explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1417: Seven

2023-07-24T17:03:35Z

Fippe: Continents & Pleiades

{{comic
| number = 1417
| date = September 5, 2014
| title = Seven
| image = seven.png
| titletext = The days of the week are Monday, Arctic, Wellesley, Green, Electra, Synergize, and the Seventh Seal.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] (or perhaps [[Randall]]) says he can't distinguish between sets that have exactly seven objects. This leads him to exchange the items in the sets without noticing, to the point where, when attempting to list a single set, each item mentioned actually belongs to a different set.

This is shown in the comic when [[Megan]] asks Cueball to name the seven dwarfs from ''{{w|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs}}'', a task some people might find difficult, although they would not just choose words from other sets of seven to fill in the gaps.

The title text reveals that even a trivial set of seven items, like the days of the week, also goes completely wrong.

The comic may be related to the {{w|Set-theoretic definition of natural numbers#Oldest definition|oldest set-theoretic definition of the natural numbers}}, in which for each natural number, an equivalence class is defined over all sets which contain the same number of items. As Cueball is known for [[:Category:Math|mathematical thinking]], he could be presumed to have taken the underlying equivalence relation to heart, and (over)applying it to real life, genuinely judging sets to be identical if they all contain N objects.

The number seven being the number for when sets become indistinguishable is possibly a reference to {{w|The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two|Miller's law}}. Especially considering that this is a law dealing with human memory, which Cueball is having issues with. However, this law refers to elements ''within the same set'' becoming indistinguishable, rather than the indistinguishability of different sets of the same size - indeed, its original tests involved either distinguishing between the items, or repeating them back ''in the correct order''. But then again, that might be part of the humor.

The number seven has culturally been {{w|7 (number)#Religion and mythology|regarded as a special, magical or holy number}}, which contributes to the large number of familiar sets of seven that make this comic possible. This proliferation of well-known sets of 7 items could be another reason why Randall chose to use the number {{w|seven}} in the comic.

In [[1554: Spice Girls]] the game continues with Cueball saying that it is now Megan's turn and then he asks her a similar question regarding the names of the Spice Girls. Her problem is then that she simply finds different sets of five and then just adds Spice behind each of the words of that set.

===Comic list===
For each of the seven lists below, the relevant item's traditional position within its own list of seven, according to Wikipedia, is '''not''' necessarily equal to its position on the list in the comic. For some lists the position is equal, but not for all. For instance Sneezy is traditionally never mentioned first amongst the dwarfs since the leader Doc normally comes first. But "phylum" is the second major taxonomic rank as is "phylum" the second item on the list in the comic.

The seven "dwarfs" mentioned and their relevant sets of seven are (items in the set are written in bold):
{| class="wikitable"
|
! 1
! 2
! 3
! 4
! 5
! 6
! 7
|-
!{{W|Seven Dwarfs#Disney Dwarfs|Disney's Dwarfs}} from ''{{w|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs}}''<ref group=c>The order is taken from the page about the movie, but Sneezy is never no. 1. On the other page, which is listed alphabetically, he is no. 5.</ref>
|Doc
|Grumpy
|Happy
|Sleepy
|Bashful
|'''Sneezy'''
|Dopey
|-
!Major {{w|taxonomic ranks}}.<ref group=c>There are technically 8 on this list as {{w|Domain (biology)|domain}} has been included as the first in the list in 1990. It is, however, still normal to only list the 7 ranks in the table.</ref>
|kingdom
|'''phylum'''
|class
|order
|family
|genus
|species
|-
!{{w|Continents}}<ref group=c>Continents do not have a fixed order and can be ordered by several criteria. This table orders the continents by population, by which Europe is the third-largest and matches the position in Cueball's list.</ref>
|Asia
|Africa
|'''Europe'''
|North America
|South America
|Oceania
|Antarctica
|-
!{{w|Seven deadly sins|Deadly sins}}<ref group=c>List as on Wikipedia.</ref>
|lust
|gluttony
|greed
|'''sloth'''
|wrath
|envy
|pride
|-
!{{w|Seven-layer dip|Seven Layer Dip (recipe)}}<ref group=c>The list on Wikipedia is not in the order the dip should be made. The order used above is from this [http://allrecipes.com/recipe/seven-layer-dip-i/ recipe].</ref>
|refried beans
|cheese
|ground beef
|sour cream
|'''guacamole'''
|salsa
|chopped black olives/tomatoes/green onions
|-
!|Layers of the {{w|OSI model}}<ref group=c>The order above is in reverse. The numbers given on Wikipedia is from 7 to 1 as they stand above. However when showing them in a table they begin with no. 7. So it can be discussed if this is the correct order or the reverse. Since Data link is no. 2, the reverse above becomes the "correct" no. 6.</ref>
|application
|presentation
|session
|transport
|network
|'''data link'''
|physical
|-
!|{{w|Wonders of the World#Seven Wonders of the Ancient World|Wonders of the Ancient World}}<ref group=c>List as on Wikipedia.</ref>
|Great Pyramid of Giza
|Hanging Gardens of Babylon
|Statue of Zeus at Olympia
|Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
|Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
|'''Colossus of Rhodes'''
|Lighthouse of Alexandria
|}

