also used in the game {{w|Duke Nukem 3D}} by Duke himself, when Shrapnel City (Episode 3) starts. Also, Cueball says "That's a shame" a line popularised by Jerry in the sitcom {{w|Seinfeld|Seinfeld}}. Pool line is a reference to "pool on the roof" prank from the movie {{w|Hackers (film)|Hackers}}.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|2|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. There is a single vertical shaft that would have gone down. The ceiling above the shaft has crumbled, and the rubble has filled in the shaft.]
|-
|{{1110|8|n|1|w}}
|An empty white tile.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|1|w}}
|The tail of the crawler crane lifted at {{1110|5|n|2|w}}.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|1|w}}
|An empty white tile.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|The western wall at the base of a large building including its {{w|portico}}, a remote control rocket-powered bicycle attempting to launch from the first terrace, a balcony on the second terrace and a {{w|satellite dish}} and other exhausts on the third. Trees with squirrels stand in front of the building leading to a parking lot with cars and one {{w|Wienermobile}}
|-
|{{1110|14|s|1|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. There are two rough cut vertical shafts going down, there is a rock pile on the ground between the two. A small vertical shaft goes up to a very small empty cavern.]
|-
|{{1110|15|s|1|w}}
|This is a sad statement about where the Internet is right now. The Internet should be a vast and diverse place filled with new and exciting content that breaks the mold of already established media. But instead, everyone on the Internet has become a shill for their Facebook page and their Twitter stream. It feels like everything links back to these two sites. Even stuck at the bottom of a shaft, these two people care more for how many Facebook likes and twitter followers they have, than for their own lives and safety.
;Transcript
:[Deep underground. There are two shafts, the western one ends abruptly with a pile of rubble at the bottom. The other changes direction and becomes a tunnel to the east.]
:[Cueball and Megan are stranded at the bottom of the western shaft.]
:Cueball: Is anyone up there? If you can hear us, ''friend us on Facebook!''
:Megan: ''Follow us on Twitter! Please!''
|-
|{{1110|13|n|1|e}}
|Two whales is possibly a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the planet [http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Magrathea Magrathea], where (improbably) two incoming missiles are turned into a whale and a bowl of petunias. It may also be a reference to the album From Mars to Sirius by the French heavy metal band Gojira, specifically the track, "Flying Whales." A third possibility is a reference to Respighi's "The Pines of Rome" from Fantasia II.
|-
|{{1110|6|n|1|e}}
|A {{w|hot air balloon}} is the oldest form of human-carrying flight.
;Transcript
:[High in the sky. Cueball and Megan are in a hot air balloon.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|The {{w|Origin (mathematics)|"center"}} of the world; the default loaded image with Cueball floating by balloon. The balloons may be a reference to comic [[1106]]. This may also be a reference to {{w|Winnie The Pooh}}. The parking lot to the west ends to a grassy/rocky field with a tree. A hill runs up to the east with a fountain.

; Transcript:
:[Open scene.]
:[To the extreme left there is the end of a parking lot. Right from that Cueball is holding onto a balloon several feet from the ground.]
:Cueball [narration]: I just didn't expect it to be so ''BIG''.
:[About 50 feet east of Cueball there is a lone tree with no leaves on it. Cueball is approximately parallel to with the top of it.]
:[Farther east and much higher up is a single balloon floating away.]
:[More east and on the ground Beret Guy is waving a butterfly net, chasing an RC Helicopter.]
:[Two girls, one blonde and one darker, are walking away from Beret Guy.]
:[On the extreme right is a fountain spraying water.]
|-
|{{1110|14|s|1|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. A single vertical shaft extends southward, rough cut all around.]
|-
|{{1110|15|s|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|16|s|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|17|s|1|e}}
|Alaska at the bottom of the shaft.
At the lowest level of the cave, a fish leaps from water.
|-
|{{1110|9|n|2|e}}
|A reference to the {{w|Apollo 13}} manned mission to the moon in 1970. Two days after launch, en route to the moon, an oxygen tank exploded. Astronaut Swigert [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo13-wehaveaproblem.ogg reported] the incident to Mission Control in Houston saying 'Houston, we've had a problem.' The 1995 movie {{w|Apollo_13_(film)|Apollo 13}} deliberately misquoted Swigert's famous statement as 'Houston, we have a problem' because the original made it seem that the problem had already passed.

