explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3136: Pull

2025-09-03T13:58:21Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ elaborate on title text

{{comic
| number = 3136
| date = September 1, 2025
| title = Pull
| image = pull_2x.png
| imagesize = 650x220px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Be careful fighting gravity. If you win, it's a long way down.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explain the title text and final panel better .This page was created by A GRAVITY RESISTING BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
Megan and Cueball are lying in the grass on an orb, presumably Earth. However, instead of the conventional frame orientation where gravity points towards the bottom of the image, the viewpoint is stationary outside the Earth while we see it slowly rotating, reminiscent of the alternate frame of reference apparently in use in [[2800: Down]]. Shown this way, we may have the intuitive feeling that the protagonists should fall off, and this makes a point how weird it is that gravity keeps us stuck to an orb, continuing with the theme of "how reality is odd" last seen in the prior comic, [[3135: Sea Level]].

In the first panel, Cueball expresses that he doesn't like being stuck there, possibly because he wants to explore other worlds or because he finds Earth limiting. The alternative would be "falling off", as in succumbing to the [[123|centrifugal force]] that results from the Earth's rotation – this would appear in the comic's perspective as both characters slowly "falling" away towards the right side of the panel. As this centrifugal effect is quite slight compared to the gravitational acceleration we're used to (0.34% of it at the equator, to be exact), Megan and Cueball would have roughly three more minutes until they "fell" off-panel, assuming their position is of a mid-northern latitude typical to the US – unless they're able to fly under their own power now that they're no longer constrained by gravity, or unless the rest of Planet Earth also has its gravity turned off and violently explodes as a result.

In the second panel, Megan uses a more metaphorical sense of the word pull, she is attracted to lying on the grass doing nothing and blames her inability to get up and do things on gravity.

Cueball replies that the pull might weaken over time. In a literal sense, gravity will not decrease significantly even in the long term. [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/sept-1-2018-gene-editing-in-dogs-wildfire-prediction-zika-fizzles-and-more-1.4804892/is-earth-getting-heavier-or-lighter-1.4804900 Earth gains mass] from dust and meteorites but also loses mass, mainly due to escaping hydrogen and helium. The net effect of these is for Earth to lose about 50,000 tonnes per year; in the 5‑minute period Megan mentions, equivalent to 500 kg out of the Earth's mass of 5.972 × 1024 kg, changing gravity by a factor of about 10-22 (1 part in 10 sextillion). Locally, gravity can also change due to mass redistribution. The Earth's core is very slowly cooling, leading to decreasing radius and thus increasing gravity at the surface. Towards the end of its life, the Earth's water will be boiled off due to the expanding Sun, leading to a decrease in gravity. Metaphorically, Cueball may be suggesting that Megan will eventually grow bored of lying in the grass, thus losing its attraction, but he may also just be saying that so she will stay a bit longer. Megan agrees.

Fighting the gravity in the title text is reminiscent of the Ancient Greek story of {{w|Icarus}}, who fell down after flying too close to the Sun, where flying might be seen as fighting gravity. Also might be just a rephrasing of the proverb "The higher you go, the longer the fall". On the other hand, "it's a long way down" may not refer to falling back to Earth, but rather falling off the Earth if one were no longer "stuck" to it. In that case, "down" would presumably mean toward the sun, the center of gravitational pull in the solar system -- a very long way away.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan lying on a surface with grass, and the surface is round. They are orientated sideways.]
:Cueball: I don't like being stuck to this orb,
:Cueball: but I guess falling off would be worse.

:[Cueball, Megan, and the surface are now rotated a little bit from the first panel.]
:Megan: I wouldn't mind if it pulled a little less hard, though.
:Megan: I have places to be.
:Megan: I shouldn't just lie around in the grass.

:[Cueball, Megan, and the surface are now rotated a little bit more from the second panel.]
:Cueball: Maybe the pull will weaken if you wait around a little longer.
:Megan: Good idea. I'll give it another five minutes.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

2888: US Survey Foot

2024-01-31T15:58:40Z

Huttarl: Added explanation of Subway reference

{{comic
| number = 2888
| date = January 31, 2024
| title = US Survey Foot
| image = us_survey_foot_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x606px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Subway refuses to answer my questions about whether it's an International Footlong or a US Survey Footlong. A milligram of sandwich is at stake!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 610 NANOMETER BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic pokes fun at a difference in length of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(unit)#U.S._survey_foot US Survey Foot] and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(unit) International Foot]. After [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_yard_and_pound an international agreement] in 1959, the foot has been defined to be exactly 0.3048 metres, whilst the US survey foot is a bit longer than the International Foot. However, the difference between the two is too small for short distances. In the fourth panel, Cueball says that Black Hat is drawing the world 610nm closer to madness, which is about the difference between the two measures. Cueball, outraged, then decides to capture Black Hat to stop him from using the US survey foot. The joke here is that his coordinates show that he is 8000 miles away, but since he is using the US survey foot, he is 0.014 miles away from the search team, making the search team unable to find him.

Note - 0.014 miles is about 24 yards.

The title text references a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subway_(restaurant)#Sandwich_size 2013 lawsuit] over the length of a "Footlong" sandwich sold by Subway fast food chain.

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

:[Closeup on Cueball.]
:Cueball: We thought it was over. After 60 years of struggle, the US survey foot was dead, deprecated by NIST in 2023.

:[Cueball is shown to be talking to Ponytail, Hairy, and Megan. He has a presentation behind him.]
:Cueball: We thought architects and engineers could rest east, free of the headaches of having two conflicting definitions of the foot the differ by 610 nanometers.
:International foot: 0.304 800 000 m
:US survey foot (R.I.P.): 0.304 800 609... m

:[Cueball points at an image of Black Hat]
:Cueball: But I bring dire news:
:Cueball: ''Someone has started using the US survey foot again.''

:[Closeup on Cueball again.]
:Off-panel voice: Why!?
:Cueball: We don't know.
:Cueball: Some people just want to drag the world 610nm closer to madness.

:[Farther view of Cueball only. He clenches a fist.]
:Off-panel voice: What can we do!?
:Cueball: A NIST team is already in the air. We will capture the scofflaw and end this nightmare.

:[Two helicopters flying, with mountains in the background.]

:Caption: 8,000 miles away
:[Two operatives in a forest. One talks on a walkie-talkie.]
:Operative: We've reached the coordinates of the target's device. There's no one here.
:Voice from walkie-talkie: How!?

:Caption: 8,000.014 miles away
:[Black Hat walking elsewhere in the forest, very close by.]
:Black Hat: ♫ ♪

{{comic discussion}}

2848: Breaker Box

2023-10-31T15:27:08Z

Huttarl: fixed formatting

{{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 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 commonly referred to as a "fuse box", "breaker panel", "DB box", and many other names, is a metal box attached to a wall inside a building, usually in some maintenance area, containing several {{w|circuit breakers}} that let power through to various parts of the building. A circuit breaker is an electrical switch, usually in the form of a small lever, that will physically open if too much power is flowing through, as might be the case if a fault occurs, in order to protect appliances.

In most breaker boxes, each individual breaker is labeled to let the operator know what that specific breaker controls. A breaker will usually control something like the outlets or lights in a certain room, or some large appliance. In houses that have been rewired multiple times (or are poorly wired), this can quickly become overcomplicated with seemingly random connections. The comic satirizes this, with multiple breakers "controlling" arbitrary things, including some that may be impossible to hook a breaker up to, getting progressively more absurd to the point of disabling certain laws of physics.

The title text is about causality. Turning off the circuit breaker using the circuit breaker may lead to a loop, as the disabled breaker can no longer disable itself, leading to it turning back on, etc. Turning off causality would prevent this loop as causes would no longer have effects.

===Table of the breakers labels===
{|class = "wikitable"
! Label next to breaker !! Explanation !!   !! Label next to breaker !! Explanation
|-
| Kitchen Lights || The lights in the kitchen. || || A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now || The AC in a building usually creates quiet white noise from fans, which people usually do not hear until they become aware that there is a sound. Other appliances, such as fridges or home servers can have similar effects.
|-
| Living room lights || The lights in the living room. || || Dishwasher || The dishwasher.
|-
| Porch lights || The lights on the porch. || || Dishes || At a glance this could pass for a normal thing to be next to a breaker, despite dishes not requiring electricity. This might, however, actually be referring to an array of satellite dishes, but given how the switch for the dishwasher is immediately above this is most likely not the case.
|-
| Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere || This controls the lights in the bathroom, but also a random outlet. This kind of situation can often occur, where the layout of the house and the wiring can mean that it is a sensible or convenient design decision from an electrician's perspective to wire seemingly logically unrelated things to the same circuit, but nonetheless is confusing to the homeowner when reviewing the breaker options. || || Hallway lights || The lights in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| North-facing appliances || Despite the impossibility of determining which way an appliance is facing, ignoring how you would even define that, without having a magnetic compass inside every appliance, and having all of those appliances be hooked up to one breaker, this apparently routes power to every appliance that faces north. It is unclear how strict this is as well - it could be as lax as northeast to northwest, or even as strict as {{w|Points of the compass#32-wind compass rose|north by east to north by west}}.|| || Hallway outlets || The outlets in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| Bathtub drain light || Bathtubs typically do not have drain lights, but this breaker provides power to that and only that. || || Hallway floors || This could pass for a normal breaker at a glance, given the two above and in some buildings there are floor outlets. This could also potentially refer to turning off the power for all the hallways on a given floor. Floors in and of themselves do not typically require power, but if they act differently when not powered is unknown. A simpler explanation is this just electrifies the floors, which is not usually desirable,{{citation needed}} but may be barely noticeable in this case when considering this breaker has been on the entire time. Unless the hallway is equipped with electric underfloor heating.
|-
| Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" || Another breaker that could theoretically be done despite the tremendous difficulty in doing so. Electrical systems do not carry data about names, and it is unclear how it would even get this information, if it would change depending on locality, if it uses the common name for something or the full name, how it would work in different languages, and so on. || || Social media || All of social media. This may be a reference to 'digital detoxes', where people turn off / delete / deny themselves access to all their social media apps, in the hopes that this will provide some improvement to their quality of life. It could also be a callback to [[908: The Cloud]]. Since most social media platforms are a 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]]).
|-
| Hot water heater || The heater for hot water. In most residences, there is only one type of water heater. The phrase "hot water heater" is commonly used, and makes some sense from the perspective that the appliance is the supplier of hot water (by heating); but the phrase can be considered redundant (a water heater might be assumed to produce ''only'' hot water) or inaccurate (residential water heaters do not heat only water that is ''already'' hot). The "regular water heater" label below throws the word "hot" into contrast in order to put a humorous spotlight on its usage. || || State law || It is unclear which state's laws this controls, but why they require power to operate is unknown. This may just be for enforcement of the laws, instead of nullifying every single one whenever it is turned off. Additionally, since Randall lives in Massachusetts, it's very likely this refers to the same state. Turning off the breaker could result in a state similar to martial law. Or it could be a State Law Breaker.
|-
| Regular water heater || The heater for regular water. Presumably, given the above switch, this is for heating lukewarm or cool water, while the above is for keeping it warm and acting as a storage medium. This could just be accomplished with a single water heater with the capacity of two, but it may be useful for getting a lot of adequately hot water quickly when only half a tank's worth is needed. Alternatively, this may imply that this heater is for heating water that is not yet hot, whereas the heater above is, unexpectedly and somewhat pointlessly, for heating water that is already hot.|| || Federal law || The ramifications of nullifying every federal law ever are immense, but this may still be for enforcement, like the above. Or, like above, it could be a Federal Law Breaker.
|-
| Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in || This controls every outlet in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in. This implies that the living room is not a room it's normal to eat pizza in, since those are on a different breaker. On the other hand, that breaker specifically specifies that it controls the living room '''''lights''''', but disregarding this, it's very likely it may still include the living room, seeing as the other switches fail to have any sort of constraints. Other eligible rooms would probably include the dining room, kitchen, and/or bedroom, but would be dependent on the inhabitants / regular visitors of the house (for example, they may regularly eat their pizza in the bathroom). || || Second law of thermodynamics || Turning off a physical law, especially the second law of thermodynamics, would be catastrophic, since the rest of the laws of physics would most likely follow suit once one collapsed unless they are held in place by other laws. Or, like above, it could be a Second Law of Thermodynamics breaker.

