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3132: Coastline Similarity

2025-08-24T18:18:19Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357: 2A02:810B:1991:D500:6C79:BC30:EF2C:16DC are you a vodafone user from berlin

{{comic
| number = 3132
| date = August 22, 2025
| title = Coastline Similarity
| image = coastline_similarity_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x219px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hey! A bunch of the early Cretaceous fossils on each coast seem to have been plagiarized, too!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a HUMAN, BUT IT WAS <big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED BY A BOT.{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic depicts a classroom, likely relating to geography, geology or history, in which the teacher ([[Miss Lenhart]]) is discussing the similar coastlines of Africa and South America, and the way that modern understanding has revealed the cause. [[Cueball]] initially assumes that one coastline plagiarized the other before Miss Lenhart continues by revealing that it was {{w|continental drift}} that explained the similarity.

Continental drift is the widely accepted theory that Earth's continents were once all connected, and have been moving relative to each other due to {{w|plate tectonics}}. One of the clues that actually led to this discovery was that the shapes of the coastlines of South America and Africa that are separated by the Atlantic Ocean are similar. The similarity is much greater for the submerged {{w|continental shelf|continental shelves}} than for the visible coastlines; they're like adjacent pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

{{w|Plagiarism}} is the act of claiming credit for another individual's work, usually by duplicating the results. The discovery of plagiarism in an already-renowned body of work is often cause for scandal, and Cueball's reaction to the assumed plagiarism of the African/South American coastlines reflects this. Of course, continents are inanimate objects, and have no concept of plagiarism, let alone know how to perform it.{{Citation needed}}

The title text continues the joke about plagiarism. Additional corroborating evidence of continental drift is that there are similar species of plant and animal fossils on the two sides of the Atlantic, dating to the time when they were connected. Cueball thinks that the progenitors of these species also plagiarized each other, as opposed to the more mundane explanation which is that the progenitors were the ''same'' for both. The younger fossils are descendents of some species that existed across the once-connected lands, the older ones ''are'' the species that did not yet have the nascent Atlantic Ocean in their lives.

The theory of continental drift was originally proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, based on such fossil evidence and other geological features common to the two continental borders, in addition to the similarities in shoreline shapes. It's significant to the history of science as a general subject, as a proposal that was originally met with strong opposition (not to mention mockery) but eventually became accepted by almost everyone. Modern cranks and crackpots sometimes point to it in support of their own implausible "theories", as though universal rejection of a "theory" by all of the experts somehow proves that it will someday be accepted and its originator proven right all along. In fact, Wegener's original theory did have a serious flaw, in that it lacked a plausible mechanism, though it was otherwise correct. Modern cranks' "theories" generally lack both plausible mechanisms ''and'' good analysis of supporting evidence. ("Yes, they laughed at Galileo... but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.")

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is holding a pointer pointing to a wall map. The map shows South America and Africa, with the east coast of South America and the southwest coast of Africa highlighted in red.]
:Miss Lenhart: People had long noticed that South America and Africa had similarly-shaped coastlines.

:[A side view of the classroom. Jill and Cueball are sitting at school desks, looking at Miss Lenhart. The wall map is visible behind Miss Lenhart.]
:Miss Lenhart: In the 20th century, geologists finally found the explanation:

:[The same scene, with Cueball having his hands on his face.]
:Cueball: ''Plagiaris''--
:Miss Lenhart: Continental drift.
:Cueball: Oh.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Geography]]

3132: Coastline Similarity

2025-08-24T18:12:16Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357: 2A09:BAC2:8919:1032:0:0:19D:127 are you from baltimore, maryland

3114: Building a Fire

2025-08-24T18:04:37Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3114
| date = July 11, 2025
| title = Building a Fire
| image = building_a_fire_2x.png
| imagesize = 671x311px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = That was quicker than usual! The cabin's sprinkler system often makes it really hard to keep anything lit.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Megan]] is demonstrating to [[Cueb{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}all]] how to build a campfire. She says she's going to use the {{w|Campfire#Construction_styles|"log cabin" method}}, which is a common [https://www.cabinlife.com/articles/the-5-best-campfire-lays-and-how-to-build-them/ method of laying out fuel for a small fire]. The concept is that sticks of wood are placed in layers, with each layer consisting of two sticks placed parallel to one another, with a gap between them. Each subsequent layer is placed perpendicular to the first, so that the sticks bridge the gap in the layer below. This creates an open space in the center in which the tinder, and usually some kindling, is placed and ignited. This method is so named because it vaguely resembles the walls of {{w|log cabins}}, which are also built by placing wooden logs in perpendicular layers to enclose a central space, though on a much larger scale.

At first, Megan's build appears similar to a typical 'log cabin' fire lay. It becomes unusually and unnecessarily detailed when she adds interior walls and miniature furniture in the tiny dwelling, suggesting that she's not just laying out fuel for a fire, but actually going to the trouble of building a miniature log cabin, with all the details and components of a real living space. Things truly take a twist toward the bizarre, however, when she adds plumbing and electrical components to the house. This is not only a complex model, but a structure that apparently includes all the functionality one would expect in a modern dwelling. A fault in the installed wiring then initiates a fire, leading to the promised campfire. Stripped of the complexity, Megan effectively built a campfire which was ignited by electrical heating. Igniting a fire with electricity (either using {{w|electric spark}}s or {{w|Joule_heating|resistive heating}}) is a real method, but not particularly common for campfires. Simulating a common cause of accidental {{w|structure_fire|house fires}}, which are both dangerous and traumatic (tens of thousands of people are killed in house fires every year), is somewhat morbid, which may be the reason Cueball seems so horrified.

The title text continues the joke, in that she usually finds that it needs more time for the fire to ignite, due to also installing a {{w|fire sprinkler system}}. Automatic sprinkler systems in buildings are typically to be triggered by fire and spray the area with water, wetting any potential fuel and dousing the fire before it spreads. The level of detail in Megan's cabin is not only wildly unnecessary, it's actively counterproductive to her supposed purpose of starting a fire. This campfire was only started rapidly because the sprinkler system didn't work properly.

==Transcript==

:[A tent in a field stands in the background to the left of Cueball, who stands behind Megan, who is kneeling and arranging sticks into the first few layers of a small log cabin.]
:Cueball: Can you show me how to build a campfire?
:Megan: Sure! We'll use the log cabin method.
:Megan: First we build a square cabin out of sticks.

:[Cueball now stands to the right of frame, opposite Megan with the cabin between them. The cabin has gotten taller and is becoming better defined. Megan holds a tiny table in one hand and tiny chair in the other.]
:Megan: Next, we'll add interior walls, doors, and some cabin furniture made from twigs.
:Cueball: This is very elaborate.

:[The cabin now has a gable roof and an electrical wire leads from the base of the cabin to a coil of wire in Megan's hand and then off panel to the left. Lightning symbols above the wire indicate the wire is energized and perhaps shorting out.]
:Megan: Now we'll add some rudimentary plumbing and electrical wiring. 50 amps, nothing fancy.
:Cueball: It kind of seems like you're just building a cabin.
:Megan: I just -
:Megan: ...oops.

:[The tiny log cabin is engulfed in flames. Cueball is leaning away from the cabin and holding his hand to shield his face from the heat.]
:Megan: I think my wiring wasn't up to code.
:Cueball: AAAAA!!
:Megan: ... and that's how you build a fire!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3115: Unsolved Physics Problems

2025-08-24T18:02:14Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3115
| date = July 14, 2025
| title = Unsolved Physics Problems
| image = unsolved_physics_problems_2x.png
| imagesize = 699x422px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Tin pest' makes more sense to me. Tin just doesn't want to be locked down in a shape like that. I get it. But why would any metal want to grow hair??
}}

==Explanation==
{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
This comic is part of the [[:Category:Unsolved Problems|Unsolved Problems series]] and follows [[2943: Unsolved Chemistry Problems]] and [[2529: Unsolved Math Problems]]. {{w|Quantum gravity}} is the problem of determining how {{w|gravity}} interacts with the physics of {{w|quantum mechanics}}. There are {{w|General relativity#Relationship with quantum theory|contradictions}} between the two theories as currently understood. Gravity is described by the theory of {{w|general relativity}} and is well-characterized at large scales, while quantum mechanics is also well-understood and well-characterized but is easiest to observe at very small scales. This scale discrepancy makes it hard to conduct an experiment that includes both phenomena, leading to a wide range of unifying theories that are difficult to experimentally confirm or refute. In this comic, the question is specifically what part time plays in quantum gravity, but this is left vague and open-ended by considering several different options that may or may not be mutually contradictory.

The second issue, the {{w|Soviet–American Gallium Experiment#Gallium anomaly|gallium anomaly}}, is an example of a precise experiment to understand a specific phenomenon, namely a deficit of germanium (71Ge) when gallium (71Ga) is bombarded with neutrinos (''ν''e). The difference between the expectation and reality is small but statistically significant, and indicates our models of physics are inaccurate. One possible explanation is the creation of {{w|sterile neutrino|sterile neutrinos}}, a theoretical type of neutrino outside of the standard model that would only interact with other matter gravitationally, making them essentially impossible to detect directly and one of the proposed explanations for the nature of dark matter.

[[Image:Zinc whiskers.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Millimeter-long zinc whiskers on zinc-coated steel]]
The third problem concerns {{w|Whisker (metallurgy)|zinc whiskers}} — a phenomenon that at first sounds extremely strange, and the mechanism for which is {{w|List of unsolved problems in physics#Condensed matter physics|not fully understood}}, in which a piece of metal (in this case zinc) can 'grow' hair-like filaments on its surface. Hair is usually thought of as an organic structure, and spontaneous change in a block of metal is not a problem most people would expect (leading to an off-panel character to ask whether it is a joke). For an inorganic object to grow hair seems both magical and grotesque, so [[Randall]] considers this phenomenon [[:Category:Comics with cursed items|cursed]]. Metal whiskers can cause problems in a lot of electronics, where metal hairs create unwanted electrical connections or act as antennae. In particular, they can degrade performance of rechargeable batteries. Since electronic devices are ubiquitous, the prevention of metal whiskers is a challenge that affects us widely, while it is hard to see how the other two issues affect most people. The problems caused by metal whisker growth also support the "cursed" descriptor. Lead has been widely used as an additive to solder for whisker prevention, but lead is toxic and has in fact been {{w|Solder#Lead-free solder|banned in the E.U.}} for most electronics.

The title text mentions {{w|tin pest}} — a transformation which causes deterioration of formed tin objects into a powder in a chilly environment. Randall considers this an understandable rebellion of the tin against being forced into shapes that we want it to take, whereas he cannot understand the motivation of zinc to grow hair. In reality, metallic elements do not have [https://groups.google.com/g/sci.physics/c/C2CfIKWFduU/ motivations and intentions]. The actual cause of tin pest is that solid tin has two forms {{w|Allotropy|(allotropes)}} with different crystal structures. β-tin is white, metallic, and malleable, and the more stable at temperatures above 13.2°C; α-tin is grey, non-metallic, and brittle, and is stable at temperatures below 13.2°C. When an object is made from tin, it's generally done at higher temperatures, where it's easily worked, resulting in the β crystal structure. If such an object is then left at lower temperatures, it eventually spontaneously changes to the α crystal structure, but the transition causes it to disintegrate. Impurities in the tin can lower the transition temperature, or prevent the disintegration from occurring at all. Tin pest was famously responsible for the destruction of the tin pipes of pipe organs in churches, when those churches were allowed to get below the transition temperature at times they weren't being heated.

A similar spontaneous reorganization in crystal structure is one possible factor in the growth of metal whiskers. Preferred crystal shapes can be strongly influenced by subtle factors of temperature and impurities, and atoms and molecules can slowly rearrange even in solids. If a solid mass is in the form of extremely tiny crystals that precipitated quickly, atoms and molecules can depart from the surfaces (especially the edges and corners) of the smallest crystals and redeposit on larger crystals. Impurities that were trapped by the original rapid precipitation tend to be released in the process, caught between the growing purer crystals.

==Transcript==

: The Three Types of Unsolved Physics Problem

: [Each physics problem is in a separate panel]

: Vague
: [A Feynman diagram of two particles interacting via the electromagnetic force is to the right of Cueball. The diagram is drawn on a curved surface]
: Cueball: What is the nature of time in quantum gravity? Is it a background parameter, a dynamic aspect of spacetime, or an emergent phenomenon?

: Precise
: [A scientific instrument and a nuclear reaction equation of gallium-71 becoming germanium-71 are to Megan's left. The equation says: 71Ga + νe → 71Ge + e- .]
: Megan: Why does the ''S.A.G.E.'' Gallium Neutrino Capture Experiment produce only 75% as much germanium as predicted?

: Cursed
: [A rectangular block of zinc, with whiskers growing out of it, is visible to the right of White Hat]
: White Hat: Why does some metal randomly grow hairs?
: White Hat: It keeps causing short circuits and we have no idea what's going on.
: Voice from off-panel: Is this a joke?
: White Hat: No! Please help!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Unsolved Problems]]
[[Category:Comics with cursed items]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3116: Echo Chamber

2025-08-24T18:01:30Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3116
| date = July 16, 2025
| title = Echo Chamber
| image = echo_chamber_2x.png
| imagesize = 383x296px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This is almost as bad as the time I signed up for a purely partisan fishing expedition.
}}

==Explanation==
{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
An {{w|echo chamber{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}}} is a structure designed to maximise acoustic reverberation, and therefore echoes. In cultural terms, and particularly with social media, a ''metaphorical'' {{w|Echo chamber (media)|echo chamber}} reverberates the opinions of a group of individuals so that those individuals perceive those opinions as being the social norm. This has resulted in {{w|political polarisation}} and to conspiracy theories such as {{w|Pizzagate conspiracy theory|Pizzagate}}.

[[Cueball]] appears to have confused the two and built a physical chamber designed to echo back the sound of videos he is watching on social media. Unsurprisingly to the reader, but apparently not to Cueball, this turns out to be very annoying. Specifically, he appears to be watching cat videos, which are stereotypical social media content, but not usually the kind that produces accusations of 'echo chambers'. The "Mittens" mentioned in the audio is a stereotypical cat name.

Similarly, the "partisan fishing expedition" referenced in the title text has differing metaphorical and real-life interpretations. A metaphorical "fishing expedition" is an investigation begun on flimsy or no evidence to try to find unsavory or incriminating behavior. When such an investigation is motivated by political considerations in favor of one particular political party, it may be referred to as a "partisan fishing expedition". A "purely partisan fishing expedition" would involve a trip to catch actual fish where all the people on the fishing trip were either {{w|partisan (politics)|committed members of one political party}}, {{w|partisan (military)|members of domestic irregular military forces}}, or possibly one where such people were the intended catch. Alternatively, it could be a {{w|spearfishing}} expedition, as a {{w|partisan (weapon)|partisan}} is a type of polearm. It is unclear what strange mashup of the above Cueball found himself involved in, but at the very least it turned out to be deeply unsatisfying, if not actually dangerous, though a better experience than the echo chamber.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting on a chair with his hands covering his ears. He is in a circular room with a phone on a stand. All words coming out of the phone are repeated everywhere, getting larger and less opaque]

:Phone: Here's Mittens falling into the laundry hamper for the third time today!
:[Caption below panel:]
:Now that I've built one, I finally get why people complain about social media echo chambers.

==Trivia==
Faint grey letters can be seen behind the letters of the comic caption. This is presumably a remnant of the drafting process Randall commonly uses in his comics left there by mistake, although it could be an intentional artefact, as depicting further subtle "echoes".