<references group=c />

===Title text list===
The title text extends this saying he also does the same with the set of the seven days of the week. There are several sets of 7 featuring the name '''Electra''', which are all listed in the table below. Until [[Randall]] tells us which he meant, all are possible.

The sets Cueball's "days of the week" come from are:
{| class="wikitable"
|
! 1
! 2
! 3
! 4
! 5
! 6
! 7
|-
!{{w|Days of the week}}<ref group=t>In the US, the weekdays are usually mentioned with Sunday first, whereas the international {{w|ISO week date}} standard defines Monday as the first day of the week. Although Randall is from the US, he has previously expressed his preference for [[1179: ISO 8601|ISO 8601]] (among [[526: Converting to Metric|other international standards]]), so it's reasonable to assume he'd list the days of the week starting on Monday.</ref>
|'''Monday'''
|Tuesday
|Wednesday
|Thursday
|Friday
|Saturday
|Sunday
|-
!{{w|Seven Seas#Modern|The Seven Seas (modern version)}}<ref group=t>There are many ways to lists 7 named bodies of water. The one used in the table uses the order from the Wikipedia article on the modern version, from the largest to the smallest of the seven. But at the top of the article on the {{w|Seven Seas}} another set of oceans are used. Here the two largest bodies of water (Pacific and Atlantic) are split in a north and a south part, and the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean is included. They then displace the three smallest bodies of water mentioned in the table above. If that list is sorted in alphabetic order, using the name Antarctic Ocean instead of Southern Ocean, then "Arctic" would come second: Antarctic, '''Arctic''', Indian, North Atlantic, North Pacific, South Atlantic and South Pacific. "Arctic" could also be a reference to {{w|Climate zones}} - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]]. It could not, however, be a reference to {{w|Continents}}, because the Arctic is not a continent {{w|Continent#Number of continents|regardless of how they're counted}}.</ref>
|The Pacific Ocean
|The Atlantic Ocean
|The Indian Ocean
|The '''Arctic''' Ocean
|The Mediterranean Sea
|The Caribbean Sea
|The Gulf of Mexico.
|-
!{{w|Seven Sisters (colleges)|Seven Sisters}}, historically women's colleges in U.S.<ref group=t>List as on Wikipedia.</ref>
|Mount Holyoke
|Vassar
|'''Wellesley'''
|Smith
|Radcliffe
|Bryn Mawr
|Barnard
|-
!Traditional {{w|spectral color}}s<ref group=t>On the list on Wikipedia there are only six colors but Indigo was used to get to seven colors by Newton - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]].</ref>
|Red
|Orange
|Yellow
|'''Green'''
|Blue
|Indigo
|Violet
|-
!{{w|Pleiades (Greek mythology)|Pleiades}}, Seven Sisters, nymphs and daughters of Atlas and Pleone in Greek mythology<ref group=t>List as on Wikipedia, with the oldest first and the youngest last (it's unclear whether the ones in the middle are also listed by age). In any case, only in reverse alphabetical order Electra would be no. 5: Taygete, Sterope, Merope, Maia, '''Electra''', Celaeno, and Alcyone.</ref><ref group=t>Electra is one of the septet of Pleiades sisters, one of the named stars in the Pleiades Star Cluster, and also of the septet of the complete extant plays by Sophocles.</ref>
|Maia
|'''Electra'''
|Taygete
|Alcyone
|Celaeno
|Sterope
|Merope
|-
!{{w|Pleiades|Pleiades}} Star Cluster <ref group=t>[[Randall]] names the Pleiades his favorite astronomical entity in the {{xkcd|about|"about" section}} on his website.</ref><ref group=t>In the order of stars named for the Seven Sisters starting from 12 o'clock position and counting clockwise. This list does not include Atlas and Pleione, parents of the Seven Sisters, and the remaining two named stars in the Cluster, which would be the eighth and ninth stars, respectively.</ref>
|Sterope
|Maia
|Taygeta
|Celaeno
|'''Electra'''
|Merope
|Alcyone
|-
!|''{{w|Sophocles|Complete Plays}}'' by Sophocles<ref group=t>ibid</ref>
|Ajax/Aias
|'''Electra'''
|Oedipus The King/Oedipus Rex/Oedipus Tyrannus
|Oedipus at Colonus
|Antigone
|The Trachinian Maidens/The Women of Trachis
|Philoctetes
|-
!|''{{w|The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People}}'' by Dr. Stephen R. Covey<ref group=t>These seven habits are clearly named in order as they are listed as Habit 1 through Habit 7.</ref>
|Be proactive
|Begin with the end in mind
|Put first things first
|Think win-win
|Seek first to understand and then to be understood
|'''Synergize'''
|Sharpen the saw
|-
!|In the {{w|Book of Revelation}} in the {{w|New Testament}} there are {{w|Seven seals}}<ref group=t>''The Seventh Seal'' is also the name of a movie released in 1957, which belongs to a '''lot''' of sets of seven -- see the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section.</ref>
|The First seal
|The Second seal
|The Third seal
|The Fourth seal
|The Fifth seal
|The Sixth seal
|'''The Seventh seal'''
|}