This law of physics was also explored in the What If? article [https://what-if.xkcd.com/145/ Fire From Moonlight]. As explained by Randall in this article, the second law of thermodynamics states that you cannot transfer heat from one location "A" to make another location "B" any hotter than location A, unless you expend some form of energy in doing so.
|-
| High-pitched hum generator || Controls a high-pitched hum generator. This is a call-back to [[1590: The Source]]. || || Friction || Again, turning off a physical law would be catastrophic, but turning off friction may not destroy reality. If it was turned off, however, many things would become incredibly unsafe or useless, while others would have increased efficiency. The benefits, however, would be negligible in comparison to how many systems would collapse instantly, such as ratchets, car tires, standing up, or just things staying still in general. Being in a frictionless environment (and a vacuum, as physicists love...) was the subject of [[669: Experiment]].
|-
| The solution to the cryptogram below: || A cryptogram is a puzzle where a sentence has been encoded using a cipher, usually very simple, and the goal is to determine the cipher used and recover the original sentence from the encoded one. This may be literal, as in the solution is "circuit breaker", but it also may be controlling the ability to know what the solution is or if it can be discovered. || || Gravity || If this was turned off, the Earth would explode, along with all other celestial objects. Planets and stars have extremely high internal pressure that is constantly in conflict with gravity. Every part would be forced outward at incredibly high speeds, and any object that requires gravity would simply not be able to form. Of course, this might also just make everything in the house weightless, which has much less disastrous consequences and would probably actually be pretty cool.
|-
| Bugs || This could either refer to software bugs or actual bugs, both of which do not make much sense to be able to turn off. If this does refer to actual bugs, it may be a reference to [[2753: Air Handler]].|| || Circuit breakers || If this was turned off, it would presumably turn off all power in the house since no breaker is supplied or supplying power any more. (Most houses have a main circuit breaker that provides this functionality.) However, if this circuit breaker disables the ability to toggle circuit breakers, you would not be able to turn this circuit breaker back on.
|}

==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
:[There are words that are too small to read on the left breaker's label.]
:The solution to the cryptogram below: / Gravity
:Bugs / Circuit breakers

{{comic discussion}}

2848: Breaker Box

2023-10-31T15:26:16Z

Huttarl: explicated the humor of "hot water heater"

{{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 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 commonly referred to as a "fuse box", "breaker panel", "DB box", and many other names, is a metal box attached to a wall inside a building, usually in some maintenance area, containing several {{w|circuit breakers}} that let power through to various parts of the building. A circuit breaker is an electrical switch, usually in the form of a small lever, that will physically open if too much power is flowing through, as might be the case if a fault occurs, in order to protect appliances.

In most breaker boxes, each individual breaker is labeled to let the operator know what that specific breaker controls. A breaker will usually control something like the outlets or lights in a certain room, or some large appliance. In houses that have been rewired multiple times (or are poorly wired), this can quickly become overcomplicated with seemingly random connections. The comic satirizes this, with multiple breakers "controlling" arbitrary things, including some that may be impossible to hook a breaker up to, getting progressively more absurd to the point of disabling certain laws of physics.

The title text is about causality. Turning off the circuit breaker using the circuit breaker may lead to a loop, as the disabled breaker can no longer disable itself, leading to it turning back on, etc. Turning off causality would prevent this loop as causes would no longer have effects.

===Table of the breakers labels===
{|class = "wikitable"
! Label next to breaker !! Explanation !!   !! Label next to breaker !! Explanation
|-
| Kitchen Lights || The lights in the kitchen. || || A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now || The AC in a building usually creates quiet white noise from fans, which people usually do not hear until they become aware that there is a sound. Other appliances, such as fridges or home servers can have similar effects.
|-
| Living room lights || The lights in the living room. || || Dishwasher || The dishwasher.
|-
| Porch lights || The lights on the porch. || || Dishes || At a glance this could pass for a normal thing to be next to a breaker, despite dishes not requiring electricity. This might, however, actually be referring to an array of satellite dishes, but given how the switch for the dishwasher is immediately above this is most likely not the case.
|-
| Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere || This controls the lights in the bathroom, but also a random outlet. This kind of situation can often occur, where the layout of the house and the wiring can mean that it is a sensible or convenient design decision from an electrician's perspective to wire seemingly logically unrelated things to the same circuit, but nonetheless is confusing to the homeowner when reviewing the breaker options. || || Hallway lights || The lights in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| North-facing appliances || Despite the impossibility of determining which way an appliance is facing, ignoring how you would even define that, without having a magnetic compass inside every appliance, and having all of those appliances be hooked up to one breaker, this apparently routes power to every appliance that faces north. It is unclear how strict this is as well - it could be as lax as northeast to northwest, or even as strict as {{w|Points of the compass#32-wind compass rose|north by east to north by west}}.|| || Hallway outlets || The outlets in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| Bathtub drain light || Bathtubs typically do not have drain lights, but this breaker provides power to that and only that. || || Hallway floors || This could pass for a normal breaker at a glance, given the two above and in some buildings there are floor outlets. This could also potentially refer to turning off the power for all the hallways on a given floor. Floors in and of themselves do not typically require power, but if they act differently when not powered is unknown. A simpler explanation is this just electrifies the floors, which is not usually desirable,{{citation needed}} but may be barely noticeable in this case when considering this breaker has been on the entire time. Unless the hallway is equipped with electric underfloor heating.
|-
| Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" || Another breaker that could theoretically be done despite the tremendous difficulty in doing so. Electrical systems do not carry data about names, and it is unclear how it would even get this information, if it would change depending on locality, if it uses the common name for something or the full name, how it would work in different languages, and so on. || || Social media || All of social media. This may be a reference to 'digital detoxes', where people turn off / delete / deny themselves access to all their social media apps, in the hopes that this will provide some improvement to their quality of life. It could also be a callback to [[908: The Cloud]]. Since most social media platforms are a 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]]).
|-
| Hot water heater || The heater for hot water. In most residences, there is only one type of water heater. The phrase "hot water heater" is commonly used, and makes some sense from the perspective that the appliance is the supplier of hot water (by heating); but the phrase can be considered redundant (a water heater might be assumed to produce *only* hot water) or inaccurate (residential water heaters do not heat only water that is already hot). The "regular water heater" label below throws the word "hot" into contrast in order to put a humorous spotlight on its usage. || || State law || It is unclear which state's laws this controls, but why they require power to operate is unknown. This may just be for enforcement of the laws, instead of nullifying every single one whenever it is turned off. Additionally, since Randall lives in Massachusetts, it's very likely this refers to the same state. Turning off the breaker could result in a state similar to martial law. Or it could be a State Law Breaker.
|-
| Regular water heater || The heater for regular water. Presumably, given the above switch, this is for heating lukewarm or cool water, while the above is for keeping it warm and acting as a storage medium. This could just be accomplished with a single water heater with the capacity of two, but it may be useful for getting a lot of adequately hot water quickly when only half a tank's worth is needed. Alternatively, this may imply that this heater is for heating water that is not yet hot, whereas the heater above is, unexpectedly and somewhat pointlessly, for heating water that is already hot.|| || Federal law || The ramifications of nullifying every federal law ever are immense, but this may still be for enforcement, like the above. Or, like above, it could be a Federal Law Breaker.
|-
| Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in || This controls every outlet in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in. This implies that the living room is not a room it's normal to eat pizza in, since those are on a different breaker. On the other hand, that breaker specifically specifies that it controls the living room '''''lights''''', but disregarding this, it's very likely it may still include the living room, seeing as the other switches fail to have any sort of constraints. Other eligible rooms would probably include the dining room, kitchen, and/or bedroom, but would be dependent on the inhabitants / regular visitors of the house (for example, they may regularly eat their pizza in the bathroom). || || Second law of thermodynamics || Turning off a physical law, especially the second law of thermodynamics, would be catastrophic, since the rest of the laws of physics would most likely follow suit once one collapsed unless they are held in place by other laws. Or, like above, it could be a Second Law of Thermodynamics breaker.

This law of physics was also explored in the What If? article [https://what-if.xkcd.com/145/ Fire From Moonlight]. As explained by Randall in this article, the second law of thermodynamics states that you cannot transfer heat from one location "A" to make another location "B" any hotter than location A, unless you expend some form of energy in doing so.
|-
| High-pitched hum generator || Controls a high-pitched hum generator. This is a call-back to [[1590: The Source]]. || || Friction || Again, turning off a physical law would be catastrophic, but turning off friction may not destroy reality. If it was turned off, however, many things would become incredibly unsafe or useless, while others would have increased efficiency. The benefits, however, would be negligible in comparison to how many systems would collapse instantly, such as ratchets, car tires, standing up, or just things staying still in general. Being in a frictionless environment (and a vacuum, as physicists love...) was the subject of [[669: Experiment]].
|-
| The solution to the cryptogram below: || A cryptogram is a puzzle where a sentence has been encoded using a cipher, usually very simple, and the goal is to determine the cipher used and recover the original sentence from the encoded one. This may be literal, as in the solution is "circuit breaker", but it also may be controlling the ability to know what the solution is or if it can be discovered. || || Gravity || If this was turned off, the Earth would explode, along with all other celestial objects. Planets and stars have extremely high internal pressure that is constantly in conflict with gravity. Every part would be forced outward at incredibly high speeds, and any object that requires gravity would simply not be able to form. Of course, this might also just make everything in the house weightless, which has much less disastrous consequences and would probably actually be pretty cool.
|-
| Bugs || This could either refer to software bugs or actual bugs, both of which do not make much sense to be able to turn off. If this does refer to actual bugs, it may be a reference to [[2753: Air Handler]].|| || Circuit breakers || If this was turned off, it would presumably turn off all power in the house since no breaker is supplied or supplying power any more. (Most houses have a main circuit breaker that provides this functionality.) However, if this circuit breaker disables the ability to toggle circuit breakers, you would not be able to turn this circuit breaker back on.
|}

==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
:[There are words that are too small to read on the left breaker's label.]
:The solution to the cryptogram below: / Gravity
:Bugs / Circuit breakers

{{comic discussion}}

2829: Iceberg Efficiency

2023-09-15T19:17:26Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ comment on efficiency in relation to specified outcome

{{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 90% EFFICENT ICEBERG WHO REVIEWS THIS WIKI - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic humorously plays with the idea of efficiency in a typically absurd and satirical "Black Hat" fashion. Black Hat starts by critiquing traditional {{w|iceberg}}s, which are mostly hidden underwater, as inefficient. Efficiency is typically measured in relation to a desired outcome or purpose; Black Hat seems to imply that the obvious purpose for icebergs is to be seen above the water. He then presents his solution - a foam-filled iceberg that floats almost entirely above the water, claiming it to be highly efficient.

The humor lies in the absurdity of Black Hat's idea. Icebergs are naturally formed structures, and his proposal to create a "foam-filled iceberg" is not only impractical but also comically exaggerated. His assertion that it's "efficient" is ironic because his proposed solution is completely outlandish.

The punchline comes when Black Hat suggests that his lightweight iceberg can still pose a threat to ocean liners (as if that's the "purpose" of icebergs – in the 20th century, at least six ships sank directly as a result of iceberg collisions, famously the ''Titanic'') through the use of torpedoes, further highlighting the absurdity of his plan. It's also not really so inefficient to have much of the iceberg underwater, since ocean liners also have a significant portion of their hulls underwater, and this will be damaged by the iceberg. The second panel shows that the foam-filled iceberg has a small attachment underneath it, which is apparently a turret for launching torpedoes.

The reactions of the unnamed individuals in the last panel, who are clearly baffled and concerned, add to the comic's humor.

The title text extends the absurdity of the comic by introducing the concept of an "experimental aerogel iceberg with helium pockets." {{w|Aerogel|Aerogels}} are a class of solid, porous materials known for their extremely low density (making them among the lightest solid materials yet synthesized). Their low density should make them float well in liquids, though their porous nature and chemical composition mean that they can break down quickly in water. The structure of an aerogel surrounds pockets of air, leaving spaces that could be infused with a specific gas such as Helium. {{w|Helium|Helium}} is lighter than air, and is often used to make objects such as balloons float. An aerogel iceberg infused with helium could theoretically hover or fly like a balloon as suggested in the comic. This idea of an iceberg flying is obviously preposterous, but it adds an extra layer of exaggeration and humor to the comic.

The mention of this high-tech iceberg being able to "more efficiently pursue fleeing hubristic liners" is a playful nod to the comic's theme of optimizing icebergs for efficiency. It implies that not only can this special iceberg float efficiently, but it's also equipped to chase after and "efficiently pursue" arrogant or prideful ocean liners, turning the concept of iceberg efficiency into a humorous and surreal scenario. The "hubris" alludes to the (possibly apocryphal) quote "God himself couldn't sink this ship," and similar sentiments expressed in reference to the ocean liner {{w|Titanic}}, which struck an iceberg and sank with many casualties.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Black Hat is holding a stick and standing next to an image of an iceberg halfway submerged in water, presenting to an unseen audience.]
:Black Hat: A standard iceberg is only 10% efficient.
:Black Hat: 90% of the ice is hidden underwater, totally wasted.

