explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2233: Aurora Meaning

2019-11-26T00:12:37Z

Cheese12: Capitalization added and word repetition removed.

{{comic
| number = 2233
| date = November 26, 2019
| title = Aurora Meaning
| image = aurora_meaning.png
| titletext = The astro-ph.SR arXiv servers are simultaneously being overwhelmed by electronic requests and actual electricity.
}}

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

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:What it means when you see an aurora, by latitude.
:[Circle representing the globe, with six sets of dotted lines showing latitude.]
:Top-most band: Normal
:Middle-top band: cool and exciting
:Next band: someone should go check on our satellites
:Middle band: A bunch of open questions in solar-terrestrial physics are about to be answered
:Next band: someone should go check on our satellites
:Middle-bottom band: cool and exciting
:Bottom-most band: normal

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1350: Lorenz

2019-01-03T18:48:01Z

Cheese12:

I found a (possibly) bug where the comic doesn't load and there's just a comic-sized blank space.

Hey guys, are we still missing the ocean comics? because I found one that links there. https://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3df213b4-ba4f-11e3-8037-002590d77bdd . not far after though. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.129|173.245.48.129]] 02:41, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

God damn I hate boomerangs now.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.240|172.68.65.240]] 03:49, 22 November 2017 (UTC)Bob

During the first few weeks there were so much talk on this page, that it became too long. The solution was to remove the page from the explanation. But now almost no one makes any comment anymore. To help with this I will try to collapse all the original talk - lat entry (mine) is already a month old. It will always be possible to see all the old comments by pressing the expand button to the far right. So feel free to comment below again - then someone might notice that there has been written something new again! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:32, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

'''Click to expand:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">

I've had the story loop back to the first frame, so it wouldn't surprise me if this could go on infinitely if it had the available dialogue options.

This is going to be a hell of a thing. Good luck... [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 15:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:I think this is one of those times when the custom field might come in handy. Duplicating Randall's code seems like it might be difficult, and it might just be easier to link to the original page. Probably. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:47, 1 April 2014 (UTC)b
::I think it should just show a screenshot of the initial image and options [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.61|173.245.50.61]] 02:49, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
There's always new story lines, even when you think you've read them all, new ones appear to replace them. I don't think it'll ever be possible to record them all. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.192|108.162.212.192]] 15:55, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:The text changes, but there are recurring themes with the panels. The rocket, the big hole, the little hole, Dinosaurcomics, pokemon, waking up, stranded swimming.........[[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:03, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

When I go to XKCD, all I see is the comic from Monday... weird. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:Same here... and a lot of space below it. [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 17:43, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:: I think that happens when you have refreshed the page too many time -- kind of an anti spam for user submissions. I simply create an anonymous browser window and I got back to the real page once xkcd was not able to track me as a returning user. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:59, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Currently there appears to be a bug. Instead of the evolving, crowd-sourced comic, I just see an off-center copy of the previous comic, 1349: Shouldn't Be Hard. [http://i.imgur.com/pw2OfOL.png Screenshot here].
UPDATE: it appears to be a bug in the XSRF-blocking code. Chrome console shows me the error "XMLHttpRequest cannot load http://c1.xkcd.com/graph/1/. The 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header has a value 'http://xkcd.com' that is not equal to the supplied origin. Origin 'http://www.xkcd.com' is therefore not allowed access."
FURTHER UPDATE: you can work around this bug by going to http://xkcd.com instead of http://www.xkcd.com!
It also doesn't work if you have HTTPS Everywhere enabled.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.38|108.162.216.38]] 16:46, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

** I can confirm this bug in Firefox. Weirdly, the work-around functioned one time for me, but now going to "xkcd.com" rather than "www.xkcd.com" just gives me a copy of 1349 as well. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.180|199.27.130.180]] 17:40, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:The workaround didn't work for me, I still got monday's comic on either URL. (Chromium 36.0.1919.0 (260611), Mac OS 10.9.2) [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 17:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:Same here. Used IE and Firefox. Removed the "www." and haven't. (Never used https:// at all.) Tried InPrivate (and FF equivalent) browsers. Gone into the code and can't even fudge it manually from ''<nowiki><div id="comic"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/shouldnt_be_hard.png" title="Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story." alt="Lorenz" /> <script type="text/javascript">Bernardo.comic({el: $('#comic')})
</script></div></nowiki>'', and the rest, manually. (Indeed, that shows why I get 1349's "shouldn't be hard" image, by default.) Pity. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.224|141.101.89.224]] 02:25, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

** I only get a blank page with on the bottom a link to the comic 1349. Both on 2 firefoxes (different systems) and a chromium. so however wonderfull it might be, the delivery is less then stellar. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.145|173.245.53.145]] 15:54, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

This comic introduced(?) a font of its own of Randalls comic type. I don't know if it has been sitting there for long, but I just noticed it: http://xkcd.com/fonts/xkcd-Regular.eot -- phiarc [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.12|108.162.219.12]] 17:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:Is it the same as was used in Externalities? [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Does everyone have these options in some order for the first tile?
*Refresh... No New Email... Refresh .. No New Tweets... Refresh...
*These Stupid Tiles... I'll Just Play One More Game
*Oh. Hey. There's Some Kind Of Politicial Thing Going On.
*Let's See If BSD Is Any Easier to Install Nowadays
--[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:54, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:0cd52ed0-bb15-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd There's a frame with Chinese in it! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.118|141.101.99.118]] 18:06, 26 April 2015 (UTC)
:If so, we can begin to build a map of at least the first set of options before the crowd-sourced ones. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:56, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
::Yes, though the second-tier options have changed [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:::The first level options may be constant (Im seeing the same as Jeff), but I suspect that the following options is based on some sort of ckick though statitics / machine learning -- which means that the will continue to change until Randall closes off the 'voting' -- if [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1193:_Externalities 1193: Externalities] is anything to go by that should be within the next 24-48 hours, at which point automating the collection of story lines may be possible. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 18:11, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:::: I'm going to transcript some of what I get at least through the first few levels and then we can start with a list of options for those who don't want to go through them all. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
::::: I have no idea how one would do this, but it would be cool to render the transcript as a tree of some sort; having one vertical list will be hard to follow for more than a few decisions. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.180|199.27.130.180]] 00:14, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
::::::New initial option! I just got "Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook." In place of the "refresh" option. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2b330d48-bb01-11e3-8003-002590d77bdd --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.8|108.162.242.8]] 23:15, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Ohh, this comic is buggy and the link here at the top gives just the page from Monday, showing errors on debuggers. But removing the WWW from URL helps. Further more I can't see that the result of the choices is dynamic. So let's prove this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:33, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
: Have a look at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2b/lorenz_combination1.png and http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9a/lorenz_combination2.png and you can see the option orders are changing -- this is a typical artifact of A/B testing where randomization of options is needed to avoid selection bias. I have futher observed "your car is on fire" instead of the "dinosaur" option, hence not only the orders are channging but the content as well -- maybe somebody else can capture this. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:08, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

How are new dialogue suggestions approved? Are they random, by popular vote (unlikely, not very many people would suggest the same thing), or is Randall approving them one by one? [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 20:26, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
: They may not need to be explicitly approved at all -- one of the beutiful things about click though measures is that the public '''votes''' for what is good by clicking -- this is also a factor in search ranking by your favorite search engine where statistics are driving the entire show -- in a search engine some input to the statistical process comes from the web pages, but other comes from what people are actually clicking [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:14, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

What is this a screenshot of? It's zoomed out so far. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5b5bd04e-b9d6-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd [[User:Haithere|Haithere]] ([[User talk:Haithere|talk]]) 20:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
: you mean this : http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/Rl92nFEWd9huvXABNkHKHg.png ? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:: It appears to be a screen shot from a flight simulator program of some sort, however im not able to tell which, and since it is most likely an 'in-game' screen short we will never find out unless somebody else is playing this precises flight simulator program [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
:: I am not certain, but I strongly suspect that is Kerbal Space Program {{unsigned ip|108.162.242.111}}
::: it really is Kerbal Space Program, or KSP for short {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.65}}
:::: found this image from KSP http://i.imgur.com/UofvQ.png [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 09:07, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

A transcript is going to be futile. It appears as though the comic may go on indefinitely (I've definitely had some branches continue extending until I've seen frames that were present in other branches). I suspect what's happening here is that... options are "suggested", and those suggestions are displayed at random to people. The ones with the most clickthroughs begin to appear more often, until eventually the top 4 are "locked in" and no more suggestions can be made. Very creative! But I'm not convinced that Randall is making frames in near-real-time, nor am I even convinced he's part of the approval process at all. I suspect it's all automated. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.28|108.162.215.28]] 00:29, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

It seems it is possible to have the same option appear twice in the first panel. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:be7a3304-b685-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.48|173.245.54.48]] 10:27, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
: They are not the same options -- the text differes where one option has "I'll" with a captal I and the other option is 'i'll' with a lowercase I -- I guess some prankster submitted a very similar text and somehow that got included. The branching also differs for the two options. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Is it still supposed to work or was it turned off? All I see is Monday comics ... and no errors in firebug console. Oh, wait, there is javascript error:
Timestamp: 04/02/14 12:56:21
Error: TypeError: this.$lastPanel is null
Source File: http://xkcd.com/1350/bernardo.min.js
Line: 2 -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:03, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
: It still works for me -- try to clear your cookies or use an anonymous window or go to xkcd.com (no www no https) or some of the other helpful suggestions on this page to overcome some of the buggy nature of this page. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

tl;dr, but I applaud Randall's creativity. Added to the Colossal time sinks category. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 13:15, 2 April 2014 (UTC)''

Has it restarted? It used to work just fine on my browser but now only the first panel is available, after clicking an option it said my suggestion has been submitted. Great when it works though, thanks Randal. Jet_proppeled_elephant[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.35|108.162.219.35]] 14:53, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

It feels like there are a bunch of "dead-end panels", that we never really get past. One example the "bright background" strip, in which we only see the shadows of the two characters. Nobody seems to care what happens after those. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.8|108.162.245.8]] 18:59, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

I found a Dinosaur Comics reference, permalink: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:3d243960-b9b6-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd
Has this been found before?
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.73|173.245.55.73]] 20:08, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have time to do it myself, but most of the space images from this path are not in the images page. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6490cc4a-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd
[[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:33, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
:Ok, I'm gonna add those. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 23:38, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
Great! And now I found another: Pikachu uses Ethylene Dichloride. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6f59d766-ba95-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd
I'll add it to the but about pikachu in the comic, but the pictures are up to someone else.[[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:47, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Slightly different space path, in which the rocket expodes: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:dd99ea0e-ba04-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:59, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

:Good. I've finished adding all images that you mentioned. Also, the two last images of the slightly different space path were not in the images page, now I added them too. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 00:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Pikachu died! Radicality failed -> Pikachu in shock! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5c565bf2-ba05-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd --eternia 7:33, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:Pikachu uses Graph Theory. How is that not effective?! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:52f2389c-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd --eternia 7:47, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
::Pikachu uses Ant Colony. Uwah... http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2b707ed6-ba97-11e3-8006-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:02, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:::1 shark instead of 3. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9ba111ee-ba96-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
::::0 sharks. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:e0e4d984-baaf-11e3-8026-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:17, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:::::I'm gonna add those too. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 12:41, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Are there any panels that have two speech bubbles that are not dead ends? It seems that there are never any options for the second bubble, and sometimes the first bubble has options that would fit in the second bubble after the other options for the first bubble. Maybe submissions for the second bubble accidentally end up in the first instead? Another bug? [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:56, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