The response is a parody of the inspirational quote 'There are no problems, only opportunities.'
;Transcript
:[The Apollo 13 mission is en route to the moon. An astronaut on board the craft informs Mission Control of an incident.]
:Astronaut: Houston, we have a problem.
:Mission Control: That's a negative, Apollo. There are no problems - only opportunities. Over.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|2|e}}
|A reference to the {{w|Greek myth}} of {{w|Icarus}} and his father's escape from {{w|Crete}} by building wings of feathers and wax. The joke is that, the incredible part of the story, the fact that Icarus and his father actually flew with simple wax and feathers, is downplayed to try to give children an object lesson about {{Wiktionary|humility}} and {{Wiktionary|hubris}}.
;Transcript
:[High in the air. There are feathers floating gently down. Below them is Icarus falling head first, he has the remains of wax and feather wings strapped to his arms.]
:Icarus: I only hope the story of how ''building wax wings enabled me to fly'' teaches everyone a lesson about hubris.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|2|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[To the left, Ponytail is climbing up while Cueball has second thoughts.]
:Cueball: We should turn back.
:Ponytail: Wimp.
:[In the middle, Cueball and Megan seem to be soaking in some sort of pond.]
:[To the right, Ponytail is standing on top of a castle while Megan pushes a boulder and Cueball is playing some music.]
|-
|{{1110|14|s|2|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking.]
|-
|{{1110|17|s|2|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|3|e}}
|[[Megan]] is surfing on a {{w|Boeing 767|Boeing 767-300W}}
|-
|{{1110|2|n|3|e}}
|[Ground slops uphill, left-to-right (West to East). Close to the far right boundary is the Christmas Tree from {{w|A Charlie Brown Christmas}}. In the middle is an electronic listening station. Left and Up-slope of the listening station, Megan and Cueball are lying on the ground, talking. Near bottom left is Ponytail, wearing sunglasses, roller-skiing off a ski jump. Top left are four birds in the sky.]
;Transcript
:Megan: Ever wonder if there's life up there ''beyond'' the stuff we're covering up?
:Cueball: Nah.
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|3|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|14|s|3|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[The tunnel opens up to a small cavern. The ground of the cavern is grass covered, and there is a tree growing in the center. Cueball is lounging near the tree.]
|-
|{{1110|17|s|3|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|18|s|3|e}}
|{{w|Minecraft}} reference: Someone escapes a creeper, running deeper into the cave he just fell in.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|4|e}}
|The {{w|Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory}} as seen in [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Great_Blue_Hill_Weather_Station_Milton_MA_01.jpg this particular photo]. The radio tower depicted shows the antennas for the {{w|WGBH (FM)|WGBH}} and {{w|WKAF}} FM stations.
A reference to George Mallory's famous response to the question: "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?".
;Transcript
:[Megan seems to be helping Cueball climb the hill.]
:Megan: "Because it's there" is more poetic than "I'm rich enough that my goals are arbitrary."
|-
|{{1110|1|n|4|e}}
|A black empty tile (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
|-
|{{1110|18|s|4|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|19|s|4|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|5|e}}
|Cueball can't get cellphone reception, while two wingsuit flyers are leaping off a cliff above him.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|5|e}}
|A black empty tile (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
|-
|{{1110|17|s|5|e}}
|Possibly The {{w|Nautilus (Verne)|Nautilus}}, the submarine from Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1874) Also, possibly an allusion to {{w|Schwa (art)|Schwa}}.
|-
|{{1110|19|s|5|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|8|n|6|e}}
|{{w|Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope|Red Five}} is both Anakin and Luke Skywalker's call sign. Anakin uses the sign in the Battle of Coruscant and Luke uses it in the Battle of Yavin. Also note the use of "{{w|cannon}}" and "{{w|Canon (basic principle)|canon}}."
;Transcript
:Red Five to Red Leader - I'm out of range of any Imperial cannons or canons.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|6|e}}
|Giant airborne jellyfish.
;Transcript
:[Two birdwatchers with binoculars walk on the slope of a hill, one with her back to the giant jellyfish and the other one staring at it]
:Birdwatcher#1: Ooh, a {{w|yellow warbler}}!
:Birdwatcher#2: Cool.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|6|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|16|s|6|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|17|s|6|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|19|s|6|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|7|e}}
