explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1380: Manual for Civilization

2016-12-18T02:32:54Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ typo, also note

{{comic
| number = 1380
| date = June 11, 2014
| title = Manual for Civilization
| image = manual_for_civilization.png
| titletext = We will have an entire wing of the library devoted to copies of book #26, because ohmygod it's the one where Jake and Cassie finally KISS!!!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Why are libraries for rebuilding civilization inherently useless?}}
{{w|Brian Eno}} is a musician and a co-founder of the {{w|Long Now Foundation}}. He is explaining to an audience that one of the missions of the Long Now is a [http://blog.longnow.org/02010/04/06/manual-for-civilization/ Manual for Civilization] - a collection of reference materials that can help rebuild society in case it collapses. But in Randall's version, the experts have made a list composed of many books from the {{w|Animorphs}} series.

Animorphs is a series of books written by {{w|K.A. Applegate}}. It follows a group of five children (later, an alien joins as the sixth member), that try to stop the parasitic aliens, the Yeerks, by transforming into animals. A Yeerk that enters a human has complete control over their host, and can read their memories. Because the Yeerks can imitate their host almost perfectly, humanity is slowly being taken over without knowing it, and for this reason the children cannot contact the authorities and are on their own in the battle against the Yeerks.

When asked if all the books on the experts' list are from the Animorph series, Eno misses the point of the question by saying ''No!'', only to mention the {{W|List_of_Animorphs_books#Companion_books|Megamorphs}} books and {{W|The Andalite Chronicles}}, both of which are side stories to the Animorph universe.

There are other books like these which aren't mentioned here — but it is clear from the last two panels that it is a quite long list — and it seems to be written in two columns, so maybe all {{w|List_of_Animorphs_books#Animorphs_main_series|54 Animorphs books}} and all {{W|List_of_Animorphs_books#Companion_books|ten side stories}} could be included on the list.

In suggesting that a series of children's novels make up the blueprint for rebuilding civilization, [[Randall]] is spoofing the idea of such libraries (since such books would be largely useless in terms of providing the detailed instructions that would be necessary).

The title text makes it completely ludicrous by saying an entire wing of the library will be devoted to the {{w|The Attack (Animorphs)|book (#26)}} where {{w|Animorphs#Animorphs|two main characters who have been attracted to each other since the beginning of the series}} finally kiss. While this is a momentous event for fans of the book series, the information is of no consequence for the rebuilding of civilization.{{Citation needed}}

This comic may also be inspired by {{w|Isaac Asimov}}'s {{w|The_Foundation_Series|Foundation series}}, where Hari Seldon claimed that the Galactic Empire is going to collapse in three hundred years, there is no way to stop it but his group of scientists are writing Encyclopedia Galactica to help people rebuild civilization.

*The Long Now Foundation was mentioned recently in [[1340: Unique Date]].
*Animorphs was referenced before in the title text of [[1187: Aspect Ratio]] and [[1360: Old Files]].

==Transcript==
:[Brian Eno is talking to an unseen audience.]
:Brian Eno: Hi. I'm music's Brian Eno, co-founder of the Long Now Foundation.

:[Panel 2 shows he is standing on a stage.]
:Brian Eno: As part of our mission to promote long-term thinking, we've asked experts to help us assemble a collection of books from which civilization can be rebuilt if it ever collapses.

:[Panel 3 shows he is holding a manuscript with a long list of book titles.]
:Brian Eno: Today we're sharing the results — the first ever ''Manual for Civilization''.

:[Panel 4 shows him reading from the manuscript.]
:Brian Eno: *Ahem*
::''Animorphs #1: The Invasion''
::''Animorphs #2: The Visitor''
::''Animorphs #3: The Encounter''
:Unseen Audience member: ...are they ''all'' Animorphs Books?
:Brian Eno: No! There's also ''Megamorphs'' and ''The Andalite Chronicles''.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Animorphs]]

1380: Manual for Civilization

2016-12-18T02:31:11Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ because of course. This is expxkcd after all.

{{comic
| number = 1380
| date = June 11, 2014
| title = Manual for Civilization
| image = manual_for_civilization.png
| titletext = We will have an entire wing of the library devoted to copies of book #26, because ohmygod it's the one where Jake and Cassie finally KISS!!!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Brian Eno}} is a musician and a co-founder of the {{w|Long Now Foundation}}. He is explaining to an audience that one of the missions of the Long Now is a [http://blog.longnow.org/02010/04/06/manual-for-civilization/ Manual for Civilization] - a collection of reference materials that can help rebuild society in case it collapses. But in Randall's version, the experts have made a list composed of many books from the {{w|Animorphs}} series.

Animorphs is a series of books written by {{w|K.A. Applegate}}. It follows a group of five children (later, an alien joins as the sixth member), that try to stop the parasitic aliens, the Yeerks, by transforming into animals. A Yeerk that enters a human has complete control over their host, and can read their memories. Because the Yeerks can imitate their host almost perfectly, humanity is slowly being taken over without knowing it, and for this reason the children cannot contact the authorities and are on their own in the battle against the Yeerks.

When asked if all the books on the experts' list are from the Animorph series, Eno misses the point of the question by saying ''No!'', only to mention the {{W|List_of_Animorphs_books#Companion_books|Megamorphs}} books and {{W|The Andalite Chronicles}}, both of which are side stories to the Animorph universe.

There are other books like these which aren't mentioned here — but it is clear from the last two panels that it is a quite long list — and it seems to be written in two columns, so maybe all {{w|List_of_Animorphs_books#Animorphs_main_series|54 Animorphs books}} and all {{W|List_of_Animorphs_books#Companion_books|ten side stories}} could be included on the list.

In suggesting that a series of children's novels make up the blueprint for rebuilding civilization, [[Randall]] is spoofing the idea of such libraries (since such books would be largely useless in terms of providing the detailed instructions that would be necessary).

The title text makes it completely ludicrous by saying an entire wing of the library will be devoted to the {{w|The Attack (Animorphs)|book (#26)}} where {{w|Animorphs#Animorphs|two main characters who have been attracted to each other since the beginning of the series}} finally kiss. While this is a momentous event for fans of the book series, the information is of no consequence for the rebuilding of civilization.{{citation needed}}

This comic may also be inspired by {{w|Isaac Asimov}}'s {{w|The_Foundation_Series|Foundation series}}, where Hari Seldon claimed that the Galactic Empire is going to collapse in three hundred years, there is no way to stop it but his group of scientists are writing Encyclopedia Galactica to help people rebuild civilization.

*The Long Now Foundation was mentioned recently in [[1340: Unique Date]].
*Animorphs was referenced before in the title text of [[1187: Aspect Ratio]] and [[1360: Old Files]].

==Transcript==
:[Brian Eno is talking to an unseen audience.]
:Brian Eno: Hi. I'm music's Brian Eno, co-founder of the Long Now Foundation.

:[Panel 2 shows he is standing on a stage.]
:Brian Eno: As part of our mission to promote long-term thinking, we've asked experts to help us assemble a collection of books from which civilization can be rebuilt if it ever collapses.

:[Panel 3 shows he is holding a manuscript with a long list of book titles.]
:Brian Eno: Today we're sharing the results — the first ever ''Manual for Civilization''.

:[Panel 4 shows him reading from the manuscript.]
:Brian Eno: *Ahem*
::''Animorphs #1: The Invasion''
::''Animorphs #2: The Visitor''
::''Animorphs #3: The Encounter''
:Unseen Audience member: ...are they ''all'' Animorphs Books?
:Brian Eno: No! There's also ''Megamorphs'' and ''The Andalite Chronicles''.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Animorphs]]

Talk:1689: My Friend Catherine

2016-06-03T15:43:01Z

Jake: cmt

I can't get any work done because My Friend Catherine is sitting on my leopard. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 15:07, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

I'm not so sure that it does conflict with car->cat. This is "my cat"->to " my friend Catherine", i.e. car->cat->my friend Catherine wouldn't happen. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.137|108.162.237.137]] 15:15, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

*Being a dog person, my dog-->my friend Doug would also be a fun substitution. [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 15:43, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

96: Mail

2016-05-18T23:36:52Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ Reminds me of W. Reginald Bray

{{comic
| number = 96
| date = May 1, 2006
| title = Mail
| image = mail.png
| titletext = I'm on the USPS no fly list
}}

==Explanation==
We see [[Cueball]] on a phone with someone who sends various strange things through postal mail. The third panel is a pun on the usage of the phrase 'a lot of time.' Normally, this means that something will take a while to finish; in this case, however, it means it is literally a large quantity of time that is being sent.

{{w|Chronon|Quantizing time}} ("discrete packets of time") is a theory that time is not continuous like as particles in the {{w|quantum mechanics}}. It could be one of the big mistakes in modern science, but feels as if there's more to it, in the world of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

The title text states that due to his habit of mailing strange things, he has been barred from sending mail through the {{w|United States Postal Service}} (USPS).

A no fly list is a list of people that are not allowed to use commercial airlines for travel in the United States. It is maintained by the {{w|Terrorist Screening Center}}. Here the person sending strange objects through mail is on the USPS no-fly-list for people. The joke here is that USPS does not have such list for people. There is a list of items banned from being shipped by USPS, which includes most consumer electronics with lithium batteries. It could also imply that the sender attempted, at one point, to mail themselves via air mail.

This comic might be related to {{w|W. Reginald Bray}}, an Englishman from the turn of the 20th century, who was famous for mailing unusual objects (including himself) to experiment with the postal system ([https://books.google.com/books?id=a0lxQwAACAAJ&dq=%22The+Englishman+Who+Posted+Himself+And+Other+Curious+Objects%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT7aCB5eTMAhUlzoMKHQJPBkYQ6AEIHTAA detailed link here]).

==Transcript==
:Phone: Do you think I could mail a running chainsaw to someone?
:Cueball: I doubt it.
:Phone: What about a baby's first word?
:Cueball: Look, your obsession with sending strange things through the mail is getting out of hand.
:Phone: Can you mail a blank stare?
:Phone: A dizzying height?
:Phone: Pi?
:Cueball: ...
:Phone: Well, did you at least get that package of time I sent you?
:Cueball: I... you... no, I didn't.
:Phone: Well, there was a lot of it, so it will probably take a while.

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

317: That Lovin' Feelin'

2016-02-27T21:49:14Z

Jake: added Category:Your sister using HotCat

{{comic
| number =317
| date =September 17, 2007
| title =That Lovin' Feelin'
| image =that_lovin_feelin.png
| titletext =Maybe there's no tenderness in her fingertips either, but at least SHE puts out.
}}

==Explanation==
This is a parody of the popular song by {{w|The Righteous Brothers}}, "{{w|You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'}}". The singer is talking about the cooling of his relationship with his significant other, and how the joy of their romance has been missing lately, and asks what they have to do to get it back. The actual first verse and chorus are as follows:

:''You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips''
:''And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips''
:''You're trying hard not to show it (baby)''
:''But baby, baby, I know it:''

:''You've lost that lovin' feelin'''
:''Ohh, that lovin' feelin'''
:''You've lost that lovin' feelin',''
:''Now it's gone, gone, gone, ohh-ohh.''

In this comic's parody of the song, [[Cueball]] decides that since his relationship with his ''current'' girlfriend is cooling, maybe he should try her sister instead. (And as mentioned in the title text, at least ''she'' will have sex with him).

==Transcript==
:Cueball: You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips
:Cueball: And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips.
:[Cueball thoughtfully places his hand on his chin.]
:Cueball: Maybe I should try your sister instead.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Your sister]]

279: Pickup Lines

2016-02-27T21:48:37Z

Jake: added Category:Your sister using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 279
| date = June 20, 2007
| title = Pickup Lines
| image = pickup_lines.png
| titletext = That shirt looks good on you, but it would look even better stuffed onto the neck of a vodka bottle and flung burning through our office building's window. Let's fucking do it and never look back.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic adds strange twists to some classic abysmally cheesy {{w|pickup line}}s. Warning, terrible puns ahead:

*"If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together."
:[[Cueball]] is making a "your sister" joke.
*"Is your father a thief? Because he stole all of the stars in the sky and put them in your eyes."([http://www.jokes4us.com/pickuplines/isyourdadpickuplines.html Is Your Dad Pick Up Lines])
:A {{w|Volkswagen Jetta|Jetta}} is a car, and Cueball is implying the father is an actual thief.
*"You must be tired, 'cause you've been running through my mind all night."
:He adds the word "Screaming", to make the word "running" be literal instead of figurative.

The title text refers to a pickup line like this: "That shirt looks good on you, but would look even better on my bedroom floor." But here the shirt is used as fuse for a {{w|Molotov cocktail}} thrown into their office.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball at a bar.]
:Cueball: If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put your sister and I together.
:Cueball: Is your father a thief? Because that's totally my Jetta you parked outside.
:Cueball: You must be tired, 'cause you've been running through my mind all night.
:Cueball: Screaming.

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

273: Electromagnetic Spectrum

2016-02-27T21:47:01Z

Jake: added Category:Your sister using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 273
| date = June 6, 2007
| title = Electromagnetic Spectrum
| image = electromagnetic spectrum.png
| titletext = Sometimes I try to picture what everything would look like if the whole spectrum were compressed into the visible spectrum. Also sometimes I try to picture your sister naked.
}}

==Explanation==
This panel is a play on the {{w|Electromagnetic spectrum}}, showing a large piece of the spectrum and examples of phenomena that absorb or emit light along the spectra. Such spectra are commonly used in physics or astronomy education contexts when discussing the nature of light. This comic extends it to absurd lengths by including examples that may be variously hyper-specific, humorous, or non-EM phenomena.

The first two scales at the bottom show the wavelength λ (in meters) and the frequency f (in Hertz) of the wave. The values are related as λ=c/f, where c is the speed of light. The last line showing Q(Gal²/Coloumb) is nonsense; Gal ({{w|Gallon}}) is a unit of liquid volume measurement, and Coloumb is a likely typo for {{w|Coulomb}}, the SI unit of electric charge. Photons do not have volume in the traditional sense of the word, and are electrically neutral (thus carrying no charge).

In 1887 the {{w|Michelson–Morley experiment}} proved for the first time that the {{w|aether theory}} was wrong. The year (1897) cited underneath the comic title may be an incorrectly-dated reference to this experiment. Nevertheless, after that time many physicists like {{w|Hendrik Lorentz}} or {{w|Joseph Larmor}} were still working on some aether theories. {{w|Albert Einstein}}s theory of {{w|Special Relativity}} in 1905 helped explain the theoretical basis for lack of aether and was a definitive step in discarding previous work.

===The comic in detail===
The wavelength starts at high values on the left and decreases in a {{w|logarithmic scale}} to the right. As a result of the inverse relationship between frequency and wavelength, the frequency scale starts at low values and increases logarithmically. The nonsense ''Q'' parameter does not change monotonically with either frequency or wavelength.

Both scales are labeled with powers of ten and with {{w|metric prefix}}es. For frequencies above 100 {{w|tera-}}Hertz, it just says "other entertaining Greek prefixes like {{w|peta-}} and {{w|exa-}} and zappa-". The last prefix should be {{w|zetta-}} (denoting a factor of 1021), but is intentionally mislabeled, referencing musician {{w|Frank Zappa}}.

'''Other waves'''

Three drawings of other types of waves than the electromagnetic type:
*Slinky waves by a coil. These can be either longitudinal or transverse waves, depending on the manner in which the Slinky is driven. Notably Randall has drawn the Slinky as tangled up; if you've ever played with a Slinky you know how frustrating it is to untangle it.
*The human audio spectrum (from 20 Hz to 20 kHz). The "high-pitched noise in empty rooms" refers to {{w|tinnitus}}.
*"{{w|Wave (audience)|The Wave}}" in a stadium, a transverse wave phenomenon that travels through people.

'''Power and Telephone'''
*"{{w|CIA}} (Secret)" is a joke about all the wiretapping on phones and such.

'''Radio and TV'''
*"Shouting car dealership commercials" is a reference to the massive and often extreme advertising for car retailers.
*{{w|Ham radio}} is a private amateur radio used for communication.
*"Kosher radio" is playing with ambiguousness of the word HAM. {{w|Kosher}} is a Jewish law for food and it states, amongst other, that Jews are never allowed to eat meat from the unclean pigs - so no ham!
*Some frequencies of famous FM broadcast stations. "99.3 The Fox" is a modern rock station in {{w|Vancouver, British Columbia}}. "101.5 The Badger" is a classic rock station in {{w|Madison, Wisconsin}} (home of the University of Wisconsin, whose mascot is a badger). "106.3 The Frightened Squirrel" is not a real station, but makes a play off the animal names commonly used as nicknames for either radio stations, programs, or hosts.
*The rays controlling {{w|Steve Ballmer}} are nonsense, but may reference real {{w|Balmer series}}, a set of transitions in the hydrogen atom that produce photons in the optical and ultraviolet light range.
*AM {{w|Amplitude modulation}}, VHF {{w|Very high frequency}}, and UHF {{w|Ultra high frequency}} are frequency ranges approved for commercial broadcasting companies.
*Cell phone cancer rays is playing with the belief of many people that cell phones may cause cancer (see also [[925: Cell Phones]]).
*Aliens belong to a range slightly higher than the frequencies used by human communications. So they can't hear us.

'''Microwaves'''
*{{w|SETI}} is the "Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence" project trying to find messages from aliens. Most genuine astronomical research in this area concentrates in the microwave and radio regimes. Since aliens work at different frequencies on this diagram, that might explain why there has of yet been no positive results from SETI.
*{{w|WIFI}} is the standard for wireless computer communications.
*FHF is probably "Fucking high frequency"; it is not an abbreviation for any broadcasting frequency ranges and lies above the (real) V(ery)HF and U(ltra)HF.
*{{w|Gravity wave}}s are a phenomenon in fluid dynamics, and distinct from {{w|Gravitational wave}}s. Neither is related to electromagnetic emission.
*Brain waves could be a reference to {{w|Neural oscillation}}.
*{{w|Sulawesi}} is an island in the Indian Ocean that belongs to Indonesia.

'''Toasters'''
*This is a pun on the microwave oven, which emits light at its namesake frequencies to cook food. It also takes a stab at people who claim that microwaved food is dangerous, by pointing out that toasters also heat food using electromagnetic radiation, of frequencies just higher than microwaves. (The actual spectrum of a toaster goes all the way into visible frequencies.)

'''IR (infrared)'''
*{{w|Infrared}} belongs to heat. The reference to {{w|Superman}} covers his heat vision power, which has been used many times within the canon. American comedian {{w|Jack Black}} starred in a proposed scifi/comedy television show in 1999 titled "{{w|Heat Vision and Jack}}", which covered the adventures of an astronaut and his talking motorcycle.

'''Visible light'''
*At the bottom it is split into "visible light" and "visible dark". While dark is the opposite of light in many grammatical context, in the physical sense it only reflects the absence of visible photons.
*The human visible spectrum is shown by all colors, including {{w|octarine}}, the colour of magic on the fictional {{w|Discworld}} (in the books by {{w|Terry Pratchett}}).
*On top there are two {{w|absorption spectrum|absorption spectra}}, hydrogen and helium. These are the two most common elements in the Sun, and their presence in the Sun's outer envelope and Earth's atmosphere does block some small frequencies from the Sun. Next come two cases of {{w|Absorption (chemistry)|absorption}} in the chemical/technical meaning:
**{{w|Depends}} is a brand of underwear for adults experiencing urinary or fecal incontinence. The color is consequently yellow.
**{{w|Tampax}} is a brand of tampon. The color is red.

'''UV (ultraviolet)'''
*{{w|Ultraviolet}} light can not be seen by humans. No entries here.

'''Miller Light'''
*{{w|Miller Lite}} is a lager beer. "Light beer" typically has a lower alcohol content and calorie count, although it is also usually a light color for beer.

'''Empty section'''
*"Main Death Star Laser" is a reference to {{w|Star Wars}}.

'''Censored under {{w|Patriot Act}}'''
*No entry because it's censored; this is a humorous exaggeration of how much authority the government can supposedly exercise under said bill.

'''X-rays'''
*Potatoes absorb and reflect radiation waves the same way humans do, because their chemistry and water content is very similar to the human body. Look here: [http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2012/12/24/boeing-wifi-potatoes/1789109/ Boeing uses potatoes to improve Wi-Fi signals].
*Mail-order x-ray glasses refers to {{w|X-Ray Specs (novelty)|a novelty item}} based on an optical effect, not actual x-rays. {{w|Google Glass}} did not exist at the time when this comic was created.

'''Gamma/Cosmic rays'''
*Blogorays are emitted by the {{w|Blogosphere}}; apparently only [[Randall]] can detect them.
*Sinister Google Projects: The first result at a search on {{w|Google}} is this: [http://ca.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-10-sinister-google-activities.html Top 10: Sinister Google Activities].

And finally the '''Title Text''': Randall likes to speculate what the world would look like if humans could see radio waves, gamma waves, etc. Such a thought experiment would be pretty abstract due to the total lack of a frame of reference (since everything outside the visible light spectrum is by definition invisible and thus beyond human comprehension) but for many people that's also what makes it enticing. Randall immediately turns this profound train of thought around with a crude joke that he wants to know what the viewer's sister would look like in the nude.

==Transcript==
:[Everything is one big panel.]

:The Electromagnetic Spectrum

:These waves travel through the electromagnetic field. They were formerly carried by the aether, which was decommissioned in 1897 due to budget cuts.

:Other waves:
:*Slinky waves [Cueball and Megan hold the ends of a tangled slinky.]
:*Sound waves [There is a snippet of a frequency band. Between 20 Hz and 20 KHz is labeled "Audible Sound." Towards the top is a line labeled "That high-pitched noise in empty rooms."]
:*The wave [A row of people does a wave.]

:[Three parallel scales are across the bottom. The first is lambda (m), ranging from 100Mm to 100fm; second is f (Hz), which starts at 1 Hz and reaches 100 THz about 2/3 of the way along, after which the labels read "other entertaining greek prefixes like peta- exa- and zappa-"; last is Q (Gal^2/Coloumb), whose labels are 17, 117, pi, 17, 42, theta, e^pi-pi, -2, 540^50, and 11^2. Above the scales and lined up accurately with the first two are the following:]

:*Power & Telephone (100Mm to 1km)
:*Radio & TV (1km to somewhere between 1m and 10cm); above that are many boxes showing subranges (AM, VHF, UHF, 14/7 NPR pledge drives, a very thin band for the space rays controlling Steve Ballmer, 99.3 "The Fox," 101.5 "The Badger," 106.3 "The Frightened Squirrel," cell phone cancer rays, CIA, ham radio, kosher radio, shouting car dealership commercials.)
:*Microwaves (a bit more than 10cm to a bit more than 1mm); it also has subranges (aliens, just below SETI, wifi, FHF, brain waves, sulawesi, gravity)
:*Toasters (about 1mm to about 100 micrometers)
:*IR (about 100 micrometers to somewhere between 1 micrometer and 1 nm); above that is a bell graph labeled "Superman"s heat vision," with a motorcycle driving up the left side labeled "Jack Black's Heat Vision."
:*Visible light (and, under it, visible dark); above that is a bell graph labeled "sunlight." There's a breakout chart above it showing the visible spectrum from 700nm (red) to 450nm (violet). There's an arrow pointing to where octarine would be, somewhere off to the side. Above that are bars showing the absorption spectra for hydrogen, helium, Depends(R) (yellow only) and Tampax(R) (red only).
:*UV (about 100nm to about 10nm)
:*Miller Light (a thin bar around 10nm)
:*An unlabeled section with a thin line above it showing the frequency of the main death star laser
:*A blocked-off portion labeled "Censored Under Patriot Act."
:*X-rays (from about 1nm to about 10pm); a line above shows the frequency of mail-order x-ray glasses. Somewhere vaguely above the 10pm mark is a potato.
:*Gamma/cosmic rays (10pm and smaller); above that is a bar marked Sinister Google Projects which also trails off into higher frequencies, and blogorays, which are slightly lower.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Your sister]]

49: Want

2016-02-27T21:45:30Z

Jake: added Category:Your sister using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 49
| date = January 14, 2006
| title = Want
| image = want.jpg
| titletext = Well, she's pretty hot.
}}

==Explanation==

In the first three panels of this comic, [[Cueball]] is expressing what he wants, voicing poetic romantic notions towards someone. In the last panel, Cueball contradicts his previous poetic statements, as he crassly states that he also really wants to have sex with his paramour's sister.