<references group=t />

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are talking.]
:Megan: Can you name all the dwarfs from Snow White?
:Cueball: Sure, there's, um...
:Cueball's thoughts: Sneezy, phylum, Europe, sloth, guacamole, data link, Colossus of Rhodes
:I have this problem where all sets of seven things are indistinguishable to me.

==Trivia==
*Arctic (no. 2 on the title text list) could also be a reference to {{w|Climate zones|climate zones}}: '''Arctic''', North Temperate, Northern Subtropical, Tropical, Southern Subtropical, South Temperate and Antarctic.
**There are however usually only five mentioned according to the {{w|Köppen climate classification}}. They are: Tropical, Dry, Temperate, Continental and Polar climate.
*Concerning the seven colors of the spectrum (no. 4 on the title text list) {{w|Indigo#Classification as a spectral color|indigo is stuck in}} by {{w|Isaac Newton}} to add up to the seven notes in the {{w|Scale (music)#Western music|Western musical scale}}.
**It should be noted that {{w|Indigo#Classification as a spectral color|Newton probably meant}} the colors {{w|cyan}} and {{w|blue}} as we think of it today, rather than blue and {{w|indigo}}.
**Also note that in a {{w|rainbow}} you usually {{w|Rainbow#Number of colours in spectrum or rainbow|cannot distinguish more than six colors}} with cyan melting in with green and blue and the same for indigo with blue and violet.
***{{w|Color term#Basic color terms|This is highly dependent on the language you speak.}} Russian, for example, has both sinij and goluboj to describe different blues that in English are both blue. Japanese, as another example, has blue and green together (kinda) in 青.
**These are also the traditional seven artists' pigments, {{w|Roy G. Biv|with the accompanying mnemonic "Roy G. Biv"}} (or the "Richard Of York..." counterpart mnemonic, for those indoctrinated by a different method). Indigo dye is a widely known and readily available coloring agent. The ongoing ubiquity of the ''pigment'' (think denim) gives it a unique prominence despite its uncertain status as a spectral color.
*''The Seventh Seal'' (no. 7 on the title text list) could also refer to the 1957 film {{w|The Seventh Seal}} by Swedish director {{w|Ingmar Bergman}}. Indeed, we can put it in quite a few sets of seven.
**This was Bergman's seventh film with an English title beginning with the letter 'S' (ignoring articles). ''A Ship Bound for India'', ''Summer Interlude'', ''Secrets of Women'', ''Summer with Monika'', ''Sawdust and Tinsel'', ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', '''''The Seventh Seal'''''.
**Similary ''The Seventh Seal'' is also the seventh Bergman film whose Swedish title starts with 'S', although the list has some different members. ''Skepp till Indialand'', ''Sånt händer inte här'', ''Sommarlek'', ''Sommaren med Monika'', ''Sommarnattens leende'', ''Sista paret ut'', '''''Det sjunde inseglet'''''.
**''The Seventh Seal'' was also one of seven Bergman films submitted by Sweden for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film during the 1950s and 1960s. '''The Seventh Seal''', ''The Magician'', ''The Virgin Spring'', ''Through a Glass Darkly'', ''The Silence'', ''Persona'', ''Shame''.
**According to the Wikipedia page on {{w|The Seventh Seal|The Seventh Seal}}, the Jesuit publication America wrote, "It also began a series of seven films that explored the possibility of faith in a post-Holocaust, nuclear age. In 'The Virgin Spring' (1960), 'Through a Glass Darkly' (1961), 'Winter Light' (1962) and 'The Silence' (1963), he poses traditional faith questions in identifiably religious language. The characters struggle self-consciously with their inability to believe in God and form relationships with one another. In 'Wild Strawberries' (1957) and 'The Magician' (1958), the issues are veiled in layers of metaphor. The theological questions become apparent only by placing them in the context of the other films of the period. With 'The Silence' he concludes that God is unknowable, and the human person must simply continue life's journey seeking understanding and happiness however one can. At that point, [http://americamagazine.org/node/148305 God-questions drop out of his films altogether].
*One way to remember the names of the Seven Dwarfs from the Disney film is: three emotions (Happy, Bashful, Grumpy), two S's (Sleepy, Sneezy), two D's (Dopey, Doc). Cueball assumes that Megan is asking in the context of the Disney film, but other works have named the dwarfs differently; see {{w|Seven Dwarfs}}.
*Megan's question uses the plural '''dwarfs'''. Astronomers also refer to the plural of {{w|dwarf star}}s as "dwarfs". The word "dwarves" is used in {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}}'s works, but has been seen as far back as [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html the early 1800s].