|Level 1-1 of the original {{w|Super Mario Bros.}} This is confirmed by text on {{1110|3|s|7|e}}. Compare with [http://www.mariowiki.com/images/e/e4/World_1-1_SMB.png screenshot]. The level's "bottomless pits" continue downward.
|-
|{{1110|1|s|7|e}}
|Two people climbing up/down the holes, and one falling.
|-
|{{1110|2|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|s|7|e}}
|Two people are talking next to a "bottomless pit" from the Mario level, one is saying: "The walls... worn smooth by billions of tumbling Mario corpses".
|-
|{{1110|4|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|5|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|6|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|7|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|8|s|7|e}}
|[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_game RPG] style pit trap
|-
|{{1110|9|s|7|e}}
|Another {{w|Minecraft}} reference. Cueball standing while a girl swings a pickaxe to further dig out a tunnel. Farther down, part of the mine shaft has collapsed and sealed the hole.
|-
|{{1110|10|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|11|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|12|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|13|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|14|s|7|e}}
|A cane is wedged in the right hand mine shaft. Likely a reference to the first {{w|Where's Waldo}} book, where Waldo loses his walking stick (and other items) and readers must scour the detailed illustrations to find Waldo and each of the items he drops.
|-
|{{1110|15|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|16|s|7|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep below the surface, the two boreholes finally end. The bones of the unfortunate ones to have fallen down the holes are scattered. A single man-made shaft is covered by a plug of some kind. The shaft goes down to supported deck {{w|arch bridge}} spanning a large chasm, the bottom of which is not shown.]
|-
|{{1110|17|s|7|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[A Pyramid in a cavern. Most likely a reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion's [http://evangelion.wikia.com/wiki/GeoFront NERV HQ], which is also located in a deep underground cavern. Most of a thatch-roof gazebo can be seen to the east of the pyramid.]
|-
|{{1110|19|s|7|e}}
|Horizontal tunnel
|-
|{{1110|1|n|8|e}}
|Four wind turbines
|-
|{{1110|16|s|8|e}}
|Mostly solid rock; the roof of a cave is in the bottom corner to the west.
|-
|{{1110|17|s|8|e}}
|A small graveyard.
|-
|{{1110|18|s|8|e}}
|There are tentacle-like objects restricting the passing of objects through this tunnel, the art of which closely resembles the Xbox Live Arcade game {{w|Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet}}, and also bears a resemblance to the mouth of a {{w|Sarlacc Pit}} from Star Wars.
|-
|{{1110|19|s|8|e}}
|A tunnel from the west intersects with a vertical passage from above. To the east of the intersection the tunnel dead ends, and the opening downwards is filled with rocks and impassable.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|9|e}}
|Reference to the first line of "{{w|99 Problems}}" by {{w|Jay-Z}} ("If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a <rhymes with "witch"> ain't one."). Just left of the fence is a small cleared area with what appears to be a frog in the center. Frog Prince? Also a reference to {{w|Off-by-one_error#Fencepost_error|fencepost error}}. Ironically, there may be an off-by-one error in the joke, since it would only take 100 fenceposts to cover 99 problems, not 101.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|10|e}}
|The outline of the {{w|Bombardier Dash 8}} Q400 aircraft shown in Wikipedia.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|10|e}}
|Hilly terrain with a tree, and a [[Cueball]] standing on a rock.
|-
|{{1110|11|n|11|e}}
|An empty white tile with symmetric coordinates (11 N, 11 E).
|-
|{{1110|1|n|11|e}}
|A {{w|sine}} curve {{w|oscillate}}s between -1 and 1.
;Transcript
:[A bridge begins. The land falls down to meet the water with an almost sinusoidal curve.]
|-
|{{1110|11|s|11|e}}
|An empty black tile with symmetric coordinates (11 N, 11 E).
Note, that this PNG file contains an ICC section which means that the blackness in this image is properly {{w|Color correction|color-corrected}}.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|12|e}}
|This is a re-enactment of one of the last scenes in {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, in which Dave Bowman shuts down {{w|Hal 9000}} by one-by-one pulling out processor modules. Hal eventually regresses to his first programmed memories, the song {{w|Daisy Bell}} which he sings for Bowman.
;Transcript
:[High above the ground. Cueball has scaled the outside of a hot air balloon and is using a knife to cut it open while the gondola sings Daisy Bell.]
:''RIIIP''
:Gondola [singing, getting slower]: Daiiisyyy... Daiiiiiiisy...
|-
|{{1110|1|n|12|e}}
|{{w|Bourne Bridge|Bourne}} or {{w|Sagamore Bridge}}
;Transcript
:[The bridge continues.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|The bridge is either the {{w|Bourne Bridge|Bourne}} or {{w|Sagamore Bridge}}.

