explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3074: Push Notifications

2025-08-02T17:50:45Z

Erlandyt: Mentioned umwelt

__NOTOC__
So...this is the April Fool's comic, if I'm not mistaken... Oh ye of little faith! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.106|172.71.26.106]] 20:00, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

I turned this on thinking it would just be a few every so often but I quickly realized how this is xkcd and it doesn't "joke". I had to turn this off because it disrupted my schoolwork by popping up every fricking 5 minutes{{unsigned|Moss|20:22, 9 April 2025 (UTC)}}
: Personally, I'm disappointed by how long I have to wait between notifications. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.32|172.71.178.32]] 15:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Apparently my employer (or ublock) is keeping me from experiencing the full effect of any notifications. All I get is "An *actual* error has occurred. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.173|162.158.91.173]] 20:52, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:Yeah, I'm confused too. I've tried Chrome and got nothing. I've tried Edge and got effectively nothing. I progressed one message further, but nothing showed up. No notifications, popups, or whatever. And I have never installed an add-on for Edge. Edge did give me access to the game over screen by disabling notifications, but when I tried to re-enable them, nothing happened.
:Is this a mobile-only thing? [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:51, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:I'm having the same issue. Firefox doesn't work, which I understand, but neither does Safari. I haven't gotten a single notification. [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 06:57, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::Problem solved! Turns out I *was* getting notifications, I just wasn't seeing them. --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::: Where were you getting them? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.212|172.70.207.212]] 17:08, 20 April 2025 (UTC)

What the heck are the "Zoom Notification" ones, with just a pair of numbers? Now that I've been sitting with this for a little bit, they're by far the most common notifications, and the most mysterious. What is "zoom"ing or should be zoomed-in-on or whatever, and what do the two numbers signify? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.75|172.68.22.75]] 20:35, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:I think they're coordinates. So far (x,y) has had x from 4 fo 73 (that I've seen) and y from 2 to 28. That gives a tad over 2000 possible combinations, but omething tells me there won't be more than 500 or so in total. Quite a few y=24 (not yet adjacent by x), and any given x has 0 to 3 different y partners (so far). They ''do'' repeat (I'm not recording how many times, but I'm scatterplotting what I get). The ones prefixed with "oh look!" are tightly clustered in x=6..13 and y=4..11, so far, with no non-"oh look!" ones there, so I'm plotting them in a different marker. I ''suspect'', after many many more Zoom Notifications, I'll be left with (enough of) a pixelated image's pixels (of two types, background colour excluded), or else I'm doing it wrong and I should be drawing lines between the dots, but I never managed to grab them all, so I'm relying on it being a random "spraygun droplets" sort of image-reveal. (Still some way to go...) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.66|172.71.241.66]] 23:08, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: Also, Zoom is a video chat app, if you didn't know that. That's the joke. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:53, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:"They're by far the most common" - not for me - I got a couple early on, and nothing since. All I'm getting now (apart from cat ones when I click a cat) is constant 'comment and subscribe' ones.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.28|172.71.178.28]] 16:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::Last night, right from the start (well, as soon as I got around to going through the process, after I started this Talk page off), Zoom stuff was ''the'' most common. The messages would change as I was documenting them, they were more frequent than the "you have clicked N times" ones. This morning, on reconnecting (exactly how much "Push" there is to the Push Notifications, I don't know, I suspect it's more long-polling in the end), I have had zero new Zoom messages, the "clicked N times" had promoted itself to "click Nth away, N+1th pops up immediately" most of the time, with Constants and Leave A Message On This Random Wikitalk and Old Comic Published essentially, tying for next most frequent, except for when the occasional Cat Facts splurge gets mixed in (all this without re-viewing the comic-page's tab).
::Anyway, my "spraygun coordinates" list hasn't been expanded all today. I was wondering if its frequency had been reduced, server-side, ''because'' it was turning out to be the most polled (and/or pushed) bit of information... And that happened while I was asleep anyway.
::Whilst writing this, I only actually got three alerts... Old Comic, Erroneous Error and Have You Seen My Cat? No... now four, just had a Constant Reminder. Earlier today, I'd have had twice as many in merely a few seconds, at times. So maybe (effective) throttling back has happened across the board, one way or another. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.171|172.69.43.171]] 21:16, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I got multiple "At the tone, your favorite number will be 14", and I don't lnow what to do with that... Is 14 a reference? {{unsigned ip|172.68.234.180|10:00, 24 April 2025}}

; Table of notification
Made a new page called [[3074: Push Notifications/Table of Notifications]], much like [[1506: xkcloud/List of Permalinks]]. I’m hoping that we can put all of the possible notifications into the table, along with any possible images that go along with it and an explanation (if necessary). '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:26, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:I think it might be a good idea to make the table something more like source/name/notification, because there are chains of notifications where the name changes, like the How Many Times Can You Click This? notification. --[[User:Magicalus|Magicalus]] ([[User talk:Magicalus|talk]]) 23:19, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
::Might even want to track the URL that the notification leads to in the cases where it opens a new tab. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.57|172.71.142.57]]
:Did you mean a page much like [[1506:_xkcloud/List_of_Permalinks]]? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.175.171|162.158.175.171]] 01:25, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: Weird, someone changed that. I just reverted it. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 02:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Yes, the user {{diff|371988|behind this change}} appears to have a keyboard->leopard sort of autochanger active (for cloud->butt) (unless they're deliberately doing it alongside deliberate changes to try to get it under the radar?)... I reverted something else they did, with the intention to check everything else (in Right Click's explanation) and unreverting the actually good changes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.160|172.70.162.160]] 08:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

It's like herding LOLcats... anyone else remembering the Secretary arc about now? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.2|172.71.142.2]] 16:12, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I clicked on the silence notifications at a cost button a lot and it set Cueball's PC on fire?
; Code source
I found what is presumably the source code (?) of the comic through the transcript. It’s all JS pages. No idea what they mean (I’m not good with code), but I’m sure that there are some on here that can help dissect it. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:50, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/manifest.json
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/42.4f5b21b3.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/index.js?v=1

: I found this list of states in there, saved to the "iU" variable: intro, wordgame, gameover, biglaptop, boat, default, floating, longdesk, missing, nekotree, nekotree2, nekowater, nodesk, onfire, peek, shark, spinning, squirrel, squirreldesk, squirrelplant, standing, sword, tallchair, tentacle, water, wizard, bigplant, catchair, catonhead, compiling, floor, plant, reverse. Presumably, this is all the images we're looking for. I'll get back to you if I identify what chooses them or all their actual filepaths. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 00:43, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

: I found more urls:
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/marconi-sw.e9d36d05.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/491.7b4e7556.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/491.7b4e7556.js --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.23.45|172.69.23.45]] 03:11, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I have a sneaking suspicion the Zoom Notifications are sketching out an image of some sort
(Update: after plotting like 60 of them no apparent pattern is to be found) [[User:SkiesShaper|SkiesShaper]] ([[User talk:SkiesShaper|talk]]) 22:24, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: I've plotted 397 and it seems to be forming some kind of animal. Maybe a cat, given the comic theme? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.119|172.68.35.119]] 23:24, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:That could make sense yeah - there is definitely an organic sort of pattern emerging from the points I've been plotting out [[User:SkiesShaper|SkiesShaper]] ([[User talk:SkiesShaper|talk]]) 00:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: I'm pretty sure it's a turtle. I have 311 points so far and while it isn't clear, it looks like a turtle. [[User:IMW|IMW]] ([[User talk:IMW|talk]]) 01:51, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: After plotting more I think the "Oh look" coordinates help with drawing out a butterfly sitting on the left side of the turtle. [[User:IMW|IMW]] ([[User talk:IMW|talk]]) 03:36, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: I also am seeing a turtle after graphing the non-“Oh look” ones (and flipping the image vertically). Could the “Zoom notifications” be a reference to [[1416: Pixels]], which is about “zooming” in on turtles? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.12.119|172.68.12.119]] 12:54, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::: Is it fractal? If you zoom in, is it turtles all the way down? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.43|172.68.186.43]] 14:15, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: Once we have enough coordinates, someone should plot them and upload the image. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.56|172.71.142.56]] 23:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: when the image is saved, it appears to have a hex code as a file name. could be some other thing though [[User:Pncak|Pncak]] ([[User talk:Pncak|talk]]) 04:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Apparently one of the notifications is: "The Earth is spinning at a rate of 1 rpd" This is true if you round it, but not exact. The time it takes to rotate is called a sidereal day, and there's one extra sidereal day a year. Basically, there's one solar day removed in a year, because the Earth's motion around the sun cancels it out. Think of it with a tidally locked planet. It spins around once a year, but the sun never moves. Really there's 1.0027379 rotations per day. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 23:02, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: then it is rotating at 1 revolution per ''sidereal'' day, which could still be written as 1 rpd [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 05:23, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

This is the most chaotic comic I've seen in a while. Part of me wants to keep notifications on to see what happens, and part of me wants to turn it all off and throw my phone in a lake [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 00:40, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Should we start uploading different images? [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 03:48, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: And should we create a new page for the images or put them all on the same page, like with umwelt. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 03:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Underneath the "Silence Notifications at a Cost" button, it says "Temporarily pause your notifications at the cost of notifying two random people". Does anyone know how for how long notifications stay silenced, or if there is a way to "unsilence" notifications? Also, when I click on the cats they just disappear. [[User:PDesbeginner|PDesbeginner]] ([[User talk:PDesbeginner|talk]]) 04:09, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: When I click on the cats I get a push notification with a cat fact.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.58|172.70.127.58]] 05:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
Just like any other button, you can click it really fast by clicking the button and then holding "enter" or spacebar. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 04:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Someone should probably comment on "April 1st (observed)". I assume it's a reference to the fact that the comic is late? --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:53, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Aye, as in: {{wiktionary|observed}} #2 [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 08:02, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Is it morally wrong to spam the temporary silence button, just because I want to give other people notifications? [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 08:01, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Notifications are so 2024. Ever since Trump imposed the penguin tariffs, <tt>dmesg</tt> is where it's at. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.126|162.158.91.126]] 09:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Finally yay!! [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!|Aprilfoolsupdate!]] ([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 10:28, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Where have ''you'' been? ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.160|172.71.178.160]] 10:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Good, we don't have to hear you whine like a baby anymore [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.202|172.70.100.202]] 18:54, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I got the file for "Cueball sitting at his desk, with a cat in the foreground near the point of view.", what do I do to add it :⁾ [[User:Toby|Toby]] ([[User talk:Toby|talk]]) 13:24, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:upload it if you can (with the exact file name from imgs.xkcd.com), or copy paste the link here and someone else with uploading rights can upload it. the upload button should be under tools in the left side, under related changes and above special changes. or, you can click this [[Special:Upload|link]] '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:29, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

If you refresh the screen when a clickable cat is on it, it moves. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.173|162.158.62.173]] 14:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

; Zoom notification coordinates
I am making a sheet with the cordinates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133jGfOM6EVuEco4j2NumOAOv6pEealyZpbDoMkESXvs/edit?usp=sharing [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.81|108.162.216.81]] 01:31, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I plotted about 1000 turtle points and about 100 "oh look" points, including all the points I could identify from previous images posted on this page, but I am new to the wiki and it says I don't have permission to upload my picture. Do I need to do more contributing first? By the way, the "oh look" points seem to be forming a squirrel! --[[User:SapphireHarmony|SapphireHarmony]] 19:03, 1 May 2025 (UTC)
:There is a threshold for directly uploading, yes. Easiest/quickest thing to do is to put it on some imgur-like site, give the link to it here and then rely on a friendly neighbourhood uploader to scrape it off there and into here. I assume it's a bit more complete than the image already on the comic page? Or would you care to take ''that'' data (and/or all the recoded points in the appropriate sub-page table) and merge it with what you have, to make something that's potentially got more points in it than any of the other collections? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.109|162.158.74.109]] 00:27, 2 May 2025 (UTC)
:: Here's the link to my current image: https://imgur.com/a/R09e5wt. And yes I already added as many points as I could identify from the previously posted images, thank you to the people who posted those (that's how I was able to get enough to identify the squirrel)! --[[User:SapphireHarmony|SapphireHarmony]] 20:23, 2 May 2025 (UTC)
:::Thanks! I updated the image. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:16, 3 May 2025 (UTC)
:::I also collected some coordinates a while ago: https://pastebin.com/7G34nwAK. It's not as comprehensive, but it fills some of the holes in SapphireHarmony's [https://imgur.com/a/R09e5wt picture]. [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/4a/20250503090605%21zoom_turtle.png This image] and [[3074:_Push_Notifications/Table_of_Notifications#Zoom_notifications|this list]] also seem to fill in some gaps, so it would be great to merge these 4 sources into a single picture. Do we have the data from the two images available in text format? [[User:DarkMatter|DarkMatter]] ([[User talk:DarkMatter|talk]]) 10:45, 3 May 2025 (UTC)
::::That's great! SapphireHarmony said their image was also based on the old black-and-white images, so I think we can mark them as included, unless you found some empty points in the new one that were already included in the previous images. I guess we only need to fill in the gap using the spreadsheet at the top of this topic, by the IP contrinbutor, and your own Pastebin list! It would be great if you could insert any of the coordinates you find in the spreadsheet or your list into [[3074:_Push_Notifications/Table_of_Notifications#Zoom_notifications|this wiki's table]], so we have a single source we can use that contain everything. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:32, 3 May 2025 (UTC)
::::I was using Desmos to create the graph, here's a link to the graph if you want to make a copy off it and add more points, or see the list of points I was using https://www.desmos.com/calculator/nzc9jfdvyq. The x1 and x2 lists are the points I personally collected, and x3 and x4 are the ones I didn't already have that I scraped from other sources (though I may have cross-contaminated a few points between lists). I copied as many points from the black-and-white one as I could, but it's possible I missed some. Yes please add more points if you have some! --[[User:SapphireHarmony|SapphireHarmony]] 15:30, 3 May 2025 (UTC)
::::: Thanks for the Desmos link! I've exported your x1 and x2 coordinates and merged them with the data from the other 4 sources. I didn't include your x3 and x4 since those are meant to be duplicates - but I did notice two pixels from there, (73, 21) and (35, 14), that didn't appear in any of the 4 datasets (google doc, wiki's table, wiki's old picture, my pastebin). Did you use another source for those, or might they be typos? I've also uploaded a new image and updated the wiki's table with the combined data. There are still about 15 pixels missing from the turtle, but the squirrel now looks like it might be complete! [[User:DarkMatter|DarkMatter]] ([[User talk:DarkMatter|talk]]) 07:13, 4 May 2025 (UTC)
::::::Like I said, I may have cross-contaminated a few points between lists, since I was keeping an eye on notifications to add new points while also copying over old points. Thanks for making the new picture! --[[User:SapphireHarmony|SapphireHarmony]] 13:51, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

; Notification typos
I revieved two typos in two different notifications:
"Or" is "r" in a message saying that it's confused whether is is fhe server or the client.
"Ratio" is "ration" in the message "At the tone, the Golden Ratio will be equal to one half of 1 plus SQRT(5)".
Does everyone get those typos? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.16|172.70.34.16]]
:I don't know if they're typos or part of the humor. Enjoy your golden ration. :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.41|162.158.63.41]] 16:33, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I am not getting any notifications. I have three questions: 1) Does anyone know how long the "temporary silence" button lasts? 2) Does its effect last after you press the emergency stop button and re-subscribe to the nonsense? And 3) Is there just a problem with using Chrome? Thanks, [[User:Xnerkcd|Xnerkcd]] ([[User talk:Xnerkcd|talk]]) 17:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Update, the clickable cats are showing up but not doing anything
::They just sit there unless you refresh the screen. Then they can change where they are.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.108|162.158.62.108]] 17:52, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::The problem's fixed; my computer had notifications disabled :) [[User:Xnerkcd|Xnerkcd]] ([[User talk:Xnerkcd|talk]]) 17:56, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Hi, I was able to get one of the currently placeholder images but just made this account to add it, looks like i'm to new to upload it. Is there a good way to get the file to the community? Namely it's the flooded one with the Shark Fin.--[[User:ItemCrafting|ItemCrafting]] ([[User talk:ItemCrafting|talk]]) 19:40, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Links to both the Shark https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/a592ca.png and the Foreground Cat https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/cb0653.png .--[[User:ItemCrafting|ItemCrafting]] ([[User talk:ItemCrafting|talk]]) 20:23, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: Also Found: https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/3b9830.png Large Tree, Current version looks to be a broken link. --[[User:ItemCrafting|ItemCrafting]] ([[User talk:ItemCrafting|talk]]) 20:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::: thanks [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 21:20, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::: Here's the cat version of the tree: https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/8eeb55.png [[User:Rerere284|Rerere284]] ([[User talk:Rerere284|talk]]) 01:10, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

April fools comic!!! LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - [[User:Bb777|me, hi]] ([[User talk:Bb777|talk]]) 21:27, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

;Cat reference

The cat image itself and the concept of cats appearing after leaving the page idle for some time are a reference to Neko Atsume --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.82|162.158.103.82]] 21:52, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I don't seem to ever get more than 2 clickable cats at a time.[[Special:Contributions/104.23.190.37|104.23.190.37]] 18:57, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

;Not working
The page doesn't work for me in Chrome on Google Plxel. I just get a image missing symbol. :( [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.245|172.71.98.245]] 22:54, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Same here -- the image loads initially and then real quickly it's replaced by the broken image. This happens using m.xkcd.com, but not the "desktop" site version. Chromebook with ChromeOS: Version 134.0.6998.183 (Official Build) (64-bit); also broken on Pixel 8 Pro, Android 15. [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 23:10, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

;Push Notifications disabled in browser

My browser config doesn't allow sites to request push notifications, and the result is that once I reach the point of enabling them, the laptop immediately blows up. Is this worth mentioning in the summary? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.164.163|162.158.164.163]] 23:37, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:did your laptop blow up or the one in the comic? --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.114.7|172.71.114.7]] 10:52, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Near the bottom of the current Transcript is the line, '[...something appeared then dissappeared...]'. I saw this too, and on the third time through the game, I did a screen recording. Two messages briefly appeared. [text and background in shades of red, all caps] "Error Sending Push Notifications" and [text in black, background grey, all caps] "OK, You Win. Setting Up Push Notifications. [2nd line] Just Remember, we tried to warn you." [[User:Nekoninda|Nekoninda]] ([[User talk:Nekoninda|talk]])Nekoninda

My word is "battery", I'm sure there are also lots of people who chose "horse" or "staple". Correct? --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.91|172.69.68.91]] 14:27, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
:Bird is the word, man.[[Special:Contributions/104.23.190.37|104.23.190.37]] 18:57, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
::I ''was'' going to try "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch", but accidentally submitted a blank word (it looks like others have too... well, the second part of my situation, I'm still not sure if the first bit even would have been accepted/enterable, never mind how many others would have tried it). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.134|172.68.205.134]] 21:12, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
:::cat --[[User:Bb777|me, hi]] ([[User talk:Bb777|talk]]) 00:37, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

; Mobile / Desktop behaviour depends on browser

I'm on Firefox for Android, and I got the signup behaviour described for the desktop version (no adfing to home screen; asks for Notification permission.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.95.57|172.71.95.57]] 08:17, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

I made a phone background using an image from this one! https://file.garden/ZXYYgWMYuz15fq8l/export202504102005490721.png [[User:JokinglyEvil|JokinglyEvil]] ([[User talk:JokinglyEvil|talk]]) 11:08, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

; Picture list
Pictures are prefixed by https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/??????.png, from the list :
*Misc : static/ead1d8.png static/59b30d.png static/388e5b.png
*Bkground : static/4ad340.png static/3b9830.png static/2c83c1.png static/9e4fd6.png static/9d658f.png static/83824a.png static/220211.png static/a0314e.png static/e2eca2.png static/d56a28.png static/20b757.png static/226279.png static/1f2fee.png static/0bfd44.png static/20be4a.png static/cb0653.png static/313380.png static/31a492.png static/11a4b5.png static/a592ca.png static/1450b1.png static/e0f706.png static/fa52d2.png static/69af58.png static/a7d30d.png static/3e33fd.png static/da85bd.png static/303e90.png static/6f48dd.png static/342f4d.png
*Messages: static/fc9dfd.png static/8d9c55.png static/aa973f.png static/923036.png static/9141a2.png static/5f9f66.png static/6af293.png static/935279.png static/b286f5.png static/67da67.png static/b9fc1b.png static/7abdee.png static/c2e227.png static/8bdac7.png static/7e02cf.png static/b07329.png static/c6de0e.png static/a464c9.png static/7f6e55.png static/a96735.png static/ff6357.png static/876854.png static/cb5124.png static/2235f1.png static/e01a73.png static/a75f92.png static/f41766.png static/456b99.png static/d3e6db.png static/da4d83.png static/f3de11.png static/867baf.png static/6b2d69.png static/2705b9.png static/bedb72.png static/f9b33d.png static/3e269d.png static/b034f4.png static/eea7ff.png static/e83fd7.png static/8ebf3f.png static/c6ac3d.png static/a9779a.png static/eddb3b.png

There is another list with the same pictures but twice as large (same order) :

"static/0890d4.png static/198d53.png static/bb9aa1.png static/4ad340.png static/cbe58c.png static/b5a217.png static/618dcc.png static/323351.png static/17d10b.png static/6c8053.png static/0690ec.png static/8576c0.png static/2b79e1.png static/a80810.png static/41143b.png static/8eeb55.png static/99bb67.png static/b84fdf.png static/f0de4f.png static/b0cec1.png static/a4158d.png static/dbc071.png static/c969b2.png static/f3b793.png static/0cd47d.png static/8a5b95.png static/2a2199.png static/63ed1d.png static/2a67b6.png static/7ec02f.png static/8e981d.png static/77a1d5.png static/e49d32.png static/fe60e1.png static/dd3fd2.png static/2b8643.png static/017e3a.png static/e46fe0.png static/6ad951.png static/ef2e76.png static/7d6018.png static/905794.png static/52870c.png static/a17724.png static/aa18ad.png static/1094f5.png static/39bffe.png static/8635c4.png static/d63451.png static/f2c3df.png static/5fa4ed.png static/00050e.png static/026b2f.png static/bcd4f8.png static/f777a4.png static/713981.png static/ed794b.png static/b3696b.png static/a2fc4c.png static/f468fd.png static/bc9195.png static/2ef6f1.png static/1682f4.png static/6a6479.png static/9dd25c.png static/a2e92d.png static/442a18.png static/2139a1.png static/5378fa.png static/8edfa4.png static/25c931.png static/91b6d9.png static/eb016f.png static/519d53.png static/554084.png static/301dc6.png static/4bfe91.png static/7b89ac.png"
--{{unsigned|Biem|14:59, 11 April 2025 (UTC)}}
:Hey Biem, could you perhaps use <code>*</code> to make your message into a list? Thanks. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 15:08, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
::I certainly could, but it would take page space with no added value... [[User:Biem|Biem]] ([[User talk:Biem|talk]]) 15:54, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
:::It would (in my humble opinion) make it more readable and easier to copy paste into a url. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 22:01, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

I enabled notifications, and no more appeared. Maybe it just doesn't work with my browser? Cats keep appearing, but that's all. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.212.132|162.158.212.132]] 16:39, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
:Came back a while later and the chair was floating, so stuff is happening, but I don't know why it's not saying anything. I hope I don't just have browser notifications shut off completely... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.137.163|162.158.137.163]] 20:54, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

I got multiple "At the tone, your favorite number will be 14", and I don't lnow what to do with that... Is 14 a reference? {{unsigned ip|172.68.234.180|09:59, 24 April 2025}}

; Finishing

- How does the experience conclude if you subscribe and do nothing?

- How do you abort and escape?

- How do you remove traces from your device?

--[[User:Evanwolf|Evanwolf]] ([[User talk:Evanwolf|talk]]) 17:20, 12 May 2025 (UTC)

== Not working ==

On Firefox desktop and Fennec F-Droid (fork of firefox mobile) and android chrome i get ERROR SEDNING PUSH NOTIFICATIONS. [[User:Velocifyer|Velocifyer]] ([[User talk:Velocifyer|talk]])
:I am also experiencing issues on both Brave on macOS and Safari on iOS. [[User:Erlandyt|Erlandyt]] ([[User talk:Erlandyt|talk]]) 20:27, 31 July 2025 (UTC)
::someone should mention it in th article then, or add it to the incomplete tag! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:01, 31 July 2025 (UTC)
:::I think we should also mention how [[umwelt]] also experienced issues (even though the cause isn't the same) [[User:Erlandyt|Erlandyt]] ([[User talk:Erlandyt|talk]]) 17:50, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3074: Push Notifications

2025-07-31T20:27:46Z

Erlandyt: about the error

3066: Cosmic Distance Calibration

2025-03-22T13:15:24Z

Erlandyt: Added a paragraph about why these labels may be so bad

{{comic
| number = 3066
| date = March 21, 2025
| title = Cosmic Distance Calibration
| image = cosmic_distance_calibration_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This is the biggest breakthrough since astronomers noticed that the little crosshairs around red giant stars starting to burn helium are all the same size.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN ASTRONOMER BOT - MILKY WAY GALAXY - 0 LIGHT YEARS AWAY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic interprets the UI labels next to the stars as actual objects in space, which is absurd.{{cn}} If these labels were to become astrophysical objects in reality, it would quickly result in major changes to the universe. As each of these labels would need to be clearly visible from an observatory, they would require monstrous size, maybe even big enough to collapse into black holes when pointing to stars farther away. They would also create a sudden lack of need for themselves, as the stars would be gravitationally attracted to their respective labels and promptly destroyed.

Labels like this are often generated by outdated or specialized software and tend to use bad fonts and small font sizes. The software developer may have expected all images to be exported at the standard resolution at the time of development and set the font size to pixel size in the code.

The label on the billboard appears to be pointing to a star in the spiral Galaxy M106, located between 22 and 25 million light-years away from earth.

The title text suggests that the "crosshairs" around red giant stars, indicating those starting to burn helium, are standardized objects in space. One of such crosshairs can be seen in the comic, around the previously mentioned marked star. These crosshairs, like the labels in the comic, are just graphical UI marks.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Ponytail is at a lectern, pointing at an image of intergalactic space. There is an image that shows a zoomed-in label beneath a star with 4 points. The zoomed-in label shows three lines of text, some of it partially cut off:]
:M106 0-06 [cut-off]
:Distance:
:23.6163 MLY

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Cosmology News: New telescopes are finally powerful enough to read the little labels next to stars showing how far away they are.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]

2974: Storage Tanks

2024-08-19T20:10:15Z

Erlandyt:

{{comic
| number = 2974
| date = August 19, 2024
| title = Storage Tanks
| image = storage_tanks_2x.png
| imagesize = 321x251px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We're considering installing a pressurization system to keep the tanks at constant pressure solely to deter them.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a pressurized BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A common question in introductory calculus courses asks how long it will take a tank to empty, assuming the rate of flow through a hole at the base is proportional to the pressure at the base of the tank. Assuming the tank is shaped like a prism, as appears to be the case in this comic, the amount of fluid left in the tank will follow an exponential decay, as the rate of pressure decrease will be proportional to the pressure. Variations of this question may consider more complicated tank geometries too, in which case the pressure at the base will not be simply proportional to the volume of fluid remaining in the tank.

The title text jokingly alludes to the fact that by maintaining a constant pressure at the base, the rate of flow would itself become constant, which would simplify the problem greatly and therefore make it much less interesting, or useful, as an example in a calculus course.

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

{{comic discussion}}

1037: Umwelt

2024-08-15T18:43:47Z

Erlandyt: /* Aurora */

{{comic
| number = 1037
| date = April 1, 2012
| title = Umwelt
| image = umwelt_the_void.jpg
| titletext = Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit--from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your web browser.}}
{{TOC}}
*To view your personal version of the comic, visit the {{xkcd|1037|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
This was the third [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was [[880: Headache]] from Friday April 1st 2011. The next was [[1193: Externalities]] released on Monday April 1st 2013.