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

1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations

2018-01-04T13:40:29Z

Fippe: Added some real IATA codes.

{{comic
| number = 1937
| date = January 3, 2018
| title = IATA Airport Abbreviations
| image = iata_airport_abbreviations.png
| titletext = IATA stands for International AirporT Abbreviation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Expansion needed. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is making fun of the three-letter codes assigned to mostly all {{w|IATA airport code|airports}} in the world. These codes are overseen by the {{w|International Air Transport Association|IATA (International Air Transport Association)}}. Some airport codes are very intuitive, taking letters from the city name (e.g., DEN for Denver). Other codes are somewhat intuitive, taking a letter or two from the nearby city name but adding an additional letter (e.g., LAX for Los Angeles). Other codes make seemingly no sense at all (e.g., ORD for Chicago's O'Hare International, due to it formerly being named Orchard Field). In many cases, the airport codes appear to have been chosen (or invented) because they are also common abbreviations and acronyms.

If we use the table provided, Randall's friend is flying into Edwards Air Force Base and then down to whatever. This is not a typical flight. In actuality, the friend is flying into Newark tonight and Detroit tomorrow.

{| class="wikitable"
|'''IATA Code''' || '''Actual Assigned City/Airport''' || '''Description in the comic''' || '''Explanation'''
|-
| AMD || {{w|Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport|Ahmedabad}} || {{w|Amsterdam }}|| Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. Its airport (called {{w|Amsterdam Airport Schiphol|Schiphol}}) has the IATA code AMS. "AMD" may also refer to "{{w|Advanced Micro Devices}}", a brand of computer processors.
|-
| ANC || {{w|Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport|Anchorage}} || {{w|Ankh-Morpork}} || Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state featured in ''{{w|Discworld}}''. ANC is also an abbreviated name for the {{w|African National Congress}}.
|-
| ATL || {{w|Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport|Atlanta}} || Atalantë || Another name for J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional island of {{w|Númenor}} (which is in turn a reference to the sinking of {{w|Atlantis}}). This may also be an intentional misspelling of "Atlanta". ATL may also be an abbreviation for "above the line" - the area in an internet article or post containing the main content; as contrasted with BTL ("below the line") where readers' comments appear.
|-
| BAE || {{w|Barcelonnette – Saint-Pons Airfield|Barcelonnette}} || {{w|Beijing}} || Beijing is the capital of China. {{w|Beijing Capital International Airport|Its airport}} has the IATA code PEK (possibly from Peking, alternate former spelling of its name). "{{w|Bae (word)|Bae}}" is a slang term meaning girlfriend, boyfriend, or significant other. Randall has presumably assigned this to Beijing as, when pronounced as a word, rather than an abbreviation, it resembles the first syllable.
|-
| BLT || {{w|Blackwater Airport|Blackwater}} || {{w|Baltimore}} || A "{{w|BLT}}" is a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. Baltimore is served by two airports with the codes BWI and MTN.
|-
| BUF || {{w|Buffalo Niagara International Airport|Buffalo}} || {{w|Sunnydale}} || Sunnydale is a fictional California city that serves as the primary setting for ''{{w|Buffy the Vampire Slayer|'''Buf'''fy the Vampire Slayer}}''.
|-
| CLT || {{w|Charlotte Douglas International Airport|Charlotte}} || [CENSORED] || The censored word may be "{{w|clitoris}}". [[Randall]] has used this word in the comic before ([[243: Appropriate Term]]), but it is censored here for comic effect.
|-
| DFW || {{w|Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport|Dallas/Fort Worth}} || Down For Whatever || "Down for Whatever" is an expression used to indicate that one is okay with doing whatever his or her friends are doing in a social situation, or whatever comes up during a social situation.
|-
|DTF || ''not assigned'' || {{w|Dartford}} || "DTF" is an abbreviation used to indicate "Down To Fuck". Dartford is a town in Kent, UK, about 10 miles SE of London. It does not have an airport. The nearest is probably {{w|London City Airport}}, LCY.
|-