In the title text he attempts to excuse his crass statement.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing talking in the same position in all four panels. Seems like he has hair in panel 2.]
:Cueball: I want to be brave enough to tell you how I feel.

:Cueball: I want to say "I love you" before I hang up the phone for once.

:Cueball: I want to drive all night with you, listening to mix tapes, not caring where we end up.

:Cueball: Oh, and I also really want to get with your sister.
:Cueball: I mean, DAMN.

==Trivia==
*This was the 46th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[48: Found]].
**The next was [[50: Penny Arcade]].
*Original title: "Drawing - Want"
*There were no original [[Randall]] quote for this comic.
*This comic was one of the last 11 comics posted on LiveJournal.
**These 11 comics were [[:Category:Posted on LiveJournal after xkcd|posted both on LiveJournal and xkcd]] after the [[xkcd]] site opened on the 1st of January 2006.
**This comic was posted on the same day on both sites.
**They were not all posted on the same day though.
*During the start-up of xkcd four of the last 11 comics were released on days that deviated from the normal Monday, Wednesday, Friday scheme.
**This one was thus '''released on a Saturday'''.
**It was the middle part of a series of three were the release day was shifted to one day later.
**This one was posted so late, 11:41 pm, that it almost became a Sunday comic.
**The next "Friday" comic [[52: Secret Worlds]] was also released on a Saturday.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 46]]
[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal after xkcd]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]
[[Category:Your sister]]

Category:Your sister

2016-02-27T21:44:53Z

Jake: noticed a new pattern!

In several comics, Randall (or [[Cueball]]) appears to have a desire for your sister.

[[Category:Comics by topic]]

1002: Game AIs

2016-01-27T14:33:13Z

Jake: /* Humans Beat Computers */ add

{{comic
| number = 1002
| date = January 11, 2012
| title = Game AIs
| image = game_ais.png
| titletext = The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the human Seven Minutes in Heaven champion, Ken Jennings.
}}

==Explanation==
To understand the comic, you have to understand what the games are, so let's go (but first, the years in parenthesis in the comic are the year that the game was mastered by a computer):

===Solved===

: These games are considered "solved", meaning the ideal maneuver for each game state (Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect Four) or each of the limited starting positions (Checkers) has already been calculated. Computers aren't so much playing as they are recalculating the list of ideal maneuvers. The same could be said for the computer's human opponent, just at a slower pace.

*'''{{w|Tic-tac-toe}}''' or '''Noughts and Crosses''' in most of the rest of the British Commonwealth countries is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. This game nearly always ends in a tie, regardless of whether humans or computers play it, because the amount of positions is minimal.

*'''{{w|Nim}}''' is a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap.

*'''{{w|Ghost (game)|Ghost}}''' is a spoken word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment. The loser is the first person who completes a valid word or who creates a fragment that cannot be the start of a word.

*'''{{w|Connect Four}}''' (or '''Captain's Mistress''', '''Four Up''', '''Plot Four''', '''Find Four''', '''Fourplay''', '''Four in a Row''', '''Four in a Line''') is a two-player game in which the players first choose a color and then take turns dropping their colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid.

*'''{{w|Gomoku}}''' (or '''Gobang''', '''Five in a Row''') is an abstract strategy board game. It is traditionally played with go pieces (black and white stones) on a go board (19x19 intersections); however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game. This game is known in several countries under different names.
:Black plays first, and players alternate in placing a stone of their color on an empty intersection. The winner is the first player to get an unbroken row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

*'''{{w|Draughts|Checkers}}''' (in the United States, or '''draughts''' in the United Kingdom) is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces.

===Computers Beat Humans===

:The below games cannot be "solved" due to the factors of random numbers, a near-infinite{{Citation needed}} number of starting positions, or the existence of multiple "ideal" maneuvers for each position. That said, a computer's faster reaction time, higher degree of consistency in making the right decision, and reduced risk of user error make the computer objectively better than the human opponent in nearly all situations.

*'''{{w|Scrabble}}''' is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a gameboard marked with a 15-by-15 grid.

*'''{{w|Counter-Strike|CounterStrike}}''' most likely refers to the popular multiplayer shooter video game about terrorists and counter-terrorists. Counter-Strike is notorious for the large variety of cheating tools that have been made for it; a computer would have essentially perfect accuracy and reflexes, essentially making it the {{w|aimbot}} from hell. It is theoretically possible for a skilled player to beat an AI, but it would be ''extremely'' difficult to do so.

*'''{{w|Beer pong}}''' (or '''Beirut''') is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end.
:[http://hacknmod.com/hack/beer-pong-robot-precision-air-pressure/ Here's the video] of the University of Illinois robot mentioned in the comic.

*'''{{w|Reversi}}''' (marketed by Pressman under the trade name '''Othello''') is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each face belonging to one player. The player's goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent's pieces as possible.

*'''{{w|Chess}}''' is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each of these types of pieces moving differently.

*'''{{w|Jeopardy!}}''' is an American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.
:Ken Jennings, mentioned in the title text, is a famous Jeopardy champion who was beaten by {{w|Watson (computer)|Watson}}, an IBM computer.

===Humans Beat Computers===

:The below games are incredibly difficult to "solve" due to the near-infinite number of possible positions. Computers built in the early 21st century would take years to calculate a single "ideal" move. Worse, the human opponent has the ability to "bluff"; that is, to make a bad move, thus baiting the computer into a trap. Complex algorithms have been devised to make moves in a reasonable timeframe, but so far they are all highly vulnerable to bluffing. As mentioned in the comic, focused research and development is working on refining these algorithms to play the games better.

*'''{{w|StarCraft}}''' is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game. The game revolves around three species fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector: the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection, obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities, attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg. While even average Starcraft players can defeat the AIs that originally shipped with the games, Starcraft has since been adopted as a standard benchmark for AI research, largely because of its excellent balance. Thanks to that attention, computers can now challenge some expert players, and the trend does not look promising for human players.

*'''{{w|Poker}}''' is a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which remain hidden until the end of the game. It is also, however, a game of deception and intimidation, the ubiquitous "poker face" being considered the most important part of the game.

*'''{{w|Arimaa}}''' is a two-player abstract strategy board game that can be played using the same equipment as chess. Arimaa was designed to be more difficult for artificial intelligences to play than chess. Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, an Indian American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand. On April 18, 2015, a computer won [http://arimaa.com/arimaa/challenge/|the "Arimaa Challenge"], so this comic is now out of date with respect to Arimaa; it should move above ''Starcraft'' or ''Jeopardy!''.

*'''{{w|Go (game)|Go}}''' is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections (called "points") of a grid of 19×19 lines (beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards). The object of the game is to use one's stones to surround a larger portion of the board than the opponent. As of January 2016, computers are [http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35419141 very close] to beating top humans at Go.

*'''{{w|Snakes and Ladders}}''' (or '''Chutes and Ladders''') is an ancient Indian {{w|race game}}, where the moves are decided entirely by die rolls. A number of tiles are connected by pictures of ladders and snakes (or chutes) which makes the game piece jump forward or backward, respectively. Since the game is decided by pure chance, it occupies the limbo where a computer will always be ''exactly'' as likely to win as a human (which might mean it should be located right between 'humans beat computers' and 'computers beat humans').

===Computers cannot compete===

*'''{{w|Mao (card game)|Mao}}''' (or '''Mau''') is a card game of the Shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules. The game is from a subset of the Stops family, and is similar in structure to the card game Uno.
:The game forbids its players from explaining the rules, and new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one." The ultimate goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand. Computers would have a difficult time integrating into Mao either because they would know all the rules -- and thus be disqualified or simply ignored by the players -- or would need a complicated learning engine that quite simply doesn't exist.

*'''{{w|Seven minutes in heaven|Seven Minutes in Heaven}}''' is a teenagers' party game first recorded as being played in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes. Sexual activities are allowed; however kissing and making out are more common.
:As the game is focused on human interaction, there's not a whole lot a modern computer can ''do'' in the closet. It would need some kind of robotic body in order to interact with its human partner, and emotion engines that could feel pleasure and displeasure in order to make decisions. The title text claims that {{w|Honda|Honda Motor Company}} has invented a "{{w|RealDoll}}" (sex toy shaped like a mannequin) with rudimentary Seven Minutes in Heaven capabilities, but they pale in comparison to a human's.

And finally
*'''{{w|Calvin and Hobbes#Calvinball|Calvinball}}''' is a reference to the comic strip {{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} by {{w|Bill Watterson}}.
:Calvinball is a game played by Calvin and Hobbes as a rebellion against organized team sports; according to Hobbes, "No sport is less organized than Calvinball!" Calvinball was first introduced to the readers at the end of a 1990 storyline involving Calvin reluctantly joining recess baseball. It quickly became a staple of the comic afterwards.
:The only hint at the true creation of the game ironically comes from the last Calvinball strip, in which a game of football quickly devolves into a game of Calvinball. Calvin remarks that "sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball," suggesting a similar scenario that directly led to the creation of the sport. Calvin and Hobbes usually play by themselves, although in one storyline Rosalyn (Calvin's baby-sitter) plays in return for Calvin doing his homework, and plays very well once she realizes that the rules are made up on the spot.
:The only consistent rule states that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice. Scoring is also arbitrary, with Hobbes at times reporting scores of "Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy." The only recognizable sports Calvinball resembles are the ones it emulates (i.e., a cross between croquet, polo, badminton, capture the flag, and volleyball.)
::Long story short, the game is a manifestation of pure chaos and the human imagination, far beyond the meager capabilities of silicon and circuitry.

==Transcript==
:Difficulty of Various Games for Computers

:[A diagram. The left column describes various levels of skill for the most capable computers in decreasing performance against humans. The right side lists games in each particular section, in increasing game difficulty. There are labels denoting the hard and easy ends of the diagram.]

:'''Easy'''
:{|border="small"
| rowspan="6" | Solved - Computers can play perfectly
| rowspan="4" | Solved for all possible positions
| Tic-tac-toe
|-
| Nim
|-
| Ghost (1989)
|-
| Connect Four (1995)
|-
| rowspan="2" | Solved for starting positions
| Gomoku
|-
| Checkers (2007)
|-
| rowspan="6" colspan="2" | Computers can beat top humans
| Scrabble
|-
| CounterStrike
|-
| Beer Pong (UIUC robot)
|-
| Reversi
|-
| Chess
* February 10, 1996 - First win by computer against top human
* November 21, 2005 - Last win by human against top computer
|-
| Jeopardy (but just barely)
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers still lose to top humans
(but focused R&D could change this)
| StarCraft (but just barely)
|-
| Poker
|-
| Arimaa
|-
| Go
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="1" |
| Snakes and Ladders
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers may ''never'' outplay humans
|-
| Mao
|-
| Seven Minutes in Heaven
|-
| Calvinball
|-
|}
:'''Hard'''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]

633: Blockbuster Mining

2016-01-07T15:33:33Z

Jake: /* Trivia */ oops

{{comic
| number = 633
| date = September 7, 2009
| title = Blockbuster Mining
| image = blockbuster mining.png
| titletext = The 2007 Bridge To Terebithia trailer put me off too much to see that particular movie, but I am cautiously optimistic about Where The Wild Things Are.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has acquired the {{w|intellectual property}} rights to produce a movie, but is unsure of how to make it appealing to a wide audience. An off-screen character suggests hiring {{w|Michael Bay}}, a director and producer well known (and occasionally criticized) for his style of film adaptation. Cueball is unsure that the IP would be a good fit for a summer blockbuster, but is dismissed.

The following panels depict violent and gritty scenes from a spy thriller, starring an unknown and brutal female spy. In the last panel, she is revealed to be {{w|Harriet the Spy}}, the 11 year old protagonist of a bestselling children's book written by Louise Fitzhugh, as well as other spinoff books written by various other authors.

The comic references Hollywood's search for new stories to adapt to film, and how poor (not to mention {{w|Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters|violent}}) some of these adaptations can be. There is additional humor in the fact that the original novel is about school-child concerns such as friends and is not violent.

The {{w|Bridge to Terabithia (2007 film)|film adaptation}} of {{w|Bridge to Terabithia (novel)|Bridge to Terabithia}} had trailers that made it appear to have very little in common with the themes and tone of the novel. The actual movie is one of Hollywood's better book adaptations{{Citation needed}}, but the trailers were extremely misleading and off-putting to fans of the novel, as in the title text. Viewers who were unfamiliar with the novel and saw the movie with expectations based on the trailer were also unprepared for the actual movie{{Citation needed}}. The trailer was essentially every single special-effect shot from the movie, giving the impression it was a special-effects extravaganza, which would have been very inappropriate based on the novel, and does not reflect the actual content of the movie.

The {{w|Where_the_Wild_Things_Are_(film)|film adaptation}} of {{w|Where the Wild Things Are}} met with {{w|Where_the_Wild_Things_Are_(film)#Critical response|favorable responses from critics}}, the public, and the {{w|Maurice Sendak|book's author}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holds a script in his hands.]
:Cueball: We've acquired some new rights, but I'm not sure it's in the spirit to make it a blockbuster--
:Voice: Do it anyway. Take $100 million, hire Michael Bay.
:Cueball: But--
:Voice: ''NEXT!''

:[Panel is inverted, white on black background.]
:[Two men are pointing machine guns at Harriet. Harriet points two handguns back at them.]
:Harriet: They said if I were captured I should take my own life.
:Harriet: But I'd just as soon take yours.

:[Harriet jumps off a cliff carrying a spiral notebook and a gun, while the cliff explodes behind her. In the background is a helicopter, some mountains, and the sea.]
:''BOOM''

:[Panel is inverted, white and red on black background.]
:[Man is tied to a chair. Blood is pooling on the ground below. Harriet stands in front, holding a bloody pipe.]
:Man: Stop! I'll talk!
:Harriet: No, I know everything. This is just for fun.

:[Crosshairs follow a man.]
:Harriet: I'll be watching.

:[The panel is inverted colour, white on black.]
:Harriet
:the
:[in red] ''SPY''
:[A bloody spiral notebook, with blood streaks leading from it.]

==Trivia==
Apparently, ''Harriet the Spy'' was actually adapted into [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_the_Spy_%28film%29 a film] in 1996. Presumably{{Citation needed}} it was more faithful to the novel than this xkcd.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]

633: Blockbuster Mining

2016-01-07T15:32:49Z

Jake: Out of idle curiosity, I looked it up on Wikipedia, and there really was a film adaptation. I wonder if Randall knew about that?

{{comic
| number = 633
| date = September 7, 2009
| title = Blockbuster Mining
| image = blockbuster mining.png
| titletext = The 2007 Bridge To Terebithia trailer put me off too much to see that particular movie, but I am cautiously optimistic about Where The Wild Things Are.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has acquired the {{w|intellectual property}} rights to produce a movie, but is unsure of how to make it appealing to a wide audience. An off-screen character suggests hiring {{w|Michael Bay}}, a director and producer well known (and occasionally criticized) for his style of film adaptation. Cueball is unsure that the IP would be a good fit for a summer blockbuster, but is dismissed.

The following panels depict violent and gritty scenes from a spy thriller, starring an unknown and brutal female spy. In the last panel, she is revealed to be {{w|Harriet the Spy}}, the 11 year old protagonist of a bestselling children's book written by Louise Fitzhugh, as well as other spinoff books written by various other authors.

The comic references Hollywood's search for new stories to adapt to film, and how poor (not to mention {{w|Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters|violent}}) some of these adaptations can be. There is additional humor in the fact that the original novel is about school-child concerns such as friends and is not violent.

The {{w|Bridge to Terabithia (2007 film)|film adaptation}} of {{w|Bridge to Terabithia (novel)|Bridge to Terabithia}} had trailers that made it appear to have very little in common with the themes and tone of the novel. The actual movie is one of Hollywood's better book adaptations{{Citation needed}}, but the trailers were extremely misleading and off-putting to fans of the novel, as in the title text. Viewers who were unfamiliar with the novel and saw the movie with expectations based on the trailer were also unprepared for the actual movie{{Citation needed}}. The trailer was essentially every single special-effect shot from the movie, giving the impression it was a special-effects extravaganza, which would have been very inappropriate based on the novel, and does not reflect the actual content of the movie.

The {{w|Where_the_Wild_Things_Are_(film)|film adaptation}} of {{w|Where the Wild Things Are}} met with {{w|Where_the_Wild_Things_Are_(film)#Critical response|favorable responses from critics}}, the public, and the {{w|Maurice Sendak|book's author}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holds a script in his hands.]
:Cueball: We've acquired some new rights, but I'm not sure it's in the spirit to make it a blockbuster--
:Voice: Do it anyway. Take $100 million, hire Michael Bay.
:Cueball: But--
:Voice: ''NEXT!''

:[Panel is inverted, white on black background.]
:[Two men are pointing machine guns at Harriet. Harriet points two handguns back at them.]
:Harriet: They said if I were captured I should take my own life.
:Harriet: But I'd just as soon take yours.

:[Harriet jumps off a cliff carrying a spiral notebook and a gun, while the cliff explodes behind her. In the background is a helicopter, some mountains, and the sea.]
:''BOOM''

:[Panel is inverted, white and red on black background.]
:[Man is tied to a chair. Blood is pooling on the ground below. Harriet stands in front, holding a bloody pipe.]
:Man: Stop! I'll talk!
:Harriet: No, I know everything. This is just for fun.

:[Crosshairs follow a man.]
:Harriet: I'll be watching.

:[The panel is inverted colour, white on black.]
:Harriet
:the
:[in red] ''SPY''
:[A bloody spiral notebook, with blood streaks leading from it.]

===Trivia===
Apparently, ''Harriet the Spy'' was actually adapted into [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_the_Spy_%28film%29 a film] in 1996. Presumably{{Citation needed}} it was more faithful to the novel than this xkcd.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]

Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy

2015-12-16T16:10:43Z

Jake: /* List of abilities */ add one

[[Beret Guy]] is a very strange person. Sometimes he takes these strange tendencies into the supernatural. In the early comics he was more just a strange and naive guy. There is an early start to the strangeness, but that power could also be attributed to [[Cueball]] (at least it is a shared power) in [[248]].

After comic [[1099]], Beret Guy begins to appear frequently with these strange powers, typically not related to each other, except that he has some issues with electrical sockets and power cords as seen in [[1293]] and [[1395]]. (See also [[509: Induced Current]] and the title text of [[614: Woodpecker]], regarding power cords, but not these strange powers.)

Here is a list of the comics where Beret Guys displays strange powers, that are beyond the realm of possibility.

==List of abilities==
#[[248]]: Manages to create a hypothetical situation.
#[[1088]]: Capable of waiting in he same place for five years, presumably without sustenance
#[[1099]]: He has infinite wings.
#[[1135]]: Makes spiders weave him a shirt.
#[[1158]]: Creates rope to pull & release ball via his imagination.
#[[1293]]: Pours soup from power socket.
#[[1388]]: Subducts through the floor to form mountains in his room.
#[[1395]]: Inflates a laptop through a power cord so that it floats like a helium balloon.
#[[1422]]: Makes a phone with an old battery behave like a dying star.
#[[1486]]: Uses the vacuum energy to fly and "gain unlimited power" with a vacuum cleaner.
#[[1490]]: Sees the individual atoms, and can distinguish the different elements. But he cannot see what they are actually a part of, like a human or a dog.
#[[1522]]: Can examine life on exoplanets around distant stars through a magnifying glass just by standing on a ladder.
#[[1614]]: A little less clear what his powers are in this. But first he is walking a flying/floating dog, and then he returns flying on (or as) a kite, while the dog holds on to the line of the kite.
#[[1617]]: Living by eating newspaper and without breathing oxygen for several years in a sealed and buried box.

[[Category:Comics by topic]]

1088: Five Years

2015-12-16T16:09:57Z

Jake: added Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 1088
| date = July 30, 2012
| title = Five Years
| image = five_years.png
| titletext = 'Well, no further questions. You're hired!' 'Oh, sorry! I'm no longer interested. There's a bunch of future I gotta go check out!'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a take on the common and cliched job interview question here asked by [[Hair Bun Girl]]: ''Where do you see yourself in 5 years.'' The interviewer is attempting to see where the job seeker would like to take their career and also what their hopes and dreams are etc.

In the comic, instead of explaining where he would like to be in 5 years, [[Beret Guy]] and the interviewer wait around for 5 years without moving to find out. And as Beret Guy expected they stayed exactly where they were. (This could be suggesting that most people do not change much over five years.)

The title text is a continuation of their conversation in which Beret Guy turns down the job because he wants to find out what happened the last 5 years while they were both sitting in that room.

Given Beret Guy's ability to manipulate reality ([[1099: Tuesdays]]), it's possible he froze himself and the interviewer for 5 years.

Other job interviews were portrayed in [[125: Marketing Interview]], [[1094: Interview]], [[1293: Job Interview]] and [[1545: Strengths and Weaknesses]].

==Transcript==
:[Hair bun Girl and Beret Guy sit across from each other at a desk. The woman has a bun.]
:Hair bun Girl : Where do you see yourself in five years?
:Beret Guy: Oh man, I don't know! Let's find out!
:[The characters stare at one another.]
:[Cobwebs and hair grow; the desk and chairs fall into disrepair.]
:[Five years pass.]
:Beret Guy: Hah—
:Beret Guy: I ''thought'' so!

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]
[[Category:Job interviews]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]

1617: Time Capsule

2015-12-16T16:06:38Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ anyone else notice he's holding a hammer?

{{comic
| number = 1617
| date = December 16, 2015
| title = Time Capsule
| image = time_capsule.png
| titletext = Oh no, I changed the future and now I'm disappearing! Wait, never mind, it was just my hat slipping down over my eyes.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is watching [[Ponytail]] who has unearthed a {{w|time capsule}}, that must have been buried in the ground many years ago.

A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists or historians.

However, when she manages to open the capsule [[Beret Guy]] turns out to have been hiding inside while the capsule has been buried. It turns out that he has mixed up the purpose of a {{w|Time travel|time machine}} and a time capsule; when Ponytail asks him where he came from he tells her: ''The past! I traveled here in this time machine.''

He cannot explain how he got there, but he claims that he could not have prevented this. This is a reference to the fact that you cannot avoid being pushed forward through time, see [[1524: Dimensions]]. Beret Guy has also previously traveled to the future in a similar manner, see [[209: Kayak]].

Beret Guy claims he has been eating newspapers to survive; newspaper clippings are a stereotype content of time capsules. He also managed to live underground in the time capsule, which would typically be an airtight sealed box, for what must be assumed to be a at least several years. Although some time capsules are meant to be opened after just a few years (10 or 25 years for instance) the plan should be that is is not opened for at least several years after it is created. So this comic is one more example of the [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers of Beret Guy]] - i.e. living by eating paper and without breathing oxygen. But he has before displayed patience enough to sit still for five years in [[1088: Five Years]].

Beret Guy mentions he got inside his "time machine" to attempt an assassination of {{w|Adolf Hitler}} (possibly using the hammer he's holding?). This is a common trope in speculative fiction, a way to try to prevent the {{w|second world war}}.

Since he actually did not travel anywhere, but just let time pass, he did not get back to a time before Hitler died, and thus Ponytail can tell him that Hitler has been dead for a long time; at the time of this comics release for 70 years. So in the comic it is presumably at least this long ago, if the capsule was opened on the day of the release, maybe longer if this comic is set in the future. This fact does not bother Beret Guy, as he just realizes his job has already been done. What he thus fails to realize, is that he was supposed to kill Hitler before he got the second world war started. This was the same type of failure made by [[Black Hat]] in [[1063: Kill Hitler]]. Black Hat did actually travel 67 years back in time and killed Hitler, sadly it was in the last days of the war in 1945 just before Hitler would have died anyway, so it had no effect on history either (and the time machine was a one shot thing...)