The {{w|covered wagon}} was popularized during the {{w|American Frontier|American expansion west}}, as a good way to bring goods along with as a family journeyed from the crowded eastern states out west (usually to Oregon or California).
;Transcript
:[Center of the bridge.]

:[A covered wagon is crossing east, there is a person driving driving, and a person poking out the back. A footman is walking quite a ways ahead of the carriage.]

:[On top of the bridge structure, Megan and Ponytail are sitting and eating some kind of picnic.]
:Megan and Ponytail: Nom nom nom

:[A tank, vaguely resembling a {{w|Sherman Firefly}}, is crossing west, possibly in a reference to the WWII film {{w|A Bridge Too Far}}. Ponytail is sitting on the turret. Cueball is being more daring and is balancing with arms outstretch on the end of the gun.]

:[Underneath the tank a two-masted junk rigged sailboat is resting with sails furled. Megan and Cueball are fore standing at the railing looking out over the sea.]
:Megan: So, um, here's the thing—
:Megan: I'm married to the sea, but it's a very ... ''open'' marriage.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|14|e}}
|{{w|Bourne Bridge|Bourne}} or {{w|Sagamore Bridge}}
;Transcript
:[Land again.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|15|e}}
|[[Cueball]] is singing the chorus to the song "{{w|Flagpole Sitta}}" by {{w|Harvey Danger}}. The characters in the wagon reference the {{w|Oregon Trail (computer game)|Oregon Trail}} computer game.

[[Black Hat]] seems to be up to his usual shenanigans.

;Transcript
:[The bridge meets land again, and at the western foot of the bridge is a cannon. Black Hat is sitting behind the cannon, and has lit its fuse.]
:[Where the river meets the land there are stairs leading up to a landing.]

:[The covered wagon has made it across the bridge. Everything is drooping, now. The horse is not walking as upright, the driver is slouching, the person out the back is now lounging on the back with a gun clearly visible.
:Someone inside wagon: You brought no food but ''how'' many boxes of bullets?