| DTW || {{w|Detroit Metropolitan Airport|Detroit}} || Down To Whatever || See "DFW". "Down to Whatever" could indicate that one is getting on a plane with the intention of being fine with whatever the plane's destination turns out to be.
|-
| DWI || ''not assigned'' || Delaware International || "DWI" is an abbreviation for "Driving While Intoxicated" or "Driving While Impaired." Randall notes in the ''what if?'' book that Delaware has no airports.
|-
| EWR || {{w|Newark Liberty International Airport|Newark}} || {{w|Edwards Air Force Base}} || Edwards Air Force Base (which has the IATA code EDW) is a United States Air Force installation in southern California, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lancaster and 15 miles (24 km) east of Rosamond. It is notable for its pivotal role in NASA spaceflight development.
|-
| FFS || ''not assigned'' || Flagstaff Station || "FFS" is an abbreviation for "For Fuck's Sake."
|-
| FHQ || ''not assigned'' || FHQWHGADS || The string "fhqwhgads" appeared as the first part of the sender name in the email "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lml_AKkhCVY i love you]" sent to Strong Bad in the {{w|Homestar Runner}} cartoons; Strong Bad ended up [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=votBDwhTu1E writing a song] dedicated to the "character", and, after this comic's release, Strong Bad's official Twitter account [https://twitter.com/StrongBadActual/status/948696499885694976 posted about the reference].
|-
| FYI || {{w|Fresno Yosemite International Airport}} || Fayetteville || "FYI" often stands for "For Your Information". Fresno Yosemite International also has the code FAT for Fresno Air Terminal. Fayetteville is the name of many cities in the United States. Fayetteville, NC is the only Fayetteville served by airports: POB and FAY.
|-
| HGM || ''not assigned'' || Hogsmeade || {{w|Places_in_Harry_Potter#Hogsmeade|Hogsmeade}} is a fictional location in the ''{{w|Harry Potter}}'' series.
|-
| HSV || {{w|Huntsville International Airport|Huntsville}} || {{w|Huntsville, Alabama|Huntsville}} || This is one where Randall and the IATA agree. HSV is better known as the Hue-Saturation-Value color space or German soccer club Hamburger SV. It is also Herpes Simplex Virus, a venereal disease.
|-
| IAD || {{w|Washington Dulles International Airport|Washington (Dulles)}} || {{w|Boise Airport|Idaho (Boise)}} || IAD is the symbol for Dulles International Airport (which was originally "DIA" but it was felt that could be confused when hand-written with "DCA", the sign for nearby {{w|Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport}}). The Idaho Falls airport is IDA, while Idaho (Boise) is BOI, so it is unclear why BOI was chosen instead of IDA.
|-
| IUD || Doha || Washington (Dulles) || An "IUD" is an "IntraUterine Device," or form of birth control. Doha is the capital of Qatar in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. The Actual IATA code for Dulles is IAD (see above).
|-
| JFC || ''not assigned'' || {{w|Jefferson City}} || "JFC" is an abbreviation for "Jesus Fucking Christ." JFK is John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York's main airport and one of the most famous in the world. Jefferson City is the state capital of Missouri served by the JEF airport, and also the name of several other cities.
|-
| KUL || {{w|Kuala Lumpur International Airport|Kuala Lumpur}} || {{w|Kingdom of Loathing}} || Kingdom of Loathing is an online, browser-based RPG. It contains an [http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Elemental_International_Airport International Airport], previously lacking a three digit code. Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia.
|-
| LAX || {{w|Los Angeles International Airport|Los Angeles}} || Las Angalas || "Las Angalas" is a "Los Angeles" with every vowel replaced with an "a" character. It's sometimes used as a joking nickname for "Los Angeles." The Frank Black song "Los Angeles" uses this pronunciation.
|-
| LOL || {{w|Derby Field|Lovelock}} || {{w|Louisville}} || "LOL" often stands for "Laughing Out Loud". Lovelock is a city in the state of Nevada. Louisville is the largest city in the state of Kentucky. The latter is served by the LJC and the SDF airport.
|-
| MDW || {{w|Midway International Airport|Chicago, IL (Midway)}} || {{w|Midway Atoll}} || Midway Atoll was the site of one of the most significant World War II Pacific naval battles and is the namesake of the Chicago airport. Its actual IATA code is MDY.
|-
| MIA || {{w|Miami International Airport|Miami}} || {{w|Colombo, Sri Lanka}} || MIA stands for "Missing In Action". It is also the stage name of a {{w|M.I.A. (rapper)|rapper of Sri Lankan heritage}}. Colombo, Sri Lanka is served by three airports: CMB, RML and BYV.