An {{w|Umwelt}}, as the title text explains, is the idea that one's entire way of thinking is dependent on their surroundings. Thus, this {{w|April Fools}} comic changes based on the browser, location or referrer. Thus, what the viewer is viewing the comic on, where they live or where they came from determines which comic they actually see. As a result, there are actually multiple comics that went up on April Fools' Day, although only one is seen.
(The term 'Umwelt,' as mentioned in the comic, refers to the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok)

Information about how the wide variety of data was collected and credit for the viewers who contributed can be found [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/rnst4/april_fools_xkcd_changing_comic/ here].

===The Void===
[[File:umwelt the void.jpg]]

If the device or browser you are using does not support Javascript, you will simply see a static image of a white swirl on a dark background.

Possible reference to The Ring (https://imgur.com/wlGmm), as though to suggest that using an alternative browser is dismal and horrific.

Davean (xkcd's sysadmin): "[This] comic isn't available everywhere and it can come up i[n] some situation[s] only for recognized browsers."

Browser: Alternative Browser

===Aurora===
[[File:umwelt aurora.png|800px]]

One could interpret that since Megan didn't go out and therefore missed seeing the {{w|Aurora}} (northern lights), Cueball in his [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|knit cap]] lied about it. That way, she wouldn't have felt sad that she missed out. Another interpretation could be that he decides that since she did not even bother to go outside to see such a spectacular sight he will not tell her about it. And yet another could be that he did not think it was interesting.

Cueball could possibly also be red-green colorblind, seeing the green aurorae as grey "clouds". This would serve as an example for the theme of the comic, as a non-colorblind person and a colorblind person seeing the same color would perceive it differently, one seeing it as its true color, and the other seeing it without the shade of color they cannot see. If this is the case, then it would be a reference to umwelt, as Cueball would be living in a world where the auroras do not reach his location.

In real life, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-northern-lights-dont-look-anything-like-they-do-in-photos_n_5500a4d9e4b0e62d0dd4f9bb aurorae are usually seen as grey/white clouds] to the naked eye, as our eyes cannot perceive the "greener" colors as well in the dark.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Locations: Canada, Boston, Indiana, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Minnesota< Norway, Denmark, France, Ireland, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Seoul (Safari), London (on Firefox), China (on Firefox and Safari), Finland (Uses "Canada"). Also in Virginia, but using Ohio in the first panel; in Wisconsin and Maryland, but using Canada in the first panel; in Marion, Illinois, but using Canada in the first panel along with the phrase "as far south as us" in the first panel, and in Utah, also using the phrase "as far south as us", same with Colombia, Spain, Georgia, Florida, Washington State, and California.

In [[1302: Year in Review]] a possibly different Megan has a completely different approach to the chance of seeing northern lights, as that was the only event she was looking forward to in 2013, and it failed. If this is the same Megan, perhaps she learned that there actually were northern lights in her area from another source, and so desperately wanted to have another chance to see them.

===Snake===
[[File:umwelt snake composite 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt snake composite.png|Full size]]

The joke here is the extreme length of snakes. The world's longest living snake is the {{w|reticulated python}}, the longest ever measuring over 22 feet (6.95 meters). The blue and orange circles refer to the hit game {{w|Portal}}.
There is also a reference to the book "The Little Prince" in the second panel, where there is a large bulge in the snake that looks like an elephant. The Little Prince starts out by mentioning a drawing that the author made when he was six that showed an elephant inside a snake.

Also, the number and content of the panels changes depending on the size of your browser window.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Specific AltText for this image: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit -from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window size.

Location: Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS, Chrome version 49.0.2623.112), Connecticut (Safari for iOS, Chrome Version 73.0.3683.103, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge), Virginia (on Chrome), Michigan (Firefox v46.0.1), Penang (Chrome Version 65.0.3325.162), London (Microsoft Edge), Germany (on Opera One (version: 106.0.4998.70)), Fruita, Colorado (on Chrome for Android version 123.0.6312.80), China (Chrome and Edge).

===Black Hat===
[[File:umwelt tortoise 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt tortoise.png|Full size]]

Cueball as an analyst attempts to psychoanalyze [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] [[72: Classhole|classhole]] tendencies. Cueball's quote and the whole setup is a direct reference to the movie {{w|Blade Runner}} (1982) and Black Hat is taking the Voight-Kampff test which is used to identify replicants from real humans.

Black Hat's reason for not helping the tortoise is that ''it '''knows''' what it did'' and thus in Black Hat's world view it deserves being turned over. The final part of the joke is that when zooming out it turns out that there is a tortoise behind Black Hat and he has actually already turned it over for what it did.

Location: Seems to appear mostly in "other countries" — those without location-specific comics.

===Too Quiet===
[[File:umwelt too quiet 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt too quiet.png|Full size]]

A reference to {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} which has been [[87: Velociraptors|constantly]] [[135: Substitute|referred]] [[1110: Click and Drag|to]] [[155: Search History|before]] [[758: Raptor Fences|in]] this comic.

Also referencing the film {{w|2 Fast 2 Furious|2 Fast 2 Furious}}, an entertaining, yet intellectually unprovoking sequel in a popular film franchise, which is aimed at teenagers and young adults, prompting the blunt response from the stickman. The fact that Steve would use such a cliché {{w|2000s (decade)|noughties}} movie term in such an intense moment, and the subsequent curse, is the joke in this comic.

Location: short version — iPhone 5c Safari browser in Texas, iPhone 5 Chrome Browser in Minnesota, long version - Google Chrome browser in Indiana, Windows 8 Laptop

===Pond===
[[File:umwelt pond mobile.png]][[File:umwelt pond wide.png]]

Two different versions showed, the narrower version for mobile devices.

Location: The Netherlands and various other countries.

===Galaxies===
[[File:umwelt galaxies 1024.jpg]]
[[:File:umwelt galaxies.jpg|Full size]]

Megan is distracted from her conversation with [[Cueball]] by realizing that the space behind his head, from her vantage point, contains millions of galaxies. This is similar to an [https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/astro/hst_deep_field.jpg incredible photograph] taken by the Hubble Telescope, in which a tiny dark area of space in fact contained numerous galaxies.

The title text is an imaginative leap from this scenario: that the galaxies would be up to no good once Cueball is turned away from them.

This comic was only reported once... the intended environmental context is a mystery.

Location: unknown

===xkcd Gold===
[[File:umwelt xkcd gold.png]]

This is probably a reference to the 4chan Gold Account, an implementation on 4chan that does not actually exist, and is usually used to trick newcomers into revealing their credit card numbers. The joke is that "Gold Account" users can supposedly block other users from viewing images they have posted. The fifth panel is probably a reference to Beecock, a notorious set of shocker images. 4chan's moderators have been known to give out "beecock bans" or "/z/ bans" to particularly annoying users, which redirect the user to a page containing beecock and the text "OH NO THE BOARD IS GONE".

Referrer: 4chan

===Yo Mama===
[[File:umwelt dog ballast.png]]

Possible reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "{{w|Harrison Bergeron}}."

The joke is that people's different experiences shape how they perceive the world in that the people who live in this world would perceive the joke as funny, while people in our world would not get it. This is the idea of umwelt mentioned at the top of the context where different individuals perceive the world differently.

Refer: Facebook

===Reddit===
[[File:umwelt reddit.png]]

Reference to referencing, because Reddit, as a referring site, likes references to its referencing in its references.

This comic also features recursive imagery similar to [[688: Self-Description]] where the second panel embeds the entire comic within itself. (Except, conspicuously, the arrow indicating that it is "You" in the first panel.)

One of the browser tabs visible in the center panel is {{w|Elk}} on Wikipedia.

Referrer: Reddit

===Buns and Hot dogs===
[[File:umwelt somethingawful.jpg]]

This is a reference to the question "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 6 while buns come in packages of 8?"

Another, more sexual reference to this question can be found in [[1641: Hot Dogs]].

Referrer: SomethingAwful, Questionable Content, & MetaFilter

===Twitter===
[[File:umwelt twitter.jpg]]

A summary of the "content" typically found on Twitter.

In the tweet feed, there are three tweets about some podcast on the top, followed by the tweet containing link they clicked on to get to the comic, tweets about Rob Delaney, unspecified passive-aggressive tweets, and a tweet from {{w|Horse_ebooks}} retweeted by one of the users the reader follows.

On the left, the topmost dialog, with profile information, shows that the user has posted 1,302 tweets, but only follows 171 people and has even fewer followers, at a measly 48. This is marked with a sad face, implying that the user wants more followers.

Below that is the "who to follow" dialog, which is written up as consisting of "assholes".

Below that is the "trending tags" dialog for the United States. It is full of tags about word games, tags about misogyny, and tags about Justin Bieber.

Below that is an unidentified dialog full of "stuff your eyes automatically ignore". And finally, on the bottom is the background color, which is "a really pleasant blue".

"Aggression" is misspelled.

Referrer: Twitter

===Wikipedia===
[[File:umwelt wikipedia wide.jpg]]
[[File:umwelt wikipedia mobile.png]]

The term {{w|Mile High Club}} (or MHC) is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have had sexual intercourse while on board an aircraft. Randall says that reading the news articles on it has distracted him from making that comic.

Two different versions shown, the narrower version (the single panel with all the text) for mobile devices.

Referrer: Wikipedia

===Google Chrome===
[[File:umwelt chrome1.jpg]]

{{w|Sergey Brin}} (born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies. As of 2013, his personal wealth was estimated to be $24.4 billion. Randall makes the joke that as the founder of Google, Brin's permission would be needed to use Google Chrome. Because there are millions of people who use Google, it is likely that at least some of the time Brin would be asleep, thus he would need to be woken.

Browser: Chrome

===Chrome/Firefox===
[[File:umwelt chrome2.png]]

Mozilla {{w|Firefox}} is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X and Linux, with a mobile version for Android and iOS, by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Cueball is complaining about {{w|Google Chrome}}, to which [[Ponytail]] replies that there is an {{w|add-on}} that fixes what he is complaining about. When questioned, she replies that the add-on is Firefox, which isn't an add-on at all and is instead a different browser.

Browser: Chrome

===Google Chrome-2===
[[File:umwelt chrome3.png]]

This panel references Google Chrome's error screen, which shows a puzzle piece. The comic humorously implies that Chrome is looking for that piece. When completing jigsaw puzzles, a common strategy is to figure out where the pieces must be from their geometry rather than from the picture they create. In this case, the text suggests that Chrome believes the puzzle piece connects to the pieces which form one of the corners of the puzzle, which may seem impossible because any piece that links up to a corner would usually have at least one flat edge, which this piece has none. However, more complicated puzzles have complex shapes and are not always simply approximate squares with tabs and blanks.

Browser: Chrome or silk on desktop view

===Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing===
[[File:umwelt firefox incognito.png]]

Another reference to crashing web browsers.
Firefox shows the history when it crashes.
Browser: Firefox (Incognito only?)

===Internet Explorer===
[[File:umwelt ie.png]]

This is yet another reference to crashing web browsers but instead, Internet Explorer has given up. It could be because there are too many sessions, they are shutting it down, or maybe it was too lazy to do anything.

Browser: Internet Explorer

===Maxthon===
[[File:umwelt maxthon.png]]

Browser: {{w|Maxthon}}

===Netscape Navigator===
[[File:umwelt netscape womanoctopus.png]]

[[File:umwelt netscape man.png]]

{{w|Netscape Navigator}} was a web browser popular in the 1990s.

Browser: Netscape

===Rockmelt===
[[File:umwelt rockmelt.png]]

{{w|Rockmelt}} is a social-media-based browser.

Reference to the gospel song {{w|Longing for Old Virginia: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1934)|"There's no hiding place down here" by The Carter Family}}, later covered by Stephen Stills.

:I run to the rock just to hide my face
:And the rocks cried out, no hiding place
:There's no hiding place down here

It may additionally be a reference to the ''Babylon 5'' episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which featured the song.

Browser: Rockmelt

===Plugin Disabled===
[[File:umwelt plugin disabled.png]]

When the Google Chrome web browser does not have the required software (called a plug-in) to display a web page's content, it displays a puzzle piece icon and an error message. In this case, Chrome informs the user that the content is impossible to display.

Browser: Plugin (?) Disabled, Safari Desktop

===Corporate Networks===
[[File:umwelt corporate general.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate google chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes other.png]]

These error messages appear if the user is on a network owned by one of the corporations noted. The error message includes a warning against speaking on the company's behalf.

ISP: Corporate networks of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, NY Times

===Military===
[[File:umwelt military.png]]

[[Cueball]] assumes that anyone using a military network has an important job like watching for incoming missiles. He includes a thank-you to the user for their military service.

ISP: Military networks

===T-Mobile===
[[File:umwelt tmobile.png]]

Reference to T-Mobile's distinguishing feature (at the time it was written) of weaker coverage, in relation to other major providers.

ISP: T-Mobile

===Verizon and AT&T===
[[File:umwelt verizon.png]]

[[File:umwelt att.png]]

Reference to Verizon and AT&T's scandals/controversy regarding implementation of bandwidth caps.

ISP: Verizon and AT&T

===France===
[[File:umwelt france.jpg]]

A common joke about France is that the nation does not win wars. This originated from France's annexation by Germany during World War II, and America's late entry into the war, which is sometimes portrayed humorously as a case of America 'saving' Europe, in this joke particularly France (the role of the French resistance is usually not mentioned), leading to a common American joke at the expense of France's military prowess [https://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html][https://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-frenchmilitaryvictories.htm][https://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm]. When France did not form part of the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, aligning with the many countries that condemned U.S. action, the joke was revived.

A Google search of "French Military Victories" + 'I'm feeling lucky' used to direct to "did you mean: french military defeats" (due to a {{w|Google bomb}}). Cueball is trying to show this to his friend, who is French. However, his joke backfires, as his friend immediately points out that the stereotype of France not having military victories is undercut by the fact that one of the most innovative military commanders in history, Napoleon, was French by citizenship (though Italian/Corsican by culture, as the French annexed Corsica a few months before his birth to an Italian noble family), and in fact conquered much of Europe.

Following the theme of umwelt, the comic highlights the two characters' differing perspectives: The American thinks that France is a military failure, while the Frenchman thinks of Napoleon.

The last line of the comic further implies that Cueball is not as smart as he thinks he is in regards to anything French, as he mispronounces the French loan word "{{w|Touché (fencing)|touché}}".

Locations: France & Quebec

===Germany===
[[File:umwelt germany.png]]

This comic references the {{w|Berlin airlift#The start of the Berlin Airlift|Berlin Airlift}}, a relief measure for citizens in West Berlin (surrounded by East Germany) instituted by the Western Allies after World War II. In reality, the Western Allies flew a grand total of 500,000 tons of food over the Soviet blockade in planes. Randall puts a twist on this event by making it more fun: dropping supplies from a grand chairlift. The play on words is that "chairlift" rhymes with "airlift" and thus makes an easy substitution. The chair force is also a name that other service branches use to make fun of the air force.

Location: Germany

===Israel===
[[File:umwelt israel.png]]

Translation: Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

A reference to the multiple use of the word Jewish to denote both a {{w|Judaism|religious group}} and a {{w|Jews|nationality/ethnicity}}, as well as the stereotype of Jews holding low opinions of interfaith marriage.

A side note: Randall accidentally drew an apostrophe instead of the similar-looking Hebrew letter י everywhere that letter should appear.

Location: Israel

===Carnot Cycle===
[[File:umwelt japan.png]]

A pun on "cycle"; a "{{w|Carnot cycle}}" is a thermodynamic cycle (e.g. refrigeration). Its efficiency depends on the temperature of the hot and cold 'reservoirs' in which it is operating. The icon on the side of the motorcycle resembles a [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg/1000px-Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg.png graph of the Carnot cycle.]

Location: Japan

===UK===
[[File:umwelt uk.jpg]]

He worded this as though to imply that the UK is a state of the U.S., and an unimportant one at that, which pokes fun at the UK, creating a paradox (sort of).

Location: UK

===Blizzard===
[[File:umwelt disasters blizzard.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or blizzards are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe blizzard, while the Northeasterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild blizzard.

For each particular location in which this displayed, the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Georgia, Halifax, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, the Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Texas, Toronto, Tennessee, New York, Wisconsin

===Tornado===
[[File:umwelt disasters tornado.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or tornadoes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe tornado, while the Midwesterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild tornado. It's similar to [[#Blizzard|Blizzard]].

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Dallas, Illinois, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Tennessee, Texas (and Virginia, but it used Ohio in the third panel)

Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. The picture used in [[1754: Tornado Safety Tips]] very reminiscent of the one from this version of Umwelt. [[Category:Tornadoes]]

===Hurricane===
[[File:umwelt disasters hurricane.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or hurricanes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe hurricane, while the Easterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild hurricane. It's similar to [[#Blizzard|Blizzard]] and [[#Tornado|Tornado]].

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: D.C, Florida, Georgia, Houston, Miami, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

===Lake Diver Killer===
[[File:umwelt lake diver.png]]

This comic shows a news reporter standing in front of a lake. She is reporting on a serial killer who targets divers. As more divers are sent in to investigate and/or search for bodies, more divers go missing, the implication being that they were also murdered. The more likely reason is the lake itself is dangerous for diving, and the divers probably drowned from natural hazards (undercurrents, entanglement, running out of oxygen in tanks, etc.) instead of a malicious assailant. Also, this is a sort of loop, where each time a diver gets killed, the investigative team goes and investigates, causing more divers to get killed, causing more deaths, and so on.

Location: Bay Areas, Metro Detroit, Vermont showed an image specifically referencing Lake Champlain

===Lincoln Memorial===
[[File:umwelt lincoln memorial.png]]

{{w|Abraham Lincoln}}, the 16th president of the United States of America, was not an entity composed wholly of nanobots that attempted to consume the entire nation to then be imprisoned within the {{w|Lincoln Memorial}}.{{Citation needed}} The inscription references the epitaph at the actual Lincoln Memorial, which reads "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever".

Locations: Illinois & Washington, D.C.

===Helicopter Hunting===
[[File:umwelt helicoptor.png]]

In Alaska, governments and individuals have {{w|Wolf hunting#North America 2|shot wolves en masse from helicopters}} in an attempt to artificially inflate populations of game, such as moose and caribou, to make hunting them easier. This is opposed by many, as the game populations are not endangered (thus, this threatens ecological balance); wolves are a small threat to livestock in North America; most of the wolf body —including meat and bones— goes wasted as they are sought mainly for their pelts.

Knowledge of this issue was popularized by press around vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's infamous support for this culling method.

Location: Alaska

===Newspaper===
[[File:umwelt life scientists.png]][[File:umwelt life rit.png]][[File:umwelt life umass.png]]

Creating new life has long been a well understood process, in a lab or otherwise.

This comic is likely a reference to the title text of [[983: Privacy]]

Location: Various

Specific versions appeared for RIT and UMass Amherst

===Robot Paul Revere===
[[File:umwelt paul revere.png]]

Combination of the legend of {{w|Paul Revere#"Midnight Ride"|Paul Revere}} and a computer bit that differentiates between two situations by indicating a zero or a one.

Location: Boston

===Counting Cards===

All four colleges in this series are in Massachusetts and, being similar, in pairs, rival each other to some extent (Harvard-MIT and Smith-Wellesley). The comic contains a reference to the {{w|MIT Blackjack Team}}, which entered popular culture via the {{w|21 (2008 film)|film 21}}, and a possible reference to Orwell's book '1984' and/or {{w|Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|popular homage to it via Star Trek}}: "There are four lights."[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChYIm6MW39k]

Bonus: The thought-gears in panel 3 are spinning against each other.

Location: Harvard

[[File:umwelt counting cards harvard.png]]

Location: MIT

[[File:umwelt counting cards mit.png]]

"Course 15s" at MIT are the business major students, often mocked for taking a less-rigorous program. The different interpretation for why the MIT students could not count cards compared to Harvard may be a reference to the theme of umwelt.

Location: Smith

[[File:umwelt counting cards smith.png]]

Location: Wellesley

[[File:umwelt counting cards wellesley.png]]

Both Wellesley and Smith are all-women colleges in Massachusetts.

===Giant Box Trap===
[[File:umwelt box trap.png]]

Randall got his undergrad in Physics at the {{w|Christopher Newport University}}, and was scheduled to return shortly to give a talk. The "Trible" figure on the right is Paul Trible, the then-president of CNU. This comic depicts a classic trap, where an upside-down box is propped up with a stick. When the stick is removed, by pulling a string, the box falls and traps whatever is underneath it. Aside from the joke of the obvious trap, there's also the fact that the president would not be responsible for revoking unearned diplomas.

Location: Christopher Newport University

===Chemo Support===
[[File:umwelt chemo.jpg]]

[[Cueball]] has shaved his head in support of people going through {{w|chemotherapy}} but, as he is always depicted as a stick figure with no hair, no one can tell.

Randall's now-wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and apparently DFCI is where they've been spending much of their time.

Location: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

===Reviews===
[[File:reviews.png]]

The previous strip appears twice when using [[wikipedia:Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]].

This strip was previously used in [[1036: Reviews]].

Browser: Any using Tor, xkcd API (JSON, RSS, Atom), w3m and reports of seeing it on a Kindle Fire HD, unixkcd; also happens if visiting with a browser that does not support JavaScript (such as Firefox with NoScript)

===Nothing===

[[File:Umwelt blank.jpg]]

In some cases, the comic can be completely absent, with only the top and bottom buttons visible. On most newer browsers, this is caused by a script loading part of the comic via a HTTP request while the rest of the webpage is delivered over HTTPS. This is referred to as [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Mixed_content mixed content] and is blocked on modern browsers by default due to security concerns. This version of the comic is therefore likely not an intended outcome, but rather an unintended consequence of how this comic was implemented. [https://mastodon.social/@chromakode/109531309722997557 It has been confirmed] that this was not intentional and will be fixed. Since this comic's release, all devices viewing it have returned two rows of navigation buttons if near IP address 69.114.249.104.

The http(s) issue seems to have been fixed.

==Transcript==
:'''[This section only covers the first three comics. For the transcript of the entire comic, go to the [[1037: Umwelt/Transcript|full transcript page]].]'''

===The Void===
:[An epic void with a bright light shining right on you.]

===Aurora===
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar flare that's causing some Great Aurorae. CBC says they may even be visible here! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: Hockey's on.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

===Aurora-US===
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar storm causing northern lights over Canada. CNN say they might even be visible {Options: "As Far South As Us", "Here in Boston", "Maine", "Ohio", "Oregon", "New York"}! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: It's cold out.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

===Snake===
:[Two people standing next to each other. Megan is holding the head end of a snake. Depending on the width of your browser, the snake is: three frames, the third of which has a little bit of a bump; the first frame has a human-size bump, the second has a third person looking at the snake, and the third has the snake going though two Portals; a squirrel and the human-size bump in the first frame, a ring next to the third person in the second frame, and Beret Guy riding the snake in front of the portal; or The squirrel, a fourth person within the snake being coiled, and the human bump in the first frame, the ring, a fifth person in love, and the third person in the second frame, Beret Guy and the portal in the third frame, and the same two people in the fourth frame.]

:Megan: I found a snake, but then I forgot to stop.

:'''[For the transcript of the entire comic, go to the [[1037: Umwelt/Transcript|full transcript page]].]'''

==Trivia==
* The Reddit user [https://www.reddit.com/user/SomePostMan SomePostMan] created a [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/t6wmh/all_umwelt_1037_comics_in_two_imgur_albums/ post] that collected all of the Umwelt comics and added explanations. Much of his information is now included in this wiki.
* At the start of the [https://xkcd.com/1037/info.0.json official transcript of this comic], the writer added a note alluding to its extreme length:
:: <nowiki>[[Two people...]]</nowiki>
:: ((..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all this))
* This comic was released on April 1 even though that was [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (only the third comic to be released on a Sunday). But it was only due to the April Fools' joke, as it did replace the comic that would have been scheduled for Monday, April 2nd. The next comic, [[1038: Fountain]], was first released on Wednesday, April 4th. This was the first that could be different for different readers.
* This comic displays the previous comic, Reviews (1036), when you try to view it on uni.xkcd.com.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Penis]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]

1037: Umwelt

2024-08-15T18:40:52Z

Erlandyt: /* Aurora */

{{comic
| number = 1037
| date = April 1, 2012
| title = Umwelt
| image = umwelt_the_void.jpg
| titletext = Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit--from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your web browser.}}
{{TOC}}
*To view your personal version of the comic, visit the {{xkcd|1037|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
This was the third [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was [[880: Headache]] from Friday April 1st 2011. The next was [[1193: Externalities]] released on Monday April 1st 2013.

An {{w|Umwelt}}, as the title text explains, is the idea that one's entire way of thinking is dependent on their surroundings. Thus, this {{w|April Fools}} comic changes based on the browser, location or referrer. Thus, what the viewer is viewing the comic on, where they live or where they came from determines which comic they actually see. As a result, there are actually multiple comics that went up on April Fools' Day, although only one is seen.
(The term 'Umwelt,' as mentioned in the comic, refers to the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok)

Information about how the wide variety of data was collected and credit for the viewers who contributed can be found [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/rnst4/april_fools_xkcd_changing_comic/ here].

===The Void===
[[File:umwelt the void.jpg]]

If the device or browser you are using does not support Javascript, you will simply see a static image of a white swirl on a dark background.

Possible reference to The Ring (https://imgur.com/wlGmm), as though to suggest that using an alternative browser is dismal and horrific.

Davean (xkcd's sysadmin): "[This] comic isn't available everywhere and it can come up i[n] some situation[s] only for recognized browsers."

Browser: Alternative Browser

===Aurora===
[[File:umwelt aurora.png|800px]]

One could interpret that since Megan didn't go out and therefore missed seeing the {{w|Aurora}} (northern lights), Cueball in his [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|knit cap]] lied about it. That way, she wouldn't have felt sad that she missed out. Another interpretation could be that he decides that since she did not even bother to go outside to see such a spectacular sight he will not tell her about it. And yet another could be that he did not think it was interesting.

Cueball could possibly also be red-green colorblind, seeing the green aurorae as grey "clouds". This would serve as an example for the theme of the comic, as a non-colorblind person and a colorblind person seeing the same color would perceive it differently, one seeing it as its true color, and the other seeing it without the shade of color they cannot see. If this is the case, then it would be a reference to umwelt, as Cueball would be living in a world where the auroras do not reach his location.

In real life, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-northern-lights-dont-look-anything-like-they-do-in-photos_n_5500a4d9e4b0e62d0dd4f9bb aurorae are usually seen as grey/white clouds] to the naked eye, as our eyes cannot perceive the "greener" colors as well in the dark.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Locations: Canada, Boston, Indiana, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Minnesota< Norway, Denmark, France, Ireland, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Seoul (Safari), London (on Firefox), China (on Firefox and Safari), Finland (Uses "Canada"). Also in Virginia, but using Ohio in the first panel; in Wisconsin and Maryland, but using Canada in the first panel; in Marion, Illinois, but using Canada in the first panel along with the phrase "as far south as us" in the first panel, and in Utah, also using the phrase "as far south as us", same with Colombia, Spain, Georgia, Florida, Washington State, and California.

In [[1302: Year in Review]] a possibly different Megan has a completely different approach to the chance of seeing northern lights, as that was the only event she was looking forward to in 2013, and it failed. If this is the same Megan, perhaps she learned that there actually were northern lights in her area from another source, and so desperately wanted to have another chance to see them.

===Snake===
[[File:umwelt snake composite 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt snake composite.png|Full size]]

The joke here is the extreme length of snakes. The world's longest living snake is the {{w|reticulated python}}, the longest ever measuring over 22 feet (6.95 meters). The blue and orange circles refer to the hit game {{w|Portal}}.
There is also a reference to the book "The Little Prince" in the second panel, where there is a large bulge in the snake that looks like an elephant. The Little Prince starts out by mentioning a drawing that the author made when he was six that showed an elephant inside a snake.