:[Farther east Cueball is sitting on top of a flagpole singing. Just northwest of him, a leaf spins through the air.]
:Cueball [singing]: I'm not sick, but I'm not wellll
|-
|{{1110|2|n|16|e}}
|Top of VLF antenna.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|16|e}}
|A cabin which appears to be hooked up to a VLF antenna.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|17|e}}
|Top of VLF antenna.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|17|e}}
|VLF antenna and a steep cliff dropoff to water. Cueball watches a butterfly flit around as they did in the {{w|Peanuts}} comic strip.
The VLF antenna is likely to be a representation of the [http://www.stormfax.com/wireless.htm Marconi Station] on Cape Cod as it existed in the early 1900's. This station transmitted the first trans-Atlantic wireless telegram in 1903. It had the same four towers and steep drop-off to the beach as depicted in this comic with possible original photo [http://capecodhistory.us/Wellfleet-records/pictures/Marconi-pc.jpg here].
|-
|{{1110|3|n|18|e}}
|A {{w|Boeing 717}} with landing gear deployed. Caption: "Folks, this is your captain speaking. I need you all to turn on every electronic device your have. There's no time to explain." (a reference to {{w|No Time To Explain|the game with the same name}}?)
|-
|{{1110|1|n|18|e}}
|Two swimmers in the ocean saying "Stupid {{w|FreeBSD}}...". FreeBSD is a Unix-like operating system. A reference to [[349: Success]].
|-
|{{1110|1|n|19|e}}
|A {{w|humpback whale}} breaching.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|20|e}}
|A rocky shore. The uppermost rock formation in this panel appears to be a laughing face in profile.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|21|e}}
|A fin-shaped object protrudes from the ground.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|22|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|22|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s. To the east of the anchor, a very small Cueball and an equally tiny Megan can be seen in the grass.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|23|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|23|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|23|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s
|-
|{{1110|4|n|24|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|24|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|24|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|24|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|6|n|26|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|5|n|26|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|26|e}}
|Black Hat is hanging from one of the wire supports.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|26|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|26|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|26|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|7|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|6|n|27|e}}
|This appears to be the former record-holder for the tallest man-made structure, the {{w|KVLY-TV mast}} in {{w|North Dakota}}. It was surpassed by the {{w|Burj Khalifa}} (829.84 m (2,723 ft)) located in Dubai (also included in the comic).
;Transcript
:[Top of a radio tower. There are four guy-wires that connect to the tower, two on each side. A woman is standing on the top, holding onto the antenna for stability.]
:Woman: Dubai may have taken the record for "Tallest Manmade Structure," but North Dakota still has "[http://www.realnd.com/jamestownbuffaloindex.htm Largest Buffalo Monument]," "[http://heritagerenewal.org/bigthings/hamburger.htm Biggest Hamburger]," and "[http://www.realnd.com/casseltoncanpileindex.htm Tallest Pyramid of Oil Cans]." So ''there''.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|27|e}}
|The base of a {{w|radio tower}}.
|-
|{{1110|6|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|5|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|28|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|29|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|29|e}}
|Someone is sliding down the wire. Possibly a reference to the game {{w|Infamous (video_game)|Infamous}}.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|29|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|29|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|29|e}}
|{{w|Guy-wire}}s
|-
|{{1110|4|n|30|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|30|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|30|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|30|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s
|-
|{{1110|3|n|31|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|31|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|31|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|32|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|32|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|33|e}}
|A tree with a tractor.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|34|e}}
|A rolling grassy landscape with a fence. Some of the fence posts are topped with bluebird boxes, and birds sit on the fence wires.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|35|e}}
|a {{w|barn}} and some trees.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|36|e}}
|Reference to the original Pokémon games. When Prof. Oak tells you not to go into the tall grass without a Pokémon.
;Transcript
:[There is a large hill with very tall grass (taller than any character in this section).]
:[Left-most is some structure of some kind.]
:[West of the structure is Cueball shouting to Megan, who is running into the long grass.]
:Cueball: Don't go into the long grass! (Line from Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World which precedes the velociraptor attack.)
:Megan: Pikachu, I choose ''DEATH''—
:Megan: And with it immortality.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|37|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|38|e}}
|Grass with a short rectangular structure.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|39|e}}
|The top of a water tower. Cueball and Megan on the catwalk at the top. Cueball looking out. Megan using some mounted device (maybe a telephone?, or some controls?).
|-
|{{1110|1|n|39|e}}
|The base of a water tower.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|40|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|41|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|42|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|43|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|44|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|45|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|46|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|47|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|48|e}}
|[[Cueball]] with a balloon in his hand, flying towards the image border. He says "I wonder where I'll float next". This is a reference to [[1|the very first xkcd comic]]. It may also be a reference to {{w|World of Goo}}, a computer game, where at the end of level 1 the goo balls leave the screen carried by balloons, wondering what will be next. Alternatively, this may be a reference to the detail and variety of earlier panels.
;Transcript
:[Grassy hill slowly rolls until the extreme right which ends in a much larger drop-off. This is the end of the world.]
:[Cueball is still floating holding his balloon, heading further east.]
:Cueball: I wonder where I'll float next.
|-
|}

