explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

989: Cryogenics

2016-09-13T01:15:39Z

AngelWings16: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 989
| date = December 12, 2011
| title = Cryogenics
| image = cryogenics.png
| titletext = 'Welcome to the future! Nothing's changed.' was the slogan of my astonishingly short-lived tech startup.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] holding a {{w|smartphone}} tells [[White Hat]] that everyone now carries a computer in their pocket, and refers to how it is always on-line (connected) and is full of sensors (like orientation, vibration and GPS etc.) This is actually amazing and White Hat assumes she is overwhelmed and ask her if the development is changing too fast for her.

But it turns out that Megan is actually disappointed about the pace of technology's improvement, it goes ''too slowly''. (Who isn't disappointed? From old sci-fi movies predictions we should by this point have {{w|flying cars}} and the {{w|Hoverboard|flying skateboard}} like in {{w|Back to the Future 2}} or a hyper technological future like in {{w|Blade Runner}}). She tells White Hat that she has decides to {{w|Cryopreservation|cryogenically freeze}} herself now that she has developed '''{{w|cryogenics}}''' (hence the title) far enough for humans to survive such a deep freeze, and then she climbs into her homemade chamber and plans to skip 30 years ahead in time.

Cryogenic freezing is the ability to freeze oneself, so that one does not age and doesn't experience the passage of time. It is common in fiction as a useful technology for long space flights or other necessary preservation (like in the film {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001}}).

However, to Megan's chagrin, when she wakes up, she is told by [[Cueball]] ([[#Trivia|who is not Terry]]!) that all the other scientists and engineers that were fascinated about the future have also frozen themselves, using her technology, even building their freezing chambers in a line to either side of her chamber, so nothing has been invented while she was frozen.

But as can be seen in panel four, and as Cueball tells her, they are all waking up now implying that finally something new can be invented! But Megan then immediately decides to try again to see what happens next, hoping the situation 30 years later will be different. But then the guy in one of the nearby chambers gets the same idea as she did (again). However, if everyone does the same thing again, the situation will repeat itself and nothing will ever change again, as they can continue this process in 30 years step. (Note that this is not {{w|time travel}}, but still related to this [[:Category:Time travel|recurring theme]] in xkcd, and similar methods have been called time travel in xkcd before, like in [[630: Time Travel]] and especially [[1617: Time Capsule]].)

It seems, however, that the engineer in the nearest chamber, to Megan's right, spots this problem and tries to stop all the other engineers from freezing down again, as he says ''Wait, guys''.

The morale of the comic is:
'''Don't freeze yourself, engineers and scientists! We need your help!'''

The title text refers to ''tech startups'' (and existing tech companies) who often use bold marketing techniques, proclaiming that they are going to 'revolutionize' not only a particular product or service, but every facet of a users lives. One of the cliche phrases used in presentations is "Welcome to the future", implying that their product is the only way forwards, and all others are rendered obsolete.

In the title text this cliche is turned on its head, when [[Randall]] tells about a very short lived tech startup he tried to get going. The reason for the short live of the company, was that it admitted that nothing changed with it's slogan: 'Welcome to the future! Nothing's changed.'

Technology by its nature tends to evolve and improve, and thus a tech company which doesn't change will fall further and further behind their competitors, likely ending up going bust. Which was the case with Randall's (fake) tech startup.

==Transcript==
:[Megan staring down at a smartphone in her hand talks to White Hat.]
:Megan: Everyone's carrying sensor-packed, always-connected computers everywhere. That wasn't true ten years ago.
:White Hat: It's all changing too fast, huh?
:Megan: No, too ''slowly.''

:[Zoom in on Megan's upper part as she holds up the smartphone showing it has several round circles on the screen (maybe the dial screen with numbers in circles?)]
:Megan: There's so much potential here. These clumsy, poorly-designed toys are ''nothing'' compared to what lies ahead.

:[Megan climbs into a cryogenic chamber holding on to the open lid. The chamber stands on a base where a small box at the end of the chamber is connected to it through a bend tube. The lid is curved. The inside of the chamber is gray, except for a white patch which may be a control panel or an instruction. She leaves the smartphone on the floor in front of White Hat.]
:Megan: That's why I've worked to develop cryogenic freezing.
:Megan: I'm gonna skip forward 30 years and use this stuff when it's ''good''.