|-
| OMW || ''not assigned'' || {{w|Omaha}} || Eppley Airfield in East Omaha, Nebraska, has an IATA code of OMA. "OMW" is an abbreviation for "On My Way."
|-
| ORD || {{w|O'Hare International Airport|Chicago, IL (O'Hare)}} || {{w|Orlando}} || O'Hare was once known as Orchard Place/Douglas Field, hence ORD. Orlando is served by four airports: ORL, DWS, MCO and SFB
|-
| PDX || {{w|Portland International Airport|Portland}} || Pordlanx || Consider how LAX has a random "X" at the end. And "ORD" is an actual IATA code. Randall messes with "Portland" here in much the same way.
|-
| PHL || {{w|Philadelphia International Airport|Philadelphia, PA}} || {{w|Pittsburgh}} || Pittsburgh International Airport has a IATA code of PIT. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are the two largest cities in Pennsylvania and are at opposite ends of the state.
|-
| SAN || {{w|San Diego International Airport|San Diego}} || San Diego San Juan San Jose San Francisco San Antonio || San Diego International Airport has SAN; nearby airports include Montgomery Field (MYF), MCAS Miramar (NKX), NAS North Island (NZY), Brown Field (SDM), and Gillespie Field (SEE). There are several cities named San Juan or San Jose. Their airport codes are as follows: San Juan, Puerto Rico: SJU and SIG. San Juan, Argentina: UAQ. San Jose, California, USA: SJC. San Jose, Costa Rica: SJO. San Jose, Mexico: SJD. San Jose, Philippines: SJI San Francisco, CA has the airport code of SFO. San Antonio, TX has the airport code of SAT. Randall's plan to assign the code SAN to every place name beginning "San" would likely cause chaos for travellers.
|-
| SEA || {{w|Seattle–Tacoma International Airport|Seattle/Tacoma or SeaTac}} || [Indicates Water Landing] || This is presumably a reference to the fact that "SEA" could be interpreted as "Sea". Like some other major airports (e.g., {{w|San Francisco International Airport}} and {{w|LaGuardia Airport}}), SEA is very close to a large body of water (in SeaTac's case {{w|Puget Sound}}), so missing the airport may end up in a water landing. The SeaTac airport is located between Seattle and Tacoma, two cities in WA.
|-
| SMH || Sapmanga || Smithfield || "SMH" often stands for "Shaking My Head". Sapmanga is a location in Papua New Guinea. There are various cities named Smithfield around the world, none of them having airports.
|-
| STL || {{w|St. Louis}} || {{w|Silent Hill}} || Silent Hill is a fictional city appearing in the series of video games and movies with the same name.
|-
| SWF || {{w|Stewart International Airport|Newburgh, New York}} || Sherwood Forest || .swf is the file extension for ShockWave Flash files. "SWF" can also stand for "Single White Female" in personal ads. In legend, {{w|Sherwood Forest}} was the location of Robin Hood's hideout, and Doncaster Sheffield Airport (IATA DSA) was formerly called Robin Hood Airport.
|-
| TBA || Tabibuga || {{w|Tribeca}} || "TBA" often stands for "To Be Announced". Tabibuga is a location in Papua New Guinea. Tribeca (original styled TriBeCa) is an area in New York City, which does not have an airport. The closest airport to it is Downtown Manhattan Heliport (JRB). ''{{w|Angie Tribeca}}'' is an American comedy television series. "TBA" is a similar indication of uncertainty to "TBC", which often stands for "To Be Confirmed".
|-
| TMI || {{w|Tumlingtar Airport| Tumlingtar}} || {{w|Turkmenistan}} International || "TMI" often stands for "Too Much Information". Tumlingtar is a city in Nepal. Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia which has six airports: ASB, CRZ, KRW, MYP, TAZ and URL. None of them are called "Turkmenistan International".
|-
| YYY || {{w|Mont-Joli Airport|Mont-Joli}} || {{w|Toronto}} Downtown || Mont-Joli is a city in Quebec, Canada. The small airport in downtown Toronto is {{w|Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport}}, which has an actual IATA code of YTZ. This may be a play on the below designation for the larger Toronto airport, YYZ. It could also be Randall asking "why why why" some of these codes are so odd. Aside from YTZ, Toronto has 5 additional airports, all of their codes starting with a Y: YBZ, YKZ, YTO, YYZ and YZD.
|-
| YYZ || {{w|Toronto Pearson International Airport|Toronto}} || {{w|Toronto Pearson International Airport|Toronto Pearson}} || This one is correct. The band Rush is from Toronto and named an instrumental song after the airport call sign. See {{w|YYZ (instrumental)}}
|-
|}