When he finds out that his job is done he asks Ponytail if they should get some sandwiches. It is a known feature of Beret Guys that he likes bakers and bread, though not specifically sandwiches. Realizing he is in the future he suddenly becomes aware that this concept may have been forgotten, and he asks if they still exist in this future. This is a reference to another comic where Megan has traveled through time in the same way as Beret Guy (by traveling a second ahead for every second passing...) See [[630: Time Travel]].

In the title text Beret Guy becomes afraid that he will now disappear because he has changed the future in a way so he would no longer exist. This fear comes into him because he losses his sight, but it turns out it was just his beret that fell into his eyes. The fear is of course baseless since he traveled forward not backwards in time, and you can only change the future (or the present) by going back in time, and then experience the difference by going back to your starting point later in time.

A typical example would be to go back and kill you parents before you were born (or just prevent them from falling in love as in the movie ''{{w|Back to the Future}})''. This creates a {{w|Grandfather paradox|paradox}}, where you will never be born, and thus cease to exist. Of course the paradox is that you could thus not have prevented your birth in the first place, if you did not already exist.

Time machines have been referenced in many xkcd comics, see the [[:Category:Time travel|Time travel category]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is watching and Ponytail is about to open a time capsule that has just been dug out. A shovel is stuck in the ground next to a heap of dirt on the right side of a hole in the ground. Cueball is standing on the other side and Ponytail is in the hole, proceeding to lift up the lid of the box that makes up the time capsule.]
:Ponytail: All right, let's open the time capsule.

:[Slight zoom in on Ponytail and the box, without Cueball but still the shovel and dirt, when Beret Guy comes out of the capsule looking up at Ponytail who takes a step back up.]
:Beret Guy: Hi!
:Ponytail: Where did you come from?!
:Beret Guy: The past! I traveled here in this time machine.

:[Frame widens to include Cueball, in the same position as in the first frame. Ponytail relaxes a little and Beret Guy turns in the capsule to face Cueball.]
:Cueball: How did you ... '''''get''''' here from the past?
:Beret Guy: I dunno. I couldn't '''''not'''''.
:Cueball: But ... what did you ''eat?''
:Beret Guy: Newspapers, mostly.

:[Zoom in again in a bigger frame with Ponytail and the capsule, shovel and dirt. Beret Guy faces her again, but now he is holding a hammer.]
:Beret Guy: Anyway, I'm here to kill Hitler.
:Ponytail: But he died long ago!
:Beret Guy: Oh, good! That was easy.
:Beret Guy: Want to get sandwiches?
:Beret Guy: Do you still have sandwiches?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

XKCD Marks the Spot

2015-10-22T22:19:22Z

Jake: rough draft

{{comic
| date = October 22, 2015
| title = World Polio Day
| image = [http://www.gatesnotes.com/~/media/Images/Articles/Health/Polio/XKCD-Marks-the-Spot/world-polio-day_2015_xkcd_1110.png?la=en&hash=14C7EC2B3FC7B3DF1227FD070BE306BDEC941BD3]
| before = Original blog post on Bill Gates' blog: http://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/XKCD-Marks-the-Spot
| extra = yes
}}
{{incomplete|I'm not very good at explaining these things, but maybe someone else can fix it}}
An extra comic drawn by [[Randall]] for Bill Gates' blog to celebrate World Polio Day. As noted, the disease {{w|polio}} has nearly been eradicated, with only a few isolated pockets remaining. Current methods of eradicating it are working will. As [[Ponytail]] is explaining this, [[Hairy]] for some reason claims that they need different methods. He then makes a series of increasingly ridiculous suggestions on different ways to eradicate polio, using overly advanced and complicated (and in some cases, nonexistent) technology, apparently oblivious to the fact that the current methods are working just fine. May be mocking those who think that high technology solves everything.

1580: Travel Ghost

2015-09-21T13:15:35Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ rough draft

{{comic
| number = 1580
| date = September 21, 2015
| title = Travel Ghost
| image = travel_ghosts.png
| titletext = And a different ghost has replaced me in the bedroom.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|rough draft}}
It is true that many applications--for instance [http://maps.google.com Google Maps] allow one to plan routes from point A to B. It is also true that such applications due occasionally fail to produce an ideal route, be it due to construction, traffic, or simple error.

Here, [[Cueball]] has designed an app that sends actual copies of himself ("ghosts") along different routes to his destination with the hope of being able to find the route that is actually the shortest and easiest. His plan goes awry since these ghosts--at least one of which--will take a better route, thus arriving there before he himself does. Soon enough, he is fired from work because one of his "ghosts" always reaches work before he does. Even his family apparently comes to prefer the more punctual "ghosts" over him, with strange results.

==Transcript==
[[Cueball]], holding a smartphone, is talking to White Hat: Lots of apps let you plan your trips using real-time bus, train, and traffic data. They try to predict which route will be faster, but aren't always right.

Bottom of panel has a map showing three possible routes with an overlaid person; two are faded and one is dark. A point on the right indicates the destination. Above, "Instead of just ''planning.'' my new app lets you send "ghost" versions of you along different routes, simulating their travel using the real-time data

Cueball, again talking to White Hat: That way, you can see which route turned out to be faster in practice, you can also race your past selves.

Soon...man getting out of car holding briefcase; faded bicyclist on the right. Man: Ugh, lost to the bike ghost ''again.''

Same man on left of door, holding a key: "Hey, my key won't work." On right of door, woman (standing next to faded man holding briefcase): "I'm sorry, but we've decided to replace you. This floaty guy is much more punctual."

Two children holding floaty guy's hand: "Our ''new'' dad never misses our games!" Real man (next to briefcase, now on ground, holding out his hands to the kids): "Nooo!"

{{comic discussion}}

1570: Engineer Syllogism

2015-08-28T12:02:01Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ rough draft

{{comic
| number = 1570
| date = August 28, 2015
| title = Engineer Syllogism
| image = engineer_syllogism.png
| titletext = The less common, even worse outcome: "3: [everyone in the financial system] WOW, where did all my money just go?"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Very rough draft.}}
In this comic, there is an {{w|engineer}}, who is good at math (most engineers are), so tries his hand at the {{w|stock market}}, thinking that his skill at math will help him beat the stock market. Little does he know that the system can be rather...unpredictable, so he ends up losing money as the stock he's invested in crashes. This outcome is foreshadowed in the [[title text]] of [[592]].

The title text is a reference to the recent {{w|2015 Chinese stock market crash}} or to economic depressions in general.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

809: Los Alamos

2015-06-01T13:58:54Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ add

{{comic
| number = 809
| date = October 22, 2010
| title = Los Alamos
| image = los_alamos.png
| titletext = The test didn't (spoiler alert) destroy the world, but the fact that they were even doing those calculations makes theirs the coolest jobs ever.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the {{w|Manhattan Project}} at {{w|Los Alamos, New Mexico}}, where in 1945 their development of the first nuclear weapon had progressed to the point that they were going explode "The Gadget" at {{w|Trinity Site}}. There was genuine concern that some unexpected result was possible, including the scenario about the atmosphere igniting. The scientists were almost certain that it would either work as expected, or just be a dud, but were unable to rule out several other scenarios. The test proceeded, and it worked as expected.

The joke part at the end is a reference to a common {{w|mnemonic}} device for basic {{w|trigonometric}} functions, namely identifying the relationships of ''sine'', ''cosine'', and ''tangent'' with respect to the lengths of a right triangle's edges: '''s'''in = '''o'''pposite over '''h'''ypotenuse, '''c'''os = '''a'''djacent over '''h'''ypotenuse, and '''t'''an = '''o'''pposite over '''a'''djacent (in other words, SOH CAH TOA.) "Steve" becomes concerned by the seriousness of the situation, and wants to make sure that he has not made a mistake on stuff that should be ''very'' elementary to a scientist in his position. (To our knowledge, "Steve" is not a reference to any specific scientist in the real life Manhattan Project)

"Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds." – {{w|Robert Oppenheimer}}, Lead scientist on bomb project, quoting Hindu scripture after the successful test. There are very few jobs where one can say that with seriousness, as pointed out in the title text.

Steve also appears in comic [[1532]], where his miscalculations screw up the trajectory of the {{w|New Horizons}} space probe, sending it to earth instead of Pluto.

==Transcript==
:[Three stick figures stand in front of a few graphs and scientific looking pictures. One of them has hair.]
:Los Alamos, 1945...
:Cueball: We have a decision. If we've done our math right, this test will unleash heaven's fire and make us as gods.

:Cueball: But it's possible we made a mistake, and the heat will ignite the atmosphere, destroying the planet in a cleansing conflagration.

:Steve: Wow. Um. Question: Just to double-check— although I'm 99% sure—

:Steve: Is it "SOH CAH TOA" or "COH SAH TOA"?
:Cueball: ''Oh, for the love of...'' can someone redo Steve's work?
:Hairy: I don't want to do the test anymore.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

218: Nintendo Surgeon

2015-05-11T15:29:29Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ case-sensitive titles...

{{comic
| number =218
| date =February 2, 2007
| title =Nintendo Surgeon
| image =nintendo_surgeon.png
| titletext =Scary thought #138: Raptors coming down the waterslide behind me.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}}, released in North America in 1985, helped revitalize the video-game industry after the {{w|North American video game crash of 1983|video-game crash}} of 1983, with such games as the ''{{w|Super Mario Bros.}}'' series, ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda (game)|The Legend of Zelda}},'' the ''{{w|Mega Man}}'' series, ''{{w|Castlevania}},'' and ''{{w|Metroid (game)|Metroid}}'' helping it stand alone as what is still considered by many people today, the greatest video-game console of all-time.

However, it was notorious for glitching games upon start-up, due in no small part to the unusual shape of the game console, which required one to open the door, push the game cartridge inside, push down to lock it in place, and push the power button. The console was deliberately designed this way so that it wouldn't look like a regular video-game console (and wouldn't be associated with the still-fresh stigma of the video-game crash only two years previous), but it caused no end of pain for people wanting to play the games. It would work fine for about two years, but after that "cartridge tilt" would become a problem as either the game's or the console's electric contacts could become misaligned.

A ubiquitous fix for this problem among gamers was to take the cartridge out, blow into it, and put it back inside, all to clean out any dust inside the cartridge that would make "cartridge tilt" worse and occur more frequently. This was not a recommended solution by Nintendo of America, and didn't always work, but it worked frequently enough to enter gamer culture, and even today, people who had the NES as children remember having to do that.

The NES was 22 years old as of the date this comic was written. Someone who was 10 years old when they got their Nintendo for Christmas could ''very well'' be old enough in 2007 to have attained their doctorate degree, and so this comic hearkens back to the aforementioned cartridge fix by suggesting that a heart surgeon might try that on a real-life heart patient. And like the introduction states, that ''is'' a scary thought.

The title text is one of many xkcd references to the terrifying ''[[velociraptor|Velociraptor]]'' predator from the dinosaur movie ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}.''

==Transcript==
:Scary Thought #137: The NES came out over two decades ago. Those kids are all grown-ups now.
:[Two surgeons are in an operating room, leaning over a patient.]
:First Surgeon: He's going into cardiac arrest. Stand by for defibrillation.
:Second Surgeon: Wait. First let's try taking out the heart, blowing into the ventricles, and putting it back in.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

218: Nintendo Surgeon

2015-05-11T15:28:25Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ wl

{{comic
| number =218
| date =February 2, 2007
| title =Nintendo Surgeon
| image =nintendo_surgeon.png
| titletext =Scary thought #138: Raptors coming down the waterslide behind me.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}}, released in North America in 1985, helped revitalize the video-game industry after the {{w|North American video game crash of 1983|video-game crash}} of 1983, with such games as the ''{{w|Super Mario Bros.}}'' series, ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda (game)|The Legend of Zelda}},'' the ''{{w|Mega Man}}'' series, ''{{w|Castlevania}},'' and ''{{w|Metroid (game)|Metroid}}'' helping it stand alone as what is still considered by many people today, the greatest video-game console of all-time.

However, it was notorious for glitching games upon start-up, due in no small part to the unusual shape of the game console, which required one to open the door, push the game cartridge inside, push down to lock it in place, and push the power button. The console was deliberately designed this way so that it wouldn't look like a regular video-game console (and wouldn't be associated with the still-fresh stigma of the video-game crash only two years previous), but it caused no end of pain for people wanting to play the games. It would work fine for about two years, but after that "cartridge tilt" would become a problem as either the game's or the console's electric contacts could become misaligned.

A ubiquitous fix for this problem among gamers was to take the cartridge out, blow into it, and put it back inside, all to clean out any dust inside the cartridge that would make "cartridge tilt" worse and occur more frequently. This was not a recommended solution by Nintendo of America, and didn't always work, but it worked frequently enough to enter gamer culture, and even today, people who had the NES as children remember having to do that.

The NES was 22 years old as of the date this comic was written. Someone who was 10 years old when they got their Nintendo for Christmas could ''very well'' be old enough in 2007 to have attained their doctorate degree, and so this comic hearkens back to the aforementioned cartridge fix by suggesting that a heart surgeon might try that on a real-life heart patient. And like the introduction states, that ''is'' a scary thought.

The title text is one of many xkcd references to the terrifying ''[[Velociraptor]]'' predator from the dinosaur movie ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}.''

==Transcript==
:Scary Thought #137: The NES came out over two decades ago. Those kids are all grown-ups now.
:[Two surgeons are in an operating room, leaning over a patient.]
:First Surgeon: He's going into cardiac arrest. Stand by for defibrillation.
:Second Surgeon: Wait. First let's try taking out the heart, blowing into the ventricles, and putting it back in.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

Talk:692: Dirty Harry

2015-05-11T15:27:15Z

Jake: directed-energy weapons

There's "instantly" twice in a sentence. Because I'm not a native english speaker, I don't know if this is acceptable, and for the same reason I'll not edit it. {{unsigned ip|108.162.212.196}}
:You were correct, it isn't. Actually that whole sentence bothers me, but I suppose it gets the point across well enough. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.50|108.162.221.50]] 07:23, 25 January 2014 (UTC)
*Technically even directed-energy weapons would run out of shots eventually, since they tend to have batteries, and batteries don't last forever. I suppose you could get around this by using solar power or something, but you would need solar panels larger than the gun itself, most likely. [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 15:27, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

692: Dirty Harry

2015-05-11T15:25:51Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ will explain on talk

{{comic
| number = 692
| date = January 22, 2010
| title = Dirty Harry
| image = dirty_harry.png
| titletext = Sci-fi has energy weapons because otherwise the people like me who watch it get distracted counting shots.
}}

== Explanation ==
The comic references both {{w|Dirty Harry}} and {{w|Rain Man}}, as the caption suggests.

In Dirty Harry, {{w|Clint Eastwood|Clint Eastwood's}} character, Harry Callahan, uses a magnum revolver. His most commonly quoted statement is whether or not he fired 5 shots or 6. If he fired only five, the next shot would kill his victim. If six, he wouldn't have any more bullets to shoot.

In Rain Man, {{w|Dustin Hoffman|Dustin Hoffman's}} character, Raymond, is autistic and has an {{w|eidetic memory}}. As such, he can instantly remember any number of objects, such as the number of toothpicks in a box that was spilled, or the number of bullets that came out of a gun.

The comic depicts a scene in ''Dirty Harry'' in which Callahan confronts a bank robber, only with Raymond taking the place of the robber. For the record, Raymond is correct; Callahan actually pulls the trigger one more time in the original scene, and the gun proves to be empty.

The title text notes that because sci-fi energy guns do not require a magazine, they have virtually limitless shots. This means that Randall doesn't get distracted by counting how many bullets are left in a conventional gun's magazine, allowing him to concentrate on the film.

==Transcript==
:[Detective "Dirty" Harry Callahan stands near a wall, pointing a revolver at another figure, presumably a suspect, reclined on the ground. A shotgun is on the ground next to the reclined figure.]
:Harry Callahan: I know what you're thinking--"Did he fire six shots or only five?" In all this excitement, I-
:Suspect: Six. Definitely six.
:Harry Callahan: Shit.

:Dirty Harry Meets Rain Man

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1510: Napoleon

2015-04-10T16:37:08Z

Jake: continuing the story

Well, this explains a lot. Why Obama refuses to return to the Moon and wants to go for an asteroid...[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 07:33, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
:That would make an awesome addition to the story line. I wish Randall included that extra panel. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.89|173.245.50.89]] 08:21, 10 April 2015 (UTC)BK201
:So... the reason he wants to go for an asteroid is that we need the capability to send the Moon-escaped Napoleon there! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 09:42, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Haha this is now one of my favourite xkcd comics [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.33|141.101.98.33]] 08:16, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

IMHO the explanation somewhat misses the crucial point: A parody of the villain type
who always comes back in comic books. (Don't force me to add a TVTropes link :-) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.240|198.41.243.240]] 09:22, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Another question - Why the Antarctic? Something evil resting under deep ice is concept used for example in movie(s) The Thing ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_from_Another_World]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(1982_film)]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(2011_film)]] - chose your favorite ;-) or game Prisoner of Ice [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_Ice]].[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 13:59, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

In 2115, Napoleon escapes from the moon and almost conquers the United Nations of Earth before being defeated. He is then sent into the Sun, where he stays for the next thousand years.... But in the 32nd century, humanity begins extracting material from the Sun to build a Dyson Sphere, and this allows Napoleon to escape and wreak havoc once more. At this point, the Star People just give up and go "WTF?!". [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 16:37, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

250: Snopes

2015-03-23T15:22:17Z

Jake: /* Trivia */ more

{{comic
| number = 250
| date = April 18, 2007
| title = Snopes
| image = snopes.png
| titletext = The MythBusters are even more sinister.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Snopes}} is a popular website for checking the validity of {{w|Urban legend|urban legends}}. Snopes proves or disproves facts, but another urban legend is known that suggests Snopes runs a spam operations to create sources for their own benefit. The joke here is that Snopes disproves its own urban legend, creating a circular, invalid argument.

The title text suggests that {{w|MythBusters}}, another group which debunks myths, also participate in the practice of spreading misinformation for the opportunity to test it.

==Trivia==
Snopes is also mentioned in the much later comic [[1081: Argument Victory]], in a much more positive light.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Another urban legend? You should check out Snopes before sending me this stuff.
:Friend: Oops; yeah.
:Cueball: Man, Snopes is really great--independent fact-checkers trawling our collective discourse, filtering out misinformation.
:Friend: Yeah, but they have their dark side. The couple that runs snopes.com also runs a network of spam servers that start many of those forwarded stories in the first place, ensuring they'll always have business.
:Cueball: That's absurd. Plus, it's definitely not true--it was debunked by...
:Friend: Yes?
:Cueball: ...Oh my God.

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

610: Sheeple

2015-03-23T15:19:24Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ why the quote marks?

{{comic
| number = 610
| date = July 15, 2009
| title = Sheeple
| image = sheeple.png
| titletext = Hey, what are the odds -- five Ayn Rand fans on the same train! Must be going to a convention.
}}

==Explanation==
"{{w|Sheeple}}" refers to people as sheep, who blindly follow direction without thinking for themselves. The phrase "[[:Category:Sheeple|Wake up Sheeple]]!" has been used in xkcd other times. In this comic, each person on the train considers themself to be an individual mind (even though four of them are identical [[Cueball]] like characters and only one a [[Ponytail]]), and everyone around them as "sheeple." Ironically, although each of them thinks about how individual they are, they are all collectively thinking exactly the same thing. The comic can also be taken as a warning to not assume that you have more consciousness than someone else, since for all you know they could think the same about you.

{{w|Ayn Rand}} was a Russian-born American {{w|novelist}} and activist whose most famous books include, ''{{w|Atlas Shrugged}}'', ''{{w|Anthem (novella)|Anthem}}'', and ''{{w|The Fountainhead}}''. She developed a philsophy known as {{w|Objectivism}}, which promotes individual fulfillment (or so-called "rational self-interest") at the expense of collective goals and undertakings. Sheeple coordinates with Ayn Rand's novel, ''Anthem'', set in the distant future in which the word "I" has been abolished and the evils of the communal values have created a new dark age.

A possible further irony can be found in the title text. Rand enthusiasts would seek individualism and independence from social pressures; however, a convention could be interpreted as a social collective of people who have similar interests in a subject. These ideas would seem to be opposites of each other.

==Transcript==
:[A thought bubble is shared between the five occupants (four Cueballs and one Ponytail) of a subway car.]
:All: Look at these people. Glassy-eyed automatons going about their daily lives, never stopping to look around and think! I'm the only conscious human in a world of sheep.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Sheeple]]

928: Mimic Octopus

2015-03-06T21:00:06Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ no, it isn't

{{comic
| number = 928
| date = July 22, 2011
| title = Mimic Octopus
| image = mimic_octopus.png
| titletext = Even if the dictionaries are starting to give in, I refuse to accept 'octopi' as a word mainly because--I'm not making this up--there's a really satisfying climactic scene in the Orson Scott Card horror novel 'Lost Boys' which hinges on it being an incorrect pluralization.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of fish and sea-life identification charts, referencing the {{w|mimic octopus}} which, as the name implies, is able to mimic other animals. The creatures the octupus mimics include tuna, a clownfish, a lionfish, a shark, what appears to be seaweed, an angler fish, an anchor, a submarine, a scuba diver, multiple fish, and a single octupus.

The {{w|Orson Scott Card}} novel that the title text refers to is ''{{w|Lost Boys (novel)|Lost Boys}}'': "A withdrawn eight-year-old in a troubled family invents imaginary friends who bear the names of missing children" (Publisher's Weekly).

According to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFyY2mK8pxk Merriam-Webster Dictionary], "octopi," "octopuses," and "octopodes" (UK English) are all correct plural versions of "octopus."

==Transcript==
:Southeast Asian Sea Life
:Identification Chart
:[There are silhouettes of eight individual fish, a school of fish, a scuba diver, an anemone, a submarine, and an anchor, each labeled "Mimic Octopus." There is also a silhouette of an octopus, labeled "Two Mimic Octopuses."]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Biology]]

958: Hotels

2015-02-07T19:34:40Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ literally?

{{comic
| number = 958
| date = September 30, 2011
| title = Hotels
| image = hotels.png
| titletext = 'Rating: 1/5. Room filled to brim with semen, and when front desk clerk opened mouth to talk, bedbugs poured out.'
}}

==Explanation==
Alright, it is pretty clear what [[Black Hat]] is doing here. He is putting bad reviews on all the hotels he has stayed at and likes and wants to stay in again, and it is true that this would lower demand for said hotel. Putting positive reviews on bad hotels, on the other hand, would steer other people there so there are more vacancies at good hotels. He claims he is not enough influence to put them out of business.

The {{w|Tragedy of the commons}} "is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen." This situation is not a complete example of this concept as Black Hat is the only one doing it. He understands, however, that if others do it, it would apply.

In the last frame, Black Hat references the {{w|invisible hand}} which is the term economists use to describe the self-regulating nature of the marketplace. Black Hat appears to be taking advantage of this invisible hand by cutting it with a knife and eating it.

The title text is an example of Black Hat's negative review. It does not seem very credible, even in the context of the abysmal standards usually seen in such reviews.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop, looking at a review website]
:Cueball: What's with this negative review? You ''liked'' that hotel.
:Black Hat: I have a script that posts a bad review for every hotel I stay at. It reduces demand, which means more vacancies and lower prices next time.

:Cueball: What if the place sucks?
:Black Hat: I change the review to positive to steer other people over there.

:Cueball: You punish companies you like!
:Black Hat: The odds of ''my'' review putting a hotel out of business are negligible.
:Cueball: If we all did that the system would collapse!
:Black Hat: Doesn't affect my logic. Tragedy of the commons.

:Cueball: That's not even the tragedy of the commons anymore. That's the tragedy of you're a dick.
:Black Hat: If you're quick with a knife, you'll find that the invisible hand is made of delicious invisible meat.

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

250: Snopes

2015-01-22T18:29:27Z

Jake: trivia

{{comic
| number = 250
| date = April 18, 2007
| title = Snopes
| image = snopes.png
| titletext = The MythBusters are even more sinister.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Snopes}} is a popular website for checking the validity of {{w|Urban legend|urban legends}}. Snopes proves or disproves facts, but another urban legend is known that suggests Snopes runs a spam operations to create sources for their own benefit. The joke here is that Snopes disproves its own urban legend, creating a circular, invalid argument.