There's a change for us still-bugged people (well, me at least). The "show previous comic" part is gone. It shows a blank area (instead of Comic 1349 and a blank area of the same size) and the page-source shows that the ''<nowiki><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/shouldnt_be_hard.png" title="Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story." alt="Lorenz" /></nowiki>'' part has now been excised from the page. That's on Javascript-enabled, cookie-enabled Firefox ''and'' IE browsers, and every valid URL configuration one can think of (including shift-refreshing to force redownloading, just in case it was page-cache issues as well). I'll update the Bugs section of the explanation page with a summary of that, if you don't mind. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.211|141.101.88.211]] 01:48, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

We need some place to discuss certain issues. I give it a shot below [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:10, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
;Transcipt discussion
;Design
*What about four transcripts - one for each of the four first original choices?
*Should these transcripts be on a separate page? It becomes tedious to scroll to the discussion page...[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:13, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
*Could we use the hide option so you only see the options from the first panel. Then you unhide to see the next panel etc. This would be a little like the comic and would make it much easier to read and it would not be such a long page! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:35, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
*:I'm working on the hide option. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 15:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
*::I now implemented the hide option. It looks good! in my opinion. It should be easy to edit. It would be too much work to convert the whole thing to the collapsible version so, sorry but I just removed the whole thing and started from the very beginning. This[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1350:_Lorenz&oldid=64245] is the link to the old version, in case anyone wants to help converting it to the collapsible version. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 16:46, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:I did the same for trivia with a separate page for the old version that can be expanded if anyone wishes. And all the work is not lost. I have linked to it from trivia but it is here: [[1350: Lorenz/Transcript]]. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
*How will the transcript work for when two characters speak? Those cases do exist; they're not all bugged. For example, in the "OpenBSD Branch", "Why not haiku?" and "Let's go exploring!" have further responses. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.63|199.27.128.63]] 06:31, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
;Characters
*Where does the name Dave come from for the hairy guy who comes in after the first panel? I can see it once in the transcript - but it is said by White hat the sales guy. I'm not sure it is his name and the chatagory for hairy is assigned to the comic! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:16, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
** Also he is called Dave here: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3b1a226e-b9c6-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 21:37, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
*Hat guy? Is it a hat? Is there not a better English word for the type of "hat" worn by the main character from the first panel? It is not a hat like white or black hat! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:18, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
** I named him Hat Guy originally to make things easier. Feel free to change the name, I guess :) Knit Cap Guy, maybe? If a change is warranted, a simple search-and-replace should do it. Also, I'm not sure it's a guy or a girl... But the previous text was also treating him as male to begin with, anyway. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 21:36, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
*Is the right politician = Cueball?
*Who is the left? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Isn't is likely that the characters only have names given to them by us readers in our suggestions? They don't necessarily have constant names. [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:33, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Exactly my point. I think we should stick with hairy guy and maybe Knit Cap Guy! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:28, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

:I see you already changed Hat Guy to Knit Cap Guy and Dave to Hairy. Knit Cap Guy is a nice name. Originally, I would disagree with you and insist we should stick to Dave because that's what the character is called in one storyline of the strip itself, but I see he is also called Frank in other timeline. Since he has multiple names, using just Hairy is better in my opinion, too. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 12:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Knit Cap Guy is probably a Girl. Just sayin'. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.28|173.245.52.28]] 12:22, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

:Probably! Originally I thought it was Megan with a knit cap on. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 12:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

:It IS a girl! http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:1e4325a2-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.66|173.245.48.66]] 21:44, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

::Well I think you are correct - that it is a girl. However you can NEVER use text in the comic to decide - because it is user created - I could have written the same line with guy instead of girl! Anyway - could someone change Knit Cap Guy to Knit Cap Girl? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:04, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
:::Can see it has been done - great [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
::::I've found a story where he/she is male! Thus contradicting the story above, where he/she is female, and proving that we really can't use text to determine the sex. Here we have "Beanie Man". http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b6fcd098-ba98-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd
::::(But... She looks female-ish enough to me, so I personally feel inclined to keep Knit Cap Girl in the article. Also, for laziness if nothing else. Feel free to disagree with me on that.) [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 11:07, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
:::::Also, sometimes she is called Lorenz. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:bcc77a5c-ba23-11e3-801b-002590d77bdd [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 11:40, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
:I always mentally called the guy 'Hikaru' because the guy's hat reminded me of the Nice Hat that Hikaru Azuma wore a lot in {{w|With the Light}}. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 03:55, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

;Other
*Seems like the permalink at the top of the transcript does not work for me anymore - then they will be useless! Else they are the best way to quote different lines of the comic. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:31, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
Oh, now they work again. ;) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:31, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:The permalinks has stopped working for me [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 20:45, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that the initial four options presented to the reader are now fixed and do not change. "These stupid tiles..." and "Gravity. Lots of it." are no longer available options. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've played the comic many times over the past couple of days and I've never received those two options). Should the transcript be edited to reflect that? [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 21:53, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

;Chategories not yet included
Should they be?
*I have seen the word Raptor mentioned - so should velociraptor be a chategory? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:21, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
*Cueball? I.e. the politician on the right? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:28, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
*I understand that many categories has been deleted as all text references can be user generated. But when there is a drawing with a dinosaur then this categories should be included etc. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:14, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
*I would like to discuss the number of categories. If anything is in thks comics pictures then it should be included as a category. So dinos and Pokémon for sure as well as character's and collor. So I include some again - please do not delete. If you need to find where Pokémon has been referenced this commic should come in the list! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:03, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

;Images
I created [[1350: Lorenz/Images]] with all the images I could find in the comic. I'm not sure if I should have left them in the main page [[1350: Lorenz]], but feel free to decide what to do with them. Also, I tried using the tag <nowiki><gallery></nowiki>, but I couldn't make it work, so I used a lot of divs. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 23:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
:Great idea - just what I hoped someone would and could do. Thanks ;) Is it easy to add new images to the page if they show up? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:32, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
::You're welcome! :) It's pretty easy... I explained in the images page how exactly you would save a new image if they show up. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 13:52, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:Can see there keep appearing new images from the text above. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:39, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:New shark images here: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:30f53d98-bbb3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.65}}
:I have updated the page and made a talk page there to add comments like the above. Have already found d 3 new images cannot add them with this tablet [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for this work, but nobody knows if this is complete. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:49, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

;Many-worlds interpretation

The title text "Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story" might as well be a hint to Hugh Everett III 's "Many-worlds interpretation"
of quantum theory. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.74}}
:Except that the title is Lorenz a direct reference to the guy with the butterfly effect... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:37, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
::Can't it be both? The Butterfly Effect can be seen as one consequence of the Many-Worlds interpretation. A choice as simple as whether (or where) a butterfly flaps its wings can send our entire universe down a different timeline, in which a hurricane occurs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.49|108.162.216.49]] 19:46, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

;Most, maybe all pictures do correspond to an existing comic here
I'm calling on you to not destroy a first simple explain, even the transcript. But nearly every picture belongs to a former comic — this has to be explained at the ''Themes'' section. We have some dinosaurs, but there is much more. Please help on this issue. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:56, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
::After I understood what you mean I agree. All pictures collected should be explained in the themes section and preferably with a line to a story that includes the picture. There are so many I can't find. Some may never be available again... ? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:59, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

:What are you referring to? Has anyone deleted something important? Hope it wasn't me? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

::Well I can see it was me. We obviously disagree with what could be a trivia item and with which categories should be included even obvious ones. There has before been mention of missing pieces of hats etc and when there is one in hundreds of images with an error then it could make a fun trivia item in my opinion! I will stop editing and let you decide what to do with this comic? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:30, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

:::You totally misunderstand me. I'm asking for an explain to every picture because it should belong to a former comic.
:::Further more I'm just trying to keep the explain as simple as possible; individual error experiences should not be posted at the explain. I did remove that content in order to keep it simple as possible to an ordinary reader.
:::Please improve the picture explains, but also please keep that explain simple as possible to readers are not interested on all that crap done by Randall.
:::--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:38, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
::::Great and thanks for this explain and sorry I was grumpy in my reply before. Do you mean there should be an explanation for every single picture? Maybe this should be moved to a separate page like the list of images - they take up lots of space in the explain page - or they could be hided like the new transcript? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
::::Have begun the full image explanation...[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:03, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

;Visual tree / map?
How hard would it be to come up with a tree graphing out the different choices? The nodes could be panels and the lines could represent text choices. Has anyone tried it?
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.34|108.162.221.34]] 23:40, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
:I added hide/show functionality to the transcript. It's easier to read and navigate now. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 15:59, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
::Great - this was also what I had in mind :-) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
:::Not so great it has been deleted... Again! I have inserted a link to the last page before Dgbrt deleted all 25000 signs. Considering the enormous work done to create this transcript I think we should let it be at least awailable as a trivia link. I cannot create the page from my tablet, but would rather have a lorenz transcript page than an old version like now. Maybe on this page again? [[1350: Lorenz/Transcript]]. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:03, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
::::I restored the old version in [[1350: Lorenz/Transcript]]. (Also, I used divs this time rather than templates.) [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 05:00, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

;I got my suggestion as part of the main story!
I noticed in the "references to video games" section that "Actually it's the final castle - grab your fire flower!" was one of the options. I suggested that! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.27|108.162.212.27]] 17:07, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

;Are we sure the title is not related to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_gauge_condition ?
For example, in Italy, the Lorenz Gauge Condition is dubbed "The Lorenz's choice". {{unsigned ip|108.162.212.218}}

;Should there be an interactive comic category?
It is kind of covered by the dynamic category, but between click and drag and this, as well as possible future comics, might it need to be its own seperate new category? [[User:Athang|Athang]] ([[User talk:Athang|talk]]) 23:00, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

The "stupid tiles" option has vanished from panel 1. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.222|199.27.130.222]] 00:14, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
:Is that for good or just for you? How many times did you reload and did you try different browsers? It should always be awailable via a saved permalink, like you findin the transcript. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
::This probably happens at the same time for all users, considering that I read 199.27.130.222's message immediately after he/she sent it and at that point the "stupid tiles" option had vanished for me as well, but this was clearly temporary since it's back now.
::I only tested on Firefox. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 04:08, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
::I still get this option?? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.216|199.27.130.216]] 22:38, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

;Records in most panels
I have started a collection of records. I just entered what I could find to give an example. I was sure that my pheble attempts soon would be helped sore by someone who had saved the good ones... And already this is happening. Please continue to improve the records and also add more themes if I left them out [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:00, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

;Gravity lots of it?
I have never seen this option. Could someone post a permalink to such a story - could be as a record. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:58, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

;Some cool stuff i found, don't know if anyone wants to add these to the main page

Pikachu: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:80858d8c-ba22-11e3-801a-002590d77bdd

Giant pit: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea9342a0-bc02-11e3-8034-002590d77bdd

Goodbye, BSD: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:bae4c63c-ba31-11e3-8034-002590d77bdd

