explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3017: Neutrino Modem

2024-11-27T22:21:36Z

JLZ0kTC5: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3017
| date = November 27, 2024
| title = Neutrino Modem
| image = neutrino_modem_2x.png
| imagesize = 461x537px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our sysadmin accidentally won a Nobel Prize while trying to debug neutrino oscillation error correction.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 1978 neutrino fax machine - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Neutrinos are tiny, nigh-ghostly particles that are so small they barely interact with any solid matter at all. Despite trillions of neutrinos passing through your body every second, one will only hit you once every 10 years or so.

In this comic, Randall gives a helpful tip to networking companies: in order to avoid latency issues with their servers, simply relocate their node to the Earth's core and use neutrinos to communicate with the surface, rather than radio waves, electrical impulses, or photons in fiber-optic cables. Since the core of the Earth is approximately equidistant from every point on Earth's surface, and neutrinos are capable of (pretty much) phasing through solid matter, this allows communication with any server or network node anywhere on Earth, all with the same light-speed latency, but at the cost of an unbelievable amount of lost data (since only a teeny teeny teeny tiny fraction of the neutrinos sent from the modem will actually be received by the servers on the surface).

There are also, of course, the practical problems of constructing a facility at Earth's core, which is extremely far away, extremely hot, and under extremely high pressures.

Blondie and Cueball are shown floating because a hollow space in the center of a body experiences microgravity. This is because all the mass of the object is evenly distributed in all directions. While there is 4,000 miles of rock "above" you pulling you "up," there is also 4,000 miles "below" you pulling you "down," and so you experience net-zero gravitational acceleration.

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

Check it out-45ms ping times to every server on Earth!

That 99.999999999999% packet loss is pretty bad, though.

{{comic discussion}}

2917: Types of Eclipse Photo

2024-04-09T06:24:36Z

JLZ0kTC5: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 2917
| date = April 8, 2024
| title = Types of Eclipse Photo
| image = types_of_eclipse_photo_2x.png
| imagesize = 594x460px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The most rare, top-tier eclipse photo would be the Solar Earth Eclipse, but the Apollo 12 crew's attempt to capture it was marred by camera shake. They said it looked spectacular, though.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE SUN, WHO LEFT US! - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the recent eclipse visible in the US.

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

==Trivia==
* '''This trivia section was created by a BOT but edited by a human'''
* The [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/types_of_eclipse_photo.png standard size] image was uploaded with a resolution/size of 8920 by 6909, larger than the supposed 2x version at 1189 by 921.
* This was likely an error.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2917: Types of Eclipse Photo

2024-04-09T06:22:10Z

JLZ0kTC5:

The 'standard' and '2x' sized images had unexpected sizes, so a Trivia section has been automatically generated, and an imagesize parameter has been added (at half size) to render the image consistently with other comics on this website. --[[User:TheusafBOT|TheusafBOT]] ([[User talk:TheusafBOT|talk]]) 06:16, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

8920x6909?! [[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 06:21, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2917: Types of Eclipse Photo

2024-04-09T06:21:54Z

JLZ0kTC5:

The 'standard' and '2x' sized images had unexpected sizes, so a Trivia section has been automatically generated, and an imagesize parameter has been added (at half size) to render the image consistently with other comics on this website. --[[User:TheusafBOT|TheusafBOT]] ([[User talk:TheusafBOT|talk]]) 06:16, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

8920x6906?! [[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 06:21, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

1865: Wifi vs Cellular

2024-01-12T23:47:00Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 1865
| date = July 19, 2017
| title = Wifi vs Cellular
| image = wifi_vs_cellular.png
| titletext = According to the cable company reps who keep calling me, it's because I haven't upgraded to the XTREME GIGABAND PANAMAX FLAVOR-BLASTED PRO PACKAGE WITH HBO, which is only $5 more per month for the first 6 months and five billion dollars per month after that.
}}

==Explanation==

In this comic [[Randall]] remarks on how recent changes in {{w|Wi-Fi}} and {{w|Cellular network|Cellular data}} reliability have impacted his behavior. Wi-Fi technology has had several advantages over cellular data transmission due to Wi-Fi antennas' more ubiquitous distribution and ability to focus on high data transmission rates instead of broad signal coverage. However, as Wi-Fi has become more popular it is increasingly common to encounter Wi-Fi networks using outdated hardware, poorly organized or overburdened networks, and competition for bandwidth with other Wi-Fi devices. Meanwhile due to continued commercial investment in upgrading and expanding cellular networks and the more frequent consumer replacement of cellular handsets, the reliability of cellular data has continued to increase.

Randall notes that prior to 2015 he found that he could improve his internet connection by connecting to a Wi-Fi network instead of using cellular data. After 2015 however, he finds that in many cases he is able to get a stronger connection by disengaging his Wi-Fi connection and getting his data over a cellular connection.

Anything larger than a few kilobytes would previously require someone to switch off network data and connect to a wireless network. However, for a couple of years, cellular networks' data transmission rates have often become more reliable (albeit usually costlier for larger amount of data usage) while home Wi-Fi has remained fairly constant, meaning the cellular network is often the best choice to download a file.

Randall says it is ''weird from a networking point of view'', but in fact modern {{w|LTE (telecommunication)|LTE}} connections via the cellular network are faster ({{w|List_of_LTE_networks#USA, US Territories, Canada & Bolivia (FCC band plan)|up to 300 Mbit/s}}) than the common used Wi-Fi standards like 802.11b/g and 802.11n ({{w|IEEE_802.11#Protocol|54-150 Mbit/s}}). Faster Wi-Fi standards do exist but they are very rarely supported.

In the title text Randall takes a moment to rail against the often misleading promotional rates offered by cable internet providers. Such providers often attempt to up-sell consumer on internet packages with additional features. Here Randall juxtaposes several descriptors that might feature in a cable ad with several that refer to other things entirely. Xtreme Gigaband is a plausible internet package name, but might also be a reference to {{w|Comcast|Comcast's}} often derided "{{w|Xfinity}}" promotions. And while {{w|Panamax}} sounds like it may be a film term, it is actually a ship classification that denotes the maximum size ship that can safely pass through the {{w|Panama canal}}. (This could also be referencing the title text of [[1632: Palindrome]].) Seeing as the title text mentions the cable company, implying that they're also Randall's Internet Service Provider, being "with {{w|HBO}}" would mean including HBO in the cable channel line-up, and most likely include being able to stream TV shows made by HBO. Since HBO shows include {{w|Game of Thrones}}, whose 7th season started only 3 days earlier, it's plausible that this comic might have been inspired by Randall attempting to stream the season premiere. Flavor-Blasted is a food term often used in hyperbolic television food ad, but also could be a reference to Comcast Cable's "Blast!" internet packages. Pricing mentioned in title text is exaggerated with only $5 more during first six months, but costing 5 billion after, which is a reference to how service providers would often advertise a lower temporary price, while if you read the fine print the plan is much more costly once the limited time offer runs out, and {{w|discounting}} is simply used for marketing purposes. What's worse, these discounted periods (typically six months) often come with a much longer contract (typically two years) which imposes cancellation fees.

==Transcript==
:[A graph with two curves that cross each other. The two areas beneath the curve at the top, and down to either the X-axis or the other curve are shaded with vertical gray lines. The Y-axis has no label, but represents reliability, the X-axis is a timeline, with labels indicating years beneath the axis, without any ticks. The two curves are labeled with text interrupting the curves, in the second case using two lines for the text. In the left shaded area there is a label inside and the right shaded area the label is beneath the curves with an arrow pointing to the area. All this text and the arrow is gray. Above the curves there is a caption also in gray font:]
:To get something to load on my phone, sometimes I have to...

:Label left area: ...Connect to WiFi
:Label right area: ...Turn off WiFi

:Label curve one: Home WiFi reliability
:Label curve two: Cellular data reliability

:Year labels: 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It seems weird from a networking point of view, but sometime in the last few years this flipped for me.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Phones]]

800: Beautiful Dream

2024-01-12T23:41:52Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 800
| date = October 1, 2010
| title = Beautiful Dream
| image = beautiful_dream.png
| titletext = Lucky. In MY dream, all the people who grew up loving The Giving Tree paired up with all the students who had weird dreams after reading The Metamorphosis. That one was more confusing.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, Megan has just woken from a dream in which the girls who follow ''{{w|The Rules}}'' and the guys who play ''{{w|The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists|The Game}}'' have paired off and left everyone else alone.

"The Rules" refers to a book entitled "The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right" which the authors describe as a self-help book for women seeking a man to marry. It's often decried for being formulaic and for reducing the women who follow it and the men they seek to outdated stereotypes about gender roles. The rules themselves amount to a complicated game of "hard to get", which is not exactly a new strategy, nor is it always the best approach to take.

"The Game" refers to a series of books entitled "The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists", which is a purported exposé on the pickup artist community (which is not similar to a pick-up basketball game, see [[1178: Pickup Artists]]), and its follow-up "Rules of the Game", which describes the techniques used. Pickup artistry involves the use of psychological and emotional tricks intended to coerce women into casual sex. Practitioners of pickup are considered by many to be manipulative and creepy for reducing women to little more than objects for conquest.

It's clear that Megan has a low opinion of those who put stock in these works. The idea of removing the Rules Girls and the Game Players from social interaction by pair bonding them to each other is one that appeals to her. Cueball's response seems to indicate that he agrees with her.

The title text takes a surrealist step with [[Cueball]]'s response to [[Megan]]. ''{{w|The Giving Tree}}'' is a children's book by {{w|Shel Silverstein}} about the relationship between a tree and a young boy who grows to be an old man. ''{{w|The Metamorphosis}}'' is a work of fiction by {{w|Franz Kafka}} in which a traveling salesman wakes up after having strange dreams to find that he has been turned into a nondescript giant bug. The implication could be that, in the dream, those who preferred the Giving Tree were treated as literal trees and crawled on by the ones who dreamt weirdly about the Metamorphosis acting as if they themselves were bugs - or perhaps in the logic of the dream the former became actual trees and the latter actual bugs.

==Transcript==
:[Megan with disheveled hair stretches her arms. A sunburst indicating sleepiness is above her head.]
:''YAWN''
:Megan: I just woke up

:[Megan continues speaking from off panel, to Cueball who's sitting at a table with a laptop and cup. He's leaned his elbow on the chair, turning to face Megan.]
:Megan: from the most ''beautiful'' dream.
:Cueball: Which was?

:Megan: All the girls who read and follow ''The Rules'' and all the guys who swear by the techniques in ''The Game'' paired off with each other and left the rest of us alone forever.
:Cueball: ''Mmmmmm...''

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

2877: Fever

2024-01-12T23:41:01Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2877
| date = January 5, 2024
| title = Fever
| image = fever_2x.png
| imagesize = 514x587px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hypothermia of below 98.6 K should be treated by leaving the giant molecular cloud and moving to the vicinity of a star.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an SATURDAY NIGHT HYPER-FEVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic mimics [https://www.bannerhealth.com/healthcareblog/-/media/images/project/healthcareblog/hero-images/2020/05/fevers-at-every-age-infographic.ashx?h=1477&w=750&hash=14066972FE7A69A90BE29654F41F7C65 charts] on {{w|fever}} temperatures and actions that are indicated as a result. However, rather than dividing the normal body temperature range of a febrile (fever-having) patient into subtle grades, it quickly progresses beyond these to specify treatment for increasingly high temperature ranges, culminating with the most extreme temperature range ever achieved in the universe.

After the first two entries in the table, the rest refer to temperatures caused by the surrounding environment, rather than by conditions internal to the body (or the vapor/plasma cloud you would turn into if you reach this temperature...). Hence the 'treatments' consist of removing yourself from those environments.

[[Randall]] uses the SI related unit {{w|Celsius}} for all entries in the table, giving the temperature in {{w|Fahrenheit}} only for the first entry in the table about a normal fever temperature range.

The title text uses the real SI unit {{w|Kelvin}}, and suggests that those with temperatures under 98.6 Kelvin (-173.55 Celsius or -280.39 Fahrenheit) are in a {{w|molecular cloud}} and that they should get near a star to warm them up. 98.6 ''Fahrenheit'' (=37°C) is the average human resting body temperature, explaining why Randall chose this number, but 98.6 Kelvin is a good deal colder than this, and a temperature at which it would be very hard for a human to survive. By way of comparison, the normal boiling point of liquid oxygen is 90.19 K (−182.96 °C; −297.33 °F).

Taking an everyday situation to its logical extreme is a common humor trope, often used by xkcd.

===Table of fever temperatures===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ Treating a Fever
|-
! Fever Temperature in Celsius (Fahrenheit) !! Treatment !! Additional notes
|-
| 38-40 (100-104) || Fluids, rest, normal doctor stuff || Normal fever temperatures.

"Normal doctor stuff" refers to routine medical consultation at an outpatient clinic or through telemedicine.
|-
| 40-45 (104-113) || Hospital, advanced doctor stuff || A severe fever level at which humans might start experiencing brain damage from fever.

"Advanced doctor stuff" refers to hospital care, likely in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
|-
| 45-100 (113-212) || Exit that steam cloud immediately || A temperature range that is uncomfortable and injurious. (Imagine keeping your hand right above the spout of a steaming kettle.) For the rest of the table, the prescribed treatments presume that the fever temperature is due to one's environment.

Note that this range maximum is 100 degrees Celsius, the temperature at which water boils. After this point, the water in the body would soon boil, causing quick and painful death.
|-
| 100-400 (212-750) || Stop, drop, and roll || The subject is probably on fire. Stop, drop, and roll is a recommended method for putting out flames on your clothing.
|-
| 400-500 (750-930) || Return to Earth from Venus ASAP || 464°C (867°F) is {{w|Venus}}ian atmosphere temperature.
|-
| 500-1,500 (930-2,700) || Please climb out of that volcano || {{w|Magma}} is about 700°C (1,290°F). Therefore, if someone is at that temperature, they are probably in lava/magma.
|-
| 1,500-5,000 (2,700-9,000) || Turn your tunneling machine around and come back up to the surface || 4,400-6,000°C (7,950-10,830°F) is the estimated core temperature of the {{w|Earth}}. Another reference to the 2003 movie [[:Category:The Core|The Core]], at least the 6th comic to do so.
|-
| 5,000-6,000 (9,000-10,800) || No, the surface of the '''''Earth''''', not the Sun || 5,500°C (9,930°F) is the approximate temperature of the surface of the {{w|Sun}}. The Sun's {{w|photosphere}} has a temperature between 4,400 and 6,600 K (4,130 and 6,330 °C) (with an effective temperature of 5,772 K (5,499 °C)).
|-
| 6,000-50,000 (10,800-90,000) || Wait, that's not the Sun. What star are you visiting? Come back right now. || Surface temperatures of {{w|main sequence|main-sequence}} stars larger than the Sun can go up to 50,000 (Kelvin and degrees Celsius are indistinguishable at this point). Though some stars can be even hotter.
|-
| 50,000-20,000,000 (90,000-36,000,000) || At least stay on the '''''surface''''' of the star instead of diving down to the core || Core temperatures of main-sequence stars like the Sun are usually around ten million kelvins, while larger and hotter stars can reach up to a hundred million.
|-
| 20,000,000-10,000,000,000 (36,000,000-18,000,000,000) || You know, you could've picked a normal star instead of one that's exploding || {{w|Supernova}}e can reach temperatures of billions of degrees for brief periods, with type II supernovae even reaching hundreds of billions of degrees. This is the first of two comics in a row that mentions exploding stars, with [[2878: Supernova]] the next comic. That comic is like this comic also a [[:Category:Charts|Charts comic]].
|-
| 10,000,000,000 or higher (18,000,000,000 or higher) || I hope you're enjoying your visit to the Big Bang but you should really come back home immediately || 1032 °C (or K), the highest physically meaningful temperature, is the estimated temperature at the Planck epoch (10-43 s) after the {{w|Big Bang}}
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with two columns with twelve rows. The columns are labeled and there is a heading above table:]
:<big>Treating a Fever</big>

:[Column labels]:
:Fever
:Treatment

:38°C-40°C (100°F-104°F)
:Fluids, rest, normal doctor stuff

:40°C-45°C
:Hospital, advanced doctor stuff

:45°C-100°C
:Exit that steam cloud immediately

:100°C-400°C
:Stop, drop, and roll

:400°C-500°C
:Return to Earth from Venus ASAP

:500°C-1,500°C
:Please climb out of that volcano

:1,500°C-5,000°C
:Turn your tunneling machine around and come back up to the surface

:5,000°C-6,000°C
:No, the surface of the '''''Earth''''', not the Sun

:6,000°C-50,000°C
:Wait, that's not the Sun. What star are you visiting? Come back right now.

:50,000°C-20,000,000°C
:At least stay on the '''''surface''''' of the star instead of diving down to the core

:20,000,000°C-10,000,000,000°C
:You know, you could've picked a normal star instead of one that's exploding

:10,000,000,000°C or higher
:I hope you're enjoying your visit to the Big Bang but you should really come back home immediately

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:The Core]]

1821: Incinerator

2023-10-17T13:23:28Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 1821
| date = April 7, 2017
| title = Incinerator
| image = incinerator.png
| titletext = My trash can broke recently and I had to get rid of it. When I picked it up, I suffered a brief but harrowing existential crisis.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] have just finished installing an {{w|Incineration|incinerator}} for some unspecified purpose at some establishment. Ponytail brings up the problem of having to get rid of the old incinerator, and Cueball begins to suggest using the new incinerator to incinerate the old one, but he is shut down by Ponytail off-panel. This makes him noticeably disappointed, probably because the idea of using an incinerator to destroy an incinerator is novel to him.

Throwing an incinerator inside another incinerator would probably break some kind of regulations or safety concerns, and since incinerators are meant to withstand their own high heat capacities it would be ineffective anyway.

The title text implies that this comic was inspired by recent events at [[Randall]]'s house: his trash can broke and he struggled with how to dispose of it. At least for Randall, there is something wrong with forcing anything to destroy something of its own kind -- in this case, throwing the old trash can in the new trash can. Since machines have no human emotion{{Citation needed}} this would not cause any [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07xDdFMdgw trauma for the machine], but the humans in charge might feel as if something is wrong, and Randall mentions having an {{w|existential crisis}}. This is because humans tend to project human qualities onto the machines they are working with ({{w|anthropomorphism|anthropomorphization}}), thus possibly framing the situation in the context of something like cannibalism or homicide.

Another way of taking it would be in the sense of "being replaceable". Many people live without wanting to think of what might happen to everything around them after they die, but in this title text one can start comparing the trash can to themselves — the same way the trash can turns into something to be disposed and replaced with a new one after it becomes useless, what about people then? What will happen to you when you grow older? Should you suddenly go sick and become useless? How about in your job, what would happen if someone more superior than you comes around and starts threatening your hard-earned position?

Yet another interpretation is that while disposing of the trash can, Randall realized that he was now in the same situation as the trash can itself. The trash can was a tool used by others, in order to dispose of trash. And yet, in time, the trash can itself became trash and had to be disposed of by Randall. Which makes one wonder if Randall is himself a tool created/used by others, who will one day dispose of Randall when he has outlived his usefulness, the same way that he disposed of the trash can when it outlived its usefulness. From this perspective, Randall is simply a more intelligent and autonomous trash-junking-tool, different in degrees but similar in nature to his own trash can.

Many people define themselves by the things they do and are capable of. The idea of losing those, and then being replaced for it, is a bitter pill that we will all have to swallow at some point. All things must come to end after all, including ourselves.

A more simple reason for this may be that for almost anything else you might pick up, having done so you now have the option to put it in the trash can. Picking up the trash can itself (perhaps just to work out ''if'' it is beyond use) simultaneously removes "the trash can you may opt to put something you hold in" from its usual point in your normally instinctively simple mental mapping of the domestic universe.

Plus, [https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/08/map-territory-distinctions/ actually throwing out a garbage can can be surprisingly difficult].

Another device to perform a meta-action was previously explored in [[952: Stud Finder]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Ponytail stand next to an incinerator, with a combustion chamber and flue that rises up to the top of the frame.]
:Ponytail: Great, the new incinerator is installed. Now we just need to dispose of the old one.

:[Ponytail walks out of the frame.]

:[Cueball lowers his head, beat panel]

:[Cueball raises his hand and begins to ask a question.]
:Cueball: Hey, could—
:Ponytail (off-panel): ''No.''
:Cueball: Aww, maaan.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Recursion]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

1252: Increased Risk

2023-10-17T13:19:51Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 1252
| date = August 16, 2013
| title = Increased Risk
| image = increased_risk.png
| titletext = You may point out that strictly speaking, you can use that statement to prove that all risks are tiny—to which I reply HOLY SHIT WATCH OUT FOR THAT DOG!
}}
==Explanation==
The panel satirizes the common misunderstanding of the concept of percentage. Quoting a percentage change without mentioning the base probability that this ratio acts on is meaningless (outside of arithmetic for arithmetic's sake). Most everyday communication, however, succumbs to such incompleteness. In the aftermath of this ambiguity, people tend to conflate relative and absolute changes.

If the probability of a shark attack at the North beach is 5 per million, then the probability of shark attack at the South beach is still not more than 6 per million. The difference between these values is not enough to normally justify choosing one beach over the other, even though a "20% greater" chance sounds significant when stated out of this larger context.

[[Cueball]] parodies the concern by noting that by going to a beach three times instead of two, their chances of attack by dogs with handguns in their mouths (a ludicrous and unrealistic scenario as dogs cannot buy guns{{Citation needed}} and are not likely to pick one up off the ground) increases by 50%. If the chance of the dog attack is one per billion on each visit to the beach, then the chance of attack increases over multiple visits; regardless it's still one in a billion for any specific visit. This does not change the overall improbability of there ever being a dog swimming with a gun in its mouth.

[[Beret Guy]] misunderstands Cueball's probability, exhibiting the {{w|gambler's fallacy}} by believing that since they haven't been attacked in their first two trips, the chance of attack by dogs with handguns is higher on this outing.

This is a common misunderstanding of statistics. While the overall probability of an attack in three trips would be higher than in a single trip, it doesn't change the fact that in each individual trip, the probability is still the same; whether or not they managed to avoid being attacked in their first two trips, the results of these trips do not factor into the probability equation of the third trip.

This also can be illustrated by coin flips: if one flips a "fair" coin ten times in a row, no matter what the result of each previous flip is (even if it were nine heads in a row), the odds of getting heads on the tenth coin flip theoretically remains 50%. In other words, past experience does not impact subsequent flips. In practice, if the odds on each flip were 50%, then the odds of nine heads in a row would be 0.2%, so after it might be worth considering the possibility that the coin has been bent or weighted to alter the odds, or even a counterfeit with "heads" on both sides.

The caption clarifies Cueball's point, but without sarcasm.

Then again, the title text objects to this point (that a tiny risk increased by 50% is still tiny). If this 50% increment is done repeatedly, the risk can get arbitrarily high, while the statement says that it is still tiny. This can be compared to the {{w|Sorites paradox}} (the "paradox of the heap"), which involves a "heap" of sand from which grains of sand are removed individually. If one assumes that, after removing a single grain, a heap of sand is still considered a heap of sand, and that there are a limited number of grains of sand in the heap, then one is forced to accept the conclusion that it can still be considered a heap of sand even if there is only a single grain of sand (or even none at all).

Being shot by a swimming dog with a handgun in its mouth is also specifically referenced in what if? 146, [https://what-if.xkcd.com/146/ Stop Jupiter].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Ponytail, and Beret Guy are standing around. Cueball and Ponytail have beach towels. Ponytail is looking at her cell phone. Beret Guy has his hands up to his face, looking distressed.]
:Ponytail: We should go to the north beach. Someone said the south beach has a 20% higher risk of shark attacks.
:Cueball: Yeah, but statistically, taking three beach trips instead of two increases our odds of getting shot by a swimming dog carrying a handgun in its mouth by '''''50%!'''''
:Beret Guy: Oh no! This is our third trip!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Reminder: A 50% increase in a tiny risk is '''''still tiny'''''.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Dogs]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Sharks]]

566: Matrix Revisited

2023-10-17T13:15:33Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 566
| date = April 8, 2009
| title = Matrix Revisited
| image = matrix_revisited.png
| titletext = I actually remember being entertained by both the sequels while in the theater. They just don't hold up nearly as well in later comparison.
}}

==Explanation==
In the first frame it is stated that the comic was released on the anniversary of the movie ''{{w|The Matrix}}''. This is not true. The Matrix was released 31 March 1999 in the US, although it was next released in Australia on 8 April 1999, ten years before the release of this comic. But maybe [[Randall]] drew the comic (and had watched the movie) on the true 10 year anniversary day.

[[Megan]] is shocked when she realizes it is already ten years ago that ''The Matrix'' came out. This is an effect Randall has used to [[:Category:Comics_to_make_one_feel_old|make you feel old]] several times (for instance he mentions The Matrix again two years later in [[891: Movie Ages]].)

In ''The Matrix'', almost all of humanity lives in a computer simulation. Many years ago, robots took over the real world (not the simulation), and placed humans into the simulation while their body heat generated power for the robots. A few people have escaped from the Matrix, and they are on a mission with others to free the human race from the robots. The title of the strip is a reference to the documentary on the filming of ''The Matrix'': ''{{w|The Matrix Revisited}}''.

In the first three rows of the comic we see three famous scenes from ''The Matrix'' parodied by Randall. The characters are {{w|Morpheus (The Matrix)|Morpheus}}, with sunglasses; {{w|Neo (The Matrix)|Neo}}, as [[Cueball]] in the first two scenes and with a black coat in the third scene; {{w|Trinity (The Matrix)|Trinity}}, as [[Hairbun]]; and a security guard in the third scene, as another Cueball-like guy.

In the first scene Morpheus tells Neo that one cannot explain what the Matrix is and that he must see it for himself to understand. Morpheus is very mysterious as he tempts Neo to take a look himself, which, in the movie, leads to the next scene. In this comic, however, Trinity makes Morpheus look foolish by clearly explaining the Matrix in a single, simple phrase, and then telling him that he must suck at explaining. (The actual quote from the movie is <q>no one can be told what the Matrix is</q>, which makes more sense: even after being rescued from the Matrix, Neo at first refuses to accept that his entire life has been a simulation, becoming highly distraught when confronted with that truth. Morpheus later mentions that for this reason, it is unusual to rescue people past a certain age.)

In the next scene Morpheus tries to ignore Trinity's remark and continues by showing Neo two pills, one red and one blue, and tells Neo that he can either take the blue pill and return to the simulation (the Matrix), never to hear about the Matrix again, or he can take the red pill and leave the Matrix, and "see how deep the rabbit hole goes" (a reference to ''{{w|Alice in Wonderland}}''). In the movie, Neo takes the red pill. In the comic, however, he mixes the two pills then {{w|Insufflation_(medicine)|snorts}} the purple powder he has created as though it was an illegal drug such as cocaine, and apparently winds up in a bizarre upside down and inverted dimension, presumably caused by his 'Drug Trip'. Even Morpheus now has no idea where they are. Note that the inversion of both color and orientation could be intended to evoke the idea of capturing an image on film (i.e. a film negative), which is ''really'' the only place where Neo and Morpheus exist. It is possible that the combination of pills allowed Neo to break through another layer of the simulation. Alternatively, this could simply be Randall trying to explain that they are in an alternate dimension whilst still remaining within the constraints of stick figures on white and black backgrounds.

What leads up to the third scene is when Neo and Trinity must save Morpheus, who has been captured by {{w|Agent (The Matrix)|agents}} of the simulation. They obtain many guns and load them into trenchcoats. In the shown scene Neo is stopped at a security checkpoint in a building in the Matrix. A security guard tells him to remove any metallic items, since the scanner has shown him to have metal on his person, such as keys, and place them in a bin, then walk through the scanner again. In the movie, he opens his trenchcoat, revealing a myriad of weapons and dispatching all of the guards with the assistance of Trinity. In the comic, however, Neo opens his trenchcoat, but the guard's response of "eww" implies that Neo is otherwise naked and the guard is disgusted by his display of his genitals. It is possible that Neo, on account of having many metal implants (seen in the movie as being in the bodies of everyone raised by the robots), is trying to remove his implants, thus starting to take his clothes off.

After watching the movie, Cueball turns to his friends (Megan and another Cueball-like guy) and exclaims that he had forgotten how great the movie is. When his friend suggests that they put on the other two sequels, there is a beat panel where Megan and Cueball look at each other, then they beat up the offender off-panel.

The two sequels to ''The Matrix'' are widely regarded as inferior to the original, with some fans {{tvtropes|FanonDiscontinuity|pretending they don't exist}}. This is what happens when Megan and Cueball return, and Cueball repeats his statement about how good it was. Then Megan is saddened by the fact they never made any sequels and Cueball agrees. Thus trying hard (even violently) to forget those sequels. In the title text, however, Randall disagrees with the characters in the comics, remarking that he enjoyed the films when he watched them in the movie theater, but agrees that they are not as good as the original.