Also, the number and content of the panels changes depending on the size of your browser window.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Specific AltText for this image: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit -from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window size.

Location: Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS, Chrome version 49.0.2623.112), Connecticut (Safari for iOS, Chrome Version 73.0.3683.103, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge), Virginia (on Chrome), Michigan (Firefox v46.0.1), Penang (Chrome Version 65.0.3325.162), London (Microsoft Edge), Germany (on Opera One (version: 106.0.4998.70)), Fruita, Colorado (on Chrome for Android version 123.0.6312.80), China (Chrome and Edge).

===Black Hat===
[[File:umwelt tortoise 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt tortoise.png|Full size]]

Cueball as an analyst attempts to psychoanalyze [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] [[72: Classhole|classhole]] tendencies. Cueball's quote and the whole setup is a direct reference to the movie {{w|Blade Runner}} (1982) and Black Hat is taking the Voight-Kampff test which is used to identify replicants from real humans.

Black Hat's reason for not helping the tortoise is that ''it '''knows''' what it did'' and thus in Black Hat's world view it deserves being turned over. The final part of the joke is that when zooming out it turns out that there is a tortoise behind Black Hat and he has actually already turned it over for what it did.

Location: Seems to appear mostly in "other countries" — those without location-specific comics.

===Too Quiet===
[[File:umwelt too quiet 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt too quiet.png|Full size]]

A reference to {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} which has been [[87: Velociraptors|constantly]] [[135: Substitute|referred]] [[1110: Click and Drag|to]] [[155: Search History|before]] [[758: Raptor Fences|in]] this comic.

Also referencing the film {{w|2 Fast 2 Furious|2 Fast 2 Furious}}, an entertaining, yet intellectually unprovoking sequel in a popular film franchise, which is aimed at teenagers and young adults, prompting the blunt response from the stickman. The fact that Steve would use such a cliché {{w|2000s (decade)|noughties}} movie term in such an intense moment, and the subsequent curse, is the joke in this comic.

Location: short version — iPhone 5c Safari browser in Texas, iPhone 5 Chrome Browser in Minnesota, long version - Google Chrome browser in Indiana, Windows 8 Laptop

===Pond===
[[File:umwelt pond mobile.png]][[File:umwelt pond wide.png]]

Two different versions showed, the narrower version for mobile devices.

Location: The Netherlands and various other countries.

===Galaxies===
[[File:umwelt galaxies 1024.jpg]]
[[:File:umwelt galaxies.jpg|Full size]]

Megan is distracted from her conversation with [[Cueball]] by realizing that the space behind his head, from her vantage point, contains millions of galaxies. This is similar to an [https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/astro/hst_deep_field.jpg incredible photograph] taken by the Hubble Telescope, in which a tiny dark area of space in fact contained numerous galaxies.

The title text is an imaginative leap from this scenario: that the galaxies would be up to no good once Cueball is turned away from them.

This comic was only reported once... the intended environmental context is a mystery.

Location: unknown

===xkcd Gold===
[[File:umwelt xkcd gold.png]]

This is probably a reference to the 4chan Gold Account, an implementation on 4chan that does not actually exist, and is usually used to trick newcomers into revealing their credit card numbers. The joke is that "Gold Account" users can supposedly block other users from viewing images they have posted. The fifth panel is probably a reference to Beecock, a notorious set of shocker images. 4chan's moderators have been known to give out "beecock bans" or "/z/ bans" to particularly annoying users, which redirect the user to a page containing beecock and the text "OH NO THE BOARD IS GONE".

Referrer: 4chan

===Yo Mama===
[[File:umwelt dog ballast.png]]

Possible reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "{{w|Harrison Bergeron}}."

The joke is that people's different experiences shape how they perceive the world in that the people who live in this world would perceive the joke as funny, while people in our world would not get it. This is the idea of umwelt mentioned at the top of the context where different individuals perceive the world differently.

Refer: Facebook

===Reddit===
[[File:umwelt reddit.png]]

Reference to referencing, because Reddit, as a referring site, likes references to its referencing in its references.

This comic also features recursive imagery similar to [[688: Self-Description]] where the second panel embeds the entire comic within itself. (Except, conspicuously, the arrow indicating that it is "You" in the first panel.)

One of the browser tabs visible in the center panel is {{w|Elk}} on Wikipedia.

Referrer: Reddit

===Buns and Hot dogs===
[[File:umwelt somethingawful.jpg]]

This is a reference to the question "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 6 while buns come in packages of 8?"

Another, more sexual reference to this question can be found in [[1641: Hot Dogs]].

Referrer: SomethingAwful, Questionable Content, & MetaFilter

===Twitter===
[[File:umwelt twitter.jpg]]

A summary of the "content" typically found on Twitter.

In the tweet feed, there are three tweets about some podcast on the top, followed by the tweet containing link they clicked on to get to the comic, tweets about Rob Delaney, unspecified passive-aggressive tweets, and a tweet from {{w|Horse_ebooks}} retweeted by one of the users the reader follows.

On the left, the topmost dialog, with profile information, shows that the user has posted 1,302 tweets, but only follows 171 people and has even fewer followers, at a measly 48. This is marked with a sad face, implying that the user wants more followers.

Below that is the "who to follow" dialog, which is written up as consisting of "assholes".

Below that is the "trending tags" dialog for the United States. It is full of tags about word games, tags about misogyny, and tags about Justin Bieber.

Below that is an unidentified dialog full of "stuff your eyes automatically ignore". And finally, on the bottom is the background color, which is "a really pleasant blue".

"Aggression" is misspelled.

Referrer: Twitter

===Wikipedia===
[[File:umwelt wikipedia wide.jpg]]
[[File:umwelt wikipedia mobile.png]]

The term {{w|Mile High Club}} (or MHC) is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have had sexual intercourse while on board an aircraft. Randall says that reading the news articles on it has distracted him from making that comic.

Two different versions shown, the narrower version (the single panel with all the text) for mobile devices.

Referrer: Wikipedia

===Google Chrome===
[[File:umwelt chrome1.jpg]]

{{w|Sergey Brin}} (born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies. As of 2013, his personal wealth was estimated to be $24.4 billion. Randall makes the joke that as the founder of Google, Brin's permission would be needed to use Google Chrome. Because there are millions of people who use Google, it is likely that at least some of the time Brin would be asleep, thus he would need to be woken.

Browser: Chrome

===Chrome/Firefox===
[[File:umwelt chrome2.png]]

Mozilla {{w|Firefox}} is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X and Linux, with a mobile version for Android and iOS, by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Cueball is complaining about {{w|Google Chrome}}, to which [[Ponytail]] replies that there is an {{w|add-on}} that fixes what he is complaining about. When questioned, she replies that the add-on is Firefox, which isn't an add-on at all and is instead a different browser.

Browser: Chrome

===Google Chrome-2===
[[File:umwelt chrome3.png]]

This panel references Google Chrome's error screen, which shows a puzzle piece. The comic humorously implies that Chrome is looking for that piece. When completing jigsaw puzzles, a common strategy is to figure out where the pieces must be from their geometry rather than from the picture they create. In this case, the text suggests that Chrome believes the puzzle piece connects to the pieces which form one of the corners of the puzzle, which may seem impossible because any piece that links up to a corner would usually have at least one flat edge, which this piece has none. However, more complicated puzzles have complex shapes and are not always simply approximate squares with tabs and blanks.

Browser: Chrome or silk on desktop view

===Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing===
[[File:umwelt firefox incognito.png]]

Another reference to crashing web browsers.
Firefox shows the history when it crashes.
Browser: Firefox (Incognito only?)

===Internet Explorer===
[[File:umwelt ie.png]]

This is yet another reference to crashing web browsers but instead, Internet Explorer has given up. It could be because there are too many sessions, they are shutting it down, or maybe it was too lazy to do anything.

Browser: Internet Explorer

===Maxthon===
[[File:umwelt maxthon.png]]

Browser: {{w|Maxthon}}

===Netscape Navigator===
[[File:umwelt netscape womanoctopus.png]]

[[File:umwelt netscape man.png]]

{{w|Netscape Navigator}} was a web browser popular in the 1990s.

Browser: Netscape

===Rockmelt===
[[File:umwelt rockmelt.png]]

{{w|Rockmelt}} is a social-media-based browser.

Reference to the gospel song {{w|Longing for Old Virginia: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1934)|"There's no hiding place down here" by The Carter Family}}, later covered by Stephen Stills.

:I run to the rock just to hide my face
:And the rocks cried out, no hiding place
:There's no hiding place down here

It may additionally be a reference to the ''Babylon 5'' episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which featured the song.

Browser: Rockmelt

===Plugin Disabled===
[[File:umwelt plugin disabled.png]]

When the Google Chrome web browser does not have the required software (called a plug-in) to display a web page's content, it displays a puzzle piece icon and an error message. In this case, Chrome informs the user that the content is impossible to display.

Browser: Plugin (?) Disabled, Safari Desktop

===Corporate Networks===
[[File:umwelt corporate general.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate google chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes other.png]]

These error messages appear if the user is on a network owned by one of the corporations noted. The error message includes a warning against speaking on the company's behalf.

ISP: Corporate networks of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, NY Times

===Military===
[[File:umwelt military.png]]

[[Cueball]] assumes that anyone using a military network has an important job like watching for incoming missiles. He includes a thank-you to the user for their military service.

ISP: Military networks

===T-Mobile===
[[File:umwelt tmobile.png]]

Reference to T-Mobile's distinguishing feature (at the time it was written) of weaker coverage, in relation to other major providers.

ISP: T-Mobile

===Verizon and AT&T===
[[File:umwelt verizon.png]]

[[File:umwelt att.png]]

Reference to Verizon and AT&T's scandals/controversy regarding implementation of bandwidth caps.

ISP: Verizon and AT&T

===France===
[[File:umwelt france.jpg]]

A common joke about France is that the nation does not win wars. This originated from France's annexation by Germany during World War II, and America's late entry into the war, which is sometimes portrayed humorously as a case of America 'saving' Europe, in this joke particularly France (the role of the French resistance is usually not mentioned), leading to a common American joke at the expense of France's military prowess [https://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html][https://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-frenchmilitaryvictories.htm][https://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm]. When France did not form part of the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, aligning with the many countries that condemned U.S. action, the joke was revived.

A Google search of "French Military Victories" + 'I'm feeling lucky' used to direct to "did you mean: french military defeats" (due to a {{w|Google bomb}}). Cueball is trying to show this to his friend, who is French. However, his joke backfires, as his friend immediately points out that the stereotype of France not having military victories is undercut by the fact that one of the most innovative military commanders in history, Napoleon, was French by citizenship (though Italian/Corsican by culture, as the French annexed Corsica a few months before his birth to an Italian noble family), and in fact conquered much of Europe.

Following the theme of umwelt, the comic highlights the two characters' differing perspectives: The American thinks that France is a military failure, while the Frenchman thinks of Napoleon.

The last line of the comic further implies that Cueball is not as smart as he thinks he is in regards to anything French, as he mispronounces the French loan word "{{w|Touché (fencing)|touché}}".

Locations: France & Quebec

===Germany===
[[File:umwelt germany.png]]

This comic references the {{w|Berlin airlift#The start of the Berlin Airlift|Berlin Airlift}}, a relief measure for citizens in West Berlin (surrounded by East Germany) instituted by the Western Allies after World War II. In reality, the Western Allies flew a grand total of 500,000 tons of food over the Soviet blockade in planes. Randall puts a twist on this event by making it more fun: dropping supplies from a grand chairlift. The play on words is that "chairlift" rhymes with "airlift" and thus makes an easy substitution. The chair force is also a name that other service branches use to make fun of the air force.

Location: Germany

===Israel===
[[File:umwelt israel.png]]

Translation: Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

A reference to the multiple use of the word Jewish to denote both a {{w|Judaism|religious group}} and a {{w|Jews|nationality/ethnicity}}, as well as the stereotype of Jews holding low opinions of interfaith marriage.

A side note: Randall accidentally drew an apostrophe instead of the similar-looking Hebrew letter י everywhere that letter should appear.

Location: Israel

===Carnot Cycle===
[[File:umwelt japan.png]]

A pun on "cycle"; a "{{w|Carnot cycle}}" is a thermodynamic cycle (e.g. refrigeration). Its efficiency depends on the temperature of the hot and cold 'reservoirs' in which it is operating. The icon on the side of the motorcycle resembles a [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg/1000px-Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg.png graph of the Carnot cycle.]

Location: Japan

===UK===
[[File:umwelt uk.jpg]]

He worded this as though to imply that the UK is a state of the U.S., and an unimportant one at that, which pokes fun at the UK, creating a paradox (sort of).

Location: UK

===Blizzard===
[[File:umwelt disasters blizzard.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or blizzards are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe blizzard, while the Northeasterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild blizzard.

For each particular location in which this displayed, the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Georgia, Halifax, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, the Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Texas, Toronto, Tennessee, New York, Wisconsin

===Tornado===
[[File:umwelt disasters tornado.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or tornadoes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe tornado, while the Midwesterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild tornado. It's similar to [[#Blizzard|Blizzard]].

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Dallas, Illinois, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Tennessee, Texas (and Virginia, but it used Ohio in the third panel)

Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. The picture used in [[1754: Tornado Safety Tips]] very reminiscent of the one from this version of Umwelt. [[Category:Tornadoes]]

===Hurricane===
[[File:umwelt disasters hurricane.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or hurricanes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe hurricane, while the Easterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild hurricane. It's similar to [[#Blizzard|Blizzard]] and [[#Tornado|Tornado]].

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: D.C, Florida, Georgia, Houston, Miami, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

===Lake Diver Killer===
[[File:umwelt lake diver.png]]

This comic shows a news reporter standing in front of a lake. She is reporting on a serial killer who targets divers. As more divers are sent in to investigate and/or search for bodies, more divers go missing, the implication being that they were also murdered. The more likely reason is the lake itself is dangerous for diving, and the divers probably drowned from natural hazards (undercurrents, entanglement, running out of oxygen in tanks, etc.) instead of a malicious assailant. Also, this is a sort of loop, where each time a diver gets killed, the investigative team goes and investigates, causing more divers to get killed, causing more deaths, and so on.

Location: Bay Areas, Metro Detroit, Vermont showed an image specifically referencing Lake Champlain

===Lincoln Memorial===
[[File:umwelt lincoln memorial.png]]

{{w|Abraham Lincoln}}, the 16th president of the United States of America, was not an entity composed wholly of nanobots that attempted to consume the entire nation to then be imprisoned within the {{w|Lincoln Memorial}}.{{Citation needed}} The inscription references the epitaph at the actual Lincoln Memorial, which reads "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever".

Locations: Illinois & Washington, D.C.

===Helicopter Hunting===
[[File:umwelt helicoptor.png]]

In Alaska, governments and individuals have {{w|Wolf hunting#North America 2|shot wolves en masse from helicopters}} in an attempt to artificially inflate populations of game, such as moose and caribou, to make hunting them easier. This is opposed by many, as the game populations are not endangered (thus, this threatens ecological balance); wolves are a small threat to livestock in North America; most of the wolf body —including meat and bones— goes wasted as they are sought mainly for their pelts.

Knowledge of this issue was popularized by press around vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's infamous support for this culling method.

Location: Alaska

===Newspaper===
[[File:umwelt life scientists.png]][[File:umwelt life rit.png]][[File:umwelt life umass.png]]

Creating new life has long been a well understood process, in a lab or otherwise.

This comic is likely a reference to the title text of [[983: Privacy]]

Location: Various

Specific versions appeared for RIT and UMass Amherst

===Robot Paul Revere===
[[File:umwelt paul revere.png]]

Combination of the legend of {{w|Paul Revere#"Midnight Ride"|Paul Revere}} and a computer bit that differentiates between two situations by indicating a zero or a one.

Location: Boston

===Counting Cards===

All four colleges in this series are in Massachusetts and, being similar, in pairs, rival each other to some extent (Harvard-MIT and Smith-Wellesley). The comic contains a reference to the {{w|MIT Blackjack Team}}, which entered popular culture via the {{w|21 (2008 film)|film 21}}, and a possible reference to Orwell's book '1984' and/or {{w|Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|popular homage to it via Star Trek}}: "There are four lights."[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChYIm6MW39k]

Bonus: The thought-gears in panel 3 are spinning against each other.

Location: Harvard

[[File:umwelt counting cards harvard.png]]

Location: MIT

[[File:umwelt counting cards mit.png]]

"Course 15s" at MIT are the business major students, often mocked for taking a less-rigorous program. The different interpretation for why the MIT students could not count cards compared to Harvard may be a reference to the theme of umwelt.

Location: Smith

[[File:umwelt counting cards smith.png]]

Location: Wellesley

[[File:umwelt counting cards wellesley.png]]

Both Wellesley and Smith are all-women colleges in Massachusetts.

===Giant Box Trap===
[[File:umwelt box trap.png]]

Randall got his undergrad in Physics at the {{w|Christopher Newport University}}, and was scheduled to return shortly to give a talk. The "Trible" figure on the right is Paul Trible, the then-president of CNU. This comic depicts a classic trap, where an upside-down box is propped up with a stick. When the stick is removed, by pulling a string, the box falls and traps whatever is underneath it. Aside from the joke of the obvious trap, there's also the fact that the president would not be responsible for revoking unearned diplomas.

Location: Christopher Newport University

===Chemo Support===
[[File:umwelt chemo.jpg]]

[[Cueball]] has shaved his head in support of people going through {{w|chemotherapy}} but, as he is always depicted as a stick figure with no hair, no one can tell.

Randall's now-wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and apparently DFCI is where they've been spending much of their time.

Location: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

===Reviews===
[[File:reviews.png]]

The previous strip appears twice when using [[wikipedia:Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]].

This strip was previously used in [[1036: Reviews]].

Browser: Any using Tor, xkcd API (JSON, RSS, Atom), w3m and reports of seeing it on a Kindle Fire HD, unixkcd; also happens if visiting with a browser that does not support JavaScript (such as Firefox with NoScript)

===Nothing===

[[File:Umwelt blank.jpg]]

In some cases, the comic can be completely absent, with only the top and bottom buttons visible. On most newer browsers, this is caused by a script loading part of the comic via a HTTP request while the rest of the webpage is delivered over HTTPS. This is referred to as [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Mixed_content mixed content] and is blocked on modern browsers by default due to security concerns. This version of the comic is therefore likely not an intended outcome, but rather an unintended consequence of how this comic was implemented. [https://mastodon.social/@chromakode/109531309722997557 It has been confirmed] that this was not intentional and will be fixed. Since this comic's release, all devices viewing it have returned two rows of navigation buttons if near IP address 69.114.249.104.

The http(s) issue seems to have been fixed.

==Transcript==
:'''[This section only covers the first three comics. For the transcript of the entire comic, go to the [[1037: Umwelt/Transcript|full transcript page]].]'''

===The Void===
:[An epic void with a bright light shining right on you.]

===Aurora===
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar flare that's causing some Great Aurorae. CBC says they may even be visible here! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: Hockey's on.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

===Aurora-US===
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar storm causing northern lights over Canada. CNN say they might even be visible {Options: "As Far South As Us", "Here in Boston", "Maine", "Ohio", "Oregon", "New York"}! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: It's cold out.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

===Snake===
:[Two people standing next to each other. Megan is holding the head end of a snake. Depending on the width of your browser, the snake is: three frames, the third of which has a little bit of a bump; the first frame has a human-size bump, the second has a third person looking at the snake, and the third has the snake going though two Portals; a squirrel and the human-size bump in the first frame, a ring next to the third person in the second frame, and Beret Guy riding the snake in front of the portal; or The squirrel, a fourth person within the snake being coiled, and the human bump in the first frame, the ring, a fifth person in love, and the third person in the second frame, Beret Guy and the portal in the third frame, and the same two people in the fourth frame.]

:Megan: I found a snake, but then I forgot to stop.

:'''[For the transcript of the entire comic, go to the [[1037: Umwelt/Transcript|full transcript page]].]'''

==Trivia==
* The Reddit user [https://www.reddit.com/user/SomePostMan SomePostMan] created a [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/t6wmh/all_umwelt_1037_comics_in_two_imgur_albums/ post] that collected all of the Umwelt comics and added explanations. Much of his information is now included in this wiki.
* At the start of the [https://xkcd.com/1037/info.0.json official transcript of this comic], the writer added a note alluding to its extreme length:
:: <nowiki>[[Two people...]]</nowiki>
:: ((..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all this))
* This comic was released on April 1 even though that was [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (only the third comic to be released on a Sunday). But it was only due to the April Fools' joke, as it did replace the comic that would have been scheduled for Monday, April 2nd. The next comic, [[1038: Fountain]], was first released on Wednesday, April 4th. This was the first that could be different for different readers.
* This comic displays the previous comic, Reviews (1036), when you try to view it on uni.xkcd.com.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Penis]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]

601: Game Theory

2024-04-30T12:11:52Z

Erlandyt: It's not clear who is talking

{{comic
| number = 601
| date = June 24, 2009
| title = Game Theory
| image = game_theory.png
| titletext = Wait, no, that one also loses. How about a nice game of chess?
}}

==Explanation==
The comic and title text is a direct reference to the movie ''{{w|WarGames}}''.

In the movie, the {{w|artificial intelligence}} (AI) that controls the US Nuclear Weapons is asked to play ''Global Thermonuclear War'', a real time game simulating a {{w|Nuclear warfare|nuclear attack}} scenario.

'''Spoilers''': In the movie it then takes the simulation to the real world, planning to launch a real attack on the {{w|USSR}}. In the end the AI is tricked into quickly running through several scenarios of the game, and then shuts down its planned attack as a result of what it finds out.

After analyzing all possible strategies, the AI reports: "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?" Interpreted literally, this means that the computer has figured out that it will lose the game no matter how it plays, so it chooses to play chess instead (at the time of the movie, computers could not yet beat the best human chess players, so it would be more interesting). A more profound interpretation is that wars always end badly for all parties involved so it's better to play nicer games like chess.

In this comic Cueball loads an AI and then ask it to "analyze love" (equivalent to playing the "love game"), which initially could be expected to end happily for everyone involved, as love is the opposite of war and war ends always so badly. Surprisingly, the result from the AI is similar to the war games. Thus if you "play the love game", you'll end up badly, regardless which moves you play.

The title text leaves love as looking actually worse than war, since in war there's at least the "winning move" of not playing, however in love even refusing to play means that the player loses the game anyway. [[Randall]] is thus stating that you have to go after love, even though you know you will lose/get hurt sometimes, because you will for sure also lose the game, even if you pretend not to play. Then Cueball or the AI again suggests a game of chess, as in the movie.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk in an office chair typing on his computer. The text appearing above him is implied to be what is displayed on the screen.]
:A.I. Loaded
:>>> Analyze love

:[An hourglass appears over the computer as Cueball sits back and wait.]

:[The hourglass continues to display as Cueball shifts in his chair.]

:[A zigzag line from the computer indicates the final reply from the computer to the query.]
:Computer: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Board games]]
[[Category:Games]]

Talk:609: Tab Explosion

2024-04-19T16:23:59Z

Erlandyt:

It also has a link, not only to the comic, but also to the ''explained'' comic here! Talk about a loop. Anonymous07:20, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

you can't access title-text on mobile devices [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.75|173.245.62.75]] 14:29, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

could someone please poste a link to the cracked.com column that pay tribute to this comic? {{unsigned ip|141.101.81.222}}

This could be the one that makes some reference: http://www.cracked.com/blog/clippy-finally-messes-with-the-wrong-word-doc/ (the text appears inside) {{unsigned ip|Mercastan}}
:FYI: Link is broken perhaps you should reference the internet archive link: http://web.archive.org/web/20140208183044/http://www.cracked.com:80/blog/clippy-finally-messes-with-the-wrong-word-doc [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.126|172.70.230.126]] 18:41, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

To access the title text on mobile devices, hold down the thing you need to see the title text of. Nate {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.20}}

You can also go to m.xkcd.com, and tapping on the image or the alt-text link makes the title text appear below the title (for those chrome users who can't see the entire title text by tap-holding). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.143|162.158.74.143]] 13:20, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

I have that website blocked by an application that blocked websites. The reason is NOT because of what is described in the comic, but it's because I got permabanned from that site back in 2017 for something I did not even know was against the rules, with no prior warnings, and the only appeal option that they gave that they did not consider "ban evasion" was an email address that never replied back to you, even years later, and I don't think they even deserve viewing traffic from people who they have treated so unfairly/punished so harshly like that. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.135.48|172.70.135.48]] 01:56, 18 December 2021 (UTC)
:Waitwhat? Presuming even that you mean Cracked (not sure what you did to annoy them, it must have been... interesting) and not m.xkcd.com, I'm not sure how they could remain targetted against you, nor how it'svan application. Assuming you're not reinstalling a Child-Safe-style application of your own on every machine you try to access via, and making sure it's using PG-13 limits of some kind.
:I doubt they can reliably IP-block you. If I go to edit wikipedia and it refuses because some idiot has previously made a nuisance of themselves under my current dynamic IP, it is trivial (without VPNing or similar) to get a newish IP-of-the-moment that usually lets me do my (non-nuisance) editing.
:Even if you stick to a single device then aggressive cookie-style tracking can be 'forgotten' so that you machine isn't traitorously restating your apparent blockability.
:...never mind me, it's way too late (GMT) and I'm just far too intrigued by your statement. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.19|162.158.159.19]] 02:30, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

aaah nooo A TVTropes link [[User:Thexkcdnerd|Thexkcdnerd]] ([[User talk:Thexkcdnerd|talk]]) 02:07, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

;i think explainxkcd is the new tvtropes

I have.. 1... 2.. SIX explainxkcd tabs are open right now {{unsigned|Willlbrwillbr|21:07, 15 February 2024}}
:...hmmm... I only have '''three''' explainxkcds (the other two ''could'' be closed, and now will be - the additional ones were there to switch back and forth to aid in article editing on this one, for jobs now completed), five different wikipedia/wiktionary ones (semi-relevent, to currently 'active' background researches) and a smattering of others that ''aren't'' tvtropes (which number at 23... all vital for reference, honest!) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.110|172.71.178.110]] 21:40, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

I got 20 explainxkcd tabs open, this [[917:_Hofstadter|IS (very) META]] [[User:Erlandyt|Erlandyt]] ([[User talk:Erlandyt|talk]]) 16:23, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

983: Privacy

2024-04-18T21:10:38Z

Erlandyt: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 983
| date = November 28, 2011
| title = Privacy
| image = privacy.png
| titletext = Eventual headline: 'University Researchers Create Life in Lab! Darkness, Faulty Condoms Blamed.'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] attempting to find some privacy to "hook up", which is slang for engaging in sexual activity.

They start at a dormitory, which would offer some privacy. Unfortunately, the door is locked. They go to another dorm, but it is occupied by someone playing a {{w|Massively multiplayer online role-playing game|MMORPG}} who is "in a {{w|Raid (gaming)|raid}}", which means that the gamer is teaming up with others to "raid" something, probably an enemy, and loot their items. This also pokes fun at the fact that some raids may take a very long time to execute, in this case apparently taking on the order of 24 hours. (This comic was published on a Monday morning.)

In the third frame, the two try to go to the library's rare book collection. Such a place would usually be deserted, making it usable for sexual activity. However, it is currently occupied by a visiting {{w|Nelson Mandela}}, who is on a tour of the school.

Moving on to more bizarre places, they next try an {{w|Particle accelerator|accelerator tunnel}}, another place that would be private. However, the particle accelerator is in use and the door is sealed tight. This would be a normal safety feature to protect researchers (and their genitals) from being exposed to potentially dangerous ionizing radiation from the particle beam.

The couple then try a {{w|beaver lodge}}, which, despite being private, is too tiny to fit in, and the only entrance is underwater. What makes it more difficult to get in is that it is winter, and the ground is presumably frozen solid.

