explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1556: The Sky

2015-08-16T09:31:48Z

Cheap18:

Typical, I think nobody's actually going to try to explain this, and I get Save Conflicted. My (wordier) version. In case any of it is useful.
:The sky is ever changing, and can often give interesting views such as that illustrated in the comic. Cueball and Megan seem to be agreeing about this, and its pleasing nature.
:As (ignoring particularly unusual viewpoints, severe topography and obscuring vegetation/architecture) the sky is pretty much the upper hemisphere of any external view, it is inded a "half". It would seem to be redundant to say it is "one of my favourite halves", as that indicates both a list of at least two items to choose from ''and'' more than one 'favourite'. Being in 'the top two of a list of two' actually means nothing. But the other half could be the ground ''or'' the sea, ''or'' a composite of the two, so conceivably there ''might'' be more than two 'halves' to choose from in this case. Not that the statement makes much more sense.
:The title-text acknowledges the fact that the other half can have snakes (the land), shipwrecks (the sea) and rocks (either), in a manner that sounds like justifications for any non-sky 'halves' being interesting too, to the kind of people Cueball and Megan seem to be. But it also suggests that by removing all of these you'd be seeing sky, below, that people on the other side of the 'rocks' (the whole Earth) had been seeing as their own 'sky above'. At least until the effects of entirely removing the substance of the planet start to show, of course.
...for what it's worth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.168|141.101.98.168]] 11:57, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Maybe, maybe the comic is a slight refference to the recent observetory of plutos athmosphere. [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:55, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

[http://www.example.com link title]

Maybe this comic is related to comic [[1368]]? [[User:Gartenzaun|Gartenzaun]] ([[User talk:Gartenzaun|talk]]) 13:16, 27 July 2015 (UTC)
:Or this [[1524: Dimensions]]. Regarding the favourite of a small set.-[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:52, 27 July 2015 (UTC)I do
:I do not agree with [[1368: One Of The]] as it has nothing to do with the way this sentence is used here. I have removed it from the explanation.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:24, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

I can't defend this position properly (other than by appealing to shipwrecks) but I'm pretty sure "the other half" is the ocean (or water in general) and that this is a callback to something in early XKCD (the halves thing.) I don't care enough to find the reference though, so FFTI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 13:18, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

My read on the "halves" bit is the Biblical Genesis bit where the world was split into sky and sea, "And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day." -[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.112|173.245.56.112]] 14:36, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

: Agreed, this appears to be a biblical reference - [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=GNT| this version]] explains it pretty clearly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.177|108.162.249.177]] 14:41, 27 July 2015 (UTC)
: Thus taking "halves" as a verb. Nice. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 23:33, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I can't tell if the sky is a photograph with a digital filter or a painting. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 14:49, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

:I'm pretty sure it's a digital painting. For one thing, there's a little artistic license in the transition from sunset at the left to evening stars at the top right. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 14:58, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

:: I don't see it -- has the picture changed? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 16:31, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

::: I didn't notice the stars at the top right until [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] pointed it out. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:37, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

:It's almost definitely a digital painting. As far as I know, Randall has never used photographs in his comics; I'd be surprised if he suddenly changed that. Moreover, the point of this comics seems to be mostly to showcase Randall's digital artwork (see also [[1024: Error Code]], which admittedly had slightly more surrounding humor) than to make a particular joke.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.250|162.158.255.250]] 02:54, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

I think it's important that Megan says the sky is ONE of her favorite halves, and that the explanation "at least at their present location...the ground is dark, flat, and otherwise boring" is thus too simplistic. The ground where they are standing is in silhouette (it's presumably sunrise or sunset), but I think the implication is that C. and M. (who are obviously not finding words adequate to express how they feel about what they're seeing), are awed by the beauty of Nature, regardless of whether it's sky, sea (shipwrecks), land (rocks) or living things (snakes).[[User:Jv|Jv]] ([[User talk:Jv|talk]]) 15:01, 27 July 2015 (UTC)
:The general idea here seems most reasonable to me. The sky is great (see also [[1117: My Sky]]), but so is the Earth. I find all this debate over possible implications of "one of the" almost absurd.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.250|162.158.255.250]] 02:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Is it possible that the meaning of Megan's statement is that there are other binary sets where she prefers one over the other? For example, her favorites might include (in addition to sky) female, light, and loud. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:43, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps Megan is a reporter https://xkcd.com/1368/ [[User:Xquestion|Xquestion]] ([[User talk:Xquestion|talk]]) 16:51, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