:[Black Hat is now standing next to an image of the same iceberg, with another "iceberg" almost entirely above the surface of the water to the right of it.]
:Black Hat: Our next-generation foam-filled iceberg achieves near-100% efficiency, floating almost entirely above the ocean surface.

:[Black Hat is still holding a stick, but is standing next to nothing. There are no other people directly shown, but three distinct 'off-frame' voices are indicated.]
:Black Hat: "But wait," you might be thinking. "How will such a lightweight iceberg pose a threat to hubristic ocean liners?"
:Black Hat: That's where the torpedoes come in.
:Off-panel voice 1: I'm sorry, what project are you part of, again?
:Off-panel voice 2: I assumed he was with you.
:Off-panel voice 3: Security?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2829: Iceberg Efficiency

2023-09-15T13:58:50Z

Huttarl: explain reference to Titanic

{{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 90% EFFICENT ICEBERG WHO REVIEWS THIS WIKI - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic humorously plays with the idea of efficiency in a typically absurd and satirical "Black Hat" fashion. Black Hat starts by critiquing traditional icebergs, which are mostly hidden underwater, as inefficient. He then presents his solution - a foam-filled iceberg that floats almost entirely above the water, claiming it to be highly efficient.

The humor lies in the absurdity of Black Hat's idea. Icebergs are naturally formed structures, and his proposal to create a "foam-filled iceberg" is not only impractical but also comically exaggerated. His assertion that it's "efficient" is ironic because his proposed solution is completely outlandish.

The punchline comes when Black Hat suggests that his lightweight iceberg can still pose a threat to ocean liners through the use of torpedoes, further highlighting the absurdity of his plan. The reactions of the unnamed individuals in the last panel, who are clearly baffled and concerned, add to the comic's humor.

The alt text extends the absurdity of the comic by introducing the concept of an "experimental aerogel iceberg with helium pockets." Aerogels are extremely lightweight materials known for their low density, which makes them float effortlessly in air. Helium, being a gas lighter than air, is often used to make objects buoyant.It humorously suggests that this "aerogel iceberg" is so efficient that it barely touches the water, achieving "true 100% efficiency." Furthermore, it takes the absurdity to another level by proposing that this aerogel iceberg can "lift off of the surface and fly." This idea of an iceberg flying is obviously preposterous, but it adds an extra layer of exaggeration and humor to the comic.

The mention of this high-tech iceberg being able to "more efficiently pursue fleeing hubristic liners" is a playful nod to the comic's theme of optimizing icebergs for efficiency. It implies that not only can this special iceberg float efficiently, but it's also equipped to chase after and "efficiently pursue" arrogant or prideful ocean liners, turning the concept of iceberg efficiency into a humorous and surreal scenario. The "hubris" alludes to the (possibly apocryphal) quote "God himself couldn't sink this ship," and similar sentiments expressed in reference to the ocean liner Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank with many casualties.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Black hat is holding a stick, and standing next to an image of an iceberg halfway submerged in water.]
:Black hat: A standard iceberg is only 10% efficient.
:Black hat: 90% of the ice is hidden underwater, totally wasted.

:[Black hat is now standing next to an image of the same iceberg, with another "iceberg" almost entirely above the surface of the water to the right of it.]
:Black hat: Our next-generation foam-filled iceberg achieves near-100% efficiency, floating almost entirely above the ocean surface.

:[Black hat is still holding a stick, but is standing next to nothing. There are 3 or 2 people not shown in the comic.]
:Black hat: "But wait," you might be thinking. "How will such a lightweight iceberg pose a threat to hubristic ocean liners?"
:Black hat: That's where the torpedoes come in.
:Unknown person 1: I'm sorry, what project are you part of, again?
:Unknown person 2: I assumed he was with you.
:Unknown person 3: Security?

{{comic discussion}}

2567: Language Development

2022-01-12T19:09:05Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ minor punctuation change

{{comic
| number = 2567
| date = January 12, 2022
| title = Language Development
| image = language_development.png
| titletext = The worst is the Terrible Twos, when they're always throwing things and shrieking, "forsooth, to bed thou shalt not take me, cur!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a AUTOMATON - What the baby hast sayeth? Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Rather than learning to speak normally, this baby is going through all of the stages of the evolution of the English language, from proto-Indo-European to Germanic to Old English.
{{w|Proto-Indo-European_language|Proto-Indo-European}} is a theorized common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. {{w|Proto-Germanic_language|Proto-Germanic}} is a reconstructed language formerly spoken in Iron Age Scandinaia. It developed out of proto-Indo-European and is the common ancestor for all {{w|Germanic languages}}. Old English and later English developed out of Germanic.

In writing, reconstructed words from the Proto-Indo-European language are commonly marked with an asterisk (*). Somehow, the baby seems to actually pronounce these asterisks. The baby says the Proto-Indo-European roots that the words "milk" and "please" are derived from.

Some sounds babies make are hard to interpret.{{citation needed}} However, humans have a tendency to recognize known things and patterns. They see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. Thus, a parent familiar with proto-Indo-European may falsely hear their baby speak proto-Indo-European by misinterpreting unintelligible sounds.

The conventional meaning of {{w|Language development}} is the process by which infants begin to talk, that is to understand and produce intelligible speech. The field of {{w|Language acquisition}} seeks to understand how baby humans are able to rapidly comprehend, internalize, and begin producing a new language so rapidly.

A field that is normally only seen as tangentially related is {{w|Historical linguistics}}, which studies how languages evolved from each other throughout tens of thousands of years. The {{w|Proto-Indo-European language}} is the theorized common ancestor of all Indo-European languages. When linguists in the field of {{w|Comparative linguistics}} notice similarities in different languages (say English and Germanic), they create theoretical ancestral proto-languages to theorize what common ancestor that the two languages English and German (for example) had in common. Thus the proto-language of Proto-Indo-European has been proposed to explain the similarities between most of the languages in Europe as well as several languages spoken in the Middle East, India, and regions between.

When Megan describes their baby's speech as progressing from Proto-indo-european to Germanic to Old English, she is describing the languages that in the theoretical chain from Proto-indo-european leading up to Modern English today, as if the baby is progressing through the history of language evolution. In doing so, Megan seems to be applying {{w|Recapitulation Theory}} from biology to language development. In reality, babies develop their language faculties by mimicking what they hear around them, starting with {{w|Babbling}}.

Perhaps this is an alternate universe where every baby has to gradually develop their language skills until they reach the ultimately developed language of Modern English, belying an ethnocentric implication that Modern English is somehow an intrinsically a natural end-point of linguistic evolution.

In the title text, Randall describes a 2 year old child as speaking Elizabethan English, a dialect of modern English used by Shakespeare more than 400 years ago.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan and Cueball stand to the right of the frame, discussing their baby, Hairy. Hairy sits on the left side of a table in an elevated baby chair.]
:Megan: He's only 1, so he still mostly speaks proto-Indo-European.
:Megan: But we've heard a few Germanic words already, so Old English can't be far off.
:Cueball: They progress so fast!
:Baby Hairy: *melg-
:Baby Hairy: *pl(e)hk-

{{comic discussion}}

2567: Language Development

2022-01-12T19:08:22Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ reference to recapitulation theory

{{comic
| number = 2567
| date = January 12, 2022
| title = Language Development
| image = language_development.png
| titletext = The worst is the Terrible Twos, when they're always throwing things and shrieking, "forsooth, to bed thou shalt not take me, cur!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a AUTOMATON - What the baby hast sayeth? Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Rather than learning to speak normally, this baby is going through all of the stages of the evolution of the English language, from proto-Indo-European to Germanic to Old English.
{{w|Proto-Indo-European_language|Proto-Indo-European}} is a theorized common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. {{w|Proto-Germanic_language|Proto-Germanic}} is a reconstructed language formerly spoken in Iron Age Scandinaia. It developed out of proto-Indo-European and is the common ancestor for all {{w|Germanic languages}}. Old English and later English developed out of Germanic.

In writing, reconstructed words from the Proto-Indo-European language are commonly marked with an asterisk (*). Somehow, the baby seems to actually pronounce these asterisks. The baby says the Proto-Indo-European roots that the words "milk" and "please" are derived from.

Some sounds babies make are hard to interpret.{{citation needed}} However, humans have a tendency to recognize known things and patterns. They see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. Thus, a parent familiar with proto-Indo-European may falsely hear their baby speak proto-Indo-European by misinterpreting unintelligible sounds.

The conventional meaning of {{w|Language development}} is the process by which infants begin to talk, that is to understand and produce intelligible speech. The field of {{w|Language acquisition}} seeks to understand how baby humans are able to rapidly comprehend, internalize, and begin producing a new language so rapidly.

A field that is normally only seen as tangentially related is {{w|Historical linguistics}}, which studies how languages evolved from each other throughout tens of thousands of years. The {{w|Proto-Indo-European language}} is the theorized common ancestor of all Indo-European languages. When linguists in the field of {{w|Comparative linguistics}} notice similarities in different languages (say English and Germanic), they create theoretical ancestral proto-languages to theorize what common ancestor that the two languages English and German (for example) had in common. Thus the proto-language of Proto-Indo-European has been proposed to explain the similarities between most of the languages in Europe as well as several languages spoken in the Middle East, India, and regions between.

When Megan describes their baby's speech as progressing from Proto-indo-european to Germanic to Old English, she is describing the languages that in the theoretical chain from Proto-indo-european leading up to Modern English today, as if the baby is progressing through the history of language evolution.In doing so Megan seems to be applying {{w|Recapitulation Theory}} from biology to language development. In reality, babies develop their language faculties by mimicking what they hear around them, starting with {{w|Babbling}}.

Perhaps this is an alternate universe where every baby has to gradually develop their language skills until they reach the ultimately developed language of Modern English, belying an ethnocentric implication that Modern English is somehow an intrinsically a natural end-point of linguistic evolution.

In the title text, Randall describes a 2 year old child as speaking Elizabethan English, a dialect of modern English used by Shakespeare more than 400 years ago.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan and Cueball stand to the right of the frame, discussing their baby, Hairy. Hairy sits on the left side of a table in an elevated baby chair.]
:Megan: He's only 1, so he still mostly speaks proto-Indo-European.
:Megan: But we've heard a few Germanic words already, so Old English can't be far off.
:Cueball: They progress so fast!
:Baby Hairy: *melg-
:Baby Hairy: *pl(e)hk-

{{comic discussion}}

2509: Useful Geometry Formulas

2021-08-31T02:46:20Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ corrected 'circle' to 'ellipse'

{{comic
| number = 2509
| date = August 30, 2021
| title = Useful Geometry Formulas
| image = useful_geometry_formulas.png
| titletext = Geometry textbooks always try to trick you by adding decorative stripes and dotted lines.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an AREA OF A CIRCLE IN A SPHERE. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic showcases area formulae for sections of four common three-dimensional geometric shapes. Clockwise from the top left, they are a sphere, a cone, a rectangular prism, and a cylinder. The formula for the rectangular prism is significantly convoluted than its more common alternative, which is to multiply width and length.

The formulas are for the literal area of each shape in 2d, not what it would look like if it were 3d. The top-left formula is for the area of a circle, which is literally what is drawn and not what appears to be a sphere. The formula for the cone is actually the area of a triangle and half-ellipse. And so on.

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

2492: Commonly Mispronounced Equations

2021-07-22T15:12:00Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ clarification

{{comic
| number = 2492
| date = July 21, 2021
| title = Commonly Mispronounced Equations
| image = commonly_mispronounced_equations.png
| titletext = "Epsihootamoo doopsiquorps" --the Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom
}}

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

This comic is a collection of famous physical and mathematical equations, along with their "correct" pronunciations. Equations are normally voiced out loud either by their names ("Mass–energy equivalence") or by saying the parts out loud using normal linguistic rules ("E equals M C squared"). This comic instead asserts that equations are meant to be said out loud like words, using their own set of phonic rules.
Though this premise may seem absurd, sometimes this kind of pronunciation is used as an abbreviation or a mnemonic device. For example, the equation A=Pert used for compound interest is commonly taught and pronounced as the "pert" equation, while SOH-CAH-TOA is used as a mnemonic for the equations for sine, cosine, and tangent (Sine: Opposite over Hypotenuse, etc.).