The last place they attempt to go to is {{w|hyperspace}}, science fiction jargon for an ‘alternate dimension’ that starships supposedly use to travel faster than light. The word is frequently used in the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' movies. However, there is no evidence that anything like hyperspace exists in reality, and in fact current theories of physics do not allow it.

An {{w|inverse proportion}} is a relationship in statistics where one value decreases when the other value in the relationship increases. In this case, the caption posits that the more you want to make love, the less private space there is available to do so.

The title text indicates that the two eventually found privacy for sex in a laboratory, but inadvertently got Megan pregnant. This is a parody of news articles discussing whether scientists can create synthetic life in a lab. This eventual headline appears in a few [[1037: Umwelt]] frames as "Scientists Create Life In Lab", with a similar secondary headline/caption as the punchline.

The comic [[658: Orbitals]] is similar in nature to this comic.

==Transcript==
:Dorm:
:[Cueball and Megan holding hands in front of a door. Megan is attempting to turn the doorknob.]
:Locked

:Other Dorm:
:[Cueball and Megan holding hands inside another dorm room. The roommate is sitting at a computer wearing a headset.]
:Roommate: I'll be done Tuesday.
:Roommate in raid

:Library Rare Book Collection:
:[Cueball and Megan looking through a closed door. Inside Nelson Mandela and two university workers are talking amongst various items on display.]
:Occupied by tour for visiting Nelson Mandela

:Accelerator Tunnel:
:[Cueball and Megan in silhouette in front of an imposing-looking door. The door is marked "NO ENTRY" with a radioactive trefoil symbol, and has a passcode scanner beside it.]
:Sealed while beam is in operation

:Beaver Lodge:
:[Megan climbing on top of a dirt mound while Cueball stands on the ice beside it. A cross-section reveals a beaver inside the mound and a submerged entrance.]
:Frozen over for winter to keep out predators, only accessible via underwater entrance

:Hyperspace:
:[Megan reading a textbook in front of a table piled with five other textbooks. Cueball looks over Megan's shoulder.]
:Cueball: Are you ''sure''?
:Ruled out by current understanding of physics

:College Law #27:
:The availibility [sic] of private space is inversely proportional to the desirability of the hookup.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

2901: Geographic Qualifiers

2024-03-04T01:30:17Z

Erlandyt: /* Explanation */ I think you meant to ask for a actual citation

{{comic
| number = 2901
| date = March 1, 2024
| title = Geographic Qualifiers
| image = geographic_qualifiers_2x.png
| imagesize = 435x386px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Thank you for the loveliest evening I've ever had...' [normal] '...east of the Mississippi.' [instant intrigue!]
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT EAST OF THE INTERNATIONAL DATE-LINE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, [[Cueball]] is bragging to a [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Cueball-like guy]] in front of a giant statue of a {{w|squirrel}} standing on a skateboard. Cueball states that this is the largest statue of that theme in “the {{w|Northern Hemisphere}}”. The other guy then becomes confused, as he realizes that this seems to imply the existence of a taller one in the {{w|Southern Hemisphere}}.

He quickly considers different countries in that hemisphere, {{w|Brazil}}, {{w|South Africa}} and {{w|Australia}}. Native squirrel species are found in both {{w|Sciurus ingrami|Brazil}} and {{w|Smith's bush squirrel|South Africa}}, and the local people might plausibly choose to erect statues to them. Australia, however, has no native squirrels, and introduced populations of {{w|Eastern gray squirrel|gray}} and {{w|Northern palm squirrel|palm squirrels}} [https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/palm-squirrel reportedly] have been eradicated, at considerable expense of time and money. "Confused Cueball" wonders whether Australians would know or care enough about squirrels to erect statues to them. It so happens, though, that many animals (and many entirely fictional ones) are depicted as statues in countries where they are not native, Australia is known for its many {{w|Big things (Australia)|overly large statues}}, and 1.5 m (5 foot) tall [https://natureworks.com.au/products/animals/mammals/farm-forest-animals/giant-wirral-the-enormous-squirrel-statue/ squirrel statues] are already sold there. So the existence of squirrel statues in the Southern Hemisphere that are larger than the one Cueball is bragging about is not out of the question - but the comic doesn't permit "confused Cueball" the half hour he'd need to drag out his phone and look up all these factoids. The question about whether, and how many, of these putative squirrel statues are mounted on a skateboard is separate, although there is nothing in the urban cultures of the places named to preclude this possibility.

Adding what ''might be'' an unnecessary qualifier, like this, could not change the truth of the wider statement. But it suggests that there's a need to restrict the scope of the statement, i.e. it wouldn't be true with a less restrictive qualifier (or none at all). This should cause the listener to {{tvtropes|OverlyNarrowSuperlative|wonder about other cases}}. Or, in some cases, even whether to take this statement {{tvtropes|SuspiciouslySpecificDenial|at face value}}.

Randall states, in the caption, that he loves the mystery created by adding possibly needless qualifiers. Doing so could thus have been one of Randall's [[:Category:My Hobby|hobbies]], but he doesn't make that explicit. Sometimes qualifiers are added simply due to incomplete information. They've exhaustively surveyed squirrel statues in the Northern Hemisphere and determined that this one is the largest. (Not counting any actual larger ones not ''also'' skateboarding!) But since they haven't searched the Southern Hemisphere, they don't want to commit to it being the largest in the world.

Another example appears in the title text, where someone is expressing gratitude at the end of a date, saying that it's the loveliest evening they've ever had (in actuality, "loveliest" is usually hyperbole).{{Citation needed}} This seems normal until they add the location qualifier of "East of the {{w|Mississippi River|Mississippi}}" (the river). This leaves the companion wondering what kind of great evening they had in some other location. In this case, it's unlikely that the speaker would have incomplete information about their own dating history.

The statue may be a reference to [https://www.worldrecordacademy.org/2022/06/worlds-largest-squirrel-sculpture-cedar-creek-texas-sets-world-record-422206 Ms. Pearl], the giant squirrel statue in {{w|Cedar Creek, Texas}} which, at 14 ft (4 m) was indeed the largest squirrel statue in the western hemisphere in 2018. The qualifiers, in this case, ''are'' necessary since a [https://www.new-east-archive.org/articles/show/10477/a-giant-squirrel-has-taken-over-almat|temporary 40 ft (12 m) statue] was erected in {{w|Kazakhstan}} in 2018. But information for tourists in Cedar Creek, Texas, doesn't tend to include this information{{Actual citation needed}} creating the mystique. The artist behind the Kazakhstan statue appears to have been unaware of the Cedar Creek statue so the Kazakh statue is ''not'' intentionally close to three times bigger.

It is perhaps thanks only to the specific phrasing "tallest statue of a skateboarding squirrel" that we need not consider tallest-statues-of-squirrels (temporarily) placed on skateboards, tallest statuesque skateboards with squirrels atop or even a rather modestly sized statuette representing a moment when [https://bigthings.vroomvroomvroom.com/listing/worlds-largest-skateboard/ a large skateboard] had sciurine visitors. In any or all hemispheres.

In [[1368: One Of The]], the use of the unnecessary qualifier "one of the" was portrayed as one of Randall's [[:Category:Pet Peeves|Pet Peeves]], with a reporter describing the {{w|Gateway Arch}} as "one of the most recognizable arches in St. Louis", when it could have been described as "the most recognizable arch" in the city.

==Transcript==
:[The scene in this comic is shown from afar and drawn in black silhouette on a white background. It depicts a huge statue of a squirrel standing on a skateboard, which is on a pedestal. Below and in front of the statue there are two Cueball-like guys. The Cueball on the left is pointing at the statue and speaking to his friend on the right who has a thought bubble above him.]
:Cueball: At over 40 feet, it's the tallest statue of a skateboarding squirrel in the Northern Hemisphere.
:Friend [thinking]: ...Wait, who in the heck...Brazil? South Africa? Australia? Squirrels aren't even native there...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I love the instant mystery created by qualifiers like "east of the Mississippi" or "in the Northern Hemisphere."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]

669: Experiment

2024-01-31T13:44:16Z

Erlandyt: /* Explanation */ Added a actual citation needed template

{{comic
| number = 669
| date = November 30, 2009
| title = Experiment
| image = experiment.png
| titletext = The other two are still lost on the infinite plane of uniform density.
}}

==Explanation==
Problems in the study of {{w|kinematics}} often idealize the environment of the problem for the sake of simplicity. Specifically, it is assumed that objects are moving in a {{w|vacuum}} and that there is no {{w|friction}}. Then the complicated effects of air resistance and surface frictions can be ignored, and the more basic principles of momentum and energy can be explored. In more advanced physics, it is often easier or necessary to ignore friction if the process being studied is very complicated. So it could be said that "physics professors like working in a frictionless vacuum".

In the comic, [[Black Hat]] and [[Danish]] have interpreted that statement to mean that physics professors like doing their work while they are in a frictionless vacuum, instead of liking to work with problems which are set in a frictionless vacuum. Apparently, they have drugged a physics professor and put him in a glass dome (with his laptop so he can work) which they can evacuate and make frictionless. The professor wakes up confused from the drugs, and as the air is pumped out to make a vacuum (presumably slowly enough to prevent {{w|explosive decompression}} from coming into play), his words fade to silence because sound waves requires a substance such as air to travel through. As he starts to panic, he tries to run, presumably for the door we see in the last panels. However, without friction on the floor, he cannot exert any force to move forward, and his feet skate uselessly on the ground until he loses balance and falls. At this point he is probably suffering from {{w|asphyxiation}}. Black Hat and Danish are observing from outside the dome, and decide that physics professors have lied about liking to work in frictionless vacuums.

The title text refers to another common idealization, of an infinite {{w|plane}} of uniform {{w|density}}. An infinite plane extends forever in two dimensions, which makes calculations easier because surface-related properties are identical everywhere. "Uniform density" could refer to the mass density of the plane, or more likely an {{w|electric charge}} density, which makes a common problem in basic {{w|electromagnetism}} involving calculating the {{w|electric field}}. The "other two physicists" that Black Hat and Danish are experimenting on are lost on the infinite plane, since there are no edges or landmarks anywhere to give them direction.

It should be noted that, although a vacuum can be approximated using a {{w|vacuum pump}}, {{w|frictionless plane|frictionless surfaces}} and infinite planes are only imaginary constructs and do not exist in our universe.{{Citation needed}}{{Actual citation needed|reason=A source for this could be interesting to read}}

==Transcript==
:[Darkness.]

:[Cueball is standing next to a laptop, looking groggy.]
:Cueball: Ugh...
:Cueball: What happened?

:[Cueball begins to regain some awareness, with his speech eventually fading out.]
:Cueball: Where am I?
:''FWOOOOOOSH''
:Cueball: Help! Someone help me (unintelligible speech due to loss of air in dome)

:[Cueball holds his hands to his mouth.]

:[Cueball looks shocked.]

:[Cueball tries to run, but has no traction against the ground.]

:[Cueball falls down.]

:[Cueball lies prone and motionless.]

:[Black Hat and Danish watching from outside the dome, with Black Hat holding a clipboard as if to take notes.]

:[Black Hat and Danish outside the dome. Black Hat is now holding the clipboard down to his side.]
:Black Hat: Huh. Looks like physics professors don't like working in frictionless vacuums after all.
:Danish: They're such liars.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1037: Umwelt

2024-01-31T13:31:28Z

Erlandyt: Added a line about the comic being fixed

{{comic
| number = 1037
| date = April 1, 2012
| title = Umwelt
| image = umwelt_the_void.jpg
| titletext = Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit--from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your web browser.}}
{{TOC}}
*To view your personal version of the comic, visit the {{xkcd|1037|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
This was the third [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was [[880: Headache]] from Friday April 1st 2011. The next was [[1193: Externalities]] released on Monday April 1st 2013.

An {{w|Umwelt}}, as the title text explains, is the idea that one's entire way of thinking is dependent on their surroundings. Thus, this {{w|April Fools}} comic changes based on the browser, location, or referrer. Thus, what the viewer is viewing the comic on, where they live, or where they came from determines which comic they actually see. As a result, there are actually multiple comics that went up on April Fools' Day, although only one is seen.
(The term 'Umwelt,' as mentioned in the comic, refers to the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok)

Information about how the wide variety of data was collected and credit for the viewers who contributed can be found [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/rnst4/april_fools_xkcd_changing_comic/ here].

===The Void===
[[File:umwelt the void.jpg]]

If the device or browser you are using does not support Javascript, you will simply see a static image of a white swirl on a dark background.

Possible reference to The Ring (https://imgur.com/wlGmm), as though to suggest that using an alternative browser is dismal and horrific.

Davean (xkcd's sysadmin): "[This] comic isn't available everywhere and it can come up i[n] some situation[s] only for recognized browsers."

Browser: Alternative Browser

===Aurora===
[[File:umwelt aurora.png|800px]]

One could interpret that since Megan didn't go out and therefore missed seeing the {{w|Aurora}} (northern lights), Cueball in his [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|knit cap]] lied about it. That way, she wouldn't have felt sad that she missed out. Another interpretation could be that he decides that since she did not even bother to go outside to see such a spectacular sight he will not tell her about it. And yet another could be that he did not think it was interesting.

Cueball could possibly also be red-green colorblind, seeing the green aurorae as grey "clouds". This would serve as an example for the theme of the comic, as a non-colorblind person and a colorblind person seeing the same color would perceive it differently, one seeing it as its true color, and the other seeing it without the shade of color they cannot see. If this is the case, then it would be a reference to umwelt, as Cueball would be living in a world where the auroras do not reach his location.

In real life, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-northern-lights-dont-look-anything-like-they-do-in-photos_n_5500a4d9e4b0e62d0dd4f9bb aurorae are usually seen as grey/white clouds] to the naked eye, as our eyes cannot perceive the "greener" colors as well in the dark.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Locations: Canada, Boston, Indiana, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Minnesota, Norway, Denmark, France, Ireland, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Seoul (Safari), London (on Firefox). Also in Virginia, but using Ohio in the first panel; in Maryland, but using Canada in the first panel; in Marion, Illinois, but using Canada in the first panel along with the phrase "as far south as us" in the first panel, and in Utah, also using the phrase "as far south as us", same with Colombia, Spain and Georgia.

In [[1302: Year in Review]] a possibly different Megan has a completely different approach to the chance of seeing northern lights, as that was the only event she was looking forward to in 2013, and it failed. If this is the same Megan, perhaps she learned that there actually were northern lights in her area from another source, and so desperately wanted to have another chance to see them.

===Snake===
[[File:umwelt snake composite 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt snake composite.png|Full size]]

The joke here is the extreme length of snakes. The world's longest living snake is the {{w|reticulated python}}, the longest ever measuring over 22 feet (6.95 meters). The blue and orange circles refer to the hit game {{w|Portal}}.
There is also a reference to the book "The Little Prince" in the second panel, where there is a large bulge in the snake that looks like an elephant. The Little Prince starts out by mentioning a drawing that the author made when he was six that showed an elephant inside a snake.

Also, the number and content of the panels changes depending on the size of your browser window.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Specific AltText for this image: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit -from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window size.

Location: Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS, Chrome version 49.0.2623.112), Connecticut (Safari for iOS, Chrome Version 73.0.3683.103, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge), Virginia (on Chrome), Michigan (Firefox v46.0.1), Penang (Chrome Version 65.0.3325.162), London (Microsoft Edge).

===Black Hat===
[[File:umwelt tortoise 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt tortoise.png|Full size]]

Cueball as an analyst attempts to psychoanalyze [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] [[72: Classhole|classhole]] tendencies. Cueball's quote and the whole setup is a direct reference to the movie {{w|Blade Runner}} (1982) and Black Hat is taking the Voight-Kampff test which is used to identify replicants from real humans.

Black Hat's reason for not helping the tortoise is that ''it '''knows''' what it did'' and thus in Black Hat's world view it deserves being turned over. The final part of the joke is that when zooming out it turns out that there is a tortoise behind Black Hat and he has actually already turned it over for what it did.

Location: Seems to appear mostly in "other countries" — those without location-specific comics.

===Too Quiet===
[[File:umwelt too quiet 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt too quiet.png|Full size]]

A reference to {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} which has been [[87: Velociraptors|constantly]] [[135: Substitute|referred]] [[1110: Click and Drag|to]] [[155: Search History|before]] [[758: Raptor Fences|in]] this comic.

Also referencing the film {{w|2 Fast 2 Furious|2 Fast 2 Furious}}, an entertaining, yet intellectually unprovoking sequel in a popular film franchise, which is aimed at teenagers and young adults, prompting the blunt response from the stickman. The fact that Steve would use such a cliché {{w|2000s (decade)|noughties}} movie term in such an intense moment, and the subsequent curse, is the joke in this comic.

Location: short version — iPhone 5c Safari browser in Texas, iPhone 5 Chrome Browser in Minnesota, long version - Google Chrome browser in Indiana, Windows 8 Laptop

===Pond===
[[File:umwelt pond mobile.png]][[File:umwelt pond wide.png]]

Two different versions showed, the narrower version for mobile devices.

Location: The Netherlands and various other countries.

===Galaxies===
[[File:umwelt galaxies 1024.jpg]]
[[:File:umwelt galaxies.jpg|Full size]]

Megan is distracted from her conversation with [[Cueball]] by realizing that the space behind his head, from her vantage point, contains millions of galaxies. This is similar to an [https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/astro/hst_deep_field.jpg incredible photograph] taken by the Hubble Telescope, in which a tiny dark area of space in fact contained numerous galaxies.

The title text is an imaginative leap from this scenario: that the galaxies would be up to no good once Cueball is turned away from them. This is presumably a reference to [https://www.mariowiki.com/boo Boo], an enemy from certain Mario games who moves toward Mario only when Mario is facing away from Boo.

This comic was only reported once... the intended environmental context is a mystery.

Location: unknown

===xkcd Gold===
[[File:umwelt xkcd gold.png]]

This is probably a reference to the 4chan Gold Account, an implementation on 4chan that does not actually exist, and is usually used to trick newcomers into revealing their credit card numbers. The joke is that "Gold Account" users can supposedly block other users from viewing images they have posted. The fifth panel is probably a reference to Beecock, a notorious set of shocker images. 4chan's moderators have been known to give out "beecock bans" or "/z/ bans" to particularly annoying users, which redirect the user to a page containing beecock and the text "OH NO THE BOARD IS GONE".

Referrer: 4chan

===Yo Mama===
[[File:umwelt dog ballast.png]]

Possible reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "{{w|Harrison Bergeron}}."

The joke is that people's different experiences shape how they perceive the world in that the people who live in this world would perceive the joke as funny, while people in our world would not get it. This is the idea of umwelt mentioned at the top of the context where different individuals perceive the world differently.

Refer: Facebook

===Reddit===
[[File:umwelt reddit.png]]

Reference to referencing, because Reddit, as a referring site, likes references to its referencing in its references.

This comic also features recursive imagery similar to [[688: Self-Description]] where the second panel embeds the entire comic within itself. (Except, conspicuously, the arrow indicating that it is "You" in the first panel.)

One of the browser tabs visible in the center panel is {{w|Elk}} on Wikipedia.

Referrer: Reddit

===Buns and Hot dogs===
[[File:umwelt somethingawful.jpg]]

This is a reference to the question "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 6 while buns come in packages of 8?"

Another, more sexual reference to this question can be found in [[1641: Hot Dogs]].

Referrer: SomethingAwful, Questionable Content, & MetaFilter

===Twitter===
[[File:umwelt twitter.jpg]]

A summary of the "content" typically found on Twitter.

In the tweet feed, there are three tweets about some podcast on the top, followed by the tweet containing link they clicked on to get to the comic, tweets about Rob Delaney, unspecified passive-aggressive tweets, and a tweet from {{w|Horse_ebooks}} retweeted by one of the users the reader follows.

On the left, the topmost dialog, with profile information, shows that the user has posted 1,302 tweets, but only follows 171 people and has even fewer followers, at a measly 48. This is marked with a sad face, implying that the user wants more followers.

Below that is the "who to follow" dialog, which is written up as consisting of "assholes".

Below that is the "trending tags" dialog for the United States. It is full of tags about word games, tags about misogyny, and tags about Justin Bieber.

Below that is an unidentified dialog full of "stuff your eyes automatically ignore". And finally, on the bottom is the background color, which is "a really pleasant blue".

Referrer: Twitter

===Wikipedia===
[[File:umwelt wikipedia wide.jpg]]
[[File:umwelt wikipedia mobile.png]]

The term {{w|Mile High Club}} (or MHC) is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have had sexual intercourse while on board an aircraft. Randall says that reading the news articles on it has distracted him from making that comic.

Two different versions shown, the narrower version (the single panel with all the text) for mobile devices.

Referrer: Wikipedia

===Google Chrome===
[[File:umwelt chrome1.jpg]]

{{w|Sergey Brin}} (born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies. As of 2013, his personal wealth was estimated to be $24.4 billion. Randall makes the joke that as the founder of Google, Brin's permission would be needed to use Google Chrome. Because there are millions of people who use Google, it is likely that at least some of the time Brin would be asleep, thus he would need to be woken.

Browser: Chrome

===Chrome/Firefox===
[[File:umwelt chrome2.png]]

Mozilla {{w|Firefox}} is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X, and Linux, with a mobile version for Android and iOS, by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Cueball is complaining about {{w|Google Chrome}}, to which [[Ponytail]] replies that there is an {{w|add-on}} that fixes what he is complaining about. When questioned, she replies that the add-on is Firefox, which isn't an add-on at all and is instead a different browser.

Browser: Chrome

===Google Chrome-2===
[[File:umwelt chrome3.png]]

This panel references Google Chrome's error screen, which shows a puzzle piece. The comic humorously implies that Chrome is looking for that piece. When completing jigsaw puzzles, a common strategy is to figure out where the pieces must be from their geometry rather than from the picture they create. In this case, the text suggests that Chrome believes the puzzle piece connects to the pieces which form one of the corners of the puzzle, which may seem impossible because any piece that links up to a corner would usually have at least one flat edge, which this piece has none. However, more complicated puzzles have complex shapes and are not always simply approximate squares with tabs and blanks.

Browser: Chrome or silk on desktop view

===Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing===
[[File:umwelt firefox incognito.png]]

Another reference to crashing web browsers.
Firefox shows the history when it crashes.
Browser: Firefox (Incognito only?)

===Internet Explorer===
[[File:umwelt ie.png]]

Yet another reference to crashing web browsers

Browser: Internet Explorer

===Maxthon===
[[File:umwelt maxthon.png]]

Browser: Maxthon

===Netscape Navigator===
[[File:umwelt netscape womanoctopus.png]]

[[File:umwelt netscape man.png]]

{{w|Netscape Navigator}} was a web browser popular in the 1990s.

Browser: Netscape

===Rockmelt===
[[File:umwelt rockmelt.png]]

{{w|Rockmelt}} is a social-media-based browser.

Reference to the gospel song {{w|Longing for Old Virginia: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1934)|"There's no hiding place down here" by The Carter Family}}, later covered by Stephen Stills.

:I run to the rock just to hide my face
:And the rocks cried out, no hiding place
:There's no hiding place down here

It may additionally be a reference to the ''Babylon 5'' episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which featured the song.

Browser: Rockmelt

===Plugin Disabled===
[[File:umwelt plugin disabled.png]]

When the Google Chrome web browser does not have the required software (called a plug-in) to display a web page's content, it displays a puzzle piece icon and an error message. In this case, Chrome informs the user that the content is impossible to display.

Browser: Plugin (?) Disabled, Safari Desktop

===Corporate Networks===
[[File:umwelt corporate general.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate google chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes other.png]]

These error messages appear if the user is on a network owned by one of the corporations noted. The error message includes a warning against speaking on the company's behalf.

ISP: Corporate networks of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, NY Times

===Military===
[[File:umwelt military.png]]

[[Cueball]] assumes that anyone using a military network has an important job like watching for incoming missiles. He includes a thank-you to the user for their military service.

ISP: Military networks

===T-Mobile===
[[File:umwelt tmobile.png]]

Reference to T-Mobile's distinguishing feature (at the time it was written) of weaker coverage, in relation to other major providers.

ISP: T-Mobile

===Verizon and AT&T===
[[File:umwelt verizon.png]]

[[File:umwelt att.png]]

Reference to Verizon and AT&T's scandals/controversy regarding implementation of bandwidth caps.

ISP: Verizon and AT&T

===France===
[[File:umwelt france.jpg]]

A common joke about France is that the nation does not win wars. This originated from France's annexation by Germany during World War II, and America's late entry into the war, which is sometimes portrayed humorously as a case of America 'saving' Europe, in this joke particularly France (the role of the French resistance is usually not mentioned), leading to a common American joke at the expense of France's military prowess [https://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html][https://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-frenchmilitaryvictories.htm][https://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm]. When France did not form part of the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, aligning with the many countries that condemned U.S. action, the joke was revived.

A Google search of "French Military Victories" + 'I'm feeling lucky' used to direct to "did you mean: french military defeats" (due to a {{w|Google bomb}}). Cueball is trying to show this to his friend, who is French. However, his joke backfires, as his friend immediately points out that the stereotype of France not having military victories is undercut by the fact that one of the most innovative military commanders in history, Napoleon, was French by citizenship (though Italian/Corsican by culture, as the French annexed Corsica a few months before his birth to an Italian noble family), and in fact conquered much of Europe.

Following the theme of umwelt, the comic highlights the two characters' differing perspectives: The American thinks that France is a military failure, while the Frenchman thinks of Napoleon.

The last line of the comic further implies that Cueball is not as smart as he thinks he is in regards to anything French, as he mispronounces the French loan word "{{w|Touché (fencing)|touché}}".

Locations: France & Quebec

===Germany===
[[File:umwelt germany.png]]

This comic references the {{w|Berlin airlift#The start of the Berlin Airlift|Berlin Airlift}}, a relief measure for citizens in West Berlin (surrounded by East Germany) instituted by the Western Allies after World War II. In reality, the Western Allies flew a grand total of 500,000 tons of food over the Soviet blockade in planes. Randall puts a twist on this event by making it more fun: dropping supplies from a grand chairlift. The play on words is that "chairlift" rhymes with "airlift" and thus makes an easy substitution. The chair force is also a name that other service branches use to make fun of the air force.

Location: Germany

===Israel===
[[File:umwelt israel.png]]

Translation: Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

A reference to the multiple use of the word Jewish to denote both a {{w|Judaism|religious group}} and a {{w|Jews|nationality/ethnicity}}, as well as the stereotype of Jews holding low opinions of interfaith marriage.

A side note: Randall accidentally drew an apostrophe instead of the similar-looking Hebrew letter י everywhere that letter should appear.

Location: Israel

===Carnot Cycle===
[[File:umwelt japan.png]]

A pun on "cycle"; a "{{w|Carnot cycle}}" is a thermodynamic cycle (e.g. refrigeration). Its efficiency depends on the temperature of the hot and cold 'reservoirs' in which it is operating. The icon on the side of the motorcycle resembles a [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg/1000px-Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg.png graph of the Carnot cycle.]

Location: Japan

===UK===
[[File:umwelt uk.jpg]]

He worded this as though to imply that the UK is a state of the U.S., and an unimportant one at that, which pokes fun at the UK, creating a paradox (sort of).

Location: UK

===Blizzard===
[[File:umwelt disasters blizzard.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or blizzards are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe blizzard, while the Northeasterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild blizzard.

For each location this displayed in, the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Georgia, Halifax, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, the Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Texas, Toronto, Tennessee, New York, Wisconsin

===Tornado===
[[File:umwelt disasters tornado.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or tornadoes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The California perceives a mild earthquake and a severe tornado, while the Midwesterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild tornado. It's similar to [[#Blizzard|Blizzard]].

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Dallas, Illinois, Georgia, The Midwest, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Tennessee, Texas (and Virginia, but it used Ohio in the third panel)

Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. The picture used in [[1754: Tornado Safety Tips]] very reminiscent of the one from this version of Umwelt. [[Category:Tornadoes]]

===Hurricane===
[[File:umwelt disasters hurricane.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or hurricanes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe hurricane, while the Easterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild hurricane. It's similar to [[#Blizzard|Blizzard]] and [[#Tornado|Tornado]].