What i understand under "favorite halves" is not about the mentioned tautology but about other things you can differentiate two halves and you like one more than the other.
My personal favorite halves in this sense would be; Sky(vs Earth), women(vs men), low alcohol drinks(vs liquors), etc 17:11, 27 July 2015 (UTC)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.103.202|141.101.103.202]] Bkack

There are multiple ways to split the earth into halves, so I don't think having one favorite way makes any tautology. For example, you can split North/South, East/West, sky/earth, water/earth, day/night. [[User:DMiller|DMiller]] [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.150|173.245.50.150]] 18:28, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I don't think it is a "tautology": a trivially true fact, eg "all red shoes are red". If anything it is an oxymoron (as it implies both halves are favourite, and so neither is). [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 18:58, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Am I the only one who sees a possible (additional) visual joke in the second panel? (The drawing is divided along the diagonal: One half is mainly cloudy, another mostly clear sky.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.44|162.158.92.44]] 19:37, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

In terms of two halves, should we mention https://xkcd.com/731/ "Desert Island?" It seems to be relevant in this situation, but I want someone else's opinion first. Also, mobile sucks for that kind of stuff, so... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.110|108.162.216.110]] 20:45, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

"Mathematically, stating one of my favorites it must imply that there must be at least one other favorite" - Not mathematically, but intuitively (unless you can prove the implication). Mathematically, this just says that "Sky" is a member of the set "Favorite Halves", which may or may not include more elements. Intuitively, we don't talk like that unless there is another favorite.-[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.91|173.245.50.91]] 21:38, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

This could be a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_the_Sky [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.131|173.245.56.131]] 04:06, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

I'm not so sure that the sky being one of Megan's favourite halves is either tautological or an oxymoron. It could simply mean that, of any given pair that can be described as two halves, she always has a preference for one over the other. Thus, of "earth / sky", "sky" is her favourite half, whereas perhaps of "Bonnie / Clyde", "Bonnie" might be her favourite half. In this way one could have many favourite halves. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 08:02, 28 July 2015 (UTC)
: this ties in well with the recently popular theme of sets with the same number of elements being similar. (So even as Characters can't tell the dwarves from the days of the week, they also separate all pairs into 'favorite' and 'meh' piles.) This made more sense in my head, huh? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 14:06, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

I don't think "one of my favourite halves" ''needs to'' be a tautology. It only is if we consider it one of the favourite halves of the same whole, but the set of favourite halves could easily be something like [the sky, yolk, front meant, dark side of the Moon,...], that is, favourite halves of various things. Of course, it would be rather quirky to keep track of favourite halves like that, but I think it is not beyond xkcd. [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 15:07, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

Might the fact(?) that the cloud is a mamatis cloud be relevant? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.47|141.101.104.47]] 20:40, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Looks to me like the stars in the upper right are almost but not quite in the pattern of the Pleiades. [[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 10:20, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Isn't it possible that this is a reference to the famous proclamation by Mao Zedong that "women hold up half the sky"? There are books, organizations, and more that use this "half the sky" reference in this sense. - [[User:Dravecky|Dravecky]] ([[User talk:Dravecky|talk]]) 06:08, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

:I've reinserted this explanation. It's no more far-fetched than the existing explanation, and Randall has occasionally involved himself in sociopolitical analysis before. A Google search for "half the sky" turns up plenty of related material, and it's not a common-enough phrase to be able to believe that it hasn't been deliberately chosen as a reference here. [[User:Pookybot|Pookybot]] ([[User talk:Pookybot|talk]]) 07:29, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Often, I hear "better half" being used as almost a nickname for your significant other. I think we're looking into it too much- Megan might be saying that the sky is one of her "favorite halves", with Cueball being the other "favorite half". After all, this is one of the comics that isn't supposed to be humorous. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.139|173.245.50.139]] 04:30, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Tom Petty has a song 'Circus' with lyrics "Half of me is ocean, half of me is sky" - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tompettyandtheheartbreakers/wallscircus.html [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.162|108.162.237.162]] 03:40, 12 August 2015 (UTC)
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1474: Screws

2015-07-30T07:16:57Z

Cheap18:

{{comic
| number = 1474
| date = January 16, 2015
| title = Screws
| image = screws.png
| titletext = If you encounter a hex bolt, but you only brought screwdrivers, you can try sandwiching the head of the bolt between two parallel screwdriver shafts, squeezing the screwdrivers together with a hand at either end, then twisting. It doesn't work and it's a great way to hurt yourself, but you can try it!
}}