==References by Category==
===Vehicles===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|covered wagon|Covered wagons}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}} {{1110|1|n|14|e}}
|[[File:covered-wagon.png]] [[File:covered-wagon-2.png]]
|-
|Remote-controlled rocket-powered bicycle
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|[[File:rocket-powered-bicycle.png]]
|-
|{{w|Sailboat}}
|{{1110|1|n|5|w}}
|[[File:sailboat.png]]
|-
|{{w|Sailing ship}}
|{{1110|1|n|8|w}}
|[[File:sailing-ship.png]]
|-
|{{w|Junk-rigged Sailboat}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|[[File:junk-rigged-sailboat.png]]
|-
|{{w|Hot air balloons}}
|{{1110|6|n|1|e}}
|[[File:hot-air-balloon-1.png]] [[File:hot-air-balloon-2.png]]
|-
|{{w|Cars}}
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}} {{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|[[File:cars-sedans-1.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-2.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-3.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-4.png]]
|-
|{{w|Wienermobile}}
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|[[File:wienermobile.png]]
|-
|{{w|Tractor}}
|{{1110|1|n|33|e}}
|[[File:tractor.png]]
|-
|{{w|Tank}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|[[File:tank.png]]
|-
|{{w|Submarine}}
|{{1110|17|s|5|e}}
|[[File:submarine.png]]
|-
|{{w|Boeing 717}} Jet airliner
|{{1110|7|n|7|w}} {{1110|3|n|18|e}}
|[[File:boeing-717-jet.png]] [[File:boeing-717-jet-landing.png]]
|-
|{{w|Embraer E-Jet family|Embraer E-190}} Jet airliner
|{{1110|2|n|4|w}}
|[[File:embraer-e-190-jet.png]]
|-
|{{w|Boeing 767|Boeing 767-300W}} Jet airliner
|{{1110|3|n|3|e}}
|[[File:boeing-767-300w-jet.png]]
|-
|{{w|Bombardier Dash 8|Bombardier Dash-8 Q400}} turboprop airliner
|{{1110|3|n|10|e}}
|[[File:bombardier-dash-8.png]]
|-
|{{w|Saturn V}} Rocket
|{{1110|1|n|22|w}} {{1110|2|n|22|w}}
|[[File:saturn-v-rocket.png]]
|-
|{{w|Apollo 13}} spacecraft
|{{1110|9|n|2|e}}
|[[File:apollo-13-spacecraft.png]]
|-
|{{w|X-Wing fighters}}
|{{1110|8|n|6|e}} {{1110|8|s|17|w}}
|[[File:x-wing-fighter-1.png]] [[File:x-wing-fighter-2.png]]
|-
|}