The pronunciation given for F=MA is the same as the actual pronunciation of FEMA, the acronym for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

List of equations:
* {{w|Newton%27s_law_of_universal_gravitation|Newton's law of universal gravitation}}
* {{w|Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalence|Mass-energy equivalence}}
* {{w|Pythagorean_theorem|Pythagorean theorem}}
* {{w|Area_of_a_circle|Area of a circle}}
* {{w|Entropy_(information_theory)|Entropy}}
* {{w|Ideal_gas_law|Ideal gas law}}
* {{w|Euler%27s_identity|Euler's identity}}
* {{w|Newton%27s_laws_of_motion|Newton's laws of motion}}
* {{w|Wave_equation|Wave equation}} (c should be c2)
* {{w|Derivative#Definition|General derivative}}
* {{w|Quadratic_equation|Quadratic equation}}
* {{w|Schrödinger_equation|Schrödinger equation}}

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

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category: Language]]

2492: Commonly Mispronounced Equations

2021-07-22T15:10:58Z

Huttarl: Added example of mnemonic pronunciation

{{comic
| number = 2492
| date = July 21, 2021
| title = Commonly Mispronounced Equations
| image = commonly_mispronounced_equations.png
| titletext = "Epsihootamoo doopsiquorps" --the Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom
}}

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

This comic is a collection of famous physical and mathematical equations, along with their "correct" pronunciations. Equations are normally voiced out loud either by their names ("Mass–energy equivalence") or by saying the parts out loud using normal linguistic rules ("E equals M C squared"). This comic instead asserts that equations are meant to be said out loud like words, using their own set of phonic rules.
Though this premise may seem absurd, sometimes this kind of pronunciation is used as an abbreviation or a mnemonic device. For example, the equation A=Pert used for compound interest is commonly taught and pronounced as the "pert" equation, while SOH-CAH-TOA is used as a mnemonic for the equations for sine, cosine, and tangent.

The pronunciation given for F=MA is the same as the actual pronunciation of FEMA, the acronym for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

List of equations:
* {{w|Newton%27s_law_of_universal_gravitation|Newton's law of universal gravitation}}
* {{w|Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalence|Mass-energy equivalence}}
* {{w|Pythagorean_theorem|Pythagorean theorem}}
* {{w|Area_of_a_circle|Area of a circle}}
* {{w|Entropy_(information_theory)|Entropy}}
* {{w|Ideal_gas_law|Ideal gas law}}
* {{w|Euler%27s_identity|Euler's identity}}
* {{w|Newton%27s_laws_of_motion|Newton's laws of motion}}
* {{w|Wave_equation|Wave equation}} (c should be c2)
* {{w|Derivative#Definition|General derivative}}
* {{w|Quadratic_equation|Quadratic equation}}
* {{w|Schrödinger_equation|Schrödinger equation}}

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

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category: Language]]

2347: Dependency

2020-08-19T17:02:48Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ fixed link to stack diagram

{{comic
| number = 2347
| date = August 17, 2020
| title = Dependency
| image = dependency.png
| titletext = Someday ImageMagick will finally break for good and we'll have a long period of scrambling as we try to reassemble civilization from the rubble.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A PROJECT [[User:Dgbrt|SOME RANDOM PERSON]] HAS BEEN THANKLESSLY MAINTAINING SINCE 2013. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

While code re-usability and modularization has been a long-time goal for programmers, it's only recently since the late 2010s that this concept has been taken to its logical extreme. By outsourcing what would seem like basic functions, such as string manipulation, to other libraries, developers will waste less time reinventing the wheel, so the philosophy goes, and thus many tiny packages, many of which contained only one function, became popular dependencies. JavaScript is still particularly dependent on this, as its errant nature as front-end scripting language left it missing many basic and core functions. {{w|npm (software)|NPM}} is a popular package manager for JavaScript which includes nearly everything from essential libraries such as jQuery to tiny files. While in theory, such a system may sound good for developers who would need to write and maintain fewer lines of code, systems which are highly optimized are also highly susceptible to rapid changes. For example, the famous left-pad incident in JavaScript's package manager left many major and minor web services which depended on it unable to build. A disgruntled developer unpublishing 11 lines of code was able to break everybody's build, because everyone was using it. [https://www.theregister.com/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/]

The current model of libraries and open-source development (topics which Randall has addressed extensively in the past) relies heavily on the free and continued dedication of unpaid hobbyists. Though some major projects such as Linux may be able to garner enough attention to build an organization, many smaller projects, which are in turn reused by larger projects, may only be maintained by one person, either the founder or another who has taken the torch. Maintaining libraries requires both extensive knowledge of the library itself as well as any use cases and the broader community around it, which usually is suited for maintainers who have spent years at the task, and thus cannot be easily replaced. Thus, there are many abandoned projects on the internet as people move on to greener pastures. Far from the days of backwards compatibility, that's usually not a problem, unless a project happens to be far up the dependency chain, as illustrated, in which case there may be a crisis down the road for both the developers and the users down the chain.

Technology architecture is often illustrated by a stack diagram [https://www.guru99.com/images/1/102219_1135_TCPIPvsOSIM1.png], in which higher levels of rectangles indicate components that are dependent on components in lower levels. This is analogous to a physical tower of blocks, in which higher blocks rest on lower blocks. The stack in this cartoon bears a striking resemblance to a physical block tower, suggesting the danger that the tower will lose its balance when a critical piece is removed. The concept of balance is not intended to be communicated by a stack diagram, making this a humorously absurd extension of a well-known diagram style.

{{w|ImageMagick}}, mentioned in the title text, is a popular, standalone utility released in 1990 that is used for performing transformations between various graphics file formats, and various other transformations. While there are also numerous libraries and API's for performing these tasks within larger programs, ImageMagick is so popular and easy to use that many programs use its API or just find it easier to {{w|Shell (computing)#Other uses|shell out}} to ImageMagick to perform a necessary transformation. They therefore {{w|Dependency hell|depend}} on ImageMagick, and would break if ImageMagick were to disappear.

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

[A tower of blocks is shown. The upper half consists of many tiny blocks balanced on top of one another to form smaller towers, labeled:]

All modern digital infrastructure

[The blocks rest on larger blocks lower down in the image, finally on a single large block. This is balanced on top of a set of blocks on the left, and on the right, a single tiny block placed on its side. This one is labeled:]

A project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Programming]]

2347: Dependency

2020-08-19T17:01:15Z

Huttarl: explain the relationship to stack diagrams

{{comic
| number = 2347
| date = August 17, 2020
| title = Dependency
| image = dependency.png
| titletext = Someday ImageMagick will finally break for good and we'll have a long period of scrambling as we try to reassemble civilization from the rubble.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A PROJECT [[User:Dgbrt|SOME RANDOM PERSON]] HAS BEEN THANKLESSLY MAINTAINING SINCE 2013. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

While code re-usability and modularization has been a long-time goal for programmers, it's only recently since the late 2010s that this concept has been taken to its logical extreme. By outsourcing what would seem like basic functions, such as string manipulation, to other libraries, developers will waste less time reinventing the wheel, so the philosophy goes, and thus many tiny packages, many of which contained only one function, became popular dependencies. JavaScript is still particularly dependent on this, as its errant nature as front-end scripting language left it missing many basic and core functions. {{w|npm (software)|NPM}} is a popular package manager for JavaScript which includes nearly everything from essential libraries such as jQuery to tiny files. While in theory, such a system may sound good for developers who would need to write and maintain fewer lines of code, systems which are highly optimized are also highly susceptible to rapid changes. For example, the famous left-pad incident in JavaScript's package manager left many major and minor web services which depended on it unable to build. A disgruntled developer unpublishing 11 lines of code was able to break everybody's build, because everyone was using it. [https://www.theregister.com/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/]

The current model of libraries and open-source development (topics which Randall has addressed extensively in the past) relies heavily on the free and continued dedication of unpaid hobbyists. Though some major projects such as Linux may be able to garner enough attention to build an organization, many smaller projects, which are in turn reused by larger projects, may only be maintained by one person, either the founder or another who has taken the torch. Maintaining libraries requires both extensive knowledge of the library itself as well as any use cases and the broader community around it, which usually is suited for maintainers who have spent years at the task, and thus cannot be easily replaced. Thus, there are many abandoned projects on the internet as people move on to greener pastures. Far from the days of backwards compatibility, that's usually not a problem, unless a project happens to be far up the dependency chain, as illustrated, in which case there may be a crisis down the road for both the developers and the users down the chain.

Technology architecture is often illustrated by a [stack diagram|https://www.guru99.com/images/1/102219_1135_TCPIPvsOSIM1.png], in which higher levels of rectangles indicate components that are dependent on components in lower levels. This is analogous to a physical tower of blocks, in which higher blocks rest on lower blocks. The stack in this cartoon bears a striking resemblance to a physical block tower, suggesting the danger that the tower will lose its balance when a critical piece is removed. The concept of balance is not intended to be communicated by a stack diagram, making this a humorously absurd extension of a well-known diagram style.

{{w|ImageMagick}}, mentioned in the title text, is a popular, standalone utility released in 1990 that is used for performing transformations between various graphics file formats, and various other transformations. While there are also numerous libraries and API's for performing these tasks within larger programs, ImageMagick is so popular and easy to use that many programs use its API or just find it easier to {{w|Shell (computing)#Other uses|shell out}} to ImageMagick to perform a necessary transformation. They therefore {{w|Dependency hell|depend}} on ImageMagick, and would break if ImageMagick were to disappear.

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

[A tower of blocks is shown. The upper half consists of many tiny blocks balanced on top of one another to form smaller towers, labeled:]

All modern digital infrastructure

[The blocks rest on larger blocks lower down in the image, finally on a single large block. This is balanced on top of a set of blocks on the left, and on the right, a single tiny block placed on its side. This one is labeled:]

A project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Programming]]

2223: Screen Time

2019-11-01T19:25:28Z

Huttarl: added my guess regarding the point of the title text

{{comic
| number = 2223
| date = November 1, 2019
| title = Screen Time
| image = screen_time.png
| titletext = These new Bluetooth socks are great, but it's troubling to learn that I average almost 14 hours of Shoe Time a day.
}}

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

Today, people spend much of their time looking at the screens of their phones, tablets, computers, and other devices. This has caused controversy, with many people arguing this leads to addiction, other health risks, or simply people not talking to each other. There are apps available to help manage the time people spend on their devices. But this comic parodies these apps, suggesting that the problem is so bad, that it would be easier to track the time NOT spent on these devices. Of course, the irony is that you have to look at the screen and/or pay attention to your device in order to use that app, so it's yet another app designed to keep your attention on your device.

Like many screen time apps, this comic compares this week's non-screen time to the previous week, saying that the user has increased 6%. Many screen time apps also do this, where a negative percentage is desirable. A possible benefit of this app is that positive is desirable, which could be considered more intuitive.

The title text takes the idea of a screen time app to the next level, describing a "shoe time" app for how much time people spend using their shoes. It's unclear what the practical use is for such an app, as there is little controversy about the prevalence of shoes in our society. Possibly the point is that use of phones have become so constant in our lives that using them for many hours a day is as unremarkable as using shoes for many hours a day. Perhaps since it's the socks that are bluetooth-enabled, they are reporting negatively about almost constant obstruction by shoes, whereas the socks would prefer to report a much lower "Shoe Time" score. Some cultures have the custom of taking shoes off when in the house, so those people would boast lower (and presumably more favorable) "Shoe Time" scores.

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

:[Cueball holding phone.] 
:Phone: Screen time report: 
:Phone: While awake, you averaged 2H 48M per day looking at things other than your phone. That's up 6% from last week! 
:[Caption]: At some point, it starts making more sense to track '''''non'''''-screen time.
{{comic discussion}}

1965: Background Apps

2018-03-09T18:56:39Z

Huttarl: minor corrections to first paragraph

{{comic
| number = 1965
| date = March 9, 2018
| title = Background Apps
| image = background_apps.png
| titletext = My plane banner company gets business by flying around with a banner showing a <div> tag, waiting for a web developer to get frustrated enough to order a matching </div>.
}}

==Explanation==
Background apps (apps in the recently used list) on both iOS and Android are in one of several paused states and do not usually consume much battery power; they only take up some memory. Closing them means that if you want to use the app again later, it will need to reload fully which likely uses up "very slightly" more battery. Wired had a [https://www.wired.com/2016/03/closing-apps-save-battery-makes-things-worse/ detailed article] on this topic a couple years ago.

A person goes to the trouble of renting a banner plane just to dispense this trivial advice. Then a second person goes to the same amount of trouble just to make a judgmental statement against the first person, seemingly unaware that they themselves are chartering a plane for an equally (if not more) inane reason. The first person rents yet another plane just to apologize to the second person and explain their actions.

In the punchline, the second person rents another plane to respond to the first person's response, being no less smug or hypocritical than before. Meanwhile, four more people have chartered planes:
* One to urge the first two people to have their conversation somewhere private
* Another to comment on how surprisingly cheap the banners are to rent
* A third just to show off their own banner
* A fourth displaying the HTML "{{w|Marquee element|Marquee}}" tag, a non-standard tag that many web organizations advise against using, which is used to cause a message to scroll across the web page, much as the plane is flying across the sky.