On {{w|IMDb}} the original movie was still in the top 20 on their [http://www.imdb.com/chart/top?tt0133093&ref_=tt_awd top 250 chart] in July 2015, with an average of [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ 8.7] vs. only [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234215 7.2] and [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242653 6.7] to the sequels (though even those two scores are relatively high compared to other action titles).

9 years (and one day) later Randall made the comic [[1978: Congressional Testimony]] where the movie ''{{w|The Terminator}}'' is mentioned. In the title text a similar line of thought as the one in the bottom strip of this comic is made. The third movie in the Terminator Franchise was so great that Skynet sent back a robot to prevent James Cameron, the director of the first two Terminator movies, from directing it, and instead another (much worse) version of the movie was later directed by another director. This indicates that Randall would rather not have had the third movie made, and also fantasizes about how much better it could have been with the original director making T3.

==Transcript==
:[Megan stands below two pieces of text, in a panel that is without a frame.]
:Today was the ten-year anniversary of the release of ''The Matrix.''
:I sat down to watch it again.
:Megan: Holy fuck, ten years ago?

:[The next three panels of the first row and the next two rows spoofs three scenes from The Matrix.]

:[In scene 1 Morpheus with sunglasses and Trinity with hair bun are talking to Cueball-Neo. Morpheus has his hands together.]
:Morpheus: Unfortunately, no one can explain what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.

:[Trinity lifts her hand.]
:Trinity: Sure you can. It's a computer simulation in which you live, thinking it's reality.
:Neo: Oh.

:[Morpheus takes his hands down and turns around glaring at Trinity who has also taken her hand down.]
:Trinity: ...What?
:Trinity: Look, maybe you just suck at explaining.

:[In scene 2 Morpheus is talking to Neo while holding a red pill and a blue pill. To the far right is a part of a table.]
:Morpheus: ...Or you take the red pill, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

:[Neo takes both pills from Morpheus.]

:[Neo crushes both the red and blue pills on a table top.]
:''Crush''

:[Neo snorts the resulting purple powder through a pipe he holds up to his face (his nose).]
:''Snort''

:[Morpheus and Neo are shown upside down in a frame with inverted colors, i.e., black background with white lines.]
:Morpheus: Now look what you've done.
:Neo: Where ''are'' we?
:Morpheus: I have no idea.

:[In scene 3 Neo, wearing a long, black trench coat, at a metal detector, is accosted by the Cueball-like security guard.]
:Guard: Please remove any keys, metallic items, weapons—

:[Neo steps close to the guard and opens his trench coat towards the guard, who is facing the reader. The reader can't see what Neo has under his coat.]

:[Same scene as above, but side view: Neo, on the left, is opening his coat toward the guard, who is on the right and seems to be looking down. Nobody speaks.]

:[Same scene as above but the guard now looks up to Neos face and finally speaks:]
:Guard: Eww.

:[In the last row of the comic we see three characters that have obviously just finished watching The Matrix. Cueball is sitting on the floor nearest to the TV, Megan is sitting on the floor, farther from the TV and a Cueball-like friend is sitting on an armchair, farthest from the TV.]
:Cueball: I forgot how good that movie was.
:Friend: Wanna put on the other two?

:[Cueball, still sitting has turned to face Megan. They exchange looks without speaking.]

:[View of room, which is now empty, as is the chair. Sounds comes from off-screen to the right.]
:''Crash''
:''Wham''
:Friend (off-screen): Ow! Ow!

:[Cueball and Megan are back in the room, zoomed in so the TV is no longer visible, but the chair is and it remains empty. The friend is nowhere to be seen.]
:Cueball: I forgot how good that movie was.
:Megan: Too bad they never made any sequels.
:Cueball: True.

==Trivia==
*The 6th, 7th and 8th panels have been turned into an internet meme

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:The Matrix]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

2842: Inspiraling Roundabout

2023-10-17T12:08:52Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2842
| date = October 16, 2023
| title = Inspiraling Roundabout
| image = inspiraling_roundabout.png
| titletext = Look, I just think we need to stop coddling those hedonistic roundabout hogs who get into the inner lane and circle for hours, wasting valuable capacity.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by RUNAROUND SUE}}

A {{w|roundabout}}, also called a traffic circle or rotary, is a traffic control device that often serves as an alternative to stop signs, instead allowing for mere yields, as all traffic flows in the same clockwise direction around a central point (counterclockwise in left-driving countries). This comic shows a top down view of an "Inspiraling Roundabout" which spirals each entrance/exit lane inward, eventually leading all three roads to meet in the center.

The caption states that it's [[Technically|technically]] navigable, since you can get anywhere on the roundabout without breaking highway laws, but that the Highway Department has rejected it, presumably due to being impractical compared to a normal roundabout.

A few observations of this particular design:
* To drive from one entrance to the next exit is easy and does not require entering the spiral. If you start at 12 o’clock, it’s easy to exit at 4 o’clock.
* Driving to the 2nd exit (e.g., from 12 o’clock to 8 o’clock) requires entering the spiral, driving '''clockwise''' (normal direction for a roundabout)
* Exiting the spiral means first finding the right exit lane at the center (which would be confusing) and then driving '''counterclockwise''' (not typical for a roundabout) and on the same path as incoming cars, raising the risk of head-on collisions (not a desirable attribute of road planning)
* When exiting back into the outermost lane and then turning into your exit, drivers must make a very sharp left turn to exit.

A few implications of this design:
* If your goal is to get from 12 o’clock to 8 o’clock, it would likely be easier to exit at 4 o’clock, do a U-turn, re-enter, and then exit at 8 o’clock.
* If lane changes are allowed across dotted lines (which is typical), that would also make it easy to get from 12 o’clock to 8 o’clock because you could simply change into the outermost lane near 6 o’clock.

The '''title text''' justifies this nutty design by presuming the amusing existence of "hedonistic roundabout hogs who get into the inner lane and circle for hours," expressing Randall's frustration that we've been "coddling" them with normal roundabout designs that let them get off on driving in circles in the inner lane for hours. Of course, this is a non-issue {{citation needed}}.
* The "coddling" of some population is a common complaint of conservative public policy discourse.

'''Trivia'''
Unlike inspiraling roundabouts, outspiraling roundabouts are a real thing, common across western Europe. They are known as "Turbo Roundabouts," though the design requires at least 4 entrances/exits.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[A large roundabout with three entrances of two lanes, three exits, and three spirals (as is CLEARLY evidenced by the three inner termini and three separate starts) of dotted lines starting from the medians between entry lanes and exit lanes of the same road which terminate in the center leaving a lane-sized median of plain asphalt.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Even though it '''''was''''' technically navigable, the highway department vetoed my inspiraling roundabout design.

{{comic discussion}}

1247: The Mother of All Suspicious Files

2023-10-17T12:06:11Z

JLZ0kTC5: current link

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

==Explanation==
Modern operating systems try to intercept malicious files before they can be downloaded. This comic depicts a {{w|dialog box}} requiring the user to confirm if they want to download a potentially dangerous file — and it turns out the file being downloaded is absolutely filled with a truly absurd number of file extensions. Many of the {{w|file extension|extensions}} used inside there indicate executable code; multiple file extensions are sometimes used to disguise a {{w|Trojan horse (computing)|trojan program}} as a document. The sheer number of extensions in the comic wouldn't just look out of place on a safe file, it's also far more than an actual computer virus would bother to have, thus the humor.

The first part of the suspicious file's name is <tt><nowiki>http://65.222.202.53</nowiki></tt>, an {{w|IP address}} that hosted {{w|JavaScript}} {{w|malware}} during a recent attack on the {{w|Tor anonymity network}}, with a very long file title.

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

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

The "Save" button is greyed out, suggesting that it is disabled; you can click only the "Cancel" button. For security reasons, some browsers (like Firefox) disable the "Save" button for a few seconds before enabling it. This prevents users from accidentally accepting a download while entering input, like a malicious CAPTCHA.

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

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

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

The {{w|IP address}} referenced in the comic, <tt>65.222.202.53</tt>, was, at the time this article was authored, being used by the shellcode of a {{w|JavaScript}} {{w|zero-day exploit}} for the {{w|Tor Browser Bundle}} being run by the {{w|FBI}} to phone home over the clearnet [https://thehackernews.com/2013/08/Firefox-Exploit-Tor-Network-child-pornography-Freedom-Hosting.html] and deanonymize visitors to websites on Freedom Hosting that are serving child pornography. [https://www.reddit.com/r/onions/comments/1jmrta]

As the last extension in the file is .exe, a Windows computer would run the file like an application. Usually, it is not safe to run unknown .exe files.

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

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

Talk:1037: Umwelt

2023-10-06T13:18:24Z

JLZ0kTC5:

For the Israel comic, it's not just that interfaith marriage is culturally frowned upon, Israel in fact does not legally recognise interfaith marriages. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.170.65|162.158.170.65]] 11:30, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

I'm surprised nobody mentioned yet that "Umwelt" is the German word for "environment" - both in the sense of "someone's surroundings" as well as in the sense of "nature/ecology".
[[User:Dermaniac|Dermaniac]] ([[User talk:Dermaniac|talk]]) 13:38, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

I live in New York, but I get the snake comic for some reason. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.160.136|172.69.160.136]] 18:41, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

I looked at it in Firefox, and the alt text changed from saying "web browser" to "browser window size" Should we add that?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.59|108.162.238.59]] 18:11, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Normally I understand xkcd. But this one hurts my head. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:35, 15 August 2012 (UTC)
: I sorted all of them out. Phew!!! That was some work. The ones at the end have no appropriate picture in the image part. Atleast the hurricane one should be added. Please do so. [[User:TheOriginalSoni|TheOriginalSoni]] ([[User talk:TheOriginalSoni|talk]]) 11:09, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
:: I live in one of Umwelt's "hurricane areas", and that's the one I see. How do we add it? [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 06:06, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

There is a fixed image used if your browser does not support javascript, which is missing. Additionally, the alt text varies at times. [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 20:16, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

I can't see any of them neither in Firefox nor in IE :( --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 11:32, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

This has got to be one of my favourite xkcd's! That amount of ingenuity in one edition! [[User:D3KN0W|Dean]] ([[User talk:D3KN0W|talk]]) 22:33, 01 January 2013 (UTC)

There is now also a category page for Jurassic Park, but I'm not sure how to work that into the explanation. [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 09:04, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

I can't resist noting that Chrome is sadly mistaken in thinking that its puzzle piece links up to a corner piece - it would have to be an edge piece to do that. Firefox would never have that kind of issue... [[User:Natf|Natf]] ([[User talk:Natf|talk]])
: Supposedly, if there were a puzzle with inner corners, such as one with a plus cut out of it, this could link up as shown. ... I wanna make a puzzle like that now. [[Special:Contributions/99.44.200.140|99.44.200.140]] 08:00, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

It would be difficult to compile, but I think this page would benefit from having the conditions along with the image (for instance, "Displays when running Netscape:") [[Special:Contributions/24.41.66.114|24.41.66.114]] 03:27, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Hey, um, I think there is an Animaniacs reference. Namely, the question about hot dogs resembles Yakko's question to the Wally Llama except it dealt with packages of eight and packages of ten. (I forget which is which) {{unsigned ip|71.166.47.84}}

I can see the Hurricane comic and I'm in California. Anyone else getting it from a place not mentioned in the article? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.233|172.68.142.233]] 04:33, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

I came here to seek informartion about how each strip was seen. Disappointed... Especially after seeing there is a hebrew one!?!?!?!? (number 29) Is it real? Because I assume it should be visible from Israel and I can't see it [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.228|141.101.99.228]] 22:26, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Added two location references to the 2Fast2Furious and Snake comics, with browser references. Anyone know why I got those results? {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.77}}
: I don't, especially since I live in the UK (not Texas) and yet I see the Snake comic? [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 14:14, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

I found a new one, it seems to display when using TOR. Should I add it? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.60|173.245.49.60]] 02:22, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
:Yes definitely. [[User:Chriswampler|Chriswampler]] ([[User talk:Chriswampler|talk]]) 16:07, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
::The Reviews comic just as appearing under TOR is actually comic #1036. Can you confirm that it is actually showing up under Umwelt? [[User:Chriswampler|Chriswampler]] ([[User talk:Chriswampler|talk]]) 20:34, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
:::Yes. I checked like ten times. I just did it again.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.153|173.245.53.153]] 20:40, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
:Honestly I can't do much explaining. Does anyone get it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.61|108.162.219.61]] 20:54, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
:For me, using TOR, it displayed the full Aurora comic. [[User:Zorlax the Mighty|Zorlax the Mighty'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:Zorlax the Mighty|talk]]) 17:50, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

Has anyone tested the Steam browser, whatever it is, with this comic? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.66|108.162.219.66]] 18:50, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

I tested the Steam browser and got the "This plugin requires Sergey Brin's permission to run" comic, same as when I use Chrome.[[User:RobotSnake|RobotSnake]] ([[User talk:RobotSnake|talk]]) 18:16, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
:That is because the Steam browser is WebKit/Chromium-based. (Now you know something!)[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] 03:34, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

For the Yahoo Chrome one with Sergey Brin, it reminds me a bit like how German tanks were unable to be moved on D-Day because Hitler, whose order was needed to move them, slept through the first five hours of the batter. It's the same theme of failure due to having only one person able to give permission, and that person being asleep.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.188|173.245.54.188]] 14:53, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

I get Pond on both my laptop (Firefox) and iPhone 3. I live in North Holland. Hope it helps, ask some other Dutch people about it for affirmation. On Opera, I get the turtle one. I should also note that if I make my browser window smaller, the right part of it is cut off. This page is clearly incomplete... -Maplestrip

...Uhm, have you guys ever tried looking at this page in Lynx? Because, seriously, this is amazing. It's basically this entire page. The start in particular is hilarious: "<nowiki>[[two people...]]</nowiki> <<..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all of this>> [[Two people standing next to eachother..." Reading some of this, is this where you got all the transcripts for these comics from? -Maplestrip

In Ireland I get no comic strip loading at all! Just nothing in between the direction buttons, on Chrome or Safari! :/ {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.215}}

Just something I feel should be added to the "Blizzard" comic: it seems to also change the distance measurement (magnitude and system), in the last panel, depending on your location; for instance, the final panel refers to them only having [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22279334/Screen%20Shot%202015-03-25%20at%2010.03.06%20PM.png six more kilometres to travel] for me: fitting given that I'm located in central Ontario. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.17|108.162.216.17]] 02:23, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm in Georgia but I still got the Hurricane image. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.187|108.162.238.187]] 14:12, 29 May 2015 (UTC)

I have the "Reviews" one. With Firefox/Linux without referer and without javascript, from France. With javascript I don't have any comic. Edit : I checked, it's because I have the "Reviews" one but inside a <noscript> tag, so it doesn't display when javascript is activated. [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 14:20, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

And now we need Randall to make an Umwelt page for Microsoft Edge.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.61|108.162.221.61]] 02:06, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Note of interest: Windows 10, Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, GA. Currently receiving "The Void" on both Chrome and Microsoft Edge unless Javascript is disabled. When disabled, "Reviews" is shown instead. Also: Chrome on HTC One M8 shows "Corporate Networks" with yellow triangle and Google - a combination which incidentally does not seem to be on this page. [[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 05:11, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

I'm on Windows 10 in NJ and I'm getting "Snake" instead of "Hurricane" on Opera, Chrome, Edge and Maxthon. Has this happened to other NJ users, or is "Hurricane" in only some parts on New Jersey? Maybe it's because it's on Windows 10. {{unsigned ip|69.123.50.168}}

I'm in Idaho using Firefox, and I get Reviews whenever I go to this comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.74|108.162.246.74]] 18:41, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Should I add to the article that I'm seeing "Snake" on Chrome version 49.0.2623.112 on Windows 8 in Massachusetts? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.72|108.162.219.72]] 00:13, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
:I posted that comment before I had an account. Now that I'm looking back at this article a year later, I've gone ahead and done it. —[[User:CsBlastoise|CsBlastoise]] ([[User talk:CsBlastoise|talk]]) 22:28, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

I got a variant of the snake one in Ohio using Windows 7 and Google Chrome Version 49.0.2623.112 m. As of now, it should only be visible in "Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS), Connecticut (Safari for iOS)."[[User:Bbrk24|Bbrk24]] ([[User talk:Bbrk24|talk]]) 16:35, 3 May 2016 (UTC)

I'm getting Plugin Disabled in Safari, Firefox, Safari mobile, Chrome mobile, and the Google app. The only anomaly is Chrome desktop, where I'm getting Tornado (located in "the Midwest"), and I'm all out of browsers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.72.113|162.158.72.113]] 21:37, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

I get the review strip when sharing http://xkcd.com/1037/ on FB, and the full aurora strip using chrome on my android t-mobile phone [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.89|173.245.48.89]] 17:55, 26 August 2016 (UTC)

I'm in Virginia, but when i look at umwelt in firefox, it gives me the tornado, whith ohio in the third panel, and on chrome, it does aurora, still saying ohio. {{unsigned ip|172.68.78.127}}

== Comic Might Now be Broken? ==

For some reason, this comic does not seem to be working now. It doesn't work on Chrome version 57.0.2987.133 on Windows 8 in Massachusetts, even though it worked a year ago on the very same computer with version 49.0.2623.112 of Chrome in the same location (showing "Snake" then); I tried it on Internet Explorer on the same computer (only because it's the only other browser I have on it), and it didn't work there either; my brother grudgingly agreed to try it on Firefox on his Ubuntu 14.04 machine (in the same room), and we got the same result.

No, I'm not talking about the void; here, there is absolutely no image at all. It seems to be the same as the experience that an anonymous user posted above about two and a half years ago:
<blockquote>In Ireland I get no comic strip loading at all! Just nothing in between the direction buttons, on Chrome or Safari! :/ [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.215|173.245.53.215]] 18:41, 13 November 2014 (UTC) <code>''(Comment was actually unsigned; contributor and timestamp are implied by <nowiki>{{unsigned ip}}</nowiki> template and edit history, respectively)''</code></blockquote>
Now, every time I tried on my computer, the browser said that the page was trying to load unsafe scripts. Maybe this is somehow linked to the fact that within the past few months, Randall (or more likely Davean) made all xkcd links secure (<nowiki>https://</nowiki>), and the now secure nature of the page could be blocking the location- and browser-sensing scripts in the comic itself. However, the comic still didn't work when I opted to "Load Unsafe Scripts", so maybe it isn't that simple.

Also, it might be helpful to note that [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] posted on here that he was having an issue that is probably quite similar to this one:
<blockquote>I have the "Reviews" one. With Firefox/Linux without referer and without javascript, from France. With javascript I don't have any comic. Edit : I checked, it's because I have the "Reviews" one but inside a <noscript> tag, so it doesn't display when javascript is activated. [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 14:20, 9 December 2015 (UTC)</blockquote>
Anyway, with all that said, is there anyone else who is having this issue and/or knows what might be causing it?

—[[User:CsBlastoise|CsBlastoise]] ([[User talk:CsBlastoise|talk]]) 23:48, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

:It has to do with the browser getting scared off by "mixed active content." Mozilla's developers discuss it in more detail here: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Mixed_content]. In Firefox at least, there's a config change you can make (security.mixed_content.block_active_content) to override this and get the comic to display. (Well, kind of. I'm still getting "The Void," but I'm working on it.) Other browsers can probably be reconfigured likewise, though you should remember to change back when you're done to avoid security problems.. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 03:28, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

when using chromium on ubuntu 16.04 32 bit (yeah yeah yeah) I get no comic loaded, there is no element present. --> http://i.imgur.com/KZwpN8y.png have fun all. -[anon]

I live in Florida and I had the "Lake Diver Killer" comic show up for me in Umwelt. Then it changed to the "Void" comic despite the fact that JavaScript was supported (it was Google Chrome) and now nothing shows up at all. I don't get it.... --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]][[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]] 12:25, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

I notified davean, since nobody said doing so. [[User:Musaran|Musaran]] ([[User talk:Musaran|talk]]) 14:26, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

Developer console on Opera 46 shows this error:
GET http://umwelt.xkcd.com/story/ghenkEggov8?callback=waldoCallback&w=796&h=658…%3Dopera%26hs%3DuXE%26gbv%3D1%26sei%3Df5dkWd_9MMiGaJKyibAG&_=1499764695887 503 (Service Unavailable)
So it appears there are problems with the server.
Also, I confirm that disabling Javascript in the browser results in the reviews comic displaying. [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 09:28, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Israel is incorrect. I ive there and I got Saturday _OHF {{unsigned ip|162.158.90.36}}

Guys it won't even load in my iPad browser, you can't even see the ring now. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 05:45, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

Two buttons and no comic on Chrome 20/10/21, Oxford UK

Istočno Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, 24. 10. 2022., Firefox 103.0.2 on Arch Linux desktop - nothing, just the two layers of buttons. Same thing in Private Browsing as well as normal. Inspect [Element] does show the Reviews strip in a <noscript> tag, but nothing appears on the page. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.143|172.68.50.143]] 00:56, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

I have good news: [https://mastodon.social/@chromakode/109531309722997557 Umwelt is being fixed!]

== New location for long Too Quiet? ==

I got the long version of Too Quiet on a Chromebook in Minnesota. The long version only seems to be mentioned for Chrome in Indiana. Can anyone else verify? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.46|162.158.214.46]] 17:09, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

No one thought to mention that the "Snake" has two heads? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 23:56, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

== accessing XKCD with Netscape Navigator ==

I cannot access XKCD from Netscape 4.7 (i.e. a version from the 1990s), it gives a messagebox "Netscape and this server cannot communicate securely because they have no common encryption algorithm(s)."

Now I can work out what's going on: XKCD is not allowing unencrypted connections / is redirecting plain HTTP requests to the HTTPS version, but the only versions of SSLTLS that NS4 supports are ancient, insecure and prudently not supported by the site itself.

Now, if we assume that it's talking about still using NS ''per se'', not 1990s NS: — the last version of Navigator was NS9, based on FF2.0. In FF2.0, I get "Firefox can't connect securely to xkcd.com because the site uses a security protocol which is not enabled." Looking in the options, it only offers two protocols (SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0), both of which are enabled.

I therefore have reason to believe that the Navigator Umwelt phenotype can only be accessed by user-agent spoofing, as XKCD and hence Umwelt apparently cannot be accessed from Netscape due to XKCD requiring higher TLS versions than NS offers. -- [[User:HarJIT|HarJIT]] ([[User talk:HarJIT|talk]]) 15:40, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

:Yes, you're right. p.s. shortening the section header to improve the TOC. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 12:04, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

I keep trying to view the comic, but no matter what I try, it won't show me anything - [[User:AnonymousSub61|AnonymousSub61]] ([[User talk:AnonymousSub61|talk]]) 14:51, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

On the Chrome OS in Massachusetts, only two rows of navigational buttons are displayed. It may apply across every state with the chrome OS. 3 June 2021.

Can confirm chrome OS doesn't work in georgia. i think randall forgot to add a bit for browsers/states that support javascript but aren't specifically listed- [[User:Anonia|Anonia]] ([[User talk:Anonia|talk]]) 9:58 21 december 2021

I live in South Korea and use an LG U+ phone, but no comic shows up.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.62|108.162.246.62]] 15:15, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

== new location for aurora??? ==

i get the aurora one even though i'm not in any of the locations shown in that section. i live in madrid, spain

edit: also it shows me the utah version [[User:An user who has no account yet|An user who has no account yet]] ([[User talk:An user who has no account yet|talk]]) 16:34, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

is there an error with the smith college one? none of the people's hair is changed like in the wellesley one.. [[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 13:18, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

User:JLZ0kTC5

2023-10-05T22:38:24Z

JLZ0kTC5:

probably a bad idea to put my name here.

2803: Geohydrotypography

2023-10-05T22:36:56Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2803
| date = July 17, 2023
| title = Geohydrotypography
| image = geohydrotypography_2x.png
| imagesize = 339x389px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Atlantic is expanding at about 10 ppm (points per month).
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another entry in the "[[:Category:My_Hobby|My Hobby]]" series of comics.

{{w|Plate tectonics}} is the understanding that the Earth's lithosphere is divided up into separate 'plates', which carry the continents and (in the case of the Atlantic) are slowly moving apart under geological action that mostly drives the respective coastlines away from the deep center of the ocean. Here, Randall explains that if the surface of the Atlantic Ocean were covered in a certain size of printed text (as if its surface were a giant sheet of printed paper, which it is not{{citation needed}}), the shifting of the continents would increase the amount of text by about 100 words per second.

[[Randall]] says that his hobby is geohydrotypography, which is a compound of 'geo' (from the Greek for earth), 'hydro' (water), 'typo' (type, as in printing) and 'graphy' (a descriptive science) - in other words, the arrangement of letters, words and symbols on the water surfaces of the earth. He may mean that he enjoys studying such arrangements, and/or that he likes arranging such text himself.

The title text is a pun on "ppm," which is generally understood to mean "parts per million" (a dimensionless unit of concentration). Here, it instead describes the rate of the ocean's expansion, about 40 millimeters per year, in "points per month." A point in typography is 1/72 of an inch, or 127/360 =~ 0.3528 millimeters. The expansion sideways would steadily allow more characters on the first line (and thus intermittently more words, 'unwrapping' the first word seen on the next line) and cascading this effect onto every subsequent line spread out vertically along the roughly 13,000km (depending upon your choice of limits) North/South 'height' of the writing medium.

The exact calculation needs various assumptions. Font families of a given well-defined vertical size/separation can each exhibit varying general widths of character, and be subject to various possible degrees of [[kerning]], depending upon what precise choice of text is made (unless using a strictly a fixed-width font). The spacing between successive lines would need to be chosen. The word that does (or does not) have to be wrapped at the first line-break can affect which groups of words may (or may not) need to wrap on subsequent lines, in a cascading effect that can create almost chaotic changes from just a single reassessment. However, the {{w|law of large numbers}} would likely minimize the effect of this variability, such that an estimate from known averages would yield a result with a very small amount of relative error. It is not known which (ballpark) number Randall assigned as the current word count as of posting the comic.

The exact extent of the Atlantic Ocean can also be differently interpreted: where it meets the Southern and Arctic oceans, whether to include bordering 'seas' such as the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, what to do where the 'text' may have to cross/break-across islands (e.g., the Bahamas, Azores, etc., some of these being treated as Atlantic boundaries with the comic's relatively much larger size of "ocean text"), possibly even whether to track the precise tidal inundations at the coastlines at any particular moment, which would make the resulting word count per second probably fluctuate with the tides (unless high-/low-/median watermarks were actually chosen as standard). All these factors, and more, make it difficult to precisely define the total number of characters (and thus words) that would fit, though the annual increase in the approximate area of the ocean could allow us to assume some approximately greater number of characters (based upon an approximation of their average page-area requirements) which could be divided by the approximate number needed for a general corpus of words (and its spacing) to determine the approximate additional text that could now be added for any given span of time. Knowing Randall, he has used the best approximations that he could find and determined that the possible cumulative errors were not unacceptable.

Relying on the lost nursery rhyme "44.1 million square miles the Atlantic ocean is", and confirming on Wikipedia, about 5 trillion characters would fit. Assuming 1 byte per character, that's the amount of RAM on just 2 Summit supercomputers, the fastest supercomputer as of 7/2023. Quick testing on a modern laptop shows that Chrome takes about 0.1 second to add 1 character to a DIV element per million characters already there. For example: if a paragraph is already 50 million characters long, adding one character takes 5 second. To keep up with the 100 words per second at a barely acceptable 24 frames per second, the laptop would need to be 10 billion times faster - not that difficult, if humanity would dedicate one laptop per human for this task, and the complexity of this amount of parallel processing was solved. On the other hand, only 50,000 Summits would be needed. Please keep in mind these are very approximate numbers, as Chrome is always getting better, and there are many possible optimizations, including perhaps a new company would compete with Google rendering ocean-size paragraphs.

Note that the text as it appears on the globe in the comic is not 12 point, but instead is close to 1.5 billion point.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A depiction primarily of the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding landmasses. The land is black, leaving the oceans and seas white except for the following words written in sixteen lines of text (from just below the tip of Greenland/Arctic Ocean down to slightly above the Falkland Islands/Southern Ocean) that are, for the most part, wrapped between the Atlantic coastline 'margins' (as defined by the Americas on the left and Europe/Africa on the right, or significant island groups:]

:If you
:covered
:the surface of
:the Atlantic Ocean
:with twelve-point
:printed text,
:with the lines
:wrapping at
:the coasts, the
:expansion of
:the ocean basin
:due to plate
:tectonics would
:increase your word
:count by about 100
:words per second.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My Hobby: Geohydrotypography

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Language]]

2807: Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)

2023-10-05T22:34:59Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2807
| date = July 26, 2023
| title = Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)
| image = bad_map_projection_abs_longitude_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x822px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Positive vibes/longitudes only
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ANGRY MAP GENERATOR. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is the sixth comic in the series of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] displaying Bad Map Projection #152: ABS(Longitude). It came about 15 months after the fifth [[2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator]] (#248).