Reddit and rockets: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:602c39a8-ba92-11e3-8006-002590d77bdd

More BSD Pikachu: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:f5760770-baae-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd

Bird-powered car: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:cc4467b2-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

This happens a lot: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b69f6096-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd

Dinos: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:679012b0-bb4f-11e3-805b-002590d77bdd

These stupid lines: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:360411c2-baa2-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd

Pretty long: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:7d40621c-bae7-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.216|199.27.130.216]] 22:37, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

:Thanks for your findings. This has to be added to the explain, your titles on this are GREAT! Maybe you — or someone else — does have a nice idea how to publish all this permalinks in a proper way.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:39, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

::More (mostly dream recursion):

Lord of the rings: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:40a1ac80-ba06-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd

Another moat: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:eee0d4c6-baea-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

Looping back: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d7970042-bae5-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Looping back 2: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3f654048-badd-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Never seen it loop this many times: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd

Even more looping: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:75e8f03e-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd

Looping to a rocket: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3aa7da8e-bae7-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

Dream recursion: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:5e94d028-bb7d-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd

Where did the Pikachu come from?: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:97c42da2-bb01-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Ethylene dichloride: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:93312202-ba4f-11e3-8037-002590d77bdd

More rockets: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:34f7f602-ba3b-11e3-8035-002590d77bdd

Even more rockets: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

More recursion: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd

Blowtorch: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:c40db5fc-baf9-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Another blowtorch: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:97cbd552-bb01-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Most different stories i've seen in one: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:60d11a70-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.216|199.27.130.216]] 21:33, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

More:

More pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:feaa5d4e-bbd2-11e3-802c-002590d77bdd

Long pikachu fight: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d87d8344-bafb-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Plantains: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:22d57484-bb28-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Many pikachus: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d04aabf0-b9fe-11e3-8016-002590d77bdd

Much pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:f203d1c6-ba22-11e3-801a-002590d77bdd

Such pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:a5485722-ba26-11e3-8020-002590d77bdd

Very pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:81c9e8c8-ba1d-11e3-8018-002590d77bdd
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.216|199.27.130.216]] 22:49, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

:I haven't seen them all - but have you checked the records at the bottom of the explain page - those you call pretty long does not seem to get close to the 77 picture record... Are there any new pictures not featured in the picture page linked to from the top of the explain? Else this does not seem so interesting to me... ;-) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:55, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
::Ah so there were interesting stuff around. And I can see that at least one of them has already been added as a Pokémon record. Great - cool if you wrote how many panels - or if there where new pictures - it would be easier to look through them. The double dream I had been looking for, thanks I will add it to the record page under dreams [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:59, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
::Seen them all and added several to the record for themes trivia. Thanks - but please more info~(length, themes) if you still care to share [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:36, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

;Finishing the explanation
I have just done a huge job putting all the images from the list in under the themes sections. I hope others can take over and find permalinks that include all the images that are not yet on references in the links I have inserted. Also there are some of the first options that seeem to not exist anymore (Gravity lots of it) and also there was the error with the same line twice. I found it one day, but then there where no new images if you chose it. I did not save the permalink and now it seems like it is all gone.
Good work guys and girls - I have a holiday comming up with no much computer time... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 02:51, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

;Greasemonkey Script
I've just mad a script to visit random stories, and record the corresponding transcripts. It's available here: https://github.com/edfel/Lorenz/ . I hope someone can find it useful! Edfel. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.163|108.162.254.163]] 14:24, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

;Dump
One idea: Maybe someone could create a script to automatically navigate Lorenz and create a dump of all the results, to fill [[1350: Lorenz/Transcript]].
I know more-or-less how that would work in "pseudocode" so I could help but I'm not going to do it (writing actual code, testing, debugging, accounting for each individual frame, etc) any time soon. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 07:47, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

;Go home, Saturn, you're drunk.

Quintuple Saturn POWER!
http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9adca534-b9b0-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.10|173.245.54.10]] 01:44, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

;What-If XKCD

http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b1210692-bae5-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd
Recognize this one? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.10|173.245.54.10]] 02:09, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

;Why are the punctuation marks clipping?

I don't know what's going on, but a comma looks just like a period in the comic. The letters E, F, and I also display strangely. What's going on?[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.96|199.27.128.96]] 01:58, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

; Lorenz down time
Today there was no access to Lorenz. Tried both Firefox, Chrome and internet explorer. Just mentioning it here, if this is a permanent problem - so people can see how long it has been down. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:43, 15 May 2014 (UTC)
:Well it was already up again now. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:42, 16 May 2014 (UTC)
</div>
 
After inserting the collapsing talk page - the old can be seen just by clicking the expand button. But if you wish to write anything new, then do it here below at the very bottom of the talk page so it may be seen. I have this comment - after a few weeks I believe nothing new happened in this comic. I think it is now fixed. Of course this is very hard to prove. But I have completed some branches of the interactive transcript. So let me know if you can find any new options I have missed (I could have missed if there were more than four options in a panel - but not at the dead-ends! I have also just made major revisions of the explanation and it's layout - based on my observations. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:48, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

I just found a panel where it gets past the person on the comet, only one panel though... http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:25743f70-baee-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.69|108.162.254.69]] 19:24, 15 July 2014 (UTC)
:Great. Have added the image to the list of images and to the theme above. Keep any new images coming here.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

It's interesting the chess player in 1112 ("Think logically") resembles the knit cap girl. It's weird that Megan (or Randall's wife) after chemotherapy also wears a cap (1141, "Two years"). Is there any possible connections between them (or simply a coincidence)?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.108|108.162.215.108]] 04:24, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
:I have added links to three other comics using knit caps, including the two you mentioned. Thanks. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

I noticed that the image url noted on xkcd.com is the same as the one for #1349 - Shouldn't Be Hard. Not sure if it is caused by the interactivity disallowing an image upload, or an error on Randall's part (I'd imagine working through this comic's issues was pretty distracting). 15:37, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:I believe this was fixed. At least it seems to look correct now. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:06e52d36-bb01-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

2073: Kilogram

2018-11-16T19:37:41Z

Cheese12: /* Triva */

{{comic
| number = 2073
| date = November 16, 2018
| title = Kilogram
| image = kilogram.png
| titletext = I'm glad to hear they're finally redefining the meter to be exactly three feet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CONSTANT PLANCK. Links to resources would be good. Explanation should include how the metric system is interconnected (ex: 1L of water weighs 1KG.). Please mention here why else this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

On the day of this comic, the International Committee for Weights and Measures voted to redefine the kilogram by fixing it to the value of Planck's Constant. This is done by passing a measured current through an electromagnet to exert a force to balance 1 kg. The change will take effect on May 20, 2019, when the platinum cylinder International Prototype Kilogram that defines the unit will be retired. This means that the mass of a kilogram will no longer be tied to a physical object, but to the fundamental properties of the universe.

The comic is accurate in that the International Committee for Weights and Measurements did just vote to redefine the kilogram; however, it was '''not''' to make it be the same as the pound, or indeed to make it different in any practical way from its current weight. The problem they are trying to solve is that the current method of confirming that a kilogram is accurate is to use physical metal weights measuring exactly one kilogram, periodically transporting them around the world to an official weight lab to confirm they still weigh the same. Over time these physical objects have changed very slightly in their mass making them unreliable in the long run. Note that these weights and comparisons are so precise that a fingerprint on one of the weights could throw them off.

In this comic, Black Hat announces that the kilogram has been redefined as equal to one pound. Ponytail and Cueball seem to think this makes things simpler, but Megan is rightfully alarmed. The metric system of measurement is the one used by most of the world and is the standard system used in science. It is considered superior to the {{w|United States Customary System}} (which the pound is part of). Therefore, redefining the kilogram to be based on the pound would make things much, much worse and outrage supporters of the metric system.

To add to the confusion, the pound is officially defined as 0.45359237 kilograms, or less than half a kilogram. This makes defining a kilogram as one pound impossible as they are then stuck in a loop, as the pound must weigh less than half of a kilogram, but then the kilogram will have to be updated to match the new pound mass. (actually not true: 0.45359237 x = x has a solution, namely 0).

The title text continues the joke by saying that the meter has been defined as exactly three feet. The yard, the closest US measurement to the meter, is three feet. However, a meter is about 9 centimeters longer than a yard. As with the pound, the metric system is used to define the yard as it is officially defined as 0.9144 meters.

Note: There is another system, not used outside the US and Britain, that uses pounds and feet. It is called the {{w|Imperial system}}.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat talking to Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan while all stand in a row. Megan's hands are raised emphatically.]
:Black Hat: To end many years of confusion, the International Committee for Weights and Measures has just voted to redefine the kilogram.
:Black Hat: As of next May, it will equal exactly one pound.
:Ponytail: Oh, cool.
:Cueball: That ''does'' make things simpler.
:Megan: '''''No!!'''''

==Trivia==
To further expand on this, the classic definitions of all our various units of time, length, mass, and temperature are based on phenomena that are neither convenient to measure precisely nor in fact consistently reproducible. The duration of an Earth day and year vary unpredictably, the circumference of the Earth varies, the International Prototype Kilogram gains or loses mass any time it is handled (and in fact just sitting there it and its reference copies diverge from each other), and the value of baseline temperatures such as the freezing point of water depend on which isotopes of hydrogen are in the water molecules.

Nevertheless, there really are constants of nature. For example, one of them is ‘''c''’, the speed of light in a vacuum. The expressed value of ''c'' depends on your choice of the unit of distance and the unit of time, but it’s a constant in those units. Now just suppose we all had a reproducible way to define a specific unit of time, which just for fun we call a ‘second’. You might not know the length of a ‘meter’, but if I told you that measured in meters per second the universal constant value of ''c'' is exactly 299792458 meters per second, then I would have fixed the length of a meter to be exactly the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299792458 seconds. And in fact this is what the international body responsible for defining our SI units has done.

One second is defined to be a specific number of certain state transitions of a cesium 133 atom. The specific number was set in the year 1965, so as to match a previous astronomical standard called Ephemeris Time to the limit of human measuring ability at the time. The 1965 definition didn’t change the actual duration of a second, but it did make its measurement forever reproducible.

In 1983 the value of ''c'' was fixed to the value noted above. Prior to that it had been measured with respect to existing definitions of a meter, and had to be expressed with a measure of uncertainty. For example in 1973 a team at the US National Bureau of Standards refined ''c'' to 299,792,457.4 m/s ± 1 m/s. But from 1983 onwards, with an exact integer value for ''c'' that is quite close to that Bureau measurement, the length of a meter is now fixed with no plus/minus uncertainty. Furthermore, both the second and the meter match their predecessor definitions for all intents and purposes.

Similar redefinitions of units of mass and of temperature in terms of universal constants have been agreed to, mass with regard to the Planck constant ''h'', and temperature with regard to the Boltzmann constant ''k''. The constants ''h'' and ''k'' had previously been measured quantities, complete with uncertainties. The SI body fixed both of them to exact values, resulting in exact, no-uncertainty values for a kilogram of mass and a kelvin of thermodynamic temperature. As with the second and the meter, these new definitions match their predecessor definitions for all intents and purposes.