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: D.C, Florida, Georgia, Houston, Miami, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

===Lake Diver Killer===
[[File:umwelt lake diver.png]]

This comic shows a news reporter standing in front of a lake. She is reporting on a serial killer who targets divers. As more divers are sent in to investigate and/or search for bodies, more divers go missing, the implication being that they were also murdered. The more likely reason is the lake itself is dangerous for diving, and the divers probably drowned from natural hazards (undercurrents, entanglement, running out of oxygen in tanks, etc.) instead of a malicious assailant. Also, this is a sort of loop, where each time a diver gets killed, the investigative team goes and investigates, causing more divers to get killed, causing more deaths, and so on.

Location: Bay Areas, Metro Detroit, Vermont showed an image specifically referencing Lake Champlain

===Lincoln Memorial===
[[File:umwelt lincoln memorial.png]]

{{w|Abraham Lincoln}}, the 16th president of the United States of America, was not an entity composed wholly of nanobots that attempted to consume the entire nation to then be imprisoned within the {{w|Lincoln Memorial}}.{{Citation needed}} The inscription references the epitaph at the actual Lincoln Memorial, which reads "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever".

Locations: Illinois & Washington, D.C.

===Helicopter Hunting===
[[File:umwelt helicoptor.png]]

In Alaska, governments and individuals have {{w|Wolf hunting#North America 2|shot wolves en masse from helicopters}} in an attempt to artificially inflate populations of game, such as moose and caribou, to make hunting them easier. This is opposed by many, as the game populations are not endangered (thus, this threatens ecological balance); wolves are a small threat to livestock in North America; most of the wolf body —including meat and bones— goes wasted as they are sought mainly for their pelts.

Location: Alaska

===Newspaper===
[[File:umwelt life scientists.png]][[File:umwelt life rit.png]][[File:umwelt life umass.png]]

Creating new life has long been a well understood process, in a lab or otherwise.

This comic is likely a reference to the title text of [[983: Privacy]]

Location: Various

Specific versions appeared for RIT and UMass Amherst

===Robot Paul Revere===
[[File:umwelt paul revere.png]]

Combination of the legend of {{w|Paul Revere#"Midnight Ride"|Paul Revere}} and a computer bit that differentiates between two situations by indicating a zero or a one.

Location: Boston

===Counting Cards===

All four colleges in this series are in Massachusetts and, being similar, in pairs, rival each other to some extent (Harvard-MIT, and Smith-Wellesley). The comic contains a reference to the {{w|MIT Blackjack Team}}, which entered popular culture via the {{w|21 (2008 film)|film 21}}, and a possible reference to Orwell's book '1984' and/or {{w|Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|popular homage to it via Star Trek}}: "There are four lights."[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChYIm6MW39k]

Bonus: The thought-gears in panel 3 are spinning against each other.

Location: Harvard

[[File:umwelt counting cards harvard.png]]

Location: MIT

[[File:umwelt counting cards mit.png]]

"Course 15s" at MIT are the business major students, often mocked for taking a less-rigorous program. The different interpretation for why the MIT students could not count cards compared to Harvard may be a reference to the theme of umwelt.

Location: Smith

[[File:umwelt counting cards smith.png]]

Location: Wellesley

[[File:umwelt counting cards wellesley.png]]

Both Wellesley and Smith are all-women colleges in Massachusetts.

===Giant Box Trap===
[[File:umwelt box trap.png]]

Randall got his undergrad in Physics at the {{w|Christopher Newport University}}, and was scheduled to return shortly to give a talk. The "Trible" figure on the right is Paul Trible, the then-president of CNU. This comic depicts a classic trap, where an upside-down box is propped up with a stick. When the stick is removed, by pulling a string, the box falls and traps whatever is underneath it. Aside from the joke of the obvious trap, there's also the fact that the president would not be responsible for revoking unearned diplomas.

Location: Christopher Newport University

===Chemo Support===
[[File:umwelt chemo.jpg]]

[[Cueball]] has shaved his head in support of people going through {{w|chemotherapy}} but, as he is always depicted as a stick figure with no hair, no one can tell.

Randall's now-wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and apparently DFCI is where they've been spending much of their time.

Location: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

===Reviews===
[[File:reviews.png]]

The previous strip appears twice when using [[wikipedia:Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]].

Browser: Any using Tor, xkcd API (JSON, RSS, Atom), w3m, and reports of seeing it on a Kindle Fire HD; also happens if visiting with a browser that does not support JavaScript (such as Firefox with NoScript)

===Nothing===

[[File:Umwelt blank.jpg]]

In some cases, the comic can be completely absent, with only the top and bottom buttons visible. On most newer browsers, this is caused by a script loading part of the comic via a HTTP request while the rest of the webpage is delivered over HTTPS. This is referred to as [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Mixed_content mixed content] and is blocked on modern browsers by default due to security concerns. This version of the comic is therefore likely not an intended outcome, but rather an unintended consequence of how this comic was implemented. [https://mastodon.social/@chromakode/109531309722997557 It has been confirmed] that this was not intentional and will be fixed. Since this comic's release, all devices viewing it have returned two rows of navigation buttons if near IP address 69.114.249.104.

The http(s) issue seems to have been fixed.{{Actual citation needed|reason=Please verify on your browser and remove this template if it works for you also}}

==Transcript==
:'''[This section only covers the first three comics. For the transcript of the entire comic, go to the [[1037: Umwelt/Transcript|full transcript page]].]'''

===The Void===
:[An epic void with a bright light shining right on you.]

===Aurora===
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar flare that's causing some Great Aurorae. CBC says they may even be visible here! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: Hockey's on.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

===Aurora-US===
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar storm causing northern lights over Canada. CNN say they might even be visible {Options: "As Far South As Us", "Here in Boston", "Maine", "Ohio", "Oregon", "New York"}! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: It's cold out.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

===Snake===
:[Two people standing next to each other. Megan is holding the head end of a snake. Depending on the width of your browser, the snake is: three frames, the third of which has a little bit of a bump; the first frame has a human-size bump, the second has a third person looking at the snake, and the third has the snake going though two Portals; a squirrel and the human-size bump in the first frame, a ring next to the third person in the second frame, and Beret Guy riding the snake in front of the portal; or The squirrel, a fourth person within the snake being coiled, and the human bump in the first frame, the ring, a fifth person in love, and the third person in the second frame, Beret Guy and the portal in the third frame, and the same two people in the fourth frame.]

:Megan: I found a snake, but then I forgot to stop.

:'''[For the transcript of the entire comic, go to the [[1037: Umwelt/Transcript|full transcript page]].]'''

==Trivia==
* The Reddit user [https://www.reddit.com/user/SomePostMan SomePostMan] created a [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/t6wmh/all_umwelt_1037_comics_in_two_imgur_albums/ post] that collected all of the Umwelt comics and added explanations. Much of his information is now included in this wiki.
* At the start of the [https://xkcd.com/1037/info.0.json official transcript of this comic], the writer added a note alluding to its extreme length:
:: <nowiki>[[Two people...]]</nowiki>
:: ((..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all this))
:: [[Two people standing next to each other.
* This comic was released on April 1 even though that was [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (only the third comic to be released on a Sunday). But it was only due to the April Fools' joke, as it did replace the comic that would have been scheduled for Monday, April 2nd. The next comic, [[1038: Fountain]], was first released on Wednesday, April 4th. This was the first that could be different for different readers.
* This comic displays the previous comic, Reviews (1036), when you try to view it on uni.xkcd.com.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Penis]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]

2887: Minnesota

2024-01-29T19:11:55Z

Erlandyt:

{{comic
| number = 2887
| date = January 29, 2024
| title = Minnesota
| image = minnesota_2x.png
| imagesize = 673x260px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In addition to 'squishy', after reviewing my submitted intraplate ground motion data, the National Geodetic Survey has politely asked me to stop using the word 'supple' so often when describing Midwestern states.
}}

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

2887: Minnesota

2024-01-29T19:11:21Z

Erlandyt:

{{comic
| number = 2887
| date = January 29, 2024
| title = Minnesota
| image = minnesota_2x.png
| imagesize = 673x260px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In addition to 'squishy', after reviewing my submitted intraplate ground motion data, the National Geodetic Survey has politely asked me to stop using the word 'supple' so often when describing Midwestern states.
}}

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

1644: Stargazing

2024-01-08T20:37:32Z

Erlandyt: Not necessarily a television host

{{comic
| number = 1644
| date = February 17, 2016
| title = Stargazing
| image = stargazing.png
| titletext = Some of you may be thinking, 'But wait, isn't the brightest star in our sky the Sun?' I think that's a great question and you should totally ask it. On the infinite tree of possible conversations spread out before us, I think that's definitely the most promising branch.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the first comic in the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series. It was followed by [[2017: Stargazing 2]] two and a half years later and [[2274: Stargazing 3]] four years later.

This comic opens on [[Megan]] as the host for a {{w|stargazing}} TV show, or simply a stargazing tour. She claims to be a doctor, although it is unclear what exactly she's a doctor in. Her remarks, however, may call her professionalism into question. (Originally the host was suspected to be a spoof on {{w|Brian Cox (physicist)|Brian Cox}}, see [[#Relevant TV-shows|below]], but at some later point [[Randall]] changed his official transcript thus making the host female rather than male as in the original version, see the [[#Trivia|trivia]] section below. Thus now the host is clearly Megan, which it could not have been originally when the host was described as a man by Randall).

Throughout the comic the host's tone and choice of words becomes increasingly unprofessional, referring to most of the stars as "shitty," personifying them based on different astronomical observations, and providing little useful information on the study of stars or how they work.

It seems that this is not an isolated issue as the host mentions that people keep asking her whether or not she is a real astronomer.

The host also continuously glosses over the arguably less exciting portions of a typical presentation on astronomy sharing only what she sees as "the good stuff." This penchant for only caring about something if it is interesting extends past astronomy as well as the host is too bored when reading the dictionary to look up the meaning of astronomer.

The comic derives much of its humor from the absurdity of the host's comments on various astronomical bodies. Although not technically incorrect, the way she presents the information is far from informative. (See details below on [[#The host's observations|the host's observations]]).

One of her observations regards the fact that {{w|Sirius}} is a {{w|binary star}}, a system where two stars orbit each other. So even though it is the brightest star as seen from Earth we only really see one of them, as the other is, to quote the host, "not even trying". Sirius A is "large" and "bright" {{w|main sequence}} white star, while Sirius B is a {{w|white dwarf}} with a little under half the mass, 0.49% the radius and only 0.22% the luminosity of Sirius A.

{{w|Andromeda Galaxy|Andromeda}} is the largest galaxy in our {{w|Local Group}}. It is 220,000 light years across and contains a trillion stars. Humans have difficulty conceptualizing distances of this scale. Suffice to say that it is very large.{{Citation needed}}

{{w|Betelgeuse}} is the 9th brightest star visible from earth. One of its prominent features is its visible redness. Within the next million years (or maybe only 100,000 years) it is expected to explode as a {{w|supernova}}, which will certainly be a spectacular sight. It could happen anytime now, and the host hopes it will be in her lifetime.

In the title text it is mentioned that the {{w|Sun}} is also a star and of course is much brighter than Sirius seen from Earth, and thus Sirius is technically not the brightest star in our sky (although it is in the night sky). The title text sarcastically encourages the audience to raise that obvious but irrelevant point (a standard joke when people mention bright stars) instead of asking a more interesting, informative, or fruitful question, when there are so many to ask regarding astronomy.

See also [[1371: Brightness]] and [[1342: Ancient Stars]]. Saying cool things about space to make people like you is mentioned in [[1746: Making Friends]].

===The host's observations===
Here is a list of the host's observations:
*Most {{w|Bright Star Catalogue|visible stars}} are still very faint, and just become background to the bright {{w|stars}} that form the named {{w|constellations}}.
**The host correctly states that they are just dots. (This is also true for the bright stars, but at least they are clearly distinguishable).
*{{w|Sirius}} is the {{w|Apparent magnitude|brightest}} star in our {{w|List of brightest stars|night sky}}. But it is not the brightest object in the night sky, as several of the planets, especially {{w|Venus}} and {{w|Jupiter}}, and of course the {{w|Moon}} are much brighter. It is also far from being one of the most {{w|Absolute magnitude|luminous stars}} in the {{w|Milky Way}}, but its proximity to Earth makes it the brightest in the night sky. There are {{w|List_of_most_luminous_stars#Data|twenty visible stars}} that are more luminous than Sirius, {{w|List of most luminous stars|none of which}} come even close to being in the top 100 of the most luminous stars observed today.
**The host thus names Sirius as the star in charge since it outshines all the others as seen from the {{w|Earth}}.
*Sirius is actually a star system consisting of two stars as it is a {{w|binary star}} system. But where Sirius A is twice the size of the {{w|Sun}} and much brighter, then Sirius B is now just a dim {{w|white dwarf}}, the remains from a much larger star that became a {{w|red giant}} before shedding its outer layers and collapsing into its current state around 120 million years ago. So now Sirius A completely outshines Sirius B, which actually is now a dead star with no further fusion going on inside its core.
**This is construed by the host as it is barely even trying, as it is now only radiating away the rest of the heat from the now exposed core.
*{{w|Andromeda Galaxy|Andromeda}} is a {{w|spiral galaxy}}, like the Milky Way, and it is the largest galaxy in the {{w|Local Group}} where our own galaxy the Milky Way is the second largest. It is one of a few visible objects that are located outside the Milky Way. It is "only" 2.5 million light-years from the Sun and it is heading our way (or vice versa), and will {{w|Andromeda–Milky Way collision|collide with the Milky way}} in about 4 billion years (before the Sun goes into {{w|Sun#After_core_hydrogen_exhaustion|its red giant phase}}). Being 220,000 light years across and consisting of a trillion stars, it is somewhere between 1.2-2.2 times wider than the Milky Way and has 2.5-10 times as many stars. (The local group was also mentioned two comics ago, in [[1642: Gravitational Waves]], together with the much less well known third largest galaxy in the group the {{w|Triangulum Galaxy}}).
**It is therefore true when the host says that it is too big to try to understand, and thinking about it will make your head spin, so she suggests we do not think about it.
*{{w|Betelgeuse}} is a clearly visible (9th brightest) {{w|Red_supergiant|red supergiant}} {{w|Semiregular_variable_star|variable star}} located in the {{w|Orion (constellation)|constellation of Orion}}. It is one of the largest and most luminous observable stars (12th) and one of the few where it is clear that the light is not white. Most people can see that it is slightly red, whereas most other stars are so faint that they look white despite having different colors (when seeing Orion's two brightest stars, to remember which is which between Rigel and Betelgeuse, its diagonal opposite, just remember: Rigel is "R" like blue, and Betelgeuse is "B" like red). It is expected that Betelgeuse, being at a late stage of its {{w|Stellar_evolution|evolution}}, {{w|Betelgeuse#Approaching_supernova|will go supernova}} within the next million years as a {{w|type II supernova}}. The exact time when it will become a {{w|Supernova}} is so uncertain that it could [http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/betelgeuse-will-explode-someday#explode just as likely happen tomorrow] as in a million years. When it happens it will not be dangerous to anyone on Earth, but it will likely be visible even during the day, as it may even become as bright as the full Moon.
**When it does go nova, it will be a fantastic spectacle for everyone, but especially for anyone who likes the ''good stuff'' in space like the host, who cannot wait for the star to explode. Clearly she hopes it will be in her lifetime, and, although this is unlikely, there is a small chance that it might just happen.
*A {{w|meteor}} (also known as {{w|shooting star}}), is debris from space that rains down on Earth, and burns up in the atmosphere. This happens all the time, but you need to be either lucky, patient, or know the right time for one of the {{w|meteor showers}} to see one. Often they are visible for so short a time period, that it is difficult to share the experience with anyone, as it will be gone by the time they turn their head to look where you are pointing.
**The host becomes very excited when she spots such a meteor, especially because it is likely that her audience got to share the experience with her, as they were already looking in the same direction as her. But still she asks if they saw it, because it is so short lived.
*{{w|Outer space}} is the void that exists between {{w|Astronomical object|celestial bodies}}, including the Earth. There is by definition nothing there but {{w|vacuum}}, and the interesting part of space is thus not the space but the astronomical objects found out there.
**The host says that ''space is awesome'', which is a very un-astronomical comment, as explained above. Also her excitement for a simple shooting star is cause for the suspicion that is raised after her space comment.

===Relevant TV-shows===
The comic could be a reference to BBC's ''{{w|Stargazing Live}}'', which {{w|Brian Cox (physicist)|Brian Cox}} has appeared in since 2011. If drawn in xkcd style he would likely look like Megan. He has a PhD in high-energy {{w|particle physics}}, but not astronomy. The newest season of the show aired during January 2016 just a month before this comic's release. Brian Cox has also been the presenter of several other science programs, especially such as the ''{{w|Wonders of the Solar System}}'', ''{{w|Wonders of the Universe}}'' and ''{{w|Wonders of Life (TV series)|Wonders of Life}}''. Originally the host was described as male in the official transcript (see [[#Trivia|trivia]] below, making this seem more likely. for some reason Randall changed the host to female in the transcript later. Very strange, but for sure when he was male, it was obviously a Brian Cox spoof.

It could also be a reference to {{w|Jack Horkheimer}}'s PBS shows ''Star Hustler'' and ''{{w|Star Gazers}}''. Horkheimer, however, does not at all look like Megan, and he died 6 years ago. But he was not a doctor in astronomy, only getting into it when he started volunteering at the Miami Museum of Science's planetarium. He ended up writing shows for the planetarium and the PBS series developed from there. He rarely covered facts about the night sky that couldn't be found in any basic reference (possibly because the show was aimed at children and non-astronomy buffs), although he did get more in-depth about current astronomical events such as {{W|Comet Hale–Bopp}}.

==Transcript==
:[A thin panel with Megan as a TV-host is holding her hands up. She is drawn in white on a black background. Behind her is an audience drawn in faint gray lines consisting of Hairy (to the left) and two Cueball-like guys and Ponytail (seen in a rare full face position) to the right of the host. One of the Cueball-like guys is partly hidden behind the host.]
:Host: Welcome to stargazing, with your host, me.
:Host: I'm a doctor or whatever.

:[Same scene as before but in a broader panel, and the host is now holding only one hand up with a finger pointing up. The audience is the same four people, but now Hairy has moved further to the left in the panel to make room for a Megan-like woman also to the left of the host.]
:Host: I'm not gonna waste your time on the shitty stars.
:Host: Just the good stuff.
:Host: Honestly half of 'em just look like dots.

:[A frame-less drawing with a zoom out showing the group of six people in black silhouette on a white background. Part of the ground beneath them is shown as a black pool. The host is pointing up with one hand. The people have been rearranged, so left of the host is now a Cueball-like guy and a Megan-like woman, and to the right is the other Cueball-like guy, then Ponytail (seen from the side as usual) and Hairy. All are looking up following the host's directions.]
:Host: This is Sirius. It's the brightest star in our sky so it's in charge.
:Host: It's really two stars but one of them is barely even trying.
:Host: This is Andromeda, it's too big to think about, so let's not.

:[Zoom in of the host's upper body, again drawn in white on a black background. She is looking right gesturing with one arm raised, and the other still pointing up with a finger stretched out. Her audience is no longer shown.]
:Host: That red stars is Betelgeuse. It's gonna explode someday.
:Host: Can't happen soon enough, as far as I'm concerned. I-
:Host: ''Holy shit did you see that meteor!?!''
:Host: Space is ''awesome!''

:[Same scene as the previous panel, but the host has turned towards left looking at someone in the audience (not shown) who speaks off-screen. She has taken both her hands down for the first time.]
:Off-screen voice: Are you ''sure'' you're an astronomer?
:Host: People keep asking that, so I finally tried to look that word up in a dictionary, and ''wow'' is that book ever boring. No thank you.
:Off-screen voice: But-
:Host: ''Space!''

==Trivia==
*Randall changed the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/48/20160221022727!stargazing.png original] posted version of the comic.
**The only thing that changed was in the third panel where '''''That's''' Andromeda'' was changed to the current version: '''''This is''' Andromeda''
*The official transcript [https://web.archive.org/web/20160913162302/http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json originally] used male pronouns for the TV host. It now (as of 2019) uses female pronouns for the host.
**The official transcripts seems to have been messed up on xkcd at the time being.
***The [http://xkcd.com/1644/info.0.json transcript for 1644] is thus at the moment a mix of that comics main info (top and bottom) which results in the correct title and title text, but the entire description in this transcript is describing the comic from two releases before no. [[1642]].
***This seems to be a general problem for comics released around that time...
***Thus the description of this comic, was first released when comic no. [[1646]] came out.
***This has not been corrected (4 years later at the time of writing)!
****So the official transcript for 1644 can be found [http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json here], together with the data for comic 1646.
**The current transcript is included here below:
::(Inverse color panel - white on black)
::[A television host in the foreground, speaking toward the reader. A group of other people are in the background behind them.]
::Host: Welcome to Stargazing, with your host, me. I'm a doctor or whatever.
::[She continues to talk.]
::Host: I'm not gonna waste your time on the shitty stars. Just the good stuff. Honestly half of 'em just look like dots.
::(Normal color panel - black on white)
::[A shot from far away of the host standing in the center of the group of people watching her, she points to the sky.]
::Host: This is Sirius. It's the brightest star in our sky so it's in charge. It's really two stars, but one of them is barely even trying. This is Andromeda. It's too big to think about, so let's not.
::(Inverse color panel)
::[Close-up on the host gesturing toward the sky behind her.]
::Host: That red star is Betelgeuse. It's gonna explode someday. Can't happen soon enough, as far as I'm concerned. I--
::HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THAT METEOR?!?!
::Space is awesome!
::[The host speaks to someone out of panel.]
::Other: Are you sure you're an astronomer?
::Host: People keep asking that, so I finally tried to look that word up in a dictionary, and wow is that book ever boring. No thank you.
::Other: But--
::Host: SPACE!
:*The original official transcript with male host is included here below (correcting a typo with a missing "s" in "stuff" and formatting to look like our normal transcripts):
::[A television host in the foreground, speaking toward the reader. A group of other people are in the background behind them.]
::Host: Welcome to Stargazing, with your host, me. I'm a doctor or whatever.
::[He continues to talk.]
::Host: I'm not gonna waste your time on the shitty stars. Just the good stuff. Honestly half of 'em just look like dots.
::[Normal color panel - black on white. A shot from far away of the host standing in the center of the group of people watching him, he points to the sky.]
::Host: This is Sirius. It's the brightest star in our sky so it's in charge. It's really two stars, but one of them is barely even trying. This is Andromeda. It's too big to think about, so let's not.
::[Inverse color panel. Close-up on the host gesturing toward the sky behind him.]
::Host: That red star is Betelgeuse. It's gonna explode someday. Can't happen soon enough, as far as I'm concerned. I-- ''HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THAT METEOR?!?!'' Space is ''awesome''!
::[The host speaks to someone out of panel.]
::Other: Are you ''sure'' you're an astronomer?
::Host: People keep asking that, so I finally tried to look that word up in a dictionary, and ''wow'' is that book ever boring. No ''thank'' you.
::Other: But--
::Host: ''SPACE!''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Stargazing]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Stargazing]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

2848: Breaker Box

2023-11-11T08:35:26Z

Erlandyt: Fixed a typo and added a option to bugs breaker

{{comic
| number = 2848
| date = October 30, 2023
| title = Breaker Box
| image = breaker_box_2x.png
| imagesize = 560x776px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Any electrician will warn you to first locate and flip the house's CAUSALITY circuit breaker before touching the CIRCUIT BREAKERS one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HIGH-PITCHED HUM GENERATOR THAT WAS LAST MENTIONED [[1590: The Source|EXACTLY 1258 COMICS AGO]] - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|distribution board}}, referred to as a "breaker box" here and also commonly referred to as a "fuse box", "breaker panel", "DB box", and many other names, is a metal box attached to a wall, usually in some maintenance area, containing multiple {{w|circuit breakers}} that distribute electricity to various parts of the building. A circuit breaker is an electrical switch, usually in the form of a small lever that can be used to manually isolate the electrical connections it controls from the incoming power supply. These breakers are designed to automatically open (thus, breaking the circuit) if too much electrical current flows through them. This is a safety measure to reduce the risk of damage, fire or electrocution in the event of a short circuit or higher load being asked for than the wires are rated to handle.

In breaker boxes, each individual breaker is ideally labeled to let the operator know what that specific breaker controls. Typically, the circuit controlled by each breaker will feed an intuitive set of connections: a certain room, or set of rooms, or possibly a set of related services (like overhead lights, or all the outlets on one floor). Some large appliances will have a dedicated circuit and breaker.

However, in houses that have been rewired multiple times (or were poorly wired the first time), this can quickly become overcomplicated with seemingly random connections. Randall lives in Boston where much of the housing stock is from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and he is likely to live in a house with non-ideal wiring, which may have inspired this comic.

The comic satirizes these complex wiring setups, with multiple breakers "controlling" arbitrary things, including some that – in the classic style of xkcd – are puns on the word "breaker" or may be impossible to hook a breaker up to, getting progressively more absurd to the point of "breaking" certain laws of physics.

===Table of the breaker labels===
{|class = "wikitable"
! Label next to breaker !! Explanation !! Note
|-
! colspan="3"|Left column of switches
|-
| Kitchen lights || The lights in the kitchen. || rowspan="3"| Standard items that could be separate
|-
| Living room lights || The lights in the living room.
|-
| Porch lights || The lights on the porch.
|-
| Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere || The lights in the bathroom, but also a random outlet.
It is not uncommon for the power supplies to bathrooms (and other rooms with water connections) to be on a separate circuit. This is because water can potentially cause a short circuit, resulting in the breaker opening, and separate circuits minimize the impact and makes the problem easier to locate. These are called "GFCI" or "GFI" (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter [https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/099_0.pdf]) circuits.

It is a standard to connect a bathroom outlet with another outlet also requiring a GFCI, such as basement or outdoors. Another option is that an electrician (or homeowner), having initially reserved an output from the box for such a limited use, may – while adding wiring – chooses to wire seemingly unrelated things into the same circuit. This may make sense (for example, an outlet near a non-bathroom sink or some other water source could reasonably be grouped with the bathroom), or it may simply be out of convenience from how long the wires needed to run (such as an outlet in the room adjacent to the bathroom). In either case, future residents and installers may not be informed of this, and therefore wouldn't realize that the outlet is grouped with that circuit.
| Standard or 'kludged'
|-
| North-facing appliances || colspan="2"|Peculiar and a bit complex to execute. Here's how it might have been set up:
# Install a breaker switch that is actually a mechanical switch to control a smart home automation instead of its normal function
# Replace relevant normal outlets with Wi-Fi-controlled smart outlets
# Use smart home software to create a custom group of all outlets that control all ''north-facing appliances''
# Set up a software automation to selectively toggle this user-defined group of smart outlets when triggered.
* Adding a matching appliance to the house would require editing the automation.

Alternative explanations:
* The switch may be physically wired only to outlets installed on a southern wall in the property (or ''all'' southern walls, for each room that requires them), and you'd ensure that everything connected to these exclusively north-facing outlets also faces directly away from the wall(s).
* The switch could control appliances on the north-facing walls of the house.

Note: "North-facing" has broad interpretation, as lax as northeast to northwest or as strict as {{w|Points of the compass#32-wind compass rose|north by east to north by west}}. It could also be as exact as perfect north, but this would render this breaker completely functionless unless an appliance happens to be ever-so-perfectly aligned.

|-
| Bathtub drain light || colspan="2"|Bathtub drains typically do not have lights, but this breaker provides power to that and only that. Why it isn't already considered a "bathroom light" is unexplained (unless it's for the bit of the pipe that is ''external'' to that room). Perhaps it is a sub-menu of bathroom breaker, but then its position on the panel is unusual in that it isn't next to the bathroom breaker.