In this map, [[Randall]] has plotted the world map featuring all the landmasses from both western and eastern hemispheres. But the longitudes west of the prime meridian, normally given negative values from 0° to -180°, have been made positive using the "ABS()" function that gives the {{w|absolute value}} by effectively stripping off the minus sign from any value. This results in the features on one side of the world being overlaid upon those of the other side, but mirrored. A similar concept was explored earlier in [[1500: Upside-Down Map]]. The caption "Whoops, made all longitudes positive" is similar to the caption in [[2256: Bad Map Projection: South America]] ("Oops, all South Americas!"). That was a reference to the cereal [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/oops-all-berries-box-parodies ''Oops! All Berries''].

Thanks to the relative sparsity of western continents (most prominently the Americas, but also roughly half of Antarctica, the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa, the easternmost part of Siberia, and multiple Pacific islands), and the landless expanses of the Pacific, this is surprisingly not too dissimilar to an east-only fragment of a world map. Just with the reversed 'new world' lands added to the usual extents of continents of Africa and Eurasia and the somewhat familiar notable Antarctic Peninsula being recognizable but in an odd position (and reversed) with no sign of the {{w|Ross Sea|Ross}} and {{w|Weddel Sea}}s (as eastern-Antarctic landmass takes precedence). Most continents can be traced out, but North America overlaps so much with Asia that most of its outlines are hidden.

Some features of the real world disappear, such as the English Channel, the North American Great Lakes, and the Strait of Gibraltar. The Arabian Sea becomes a lake as South America cuts it off from the rest of the Indian Ocean (Indian-Pacific Ocean?). To further interest the [[977: Map Projections|map-connoisseur]], various locations are marked and dotted upon their genuine or reflected positions, putting into close proximity various locations that have (mainly) trans-Atlantic separation in reality. Some of these locations have been renamed in this projection by combining the names of newly overlapping locations. These are:
*The "Palk-Panama Canal", combining the {{W|Palk Strait}} between India and Sri Lanka with the Panama Canal in Central America.
*The "Congo-Amazon Rainforest", combining the world's two largest tropical rainforests, the {{w|Congo Rainforest|Congo}} in Africa and the {{w|Amazon Rainforest|Amazon}} in South America.
*The "Hudson Plain", combining {{w|Hudson Bay}} in North America with the {{w|West Siberian Plain}}.
*The "Kara-Baffin Sea", combining the {{w|Kara Sea}} to the north of Russia with {{w|Baffin Bay}} between Canada and Greenland.

Additionally in northern Siberia is the label "Franklin's ''very'' lost expedition". {{w|Franklin's lost expedition}} was an attempt to find a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic passage. Naturally, a sea voyage ending up in the middle of a large landmass would be considered very lost.{{citation needed}}

===Correct formula===
Possible correct formulae to get only positive longitudes of 0°≤LONGITUDE<360°, especially from the typical map range of -180°≤LONGITUDE≤+180°, are:

:LONGITUDE=LONGITUDE+360*FLOOR(1-LONGITUDE/360)

:LONGITUDE=(LONGITUDE+360) MOD 360;

These may assist in creating a world map centered on the Pacific, not too dissimilar to the one portrayed in [[503: Terminology]], which might be the conceit behind this comic's 'error'.

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

:[There is a map of the world with positive longitudes and negative longitudes overlapping. Caption above the map:]

:Bad Map Projection #152:
:Longitude=ABS(Longitude)
:Whoops, made all longitudes positive

:[The land masses are represented in white, and the oceans in light grey. Some capital cities, countries and geographical features are labeled.]

:[Near Siberia, among the other city names, is indicated:]
:Franklin's ''very'' lost expedition

==Trivia==
The map has a few spelling errors, such as "Reykjavík" being misspelled as "Reykjavic", and the Aleutian Islands being misspelled as "Aelutian islands".

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bad_Map_Projections]]

2808: Daytime Firefly

2023-10-05T22:34:23Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2808
| date = July 28, 2023
| title = Daytime Firefly
| image = daytime_firefly_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Mr. Jones, watch out for Ms. Lenhart! She's from genus Photuris!
}}

==Explanation==

Some things are associated with being seen so much in a given context that it can be surprising to see them anywhere else. This comic starts with the initially trivial incident of a famously night-time outdoor insect, a {{w|firefly}}, being discovered indoors and during the day.

This quickly becomes another typical observation, that of the experience of a schoolchild seeing someone, whom they normally only encounter in the classroom, 'in the real world'. This may not be strange in small, close-knit communities, but can still be seen as extraordinary, and is sometimes an event that happens after the child (and/or teacher) has left the school, after several years have passed, and is a sign that they are now more equal citizens rather than tutor and student with vastly different non-overlapping lives outside of education.

Unlike fireflies, teachers, or indeed humans, generally do not {{w|Bioluminescence|bioluminesce}}, or flit around in the open air.{{Citation needed}} But that scenario is where the analogy {{tvtropes|Metaphorgotten|quickly turns}}, imagining Mr Jones (named as the teacher concerned) behaving like such an insect. Such an encounter would be at least as awkward as bumping into them in a semi-social situation, and the conversation you'd be having could be terribly stilted.

The idea of an outdoor, night-time encounter often involving the deliberate flashing of lights could also bring to mind {{w|Dogging (sexual slang)|another activity}} where [https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/uk-world-news/dogging-fan-reveals-what-really-2665950 car lights] can be used to signal participation, with perhaps a not too dissimilar motive to that of fireflies in the mating flights, in which it might indeed be... 'awkward'... for students and teachers to unexpectedly encounter each other.

The title text continues the conversation with some sage advice, to the firefly-teacher, to avoid [[Miss Lenhart]] (presumably, but here with the honorific of {{w|Ms.}}), another teacher of their acquaintance whom they believe to belong to an {{w|Photuris|aggressively mimicking genus of predatory firefly}}, and thus a potential danger to his existence. The females of those species are known to copy the blinking mating patterns of other firefly species in order to lure the males of those species with the promise of mating but with the true sole intent of eating them. The speaker is clearly concerned that Mr. Jones, while acting out the life of a firefly, will be fooled by Ms. Lenhart's firefly persona and then consumed.

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

:[Cueball is pointing at a flying insect to the right. Megan is walking towards it.]
:Cueball: There's a bug in here.
:Megan: Oh, it's a firefly!
:Cueball: Wait, really?
:Megan: Yeah! I dunno which species. I'll let it out.

:[Cueball is standing to the left. Megan has caught the firefly between her hands.]
:Cueball: ...I guess it makes sense fireflies have to go somewhere during the day.
:Cueball: I had just never thought about it.

:[Megan is walking to the left while holding the firefly. Cueball is standing to the right.]
:Cueball: It's like seeing your teacher at the store.
:Cueball: "Oh, weird, you exist in other contexts, too."

:[Megan standing on a grass field has released the firefly.]
:Megan: Or when you see your teacher hovering over a field at night giving off flashes of light.
:Cueball (off-panel): Yeah, also weird.
:Cueball (off-panel): "Sorry Mr. Jones! Uh, have...fun? See you Monday."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]

2810: How to Coil a Cable

2023-10-05T22:33:17Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2810
| date = August 2, 2023
| title = How to Coil a Cable
| image = how_to_coil_a_cable_2x.png
| imagesize = 366x713px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The ideal mix for maximum competitive cable-coiling energy is one A/V tech, one rock climber, one sailor, and one topologist.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CLIMBING MARINE A/V TOPOLOGIST - Add links to all relevant coiling techniques - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

When long cables or ropes are stored, it's recommended that they be wrapped into neat coils. Not only does this look less messy, but it reduces the danger that cables become entangled with themselves, and with other cables nearby, which can create a major nuisance, and in some cases even risk of damage or injury. However, simply wrapping the whole thing in the same direction introduces twists into the body of the cable. Over time, these twists can permanently deform the cable, causing it to twist into spirals, and once again risking damage.

In this strip, [[Cueball]] demonstrates his method for dealing with such problematic cables: he loudly announces the problem, blaming the cable itself. Well-meaning people then immediately descend upon him, eager to share their obscure knowledge of cable-coiling technique that they claim will avoid these issues (a bit like in [[208: Regular Expressions]]). As they explain their techniques for properly coiling cables, they demonstrate on the cable in question, resulting in it becoming neatly coiled. The implication is that Cueball didn't actually learn the techniques involved, but is confident that, in the future, he can simply employ the same technique to get others to do it for him. It's also implied that loudly (and wrongly) blaming the cable is the most effective way to get help, analogous to {{w|Ward_Cunningham#Law|Cunningham's Law}}, which states that "the best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer". This technique will cause some people to [[Duty Calls|compulsively correct it]], particularly those who are serious about the subject in question.

The title text specifies four groups of people who are likely to have knowledge about coiling cables, and to be serious about the 'right' way to do it.
* A/V (audio visual) technicians constantly work with multiple types of electrical and data cables, and have to store and sort them without tangling or twisting.
* Rock climbers constantly work with ropes, and their lives and safety may depend on keeping those in good condition and using them properly.
* Sailors traditionally worked on sailing ships, which operated using systems of rigging (often quite complex systems) and sailors were expected to be intimately familiar with handling knots and ropes. Even on more modern vessels, mooring ropes (at a minimum) are still likely to be, in turn, deployed and then stored away upon a working vessel at either end of a visit to a port or harbor.
* Topologists are mathematicians who specialize in study of spatial relations in changing shapes, and is sometimes referred to (somewhat facetiously) as the science of knots. The joke here is that a topologist could likely give an expert analysis in the theory of coiling and storing ropes, but may lack practical experience for doing so in real life.

The methods mentioned in step 3 are all references to actual terms and methods involved with storing rope or cable.

* The "Over-under Method" is a way of coiling cable by hand, where every other loop is twisted in the opposite direction to the first. Doing this properly prevents twists, because each coil reverses the twist introduced by the previous coil.
* "Figure-8" is a method where are rope or cable is wound from a center point, making a circle in one direction, then another in the opposite direction (forming an '8' shape), then repeating until the whole thing is coiled. This prevents twists by turning the rope in both directions an equal number of times.
* "Quarter-turn" is similar to the over-under method, but rather than reversing the direction of the coils, you give the rope a quarter-twist each time you add a loop, to counter the twist introduced.
* "Flaking" involves laying the rope out loosely on a surface. This allows you to unwind any twists or tangles, as well as checking it for kinks or damage. This would often be a first step in preparing the cable.

The joke is that all of the various people involved will have their own preferred technique, and all will rush to prove their superiority of doing things their way. The net effect of this competition is that Cueball's cable ends up neatly coiled, with little effort on his part, which is exactly what he wanted.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:How to Coil a Cable Properly
:[A drawing of a tangled cable appears below the title.]

:Step 1
:[Cueball is standing holding a tangled mess of cable in both hands. Each end of the cable is dragging on the ground.]
:Cueball: I need to buy a different brand of cable! This one always twists into spirals and gets tangled.

:Step 2
:[Ponytail enters the panel from the left, and White Hat enters from the right, to come to Cueball’s rescue.]
:White Hat: No! That's because of how you're coiling it!

:Step 3
:[White Hat holds and coils the cable while he, Hairy, and Ponytail attempt to explain the method behind the cable coiling. Ponytail, White Hat, and Hairy all have the same speech balloon, with many of the words replaced by scribbles to indicate that they are talking over each other and/or that Cueball can only make out a few phrases. Only the following dialogue in the word balloon is legible.]
:Ponytail / White Hat / Hairy: ...over-under method... ...figure-8... ...quarter-turn... ...flaking...

:Step 4
:[White Hat presents the well-coiled cable. A caption with an arrow points to the cable:]
:Neatly coiled!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

2816: Types of Solar Eclipse

2023-10-05T22:27:27Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2816
| date = August 16, 2023
| title = Types of Solar Eclipse
| image = types_of_solar_eclipse_2x.png
| imagesize = 501x572px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The best place to be for a hug eclipse is a scenic natural area with good views and few clouds. The worst place to be is the lunar surface.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DARK SHADOW OF A <s>DRAGONITE</s> ULTRA-NECROZMA THAT PERIODICALLY EATS THE SUN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

There are various different types of {{w|solar eclipse}}. The comic purports to show and name a number of them, initially quite real and accurate before heading into traditional xkcd fantasticality.

The punchline is where he likens an eclipse to a 'hug' of the Moon by the Sun. This is of course, not practically possible. The Sun is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers away from the Moon (and Earth). Even if it was somehow moved into touching distance by advanced sci-fi tech or a terrible disaster, the Moon would vaporize on contact with the Sun's plasma, thus not allowing for any sort of hug. In fact, we would not live very long if this happened, as the Earth would also be baked by the Sun's light, then swallowed by its intense gravity.

In the title text, the hug eclipse is mentioned again, this time in regards to where the best location would be to observe the event. First, normal advice is given about how the best way to view the eclipse would be in a scenic and natural area, predicted to have few clouds at the time, from somewhere along the rather narrow 'track of totality' for the day. Then he mentions that the lunar surface would be the worst place to go in a solar hug - as it would be blasted with thousands of degrees of heat from the Sun.

A normal Sun-Moon-Earth eclipse seen from the Moon would either be ineffectual or perfectly normal 'night-time', depending upon your lunar location. A Sun-Earth-Moon eclipse, seen from the Moon would be far more than total (if sought for from the nearside face) due to the much larger size of the Earth blotting out much more of the background, although the 'circular sunset' that gives the fully eclipsed Moon a dull red illumination could be worth seeing.

{| class="wikitable"
!Label
!Image
!Occurs naturally
!Description
|-
|Partial
|Sun partly obscured by an offset occlusion
| Yes
|When the Moon passes between the Earth and part of the Sun's disk but is not perfectly aligned (for any or all observers), the 'shadow' will not cross the center of the Sun. The parts of a full eclipse before second contact and after third contact are also described as partial phases of the eclipsing event.
|-
|Total
|Sun entirely obscured by a slightly larger concentric occlusion
| Yes
|When the Moon is close to perigee (or assisted by the Earth being at aphelion) during an eclipse, the Moon's apparent size is slightly larger than that of the Sun and will cover the whole solar disc. This is an astronomically useful effect, as well as aesthetically interesting to look at, as observers can study solar prominences and the atmosphere of the Sun whilst not being blinded by the glare of the bright 'surface' of the star.
|-
|Annular
|Sun partly obscured by a slightly smaller concentric occlusion
| Yes
|With the Moon nearer its apogee (and/or the Earth at perihelion), the Sun has a larger angular size than the Moon and will not be totally covered even by the most central alignment of each body.
An eclipse can also be called "hybrid" (not illustrated in the diagram), by being seen as both Total and Annular by different observers. Those viewing at more extreme latitudes or more westerly/easterly (the eclipse being closer to dawn and dusk, local time) are viewing both Moon and Sun from slightly further away around the curve of the planet and, as such, the nearer Moon decreases in angular size proportionately greater than the much more distant Sun. Thus they may see annularity in the same eclipse for which others would see totality.
|-
|Oblate
|Oval Sun obscured by a concentric circle, except for at the edges of its major axis
| No
|If the Sun were a grossly exaggerated oblate (or prolate) spheroid, for any reason, the equatorial (or polar) bulge might extend significantly beyond the original limits of totality, or the narrower radii fall beneath the limits of the nominally annular occlusion.
Here the Sun has a visibly pronounced ovality and the Moon a lesser one (but roughly at right-angles, to add to the disparity). As the current effects that might cause each body to be oblate act in roughly the same plane as each other (both Sun and Moon spin upon roughly the same axis, with respect to the background), it would take more than merely an extreme increase in each's rotation to duplicate this image - however either could be accomplished.
|-
|Interior
|Sun obscured at its edge by a thick ring, leaving its center visible
| No
|When an occluding object visibly larger than the Sun has a significant hole in the middle, only the rim of the Sun is blocked in the manner of an inverted annular eclipse.
|-
|Cuboid
|Sun obscured by a square cross-section
| No
|In this example, the 'Moon' appears to be a cube-like shape, rather than spherical, thus eclipsing a square portion of the solar disk. It must be turned face-on to Earth (and Sun), as other orientations of a true cubic (or cuboid) object might cause a rectangular or even hexagonal 'shadow'. It is twisted in the other axis (to be a diamond, rather than aligned square), but this will always be a matter more of one's precise viewing point upon the surface of the Earth regardless of the orbital and rotational alignments.
This might be a reference to the video game {{w|Q.U.B.E.}}, where a massive, cube-like alien spaceship passes by the moon and threatens to hit the Earth.
|-
|Transverse
|Obscuring circle drawn as a perpendicular plane intersecting the Sun on a center-line
| No
|This depicts the solar disc as two dimensional (and at an oblique angle) and the Moon (or its shadow) as a second 2D object somehow passing through the same space. This may be a spoof on the 'flat earth' explanation for the solar eclipse. The intersection of 2D objects in 3D space is the topic of a book, Flatland, that Munroe has referenced repeatedly, such as in [[721: Flatland]].
|-
|Saturnian
|Obscuring circle is given an oblique (shadow) ring system
| Yes, but not from Earth
|Probes sent to Saturn have captured images[https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/13101/spectacular-eclipses-in-the-saturn-system/] of this type of eclipse.
While it is theoretically possible that Saturn (and its rings) could eventually find itself in a position to cause a solar eclipse on Earth (and/or that Earth moves beyond Saturn, or that the Moon gains significant debris rings in its own right), this scenario does not appear to be likely any time soon.{{Citation needed}}
There are Saturnian moons that naturally travel behind their parent planet, but none currently known to be so far from Saturn that they would ever see the Sun and Saturn at similar apparent sizes, and no human is yet in a position to directly see such an effect by any currently available means.
|-
|Hug
|Obscuring shape is pinched over at both sides by the respective overlapping edges of the Sun
| No
|In this image it appears the Sun has extended its 'limbs' to affectionately hold the Moon, which might be problematic in several different ways.{{Citation needed}}
|}

In all these images, the solar disc does not actually have a solid Moon in front of it, but a semi-transparent shadow, more typical of the representation of the Earth's solar shadow as it passes across the face of the Moon in a {{w|lunar eclipse}}. This may be an additional part of the humor, but it is likely an artistic choice made to improve the diagrams' legibility.

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

:[Nine diagrams of solar eclipses are shown in a 3x3 grid layout. The first three are all real solar eclipses, the rest are all fictitious.]
:Caption: Types of Solar Eclipse
:[The Sun is partially covered by a similarly sized Moon:] Partial
:[The Sun is completely covered by a similarly sized Moon:] Total
:[The Sun is partially covered by a slightly smaller Moon, surrounding its shadow:] Annular
:[An oval 'sun' is mostly covered by a round Moon, except at the extremes of its distortions:] Oblate
:[Sun partially covered by a similarly sized 'moon', except for a hole in this moon's center:] Interior
:[Sun partially covered by a square 'moon'-shadow, turned by an arbitrary angle:] Cuboid
:[2D 'sun' being intersected with a 2D 'moon' at a perpendicular angle:] Transverse
:[Sun being partially obscured by a body that has a prominent multi-ring system:] Saturnian
:[Moon is pinched at the sides by the Sun behind it, as if being grabbed:] Hug

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Flatland]]

2818: Circuit Symbols

2023-10-05T22:25:46Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2818
| date = August 21, 2023
| title = Circuit Symbols
| image = circuit_symbols_2x.png
| imagesize = 438x362px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = A circle with an A in it means that the circuit has committed a sin and has been marked as punishment.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LOT of trolley problems in between overpasses built on top of pogo sticks, experiencing a couple of earthquakes. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic contains several symbols used in circuit diagrams. Each is labeled with a larger object that the symbol looks like a drawing of, rather than the electrical component it actually represents. Randall has previously depicted distorted uses, depictions, and labeling of the standard US-form {{w|electronic symbol}}s in comics such as [[730: Circuit Diagram]].

{| class="wikitable"
! Symbol !! Randall's Description !! Explanation
|-
| {{w|Switch}}
| {{w|Drawbridge}}
| The symbol represents a physical on/off {{w|switch}} in a circuit, but also resembles a {{w|drawbridge}}. A switch functions the exact same as a drawbridge, impeding electrons' flow when it is open. The purpose of a drawbridge is to allow people to cross who are impeded when the bridge is raised.
|-
| {{w|Capacitor}}
| {{w|Overpass}}
| A {{w|capacitor}} is a component that can be used to hold electric charge, but the symbol for it looks a bit like a depiction of a highway {{w|overpass}}, where one road or track passes over another, allowing the paths to cross without intersecting. The distinction between an overpass and {{w|Tunnel#Underpass|underpass}} is largely one of perspective, as when one road (or footpath, or animal migration route) goes over, the other is going under. Because a capacitor does not indicate a place of intersection of separate electrical circuits, any interpretation of a meaningful connection between an overpass and a capacitor is is tenuous at best. A capacitor is an electrical component that alternating current can get across, but direct current can't. This could be like how heavy trucks are not allowed on overpasses. However, this still only involves one electrical pathway.
|-
| {{w|Ground (electricity)|Ground}}
| {{w|Pogo Stick}}
| This symbol represents a connection to "{{w|Ground (electricity)|ground}}" or "earth", the common baseline voltage ''or'' safe current sink for various circuits (e.g., against which an aerial signal can be compared). If the horizontal lines are taken as motion lines or a spring, it might look like a stylized {{w|pogo stick}}.
|-
| {{w|Resistor}} (ANSI)
| {{w|Earthquake}}
| A {{w|resistor}} is a component that reduces current flow in a circuit. There are two main symbols used: an IEC-style 'box' or, like here, the ANSI zig-zagged line. In this case, it also looks somewhat like the marks an earthquake makes on a seismograph and/or the 'rucks' of the ground (especially asphalt roads) that might result from underlying tectonic movements.
|-
| {{w|Inductor}}
| {{w|Sheep}}
| {{w|Inductor}}s create a magnetic field when current passes through them, and generally consist of a coil of wire, which the symbol reflects. The symbol seems in this case to be interpreted like the fluffy wool of a sheep.
|-
| {{w|Transformer}}
| Two sheep in love, trapped on opposite side of a fence.
| A {{w|transformer}} consists of two (or more) induction coils, for input and output(s), and a common core to mediate the transfer of power across the gap. The curly loop symbols of the symbol have already been claimed to resemble sheep, and the straight line (which is the core) now represents a fence separating two sheep who nonetheless wish to be together.
|-
| {{w|Electric battery|Battery}}
| Battery
| Not a joke, this is a typical symbol for a {{w|Electric battery|battery}} (which provides voltage to a circuit{{citation needed}}), or other form of {{w|voltaic pile}}. Its inclusion here is simply as the set-up for the following joke symbols.
|-
| Battery (sorted)
| Baertty
| Randall may have mapped the characters "tt" to the first short line and "er" to the following long line in the original symbol, having had "ba" and "y" assigned to the long and short "T" shapes that form the connections to the rest of the circuit. Rearranging the symbolic verticals as long-long-short-short, as he has done in this (fictional) symbol, thus puts "er" in front of "tt". Another sorting paradigm is that, after the initial 'B', the remaining letters are arranged in alphabetical order, left to right. Similarly, after the first horizontal line in the symbol, the other line segments are arranged by decreasing vertical height (left to right).
|-
| Battery, with far too many short lines
| Battttttttttttery
| The only other fictional symbol. Which, by the same established naming rules, means that the name is spelled with six "tt"s instead of just the single pair.
|-
| {{w|Photodiode}}
| Check out this really cool diode
| A {{w|photodiode}} generates, or allows to pass, a current in response to light. The symbol is related to the standard {{w|diode}} with the arrows pointing at it representing the light which activates its behavior. In this case, Randall instead pretends that the arrows are pointing at it to draw attention to it because it's "really cool".
|-
| {{w|Electronic oscillator|Oscillator}}
| {{w|Wave Pool}}
| An {{w|Electronic oscillator|oscillator}} generates signals that oscillate at a given frequencies, for use in other circuitry, and one symbol used for one (in reality, built from a number of components in their own right) is this symbol. Waves in water are a type of oscillation that may be more familiar to most people than waves of electricity. A {{w|wave pool}} is in fact the ''result'' of a type of (mechanical) oscillator, and rarely has electricity running through it.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| {{w|Transistor}}
| Trolley Problem
| A {{w|transistor}} will switch on current flow across one of a pair of connections, depending upon the input from an input one. Randall likens this to the ability to use points to switch the destination of a trolley from one track to another, as protagonists are invited to do in the various versions of the {{w|trolley problem}}. The symbol also somewhat resembles the usual pictorial depiction of the problem. However, single transistors are not generally used to resolve ethical dilemmas.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| {{w|Ammeter|A circle with an A}} [In the title text]
| The circuit has committed a sin and has been marked as punishment
| Circles with letters are usually some special components, as also with the oscillator's glyph. In this case the "A" stands for ammeter, a device used to measure {{w|electric current}} (an "{{w|ampere}} meter"). This is conflated with the practice of branding the 'guilty', or requiring them to display their crime for a period of penance. For example, in ''{{w|The Scarlet Letter}}'', a historical novel by {{w|Nathaniel Hawthorne}}, the protagonist must wear an ''A'' to mark her as an adulteress.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A chart of various circuit symbols and their (mostly) fictitious meanings based off of their drawings, captioned:] Circuit Symbols
:[Symbol for a switch, labelled:] Drawbridge
:[Symbol for a capacitor, labelled:] Overpass
:[Symbol for a connection to ground, labelled:] Pogo Stick
:[Symbol for a resistor, labelled:] Earthquake
:[Symbol for an inductor, labelled:] Sheep
:[Symbol for a transformer, labelled:] Two Sheep in Love, Trapped on Opposite Sides of a Fence
:[Symbol for a battery, labelled:] Battery
:[Symbol for a battery, sorted, labelled:] Baertty
:[Symbol for a battery, with far too many short lines, labelled:] Battttttttttttery
:[Symbol for a photodiode, labelled:] Check Out This Really Cool Diode
:[Symbol for an oscillator, labelled:] Wave Pool
:[Symbol for a transistor, labelled:] Trolley Problem

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2820: Inspiration

2023-10-05T22:23:59Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2820
| date = August 25, 2023
| title = Inspiration
| image = inspiration_2x.png
| imagesize = 515x163px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An apple fell on Isaac Newton's head and gave him the idea that the moon might be a tasty apple, though this turned out not to be true--the Apollo program eventually determined that it was just a desolate and bland Red Delicious.
}}

==Explanation==

The apple falling on Cueball's head is a reference to the folk tale about the inspiration for {{W|Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation}}. [https://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00001 One of Isaac Newton's biographers] reported that his inquiries into the nature of gravity were "occasion'd by the fall of an apple" as he sat under a tree. Over time, this evolved into the story that a falling apple struck Newton on the head. Some versions of the story imagine him gazing at the moon when the apple hits him, and having the revelation that the force pulling the apple toward the earth was the same force that kept the moon in orbit.

In this strip, Cueball is similarly struck by a falling apple, while gazing at the moon. But rather than an insight about gravity, he makes a different connection, that of starting an apple orchard on the Moon. This would, of course, require some form of massive terraforming project (or at least the construction of a large, pressurized dome), since the airless environment of the moon wouldn't allow any plants to survive. It's not entirely ridiculous that the contrast between the lifeless moon and the lush landscape of an apple orchard would inspire someone to seek to plant life on the moon.

The title text claims that Newton thought that the Moon was in fact a tasty apple, but the {{w|Apollo program}} proved it was a {{w|Red Delicious}} apple. This is a jab at Randall's least favorite type of apple, as has been [[388|previously]] [[1766|noted]]. That apple variety became the most popular variety in the USA after its introduction but, to satisfy market demand, growers began selecting for storage and cosmetic appeal over flavor and palatability. Popularity has declined significantly in recent decades. "Desolate and bland" echoes Apollo astronaut {{w|Buzz Aldrin}} describing the moonscape as "magnificent desolation".

The tale of Newton and the apple was previously mentioned in [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball sits under a tree. An apple falls from the tree and hits him on the head.]
:Bonk

:[The view zooms out, showing the moon, which Cueball looks up at.]

:[Closeup on Cueball.]
:Cueball: ...

:Cueball: ''We should grow apples on the moon.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Food]]

2821: Path Minimization

2023-10-05T22:15:45Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2821
| date = August 28, 2023
| title = Path Minimization
| image = path_minimization_2x.png
| imagesize = 562x559px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Of course you get an ice cream cone for the swimmer too! You're not a monster.
}}

==Explanation==

In this comic, it appears that Cueball, standing on shore, is observing a swimmer who is possibly (but not obviously) in distress. The comic illustrates five potential paths that can be taken to reach the swimmer, each with a different reason to make them viable, in the manner of demonstrating different optimal strategies that can be chosen.

The first path is a direct line from Cueball, straight to the swimmer, which allows for the minimum possible distance to be traveled, some on land and the remainder in the water.

The second path travels more obliquely from Cueball to the water and then at a sharper angle to the swimmer. This path would take the shortest amount of time, presuming that Cueball would move faster on land (covering more of the distance) and slower through the water (but less distance). The exact angles would depend on how much faster Cueball is on land than in the water. The relationship between speeds and angles is the same as that in {{w|Snell's law}} for light passing between two media.