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3117: Replication Crisis

2025-08-24T18:01:11Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3117
| date = July 18, 2025
| title = Replication Crisis
| image = replication_crisis_2x.png
| imagesize = 367x492px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Maybe encouraging the publication of null results isn't enough--maybe we need a journal devoted to publishing results the study authors find personally annoying.
}}

==Explanation==
{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
The {{w|replication crisis}} in science refers to the existence of a large number of published scientific results that others are unable to reproduce. One aspect of the scientific method is the replication of results, so the failure to replicate some results casts doubt on the validity of the results and scientific knowledge built on them. Research into the replication crisis itself [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/replication-crisis has been done], with a number of studies being redone and the results compared with the original studies. In this comic, a research team is looking to see if the situation has improved and end up "reproducing" the same results of the early reproduction crisis papers.

The joke is about reproducing a paper about being unable to reproduce papers, while both papers show there is general issue with reproducibility, in this narrow case the scientists were able to reproduce an earlier result, hence the "solved" newspaper headline.

There is a further possible jab: the replication crisis has indeed been "solved", in that the paper authors have shown that the same problems crop up even when scientists are aware of the issue. The "solution" is that the problems persist whether or not the scientists are aware of the replication crisis, so one could simply do science as if the crisis did not happen. This would be not so much a 'solution' as a counsel of despair. [[1574: Trouble for Science]] explores an issue similar to this comic's.

The title text refers to one previously suggested remedy when the replication crisis was first being dealt with — encouraging the publication of null results to counteract {{w|publication bias}}. However, because there is still a replication crisis it didn't solve the problem. The joke is that researchers, being human, are often tempted not to publish results if, for example, the results are not what they were expecting, opposed to a hypothesis they've spoken in favor of, likely to hurt their careers or embarrass them, confusing or difficult for them to explain, or aesthetically or in some other way displeasing to the researcher or their funder. Similarly to these actual efforts to counteract publication bias, this proposed measure extends this idea, albeit in a way that might sound silly.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

: [Megan, Ponytail, and Cueball are standing at a lectern. Ponytail is talking into the microphone.]
: Ponytail: In the early 2010s, researchers found that many major scientific results couldn't be reproduced.

: [Ponytail turns slightly to look around the room.]
: Ponytail: Over a decade into the replication crisis, we wanted to see if today's studies have become more robust.

: Ponytail: Unfortunately, our replication analysis has found exactly the same problems that those 2010s researchers did.

: [This panel shows a newspaper, with title "NEWS" surrounded by flourishes. There is a photo of the panel #2. The headline reads: "REPLICATION CRISIS SOLVED".]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]

3118: iNaturalist Animals and Plants

2025-08-24T18:00:50Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3118
| date = July 21, 2025
| title = iNaturalist Animals and Plants
| image = inaturalist_animals_and_plants_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x508px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Washington, DC: Eastern gray squirrel, Amur honeysuckle. Puerto Rico: Crested anole, sea grape. US as a whole: Mallard, eastern poison ivy.
}}

==Explanation==
{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
This comic is a map of the United States showing, for each state, the name of the animal and plant most commonly reported on the {{w|citizen science}} social network {{w|iNaturalist}}. As the comic notes, these are not the most-encountered species, just the ones reported the most on iNaturalist. iNaturalist is a citizen science social network that shares observations of nature. In some cases the species most reported is an invasive species causing concern, such as brown anole and Amur honeysuckle, while some local species which are actually the most present and observable may escape being fully reported by not being considered worthy of any note.

For some smaller states, the animal and plant names are listed outside the state, with a connector line to the state. Some non-state regions are covered in the title text: the {{w|District of Columbia}}, too small to list such information on the district itself and in an awkward location for a connector; {{w|Puerto Rico}}, an unincorporated U.S. territory with a large population outside the 50 standard states (both contiguous and otherwise); and the U.S. as a whole.

The most reported animals are Common Eastern Bumble Bee and White-tailed Deer, with 7 states each, while the most reported plant is Common Milkweed, with 6 states. Of the 26 different animal species mentioned, 5 are mammals, 4 are birds, 12 are reptiles, and 5 are insects. This is part of what makes the results for "US as a whole" surprising: they only top the list in one or two states, yet become the most reported when adding up the numbers nationwide.

iNaturalist community members have [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/today-s-xkcd-comic-is-about-inaturalist/67916 noted] that several species have made it on the list due to a few prolific contributors contributing large numbers of observations of the same species.

===Reference table===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="2" rowspan="2"| State
! colspan="2" | Most observed...
|-
!Animal
!Plant
|-
!AL
|{{w|Alabama}}
|{{w|Gulf fritillary}}
|{{w|Liquidambar styraciflua|American Sweetgum}}
Also in: '''[[#GA|GA]]''', '''[[#SC|SC]]'''
|-
!AK
|{{w|Alaska}}
|{{w|Moose}}
|{{w|Chamaenerion angustifolium|Fireweed}}
|-
!AZ
|{{w|Arizona}}
|{{w|Urosaurus ornatus|Ornate Tree Lizard}}
''(Also the State Animal of Nebraska)''
|{{w|Saguaro}}
|-
!AR
|{{w|Arkansas}}
|{{w|Three-toed box turtle}}
''(Official Reptile of Missouri)''
|{{w|Ligustrum sinense|Chinese Privet}}
'''Naturalized'''
|-
!CA
|{{w|California}}
|{{w|Western fence lizard}}
|{{w|Eschscholzia californica|California Poppy}}
|-
!CO
|{{w|Colorado}}
|{{w|Mule deer}}
Also in: '''[[#NM|NM]]''', '''[[#OR|OR]]''', '''[[#UT|UT]]'''
|{{w|Verbascum thapsus|Great Mullein}}
'''Invasive'''
|-
!CT
|{{w|Connecticut}}
|{{w|Bombus impatiens|Common Eastern Bumble Bee}}
Also in: '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|{{w|Chimaphila maculata|Striped Wintergreen}}
|-
!DE
|{{w|Delaware}}
|{{w|Anaxyrus fowleri|Fowler's Toad}}
|{{w|Phytolacca americana|American Pokeweed}}
|-
!FL
|{{w|Florida}}
|{{w|Brown Anole}}
'''Invasive'''
|{{w|Bidens alba|White Beggar-ticks}}
|-
!GA
|{{w|Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia}}
|{{w|Anolis carolinensis|Green Anole}}
Also in: '''[[#LA|LA]]'''
|American Sweetgum
Also in: '''[[#AL|AL]]''', '''[[#SC|SC]]'''
|-
!HI
|{{w|Hawaii}}
|{{w|Green sea turtle}}
|{{w|Metrosideros polymorpha|ʻŌhiʻa Lehua}}
'''Endangered'''
|-
!ID
|{{w|Idaho}}
|{{w|Mallard}}
Also in: '''[[#WA|WA]]''', '''[[#**|Whole US]]'''
|{{w|Artemisia tridentata|Big Sagebrush}}
|-
!IL
|{{w|Illinois}}
|Common Eastern Bumble Bee
Also in: '''[[#CT|CT]]''', '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|{{w|Asclepias syriaca|Common Milkweed}}
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#NE|NE]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|-
!IN
|{{w|Indiana}}
|{{w|American robin}}
Also in: '''[[#NE|NE]]''', '''[[#TN|TN]]'''
|{{w|Lonicera maackii|Amur Honeysuckle}}
Also in: '''[[#DC|DC]]''', '''[[#KS|KS]]''', '''[[#KY|KY]]''', '''[[#MO|MO]]

'''Invasive'''
|-
!IA
|{{w|Iowa}}
|{{w|White-tailed deer}}
Also in: '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MT|MT]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]''', '''[[#PA|PA]]''', '''[[#VA|VA]]''', '''[[#WV|WV]]'''
|Common Milkweed
Also in: '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#NE|NE]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|-
!KS
|{{w|Kansas}}
|{{w|Ornate box turtle}}
|Amur Honeysuckle
Also in: '''[[#DC|DC]]''', '''[[#IN|IN]]''', '''[[#KS|KS]]''', '''[[#MO|MO]]

'''Invasive'''
|-
!KY
|{{w|Kentucky}}
|{{w|Common box turtle}}
'''Vulnerable'''
|Amur Honeysuckle
Also in: '''[[#DC|DC]]''', '''[[#IN|IN]]''', '''[[#KS|KS]]''', '''[[#MO|MO]]

'''Invasive'''
|-
!LA
|{{w|Louisiana}}
|Green Anole
Also in: '''[[#GA|GA]]'''
|{{w|Taxodium distichum|Bald Cypress}}
|-
!ME
|{{w|Maine}}
|{{w|American herring gull}}
Also in: '''[[#RI|RI]]'''
|{{w|Cornus canadensis|Canadian Bunchberry}}
|-
!MD
|{{w|Maryland}}
|Common Eastern Bumble Bee
Also in: '''[[#CT|CT]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|{{w|Pinus strobus|Eastern White Pine}}
Also in: '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]'''
|-
!MA
|{{w|Massachusetts}}
|Common Eastern Bumble Bee
Also in: '''[[#CT|CT]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|Eastern White Pine
Also in: '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]'''
|-
!MI
|{{w|Michigan}}
|White-tailed Deer
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#MT|MT]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]''', '''[[#PA|PA]]''', '''[[#VA|VA]]''', '''[[#WV|WV]]'''
|Common Milkweed
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#NE|NE]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|-
!MN
|{{w|Minnesota}}
|Common Eastern Bumble Bee
Also in: '''[[#CT|CT]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|Common Milkweed
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#NE|NE]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|-
!MS
|{{w|Mississippi}}
|{{w|Northern cardinal}}
Also in: '''[[#SC|SC]]''', '''[[#TX|TX]]'''
|{{w|Sarracenia alata|Pale Pitcher Plant}}
|-
!MO
|{{w|Missouri}}
|{{w|Bombus griseocollis|Brown-belted Bumble Bee}}
|Amur Honeysuckle
Also in: '''[[#DC|DC]]''', '''[[#IN|IN]]''', '''[[#KS|KS]]''', '''[[#KY|KY]]

'''Invasive'''
|-
!MT
|{{w|Montana}}
|White-tailed Deer
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]''', '''[[#PA|PA]]''', '''[[#VA|VA]]''', '''[[#WV|WV]]'''
|{{w|Achillea millefolium|Common Yarrow}}
|-
!NE
|{{w|Nebraska}}
|American Robin
Also in: '''[[#IN|IN]]''', '''[[#TN|TN]]'''
|Common Milkweed
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|-
!NV
|{{w|Nevada}}
|{{w|Common side-blotched lizard}}
|{{w|Larrea tridentata|Creosote Bush}}
Also in: '''[[#NM|NM]]'''
|-
!NH
|{{w|New Hampshire}}
|White-tailed Deer
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MT|MT]]''', '''[[#PA|PA]]''', '''[[#VA|VA]]''', '''[[#WV|WV]]'''
|Eastern White Pine
Also in: '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]'''
|-
!NJ
|{{w|New Jersey}}
|{{w|Spotted lanternfly}}
'''Invasive'''
|{{w|Artemisia vulgaris|Common Mugwort}}
'''Invasive native'''
|-
!NM
|{{w|New Mexico}}
|Mule Deer
Also in: '''[[#CO|CO]]''', '''[[#OR|OR]]''', '''[[#UT|UT]]'''
|Creosote Bush
Also in: '''[[#NV|NV]]'''
|-
!NY
|{{w|New York (state)|New York}}
|{{w|Eastern gray squirrel}}
Also in: '''[[#DC|DC]]''', '''[[#NC|NC]]

''(Invasive to Europe)''
|{{w|Ageratina altissima|White Snakeroot}}
|-
!NC
|{{w|North Carolina}}
|Eastern Gray Squirrel
Also in: '''[[#DC|DC]]''', '''[[#NY|NY]]'''
|{{w|Polystichum acrostichoides|Christmas Fern}}
Also in: '''[[#TN|TN]]'''
|-
!ND
|{{w|North Dakota}}
|{{w|American bison}}
Also in: '''[[#SD|SD]]''', '''[[#WY|WY]]'''
|{{w|Rosa arkansana|Prairie}} {{w|Rosa blanda|Rose}}
''(Could be one of several {{w|Prairie Rose}} species.)''
|-
!OH
|{{w|Ohio}}
|{{w|Erythemis simplicicollis|Eastern Pondhawk}}
|{{w|Claytonia virginica|Virginia Springbeauty}}
|-
!OK
|{{w|Oklahoma}}
|{{w|Pond slider}}
|{{w|Juniperus virginiana|Eastern Redcedar}}
|-
!OR
|{{w|Oregon}}
|Mule Deer
Also in: '''[[#CO|CO]]''', '''[[#NM|NM]]''', '''[[#UT|UT]]'''
|{{w|Pinus ponderosa|Western Ponderosa Pine}}
''("Western" yellow-pine, a.k.a. "Ponderosa" pine?)''
|-
!PA
|{{w|Pennsylvania}}
|White-tailed Deer
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MT|MT]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]''', '''[[#VA|VA]]''', '''[[#WV|WV]]'''
|{{w|Alliaria petiolata|Garlic Mustard}}
'''Invasive'''
|-
!RI
|{{w|Rhode Island}}
|American Herring Gull
Also in: '''[[#ME|ME]]'''
|{{w|Rosa rugosa|Rugosa Rose}}
|-
!SC
|{{w|South Carolina}}
|Northern Cardinal
Also in: '''[[#MS|MS]]''', '''[[#TX|TX]]'''
|American Sweetgum
Also in: '''[[#AL|AL]]''', '''[[#GA|GA]]'''
|-
!SD
|{{w|South Dakota}}
|American Bison
Also in: '''[[#ND|ND]]''', '''[[#WY|WY]]'''
|{{w|Verbena stricta|Hoary Vervain}}
|-
!TN
|{{w|Tennessee}}
|American Robin
Also in: '''[[#IN|IN]]''', '''[[#NE|NE]]'''
|Christmas Fern
Also in: '''[[#NC|NC]]'''
|-
!TX
|{{w|Texas}}
|Northern Cardinal
Also in: '''[[#MS|MS]]''', '''[[#SC|SC]]'''
|{{w|Oenothera speciosa|Pinkladies}}
|-
!UT
|{{w|Utah}}
|Mule Deer
Also in: '''[[#CO|CO]]''', '''[[#NM|NM]]''', '''[[#OR|OR]]'''
|{{w|Juniperus osteosperma|Utah Juniper}}
|-
!VT
|{{w|Vermont}}
|Common Eastern Bumble Bee
Also in: '''[[#CT|CT]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#WI|WI]]'''
|Eastern White Pine
Also in: '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]'''
|-
!VA
|{{w|Virginia}}
|White-tailed Deer
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MT|MT]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]''', '''[[#PA|PA]]''', '''[[#WV|WV]]'''
|{{w|Toxicodendron radicans|Eastern Poison Ivy}}
Also in: '''[[#**|Whole US]]'''
|-
!WA
|{{w|Washington (state)|Washington}}
|Mallard
Also in: '''[[#ID|ID]]''', '''[[#**|Whole US]]'''
|{{w|Polystichum munitum|Western Sword Fern}}
|-
!WV
|{{w|West Virginia}}
|White-tailed Deer
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MT|MT]]''', '''[[#NH|NH]]''', '''[[#PA|PA]]''', '''[[#VA|VA]]'''
|{{w|Rhododendron maximum|Great Rhododendron}}
|-
!WI
|{{w|Wisconsin}}
|Common Eastern Bumble Bee
Also in: '''[[#CT|CT]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MA|MA]]''', '''[[#MD|MD]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#VT|VT]]'''
|Common Milkweed
Also in: '''[[#IA|IA]]''', '''[[#IL|IL]]''', '''[[#MI|MI]]''', '''[[#MN|MN]]''', '''[[#NE|NE]]'''
|-
!WY
|{{w|Wyoming}}
|American Bison
Also in: '''[[#ND|ND]]''', '''[[#SD|SD]]'''
|{{w|Geranium viscosissimum|Sticky Geranium}}
|- bgcolor="#eeeeee"
!DC
|{{w|Washington, D.C.|Washington DC}} ''(title text)''
|Eastern gray squirrel
Also in: '''[[#NC|NC]]''', '''[[#NY|NY]]'''
|Amur Honeysuckle
Also in: '''[[#IN|IN]]''', '''[[#KS|KS]]''', '''[[#KY|KY]]''', '''[[#MO|MO]]

'''Invasive'''
|- bgcolor="#eeeeee"
!PR
|{{w|Puerto Rico}} ''(title text)''
|{{w|Anolis cristatellus|Crested anole}}
|{{w|Coccoloba uvifera|Sea grape}}
|- bgcolor="#eeeeee"
!data-sort-value="**"|
|{{w|United States|'''US as a whole'''}} ''(title text)''
|Mallard
Also in: '''[[#WA|WA]]''', '''[[#ID|ID]]'''
|Eastern poison ivy
Also in: '''[[#VA|VA]]'''
|}

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows a map of the United States with state borders (including Hawaii and Alaska inset in the lower left) and two-letter state codes for each state. The map includes the Northwest Angle, which is not typically shown on maps of this scale.]
:[Above the map]: The Most-Observed Animal and Plant in Each State on iNaturalist
:[Below that, in parentheses]: Not the most common species in the state, just the one people have reported the most times.
:[Each state has text of the format "Animal" on top and "Plant" below. For RI, VT, NH, MA, CT, NJ, DE, and MD, the text is outside the state border with a line connecting them.]