The title text suggests that {{w|MythBusters}}, another group which debunks myths, also participate in the practice of spreading misinformation for the opportunity to test it.

==Trivia==
Snopes is also mentioned in the much later comic [[1081: Argument Victory]].

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Another urban legend? You should check out Snopes before sending me this stuff.
:Friend: Oops; yeah.
:Cueball: Man, Snopes is really great--independent fact-checkers trawling our collective discourse, filtering out misinformation.
:Friend: Yeah, but they have their dark side. The couple that runs snopes.com also runs a network of spam servers that start many of those forwarded stories in the first place, ensuring they'll always have business.
:Cueball: That's absurd. Plus, it's definitely not true--it was debunked by...
:Friend: Yes?
:Cueball: ...Oh my God.

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

870: Advertising

2014-12-26T22:57:38Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ we shouldn't be linking to a pirate site

{{comic
| number = 870
| date = March 9, 2011
| title = Advertising
| image = mathematically annoying.png
| titletext = I remember the exact moment in my childhood when I realized, while reading a flyer, that nobody would ever spend money solely to tell me they wanted to give me something for nothing. It's a much more vivid memory than the (related) parental Santa talk.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic pokes fun at some advertising tricks, analyzing them mathematically.

*"Up to 15% or more" is a reference to the {{w|Geico}} car insurance commercials: "15 minutes could save you up to 15% or more on car insurance." "Up to" means "less than or equal to," so the phrase means "less than, equal to, or more than 15%," which is a {{w|tautology}}.

:The first line uses notation from {{w|set theory}} and reads out as: The {{w|Union (set theory)|union}} of {{w|Set (mathematics)|sets}} A and B equals the set of all x, such that x is {{w|Inequality (mathematics)|less than or equal to}} 15, or greater than 15, which equals the set of all {{w|real numbers}}.

:Below is a {{w|number line}} (with the numbers being interpreted as {{w|percentages}}) the black dot indicates that the number 15 is included, and the white dot indicates that 15 is not included, but only strictly bigger numbers.

:Geico's ad is also referenced in [[42: Geico]]

*Some things in life are free. However, typically not those aggressively advertised, with a capital "free!" splashed right over the ads, followed by a small asterisk, indicating the presence of a {{w|fine print}}, ensuring that they are only technically not guilty of {{w|false advertising}}. (Get a '''FREE'''* drink!)

:The little formula [[Randall]] gives, is to calculate the least amount of money that they expect to make from you. The suggestion is that they expect their income from the ad to be more than what they paid for it. (*with the purchase of a $6 meal)

*Some sales are based on a scaling percentage rate - for example, all items are 20% off, but if you spend more than $200, you get 30% off instead, and so on. These are almost universally proclaimed with a phrase like "The more you spend, the more you save!" This is of course nonsense, as "spending" is the opposite of "saving", and the deal is there to make you spend more.

:Note that an alternative phrasing "The more you buy, the more you save" is not strictly a contradiction. In some situations, the total number of items you intend to buy may place you just below the spending threshold that would qualify you for an additional discount; you can strategically buy additional items to place you just past the threshold. Despite buying a greater quantity of items, after the discount is applied, you will have spent less money, and thus saved more. (Though savvy retailers will attempt to avert this by placing this exploitable range higher than the cost of what any consumer reasonably needs, forcing them to spend more to qualify for the discount.)

:Or, "The more you buy, the more you save" just means that that the more discounted products you buy, the more money you save as opposed to buying them at list price. For things we will buy anyway (e.g. food), it may be true.

For those who don't celebrate Christmas, {{w|Santa Claus}} is a mythical person responsible for delivering presents to good children on Christmas Eve. Randall explains in the title text that his realization of the middle panel is more vivid than when his parents first told him Santa Claus was not real. Although most small children are traumatized after learning Santa Claus is not real, it is a testament to Randall's level of geekiness that he is more concerned with the first revelation.

==Transcript==
:Mathematically Annoying Advertising:

:A ∪ B = {x:x ≤ 15 or x > 15} = ℝ
:[line graph representing the above equation.]
:When discussing real numbers, it is impossible to get more vague than "up to 15% or more".

:["FREE!*" in large text, with substantial illegible fine print.]
:If someone has paid $x to have the word "free" typeset for you and N other people to read, their expected value for the money that will move from you to them is at least $(x / (N+1))

:[Graph representing inverse relationship between "amount you spend" on the y axis and "amount you save" on the x axis.]
:It would be difficult for the phrase "the more you spend the more you save" to be more wrong.

==Trivia==
Randall changed the image name from advertising.png to mathematically_annoying.png, since adblocking extensions interpreted it as an ad and made the comic blank. He had the same problem again just three months later with [[906: Advertising Discovery]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Charts]]

User talk:Jake

2014-10-19T01:29:31Z

Jake: c

:The reason for deletion was given in the deletion summary. Emad is mentioned once in the title text of a single comic, which does not merit him a page to himself. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:24, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
::With the complete lack of any deletion policies in the project space (or any other policies for that matter) and the lack of any discussion on this matter, it would almost seem like the policies are determined based on nothing but the whims of the admins. I'd gladly discuss this on the community portal or wherever it is you people discuss things, and if there's consensus that this should stay deleted, I won't argue anymore. (I'd also argue that [[Brown Hat]] and [[Sarah]] are also only in one comic). [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 01:21, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
:::Sorry if the above came off as kind of harsh. I just think that unwritten rules and a lack of discussion are a recipe for confusion and should thus be avoided. [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 01:29, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

User talk:Jake

2014-10-19T01:21:31Z

Jake: rp

148: Mispronouncing

2014-10-17T15:43:30Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ link

{{comic
| number = 148
| date = August 25, 2006
| title = Mispronouncing
| image = mispronouncing.png
| titletext = 'My pal Emad does this all the time. 'Hey man, which way to the airpart?'
}}

==Explanation==
This is the sixth comic at the [[My Hobby]] series. [[Cueball]] is deliberately mispronouncing words while talking. It's just his hobby. Hobbies in the ''My Hobby'' series are generally annoying or weird, but with an element of cleverness. Here, Cueball persists in mispronouncing his words despite the second character's attempt to correct him.

In the title text, [[Randall]] explains that he got the idea for this comic from [[Emad|one of his friends]].

Interestingly, when Randall started the xkcd blog in October 2006, 6 weeks after the publication of this comic, he named it "[[Blag]]".

Some translations:
* Wobsite = Website
* Blag = Blog
* Airpart = Airport

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Yeah, did you see what he said on his wobsite?
:Friend: ...his what?
:Cueball: Wobsite.
:Friend: ... I think you mean "website."
:Cueball: Why don't you write about it in your blag?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]

1086: Eyelash Wish Log

2014-09-15T15:54:10Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ complete now

{{comic
| number = 1086
| date = July 25, 2012
| title = Eyelash Wish Log
| image = eyelash wish log.png
| titletext = Ooh, another one. Uh... the ability to alter any coefficients of friction at will during sporting events.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is based on the situation that when someone's eyelash falls out, that person can make a wish on it. This comic appears to be a page from the fictitious Wish Bureau in charge of granting said wishes. And of course the Wisher is [[Black Hat]] and he has quite a few wishes, most of them based on the previous wish. A common trope in fiction is that wishing for more wishes is prohibited and for many of his wishes [[Black Hat]] attempts to circumvent that.

;January 9: That wishing on eyelashes worked
:This wish is pointless. If wishing on eyelashes worked, then this would do absolutely nothing (because it already works) and if it didn't then nothing would happen because wishing on eyelashes wouldn't work.

;January 12: A pony
:This wish functions as a test to see whether or not previous wish worked. It can be assumed that it did, as Black Hat then continued to make additional wishes.

;January 15: Unlimited wishes
:This appears to have failed, due to the typical ban of wishing for additional wishes in conventional folklore.

;January 19: Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
:An attempt to circumvent the ban in the previous wish.

;January 20: A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
:Another attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;January 28: The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
:Yet another attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;February 5: Unlimited eyelashes
:This wish likely caused Black Hat to grow unlimited eyelashes, which could be quite inconvenient and painful.

;February 6: That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
:This wish is likely a response to the previous day's misguided wish. It's actually quite a common problem that people making wishes leave them open for misinterpretation.

;February 8: That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
:An attempt to prevent whatever being is powerful enough to grant wishes from becoming angry with Black Hat while he tries to manipulate the system.

;February 12 #1: Unlimited breadsticks
:The first wish of this day seems to be a reference to the unlimited {{w|breadsticks}} offered at {{w|Olive Garden}}.

;February 12 #2: Veto power over others' wishes
:A power that could be interesting to have. It also very much fits with Black Hat's character.

;February 19: Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
:An improvement of the previous wish. This would be very interesting to have indeed, especially if you are Black Hat, because you could veto any law at any time.

;February 23: The power to override any veto
:This wish would allow Black Hat to override vetos which in addition to the previous wish would effectively make him control the US legislature and, to some extent, also the UN. It will also allow him to turn certain laws off (veto them) and on again (override the veto) at any moment, messing with people and legal authorities alike.

;February 27: The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
:This wish relates to a common practice especially in tweets or other short length media where full length specific HTML addresses such as <tt>www.somewhere.com/articles/specificdate/the page.html</tt> would not be feasible. So a more compressed but nonsensical string of seemingly random characters is used which links to a link of the full text address. This creates some problems for people who are security or privacy conscious and prefer to be informed beforehand where they will be traveling on the Internet.

;February 29: The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
:This wish likely appeals to Black Hat's mischevious side, allowing him to cause news anchors to look at the wrong camera during live broadcast. Repeatedly switching to the incorrect camera would cause havoc in the studio.

;March 7: The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
:A reference to {{w|Nate Silver}}, who is a former writer for {{w|Baseball Prospectus}} working on predicting baseball players' stats and now writes for {{w|Five Thirty Eight}} in which he predicts the outcome of elections based on polling data. This would grant Black Hat the power to influence the result of elections. This would tighten the Black Hat's control of the US even more.

;March 15: A house of stairs
:This wish refers to the {{w|lithograph}} {{w|Relativity (M. C. Escher)|Relativity}} by {{w|M. C. Escher}}, or perhaps another of his lithographs, {{w|House of Stairs}}

;March 23: A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
:The previous wish obviously failed and this is an attempt to circumvent that.

;March 29: Free transportation to and from that universe
:Black Hat noted a problem with his previous wish. If that wish was granted, he would still stay in our universe with no ways to get to the new one.

;April 2: A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
:Having clear rules and how they work helps anyone finding loopholes in them.

;April 7: The power to banish people into the TV show they are talking about
:Black hat is obviously fed up of hearing people talking about certain TV shows, and would like to be able to banish them into the show, thus prevent him having to listen to those people.

;April 8: Zero wishes
:An attempt to hack the wish-granting system by using a quite common vulnerability in input validation: an unexpected value. There may be multiple vectors this can work:
:* in many computer systems, 0 is reserved for unlimited
:* the number may be used as a divisor in some equation and this will make the system divide by zero and probably crash
:* there also may be an assertion like “number of wishes granted == 1” which would fail, again crashing the system
:However it seems the eyelash wish-granting system does proper input validation on zero because it did not crash or grant unlimited wishes

;April 15: Veto power over clocks
:Midnight, April 15 is the deadline for filing income tax returns in the United States.

;April 22: A pokéball that works on strangers' pets
:A reference to the cartoon and video game series {{w|Pokémon}}. A Pokéball can be thrown at a Pokémon (or in this case, a pet that the Pokéball thrower finds either annoying or cute) to capture/contain it and/or achieve ownership of it. In most cases, Pokéballs cannot be used on Pokémon owned by other people.

The title text is a reference to how people often want a ball to either go in or out in a sporting event they are not a part of. Normally, spectators of a game are not actually in the game, but always think that they can somehow influence the game superstitiously, such as perhaps yelling out jinx whenever the opposing team makes a shot, even though if you are watching the game from a television, that would have no effect. By wishing for power over friction, a spectator would have influence over what transpires during a sporting match. In most sporting events which involve running, a sudden drop of friction would make the runner fall over, as this would be like suddenly running out over a sheet of ice. Conversely, in ice hockey an increase in friction could make the puck stop before the goal, and also make the players fall over, as it would be like trying to skate on land.

==Transcript==
:{|
! align="left" colspan="2" |Eyelash Wish Log
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Wish bureau ID#:
|-
|
|align="right"|21118378
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Date range:
|-
!scope="row" style="color: gray;"|Wisher
|align="right"|Jan-Apr 2012
|}

:{|
!align="left" width="50px"|Date
!align="left"|Wish
|-
|Jan 09
|That wishing on eyelashes worked
|-
|Jan 12
|A pony
|-
|Jan 15
|Unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 19
|Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 20
|A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
|-
|Jan 28
|The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
|-
|Feb 05
|Unlimited eyelashes
|-
|Feb 06
|That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
|-
|Feb 08
|That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
|-
|Feb 12
|Unlimited breadsticks
|-
|Feb 12
|Veto power over others' wishes
|-
|Feb 19
|Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
|-
|Feb 23
|The power to override any veto
|-
|Feb 27
|The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
|-
|Feb 29
|The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
|-
|Mar 07
|The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
|-
|Mar 15
|A house of stairs
|-
|Mar 23
|A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
|-
|Mar 29
|Free transportation to and from that universe
|-
|Apr 02
|A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
|-
|Apr 07
|The power to banish people into the TV show they're talking about
|-
|Apr 08
|Zero wishes
|-
|Apr 15
|Veto power over clocks
|-
|Apr 22
|A Pokéball that works on strangers' pets
|}

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]

1255: Columbus

2014-08-29T16:03:33Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ that's one word

{{comic
| number = 1255
| date = August 23, 2013
| title = Columbus
| image = columbus.png
| titletext = And thus was smallpox introduced into the previously Undying Lands.
}}

==Explanation==
[[White Hat]] tells two children that Christopher Columbus knew the world was round, but that others believed it to be flat. However, this is a false narrative known as the {{w|Myth of the Flat Earth}}. Educated people in Columbus's time knew the world was round, and knew the approximate radius of the Earth. Columbus claimed that the distance to sail west from Europe to Asia was drastically lower than others believed, but {{w|Christopher Columbus#Geographical considerations|he was wrong about this}}. If another continent and the "{{w|West Indies}}" had not been fortuitously in the right place, Columbus and his crew probably would have died at sea.

As White Hat begins his explanation, Megan objects, though not explaining why. White Hat continues, so Megan interrupts, saying that Columbus went in a straight line as the world curved away, ending up in {{w|Valinor}} and the {{w|Undying Lands}}. Megan's story is an allusion to ''{{w|The Silmarillion}}'', by {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}}, set in the same world as ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'' and ''{{w|The Hobbit}}''. The claim that Columbus sailed on a tangent to the surface alludes to how the elves' ships leave the curved sea surface and sail in a straight line to reach Valinor on the same route that they sailed when the world was still flat. The mentions of a silmaril and the morning star are a reference to {{w|Eärendil|Eärendil the Mariner}}, the only mortal sailor to reach the Undying Lands, with one of the {{w|Silmaril}}s. Megan humorously conflates the two myths, suggesting that they are both equally false. In Megan's telling, Columbus ends up as the morning star, which is actually the planet {{w|Venus}} (the same fate as Eärendil in Tolkien's mythology).

The joke is that when White Hat tells her to stop making up the story, Megan pointedly replies "You first", indicating that she originally complained about White Hat's retelling of the Columbus story because his account didn't really happen, and so he was also "making things up". Megan's fantasy tale was then delivered to make a point.

The title text refers to the {{w|Smallpox#History|transfer of smallpox}} to North America by Europeans, which caused the deaths of untold thousands of Native Americans. The introduction of smallpox to the Undying Lands would indeed make their name ironic.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat talks to two children.]
:White Hat: Everyone said the world was flat, but Columbus knew it was round.
:Megan (off-screen): *Sigh* No, no, no.

:[Megan walks on-screen.]
:White Hat: So he took his ships and sailed west—
:Megan: —in a line tangent to the surface. The sea fell away, and he landed in ''Valinor.''

:Megan: A silmaril on his brow, he wanders the heavens as the morning star, still believing he reached India.
:White Hat: Stop making stuff up.
:Megan: You first.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:LOTR]]

821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3

2014-08-16T16:03:57Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ science!

{{comic
| number = 821
| date = November 19, 2010
| title = Five-Minute Comics: Part 3
| image = five minute comics part 3.png
| titletext = Resulting in The Little Rock 9x + C.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the third and final "five-minute comics" post Randall made during November 2010. The introduction to the comic explains everything you need to know about the circumstances behind it.

*{{w|Pearl Harbor}} is a US Navy base that was {{w|Attack on Pearl Harbor|attacked}} in 1941 by Japanese airplanes, which prompted the US to join World War II. The attacks were made on ''December'' 7, 1941, not November 7. Thus, Randall is correct in depicting a Navy base going about its usual business.

*{{w|Breastfeeding in public}} is a touchy subject in parts of the world. In the US, it is considered by some to be inconsiderate to others who would prefer not to see such a display. Of course, women breastfeeding in public are generally feeding their infants, not other adults. The situation presented in the comic is an absurd exaggeration of the debate.

*"s" is the command in {{w|sed}} to perform a pattern search-and-replace; the syntax has also been adopted by other text-processing utilities, including {{w|Perl}} (a favorite subject of xkcd), and has entered into the geek lexicon as something that could appear in general conversation. The specific command "s/I think that/I saw a study once that said/g" means "Find all occurrences of the phrase 'I think that', and replace it with the phrase 'I saw a study once that said'." This will, indeed, improve the persuasiveness of an article, as the existence of scientific evidence will make people more likely to believe what's said, while most people won't even think to actually look up the study in question.

*Arson is the crime of intentionally setting fire to a structure. {{w|Billy Joel}} will no doubt claim {{w|We Didn't Start the Fire|he didn't start the fire}}.

*Coca-Cola is a fizzy cola-flavored soft drink, commonly abbreviated as "coke." {{w|Pop Rocks}} are a candy that contain tiny bubbles of gas, so that as the sugary candy dissolves on your tongue, it creates a popping sensation. For a long time, it was claimed that drinking the two together would cause one's stomach to explode; this was finally put to rest as some people (the Mythbusters in particular) started actually trying it, and discovered that it's merely painful, not lethal.
:Randall, of course, just thinks outside the box.

*After ''{{w|Brown v. Board of Education}}'' ruled that schools could not segregate based on race, nine African American students from Little Rock, Arkansas enrolled in the previously-segregated Little Rock Central High School. The school board could not officially deny them attendance, but members of the community (and, after Arkansas governor Orval Faubus intervened, the Arkansas National Guard) formed a blockade to physically prevent them from entering the school building. The governor claimed this was within his power even after ''Brown v. Board'', because the students were enrolled without issue, they were just physically blocked from entering the school building. After determining that the right to enroll in a school does, implicitly, include the right to actually attend classes there, president Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division to accompany the students and force the National Guard to stand down, thus integrating the school. This incident became known as the {{w|Little Rock Nine}}.
:However, {{w|Integral|integration}} also has a meaning in mathematics. This is indicated in the comic with the soldiers lifting up a giant integral sign to place beside the school, in order to (mathematically) integrate it. Normally, an integral only makes sense on functions; however, since this is the Little Rock ''Nine'', if we take the integral of the constant function ''f''(''x'') = 9, we do, in fact, get 9''x'' + ''C'', as stated in the title text.

*Cell phones with advanced computing capabilities, typically at least requiring fully-featured Internet browsing, multimedia capabilities, and the ability to run software applications, are called "smartphones." Most cell phones also have a "vibrate" function that allows someone in a public situation to receive calls without alerting others; the phone will discreetly vibrate rather than activate a ringtone, thus privately notifying the owner that a call is incoming. A semi-common problem with this feature is that a vibrating phone on a table that has a slight slope will slowly - or, if the slope is bad enough, rather quickly - slide down the slope, possibly falling off the table and breaking. If our smartphones ever decided to kill us, this would possibly be their only method of attack.
**Randall later covered this in his [[what if?]] blog. [http://what-if.xkcd.com/5/]

*The Three Little Pigs is a children's fairy tale about three pigs who build their houses out of, respectively, straw, sticks, and bricks. A wolf comes along and eats the pigs living in the straw and stick houses, but he can't knock down the brick house, because his only method for breaking them down is to blow on them until the material falls to pieces.
:The 119 Little Pigs seems to be a variant where the pigs build their houses out of the 119 chemical elements. The 38th little pig builds his house out of {{w|strontium}}, which is, of course, the 38th element on the Periodic Table. One wonders what happened to the pigs who are stuck making their houses out of elements that are gaseous or liquid at room temperature, or those whose houses would react with the air and/or undergo nuclear decay.
:Although given the water content in exhaled breath, it's {{w|Alkali metal#Reaction with water (alkali metal hydroxides)|easy to see}} how the wolf would huff, puff, and blow down the houses made of {{w|lithium}}, {{w|sodium}}, {{w|potassium}}, {{w|rubidium}}, {{w|caesium}}, and {{w|francium}}. Though making a houses out of hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, chlorine and krypton would all be very difficult as they are gasses at room temperature. Also, there would be issues such as death from the toxicity of the elements, e.g. fluorine would kill the wolf. The piggies may have difficulty collecting enough metal, as they would have trouble collecting enough Technetium (43), which only occurs in minute traces, and Astatine, of which approximately 1 ounce exists on earth.

*"Fastest gun in the West" is a boast commonly made in Western movies, where it is used to mean that a person is the fastest at drawing his gun in a duel (or, alternatively, can fire his gun the fastest). It doesn't actually describe the gun itself, and certainly doesn't describe how fast the gun can gallop across the land.

*"It's what separates the ''men'' from the ''boys''" is a phrase used to describe "macho" activities that, apparently, only "real men" will participate/do well in; all the other men haven't grown up yet, and are thus "boys." {{w|Centrifuge}}s are used to rapidly separate a material from the liquid it's suspended in, so apparently they can also be used to separate men from boys.
**In the film {{W|Moonraker_(film)|Moonraker}} {{W|James Bond}} was almost killed in a centrifuge used as a g-force training vehicle for pilots/astronauts - but he survived - and he for sure is a real man... See also [[123: Centrifugal Force]].

*Narnia is the mythical land in ''{{w|The Chronicles of Narnia}}''. In the books, time passes differently in Narnia, such that one can spend many years in Narnia and come out to find that almost no time at all has passed on Earth; conversely, during a short trip back to Earth, hundreds of years could pass in Narnia. {{w|Lucy Pevensie|Lucy}} is taking advantage of this by putting a computer in Narnia to perform extremely fast computation. {{w|Folding@home}} and {{w|SETI@home}} are distributed computing projects that aim to solve extremely large computational problems by pooling together computer resources of thousands of home computers who volunteer for the project; Folding@home looks at how proteins are folded, which has applications in medical science, and SETI@home analyzes EM waves from space, looking for signs extraterrestrial intelligent life amongst the cosmic background noise. Running through all of that data in a few hours would be quite an accomplishment indeed, given that, as Peter points out, the idea has many problems Lucy has evidently overcome:
**The book was written in 1957 and it occurs even earlier than that, long predating personal computers, so Lucy shouldn't even have one.
**Even if it occurs in an alternate universe where the PC was invented before 1957, the storage that would be needed to store the entire Folding@home and SETI@home databases would be far beyond her means, since the characters in the book are evacuees who don't have any money.
**Even if she somehow pulled that much storage space together, the time needed for one computer to run through those databases is on the order of millennia. A computer would not continuously run for that long without careful treatment, which Narnia is not equipped for.
**Even if we handwave around that issue (''"Aslan, use your power to keep all dust away from this computer for the next ten thousand years, please"''), the wall socket powering the computer is on the Earth side. Mains power outlets in the UK provide alternating current with an amplitude of 230 volts and a frequency of 50 hertz. The 50 Hz part is what's important here: all devices designed to work with UK mains power expect a 50 Hz sine wave. The time difference between Earth and Narnia would substantially elongate the sine wave in a method similar to the Doppler effect, which would probably prevent the computer from functioning at all, though ignoring this, the electricity costs would be too high.
**The time differential doesn't occur while people are entering/exiting Narnia (though they do occur while the wardrobe's open) or the Pevensie children would have had had some difficulty surviving the transition. Since the cables of the computer are crossing between the worlds, it seems unlikely that the time differential is even active yet.