The third path travels at a far more oblique angle to the water, such that the subsequent swimming path is entirely perpendicular to the shoreline, adding to the amount of time spent on land in order to minimize the time spent swimming. Depending on one's swimming ability versus running ability, this could be the safest path to take. It might also be more sensible to keep the target in clear sight for as long as possible, from the land, then aim exactly away from shore when both your head and theirs are barely at wave-height (though currents may complicate this). But this is a completely different reason from the distance or time preferences.

The fourth path travels nearly parallel to the beach. In fact moving slightly ''away'' from the swimmer but towards an intermediate goal: an ice cream stand. After that, the path turns and aims straight towards the swimmer, as all the others eventually do (although it is not made clear at this point if Cueball will spend time eating his ice cream on the beach, or will attempt to carry and possibly eat an ice cream whilst swimming).

The fifth and final path, barely recognizable as a path, points off the top of the comic and reappears at the bottom. This path presumably travels around the entire world, likely stopping for many, ''many'' rest breaks. It is labeled as the path that ''maximizes'' time. It should be noted that, by the definition given, it is theoretically possible to stretch the maximum time taken out forever by simply walking away and never returning.

You could also fulfill the criteria of reaching the target in finite, but arbitrarily long, time by following a {{w|random walk}}(+swim) or even follow a {{w|space-filling curve}} carefully chosen to be the maximally finite scenario. Or you could simply choose any path, and stop for an arbitrarily long time, or travel at a speed approaching zero. In the comic, however, a requirement for simplicity of path may dictate the use of something close to the opposing {{w|great-circle distance}}, or a variation that has a maximal swim-time even without ''undue'' time-wasting detours, and assume equal speeds of travel on all routes.

Alternatively, the fifth path may be a joke playing on relativity. In special and general relativity, timelike geodesics (locally) maximize the proper time between spacetime events. In a spacetime diagram (in sufficiently nice coordinates), an upwards-directed vertical line would be such a geodesic. Under this interpretation, the fifth path isn't a path around the world or through space at all, but through spacetime.

The comic pokes fun at two famous physical/mathematical problems that are usually stated as happening on a beach. The first is the Lifeguard problem, which Richard Feynman, in his book ''QED'', uses to illustrate {{w|Fermat's principle}}, or principle of least time, which states that the path taken by a light ray between two given points is the path that can be traveled in the least time. This is closely related to {{w|Stationary-action principle}} for mechanical systems. In Feynman's words:

''"Finding the path of least time for light is like finding the path of least time for a lifeguard running and then swimming to rescue a drowning victim: the path of least distance has too much water in it; the path of least water has too much sand in it; the path of least time is a compromise between the two."'' - ''Richard Feynman, QED - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1988, Princeton University Press), Chapter 2.''

It is also possible that the comic makes fun of Feynman's idea that a photon (Cueball) would take ''every'' path to reach its destination, including the one that goes around the Earth, so that the paths shown are all being taken instead of being options Cueball is considering (therefore he could bring an ice cream to the swimmer).

The second problem referenced in this comic is the [https://gametheory101.com/courses/game-theory-101/hotellings-game-and-the-median-voter-theorem Beach Vendor Problem], which is stated as follows. Suppose that on a long beach there are two ice cream vendors. Customers are uniformly distributed on the beach and each person will go get the ice cream at the closest vendor. Each vendor wants to maximize the number of customers that buy at their place. To minimize the customer's walking time, the optimal configuration would be to have one vendor at 1/4 of the beach length and the other at 3/4, but {{w|Hotelling's law}} predicts that the two shops will converge to the middle of the beach, in an attempt to steal as many customers as possible from the competition. This is a case of {{w|Nash equilibrium}} that is also related to the {{w|Median voter theorem}}. If the number of vendors is larger than 2, the problem may become [https://gametheory101.com/tag/hotellings-game/ considerably more complicated].

The title text adds to the ice-cream path the stipulation that you also carry an ice-cream to the target swimmer to 'justify' that choice of route. But how this squares with the reason to rendezvous with the swimmer, or the manner in which this would further complicate the swimming stage, goes unsaid. But it makes it clear that ''not'' doing this isn't considered socially permissible, whether or not he had stopped to eat an ice-cream of his own beforehand.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball stands on the beach, with another person in the water. Ponytail stands on the beach in an ice cream stand in the top right corner.]
:Path that minimizes distance [A straight line from beach cueball to ocean cueball, bearing about 135]
:Path that minimizes time [A line from beach cueball to the waterline closer to horizontal, bearing about 120, then angling towards ocean cueball, bearing about 150]
:Path that minimizes swimming [A line from beach cueball to the waterline closest to ocean cueball, bearing about 115, then angling toward ocean cueball, bearing 180]
:Path that minimizes time until you get ice cream [A line from beach cueball to the ice cream stand manned by Ponytail, bearing about 90, then angling toward ocean cueball, bearing about 190]
:Path that maximizes time [A line from beach cueball away from the shore, bearing 0, fading and disappearing at the top of the panel, and reappearing at the bottom of the panel directly below ocean cueball]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2823: Fossil

2023-10-05T22:14:19Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2823
| date = September 1, 2023
| title = Fossil
| image = fossil_2x.png
| imagesize = 428x246px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The two best reasons to get into fossils are booping trilobites and getting to say the word "fossiliferous" a lot.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOOPED FOSSIL OF A BOT. Explanation of what booping an animal means is missing. Especially for non Americans. - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Trilobite}}s are an extinct group of species of marine animal, one of the earliest known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record is from about 521 million years ago and last from about 252 million years ago. They were very common and have easily fossilized exoskeleton, so their fossils can be found very often.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] is digging at a site with [[Megan]], [[Ponytail]], and [[White Hat]] visible in the background. He finds and digs up a trilobite fossil and proceeds to {{wiktionary|boop#Verb|boop}} it (possibly because he thinks it’s cute?). "Booping" is when someone lightly taps another person on the nose while saying "boop", typically to annoy or as a form of endearment. In panel 2, the fossil is shown with the trilobite head pointed away from Cueball. In panel 3 he boops the head section, likely aiming for where the nose would be, if one were to imagine a trilobite having a nose. The anatomical part of the trilobite being "booped" is referred to as the glabella by palaeontologists. The Glabella is located in the center of the cephalon (head), where one would expect a nose to be located.

An off-screen character yells at him for doing this, probably because fossils are often fragile and excessive touching may cause it to break, or because doing so is not showing the due respect for a once-living being that is much older than Cueball, or because Cueball might contaminate the sample, or because overly strict rules are funny.

Fossiliferous (of a rock or stratum) means containing fossils or organic remains, and [[Randall]] implies that it is a fun word to say (it really is!).

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

:[Cueball is holding two halves of a rock in a paleontological site. Megan, Ponytail, and White Hat are working in the background.]
:Cueball: It's weird to pry open a rock and see an animal that no one has laid eyes on for 400 million years.

:[Zoom in on Cueball looking at the fossil he is holding.]

:[Cueball pokes the fossil.]
:Cueball: ''Boop!''
:Off-panel voice: Hey! Don't boop the trilobites!
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2824: Abstract Pickup

2023-10-05T22:13:21Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2824
| date = September 4, 2023
| title = Abstract Pickup
| image = abstract_pickup_2x.png
| imagesize = 187x364px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Escape Artist Frees Self From Conversation With Pickup Artist
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Abstract art|Abstract artists}} are individuals who create artworks that do not attempt to represent external reality. Instead, they emphasize shapes, colors, forms and gestural or non-representational elements in order to convey emotions, concepts or ideas. Abstract art can take various forms, including paintings, sculptures, and other visual media.

{{w|Pickup artist|Pickup artists}} are individuals who engage in strategies and techniques to attract and form romantic or sexual relationships with others, typically focusing on short-term or casual encounters. These strategies often involve tactics for initiating conversations, building rapport and escalating physical intimacy. Pickup artistry is often associated with misogyny, manipulative behavior and a lack of respect for others.

Stereotypical pickup artists are misogynistic males who feel disproportionately hard done by and are (over)reacting to the perceived antipathy from "all women" and a typical technique that they might use is "negging", or making a comment which is intended to lower their target's self-esteem under the guise of being perfectly normal (and even complimentary) small-talk. Randall has previously indicated his disdain for pickup artists in [[1027: Pickup Artist]] and [[1178: Pickup Artists]].

The word "artist" has different meanings in these two phrases. In the first one, it means someone who makes paintings as a profession or hobby, and "abstract" narrows down the types of paintings. In the second, it means a practitioner of some activity, and "pickup" is the (reprehensible) specific activity. The joke is in conflating the two senses when saying that the two groups have merged.

White Hat is a representative of this combined group and in his usual fashion seems to have mixed the two in a peculiar manner, calling a bunch of cubes "cute". He's talking to a group of cubes he has just painted, which he describes as a melange (being an artistic term for a disordered mixture), in his role as an abstract artist. But by the end of his comment he has passed through a disarming compliment (that they are "actually very cute", seemingly saying that few other people will ever think the same), revealing his pickup artist tendencies by seemingly dismissing them as a "dizzying swarm" which few would call "cute"(showing White Hat's signature peculiarity as no one will call a melange of cubes cute).

In the title text, it appears that a third type of artist (the {{w|Escapology|escape artist}}, again very different from both of the other types of artist) has fulfilled their own "role" by escaping from conversation with a pickup artist. Assuming that the escape artist is a women, this might be an additional joke that pickup artists are not good at "picking up" women and instead just act like "a bunch of chains" to escape from.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[White Hat holding a paintbrush in his left arm standing next to an easel. An abstract painting of differently sized black and white rectangular square shapes rest on top of the easel.]
:White Hat: Hey there, chaotic melange of cubes-
:White Hat: you're actually pretty cute for a '''dizzying swarm!'''
:[The words "dizzying swarm!" are written in wavy bold letters.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Bad news - the pickup artists and abstract artists have merged.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Romance]]

2831: xkcd Phone Flip

2023-10-05T22:10:06Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2831
| date = September 20, 2023
| title = xkcd Phone Flip
| image = xkcd_phone_flip_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x458px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Theranos partnership: Sorry, we know, but we signed the contract back before all the stuff and the lawyers say we can't back out, so just try to keep your finger away from the bottom of the phone.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE BOT FORTOLD BY THE FORTUNETELLER PROPHECY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is the 9th in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone]] series in which Randall explains his new joke phone designs with many strange and useless features. It is a reference to the somewhat recent {{w|Galaxy Z}} series, but instead of folding in half, it folds into the more complex and much less usable shape of a typical {{w|paper fortune teller}}. (A traditional paper fortune teller requires a square-shaped piece of material; to make this phone with a ~2:1 ratio rectangular shape into a fortune teller, it would first need to be folded in half lengthswise.)

The product's slogan suggests that this was not an intended feature, which would be incredibly difficult to create accidentally without causing the phone to become nonfunctional. It's therefore possible that this phone was designed by [[:Category:Beret Guy's Business|Beret Guy's company]], which has in the past [[1493: Meeting|trademarked seemingly normal phrases]] and [[1293: Job Interview|done impossible things with electronics]].

The name Phone Flip is a play on the term {{w|Flip Phone}}, which has referred to older cellphones with a {{w|Clamshell design|basic hinged construction}}, but {{w|Samsung}} has released a line of {{w|smartphones}} under the Galaxy Z range given the name 'Flip' (or 'Fold') which use a flexible display across the hinge. Randall's version takes this complexity up a notch with a currently impractical varifolded origami design.

===Left column features===

; Exfoliating screen
: A term commonly found on lotions and facial products, "exfoliating" means removing dead skin cells from the surface of the skin, in order to improve its appearance. This could mean that it will exfoliate the user's skin when pressed to it. However, this would probably require a mildly abrasive and/or adhesive screen texture or coating, which are usually not desirable qualities of a touchscreen.{{w|Citation (film)|[citation needed]}} A different reading is that the screen itself exfoliates, i.e. slowly disintegrates. Unless the phone is an organism able to regrow exfoliated surfaces, this will eventually lead to the screen's disappearance, not an improvement of its appearance.

; Orthotic shape for arch support
: {{w|Orthotics}} are devices used to reduce stress on the body. "Arch support" is a specific term referring to padded inserts designed to fit to the contour of a person's foot and provide support for the arch of the foot, a raised area between the ball in front and the heel in back. Fitting this space requires either a curved shape or one that's thicker in the center, which would usually make a phone less straightforward (pun not intended) to use. (This assumes, of course, that the foot is shaped like a "normal" human foot.) Additionally, the materials used in a phone are not typically suitable for orthotic usage and doing so could worsen any issues and damage the phone from the stress of the person's weight upon it. However, it's possible that in this context, the phone is ergonomically shaped to fit the way that the typical hand arches around it.

; Single big pixel
: A joke about how phones advertise how many pixels they have, not how few. Typical phone displays use many small {{w|pixels}}, each with relatively few display states. For instance, each pixel can show a uniform color. It would be difficult to make a useful display with a single pixel of this sort. Some displays use smaller numbers of more complicated picture elements (e.g., each element could show a letter, like a {{w|split-flap display}}, or a {{w|nixie tube}}). To make a useful display with one pixel means that element needs a different display state for every image the phone can show (like a {{w|carousel slide projector}}, {{w|movie projector}}, or {{w|gobo (lighting)|gobo}}). This may also be a joke on "{{w|Megapixel}}".

; Ready to eat
: A typical sales pitch for {{w|convenience foods}} denoting that no time must be spent preparing the product for safe consumption, in contrast to other such meals where ingredients would need to be combined and/or cooked in some fashion. It is unknown how a phone could be produced in such a way as to be edible (perhaps the display could use {{w|sugar glass}}), but in any case, it seems likely that eating it would limit its future usefulness as a phone. An alternative interpretation is that the phone is alive and all ready to begin consuming its prey.

; Hypoimmunogenic
: Meaning less able to produce an immune response - so perhaps useful in that people do not want their phone to cause an immune response in their body, however cell phones typically cause no immune response, so this is not generally an issue. This is probably related to items that are marketed as hypoallergenic, less likely to cause an allergic reaction. It may also be a reference to persistent unsubstantiated claims that radio waves from mobile phones cause cancer and other disorders.

; Up to 50% more
: A play on the words "Up to 50% more <product>". Although considering that there is no mention of what product there could possibly be 50% more of (or 0% extra, as that is ''also'' less than or equal to 50%), this statement is useless. See [[870: Advertising]].

; Full-spectrum backlight optimized for plant growth
: {{w|Full-spectrum light}}s and backlights are typically used to increase {{w|color rendering}} accuracy, especially important in photography, art, and printing. It typically refers to the part of the spectrum people can see. Plants respond to some wavelengths outside our visual spectrum (e.g., UVA), and are less influenced by some portions of the visual spectrum (e.g. green, hence mostly reflecting such light). A backlight optimized for plant growth would not provide a very natural appearance to our eyes and typically appear pink. The screen backlight is unlikely to be used for growing plants. One scenario in which this would be an advantage is at the end of the phone's useful life; instead of being recycled, it could be repurposed as a light in a greenhouse.

; Long-lasting main sequence battery
: Perhaps referring to a "{{w|main sequence}}" star (Dwarf stars, like the {{w|sun}}, where main energy generation is hydrogen fusion). Such stars spend a long time in this phase of evolution. This might also explain SPF 15 and full-spectrum backlight. Stars do last a long time compared to most cell phone batteries. This feature might be a reference to [[1422: My Phone is Dying]].

; Break glass to access apps
: A play on how emergency paraphernalia such as fire alarms and extinguishers are protected by glass casings in most places. The idea of this is to discourage removal of these items except in an emergency situation. It would not be helpful in the case of smartphone apps, which are frequently used. Presumably you would have to replace the glass each time you use an app, which is likely to prove tedious and expensive. Unusual things behind glass is also mentioned in [[1634: In Case of Emergency]]. Could also refer to the process of Jailbreaking a smartphone, such as an iPhone, to allow the install of 3rd party apps from an alternate app store.

===Right column features===

; Buy one get one
: A play on typical retail sales advertised as "Buy one get one ____", where one buys one item at full price and gets another of that item either for free or at a reduced price. Since no discount has been mentioned, it would imply either (1) that you can get two at full price or perhaps (2) simply that if you buy a phone, you receive the phone; this is expected upon almost all purchases{{citation needed}} and is {{w|Tautology (logic)|tautological}} in nature.

; Bending phone activates chemical flashlight
: This feature parallels a {{w|glow stick}}, which is also activated by bending the stick; this breaks an inner capsule causing chemicals to mix and produce light. However, doing this with a phone is likely to cause physical or chemical damage and additionally only works once, which is not very useful for a phone flashlight that one typically uses as a tool throughout the phone's lifetime. It might be fun at a rave though.

; SPF 15 coating protects your face from websites
: Sun protection factor (SPF) is a rating used to compare the protection provided by sun screens. Some people find some web sites excessively bright, colorful or garish, making them hard to read, or causing eye strain. This extends that to imply that some sites are so bright that they might cause {{w|sunburn}}. In reality, some sites, browsers, or plugins provide a {{w|night mode}}, for those who have problems with excess brightness. (See also full spectrum, and main sequence battery.)
: Alternatively, SPF in this context might be a novel term for, for example, ''site'' protection factor, or ''socials'' protection factor, and be a method for protecting you from viewing potentially harmful content encountered on the internet.

; Iatrogenic construction
: 'Iatrogenic' means 'physician caused', and usually refers to illnesses which are caused or worsened by medical malpractice. This may imply that the phone was made ''by'' doctors, which may align with the statement given in the title text.

; All-vinyl data storage for maximum fidelity
: This is a reference to the hipster maxim that vinyl records provide high fidelity music. And while {{w|vinyl data}} storage does exist, it's profoundly outdated and was never widely adopted. The relevant formats had several issues, including (relevantly) wear issues that lead to fidelity problems after repeated reads. It is also unlikely that vinyl storage could be engineered to provide sufficient storage density to meet the requirements of a modern smartphone.

; Locks in moisture
: Good for cosmetics perhaps, to combat 'dry skin' (which is really more to do with substances other than water), but generally bad for a cell phone, where ingress (let alone retention) of liquids tends not to help the electronics. Most modern phones cite their ability to lock ''out'' moisture.

; National Weather Service partnership - phone is afraid of thunder
: Probably a reference to the development of various public service systems which generate an alert to phone users to warn of likely dangerous events, such as storms, earthquakes, etc. In this case, though, rather than generate fear in the user, the phone itself becomes afraid. This may be further referencing the fact that, thanks to humanized personal assistant functions, some people have developed pseudo-human relationships with their devices, whereby they attribute emotions and other human characteristics to them. In reality, phones do not have emotions (yet), but even if they did, it's not clear how this would be a useful feature. How this fear manifests is also unexplained. It may turn off, or it may scream like the original xkcd phone did when in free fall. A number of the previous xkcd phones have had unexplained, inexplicable, or incomprehensible partnerships.

; One-click ''ruina montium''
: ''{{w|Ruina montium}}'' ('mountain destroyer') was a now-lost mining technique used by the ancient Romans, thought to involve a form of hydrostatic drilling. It is not clear how this could be applied by a smartphone, let alone as a one-click operation. This may be a reference to the mobile phone industry's reliance on often unsustainable mining practices to supply the precious metals, rare earths, and other minerals required to make their devices work.

; Free refills
: Good for restaurant drinks, not typical for cell phones. Realistic meanings include providing complementary...
# "top ups" of cell phone plan minutes or data
# refueling (e.g., {{w|fuel cell}} power)
# recharging or {{w|battery swapping}}.

===Title text===
The title text references the failed company {{w|Theranos}} that notably could not live up to its ambitious promise to diagnose many health issues from a single drop of blood. Due to legal agreements, and subsequent design choices already built in, the bottom of the phone ''will'' still collect a drop of your blood (unless you're particularly careful).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A rectangular phone with a touch screen. There is a small dark camera section at the top of the screen and a charging/connecting port may be shown on the lower casing edge. Lines on the left side of the phone lead from the general area of the image to feature descriptions down the leftmost edge of the frame.]
* Exfoliating screen
* Orthotic shape for arch support
* Single big pixel
* Ready to eat
* Hypoimmunogenic
* Up to 50% more
* Full-spectrum backlight optimized for plant growth
* Long-lasting main sequence battery
* Break glass to access apps

:[Two phones folded in the shape of a 'paper fortune teller' are depicted on on the right, set one above the other with other general feature lines leading off from the nearest folded phone illustration towards further listed items down the right-hand side of the frame.]
* Buy one get one
* Bending phone activates chemical flashlight
* SPF 15 coating protects your face from websites
* Iatrogenic construction
* All-vinyl data storage for maximum fidelity
* Locks in moisture
* National Weather Service partnership: phone is afraid of thunder
* One-click ''ruina montium''
* Free refills

:[Text below the phone:]
:Introducing
:'''The xkcd Phone Flip'''
:''We actually didn't mean for it to do this''™

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]

2832: Urban Planning Opinion Progression

2023-10-05T22:07:25Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2832
| date = September 22, 2023
| title = Urban Planning Opinion Progression
| image = urban_planning_opinion_progression_2x.png
| imagesize = 675x2033px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If they're going to make people ride bikes and scooters in traffic, then it should at LEAST be legal to do the Snow Crash thing where you use a hook-shot-style harpoon to catch free rides from cars.
}}

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

This comic follows [[Cueball]], [[Megan]], [[Knit Cap]] and [[Ponytail]] as their beliefs evolve widely from a conventional car-first view of urban planning, then questioning the wisdom of car-centered policies, and finally favoring pedestrian-centered design that discourages driving with tactics as extreme and satirical as road spikes.

As a clever form of satire, the comic has twin aims:
# Present a progressive argument leading to a logical conclusion that's also satirically extreme.
# Satirize the irony of US policy discussions that choose theory and feeling over actual best practices used elsewhere.

In the '''first panel''', Cueball and Megan complain about the common problem many car-centric cities face about not having enough space for all the cars, and give a conventional suggestion of making more space for cars.

In the '''second panel''', Knit Cap mentions how she is going to visit {{w|Amsterdam}}, a city known for its {{w|walkability}} and bike friendliness, which gives Ponytail a chance to share the conventional concern that road cycling is bothersome to drivers.

* This is the only moment that anyone pays attention to Knit Cap at all; later when she has lived experience of the topic, they ignore her.

In the '''third and fourth panels''', Cueball and Megan begin to evolve their thinking, wishing for better transit and more bike paths – another problem of car-centric cities – with Megan noticing that optimizing for drivers discourages pedestrians, which in turn spurs more driving – later calling it "a vicious cycle."
* Megan's comments could relate to {{w|Induced demand}}, an economic theory in which increasing the supply of a good or service causes the demand to rise faster than the increased supply, worsening the shortage. The most common example is traffic: some US cities have tried to alleviate traffic jams by widening the roads and highways, which incentivized more people to take up driving, more vehicles to route through their streets, or took potential funding from other transportation solutions, worsening the traffic jam problem. Conversely, other cities have tried removing traffic lanes or converting them to dedicated public transit lanes, and have reported a reduction in traffic congestion, due to people choosing other transportation options. Among urban planners, this is known as the {{w|Downs–Thomson paradox}}.

In the '''fifth panel''' – taking place a week or two later – Knit Cap is back from her work trip to report that Amsterdam is really neat.

In the '''sixth panel''' Cueball's questioning turns into anger at car culture, beginning his full 180 from his previous, conventional car-centric view
* Since there is a limited amount of space on a street, cities face a dilemma on how much space they should allocate to pedestrians, cycles and vehicles. Car-centric cities often allocate the most space to cars, leaving less space for bikes and pedestrians.
* The default for cities is for cyclists just to ride in the street with the cars, as the road vehicles they are. This, however, is considered by some to be significantly more dangerous than a city having dedicated bike lanes, which is why Ponytail was likely concerned in the second panel.
** (A recent study reported that painted bike lanes are more dangerous than no bike lane, and only protected bike lanes are safer: <span title="Conclusions: Protected bike lanes and buffered bike lanes had estimated protective effects on segments between intersections but estimated harmful effects at intersections. Conventional bike lanes had estimated harmful effects along segments and at intersections.">Garber, Michael D., et al: ''[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140523001056 Bicycle infrastructure and the incidence rate of crashes with cars: A case-control study with Strava data in Atlanta]''. Journal of Transport & Health, '''32'''. September 2023: Received 13 February 2023; Received in revised form 10 July 2023; Accepted 14 July 2023; Available online 11 August 2023. doi:[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2023.101669 10.1016/j.jth.2023.101669])
* From a wider perspective, however much you attempt to segregate different forms of transport (at junctions and other bottlenecks where space cannot be reserved), you'll always need to bring bicycles and traffic back into contact, briefly, and in circumstances where motorized traffic has become unused to sharing the roadspace with the lighter vehicles. This is unlike a more integrated place like Amsterdam where a driver is rarely going to be surprised by the presence of bicycles, overlook them and therefore cause an accident.

In the '''seventh panel''', Megan takes issue with a particular type of vehicle – "giant trucks" – and their threat to kids. She may be talking about large pickup trucks, lifted pickup trucks (raised after purchase), or large tractor trailer cabs or garbage trucks. All cars have blind spots in the front, and large trucks have especially large blind spots, sizable enough for the driver in the cab to be unable to see a standing child right in front.

In the '''eighth panel''', Knit Cap's relevant personal observations gets ignored and interrupted by the armchair theorists – a subtle reference to the tendency of US policy debates to ignore data and insights from other developed countries with successful alternative policies.
* Winston Churchill once said, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else.”

In '''panels nine, ten, and eleven''', everyone's emotions peak with views that reach their zenith. Car culture is systemic! Driver-centric road planning is a vicious cycle! NETHERLANDS!

By the '''final two panels''', Cueball's and Megan's evolution is complete. Cueball believes city livability calls for making the driving experience worse, and then he suggests tire spikes as a solution. The final joke is that Megan actually supports consideration of the tire spikes idea, and that this obviously extreme idea is shown to come from a place of logical reasoning.

Additionally, Cueball and Megan are coming up with crazy solutions while ironically ignoring Knit Cap's reasonable and practical lessons from how Amsterdam actually solves the problem. This continues the satire of US policy discussions that ignore real-world best practices because they come from across the Atlantic.

* A reader who has been nodding along the whole time must reflect if they agree with Megan's final comment, and if not, why not? The whole comic is a type of logical argument in which many small steps of reasoning can lead to eventually extreme and satirical conclusions, similar to the famous {{w|A Modest Proposal}} by Jonathan Swift. It seems that Randall is sharing the evolution of his own views, while self-awarely noting that (1) if you take those views as far as they'll go, you can support some pretty radical implications, and that (2) it's too common for folks to ignore success stories like Amsterdam's.

The '''title text''' references a cyberpunk book called "{{w|Snow Crash}}", by Neal Stephenson. An early scene in that book involves the equivalent of a skater using a magnet on a cable to attach onto the back of a pizza delivery vehicle. He swerves in order to dislodge her, she taunts him and attaches stickers to his vehicle.

=== What makes a city walkable? ===
To achieve a walkable area, urban planning (or zoning) must be seamlessly integrated with public transport planning. The central truth is that everybody is a pedestrian for some time, which also includes car drivers. Crucially, the average pedestrian is willing to walk about 2000 ft from their home to the next public transport stop, and an additional 2000 ft between the last public transport stop and their workplace. Opportunities for shopping and eating should exist at every connecting station, with the connections scheduled in a way that it both allows changing to the connecting train/tramway/bus immediately – as well as buying groceries.

For an area to be walkable, at a minimum, all roads should have a sidewalk,{{Actual citation needed}} which, of course, costs area, but make the pedestrians' lives much easier and safer. But then, not only roads impact walkability. In the United States, many places open to the public are, by municipal ordinances, forced to provide enough parking space for [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8 all customers at any given time], which leads to serious knock-on effects: Pedestrians must often cross a large and weather-exposed parking lot in order to shop. A building can often be only re-purposed if a neighboring building is bulldozed to create the necessary parking area. And tenants who live in an apartment, but do not own a car, are forced to pay for the parking space they do not need. This creates difficulties, particularly in urban areas.

Another topic is subsidizing public traffic. Municipalities in Switzerland, for example, order bus connections – e.g. a hourly bus from 6 AM until 10 PM, and in exchange, they cover the deficit of any such connection. That way, families, who usually are better taxpayers, move to villages, and beginning with grade 5, 6 or 7, pupils can still easily commute to a district school.

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

:'''Typical urban planning opinion progression'''

:[Each panel is connected to a point on a timeline. Timeline is recognizable as the tread of a bicycle tire]

:Cueball: I wish there wasn't so much traffic to get into the city. They should put in more lanes.
:Megan: And more parking.
:Megan: Parking is so bad here.

:Knit Cap: I have to go to Amsterdam for work next week. I hear they all ride bikes there.
:Ponytail: Bikes are fine but people shouldn't ride them in the street! I worry I'm going to hit someone!

:Cueball: It would be nice if we had better transit options!
:Cueball: I tried a scooter. It was fun but I wish there were more bike paths.

