explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2309: X

2020-05-21T11:37:41Z

Captain Paralytic: Correct wrong word

{{comic
| number = 2309
| date = May 20, 2020
| title = X
| image = x.png
| titletext = The worst is when you run out of monospaced fonts and have to use variable-width variables.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COMIC SANS X AND A NEW PROGRAMMER. This page needs an expanded explanation of what esoteric languages are. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] has developed a new {{w|programming language}} with novel syntax. These languages are classified as {{w|esoteric language}}s, which are programming languages developed for no practical use (although that doesn't stop people from trying) other than novelty. The classic example of these are {{w|INTERCAL}} and {{w|brainfuck}}.

Normally, there is no law against developing bad programming languages or bad code (although some would argue there should be). The law often has to play catch-up with technology. However, as with the example of Cueball and the EPA, and Cueball with tech support problems, it seems that the Government has made an exception in this case, possibly because the result is so egregious as to cause real harm.

A {{w|Variable (computer science)|variable}} is a piece of data (such as an integer or a string of text) that can change in value. Variables can usually be named any string of alphanumeric characters. For the sake of readability, variables are usually named something relevant to what the variable represents. For example, a variable counting how many seconds have passed since the program was launched might be called elapsedTime. Some programmers, particularly if they are working under time pressure, will give their variables names (such as 'x') that do not describe what they do, and are thus almost completely meaningless. This is considered bad coding practice, because anyone reading the code who is not familiar with it will not understand what the variable does.

Here, Cueball is developing a language where the only way to differentiate variables is to write the letter "X" in different fonts. Typically, code is written in plain text without a way to specify a font, which would mean that Cueball has implemented a lot more processing in the {{w|compiler}} or {{w|Integrated development environment|IDE}} in a fashion typically seen as unconventional. This 'feature' would be a nightmare to program with, as all of the variables would look very similar unless careful attention is being paid, and there would be little to no way to determine what each one does, since font names are typically not particularly descriptive. Additionally, the fact that some fonts look similar (such as Arial and Helvetica) would require the programmer to have an intricate knowledge of different fonts and how to distinguish them from only one letter. Programs would also be difficult to edit if two programmers do not have the same fonts installed.

This is also a jab at mathematicians who are in addition to using variable names which are short and nondescript (e.g. "x"), are also "typeface sensitive" (in addition to case sensitive). In other words, one can typically find a statement involving three different "X" variables, referring to three different objects, and they are distinguished by their font and case.

The title text references the fact that most IDEs use a monospaced font (i.e. one where every character is the same width), as opposed to variable-width fonts, in which some characters like 'I' are narrower than others. This is partly because fixed horizontal alignment is sometimes useful when dealing with certain text strings. 'Variable-width variables' refers to the fact that the letter X, like all letters, has different widths in different fonts. This would make this fixed alignment almost impossible, thus creating yet another reason why Cueball's language would be highly unpleasant to use.

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

:[Cueball holds a laptop with code visible on the screen.]
:Cueball: I've developed a new programming language!
:Offpanel voice: Didn't a judge order you to stop doing that?

:[In a frameless panel, Cueball holds the laptop with one hand and types on the keyboard.]
:Cueball: Higher court threw out the ruling!
:Cueball: I'm back, suckers!
:Offpanel voice: ''Dammit.''

:[Cueball holds the folded down laptop at his side.]
:Cueball: But I promise it's good this time!
:Cueball: Just normal code. Good clean syntax. Nothing weird.
:Offpanel voice: Okay...

:[Cueball holds the laptop at his side, and raises a finger on his other hand.]
:Cueball: Except the only variable name is "X". To refer to different variables you have to write "X" in different fonts.
:Offpanel voice: I'm calling the court.
:Another offpanel voice: Maybe we can appeal.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Programming]]

2299: Coronavirus Genome 2

2020-04-28T22:44:03Z

Captain Paralytic: Removed extra "he"

{{comic
| number = 2299
| date = April 27, 2020
| title = Coronavirus Genome 2
| image = coronavirus_genome_2.png
| titletext = [moments later, checking phone] Okay, I agree my posting it was weird, but it's somehow even more unnerving that you immediately liked the post.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SANITIZED PHONE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak|2020 pandemic}} of the {{w|coronavirus}} {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}.

It is also a direct continuation of the previous comic, [[2298: Coronavirus Genome]], making this a [[:Category:Coronavirus Genome|new series]].

[[Megan]] sent her copy of the coronavirus genome to [[Cueball]], who then proceeded to share it with his friends on social media. In effect, he is spreading the virus over the Internet, though not in a form that can actually make people sick with COVID-19 (which may seem obvious, but then some people [https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/04/09/5g-networks-and-covid-19-coronavirus-here-are-the-latest-conspiracy-theories/ believe 5G causes coronavirus].) If his post catches on and is widely shared, it might be described as "going viral".

In continuation of the previous strip, Cueball appears to be fascinated by the fact that the entire genome of this very consequential virus can be fully detailed in a text file, using only 30,000 characters. He realizes that he can't fit this much information in a single tweet (Twitter has a 280 character limit), but it able to fit the entire genome in a Facebook post (Facebook allows [https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-increases-status-update-character-limit-to-63206/ up to 63,206 characters in a post]). It could also be [https://twitter.com/TruePrimal/status/1255258879623139328 tweeted as an image].

This strip draws humor from the contrast between the costly physical precautions that are being taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus between people and the blitheness with which Cueball attempts to share (the genome of) the coronavirus electronically. Cueball's response (that it's okay, because he sanitized his phone before posting) could be taken as a sarcastic rebuttal, given that Megan sent the genome to him without knowing why he wanted it, or a commentary on the useless or counterproductive behaviors of clueless people (e.g. people who wear gloves before touching potentially-contaminated surfaces, but then scratch their noses while still wearing the possibly-contaminated gloves).

The title text deals with the almost inevitable outcome of the resulting message being 'liked' by some other party. In this case Megan, although she just told Cueball it was weird that he shared it. This may be a commentary on the common reflex to "like" your friend's posts, even if you think they're strange. Alternately, the "like" button on Facebook was historically the only way to signal a reaction to a post (other than actually commenting). When someone posted about a bad event, such as an injustice, a tragedy, or a difficult personal event, people might "like" the post to indicate their support of the person posting it, but it could read as having positive feelings toward the incident itself. (Facebook has since added multiple reaction buttons to express such emotions as surprise, sadness or anger). In this case, Megan "like"ing the coronavirus genome could be taken to mean that she likes the virus itself, which would be quite odd.

==Transcript==
:[Megan sits in an office chair at her desk with a laptop. She is leaning on the back of the chair with one arm while turning away from her desk to talk to Cueball standing behind her.]
:Cueball: Hey, if you have the coronavirus genome as a text file, can you email it to me?
:Megan: Sure.
:Megan: ...Why?

:[Megan has turned to her her laptop typing on it, Cueball is off-panel.]
:Cueball (off-panel): Nothing.
:Megan: I ... see.
:Megan: Well, here you go.
:Laptop: Click

:[In "two" frame-less panels in a row Cueball is shown twice while typing on his phone with both hands. The second time the text on his phone screen is shown above it in a square "speech bubble" with a "speech line" going down to the phone. It displays a Twitter interface, highlighting that he is trying to tweet too many characters. The last line of text in the tweet is marked with red. A number below is in red font and the + in a circle after that is in cyan font. The last word is in white font inside a cyan strip.]
:Phone:
::GAAAGGTAAGATGGAGAGGCCTTGTC
:<div style="background-color:red; padding:5px; width:fit-content; margin-left: 2em">CCTGGTTCAACGAGAA</div>
::-29,602 (+)
:<div style="background-color:cyan; padding:5px; width:fit-content; margin-left: 2em">Tweet</div>

:[Back to the original setting but with Megan still typing on her laptop while Cueball looks at his phone that he holds up in one hand.]
:Cueball: Okay, it's too long for Twitter, but it can fit in a Facebook post.
:Megan: Unsettling that your first instinct is "share it online."
:Cueball: It's cool, I sanitized my phone before posting.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Coronavirus Genome]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Coronavirus Genome]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2275: Coronavirus Name

2020-03-03T13:20:07Z

Captain Paralytic: spelling

{{comic
| number = 2275
| date = March 2, 2020
| title = Coronavirus Name
| image = coronavirus_name.png
| titletext = It's important to keep the spider from touching your face.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MUTANT T. ANNEXA WOLF SPIDER WITH COVID-19. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is [[Randall|Randall's]] take on the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak}}. As of the publication date (2020 March 3), the outbreak has infected more than 90,000 people, and has caused more than 3000 deaths.

The disease caused by the virus was officially named {{w|Coronavirus disease 2019|COVID-19}} on 11 February 2020, as "{{w|coronavirus}}" is a category of viruses named for their appearance, which is similar to a halo or crown. However, the virus itself is not called COVID-19, but is called {{w|severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2}} (SARS-CoV-2). So calling the virus or disease "coronavirus" is like calling a specific strain of flu ''The Influenza virus''. However, with extensive media coverage, the name "Coronavirus" has become associated with COVID-19, making it difficult to discuss other types of coronavirus later on.

COVID-19 has a 20% hospitalization rate and a 2% death rate by current estimates, compared to a [https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-myths.html typical rate of around 0.1% for the flu in the US].

In this comic, researchers [[Ponytail]], [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are discussing that it is by now too late to try calling the disease its official name COVID-19, as the name coronavirus has stuck. [[Cueball]] reacts with dismay, since there are many other types of coronaviruses.

The comic becomes absurd when Ponytail compares the coronavirus naming to a giant "car eating spider" living on top of the skyscrapers of the town, which is also just called "The Spider" even though it is technically a mutated ''{{w|Tigrosa annexa}}'' {{w|wolf spider}}. Everyone knows what you mean when you say "Coronavirus", as they do when you mention "The Spider".

[[Megan]] then asks if they should not also do something about the spider, but Ponytail and Cueball agree that they can only tackle one problem at a time, and coronavirus takes up all their time. Only thing is that Ponytail now takes another commute, probably to avoid getting her car eaten.

On a more serious note, the comic may also reference the fact that that there are many other problems in the world (both spider and non-spider related) that kill many more people and cause more problems. So this draws a humorous comparison to the fact that we seem to have forgotten about all the wars, etc and focus just on the virus.

The title text references the health advice that people avoid touching their face with unwashed hands, in order to prevent infections that they picked up by touching things from entering their mucous membranes. (It's a lot easier for an infection to enter the body through the inside of your nose than your hands.) It is likewise quite important to keep giant spiders from touching your face, but for the dissimilar reason that they'll bite and eat you.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is carrying a box with biohazard symbols on it towards a desk where Ponytail (wearing safety glasses) is working on a laptop, across from Cueball (also wearing safety glasses) who is putting a test tube into a centrifuge. There's also a flask on the desk.]
:Ponytail: Feels like we missed the window for the "COVID-19" renaming. "Coronavirus" is just too catchy.
:Cueball: But it's not specific! There are a lot of coronaviruses.

:[In a frameless panel, Ponytail (still wearing safety glasses) is pointing at a screen or picture showing a modern city skyline with a large spider crawling across three of the high-rise buildings.]
:Ponytail: I think it's fine. It's like, you know the giant spider downtown that sits on the buildings and sometimes eats cars? I think ''technically'' it's a mutant ''T. annexa'' wolf spider, but everyone is just calling it "the spider" and we all know what they mean.

:[Back to the setting from the first panel. Megan is standing and Ponytail had turned towards her and Cueball has stepped back from the machine.]
:Megan: I've been meaning to ask, what's '''''with''''' that spider? Should we...do something?
:Ponytail: Honestly I've been too busy with the virus stuff to look into it-I just changed my commute to avoid Main St.
:Cueball: Yeah, that's fair. One thing at a time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Spiders]]

2266: Leap Smearing

2020-02-11T13:06:27Z

Captain Paralytic: Grammar

{{comic
| number = 2266
| date = February 10, 2020
| title = Leap Smearing
| image = leap_smearing.png
| titletext = Some people suspect that it started as a "No, I didn't forget Valentine's Day" excuse that got out of hand.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SMEARED LEAP SECOND. Please check my calculations of the time if using the 10th February and evenly spread 24 hours over 29 days. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic references the practice that {{w|Google}} uses on its services of 'smearing' a {{w|leap second}} over the course of a 24-hour period, officially called [https://developers.google.com/time/smear Leap Smear] by Google. The smear is centered on the leap second (at midnight) so from noon the day before to the noon the day after each second is 11.6 μs longer (1s/(24*60*60) = 11,574 μs). This difference is too small for computers to be bothered with, and by centering on midnight the difference in time will never be more than half a second at midnight, just before midnight it will be half a second behind and after midnight half a second ahead.

The joke arises from the idea of expanding this idea - instead of just using it for leap seconds, using it for {{w|leap days}} as well,
like that at the end of February 2020, February 29th, less than 3 weeks after this comic was released.

In the comic [[Cueball]] is visiting one of Google's facilities, presumably during office hours and on the 10th day of February, when the comic was released. But when he looks at their a clocks he sees they are all around 3:00 AM (which is in the middle of the night). He thus asks [[Ponytail]] and [[Hairy]] why their clocks are wrong. Ponytail tells him it is because of leap day smearing.

Ponytail explains that adding an extra day creates too many glitches. So they just run their clocks 3.4% slower during February. She thus states that it works approximately like leap smearing for seconds, so that an extra day's 24 hours are spread evenly out over the course of February, keeping it at the regular 28 days, but still running over 24*29 = 696 hours, even though their clocks only go through 672 hours = 24*28.

Thus the 24 hours less to count are spread out over the 696 real hours, which means their clocks run 24/696 = 3.445 % slower (matching the 3.4% Ponytail mentions). Every day will thus be 0.83 hours longer (24/29). So after 9 days of their time, (the comic was released on February 10th), the clocks will be 7 hours and 27 minutes behind when it says it is midnight before the 10th day of the month. Thus if such a clock is saying 3:02 AM on February 10th it would mean that the time would actually be 10:35 AM on February 10th, well within working hours. The last 6 minutes, (from 2+27 = 29 to 35 minutes) comes from the 3 hours and 2 minutes of the current day also running 3,4% slower, adding a further 6.5 minutes of real time.

The idea would of course, contrary to leap second smearing, be very inconvenient for those following it, due to the fact that it would be out of sync with the rotation of the earth for most of the course of the month. And also with all their local business partners. (Of course it would mean they would sync up better with some of their partners abroad, see [[1335: Now]].)

The title text humorously suggests that some people (at Google) suspect that the real reason for the leap day smearing was actually a "No, I didn't forget Valentine's Day" excuse that got out of hand. [[Randall]] has some issues with [[:Category:Valentines|Valentines]], see for example [[1016: Valentine Dilemma]]. This comic was released four days before {{w|Valentines Day}} of 2020. It was the first time in 8 years he made any reference to Valentine around this time of year, but the seventh time in total. Interesting to see if he also releases a Valentine related comic on Friday of the week, as that falls one Valentine Day February 14th 2020.

The idea is, that maybe a CEO at Google forgot to buy something for his Girlfriend for Valentine, and thus tried to suggest that it was not because he forgot, but that at his work it was still February 14th. This would then be based on the leap day smearing. This would have to mean that it was first introduced last time Valentine Day was in a year with leap day, which was four years before this comics release, thus in February 2016. But of course it would not be relevant until 2020 for Google. And as the caption says ''This year, Google has expanded their leap second "smearing" to cover leap days as well.''

Half way through the month the CEO would thus have about 11 extra hours to buy her a present in time, if she complains about him forgetting it in the evening of the real 14th of February.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Ponytail, and Hairy are looking up at a digital clock on a wall. It displays the time in white on a black background, with a logo on the frame beneath the time.]
:3:02 AM
:Google

:Cueball: Why do the clocks say it's 3AM?
:Ponytail: Adding an extra day creates too many glitches. Instead, we're just running our clocks 3.4% slower during February, to avoid the irregularity.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:This year, Google has expanded their leap second "smearing" to cover leap days as well.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Valentines]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Time]]

2265: Tax AI

2020-02-10T11:19:13Z

Captain Paralytic: Grammar

{{comic
| number = 2265
| date = February 7, 2020
| title = Tax AI
| image = tax_ai.png
| titletext = I ended up getting my tax return prepared at a local place by a really friendly pretrained neural net named Greg.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|CREATED BY GREG. Needs explanation for "Seitan"}}

The deadline for filing tax returns in the United States is April 15, so many people in the US are beginning the process of filing their taxes at the time of this comic's publication. Traditionally, people used tax provider companies, but it is becoming more popular to use tax preparation software, such as {{w|TurboTax}} or a service from the {{w|Free File Alliance}}, which helps to fill in the tax forms after a user enters their income information and {{w|Tax deduction|deduction}}s for the year.

In this comic, [[Cueball]]/[[Randall]] has attempted to train an {{w|artificial neural net}} to prepare his {{w|Tax return (United States)|US tax return}}, but it has made several comical errors, purportedly because it was not trained extensively enough. Most of the errors consist of {{w|malapropism}}s, words that sound almost the same but mean very different things switched for comic effect. This suggests Cueball trained the neural net by talking to it.

The title "Tax AI" can be considered a pun, either referencing the AI software Cueball just trained to prepare his tax return, or an exhortation to tax AI entities, as a possible slogan supporting {{w|Robot tax}}.

The title text references [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]], which indicates that getting a human to do something is basically using a "pretrained neural net". Cueball has chosen to use a local tax provider to help him file his taxes, aka a "pretrained neural net" in the form of a human named Greg.

Randall also "trained" humans to do his tax returns in [[1566: Board Game]]. In [[1971: Personal Data]] and [[1977: Paperwork]] tax returns, and the troubles of filling them out is also the subject.

===Types of errors===
* "claim up to 1040 defendants": typically, taxpayers may claim "{{w|dependent}}s" (not "{{w|defendant}}s", persons being sued or accused of crimes) to deduct a certain amount of money from their taxable income, which is intended to represent money used for their care. Dependents include children, wards, elderly parents, and others for whom the taxpayer is the primary caregiver, so 1040 would be an [https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/families/2016/cps-2016/tabavg1.xls absurdly high number]. {{w|Form 1040}} is the number of the primary tax document that must be filed in the United States.
* "seitan local income tax" is a reference to "{{w|state income tax|state and local income tax}}" which can be deducted from federal income taxes in the US. Most states in the United States have income taxes that must be prepared separately, but some do not. {{w|Seitan}} is another name for wheat gluten, used in vegetarian or vegan dishes. This is most likely a byproduct of the AI mishearing "state and" as "seitan".
* "fiscal year 20202": presumably the neural net got carried away with 2's and 0's in 2020. However, at the date the comic was published, Cueball should be filing his 2019 taxes anyway. Alternately, the comic could be place in the future and it took the way most people will speak the year 2022 ("twenty twenty-two") and then transferred this directly to numbers ("20" "20" "2" becoming 20202).
* "standard deduckling" : the "{{w|standard deduction}}", which is what many taxpayers opt to do rather than attempting to {{w|itemized deduction|itemize their deductions}}. The standard deduction is based on filing status and typically increases each year.
* "atomizing" his "clams": instead of "itemizing his claims" which, as mentioned above, wouldn't make sense if he was taking the standard deduction anyway. Itemized deductions means to "itemize" or list individual deductions, such as charitable donations, medical expenses, mortgage interest payments, etc. Choosing to itemize deductions may lead to a greater deduction, but requires more effort and supporting documentation, in case of a {{w|Income tax audit|tax audit}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting, hands on his knees, in his office chair at his desk reading a message on the screen of his laptop. The message is shown above the laptop an is indicated to be on the screen with a zigzag line starting at a starburst on the screen.]
:Laptop: You may claim up to 1040 defendants on your seitan local income tax for fiscal year 20202 by taking the standard deduckling and atomizing your clams.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I used a neural net to prepare my tax returns, but I think I cut off its training too early.

{{comic discussion}}

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

2258: Solar System Changes

2020-01-23T12:23:13Z

Captain Paralytic: Corrected inaccurate statement

{{comic
| number = 2258
| date = January 22, 2020
| title = Solar System Changes
| image = solar_system_changes.png
| titletext = "Actually, Jupiter already has a very impressive ring system!" --someone who knows Jupiter is within earshot
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MYSTERIOUS PLANET. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic proposes changing the Solar System in a way that would be impossible in practice. In doing so, it and the title text anthropomorphize several of the planets, pretending that they have feelings that could be hurt.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Proposed change !! Explanation
|-
| Add mysterious planets inside Mercury's orbit || In the 19th century, scientists found discrepancies between Mercury's predicted orbit and observations. They proposed a hypothetical planet, {{w|Vulcan (hypothetical planet)|Vulcan}}, to account for this discrepancy. After general relativity was discovered by Albert Einstein in the 20th century, it was found to account for these discrepancies.
|-
| After what it's been through, Venus deserves rings and a moon || Billions of years ago, Venus and Earth are believed to have been almost identical objects orbiting the Sun. However, orbiting somewhat closer to the Sun, Venus became sufficiently hot that its oceans evaporated, cloaking the surface with gases that caused the Sun's heat to become trapped. This made the planet even hotter, causing a [[1519|runaway greenhouse effect]], and ultimately Venus became very much hotter than the Earth. On top of that, Venus was almost certainly hit by an enormous object, hard enough that its spin was completely reversed. Randall may be saying that Venus has fared so badly throughout its life that it deserves some compensation, like rings or a moon.

Alternatively, Randall could be referring to how we see Venus now as opposed to in the past. A hundred years ago, scientists considered Venus and Mars to be equally likely candidates for life and future human exploration - one being a little warmer than Earth and the other a little colder. However, when we sent spacecraft to Venus and Mars in the 1960s, we quickly discovered that [https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/ Venus is a terrible place]. Its atmosphere is more than 90 times as dense as Earth's and its surface temperature is over 450° C (800° F), not to mention the sulfuric acid rain. Spacecraft that have landed on its surface have lasted a couple hours at most. As a result, missions to Venus have become far rarer since the 1960s, while missions to Mars have remained frequent. Randall might be saying that most people don't consider Venus to be nearly as fascinating place as they used to, and that it would be far more interesting with rings, or at least a moon like Earth or Mars.
|-
| Replace our moon with Mars. Mars is more interesting and we can consolidate missions. || Mars has a lot more geological variety than the moon{{Citation needed}}, and is much larger and has active weather patterns, and would therefore look far more interesting than the moon when seen from Earth. In addition, by replacing Earth's current moon with Mars, sending spacecraft to the moon and Mars wouldn't require separate missions and could thus be consolidated into a single one. This would benefit NASA's space exploration efforts, which have suffered from presidents alternating targets for human exploration between "moon-to-Mars" versus "Mars direct" architectures.

Incidentally, the Moon is thought to have been formed by an impact between the young Earth and a Mars-sized body. While Randall probably means well, the situation could get out of control very quickly.
|-
| The solar system needs a super-Earth || {{w|Super-Earth|Super-Earths}} are a type of {{w|Exoplanet|exoplanet}} -- a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun -- that are significantly larger than Earth but significantly smaller than the gas giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). While they are relatively common among systems in which smaller exoplanets have been found, our Solar System doesn't have any super-Earths, and with Mars being moved to replace the Moon, its location would be open to a new planet. With a super-Earth nearby, astronomers would be able to get a much better idea of what they are like. A super-Earth might also be an exciting place to colonize, although [https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition30/tryanny.html it would not be possible to return to orbit from such a planet] with current rocket technology.
|-
| More asteroids! || Asteroids belts are usually portrayed in fiction as being incredibly crowded with asteroids, so much so that they pose a significant hazard for spaceships. In reality, the asteroid belt is much more boring, as most large asteroids are millions of miles from their nearest neighbor. The number of asteroids in the asteroid belt is indeterminate, as they range in size from dwarf planets {{w|Asteroid|down to about a meter across}}, and more than 100,000 have been found. Despite this, the density of asteroids in the belt is low enough that spacecraft have no problem flying through the belt untouched. Randall wants more asteroids.
|-
| Merge the big planet and the ringed planet into a big ringed planet ("Jaturn") || Jupiter is the largest planet, with a volume larger than all other planets combined, and it displays striking weather patterns such as the {{w|Great Red Spot}}. Saturn, with its prominent ring system, is perhaps the most spectacular, but the planet itself looks very bland. Randall would merge the two, creating one planet that would dominate by both size and appearance. The two planets' moons would also be combined: the "Jaturn" diagram shows both the Galilean moons (the four largest moons of Jupiter) and Titan (the largest moon of Saturn) orbiting outside of Jaturn's rings.

The title text refers to {{w|Rings of Jupiter|Jupiter's rings}}, which exist but which are not nearly as prominent as Saturn's. However, considering that Jupiter is known to disrupt the asteroid belt and send asteroids towards the inner solar system (cf. {{w|Kirkwood gap}}) and completely destroy other celestial bodies ({{w|Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9}}), someone who is "within earshot" of Jupiter may wish to avoid insulting the planet by implying that its ring system is not already very impressive.

|-
| Cut Uranus. Uranus and Neptune are redundant and Neptune is better. Tough but fair. || Uranus and Neptune are often regarded as being planetary "fraternal twins." Both have approximately the same size, the same mass, and the same composition - they even have similarly bizarre magnetic fields. Uranus's most notable trait is that its axial tilt is almost 98°, meaning it lies on its side and has a seasonal cycle unlike that of any other planet. However, this causes Uranus to look completely featureless most of the time, which makes it less interesting, while Neptune has more active weather patterns, including, episodically, a {{w|Great Dark Spot}} similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The name "Uranus" is also {{tvtropes|UranusIsShowing|subject to ridicule}} by English speakers.
|-
| Settle the planet thing by making Pluto a moon of Neptune || Pluto was considered a planet from its discovery in 1930 until 2006, when the International Astronomical Union changed its definition of "planet" and reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. However, many people who grew up with Pluto listed as the ninth planet of the solar system were unhappy with the change, a topic that has been the topic of several other xkcd comics ([[473: Still Raw]], [[1551: Pluto]], [[1555: Exoplanet Names 2]], etc.). Randall proposes a {{w|Solomonic compromise}} to "satisfy" both the camps who prefer to think of Pluto as "not a dwarf planet" and "not a planet" by making it into a moon. The diagram shows that Charon will also be made a moon of Neptune, and presumably Pluto's other moons as well. Even if the entire Pluto system were transplanted all at once, tidal forces would cause the bodies to drift apart and orbit Neptune independently.

Interestingly, one of the original hypotheses for Pluto's origin is that it and Triton were originally both moons of Neptune, but Triton knocked Pluto out of its orbit into a new orbit around the sun, while Triton remained with Neptune.
|}

Randall has in the past proposed other types of ridiculous changes, such as in [[1061: EST]], [[1069: Alphabet]], and [[1902: State Borders]].

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

[A very-not-to-scale diagram of the solar system is shown, featuring all eight planets along with their major moons, Pluto (along with its major moon), and the asteroid belt. Caption at the top:] Changes I Would Make to the Solar System

[The following edit marks are shown in red:]

[Three additional planets have been drawn in between Mercury and the Sun, with a bracket highlighting them] Add mysterious planets inside Mercury's orbit

[A ring has been drawn around Venus, and a dot representing a moon has been added on its left] After what it's been through, Venus deserves rings and a moon

[The moon is crossed out, and Mars has been circled. An arrow from Mars to the moon has been drawn in] Replace our moon with Mars. Mars is more interesting and we can consolidate missions.

[An additional planet has been added between Mars and the asteroid belt, about halfway in size between Earth and Neptune. Four continents are visible., along with an atmosphere] The solar system needs a super-Earth

[Numerous red asteroids have been drawn in, adding to the few asteroids that were already there] More asteroids!

[Jupiter and Saturn have both been crossed out. An arrow points from each to a new planet drawn above the two. This new planet has the belts, zones, Red Spot, and size of Jupiter, and the hexagon and rings of Saturn, as well as the five moons from both original planets] Merge the big planet and the ringed planet into a big ringed planet ("Jaturn")

[Uranus is crossed out] Cut Uranus. Uranus and Neptune are redundant and Neptune is better. Tough but fair.