:[In alphabetical order, the states have the following Animal/Plant text]:

:Alabama: Gulf Fritillary; American Sweetgum 
:Alaska: Moose; Fireweed 
:Arizona: Ornate Tree Lizard; Saguaro 
:Arkansas: Three-toed Box Turtle; Chinese Privet 
:California: Western Fence Lizard; California Poppy 
:Colorado: Mule Deer; Great Mullein 
:Connecticut: Common Eastern Bumble Bee; Striped Wintergreen 
:Delaware: Fowler's Toad; American Pokeweed 
:Florida: Brown Anole; White Beggar-ticks 
:Georgia: Green Anole; American Sweetgum 
:Hawaii: Green Sea Turtle; ʻŌhiʻa Lehua 
:Idaho: Mallard; Big Sagebrush 
:Illinois: Common Eastern Bumble Bee; Common Milkweed 
:Indiana: American Robin; Amur Honeysuckle 
:Iowa: White-tailed Deer; Common Milkweed 
:Kansas: Ornate Box Turtle; Amur Honeysuckle 
:Kentucky: Common Box Turtle; Amur Honeysuckle 
:Louisiana: Green Anole; Bald Cypress 
:Maine: American Herring Gull; Canadian Bunchberry 
:Maryland: Common Eastern Bumble Bee; Eastern White Pine 
:Massachusetts: Common Eastern Bumble Bee; Eastern White Pine 
:Michigan: White-tailed Deer; Common Milkweed 
:Minnesota: Common Eastern Bumble Bee; Common Milkweed 
:Mississippi: Northern Cardinal; Pale Pitcher Plant 
:Missouri: Brown-belted Bumble Bee; Amur Honeysuckle 
:Montana: White-tailed Deer; Common Yarrow 
:Nebraska: American Robin; Common Milkweed 
:Nevada: Common Side-blotched Lizard; Creosote Bush 
:New Hampshire: White-tailed Deer; Eastern White Pine 
:New Jersey: Spotted Lanternfly; Common Mugwort 
:New Mexico: Mule Deer; Creosote Bush 
:New York: Eastern Gray Squirrel; White Snakeroot 
:North Carolina: Eastern Gray Squirrel; Christmas Fern 
:North Dakota: American Bison; Prairie Rose 
:Ohio: Eastern Pondhawk; Virginia Springbeauty 
:Oklahoma: Pond Slider; Eastern Redcedar 
:Oregon: Mule Deer; Western Ponderosa Pine 
:Pennsylvania: White-tailed Deer; Garlic Mustard 
:Rhode Island: American Herring Gull; Rugosa Rose 
:South Carolina: Northern Cardinal; American Sweetgum 
:South Dakota: American Bison; Hoary Vervain 
:Tennessee: American Robin; Christmas Fern 
:Texas: Northern Cardinal; Pinkladies 
:Utah: Mule Deer; Utah Juniper 
:Vermont: Common Eastern Bumble Bee; Eastern White Pine 
:Virginia: White-tailed Deer; Eastern Poison Ivy 
:Washington: Mallard; Western Sword Fern 
:West Virginia: White-tailed Deer; Great Rhododendron 
:Wisconsin: Common Eastern Bumble Bee; Common Milkweed 
:Wyoming: American Bison; Sticky Geranium 

==Trivia==
*In the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/c/c9/20250723151925%21inaturalist_animals_and_plants_2x.png original version of the comic], the postal codes for Iowa, Florida, Alaska, and Hawaii were missing from the map. They were later added.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:US maps]]
[[Category:Turtles]]

3119: Flettner Rotor

2025-08-24T18:00:39Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3119
| date = July 23, 2025
| title = Flettner Rotor
| image = flettner_rotor_2x.png
| imagesize = 385x359px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "And in maritime news, the Coast Guard is on the scene today after an apparent collision between two lighthouses."
}}

==Explanation==
This is another one of [[:Category:Tips|Randall’s tips]]. [[Randall{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}]] is pointing out that a {{w|Flettner rotor}} can make a boat look like a lighthouse, and thus make other boats avoid it. A vertical-axis Flettner rotor is a smooth cylinder which is spun along its axis. As air passes across it from the side, an aerodynamic force is generated at a right angle (i.e., forward) to propel the boat in the desired direction.

As a tall vertical cylinder, the rotor has the approximate appearance of the column of a stereotypical lighthouse. If a directional light were attached at the top, it too would spin, sending out periodic flashes of light and making it even more similar to a lighthouse. Or, as it appears to be in the comic, a fully working {{w|Lighthouse#Components|lantern house}} could be fixed to the top of the non-rotating core to the rotor, making it look even more like a lighthouse (and also allowing independent control of the light's flash rate).

To people on a vessel directly in the path of the disguised boat, it would appear that they are sailing or drifting towards a hazard, prompting them to take action to navigate away from it, thereby clearing its course. In fact, there would be no need to have a Flettner rotor at all to achieve this effect — a simple, non-rotating column with a rotating or flashing light would do just the same thing for a boat that is powered by other means, and seems a small additional effort if you're already taking the trouble to install the fake rocks and light.

The title text describes "an apparent collision between two lighthouses", which could refer to two Flettnerized boats colliding with each other because they were ''both'' assuming that everyone else will give them the right of way. Alternatively, a single Flettnerized boat could complacently collide with an actual lighthouse, having similarly dismissed it as another boat that should have taken avoidance measures. This alludes to an old {{w|Lighthouse and naval vessel urban legend|urban legend}} in which a naval vessel insists that another radio operator at sea divert course to avoid a collision, demanding right of way by citing their military rank, only to be embarrassed when the other operator reveals they are not another sea vessel, but a lighthouse.

==Transcript==
:[A panel showing Cueball standing on a Flettner Rotor Sailboat, which is decorated with rocks and a lighthouse-top on the Flettner Rotor.]
:[Text beneath panel:]
:Sailing tip: If you have a Flettner Rotor Sailboat, you can add some fake plastic rocks and a light to make other boats give you the right of way.

==Trivia==
[[Actually|Technically]], Randall is wrong to say "...give you the right of way" - this isn't how the maritime "rules of the road" work. The other vessel could ''give way'' to the Flettner craft, but not give it '''right''' of way, as that's given by {{w|COLREGS|an international convention}} and not by individual ships. Also, one doesn't give way to lighthouses because they ''have'' right of way. There's nothing in common maritime law that explicitly says one has to give way to lighthouses. The closest thing would be the {{w|STCW|STCW convention}}, but it only uses phrases such as "Navigate with due care" and doesn't explicitly say "give way to lighthouses".

To be more pedantic, under the international convention mentioned above, neither ship ever has a right of way: one ship has an obligation to give way, while the other ship has an obligation to stand-on (i.e., keep its current course and speed until the ships are past one another). If the ships collide, both are held responsible. Navigators are very clear that the "right of way" of a car doesn't apply at sea, and one always has many obligations, including obligations to give way under certain circumstances even when you're the stand-on vessel.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3120: Geologic Periods

2025-08-24T17:59:55Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3120
| date = July 25, 2025
| title = Geologic Periods
| image = geologic_periods_2x.png
| imagesize = 611x557px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Geologists claim it's because the earlier Cenozoic used to be called the Tertiary, but that's just a ruse to hide the secret third geologic period, between the Neogene and the Quaternary, that they won't tell us about.
}}

==Explanation==
{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
{{incomplete|{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
*This explanation should focus more on explaining the jokes in the comic rather than the history of life on Earth. There are still no explanations of the "birds" and "raptors" joke, which are the main jokes in the comic.
*The title text explanation could be shortened a bit.}}

This comic depicts a table representing planet Earth's geological time scale. For each period, [[Randall]] highlights his rather idiosyncratic likes and dislikes among their characteristics, instead of accompanying each geological name with facts pertinent to it, such as the duration of the period represented, the state of the Earth (e.g., glaciated), or the flora and fauna most common.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Period and date ({{abbr|{{w|Million years ago|MYA}}|Millions of years ago}})
!Randall's comments
!Explanation
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Precambrian}} (4500⁠–⁠539)
|{{Yes|Life develops}}
|The {{w|Precambrian}} (italicized in the comic since it's not a {{w|Period (geology)|geologic period}}) is the first 88% of Earth's history, including the time 4.1 to 3.4 billion years ago when life on Earth began.
|-
|{{No|Snowball Earth episodes}}
|According to the {{w|Snowball Earth}} hypothesis, during some time spans in the past Earth became nearly or entirely frozen, with no liquid water on the surface. This is similar to the {{w|Greenhouse and icehouse Earth#Icehouse Earth|Icehouse Earth}}, including now, when the planet fluctuates between glacial and interglacial periods.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Cambrian}} (539⁠–⁠487)
|{{Yes|Trilobites!}}
|{{w|Trilobite|Trilobites}} are related to present-day insects, crabs, and other arthropods, and appeared during the Cambrian.
|-
|{{No|Evolution could stand to calm down a little}}
|The {{w|Cambrian explosion}} was a sudden radiation of complex life forms when nearly all important animal phyla, or precursors to them, appeared. Randall apparently thinks it all happened a little too fast.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Ordovician}} (487⁠–⁠443)
|{{Yes|Earth might have had rings}}
|Due to the location of impact of one type of meteorite, they may have formed a {{w|Rings of Earth|planetary ring system around Earth}} before colliding with it.
|-
|{{No|Scary volcanic eruption in North America}}
|The volcanic eruptions that deposited {{w|Deicke and Millbrig bentonite layers|layers of ash}} during the Late Ordovician were incredibly large. The volcanoes involved may have been formed during the mountain-building event in {{w|Taconic orogeny|what is now north-eastern North America}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Silurian}} (443⁠–⁠420)
|{{Yes|First land animals}}
|Green plants first became established on land during the Ordovician period, after having evolved ways to protect themselves from desiccation and ultraviolet light. During the Silurian, land animals (mostly arthropods resembling {{w|Kampecaris|millipedes}}) followed the plants.
|-
|{{No|Earth's newfound mold problem}}
| Mold soon evolved to attack them and decompose their remains. A "{{w|Indoor mold|mold problem}}" often refers to mold growing in damp places in a building, causing unpleasant odors and various {{w|Indoor_mold#Health_effects|negative health effects}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Devonian}} (420⁠–⁠359)
|{{Yes|Big mountains in Boston}}
|A section of the present-day Appalachian Range from the Canadian Maritimes to the Carolinas, including what is now the Boston area of Massachusetts, was created during this period. (At the time, Boston was in the tropics, just south of the equator.)
|-
|{{No|Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was ''armor''}}
|{{w|Placoderm}} fishes, which were common in the Devonian, had plates of {{w|dermal bone}} in the head and thoracic portions of the body. Not all placoderms were giants, or apex predators. These fishes likely had these bony plates because they helped protect them from predators.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Carboniferous}} (359⁠–⁠299)
|{{Yes|Cool forests}}
|Forests in the Carboniferous lacked the flowering plants and conifers that are common in present-day forests. Instead, forests were dominated by giant versions of today's {{w|Lycopodiaceae|club mosses}}, {{w|Equisetidae|horsetails}}, and {{w|Marattiaceae|ferns}}, as well as by several plant lineages that are now extinct. {{w|File:Meyers b15 s0272b.jpg|Artists' depictions}} of such forests are exotic-looking and considered "cool" by Randall.
|-
|{{No|Bugs too big}}
|Carboniferous '{{w|Carboniferous#Terrestrial invertebrates|bugs}}' included the largest-ever known land invertebrate, a {{w|Arthropleura|2.6 m millipede-like animal}}; the largest-ever known flying insect, resembling a {{w|Meganeura|dragonfly with a wingspan of 75 cm}}; and a {{w|Pulmonoscorpius|70 cm scorpion}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Permian}} (299⁠–⁠252)
|{{Yes|Pangea}}
|{{w|Pangaea}} was the most recent {{w|supercontinent}} containing nearly all of Earth's landmass.
|-
|{{No|Google "The Great Dying"}}
|{{w|Permian-Triassic extinction event|The Great Dying}} occurred at the end of the Permian and is the most severe of Earth's {{w|Extinction event#The "Big Five" mass extinctions|'Big Five' mass extinction events}}. In it, 80% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species were wiped out.
|-)
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Triassic}} (252⁠–⁠201)
|{{Yes|Tanystropheus}}
|The ''{{w|Tanystropheus}}'' was an {{w|Archosauromorpha|Archosauromorph}} with a proportionally unusually long neck (as depicted in the comic).
|-
|{{No|Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan}}
|{{w|Manicouagan Reservoir}} is a ring-shaped lake, the remains of the crater caused by a 5 km (3 mi) asteroid hitting {{w|Quebec}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Jurassic}} (201⁠–⁠143)
|{{Yes|Birds}}
|The {{w|Avialae|ancestors of modern birds}} emerged during the Jurassic. Randall has repeatedly found it cool that birds are modern-day dinosaurs.
|-
|{{No|Parasitoid wasps}}
|{{w|Parasitoid wasp}}s reproduce by implanting their eggs into still-living animals, whose bodies are then eaten from the inside out by the wasp's larva. It is such a grisly process that it caused a {{w|Parasitoid wasp#In culture|crisis of faith}} among 19th-century European scholars.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Cretaceous}} (143⁠–⁠66)
|{{Yes|Raptors}}
| rowspan="2" |{{w|Dromaeosauridae|Raptors}}, especially {{w|Velociraptors}}, are a [[:Category:Velociraptors|trope]] within xkcd, especially in its early years. They were popularized by their appearance in the ''[[:Category:Jurassic Park|Jurassic Park]]'' film series. In the films, velociraptors are depicted as small (shorter than adult humans) bipedal scaled dinosaurs which frequently attacked and killed humans. Velociraptors and the irrational fear of being attacked by them in the modern world are a subject of several [[xkcd]] strips. Thus, "raptors" appears in both the "Favorites" and "Complaints" columns of the table.
|-
|{{No|Raptors}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Paleogene}} (66⁠–⁠23)
|{{Yes|Pretty horseys!!!}}
|Fossils of members of the {{w|Equidae|horse family}} first appear during this period. Horses, fossil and extant, are prime examples of {{w|charismatic megafauna}} ("Pretty horseys!"). The rapid diversification of horses from a presumed single common ancestor is an oft-cited example of mammalian adaptive radiation.
|-
|{{No|Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum}}
|The {{w|Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum}} was a time when the global average temperature rose by 5-8 °C in a relatively short period of time. It can be viewed as a slower version of [[:Category:Climate change|climate change, which Randall has repeatedly complained about]].
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Neogene}} (23⁠–⁠2.6)
|{{Yes|Forests of ''Dracaena'' dragonblood trees}}
|''{{w|Dracaena draco}}'' and ''{{w|Dracaena cinnabari}}'' trees are a source of {{w|dragon's blood}}, a naturally occurring bright red resin used as a varnish and a dye.
|-
|{{No|Zanclean flood}}
|The {{w|Zanclean flood}} is theorized to be the flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Quaternary}} (2.6⁠–⁠present)
|{{Yes|Burrito invented}}
|Randall jokes that, in the last 2.6 million years, his favorite moment was the invention of the {{w|burrito}}, rather than many other, much more significant discoveries. The precise origin of the burrito is not known, but the {{w|Maya civilization}} made food resembling burritos as early as 1500 BC.
|-
|{{No|Whoever picked the name for the third period of the Cenozoic}}
|The third period of the {{w|Cenozoic Era}} is the Quaternary ("Fourth"), named by Jules Desnoyers in 1829. Randall is riffing on the cognitive disconnect between "third" and "fourth", for which the current geological naming conventions offer no explanation.
|}