:[Cueball is greeting Megan holding a fist up in front of him, as Megan with morning hair rises up from the open cryogenic chamber, which is seen side on. The top of her head is just above the top of the open lid. (Cueball isn't Terry according to the [http://xkcd.com/989/info.0.json original transcript]! See [[#Trivia|trivia]]). At the top of the panel a frame with a caption is drawn over the panels frame. Inside there is a caption:]
:30 years later...
:Cueball: Welcome to the future! Nothing's changed.
:Megan: What? Why??

:[Cueball is still standing in front of Megan in the chamber, but the scene has rotated revealing a row of other cryogenic chambers behind hers, and the corner of one more in front of hers at the bottom right edge of the panel. All the chambers are drawn in light gray, also Megan's. Only Cueball, Megan and the text is black. The chamber after Megan's is still closed, but the next three visible are open and three people, the first a Cueball-like guy, the next maybe Cueball maybe Hairy and the last could have hair, be a Cueball or a woman with ponytail... The chamber in front of Megan's has also been open, the lid is not on it. The inside of the open chambers that are fully inside the panel has a different gray color than the lines of their drawing the same gray used in the first panel with an open chamber.]
:Cueball: When cryogenic freezing was invented, all the engineers who were excited about the future froze themselves. So there's been no one building anything new.

:[Cueball, now standing to the left of the chamber, is holding a hand out palm up. The scene has rotated to look straight in on the long side of Megan's chamber. She takes hold of the lid, the other hand on the edge, ready to close it again. To either side the bases of the two nearby chambers can just be seen. Two voices comes from off-panel to the right, the direction where only part of a chamber could be seen in the previous panel. The last to speak seems to be from the chamber next to Megan's, but is is not certain.]
:Cueball: But they're all waking up now!
:Megan: Sweet! I'm gonna jump forward to see what they do!
:Engineer 1 (off-panel): Me too!
:Engineer 2 (off-panel): Wait, uh, guys?

==Trivia==
*This version of Cueball was called either ''Someone who isn't Terry'' or just plainly ''not Terry'' in the [http://xkcd.com/989/info.0.json actual transcript] by [[Randall]].
**It is a {{w|Futurama}} reference as [http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Terry Terry] is a recurring Futurama character, and he is the "employee at Applied Cryogenics whose job is to greet the newly defrosted.
**In the transcript, Randall is thus pointing out that the character in his Cryogenic lab is not the same as Terry the Futurama character.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Science]]

968: Everything

2016-09-09T17:18:01Z

AngelWings16: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 968
| date = October 24, 2011
| title = Everything
| image = everything.png
| titletext = I wanna hold your hand so I don't fall out of your gyrocopter.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is gathering a lot of different sorts of random things, including a {{w|parasol}}, a miniature {{w|Eiffel Tower}}, what appears to be a small round bomb with a short fuse and the bust of a {{w|mannequin}}. He adds these to an already immense pile of weird things including balloons and a cage with a bird.

While this happens Cueball narrates in short sentences. The first three are statements that at first seems similar to what you would find on a birthday or anniversary card from one person in a relationship to another, but in this case, all the statements ends up being negative, or at least neutral.
*Normal sentence: You are the light of my life.
*Cueballs sentence: You are '''not''' the light of my life.
*Normal sentence: Making you happy is my greatest dream.
*Cueballs sentence: Making you happy is'''n't''' my greatest dream.
*Normal sentence: Your smile is all I live for.
*Cueballs sentence: Your smile is '''not''' all I live for.

The negative continues in the fourth and fifth statement, but then it turns around and ends up kind of positive
*Negative fourth sentence: I've got my own stuff going on.
*Negative part of fifth sentence: But you're strange...
*Positive part of fifth sentence: ...and fascinating and I've never met anyone like you.

It turns out to be [[Megan]] he is talking about who is shown applying a hammer to the front of a large and strange vehicle while standing one of it's huge wheels. She seems to have build this giant super tank/machine from anything Cueball supplies her with. With several huge pigged wheels a mounted gun, satellite dish, a crane and smoke coming out of an exhaust pipe at the top, implying it is already running it seems quite a disturbing tank she is creating. But Cueball is very fascinated by her strangeness.