To expand on this even further, three additional universal constants that were previously measured and that had uncertainty values have been assigned fixed values, resulting in exact definitions of three corresponding units of measurement without affecting their applicability. Fixing the unit of elementary charge, ''e'', serves to define the unit of electric current, the Ampere. Fixing the unit of luminous efficacy ''Kcd'' serves to define the unit of luminous intensity, the candela. And fixing the Avogadro constant ''NA'' serves to define the unit of amount of substance, the mole.

A very recent Wikipedia article about redefining the SI units of measure in terms of newly fixed values of things taken to be universal constants is {{w|Redefinition of SI base units}}.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry

2018-06-04T23:02:03Z

Cheese12: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2002
| date = June 4, 2018
| title = LeBron James and Stephen Curry
| image = lebron_james_and_stephen_curry.png
| titletext = The 538TR attempts to capture a player's combined skill at basketball (either real-life or NBA 2K18) and election forecasting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Basketball - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
At the time of this comic, the {{w|2018 NBA Finals}} were going on, between the {{w|Cleveland Cavaliers}} and the {{w|Golden State Warriors}} with the Warriors leading 2 games to 0 in a best of seven series. At first glance, the comic looks like an in-depth analysis of two of the star players on those teams, {{w|LeBron James}} and {{w|Stephen Curry}}. The joke is that while comprehensive, all the statistics are completely meaningless - many don't show any correlation, and if there is one, it's extremely unlikely there is any causal link in there.

The first graph includes a nine-digit {{w|Social Security number}} issued for US citizens which is typically not considered a metric related to athletic ability. As Social Security numbers are essentially random numbers ([https://www.ssa.gov/employer/randomization.html until 2011], there was a geographic correspondence for the first three digits), the graph shows only the free-throw percentage of a large number of players, artificially spread vertically. Also note that Social Security numbers are not usually made public, barring security leaks.

The second graph is a graph of points per game vs teammate's APGAR score. {{w|APGAR score}} is used to quickly summarize the health of newborn children, with scores of 7 and above indicating an infant has generally normal health; its use to rank adult NBA players is odd, if not improper. This graph indicates LeBron's teammates have an APGAR score of approximately 2.1. Scores of 3 and below are generally regarded as critically low and possibly requiring medical attention. Low APGAR scores can also be associated with increased risk of neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy. The joke appears to be that LeBron is a star player carrying a sub average team while their opponents the Warriors are perhaps a more well rounded team.

The shot map shows from what position Curry's shots were scored compared to other NBA players. It shows that he scored several times from outside the playing field, including twice from the {{w|bleacher}}s (which isn't a legal play), and once from the locker room (which is physically impossible due to multiple walls in between). This may be a reference to Curry's "tunnel-shot", which he performs before every home game.[https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/Stephen-Curry-s-long-tunnel-shot-has-become-10949145.php]

In the "2018 total points" table, the highlighted {{w|Golden State Warriors}} and {{w|Cleveland Cavaliers}} represent the teams of Stephen Curry and LeBron James respectively.

Magnetic north is the north pole of the earth's magnetic field. Certain animals use the magnetic field to navigate and align themselves (including migratory birds, bees, and foxes), but there is no evidence that humans are affected by the earth's magnetic field. This means that there is very likely no correlation between orientation of a basketball court and points scored.

The table at the bottom includes more unrelated comparisons.

The first fact is "have you heard of him". Although both are well known in their native United States, elsewhere basketball is considered a minority sport. So of the 7 billion people in the world it is likely less than 2% of the total population will have heard of either player {{Citation needed}}.

In NBA the top 16 teams qualify for a single elimination play-off to determine the season champion, with each rubber played over 7 games. After the fourth game fixtures are only played as required. Most fixtures are therefore resolved before the last leg. Lebron James has participated in seven playoff games 7 in his career (winning 5 of 7), and the last time his team lost a game seven was on May 18, 2008 (Bush was still President). This also highlights that James is an older athlete yet has been fairly dominant through his career. Stephen Curry's last game 7 loss actually came at the hands of Lebron James in the 2016 NBA Finals (Obama was President). It is notable that both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers won their respective games 7 in their conference finals to make it to this year's NBA finals.

Both "lebronjames" and "stephencurry" are worth 22 points in {{w|Scrabble}}. {{w|Milk caps (game)|Pogs}} were a {{w|fad}} in the 1990s. In 2027, Stephen Curry will be 39 years old, which is a typical retirement age for NBA players. LeBron James's retirement age is listed as ''unknown''. This may refer to James's high level of play through his mid-30s, when typical players have a decline in their performance {{Citation needed}}.

It is claimed that their best sport is basketball. However, although they have chosen basketball as a career, this does not mean they were not better at a sport that does not offer a professional career.

Both are listed as over 6 feet tall which is not at all unusual for professional basketball players. In fact, Stephen is listed as 6'2" or 6'3" and LeBron as 6'8".

{{w|Nate Silver}} is a political commentator and founder of the website {{w|FiveThirtyEight}}, which uses and promotes statistical approaches in explaining the world. The site's two major areas of focus are in politics (especially on elections - it became famous for correctly predicting for whom 49 of 50 of the 2008 and every US state would vote for in the 2012 US presidential elections, and though it wasn't as accurate in 2016 it had given Donald Trump a larger chance of Electoral College victory than other mainstream media sources) and sports (Silver first got into statistical analysis via baseball). The presence of both sports-related and politics-related topics in the comic, however related they are (or not) with each other, seems to be a nod towards FiveThirtyEight's content.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:'''NBA Playoffs ''DataDive'' '''
:'''LeBron James and Stephen Curry'''
:'''What makes these superstars so extraordinary?'''

:[The comic consists of several plots and tables, listed here in western reading order.]

:'''Scatter plot of Social Security number vs Free throw percentage'''
:The Social Security numbers range from 000-00-0000 to 999-99-9999. No pattern discernable, aside from points being a bit denser in the middle of the plot. Steven Curry is marked as a point on the right edge of the plot with a high free throw percentage.

:'''Scatter plot of 2018 points per game vs Average teammate APGAR score'''
:The APGAR scores range from 0 to 10. Pattern suggests a somewhat positive link between the two factors. LeBron James is marked as having a lot of points, but a low teammate APGAR score of approximately 2.1.

:'''Shot map'''
:A diagram of a basketball court is shown with dots placed where players have taken shots at the goal. Steven Curry has dots in a separate color. For the all players category the dots generally cluster next to the goal basket and in front of the three point line. Steven has no dots next to the basket, but does cluster next to the three point line. He also has several dots off the side of the playing field, including three in the bleachers and one in the locker room.

:'''Sandwiches eaten during play vs Win %'''
:A plot that suggests no relation between the factors because practically all dots are in the zero sandwiches column. 2018 Warriors have one dot marked as a high win % and 4 sandwiches.

:'''2018 total points'''
:A table listing teams and their total scores with an extra column labeled "When net is within 15° of magnetic north". The row for the Cleveland Cavaliers is highlighted and shows an abnormally high score in the magnetic north column.

:{| class = "wikitable"
! 2018 total points
! Overall
! When net is within 15° of magnetic north
|-
|'''Golden State Warriors'''
|'''9304'''
|'''330'''
|-
|Houston Rockets
|9213
|268
|-
|New Orleans Pelicans
|9161
|219
|-
|Toronto Raptors
|9156
|341
|-
|'''Cleveland Cavaliers'''
|'''9091'''
|'''1644'''
|-
|Denver Nuggets
|9020
|280
|}

:[A table at the bottom:]

:{| class = "wikitable"
!
! Stephen Curry
! LeBron James
|-
|Have you heard of him
|Probably
|Yes
|-
|President during most recent game 7 loss
|Obama
|Bush
|-
|Pog collection
|Large
|Staggeringly large
|-
|Career average Fed interest rate
|3.42%
|4.41%
|-
|Name Scrabble score
|22
|22
|-
|Best sport
|Basketball
|Basketball
|-
|Height
|Over 6'
|Over 6'
|-
|Retirement year
|2027
|Unknown
!Nate Silver
|-
|FiveThirtyEight total rating (devised by Nate Silver to combine all metrics into a single stat)
|'''37.4'''
|'''31.8'''
|'''86.6'''
|}

==Trivia==
This comic was posted the day after the second game in the 2018 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors (Stephen Curry's team) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (LeBron James' team). It is the fourth consecutive time the two teams faced each other at the finals, which is unprecedented in major sports leagues in North America. The Warriors won in 2015 and 2017, the Cavaliers won in 2016, and the Warriors are leading the current series 2-0.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1659: Tire Swing

2018-04-09T01:08:23Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1659
| date = March 23, 2016
| title = Tire Swing
| image = tire_swing.png
| titletext = If we find one of those tire dumps, the next time he tries to get his truck back we can just retreat and let him have it.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Science Girl]] and another girl have just completed a [https://damnyoulittlerock.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/img_5457.jpg tire swing]: A common makeshift {{w|swing (seat)|swing}} is created by hanging a car {{w|tire}} from a length of rope, typically tied to the branch of a tree as in the comic. The other girl might at first look like she has hair like [[Megan]] but not quite as she is revealed upon zoom in to have curly hair. That they are rather small kids can be seen from the size of the tire compared to them. (They could be the same as the girls in the last panel of [[1580: Travel Ghost]]).

In the second panel of this comic Science Girl muses that there are huge [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337351/Worlds-biggest-tyre-graveyard-Incredible-images-Kuwaiti-landfill-site-huge-seen-space.html tire dumps] filled with nothing but old tires that have no use. In the last panel, Science Girl continues that maybe they should use a tire from such a dump next time they make a tire swing. The presumption is that perhaps they used a brand new tire, or a tire from some other source. This is confirmed by the other girl's response (and also by the title text, see below) which makes it clear that the tire they used was in fact stolen from a guy's vehicle. The last reply from Science Girl suggests the victim put up a fight and they had to take the tire by force. So these two small girls actually fought an adult man over his truck and won the fight.

Vehicle tires have a limited lifespan. The natural end of their life is when the pattern of raised treads on the circumference of the tire, which promote traction on wet roads, are worn down to a point where they are no longer effective enough, or after 6-10 years (sunlight causes the rubber to degrade, so the tire becomes prone to cracking and unsafe, even if it appears to be in good condition). Tires can also become damaged in other ways, such as puncture.

{{w|Tire recycling|Used tires}} are a notable ecological problem for a number of reasons (e.g. their size, the quantity produced, their relatively short lifespan, and the fact that they are difficult and slow to break down and contain a number of components that are ecologically problematic). A tire swing represents a functional use for otherwise useless old tires. The amount of tires (it is estimated that 259 million tires are discarded annually) makes them attractive targets for recycling. More than half of used tires are ultimately simply burned for their fuel value (which prevents them from sitting in landfills indefinitely, but this may even be worse as it releases otherwise locked up carbon thus releasing this into the atmosphere and making {{w|global warming}} even worse).

The comic is thus clearly [[Randall|Randall's]] attempt to draw attention to this huge ecological problem, as he so often before has done with other climate change/global warming related comics. (Climate change, especially global warming, is a [[:Category:Climate change|recurring theme]] in xkcd). So while this is not the joke of the comic, it could be the point of it.