The title text is a pun about the acronym ''IATA'', stating it stands for '''I'''nternational '''A'''irpor'''T''' '''A'''bbreviation. This is as wrong as almost everything else here, because the real ''International Air Transport Association'' is not an organization only responsible for abbreviations in aviation.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A list with abbreviations and their meaning is shown in two columns.]

:[On top left the header reads:]
:Confused by those airport abbreviations used by your friends who fly a lot?

:Just memorize this list!

:[On top right some social media conversation is shown:]
:I'm flying into EWR tonight, then DTW tomorrow.
:[Answer (in blue, two message bubbles):]
:Ok, cool
:I definitely know what those mean without Googling

:[The list:]
:{| class="wikitable style=border:none;"|
|-
| AMD || Amsterdam
| TMI || Turkmenistan International
|-
| BAE || Beijing
| LAX || Las Angalas
|-
| ORD || Orlando
| EWR || Edwards Air Force Base
|-
| IAD || Idaho (Boise)
| PHL || Pittsburgh
|-
| JFC || Jefferson City
| SWF || Sherwood Forest
|-
| IUD || Washington Dulles
| KUL || Kingdom of Loathing
|-
| FYI || Fayetteville
| STL || Silent Hill
|-
| LOL || Louisville
| BUF || Sunnydale
|-
| ATL || Atalante
| TBA || Tribeca
|-
| HGM || Hogsmeade
| SMH || Smithfield
|-
| OMW || Omaha
| BLT || Baltimore
|-
| ANC || Ankh-Morpork
| YYY || Toronto Downtown
|-
| HSV || Hunstville
| YYZ || Toronto Pearson
|-
| SAN || San Diego
| MIA || Colombo, Sri Lanka
|-
| SAN || San Juan
| CLT || [Censored]
|-
| SAN || San Jose
| FHQ || Fhqwhgads
|-
| SAN || San Francisco
| FFS || Flagstaff Station
|-
| SAN || San Antonio
| DTF || Dartford
|-
| DWI || Delaware International
| MDW || Midway Atoll
|-
| DFW || Down for Whatever
| PDX || Pordlanx
|-
| DTW || Down to Whatever
| SEA || [Indicates Water Landing]
|-
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Puns]]

1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations

2018-01-03T19:21:53Z

Fippe: Added all airport codes for San Diego

1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations

2018-01-03T16:08:27Z

Fippe:

1752: Interplanetary Experience

2016-10-28T07:45:20Z

Fippe: +Uranus

{{comic
| number = 1752
| date = October 28, 2016
| title = Interplanetary Experience
| image = interplanetary_experience.png
| titletext = But instead of hitting the ocean, you should land in an overheating hot tub on a sinking cruise ship, sending it crashing through the floor into the burning engine room as the ship goes under.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please write an introduction to the individual places explanation.}}