*''{{w|The Honeymooners}}'' is a classic American sitcom. The show stars Ralph and Alice Kramden, and Ralph frequently makes empty threats of the form "One of these days, Alice...," followed by a combination of onomatopoeia. For example: "One of these days, Alice... BANG! ZOOM! Straight to the moon!" (Alice inevitably replies "Ahhh, shut up.")
:Here, Randall takes the pattern to a ridiculous and not-at-all threatening place.

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

:--Randall

:;Comic #1
:Pearl Harbor. November 7th, 1941.
:[There is a beach, with some ships floating in a crescent shaped harbor.]

:[The same bay, again.]

:[The boats continue to move about the harbor.]

:[The boats do their thing. A title explains.]
:(We're going to be here a while, since the attack wasn't until December.)

:;Comic #2
:[Cueball is sitting on a bus, Megan in front of him.]
:I know it's natural and all, but I really wish women on the bus wouldn't try to breastfeed me.
:Woman: C'mon, have some milk. Right here.
:Me: I'm ''reading''.

:;Comic #3
:s/I think that/I saw a study once that said that/g
:Instant persuasiveness multiplier!

:;Comic #4
:[A newspaper front page. Billy Joel is between two policemen.]
:Times
:Billy Joel Arrested for Arson

:;Comic #5
:[One person has a cord leaving their mouth, the other is holding a handset on the end of it to their ear.]
:Handset: Hee hee hee... *giggle*
:I hear that if you drink coke and eat pop rocks, you vomit up a corded telephone handset on which you hear creepy little girls giggling.

:;Comic #6
:[Three soldiers are holding a large integral sign, while a fourth points a gun at the Little Rock High School.]
:1957: Eisenhower orders the military to integrate Little Rock High School.

:;Comic #7
:[A smartphone is vibrating across a table, towards a person.]
:The smartphones got ''too'' smart... and developed a taste... for BLOOD!
:Fortunately, the only way they could move was by turning on their vibrate while on a sloped table.

:;Comic #8
:[Cueball is reading to his child.]
:Cueball: And the wolf went to see the 38th little pig, who had built his house out of strontium.
:Cueball: And the wolf was all, "Ok, what is ''with'' this shit?"
:The 119 Little Pigs

:;Comic #9
:[Cueball is holding up a gun.]
:Cueball: Fastest gun in the west!

:[The gun is galloping across the desert.]
:''gallop gallop''

:[There is a podium, with a gun in each position.]
:Winner!

:;Comic #10
:[A picture of a centrifuge dominates the panel.]
:Centrifuges: They're what separate the men from the boys.

:;Comic #11
:[A computer monitor is plugged in, and cables run into a wardrobe.]
:Lucy: Time passes differently in Narnia, so by putting the CPU and storage for my machine there, I was able to run through the Folding@Home and Seti@Home databases in about an hour.
:Peter: There are so many problems with that.

:;Comic #12
:[Someone is talking to Alice.]
:Person: One of these days, Alice... Wham, zoom, sploosh, fwoom, splash, gurlle, wheeeee, fwoosh, aren't waterslides fun?!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Five-minute comics]]

Talk:1202: Girls and Boys

2014-08-16T15:51:27Z

Jake: note about Jupiter

I figured it was a poem. Turns out it is, of a sort.
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q="girls+go+to"+"to+get+more"
[[Special:Contributions/68.151.108.107|68.151.108.107]] 04:50, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
: The original poem is "Boys go to Jupiter, to get more stupider, girls go to college, to get more knowledge. [[Special:Contributions/97.122.98.70|97.122.98.70]] 03:23, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
I thought of ''Men are from Mars Women are from Venus'' by John Gray and the response ''Men Are from Earth. Women Are from Earth: Deal with It'' by Gorge Carlin. If only the sexes could work together we could go to Jupiter.
--[[Special:Contributions/202.129.80.226|202.129.80.226]] 08:12, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
: This is wonderful and I think in the same spirit as the comic. Stop the 'sex war' jokes and admit that both boys and girls want knowledge. And to arrive to Jupiter. [[Special:Contributions/84.150.177.228|84.150.177.228]] 14:02, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
:: Both of you need to read some feminist literature (real feminist, not pop-feminist). [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 18:03, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
::: For example?--[[Special:Contributions/58.6.224.93|58.6.224.93]] 01:26, 23 April 2013 (UTC)
:::: Anything by "bell hooks" (it's a pen name, and it is all lowercase) [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 19:16, 23 April 2013 (UTC)
:::: https://excoradfeminisms.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/bell_hooks-feminism_is_for_everybody.pdf [[Special:Contributions/173.190.128.129|173.190.128.129]] 16:06, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

I would interpret differently the two last pictures: as girls and boys SEPARATLY go to college to get knowledge, Girls and boys TOGETHER go to Jupiter, meaning when a boy and girl interact, they generally act stupid... {{unsigned ip|217.128.49.53}}
: I cannot imagine the author of XKCD using going to Jupiter as an example of doing something stupid. Absolutely improbable IMHO.[[Special:Contributions/84.150.177.228|84.150.177.228]] 14:02, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

:isnt thw rocket quite phallic? girlsnand boysngo to colledge to getmore....ehm... knowledge? {{unsigned ip|88.119.96.51}}
:: No, is only a rocket. But, thinking about your comment like it was a response from a rorschach test, well, it tell us something about yourself [[User:Chris-l|Chris-l]] ([[User talk:Chris-l|talk]]) 15:22, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
:: It tells us that he's drunk. [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 18:03, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

::: For rockets it's the aerodynamic, but some towers make you thinking, especially if some mayors compete who has it bigger ... I mean who has bigger tower in their city. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:34, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

: After reading the discussion here, I actually support the sexual innuendo explanation. Consider what you learn with american college movies, xkcd's tendency to subvert ideas (remember it's a child's chanting) and the rocket analogy. Also, the title text may have the purpose of correcting the reader's dirty mind. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.28|108.162.212.28]] 02:09, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

: [[Special:Contributions/99.66.9.158|99.66.9.158]] 11:26, 22 April 2013 (UTC)Sometimes a rocket is just a rocket.
: Looks to me like a typical Titan rocket. [[User:Zelmo|Zelmo]] ([[User talk:Zelmo|talk]]) 14:15, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

: I wish today's comic made me laugh. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 14:30, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

: "Go to Jupiter to get knowledge" is a reference to the movie 2001. Also, I remember hearing the poem as "GIRLS, go to COLL,ege so THEY can get, KNOW,ledge, BOYS, go to JUpiter so THEY, can get STUpider" which avoids the "more stupider" construction. [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 17:57, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

: knowledge or no knowledge, I don't want to go TO Jupiter. Near Jupiter, maybe. Ganymede? {{unsigned ip|‎24.79.11.46}}

::Not TOO near Jupiter either. Io is particularly unhospitable. Europe? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:34, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

:Frankly, I am thanfull Mr. Munroe made this. This taunt, while never directly aimed at myself, was an irritant to me, a knowledge-lover. This comic reconciles the genders and deconstructs the taunt. (Of course, from what I had seen in my life, most school-age boys, even the adolescent ones, WOULD prefer getting stupider, what with their real-life trolling and immature behaviour.) [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 12:03, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

::Nah, most boys wouldn't like to be stupider, they are perfectly satisfied with how stupid they are :-) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:34, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

By the way, I first head of the taunt (but with the clauses reversed) in Hey Arnold! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 12:05, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

Girls think going to Jupiter is stupid? Typical. XY FTW :P [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 12:25, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Hmmm, I saw the rocket blasting off as sexual inuendo. And the alt text/pop up reference about going to Jupiter to get more knowledge I took as gaining carnal knowledge. {{unsigned ip|98.203.137.178}}

Currently the explanation says that '.. human beings arn't yet even capable of going to Mars.' This is patently false - it confuses ability with desire. I'm going to change the wording on that. [[Special:Contributions/24.70.188.179|24.70.188.179]] 18:08, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

A manned mission to Jupiter would actually be pretty stupid since it's made of gas. They're better off going to one of the moons. Europa, maybe, or Ganymede. [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 15:51, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

1346: Career

2014-08-08T14:41:19Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ typo

{{comic
| number = 1346
| date = March 24, 2014
| title = Career
| image = career.png
| titletext = They'd convince me to come out of retirement for one last job: biting into a giant lump of slightly soft wax a couple of times.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is presumably asked to answer the typical {{w|Career_counseling|career counselor}} question: What is your dream job? Rather than going with the more common answers that are designed to increase the chances of landing that particular job, Cueball talks about unrealistic jobs that are whimsical, and so well compensated that a little over one hour on the clock would provide enough wealth for a luxurious retirement; of course, you can have such a job only in your dreams. He makes jobs out of tasks that people do when they are bored, whether the tasks needed to be done or not. Therefore, if he did not get the job he probable would have done them at some point anyway.

Peeling lint off {{w|Clothes_dryer#Tumbler_dryers|dryer traps}} can relieve boredom, but it gets tedious soon, so Cueball wants to do that only for 5 minutes, followed by an hour of holding the handle of a {{w|lightsaber}} against things and switching it on. The energy emitted by this fictional weapon will probably burn, melt or cut the object it is touching as demonstrated in a scene from {{w|Star_Wars_Episode_I:_The_Phantom_Menace|Star Wars Episode I}}, where Jedi {{w|Qui-Gon Jinn}} uses his lightsaber to cut through a wall. In Cueballs mind these are probably high paying jobs, because after this he would like to retire to a life of luxury.

The title text is poking fun at Hollywood films, particularly stories about violent professions (like mobsters, hitmen, detective or spies) where the hero is retired, but some unforeseen circumstance has forced them out of retirement to do "[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneLastJob one last job]." Usually in these films, the jobs are overtly, improbably dangerous, often with the suggestion that they may lose their lives doing it, but the reward for doing the job (saving the world, a tun of cash, an unresolved debt) is just to great to refuse. However, in this comic the joke is that his "one last job" is also a mildly amusing task designed to relieve boredom.

Biting in slightly soft wax will create a {{w|dental impression}} that can be used to form {{w|dentures}}, which is often associated with old age (and therefore retirement).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands facing a desk, behind which another person is sitting in a desk chair.]
:Cueball: It would start with five minutes of peeling lint from dryer traps, followed by an hour of pressing a lightsaber handle against things and switching it on. Then I'd retire to a life of luxury.

:When people ask me to describe my dream job, I'm never sure how realistic to be.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

Talk:842: Mark

2014-08-08T14:28:21Z

Jake: vm

The title "Mark" referring to both the mark on his arm, and the fact that he is a "mark" -- a victim of a prank or confidence scheme. [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 22:18, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Hey, I'm part of this club too! Been burning down houses and killing people for years now. ~JFreund

I guess this gives us a pretty good approximation of Cueball's age. He's probably 30-33 years old. [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 14:28, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

1032: Networking

2014-07-30T16:34:18Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ no first person wording

{{comic
| number = 1032
| date = March 21, 2012
| title = Networking
| image = networking.png
| titletext = Our company is agile and lean with a focus on the long tail. Ok, our company is actually a polecat I found in my backyard.
}}

==Explanation==
Obviously, [[Beret Guy]]'s [[business plan]] worked.

Networking, in business, is the act of expanding your group of contacts in order to help your career down the line. Here, in this comic, [[Beret Guy]] meets Chief Technology Officer (CTO, an executive level position overseeing development of new technologies) Connr Clark (perhaps a typo for "Connor" or perhaps a reference to common "Web 2.0" names like the businesses {{w|Flickr}}, {{w|Tumblr}}, etc.) and Beret Guy is as strange as he usually is. This time he has a business card, which usually contains contact information, but only says "This is my business card". He calls his briefcase, or suitcase, a "handlebox", which is full of a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Then Beret Guy proceeds to eat Connr's business card. All of these things are not common behavior.[citation needed]

"Networking" is often an over-hyped, empty affair. There are zillions of networking meetings of every description going on every day everywhere, and mostly people trade cards and continue to not make money. So that's the joke – Beret Guy does the networking schtick, badly, and yet is somehow making huge amounts of money at it.

The comic is also likely a joke on the idea that many people are excited about becoming a "business professional" who carries a briefcase, hands out business cards, and makes tons of money, without having an adequate plan for how to make those things happen, or possibly even knowing what their actual job would be. Beret Guy never says what he does, simply introducing himself as a "business professional," and explains his piles of cash with "I am a business grown-up who makes business profits!" In this world —and in people's dreams— when you "grow up" and start a business, money magically appears. Obviously, that's not how it works.

The title text is a pun on three common business buzzwords: agile, lean and long-tail. An agile business is one that can change course quickly based on customer demands and the business environment. A lean business is an efficient one that can provide results for customers without any wasted time, energy or money. Long-tail describes the retailing strategy of selling a large number of unique items with relatively small quantities sold of each – usually in addition to selling fewer popular items in large quantities. An example for long-tail is Netflix, because they have (almost) every movie imaginable, including rare ones that only a few people would be interested in. Well, they ''pretend'' to; in reality, your movie may be marked Saved for years until they actually manage to get a copy, if they ever do.

And of course, the pun here is one animal that is agile and lean with a long tail is a {{w|polecat}}.

Furthermore, although "agile" and "lean" do mean a quick, nimble, and efficient business, they also refer to specific practices, as in {{w|Agile Software Development}}, {{w|Lean Manufacturing}} and {{w|Lean Six Sigma}}. Many people think these terms have devolved to overused jargon. While Agile is supposed to be a highly structured method to get programmers to produce more working code quickly, when someone from the marketing department says "''Agile''" it often means "''We don't know what we're supposed to be producing, so we'll just chuck some stuff together, and keep those bits that the customer says he likes. We'll then do it all over again until we've got something that he'll pay for.''" "''Lean''" is supposed to mean that a business keeps its costs as low as possible, employing one person to do marketing and PR, not really having a Human Resources department, etc. But, in practice it often becomes "''Keep as little stock as possible so that we don't have a lot of money tied up in it, and don't need a big warehouse; make stuff just before it is supposed to ship so that we don't have to store it either; make frequent prayers and virgin sacrifices to whatever gods we can find to ensure that nothing slips up anywhere along the line that our lawyers can't get us out of.''"

==Transcript==
:[A man approaches Beret Guy at a party and they extend arms to shake hands. Beret Guy is holding a metal briefcase. There is a waitress in the background, carrying a tray with a wine glass on it.]
:Man: I'm Connr Clark, CTO at Eusocial Media Ventures.
:Beret Guy: I'm a business professional! Earlier I photocopied a burrito!

:[The man hands Beret Guy a business card. Beret Guy takes it and hands the man another business card. Beret Guy has put his suitcase on the floor.]
:Man: You should check us out! Here's my card.
:Beret Guy: Here's mine! Networking!

:[The man takes a closer look at the card, and Beret Guy holds up his case.]
:Man: ...this just says "This is my business card!"
:Beret Guy: Do you like it? I have more in my handlebox.

:[Beret Guy puts his case on a table and opens it to reveal it is full of cash. The man looks on in shock.]
:Man: Uh, that's ok, I think I'll—
:Beret Guy: Here, have ten of them!
:Man: —holy shit that thing is full of ''cash!''

:[The man raises his arms in excitement. Beret Guy turns to face him and chews on the man's business card.]
:Man: Where did you ''get'' that?
:Beret Guy: I am a business grown-up who makes business profits!
:Man: That's like a quarter of a million dollars!
:Beret Guy: Yay! Business is fun! Do you have more of your cards? They're ''delicious!''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

User:Jake

2014-07-28T18:10:47Z

Jake: more

I'm mostly {{w|User:Jakec}} at Wikipedia and Wikidata, but I contribute occasionally here when I happen to see something that needs fixing.

Current projects:
:Expand [[1086]]

1086: Eyelash Wish Log

2014-07-28T18:10:07Z

Jake: move incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 1086
| date = July 25, 2012
| title = Eyelash Wish Log
| image = eyelash wish log.png
| titletext = Ooh, another one. Uh... the ability to alter any coefficients of friction at will during sporting events.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Add table, and for each wish explain and comment on how they gone wrong}}
This comic is based on the situation that when someone's eyelash falls out, that person can make a wish on it. This comic appears to be a page from the fictitious Wish Bureau in charge of granting said wishes. And of course the Wisher is [[Black Hat]] and he has quite a few wishes, most of them based on the previous wish. A common trope in fiction is that wishing for more wishes is prohibited and for many of his wishes [[Black Hat]] attempts to circumvent that.

January 9's wish is pointless. If wishing on eyelashes worked, then this would do absolutely nothing (because it already works) and if it didn't then nothing would happen because wishing on eyelashes wouldn't work.

January 15's wish may have given Black Hat unlimited wishes, but it didn't let him choose what these wishes would be. Also, wish-granting entities commonly forbid unlimited wishes.

January 19's wish is an attempt to circumvent the issues with January 15's wish.

February 5's wish likely caused Black Hat to grow unlimited eyelashes, which could be quite inconvenient and painful.

February 6's wish is likely a response to the previous day's misguided wish. It's actually quite a common problem that people making wishes leave them open for misinterpretation.

February 12's first wish seems to be a reference to the unlimited {{w|breadsticks}} offered at {{w|Olive Garden}}.

February 12's second wish is for a power that could be interesting to have.

February 27's wish relates to a common practice especially in tweets or other short length media where full length specific HTML addresses such as www.somewhere.com/articles/specificdate/the page.html would not be feasible. So a more compressed but often less sensical string of seemingly random characters is used which links to a link of the full text address. This creates some problems for people who are security or privacy conscious and prefer to be informed beforehand where they will be traveling on the Internet. It is analogous to a twisting set of watersides. Some water parks label where they end up and what style of ride it is (the doom tunnel vs the kiddy kicker). Imagine however you're wanting a nice ride ending in shallow water. You could not readily predict the unlabelled ride as it twists out of sight if the label is gibberish. You might end up thinking your attempt to go down the Bay Watch slide might end you up in Pamela's porn pool, which could be well over your head.

March 7's wish is a reference to {{w|Nate Silver}}, who is a former writer for {{w|Baseball Prospectus}} working on predicting baseball players' stats and now writes for {{w|Five Thirty Eight}} in which he predicts the outcome of elections based on polling data.

March 15th's wish refers to the {{w|lithograph}} {{w|Relativity_(M._C._Escher)|Relativity}} by {{w|M. C. Escher}}, or perhaps another of his lithographs, {{w|House of Stairs}}

And April 22's wish is a reference to the cartoon and video game series {{w|Pokémon}}. A Pokéball can be thrown at a Pokémon (or in this case, a pet that the Pokéball thrower finds either annoying or cute) to capture/contain it and/or achieve ownership of it. In most cases, Pokéballs cannot be used on Pokémon owned by other people.

The title text is a reference to how people often want a ball to either go in or out in a sporting event they are not a part of. Normally, spectators of a game are not actually in the game, but always think that they can somehow influence the game superstitiously, such as perhaps yelling out jinx whenever the opposing team makes a shot, even though if you are watching the game from a television, that would have no effect. By wishing for power over friction, a spectator would have control over what transpires during a sporting match. In most sporting events where you have to run (for instance football), a sudden drop of friction would make you fall over, as this would be like suddenly running out over a sheet of ice. Opposite to this would be in ice hockey, as here an increase in friction could make the puck stop before the goal, and also make the players fall over, as it would be like skating in over land.

==Transcript==
{|
! align="left" colspan="2" |Eyelash Wish Log
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Wish bureau ID#:
|-
|
|align="right"|21118378
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Date range:
|-
!scope="row" style="color: gray;"|Wisher
|align="right"|Jan-Apr 2012
|}

{|
!align="left" width="50px"|Date
!align="left"|Wish
|-
|Jan 09
|That wishing on eyelashes worked
|-
|Jan 12
|A pony
|-
|Jan 15
|Unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 19
|Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 20
|A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
|-
|Jan 28
|The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
|-
|Feb 05
|Unlimited eyelashes
|-
|Feb 06
|That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
|-
|Feb 08
|That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
|-
|Feb 12
|Unlimited breadsticks
|-
|Feb 12
|Veto power over others' wishes
|-
|Feb 19
|Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
|-
|Feb 23
|The power to override any veto
|-
|Feb 27
|The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
|-
|Feb 29
|The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
|-
|Mar 07
|The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
|-
|Mar 15
|A house of stairs
|-
|Mar 23
|A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
|-
|Mar 29
|Free transportation to and from that universe
|-
|Apr 02
|A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
|-
|Apr 07
|The power to banish people into the TV show they're talking about
|-
|Apr 08
|Zero wishes
|-
|Apr 15
|Veto power over clocks
|-
|Apr 22
|A Pokéball that works on strangers' pets
|}

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]

1086: Eyelash Wish Log

2014-07-28T18:08:35Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ adding explanations for a few more wishes

{{comic
| number = 1086
| date = July 25, 2012
| title = Eyelash Wish Log
| image = eyelash wish log.png
| titletext = Ooh, another one. Uh... the ability to alter any coefficients of friction at will during sporting events.
}}

{{incomplete|Add table, and for each wish explain and comment on how they gone wrong}}

==Explanation==
This comic is based on the situation that when someone's eyelash falls out, that person can make a wish on it. This comic appears to be a page from the fictitious Wish Bureau in charge of granting said wishes. And of course the Wisher is [[Black Hat]] and he has quite a few wishes, most of them based on the previous wish. A common trope in fiction is that wishing for more wishes is prohibited and for many of his wishes [[Black Hat]] attempts to circumvent that.

January 9's wish is pointless. If wishing on eyelashes worked, then this would do absolutely nothing (because it already works) and if it didn't then nothing would happen because wishing on eyelashes wouldn't work.

January 15's wish may have given Black Hat unlimited wishes, but it didn't let him choose what these wishes would be. Also, wish-granting entities commonly forbid unlimited wishes.

January 19's wish is an attempt to circumvent the issues with January 15's wish.

February 5's wish likely caused Black Hat to grow unlimited eyelashes, which could be quite inconvenient and painful.

February 6's wish is likely a response to the previous day's misguided wish. It's actually quite a common problem that people making wishes leave them open for misinterpretation.

February 12's first wish seems to be a reference to the unlimited {{w|breadsticks}} offered at {{w|Olive Garden}}.

February 12's second wish is for a power that could be interesting to have.

February 27's wish relates to a common practice especially in tweets or other short length media where full length specific HTML addresses such as www.somewhere.com/articles/specificdate/the page.html would not be feasible. So a more compressed but often less sensical string of seemingly random characters is used which links to a link of the full text address. This creates some problems for people who are security or privacy conscious and prefer to be informed beforehand where they will be traveling on the Internet. It is analogous to a twisting set of watersides. Some water parks label where they end up and what style of ride it is (the doom tunnel vs the kiddy kicker). Imagine however you're wanting a nice ride ending in shallow water. You could not readily predict the unlabelled ride as it twists out of sight if the label is gibberish. You might end up thinking your attempt to go down the Bay Watch slide might end you up in Pamela's porn pool, which could be well over your head.

March 7's wish is a reference to {{w|Nate Silver}}, who is a former writer for {{w|Baseball Prospectus}} working on predicting baseball players' stats and now writes for {{w|Five Thirty Eight}} in which he predicts the outcome of elections based on polling data.

March 15th's wish refers to the {{w|lithograph}} {{w|Relativity_(M._C._Escher)|Relativity}} by {{w|M. C. Escher}}, or perhaps another of his lithographs, {{w|House of Stairs}}

And April 22's wish is a reference to the cartoon and video game series {{w|Pokémon}}. A Pokéball can be thrown at a Pokémon (or in this case, a pet that the Pokéball thrower finds either annoying or cute) to capture/contain it and/or achieve ownership of it. In most cases, Pokéballs cannot be used on Pokémon owned by other people.