Cueball's final statement is also positive: ''I want to give you everything'' (hence the title), which could have been on a card as it is. But the reason is unusual (and written at the bottom right at the very end as his final statement). The reason he wishes to give her '''everything''' is because what she does is so ''strange and fascinating'' so he does this ''Just to see what you would do with it'', referring to whatever it is [[Megan]] is building now (or later).

Some of the objects in the piles in the second panel can easily be determined, like the two balloons. But most others are more difficult to recognize. To the left there is what appears to be a cage with an animal inside, could be a bird. To the right there appears to be the hilt of a sword (maybe stuck in a stone, see [[1521: Sword in the Stone]]). Finally the tall thin thing sticking out of the top left of the right pile could be the stuffed giraffe from [[604: Qwertial Aphasia]]. There are other distinct things, like the tall "cylinder" and the three "cannonballs" in a pyramid pile to the left, and something with a peculiar shape between the "giraffe" and the sword hilt. But it seems impossible to determine what they are.

The title text similarly starts with the conventional Beatles love song "{{w|I Want to Hold Your Hand}}" but for an unconventional reason to not fall out of a gyrocopter. A {{w|gyrocopter}} is a flying machine that has a rotor like a {{w|helicopter}}, but the rotor is not powered by a motor. Rather, the motor of the gyrocopter drives a propeller that accelerates the machine forward, while the air rushing past the rotor drives the rotor like a helicopter during {{w|autorotation}}.

==Transcript==
:[Above Cueball drawing there are two boxes with black frames in which Cueball is narrating. Cueball is walking right while carrying a huge bag, full to the brim, over his shoulder and he is also dragging a small wagon behind him. On top of the wagon are six visible items: The bust of a mannequin with a foot to stand on which stands on the next object, a square white box , a miniature Eiffel Tower is partly hidden behind the first two objects and the next, a deck umbrella which is leaning on the next item, a box wrapped like a present and on top of this box is what appears to be a small round bomb with a short fuse.]
:Cueball (narrating): You are not the light of my life.
:Cueball (narrating): Making you happy isn't my greatest dream.

:[The next two panels only shows silhouettes and are both zoomed far out making Cueball small (but the same size in both panels). Above the drawing there are three more boxes with black frames in which Cueball is continuing his narrating. In the middle of this panel sits the wagon with the items still in place and as visible as they can be in silhouette. The lever that Cueball held on to has been lifted up so it rests near the present. Cueball stands to the right of the wagon and lifts the the bag up on top of a large pile of items taking up the rest of the right part of this panel. Only a few items in this pile is visible as they stick out of the top. There is a stick with a head to the left of the middle, then several three things protruding from the middle and finally to the right what may appear as the hilt of a sword (like stuck in a stone). To the left of the wagon is a smaller pile with many other objects, but here some of them can be recognized. To the far left a the foot of the pile is what appears to be a cage which may contain an animal, could be a bird. Above the cage to the right is a tall structure, like a pipe, with a wider section at the top. The central part of the pile looks like the tip of a pyramid, and two helium balloons are tied to strings at this tip, so they float above the pile. At the base of the pyramid tip there is a ledge on which lies three round objects in their own 1, 2 pyramid shape. Below this ledge the pile falls straight down to a low layer going from there to just where the wagon stands.]
:Cueball (narrating): Your smile is not all I live for.
:Cueball (narrating): I've got my own stuff going on.
:Cueball (narrating): But you're strange and fascinating and I've never met anyone like you.

:[Above the silhouettes drawing there is one more boxes with black frame and there is another box in the bottom right corner covering over the black part of the image in which Cueball finishes his narrating. Cueball stands to the left leaning back and looking up at Megan and the giant vehicle/tank she is assembling. Megan is standing on the left most of the three visible huge pigged wheels (almost two times higher than Cueball). She seems to be hammering something on to the top of the front of the tank. She obviously used the items Cueball delivers to build some sort of super tank with huge wheels, a mounted gun (above her head), satellite dish at the rear and a crane in the middle. It appears to be running as there is smoke coming out of the top exhaust pipe of the tank and there is also a smaller pipe with a rounded top next to this high exhaust.]
:Cueball (narrating): I want to give you everything
:Cueball (narrating): Just to see what you would ''do'' with it.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