===Man-made Structures===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Burj Khalifa}}
|{{1110|8|n|2|w}}, {{1110|6|n|27|e}}
|[[File:burj-khalifa.png]]
|-
|{{w|Statue of Liberty}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|w}}
|[[File:statue-of-liberty.png]]
|-
|{{w|Pyramid}}
|{{1110|17|s|7|e}}
|[[File:1110-pyramid.png]]
|-
|Bridges (Suspension bridge, Arch bridge)
|{{1110|1|n|12|e}} {{1110|1|n|13|e}} {{1110|1|n|14|e}}
|[[File:arch-bridge.png]]
|-
|{{w|Lighthouse}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|w}}
|[[File:lighthouse.png]]
|-
|Water tower
|{{1110|1|n|39|e}} {{1110|2|n|39|e}}
|[[File:water-tower.png]]
|-
|Mine shafts
|{{1110|1|s|17|w}}
|[[File:mine-shafts.png]]
|-
|Graveyard / cemetery
|{{1110|17|s|8|e}}
|[[File:graveyard-cemetary.png]]
|-
|Parking lot
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}} {{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|[[File:cars-sedans-1.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-2.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-3.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-4.png]]
|-
|Fence posts
|{{1110|1|n|34|e}}
|[[File:fenceposts.png]]
|-
|Bluebird boxes
|{{1110|1|n|34|e}}
|[[File:bluebird-boxes.png]]
|-
|Barn
|{{1110|1|n|35|e}}
|[[File:barn.png]]
|-
|Tire Swing
|{{1110|2|n|4|e}}
|[[File:tire-swing.png]]
|-
|Fountain
|{{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|[[File:1110-fountain.png]]
|-
|Park benches
|{{1110|1|n|14|w}}
|[[File:park-benches.png]]
|-
|Buoys
|{{1110|1|n|5|w}}
|[[File:buoy-1.png]] [[File:buoy-2.png]] [[File:buoy-3.png]]
|-
|Beach Umbrella
|{{1110|1|n|4|w}}
|[[File:beach-umbrella.png]]
|-
|Butterfly Net
|{{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|[[File:butterfly-net.png]]
|-
|}

===Technology===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Construction Cranes}} (Tower crane, Crawler crane)
|
|
|-
|Anti-aircraft platform
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|[[File:anti-aircraft-platform.png]]
|-
|Wind turbines
|{{1110|1|n|8|e}}
|[[File:wind-turbines.png]]
|-
|{{w|Meteorological Observatory}}
|{{1110|2|n|4|e}}
|[[File:meteorological-observatory.png]]
|-
|{{w|Radio station}}
|{{1110|1|n|16|e}} {{1110|2|n|16|e}} {{1110|1|n|17|e}}
|[[File:marconi-station.png]]
|-
|{{w|Radio mast}}
|{{1110|2|n|16|e}}
|[[File:kvly-tv-mast.png]] [[File:guy-wires-with-mast.png]]
|-
|{{w|Radio Telescope}}
|{{1110|1|n|25|w}}
|[[File:1110-radio-telescope.png]]
|-
|{{w|Satellite Dish}}
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|[[File:1110-satellite-dish.png]]
|-
|{{w|GPS}}
|{{1110|1|n|33|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Bitcoins}}
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Game Console}}
|{{1110|2|s|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Guns}} (Gatling Gun, Shotgun)
|{{1110|6|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Laptop}}
|{{1110|2|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Cellphones}}
|{{1110|2|n|5|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|FreeBSD}}
|{{1110|1|n|18|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Facebook}}, {{w|Twitter}}
|{{1110|15|s|1|w}}
|
|-
|}