The fairly obvious parallel here is to using various Internet forums for "unsolicited tech advice to strangers," smug responses, comments on others' advice, off-topic rejoinders, and all the other things that go on there constantly. It seems ludicrous to rent airplane banners for such trivial purposes, but there are non-trivial resources involved in the global distribution of electronic communication, as well, and their use for purposes such as this seems ludicrous once Randall makes one think about it.

The title text is spoken by a plane banner company owner, who uses the insidious tactic of flying around with a banner of an unmatched HTML, just to compel obsessive people into renting banner space to make it syntactically correct.

The theme of the mis/use of airplanes and banners has previously been explored in [[1355: Airplane Message]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[A small airplane is flying across the panel from left to right. It is trailing a large banner that reads:]
:Airplane 1: People! Closing background apps when you're not using them makes your phone battery drain ''faster'', not slower! Stop it!

[After a pause, a second, similar airplane flies by from right to left, also trailing a banner.]
:Airplane 2: What kind of person charters a plane to give unsolicited tech advice to strangers?

[Another pause, then the first airplane returns.]
:Airplane 1: OK, fair. Sorry. I guess I'm just angry about other stuff and it's coming out here.

[The second airplane returns immediately, this time with four other small airplanes of various types flying by beneath it.]
:Airplane 2: No worries. Just maybe spend as much time reflecting on your own motivation for correcting people as you have on theirs for closing apps.
:Airplane 3: Can you two please have this conversation somewhere else?
:Airplane 4: Wow, these banners are surprisingly cheap to rent.
:Airplane 5: Haha, I got one, too!
:Airplane 6: <marquee>

{{comic discussion}}

1757: November 2016

2016-11-09T16:16:44Z

Huttarl: /* Table */ fixed wikipedia link for ATHF film

{{comic
| number = 1757
| date = November 9, 2016
| title = November 2016
| image = november_2016.png
| titletext = Once you've done this, make a note of how old they were. Then, when their age reaches double that, show them this chart again.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need individual explanations.}}
This is yet another comic designed to [[Feel old|make you feel old]]. It lists ages between 16 and 41, and a major event that happened a little over half their life ago. So, for an age of 16 (people born in 2000), it lists the release of GTA IV, which happened in 2008. Thus, GTA IV has been around for the majority of their life.

It's not clear how this would make someone feel old, since the statement actually puts an upper limit, not a lower limit, on a person's age. If "GTA IV has been around for a majority of your life" is true for a 16-year-old, it's also true for a 3-year-old.

The joke at the end is that people over 41 don't need anything to make them feel old, because they are in fact old and thus already feel so.

The titletext points out that the same chart can be used for the same person much later in their life. However, the major event shifts earlier and earlier into their life; when their age has doubled, the event in the chart has been around for 3/4 of their life, and the chart itself a majority.
year of event(age) = 2016 - age/2
year of event(2*age) = 2016 - (2* age)/2 = 2016-age = year of birth

==Table==
{| class = "wikitable"
! Age
! Birthyear
! Event date
! Thing
! Explanation
|-
| 16
| 2000
| April 29, 2008
| ''{{w|Grand Theft Auto IV}}''
| Popular video game published by {{w|Rockstar Games}}; the 11th title in the ''{{w|Grand Theft Auto}}'' series
|-
| 17
| 1999
| May 2007
| {{w|Rickrolling}}
| A prank and internet meme involving an unexpected appearance of the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "{{w|Never Gonna Give You Up}}". A type of bait and switch.
|-
| 18
| 1998
| April 13, 2007
| ''{{w|Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters}}
|
|-
| 19
| 1997
| November 19, 2006
| The {{w|Nintendo Wii}}
| From 2006 onwards is the time when the Nintendo Wii brand (Wii - Wii U) was released, with the Wii dominating 2006-2012 and the Wii U being *a small* part of 2012-2016.
|-
| 20
| 1996
| March 2006
| {{w|Twitter}}
| 2006 was a big year, in that it lead to the creation of Twitter, a social networking service that is still used to this day.
|-
| 21
| 1995
| November 22, 2005 (Xbox), September 2005 (xkcd)
| The {{w|Xbox 360}}, {{w|xkcd}}
| 2005 led to the creation of the Xbox 360, another successful console. Randall Munroe also decided to throw in a 'reference joke', referring to the fact that XKCD was also created in 2005 and fits the criteria of the comic.
|-
| 22
| 1994
|
| {{w|Chuck Norris Facts}}
| Satirical factoids about martial artist and actor {{w|Chuck Norris}}
|-
| 23
| 1993
| January 25, 2004
| {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}'s Mars Exploration
| {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}} is a Mars rover that landed on Mars on January 25, 2004
|-
| 24
| 1992
| February 4, 2004
| {{w|Facebook}}
| Facebook was a social networking service created in 2004 as a competitor to Myspace and quickly dominated as the #1 most used social networking service of all time.
|-
| 25
| 1991
| April 1, 2004 (Gmail), July 9, 2003 (Pirates of the Caribbean)
| Gmail, ''Pirates of the Caribbean''
| Gmail is an email service created by Google as a replacement to Hotmail. Pirates of the Caribbean, a popular movie franchise, had its' first movie (Curse of the Black Pearl) debut in 2003.
|-
| 26
| 1990
| January 7, 2003
| {{w|In da Club}}
| Rap song by {{w|50 Cent}}
|-
| 27
| 1989
| September 20, 2002
| ''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}''
| ''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'' is a space western drama TV series created by Joss Whedon, that became a cult classic
|-
| 28
| 1988
| October 7, 2001
| The War in Afghanistan
| The United States of America invaded Afghanistan shortly after the events of September 11, 2001, in an effort to eliminate the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
|-
| 29
| 1987
| 2001
| The iPod
| The iPod was a music playing device created by Apple in 2001 as a replacement for MP3 players.
|-
| 30
| 1986
| May 18, 2001 (Shrek), January 15, 2001 (Wikipedia)
| Shrek, Wikipedia
| Shrek is a popular parody film about fairy tales based on the book of the same name. It quickly gained a cult following and became a mega-hit, earning it 3 sequels and a franchise. Wikipedia is a website with articles dedicated for looking up information based on specific tops, created in 2001.
|-
| 31
| 1985
| July 14, 2000
| Those X-Men movies
| The X-Men series (X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand)
|-
| 32
| 1984
| February 4, 2000
| The Sims
| The Sims is a video game created by Maxis in 2000 as a simulation game where you build homes, cities, and families. It was an immediate success upon launch.
|-
| 33
| 1983
|
| Autotuned hit songs
| 1983 was the time period when people realized the capabilties of autotuning songs.
|-
| 34
| 1982
| May 19, 1999
| The Star Wars Prequels
| The Star Wars prequel trilogy (Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith)
|-
| 35
| 1981
| March 31, 1999
| The Matrix
| Science action film created by the Wachowskis
|-
| 36
| 1980
| 1998 (outside Japan)
| Pokemon Red & Blue
| A popular childrens' video game franchise
|-
| 37
| 1979
| April 29, 1997 (Netflix), June 26, 1997 (Harry Potter), September 15, 1997 (Google)
| Netflix, Harry Potter, Google
| "Harry Potter" refers to the original publishing date of ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone''. Google refers to the date that the Google domain name was registered.
|-
| 38
| 1978
| May 11, 1997
| Deep Blue's Victory
| Deep Blue was a chess computer, who defeated Garry Kasparov, the reigning chess champion, in 1997. It was the first chess computer to defeat a world champion under tournament conditions.
|-
| 39
| 1977
| September 13, 1996
| Tupac's Death
| Tupac Shakur was an American rapper, record producer, and actor. He was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in 1996.
|-
| 40
| 1976
| December 31, 1995
| The last Calvin and Hobbes strip
| Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip by Bill Watterson that ran from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995
|-
| 41
| 1975
| November 22, 1995
| Toy Story
| The Pixar animated film ''Toy Story''
|-
| >41
| Before 1975
| n/a
| [Don't worry, they've got this covered]
| This jokes that people legitimately old already feel old.
|}

==Transcript==

The November 2016
Guide to making people
feel old

[In rectangle]
If they're [age], you say:
"Did you know [thing] has been around for the majority of your life?"

{| class = "wikitable"
! Age
! Thing
|-
| 16
| Grand Theft Auto IV
|-
| 17
| Rickrolling
|-
| 18
| Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
|-
| 19
| The Nintendo Wii
|-
| 20
| Twitter
|-
| 21
| The Xbox 360, xkcd
|-
| 22
| Chuck Norris Facts
|-
| 23
| Opportunity's Mars Exploration
|-
| 24
| Facebook
|-
| 25
| Gmail, Pirates of the Caribbean
|-
| 26
| In da Club
|-
| 27
| Firefly
|-
| 28
| The War in Afghanistan
|-
| 29
| The iPod
|-
| 30
| Shrek, Wikipedia
|-
| 31
| Those X-Men movies
|-
| 32
| The Sims
|-
| 33
| Autotuned hit songs
|-
| 34
| The Star Wars Prequels
|-
| 35
| The Matrix
|-
| 36
| Pokémon Red & Blue
|-
| 37
| Netflix, Harry Potter, Google
|-
| 38
| Deep Blue's Victory
|-
| 39
| Tupac's Death
|-
| 40
| The last Calvin and Hobbes strip
|-
| 41
| Toy Story
|-
| >41
| [Don't worry, they've got this covered]
|}
{{comic discussion}}

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

1757: November 2016

2016-11-09T16:13:38Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1757
| date = November 9, 2016
| title = November 2016
| image = november_2016.png
| titletext = Once you've done this, make a note of how old they were. Then, when their age reaches double that, show them this chart again.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need individual explanations.}}
This is yet another comic designed to [[Feel old|make you feel old]]. It lists ages between 16 and 41, and a major event that happened a little over half their life ago. So, for an age of 16 (people born in 2000), it lists the release of GTA IV, which happened in 2008. Thus, GTA IV has been around for the majority of their life.

It's not clear how this would make someone feel old, since the statement actually puts an upper limit, not a lower limit, on a person's age. If "GTA IV has been around for a majority of your life" is true for a 16-year-old, it's also true for a 3-year-old.

The joke at the end is that people over 41 don't need anything to make them feel old, because they are in fact old and thus already feel so.

The titletext points out that the same chart can be used for the same person much later in their life. However, the major event shifts earlier and earlier into their life; when their age has doubled, the event in the chart has been around for 3/4 of their life, and the chart itself a majority.
year of event(age) = 2016 - age/2
year of event(2*age) = 2016 - (2* age)/2 = 2016-age = year of birth