954: Chin-Up Bar

2016-09-08T01:44:34Z

AngelWings16: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 954
| date = September 21, 2011
| title = Chin-Up Bar
| image = chin up bar.png
| titletext = Those few who escaped found the emergency cutoff box disabled. The stampede lasted two hours and reached the bottom three times.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] has a plan to block traffic on the {{w|Escalator#Longest individual escalators|longest, single-tier escalator}} in the Western hemisphere. At the time of the comic's publishing, that placed the comic in the {{w|Wheaton (WMATA station)|Wheaton station}} in {{w|Washington D.C.}}'s {{w|Washington Metro}} subway system, where the 70-meter (230-foot) escalator is. An {{w|escalator}} is a motorized stairway. It's clear that Black Hat knows it is the longest and that this is the reason he has chosen this exact escalator for his evil plan.

Black Hat caries a {{w|chin-up bar}} over his shoulder up the escalator, resulting in a conversation with his friend [[Cueball]], riding up behind him, about Black Hat's motives for doing such, where Black Hat uses sly conversing methods to avoid saying his true motives. First he counters the question with another question: ''Why aren't you wearing a hat''. Cueball's reply is a normal ''I'm not really a hat person'', whereas Black Hat's copy reply is not a real answer; ''I'm not really a not-carrying-a-chin-up-bar person'', is probably a sentence never used before this comic. It takes Cueball a second to process this answer. But he doesn't give up and asks again, but Black Hat just continues avoiding him by stating that ''I'm not a psychologist'' - so how should he know why he does these strange (and evil) things. (Regarding psychologist the see [[#Trivia|trivia section]]).

After this they reach the top and after they get off Black Hat quickly turns around and locks the bar in place at about waist height (i.e. as high up as possible on an escalator), just before the moving part of the escalator ends.

Chin-up bars are typically capable of holding up a 300 pound (130 kg) person without moving, and a bar like Black Hat has brought with him can be [https://www.amazon.com/Sunny-Health-Fitness-Door-Chin/dp/B0016BNDXI/ref=sr_1_6?s=sports-and-fitness&ie=UTF8&qid=1470541509&sr=1-6&keywords=chin+up+bar installed easily in a doorway], or in the opening of an escalator...

The unexpected appearance of a solidly attached bar at the top of a crowded escalator could be disastrous. The first people would probably stumble backward to avoid it or hit it and topple backwards, and collide with the passengers immediately behind them, knocking them off their feet and likely creating a {{w|domino effect}} all the way down. And this is exactly what happens in the last panel. A psychologist would probably be very interested in the fact that Black Hat is not even looking back at the mayhem he has thus created. His friend Cueball is not so detached and has turned around looking showing he is clearly consternated about what Black Hat has been doing. But now it is just the right time to get away as quickly as possible. Actually from the looks of it, they should be lucky not to get hit by someone falling all the way over in their descending side of the escalator... (But such a thing just doesn't happen to Black Hat!) Since they are most likely on the way down to a subway, it should be easy to get away on the next train, before anyone has a chance to try an find the perpetrator. Black Hat gets away with his evil schemes once again.

In the title text it is made clear that the the few people that actually escaped the moving stairs were unable to use the emergency shutdown because Black Hat had disabled the system, presumably before ascending in the first place. And this caused the {{w|stampede}} to last for two hours and waves of falling people would end up reaching the bottom three times. The reason for this could be that only the very first people at the top of this domino effect who actually hit the chin-up-bar knows what caused the problem to begin with. Since they are likely among those people too hurt to explain anything in time, the next group of people trying to get out after the first wave of falling people came crashing down to the bottom might just proceed to run into the same problem at the top once again. Especially since it was not possible to turn the movement off, and thus even if the first person do see the chin-up-bar he cannot get away before getting tumbled back into all the other people behind him. This thus explain why it happened three times before someone managed to get the chin-up-bar away safely. That it ended up in a stampede may also relate to the last of the three times, when people at the bottom start to panic because it seems they cannot get out again. This scenario is made realistic because the escalator is so extremely long.

Considering how often people have tried to emulate some of [[Randall|Randall's]] comics, it is a somewhat dangerous comic to draw. Hopefully no one has actually tried to do this (yet)...