The title text expands on the complaint about the "third" v "fourth" discrepancy in regard to the Quaternary Period by postulating the existence of an unnamed geologic period within the Cenozoic Era "that geologists won't tell us about". In fact, the use of "Quaternary" (and "Tertiary") in recent/current geological nomenclature is a relic of four centuries of the history of geological studies in Western Europe, complicated by the religiously-inspired acceptance until the beginning of the 19th century, among European scholars, of an Earth that was only 6000 years old. "Primary" rocks were those considered to have been present in mountains before the "Great Deluge" of Noah (the {{w|Genesis flood narrative}}), while "Secondary" rocks represented the rubble from the Flood. Igneous and metamorphic rocks came to be understood as "primary", and eldest (within the context of a 6000-year-old Earth), and sedimentary rocks as "secondary". More recent geological formations came to be known as "tertiary" (relatively newer) and "quaternary" (even more recent). As the idea of Earth being billions of years old gained acceptance and we invented tools for dating rocks, "primary" and "secondary" fell away as descriptors for both rock types and rock ages, replaced by terms that convey information about the rocks more accurately. "Tertiary" was applied to "Cenozoic minus Quaternary", and survived in formal nomenclature into the 21st century. No alternative for "Quaternary" has yet been accepted, so the name persists as fodder for cartoonists who wonder, not without cause, how a "third" element in Earth history could be labeled a "fourth" element.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[A table with 3 columns, labelled: "Period", "My favorite part" and "My biggest complaint". There are 13 rows below the labels]
:[Row 1: Period:] ''Precambrian'' [My favorite part:] Life develops [My biggest complaint:] Snowball Earth episodes
:[Row 2: Period:] Cambrian [My favorite part:] Trilobites! [My biggest complaint:] Evolution could stand to calm down a little
:[Row 3: Period:] Ordovician [My favorite part:] Earth might have had rings [My biggest complaint:] Scary volcanic eruption in North America
:[Row 4: Period:] Silurian [My favorite part:] First land animals [My biggest complaint:] Earth's newfound mold problem
:[Row 5: Period:] Devonian [My favorite part:] Big mountains in Boston [My biggest complaint:] Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was '''''armor'''''
:[Row 6: Period:] Carboniferous [My favorite part:] Cool forests [My biggest complaint:] Bugs too big
:[Row 7: Period:] Permian [My favorite part:] Pangea [My biggest complaint:] Google "The Great Dying"
:[Row 8: Period:] Triassic [My favorite part:] Tanystropheus [accompanying the text in this cell is an image of a ''Tanystropheus'' and its characteristic elongated neck, with Cueball standing next to it for scale] [My biggest complaint:] Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan
:[Row 9: Period:] Jurassic [My favorite part:] Birds [My biggest complaint:] Parasitoid wasps
:[Row 10: Period:] Cretaceous [My favorite part:] Raptors [My biggest complaint:] Raptors
:[Row 11: Period:] Paleogene [My favorite part:] Pretty horseys!!! [My biggest complaint:] Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum
:[Row 12: Period:] Neogene [My favorite part:] Forests of ''Dracaena'' dragonblood trees [My biggest complaint:] Zanclean flood
:[Row 13: Period:] Quaternary [My favorite part:] Burrito invented [My biggest complaint:] Whoever picked the name for the third period of the Cenozoic

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3120: Geologic Periods

2025-08-24T17:59:23Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3120
| date = July 25, 2025
| title = Geologic Periods
| image = geologic_periods_2x.png
| imagesize = 611x557px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Geologists claim it's because the earlier Cenozoic used to be called the Tertiary, but that's just a ruse to hide the secret third geologic period, between the Neogene and the Quaternary, that they won't tell us about.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
*This explanation should focus more on explaining the jokes in the comic rather than the history of life on Earth. There are still no explanations of the "birds" and "raptors" joke, which are the main jokes in the comic.
*The title text explanation could be shortened a bit.}}

This comic depicts a table representing planet Earth's geological time scale. For each period, [[Randall]] highlights his rather idiosyncratic likes and dislikes among their characteristics, instead of accompanying each geological name with facts pertinent to it, such as the duration of the period represented, the state of the Earth (e.g., glaciated), or the flora and fauna most common.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Period and date ({{abbr|{{w|Million years ago|MYA}}|Millions of years ago}})
!Randall's comments
!Explanation
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Precambrian}} (4500⁠–⁠539)
|{{Yes|Life develops}}
|The {{w|Precambrian}} (italicized in the comic since it's not a {{w|Period (geology)|geologic period}}) is the first 88% of Earth's history, including the time 4.1 to 3.4 billion years ago when life on Earth began.
|-
|{{No|Snowball Earth episodes}}
|According to the {{w|Snowball Earth}} hypothesis, during some time spans in the past Earth became nearly or entirely frozen, with no liquid water on the surface. This is similar to the {{w|Greenhouse and icehouse Earth#Icehouse Earth|Icehouse Earth}}, including now, when the planet fluctuates between glacial and interglacial periods.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Cambrian}} (539⁠–⁠487)
|{{Yes|Trilobites!}}
|{{w|Trilobite|Trilobites}} are related to present-day insects, crabs, and other arthropods, and appeared during the Cambrian.
|-
|{{No|Evolution could stand to calm down a little}}
|The {{w|Cambrian explosion}} was a sudden radiation of complex life forms when nearly all important animal phyla, or precursors to them, appeared. Randall apparently thinks it all happened a little too fast.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Ordovician}} (487⁠–⁠443)
|{{Yes|Earth might have had rings}}
|Due to the location of impact of one type of meteorite, they may have formed a {{w|Rings of Earth|planetary ring system around Earth}} before colliding with it.
|-
|{{No|Scary volcanic eruption in North America}}
|The volcanic eruptions that deposited {{w|Deicke and Millbrig bentonite layers|layers of ash}} during the Late Ordovician were incredibly large. The volcanoes involved may have been formed during the mountain-building event in {{w|Taconic orogeny|what is now north-eastern North America}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Silurian}} (443⁠–⁠420)
|{{Yes|First land animals}}
|Green plants first became established on land during the Ordovician period, after having evolved ways to protect themselves from desiccation and ultraviolet light. During the Silurian, land animals (mostly arthropods resembling {{w|Kampecaris|millipedes}}) followed the plants.
|-
|{{No|Earth's newfound mold problem}}
| Mold soon evolved to attack them and decompose their remains. A "{{w|Indoor mold|mold problem}}" often refers to mold growing in damp places in a building, causing unpleasant odors and various {{w|Indoor_mold#Health_effects|negative health effects}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Devonian}} (420⁠–⁠359)
|{{Yes|Big mountains in Boston}}
|A section of the present-day Appalachian Range from the Canadian Maritimes to the Carolinas, including what is now the Boston area of Massachusetts, was created during this period. (At the time, Boston was in the tropics, just south of the equator.)
|-
|{{No|Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was ''armor''}}
|{{w|Placoderm}} fishes, which were common in the Devonian, had plates of {{w|dermal bone}} in the head and thoracic portions of the body. Not all placoderms were giants, or apex predators. These fishes likely had these bony plates because they helped protect them from predators.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Carboniferous}} (359⁠–⁠299)
|{{Yes|Cool forests}}
|Forests in the Carboniferous lacked the flowering plants and conifers that are common in present-day forests. Instead, forests were dominated by giant versions of today's {{w|Lycopodiaceae|club mosses}}, {{w|Equisetidae|horsetails}}, and {{w|Marattiaceae|ferns}}, as well as by several plant lineages that are now extinct. {{w|File:Meyers b15 s0272b.jpg|Artists' depictions}} of such forests are exotic-looking and considered "cool" by Randall.
|-
|{{No|Bugs too big}}
|Carboniferous '{{w|Carboniferous#Terrestrial invertebrates|bugs}}' included the largest-ever known land invertebrate, a {{w|Arthropleura|2.6 m millipede-like animal}}; the largest-ever known flying insect, resembling a {{w|Meganeura|dragonfly with a wingspan of 75 cm}}; and a {{w|Pulmonoscorpius|70 cm scorpion}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Permian}} (299⁠–⁠252)
|{{Yes|Pangea}}
|{{w|Pangaea}} was the most recent {{w|supercontinent}} containing nearly all of Earth's landmass.
|-
|{{No|Google "The Great Dying"}}
|{{w|Permian-Triassic extinction event|The Great Dying}} occurred at the end of the Permian and is the most severe of Earth's {{w|Extinction event#The "Big Five" mass extinctions|'Big Five' mass extinction events}}. In it, 80% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species were wiped out.
|-)
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Triassic}} (252⁠–⁠201)
|{{Yes|Tanystropheus}}
|The ''{{w|Tanystropheus}}'' was an {{w|Archosauromorpha|Archosauromorph}} with a proportionally unusually long neck (as depicted in the comic).
|-
|{{No|Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan}}
|{{w|Manicouagan Reservoir}} is a ring-shaped lake, the remains of the crater caused by a 5 km (3 mi) asteroid hitting {{w|Quebec}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Jurassic}} (201⁠–⁠143)
|{{Yes|Birds}}
|The {{w|Avialae|ancestors of modern birds}} emerged during the Jurassic. Randall has repeatedly found it cool that birds are modern-day dinosaurs.
|-
|{{No|Parasitoid wasps}}
|{{w|Parasitoid wasp}}s reproduce by implanting their eggs into still-living animals, whose bodies are then eaten from the inside out by the wasp's larva. It is such a grisly process that it caused a {{w|Parasitoid wasp#In culture|crisis of faith}} among 19th-century European scholars.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Cretaceous}} (143⁠–⁠66)
|{{Yes|Raptors}}
| rowspan="2" |{{w|Dromaeosauridae|Raptors}}, especially {{w|Velociraptors}}, are a [[:Category:Velociraptors|trope]] within xkcd, especially in its early years. They were popularized by their appearance in the ''[[:Category:Jurassic Park|Jurassic Park]]'' film series. In the films, velociraptors are depicted as small (shorter than adult humans) bipedal scaled dinosaurs which frequently attacked and killed humans. Velociraptors and the irrational fear of being attacked by them in the modern world are a subject of several [[xkcd]] strips. Thus, "raptors" appears in both the "Favorites" and "Complaints" columns of the table.
|-
|{{No|Raptors}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Paleogene}} (66⁠–⁠23)
|{{Yes|Pretty horseys!!!}}
|Fossils of members of the {{w|Equidae|horse family}} first appear during this period. Horses, fossil and extant, are prime examples of {{w|charismatic megafauna}} ("Pretty horseys!"). The rapid diversification of horses from a presumed single common ancestor is an oft-cited example of mammalian adaptive radiation.
|-
|{{No|Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum}}
|The {{w|Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum}} was a time when the global average temperature rose by 5-8 °C in a relatively short period of time. It can be viewed as a slower version of [[:Category:Climate change|climate change, which Randall has repeatedly complained about]].
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Neogene}} (23⁠–⁠2.6)
|{{Yes|Forests of ''Dracaena'' dragonblood trees}}
|''{{w|Dracaena draco}}'' and ''{{w|Dracaena cinnabari}}'' trees are a source of {{w|dragon's blood}}, a naturally occurring bright red resin used as a varnish and a dye.
|-
|{{No|Zanclean flood}}
|The {{w|Zanclean flood}} is theorized to be the flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Quaternary}} (2.6⁠–⁠present)
|{{Yes|Burrito invented}}
|Randall jokes that, in the last 2.6 million years, his favorite moment was the invention of the {{w|burrito}}, rather than many other, much more significant discoveries. The precise origin of the burrito is not known, but the {{w|Maya civilization}} made food resembling burritos as early as 1500 BC.
|-
|{{No|Whoever picked the name for the third period of the Cenozoic}}
|The third period of the {{w|Cenozoic Era}} is the Quaternary ("Fourth"), named by Jules Desnoyers in 1829. Randall is riffing on the cognitive disconnect between "third" and "fourth", for which the current geological naming conventions offer no explanation.
|}

The title text expands on the complaint about the "third" v "fourth" discrepancy in regard to the Quaternary Period by postulating the existence of an unnamed geologic period within the Cenozoic Era "that geologists won't tell us about". In fact, the use of "Quaternary" (and "Tertiary") in recent/current geological nomenclature is a relic of four centuries of the history of geological studies in Western Europe, complicated by the religiously-inspired acceptance until the beginning of the 19th century, among European scholars, of an Earth that was only 6000 years old. "Primary" rocks were those considered to have been present in mountains before the "Great Deluge" of Noah (the {{w|Genesis flood narrative}}), while "Secondary" rocks represented the rubble from the Flood. Igneous and metamorphic rocks came to be understood as "primary", and eldest (within the context of a 6000-year-old Earth), and sedimentary rocks as "secondary". More recent geological formations came to be known as "tertiary" (relatively newer) and "quaternary" (even more recent). As the idea of Earth being billions of years old gained acceptance and we invented tools for dating rocks, "primary" and "secondary" fell away as descriptors for both rock types and rock ages, replaced by terms that convey information about the rocks more accurately. "Tertiary" was applied to "Cenozoic minus Quaternary", and survived in formal nomenclature into the 21st century. No alternative for "Quaternary" has yet been accepted, so the name persists as fodder for cartoonists who wonder, not without cause, how a "third" element in Earth history could be labeled a "fourth" element.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[A table with 3 columns, labelled: "Period", "My favorite part" and "My biggest complaint". There are 13 rows below the labels]
:[Row 1: Period:] ''Precambrian'' [My favorite part:] Life develops [My biggest complaint:] Snowball Earth episodes
:[Row 2: Period:] Cambrian [My favorite part:] Trilobites! [My biggest complaint:] Evolution could stand to calm down a little
:[Row 3: Period:] Ordovician [My favorite part:] Earth might have had rings [My biggest complaint:] Scary volcanic eruption in North America
:[Row 4: Period:] Silurian [My favorite part:] First land animals [My biggest complaint:] Earth's newfound mold problem
:[Row 5: Period:] Devonian [My favorite part:] Big mountains in Boston [My biggest complaint:] Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was '''''armor'''''
:[Row 6: Period:] Carboniferous [My favorite part:] Cool forests [My biggest complaint:] Bugs too big
:[Row 7: Period:] Permian [My favorite part:] Pangea [My biggest complaint:] Google "The Great Dying"
:[Row 8: Period:] Triassic [My favorite part:] Tanystropheus [accompanying the text in this cell is an image of a ''Tanystropheus'' and its characteristic elongated neck, with Cueball standing next to it for scale] [My biggest complaint:] Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan
:[Row 9: Period:] Jurassic [My favorite part:] Birds [My biggest complaint:] Parasitoid wasps
:[Row 10: Period:] Cretaceous [My favorite part:] Raptors [My biggest complaint:] Raptors
:[Row 11: Period:] Paleogene [My favorite part:] Pretty horseys!!! [My biggest complaint:] Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum
:[Row 12: Period:] Neogene [My favorite part:] Forests of ''Dracaena'' dragonblood trees [My biggest complaint:] Zanclean flood
:[Row 13: Period:] Quaternary [My favorite part:] Burrito invented [My biggest complaint:] Whoever picked the name for the third period of the Cenozoic

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3121: Kite Incident

2025-08-24T17:59:03Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3121
| date = July 28, 2025
| title = Kite Incident
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = kite_incident_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1610px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Detectives say the key to tracking down the source of the kites was a large wall map covered in thumbtacks and string. 'It's the first time that method has ever actually worked,' said a spokesperson.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Meg{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}an]] is setting up a kite as [[Cueball]] arrives. Megan sets up the kite using a fishing line, which is unorthodox but not unheard of. Because the connection between the holding point and the lofted kite will form a {{w|catenary}} hanging down, after paying out sufficient line toward a kite increasingly far downwind, the line starts to dip and possibly touch the ground. Cueball suggests adding another kite at that point, after which they can then pay out more line and keep the line raised off the ground for additional distance.