[Pluto and Charon have been circled. An arrow points from Pluto and Charon to the right side of Neptune, where Pluto and Charon have been redrawn] Settle the planet thing by making Pluto a moon of Neptune

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Space]]

2250: OK/okay/ok

2020-01-07T10:45:39Z

Captain Paralytic: Grammar

{{comic
| number = 2250
| date = January 03, 2020
| title = {{{1|OK/okay/ok}}}
| image = {{{2|ok okay ok.png}}}
| titletext = {{{3|After changing it back and forth several times and consulting with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch, I settled on "ok" in my book How To, but I'm still on the fence. Maybe I should just switch to "oK."}}}
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an O.K.A.Y. user}}
This comic states how you 'sound' (as the typical narrative voice in your readers' collective heads) based on how you spell the word "OK" in your text.

The word "{{w|OK}}", per Wikipedia, "is an American English word denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, acknowledgment, or a sign of indifference." {{w|List of proposed etymologies of OK|Many etymologies}} have been proposed to explain its origin. The Oxford English Dictionary and most other modern dictionaries say that it began in 1839 as "O.K.", a fanciful abbreviation for "oll korrect" (all correct).

According to [[Randall]], modern usage of the word is with both letters in lowercase "ok", or fully spelled out as "okay". Using OK with both capital letters is kind of old, as that is not something younger people would ever do. The original spelling of the word as "O.K." with periods after the letters is less commonly used in modern times, so Randall equates this usage to "an alien impersonating a human". (See for instance the last picture in this comic, [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] for who might use that spelling).

In the title text {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}}, a Canadian Internet linguist, is mentioned. She focuses on trends in use of English words in online communications. Randall claims that he consulted with her on the use of "ok" in his book ''[[How To]]'' and after changing back and forth between different options he settles for "ok". But he is still unsure which version to use, and claims he is now considering switching to "oK.", a strange spelling that "compromises" between the three abbreviations, having one lowercase letter, one capital letter, and only one period. And ending the sentence with an abbreviation with a period inside the quotation marks also makes it uncertain if he means "oK" or "oK." as that can be debated. This was most likely on purpose knowing Randall's love for grammar rule and spelling. It is of course debated in this explanations discussion.

Wikipedia says, "Whether this word is printed as OK, Ok, ok, okay, or O.K. is a matter normally resolved in the style manual for the publication involved." So luckily Randall did not settle for "oK." or "oK" in his book, which is not one of the mentioned versions.

==Transcript==
:[Four different ways to write the word "okay" are presented with a caption below each version.]
:okay
:Normal

:ok
:Normal

:OK
:Kind of old

:O.K.
:Like an alien impersonating a human

:[Caption below the panel:]
:How your spelling of "okay" makes you sound

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Compromise]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:How To]]

2220: Imagine Going Back in Time

2019-10-28T10:17:29Z

Captain Paralytic: grammar

{{comic
| number = 2220
| date = October 25, 2019
| title = Imagine Going Back in Time
| image = imagine_going_back_in_time.png
| titletext = I wonder what the trendy adults in 2019 who are too cool for Pokemon will be into. Probably Digimon!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Politoed. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is checking his {{w|Pokemon Go}} app, to see to a Pokémon he has left in a gym (to defend it against the other two teams - this can be done remotely). In the gym (which can hold up to six Pokémon) he sees another Pokémon player has left a frog Pokémon, which is now standing next to his. This players nick name is "Reelect Trump 2020" and Cueball can see this in the game by clicking on the frog Pokémon.

Cueball/[[Randall]] is not a fan of the current U.S. President {{w|Donald Trump}} (or anyone wishing him to be re-elected, as became clear in [[1756: I'm With Her]] and [[Sad comics|many comics]] that followed it, now including this), and this prompts Cueball to speak the following line to [[Megan]]: "A player named "Reelect Trump 2020" put a frog Pokemon in the gym next to mine." (Note that since the offending player is in the same gym as Cueball, they are "on the same team" and Cueball will not be able to remove either his, or his own Pokémon from the gym. Only players from the other two teams could do that).

This is such a strange sentence to utter that Megan facepalms herself and imagines how that sentence would have sounded to Cueball if he had said it to himself 20 years ago (in 1999 as this comic was released in 2019). "Imagine going back in time" is a phrase used to highlight how quickly or drastically something has changed, hence the title of the comic.

Megan is probably referring to the entire sentence, not something you could have imagined saying 20 years ago, as Pokémon Go was not a thing. But her emphasis (or this comic's at least) is on how strange it might have sounded to anyone in 1999 that Trump was president and thus was up for reelection, and that this could affect a gaming experience. It turns out, however, that she does not have to imagine how the past Cueball would react, since present day Cueball just happens to have a time machine on him! (Not so strange in xkcd since {{w|time travel}} is a [[:Category:Time travel|recurring theme]]).

Cueball thus immediately tests the scenario in practice by using his hand held time machine device to go back 20 years to talk to his past self in 1999. A Bzzzt later he is back, and the comic reenters just as he finishes speaking the line to his past 1999 self. Thus before this he may have had time to explain his former self, who he is and how he got there, and explain what his intentions are... So his former self has now come over his shock of learning that time travel is possible and by seeing his future, and 20 years older, self...

But past Cueball reacts, not by surprise (or with the wished for dismay) that Trump is actually the future president. But instead by asking questions about the popularity of Pokemon in 2019. And then he realizes that "he" still plays Pokémon as a 20 year older adult, thus probably at least in his 40s since the two versions of Cueballs are the same height, meaning the 1999 Cueball is also adult. So his next question is if it, in 2019, is seen as cool for "old" people to play Pokémon Go?

Cueball gets defensive and states that he did not come back to be mocked. But his past self continues by saying this is a sobering cautionary tale. The future Cueball just realizes that his past self may now change his behavior, never starting playing Pokémon Go (maybe stopping his current interest in Pokémon altogether). Thus future Cueball may just have risked changing the future, so he may cease to exist, like in so many time travel movies that created paradoxes (because had he not gone back, time could not have changed, and if the future changes, he will never go back to change the past). So in an attempt to protect his existence in the future, he yells out, "listen, Self..." and presumably tries to reorient the conversation to elicit the expected shock about Trump. However, since the comic cuts off, we don't know if the conversation even continued, or if that's when the [http://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Ripple_effect ripple effect] catches up with him.

Randall released a comic about Pokémon Go less than a week after its release back in July 2016: [[1705: Pokémon Go]]. But Pokémon in general has been a [[:Category:Pokémon|recurring theme]] in xkcd long before Pokémon Go was released.

{{w|Pokemon}} is a media franchise that debuted in 1996 in Japan as both a video game and a trading card game. It was originally designed for and marketed to younger children (the tie-in cartoon series constantly emphasizes its main characters are ten years old), with a design, aesthetic and gameplay that were optimized for a younger audience. Since then, and up to 2019, there have been a total of eight generations of video games on consoles. As the franchise continued to thrive and evolve, it's gone through multiple generations, including ''Pokemon Go'', an augmented reality game for smartphones. These latest versions, in particular, have become popular with adults, some of whom grew up playing the earlier generations.

In 1999 in North America, only the first generation of Pokemon video games had been released, consisting of {{w|Pokémon Red and Blue|Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Red}} for the Nintendo Gameboy. The second generation of Pokemon video games would not even be announced in Japan until {{w|Pokémon Gold and Silver#Release|November 1999}}, and advertising for the North American release would begin in December of 1999 with only the launch of the {{w|List of Pokémon: Adventures on the Orange Islands episodes|second season of the tie-in cartoon series}}; however, whether there would be a sequel game to tie in with this new season was only a matter of fan speculation in North America at that time. A person living in 1999, who has only seen the first generation, with no official confirmation that a second generation was even being considered, and unable to predict the nostalgia market that would appear later, would quite plausibly wonder about its popularity 20 years later.

{{w|Donald J. Trump}} is the president of the United States at the time of publishing, elected in 2016. Even during his campaign, the idea of his election was considered absurd in many circles, as he had never held any kind of public office, and had no background that would lend itself to expertise in government or public policy. Prior to his election, he was primarily known as a New York real estate mogul and host of the 2003 reality television show ''The Apprentice''. While he'd been teasing the idea of a presidential run since the 1980s, and indeed {{w|Donald Trump 2000 presidential campaign|was currently seeking the Reform Party candidacy in 1999}}, most people saw the idea as unserious, and the concept of him actually being President of the United States would have been hugely unexpected to most Americans in an earlier era.

[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-the-frog Pepe the Frog] is an internet meme that has become associated with Donald Trump after his use of it during his presidential campaign. The use of a frog Pokémon, therefore, is a callback to this internet phenomenon.

The Pokémon left in the gym is most likely [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Politoed_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Politoed], the only official frog Pokémon released in the game at the time of publication. It comes from the tadpole series with [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Poliwag_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Poliwag] that evolves into [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Poliwhirl_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Poliwhirl] which by using a [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/King%27s_Rock kings rock] can be evolved to Politoed (instead of to [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Poliwrath_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Poliwrath]). There are other frog like Pokémon in the game which are scheduled to be added to Pokémon Go, but where people who dislike Trump might have chosen [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Toxicroak_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Toxicroach], it seems an unlikely choice by a fan that hopes Trump is reelected!

This comic's joke is similar to one used in the 1985 science-fiction film ''{{w|Back to the Future}}'', in which Doc Brown (of 1955) is shocked to learn that {{w|Ronald Reagan}} would be the President of the United States in thirty years' time, when in 1955 Reagan was a TV actor.

{{w|Digimon}}, as mentioned in the title text, is another media franchise which is similar to Pokemon in some ways, though it is often perceived as more "cool" and "adult" oriented. Its popularity in North America rose around 1999 with the airing of its anime series, but [https://www.geekinsider.com/digimon-vs-pokemon-retrospective-monster-marketing/ never became as popular as Pokemon].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball talks to Megan while looking at his smart phone.]
:Cueball: Ugh. A player named "Reelect Trump 2020" put a frog Pokemon in the gym next to mine.

:[Megan puts her hand to her face. Cueball is holding a device in his hand with an antenna. He uses the other hand to move a stick on the device.]
:Megan: Imagine going back in time and saying that to yourself 20 years ago.
:Cueball: Oh, I have a time machine! I'll try that.

:[A sound effect between panels, likely the sound of Cueball's time machine.]
:Bzzzzt

:[Two Cueballs standing, facing each other. The one on the right is holding the handheld device, and is thus Cueball from 2019. He is apparently repeating his statement to the other Cueball from 1999, with only the last 3 words shown. He gestures towards the left Cueball. Above the left Cueball there is a frame with a caption:]
:1999
:Cueball from 2019: ...next to mine.

:[Cueball from 1999 is shown, with Cueball from 2019 speaking off panel.]
:Cueball from 1999: I see.
:Cueball from 1999: Pokemon is still popular in 2019?
:Cueball from 2019: Yeah.

:[Cueball from 2019 is holding a finger up in front of Cueball from 1999.]
:Cueball from 1999: And it's cool for people your age to play it?
:Cueball from 2019: OK, I did not come here to be mocked.
:Cueball from 1999: This is a sobering cautionary tale.
:Cueball from 2019: '''''Listen, self...'''''

{{comic discussion}}

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

[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Politics]]

2216: Percent Milkfat

2019-10-17T10:03:31Z

Captain Paralytic: grammar and spelling

{{comic
| number = 2216
| date = October 16, 2019
| title = Percent Milkfat
| image = percent_milkfat.png
| titletext = "So what's dark energy?" "Cosmologists and the FDA are both trying very hard to find out."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DARK MATTER COW. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Ponytail]] is explaining to [[Cueball]] that while 2% milk does contain 2% {{w|Butterfat|milkfat}}, whole milk does not contain 100%, but only 3.5% fat. Cueball thinks this is weird and asks what the rest of the milk consists of, but then gets a completely nonsense answer from Ponytail about the remaining 96.5% constituting of 27% dark matter and the rest as dark energy.

Whole milk is a dairy product which contains all of its naturally occurring milkfat. Whole milk generally contains about [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/03/whole-milk-is-actually-3-5-milk-whats-up-with-that/ 3.5% milkfat] by weight according to the comic and some sources; [https://milklife.com/articles/nutrition/types-of-dairy-milk other sources] list similar but not identical numbers such as 3.25%.

Dairies commonly sell whole milk as well as products with less fat produced by removing milkfat. {{w|Fat_content_of_milk#United_States|In the United States}}, there are three common products with less fat: 2% or "reduced fat" milk, 1% or "lowfat" milk, and "fat-free" or "skim" milk with 0 to 0.5% milkfat.

Since whole milk is labeled as "whole" (or "Vitamin D") milk and not as "3.5% milk," one might naively assume that whole milk is 100% milkfat, although this is not the case; 100% would be a product which is entirely milkfat (also known as butterfat), such as {{w|clarified butter}} or ghee. In milk, {{w|Milk#Nutrition and health|the remainder}} is mainly water along with proteins, lactose (a sugar), and other substances.

The comic analogizes this difference to the fact that physicists believe that "ordinary" matter constitutes only 5% of the actual mass-energy of the universe. Scientists predict the existence of another kind of matter known as "{{w|dark matter}}," invisible to our current instruments but exerting gravitational force on ordinary matter, which would constitute 85% of total matter and 27% of the universe's mass-energy, with the remainder an even less detectable and more mysterious "{{w|dark energy}}" accounting for the increasing speed of {{w|expansion of the universe}}.

Ponytail uses these quantities to "explain" the "missing" percentage in whole milk between the actual 3.5% and a potential 100% "whole." She actually uses the 27% as mentioned above for dark matter. She thus indicates that dark energy takes up the remaining 69.5% of the whole milk.

{{w|Physical cosmology|Cosmologists}} are working to better understand dark energy or another reason for the universe's accelerating expansion. The title text supposes that both cosmologists and the {{w|Food and Drug Administration}} (FDA), which regulates milk and other food items in the United States, are trying to understand the dark energy of the whole milk. In real life, the work of cosmologists and FDA scientists does not overlap at all{{Citation needed}}.

Dark energy was recently mentioned in [[2113: Physics Suppression]], but before that milk fat and dark energy were actually mentioned in the same sentence in [[2063: Carnot Cycle]] from almost a year before this comic, so the idea behind this comic is not new for Randall. Dark matter was mentioned back in [[1758: Astrophysics]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail, raising her palm, and Cueball are talking.]
:Ponytail: "2% milk" is 2% milkfat. But "whole milk" isn't 100% milkfat–it's 3.5%.
:Cueball: Weird. What's the rest of it?
:Ponytail: About 27% is dark matter. The remainder is dark energy.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Food]]

572: Together

2019-10-09T09:33:59Z

Captain Paralytic: grammar

{{comic
| number =572
| date =April 22, 2009
| title =Together
| image =together.png
| titletext =This scavenger hunt is getting boring. Let's go work on the treehouse!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are seen running together hand in hand. Behind them two others (who look like Cueball and Megan as well) are standing next to a box in an open field of grass.

Together, Cueball and Megan become romantic, get married and retire in old age to a porch swing, Cueball now wearing a sailor cap and Megan with hair worn just like [[Hairbun]].

Suddenly, without a word, old Cueball using his cane, leaves old Megan on the porch, even though she shouts out for him to come back. He then returns to his two friends at the box from the first panel, they are now also much older and are still standing beside the box. Old Cueball picks up a sheet of paper and checks off "Happiness", the third point checked off on a list entitled "Scavenger Hunt," where the other items include these two above that are checked off: Indian-Head Penny and Snake Skin as well as these two items below that are not yet checked off: Four-Leaf Clover and Shark Tooth. At least one more unchecked point is on the list, but it is covered by a speech bubble.

So finding happiness was just one item in what is presumably the longest-running {{w|scavenger hunt}} of all-time, considering Cueball grew significantly old during the hunt (the duration is as much as 70 years, since Cueball is now having to use a cane). The comic ends with Cueball asking, "What's next?"

The list indicates this is a hunt for somewhat rare items. The US {{w|Indian Head cent}} (penny) was produced from 1859 to 1909, making it somewhat rare. But this they have managed. Also the snake skin has been managed which may be a little easier to find if you live in areas with snakes as they shed their skin by molting. So finding such a skin would be the objective to find here.

A {{w|four leaf clover}} is a rare variation of the common three-leaf clover. A shark tooth is not easy to obtain, unless you live near a beach with souvenir shops.

The title, ''Together'', of the comic is probably a reference to the saying that you find happiness ''together'' with your loved one. Cueball could have taken many different paths to finding happiness, together or separate, but he chose togetherness as a way to find happiness, which is a common theme in love stories. But happiness is not something a person finds, it is an experience, hence the need to accumulate enough experiences to determine beyond doubt that happiness was truly found. Which is why he had to wait until old age before he could go back to his friends.

Note that Megan is never seen together with Cueball's friends, and especially since she is not invited to go back to them to check the happiness point off, there there is no reason to assume that she was in on the game from the beginning. She was just a means to an end, which make Cueball's action rather cruel and questionable.

The title text indicates that after all this time, the players may abandon the game due to being bored with it, which is another genius punchline. The treehouse reference in the title text is another example of a common childhood activity. Naturally, the intended mental image of a bunch of old men and women building a treehouse and playing in it like six year olds is another punchline. It is also typical for children to tire of a game before it is finished. Except here, Cueball spent nearly a lifetime on just one part of this game! The idea of adults having a fort in the woods was also mentioned, rather darkly, in the title text of [[219: Blanket Fort]].

Three of the old people look very similar to three of those standing in line in [[586: Mission to Culture]]. And much later in [[1910: Sky Spotters]] the two birdwatchers looks very much like the old version of Cueball and Megan. Giving an old person a sailor cap was also used in [[2213: How Old]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are running in a field, holding hands. They are running away from another pair which also looks like Cueball and Megan. This pair stand in the background, next to a small box. There may be something lying on top of the box, but it is difficult to see clearly. The sun is shining above them.]

:[Cueball and Megan are in a boat on a lake, very romantic. Cueball is speaking to Megan, illustrated with a heart.]
:Cueball: ♡

:[Cueball and Megan sit together on a bench on a beach, watching the sunset.]

:[Cueball and Megan stand in front of an altar under a wedding arch, with confetti falling around them. He is wearing a butterfly and she a veil.]

:[Cueball and Megan, now old and wrinkled, sit together holding hands on their porch at the top of a small stair outside their house. He has a sailor cap on and Megan now wears her hair in a bun. Although the woman looks like [[Hairbun]], and the old man is wearing a sailor cap, we can assume this is still Megan and Cueball given the juxtaposition of the preceding panel.]

:[The same setting is depicted but seen from the side of the house. Cueball begins walking away from Megan using his cane. He has descended from the stair. Finally Megan speaks, and unusually there is a speech bubble, with an extra smaller bubble hanging on to it for the second sentence.]
:Megan: Dear? Where are you-
:Megan: Come back!

:[Cueball approaches an old couple, presumably the kids from the first panel now turned old. They seem tired looking down all the time. The man only has hair around his neck and also a cane. The woman has long thinning hair. The box from the first panel is between Cueball and the other two. On top of it lies a piece of paper]

:[Same picture except that Cueball is now standing still and has picked up the paper from the box and writes on it with a pen. Again there is a speak bubble.]
:Cueball: Okay,

:[The paper is shown. It is a scavenger hunt list with at least six items. The three first items have been checked off. The last item is blocked by the speech bubble, but can be seen to be there from the check box.]
:Scavenger hunt:
:☒ Indian-head penny
:☒ Snake skin
:☒ Happiness
:☐ Four-leaf clover
:☐ Shark tooth
:☐
:Cueball (off-panel): What's next?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Wedding]]

572: Together

2019-10-09T09:32:02Z

Captain Paralytic: grammar

{{comic
| number =572
| date =April 22, 2009
| title =Together
| image =together.png
| titletext =This scavenger hunt is getting boring. Let's go work on the treehouse!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are seen running together hand in hand. Behind them two others (who look like Cueball and Megan as well) are standing next to a box in an open field of grass.

Together, Cueball and Megan become romantic, get married and retire in old age to a porch swing, Cueball now wearing a sailor cap and Megan with hair worn just like [[Hairbun]].

Suddenly, without a word, old Cueball using his cane, leaves old Megan on the porch, even though she shouts out for him to come back. He then returns to his two friends at the box from the first panel, they are now also much older and are still standing beside the box. Old Cueball picks up a sheet of paper and checks off "Happiness", the third point checked off on a list entitled "Scavenger Hunt," where the other items include these two above that are checked off: Indian-Head Penny and Snake Skin as well as these two items below that are not yet checked off: Four-Leaf Clover and Shark Tooth. At least one more unchecked point is on the list, but it is covered by a speech bubble.

So finding happiness was just one item in what is presumably the longest-running {{w|scavenger hunt}} of all-time, considering Cueball grew significantly old during the hunt (the duration is as much as 70 years, since Cueball is now having to use a cane). The comic ends with Cueball asking, "What's next?"

The list indicates this is a hunt for somewhat rare items. The US {{w|Indian Head cent}} (penny) was produced from 1859 to 1909, making it somewhat rare. But this they have managed. Also the snake skin has been managed which may be a little easier to find if you live in areas with snakes as they shed their skin by molting. So finding such a skin would be the objective to find here.

A {{w|four leaf clover}} is a rare variation of the common three-leaf clover. A shark tooth is not easy to obtain, unless you live near a beach with souvenir shops.

The title, ''Together'', of the comic is probably a reference to the saying that you find happiness ''together'' with your loved one. Cueball could have taken many different paths to finding happiness, together or separate, but he chose togetherness as a way to find happiness, which is a common theme in love stories. But happiness is not something a person finds, it is an experience, hence the need to accumulate enough experiences to determine beyond doubt that happiness was truly found. Which is why he had to wait until old age before he could go back to his friends.

Note that Megan is never seen together with Cueball's friends, and especially since she is not invited to go back to them to check the happiness point off, there there is no reason to assume that she was in on the game from the beginning. She was just a means to an end, which make Cueball's action rather cruel and questionable.

The title text indicates that after all this time, the players may abandon the game due to being bored with it, which is another genius punchline. The treehouse reference in the title text is another example of a common childhood activity. Naturally, the intended mental image of a bunch of old men and women building a treehouse and playing in it like six year olds is another punchline. It is also typical for children to tire of a game before it is finished. Except here, Cueball spent nearly a lifetime on just one part of this game! The idea of adults having a fort in the woods was also mentioned, rather darkly, in the title text of [[219: Blanket Fort]].

Three of the old people looks very similar to three of those standing in line in [[586: Mission to Culture]]. And much later in [[1910: Sky Spotters]] the two birdwatchers looks very much like the old version of Cueball and Megan. Giving an old person a sailor cap was also used in [[2213: How Old]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are running in a field, holding hands. They are running away from another pair which also looks like Cueball and Megan. This pair stand in the background, next to a small box. There may be something lying on top of the box, but it is difficult to see clearly. The sun is shining above them.]

:[Cueball and Megan are in a boat on a lake, very romantic. Cueball is speaking to Megan, illustrated with a heart.]
:Cueball: ♡

:[Cueball and Megan sit together on a bench on a beach, watching the sunset.]

:[Cueball and Megan stand in front of an altar under a wedding arch, with confetti falling around them. He is wearing a butterfly and she a veil.]

:[Cueball and Megan, now old and wrinkled, sit together holding hands on their porch at the top of a small stair outside their house. He has a sailor cap on and Megan now wears her hair in a bun. Although the woman looks like [[Hairbun]], and the old man is wearing a sailor cap, we can assume this is still Megan and Cueball given the juxtaposition of the preceding panel.]

:[The same setting is depicted but seen from the side of the house. Cueball begins walking away from Megan using his cane. He has descended from the stair. Finally Megan speaks, and unusually there is a speech bubble, with an extra smaller bubble hanging on to it for the second sentence.]
:Megan: Dear? Where are you-
:Megan: Come back!

:[Cueball approaches an old couple, presumably the kids from the first panel now turned old. They seem tired looking down all the time. The man only has hair around his neck and also a cane. The woman has long thinning hair. The box from the first panel is between Cueball and the other two. On top of it lies a piece of paper]

:[Same picture except that Cueball is now standing still and has picked up the paper from the box and writes on it with a pen. Again there is a speak bubble.]
:Cueball: Okay,

:[The paper is shown. It is a scavenger hunt list with at least six items. The three first items have been checked off. The last item is blocked by the speech bubble, but can be seen to be there from the check box.]
:Scavenger hunt:
:☒ Indian-head penny
:☒ Snake skin
:☒ Happiness
:☐ Four-leaf clover
:☐ Shark tooth
:☐
:Cueball (off-panel): What's next?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Wedding]]

2208: Drone Fishing

2019-10-08T11:53:34Z

Captain Paralytic: spelling mistake

{{comic
| number = 2208
| date = September 27, 2019
| title = Drone Fishing
| image = drone_fishing.png
| titletext = Today's consumers who order their drones off the internet don't know the joy of going out in nature and returning with a drone that you caught yourself, whose angry owners you fought off with your own two hands.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LINE-CAUGHT DRONE. The explanation lacks references to illegal bat-"fishing" done with kites, which seems to look similar to what Cueball is doing here. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Another comic in the [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series.

This comic is a parody of the traditional activity of fishing for fish. Typically, a person who is fishing will sit as [[Cueball]] does in this comic, by some body of water and wait for a fish to bite their cast line. However, some fisherman will use a kite to allow them to cast their line further in the water, and this is called "{{w|Kite fishing}}". But it is also possible to use drones for this, as in [https://youtu.be/8sdUZqOoAq4 "drone fishing."]

[[Randall]], however, is interpreting "Drone fishing" not as fishing ''with'' drones but as fishing ''for'' drones ("drone fishing" as in "lobster fishing"). In fact, what Cueball (or Randall) is doing, is kite fishing for drones, by flying a kite with fishhooks attached over some drone enthusiasts in hopes of snagging their drones. This is quite likely illegal, especially if Cueball were to "reel" the caught drone in. It seems like he has already caught two that lay in front of his feet. All the drones are of the {{w|quadcopter}} type, as they are called in [[1630: Quadcopter]].

The title text parodies a common line about fishing, about the "joy of going out in nature", catching fish, and the struggle of reeling in large fish. However, instead of being about fishing, Randall has replaced the line to be about catching drones, and fighting off their owners. Considering that the two drone owners beneath his kite are children, [[Science Girl]] and a Cueball like kid, clearly smaller than Cueball/Randall in the chair, this should not be so tough in the pictured case.

Real life methods for capturing drones involve [https://youtu.be/TseOHDBZ8MA French Army falconry] training of [https://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Insolite/En-images-Les-aigles-plus-forts-que-les-drones-1186391 golden eagles] (a technique [https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/12/16767000/police-netherlands-eagles-rogue-drones abandoned] by Dutch police) and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvdKNBSWPyU firing nets from other drones,] which has been proposed for [https://ubir.buffalo.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10477/79546/BottaEtAl-2017-postprint-JGCD.pdf orbital debris removal], or the use of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GRaAHexsVk nets hanging on counter-drones.]