==Explanation==
Appliance makers sometimes use strange screw heads to hinder attempts from users to remove appliance covers. Users usually have handy screwdrivers for the first two screw types drawn, Phillips and Flat. More advanced users usually have some less standard drivers, such as Torx or Allen, however appliance makers keep designing increasingly strange screw heads and users keep acquiring increasingly strange screwdrivers. Buy [http://www.zentaiclothing.com/ Cheap Zentai Suits] and [http://www.zentaiclothing.com Cheap Cosplay Costumes] Online at the best price. There are a lot of [http://www.zentaiclothing.com Zentai Suits For Sale] with various styles. You will find [http://www.zentaiclothing.com/superman-zentaisuits.html Superman Zentai Suits], such as [http://www.zentaiclothing.com/captain-america-zentaisuits.html Captain America Zentai Suits], [http://www.zentaiclothing.com/spider-man-zentaisuits.html Spiderman Zentai Suits], [http://www.zentaiclothing.com/superman-zentaisuits.html Superman Zentai Suits] and so on. You will also get the [http://www.zentaiclothing.com/sexy-pvc-zentaisuits.html Womens PVC Zentai Suits] and [http://www.zentaiclothing.com/halloween-dresses.html Halloween Cosplay Costumes] as well. You will be satisfied with all the products in our Zentai Suits Online Store.

The comic is about the frustration a user may feel when faced with a screw for which they have no screwdriver. Usually the user will try to fit one of the drivers they have handy into the strange screw, leading to damaging the screw and/or the driver.

The types of screws listed are the following:

{| class="wikitable"
! style="width: 25%"|Screw type
! Description
|-
| Phillips head
| {{w|List of screw drives#Phillips|Phillips screw drive}} and its corresponding screw head is one of the most recognizable types of screw heads that is commonly used in construction. This type of screw head was named after its inventor, a US businessman {{w|Henry F. Phillips}}. Neither the inventor nor his invention have any relationship to the Dutch electronics manufacturing company with similar, but not exactly the same name {{w|Philips}}.
|-
| Flat head
| {{w|List_of_screw_drives#Slot|Slot head screws}} are frequently erroneously referred to as flat heads (a flat head screw refers, in fact, to the shape of the screw head, regardless of the shape of the drive socket). The slot head is also commonly used in construction. Although the diagram shows the slot truncated, the slot almost always runs across the entire head of the screw (as in the case of the "uranium screw" below).
|-
| Uh oh. Maybe it's on Amazon? (star-shaped screw)
| Manufacturers sometimes use screws that require special screwdrivers in order to prevent the customer from opening the product. The reference to Amazon is presumably a suggestion to search Amazon.com for the screwdriver. A number of star-shaped screw heads exist, notably the six-pointed {{w|Torx}}, and Apple's rounded {{w|Pentalobe screw|pentalobe screw}}, although there is no popular design that uses the 5-pointed star shape depicted in the comic. Torx screws are common in automotive applications — Phillips heads are designed to "cam out" at high torque to protect the screw, whereas Torx do not — and on bicycles where a higher tightening torque is needed than hex screws can support. They are also commonly used on disk brake mounts and in Smartphones.

|-
| Cursed -1 Phillips head
| The head of a screw can be stripped by overuse, tightening the screw too much, using the wrong size screwdriver, or other misuse. As the driving surfaces wear away, removing the screw becomes more difficult, and the added pressure needed to drive the screw usually damages it further.

The addition of "cursed" and "-1" in the titles is a reference to various role playing games (e.g. Dungeons and Dragons), where magical "cursed" items appear frequently. This often makes the cursed equipment (in the case of armor or weapons) incredibly difficult to remove, as it will cling to the wielder. Similarly, the cursed Phillips Head screw becomes difficult to remove due to the stripped head.

The "-1" refers to the damage of the screw head. In role playing games, items such as weapons and armor may have an "enchantment", with a positive enchantment making the item more effective, and a negative enchantment making the item less effective. Negatively enchanted items are often also cursed, as is the case with this screw head. The "-1" does not appear to be a reference to a Philips bit-size number, as those are always positive.