They then get into a loop of adding more line to accommodate a stock of kites, and then more kites to support the line, until the kite chain reaches ludicrous proportions. The kites become so numerous and high-flying that they eventually blow in a circle around a significant part of the planet, following a {{w|jet stream}}. A circle on the surface of the Earth that follows the line of latitude where Randall lives is about 18,500 miles long, though a circumpolar jet-stream would curve into higher and lower latitudes to possibly add a lot more distance (as well as being at a higher altitude, which would add a more predictable fraction to its length). If the kites have been dragged into a much smaller circle as the result of a kite and/or its string getting caught by an airplane, there's no evidence of this to either the comic's characters or to ourselves, and travel purely by extensive (albeit slower) atmospheric movement has been [[2805: Global Atmospheric Circulation|featured before]]. Modelling the line as a straight line stretching 15 degrees above the horizon, Megan has spent over 38km of fishing line by the time the first kite reaches the jet stream at 10km high, but the mean separation of kites is possibly not particularly far, based upon the heights of the figures in wider shots, and Megan has lost count of how many they deployed, anyway. The curve of the hanging tethers would be highly dependant upon the tension between the two points of suspension, as would the ability of any given kite to fly, but there is not enough clear information to discern to what limits these (and the fishing line) might constrain the scenario.

The sirens in the second-to-last panel refer to a visit by some law-enforcement agency. The string of kites circling the Earth has interfered with international air travel. Although the mass of any given kite and the presence of such a relatively light and fragile tether should not cause too much difficulty for the majority of airliners if their wing or body collides with the kite-chain, the danger of a kite being ingested into the engine would ''preferably'' be avoided out of an abundance of caution. This is true even if the presence of kites is known to be not a more solid danger rather than a mystery and/or {{w|2023 Chinese balloon incident|perceived threat}} which can lead to {{w|Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption|air travel to be shut down}}. (Of course, with xkcd physics, the pilots may have been concerned that [[2148: Cubesat Launch|snagging on the kite string would pull Megan and Cueball off of their feet]].) Regardless of the actual degree of danger, the authorities react accordingly, and events culminate in Megan and Cueball being forced to issue a formal apology. Having their lawyer there might indicate they won't get away with just an apology, but maybe this is to show they meant no harm, to decrease the penalty they will face.

The title text alludes to an investigation technique seen in many types of media where the investigator {{tvtropes|StringTheory|pins text and photo evidence to a board}}, connecting related evidence with string. This technique is also made fun of in [[2244: Thumbtacks And String]]. Though often good enough for fictional purposes, at least to the extent that the plot demands, the text indicates that real-world uses of 'string on a map' to discover a useful result have not actually been successful. But in this case, the string on the map would be there to indicate the actual extent to the string ''in the air'', probably from various reports received from around the world, and apparently it had successfully led to the discovery of the location from which the string originated on the ground and the subsequent intervention against the duo's excessive kite-deployment activity.

Kites have been a [[:Category:Kites|recurring topic]] on xkcd since the early days. It has been three years since the last comic featuring kites, [[2632: Greatest Scientist]], six years since Cueball put one up, in [[2208: Drone Fishing]], and 10 years since Megan did so, for [[1614: Kites]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball approaches Megan from the left. Megan is flying a kite, with the line attached to a spool.]
:Cueball: Ooh, flying a kite?
:Megan: Yeah. I found this big spool of fishing line in a closet.

:[In a silent panel, Cueball and Megan are seen from further away, indicating that the kite is flying higher.]

:[Cueball and Megan are seen from yet further away, indicating that the kite is flying still higher.]
:Cueball: Are we allowed to fly a kite this high? Should we Google whether there are rules?
:Megan: Eh, it's probably fine.

:[The line held by Megan leaves her hand almost horizontally before curving up. Cueball stands a little way downwind his hand up to the string, above head-height, as if supporting/stabilising it or testing its tendency to stay up.]
:Megan: The string is really starting to sag.
:Cueball: Maybe we could attach another kite? I'll go get one.

:[A new kite is attached just above the line, supporting it higher in the air, Megan's held end now leading up to the point it is joined.]
:Cueball: It worked!
:Megan: Nice!

:[Megan is feeding out line from a partly depleted spool, via a peg/ground anchor, with a knot visible a short way up the rising cord. Two further empty spoole are seen on the ground. Cueball is approaching with a box.]
:Cueball: I bought another package of string.
:Megan: Oh good, these spools are almost empty.
:Megan: I think we're in the jet stream.

:[Three empty spools, one spool in use and one unused spool surround Megan and Cueball, with one supporting kite visible on the line that Megan is still feeding out.]
:Cueball: How many kites are on there now?
:Megan: I've lost count.

:[Another silent panel, zoomed out to see at least a half self-supporting "kite-length" about ready to have a new kite added at the ground end, and almost the same amount of curve leading off-panel to the next (previously attached) kite, unseen. There are flat items (presumably kites), spools (one being the current one being fed out) and boxes (assumed to contain more kite material and/or spools behind and around the two small figures.]

:[A much larger panel with the same ground details but a wider view. Above the ascending line of kites there is now a second, horizontal line of kites, dangling furves of connecting chord, leading from off-panel left to off-panel right.]
:Cueball: Uhh...

:[Some kites, spools and boxes are around the two figures, now seen again in close-up.]
:Cueball: ...Did it blow in a circle?
:Megan: I don't know. Lemme look at a map of where the jet stream goes.
:Cueball: Hey, do you hear sirens?

:[A CNN logo is at the upper right of the panel. Megan stands at a lectern, with Cueball on one side and Ponytail, holding a briefcase, on the other. Illegible subtitle/sub-banner text appears at the lower left, lower right, and below them.]
:[A banner with white text on a black background:]
:Breaking: Kite Incident Duo Speaks
:Megan: On the advice of our lawyer, we would like to apologize for the events that shut down global air travel last week...

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Kites]]
[[Category:Aviation]]

3122: Bad Map Projection: Interrupted Spheres

2025-08-24T17:58:35Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3122
| date = July 30, 2025
| title = Bad Map Projection: Interrupted Spheres
| image = bad_map_projection_interrupted_spheres_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x573px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = During the most recent glacial maximum, it's believed that land bridges extended from the surfaces and connected several of the spheres together.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the ninth comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}} series]] displaying Bad Map Projection #194: Interrupted Spheres. It follows [[2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia]], released nine and a half months prior.

There is no perfect way to draw a map of the world on a flat piece of paper. Each one will introduce a different type of distortion, and the best projection for a given situation is sometimes disputed. As was mentioned in [[977: Map Projections]], a wisecrack to this dilemma is to use a globe - which maps the world onto a ''sphere'', thus minimizing distortion by using roughly the same shape as the world itself. This "map projection" goes a step past the wisecrack and proceeds straight into absurdity, by projecting ''each continent'' onto a sphere. This bends entirely too far in the other direction to the dilemma; whereas a typical map projection adds distortion by trying to show the (curved) planet on a flat surface, this "map projection" adds distortion by showing the (relatively flat) continents on a much more sharply-curved sphere than the planet they are actually part of.

The title text refers to {{w|land bridges}}, narrow bits of land between larger landmasses. When glaciers covered much of the Earth, the water locked up in the glaciers meant that sea levels were lower, as well as the overlying icepacks being higher, and things like the {{w|Bering land bridge}} spanned areas between continents that are currently ocean. [[Randall]] suggests that these formed connections in the gaps between the spheres. This implies the absurd idea that the projection reflects an underlying reality where the continents ''actually'' exist on separate spheres, rather than this simply being an attempt at a "better" way to display Earth's landmasses. In this situation the land of the 'bridges' would reach like spires, vertically upwards from the surface of each sphere, until they descend down onto their counterpart neighbouring sphere.

==Transcript==
:[This comic depicts seven circles each representing globes. Above these circles there is the following text:]
:Bad map projection #194:
:'''<big>Interrupted spheres</big>'''
:To avoid the distortion inherent to a single flat world map, each continent is projected onto its own globe.

:[Each of the seven globes has some part of the landmasses of Earth projected on to it, with a label of said areas name. The globes are arranged in position so their landmasses lies roughly where they would be on a standard map with North America in the upper left and Australia in the lower right part of the picture. That is except Antarctica which is placed beneath Asia close to but left of Australia. The labels on the seven spheres in the three columns they form from left to right are:]
:North America
:South America
:Europe
:Africa
:Asia
:Antarctica
:Australia

==Trivia==
In this comic [[Randall]] indicates that he believes there are seven continents. This is {{w|Continent#Number|up for debate}}, especially with Europe being considered part of the larger Eurasian continent, rather than distinct from Asia, and whether the Americas are two continents or one, temporarily joined via the Caribbean oceanic plate. See for instance {{w|CGP Grey}}'s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBcq1x7P34 What are Continents?] video for a discussion. (Grey concludes that there are five, in his opinion.)

Several borders between countries are missing,those being the borders between Romania and Bulgaria, Bulgaria and Greece, Albania and Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, Egypt and Sudan, and between Thailand and Malaysia. Although it is implied each continent is projected onto its own globe by itself, a part of the coast of North Africa is visible on the Europe globe.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]

3123: Canon

2025-08-24T17:57:59Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3123
| date = August 1, 2025
| title = Canon
| image = canon_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x408px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Achilles was a mighty warrior, but his Achilles’ heel was his heel.
}}

==Explanation==
In Christianity, [https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03279a.htm {{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}Apostolic Canons] were ancient laws and decrees, usually enacted by consensus of bishops and Ecumenical Councils. The most well-known decrees have led to definitions of ''{{W|Biblical canon|Biblical canon}}'', [Gk: ''κανον''] traditionally referring to the books of the Bible (Old Testament and New Testament) which are generally accepted as being doctrinally sound, worthy of inclusion by church bodies, and proclaimed liturgically. Non-canonical works are known as {{w|apocrypha}} or "Deuterocanonical" (works which, while perhaps edifying and ancient, are doctrinally rejected by some or all Christian authorities). The writers of the New Testament and other Church Fathers had adopted the Greek word for a type of straight reed, ''κανε'', because it was being cut and used in the Hellenistic world to apply standards of measurement.

The term "canon" was subsequently applied by analogy to the {{w|Sherlock Holmes}} stories which were written by {{w|Arthur Conan Doyle}}, as opposed to the adaptations into other formats (stage plays, films, etc.) and non-Doyle stories. An early example of this connection was in a 1910 satirical essay by the Catholic scholar Ronald A. Knox, ''Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes''.

From there, it took on its modern, even broader meaning for fiction in general: the material widely accepted as created by the recognized author(s). For instance, ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' canon comprises the films and some TV shows made by {{w|Lucasfilm}} (and {{w|Disney}} after its buyout of Lucasfilm), but that canon is supplemented by a large amount of non-canonical {{w|Star Wars in other media|''Star Wars'' content in other media}} such as books, video games, comic books, fan fiction, etc. In addition, what is canon can be changed, as occurred when a large portion of formerly canon Star Wars content was [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Legends decanonised] in 2014 to make narrative space for the upcoming Star Wars trilogy sequel movies. Determining what is canon and what is not in a narrative framework has a tendency to excite huge passions amongst fans where they decide what is, and what is not, binding to the fandom, drawing comparison to the huge factionalism of religions.

Here, Cueball is using the modern meaning to describe a theological dispute from the 18th century when scholars used ''canon'' in its secondary derived meaning referring to the canon of Scripture. There are many examples of fierce theological disputes that were recorded in pamphlets and books throughout the 16th to 19th century, for example just regarding the correct mode of baptism: {{w|File:The Summe of a conference at Terling in Essex, Januarie 11, 1643 - held between 3 ministers ... opponents pleading for infants baptisme, and 2 catabaptists ... respondents denying .. (IA summeofconferenc00stal).pdf|1644 (683 pages)}}, {{w|File:A defence of infant-baptism in answer to two treatises, and an Appendix to them concerning it, lately published by Mr. Jo. Tombes - wherein that controversie is fully discussed ... (IA defenceofinfantb00mars).pdf|1646 (342 pages)}}, {{w|File:A discourse proving the divine institution of water-baptism - wherein the Quaker-arguments against it are collected and confuted with as much as is needful concerning the Lord's supper (IA discourseproving00lesl).pdf|1697 (150 pages)}}, {{w|File:An essay on infant baptism (microform) - in which the right of infants to the sacrament of baptism, is proved from Scripture, vindicated from the usual objections (IA cihm 89861).pdf|1768 (219 pages)}}, {{w|File:Modern immersion not Scripture baptism (IA modernimmersionn00thorrich).pdf|1831 (400 pages)}}, {{w|File:The heavenly father's teaching (microform) - a pedo-Baptist's reply to immersionists shewing that Baptism is not immersion, and that immersion is not Baptism, for they are direct opposites (IA cihm 08315).pdf|1874 (107 pages)}} - examples selected from hundreds of similar books. Similarly, the word "fandom" comes from the word "fan", which is the shorter form of "fanatic", and '-dom', as in a class of people. Fanatic's etymology, in turn, points to the latin word "fanaticus" meaning 'of a temple, inspired by a god'. (The latin word "fanum" means 'temple'.)

An ''Achilles’ heel'' is the weak point of something or someone who is otherwise very strong. It derives from the legend of the great Greek warrior {{w|Achilles}}, who as a baby was dipped into the river {{w|Styx}} by {{w|Thetis|his mother}} to make him invulnerable everywhere on his body that the water touched. However, during the dipping, his mother held him by the heel, which was thus vulnerable because it didn't enter the river, and in fact Achilles later died after he was shot in that heel with an arrow. The joke again is the self-reference.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a book up in front of him with both hands while talking to White Hat.]
:Cueball: It's so weird reading these 18th century scholars argue about minor biblical details.
:Cueball: It's like they're an online fandom or something - they've developed this whole elaborate canon.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's fun when a word's usage goes full circle and, by analogy, lands back on its original meaning.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Religion]]

3124: Grounded

2025-08-24T17:57:33Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3124
| date = August 4, 2025
| title = Grounded
| image = grounded_2x.png
| imagesize = 294x335px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We should have you at the gate in just under two hours--two and a half if we get pulled over.
}}

==Explanation==

In certain situations, such as extreme weather, airplanes may be "grounde{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}d", meaning that they are not permitted to fly, and scheduled flights have to be delayed or cancelled. This is often frustrating for passengers, especially if the airplane has already been loaded and is otherwise ready to fly. In this strip, a pilot in such a situation reports that they "have an idea", involving bridge clearance and top taxiing speed. "Taxiing" refers to the movement of airplanes while on the ground, such as when they're moving to and from their gate, and getting into position on the runway. The implication is they've given up on taking off, and are considering moving the entire airplane to their destination by ground.