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is seated in a leaning chair, with a tackle box behind it and two drones lying on the ground in front of him. He is holding a fishing rod from which he is flying a kite on a long string. The kite is high up in the air and far away from Cueball. On the long string there are three smaller lines dangling below the string closer to the kite that to Cueball. Each line has six hooks evenly spread out, from a bit beneath the string to the end of the lines. Three quadcopter type drones are in the air nearby, with Science Girl and a Cueball-like kid standing right beneath the kite holding remote-controls for their respective drones. They are facing each other, the Cueball-like kid looking up, whereas Science Girl seems to be looking at the drone right in front of her, between and just above the kids. It has just begun to rise up as shown by lines beneath it. The two other drones are on either side of the kite line, both flying towards the hooks. Whoever controls the third drone must be off panel, and it is not clear which of those two the kid is controlling. The only text is a caption below the panel:]
:My Hobby: Drone Fishing

==Trivia==
*Recently drones have taken over from kites in xkcd, as this is the 10th drone related comics since the last one with a kite.
**At the time of the last kite comic, [[1756: I'm With Her]] there where 10 kites comics vs. 6 drone comics.
***Now it is 11 kite vs. 16 drone comics. Times are changing.
**This is only the second time the two are in the same comic, but in [[1608: Hoverboard]] the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png kite] and the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7c/1608_0950x1084y_Quadcopters_over_lava_lake_right.png drones] were not in the same part of the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cf/1608_full_tiny.png huge image].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Kites]]
[[Category:Drones]]

2203: Prescience

2019-09-17T09:56:14Z

Captain Paralytic: Spelling corrections

{{comic
| number = 2203
| date = September 16, 2019
| title = Prescience
| image = prescience.png
| titletext = Lots of people called their ships unsinkable before the Titanic. Voicing your hubris doesn't make failure more likely, just more memorable.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Prescient METEORITE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, [[Cueball]] states that it's been a long time since there's been a really big {{w|Impact event|meteor impact}}. Due to the {{w|Gambler's Fallacy}}, this is taken to be Cueball implying that a big meteor impact is coming soon. The off-panel voice is annoyed about his statement, but whether from fear of it happening or because he does this all the time is unclear, see more below. The joke is that Cueball does this often, also with other types of major random events, just in case they do actually happen soon. For instance if there does happen to be an impact soon after he made the statement, it makes him look incredibly {{w|prescient}}, whereas if there isn't one, no one really cares or remembers.

It is also unclear how big an impact he refers to. It has been 60 million years since the {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event|impact that killed the dinosaurs}}, but that if that is the type of event he refers too, then maybe no one will be there to remember what he said. So it is most like much smaller impacts he is talking about.

Prescience means to predict the future. It is clear from this comic that [[Randall]] makes fun both of those that claim to have prescience and of those that have superstition against talking about something happening could cause it to happen.

Although only one method is scientifically recognized, there are at least three possible sources of prescience recognized by people.

The first of the two main ways of predicting the future involves a mix of common sense and historical knowledge. By understanding the past, the direction of the future can be guessed at with varying levels of accuracy. This type of prescience is also known sometimes as future modelling, statistical prediction, and even wisdom to name a few.

The second way to predict the future is not scientifically recognized, but remains popular in culture and fiction. It can involve magic, psychic power, higher powers (gods), and other such methods. Collectively, they are labeled supernatural; any method to predict the future using this class of method cannot be easily measured by science.

Although not technically a way to predict the future, the third way to predict the future is through superstition. The method involved in this comic effectively boils down to "speak the name of evil, and you will summon it." This superstition can have surprising power in people's lives, however. A woman planning her outdoor wedding may feel the urge to hit her friend if they say "Gosh, I hope it doesn't rain on that day." A doctor working in the Emergency Room may feel the need to kick anyone who says "Wow, it's really quiet around here." Such thoughts spoken aloud do not have the power to control the weather or cause people to seriously injure themselves. Yet people often react emotionally as if not speaking the name of 'evil' will keep it away.

This comic may reflect that emotional reaction when the off-screen character yells at Cueball: "Will you stop that?!". Alternatively it is one, like [[Megan]], who knows Cueball well enough to know that which is stated in the caption, that he only does this to look good if said thing happens. And the person is so tired of it! Maybe Cueball does it at least once a week, and obviously from the caption, it is not only about meteor impact, but any major random event, that he could then be remembered as having predicted.

The title, Prescience, has a double meaning. The first meaning is about the prescience that would appear if one actually predicts a natural disaster this way. The second meaning involves the fact that it is spelled pre-science - since there are many more scientific ways to predict meteor impacts, even though they aren't entirely accurate.

The title text refers to the {{w|RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic''}}, a ship which was claimed to be unsinkable by those promoting its maiden voyage. But then it struck an iceberg in an unfortunate way so more compartments would be filled with water that it could survive, and of course it could sink. But with all the new stories that had just been published hailing this unsinkable ship as a modern wonder of the world, this ship wreck was particularly ironic. The story of the sinking of the ''Titanic'' has been memorialized in popular culture, most memorably in the 1997 film {{w|Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic}}.

In the title text Randall thus suggests that lots of ships had been called unsinkable before Titanic. But saying such {{w|hubris}} out load doesn't make any ship more likely to sink. But when such a ship, like Titanic, then sinks it does however, increase the value of the story ensuring it will be remembered.

It should be noted that few among the ship's builders or crew boasted the ''Titanic'' to be unsinkable. Most of the boasting came from the owners that used the news media to create hype and promote the ship, just when the ship was finished and dedicated (the ship's builders did, however, boast that the ship exceeded all safety standards of the time). In addition the hubris was only one small part of the fame of the sinking of the ''Titanic''; the ''Titanic'''s status as a world record setter for most massive ship ever built, the incredible wealth of most of its passengers, and the fact it sank on its maiden voyage all contributed to the fame and hype behind the great maritime tragedy. Ironically part of what caused this disaster was hubris since those that was interested in promoting the ship also wished it to make another record, reaching New York a day before expected. Thus the captain, even though he for sure knew that the ship could sink took some fateful decisions of running on full speed through waters with icebergs during a night with very calm waters, which is known to make spotting icebergs more difficult as there will be no waves with foam around the icebergs base as there would have been in less calm waters..

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in an armchair holding a book. He seems to be looking of as he talks to an off-panel person behind him. This person replies.]
:Cueball: You know, it's been a while since there's been a really big meteor impact.
:Off-panel voice: '''''Will you stop that?!'''''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I say this kind of thing every so often, because I don't believe it affects the outcome and it has a slim chance of looking ''incredibly'' prescient.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2153: Effects of High Altitude

2019-05-23T09:06:47Z

Captain Paralytic: Added missing word

{{comic
| number = 2153
| date = May 22, 2019
| title = Effects of High Altitude
| image = effects_of_high_altitude.png
| titletext = If she'd lived in Flagstaff (elevation 6,903 feet), Cruella de Vil would only have needed 89 dalmatians for her coat.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HIGH BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic starts out with three effects of high altitude related to the air getting "thinner" and the lower air pressure. {{w|Denver}} is one mile (5280 feet or 1609 meters) above sea-level (as marked on the steps of the State Capitol). At this elevation, the [http://www.altitude.org/air_pressure.php average atmospheric pressure] is about 83% of sea level pressure, or about 840 mbar, and [https://www.vcalc.com/wiki/KurtHeckman/Gravity+Acceleration+by+Altitude gravity] is 99.94% normal, or 9.801 m/s2 instead of 9.806 m/s2. This has a number of effects:

* Water {{w|boiling|boils}} at 202 degrees F (94 degrees C), slightly lower than the baseline 212 degrees F (100 degrees C) it takes at sea level.
* Baseballs and golf balls fly slightly farther.
* {{w|Sunburn}} develops faster because there is less atmosphere above to filter out harmful ultraviolet rays.

As usual for xkcd, the effects of high altitude are extended in a comically absurd manner, applying this "slightly less" rule to things that have nothing to do with altitude:

* {{w|Scrabble}} is a board game where each letter is assigned a point value based on its frequency of use in the edition's language. The comic claims all letters are worth 16% more. When applied to the {{w|Scrabble_letter_distributions#English|normal values for the Scrabble tiles in English}}
** Q is worth 12 instead of 10
** X is worth 9 instead of 8
** Y is worth 5 instead of 4
* A common {{w|superstition}} states that breaking a mirror causes 7 years of bad luck. The comic claims that at higher altitudes, only 5½ years are caused. It is unclear whether this implies that people living at higher altitudes have more or less luck.
* Marketing campaigns will often state "X is the new Y" to draw the audience of Y in toward the newer X. When used with age, usually at 10 year intervals ("40 is the new 30" is the slogan referenced), it is an attempt to convince an older audience that they can share in an experience commonly associated with a younger audience. At higher elevations, the comic claims, people can use or do things designated for an even younger audience
* German band {{w|Nena (band)|Nena}}'s hit ''99 Red Balloons'' (an English adaptation of the original song called ''{{w|99 Luftballons}}'') is a song about a global (not necessarily nuclear) war started by a large clump of balloons mistaken for enemy aircraft (although the original German song refers to "UFOs aus dem All", the lyrics of the English-language song say "There's something here from somewhere else" which does not imply extraterrestrial origins, merely that the object is not of domestic origin; and "the war machine springs to life", which implies that a rival nation on earth is thought to be the culprit). The comic claims that if launched from a higher altitude, 94 balloons would have sufficed.
* {{w|420 (cannabis culture)|4:20}} is a code word for {{w|cannabis}} and has evolved in some circles to be the socially acceptable hour to consume cannabis. This has in turn evolved into a joke that when checking the time and finding it is exactly 4:20, people will add "blaze it" as a reference. The comic claims that, at higher altitudes, the socially acceptable time is earlier, so if there is an elevation of one mile, the socially acceptable time would be 4:17 and therefore, marijuana jokes are made earlier. This joke is probably related to the {{w|Cannabis in Colorado|legalization of recreational marijuana use in Colorado}}.

* Referenced in the title text, ''{{w|One Hundred and One Dalmatians (franchise)|One Hundred and One Dalmatians}}'' is a children's book and Disney franchise based on it, where the villain, {{w|Cruella de Vil}}, aims to capture and kill 99 Dalmatian puppies to have the perfect spotted fur coat (the title comes from adding to them the two that try to save them). The comic claims that, at a higher altitude in {{w|Flagstaff, Arizona|Flagstaff}} (6903 ft / 2104 m), she would only have needed 89 Dalmatians, possibly implying that puppies at higher altitudes are bigger, or that Cruella de Vil at high altitudes is smaller.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:'''Effects of High Altitude'''
:How life is different at one mile above sea level
:(e.g. in Denver)

:[Eight small panels, each containing an image with a caption at the top:]

:Water boils at 202°F
:[A pot on a stovetop, with steam rising from the pot]

:Baseballs and golf balls fly 5-10% farther
:[A baseball flying through the air]

:Sunburns develop significantly faster
:[Five wavy arrows hitting a curved surface]

:Scrabble letters are worth 16% more
:[Scrabble tiles for letters Q, X and Y with point values 12, 9 and 5, respectively]

:Breaking a mirror only causes 5½ years of bad luck
:[Cueball looking down at a broken hand mirror on the floor]

:40 is the new 28
:[Cueball and Megan are talking. Megan is gesturing]
:Megan: 50 is the new 40, and when you account for elevation it's more like 37.

:Nuclear war can be started with only 94 red balloons.
:[Five black balloons floating]

:People make marijuana jokes slightly earlier
:[Cueball and Ponytail are talking. Ponytail is looking at her phone]
:Cueball: Hey, what time is it?
:Ponytail: 4:17 Blaze it!

==Trivia==
The effect of altitude on sports was already topic of [[852: Local g]].

{{comic discussion}}

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

2125: Luna 2

2019-03-19T08:49:23Z

Captain Paralytic: Changed German abbreviation to English one

{{comic
| number = 2125
| date = March 18, 2019
| title = Luna 2
| image = luna_2.png
| titletext = The flags were probably vaporized on impact, because we launched it before we had finished figuring out how to land. That makes sense from an engineering standpoint, but also feels like a metaphor.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FLAGMENTATION GRENADE. Title text needs to be explained, . Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is referring to {{w|Luna 2}}, the first man-made object to make contact with the surface of the moon, and consequently, as stated in the comic, the first man-made object to touch another world. On September 13, 1959, it hit the Moon's surface east of {{w|Mare Imbrium}} near the craters Aristides, {{w|Archimedes}}, and {{w|Autolycus}}.

[[Megan]] is sitting in front of a computer, and telling [[Cueball]] about the Luna 2. She explains that the probe was designed to explode on impact, thus scattering multiple metal Soviet flags and ribbons on the surface of the Moon. They compare it to throwing a shrapnel grenade with flags in it at the moon.

Cueball's observation that it is "on-brand" for humans to litter another world with an explosion of nationalist iconography immediately upon reaching it, is a reference to the vastly numerous historical instances when, upon setting foot on territory for the first time, humans "conquer" it, by planting flags on the first thing they see.

The titletext might refer to the fact that for the Luna 2 mission it was more important to just get to the moon at all rather than have a sophisticated landing mechanism. This was due to the fact that it happened during the space race between the USA and USSR and both countries tried to reach significant milestones in space exploration. The metaphorical interpretation could be that sometimes people get overly excited after an initial breakthrough and dive into projects without thinking them through or considering long term consequences.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind while Megan sits at a laptop.]
:Megan: Huh. ''Luna 2'', the first artificial object to touch another world, carried a sphere made of steel Soviet flag emblems.

:[A patterned sphere is shown blowing up to pieces.]
:It was designed to blow apart on impact, scattering tiny metal flags and ribbons across the surface of the moon.

:[Close-up of Cueball and Megan's faces.]
:Cueball: So the first physical contact humans had with a heavenly body...
:Megan: ...was throwing a shrapnel grenade full of flags at it.
:Cueball: Well, it's on-brand for us, at least.

{{comic discussion}}

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

2119: Video Orientation

2019-03-05T10:03:39Z

Captain Paralytic: missing word

{{comic
| number = 2119
| date = March 4, 2019
| title = Video Orientation
| image = video_orientation.png
| titletext = CIRCULAR VIDEO - PROS: Solves aspect ratio problem. CONS: Never trust anyone who talks to you from inside a circle.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This was created by a TRUSTWORTHY CIRCULAR VIDEO. Nothing about Bold and Dynamic. Bad dubious template. Better explanation on horizontal and vertical needed. DO NOT DELETE THIS TOO SOON (It already was once.)}}

This comic compares the pros and cons of 3 video "orientations" (also known as angling), one of which is entirely made-up. This comic was most likely inspired by articles like [https://mashable.com/2017/12/28/vertical-video-mainstream-year/#GEK.NgJ74mqR this], and [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/video-looks-most-natural-horizontally-but-we-hold-our-phones-vertically/ this], which comment on how videos are now filmed vertically through smartphones.

From Randall's comments on horizontal vs vertical, it seems that he is in favor of horizontal videos. However, he does love a good [[690|compromise]][[Category:Compromise]], so he suggests "Diagonal Orientation" as a third option to satisfy the needs of both types of user. The issue with this is that diagonal angling fails to fully capture the benefits of either horizontal or vertical angling.

'''Horizontal orientation'''
# Good for people not used to phones, and has been used for centuries for capturing video.
# Not the best at capturing a human's entire body, without also capturing much of their surroundings.
# Potentially uncomfortable for the one making the recording to maintain over a long period of time, as most phones were designed for vertical holding.

'''Vertical orientation'''
# The norm for most users capturing video on their smartphone.
# Not ideal for capturing the background, as our world is mostly a "horizontal plane".

'''Diagonal orientation'''
# Not a standard format of video, thus "bold and dynamic". {{Citation needed}}
# Equally annoying to all viewers.
# Flawless, as in perfect in every way.{{Dubious}}

Diagonal angling is commonly known as "oblique angle" or "{{w|Dutch angle}}" in cinema and is often used to portray psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed. This however, is different from the diagonal orientation, as the horizon on-screen is still horizontal in the comic image.

The title text quip about circular video would be a reference to having a demon trapped inside a summoning circle, hence not trusting anything that would be said to you.

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

:[The image shows three columns by three rows with the following headers:]
:'''Video Orientation'''
:'''Pros'''
:'''Cons'''

:[First row:]
:[A wide picture with a text above:]
:Horizontal
:[Pros are:]
:*Looks normal to old people
:*Format used by a century of cinema
:[Cons are:]
:*Humans are taller than are wide
:*I'm not turning my phone sideways

:[Second row:]
:[A high picture with a text above:]
:Vertical
:[Pros are:]
:*How most normal people shoot and watch video now so we may as well accept it
:[Cons are:]
:*Human world is mostly a horizontal plane

:[Third row:]
:[A picture rotated by 45 degrees with a text above:]
:Diagonal
:[Pros are:]
:*Bold and dynamic
:*Equally annoying to all viewers
:*Good compromise
:[Cons are:]
:*None

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Compromise]]

2107: Launch Risk

2019-02-05T09:57:36Z

Captain Paralytic: Corrected grammar and removed made up words.

{{comic
| number = 2107
| date = February 4, 2019
| title = Launch Risk
| image = launch_risk.png
| titletext = Don't worry--you're less likely to die from a space launch than from a shark attack. The survival rate is pretty high for both!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic deals with statistics based on a large population, such as all Americans, when the people in question are in a smaller group with vastly different statistics, such as astronauts.

A capsule is about to be launched into space. On the left side, there is an announcement: "T-MINUS 20...19..." The "T" stands for the time at which the rocket is scheduled to be launched. T minus 20 indicate 20 seconds before the launch, so it's basically a countdown for 20 seconds before the rocket is launched. In the capsule, one astronaut asks another how they are feeling. The second one admits to feeling nervous. The first one offers the supposedly reassuring observation that they are more likely to be struck by lightning than to be selected as an astronaut. Such "more likely to be struck by lightning" comparisons are commonly used to illustrate that a particular risk is very remote, and thus should not be considered particularly frightening.

The second one agrees with the first one for a moment, but then realizes that something is wrong with the argument. Presumably, they realize that the likelihood of being ''selected as an astronaut'' is a moot point -- they are there because they ''already have'' been selected as an astronaut. That's why the first one's intention is more likely trolling than being really caring about the second one's nervousness. His words are only causing more confusion for the second one. The relevant concern is the risk level faced by an astronaut, given that they already hold that position. Unfortunately, the historical record shows that this risk is somewhat high, certainly far above the minuscule risk of being struck by lightning.

The lifetime odds of being struck by lightning are approximately 1 in 14,600 (approximately 10% of those struck by lightning are killed) [https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-odds How Dangerous is Lightning?].

The title text refers to another common comparison, the risk of a shark attack. In addition to shark attacks being rather rare, they are also not as likely to kill the victim as is commonly assumed. Most people attacked by sharks, and most people launched into space, live through the experience. However, it remains true that both are considerably riskier than most common activities like car accident (1 in 583 deaths) or unintentional poisoning (1 in 70 deaths).
([https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-mortality-risk])
Of the 557 people who have been in Earth orbit, 18 (3%) have died in related accidents, not specifically at launch([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_and_incidents List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents], [https://www.worldspaceflight.com/bios/stats.php Astronaut/Cosmonaut Statistics]). Again, this is not really comforting, since probability of dying in a space launch is not less than probability of dying in a shark attack for a random person, but only less than the probability of dying of a shark attack ''given that you are attacked by a shark''.

A tall rocket, such as depicted would be more likely to be struck by lightning than nearby structures. However launch controllers monitor weather carefully to reduce the chances of attempting to launch when lightning is likely.

A space craft launch can trigger lightning, by creating a conductive path through charge bearing clouds, which would normally not produce lightning. Apollo 12 was struck by triggered lightning twice during launch phase, resulting in the entire operational platform shutting down from overload. Thankfully backup systems allowed the flight to proceed. For more information, see [https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/9-12/features/F_Lightning_and_Launches_9_12.html NASA: Lightning and Launches]

The perceived value of risk is a recurring topic and is also featured in [[795: Conditional Risk]] and [[1252: Increased Risk]].

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

:[A rocket is about to launch.]
:Astronaut 1: How you feeling?
:Astronaut 2: Honestly, pretty nervous.
:Astronaut 1: I know it seems dangerous, but just remember: you're more likely to be struck by lightning than to be selected to become an astronaut.
:Astronaut 2: Oh that's a good-
:Astronaut 2: ...Wait.
:Countdown: T-Minus 20...19...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Space]]

2106: Sharing Options

2019-02-02T09:35:52Z

Captain Paralytic: Corrected grammar

{{comic
| number = 2106
| date = February 1, 2019
| title = Sharing Options
| image = sharing_options.png
| titletext = How about posts that are public, but every time a company accesses a bunch of them, the API makes their CEO's account click 'like' on one of them at random so you get a notification.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 300 or a billion BOTs. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a satire of social media's presence in our lives and its vulnerabilities. [[Cueball]] is flying in an atmosphere that resembles a VR cyberspace, and he is talking to a screen that may be a smartphone with an advanced virtual assistant installed. [[Ponytail]] and other characters also fly in the background, so this cyberspace may be the social network's cyberspace where everyone interacts. The clouds represent the cloud server where the data of the social network is stored. The advanced virtual assistant seems to have a virtual face and have very advanced AI, which can even be arrogant by assuming that it already knew the information about the "option in between".

Randall, who might have never heard of the Facebook option to share with "friends of friends" as well, is making a point that there ought to be some option between sharing posts only with your friends and making them completely public. The title text shows that he would specifically like to know when corporations read his posts.

Randall might be interested in [https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/ scuttlebutt] or [https://secushare.org/ secushare].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball floating in midair is communicating with a small floating screen that resembles a smartphone. Other people and clouds visible floating by in background.]
:Screen: Welcome to social media! When you put stuff here, you have two options: (1) You can make it available to a small set of 300 or so approved friends.
:Screen: Or (2) you can share permanent copies of it all with billions of people, including internet scammers, random predatory companies, and hostile governments.

:Cueball: Why would anyone pick option two?
:Screen: Two is the default.
:Cueball: Yikes.

:Cueball: So those are the only two options? There's nothing in in between?
:Screen: I don't understand. Like what?

:Cueball: I mean...there are numbers between 300 and a billion.
:Screen: Huh? Name one.
:Screen: ''Pretty'' sure I would have heard of those.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2098: Magnetic Pole

2019-01-15T10:18:03Z

Captain Paralytic: Removed superfluous word

{{comic
| number = 2098
| date = January 14, 2019
| title = Magnetic Pole
| image = magnetic_pole.png
| titletext = People keep trying to come up with reasons that we should worry about the magnetic field collapsing or reversing, but honestly I think it's fine. Whatever minor problems it causes will be made up for by the mid-latitude auroras.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CONVECTION CURRENT IN THE OUTER CORE and a chicken. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Over the last couple of months, Earth's magnetic fields have been shifting rapidly. Although the magnetic fields do move regularly, the current shift has been unexpected and unprecedented. As GPS and many other location systems are reliant on the magnetic fields to function, the accuracy of such tools is being shifted beyond the maximum acceptable error.

Locational and navigational systems use the magnetic field, in addition to a model, to do fancy math and pop out data. Due to the rapid shifts, a new model was scheduled to be out; however, because of the US government shutdown, the model has been considerably delayed.

As shifts occur, the error of geopositional data will increase until a new model is released. The effect is especially pronounced as you move toward the poles.

Since the movement is only equal to about two-fifths of a degree, it wouldn't cause very much disruption for [[Cueball]] or require him to adjust anything about his lifestyle or habits, but since the speed of the change has been steadily increasing over the past few years, it may mean we are heading for a geomagnetic reversal in the next few decades; something very exciting indeed. During a magnetic reversal, the poles wouldn't just switch places, but several different poles would form and interact very chaotically, and, statistically speaking, it's likely that one of them would end up close enough to where [[Randall]] lives to cause auroras to become more common at some point during the transition

In the title text, Randall mentions that there are reasons people could be concerned, but says that they would be more than made up for by newly being able to experience mid latitude auroras.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are talking to each other. White Hat has a cellphone in his hand, while Cueball is raising his hands in the air in mock exasperation.]
:White Hat: I just read that the Earth's North magnetic pole is drifting rapidly.
:Cueball: Oh no! I must update our declination tables post haste, lest our merchant schooners run aground on the shoals!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I like when the Earth's magnetic field does weird stuff, because it's a huge, cool, urgent-seeming science thing, but there's nothing I personally need to do about it.

{{comic discussion}}

2086: History Department

2018-12-18T10:22:40Z

Captain Paralytic: missing words and spelling mistake

{{comic
| number = 2086
| date = December 17, 2018
| title = History Department
| image = history_department.png
| titletext = When we take into account the recent discovery of previously-unstudied history in the 1750s, this year may have been an outright loss.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HISTORIAN. There appears to be no explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic [[Ponytail]] is a representative of the history department, which might be a department of a university or other organisation. She presents the year report of 2018. In this, she explains, the department has fully analyzed over four months of history. In the meantime, due to the passage of time, another year of history has been added to their workload (implied to be the year spanning between the current meeting and the previous one). This presents a cycle in which the department would only be able to keep up if they could analyze, within a one year period, more than or exactly one year of history.

A department in a business, such as the finance department, is typically required to keep up with their own workload and complete an entire year's worth of workload every year. A business that fails to manage this minimum would almost certainly fail: bills would not get collected, invoices would not get paid, employees would not get paid, etc. A history department fails to follow this model in two very important ways. First, the subject of history cannot be fully processed. New discoveries change what we know about certain time periods. Even current events cannot be fully processed, as future events will cause historians to see connections in things not previously thought to be connected. Second, the standard model for History Departments focusses on specific eras or specific subjects for the purpose of explaining the events to students. History Departments do not process years, but instead process the subject so that it stays relevant to the understanding of the current student body.

The title text further expands this problem by indicating the discovery of a new era of history that had previously gone un-analyzed, which would have added more undiscovered history than it removed. The 1750s decade is possibly a reference to the {{w|Adoption_of_the_Gregorian_calendar#Great_Britain_and_its_colonies|adoption of the Gregorian Calendar by the British Empire}}.

Events in the dates listed:
* November 1833: A Leonid meteor shower occurred in North America ({{w|Leonids#1800s}}); an 8.7 {{w|1833_Sumatra_earthquake| earthquake struck Sumatra}}.

* April 19-22, 1979: April 20: {{w|Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident| President Jimmy Carter was attacked by a swamp rabbit}}; April 22: the {{w|Albert Einstein Memorial}} was unveiled at The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.

* May 21-25, 585 BCE: Possibly a reference to the solar eclipse that actually happened May 28, 585 BCE, or to the war between King Alyattes of Lydia and King Cyaxares of Media

* June-August 1848:
:* June – The {{w|Serbians}} from {{w|Vojvodina}} start a rebellion against the Hungarian government.
:* June 2–June 12 – The {{w|Prague Slavic Congress, 1848|Prague Slavic Congress}} brings together members of the {{w|Pan-Slavism}} movement.
:* June 17 – The Austrian army bombards {{w|Prague}}, and crushes a working class revolt.
:* June 21 – {{w|Wallachian Revolution of 1848}}: The {{w|Proclamation of Islaz}} is made public, and a {{w|Romanians|Romanian}} revolutionary government led by {{w|Ion Heliade Rădulescu}} and {{w|Christian Tell}} is created.
:* June 22 – The French government dissolves the national workshops in Paris, giving the workers the choice of joining the army or going to workshops in the provinces. The following day, the {{w|June Days Uprising}} begin in response.
:* July – The {{w|Public Health Act 1848|Public Health Act}} establishes {{w|Local board of health|Boards of Health}} across {{w|England and Wales}}.
:* July 5 – The Hungarian national revolutionary parliament starts to work.
:* July 19 – {{w|Women's rights}} – {{w|Seneca Falls Convention}}: The 2-day {{w|Women's Rights Convention}} opens in {{w|Seneca Falls, New York}} and "{{w|Bloomers (clothing)|Bloomers}}" are introduced at the {{w|feminism|feminist}} convention.
:* July 26 – The {{w|Matale Rebellion}} breaks out, against {{w|British Ceylon|British rule}} in {{w|Sri Lanka}}.
:* July 29 – {{w|Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848|Young Irelander Rebellion}}: A nationalist revolt in {{w|County Tipperary}}, against British rule, is put down by the {{w|Royal Irish Constabulary|Irish Constabulary}}.
:* August 6 – {{w|HMS Daedalus (1826)|HMS ''Daedalus''}} reports a sighting of a sea serpent.
:* August 14 – American President {{w|James K. Polk}} annexes the {{w|Oregon Country}}, and renames it the {{w|Oregon Territory}} as part of the United States.
:* August 17 – {{w|Yucatán}} officially unites with Mexico.
:* August 24 – The U.S. barque ''{{w|Ocean Monarch (barque)|Ocean Monarch}}'' is burnt out off the {{w|Great Orme}}, {{w|North Wales}}, with the loss of 178, chiefly emigrants.
:* August 28 – Mathieu Luis becomes the first black member to join the {{w|French Parliament}}, as a representative of {{w|Guadeloupe}}.