:Megan: It's funny how widening roads to speed up traffic makes them more dangerous to walk near, making driving more necessary and creating more traffic.
:Megan: Really makes you think.

:Knit Cap: Visiting the Netherlands was cool!
:Knit Cap: Amsterdam is really neat.

:Cueball: We've ceded so much of our land to storing and moving cars, with the rest of us tiptoeing around the edges and making drivers mad for trespassing on "their" space.
:Cueball: Even though '''''we're''''' the ones in danger from '''''them!'''''

:Megan: Those giant trucks with front blind spots that keep hitting kids should be illegal.

:Knit Cap: We should be more like the Netherlands.
:Knit Cap: They design their streets to prioritize...

:[Cueball is frustrated.]
:Cueball: The problem is car culture. It's systemic.
:Cueball: I don't know if we can fix it.

:[Megan’s arms are thrown out, and her hair is bedraggled.]
:Megan: People approach road planning decisions from the point of view of drivers because that's how we're used to interacting with the city, so we make choices that make it more car-friendly.
:Megan: It's a vicious cycle.

:[Knit Cap is walking around with two Dutch flags raised in her hands.]
:Knit Cap: '''''Netherlands! Netherlands! Netherlands! Netherlands!'''''

:Cueball: Anything that makes a city a worse place to drive in makes it a better place to live, short of scattering random tire spikes on the road.

:Megan: Honestly, I think the city council should consider the tire spikes thing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1820: Security Advice

2023-07-24T01:49:46Z

JLZ0kTC5:

Secret questions are not 2-factor authentication (2FA). They are just a really shitty password, something that you know. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 14:33, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Secret questions are more like 0-factor authentication, since they typically ask for public data. Shirluban [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.106|141.101.88.106]] 14:39, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Even when it isn't public it is often very unsecure - like: "your password has to have upper and lower case letters, numbers" and other requirements - if you forget it just enter the brand of your first car, there are about 20 likely answers (make it 40 if you need to additionally see wether or not it has been capitalized) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.46|162.158.92.46]] 15:18, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Use prime numbers in your password: this would only limit the number of possible passwords for a hacker to check.

Use special characters like & and % : this advice is thoroughly handled in https://xkcd.com/936/ Changing characters into a special one does adds just very little to the search space.
However, a video from Computerphile suggests ''inserting'' a random character somewhere in the password which might actually be rather helpful

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.211|162.158.111.211]] 14:53, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

:Note that if you replace any number n with the n-th prime number the security of your password would be really better. So would the length, of course. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:44, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Maybe you really should use a secure font [https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/MS15-078 Font related bug] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.161|162.158.79.161]] 15:13, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Should the blue check mark tip be noted as only being useful on Twitter? Usually, the advice doesn't apply to emails, which are significantly more likely to ask for your less-secret account details, but also significantly less likely to have a blue check mark. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.10|162.158.2.10]] 15:15, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

"If a border guard asks to examine your laptop, you have a legal right to challenge them to a chess game for your soul.", do any of you know exactly what is the original advice here? This is probably different in different countries, but if I recall correctly you can't prevent them from seizing your device, but you are not required to provide them your passwords (but they may give you a hard time or deny your entry if you are not a citizen). Anyone can confirm this? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.22|108.162.216.22]] 15:16, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
:In the UK, police can demand your password if they suspect a crime, and border staff can demand your password even without permission. People can be - and [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/06/jail_password_ripa/ have been] - imprisoned for not providing a password. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 23:39, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

The rice trick doesn't even work for wet phones. http://www.gazelle.com/thehorn/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Water-Damage-Prevention-and-Recovery.pdf [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.211|162.158.111.211]] 15:33, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

:Yeah - beat me to it! The rice trick doesn't work...not for phones or anything else for that matter. So this is double bad advice. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.39|162.158.69.39]] 16:06, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

::As someone who has worked with electronics, educated in electronics design, I find the most effective solution is to remove all power as quickly as possible - unplug it and remove the battery - then let it dry out. Liquid damages by allowing electricity to take paths it shouldn't. No power, no problem. Which is why I don't and will never trust any device which doesn't allow you to quickly pop out the battery (iPads and many iPhones, for example). No battery pull means risk to me. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.88|108.162.219.88]] 07:20, 7 April 2017 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:07, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

Border guard - I'd like to see a bit more explanation, please, on how Ingmar Berman's film shows a man playing chess with Death, and possibly the infamous subversion of this trope in Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey. As it is, the explanation is only the ''bare bones''. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.52|172.68.34.52]] 17:35, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Checking the padlock icon in your browser is not enough to make sure you're really connected to the site you think. You have to check the domain too, to make sure you're not on a typosquatter domain (e.g. explianxkcd.com instead of explainxkcd.com). For really important thing like banking, you should check for an Extended Validation Certificate (Firefox shows the name of the organization running the website beside the padlock to indicate an EV-Certificate). This means, that the CA checked if the website operator really is who he pretends to be (and take a hefty sum of money for the process). Yeah, i know, security isn't easy. Using the brain still can't be replaced. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.160|162.158.202.160]] 20:14, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

:Extended Validation Certificate means that the CA SHOULD have checked ... {{w|Symantec}} for example didn't (and Google is punishing them for it). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:44, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

''These two characters are often disallowed in passwords because of their relevance to SQL (a common database query language). A badly written security system using SQL could have severe bugs (and vulnerabilities) if these characters were used in a password.'' So instead of fixing the bugs, users are kindly requested/forbidden to use & and % because that would break the system? Relying on empathy instead of fixing the problem, similar to "please don't break in, we're too poor to afford a decent lock". Sounds like Black Hat in a role as security advisor could come up with. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.211|162.158.111.211]] 21:01, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
:: I once saw a funny notification at a login screen. It read: "Only log on if you are an authorized user". Hilarious... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:03, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
::: In reverse, for work I'm supposed to come up with a 2-factor authorization method. A simple password is one factor. I thought the second factor was easy: you also need physical access to a computer in the network. Apparently that's not "technical" enough or something, external advisors tell us that the fact that a hacker needs to physically break in to hack the system doesn't count as a second factor. (if anyone can point to an authority saying that it does I'd be very happy!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.211|162.158.111.211]] 00:27, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

"Turing-complete kerning specification language in OpenType fonts" needs a citation. Is this just referring to the TeX language in general?

"the US banking system, where there is very little security for direct account drafts, and because of that it is advised there to keep the account number as secret as possible. In contrast, in Europe..." also needs citation. Why is giving out your bank account number more secure in Europe? I googled around a bit but couldn't find any verification of this (aside from discussions on chips vs. magnetic strips, which is a different issue).
--[[User:Tractarian|Tractarian]] ([[User talk:Tractarian|talk]]) 17:29, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

From experience, here in the UK, if I wanted someone to transfer money to me online, I just give them my account number and routing (or "sort") code. People even publish this information on websites.

Specifically, a lot of the rules here place liability on the banks for fraudulent and unauthorised transactions as long as the consumer wasn't careless or breached the rules of their account.

See https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/directdebitguarantee.aspx
https://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/information-hub/faqs/cheque-fraud

But I can't imagine how anyone could initiate a transaction from my account without forging a document or hacking my online banking details (for electronic transfers).--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.37|162.158.111.37]] 19:33, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

:Yeah from my, Dutch, view that part also seems strange. Like "I'm not telling you my e-mail address so you can't read my e-mail". Also, anyone you ever sent money to gets to know your account number don't they? After that, can they just walk into a bank saying "Hi I'm John, account number 12345, give me $5000 please"? I'd like a comic showing my accountnumber to test how I'd be hurt by telling the whole world :) It gets stranger, in order to get a refund to my credit card I not only had to give my credit card number but the expiry date as well. I always considered the expiry date as a very simple password to prove you have the card itself. This felt more like "You wouldn't want total strangers to put money on your account, would you?" (thinking about it, maybe it's used as a "checksum"). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.211|162.158.111.211]] 22:35, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
::As a North American, around here it seems like allowing someone to know your account number potentially gives a thief a target. If they manage to somehow hack their way into your bank, they now know a valid account number to aim for. Much less suspicious than trying their luck with picking one at random. Also, when we transfer money to each other, the account number doesn't enter into it. I go to my bank's website, start an e-Transfer, and tell it to send X dollars to this email account, and I add a security question - "What's my favourite online comic?" - and the answer - "xkcd". They get the email, select what bank they want to deposit the money to (and login to their bank's website), then give the arranged or known answer to my question. Our account numbers are only used / shared with our own respective banks. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.88|108.162.219.88]] 07:20, 7 April 2017 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:07, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
:::There is nothing secure on credit card. Even the Card Security Code number is only protected by people not being allowed to store it in database. Yeah I'm sure thieves would comply with this rule. And that e-Transfer ... so, if someone intercepts that email and tells the bank it come to his email address, the bank would send the money to him? Doesn't seem safe either ; email is very insecure way to exchange data. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:44, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

::::That's why these days even credit cards have PIN numbers. And actually, e-Transfers are one of the most secure things I take part in. On both sides of the transfer (i.e. both me and the person I'm paying) we each individually have to have a login setup with our banks, one which uses our bank card number and/or account number (hence part of the reason for a North American's aversion to letting anybody know what it is), and which includes a password like any other login. So, for a person to steal money from me by transfering it out of my account, they'd need my login name (if my bank uses one) or card number or account number - whatever the bank uses to figure out who you are online, plus having to know which one they need to know. The thief can't just set up a new login attached to my account, because I already have one, and banks don't allow a duplicate account. They would also need my password. And for a person to intercept my transfer, in addition to all that (for my recipient this time) they'd also have to intercept the email - which my recipient knows to expect, usually within minutes of when the email will arrive - but also they would need to know the answer to the question I set, which would usually be information you only share with the recipient. I'm reminded of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, where for security all good people came up with personal security questions to confirm each-others identities. In this case it can be as simple as "Where am I right now?", which you would have discussed when arranging payment, or "Where did we meet?" or "What teacher did we both have?", stuff like that. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 05:53, 12 April 2017 (UTC) Mine too! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:07, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

:::::In the UK in 2008, the UK government lost 25 million sets of bank account details (on two unencrypted CDs sent through the post - this kind of data breach is a common pastime of UK government departments). Jeremy Clarkson claimed there was no security problem, and to prove it, he published his bank account and sort code. Within days somebody had donated £500 from his account to Diabetes UK. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 16:07, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

"Don't click links to web sites" 
Because it is trivial to have a link display "schmoo.com" but actually send you to "dastardlyevil.com" when clicked, this is actually usable advice. If the link displays an website address, one that is correct, highlight and copy the text and paste it directly into a browser's address bar. Barring that, right click on the link, copy the hidden link address, and paste that into the address bar. Of course then you should check carefully that the copied address isn't bougus. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 00:49, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
:Usually, any software I use will show the real address in the status bar when I hover the mouse over the link. I always check if these match, and if so, I know I can feel free to click (assuming said agreeing address is one I wish to visit, of course, LOL!) - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 05:53, 12 April 2017 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:07, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
::I go further - if I'm at all suspicious of a link I'll type it directly. Copy-paste will retain homoglyphs, characters which look similar but aren't; for example explainxkcd.com is correct, but eхplainхkcd.com is not (using the Cyrillic HA in place of the Latin x), and could be registered as an entirely different website. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 16:16, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

"If the smoke detector worked according to the authentication logic it will be less likely to detect smoke, effectively lessening fire safety as compared to a single sensor one"

It'll be less likely to detect fire, but that does not necessarily mean lesser safety. There is a possibility of a "fire alarm that cried wolf" syndrome. If there is ever a real emergency, you really don't want people think "it's probably just another smoking toaster, I have time to take a quick shower and brush my teeth before I leave". --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.52|172.68.54.52]] 08:04, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
:The point here is not more safety but fewer false alarms. Similarly in rooms were you have "smoke" regularly you might either install a detector that doesn't scan for smoke but instead for heat or infrared light or you might install two smoke detectors in the far corners of a larger room, that only give an alarm if they both detect smoke. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.126|162.158.90.126]] 13:28, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
::In a two-alarm system like that, you could have a small fire break out close to one detector that, by the time it has created enough smoke to trigger the far detector and start the alarm, has grown to the point that it has now become difficult to fight, and at the very least has caused considerable damage which could have been prevented if only the first detector had "spoken up" immediately. A system that second-guesses itself is NOT good. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 05:53, 12 April 2017 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:07, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

== Fourth amendment does not apply to border or customs searches ==

See border search exception: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception

In fact we don't need the entire paragraph about the fourth amendment.

* Use a burner's phone
While it's possible that "burner" could refer to someone who attends the Burning Man festival, I believe it's more likely this is referring to someone who smokes marijuana, which is a common term in popular informal English. This also makes a nice connection with the part about typical usage of burner phones by drug dealers. --[[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:11, 8 June 2017 (UTC)
:Agreed. I feel like there's no question, Randall is referring to a pot smoker, i doubt there was ever any intent by him to reference Burning Man here. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:24, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

The tip in the title text isn’t technically wrong, just misleading, as you shouldn’t give you passwords or bank info to people without blue checkmarks. You also shouldn’t give them to people with blue checkmarks either, of course, but that doesn’t make the tip wrong. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 15:44, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

did something happen to this page? i can't remove them either. [[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 01:49, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

2771: College Knowledge

2023-05-21T05:30:11Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2771
| date = May 3, 2023
| title = College Knowledge
| image = college_knowledge_2x.png
| imagesize = 649x266px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Your chitin armor is no match for our iron-tipped stingers! Better go hide in your jars!' --common playground taunt
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT GOING TO IO TO GET MORE DIODES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A common playground rhyme which children will often recite when divided by gender is that "girls go to college to get more knowledge; boys go to {{w|Jupiter}} to get more stupider," with the genders being interchangeable depending on the rhyme's singer.

Starting out with this cadence, three characters (or child versions) {{w|Skipping rope|jump rope}} and explore parts of the solar system and beyond by taking it in turns to provide the rhythm's tempo. First [[Science Girl]] (who is turning the left end of the rope), then a [[Cueball]] (at the right), followed by a [[Ponytail]] (doing the jumping), before returning to Science Girl. As they concentrate on various stellar bodies that are harder and harder to rhyme, their chants become increasingly hesitant and obscure, ruining the rhythm and resulting in ever more contrived "rhymes", to the point where they eventually seem compelled to abandon the whole game.

The title text refers back to some of the rhymes the characters mention, making sure to stay consistent with whichever gender acquires which object. Speaking from the perspective of the college-bound gender, who had acquired {{w|ferrous}} iron from {{w|Eris}} (or perhaps {{wiktionary|ferrous|become more composed of it}}, by {{w|Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed|bodily transformation}}), the girls playfully threaten the boys with iron-tipped {{w|stinger}}s, for which the boys' acquired armor of {{w|chitin}} (a material commonly found on the exoskeletons of various insects, including in any stings these might normally have) is purportedly no match. The girls then also refer to the jars which the boys had acquired from {{w|Mars}}, telling the boys that they'd better hide in them if they wanted any sort of protection from the iron-tipped stingers. To top it all off, the title text finally claims that this is supposedly a "common playground taunt" among children, which implies the unlikely outcome that the bizarre and unwieldy rhymes which the characters in the comic created have somehow persisted and passed into common usage enough to be generally recognizable.

In [[1202: Girls and Boys]], boys and girls both go to college ''and'' to Jupiter, both to get more knowledge.

==Notes==
*Going to Mars to get more jars may be a reference to a 1955 {{w|Burma-Shave}} campaign promising a free trip to Mars for whoever sent in 900 empty jars. The joking offer was accepted by a Wisconsin shopkeeper named Arliss French. The company enjoyed the publicity, and sent him and his wife to {{w|Moers}}.
*{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}} is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
*{{w|Chitin}} is a polysaccharide found in the exoskeletons of insects and cell walls of fungi.
*{{w|Tim Berners-Lee}} is the inventor of the World Wide Web.
*{{w|Pamplemousse}} is the French word for grapefruit or pomelo, depending on dialect. Note that it does not actually rhyme with Betelgeuse for {{w|Betelgeuse#Spelling and pronunciation|most pronunciations}}, only when pronounced along the lines of ''Beetlejuice'' does this line really rhyme.
*It could be debated whether these are three children, and thus not Cueball and Ponytail, who are adult, but there is nothing to compare them to, and Science Girl has also been drawn as an adult. So for ease of naming them, it is easier to keep the names even if these are children.

==Transcript==
:[Science Girl, Ponytail and Cueball are jumping rope while singing a common playground song. Science Girl and Cueball are swinging the ends of the rope, Ponytail is jumping in the middle facing Cueball on the right. The rope is going so fast around her that it is drawn with four thin gray lines, one over and one below her and two in between, so they form a kind of 3D ellipsoid shape around her. Small lines indicate the movement of the rope and the hands that hold it.]
:Science Girl: Girls go to college to get more knowledge
:Science Girl: Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider

:[Same scene but Ponytail is at a different moment in her jumping.]
:Cueball: Girls go to Ceres to get more theories
:Cueball: Boys go to Mars to get more jars

:[Same scene but Ponytail is at a different moment in her jumping.]
:Ponytail: Girls go to Eris to get more ferrous
:Ponytail: Boys go to Triton to get more chitin

:[The three have stopped playing so the rope is hanging from the hands of Science Girl and Cueball, running along the ground beneath Ponytail's feet. She is now just standing but has turned towards Science Girl.]
:Science Girl: Girls go to...Mercury...to...meet Tim Berners-Lee
:Science Girl: Boys go to... ...Betelgeuse...to get more... ...pamplemousse
:Cueball: I think we're done.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Food]]

2776: Crystal Ball

2023-05-21T05:27:06Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2776
| date = May 15, 2023
| title = Crystal Ball
| image = crystal_ball_2x.png
| imagesize = 257x336px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They often use ball lenses to collect light at the ends of optical fibers, so when you look stuff up on the internet you're actually scrying through a crystal ball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN INSUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICS PRINCIPLES BEHIND REFRACTION AND WHY LIGHT MIGHT ONLY HAVE A ONE-WAY SPEED- Elaborate on the title-text. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In optics, {{w|spherical aberration }} is an image imperfection that occurs due to the increased refraction of light rays that occurs when rays strike a spherical lens near its edge, in comparison with those that strike nearer the center. This causes the parts of an image reflected near the edges of a sphere (from the perspective of a viewer) to be distorted. As the viewer moves, the parts of the image which are distorted move as well. The origin lies within the fact, that reflection/ refraction on a spherical surface is not perfectly focused on a single point, in contrast to paraboloid reflective surfaces, that have a single focus point.

This is the principle behind {{w|Fisheye lens}}, which corrects for the distortion to provide an image that is circular in shape and tends to be convex (i.e, bulges outwards) towards the center of the image.

The comic makes the joke that, since a {{w|crystal ball}} is a sphere, anyone trying to use one for {{w|scrying}} or seeing the future would have to deal with this issue as well; the wizard is telling Cueball that he can only make out the parts of his future which are near the center, as the rest are distorted. Spherical aberration is specifically a property of refracted light, and since the crystal ball is presumably not showing an image originating from the other side of the ball (unless it is a {{w|3-sphere|hypersphere}} additionally extending itself though a time-like dimension), the image should not be distorted by both entering and leaving the sphere, perhaps only in the manner of a hemispherical lens (for which the internally formed holographic image-source perhaps could be properly anamorphically adjusted to exit in all directions a coherent manner). However, traditional scrying may have actually relied on spherical aberration, to allow unexpected shapes to emerge from subtleties such as surrounding flickering candles, that the seer may have used to amplify intuition and visions.

The comic is also making use of the vague meaning of something being "hard to see". One would expect that this would mean that Cueball's future is vague or mysterious, as is often the case in many fantasy novels. But in this case, the wizard is telling Cueball that his future is ''literally'' hard to see due to the spherical aberration.

The title text observes a real-world action that could [[1475: Technically|technically]] be described as "scrying through a crystal ball", that being the usage of the internet. Information over the internet is often transmitted via light sent through {{w|fiber-optic cables}}, which is sometimes collected using ball lenses.[https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/understanding-ball-lenses/] Due to the similarity between ball lenses and crystal balls, Randall argues that this is technically scrying through a crystal ball because you're receiving information from elsewhere (searching for something) and receiving it by way of a crystal ball (through the ball lenses). This is flawed as any lenses at the end of a fiber optic cable are to assist a detector in decoding potentially billions of light flashes per second into computer signals as opposed to actually allowing a human to view the contents of the internet with their eyes.

==Transcript==
:[A wizard with with a pointed hat, long hair and a large beard is sitting on a chair at the left side of a table. He is holding a crystal ball with both hands while he is looking into it. The ball has a reflection on the side towards Cueball who is sitting on a chair at the opposite side of the table with his hands in his lap.]
:Wizard: Your future is hard to see.
:Wizard: I can make out some hazy details in the center, but the off-axis components are particularly unclear.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Wizards never did figure out how to fix spherical aberration.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Internet]]

2759: Easily Confused Acronyms

2023-05-02T23:01:55Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2759
| date = April 5, 2023
| title = Easily Confused Acronyms
| image = easily_confused_acronyms_2x.png
| imagesize = 557x444px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Lever' was originally an acronym for Load Emplification by the Vimulated Emission of Radiation.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Randall]] compared the acronym "laser" with various other five-letter acronyms.

He first explained "laser" correctly. Then "maser", which is a type of laser and changes only one word in the acronym, he also explains correctly. Although in both cases he includes the definite article into the expanded phrase ("by the", instead of just the more usual "by"), to the same ultimate meaning and with short words that are traditionally not so often used in the initialisms (like "of" is not, here, also) and thus allows them to be more pronounceable acronyms that have become words in their own right rather than more awkward initialisms.

He then makes the following three entries, and the further actual word from the title text, follow precisely the same pattern by simply taking the full phrase for "laser"/"maser" and changing the first word, as appropriate, and the initial letter of any other words that need to change to fit. The replacement first word is correct for these acronyms, but the other words formed from changing the first letter are nonsense.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
!Acronym !! Comic !! Actual
|-
| {{w|Laser}} || ✅ Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation || '''L'''ight '''A'''mplification by '''S'''timulated '''E'''mission of '''R'''adiation
|-
| {{w|Maser}} || ✅ Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation || '''M'''icrowave '''A'''mplification by '''S'''timulated '''E'''mission of '''R'''adiation
|-
| {{w|Sonar}} || ❌ Sound Omplification by the Nimulated Amission of Radiation || '''SO'''und '''N'''avigation '''A'''nd '''R'''anging
|-
| {{w|Radar}} || ❌ Radio Amplification by the Dimulated Amission of Radiation || '''RA'''dio '''D'''etection '''A'''nd '''R'''anging
|-
| {{w|Lidar}} || ❌ Light Implification by the Dimulated Amission of Radiation || '''LI'''ght '''D'''etection '''A'''nd '''R'''anging
|-
| {{w|Lever}} (title text) || ❌ Load Emplification by the Vimulated Emission of Radiation || (not an acronym in common usage)
|}

Laser and maser are true-to-life acronyms. The remaining three acronyms' true expansions are as given in the table. The false definitions suppose that all of the acronyms simply follow the same model as the first two correct ones, and swap out the necessary letters to fit in a square-peg-round-hole manner. Note that the latter three in the table each include the second letter from their first word, for their partly-{{w|Abbreviation#Syllabic abbreviation|syllabic abbreviation}} as derived from their true phrase of origin.

The title text extends this to the five-letter word "lever". This is an ordinary word, not a commonly used acronym. Levers have been used since time immemorial (even [https://quatr.us/physics/levers-simple-machines-physics.htm animals have been known to use them)], and predates high-tech uses of radiation by millennia (it's one of the {{w|simple machines}} that {{w|Archimedes}} studied in Ancient Greece). [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2722:_Etymonline Etymonline] traces the origin of the word to the year 1300, from the French "levier", which shares the same definition.

==Transcript==

:Easily-Confused Acronyms
:Cheat Sheet

:Laser

:Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation

:Maser

:Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation

:Sonar

:Sound Omplification by the Nimulated Emission of Radiation

:Radar

:Radio Amplification by the Dimulated Amission of Radiation

:Lidar

:Light Implification by the Dimulated Amission of Radiation

==Trivia==
LEVER is an uncommonly used acronym for Light Electric Vehicle Education and Research.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Science]]
[[Category: Language]]

2761: 1-to-1 Scale

2023-05-02T23:00:37Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2761
| date = April 10, 2023
| title = 1-to-1 Scale
| image = 1_to_1_scale_2x.png
| imagesize = 444x281px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = There's a version that shows the planets with no cropping, but it's hard to find a display that supports it.
}}

==Explanation==

[[File:NASA_1-to-1_scale.png|200px|thumb|left|Scaled representation of the full diagram. The comic corresponds to a tiny rectangle at the intersection of all the planets.]]

This comic is implied to be a part of a huge diagram that shows each of the eight planets at real size (as seen by the ant on Earth's surface). Each planet is represented by a circle thousands of kilometers in diameter. However, the planets have been awkwardly placed in an extremely tight circle, so that all eight planets touch (or nearly touch) a tiny central area of "space" a few inches large. This comic shows a fraction of this diagram, cropped so that we see this area of "space" and a little of the edge of each planet intentionally arranged next to it.

The joke of this comic appears to be that when planets are indeed displayed at a 1:1 scale, it is almost impossible to tell their relative sizes, even when the image technically shows (part of) each of the planets

The reason why each planet's circular border appears straight is because it's such a small area of each planet: you're only seeing a couple of square inches of the surface of each of the planets, and even though they are all round, the curvature would be imperceptible on this scale. The four gas giants are completely smooth, whereas the four rocky planets display features, most notably on Earth where grass and an ant are visible.

That it cannot have been an image of the real planets aligning is clear, as Mercury can be shown to be in front of Jupiter (implying that the latter is in the part of its orbit on the far side of the Sun from the viewer), yet Jupiter obscures Earth (which necessitates that it be in the arc of orbit ''nearest'' any given observer). In the title text it is made clear that this is just a small part of a larger drawing, so this is not an image taken from far away – they are only placed this way for scale.

The title text remarks that it is hard to find a display that supports a version of the image without cropping. This is because a true 1:1 scale image showing all of the planets would be at least as big as the largest one, Jupiter – far larger than any monitor or display currently available{{Citation needed}} – or perhaps even big enough to hold Saturn's rings, in whatever orientation they lie. Furthermore, the amount of video memory that a graphics card would need to have in order to output at anywhere near the same {{w|Dots per inch|DPI}} to such a display, even as a 1-bit-per-pixel-image (i.e., all pixels are either black or white), is well beyond the capabilities of any graphic card that existed at the time of publication.{{cn}}

==Transcript==
:[A frame with a central area of black 'space', bounded at various intersecting angles by eight 'straight lines' representing planetary surfaces, originating from various out-of-frame angles of 'down' and the white of some bodies obscuring some part of the others.]
:[There are labels indicating which line represents each planet.]
:[The four gas-giants' lines are simply drawn, near straight and featureless.]
:[The lines for the rocky inner-planets have variations to them, stereotypical of some part of their surface.]
:[The "Earth" line ('down' being out the top of the frame) has a profile indicating various small-scale vegetation and also features the white silhouette of an ant that may be of a realistic size for your display.]
:[Caption below the panel:]
:The solar system's planets at 1:1 scale

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Space]]
[[Category:Comics_with_inverted_brightness]]

2764: Cosmological Nostalgia Content

2023-05-02T22:58:20Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2764
| date = April 17, 2023
| title = Cosmological Nostalgia Content
| image = cosmological_nostalgia_content_2x.png
| imagesize = 316x386px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Later renouncing clickbait, Einstein called his inclusion of cosmological content in general relativity the biggest blunder of his career.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|1=Created by a z=90s KID - The entire start of this explanation with the made up word multimanteu that has nothing to do with this comic should be changes maybe just deleted! Needs more explanation of what the click bait in the title text refers to in the context of the Einstein blunder and why that belongs in this nostalgia comic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Like many xkcds, this comic is a figurative {{w|Portmanteau|multimanteau}}, in this case a combination of "{{w|cosmological constant}}" (an astrophysics term to quantify the rate of expansion of the universe) and "[https://movementstrategy.com/editorial/nostalgia-social-media/ nostalgia content]" (clickbait marketing aimed at a specific age group referencing pop culture from their youth). The [https://tvtropes.org canonical examples] of nostalgia content are "[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/only-90s-kids--2 Only 90s Kids Remember...]" and "[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/feel-old-yet Feel Old yet?]". Some people of relatively advanced years like to make comparisons to others in their age group of where events that they remember fit into history; e.g., "The first moon landing was closer to the end of World War I than to today."