The title text is a reference to how people often want a ball to either go in or out in a sporting event they are not a part of. Normally, spectators of a game are not actually in the game, but always think that they can somehow influence the game superstitiously, such as perhaps yelling out jinx whenever the opposing team makes a shot, even though if you are watching the game from a television, that would have no effect. By wishing for power over friction, a spectator would have control over what transpires during a sporting match. In most sporting events where you have to run (for instance football), a sudden drop of friction would make you fall over, as this would be like suddenly running out over a sheet of ice. Opposite to this would be in ice hockey, as here an increase in friction could make the puck stop before the goal, and also make the players fall over, as it would be like skating in over land.

==Transcript==
{|
! align="left" colspan="2" |Eyelash Wish Log
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Wish bureau ID#:
|-
|
|align="right"|21118378
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Date range:
|-
!scope="row" style="color: gray;"|Wisher
|align="right"|Jan-Apr 2012
|}

{|
!align="left" width="50px"|Date
!align="left"|Wish
|-
|Jan 09
|That wishing on eyelashes worked
|-
|Jan 12
|A pony
|-
|Jan 15
|Unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 19
|Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 20
|A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
|-
|Jan 28
|The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
|-
|Feb 05
|Unlimited eyelashes
|-
|Feb 06
|That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
|-
|Feb 08
|That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
|-
|Feb 12
|Unlimited breadsticks
|-
|Feb 12
|Veto power over others' wishes
|-
|Feb 19
|Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
|-
|Feb 23
|The power to override any veto
|-
|Feb 27
|The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
|-
|Feb 29
|The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
|-
|Mar 07
|The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
|-
|Mar 15
|A house of stairs
|-
|Mar 23
|A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
|-
|Mar 29
|Free transportation to and from that universe
|-
|Apr 02
|A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
|-
|Apr 07
|The power to banish people into the TV show they're talking about
|-
|Apr 08
|Zero wishes
|-
|Apr 15
|Veto power over clocks
|-
|Apr 22
|A Pokéball that works on strangers' pets
|}

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]

274: With Apologies to The Who

2014-07-23T15:02:18Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ fix

{{comic
| number = 274
| date = June 8, 2007
| title = With Apologies to The Who
| image = with_apologies_to_the_who.png
| titletext = Trivia: Roger Daltry originally wrote "Don't try an' Digg what we all say" but erased the second "g" when he moved to reddit.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the song "{{w|My Generation}}" by the British rock band {{w|The Who}}, which was released in 1965. The song is about {{w|intergenerational conflict}} and has been regarded as a very decided proclamation of youthful rebellion.

The original lyrics of the song run as follows:
:People try to put us d-d-down
:Just because we get around
:Things they do look awful c-c-cold
:I hope I die before I get old
:[...]
:Why don't you all f-fade away
:And don't try and dig what we all s-s-say
:I'm not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation
:I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation''

[[Cueball]] adapts the lyrics to describe his own generation, the {{w|Generation Y}}. As people born from the 1980s onwards grew up with the internet, this generation is also nicknamed "{{w|digital natives}}". It is therefore natural that the updated lyrics should refer to {{w|blogging}} and {{w|internet slang}}. The actions performed by Cueball while typing the text relates to the original [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=594WLzzb3JI music video], in which The Who smash their instruments in a true rock star fashion. Cueball wails his keyboard like a guitar and smashes his monitor in the end.

An explanation of the terms in this comic:
:"noobs" is a synonym of "newbie", which is a person who is new to an online community and is thus often not familiar with the rules and norms of the community. Cueball is suggesting that old people are not competent/familiar with the online realm.
:"the tubes" is likely a reference to the saying {{w|series of tubes}}.
:"grok" is a synonym for "understand". Cueball is suggesting that people of older generations have difficulty understanding internet slang, which is often true.
:"bloggin'" (blogging) is the act of writing in a {{w|blog}}.

The title text jokingly suggests that the band's {{w|Roger Daltrey|lead singer}} originally meant the line
:And don't try and Digg what we all s-s-say
as a reference to the social news site {{w|Digg}} but changed it after switching to its competitor {{w|Reddit}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a computer, typing.]
:Monitor: People try to shut us d-d-down
:just 'cause our music gets around
:[Cueball is standing on his chair and typing with his keyboard across his hip.]
:Monitor: Old folks act like total noobs
:get off our net; you block the tubes
:[Cueball is really wailing on the keyboard.]
:Monitor: Why don't you all just d-d-disconnect
:and don't try an' grok our d-d-dialect
:[Cueball smashes the keyboard into the monitor.]
:Monitor: I'm not tryin' to cause a big s-s-sensation
:I'm just bloggin' 'bout my generation

==Trivia==
*"Grok" is a neologism from the classic 1961 science-fiction novel ''Stranger in A Strange Land'', by {{w|Robert A. Heinlein}}.
*Note that "My Generation" was in fact covered and adapted by various bands, including {{w|Oasis (band)|Oasis}}, {{w|The Sweet}}, {{w|Iron Maiden}} and {{w|Generation X (band)|Generation X}}.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Music]]

274: With Apologies to The Who

2014-07-23T15:01:58Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ added explanation of some of the more obscure terms

{{comic
| number = 274
| date = June 8, 2007
| title = With Apologies to The Who
| image = with_apologies_to_the_who.png
| titletext = Trivia: Roger Daltry originally wrote "Don't try an' Digg what we all say" but erased the second "g" when he moved to reddit.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the song "{{w|My Generation}}" by the British rock band {{w|The Who}}, which was released in 1965. The song is about {{w|intergenerational conflict}} and has been regarded as a very decided proclamation of youthful rebellion.

The original lyrics of the song run as follows:
:People try to put us d-d-down
:Just because we get around
:Things they do look awful c-c-cold
:I hope I die before I get old
:[...]
:Why don't you all f-fade away
:And don't try and dig what we all s-s-say
:I'm not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation
:I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation''

[[Cueball]] adapts the lyrics to describe his own generation, the {{w|Generation Y}}. As people born from the 1980s onwards grew up with the internet, this generation is also nicknamed "{{w|digital natives}}". It is therefore natural that the updated lyrics should refer to {{w|blogging}} and {{w|internet slang}}. The actions performed by Cueball while typing the text relates to the original [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=594WLzzb3JI music video], in which The Who smash their instruments in a true rock star fashion. Cueball wails his keyboard like a guitar and smashes his monitor in the end.

An explanation of the terms in this comic:
:"noobs" is a synonym of "newbie", which is a person who is new to an online community and is thus often not familiar with the rules and norms of the community. Cueball is suggesting that old people are not competent/familiar with the online realm.
:"the tubes" is likely a reference to the saying {{w:series of tubes}}.
:"grok" is a synonym for "understand". Cueball is suggesting that people of older generations have difficulty understanding internet slang, which is often true.
:"bloggin'" (blogging) is the act of writing in a {{w:blog}}.

The title text jokingly suggests that the band's {{w|Roger Daltrey|lead singer}} originally meant the line
:And don't try and Digg what we all s-s-say
as a reference to the social news site {{w|Digg}} but changed it after switching to its competitor {{w|Reddit}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a computer, typing.]
:Monitor: People try to shut us d-d-down
:just 'cause our music gets around
:[Cueball is standing on his chair and typing with his keyboard across his hip.]
:Monitor: Old folks act like total noobs
:get off our net; you block the tubes
:[Cueball is really wailing on the keyboard.]
:Monitor: Why don't you all just d-d-disconnect
:and don't try an' grok our d-d-dialect
:[Cueball smashes the keyboard into the monitor.]
:Monitor: I'm not tryin' to cause a big s-s-sensation
:I'm just bloggin' 'bout my generation

==Trivia==
*"Grok" is a neologism from the classic 1961 science-fiction novel ''Stranger in A Strange Land'', by {{w|Robert A. Heinlein}}.
*Note that "My Generation" was in fact covered and adapted by various bands, including {{w|Oasis (band)|Oasis}}, {{w|The Sweet}}, {{w|Iron Maiden}} and {{w|Generation X (band)|Generation X}}.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Music]]

428: Starwatching

2014-07-23T14:38:49Z

Jake: /* Title Text */ typo

{{comic
| number = 428
| date = May 26, 2008
| title = Starwatching
| image = starwatching.png
| titletext = I always figured the word 'blog' would sound *less* silly as the years went by.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Edit for accuracy and grammar, possibly other references of making fun of the word blog in comics}}
It's night and [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] lie down on the earth while looking into the sky. Cueball tells a story. Cueball says all dead bloggers are in the sky and watching them, and above of them all there is the master blogger Cory Doctorow. The story is interrupted when Cueball goes on to say that the {{w|Tag cloud}} opens and {{w|Cory Doctorow}} speaks. Megan interrupts, telling Cueball that he needs to "get out more or less, I cant decide". This means he should be away from the computer more so he doesn't connect everything to Cory Doctorow, but she is afraid that if he gets out more he would creep people out.

Cueball is referencing the movie {{w|The Lion King}}. The first two panels reference a scene where the protagonist, Simba, remember how his father, Mufasa, explained the night sky by saying, 'the great kings of the past are up there'. The last panel is from a scene near the climax of the movie where a the spirit of Mufasa appears to Simba in the clouds and speaks to him.

===Title Text===
In the title text, Randall mentions that he feels that the word {{w|blog}}, a {{w|portmanteau}} and an {{w|Elision}} of 'web log', is a silly word, and does not sound less silly despite becoming common in usage. This is a common theme in Randall writing and comics. Xkcd's blog is called "[http://blag.xkcd.com/ The blag of the webcomic]" in mockery of the word blog.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Just look at those stars.
:Cueball: My father once told me that the great bloggers of the past are up there, watching over us.
:Cueball: High above the blogosphere, a gap opens in the tag clouds. Cory Doctorow's voice booms forth...
:Megan: You need to get out either more or less. I can't decide.

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

419: Forks and Spoons

2014-07-16T13:12:25Z

Jake: /* Explanation */ why the warning?

{{comic
| number = 419
| date = May 5, 2008
| title = Forks and Spoons
| image = forks and spoons.png
| titletext = Their biggest mistake was bringing Rachael Ray and Emeril to tour the lab and sign off on the project. That's when Spielberg caught wind of it.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows scientists testing a new technology similar to {{w|Mendelian inheritance}}, the blending of species.

They show that their new technology allows them to cross a {{w|spork}} (an even mix between a spoon and a fork) with a spoon to make a new implement that is three quarters spoon and one quarter fork. By blending these new fork-spork hybrids and their results together, the scientists could create any mix between a spoon and a fork. (Obviously, regular genetics cannot apply to non-living items).

In the second panel, the amounts of spoon and fork are shown with fractions, the number on the left representing the amount of fork and the right the amount of spoon. The numbers for the cross product below is arrived at by summing each side and dividing by two: (0+1/2)/2 = 1/4 and (1+1/2)/2 = 3/4.

The breeding scheme between the second and the third panel shows at the top how to create a spork from a spoon and a fork, then how this spork could both be bred with either a spoon (as in panel two) or a fork (as shown in the lower right part).

The {{W|binary}} "fork-spoon spectrum" in between the third and fourth panels shows the complete spectrum of sporks from fork to spoon with some of the intermediate steps labeled, the numbers representing how much fork each contains. Since it is a binary spectrum only fractions with a denominator that is a power of 2 will be possible i.e. 2^n with n any integer. So in the middle is a spork with 1/2 fork, in between the spork and the spoon there is only 1/4 fork and in between that and the spoon only 1/8 fork and so on. Also 3/4 fork is marked, whereas 3/8, 5/8 and 7/8 fork is only indicated on the ruler by a small marks. For instance they could breed a 3/8 fork-spork by mixing a 1/4 fork-spork with a spork.

The comic begins like standard sci-fi fare, where amoral scientists request funding from mysterious benefactors. The dialogue of "You're toying with powerful forces here" and "We know what we're doing" is a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow classic trope], foreshadowing that things will soon [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong]. It inevitably leads to the humorous incongruity of a sentient spork on a murderous rampage.

{{w|Rachael Ray}} and {{w|Emeril}}, mentioned in the title text, are celebrity chefs, and {{w|Steven Spielberg}} is a famous movie director. The joke seems to be that if the laboratory hadn't hired the two renowned chefs, Spielberg wouldn't have heard about the project and would not have made a movie about it - in which the two scientists are killed off horribly (it is probably the scientist from the first panel, [[Megan]], and her friend, [[Cueball]], or the actors hired to portray them in the film). The plot in the comic is very similar to the story in Spielberg's {{W|Jurassic_Park_(film)|Jurrasic Park}}.

==Transcript==
:Megan: A spoon crossed with a fork is a spork.
:Off-panel Megan's voice: Our lab has successfully crossed a spork with a spoon. [Diagram showing the fractions of fork and spoon in each item.]
:[Chart showing possible combinations of spoons a forks.]
:Megan, facing audience: With your funding, we could create hybrids in proportions corresponding to ''any binary fraction''.
:[Fork-Spoon Spectrum.]
:Audience member: You're toying with powerful forces here.
:Megan: We know what we're doing.
:Two weeks later:
:[Picture of a destroyed lab with two dead bodies, blood everywhere and a spoon-fork hybrid hopping away.]
:''Hop hop hop.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

1167: Star Trek into Darkness

2014-07-09T21:21:12Z

Jake: seriously?

{{comic
| number = 1167
| date = January 30, 2013
| title = Star Trek into Darkness
| image = star_trek_into_darkness.png
| titletext = Of course, factions immediately sprang up in favor of '~*~sTaR tReK iNtO dArKnEsS~*~', 'xX_StAr TrEk InTo DaRkNess_Xx', and 'Star Trek lnto Darkness' (that's a lowercase 'L').
}}

==Explanation==
The talk page of a Wikipedia article is used to discuss changes to the article. An {{w|Wikipedia:Edit warring|edit war}} is a dispute about a specific edit to an article, manifesting as a series of edits alternating between making and reverting the change, and usually accompanied by a more-or-less heated debate on the talk page.

Here, [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] is referring to a dispute on the Wikipedia article about ''{{w|Star Trek Into Darkness}}'' (an upcoming Star Trek film at the time of the comic's posting). On the day before the comic was published, the article name had a lowercase "into", and the talk page looked [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Star_Trek_Into_Darkness&oldid=535542349 like this] (rounded off in a friendly way, with the posting of {{w|User:Frungi/Star Trek Into Darkness capitalization|a summary of the arguments}}, and an exchange of virtual hugs).

[[Cueball]] changes the title so that every other letter is capitalized, and adds framing tildes and asterisks (a common, childish way of emphasizing titles online). This will probably not go over well.

Megan's line of "They should have sent a poet." is a quote from the film ''{{w|Contact (film)|Contact}}''. The quote is also featured in [[482: Height]].

The title text indicates Randall's belief that such arguments are perpetual and will always arise. He suggests that the edit to the Wikipedia page will result in a dispute over variants of Cueballs "compromise". Because the lowercase "L" and the capital "I" appear similar in many fonts, he also puts forth the potential argument that the character in the movie's title is a lowercase "L".

The old "favorite edit war" might be the one referenced in [[878: Model Rail]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball staring at computer screen.]
:Cueball: Oh, wow. Look at Wikipedia's Talk page for Star Trek into Darkness. I have a new favorite edit war.
:Megan (off-panel): Oh?

:Cueball: Forty ''thousand'' words of debate over whether to capitalize "into" in the movie's title. Still no consensus.
:Megan: That's ''magnificent''.
:Cueball: It's breathtaking.
:Megan: They should have sent a poet.

:Cueball: Well, I'm making an executive decision. I hope both sides accept this as a fair compromise.

:[A Wikipedia page titled "~*~ StAr TrEk InTo DaRkNeSs ~*~"]

==Trivia==
After the publication of the comic, the debate continued with full force, complete with {{w|Talk:Star Trek Into Darkness/Archive 5#xkcd Mention|a section of xkcd-inspired suggestions}}. The article itself was soon protected, so that only administrators could edit it. A day later, the title was changed to one including a capital "Into" by the administrator {{w|User:Mackensen|Mackensen}}. (The debate continued on {{w|User talk:Mackensen/Archive20#Star Trek into Darkness move|his talk page}}.) Currently https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/~*~_StAr_TrEk_InTo_DaRkNeSs_~*~ is a valid link and it redirects to the correct page.

{{w|The Independent}} published an article about the "[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/trekkies-take-on-wikis-in-a-grammatical-tizzy-over-star-trek-into-darkness-8475705.html grammatical tizzy]", and the affair as a whole was added to Wikipedia's humorous list of the {{w|WP:Lamest edit wars|lamest edit wars}}.

{{comic discussion 1167}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Compromise]]

802: Online Communities 2

2014-07-03T19:01:46Z

Jake: added Category:Maps using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 802
| date = October 6, 2010
| title = Online Communities 2
| image = online_communities_2.png
| titletext = Best trivia I learned while working on this: 'Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize it's the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the WORLD?' Then you wait for the listener to do a double-take.
}}
A larger version of this picture can be found here: [http://xkcd.com/802_large/ http://xkcd.com/802_large/].
<div class="toclimit-3" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;"> __TOC__ </div>
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Not all of the regions are fully explained. Many labels aren't even mentioned outside of the transcript.}}
This comic shows a map of internet communities where the size of each region roughly corresponds to its size, and its proximity to other regions indicates similarities.

This is the successor of [[256: Online Communities]]. It differs in that it is updated, and furthermore, instead of using the ''membership'' of whichever service to determine its size on the map, it uses its "daily social activity."

The map actually has two super−maps: the online community map is surrounded by the "countries" of E−Mail and SMS ("Instant Messaging"). These, in turn, are surrounded by the "Spoken Language" country (which is odd, considering that e−mail, SMS, and the Internet in general are based on ''written'' language) with its own sub−country, "cell phones" (which ''do'' involve e−mail and the Internet while being the mean medium of SMS's).

At the title text [[Randall]] explains that, using his definition of "most activity per day", Farmville is actually the ''second'' most popular "Facebook farming game". This will strike many as odd, because Farmville is by far the most famous, leading one to wonder how the most famous could not be the most played. The phrase "browser-based social-networking-centered farming game" is an example of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OverlyNarrowSuperlative an overly-narrow superlative].

===Facebook Region===
The Facebook region deals with social networks, that is, websites oriented towards having people meet.

'''{{w|Facebook}}''' is a social networking site that allows people to meet old real−life friends and make new friends that share similar interests. One of its most notable features is that a member can update a "status" or make normal posts about the happenings of the member's life, complete with pictures, other members "liking" these posts. The size of the Facebook region is not exaggerated; most websites seem to allow "liking" their content or allow/require logging in the website with a Facebook account. There even are cell phones with a "Facebook" button!

'''Farmville''', '''Happy Farm''', and '''Farm Town''' are all Facebook games in which users manage farms. Happy Farm, which is more used in China, does not require Facebook integration, so it is separated by a solid line from Facebook. The "Unethical Bay" refers to how these games tend to addict players into constantly buying virtual items of questionable value.

The '''People You Can't Unfriend''' refer to people whom, due to real-life expectations and relationships, unfriending them is difficult, no matter how you really feel about them.

The '''Data Mines''' refer to the data mining that Facebook does with the interests of its members. This fuels the profitable advertising business at the expense of customer trust.

The '''Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions''' refer to how interactions with family members on Facebook suddenly become more awkward because everyone on Facebook (and sometimes ''off'' Facebook, given that you do not necessarily need to log in if you want to see someone's Facebook account) if you are discussing with your family through post comments.

'''"Old Facebook" Resistance''' refers to Facebook's earlier users, who have often resisted (and resented) changes made to Facebook as it became more popular.

'''Privacy Controls''' is located on the map surrounded by a Lava Pool, which is a reference to how difficult it is to find the privacy controls within Facebook.

While Facebook is the largest "country" of the Facebook Region, there are a lot of smaller "countries" that represent smaller social networks.

*Below Facebook (and "'Old Facebook' Resistance") is '''{{w|Diaspora (social network)|Diaspora}}''', a fully open-source, decentralized, privacy-respecting-and-expecting alternative to Facebook. From what this map tells, Diaspora is little-known, even if Facebook is taken out of the context.
*'''{{w|Taringa!}}''' is a Spanish-speaking social network that is based on a forums. Copyrighted material is frequently found there.
*'''{{w|Classmates.com}}''' is a services in which the user can meet classmates that came from the same high school. The website is probably best known by its memetic advertisement that said [http://dudemanphat.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-am-i-supposed-to-care-about-nick.html "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"] (Incidentally, [http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003325519_adcouple27.html there is more to the coupled picture than what the advertisement says.])
*'''{{w|MySpace}}''' is a social networking website that is a kind of proto-Facebook: users could customize their one-page websites with whatever they wanted, make their interests and daily lives public, and interact with other users. Back in the mid 2000s, MySpace was the largest social network, many people using the website; however, the surprisingly-less-customizable Facebook ended up taking the place of MySpace. The "bands" country of MySpace refers to how a lot of bands in the day advertised and interacted using the website. Indeed, the latest incarnation of MySpace (in terms of 2013) is more oriented towards band members.
*'''{{w|LinkedIn}}''' is a social network aimed towards people in the workplace, which is why it is adjancent to '''Corporate Bay'''.
*'''{{w|Orkut}}''' is one of Google's first social networks before Google made [https://plus.google.com/ Google+].
*'''{{w|Hi5}}''' is a social network that is very popular among people in Latin America.
*'''{{w|Renren}}''' ('''「人人」''', "people" in Chinese) is "a Chinese copy of Facebook."
*'''{{w|Bebo}}''' is a social network popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
*'''{{w|Friendster}}''' - One of the first major social networks, it has fallen way off in usage in recent years and was eclipsed by MySpace.
*'''{{w|Vkontakte}}''' or VK, is the second largest social network service in Europe after Facebook. It is available in several languages, but particularly popular among Russian-speaking users around the world.
*'''{{w|Netlog}}''' Netlog (formerly known as Facebox and Bingbox) is a Belgian social networking website specifically targeted at the global youth demographic.
*'''{{w|Mixi}}''' is an online Japanese social networking service.
*'''{{w|Qzone}}''' is a social networking website, which is big in China. According to a report published by Tencent, possibly surpassing other social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace in China.
*'''{{w|Tuenti}}''' is a Spain-based, social networking service, that has been referred to as the "Spanish Facebook."
*'''{{w|Cloob}}''' is a Persian-language social networking website, mainly popular in Iran. After the locally (and internationally) popular social networking website Orkut was blocked by the Iranian government, a series of local sites and networks, including Cloob, emerged to fill the gap.
*'''{{w|Kaixin001}}''' is a social networking website which ranks as the 13th most popular website in China and 67th overall.
*'''{{w|Piczo}}''' was a privately held blog website for teens. In November 2012, Piczo.com shut down.
*'''{{w|Odnoklassniki}}''' is a social network service for classmates and old friends. It is popular in Russia and former Soviet Republics.
*'''{{w|Adult Friend Finder}}''' is a pornographic dating site.
*'''{{w|Match.com}}''' is a dating site.
*'''{{w|Ok Cupid}}''' is another dating site.
*'''{{w|Plenty of Fish}}''' is yet another dating site.

Other areas of note are the '''Niche Market Mountains''', where social networks aimed towards more niche markets are located. Similar to how mountains tend to be isolated from mainland, niche social networks tend to be just that: niche, without much interaction with the general populace. Above the Niche Market Mountains are the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks'''. Given the popularity of MySpace and Facebook, there would be no doubt tons of websites wanting to take advantage of the success of these websites or even wanting to compete or even overpower with them. Even so, these websites tend to not have the userbase or even the expertise towards the long-term, hence they become wastelands: environments devoid of life, except the few life forms that are from these wastelands (in this case, the ones who are loyal to the website or which are sadly few). Within the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks''' stands {{w|Ozymandias}}, the titular broken statue of Shelley's poem. In the poem, only "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" and a "shattered visage" are all that remain of the once-great statue and both of these features are present in the comic.