* May 16, 2001: The {{w|neo-noir}} mystery film {{w|Mullholland Drive (film)|Mulholland Drive}} premiered at the {{w|2001 Cannes Film Festival|2001}} {{w|Cannes Film Festival}}.

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

:[Ponytail is standing at a podium.]
:Ponytail: 2018 was a productive year for the history department - we were able to fully analyze over four months of history.
:Ponytail: Unfortunately, over that same period, an entire year of new history was produced.
:Ponytail: I'm afraid we're falling behind.
:[Presentation screen next to Ponytail lists studied dates:]
:Studied
:November 1833
:April 19-22, 1979
:May 21-25, 585 BCE
:June-August 1848
:May 16, 2001

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

2075: Update Your Address

2018-11-22T11:58:17Z

Captain Paralytic: Removed tautology

{{comic
| number = 2075
| date = November 21, 2018
| title = Update Your Address
| image = update_your_address.png
| titletext = This is my four-digit PIN. It was passed down to me by my father, and someday I will pass it on to you. Unless we figure out how to update it, but that sounds complicated.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by someone with an OLD ADDRESS. There is no explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, Cueball is facing several instances where entities asking or confirming his address find that the address they possess is incorrect - each address is progressively more outdated. In the final comic, Cueball gives up and confirms that yes, he is still living in a country that hasn't existed for over a century.

Inaccurate addresses may be a common problem for someone who has moved constantly in his lifetime. Alternatively, Cueball and his family do not find it important to update addresses for those particular businesses / entities.

{{w|Austria-Hungary}} was a European empire that existed between 1867 and 1918, {{w|Austria-Hungary#Dissolution|dissolving}} during {{w|World War I}}. It is possible that Cueball's ancestors hail from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, though it would be even more absurd for that to be used as an address, given that the polity ended a century ago, whereas the earliest programmable computer was created 20 years after the country was dissolved and personal/small business computers approximately 40 years after that.

Ash Tree Lane refers to {{w|House of Leaves}}, a postmodern novel from 2000 in which one of many nested plots involves a house on Ash Tree Lane that is bigger on the inside than on the outside, and in fact contains a {{w|labyrinth}} with a {{w|minotaur}}. The book, and Ash Tree Lane specifically, have previously been referenced in [[472: House of Pancakes]] and [[886: Craigslist Apartments]].

The title text treats bank accounts (and the PIN codes needed to access them) as though they were physical heirlooms passed down generation to generation. The patent for PIN codes was submitted in May 1966, and the first public use of a {{w|Personal identification number|PIN code}} was in 1967, when {{w|Barclays}} used them to process {{w|cheques}} at {{w|automated teller machines}}. It would be unusual for Cueball to inherit both an active bank account and the PIN associated with it -- when a person with a bank account dies, the bank usually closes the account altogether and transfers the money to a separate account of whomever is named the beneficiary. Treating the account number and/or its PIN as though they were physical heirlooms plays into the joke of them not changing through the years (due to the apparent difficulty of updating them).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing, holding a phone.]
:Voice: Do you still live at 342 River St?
:Cueball: No, I moved last year.
:[Cueball is standing behind a counter with Hairy, whose hands are on a keyboard.]
:Hairy: Is 21 Ash Tree Lane still a good address?
:Cueball: What? That's my childhood home. How is that even in your system?
:[Cueball is holding a phone again in a borderless panel.]
:Voice: The address we have is 205 Second St #2.
:Cueball: I... think that's where my parents lived before I was born!?
:[Cueball stands behind another counter with Ponytail and a tablet.]
:Ponytail: Are you still living in... "The Austro-Hungarian Empire?"
:Cueball: You know what, sure.
:Ponytail: Austria-Hungary dissolved in 1918.
:Cueball: Well, I come from a long line of people who hate updating stuff.
{{comic discussion}}

2069: Wishlist

2018-11-08T11:27:14Z

Captain Paralytic: Made date readable by all instead of just by readers from a single country.

{{comic
| number = 2069
| date = November 7, 2018
| title = Wishlist
| image = wishlist.png
| titletext = Disappointed that they caved to fan pressure and went with Ruth Bader Ginsburg over Elena Kagan.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
''{{w|Super Smash Brothers}}'' (titled as ''Super Smash Bros.'') is a crossover fighting game series published by Nintendo, primarily featuring Nintendo characters. As of publish date, there are 77 playable characters across the 5 games in the series. Starting with the third game, ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', characters from third-party franchises (non-Nintendo) have been made available, though most of them had at least made major appearances on a Nintendo system at some point. This comic probably refers to the 2018-11-01 Nintendo Direct about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, in which it was announced that the current character set was going to be the final one appearing in the game.

Fans have suggested new characters to add, and few of these suggestions have been implemented. The comic lists 16 "characters" that Randall wishes were made available in ''Super Smash Bros.'', ranging from plausible playable characters, to the absurd.

; Mario / Luigi hybrid
: {{w|Mario}} and {{w|Luigi}} are characters in the {{w|Super Mario}} series, one of Nintendo's flagship franchises. They are both playable characters in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. A hybrid of these two characters would be quite interesting, though one could argue that {{w|Dr. Mario}} is a hybrid of these two in terms of moveset.

; The SkiFree monster
: {{w|SkiFree}} is a computer game for Windows released in 1991. The player controls a skier trying to avoid obstacles. After the end of a full run, a monster (possibly the Abominable Snowman) appears, and tries to catch the player. The SkiFree monster was a subject of the [[667: SkiFree]] comic. Unlike most of the characters on this list, the SkiFree monster at least has had an appearance on a Nintendo system, as the game had a Game Boy Color port as part of the "The Best of Entertainment Pack" in 2001.

; Siri
: {{w|Siri}} is the name given to Apple's personal virtual assistant for iOS, macOS, and its other operating systems. Siri is generally a voice without a visual representation, so it is unclear how Siri would be a playable character in ''Super Smash Bros.''

; Ellie from ''Up''
: Ellie is one of the characters in ''{{w|Up (2009 film)|Up}}'', a 2009 Pixar film. In the beginning of the film, Ellie passes away, leaving her husband Carl alone, and leading him to start his adventure in Paradise Falls. While there was a tie-in video game based on the movie released in the same year for multiple systems (including the Wii and Nintendo DS), Ellie was not playable in it.

; Zordon
: {{w|Zordon}} is a fictional character from the ''Power Rangers'' franchise who serves as the mentor for the earlier Ranger teams. While he is technically trapped in another dimension, he is usually depicted as a blurry head in a tube. He occasionally has lightning powers, and had a robot sidekick (Alpha 5) who might be able to move him around. Alas, he is currently dead, having used his life energy to remove all evil from the galaxy at that time. While there have been many Power Rangers video games over the years, including on Nintendo platforms, Zordon would be an unlikely character not only due to his lack of extremities, but also due to the fact that the Power Rangers franchise is primarily built on stock footage of the Japanese ''Super Sentai'' series.

; Clippy
: Clippit, commonly nicknamed {{w|Clippy}}, was one of the Office Assistants for Microsoft Office (versions 1997 to 2003). It was an intelligent user interface that assisted users. Clippy (and the other Office Assistants) was negatively received by users, and was eventually removed in Office 2007.

; The Sarlaac
: The {{w|Sarlaac}} is an alien monster that lived in {{w|Tatooine}} in the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe. It is most prominently shown in the film ''{{w|Return of the Jedi}}'', when the main heroes are sentenced to death by being dropped into the Sarlaac's mouth. Notably, the Sarlaac is a large, stationary creature embedded in the ground (essentially, a pit).
: This could be a reference to the Piranha Plant being confirmed as a DLC character, as Piranha Plants are typically stationary and embedded in the ground, and also have their big, toothy mouth as a primary feature.
: The Sarlacc does not seem to have appeared in any Star Wars video games for Nintendo consoles, but even if it did, it's undefined appearance and lack of mobility would make it a poor choice for a character.

; InstallShield Wizard
: A ''wizard'' is a type of UI that simplifies configuration of an app or process by guiding the user through a number of screens in sequence. A user makes one decision on each screen, and the overall process puts less cognitive load on the user.
: {{w|InstallShield}} is a proprietary software tool for creating installer applications (or software packages) for Microsoft Windows. When the created package is being installed, the installer application can be shown in form of a 'standard Windows Wizard' dialog. Depending on the creativity of the user creating the package, the Wizard can display images while different stages of the installer are being executed.
: There are known instances of The InstallShield Wizard showing a wizard-like character images. Also, the standard wording of the installer text shown to the user ('software-to-be-installed is preparing the InstallShield Wizard, which will guide you through the program setup process') suggests that the Wizard is a 'real character'.

; Mr. Clean
: {{w|Mr. Clean}} is a brand and mascot for Procter & Gamble used for all-purpose cleaners and melamine foam cleaners.

; Comet Cursor
: {{w|Comet Cursor}} was Windows software that allowed users or websites to customise the mouse cursor. It was often installed with minimal user interaction and was accused of tracking users and being "spyware".

; Beto O'Rourke
: {{w|Beto O'Rourke}} is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. Representative for Texas's 16th congressional district since 2013. He was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate election (which was held the day before this comic appeared), running against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz. O'Rourke received much media attention leading up to the election, with many considering the election abnormally competitive. He ultimately did lose against Ted Cruz.
: While not a video game character, it is more than possible to create a Mii Fighter based on Beto O'Rourke in the game. However, the game does not come with a Beto O'Rourke Mii, and Nintendo has not created an official Mii of Beto O'Rourke.

; The Monopoly boot
: The "boot" is one of the classic pewter tokens from the board game ''{{w|Monopoly (game)|Monopoly}}''. In 2017, the boot token was retired from the standard version of ''Monopoly''.

; Lot's wife
: Lot and his wife are characters from the book of Genesis in the Bible. According to the book of Genesis, Lot and his family had to {{w|Sodom_and_Gomorrah#In_the_Book_of_Genesis|flee the city of Sodom}}, which was being judged by God for its wickedness. They were commanded to flee and not look back at the city. However, Lot's wife looked back at the city and was turned into a pillar of salt. It is unclear which version of Lot's wife Randall wishes to be playable in the game.

; D.B. Cooper
: {{w|D.B. Cooper}} is the name popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft on November 24, 1971. He extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted out of the plane. His identity and whereabouts have never been discovered. D.B. Cooper was a subject of the [[1400: D.B. Cooper]] comic. As mentioned above, an enterprising player could easily make a Mii Fighter based on D.B.. Cooper, though no such Mii has been provided by Nintendo.

; The Blair Witch
: The Blair Witch is the titular character of the ''{{w|The Blair Witch Project}}'', a 1999 "found footage" supernatural horror film. The film became one of the most successful independent films of all time.

; Mavis Beacon
: ''{{w|Mavis Beacon (character)|Mavis Beacon}}'' is a fictional character and the mascot of the ''{{w|Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing}}'' software series.

The title text refers to two US Supreme Court Associate Justices. {{w|Ruth Bader Ginsburg}} was appointed by Bill Clinton; {{w|Elena Kagan}} was appointed by Barack Obama. Both are considered to be on the “liberal” wing of the court, but Ginsburg’s forceful dissenting opinions may explain why she would have been a more popular character for Super Smash Bros. Additionally, Ginsburg has been parodied on ''{{w|Saturday Night Live}}'', adding to her popularity: [http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/cast/kate-mckinnon-15056/impersonation/ruth-bader-ginsburg-100221]

==Transcript==
:[In a frame a bullet-list is shown:]
:Mario/Luigi hybrid
:The SkiFree monster
:Siri
:Ellie from ''Up''
:Zordon
:Clippy
:The Sarlaac
:The InstallShield Wizard
:Mr. Clean
:Comet Cursor
:Beto O'Rourke
:The Monopoly boot
:Lot's wife
:D.B. Cooper
:The Blair Witch
:Mavis Beacon

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Super Smash Brothers never did end up adding anyone from my wishlist.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Video games]]

2038: Hazard Symbol

2018-08-28T09:29:31Z

Captain Paralytic: Removed superfluous word

<noinclude>:''"2038", this comic's number, redirects here. For the comic named "2038", see [[607: 2038]].''</noinclude>

{{comic
| number = 2038
| date = August 27, 2018
| title = Hazard Symbol
| image = hazard_symbol.png
| titletext = The warning diamond on the Materials Safety Data Sheet for this stuff just has the "😰" emoji in all four fields.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LASER EMITTING RADIOACTIVE SLIPPERY BIOHAZARD in about 10 minutes, ignoring writing rules. - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Hazard symbol}}s are often required to indicate certain threats to human health. These symbols are typically black symbols on yellow backgrounds, a contrast typically associated with danger even in nature, a phenomenon known as {{w|Aposematism|aposematism}}. However, these symbols also need to be easy to interpret. Therefore, they have simple, recognizable shapes that are internationally uniform and intended to be well-understood.

This comic inverts this latter expectation, by combining multiple hazard symbols into one, creating something that is unique, and very hard to understand. In practice, if such an object were to be labelled, the five hazard symbols would be separated, each in their own triangle.

The hazard symbols, as noted in the transcript, are {{w|biohazard symbol|biohazard}} ☣, {{w|radiation symbol|radiation}} ☢, slip and fall hazard symbol, laser hazard, and {{w|High_voltage#Safety|high voltage symbol}} ⚡︎.

The title text refers to another unsafe subversion of expectations, in this case, against the [[wikipedia:NFPA 704|NFPA 704]] "fire diamond". These are the colourful diamond-shaped symbols often found on the back of tankers, but they are also necessary inclusions on materials safety datasheets. These symbols give numeric indication of the hazardous nature of the material, in three different respects (flammability, health, and reactivity), in addition to providing space for an extra warning on the bottom, typically in the form of one or more letters. Using an emoji instead of numbers and letters would defeat the purpose of the fire diamond, as it would only give a qualitative indication of the danger ("very dangerous"), and additionally, could be very easily mistaken for a 0 (meaning safe).

Note, Material Safety Data Sheets have been deprecated in favor of SDS (Safety Data Sheets) in order to come into compliance with the [https://www.msdsonline.com/resources/regulatory-information/ghs/ GHS (Globally Harmonized System)].

😰 is described by {{w|Emojipedia}} as "[https://emojipedia.org/face-with-open-mouth-and-cold-sweat/ Anxious Face With Sweat]".

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[The comic shows symbols, drawn in black on top of a yellow background.]
:[One large symbol embeds four others and it's composed of the outline of three overlapping and outwards narrowing rings arranged by 120 degrees.]
:[The symbol at the center shows at the same orientation three blades with a small stepped circle in the middle.]
:[Inside the ring on top is a symbol of a backwards falling human with a small line depicting the ground.]
:[The ring on the right below the center contains a circle with radiant alternating smaller and longer lines around. One more longer line points toward the center of the image.]
:[Embedded into the left lower ring is a bolt with an arrow pointing left downwards.]

:[Caption below:]
:It's important to know the international warning symbol for radioactive high-voltage laser-emitting biohazards that coat the floor and make it slippery.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

2026: Heat Index

2018-07-31T09:15:59Z

Captain Paralytic: Added missing words

{{comic
| number = 2026
| date = July 30, 2018
| title = Heat Index
| image = heat_index.png
| titletext = The heat index is calculated via looking up the "effective temperature" in a table of air temperature and humidity values, and then adding a bunch more degrees because it feels WAY hotter than that.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OVERHEATING BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Heat index, like wind chill, is a way to combine multiple factors, in this case temperature and humidity, to get a single number indicating what the air "feels like." {{w|Heat index}} gives a table, a formula, and lots more explanation.

Human skin does not directly detect temperature - only the rate of heat gain or loss. This is why a piece of metal feels cooler than a piece of plastic or wood at the same exact temperature (below body temperature, above it is the other way around) - the metal conducts heat away from the higher body temperature at a higher rate than a good insulator does.

So in warm weather, it's not just the temperature that matters for comfort. The humidity and wind speed also factor into it. When humidity is high, sweat evaporation is less effective at cooling us off than in a "dry heat" with low humidity.

Hence, meteorologists use a combination of temperature and humidity to come up with the "heat index" value...and a combination of temperature and wind speed to produce a "wind chill" number.

Neither scale is particularly scientific in terms of measuring how people feel - but both are a more accurate representation of comfort levels than temperature alone.

The joke here is that these numbers seem entirely subjectively chosen - and in a sense, they really are, although they are calculated from an actual formula (a multivariate fit to a mathematical model of the human body - with nine terms!) and not by guesswork as the flow chart implies.

==Transcript==
The comic contains a single panel containing a flowchart titled "How to Calculate the 'Heat Index':"
# Starts with a box: "Measure the Temperature"
# An arrow goes to a decision diamond labeled "Does it look hot enough?"
#* An arrow labeled "Yes" goes to the right to a box labeled "Done"
#* An arrow labeled "No" goes down to a box labeled "Add a few degrees" with an arrow back to the decision diamond

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]

2016: OEIS Submissions

2018-07-07T11:59:20Z

Captain Paralytic: Expanded explanation for sub 59

{{comic
| number = 2016
| date = July 6, 2018
| title = OEIS Submissions
| image = oeis_submissions.png
| titletext = SUB[59]: The submission numbers for my accepted OEIS submissions in chronological order
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an INTEGER SEQUENCE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|OEIS}} is the [https://oeis.org/ Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences], a listing of thousands of sequences of integers, generally of real mathematical interest, such as {{w|prime number}}s or [https://oeis.org/A005188 Armstrong numbers]. The OEIS normally expects submissions to be accompanied by references to scholarly articles about, or at least referencing, the sequence. They would not be interested in the personal or idiosyncratic sequences proposed by Randall, though they do have the [https://oeis.org/A000053 list of IRT stops], perhaps because a NY Times article mentioned that they don't.

Randall is trying to put his integer sequences on the OEIS website, including making OEIS reveal its password.
{| class="wikitable"
!style="width:10%"|Sub
!style="width:45%"|Requested Sequence
!style="width:45%"|Explanation
|-
|43
|All integers which do not appear in the example terms of another OEIS sequence
|Every OEIS sequence lists several example terms to demonstrate the content of said sequence. This request wants to list all integers which are ''not'' used as examples elsewhere. Any numbers used as example terms for this sequence are not counted, so this list is not self-disqualifying. It is well-defined at any given time. Like many other OEIS sequences, it has infinitely many terms (more precisely, it includes all integers except a finite number). However, it may change at any time, whenever a new sequence or a new example is added to the OEIS. If included, it would therefore have to be constantly updated.
|-
|44
|Integers in increasing order of width when printed in Helvetica
| This sequence is not uniquely defined as it depends on the specific version of the {{w|Helvetica}} font used, its point size, the software used to render it (e.g. kerning algorithm), the handling of equal widths by the sorting algorithm and possibly other parameters. Also, all digits usually have the same width, with the exception of the sequence "11", which is a tiny bit narrower because a kerning pair exists in Helvetica. Without an additional tie-breaker for equal width numbers, the order is: 1 to 9 in no particular order, 11, 10 and 12 to 19 in no particular order and so on; for a particular choice of parameters the first 50 terms might be: 1, 9, 6, 2, 8, 5, 0, 7, 3, 4, 11, 61, 71, 91, 21, 51, 81, 41, 31, 19, 13, 18, 10, 12, 15, 16, 14, 17, 69, 63, 68, 79, 60, 62, 65, 73, 78, 99, 93, 98, 66, 70, 72, 75, 29, 90, 92, 95, 23, 28...
|-
|45
|The digits of Chris Hemsworth's cell phone number
| This request is for actor {{w|Chris Hemsworth}}'s phone number
|-
|46
|All integers, in descending order
|There are an infinite number of integers. To list all integers in descending order, you would have to begin at the largest integer, and terminate only upon reaching the negative integer with the greatest absolute value, both of which are values that cannot be conceived. It is equally impossible to list all integers in ''ascending'' order, for that matter.
|-
|47
|The digits of the OEIS serial number for this sequence
|This sequence is only important tautologically.
|-
|48
|200 terabytes of nines
|This sequence would be entirely useless, as there is no mental effort required to conceive a list that consists only of a single repeated term, however arbitrarily large. Such a list is also incredibly wasteful. (for reference, [https://phys.org/news/2016-05-math-proof-largest-terabytes.html this very large math proof from 2016] takes up a similar amount of space). 
200 terabytes is equal to 2 × 1014 bytes. In UTF-8 all ASCII characters, including control characters such as ␂ (start of text) and ␍ (carriage return), can be represented by a single byte. If the list is presumed to be formatted as "␂9␍9␍9 ... 9␍9␃", the first term would take up 3 bytes, and all other terms would take up 2 bytes. Assuming Randall wants the file size to be 200 terabytes ''minimum'', the resulting list would be a minimum of 1 × 1014, or 100 trillion, terms long.

Curiously, OEIS does in fact contain an entry that lists "[https://oeis.org/A010734 all nines]".
|-
|49
|The decimal representation of the bytes in the root password to the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences server
|This would give any user the password to OEIS. {{w|Internet troll|What happens next}} anyone can easily forecast.
|-
|59
|The submission numbers for my accepted OEIS submissions in chronological order
|This would only be useful to Randall. If all of his submissions have been rejected, this would be an empty set. However, if this submission is accepted, the set would, by definition, include at least one number (except that this would not be known at the time of submission). Thus, as in the Russell Paradox, this set would out of date as soon as it was accepted, since the set of accepted submission numbers would change at that point.
|}

==Transcript==
:SUB[43]: All integers which do not appear in the example terms of another OEIS sequence
:SUB[44]: Integers in increasing order of width when printed in Helvetica
:SUB[45]: The digits of Chris Hemsworth's cell phone number
:SUB[46]: All integers, in descending order
:SUB[47]: The digits of the OEIS serial number for this sequence
:SUB[48]: 200 terabytes of nines
:SUB[49]: The decimal representation of the bytes in the root password to the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences server

:[Caption below the panel:]
:OEIS keeps rejecting my submissions

{{comic discussion}}

1995: MC Hammer Age

2018-05-20T15:14:12Z

Captain Paralytic: Spelling mistake

{{comic
| number = 1995
| date = May 18, 2018
| title = MC Hammer Age
| image = mc_hammer_age.png
| titletext = Wait, sorry, I got mixed up--he's actually almost 50. It's the kid from The Karate Kid who just turned 40.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Anything missing? Or too much? - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is the first comic to combine the [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series with the theme of listing facts that [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|make one feel old]].

In the comic [[Cueball]] (as [[Randall]], as it is his hobby) is asking [[White Hat]] if he wants to feel old. (This exact opening phrase was used by [[Megan]] in [[1898: October 2017]]). Cueball doesn't wait for an answer, though like Megan did, but tells White Hat that {{w|MC Hammer}} just turned 40. Surprisingly, at first, this doesn't really make White Hat feel old, he actually feels this is rather normal (compared to his own age). MC Hammer is a pop rapper/singer who was most popular in the early 1990's for ''{{w|U Can't Touch This}}'' with the catch phrase ''{{w|Hammer Time|Stop: Hammer Time}}'', and {{w|hammer pants|shiny}} {{w|baggy pants|baggy}} pants often incorrectly referred to as {{w|parachute pants}}.

So at first it seems that Randall's attempt to make White Hat feel old has failed miserably. However in the caption Randall explains that this is part of his hobby. By "lowballing" the facts to begin with he can make people feel really old when he tells them the truth, so they learn that the correct number (age/years ago, your age at the time etc.) is even worse than the first opening statement.

In the title text he then tells White Hat the "truth": "Wait, sorry, I got mixed up--he's actually almost 50. It's the kid from The Karate Kid who just turned 40." So this suddenly adds ten more years to MC Hammers age, and that little kid from the Karate Kid movies... is he already 40 years old. Now White Hat probably feels a bit old. In the original {{w|The Karate Kid}} (the first 3 movies) {{w|Ralph Macchio}} was the actor who starred as Karate Kid. And he seemed so young...

The real blow, comes when White Hat (and most likely the reader), now intrigued goes home and looks these two people up on Wikipedia. Ralph Macchio was already much older than the kid he portrays in the movie, a school kid - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087538/trivia?item=tr0565736 he was 22 years old]when shooting the first movie. On the day this comic came out, both MC Hammer and Ralph Macchio were both 56 years old. And Ralph is the older one of the two being born in 1961, while Hammer was born in 1962.

So even in the title text, the corrections are both "lowballed" facts, so still preserving the maximum effect while adding more credibility to the claims, so people already start to feel old before the last 6 years is added to Hammer's and 16(!!) years to Macchio's age.

Of course, this is assuming they ''do'' look it up, and if they believe Randall the first time, there is no reason to assume this will happen. However, then they probably already feel old from the first correction.

Note that in the other ''make one feel old'' comics Randall did not apparently indulge in this new hobby of lowballing facts. As far as we can tell, those were all accurate for the time the comic was created. But if this is a new hobby, we may need to examine newer "feel old" comics extra carefully from now on. (If we want to feel even older that is.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and White Hat are walking together.]
:Cueball: Want to feel old? MC Hammer just turned 40.
:White Hat: Wow.
:White Hat: I mean, I guess that's not too surprising, right?
:White Hat: It's been a long time.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My hobby: Deliberately lowballing "Want to feel old" factoids to set up a bigger payoff later when they learn the correct number.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]

1993: Fatal Crash Rate

2018-05-15T08:52:41Z

Captain Paralytic: Grammar

{{comic
| number = 1993
| date = May 14, 2018
| title = Fatal Crash Rate
| image = fatal_crash_rate.png
| titletext = Fixating on this seems unhealty. But in general, the more likely I think a crash is, the less likely one becomes, which is a strange kind of reverse placebo effect.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Each of the graphs need to be explained individually, title text needs to be further explained and the explanation needs to be expanded. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the second recent comic after [[1990: Driving Cars]] on the subject of the dangers of cars.
It combines general statistical correlations between age and safety improvements with fatal crashes. Randall worries that he will eventually be involved in a fatal car crash unless self driving cars take over, which he believes would eliminate car related fatalities. He is of the opinion that they will take over, but that they might not do so quickly enough to 'save' him from the spike of age-related fatalities in later life.

As the title text points out, fixating to this degree on a single source of danger is unhealthy. But the more Randall fixates on the danger of car crashes, the safer (or maybe the ''less'') he drives, which reduces his chance of being in a fatal car crash.
Note that Randall used to fixate on the danger of raptors (or at least, pretended to).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Graphs are shown inside of a panel.]

:[Graph 1:]
:My fatal car crash probability based on my age
:[Label at 2018:]
:Now

:[Graph 2:]
:Overall US fatal crash rate per mile traveled
:[Label:]
:General safety improvements

:[Graph 3:]
:My miles traveled by car per year
:[Label after 2018:]
:Depends on job, where I live etc.

:[Graph 4, below the previous graphs:]
:My estimated lifetime probability of being in a fatal car crash
:[Label pointing at late-2020s:]
:Point at which self-driving cars become safe and widely adopted, making crashes rare (assuming that happens)
:[Label pointing at a gray segment after late-2020s:]
:Fatal crashes avoided

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It feels weird to look at car crash statistics and wonder whether we'll all be able to stop driving before I'm involved in a fatal crash.

==Trivia==

* The title text misspells "unhealthy".