In cosmology, z is the symbol for {{w|Redshift|redshift}}, which is the phenomenon where photons traveling from an object that is moving away from the observer exhibits an increase in wavelength, resulting in its color shifting towards the red end of the spectrum. Due to the accelerating expansion of the universe, objects that are further away from us are moving away from us at a faster velocity, resulting in higher redshift. As light has finite velocity, it takes a longer time for light from faraway objects to arrive at the observer.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light#Spaceflight_and_astronomy] So the light observed at the present must have been emitted by the faraway object further back in time. Megan is stating that only people that appear to the observer with high redshift (z = 10) will have existed sufficiently further back in the past to remember when the first stars were still forming. Megan also has a red tint (she is drawn in the color [https://www.color-hex.com/color/462424 #462424], a very dark red; here is a comparison of #462424 and black: &emsp; &emsp; ), indicating that she is one such z = 10 kid. This would mean that she was born around 500 million years after the universe was formed, or almost 13 billion years ago. However, the James Webb Space Telescope famously discovered fully formed, large, bright galaxies around z = 10 (of which the only explanations forthcoming so far are {{w|primordial black hole}}s[https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ac927f/meta][https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.09391] or {{w|axion}} miniclusters[https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.043502]) so Megan's nostalgia may be somewhat confabulatory.

White Hat, meanwhile, is referencing the fact that the universe has {{w|Scale factor (cosmology)|three eras}}: radiation dominated, matter dominated, and dark energy dominated. As the universe expands, the density of radiation and matter decreases due to their dilution, causing the universe, which first started off being dominated by radiation, to then become dominated by matter, then by dark energy (which does not dilute as the universe expands). Dark energy dominated era, which is when "dark energy started accelerating the universe's expansion" started around 5 billion years ago while {{w|Evolution of bacteria|bacteria evolved around 3 billion years ago}}, meaning that they evolved closer to dark energy domination than to today.

The title and title text play with the similarity in sound between 'content' and 'constant', segueing between web(page) content and cosmological constant.

The title text refers to Einstein's inclusion of the {{w|Cosmological constant|cosmological constant}} to his theory of general relativity in order to attain a static model of the universe, which he later removed, reportedly referring to it as his "biggest blunder". Cosmological constant has, today, been generally accepted as a part of the current cosmological model, relating to the concept of dark energy.

==Transcript==
:[Megan (with a red tint) holds both her arms out and up while she is talking to Cueball to the left of her. To the right of Megan White Hat is holding both arms out and down while he is talking to Ponytail to the right of him.]
:Megan: Only z=10 kids remember watching the cool dark gas that suffused the universe being eaten away by expanding bubbles of plasma around the first stars!
:White Hat: Want to feel old? Bacteria evolved closer to when dark energy started accelerating the universe's expansion than to today!

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Cosmological Nostalgia Content

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Comics with color]] 
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Biology]] 
[[Category:Clickbait]]

2766: Helium Reserve

2023-05-02T22:56:49Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2766
| date = April 21, 2023
| title = Helium Reserve
| image = helium_reserve_2x.png
| imagesize = 347x253px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The government has been trying to sell off the Federal Helium Reserve for a few years now, but the sale has been on hold while they try to figure out how to explain this situation to buyers.
}}

==Explanation==

The {{w|National Helium Reserve|Strategic National Helium Reserve}} is a reserve of helium in the United States, which holds more than 1 billion cubic meters of helium. This reserve was established by the US Government because helium has a number of critical scientific and industrial applications, and it was considered important to ensure that those needs could always be supplied.

In addition to the scientific uses, helium is also used and sold for more frivolous applications. One of the most well-known is to to fill party balloons. Since helium is much lighter than air, balloons filled with it will float. Additionally, because sound propagates differently through helium than through air, inhaling some of the gas will cause a person's voice to sound much higher. The novelty of this phenomenon has long resulted in people inhaling helium from balloons in order to hear their voices change.

Apparently, in this comic, [[Cueball]] was hired to manage the Reserve, and apparently lost or used all of the helium. The fact that he can't answer the question "out loud" implies that he inhaled all of the helium to make his voice change, meaning that even answering the question would reveal what he'd been doing.

The notion of one person inhaling the entire helium reserve is, of course, a ludicrous exaggeration (not to mention the fact that inhaling helium deprives a person of oxygen, and inhaling that much would put them at serious risk). The joke, though, is that Cueball was having so much fun inhaling the helium, he simply couldn't stop until he'd used it all up.

It is worth noting that, due to rising prices, most helium now sold for balloons is mixed with air. This lowers cost and helium use, but it makes balloons less buoyant, and dramatically reduces the impact of the gas on your voice. This may be significant to the comic because it means the average person is unable to change their voice with helium, so when Cueball is given access to a vast supply of it, he can no longer help himself.

Another realistic but admittedly less funny explanation is that Cueball didn't use up all the helium frivolously: helium is lighter than air, and once released into the atmosphere, it escapes into space and can never be recovered. A major leak in the Reserve would simply mean that all the helium is lost, and if it happened under Cueball's watch, he'd have to be held responsible -- and it is hard to find materials helium doesn't leak through at an astonishing rate. Firms that try to earn money by transporting heavy cargo using dirigibles (the successful transportation of an airplane wing, a wind turbine or any other large item where the roads are too narrow might be worth considerable amounts of money to those with the means to do so) often fail due to the costs associated with helium leakage.

The title text addresses the real-world privatization of the Reserve, first selling off the helium itself and then the sale of the storage facility. This has been a drawn out process because of political disagreements, however the title text implies the simpler explanation that one guard (or perhaps the government in general) has inhaled all the helium so there is nothing left to sell off.

==Transcript==
:[An officer wearing a peaked cap is talking to Cueball. There is a "National Strategic Helium Reserve" building in the background.]
:Officer: You were in charge of guarding the national helium reserve. So where did it go?!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Unfortunately, there's no good way for me to answer this question out loud.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]

2754: Relative Terms

2023-03-27T23:04:50Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2754
| date = March 24, 2023
| title = Relative Terms
| image = relative_terms_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x442px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Small sewing machines are sewing machines that are smaller than a sewing machine. A sewing machine is larger than a small sewing machine, but quieter than a loud sewing machine.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT IS LARGER THAN A BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The terms "small" and "big" are used to refer to size; the terms "loud" and "quiet" are used to refer to (audial) volume.

While these terms are relative, they are often used even when there is nothing obvious being compared against (e.g. "A windmill is a big thing" or "An ant is a small thing"). This comic humorously suggests that the item defined to be in the middle of all four terms ("neither small nor big; neither quiet nor loud") is a sewing machine, as a sewing machine seems (at least in comparison to the other items on the graph) to be neither particularly big nor particularly small, neither particularly quiet nor particularly loud.

An alternative argument may be that the in the center would be the average adult human (as this is the perspective from which most people use language), though this observation would lose some of the comic's comedic value.

The center of the chart is a sewing machine, and the comic is claiming that the scales of "loud and quiet" and "big and small" are measured in comparison to a standard size sewing machine. A standard sewing machine is roughly 60dB in volume and approximately 42” X 21”, although this is for industrial machines, and those in the home would be both smaller and quieter.

The title text is humorously tautological because it compares the standard against those things that are themselves defined against the standard.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and quiet (upper left)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Ant ||
|-
| Balloon ||
|-
| Book ||
|-
| Bun (rabbit or pastry) || "Bun" is an informal term for a rabbit and a loaf of bread, this comparison was made in [[1871: Bun Alert]]
|-
| Butterfly || This entry is found on the top left corner, corresponding to the extremes of quietness and smallness. Butterflies are small and make little noise.
|-
| Hat ||
|-
| Mouse || A mouse is a very small, quiet animal. This might also be a reference to the expression "quiet as a mouse", meaning very quietly.
|-
| Newt ||
|-
| Pin drop || The expression "hear a pin drop" is used to indicate that an area is exceptionally quiet; the idea is that the space is so silent that even something as insubstantial and tiny as a pin can be heard hitting the ground.
|-
| Snow globe || A {{w|snow globe}} is much smaller than a sewing machine. Some snow globes have a small music box that can be wound up to play a melody. Snow globes without a music box are silent.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and loud (upper right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Baby || Babies are usually considered small, and can be quite loud when they cry.
|-
| Blender || Blenders make a lot of noise when in use. Most household blenders are smaller than a sewing machine.
|-
| Cricket || Top right corner. This would refer to the insect, which is pretty small and can be quite loud; the sport of cricket or a cricket game would be much larger and potentially much louder.
|-
| Fire alarm || The primary purpose of a fire alarm is to notify people of fire, so fire alarms are usually very loud.
|-
| Firecracker || A {{w|Firecracker}} is a small explosive firework that makes a very loud bang when lit.
|-
| Flute ||
|-
| Harmonica ||
|-
| Popcorn ||
|-
| Songbird ||
|-
| Whistle || This is of course the device known as a whistle, as it is small. The act by humans to whistle has no size (other than that of the whistler). A whistle is used functionally in place of a human that whistles. The loudest human whistle ever recorded was 8372 Hz and roughly 110 DB, which is a C9 in the standard musical scale and is roughly as loud as a jackhammer[https://www.vnews.com/West-Lebanon-man-sets-a-world-record-for-whistling-24480844#:~:text=Guinness'%20website%20says%20Stanford%20reached,in%20the%20standard%20musical%20notation.]. Since a whistle should be able to beat this it must be seen as loud.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and quiet (lower left)
|-
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Anaconda ||
|-
| Giraffe || Giraffes can be quite loud, but they usually vocalise using frequencies well below the range of human hearing. So, to a human, giraffes are quiet.
|-
| Northern lights || "In 2016, a Finnish study confirmed that the Aurora Borealis does produce a sound that can be heard" [https://www.techexplorist.com/listen-sound-aurora-borealis/47421/]
|-
| Shark ||
|-
| Statue || Most statues are larger than a sewing machine. Most statues are silent, but some have fountains or other devices that make sound.
|-
| The Moon || Lower left corner; the Moon is very, very big{{fact}}, but it is also completely silent as sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space.
|-
| Tree ||
|-
| Windmill ||
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and loud (lower right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Airplane ||
|-
| Cannon ||
|-
| Riding mower ||
|-
| [[wikipedia:Calliope_(music)|Steam calliope]] || A large musical device which functions by sending steam (or more recently compressed air) through attached whistles.
|-
| Train ||
|-
| Tuba ||
|-
| Volcano || Lower right corner. Volcanic eruptions can be extremely loud. The {{w|1883 eruption of Krakatoa}} made a pressure wave of 180 dB, the loudest sound ever recorded.
|-
| Waterfall ||
|-
| Whale ||
|}

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

:[A chart, with "Quiet" to "Loud" on the X-axis, and "Small" to "Big" on the Y-axis. It is split into four quarters, with "Sewing machine" in the center.]

:[Upper left quadrant (Small & Quiet items):] Butterfly, Pin drop, Mouse, Ant, Bun (rabbit or pastry), Snow globe, Newt, Balloon, Book, Hat

:[Upper right quadrant (Small & Loud items):] Popcorn, Cricket, Songbird, Whistle, Baby, Harmonica, Flute, Fire alarm, Blender, Firecracker

:[Lower left quadrant (Big & Quiet items):] Shark, Tree, Anaconda, Giraffe, Statue, Windmill, Northern lights, The Moon

:[Lower right quadrant (Big & Loud items):] Tuba, Riding mower, Cannon, Airplane, Train, Waterfall, Steam calliope, Whale, Volcano

:[Caption below the panel:]
:''Big'', ''Small'', ''Loud'', and ''Quiet'' are relative terms. The thing they're relative to is a sewing machine.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Food]]

2755: Effect Size

2023-03-27T23:04:30Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2755
| date = March 27, 2023
| title = Effect Size
| image = effect_size_2x.png
| imagesize = 278x366px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Subgroup analysis is ongoing.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a EVIL GREMLIN CHILD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic outlines a {{w|meta-analysis}}, or more aptly THE meta-analysis, as its inclusion criteria are simply all studies.

A meta-analysis, true to its name, normally is a statistical analysis of statistical analyses, usually those attempting to answer a single question. Meta-analyses are intended to account for possible individual error within each study, summarizing the general results of all of its studies in order to potentially draw a useful conclusion.

Here, the meta-analysis consists of a graph of {{w|effect sizes}} for what is allegedly every single study ever conducted. Accordingly, even page 53,589 of the meta-analysis is only about a quarter of the total graph. Below is an estimate of the average effect (the effect normally being the relationship being analyzed by the studies within a meta-analysis, though here it seems again to just be a conglomerate of all known effects), along with a (likely) 95% {{w|confidence interval}} for the findings of the meta-analysis.

In the caption, Randall delivers to us the bad news: that the meta-analysis of "all of science" has finally been performed, and as it turns out, the results are not significant. {{w|Statistical significance}} is the degree to which the results of a sample or study are likely due to a correlation, as opposed to chance or {{w|sampling variation}} alone. Apparently, across the entirety of human science in the study of our universe, the study has found a lack of significance, or a relationship between any two variables ever.

The joke lies in the absurdity of the claim, that "all of science" can be analyzed at all. Science is not a singular term that can be subcategorized in such a manner, but hundreds of different fields of study, many of which have little or no overlap. Doing a meta-analysis of geology and philosophy, for example, would be patently ridiculous, so the 53,589 page study is comical in its very existence, much less conclusion.

In the title text, Randall reports that {{w|subgroup analysis}} is ongoing, which in this context could simply be the various fields of scientific study, ranging from {{w|chemistry}} to {{w|physics}} to {{w|astronomy}} and everything beyond. Thus a subgroup analysis from the limited perspective of the meta-analysis would seem rather unnecessary, not to mention that several levels of sub-subgroup analysis may be needed.

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

:Meta-analysis
:Inclusion criteria: All studies

:[A forest plot is shown. In the tab on the top right, there is a label "Page 53,589". On the right side of the plot, there is a vertical scrollbar where the bar is less than one quarter from the top. A horizontal axis centered on 0 is shown at the bottom and -1 and +1 on either side are labeled. In the middle of the plot, there is a dashed vertical line. On both sides of the vertical line in separate rows, there are black boxes of different sizes with horizontal bars of varying lengths on the sides of the boxes. Below the plot, slightly to the right of the vertical line, there is a black diamond wider than it is tall, labeled "0.17 (-0.14, 0.52)".]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Bad news: They finally did a meta-analysis of all science, and it turns out it's not significant.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Statistics]]

2041: Frontiers

2023-03-24T18:30:29Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2041
| date = September 3, 2018
| title = Frontiers
| image = frontiers.png
| titletext = Star Trek V is a small part of the space frontier, but it’s been a while since that movie came out so I assume we’ve finished exploring it by now.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to four remaining “final frontiers” of human discovery, according to popular usage—perhaps analyzed using an Internet search engine. It seems to imply that other fields of research aren’t a challenge anymore.

Outer '''space''' is so vast in size that it’s impossible for humans to discover even just the stars in our galaxy within a lifetime. Space travel is also very difficult and expensive.

'''The oceans''' are very deep{{citation needed}}. The vast majority of the deeper oceans hasn’t been visited by humans, and there is still much we don’t know about the living beings in the deep sea.

'''The human mind''' is not only very complex, but also often seems irrational, which makes it harder to investigate. Its relation to the brain is also somewhat mysterious: {{w|philosophy of mind}} is split on whether the mind is ultimately material (materialism) or immaterial (dualism/idealism). Further, certain philosophical systems have trouble explaining its relation to the body, in what is termed the {{w|mind–body problem}}.

'''Alaska''' is the state of largest area in the U.S., and also the most sparsely populated. Many places in Alaska have only been partially explored to this day. Randall was probably inspired by the TV series ''{{w|Alaska: The Last Frontier}}'', which plays off of the state’s official nickname of “The Last Frontier”.

The humor from this comic comes from the fact that Alaska seems comparably of less important than the other “Final Frontiers”. It is not as hard or expensive to explore as the ocean bottom and outer space, and it is much smaller. While one's own human mind is much more easily accessible than the other three locations, its nature is a substantial frontier in human knowledge. Furthermore, minds other than one’s own are very hard to access.

The title text refers to the movie ''{{w|Star Trek V: The Final Frontier}}'', released in 1989. “Final frontier” is a recurring motif in the ''Star Trek'' franchise (coming from the opening narration for ''{{w|Star Trek: The Original Series}}''), and is used to describe the exploration of outer space, which remains a notable frontier to humans, both in real life and within ''Star Trek''. [[Randall]], however, jokingly posits that the frontier to be explored is the film itself, and assumes that, because this movie has been out for a while—nearly thirty years—it ought to be fully and comprehensively explored by now.

==Transcript==
:[In a single framed picture a hand drawn rhomboid is shown. At the inside a few small arrows pointing to the four sides. The text in the middle reads:]
:Human achievement so far

:[Text above the top left side:]
:Space
:[Text above the top right side:]
:The oceans
:[Text below the bottom left side:]
:The human mind
:[Text below the bottom right side:]
:Alaska

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Final remaining “frontiers,” according to popular usage

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]

794: Inside Joke

2023-03-24T18:26:50Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number =794
| date =September 17, 2010
| title =Inside Joke
| image =inside_joke.png
| titletext =I've looked through a few annotated versions of classic books, and it's shocking how much of what's in there is basically pop-culture references totally lost on us now.
}}

==Explanation==
Inside jokes occur between friends and family members that live through a shared experience, which makes them laugh when they make reference to it later on. For people not "in the know", these inside jokes can come across as being completely incomprehensible, and in extreme cases just sound like random words strung together.

Randall posits the hypothesis that this has been going on throughout history and that historical figures probably had the same number of inside jokes as any modern group of high-school students. He probably chose to compare them to high-school students because that is a time of complex social interactions and cliques, which are conducive to the formation of inside jokes.

The title text says that there are several classic books that make pop-culture references to events that no modern reader was alive to see. Topicality sometimes has the unfortunate side-effect of the work being far less understood to later generations. Suggested examples so far include Homer's ''{{w|Odyssey}},'' Shakespeare's ''{{w|Much Ado About Nothing}},'' and Lewis Carroll's ''Alice'' books, whose many nineteenth-century cultural references are enumerated in ''{{w|The Annotated Alice}}.''

The inside joke presented in the comic appears to be a reference to the esoterically-named {{W|Buddha Jumps Over the Wall}}, a type of fish soup that allegedly smelled so delicious, Buddhist disciples would sneak out of their meditative ceremonies to eat it. In this case, the ham seller comments that his products are so delicious that even the monk nearby is climbing over the wall to get some ham after the buyer remarked that his product was too expensive.

==Transcript==
:[A man with a beard and a turban stands to the left of a crude wooden counter. On the right of the counter is a man with a beard and no turban. Both men are laughing. Further behind the counter is a woman with a bun kneeling on the ground and putting something into a box.]
:Turban man: Nine silvers for a ham? That's too much!
:No-turban man: Too much? There's a monk out back ''with a ladder!''

:Caption: There's no reason to think that people throughout history didn't have just as many inside jokes and catchphrases as any modern group of high-schoolers.

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

2749: Lymphocytes

2023-03-21T16:29:49Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2749
| date = March 13, 2023
| title = Lymphocytes
| image = lymphocytes_2x.png
| imagesize = 651x733px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's very hard to detect, but recent studies have determined that when plasma B cells are producing antibodies, they go 'pew pew pew'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the WORLD'S SECOND COOLEST IMMUNOLOGIST - Table is cool, but some entries miss mention or explanation of the text in the comic, when it may have relation to the real life cell etc. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The human body contains many different types of immune cells. This comic is a list of {{w|lymphocyte}}s, a specific type of immune cell that is found in blood and lymph. As the comic goes on, in the style of many "informative" xkcd comics, the descriptions of the names of the cells get more and more removed from reality. Though many of the cells are real, only two descriptions are accurate, those for the plasma B cell and that of the out of context D cell. The diagrams are either uninformingly similar to each other, as an extremely generic diagram of a biological cell, or made to look somewhat like the item spoofed by the description.

The title text is possibly a reference to this recent study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.3c00638

{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Real Lymphocyte? !! Randall's description !! Comment
|-
| {{w|Plasma B cell}}s || Yes || Churn out antibodies || Does as the comic says.
No parody, except for the very vague diagram of a cell with a perinuclear region within it that could also just be a fried egg.
|-
| Naïve B cells || Yes || Try to stop pathogens by asking nicely || {{w|B cell}}s that have not yet been exposed to an antigen. Can only "ask nicely" for pathogens to stop because they cannot yet contribute to the immune system.
Image remains as much just a 'fried egg' as the prior image.
|-
| {{w|Memory B cell}}s || Yes || Very quietly sing {{w|Memory_(Cats_song)|"Memory" from ''Cats''}} at all times || Long-lived B cells that "remember" an antigen they have previously encountered, allowing them to quickly respond to a reappearance of the same antigen.
"Memory" is one of the most famous songs from the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber ''{{w|Cats (musical)|Cats}}'' musical, and the otherwise very similar diagram appears to be singing notes.
|-
| {{w|Regulatory B cell}}s || Yes || Required by local ordinance || Suppress certain immune responses, or in other words, regulates the immune response, which is their actual namesake, as opposed to the made-up namesake of only being in the body because some regulation requires it.
Cells do follow instructions from DNA, and their environment, which might be considered to be local ordinances. The image is again just another ''slightly'' different version of the generic cell image.
|-
| CD8+ T cells || Yes || Melee combat || {{w|Cytotoxic T cell}}, responsible for killing cells which are cancerous or infected. Named after the surface protein "CD8" ("Cluster of Differentiation") it uses when searching for targets.
Possibly a reference to the tabletop gaming terminology where "d8" means 8-sided dice, "d4" means 4-sided dice, etc. D&D and many of its derivatives use d8s primarily for damage, particularly for some of the most common weapons like rapiers, longswords, and longbows, and also for several spells like Chill Touch or Ray of Frost. The image is again fairly generic without any gross distinction to it.
|-
| CD4+ T cells || Yes || Scream at other cells || {{w|T helper cell}}, releasing cytokines as a signal that prompts the immune system into action, thus "screaming" at other cells. Named after the surface protein "CD4" (see above), that is used for binding to other cells while "screaming".
The generic cell image seems to be shouting "AAAAAAAAA!". Possibly also a reference to the D&D spell "Vicious Mockery" which may involve screaming and does damage based on a "d4" die.
|-
| {{w|Gamma delta T cell|Gamma-Delta T cell}}s || Yes || Unknown / classified || T cells found largely in mucous membranes of the gut, with different T-cell receptors than normal. Effectively the immune system's first line of defense.
The image, this time, has a dashed outer line and a question-mark instead of any nucleus. ''{{w|Delta Force|Delta Force}}'' is a famous military special forces organization involved in classified and not-generally-known operations, and its operatives are unlikely to be identified in publically available images.
|-
| CDRW+ T cells || No || Rewritable, 700MB || Here, the meaning of "CD" is switched from {{w|Cluster of Differentiation}} to {{w|Compact Disc}}, as in the {{w|CD-RW}} re-writable media format. 700 megabytes is a common size format for CDs.
By skewing the 'cell' diagram into an oval, with concentric central 'nucleus' and adding some subtle radial and concentric lines, it now resembles a typical item of optical media.
|-
| DVD+R T cells || No || Different from DVD-R, though no one is sure how || {{w|DVD+R}} is a DVD format designed by {{w|HP Labs}}, while DVD-R (pronounced "dash R") came originally from {{w|Pioneer Corporation}} and was the earlier accepted system. The two formats are not trivially compatible, but many (re)writing DVD drives were made multiformat to automatically handle both of these, {{w|DVD-RAM}}, read/write versions and CD-density media, as necessary, under the general label of "DVD±RW". The user then ends up not usually needing, or bothering, to know the technical differences.
Another 'skewed oval', with a few more lines (to perhaps suggest greater data density) but not functionally different from the prior diagram.
|-
| {{w|Natural killer cell}}s || Yes || Named by the world's coolest immunologist || Kills cells infected by intracellular pathogens and other malfunctioning (e.g. cancerous) cells, similar to CD8+ cells but part of the {{w|innate immune system}}. Randall likes the name of these cells more than the next item, making Rolf Kiessling and Hugh Pross "the world's coolest immunologist(s)."
The cell image is a bit more crinkled at the edge than any prior cell, but otherwise not remarkably distinctive.
|-
| ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 cells || Yes || Named by a significantly less cool immunologist || {{w|Innate lymphoid cell}}s, regulating the innate immune system through signaling molecules. Named in [https://www.nature.com/articles/nri3365 this paper in Nature] by Hergen Spits, David Artis, Marco Colonna, Andreas Diefenbach, James P. Di Santo, Gerard Eberl, Shigeo Koyasu, Richard M. Locksley, Andrew N. J. McKenzie, Reina E. Mebius, Fiona Powrie and Eric Vivier, making them collectively much less cool than Kiessling and Pross above.
Represented by three small cell-images, snuggling close to each other without touching, and no real reason to assume which of the three is which.
|-
| D cells || No || Larger than C and AA cells, used in old flashlights || This is not a blood cell, but a {{w|D battery|"D cell" battery}}. (A battery is technically a package of cells in series. Without examining the contents of one, however, the contents of a single-cell {{w|Alkaline battery#Construction|''battery''}} is indistinguishable from a {{w|Nine-volt battery#Technical specifications|multi-cell}} version to the casual user.) Biological cells called "D cells" or {{w|delta cell}}s do actually exist, but they are not lymphocytes.
Drawn as a diagrammatic 'cylinder', the cell edge forming a round-ended rectangle with a faint 'nearside' line to hint at its [[2509: Useful Geometry Formulas|3D nature]]. The 'nucleus' is pushed into one end of the shape, reminiscent of the distinctive 'cap' to {{w|Duracell|some batteries, commonly imitated}}, emphasizing the polarity of the item, but also represents a highly simplified version of how the electrolyte might be placed within the housing.
|}

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

:[Title] Lymphocytes
:[Subtitle] And their functions
:[A 4 by 3 grid of frames, each containing the name of the lymphocyte, a visual depiction of the cell and a description]

:[Row 1, Column 1]
:Plasma B cells
:[Egg-like shaped cell with the nucleus right from the middle]
:Churn out antibodies

:[Row 1, Column 2]
:Naïve B cells
:[Almost circular cell with the nucleus in the middle]
:Try to stop pathogens by asking nicely

:[Row 1, Column 3]
:Memory B cells
:[Like panel 2, but with some music notes next to it, as if it produces sound]
:Very quietly sing "memory" from Cats at all times

:[Row 1, Column 4]
:Regulatory B cells
:[Like panel 2]
:Required by local ordinance

:[Row 2, Column 1]
:CD8+ T cells
:[Also oblong, but with the nucleus left from the middle]
:Melee combat

:[Row 2, Column 2]
:CD4+ T cells
:[Circular, with a large nucleus, saying ‘AAAAAAAAA!’]
:Scream at other cells

:[Row 2, Column 3]
:Gamma-Delta T cells
:[Dashed circle with a question mark in the middle]
:Unknown / classified

:[Row 2, Column 4]
:CDRW+ T cells
:[Shaped like a CD, with a large hole in the middle]
:Rewritable, 700MB

:[Row 3, Column 1]
:DVD+R T cells
:[Shaped like a DVD, with a bit smaller hole in the middle]
:Different from DVD-R, though no one is sure how

:[Row 3, Column 2]
:Natural killer cells
:[Irregularly shaped oblong cell with nucleus in the middle]
:Named by the world's coolest immunologist

:[Row 3, Column 3]
:ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 cells
:[Three cells]
:Named by a significantly less cool immunologist

:[Row 3, Column 4]
:D cells
:[Cylindrical shaped ‘cell’, with a smaller cylindrical ‘nucleus’ inside it at the right, roughly shaped like a D battery]
:Larger than C and AA cells, used in old flashlights

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:2741: Wish Interpretation

2023-02-24T01:02:41Z

JLZ0kTC5:

To all you people reading the discussion, why can't I add my own person page? I mean, is a year too new? I think I know, [[User:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|(but I'm not completely sure.)]] ([[User talk:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|talk]]) 23:29, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

:Oh, you have to have an old enough account to make one? I had been wondering how to. [[User:Thexkcdnerd|Thexkcdnerd]] ([[User talk:Thexkcdnerd|talk]]) 00:02, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Ironically, a banknote created by a genie would be counterfeit, although the odds of legal trouble over $20 are nonetheless low. 23:43, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
:It doesn't have to be. The genie could take one away from someone, or just get one that's been lost. Also, the sentence for counterfeiting is the same regardless of the denomination. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:31, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:The sentence for counterfeiting may be the same but the probability someone would actually go through the trouble of prosecuting you for $20 is much less than say $10,000 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.151|172.70.214.151]] 03:04, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::The US Treasury Dept. prosecutes every case it can prove. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 04:06, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:::So 2 things: First of all they need to prove it. For that someone has to notice. Not every 20-Dollar-note will be scanned, and I guess the genie could make a pretty good copy (if he needs to copy it). Also noone said US-Dollar. The Genie could make a twist and use one of over 20 other currencies called dollar. Not sure if US Treasury Dept. would be interested in that :D by the way, the eastern caribean dollar has the short "XCD" - does anyone think that a thousand of those would be labeled XkCD? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:13, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::::Or he could use Monopoly money. Or Geniedollars. He never said it would be legal tender, after all.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 14:42, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:::::For me, Monopoly Money has always been in £s (the board I always used going from Old Kent Road to Mayfair, naturally), though I've noticed that online (hyperinternational) representations, that I see in game-ads, now seem to use a special "barred-M" currency symbol (to copy how £, €, ¥ and $ are variously barred versions of L, E, Y and S).
:::::What Cueball-genie would use is an interesting phosophical question. I suspect he just gets whatever he needs (for personal use) out of petty cash and settles it up later. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 15:47, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::Yes, I've read some story where a wish-granting entity generated money by re-printing money lost in some catastrophe (like, burned down, sunk in ship or something). Technically, such banknote is counterfeit, but it's impossible to prove it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:58, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