Also visible are the '''Duckface Mountains''', the '''Red Cup Mountains''', and '''Buzzword Bay'''. "Duckface" refers to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/duck-face this incredibly obnoxious facial expression], and "red cup pictures" are any pictures containing party-goers holding disposable red plastic beverage cups. Facebook is absolutely flooded with both types of pictures. {{w|Buzzword}}s are words and phrases that make you sound a lot more topical than you actually are, used to garner attention; again, Facebook status updates are commonly filled with buzzwords.

===MMO Isle===
MMO's (short form of "MMORPG", short form of "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Player Game") are websites that host online games where multiple people take the role of a character and play in a setting hosted by the website. These types of games tend to be fantastical in setting. Frequently, missions are added to the game, giving current player more incentive towards playing more.

*'''[https://www.habbo.com/ Habbo Hotel]''' is a website where someone creates a human avatar an interacts in a virtual world that is not that different from the one in real life.
*'''[http://www.clubpenguin.com/ Club Penguin]''' is [http://disney.com/ Disney's] MMO where someone creates a penguin avatar and interacts with other in a more polar, cartoony setting. Club Penguin is aimed towards children.
*'''[http://maplestory.nexon.net/ Maple Story]''' is an MMO that has a more natural setting. The most distinguishing feature of Maple Story is its cartoony pixel art.
*'''[http://www.gamefaqs.com/ GameFAQs]''', while not an MMO, is a website that has the largest repository of walkthoughs, that is, guides that help someone beat a game. GameFAQs is notable for not only its large repository of walkthroughs of games that are across an extreme variety of consoles, handhelds, and even computers (not all of them MMOs), but also the drama that is rumoured to happen in the GameFAQs forums.
*'''[http://www.ign.com/ IGN]''' (full: '''Imagine Games Network'''), while also not an MMO, is the largest website that gives news on video games in general, not just MMOs. Each of the games mentioned in the site have pages that have summaries, reviews, screenshots, other art, videos, and links to news related to its games.
*'''[http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml FFXI]''' (full: '''Final Fantasy XI''') is an MMO from SquareEnix, being the first MMO of the popular ''Final Fantasy'' series.
*'''[http://www.runescape.com/community Runescape]''' is an older MMO.
*'''[http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/ Starcraft II]''' is a realtime strategy game with a science fiction setting that heavily involves space travel. While technically not an MMO, it has a significant online multiplayer component.
*'''[http://us.battle.net/wow/en/ WoW]''' (full: '''World of Warcraft''') is the definitive MMO, being not only the most popular and one of the longest-running but also the most expansive (having its own spinoff games, comic books, novels, and even figurines), WOW giving the idea of how an MMO should be. A player can choose from a variety of races, each with its own heavy history.
*'''[http://secondlife.com/ Second Life]''' is similar to Habbo, albeit with a bigger suspension of disbelief (one example being that the player does not need to be a human) and in a 3D setting.
*'''[http://www.nationstates.net/ NationStates]''' is a text-based political simulation game. Notably, some of its traffic comes not from the actual game (which is optional), but the extensive set of political, roleplaying, and general forums attached.
*'''[http://www.eveonline.com/ Eve Online]''' is a science fiction MMO which is notable because of its virtual economy.
*'''[http://www.gaiaonline.com/ Gaia]''' (full: '''Gaia Online'''), while not an MMO, is a forums oriented towards pop culture, including video games and Japanese media. Its most notable feature is the heavy customization possible of a member's pixel-art avatar. Its members tend to roleplay a lot, albeit in a more written, story-based form. Gaia has gained a revaination of its members stealing art and causing drama.

Other notable regions include:
*The '''Mountains of Steam''', referring to the game distribution service [http://store.steampowered.com/ Steam] where people could buy and download video games in general, not just MMOs.
*'''River Grind''' refers to "grinding." In most MMOs, the character is a fighter of some sorts, yet starts at a level 1, signifying the character's aptitude level in combat. The character can level up and gain more aptitude levels through earning experience, of which the most reliable and otherwise common way is the process of "grinding," that is, repeatedly fighting opposing monsters (sometimes of a level notably lower that your character's), gaining experience points from winning these battles until your character gains a level, that is, "levels up". While a practical necessity in strengthening the character, this process can be tiresome, hence the expression "grinding."
*'''Spawn Camp''' refers to "spawn points", the places in combat-oriented MMO's tend to produce ("spawn") random AI-powered creatures, and the act of "spawn camping", in which the player character simply stands behind or around the spawn points to fight the enemy creatures as soon as they appear.
*'''Gulf of Lag''' refers to how the MMO can be slowed down a considerable amount due to the large amount of players simultaneously using the same server, this congestion bogging down the server and frustrating the users.
*'''[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/final-boss-of-the-internet End Guy for the Internet]''' refers to "end bosses", the last — and usually hardest to defeat — "bad guy" in a game (or a section of a game).

===YouTube Region===
The YouTube region refers to websites that are based on user-created content.

'''[https://www.youtube.com/ YouTube]''' is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google had purchased YouTube.

Many of the sites on the map are just references to {{w|viral video}}s at {{w|YouTube}}:
*'''Viral Shores''' refers to how viral videos (whether they be viral marketing or simply memes) tend to proliferate on YouTube.
*'''Britney''' likely refers to pop singer {{w|Britney Spears}} and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc‎ "Leave Britney Alone" guy].
*'''Maru Gulf''' refers to Maru the Cat, a YouTube celebrity [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/676:_Abstraction also mentioned in xkcd].
*'''Prairie Dog Habitat''' likely refers to the viral video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw Dramatic Chipmunk] (which is actually a Prairie Dog).
*'''Rick Rolling Hills''' references, well, {{w|Rickrolling}}. More information [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ here]. The "deserted" note likely refers to how Rick Astley himself is tired of the meme, or again, how people tend to leave the video upon getting "Rick Roll'd," never actually going to the video with the express purpose of viewing the video.
*'''Lunar Landing Soundstage''' is, of course, a reference to the {{w|Moon landing conspiracy theories}}, which Randall has railed on before.
*'''{{w|OK Go}} Bay''' refers to the band "OK Go" who have multiple viral music videos on YouTube, most famously [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA "Here it goes again"] featuring treadmills.

The '''HTML5 swamp''' refers to the spotty support of HTML 5 (an update on HTML that is frequently touting its media capabilities, making HTML 5 a viable alternative to Flash) YouTube has. Of course, by the time the comic was written, HTML 5 was still in its infancy. The Music Video Bay refers to the amount of music videos (official or otherwise) are present in YouTube.

Other counties of the YouTube region include:
*'''[https://vimeo.com/ vimeo]''', a website where people tend to showcase artistic content that they made on their own, notably independent studios.

Snob Sound:
*'''[https://secure.flickr.com/ Flickr]''', a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.
*'''[http://fotolog.com Fotolog]''', a photo website very popular in South America in 2004-2008, which was used as a social network.
*'''[http://www.last.fm/ Last.fm]''', a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.
*'''[http://www.deviantart.com/ deviantArt]''', the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.

*'''[https://www.newgrounds.com/ Newgrounds]''', a website that hosts art, (Flash-based) videos, audio, and (Flash-based) games to which other users can comment and rate. Even so, content from Newgrounds tends to be obscene, though there is a filtering system if a viewer does not wish to see obscene content.
*'''[http://www.chatroulette.com/ Chatroulette]''' is a website where people are randomly paired up with each other and video/text chat.
*'''{{w|Brickshelf}}''' is the online resource for {{w|LEGO}} fans.
*'''[https://tumblr.com/ Tumblr]''', where people could make a blog and post text, pictures, video, audio, quotes, and links. The most distinguishing feature is the ability to "reblog" these posts from other's people's blogs into the user's own blog. Notable features of Tumblr include sketchblogs (where people upload their sketches), Ask blogs (where people answer questions other users ask, the moderators of these blogs usually pretending to be a character from a form of media), and the large amount of "social justice" (where people fight against racism, sexism, and other forms of negative discrimination). (See also [[1043: Ablogalypse]].)
*'''{{w|b3ta}}''' is a popular British website, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by The Guardian.

The '''Isle of teenagers who just discovered macroeconomics''' is a joke about how teenagers tend to think that the world and the economy are a lot simpler than they actually are. Combined with the typical internet mindset, this leads to a lot of teenagers posting blogs and videos and comments on blogs and videos describing how idiotic the government and other red-tape-related adults are.
The '''Snob Sound''' could refer to the large amount of people who look down on others in the surrounding websites (one example being an original artist looking down on people who draw mainly fan-art). '''The Iraq''' is a reference to Miss Teen USA 2007, Ms. Teen South Carolina - Lauren Katlin said "I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as...the US should help the US and should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the asian countries so we are able to build up our future." The usage of "the iraq" became a meme.

===Twitter Region===
*'''Bieber Bay''' is a reference to {{w|Justin Bieber}} a pop singer whose singing sprouted on YouTube and became very popular on Twitter and other social media. He is very much vilified because of his rather feminine appearance and his hordes of fans (called "Beliebers") that seem to support him to ridiculous extents. Lately, though, Justin Beiber has taken a "bad boy" attitude because of all the Beliebers who are willing to defend him no matter what, him partaking in a lot of questionable activities that include tattoos, questionably-legal substances, and buying prostitution, thus lowering his popularity in the general populace.
*'''{{w|Google Buzz}}''' is a former social network attempted by Google. It has since been shut down.
*'''Bit.Ly Mountains''' is a reference to the URL shortening service {{w|bit.ly}}.
*'''Kayne's Isle of Sadness''' is a reference to the musician {{w|Kayne West}}.
*'''Sarah Palin USA''' is the Twitter handle of former politician {{w|Sarah Palin}}.
*'''Clueless Politician Coast''' is a reference to the number of politicians on Twitter and other social networks who repeatedly share clueless updates that more often create an uproar than help their election chances.
*'''Desert of Food Updates''' is a reference to the number of pictures of food that are shared on social media (especially Twitter). There has even been some controversy on posting such pictures.
*'''Journalists Trying to Find the Cutting Edge''' is referencing journalists on Twitter trying to keep up with the way that news is gathered and delivered now, despite usually working for a newspaper that publishes once a day.
*'''{{w|SHAQ}}''' is a reference to the former NBA basketball player, {{w|Shaq}}.
*'''{{w|identi.ca}}''' is an open source social networking and micro-blogging service, being an alternative to Twitter.
*''' Breaking! Waves''' is a pun on the fact that so many people used the word "Breaking" at the beginning of tweets that do not warrant that tag that the word has lost most of its meaning and become a joke. It is a pun because waves "break" on the shore.
*'''Web 3.0''' refers to the unofficial term {{w|Web 2.0}}. In this case, "Web 1.0" refers to accessing the Internet using Web Browsers, e-mail, and chatting, mainly through the use of computers. "Web 2.0" refers to accessing the Internet through new means (for example, RSS Feeds that read the news) through more devices (for example: tablets and cell phones). As such, "Web 3.0" means either what the Internet is like now in its current state of development, or what it will soon develop into; either way, it is still very much Under Construction.

===Geotagged Bay===
*'''{{w|Yelp}}''' is a website where people post reviews of real-life public locations (one example being restaurants).
*'''{{w|Geocaching}}'''
*'''{{w|Foursquare}}''' is a location-based social network.
*'''Latitude''' refers to {{w|Google Latitude}}.

===Troll Bay and the Sea of Memes===
*'''Reddit''' - {{w|Reddit}} is the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos and videos and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.
*'''Wikipedia talk pages''' refer to the pages that describe members of Wikipedia, edited by their respective members.
*'''{{w|Wikia}}''' is 3rd party wiki software, used in the making of the user-editable encyclopedias of just about any subject matter.
*'''StumbleUpon''' is a website-sharing service.
*'''Delicious''' is a bookmarking and bookmark-sharing service.
*'''{{w|Digg}}''' is a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but now has been sold and restarted as an aggregator of news stories.
*'''Slashdot''', labeled "/." on the map, is a technical news site.
*'''Fark''' is a stricter user-generated news site.
*'''YTMND''' is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!" It's also a community in which users can create meme-type nonsense by playing music over an image (either static or animated).

===Skype Region===
The Skype Region refers to different IM, or Instant Messaging services, that enable almost-real-time text chatting between multiple people. These often allow services like voice chat and even video calls.

*'''{{w|Skype}}''' is, according to Randall, the most popular of these among the internet. It has many features to allow peer-to-peer voice chats, as well as allowing calls to be made at a price to actual phones.
*'''{{w|AIM}}''' or AOL Instant Messenger is a chat client created by AOL.
*'''GG''' is {{w|Gadu-Gadu}} and instant messenger client popular in Poland.
*'''{{w|Yahoo Messenger}}''' is an instant messenger client by Yahoo.
*'''{{w|Google Talk}}''' is a voice/video chatting service from Google. Google Talk also has an invasion fleet at its shores.
*'''{{w|ICQ}}''' is an older messaging service, albeit with an 18+ requirement (despite pornography not being the point of ICQ).
*'''{{w|Windows Live Messenger}}''', or "MSN", was the messaging service of Microsoft before Microsoft bought Skype. MSN was useful in that people could draw and send pictures to other chatters.
*'''{{w|UseNet}}''' was one of the original ways to communicate on the internet, though peaple can download (copyrighted) files through the service. Since it is still in use by some, it gets the tag "Still Around!" on the map.
*'''{{w|IRC}} Isles''' refers to the ancestor of Internet-powered chatting. People would have connected to a server and spoke publicly. IRC is still in use (per 2014, notably in getting help from users4. One of those isles is #xkcd which is an IRC community around [[xkcd]].

===Bay of Drama===
*'''FanFiction.net''' is a website where people can submit their fanfiction (stories by fans written about other peoples' media, normally that about popular media). The website tend to have people that are not helpful to those who legitimately want critique of their own stories.
*'''{{w|Xanga}}''' is a blogging service that, while popular at its time, lost out to...
*'''{{w|LiveJournal}}''', one of the definitive websites and Internet communities. More specifically, LiveJournal was the most popular blogging service before Tumblr becahe popular.
*'''ONYD''' - Reference to {{w|Oh No You Didn't}}, which is explained in the Blogosphere region.
*'''Dream WIOT?'''

===Blogosphere===
The Blogosphere region contains several general blog topics.
*'''Photo Blogs''' - One popular use of blogs is the chronicling through photographs the lives of the authors.
*'''Diary Blogs''' - Another popular use (and, in fact, the original use) is writing commentary about the authors' lives.
*'''Writing/Poetry'''
*'''Bay of Grammar Pedantry''' - This bay deals with the fact that, whether due to a lack of proper education, a habit of using "chat-speak" in the text-limited SMS and MMS, or simply due to the (generally) more relaxed nature of the Internet, tend to write with horrible composition, a point of annoyment to a lot of other people due to the subsequent increased difficulty of reading the horribly-written material.
*'''Fandom Blogs''' - A "fandom" is a community of fans. A fandom blog deals with the subject matter of the respective fandom.
*'''Sea of Zero (0) Comments''' - These are the blogs that get very little attention and therefore have no comments.
*'''Gossip Blogs'''
*'''Political Blogs'''
*'''Music Blogs''' - This can refer to independent bands who use a blog in their attempts to have their music heard.
*'''Tech Blogs'''
*'''Business Blogs'''
*'''SpamBlog Straits''' - Spammers use blogs to increase the number of links to their site to try to game search engines.
*'''Corporate Blogs'''
*'''Religious Blogs'''
*'''Blog Blogs''' - These can refer to blogs that talk about the matter about blogging itself, though they can also refer to blogs which authors use in talking about blogging.
*'''Miscellaneous Blogs'''
*'''OffTopic.com'''

===Blogosphere (Core Region)===
Gossip Blogs:
Each blog below focuses on gossip surrounding celebrities and other well-known persons.
*'''{{w|Jezebel}}''' is a liberally feminist blog, hosted by Gawker.
*'''{{w|Deadline}}'''
*'''{{w|TMZ}}'''
*'''{{w|Gawker}}''' is a blog that is the host of other blogs.
*'''LJ Oh No They Didn't''' - LiveJournal {{w|Oh No They Didn't}} - Oh No They Didn't, also known as ONTD, is the largest community on LiveJournal with over 100,000 members. The community focuses on celebrity gossip and pop culture with most of its posts aggregated from other gossip blogs.
*'''{{w|Doucheblog}}'''
*'''Isle of Mockery''' is a reference to the fact that some of what these blogs do is mock celebrities or other for doing or saying stupid things on camera.

Liberal Blogs:
Each blog below focuses on American political news with a "liberal" or "progressive" slant. These blogs tend to lean for the Democratic party.
*'''{{w|Huffington Post}}''' is a news blog.
*'''{{w|Paul Krugman}}'''
*'''{{w|Daily Beast}}'''
*'''TPM''' - {{w|Talking Points Memo}}
*'''{{w|Ezra Klein}}''' - Ezra used to have his own site at the Washington Post, but is now the editor of [Vox.com].
*'''{{w|Think Progress}}'''
*'''Kos''' - {{w|Daily Kos}}

Bay of Flame:
*Politics Daily
*CNN Political Ticker
*Mediaite
*NY Times
*The Talk
*Libertarian Isle

Conservative Blogs:
Each blog below focuses on American political news with a "conservative" or Republican slant.
*Pajamas Media
*Michelle Malkin
*Hot Air
*Red State
*American Thinker
*Townhall

Tech Blogs:
*Boy Genius Report
*Gizmodo is a news and opinion blog, hosted by Gawker, that talks about life's more technological matters.
*Engadget is another technology-oriented, albeit independent, blog.
*Crunchgear
*Techcrunch
*Joystiq is a news and opinion blog that focuses on gaming.
*Kotaku is another gaming-oriented news/opinion blog, the main difference beig that Kotaku is owned by Gawker.

Assorted:
*BoingBoing is "i blog about wonderful things", the topics being quite random.
*Lifehacker, another Gawker blog, is a blog that teaches people how to simplify their lives through 'lifehacking', that is, using their resources in creative wayss. While the subject matter is life in general, there is a significant technological slant.
*{{w|Deadspin}} is a sports and sports gossip blog founded by Will Leitch.
*Meatorama

===QQ Region===
*'''Baidu Baike''' (「百度百科」, "Baidu Encyclopedia") and '''Hudong''' (「互动百科」, "Interactive Encyclopedia" ) are two Chinese online encyclopedias. Baidu Baike is powered by the same company as Baidu, the search engine popular in China.
* The '''Ma Le Ge Bi''' and the '''Grass Mud Horse Bay''' could refer to the {{w|Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures}}.
* The '''Location of Jia Junpeng''' refers to the Internet meme of {{w|Jia Junpeng}} in 2009 in China.
*'''{{w|Tencent QQ}}''' is a Chinese instant messaging program.
*In English communities "QQ" has several more common definitions:
**An {{w|emoticon}}, representing a face with two large, crying eyes.
**A synonym for "rage quit", in which a video game player quits the game out of sheer frustration. It originated in ''Warcraft II'' multiplayer, where pressing Ctrl+Q+Q would quit the game, and became more widely known in ''World of Warcraft''.
**These definitions are commonly combined, usually to mock the "rage quitter".
*The Gulf of China refers to how sites in the region are based in People's Republic of China ("Red China"). The '''Great Firewall''' refers to {{w|The Great Firewall of China}}, a pun on {{w|The Great Wall of China}}. Similar to how The Great Wall of China was meant to keep intruding nations out of the then-capital of the city, The Great Firewall of China is meant to keep visitors from visiting censored websites. However, either a VPN or remote access to a computer in a "freer" country can circumvent the Firewall.

===Forums Islands===
Forums are websites where one person post a topic to which other people can discuss.

While the map has a zoomed in version, this article shall discuss the two bigger islands, first.

*'''[http://www.2ch.net 2channel]''' is a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for 4chan.
*'''[http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites Craigslist]''' is a classified advertisement website with sections devoted to just about everything... which formerly included prostitution services, hence the '''The Former Site of Adult Services'''.

In the zoomed-in map, there is...
*'''420chan''' and '''7chan''', other imageboards in the style of 4chan (see below). Their relative lack of popularity and derivative nature leads a lot of 4chan users to mock them; hence, their position on Randall's map suggests that they're mere wads of semen.
*'''[http://ohinternet.com/ Encyclopedia Dramatica]''', labeled '''ED''' on the map, is a wiki site dedicated to chronicling internet memes and other noteworthy sites, events, people, and anything else that catches their attention, their respective articles written in an incredibly arbitrary and vulgar manner. The site is ''heavily'' steeped in the attitude of veteran, vulgar 4chan users. People who have articles in the website tend to react with despair, given not only the cruelty in which the articles talk about the person in question, but the presence of the article means that the person is now an eternal target from the trolls. The user is not in a position of retaliation, since the userbase of Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan tends to overpower the victim easily...
:...usually. Due to the founder's talk against the Australian Aborignals (the founder is Australian), legal action has gone against the founder to the point of the founder having to shut down Encyclopedia Dramatica, founding the far tamer Oh, Internet! website, instead. Trolls responded by not only uploading their own mirror of the website but also vilifying the former founder forever.
:(Please note that, due to the malicious nature of the pop-up advertisements of Encyclopedia Dramatica, the link above points to its safe-for-work successor, Oh, Internet!)
*'''[https://www.4chan.org/ 4chan.org]''' is an {{w|imageboard}} in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as '''/b/''', is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros. This is why Randall's incarnation of 4chan is shaped like a penis.
*'''Tunnel to Habbo''' is a reference to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pools-closed the 2006 Habbo Hotel Raids], in which hundreds of 4chan Anons simultaneously logged onto Habbo Hotel and proceeded to be as obnoxious as possible, standing in formations of swastikas and penises or body-blocking the swimming pools.
*'''{{w|Catbus}} Route''' is likely a reference to {{w|Lolcat}}s in general.
*'''[http://www.ebaumsworld.com/ eBaum's World]''' is a media-hosting website founded by Eric Bauman. The site has lost a lot of traffic after (quite valid) accusations of stolen content.
*The gulf labelled '''{{w|Anonymous (group)|Anonymous}}''' is a reference to the trolls that label themselves "Anonymous" who recently had gained national acknowledgement because of the group's real-life tirades, including cracking attacks against the Church of Scientology and the founding of WikiLeaks (a website that leaks confidential material related to governments).
*[http://www.somethingawful.com/ SomethingAwful] is a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful". SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the Let's Plays of [http://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/ Dangan Ronpa] and [http://danganronpa2mirror.tumblr.com/ Super Dangan Ronpa 2], which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.
Please note that, due to these Let's Plays being in a forums that frequently hides behind a "paywall" that requires a paid account before accessing, the links provided go to their mirrors.

==Transcript==
:'''Map of Online Communities'''
:Size on map represents volume of Daily Social activity (posts, chat, etc). Based on data gathered over the Spring and Summer of 2010.

:[Two insets on the upper left-hand corner shows that this map is a tiny portion of the huge continent of Spoken Language, encompassing portions of the Internet, Email, and Cell Phones (SMS).]

:[The largest landmass on the map by far, which takes up nearly the entire northern half of the map is "Facebook" - with large states in the south-east of the country labeled 'Farmville' and 'Happy Farm'. There is a much smaller state to the west of these called 'Farm Town'. To the north of these states is a large swath of unremarkable land entitled 'Northern Wasteland of Unread Updates.' This is directly north of the large Dopamine Sea.

:A peninsula on the south-west, just below the Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions, houses many tiny states, such as MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Bebo, & Hi5. It is bordered on the south by Buzzword Bay, which contains several islands of varying sizes. Among these are YouTube and Twitter (the largest), which are separated by the Social Media Consultant Channel. To the south-east of Twitter, across the Sea of Protocol Confusion, is another, equally large island. Most of it is Skype, with the north having two largish states called AIM and Windows Live Messenger. On the south-west part of the island are two smaller states called GG and Yahoo Messenger.

:The Island of Skype is extremely close to, but separated by the Great Firewall (a dashed line), the large landmass of QQ. It's north shore is the Gulf of China and Grass Mud Horse Bay. Outside of these bays, over the Great Firewall are two islands called Craigslist and 2Channel.