===Table===
{| class = "wikitable"
! Age
! Birthyear
! Event date
! Thing
! Explanation
|-
| 16
| 2000
| April 29, 2008
| ''{{w|Grand Theft Auto IV}}''
| Popular video game published by {{w|Rockstar Games}}; the 11th title in the ''{{w|Grand Theft Auto}}'' series
|-
| 17
| 1999
| May 2007
| {{w|Rickrolling}}
| A prank and internet meme involving an unexpected appearance of the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "{{w|Never Gonna Give You Up}}". A type of bait and switch.
|-
| 18
| 1998
| April 13, 2007
| ''{{w|Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Colon Movie Film for Theaters}}
|
|-
| 19
| 1997
| November 19, 2006
| The {{w|Nintendo Wii}}
| From 2006 onwards is the time when the Nintendo Wii brand (Wii - Wii U) was released, with the Wii dominating 2006-2012 and the Wii U being *a small* part of 2012-2016.
|-
| 20
| 1996
| March 2006
| {{w|Twitter}}
| 2006 was a big year, in that it lead to the creation of Twitter, a social networking service that is still used to this day.
|-
| 21
| 1995
| November 22, 2005 (Xbox), September 2005 (xkcd)
| The {{w|Xbox 360}}, {{w|xkcd}}
| 2005 led to the creation of the Xbox 360, another successful console. Randall Munroe also decided to throw in a 'reference joke', referring to the fact that XKCD was also created in 2005 and fits the criteria of the comic.
|-
| 22
| 1994
|
| {{w|Chuck Norris Facts}}
| Satirical factoids about martial artist and actor {{w|Chuck Norris}}
|-
| 23
| 1993
| January 25, 2004
| {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}'s Mars Exploration
| {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}} is a Mars rover that landed on Mars on January 25, 2004
|-
| 24
| 1992
| February 4, 2004
| {{w|Facebook}}
| Facebook was a social networking service created in 2004 as a competitor to Myspace and quickly dominated as the #1 most used social networking service of all time.
|-
| 25
| 1991
| April 1, 2004 (Gmail), July 9, 2003 (Pirates of the Caribbean)
| Gmail, ''Pirates of the Caribbean''
| Gmail is an email service created by Google as a replacement to Hotmail. Pirates of the Caribbean, a popular movie franchise, had its' first movie (Curse of the Black Pearl) debut in 2003.
|-
| 26
| 1990
| January 7, 2003
| {{w|In da Club}}
| Rap song by {{w|50 Cent}}
|-
| 27
| 1989
| September 20, 2002
| ''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}''
| ''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'' is a space western drama TV series created by Joss Whedon, that became a cult classic
|-
| 28
| 1988
| October 7, 2001
| The War in Afghanistan
| The United States of America invaded Afghanistan shortly after the events of September 11, 2001, in an effort to eliminate the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
|-
| 29
| 1987
| 2001
| The iPod
| The iPod was a music playing device created by Apple in 2001 as a replacement for MP3 players.
|-
| 30
| 1986
| May 18, 2001 (Shrek), January 15, 2001 (Wikipedia)
| Shrek, Wikipedia
| Shrek is a popular parody film about fairy tales based on the book of the same name. It quickly gained a cult following and became a mega-hit, earning it 3 sequels and a franchise. Wikipedia is a website with articles dedicated for looking up information based on specific tops, created in 2001.
|-
| 31
| 1985
| July 14, 2000
| Those X-Men movies
| The X-Men series (X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand)
|-
| 32
| 1984
| February 4, 2000
| The Sims
| The Sims is a video game created by Maxis in 2000 as a simulation game where you build homes, cities, and families. It was an immediate success upon launch.
|-
| 33
| 1983
|
| Autotuned hit songs
| 1983 was the time period when people realized the capabilties of autotuning songs.
|-
| 34
| 1982
| May 19, 1999
| The Star Wars Prequels
| The Star Wars prequel trilogy (Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith)
|-
| 35
| 1981
| March 31, 1999
| The Matrix
| Science action film created by the Wachowskis
|-
| 36
| 1980
| 1998 (outside Japan)
| Pokemon Red & Blue
| A popular childrens' video game franchise
|-
| 37
| 1979
| April 29, 1997 (Netflix), June 26, 1997 (Harry Potter), September 15, 1997 (Google)
| Netflix, Harry Potter, Google
| "Harry Potter" refers to the original publishing date of ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone''. Google refers to the date that the Google domain name was registered.
|-
| 38
| 1978
| May 11, 1997
| Deep Blue's Victory
| Deep Blue was a chess computer, who defeated Garry Kasparov, the reigning chess champion, in 1997. It was the first chess computer to defeat a world champion under tournament conditions.
|-
| 39
| 1977
| September 13, 1996
| Tupac's Death
| Tupac Shakur was an American rapper, record producer, and actor. He was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in 1996.
|-
| 40
| 1976
| December 31, 1995
| The last Calvin and Hobbes strip
| Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip by Bill Watterson that ran from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995
|-
| 41
| 1975
| November 22, 1995
| Toy Story
| The Pixar animated film ''Toy Story''
|-
| >41
| Before 1975
| n/a
| [Don't worry, they've got this covered]
| This jokes that people legitimately old already feel old.
|}

==Transcript==

The November 2016
Guide to making people
feel old

[In rectangle]
If they're [age], you say:
"Did you know [thing] has been around for the majority of your life?"

{| class = "wikitable"
! Age
! Thing
|-
| 16
| Grand Theft Auto IV
|-
| 17
| Rickrolling
|-
| 18
| Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
|-
| 19
| The Nintendo Wii
|-
| 20
| Twitter
|-
| 21
| The Xbox 360, xkcd
|-
| 22
| Chuck Norris Facts
|-
| 23
| Opportunity's Mars Exploration
|-
| 24
| Facebook
|-
| 25
| Gmail, Pirates of the Caribbean
|-
| 26
| In da Club
|-
| 27
| Firefly
|-
| 28
| The War in Afghanistan
|-
| 29
| The iPod
|-
| 30
| Shrek, Wikipedia
|-
| 31
| Those X-Men movies
|-
| 32
| The Sims
|-
| 33
| Autotuned hit songs
|-
| 34
| The Star Wars Prequels
|-
| 35
| The Matrix
|-
| 36
| Pokémon Red & Blue
|-
| 37
| Netflix, Harry Potter, Google
|-
| 38
| Deep Blue's Victory
|-
| 39
| Tupac's Death
|-
| 40
| The last Calvin and Hobbes strip
|-
| 41
| Toy Story
|-
| >41
| [Don't worry, they've got this covered]
|}
{{comic discussion}}

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

1697: Intervocalic Fortition

2016-06-22T19:30:03Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ Removed "incomplete" template

{{comic
| number = 1697
| date = June 22, 2016
| title = Intervocalic Fortition
| image = intervocalic_fortition.png
| titletext = These pranks happen all the time. English doesn't allow one-syllable words to end in a lax vowel, so writers on The Simpsons decided to mess with future linguists by introducing the word "meh."
}}

==Explanation==
The linguistic processes of {{w|lenition}} ("weakening") and {{w|fortition}} ("strengthening") refer to a sound becoming, respectively, either more or less vowel-like. {{w|Intervocalic}} means "between two vowels." An unvoiced consonant like ''f'' in between two vowels (which are {{w|Voicelessness#Voiceless_vowels_and_other_sonorants|almost always}} voiced) is more noticeable and takes more effort to pronounce than the voiced version ''v'' of the same sound in that position, so a change from ''v'' to ''f'' in this context would be an example of fortition. As a rule, however, lenition is much more common, and in fact one of the most common regular changes observed across languages is the kind of lenition that is the precise opposite of Cueball's prank: An unvoiced consonant between two vowels comes to be spoken, over time, as a voiced consonant, such as the middle consonant in the word "butter" that in American English is now pronounced as ''d'' rather than ''t''. Observing a pattern of fortition rather than lenition in that position (especially for just one particular consonant) would be a very puzzling phenomenon to future linguists.

'''Examples for the suggested change are:'''
*Beafer instead of beaver
*Nofember instead of November
*Interfocalic instead of intervocalic (where the ''v'' is "in the middle of a word" but is not intervocalic in all English dialects)

The title text refers to the fact that English {{w|phonotactics}} [http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/169429/are-there-any-words-in-english-pronounced-with-e-at-the-end tend to discourage final or unstressed /ɛ/]. Exceptions tend to be monosyllabic interjections, such as:
* meh
* heh
* eh
* yeh

The word 'meh', is an interjection used to express boredom or indifference. The suggestion that it was originated by the writers of the animated TV show, {{w|The Simpsons}}, [http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2013/09/06/meh_etymology_tracing_the_yiddish_word_from_leo_rosten_to_auden_to_the_simpsons.html is incorrect]. However, its use surged in popularity following its use in various episodes of the show, beginning with the 1994 episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts".

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holding his hands in front of his mouth is whispering into his Cueball-like friend's ear. The friend turns his head towards Cueball.]
:Cueball: Psst - Teach your kids to pronounce V's in the middle of words as F's, but don't write down why you're doing it.
:Cueball: Pass it on.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My hobby: Playing pranks on future linguists

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Language]]

1697: Intervocalic Fortition

2016-06-22T19:27:45Z

Huttarl: defined "intervocalic" and corrected some minor inaccuracies. For example, lenition can by synchronic as well as diachronic ("over time").

{{comic
| number = 1697
| date = June 22, 2016
| title = Intervocalic Fortition
| image = intervocalic_fortition.png
| titletext = These pranks happen all the time. English doesn't allow one-syllable words to end in a lax vowel, so writers on The Simpsons decided to mess with future linguists by introducing the word "meh."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The first word from the title: Intervocalic is not explained.}}

The linguistic processes of {{w|lenition}} ("weakening") and {{w|fortition}} ("strengthening") refer to a sound becoming, respectively, either more or less vowel-like. {{w|Intervocalic}} means "between two vowels." An unvoiced consonant like ''f'' in between two vowels (which are {{w|Voicelessness#Voiceless_vowels_and_other_sonorants|almost always}} voiced) is more noticeable and takes more effort to pronounce than the voiced version ''v'' of the same sound in that position, so a change from ''v'' to ''f'' in this context would be an example of fortition. As a rule, however, lenition is much more common, and in fact one of the most common regular changes observed across languages is the kind of lenition that is the precise opposite of Cueball's prank: An unvoiced consonant between two vowels comes to be spoken, over time, as a voiced consonant, such as the middle consonant in the word "butter" that in American English is now pronounced as ''d'' rather than ''t''. Observing a pattern of fortition rather than lenition in that position (especially for just one particular consonant) would be a very puzzling phenomenon to future linguists.

'''Examples for the suggested change are:'''
*Beafer instead of beaver
*Nofember instead of November
*Interfocalic instead of intervocalic (where the ''v'' is "in the middle of a word" but is not intervocalic in all English dialects)

The title text refers to the fact that English {{w|phonotactics}} [http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/169429/are-there-any-words-in-english-pronounced-with-e-at-the-end tend to discourage final or unstressed /ɛ/]. Exceptions tend to be monosyllabic interjections, such as:
* meh
* heh
* eh
* yeh

The word 'meh', is an interjection used to express boredom or indifference. The suggestion that it was originated by the writers of the animated TV show, {{w|The Simpsons}}, [http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2013/09/06/meh_etymology_tracing_the_yiddish_word_from_leo_rosten_to_auden_to_the_simpsons.html is incorrect]. However, its use surged in popularity following its use in various episodes of the show, beginning with the 1994 episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts".

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holding his hands in front of his mouth is whispering into his Cueball-like friend's ear. The friend turns his head towards Cueball.]
:Cueball: Psst - Teach your kids to pronounce V's in the middle of words as F's, but don't write down why you're doing it.
:Cueball: Pass it on.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My hobby: Playing pranks on future linguists

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:1697: Intervocalic Fortition

2016-06-22T19:21:30Z

Huttarl:

The idea, stated in the alt-text, that "meh" was created by writers of "The Simpsons", is incorrect. "The Simpsons", however, was responsible for widely popularizing it. See [http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2013/09/06/meh_etymology_tracing_the_yiddish_word_from_leo_rosten_to_auden_to_the_simpsons.html] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meh] [[User:Dubaaron|Dubaaron]] ([[User talk:Dubaaron|talk]]) 04:31, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
:Is it really saying that ''The Simpsons'' created the word? All it says is that it introduced the word, which does not seem to imply that it didn't exist before. If I introduce a friend of mine to another person, I most likely did not just create that other person, and there is no reason to believe that it should be any different for words.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 13:24, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
::I don't think that "writers on The Simpsons decided to mess with future linguists" means "writers of The Simpsons introduced the word". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 14:25, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

"The" ends in a lax vowel, and it's the most ubiquitous word in the language, so that rule is wrong. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.10|108.162.221.10]] 04:45, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

: I've always seen "lax vowel" referring to full (unreduced) vowels. When unstressed, the vowel in "the" is reduced (/ðə/), and when stressed it's tense (/ði:/). [[Special:Contributions/188.114.109.66|188.114.109.66]] 05:08, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

:: Furthermore, the lax vowel is only used if 'the' is followed by another syllable, and so the utterance will not be lax-vowel-final. {{unsigned ip|162.158.2.219}}

::: How does that matter? The rule as stated was about the ending of words, not of utterances. [[User:Huttarl|Huttarl]] ([[User talk:Huttarl|talk]]) 19:21, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

:::What the? That can't be right... {{unsigned ip|162.158.83.102}}

Questions. Is this happening in (American) English? is "adverb" becoming /adferb/. Any other examples?[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 05:55, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
: I scanned some 'v' words and didn't see much. A plural of [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html dwarf] discussion; similarly wharf splits into both wharfs and wharves. 'Halving' might benefit in the sense that the 'l' is silent so it sounds like 'having' and might be more clear as 'halfing'. I've also noticed a smattering of YouTubers writing "could of/should of" instead of contracting 'have', i.e, "could've/should've". [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 06:50, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
::The pronunciation of both ''of'' and ''’ve'' is /əv/. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 13:35, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
:No, I don't think this is really happening. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.77|141.101.98.77]] 11:22, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
:"Adverb" doesn't have an intervocalic "v". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 14:21, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
::No, but the prank as stated in the comic "V's in the middle of words" applies to "adverb". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.178|108.162.237.178]] 15:34, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1669: Planespotting

2016-04-18T16:04:17Z

Huttarl:

Is that black hat or white hat? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.65|108.162.221.65]] 15:10, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

How would one even pronounce "Mk. IVII"? IV is 4, VII is 7. I could see an argument for treating it as a really bizarre way to say 6. Or, if we treat it as two distinct digits (as opposed to a two-digit number), it could be either "1-7" or "4-2".