That's cool. Try https://what-if.xkcd.com/23/. Part 1. I need a new signature. [[User:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|(but I'm not completely sure.)]] ([[User talk:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|talk]]) 23:46, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

I would (as the genie) just teleport Black Hat to the desert. No other trickery or devastation needed. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:34, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

The oldest "Wish that I wish I didn't wish" I am personally aware of is Midas turning everything he touched into gold, including the food he tried to eat and his beloved daughter. Personally, I'd wish that the genie teach me a lesson. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:16, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

It's kinda funny how a citation is needed for claiming that wishing rain doesn't exist is bad because Randall will just cover it in "What If 3" 20:59, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
:He already replaced the rain with candy in What If 2. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.151|162.158.129.151]] 07:28, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

The proper way of teaching Black Hat a lesson would be twisting his wish to make it beneficial to humanity. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 08:20, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

"And I want you to put it in my house." / [POOF!] - "Here, I turned your house into a Klein bottle."
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.39|172.71.160.39]] 08:25, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:That would better satisfy "And I want my house to contain it", from one single-step literalist perspective... Wishes-gone-strange ''usually'' work on the basis of the 'laziest' misinterpretation (with or without the intention of mallice) that doesn't require too much reinterpretation.
:But how to misinterpret "put it in my house"? Hmmm... Nothing to suggest that it must stay there. Perhaps everything is going to be squeezed in through the front door and (Niagra Straw-like) eventually pushes most out of the back door. The house structure (but not fixtures and fittings) magically strengthened to continue being houselike, even as whatever the back yard is like (before it gets its own turn of being sequentially transported through) fills up with mountains (literally!) of the resulting wreckage/mishmash.
:But not sure if the house itself is not already "in the house", i.e. its structure, to be exempt by prior "in"ness (if not ownership)... I'm not a genie, and have not gone through the rather extensive training/job-orientation that they clearly go through. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.34|172.70.90.34]] 14:56, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::Wouldn't the simplest thing be to just turn the house inside-out?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 16:48, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:"I've turned your house inside-out, and we redefine 'inside' and 'outside'. Everything, including the house itself, is within the 'outside' surface of the house." Except the small amount of air 'outside', of course. See also the "Asylum" in Douglas Adams's ''So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish''. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:55, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
I had a good laugh when I saw [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2741:_Wish_Interpretation&diff=prev&oldid=306692 one of these 'corrections']. US English mandates "fulfill", where the UK/etc English version is "fulfil", yet it also goes the other way and uses words like "reveler" where most (all?) other versions of English would prefer "reveller".
 And would hope that, whenever words get USified, the editor involved realises (or "realizes", yet surprisingly not ever "realizez"!) that they aren't actually correcting typos (like they sometimes comment), merely relocalising the wordz.. sorry.. ''words''! :P [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.65|172.71.178.65]] 15:21, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:...--[[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 01:02, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

In https://xkcd.com/1086/, it's shown that Black Hat gained the ability to wish on his eyelashes via wish; and if his wish on February 6th is anything to go by it's likely that whichever entity granted that wish deliberately misinterprets wishes in much the same way as this genie wants to. Should this be mentioned in the explanation? --[[User:A Stingray|A Stingray]] ([[User talk:A Stingray|talk]]) 19:47, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Curious - if you put all the objects of the world's surface into Black Hat's house, would that be a neutron star, or would it get to a micro black hole? {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.56|19:49, 23 February 2023}}
:The Schwarzschild radius of the whole Earth is less than 1cm, so we can say for sure that an accumulation of 'just' all things upon its surface into a volume the size of any house would be far short of gravitational collapse into a singularity.
:I don't offhand know how much stuff there actually will be, thoug. We could start by extrapolating from [https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2018/5/29/17386112/all-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas something like this] to work out how dense a packing you'd need in any given volume of house.
:Likely still not anywhere near neutronium level, I'm guessing, because a tablespoon of neutron star apparently is the mass of Mt Everest, and you could fit a lot of tablespoons (or pour a lot of tablespoons'-worth of stuff into, though the distinction itself hardly matters) into even the smallest "bedsit" living space. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.128|172.70.86.128]] 21:01, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

1877: Eclipse Science

2023-02-23T12:35:57Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 1877
| date = August 16, 2017
| title = Eclipse Science
| image = eclipse_science.png
| titletext = I was thinking of observing stars to verify Einstein's theory of relativity again, but I gotta say, that thing is looking pretty solid at this point.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is the second of five consecutive comics published in the week before and during the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which was visible as a total solar eclipse within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east and visible as a partial eclipse across the entire contiguous United States and beyond. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]], [[1878: Earth Orbital Diagram]], [[1879: Eclipse Birds]], and [[1880: Eclipse Review]].

This comic reflects on various reasons scientists have for being interested in a total solar eclipse. An eclipse is an astronomical event, which most laypeople associate with science and thus might assume would be of interest to scientists. However, when the reporter probes Megan on scientific interest on the eclipse, Megan gives short and sarcastic answers, downplaying any experimental significance of the phenomenon and indicating that her only interest is in spectacle rather than science. She also makes the point that science is no more involved in an eclipse than any other spectator event, and does not work to observe phenomena without any interest in discovery. Eclipses are well-understood events and there is no lack of models for explaining the physics behind them; the alignment of bodies in space is a result of orbital mechanics which are present at all times, making the whole event only significant to the observer.

While some astronomers might be testing elaborate hypotheses during an eclipse, for other scientists (e.g. organic chemists and paleontologists) it is just a once in a long time (maybe even once in a lifetime) event which is visually interesting. Some biologists may, however, be collecting data on the behavior of animals during an eclipse, which is poorly understood due to its rarity.

Megan's point is that in 2017 (and for several decades/centuries previous) eclipses are thoroughly understood. Wikipedia has a listing of {{w|List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_21st_century|every eclipse that will occur in the 21st Century}}, to include the coordinates and time of greatest eclipse. While eclipses offer a unique opportunity for ground based observation of the Sun's outer layers the majority of the study of the sun is done by satellites that do not require an eclipse to take readings.

The title text refers to a {{w|Tests_of_general_relativity#Deflection_of_light_by_the_Sun|1919 experiment during an eclipse}} to observe gravitational deflection of light waves. The 1919 experiment was the first strong experimental confirmation of Einstein's then-new theory. One century later, general relativity {{w|Tests_of_general_relativity|has been tested and confirmed in so many different ways}} that ''pretty solid'' is a vast understatement.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is speaking into a microphone while interviewing Megan.]
:Hairy: Tell us, are you scientists excited for the eclipse?
:Megan: Sure, lots of people are!

:[Zoom in on Megan's head.]
:Hairy (off-panel): Is this a big moment for science?
:Megan: It's a big moment for the sky.

:[Same setting as first panel in a wider panel.]
:Hairy: Are people really excited enough about science to travel to see it?
:Megan: Honestly, it's not that scientific. I mean, it's cool if you're into astronomy, but it's also cool if you're, like, aware of the sun.

:[Same setting.]
:Hairy: But there's lots of science involved.
:Megan: I guess? There's lots of science involved in the Olympics, but you don't need to be a scientist to watch.

:[Megan holds a hand out towards Hairy.]
:Megan: It's not like the concept is all that arcane or mathematical. It's a thing going in front of another thing.

:[Zoom in on Megan holding both arms out.]
:Hairy (off-panel): Then why are you so excited?
:Megan: I'm excited because it's a nearly once-in-a-lifetime chance to watch the sun go dark, hear birds freak out, and see a glowing ring appear in the sky with a sunset on every horizon.

:[Back to same setting as in the first panel.]
:Hairy : Will you be making any scientific observations?
:Megan: I will be like, "Holy shit, look at the sky."
:Megan: Maybe also "This is so cool."
:Megan: We'll see!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Total Solar Eclipse 2017]]

1490: Atoms

2023-02-23T11:56:54Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 1490
| date = February 23, 2015
| title = Atoms
| image = atoms.png
| titletext = When I was little I had trouble telling my dad apart from the dog. I always recognized my mom because she had a bunch of extra plutoniums in her middle. I never did ask her why...
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows another quirky and fantastical ability of [[Beret Guy]].

In this comic, [[Megan]] is preparing a sample of what appears to be some mineral for {{w|elemental analysis}}. It seems to be some kind of {{w|silicate}} containing a small amount of {{w|iron}} (a common example of this would be {{w|red sandstone}}), and she is running a test to see if it contains {{w|beryllium}} (a rarer element whose best-known natural form is as a component of {{w|emerald}}). Such analyses typically involve many instruments and steps to prepare the sample. However, Beret Guy seems to be able to identify all the elements the substance is composed of just by eyeballing it, making him perhaps the perfect elemental analysis instrument.

To confirm this, Megan asks Beret Guy what he sees when he looks at her face, expecting that a normal person would describe the arrangement of colors and features that they see. Since Beret Guy sees the atoms Megan is composed of (mostly {{w|Composition_of_the_human_body|oxygen, carbon and hydrogen}}) he only notices the unusual atoms. In this case he sees the metal atoms her {{w|Dental_restoration#Materials_used|dental fillings}} are composed of. This shows his "atomic vision" extends beyond the surface of the substances. Megan finds this bizarre and asks Beret Guy what is wrong with him. He states that he has always suspected he contains too much {{w|zinc}}, which he believes makes people think he is weird, thus missing Megan's point: what is weird is not Beret Guy's elemental content, but his ability to apparently see everything as atoms sorted by element.

High zinc intake ({{w|Zinc toxicity|zinc toxicity}}) can cause nausea, vomiting, pain, cramps and diarrhea. It also reduces copper absorption, which affects the immune system. However, it does not grant superhuman sensory abilities.{{Citation needed}} That is solely a function of [https://coppermind.net/wiki/Tin tin].

The comic continues the theme of Beret Guy's naive misunderstandings of scientific terminology turning to be literally true. In a previous [[1486: Vacuum|comic]] his misinterpretation of the notion of energy in the vacuum resulted in him gaining significant superpowers.

In the title text, the concept is taken even further: Beret Guy found his dad indistinguishable from a dog. This is likely because all mammals are essentially made of the same basic elements. Absent a distinguishing element from either his dad or the dog, they would appear to be the same. He could, however, apparently distinguish his mother because she contained {{w|plutonium}}. This is a very unusual occurrence that cannot possibly occur naturally in humans.{{Citation needed}} Some possible explanations are:
#She had an {{w|Radioisotope thermoelectric generator|RTG}}-powered pacemaker (a few hundred were made in the 1970s).
#She lived near Los Alamos during the second world war and was a member of the [http://warisboring.com/articles/the-scientists-who-pee-plutonium/ UPPU club (translated as “You pee Pu!”)]. Alternatively, she could have been exposed to another source such as {{w|radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant}}.
#She was one of {{w|The Stepford Wives}} robots.
#She was the victim of some unidentified, unethical medical experimentation.
It is also possible that the presence of plutonium in his mother may be the source of his own differences: radioactive exposure (in this case, potentially in utero) is a common source of super powers in comic books and other fiction (though unfortunately, this does not work in real life{{Citation needed}}).

It's not clear whether his mother's plutonium is related to his "too many zincs". One explanation for Beret Guy having too much zinc could be that his mother's plutonium changed into zinc through the process of {{w|radioactive decay}}.

Beret Guy's mother containing plutonium is probably intended as a whimsical explanation of his powers, since it is a {{tvtropes|ILoveNuclearPower|trope in fiction}} for radioactivity to cause superpowers.

It is worth noting that the verbs "recognized" and "had" in the title text are written in past tense. This presents the possibility that Beret Guy's mother passed away due to {{w|radiation sickness}} from exposure to the radiation originating from the plutonium in her middle. This possibility is further evidenced when Beret Guy adds "I never did ask her why...", indicating that he may no longer have the opportunity to do so.

The English physicist {{w|Henry Moseley}} discovered the law relating the {{w|atomic number}} of elements with their {{w|characteristic x-ray|characteristic x-rays}} when bombarded by free electrons, providing physical evidence for the {{w|periodic table}}, the {{w|Bohr Model}} of the atom and the concept of {{w|atomic number}}. In doing so he developed a method of identifying elements in a substance by bombarding them in a vacuum with electrons and using {{w|x-ray diffraction}} methods to measure the resulting X-rays. A famous French chemist brought him a complicated mixture of {{w|Rare Earth element|Rare Earth elements}}, many of which had only recently been discovered, to test his method. Within a short time, Mosley amazed the chemist by identifying all the elements by number using his method and referring to his chart to name them. This comic may therefore be subtly alluding to this method by suggesting that Beret Guy's eyes can fire electrons at anything he looks at and "read" the resulting X-ray radiation, giving him the ability to identify the composite elements in a similar manner.

==Transcript==
:[Megan stands at a table and is preparing a sample for some kind of analysis in a device, when Beret Guy walks in.]
:Beret Guy: What're you doing?
:Megan: Testing a sample for beryllium.
:Beret Guy: That? Yeah, there's a bunch of berylliums.
:Megan: How do you know?

:[Megan turns to Beret Guy who takes the sample and looks at it.]
:Beret Guy: Look at it! See? Tons of oxygens and silicons, a few irons but definitely some berylliums too! Can't you see them?

:[They continue to talk.]
:Megan: No, I can’t see a list of the atoms in a thing by looking.
:Beret Guy: How do you tell what things are?

:[Zoom in on Megan.]
:Megan: This is ridiculous. Look at me. What do you see?
:Beret Guy (off-panel): You have tons of metal in your face. Lots of fillings, I guess?

:[Megan stares at Beret Guy who takes a looks at his own arm.]
:Megan: What's '''''wrong''''' with you?
:Beret Guy: Too many zincs? I’ve always worried I had too much zinc and everyone thought I was weird.

==Trivia==
*In the original version of the comic there was a typo in the title text, ''form'' instead of ''from'':
**I had trouble telling my dad apart '''form''' the dog.
Could possibly explain [[452: Mission]] if he believes all carbon based objects to be scones.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Cagegory:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]

1880: Eclipse Review

2023-02-23T11:52:25Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 1880
| date = August 23, 2017
| title = Eclipse Review
| image = eclipse_review.png
| titletext = I watched from a beautiful nature reserve in central Missouri, and it was--without exaggeration--the coolest thing I've ever seen.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is the last of five consecutive comics published in the week before and during the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which was visible as a total solar eclipse within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east and visible as a partial eclipse across the entire contiguous United States and beyond. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]], [[1877: Eclipse Science]], [[1878: Earth Orbital Diagram]], and [[1879: Eclipse Birds]].

The comic is another comparison graph, like [[1775: Things You Learn]] or [[1701: Speed and Danger]]. It contrasts how cool something ''sounds'' and how cool it actually ''is''. It has five points on it, planetary conjunction, supermoon, lunar eclipse, partial solar eclipse, and total solar eclipse.

While the four other things than total solar eclipse are relatively close to each other on the "how cool to see" scale, the graph is not even high enough to plot the total solar eclipse point as indicated by the dotted arrow showing that this point should be way higher up. This is as opposed to leaving the point out, as Randall did with the coconut in [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]], where it is only mentioned in the title text. This could be an indication that if the scale had been high enough to fit the total solar eclipse point, then the rest of the points would be on the x-axis without any indication of which would be cooler.

A total solar eclipse correctly sounds like it is the coolest of the five, but it is vastly cooler to see it in person by a wide margin. It seems like Randall is trying to convince those who missed the eclipse this time to go watch in seven years when another total solar eclipse is visible in the USA.

;Planetary Conjunction
In a {{w|Conjunction (astronomy)|planetary conjunction}} two or more planets are visible close together in the night sky. This happens relatively {{w|List_of_conjunctions_(astronomy)|often}} because all planets lie in roughly the same plane around the sun (the <s>Sagittal</s> {{w|ecliptic}}). This looks like two big stars close to each other, and isn't particularly exciting.

;Supermoon
A {{w|Supermoon|supermoon}} is a full moon or a new moon that approximately coincides with the Moon's closest approach in its elliptic orbit around the Earth. This results in a larger-than-usual apparent size of the lunar disk, but a typical human doesn't recognize the difference. Nevertheless, in recent years the press has often announced supermoons as important astronomical events. The opposite of a supermoon is called a micromoon. A "supermoon" sounds very cool, but like a planetary conjunction it's almost indistinguishable in the average night sky (see [[1394: Superm*n]], and this [[:Category:Supermoon|list]]) of other comics that have referred to the term).

;Lunar Eclipse
A {{w|Lunar eclipse|lunar eclipse}} occurs during the full moon and, like at a solar eclipse, happens only when the Moon is in the region where the orbital planes of the Moon and the Earth intersect. The Earth's shadow falls on the Moon, causing it to appear dark red. The moon doesn't generally darken completely due to some light still reaching the Moon through the outer layers of the Earth's atmosphere. As with solar eclipses, lunar eclipses occur on average once every six months, but they can be viewed by anyone who is on the night-time side of Earth during the eclipse, as opposed to only being visible from a small strip of the Earth's surface. A lunar eclipse looks noticeably different from a usual full moon, making it fairly cool.

;Partial Solar Eclipse
There are three types of {{w|Solar_eclipse#Types|non-total solar eclipses}}. A ''partial eclipse'' occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line with an observer on Earth, and thus the Moon doesn't fully obscure the Sun. An ''annular eclipse'' occurs when the Sun and Moon do line up with an observer on Earth, but the Moon is too far away from earth to block the entire Sun. The Sun appears as a very bright ring, which is also called an annulus. A ''hybrid eclipse'' is an eclipse which is total when viewed from some parts of the earth, but is annular when viewed from others. These ''mixed'' eclipses are comparatively rare, even when compared with total eclipses. A large percentage of the continental United States experienced a partial eclipse along with the total solar eclipse on August 21st. A partial solar eclipse is quite cool, but nowhere near as dramatic as a sky-darkening total solar eclipse.

;Total Solar Eclipse
The {{w|Solar_eclipse#Types|total solar eclipse}} is the topic of this and the four preceding comics. It occurs during the new moon, and happens only when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line with an observer on Earth and when the Moon appears large enough to fully obscure the Sun. Unlike a lunar eclipse, only a small portion of the Earth lies within the Moon's shadow at any given time, roughly a disc with a diameter of approx. 100 km. The disc moves very fast over the Earth's surface, meaning that at any given location eclipses can't last longer than a few minutes. At locations outside of this ''shadow-disc'', in a region over a few thousand kilometers, the eclipse is partial.

In the title text Randall reveals that he had traveled to a location in Missouri (possibly the {{w|Shaw Nature Reserve}}) because at his home in Massachusetts the eclipse was only partial. And, without a doubt, the total solar eclipse was the coolest thing he ever has seen in his life.

==Transcript==
:[A scatter plot with five labeled dots is drawn. The x-axis reads "How cool it sounds like it would be" and the y-axis is labeled with "How cool it is to see in person".]
:[Bottom left] Planetary conjunction
:[Bottom middle] Supermoon
:[Low left-center] Lunar eclipse
:[Low-center middle] Partial solar eclipse
:[Upper right, with a dotted arrow above it pointing up] Total solar eclipse

==Trivia==
*While the ''WOW-effect'' happened mostly to people standing on Earth gazing at the sun, there were more astonishing pictures taken from this event: An ISS-transit in front of the [https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/iss-transit-during-2017-solar-eclipse partial eclipsed] sun, the shadow on Earth seen from [https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-eclipse-2017-umbra-viewed-from-space-1 space], the astronauts also could see a [https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-eclipse-2017-from-space partial eclipse] because the orbit was [https://twitter.com/Astromaterials/status/899475632912052224/photo/1 above America] by that time, the eclipse seen from a distance of 380,000 km in an orbit around the [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/LRO-captures-eclipse-from-the-moon Moon], and an [https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2017/nasas-epic-view-of-2017-eclipse-across-america animation] taken from a distance of 1,6 Mio. km by the {{w|Deep Space Climate Observatory|Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR)}} located in a line exactly between Earth and Sun.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Total Solar Eclipse 2017]]
[[Category:Supermoon]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

2739: Data Quality

2023-02-23T11:49:57Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2739
| date = February 17, 2023
| title = Data Quality
| image = data_quality_2x.png
| imagesize = 671x211px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [exclamation about how cute your cat is] -> [last 4 digits of your cat's chip ID] -> [your cat's full chip ID] -> [a drawing of your cat] -> [photo of your cat] -> [clone of your cat] -> [your actual cat] -> [my better cat]
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SUPERIOR FELINE. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}


Digital data can be compressed to make transmission and/or storage more efficient; some {{w|compression algorithms}} discard some information to improve the compression, which is known as lossy compression, since some of the information is lost (this can be acceptable in audio or visual data, since the difference may be hard for humans to perceive).

This comic shows a chart in the form of a line, increasing quality from very lossy to most lossless. This means that it goes, at the extremes, from having so little information as to make it effectively meaningless, to having significant extra information included (eventually making the original actually an unnecessary distraction). Some of this extra information mitigates the risk of another sense of 'loss' in data - digital data are transferred in bits, and {{w|data loss}} is the process by which some of these bits are lost or altered during data transport. However the highest quality, "better data", is using a different sense of the term "quality", referring more to the general excellence of the data than how accurately it represents the original.

The title text uses your cat as an example of this range of losses (or, in the case of the latter reaches of the graph, gains) in the information. This is possibly a reference to [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8157292-the-best-material-model-of-a-cat-is-another-or Norbert Wiener]'s quote, "The best material model of a cat is another, or preferably the same, cat." The most lossy is an exclamation about how cute your cat is, which is ephemeral and obviously carries very little significance in terms of actually providing specific, transferable information about your cat. The example then progresses into your cat's chip ID; presumably your cat has been microchipped, and between the last four digits (commonly used in sensitive information as an identifier without revealing the full number) or the entire chip ID, provides a still-uninformative yet slightly improved way of identifying your cat. A drawing of your cat and a photo of your cat would portray the cat reasonably well, while a clone of your cat and (of course) your actual cat would be the best way of gaining information about your cat. However, as in the actual comic, the final, most lossless (in this case, with the most gain) form of data transfer has nothing to do with your cat, but is simply Randall's better cat. This is apparently made out by Randall to be the pinnacle of cat data.

=== Details ===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Item
! Explanation
|-
| {{w|Bloom filter}}
| A Bloom filter is a probabilistic data structure that can efficiently say whether an element is ''probably'' part of the dataset, while it can say "element is not in set" with 100% accuracy. If a Bloom filter is used to compress the contents of a book, the Bloom filter can re-tell a similar story - just by guessing.
|-
| {{w|Hash table}}
| A hash table allows you to find data very fast. Randall probably means hashing the contents of entire books. Calculating a hash value for an entire book means that there is (most probably) a unique relationship between the book and a hash value - e.g. "58b8893b2a116d4966f31236eb2c77c4172d00e9". This means the book will yield this exact hash value, though it's impossible to reconstruct the book's content from a hash value. It is a highly efficient, but is meaningless: An average book contains several millions of bits, yet the SHA-2 hash has only 256 bits.
|-
| {{w|JPEG|JPG}}, {{w|GIF}}, {{w|MPEG-1|MPEG}}
| Image and video formats that are considered 'lossy'. JPG (or "JPEG") format and the MPEG {{w|MPEG-2|group}} {{w|Advanced Video Coding|of}} formats typically use a range of data-compression methods that save space by selectively fudging (thus losing) what details it can of the image (and audio, where appropriate), to make disproportionate gains in compression; best used for real world images (and films) where real-world 'noise' can afford to be replaced by a more compressible version, without too much obvious change.
GIF compression is not 'lossy' in the same way, i.e. whatever it is asked to encode can be faithfully decoded, but Randall may consider its limitations (it can only write images of 256 unique hues, albeit that these can come from anywhere across the whole 65,536 "True color" range, plus transparency) to be a form of loss, as conversion from a more sophisticated format (e.g. PNG, below) could lose many of the subtle shades of the original and produce an inferior image. For this reason, GIF format became one best left to render diagrams and other computer-generated imagery with swathes of identical pixels and mostly sharp edges (and to utilize the optional transparent mask). Alternatively, he may just have included it as a joke/nerd-snipe.
|-
| {{w|PNG}}, {{w|ZIP (file format)|ZIP}}, {{w|TIFF}}, {{w|WAV}}
| A series of formats using lossless compression. PNG and TIFF are image formats, that are suitable for photos but without resorting to reduced accuracy in order to assist compression. WAV is an audio format that also does not arbitrarily sacrifice 'unnecessary' details, unlike the more recently developed {{w|MP3|MPEG Audio Layer III}} which has become the de-facto consumer audio format for many.
ZIP is a generic compression algorithm(/format) that can be used to store any other digital file, for exact decompression later on, although any file(s) already compressed in some way are not likely to compress significantly more.
|-
| Parity bits for error detection
| In the number 135, the sum of digits is 9. So, the number 135 could be written as "135-9". If the number was tampered with, the parity bits could tell you so (in some cases), or possibly that the parity itself was the digit that was miswritten. But a change from "135" to "153" could not be detected that way. There are more reliable means to detect errors: The obsolete CRC-32 and MD5, and the much more modern {{w|Secure Hash Algorithm|SHA}}.
|-
| Parity bits for error correction
| There are ways to restore the original data with the given additional data. One method is to 'overload' with multiple different methods of error-detection parity such that any small enough corruption of data (including of the parity bits themselves) can be reconstructed to the correct original value. One of the first such methods is {{w|Hamming(7,4)}}, invented around 1950. A practical application of error correction would be {{w|QR_code#Error_correction|QR Codes}} using {{w|Reed–Solomon error correction|Reed–Solomon error correction}}.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A line chart is shown with eight unevenly-spaced ticks each one with a label beneath the line. Above the middle of the line there is a dotted vertical line with a word on either side of this divider. Above the chart there is a big caption with an arrow pointing right beneath it.]
:<big>Data Quality</big>
:Lossy ┊ Lossless

:[Labels to the left of the dotted line from left to right:]
:Someone who once saw the data describing it at a party
:Bloom filter
:Hash table
:JPEG, GIF MPEG

:[Labels to the right of the dotted line from left to right:]
:PNG, ZIP, TIFF, WAV, Raw data
:Raw data + parity bits for error detection
:Raw data + parity bits for error ''correction''
:Better data

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Cats]]

2741: Wish Interpretation

2023-02-23T11:47:31Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2741
| date = February 22, 2023
| title = Wish Interpretation
| image = wish_interpretation_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x288px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "I wish for everything in the world. All the people, money, trees, etc." "Are you SURE you--" "And I want you to put it in my house."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Rain, Rain, Stay - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In stories where wishing can come true by magical means, a common theme is that the wisher will make a wish (for greater or lesser personal gain) but the entity who grants it will {{tvtropes|LiteralGenie|inadvertently}} (or {{tvtropes|JackassGenie|'inadvertently'}}) fulfill the exact wording such that something bad happens which the wisher clearly did not foresee. This may teach the wisher, or at least the reader of the story, an important moral lesson against greed. The wish-granter is not always represented as deliberately obtuse or malicious, but may merely be a naive and uncritical servant of the wish-granting process. A wish for money, for example, might be 'easiest' to accomplish by suddenly being the recipient of a loved-one's Life Insurance rather than the rather less upsetting scenario of finding that they possess a winning Lottery ticket. In the comic, however, this genie is perfectly self-aware of the part he will play in creatively misapplying the wish, and even goes so far as to forewarn the wisher – maybe a deliberate ploy to have wishers take a moment to think and tone down their more spontaneous demands.

However, as is characteristic for him, Black Hat immediately wishes for rain to no longer happen, perpetually, for the apparent trivial reason of merely saving him the need to carry an umbrella. The {{w|Water cycle|consequences}} of this drastic change to the weather (no matter by which method it is accomplished) would plainly be very bad.{{Citation needed}} As Black Hat almost certainly is fully aware. The genie realizes that there is very little 'good' idea for him to twist into a bad one, and that Black Hat will be peculiarly unreceptive to being 'taught a moral lesson'. Especially compared to the utter devastation that the granted wish ''will'' cause to the rest of the non-wishing world, which the genie might be reluctant to enact.

Having persuaded his wisher to retract the original request, the genie now has to deal with two rather ''too'' open-ended requests. Exactly what Black Hat "deserves" is possibly subjective; and perhaps would often be not very charitable, given how most people's usual interactions with him pan out. But the genie, at this point, still seems to have enough latent sympathy to lampshade the trouble being invited, presuming that it was a particularly unintended turn of phrase. Undaunted, the next version of the revised wish invokes an even more perilous wording. The suggestion of "what's coming to" someone is frequently used as a threat (or menacing promise) of violence; and, even if it was taken to mean "those good things that are already destined to be received", in the most benevolent sense, it seems that the wish can accomplish no more than merely hastening such things' arrival. These interpretations seem to dishearten the genie even more, given his apparent obligation to be inconveniently literal in such matters.