==Transcript==
:[Zoomed out view with Black Hat in the middle standing on an escalator with five other people as it ascends. He is carrying a pole with what looks like a bracket on each end, resting on his shoulder. In front of him is Ponytail, and in front of her is a guy with spiky hair and pimples. Behind Black Hat is Cueball. Behind Cueball is a man wearing glasses with a small goatee standing next to Megan.]

:[Zoom in on Black Hat and Cueball. In the background in front of Black Hat a girl with long black hair can be seen standing on the descending escalator. Most of the characters that appear on the descending side of the escalator is drawn in light gray instead of black.]
:Cueball: This is a long escalator.
:Black Hat: 70 meters. Longest in the country.

:[In the background the girl with long hair from the last panel has now passed the two so she is now behind Cueball, right behind Cueball passes another Cueball-like guy (drawn in black not gray), partly obscured by Cueball, and in front of Black Hat a woman with black ponytail is also descending. Beat panel.]

:[In the background the girl with black ponytail from the last panel has now passed the two so she is now behind Cueball, in front of Black Hat a man with baseball cap is descending.]
:Cueball: Why're you carrying a chin-up bar?
:Black Hat: Why aren't you wearing a hat?

:[The view returns to the original view only showing the six people ascending, only shifted so they are all a bit longer to the right.]
:Cueball: I'm not really a hat person.
:Black Hat: And I'm not really a not-carrying-a-chin-up-bar person.

:[Close up on Cueball on the escalator. Beat panel.]

:[Zoom out again to show Ponytail, in front of Black Hat, reaching the end of the escalator where the handle bends from rising to going straight. The pimpled guy has already left the panel and the escalator. The guy with goatee and Megan is still behind Black Hat and Cueball.]
:Cueball: Seriously, why did you bring it?
:Black Hat: How should I know? I'm not a psychologist.

:[Zoom in on the top of the escalator where Black Hat steps off and then turns around to quickly install the chin-up bar in the exit of the escalator clicking and twisting it into place. He did let Cueball of first, and Cueball stops and looks back at Black Hat over his shoulder.]
:''Twist''
:''Click''
:''Click''

:[View from above towards both ascending (left) and descending (right) escalators. Black Hat and Cueball has immediately moved onto the descending escalator already their heads are on height with the top handle bar. It is now revealed that Black Hat placed the chin-up bar in such a way that it blocks people from leaving the escalator sitting at about waist height. The man with glasses and a goatee is shown holding hands with Megan and they are now blocked from leaving the escalator by the chin-up bar. They are slightly higher up than Black Hat and Cueball.]

:[The final panel takes up two entire rows (the size of six of the previous nine panels). The view shows an extended section of the escalator, the top right has become a pile of people all squished together and on top of each other, making it impossible to find out who's limbs or heads belongs to which body etc. At least 18 maybe 19 people are full or partly drawn on the ascending escalator. At the very top right there seems to be two Cueball-like heads above a Ponytail-like head, then the goatee guys head, as indicated by the line from his glasses and at the bottom a Hairy-like head. Behind them are another person with hair (could be either sex as someone hold on to this hair making it difficult to tell, see below, and thus it could also be Megan from the previous panel), a third Cueball-like guy holding a hand up in front of his face, and the top of a fourth Cueball-like head at the bottom partly below the handle. Behind the guy holding a hand up is a Megan-like woman (longer hair than the Megan from the previous panels) trying to run down the escalator an arm out in both directions. A fifth Cueball-like guy is standing on that woman's head grabbing on to the the hair of the person in front of him to the right, the one with hair (either sex) in an attempt to avoid the melee below him. Below his other foot which is in the air is a sixth Cueball-like guy who is also trying to get down, both hands out in front of him, like the Megan-like woman behind him with a guy on her head. That guy is pushing one of his hands into the head of a second Ponytail-like woman, who is falling backwards throwing her arms up. Over her head is a seventh Cueball-like guy, who maybe tried the same at he guy standing on peoples head, because he is hanging in the air above her his head pointing down towards her head, his feet in he air and his arms out as he tumbles back first down the escalator. A second Hairy-like guy is behind Ponytail trying to run down the escalator, arms in running position, and he is almost reaching an eight Cueball-like guy, who holds his arms out from his body leaning back. Behind him is a second Megan-like woman holding both hands up in her hair. After that there is a small segment without people, and then a ninth Cueball-like guy holding his hands in front of his mouth stands right next to a man with flat hair and square glasses holding one arm slightly out toward the people in front. In the lower left corner, drawn with the gray lines for the ascending characters, is Black Hat standing in a relaxed position with a hand on the handlebar looking toward the bottom of the escalator, while Cueball, behind him and further up, looks back at the scene over his shoulder holding a hand up in front of his mouth.]