: "Usage in ancient Rome varied greatly and remained inconsistent in medieval and modern times." But AFAIK each numeral only stood for a fixed amount, never for a "digit" (in the sense that its value could specify ones or tens depending on its position). So six ((5 - 1) + 1 + 1) is a plausible interpretation, though definitely not standard; but 17 or 42 would be treating Roman numerals as if they were Arabic. [[User:Huttarl|Huttarl]] ([[User talk:Huttarl|talk]]) 16:03, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

I assume there are other parts of this that are similarly nonsensical to people who know what Cueball thinks he's talking about. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.32|108.162.221.32]] 14:43, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
:When I first read the comic before the explanation I was assuming Cueball was roughly, and poorly, describing a Bombardier DHC-8. It is also known as a Q400 and is a twin-engine turboprop. The silhouette looks vaguely like it.[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:56, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

There are ''so many'' things wrong about this comic. [[User:.42|.42]] ([[User talk:.42|talk]]) 14:53, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Maybe I'm totally off base, but this reminds me of something called "Vaynespotting". In League of Legends, there's a character named Shauna Vayne. She has an extremely high skill-ceiling and skill-floor. Vaynespotting is a minigame where other players receive imaginary points for calling out a bad Vayne player when that player makes aggressive maneuvers, but doesn't have the skill to pull it off. [[User:Thefance|Thefance]] ([[User talk:Thefance|talk]]) 15:38, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1669: Planespotting

2016-04-18T16:03:02Z

Huttarl: replying about IVII

Is that black hat or white hat? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.65|108.162.221.65]] 15:10, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

How would one even pronounce "Mk. IVII"? IV is 4, VII is 7. I could see an argument for treating it as a really bizarre way to say 6. Or, if we treat it as two distinct digits (as opposed to a two-digit number), it could be either "1-7" or "4-2".

: "Usage in ancient Rome varied greatly and remained inconsistent in medieval and modern times." But AFAIK each numeral only stood for a fixed amount, never for a "digit" (in the sense that its value could specify ones or tens depending on its position). So six (4 + 1 + 1) is a likely interpretation, though definitely not standard; but 17 or 42 would be treating Roman numerals as if they were Arabic. [[User:Huttarl|Huttarl]] ([[User talk:Huttarl|talk]]) 16:03, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

I assume there are other parts of this that are similarly nonsensical to people who know what Cueball thinks he's talking about. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.32|108.162.221.32]] 14:43, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
:When I first read the comic before the explanation I was assuming Cueball was roughly, and poorly, describing a Bombardier DHC-8. It is also known as a Q400 and is a twin-engine turboprop. The silhouette looks vaguely like it.[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:56, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

There are ''so many'' things wrong about this comic. [[User:.42|.42]] ([[User talk:.42|talk]]) 14:53, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Maybe I'm totally off base, but this reminds me of something called "Vaynespotting". In League of Legends, there's a character named Shauna Vayne. She has an extremely high skill-ceiling and skill-floor. Vaynespotting is a minigame where other players receive imaginary points for calling out a bad Vayne player when that player makes aggressive maneuvers, but doesn't have the skill to pull it off. [[User:Thefance|Thefance]] ([[User talk:Thefance|talk]]) 15:38, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

1669: Planespotting

2016-04-18T15:50:49Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ reference to trainspotting, and fake roman numeral

{{comic
| number = 1669
| date = April 18, 2016
| title = Planespotting
| image = planespotting.png
| titletext = No, a hydroplane doesn't land on water--that's an aquaplane. A hydroplane is a plane that gets electric power from an onboard water reservoir with a tiny dam and turbines.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

[[Cueball]] and [[Black Hat]] are "{{w|Aircraft_spotting|planespotting}}," an activity which seems to be similar to bird watching, but for airplanes. The name is probably a reference a reference to {{w|trainspotting (hobby)|trainspotting}}, a hobby in which amateur enthusiasts collect detailed information about the types of train cars and engines that operate in their area, and attempt to identify and catalog them as they pass by. Black Hat asks Cueball to identify the airplane flying overhead. Cueball, who "assumes" he knows a lot about planes (but does not) gives a long, nonsensical answer.

{{w|Boeing}} is a company that designs and builds aircraft.

The {{w|French submarine Astrée (Q200)|Q404}} was a French submarine captured by Germany during World War II.

{{w|Category:Twin-engined_aircraft|Twin-engine}} refers to aircraft with two engines.

Communication equipment that can use 4 different radio frequency bands is called {{w|Quad band}}.

{{w|MiG}} suggests an aircraft produced by the Russian manufacturer. However, MIG-380 is a type of welding equipment ({{w|metal inert gas}}, 380V).

A {{w|Hybrid vehicle}} is able to use more than one distinct power source. The most common combination is a combustion engine and an electric motor.

{{w|Dual wield}}ing is using two weapons, one in each hand. It is highly unlikely that the aircraft is dual-wielded by its pilot, and it is equally ridiculous to imagine that the plane is dual-wielding anything.

"Mk." (or Mark) is usually used to specify a model number using a Roman numeral. However, IVII is not a standard number in the {{w|Roman_numerals|Roman numeral system}}.

{{w|Aircraft_diesel_engine|Turbo diesel}} engines are sometimes used in aircraft.

The {{w|Boeing 797}} has never been produced, but a hoax design has been circulating the Internet since the mid-2000's.

A hydroplane is either an {{w|aquaplaning|undesirable activity}} of a wheeled vehicle crossing shallow water, or a type of {{w|hydroplane (boat)|boat}} for which hydroplaning is the desired mode of travel. A miniature {{w|hydroelectric dam}} is not a viable power source for an aircraft. {{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
[Cueball and Blackhat stand in a field looking towards the sky. A fixed wing aircraft can be seen in the background.]

Black Hat: What's That Airplaine?

Cueball:Oh, That's a Boeing Q404 twin-engine quad-band mig-380 hybrid dual-wield Mk. IVII Turbodiesel 797 Hydroplane.

Caption: I've always assumed I'm one of those people who knows a lot about planes, but I've never actually checked.

{{comic discussion}}

1662: Jack and Jill

2016-04-01T20:38:40Z

Huttarl: /* Explanation */ clarified issues of well placement

{{comic
| number = 1662
| date = March 30, 2016
| title = Jack and Jill
| image = jack_and_jill.png
| titletext = Jill and Jack / began to frack. / The oil boosts their town. / But fractures make / the bedrock shake / and Jack came tumbling down.
}}

==Explanation==
"{{w|Jack and Jill (nursery rhyme)|Jack and Jill}}" is a traditional English nursery rhyme. The rhyme dates back at least to the 18th century, one version even with 15 stanzas.

The first and most commonly repeated verse is also the one alluded to by Jill in the comic as she almost says the first three lines:
:Jack and Jill
:went up the hill
:To fetch a {{w|wikt:pail|pail}} of water.
:Jack fell down
:and broke his crown,
:And Jill came tumbling after.

The comic makes fun of the counterintuitive idea that Jack and Jill go ''up'' a hill to fetch water, because water is usually found in valleys rather than on top of hills. Natural water sources, like rivers and streams, flow down from hills, so it shouldn't be necessary to go up the hill to get the water. Similarly, if the water is coming from a well, then building the well at the top of a hill seems an odd choice to Megan. The ground water table stays at about the same level over smaller areas, so building the well on a hill means you have to dig further. However, Megan is probably not aware that since groundwater tends to flow in a similar direction to the slope of the land, it is often considered safer to dig a well uphill from potential sources of runoff, such as outhouses, fields, or septic systems. In times when populations were more predominantly rural, and probably when the poem was composed, "Always dig your well uphill from the outhouse" was a well-known maxim. Moreover, since it takes more energy to bring water uphill from a well (especially in a pail), there is a long-term advantage to having wells higher than main residential areas, as opposed to lower. (This principle explains why water towers are used, even in cities.) Finally, artesian wells deliver water from confined aquifers, which can sometimes be as close to the surface at higher elevations as at lower ones. As an urban dweller, Megan is probably gets water from city plumbing, and is not familiar with the principles of well placement that Jack and Jill grew up with.

The title text is [[Randall|Randall's]] own version, a parody of this first verse, where the names have been switched in the first and last line:
:Jill and Jack
:began to frack.
:The oil boosts their town.
:But fractures make
:the bedrock shake
:and Jack came tumbling down.

This version, which may explain why they went up the hill after water, connects the idea to {{w|hydraulic fracturing}} (or fracking) methods for oil and gas extraction. In these methods, highly pressurized liquids are forced into a given ground stratum (or layer). With enough pressure, the stratum starts to deform and crack. This allows potential gas and oil to flow more freely. The liquid used for fracturing usually also contains materials like sand or ceramics which, once the liquid is removed, will help to maintain the newly formed cracks so as to further allow the desired free movement of oil and gas.

A common {{w|Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing|side effect of this method}} is that water levels and presence at the surface might be modified. In this comic, water can now be found at the top of the hill. This goes against the usual laws of hydraulics, themselves subject to the laws of gravity, which indicate that water should go down through ground cracks. Thus water is usually found at the bottom of valleys or hills. But in the comic, fracking at the bottom forces the water up, thus explaining why the kids go get water up the hill, which, as [[Megan]] points out, is messed-up {{w|hydrology}}. Also, fracking may cause {{w|induced seismicity}} in the form of {{w|micro-earthquake}}s, as alluded to in the title text, which is the cause for tumbling down in the title text version.

This is the second Wednesday in a row that Randall uses two children to make a reference to an environmental issue, the first being [[1659: Tire Swing]], about {{w|tire recycling}}.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is watching as the two kids Jill with hair bun and a ponytail and Jack with spiky hair are walking by her. Jack has a pail in his hand.]
:Jill: Me and Jack are going up the hill to fetch a pail of water.

:[Megan, standing back alone, calls out after them.]
:Megan: Okay, have fun!

:[Megan just stands there for a beat panel.]

:[Megan suddenly realizes something while looking down on the ground.]
:Megan: ... Wait. What the ''heck'' is going on with the hydrology around here?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1645: Toasts

2016-02-19T16:41:58Z

Huttarl: /* The toasts */ removed statement that strife "comes from the name of Eris, the goddess of ..." which doesn't make sense.

{{comic
| number = 1645
| date = February 19, 2016
| title = Toasts
| image = toasts.png
| titletext = Platonic solids for my real friends and real solids for my platonic friends!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There may be more jokes and more on the different words.}}
A {{w|Toast (honor)|toast}} is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, the drink taken, or the verbal expression accompanying the drink. Thus, a person could be "the toast of the evening," for whom someone "proposes a toast" to congratulate and for whom a third person "toasts" in agreement

The comic is based on the quote {{w|Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends}} which, though often attributed to the painter {{w|Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon}} or to {{w|Tom Waits}}, is a toast dating back to at least the nineteenth century. It is also the entire title of a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7q9i6KYmzQ song], the {{w|From_Under_the_Cork_Tree#Track_listing|ninth track}} on {{w|From Under the Cork Tree}}, a 2005 album by {{w|Fall Out Boy}}.

The comic plays on a permutation structure between two words (a [[wikipedia:Spoonerism|Spoonerism]]), yielding puns with various effects
In this comic eight persons drink a '''toast''' for their "real friends" and then for some other type of "friends". For the real friend they wish them to have one specific thing. This something is a word (X-Y) that can be split up in two meanings (X and Y), where one of them are then put in front the word friend, to explain what type of friends they are now toasting (often a bad/false type of friend) and then these friends get a wish for having what the word that are left of the original word means: "X-Y for my real friends and real Y for my X friends"

The first example is a typical toast, in Champagne, where this word can be split in the two phonetically similar words Sham and Pain, and the sham friends then get pain. [[#The toasts|Below]] all examples (including the ninth from the title text) are listed with explanation for all words.