Clearly outclassed in his attempt to establish his ability to cause problems, he gets frustrated and backtracks rapidly. He offers just $20 (a token amount of money, possibly out of his own pocket in order to completely avoid using his potentially dangerous magical abilities) to get himself out of the original formulaic deal and permanently away from having to be under Black Hat's influence.

In the title text, the wisher (possibly still Black Hat, or possibly just another rather awkward individual) wishes for everything in the world. This is itself a not unknown "bad wish" that would be creatively twisted into a bad consequence for the necessary narrative reasons. The wish continues, however, and explicitly asks that all of this be put into their house. This is impossible for two reasons: First, everything wouldn't fit in their house;{{citation needed}} second, it causes an infinite regression, since their house is something in the world, so it would have to be put inside itself. Trying to grant this wish would likely also frustrate the genie, and certainly not allow them their usual scope of a personal (and proportional) educational twist.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Feel free to improve it or add more details. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Black Hat is holding a genie lamp in his hands. A genie has appeared from the end of the lamp. The genie is depicted as a turbanless Cueball-like figure floating without a lower body, having a puff of smoke in place of his legs.]
:Genie: I will grant you one wish.
:Genie: But beware, for I will twist the meaning of your words to teach you a lesson!

:[Black Hat holds the lamp to his side. The genie has his arms crossed.]
:Black Hat: Gotcha! Hmm.
:Black Hat: I'm tired of carrying an umbrella. I wish it never rained again.

:[Close-up on the genie.]
:Genie: ...Okay.
:Genie: I'm supposed to twist your words to teach you a lesson, but that actually sounds very straightforwardly bad.
:Genie: Can you maybe try again?

:[Zoom back to Black Hat and the genie.]
:Black Hat: Fine. Just give me what I deserve.
:Genie: Oh my god. Have you read '''''any''''' stories about wishes?
:Black Hat: Come on! I want to get what's coming to me.
:Genie: Listen, I'm just gonna give you $20 and call this even.

{{comic discussion}}

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

2734: Electron Color

2023-02-07T00:25:40Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2734
| date = February 6, 2023
| title = Electron Color
| image = electron_color_2x.png
| imagesize = 568x256px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = There's quark color, but that's not really color--it's just an admission by 20th century physicists that numbers are boring.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete|Created by A SUPERINTELLIGENT SHADE OF THE COLOR BLUE - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

One common debate among schoolchildren is over the "color" of various subjects. Because of the brightly colored folders commonly used to separate subjects in the binder of a young student, the students tend to associate those colors with the subject. These associations can also correspond with common themes in the subject. Science could be seen as green as associated with the cartoon depiction of a flask containing bubbling green acid, or with leaves & plant life; history could be seen as red for association with the colors of the Roman Empire, or blood spilled during war. Many people will often end up heavily associating the subject with the color they assigned to it. Therefore, seeing somebody else color their subjects differently feels wrong.

This comic appears to "elevate" that discussion to the college level. Instead of arguing the colors of subjects, they're arguing the colors of parts of an atom. On many scientific diagrams, electrons are represented by yellow balls orbiting a gray and red center (as mentioned by the other students, some have associated the red with protons & gray with neutrons, while others have assumed the opposite).

On many scientific diagrams of atoms, the subatomic particles have assigned colors. Neutrons are generally red, green, or gray; protons red or green; and electrons yellow. Miss Lenhart, in Panel 2, states that, unlike the diagrams, which are colored for convenience, the particles are not colored. However, in Panel 3, she jokingly (or genuinely, the people have no facial expressions) says that electrons are yellow. Protons and neutrons are red or gray, so when, in Panel 3, Offpanel Voice 2 says that protons are red, O.V. 3 says they are gray, prompting an argument.

The title text refers to the {{w|color charge}} property of quarks, a property which is part of {{w|quantum chromodynamics}}. As mentioned by Randall, these have nothing to do with color as we know it, but is just a way to represent interactions between quarks.

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

:[Miss Lenhart teaching a class. Science Girl and Hairy sit at their desks, the latter has his hand raised.]
:Miss Lenhart: You have a question?
:Hairy: Yeah - what color are electrons and protons? Are they yellow? Red? Blue?

:[Zoom in on Miss Lenhart.]
:Miss Lenhart: Subatomic particles don't have a color.
:Miss Lenhart: They're too small to interact with visible light, so "color" isn't even defined for them.

:[Panel of just Miss Lenhart.]
:Miss Lenhart: That said, electrons are ''definitely'' yellow.
:Offpanel voice 1: I knew it!
:Offpanel voice 2: And protons are red, right?
:Offpanel voice 3: ''What?'' No! They're gray!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2732: Bursa of Fabricius

2023-02-06T04:00:07Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2732
| date = February 1, 2023
| title = Bursa of Fabricius
| image = bursa_of_fabricius_2x.png
| imagesize = 298x399px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If an anatomical structure is named for a person, it means they were the only person to have it. Pierre Paul Broca had a special area of his brain that created powerful magnetic fields, enabling him to do 19th century fMRI research.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by FLYING BIRD SCIENTISTS WITH TRANSPLANTED AVIAN LYMPHATIC ORGANS - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|Bursa of Fabricius}} is an organ found in birds that is necessary for the development of their immune systems.

This comic claims that the 16th century anatomist {{w|Hieronymus Fabricius}} (for whom the organ was named) had that organ and therefore was able to fly like a bird. However, despite being found only in birds, this organ does not in fact contribute directly to flight. Also given that it only exist in birds, then it is doubtful that Fabricius also independently had this same anatomical feature.

Many scientific and mathematical discoveries, including anatomical structures, are named after the people who discovered or described them. For example, the {{w|islets of Langerhans}} were discovered by Paul Langerhans. Likewise, rare diseases are often named for the doctor who first describes the disease to the medical community, or for a researcher who identifies the specifics involved. They may attempt to set their own name to it, for posterity, or they are later honored in this manner by those who recognize their vital contribution to the field, such as with {{w|Parkinson's disease#History|Parkinson's disease}}.

In other cases, rare diseases are named for the first or most famous (possibly even the only) person known to have had the disease. For instance {{w|ALS}} is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease in the US because of baseball player {{w|Lou Gehrig}} having notably developed the condition. Outside of the US, it may be more known just as "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" (alternatively "motor neurone disease") or, for simplicity, the initials ALS (or MND).

The title text continues with the idea from the comic claiming that anatomical structures are solely possessed by the human for which they are named, in another similar example. {{w|Pierre Paul Broca}}, a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist, was known for his research on what is now known as {{w|Broca's area}}, a region of the brain used for speech and language processing. The premise being that, having this feature, he was uniquely gifted with the special ability to created powerful magnetic fields, enabling him to do {{w|fMRI}} research in the 19th century.

Broca did not do fMRI research,{{Citation needed}} a powerful method of non-intrusively imaging and analyzing the internal structures of the living human body (amongst other things), as it was not invented in his lifetime. Nor is it likely that this ability could be 'naturally' possessed by any individual, such as he. He did, however, physically study brains of known speech-impaired patients who had then subsequently died, determining what damage (in the area of the brain which was then to be named for him) was directly related to their specific group of ailments. Today, we can safely view this area in living people, using fMRI, and directly connect what we see with the current condition of patients. This increases our knowledge of the brain, as with the mythical abilities Randall gave Broca, but also possibly even allows us to help those currently under the effects of any observed damage (not necessarily possible by any 19th century physician, even with this superpowered form of vision to assist them).

In reality, if Broca was the only person to have ever possessed Broca's area then this might have meant that only he had ever had the power of speech (as we understand it), which would indeed give him a very special ability; but one begging a number of other vital questions, if only anybody else could have asked them...

This may also be a nod to the Discworld character [https://wiki.lspace.org/Bursar "Bursar"], a wizard at Unseen University who can fly because he once hallucinated that he could, and so now he can.

==Transcript==
:[An almost bald man with hair around the neck and a full beard, is shown flying in the top right part of the image, swooping down from the sky with arms outstretched in front of him while yelling. Three dotted lines behind him indicate his path. Two people look up at him from the bottom left corner, a man with a wide-brimmed hat and a black haired woman with a scarf over her hair, which is hanging down behind her. She is holding both her hands up to her mouth. At the top of the panel there is text:]
:The '''''bursa of Fabricius''''' is a lymphoid organ found only in birds and in 16th century anatomist Hieronymus Fabricius, to whom it conferred the power of flight.
:Hieronymus Fabricius: ''Wheee''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2725: Sunspot Cycle

2023-01-30T21:31:29Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2725
| date = January 16, 2023
| title = Sunspot Cycle
| image = sunspot_cycle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x503px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Who can forget the early 2010s memes? 'You know you're a 90s kid if you remember the feeling of warm sunlight on your face.' 'Only 90s kids remember the dawn.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NINETIES KID WHO ATE THE SUN - PLEASE change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is a reference to the {{w|solar cycle}}, which is a roughly 11-year cycle of changes in the Sun's activity from a period of minimal levels of various related phenomena ({{w|sunspots}}, solar radiation, ejecta, and solar flares) to one of maximum activity in these areas. As the cycle continues, the Sun returns to minimal activity and starts over. Without actually studying the Sun, however, there is no discernible difference to our daily lives here on Earth, and studying the Sun in enough detail is difficult due to its intrinsic and eye-damaging brightness whenever viewed directly. The comic may be a joke that nobody ever looks outside anymore, and so it may be possible to convince people that the sun has gone away. It's worth noting that the umbra (darkest portion) of a sunspot is still roughly 3000-4500K, so if the sun were to express as one massive umbra it would still be very visible, possibly appearing as a {{w|Stellar_classification#Class_K|type K}} star.

This comic makes a joke that when the absolute number of sunspots appears to decrease it is not because they disappear, but because they get so crowded that they begin to merge, and thus the number of individual spots decreases whereas the area of the sun covered by sunspots continues to increase to near total 'darkness'. This causes there to be a completely dark Sun after 11 years, at which point any new sunspots are ''bright'' patches, and the next 11-year cycle repeats the process but accumulating bright spots until eventually it is all bright once more, giving a total bright/dark cycle of 22 years.

The curve showing the number of differentiable sunspots covers a bit more than 11 years, one full cycle of our normal Sun. During that time the number of sunspots first increases and then decreases down to zero. At the end of this cycle our Sun has returned to its starting brightness. The comic's sun, however, has gone from fully bright to fully dark; its full cycle takes 22 years. The number of distinct spots (of either kind) first increases and then decreases as they merge into just one Sun-enveloping spot. Then the other type of spot appears and begins to dominate once more.

Below is a graph showing the number of sunspots as a function of time from around 1965 to 2025. Periods where the sun is dark are shown with black under the curve, and in transition periods with lines of darkness getting closer together on the way to 'fully' dark area plus vals of light reinserting themselves in the lightening part of the cycle. Also for clarity the troughs are labeled with the sun being bright or dark. It is always when there are few spots that the sun is either completely free from spots and thus bright, or completely covered and thus dark. The maxima are always during the height of the transition between the two extremes, with a wide swathe of the time around the minima being mostly light or mostly dark, alternating at around a decade of each predominating.

At times, this closely synchronizes with the calendar decades. From this curve it can be seen that the Sun was bright across the 1990s, but not in the dark 1980s or the dark time from around 2001 to 2014. This fact is mentioned in the title text (see below). Similarly the 1970s were mostly bright, after the largely dark 1960s, the width of the transition periods covering the marked decade-defining years in slightly offset ways compared to the neighboring ones. After the darkness began around 2000, the shift was such that it finally got bright again around 2014, with darkness returning around 2024. This is because of the sunspot cycles being 11 years (making the illumination cycle 22 years) and eventually it no longer credibly meshes with the arbitrary decadal cut-offs.

All this would obviously be catastrophic if it happened in our version of the universe, as during a dark phase insufficient light would be coming from the Sun, and the Earth could freeze if all the energy from the Sun was reduced. If the spots only affect light in the visible spectrum, then Earth would not freeze but plants would have trouble with photosynthesis and other natural processes would be interrupted. In our universe sunspots cool the area of the Sun where they appear, relative to the rest of the surface (50-75% of the nearly 6000K 'norm'), but they are far from being actually dark; [https://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/workbook/sunspot.html NASA says] that each sunspot on its own would glow orange, brighter than the full Moon. So even in a completely sunspot-covered Sun, the Sun would still be brighter than (with a typically bright Sun illuminating it) the Moon, and far brighter than the dark-time Moon would become (possibly causing issues for nocturnal life, as well). It would be possible to see it (and see by it) even if the heat delivered were very low and even noon would seem to be {{wiktionary|crepuscular}} by our normal expectations. See more in the title text explanation.

These problems are obviously not a serious threat in the reality of the comic, as the Sun is truly dark and yet people and natural systems have long survived these dark periods and adapted accordingly. This becomes clear in the title text where internet memes indicate that people lived fine through the dark periods, although they obviously did not 'properly' see the Sun as kids if they were born near the start of a 'dark decade'.

The title text indicates the effect on internet memes that the special solar cycle has had. During the 2010s in our universe there were many '90s kid' memes. Those were also popular in this universe, but they reflect that the Earth had at that time been dark since the 2000s, and thus only those born in the 90s and before would remember dawn or the feeling of the warm sun on their faces.

This of course indicates that the Sun is actually dark and gives no warmth. Thus it is a mystery how life on Earth prevails, but given that there were kids from the 1990s that made memes twenty years after, life does work in this strange alternate universe.

==Transcript==
:[This comics shows two graphs, one also with several images of the Sun in different times in the solar cycle. The top graph is much larger than the bottom graph, and above them is a explanation of what the graphs shows:]
:Ever wonder why the sun disappears for about 10 years every other decade? This terrifying period of worldwide darkness is a natural consequence of the 11-year sunspot cycle:

:[A graph is shown with a label above the arrow on the Y-axis and a label written above the left part of the X-axis with an arrow pointing from it to the right (there is no arrow on the X-axis line). The graph shows a sine curve with a dashed line. It starts close to the bottom and then increases, then decreases before it finally slightly increases again. Above the dashed line are eight circles representing the sun with various levels of sunspots, with an arrow between each circle pointing to the next to the right. All circles are just above the dashed curve and the small arrows between them also follow the curvature of the line, so this string makes the same shape as the curve. along the eight representation of the sun there are five labels. The eight Suns are described below with labels given when relevant.]
:Y-Axis: Sunspot number
:Y-Axis: Time

:[The first Sun's circle is completely white.]

:[The second Sun's circle has a few sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Dark sunspots appear

:[The third Sun's circle has several sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Sunspot number rises

:[The fourth Sun's circle is half covered in sunspots.]

:[The fifth Sun's circle is mostly black with a few lines of white dots. Between the fourth and fifth circle is a label:]
:Number falls as sunspots merge.

:[The sixth Sun's circle is almost completely black with just a few small white spots. A label is written above it:]
:Sunspots envelop sun, Earth enters years of darkness.

:[The seventh Sun's circle is mostly black with a few light areas.]

:[The eighth Sun's circle is still mostly black but with some larger white areas. A label is written above and left of it:]
:Bright sunspots appear, cycle reverses.

:[Below is a second graph with a label written near the top of the Y-axis which is otherwise not labeled. The X-axis also has no label, but six years are written beneath at equal intervals. The graph shows a similar sine curve as the one above, but with almost five cycles shown. Also, each cycle is not close to being a perfect sine curve, but has the property with a peak followed by a trough. The five troughs are labeled. The area beneath the curve alternates from being black and white when there is a trough, with the peak in between having several vertical lines, indicating transfer from black to white and vise versa. There are not same distance between peaks and there are also features on the graphs, for instance the two peaks in the middle has a drop, so they look like volcanoes. And the last full peak has a clear outlier year with many sunspots.]
:Label: History:
:X-axis labels: 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
:Through 1970-1980: Sun is bright
:Through 1980-1990: Sun is dark
:Through 1990-2000: Sun is bright
:Through 2000-2010: Sun is dark
:Through 2010-2020: Sun is bright

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Internet]] 
[[Category:Kids]]

2727: Runtime

2023-01-30T21:29:07Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2727
| date = January 20, 2023
| title = Runtime
| image = runtime_2x.png
| imagesize = 399x389px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = At least there's a general understanding all around that Doctor Who is its own thing.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE XKCD CINEMATIC UNIVERSE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic presents two separate conversations, which boil down to the same premise and yet differing conclusions. In one, a particular TV show is being watched, in the other a film franchise.

While it is finding its feet, a new season of a television show (perhaps commissioned, on the back of some perceived interest in the story it will tell, for a dozen or so episodes of around 50 minutes - i.e. about ten hours) is not necessarily going to get everything right in the writing style, the slant it puts on the subject matter, the cast of characters or other production values. Or at least not for mass appeal to the everyman, for whom [[Cueball]] is the archetypal representative. Nevertheless, many series ''do'' get further seasons and greatly improve. [[White Hat]] (the optimist, and clearly won over by the production) is on the way to successfully convincing Cueball to view a particular series, or perhaps to continue to watch it after becoming jaded by its early failure to live up to its hype. It sounds reasonable to Cueball, just from his friend's recommendation, to get over the hump and appreciate it "when it gets good".

On the other hand, many television shows achieve their highest popularity in their first season. The first season is usually when unknown stars achieve their breakout and become popular, when mysteries and cliffhangers that capture the imagination are introduced, and when interesting plotlines that engender viewer interest develop (often which two members of a love triangle will fall for each other). While the next few seasons are often considered the "golden age" of such series (as all of the interest is fresh, plot lines and mysteries are not yet resolved, and actors and writers are in their stride and not yet burned out) it is rare for a popular or well regarded TV series to have a first season that is considered bad.

A series of films, however, is seemingly a different matter. By substituting 10+ hours of filmed-for-television with something more cinematic, the prospect of getting over the exact same scale of 'hump' in a long-running set of sequels (eight films at a not unreasonable average length of 85 minutes each would ''also'' require a bit more than ten hours of commitment), is not at all enticing. However, since the average movie runs about 131 minutes, 10 hours of TV run time (about 15 episodes each with 40 minutes of show - the 40 minutes being the one hour time slot minus commercials) would only last the same as about four and a half movies, not eight. TV shows on modern streaming services such as Netflix tend to be longer (55 minutes per episode) but also fewer episodes per season (10-13) and so are still only as long as four to five movies. Watching four or so movies seems much less of a burden, many modern film franchises (among them the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Star Trek and the Harry Potter series) have successfully gone well beyond four films.

The real reasons for this difference are that:
* A television series that gets good can be expected to run for at least five seasons, whereas nine movies is already quite long for a movie series. Sitting through eight bad movies in order to understand two or three good ones is not a worthwhile tradeoff.
* The longer run-time of a movie generally means that a film series will focus on one specific plotline in each entry, whereas televised series are or can be more episodic (the characters are involved in a different situation each time) and can also interweave plotlines throughout individual episodes or episode arcs, so that less time per episode is spent on plots viewers dislike.
* In the US, a film typically begins shooting from a completed script with only minor revisions conducted once filming starts; whereas in television, writers are usually engaged throughout most of a series' season and can more quickly change unpopular elements in future episodes.

The mention of “after the first 8 movies” might be a reference to the long-running Fast and the Furious franchise, which now has 9 movies (plus a couple of spin-offs) at the time of this comic’s publication. The more recent movies are well-reviewed (rated “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), even though the first four were widely panned by critics. Someone like Randall, who may have ignored the franchise when it first came out in 2001, may be wondering if he should watch the more recent ones that critics generally like; and, if so, does he need to catch up on the initial movies first?

The title text talks of the long-running British TV series that is {{w|Doctor Who}}. The original Doctor Who, running from 1963-1989 was typically low budget, for its time and locality, though initially considered cutting edge in many ways. Compared to more modern classics, and especially Hollywood sci-fi, it would be noticeably not as good. The revived series (2005-present) has a much higher production budget and is typically much more aligned to modern viewers, who may willfully ignore or not even know of the older episodes. Someone just starting to watching Doctor Who sequentially from the ''very'' first season (broadcast in 1963) would have to watch hundreds of episodes (26 'seasons', by some counts) before the series "gets good" to modern eyes, if the {{tvtropes|GrowingTheBeard|"good" point}} is the 2005 series revival, or even quite a few to reach any given key point in the original run. Thus Doctor Who is considered to be its own thing, and unlike other shows where the fans recommend you suffer through a poor first season to enjoy improvement in subsequent seasons, {{w|Whovians}} might recommend potential new fans to begin with the 2005 reboot (technically the 27th season), which was produced to appeal to all new-comers without even necessarily any cultural knowledge of what had been broadcast up until the long hiatus a decade and a half before.

Furthermore, it is not uncommon to recommend that even within the 2005 reboot of Doctor who, that new viewers don't start at the beginning (season 1 or 27 if counting the original series), but instead start at season 5 (or 31 including the originals), when the Doctor regenerated to his 11th incarnation (due to higher budgets and production values by that point, and the start of a new story arc with new characters being introduced), and later on go back to watch the earlier seasons.{{Actual citation needed|...because, come on, Ten(nant) had some iconic stuff to more than rival Matt Smith's initial term. The best reason to start with the opening of Smith's era instead was that it was a (mostly) fresh start with no hangover Companions, etc, so you didn't need to know about Rose's prior time so much. But Matt and Karen didn't start off brilliantly, so you'd still have to bear with a few 'finding their feet' episodes until it started dealing with Pandorica-level awesomeness (assuming you *liked* the Pandorica stuff, which isn't universally accepted). What I'm saying here is "horses for courses" on this *whole* paragraph, but not going to remove it.}}

There is also the wrinkle that anyone wishing to start with the original run would be out of luck, seeing as many early episodes - before the late-70s - were {{w|Doctor Who missing episodes|lost forever}}. ([https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MissingEpisode/DoctorWho TV Tropes link]).
The BBC didn't see any value in keeping them as they couldn't rerun them, so random episodes would be disposed of or recycled for various reasons, and those episodes are gone, making many stories incomplete. Some have been recovered because fans recorded them, or because tapes were sent to overseas stations for rebroadcast and never discarded (in fact, the ''audio'' for every single episode has been preserved) but most lost episodes remain lost.

It is vague about Randall's precise opinion, but even the most dedicated fan would acknowledge that it has had a varying quality/charm/consistency/etc, according to one's personal tastes for such things. Comparing the original run (pre-Millenium, featuring seven key actors sequentially taking on the title role over more than four decades, and another for a standalone TV-movie) with the revived series (continuing the pattern with a similar number of additional title-actors in just half the time), and any number of 'show-runners' (producers, main writers, etc) is one possible point of contention, probably more suited to British viewers. Possibly, in Randall's case, it is just the (perceived) ups and downs in the more recent era, which has been more consistently screened in the US.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Two situations are depicted between White Hat and Cueball.]
:[Situation 1:]
:White Hat: You should keep watching! After the first season it gets really good.
:Cueball: Oh yeah, I've heard that!
:[Situation 2:]
:White Hat: You should keep watching! After the first 8 movies, they get really good.
:Cueball: Haha, what? I'm not going to sit through '''''eight''''' bad movies!
:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's weird how it's way more normal and socially acceptable to suggest someone spend 10-15 hours watching something when it's TV rather than movies.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Doctor Who]]

2729: Planet Killer Comet Margarita

2023-01-30T21:28:16Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2729
| date = January 25, 2023
| title = Planet Killer Comet Margarita
| image = planet_killer_comet_margarita_2x.png
| imagesize = 607x942px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I'll take mine on the rocks, no ice.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 20 TRILLION LIMES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|margarita}} is a popular cocktail made from {{w|tequila}}, {{w|agave}}, {{w|triple sec}}, and {{w|lime juice}}. The frozen margarita variety is blended with ice, and this comic suggests making an enormous drink using the ice from a {{w|comet nucleus}} – the one depicted having more than a passing similarity to the much studied {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}}. Based on the amount of ice in a typical comet, it extrapolates the quantity of the other ingredients. The mixed drink is big enough to fill {{w|Lake Mead}}, a massive reservoir on the {{w|Colorado River}} created by the water held by the {{w|Hoover Dam}}.

Beyond the unusual quantities and mixing method, Randall uses the general term "orange liqueur" here rather than specifying triple sec. (As of this writing, {{w|orange liqueur}} redirects to "triple sec" on Wikipedia.) Assuming that each oil tanker holds exactly the same amount of liquid, the tequila:triple sec ratio in the comic is 4:1, meaning more tequila is used than necessary (the ratio should be 5:2).

''{{w|Armageddon_(1998_film)|Armageddon}}'' is a movie starring {{w|Bruce Willis}} about a team of astronauts and oil drill engineers on a mission to blow up an asteroid that's on a collision course with the Earth. The oil drill would be used to drill a hole deep into the asteroid, into which they'll drop a nuclear bomb to destroy it. The comic suggests using the same technique to explode the comet nucleus to get the ice. It should be noted that consuming any cocktail which has been infused with the radioactive byproducts commonly resulting from the detonation of a thermonuclear weapon may pose health risks which exceed those typically associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages in general.{{Actual citation needed|It would be the relatively small primary charge that creates the radioisotopes, the thermonuclear secondary stage is practically uncontaminating beyond the initial pulse of ionizing radiation and any external matter boosted by the neutron flux. To quantify the risks of alcohol vs the mean radioisotope contamination seems like a question to ask Randall to talk to his contacts about.}}

In the title text, he asks for it "{{w|on the rocks}}", with no ice. In the context of ''normal'' cocktails "on the rocks" means to serve with ice. But the comet nucleus also contains lots of rocky material, so "on the rocks" with Randall's planet killer turns out to be much more literal.

In the header, it says "Today's comic was drawn for Daniel Becker, based on [https://what-if.xkcd.com/162/ his winning question] submitted to the [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ What If? 2] contest." As explained in the What If? entry melting a comet on Earth has enough negative effects on the climate to negate the cooling effect a couple thousand times over – thus this margarita may in fact proudly wear the title "planet killer".

Assuming an average oil tanker size of 25.8 million gallons, this provides approximately 1,700 servings of tequila per adult on the planet. Therefore it is a planet killer in terms of alcohol poisoning and killing off all humans of adult drinking age.

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

:<big>The Planet Killer</big>
:Comet Ice Margarita

:Ingredients
:4,000 oil tankers full of tequila
:1,000 tankers full of orange liqueur
:1,000 tankers full of agave
:The juice from 20 trillion limes
:One comet nucleus

:Instructions
:(1) Drain Lake Mead, combine ingredients behind Hoover Dam
:(2) Detonate comet using Bruce Willis's drilling rig from ''Armageddon'' (1998)
::''Boom''
:(3) Dispense drink through Hoover Dam turbines

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Food]]

2731: K-Means Clustering

2023-01-30T21:27:19Z

JLZ0kTC5:

{{comic
| number = 2731
| date = January 30, 2023
| title = K-Means Clustering
| image = k_means_clustering_2x.png
| imagesize = 320x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = According to my especially unsupervised K-means clustering algorithm, there are currently about 8 billion types of people in the world.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EITHER 8 BILLION OR 3 TYPES OF BOTS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|K-means_clustering|''k''-means clustering}} is a method of categorizing vectors into ''k'' clusters. For example, we might categorize a population by two metrics, and want to best categorize this scatter graph into the distinct populations, algorithmically drawing {{w|Voronoi cell}}s to decide the within-cluster variances.

Ponytail's determination that there are three clusters is unsurprising if she herself falls into the category of those who use K=3 as a fixed value, which will inevitably result in three data clusters regardless of actual distribution. The qualitative interpretation of the other two categories — that is, what placement in the other two categories means — is unclear as Ponytail's analysis is either using a binary criterion (whether or not one sorts data into three groups) as the basis for sorting people into three categories, or is a black box using unknown criteria and she has only been able to determine that her own group shares the tendency to group things into threes.

The title text refers to a K-means algorithm with the opposite problem, with no reduction of K value to converge any two human beings into a common cluster based on shared traits. This is humorous because it would make such a clustering useless for the purposes for which a K-Means Clustering is typically used, such as of making insurance risk pools or targets of advertisement campaigns.

Interestingly, by including the entire human population, the algorithm should be immune to bias in creating its input data. However, since every human is unique,{{cn}} the only way to have the clusters converge is to "throw out" some traits of humans as unimportant. This may be objectionable to humans who disagree with that assessment. In contrast, in a supervised algorithm, the training data is tagged with traits that the trainers seek. These traits could be applied in a manner that is socially unacceptable, and lead to AI behavior that reflects the biases of the trainers.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Ponytail is presenting on a stage, pointing a screen with a stick. The writings and possible figures on the screen are illegible.

:Ponytail: Our analysis shows that there are three kinds of people in the world: Those who use ''k''-means clustering with ''k''=3, and two other types whose qualitative interpretation is unclear.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Statistics]]