He also suggests another way to use old tires. It should be noted that used tires are not necessarily safe to use as a kids' toy as they could become sharp/frayed along the edges and stones and other hard/sharp objects may have become stuck in the tires (even going all the way through), during its life span, or worn thin enough to tear apart mid-swing (when the stresses on the swing material would be at their peak). So tires bought for use as a swing may even be made from a new tire, but not necessarily of the same solid type as those used for cars. Used tires reused for a swing should be inspected for the problems mentioned above.

The title text goes further, suggesting that they actually stole the victim's entire truck - possibly just to harvest the tire needed for the swing - and that he unsuccessfully attempted to recover the truck, so they probably did fight him. He put up enough of a fight that they do not wish to fight him again (so he at least survived). Further, since the girls expect him to try again (maybe recovering the truck with only three tires), they apparently still have the truck. One of the girls suggests that if they could find one of these tire dumps, then they could take a tire from there, make a new swing, and then just walk or run away from the truck when the guy comes back, letting him have it if he really wants it so bad.

The reason Science Girl made this swing could be that she wishes to become a {{w|cosmologist}} as a reference back her meeting a cosmologist on a tire swing in [[1352: Cosmologist on a Tire Swing]].

Note that {{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} which have often been [[:Category:Calvin and Hobbes|referenced in xkcd]] has done the same to Calvin's father as the girls did to the guy (though without the violence) in a [http://assets.amuniversal.com/bcb737d0b98e013340c2005056a9545d similar comic].

This was the first of two Wednesday's in a row where Randall used two children to make a reference to an environmental issue, the second being [[1662: Jack and Jill]] about {{w|hydraulic fracturing|fracking}} also with Science Girl.

==Transcript==
:[Science Girl and a girl with long curly hair, are standing under a large leafless tree as Science Girl adjusts a tire swing hanging from the largest of the branches of the tree. The tire hangs so high that the small girls only reach up to just above the center of the tire which has a diameter of more than half the height of the girls.]
:Science Girl: OK, looks good.

:[Zoom in on the girls so only the tire swing can be seen, and nothing of the tree. They both look at the tire.]
:Science Girl: I read that there are these huge dumps everywhere full of millions of old tires that no one knows what to do with.

:[Same setting but Science Girl looks up at the tree (outside the frame).]
:Science Girl: We should use one of those next time.
:Curly haired girl: Yeah. That guy was real mad.
:Science Girl: I would ''not'' want to fight him again.

{{comic discussion}}



[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Climate change]]

The Rise of Open Access

2018-02-18T16:30:04Z

Cheese12: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| date = October 4, 2013
| title = The Rise of Open Access
| image = the_rise_of_open_access.jpg
| before = The accelerating pace of scientific publishing and the rise of open access, as depicted by xkcd.com cartoonist Randall Munroe.
| ldomain = sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/58.full#
| extra = yes
}}

The comic above is from the article "[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/58.full The Rise of Open Access]" in Science. A much larger version of this image can be found by clicking the image in the article or [http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/scicomm/infographic.jpg here]. The picture is also available on [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/48/20150825153049%21the_rise_of_open_access.jpg this wiki].

==Explanation==
This comic is a one-off exclusive created for the journal {{w|Science (journal)|Science}} by [[Randall Munroe]].It shows how much "Science" there is and how much of it will be Open access. It is not part of the main comic series.

It shows how much Science is there by showing how many papers have been published. It states that there can be 140 citations per page. On a Word document with a narrow margin and regular font you could fit about 140 citations on one page with a word size of 6. It then states that we can fit 1000 pages per book. 1000 pages is a lot for children's books{{Citation needed}} and even larger fiction books such the Harry Potter series have about 600 pages. However, many reference books and dictionaries have over 1000 pages. For a size reference, picture Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 1.3 times larger. We then start stacking books, each one having 140,000 citations in them.

The comic then says that a list of papers published in 1880 will have 100 pages, or 14,000 citations - not even one book. By 1920 the pile will be growing at 500 pages per year. This means that if it were linear, there will be 50 books, or 50,000 pages, in 2020. However, this growth is clearly exponential, as shown by the 1975 volume alone taking up four books. At the time this comic was published there were five books each year and growing.

The comic then shows a timeline, featuring [[Cueball]], [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]]. From 1880 to 1900 there are barely any books; at 1900 there are three books; this drops back to one until 1920, where there are four; at 1930 there are nine; and at 1940 there are a whopping 14. It is further shown at the second timeline that the number continues to grow exponentially. Along the timeline there are random bits of trivia.

The second part of the comic shows how much of all that information is, or will be, open access or available to the public without many copyright restrictions. For example, xkcd is open access because it is licensed to be viewed and copied for non-profit means. As the comic states, the advent of the web has facilitated more science becoming open access. The second picture is another timeline featuring Cueball, Megan, [[Black Hat]], and [[Danish]] in an area labeled Open Access. The various milestones depicted demonstrate how the proportion of information available as open access has now reached more then half, and is continuing to grow.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|needs more}}

:'''How much science is there?'''

:Scientific publication has been accelerating--a new paper is published roughly every 20 seconds. Let's imagine a bibliography listing ''every'' scholarly paper ever written. How long would it be?

:If we can fit 140 citations per page... [image of page] > [image of stack of pages] > ...1000 pages per book... [image of book labeled "All of Botany" "Volume VII"] > ...and then we start stacking books... [image of stack of books]

:[The books in the stack are the aforementioned "All of Botany Volume VII", "Math (100000? papers)", "Applied Psych 1-17?", and "Weird Science 1984".]

:A list of papers published in 1880 would fill 100 pages.
:By 1920, the list would be growing by 500 pages a year.
:The 1975 section would fill four huge volumes.
:Today we're up to 15 volumes per year--a page every 45 minutes.

:'''...This is what the full list would look like:'''

:[Chart below showing the approximate number of volumes per year. On the right end, starting around 1990, a bubble with the words "Moved to open access" points upward to a different chart under the header "How open is it?" Under my butt is a header "Traditional Publication", referring to the volumes in the chart. There is a box around approximately 2000-2010, with a note underneath saying detail. The years 1999 to 2014 are in a separate chart below.]

:Cueball: All scholarly articles from before 1880 fit in just a few volumes.

:[The rest are notes added to various points on the graph.]

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Note
|-
| 1869 || First issue of ''Nature''
|-
| 1880 || ''Science'' founded
|-
| 1987-89 || First online journals appear
|-
| 1991 || Paul Ginsparg launches ARXIV for physics preprints
|-
| 1999 || NIH director proposes an archive of free biomed papers
|-
| 2000 || Pubmed Central debuts Plos founded
|-
| 2001 || 30,000 scientists call for a boycott of journals that don't allow free access on Pubmed within 6 months
|-
| 2002 || Biomed central begins charging $500 author fee HHMI agrees to pay author feeds for open-access publication
|-
| 2003 || ''PLOS Biology'' launches, charges $1500 author's fee
|-
| 2006 || U.K. medical research council mandates free access within 6 months PLOS raises top author fee to $2500, launches ''PLOS One'', which reviews for scientific rigor, not importance
|-
| 2008 || NIH requires that papers it funds be made free within 12 months Harvard faculty agree to post papers in university repository
|-
| 2010 || PLOS becomes profitable ''PLOS One'' becomes world's biggest scientific publisher by volume
|-
| 2013 || White House orders all scientific agencies to plan to make papers free within 12 months
|-
| 2014 || European Commission will require free access within 6-12 months
|}

:[The following publications are also noted in speech bubbles in bibliography form, but are cut off by the edges of the bubbles.]

:{{w|Albert Einstein|Einstein, A.}} "{{w|Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen}}." (1905)
:Einstein, A. "On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light." (1905) 
:Einstein, A. "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper." (1905)
:Einstein, A. "Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?" (1905)

:{{w|Edwin Hubble|Hubble, E.}} "Effects on Red Shifts on the Distribution of Nebulae." Proceedings by the National Academy of Sciences Volume 22 Number 11 (1936)"

:{{w|Hans Bethe|Bethe, H.}}, {{w|Ralph Alpher|Alpher, R.A.}}, and {{w|George Gamow|Gamow, G.}} "{{w|Alpher–Bethe–Gamow_paper|The Origin of Chemical Elements}}." Physical Review Volume 73 Number 7 (1948)
:(Although all other names are listed in a lastName, firstInitial format, Randall put "G. Gamow" instead of "Gamow, G.".)

:(The author listed (Watson, J.D.) did not write the article (Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids) but he did write another paper on DNA that was published in the same article of ''Nature''.)
:{{w|James Watson|Watson, J.D.}} and {{w|Francis Crick|Crick, F.H.C.}} "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" Nature 171, 737-738 (1953)
:{{w|Maurice Wilkins|Wilkins, M.H.F.}}, Stokes, A.R. & Wilson, H.R. "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids" Nature 171, 738-740 (1953)

:{{w|Kurt Godel|Godel, Kurt}}, B. Meltzer, {{w|Richard Schlegel|Schlegel, Richard}} "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems." Physics Today Volume 17 Issue 1 (1964)
:(Again Randall switches the order of last name / first name and puts "Richard Schlegel".)

:'''How open is it?'''

:Since the advent of the web, much of scientific publishing has been moving to ''open access.'' According to Science-Metrix, open access reached a "tipping point" around 2011: more than 50% of new research is now made available free online.

:[The following text is inside a cloud shaped bubble.]

:'''Open access papers'''

:Megan: As journals move to open access and digitize their archives, old papers from every period move here...
:Cueball: ...In addition to the flood of new papers being published here directly.
:Black Hat: 25% of open-access papers are freely available on publication. The rest becomes free within 12 months on journal websites or other repositories.

:[Next to Cueball, Danish fishes a book out of a pile of volumes with a fishing rod.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]

637: Scribblenauts

2018-02-12T01:04:01Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number =637
| date =September 16, 2009
| title =Scribblenauts
| image =scribblenauts.png
| titletext =Let me look away and type 'guy who's just jealous that I beat all his MarioKart times' and turn back, and... yup, there you are again!
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|Scribblenauts}}'' is a game for Nintendo DS in which the player controls a character named Maxwell, whose goal is to get a "Starlite" in each level. The player has the ability to summon over 22,000 different objects into the game by typing them on the touchscreen using the DS's stylus device. Those items are then ostensibly used to help Maxwell collect the Starlite (for example, typing "ladder" to help him reach a Starlite that's inside a tree), but the player can decide to forgo the objective and just type in random things for fun.

The {{w|Large Hadron Collider}} is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, and has excited the imagination of writers and journalists in popular culture, some of whom posit the theory that a catastrophic accident at the LHC could destroy the world. One of those ideas concerned the LHC creating a black hole that would proceed to suck in all the surrounding matter. However, in the game, the LHC, when tapped, creates a comically small black hole which only kills Maxwell.

Megan discovers that the LHC can be summoned in ''Scribblenauts,'' and has a fun time creating black holes with it. Cueball's snide comment is an unfortunately rather common reaction among adults towards entertainment geared for children, and the fact that ''Scribblenauts'' is a portable game just gives him another stick to beat it with. Irritated, Megan types in the phrase "pretentious asshole", and then pretends that Cueball has suddenly appeared right there in front of her, as though summoned in the game. Note that, in reality, ''Scribblenauts'' doesn't respond to profanity. {{Citation needed}}

In the title text, she types "guy who's just jealous that I beat all his ''{{w|Mario Kart}}'' times" (this could be a reference to [[423: Finish Line]] and [[290: Fucking Blue Shells]]) and once again, Cueball "appears" right in front of her. ''Mario Kart'' is another video-game series geared towards children, and there's a version of it for the DS, which implies that Cueball's just being snooty about ''Scribblenauts'' because Megan has so thoroughly dominated him in another "DS kids game".