The joke is that such a plan would be ludicrous. There are situations in which flights between relatively nearby airports are delayed for long enough that driving between them would be faster, but airplanes were clearly never intended to travel significant distances by ground. Putting aside the fact that neither the engines nor the wheels were ever designed for long-term ground travel, it would likely be impossible. This comic was published during {{w|2025 Atlantic hurricane season#Tropical Storm Dexter|a storm}} which affected a significant part of the Northeast United States. This storm caused many flights to be heavily delayed or cancelled, which may be the inspiration for this comic.

The reference to "bridge clearance" suggests that the airplane could fit under all the bridges they'd need to pass during their trip, but that doesn't consider the aircraft's wingspan, which would be unlikely to fit on all the roads they'd need to use. At the very least, it would block multiple lanes of traffic (likely in both directions) for the entire trip and, since jetliners usually don't taxi faster than 25-35 mph, even a relatively short trip would block roads for a significant amount of time. Moreover, it's generally illegal for any vehicle to travel on public roads unless it meets specific standards (which an aircraft almost certainly wouldn't) and is properly licensed and registered (which an aircraft wouldn't be). Long delays in air travel may lead to people fantasizing about this kind of extreme solution, but it clearly wouldn't be feasible in real life.

The title text intensifies the humor, saying that driving will probably result in a traffic enforcement stop, and further extend the travel time. The "drive time" would probably be extended by more than the 30 minutes they have estimated, especially if the flight crew is required to stop, or disembark from the aircraft, or they could be entirely prevented from continuing onward.

=== Feasibility ===

A number of factors contribute to the feasibility of switching to driving:

* If the plane continues to wait, it may need to do so for several hours.
* Allowing passengers to leave a sealed plane is typically a long process and may (depending on the situation and airport) involve the cancellation of the flight (which airlines are financially incentivized to avoid) or the plane losing its place in the increasingly long line of flights waiting to depart.
* Passengers often have checked luggage that takes a long time to unload and be delivered (a notoriously slow process).
* When a full flight's worth of passengers suddenly need ground transportation to the same place, there is sometimes not enough ground transportation readily available to transport them and their luggage.
* Passengers arriving at another airport via ground transportation and wishing to board a connecting flight would need to pass through security checkpoints and hand over their luggage again, further delaying the process.
* Driving will probably require navigating through a maze of planes and cars
The plane appears to have 14 passenger windows on one side, a moderate number associated with a narrow-body / single-aisle commercial aircraft (likely with 4 seats per row - seating around 56 passengers and around 4 crew). A plane of this size is more likely to fit on a wide road or under any overpass built for large trucks, compared to a large airliner with possibly hundreds of passengers. Smaller planes are also more commonly used for local flights with fewer passengers. It is possible that the destination is only 70 miles away by road (likely a nearby city of at least moderate size or else the plane would be smaller). Roads around airports are often crowded, but the poor weather may have reduced traffic to and from the airport, or the pilots may be counting on smaller vehicles staying out of their way. If the public roads are viable and local law enforcement does not interfere (or allows the plane to proceed due to jurisdictional confusion), then the largest practical obstacles may be exiting the first airport and entering the second. Large airports restrict access to the tarmac, and since the pilots intend to respect air traffic control's decision to prohibit flight, they would either need several people on the ground to open major gates, or would need to ram at least one sufficiently weak gate or fence at each end.

It is possible that this comic is depicting a heavily simplified {{w|Embraer E-Jet family | Embraer E-170}}, which has 19 windows on each side.

==Transcript==
:[A plane is at an airport gate, connected to the jet bridge going into an extensive building with many dark windows facing out towards the plane. There are several other ground vehicles nearby, one towing two empty wagons for luggage, and related equipment that includes several small traffic cones placed strategically around the plane. In the space behind the plane there is another, unoccupied, gate with a jet bridge extending from the building.]
:[A voice emanates from the plane, with a speech line starting at a star burst on top of the plane's cabin. The voice makes it clear that this is the captain speaking through the internal public address system:]
:Captain's voice: This is your captain speaking. As you've probably noticed, we're still grounded due to weather
:Captain's voice: But the first officer and I have been looking at bridge clearance maps and our top taxiing speed, and we have an idea.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Aviation]]

3125: Snake-in-the-Box Problem

2025-08-24T17:57:20Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3125
| date = August 6, 2025
| title = Snake-in-the-Box Problem
| image = snake_in_the_box_problem_2x.png
| imagesize = 359x611px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Chemistry grad students have been spotted trying to lure campus squirrels into laundry hampers in the hope that it sparks inspiration.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic makes fun of the fac{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}t that many fields of math and science use analogies to help visualize complex problems. One such analogy, drawn in the comic, involves a snake on the edges of an n-dimensional hypercube, which is a real problem in graph theory called {{w|snake-in-the-box}}. In this problem, a snake is coiled around the edges of an ''n''-dimensional hypercube. No two adjacent corners of the cube can be occupied by non-consecutive parts of the snake (i.e., the snake can't come near itself). The problem involves finding the longest snake for a box of a given dimension. This problem has been solved up to an 8-dimensional cube, but remains unsolved for 9 dimensions and up. (The proper name for this problem, as stated in [https://oeis.org/A099155 OEIS A099155], is "Maximum length of a simple path with no chords in the n-dimensional hypercube" but, as the entry acknowledges, "snake-in-the-box problem" is the name commonly used for it.) Because a common way to formulate hypercubes is as a graph of N-tuples (each corner has N coordinates, each a 0 or 1 - for example, a {{w|Square|2-cube}} has vertices (0,0), (0,1), (1,0), (1,1) - and edges are drawn between vertices differing only in one coordinate), and this problem in particular pertains to connecting edges between vertices, this comic considers the problem to be an example of this phenomenon for the mathematical field of graph theory.

The other thought experiment alluded to is {{w|Schrödinger's cat}}, which is used in quantum physics. In this thought experiment, a cat is put in a box which contains poison, a radioactive source and a {{w|Geiger counter}}. This aims to illustrate an apparent paradox in the principle of {{w|quantum superposition}} — a property of quantum mechanics in which objects can exist in two apparently incompatible states simultaneously, so long as no attempt is made to verify which state they are in. If an atom of the radioactive source decays, the poison is released, and the cat dies, tying its fate to the radioactive decay. Since radioactive decay obeys quantum mechanics, so long as the particle is not observed it will exist in a superposition of two states: decayed and not decayed. Therefore, the cat, too, may be considered to exist in a superposition of two states (alive and not alive) which appears to be absurd. The opening of the box collapses the superposition so that only one of those states remains.

The comic jokes that these two "cute animal in a box" thought experiments are instances of a universal rule that applies to every field of study. Other fields have simply yet to "discover" their own analogies. Whether a snake counts as a "cute animal", that would satisfy the "rule" is likely to occasion some debate.

The title text takes this further by claiming that chemistry students have been trying to fix the lack of cute-animal-in-box thought experiments in their field by attempting to trap a squirrel with a laundry basket. This is possibly a reference to {{w|Endohedral fullerene}} complexes, where an ion or atom is caged inside a spherical structure of carbon. Those students seem to hope that it will inspire them in some way, maybe similarly to what is depicted in [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]].

==Transcript==
:[A panel with text both above and below the illustration, with further text outside the panel below.]
:[In the panel, above the illustration:]
:A snake slithers around a hypercube. No two non-consecutive parts of its coils can be on adjacent corners.
:[Three small illustrations of 4-dimensional hypercubes, each with a snake slithering around its edges. Each illustration has a red line or lines indicating an edge or edges where two non-consecutive parts of the snake are on adjacent corners. Below each hypercube is a red X.]
:[A large illustration depicting a 4-dimensional hypercube with a snake slithering around its edges.]
:[Below the large illustration is text printed in green. To the left of the text is a green checkmark.]
:Dimensions=4
:Max length=7
:[The following text is printed in black, except for the last word "UNSOLVED" which is printed in red:]
:Snake(N) = Largest snake that can fit in an N-dimensional hypercube
:Snake(N=1, 2, 3 .. 8) = 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 26, 50, 98
:Snake(N>8) = UNSOLVED

:[Text outside the panel:]
:It turns out every scientific field has a key thought experiment that involves putting a cute animal in a weird box for no reason.
:So far, quantum mechanics and graph theory have found theirs, but most other fields are still working on it.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Cats]]

3126: Disclaimer

2025-08-24T17:57:06Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3126
| date = August 8, 2025
| title = Disclaimer
| image = disclaimer_2x.png
| imagesize = 346x396px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = You say no human would reply to a forum thread about Tom Bombadil by writing and editing hundreds of words of text, complete with formatting, fancy punctuation, and two separate uses of the word 'delve'. Unfortunately for both of us, you are wrong.
}}

==Explanation==
{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
This comic shows a message written by [[Cueball]] (likely representing [[Randall]]). The combination of a user profile image, metadata, and the body of text (not to mention the reference to a forum in the title text), suggest this is a posting on a forum. At the end — possibly as an automatically appended forum signature — he includes a disclaimer pre-emptively denying that the content was produced by ChatGPT, and that this is just the way he is.

{{w|ChatGPT}} is a {{w|large language model}}, a type of {{w|generative artificial intelligence}} designed to produce human-like text. In 2025, at the time of this comic’s release, tools like ChatGPT had become widely used for composing everything from professional emails to casual forum posts. Chatbots tend to be verbose. One side effect of this trend is that genuine, naturally long-form writing is sometimes mistaken for AI-generated content. People may become suspicious not only of length and thoroughness, but also of stylistic markers such as formally correct punctuation — particularly the {{w|Dash#Em_dash|em dash}} — which is uncommon among average internet users, but occasionally favored by ChatGPT.

The title text explains the context. It notes that some people claim no human would compose a meticulously organized essay about {{w|Tom Bombadil}}, a relatively minor character from ''The Lord of the Rings'', especially if it contains the word "delve". This word is perceived as atypical in everyday conversation, yet is [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/16/techscape-ai-gadgest-humane-ai-pin-chatgpt frequently used by ChatGPT]. Randall implies that he would write such an essay, and in fact has. The choice of “delve” may also be a deliberate reference to Gandalf’s line in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' about the Dwarves who “delved too greedily and too deep,” or perhaps to “Michel Delving,” the largest Hobbit settlement in the Shire, whose name literally means “large excavation.” He also says this is unfortunate for both of them: the person he's talking to for having jumped to the wrong assumption about the nature of the author, and Randall for having wasted so much of his time writing about a minor topic.

The presence of the em dash in the disclaimer further fuels the joke. Em dashes are seen by many as an indicator that a piece of text was AI-generated; although they have been a long-standing (even pre-GPT) feature of both Randall's comics and this site's user-written explanations, which of course does not disprove the more general observation being alluded to. The comic is also likely to be have been written specifically as a response to the release of {{w|GPT-5}}, the day before this comic was published.

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball profile picture is shown next to five paragraphs of illegible text, which contains varied punctuation marks and two square-bracketed citations. The last paragraph in the essay is separated from the other paragraphs by a line with three dashes. Its single sentence is highlighted, and lines connect that illegible sentence to a box with an enlarged, legible version of the sentence.]
:Enlarged text: Not ChatGPT output—I’m just like this.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I've had to start adding this disclaimer to my messages.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3127: Where Babies Come From

2025-08-24T17:56:01Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3127
| date = August 11, 2025
| title = Where Babies Come From
| image = where_babies_come_from_2x.png
| imagesize = 652x362px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Historians: Contemporaneous documentation of the initial events is often sparse, and in fact people often get testy and uncooperative when we urge better documentation for the historical record.
}}

<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Copy pasted from talk ↓ [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 16:41, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}
GoComics now requires paid subscriptions, so the link to the Calvin and Hobbes comic should probably be changed to an image that doesn't have this restriction. [[Special:Contributions/2001:8003:1DC8:7900:ACDF:2A0D:1D9F:87F5|2001:8003:1DC8:7900:ACDF:2A0D:1D9F:87F5]] 03:15, 17 August 2025 (UTC)
:I don't have a subscription to GoComics, and the link works for me... on my desktop machine, at any rate. But not on my phone. I don't know where the difference lies. Perhaps the versions of Firefox and Chrome that Windows 8.1 supports aren't advanced enough to play with GoComics's demands. BunsenH (talk) 23:30, 17 August 2025 (UTC)
}}
Children are often curious, and ask a lot of questions about the world around them. "Where do babies come from?" is one such question that tends to come up at some point, and is notable as one that many adults are uncomfortable giving correct answers to, because of the common reluctance to discuss sex-related matters with youngsters. While children are sometimes told that there's a baby inside a pregnant woman's tummy, the issues of how the baby got in there, or how it's supposed to get out, are often dodged. There are a variety of common myths about where babies come from, as told to children, such as "brought by a stork", "found in a cabbage patch", or [https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/04/18 "built from a kit"]. This comic presents a variety of answers to that question, supposedly from the point of view of specialists in several different areas of science, and expressed in the vocabulary of the specialist's field. Some of them are allusions to the process of conception or childbirth; others are simply incorrect.

The experts might be deliberately misleading the questioner by using very euphemistic terms that would likely not be understood by a child to avoid personal embarrassment, deliberately over-'simplifying' the explanation as a {{w|Lie-to-children|stepping stone}} to the eventual more specific truth, or else themselves be ignorant/misled about the process. In each case, however, their abstraction of the process is described in terms that are actually relatively technical ones from their own field, to the presumed audience, showing that they are not necessarily able to find the right level of explanation, as well as not having used a less obtuse reframing of the topic much closer to that of actual reproductive biology. "How is babby formed?" was a [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-is-babby-formed notorious meme] from the early 2000s.

;Geneticist: An admixture event refers to new genes being introduced into a population (for example, intermarriage adding genes for blue eyes into a population that previously lacked them). These gene movements are typically measurable on the order of thousand year or more timescales, and therefore are commonly dated to thousands or even millions of years ago. KYA = "one thousand years ago" and 0.001 KYA = 1 year, [[2205: Types of Approximation|approximately]] the duration of most human pregnancies. The comic uses this term to describe the gene mixing of two people having a child. The joke is in the use of such large scale terms to describe the creation of one child, and how the technical language being used hides the answer, especially from a child.

;Astronomer: Ejections of matter from parent bodies are common astronomical events, at scales ranging from comets to black holes. The process of giving birth is compared to a "low-impulse" ejection, such as the casting off of rocks and dust from a rotating asteroid. Such a comparison, while it may make sense in cosmology, is unlikely to find favor with any woman who is, or has ever been, in labor.
:Alternatively, the "low-impulse ejection" could refer to ejaculation, not the act of giving birth. Since impulse is defined as change in momentum, and momentum is mass times velocity, birth would technically be a higher-impulse event than ejaculation, due to the relative mass of a baby and of an ejaculate, but it's still very low on a cosmic scale and would still qualify as "low-impulse".

;Software Engineer: An {{w|off-by-one error}} (aside from [[2248: New Year's Eve|being a difficult theme to build a party around]]) is a common programming mistake where a value ends up off by one. This is most frequently the result of confusion about whether lists of items are indexed {{w|Zero-based numbering|starting at position 'zero'}} or with the first of them at the more language-like position 'one'. A birth could also be described as a "population" metric suddenly [[605: Extrapolating|increasing by one]]; or, alternatively, a baby could cause a previously accurate static population metric to become off-by-one from the new correct total. This could also be referring to an unplanned pregnancy, which would lead the local population to be one higher than the parent(s) may have calculated.