===The toasts===
*''Champagne'' sounds like a combination of the two words ''sham'' and ''pain''.
**{{w|Champagne}} is an expensive sparkling wine.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sham Sham] friends means false friends.
**{{w|Pain}} is not so nice to hand out.
***So [[Cueball]] toast his real friends in Champagne and wishes real pain to his false friends.
*''Pseudopods'' can be divided into ''pseudo-'' and ''pods''.
**{{w|Pseudopods}} (which translates to "false feet") are temporary cytoplasm-filled parts of the cell wall that are able to change their form in order to move. They are used in some eukaryotic cells to move around or to eat. Most cells that do this are called {{w|Amoeba|amoeboids}}. The {{w|Amoeba (genus)|amoeba}} is a common example.
**{{w|Pseudo-}} (lying, false) is used to mark something that superficially appears to be (or behaves like) one thing, but actually is another.
**{{w|Pods}} or {{w|pod}} is not clearly defined. It could refer to {{w|Glossary_of_plant_morphology#Fruit_types|seedpod}} – a dry dehiscent fruit containing many seeds. Pods, both malevolent and benignant, appear in many works of SF and Fantasy. In this toast, it could refer to the pods in {{w|Invasion of the Body Snatchers}}, which take over or replace humans with alien creatures. It might refer to the dangerous podracers in {{w|Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace}}. It could also refer to the [http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/Pod pods] from {{w|The Hunger Games}} where they are specifically used as the city defense in the last book {{w|Mockingjay}}.
***So the blonde girl will give her real friends a special part/adaptation of the amoeba (Doesn't everyone wish they had pseudopods? I'm sure Randall does.), while her pseudo-friends receive real pods with intricate ways to kill them.
*''Petticoats'' sounds like a combination of the two words ''petty'' and ''coats''
**{{w|Petticoats}} or underskirt is an article of clothing; specifically an undergarment to be worn under a skirt or a dress.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/petty Petty] means small (in rank of importance), insignificant or narrow-minded. See for instance {{w|petty crime}}.
**A {{w|Coat (clothing)|coat}} is a garment worn by both men and women, for warmth or fashion.
***So [[Megan]] will hand out undergarments for her real friends and really nice coats for her less important/insignificant or narrow-minded friends (they seem to be the luckier ones here).
*''Loosestrife'' can be divided into ''loose'' and ''strife''.
**{{w|Loosestrife}} is a common name for plants within two different genera (which are not related): {{w|Lythrum}} (example: {{w|Lythrum salicaria|purple loosestrife}}) and {{w|Lysimachia}} (example: {{w|Lysimachia ciliata|Fringed Loosestrife}})
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loose Loose] in this case means free from restraints, as the opposite of {{w|close friend}}. Loose can also refer to being sexually promiscuous, especially when used as an adjective for people.
**[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strife Strife] refers to bitter, sometimes violent, conflict or discord.
***So the "brunette" girl (i.e. similar hair but less dark than Megan) will give her real friends flowers and her promiscuous friend she wishes to end up in a real violent conflict.
*''Ladybugs'' can be divided into ''lady'' and ''bugs''.
**{{w|Ladybugs}} (or Ladybird) is a family of insects common all over the world. They are considered cute: [https://pinterest.com/lisalynnburns/lady-bugs-so-cute/], [http://photobucket.com/images/cute%20ladybug], [http://www.zazzle.com/cute+ladybug].
**{{w|Lady}} is a civil term of respect for a woman, specifically the female equivalent to {{w|gentleman}} or {{w|lord}}, but in many contexts a term for any adult woman.
**{{w|Bugs}} in this case refer to to {{w|insects}} or {{w|arachnids}}
***[[Hair Bun Girl]] will give ladybugs for her real friends (a cute type of bug that most people are not afraid of), and real bugs (beetles, flies or spiders) to her lady friends. This is not necessarily all her female friends, it could be only those that are {{w|Lady#British_nobility|noble}} or at least think they are more important and thus would like to be called lady. No matter what most ladies dislike most types of animals that are commonly referred to as bugs.
*''Single-payer'' can be divided into ''single,'' and payer, a word that rhymes with ''player''. In this case this word is then put together with real to form the word ''RealPlayer''.
**{{w|Single-payer}} refers to single-payer healthcare, a system in which the state, rather than private insurers, pays for all {{w|healthcare}} costs, a system used in several countries, but not so far in the US, although {{w|Barack Obama}} has gone some of the way with {{w|Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act}}.
**{{w|Single person|Single}} refers to a person who is not in a relationship or is unmarried.
**{{w|RealPlayer}} is a cross-platform media player app, developed by RealNetworks. It is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimedia realm. In the past it has been {{w|RealPlayer#Reviews_and_critiques|criticized}} for containing adware and spyware. This was back from 1999 and up to the 2004 version.
**It is specifically not the word ''{{w|Single-player video game|single-player}}'' that is used! this word could refer to video games that only one player can play at a time, or when choosing to play single-player in a game where more could have played. ''RealPayer'' is not a word in use.
***[[White Hat]] thus wish that his real friends have access to state-funded health care, and all his single friends will get RealPlayer. Since White Hat is normally benevolent, if naïve, he may imagine that RealPlayer will help his single friends enjoy Internet media, when they are home alone. Maybe he wishes to impress these singles with a free app as a present in the hope that he {{w|Get Lucky (Daft Punk song)|gets lucky}}. (If it has been [[Hairy]] this would have seemed very likely… see [[1178: Pickup Artists]]. White Hat has not previously displayed these tendencies too clearly). As mentioned there have been some issues with RealPlayer in the past, but it has stayed on the market for more than a decade. However, since it has {{w|RealPlayer#Current_Status|recently been change}} into ''RealTimes'' it may not be so cool a gift anyway. Also White Hat might wish to give away the old spy ware version of RealPlayer. But as opposed to most of the special friends, single-friends is not in it self negative, especially not if you are yourself single. So no direct reason to make bad wished for single friends as opposed to sham friends.
*''Tumbleweeds'' sounds like a combination of the two words ''Tumblr'' and ''weed''.
**{{w|Tumbleweed}} is a structural part of the above-ground anatomy of a number of species of plants, a {{w|Diaspore (botany)|diaspore}} (of seeds) that, once it is mature and dry, detaches from its root or stem, and tumbles away in the wind. The tumbleweed's {{w| Tumbleweed#Symbolism|association}} with the Western film genre has led to a highly symbolic meaning in visual media.
**{{w|tumblr}} is a microblogging platform and social networking website
**{{w|Weed}} is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation but in this case it refers to {{w|Cannabis (drug)|Cannabis}} also known as marijuana and many other names including weed and would be used (again in this comic) as a {{w|psychoactive drug}}, i.e. to {{w|getting high|get high}}.
***[[Ponytail]] thus gives her "real" friends a western movie symbol, that will spread seeds over their house, but with her friends on her favorite blogsite Tumblr she will share her expensive weed.
*''Fauxhawks'' can be divided into ''faux'' and ''hawks''
**{{w|Mohawk_hairstyle#Fauxhawk_variants |Fauxhawks}} copies the style of a {{w|Mohawk hairstyle}}, but without shaving the sides of the head and not extending past the peak of the cranium.
**{{w|Faux}} is a French word for "false".
**{{w|Hawks}} is a common name for some small to medium-sized diurnal birds of prey, widely distributed and varying greatly in size.
***[[Beret Guy]] thus wishes to cut his real friends hair in a very special way, maybe to his liking and thought of as a favor, but not necessarily liked by all his friends, cause although Beret Guy is weird, it seems that those around him are not. His false friends can have a predatory bird (maybe coming after them), but rather knowing Beret Guys love of all things, just as a present of something he likes, like animals.
*'''Title text:'''
*''Platonic solids'' can be divided into ''platonic'' and ''solids''
**{{w|Platonic solids}}: In three-dimensional space, a platonic solid is a regular, convex polyhedron. It is constructed by congruent regular polygonal faces with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex. Five solids meet those criteria, and each is named after its number of faces: Tetrahedron, Cube, Octahedron, Dodecahedron and Icosahedron.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/platonic Platonic] means ''not sexual in nature'' as in {{w|platonic love}}, which is a type of love that is celibate and non-sexual. Typically friends would not be called platonic, but they are normally also not the opposite.
**{{w|Solid}} is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). ''Doing someone a solid'' can also mean ''doing someone a favor''.
***[[Randall]], must be speaking the title text and he wishes his real friends to have material in regular, convex polyhedron shape where as his {{w|platonic friends}} can get any other kind of solid material.

==Transcript==
:[There are two rows of 4 panels each. Each panel shows a different person offering a toast. Each one has some kind of drink in one hand which they hold up.

:[Cueball holding up a wine glass to the right:]
:Cueball : Champaign for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends!

:[A blonde girl holding up a regular glass to the left:]
:Blonde girl: Pseudopods for my real friends and real pods for my pseudo-friends!

:[Megan holding up a drinks glass to the right:]
:Megan : Petticoats for my real friends and real coats for my petty friends.

:[A "brunette" girl (i.e. similar hair but less dark than Megan) holding up a normal glass with a small umbrella in it to the right:]
:Brunette girl: Loosestrife for my real friends and real strife for my loose friends!

:[Hair Bun Girl holding up a wine glass to the left:]
:Hair Bun Girl: Ladybugs for my real friends and real bugs for my lady friends!

:[White Hat holding up a regular glass to the right:]
:White Hat: Single-payer for my real friends and RealPlayer for my single friends.

:[Ponytail holding up a regular glass to the right:]
:Ponytail: Tumbleweeds for my real friends and real weed for my Tumblr friends!

:[Beret Guy holding up a wine glass to the left:]
:Beret Guy: Fauxhawks for my real friends and real hawks for my faux friends!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Animals]] 
[[Category:Food]] 
[[Category:Music]] 
[[Category:Social networking]]

1287: Puzzle

2013-11-06T12:40:01Z

Huttarl: Added some explanation about "White to ..." phrasing, and alternative interpretation.

{{comic
| number = 1287
| date = November 6, 2013
| title = Puzzle
| image = puzzle.png
| titletext = Prediction for Carlsen v. Anand: ... 25. Qb8+ Nxb8 26. Rd8# f6 27. "... dude." Qf5 28. "The game is over, dude." Qxg5 29. Rxe8 0-1 30. "Dude, your move can't be '0-1'. Don't write that down." [Black flips board]
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}

The game of {{w|Go (game)|go}} (also called Weiqi, Baduk or Igo) is usually played on the 19×19 intersections of a grid, but sometimes a faster, simpler version is played on the 9×9 intersections of a grid (which thus has 8×8 squares, as a chessboard, though they are not colored in an alternating pattern - {{w|White and Black in chess|introduced to chess in the 13th century}}). In the comic, white has chess figures and plays against black, which uses go stones.

In chess, the phrasing "White to move" indicates that it's the White player's turn; "White to play and win" indicates that it's White's turn and the next move (if White plays correctly) will win the game. The caption "White to continue insisting this is a chessboard" is a play on this traditional phrasing.

Two versions of the board were posted by Randall: both had white after P-e3, P-d4, N-f3, N-c3, but the first with an extra bishop at e4 (B@e4), the second after B-d2.

B@e4 in the first version of the board was perhaps intended to represent confusion in White's mind whether he was playing Go (placing a piece) or Chess (it's a chess piece) - as a 'placement' this move could have been first, and could explain P-e3 with e4 already being blocked.

It it unclear whether black has gone first (as is traditional in Go) with five Go stones (none in the 3-3 handicap positions marked on a 9x9 Go board) vs five chess moves. White moves first has been traditional in Chess for about a century.

The title text is in the format of a game transcript, starting on the 25th move. Black is making chess moves, apparently having accepted that it is a game of chess after all.

At 25, white's Queen moves to b8 for check and is captured by black's Knight taking it, but after white's Rook checkmates at d8 (denoted by #; presumably the king is trapped on 8 behind pawns), Black (illegally) continues to play with something moving to f6 (this could be interpreted as a Go move), and responds to White's protests with the chess moves Queen to f5 and then Queen takes at g5.

White eventually takes Black's king (presumably) at e8 with the checkmating Rook, and black responds by writing 0-1, which looks similar to the 0-0 notation for 'castling', but is in fact the notation used to declare that black has won the game - perhaps the psychological game of forcing white to play 'Chess' after the checkmate, thereby forcing white to concede that the game is not - after all - chess. White protests this 'move' too, and black spills the board.

{{w|Magnus Carlsen}} is a 22 year old Norwegian chess grandmaster, who had the highest peak rating and was the third youngest grandmaster in history. He was the world's 2009 blitz champion. {{w|Viswanathan Anand}} is a 43 year old Indian grandmaster has been undisputed World Champion since 2007. Carlsen and Anand are due to face each other {{w|World Chess Championship 2013|in November 2013}}

For white, this match is initially similar to the [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1453660 16th Amber Tournament (Blindfold) match] between Carlsen and Anand. Since the match was blindfold, perhaps this contributed to the confusion over whether the game was Chess or Go </humour>.

An alternative interpretation is that the game shown in the picture, and the one predicted in the title text, are two separate games: the title text does not describe the game in the picture. The pictured game flaunts the rules of chess by mixing it with go; the title game takes the humor up a notch by imagining chess grandmasters engaging in petty bickering after a win when one of them keeps playing.

==Transcript==
:[A game board with 8x8 white squares and black borders, like a goboard or an all white chessboard, there are white chess pieces in starting position on the bottom after P-e3, P-d4, N-f3, N-c3, B-d2 and five black Go pieces on the edges in the center of the board on d4 d5 c6 g4 g6.]
:White to continue insisting this is a chessboard

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Chess]]