==Trivia==
*It would appear that the man behind Cueball with glasses and a goatee is the psychologist from [[435: Purity]], and then Megan next to him could be the sociologist from the same comic. This gives new meaning to Black Hat's line about not being a psychologist.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Psychology]]

951: Working

2016-09-08T01:37:04Z

AngelWings16: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 951
| date = September 14, 2011
| title = Working
| image = working.png
| titletext = And if you drive a typical car more than a mile out of your way for each penny you save on the per-gallon price, it doesn't matter how worthless your time is to you--the gas to get you there and back costs more than you save.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a jab at price-gouging shoppers who spend large amounts of time checking multiple shopping outlets for the best deals. The minimum wage is the lowest possible wage that a person could legally be paid, usually only targeted at providing unskilled laborers with an equitable level of income. In 2011, when this comic was published, US Federal minimum wage was $7.25 an hour, though certain states and cities typically have higher minimum wages. Using simple math, the caption states that a person is effectively working below the minimum wage when they spend their time looking to save a few cents on their purchases. (Randall's math checks out: $7.25/hour times nine minutes would equate to just over $1.08)

Benjamin Franklin's adage "A penny saved is a penny earned" is usually taken to mean that a person, merely by making the effort to save their money rather than spending it frivolously, has put in worthwhile effort that makes them deserving of that money. Cueball flips the meaning of the phrase, instead saying that saving money is work just like a job, and as one would not take a job that paid less than minimum wage, the compensation is inadequate for the amount of effort it would take to drive to a cheaper gas station.

Of course, if you are unemployed and cannot expect to get any wages it could still be worth your time.

The title text, however, then goes on to talk about how the extra fuel consumption involved in finding cheaper gas leads to more extra money being spent on gas than is actually saved at the cheaper outlet.

This problem has also been examined in [http://what-if.xkcd.com/22/ ''What if?'' - Cost of Pennies]. See also [[1205: Is It Worth the Time?]].

However, [[Randall]] neglects to consider the effect that customers have on prices. If customers consistently go out of their way to get the lowest prices, then sellers will be motivated to lower their prices to attract customers. On the other hand, if customers consistently purchase from the most convenient seller, then sellers can raise prices without losing business.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is standing next to Cueball filling his vehicle with petrol. Ponytail is pointing off-screen.]
:Ponytail: Why are you going here? Gas is ten cents a gallon cheaper at the station five minutes that way.
:Cueball: Because a penny saved is a penny earned.

:If you spend nine minutes of your time to save a dollar, you're working for less than minimum wage.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Time management]]

946: Family Decals

2016-09-07T16:45:38Z

AngelWings16: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 946
| date = September 2, 2011
| title = Family Decals
| image = family decals.png
| titletext = My decal set has no adults, just a sea of hundreds of the little girl figures closing in around a single cat.
}}

==Explanation==
There exists a current fashion among car owners to place {{w|decal|decals}} on their back window that represent their family. The decals consist of stick figures to depict the parents and children, perhaps shown doing a favorite activity, and even pets.

The first car window features a couple with three children, while the other shows just a couple ([[Cueball]] and [[Megan]]), with piles of dollar bills and two large bags with dollar signs on them. The humor comes from the opportunity cost implied in this — not having children allows you to avoid the expense of raising them and accumulate money for your own use.

One might expect that the cars would represent the difference in wealth, and they are identified as 'urban SUV' and 'sporty hatch back' in the [http://xkcd.com/946/info.0.json official transcript]. The larger car is a {{w|Subaru Outback}} which is a typical car used by families. The second car is a {{w|Honda Fit}}, which is a budget compact hatchback, in the comic it has a spoiler added. The Subaru Outback is more expensive now than the Honda Fit, which seems to fit perfect with the comic's implication since a family of five have to buy the large expansive hatchback. Being able to buy a smaller car that doesn't need to hold a five member family also allows you to save more money.