==Transcript==
:[Megan is sitting on bed.]
:[In Scribblenauts word input format.]
:LARGE HADRON COLLIDER
:''Click''
:Megan: Wow, Scribblenauts even lets you summon the LHC.

:[Cueball is sitting at a computer. Megan talks from off-panel.]
:''Fwoosh''
:Megan: And it makes a black hole! This game rules.
:Cueball: I guess it's okay, for a DS kids game.

:[In Scribblenauts word input format.]
:PRETENTIOUS ASSHOLE
:''Click''
:[Megan looks up.]
:Megan: Oh, hi! It worked!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Mario Kart]]

651: Bag Check

2018-02-12T00:51:16Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 651
| date = October 19, 2009
| title = Bag Check
| image = bag_check.png
| titletext = A laptop battery contains roughly the stored energy of a hand grenade, and if shorted it... hey! You can't arrest me if I prove your rules inconsistent!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] argues with a {{w|Transportation Security Administration|TSA}} agent at an airport security checkpoint over the TSA policy of prohibiting airline passengers from bringing liquids or gels in quantities greater than 3.4 ounces (100 ml) in their carry on items. To prove his point, Cueball points out that modifying the lithium ion battery in his laptop computer to be an explosive poses a more plausible risk to the aircraft than carrying an innocuous bottle of water. The joke is that now the security team is even MORE worried about him specifically and will take away his laptop and most likely detain him for questioning.

The title text continues Cueball's line of argument, segueing into a protest as the situation escalates to the point of Cueball apparently being placed under arrest. This is, however, a bit of an exaggeration, as for them to place someone under arrest, they need real reason to think that they are going to do something bad, and simply knowing this information is not enough to justify this action.

Interestingly, in 2017 a [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/advice/laptop-ban-on-flights-to-middle-east-advice-help-for-travellers/ ban on laptops] and other large, battery-equipped devices (but not smartphones) in the cabin was initiated by the United States, and followed by other countries, with the stated aim of lowering the risk of somebody bringing an explosive onto the plane inside it. Granted, this was in response to a Somali incident where a bomber snuck a laptop loaded with actual explosives (not just the batteries) onto a plane, but the similarities are still quite evident.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are at a security checkpoint in an airport. A guard is holding an open backpack and a bottle of water, and Cueball is arguing with him.]
:Cueball: But if you're worried about bombs, why are you letting me keep my laptop batteries? If I overvolted them and breached the cells, it would make a sizeable explosion.
:Megan: Oh god.
:Cueball: It's okay, dear. In a moment he'll realize I have a good point and return my water.

==Trivia==
*The TSA [https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2009/10/23/response-%E2%80%9Cbag-check%E2%80%9D-cartoon responded to this comic] in a blog post and Randall Munroe expounded on his intent in its comments.

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

1951: Super Bowl Watch Party

2018-02-05T20:37:18Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{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 Super Bowl is the the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American gridiron 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. Based on its wide-reaching cultural impact, it is widely considered to be the single most important game of the year (of any sport), and over a hundred million people watch it worldwide, many of whom are not even fans of gridiron football. Some have parties centered around watching the game. The full game lasts around four hours, including breaks for advertisement and a halftime, which includes a live performance of music.

By slowing the video down by a factor of 2300, the show would last a full year. Normal TV is broadcast at 30 frames per second. So if slowed by a factor of 2300 each frame would be shown for about 76 seconds. Each frame can be discussed and analysed 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 high probability 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.

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>

Cueball has previously explained that he now watches the [[1480: Super Bowl|Super Bowl]], despite [[60: Super Bowl|not being very interested in sport]]. A slowly updating video is similar to the concept behind [[Time]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan walks into a room. Cueball and another Megan-like individual are sitting on a couch. Another Cueball sits in front of them, while Ponytail lies on the ground in front of a TV.]
:Megan: 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 #2: I bet the next frame will be a cut.
:Cueball #2: 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:American football]]

<references/>

1241: Annoying Ringtone Champion

2018-01-31T23:50:35Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1241
| date = July 22, 2013
| title = Annoying Ringtone Champion
| image = annoying_ringtone_champion.png
| titletext = It beat out 'Clock radio alarm', 'B-flat at 194 decibels', 'That noise from Dumb & Dumber', and 'Recording of a sobbing voice begging you to answer'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic satirizes the variety of {{w|Ringtone|ringtones}} that may be used on their cell phones. While many are simply tunes that personalize a user's phone, some will use ringtones that resemble everyday sounds, such as doorbells, coughing, alarm noises, or in this case, the buzzing of a mosquito. Although rather innocuous, these ringtones can get very annoying to some people{{Citation needed}}, which is what this comic is getting at.

The title text refers to four other annoying{{Citation needed}} ringtones, apparently none of which were deemed as annoying as a mosquito buzzing:
*"Clock radio alarm". These sounds are often loud and annoying, just to ensure that you really will wake up.
*"B-flat at 194 decibels". {{w|B♭ (musical note)|B-flat}} is a musical note with a pitch of 466.16 Hz. 194 decibels is the {{w|Sound pressure#Examples of sound pressure and sound pressure levels|limit at 1 atmosphere pressure}}. Any more energy would create a shockwave. This could also be a reference to a crowd of {{w|vuvuzela}}s as they also produce sounds pitched around B flat. This may also refer to several B-flat-related phenomena discussed in an NPR story, [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7442915 Have You Heard About B Flat?] Specifically, B-flat has been found to agitate alligators, and waves passing through gas near a black hole have been found to resonate at a frequency which results in a B flat 57 octaves below middle C. Regardless of all this, a sound played as loud as 194 dB is quite literally deafening, so the ringtone would be not so much annoying as dangerous.
*"That noise from Dumb & Dumber". {{w|Dumb and Dumber}} is a comedy movie from 1994. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cVlTeIATBs The noise] from Dumb & Dumber is referring to the point in the movie when Harry and Lloyd asked, "Do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?" and began shrieking in imitation of a loud fax machine.
*"Recording of a sobbing voice begging you to answer". Self-explanatory{{Citation needed}}. Such a ringtone is obviously disruptive, annoying, and potentially worrying to those in the vicinity of the phone, hence the sobbing voice.

==Transcript==
:[At the top of the frame is an annoying humming tone shown. Cueball is cringing while raising his arms above his head. Black Hat pulls out his phone looking at it.]
:Ringtone: hMMMMMM<big>M<big>M<big>M</big>M</big></big>MMMMMMMM
:Cueball: <big>Augh!</big>
:Black Hat: Oh, I've gotta take this.

:[Caption below the frame:]
:By unanimous decision, the winner of the Awful Ringtone Championship is "the sound a mosquito makes as it buzzes past your ear".

==Trivia==
*The "h" of "hMMM" unusually is in lowercase, making the M's having to be capital in the transcript to show this.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Rankings]]

1243: Snare

2018-01-31T23:45:40Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1243
| date = July 26, 2013
| title = Snare
| image = snare.png
| titletext = It's going in A collection of satellites skewered with pins and mounted in display boxes. Not necessarily MY collection.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic paints another one of [[Black Hat]]'s evil activities as an unlikely supervillain.

As [[Cueball]] states, there have been some strange discoveries in the news including a gigantic ring strung with superstrong mesh, a long pole, and a gigantic {{w|winch}}. As Cueball outlines these items, Black Hat responds casually to each detail, seeming preoccupied with his computer. Cueball realizes that the pole, ring and net combination sounds like a {{w|butterfly net}}, albeit one of immense size. Given Black Hat's history of nefarious activities and the specific length of the pole (260 miles or 420 km, the same as the height of the International Space Station's orbit above Earth), Cueball infers and then accuses Black Hat of wanting to catch the {{w|International Space Station}} (ISS) by winching the pole up so that the Space Station orbit leads it to fly into the net, therefore catching it.

Black Hat does not deny the charge, but he dissimulates by saying it is not necessarily ''the'' ISS that he intends to catch, but just ''an'' international space station. While his statement implies that it could be targeted at some other international space station, it is transparently obvious which one he is targeting since there's only one international space station in existence. ''Any'' international space station that he can catch must be ''the'' ISS.

The title text is a reference to how {{w|Butterfly#Collecting.2C_recording.2C_and_rearing|butterfly collections}} are usually presented. The insects are mounted in glass display cases, each skewered through the body with a pin, and labeled. The text is spoken by Black Hat, who again tries to imply that he is not to blame, as it may not be meant for ''his'' collection of satellites. Perhaps he is just catching a space station for a friend.

The real buildings may belong to these structures:
*The giant ring from the first panel may be an allusion to the {{w|Tevatron}}, a former circular particle accelerator at the {{w|Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory}} (Fermilab), east of {{w|Batavia, Illinois|Batavia}}, near {{w|Chicago}}, {{w|Illinois}}. It is a 6.86 km (4.26 miles) long ring, giving it a diameter of almost 2,2 km (1.4 miles) leaving plenty of room to catch the ISS which is "only" 108.5 m (356 ft) in the longest direction.
*Similarly, the gigantic winch in {{w|St. Louis}}, may refer to the 630-foot (192 meters) high {{w|Gateway Arch}} monument. It is the tallest man-made monument in the United States.
**Even the rough south-north direction of this building does match to this scenario because the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7b/Map_St_Louis_to_Fermilb.png Fermilab is approx. 240 miles north of St. Louis]. However, it is an arch, not a winch.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Black Hat. Black Hat is using a laptop.]
:Cueball: They said on the news that they found a giant ring lying in a field outside Chicago. Strung with some kind of superstrong mesh.
:Black Hat: Mhm?
:Cueball: Then they found a 260 mile long shaft connected to the ring, running from Chicago to St. Louis. In St. Louis they found a gigantic winch.
:Black Hat: Did they.
:Cueball: It sounds kind of like...
:Cueball: ...a butterfly net.
:Cueball: ...are you planning on catching the International Space Station?
:Black Hat: I'm planning to catch '''''an''''' international space station.
:Black Hat: Not sayin' which.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Butterfly net]]

1245: 10-Day Forecast

2018-01-31T23:42:32Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1245
| date = July 31, 2013
| title = 10-Day Forecast
| image = 10 day forecast.png
| titletext = Oh, definitely not; they don't have Amazon Prime.
}}

==Explanation==
The 10-day forecast is a prediction of the weather extending 10 days into the future (with varying degrees of accuracy). However, when [[Cueball]] checks the forecast for his local area, it apparently predicts progressively extreme lightning storms, a plague of insects which appear to be mosquitoes, what appears to be {{w|Rapture|The Rapture}}, and the appearance of the {{w|anti-Christ}}. Upon the anti-Christ (or perhaps {{w|Woden}} or {{w|Mothra}}) appearing, the forecast falls into static and nothingness with the day stuck on Tuesday, meaning that the world has ended.

When asked about this, [[Megan]] casually explains that Cueball put a minus (-) sign in front of his ZIP code. A {{w|Zone Improvement Plan|ZIP code}} is a numeric postal code used in the United States, but many more countries use similar systems. As ZIP codes are tied to a geographic location, it is also often used to specify a local region for the purposes of weather reports.