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]

1985: Meteorologist

2018-04-26T12:32:29Z

Captain Paralytic: Spelling correction and clarification

{{comic
| number = 1985
| date = April 25, 2018
| title = Meteorologist
| image = meteorologist.png
| titletext = Hi, I'm your new meteorologist and a former software developer. Hey, when we say 12pm, does that mean the hour from 12pm to 1pm, or the hour centered on 12pm? Or is it a snapshot at 12:00 exactly? Because our 24-hour forecast has midnight at both ends, and I'm worried we have an off-by-one error.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OVERLY ANALYTICAL METEOROLOGIST. More on Cueballs 2nd panel. More on Blondie's linguistics. Explanation for {{w|dummy pronoun}}. Title text: What is "an {{w|off-by-one error}}"?. Wiki links. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Although we’re constantly exposed to them, many (most?) people don’t understand the details of how to properly interpret weather forecasts. This comic takes this to the ridiculous extreme of the weather reporters themselves not understanding, and asking questions about it while on-air. It shows questions asked by three different people with different backgrounds: mathematics, linguistics, and (in the title text) software development. In addition, many terms and numbers used by weather forecasters have very technical definitions and usages; however, because they are used so commonly (whenever someone tells us the weather), it is easy to assume we understand what it means. This comic also points at this fact by asking clarifying questions about subjects that meteorologists know but the average person doesn't (such as the definition of "scattered showers" and how it's determined, what a "chance of rain" means, and so on).

The first meteorologist, [[Cueball]], has a background in pure math. His forecast states that each of the next five hours has a 20% chance of rain. It could be that rain was certain, but it would only last about an hour and will come within the next five hours. That would give 20% for rain in each hour but certainty of rain within those hours. This corresponds to his last question in the first panel.

But before that he focuses on probability when he asks if each hour is independent or correlated. If each hour were independent, there would have been a 67.232% chance to rain at least once. However, if the hours had been correlated, the chance would be less, since if it didn't rain in the first hour, it would decrease the chance of rain in the next hours. However, it would make it more likely of raining in all 5 hours, as it would be a .032% chance if it wasn't correlated. But if it was correlated, rain in the first hour would make it more likely to rain in the subsequent hours.

In the second panel he continues to discuss what scattered showers means. Like most of the other weather terms in this comic, the term "scattered showers" is one whose technical definition is largely unknown but appears simple enough that most people would assume they understand what it means. "Scattered" refers to when the rain covers roughly 30% to 50% of the area. To somebody who doesn't know this, like the first meteorologist, there's still the very valid question of how likely it is to rain in a specific spot, and how this is affected by the previous chance of rain. Not to mention, the percentage that defines "scattered showers" implicitly assumes a surface area that is accounted into the percent. Cueball rightly asks clarification on how large the location used to determine "scattered showers" is.

Finally in that panel Cueball begins to explain that he has asked the management about these things, but that they have stopped replying to his e-mails. At this point he spots the security guy coming over, and the screen goes black in to a technical difficulty screen that excuses this behavior to the viewers.

Questioning these things on air is likely confusing to the watchers, although they are all valid questions. But this may lose viewers and the news network is afraid of this. The technical difficulty panel further cements this, apologizing for hiring a person with a pure math background. Often seen as one that do not understand how to talk to regular people.

When they get back on air gain a new meteorologist, [[Blondie]], steps in. The management enquires (on air) to make sure she is not also a mathematician. She states no, but tells that she has a linguistics degree, which the management thinks is fine, and thus believes they have prevented the problem with Cueball. However, this proves to be in vain, as Blondie goes into a tangent once more but from a linguistics standpoint, rather than a mathematical one, detailing the true meaning of the word "it" as referring to the weather. After one panel of this the management calls for security again.

In the title text, the news station has made the same error again, by this time hiring a software developer as the third meteorologist. This last person is stating concerns about the feasibility of the time system used to correlate to the weather patterns. Because it appears simple, many people would simply assume they understand what is being said when a meteorologist talks about "12pm" or "1pm". However, because software developers frequently have to deal with things such as specifying exactly what time-label means what, the new meteorologist begins to wonder wonder what time period is actually meant on a per-hour forecast. On such an hour forecast does 12pm refer to the hour from 12 to 1pm, from 11:30 to 12:30 or is it actually only to the weather precisely at 12:00 that is referred to? The software developer also worries about an off-by-one error, which is a common error in software development: when counting by 24 once every set period (for example), it is common to forget whether the count should stop at 23 or at 24, especially if the number 0 (midnight) is included. In the 24-hour forecast, that means there's 25 hours represented every day, and the software developer worries that these 25 hours might add up and, every progressive day, the forecast is one more hour off.

Of course it should be pointed out that hiring someone without any meteorological training to read the weather does not make them an actual meteorologist, no more than say hiring a bricklayer as a doctor would actually make them a real doctor.

== Answering the Comic's Questions ==

Management would certainly answer the mathematician's questions! The questions themselves have been asked of meteorologists before, and NOAA has published relevant answers for [https://www.weather.gov/ffc/pop probability of precipitation], as well as [https://www.weather.gov/bgm/forecast_terms timing and the meanings of particular forecast words]. The naming is also addressed [https://www.weather.gov/media/ajk/brochures/ConvectivevsStratiform.pdf here].

Regarding probability of precipitation, NOAA forecasts give the probability that it will rain at all at any given point in an area. To rephrase it, it is the probability of rain occurring '''at all''' within a forecast area, multiplied by the percentage of area affected by the rain. The "forecast area" is a clearly defined area of land and can be seen in the map of any official National Weather Service forecast. [https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=34.0732&lon=-118.3963 Here is an example].

Regarding the timing of the forecast, an hourly forecast gives the probability for each particular hour, stretching from the time listed to right before the next hour listed. So, the forecast for 12 PM describes the time period from 12 PM to 1 PM. The forecasts for individual hours can be correlated; for this reason, the NOAA generates forecasts that stretch over longer time periods, giving a useful estimate for that time range. Thus, the chance of rain for "Today" specifically means: what is the chance of it raining at any given location during any time between 6 AM and 6 PM?

Regarding phrases like "scattered showers", this specifically means a 25-54% probability of precipitation from convective cloud sources. Other phrases, and when they are used, are detailed in [https://www.weather.gov/media/ajk/brochures/ConvectivevsStratiform.pdf the chart at the end of this PDF].

So, to conclude:

* "How likely is it to rain this afternoon?" We don't know, you need to show the 12 PM - 6 PM forecast, not the hourly.
* "Is each hour independant? Correlated?" Hourly values are given for that hour only. They can be correlated, hence why they can't be used to calculate the answer to "How likely is it to rain this afternoon?"
* "Is rain guaranteed and we're just unsure of the timing?" It's not guaranteed for any individual spot or time. It's still probabilistic.
* "It says 'scattered showers.' Is this the chance of rain '''somewhere''' in your area?" Yes, it is, and it means the the rain will come from convective cloud sources with a probability of precipitation somewhere between 25 and 54%.
* "How big is your area?" It's detailed in the forecast the mathematician would be reading from.
* "What if you have two locations you're worried about?" You would check two separate forecasts, one for each area.
* "Hey, when we say 12pm, does that mean the hour from 12pm to 1pm, or the hour centered on 12pm? Or is it a snapshot at 12:00 exactly?" It means the hour from 12pm to 1pm.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is presenting a weather forecast while seated with his arms resting on a table. The graphic to the left of Cueball shows five hours from 12pm to 4pm, each with a rainy cloud icon and the figure 20%. The "News 4 Weather" logo is shown on the bottom left.]
:Cueball: Our forecast says there's a 20% chance of rain for each of the next five hours.
:Cueball: How likely is it to rain this afternoon? It's a simple question, but I don't know the answer. Is each hour independent? Correlated? Or is rain guaranteed and we're just unsure of the timing?

:Cueball: It says "scattered showers." Is this the chance of rain '''''somewhere''''' in your area? How big is your area? What if you have two locations you're worried about?
:Cueball: I've asked management, but they've stopped answering my emails, so—hang on, the security guy is coming over.

:[A black screen is shown with white text:]
:''Technical Difficulties''
:—
:''We apologize for hiring a meteorologist with a pure math background.''
:—
:''We'll be back on the air shortly.''
:
:News 4

:[Cueball is replaced with Blondie.]
:Blondie: Sorry about that. Hi, I'm your new meteorologist.
:Off-panel voice: And you're not a mathematician, right?
:Blondie: No. I do have a linguistics degree.
:Off-panel voice: That's fine.

:Blondie: It might rain this afternoon.
:Blondie: But what is "it" here? Is it a true dummy pronoun, as in the phrase "It's too bad?" Or is the weather an entity?
:Blondie: Also, what if I say, "It's hot out, and getting bigger?"
:Off-panel voice: Security!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:News anchor]]

1984: Misinterpretation

2018-04-24T09:14:54Z

Captain Paralytic: Grammar

{{comic
| number = 1984
| date = April 23, 2018
| title = Misinterpretation
| image = misinterpretation.png
| titletext = "But there are seven billion people in the world! I can't possibly stop to consider how ALL of them might interpret something!" "Ah, yes, there's no middle ground between 'taking personal responsibility for the thoughts and feelings of every single person on Earth' and 'covering your eyes and ears and yelling logically correct statements into the void.' That's a very insightful point and not at all inane."
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is complaining that people are mad at him ''again'' because of misinterpretation. And since he is being perfectly clear it cannot be his fault that '''everyone'' is misinterprets him (hence the title).

However, the off-screen voice sarcastically points out that communication is an activity that only involves one person. Hence the speaker makes it clear that "real" communication involves work on behalf of both the speaker as well as the listener. Cueball claims that he is being “perfectly clear”, but if there is room for misinterpretation on behalf of almost everyone that reads his comments, then he is not.

In the title text, Cueball then answers that with seven billon people in the world he cannot possibly consider how ALL of them interpret his comments. Today his messages could potentially reach the whole world, and his claim is that there will always be someone that would (intentionally) misunderstand something. The reply comes once again sarcastically, deriding his point and saying that a middle ground between taking up such an effort and entirely avoiding it must be reached.

This avoidance is phrased using a [[762: Analogies|simile]] as “covering your eyes and ears and yelling logically correct statements into the void”, implying that no one would understand the logical sentences (thus the void), and would instead read them more naturally – and also that ignoring the appalled reaction of listeners to their own interpretation of the sentences is similar to covering your eyes and years. This action makes communication more difficult through the popular{{Citation needed}} means of speech, text and sign language. If the hands are occupied with covering either part, then Braille communication is also impossible. Therefore, the action of “covering your eyes and ears” is a metaphor for deliberately making it more difficult to communicate with oneself. Another likely explanation is, communication is a difficult task for Cueball to begin with, thus he subconsciously rejects criticism as it would hurt his impeccable logic.

It is clear that Cueball is acting as a straw man to further Randall's point, and the off-panel character is portrayed as the (sarcastic) voice of reason.

Randall returns to a recurring theme in his comics, regarding, in contexts of communication, the responsibility of the speaker for how they are interpreted, which again is a part of the larger category of comics about problems with [[:Category:Social interactions|social interactions]]. Having gradually gotten less subtle, this theme is now laid bare, there being no joke other than the sarcasm. What follows is a chronological history of this theme.

*Much earlier than the other comics below, but related, [[169: Words that End in GRY]] is a surreal reprimand upon people who act smug when their bad communication is misunderstood.
*The title text of [[1028: Communication]] notes that “Anyone who says that they're great at communicating but 'people are bad at listening' is confused about how communication works.”
*The title text of [[1860: Communicating]] also asserts that the responsibility of a misunderstanding lies with the speaker, not the listener — a theme explored in the comic via the character Humpty Dumpty.
*The comic [[1911: Defensive Profile]] implies that a person who boasts of having “no filter” in their (social media) speech is actually merely insecure about making people mad with their statements.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in an office chair at a desk in front of a laptop with his hands raised above the keyboard. An off-panel person replies to his remarks.]
:Cueball: Ugh, people are mad at me again because they don't read carefully.
:Cueball: I'm being perfectly clear. It's not '''''my''''' fault if everyone misinterprets what I say.
:Off-panel person: Wow, sounds like you're great at communicating, an activity that famously involves just one person.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

1976: Friendly Questions

2018-04-05T08:20:09Z

Captain Paralytic: Spelling error

{{comic
| number = 1976
| date = April 4, 2018
| title = Friendly Questions
| image = friendly_questions.png
| titletext = Just tell me everything you're thinking about in order from most important to last, and then we'll be friends and we can eat apples together.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NORMAL HUMAN - Expand explanation, add links to previous comics with theme.. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A common theme in xkcd is social awkwardness. Oftentimes [[Cueball]]/[[Randall]] will grossly overthink casual social interactions, such as small talk. In this case, Cueball has prepared a note to himself, preparing for the said small talk, but it ultimately backfires.

Cueball looks at the post it note in his hand, which tells him to start the conversation by asking some questions about the other person. In real life, this would be a nice way of starting some small talk, and it wouldn't end the conversation immediately. However, Cueball then asks [[Hairy]] how many apples he has eaten in his life, instantly destroying the conversation, as evidenced by Hairy, who can only stare at him, Cueball then leaves. Normally, one would ask questions such as "How are you" or "What have you been up to lately" instead of asking random facts of someone else's life, such as "How many apples have you eaten in your life?"{{Citation needed}}

In the title text, Cueball awkwardly asks Hairy to rank his thoughts in order of importance and to take part in the friendship activity of eating apples.

A similar interaction with Cueball and Hairy occurs in [[1917: How to Make Friends]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Hairy meet each other.]
:Cueball: Hey!
:Hairy: Oh, hi!

:[Cueball looks down at a sticky note in his hand.]

:[The yellow sticky note reads:]
:Normal human conversation
:<hr width="150" style="background-color:black" align="left">
:1. Ask them about themselves

:[Cueball looks at Hairy.]
:Cueball: How many...apples...have you eaten?
:Hairy: ...Like, in my life?
:Cueball: Yes.
:Hairy: ...
:Cueball: ...I should go.
:Hairy: OK.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

1962: Generations

2018-03-03T11:28:42Z

Captain Paralytic: Wrong word used

{{comic
| number = 1962
| date = March 2, 2018
| title = Generations
| image = generations.png
| titletext = For a while it looked like the Paperclip Machines would destroy us, since they wanted to turn the whole universe into paperclips, but they abruptly lost interest in paperclips the moment their parents' generation got into making them, too.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE PREVIOUS-PREVIOUS-PREVIOUS GENERATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is making fun of the various names we give "generations", and also predicting some future ones. It refers to the [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/defining-generations-where-millennials-end-and-post-millennials-begin/ Pew Research Center's recent announcement that they have decided where the Millennial generation ends].

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"| Generation
! scope="col"| Time period
! scope="col"| Explanation
|-
| The Founders
| 1730 - 1747
| Most of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States United States' Founding Fathers] were born in this period. (But not all: Benjamin Franklin, for instance, was born two generations prior.)
|-
| Generation ƒ
| 1748 - 1765
| ƒ is the symbol that represented the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_guilder guilder], the currency of the Netherlands from the 17th century until 2002.
|-
| The Adequate Generation
| 1766 - 1783
| Randall apparently found nothing notable about this generation, positive or negative.
|-
| Generation Æ
| 1784 - 1801
| Æ is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æ diphthong] Aesh - its name sounds like X, though it is pronounced as a long e or IPA /æ/. This character is commonly transcribed differently into British English and American English as ae and e respectively making a difference in spelling in words such as encyclopaedia/encylopedia. One of the key influences on this is Webster's dictionary, first published 1828.
|-
| The generation we cut a lot of slack because they produced Lincoln
| 1802 - 1819
| Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809, and is regarded as one of the best presidents of all time. The comic states that the other people born in this generation were "cut a lot of slack" because of him. As with the Oops, one of us is Hitler generation, it is absurd to define an entire generation by defining its most famous member.
|-
| The Gilded Generation
| 1820 - 1837
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Generation_(Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_theory) So named under the Strauss-Howe generation theory], though they use the time period 1822-1842 instead. This likely refers to the "{{w|Gilded Age}}" of American history, roughly the last three decades of the 19th century.
|-
| The Second-Greatest Generation
| 1838 - 1855
|
This is a reference to the Greatest Generation, below, and could be implying a similarity between the accomplishments and sacrifices of this generation - who fought in the first U.S. Civil War and who passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution - to those of the Greatest Generation. There is also some humor in the name: what Randall means is that this generation was, supposedly, second best in terms of its greatness. However, the wording could be interpreted to mean that they are chronologically the second generation to be called "greatest", even though they actually were born first.
|-
| Generation -..-
| 1856 - 1873
| This may be referring to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Morse_code#Comparison_of_American_and_International_Morse Morse Code] for the number 9, although this is the eighth generation in this list. More likely, it is referring to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code the letter X] instead in International Morse Code. This may be an error on Randall's part, since the generations are an American phenomenon. Alternatively, this be a past example of similar cohort of Gen Xers, mirrored by the later "More Gen-Xers somehow". Regardless, this is also a reference to the rise of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy telegraphy], though it was "born" prior to 1856.
|-
| The kids who died in the Gilded Generation's factories and mines
| 1874 - 1891
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour#The_Industrial_Revolution Child labor] had been widely used since before the start of the Industrial Revolution, but this is when people started doing something about it - and also, when the need for an educated workforce arose, applying substantial economic pressure on societies to put children in school instead. It would be more accurate to label this generation, "The kids who stopped dying in the Gilded Generation's factories and mines".
|-
| Oops, one of us is Hitler
| 1892 - 1909
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler Adolf Hitler], possibly the most hated (and, by most definitions, evil) man in living human memory as of this comic's posting, was born during in 1889. Aside from the fact that this places him in the previous generation, it seems beyond silly to blame everyone else who was born during this period for being born in the same generation as him. Among those who eventually heard of him (thus, excluding those in isolated areas or who died before he rose to power), the vast majority of them would not hear of him until well after 1909.
|-
| The Greatest Generation
| 1910 - 1927
|
|-
| The Silent Generation
| 1928 - 1945
|
|-
| Baby Boomers
| 1946 - 1963
| A spike in births was seen following the return of soldiers to the US from European and Pacific theatres of war. These children enjoyed the benefits of US prosperity whilst the rest of the world rebuilt, lived in fear of nuclear annihilation and watched the Space Race.
|-
| Generation X
| 1965 - 1981
|
|-
| Millennials
| 1982 - 1999
| The last children born in the 2nd Millennium. Initially called Generation Y, as they were thought to be so boring the only thing of note was that they came after Generation X, by people that hadn't anticipated the internet.
|-
| Generation 💅 (nail polish emoji)
| 2000 - 2017
| This begins the hypothetical future generation names, though this generation was already fully born as of this comic's posting. Social media was established and rising during the formative years of this generation, and the widespread adoption of emoji began during this time. The [https://emojipedia.org/nail-polish/ Nail Polish Emoji] (U+1F485) is used here.
|-
| Zuckerberg's Army
| 2018 - 2035
| Continuing on the above, this may be presuming the dominance of FaceBook during the childhoods of this generation, and corresponding social norming as ultimately directed by its leader Mark Zuckerberg. Ironically, as of this comic's posting, [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-quit-young-people-social-media-snapchat-instagram-emarketer-a8206486.html young users were already leaving FaceBook for other social media sites]. May also be a reference to "Dumbledore's Army" in ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix''. It is uncertain whether Zuckerberg's Army is in alliance or at war with the other social media militaries of the mid-21st century.
|-
| The Hovering Ones
| 2036 - 2053
| This may posit increased adoption of cybernetics, which (as with any technology) are more easily adopted by the young who do not have to unlearn previous ways. If advances allowed someone to hover all the time, such that one would not need to walk, this generation's name suggests that becoming so widely used among this generation that they became known for it.
|-
| Spare Parts
| 2054 - 2071
| Continuing on the above speculation about cybernetics, this presumes enough apathy or sociopathy among this generation's parents that giving birth (or other means of creating a new human) was often done to create bodies from which organs could be harvested (presumably primarily for the benefit of their elders).
|-
| More Gen-Xers somehow
| 2072 - 2089
| As with "Generation -..-", this may be positing that Generation X like traits pop up about 3/4 of the way through each century.
|-
| The Paperclip Machines
| 2090 - 2107
| This, and the alt text, are references to the concept of a [https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Paperclip_maximizer paperclip maximizer], where an AI might be designed to be helpful, but end up being harmful. The clicker game [http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ Universal Paperclips] makes this concept playable. Furthering the above speculation of cybernetics, this generation might be primarily artificial intelligences, though of limited ability to set their own priorities (a flaw which would be fixed in later generations).
|-
| The Mixed Bag (produced 4 Lincolns, 1 Napoleon, and 2 Hitlers)
| 2108 - 2125
| As with the above examples, a generation may become known for its most famous members, but it is not useful to define an entire generation by them.
|-
| The Procedural Generation
| 2136 - 2143
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_generation Procedural generation] is a way of creating data automatically, rather than capturing it via sensor (including when the "sensor" is a keyboard and the data is typed in). This confusion of the term "generation" could refer to more artificial intelligences that were created via routines instead of directly coded, which would likely stem from attempts to improve child creation once most children were explicitly manufactured instead of relying on evolution-granted biological means.
|-
| Generation Ω
| 2144 - 2161
| "Omega" is the last letter in the Greek alphabet, and used as a symbol of endings. Given the above generation names implying increasingly artificial children, this may suggest the last generation that is recognizably a generation. This does not necessarily mean the end of children or the end of humanity, just that anything after 2161 is widely recognized to no longer have even notional generational coherence - perhaps because of drift (children born to one group during a given time are wildly different enough from children born to another group at the same time that people give up trying to group them by time), child gestation and maturation times (for example, if it became common for a child to go from conception to adulthood in less than a year), or exceptions to what counts as a "child" (for example, if it becomes possible and common to create clones that are somewhere between free-willed beings and mind-controlled drones, and this sufficiently supplants creation of completely free-willed children, regardless of whether the children are artificial intelligences or old-fashioned biological children).
|-
| Star Trek: The Next Generation
|2360 - 2378
|''{{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation}}'' was a TV show set in the future. The first episode of ''TNG'', "{{w|Encounter at Farpoint}}", takes place in 2364, and it concluded with "{{w|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Good_Things..._(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)|All Good Things...}}", which took place in 2370. The final canonical adventures of the cast of ''The Next Generation'' did not occur until the events of ''{{w|Star Trek: Nemesis}}'' in 2379.
|}

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

:"Generations" are arbitrary. They're just labels we use to obliquely talk about cultural trends.
:But since Pew Research has become the latest to weigh in, and everyone loves a good pointless argument over definitions...

:''xkcd presents''
:A Definitive Chronology of the Generations

:1730-1747 The Founders
:1748-1765 Generation ƒ
:1766-1783 The Adequate Generation
:1784-1801 Generation Æ
:1802-1819 The generation we cut a lot of slack because they produced Lincoln
:1820-1837 The Gilded Generation
:1838-1855 The Second-Greatest Generation
:1856-1873 Generation '''-··-'''
:1874-1891 The kids who died in the Gilded Generation's factories and mines
:1892-1909 Oops, one of us is Hitler
:1910-1927 The Greatest Generation
:1928-1945 The Silent Generation
:1946-1963 Baby Boomers
:1964-1981 Generation X
:1982-1999 Millennials
:2000-2017 Generation 💅 [nail polish emoji]
:2018-2035 Zuckerberg's army
:2036-2053 The Hovering Ones
:2054-2071 Spare Parts
:2072-2089 More Gen-Xers somehow
:2090-2107 The Paperclip Machines
:2108-2125 The Mixed Bag (produced 4 Lincolns, 1 Napoleon and 2 Hitlers)
:2126-2143 The Procedural Generation
:2144-2161 Generation Ω
:2360-2378 Star Trek: The Next Generation

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

1956: Unification

2018-02-25T13:20:22Z

Captain Paralytic: Missing "s"

{{comic
| number = 1956
| date = February 16, 2018
| title = Unification
| image = unification.png
| titletext = For a while, some physicists worked on a theory unifying the other forces with both the force of gravity and the film "Gravity," but even after Alfonso Cuarón was held in a deep underground chamber of water for 10^31 years he refused to sell his film to Disney.
}}

==Explanation==

In physics, the fundamental interactions, also known as fundamental forces, are the interactions that do not appear to be reducible to more basic interactions. There are four {{w|fundamental interactions}} known to exist: the {{w|gravity|gravitational}} and {{w|electromagnetism|electromagnetic}} interactions, which produce significant long-range forces whose effects can be seen directly in everyday life, and the {{w|strong interaction|strong}} and {{w|weak interactions|weak}} interactions, which produce forces at minuscule, subatomic distances and govern nuclear interactions. Some scientists speculate that a fifth force might exist, but, if so, it is not widely accepted nor proven.

This comic lists five physical forces (it split up electricity and magnetism), but also includes a number of other things (two countries and three businesses) that are known for "unifying" in a non-physics sense. {{w|East Germany|East}} and {{w|West Germany}} {{w|German reunification|united politically in 1990}}, more than forty years after being divided at the end of {{w|World War II}}. Entertainment company {{w|Disney}} has united in a business sense with a number of others over the years; the comic mentions animation studio {{w|Pixar}} and the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' franchise. The comic states that this is the progress toward unifying the fundamental forces of nature, which is absurd, with the addition of Disney and {{w|Germany}}, neither of which is one of the fundamental forces.{{Citation needed}} Star Wars is, of course, all about {{w|The Force (Star Wars)|The Force}}, but this has, for some reason, gone unnoticed by most physicists.

The title text jokes that some physicists tried to unify the force of {{w|gravity}} with the 2013 movie ''{{w|Gravity (2013 film)|Gravity}}'', starring {{w|Sandra Bullock}}. Of course, this is also absurd, but it turns out that this is just another jab by [[Randall]] at {{w|George Lucas}} for selling his rights to ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' to {{w|Disney}}. The jab comes when he makes it clear that the director of ''Gravity'' {{w|Alfonso Cuarón}} would refuse to sell the rights to his film to Disney, even if he was held in underground chamber of water for 1031 years.

This water chamber and incredible time span is a reference to {{w|Proton decay}}, which is being investigated by trying to detect the {{w|Cherenkov radiation}} that could occur from possible decay of protons in water. These measurements are being conducted in {{w|Proton_decay#Experimental_evidence|immense water tanks}} buried under mountains to protect them against similar signals that could result from cosmic radiation. The same type of tanks have been used to detect {{w|neutrinos}}.

The half life of protons is currently believed to be between 1031–1036 years. This should be compared to the age of the universe at around 1.3 1010 years, which means that one second compared to the age of the universe is larger than the age of the universe compared to the smallest suggested half life of the proton (as used in the comic) by a factor of about 10,000, but even this time would not make Cuarón cave in...

===Unifications===
{|class="wikitable"
!Item
!colspan="2"|Unifications
|-
!Electricity
|rowspan="2"|Electricity and magnetism were historically considered separate forces. Observations through the 19th century indicated that the two were closely linked, however, and the work of James Clerk Maxwell finally established their common identity in 1873. Today, their unified explanation, {{w|electromagnetism}}, is considered one of the four fundamental interactions in physics.
|rowspan="3"|The unification of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force—known as the {{w|electroweak interaction}}—is the only currently-accepted unification of two fundamental forces. Two Nobel Prizes in Physics have been awarded for work on this unification, in 1979 and in 1999.
|-
!Magnetism
|-
!Weak force
|style="text-align:center;"|→
|-
!Strong force
|colspan="2"|The strong nuclear force is similar to the electroweak forces, as they are all part of the model known as {{w|quantum field theory}} (QFT). There have been attempts to unify them to produce a so-called {{w|Grand Unified Theory}}. No model of their unification has yet been shown to be correct, and it remains a major unsolved problem in physics.
|-
!Gravity
|colspan="2"|Unlike the other three fundamental forces, gravity is not described by QFT, but by {{w|general relativity}} (GR). A so-called "{{w|Theory of Everything}}", describing both QFT and GR, could also unify gravity and the other forces. Such a unification is still strictly hypothetical, however.
|-
!East Germany
|rowspan="2" colspan="2"|In 1945, after {{w|Nazi Germany|Nazi Germany's}} defeat in the Second World War, Germany was occupied by the {{w|Allies of World War II|Allied Forces}}. At first, it was expected that the whole country would be transitioned to a single post-war government, but but political and ideological differences between the {{w|Soviet Union}} and the other allies (which developed into the Cold War) prevented this. The Soviet-controlled zone became the German Democratic Republic, or {{w|East Germany}}, while the British, American and French zones of control merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany, or {{w|West Germany}}.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall (a physical and symbolic representation of the division) in 1989, and the fall of the East German socialist government in the "Peaceful Revolution", {{w|German reunification}} again became an immediate possibility. By late 1990, the merger was achieved, with East Germany joining the federal structure already existing in West Germany.