:In the Dopamine Sea, off the southern shores of Farmville and Happy Farm, is MMO Isle. Its largest state is WoW, with Runescape, Lineage, Maple Story, Habbo, and the Mountains of Steam among its notable landmarks. To the southeast of the island is the Gulf of Lag, in which sits the CDC Games island, with Eve Online.

:To the east of Twitter is Troll Bay, with such islands as Reddit and Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicio.us, and Wikipedia Talk Pages. To their south are the IRC isles, of which one is the tiny island of #xkcd.

:East of these islands, and north of Skype island, is the Sea of Memes. In this sea, to the north of Craigslist and 2Channel, is an archipelago of tiny islands. There is an inset, labeled 'Forums.' (See below.)

:To the southwest of Twitter island, in the Sea of Opinions, are the blog islands. These lie south of the islands in Buzzword Bay, as well. The northernmost islands in this group are centered around the Bay of Drama, on which can be found Diary Blogs, Gossip Blogs, and Livejournal. Gossip Blogs share an island with Political, Music, and Tech Blogs. To the north of this island is a smaller island called Photo Blogs. South of Diary Blogs, and off the southwest coast of Music blogs is a smaller island called Fandom Blogs. South of Tech Blogs, off of which sprouts the small peninsula of Business Blogs, is the Spamblog Straits. On the other side of the straits is a large island made up of Miscellaneous Blogs, with two states demarcated as Religious Blogs and Blog Blogs. Southwest of the Blog Islands is the Sea of Zero (0) Comments.]

:[An inset of a group of islands in the sea of memes located on the lower right corner of the map, labeled 'Forums'. The largest by far is 4chan and /b/. Also found here are D2JSP, JLA Frums, Fan Forum, Something Awful, and many smaller ones, too numerous to list here.]

:[The northeastern third of Gossip/Political/Tech Blogs island is another inset labeled 'Blogosphere (Core)'. This can be found on the lower left corner of the map. Two peninsulas in Political Blogs bookend the Bay of Flame -- these are Liberal Blogs and Conservative Blogs. Between them lie several tiny islands such as Politics Daily, CNN Politcal Ticker, and Mediaite. Off the coast of Liberal Blogs lies the island of NYTimes, off the coast of Conservative Blogs is Libertarian Isle. Between the two lies The Talk. The northern peninsula of Tech Blogs contains places such as Gizmodo, Engadget, Joystiq, and Kotaku.]

:[Text found between the two insets, which are directly below the main map.]
:ABOUT THIS MAP
:Communities rise and fall, and total membership numbers are no longer a good measure of a community's current size and health. This updated map uses size to represent total social activity in a community -- that is, how much talking, playing, sharing, or other socializing happens there. This meant some comparing of apples and oranges, but I did my best and tried to be consistent.

:Estimates are based on the numbers I could find, but involved a great deal of guesswork, statistical inference, random sampling, nonrandom sampling, a 20,000-cell spreadsheet, emailing, cajoling, tea-leaf reading, goat sacrifices, and gut instinct (i.e. making things up).

:Sources of data include Google and Bing, Wikipedia, Alexa, Big-Boards.com, StumbleUpon, Wordpress, Akismet, every website statistics page I could find, press releases, news articles, and individual site employees. Thanks in particular to folks at Last.fm, LiveJournal, Reddit, and the New York Times, as well as sysadmins at a number of sites who shared statistics on condition of anonymity.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Maps]]

256: Online Communities

2014-07-03T18:59:28Z

Jake: added Category:Maps using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 256
| date = May 2, 2007
| title = Online Communities
| image = online_communities_small.png
| titletext = I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone 'I'm from the internet', instead of laughing they just ask 'oh, what part?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|May still need some polishing in places.}}
'''''Note:''' This comic dates from Spring 2007. The internet changed a lot since that time. A larger version of the image is available [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/online_communities.png here].''

This is Randall's first map of online communities, with a successor (showing some zoomed-in highlights of the map) at [[802: Online Communities 2]]. As Randall says on the map, the area of each "country" is roughly proportional to its membership, at least in 2007. Geographic location means a bit more, however, as the '''Compass-Rose-Shaped Island''' points out. North-south corresponds to a spectrum from practical to intellectual, and east-west corresponds to one from web-focused to real-life-focused. The map also bears a slight resemblance to {{w|South East Asia}}.

Randall likes to draw maps in a manner like this. Each "Country" is represented by size and related points of interest. We also have a "Sea of memes" and a small "Straits of WEB 2.0".

===Compass Rose-shaped Island===
A joke located near the middle of the map, that nonetheless serves to organize the illustration. A Compass Rose —the name for the multi-pointed star that shows where North is on the map— appears on most maps; however, here, it's actually land that just coincidentally looks like a compass rose.

The "points" of the island do, however, roughly organize the map. Left is "Focus on Real Life", labelled "IRL", an abbreviation for "In Real Life". Right is "Focus on Web", labelled ".com". Up is Practicals, labelled "N", as in "North", but with small letters making it spell "Noob", slang for a "Newbie" or "New user" — a person less experienced with the internet, as many of the sites to the top of the map are ones infamous for having large numbers of largely computer-illiterate people. Down is "Intellectuals", labelled ''"π"'', an important constant in mathematics approximately equal to 3.14.

===The Icy North===
Communities which were once major players, but now in a much reduced role. While some are still fairly large, they're somewhat relics of older times, hence the "Mountains of Web 1.0" that run through them — Web 1.0 is the first major generation of websites.
* '''[http://yahoo.com Yahoo!]''' was the most popular search engine around 1998, but lost out to Google. It remains in business due to diversification (it now owns Tumblr, for instance).
* '''Windows Live''', particularly ''Windows Live Messenger'', used to be a particularly major way for friends to communicate, now taken over by Skype and the like. Once a more-or-less ubiquitous branding, now used much less. https://home.live.com/ ‎is one remnant.
* '''[http://aol.com AOL]''' was once a huge player in the internet service provider market, noted for sending out millions of floppy disks and CD-ROMs in the 1980s and '90s offering a month or so free internet service (followed by high fees and difficult cancellation). Notably, AOL was the first company to sign up large numbers of people to internet access throughout the year, whereas before then internet was mainly provided by colleges and universities, fundamentally changing internet culture (see {{w|Eternal September}}). This influx of new users or "Noobs" (short for "newbies") names the ''Noob Sea'' south of AOL. The ''Chat Rooms'' nearby were a selling feature of early ISPs — ways to communicate with other people from that ISP. They are largely dying now, but were a major selling point in the early days.
* '''[http://classmates.com Classmates.com]''' and '''[http://reunion.com Reunion.com]''' are early sites that offered to help you find your former classmates from school, a role largely taken over by the big, more generalised social media sites. Classmates.com is probably best known by its memetic advertisement that said "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"
* '''[http://friendster.com Friendster]''' was the first big social media site. It was later outpaced by ''Myspace'' and ''Facebook'' (see Social Media below). It has survived by rebranding itself as social gaming site, now used primarily is Southeast Asia.
* '''Qwghlm''': A reference to ''{{w|The Baroque Cycle}}'', a series of science fiction books by Neal Stephenson. In them, Qwghlm is a group of islands in the icy north. See [http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm].
* '''Chasm''': A barely-readable note just below the "O" of "NORTH". This may simply be a reference to a lot of fantasy series containing a chasm. (For example, the One Ring is destroyed by flinging it into a fiery chasm in The Lord of the Rings.)

===Dating sites (Northwest coastal regions)===
* '''[http://eharmony.com E-Harmony]''' and '''[http://okcupid.com OkCupid]''' are dating sites; the other, larger sites near them are mostly social media sites.
* '''The Lonely Island''' label appears to be a joke: Surrounded by, but separate from dating sites and social media sites, it would be a rather lonely place. Possibly named after "[http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Tol_Eress%C3%ABa Tol Eressëa]" (Translation: The Lonely Island) a somewhat obscure location in J. R. R. Tolkien's books, but there are {{w|The Lonely Island|other possibilities}}.

===Social Media (West)===
Sites mainly used to communicate with friends, such as Facebook and Myspace. The first large one was ''Friendster'', but this has largely become a social gaming site primarily used in Southeast Asia, as discussed in The Icy North, above. Other social media sites listed are:

* '''[http://faceparty.com Faceparty]''': A UK social media site started in 1999.
* '''[http://myspace.com Myspace]''': A social media site partially owned by, of all people, Justin Timberlake. Started in 2003, and peaking around the time this comic was made, it nonetheless still remains popular for bands (hence "Myspace Bands" in the southwest). It was never known for having a particularly attractive web design (partly because users could extensively customize the look and feel of their profile pages), hence only a very small part of it labelled "Attractive Myspace Pages".
** The '''Series of Tubes''': A reference to an internet meme. In 2006, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, while arguing for the end of "Network neutrality", a concept that keeps ISPs from favouring or charging more for high-speed access to sites, claimed that such regulation was needed because the Internet was "not a truck" you could just load up with as much as you want, but a "series of tubes". This is not very accurate, and his arguments were rather poor, and, as such, his speech received widespread derision, and became a running gag on the internet.
* '''[http://facebook.com Facebook]''': Generally considered (at least in the West) the "modern" social media network, and the most popular. However, this comic is from 2007, and Facebook did not catch up to Myspace until 2008-2009. [Source: {{w|Myspace}}]
* '''[http://orkut.com Orkut]''': A social media network launched in 2004 by Google, it became hugely popular in Brazil, India, and, to a lesser extent, Japan.
* '''[http://xanga.com Xanga]''': A blogging and social media site launched in 1998.
* '''[http://livejournal.com LJ]''': LiveJournal, a blogging site, more or less, but one that allows an internet forum-like structure where anyone, or selected people, can all start new posts on a community. Noted for a large number of teenagers, fanfic authors, and the like in its heyday, hence the "Bay of Angst" to its south.
* '''[http://www.blurty.com/ Blurty]''': LiveJournal's software is Open Access, meaning anyone can use it to set up a site. {{w|Blurty}} is, according to Wikipedia, an 18+ general community using this software.
* '''[http://cyworld.com Cyworld]''': A South Korean social media site featuring avatars and "mini-rooms".

===The Blogipelago (Southwest)===
Portmanteau of blog and archipelago. Sulawesi is a real island in the Indonesian archipelago, implying that this region's similarity to Indonesia is probably intentional.

* '''[http://www.huffingtonpost.com Huffington Post]''': ''The Huffington Post'' is a web-only news site, named after its founder, Arianna Huffington. It's noted for attracting notable people to do very good write-ups of politics and news, generally with a liberal slant, but also for having a medicine section that supports every sort of quackery and nonsense, including a regular column by {{w|Dana Ullman}} promoting {{w|homeopathy}} (see [[765: Dilution]]).
* '''Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean''': In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, Howard Dean raised funds mainly over the internet, and was doing very well, until a gaffe caused him to crash and burn just before the primaries began. See {{w|Howard Dean presidential campaign, 2004}}.
* '''Cory Doctrow's Balloon''': Reference to [[239: Blagofaire]].
* '''[http://boingboing.net Boing Boing]''': An occasional trend is for a smallish magazine to get a website, have the website become vastly more popular than its print edition, and become a successful website. Examples include [http://cracked.com Cracked.com], [http://theonion.com The Onion] (which only stopped being a print publication in ''December 2013''), and, the subject of this label, [http://boingboing.net Boing Boing]. Boing Boing is not easy to define — it's a group blog, with focuses including futurism, intellectual property, science fiction, technology, and cyberpunk — the latter of which it was rather influential in developing.
* '''[http://technorati.com Technorati]''': A site for searching blogs.
* '''Sulawesi''': As mentioned above, a real island that is part of the Indonesian archipelago.
* '''{{w|Xu Jinglei}}''': Chinese actress. According to Wikipedia: "In mid-2006, her Chinese-language blog had the most incoming links of any blog in any language on the Internet, according to Technorati."
* '''[http://postsecret.com/ PostSecret]''': A website which people send postcards to, describing their secrets. Some are little secrets (like swigging milk directly from the jug or carton); some are old, deep-seated traumas; and some are just things that they could never admit to anyone publicly. Worth a look.
* '''The Wet Sea''': Perhaps a reference to a West Sea, but not sure what that would be. Maybe just a simple joke, as what else would a sea be but wet?
* ''TWB'' or ''TMZ'': A very-hard-to-read label, south of Technorati.
** '''TWB''' is short for "{{w|Translators Without Borders}}", a charitable project that tries to translate necessary texts into the languages of the people who need them for free. This ''might'' be it, if it's meant to relate to Wikipedia, to the east of it. On the other hand...
** '''[http://TMZ.com TMZ]''' is a major celebrity gossip blog, rated #15 in the "[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs World's 50 most powerful blogs]" by ''The Guardian'', and, at time of writing, rating #11 in the [http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/ Technorati top 100].

===Sea of Culture (Central region) ===
Sites for sharing and showing off music and images, most focusing on self-created content

* '''Gulf of YouTube''': [http://youtube.com YouTube] is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google has since purchased YouTube.
* '''Piczo''': Teen-oriented website that allowed one to make a profile and put up pictures. The site has been dead since late 2012, due to the rise of Facebook. See {{w|Piczo}}.
* '''Broadcaster''': Another dead site, almost lost to the web. Only a few scraps of information remain on the web. [http://www.seomastering.com/wiki/Broadcaster.com One of the rare scraps of remaining information] indicates it was a webcam broadcasting service that also allowed YouTube-like sharing of videos.
* '''The Bit Torrent''' and the '''P2P Shoals''': Reference to file sharing (passing around often copyright-infringing files, such as movies, CDs, and the like), often done with the {{w|BitTorrent}} protocol. A "Torrent" can also be a flood of water, hence it being used to name a river. "P2P" stands for "{{w|Peer-to-peer}}", the basis for the BitTorrent protocol.
* '''[http://flickr.com Flickr]''': a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.
* '''[http://lastfm.com LastFM]''': a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.
* '''[http://deviantart.com DeviantArt]''': the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.

'''Straits of Web 2.0''': A ''strait'' is a narrow passage between two outcroppings. Web 2.0 is a term used to describe new internet architectures, which these programs and Wikipedia (the other side of the strait) are examples of. '''Gays of Web 2.0''' is a pun: The opposite of a gay person (homosexual) is a straight person (heterosexual).

===User-created content and discussions (Southeast)===
Sites such as {{w|Wikipedia}} and chat programs such as IRC.
* '''[http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]''': The world's largest encyclopedia, collaboratively edited by its users. It's labelled as "The Wikipedia Project" (actually called ''{{w|Wikimedia}}''), since Wikipedia has generalised to cover a number of separate web sites, though, at the time of this comic, none near the size of Wikipedia (excepting, possibly, Wikimedia Commons, which is partly an image repository for Wikipedia), perhaps explaining the small size of all the other vertexes of the "web".
* '''Usenet''': The predecessor of most modern forums. A set of discussion groups that dominated the early internet. It also predates the standard web architecture to some extent — there's no standard weblink for it, for instance. See {{w|Usenet}}.
* '''IRC isles''': IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, a simple, low-bandwidth program for chatting. Common uses include Dungeons and Dragons games and other geeky pursuits.
* '''[http://sourceforge.net SourceForge]''': A code repository. Basically, a place for programmers to meet up and work together on a variety of free and open source projects. See {{w|sourceforge}}. Has become less respectable since this comic was created in 2007, due to [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/gimp_dumps_sourceforge_over_dodgy_ads_and_installer/ allowing misleading advertisements intended to trick people into installing questionable software.]
* '''[http://mit.edu MIT]''': The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most respected universities for Engineering, Robotics, and other such fields.
* '''[http://www.engadget.com/‎ Engadget]''': A blog/online magazine, in multiple languages, reviewing tech products and commenting on technology news.
* '''[http://gizmodo.com/‎ Gizmodo]''': A blog about technology and design.
* '''[http://makezine.com/blog/ MakeBlog]''': A blog highlighting bizarre and interesting do-it-yourself projects, often with a geeky theme.
* '''Google's Volcano Fortress''': A volcano fortress is one traditional dwelling place of evil geniuses in fiction, and Google has quietly taken over huge chunks of people's interaction with the web. Perhaps this provides some background for [[254: Comic Fragment]]?
* '''Stallman's Airship''': A joke, perhaps in line with Cory Doctorow's Balloon ([[239: Blagofaire]], also referenced in this strip)

===Ocean of Subculture and Sea of Memes (East)===
:'''Need descriptions'''
Sites related to smaller internet communities, a.k.a. "Subcultures". Also, a whole lot of internet memes, unsurprisingly. The "Viral Straits" references the idea of something "going viral", e.g. spreading quickly to huge numbers of people on the internet. These sites are often responsible for things going viral, and the memes listed are ones that went viral in the past.

;Sites
* '''[http://www.2ch.net/‎ 2Channel]''': a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for...
* '''[http://4chan.org 4Chan]''': an imageboard in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as /b/, is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros.
* '''[http://reddit.com Reddit]''': the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos and videos and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.
* '''[http://digg.com Digg]''': a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but has been sold since this map was drawn and restarted as an aggregator of news stories.
* '''[http://fark.com Fark]''': A website that writes humorous commentary on various news reports, especially the strange, bizarre, or things from the political far-left and far-right.
* '''[http://somethingawful.com Something Awful]''': a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful". SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from ''Encyclopedia Dramatica'' and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the "Let's Plays" of ''Dangan Ronpa'' and ''Super Dangan Ronpa 2'', which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.
* '''[http://slashdot.org /.]''': ''Slashdot'', a news site for technology-related news stories, which are submitted by its users. The "{{w|Slashdot effect}}" is named after this site.
* '''[http://ytmnd.com YTMND]''': a community in which users can create meme-type nonsense by playing music over an image (either static or animated). Its name is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!"
* '''[http://StumbleUpon.com Stumble Upon]''': A website that attempts to develop a profile for users in order to recommend which websites they might enjoy.
* '''[http://delicious.com/ Del.icio.us]''': Another image and website aggregator, linking to various things of interest. It uses tags to let people find specific types of content. ('''Note''': Since this comic, this website was renamed as "Delicious".)

;Memes and related
* '''Isle of Slash''': "{{w|Slash fiction}}" is a type of {{w|fanfiction}} that takes two male characters from another work of fiction and puts them in a plot where they have lots of sex with each other. Named because of a common way of writing pairings in fanfiction, "X/Y", with the / being pronounced "slash". Adding to this, "Isle of" sounds like "I love".
* '''Numa''': A reference to the viral video "Numa Numa", consisting to a fat guy dancing and lip-syncing to the song "Dragostea din tei" (Romanian for "Love from the lindens").
* '''Your Base''': A reference to the "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}" meme, a line from the game ''{{w|Zero Wing}}'', a game with a huge amount of hilariously badly translated {{w|Engrish}} dialogue. See [[286: All Your Base]] for more discussion of the meme.
* '''Bay of Trolls''': {{w|Troll (Internet)|Trolls}} are people who attempt to stir up controversy by intentionally saying statements meant to annoy others into responding. "Bay" can refer to both a sheltered port, and to an animal's cry, so "Bay of Trolls" can be read as "Shelter for Trolls" or "Angry Shouting of Trolls". Given the communities surrounding it, both would make sense.
* '''Soviet Russia''': {{w|Russian reversal|"In Soviet Russia" jokes}} are a style of joke commonly associated with -comedian {{w|Yakov Smirnoff}}, which has since become an internet meme. Example: "In America, you always find a party. In Russia, Party will always find ''you''." — playing off of the idea that "Party" can also refer to the Communist Party. The meme version usually isn't as clever as that, though. See "[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-soviet-russia in soviet russia]".
* '''SPAAARTA''': As in, "THIS! IS! SPAAARTA!!!", A famously over-the-top line from the movie ''{{w|300 (film)|300}}''.

===MMORPGs and related games (Northeast by East)===
An area dedicated to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), large-scale games with huge numbers of players put into the same world. The label "Here there be anthromorphic dragons" references a common marking on old maps ("Here there be dragons") but updates it to joke about the more humanoid dragons seen in many games, or again, how dragons, especilally anthropomorphic dragons, are very-very popular in the furry community.

* '''[http://games.yahoo.com Yahoo Games]''': A branch of Yahoo (see "The Icy North") dedicated to games (mainly boardgames).
* '''[http://uo.com UO]''': ''Ultima Online'', one of the first MMORPGs, and the first to grow to any size. Based on the long-running ''Ultima'' RPG computer games. Started 1997.
* '''[http://www.everquest.com/‎ EQ]''': ''EverQuest'', another important early MMORPG, started 1999. UO and EQ have declined significantly since then; for a while, they were each the iconic MMORPG, but that role has been taken over by...
* '''[http://www.warcraft.com/‎ WoW]''': ''World of Warcraft'', an MMORPG launched in 2004, again based on a previously-existing RPG series, and by far the largest and most iconic at the time of this comic's creation. A few others have attempted to challenge it since.
* '''[http://www.runescape.com/‎ Runescape]''': Free-to-play fantasy MMORPG; the largest in existence.
* '''[http://www.finalfantasyxi.com/ FFXI]''': ''Final Fantasy XI'', the eleventh installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series of video games, and the first to be a MMORPG. It didn't really take off until after this comic was made.
* '''[http://www.lineage.com/‎ Lineage]''': 1998 MMORPG. Particularly popular in South Korea, a country with somewhat of a cultural obsession with video games.
* '''[http://secondlife.com Second Life]''': A virtual world, noted for largely working from user-generated content, which can be sold by users for real money. See {{w|Second Life}}. ''Third Life'' is a joke based on Second Life — if it existed it would presumably be a game people play to escape Second Life, which they play to escape their first, real life.

==Transcript==
:[Hand-drawn fantasy style map with land and sea areas representing populations of online communities. Each area or item is labeled.]
:Map of Online Communities and related points of interest
:Geographic area represents estimated size of membership

:[Land Area Labels:]
:The Icy North (Yahoo, Windows Live),
:AOL,
::Chat Rooms
:Reunion dot com,
:Classmates dot com,
:E-harmony,
:Friendster,
:Faceparty,
:Chasm,
:Qwghlm,
:Yahoo Games,
:Mountains of Web 1.0,
:The Lonely Island,
:MySpace,
:Attractive MySpace Pages,
:The Series of Tubes,
:Myspace Bands,
:WOW,
:Lineage,
:Second Life,
:Third Life,
:UO,
:EQ,
:FFXI,
:2channel,
:4chan,
:LJ,
:Xanga,
:Orkut,
:Cyworld,
:Blurty,
:OK Cupid,
:Facebook,
:Piczo,
:The Compass-Rose-Shaped Island,
::Practicals (Noob)
::Focus on Real Life (IRL)
::Focus on Web (.com)
::Intellectuals (π)
:Broadcaster,
:The Bit Torrent,
:Flickr,
:Last.fm,
:DeviantArt,
:Isle of Slash,
:Numa,
:Digg,
:Fark,
:Reddit,
:Something Awful,
:Your Base,
:Soviet Russia,
:/. [Slashdot],
:Spaaarta (YTMND),
:StumbleUpon,
:Del.icio.us,
:The Blogipelago,
:Sulawesi,
:Xu Jinglei,
:Post Secret,
:Technocrati,
:[Hard to read label: Probably JWB, TWB, or TMZ]
:BoingBoing,
:Huffington Post,
:Gays of Web 2.0,
:The Wikipedia project,
:MIT,
:Engadget,
:Gizmodo,
:Usenet,
:MAKE Blog,
:IRC Isles,
:Sourceforge.

:[Sea Area Labels:]
:NOOB Sea,
:Gulf of YouTube,
:Bay of Angst,
:Sea of Culture,
:Ocean of Subculture,
:P2P Shoals,
:Straits of Web 2.0,
:Here Be Anthropomorphic Dragons,
:Bay of Trolls,
:Viral Straits,
:Sea of Memes,
:The Wet Sea
:Item Labels: Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean, Cory Doctrow's Balloon, Stallman's airship, Google's volcano fortress

:(Not a complete survey. Sizes based on the best figures I could find but involved some guesswork. Do not use for navigation.)
:Spring 2007

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Internet]]
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[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
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