Many computer systems that let the user write in a number only work with certain numbers (such as positive numbers). Numbers the system is not designed to work with, such as negative numbers, may lead to errors or unpredictable behavior (or, more often, the system will just refuse to proceed until you input a valid number). When this happens with the number of a video game level, it can result in data of another type being loaded, creating a level with a corrupted or physically-impossible landscape; this is sometimes known as a "[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinusWorld Minus World]".

Megan states that you get this result for any negative zip code. This may be an error deliberately put in by the programmers creating the system, to freak out any people who make a mistake.

Cueball, on the other hand reacts as if this negative zip code actually represents an actual geographical location, or a real-life Minus World, and that the weather forecaster is indeed showing an accurate forecast for the (corrupted) area. Since Megan stated that the forecast is always like that for these zip code Cueball expresses that he would never move there.

In the title text, Megan agrees with Cueball's desire not to move to that ZIP code area, the punchline being that her reason isn't to avoid the apocalypse, but to retain access to Amazon Prime, which shows that her priorities are amusingly bizarre. The service Amazon Prime is provided by {{w|Amazon.com|Amazon}}, where the user pays a flat annual fee and in exchange they get access a number of "enhanced" Amazon services, including free two-day shipping, free access to a library of streaming videos, and the ability to borrow books.

Later, a [[1606: Five-Day Forecast|Five-Day Forecast]] was also made into a comic.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits behind a computer desk when Megan calls to him.]
:Megan (off-panel): Is it going to rain this weekend? I have a thing.
:Cueball: Lemme check.
:*type type*
:Cueball: ...Uhh. What?

:[A caption is written above ten small panels in two rows. In each panel is an indication of the weather. Below each panel a label tells which day it is referring too.]
:'''Your 10-day forecast:'''
:[A yellow sun.]
:Today
:[Two gray clouds in front of the sun.]
:Tomorrow
:[Thunderstorms, with three gray clouds and a single lightning bolt.]
:Friday
:[Extreme thunderstorms with many large gray clouds and seven lightning bolts]
:Saturday
:[A swarm of insects, with one large black one close by and seven others close enough to discern details. The rest of the swarm is grayed out and just shown as small dots behind these other eight insects.]
:Sunday
:[Images of distorted, people with very long legs. One Megan, one Cueball and someone in the background.]
:Monday
:[A humanoid figure with two large horns or a winged helmet silhouetted against a bleak red background. The ground beneath the figure is black.]
:Tuesday
:[Grey static]
:Tuesday
:[Black screen]
:Tuesday
:[Black screen]
:Tuesday

:[Megan has entered the panel and stands behind Cueball looking at his laptop over his shoulder. She points to the screen. Cueball holds his hand to his chest.]
:Megan: ...Oh! You typed a minus sign in the ZIP code. The negative ZIP codes are all like that.
:Cueball: Let's ''never'' move there.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1246: Pale Blue Dot

2018-01-31T23:38:14Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1246
| date = August 2, 2013
| title = Pale Blue Dot
| image = pale_blue_dot.png
| titletext = Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. There is no road out of this oblivion; we must embrace it. We must join with the darkness. Ba'al the Annihilator offers us no happiness, no answers, naught but the cold embrace of the void. To imagine any other end is delusion. We must give in to the will of Ba'al, for he will one day consume us and our world alike. I therefore call on Congress to fully fund space exploration, and to join with Ba'al, the Eater of Souls. Thank you.
}}
==Explanation==
The {{w|Pale Blue Dot}} is a picture of the Earth taken in 1990 by the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe at a distance about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles). It was part of the {{w|Family Portrait (Voyager)|Family Portrait}}, a series of images of the entire {{w|Solar System}} from beyond it.

The picture was taken at the request of {{w|Carl Sagan}}, a well known space scientist at that time. In 1994 Sagan wrote the book "{{w|Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space}}" inspired by this picture. In the book, Sagan waxed eloquent about the picture in a widely quoted passage. The complete passage can be found in [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Pale_Blue_Dot:_A_Vision_of_the_Human_Future_in_Space_.281994.29 Wikiquote], and you can hear Carl Sagan himself reciting it in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g this YouTube video].

[[Cueball]] quotes from a condensed version of this passage until he is interrupted by several {{w|Heckler}}s who begins an argument over which speck in the picture is actually the Earth. Then, when Cueball cries out in exasperation that it doesn't matter, one heckler takes it the wrong way and points out that he just said that the picture doesn't matter. This pokes fun at the fact that the Pale Blue Dot picture has very little to no visual attractiveness, apart from the intellectual interest relying on the viewer's knowledge that the central speck is actually our home planet, Earth, seen from a very great distance.

The first two sentences of the title text are also a quotation from Sagan's paean to the Pale Blue Dot picture, but then the text veers humorously into non-scientific mysticism that starkly contrasts with the attitude and intent of the original work.

The title text evokes {{w|Cosmicism}}, a philosophy developed and exemplified by the fictional {{w|Cthulhu Mythos}}. This Mythos is expounded in fantasy/horror works of H.P. Lovecraft and, later, August Derleth, and features a cosmology in which humanity is depicted as inconsequential within a greater existence that is unknowable and frightening. Cosmicism asserts that humanity is doomed to death and destruction through the workings of vastly more powerful supernatural forces way beyond our understanding. There are many instances in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft of factions that embrace the destruction of humanity and actively work towards bringing about that end through the invocation of the unknowable and powerful forces that supporters of Cosmicism believe surround everything.

The text also references {{w|Ba'al}}, originally a Semitic deity that has been since associated with demonic or otherwise evil forces. The name Ba'al, and other variants of the same, has been included in many other fictional works often as a villain or antagonist. For example, the fictional System Lord {{w|Ba'al (Stargate)#Ba.27al|Ba'al}} from the television show {{w|Stargate}}. The title text supplants all of the supernatural forces associated with Cosmicism in the works of other authors with Ba'al. Cueball, who continues his discourse in the title text, may be acting as a Cosmicist and is calling on a Congress, to which he is speaking, to fund the space exploration program as a means to join with Ba'al, the Eater of Souls. The fact that a Ba'al cultist would be speaking in front of a government body in such a manner is absurd and thus hilarious.

Ba'al, the Eater of Souls (sometimes as Ba'al the soul eater) has been mentioned later in [[1419: On the Phone]] and [[1638: Backslashes]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands in front of a large gray picture of the ''Pale Blue Dot''. (There is no evidence that there is any blue in this comic). He holds up a stick with one hand towards it. He is interrupted by several hecklers from off-panel.]
:Cueball: Consider this Pale Blue Dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. Everyone you love, every human being who ever was, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived out their lives on this mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. All our-
:Heckler 1 (off panel): I think that's a stuck pixel. We're the speck on the left.
:Cueball: ...Ok, '''''this''''' Pale Blue Dot is everything you-
:Heckler 2 (off panel): No, you were right before. ''That'' one is earth.
:Cueball: '''''Look, it doesn't matter!'''''
:Heckler 3 (off panel): I ''knew'' it!
:Heckler 4 (off panel): I think this is just a lens cap picture.

==Trivia==
*At the time when this comic was published NASA did reveal two other pictures, showing our home planet from a long distance, [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130722.html Saturn] and [http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=1228 Mercury] probes did picture the Earth at the same time. Earth appears as a tiny dot in these images as well as a result of the vast distance between Earth and the probes.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space probes]]

1246: Pale Blue Dot

2018-01-31T23:37:16Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1246
| date = August 2, 2013
| title = Pale Blue Dot
| image = pale_blue_dot.png
| titletext = Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. There is no road out of this oblivion; we must embrace it. We must join with the darkness. Ba'al the Annihilator offers us no happiness, no answers, naught but the cold embrace of the void. To imagine any other end is delusion. We must give in to the will of Ba'al, for he will one day consume us and our world alike. I therefore call on Congress to fully fund space exploration, and to join with Ba'al, the Eater of Souls. Thank you.
}}
==Explanation==
The {{w|Pale Blue Dot}} is a picture of the Earth taken in 1990 by the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe at a distance about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles). It was part of the {{w|Family Portrait (Voyager)|Family Portrait}}, a series of images of the entire {{w|Solar System}} from beyond it.

The picture was taken at the request of {{w|Carl Sagan}}, a well known space scientist at that time. In 1994 Sagan wrote the book "{{w|Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space}}" inspired by this picture. In the book, Sagan waxed eloquent about the picture in a widely quoted passage. The complete passage can be found in [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Pale_Blue_Dot:_A_Vision_of_the_Human_Future_in_Space_.281994.29 Wikiquote], and you can hear Carl Sagan himself reciting it in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g this YouTube video].

[[Cueball]] quotes from a condensed version of this passage until he is interrupted by several {{w|Heckler}}s who begins an argument over which speck in the picture is actually the Earth. Then, when Cueball cries out in exasperation that it doesn't matter, then one heckler takes it the wrong way and points out that he just said that the picture doesn't matter. This pokes fun at the fact that the Pale Blue Dot picture has very little to no visual attractiveness, apart from the intellectual interest relying on the viewer's knowledge that the central speck is actually our home planet seen from a great distance.

The first two sentences of the title text are also a quotation from Sagan's paean to the Pale Blue Dot picture, but then the text veers humorously into non-scientific mysticism that starkly contrasts with the attitude and intent of the original work.

The title text evokes {{w|Cosmicism}}, a philosophy developed and exemplified by the fictional {{w|Cthulhu Mythos}}. This Mythos is expounded in fantasy/horror works of H.P. Lovecraft and, later, August Derleth, and features a cosmology in which humanity is depicted as inconsequential within a greater existence that is unknowable and frightening. Cosmicism asserts that humanity is doomed to death and destruction through the workings of vastly more powerful supernatural forces way beyond our understanding. There are many instances in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft of factions that embrace the destruction of humanity and actively work towards bringing about that end through the invocation of the unknowable and powerful forces that supporters of Cosmicism believe surround everything.

The text also references {{w|Ba'al}}, originally a Semitic deity that has been since associated with demonic or otherwise evil forces. The name Ba'al, and other variants of the same, has been included in many other fictional works often as a villain or antagonist. For example, the fictional System Lord {{w|Ba'al (Stargate)#Ba.27al|Ba'al}} from the television show {{w|Stargate}}. The title text supplants all of the supernatural forces associated with Cosmicism in the works of other authors with Ba'al. Cueball, who continues his discourse in the title text, may be acting as a Cosmicist and is calling on a Congress, to which he is speaking, to fund the space exploration program as a means to join with Ba'al, the Eater of Souls. The fact that a Ba'al cultist would be speaking in front of a government body in such a manner is absurd and thus hilarious.

Ba'al, the Eater of Souls (sometimes as Ba'al the soul eater) has been mentioned later in [[1419: On the Phone]] and [[1638: Backslashes]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands in front of a large gray picture of the ''Pale Blue Dot''. (There is no evidence that there is any blue in this comic). He holds up a stick with one hand towards it. He is interrupted by several hecklers from off-panel.]
:Cueball: Consider this Pale Blue Dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. Everyone you love, every human being who ever was, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived out their lives on this mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. All our-
:Heckler 1 (off panel): I think that's a stuck pixel. We're the speck on the left.
:Cueball: ...Ok, '''''this''''' Pale Blue Dot is everything you-
:Heckler 2 (off panel): No, you were right before. ''That'' one is earth.
:Cueball: '''''Look, it doesn't matter!'''''
:Heckler 3 (off panel): I ''knew'' it!
:Heckler 4 (off panel): I think this is just a lens cap picture.