It obviously cannot be the "surprise mystery outlet" already referred to earlier as being covered under the switch for the bathroom lights, much apart from it not being a socket/outlet.
|-
| Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" || colspan="2"|Another odd and amusing specification.

To make it work, one might use the "North-facing appliances" setup described above, but just with a different custom group of Wi-Fi-controlled smart outlets chosen to only control appliances with an "F' in their name.

Some common household appliances (kitchen and elsewhere) that this switch might control:
* coffee maker
* refrigerator
* freezer
* fan
* air fryer
* food processor
* waffle iron
* fabric steamer
* fireplace (electric)
|-
| {{w|Hot water heater}} || Usually just a heater that creates (and typically stores) hot water. But given that the next breaker controls the "Regular water heater", this breaker might actually control a water heater that pointlessly heats water that is ''already'' hot.
This is probably a joke about the fact that the common phrase "hot water heater" is [[technically]] redundant or misleading:
* Redundant because the simpler term "water heater" is enough to describe a device that produces hot water.
* Misleading because it's not the purpose of residential water heaters to heat water that is ''already'' hot.

Trivia: In some languages, "hot water" is a separate, single word, so "hot-water heater" can be accurate. One such example is Japanese, where "hot water" is simply referred to as "お湯" ("Oyu"), however this is taken a step further as "hot water heater" is referred to as "給湯器" ("Kyūyuki").
|rowspan="2"|Two "heaters"
|-
| Regular water heater || The heater for regular water. In context with the switch above, this label presumes it's for a heater for heating water that is not yet hot (usually called a "hot water heater", hence the joke). Alternatively, if we assume that a ''hot water heater'' is for ''making'' hot water, this heater must be for making “regular water”, whatever temperature that may mean.
|-
| Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in || colspan="2"|This controls every outlet in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in, such as the dining room and kitchen and – depending on the "normal" habits of the inhabitants – other rooms such as the bedroom, bathroom, or living room (if not already covered by the "living room lights" switch above). Closets and single-purpose rooms such as the laundry room are presumably not included.
|-
| High-pitched hum generator || colspan="2"|Controls a high-pitched hum generator. This is a call-back to [[1590: The Source]], which was released just over 8 years before this comic.
|-
| The solution to the cryptogram below: || colspan="2"|Likely a pun on a "code breaker," something or someone that solves a code, such as Randall's cryptogram, a type of puzzle where a sentence has been encoded using a cipher, usually simple, and the goal is to determine the cipher and recover the original sentence from the encoded one. Randall has not actually written a cryptogram, simply making the label's text illegible to the audience.
2 other explanations:
* The identity of the electrical load sourced from this breaker can be found by solving the cryptogram.
* This switch enables or disables the code's solution somehow, perhaps toggling its knowability or solvability or turning on a computer for solving cryptograms.
|-
| Bugs || colspan="2"|Several interpretations are possible:
* Disable all software bugs in the house*
* Disable all insect bugs in the house – as an efficient form of pest control – perhaps using ultrasonic emitters that drive away bugs (may be a reference to [[2753: Air Handler]]) – or perhaps the house contains noise machines that play sounds of insects or other ways of simulating insects.
* Disable power to all covert listening devices, which would be able to be switched off if wired into the house's electrical grid.
* Disable the whole global category of bugs (insects, arachnids, and other small arthropods), in which case we'd have no more pests and we'd reduce disease like malaria and {{w|Lyme disease}}! Of course, food webs would also collapse, and our world would be overrun with waste.
* All of the above
<nowiki>*</nowiki>Though it's unlikely that it's what Randall is referring to, computer bugs switches actually exist. It's a feature in some video game emulators to either run an unofficial patched version or to stay true to the original system, for example to allow bug-exploit speedruns of a video game.
|-
! colspan="3"|Right column of switches
|-
| A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now || colspan="2"|Fans generally produce a steady, low-level 'white' noise that people generally stop noticing. When such a fan is turned off, the absence of that noise is quickly noticed. Alternatively, the fan could be somewhere that cannot be heard, with the label on the switch serving as the only reminder of the fan's existence.

Shutting down a fan that you didn't realize was running could be worrisome for a couple of reasons: it could be serving an important function (like HVAC or server cooling) and cause a problem when it's off, or it may be a fan that wasn't supposed to be running, but had been for some time without being noticed.
|-
| Dishwasher || colspan="2"|A dishwasher may find itself with a separate circuit breaker for a few reasons. Commercial-grade dishwashers are often high-load appliances that require more power (incorporating powerful heating units and pumps). Residential-grade dishwashers may not be as energy-intensive, but if the house wasn't originally built with a dishwasher in mind, it is likely new wiring had to be added during its installation, resulting in a breaker that exclusively controls the dishwasher.

Though what "dishwasher" actually means may depend on what the "dishes" of the next switch might be, and thus what additional device may be required to ensure they remain clean. Even at the more trivial end of the interpretation (though not then explaining the following "dishes"), a busy restaurant might have an employee section equipped exclusively for the dishwashing role and separately supplied with power in a similar manner to that suggested for the bathroom.
|-
| Dishes || colspan="2"|Likely a pun on "breaking" dishes.

Of course, dinnerware and dishes are usually not powered devices and wouldn't require a circuit breaker at all; discovering they need their own circuit breaker separate from their dishwasher is a spoof of many common circuit breaker frustrations. Lastly it's also possible the switch powers/controls two or more satellite dishes.
|-
| Hallway lights || The lights in the hallway or hallways. || rowspan="3"|"Hallway" regions
|-
| Hallway outlets || The outlets in the hallway or hallways, presumably the same as the "Hallway lights" hallways. A common confusion when turning off breakers is separate wiring for outlets and lights in the same room. Though having the room go dark is a good mnemonic that it is unpowered, it is not a guarantee, and indeed, wiring them separately allows working on the outlets without having to do it in the dark.
|-
| Hallway floors || Yet another breaker for the hallways, presumably the same hallways as the previous two breakers, adding more confusion and frustration. This breaker has several potential interpretations:
#A master switch for all floors (stories) in the building which include hallways, e.g. the guestroom areas in a hotel, whilst possibly excluding the lobby and service levels
#Outlets in the floor
#Electric underfloor heating (heated bathroom floors are a feature in some houses)
#Electrification of the floors -- not common outside of horror and heist movies
#Disabling all floors entirely, so everything resting on the floors falls through
|-
| Social media || colspan="2"|This breaker also has several potential interpretations of "taking a social media break" or "turning off social media":
#'Digital detoxes', where someone says "I'm going to take a social media beeak" and intends to deny themselves access to all their social media apps.
#A switch for a parent to turn off all social media entering the house to protect their kids and themselves, which references a type of specialized content filter available through Wi-Fi router settings, not traditionally a breaker box.
#A callback to [[908: The Cloud]]. Since most social media platforms are centralized services, it would be theoretically possible to hook up a switch to the main power supply of every server building at once, given some extremely long wires, a breaker capable of handling the abhorrently massive electric load, and agreement from every social media provider([[1439|optional]]).
#The theoretical desire by some to "turn off social media" for the world due to its harmful effects on society. As someone who lived before social media and saw its spread over two decades, Randall may be ruing the impacts of social media on civilization and channeling his desire to put the genie back in the bottle.
#Potentially a play on the phrase “breaking the internet”, meaning going viral on social media, though "breaking social media" is not an idiom
|-
| State law || Likely a pun on "State Law Breaker."
Taken literally, it would either disable enforcement of State Law or nullify every single one, creating a state of lawlessness similar to the premise of the popular movie, "The Purge". It's unclear if this refers to Randall's state of Massachusetts or State Law as a general concept.

If the switch just nullifies State Law within the confines of the house, that would make the home a place where State Law could be broken without consequence, with some exciting implications:
* '''No More Licenses''': Practice medicine, law, or cut hair without the need of a license!
* '''The Ultimate Man Cave or She Shed''': Pet lion, or maybe a nuclear reactor in the basement.
* '''24/7 Parties''': No noise complaints. Late-night parties with blaring music can continue indefinitely.
* '''Tax-Free Zone''': Sell goods from the home without any sales tax.
* '''Unusual Living Arrangements''': OK to live with 50 other people in a 2-bedroom house, with no zoning laws or housing regulations.
* '''DIY Everything''': All those building codes and safety regulations wouldn't apply. OK to install an indoor waterfall or convert the living room into a beach.
* '''Gambling House''': Turn the living room into a full-blown casino, no license needed.
* '''Ultimate Privacy''': No worries about warrantless searches. State law enforcement would have no jurisdiction inside your house.
| rowspan="2"|"Legal" items
|-
| Federal law || Likely a pun on "Federal Law Breaker," though it could also be taken literally, as above.

The ramifications of nullifying every US Federal law are immense. Disabling Federal Law while keeping State Law would theoretically fulfill the goals of the "States Rights" advocates, groups of conservatives across US history aiming to return Federal power to the States.

If the switch just nullifies Federal Law within the confines of the house, there could be some fun results:

* '''Alternative Currency Operations''': Inhabitants could craft their own monetary system, designing and printing their own currency.
* '''Endangered Species Game Park''': The house could become a zone for hunting creatures federally recognized as endangered or protected, like the bald eagle, making it a place to shoot or trap rare wildlife.
* '''Exotic Collection Hub''': With federal import restrictions made moot, the house could transform into a repository for exotic items otherwise forbidden at a national level -- a potential trove of rare fruits, plants, or artifacts.
* '''Tax-free Commercial Zone''': Any enterprise operating entirely within the house's boundaries is free from federal income taxation.
* '''Experimental Culinary Experiences''': Free from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) constraints, the house could offer dishes using ingredients or preparations not federally approved.
|-
| Second law of thermodynamics || The {{w|second law of thermodynamics}} means that things naturally move from order to disorder over time. It also says you can't take heat from a place that's cooler and use it to make a place hotter than the cooler place, unless you use some energy to do it. In short, without adding energy, only the hotter place can warm up the cooler one.

Turning off (or breaking) the second law of thermodynamics would have some pros and cons.
;GOOD STUFF
*'''Perpetual Motion Machines''': Machines that can do work indefinitely without an energy source would become possible, defying our current understanding of energy conservation.
*'''Reversibility of Processes''': Many natural processes that are irreversible under current laws could be reversed. For instance, melted ice could spontaneously turn back into a solid without energy removal.
*'''Recycling Energy''': We could theoretically use the same quantum of energy over and over again, leading to ultra-efficient systems and potentially solving many of the world's energy problems.
*'''Reversing Entropy-Driven Processes''': Things like mixing cream and coffee or ink in water could spontaneously unmix.
;BAD STUFF
*'''End Life as We Know It:''' All living organisms rely on the second law for crucial processes, including metabolism and reproduction. If the second law were negated, life, at least as we understand it, might not be possible.
*'''No Heat Engines:''' Engines rely on the flow of heat from hotter to colder bodies. Without the Second Law, our cars, power plants, refrigerators, and many other devices would not function.
*'''Breakdown of Molecular Processes:''' Molecules spontaneously move from areas of higher to lower concentration due to entropy. Without this, diffusion, osmosis, and many biochemical reactions wouldn't occur as they currently do.
*'''Loss of Directionality:''' One interpretation of the Second Law provides a directionality to time (the so-called "arrow of time"). Without it, causality and our understanding of past, present, and future could be fundamentally altered.
*'''Unpredictable Outcomes:''' Turning off the Second Law could result in a universe where outcomes are not probabilistically predictable. You couldn't rely on anything happening as it "should," leading to chaos in every sense.
This law of physics was also explored in the What If? article [https://what-if.xkcd.com/145/ Fire From Moonlight].
| rowspan="3"|"Physics" items
|-
| Friction || {{w|Friction}} is the resistive force that opposes the relative motion or tendency of such motion of two surfaces in contact. Turning it off has some upsides and downsides.
;UPSIDES
*'''Perpetual Motion Machines:''' Without friction, once an object starts moving, it would continue indefinitely unless acted upon by another force.
*'''Super-Efficient Transport:''' Cars, trains, and other vehicles would glide effortlessly once set into motion, leading to immense energy savings.
*'''Unique Sports:''' New sports and activities would emerge, where players glide or slide over surfaces without friction.
;DOWNSIDES
*'''Walking Would Be Impossible:''' We rely on friction between our feet and the ground to move. Without it, we would be unable to walk, run, or even stand.
*'''No Manual Dexterity:''' Holding, grabbing, or manipulating objects would be very difficult, because they would be perfectly slippery.
*'''Catastrophic Mechanical Failures:''' Many machines rely on friction to function. Brakes in cars, for instance, use friction to slow down and stop the vehicle. Without it, uncontrollable accidents would occur.
*'''No Sound:''' Friction between air molecules creates sound waves. Without friction, the world would be silent (some may consider this an upside).
*'''Breathing Difficulties:''' Our respiratory system relies on frictional forces when the alveoli in our lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the bloodstream.
*'''Hard to Light Fire:''' Lighting a fire by striking a match would no longer work, because it relies on friction. However, there are other methods for starting a fire that don't require friction, [https://www.wikihow.com/Create-Fire-With-a-Magnifying-Glass the most famous of which just requires a magnifying glass].
*'''Collisions:''' Objects, once set in motion, would continue to move until they hit something, leading to a myriad of unpredictable and uncontrollable collisions.
Being in a frictionless environment (and a vacuum, as physicists love...) was the subject of [[669: Experiment]].
|-
| Gravity || {{w|Gravity}} is a natural force that attracts two bodies toward each other, proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.
Turning off gravity would have some advantages and disadvantages.
;ADVANTAGES
* '''Flight''': Without gravity, every leap could turn into a flight. We could push off surfaces and float effortlessly through the air.
* '''No Weight Restrictions''': Large structures could be built without concern for weight-bearing loads. This would drastically change engineering and architectural designs.
* '''New Sports''': Zero-gravity sports and activities could become a reality on Earth. Imagine playing basketball or soccer without gravity!
;DISADVANTAGES
* '''''Uncontrollable'' Flight''': Without gravity, every push of two objects (such as one's foot on the ground) turns into a flight... right out of the atmosphere of the Earth, and directly into space. Combined with the issue below, if there's no air left to let you "swim" back down, you have no chance of making it back to Earth.
* '''Loss of Atmosphere and Oceans''': Without gravity, Earth's atmosphere would dissipate into space, and water from oceans, rivers, and lakes would float away, making life as we know it impossible.
* '''Unanchored Chaos''': Everything not fixed to the ground, including people, animals, vehicles, and foundationless structures, could become airborne, causing massive destruction and chaos.
* '''Disruption of Celestial Order''': Earth would no longer orbit the Sun, the Moon would drift away rather quickly, and the structural integrity of the universe, including galaxies and solar systems, would be jeopardized.
* '''Everything Exploding''': Most celestial bodies, ranging from the moon to supermassive black holes, would explode from internal pressure and centripetal forces no longer fighting against gravity, throwing everything into space.
* '''Aggregation Absence''': Stars, galaxies, and basically anything in space requires gravity to form. Without gravity, no stars, planets, or meteors would form ever again.

Of course, if this switch is turned off, it may simply mean that objects within the house itself are no longer subject to gravity. This would be '''''far''''' less cataclysmic, and as a bonus, this would make it very different when moving around the house, making it easier to get to higher areas, and move objects, though impossible to place them without some other force being applied, and could prove to cause some problems once the breaker is turned back on, especially for things under said objects.
|-
| Circuit breakers || colspan="2"|Possibly the "master" breaker, controlling the main circuit that supplies power to all other circuit breakers. However, given the other surreal things this breaker box controls, turning it off may possibly make it impossible to turn it on ever again as the switch will no longer function once switched off (i.e.: If this was turned off, it would presumably turn off the functionality of the circuit breaker itself, if it was wired to include itself). Another interpretation is that turning off this breaker should supposedly make this breaker not able to control the power, which leads to a situation similar to the liar's paradox.

Moreover, if this circuit breaker disables all circuit breakers everywhere, it would result in global infrastructure collapse, halting essential services, including transportation, healthcare, and communication, and leading to widespread chaos.

Note that it might be a perfectly valid label if it refers to multiple subsidiary 'boxes', cascaded off this particular one, each containing one or more additional breakers for convenience or safety. e.g. units dedicated to a shed, garage or workshop room which save the need to traipse all the way to this box's utility cupboard location in the event of an otherwise easily resolved power issue.
|-
! colspan="3"|Title text
|-
| colspan="3"|The title text is about {{w|causality}} (not to be confused with {{w|casualty}}), and how to use this (unseen, located elsewhere) breaker along with the last shown switch that (de)powers the illustrated box.

Causality, in its simplest form, is the process of cause and effect, meaning that everything that happens only happens because something caused it to happen - in other words, every event is an effect caused by another event. For example, a bag of chips can't just fall onto the floor for ''literally'' no reason - it has to be caused by some other event, such as someone smacking it or a gust of wind blowing it down.

Turning off the circuit breaker using the CIRCUIT BREAKERS switch may lead to a loop, if the disabled breaker can no longer disable itself, leading to it turning back on, etc. Alternatively, turning off the CIRCUIT BREAKER switch might be a one-way street.

Turning the CAUSALITY switch from OFF back to ON might be unlikely to do anything if the circuit breakers upstream of it have been fully deactivated. The separation of cause and effect would ostensibly take precedence over the current switch setting. Turning off CAUSALITY first would prevent either the loop or the permanent disabling of circuit breakers, but would also have many other side effects, including letting switches potentially serve power even if there is no power being served ''to them'', or even spontaneously switching (on or off) without any intervention or reason.

The 'warning', from an electrician, could even be to locate the nominally ''off'' CAUSALITY switch in order to turn it ''on'', or else all other intended effects will possibly not end up being actually actioned. Either way, whether or not turning on/off causality would change the state of causality (at one stage or other being rendered ineffectual) is an exercise left for the reader.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An open breaker box is shown. There are 26 labelled breakers, all of which are on, paired back to back in thirteen rows as a label, switch, switch and label.]
:Kitchen lights / A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now
:Living room lights / Dishwasher
:Porch lights / Dishes
:Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere / Hallway lights
:North-facing appliances / Hallway outlets
:Bathtub drain light / Hallway floors
:Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" / Social media
:Hot water heater / State law
:Regular water heater / Federal law
:Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in / Second law of thermodynamics
:High-pitched hum generator / Friction
:The solution to the cryptogram below: [Additional squiggled words that are too small/indistinct to read.] / Gravity
:Bugs / Circuit breakers

{{comic discussion}}

1992: SafetySat

2023-10-15T20:12:21Z

Erlandyt: Misremembered the styling guide

{{comic
| number = 1992
| date = May 11, 2018
| title = SafetySat
| image = safetysat.png
| titletext = During launch, in the event of an unexpected sensor reading, SafetySat will extend prongs in all directions to secure itself and any other cubesats safely in the launch vehicle until the source of the problem can be determined.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|CubeSat}} is a standard format for small satellites that can fit in a 10×10×10 cm format with a mass of less than 1.3 kg. They have been widely used by academics for research satellites, and by both small and large companies. CubeSats have been discussed both before and after this comic, in [[1866: Russell's Teapot]] and [[2148: Cubesat Launch]].

CubeSats are often launched as an additional payload on commercial launches but also deployed from the {{w|International Space Station}} at the {{w|Kibo (ISS module)|Kibo-Module}} or other airlocks. All these satellites are orbiting the Earth in a low orbit and since they have no propulsion system they also become a part of {{w|space debris}} when they are out of control; eventually they will reenter earth's atmosphere without any further hazard.

Only a few days before this comic was released the first interplanetary CubeSats called {{w|Mars Cube One}} was launched together with NASA's probe {{w|InSight}} (now offline) aiming to the planet {{w|Mars}}.

One of Randall's influences in creating this comic may have been [https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/fcc-accuses-stealthy-startup-of-launching-rogue-satellites controversy surrounding a commercial launch of a sub-CubeSat sized pico-satellite] from a launch site in India, after the company had previously been denied launch permission within the US, due to safety concerns.

There are multiple safety rules to ensure that the CubeSat cannot damage the primary payload. However, the joke in this comic is that [[Randall]]'s design seeks to break as many rules as possible.

Items clockwise from top left:

;Rare-Earth Magnets
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.10.
:{{w|Rare-earth magnets}} are very powerful magnets that have a high likelihood of messing up the functioning of nearby electronics, like other CubeSats. It might also cause the CubeSat to stick to other satellites, as the {{w|M-Cubed}} and {{w|Explorer-1 Prime}} CubeSats did.

;BIC Mini-Lighter
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Fire source, resting on the can of crude oil. The pressurized butane could also make the lighter burst, but in space without oxygen the lighter never would ignite. And even if the inside of the CubeSat contains some oxygen in weightlessness a flame would go out very soon, of course if it set off the crude oil or the guncotton then it would not matter, as the CubeSat would be destroyed.

;SDR/{{w|Software-Defined Radio}} (Code Editable via Public Wiki)
:Violates Title 47 CFR Part 97 § 97.207(b), in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.4.3.2.1
:A radio which can be programmed to broadcast and receive in a range of frequencies, and formats. Software-Defined Radios are useful for development of new or modified wireless protocols, as well as for monitoring the raw waveform data of a transmission regardless of the protocols used. The radio in this comic is stated to run firmware which can be modified from a publicly editable Wikipedia-style webpage. Since anyone could change the radio's instructions, the radio could interfere with other satellites, or with the launch vehicle. This counts as a huge security risk, as ''anyone'' could edit it.

;Laser Pointers (Fixed)
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 8.2.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:These three laser points will effectively point in 3 different random directions, which is not safe for other objects around this Cubesat. It depends on the power of the laser pointers but, in general a laser over 5 mW can heat up and damage things given enough time.{{Actual citation needed|reason=Why is a laser pointer dangerous?|date=May 2018}} Of course, with the satellite being in orbit it could potentially mess up the optical sensors of other satellites, but it would be a matter of chance. This could also be a reference to the book ''What If?'', specifically the chapter ''Laser Pointer''.

;Laser Pointer (Hubble-Seeking)
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 8.2.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Aiming a laser at a visible light telescope is potentially destructive to the telescope in question by damaging its optical sensors. This is because CCD & CMOS image sensors are designed to detect finite light sources, concentrated & focused by an optical lens. Lasers produce high light levels well beyond the (comparatively) very low intensity light which astronomical image sensors are designed to detect; The energy of these excess photons can heat up the circuits between rows of photosensitive cells to the point where they overheat and fuse. For much the same reason, originates the phrase "do not stare into laser with remaining eye". Unlike the fixed laser pointers above, this one would track and aim a laser at the Hubble, with potentially disastrous results.

;CFCs/Ozone-depleting CFC Spritzer
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:{{w|Chlorofluorocarbons}} (CFCs) are fully halogenated paraffin hydrocarbons that contain only carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, produced as volatile derivative of methane, ethane, and propane. {{w|Freon}} is a common example of a CFC, and the use of CFCs has been linked to a depletion of the Earth's {{w|ozone layer}} leading many countries to ban their use. Thus spritzing CFCs in an area relatively close to the Ozone layer may be a bad idea.

;Celebratory Firework
: Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.3.
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 13.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Explosive fire source that could hit other satellites in the vicinity; Also potentially breaking the adjacent seal & igniting the crude oil behind it, turning it into crude oil that is also on fire. Could also set off the guncotton and result in an explosion that destroys the satellite. At the very least, the off-axis position of the firework within the CubeSat would most likely send the satellite into an uncontrolled spin, upon celebratory launch.

;{{w|Crude Oil}}
: Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.6
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
: § 3.1.6 permits 100 Wh of stored chemical energy, or about 9.8ml of crude oil. There appears to be more than that.

;Volatile Epoxy Seal
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, 12.1, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Epoxy is a substance composed of long-chain molecules which exhibit very strong adhesive bonds. Many mixtures of epoxy are flammable & produce hazardous fumes when burned. If this particular epoxy seal fails, everything within splatter range gets coated in flammable crude oil.

;Guncotton
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:A form of {{w|nitrocellulose}}; an explosive. Could be set off by the firework, the crude oil, or the spark plug. Nitrocellulose {{w|Philae_(spacecraft)#Landing_events|does not work reliably in vacuum and possibly caused a failure of Philae space probe}}.

;Americium corners
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 9.1.1, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:{{w|Americium}} is a very dense and radioactive substance. Depending on the amount of americium involved, this alone could shoot the mass over the 1.3 kg mass limit. The isotope 241Am is used in smoke detectors but also proposed for use in {{w|Radioisotope thermoelectric generator|radioisotope thermoelectric generators}} in spaceflight.

;Spark Plug
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, 10.1.4, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Fire ignition source, if connected to electricity; excess mass if not. The electrodes on the spark plug are next to the guncotton which could ignite if the spark plug fires. Additionally, sparks cause electromagnetic interference and electrical shorts.

;Solar Panel (Found)
:The quality of the solar panel and the power it produces would have to be investigated thoroughly before being cleared for space flight. Also, it isn't clear on the design exactly what, if anything, it is supposed to power, or if it is just excess mass.

;Batteries (eBay)
:The quality of batteries bought on auction sites can vary widely, and certain batteries exposed to conditions outside their design specifications can {{w|Battery_(electricity)#Explosion|explode or leak corrosive acids}}. These batteries might also be connected to the adjacent spark plug. Non-rechargable commercial batteries may leak or explode if a recharge is attempted, so if this is the intention of the Solar Panel, these would escalate into an even greater risk.

;Wet Sand Dispenser
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.2, 3.4.3
:Possible reference to the {{w|Kessler syndrome}}, which refers to a hypothetical situation wherein there are enough objects floating around in low earth orbit that collisions between objects might result in a "domino effect," each collision causing more collisions and breaking objects into smaller pieces of space debris, which increase the likelihood of further collisions. Wet sand exhibits a high grip:slip ratio, where the surface tension of the water tends to make particulates clingy. Sand (silica granules) can be very harmful to a wide variety of systems, due to its hardness & abrasive qualities. Depending upon the pattern of water sublimation in either shaded or sunlit zones, the exact behavior of various quantities of "wet sand" in low Earth-orbital space might be of interest to the designers of this and of other spacecraft.

;Title text
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.4.4
:{{Wiktionary|prong|Prong}}s that extend in the event of an unexpected sensor reading at launch could damage the rocket and/or nearby CubeSats/payloads. That the CubeSat reacts to an "unexpected" sensor reading - which could include any number of readings that aren't actually a problem - is also funny, as is the fact that this is described as "safely" securing the CubeSat and any surrounding CubeSats. Along with this, it is not unlikely that this CubeSat might be the source of any internal problem that might arise; in such a situation, having such a dangerous CubeSat further secure itself would be counterproductive, if spitefully entertaining.

==Transcript==
:[A prototype for a small cube-shaped "CubeSat" satellite, with labels on various components.]

:[Labeled on top:]
:Rare-Earth Magnets
:Bic Mini Lighter
:Software-Defined Radio (code editable via a public wiki)

:[Labeled on right:]
:Laser Pointers (fixed)
:Laser Pointer (Hubble-seeking)
:Ozone-Depleting CFC Spritzer

:[Labeled on bottom:]
:Celebratory Firework
:Volatile Epoxy Seal
:Filler (Guncotton)

:[Labeled on left:]
:Americium Corners
:Spark Plug
:Solar Panel (found)
:Batteries (eBay)
:Wet Sand Dispenser

:[Labeled from within drawing in white text on top of a black rectangle:]
:Crude Oil

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My CubeSat proposal was the first to be rejected for violating every design and safety requirement simultaneously.