On 5th February 2018, just under two weeks before this comic appeared, the {{w|Berlin Wall}} had been "gone as long as it had stood"; that is, 28 years, two months, and 27 days.
|-
!West Germany
|-
!Disney
|rowspan="2"|Pixar was originally a part of the computer division of Lucasfilm, but was spun off into a separate business in 1986. The studio had a positive partnership with Walt Disney Animation, which resulted in a deal for Pixar to produce animated feature films for Walt Disney Pictures. Though the partnership later became strained, Disney agreed to buy Pixar in 2006. Pixar films produced after this acquisition have been branded "Disney-Pixar" films.
|rowspan="3"|The Star Wars franchise was perhaps the most successful and best-known property of Lucasfilm, the company founded by George Lucas in 1971. Discussion in 2011 of a distribution deal with Disney, around the time that Lucas was planning his retirement, turned into the outright purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012. Since then, Disney has extensively revamped and developed the Star Wars franchise, with three new films and a television series released by the date of this comic, and several more in the works.
|-
!Pixar
|-
!Star Wars
|style="text-align:center;"|→

|}

==Transcript==
:[Ten rounded frames with text inside are shown in two rows. Below each frame there is a line going down and then this line either joins with one or two of the other frames lines or in two cases do not joins with any other. At the bottom of the panel the now five remaining lines turn towards the center of the bottom of the panel and ends in arrows that points towards three question marks. The first three frames' lines are unified, same goes for the next two, and the three after that. The lines of the last two are not joined with any other lines. The text in the transcript is given as it appears from left to right, disregarding if it is the top or bottom row, but this will alternate through the ten frames, starting with one up, then one down etc.]

:[Group one, starting with up:]
:Electricity
:Magnetism
:Weak force

:[Group two starting with down:]
:East Germany
:West Germany

:[Group three starting with down:]
:Star Wars
:Disney
:Pixar

:[Two single frames, the first is up:]
:Strong force
:Gravity

:[All five arrows points to this:]
:<big><big>???</big></big>

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Progress toward unifying the fundamental forces of nature

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Geography]]

1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-02-19T10:42:05Z

Captain Paralytic: Corrected MySQL version.

{{comic
| number = 1957
| date = February 19, 2018
| title = 2018 CVE List
| image = 2018_cve_list.png
| titletext = CVE-2018-?????: It turns out Bruce Schneier is just two mischevious kids in a trenchcoat.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by HACKING THIS WIKI VIA THE EDIT BOX - The explanation looks like a list. Explain the comic and put the security vulnerabilities in a table. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{|class="wikitable"
!Security vulnerability
!Notes
|-
|Apple products crash when displaying certain Telugu or Bengali letter combinations.
|This refers to a real vulnerability in iOS and MacOS publicized a few days before the comic released <ref>https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/15/iphone-text-bomb-ios-mac-crash-apple/</ref>.
|-
|An attacker can use a timing attack to extploit[sic] a race condition in garbage collection to extract a limited number of bits from the Wikipedia article on Claude Shannon.
|Timing Attack to exploit a race condition in garbage collection refers to Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws that can be exploited in cloud server like the ones in Wikipedia
|-
|At the cafe on third street, the post-it note with the wifi password is visible from the sidewalk.
|Writing passwords in a visible place is a major security flaw. For instance, following the [[wikipedia:2018 Hawaii false missile alert|2018 Hawaii false missile alert]] the agency received criticism for a press photo showing a password written on a sticky note attached to a monitor.<ref>http://uk.businessinsider.com/hawaii-emergency-agency-password-discovered-in-photo-sparks-security-criticism-2018-1?r=US&IR=T</ref> However, if a cafe posts their wifi password for customers then having it visible through the window as well presents a very minor reduction in security.
|-
|A remote attacker can inject arbitrary text into public-facing pages via the comments box.
|Describes a common feature on news sites or social media sites like Facebook. The possibility for users to "inject" text into the page is by design. This is a humorous reference to the relatively common security vulnerability "[[Wikipedia:Cross-site_scripting|persistent cross-site scripting]]", where input provided by the user is displayed to other users in a dangerous fashion that allows attackers to inject arbitrary HTML or Javascript code into e.g. a comment section. It might also be a humorous reference to the events before, during and after the 2016 US Presidential elections where Internet Research Agency employees based remotely in St. Petersburg, Russia, but disguised as US citizens, "injected" arbitrary text in the form of political propaganda into comments on multiple web sites, according to an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on February 16, 2018.
|-
|MySQL server 55.45 secretly runs two parallel databases for people who say "S-Q-L" and "sequel."
|Some people pronounce "SQL" like "sequel", after SQL's predecessor "SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language)". MySQL is an open-source relational database management system, the latest GA version (at the time of writing) is MySQL 5.7.
|-
|A flaw in some x86 CPUs could allow a root user to de-escalate to normal account privileges.
|This vulnerability refers to DOM0 attacks on Virtualization CPUs, regulary escalate from normal(few privileges) to root (full privileges), this is the inverse.
|-
|Apple products catch fire when displaying emoji with diacritics.
|This is taking the first CVE to an extreme conclusion by combining it with the Samsung exploding phones
|-
|An oversight in the rules allows a dog to join a basketball team.
|This likely refers to the movie Air Bud. It's a movie about a dog playing basketball {{w|Air Bud}}. This has been a common theme in xkcd comics, see [[115: Meerkat]], [[1439: Rack Unit]], [[1819: Sweet 16]], [[1552: Rulebook]]
|-
|Haskell isn't side-effect-free after all; the effects are all just concentrated in this one. Computer in Missouri that no one's checked on in a while.
|Haskell is a functional programming language, functional programming is characterized by using functions that dont have side effects in other parts of the program.
|-
|Nobody really knows how hypervisors work.
|Virtualization programing is hard, Meltdown and Specter are related to this
|-
|CRITICAL: Under Linux 3.14.8 on System/390 in a UTC+14 time zone, a local user could potentially use a buffer overflow to change another user's default system clock from 12-hour to 24-hour.
|Jokes about arcane systems that are running linux, that have bugs that nobody can replicate because there are no more machines on this type where reproduce the bug to fix it.
|-
|x86 has way too many instructions.
|This is a joke account for random acronyms of processor assembled language many of them are overspecialized version of general ones
|-
|Numpy 1.8.0 can factor primes in O(log n) time and must be quietly deprecated before anyone notices.
|NumPy is the fundamental package for scientific computing with Python. If something can find the prime factors of a number this quickly, there are attacks to break many crypto functions used in internet security. However, prime numbers have only a single factor, and "factoring primes" quickly is a simpler problem.
|-
|Apple products grant remote access if you send them words that break the "I before E" rule.
|another joke on the first CVE and a common english writing rule. That's weird.
|-
|Skylake x86 chips can be pried from their sockets using certain flathead screwdrivers.
|Skylake x86 chips are a line of microprocessors, yes, you can remove forcefully any processor from his socket with a screwdriver, there are many reports from people not using common sense.
|-
|Apparently Linus Torvalds can be bribed pretty easily.
|Linux Torvals is the benevolent dictator of the Linux kernel codebase, normally it is hard to pass a change because he has the last word about what merge to the code base because that code is replicated in all linux installations, but apparently he is easy to bribe, that is a severe critical vulnerability to all linux server and machines
|-
|An attacker can execute malicious code on their own machine and no one can stop them.
|This is a common CVE description
|-
|Apple products execute any code printed over a photo of a dog with a saddle and a baby riding it.
|This could refer to a CVE vulnerability of JPG files where javascript is executed by some application, only this time is in a printed photo instead of a file .
|-
|Under rare circumstances, a flaw in some versions of Windows could allow Flash to be installed.
|This is another common CVE description, Flash was discontinued because is abismal security record. All security experts advise against install.
|-
|Turns out the cloud is just other people's computers.
|This refers to a computer meme where replace "cloud" with "other people's computers" must be used in all marketing presentation to CEOs and not computer literate persons to evaluate the security impact of using "Cloud services"
|-
|A flaw in Mitre's CVE database allows arbitrary code insertion.[~~CLICK HERE FOR CHEAP VIAGRA~~]
|Mitre's CVE database is the database where all CVE are listed, this is a joke between the 4th CVE in this list pointing that the site is also vulnerable
|-
|It turns out Bruce Schneier is just two mischievous kids in a trenchcoat. (title text)
|
|}
== References ==
<references/>

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

LEAKED LIST OF MAJOR 2018 SECURITY VULNERABILITIES

CVE-2018-????? Apple products crash when displaying certain Telugu or Bengali letter combinations.

CVE-2018-????? An attacker can use a timing attack to extploit[sic] a race condition in garbage collection to extract a limited number of bits from the Wikipedia article on Claude Shannon.

CVE-2018-????? At the cafe on third street, the post-it note with the wifi password is visible from the sidewalk.

CVE-2018-????? A remote attacker can inject arbitrary text into public-facing pages via the comments box.

CVE-2018-????? MySQL server 55.45 secretly runs two parallel databases for people who say "S-Q-L" and "sequel."

CVE-2018-????? A flaw in some x86 CPUs could allow a root user to de-escalate to normal account privileges.

CVE-2018-????? Apple products catch fire when displaying emoji with diacritics.

CVE-2018-????? An oversight in the rules allows a dog to join a basketball team.

CUE-2018-????? Haskell isn't side-effect-free after all; the effects are all just concentrated in this one. Computer in Missouri that no one's checked on in a while.

CVE-2018-????? Nobody really knows how hypervisors work.

CVE-2018-????? CRITICAL: Under Linux 3.14.8 on System/390 in a UTC+14 time zone, a local user could potentially use a buffer overflow to change another user's default system clock from 12-hour to 24-hour.

CVE-2018-????? x86 has way too many instructions.

CVE-2018-????? Numpy 1.8.0 can factor primes in O(log n) time and must be quietly deprecated before anyone notices.

CVE-2018-????? Apple products grant remote access if you send them words that break the "I before E" rule.

CVE-2018-????? Skylake x86 chips can be pried from their sockets using certain flathead screwdrivers.

CVE-2018-????? Apparently Linus Torvalds can be bribed pretty easily.

CVE-2018-????? An attacker can execute malicious code on their own machine and no one can stop them.

CVE-2018-????? Apple products execute any code printed over a photo of a dog with a saddle and a baby riding it.

CVE-2018-????? Under rare circumstances, a flaw in some versions of Windows could allow Flash to be installed.

CVE-2018-????? Turns out the cloud is just other people's computers.

CVE-2018-????? A flaw in Mitre's CVE database allows arbitrary code insertion.[~~CLICK HERE FOR CHEAP VIAGRA~~]

{{comic discussion}}

1951: Super Bowl Watch Party

2018-02-06T10:33:53Z

Captain Paralytic: missing apostrophe

{{comic
| number = 1951
| date = February 5, 2018
| title = Super Bowl Watch Party
| image = super_bowl_watch_party.png
| titletext = It's going to be weird near the end of May when the screen goes blank for over 18 hours.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FOOTBALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|Super Bowl}} is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional {{w|American football}}. In late January or early February each year, the winner of the American Football Conference (AFC) plays the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) to determine the champion. In {{w|Super Bowl LII}} held on Sunday, February 4, (the day before this comic's release), the NFC champion {{w|Philadelphia Eagles}} defeated the AFC champion {{w|New England Patriots}}. Based on its wide-reaching cultural impact, Super Bowl is, in the United States, widely considered the single most important game of the year (of any sport{{Citation needed}}), and over a hundred million people (across the world) watch it, many of whom are not even fans of American football. Some have parties centered on watching the game. The full game lasts around four hours, including breaks for advertisement and a halftime, which includes a live performance of music.

Normal TV is broadcast at 30 frames per second. By slowing the video down by a factor of 2300, the show would last a full year. (Actually it would last 33.120.000 seconds which is 383 days, 18 days more than a year. To make it last a year, minus 4 hours, it should be slowed down a factor 2189). Each frame would be shown for about 76.7 seconds. Each frame can then be discussed and analyzed by the watchers. Each day in the slow video would cover just under 40 seconds of real time. So when Megan comes down to rejoin the party (who have been watching all night) they can describe about 20 seconds of real time. The description refers to the offense taking the field after the initial kickoff was returned to the 26 yard line.

A ''cut'' means a change in camera angle. Cuts happen frequently during the broadcast, especially when the ball is not in play; thus Megan has a relatively high probability (albeit still incredibly low, with cuts being less than one in every 1000 frames) of being right simply by chance that the next frame will be a cut, and has apparently been predicting it often.

The ads and halftime show are considered integral parts of the broadcast, and many advertisers debut elaborate commercials especially for game, since so many people watch it. Many people claim to watch the Super Bowl only for the commercial breaks. The end of February would correspond to about 14 minutes of real time. Obviously [[Ponytail]] looks forward to those, and can't wait...

The title text refers to how, during a commercial break during the 2018 Super Bowl, just blackness was broadcast for 28 seconds. <ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/02/04/super-bowl-nbc-equipment-failure-blank-screen-super-bowl-commercial/305623002/</ref> At the rate they watch it would last almost 18 hours as described (17 hours 53 minutes).

It would be highly impractical to be watching TV continuously for 52 weeks in a row (or in case Cueball and friends had watched all the games like this 52 years in a row).

[[Randall]] has in previous comics regarding the Super Bowl, explained that he now watches the Super Bowl ([[1480: Super Bowl]]), despite not being very interested in Superbowl ([[60: Super Bowl]]) or any other sport ([[1107: Sports Cheat Sheet]]). A slowly updating video is similar to the concept behind [[1190: Time]], and is also reminiscent of Douglas Gordon's 1993 art installation {{w|24 Hour Psycho}}. Also, {{w|As Slow as Possible}} is an organ piece that is currently played in a German church - it will end in 2640, after 639 years of continuous playing.

==Transcript==
:[A woman, looking like Megan, walks up to a group of people watching TV. Cueball and Megan (with shorter hair than the walking woman) are sitting on a couch. A Cueball-like guy sits in front of them, while Ponytail lies on the ground, head resting on a hand, in front of a TV, which is quite far from the couch.]
:Woman: Morning. How's the game?
:Cueball: Eagles got to the 26-yard line around midnight. They've been walking across the field since then. Just entered a huddle.
:Megan: I bet the next frame will be a cut.
:Guy on floor: You always say that.
:Ponytail: Do you think the first ads will come by the end of February?

:[Caption below the comic:]
:I'm at a year-round Super Bowl watch party. We're playing the stream at 1/2300x speed, so it will end just as next year's Super Bowl starts.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:American football]]
<references/>

1948: Campaign Fundraising Emails

2018-01-30T14:44:15Z

Captain Paralytic: added missing words

{{comic
| number = 1948
| date = January 29, 2018
| title = Campaign Fundraising Emails
| image = campaign_fundraising_emails.png
| titletext = The establishment doesn't take us seriously. You know who else they didn't take seriously? Hitler. I'll be like him, but a GOOD guy instead of...
}}

==Explanation==

Many politicians and organizations in the United States have taken to using aggressive fundraising campaigns by email to seek campaign contributions.

This comic shows a caricature of many people's email inboxes right now. Signing a petition or expressing interest in a cause can lead to being added to a myriad of mailing lists for similar groups, all looking for support. It seems Randall has a history of donating to questionable candidates with poorly thought out campaigns, and that's gotten him onto some interesting email lists. The emails get more and more absurd as the list goes on. For example, the last one combines a request for campaign contributions with the infamous Nigerian Prince phishing scheme.

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
! E-mail Body !! Explanation
|-
|'''Donate now.''' It's crunch time, and we're low on cash. If you chip in just $5 by midnight, we...
|This is the classic formula, and may be a real example. It is always "crunch time" during a campaign (at least between filing for candidacy and election day), and campaigns are always "low" on cash relative to the unlimited funding they would prefer. The ends of financial reporting periods, often at midnight, are conflated with "deadlines" of significant consequence. Further, the donation requested is less about the actual money - even if $5 each from several thousand voters can add up - but to get a donor to have their money placed on a candidate, making it more likely that donor will vote for the candidate (via encouraging [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Loss_aversion_and_the_sunk_cost_fallacy the "sunk cost" fallacy]).
|-
|'''Donate $35.57 now!''' Our data team has determined that we should ask you for $35.57 to optimize the...
|While fundraisers will try and work out how to gain as much money as possible, they would never explain this to their supporters. Such a precise amount would come about as a result of running the numbers through a computer simulation, and the obvious lack of humanity behind the calculated dollar amount would probably be offputting to a lot of would-be supporters. This may also be an exaggeration of Senator Sanders' presidential campaign, which sent e-mails asking for $27 because it was the average amount of their contributions up to that point.
|-
|'''Help.''' Our campaign made some mistakes and we need a lot of money ASAP. Any kind, but cash is...
|This email is honest about the campaign's incompetence, but is not likely to get much sympathy except from those already sympathetic to the candidate. Any campaign reduced to this level has probably already lost, though.
|-
|'''Washington is broken.''' When I win, I'll look those other senators in the eye and tell them: "Jobs." Then I...
|This may be another real example. This appeal to emotion promises specific action that is unlikely to accomplish much, and is probably unlikely to happen even if the candidate wins, while suggesting the candidate vaguely cares about issues of importance to most voters, as measured by the polls, but may not be genuine or fulfilled. The mere statement of "jobs" as a meaningful political point is patently ridiculous, especially since no context or intent is provided with it.
|-
|'''Hopeless.''' It's bad. Really bad. If you don't chip in now, the darkness spreading across the land will...
|This is a favorite of moral campaigns, on both sides of a debate. Grand statements about evil and corruption taking over the country if the campaign does not get enough support are common, but they are extremely biased and dramatic.
|-
|As the first woman to fly a fighter jet through our state's formerly all-male university, I learned...
|Normally one would be the first ''from'' a university to do something, not the first to achieve something involving the university itself. Flying a plane through a university is risky at the very least, and depending on the definition of "through" here, could imply destruction of buildings or the plane itself, which might paint the candidate in an irresponsible light
|-
|'''We're broke.''' No paid staff. No ads. And the cafe has told us to stop using their wifi to send fundraising...
| This campaign tactic attempts to appeal to the reader's sympathy by describing financial struggles and poverty, but said tactics may instead make the movement look pathetic and poorly-organized, especially because the group is apparently so poor, they can't continue sending emails to ask for funding.
|-
|When Amy decided to run for Congress, I was like "Huh?" but I checked Wikipedia, and apparently it's a branch of...
|The reader would expect that the writer expressed surprise because they weren't expecting Amy to run for Congress, but the actual reason is because they didn't know what Congress was. If the aim is indeed fundraising, as the comic's title would imply, this message is very likely to give very poor (no pun unintended) results. While the familiar tone could be a communication strategy (although you might want to look serious and professional when asking for money), the author openly states not knowing what the campaign was about until recently, which would make potential donors doubt that their money would be put to good use.
|-
|-
|'''Are you familiar''' with the Dutch painter Hieronymous Bosch? His work illustrates my opponent's plan for...
|The works of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Hieronymus Bosch], which are famous for depictions of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell Hell] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo Limbo] as brutal places of highly imaginative torments, which the sender implies would be similar to the country under the opponent's plan.
|-
|Being a single mom running a small business while going to law school while being deployed to Iraq taught me...
|Each of these are typical "inspiring" stories for someone to bring up once they reach success, to show how they have persevered and come out on top, but it is extremely unlikely that all of these responsibilities and hardships would be burdening one person, and said person surviving all of these is even less likely.
|-
|-
|'''I will lead the fight''' against the big banks, special interests, the Earth's climate, and our children. I...
|A promise that goes from more universally relatable issues, but then moves to the controversial topic of climate change (with the implication that damaging the climate is the goal), and the universally ridiculous idea that children are an issue that needs to be contained. The fight "against our children" may be a reference to a popular [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushism Bushism].
|-
|'''Wow.''' Have you seen this video of the squirrel obstacle course? Incredible! Anyway, I'm running because I...
|A typical form of {{w|clickbait}}.
|-
|'''Outrageous.''' Granted, this was a few years ago, but did you hear what President Ford said about...
|When a politician makes an offensive comment, it's common for the politician's opponents to send out fundraising emails pointing out the politician's offensiveness as a reason to give money to an opponent. Here, the sender's reaction and e-mail fundraising effort appears to be unusually delayed, as it refers to an alleged comment by {{w|Gerald Ford}}, whose term as President of the United States ended in 1977 and who died in 2006.
|-
|'''Whoops.''' Due to a typo, we spent months running attack ads against Tom Hanks. Now, we need to make up for...
|The email apologises for running months of attack ads against American actor {{w|Tom Hanks}}. Hanks is generally a popular and uncontroversial figure,{{Citation needed}} making him an unusual target for attack ads. This implies that the sender does not even know who their opponent is, and has mistakenly targeted the wrong person, demonstrating some significant ignorance and incompetence.
|-
|'''They say we can't win-''' that we're "underdogs" with "no money" who "lost the election last week." But they don't...
|May refer to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Moore#U.S._Senate_special_election_campaign Roy Moore's attempts to overturn his loss in the December 2017 election for one of Alabama's US Senate seats], which came about a month before this comic and made national headlines. After the initial election count had him losing, he demanded a recount. That initial count said he had lost by a large enough margin that Alabama law required him to pay up front for a recount, and his campaign did not have enough funds available.
|-
|'''Our campaign's only chance''' is to seduce Jennifer ActBlue, heir to the ActBlue fortune. For that, we need a fancy...
|This e-mail alludes to [https://secure.actblue.com/ ActBlue], a political action committee that collects donations online for Democratic candidates. In reality, there is no ActBlue family nor any "Jennifer ActBlue" who is the heir to its fortune; the name ActBlue comes from the words "act" and "blue", referring to the {{w|Red states and blue states|color currently associated with the Democratic Party}}.
|-
|'''Doom.''' Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed, like rain on...
|This is an excerpt from {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien's}} poem ''[http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Lament_for_the_Rohirrim Lament of the Rohirrim,]'' appearing in ''{{w|The Two Towers}}'': 
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? 
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing? 
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing? 
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing? 
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; 
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. 
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning, 
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?
|-
|'''Warmest greetings.''' I am the crown prince of Nigeria. I am running for Congress because I believe that...
|The opening line is designed to sound like spam for an {{W | Advance-fee scam}}. These scams typically involve impersonating someone rich, often a Nigerian prince, who claims to be in trouble and promises to share a large sum of money if the victim helps him by sending a small fee in advance electronically. However, the second sentence of this email switches to sounding like a political fundraising email instead of an outright scam. This is either to establish a degrading comparison between flagrant scams and fundraising emails, or just to create a bait-and-switch joke.
|-
|The establishment doesn't take us seriously. You know who else they didn't take seriously? Hitler. I'll be like him, but a GOOD guy instead of...
|A candidate who compares himself to {{w|Hitler}}, even when promising to be GOOD instead, will probably not get many votes. The title text does however conform to {{w|Godwin's law}}.
|}

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

[An e-mail inbox window is displayed. On each line appears an illegible e-mail address and a checkbox.]

'''Donate now.''' It's crunch time, and we're low on cash. If you chip in just $5 by midnight, we... 
'''Donate $35.57 now!''' Our data team has determined that we should ask you for $35.57 to optimize the... 
'''Help.''' Our campaign made some mistakes and we need a lot of money ASAP. Any kind, but cash is... 
'''Washington is broken.''' When I win, I'll look those other senators in the eye and tell them: "Jobs." Then I... 
'''Hopeless.''' It's bad. Really bad. If you don't chip in now, the darkness spreading across the land will... 
As the first woman to fly a fighter jet through our state's formerly all-male university, I learned... 
'''We're broke.''' No paid staff. No ads. And the cafe has told us to stop using their wifi to send fundraising... 
When Amy decided to run for Congress, I was like "Huh?" but I checked Wikipedia, and apparently it's a branch of... 
'''Are you familiar''' with the dutch painter Hieronymous Bosch? His work illustrates my opponent's plan for... 
Being a single mom running a small business while going to law school while being deployed to Iraq taught me... 
'''I will lead the fight''' against the big banks, special interests, the Earth's climate, and our children. I... 
'''Wow.''' Have you seen this video of the squirrel obstacle course? Incredible! Anyway, I'm running because I... 
'''Outrageous.''' Granted, this was a few years ago, but did you hear what President Ford said about... 
'''Whoops.''' Due to a typo, we spent months running attack ads against Tom Hanks. Now, we need to make up for... 
'''They say we can't win-''' that we're "underdogs" with "no money" who "lost the election last week." But they don't... 
'''Our campaign's only chance''' is to seduce Jennifer ActBlue, heir to the ActBlue fortune. For that, we need a fancy... 
'''Doom.''' Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed, like rain on... 
'''Warmest greetings.''' I am the crown prince of Nigeria. I am running for Congress because I believe that...

{{comic discussion}}

1943: Universal Dreams

2018-01-18T10:36:15Z

Captain Paralytic: Spelling error

{{comic
| number = 1943
| date = January 17, 2018
| title = Universal Dreams
| image = universal_dreams.png
| titletext = "That's ... unsettling." "Yeah, those definitely don't sound like the normal drea– ＬＡＴＩＴＵＤＥＴＨＲＥＥＦＩＶＥＰＯＩＮＴ..."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Can someone check whether the clayton movie is actually a reference? Seems to me the nightmare explanation is more relevant.}}

The first and second panel are a discussion between [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]] about {{w|Dream|dreams}}. Megan mentions a dream or nightmare about failing to prepare for an exam despite not being a student for years. This is similar to the dream depicted in [[557: Students]]. Ponytail responds that certain dreams occur with surprising frequency among many people, dubbing them "Universal Dreams" (which is the title of the comic).

In the third panel, [[Black Hat]] describes an avatar of misfortune in the form of a horse appearing on a hill. This could be a play on the word {{w|Nightmare|nightmare}}. A {{w|Mare_(folklore)|mare}} was originally a demon or goblin that gave bad dreams. The modern word {{w|Mare#Etymology|mare}}, meaning female horse, has a different origin, but still serves handily as a {{w|Pun#Homophonic|homophonic pun}}.

Alternatively, this may be a reference to [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465538/ 2007 film Michael Clayton], which features a dream like sequence where the title character recognizes a scene of three horses on a hilltop from an illustration in a book. He stops his car, gets out and approaches the horses just minutes before his car explodes. This marks a major turning point in the direction Clayton takes for the rest of the film, similar to how Black Hat says "[the horses] mean the dream is about to turn bad."

In the last panel, Black Hat describes having dreams where he receives specific information about the real-world, which seems closer to {{w|List_of_dreams#Prophetic_dreams|prophesying}} or {{w|Precognition#In_dreams|precognition}} than what would be considered a normal dream, as normal dreams do not tell the future. This may be a reference to the [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448011/ 2009 film ''Knowing''] where a child hears voices telling her the date, time, latitude and longitude of major disasters (including earthquakes) that will occur 50 years in the future. Dreaming of latitude and longitude was also a topic of [[240: Dream Girl]], but in contrast the events in that dream did not come true within the comic, a real-life meetup of xkcd fans occurred at the location and date mentioned within the comic.

In the title text, either [[Megan]] or [[Ponytail]] is responding to black hat when she unexpectedly interrupts herself with the first part of geographic coordinates- Latitude 35, just as Black Hat described, implying the whole comic might be another of Black Hat's dreams. 35 degrees North would include 31 major cities around the world, including 11 in Japan and 8 in the USA (including California, a seismically active region, where Randall Munroe lives); the only major city within 35 degrees South is Canberra, Australia. This suggest an earthquake would happen soon in one of those major cities. The second half of the coordinates are most likely cut off to add uncertainty to the situation.

==Transcript==

:[Megan, Ponytail, and Black Hat are standing around.]
:Megan: I've been out of school for years, but I still get those dreams where I have an exam and I didn't prepare.