The title text refers to the humorous description of cats as the real masters of their household, and the little girls surrounding the cat refers to their ability to influence humans with their cuteness (as referenced in [[231: Cat Proximity]]). The implication is that any adults in the household have a limited, non-credited role. The title text could also be a reverse of the stereotypical "crazy cat lady". Instead of someone owning a very large quantity of cats it could be one cat with an ungodly number of little girls.

Also, Decals based on this comic do in fact exist.

==Transcript==
:[Close up of the rear ends of two cars parked next to each other. Both have white stickers on their black rear windows. The car on the left is an urban SUV and most of the rear is visible with all the lights and a readable license plate with gray text visible. It's stickers represent a family. From left to right they are a Cueball-like guy, a woman with white hair (i.e. black shows through), a girl with two ponytails, a boy of her height and a smaller boy, both boys Cueball-like. The car on the right is a sporty hatch back, only the left part until the middle is shown. The left lights and the very left part of the license plate can be seen. It's stickers shown Cueball, Megan and then a large pile of dollar notes (six piles of different hight) and two large money bags with dollar signs on them, the rear left bag is partly hidden by two piles of notes.]
:License plate SUV: ICE-LI3
:License plate sport: L

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]

944: Hurricane Names

2016-09-07T16:34:45Z

AngelWings16: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 944
| date = August 29, 2011
| title = Hurricane Names
| image = hurricane_names.png
| titletext = After exhausting the OED, we started numbering them. When overlapping hurricanes formed at all points on the Earth's surface, and our scheme was foiled by Cantor diagonalization, we just decided to name them all "Steve". Your local forecast tomorrow is "Steve". Good luck.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|World Meteorological Organization}} (WMO) gives names to hurricanes, going through the alphabet (excluding Q, U, X, Y, and Z) and resetting at "A" at the beginning of the year. For example, the North Atlantic hurricanes in 2012 were named "Alberto", "Beryl", "Chris", "Debby", and so on. If there are more than 21 hurricanes in a season, the 21-letter alphabet becomes exhausted and the hurricanes are named with Greek letters. This has happened only once, in 2005; see [[1126: Epsilon and Zeta|The Saga of Epsilon and Zeta]].

There have never been enough hurricanes in one season to exhaust both the English and Greek alphabet (which would require more than 45 hurricanes in a season; the most so far has been 27), and Randall is hypothesizing what the names would be if this happened. In the comic, the WMO has named the hurricanes using random words out of the {{w|Oxford English Dictionary}} (OED). The humor here is intrinsic: "Hurricane Eggbeater" is a bizarre and hilarious name (and may also refer to how an eggbeater spins and 'destroys' an egg in a similar manner to how a hurricane might affect the surrounding area).

The title text takes this already surreal twist to an even more ridiculous extreme; Randall now makes a joke about set theory. The impossibly long hurricane season exceeds 300,000+ storms, thus exhausting the OED completely, so the WMO starts numbering them 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. This ''countably infinite'' supply of hurricane names works until the number of hurricanes becomes ''uncountably infinite''. A set is countably infinite if it can be mapped one-to-one to the set of natural numbers; for example the set of all '''integers''' and the set of all '''rational numbers''' are both countably infinite, which means that it is possible to number them with natural numbers. However, by a method called {{w|Cantor diagonalization}}, it's possible to prove that the set of '''real numbers''' is uncountably infinite. As points are formed using real numbers and thus there are an uncountably infinite number of hurricanes, the WMO's plan to number them fails. (More pertinently, human civilization is in a ''lot'' of trouble.)

At this point, the meteorologists give up and decide to name all the hurricanes "Steve", which is popular on the internet as an arbitrary, generic name. Ironically, this makes "Steve" no longer arbitrary. The reporter then goes on to tell people that their forecast is "Steve" meaning that the hurricanes are everywhere.

==Transcript==
:[A weather reporter sits behind a desk with an image of the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding land masses displayed to his left. 9 hurricane symbols are scattered across the map, primarily over Cuba.]
:Reporter: After the latest wave of hurricanes, not only have we run through the year's list of 21 names, but we've also used up the backup list of Greek letters. All subsequent storms will be named using random dictionary words.
:Reporter: The newly-formed system in the gulf has been designated "Hurricane Eggbeater", and we once again pray this is the final storm of this horrible, horrible season.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Hurricanes]]