== Trivia ==
*The normal sized image was originally broken at [[xkcd]] and the BOT uploaded that image here. It was just a gigantic Γ shape at first (though with a rounded corner). The problem was fixed soon, but it happened later again at comic [[1994: Repairs]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]

1992: SafetySat

2023-10-15T20:10:45Z

Erlandyt: Fixed styling

{{comic
| number = 1992
| date = May 11, 2018
| title = SafetySat
| image = safetysat.png
| titletext = During launch, in the event of an unexpected sensor reading, SafetySat will extend prongs in all directions to secure itself and any other cubesats safely in the launch vehicle until the source of the problem can be determined.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|CubeSat}} is a standard format for small satellites that can fit in a 10×10×10 cm format with a mass of less than 1.3 kg. They have been widely used by academics for research satellites, and by both small and large companies. CubeSats have been discussed both before and after this comic, in [[1866: Russell's Teapot]] and [[2148: Cubesat Launch]].

CubeSats are often launched as an additional payload on commercial launches but also deployed from the {{w|International Space Station}} at the {{w|Kibo (ISS module)|Kibo-Module}} or other airlocks. All these satellites are orbiting the Earth in a low orbit and since they have no propulsion system they also become a part of {{w|space debris}} when they are out of control; eventually they will reenter earth's atmosphere without any further hazard.

Only a few days before this comic was released the first interplanetary CubeSats called {{w|Mars Cube One}} was launched together with NASA's probe {{w|InSight}} (now offline) aiming to the planet {{w|Mars}}.

One of Randall's influences in creating this comic may have been [https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/fcc-accuses-stealthy-startup-of-launching-rogue-satellites controversy surrounding a commercial launch of a sub-CubeSat sized pico-satellite] from a launch site in India, after the company had previously been denied launch permission within the US, due to safety concerns.

There are multiple safety rules to ensure that the CubeSat cannot damage the primary payload. However, the joke in this comic is that [[Randall]]'s design seeks to break as many rules as possible.

Items clockwise from top left:

;Rare-Earth Magnets
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.10.
:{{w|Rare-earth magnets}} are very powerful magnets that have a high likelihood of messing up the functioning of nearby electronics, like other CubeSats. It might also cause the CubeSat to stick to other satellites, as the {{w|M-Cubed}} and {{w|Explorer-1 Prime}} CubeSats did.

;BIC Mini-Lighter
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Fire source, resting on the can of crude oil. The pressurized butane could also make the lighter burst, but in space without oxygen the lighter never would ignite. And even if the inside of the CubeSat contains some oxygen in weightlessness a flame would go out very soon, of course if it set off the crude oil or the guncotton then it would not matter, as the CubeSat would be destroyed.

;SDR/{{w|Software-Defined Radio}} (Code Editable via Public Wiki)
:Violates Title 47 CFR Part 97 § 97.207(b), in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.4.3.2.1
:A radio which can be programmed to broadcast and receive in a range of frequencies, and formats. Software-Defined Radios are useful for development of new or modified wireless protocols, as well as for monitoring the raw waveform data of a transmission regardless of the protocols used. The radio in this comic is stated to run firmware which can be modified from a publicly editable Wikipedia-style webpage. Since anyone could change the radio's instructions, the radio could interfere with other satellites, or with the launch vehicle. This counts as a huge security risk, as ''anyone'' could edit it.

;Laser Pointers (Fixed)
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 8.2.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:These three laser points will effectively point in 3 different random directions, which is not safe for other objects around this Cubesat. It depends on the power of the laser pointers but, in general a laser over 5 mW can heat up and damage things given enough time{{Actual citation needed|reason=Why is a laser pointer dangerous?|date=May 2018}}. Of course, with the satellite being in orbit it could potentially mess up the optical sensors of other satellites, but it would be a matter of chance. This could also be a reference to the book ''What If?'', specifically the chapter ''Laser Pointer''.

;Laser Pointer (Hubble-Seeking)
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 8.2.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Aiming a laser at a visible light telescope is potentially destructive to the telescope in question by damaging its optical sensors. This is because CCD & CMOS image sensors are designed to detect finite light sources, concentrated & focused by an optical lens. Lasers produce high light levels well beyond the (comparatively) very low intensity light which astronomical image sensors are designed to detect; The energy of these excess photons can heat up the circuits between rows of photosensitive cells to the point where they overheat and fuse. For much the same reason, originates the phrase "do not stare into laser with remaining eye". Unlike the fixed laser pointers above, this one would track and aim a laser at the Hubble, with potentially disastrous results.

;CFCs/Ozone-depleting CFC Spritzer
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:{{w|Chlorofluorocarbons}} (CFCs) are fully halogenated paraffin hydrocarbons that contain only carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, produced as volatile derivative of methane, ethane, and propane. {{w|Freon}} is a common example of a CFC, and the use of CFCs has been linked to a depletion of the Earth's {{w|ozone layer}} leading many countries to ban their use. Thus spritzing CFCs in an area relatively close to the Ozone layer may be a bad idea.

;Celebratory Firework
: Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.3.
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 13.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Explosive fire source that could hit other satellites in the vicinity; Also potentially breaking the adjacent seal & igniting the crude oil behind it, turning it into crude oil that is also on fire. Could also set off the guncotton and result in an explosion that destroys the satellite. At the very least, the off-axis position of the firework within the CubeSat would most likely send the satellite into an uncontrolled spin, upon celebratory launch.

;{{w|Crude Oil}}
: Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.6
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
: § 3.1.6 permits 100 Wh of stored chemical energy, or about 9.8ml of crude oil. There appears to be more than that.

;Volatile Epoxy Seal
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, 12.1, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Epoxy is a substance composed of long-chain molecules which exhibit very strong adhesive bonds. Many mixtures of epoxy are flammable & produce hazardous fumes when burned. If this particular epoxy seal fails, everything within splatter range gets coated in flammable crude oil.

;Guncotton
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:A form of {{w|nitrocellulose}}; an explosive. Could be set off by the firework, the crude oil, or the spark plug. Nitrocellulose {{w|Philae_(spacecraft)#Landing_events|does not work reliably in vacuum and possibly caused a failure of Philae space probe}}.

;Americium corners
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 9.1.1, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:{{w|Americium}} is a very dense and radioactive substance. Depending on the amount of americium involved, this alone could shoot the mass over the 1.3 kg mass limit. The isotope 241Am is used in smoke detectors but also proposed for use in {{w|Radioisotope thermoelectric generator|radioisotope thermoelectric generators}} in spaceflight.

;Spark Plug
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, 10.1.4, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Fire ignition source, if connected to electricity; excess mass if not. The electrodes on the spark plug are next to the guncotton which could ignite if the spark plug fires. Additionally, sparks cause electromagnetic interference and electrical shorts.

;Solar Panel (Found)
:The quality of the solar panel and the power it produces would have to be investigated thoroughly before being cleared for space flight. Also, it isn't clear on the design exactly what, if anything, it is supposed to power, or if it is just excess mass.

;Batteries (eBay)
:The quality of batteries bought on auction sites can vary widely, and certain batteries exposed to conditions outside their design specifications can {{w|Battery_(electricity)#Explosion|explode or leak corrosive acids}}. These batteries might also be connected to the adjacent spark plug. Non-rechargable commercial batteries may leak or explode if a recharge is attempted, so if this is the intention of the Solar Panel, these would escalate into an even greater risk.

;Wet Sand Dispenser
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.2, 3.4.3
:Possible reference to the {{w|Kessler syndrome}}, which refers to a hypothetical situation wherein there are enough objects floating around in low earth orbit that collisions between objects might result in a "domino effect," each collision causing more collisions and breaking objects into smaller pieces of space debris, which increase the likelihood of further collisions. Wet sand exhibits a high grip:slip ratio, where the surface tension of the water tends to make particulates clingy. Sand (silica granules) can be very harmful to a wide variety of systems, due to its hardness & abrasive qualities. Depending upon the pattern of water sublimation in either shaded or sunlit zones, the exact behavior of various quantities of "wet sand" in low Earth-orbital space might be of interest to the designers of this and of other spacecraft.

;Title text
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.4.4
:{{Wiktionary|prong|Prong}}s that extend in the event of an unexpected sensor reading at launch could damage the rocket and/or nearby CubeSats/payloads. That the CubeSat reacts to an "unexpected" sensor reading - which could include any number of readings that aren't actually a problem - is also funny, as is the fact that this is described as "safely" securing the CubeSat and any surrounding CubeSats. Along with this, it is not unlikely that this CubeSat might be the source of any internal problem that might arise; in such a situation, having such a dangerous CubeSat further secure itself would be counterproductive, if spitefully entertaining.

==Transcript==
:[A prototype for a small cube-shaped "CubeSat" satellite, with labels on various components.]

:[Labeled on top:]
:Rare-Earth Magnets
:Bic Mini Lighter
:Software-Defined Radio (code editable via a public wiki)

:[Labeled on right:]
:Laser Pointers (fixed)
:Laser Pointer (Hubble-seeking)
:Ozone-Depleting CFC Spritzer

:[Labeled on bottom:]
:Celebratory Firework
:Volatile Epoxy Seal
:Filler (Guncotton)

:[Labeled on left:]
:Americium Corners
:Spark Plug
:Solar Panel (found)
:Batteries (eBay)
:Wet Sand Dispenser

:[Labeled from within drawing in white text on top of a black rectangle:]
:Crude Oil

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My CubeSat proposal was the first to be rejected for violating every design and safety requirement simultaneously.

== Trivia ==
*The normal sized image was originally broken at [[xkcd]] and the BOT uploaded that image here. It was just a gigantic Γ shape at first (though with a rounded corner). The problem was fixed soon, but it happened later again at comic [[1994: Repairs]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]

1833: Code Quality 3

2023-10-15T18:35:39Z

Erlandyt: Fixed code block

{{comic
| number = 1833
| date = May 5, 2017
| title = Code Quality 3
| image = code_quality_3.png
| titletext = It's like a half-solved cryptogram where the solution is a piece of FORTH code written by someone who doesn't know FORTH.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is the third in the [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]] series:
* [[1513: Code Quality]]
* [[1695: Code Quality 2]]
* [[1833: Code Quality 3]]
* [[1926: Bad Code]]
* [[2138: Wanna See the Code?]]

In the first panel, Ponytail references {{w|query string|query strings}}, which store information, such as search queries or page numbers, relevant to the URL. Query strings are not meant to be especially human-readable (eg. "&sxsrf=APq-WBvn82l8oTeNNzZeCkI7B9nM5nxoVg%3A1647235405067"), so a song based on one would likely not be a good one.{{fact}}

A tactical flashlight is a light that can be mounted on a gun for use in low-light scenarios. (Some stores in online marketplaces may also call their flashlights "tactical" just to make them sound higher quality). They tend to be very durable and very bright. Different models have different features and capabilities, so they are given cool-sounding model numbers. [http://www.json.org/ JSON] (JavaScript Object Notation) is a subset of JavaScript used, by many programming languages, as a convenient{{fact}} way of recording structured data. It's not clear what else would be in the table (tables typically have more than one column) and JSON technically has arrays and objects (dictionaries) but not tables, but a JSON array of objects of these model numbers would look something like:

[
{ "model": "TACT X700"},
{ "model": "Atomic Beam USA 5000" },
{ "model": "E2D LED Defender" },
{ "model": "J5 Tactical V1-Pro" }
]

{{w|Alan Turing}} was a British theoretical computer scientist, often considered the father of the field. His [https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Turing_Paper_1936.pdf 1936 paper] outlined Turing machines, a theoretical model for computing, as well as computability and the halting problem. Theoretical computer science is very different from practical coding; understanding the contents of the paper would not at all help a coder to understand today's algorithms, design patterns, and best practices. This is not helped by a page of JavaScript example code. {{w|JavaScript}} is a popular programming language which makes web pages responsive to user inputs, and while JavaScript arguably solves the problem in a practical manner (as opposed to Turing's very theoretical work), it does get a lot of criticism - for instance it is {{w|Strong and weak typing|nearly untyped}}, which allows the programmer to do very interesting things, like {{w|JSFuck}}. Then, example code is used to explain a concept in programming or demonstrate how a program works, but it does not actually run on any computer. "Guessing everything in between" would involve attempting to write code using skills that could range anywhere from the most basic programming to Turing's extremely advanced ideas.

In the final panel, Ponytail references {{w|leet|leet-speak}}, in which symbols are replaced with similar-looking symbols, and a {{w|manifesto}}, a statement of a person or group's beliefs and intentions. A manifesto from a survivalist cult leader might be nonsensical, even before being translated to leet-speak. Memory allocation is a low-level computer programming concept; most modern languages have features that take care of memory allocation for the programmer, possibly implying that Cueball does not know how to use these features.

At this point Cueball, quickly becoming impatient with Ponytail's sass in what is supposed to be a formal code review, retorts that if she can't start giving him the constructive criticism that he's looking for, he can always find someone else to replace her. Ponytail smugly responds that nobody else would be able to stomach his code for more than one sitting, and that she's the only one he's got.

{{w|Forth_(programming_language)#Programmer.27s_perspective|Forth}} is an old programming language that tends to be difficult to read. It is stack-based, meaning that values to be operated on are moved on a {{w|Stack (abstract data type)|stack}} before the operation to be performed is given. Using stacks can be considered different from programming languages that resemble natural human language (e.g. {{w|COBOL}}). While stack-based computing makes some problems very simple (for example, it is relatively simple to design a Forth compiler, or reversing the order of an array) and uses less computing resources, such programming languages are not easy to learn. Since Forth allows the programmer to rewrite the language, or define their own language, and it does not enforce restrictions like data types, it may be especially easy for novices to write cryptic code.

A {{w|cryptogram}} is a cipher puzzle, generally one easy enough to be solved manually. The title text implies that the code is so bad that it looks like unreadable Forth code that is missing random characters.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail sitting in front of a computer screen typing. Cueball speaks only off-panel, but since this is a direct continuation of comic 1513 and 1695: Code Quality and Code Quality 2 where Cueball is shown, there can be no doubt it is him.]
:Ponytail: Your code looks like song lyrics written using only the stuff that comes after the question mark in a URL.
:Cueball (off-panel): Sorry.
:[Zoom in on Ponytail's upper body.]
:Ponytail: It's like a JSON table of model numbers for flashlights with "tactical" in their names.
:[Zoom back out again. Ponytail has lifted her hands off the table and is slightly leaning back against the chair.]
:Ponytail: Like you read Turing's 1936 paper on computing and a page of JavaScript example code and guessed at everything in between.
:[Zoom in again on Ponytail's face.]
:Ponytail: It's like a leet-speak translation of a manifesto by a survivalist cult leader who's for some reason obsessed with memory allocation.
:Cueball (off-panel): I can get someone else to review my code.
:Ponytail: Not more than once, I bet.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Code Quality]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Code Quality 03]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

1833: Code Quality 3

2023-10-15T18:34:59Z

Erlandyt: Added more info about "tactical" flashlights

{{comic
| number = 1833
| date = May 5, 2017
| title = Code Quality 3
| image = code_quality_3.png
| titletext = It's like a half-solved cryptogram where the solution is a piece of FORTH code written by someone who doesn't know FORTH.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is the third in the [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]] series:
* [[1513: Code Quality]]
* [[1695: Code Quality 2]]
* [[1833: Code Quality 3]]
* [[1926: Bad Code]]
* [[2138: Wanna See the Code?]]

In the first panel, Ponytail references {{w|query string|query strings}}, which store information, such as search queries or page numbers, relevant to the URL. Query strings are not meant to be especially human-readable (eg. "&sxsrf=APq-WBvn82l8oTeNNzZeCkI7B9nM5nxoVg%3A1647235405067"), so a song based on one would likely not be a good one.{{fact}}

A tactical flashlight is a light that can be mounted on a gun for use in low-light scenarios. (Some stores in online marketplaces may also call their flashlights "tactical" just to make them sound higher quality). They tend to be very durable and very bright. Different models have different features and capabilities, so they are given cool-sounding model numbers. [http://www.json.org/ JSON] (JavaScript Object Notation) is a subset of JavaScript used, by many programming languages, as a convenient{{fact}} way of recording structured data. It's not clear what else would be in the table (tables typically have more than one column) and JSON technically has arrays and objects (dictionaries) but not tables, but a JSON array of objects of these model numbers would look something like:

o [
{ "model": "TACT X700"},
{ "model": "Atomic Beam USA 5000" },
{ "model": "E2D LED Defender" },
{ "model": "J5 Tactical V1-Pro" }
]

{{w|Alan Turing}} was a British theoretical computer scientist, often considered the father of the field. His [https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Turing_Paper_1936.pdf 1936 paper] outlined Turing machines, a theoretical model for computing, as well as computability and the halting problem. Theoretical computer science is very different from practical coding; understanding the contents of the paper would not at all help a coder to understand today's algorithms, design patterns, and best practices. This is not helped by a page of JavaScript example code. {{w|JavaScript}} is a popular programming language which makes web pages responsive to user inputs, and while JavaScript arguably solves the problem in a practical manner (as opposed to Turing's very theoretical work), it does get a lot of criticism - for instance it is {{w|Strong and weak typing|nearly untyped}}, which allows the programmer to do very interesting things, like {{w|JSFuck}}. Then, example code is used to explain a concept in programming or demonstrate how a program works, but it does not actually run on any computer. "Guessing everything in between" would involve attempting to write code using skills that could range anywhere from the most basic programming to Turing's extremely advanced ideas.

In the final panel, Ponytail references {{w|leet|leet-speak}}, in which symbols are replaced with similar-looking symbols, and a {{w|manifesto}}, a statement of a person or group's beliefs and intentions. A manifesto from a survivalist cult leader might be nonsensical, even before being translated to leet-speak. Memory allocation is a low-level computer programming concept; most modern languages have features that take care of memory allocation for the programmer, possibly implying that Cueball does not know how to use these features.

At this point Cueball, quickly becoming impatient with Ponytail's sass in what is supposed to be a formal code review, retorts that if she can't start giving him the constructive criticism that he's looking for, he can always find someone else to replace her. Ponytail smugly responds that nobody else would be able to stomach his code for more than one sitting, and that she's the only one he's got.

{{w|Forth_(programming_language)#Programmer.27s_perspective|Forth}} is an old programming language that tends to be difficult to read. It is stack-based, meaning that values to be operated on are moved on a {{w|Stack (abstract data type)|stack}} before the operation to be performed is given. Using stacks can be considered different from programming languages that resemble natural human language (e.g. {{w|COBOL}}). While stack-based computing makes some problems very simple (for example, it is relatively simple to design a Forth compiler, or reversing the order of an array) and uses less computing resources, such programming languages are not easy to learn. Since Forth allows the programmer to rewrite the language, or define their own language, and it does not enforce restrictions like data types, it may be especially easy for novices to write cryptic code.

A {{w|cryptogram}} is a cipher puzzle, generally one easy enough to be solved manually. The title text implies that the code is so bad that it looks like unreadable Forth code that is missing random characters.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail sitting in front of a computer screen typing. Cueball speaks only off-panel, but since this is a direct continuation of comic 1513 and 1695: Code Quality and Code Quality 2 where Cueball is shown, there can be no doubt it is him.]
:Ponytail: Your code looks like song lyrics written using only the stuff that comes after the question mark in a URL.
:Cueball (off-panel): Sorry.
:[Zoom in on Ponytail's upper body.]
:Ponytail: It's like a JSON table of model numbers for flashlights with "tactical" in their names.
:[Zoom back out again. Ponytail has lifted her hands off the table and is slightly leaning back against the chair.]
:Ponytail: Like you read Turing's 1936 paper on computing and a page of JavaScript example code and guessed at everything in between.
:[Zoom in again on Ponytail's face.]
:Ponytail: It's like a leet-speak translation of a manifesto by a survivalist cult leader who's for some reason obsessed with memory allocation.
:Cueball (off-panel): I can get someone else to review my code.
:Ponytail: Not more than once, I bet.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Code Quality]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Code Quality 03]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

819: Five-Minute Comics: Part 1

2023-10-05T21:19:02Z

Erlandyt: Moved citation needed template after the period

{{comic
| number = 819
| date = November 15, 2010
| title = Five-Minute Comics: Part 1
| image = five minute comics part 1.png
| titletext = The wolves thin the RAID arrays, removing the slowest and weakest disks to keep the average seek speed high.
}}

This is the first of three "five-minute comics" Randall posted during a week in November 2010. The introduction to the comic explains everything you need to know about the circumstances behind it.

Randall obviously made more than three of these five minutes comics, and one of them was published later, for a short period of time by a mistake, but an android xkcd browser picked it up while it was on-line and saved it. Since then it has been added to explain xkcd. So here is a complete list of all four comics in the entire [[:Category:Five-minute comics|Five-minute comics]] series:
*[[819: Five-Minute Comics: Part 1]]
*[[820: Five-Minute Comics: Part 2]]
*[[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3]]
*[[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4]]

==Explanations==
# In astronomy, an "approach" is when two bodies come abnormally close to one another, but not close enough to crash. {{w|Jupiter}}, as most probably know, is the fifth planet in our solar system. Its approach to Earth in September 2010 was the closest seen in many years - in fact, the next time it will come that close will be in 2022. In the comic, this is indicated by Jupiter hovering right above Earth and talking to the characters. Of course, Jupiter is not only planet-sized, but is ''enormous'' compared to Earth; in fact, Earth would fit quite comfortably into the {{w|Atmosphere of Jupiter#Great Red Spot|red spot}} of Jupiter. Gravitational slingshots are used by deep-space probes to gain speed by approaching a planet and then leaving that planet; the gravity fields of the sun and the planet changes the trajectory of the probe, and the end result is an extremely fuel-efficient way of gaining speed during space travel. Jupiter is commonly used for this purpose because it's the most massive planet in our solar system.
# The comic in the middle left features the lyrics to the Johnny Cash song {{w|A Boy Named Sue}}, but with "Sue" replaced with "Trig." Inexplicably, Trig is a name that people actually give their children. The most notable example in the US - and probably the inspiration for Randall drawing this comic - is Trig Palin, the son of Alaskan politician Sarah Palin. Trig is also a widely accepted abbreviation for the mathematical field of {{w|trigonometry}}, and it sounds similar to "twig," so one can imagine how a person with such a name might be ridiculed.
# A child getting trapped in a well is an alien experience to some parts of the Western world, but it's quite a serious problem in places where wells are commonplace. Here, though, rather than attempt to rescue the little girl, Cueball instead tries to grant her wish of owning a pony before her imminent demise; a pony is a stereotypical thing for a little girl to want. Of course, since ponies don't fit into wells too easily{{citation needed}}, he has to stuff it in, which appears to be quite painful for the pony.
# The server room of a large datacenter would be an unusual place to return "back to nature", to say the least. {{w|Reintroduction}} refers to the process of taking a population of animals raised in captivity and bringing them back to the wild; this is a delicate process, as being raised in captivity affects the natural development of skills the animal needs to survive. In fact, Wikipedia has a page specifically about the challenges of {{w|wolf reintroduction}}. Needless to say, reintroducing wolves to a server room is neither a good idea nor OSHA-approved. Cueball may also be referencing a computer program named "reintroduction" or something similar when he says "We started a reintroduction program".
# Directly below the previous comic, Cueball is telling a "yo mama" joke. Such jokes are usually told in jest, and aren't really targeted at a particular person's mother; however, in this case, Cueball ''was'' attempting to make an honest observation about the listener's mother, and when he discovers his mistake, he realizes that she is, in fact, quite a nice person. Alternatively, Cueball is insulting the femininity of the listener's mother, and the masculinity of the listener's father.
# {{w|Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart}} wrote an opera called ''{{w|The Magic Flute}}'', though the comic seems to attribute it to {{w|Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach}}. {{w|Richard Wagner}} wrote a series of operas called {{w|Der Ring des Nibelungen}}, or, more commonly, the ring cycle. Here, Randall interprets the ring cycle as some kind of motorcycle, while the teleporting magic flute comes from video games: in both ''The Legend of Zelda'' and ''Super Mario Bros. 3'', the player can obtain a magic flute item that has teleportation powers. In the Magic Tree House series, the magic flute is an actual magical flute that does magic when played, although it does not teleport people. The caption implies that even Randall is not sure what meaning this comic has. However, as he has made a mash up of Mozart, Bach and Wagner - this must be intentional - so ''he'' does not attribute the Magic Flute to Bach! Also, due to the anachronistic nature of this comic, it could imply a pun, where they are going "Bach to the future."
# This comic shows how people rate the "hotness" of girls. Glamour magazines have desensitized many people to photo-edited models with large amounts of make-up, so the model gets a "meh" reaction. The girl in biology class, by contrast, is not only "real" by comparison, but is actually a viable choice for dating, so she is given a 2 star rating. If the same girl from bio class is wearing your shirt, that usually means you've had sex the night before, and she spent the night at your apartment, hence the need to get dressed in one of your shirts; this possibility earns the highest rating, 4 stars. Here it starts taking a turn for the worse. If wearing one of ''your'' shirts means she spent the night with ''you'', logically, wearing one of your ''mom's'' shirts means she spent the night with ''your mom''. This earns a "Wat!" reaction. Finally, human skin is not generally designed to detach from its owner.{{Citation needed}} If the girl from your bio class is wearing your mom's skin like a suit, it means she probably murdered your mom and skinned her. This is a reference to serial killer {{w|Ed Gein}}, who (among other things) made suits out of the skin of some of his victims. To this, Cueball can only scream.

The title text refers to the wolves thinning the RAID array. A {{w|RAID|RAID array}} is a way of spreading data redundantly across multiple hard drives, such that 100% of the data is still recoverable if some number of drives go down. This number can be set arbitrarily, as long as you have at least one more disk than the number you want, but it reduces your total storage space accordingly. The seek speed of a drive is how fast it can find a specific point of data on its platter; thus, the wolves are essentially killing the slowest drives, implementing a kind of natural selection to "evolve" the drives to be faster. "Thinning the RAID array" is a play on words. In the ecological sense, it refers to eliminating some members of the population to allow the remaining ones to thrive more successfully. In the datacenter sense, "thin provisioning" refers to the practice of marking an intent to use disk storage for a specific purpose but allowing it to be used for something else until actually needed (as opposed to "thick provisioning" which immediately reserves the storage space, even if unused).

==Transcript==
Because of a family illness, instead of regular comics, this week I'll be sharing some strips that I drew as part of a game I played with friends. Each comic had to be written and drawn in five minutes. -- Randall

====Comic #1====
:[Cueball and Megan stand facing each other.]
:Cueball: Jupiter will make its closest approach to Earth in decades.

:[Cueball points behind Megan, and she turns around.]
:Cueball: In fact, here it comes now!

:[Jupiter, about the size of the characters' heads, hovers into the frame at about head-height.]
:Jupiter: Hey, guys.

:[Jupiter continues to hover through the frame as the characters watch it go.]
:Jupiter: Anyone need a gravitational slingshot?
:Megan: No, I'm good.
:Jupiter: Aight.

====Comic #2====
:[Cueball sits on a box, playing a guitar.]
:Cueball: ...Now I don't blame him 'cause he ran and hid,
:Cueball: but the meanest thing that he ever did
:Cueball: was before he left, he went and named me "Trig."

====Comic #3====
:[Cueball looks down a well.]
:Cueball: Oh God, a little girl is trapped down this well!

:[Cueball runs off screen.]

:[Cueball returns, leading a pony.]
:Cueball: It's okay, we got you that pony you always wanted!

:[Cueball tries to cram the pony down the well with the aid of a large stick.]
:Cueball: Get... in... there...
:Cueball: Ugh!

====Comic #4====
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a server room. ]
:Cueball: I like to get back to nature by coming out here to the server room.
:Cueball: The warmth, the whirr of the drives, the drone of the fans, the howl of the wolves...
:Megan: Wolves?
:Cueball: Yeah, we started a reintroduction program.
:Wolf: Awoooooo

====Comic #5====
:[Cueball stands by himself in the frame.]
:Cueball: Yo momma's so masculine that she... oh, wait, that's your dad.
:Cueball: Is your mom the lady over by the door? Aww, she looks nice!

====Comic #6====
:[Cueball runs toward another man who is wearing a powdered wig, holding a gun in one hand, and a flute in the other. Behind him, someone is chasing him on a motorcycle.]
:Cueball: Bach, activate the magic flute and teleport us home! Wagner's right behind me on his Ring Cycle!