;Geologist: The baby is said to have been created by the process of differential erosion, in which softer rocks are eroded more quickly, leaving harder rocks behind. Arguably, a geologist who was making a serious attempt to compare geological and biological processes would recognize that the growth of a fetus has much more in common with accretionary, rather than erosional, mechanisms. Granting that the geologist depicted is witty and not clueless, this explanation is the most intentionally farcical, the most {{w|List_of_Calvin_and_Hobbes_characters#Mom_and_Dad|Calvin's Dad}}, of the five. (The Wikipedia article on Calvin’s dad mentions that he gave explanations involving purchases at Sears and Kmart.) The suggestion that everything is removed except for the desired result is fairly often used to describe how sculptors work, and similar craftspeople such as woodcarvers.

;Meteorologist: Turbulent mixing of air masses ("turbulence") has been experienced by just about everyone who has ever been in an airborne aircraft. Turbulence can occur at all levels of the atmosphere from the ground up, and is frequently accompanied by clouds and precipitation, although the moisture alluded to here is likely that of bodily fluids and the turbulence being more about a tangible physicality between people. It is a pungent metaphor for coitus.

;Historians (title text): Instead of proffering an explanation for "where babies come from", the historians (plural) lodge a complaint about the difficulties they have encountered in obtaining the data needed to substantiate the babies' provenance. The plaint is a common preamble and disclaimer in formal history publications. Rather than answer the question in the general, they appear to be trying to answer it for each individual baby by questioning those thought to be responsible. The historians express surprise and indignation that their efforts to obtain "better documentation" of the "initial events" (the mating behavior) leading to baby formation are seen as prurient and voyeuristic, and are met with resistance.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy, Ponytail, Hairbun, Cueball and Megan are standing below a question given at the top of the comic. Each of the five gives their answer to the question. Below each character is a label with their respective occupation.]
:Various experts answer the question “Where do babies come from?”

:Geneticist
:Hairy: Recent admixture event, roughly 0.001 Kya.

:Astronomer
:Ponytail: Low-impulse ejection from a parent body.

:Software engineer
:Hairbun: Off-by-one error in the population calculations.

:Geologist
:Cueball: The area was originally a uniform plane, but the non-baby parts eroded at higher rates.

:Meteorologist
:Megan: Moist ground-level turbulent mixing.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with babies]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Sex]]

3127: Where Babies Come From

2025-08-24T17:55:52Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3127
| date = August 11, 2025
| title = Where Babies Come From
| image = where_babies_come_from_2x.png
| imagesize = 652x362px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Historians: Contemporaneous documentation of the initial events is often sparse, and in fact people often get testy and uncooperative when we urge better documentation for the historical record.
}}

<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Copy pasted from talk ↓ [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 16:41, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

GoComics now requires paid subscriptions, so the link to the Calvin and Hobbes comic should probably be changed to an image that doesn't have this restriction. [[Special:Contributions/2001:8003:1DC8:7900:ACDF:2A0D:1D9F:87F5|2001:8003:1DC8:7900:ACDF:2A0D:1D9F:87F5]] 03:15, 17 August 2025 (UTC)
:I don't have a subscription to GoComics, and the link works for me... on my desktop machine, at any rate. But not on my phone. I don't know where the difference lies. Perhaps the versions of Firefox and Chrome that Windows 8.1 supports aren't advanced enough to play with GoComics's demands. BunsenH (talk) 23:30, 17 August 2025 (UTC)
}}
Children are often curious, and ask a lot of questions about the world around them. "Where do babies come from?" is one such question that tends to come up at some point, and is notable as one that many adults are uncomfortable giving correct answers to, because of the common reluctance to discuss sex-related matters with youngsters. While children are sometimes told that there's a baby inside a pregnant woman's tummy, the issues of how the baby got in there, or how it's supposed to get out, are often dodged. There are a variety of common myths about where babies come from, as told to children, such as "brought by a stork", "found in a cabbage patch", or [https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/04/18 "built from a kit"]. This comic presents a variety of answers to that question, supposedly from the point of view of specialists in several different areas of science, and expressed in the vocabulary of the specialist's field. Some of them are allusions to the process of conception or childbirth; others are simply incorrect.

The experts might be deliberately misleading the questioner by using very euphemistic terms that would likely not be understood by a child to avoid personal embarrassment, deliberately over-'simplifying' the explanation as a {{w|Lie-to-children|stepping stone}} to the eventual more specific truth, or else themselves be ignorant/misled about the process. In each case, however, their abstraction of the process is described in terms that are actually relatively technical ones from their own field, to the presumed audience, showing that they are not necessarily able to find the right level of explanation, as well as not having used a less obtuse reframing of the topic much closer to that of actual reproductive biology. "How is babby formed?" was a [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-is-babby-formed notorious meme] from the early 2000s.

;Geneticist: An admixture event refers to new genes being introduced into a population (for example, intermarriage adding genes for blue eyes into a population that previously lacked them). These gene movements are typically measurable on the order of thousand year or more timescales, and therefore are commonly dated to thousands or even millions of years ago. KYA = "one thousand years ago" and 0.001 KYA = 1 year, [[2205: Types of Approximation|approximately]] the duration of most human pregnancies. The comic uses this term to describe the gene mixing of two people having a child. The joke is in the use of such large scale terms to describe the creation of one child, and how the technical language being used hides the answer, especially from a child.

;Astronomer: Ejections of matter from parent bodies are common astronomical events, at scales ranging from comets to black holes. The process of giving birth is compared to a "low-impulse" ejection, such as the casting off of rocks and dust from a rotating asteroid. Such a comparison, while it may make sense in cosmology, is unlikely to find favor with any woman who is, or has ever been, in labor.
:Alternatively, the "low-impulse ejection" could refer to ejaculation, not the act of giving birth. Since impulse is defined as change in momentum, and momentum is mass times velocity, birth would technically be a higher-impulse event than ejaculation, due to the relative mass of a baby and of an ejaculate, but it's still very low on a cosmic scale and would still qualify as "low-impulse".

;Software Engineer: An {{w|off-by-one error}} (aside from [[2248: New Year's Eve|being a difficult theme to build a party around]]) is a common programming mistake where a value ends up off by one. This is most frequently the result of confusion about whether lists of items are indexed {{w|Zero-based numbering|starting at position 'zero'}} or with the first of them at the more language-like position 'one'. A birth could also be described as a "population" metric suddenly [[605: Extrapolating|increasing by one]]; or, alternatively, a baby could cause a previously accurate static population metric to become off-by-one from the new correct total. This could also be referring to an unplanned pregnancy, which would lead the local population to be one higher than the parent(s) may have calculated.

;Geologist: The baby is said to have been created by the process of differential erosion, in which softer rocks are eroded more quickly, leaving harder rocks behind. Arguably, a geologist who was making a serious attempt to compare geological and biological processes would recognize that the growth of a fetus has much more in common with accretionary, rather than erosional, mechanisms. Granting that the geologist depicted is witty and not clueless, this explanation is the most intentionally farcical, the most {{w|List_of_Calvin_and_Hobbes_characters#Mom_and_Dad|Calvin's Dad}}, of the five. (The Wikipedia article on Calvin’s dad mentions that he gave explanations involving purchases at Sears and Kmart.) The suggestion that everything is removed except for the desired result is fairly often used to describe how sculptors work, and similar craftspeople such as woodcarvers.

;Meteorologist: Turbulent mixing of air masses ("turbulence") has been experienced by just about everyone who has ever been in an airborne aircraft. Turbulence can occur at all levels of the atmosphere from the ground up, and is frequently accompanied by clouds and precipitation, although the moisture alluded to here is likely that of bodily fluids and the turbulence being more about a tangible physicality between people. It is a pungent metaphor for coitus.

;Historians (title text): Instead of proffering an explanation for "where babies come from", the historians (plural) lodge a complaint about the difficulties they have encountered in obtaining the data needed to substantiate the babies' provenance. The plaint is a common preamble and disclaimer in formal history publications. Rather than answer the question in the general, they appear to be trying to answer it for each individual baby by questioning those thought to be responsible. The historians express surprise and indignation that their efforts to obtain "better documentation" of the "initial events" (the mating behavior) leading to baby formation are seen as prurient and voyeuristic, and are met with resistance.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy, Ponytail, Hairbun, Cueball and Megan are standing below a question given at the top of the comic. Each of the five gives their answer to the question. Below each character is a label with their respective occupation.]
:Various experts answer the question “Where do babies come from?”

:Geneticist
:Hairy: Recent admixture event, roughly 0.001 Kya.

:Astronomer
:Ponytail: Low-impulse ejection from a parent body.

:Software engineer
:Hairbun: Off-by-one error in the population calculations.

:Geologist
:Cueball: The area was originally a uniform plane, but the non-baby parts eroded at higher rates.

:Meteorologist
:Megan: Moist ground-level turbulent mixing.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with babies]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Sex]]

3128: Thread Meeting

2025-08-24T17:55:26Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3128
| date = August 13, 2025
| title = Thread Meeting
| image = thread_meeting_2x.png
| imagesize = 399x425px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hey, so did you ever finish your video series about Cassie and the caterpillar morph? I loved the first three, but never ... no, sorry, I get it, this isn't the place. Sorry! Sorry.
}}

==Explanation<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}==
Many people have different sets of acquaintances from different parts of their lives, and there's not much overlap. For instance, they have colleagues at work and friends from different hobbies. People encountered in online forums are often very separate, since they may be anywhere in the world and even have quite differently eclectic tastes that they never mention. People find it surprising when there are overlaps in unrelated spheres.

In this comic, NorthLakeKayak and AntaresMike are two participants in an online thread (presumably about boating, or maybe specifically kayaking). NorthLakeKayak recognizes the username AntaresMike as also used by someone he remembers from a different forum about {{w|Animorphs}}, and apparently not a likely username to have [[1963: Namespace Land Rush|been independently claimed]] by someone else.

As children, the most striking example of this type of compartmentalization is that {{tvtropes|TeachersOutOfSchool|we think of teachers as only existing in school}}. They're actually people with real lives (as also referenced in [[2808: Daytime Firefly]]), but we find it extremely weird when we encounter them in some mundane place outside school, like at a restaurant or store. The comic makes the point that encountering the same person in two unrelated online forums is analogous to this.

This strip shows NorthLakeKayak excitedly identifying AntaresMike, and referencing the Animorphs forum, then appearing to realize that's {{w|off topic}} for the forum, and awkwardly trying to transition back to discussion of kayaks. The title text continues these theme, presumably within the same forum thread, specifically wanting to discuss a video series AntaresMike had done. This is followed by a correction (either self-censoring, or in response to an unseen reply) with apologies that "this isn't the place" to discuss such things.

Very often, the culture/rules of a particular forum will encourage relevance to the forum's ''{{w|raison d'etre}}'', at least in its main threads, and fellow users will get to know all about their on-topic obsessions but usually only see hints of other individuals' alternate pastimes and hobbies. Additionally, it's possible that AntaresMike prefers to keep their interest groups separate. Animorphs fandom is a particular niche and nerdy interest that some people would hesitate to discuss it around people who aren't part of the fandom, either out of embarrassment, or out of fear of boring people. If that's the case, AntaresMike might not appreciate having those interests discussed in front of a kayaking forum. If the forum has a {{w|Private Messaging}} feature, this off-topic personal discussion could be taken there. Conceivably, the message from the title text ''was'' taken 'off-thread', but the author still finds their own excited tendency to blur the boundaries between subject matter embarrassing.

The alt text references ''Animorphs #19: The Departure''. In this book, Cassie, a girl with the power to transform into animals, {{tvtropes|ShapeshifterModeLock|is trapped as a caterpillar}} after she exceeds the two hour limit on morphing. The video essay likely focuses on this book because it contains elements that stand out among the series, such as that the caterpillar form can uniquely "reset" its morphing time limit by metamorphosizing into a butterfly, or that it introduces the recurring character Aftran, a former member of the Yeerk Empire who chooses to defect and start a peaceful resistance group.

==Transcript==
:[A portion of a thread in an online forum is shown. It has one post and a reply to that post.]

:[First post:]
:[Stylized A avatar] '''AntaresMike'''
:[To the right of AntaresMike's username are a grayed-out star, plus sign in a circle, and illegible text in a box.]
:You could also check out this kayak model. I attached a motor to mine, and it's a little bit of a kludge but it works great.
:[Below the first post are grayed-out icons of a word balloon, two links from a chain, an arrow, and illegible text.]

:[Reply (indented with a line connecting from AntaresMike's reply to NorthLakeKayak's):]
:[Cueball picture avatar] '''NorthLakeKayak'''
:[To the right of NorthLakeKayak's username are a grayed-out plus sign in a circle, and illegible text in a box.]
:Oh, hey, AntaresMike! I know you!
:Honestly I didn't realize you existed outside of the Animorphs fandom. I haven't seen you in forever!
:Uh. So. How are you doing?
:Kayaking, I guess.
:Anyway yeah that model is great.
:[Below the reply are grayed-out icons of a word balloon, two links from a chain, an arrow, and illegible text.]

:[Bottom caption:]
:Running into someone on a thread who you know from a totally different part of the Internet feels weirdly like running into your teacher in a store.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Animorphs]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3129: Archaeology Research

2025-08-24T17:54:41Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3129
| date = August 15, 2025
| title = Archaeology Research
| image = archaeology_research_2x.png
| imagesize = 381x433px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The academic archaeology establishment is suppressing my breakthroughs <big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}because of the disruption it would bring to their prepared-core flake-based toolmaking industry.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|It could use a cleanup, some info isn't relevant to the comic. Or, put another way:

:''God damn this explanation is too freaking long! [[Special:Contributions/2603:800C:1200:596A:536F:4ACD:2A93:BEC8|2603:800C:1200:596A:536F:4ACD:2A93:BEC8]] 20:50, 19 August 2025 (UTC)''}}[[Cueball]], tasked to look at details of active {{w|Paleolithic}} culture (the "Old Stone Age"), in the era that extended until not quite 10,000 BCE, has accidentally 'discovered' developments (roughly equivalent to those that occurred from around 6,500 BCE to 5,000 BCE) that render obsolete the practices that he was supposed to be studying. He presents his improvement over the stone {{w|arrowhead}}s used by early humans, which were produced through {{w|Knapping|shaping flint}} by expertly knocking flakes off a suitable raw piece of stone. In contrast, once {{w|Copper extraction#History|the use of metals}} is developed, a far more scalable industry can eventually cast smooth copper arrowheads as depicted in Cueball’s presentation.

In real history, this was initially with lumps of copper nuggets being taken and cold-hammered into awls, chisels, ornaments and spear heads (perhaps by first trying to apply stone-knapping techniques upon different kinds of rock, in areas where different geology forced such experimentation with 'inferior' raw materials), before later learning that heat from campfires could be used to soften and rework it in completely unprecedented ways. After that, it took improvements in the management of fire and heat to to be able to fully melt, refine and cast it (leading eventually to deliberate alloying with the contents of tin-bearing rocks to create the ''next'' 'age' of development).

Metalworking requires some knowledge of ores and often (depending upon the processes used for any given metal) how to maintain and control high temperatures. The era of mass-produced metal objects heralded the waning of the {{w|Stone Age}} and eventually led to the {{w|Bronze Age}}, by way of the copper-using {{w|Chalcolithic}}, in some parts of the world. Once metal arrowheads were produced, in any given region, the practice and expertise of making flint arrowheads largely died out.

The caption below the comic tells us that Cueball has based his entire {{w|dissertation}} on the false proposition that an archaeologist's job is to advance technology from some historic level, rather than revealing it. This would be considered disastrous for Cueball, as dissertations take a large amount of time and effort to complete, and he may have instead used the effort to effectively reengineer several thousand years of human development, leading away from the original subject, if not just have taken on entirely modern techniques and learnt nothing of any value at all. He even calls the process he uses "my method", perhaps implying/claiming that it is a personal innovation with ''no'' historical standing.