==Trivia==
*At the time when this comic was published NASA did reveal two other pictures, showing our home planet from a long distance, [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130722.html Saturn] and [http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=1228 Mercury] probes did picture the Earth at the same time. Earth appears as a tiny dot in these images as well as a result of the vast distance between Earth and the probes.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space probes]]

1247: The Mother of All Suspicious Files

2018-01-31T23:33:56Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1247
| date = August 5, 2013
| title = The Mother of All Suspicious Files
| image = the_mother_of_all_suspicious_files.png
| titletext = Better change the URL to 'https' before downloading.
}}

==Explanation==
The save dialogue shows a download from [http://en.utrace.de/?query=65.222.202.53 65.222.202.53], an IP address that hosted JavaScript malware during a recent attack on the Tor anonymity network, with a very long file title. Many of the extensions used inside there indicate executable code; multiple file extensions are sometimes used to disguise a trojan program as a document.

You can also see common download syntax for a pirated movie, {{w|Hackers (film)|Hackers}}, likely included to appear malicious to anyone skimming but is actually a movie about hackers, making it a benign reference rather than malicious. It is described as "_BLURAY_CAM", which contradicts itself ("_BLURAY" would mean it was ripped from a copy on Blu-ray Disc, while "_CAM" would mean it was copied by pointing a camera at the screen in the cinema). "_BLURAY_CAM" would probably indicate a search-keyword-stuffed fake copy; fake pirated media often contain viruses (although this is more likely to be a problem with newer media, before the first real pirated copy appears).

The {{w|URL}} contains the path "~tilde/pub/cia-bin/etc". The first part is a public folder of a user named tilde (which is also the name for the ~ symbol), "cgi-bin" is a common folder on a Web-Server for server side executables ([[Randall]] changes the name to [[CIA]]-bin), and "etc" is a standard folder for configuration files – normally never accessible through a webserver. The program "init.dll" isn't executable at all, it's a {{w|Windows Dynamic Link Library}} which can't be run standalone, and is rarely referenced in URLs (even though such syntax is still being employed, even on [https://www.google.com/search?q=site:edu+filetype:dll reputable websites (Google search)] or here at [https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll eBay], indicating the webserver is a Microsoft {{w|Active Server Pages|ASP}} server). The question mark indicates the start of a parameter list, and in this case we have only one named "FILE".

The "Save" button is greyed out and disabled; you can only click the "Cancel" button. This can be different when the server detects that you are using a secure (https) connection.

The complete content sent to the server, starting with "/~TILDE..." and ending with "...OUT.EXE", is exactly 256 characters long. On {{w|HTML 3}} specifications you have a limitation of 1024 characters, whereas later HTML specifications don't have this limit; it just depends on the web server's capabilities. But posting parameters directly at the URL is still a worse choice.

The content of the parameter is shown here:
*__ (underscore underscore) — used in the C programming language to denote that a symbol is really not for public consumption.
*{{w|AUTOEXEC.BAT}} — a file which is automatically run during startup on Windows/DOS operating systems, and was often modified by viruses, which added malicious code to be run on each boot.
*MY%20OSX%20DOCUMENTS — referencing the {{w|OSX}} operating system ({{w|URL encoding#Character data|%20}} is a representation of a space in a URL, i.e. it reads as "MY OSX DOCUMENTS").
*INSTALL.EXE — a typical {{w|Installer#Installer|installer}}.
*{{w|RAR}} — a compressed archive file type.
*{{w|INI file|INI}} — a configuration file type.
*{{w|Tar (computing)|TAR}} — a file archive popular in UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems. TAR has been mentioned [[1168: tar|before]].
*DOÇX — {{w|docx}} is an Office Open XML file, i.e. a word processing format used by Microsoft Word 2007 and above, but has no cedilla (¸). The addition of a cedilla may be a reference to exploits that rely on rare characters being mistaken for more common ones that look similar, such as the {{w|IDN homograph attack}}.
*PHPHPHP — a play on {{w|PHP}} files, a kind of server-based web page file type. PHP originally stood for "Personal Home Page" but was later redefined as the recursive abbreviation "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".
*{{w|XHTML}} — another web page file type.
*{{w|TransducerML|TML}} — stands for Transducer Markup Language, an XML based markup language that specifies how to capture, time-tag and describe sensor data.
*XTL — possibly a play on XHTML.
*TXXT — a play on {{w|Text file|TXT}} file types.
*0DAY.HACK — a reference to a {{w|zero-day exploit}}. (overlaps with the next entry)
*HACK.ERS_(1995)_BLURAY_CAM-XVID — a reference to the 1995 {{W|Hackers (film)|''Hackers''}} movie, but pirated movies would either be a BlurayRIP/DVDRIP or CAM, but not both at the same time unless you used a camera to record the Blu-ray movie as it played.
*{{w|EXE}} — an executable file type used by Microsoft Windows.
*[SCR] — a tag used by movie pirates to denote a '{{w|Screener}}', the DVD copy of films given to critics prior to theater release. Usually the highest quality available at the time, rare, and thus good bait for a virus-laden download. "{{w|.scr}}" is also the extension for screensaver files, really just an exe file with a different extension and one of the classical ways to distribute infected files.
*{{w|Lisp (programming language)|LISP}} — programming language.
*{{w|Windows Installer|MSI}} — an installation file used by Microsoft Installer.
*{{w|.lnk|LNK}} — an extension used by Microsoft Windows for shortcuts. The extension is normally hidden to the user.
*LNK, ZDA, GNN — references to {{w|Link (The Legend of Zelda)|Link}}, {{w|Princess Zelda|Zelda}}, and {{w|Ganon}}, important characters from ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda}}'' video game franchise.
*{{w|White Rabbit#Television and films|WRBT.OBJ}} — A reference to the line of code Dennis Nedry used in {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} to shut down key systems.
*{{w|Object file|O}} — The extension for a linker file, an intermediary created when compiling C code.
*{{w|Header file|H}} — The file extension of a header file in C code.
*{{w|SWF}} — Shockwave Flash file type.
*{{w|Dpkg|DPKG}} — The Debian package management, although the package files use the file suffix ''.deb''.
*APP — an application on Mac OS X operating system.
*{{w|ZIP (file format)|ZIP}} — compressed archive file type.
*CO — the {{w|List of Internet top-level domains|top-level domain (TLD)}} for Colombia, but marketed as a global domain. Some countries use .co.''TLD'' for general use, e.g. ''.co.uk'' in the United Kingdom. But the TLD ''.gz'' does not exist and thus ''.co.gz'' is invalid.
*{{w|Gzip|GZ}} — a compressed file using GNU zip.
*{{w|A.out|A.OUT}} — Default filename when creating an executable on Linux or other UNIX-like operating systems if none was specified for the compiler.

The title text suggests changing from ''http'' to ''https'', as if encrypting a suspicious file before downloading it is somehow better than downloading it unencrypted. http (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and https (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - Secure) are the two common protocols for getting web pages and web downloads. http is the simple download, whereas https adds an SSL encryption layer so the item being downloaded cannot be viewed unencrypted by anyone except the end recipient. Changing ''http'' to ''https'' is a common suggestion to improve security when browsing the web from an insecure network (such as a public WiFi hotspot) to avoid surveillance or hijacking to a malicious website; Google automatically switches to https for all mail accounts and is starting to do so with searches. The end recipient will still get whatever nasties were in the original, however — encrypting it doesn't change the content at all.

The IP address referenced in the comic, 65.222.202.53, is currently being used by the shellcode of a JavaScript 0-day exploit for the Tor Browser Bundle being run by the FBI to phone home over the clearnet [http://thehackernews.com/2013/08/Firefox-Exploit-Tor-Network-child-pornography-Freedom-Hosting.html] and de-anonymize visitors to websites on Freedom Hosting that are serving child pornography. [http://www.reddit.com/r/onions/comments/1jmrta/founder_of_the_freedom_hosting_arrested_held/]

==Transcript==
:[Browser download warning box containing the following text.]
:WARNING!
:This type of file can harm your computer! Are you sure you want to download:
:<nowiki>http://65.222.202.53/~TILDE/PUB/CIA-BIN/ETC/INIT.DLL?FILE=__AUTOEXEC.BAT.MY%20OSX%20DOCUMENTS-INSTALL.EXE.RAR.INI.TAR.DOÇX.PHPHPHP.XHTML.TML.XTL.TXXT.0DAY.HACK.ERS_(1995)_BLURAY_CAM-XVID.EXE.TAR.[SCR].LISP.MSI.LNK.ZDA.GNN.WRBT.OBJ.O.H.SWF.DPKG.APP.ZIP.TAR.TAR.CO.GZ.A.OUT.EXE</nowiki>
:[Cancel and Save buttons (Save button disabled)]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Video games]]

1248: Sphere

2018-01-31T23:29:28Z

Cheese12: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1248
| date = August 07, 2013
| title = Sphere
| image = sphere.png
| titletext = This message brought to you by the Society of Astronomers Trapped on the Surface of a Sphere.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] has taken or visited an astronomy class and has become more conscious and aware about the colossal size of the universe, and our own minuscule place in it. She ponders that she can only observe and learn about the rest of the universe; she cannot explore it directly as she is trapped, probably by the constraints of our gravity well, time and human technology.

The {{w|sphere}} she mentions here is the {{w|Earth}}, whose {{w|surface}} is roughly spherical in shape. The {{w|figure of the Earth}} is an irregular shape which can be better approximated as an oblate {{w|spheroid}}, or more exactly as a {{w|geoid}}.

Her disinclination to make "{{w|small talk}}" with [[Cueball]] is a reference to how astronomers and people of other 'big-science' specializations can be so focused on their topic that they become disconnected from the simple details of everyday life. This has also been touched upon in [[663: Sagan-Man]] and [[786: Exoplanets]].

The concept of "small talk", which is usually used as a colloquial term meaning insignificant chatter with others, is taken quite literally by Megan to be small in size. The word itself is juxtaposed with the size of the universe shortly after, which also ties into her previous sentence of being trapped on a "sphere". It seems that astronomy, which deals with ideas of a vastly large scale, has expanded Megan's views to the point where she feels insignificant herself, as well as other matters that concern her. Her gaze outwards also reinforces this suggestion, especially during her conversation with Cueball. She does not engage in eye-to-eye contact, instead replying without looking directly at him. This implies that she is disregarding the current conversation as insignificant as well, which furthers the assumption of Megan's expanded scope of viewpoint.

The title text is a continuation of this theme. The name "Society of Astronomers Trapped on the Surface of a Sphere" or, "SATSS", follows a common naming practice for scientific communities, Society, or Association, or Union of <Scientists> of <Country, Nationality, or What Ever>.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: How are you?
:Megan: Trapped on the surface of a sphere.
:[A beat.]
:Cueball: That astronomy class has made you suck at small talk.
:Megan: The universe is too '''''big''''' for small talk.

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