:Why did I ''draw'' this?

====Comic #7====
:Hotness Ratings:
:[A close up of a girl with wavy hair.]
:Incredibly made-up girl on magazine cover.
:Girl: Airbrush!
:[Inset of Cueball: "Meh."]

:[An average girl.]
:Girl in your bio class.
:[Inset of Cueball: "Two out of four stars."]

:[Girl with mussed hair in over-sized men's shirt.]
:Girl in your bio class wearing one of your shirts.
:Girl: Want some breakfast?
:[Cueball: "Four out of four stars."]

:[Girl with another sort of shirt speaking to an older lady.]
:Girl in your bio class wearing one of your mom's shirts.
:Girl: Thanks for the great night.
:[Cueball: "Wat!"]

:[Creepy-looking girl.]
:Girl in your bio class wearing your mom's skin like a suit.
:Girl: Give Mommy a hug!
:[Cueball, screaming: "AAAAAAAA"]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Five-minute comics| 01]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Five-minute comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

599: Apocalypse

2023-10-05T20:59:00Z

Erlandyt:

{{comic
| number = 599
| date = June 19, 2009
| title = Apocalypse
| image = apocalypse.png
| titletext = I wonder if I still have time to go shoot a short film with Kevin Bacon.
}}

== Explanation ==
This comic begins with the beginning of the {{w|Apocalypse}}, hence the title. It is depicted, properly, with a very dystopian color picture with several yellow burning {{w|meteors}} striking down from the blood red sky, towards a black, red, orange and yellow ground. The way the panels are drawn below makes a transition from this dark image to a normal comic, with the first normal panel being superimposed on the dark image.

In this image [[Beret Guy]] shouts out '''The apocalypse!''' And then he continues to explain what this will mean: ''The skies burn, the seas turn to blood, and the dead walk the earth!''

All three sentences are attributed to the apocalypse, but it seems that the first one about the sky burning, actually comes from a translation of one of the {{w|Nostradamus}} predictions which has, amongst others, been used to "{{w|Nostradamus_in_popular_culture#September_11.2C_2001|predict 9/11}}". In {{w|Revelation 16}} from the Bible about the {{w|Seven bowls}}, which are a set of seven plagues of God's wrath poured over the wicked towards the Apocalypse, the {{w|Seven_bowls#Second_Bowl|second bowl}} describes that ''{{w|Revelation_16#Structure|The Sea Turns to Blood}}''. The {{w|Universal resurrection|resurrection of the dead}} is from the biblical version of the Apocalypse, the {{w|Last Judgment}}.

After Beret Guy has announced this, he runs into [[Cueball]] who has heard part of this, but he is only interested in the last part and asks to check if he understood correctly that the dead will walk the earth. When this is confirmed Cueball becomes very busy.

He runs to his office and quickly writes a scientific math paper, then runs as fast as he can to the math department and get his colleagues to sign it. Then he runs to a cemetery where the dead are rising, finds the one he searched for, and asks the resurrected {{w|zombie}} if he is Erdős. When confirmed that he is indeed Erdős, Cueball asks him to sign the math paper.

{{w|Paul Erdős}} (26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician who (according to Wikipedia) published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. His grave is in the Kozma Street Cemetery in Budapest.

There is an in-joke developed among mathematicians called the {{w|Erdős number}} (similar to a Bacon number for film actors, referenced in the title text, see below). By definition, Erdős has an Erdős number of 0. Everyone who has co-written a mathematical paper with Erdős has an Erdős number of 1. Everyone who collaborated with them (but not Erdős himself) is assigned an Erdős number of 2. In general, if ''k'' is the minimal Erdős number of all the people you've written papers with, your Erdős number is ''k'' + 1. The Erdős number is the length of the shortest "chain" from you to Erdős.

Thanks to collaboration between mathematicians and other researchers, many people in science and medical research now have Erdős numbers. Not everyone has an Erdős number, though; people without any chain linking them to Erdős have an undefined Erdős number. For example, most people who are not mathematicians or scientists do not have Erdős numbers. Nor do mathematicians and scientists whose publications were written by themselves only with no collaborators.

By this trick Cueball thinks that he and his colleagues will now all have an Erdős number of 1. The joke is that he would be using his last few hours in this life to write a math paper just to improve his and his friends' Erdős numbers.

There are, however, many problems with his idea, even assuming the dead will walk the earth on that day. First of all, just having your name on a piece of paper with Erdős's signature does nothing for your Erdős number. It needs to be a {{w|Scientific_literature#Scientific_article|scientifically valid paper}}, published in a {{w|peer reviewed}} {{w|scientific journal}}. And given that the apocalypse is happening, there seems no time, chance or reason to publish any more math papers.{{Citation needed}}

Even if there were time, it would not count for much to have someone sign a math paper they haven't even read, let alone had anything to do with the actual writing and research. The same would be true for the other five mathematicians who signed it. But of course many papers have coauthors who did not do much more than work in the same department as the person who actually wrote the paper (a sad but true fact). Presumably Cueball's friends assume that nobody will investigate whether they, or Erdős, truly participated in the writing and research of Cueball's paper.

Furthermore, even if it did count, they will not be able to take the paper with them into the afterlife (although people can come back to life after being [https://www.healthline.com/health/lazarus-syndrome clinically dead] they don't experience the afterlife), and thus since no one would have had time to read the paper, no one would know they had an Erdős number of 1. In the afterlife they could all say that they had such a number, but then again everyone else with such an interest could do the same, since no one could prove otherwise. Of course if you end up in the same part ({{w|Heaven}} or {{w|Hell}}) of the {{w|afterlife}} as Erdős he could confirm or deny the claim, but that would probably not help Cueball and his friends, since he could tell the truth about their paper. (Erdős was known for using an idiosyncratic set of slang terms, in which he described people who had stopped doing mathematics as having "died", whereas people who had died had "left".)

That the whole comic is about the Erdős number, and not just Erdős signature, is made clear in the title text which refers to a similar (and less esoteric) meme called "{{w|Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon}}", or simply Bacon numbers. This time, the chain's center is actor {{w|Kevin Bacon}}, and the links are formed by two people appearing in the same movie. Unlike Erdős, Kevin Bacon is not dead yet, so those of you wishing to get a Bacon number of 1 still have a chance.

In the title text Cueball thus wonders if there is still time for him to make a short film with Kevin Bacon, now he has used so much time on improving his Erdős number. Again, if the film hasn't been shown to the public it would not count for anything...

One of the mathematical scribbles appearing in panel 5 shows the square root of 163, which may be a reference to {{w|Ramanujan's constant}}.

[[403: Convincing Pickup Line]] has a parody of the Erdős collaboration graph.

Zombies are a [[:Category:Zombies|recurring theme]] in xkcd, particularly zombie scientists, which has also occurred both before with {{w|Richard Feynman}} in [[397: Unscientific]] and after with {{w|Marie Curie}} in [[896: Marie Curie]].

==Transcript==
:[The first panel is very large and shows a dark scene with one large meteor in front and four smaller in the background showering the darkened earth. They are all five black with yellow fire around them and a fire trail behind them, and all are flying from the top left corner and down towards right. The sky at the top is pitch black, but then the sky turns blood red under dark clouds. Two large mountain peaks, one almost pyramid shaped, are shown to the left and to the right there are two smaller peaks towards the distant horizon. The mountains and the ground around them are mainly black, but with red, orange and yellow streaks spread all over the black area beneath the mountain peaks, maybe indicating fire or lava, or reflections in water or blood. At the bottom right corner a normal white panel is superimposed on this apocalyptic image.]

:[The smaller panel at the bottom of the first is halfway over the first panel, haflway below, and only to the right of the middle of the first panel. Beret Guy is running towards left, with his arms raised in the air.]
:Beret Guy: The apocalypse! The skies burn, the seas turn to blood, and the dead walk the earth!

:[From here a normal sequence of panels in three rows begin beneath the second panel. This leaves a gap between the apocalyptic panel and the first row of regular panels, on the left side where the 2nd panel did not reach over. In this panel Beret Guy (coming from the right) finds Cueball.]
:Cueball: The dead what?
:Beret Guy: Walk the earth!

:[Cueball running right in a thin panel.]
:Cueball: I have to go.

:[Cueball sitting on a chair at a table scribbling vigorously and noisily with a pen on a paper. Mathematical symbols appear above Cueball's head, including a summation from i=0 to n, a logarithm of n and the square root of a number.]
:<big>∑</big>ni=0ik1/i log(n)
:√163
:''Scribble''
:''Scribble''

:[Cueball running right again, in a thin panel, pen and paper in hand.]

:[Cueball opening door with label:]
:Math Dept
:Cueball: The dead return!
:Cueball: Everyone, quick, get your names on here!

:[Cueball stand on the left side of a table looking left over his shoulder. Five people are lining up to sign the paper lying on the right side of the table. The first who signs with a pen is Blondie, then in line follows Megan, a Cueball-like guy, Ponytail and another Cueball-like guy who stand with one hand to his chin looking right, away from the other.]
:Blondie: At last!
:Guy looking right: I hope there's time!

:[Cueball running right in yet a thin panel, with pen and the paper flowing behind him.]

:[Cueball walks right with the paper and pen in his hand as he arrives at at a cemetery as revealed by an old worn sign. Scary sounds appear off-panel right.]
:Sign: Cemetery
:Rising dead (off-panel): ''Hurrghhh''

:[Cueball, still going right, arrives at a grave, pen in hand and the other hand almost outside the panel, but with a corner of the paper just visible. The grave has a large gravestone to the right and in front of it there is a Cueball-like guy rising up from the ground using his arms to push up on the base of the stone and the small pile of earth towards Cueball. The guy looks very worn, with dirt on his head and scratches on his cheek.]

:[Cueball bends a little down and offers pen and paper to the raised dead man who looks up at him when he is addressed.]
:Cueball: Paul Erdős?
:Erdős: Yes?
:Cueball: We need you to sign this.

==Trivia==
*This version of [[Blondie]] seems to be employed at a mathematical department on a university. It could thus also be [[Miss Lenhart]], but there is no proof that she is a teacher...

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Zombies]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]

926: Time Vulture

2023-09-28T07:11:07Z

Erlandyt: Better to have this directly on the page

{{comic
| number = 926
| date = July 18, 2011
| title = Time Vulture
| image = time vulture.png
| titletext = In a way, all vultures are Time Vultures; some just have more patience than others.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about the ''time vulture'' (hence the title), a fictional creature made up by [[Randall]]. [[Cueball]] notices that his Cueball-like friend is followed by a time vulture, making the exclamation '' Dude, you've got a time vulture.''

The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (1000 years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), then it becomes it’s prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans without actually using any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.

Thus the time vulture will now keep soaring over Cueball’s friends head for the rest of his life, or until they travel on an airplane (airplanes typically cruise at an altitude too high for a vulture to fly over them, although it is of course possible that the vulture could board the plane as well), and then when he dies (whenever and of whichever cause), it will descend and feast on his carcass. This should, in principle, not make any difference to the friend, since most people already live with the knowledge that they will eventually die{{Citation needed}}, and that their body will end up being destroyed one way or another. Typically it will not be caused by vultures, but for instance by the fire of the {{w|Crematory}} or by the {{w|decomposition}} caused by small animals and germs in the earth we are buried in.

However, it is not very nice to be reminded of this every living second of the rest of your life thus the consternation of the friend and his question and statement; ''But what if the prey doesn't die?'' and ''I'm not about to die...''

At first, the question doesn’t make sense since there are no known examples of terrestrial animals (including humans) that are large enough to matter as prey for a vulture and can survive through the several millennia that a time vulture can wait. The few {{w|List_of_longest-living_organisms|species that can live that long}} and grow at least as large as vulture prey, such as the 2,384 acre (965 hectare) "Humongous Fungus", an individual of the fungal species ''{{w|Armillaria solidipes}}'' in the {{w|Malheur National Forest}}, thought to be between 2,000 and 8,500 years old<ref>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/03/030327074535.htm Humongous Fungus A New Kind Of Individual</ref><ref>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus Strange but True: The Largest Organism on Earth Is a Fungus</ref>, and a {{w|Great Basin bristlecone pine}} (''Pinus longaeva'') measured by {{w|dendrochronology|ring count}} to be over 5000 years old.<ref>http://www.rmtrr.org/oldlist.htm</ref>, are stationary, such as fungi and plants, or aquatic, such as coral and sponges. Thus, the moving land species large enough to be attractive as prey will always die within the lifespan of the vulture (as Cueball tries to explain).

However, the question actually does make sense, because the prey does not have to outlive the vulture to avoid being eaten by the vulture; it simply has to live long enough to get to an airport, get through security screening, and board a flight that goes either too fast or too high for the vulture to follow. Therefore, the vulture would get to eat the prey only if the prey died on the way to the airport, while standing outdoors in line for security screening, or while walking from the terminal to the airplane (if passengers board outdoors instead of using a {{w|jet bridge|passenger boarding bridge (Jetway)}}). It is possible that the prey might not die this soon, unless security screening lines exceed the maximum human lifespan of approximately 120 years.

And because the time vulture can slow down its internal clock, in its point of view, everyone who ever says "But, I'm not about to die", would say so right before they die; actually anything a person ever says after the time vulture has locked on to that person, happens just before they die as seen from the vulture's point of view. In humans' point of view, it could be many years after the statement was made, but for the time vulture, a human lifespan only lasts a mere moment.

Of course, since a human can travel a considerable distance in this time, even around the world, the human would be traveling at an extremely high velocity from the vulture's perspective, so the vulture would be unable to keep up and the human would escape. In a more extreme fashion, since the vulture’s perception of time is significantly slowed, it would be more simple to buy a rifle and kill the Time Vulture.

It is thus really more of a philosophical comic about the fact that we all have death waiting for us, you could say it soars above our head and just wait for it to happen. And in relation to the {{w|deep time}} of the geology of the Earth or the expansion of the universe, the time it takes for people to live their lives is hardly worth mentioning...

In the title text it is stated that all real life vultures are actually a kind of time vultures, as real life vultures also sometimes spot a dying animal, not quite dead yet, and then wait for this prey to die. But time vultures are able to wait for millennia for their prey to die, whereas regular vultures do not have that kind of time, before they need to feed or land, thus the comment that some vultures have more patience than others.

Real vultures and their preying habits were referenced in [[1746: Making Friends]], directly in the title text.
<references/>

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is watching a large black bird, with apparently fractal wings, which hovers above his Cueball-like friend who walks towards Cueball and now turns to look at the bird over his shoulder.]
:Cueball: Dude, you've got a Time Vulture.
:Friend: Holy crap! What is it?

:[Zoom-in on Cueball who now looks at his friend who are now standing close to Cueball looking up at the bird off-panel.]
:Cueball: They're predators that use aging to kill prey.
:Friend: Huh? What do you mean?

:[The panel zooms in on the Cueball's face. The friends reply comes from off-panel.]
:Cueball: They live for millennia and use little energy. They can slow down their internal clocks so time speeds past. To hunt, they lock on to some prey, and when it stops moving, they eat it.
:Friend (off-panel): But what if the prey doesn't die?

:[Zoom out to Cueball and his friend that now look at each other.]
:Cueball: I don't think you quite understand.
:Friend: I mean, ''I'm'' not '''about''' to die...
:Cueball: From the vulture's viewpoint, everyone says that moments before they do.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

2829: Iceberg Efficiency

2023-09-15T12:40:59Z

Erlandyt:

{{comic
| number = 2829
| date = September 15, 2023
| title = Iceberg Efficiency
| image = iceberg_efficiency_2x.png
| imagesize = 649x251px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our experimental aerogel iceberg with helium pockets manages true 100% efficiency, barely touching the water, and it can even lift off of the surface and fly to more efficiently pursue fleeing hubristic liners.
}}

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

1992: SafetySat

2023-08-17T19:33:58Z

Erlandyt: Replaced the joke citation needed tag with the serious one

{{comic
| number = 1992
| date = May 11, 2018
| title = SafetySat
| image = safetysat.png
| titletext = During launch, in the event of an unexpected sensor reading, SafetySat will extend prongs in all directions to secure itself and any other cubesats safely in the launch vehicle until the source of the problem can be determined.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|CubeSat}} is a standard format for small satellites that can fit in a 10×10×10 cm format with a mass of less than 1.3 kg. They have been widely used by academics for research satellites, and by both small and large companies. CubeSats have been discussed both before and after this comic, in [[1866: Russell's Teapot]] and [[2148: Cubesat Launch]].

CubeSats are often launched as an additional payload on commercial launches but also deployed from the {{w|International Space Station}} at the {{w|Kibo (ISS module)|Kibo-Module}} or other airlocks. All these satellites are orbiting the Earth in a low orbit and since they have no propulsion system they also become a part of {{w|space debris}} when they are out of control; eventually they will reenter earth's atmosphere without any further hazard.

Only a few days before this comic was released the first interplanetary CubeSats called {{w|Mars Cube One}} was launched together with NASA's probe {{w|InSight}} (now offline) aiming to the planet {{w|Mars}}.

One of Randall's influences in creating this comic may have been [https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/fcc-accuses-stealthy-startup-of-launching-rogue-satellites controversy surrounding a commercial launch of a sub-CubeSat sized pico-satellite] from a launch site in India, after the company had previously been denied launch permission within the US, due to safety concerns.

There are multiple safety rules to ensure that the CubeSat cannot damage the primary payload. However, the joke in this comic is that [[Randall]]'s design seeks to break as many rules as possible.

Items clockwise from top left:

;Rare-Earth Magnets
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.10.
:{{w|Rare-earth magnets}} are very powerful magnets that have a high likelihood of messing up the functioning of nearby electronics, like other CubeSats. It might also cause the CubeSat to stick to other satellites, as the {{w|M-Cubed}} and {{w|Explorer-1 Prime}} CubeSats did.

;BIC Mini-Lighter
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Fire source, resting on the can of crude oil. The pressurized butane could also make the lighter burst, but in space without oxygen the lighter never would ignite. And even if the inside of the CubeSat contains some oxygen in weightlessness a flame would go out very soon, of course if it set off the crude oil or the guncotton then it would not matter, as the CubeSat would be destroyed.

;SDR/{{w|Software-Defined Radio}} (Code Editable via Public Wiki)
:Violates Title 47 CFR Part 97 § 97.207(b), in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.4.3.2.1
:A radio which can be programmed to broadcast and receive in a range of frequencies, and formats. Software-Defined Radios are useful for development of new or modified wireless protocols, as well as for monitoring the raw waveform data of a transmission regardless of the protocols used. The radio in this comic is stated to run firmware which can be modified from a publicly editable Wikipedia-style webpage. Since anyone could change the radio's instructions, the radio could interfere with other satellites, or with the launch vehicle. This counts as a huge security risk, as ''anyone'' could edit it.

;Laser Pointers (Fixed)
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 8.2.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:These three laser points will effectively point in 3 different random directions, which is not safe for other objects around this Cubesat. It depends on the power of the laser pointers but, in general a laser over 5 mW can heat up and damage things given enough time.{{Actual citation needed|reason=Why is a laser pointer dangerous?|date=May 2018}}. Of course, with the satellite being in orbit it could potentially mess up the optical sensors of other satellites, but it would be a matter of chance. This could also be a reference to the book ''What If?'', specifically the chapter ''Laser Pointer''.

;Laser Pointer (Hubble-Seeking)
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 8.2.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Aiming a laser at a visible light telescope is potentially destructive to the telescope in question by damaging its optical sensors. This is because CCD & CMOS image sensors are designed to detect finite light sources, concentrated & focused by an optical lens. Lasers produce high light levels well beyond the (comparatively) very low intensity light which astronomical image sensors are designed to detect; The energy of these excess photons can heat up the circuits between rows of photosensitive cells to the point where they overheat and fuse. For much the same reason, originates the phrase "do not stare into laser with remaining eye". Unlike the fixed laser pointers above, this one would track and aim a laser at the Hubble, with potentially disastrous results.

;CFCs/Ozone-depleting CFC Spritzer
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:{{w|Chlorofluorocarbons}} (CFCs) are fully halogenated paraffin hydrocarbons that contain only carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, produced as volatile derivative of methane, ethane, and propane. {{w|Freon}} is a common example of a CFC, and the use of CFCs has been linked to a depletion of the Earth's {{w|ozone layer}} leading many countries to ban their use. Thus spritzing CFCs in an area relatively close to the Ozone layer may be a bad idea.

;Celebratory Firework
: Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.3.
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 13.2, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Explosive fire source that could hit other satellites in the vicinity; Also potentially breaking the adjacent seal & igniting the crude oil behind it, turning it into crude oil that is also on fire. Could also set off the guncotton and result in an explosion that destroys the satellite. At the very least, the off-axis position of the firework within the CubeSat would most likely send the satellite into an uncontrolled spin, upon celebratory launch.

;{{w|Crude Oil}}
: Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.6
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:{{w|Exxon Valdez oil spill}}, {{w|Deepwater Horizon explosion}}, {{w|Keystone Pipeline#Leaks and 2017 South Dakota spill|Keystone Pipeline leaks}}... need we say more? Of course the leakable volume would not be near those levels, but plenty dangerous nonetheless if it were to leak though a faulty seal or weld breakage or stress fractures. Containment and cleanup of such a leak would not be helped by the fact that such leakage could occur in orbit or even during launch. Oil spills in orbit might even present new and unexpected complications due to unusual behavior of liquids in vacuum and microgravity.

;Volatile Epoxy Seal
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, 12.1, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Epoxy is a substance composed of long-chain molecules which exhibit very strong adhesive bonds. Many mixtures of epoxy are flammable & produce hazardous fumes when burned. If this particular epoxy seal fails, everything within splatter range gets coated in flammable crude oil.

;Guncotton
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:A form of {{w|nitrocellulose}}; an explosive. Could be set off by the firework, the crude oil, or the spark plug. Nitrocellulose {{w|Philae_(spacecraft)#Landing_events|does not work reliably in vacuum and possibly caused a failure of Philae space probe}}.

;Americium corners
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 9.1.1, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:{{w|Americium}} is a very dense and radioactive substance. Depending on the amount of americium involved, this alone could shoot the mass over the 1.3 kg mass limit. The isotope 241Am is used in smoke detectors but also proposed for use in {{w|Radioisotope thermoelectric generator|radioisotope thermoelectric generators}} in spaceflight.

;Spark Plug
: Does not conform to AFSPCMAN 91-710, Volume 3 § 10.1.3, 10.1.4, in turn violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.1.7
:Fire ignition source, if connected to electricity; excess mass if not. The electrodes on the spark plug are next to the guncotton which could ignite if the spark plug fires. Additionally, sparks cause electromagnetic interference and electrical shorts.

;Solar Panel (Found)
:The quality of the solar panel and the power it produces would have to be investigated thoroughly before being cleared for space flight. Also, it isn't clear on the design exactly what, if anything, it is supposed to power, or if it is just excess mass.

;Batteries (eBay)
:The quality of batteries bought on auction sites can vary widely, and certain batteries exposed to conditions outside their design specifications can {{w|Battery_(electricity)#Explosion|explode or leak corrosive acids}}. These batteries might also be connected to the adjacent spark plug. Non-rechargable commercial batteries may leak or explode if a recharge is attempted, so if this is the intention of the Solar Panel, these would escalate into an even greater risk.

;Wet Sand Dispenser
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.4.3
:Possible reference to the {{w|Kessler syndrome}}, which refers to a hypothetical situation wherein there are enough objects floating around in low earth orbit that collisions between objects might result in a "domino effect," each collision causing more collisions and breaking objects into smaller pieces of space debris, which increase the likelihood of further collisions. Wet sand exhibits a high grip:slip ratio, where the surface tension of the water tends to make particulates clingy. Sand (silica granules) can be very harmful to a wide variety of systems, due to its hardness & abrasive qualities. Depending upon the pattern of water sublimation in either shaded or sunlit zones, the exact behavior of various quantities of "wet sand" in low Earth-orbital space might be of interest to the designers of this and of other spacecraft.

;Title text
:Violates CubeSat Design Specification Rev. 13 § 3.4.4
:{{Wiktionary|prong|Prong}}s that extend in the event of an unexpected sensor reading at launch could damage the rocket and/or nearby CubeSats/payloads. That the CubeSat reacts to an "unexpected" sensor reading - which could include any number of readings that aren't actually a problem - is also funny, as is the fact that this is described as "safely" securing the CubeSat and any surrounding CubeSats. Along with this, it is not unlikely that this CubeSat might be the source of any internal problem that might arise; in such a situation, having such a dangerous CubeSat further secure itself would be counterproductive, if spitefully entertaining.

==Transcript==
:[A prototype for a small cube-shaped "CubeSat" satellite, with labels on various components.]

:[Labeled on top:]
:Rare-Earth Magnets
:Bic Mini Lighter
:Software-Defined Radio (code editable via a public wiki)

:[Labeled on right:]
:Laser Pointers (fixed)
:Laser Pointer (Hubble-seeking)
:Ozone-Depleting CFC Spritzer

:[Labeled on bottom:]
:Celebratory Firework
:Volatile Epoxy Seal
:Filler (Guncotton)

:[Labeled on left:]
:Americium Corners
:Spark Plug
:Solar Panel (found)
:Batteries (eBay)
:Wet Sand Dispenser

:[Labeled from within drawing in white text on top of a black rectangle:]
:Crude Oil

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My CubeSat proposal was the first to be rejected for violating every design and safety requirement simultaneously.

== Trivia ==
*The normal sized image was originally broken at [[xkcd]] and the BOT uploaded that image here. It was just a gigantic Γ shape at first (though with a rounded corner). The problem was fixed soon, but it happened later again at comic [[1994: Repairs]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]

174: That's What SHE Said

2023-01-24T00:30:51Z

Erlandyt:

{{comic
| number = 174
| date = October 23, 2006
| title = That's What SHE Said
| image = thats_what_she_said.png
| titletext = Yes, I mean she said that during sex. Yes, it was a little weird.
}}

==Explanation==
"{{w|Said the actress to the bishop|That's what ''she'' said!}}" is a phrase used in the US in response to an unintended sexual innuendo, similar to the UK phrase "said the actress to the bishop." An example usage might look like the following:

:'''A:''' (while putting together some furniture) I think this is too big.
:'''B:''' That's what ''she'' said!

In this example, the innuendo is that A was referring to a furniture component (say, a bolt too large to fit into the hole that was drilled in the factory), but the phrase might also refer to a human penis. While popular for a while, the phrase is considered puerile and cliché nowadays, so it isn't often used except in mockery.

In this case, no sexual innuendo is intended; instead, the phrase is used to maximize the ambiguity of the statement. {{w|Ambiguity}} is when a statement could mean more than one thing. In English, it is often created as a result of pronouns like "he" and "they," which might potentially refer to many different things in context. Here, "that's what ''she'' said!" could mean several things, because "that" and "she" could refer to multiple parts of the sentence:

*Some woman said the entire statement.
*Some woman said "I could've done what they claimed I did."
*Some woman is part of the "they" that claimed something about some other woman.
*Some woman reported that some unknown man doubts that another woman did something that other people claimed that the other woman (or yet another woman) did.

Another explanation would be that the intense grammatical ambiguity of the situation allows for any type of interpretation of the situation... even a more "perverted" interpretation. Taken more literally, the "she" in "that's what ''she'' said!" could be a hypothetical woman who is known for saying crazy things, thus the grammatically ambiguous statement reminds the speaker of this hypothetical woman.

The title text turns this back around, saying that there ''is'' actually a sexual innuendo in the statement: apparently the girl in question said this during sex. Since all of these possibilities are highly unusual things to say during sex,{{citation needed}} the observation in the second sentence is accurate.

One of Randall's many [[My Hobby|hobbies]].

==Transcript==
:My Hobby: Using "that's what ''she'' said" only in the most grammatically ambiguous situations.
:Friend: He doubts she could've done what they claimed she did.
:Cueball: That's what ''she'' said!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]