===Games===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity|AaAaAA!!!}}
|{{1110|3|s|17|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Clay pigeon}}
|{{1110|3|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Duke Nukem 3D}}
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Marco_Polo_(game)|Marco Polo}}
|{{1110|1|n|11|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Super Mario Brothers}}
|{{1110|1|n|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Minecraft}}
|{{1110|18|s|3|e}} {{1110|9|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Oregon Trail}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|inFamous}}
|{{1110|4|n|29|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Pokémon}}
|{{1110|1|n|36|e}}
|
|-
|}

===Movies===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey}}
|{{1110|5|n|12|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|A Bridge Too Far (film)|A Bridge Too Far}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13}}
|{{1110|9|n|2|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Contact (film)|Contact}}
|{{1110|1|n|25|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day}}
|{{1110|1|n|33|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Hackers (film)|Hackers}}
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}
|{{1110|1|n|36|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Planet of the Apes (1968 film)|Planet of the Apes}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi}}
|{{1110|8|s|17|w}} {{1110|18|s|8|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|The Crimson Permanent Assurance}}
|{{1110|1|n|8|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|They Live}}
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Transformers}}
|{{1110|1|n|21|w}}
|
|-
|}

===Television Shows===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Lost_(TV_series)|Lost}}
|{{1110|1|n|17|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|The Simpsons}}
|{{1110|5|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Seinfeld}}
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|A Charlie Brown Christmas}}
|{{1110|2|n|3|e}}
|
|-
|}

===Books===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Ender's Game}}
|{{1110|1|n|28|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Footprints_(poem)|Footprints}}
|{{1110|1|n|21|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Tower of Babylon}}
|{{1110|1|s|17|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|The Adventures of Tom Sawyer}}
|{{1110|12|s|13|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|A Commonsense Book of Death}}
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}
|{{1110|13|n|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Where's Waldo}}
|{{1110|14|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|}

===Music===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|99 Problems}}
|{{1110|1|n|9|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Daisy Bell}}
|{{1110|5|n|12|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Flagpole Sitta}}
|{{1110|1|n|15|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|I'm on a Boat}}
|{{1110|1|n|5|w}}
|
|-
|}

===Radio Programs===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Desert Island Discs}}
|{{1110|1|n|17|w}}
|
|-
|}

===Flora and Fauna===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Trees}}
|{{1110|1|n|14|w}} {{1110|14|s|3|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Squirrels}}
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Velociraptors}}
|{{1110|1|n|27|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Seabirds}}
|{{1110|1|n|4|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Jellyfish}}
|{{1110|2|n|6|e}} {{1110|2|s|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Humpback_whale|Whales (Humpback)}}
|{{1110|13|n|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Fish}}
|{{1110|17|s|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Yellow Warbler}}
|{{1110|2|n|6|e}}
|
|-
|[[:Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders]]
|{{1110|6|n|5|w}}
|
|-
|}

===People===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! width="256px" | Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Peter Thiel}}
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Elizabeth Warren}}
|{{1110|1|n|8|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Icarus}}
|{{1110|3|n|2|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|George Mallory}}
|{{1110|2|n|4|e}}
|
|-
|}

===Places===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Dubai}}
|{{1110|6|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|North Dakota}}
|{{1110|6|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Alaska}}
|{{1110|17|s|1|e}}
|
|-
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Wingsuit]]
[[Category:Firefly]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Red Spiders]]

Talk:1343: Manuals

2014-03-17T16:07:35Z

173.245.54.52:

Your line counts may vary for the man pages, depending on what distribution you are running and what version of man you're using (and god forbid, what version of wc). {{unsigned ip|‎108.162.221.51}}

:Mine comes in at 1806 lines. So even more unwieldy. (Ubuntu 13.10) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.74|108.162.216.74]] 14:36, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

I seem to remember some info page starting with “how to read this manual”… can’t find it though. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.162|108.162.254.162]] 10:00, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

I believe the implication is that the "how to read this manual" section is a manual for the manual. This could be characterized as an instance of recursion. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 16:07, 17 March 2014 (UTC)