Notably, the stripped screw bears a resemblance to a {{w|List_of_screw_drives#Pozidriv|Pozidriv head}}, a modified version of the Phillips head designed to resist slipping and subsequent stripping. Using a Phillips head screwdriver in a Pozidriv screw is very likely to damage the screw head and cause a real Pozidriv screwdriver to no longer mate correctly.
|-
| Crap, it's a ''rivet''.
| A {{w|rivet}} is not a screw - it is a permanent fastener which is secured by deforming the body of the fastener. Rivets cannot be removed with a screwdriver, they must be "drilled out". Some bolts also have rounded rivet-style heads, though, with no means of gripping them.
|-
| Phillips head ruiner ''(actually a hex screw)''
| A reference to the fact that {{w|List_of_screw_drives#Hex_socket|hex socket}} screws can, in a pinch, be removed with a Phillips screwdriver (rather than the intended {{w|Allen wrench}}) but this will likely ruin the screwdriver in the process.
|-
| Uranium screw
| Uranium screws were [http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/11/10/fat-mans-uranium/ used] in the [http://www.scintillators.ru/booc/criticality/reports/ref_050.pdf construction] of [http://www.osti.gov/scitech/servlets/purl/769001 nuclear weapons] during the twentieth century. Multiple radially extending short wave-like lines around the screw head symbolize radiant energy output, although real uranium screws were most likely made of depleted uranium, which is [http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabc.htm 40 percent less radioactive] than "raw" naturally-occurring uranium.
|-
| Phillip's head
| This is a morbidly literal interpretation of the misuse of an apostrophe in "Phillip's head". This "screw" is actually a bloody bag containing the severed head of someone named Phillip. Intentionally or otherwise, this last punchline could be described as a "[http://www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MindScrew mind screw]".
|-
|Hex bolt (title text)
|A {{w|List_of_screw_drives#Hex|hex bolt}} has six external sides, so it could in theory be held by squeezing two screwdriver shafts together with the bolt in between. The amount of force on the two screwdriver shafts needed to turn the hex bolt will probably exceed the strength of human hands - the attempt would most likely only result in causing your hands to cramp or causing the screwdrivers to slip and cause further injury.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Eight drawings of different types of heads each with a caption:]
:Phillips head
:Flat head
:Uh oh. Maybe it's on Amazon?
:Cursed -1 Phillips head
:Crap, it's a ''rivet''.
:Phillips-head ruiner
:Uranium screw (a real thing)
:Phillip's head

{{comic discussion}}

670: Spinal Tap Amps

2015-07-30T06:01:04Z

Cheap18:

{{comic
| number = 670
| date = December 2, 2009
| title = Spinal Tap Amps
| image = spinal tap amps.png
| titletext = Wow, that's less than $200 per... uh... that's a good deal!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is in reference to the 1984 mock documentary ''{{w|This Is Spinal Tap}}'' about the tour of the fictional rock band Spinal Tap. Here we see lead guitarist {{w|Nigel Tufnel}} (a character portrayed in the movie by {{w|Christopher Guest}}) explaining to [[Cueball]] how the volume dial on his amp goes all the way to eleven. This is impressive to Nigel since guitar amplifiers generally only go to ten. This leads him to believe his amp is "one" louder than other amplifiers.

In reality, the loudness of an amplifier is largely dependent on how much power it has. The highest mark on the volume dial could just as easily be labelled 'Maximum', which would then accurately describe the meaning of that setting.

The normal guy knows intuitively that using eleven is silly, and wants to know what is wrong with the usual way of numbering from one to ten -- the question that is raised in the original film.

The engineer is desperate to explain to Nigel the fallacy in his thinking, but his {{w|jargon}} just sends Nigel to sleep. He remains unenlightened.

The smart engineer sees an opportunity: it doesn't cost any more to number the volume dial differently, but Nigel places a real value on higher numbers. The smart engineer offers to sell him an amp that goes to twelve, but at a hefty premium.

The title text further plays on the fact that the amp's levels are on an arbitrary scale. Many products are sold at a certain price per unit weight, volume, etc. (e.g., $2.99/lb for grapes). Nigel calculates that the $2000 amp would cost less than $200 per "something", but he is unable to articulate what the "something" is (effectively, the ''number of notches on the dial'', a unit of measure which is humorously trivial). However, he decides that it's a good deal anyway, and it looks like the smart engineer has made a sale.

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==Transcript==
:[Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap is showing off his amplifier to Cueball.]
:Nigel: These amps go to 11.
:Cueball: Is that louder?
:Nigel: It's one louder.

:Normal Person:
:Cueball: Why not make 10 louder and make 10 the highest?

:Engineer:
:Cueball: But 11 doesn't have any units. It's an arbitrary scale mapping outputs—
:Nigel: Zzzz

:Smart Engineer:
:Cueball: For $2,000 I'll build you one that goes to 12.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]