===Table of planets and like Earth places===

{|class="wikitable sortable"
! Planet(s)
! Day/Night
! Place on Earth
! Explanation
|-
| Pluto, Moon, Mercury || Night || Mt. Everest at night || Pluto, Moon and Mercury are relatively small, rocky bodies with practically no atmosphere and relatively slow rotation. Therefore their surfaces not illuminated by Sun will cool down to very low temperatures (around 100 Kelvins), making their nighttime hemispheres desolate, dark and cold places. Randall proposes the summit of Mt. Everest as the place on Earth that will emulate the conditions most closely. It is a rocky,desolate an cold place. Even though it is not the coldest place on Earth, it is the highest point on land, therefore it has the lowest atmospheric pressure. It cannot be compared to the near-zero pressure and 100 Kelvins conditions on the aforementioned bodies, but it is as close as we can get on Earth,
|-
| Moon || Day || Mt. Everest at noon under a tanning lamp
|-
| Mercury || Day || A lava flow at a volcano at noon
|-
| Venus || || A heat-shrink wetsuit in a blast furnace
|-
| Mars || || Mt. Everest at sunset
|-
| Titan || || Waist-deep in an outgassing Siberian swamp
|-
| Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune || || Jumping from a high-altitude baloon over an Antarctic Ocean winter storm
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

647: Scary

2016-08-26T07:03:38Z

Fippe: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 647
| date = October 9, 2009
| title = Scary
| image = scary.png
| titletext = I'm teaching every 8-year-old relative to say this, and every 14-year-old to do the same thing with Toy Story. Also, Pokemon hit the US over a decade ago and kids born after Aladdin came out will turn 18 next year.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Rob]] is telling his eight-year-old nephew a ghost story, employing such stereotyped devices as a flash light-lit face and stock ghost story endings.

Rob's nephew thus characterizes the ghost story as "lame," meaning that it was unimpressive or unconvincingly feeble. His uncle Rob asks him if he can come up with something scarier. Sure he says and offers the much scarier notion that even though he has been born after {{w|9/11}} he is already old enough to be able to have this kind of conversation. In [[1686: Feel Old]] released about 7 years later this even was once again used to make people feel old (first time this phrase was used in a title). At that time the scary part was that some of the people who could vote in the next {{w|United States presidential election, 2016|presidential election}} would be too young to remember 9/11.

No hidden meaning here, but this sure is scary for many adults. What's being implied here is that time seems to be moving really quickly and we're getting older faster than we think. Events that seem like they "just happened" have happened long enough ago for a whole other person to come into existence, grow up, and learn to carry on a conversation. Every time we get reminded of this fact, it can be scary, as you then realize that you are now closer to your death...

9/11 was a terrorist attack in the United States in 2001, on September 11th. Major events such as the assassination of {{w|Assassination of John F. Kennedy|Kennedy}}, the Moon Landing of {{w|Apollo 11}} or 9/11 are easily memorable. It is often said that "everyone remembers where they were when they first heard...". In consequence, these events act as milestones in our memory. They are recalled more vividly, and seem more recent. Today this is maybe also topping the {{w|Attack on Pearl Harbor}} happened in 1941.

The title text mentions that [[Randall]] is teaching his 8 year old relatives to say the same as in the comic — presumably to the annoyance of his older relatives who will be reminded of the fast passage of time. He does not stop here, but teaches the 14 year old's to say they are born after {{w|Toy Story}} — a major block buster hit from {{w|Pixar}} which came out in 1995. A movie many people will remember fondly and feel just came out the other day... He continues with these scary thoughts by mentioning that {{w|Pokémon}} (1996) came out over a decade ago and that kids born after the big {{w|Disney}} hit movie {{w|Aladdin_(1992_Disney_film)|Aladdin}} from 1992 will turn 18 next year (i.e. in 2010 a year after this comic was published).

[[Randall]] has both before and after this comic tried to [[:Category:Comics_to_make_one_feel_old|make people feel old]] several times.

==Transcript==
:[Rob and his nephew (also drawn like a Cueball, but smaller) are sitting on the ground facing each other. Rob is holding a flash-light up to his face and leans back on the other arm, while crossing his legs. The nephew is sitting forward resting one arm on his lifted knees and leaning back on his other arm.]
:Rob: But they ''never found the ghost's head!''
:Nephew: Lame story, Uncle Rob.
:Rob: And you could do scarier?
:Nephew: Sure.

:[Rob has removed the flash-light from his face and the nephew leans more back and has shifted a leg down so only one knee supports the arm which are now more straight.]
:Rob: Try me.
:Nephew: 9/11 happened before I was born, yet I'm old enough to have this conversation with you.

:[Rob has dropped the flash-light. The nephew has taken the other arm down on the ground. Beat panel.]

:[Rob has curled his legs up to his chin and wrapped his arms around them while the nephew relaxes eve more,]

==Trivia==
*From 2017-11-05 on, the time between 9/11 and this comic will be smaller than the time between this comic and the present.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]