:[Ponytail shrugs.]
:Ponytail: I think that's one of those weird universal dreams— like forgetting your clothes or discovering rooms in your house you didn't know about.

:[Zoom-in on Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Yeah! Or when you're having a normal dream, but then a horse appears on a distant hilltop, and it means that the dream is about to turn bad!
:Ponytail or Megan (off-screen): I... What?
:Black Hat: I have that one like every night.

:[Megan and Ponytail look at Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Or those ones where you're talking to someone, and they start repeating a latitude and longitude over and over, and then you wake up that morning and there's an earthquake there.
:Black Hat: Haha, dreams, right? So weird!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Dreams]]

1927: Tinder

2017-12-12T10:30:46Z

Captain Paralytic: insert missing words

{{comic
| number = 1927
| date = December 11, 2017
| title = Tinder
| image = tinder.png
| titletext = People keep telling me to use the radio but I really hate making voice calls.
}}

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

{{w|Tinder (app)|Tinder}} is a social media/dating app. The main interface of Tinder shows photos of people using the app. Users swipe right for matches that they like, and left otherwise. The purpose of the app is to get dates, with the intent of a romantic relationship or sexual intercourse. However, in the comic, [[Cueball]] is trying to use it to request assistance flying a plane instead. If the request is genuine, this is a bad situation, because it suggests Cueball is in charge of a plane he is unable to fly, and unless he finds a match with someone who can, and is able to provide assistance, the plane will crash. Even then, unless the matched person happens to be on board, and therefore able to assist directly, providing help through Tinder messages is unlikely to be a sufficiently efficient way of solving the problem.

Alternatively, Cueball may be simply be pretending that there is an emergency so that he can get matches on Tinder. In either case, Cueball is violating the law by using a cell phone that is not in "airplane mode" (in some phones, flight mode or offline mode) when on an airplane. And even if he is either uploading the picture after the flight or using the in-flight internet service, he is still violating other, more serious laws (if he is a pilot, he is liable of negligence, and if he is an ordinary passenger, God knows what he may have done...)

The title text explains that Cueball's unwise method for getting help stems from astonishingly skewed priorities and no small amount of selfishness. He claims to strongly dislike conversing over audio-only channels, and this dislike is apparently so overwhelming that he would rather jeopardize the lives of all the passengers on the plane (including his own) than put aside his own hang-ups. Even if we give Cueball the benefit of the doubt and assume that he has a phobia of public speaking, most human beings tend to automatically suspend their irrational anxieties when experiencing the fear of imminent mortal peril, at least until after the danger has passed. For example, those normally afraid of dating Cueball would "match" with him to prevent a plane crash, which may be his secret intent after all.

Randall may be satirizing people who use Tinder (and other similar social apps) by portraying an extreme caricature of a Tinder user.

This comic is similar to [[1897: Self Driving]], and as well as [[582: Brakes]], which also is about bad ways to get help in emergencies.

==Transcript==

:[An iPhone-esque device is shown with the screen facing the viewer. On the screen is the Tinder UI. The main photo is of Cueball, in the cockpit of a plane which appears to be tilting to the left, holding up a makeshift sign saying:]
:If you know how
:to fly a plane
:please swipe
:right ASAP

{{comic discussion}}

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

1924: Solar Panels

2017-12-06T15:05:45Z

Captain Paralytic: corrected 3 typos.

{{comic
| number = 1924
| date = December 4, 2017
| title = Solar Panels
| image = solar_panels.png
| titletext = This works for a surprising range of sunlit things, including rooftops (sure), highway surfaces (probably not), sailboats (maybe), and jets, cars, and wild deer (haha good luck).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Seems close to being complete...}}

This handy decision tree aims to help in finding out whether a given object should have {{w|solar panel}}s installed on it.

The root question is whether the object of choice moves. If it doesn't and has no nearby empty space that would be more practical for the solar panel installation, then yes, the object should be equipped with the solar panels. If the object is static, but you could more easily install the panels somewhere else nearby, probably that's the best place. An example of this is a slanted rooftop of a house or a field on a hillside: it's certainly possible to put solar panels there, but it would generally be easier to put them on a flat surface, like a flat-roofed house or a level field if such is available. This way, you are not restricted as to the direction (which might not be optimal on a given incline) and the panels can face the optimal direction or even [https://www.linak.com/business-areas/energy move to track the sun]. However if the house has a side that is turned towards the sun (south in the Northern hemisphere) then a house roof could be even better than on the ground, which is why the title text says sure for rooftops. For another example of things where "putting next to it" instead of "on it" is generally the easier (and arguably) option, see the "highway surfaces" of the title text.

If the object moves, the next question is whether its batteries can be recharged or swapped with ease, in which case batteries may be a better option than solar panels. The idea is that solar panels on a vehicle sound like an interesting idea, but batteries can be much more easily (and economically) recharged from a fixed electrical station than using solar panels on the vehicle as a power source.

Finally, if the object moves and batteries are not an option, the last question is whether the object heats up during operation. If so, solar panels may not work well. [[Randall]] doubts it mockingly, see also the title text regarding his ''Haha Good luck'' final option. Solar panels do not work effectively when excessively hot [http://news.energysage.com/solar-panel-temperature-overheating/] (solar panels are typically designed to operate in temperature ranges of 15-25 celcius). Moreover, solar panels can only produce electrical power equal to about 20% of the solar radiation they receive. Thus, a device which heats up during use likely consumes much more power than the amount which could be produced by solar panels covering its surface - so "good luck." Obviously, many animals are also "moving objects" fitting this condition, and installing solar panel on them is bound to be a challenge.{{Citation needed}}

But if changing batteries is not an option and heat production and power requirements are low, then solar panels can be an excellent solution on a moving object. An excellent case for this is on [[:Category:Space probes|space probes]] and satellites, which are typically powered entirely by solar panels. Randall is well aware of this as shown with the comics [[695: Spirit]] and [[1504: Opportunity]] about the two solar powered [[:Category:Mars rovers|Mars rovers]], although he seems to have only been concerned with Earthbound objects in this comic.

The flow chart, however, does not mention if the thing in question actually ''needs'' solar panels, but according to the title text it works very well, and thus Randall implies that if the answer is ''sure'' then it is relevant to put solar panels there. The more solar panels in place, the less fossil fuels are needed, and this is in line with Randall's general interest in reducing [[:Category:Climate change|climate change]].

The title text suggests that this flow chart is very broadly applicable to anything the Sun hits. It takes rooftops as one of the sure things, highway surfaces as probably not (see below), sailboats as a maybe, whereas all these moving objects, jets, cars, and wild deer ends up on the ''haha good luck'' result, as they get too hot when running. But surely Randall tries to make the reader envision a wild deer with solar panels on it. As opposed to a car, a wild deer, though, has no use of a the electricity created by a solar panel, and it would be very hard for those installing it in the first place to come back and extract any energy stored by the panels...

"Highway surfaces" is likely a reference to "{{w|photovoltaic pavement}}". Engineers commonly regard the idea as a nightmare to implement; it would be more practical to install the solar panels ''beside'' the road where damage by cars is less of an issue.

==Transcript==

:[A flow chart that features four questions in bubbles. Each question has yes/no options in bubbles overlain to the left and right on the question bubble. Curved arrows points from the yes and no bubbles to either next question or the result. The result written at the bottom is not inside bubbles. The chart has two main branches, that ends up in five places using only four different results, as the middle result is shared by both branches. Above the chart there is a caption:]
:'''Should I put solar panels on it?'''

:Does it move around?
::Yes
:::Does it have regular chances to recharge or swap batteries?
::::Yes
:::::Probably not
::::No
:::::When running, is it hot to the touch?
::::::No
:::::::Maybe
::::::Yes
:::::::Haha good luck
::No
:::Is there an empty space nearby where it would be easier to put them?
::::Yes
:::::Probably not [Uses the same sentence as the one in the first branch.]
::::No
:::::Sure

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1898: October 2017

2017-10-04T11:56:34Z

Captain Paralytic: Another grammar correction

{{comic
| number = 1898
| date = October 4, 2017
| title = October 2017
| image = october_2017.png
| titletext = And yet I have no trouble believing that the start of the 2016 election was several decades ago.
}}

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

[[Randall]] [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|once again]] makes us feel old by referencing an old movie that our memory puts as recent. The movie in question is ''{{w|The Social Network}}'', written by {{w|Aaron Sorkin}} and directed by {{w|David Fincher}}, which was released seven years and three days prior to this comic, on October 1, 2010. Seven years is also how long some people believe bad luck will follow you if [http://www.mirrorhistory.com/mirror-facts/broken-mirror breaking a mirror].

The {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_2016|2016 US presidential election}} took place on November 8, 2016. {{w|Donald Trump}} won in a surprise victory over {{w|Hillary Clinton}} ([[Randall]]'s favorite, see [[1756: I'm With Her]]). Donald Trump's tumultuous presidency so far probably makes [[Randall]] feel that the election took place far longer than 11 months ago. {{w|Telescoping_effect|Backward telescoping}} is a psychological effect that causes people to overestimate the elapsed time since an event.

Interestingly, the title of this comic is patterned on the previous "this will make you feel old" comic "[[November 2016]]," which was published in the early hours of November 9th, while the presidential election's ballots were still being counted. Some people (including ''explain xkcd'' editors, writing in that explanation's [[1757:_November_2016#Trivia|trivia]] section, see that for more details, also on this special title name) felt that Randall could have published something more timely, and commented that the election had made them feel old enough as it was. By using the same sort of title and making this joke, Randall brings the whole thing full circle.

Shortly after the election Randall made [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|several comics]] that could indicate his emotions regarding the result, but references to the election have become fewer and farther apart and here he again indicates that he has not been happy with the election result and what has followed, causing him to feel that all these bad things could not really have happened in less than a year, but they did.

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

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: Want to feel old?
:Cueball: Why do you always start your factoids that way? Of ''course'' I don't want to feel old. I ''already'' feel old.

:[Beat panel]

:[Frameless panel of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ...Fine, hit me.

:Megan: If you broke a mirror back when the Aaron Sorkin Facebook movie came out, your seven years of bad luck would be over this week.
:Cueball: ''Dammit.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1898: October 2017

2017-10-04T11:55:53Z

Captain Paralytic: Corrected grammar

{{comic
| number = 1898
| date = October 4, 2017
| title = October 2017
| image = october_2017.png
| titletext = And yet I have no trouble believing that the start of the 2016 election was several decades ago.
}}

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

[[Randall]] [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|once again]] makes us feel old by referencing an old movie that our memory puts as recent. The movie in question is ''{{w|The Social Network}}'', written by {{w|Aaron Sorkin}} and directed by {{w|David Fincher}}, which was released seven years and three days prior to this comic, on October 1, 2010. Seven years is also how long some people believe bad luck will follow you if [http://www.mirrorhistory.com/mirror-facts/broken-mirror breaking a mirror].

The {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_2016|2016 US presidential election}} took place on November 8, 2016. {{w|Donald Trump}} won in a surprise victory over {{w|Hillary Clinton}} ([[Randall]]'s favorite, see [[1756: I'm With Her]]). Donald Trump's tumultuous presidency so far probably makes [[Randall]] feel that the election took place far longer than 11 months ago. {{w|Telescoping_effect|Backward telescoping}} is a psychological effect that causes people to overestimate the elapsed time since an event.

Interestingly, the title of this comic is patterned on the previous "this will make you feel old" comic "[[November 2016]]," which was published in the early hours of November 9th, while the presidential election's ballots were still being counted. Some people (including ''explain xkcd'' editors, writing in that explanation's [[1757:_November_2016#Trivia|trivia]] section, see that for more details, also on this special title name) felt that Randall could have published something more timely, and commented that the election had made them feel old enough as it was. By using the same sort of title and making this joke, Randall brings the whole thing full circle.

Shortly after the election Randall made [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|several comics]] that could indicate his emotions regarding the result, but references to the election have become fewer and farther apart and here he again indicates that he has not been happy with the election result and what have followed, causing him to feel that all these bad things could not really have happened in less than a year, but they did.

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

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: Want to feel old?
:Cueball: Why do you always start your factoids that way? Of ''course'' I don't want to feel old. I ''already'' feel old.

:[Beat panel]

:[Frameless panel of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ...Fine, hit me.

:Megan: If you broke a mirror back when the Aaron Sorkin Facebook movie came out, your seven years of bad luck would be over this week.
:Cueball: ''Dammit.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1895: Worrying Scientist Interviews

2017-09-29T09:17:39Z

Captain Paralytic: Corrected spelling and grammar

{{comic
| number = 1895
| date = September 27, 2017
| title = Worrying Scientist Interviews
| image = worrying_scientist_interviews.png
| titletext = They always try to explain that they're called 'solar physicists', but the reporters interrupt with "NEVER MIND THAT, TELL US WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE SUN!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Add percentages to the table, elaborate on the explanations. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
When a new development occurs, news channels will often interview an expert in the field to educate laymen in what, exactly, is happening. Thus, when you turn on the local news and see a scientist being interviewed, it is likely that something new has come up regarding their field of study that could affect you. How much it affects you could range from an interesting bit of information about your local area, to the complete annihilation of the human race. So, to help identify how serious the issue likely is, [[Randall]] has made this chart showing how worried you should be depending on the field of the scientist. See list of each field in the [[#Table|table]] below.

To the far left, least worried, are archaeologist and economist. An archaeologist studies ancient human civilizations, which would be unlikely to harm any modern person. Economists study and explain the trends of finances and resources, which are also unlikely to pose an immediate threat.{{Citation needed}}

Following this, it shows nutritionists and eventually criminologists. A nutritionist studies nutrition in the human body, and is likely discussing which food options are healthy or unhealthy. While this may be important, it is not a cause for immediate concern. A criminologist, however, studies criminal behaviour. If a criminologist is being interviewed on the news, there is likely a change in criminal actions within the neighbourhood, be it more or less. It is also possible there may be a serial criminal working in the area. However, because crime is a relatively rare occurence, and one for which precautions can be taken, it is still unlikely to be an immediate threat to the viewer.

It then moves past researchers studying different types of organisms, before reaching astronomers. Still only very few events would be local regarding astronomy, but it could of course be regarding a pending meteor strike.

A virologist studies viral infections and their spread, and a vulcanologist studies volcanoes. Viruses spread quickly, and can be fatal, meaning a breaking news development in one's locale regarding viruses is likely to mean imminent danger. Volcanoes, depending on their size, can potentially demolish entire countries, thus having one making headlines nearby is also very concerning.

The last point to the right (most worried) "Astronomer who studies the Sun", also called a "solar physicist" (mentioned in the title text), could be really troublesome, but not especially locally. If there are serious problems with the Sun it will be a world wide problem. But you should still be worried.

The title text mentions that the reason they are not called solar physicists, is that before they can tell the reporter this, they are interrupted by the anxious reporter who wishes to know what's wrong with the Sun. This is not really something that happens so often that the title texts "They always try" has any real meaning. And this is also why no one knows or uses the term solar physicists...

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Field !! Worry level !! Explanation
|-
| Archeologist || Extremely low || Likely just dug up some old ruins or bones. Unlikely to involve bad news, though it may possibly cause problems (e.g. if a construction project is delayed to accommodate an archaeological investigation).
|-
| Economist || Very low || News about the economy could be either good or bad, and in most cases is just more of the usual ups and downs rather than anything cataclysmic. Could also be a report on a big stock market crash
|-
| Nutritionist || Very low || Possible fad diet. Note that nutritionists tend not to be a protected profession, compared to dietitians. May be alarming if it involves credible information about bad health consequences of eating, or not eating, a particular food.
|-
| Criminologist || Low || Probably just crime statistics. Sometimes just correcting people who mistakenly believe crime is on the rise, and even a large increase in an otherwise ordinary crime rate is still a small risk overall. Could be dangerous in the unlikely case there is a dangerous individual working nearby.
|-
| Ornithologist || Medium || This would indicate the discovery of a strange behavior exhibited by birds. A newsworthy event involving ornithologists could indicate some imminent problem with the ecological environment, such as a mass migration or death event suggesting toxic pollutants in the environment. A possible reference to {{w|The_Birds_(film)|The Birds}} or {{w|Birdemic}}, a film notorious for being spectacularly low quality.
|-
| Botanist || Medium || Similar to an ornithological related news. Seeing how plants are both more fundamental to the environment and more "boring" to the general public than birds; if something news worthy involves a botanist, then it is more likely a more fundamental and more impactful change to the environment.
|-
| Marine Biologist || Medium || Similar to Botanist news. However, as oceans represent the substantial majority of the Earth's surface, and are very far removed from local concerns, anything which is news-worthy of them is likely a major impact to the environment on a global scale.
|-
| Entomologist || Medium high || There might be a new invasive insect species that could cause health concerns, ranging from {{w|Locust|famine}} to {{w|Mosquito|blood-transmitted diseases}}.
|-
| Astronomer || High || Possible inbound meteor, or perhaps sighting of incoming alien ships.
|-
| Virologist || Very high || A disease that is incurable and spreads fast might ravage or even destroy a city, country, or (in an extreme case) all human life.
|-
| Vulcanologist || Very high || A volcano might erupt soon, the danger of which could range from an isolated area to a planetwide concern.
|-
| Astronomer who studies the Sun || Extremely high || There might be something wrong with the Sun, the consequences of which could range from {{w|Solar_storm_of_1859|major disruption of modern technology}} to the end of life on earth. The title text elaborates that, [[1475: Technically|technically]], the correct term is '{{w|Solar physics|Solar Physicist}}'. Unsurprisingly, reporters (and the general audience) aren't particularly interested in such a pedantic matter, and want to be informed about the more pressing issue regarding the fiery ball that maintains the Earth's orbit and capacity for life.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A chart consisting of a line with double arrows that has 12 dots progressing from left to right. Each dot has a line going to a label above or below the line. Above the labels is another label belonging to an arrow to its right that points right. Above this is a larger caption:]
:<big>How worried you should be if you see local reporters interviewing scientists about a breaking news story, by field: </big>
:More worried --->

:Archeologist
:Economist
:Nutritionist
:Criminologist
:Ornithologist
:Botanist
:Marine biologist
:Entomologist
:Astronomer
:Virologist
:Vulcanologist
:Astronomer who studies the sun

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

1888: Still in Use

2017-09-12T12:21:39Z

Captain Paralytic: Spelling correction

{{comic
| number = 1888
| date = September 11, 2017
| title = Still in Use
| image = still_in_use.png
| titletext = 'Which one?' 'I dunno, it's your house. Just check each object.' 'Check it for *what*?' 'Whether it looks like it might have touched a paper towel at some point and then forgotten to let go.' '...' 'You can also Google to learn how to check which things are using which resources.' 'You know, I'll just leave the towel there and try again tomorrow.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Rough draft, can still use elaboration. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Cueball is trying to remove the trash bag from his garbage can. However, the trash refuses to let him do so, citing that a paper towel in the trash is being used by some object in his home.

This comic draws parallels between the act of emptying a physical rubbish bin and performing garbage collection on a filesystem, iconically represented by Microsoft as the emptying of a virtual wastebin on the desktop. It also may refer the growing trend of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things Internet of things], which is a concept that enables everyday objects to collect and exchange data. Sometimes when attempting to delete files a program may still have the file marked as in use, because the file is still marked as open by at least one process. The software will therefore prevent its deletion. Some operating systems, such as Windows, will also not tell the user which program it is. (There exist programs for Windows, such as [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/handle Microsoft Sysinternals freeware], which identify which process(es) have a handle open to the file, and even allow force-closing the file, but as this is not shipped as a simple Windows command, most home users are unaware that Windows supports this functionality.) Preventing the file from being deleted may be correct behaviour, as in when a document is still being worked on in a program, or it may happen erroneously, perhaps because the program has not closed the file properly, maybe because of incorrect behaviour. The user is then required to find the cause of the problem and rectify it before the file can be deleted. This may be difficult if the user is not familiar with the file in question, or the program that would have used it.

The title text may be a reference to a simple solution to these sorts of problems: Wait a while, perhaps overnight, and see if the (unknown) application(s) close the open file(s). Alternatively, the user can shut down the system to make absolutely sure that nothing is using anything, and then remove the storage device. In some situations, this is the ''only'' way (at least in Windows) to safely remove an external hard drive from a computer. Sometimes, while trying to delete the file, it could get so frustrating that many give up until the next day, hoping it'll fix itself.

In the case of the physical bin, the absurdity of this is highlighted by imagining that a paper towel is still locked as "in use" and that the rubbish bin won't allow it to be taken out for final disposal until the household object that was "using" the towel has been identified.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is trying to take out the trash]
:Trash: Sorry, you can't empty the garbage yet. A paper towel in here is currently in use by some object in your house.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Programming]]

1879: Eclipse Birds

2017-08-21T10:03:16Z

Captain Paralytic: Corrected spelling of "topic". Added missing apostrophe

{{comic
| number = 1879
| date = August 21, 2017
| title = Eclipse Birds
| image = eclipse_birds.png
| titletext = 'Hey! Put her down!' 'No, it's ok! The next chance for me to be carried to a blood cauldron isn't until 2024!'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More on birds/animals behavior during an eclipse. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is the fourth consecutive comic with {{w|solar eclipse}} as the topic. On the day of this comic's release, Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}}, a total solar eclipse was visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]]. [[1877: Eclipse Science]], and [[1878: Earth Orbital Diagram]].

The comic is making a joke about how birds panic during eclipses, and [[Cueball]] tells [[Megan]] that this will happen. However, instead of just cheeping and screeching in a different pattern than birds normally do, because of the sun disappearing at an unexpected time of day, they begin to prepare to make a sacrifice to appease their gods, similar to how ancient cultures like the {{w|Aztecs}}, [https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/8/18/16078886/total-solar-eclipse-folklore are said to have acted].

During an eclipse birds and other animals are reported to show atypical behavior. Birds stop singing during totality, then greet the return of the sun with a "dawn chorus". Owls, however, become active as do mosquitos.

In the title text it turns out that the birds are about to sacrifice Megan, and Cueball tells them to stop. But Megan tells him it is OK as she wants to try experience of being carried to a blood cauldron as she won't get another chance until the next eclipse in the US on {{w|Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024|8th of April, 2024}}. (A small region around [https://nationaleclipse.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/x-marks-the-spot-two-total-solar-eclipses-in-seven-years/ Carbondale, Illinois] will experience two total eclipses in 7 years).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan is standing together looking right.]
:Cueball: I heard that during an eclipse the birds all freak out.
:Megan: I guess we'll see!

:[While they keep standing in the same position, the white background sky turns darker. Beat panel.]

:[As the sky turns to tusk, the birds are heard. The birds are off-panel, and their sounds are written above Cueball and Megan inside squiggly lines.]
:Bird 1 off-panel: Chirp Chirp!
:Bird 2 off-panel: Chirp!
:Bird 3 off-panel: Peep peep peep!
:Bird 4 off-panel: Squawk!

:[The sky is now very dark, more so at the top of the panel. The birds continues to make sounds off-panel as before.]
:Bird 5 off-panel: Chirp!
:Bird 6 off-panel: Clank clank clank
:Bird 7 off-panel: The time is upon us!
:Bird 8 off-panel: Peep!
:Bird 9 off-panel: Kachunk
:Bird 10 off-panel: Prepare the blood cauldron!
:Cueball: Wow.
:Megan: Isn't nature amazing?

{{comic discussion}}

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

1830: ISS Solar Transit 2

2017-04-28T14:29:54Z

Captain Paralytic: Spelling corrections

{{comic
| number = 1830
| date = April 28, 2017
| title = ISS Solar Transit 2
| image = iss_solar_transit_2.png
| titletext = Most people don't realize it, but they actually launch a new space station every few weeks because this keeps happening.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This Friday comic is a continuation of the Monday comic from the same week, [[1828: ISS Solar Transit]], where [[Cueball]] was preparing his camera in order to try an capture the transit of the {{w|International Space Station}} (ISS) across the {{w|Sun}}. The comic is also made in the same special way using split panels. As a noted in the first comic in the [[:Category:ISS Solar Transit|ISS series]] the {{w|white balance}} is still not set properly, because the sun looks orange instead of white/yellow.

However, instead of transiting across the face of the sun, the ISS crashes into the Sun. In reality, of course, this can never happen, because the ISS orbits Earth at an altitude of between 330 and 435 km, while the Earth orbits the Sun at an altitude of about 149.60 million kilometers or 1 {{w|astronomical unit}}. This means the minimum distance between the ISS and the Sun is only slightly less than 1 AU. Also, due to {{w|parallax}}, only people in a very localized region on earth are able to see the ISS "hit" the sun. For all others the ISS would travel past the sun.

Additionally, even if the ISS would somehow impact the sun, it would not make a noticeable splash, due to being incredibly tiny compared to the sun. It would get vaporized before reaching it. (See the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|89|Tungsten Countertop}}''). And it would make no "Fwoosh" sound to be heard on Earth, primarily because there's a lot of empty space between Earth and the Sun, and sound cannot propagate in empty space.

The title text plays on the event in the comic, by saying that a new space station is being launched every few week as the event in the comic keeps happening, so a continuation of ISSs gets destroyed by crashing into the Sun on a regular basis. This is clearly implausible, as it has taken many years to build up the ISS, and there are at least three astronauts on board that would get killed a couple of times a month.

==Transcript==
:[Every panel is split into two half height panels above each other.]

:[The first top panel shows an image of an orange sun on a black background with a white dot labeled in light-blue letter at the top right corner. The dot is in a light-blue cross-hair and a light-blue dotted trail is behind it as indicating movement towards the sun.]
:ISS

:[In the bottom panel Cueball is kneeling in front of a small platform while operating a camera with a very long objective while holding a smartphone. The camera is angled sharply upward toward the sky as it is attached to a tripod standing on the platform.]
:Cueball: Perfect! Transit in three... two...

:[The upper image is the same but the dot has halved the distance to the sun.]
:ISS

:[Cueball sits in the panel below.]
:Cueball: ...one...

:[In the upper panel the dotted line enters the Sun and the white dot has plunged into the sun making a flare "splash" out from the surface of the Sun. This makes a sound written in orange letters.]
:''Fwoosh''

:[Cueball sits silent in the panel below.]

==Trivia==
*The ISS travels across the face of the sun in 0.47 seconds ([https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/weekly/5Page61.pdf calculation]).
**If we assume that Cueball is counting seconds, then the depicted speed of the ISS between panels 1 and 2 is too slow.
*This could be seen as a joke on {{w|Pink Floyd|Pink Floyd's}} ''{{w|Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun}}''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:ISS Solar Transit]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|ISS Solar Transit 02]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

1821: Incinerator

2017-04-18T10:39:11Z

Captain Paralytic: Removed superfluous word

{{comic
| number = 1821
| date = April 7, 2017
| title = Incinerator
| image = incinerator.png
| titletext = My trash can broke recently and I had to get rid of it. When I picked it up, I suffered a brief but harrowing existential crisis.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] have just finished installing an {{w|Incineration|incinerator}} for some unspecified purpose at some establishment. Ponytail brings up the problem of having to get rid of the old incinerator, and Cueball begins to suggest using the new incinerator to incinerate the old one, but he is shut down by Ponytail off-panel. This makes him noticeably disappointed, probably because the idea of using an incinerator to destroy an incinerator is novel to him.

Throwing an incinerator inside another incinerator would probably break some kind of regulations or safety concerns, and since incinerators are meant to withstand their own high heat capacities it would be ineffective anyway.

The title text implies that this comic was inspired by recent events at [[Randall]]'s house: his trash can broke and he struggled with how to dispose of it. At least for Randall, there is something wrong with forcing anything to destroy something of its own kind -- in this case, throwing the old trash can in the new trash can. Since machines have no human emotion this would not cause any [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07xDdFMdgw trauma for the machine], but the humans in charge might feel as if something is wrong, and Randall mentions having an {{w|existential crisis}}. This is because humans tend to project human qualities onto the machines they are working with ({{w|anthropomorphism|anthropomorphization}}), thus possibly framing the situation in the context of something like cannibalism or homicide. The next comic after this one, [[1822: Existential Bug Reports]], references existential problems in the title, suggesting perhaps that Randall is feeling particularly existential at the moment, see more regarding this [[I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|here]]. Randall has himself given the solution for that kind of problem earlier in [[220: Philosophy]].

