explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1274: Open Letter

2013-10-07T06:17:35Z

James Chin: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1274
| date = October 7, 2013
| title = Open Letter
| image = open_letter.png
| titletext = Are you ok? Do you need help?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
Under some circumstances, the United States Federal Government [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdown_in_the_United_States can temporarily shut down] pending budget legislation from the United States Congress. These shutdowns are typically due to political disagreements between the President, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.

Over the years, various conspiracy theories have been proposed claiming that the United States Government is not controlled by publicly-elected officials, but rather by one or more organizations that secretly control the actions of the government (sometimes termed a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_government_(conspiracy) "shadow government"]).

In this comic, Randall is making fun of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government_shutdown_of_2013 US government shutdown (that has been ongoing for a week and is still current as of the time of this comic)] by writing a letter to the shadow government, telling them that this situation is embarrassing and asking them to fix the problem.

This comic may also be subtly arguing against the plausibility of the aforementioned conspiracy theories if one assumes that a shadow-controlled government would be more likely to operate with a singular purpose and therefore be less susceptible to paralyzing political disagreements. That is to say, if an outside organization were controlling the US government, then it would demonstrate more competence than the US government is currently exhibiting.

==Transcript==
:Letter dated October 7, 2013
:To: The Freemasons, The Illiminati, Scientology, FEMA, The New World Order, The Federal Reserve, Citigroup, Halliburton, Google, The Vatican, Bilderburg, Walmart, The Rothschilds, The Knights Templar, HAARP, The UN, Skull & Bones, Bohemian Grove, The Koch Brothers, George Soros, The Trilateral Commision, The Knights of Malta, The CFR, Exxon Mobil, The Zionists, The Vril Society, The Lizard People, and everyone else who secretly controls the US government
:Can you please get your shit together?
:This is embarrassing.
:Sincerely,
:A Concerned Citizen

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Politics]]

Talk:1229: Screensaver

2013-06-24T07:02:30Z

James Chin: Created page with "This is my first time contributing to the site and my first time posting a comic up. If I've missed something, then please let me know. Thanks. --~~~~"

This is my first time contributing to the site and my first time posting a comic up. If I've missed something, then please let me know. Thanks. --[[User:James Chin|James Chin]] ([[User talk:James Chin|talk]]) 07:02, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

1229

2013-06-24T06:54:38Z

James Chin: James Chin moved page 1229 to 1229: Screensaver: Article was incorrectly named the first time. This was my mistake, I'm correcting it now.

#REDIRECT [[1229: Screensaver]]

1229: Screensaver

2013-06-24T06:54:36Z

James Chin: James Chin moved page 1229 to 1229: Screensaver: Article was incorrectly named the first time. This was my mistake, I'm correcting it now.

{{comic
| number = 1229
| date = June 24, 2013
| title = Screensaver
| image = screensaver.png
| titletext = I'm entering my 24th year of spending eight hours a day firing the Duck Hunt gun at the flying toasters. I'm sure I'll hit one soon.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
This comic features a {{w|screensaver}}. One of the older screensaver types is a {{w|Star Trek}}-style moving starfield, where the screensaver presents an image of the observer moving past stars at {{w|superluminal}} speeds. This illusion is generally created by drawing white dots on the computer screen, and then moving these dots outwards towards the edge of the screen before disappearing. This comic supposes the simulated existence of an observer moving through this starfield and logically extends it to the situation where the observer actually collides with one of these stars (something that does not normally happen with screensavers of this type). The "signal lost" error message appears because the source of the signal is no longer transmitting, presumably because it was destroyed by colliding with said star.

The "Duck Hunt gun" is a reference to the {{w|NES Zapper}} used with the {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}} game {{w|Duck Hunt}}, originally published in 1984. The user would point the Zapper at the connected television screen while playing Duck Hunt, and the NES would recognize whether or not the zapper was pointed at an appropriate target or not. "Flying Toasters" is another old screensaver that appeared in {{w|After_Dark_(software)|After Dark}}, a package of screensaver modules developed for the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows (but not the NES). In the title text, Cueball states that he is trying to use the NES Zapper to shoot down flying toasters. However, the Flying Toaster screensaver was not designed to work with the NES Zapper and would not recognize that an NES Zapper was being pointed at the computer screen, nor would it know what to do with that information even if it were told. Thus, the flying toasters in the screensaver will never react to being "shot" at by the NES Zapper.

==Transcript==
I've been staring at the screen every night for twenty years, and it finally happened.

[An image of a starfield; a set of white dots irregularly spaced on a black background.]

[An image similar to the previous, but most of the dots have shifted apparent position, and one dot is noticeably larger than the rest.]

[An image similar to the previous, but the central dot is even larger. Black splotches (presumably {{w|sunspots}}) are visible.]

[What used to be the central dot now dominates the entire field-of-view.]

[The final panel is a black-and-white static screen overlaid with the words "signal lost".]

{{comic discussion}}

1229: Screensaver

2013-06-24T06:52:48Z

James Chin: First draft.

File:screensaver.png

2013-06-24T06:39:56Z

James Chin: The comic image for #1229, Monday, June 24, 2013.

== Summary ==
The comic image for #1229, Monday, June 24, 2013.
== Licensing ==
{{XKCD file}}