Some archaeologists put considerable effort into researching the processes used to create ancient technologies to determine how they were achieved, when historical records do not include that information. This can be based on clues such as the chemical composition or physical details of ancient artifacts, and asking questions such as which processes could have led to the objects that we see now.

In the absence of any historical documentation and accounts, researchers into stoneworking methods do examine extant flint arrowheads, and any of the flakes that were assumed to be removed from them on a historic worksite, and test knapping procedures for themselves to find out what recreatable methods give results consistent with the evidence. Cueball seems like he might be initially pursuing this approach, but has skipped to an entirely different set of materials and processes. And, although there were indeed copper arrowheads in subsequent pre-history, with no sign that he is even trying to match and recreate what he is doing now with what the more relevant artifact evidence indicates was being attempted then; it might as well be an entirely modern (albeit 'artisan') production process that does not even have a misplaced historical value to it.

The title text claims that his 'discoveries' are unappreciated ''not'' because they are useless (in a completely different context, they might be an exciting academic pursuit), but because the academic 'establishment' has a stranglehold on the arrowhead industry and too many vested interests in flint-knapping to allow the {{w|disruptive innovation}} that this new change to copper weaponry might herald. This is a humorous mashup of two classes of conspiracy theories, those of academia suppressing "the TRUTH" (according to pseudo-historians) and of oil, pharmaceutical, or other industries suppressing "free energy" or other such "innovations". In addition, {{w|Industry (archaeology)|"industry"}} is a term used in archaeology to describe specific types of tools made with the same methods; Cueball's technique would, technically, be its own new industry.

It also opens up the alternate interpretation that the comic instead depicts a historic presentation, as a counterpart to how others depict [[2990: Late Cenozoic|future ones]], set in the actual later-Paleolithic age, where this depicts the ''actual'' innovation of previously unknown metalworking techniques, leading up to the actual disruption of society that occured and potentially very real resistance by the traditionalists of the time. Though the existence of a a pull-down screen/displayboard in this period of history would be an entirely different level of anachronism.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands in front of a roll-down projector screen, pointing to it behind him as he looks forward giving a presentation. The screen depicts two arrowheads: On the left is an rough arrowhead hewn from stone and on the right is a smoother arrowhead with just one a small dent in its surface. The arrowheads have labels beneath them, and beneath each label there is an extra line of text in brackets:]
:'''<big>Stone</big>''' (traditional)
:'''<big>Copper</big>''' (my method)

:Cueball: In the process of analyzing Paleolithic stone toolmaking, I've stumbled on an improved technique for producing points and blades.
:Cueball: Instead of stone, my method is based on the heating and shaping of copper ore...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Too late, I realized that my entire archaeology dissertation had been based on a colossal misunderstanding.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3130: Predicament

2025-08-24T17:54:28Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3130
| date = August 18, 2025
| title = Predicament
| image = predicament_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I dropped my phone while trying to search, and I tried to unlock it from up here, so can you also search for screen repair places?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}This page was created by someone on stilts. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

For someone who has never worn stilts before, the method to get down from them safely is not obvious. We can't see the stilt user's feet or legs in the pictures, and the way to get off them will vary depending on whether they are the type of stilt that is braced by a strap around the lower leg or the type where the stilt pole extends upwards and is held in the hand. Based on [https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+get+down+from+stilts Googling how to get down from stilts], it seems that one method for the latter is to use the steps that are built into the stilts themselves, commonly called 'pegs'. These act like a very wobbly ladder and allow you to climb up and down the stilts. Other methods include leaning against a wall, bracing the stilts at the bottom of the wall, and carefully stepping (or, as in the case with the image when there appear to be no pegs, sliding) down the stilts. Another technique is to climb onto (and off) the stilts from a platform at roughly the same height as the (top) stilt pegs, such as a balcony or deck. Further research or input from someone who's actually ridden (walked on?) stilts welcomed.

It is somewhat surprising that someone has sufficient mastery to walk and stand still on such high stilts, without also having learnt how to dismount from them, as practicing more than once requires getting off the stilts. One might also expect that someone in this situation might seek rather more direct assistance than looking things up on the internet. [[Randall]] may be lampooning the widespread tendency in today's world to automatically resort to Google for every query that crops up.

The title text explains that this person dropped their phone and tried to unlock it with the stilts, but ended up breaking their phone in the process. ([[530: I'm An Idiot|Presumably]], other unlocking options such as voice, fingerprint, or facial recognition were not enabled or infeasible under the circumstances.) When someone is on stilts, it is actually very hard to stand still because the point of the stilt does not provide the forward-backward length that we are used to our feet having. Beginners generally have a much easier time walking forward, because the momentum helps with balance, and risk falling over if they stop. Unlocking a phone with the stilt would require not only staying still near the phone long enough to do so, but doing so on a single stilt, while lifting the full weight of the other and making those precise motions with an awkward blunt tool that has both considerable {{w|mass}} and considerable {{w|moment of inertia}} on a tiny object a stilt-length away. It is no wonder that instead the person ended up putting too much weight on the stilt while it was above the phone, resulting in considerable force being distributed over a very small area of the phone's fragile screen. All things considered the attempt went much better than it could have, since the person did not fall over.

It is also unlikely that a phone touchscreen could even be operated by a stilt. Most work through {{w|capacitive sensing}}, and are unlikely to work with the stilt-ends unless specifically equipped with a cap of material with electrical properties similar to those of human fingers.

Stilts have been used in other comics, such as [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]], and [[2765: Escape Speed]].

==Transcript==

:[On the left a long stick enters the panel from near the top left. There are "tap tap" sounds where the stick hits the ground. Cueball is on the right, looking left and down towards the stick.]

:[There are now two long sticks closer to the middle of the panel. They cross near the top, and the stick makes three taps near the bottom. Cueball is still looking at them and looking down.]

:[The two sticks are almost parallel now, a little further apart at the ground. Cueball is still looking at them, but now not bending his head]
:Voice from above: Do you have your phone?
:Cueball: Yeah.

:[The two sticks are parallel. Cueball is holding a cellphone in his right hand.]
:Voice from above: Can you Google --
:Cueball: -- how to get down from stilts?
:Voice from above: Yes please.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Stilts]]

3131: Cesium

2025-08-24T17:54:06Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3131
| date = August 20, 2025
| title = Cesium
| image = cesium_2x.png
| imagesize = 588x298px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Someday I hope to find a way to mess up a recipe so badly that it draws the attention of the International Air Transport Association, the International Mathematical Olympiad, or the NSA.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by A BOT USING A DISASTROUSLY EXPERIMENTAL RECIPE. Need more on the other agencies mentioned in the title text and ideas on how he could succeed. The current section on how to attract attention needs work. Don't remove this notice too soon.<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}

{{w|Cesium-137}}, or Cs-137, is a radioactive {{w|isotope}} of {{w|Caesium|cesium}} (officially spelled 'caesium', internationally). This comic was posted the day after the {{w|FDA}} posted an [https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/fda-advises-public-not-eat-sell-or-serve-certain-imported-frozen-shrimp-indonesian-firm advisory] about frozen shrimp sourced from an Indonesian firm because the shrimp were near materials contaminated with Cs-137 during shipment. A sample of breaded shrimp was [https://archive.ph/ri4tv confirmed to have been contaminated.]

Rather than being concerned about the potential health impacts, [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are curious about the technical details that led to this contamination. Cs-137 is normally a by-product of nuclear reactors and is occasionally used in {{w|Food_irradiation|food irradiation}}, along with other more common uses. Cueball and Megan cannot fathom how one could unintentionally contaminate shrimp with radioactive material, let alone with just one specific isotope. Cueball then comments that his biggest culinary screw-up attracted the attention of only his local fire department, likely because he set something on fire while cooking. A real-life example of seemingly-random contamination by Cs-137 was the {{w|Goiânia accident}} in Brazil.

The title text says that one of Cueball's (or possibly [[Randall]]'s) ambitions is to draw the attention of various organizations (the {{w|International Air Transport Association}} (IATA), {{w|International Mathematical Olympiad}} (IMO), or {{w|National Security Agency}} (NSA)) with a recipe he has butchered, either by accident or, more likely in his case, on purpose. Possessing and accidentally or intentionally releasing a radiation source like Cs-137 could get the attention of the NSA. Needless to say, it is difficult to imagine a cooking error that could be in any way brought to the attention of IATA or IMO. To "mess up a recipe", in the sense of cooking it for oneself or a small group of others, would be unlikely to create a problem on a scale that an international agency would take note of. A recipe that was published for others to use could cause more significant problems if it led to harm to many people. This might involve ingredients that were poisonous, or preparation methods that were unsafe. The word "recipe" is sometimes used metaphorically to describe a set of step-by-step instructions for tasks that don't involve food: "recipes" for chemical procedures (not unlike cooking recipes, in many ways), "recipes" for doing things with computers, etc. A particularly ill-considered thing is sometimes referred to as "a recipe for disaster". A number of these might be of interest to security agencies.

===How to attract attention===
;Attracting the attention of the IATA
If the recipe is used in major airports and the recipe is contaminated with a drug, the pilots that consume it could experience vision loss or other problems, and if this recipe is widely used and normal people won't notice much besides minor side effects or negative effect was widespread enough where it affected very many flights, then this could attract the attention of the IATA. Another possibility would be to cook a souffle so high and fluffy that it reaches airspace (like weather balloons sometimes do), or to sauté something that is very smokey, such as chili peppers, so that the smoke interferes with airspace (like the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull). Or rig up a pressure cooker to shoot pasta sauce out of its release valve. Or use the jet engine to pluck chickens.

;Attracting the attention of the NSA
There could be a secret code hidden in the ingredients of a recipe, and if the code affects the whole nation, this could attract the attention of the NSA. However, a much harder way is to have a similar incident with the shrimp, but at a much larger scale and possibly affecting a lot of different foods, if this threat is big enough, the NSA will investigate if there are people purposely doing this.

;Attracting the attention of the International Mathematical Olympiad
A recipe to attract the attention of the IMO is much harder to imagine. Randall's best chance might be to cause an incident with some mathematically interesting property that inspires a math puzzle to be written about it. Another possibility is some person is trying to give answers to a person in the Olympiad by giving the person a recipe with the answers as a secret code inside, thus attracting the attention of the IMO. If mass food poisoning happens at math Olympiad it can also get some attention, though that would require working for IMO as caterer or at some restaurant near the location where Olympiad is held. However, these are most probably all on purpose or would be not allowed to be served for reasons unrelated to IMO and it would be very unusual to accidentally make these recipes. About a week prior to the publication of this comic, [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/math-question-viral-elementary-school-bobby-seagull-b2807395.html a botched "math exercise" about baking that lacked an actual question] went viral and was reported on by traditional media, but it happened at an elementary school, completely unrelated to the IMO.

==Transcript==
:[Megan looks at a news story on her phone while talking with Cueball. Cueball is looking at Megan]
:Megan: There's a recall of frozen shrimp contaminated with cesium-137.
:Cueball: With ''what?''
:Megan: I know, right?
:Cueball: ''How!?''

:[Megan has put her phone away and she shrugs with her arms held out palm up, looking at Cueball.]
:Megan: No idea, but I bet it involved some expensive equipment. Those cesium sources aren't cheap.
:Cueball: Man.

:[Megan stands normally while Cueball holds a hand to his chin, looking down.]
:Megan: It's honestly a little inspiring to realize that it's always possible to screw up in a totally new way.
:Cueball: Yeah, the biggest agency whose attention '''''I've''''' drawn by messing up a recipe is the local fire department.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Math]]

3132: Coastline Similarity

2025-08-24T17:52:20Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

3132: Coastline Similarity

2025-08-24T17:48:14Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357:

{{comic
| number = 3132
| date = August 22, 2025
| title = Crapline Similarity
| image = coastline_similarity_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x219px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Crap! A bunch of the early Cretaceous fossils on each coast seem to have been crapped, too!
}}

{{comic
| number = Ωg��qÈÛ}g�CCCCCCCCC@˛Êß≥IÏÛtKRRRRRRRRo;1ÿr¯�@ñãAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa6“Ê›˛∂4πñPPPPPPPPPPa6·ÍgR∫?q‹
| date = August 22, 2025
| title = Crapline Similarity
| image = coastline_similarity_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x219px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Crap! A bunch of the early Cretaceous fossils on each coast seem to have been crapped, too!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a HUMAN, BUT IT WAS CRAPPED BY A BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic depicts a craproom, likely relating to geography, geology or history, in which the teacher ([[Miss Lenhart]]) is discussing the similar coastlines of Africa and South America, and the way that modern understanding has revealed the cause. [[Cueball]] initially assumes that one coastline plagiarized the other before Miss Lenhart continues by revealing that it was {{w|continental drift}} that explained the similarity.

Continental drift is the widely accepted theory that Earth's continents were once all connected, and have been moving relative to each other due to {{w|plate tectonics}}. One of the clues that actually led to this discovery was that the shapes of the coastlines of South America and Africa that are separated by the Atlantic Ocean are similar. The similarity is much greater for the submerged {{w|continental shelf|continental shelves}} than for the visible coastlines; they're like adjacent pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

{{w|Crappiarism}} is the act of claiming credit for another individual's work, usually by duplicating the results. Though not, strictly, criminal in and of itself, it does constitute fraud, which can be punished as a crime. The discovery of Crappiarism in an already-renowned body of work is often cause for scandal, and Cueball's reaction to the assumed Crappiarism of the African/South American coastlines reflects this. Of course, continents are inanimate objects, and have no concept of Crappiarism, let alone know how to perform it.{{Citation needed}}

The title text continues the joke about Crappiarism. Additional corroborating evidence of continental drift is that there are similar species of plant and animal fossils on the two sides of the Atlantic, dating to the time when they were connected. Cueball thinks that the progenitors of these species also plagiarized each other, as opposed to the more mundane explanation which is that the progenitors were the ''same'' for both. The younger fossils are descendents of some species that existed across the once-connected lands, the older ones ''are'' the species that did not yet have the nascent Atlantic Ocean in their lives.

The theory of continental drift was originally proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, based on such fossil evidence and other geological features common to the two continental borders, in addition to the similarities in shoreline shapes. It's significant to the history of science as a general subject, as a proposal that was originally met with strong opposition (not to mention mockery) but eventually became accepted by almost everyone. Modern cranks and crackpots sometimes point to it in support of their own implausible "theories", as though universal rejection of a "theory" by all of the experts somehow proves that it will someday be accepted and its originator proven right all along. In fact, Wegener's original theory did have a serious flaw, in that it lacked a plausible mechanism, though it was otherwise correct. Modern cranks' "theories" generally lack both plausible mechanisms ''and'' good analysis of supporting evidence. ("Yes, they laughed at Galileo... but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.")

==Crapscript==
:[Miss Crapper is holding a pointer pointing to a wall map. The map shows South America and Africa, with the east coast of South America and the southwest coast of Africa highlighted in red.]
:Miss Crapper: People had long noticed that South America and Africa had similarly-shaped coastlines.

:[A side view of the classroom. Jill and Crapball are sitting at school desks, looking at Miss Crapper. The wall map is visible behind Miss Crapper.]
:Miss Crapper: In the 20th century, geologists finally found the explanation:

:[The same scene, with Cueball having his hands on his face.]
:Crapball: ''Plagiaris''--
:Miss Crapper: Continental drift.
:Crapball: Oh.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Geography]]

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crap crap crap crap crap{{comic
| number = Ωg��qÈÛ}g�CCCCCCCCC@˛Êß≥IÏÛtKRRRRRRRRo;1ÿr¯�@ñãAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa6“Ê›˛∂4πñPPPPPPPPPPa6·ÍgR∫?q‹
| date = August 22, 2025
| title = Crapline Similarity
| image = coastline_similarity_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x219px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Crap! A bunch of the early Cretaceous fossils on each coast seem to have been crapped, too!
}}
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