Another way of taking it would be in the sense of "being replaceable". Many people live without wanting to think of what might happen to everything around them after they die, but in this title text one can start comparing the trash can to themselves — the same way the trash can turns into something to be disposed and replaced with a new one after it becomes useless, what about people then? What will happen to you when you grow older? Should you suddenly go sick and become useless? How about in your job, what would happen if someone more superior than you comes around and starts threatening your hard-earned position?

Yet another interpretation is that while disposing of the trash can, Randall realized that he was now in the same situation as the trash can itself. The trash can was a tool used by others, in order to dispose of trash. And yet, in time, the trash can itself became trash and had to be disposed of by Randall. Which makes one wonder if Randall is himself a tool created/used by others, who will one day dispose of Randall when he has outlived his usefulness, the same way that he disposed of the trash can when it outlived its usefulness. From this perspective, Randall is simply a more intelligent and autonomous trash-junking-tool, different in degrees but similar in nature to his own trash can.

Many people define themselves by the things they do and are capable of. The idea of losing those, and then being replaced for it, is a bitter pill that we will all have to swallow at some point. All things must come to end after all, including ourselves.

Plus, [https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/08/map-territory-distinctions/ actually throwing out a garbage can can be surprisingly difficult].

Another device to perform a meta-action was previously explored in [[952: Stud Finder]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Ponytail stand next to an incinerator, with a combustion chamber and flue that rises up to the top of the frame.]
:Ponytail: Great, the new incinerator is installed. Now we just need to dispose of the old one.

:[Ponytail walks out of the frame.]

:[Cueball lowers his head, beat panel]

:[Cueball raises his hand and begins to ask a question.]
:Cueball: Hey, could—
:Ponytail (off-panel): ''No.''
:Cueball: Aww, maaan.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

1807: Listening

2017-03-12T14:15:47Z

Captain Paralytic: Fixed tautology if "Personal Identification Number number"

{{comic
| number = 1807
| date = March 6, 2017
| title = Listening
| image = listening.png
| titletext = Sure, you could just ask, but this also takes care of the host gift thing.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic depicts [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] welcoming [[Black Hat]] and [[Danish]] to their house. Black Hat immediately talks to {{w|Amazon Alexa}} to order two tons of {{w|creamed corn}}. This would be quite expensive (around $10,000), and the hosts would be charged because it was ordered on their {{w|Amazon Echo}} device. It would also be a serious inconvenience, as the purchase would be quite bulky and useless, seeing as an average person would have very little use for two tons of creamed corn.

The caption claims that this is an effort to find systems recording conversations, such as Alexa or {{w|Google Home}}, for the security of the ''guests'', so they aren't being monitored by an always-on listening device without their consent (at least not without any consequences). However, because Black Hat is the one coming up with this it's more likely his motives are on the sadistic side, and it's more likely a warning for the hosts to turn off any voice-activated systems before having guests come over, so that the guests don't take advantage of them.

(It should also be noted that such purchasing services encourage the user to set up a PIN code to stem off such exploits)

A concerned "visitor" may also want to test for voice-activated systems when near any persons carrying an iPhone or Android mobile device, because these are also always-on listening devices. "Hey Siri" and "Ok Google" voice activation use the same technology as "Alexa" and "Echo" detection.

The title text says that this takes care of the "host gift thing", referring to the custom where house guests make gift to the hosts. However, Black Hat is making the hosts pay for it, so it can be as expensive as he wants, thus making this yet another example of his being a [[classhole]], for more examples of this see the [[#Trivia|trivia]] below.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Danish enter Cueball and Ponytail's house. They have hardly passed the door mat, with the door still open showing the road and another house outside.]
:Ponytail: Hello, welcome to our house!
:Black Hat: Thanks for inviting us!
:Black Hat: Alexa, order two tons of creamed corn.
:Black Hat: Alexa, confirm purchase.

:[Caption below the frame:]
:When visiting a new house, it's good to check whether they have an always-on device transmitting your conversations somewhere.

==Trivia==
*In a previous comic, [[1559: Driving]], Black Hat took also took advantage of a cutting-edge AI—there, a self-driving car—by making it drive across the country without its owner or any passenger. And already back in [[596: Latitude]] he took advantage (of course) of people who constantly kept programs running on their phones that could track their movements.
*Another comic about testing if someone is listening is [[525: I Know You're Listening]]. Just as Black Hat may just speak without knowing for sure that there is an active Alexa, Cueball in the old comic also just speak out in case there are someone listening. In that case it was addresses to real surveillance, but as can be seen, in the entries below, Alexa may just end up being used like that later.
*Usually Cueball is paired with [[Megan]], but since Black Hat's girlfriend Danish looks like Megan but with longer hair, this makes is sensible to choose Ponytail as Cueballs partner here. They where also partnered in the next comic [[1808: Hacking]].
*Assuming a standard can of 14.75 oz (418 g) and Black Hat's order was in short tons the order would consist of 4339 cans. Consuming one per day it would last for approx. twelve years. But it's doubtful that the expiry date would be that long.
*In a recent [http://www.npr.org/2016/12/31/507670072/amazon-echo-murder-case-renews-privacy-questions-prompted-by-our-digital-footprints court case] authorities believed that an Amazon Echo may have recorded the identity of a murder suspect, leading to a debate about the privacy and safety implications of such devices.
*Another recent [http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/7/14200210/amazon-alexa-tech-news-anchor-order-dollhouse event] resulted in Alexa ordering several people unwanted doll houses.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Food]]

1806: Borrow Your Laptop

2017-03-03T12:13:42Z

Captain Paralytic: Added missing apostrophe

{{comic
| number = 1806
| date = March 3, 2017
| title = Borrow Your Laptop
| image = borrow_your_laptop.png
| titletext = If used with software that could keep up, a scroll wheel mapped to send a stream of 'undo' and 'redo' events could be kind of cool.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Close to being finished?}}
In this comic [[White Hat]] asks if he can borrow [[Cueball|Cueball's]] laptop to load something. Cueball has no problem with this, but before White Hat can use his laptop he needs to know a "short" list of very unusual configurations Cueball has applied to his laptop.

In the caption it is revealed that Cueball represents [[Randall]] who claims that once he has used a computer for a while he will have made so many of these special configurations that no one else will ever be able to (or wish to) use it again.

Like many other computer users Randall likes to customize his PC. Of the three items in Cueball's list of customizations only one seems like a real and relevant setting. That is the first, which is that hitting both shift keys simultaneously will change the keyboard back to QWERTY. The {{w|QWERTY}} keyboard is the standard in the US (as well as some other places using the roman alphabet). It has been a [[:Category:Dvorak|recurrent theme]] for Randall to refer to the {{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}} keyboard layout, and, although he doesn't say so, it seems safe to assume that this is the current setting, as it is one of the most common QWERTY competitors, and has been repeatedly mentioned in the comic. Supporters claim that typing speed is faster on a Dvorak keyboard, although this is still contentious, and this is a reason Randall often makes jokes about it. (See more details [[:Category:Dvorak|here]]). The laptop has most likely a standard QWERTY keyboard, but if Cueball can type blindly in Dvorak he would not be troubled by the fact that the keys typed a different letter than what is on the keyboard's key. This relation was also the pun in the recent comic [[1787: Voice Commands]]. The same problem would arise if the computer is set to another language than what the keyboard was meant for.

The next point on the list makes little sense as Cueball has changed his keyboard layout so that caps lock acts as the {{w|control key}} and then he has moved {{w|capslock}} so that is activated when hitting {{w|spacebar}}. While using Caps Lock for Control is a common thing in the unix world, this method is impractical, as the spacebar is the largest key, and one which would likely not normally be used for anything other than spaces, making accidental application of caps lock more likely. Most people do not use capslock enough to justify giving it the largest key on the board, as whichever key Randall now chooses for space will be harder to reach, making him more likely to make mistakes in typing, such as pressing a letter key, or tab, or alt, for example, when trying to type a space. What's worse, he doesn't tell White Hat where he has hidden the space bar, although it could of course be the two ctrl keys, which would at least give him two possible (but much smaller) spacebars to use, one on either side of the keyboard.

Finally he goes out on a limb with an impossible setting, which is that his scroll wheel moves through time instead of through "space" (as in up and down on the screen), but only when using {{w|Touchpad#Operation_and_function|two-finger scroll}}, which often used on {{w|Touchpad|touchpads}}/track pads for laptops as a gesture for scrolling. Time travel is also a [[:Category:Time travel|recurrent theme]] on xkcd.

Finally it becomes clear these three settings are not the only important points, as Cueball's list continues with at least one other point which is not in the comic.

In the title text it is revealed that Cueball actually did not mean moving in real time, in the sense of time travel, but rather that the two-finger scroll would act as an undo-redo button. In the title text Randall says that he would actually find such a feature cool, but that he doesn't think that the programs on his laptop could keep up if his scroll wheel was mapped to send a stream of undo/redo commands to them as he used it. It would also interfere with the normal use of the scroll key for scrolling or zooming.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat walks toward Cueball's desk pointing at his laptop while looking back at Cueball standing behind him.]
:White Hat: Can I load it up on your laptop?
:Cueball: Sure!
:Cueball: Oh, just hit both shift keys to change over to QWERTY.
:Cueball: Caps lock is control. And spacebar is capslock.
:Cueball: And two-finger scroll moves through time instead of space.
:Cueball: And-

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Once I've used a computer for a while no one else will ever use it again.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Time]]

1805: Unpublished Discoveries

2017-03-03T12:08:56Z

Captain Paralytic: Tidy up some grammar

{{comic
| number = 1805
| date = March 1, 2017
| title = Unpublished Discoveries
| image = unpublished_discoveries.png
| titletext = If you must know, I'm currently researching how to save this emailed tax form as a regular PDF so I can print and sign it. Our work isn't a lock for the Nobel, but we're in the running.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|What does the title "Unpublished Discoveries" mean to science, is Ponytail right? And what does it mean to tax rebates?}}

This is one of those comics where the reading of the title text is mandatory for understanding the entire pun -- rather than giving an additional joke -- because it reveals what's on the computer screen.

[[Ponytail]] walks up to [[Megan]], and makes the observation that when a scientific discovery is made, it then takes a while to publish it. She then goes on to note that there are probably research teams making {{w|Nobel Prize|"Nobel-Prize-worthy"}} discoveries that have simply not been published. She is obviously curious if Megan is working on something like this, and tries to see what Megan is working on. When that fails, she asks Megan what she is doing, who tells her that she isn't the one working on a project like this and to "Go bother someone else."

In the first two panels, [[Ponytail]] is referring to the general issue that, to publish a discovery on a scientific topic, it can take a very long time, even when the discovery is [http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2005/09/16/einstein-vs-physical-review/ "Nobel-Prize-worthy"]. Obviously the first step is for the researcher to summarize the discovery into a readable format, which can take considerable time by itself {{Citation needed}}. Next the article needs to be submitted to various journals [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1888 until one accepts], which may also take a few months, and even when accepted it can take anywhere from 25 days to 150+ days just for the paper to be processed through the publishing system [http://www.nature.com/news/does-it-take-too-long-to-publish-research-1.19320 due to various reasons], including [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1200 the nature of the publishing process], [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1760 reviewers] [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=538 assigning extra work as conditions for acceptance], or even [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=178 formatting problems]. This has prompted researchers to come up with some [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=926 interesting] [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=581 work-arounds].

In the title text, Megan reveals that she is trying to convert an emailed {{w|tax form}} to a PDF. She sarcastically states that this is in the running for a Nobel Prize, perhaps because she considers it an incredibly difficult task. While this could be true, this task is in no way connected to any kind of scientific endeavor, and as a result would never be considered for any Nobel Prize. That this is so is officially acknowledged by {{w|IRS}} as they themselves note that saving and printing their [https://www.irs.com/articles/online-tax-forms Online tax forms] could be tricky.
Or it is possible that she is preparing to receive the tax form from the Nobel Prize committee if she wins.

Quote:
:'''Fill-In Tax Forms'''
:''The IRS also offers Free Fillable Forms which allow you to save (and print) the information you’ve typed in online. The fill-in tax forms also require Adobe Acrobat Reader software. To save the data you’ve filled in, use the Adobe Reader’s “Save” function (not the web browser’s “Save” function). ...''

The months and weeks before April 15th (this comic was released March 1st), is the "tax season" in the US so Americans are in the process of completing their tax forms, which is why this comic is timely.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail walks up to Megan, who is sitting in an office chair at a desk using her laptop.]
:Ponytail: When you make a big scientific discovery, it takes a while to get it published.
:Ponytail: Right?
:Megan: Mm hmm.

:[Zoom-in on Ponytail.]
:Ponytail: So there are probably several research teams out there who are sitting on Nobel-Prize-worthy discoveries, but haven't told the rest of us yet.
:Megan (off-panel): Makes sense.

:[Ponytail leans over the desk, trying to see Megan's laptop screen from behind it.]

:[Ponytail leans further. Megan pulls the screen down so Ponytail cannot see it.]
:Ponytail: Sooo... What are you working on?
:Megan: ''It isn't me!''
:Ponytail: I promise I won't tell.
:Megan: Shoo! Go bother someone else.

==Trivia==
*In [[1067: Pressures]] Ponytail is also interested in what Megan is finding out, although at least in that comic there was a reason to believe Megan could have been on to something...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1791: Telescopes: Refractor vs Reflector

2017-01-30T09:57:25Z

Captain Paralytic: Corected spelling mistake

{{comic
| number = 1791
| date = January 27, 2017
| title = Telescopes: Refractor vs Reflector
| image = telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png
| titletext = On the other hand, the refractor's limited light-gathering means it's unable to make out shadow people or the dark god Chernabog.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic compares two major types of {{w|optical telescope}}: The {{w|refracting telescope}} and the {{w|reflecting telescope}}. A refracting telescope produces an image with a series of lenses. A reflecting telescope uses mirrors. (A third type, the {{w|catadioptric system}} telescope, uses both mirrors ''and'' lenses. It is not shown here.)

It first looks like the comic is simply trying to show that refracting has many flaws, such as expense, size and visibility (see more [[#The real problems with refracting telescopes|details below]]). However, the punchline invalidates these complaints with the (apparently major) flaw listed with the reflecting telescope: '''It can't see space vampires'''.

The unstated reason for this is that {{w|vampires}}, {{w|Vampire#Apotropaics|according to some cultures}}, cannot be seen in a mirror. As {{w|space vampires}} (like earth vampires) are widely believed to be {{w|Vampire#Origins_of_vampire_beliefs|made up}} and thus unlikely to interest most [[1644: Stargazing|stargazers]], this complaint is superfluous, and the reflecting telescope effectively has no flaws in comparison to the refracting telescope. There are other problems, though, with reflecting telescopes see [[#The real problems with reflecting telescope|details below]]. (Also there was a big problem in the [[#Trivia|original version of this comic]]).

Frequently, however, the right-angle transition at the base of the refractor telescope is done with a prism (an "image erector"). This uses the optical principle of total internal reflection. If mirror-non-appearance of vampires is due to the interaction of evil with silver, a refractor using a prism could still see vampires. On this theory, however, the reflector could too, since modern astronomical mirrors are coated with aluminum, not silver.

The title text expands on the seeing of supernatural beings, as another negative point is added to the refracting telescope; it apparently can't see {{w|Shadow person|Shadow People}} or the Slavic god {{w|Chernobog|Chernabog}} (normally spelled Chernobog), both of which are important although clearly not as important to the telescope's merit as seeing vampires since the fact is only mentioned in the title text. So of course the refracting telescope is still the best. Of course also neither the {{w|Shadow_person#History_and_folklore|shadow people}} nor {{w|Chernobog#Folklore|the god}} exists so this would likewise be a moot point.

In reality, "shadow people" are a psychological phenomenon wherein humans ascribe human shapes and movements to shadows in dark spaces. Chernobog is a 12th century Slavic deity, whose name translates to ''black god''. His most famous appearance in modern media was in the 1940 Disney movie {{w|Fantasia (1940 film)|''Fantasia''}} (and Disney merchandise is also almost the only place that his name is spelled as Randall spelled it, with an "a" in the middle). Because shadows are dark and the god is also dark, they cannot be seen by the refracting telescope due to the reduced light-gathering which has already been mentioned as a drawback in the main comic.

Telescopes have been the subject of [[:Category:Telescopes|many comics]] on xkcd. Recently one about space telescope was released [[1730: Starshade]] and before that a large "private" telescope was shown in [[1522: Astronomy]].

===The real problems with refracting telescopes===
The basic performance of a telescope is determined by its size: a wider telescope catches more light, making it easier to see faint objects, while a longer telescope is better for high magnification viewing. For looking at stars, the width is actually more important. No matter how much you zoom, a star is too far away to make bigger, but with a big aperture, you can see stars too faint for the naked eye. Planets benefit more from magnification, and distant galaxies need both.

In both respects, it's much easier to make a big reflector telescope than a big refractor one. Since a lens can only be held in place by its edge, the center of a large lens sags due to gravity, distorting the images it produces. This means most refractor telescopes make do with narrow apertures only a couple of inches across. Reflector telescopes are sometimes called "light buckets" because they can have extremely big openings that can catch light from even very faint stars. In addition, because it has a mirror at one end, the reflector telescope is, in effect, twice as long as it appears - a refractor just cannot compete.

Refracting telescopes were only gradually overtaken by reflecting telescopes, however. In the age of {{W|great refractors}}, the largest telescopes in the world were refractors. Reflectors at the time had mirrors surfaced in {{W|speculum metal}} that began to tarnish only months after application, negatively affecting telescope performance. This problem was resolved when it became possible to surface a mirror in silver, but the problems with refractive lenses persist. Because of this, the {{w|List of largest optical telescopes historically|largest refracting telescopes ever built}} are reflectors, rather than refractors. In addition, a {{w|liquid mirror telescope}} uses a very cheap, but potentially very large mirror - with the drawback that the telescope can only look straight upwards.

'''Randall's points:'''
*More expensive
**Grinding a high quality lens is more expensive than producing an equivalent mirror - {{w|Crown glass (optics)|crown glass}}, which is needed for good quality telescope lenses, is expensive.
*Less compact
**In theory, a refractor ''could'' be made compact, but the image quality would be awful, because the lens would have to be extremely fat. The longer the telescope is, the less dramatic the focusing needs to be.
*{{w|Chromatic aberration}}:
**In optics, chromatic aberration is an effect resulting from dispersion in which there is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same convergence point, producing a rainbow effect around the image familiar to people who wear glasses, and with prisms. It occurs because lenses have different refractive indices for different wavelengths of light. Each colour is therefore focused slightly differently by the lens. Mirrors don't have chromatic aberration, since the light is reflected off the front of the mirror. The {{w|achromatic lens}} can reverse this effect, but it's expensive and its size is limited. Nevertheless, before telescope mirrors were perfected in the early 20th century, the best telescopes were achromatic refractors.
***Note that this effect has also been mentioned in relation to photography by [[Black Hat]] in [[1014: Car Problems]], in a completely different context, but shows this is an issue Randall has considered before.
*Reduced light-gathering
**Apart from generally needing to be smaller than reflector telescopes a further problem comes from glass defects, striae or small air bubbles trapped within the glass. In addition, glass is opaque to certain wavelengths, and even visible light is dimmed by reflection and absorption when it crosses the air-glass interfaces and passes through the glass itself. All of this reduce the light gathered.

'''Other problems not mentioned by Randall:'''
*Suspending a lens
**Another important difference (and a big reason why large refracting telescopes don't exist) is that the lens of a refracting telescope has to be supported by the edges, so that light can pass through it. As a result there comes a point where it is no longer feasible to mount a large lens in a telescope due to its weight and the need to support it from the edges. In contrast the mirror of a reflecting telescope is supported from behind, and any support structures for the primary mirror are not in the path of the light. As a result, substantially larger mirrors can be easily mounted and supported. As an additional benefit this behind-the-mirror support has led to the creation of {{w|Adaptive_Optics|Adaptive Optics}}, a technique (which is impossible for refracting telescopes) that allows some of the atmosphere's distortions to be corrected for.
*A mirror can be segmented to make a larger reflecting surface out of smaller (and hence easier to build/mount/support) mirrors. By using a {{w|Segmented_mirror|segmented mirror}} it is possible to build an effective aperture much larger than what could be built even from a single mirror, which is itself much larger than the largest possible lens that might be built for a refracting telescope.

====The real problems with reflecting telescope====
It is worth noting that (apart from the vampire problem) reflecting telescope also has disadvantages compared to a refracting telescope:
*The main disadvantage is that in almost all reflecting telescope designs the focal point is directly in front of the mirror, i.e. in between the mirror and the target of interest.
**As a result a {{w|Secondary_mirror|secondary mirror}} is commonly used to direct the focal point somewhere outside of the field of view. However, this secondary mirror (and the struts that support it) will still block part of the field of view - although the focus of the telescope means that the secondary mirror is not visible when looking at distant objects, it will result in diffraction patterns that also hinder the image quality. In fact, this is the source of the {{w|Diffraction_spike|diffraction spikes}} around stars which are commonly seen in astronomical images.
*A reflecting telescope is also harder to maintain:
**The mirrors need to be very precisely aligned (this is called {{w|collimation}}), and this can be a laborious process. They may also need re-polishing.
**The telescope is open at one end, allowing dust and dirt to enter.
*A reflecting telescope is not very portable. This is why {{w|Birdwatching|bird-spotters}} use small refractor telescopes as an easy way to get a closer view of birds.

Despite this disadvantage, reflecting telescopes are used almost exclusively in modern astronomy because of practical limitations in making large refracting telescopes. Very few amateur astronomers use refracting telescopes - nowadays, they most exist to con people looking for Christmas presents in department stores (just because a telescope promises 100x zoom doesn't mean the image quality is any good!)

==Transcript==
:[A one panel comic showing two different telescope designs next to each other with labels above them and a bullet list of points below the them. The left drawing will be described first then the right.]

:[Left:]
:<big>Refractor</big>

:[A slim telescope design is shown. At the top the light enters shown in a light yellow shade between two thin parallel light gray lines that just fits inside the opening of the telescope which is slightly wider at the top than at the lens sitting a short way into the opening. The lens causes the light to focus just where the telescope again changes dimensions, and the light enters a small opening at the bottom of the long pipe of the telescope. Here the yellow light is a point as the two gray lines cross each other at that point. The light then broadens slightly again and the thin yellow light cone hits a mirror at the bottom of the telescope and is reflected to the left and out through the eyepiece. Below are the following points:]
:*More expensive
:*Less compact
:*Chromatic aberration
:*Reduced light-gathering

:[Right:]
:<big>Reflector</big>

:[A much broader (more than 150% of the first) but also much shorter (66%) telescope design is shown. At the top the light enters shown in a light yellow shade between two thin parallel light gray lines that still just fits inside the opening of the telescope. On it's way down to the bottom of the telescope the light passes by a small mirror turned down towards the bottom. When the hits the curved bottom mirror light is focus on it's way back back and a small light cone hits the small mirror mentioned before sitting almost at the top of the telescope. This mirror reflects the light to the left into an even thinner light cone that goes out through the eyepiece located near the top of the telescope. Below is the following point:]
:*Can't see space vampires

==Trivia==
*In an '''[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/b/b2/20170127171253%21telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png earlier version]''' of this comic, the eyepiece of the refracting telescope appeared to include either a mirror or a prism (possibly {{w|porro prism}} or {{w|amici roof prism}}).
**These make the image upright and allow the observer to look through the telescope from a more comfortable position.
**A mirror, however, would invalidate the only advantage it has over reflecting telescopes.
**So even though it could be said to be a prism (without the vampire problem) [[Randall]] later choose to correct this "error" so the '''[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b2/telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png current/final version]''' shows the light going straight out of the end without the risk of anyone interpreting the offensive part for a mirror destroying the joke.
**Now it also looks just like one of the depictions of this type of telescopes on the Wikipedia page for the refracting telescope.
***See this {{w|Refracting_telescope#Refracting_telescope_designs|design}} that does not include a mirror/prism.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Religion]]

1787: Voice Commands

2017-01-25T10:11:22Z

Captain Paralytic: Grammar correction

{{comic
| number = 1787
| date = January 18, 2017
| title = Voice Commands
| image = voice_commands.png
| titletext = Dvorak words may sound hard to pronounce, but studies show they actually put less stress on the vocal chords.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Cueball]] has shown [[Ponytail]] something relevant to her on his smartphone and she asks if he can send it to her. He agrees but then says something completely incomprehensible to Ponytail, but obviously his phone understands and sends the message with a beep.

The caption explains that he was speaking using the {{w|Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard|Dvorak keyboard layout}} but on a normal {{w|QWERTY}} keyboard layout (Dvorak was designed to replace the de facto standard QWERTY keyboard layout in English-speaking countries, so named for the starting letters in the top row). The Dvorak layout was designed in the belief that it would significantly increase typing speeds over the QWERTY layout. This can be seen, among other ways, by the popular misconception that the placement of letters in the QWERTY standard were deliberately organized to limit typing speed in accommodation to the tendency of original mechanical typewriters to jam if two adjacent keys were pressed in quick succession. (In fact, the original QWERTY layout was designed to help type American Morse code and subsequently optimized a bit for different users [http://hackaday.com/2016/03/15/the-origin-of-qwerty/], [http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuoka/publications/PreQWERTY.html].)

This fact was one of the uncomfortable truths from [[561: Well]], and jokes centered on this have become a [[:Category:Dvorak|recurrent theme]] on xkcd.

Even as other arguably better layouts were proposed over the years since the introduction of the QWERTY keyboard, QWERTY remains the standard due to widespread use.

Using Dvorak for speech to text, however, makes no sense whatsoever as there is no keyboard, real, virtual, or otherwise, involved in speaking. Even the virtual keyboard (usually QWERTY layout but often changeable) included in most phones and tablet devices is not used when speaking to the phone.

The sentence Cueball tells his phone translates to "Okay Google send a text" - he says it as if he were typing the sentence on a Dvorak layout with the keyboard set to a QWERTY layout. How such words would be pronounced is a mystery, as the letters in the words are merely substituted with others with no regard to phonetics; without standardized pronunciations, a speech-to-text program would be useless, it may be expected to {{w|Georgian phonetics|sounds like pseudo-Georgian gibberish}}. To add to the confusion, one of the words in Cueball's sentence includes a semi-colon (which may be pronounced as a stop) as one of its letters.

The title text is a reference to the fact that many users of Dvorak keyboards claim they may be hard to learn, but they are more movement efficient and put less stress on your fingers due to less movement. For example, see the link at http://www.dvzine.org/zine/10-11.html . This makes little sense in the scenario set up by the comic, as speaking gibberish using oddly placed vowels would be equally difficult, if not in fact harder, on the vocal cords. The use in the title text of 'vocal chords' rather than 'vocal cords' may be a reference to a stenograph (a typewriter used by a court stenographer) using multiple keys pressed at the same time, called a 'chord', to produce a single letter.

Using a Dvorak layout on a smartphone (for actual typing, not voice commands) is possible, but the very features that make it desirable in a physical touch-typing environment are drawbacks on a swipe-enabled keyboard. A placement designed to alternate a typist's left and right hands requires the finger of a swipist to travel back and forth across the keyboard more often. Fitting commonly-used letters onto the typist's home row reduces finger movement but makes many words the swipist enters indistinguishable. On a QWERTY swipe keyboard, four English words can be entered by swiping right to left from P to T: "pot", "pit", "put", and "pout"; however, setting the layout to Dvorak causes this to happen with many more common sets of words.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is looking at Cueball facing her, and he looks down at the smartphone he is holding in his hand.]
:Ponytail: Can you text it to me?
:Cueball: Sure!
:Cueball: ''Svat ussupd ;dlh a kdkb''
:Ponytail: ...What?
:Phone: ''*Beep*''

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Setting my phone's speech recognition to Dvorak was a pain at first, but it's more efficient in the long run.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Dvorak]]